Chapter 1: Justifying Faith, the Causes, Object, and Nature of It, Declared

THe means of justification on our part is faith. That we are justified by faith is so frequently, and so expressly affirmed in the scripture, as that it cannot directly and in terms by any be denied. For whereas some begin, by an excess of partiality which controversial Engagements and Provocations do encline them unto, to affirm that our justification is more frequently ascribed unto other things, Graces or duties, than unto faith, it is to be passed by in silence, and not contended about. But yet also the explanation which some others make of this general concession, That we are justified by faith, does as fully overthrow what is affirmed therein, as if it were in terms rejected. And it would more advantage the understandings of men, if it were plainly refused upon its first proposal, than to be lead about in a maze of words, and distinctions unto its real exclusion; as is done both by the Romanists and socinians. At present we may take the proposition as granted, and only inquire into the true genuine sense and meaning of it. That which first occurs unto our consideration is faith; and that which does concern it may be reduced unto two heads; (1) Its nature. (2) Its Use in our justification.

Of the nature of faith in general, of the especial nature of justifying faith, of its Characteristical distinctions from that which is called faith, but is not justifying, so many discourses (divers of them the effects of sound judgment and good Experience) are already extant, as it is altogether needless to engage at large into a farther discussion of them. However something must be spoken to declare in what sense we understand these things; what is that faith which we ascribe our justification unto, and what is its Use therein.

The distinctions that are usually made concerning faith, (as it is a word of various significations) I shall wholly pretermit; not only as obvious and known, but as not belonging unto our present argument. That which we are concerned in is, That in the scripture there is mention made plainly of a twofold faith whereby men believe the gospel. For there is a faith whereby we are justified, which he who has shall be assuredly saved, which purifies the heart, and works by love. And there is a faith or Believing which does nothing of all this; which who has, and has no more, is not justified, nor can be saved. Wherefore every faith, whereby men are said to believe, is not justifying. Thus it is said of Simon the Magician that he believed, Acts 8:13. When he was in the Gall of Bitterness and bond of iniquity, and therefore did not believe with that faith which purifies the heart, Acts 15:9. And, that many believed on the name of Jesus when they saw the Miracles that he did, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew what was in man, John 2:23, 24. They did not believe on his name as those do, or with that kind of faith, who thereon receive power to become the Sons of God, John 1:12. And some when they hear the word receive it with joy, believing for a while, but have no Root; Luke 8:13. And faith without a Root in the heart will not justify any. For with the heart Men believe unto righteousness, Romans 10:10. So is it with them who shall cry, Lord, Lord, (at the last day) we have prophesied in your name, whilst yet they were always workers of iniquity, Matthew 7:22, 23.

This faith is usually called Historical faith. But this Denomination is not taken from the object of it, as though it were only the History of the scripture, or the Historical things contained in it. For it respects the whole truth of the word, yea of the promises of the gospel as well as other things. But it is so called from the nature of the assent wherein it does consist. For it is such as we give unto Historical things that are credibly testified unto us.

And this faith has divers differences or degrees, both in respect unto the grounds or reasons of it; and also its effects. For as unto the first, all faith is an assent upon testimony; and divine faith is an assent upon a divine testimony. According as this testimony is received, so are the differences or degrees of this faith. Some apprehend it on humane motives only, and their credibility unto the judgment of reason; and their assent is a mere natural Acts of their understanding, which is the lowest degree of this Historical faith. Some have their minds enabled unto it by spiritual Illumination, making a discovery of the evidences of Divine truth whereon it is to be believed; the assent they give hereon is more firm and operative than that of the former sort.

Again, It has its differences or degrees with respect unto its effects. With some it does no way or very little, influence the will or the affections, or work any Change in the lives of men. So is it with them that profess they believe the gospel, and yet live in all manner of sins. In this degree it is called by the apostle James a dead faith, and compared unto a dead Carkass, without life or motion, and is an assent of the very same nature and kind with that which Devils are compelled to give. And this faith abounds in the world. With others it has an effectual work upon the affections, and that in many degrees also, represented in the several sorts of ground whereinto the Seed of the word is cast, and producs many effects in their lives. In the utmost improvement of it, both as to the evidence it proceeds from, and the effects it producs, it is usually called temporary faith; for it is neither permanent against all oppositions, nor will bring any unto Eternal Rest. The name is taken from that Expression of our savior, concerning him who believs with this faith, , Matthew 13:21.

This faith I grant to be true in its kind, and not merely to be equivocally so called; it is not ; It is so as unto the general nature of faith; but of the same special nature with justifying faith it is not. Justifying faith is not an higher, or the highest, degree of this faith, but is of another kind or nature. Wherefore sundry things may be observed concerning this faith in the utmost improvement of it unto our present purpose. As,

1. This faith with all the effects of it, men may have and not be justified; and if they have not a faith of another kind they cannot be justified. For justification is no where ascribed unto it, yea it is affirmed by the apostle James, That none can be justified by it.

2. It may produce great effects in the minds, affections, and Lives of Men, although not one of them that are peculiar unto justifying faith. Yet such they may be, as that those in whom they are wrought may be, and ought in the judgment of charity to be looked on as true believers.

3. This is that faith which may be alone. We are justified by faith alone. But we are not justified by that faith which can be alone. Alone, respects its influence into our justification, not its nature and existence. And we absolutely deny that we can be justified by that faith which can be alone, that is without a principle of spiritual life and universal obedience, operative in all the works of it, as duty does require.

These things I have observed, only to obviate that Calumny and Reproach which some endeavour to fix on the doctrine of justification by faith only, through the mediation of Christ. For those who assert it must be Solifidians, Antinomians, and I know not what; such as oppose or deny the necessity of universal obedience, or Good works. Most of them who manage it cannot but know in their own Consciences that this Charge is false. But this is the way of handling Controversies with many. They can aver any thing that seems to advantage the cause they plead, to the great scandal of religion. If by Solifidians they mean those who believe that faith alone is on our part, the means, instrument or condition (of which afterwards) of our justification, all the prophets and apostles were so, and were so taught to be by Jesus Christ, as shall be proved. If they mean, those who affirm that the faith whereby we are justified is alone, separate or separable, from a principle and the fruit of Holy obedience, they must find them out themselves, we know nothing of them. For we allow no faith to be of the same kind or nature with that whereby we are justified, but what virtually and radically contains in it universal obedience, as the effect is in the cause, the fruit in the Root, and which acts it self in all particular duties, according as by rule and Circumstances they are made so to be. Yea we allow no faith to be justifying, or to be of the same kind with it, which is not its self and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and Good works. And if this be not sufficient to prevail with some not to seek for advantages by such shameful calumnies, yet is it so with others, to free their minds from any concernment in them.

For the especial nature of Justifying faith which we inquire into, the things whereby it is evidenced may be reduced unto these four heads. (1) The causes of it on the part of God. (2) What is in us previously required unto it. (3) The proper object of it. (4) Its proper peculiar Acts and effects. Which shall be spoken unto so far as is necessary unto our present design.

1. The doctrine of the causes of faith as unto its first Original in the Divine will, and the way of its communication unto us, is so large, and so immixed with that of the way and manner of the operation of efficacious grace in conversion (which I have handled elsewhere) as that I shall not here insist upon it. For as it cannot in a few words be spoken unto according unto its weight and worth, so to engage into a full handling of it, would too much divert us from our present argument. This I shall only say, that from thence it may be uncontroulably evidenced, That the faith whereby we are justified, is of an especial kind or nature, wherein no other faith which justification is not inseparable from, does partake with it.

2. Wherefore our first inquiry is concerning what was proposed in the second place, namely, what is an our part in a way of duty previously required thereunto; or what is necessary to be found in us antecedaneously unto our Believing unto the justification of life. And I say there is supposed in them in whom this faith is wrought, on whom it is bestowed, and whose duty it is to believe therewith; the work of the law in the conviction of sin, or conviction of sin is a necessary Antecedent unto Justifying faith. Many have disputed what belongs hereunto, and what effects it producs in the mind, that dispose the soul unto the receiving of the promise of the gospel. But whereas there are different Apprehensions about these effects or concomitants of conviction, (in Compunction, humiliation, Self-judging, with sorrow for sin committed, and the like) as also about the degrees of them, as ordinarily pre-required unto faith and conversion unto God; I shall speak very briefly unto them, so far as they are inseparable from the conviction asserted. And I shall first consider this conviction it self with what is essential thereunto, and then the effects of it in conjunction with that temporary faith before spoken of. I shall do so, not as unto their nature, the knowledge whereof I take for granted, but only as they have respect unto our justification.

As to the first I say, The work of conviction in general, whereby the soul of man has a practical understanding of the nature of sin, its Guilt and the punishment due unto it, and is made sensible of his own interest therein, both with respect unto sin original and actual, with his own utter disability to deliver himself out of the state and condition, wherein on the account of these things he finds himself to be, is that which we affirm to be antecedaneously necessary unto Justifying faith; that is in the Adult, and of whose justification the word is the external means and instrument.

A Convinced sinner is only Subjectum capax Justificationis; not that every one that is convinced is or must necessarily be justified. There is not any such disposition or preparation of the subject by this conviction, its effects and consequents, as that the form of justification, as the papists speak, or justifying grace must necessarily ensue or be introduced thereon. Nor is there any such preparation in it, as that by virtue of any divine Compact or promise, a person so convinced, shall be pardoned and justified. But as a man may believe with any kind of faith that is not justifying, such as that before mentioned, without this conviction; so it is ordinarily previous, and necessary so to be, unto that faith which is unto the justification of life. The motive is not unto it, that thereon a man shall be assuredly justified; but that without it he cannot be so.

This I say is required in the person to be justified in order of nature antecedaneously unto that faith whereby we are justified, which we shall prove with the ensuing arguments. For (1) without the due consideration and supposition of it. the true nature of faith can never be understood. For as we have shewed before, justification is Gods way of the Deliverance of the convinced sinner, or one whose mouth is stopped, and who is guilty before God, obnoxious to the law, and shut up under sin. A sense therefore of this estate and all that belongs unto it, is required unto Believing. Hence Le Blanc who has searched with some diligence into these things, commends the definition of faith given by Mestrezat; that it is the flight of a penitent sinner unto the mercy of God in Christ. And there is indeed more sense and truth in it, than in twenty other that seem more accurate. But without a supposition of the conviction mentioned, there is no understanding of this definition of faith. For it is that alone which puts the soul upon a flight unto the mercy of God in Christ, to be saved from the wrath to come, Hebrews 6:18. fled for Refuge.

2ly. The order, relation, and use of the law and the gospel do uncontroulably evince the necessity of this conviction previous unto Believing. For that which any man has first to deal withall, with respect unto his Eternal condition, both naturally and by Gods Institution is the law. This is first presented unto the soul, with its Terms of righteousness and life, and with its curse in case of failure. Without this the gospel cannot be understood, nor the grace of it duely valued. For it is the Revelation of Gods way for the relieving the souls of men from the sentence and curse of the law, Romans 1:17. That was the nature, that was the Use and end of the first promise, and of the whole work of Gods grace revealed in all the ensuing promises, or in the whole gospel. Wherefore the faith which we treat of being Evangelical, that which in its especial nature and use, not the law but the gospel requirs, that which has the gospel for its principle, rule, and object, it is not required of us, cannot be acted by us, but on a supposition of the work and effect of the law in the conviction of sin, by giving the knowledge of it, a sense of its Guilt, and the state of the sinner on the Account thereof. And that faith which has not respect hereunto, we absolutely deny to be that faith whereby we are justified, Galatians 3:22, 23, 24. Romans 10:4.

