Acts xiii. 38. Rom. viii. 1. For it apprehends or receives the pure and perfect righteousness of the Lord Jefus, wherein the foul, how guilty and finful foever it be in itself, ftands faultlefs and fpotlefs before the prefence of God; all obligations to punishment are, upon believing, immediately diffolved; a full and final pardon fealed. O precious faith! Who can fufficiently value it!

What respect, reader, wouldst thou have to that hand that fhould bring thee a pardon when on the ladder, or block? Why, fuch a pardon, which thou canst not read without tears of joy, is brought thee by the hand of faith. O ineftimable grace! This clothes the pure righteoufnefs of Jefus upon our defiled fouls, and fo caufes us to become the " righteousness of God in him," or as it is 1 John iii. 7. "Righteous as he is righteous:" Non formali & intrinfica juftitia, fed relativa: Not with a formal inherent righteoufnefs of our own, but with a relative imputed righteoufnefs from another.

Iknow this most excellent and most comfortable doctrine of imputed righteoufnefs, is not only denied but derided by Papifts. Stapleton calls it spectrum cerebri Lutherani: The monftrous birth of Luther's brain! But, bleffed be God, this comfortable truth is well fecured againft all attempts of its adverfaries. Let their blafphemous mouths call it in derifion, as they do putative righteousness, i.c. a mere fancied or conceited righteoufnefs: Yet we know affuredly Chrift's righteoufnefs is imputed to us, and that in the way of faith. If Adam's fin became ours by imputation, then fo doth Chrift's righteoufnefs alfo become ours by imputation, Rom. v. 17. If Chrift were made a finner by the imputation of our fins to him, who had no fin of his own, then we are made righteous by the imputation of Chrift's righteoufnefs to us, who have no righteoufnefs of our own, according to 1 Cor. v. This was the way in which Abraham, the father of them that beheve, was juftified; and therefore this is the way in which all believers, the children of Abraham, muft, in the like manner, be juftified, Rom. iv. 22, 23, 24. Who can exprefs the worth of faith in this one refpect, were this all it did for our fouls?

But, Thirdly, It is the fpring of our fpiritual peace and joy: and that as it is the inftrument of our juftification. If it be an inftrument of our juftification, it cannot but be the fpring of our confolation, Rom. v. I." Being juftified by faith, we have peace with "God." In uniting us with Chrift, and apprehending and applying his righteoufnefs to us, it becomes the feed or root of all the peace and joy of a Chriftian's life. Joy, the child of faith, therefore bears its name, Phil. 1. 23. The joy of faith.". So r Pet. i. 89. Believing we rejoice with joy unfpeakable.". We cannot forbear rejoicing when by faith we are brought to the fight and

1

knowledge of fuch a privileged ftate; when faith hath first given and then cleared our title to Chrift, joy is no more under the foul's command; we cannot but rejoice, and that with joy uhfpeakable.

Fourthly, It is the means of our fpiritual livelihood and fubfiftence: all other graces, like birds in the neft, depen:l upon what faith brings in to them; take away faith, and all the graces languish and die : joy, peace, hope, patience, and all the reft, depend upon faith, as the members of the natural body do upon the veffels by which blood and fpirits are conveyed to them. "The life "which I now live (faith the apoftle) is by the faith of the Son ❝ of God,” Gal. ii. 20. It provides our ordinary food, and extraordinary cordials, Pfal. xxvii. 13. "I had fainted unless I had be"lieved." And feeing it is all this to our fouls,

Fifthly, In the laft place, it is no wonder that it is the main scope and drift of the gofpel, to prefs and bring fouls to believing it is the gofpel's grand defign to bring up the hearts of men and women to faith. The urgent commands of the golpel aim at this, 1 John ii. 23. Mark i. 14, 15. John xii. 36. Hither alfo look the great promifes and encouragements of the gospel, John vi. 35, 37So Mark xvi. 16. And the oppofite fin of unbelief is every where fearfully aggravated and threatened, John xvi. S, 9. John iii. 18, 35 And this was the third thing promifed, namely, a difcovery of the tranfcendent worth and excellency of faving faith.

Fourthly, But left we commit a mistake here, to the prejudice of Chrift's honour and glory, which muft not be given to another, no not to faith itfelf; I promifed you in the fourth place, to fhew you upon what account faith is thus dignified and honoured; that fo we may give unto faith the things that are faith's, and to Chrift the things that are Chrift's.

And I find four opinions about the intereft of faith in our juftification: fome will have it to juftify us formally, not relatively; i. e. upon the account of its own intrinfical value and worth; and this Popish is the popifh fenfe of juftification by faith. Some affirm, that though faith be not our perfect legal righteoufnefs, confidered as a work of ours, yet the act of believing is imputed to us for righteoufnefs, i. e. God gracioufly accepts it initead of perfect legal righteoufnefs, and fo, in his efteem, it is our evangelical righteoufnefs. And this is the Arminian fenfe of juftification by faith. Arminianisme there are allo, even among our reformed divines, that

contend that faith juftifies and faves us, as it is the condition of the new covenant. And lastly, others will have it to juftify us as an inftrument apprehending or receiving the rightcoufnefs of Chrift; with which opinion I muft clofe. When I confider my text calls it a receiving of Christ. Moft certain it is

That, First, It doth not justify in the popib fenfe, upon the account of its own proper worth and dignity; for then,

First, Juftification fhould be of debt, not of grace; contrary to Rom. iii. 23, 24.

Secondly, This would fruftrate the very fcope and end of the death of Chrift; for if righteoufnefs come by the law, i. e. by the way of works and defert, then is Chrift dead in vain, Gal. ii. 21.

Thirdly, Then the way of our juftification by faith would be fo far from excluding, that it would establish boafting, exprefsly contrary to the apoftle, Rom. iii. 26, 27.

