The Life of Justification Opened, Chapter 20
CHAP. XX.
The state of justification remaineth, notwithstanding of after sinnes, & punishments.
FOr further clearing up of this life of Justification, as to its Continuance, we shall remove two objections, that may seem to stand in the way of the truth, hitherto cleared. For it would seem, that Justification is not such a continueing uninterruptible state, as it was said to be, upon this double account, first. That the sinnes, which Beleevers, who are justified, do commit, especially such as are of a more hainous & crying Nature, do break off this state of favoure & reconciliation, seing they deserve, even the least of them, God's wrath & curse, & so expose the sinner unto the just revenges of God; which seemeth not to be consistent with a state of Justification. And then secondly as their sinnes deserve God's curse & wrath, so the many sharp & sore afflictions, which they are made to lye under, both are effects of the wrath of God, & fruites of the Curse, & also would say, that that state is such, as can be broken off, or at least, is not perfect, as it was said to be.
Now for clearing of the truth, formerly asserted, & vindicating of the same, from these two Objections, to which all others may be reduced, we shall propose some few things to consideration.
1. None will say, that every sin of infirmity & weakness, which beleevers commit, doth or can cut them off from the state of justification; for then they should never remaine one day to end in that state; for no man liveth, that sinneth not, & the Righteous fall seven times a day; if the Lord should stricklymark iniquity, no man should stand; even the best of their actions are defiled with sin, and they cannot answere for one of a thousand. So that either it must be said, there is no state of justification, or that it is consistent with sin in the justified: Justification, though it take away all the guilt of by paft sins, and free the beleever from that obnoxiousness to the wrath & curse of God which they were formerly under; yet it preventeth not all future sinnes, not doth it put the beleever into a perfect sinless state; nay nor doth it kill any one sin, as to its being, but only taketh away the guilt, offensiveness & the obligation to punishment, or the reatus poenae, whereby the sinner is bound over unto the Penalty.
2. As for such sins, as we may suppose, if committed, would ipso facto, as they say, forfeit the transgressour of the state of Justification, & destroy all interest in Christ, in the Covenant of grace, & so transferre them into their former state of Nature, while they were under the Curse; as being sins, inconsistent with a state of Grace & Reconciliation with God; such as the sin against the Holy Ghost, or of full & final Apolstasie: as for such sins, I say, the faithfulness of God, Mediation of Christ, & the Operation of the Spirit of Grace, are, as it were, engadged, to keep the Iustified from falling into them; as all the Arguments, proving the perseverance of the Saints, do abundantly evince.
3. Though every sin, being a transgression of the Law of God, which still remaineth in force to oblige the beleever, as all others, unto obedience in all points, doth, in its own nature, deserve God's wrath & curse, according to the threatning & penalty of the Law: yet these sins do not annul the state of justification, nor interupt it (1) because notwithstanding thereof, all their former sins, of which they were pardoned, remaine pardoned, & do not bring them againe under the curse, & their Right to the Inheritance remaineth fi…me, through Jesus Christ. (2) Because all these after sins were virtually pardoned, & their obligation to the suffering of the penalty upon the account of these, virtually removed, in their Iustification; for therein was there a legal security laid down & given, that all future sins should not actually bring them under the curse, or into the state of condemnation: & this is much more, than what was before their actual closing with Christ, & being thereby brought into an estate of justification, for though it may be said, there was sufficient security laid-in in the Covenant of Redemption betwixt Iehovah & the Mediator, concerning the Non-perishing of the Elect; Yet this security was hid & under ground, lying in the unchangable purposes of God; in the Fathers Election of them, & giving of them to the Son to be redeemed; in the Son's undertaking for them, & in due time becoming sin & a curse for them, & so taking on their debt, & making full & compleet satisfaction therefore; And this fundamental & remote Right, (as it may be called) could not be pleaded by themselves. But after they have closed with Christ, and are brought into a state of justification, their Right appeareth above ground, and the security is laid open in the Covenant of Grace, whereby they are in case to plead their virtual pardon, to be made actual, & the promises to be made good, according to the Gospel termes, & after