24 ON JUSTIFICATION.
retulit; nimirum recte. Propter virtutem enim jure laudamur, et iu virtute recte gloriamur, quod non contingeret, si donum a Deo, non a nobis haberemus," Tull. de Nat. Deor.
Fourthly. The opposition that the Scripture makes between grace and works in general, with the exclusion of the one and the asser- tion of the other in our justification, deserves a previous considera- tion. The opposition intended is not made between grace and works, or our own obedience, as unto their essence, nature, and con- sistency, in the order and method of our salvation ; but only with re- spect unto our justification. I do not design herein to plead any particular testimonies of Scripture, as unto their especial sense, or de- claration of the mind of the Holy Ghost in them, which will after- ward be with some diligence inquired into; but only to take a view which way the eye of the Scripture guides our apprehensions, and what compliance there is in our own experience with that guidance. The principal seat of this doctrine, as will be confessed by all, is in the Epistles of Paul unto the Romans and Galatians, whereunto that also to the Hebrews may be added : but in that unto the Romans it is most eminently declared ; for therein is it handled by the apostle ex professo at large, and that both doctrinally and in the way of controversy with them by whom the truth was opposed. And it is worth our consideration what process he makes towards the declaration of it, and what principles he proceeds upon therein.
He lays it down as the fundamental maxim which he would pro- ceed upon, or as a general thesis, including the substance of what he designed to explain and prove, that in the gospel the " righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith : as it is written. The just shall live by faith,"' Rom. i. 1 7. AH sorts of men who had any knowledge of God and themselves, were then, as they must be always, inquiring, and in one degree or other labouring, after righteousness. For this they looked on, and that justly, as the only means of an advantageous relation between God and themselves. Neither had the generality of men any other thoughts, but that this righteousness must be their own, — inherent in them, and performed by them ; as Rom. x. 3. For as this is the languacje of a natural conscience and of the law, and suited unto all philosophical notions concerning the nature of righte- ousness; so whatever testimony was given of anotlier kind in the law and the prophets (as such a testimony is given unto a " righteousness of God without the law," chap. iii. 21), there was a vail upon it, as to the understanding of all sorts of men. As, therefore, righteousiiess is that which all men seek after, and cannot but seek after, who de- sign or desire acceptance with God ; so it is in vain to inquire of the law, of a natural conscience, of philosophical reason, after any righte- ousness but what consists in inherent habits and acts of our own.
GENEEAL CONSIDERATIONS. 2-5
Neither law, nor natural conscience, nor reason, do know any other. But in opposition unto this righteousness of our own, and the ne- cessity thereof, testified unto by the law in its primitive constitu- tion, by the natural light of conscience, and the apprehension of the nature of things by reason, the apostle declares, that in the gospel there is revealed another righteousness, which is also the righteous- ness of another, the righteousness of God, and that from faith to faith. For not only is the righteousness itself revealed alien from those other principles, but also the manner of our participation of it, or its communication unto us, " from faith to faith" (the faith of God in the revelation, and our faith in the acceptation of it, being only here concerned), is an eminent revelation. Righteousness, of all things, should rather seem to be/rom works unto works, — from the work of grace in us to the works of obedience done by us, as the Papists affirm. " No," saith the apostle, " it is ' from faith to faith;'" whereof afterward.
This is the general thesis the apostle proposeth unto confinnation ; and he seems therein to exclude from justification every thing but the righteousness of God and the faith of believers. And to this purpose he considers all persons that did or might pretend unto righteousness, or seek after it, and all ways and means whereby they hoped to at- tain unto it, or whereby it might most probably be obtained, declar- ing the failing of all persons, and the insufficiency of all means as unto them, for the obtaining a righteousness of our own before God. And as unto persons, —
1. He considers the Gentiles, with all their notions of God, their practice in rehgious worship, with their conversation thereon: and from the whole of what might be observed amongst them, he con- cludes, that they neither were nor could be^justified before God ; but that they were all, and most deservedly, obnoxious unto the sentence of death. And whatever men may discourse concerning the justifi- cation and salvation of any without the revelation of the righteous- ness of God by the gospel, " from faith to faith," it is expressly con- tradictoiy to his whole discourse, chap, i., from verse 19 to the end.