3ly. This our savior himself directly teachs in the gospel. For he calls unto him only those who are weary and heavy laden, affirms that the whole have no need of the Physician but the sick; and that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. In all which he intends not those who were really sinners, as all men are, for he makes a difference between them, offering the gospel unto some and not unto others, but such as were convinced of sin, burdened with it, and sought after deliverance.

So those unto whom the apostle Peter proposed the promise of the gospel with the pardon of sin thereby as the object of gospel faith, were pricked to the heart upon the conviction of their sin, and cried what shall we do; Acts 2:37, 38, 39. Such also was the state of the Jaylor unto whom the apostle Paul proposed salvation by Christ, as what he was to believe for his Deliverance, Acts 16:30, 31.

4ly. The state of Adam and Gods dealing with him therein, is the best Representation of the order and method of these things. As He was after the Fall, so are we by nature in the very same state and condition. Really he was utterly lost by sin, and convinced he was both of the nature of his sin, and of the effects of it in that Acts of God by the law on his mind, which is called the the opening of his Eyes. For it was nothing but the communication unto his mind by his conscience of a sense of the nature, guilt, effects, and consequents of sin, which the law could then teach him, and could not do so before. This fills him with shame and fear; against the former whereof he provided by Figg-leaves, and against the latter by hiding himself among the Trees of the Garden. Nor, however they may please themselves with them, are any of the contrivances of men, for freedom and safety from sin, either wiser or more likely to have success. In this condition, God by an immediate Inquisition into the matter of fact, sharpens this conviction by the Addition of his own testimony unto its truth, and casts him actually under the curse of the law, in a juridical denunciation of it. In this lost, forlorn, hopeless condition God proposs the promise of redemption by Christ unto him. And this was the object of that faith whereby he was to be justified.

Although these things are not thus eminently and distinctly transacted in the minds and consciences of all who are called unto Believing by the gospel, yet for the substance of them, and as to the previousness of the conviction of sin unto faith, they are found in all that sincerely believe.

These things are known, and for the substance of them generally agreed unto. But yet are they such as being duely considered will discover the vanity and mistakes of many definitions of faith that are obtruded on us. For any definition or description of it which has not express, or at least virtual respect hereunto, is but a deceit, and no way answers the Experience of them that truly believe. And such are all those who place it merely in an assent unto divine Revelation, of what nature soever that assent be, and whatever effects are ascribed unto it. For such an assent there may be without any respect unto this work of the law. Neither do I, to speak plainly, at all value the most accurate Disputations of any about the nature and Acts of Justifying faith, who never had in themselves an Experience of the work of the law in conviction and condemnation for sin, with the effects of it upon their Consciences; or do omit the due consideration of their own Experience, wherein what they truly believe is better stated than in all their Disputations. That faith whereby we are justified is in general the acting of the soul towards God, as revealing himself in the gospel for deliverance out of this state and condition, or from under the curse of the law applied unto the conscience, according to his mind, and by the ways that he has appointed. I give not this as any definition of faith, but only express, what has a necessary influence into it, whence the nature of it may be discerned.

2. The effects of this conviction with their respect unto our justification real or pretended may also be briefly considered. And whereas this conviction is a mere work of the law, it is not with respect unto these effects to be considered alone, but in conjunction with, and under the conduct of that temporary faith of the gospel before described. And these two, Temporary faith and Legal conviction are the principles of all works or duties in religion antecedenr unto justification, and which therefore we must deny to have in them any Causality thereof. But it is granted that many Acts and duties both internal and external, will ensue on real Convictions. Those that are internal may be reduced unto three heads. (1) Displicency and sorrow that we have sinned. It is impossible that any one should be really convinced of sin in the way before declared, but that a dislike of sin, and of himself that he has sinned, shame of it, and sorrow for it, will ensue thereon. And it is a sufficient evidence that he is not really convinced of sin, whatever he profess, or whatever confession he make, whose mind is not so affected, Jeremiah 36:24. (2) fear of punishment due to sin. For conviction respects not only the instructive and preceptive part of the law, whereby the being and nature of sin are discovered, but the sentence and curse of it also whereby it is judged and condemned, Genesis 4:13, 14. Wherefore, where fear of the punishment threatned does not ensue, no person is really convinced of sin; nor has the law had its proper work towards him, as it is previous unto the administration of the gospel. And whereas by faith we fly from the wrath to come, where there is not a sense and apprehension of that wrath as due unto us, there is no ground or reason for our Believing. (3) A desire of Deliverance from that state wherein a convinced sinner finds himself upon his conviction, is unavoidable unto him. And its naturally the first thing that conviction works in the minds of men, and that in various degrees of care, fear, solicitude and restlessness, which from Experience and the conduct of scripture light, have been explained by many, unto the great benefit of the church, and sufficiently derided by others. (2) These internal Acts of the mind will also produce sundry external duties which may be referred unto two heads. (1) Abstinence from known sin unto the utmost of mens power. For they who begin to find that it is an evil thing and a bitter that they have sinned against God, cannot but endeavour a future Abstinence from it. And as this has respect unto all the former internal Acts, as causes of it, so it is a peculiar exurgency of the last of them or a desire of deliverance from the state wherein such persons are. For this they suppose to be the best expedient for it, or at least that without which it will not be, And herein usually do their Spirits act by promises and Vows, with renewed sorrow on surprisals into sin, which will befall them in that condition. (2) The duties of Religious worship in prayer and hearing of the word, with diligence in the use of the ordinances of the church, will ensue hereon. For without these they know that no deliverance is to be obtained. reformation of life and Conversation in various degrees does partly consist in these things, and partly follow upon them. And these things are always so, where the Convictions of men are real and abiding.

But yet it must be said, that they are neither severally nor joyntly, though in the highest degree, either necessary dispositions, preparations, previous congruities in a way of merit, nor conditions of our justification. For,

1. They are not conditions of justification. For where one thing is the condition of another, that other thing must follow the fulfilling of that condition. Otherwise the condition of it, it is not. But they may be all found where justification does not ensue. Wherefore there is no covenant, promise, or Constitution of God, making them to be such conditions of justification, though in their own nature they may be subservient unto what is required of us with respect thereunto. But a certain infallible connection with it by virtue of any promise or covenant of God (as it is with faith) they have not. And other condition, but what is constituted and made to be so by divine compact or promise, is not to be allowed. For otherwise conditions might be endlesly multiplied, and all things natural as well as moral made to be so. So the meat we eat may be a condition of justification. faith and justification are inseparable, but so are not justification and the things we now insist upon, as Experience does evince.

2. justification may be where the outward Acts and duties mentioned, proceeding from Convictions under the conduct of temporary faith are not. For Adam was justified without them, so also were the Converts in the Acts, chap. 2. For what is reported concerning them is all of it Essentially included in conviction; verse 37. And so likewise was it with the Jaylor; Acts 16:30, 31. And as unto many of them, it is so with most that do believe. Therefore they are not conditions. For a condition suspends the Event of that whereof it is a condition.

3. They are not formal dispositions unto justification, because it consists not in the Introduction of any new form or inherent Quality in the soul, as has been in part already declared, and shall yet afterwards be more fully evinced. Nor (4) are they moral preparations for it; for being antecedent unto faith Evangelical, no man can have any design in them, but only to seek for righteousness by the works of the law, which is no preparation unto justification. All Discoveries of the righteousness of God, with the souls adherence unto it, belong to faith alone. There is indeed a repentance which accompanis faith, and is included in the nature of it, at least radically. This is required unto our justification. But that legal repentance which precedes gospel faith and is without it, is neither a Disposition, Preparation, nor condition of our justification.

In brief; The order of these things may be observed in the dealing of God with Adam, as was before intimated. And there are three degrees in it. (1) The Opening of the Eyes of the sinner, to see the filth and guilt of sin in the sentence and curse of the law applied unto his conscience; Romans 7:9, 10. This effects in the mind of the sinner the things before mentioned, and puts him upon all the duties that spring from them. For persons on their first Convictions ordinarily judge no more but that their state being evil and dangerous, it is their duty to better it, and that they can or shall do so accordingly, if they apply themselves, thereunto. But all these things as to a Protection or Deliverance from the sentence of the law, are no better then Figg-leaves and hiding. (2) ordinarily God by his providence or in the dispensation of the word, gives life and power unto this work of the law in a peculiar manner; in answer unto the charge which he gave unto Adam after his Attempt to hide himself. Hereby the mouth of the sinner is stopped, and he becomes, as throughly sensible of his Guilt before God, so satisfied that there is no Relief or Deliverance to be expected from any of those ways of sorrow or duty that he has put himself upon. (3) In this condition it is a mere Acts of Soveraign grace, without any respect unto these things foregoing, to call the sinner unto Believing, or faith in the promise unto the justification of life. This is Gods order; yet so as that what preceds his call unto faith, has no causality thereof.

3. The next thing to be enquired into is the proper object of Justifying faith, or of true faith, in its office, work, and duty, with respect unto our justification. And herein we must first consider what we cannot so well close withall. For besides other differences that seem to be about it, which indeed are but different Explanations of the same thing for the substance, there are two Opinions which are looked on as Extreams, the one in an excess and the other in Defect. The first is that of the Romansan church, and those who comply with them therein. And this is, That the object of Justifying faith as such, is all Divine Verity, all Divine Revelation, whether written in the scripture, or delivered by Tradition represented unto us by the authority of the church. In the latter part of this description we are not at present concerned. That the whole scripture and all the parts of it, and all the Truths of what sort soever they be that are contained in it, are equally the object of faith in the discharge of its Office in our justification, is that which they maintain. Hence as to the nature of it they cannot allow it to consist in any thing but an assent of the mind. For supposing the whole scripture, and all contained in it, laws, precepts, promises, Threatnings, Stories, Prophesies and the like, to be the object of it, and these not as containing in them things Good or Evil unto us, but under this formal consideration as divinely revealed, they cannot assign or allow any other Acts of the mind to be required hereunto but assent only. And so confident are they herein, namely, That faith is no more then an assent unto divine Revelation, as that Bellarmin in opposition unto Calvin, who placed knowledge in the description of Justifying faith, affirms that it is better defined by Ignorance than by knowledge.

This description of Justifying faith and its object, has been so discussed, and on such evident grounds of scripture and reason rejected by protestant writers of all sorts, as that it is needless to insist much upon it again. Some things I shall observe in relation unto it, whereby we may discover what is of truth in what they assert, and wherein it falls short thereof. Neither shall I respect only them of the Romansan church, who require no more to faith or Believing, but only a bare assent of the mind unto divine Revelations, but them also who place it wholly in such a firm assent as producs obedience unto all divine commands. For as it does both these, as both these are included in it, so unto the especial nature of it more is required. It is as justifying neither a mere assent nor any such firm degree of it, as should produce such effects.

1. All faith whatever is an Acts of that power of our souls in general, whereby we are able firmly to assent unto the truth upon testimony, in things not evident unto us by sense or reason. It is the evidence of things not seen. And all divine faith is in general an assent unto the truth that is proposed unto us upon divine testimony. And hereby as it is commonly agreed, it is distinguished from Opinion and moral certainty on the one hand, and Science or Demonstration on the other.

2. Wherefore in Justifying faith, there is an assent unto all divine Revelation upon the testimony of God the Revealer. By no other Acts of our mind, wherein this is not included or supposed, can we be justified; not because it is not justifying, but because it is not faith. This assent I say is included in Justifying faith. And therefore we find it often spoken of in the scripture (the instances whereof are gathered up by Bellarmin and others) with respect unto other things, and not restrained unto the especial promise of grace in Christ, which is that which they oppose. But besides, that in most places of that kind, the proper object of faith as Justifying is included and referred ultimately unto, though diversly expressed by some of its causes or concomitant Adjuncts, it is granted that we believe all divine truth, with that very faith whereby we are justified, so as that other things may well be ascribed unto it.

