An End of Doctrinal Controversies, Chapter 21
CHAP. XXI. Of the nature of Righteousness, Iustification, and Pardon.
§. 1. THE Controversies about Justification have made a great noise; but I think that those de re are few, in comparison of those de nomine, even among all sorts of Christians; and the confounding them by unskilful Heads, who have made the ignorant believe, that those which are but de nomine, are de re, hath kindled foolish Wrath, and quenched Christian Love, and taken up poor Souls with a deceitful Zeal, who have thought that they were contending for great and necessary Truths, when it was but for Logical Notions, Names, and Modes of Expression, over-commended to them by their several Teachers.
§. 2. The Words Iustice (Righteousness) and Iustification, are very ambiguous used in many sences in the Scriptures, and in the Writings of Divines, and in the common use of men, which I have opened in so many Books, and so largely, as shall here excuse my brevi…y: The Sences which we are now most concerned to take notice of, are these following.
§. 3. Righteousness is considered materially, or formally: Materially it is, 1. immediately; 1. A righteous Action: 2. A righteous Disposition or Habit; 2. And thence a righteous Person.
§. 4. Righteousness materially is, 1. in some or other particular Action,: 2. Or, in the main bent of Heart and Life: 3. Or, in Perfection. The first denominateth the Person Righteous in hoc, or secundum quid: The second denominateth him a sincerely Righteous Man: The third, a perfectly Righteous Man.
§. 5. In the notion of the material Cause, is included also the Comparative or Relative State and Proportion of Actions: When the Action is duly qualified and modified in its physical Nature and Circumstances, it is materially just.
§. 6. The form enquired of, is Quid morale? And it is the Relation of the Action, and Habit, and Person, as congruous to the justitia mensurans, or the Rule of Righteousness. The Rule or Law first maketh jus vel debitum, and saith, This shall be your Duty, and your Neighbour's Due (and declareth God's Due:) And the jus being constituted by the Law (natural or positive) that which agreeth to it, is j…stum. So that Righteousness formally is a moral Relation resulting from the physical mode and relation of Actions and Habits, as compared with the Law or Rule. A moral Relation founded in a physical Congruity.
§. 7. Righteousness is both materially and formally distinguishable as towards God or Man: Materially, as it is God or Man that we deal …ustly or injuriously by: Formally, as it is God himself, or Men ruling under him, who give us Laws, and make the debitum vel jus, or dispose of Propriety.
§. 8. Righteousness towards God being Relative to his Laws, is to be distinguished according to the several Laws that men are under, and according to the several parts of the Law, which give the word divers Sences.
§. 9. 1. Righteousness as related to the Precept as such, is nothing but Obedience, whether partial, sincere, or perfect: He that doth righteousness is righteous.
§. 10. 2. Righteousness related to a meer Condition (of Pardon or Salvation, &c.) is the performance of that Condition, which may be the Causa judicanda.
§. 11. 3. Righteousness, as related to the premiant or donative part of the Law or Promise, is our jus ad praemium, our Right to that Reward or Gift.
§. 12. 4. Righteousness, as relative to the penal part, is our jus ad impunitatem, or when punishment is not due to us according to that Law.
§. 13. 1. Righteousness, as related to the Precept of the Law of Innocency, is materially perfect, personal, continued Obedience to our Creator.
§. 14. 2. Righteousness, as related to the Condition of that Law, is the same; because nothing but the said perfect Obedience is there made the Condition of Life.
§. 15. 3. Righteousness related to the rewarding part of that Law is right to that Life which is there promised; that is, to God's Love and Felicity.
§. 16. 4. Righteousness related to the Penalty of that Law, is a Right to Impunity, as to the Death which it threatneth to Sinners.
§. 17. 1. Righteousness, as related to the meer preceptive part of the Law of Grace, is also perfect Obedience for the future (not Innocency, as to the time past) for even Christ maketh perfect Obedience our Duty, though he pardon sin.
