mighty supplications under his fear Heb. 5. 7. that were upon him do all make out That the bitterness of the Death due to Sin was fully upon his Soul Sum all his outward appearing Preasures Mocks Scoffs Scorns Cross Wounds Death c. And what do some of their afflictions who have suffered for his Name come short of it And yet how far were they above those dreadful expressions of anguish which we find upon the fellow of the Lord of Hosts the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah who received not the Spirit by measure but was anoynted with the Oyle of Gladness above his Fellows Certainly his un-conceivable sufferings were in an other kind and such as set no example to any of his to suffer in after him It was no less then the weight of the wrath of God and the whole punishment due to sin that he wrestled under 2 The Second Part of my Position is to me confirmed by these and the like Arguments That there is a Distinction to be allowed between the Penalty and the Person suffering is a common apprehension especially when the nature of the Penalty is only enquired after If a man that had but one Eye were Censured to have an Eye put out and a dear Friend pitying his deplorable Condition knowing that by undergoing the Punishment decreed he must be left to utter blindness should upon the allowance of Commutation as in Zaleucus case submit to have one of his own Eyes put out and so satisfie the Sentence given though by having two Eyes he avoid himself the misery that would have attended the others suffering who had but one If I say in this Case any should ask Whether he underwent the idem the other should have done or tantundem I suppose the Answer would be easie In things Real it is unquestionable and in things Personally I shall pursue it no further lest it should prove a strife of words And thus far of the suffering of Christ in a way of Controversie what follows will be more Positive CAP. V. The Second Head about JVSTIFICATION before Believing THE next thing I am called into Question about is Concerning actual and absolute Justification before Believing this Mr Baxter speaks to page 146 and so forwards and First Answers the Arguments of Maccovius for such Justification and then page 151 Applyes himself to remove such further Arguments and places of Scripture as are by me Produced for the Confirmation of that Assertion Here perhaps I could have desired a little more Candor To have an Opinionion fastened on me which I never once received nor intimated the least Thought of in that whole Treatise or any other of Mine and then my Arguments Answered as to such an end and purpose as I not once intended to promote by them is a little to harsh Dealing It is a facile thing to Render any mans Reasonings exceedingly weak and rediculous if we may impose upon them such and such things to be proved by them which their Author never once intended For Partional Justification Evangelical Justification whereby a Sinner is compleatly Justified that it should preceed Believing I have not only not Asserted but Positively Denyed and disproved by many Arguments To be now traduced as a Patron of that Opinion and my Reasons for it Publickly Answered seems to me something Uncouth However I am Resolved not to interpose in other mens Disputes and Differencies yet lest I should be again and further mistaken in this I shall briefly give in my Thoughts to the whole Difficulty after I have discovered and discussed the Ground and Occasion of this mistake In an Answer to an Argument of Grotius about the Satisfaction of Christ denying that by it we are ipso facto delivered from the Penalty due to Sin I Affirmed that by his Death Christ did actually or ipso facto deliver us from the Curse by being made a Curse for us and this is that which gave occasion to that Imputation before mentioned To cleer my mind in this I must desire the Reader to consider That my Answer is but a Denial of Grotius his Assertions In what kind and respect Grotius doth there deny that we are ipso facto delivered by the Satisfaction of Christ in that sense and that only do I affirm that we are so otherwise there were no Contradictions between his Assertion and mine not speaking ad idem and eodem respectu The truth is Grotius doth not in that place whence this Argument is taken fully or cleerly manifest what he intends by a deliverance which is not actual or ipso facto and therefore I made bold to Interpret his Mind by the Analogie of that Opinion wherewith he was throughly infected about the Death of Christ According to that Christ delivering us by his Satisfaction not actually nor ipso facto is so to make Satisfaction for us as that we shal have no Benefit by his Death but upon the performance of a Condition which himself by that Death of his did not absolutely procure This was that which I opposed and therefore affirmed That Christ by his Death did actually or ipso facto deliver us Let the Reader then here Observe 1 That our Deliverance is to be referred to the Death of Christ according to its own Causality that is as a Cause Meritorious Now such Causes do actually and ipso facto produce all those Effects which immediatly slow from them not in an immediation of Time but Causality Look then what Effects do follow or what things soever are procured by them