need I have, and that it is of singular Use, to watch over my Soul in all its Ways, both in reference to Sin, that I fall not into it; and when fallen, what the Carriage and Actings of my Soul are at such a Time; whether I flee for Relief to God in Christ, or to my own Works.--For as Satan keeps some alienated from God, by the gross Pollutions of the World; so others from Christ, by their establishing a Righteousness of their own. Lord! break thou this Snare for me.

These perhaps were Enthusiasts (with some Men) or I know not what. The last therefore I shall mention is Mr. Jenks, a Minister of the Church of England. The Title of whose Book, is, Submission to the Righteousness of God: Or, The Necessity of trusting to a better Righteousness than our own. In his Preface, p. 7. he tells us, He believed, and therefore hath he spoken the very Sense of his Soul. And having acquainted the World, p. 8. That when he first set out for a Preacher, he did appear, after the then Mode of a prevailing Party, a Stickler for Pelagius; and tho' he saw Scripture, Articles, and Homilies, all standing in his way,-Yet (saith he) thus I drove on for a while, in my new Province, till it pleased the gracious God, who knew what need I had to be humbled, in the midst of perfect Health, and all the Favour of Men, and Prosperity of the World, to throw me down under great and sore Troubles of Mind, and Doubtings of my State, and Dread of his Wrath, where for a long while I lay, refusing to be comforted;—and in that School of sharp

*

Discipline did I learn of my Heavenly Teacher, the Doctrine of Faith, which ever since I have made Conscience to maintain, with all my Strength. And as I dare not upon any Temptation whatsoever, offer to oppose it myself, so it touches me in the most sensible Part, to hear any Contempt signified against it by others, &c. And elsewhere, p. 13. Now I bless God for the Scriptures, and particularly St. Paul's Epistles, from which I can easily gather up a satisfying Notion of justifying Faith, when these Men, methinks, lead us into a Wood, as if they had a Mind only to darken a plain Matter, and amuse and lose the Reader; and while they confound Faith with Works, and make no Difference between believing and obeying, what do they but take away all Distinction between the Cause and the Effect? Thus he.

Surely Faith and Works are as much confounded as may be, where Faith is considered as a Work, not as an Act of Recumbency or L Reliance on Christ, but of Consent to take him as a Lord; and more generally taken, as comprehending Love and all Works of the Gospel, as some way referable thereto. Is this Doctrine to be endured by them that love the Lord Jesus Christ? For my Part, I think they speak without Book; having never understood the Covenant of Works aright, neither the Covenant of Grace, nor seen the desperate Wickedness, of their own Hearts, in trusting to their Duties, nor are brought

• What that Doctrine is, the whole Book' declares, as direetly opposite to Neonomauism.

wholly off from the Idol, Self, to trust in Christ alone; who set up this new Law, for Gospel; or else the secret Transactions between God and their own Souls, are otherwise than their professed Opinions. For, under the specious Names of sincere Obedience, they bring in the whole Law, and all the Works of it, and give them a new Name, viz. Gospel-Works, and then all is well. But if the Ten Commandments are not included in their new Law, let them deny it; and if they cannot, let them who are spiritual judge, whether these are not the Works that Paul doth, and all that he could, exclude, from any Part in justifying a Sinner? Look to it then, for as many as are of the Works of the Law (tho you nray call them Gospel) are under the Curse.

The Question is not, what Faith may include as a Principle of Sanctification, or what it leads unto? But how it is to be considered in our Justification: I care not to interpose in the Contention, whether Faith is an Instrument, Condition, or Causa sine qua non, in Justification. I see there is no End of those Contentions. Those who call it a Condition, do suspend the Application of Christ's Righteousness upon our believing; whereas the Application thereof in the Hand of the Spirit is the Cause, and believing the Effect. Besides, most of them join other Conditions therewith. Those, who call it an Instrument, consider that it is Another's Righteousness, whereby we are justified. Therefore, because Faith is a Means of receiving Christ, and his

Righteousness, and to express the Meaning (as they thought) of the Preposition [by] when it is said, We are justified [by] Faith, they called it an Instrument; which to be sure it cannot be, if itself, or any thing in us, be our justifying Righteousness. For my part, I do not greatly delight in any of these Terms. But that Word [Instrument] taken in Simplicity, and with some Latitude, I like best: For it it will be hard to defend it in a strict Sense, as answering the Definition and Office of an Instrument according to the Logical Notion of it. If it be spoken of God, as it is, Rom. iii. 30. that he justifies the Circumcision by Faith, it is by giving Faith. And on our part, Faith is (as it were) an Instrument of receiving Christ, and his Righteousness; which Use is frequently ascribed thereunto. This is it which is intended thereby; and not, that we justify ourselves by Faith. Howbeit, so far as Faith is, or is owned to be an Instrument (To Credere), It is by Faith itself that we are justified; not as our justifying Righteousness, but as the Means of receiving Christ's Righteousness, which is * that which justifies. For it is certain, it must be Faith itself, either in the Habit, or in the Act, that is the Instrument; the Object cannot be so. Thus far Faith itself may be owned, only allowing that the Spirit's Aplication is before our Reception in Order of Nature; for we receive what is given; and in the Virtue of Christ's Righteousness we believe, and

Id quod justificat tanquam Materia.

reciprocally apprehend him who has apprehended us. This shuts it out from being a Condition of our having Benefit by Christ's Righteousness, Again, [by Faith] is taken Metonymically, for Christ the Object: Yet it connotes believing, and so it signifies by Christ believed on. So that it is equally to his Honour, as if it had been said simply, we are justified by Christ, Mr, Baxter, in his Aphor. Thes. 76. p. 198. saith that Paul doth by the Word Faith, especially direct your Thoughts to Christ believed in; for to be justified by receiving Christ, is with him all one. I am therefore not solicitous what Logical Term to use in this Matter, tho' I do approve and have used that of [Instrument] in the Sense explained. It is sufficient that we are justified by Christ, even by him alone, in the way of Believing, Acts xiii. 39. as to Personal Justification; or that his Righteousness is unto all, and upon all that Believe. Rom. iii. 22

Further, That by the Works of the Law, the Apostle Paul doth not mean the Law of Moses, as such, is clear from hence, That the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians were written to Gentile Churches, who were nothing concerned with the Sinai Law as such. Now tho' that Sinai Covenant was only made with the Children of Israel, yet all the World were under the same Law for Substance, and those who are redeemed from among the Gentiles, are said to be redeemed from the Curse of the Law, Gal. iii. 13. c. iv. v. And in the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle proved the Gentiles to be under Sin, by innu