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justification. It follows therefore that where in opposition hereunto, we are said to be justified by faith; an instrumental efficiency is intended. Yet will I not therefore make it my controversy with any, that taith is properly an instru ment, or the instrumental cause in or of our justification. But this I judge, that among all those notions of things which may be taken from common use and understanding to represent unto our minds the meaning and intention of the scriptural expressions so often used, there is none so proper as this of an instrument or instrumental cause, seeing a causality is included in them, and that of any other kind certainly excluded; nor hath it any of its own.

But it may be said, that if faith be the instrumental cause of justification; it is either the instrument of God, or the instrument of believers themselves. That it is not the instrument of God is plain, in that it is we that believe not God; nor can any act of ours be the instrument 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 by faith, and the uncircumcision 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. W berefore faith in some sense may be said to be the instrument of God in our justification; both ordained 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, and the ministers of it, and the sacraments also, 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 as it neither produces justification by a physical operation, nor is morally meritorious thereof, nor doth dispossess the subject wherein it is unto the introduction of an inherent formal cause of justification, nor hath any other physical or moral respect to justification, but what ariseth merely from the constitution and appointment of God, there is no colour of reason from the instrumentality of faith asserted, 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. It is therefore the ordinance of God, that we may be justified freely by his grace, having its use and operation towards that end after the manner of an instrument,

Secondly, 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 have the signification of to take or receive what is offered, given or granted unto us; or to apprehend and lay hold of any thing thereby to make it our own. So are we said by faith to receive Christ, Job 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. I Thess, i. 6. chap. ii. 13. The atonement made by the blood of Christ, Rom. v. 11 The forgiveness of sins, Acts x. 43. chap. xxvi. 18. The promise of the Spirit, Gal, iii. 14. The promises, Heb. ix. 13. there is therefore

nothing that concurreth unto our justification, but we receive it by faith. And unbelief is expressed by not receiving, John , 11. chap. iii. 11. chap. xii. 48. chap. 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, the use and office of faith being to receive, apprehend, 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, 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 justificatin, 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 chimæra, a fiction, it can have no real accidents, nothing that can be really predicted concerning it. Where

fore 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 bath 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 su 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, 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 pre-conceived 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.

Conditio in the best latin writers is variously used. In common use among us, it sometimes denotes the state and quality of men, and sometimes a valuable consideration of what is to be done. But herein it is applied unto things ju great variety; sometimes the principal procuring purchasing

cause is so expressed. As the condition whereon a man lends another an hundred pounds, is that he be paid it again with interest. The condition whereon a man conveyeth his land unto another, is, that he receive so much money for it. So a condition is a valuable consideration. And sometimes it signifies such things as are added to the principal cause whereon its operation is suspended. As a man bequeaths an hundred pounds unto another, on condition that he come or go to such a place to demand it. This is no valuable consideration, yet is the effect of the principal cause, or the will of the testator suspended thereon, And as unto degrees of respect unto that whereof any thing is a condition, as to purchase, procurement, valuable consideration, necessary presence, the variety is endless. We therefore cannot obtain a determinate sense of this word condition, but from a particular declaration of what is intended by it, wherever it is used, And although this be not sufficient to exclude the use of it from the declaration of the way and manner how we are justified by faith; yet is it so to exclude the imposition of any precise signification of it, any other than is given it by the matter treated of. Without this every thing is left ambiguous and uncertain whereunto it is applied.

But yet

For instance; It is commonly said that faith and new obedience are the condition of the new covenant. because of the ambiguous signification and various use of that term (condition) we cannot certainly understand what is intended in the assertion. If no more be intended, but that God in and by the new covenant doth indispensibly require these things of us, in order unto his own glory, and our full enjoyment of all the benefits of it, it is unquestionably true. But if it be intended, that they are such a condition of the covenant, as to be by us performed antecedently to the participation of any grace, mercy, or priviledge of it, so as that they should be the consideration and procuring causes of them that they should be all of them as some speak, the reward of our faith and obedience, it is most false, and not