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to understand by our being juftified by Faith? Is this all we are to understand by the repeated Declarations in holy Scripture, that the Believer shall be faved; while the Unbeliever fhall be damned? If fo, the Gospel Salvation is no more than merely the Comfort flowing from a Perfuafion of the Safety of our pref nt State. But I need not enlarge in Oppofition to a Doctrine fo apparently repugnant to the whole Design of the Gospel, fo manifeftly unreasonable, and fo directly fubverfive of all practical Godliness.- -Do we then make void the Law through Fai h? God forbid! yea, we establish the Law. Rom. iii. 31.

It is infinitely your Concern, Sir, to experience in your own Heart fomething more than a meer Antinomian or Moravian Faith.It is of infinite Importance, that you receive the Lord Jefus Chrift, and that you walk in him; that you experience the fanctifying Efficacy of Faith, and exemplify the bedience of Faith, in the Exercise of all the Graces and Fruits of the holy Spirit; and thereby evidence to yourself, at once, the Sincerity of your Faith, and the Reality of your Juftification before God.

Now, that the Lord may direct you safe in the Way of Truth and Righteousness, to the Kingdom of his Glory, is the Prayer of,.

SIR, Your's, &c.

LETTER XII. Wherein the Doctrine of a Sinner's Juftification, by the imputed Righteousness of Christ, is explained and vindicated.

SIR,

T is indeed, as you reprefent it, "A Matter of "the greatest Confequence, to have a right

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<< View of the Way and Means by which God will "be reconciled to you, and by which you may have a Title to Life eternal." I am glad, that you fo kindly accept the Pains I have taken, to fet the Antinomian Doctrine of Juftification in its proper Colours. For though "You did not give me that "Trouble (as you are pleafed to expreís it) because 66 you had any favourable Opinion of their Schemes, "but to know whether I was (as is pretended) of "their Opinion; and to know how I could, con"fiftent with my declared Sentiments, fleer clear ❝of their wild Notions:"

Yet I rejoice, that your Desires are gratified, and that you are" fet right in that Matter."

But " you yet are, as you have all along been, "in great Difficulties on the other Side of the Quef❝tion; and cannot fee into the Doctrine of a Sin"ner's Juftification by the imputed Righteoufnefs "of Chrift. You have been lately reading upon "that Subject; and find many Arguments against "it, that you cannot get over. Your Author re"prefents it as unfcriptural, and unreasonable: "You therefore defire me to give you a right View "of that Doctrine, and to answer your Objections "against it."

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There is indeed, Sir, no Cause for to you "pect, that you shall wear out my Patience." I gladly embrace the Opportunity, to do any Thing in my Power to give you Satisfaction; and to assist you in your greatest Concern, which you have Reafon to be most follicitous about. I fhall therefore, according to your Defire, endeavour, in the first Place, to give you a brief View of the Doctrine of our Juftification by the imputed Righteoufness of Chrift; before I proceed to confider your Objections against it.

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I fhall first confider what we are to understand by Juftification; and in what Sense that Expreffion is used in Scripture Should I herein follow fome of our wrangling Difputants, I know not how many diftinct Meanings of the Word Juftification I might fet before you. But this would be to darken Counsel, by Words without Knowledge; the Term having one invariable Meaning, throughout the whole Bible.--It always (as far as I have been able to obferve) conftantly fignifies being efteemed, declared, manifefted, or pronounced Righteous. This is what the original Word, both in the Old and New Testament, naturally fignifies: And in this Senfe only it is always ufed. I need not therefore undertake to give Inftances of the Use of the Word in this Senfe, fince in all Instances it is used in this Senfe only. This, I believe, must be acknowledged by every one, that will thoroughly and impartially examine the Cafe. I think, there can no Text be found, where Juftification is ufed for making us inherently righteous.

But though this Word has one invariable Signification, it is used in Scripture in a threefold Refpect; either for our present Juftification in the Sight of God, for our Juftification before Men and our own Confciences, or for our Juftification at the Tribunal of our Judge at the last Day.- -It is the firit of thefe that falls under our present Confideration, which is to be confidered as our Acquittance from Guilt, and our Acceptance with God as righte ous in his Sight. It is to be confidered as a Sentence of Abfolution and Acceptation by the great Judge of the World.As Juflification therefore is always confidered in Scripture as a forenfic or juridical Sentence, it fhould be carefully diftinguished from the Infufion of a Principle of Grace, or inherent Righteoufnefs. Juftification is ufually in Scripture

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oppofed to Condemnation. As this latter therefore does not imply the rendering Men wicked and guil ty, but pronouncing them fo; even fo the former likewife cannot mean rendering Men righteous, but fententially declaring and pronouncing them fo. Were this duly attended to, many of the Objections made against our Doctrine of Juftification, by the Righteoufnefs of Chrift, would vanish of course. You will be pleased therefore all along to carry this in your Mind, that I am not confidering how we fhould become inherently righteous, by a Renovation of our Nature; but how we may be acquitted from Guilt, and accepted as righteous, by the Sentence of our glorious Judge.

I proceed to confider what we are to understand by the Imputation of Chrift's Righteousness.

To impute, is to judge, or esteem any Matter, Character or Quality, whether good or evil, to belong to a Perfon as his; and may either refer to what was originally his, antecedently to fuch Imputation; or to what was not antecedently his, but becomes fo by Virtue of fuch Imputation only. The Scriptures abound with Inftances of both these Sorts of Imputation.

Let not

We have many Inftances in Scripture of imputing that to a Perfon, which was originally his own, and performed by him antecedently to fuch Imputation. Thus Sin is faid to be imputed to the Sinner, when he is judged or treated as an Offender. my Lord (fays Shimei) impute Iniquity unto me. 2 Sam. xix. 19. And thus Righteoufnefs is imputed to the Saint, when he is judged or acknowledged Righteous (in a qualified Senfe) with Relation to a particular Fact, done in Conformity to the preceptive Part of the Divine Law. Then flood up Phinehas, and executed Judgment, and it was imputed to him for Righteousness. Pfalm. cvi. 31, But S 3

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this is not the Imputation now to be confidered, which refpects a Juftification, that is propofed as the Relief of a finful, perifhing World, against the Penalty of the condemning Law, and implies a Change of the Sinner's State from Guilt to Grace, from Death to Life, in a relative Sense.

I proceed then to observe, that also may be faid to be imputed to a Perfon, which was not his own originally or antecedently; but is judged and efteemed to belong to him, and is his on account of fuch Imputation only. Thus, a Debt is imputed to a Surety; and the Surety's Payment of a Debt is imputed to the principal Debtor, and is pleadable by him in Discharge from his Creditor's Demands.

If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought,(lays Paul of Onefimus) put that on my Account, Touro quoi inλóye, impute it unto me. Thus our Sins are imputed unto Chrift, inasmuch as he, in the Character of our Surety, has undertaken to discharge thofe Debts to the Justice of God. And thus his Righteoufnefs is imputed unto us; it having been wrought out in our Place and Stead, and given to God in Payment on our Behalf.

These Things being premised, we are to underftand the Imputation in Queftion, to be God's gracious Donation of the perfect Righteousness of Chrift to Believers, and his Acceptation of their Perfons as righteous, on the Account thereof.

Their Sins being imputed to him, and his Obedience being imputed to them, they are in Virtue hereof both acquitted from Guilt and accepted as righteous before God.

We are not therefore to understand our Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Chrift, as implying and fuppofing, that God does efteem Relievers to be what indeed they are not. He esteems them to be poor, finful, imperfect Men, who

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