§. 18. 2. Righteousness, as related to the Condition of the Law of Grace, is sincere Faith and Repentance, as the Condition of our first Right to the present▪ Gifts of the Covenant, and also sincere Love and Obedience to the end, as the Condition of our final Iustification and Glory.
§. 19. 3. Righteousness, as related to the Reward of the Law of Grace, is our Right to our Relation to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and all the Gifts of the Covenant, Christ, Grace, and Glory.
§. 20. 4. Righteousness, as related to the penal part of the Law of Grace, is our Right to Impunity, as to the Punishment threatned specially by that Law.
§. 21. The meritorious Cause of both these last (our Right to Impunity, and to Life) is the Righteousness of Christ; for the sake of which the Condonation and Donations of the Covenant of Grace are given us.
§. 22. This Righteousness of Christ is his fulfilling the Conditions of his own proper Law or Covenant of Mediation: which is materially, 1. His habitual, 2. and actual Perfection in Resignation, Obedience and Love; 3. and therein his Humiliation and offering himself a Sacrifice for sin: 4. And all this exalted to acceptable Dignity by the Conjunction of the Divine Perfection.
§. 23. The Donative Covenant of Grace to Man being but a meer Instrument of Donation and Condonation, that which procured it, is the procuring Cause of Pardon and Life; that is, Christ's meritorious Righteousness.
§. 24. Though this Covenant pardon and justifie no man till he perform the Condition, and be a capable Subject by that moral Disposition, yet when that Condition is performed, its performance maketh us but meet Recipients, and it is still the meritorious Righteousness of Christ, for which we have the free gift of Pardon and Life; for the performance of the Condition doth but remove the receptive Incapacity of the Patient, and the suspension of the Donation.
§. 25. Iustification signifieth, 1. making us righteous and judicially justifiable. 2. Iudicial Justification (1. By Plea, 2. By Evidence and Witness, 3. By Sentence.) 3. Using us as Righteous by Execution: Or, 1. Constitutive, 2. Iudicial, and 3. Executive Iustification.
§. 26. No man of common Understanding will deny the real difference of these three: And if the Name only beGen. 6. 9. Hos. 14. 9. Heb. 10.▪ 38. & 12. 23. Luke 1. 17. & 2. 25. & 14. 14. & 15. 7, Matth. 10. 41. 2 Pet. 2. 8. 1 Tim. 1. 9. Rom. 5. 7. Mat. 13▪ 17. 1 Jo. 3. 7. 1 Pet. 3. 12. & 4. 18. Heb. 11. 4. Mat. 13. 43. & 25. 37. 46. Rom. 10. 6, 10. & 8. 4. 10. & 6. 13, 16, 19, 20. & 5. 17, 21. Rom. 2. 26. Act. 10. 35. Luk. 1. 75. Mat. 5. 6, 20. questioned, no man will reasonably deny, That in humane use the name is accordingly applicable to each: And that use of it is easily proved also in the Scripture; 1 Cor. 6. 11. Tit. 3. 7. Rev. 22. 11. &c. And the word Righteous and Righteousness, is so frequently used in Scripture for that called Inherent, or Self-performed Righteousness (incomparably oster than in any other Sence) as will help to inform us what Constitutive Iustification is: And if any dislike the Name; let them call it [Making us righteous] if that will please them better than the word justifying.
§. 27. Constitutive Iustification is ever first: God never judged a man righteous, that was not righteous.
§. 28. No man on earth is righteous by the Condition, or by the rewarding Part of the Law of Innocency. Not by the Condition as performed, for that Condition is perfect, perpetual, personal Innocency, which no man hath; nor is any righteous in conformity to the Precept, unless secundum quid, as a damnable Sinner's less unrighteousness may be called Righteousness: Nor is any one justified by the Retributive or Promissory part of that Law, because perfect Innocency is its Condition.
§. 29. Though that Law perfectly justifie Christ, who perfectly fulfilled it, we are not therefore righteous in the sence of that Law, or justified by it, because Christ fulfilled it (of which more anon:) Because the sence of the Law was not [Thou shalt obey, or another for th…e.] (It never mentioned a vicarious Obedience:) But [thou thy self shalt perfectly obey.]
