The Believer's Principles Concerning Justification and Sanctification

The Believer s Principles concerning Justification and Sanctijication, their Difference and Harmony.

SECT. I.

The Difference between Justification and Sand ificat ion; or Righteousness imputed, and Grace imparted; in upwards of thirty Particulars*.

T17”IND Jesus spent his life to spin

My robe of perfect righteousness;
But by his Sp’rit’s work within
He forms my gracious holy dress.

He as a Priest me justifies,

His blood does roaring conscience still; But as a King he sanctities,

And subjugates my stubborn will.

He justifying by his merit,

Imputes to me his righteousness;
But sanctifying by his Spirit,

Infuses in me saving grace.

My justifying righteousness

Can merit by condign ity;
But nothing with my strongest grace

Can be deserv’d by naughty me.

This justifying favour sets

The guilt of all my sin remote;
But sanctifying grace delates

The filth and blackness of its blot.

* Note. Thru fmetri caumj Justification is here sometimes expiv-~ed by the words imputed gnccf justifying grace, righteouso ss. Sec.; Saucti6ca«

tion by the names, imparted grace, grace, grace-, holiness, sanctity, &.C W^ich the judicious will eapily understand.

By virtue of this righteousness

Sin can’t condemn nor justly brand?

By virtue of infused grace
Anon it ceases to command.

The righteousness which I enjoy,

Sin’s damning pow’r will wholly stay;

And grace imparted will destroy
Its ruling domineering sway.

The former is my Judge’s act
Of condonation full and free:

The latter his commenced fact,
And gradual work advancM in me.

The former’s instantaneous,

The moment that I first believe:

This latter is, as Heav’n allows,
Progressive while on earth I live.

The first will peace to conscience give, The last the filthy heart will cleanse:

The first effects a relative,

The last a real inward change.

The former pardons ev’ry sin,

And counts me righteous, free, and just; The latter quickens grace within,

And mortifies my sin and lust.

Imputed grace intitles me

Unto eternal happiness;
Imparted grace will qualify

That heav’nly kingdom to posses?.

My righteousness is infinite,
Both subjectively and in kind;

My holiness most incomplete,
And daily wavers like the wind.

So lasting is my outer dress,
It never wears nor waxes old;

My inner garb of grace decays

And fades, it IJeav’n do not uphold,

My righteousness and pardon is

At once most perfect and complete;
But sanctity admits degrees,

Does vary, fluctuate, and fleet.
Ilence.fix’d my righteousness divine

No real change can undergo:
But all my graces wax and wane,

Bv various turnings ebb and flow.

I’m by the first as righteous now,

As e’er hereafter 1 can be:
The last will to perfection grow,

Heav’n only is the full degree.

The first is equal, wholly giv’n,

And still the same in ev’ry saint:
The last unequal and unev’n,

While some enjoy what others want.

My righteousness divine is fresh,

For ever pure and heav’nly both;
My sanctity is partly flesh,

And justly term’d a menst’rous cloth.

My righteousness I magnify,

‘Tis my triumphant lofty flag;
But pois’d with this, my sanctity

Is nothing but a filthy rag.

I glory in my righteousness,

And loud extol it with my tongue:

But ail my grace compared with this,
I under-rate as loss and dung.

By justifying grace I’m apt

Of divine favour free to boast;
By holiness I’m partly sliap’J

Into his image I had lost.
The first to divine justice pays

A rent to still the furious storm
The last to divine holiness

Instructs me duly to conform.
Q 6

The first does quench the fiery law,

Its rigid cov’nant fully stay;
The last its rule embroider’ d draw,

To deck my heart, and gild my way.

The subject of my righteousness

Is Christ himself my glorious Head; •;

But I the subject am of grace,
As he supplies my daily need.

The matter of the former too
Is only Christ’s obedience dear;

But lo, his helping me to do

Is all the work and matter here.

I on my righteousness rely

For Heav’n’s acceptance free, and win; But, in this matter, must deny

My grace, ev’n as I do my sin.

