Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

The second office wherein consists the excellency of Faith is a consequent of the former, namely to justify a man: for there is no man righteous in the sight of God any further then he is taken into the unity of Christ, and into the fellowship of His Merits. God is alone well pleased in Christ, and till a man be a member of His Body, a part of His fullness, he cannot appear in Gods presence. This was the reason why Christ would have none of His bones broken, or taken of from the Communion of His natural body, Joh. 19. 36. to note the indissoluble union which was to be between Him and His mystical Members. So that now as in a natural body the member is certainly fast to the whole so long as the bones are firm and sound: so in the mystical, where the body is, there must every member be too, because the bones must not be broken asunder. If then Christ go to Heaven, if He stand unblameable before ⟨p. 481⟩Gods justice, we all shall in him appear so too; because his bones cannot be broken. That which thus puts us into the Unity of Christ, must needs Justify our persons, and set us right in the presence of God: and this is our Faith. The Apostle gives two excellent reasons why our Justification should be of Faith rather then of any other grace. The first on Gods part, that it might be of Grace: The second on the part of the promise, that the promise might be sure to all the seed. Rom. 4. 16. First, Justification that is by Faith is of mere Grace and favour, no way of work or merit. For the Act whereby Faith Justifies, is an act of humility, and self-dereliction, a holy despair of any thing in our selves, and a going to Christ, a receiving, a looking towards Him and His Al-sufficiency; so that as Mary said of her self, so we may say of Faith; The Lord hath respect unto the lowliness of his grace, which is so far from looking inward for matter of Justification, that it self as it is a work of the heart, [Greek or Hebrew] credere, doth not justify, but only as it is an apprehension or taking hold of Christ. For as the hand in the very receiving of a thing must needs first make it self empty (If it be full before, it must let all that go ere it can take hold on any other thing:) So Faith being a receiving of Christ, Joh. 1. 12. must needs suppose an emptiness in the soul before.