Justification Without Conditions, Chapter 11
CHAP. XI. Wherein Mr. Woodbridges Second Argument against Justification before Faith, taken from our state by nature, is answered.
HIs Second Argument seems to be most weighty, which if it be put into a just ballance, will likewise be found guilty of a minùs habens. The Argument runs thus, [They that are under condemnation, cannot at the same time be justified; but all the world is under condemnation before Faith. Ergo, None of the world are justified before Faith.] Here I shall (1) enter a Caveat against the Major, which notwithstanding his confident Assertion [that it must needs be true] doth not appear so unto me, unless it be limited with this Proviso, That these seeming contraries do refer ad idem, I mean, to the same Court and Judicatory; their I shall grant, That he who is under condemnation is not justified; otherwise we know, it often falls out, that he that is condemned, and hath a Judgement upon Record against him in one Court, may be justified and absolved in another; he that is cast at the Common Law, may be quitted in a Court of Equity. Now the Law and the Gospel are, as it were, two several Courts and Judicatories; they that are condemned in the one, may be justified in the other; they that are sinners in the first Adam, may be looked upon as just and righteous in the second: There is nothing more ordinary, then for Christians, at the same time, to consider themselves under this twofold relation, to wit, Their state by Nature, and their state by Grace. In reference to the former it was, that Paul cryed out, O wretched man that I am! and yet in the same breath, he breaks forth into thankful Expressions for his escape and deliverance aRom 7▪ 24, 25.. I doubt not but Mr. W. hath heard many Ministers in their Confessions, adjudge themselves sinful and wretched Creatures, and yet at the same time plead their Righteousness and Adoption;though their translation from one estate to the other, was not in that very instant:Rom. 3.19. The Law condemns all men living, for that all have sinned. The Law doth not consider men as Elect, or Reprobates, or as Believers or unbelievers, but as righteous or sinners: Believers have no more advantage by the Law, then unbelievers; the Law will not cease to threaten and condemn them, as long as they live: It is true, Believers can plead their discharge, which others may have, though they know it not.
§. 2. But if Mr. W. do speak of an absolute condemnation, or of such as are condemned by the first Covenant, and have no benefit at all by the second; we shall then let go the Major, and arrest his Minor Proposition [But all the world are under condemnation before Faith.] For God doth not condemn his Elect Children, for whom Christ hath died; the Holy Ghost witnesseth that Gods will, to wit, of good pleasure, was, That none of them should perish, or be condemned; and if the Judge will quit them, who else shall condemn them *Rom. 8.33.? To whomsoever God doth will Life and Salvation, (his Will being absolute and immutable) they are not lyable to condemnation.
§. 3. The Scriptures brought by him to prove his Minor, are forced to go beyond the intention of the Holy Ghost, as 1 Joh. 3.18. He that believeth not, is condemned already. He that believeth not, is as much, as he that never believeth, or he that believeth not at any time, as Chap. 8.24. If ye believe not (i. e. not at all) ye shall die in your sins. The scope bSee Mr. Tho. Goodwins Sermon on John 6.37.of our Saviour was to obviate those suspitions and jealousies which are lurking in the hearts of men, as if God in sending his Son, intended not their good, but onelyonly laid a design and ambushment for their further condemnation. It is no such matter (sayes our Saviour) God sent not his Son to condemn the world, Vers. 17. It is an evident sign, that God had no such end in publishing the Gospel, For he that believes, is not condemned; he knows that he is passed from death to life; and he that believes not, i. e. that finally rejects the Grace which is here offered, was condemned long before; viz. by the sentence of the Law, and by the just judgement of God, proceeding against them, according to the tenor of the first Covenant: So that God need not go about to entangle men, who were before fast bound in the shackles of sin and misery; the Law condemned them sufficiently, though their contempt of the Gospel will aggravate their condemnation. Our Saviour had no intent at all to shew the state of the Elect, before believing; but the certain, and inevitable misery of them that believe not; by reason of the sentence of the Law which had passed upon them.
§. 4. (2) His next Allegation is as impertinent as this, Verse 36. of the same Chapter, He that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him. It is evident, that our Saviour speaks there of a final unbeliever, and not of an Elect person before believing; the phrase of the abiding *Notat constantiam & pevitissimam rei adhaesionem. Camer.of Gods wrath, is applicable to none, but unto Reprobates, who do perish for ever: And to say that the place hints, there is a wrath of God which is done away by believing, is but an attempt, to suborn the Spirit, to serve our turn.
