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.