§. 30. We are justified from, or against the curse of that first Law, by deliverance or grace; but it is by a Redeemer, and not by that Law.
§. 31. The Causes of our whole Iustification (whose parts were before-mentioned) are these: 1. The constitutive Causes (called Material and Formal) are before opened, being divers in their divers parts: In brief, our Righteousness now is [our Interest in the meritorious Righteousness of Christ, and our own performing of the Conditions of that Interest, or of the New Covenant by his Grace, and thereupon our Right to Impunity and Life (or to Salvation from destructive Punishment, and to Glory.) 2. The efficient Causes are, 1. Principal, God: 2. Mediatory and meritorious, Christ and his Righteousness: 3. Instrumental (as to our jus ad impunitatem & gloriam) the Condonative and Donative Covenant. 4. The material Dispositio receptiva of this Right, is our Faith and Repentance, or performance of the Covenant's Condition hereof. 5. The principal Cause of this Faith or Disposition, is the Holy Ghost. 6. The instrumental, is the Word. 7. The mediate Agent is Man.
§. 32. That Justification which consisteth in our jus impunitatis quoad poenam damni & sensus, our right to impunity (as to Loss and Sense) is the same thing with Pardon of sin, whether you take both actively or passively.
§. 33. Obj. If the Law of Innocency as a Covenant ceased upon Adam's Fall, no man but he and Eve was ever under it: And if so, they deserved not Damnation for any Sin but final Unbelief and Impenitency, according to the Law of Grace: And if so, no such desert is forgiven them by Christ.
§. 34. Ans. The Law of Grace taketh in the Law of Nature (naturae lapsae), though not on the Terms of the first Covenant, as it was naturae integrae, for preservation of Innocency: And still all that God commandeth is our Duty, and all that he forbiddeth, is Sin; and every sin deserveth death in the nature of it (for it cannot be Sin and not deserve Punishment): but the difference is, That under the Law of Innocency it was Desert unremedied; but now it is Desert with present Remedy, or an affixed Pardon to every penitent Believer. So much of the Law of Nature remaineth as maketh Punishment due in primo instanti naturae, conjunct with a Pardon which maketh Impunity due in secundo instanti: As if the King should grant a future Pardon by a Law to every man that will list himself in his Wars under his Son, lest in primo instanti, their faults deserve punishment, while they are daily pardoned.
§. 35. II. Publick judicial Iustification (for private I pass by) is virtually in the Law, or constitutive Justification before described: For when a man is righteous, the Law justifieth him virtually: And this is the sence that we are said to be justified by Faith in, primarily in Scripture: A Believer is made just indeed, and so is justifiable in Iudgment, that is, justified virtually by the Law: As we use to say, The Law doth justifie such a man.)
§. 36. 2. But actual judicial Iustification is principally by our Iudge and subordinately by Christ as our Advocate, by Plea; and by Evidence and Witness; which is chiefly by the Righteousness of the Cause laid open to all the World.
§. 37. It is by the Law of Grace (the edition which men lived under) that Christ will judge the World: Therefore we must accordingly judge of his Justification.
§. 38. Seeing the thing to be judged of is the meritum causae, the Merits of a man's Cause; therefore the same may be the meritorious Cause and the material of this judicial Justification; and they err that take this for an Absurdity.
§. 39. Though the great end of God's Judgment of Man will be to glorifie his own Iustice, Mercy and Wisdom, and to glorifie Christ's Righteousness, yet the Cause of the day, which is to be decided, is not whether Christ be righteous, but We: Nor whether he fulfilled his mediatorial Law; which is presupposed.
§. 40. Iustification being related to (real or possible) Accusation, so many things as the Accusation may extend to, the Justification must extend to if perfect.
§. 41. But no man is perfectly and absolutely just or justifiable: For instance, 1. If we be accused to have sinned, we cannot be justified directly against this Accusation, but must plead guilty by Confession. For factum non potest fieri infectum, and that Fact will for ever be culpable: [Adam did sin] will for ever be a true assertion. The Guilt of fact or fault is never done away in it self; [that it was really a fault] and [that we really did it,]. will be an everlasting Truth: Of which more afterward.
