Justification Without Conditions, Chapter 12
CHAP. XII. Wherein Mr. Woodbridges third, fourth, and fifth Arguments are answered.
HIs third Argument is drawn from the several comparisons by which Justification by Faith is illustrated. Sometimes it is compared to the Israelites, looking up to the Brazen Serpent for healing, Joh. 3.14. Numb. 21 8. As then, they were not first healed, and then looked up to see what healed them, but they did first look upon the Serpent, and then they were healed. Even so it is the Will of God, that whosoever seeth, and believeth the Son, shall be justified, John 6.40. Sometimes Faith is compared to eating, and Justification to the nourishment which we receive by our meat, &c. To which I answer, 1. That comparisons prove nothing, unless they are framed by the Holy Ghost for the thing in question. Now I utterly deny that it was the intent of the Holy Ghost, in either of these comparisons, to shew in what order, or method we are justified in the sight of God. 2. The stinging of the fiery Serpents did plainly shadow forth the effects of the Law in Conscience. The Law by revealing the wrath of God, against all unrighteousness aRom. 1 17. & 4.15., stings and wounds mens consciences bProv. 18.14.; for which cause it is called, a fiery Law, Deut. 33.2. To wit, from its effects, because it doth, as it were, kindle a fire in mens bones; they have no rest in their souls, until these wounds are healed cPsal 102.3. & 38.3.. Now as the Israelites when they were stung by those fiery Serpents, found no ease, till they looked up unto the Brazen Serpent: So the soul that is smitten and wounded by the Ministery of the Law, will never finde rest, till it looks unto him, in whose wounds and stripes is the healing of sinners dIsai 53.5. John 3.1….. 3. This very comparison doth make against him; as the Israelites were alive, when they looked upon the Brazen Serpent, or else they could not have seen it: So they that …ok upon Jesus Christ, i. e. Believe in him, are spiritually alive, or else they could not put forth such a vital act. It is said indeed, Numb. 21.9. that when any man that was bitten, beheld the Serpent of Brass, he lived, i. e. He was healed, or had ease from his anguish; so they that by Faith look up unto the Antitype, they finde ease and rest for their wearied souls; they do then live, i. e. they have the comfort and enjoyment of that life, which before they had in Christ. A man is said to live, when he lives comfortably and happily eVita non est vivere sed valere. Non est beatus, qui so esse non putat. See Eccles. 6.2..
§. 2. 4. Mr. W. to make the comparison suit, hath falsified the Text, Joh. 6 40. The words are, It is the Will of God that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; it is not (may be justified) as he corrupts it. (5) Whereas he sayes, Faith is compared to eating, and Justification to nourishment, Joh. 6.51. It is a mistake like the former, for it is Christ himself, who throughout that Chapter is compared to bread and food; whom by Faith we receive for our refreshment; consolation, and spiritual nourishment.
§. 4. His fourth Argument is drawn from the perpetual opposition between Faith and Works; from whence he reasons thus. What place and order works had to Justification in the Covenant of Works, the same place and order Faith hath to our Justification in the Covenant of Grace: But Works were to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Works. Ergo, Faith is to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Grace. I answer, That his Major is extreamly gross; I dare say, a more unsound Assertion cannot be picked out of the Writings, either of the Papists or Arminians, then this is. That Faith (taking it as he doth in a proper sence) hath the same place in the Covenant of Grace, as works have in the Covenant of Works. That I have not charged him too high, will appear to any one that shall consider these few particulars.
First, Works in the first Covenant, are meritorious of Eternal life; he that doth the works required in the Law, may in strictness of Justice, claim the promise as a due debt, Rom. 4.4. Was ever any Protestant heard to say, That Faith and Faithful actions (which, as hath been shewn men of his notion do include in Faith,) do merit Eternal life?
Secondly; Works in the first Covenant, are the matter of our Justification; he that doth them, is thereby constituted just and righteous in the sight of God. Righteousness consists in a conformity to the Law, so that whosoever keeps the Law, must needs be righteous: But now Faith is not the matter of our Righteousness, God doth not account men righteous, for their Faith; I confess, he hath Bellarmine and Arminius on his side, who say, that ipsa fides, or the foreign credere imputatur in justitiam fVid. sup. c. 6. sect. 4., but the Apostle hath taught us other Doctrine, Rom. 5.19. That by the obedience of one (i. e. of Christ) many are made righteous. And 2 Cor. 5.21. That we are made the Righteousness of God in him.
Thirdly, If Faith hath the same place in the second Covenant, as Works in the first,Rom. 2.2. then must God account Faith to be perfect Righteousness, which is contrary to his Truth and Justice: To say that Faith is perfect Righteousness by the second Covenant, though not by the first, is but petitio principii; Legal and Evangelical Righteousness, being one and the same, as to the matter of Righteousness, though they are inherent in divers subjects. The first Covenant requires a Righteousness in us, the second gives and accepts a Righteousness which is anothers.
