The Life of Justification Opened, Chapter 4
CHAP. IV.
Justification is so contrived, in the Gospel, as man may be abased, & have no ground of boasting.
THirdly, we come to speak to the third thing mentioned above, to wit, That justification is so contrived, begun & carried on, that man hath no real, or apparent ground of glorying before men, or of boasting in himself. A few particulars will sufficiently cleare this.
I. The Lord's ordinary & usual Method, in bringing His Chosen ones into a justified State, is first to convince them of their Sin and Misery, by setting home the Law, & wekening their Consciences; as Paul doth Doctrinally follow this method, when he is about to cleare-up, & explaine the truth, about Gospel-justification, in his Epistle to the Romans; where in the first place, he convinceth all of Sin, both jewes & Gentiles Chap. 1. & 2. & 3. concluding vers 23. That all have sinned, & come short of the glory of God, & vers 9. he giveth an account of his foregoing Discourse, saying, we have before proved both jewes & Gentiles; that they are all under sin. And againe vers 19. that every mouth may be stopped, & all the world may become guilty before God. Now this work of Conviction layeth the sinner low before God; for thereby the Man is discovered to himself, to be undone in himself, to be under Sin & Wrath, under the Sentence of the Law, having his mouth stopped, & having nothing to plead for himself, neither by way of Extenuation, nor of Apology; & having nothing in himself, wherewith he can come before the Lord, to make Atonement for his Transgressions, & to make Satisfaction to justice: And thus the man is made to despare in himself, as being irremediably gone & undone, if free grace prevent him not.
II. Whereupon the man is made to renounce all his former grounds of Hop, & Confidence, all his former Duties, good works, civility, Negative Holiness, & what else he placed his Confidence in formerly; Yea all his Righteousnesses are as filthy rags, & accounted as loss & dung. So that he hath nothing within himself, as a Righteousness, that he can expect to be justified by, before God; but on the contrary, he findeth himself under the Curse, & that what he thought before to be his Righteousness, is now, by the light of the Law, & the discovery he hath of his natural condition, founde to be sin & iniquity before God; & therefore to be so far from bringing any reliefe unto him, that thereby his anxiety is made greater, & his case more desperat.
III. The way of Gospel-justification is so contrived, & the wakened man (whom God is about to justifie) is now convinced of it, that Man must be abased; for he is now made to see, that he is empty & poor, & hath nothing to commend him to God, no Righteousness of his own to produce; nothing within him, or without him, except the alone Righteousness of Christ the Mediator & Cautioner, that can stand him in stead; Nothing of his own must here come in reckoning, neither alone, nor in conjunction with the Righteousness of Christ; for what is of Grace, must not be of works, otherwise Grace is no more Grace Rom. 11: 6. Christ must have all the glory, & he, who glorieth, must glory alone in the Lord. And therefore is Christ made Righteousness unto us. 2. Cor. 1: 30. & is become the Lord our Righteousness Ier. 23: 6. And all His must say, That in the Lord, they have righteousness Esai. 45: 24.
IV. Nothing, that preceedeth faith, no motions or workings of the Law, no legal Repentance, & the like, have any infallible connexion with justification; nor are they any congruous disposition thereunto, or a Condition thereof, there being no promise made, that all such, as are convinced & awakened, & have some legal terrours & works of the Law upon their Spirites, shall certainely be justified; & experience proving, that several, who have had deep convictions & Humiliations, have, with the dog, returned to their vomite, & become afterward worse than ever, doth also confirme this. So that, after the deepest legal Humiliations & works of Terrour & outward Changes, & the like Effects of the Law (though when they are wrought by the Lord, intending & bringing about the Elect sinner's Conversion & justification, they have this kindly work upon the heart, to cause the Soul more readily & willingly listen to the offers of Salvation & Mercy, in the Gospel; & to submit to the termes & Method, which God hath, in His great wisdom & mercy, condescended unto, as to the actual Conferring & bestowing of the blessings, purchased by Christ, for His own chosen ones) justification is an Act purely of God's free Grace, undeserved of them, on any account; & an act of His meer mercy & Love. So that they are justified freely by His grace, through the Redemption, that is in Christ Rom. 3: 24.