Fourthly, Then there fhould be no defects or imperfections in faith, for a defective or imperfect thing can never be the matter of our juftification before God: if it juftify upon the account of its own worth and proper dignity, it can have no flaw nor imperfection in it, contrary to the common fenfe of all believers. Nay,

Fifthly, Then it is the fame thing to be juftified by faith, and to be juftified by works, which the apostle fo carefully distinguisheth and oppofeth, Phil. iii. 9. and Rom. iv. 6. So that we conclude it doth not justify in the Popish fenfe, for any worth or proper excellency that is in itfelf.

Secondly, And it is as evident, it doth not justify us in the Arminian fenfe, viz. as the To credere, the act of believing is imputed or accepted by God, as our evangelical righteoufnefs, instead of perfect legal righteoufnefs. In the former opinion you have the dregs of Popery, and here you have refined Popery. Let all Arminians know, we have as high an esteem for faith as any men in the world, but yet we will not rob Chrift to clothe faith. We cannot embrace their opinion, because,

Fir, We must then dethrone Chrift to exalt faith: we are willing to give it all that is due to it, but we dare not defpoil Chrift of his glory for faith's fake: " He is the Lord our righteousness," Jer. xxiii. We dare not fet the fervant above the mafter. We acknowledge no righteoufnefs but what the obedience and fatisfaction of Chrift yields us. His blood, not our faith; his fatisfaction, not our believing it, is the matter of our juftification before God.

Secondly, We dare not yield this point, left we undermine all the comfort of Chriftians, by fetting their pardon and peace upon a weak imperfect work of their own. Oh how tottering and unftable mult their ftation be, that ftand upon fuch a bottom as this! What alterations are there in our faith, what mixtures of unbelief at all times, and prevalency of unbelief at fome times; and is this a foundation to build our juftification and hope upon? Debile fundamentum fallit opus: If we lay the firefs here, we build upon very

VOL. II.

loofe ground, and must be at a continual lofs both as to fafety and comfort.

Thirdly, We dare not wrong the juftice and truth of God at that rate, as to affirm that he esteems and imputes our poor weak faith for perfect legal righteousness*. We know that the judgment of God is always according to truth; if the justice of God requires full payment, sure it will not fay, it is fully fatisfied by any acts of ours, when all that we can do amounts not to one mite of the vast fum we owe to God. So that we deservedly reject this opinion alfo.

Thirdly, And for the third opinion, That it justifies as the condition of the new covenant; though some of great name and worth among our Protestant divines seem to go that way, yet I cannot fee, according to this opinion, any reafon why repentance may not as properly be faid to justify us as faith, for it is a condition of the new covenant as much as faith; and if faith justify as a condition, then every other grace that is a condition muft juftify as well as faith. I acknowledge faith to be a condition of the covenant, but cannot allow that it justifies as a condition. And therefore muft profefs myself best satisfied in the last opinion, which speaks it an inftrument in our juftification: it is the hand which receives the righteousness of Chrift that justifies us, and that gives it its value above all other graces; as when we fay a diamond ring is worth one hundred pounds, we mean not the gold that receives, but the ftone that is fet in it, is worth fo much. Faith, confidered as an habit, is no more precious than other gracious habits are, but confidered as an inftrument to receive Chrift and his righteoufnefs, fo it excels them all; and this inftrumentality of faith is noted in thefe phrafes, This, Rom. iii. 28. and dia tns is, Rom. iii. 22. By faith, and through faith. And thus much of the nature and excellency of faving faith.

Because faith receives Chrift our righteousness, and afcribes all to the grace of God in him; therefore we are faid to be juftified by it, only on account of Chrift, and not as it is our work. Confef. Helv.

SERMON VII.

JOHN i. 12.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the fons of God; even to them that believe on his name.

THE

HE nature and excellency of faving faith, together with its relation to justification, as an inftrument in receiving Christ and his righteoufnefs, having been difcourfed doctrinally already; I now come to make application of it, according to the nature of this weighty and fruitful point.

And the ufes I fhall make of it will be for our,

1. Information,

2. Examination,

3. Exhortation, and,

4. Direction.

First Ufe of Information.

Ufe 1. And in the first, this point yields us many great and ufeful truths for our information: As,

Inference 1. Is the receiving of Chrift the vital and saving act of faith, which gives the foul right to the person and privileges of Chrift? Then it follows, That the rejecting of Chrift by unbelief, muft needs be the damning and foul-deftroying fin, which cuts a man off from Chrift, and all the benefits purchased by his blood. If there be life in receiving, there must needs be death in rejecting Christ.

There is no grace more excellent than faith; no fin more exccrable and abominable than unbelief. Faith is the faving grace, and unbelief the damning fin, Mark xvi. i6. « He that believeth "not fhall be damned." See John iii. 18, 36. and John viii. 24. And the reason why this fin of unbelief is the damning fin is this, because, in the juftification of a finner, there must be a co-operation of all the con-causes that have a joint influence on that bleffed effect. As there must be free grace for an impulfive caufe, the blood of Chrift as the meritorious caufe, fo, of neceffity, there muft be faith, the inftrumental caufe, to receive and apply what the free grace of God defigned, and the blood of Christ purchased for us. For where there are many focial caufes, or con-causes to produce one effect, there the effect is not produced till the laft cause be in act.

"To him give all the prophets witnefs, that through his name, "whofoever believeth in him fhall receive remiffion of fins," Acts X. 43. Faith in its place is as neceffary as the blood of Christ in its place: " It is Chrift in you the hope of glory," Col. i. 27. Not Christ in the womb, not Chrift in the grave, nor Chrift in heaven, except he be alfo Chrift in you.