A Body of Practical Divinity

Position 2. All Believers are alike justified: Justificatio non recipit magis & minus: Though there are Degrees in Grace, yet not in Justification; one is not justified more than another. The weakest Believer is as perfectly justified, as the strongest: Mary Magdalen is as much justified as the Virgin Mary. This may be Cordial-water to a weak Believer. Though thou hast but a Dram of Faith, thou art as truly justified as he who is of the highest stature in Christ.

Position 2. All Believers are alike justified: Iustificatio non recipit magis & minus: Though there are Degrees in Grace, yet not in Iustification; one is not justified more than another. The weakest Believer is as perfectly justified, as the strongest: Mary Magdalen is as much justified as the Virgin Mary. This may be Cordial-water to a weak Believer. Though thou hast but a Dram of Faith, thou art as truly justified as he who is of the highest stature in Christ.

Position 3. Whomsoever God justifies he sanctifies: 1 Cor. 6.11. But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. The Papists calumniate the Protestants, they report we hold that Men continuing in sin are justified; whereas all our Protestant Writers affirm, That Righteousness imputed, viz. Justification, and Righteousness inherent, viz. Sanctification must be inseparably united. Holiness indeed is not the cause of our Justification, but it is the concomitant: the Heat in the Sun is not the cause of its Light, but it is the concomitant. It is absurd to imagine that God should justify a People, and they go on Sin. If God should justify a People and not sanctify them, he should justify a People whom he could not glorify. God as he is an Holy God, cannot lay a Sinner in his Bosom. The Metal is first refined before the King's Stamp is put upon it: First the Soul is refined with Holiness before God puts the Royal Stamp of Justification upon it.

Position 3. Whomsoever God justifies he sanctifies: 1 Cor. 6.11