the Ngture and Vfe of it. oufnefs is pleadable unto our Juftification againfl all the charges of Satan, who is the great Acculer of the Brethren, of all that believe. Whether he manage his charge privately in our Confciences, which is as it were before God, as he charged Job, or by his inftruments in all manner of reproaches and calumnies, whereof fome in this Age have had experi- ence in an eminent manner, this Righteoufnefs is pleadable unto our Juftification. On a fuppofition of thefe things, wherein our perf nal Righteoufnefs' is allowed its proper place and ufe (as {hall af- terwards be more fully declared) I do not underftand that there is an Evangelical Jufiification whereby Believers are by and on the account of this perfonal inherent Righteoufnefs juflified in the fight of God ; nor doth the Imputation of the Righteoufnefs of Chrift unto our abfolute Juftification before him depend thereon. For, I. None have this perfonalRighteoufneßbut they are ante- cedently juftified in the fight of God. It is wholly the Obe- dience of Faith, proceeding from true and faving Faith in God by Jefus Chrift. For as it was Paid before, Works before Faith, are as by general confent excluded from any Intere{l in our Juflification, and we have proved that they are nei- ther Conditions of it, Difolitions unto it, nor Preparations for it, properly fò called. But every true Believer is imme- diately juftified on his Believing. Nor is there any moment of time wherein a man is a true Believer, according as Faith is required in the Gofpel, and yet not be juftified. For as he is thereby united unto Chrift, which is the foundation of our Juftification by him, fo the whole Scripture teflifieth, that he that believes is juflified ; or that there is an infallible connexion in the Ordination of God between true Faith and Juftification. Wherefore this perfonal RigI.teoufne fs cannot be the condition of our Juftification before God, feeing it is confquentialthereunto. What may be pleaded in, exception. F f here- 217
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