§. 41. 2. If the Accusation be, That [in Adam we deserved Death,] it must be confessed: Yea, temporal Death and correcting Punishments are not only deserved but inflicted, and not pardoned, nor we justifiable herein.
§. 42. 3. If the Accusation be, that we deserved to have Abatements of Grace, With-holdings of the Spirit, and abatement of what Glory we might else have had, all this must be confessed.
§. 43. 4. Yea, if it be said, That our Sin primo instanti deserved Hell, it must be confessed, and against all this there is no direct Justification.
§. 44. But against these Accusations we must be justified: 1. If it be said, that we are of Right to be damned, or have no Right to Heaven but to Hell, this must be denied: And we must be justified by these several Causes: 1. Because God's Iustice and the Ends of the violated Law are satisfied by Christ, and by his Righteousness, a free Gift of Pardon and Life are merited for us: 2. And this free donation is the Law that we are to be judged by, which giveth us Christ to be our Head, and Pardon and Life with him.
§. 45. 2. If it be said, That we are Unbelievers, impenitent or unholy, and did not fulfill the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace, we must deny it, and be justified against this by our Faith, Repentance and Holiness it self; or else we must be condemned and perish; for nothing else will do it.
§. 46. And seeing it will be the work of the day, to judge men as performers or non-performers of the said Conditions of the Law of Grace, therefore it is that the Scripture speaketh so much of inherent or performed Righteousness, and of Christ's judging men according to their works, that is, their works which are the performance of that Condition.
§. 47. To be judged according to our Works, is to be justified or condemned according to our Works: For to be judged is the genus, and to be justified or condemned are the species. Iudging is justifying or condemning.
§. 48. While all are agreed, that all men shall be justified or condemned according to their Works, it is unreasonable to quarrel at that height that many do, about the syllable [BY] (whether men be justified and condemned by their works) as if [according to them] and [by them] had a different sence; when as to judicial justification the sence is the very same, though as to the making of men just, the sence may differ.
§. 49. We are commonly agreed, that no man is justified by Works in any of these following sences.
1. No man is justified either constitutively or judiciarily by his Works done according to the Law of Innocency, that is, by perfect personal Obedience and Love, (because we have it not.)
2. No man is justified constitutively or judiciarily, by his Works done according to the Mosaical Iewish Law as such.
3. Much less by any Works of his own or other mens invention, which he accounteth good and are not so.
4. No man is justified by any Works set in opposition to or competition or co-ordination with Christ, but only in subordination to him and his Righteousness by which we are redeemed, and for which we are all first conditionally pardoned and justified by the Law of Grace.
5. No man could be justified by his Gospel-Obedience, or his Faith, if he were to be judged by the Law of Innocency, as not redeemed.
6. No man's Faith or Obedience will justifie him in Judgment against this accusation, [Thou art a Sinner] or this [Thy sin deserved Death.] Nor as one that hath fulfilled all the preceptive part of the law of Christ.
7. No Works do justifie us, as meriting Life of God in proper commutative Justice.
8. No man is justified by Tasks of working, as contradistinct from believing and trusting on Free Grace: or by external works, without Christ's Spirit and spiritual Evangelical Duties.
9. No good Work or Act of Man was a Condition of God's giving us a Redeemer, or giving us a conditional justifying Law of Grace.
10. Man's true Faith and Repentance is not before the Grace which worketh it, and therefore is no Condition of that Grace.
11. Man's antecedent common Works, while he is impenitent, merit not properly the special Grace which causeth Faith and Repentance.
12. We have no Works that are acceptable to God, but what are the fruits of his Spirit and Grace.
§. 50. And on the other side we are agreed, 1. That we are justified by the Works of Christ, as the Meritorious Cause of our Justification.