the Gospel-method. And thus. 3. Not only doth the law's threatnings speak to them, as shewing what de jure only they may look upon us due unto them, & not declaring what shall eventually befall them, or that eventually they shall fall under the eternal curse; for in a sense, that is true even of all the elect not yet justified, as was said; but they have a legal ground & Right in the Covenant of Grace, securing them from Condemnation, & they have accless & ground in Law to plead this Right & so to plead for actual Pardon in the termes, & according to the methode of the Gospel: I do not say, that the justified while lying in sin, without making application to Iesus Christ, & acting faith on him, in order to pardon, have ground to plead for actual pardon, for that is repugnant to the Methode of the Gospel, requireing new acts of faith, in order to new acts of Pardon, I mean the implicit acts if faith (to speak so) in reference to dayly infirmities & unseen sins, & the more explicit acts of faith, in reference to grosser sins, seen & lamented: But they have ground to plead for grace to discover their sins, to humble them for their sins, & to excite their soul to renewed acts of faith in Christ, and thereupon to expect, according to the Gospel methode, Remission; and to plead for it, in the merites of Christ, unto which they have a sure Right. Therefore 4. New sins cannor annul the state of justification; because not only are beleevers secured that de eventu, they shall not come into Condemnation for these sins; but even as to any legal dueness of punishment, that new sins may bring them under, there is a sure & saife remedie at hand, the blood of Christ that taketh away all sin, to which they are called to go that they may wash their souls there by faith, and be clean, & be delivered from guilt.
4. For further clearing of this, we could consider, that there is a difference to be put betwixt Sin, in order to its direful effects, considered in it self, and considered, as it is in the Iustified. Though sin, in it self is alwayes mortiferous, and exposeth to the curse and wrath of God, having a malignant demerite constantly attending it: Yet it is not so, being considered, as it is in the justified: for as poison, is alwayes deadly in it self, & working towards death; yet it is not so, as in a person, who hath received a sufficient antidot. Though every act of felonie in it self make obnoxious unto death, according to the Law; yet some acts, as committed by one, who can read, will not have that effect: so the beleever is antidoted by the Covenant of Grace, that howbeit sin remaine still deadly, in its own nature; yet as to him, it cannot produce these effects.
5. Though after sins, in a justified person, may have, before they be pardoned, very sad effects, in reference to Comfort, or comfortable Improvment of their Privileges & Advantages: yet they cannot disinherite them, or put them from their Right: Though leprosie did deprive the leper of the comfortable enjoyment and use of his own house; yet it did not destroy his right: though the miscarriages of the prodigal son did incapacitate him for any present enjoyment of his interest in his Fathers affection; yet they did not destroy his Sonshipe Luk. 15: 17. So though sins, not yet washed away, in such as have been justified, may and will certainly prejudge them of many comfortable Advantages, which they might otherwayes have; yet they do not take away their Sonshipe, nor their Right to the Inheritance of sones.
6. Though after sins, not yet pardoned through faith, do and will stirr up Fatherly Anger & Displeasure against them, who are justified, and become his Adopted children; Esai. 54: 7, 8. Yet they bring not justified man under pure judicial wrath, and under the Curse and Law-anger, so as God is no more their Father, but hath cast them out of his familie, & fatherly favour. It is one thing to be under the frowns & gloomes of an angry Father: & another thing to be under the severe aspect of an angry judge.
7. It is considerable also. That through grace, and the Lord's great love and wisdom, after-sins are so far from destroying their State and Right to the inheritance, that upon the contrare, they are ordered to the Justified mans good, and further establishment in grace; not that sin it self hath any such natural tendency; but it is by accident to sin, which is so ordered by the wise disposal of a loveing Father, making all things work togerher for good, and thus counter-working Satan without, & Corruption within, making that, which Satan had designed to their ruine and destruction, contributo to their good & advantage, by giving them fresh occasion, of exercising Humility & Repentance, & of Renewing their gripping of Christ by Faith, & of Watching more with Diligence here-after; as also hereby they are put to search & examine themselves, to try their Rights & Securities, & thus to make their calling & election sure, to their further establishment & comfort in the Holy Ghost.