Fourthly, If Faith hath the same place in the second Covenant, as Works had in the first, then were the second Covenant, a Covenant of Works, seeing Faith is a work, and a work of ours: So that by this means the two Covenants should be confounded, nor would the latter be any whit more of Grace, then the former.
Fifthly, This Assertion makes Faith to be not of Grace, because not from the Covenant of Grace, seeing the Covenant it self depends upon it. How contrary this Doctrine is to the sense of our Protestant Divines, hath in part been shewed before gCap. 6. sect. 2., who till this last Age have taught, that these two Propositions [A man is justified by Works] and [A man is justified by Faith] do carry meanings utterly opposite to one another hVid. Calv. Instit. l. 3. c. 2. sect 2. Pemb. Vind. sid. p. 24. in quarto.. The one is proper and formal, the other is metonymical and relative. In this Proposition [A man is justified by Works] we are to take all in a plain and literal sence, That God doth account him that hath kept the Law, exactly in all points, a righteous person, and consequently worthy of Eternal life; but now that other Proposition [A man is justified by Faith] we must understand it Relatively thus; That a sinner is justified in the sight of God, from all sin and punishment by Faith, i. e. By the Obedience and Righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we receive and apply unto our selves by true Faith.
§. 4. Let us now hear what Mr. W. hath to say for the defence of his Major, which treads Antipodes to the current of all out Protestant Writers. If (saith he) the Minor be granted, the Major must be out of Question. I must confess, if confidence did prove, here were proof enough. That which he addes, hath as little weight, as (1) Why should not, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, (which is the tenor of the New Covenant, Rom. 10.6, 9.) plead as strongly for the antecedency of Faith to Iustification in this Covenant, as, do this and live, doth evince, that works were necessary antecedents of Justification in the Old Covenant? Answ. Here he takes for that granted, which will certainly be denied, scil. That, believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, is the tenor of the New Covenant; for (1) it is no where called so, (2) where the New Covenant is recited, as Jer. 31. Heb. 8. it runs quite in another strain, it doth not promise Salvation upon condition of Faith, but Faith and Salvation, and all other Blessings, present and future. That Text Rom. 10.6, 9. is not the tenor of the New Covenant, for that requires Confession as well as Faith, and then the Justification of the New Covenant should be called Justification by Confession, as well as by Faith. The Apostle there describes the persons that shall be saved, they are such as do believe and profess the truth: His scope (as our Divines iSee Shepherds Sound Believer, p. 230.have noted) is to resolve that grand and important Question, How a man may know that he shall be saved? You need not (sayes he) to ascend into Heaven, or descend into H…ll, &c. to fetch Christ himself to tell you by immediate Revelation, whether you shall be justified and saved; we have neerer and more certain evidences; He that believes with the heart, &c. In this Scripture he gives us two marks or characters of a true Christian; one Internal, known onelyonly to the Christian himself, Believing with the heart; the other External, or visible to men, Confession with the mouth: But of this we shall have occasion to speak more anon.
§. 5. (2) He urgeth, That Faith and Works have the like order to Justification, in their respective Covenants, or else Justification by Faith, and Justification by Works, were not opposed, as they constantly are in the Apostles Writings, &c. We grant, that there is a true and formal opposition between Faith and Works: The Affirmative, which the Jews pleaded for [That a man is justified by Works;] and the Negative, which the Apostle contended for, [That a man is not justified by Works] but by Faith, are as opposite as East and West, and as impossible to be reconciled, as light and darkness: But then Faith must be taken Objectively, and not Properly; for that which is formally opposed to Works, is not the act, but the object of Faith, to wit, the Righteousness of Christ, which we apprehend and enjoy by Faith, for if by Faith, he had meant the foreign credere, or act of believing. there were no opposition at all between Faith and Works, and the establishing of Justification by Faith, will in no wise destroy Justification by Works; and consequently (to use Mr. Woodbridges Expressions) there would be nothing but falshoods and equivocations in all the Apostles Disputations, against Justification by Works: How easily might the Jews, and the Apostle, I will adde the Papists and Protestants, be reconciled? They say we must be justified by Works, and these say we must be justified by Faith, which is a work of ours, and such as includes all other works of new Obedience; an easie distinction will salve the matter. We are not justified by Works, as they are conditions of the first Covenant, but we are justified by Works, as they are conditions of the second Covenant. We are not justified by Works, as they are our Legal Righteousness, but we are justified by Works, as they are our Evangelical Righteousness. Was it beseeming the gravity of so great an Apostle, to raise so sharp a contest about a trifle, as the denomination of Works from the first and second Covenant, when as the Works are the very same, in respect, both of the matter and subject? Would not all men have censured his Writings to be but strifes of words?