3. On these Concessions we yet say two things. (1) That the whole nature of Justifying faith does not consist merely in an assent of the mind, be it never so firm and stedfast, nor whatever effects of obedience it may produce. (2) That in its duty and Office in justification, whence it has that especial denomination, which alone we are in the explanation of, it does not equally respect all divine Revelation as such, but has a peculiar object proposed unto it in the scripture. And whereas both these will be immediately evinced in our description of the proper object and nature of faith, I shall at present oppose some few things unto this description of them, sufficient to manifest how aliene it is from the truth.

1. This assent is an Acts of the understanding only. An Acts of the mind with respect unto truth evidenced unto it, be it of what nature it will. So we believe the worst of things and the most grievous unto us, as well as the best and the most useful. But Believing is an Acts of the heart, which in the scripture comprizs all the Faculties of the soul, as one entire principle of moral and spiritual duties. With the heart Man believs unto righteousness, Romans 10:10. And it is frequently described by an Acts of the will, though it be not so alone, But without an Acts of the will no man can believe as he ought. See John 5:40. John 1:12. chap. 6:35. We come to Christ in an Acts of the will; and let whosoever will, come. And to be willing is taken for to believe, Psalm 110:3. and Unbelief is Disobedience, Hebrews 3:18, 19.

2. All Divine truth is equally the object of this assent. It respects not the especial nature or use of any one truth, be it of what kind it will, more than another; nor can it do so, since it regards only Divine Revelation. Hence that Judas was the Traytor must have as great an influence into our justification, as that Christ died for our sins. But how contrary this is unto the scripture, the Analogy of faith, and the Experience of all that believe, needs neither declaration nor Confirmation.

3. This assent unto all Divine Revelation may be true and sincere, where there has been no previous work of the law, nor any conviction of sin. No such thing is required thereunto, nor are they found in many who yet do so assent unto the truth. But, as we have shewed, this is necessary unto Evangelical Justifying faith; and to suppose the contrary is to overthrow the order and use of the law and gospel, with their mutual relation unto one another in subserviency unto the design of God in the salvation of sinners.

4. It is not a way of seeking Relief unto a convinced sinner, whose, mouth is stopped, in that he is become guilty before God. Such alone are capable Subjects of justification, and do or can seek after it in a due manner. A mere assent unto Divine Revelation is not peculiarly suited to give such persons Relief. For it is that which brings them into that condition from whence they are to be relieved. For the knowledge of sin is by the law. But faith is a peculiar acting of the soul for Deliverance.

5. It is no more then what the Devils themselves may have, and have, as the apostle James affirms. For that instance of their Believing one God, proves that they believe also whatever this one God who is the first Essential truth does reveal, to be true. And it may consist with all manner of wickedness, and without any obedience; and so make God a liar, 1 John 2:4. And it is no wonder if men deny us to be justified by faith, who know no other faith but this.

6. It no way answers the Descriptions that are given of justifying faith in the scripture. Particularly it is by faith as it is justifying that we are said to receive Christ; John 1:12. Colossians 2:6. To receive the promise, the word, the grace of God, the Attonement, Jam. 1:21. John 3:33. Acts 2:41. [〈1 page duplicate〉][〈1 page duplicate〉]chap. 11:1. Romans 5:11. Hebrews 11:17. To cleave unto God, Deuteronomy 4:4. Acts 11:23. And so in the Old testament it is generally expressed by trust and hope. Now none of these things are contained in a mere assent unto the truth; but they require other actings of the soul than what are peculiar unto the understanding only.

7. It answers not the Experience of them that truly believe. This all our inquiries and arguments in this matter must have respect unto. For the sum of what we aim at, is only to discover what they do, who really believe unto the justification of life. It is not what notions men may have hereof, nor how they express their Conceptions, how defensible they are against objections by accuracy of Expressions and subtile distinctions; but only what we our selves do, if we truly believe, that we inquire after. And although our differences about it, do argue the great imperfection of that state wherein we are, so as that those who truly believe cannot agree what they do in their so doing, which should give us a mutual tenderness and forbearance towards each other; yet if men would attend unto their own Experience in the application of their souls unto God, for the pardon of sin and righteousness to life, more than unto the notions which on various occasions their minds are influenced by or prepossessed withall, many differences and unnecessary disputations about the nature of Justifying faith would be prevented or prescinded. I deny therefore that this general assent unto the truth, how firm soever it be, or what effects in the way of duty or obedience soever it may produce, does answer the Experience of any one true believer, as containing the entire Actings of his soul towards God for pardon of sin and justification.

8. That faith alone is Justifying which has justification actually accompanying of it. For thence alone it has that denomination. To suppose a man to have Justifying faith, and not to be justified is to suppose a Contradiction. Nor do we inquire after the nature of any other faith but that whereby a believer is actually justified. But it is not so with all them in whom this assent is found; nor will those that plead for it, allow that upon it alone any are immediately justified. Wherefore it is sufficiently evident that there is somewhat more required unto Justifying faith than a real assent unto all Divine Revelations, although we do give that assent by the faith whereby we are justified.

But on the other side, it is supposed that by some the object of Justifying faith is so much restrained, and the nature of it thereby determined unto such a peculiar Acting of the mind, as compriss not the whole of what is in the scripture ascribed unto it. So some have said, that it is the pardon of our sins in particular that is the object of Justifying faith; faith therefore they make to be a full perswasion of the forgiveness of our sins through the mediation of Christ; or that what Christ did and suffered as our Mediator, he did it for us in particular. And a particular application of especial mercy unto our own souls and Consciences is hereby made the essence of faith. Or to believe that our own sins are forgiven, seems hereby to be the first and most proper Acts of Justifying faith. Hence it would follow, that whosoever does not believe, or has not a firm perswasion of the forgiveness of his own sins in particular, has no saving faith, is no true believer; which is by no means to be admitted. And if any have been or are of this Opinion, I fear that they were in the asserting of it, neglective of their own Experience; Or it may be rather, that they knew not how in their Experience, all the other Actings of faith wherein its essence does consist, were included in this perswasion, which in an especial manner they aimed at; whereof we shall speak afterwards. And there is no doubt unto me but that this which they propose, faith is suited unto, aims at, and does ordinarily effect in true believers, who improve it, and grow in its exercise in a due manner.

Many great Divines at the first reformation, did (as the lutherans generally yet do) thus make the mercy of God in Christ, and thereby the forgiveness of our own sins, to be the proper object of Justifying faith, as such; whose essence therefore they placed in a fiducial trust in the grace of God by Christ declared in the promises, with a certain unwavering application of them unto our selves. And I say with some confidence, that those who endeavour not to attain hereunto, either understand not the nature of Believing, or are very neglective both of the grace of God, and of their own peace.

That which enclined those great and holy persons so to express themselves in this matter, and to place the essence of faith in the highest Acting of it, (wherein yet they always included and supposed its other Acts) was the state of the Consciences of men with whom they had to do. Their Contest in this Article with the Romansan church, was about the way and means whereby the Consciences of convinced troubled sinners might come to rest and peace with God. For at that time they were no otherwise instructed, but that these things were to be obtained, not only by works of righteousness which men did themselves in obedience unto the commands of God, but also by the strict observance of many Inventions of what they called the church; with an Ascription of a strange Efficacy to the same ends, unto missatical Sacrifices, Sacramentals, Absolutions, Pennances, Pilgrimages, and other the like Superstitions. Hereby they observed that the Consciences of men were kept in perpetual disquietments, perplexities, fears and bondage, exclusive of that Rest, assurance, and peace with God through the Blood of Christ, which the gospel proclaims and tenders. And when the Leaders of the people in that church had observed this, that indeed the ways and means which they proposed and presented, would never bring the souls of men to Rest, nor give them the least assurance of the pardon of sins, they made it a part of their doctrine, that the belief of the pardon of our own sins, and assurance of the love of God in Christ, were false and pernicious. For what should they else do, when they knew well enough, that in their way, and by their propositions they were not to be attained? Hence the principal Controversie in this matter which the reformed Divines had with those of the church of Romanse was this, whether there be according unto, and by the gospel, a state of Rest and assured peace with God to be attained in this life. And having all Advantages imaginable for the proof hereof, from the very nature, use, and end of the gospel, from the grace, love, and design of God in Christ, from the Efficacy of his mediation in his Oblation and intercession, they assigned these things to be the especial object of Justifying faith, and that faith it self to be a fiduciary trust in the especial grace and mercy of God, through the blood of Christ, as proposed in the promises of the gospel. That is, they directed the souls of men to seek for peace with God, the pardon of sin, and a right unto the Heavenly Inheritance, by placing their sole trust and confidence in the mercy of God by Christ alone. But yet withall I never read any of them, (I know not what others have done) who affirmed that every true and sincere believer always had a full assurance of the Especial love of God in Christ, or of the pardon of his own sins; though they plead that this the scripture requires of them in a way of duty, and that this they ought to aim at the Attainment of.

And these things I shall leave as I find them, unto the use of the church. For I shall not contend with any about the way and manner of expressing the truth, where the substance of it is retained. That which in these things is aimed at, is [〈1 page duplicate〉][〈1 page duplicate〉] the Advancement and glory of the grace of God in Christ, with the conduct of the souls of men unto Rest and peace with him. Where this is attained or aimed at, and that in the way of truth for the substance of it, variety of Apprehensions and Expressions concerning the same things, may tend unto the useful exercise of the faith and Edification of the church. Wherefore neither opposing nor rejecting what has been delivered by others as their judgments herein, I shall propose my own thoughts concerning it; not without some hopes that they may tend to communicate light in the knowledge of the thing it self enquired into, and the reconciliation of some differences about it amongst Learned and Holy men. I say therefore, That the Lord Jesus Christ himself, as the ordinance of God in his work of mediation for the Recovery and salvation of lost sinners, and as unto that end proposed in the promise of the gospel, is the adequate proper object of Justifying faith, or of saving faith in its work and duty with respect unto our justification.

The reason why I thus state the object of Justifying faith, is because it compleatly answers all that is ascribed unto it in the scripture, and all that the nature of it does require. What belongs unto it as faith in general is here supposed; and what is peculiar unto it as Justifying is fully expressed. And a few things will serve for the Explication of the Thesis which shall afterwards be confirmed.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is asserted to be the proper object of Justifying faith. For so it is required in all those testimonies of scripture where that faith is declared to be our believing in him, on his name, our receiving of him, or looking unto him, whereunto the promise of justification and Eternal life is annexed; whereof afterwards. See John 1:12. chap. 3:16, 36. chap. 6:29, 47. chap. 7:38. chap. 15:25. Acts 10:41. Acts 13:38, 39. Acts 16:31. Acts 26:18. &c.

2. He is not proposed as the object of our faith unto the justification of life absolutely, but as the ordinance of God even the father unto that end, who therefore also is the immediate object of faith as Justifying; in what respects we shall declare immediately. So justification is frequently ascribed unto faith as peculiarly acted on him, John 5:24. He that believs on him that sent me, has Everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death into life. And herein is comprized that grace, love and favor of God, which is the principal moving cause of our justification, Romans 3:23, 24. Add hereunto John 6:29. and the object of faith is compleat. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he has sent. God the father as sending, and the Son as sent, that is, Jesus Christ in the work of his mediation, as the ordinance of God for the Recovery and salvation of lost sinners, is the object of our faith. See 1 Peter 1:21.

