Effay VI. fearching into their actions. For, in particular inftances, these may have been imperfect, and even faulty, through the greater corruption of nature which fome have to ftruggle againft, or the greater temptations to which others have been exposed, or the peculiar difadvantages under which a third fort have laboured, while their general conduct hath been right. Besides, in most cafes, the bad actions of those who have a fincere defire to please God, having through invincible ignorance, been performed under the notion, perhaps, of fervice done to God; or if performed contrary to knowledge and confcience, having been speedily repented of by the believer, God will graciously forgive them for the fake of Chrift, and will accept of their faith, or general difpofition to please him, which led them to an habitual courfe of virtuous, though not finlefs conduct, as if it were a perfect righteousness; and will reward them from pure favour, on account of the meritorious obedience of Chrift. 4. By making faith the condition of our justification, the gofpel teaches, that however good any action may be, as to the matter of it, if it does not proceed from faith, that is, from an habitual regard to the will of God, and from a fincere defire to please him, in the hope of obtaining those rewards, which the lights of nature and of revelation, encourage pious men to expect from his goodness, (Heb. xi. 6.) it is neither a moral nor a religious action. It is the mere effect of natural difpofition, or perhaps of fomething worse; for inftance, a defire of the praise of men, or a regard to one's own prefent intereft; and therefore it will avail nothing to one's acceptance with God. 5. Lastly, The gospel, which hath made faith working by love, the condition on which God will justify men in the way of favour, is attended with this advantage, that while it establisheth good works on the firmeft foundation, and giveth them all the weight and importance in the Christian scheme which really belong to them, it beats down men's pride, by making them fenfible of the imperfection of their virtue. And thus taking away from finners all pretenfions to merit, it conftrains them humbly to receive the great bleffings of juftification and falvation, as free gifts from God through Jefus Chrift, and lays a foundation for their gratitude to God, and love to Chrift, throughout the endless ages of eternity. SECT. SECT. V. Of the Time when Believers are juftified. Many of the inextricable opinions with which theologians have perplexed themselves, in pretending to reconcile the doctrine of the apoftlés Paul and James on the article of juftification, originate from the notion, that believers are justified in the prefent life. And I acknowledge, that what Mofes hath written concerning the juftification of Abraham, according to its obvious meaning in modern language, feems to imply, that he was juftified at the time he believed in the Lord. I acknowledge alfo, that what Paul hath written concerning the juftification of believers, feems in like manner to imply, that they are justified in the prefent life. Nevertheless, I hope to make it evident, that neither Mofes nor Paul meant to teach any fuch doctrine. 1. To fhew this, my first argument fhall be taken from the nature of justification. To be justified, in the scripture sense of the word, is to be acquitted from the charge of having broken the law of God, either by omitting the duties which it enjoins, or by committing the fins which it forbids; confequently, it means to be freed by the fentence of God, from the punishment which they incur who break his law. Accordingly the Weftminster Affembly in their Shorter Catechifm, have rightly defined juftification, " An act of God's free grace, wherein he "pardoneth all our fins, and accepteth us as righteous in his "fight." But as the whole of a man's life is a ftate of probation, the sentence of acquittal, in which justification confisteth, muft proceed upon an examination of all the deeds men have done in the body, during the whole courfe of their trial. Wherefore, if the fentence of acquittal is paffed immediately on a man's first faith, which is the opinion of Eftius, Whitby, Locke, Taylor, and others, on the one hand, and of the Antinomians, and of fome Calvinifts, on the other, we must either hold, with the first mentioned learned men, that the acquittal respects only the fins committed by the believer prior to that firft act of faith; or with the last mentioned perfons, that it comprehends not only the believer's past fins, but all thofe alfo, which he may happen to commit afterwards, till his death. F 4 The The first of these opinions, namely, that juftification confifts in the pardon of the fins committed previous to believing, labours under this inconveniency, that by connecting the pardon of paft fins with men's first faith in the gospel, we are led to think, that fome may be justified and pardoned with respect to all their past fins, on whom no change of difpofitions hath paffed, nor will pafs; as was the cafe with Simon Magus, and many others in the first age, who were baptized and made an outward profeffion of faith in the gospel. The fame is the cafe likewise with many in every age, who fpeculatively believe the gospel to be a revelation from God, and yet are not influenced thereby . either in their temper or actions. I ask, Will wicked persons, who die impenitent, not be punished for the fins they committed previous to their first faith in the gospel? To refolve the matter into the fovereign pleasure of God, will not account for his pardoning fuch perfons: because if at any time God forgives the fins which men have committed, while they continue in these fins, he acts contrary to his perfections, and to his character as the righteous Judge of the world.