The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

4. There is no countenance given unto this Distinction in the Scripture. There is indeed mention therein, as we observed before, of a double Justification; the one by the Law, the other according unto the Gospel. But that either of these should on any account be sub-distinguished into a first and second of the same kind, that is either according unto the Law or the Gospel, there is nothing in the Scripture to intimate. For this second Justification is no way applicable unto what the Apostle James discourseth on that Subject. He treats of Justification; but speaks not one word of an increase of it, or addition unto it, of a first or second. Besides he speaks expressly of him that boasts of Faith, which being without works is a dead Faith. But he who hath the first Justification by the confession of our Adversaries, hath a true living Faith, formed and enlivened by Charity. And he useth the same Testimony concerning the Justification of Abraham that Paul doth, and therefore doth not intend another but the same, though in a divers respect. Nor doth any Believer learn the least of it in his own experience; nor without a design to serve a farther turn, would it ever have entered the minds of sober men on the reading of the Scripture. And it is the bane of spiritual Truth, for men in the pretended Declaration of it, to coin arbitrary distinctions without Scripture ground for them, and obtrude them as belonging ⟨p. 197⟩unto the Doctrine they treat of. They serve unto no other end or purpose, but only to lead the minds of men from the substance of what they ought to attend unto, and to engage all sorts of Persons in endless strifes and contentions. If the Authors of this Distinction would but go over the places in the Scripture where mention is made of our Justification before God, and make a distribution of them unto the respective parts of their Distinction, they would quickly find themselves at an unrelievable loss.

4. There is no countenance given unto this Distinction in the Scripture. There is indeed mention therein, as we observed before, of a double Justification; the one by the Law, the other according unto the Gospel. But that either of these should on any account be sub-distinguished into a first and second of the same kind, that is either according unto the Law or the Gospel, there is nothing in the Scripture to intimate. For this second Justification is no way applicable unto what the Apostle James discourseth on that Subject. He treats of Justification; but speaks not one word of an encrease of it, or addition unto it, of a first or second. Besides he speaks expresly of him that boasts of Faith, which being without works is a dead Faith. But he who hath the first Justification by the confession of our Adversaries, hath a true living Faith, formed and enlivened by Charity. And he useth the same Testimony concerning the Justification of Abraham that Paul doth, and therefore doth not intend another but the same, though in a divers respect. Nor doth any Believer learn the least of it in his own experience; nor without a design to serve a farther turn, would it ever have entered the minds of sober men on the reading of the Scripture. And it is the bane of spiritual Truth, for men in the pretended Declaration of it, to coyn arbitrary distinctions without Scripture ground for them, and obtrude them as belonging