Having asserted this righteousness of God as the cause and means of our justification before him, in opposition unto all righteousness of our own, and declared the cause of the communication of it unto us on the part of God to be mereofree, sovereign grace, the means on our part whereby, according unto \the ordination of God, we do receive, or are really made partakers of, that righteousness of God whereon we are justified, is by faith: A/a t-^j -^igriajg Iv avTov a'i/xan, — that is, " By faith alone." Nothing else is proposed, nothing else required unto this end. It is replied, that there is no intimation that it is by faith alone, or that faith is asserted to be the means of our justification exclusively unto other gi'aces or works. But there is such an exclu- sion dhectly included m the description given of that faith whereby we are justified, with respect unto its especial object, — " By faith in his blood;" for faith respecting the blood of Christ as that whereby pro-
312 ON JUSTIFICATION.
pitiation was made for sin, — in wbicli respect alone tlie apostle affirms that we are justified through faith, — admits of no association with any other graces or duties. Neither is it any part of their nature to fix on the blood of Christ for justification before God ; wherefore they are all here directly excluded. And those who think otherwise may try how they can introduce them into this context without an evi- dent corrupting of it, and pervertmg of its sense. Neither will the (jther evasion yield our adversaries the least relief, — namely, that by faith, not the single grace of faith is intended, but the whole obedi- ence requned in the new covenant, faith and works together. For as all works whatever, as our works, are excluded in the declaration of the causes of our justification on the part of God (^Aupiav rji aWov %ap/r/, — "Freely by his grace"), by virtue of that great rule, Rom. xi. 6, " If by grace, then no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace;" so the determination of the object of faith in its act or duty, whereon we are justified. — namely, the blood of Christ, — is absolutely exclusive of all works from an interest in that duty; for whatever looks unto the blood of Christ for justification is faith, and nothing else. And I as for the calling of it a single act or duty, I refer the reader unto our preceding discourse about the nature of justifying faith.
Three things the apostle inferreth from the declaration he had made of the nature and causes of our justification before God, all of them farther illustrating the meaning and sense of his words : —
1. That boasting is excluded: Ilo-j ovv tj %a.byj\sti;\ I^e/cXs/V^^, chap. iii. 27. Aj)parent it is from hence, and from v.'hat he affirms concerning Abraham, chap. iv. 2, that a great part, at least, of the controversy he had about justification, was, whether it did admit of any Ttahyjietg or xaiip/'/j/xa in those that were justified. And it is known that the Jews placed all their hopes in. those things whereof they thought they could boast, — namely, their privileges and then- righteousness. But from the declaration made of the nature and causes of justifica- tion, the apostle infers that all boasting whatever is utterly shut out of doors, — s^sjcXs/cr^'/j. Boasting, in our language is the name of a vice; and is never used in a good sense. But yia-uyridtg and TtavyrnMO,, the words used by the apostle, are Ix rZiv iiUm^ — of an indifferent significa- tion; and, as they are appHed, may denote a virtue as well as a vice: so they do, Heb. iii. 6.
But always, and in all places, they respect something that is pecu- liar in or unto them unto whom they are ascribed. Wherever any thing is ascribed unto one, and not unto another, with respect unto any good end, there is fundamentum %ci.\iyJ]Siwg^ — a " foundation for boasting." All this, saith the apostle, in the matter of our justifica- tion, is utterly excluded. But wherever respect is had unto any con- dition or qualification in one more than another, especially if it be of
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works, it giveth a ground of boasting, as he affirms, Eom. iv. 2. And it appears, from comparing that verse witli this, that wherever there is any influence of our own works into our justification, there is a ground of boasting; but in evangehcal justification no such boasting in any kind can be admitted. Wherefore, there is no place for works in our justification before God; for if there were, it is impossible but that a xauyj^ijja,, in one kind or other, before God or man, must be admitted.
2. He infers a general conclusion, " That a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law," chap. iii. 28. What is meant by " the law," and what by " the works of the law," in this discourse of the apostle about our justification, hath been before declared. And if we are justified freely through faith in the blood of Christ, that fiiith which hath the propitiation of Christ for its especial object, or as it hath so, can take no other grace nor duty into partnership with itself therein ; and being so justified as that all such boasting is excluded as neces- sarily results from any differencing graces or works in ourselves, wherein all the works of the law are excluded, it is certain that it is by faith alone in Christ that we are justified. All works are not only excluded, but the way unto their return is so shut up by the method of the apostle's discourse, that all the reinforcements which the wit of man can give unto them Avill never introduce them into our justification before God.