3. That he may be the object of our faith whose general nature consists in assent, and which is the Foundation of all its other Acts, He is proposed in the promises of the gospel, which I therefore place as concurring unto its compleat object. Yet do I not herein consider the promises merely as peculiar divine Revelations, in which sense they belong unto the formal object of faith; but as they contain, propose, and exhibit Christ as the ordinance of God and the benefits of his mediation unto them that do believe. There is an especial assent unto the promises of the gospel, wherein some place the nature and essence of Justifying faith, or of faith in its work and duty with respect unto our justification. And so they make the promises of the gospel to be the proper object of it. And it cannot be, but that in the Actings of Justifying faith there is a peculiar assent unto them. Howbeit this being only an Acts of the mind, neither the whole nature, nor the whole work of faith can consist therein. Wherefore so far as the promises concur to the compleat object of faith, they are considered materially also, namely, as they contain, propose, and exhibit Christ unto believers. And in that sense are they frequently affirmed in the scripture to be the object of our faith unto the justification of life, Acts 2:39. Acts 26:6. Romans 4:16, 20. chap. 15:8. Galatians 3:16, 18. Hebrews 4:1. chap. 6:13. chap. 8:6. chap. 10:36.

4. The end for which the Lord Christ in the work of his mediation is the ordinance of God, and as such proposed in the promises of the gospel, namely, the Recovery and salvation of lost sinners, belongs unto the object of faith as Justifying. Hence the forgiveness of sin and Eternal life are proposed in the scripture as things that are to be believed unto justification, or as the object of our faith, Matthew 9:2. Acts 2:38, 39. chap. 5:31. chap. 26:18. Romans 3:25. chap. 4:7, 8. Colossians 2:13. Titus 1:2. &c. And whereas the Just is to live by his faith, and every one is to believe for himself, or make an application of the things believed unto his own behoof, some from hence have affirmed the pardon of our own sins, and our own salvation to be the proper object of faith, and indeed it does belong thereunto when in the way and order of God and the gospel we can attain unto it, 1. Cor. 15:3, 4. Galatians 2:20. Ephesians 1:6, 7.

Wherefore asserting the Lord Jesus Christ in the work of his mediation to be the object of faith unto justification, I include therein the grace of God which is the cause, the pardon of sin which is the effect, and the promises of the gospel which are the means of communicating Christ and the benefit of his mediation unto us.

And all these things are so united, so intermixed in their mutual relations and Respects, so concatenated in the purpose of God, and the declaration made of his will in the gospel, as that the Believing of any one of them does virtually include the belief of the rest. And by whom any one of them is disbelieved, they frustrate and make void all the rest, and so faith it self.

The due consideration of these things solvs all the Difficulties that arise about the nature of faith, either from the scripture, or from the Experience of them that believe, with respect unto its object. Many things in the scripture are we said to believe with it and by it, and that unto justification. But two things are hence evident. (1) That no one of them can be asserted to be the compleat adequate object of our faith. (2) That none of them are so absolutely, but as they relate unto the Lord Christ, as the ordinance of God for our justification and salvation.

And this answers the Experience of all that do truly believe. For these things being united and made inseparable in the constitution of God, all of them are virtually included in every one of them. (1) Some fix their faith and trust principally on the grace, love, and mercy of God; especially they did so under the Old testament, before the clear Revelation of Christ and his mediation. So did the Psalmist, Psalm 130:34. Psalm 33:18, 19. And the Publican, Luke 18:13. And these are in places of the scripture innumerable proposed as the causes of our justification. See Romans 3:24. Ephesians 2:4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Titus 3:5, 6, 7. But this they do not absolutely, but with respect unto the redemption that is in the Blood of Christ; Daniel 9:17. Nor does the scripture any where propose them unto us, but under that consideration. See Romans 3:24, 25. Ephesians 1:6, 7, 8. For this is the cause, way and means of the communication of that grace, love, and mercy unto us. (2) Some place and fix them principally on the Lord Christ, his mediation and the benefits thereof. This the apostle Paul proposs frequently unto us in his own example. See Galatians 2:20. Philippians 3:8, 9, 10. But this they do not absolutely, but with respect unto the grace and love of God whence it is that they are given and communicated unto us, Romans 8:32. John 3:16. Ephesians 1:6, 7, 8. Nor are they otherwise any where proposed unto us in the scripture as the object of our faith unto justification. (3) Some in a peculiar manner fix their souls in Believing on the promises. And this is exemplified in the instance of Abraham, Genesis 15:16. Romans 4:20. And so are they proposed in the scripture as the object of our faith, Acts 2:39. Romans 4:16. Hebrews 4:1, 2. chap. 6:12, 13. But this they do not merely as they are Divine Revelations, but as they contain and propose unto us the Lord Christ and the benefits of his mediation, from the grace, love, and mercy of God. Hence the apostle disputes at large in his epistle unto the Galatians, That if justification be any way but by the promise, both the grace of God, and the death of Christ are evacuated and made of none effect. And the reason is, because the promise is nothing but the way and means of the communication of them unto us. (4) Some fix their faith on the things themselves which they aim at; namely, the pardon of sin and Eternal life. And these also in the scripture are proposed unto us as the object of our faith, or that which we are to believe unto justification, Psalm 130:4. Acts 26:18. Titus 1:2. But this is to be done in its proper order, especially as unto the application of them unto our own souls. For we are no where required to believe them, or our own Interest in them, but as they are effects of grace, and love of God, through Christ and his mediation proposed in the promises of the gospel. Wherefore the Belief of them is included in the Belief of these, and is in order of nature antecedent thereunto. And the Belief of the forgiveness of sins and Eternal life, without the due exercise of faith in those causes of them, is but Presumption.

I have therefore given the entire object of faith as Justifying, or in its work and duty with respect unto our justification, in compliance with the testimonies of the scripture, and the Experience of them that believe.

Allowing therefore their proper place unto the promises, and unto the effect of all in the pardon of sins and Eternal life; that which I shall farther confirm is, That the Lord Christ in the work of his mediation, as the ordinance of God for the Recovery and salvation of lost sinners, is the proper adequate object of Justifying faith. And the true nature of Evangelical faith consists in the Respect of the heart (which we shall immediately describe) unto the love, grace, and wisdom of God, with the mediation of Christ, in his obedience, with the sacrifice, satisfaction, and Attonement for sin which he made by his Blood. These things are impiously opposed by some as inconsistent. For the second head of the socinian impiety is, That the grace of God, and satisfaction of Christ are opposite and inconsistent, so as that if we allow of the one we must deny the other. But as these things are so proposed in the scripture, as that without granting them both, neither can be believed; so faith which respects them as subordinate, namely, the mediation of Christ unto the grace of God, that fixs it self on the Lord Christ and that redemption which is in his blood, as the ordinance of God, the effect of his wisdom, grace and love, finds rest in both, and in nothing else.

For the proof of the assertion I need not labor in it; it being not only abundantly declared in the scripture, but that which contains in it a principal part of the design and substance of the gospel. I shall therefore only refer unto some of the Places wherein it is taught, or the testimonies that are given unto it.

The whole is expressed in that place of the apostle wherein the doctrine of justification is most eminently proposed unto us, Romans 3:24, 25. being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood; to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. Whereunto we may add Ephesians 1:6, 7. He has made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his Blood, according to the Riches of his grace. That whereby we are justified is the especial object of our faith unto justification. But this is the Lord Christ in the work of his mediation. For we are justified by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ; for in him we have redemption through his Blood, even the forgiveness of sin. Christ as a propitiation is the cause of our justification, and the object of our faith, or we attain it by faith in his Blood. But this is so under this formal consideration, as he is the ordinance of God for that end, appointed, given, proposed, set forth from and by the grace, wisdom, and love of God. God set him forth to be a propitiation. He makes us accepted in the Beloved. We have redemption in his Blood, according to the Riches of his grace, whereby he makes us accepted in the Beloved. And herein he abounds towards us in all wisdom; Ephesians 1:8. This therefore is that which the gospel proposs unto us, as the especial object of our faith unto the justification of life.

But we may also in the same manner confirm the several parts of the assertion distinctly.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ as proposed in the promise of the gospel, is the peculiar object of faith unto justification. There are three sorts of testimonies whereby this is confirmed.

1. Those wherein it is positively asserted. As Acts 10:41. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believs in him shall receive the remission of sins. Christ believed in as the means and cause of the remission of sins, is that which all the prophets give witness unto Acts 16:31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shalt be saved. It is the answer of the apostles unto the Jaylors inquiry; Sirs, What must I do to be saved? His duty in Believing, and the object of it, the Lord Jesus Christ, is what they return thereunto, Acts 4:12. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved. That which is proposed unto us as the only way and means of our justification and salvation, and that in opposition unto all other ways, is the object of faith unto our justification; But this is Christ alone, exclusively unto all other things. This is testified unto by Moses and the prophets; the design of the whole scripture being to direct the faith of the church unto the Lord Christ alone for life and salvation, Luke 24:25, 26, 27.

2. All those wherein Justifying faith is affirmed to be, our Believing in him, or Believing on his name, which are multiplied. John 1:12. He gave power to them to become the Sons of God, who believed on his name, chap. 3:16. That whosoever believs in him should not perish, but have Everlasting life, verse 36. He that believs on the Son has Everlasting life, chap. 6:29. This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he has sent, verse 47. He that believs on me has Everlasting life, chap. 7:38. He that believs on me, out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water. So chap. 9:35, 36, 37. chap. 11:25. Acts 26:18. That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith that is in me, 1 Peter 2:6, 7. In all which places, and many other, we are not only directed to place and affix our faith on him, but the effect of justification is ascribed thereunto. So expressly, Acts 13:38, 39. which is what we design to prove.

3. Those which give us such a description of the Acts of faith, as make him the direct and proper object of it. Such are they wherein it is called a receiving of him, John 1:12. To as many as received him, Colossians 2:6. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord. That which we receive by faith is the proper object of it. And it is represented their looking unto the Brazen Serpent when it was lifted up, who were stung by fiery Serpents, John 3:14, 15. chap. 12:32. faith is that Acts of the soul whereby Convinced sinners, ready otherwise to perish, do look unto Christ as he was made a propitiation for their sins; and who so do shall not perish but have Everlasting life. He is therefore the object of our faith.

2ly. He is so as he is the ordinance of God unto this end, which consideration is not to be separated from our faith in him. And this also is confirmed by several sorts of testimonies.

1. All Those wherein the love and grace of God are proposed as the only cause of giving Jesus Christ to be the way and means of our Recovery and salvation, whence they become, or God in them, the supream Efficient cause of our justification, John 3:16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believs on him should not perish, but have Everlasting life, So Romans 5:8. 1 John 4:9, 10. being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ, Romans 3:23. Ephesians 1:6, 7, 8. This the Lord Christ directs our faith unto continually, referring all unto him that sent him, and whose will be came to do, Hebrews 10:5.

2. All those, wherein God is said to set forth and propose Christ, and to make him be for us, and unto us, what he is so, unto the justification of life, Romans 3:25. Whom God has proposed to be a propitiation, 1. Cor. 1:30. Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, 2 Corinthians 5:21. He has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Acts 5:35. &c. Wherefore in the acting of faith in Christ unto justification, we can no otherwise consider him but as the ordinance of God to that end; he brings nothing unto us, does nothing for us, but what God appointed, designed, and made him to be. And this must diligently be considered, that by our regard by faith unto the Blood, the sacrifice, the satisfaction of Christ, we take off nothing from the free grace, favor and love of God.

3. All those wherein the wisdom of God, in the contrivance of this way of justification and salvation is proposed unto us; Ephesians 1:7, 8. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the Riches of his grace, wherein he has abounded towards us in all wisdom and understanding. See chap. 3:10, 11:1 Corinthians 1:24.

The whole is comprized in that of the apostle; God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their Trespasses unto them, 2 Corinthians 5:19. All that is done in our reconciliation unto God, as unto the pardon of our sins, and Acceptance with him unto life, was by the presence of God in his grace, wisdom, and power in Christ, designing and effecting of it.