2. That the Justification purchased and given us by Christ, is given us by a Law or Covenant of Grace, which giveth (as God's Instrument) Right to Impunity and to Life to all true penitent Believers: And therefore he that is justified according to this Law of Grace, from the charge of Impenitence and Unbelief, must be justified by his Repentance and Faith materially, as being the Righteousness in question, as is aforesaid.
3. That without Holiness none shall see God: And if any be accused as unholy (and on that account no Member of Christ or Child of God, or Heir of Heaven) his Holiness must be the matter of his Justification.
4. That though our Faith, Repentance and Holiness be no universal absolute Righteousness, yet they are that on which the judiciary Scrutiny must pass, and which will be the question of the great day, on which our Life or Death will depend as on the Condition or moral Qualification of the Receiver.
5. That in this sence all men shall be judged, by Justification or Condemnation according to their Works, or what they have done; that is, as they have performed or not performed the Conditions of that Law of Grace which they were under (as aforesaid.)
6. That therefore they that will be justified at last, must trust in Christ that redeemed them, and be careful to perform the Conditions of his Law of Grace, and both must concurr.
7. That that which is the Righteousness which must justifie us in Judgment, is the same that must now constitute us just.
8. That when our Right to Salvation is the thing in question to be judged, that which justifieth our Right to Salvation, justifieth the Person as to that Right; and so far the same thing is the Condition of our Right to Salvation and to our Justification.
9. And if any with Augustine will mean by [Iustification] God's making us such as the Iudge will justifie by Sentence and Execution, then our Conversion is part of that Justification.
10. That Scripture sometimes taketh Justification in that sence, and most frequently by [Righteousness] meaneth that which consisteth in our Acts and Habits: In all this there is no place for Controversie or Disagreement.
§. 51. They that say, That we must have inherent and performed Righteousness, but that no man is at all justified by it, must take justifying in some particular limitted sence, (which therefore they should explain by distinction) or else they speak gross contradiction: For it is no Righteousness if it constitute not the owner righteous, so far, or in that point; nor yet if the owner may not be justified by it in Iudgment, against the accusation of being in that point or so far unrighteous. If he that doth Righteousness is righteous, that Righteousness will materially justifie him against the false accusation of the contrary.
§. 52. Yea, while they make Faith, Repentance and Holiness but Signs and Evidences of our right to Life-eternal, they thereby allow it some place in Justification: For Evidence hath its place in Judgment: And they are moral Evidences, and not physical only.
§. 53. If men understood how atheological and perilous it is to conceit, that either Faith or any thing of ours, (no though we were innocent,) is any proper efficient Cause of God's own internal acts in our Justification, and would understand that all can be no more than dispositio receptiva, which Dr. Twisse calls causa dispositiva, a meer receptive Aptitude, which is but the Qualification causae materialis, that is, of the Subject to be justified, it would presently lead them out of their vain Contention about Faith and Gospel-Obedience herein, and shew them how each in several respects and instances qualifie Man for the beginning or continuance of Justification, or for Right to Glory.
§. 54. It seemeth strange to some, to find the whole Old Testament, and all Christ's Sermons, and all the other Apostles, inculcating inherent and performed Righteousness, as that which Men must be judged about, to Life or Death, and yet to find Paul so oft pleading against Justification by Works. But if we will take the Scripture together, and not by incoherent scraps, the reconciliation is evident.
Man is now sinful, and condemned by the first Law, and is now under a Law of Grace, that freely giveth Pardon and Life through a Redeemer, to those that believingly accept the Gift according to its nature, and consent by Repentance to turn to God, and live a holy life in sincerity: Now God doth through all the Scripture tell us, That no one shall pass with God for a just man, or be saved, that will not do this, but shall be condemned further for refusing it: And thus he that doth Righteousness is righteous, and all shall be judged according to their works, thus required by the Law of Grace. To deny this, is to deny the scope of the whole Scripture, and the Government of God.
