“But ye are justified,” says the apostle; which is, as though he had said, you have your sins forgiven, and are looked upon by GOD as though you never had offended him at all: for that is the meaning of the word justified, in almost all the passages of holy scripture where this word is mentioned. Thus, when this same apostle writes to the _Romans_, he tells them, that “whom GOD called, those he also justified:” And that this word justified, implies a blotting out of all our transgressions, is manifest from what follows, “them he also glorified,” which could not be if a justified person was not looked upon by GOD, as though he never had offended him at all. And again, speaking of _Abraham_’s faith, he tells them, that “_Abraham_ believed on Him that justifies the ungodly,” who acquits and clears the ungodly man; for it is a law-term, and alludes to a judge acquitting an accused criminal of the thing laid to his charge. Which expression the apostle himself explains by a quotation out of the _Psalms_: “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputeth no sin.” From all which proofs, and many others that might be urged, it is evident, that by being justified, we are to understand, being so acquitted in the sight of GOD as to be looked upon as though we never had offended him at all. And in this sense we are to understand that article, which we profess to believe in our creed, when each of us declare in his own person, I believe the forgiveness of sins. This leads me to the
_Second_ thing proposed, to prove that all mankind in general, and every individual person in particular, stands in need of being justified.
And indeed the apostle supposes this in the words of the text: “But ye are justified,” thereby implying that the _Corinthians_ (and consequently all mankind, there being no difference, as will be shewn hereafter) stood in need of being justified.
But not to rest in bare suppositions, in my farther enlargement on this head, I shall endeavour to prove, that we all stand in need of being justified on account of the sin of our natures, and the sin of our lives.
1. _First_, I affirm that we all stand in need of being justified, on account of the sin of our natures: for we are all chargeable with original sin, or the sin of our first parents. Which, though a proposition that may be denied by a self-justifying infidel, who “will not come to CHRIST that he may have life;” yet can never be denied by any one who believes that St. _Paul_’s epistles were written by divine inspiration; where we are told, that “in _Adam_ all died;” that is, _Adam_’s sin was imputed to all: and lest we should forget to make a particular application, it is added in another place, “that there is none that doeth good (that is, by nature) no, not one: That we are all gone out of the way, (of original righteousness) and are by nature the children of wrath.” And even _David_, who was a man after GOD’s own heart, and, if any one could, might surely plead an exemption from this universal corruption, yet he confesses, that “he was shapen in iniquity, and that in sin did his mother conceive him.” And, to mention but one text more, as immediately applicable to the present purpose, St. _Paul_, in his epistle to the _Romans_, says, that “Death came upon all men, for the disobedience of one, namely, of _Adam_, even upon those, (that is, little children) who had not sinned after the similitude of _Adam_’s transgression;” who had not been guilty of actual sin, and therefore could not be punished with temporal death (which came into the world, as this same apostle elsewhere informs us, only by sin) had not the disobedience of our first parents been imputed to them. So that what has been said in this point seems to be excellently summed up in that article of our church, where she declares, that “Original sin standeth not in the following of _Adam_, but it is the fault and corruption of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of _Adam_; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth GOD’s wrath and damnation.”