8. He asserts from hence, that we " do not make void the law through grace," but establish it, verse 31 ; which, how it is done, and how alone it can be done, hath been before declared.
This is the substance of the resolution the apostle gives unto that great inquiry, how a guilty convinced sinner may come to be justified in the sight of God? — " The sovereign grace of God, the mediation of Christ, and faith in the blood of Christ, are all that he requireth thereunto." And whatever notions men may have about justification in other respects, it will not be safe to venture on any other resolu- tion of this case and inquiry; nor are we wiser than the Holy Ghost.
Rom. chap. iv. In the beginning of the fourth chapter he con- firms what he had before doctrinally declared, by a signal instance; and this was of the justification of Abraham, who being the father of the faithful, his justification is proposed as the pattern of ours, as he expressly declares, verses 22-24. And some few things I shall observe on this instance in our passage unto the fifth verse, where I shall fix our discourse.
1. He denies that Abraham was justified by works, verse 2. And, — (1.) These works were not those of the Jewish lata, whicli alone some pretend to be excluded from our justification in this place; for they were the works he performed some hundreds of years
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before the giving of the law at Sinai: wherefore they are the works of his moral obedience unto God that are intended. (2.) Those works must be understood which Abraham had then, when he is said to be justified in the testimony produced unto that purpose; but the works that Abraham then had were works of righteousness, performed in faith and love to God, works of netv obedience under the conduct and aids of the Spirit of God, works required in the covenant of grace. These are the works excluded from the justifica- tion of Abraham. And these things are plain, express, and evident, not to be eluded by any distinctions or evasions. All Abraham's evangelical works are expressly excluded from his justification before God.
2. He proves by the testimony of Scripture, declaring the nature and grounds of the justification of Abraham, that he was justified no other way but that which he had before declared, — namely, by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus, verse 3. " Abraham believed God" (in the promise of Christ and his mediation), " and it was counted unto him for righteousness," verse 3. He was justified by faith in the way before described (for other justification by faith there is none), in opposition unto all his own works and personal righteous- ness thereby.
3. From the same testimony he declares how he came to be par- taker of that righteousness whereon he was justified before God; which was by imputation: it was counted or imputed unto Lim for righteousness. The nature of imputation hath been before declared.
4. The especial nature of this imputation, — namely, that it is of grace, without respect unto works, — he asserts and proves, verse 4, from what is contrary thereunto : " Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." Where works are of any consideration, there is no room for that kind of imputation whereby Abraham was justified : for it was a gracious imputation, and that is not of what is our own antecedently thereunto, but what is made our own by that imputation; for what is our own cannot be imputed unto us in a way of grace, but only reckoned ours in a way of debt. That which is our own, with all the effects of it, is due unto us ; and, therefore, they who plead that faith itself is imputed unto us, to give some countenance unto an imputation of grace, do say it is imputed not for what it is, for then it would be reckoned of debt, but for what it is not. So Socinus, " Cum fides imputatur nobis pro justitia, ideo imputatur, quia nee ipsa fides justitia est, nee verfe in se cam continet," De Servat., part iv. cap. 2. Which kind of imputa- tion, being indeed only a false imagination, we have before disproved. But all works are inconsistent with that imputation whereby Abraham was justified. It is otherwise with him that worketh, so as thereon
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to be justified, than it was with him. Yea, say some, " All works that are meritorious, that are performed with an opinion of merit, that make the reward to be of debt, are excluded; but other works are not." This distinction is not learned from the apostle ; for, accord- ing unto him, if this be merit and meritorious, that the reward be reckoned of debt, then all works in justification are so. For, without distinction or limitation, he affirms that " unto him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt." He doth not exclude some sort of works, or Avorks in some sense, because they would make the reward of debt, but affirms that all would do so, unto the exclu- sion of gracious imputation; for if the foundation of imputation be in ourselves, imputation by grace is excluded. In the fifth verse, the sum of the apostle's doctrine, which he had contended for, and what he had proved, is expressed: " But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." It is granted on all hands, that the close of the verse, " His faith is counted for righteousness," doth express the jus- tification of the person intended. He is justified ; and the way of it is, his faith is counted or imputed. "Wherefore, the foregoing words declare the subject of justification and its qualification, or the descrip- tion of the person to be justified, with all that is required on his part thereunto.