8. Thus we see whatever present alteration after sins, not yet taken to Christ, to the end they may be pardoned through his blood, do, or can make, as to the present Condition of the justified; yet their State remaineth firme, & unshaken; for thereby they fall not againe under the old Covenant; nor under the sentence thereof, nor under pure Law wrath, pure Justice & the Curse of a broken Covenant; but being under Grace, & not under the Law, they are secured as to Condemnation Rom. 8: 1. & as to the loss of the favour & friendship of God Rom. 8: 35, 39. for not only is the guilt of Original sin, & of all their preceeding Actual sins taken away, through faith in Christ, when they were justified, but there is a sure way condescended upon betwixt Jehovah & the Mediator, how their after-sins shall be Pardoned, & taken out of the way, & the same method and way is declared in the Gospel, & made sure by the Covenant of Grace: and by their being in the Covenat, they have a right unto the promises thereof, and ground to press for the performance; & so for Remission, & for all things requisite thereunto, or following thereupon; yea they have a sure pledge of Remission already, to wit, the actual Pardon of what is past, and their past Justification; that is a comforting & strenthening word Rom. 5: 9, 10. much more then being now justified by his bloud, we shall be saved from wrath through him; for if when we are enemies, we were reconcile … to God, by the death of his Son; much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life & so is that Rom. 8: 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all: how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
9. We may adde, That if sins, afterward committed, could take away Justification, then they should also take away Adoption, & Regeneration; & so the justified man, should by after sins, not only become an unjustified man; but also the child of God should become againe the childe of the devil, & the Relation should be quite broken off, & he, who was borne againe, should return unto his former state of black Nature: & thus there should be a second, & a third, yea & multiplied Regeneration; whereof the Scripture is silent, nay it clearly depones the contrary.
10. And if it be enquired, how it cometh to passe, that after sins may not, at least, gradually impaire the State of Justification, as sins do impaire and weaken Sanctification? I answere (and this may further help to clear the business under hand) The reason is manifest, from the difference, that is betwixt these two blessing and benefites; Iustification is an act of God, changing the Relative-state of a man, and so is done and perfected in a moment: Sanctification is a progressive work of God, making a real physical change, in the man; whence sin may tetard this or put it back, but cannot do so, with the other, which is but one single act, once done, and never recalled, the gifts and calling of God being without repentance Rom. 11: 29. In justification we are meerly passive, it being a sentence of God pronunced in our Favours; in Sanctification, as we are in some respect patients, so are we also Agents, and Actors, and thus sin may retard us in our motion, and as it evidenceth our weakness for acting, so it produceth more weakness. Moreover Sin and Holiness are opposite to other, as light and darkness, & therefore, as the one prevaileth, the other must go under, and as the one increaseth, the other must decress. But there is no such Opposition betwixt sin, & pardon, which is granted in Justification. And whereas it may be said, that sin expelleth also grace Meritoriously: yet that prejudgeth not the truth in hand, for it can expell grace meritoriously no further, than the free constitution of God hath limited: and so though it can and oft doth expell many degrees of Sanctification; yet it cannot expell & make null the grace of Regeneration; or the Seed of God, so no more can it expell or annul Justification; because the good pleasure of God, hath secured the one & the other & made them both unalterable.
By these particulars, we see how the first doubt is removed out of the way; we shall next speak to the Second, which is concerning afflictions, & Punishments, which are the fruits and deserts of sin, and seem to be part of the curse or penalty threatned in the first Covenant: To which we need not say much to show, that notwithstanding hereof, the State of Justification remains firme, and unaltered. These few things will suffice to cleare the truth.
1. Though all affliction, and suffering be the fruite & consequent of the breach of the Covenant by Adam, the head of mankind; for if he had stood, and the Covenant had not been violated, there had been no Misery, affliction, Death or Suffering: and though in all, who are afflicted in this world, there is sin to be found; And though it cannot be instanced, that God ever brought an afflicting or destroying stroke upon a Land or Nation, but for the provocations of the People, yet the Lord may some rimes afflict outwardly or inwardly, or both, a particular Person, in some particular manner, though not as provoled thereunto by that persons sin, or without a special reference to their sin, as the procuring Cause thereof; as we see in Iob: and as Christ's answer, concerning the blinde man Ioh. 9: 3. Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents (that he was born blinde;) but that the works of God should be made manifest in him, giveth ground to think.
