112 ON JUSTIFICATION.
by nature, it is assigned unto among all the members of the body. Other uses it hath, and other members, on other accounts, may be as useful unto the body as it ; but it alone is the instrument of receiving and apprehending that which, being given, is to be made our own, and to abide with us. Whereas, therefore, the righteousness where- with we are justified is the gift of God, which is tendered unto us in the promise of the gospel ; the use and office of faith being to receive, apprehend, or lay hold o/and app)ropriate, this lighteousness, I know not how it can be better expressed than by an instrument, nor by Avhat notion of it more light of understanding may be conveyed unto our minds. Some may suppose other notions are meet to express it by on other accounts; and it may be so with respect unto other uses of it: but the sole present inquiry is, how it shall be declared, as that which receiveth Christ, the atonement, the gift of righteous- ness; which shall prove its only use in our justification. He that can better express this than by an instrument ordained of God unto this end, all whose use depends on that ordination of God, will deserve well of the truth. It is true, that all those who place the formal cause or reason of our justification in ourselves, or our inherent right- eousness, and so, either directly or by just consequence, deny all im- putation of the righteousness of Christ unto our justification, are not capable of admitting faith to be an instrument in this work, nor are pressed with this consideration; for they acknowledge not that we receive a righteousness which is not our own, by way of gift, whereby we are justified, and so cannot allow of any instrument whereby it should be received. The righteousness itself being, as they phrase it, p>utative, imaginary, a chimera, 2^, fiction, it can have no real ac- cidents,— nothing that can be really predicated concerning it. Where- fore, as was said at the entrance of this discourse, the truth and pro- priety of this declaration of the use of faith in our justification by an instrumental cause, depends on the substance of the doctrine it- self concerning the nature and principal causes of it, with which they must stand or fall. If we are justified through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, which faith alone apprehends and re- ceives, it will not be denied but that it is rightly enough placed as the instrumental cause of our justification. And if we are justified by an inherent, evangelical righteousness of our own, faith may be the condition of its imputation, or a disposition for its introduction, or a congruous merit of it, but an instrument it cannot be. But yet, for the present, it hath this double advantage:— First, That it best and most appositely answers what is affirmed of the use of faith in our justification in the Scripture, as the instances given do manifest. Secondly, That no other notion of it can be so stated, but that it must be apprehended in order of time to be previous unto justifica-
THE USE OF FAITH IN JUSTIFICATION. 113
tion ; which justifying faith cannot be, unless a man may be a true behever with justifymg faith, and yet not be justified.
Some do plead that faith is the condition of our justification, and that otherwise it is not to be conceived of. As I said before, so I say again, I shall not contend with any man about words, terms, or expressions, so long as what is intended by them is agreed upon. And there is an obvious sense wherein faith may be called the con- dition of our justification ; for no more may be intended thereby, but that it is the duty on our part which God requireth, that we may be justified. And this the whole Scripture beareth witness unto. Yet this hindereth not but that, as unto its use, it may be the instru- ment whereby we apprehend or receive Christ and his righteousness. But to assert it the condition of our justification, or that we are justi- fied by it as the condition of the new covenant, so as, from a precon- ceived signification of that word, to give it another use in justification, exclusive of that pleaded for, as the instrumental cause thereof, is not easily to be admitted ; because it supposeth an alteration in the substance of the doctrine itself.
The word is nowhere used in the Scripture in this matter; which I arofue no farther, but that we have no certain rule or standard to try and measure its signification by. Wherefore, it cannot first be introduced in what sense men please, and then that sense turned into argument for other ends. For thus, on a supposed concession that it is the condition of our justification, some heighten it into a subordi- nate righteousness, imputed unto us antecedently, as I suppose, unto the imputation of the righteousness of Christ in any sense, whereof it is the condition. And some, who pretend to lessen its efficiency or dignity in the use of it in our justification, say it is only " causa sine qua non ;" which leaves us at as great an uncertainty as to the nature and efficacy of this condition as we were before. Nor is the true sense of things at all illustrated, but rather darkened, by such notions.