All the actings of the kingly and prophetical offices of Christ are all of them /ro??i God; that is, in the name and authority of God towards us. Not any one of them is totuards God on our behalf so as that by virtue of them we should expect acceptance with God. They are all good, blessed, holy in themselves, and of an eminent tendency unto the glory of God in our salvation : yea, they are no less necessary unto our salvation, to the praise of God's grace, than are the atonement for sin and satisfaction which he made; for from them is the way of life revealed unto us, gi'ace communicated, our persons sanctified, and the reward bestowed. Yea, in the exercise of his kingly power doth the Lord Christ both pardon and justify sin- ners. Not that he did as a king constitute the law of justification; for it was given and established in the first promise, and he came to put it in execution, John iii. 16; but in the virtue of his atonement and righteousness, imputed unto them, he doth both pardon and justify sinners. But they are the acts of his sacerdotal office alone, that respect God on our behalf Whatever he did on earth with
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God for the cliurcli, in obedience, suffering, and offering up of him- self; whatever he doth in heaven, in intercession and appearance in the presence of God, for us; it all entirely belongs unto his priestly office. And in these things alone doth the soul of a convinced sin- ner find relief, when he seeks after deliverance from the state of sin, and acceptance with God. In these, therefore, alone the peculiar object of his faith, that which will give him rest and peace, must be comprised. And this last consideration is, of itself, sufficient to de- termine this difference.
Sundry things are objected against this assertion, which I shall not here at large discuss, because what is material in any of them will occur on other occasions, where its consideration will be more proper. In general it may be pleaded, that justifying faith is the same with saving faith : nor is it said that we are justified by this or that part of faith, but by faith in general; that is, as taken essen- tially, for the entire grace of faith. And as unto faith in this sense, not only a respect unto Christ in all his offices, but obedience itself also is included in it ; as is evident in many places of the Scripture. Wherefore, there is no reason why we should limit the object of it unto the person of Christ as acting in the discharge of his sacerdotal office, with the effects and fruits thereof.
Ans. 1. Saving faith and justifying faith, in any believer, are one and the same; and the adjuncts of saving and justifying are but external denominations, from its distinct operations and effects. But yet saving faith doth act in a peculiar manner, and is of peculiar use in justification, such as it is not of under any other consideration whatever. Wherefore, — 2. Although saving faith, as it is described in general, do ever include obedience, not as its fonn or essence, but as the necessary effect is included in the cause, and the fruit in the fruit-bearing juice; and is often mentioned as to its being and exer- cise where there is no express mention of Christ, his blood, and his righteousness, but is applied unto all the acts, duties, and ends of the gospel ; yet this proves not at all but that, as unto its duty, place, and acting in omx justification, it hath a peculiar object. If it could be proved, that where justification is ascribed unto faith, that there it hath any other object assigned unto it, as that which it rested in for the pardon of sin and acceptance with God, this objection were of some force ; but this cannot be done. 3. This is not to say that we are justified by a part of faith, and not by it as considered essen- tially; for Ave are justified by the entire grace of faith, acting in such a peculiar way and m.anner, as others have observed. But the truth is, we need not insist on the discussion of this inquiry; for the true meaning of it is, not whether any thing of Christ is to be excluded from being the object of justifying faith, or of faith in our justifica-
THE MEANING OF JUSTIFICATION. ] 23
tion; but, what in and of ourselves, under the name of receivinr/ Christ as our Lord and King, is to be admitted unto an efficiency or conditionality in that work. As it is granted that justifying faith is the receiving of Christ, so whatever belongs unto the person of Christ, or any office of his, or any acts in the discharge of any office, that may be reduced unto any cause of our justification, the merito- rious, procuring, material, formal, or manifesting cause of it, is, so far as it doth so, freely admitted to belong unto the object of justifying faith. Neither will I contend with any upon this disadvantageous stating of the question, — What of Christ is to be esteemed the object of justifying faith, and what is not so? for the thing intended is only this, — Whether our otvii obedience, distinct from faith, or included in it, and in like manner as faith, be the condition of our justifica- tion before God? This being that which is intended, which the other question is but invented to lead unto a compliance with, by a more specious pretence than in itself it is capable of, under those terms it shall be examined, and no otherwise.