strument of his work. And if it be our instrument, seeing an efficiency is ascribed unto it, then are we the efficient causes of our own justification in some sense, and may be said to justify ourselves, which is derogatory to the grace of God, and the blood of Christ.

I confess that I lay not much weight on exceptions of this nature. For 1. notwithstanding what is said herein, the Scripture is express, that God justifieth us by faith.' It is one 'God which shall justify the circumcision' Èk TioTews (by faith), and the uncircumcision,' diàrñs πíorews, 'through' or 'by faith;' Rom. iii. 30. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith;' Gal. iii. 8. As he purifieth the hearts of men by faith;' Acts xv. 9. Wherefore, faith in some sense may be said to be the instrument of God in our justification; both as it is the means and way ordained and appointed by him on our part whereby we shall be justified, as also because he bestoweth it on us, and works it in us unto this end that we may be justified; for 'by grace we are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God;' Eph. iii. 8. If any one shall now say, that on these accounts, or with respect unto divine ordination and operation concurring unto our justification, that faith is the instrument of God in its place and way (as the gospel also is, Rom. i. 16. and the ministers of it, 2 Cor. v. 18. 1 Tim. iv. 6. and the sacraments also, Rom. iv. 11. Tit. iii. 5. in their several places and kinds), unto our justification, it may be he will contribute unto a right conception of the work of God herein, as much as those shall by whom it is denied.

But that which is principally intended is, that it is the instrument of them that do believe. Neither yet are they said hereon to justify themselves. For whereas it doth neither really produce the effect of justification by a physical operation, nor can do so, it being a pure sovereign act of God; nor is morally any way meritorious thereof; nor doth dispose the subject wherein it is unto the introduction of an inherent formal cause of justification, there being no such thing in rerum natura;' nor hath any other physical or moral respect unto the effect of justification, but what ariseth merely from the constitution and appointment of God, there is no colour of reason, from the instrumentality of faith as

serted, to ascribe the effect of justification unto any, but unto the principal efficient cause, which is God alone, and from whom it proceedeth in a way of free and sovereign grace, disposing the order of things, and the relation of them one unto another, as seemeth good unto him. Δικαιούμενοι δωρεάν, τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι, Rom. iii. 24. διὰ τῆς tíorews iv tý Tov Xρiorov aiμarı, ver. 25. It is, therefore the ordinance of God prescribing our duty, that we may be justified freely by his grace, having its use and operation towards that end after the manner of an instrument, as we shall see farther immediately. Wherefore, so far as I can discern, they contribute nothing unto the real understanding of this truth, who deny faith to be the instrumental cause of our justification, and on other grounds assert it to be the condition thereof, unless they can prove that this is a more natural exposition of those expressions, πίστει, ἐκ πίστεως, διὰ τῆς πίστεως, which is the first thing to be inquired after. For all that we do in this matter is but to endeavour a right understanding of Scripture propositions and expressions, unless we intend to wander 'extra oleas,' and lose ourselves in a maze of uncertain conjectures.

2. They designed to declare the use of faith in justification, expressed in the Scripture by apprehending and receiving of Christ, or his righteousness, and remission of sins thereby. The words whereby this use of faith in our justification is expressed, are λαμβάνω, παραλαμβάνω, and Karaλaußávw. And the constant use of them in the Scripture, is to take or receive what is offered, tendered, given, or granted unto us; or to apprehend and lay hold of any thing thereby to make it our own; as iniλaußávoμai is also used in the same sense, Heb. ii. 16. So we are said by faith to ' receive Christ,' John i. 12. Col. ii. 6. The abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness;' Rom. v. 17. The word of promise;' Acts ii. 41. The word of God;' Acts viii. 14. 1 Thess. i. 6. ii. 13. The 'atonement made by the blood of Christ;' Rom. v. 11. The 'forgiveness of sins;' Acts x. 43. xxvi. 18. The 'promise of the Spirit;' Gal. iii. 14. The promises; Heb. ix. 15. There is therefore nothing that concurreth unto our justification, but we receive it by faith. And unbelief is expressed by 'not receiving;' John i. 11. iii. 11. xii. 48. xiv. 17. Wherefore, the object.