-Besides, if the future punishment of fin is to arife in part, from the existence of evil difpofitions in the mind of the finner, those who live and die in their fins, must be miserable in proportion to the number and strength of the evil habits which they carry with them into the other world; these not being diminished in the least by their fuppofed first pardon, Wherefore, that finners are pardoned in any period of their life without repentance, and that the fins which have been thus pardoned, will neither be punished in a future ftate, nor be the inftrument of the finner's punishment who dieth in his fins, being opinions which ftand in oppofition to the declared laws of God's government, and to the established course of things, they ought not to be adopted on a few expresfions in fcripture, which eafily admit of a different interpretation. But to induce us to embrace fuch opinions, the plaineft and most unambiguous affertions ought to be produced from the infpired writings, in confirmation of them.-To all these confiderations we may add, that if the fpeculative belief and outward profeffion of the gofpel is fufficient, without repentance, to procure for finners the pardon of all the fins they have com Sect. 5. 73 mitted previous to their believing the gofpel, Why may not the fame kind of faith continued in, procure for finners without repentance, the pardon of all the fins they commit through the whole course of their life? In fhort, the doctrine of a first and fecond juftification, the one by faith, and the other by works, though patronised by many great names, being contrary both to scripture and reason, ought to be exploded. The second opinion concerning the juftification of believers in the present life, is, that the pardon granted immediately on their believing, includes not only their past fins, but all the fins which they may afterwards commit during the whole course of their life. But to this notion of juftification, it may with great propriety be objected, that it represents men's future actions as judged, and their fins as pardoned, before they exist. Or, if this form of the doctrine is too abfurd to be maintained, it must at least be allowed, that a justification which includes the pardon of all future fins, very much resembles a Popish bull of indulgence, and gives men too great a liberty of finning; confequently it can be no doctrine of the gospel.-The Antinomians indeed endeavour to remove this objection, by afferting that the evil actions of believers are not in them fins, neither doth God confider them as fuch. Or, to ufe their own expreffion, Ged fees no fin in believers. But the impiety and folly of this affertion, is too glaring to need any laboured confutation. Sin is fin, by whomfoever, and at what time foever committed: and if not forsaken, will most certainly be punished. 2. My fecond argument to prove that men are not justified in the present life, shall be taken from experience; and it is this: Since juftification is an act of God's free grace, in which he pardoneth all our fins, and accepteth us as righteous, if believers are pardoned in this life, they must in this life be delivered from the punishment of fin, that is, from diseases and death, and every evil which at the fall was inflicted on mankind, as the punishment of Adam's fin. The reafon is, a pardon which leaves the finner under any part of his punishment, is no pardon at all: at least it is not a full pardon. He may have an assurance of pardon given him in the promises of the gofpel: but while any part of his punishment is continued, he can Effay VI. can no more be said to be pardoned, than a prisoner can be faid to be freed from his confinement, who is detained in prifon. A believer also, may in the promises of the gospel have an afsurance of God's love, together with peace of conscience in the prospect of pardon, provided he perseveres in faith and holiness. But ftill this is not pardon; for as was faid before, pardon confifts in an actual deliverance from all the penal confequences of fin, both in the prefent, and in the future life. Farther, one's acceptance as righteous in the fight of God, confifts in his being rewarded as a righteous perfon. If so, this part of juftification doth not take place at prefent. None of the children of Adam, were ever in this life thus accepted as righteous in the fight of God, except Enoch and Elijah, who on account of their fingular faith and holiness, and to fhew what justification is, were tranflated in the body to heaven; whereby they were freed from death, the punishment of fin, and put in the immediate poffeffion of a blessed immortality, the reward promised to the righteous. Since then, believers are neither delivered in this life from difeafes and death, nor put in poffeffion of the joys of heaven, but only in the promises of the gospel, have an affurance that these bleffings shall be bestowed on them at Christ's fecond coming, it is evident from experience, that no believer is juftified in the prefent life. 3. A third argument, to fhew that believers are not justified in the present life, arises from those paffages of scripture, in which juftification is reprefented as a thing future. Of these the principal are, Rom. ii. 5. Revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every one according to his works, &c. Rom. viii. 24. We are faved in hope. Now hope feen, is not hope : For what a man feeth, how alfo can be hope for it? 25 hope for what we do not fee, we wait with patience for it, We, through the Spirit, look for the hope of righteousness by faith. Wherefore, righteoufnefs is not counted to us through faith, in the prefent life; and our falvation is a thing future, being the object of our hope, and will not be accomplished till Christ's fecond coming. But if we Gal. v. 5. 4. A fourth argument is, if believers on their first act of faith are juftified, that is, judged in the prefent life, and acquitted from 13 |