Briefly to clear this point more fully, let me lay down a few propositions.
(1.) Whosoever would be accepted with God must be righteous : Hab. i. 13, ' Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.' God cannot give a sinner, as a sinner, a good look. (2.) Every righteousness will not serve the turn : it must be such as will endure the pure eyes of his glory. Hence those phrases, 'justified in thy sight,' Ps. cxliii. 2 ; Kom. iii. 20 ; and ' glorying before God,' Kom. iv. 2 ; so Gal. iii. 11, &c. (3.) Such a righteousness can be found in no man. Our obedience is a covering that is too short : Job xv. 14, ' What is man, that he should be clean ? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous ? ' So 1 Sam. vi. 20, ' Who can stand before this holy God ? ' The least defect leaveth us to the challenge of the lav/ and the plea of justice. (4.) This righteousness is only to be had in Christ ; there is no other name given under him ; ^ there indeed it is to be found ; therefore he is called, ' The Lord our righteousness,' Jer. xxiii. 6, and he is ' made to us righteousness,' 1 Cor. i. 30. Therefore we are bidden ' to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness,' Mat, vi. 33. We must seek God's righteousness if we would enter into God's kingdom. (5.) This righteousness is made ours by faith : ours it must be, as in the first proposition, and ours it is only by faith : Rom. i. 17, ' The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.' From first to last the benefit of Christ's righteousness is received by faith ; it is the fittest and most self-denying grace ; it is the grace that beginneth our union with Christ ; and when we are made one with Christ, we are possessed of his righteousness and merit, as our right, for our comfort and use. So see Kom. iii. 22, and Phil. iii. 9, where the righteousness of God by faith is opposed to 'our own righteous-
^ Qu. ' heaven ' ? — Ed.
'2G4 AX EXi-osirutN, with notes, [Jas. II. 2i.
iicss, ^Yllicll is of the law;' wliicli intimatetli to us that this righteous- ness is of God, and tliat it is made ours by faitii. (G.) Those that receive the righteousness of Christ are also sanctified by him. New obedience is an inseparable companion of justification : 1 Cor. i. 30, 'righteousness and sanctilication ;' by virtue of the union we have both : 2 Cor, v. 17, ' Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature.' So that obedience is not the condition of justification, but the evidence; not the condition and qualification of the new covenant, so much as of the covenanters. Faith justifieth, and obedience approveth :i it must be in the same subject, though it hath not a voice in the same court.
3. The orthodox, though they differ somewhat in words and ])hrases, yet they agree in the same common sense, in reconciling James and Paul. Thus, while some say Paul disputeth of the cause of justification, and so excludeth Avorks ; James, of the effects of justi- cation, and so enforceth a presence of them ; and others .say Paul disputeth how we are justified, and James how we shall evidence our- .selves to be justified ; the one taketh justification for acquittance from sin, the other for acquittance from hypocrisy ; the one for the imputa- tion of righteousness, the other for the declaration of righteousness. Or as others, Paul speaketh of the office of faith, James of the quality of faith ; Paul pleadeth for saving faith, James pleadeth against naked assent ; the one speaketh of the justifying of the person, the other of the faith, etc. All these answers are to the same eftect, either subordinate to one another or differing only in expression, and do very well suit with the scope of the apostle. You shall see everywhere he seeketh to disvalue and put a disgrace upon that faith he speaketh of ; he calleth it a vain dead faith, a "faith which is alone, &c. And when he fixeth the scope of the disputation, he saith, ' Show me thy faith by thy works;' where he jjlainly discovereth what was the matter in contro- versy, to wit, the evidencing of their faith. And it is notable, that when he beginneth to argue, the proposition which he layetli down in this, that a bare profession of faith without works will not save. It is true, it is delivered by way of question, ver. 14, ' What will it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, and hath not works? Will faith save hiniH' Or, as it is in the original, will ?} Tr/crrts', will that faith save him ? Now such questions are the strongest way of denial, for they are an appeal to the conscience ; and you shall see that the conclu- sion is this always, that faith which is alone and without wmks, is dead ; which plainly showoth what was the to ^7]Tovfjievov, or the tiling in ques- tion, to wit, the unjustiiiablcness of that faith which is without works.