tracts from the obligation which we are laid under to him, for what he did and suffered in our behalf, for our justification.

Moreover, to assert that God sets this value on our performances, pursuant to Christ's merit; or that they are highly esteemed by him, because they are tinctured with his blood; this is contrary to the design of his death, which was, not that such an estimate might be set on what is done by us; but ra ther, that the iniquities that attend our best performances may be forgiven; and that (though, when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants,) we may be made accepted in the Beloved; and having no justifying righteousness of our own, may be justified, and glory in that which he hath wrought out for us.

And as for the supposition, that faith, repentance, and new obedience, are not only conditions of justification, but easy to be performed: this plainly discovers, that they who maintain it, either think too lightly of man's impotency and averseness to what is good, and his alienation from the life of God, or are strangers to their own hearts, and are not duly sensible that it is God that works in his people both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure.

The only thing that I shall add, in opposition to the doc. trine of justification by works, is, that whatever is the matter or ground of our justification in the sight of God, must be pleadable at his bar; for we cannot be justified without a plea, and if any plea, taken from our own works, be thought sufficient, how much soever the proud and deluded heart of man may set too great a value upon them; yet God will not reckon the plea valid, so as to discharge us from guilt, and give us a right and title to eternal life on the account thereof; which leads us to consider,

2. The method taken to explain this doctrine in the answer before us, which we think agreeable to the divine perfections, and contains a true state of the doctrine of justification by faith. We before considered justification as a forensic act, that we might understand what is meant by our sins being imputed to Christ our Head and Surety, and his righteousness imputed to us, or placed to our account. And we are now to speak of this righteousness as pleaded by, or applied to us, as the foundation of our claim to all the blessings that were purchased by. it. Here we must consider a sinner as bringing in his plea, in order to his discharge; and this is twofold.

(1.) If he be charged by men, or by Satan, with crimes not committed, he pleads his own innocency; if charged with hypocrisy, he pleads his own sincerity. Thus we are to understand several expressions in scripture to this purpose; as for instance, when a charge of the like nature was brought in against

Job, Satan having suggested that he did not serve God for nought; and that if God would touch his bone and his flesh, he would curse him to his face and his friends having often applied the character they give of the hypocrite to him, and so concluding him to be a wicked person, he says, God forbid that I should justify you; that is, that I should acknowledge your charge to be just; till I die, I will not remove mine integrity from me my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live, Job xxvii. 5, 6. that is, I never will own what you insinuate, that my heart is not right with God. And David, when complaining of the ill-treatment which he met with from his enemies and persecu tors, who desired not only to tread down his life upon the earth, but to lay his honour in the dust; to murder his name as well as his person, he prays, Fudge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me, Psal. vii. 8. What could he plead against maliciousness and false insinuations, but his righteousness or his integrity? And elsewhere, when he says, The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me: For I have kept the ways of the Lord; his judgments were before me. I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity, 2 Sam. xxii. 21, &c. seq. it is nothing else but an intimation, that how much soever he might be charged with the contrary vices, he was, in this respect, innocent: and though God did not justify him at his tribunal, for this righteousness; yet, in the course of his providence, he seemed to approve of his plea, so far as that whatever the world thought of him, he plainly dealt with him as one who was highly favoured by him; or whom, by his dealings with him, he evidently distinguished from those whose hearts were not right with him. It is true, some who plead for justification by our own righteousness, allege these scriptures as a proof of it, without distinguishing between the justification of our persons in the sight of God, and the justification of our righteous cause; or our being justified when accused at God's tribunal, and our being justified, or vindicated from those charges that are brought against us at man's.

(2.) When a person stands at God's tribunal, as we must suppose the sinner to do, when bringing in his plea for justification in his sight; then he has nothing else to plead but Christ's righteousness; and faith is that grace that pleads it: and in that respect we are said to be justified by faith, or in a way of believing. Faith doth not justify by presenting or pleading itself, or any other grace that accompanies or flows from it, as the cause why God should forgive sin, or give us a right to eternal life; for they have not sufficient worth or excellency in

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them to procure these blessings. Therefore, when we are said to be justified by faith, it is by faith, as apprehending, pleading, or laying hold on Christ's righteousness; and this gives occasion to divines to call it the instrument of our justification. Christ's righteousness is the thing claimed or apprehended; and faith is that by which it is claimed or apprehended; and, agreeably to the idea of an instrument, we are said not to be justified for faith, but by it. Christ's righteousness is that which procures a discharge from condemnation for all for whom it was wrought out; faith is the hand that receives it; whereby a person has a right to conclude, that it was wrought out for him. Christ's righteousness is that which has a tendency to enrich and adorn the soul; and faith is the hand that receives it, whereby it becomes ours, in a way of fiducial application and as the righteousness of Christ is compared, in scripture, to a glorious robe, which renders the soul beautiful, or is its highest and chief ornament; it is by faith that it is put on; and, in this respect, as the prophet speaks, its beauty is rendered perfect through his comeliness, which is put upon him, Ezek. xvi. 14. so that Christ's righteousness justifies, as it is the cause of our discharge; faith justifies as the instrument that applies this discharge to us; thus when it is said, the just shall live by faith, faith is considered as that which seeks to, and finds this life in him; the effect is, by a metonymy, applied to the instrument; as when the husbandman is said to live or to be maintained by his plough, and the artist to live by his hands, or the beggar by his empty hand that receives the donative. If a person was in a dungeon, like the prophet Jeremiah, and a rope is let down to draw him out of it, his laying hold on it is the instrument, but the hand that draws him out, is the principal cause of his release from thence; or, that we may make use of a similitude that more directly illustrates the doctrine we are maintaining, suppose a condemned malefactor had a pardon procured for him, which gives him a right to liberty, or a discharge from the place of his confinement, this must be pleaded, and his claim be rendered visible; and after that he is no longer deemed a guilty person, but discharged, in open court, from the sentence that he was under. Thus Christ procures forgiveness by his blood; the gospel holds it forth, and describes those who have a right to claim it as belonging to him in particular: and hence arises a visible discharge from condemnation, and a right to claim the benefits that attend it. If we understand justification by faith, in this sense, we do not attribute too much to faith on the one hand, nor too little to Christ's righteousness on the other.

