First, Negatively: Faith doth not justify by its own intrinsical value and and dignity. There is nothing in it commensurate to so great a blessing; nothing in it to measure with the pure Law; nothing in it to pay off divine Justice; nothing in it to weigh against the guilt of Sin; nothing in it to purchase the favour of God; nothing in it to cover a Soul withal; no, nor the nakedness of its own imperfections. It is a poor self-emptying, self-annihilating thing, which lives upon Alms, and goes up and down in the Gospel from one door of the Promises to another to beg a Spiritual livelihood: all that it hath is in a way of Receiving. It receives the atonement, receives the gift of righteousness, receives the spirit of Grace, receives remission of sins; but gives none of them out of its own. Hence it is well observed by Divines, that the Scripture never saith, Faith justifieth in an active sense; but always, we are justified by Faith in a passive sense, because it receives all from Christ. This humble Grace, whose posture is to fall down and worship before the thrones ⟨p. 214⟩of Free-grace and of the Lamb: will not turn Free-grace off the throne, nor like Zimri, slay its Master Jesus Christ in his merits and imputed righteousness, that it may reign in his room. Again, Faith doth not justify as coming in the room of that perfect righteousness which we owe unto the Law, for God is true, and judgeth according to truth; he doth not, cannot do as the unjust Steward, who for an hundred measures of oil bid write fifty, but he accounts of things as they are. Faith, which is but a piece of righteousness, and that very imperfect, will not go with him for a complete universal righteousness, but only for what it is; neither will it salve the matter to say, as the Socinians use to do, That Faith, though it be not in it self a perfect righteousness, is yet reckoned as such per gratiosam Dei acceptilationem, by the condescending grace of God; for in God, in whom there is perfect Unity, one Attribute doth not interfere with another. Free-grace will not jostle out truth, by accepting a partial righteousness for a total, which indeed it is not; neither doth a divine Attribute ever clash against its own design. Free-grace will not so accept faith, as to frustrate its own design in the Mediator Jesus Christ;
First, Negatively: Faith doth not justifie by its own intrinsecal value and and dignity. There is nothing in it commensurate to so great a blessing; nothing in it to measure with the pure Law; nothing in it to pay off divine Justice; nothing in it to weigh against the guilt of Sin; nothing in it to purchase the favour of God; nothing in it to cover a Soul withal; no, nor the nakedness of its own imperfections. It is a poor self-emptying, self-annihilating thing, which lives upon Alms, and goes up and down in the Gospel from one door of the Promises to another to beg a Spiritual livelyhood: all that it hath is in a way of Receiving. It receives the atonement, receives the gift of righteousness, receives the spirit of Grace, receives remission of sins; but gives none of them out of its own. Hence it is well observed by Divines, that the Scripture never saith, Faith justifieth in an active sense; but alwaies, we are justified by Faith in a passive sense, because it receives all from Christ. This humble Grace, whose posture is to fall down and worship before the thrones ⟨p. 214⟩of Free-grace and of the Lamb: will not turn Free-grace off the throne, nor like Zimri, slay its Master Jesus Christ in his merits and imputed righteousness, that it may reign in his room. Again, Faith doth not justifie as coming in the room of that perfect righteousness which we owe unto the Law, for God is true, and judgeth according to truth; he doth not, cannot do as the unjust Steward, who for an hundred measures of oil bid write fifty, but he accounts of things as they are. Faith, which is but a piece of righteousness, and that very imperfect, will not go with him for a compleat universal righteousness, but only for what it is; neither will it salve the matter to say, as the Socinians use to do, That Faith, though it be not in it self a perfect righteousness, is yet reckoned as such per gratiosam Dei acceptilationem, by the condescending grace of God; for in God, in whom there is perfect Unity, one Attribute doth not interfere with another. Free-grace will not justle out truth, by accepting a partial righteousness for a total, which indeed it is not; neither doth a divine Attribute ever clash against its own design. Free-grace will not so accept faith, as to frustrate its own design in the Mediatour Jesus Christ;
