others must not have: fo faith is honoured above all its fellowgraces, in being fingled out, and folemnly anointed to this high office in our juftification: this is that precious eye that looks unto Chrift as the ftung Ifraelites did to the brazen ferpent, and derives healing virtue from him to the foul. It is the grace which inftrumentally faves us, Eph. ii. 8. As it is Chrift's glory to be the door of falvation, fo it is faith's glory to be the golden key that opens that door.

What shall I fay of faith? It is the bond of union; the inArument of justification; the fpring of spiritual peace and joy; the means of fpiritual life and fubfiftence: and therefore the great fcope and drift of the gofpel; which aims at, and presfeth nothing more, than to bring men and women to believe.

First, This is the bond of our union with Chrift: that union is begun in our vivification, and completed in our actual receiv ing of Chrift: the firft is a bond of union on the Spirit's part, the second a bond of union on our part. "Chrift dwelleth in our hearts by faith," Eph. iii. 17. And therein it is a door opened to let in many rich bleffings to the foul: for by uniting us to Christ, it brings us into special favour and acceptation with God, Eph. i. 6. Makes us the fpecial objects of Chrift's conjugal love and delight, Eph. v. 29. Draws from his heart fympathy, and a tender fenfe of all our miferies and burdens, Heb. iv. 15.

Secondly, It is the inftrument of our juftification, Rom. v. 1. Till Chrift be received (thus received by us) we are in our fins ; under guilt and condemnation; but when faith comes, then comes freedom: "By him all that believe are justified from all

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things," Acts xiii. 38 Rom. viii. 1. For it apprehends or receives the pure and perfect righteousness of the Lord Jefus, wherein the foul, how guilty and finful foever it be in itself, ftands faultlefs, and fpotlefs, before the prefence of God: all obligations to punishment, are, upon believing, immediately dif folved a full and final pardon fealed. O precious faith! Who can fufficiently value it.

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What refpect, reader, wouldst thou have to that hand that fhould bring thee a pardon when on the ladder, or block! Why,

*The being found in Chrift has a tacit reference to the judgment of God; to us there is no condemnation, because he finds us cloath. ed with a righteoufnefs, fuch as he requires, i. e. compleatly perfect, even the righteoufnefs of Chrift, by faith, imputed to us. Bern. on the place.

VOL. II.

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fuch a pardon, which thou canst not read without tears of joy, is brought thee by the hand of faith. O ineftimable grace! This cloaths the pure righteoufnefs of Jefus upon our defiled fouls, and fo caufes us to become the "righteoufness of God in "him;" or as it is 1 John iii. 7. "Righteous as he is righteous:" Non formali & intrinfica juftitia, fed relativa: Not with a formal inherent righteouinefs of our own, but with a relative imputed righteoufnefs from another.

I know this moft excellent and most comfortable doctrine of imputed righteoufnefs, is not only denied, but derided by Papifts. Stapleton calls it fpectrum cerebri Lutherani: The monstrous birth of Luther's brain! But, bleffed be God, this comfortable truth is well fecured against all attempts of its adverfaries. Let their blafphemous mouths call it in derifion, as they do putative righteoufnefs, (i. e.) a mere fancied or conceited righteoufnefs: Yet we know affuredly, Chrift's righteousness is imputed to us, and that in the way of faith. If Adam's fin became ours by imputation, then fo doth Chrift's righteousness also become ours by imputation, Rom. v. 17. If Chrift were made a finner by the imputation of our fins to him, who had no fin of his own, then we are made righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteoufnefs to us, who have no righteoufnefs of our own, according to 1 Cor. v. 21. This was the way in which Abraham, the Father of them that believe, was justified, and therefore this is the way in which all believers, the children of Abraham, must, in the like manner, be juttified, Rom. iv. 22, 23, 24. Who can exprefs the worth of faith in this one refpect, were this all it did for our fouls?

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But, Thirdly, It is the fpring of our fpiritual peace and joy; and that as it is the inftrument of our juftification. If it be an inftrument of our juftification, it cannot but be the fpring of . our confolation, Rom. v. 1. " Being juftified by faith, we have peace with God:" In uniting us with Chrift, and apprehending and applying his righteousness to us, it becomes the feed, or root of all the peace and joy of a Chriflian's life. Joy, the child of faith, therefore bears its name, Phil. i. 25. "The joy of "faith," So I Pet. i. 8, 9." Believing Believing we rejoice with joy

unspeakable:" We cannot forbear rejoicing when, by faith, we are brought to the fight, and knowledge of fuch a privileged fate when faith hath first given, and then cleared our title to Chrift, joy is no more under the foul's command: we cannot but rejoice, and that with joy unspeakable.

Fourthly, It is the means of our fpiritual livelihood and subfilence: all other graces, like birds in the neft, depend upon

what faith brings in to them: take away faith, and all the graces languish and die: joy, peace, hope, patience, and all the reft, depend upon faith, as the members of the natural body do upon the veffels by which blood and fpirits are conveyed to them. "The life which I now live (faith the apostle) is by "the faith of the Son of God," Gal. ii. 20. It provides our ordinary food, and extraordinary cordials, Pfal. xxvii. 13. “I "had fainted unless I had believed." And feeing it is all this to our fouls,

Fifthly, In the last place, it is no wonder that it is the main fcope and drift of the gofpel, to prefs and bring fouls to believing it is the gofpel's grand defign to bring up the hearts of men and women to faith. The urgent commands of the gospel aim at this, John iii. 23. Mark i. 14, 15. John xii. 36. Hither alfo look the great promifes and encouragements of the gofpel, John vi. 35, and 37. So Mark xvi. 16. And the oppofite fin of unbelief is every where fearfully aggravated, and threatned, John xvi. 3, 9. John iii. 18, 35. And this was the third thing promised, namely, a difcovery of the tranfcendent worth and excellency of faving faith.