Wherefore the Lord Christ proposed in the promise of the gospel as the object of our faith unto the justification of life, is considered as the ordinance of God unto that end. Hence the love, the grace, and the wisdom of God in the sending and giving of him, are comprised in that object; and not only the Actings of God in Christ towards us, but all his Actings towards the person of Christ himself unto the same end belong thereunto. So as unto his death; God set him forth to be a propitiation; Romans 3:24. He spared him not, but delivered, him up for us all, Romans 8:32. And therein laid all our sins upon him, Isaiah 53:6. So he was raised for our justification, Romans 4:25. And our faith is in God who raised him from the dead, Romans 10:9. And in his exaltation, Acts 5:31. Which things compleat the record that God has given of his Son, 1 John 5:10, 11, 12.

The whole is confirmed by the exercise of faith in prayer, which is the souls application of it self unto God for the participation of the benefits of the mediation of Christ. And it is called our Access through him unto the father; Ephesians 2:18. Our coming through him unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need, Hebrews 4:15, 16. and through him, as both an High Pri and sacrifice, Hebrews 10:19, 20, 21. So do we bow our Knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ Ephesians 3:14. This answers the Experience of all who know what it is to pray. We come therein in the name of Christ, by him, through his mediation, unto God even the father, to be through his grace, love and mercy, made partakers of what he has designed and promised to communicate unto poor sinners by him. And this represents the compleat object of our faith.

The due consideration of these things will reconcile and reduce into a perfect Harmony, whatever is spoken in the scripture concerning the object of Justifying faith, or what we are said to believe therewith. For whereas this is affirmed of sundry things distinctly, they can none of them be supposed to be the entire adequate object of faith. But consider them all in their relation unto Christ, and they have all of them their proper place therein; namely, the grace of God, which is the cause; the pardon of sin, which is the effect; and the promises of the gospel, which are the means of communicating the Lord Christ and the benefits of his mediation unto us.

The reader may be pleased to take notice that I do in this place not only neglect, but despise the late Attempt of some, to wrest all things of this nature spoken of the person and mediation of Christ unto the doctrine of the gospel, exclusively unto them; and that not only as what is noisome and impious in it self, but as that also which has not yet been endeavoured to be proved, with any Appearance of Learning, argument, or sobriety.

The means of justification on our part is faith. Scripture affirms so frequently and so plainly that we are justified by faith that no one can directly deny it in plain terms. Some, pushed by the biases that theological controversy tends to produce, have begun claiming that our justification is more often attributed to other graces or duties than to faith — but that claim is best passed over in silence rather than argued about. Yet even when people formally grant that we are justified by faith, some explain it in ways that completely hollow out the meaning, as surely as if they had rejected it outright. It would actually serve people better if this teaching were plainly refused at the start rather than leading them through a maze of words and distinctions that ends up excluding it entirely — which is exactly what both the Roman Catholics and the Socinians do. For now, we may take the proposition as established and simply ask what it truly means. The first thing to examine is faith itself, which raises two questions: (1) its nature, and (2) its role in our justification.

So many discourses already exist on the nature of faith in general, on the specific nature of justifying faith, and on its distinguishing marks from what is called faith but is not justifying — many of them the products of sound judgment and genuine experience — that it is entirely unnecessary to enter into a lengthy further discussion of them. Nevertheless, something must be said to clarify what we mean: what is the faith to which we attribute our justification, and what is its role in it?

The various distinctions commonly made about faith — since the word carries many meanings — I will skip entirely, not only because they are well known, but because they do not belong to our present argument. What does concern us is this: Scripture plainly speaks of two kinds of faith by which people believe the gospel. There is a faith by which we are justified — whoever has it will certainly be saved, it purifies the heart, and it works through love. And there is a faith, or a kind of believing, that does none of these things — whoever has it and nothing more is not justified and cannot be saved. Therefore, not every faith by which people are said to believe is justifying faith. For example, it is said of Simon the Magician that he believed (Acts 8:13), yet he was in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity and therefore did not believe with the faith that purifies the heart (Acts 15:9). Similarly, many believed in the name of Jesus when they saw the miracles He performed, but Jesus did not entrust Himself to them because He knew what was in man (John 2:23-24). They did not believe in His name in the same way — or with the same kind of faith — as those who receive the power to become children of God (John 1:12). Some, when they hear the word, receive it with joy and believe for a while, but have no root (Luke 8:13). And faith without a root in the heart will not justify anyone. For with the heart people believe and are justified (Romans 10:10). The same is true of those who will cry on the last day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name" — while they were always workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:22-23).

This kind of faith is usually called historical faith. But that name is not taken from its object, as if it only related to biblical history or historical facts contained in Scripture. It actually extends to the whole truth of God's word, including the promises of the gospel. It is called historical faith because of the nature of the agreement it involves — the same kind of agreement we give to historical events that have been credibly reported to us.

This faith has various differences and degrees, both in regard to what grounds it and in regard to its effects. As for the first: all faith is agreement based on testimony, and divine faith is agreement based on divine testimony. The differences and degrees of this faith correspond to how that testimony is received. Some people grasp it only on human grounds, weighing its credibility by reason alone — and their agreement is a purely natural act of the understanding, which is the lowest degree of historical faith. Others have their minds enabled by spiritual illumination, which reveals the evidence of divine truth and makes it worth believing — and the agreement they give on that basis is more firm and more active than that of the first group.

This faith also has differences and degrees in regard to its effects. In some people it has little or no influence on the will or the affections and produces no change in how they live — as is the case with those who profess to believe the gospel yet live in all kinds of sin. At this level, the apostle James calls it dead faith, comparing it to a lifeless body with no movement, and he says it is the same kind of agreement that even demons are compelled to make. This kind of faith is common in the world. In others, this faith works powerfully on the affections in varying degrees — pictured in the different kinds of soil where the seed of the word is sown — and it produces many visible effects in their lives. At its highest development, both in the strength of its evidential grounding and in the effects it produces, it is usually called temporary faith, because it neither holds firm against all opposition nor will bring anyone to eternal rest. The name comes from our Savior's description of the one who believes with this faith (Matthew 13:21).

I grant that this faith is genuine in its own category — it is not merely called faith in name only. As a general kind of faith it is real, but it is not the same specific kind as justifying faith. Justifying faith is not simply a higher or the highest degree of this faith — it is a different kind altogether. Therefore, several things may be observed about this faith at its highest development as they relate to our subject.

1. A person may have this faith along with all its effects and still not be justified — and if they have no other kind of faith, they cannot be justified. For justification is nowhere attributed to this faith; on the contrary, the apostle James explicitly states that no one can be justified by it.

2. This faith can produce great effects in the mind, the affections, and the lives of people, yet none of those effects are the ones that belong uniquely to justifying faith. Still, the effects may be significant enough that those who experience them should be regarded — and by charitable judgment ought to be regarded — as true believers.

3. This is the kind of faith that can exist alone. We are justified by faith alone — but not by the kind of faith that can exist alone. "Alone" refers to faith's role in justification, not to its nature or existence. We absolutely deny that anyone can be justified by a faith that can exist by itself — that is, apart from a principle of spiritual life and universal obedience that actively expresses itself in all the works that duty requires.

I have made these observations only to counter the slander and reproach that some people try to attach to the doctrine of justification by faith alone through the mediation of Christ. According to them, anyone who holds this doctrine must be a Solifidian or an Antinomian — someone who opposes or denies the necessity of universal obedience and good works. Most of those who press this charge know in their own conscience that it is false. But that is how many people handle theological disputes — they will assert anything that seems to benefit their cause, to the great scandal of religion. If by Solifidians they mean those who believe that faith alone is, on our part, the means, instrument, or condition of our justification — then all the prophets and apostles were Solifidians, and were taught to be so by Jesus Christ Himself, as will be proved. If they mean those who claim that justifying faith exists alone — separate or separable from a principle and practice of holy obedience — then they will have to find such people themselves, because we know nothing of them. We recognize no faith as the same kind as justifying faith unless it essentially and fundamentally contains universal obedience within it, as an effect exists in its cause or fruit in its root, and expresses itself in all particular duties as rule and circumstance require. In fact, we recognize no faith as justifying — or as belonging to the same kind — unless it is in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works. And if this is not enough to persuade some people to stop seeking rhetorical advantage through such shameful slanders, it is at least enough for others to free their minds from any concern about those charges.

To understand the specific nature of justifying faith, the evidence for it can be organized under four headings: (1) Its causes on God's part. (2) What is required in us prior to it. (3) Its proper object. (4) Its proper and distinctive acts and effects. Each of these will be addressed as far as is necessary for our present purpose.

1. The doctrine of the causes of faith — tracing its ultimate origin in the divine will and the way it is communicated to us — is so expansive and so intertwined with the doctrine of how efficacious grace works in conversion (which I have treated elsewhere) that I will not discuss it here. It cannot be adequately addressed in a few words, and engaging with it fully would take us too far from our present argument. This much I will say: from this topic it can be conclusively demonstrated that the faith by which we are justified is a special kind of faith — one that no other faith, from which justification is not inseparable, shares.

2. Our first inquiry concerns the second point: what is required of us as a matter of duty before we believe unto the justification of life? I maintain that those in whom this faith is worked — to whom it is given and whose duty it is to believe — must already have experienced the work of the law in the conviction of sin; that is, conviction of sin is a necessary precondition to justifying faith. Much has been debated about what this conviction involves and what effects it produces in the mind that prepare the soul to receive the promise of the gospel. There are different views about those effects and accompanying experiences — things like compunction, humiliation, self-examination, sorrow for sin, and similar responses — as well as about the degree to which these are ordinarily required before faith and conversion to God. I will speak briefly about these, only so far as they are inseparable from the conviction itself. I will first consider conviction itself with what is essential to it, and then consider its effects in connection with the temporary faith described earlier. My purpose is not to analyze their nature — which I take as already understood — but only to consider how they relate to our justification.

Regarding conviction itself: I affirm that the work of conviction — by which the soul gains a practical understanding of the nature of sin, its guilt, and the punishment it deserves, and becomes aware of its own condition with regard to both original and actual sin, along with its complete inability to deliver itself from that condition — is the necessary precondition to justifying faith in adults for whom the word is the external means and instrument of justification.

A convicted sinner is the only one who is in a fit state to receive justification — though this does not mean that everyone who is convicted is or must necessarily be justified. This conviction, along with its effects and consequences, does not so prepare the person that justifying grace must inevitably follow, as the Roman Catholics suggest. Nor does it constitute such a preparation that by virtue of any divine promise or agreement a convicted person will necessarily be pardoned and justified. Rather: just as someone may believe with a non-justifying faith — such as the kinds described above — without this conviction, so conviction ordinarily precedes, and is necessary as a prior condition to, the faith that leads to justification. The point is not that conviction guarantees justification, but that without it justification cannot ordinarily occur.

This, I say, is required in the person to be justified — prior in order of nature to the faith by which we are justified — and I will prove this with the following arguments. First, without properly accounting for it, the true nature of faith can never be understood. As we showed earlier, justification is God's way of delivering the convicted sinner — the one whose mouth has been stopped, who stands guilty before God, accountable to the law, and shut up under sin. A sense of that condition and all that belongs to it is therefore required for believing. This is why Le Blanc, who has researched these matters with some care, commends the definition of faith given by Mestrezat: that faith is the flight of a penitent sinner to the mercy of God in Christ. There is in fact more truth and insight in that definition than in twenty others that appear more technically precise. But without assuming the conviction described above, that definition of faith is incomprehensible. For it is conviction alone that drives the soul to flee to God's mercy in Christ, to be saved from the wrath to come — as in Hebrews 6:18, where they "fled for refuge."