2. Though it doth oftner fall out, that God doth afflict, Punish and Ch…sten his people even because of their sinnes, as well as other wicked persons; yet the difference betwixt the two is great, though the outward Camitie may be materially the same: To the godly, they flow from Love, are designed for good, are sanctified, and made to do good, they are covenanted mercies; but nothing so to the wicked. They are mercies to the one, but curses to the other; They speak out love to the one, but hatred to the other; They are blessed to the one, but blasted & cursed to the other; They work together for good to the one, but for evil to the other: and all this notwithstanding, that the outward affliction & calamity that is on the godly, may be double or treeble to that, which is upon the wicked: Yea there is mercy and love in the afflictions of the Godly, when the prosperity of the wicked is cursed. Whence we see, that all these afflictions cannot endanger or dammage their Justified state.
3. Though the Lord may be wroth & smite in anger his own people, chasten & punish them in displeasure; yet, this wrath & anger, is but the wrath and anger of a Father, and is consistent with fatherly Affection in God, and therefore cannot be repugnant to a state of Sonshipe in them. Prov. 3: 11, 12. Heb. 12: 5-8. Psal. 89: 30 33, 34. Revel. 3: 19.
4. In all these afflictions, that seem to smell most of the Curse, and of the death threatned, and are most inevitable, such as death, &c. there is nothing of pure vin…ictive justice to be found in them, when Justified persons are exercised with them: for Christ did bear all that, being made a curse for them, and as to this, the Lord caused all their iniquities to meet together upon him: He drunk out the cup of Vindictive anger, and left not one drop of the liquor of the Curse of the Law, for any of his own to drink: He alone did bear the weight of revenging justice; and there is nothing of this, in all that doth come upon beleevers; So that the very sting of death is taken away, & the sting of all these Afflictions is sucked out, and now they are changed into Mercies & Blessings. 1 Cor. 3: 21, 22. Therefore we must not think that they contribute the least mite unto that Satisfaction, which justice required for sins, & Christ payed down to the full; & justice was fully satisfied with what he paid down: nor must we think, that God will exact a new satisfaction for sins, or any part thereof, of the hands of beleevers, after he hath received a full satisfaction from the Mediator Christ, & did rest satisfied therewith. The afflictions and Punishments then, that the godly meet with, being no parts of the Curse, nor of that Satisfaction that justice requireth for sin, nor flowing from vindictive justice; but being rather fatherly chastisments, mercies & meanes of God, can do no hurt unto their state of justification; nor can any thing be hence inferred, to the prejudice of that glorious state.
5. But it is said, Pardon and Justification is one thing, and a man is no more Justified than he is Pardoned; and Pardon is but the taking off of the obligation to punishment, and consequently of punishment it self; and seing punishment is not wholly taken off, but there remaineth some part of the curse, or of the evil threatned for sin, and will remaine untill the resurrection, it is cleare, that pardon is not fully compleet, not consequently Justification so long as we live. But for answere, & to clear up the matter in hand more, we say (1) Pardon of sins is not adequatly the same with Justification, nor the whole thereof, but at most a part, or rather a partial effect in justification, the person is constituted Righteous, and declared such, and thereupon hath his sins pardoned, and a Right to the purchased reward; and he is thus made & declared Righteous, through the Mediators Surety-Righteousness, imputed to him, and laid hold upon by faith. (2) When a person is justified, he is at once and for ever freed from the punishment due from the Law & from vindictive justice, for the broken Covenant: & the Obligation to punishment required by vindictive justice, is taken away and dissolved; Christ having fully born that Punishment, and satisfied that demand of Justice, they, in & through him, are delivered from the Curse, and the maledictory sentence. (3) Hence all their sufferings & afflictions here, being no part of the Curse, nor of Satisfaction to divine vindictive justice, nor of the Condemnation threatned, how ever they be materially evil, and Fatherly Chastisments or Punishments; yet are no effects