Though all my graces precious are,

Yea, perfect also in desire;
They cannot stand before the bar

Where awful justice is umpire:

But, in the robe that Christ did spin, Tbey are of great and high request;

They have acceptance wrapt within
My elder Brother’s bloody vest.

My righteousness proclaims me great
And fair ev’n in the sight of God;

But sanctity’s my main off-set
Before the gazing world abroad.

More justify’d I cannot be

By all my most religious acts;

But these increase my sanctity,
That’s still attended with defects.

My righteousness the safest ark

‘Midst ev’ry thivat’mng flood will be;

Mv graces but a leaking bark
‘Upon a stormy raging sea.

I s :e inju-ufying grace

God’s love to nie does ardent burn;
But by imparted holiness

I grateful love for love return.

My righteousness is that which draws

My thankful heart to this respect:
The former then is first the cause,

The latter is the sweet effect.

Christ is in justifying me,

By name, the Lord my righteousness;
But, as he comes to sanctify,

The Lord my strength and help he is.

In that I have the patient’s place,

For there Jehovah’s act is all;
But in the other I’m through grace

An agent working at his call.
The first does slavish fear forbid,

For there his wrath revenging ends;
The last commands my filial dread,

For here paternal ire attends.

The former does annul my woe,

By God’s judicial sentence past;
The latter makes my graces grow,

Faith, love, repentance, and the rest.

The first does divine pard’ning love

Most freely manifest to me;
The last makes shining graces prove

Mine int’rest in the pardon free.

My soul in justifying grace

Does full and free acceptance g’lin;
In sanctity I heavenward press,

By sweet assistance I obtain.
The first declares I’m free of debf,

An I nothing left for me to pay;
The last makes me a debtor yet,

But helps to pay it ev’ry day.

My righteousness with wounds and blood Discharge! both law and justice* score;

Hence with the debt of gratitude
I’ll charge myself for evermore.

SECT. II. The Harmony between Justification and Sanctification*.

He who me decks with righteousness,

With grace will also clothe;
For glorious Jesus came to bless

By blood and water both.

That in his righteousness I trust,

My sanctity will show;
Though graces cannot make me just*

They shew me to be so.

All those who freely justify’d

Are of the pardonM race,.
Anon are also sanctify’d

And purify ‘d by grace.

Where justice stern does justify,

There holiness is clear’d;
HeavVs equity and sanctity

Can never be sever’d.

Hence, when, my soul with pardon deck’d,.

Perceives no divine ire,
Then holiness I do affect

With passionate desire.

His justifying grace is such

As wafts my soul to heav’n:
I cannot choose but love him much,

Who much has me forgiv’n.

The Sun of righteousness that brings

Remission in his rays,
The healing in his golden wings

Of light and heat conveys.

Wherever Jesus is a priest,

There will he be a king;
He that assoils from sin’s arrest,

Won’t tolerate its reign.
The title of a precious grace

To faith may justly fall,
Because its open arms embrace

A precious Christ for all.

From precious faith a precious strife

Of precious virtues flow;
A precious heart, a precious life.

And precious duties too*

Wherever faith does justify,

It purities the heart;
The pardon and the purity

Join hands and never part.

The happy state of pardon doth

An holy life infer:
In subjects capable of both

They never sunder’d were*

Yet in defence of truth must we

Distinctly view the twain;
That how they differ, how agree,

We may in truth maintain.

Two natures in one person dwell,
Which no division know,

In our renown’d Immanuel,
Without confusion too.

Those that divide them grossly err,

Though yet distinct they be:
Those who confusion hence infer,

Imagine blasphemy.

Thus righteousness and grace we must

Nor sunder nor confound;
Else holy peace to us is lost,

And sacred truth we wound.

While we their proper place maintain,
In friendship sweet they dwell;

But or to part or blend the twain,
Are errors hatch’d in hell.

To separate what God does join,

Is wicked and profane;
To mix and mutilate his coin,

Is damnable and vain.

Though plain distinction must take place;

Yet no division here,
Nor dark confusion, else the grace

Of both will disappear.
Lo! errors gross on ev’ry side,

Conspire to hurt and wound;
Antinomies them divide,

And legalists confound.