§. 5. (3) That which seemes to speak most fully to his cause, is Ephes. 2.3. where the Apostle tells the Ephesians (whom God had chosen to Eternal life, Chap. 1.4.) That they were by nature the children of wrath; even as others. To which I answer, (1) That the Text doth not say, that God did condemn them, or that they were under Condemnation, before Conversion. (2) The Emphasis of this Text (I conceive) lies in this clause [by nature.] So then the Apostles meaning is, That by nature, or in reference to their state in the first Adam, from whom by natural propagation they descended, They were children of wrath, they could expect nothing but wrath and fiery indignation from God: Yet this hindered not, but that by Grace, they might be the Children of his Love; for so all the Elect are, whilest they are in their blood and pollution, Ezek. 16.4, 8. The Lord calls them his Sons and Children before Conversion, Isai. 43.6. & 53.11. & 8.18. Heb. 2.9. For it is not any Inherent qualification, but the good pleasure of God, that makes them his Children, Ephes. 1.5. Rom. 8.29. John 17.6. Believers considered in themselves, and as they come from the loyns of Adam, are sinful and cursed Creatures, as vile and wretched as the Devil himself, though in Christ they behold themselves made righteous and blessed. It is granted, That Elect Infants have the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them, though they know it not; and I see no reason that can be given, why it should not be imputed to the rest of the Elect before Conversion.
§. 6. Although the Elect are freed from wrath and condemnation; yet in some sence, they may be said to be under it, in regard that the Law doth terrifie and affright their consciences, Rom. 4.15. In which respect, it is called A ministration of wrath, and of death, 2 Cor. 3.7, 9. The wrath of God hath a threefold acception in the Scripture cZ…nch. de Nat. Dei. l. 4. c. 6. q. r. Thes.. 1. It signifies the most just, and immutable Will of God to deal with a person or persons according to the tenor of the Law, and to inflict upon them the punishment which their sins shall deserve: And in this sence, none but Reprobates are under wrath; who for this cause are said to be hated of God. (2) It notes the threatnings and comminations of the Law, Rom. 1.18. Psal. 6.1. Hos. 11.9. Jonas 3.9▪ &c. (3) It notes the execution of those threatnings, or the punishments threatned, Ephes. 5.6. Luke 21.23. Matth. 3.7. Now in the first and third sence, the Elect never were, nor shall be, under wrath; God never intended to deal with them according to the tenor of the Law; nor doth he inflict upon them the least evil, upon that account, Christ having freed and delivered them from the Curse: But as wrath is taken in the second sense, for the comminations and threatnings of the Law, so they are under wrath, till they are able to plead their discharge and release, by the Gospel. The threatnings of the Law, do seize upon and arrest their Consciences, no less then others; and therefore the Law is compared to a rigid School-Master *Gal. 3.24., which never ceaseth to whip and lash them, until they flye unto Christ. For though he hath freed them from the Curse, yet the Lord sees it fit they should for a while be held under the Pedagogy and Ministration of the Law, that they may learn to prize the Redemption which they have by Christ, Gal. 3.22. The Lord, when he published the Law in Sinai (as the Apostle observes, Gal. 3.17.) Did not repent him of his promise, made Typically with Abraham and his Seed, but really with Christ, and the Elect in him: But (sayes he) the Law was added, because of transgression, i. e. To discover their sinfulness and misery by nature, and to render the Grace of the promise more desirable, Vers. 22. As the Saints in the Old Testament were Heirs of the Promise,Gal. 4.1, 2. had a real and actual Interest in all the Blessings of the New Covenant, whilest their Consciences were whipped and scourged by this merciless School-master; so all the rest of the Elect are partakers of the same Grace of Life, though the Law doth terrifie and condemn them: The threatnings of the Law do not shew what is the state of a person towards God, or how God doth account of him; but what he is by nature, and what he hath deserved, should be inflicted upon him; which a man cannot chuse but expect, and fear, till his Conscience be secured by better promises: So that I shall not be afraid to say, That the Consciences of the Elect before Faith, are under wrath, and not their Persons; and though their Consciences do condemn them, yet God doth not. But against this Mr. W. hath sundry Exceptions.
§. 7. The condemnation they are under, is the condemnation exception 1 of the Law; which pronounceth all men guilty, not onelyonly in their own conscience, but before God, Rom. 3.19. Answ. Answ.That the voice or sentence of the Law, shews not who are condemned of God, but who are guilty and damnable in themselves, if God should deal with them by the Law, which is the scope of the Apostle, Rom. 3.19, 20. That all the world might become guilty before God. So indeed are all men considered according to what is due by the Law, Psal. 143.2. But the Elect as considered in the Grace, and forgiveness of God, and the perfect satisfaction of Jesus Christ, are discharged from this rigorous Court, their cause is judged at another Bar.
