SECTION XVIII.

CONCERNING THE MATERIAL CAUSE OF JUSTIFICATION.

18. CONCERNING the material cause of justification, they who make it to be either Christ himself, or the righteousness of Christ, either active or passive, or both, express themselves very unproperly, and confound two causes always distinct and contradistinguished; namely, the efficient and the material, the former being always extrinsical, the latter intrinsical, to the effect or thing caused by them, in conjunction with the other two causes. And besides, in so notioning the matter, or material cause of justification, they decline the ordinary rule, by which men who love exactness and propriety, as well in conceiving as in speaking, are wont to walk in both, in cases of like nature and import. For whereas no action, as no accident besides, hath any matter or material cause, properly so called; yet, being an effect, or somewhat that is caused, there must be some vicematter, or somewhat answering the nature or consideration of such a material cause, found in it, or relating to it. Now that which relateth unto an action with greatest affinity unto matter, or to a material cause, properly so called, is subjectum recipiens, or circa quod, as logicians speak; that is, "the subject receiving the action," or "the object upon which the action is acted." According to this notion, the believing or repentant sinner, or, which is the same, the person justified, or to be justified, is the material cause of justification. Such a person exhibits or presents, as it were, unto God, matter duly fitted and prepared according to his mind, for him to work or act upon or about justifyingly. And when God doth justify such a person, he doth introduce a new form, as, namely, righteousness, remission of sins, or justification passive,-for these I take to be much the same, into matter rightly and appropriately disposed for the reception of it; which matter is, as hath been said, the sinner now believing. As when fire heateth the water that is hung over it, or otherwise applied unto it, the water is the matter upon which the fire acteth in this act of calefaction, and the heat which it causeth in the water is the form which it ndu ceth, or introduceth into it. This briefly for the material cause of justification.

SECTION XIX.

CONCERNING THE FINAL CAUSE OF JUSTIFICATION.

19. THE final cause of justification is commonly distinguished into that which is subordinate or less principal, and that which is ultimate and supreme. The former is with one consent affirmed to be the great benefit or blessedness of the creature or person justified; which blessedness standeth in two particulars, chiefly,-deliverance from under the guilt of sin, with all the misery consequential hereunto, and an investiture with a regular title or claim unto that immortal and undefiled inheritance, which is reserved in the heavens, to be enjoyed in due time by all those who shall be found in a due capacity to be admitted into part and fellowship therein. The ultimate or supreme end, or material cause of justification, is concluded with a nemine contradicente, as far as I know, to be the glory of God, partly in the just vindication of a sinner from under the guilt of sin, and from the punishment incurred thereby, and partly in the salvation and eternal glorification of the person so vindicated.

As for the opinion or notion of those who conceive that God designeth nothing, acteth nothing, in strictness and propriety of consideration, for himself or for his own glory ultimately, but all for the good and benefit of his creature, I shall not upon this occasion either plead or implead it; only I shall crave leave to say this, that, as far as I have yet looked into it and conversed with it, I do not find it so extravagant or uncouth, or so hard of reconcilement, either with the Scriptures, where they seem most contradicting it, or with any the received grounds or principles of Christian religion, as I suppose it is like to seem unto many at its first appearance and hearing. And though there may be more in the opinion, were it narrowly examined and scanned from the one end of it unto the other, as well for the glory of God as for the benefit and comfort of the creature; yet, because such an examination of it may haply require a just treatise, and more of the ordinary rank of professors are more like to be startled or amazed at it than to embrace it, I shall therefore forbear to encumber the commonly received doctrine, concerning the final cause or ultimate end of justification, with any further mention of it.

SECTION XX.

THE CONCLUSION.

20. THUS we have showed how great a number, and what variety, as well of things as of persons, there are, all, both of the one kind and the other, joining hand in hand, and making, as it were, one shoulder to bring the great blessing of justification upon the head of a poor sinner. God, who is "wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working," (Isaiah xxviii. 29,) judged it meet that a matter of so gracious and rare, of so profound and wonderful, a contrivance should pass through many hands before his creature man, to whom it was meant and intended, should be invested with the actual possession and enjoyment of it. There is scarce any thing of a more humbling consideration to the height and pride of the spirit of a man, than to be subjected to a multiplicity of dependencies, especially upon such, either persons or things, which he either judgeth but equal unto, but most of all if beneath, himself, for the obtaining of that of which he stands in need, and without which he fully understands that it cannot be well with him. Such a posture or subjection as this sets him off at the greatest distance in his condition from God, in point of true greatness and glory. Nor is there any thing in all the unlimited circumference of the blessedness of God, that renders him greater or more glorious in the eyes of his creature, than his aurapxea, or self-sufficiency, and his absolute independency upon all, whether persons or things whatsoever, besides himself. And, doubtless, in such cases, where the number of dependencies is not established by any indispensable law or decree of God, they that can contract themselves to the smaller number of them, for the enjoyment of themselves with comfort and contentment, will reduce their present conditions to the nearest affinity whereof it is capable with the blessedness of God himself. But where God hath by any revealed appointment or declared will suspended the attainment of any spiritual enjoyment, privilege, or blessing upon men's application of themselves unto him in the use of such and such means, of what number or kind soever, their non-subjection to this law or appointment of his in the neglect of any one of these means is of a very dangerous and sad presage that they will fall short in

THE BANNER OF JUSTIFICATION DISPLAYED.

438 the attainment of the blessing. And for this reason my soul cannot but sadly lament over the case and condition of all those who have, in the ignorance, vanity, and pride of their spirits, turned their backs upon the ministry of the Gospel, setting their faces towards fancies and conceited methods of their own, though of Satan's inspiration, for their justification in the sight of God, whereas it hath been evidently showed and proved from the mouth of God himself, that amongst those various actors in and about the great business of justification which have been presented upon the theatre of this brief discourse, he hath assigned a worthy co-operation or part unto the ministry and Ministers of the Gospel. Therefore, they who disdain to have the royal robe of righteousness or justification put upon them by men of this function and office, as judging them unworthy and too mean to serve them in so high and sacred a concernment, for any hope that I am able, upon any good ground, to give them of a better issue, they are never like to wear it.

THE

AGREEMENT AND DISTANCE OF

BRETHREN:

OR,

A BRIEF SURVEY

OF

THE JUDGMENT OF MR. JOHN GOODWIN, AND THE CHURCH OF GOD WALKING WITH HIM,

TOUCHING THESE IMPORTANT HEADS OF DOCTRINE:

I. ELECTION AND REPROBATION: II. THE DEATH OF CHRIST : III. THE GRACE OF GOD IN AND ABOUT CONVERSION: IV. THE LIBERTY OR POWER OF THE WILL, OR OF THE CREATURE MAN: V. THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS.

Truly and plainly declaring the particulars, as well agreed upon as dissented in, between them and their Christian brethren of opposite judgment to them in some things about the said doctrines. Together with a short touch of some of the principal grounds and reasons upon which the said Pastor and church cannot consent in judgment with their brethren about those particulars, relating to the said heads of doctrine, wherein the disagreement standeth.

Never

If in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. theless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.-Philip. iii. 15, 16.

And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, &c.— Rom. iii. 8.