Page:Apocalypse Revealed Vol I.djvu/24

12 concerning it, are numerous and manifold; some of which also shall be adduced; which are, that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, and works, but gratuitously for Christ's sake, by faith; that by this faith they believe that they are received into grace, and their sins are remitted for his sake, who by his death made satisfaction for us, and that God the Father imputes this to believers for righteousness before him; that this faith, that Christ suffered and died for us, is not only an historical knowledge, but also a cordial assent, confidence, and trust, that sins are gratuitously remitted for Christ's sake, and that they are justified; and that at this time these three things concur, gratuitous promise, the merit of Christ as a price, and propitiation: That faith is the righteousness by which we are reputed just before God by reason of the promise; and that to be justified is to be absolved from sins, and that it may also be called a kind of quickening and regeneration; that faith is reputed to us for righteousness, not because it is so good a work, but because it apprehends the merit of Christ. That the merit of Christ is his obedience, passion, death, and resurrection; that it is necessary there should be something by which God can be approached, and that this is nothing else but faith, by which reception is effected. That faith, in the act of justification, enters by the word and by the hearing, and that it is not the act of man, but that it is the operation of the Holy Spirit, and that man does not co-operate any more than a statue of salt, a stock, or a stone, doing nothing from himself, and knowing nothing of it; but that after the act he co-operates, yet not with any will of his own in spiritual things; in things natural, civil, and moral, it is otherwise: but that they can so far proceed in things spiritual as to will what is good, and to feel delight in consequence, yet this is not from their own will, but from the Holy Spirit, and that thus they co-operate not from their own powers, but from new powers and gifts begun in them by the Holy Spirit in their