§. 6. His fift Objection is raised from 1 Cor. 6.11. Such were some of you, but you are washed, but you are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Where (sayes he) there is an evident opposition between the time past, and present, in respect of their Justification. And thence he argues, Now you are justified, Ergo, not before, or befor… you were unjustified. To which I answer, (1) That the words do not countenance this inference: He sayes indeed, that in times past they were unsanctified, they had been Fornicators Idolaters, &c. i. e. As vile and wicked as the worst of men, for which sins they deserved to be shut out of the Kingdom of God, no less then they that are damned: He doth not say, that they were unjustified before Conversion; they were reclaimed or cleansed from those sins, by the Preaching of the Gospel, but they were justified from those sins, in, or by the name, i. e. The Merit and Righteousness of Jesus Christ, which was imputed to them by God, whilest they lived in unbelief. But (2) if any man will strain this consequence from the words, You are justified, Ergo, You were not, whilest you lived in these sins; I shall then own the answer, which he rejects with so much scorn and contempt, That they were not justified before Conversion, either in foro Conscientiae, or in foro Ecclesiastico; not doubting, but that I shall sufficiently clear it from his Exceptions.
§. 7. The first of which is, Why might they not be said to be exception 1 sanctified before Conversion, as well as justified. I answer,Answ. that there is not the same reason for a mans Sanctification before Faith and Conversion, as there is for his Justification. For (1) to say, That an unconverted person is sanctified, is, contradictio in adjecto; but it is no contradiction to …, That an ungodly or unconverted person is justified, which is the expression of the Holy Ghost, Rom. 4.5. Sanctification consists in our Conversion, or turning unto God; but our Justification, in Gods accounting unto us the Righteousness and satisfaction of his Son; the one is a work or act of God done without us, 2 Cor. 5.19. but the other is the operation of God within us. God cannot sanctifie us without holiness, because he cannot do contradictions; but God may justifie us, if he please, without Faith and Inherent holiness, because that, ex natura rei is no contradiction. Our Sanctification flows from Faith, as the principle and motive of it, 1 John 3.3. & 4.19. Gal. 5.6. But now our Justification hath not that dependence upon Faith, seeing that is Gods act, and not ours; though we are said to be sanctified by Faith, yet not in that sense, that we are said to be justified by Faith. Faith is Active in the one, but Passive in the other; it is onelyonly the Hand or Instrument that receives our Justification, it is the principle or efficient which operates and produceth our Sanctification. (2) Though Justification be sometimes taken for the declared sentence of Absolution in the Court of Conscience; yet it follows not, that Sanctification should be so understood; because the sentence of Justification is terminated in Conscience: But Sanctification is diffused throughout the whole man, 1 Thes. 5.23. Sanctification is not our knowing that we are sanctified, but the conformity of our faculties, and their operations to the rule of holiness: So that his Assertion, that [Nothing can be alledged for Justification before believing, which will not hold as strongly for Sanctification before believing] hath nothing but confidence to support it.
exception 2 §. 8. His next Exception is, That the Justification they now had, was that which gave them right and title to the Kingdom of God, which right and title they had not before they believed, &c. For if they had this right before they believed, then whether they believed, or no, all was one, as to the certainty of their Salvation; and they might have gone to Heaven, though they had lived and died without Faith. Answ.To which I answer, 1. That these Elect Corinthians had no more right to Salvation after their believing, then they had before: For their right to Salvation was grounded onelyonly upon the purpose of God, and the purchase of Jesus Christ.Rom. 6.23. 1 Cor. 2.12. Salvation is a … freely bestowed upon us, and not a debt, or wages that becomes due to us upon the performance of conditions. 2. It will not follow from hence, That then they might have gone to Heaven without Faith; seeing Christ hath purchased Faith for his people, no less then glory, 2 Pet. 1.1. And God hath certainly appointed, that all that live to years of discretion, whom in his secret Justification he hath adjudged to life, shall have this evidence of Faith, Acts 13.48. & 2.47.
exception 3 §. 9. But (sayes Mr. W.) this evidence is of such necessity, as that if they have it not, they shall loose that life to which they are adjudged, or no: If not, then whether they believe, or do not believe, they shall be saved; if it be, then there is no absolute Justification before Faith, and Justification, must be conditional. Answ.Ans. 1. By this Argument, not onelyonly Faith, but all other works of Sanctification, and perseverance in them, must be the conditions of our Justification; and consequently, we may be said to be justified and saved by them. The Scriptures speak the same things of works, as it doth of Faith, Mark 16.16. Prov. 28.18. 1 Tim. 4.16. Matth. 24.13. Now let him consult with our Protestant Divines, whether this be a good Argument, No man is saved, or glorified without works, Ergo, Men are saved by works? 2. This reason makes as much against absolute Election before Faith, as against absolute Justification: He may argue as well, Faith is of such necessity, that they, that have it not, shall loose the life, to which they are elected, or not: If not, then whether the Elect believe, or not, they shall be saved; if it be, then there is no absolute Election before Faith, and Election must be conditional, contrary to many Scriptures, 2 Tim. 2.19. Rom. 9.11. Mark 13.22. But 3. to the Argument, we say, That Election and Justification are absolute, because they depend upon no antecedent condition in the person elected and justified, not because they are absolute without the consequents that depend upon them, so that notwithstanding all that hitherto he hath brought, the Opinion he opposeth, will stand unshaken. We shall now proceed to the Anascheuastical part of his Discourse, and so weigh the strength of his Replies to those Arguments of ours, he is pleased to mention.