Fourthly, But left we commit a mistake here, to the prejudice of Chrift's honour and glory, which must not be given to another, no not to faith itfelf; I promised you in the fourth place, to fhew you upon what account faith is thus dignified and honoured that fo we may give unto faith, the things that are faith's; and to Chrift the things that are Chrift's.

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And I find four opinions about the intereft of faith in our justification: some will have it to justify us formally, not relatively; i.e. upon the account of its own intrinsical value and worth; and this is the popish fenfe of juftification by faith. Some affirm, that though faith be not our perfect legal righteoufnefs, confidered as a work of ours, yet the act of believing is imputed to us for righteoufnefs, i. e. God graciously accepts it instead of perfect legal righteoufnefs, and fo, in his esteem, it is our evangelical righteoufoefs. And this is the Arminian fenfe of Juftification by faith.

Some there are alfo, even among our reformed divines, that contend that faith justifies and faves us, as it is the condition of the new covenant. And lastly, others will have it to justify us as an inftrument apprehending or receiving the righteoufnefs of Chrift with which opinion I muft join: when I confider my text calls it a receiving of Chrift: moft certain it is,

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That, Firf, it doth not juftify in the popifb fenfe, upon the account of its own proper worth and dignity: for then,

First, Juftification (hould be of debt, not of grace; contrary to Rom. iii. 23, 24.

Secondly, This would fruftrate the very scope and end of the death of Chrift; for if righteoufnefs come by the law, i. e by the way of works and defert, then is Chrift dead in vain, Gal. ii. 21.

Thirdly, Then the way of our juftification by faith would be fo far from excluding, that it would eftablish boafting, exprefly contrary to the apoftle, Rom. iii, 26, 27.

Fourthly, Then there fhould be no defects or imperfections in faith, for a defective and imperfect thing can never be the matter of our juftification before God: if it juftify upon the account of its own worth, and proper dignity, it can have no flaw nor imperfection in it, contrary to the common fenfe of all believers.

Nay,

Fifthly, Then it is the fame thing to be justified by faith, and to be juftified by works, which the apostle fo carefully distinguifheth and oppofeth, Phil. iii. 9. and Rom. iv. 6. So that we conclude it doth not juftify in the Popish fenfe, for any worth or proper excellency that is in itself.

Secondly, And it is as evident, it doth not justify us in the Arminian fenfe, viz. as the Ti credere, the act of believing is imputed, or accepted by God, as our evangelical righteoufnefs, instead of perfect legal righteoufnefs. In the former opinion you have the dregs of Popery, and here you have refined Popery. Let all Arminians know, we have as high efteem for faith, as any men in the world, but yet we will not rob Chrift to cloath faith. We cannot embrace their opinion, because,

First, We must then dethrone Christ to exalt faith: we are willing to give it all that is due to it, but we dare not defpoil Chrift of his glory, for faith's fake: "He is the Lord our " righteousnefs," Jer. xxiii. We dare not set the servant above the master. We acknowledge no righteoufnefs but what the obedience and fatisfaction of Chrift yields us. His blood, not our faith; his fatisfaction, not our believing it, is the matter of our juftification before God.

Secondly, We dare not yield this point, left we undermine all the comfort of Chriftians, by fetting their pardon and peace upon a weak, imperfect work of their own. Oh how tottering and unstable muft their station be, that stand upon fuch a bottom as this! What alterations are there in our faith, what mixtures of unbelief at all times, and prevalency of unbelief at

some times; and is this a foundation to build our justification and hope upon? Debile fundamentum fallit opus: If we lay the stress here, we build upon very loose ground, and must be at a continual lofs, both as to fafety and comfort.

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Thirdly, We dare not wrong the juftice and truth of God at that rate, as to affirm that he esteems and imputes our poor weak faith for perfect legal righteousness *. We know that the judgment of God is always according to truth: if the juftice of God requires full payment, fure it will not fay, it is fully fatisfied by any acts of ours, when all that we can do, amounts not to one mite of the vaft fum we owe to God. So that we deservedly reject this opinion alfo.

Thirdly, And for the third opinion, That it justifies as the condition of the new covenant, though fome of great name and worth among our Proteftant divines feem to go that way, yet I cannot fee, according to this opinion, any reafon why repentance may not as properly be faid to juftify us as faith, for it is a condition of the new covenant as much as faith; and if faith justify as a condition, then every other grace that is a condition, muft juftify as well as faith. I acknowledge faith to be a condition of the covenant, but cannot allow that it justifies as a condition. And therefore must profefs myself beft fatisfied in the last opinion, which fpeaks it an inftrument in our justification: it is the hand which receives the righteousness of Christ that justifies us, and that gives it its value above all other graces: as when we fay a diamond ring is worth one hundred pounds, we mean not the gold that receives, but the ftone that is fet ia it, is worth fo much. Faith confidered as an habit, is no more precious than other gracious habits are, but confidered as an inftrument to receive Chrift and his righteoufnefs, fo it excels them all; and his inftrumentality of faith is noted in thefe phrases, in 158, Rom. iii. 28. and die ons is, Rom. iii. 22. By faith, and through faith. And thus much of the nature and excellency of faving faith,

to the

* Because faith receives Chrift our righteousness, and afcribes all grace of God in him, therefore we are said to be justified by it, only on account of Chrift, and not as it is our work. Confej. Helv,