Q. Did Christ rise by his own power, yea, did he raise himself at all? or ivas he raised by the power of another, and did another raise him ? What is the per- petual tenor of the Scripture to this purpose?
In answer hereunto, many texts of Scripture are rehearsed, where it is said that God raised him from the dead, and that he was raised by the power of God.
But we have manifested that Mr B. is to come to another reckon- ing before he can make any work of this argument, " God raised him, therefore he did not raise himself/' When he hath proved that he is not God, let him freely make such an inference and conclusion as this. In the meantime, we say, because God raised him from the dead, he raised himself; for he is " over all, God blessed for ever."
It is true that Christ is said to be raised by God, taken person- ally for the Father, whose joint power, with his own, and that also of the Spirit, was put forth in this work of raising Christ from the dead. And for his own raising himself, if Mr B. will believe him, this business will be put to a short issue. He tells us that " he laid down his life, that he might take it again." " No man," saitli he, " taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again," John x. 17, 18. And speaking of the temple of his body, he bade the Jews destroy it, and said that he would raise it again in three days; which we believe he did, and if Mr B. be otherwise minded, we cannot help it.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Of justification and faith.
This chapter, for the title and subject of it, would require a large and serious consideration ; but by Mr Biddle's loose procedure in this business (whom only I shall now attend), we are absolved from any strict inquiry into the whole doctrine that is concerned herein. Some brief animadversions upon his questions and suiting of answers to them will be all that I shall go forth unto. His first is : —
Ques. How many sorts of justification or righteousness are there?
This question supposeth righteousness and justification to be the same, which is a gross notion for a Master of Arts. Righteousness is that which God requires of us; justification is his act concerning man considered as vested or endued with that righteousness which he re-
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oG2 VINDIOI^ EVANGELICiE.
quires. Righteousness is the qualification of the person to be justi- fied ; justification, the act of him that justifies. A man's legal honesty in his trial is not the sentence of the judge pronouncing him so to be, to all ends and purposes of that honesty. But to his question Mr B. answers from Bom. x. 5, " The righteousness which is of the law ;" and Phil. iii. 9, " The righteousness which is of God by faith."
It is true, there is this twofold righteousness that men may be par- takers of, — a righteousness consisting in exact, perfect, and complete obedience yielded to the law, which God required of man under the covenant of works; and the righteousness which is of God by faith, of which afterward. Answerable hereunto there is, hath been, or may be, a twofold justification ; — the one consisting in God's declara- tion of him who performs all that he requires in the law to be just and righteous, and his acceptation of him according to the promise of life which he annexed to the obedience which of man he did re- quire; and the other answers that righteousness which shall after- ward be described. Now, though these two righteousnesses agree in their general end, which is acceptation with God, and a reward fi'om him according to his promise, yet in their own natures, causes, and manner of attaining, they are altogether inconsistent and destructive of each other, so that it is utterly impossible they should ever meet in and upon the same person.
For the description of the first, Mr B. gives it in answer to this question: —
Q. How is the righteousness which is of the laiv described? A. Rom. X. 5, "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them."
This description is full and complete. " The doing of the things of the law," or all the things the law requireth, to this end, that a man may "live by them," or a " keeping of the commandments" that we may " enter into life," makes up this righteousness of the law; and whatsoever any man doth or may do that is required by the law of God (as believing, trusting in him, and the like), to this end, that he may live thereby, that it may be his righteousness towards God, that thereupon he may be justified, it belongs to this righteousness of the law here described by Moses. I say, whatever is performed by man in obedience to any law of God, to this end, that a man may live thereby, and that it may be the matter of his righteousness, it be- longs to the righteousness here described. And of this we may have some use in the consideration of Mr B.'s ensuing queries. He adds : —