2. The order, relationship, and purpose of the law and the gospel together conclusively demonstrate the necessity of conviction prior to believing. The first thing any person must deal with concerning their eternal condition — both by nature and by God's design — is the law. The law is first presented to the soul with its terms of righteousness and life, and with its curse in the event of failure. Without this, the gospel cannot be understood, nor its grace properly valued. For the gospel is the revelation of God's way of rescuing souls from the sentence and curse of the law (Romans 1:17). That was the nature, purpose, and aim of the first promise, and of the entire work of God's grace revealed in all subsequent promises — that is, the whole gospel. Therefore, since the faith we are discussing is evangelical — required not by the law but by the gospel, having the gospel as its source, rule, and object — it cannot be required of us or exercised by us apart from the prior work and effect of the law in convicting of sin, bringing knowledge of sin, a sense of its guilt, and an awareness of the sinner's condition before God. Any faith that has no bearing on this we absolutely deny to be the faith by which we are justified (Galatians 3:22-24; Romans 10:4).

3. Our Savior Himself teaches this directly in the gospel. He calls only those who are weary and heavy-laden, declares that healthy people have no need of a physician but only the sick, and says He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. In all of this He is not speaking of sinners in the general sense — which all people are — for He distinguishes between them, offering the gospel to some and not others. He is speaking of those who were convicted of sin, burdened by it, and were seeking deliverance.

Similarly, those to whom the apostle Peter presented the gospel promise of pardon — the proper object of gospel faith — were cut to the heart by conviction of their sin and cried out, "What shall we do?" (Acts 2:37-39). The same was true of the jailer to whom the apostle Paul offered salvation through Christ as what he must believe for his deliverance (Acts 16:30-31).

4. The condition of Adam after the fall, and God's dealings with him there, is the clearest illustration of the order and method of these things. We are by nature in the very same state and condition Adam was in after the fall. He was truly ruined by sin, and he was brought to conviction — both of the nature of his sin and its effects — through that act of God upon his mind by the law that Scripture calls "the opening of his eyes." This was nothing other than his conscience communicating to his mind an awareness of the nature, guilt, effects, and consequences of sin — something the law could then teach him that it could not before. This filled him with shame and fear. Against the shame he tried to cover himself with fig leaves, and against the fear he hid among the trees of the garden. None of the strategies people devise for freedom and safety from sin are any wiser or more likely to succeed than those, however much they may satisfy themselves with them. In this condition, God — by directly confronting Adam about what had happened — sharpened his conviction by adding His own testimony to its truth, and formally placed him under the curse of the law through a judicial pronouncement. In this lost, forsaken, hopeless state, God offered him the promise of redemption through Christ. And this promise was the object of the faith by which Adam was to be justified.

Although these things do not always happen in so clear and distinct a sequence in the minds and consciences of all who are called to believe the gospel, yet in substance — particularly the prior conviction of sin before faith — they are present in everyone who sincerely believes.

These things are well known and in substance generally agreed upon. Yet, when properly considered, they expose the emptiness and errors of many definitions of faith that are pressed upon us. Any definition or description of faith that does not explicitly, or at least implicitly, account for these things is simply misleading and fails to match the experience of those who truly believe. This includes all those who reduce faith to mere agreement with divine revelation — whatever the nature of that agreement and whatever effects are attributed to it. Such agreement can exist without any reference to the work of the law. To speak plainly: I place no value on even the most carefully argued analysis of the nature and acts of justifying faith from those who have never themselves experienced the work of the law in conviction and condemnation for sin — with its effects on their conscience — or who fail to reflect on their own experience, in which what they truly believe is better revealed than in all their theological debates. The faith by which we are justified is, in general terms, the soul's movement toward God as He reveals Himself in the gospel — offering deliverance from this lost condition, from under the curse of the law applied to the conscience — according to His will and through the ways He has appointed. I offer this not as a formal definition of faith, but simply to express what necessarily shapes it and from which its nature may be understood.

2. The effects of this conviction, and their real or claimed relationship to our justification, may also be briefly considered. Since conviction is purely a work of the law, it should not be considered alone with respect to these effects, but together with, and under the influence of, the temporary faith in the gospel described earlier. These two — temporary faith and legal conviction — are the foundation of all religious works and duties that precede justification, and we must therefore deny that they have any causal role in producing it. That said, it is granted that many internal and external acts and duties will follow from genuine conviction. The internal ones can be grouped under three headings. First, displeasure and sorrow for having sinned. It is impossible for anyone who has been genuinely convicted of sin — in the way described above — not to experience a dislike of sin and of themselves for having sinned, along with shame and sorrow over it. And it is sufficient evidence that a person is not truly convicted of sin — whatever they profess or confess — if their mind is not affected this way (Jeremiah 36:24). Second, fear of the punishment due to sin. Conviction addresses not only the instructive and commanding aspect of the law — by which the existence and nature of sin are revealed — but also its sentence and curse, by which sin is judged and condemned (Genesis 4:13-14). Therefore, where fear of threatened punishment does not follow, no one is genuinely convicted of sin, and the law has not done its proper work in them as a preparation for the administration of the gospel. And since by faith we flee from the wrath to come, where there is no awareness or sense of that wrath as deserved, there is no basis or reason for believing. Third, a desire for deliverance from the condition in which a convicted sinner finds himself is unavoidable. This is naturally the first thing conviction produces in the mind, in varying degrees of anxiety, fear, distress, and restlessness — which many, drawing on experience and the guidance of Scripture, have explained at length to great benefit to the church, though others have mocked it freely. These internal acts of the mind will also produce various external duties, which can be grouped under two headings. First, abstaining from known sin to the best of one's ability. Those who begin to feel the evil and bitterness of having sinned against God cannot help but resolve to avoid sin going forward. This flows from all the internal acts mentioned above as their cause, but especially from the last one — the desire for deliverance from their current state. They see this abstinence as the best path toward that deliverance, or at least as something without which deliverance will not come. In this condition their spirits typically act through promises and vows, with renewed sorrow when sin overtakes them — which it will in that condition. Second, the duties of religious worship — prayer and hearing the word — along with diligent participation in the church's ordinances, will also follow. For they know that without these things no deliverance can be found. A reformation of life and conduct in various degrees consists partly in these things and partly follows from them. And these responses are always present where people's convictions are genuine and lasting.

Nevertheless, it must be said that these things — individually or together, even at their highest level — are neither necessary dispositions, preparations, prior merits, nor conditions of our justification.

1. They are not conditions of justification. If one thing is the condition of another, that other thing must follow when the condition is fulfilled — otherwise it is not truly a condition. But all these things can be present without justification following. Therefore, there is no covenant, promise, or arrangement of God that makes them conditions of justification, even though in their own nature they may serve what is required of us in relation to it. They do not have the certain and infallible connection with justification that faith has — the kind guaranteed by divine promise or covenant. Nothing should be called a condition unless it has been established as such by divine agreement or promise. Otherwise, conditions could be multiplied endlessly, and everything — natural as well as moral — could be made into one. By that logic, the food we eat could be called a condition of justification. Faith and justification are inseparable, but justification and the things we are now discussing are not — as experience demonstrates.

2. Justification can occur without the external acts and duties that proceed from conviction under the influence of temporary faith. Adam was justified without them, and so were the converts in Acts 2 — for everything reported about them is essentially just conviction itself (verse 37). The same was true of the jailer (Acts 16:30-31). And for many of these acts and duties, this is the case for most who do believe. Therefore they are not conditions. A genuine condition suspends the outcome it conditions.

3. These things are not formal dispositions to justification, because justification does not consist in the introduction of any new form or inherent quality into the soul — as has been partly shown already and will be more fully demonstrated later. Nor, fourth, are they moral preparations for justification. Since they precede evangelical faith, no one in that state can have any aim other than seeking righteousness by the works of the law — and that is no preparation for justification. All discovery of God's righteousness and the soul's embrace of it belongs to faith alone. There is indeed a repentance that accompanies faith and is at least radically included in its nature, and this repentance is required for our justification. But the legal repentance that precedes gospel faith and exists apart from it is neither a disposition, preparation, nor condition of our justification.

In brief, the order of these things can be seen in God's dealings with Adam, as mentioned earlier. There are three stages. First, the sinner's eyes are opened to see the filth and guilt of sin as the sentence and curse of the law is applied to his conscience (Romans 7:9-10). This produces in the sinner's mind everything described above and drives him toward all the duties that flow from it. People at the stage of initial conviction typically think no more than that their condition is bad and dangerous, that it is their duty to improve it, and that they can and will do so if they put their minds to it. But all these efforts, as a means of protection or deliverance from the sentence of the law, are no better than fig leaves and hiding. Second, God ordinarily works through His providence or through the preaching of the word to intensify the work of the law in a particular way — corresponding to the charge He gave Adam after Adam tried to hide himself. Through this the sinner's mouth is stopped, and he becomes thoroughly aware of his guilt before God and convinced that no relief or deliverance can be found through any of the paths of sorrow or duty he has tried. Third, in this condition, it is a pure act of sovereign grace — with no regard to any of those preceding things — to call the sinner to believe, to exercise faith in the promise unto the justification of life. This is God's order, yet what precedes His call to faith has no causal role in bringing that call about.

3. The next question is the proper object of justifying faith — that is, of true faith in its office, work, and duty with respect to our justification. We must first consider what we cannot accept. Beyond various other differences that appear to exist on this topic — most of which are really just different ways of expressing the same substance — there are two positions regarded as extremes: one an excess, the other a deficiency. The first is the position of the Roman church and those who follow them on this point. They hold that the object of justifying faith, as such, is all divine truth — everything God has revealed, whether written in Scripture or delivered by tradition as presented through the authority of the church. We are not presently concerned with the second part of that description. What they maintain is that the whole of Scripture, all its parts, and all the truths of every kind it contains are equally the object of faith in its role in justification. From this it follows that faith, in their view, can only consist in the mind's agreement, since if the entire Scripture — laws, commands, promises, warnings, narratives, prophecies, and the like — is its object, and these things are considered not as containing things good or evil for us but simply as divinely revealed, then only agreement can be the required act of the mind. So confident are they in this — that faith is nothing more than agreement with divine revelation — that Bellarmin, opposing Calvin who placed knowledge in his description of justifying faith, declared that faith is better defined by ignorance than by knowledge.

This description of justifying faith and its object has been so thoroughly examined and rejected on such clear scriptural and rational grounds by Protestant writers of all kinds that it is unnecessary to dwell on it at length again. I will make a few observations about it to show both what is true in what they assert and where it falls short of the truth. Nor will I limit my attention to those in the Roman church who require nothing more for faith or believing than a bare mental agreement with divine revelation; I will also address those who locate faith entirely in such a firm agreement as produces obedience to all God's commands. For while faith does both of these things — and both are included in it — the specific nature of faith as justifying requires something more. As justifying faith, it is neither merely a mental agreement nor any degree of such agreement, however firm, that produces such effects.

1. All faith, of whatever kind, is an act of that capacity of our souls by which we are able to firmly agree with the truth based on testimony, in matters not evident to us through sense or reason. It is "the evidence of things not seen." And all divine faith is, in general, agreement with the truth presented to us on the basis of God's testimony. By this, as is commonly agreed, faith is distinguished on one side from opinion and moral certainty, and on the other from scientific knowledge or logical demonstration.

