Wednesday, May 4, 2022

1679 Baptistic "An Orthodox Creed" Appealing to Different Means/Causes in the Act of Justification

An Orthodox Creed, or A Protestant Confession of Faith, Being an Essay to Unite and Confirm All True Protestants in the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion, Against the Errors and Heresies of Rome (1679):

 

XXIV ARTICLE.

Of Justification by Christ.

 

Justification is a declarative, or judicial sentence of God the father, whereby he of his infinite love, and most free grace, for the alone and mediatorial righteousness of his own son, performed in our nature and stead, which righteousness of God man, the father imputing to us, and by effectual faith, received and embraced by us, doth free us by judicial sentence form sin and death, and accept us righteous in Christ our surety, not eternal life; the active and passive obedience of Christ being the accomplishment of all that righteousness and sufferings the law, or justice of God required and this being perfectly performed by our mediator, in the very nature of us men, and accepted by the father in our stead, according to that eternal covenant-transaction, between the father and the son. And hereby we have deliverance from the guilt and punishment of all our sins, and are accounted righteous before God, at the throne of grace, by the alone righteousness of Christ the mediator, imputed or reckoned unto us through faith; for we believe there are six necessary causes of man’s justification, or salvation; viz First the efficient cause of our justification, is God’s free grace Secondly, The meritorious cause is the blood of Christ. Thirdly, The material cause is Christ’s active obedience Fourthly, The imputation of Christ, his obedience for us, is the formal cause. Fifthly, The instrumental cause is faith. Sixthly, God’s glory, and man’s salvation, is the final cause Now we principally apply the first and last to God the father; the second and third to Christ the mediator; the fourth and fifth to the blessed comforter, the holy ghost; hence it is we are baptized in the name of the father, of the son, and holy ghost, and so we worship a trinity in unity, and unity in trinity. (William Joseph McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith [Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911], 141-42)

 

Note the appeal to various means, such as meritorious and instrumental causes, in the act of justification.

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