But Paul disputed against those that taught that the Gentiles must be proselyted, and keep the Law of Moses, or else they could not be accounted just men, nor be saved: And he proveth, that the Gentiles being under the Law of Grace, may pass with God for just men and be saved, if they [Believingly accept the Gift of Grace according to its nature, and consent by Repentance to turn to God, and live a holy life in sincerity] though they keep not the Jewish Law: Yea, further, that though the Jewish Fathers were obliged to keep that Law, it was as it belonged to the Covenant of Grace and of Faith, and that before that Law was given Abraham and others, were just and saved by Faith, according to the universal Law of Grace; and that the Task of Works, according to the Mosaical Law, will of it self make no man just or savable, and consequently no other Task of Works, which would make the Reward to be not of Grace but of Debt, and is opposed to, or separated from Redemption and the free condonation and donation of the Covenant of Grace.] This is the plain drift of Paul.
§. 55. Works of Evangelical gratitude, love, and obedience, according to the Law of Grace, subordinate to, and supposing Redemption and the free gift of Pardon and Life to penitent believing Accepters, are those that Christ and Iames and all the Scripture make necessary to Salvation; and our Consent and Covenant so to obey is necessary to our first or initial Iustification; and our actual Obedience to the Continuance and Confirmation of it. But a Task of Works either of Moses's Law or any other set against Redemption and free Grace, or not as aforesaid, duly subordinate to them, is disclaimed by Paul and all Christians, as that which can constitute no man just in God's account, nor such a one as hath right to Salvation.
§. 56. I verily think, that were their verbal and notional differences discussed, and men understood themselves and one another, it will prove, that this aforesaid is the true meaning of almost all Christians, and that they agree in this sence, while they mischievously contend about ill or unexplained words.
§. 57. What I have said of Justification, is mostly true of Pardon of Sin: Pardon is threefold, 1. Constitutive, which is God's giving us a Right to Impunity: This is God's act by the pardoning Covenant or Law of Grace. 2. By Sentence, judging us so pardoned. 3. Executive, taking off, or not inflicting Punishment deserved.
§. 58. God's non punire, and nolle punire, notpunishing and his will not to punish, are true pardon when the Sinner, and Sin and Guilt are preexistent: But they are no pardon before; because not capable of such a relation and denomination for want of a real terminus. Therefore God's eternal will to pardon, or his not punishing man from Eternity before Man was Man, or sinful, must have no such name; which afterward it may have without any change in God, but in man only.
§. 59. Some worthy men say, that Pardon is not Justification, nor to be pardoned is to be righteous; and that Righteousness is never taken in Scripture for Pardon, but many score or hundred times for our performance of our Duty according to the Law of Grace: Therefore they would have Righteousness and Pardon still distinguished.
§. 60. But I have plainly before proved, that Righteousness hath many parts, and the word many sences, and though Pardon be not that Righteousness which consisteth in a Conformity to the Precept, (and so is not our universal Righteousness) yet Pardon is (passive) that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Impunity both as to the punishment of Loss and Sence: And Pardon with Adoption or the Gift of Life, is that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Life eternal.
§. 61. 1. All mens sins are pardoned potentially and conditionally in the Law of Grace. 2. No mens sins are pardoned actually (as to a right of Impunity) till they are penitent Believers, or consent to the Covenant of Grace (if at age.) 3. These penitent Believers sins are pardoned virtually before they are committed, supposing them but Sins of Insirmity, but this is properly no Pardon, nor so to be called, because it is but the position of those things which will cause Pardon hereafter. To be only virtual, is not to exist, but to be in causis.
But it is too grosly inferred hence by some, That it is not God then that actually justifieth, but Man that performeth the Condition; as if the Condition which is but a suspension of the Donation, (and the performance a removal of the suspending Cause) were the donative Efficient; and so the Receiver were the Giver. As if he that opened the window were the Sun or efficient Cause of the Light; or he that lets off a Crossbow by removing the Stop, were the spring that effecteth the motion of the Arrow.
§. 62. Neither Pardon nor Justification are perfect before death: For there are some correcting Punishments to be yet born, some Sins not fully destroyed, some Grace yet wanting, more Sins to be forgiven, more Conditions thereof to be performed. The final and executive Pardon and Justification are only perfect.