2. Therefore, justifying faith includes agreement with all divine revelation on the basis of God's testimony as its Revealer. We cannot be justified by any act of the mind that does not include or assume this — not because such assent is not justifying, but because without it there is no faith at all. This agreement, I say, is included in justifying faith. And so we find it often spoken of in Scripture — as Bellarmin and others have collected the examples — with reference to various things, not limited to the specific promise of grace in Christ, which is what they contest. But beyond the fact that in most such passages the proper object of faith as justifying is implicitly included and ultimately referred to — though expressed in various ways through causes or accompanying circumstances — it is granted that we believe all divine truth with the very same faith by which we are justified, so that other things may rightly be attributed to it.

3. Given these concessions, we still maintain two things. First, the whole nature of justifying faith does not consist merely in the mind's agreement, however firm and steadfast, or in whatever effects of obedience it may produce. Second, in its specific duty and office in justification — from which it receives its special name, which is what we are now explaining — it does not equally regard all divine revelation as such, but has a particular object assigned to it in Scripture. Since both of these points will be immediately demonstrated in our description of the proper object and nature of faith, I will for now simply raise a few objections to their position, sufficient to show how far removed it is from the truth.

1. This agreement is an act of the understanding alone — an act of the mind in response to truth presented to it, whatever its nature. We agree to the worst and most painful truths just as readily as to the best and most useful ones. But believing, as Scripture describes it, is an act of the heart — which in Scripture represents all the faculties of the soul as one unified principle of moral and spiritual action. "With the heart people believe and are justified" (Romans 10:10). And it is frequently described as an act of the will — though it is not that alone, since no one can believe as they should without an act of the will. See John 5:40; John 1:12; John 6:35. We come to Christ through an act of the will, and "whoever wishes" may come. Indeed, willingness is equated with believing in Psalm 110:3, and unbelief is called disobedience in Hebrews 3:18-19.

2. All divine truth is equally the object of this kind of agreement. It pays no special regard to the particular nature or significance of any one truth over another, since it concerns only divine revelation as such. By this logic, the fact that Judas was the traitor would have as much bearing on our justification as the fact that Christ died for our sins. But how completely this contradicts Scripture, the analogy of faith, and the experience of every true believer needs no further explanation or proof.

3. This kind of agreement with all divine revelation can be genuine and sincere even where there has been no prior work of the law and no conviction of sin. Nothing like that is required for it, and many who do agree with the truth have never experienced it. But, as we have shown, that prior work is necessary for evangelical, justifying faith. To suppose otherwise is to overturn the order and purpose of the law and the gospel and their mutual relationship as both serve God's design in the salvation of sinners.

4. This kind of agreement offers no real relief to a convinced sinner whose mouth has been stopped and who stands guilty before God. Only such people are in a position to be justified and to seek justification in the right way. A mere agreement with divine revelation is not suited to give them that relief. In fact, it is the very thing that brought them into the condition from which they need to be delivered — for the knowledge of sin comes through the law. But faith is a specific act of the soul reaching out for deliverance.

5. This kind of agreement is no more than what the devil himself has — and does have, as the apostle James affirms. The example of demons believing in one God proves that they also believe to be true whatever this one God — who is the first and essential truth — reveals. This kind of belief is consistent with every kind of wickedness and with no obedience at all, and in that state it makes God out to be a liar (1 John 2:4). It is no wonder that people who know no faith other than this kind deny that we are justified by faith.

6. This kind of agreement does not match the descriptions of justifying faith given in Scripture. In particular, it is through faith as justifying that we are said to receive Christ (John 1:12; Colossians 2:6), to receive the promise, the word, the grace of God, and the atonement (James 1:21; John 3:33; Acts 2:41; Acts 11:1; Romans 5:11; Hebrews 11:17), and to cleave to God (Deuteronomy 4:4; Acts 11:23). In the Old Testament, justifying faith is generally expressed through the language of trust and hope. None of these things are contained in a mere agreement with the truth — they require acts of the soul beyond what belongs to the understanding alone.

7. This kind of agreement does not match the experience of those who truly believe. All our inquiry and argument on this subject must relate to that experience. What we are really after is simply to discover what people actually do when they genuinely believe unto the justification of life. The question is not what notions people hold about it, how they express their ideas, or how well they can defend them against objections with careful wording and subtle distinctions — but only what we ourselves do when we truly believe. Our disagreements on this question reflect the deep imperfection of our present state, such that those who truly believe cannot even agree about what they are doing when they believe — a fact that should make us mutually tender and patient with one another. Yet if people would pay more attention to their own experience of turning to God for pardon of sin and a righteousness unto life, rather than to the notions their minds have been shaped or biased by on various occasions, many unnecessary disputes about the nature of justifying faith would be avoided. I therefore deny that this general agreement with truth — however firm it may be, and whatever effects it may produce in the way of duty or obedience — answers the experience of any single true believer as a complete account of all the ways their soul acts toward God for pardon of sin and justification.

8. The only faith that is justifying is faith that is actually accompanied by justification. It receives that name from justification alone. To suppose that a person has justifying faith and is yet not justified is to suppose a contradiction. We are not looking for any faith other than the faith by which a believer is actually justified. But not everyone who has this kind of agreement is justified, and even those who defend this view do not claim that this agreement alone immediately justifies anyone. It is therefore sufficiently clear that something more is required for justifying faith than genuine agreement with all divine revelation — even though we do give that agreement through the very faith by which we are justified.

On the other side, some have restricted the object of justifying faith so narrowly, and thereby defined the nature of faith so precisely, that they fail to capture everything Scripture attributes to it. Some have said that the specific object of justifying faith is the pardon of our own sins in particular. On this view, faith is a firm personal conviction of the forgiveness of one's sins through the mediation of Christ — that what Christ did and suffered as our Mediator, He did for us individually. A specific personal application of God's mercy to one's own soul and conscience is thus made the essence of faith. Or, to put it plainly: believing that one's own sins are forgiven is made the primary and most characteristic act of justifying faith. It would follow from this that anyone who does not have a firm conviction of the personal forgiveness of their own sins has no saving faith and is not a true believer — a conclusion that must not be accepted. If anyone has held this view, I suspect they were inattentive to their own experience in stating it — or perhaps they simply did not recognize how all the other acts of faith in which its essence truly consists were already included in the personal conviction they were emphasizing. We will address this later. But I have no doubt that what they are describing is what faith is suited for, aims toward, and ordinarily produces in true believers who grow in it and exercise it well.

Many great theologians at the time of the Reformation — as the Lutherans generally still do — made the mercy of God in Christ, and therefore the forgiveness of one's own sins, the proper object of justifying faith as such. They therefore placed the essence of faith in a trusting confidence in the grace of God through Christ as declared in the promises, with a steady personal application of those promises to oneself. I say with some confidence that those who do not aim at reaching this — either do not understand the nature of believing, or are seriously neglecting both the grace of God and their own peace.

What led those great and godly men to express themselves in this way, and to define the essence of faith by its highest act — within which they always included and assumed its other acts — was the state of the consciences of the people they were ministering to. Their dispute with the Roman church on this point was about the means by which the consciences of convicted, troubled sinners could come to rest and peace with God. At that time, people had been taught that such rest and peace were to be obtained not only through works of righteousness done in obedience to God's commands, but also through strict observance of many human inventions called church requirements, along with a strange efficacy attributed to Mass sacrifices, sacramentals, absolutions, penances, pilgrimages, and similar superstitions. The Reformers observed that these practices kept people's consciences in perpetual anxiety, confusion, fear, and bondage — cutting them off from the rest, assurance, and peace with God through the blood of Christ that the gospel proclaims and offers. And when the leaders of the Roman church recognized that their own prescribed ways and means could never bring souls to rest or give any assurance of pardon, they made it a point of doctrine that believing in the forgiveness of one's own sins and having assurance of God's love in Christ were false and dangerous teachings. What else could they do, knowing full well that these things could not be attained by their methods? The central dispute that the Reformed theologians had with the Roman church on this matter was therefore this: whether, according to the gospel, a state of rest and assured peace with God is attainable in this life. Having every possible advantage in proving that it is — from the very nature, purpose, and goal of the gospel, from the grace, love, and plan of God in Christ, and from the power of His mediation through His sacrifice and intercession — the Reformers assigned these things to be the special object of justifying faith, and defined faith itself as fiduciary trust in the special grace and mercy of God through the blood of Christ as set forth in the promises of the gospel. In other words, they directed people's souls to seek peace with God, pardon of sin, and a right to the heavenly inheritance by placing their entire trust and confidence in the mercy of God through Christ alone. That said, I have never read any of them — as far as I know — claiming that every true and sincere believer always possesses full assurance of God's special love in Christ or of the forgiveness of their own sins, even though they did argue that Scripture calls believers to this as a duty and that it is what they ought to aim for.

These things I will leave as I find them, for the benefit of the church. I will not quarrel with anyone over how the truth is expressed, as long as the substance of it is preserved. What all of these discussions are ultimately aiming at is the advancement and glory of God's grace in Christ, along with the guidance of people's souls to rest and peace with Him. Where that goal is reached or sincerely pursued — and pursued in a way that is true in its substance — a variety of views and ways of expressing the same realities can contribute to the useful exercise of faith and the building up of the church. Therefore, neither opposing nor dismissing what others have offered as their judgment on these matters, I will now share my own thoughts — with some hope that they may shed light on the thing itself being examined and help reconcile some differences among learned and godly people. My position is this: the Lord Jesus Christ Himself — as God's appointed Mediator for the recovery and salvation of lost sinners, and as set forth to that end in the promises of the gospel — is the full and proper object of justifying faith, or of saving faith in its work and duty with respect to our justification.

The reason I define the object of justifying faith this way is that it fully accounts for everything Scripture attributes to faith and everything the nature of faith requires. What belongs to faith in general is assumed here, and what is specific to it as justifying is fully expressed. A few clarifications will explain this position, which will be confirmed further below.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the proper object of justifying faith. This is required by all the Scripture passages where justifying faith is described as believing in Him, believing on His name, receiving Him, or looking to Him — with the promise of justification and eternal life attached to it. See John 1:12; John 3:16, 36; John 6:29, 47; John 7:38; John 15:25; Acts 10:41; Acts 13:38-39; Acts 16:31; Acts 26:18; and others.

2. Christ is not proposed as the object of our faith unto the justification of life in an absolute sense, but as the ordinance of God the Father appointed to that end — which means that the Father Himself is also the immediate object of justifying faith, in ways we will explain shortly. So justification is frequently attributed to faith as it is especially directed toward the Father who sent Christ (John 5:24): "He who believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." And in this is included the grace, love, and favor of God, which is the primary moving cause of our justification (Romans 3:23-24). Add to this John 6:29, and the object of faith is complete: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." God the Father as the One who sends, and the Son as the One who is sent — that is, Jesus Christ in His work of mediation as God's appointed means for the recovery and salvation of lost sinners — is the object of our faith. See 1 Peter 1:21.

3. In order for Christ to be the object of faith — whose general nature consists in agreement and which is the foundation of all its other acts — He is set before us in the promises of the gospel. I therefore include the promises as part of faith's complete object. However, I do not consider the promises here merely as distinct divine revelations — in which sense they belong to the formal object of faith — but as they contain, present, and offer Christ as the ordinance of God, and the benefits of His mediation, to those who believe. Some have placed the nature and essence of justifying faith in a special agreement with the promises of the gospel and have therefore made the gospel promises the proper object of faith. And it is certainly true that in the acts of justifying faith there is a distinctive agreement with those promises. But since this is only an act of the mind, neither the whole nature nor the whole work of faith can consist in it. Therefore, so far as the promises contribute to faith's complete object, they are also considered in their material content — namely, as they contain, present, and offer Christ to believers. In that sense, Scripture frequently affirms that the promises are the object of our faith unto the justification of life (Acts 2:39; Acts 26:6; Romans 4:16, 20; Romans 15:8; Galatians 3:16, 18; Hebrews 4:1; Hebrews 6:13; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 10:36).

