This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this text, in whole or in part. Please contact project staff at eebotcp-info@umich.edu for further further information or permissions.
VVee are justified by Faith; therefore, not before Faith.
Answer.
This Proposition, VVee are justified by Faith, is very ambiguous. Hee was not a
Foole who (an hundred yeares since) said, That this Proposition was one of those things, hard to be understood; which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest as they doe other Scriptures, to their owne destruction, 2 Pet. 3. 16. I would our Age had not proved it true, that the mis∣understanding of this Proposition hath tur∣ned upside downe the Doctrine of Justifi∣cation amongst pudling Preachers.
There is in this Proposition two words ambiguous and doubtfull:
The first (Justified) which sometimes in Scriptures signifieth to be reputed, rec∣koned, or accounted Just; as, It is God that justifieth. Sometimes it is taken for to be declared, or manifested to be Just; as, By workes a man is justified, James 2. 24. If you take Justified in the first sence, wee say, wee are not reputed or reckoned Just by the act of beleeving. If you take Justi∣fied in the second sence, I say, wee are justi∣fied (that is, declared to be Just) by belee∣ving; Faith manifesting to our Consciences, that wee are Just before God: By Faith wee understand, that God hath freely justified us in his Sonne.
Another word ambiguous in this Propo∣sition, is (Faith) which is diversly taken: sometimes for the act of Faith, or belee∣ving; and sometimes for the object of Faith, the thing beleeved: as, Faith was reckoned unto him for righteousnesse, Rom. 4. that is the object of Faith: So that it is all one as if hee had said, God or Christ was reckoned to him for righteousnesse. If wee understand the act of Faith; then I say, as before, wee are not reckoned Just by the act of our Faith: if by Faith wee understand the object of our Faith; then I say, wee are reckoned or reputed Just by God, in, by, or through Christ Jesus, our Faith.