Justification Justified, Theses · Thesis 209 – Thesis 215
CCIX.
One good way to be established in the Doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness, and preserved from the damnable errors aforesaid (for so I must call them) is to take heed how we deny the Imputation, or at leastwise the Infection and Inherency of Original sin. Be established in the belief of imputed sin, and you will never stagger at the Doctrine of Imputed righteousness. For who ever did deny the latter who did not first doubt the former? Now, the Infection or pollution of our Natures by Original Sin, me thinks is evident from this Argument, and Consideration amongst others. If we were not born in sin, and Conceived in Iniquity, we should have an indifferency to good or evil, no more propension to evil than to good, we should be as ductile, and pliable to what is good, as to what is evil, consequently, as we had more incentives from without, more inducements, more advantages, more helps and conducements to one than to the other, we should close with that, whether good, or evil. As a man that walks abroad for his pleasure, being perfectly indifferent which way he walks, East, or West; let a Friend come and desire him to go with him Eastward or Westward, that way that he desires him to go with him he will go, because before he was perfectly indifferent which way he went. He was like a pair of Scales hanging in aequilibrio, in an equipoise, if but a grain or two be cast into either of them presently that Scale is turned; I say, the Scale is presently turned on that side, because before they were just even. So would it be with Men were they like to two even Scales, as to good and evil, neither of which did in the least preponderate (as they would Naturally be if their were no pollution by Original Sin) the least grain, or moment of reason, and of inducement cast in on either side would cause the Scale to turn on that side, had they ever so little more of Example, Counsel, Encouragement, Interest, or other Inducement to be, and to do good, than to be, and to do evil; they would certainly be, and do that which were good. But woful Experience tells us that it often proves quite otherwise. For how many Children have we seen and known, whose Parents from their very Child-hood have taken all possible care to ingage them in, and for the wayes of God, setting excellent Example before them, and suffering them to see no other, giving them the best Counsel they could, shewing them what was good, and what was not; the ugliness and danger of sin, the beauty and profitableness of Holiness, threatning and terrifying them in case they did amiss; yea, correcting of them now, and then, incouraging them by large promises if they did well, and by frequent great rewards as oft as they found them well doing, giving them the best books to read, the best Company to keep, watching over them continually; and yet after all this, those Children, or some of them, have betaken themselvs to ill courses, and run into all excess of riot, though Parents have done all that ever they could to keep down the Weeds of Sin, and to sow and cherish the Seeds of Virtue and goodness in them from time to time. If such Children had not been Naturally propense to evil, and averse to good, or propense to evil, and not to good, upon all those helps and advantages unto being good, they certainly have prov'd so: It was therefore doubtless the Corruption of their Natures (otherwise caller Original sin) which made them break all those bonds, and cast all those Cords from them, which would otherwise have held them to the performance of their Duty, and unto keeping Consciences void of offence towards God and Men. Never tell me that any man hath as much mind to do one thing as another, when a hundred times so much perswasion cannot prevail upon him to do the one, as will prevail upon him to do the other. When Scales are even, a few grains added to either of them, will cause that side to turn, and to weigh down: but where it is so that many Ounces, and Pounds will not cause one of the Scales to out-weigh the other, 'tis most certain they are not even, but one Scale doth much preponderate the other. Where ground is plain and level, the way backward and forward are both alike easie, but when it is hard to go, and easie to come back, is a sign the ground is Hilly and uneven. Finding therefore that the doing of good is to men Naturally difficult and uneasie like going up a steep Hill, and that to do evil is easie to men, like coming down the Hill; 'tis manifest that the Nature of man is not indifferent to good and evil, but averse to good, and propense to evil. When Men presume to deny a thing so evident in the sight of Experience, as is the pollution of our Natures by Original sin, because they cannot satisfie themselves touching the way and manner how it it is conveyed (as if men should deny that the River Nilus ever had any streams, or that there was ever such a River, because they could never find out it's Head) no wonder if they make bold also to deny what they never saw, and felt (as they love done the other) viz. the Imputed Righteousness of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, whosoever is duly sensible of the great pollution of his Nature, as well as of his Life, and of Original depravation as well as of defilement by actual sins, will cry out for the Robe of Christ's Imputed Righteousness to cover his manifold defects and deformities, and never dare to trust to such filthy rags as he finds his own Righteousness to be.
CCX.