of faith in our justification, that whereby we are justified, is tendered, granted, and given unto us of God, the use of faith being to lay hold upon it, to receive it, so as that it may be our own. What we receive of outward things that are so given unto us, we do it by our hand, which therefore is the instrument of that reception, that whereby we apprehend, or lay hold of, any thing to appropriate it unto ourselves; and that because this is the peculiar office, which by nature it is assigned unto among all the members of the body. Other uses it hath, and other members on other accounts may be as useful unto the body as it; but it alone is the instrument of receiving and apprehending that, which being given, is to be made our own and to abide with us. Whereas, therefore, the righteousness wherewith we are justified is the gift of God, which is tendered unto us in the promise of the gospel; the use and office of faith being to receive, apprehend, or or lay hold of, and appropriate this righteousness, I know not how it can be better expressed than by an instrument, nor by what notion of it more light of understanding may be conveyed unto our minds. Some may suppose other notions are meet to express it by on other accounts; and it may be so with respect unto other uses of it. But the sole present inquiry is, how it shall be declared, as that which receiveth Christ, the atonement, the gift of righteousness, which will prove its only use in our justification. He that can better express this than by an instrument, ordained of God unto this end, all whose use depends on that ordination of God, will deserve well of the truth. It is true, that all those who place the formal cause or reason of our justification in ourselves, or our inherent righteousness, and so either directly or by just consequence deny all imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto our justification, are not capable of admitting faith to be an instrument in this work, nor are pressed with this consideration. For they acknowledge not that we receive a righteousness which is not our own by way of gift, whereby we are justified, and so cannot allow of any instrument whereby it should be received. The righteousness itself being, as they phrase it, putative, imaginary, a chimera, a fiction, it can have no real accidents, nothing that can be really predicated concerning it. Wherefore, as was said at the entrance of this discourse, the truth,

and propriety of this declaration of the use of faith in our justification by an instrumental cause, depends on the substance of the doctrine itself concerning the nature and principal causes of it, with which they must stand or fall. If we are justified through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, which faith alone apprehends and receives, it will not be denied but that it is rightly enough placed as the instrumental cause of our justification. And if we are justified by an inherent, evangelical righteousness of our own, faith may be the condition of its imputation, or a disposition for its introduction, or a congruous merit of it, but an instrument it cannot be. But yet for the present it hath this double advantage: 1. That it best and most appositely answers what is affirmed of the use of faith in our justification, in the Scripture, as the instances given do manifest. 2. That no other notion of it can be so stated, but that it must be apprehended in order of time to be previous unto justification, which justifying faith cannot be, unless a man may be a true believer with justifying faith, and yet not be justified.

Some do plead that faith is the condition of our justification, and that otherwise it is not to be conceived of. As I said before, so I say again, I shall not contend with any man about words, terms, or expressions, so long as what is intended by them, is agreed upon. And there is an obvious sense wherein faith may be called the condition of our justification. For no more may be intended thereby, but that it is the duty on our part which God requireth, that we may be justified. And this the whole Scripture beareth witness unto. Yet this hindereth not, but that as unto its use, it may be the instrument whereby we apprehend or receive Christ and his righteousness. But to assert it the condition of our justification, or that we are justified by it as the condition of the new covenant, so as from a preconceived signification of that word, to give it another use in justification, exclusive of that pleaded for, as the instrumental cause thereof, is not easily to be admitted; because it supposeth an alteration in the substance of the doctrine itself.

The word is nowhere used in the Scripture in this matter; which I argue no farther, but that we have no certain rule or standard to try and measure its signification by.

Wherefore, it cannot first be introduced in what sense men please, and then that sense turned into argument for other ends. For thus on a supposed concession, that it is the condition of our justification, some heighten it into a subordinate righteousness, imputed unto us, antecedently, as I suppose, unto the imputation of the righteousness of Christ in any sense, whereof it is the condition. And some who pretend to lessen its efficiency or dignity in the use of it in our justification say, it is only causa sine qua non,' which leaves us at as great an uncertainty as to the nature and efficacy of this condition as we were before. Nor is the true sense of things at all illustrated, but rather darkened by such notions.

If we may introduce words into religion nowhere used in the Scripture (as we may and must, if we design to bring light, and communicate proper apprehensions of the things contained unto the minds of men), yet are we not to take along with them arbitrary, preconceived senses, forged either among lawyers, or in the peripatetical school. The use of them in the most approved authors of the language whereunto they do belong, and their common vulgar acceptation among ourselves, must determine their sense and meaning. It is known what confusion in the minds of men, the introduction of words into ecclesiastical doctrines, of whose signification there hath not been a certain determinate rule agreed on, hath produced. So the word 'merit' was introduced by some of the ancients (as is plain from the design of their discourses where they use it), for impetration or acquisition 'quovis modo;' by any means whatever. But there being no cogent reason to confine the word unto that precise signification, it hath given occasion to as great a corruption as hath befallen Christian religion. We must therefore make use of the best means we have to understand the meaning of this word, and what is intended by it, before we admit of its use in this case.

'Conditio,' in the best Latin writers is variously used; answering κατάστασις, τυχὴ, ἀξία, ἀιτία, συνθήκη in the Greek: that is, 'status, fortuna, dignitas, causa, pactum initum.' In which of these significations it is here to be understood, is not easy to be determined. In common use among us, it sometimes denotes the state and quality of men, that is,