of Law-vengeance, nor parts of vindictive Punishment: and so cannot give ground to inferre an imperfect Pardon, or an imperfect Justification. (4) Nor must we call them any part of the Punishment, threatned by the Law, remaining yet unremoved; for that would make them parts of the Curse; and yet Mr. Baxter Confess. p. 125. conceiveth it fittest to say, that beleevers are freed from the curse, & are not under it, and addeth his reasons there: And the consequence is clear, because, what the Law threatneth, as such, belongeth to the Curse; for the Law saith, Cursed is every one, that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the Law to do then, Gal. 3: 10. Deut. 27: 26. And therefore every Punishment, that is a punishment of the Law, must be part of the Curse; So if the Punishments, or Afflictions, that the Godly are now under, be part of the Curse, that is yet remaining unremoved, or of the Punishment (as Mr. Baxter there p. 124. saith) it will inevitablie follow, that beleevers are yet under the Curse, and not wholly delivered there from; and as to these outward afflictions, many of the truly Godly shall be more under the Curse, then several of the wicked: and if they be under any part of the Curse, how can they be pronunced Blessed? how can they be said to be Redeemed from the Curse of the Law? how can Christ be said to have been made a curse for them; how shall their sufferings not be a part of Satisfaction to Vindictive justice? Shasl not they be in part Satisfiers for themselves? Shall not they then be beholden to Christ, only in part? How shall then these Afflictions flow from love, run in the channel of love, and work-out their good, through grace & love, if they be any real & formal parts of the Curse? Shall not the curse then be a part of the blessedness of the Saints, and of their bequeathed portion, which they may owne as theirs, as well as they may owne life! Shall not the curse, or a part of the curse, separat from the Love of God, and of Christ? What, I pray, will, if that do it not; and yet the Apostle tels us Rom. 8: 33. &c. that afflictions cannot do it, nor death it self. How can any part of the curse work for us a far more exceeding & eternal weight of glory? and yet Afflictions do that 2. Cor. 4: 17. The curse will not conforme us unto Christ; yet afflictions will, and do Rom. 8: 29. (5) Even as to the remnants of the body of death, that cause the godly to groan, and cry out. Miserable man &c. if we consider them, as an Affliction, we cannot say, that they are a remanent part of Law-vengeance, of Law-punishment, or of the curse, threatned in the Law; for then they should be effects of God's hatred towards the Persons, & of pure vengeance and of juridical, & judicial Wrath & Anger, and were not capable of Sanctification to their spiritual advange; and Beleevers, upon this account, could not be said to be delivered from the Law, and dead to that, wherein they were formerly held, as they are Rom. 7: 6. for they, who are under the Curse, and under such an especial part or Effect thereof, cannot but be under the Law, and that, as a cursing Condemning Law. Gal. 3: 10. Nor could the Apostle inferre, as he doth, after the mentioning of the sad wrestlings, that the godly have, with the body of death. Rom. 7: 15. &c. that there is now therefore no Condemnation to them, that are in Christ Rom. 8: 1. for this would not follow from their being really & properly under such a great part of the Curse. Sure, this cannot but be derogatory unto the perfect Satisfaction made by Christ; seing hereby there is, in some measure, a Satisfaction made unto the justice of God: and it was the end of Christ's suffering & satisfaction, to deliver his people from the curse of the Law, in whole, and in part, & from that penalty threatned in the Covenant of works. Christ was made a curse for us, and thereby did redeem us, not in part only, but wholly, from the curse of the Law: and this penal Law Mr. Baxter must understand pag. 127. Confess. or he speaketh not to the purpose. Nor can I say with him ibid. p. 119. that every threatning is it in one sense, & the execution in another, that is commonly called the curse of the Law: for the execution of the Law upon any person, is inconsistent with loving-kindness towards that person; but so is not every threatning, nay nor the execution thereof upon beleevers, as we see Psal. 89: 30, 31, 32, 33. Nor could these executions of threatnings be said to flow from Love, contrare to Revel. 3: 19. Heb. 12: 6. Prov. 3: 12. for there is no fatherly Love, in executing of the Curse.