and it may be so with respect unto other uses of it. But the sole present Enquiry is, how it shall be declared, as that which receiveth Christ, the Atonement, the Gift of ⟨p. 153⟩Righteousness, which will prove its only use in our Justification. He that can better express this than by an Instrument, ordained of God unto this End, all whose use depends on that Ordination of God, will deserve well of the Truth. It is true that all those who place the formal Cause or Reason of our Justification in our selves, or our inherent Righteousness, and so either directly or by just consequence deny all Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto our Justification, are not capable of admitting Faith to be an Instrument in this work, nor are pressed with this consideration. For they acknowledge not that we receive a Righteousness which is not our own by way of Gift, whereby we are justified, and so cannot allow of any Instrument whereby it should be received. The Righteousness it self being as they phrase it, putative, imaginary, a chimaera, a fiction, it can have no real accidents, nothing that can be really predicated concerning it. Wherefore as was said at the Entrance of this Discourse, the Truth and Propriety of this declaration of the Use of Faith in our Justification by an Instrumental cause, depends on the substance of the Doctrine it self concerning the nature and principal causes of it, with which they must stand or fall. If we are justified through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ, which Faith alone apprehends and receives, it will not be denied but that it is rightly enough placed as the Instrumental cause of our Justification. And if we are justified by an inherent Evangelical Righteousness of our own, Faith may be the Condition of its Imputation, or a disposition for its Introduction, or a congruous merit of it, but an Instrument it cannot be. But yet for the present it hath this double advantage; (1) That it best and most appositely answers what is affirmed of the Use of Faith in our Justification, in the Scripture, as the Instances given do manifest; (2.) That no other notion of it can be so stated, but that it must be apprehended in order of time to be previous ⟨p. 154⟩unto Justification, which Justifying Faith cannot be, unless a man may be a true Believer with Justifying Faith, and yet not be justified.
and it may be so with respect unto other uses of it. But the sole present Enquiry is, how it shall be declared, as that which receiveth Christ, the Atonement, the Gift of ⟨p. 153⟩Righteousness, which will prove its only use in our Justification. He that can better express this than by an Instrument, ordained of God unto this End, all whose use depends on that Ordination of God, will deserve well of the Truth. It is true that all those who place the formal Cause or Reason of our Justification in our selves, or our inherent Righteousness, and so either directly or by just consequence deny all Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto our Justification, are not capable of admitting Faith to be an Instrument in this work, nor are pressed with this consideration. For they acknowledge not that we receive a Righteousness which is not our own by way of Gift, whereby we are justified, and so cannot allow of any Instrument whereby it should be received. The Righteousness it self being as they phrase it, putative, imaginary, a chimaera, a fiction, it can have no real accidents, nothing that can be really predicated concerning it. Wherefore as was said at the Entrance of this Discourse, the Truth and Propriety of this declaration of the Ʋse of Faith in our Justification by an Instrumental cause, depends on the substance of the Doctrine it self concerning the nature and principal causes of it, with which they must stand or fall. If we are justified through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ, which Faith alone apprehends and receives, it will not be denied but that it is rightly enough placed as the Instrumental cause of our Justification. And if we are justified by an inherent Evangelical Righteousness of our own, Faith may be the Condition of its Imputation, or a disposition for its Introduction, or a congruous merit of it, but an Instrument it cannot be. But yet for the present it hath this double advantage; (1) That it best and most appositely answers what is affirmed of the Ʋse of Faith in our Justification, in the Scripture, as the Instances given do manifest; (2.) That no other notion of it can be so stated, but that it must be apprehended in order of time to be previous ⟨p. 154⟩unto Justification, which Justifying Faith cannot be, unless a man may be a true Believer with Justifying Faith, and yet not be justified.
