1 08 ON JUSTIFICATION.
a meritorious cause, by way of condecency or congniity, in and of our justification. For all these notions of the use of faith are suited and accommodated unto the opinions of men concerning the nature and princiiml causes of justification. Neither can any trial or deter- mination be made as unto their truth and propriety, but upon a previous judgment concerning those causes, and the whole nature of justification itself. Whereas, therefore, it were vain and endless to plead the principal matter in controversy upon every thing that occasionally belongs unto it, — and so by the title unto the whole in- heritance of every cottage that is built on the premises, — I shall briefly speak unto these various conceptions about the use of faith in our justification, rather to find out and give an understanding of what is intended by them, than to argue about their truth and pro- priety, which depend on that wherein the substance of the contro- versy doth consist.
Protestant divines, imtil of late, have unanimously affirmed faith to be the instrumental cause of our justification. So it is expressed to be in many of the public confessions of their churches. This notion of theirs concerning the nature and use of faith was from the first opposed by those of the Eoman church. Afterward it was denied also by the Socinians, as either false or improper. Socin. Miscellan. Smalcius adv. Frantz. disput. 4 ; Schlichting. adver. Meisner. de Jus- tificat. And of late this expression is disliked by some among our- selves; wherein they follow Episcopius, Curcellseus, and others of that way. Those who are sober and moderate do rather decline this notion and expression as improjjer, than reject them as untrue. And our safest course, in these cases, is to consider what is the thing or matter intended. If that, be agreed upon, he deserves best of truth who parts with strife about propriety of expressions, before it be meddled with. Tenacious pleading about them will surely render our contentions endless; and none will ever want an appearance of probability to give them countenance in what they pretend. If our design in teaching be the same with that of the Scripture, — namely, to inform the minds of believers, and convey the light of the know- ledge of God in Christ unto them, we must be contented sometimes to make use of such expressions as will scarce pass the ordeal of arbi- trary rules and distinctions, through the whole compass of notional and artificial sciences. And those who, without more ado, reject the instrumentality of faith in our justification, as an unscriptural no- tion, as though it were easy for them with one breath to blow away the reasons and arguments of so many learned men as have pleaded for it, may not, I think, do amiss to review the gi'ounds of their con- fidence. For the question being only concerning what is intended by it, it is not enough that the term or word itself, of an instrument,
THE USE OF FAITH IN JUSTIFICATION. 109
is not found imto this purpose in the Scripture; for on the same ground we may reject a trinity of persons in the divine essence, without an acknowledgment whereof, not one line of the Scripture can be rightly understood.
Those who assert faith to be as the instrumental cause in our justification, do it with respect unto two ends. For, first, they design thereby to declare the meaning of those expressions in'the Scripture wherein we are said to be justified T/'trrs;, absolutely; which must denote, either " instnunentum, aut formam, aut modum actionis." Aoy/^rJ/xs^a ovv TiffTSj 8ix,aiov(!i)ai avSpu-rov, Rom. iii. 28; — " Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith." So, Aia irldTioig, verse 22; 'Ex Tianojg, Rom. i. 17, Gal. iii. 8; Aia rng Ttgnojg, Eph. ii. 8; 'Ex, -TTiarsug, xai Bia r^g T/tfrsw^, Rom. iii. 30; — that is, " Fide, ex fide, per fidem ;" which we can express only, by faith, or through faith. " Propter fidem," or dia 'xianv, for our faith, we are nowhere said to be justified. The inquiry is. What is the most proper, lightsome, and convenient way of declaring the meaning of these expressions? This the generality of Protestants do judge to be by an instrumental cause: for some kind of causality they do plainly intimate, whereof the lowest and meanest is that which is instrumental ; for they are used of faith in our justification before God, and of no other grace or duty whatever. Wherefore, the proper work or office of faith in our justification is intended by them. And hid is nowhere used in the whole New Testament with a genitive case (nor in any other good author), but it denotes an instrumental efficiency at least. In the divine works of the holy Tiinity, the operation of the second per- son, who is in them a principal efficient, yet is sometimes expressed thereby; it may be to denote the order of operation in the holy Trinity answering the order of subsistence, though it be applied unto God absolutely or the Father: Rom. xi. 'M, A/ auroD" — "By him are all things." Again, s^ 'ipyuv vofiou and i^ axong t/Vt-ewc are directly opposed, Gal. iii. 2. But when it is said that a man is not justified i^ 'ipym v6[j.m, — " by the works of the law," — it is acknowledged by all that the meamng of the expression is to exclude all ejficiency, in every kind of such works, from our justification. It follows, there- fore, that where, in opposition hereunto, we are said to be justified l-/. rrlariug, — " by faith," — an instrumental efficiency is intended. Yet will I not, therefore, make it my controversy with any, that faith is properly an instrument, or the instrumental cause in or of our justi- fication ; and so divert into an impertinent contest about the nature and kinds of instruments and instrumental causes, as they are meta- physically hunted with a confused cry of futilous tenns and distinc- tions. But this I judge, tliat among all those notions of things which may be taken from common use and understanding, to represent unto