There is so great a connection betwixt the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction, and that of Imputed Righteousness, and so great a dependance of the latter upon the former, that whosoever is hearty and stedfast in the belief of Christ's Satisfaction, or having made attonement and expiation for the sins of Believers by his blood, must either not understand Consequences, or he hearty also in the belief of the Mediatory Righteousness of Christ it's being Imputed to Believers, and their being justified before God upon that account, God looking upon them as having satisfied his Justice though not in their own Persons, yet in, and by Christ their Surety, and therefore pronouncing them discharged from guilt and righteous to Eternal Life. If Christ's Satisfaction be accepted of God for believers, and they accepted with God upon account thereof, then is his Satisfaction, or Righteousness Imputed to them, for that is the meaning of Imputed, as I have else-where explained. But if Christ's Satisfaction be not accepted of God for believers, or they accepted with God for it, then they are never the better for it, they have no real benefit and advantage by it. If a man pay a thousand pounds to another man's Creditor, to whom he owes as much as that comes to, but never tells him, that he pays that mony on behalf of that other man, or would have him look'd upon to be now out of Debt, and to have given Satisfaction by his hand, I say, if such a thing he not expressed, he to whose Creditor that thousand pounds was paid, shall be never the better for it. Let to man take the boldness to deny Imputed Righteousness, or the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to Believers, till he hath first acquired the impudence to deny the satisfaction of Christ also. For he that denies the former, do's by consequence (that is, in a mask and vizard) deny the latter also, which visibly, and with open face he is ashamed, or afraid to do.
CCXI.
The apprehension of approaching Death opens almost every man's eyes that professeth himself a Christian, to see the necessity of an Imputed Righteousness, even theirs who were ready to deride it whilst they lookt upon the evil day as far off. Bp. Dounam, in his book of Justification, p. 2003. tells us, Many who have lived Papists, have in this most weighty point died Reformed Catholicks. And to this purpose (saith he) there is extant amongst them in divers Books, a Form of visiting the sick, wherein both the Pastor is directed what to say, and the sick person what to answer. The Pastor therefore having demanded these Questions. Brother, Dost thou rejoyce that thou shalt die in the Faith? Dost thou confess that thou hast not liv'd so well as thou oughtest? Doth it repent thee? Hast thou a will to repent if thou hadst space of life? Dost thou believe that our Lord Jesus Christ died for thee? Dost thou believe that thou canst not be saved but by his death? And having received affirmative answers to every Question, he inforceth this Exhortation, that while his soul remaineth in him, he should place his whole affiance in the death of Christ, and in no other thing: and that if God will judge him, if he shall say unto him, Thou art a sinner, that thou hast deserved damnation, that he is angry with thee, he should say; O Lord, I interpose the death of thy Son between me and thy judgment, between my sins and thee, between me and my bad deserts, between me and thine anger. So Quaestiones authore Anselmo morientibus proponi solitae per universum Christianum orbem. Bp. Ʋsher, de Success. p. 194. & Respensio ad Jesuitam, p. 513. Chemnitius his Examin, part. 1. p. 243. Card. Hosij Confess. Petricoviens. c. 74. fol. 143. &c. In the Edition Printed at Venice, there are these two Questions. Dost thou believe that thou shalt come to glory, not by thy own merits, but by the virtue, and merit of Christ's passion? And a little after, Dost thou believe that our Lord Jesus Christ died for our Salvation, and that no man can be saved by his own merits, or by any other means but by the merit of his passion? unto both which an Affirmative Answer was made. Sic ordo baptizandi cum modo visitandi, Impress. Venete. Anno 1575. fol. 34. See Perkins his Reformed Catholick p. 276. Surely the truth of that Doctrine is much to be questioned, in which Papists themselves, though they instruct people the greatest part of their life time, yet dare not but teach them otherwise when they come to die.
CCXII.
Many have decry'd Imputed Righteousness, and professed to expect Salvation, or Justification, only by that righteousness which in Inherent in themselves, who yet have really and in good earnest had no Inherent Righteousness to pretend to. In this number were the Pharises of old, who seemed to think themselves whole and not to stand to need of Christ for their Physitian, and yet God knows they were far from being so. For whilst they pai'd tithe of Mint, and Annise, and Cummin, they omitted the weightier matters of the Law; Judgment, Mercy, and Faith: Whereupon Christ cryed out, Woe unto you Scribes, and Pharisees Hypocrites, &c. Mat. 23.23. & Luke 20.47. Christ speaks thus of them: Which devour Widdows houses, and for a pretense make long Prayers. The Scribes, and Pharisees were great contemners of Christ's Righteousness, and pretendedly confident of their own, God I thank thee (said the Pharisee) that I am not as other men are, or as this Publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. They boasted much of their own Righteousness; they were they who justified themselves before men, but in the mean time, bring such as they were, they could not chuse but know that they had indeed, and in truth no Righteousness to boast of.
