The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

For as it is habitual wherein the Denomination of Righteous is principally taken, it is a Grace of the Covenant it self, and so not a condition of it, Jerem. 31.33. Chap. 32.39. Ezek. 36.25, 26, 27. If no more be intended, but that it is as unto its actual exercise what is indispensably required of all that are taken into Covenant, in order unto the complete ends of it, we are agreed. But hence it will not follow that it is the condition of our Justification. It is added, that all Righteousness respects a Law and a Rule, by which it is to be tried. And he is Righteous, who hath done these things which that Law requires, by whose Rule he is to be judged. But (1) This is not the way whereby the Scripture expresseth our Justification before God, which alone is under consideration; namely, that we bring unto it a personal Righteousness of our own, answering the Law whereby we are to be judged. Yea an Assertion to this purpose is foreign to the Gospel, and destructive of the Grace of God by Jesus Christ. (2) It is granted, that all Righteousness respects a Law as the Rule of it; And so doth this whereof we speak, namely, the Moral Law, which being the sole eternal unchangeable Rule of Righteousness, if it do not in the substance of it answer thereunto, a Righteousness it is not. But this it doth, in as much, as that so far as it is is habitual, it consists in the Renovation of the Image of God, wherein that Law is written in our Hearts; and all the actual Duties of it are as to the substance of them, what is required by that Law. But as ⟨p. 329⟩unto the manner of its communication unto us, and of its performance by us from Faith in God by Jesus Christ, and Love unto him, as the Author and Fountain of all the Grace and Mercy procured and administered by him, it hath respect unto the Gospel. What will follow from hence? why that he is just that doth those things which that Law requires whereby he is to be judged. He is so certainly. For not the Hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified, Rom. 2.13. So Moses describeth the Righteousness of the Law, that the man that doth those things shall live in them, Rom. 10.5