4. The goal for which the Lord Christ in His work of mediation is the ordinance of God — namely, the recovery and salvation of lost sinners — and for which He is set forth as such in the gospel promises, also belongs to the object of justifying faith. This is why the forgiveness of sins and eternal life are presented in Scripture as things to be believed unto justification, or as the object of our faith (Matthew 9:2; Acts 2:38-39; Acts 5:31; Acts 26:18; Romans 3:25; Romans 4:7-8; Colossians 2:13; Titus 1:2; and others). And since the righteous person is to live by faith, and each person is to believe for themselves — making personal application of what is believed to their own benefit — some have from this argued that the pardon of our own sins and our own salvation are the proper object of faith. And indeed this does belong to faith's object when we are able to attain to it in God's appointed way and by the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:6-7).

Therefore, in asserting the Lord Jesus Christ in the work of His mediation to be the object of faith unto justification, I include in that: the grace of God as the cause, the pardon of sin as the effect, and the promises of the gospel as the means by which Christ and the benefits of His mediation are communicated to us.

All these things are so united, so intertwined in their mutual relationships, and so linked together in God's purpose and in the revelation of His will in the gospel, that believing any one of them effectively includes believing the rest. And anyone who disbelieves any one of them nullifies and renders void all the rest, and with them faith itself.

A proper understanding of these things resolves all the difficulties that arise — whether from Scripture or from the experience of believers — about the object of faith. Scripture tells us that we believe many things through faith and by faith unto justification. But two conclusions are evident from this. First, no single one of those things can be claimed to be the complete and adequate object of our faith. Second, none of them are the object of faith in an absolute sense — only as they relate to the Lord Christ as God's ordained means of our justification and salvation.

And this matches the experience of all who truly believe. Because these things are united and made inseparable in God's design, all of them are effectively included in each one of them. First, some direct their faith and trust principally toward the grace, love, and mercy of God — particularly believers under the Old Testament before the clear revelation of Christ and His mediation. So did the psalmist (Psalm 130:3-4; Psalm 33:18-19), and so did the tax collector (Luke 18:13). These are proposed in countless Scripture passages as the causes of our justification (Romans 3:24; Ephesians 2:4-8; Titus 3:5-7). But they do this not in an absolute sense, but with reference to the redemption that is in the blood of Christ (Daniel 9:17). Nor does Scripture ever present them to us apart from that connection (Romans 3:24-25; Ephesians 1:6-8). For Christ's mediation is the cause, means, and channel through which that grace, love, and mercy are communicated to us. Second, some direct their faith principally to the Lord Christ Himself, His mediation, and the benefits of it. The apostle Paul frequently presents this in his own example (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 3:8-10). But he does this not in an absolute sense, but with reference to the grace and love of God from which they are given and communicated to us (Romans 8:32; John 3:16; Ephesians 1:6-8). Nor are they ever presented anywhere in Scripture as the object of our faith unto justification in any other way. Third, some fix their souls in believing particularly on the promises. This is illustrated in the example of Abraham (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:20), and the promises are likewise presented in Scripture as the object of our faith (Acts 2:39; Romans 4:16; Hebrews 4:1-2; Hebrews 6:12-13). But believers do this not merely because the promises are divine revelations, but because they contain and present to us the Lord Christ and the benefits of His mediation, flowing from the grace, love, and mercy of God. This is why the apostle argues at length in Galatians that if justification comes by any means other than the promise, then both the grace of God and the death of Christ are emptied of their meaning. The reason is that the promise is simply the means by which Christ and His benefits are communicated to us. Fourth, some fix their faith on the things they are ultimately seeking — the pardon of sin and eternal life. These also are presented in Scripture as the object of our faith, or what we are to believe unto justification (Psalm 130:4; Acts 26:18; Titus 1:2). But this must be done in its proper order, especially in the application to our own souls. For we are nowhere called to believe in them, or in our own participation in them, except as they are effects of the grace and love of God through Christ and His mediation as set forth in the gospel promises. Therefore believing in them is included in believing in those prior causes, and comes after them in the order of nature. To believe in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life apart from the proper exercise of faith in their causes is nothing but presumption.

I have therefore given the complete object of faith as justifying — that is, in its work and duty with respect to our justification — in full agreement with the testimony of Scripture and the experience of those who believe.

Giving the promises their proper place, and the final effect of all — the pardon of sins and eternal life — their proper place as well, what I want to further confirm is this: the Lord Christ in the work of His mediation, as God's ordained means for the recovery and salvation of lost sinners, is the proper and complete object of justifying faith. And the true nature of evangelical faith consists in the heart's response — which we will describe shortly — to the love, grace, and wisdom of God, along with the mediation of Christ in His obedience, sacrifice, satisfaction, and atonement for sin made through His blood. Some wickedly claim these things are incompatible. The second pillar of Socinian error is that the grace of God and the satisfaction of Christ are mutually exclusive — that accepting one requires denying the other. But these things are presented in Scripture in such a way that neither can be believed without accepting both. And faith, which regards them in their proper relationship — the mediation of Christ subordinate to the grace of God — fixes itself on the Lord Christ and the redemption in His blood as the ordinance of God, the expression of His wisdom, grace, and love, and finds rest in both, and in nothing else.

Proof of this claim requires little labor, since it is not only abundantly declared in Scripture, but constitutes a central part of the design and substance of the gospel itself. I will therefore only point to some of the passages where it is taught.

The whole matter is expressed in the passage where the doctrine of justification is most fully presented: Romans 3:24-25 — "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God passed over the sins previously committed." To this we may add Ephesians 1:6-7: "He has made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, according to the riches of His grace." The thing by which we are justified is the special object of our faith unto justification. And that thing is the Lord Christ in the work of His mediation. For we are justified by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ — in Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Christ as a propitiation is the cause of our justification and the object of our faith — we attain justification through faith in His blood. But this is under one specific consideration: He is the ordinance of God appointed, given, set forth, and proposed from and by the grace, wisdom, and love of God. God set Him forth as a propitiation. God makes us accepted in the Beloved. We have redemption in His blood according to the riches of His grace, by which He makes us accepted in the Beloved. And in this He lavishes on us wisdom in all its fullness (Ephesians 1:8). This, therefore, is what the gospel presents to us as the special object of our faith unto the justification of life.

But we may also confirm the individual parts of this claim in the same way.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ as presented in the promise of the gospel is the distinctive object of faith unto justification. Three kinds of scriptural testimony confirm this.

1. Passages that state this positively. Such as Acts 10:41: "To Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins." Christ, believed in as the means and cause of forgiveness, is what all the prophets testify to. Acts 16:31: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" — the apostles' answer to the jailer's question, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They give him his duty in believing and tell him its object: the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12: "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." What is presented as the only way and means of our justification and salvation — to the exclusion of everything else — is the object of faith unto our justification. And that is Christ alone, to the exclusion of all other things. Moses and the prophets testify to this; the design of the whole of Scripture is to direct the faith of the church to the Lord Christ alone for life and salvation (Luke 24:25-27).

2. All the passages where justifying faith is described as believing in Him or believing on His name — and there are many. John 1:12: He gave the right to become children of God to those who believed in His name. John 3:16: That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:36: He who believes in the Son has eternal life. John 6:29: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." John 6:47: "He who believes in Me has eternal life." John 7:38: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" Also John 9:35-37; John 11:25; Acts 26:18: "That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." 1 Peter 2:6-7. In all these passages, and many others, we are not only directed to place our faith in Him — the effect of justification is also attributed to that faith. This is stated explicitly in Acts 13:38-39, which is precisely what we are seeking to demonstrate.

3. Passages that describe the acts of faith in ways that make Christ the direct and proper object. These include passages where faith is called a receiving of Him: John 1:12, "to as many as received Him," and Colossians 2:6, "as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord." What we receive by faith is its proper object. Faith is also pictured as the act of the Israelites who, after being bitten by fiery serpents, looked to the bronze serpent lifted up in the wilderness (John 3:14-15; John 12:32). Faith is that act of the soul by which convicted sinners who would otherwise perish look to Christ as the one who was made a propitiation for their sins — and those who do so will not perish but have eternal life. He is therefore the object of our faith.

2. Christ is the object of our faith as He is the ordinance of God appointed to this end — a consideration that cannot be separated from our faith in Him. This too is confirmed by several kinds of testimony.

1. All the passages where the love and grace of God are presented as the sole cause of giving Jesus Christ as the way and means of our recovery and salvation — passages where God in His love and grace becomes the supreme efficient cause of our justification. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Similarly Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10; Romans 3:23: "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus"; Ephesians 1:6-8. The Lord Christ constantly directs our faith to these truths, referring everything back to the One who sent Him and whose will He came to accomplish (Hebrews 10:5).

2. All the passages where God is said to set forth and appoint Christ, and to make Him be for us and to us what He is unto the justification of life. Romans 3:25: "whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation." 1 Corinthians 1:30: "Who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." 2 Corinthians 5:21: "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Acts 5:31; and others. Therefore, when faith acts toward Christ unto justification, we can only regard Him as the ordinance of God appointed to that end — He brings nothing to us and does nothing for us except what God appointed, designed, and made Him to be and do. This must be carefully kept in mind: by directing our faith through His blood, His sacrifice, and His satisfaction, we take nothing away from the free grace, favor, and love of God.

3. All the passages that present to us the wisdom of God in devising this way of justification and salvation. Ephesians 1:7-8: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight." See also Ephesians 3:10-11 and 1 Corinthians 1:24.

The whole is summed up by the apostle: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). Everything accomplished in our reconciliation to God — the pardon of our sins and our acceptance with Him unto life — was accomplished through the presence of God in His grace, wisdom, and power in Christ, both designing and effecting it.

Therefore, the Lord Christ as presented in the promise of the gospel — as the object of our faith unto the justification of life — is considered as the ordinance of God appointed to that end. The love, grace, and wisdom of God in sending and giving Him are therefore included in that object, along with not only God's acts in Christ toward us but also all His acts toward the person of Christ Himself for that same end. With respect to His death: God set Him forth as a propitiation (Romans 3:24); He did not spare Him but delivered Him up for us all (Romans 8:32); and in that He laid all our sins on Him (Isaiah 53:6). He was also raised for our justification (Romans 4:25), and our faith is in God who raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9). And in His exaltation (Acts 5:31). These things together complete the testimony that God has given concerning His Son (1 John 5:10-12).

The whole is confirmed by the exercise of faith in prayer — the soul's application of itself to God to receive the benefits of Christ's mediation. Prayer is called our access through Him to the Father (Ephesians 2:18), our coming through Him to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16), and our approach through Him as both High Priest and sacrifice (Hebrews 10:19-21). This is why we bow our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:14). This matches the experience of everyone who knows what it is to pray. In prayer we come in the name of Christ, through Him and His mediation, to God the Father — seeking, through His grace, love, and mercy, to receive what He has designed and promised to give to poor sinners through Christ. And this represents the complete object of our faith.

A proper understanding of these things will reconcile and bring into perfect harmony everything Scripture says about the object of justifying faith, or about what we are said to believe by it. Since various distinct things are all described as its object, none of them individually can be the complete and adequate object of faith. But consider them all in their relationship to Christ, and each one has its proper place: the grace of God as the cause, the pardon of sin as the effect, and the promises of the gospel as the means of communicating the Lord Christ and the benefits of His mediation to us.

The reader should note that I not only disregard but reject with contempt the recent attempt by some to redirect everything said in Scripture about the person and mediation of Christ to the doctrine of the gospel instead — treating this not only as something repugnant and impious in itself, but also as something that has not yet been argued with any show of learning, reasoning, or sobriety.