And we rather choose to call faith an instrument, than a condition of our justification, being sensible, that the word con

dition is generally used to signify that for the sake whereof, a benefit is conferred, rather than the instrument by which it is applied; not but that it may be explained in such a way, as is consistent with the doctrine of justification by faith, as before considered. We do not deny that faith is the condition of our claim to Christ's righteousness; or that it is God's ordinance, without which we have no ground to conclude our interest in it. We must therefore distinguish between its being a condition of forgiveness, and its being a condition of our visible and apparent right hereunto. This cannot be said to belong to us, unless we receive it; neither can we conclude that we have an interest in Christ's redemption, any more than they for whom he did not lay down his life, but by this medium. We must first consider Christ's righteousness as wrought out for all them that were given him by the Father; and faith is that which gives us ground to conclude, that this privilege, in particular, belongs to us.

This account of the use of faith in justification, we cannot but think sufficient to obviate the most material objections that are brought against our way of maintaining the doctrine of justification, viz. by Christ's righteousness, in one respect, and by faith in another. It is an injurious suggestion to suppose that we deny the necessity of faith in any sense, or conclude, that we may lay claim to this privilege without it; since we strenuously assert the necessity, on the one hand, of Christ's righteousness being wrought out for us, and forgiveness procured thereby; and, on the other hand, the necessity of our receiving it, each of which is true in its respective place. Christ must have the glory that is due to him, and faith the work, or office that belongs to it.

Thus we have considered Christ's righteousness as applied by faith; and it may be also observed, that there is one scripture, in which it is said to be imputed by faith, as the apostle Paul, when speaking concerning Abraham's justification by faith, in this righteousness, says, It was imputed to him for righteousness; and adds, that it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe, Rom. iv. 22, 23, 24. in which scripture, I conceive, that imputation is taken for application; and accordingly the meaning is, the righteousness of Christ is so imputed, as that we have ground to place it to our own account, if we believe; which is the same with applying it by faith. (a)

(a)" Abraham believed God and it was imputed or counted to him for righteousness." This passage of Scripture is found with little variation also in the Epistle to the Galatians (iii. 6.) and in the Epistle of James (ii. 23.) and in each

And whereas the apostle speaks elsewhere of faith's being counted for righteousness, ver. 5. it must be allowed, that there is a great deal of difficulty in the mode of expression. If we

of the places it seems to have been introduced in support of its context from the first book of Moses. (xv. 6.)

Móses is giving at that place a visionary (as we suppose) correspondence between Jehovah and Abraham; in which the Lord promises to the patriarch to be his "shield and exceeding great reward," and upon Abraham's complaining that he was childless, his attention is directed to the stars, and he is told that it will be equally impracticable to number his posterity, and then follow the words "Abraham believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness."

Here it is given as an old-testament proof of that which has been a little before asserted "that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," but because this doctrine would seem to make void the law, the apostle states this objection, then denies it with abhorrence, and introduces for his support Abraham's justification before God, “if Abraham were justified by works he "hath whereof to glory, but not before God; for what saith the scriptures Abra"ham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness."

In the letter to the christians of Galatia he aims to bring them back from depending on their obedience to the moral and ceremonial laws, to a reliance upon Christ for salvation, he declares that " by the works of the law no flesh shall be "justified" in the sight of God; and that christians are "dead to the law,” “seek "to be justified by Christ,” and “live by the faith of the Son of God." He asserts "if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain." He charges the Galatians with folly. After having heard, seen, and experienced the doctrines of the Gospel, its extraordinary and ordinary spiritual powers, to go back to dead works would argue something like fascination. And then to show that the Gospel mode of justification by faith was not peculiar to the Gospel he quotes from the book of Genesis these words; "Abraham believed God, and it was ac"counted to him for righteousness."

The apostle James reprehends such as profess to be believers and yet are not careful to maintain good works; such professions of faith are less credible than the fruits of holiness; "show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show "thee iny faith by my works." Faith without works he pronounces to be dead, not merely inoperative, but destitute of a living principle. He then introduces Abraham's example of offering up Isaac as a proof of his faith; this work being a manifest effect of his faith in God, justifies, in the sight of all men, his character as a believer," and the scripture" he says " was fulfilled which saith Abraham "believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." The offering up of Isaac, having taken place several years after it had been said that " Abra"ham believed God," was an undeniable evidence of the truth, and a fulfilment, of that scripture.

Abraham's faith here mentioned has been understood as implying both the act of believing God's promises and his yielding to the call of God by emigrating, &c. † which faith, and its fruits, though an imperfect righteousness, was, it is alleged, by the favour of God accepted as a justifying righteousness.

But the apostle here contrasts faith with works, and denies a justification before God to be attainable by our obedience, consequently his introduction of Abraham's justification by his good deeds would have destroyed his own argu

ment.

Others understand Abraham to have been justified on the account of the mere act of believing: and this has been confined to his faith in the one promise of a numerous posterity.

That the Lord § “ in judging Abraham will place on one side of the account "his duties, and on the other his performances, and on the side of his perform • The quotations of Paul and James follow the Ixx. in omitting the in + Hammond. + Whitby, Macknight, § Macknight.