Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT763 .B35 1655

(95 ) at firil) and Conditions without which God will not fave us, were never excluded by 'Paul among works. Nay,though fome ofthefe do not exift till we are juftified, yet did not Paul intend them as Works in his exclufion. Con. 24, 1 prefume to confefs it my opinion, that thole Reve- rend Brethren who fay, Faith juftifieth qua Infirumentum, as a true inftrument, do molt certainly make it to juffifie as an Adion of man : and that in faying, that itjuffifieth a/ an inftrument audit juftifiethnot as an eXEI, or by AUion, they do fpeak molt grofs contradi6tion : feeing that Infirumentum ell Caufa efficient, e,41lio ell efficientis Caufalita.s. I do therefore fay, as well as Mr. Caryl,that Faith it felfjuftifieth not as a Work : And I fay more then is commonly faid (from whence is the indignation) that it juffifieth not as anAction ofman neither, and fo not as a true proper inftrument of). uffification. Con.25. Nay, I will yet fay more (and have fill faid it) that the formal or neareft Reafon of faiths intereft in juftification, commonly expreffed by patent,u,is not any Ethical confideration or refpeet in Faith. This is in the midft between the two for- mer.. I before Concluded, that it juftifieth not qua opus, as a work is taken for Mercenary or Meritorious working, as a work- manBoth forhis wages, as Paul means : 2. And that it juftifieth not qua opus, as a work is taken phyfically, for an ad of man. And thirdly! now add,that it juftifieth not qua opus, as a work is taken for a Moral Vertue, Pleafing to God, becaufe a Vertue Nay,nor qua hoc opus ,as it is a work offingular worth or Apti- tude to this office. But it is meerly in its Civil or LawRelation (if I may fo call it) that is, as it is freely and pofitively appointed by God to this Office; making it, as he is Donor, the Condition ofhis free gift ; fo that it is nothing in the nature of Faith, but the Will of the Donor as fuch, that in the tenor of his Gift hath given it this Office and Honor : which is meerly extrinfecall to the Nature, or Ethical worth ofFaith. Con. 26. 1 muff therefore profefs, that after long confederati- on, I know no one term that properly expreffeth this neareft or formal intereft offaith in Juftification, but only the term Condi- tion, as that word is ufually taken for the Conditionofa freegift. And when the Scripture telleth us, how faith juftifieth, it is fuch terms as thefe, if thou confers with thy mouth the Lord and

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