I shall at present wave,1 who symbolizes most with the Papists, and how Justification, Sanctification, Adoption and Salvation are here jumbled together, as if they were one thing: The General Charge (having had so many) I say nothing to, but I come to the Instance; ⟨p. 135⟩The Scripture saith that we are justified by Faith; very well; but what by Faith exclusively of its Object, Christ's Blood and Righteousness? No surely; then the Scripture, which tells us, That we are justified by Faith in his blood, Rom. 3.25. and made righteous by his obedience, Rom. 5.19. must contradict it self; or what, exclusively to the imputation of these? No neither, without the imputation of these we cannot be entitled to them to our Justification: Now that Faith justifies not absolutely, and as our Act, may appear: In Justification there is a judicial proceeding, and we must answer to something, to the Gospel only, or to the Law also; if to the Gospel only, then Evangelical Justification is in a way frustrative and not perfective of the Law; there needeth only Faith to answer the Gospel, and not perfect Righteousness to answer the Law: But what saith the Apostle to this? Having concluded Justification to be by Faith, Rom. 3.30. he immediately adds, Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the Law, ver. 31. And how is this? That Faith, which answers to the Gospel, receives that perfect Righteousness of ⟨p. 136⟩Christ, which answers the Law in every point, Christ being the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth, as we have it, Rom. 10. Without this, it is not at all imaginable how Faith, or Justification by it, should establish or complete the Law; our sincere Obedience, which flows from Faith, can no more do it than imperfection can reach perfection. Again, if to the Gospel only, then all the Pagans must needs be justified, for they have nothing to answer unto; not to the Gospel, that is not revealed to them; not to the Law of Nature, that is but the relicts and broken pieces of the Moral Law: And if Christians, who have the Moral Law in its entire perfection, are not to answer to it, then surely Pagans, who have only some little Fragments of it, need not answer thereunto, and by consequence they must be recti in Curia before God:
I shall at present wave,1 who symbolizes most with the Papists, and how Justification, Sanctification, Adoption and Salvation are here jumbled together, as if they were one thing: The General Charge (having had so many) I say nothing to, but I come to the Instance; ⟨p. 135⟩The Scripture saith that we are justified by Faith; very well; but what by Faith exclusively of its Object, Christ's Blood and Righteousness? No surely; then the Scripture, which tells us, That we are justified by Faith in his blood, Rom. 3.25. and made righteous by his obedience, Rom. 5.19. must contradict it self; or what, exclusively to the imputation of these? No neither, without the imputation of these we cannot be entitled to them to our Justification: Now that Faith justifies not absolutely, and as our Act, may appear: In Justification there is a judicial proceeding, and we must answer to something, to the Gospel only, or to the Law also; if to the Gospel only, then Evangelical Justification is in a way frustrative and not perfective of the Law; there needeth only Faith to answer the Gospel, and not perfect Righteousness to answer the Law: But what saith the Apostle to this? Having concluded Justification to be by Faith, Rom. 3.30. he immediatly adds, Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the Law, ver. 31. And how is this? That Faith, which answers to the Gospel, receives that perfect Righteousness of ⟨p. 136⟩Christ, which answers the Law in every point, Christ being the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth, as we have it, Rom. 10. Without this, it is not at all imaginable how Faith, or Justification by it, should establish or complete the Law; our sincere Obedience, which flows from Faith, can no more do it than imperfection can reach perfection. Again, if to the Gospel only, then all the Pagans must needs be justified, for they have nothing to answer unto; not to the Gospel, that is not reveiled to them; not to the Law of Nature, that is but the relicts and broken pieces of the Moral Law: And if Christians, who have the Moral Law in its entire perfection, are not to answer to it, then surely Pagans, who have only some little Fragments of it, need not answer thereunto, and by consequence they must be recti in Curia before God:
- 1Answer.
