144 The 67'.(ture of Yntifying Faith. Ilrument. This we afcribe unto Faith alone. And becaufe we do fo, it is pleaded that we afcribe more in our Juflifica- tion unto our felves than they do by whom we are oppofed. For we afcribe the efficiency of an Inflrument herein unto our own Faith ; when they fay only that it is a Condition, or Caufa fine qua non, of our Juflification. But I judge that grave and wife men ought not to give fo much to the defence of the Caufe they have undertaken, feeing they cannot but know indeed the contrary. For after they have given the fpecious name of a Condition, and a Caufa fine qua non, unto Faith, they immediately take all ether Graces and Works of Obedience into the fame Irate with it, and the fame ufe in Juflification ; and after this feeming Gold hath been cafe for a while into the fire of Difputation, there comes out the Calf of' a perfonal inherent Righteoufnefs, whereby Men are ju- flified before God, virtute frcderis Evangelici ; for as for the Righteoufnefs of Chrift to be imputed unto us, it is gone into Heaven, and they know not what is become of it. Having given this brief Declaration of the Nature of Ju- flifying Faith, and the As of it, (as I fuppofe fufficient unto my prefent Defign) I (hall not trouble my felf to give an ac- curate Definition of it. What are my Thoughts concerning it, will be better underftood by what hath been fpoken, than by any precife definition I can give. And the Truth is, de- filitions of Juftifying Faith have been fo multipliedby Learned Men, and in fo great variety, and fuch a manifeft inconfi- flency among fome of them, that they have been of no ad- vantage unto the Truth, but occafions of new Controverfies and Divifions, whilft every one hath laboured to defend the Accuracy of his own Definition, when yet it may be difficult for a true Believer to find any thing compliant with his own Experience in them; which kind of Definitions in there things, I have no efteem for. I know no man that hath la- boured in this Argument about the Nature of Faith more than
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