V. Unto this justification, their good Works are not required, upon what somever account: for good works must follow justification, & not preceed it. They must be first accepted through Christ, before their works of holiness can be accepted. The whole Gospel doth most plainely exclude works of the Law, under whatsoever Notion, Qualification, or Restriction, as we manifested above, & shall more manifest hereafter: Yea, all works, upon what somever account, are excluded, as opposite to justification by faith, through Jesus Christ. The man, who had no more to say, but God be merciful to me a sinner, went home justified, when he, who said, God, I thank thee, I am not as other men, nor as this Publican, &c. did miss that Privilege. Paul hath so directly & plentifully proved, that no man is justified by works, that we need say no more of it; and therefore, in this matter of justification, man hath no ground of boasting, but must glory in the Lord alone.
VI. As without a Righteousness no man can be justified before God, because His judgment is alwayes according to truth, & He will pronunce no man Righteous, who is not so, or who hath no Righteousness: And as no man hath a Righteousness of his own, & in himself, that will abide the trial of God's judgment; for if He should enter into judgment, with any that liveth, they should not be able to stand before His judgment seat, & be justified; but all, who are justified, are in themselves ungodly, & void of all Righteousness, that can ground a sentence of absolution from the Condemnation of the Law: So it is the Righteousness of Christ, as Mediator & Cautioner, which is to them the only ground of their absolution & justification; & this Surety-Righteousness of Christ is imputed to them by God, & they are clothed therewith; & being considered as clothed there with, are pronounced Righteous by the Lord, the righteous judge, & dealt with as such. So that all the Righteousness, which is the ground of their absolution from the Condemnation of the Law, is without them, in another, who was appointed their Cautioner: & therefore all appearance of any ground of boasting in themselves, is quite taken away by the Law of faith Rom. 3: 27. & the reward is now wholly of grace, & not of debt Rom. 4: 4.
VII. Though faith, & faith only be required of us, in order to our having Interest in Christ & His Righteousness, & to justification therethrough; Yet this leaveth no ground of boasting unto man, or of glorying in himself; for it is in it self a plaine solemne Declaration of the Beleevers Sense, Conviction, & Acknowledgment of his own Beggarliness. Poverty & Nakedness, & of his being a dyvoure & non-solvendo, haiving no Righteousness of his own, & renounceing all that is in him, in order to his own justification; &, as it were, a swearing of himself bare; & a laying hold upon a Righteousness without him, even the Righteousness of Christ, who is the End of the Law for righteousness to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10: 3, 4. & resting upon it; & a producing of it, as the ground of his Absolution, in face of court, to his own shame, & to the glory of his Cautioner So. far is it from being the mans Righteousness, that it is a plaine & open declaration, that he hath no Righteousness, but must go to Christ for a Righteousness. And so far is the beleever from reflecting on it, as his Righteousness, & from darring to present it to God, as his Righteousness, & plead for absolution upon the ground thereof, as if it were perfect, & a full Righteousness, according to the Gospel; that he only thereby saith, in the Lord have I Righteousness; & he looks upon it, as most weak & imperfect; &, being encouraged by the free promise of God, he laith hold on Christ, with the trembling & weak hand of faith, which he hath; & ostentimes, so far is he from having any confidence in his faith, that with much doubting & hesitation, he, as almost despairing of being the better thereby, seeing no other outgate, or remedie, ventureth, with a peradventure, he may be saved so, & that how ever he can but perish. How far, such a soul, that is fleing to Christ for refuge, is from conceiveing any ground of boasting in himself, is sufficiently plaine, & the sense & experience of all, so exercised, can declare.
VIII. Even this Act of the soul, looking out, going to, gripping & laying hold upon Jesus Christ & His Righteousness, held forth & offered in the Gospel to all self condemned sinners, despairing in themselves, is not of themselves; it is the gift of God Ephes. 2: 8. The Spirit of Jesus boweth & inclineth the soul hereunto, & determineth the doubting man unto this choice, & maketh him willing, whether it be in a lesser, or in a greater degree, to flee to Christ for shelter, from the storme of wrath, & to be saved from the Curse: And though the soul, in the meane while, be not in case to observe & take notice of the powerful workings of grace herein; Yet afterward he is in better case to see it, & to celebrate the rich & free grace of God, who hath visited him in his low condition, & began à work in him & never left him, untill he landed him in Christ, in whom was all fulness, & he found he was compleat, & through whom he obtained that delivery from wrath, which he was seeking after, meerly out of his wonderful free grace & mercy.