CCXIII.
'Tis vehemently to be suspected that some men have made so much the higher pretences unto being justified by their own Righteousness because they knew they had no Righteousness of their own whereby to be Justified; so that their so doing was but a meer cloak, colour, and covert for their unrighteousness: as who should say, No man will suspect us to be unrighteous, or ungodly (though we know our selves so to be) so long as we bear the world in hand that we have such confidence of our own Righteousness, that we expect, and desire no other Righteousness to Justifie us, that we need not fly for refuge (as others do) to that which they call Imputed Righteousness. As they who have no beauty, think themselves most concern'd to paint, thereby to conceal, and cover their deformities; so they are most prone to pretend to a Righteousness of their own, who have not the shadow of such a Righteousness to pretend to. A worthy Divine was heard to say, in his time, That he would not for a thousand pounds have been ignorant of the Lives and Conversations of men whose manner it was to cry down the Righteousness of Christ Imputed, and to cry up their own Inherent Righteousness. For (saith he) I might possibly have been drawn into the same Error with them, if I had found their lives exactly good, but what I have known by them, or several of them, has perfectly delivered me, saith he, from that temptation. He thought he had found the emptiest barrels in that respect, to give the greatest sound. It seems to be a maxime amongst some men, that The less they are what is good and excellent in truth and in reality, the more they ought to seem or to appear to be so.
CCXIV.
There is hardly any one thing represented in, and by the word of God, more dangerous and fatal, or destructive to the souls of men and women, than to trust, or to have trusted to their own righteousness, and not to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which put to a believers account is call'd Imputed Righteousness. I wish that a few texts to that purpose might be well weighed by Mr. Sherlock, and others, viz. Rom. 9.33. Rom. 10.3. Gal. 3.10. Gal. 5.2, 4. Rom. 11.6. But Israel, which followed after the Law of righteousness, hath not attained to the Law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by Faith, but as it were by the works of the Law; for they stumbled at that stumbling stone, (viz. at Christ, and at the way of Justification, and Salvation by him.) For (Rom. 10.3.) They being ignorant of God's righteousness; and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. v. 4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth. See also Gal. 3.10. For as many as are of the works of the Law (i. e. as expect to be justified by the works of the Law) are under the Curse. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them. Now it is the Moral Law that is here spoken of, and of which he saith, v. 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident, for the Just shall live by Faith. See also Gal. 5.4. Christ is become of none effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. That he cannot be justified by the grace of God, who expects to be justified by his own works (& if not by grace then not at all) seems evident as from the forementioned Texts, so likewise from Rom. 11.6. And if by Grace, then it is no more of Works: otherwise Grace is no more Grace: But if it be of Works, then it is no more Grace: Otherwise Work is no more Work.
CCXV.
The danger of going about to establish our own Righteousness in point of Justification being represented so very great, those Doctrines are vehemently to be suspected which look that way, as leading towards an Error: to which, what Solomon saith of a Harlot, may be allusively applyed, Proverbs 7.27. Her House is the way to Hell, going down to the Chambers of Death. As also what is said Proverbs 9.18. He knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her Guests are in the depth of Hell. I say, considering that, of this Error, as of the Strang Woman; it may be so said, the safest way will be to take that counsel concerning it, that Solomon gives concerning the path of the Wicked, and the way of Evil Men, Prov. 4.14, 15. Enter not into it, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
Whilst we are all subject to Error (as we shall be in this life) it will be our wisdome, if we must Err at all, to be sure to Err on the safest side, where we shall not endanger being burned our selves, for razing the Foundation; but only having our work burned, for building Hay, and Stubble upon it. Now certainly it is better to ascribe too much to the Grace of God, and to the Righteousness of Christ, than too little; and to attributte too little to our own Works, and Righteousness, than too much. But I hope I have done neither.
'Tis safer venturing to Err with Puritans, such of them as have been great Assertors of Justification by the Righteousness of Christ Imputed, than to Err with Papists, who use to oppose it in their Health, though many of them have owned it upon their Deathbeds.