§. 8. The condemnation of an unbelievers conscience, is exception 2 either true or false; if true, then it is according to the judgement of God, and speaks as the thing is, and so God condemns as well as the conscience, &c. Answ. Answ.The testimony of an unbelievers conscience … true, so far as it agrees with the written word; if it witnesseth to a man any thing, which is neither in the word, nor necessarily deduced from it; the testimony is false and sinful. For understanding whereof, we must know, that there is a threefold act of conscience about sin; the first, When it witnesseth to us concerning the desert of sin; the second, When it witnesseth to us concerning the act of sin, or the sins which we have done: the third is, When it witnesseth to us concerning our final state and condition before God. Now if Conscience doth bear witness to a man, concerning what he hath done, and what is his desert in so doing, it doth but its duty, Rom. 1.34. But if it tell a man, that for the sins which he hath done, he is a damned Creature, and must perish everlastingly; such a Conscience is both penally and sinfully evil. The Conscience of an unbeliever accuseth truly, when it convinceth him of sin; that Death eternal is the wages of it; and that by the Law he can expect no other: But if it proceeds to tell a man, that his case is desperate, and without hope, it pronounceth a false sentence. For though he be a Reprobate, and consequently the sentence is true in it self, yet it is a false testimony in him, for as much as conscience witnesseth that, which it cannot certainly know; how much more is it a false testimony, when the Conscience of an Elect person doth make such a conclusion against himself, That God hath absolutely condemned him to Hell torments, it is false in it self, and false in him: If it were a true sentence, it were then impossible he should be saved; For condemnation (as Mr. W. confesseth a little after) is opposed to Salvation; and the Law saith not Now cursed, but cursed for ever, Matth. 25.41. And therefore, I say, If the Conscience of any sinner, either Elect or Reprobate, shall in this life, pass such an absolute and peremptory sentence against himself, that the curse of the Law shall be inflicted upon him, he sins both against the Law, and the Gospel. (1) Against the Law, by applying the Ministery thereof to a wrong end, and not as God hath intended it; for the Law was not given ex primaria intentione, to condemn men dSee Dr. Reynolds three Treatises, p. 385., but to further and advance the Ministery of the Gospel; that men seeing what they are by nature, and what they have deserved, might flee for refuge unto Jesus Christ. Now when men, hearing the Curse of the Law, conclude, that surely this must be their portion, and that it is never the neerer for them, that the Son of God hath shed his Blood for sinners, they sin against the Law; in regard the end of the Law is to cause them to flee unto Christ; so that by making the sentence of the Law absolute, they quite cross the design and intention of God in giving the Law. (2) They deny the very tenor and substance of the Gospel,1 Tim. 1.15. 1 Joh. 5 10, 11. which is, That in Christ there is life eternal for sinners; and for ought that they can know to the contrary▪ for them, as well as for others.
§. 9. Though we say, That the sentence of condemnation, which men pass upon themselves in this life, is false and erroneous, yet are we innocent of those ugly consequences which Mr. W. would thrust upon us, Of blinding mens eyes, and hardening their hearts, and searing up their consciences, &c. Which are more likely to follow upon an indiscreet application of the Law, and mens making the voice thereof the definitive sentence of God, upon all Transgressors; which is the ready way to make men quite desperate, and to harden their hearts in unbelief. We hold it necessary▪ That the Law should be preached to unbelievers in it… strictness, rigor, and inexorable severity; that they may see there is no hope for them at all, by the works of the Law; yet we would have it preached as an Appendant to the Gospel, not to drive men to despair, but to believe, and to flee to that Sanctuary which is opened in the Gospel; whereas if it be published alone, and as an absolute sentence, it is a bar to Faith: For if God doth condemn men, who shall justifie them? Christs merits will not save them, whom God doth condemn; witness Reprobate Men and Angels, Unto whom there remaineth no sacrifice at all for sin.
§. 10. His third Exception is, That the condemnation with exception 3 which the unbeliever is condemned, is expressed John 3.36. by the abiding of Gods wrath upon him. Therefore we say,Answ. no Elect unbeliever is condemned of God, because the wrath of God doth not abide upon him. The condemnation wherewith the unbeliever, i. e. The final unbeliever is condemned, is indeed the abiding of Gods wrath, that is, he shall die everlastingly, for it is opposed to everlasting life; but what is this to the Elect, who are not final unbelievers?
§. 11. His fourth and last is, That the condemnation of unbelievers exception 4 is opposed to Salvation, John 3.17. And surely the condemnation that is opposed to Salvation, is more then the condemnation of a mans own conscience, &c. I answer,Answ. 1. That the condemnation opposed to Salvation, is damnation; and then by Mr. Woodbridges Argument, the Elect, because they are sometimes unbelievers, must all be damned. But 2. this rather shews (as I said before,) that, by him that believeth not, is meant, he that believeth not at all.