vour of God, our persuasion of a state of fafety will not influence him to treat us as his favourites; nor to confider that as true, which in its own nature is falfe. All therefore that is left for faith to do, according to them, is to give us eafe and comfort in our own minds. And is this all we are to understand by our being justified by faith? Is this all we are to understand by the repeated declarations in holy Scripture, that the believer fhall be faved; while the unbeliever fhall be damned? If fo, the gofpel falvation is no more than merely the comfort flowing from a perfuafion of the fafety of our prefent ftate. But I need not enlarge in oppofition to a doctrine fo apparently repugnant to the whole defign of the gospel, fo manifeftly unreafonable, and fo directly fubverfive of all practical god. linefs. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! yea, we establish the law, Rom. iii. 31. It is infinitely your concern, Sir, to experience

in

your own heart fomething more than a mere Antinomian or Moravian faith.-It is of infinite importance, that you receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you walk in him; that you experience the fanctifying efficacy of faith, and exemplify the obedi ence of faith, in the exercife of all the graces and fruits of the holy Spirit; and thereby evidence to yourself, at once, the fincerity of your faith, and. the reality of your juftification before God.

Now, that the Lord may direct you fafe in the way of truth and righteousness, to the kingdom of his glory, is the prayer of,

SIR, Yours, &c.

LET.

LETTER XII. Wherein the Doctrine of a Sinner's Juftification, by the imputed righteousness of Christ, is explained and vindicated.

I'

SIR,

T is indeed, as you reprefent it, "A matter of "the greatest confequence, to have a right "view of the way and means by which God will "be reconciled to you, and by which you may have

a title to life eternal." I am glad, that you fo kindly accept the pains I have taken, to set the Antinomian doctrine of juftification in its proper colours. For though "you did not give me that "trouble (as you are pleased to express it) because "you had any favourable opinion of their schemes, "but to know whether I was (as is pretended) of "their opinion; and to know how I could, con"fiftent with my declared fentiments, fteer clear "of their wild notions:"

Yet I rejoice, that your defires are gratified, and that you are "fet right in that matter."

"

But you yet are, as you have all along been, "in great difficulties on the other fide of the quef"tion; and cannot fee into the doctrine of a fin"ner's juftification by the imputed righteousness of "Chrift. You have been lately reading upon that "fubject; and find many arguments against it, that "you cannot get over. Your author reprefents "it as unfcriptural, and unreasonable: You there"fore defire me to give you a right view of that doc"trine, and to anfwer your objections against it."

There is indeed, Sir, no caufe for you to " su"fpect, that you fhall wear out my patience." I gladly embrace the opportunity, to do any thing in

my

my power to give you fatisfaction; and to affift you in your greatest concern, which you have reason to be moft folicitous about. I fhall therefore, according to your defire, endeavour, in the first place, to give you a brief view of the doctrine of our juftification by the imputed righteousness of Chrift; before I proceed to confider your objections against it.

I fhall first confider what we are to understand by juftification; and in what fense that expreffion is used in Scripture.-Should I herein follow fome of our wrangling difputants, I know not how many diftinct meanings of the word juftification I might fet before you. But this would be to darken counfel, by words without knowledge; the term having one invariable meaning, throughout the whole Bible. It always (as far as I have been able to obferve) constantly fignifies being esteemed, declared, manifefted, or pronounced righteous. This is what the original word, both in the Old and New Teftament, naturally fignifies: And in this sense only it is always used. I need not therefore undertake to give inftances of the use of the word in this fenfe, fince in all inftances it is used in this sense only. This, I believe, must be acknowledged by every one, that will thoroughly and impartially examine the cafe. I think, there can no text be found, where juftification is used for making us inherently righteous.

But though this word has one invariable fignifi cation, it is used in Scripture in a threefold respect; either for our prefent juftification in the fight of God, for our juftification before men and our own confciences, or for our juftification at the tribunal of our Judge at the last day. It is the first of these that falls under our prefent confideration, which is to be confidered as our acquittance from guilt, and our acceptance with God as righteous in his fight. It is to be confidered as a sentence of abfolution and

acceptation

acceptation by the great Judge of the world.Ás juftification therefore is always confidered in Scripture as a forenfic or juridical fentence, it fhould be carefully diftinguished from the infusion of a principle of grace, or inherent righteoufnefs.-Juftification is ufually in Scripture opposed to condemnation. As this latter therefore does not imply the rendering men wicked and guilty, but pronouncing them fo; even fo the former likewife cannot mean rendering men righteous, but fententially declaring and pronouncing them fo. Were this duly attended to, many of the objections made against our doctrine of juftification, by the righteoufness of Chrift, would vanish of course. You will be pleased therefore all along to carry this in your mind, that I am not confidering how we fhould become inherently righteous, by a renovation of our nature; but how we may be acquitted from guilt, and accepted as righteous, by the fentence of our glorious Judge.

I proceed to confider what we are to understand by the imputation of Christ's righteousness.

To impute, is to judge, or esteem any matter, character or quality, whether good or evil, to belong to a perfon as his; and may either refer to what was originally his, antecedently to fuch imputation; or to what was not antecedently his, but becomes fo by virtue of fuch imputation only. The Scriptures abound with inftances of both thefe forts of imputation.

We have many inftances in Scripture of imputing that to a perfon, which was originally his own, and performed by him antecedently to fuch imputation. Thus fin is faid to be imputed to the finner, when he is judged or treated as an offender. Let not my Lord (fays Shimei) impute iniquity unto me, 2 Sam. xix. 19. And thus righteousness is imputed to the faint, when he is judged or acknowledged righteous

(in a qualified fenfe) with relation to a particular fact, done in conformity to the preceptive part of the divine law. Then stood up Phinehas, and execu ted judgment, and it was imputed to him for righteoufnefs, Pfalm. cvi. 31. But this is not the imputation now to be confidered, which refpects a justi. fication, that is propofed as the relief of a finful perifhing world, against the penalty of the condemning law, and implies a change of the finner's ftate from guilt to grace, from death to life, in a relative

fenfe.

I proceed then to obferve, that also may be faid to be imputed to a perfon, which was not his own originally or antecedently; but is judged and efteemed to belong to him, and is his on account of fuch imputation only. Thus, a debt is imputed to a furety; and the furety's payment of a debt is imputed to the principal debtor, and is pleadable by him in discharge from his creditor's demands. -If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, (fays Paul of Onefimus), put that on my account, TOUTO Tuot

dye, impute it unto me. Thus our fins are im. puted unto Chrift, inafmuch as he, in the character of our furety, has undertaken to discharge those debts to the juftice of God. And thus his righteoufnefs is imputed unto us; it having been wrought out in our place and ftead, and given to God in payment on our behalf.

These things being premised, we are to underftand the imputation in question, to be God's gracious donation of the perfect righteoufnefs of Chrift to believers, and his acceptation of their perfons as righteous, on the account thereof.-Their fins being imputed to him, and his obedience being im puted to them, they are, in virtue hereof, both acquitted from guilt, and accepted as righteous be fore God,