without the interposition of any other Cause in the same kind they are said to be procured by them actually or ipso facto 2 That I have abundantly proved in the Treatise mentioned That if the Fruits of the Death of Christ be to be communicated unto us upon Condition and that Condition to be among those Fruits and be it self to be absolutely communicated upon no Condition then all the Fruits of the Death of Christ are as absolutely procured for them for whom he Died as if no Condition had been prescribed for these things come all to one 3 I have proved in the same Place That Faith which is this Condition is it self procured by the Death of Christ for them for whom he Died to be freely bestowed on them without the prescription of any such Condition as on whose fulfilling the Collation of it should depend These things being considered as I hoped they would have been by every one that should undertake to Censure any thing as to this Business in that Treatise they being there all handled at large it is apparent what I intended by this actual Deliverance viz. That the Lord Jesus by the Satisfaction Merit of his Death Obligation made for all only his Elect hath actually absolutly purchased procured for them all Spiritual Blessings of Grace Glory to be made out unto them and bestowed upon them in Gods way and Time without dependance on any
intended or the actual taking of Sinners into Covenant by working an acceptance of it upon their Spirits and obedience to the Condition of it in their hearts then though the satisfaction of Christ be antecedent here unto yet it is not thence antecedent to the new Covenant For the new Covenant and taking into Covenant are distinct This then being assigned unto God after our manner of Apprehension the next Enquiry is into the State and Condition of those Persons who are the peculiar Object of the act of Gods Will before described in reference thereunto antecedaneous to all Consideration of the Death of Christ and all Efficacy thereof The Scripture speaking of them in this Condition saith That they are beloved Rom. 9. 13. Rom. 11. 28. Elected Eph. 14. Ordained unto eternal life Acts 13. 48. 2 Thess. 2 13. Whether only the Eternal Actings of the Will of God towards them or also their own change either Actual in respect of real State and Condition or Relative in reference to the Purpose of GOD is not certainly evident Hereunto then I Propose these Two Things 1 By the Eternal Love Purpose and Act of Gods Will towards them that shall be saved who are so from thence they are not actually changed from that Condition which is common to them with all the Sons of men after the fall 2 By vertue of that Love alone they have not so much as Personal Right unto any of those things which are the proper Effects of that LOVE and which it produceth in due season beseemingly to the Wisdome and Justice of God Either of these ASSERTIONS shall be briefly proved For the First it is manifest 1 From that Act of Gods Will which to this Love is Contradistinct What change is wrought in the Loved or Elected by the Purpose of God according to Election an answerable Change must be wrought in the hated and appointed to condemnation by the Decree of Reprobation Now that this should really alter the Condition of men and actually dispose them under the Consequences of that Purpose cannot be granted 2 Anallogie from other Eternal Purposes of God gives a Demonstration hereof The Eternal Purposes of the divine Will for the Creation of the World out of Nothing left that Nothing as very nothing as ever until an Act of Almighty Power gave in the beginning Existence and Being to the things that are seen Things have their certain Fructurition not instant actual Existence from the Eternal Purposes of God concerning them 3 The Scripture plainly placeth all men in the same State and Condition before Conversion and Reconciliation We have proved That Jews and Gentiles are all under sin Rom. 3. 9 10. So every mouth is stopped and all the World is become guilty before God verse 19. All being by nature Children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. The Condition of all in Vnregeneracy is really one and the same Those who think it is a mistaken Apprehension in the Elect to think so are certainly too much mistaken in that Apprehension He that believeth not the Son the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 36. If the mis-apprehension be as as they say it is Unbelief it leaves them in whom it is under the wrath of God He that would see this further cleered and confirmed may consult my Treatise of REDEMPTION Lib. 3. Cap. 8. where it is purposely and expresly handled at large Hence Mr Baxter may have some directions how to dispose of that Censure concerning me which yet he is pleased to say That he suspendeth page 158. viz. That I should affirm Justification to be nothing but the manifestation of Eternal Love which I have more then in one place or two Expresly opposed That any one should but here and there consult a few Lines or Leaves of my Treatise I no way blame In such things we all use our Liberty but that upon so sleight a view as cannot possibly represent the Frame Structure and Coherence of my Judgment in any particular to undertake a Confutation and Censure of it cannot well be done without some regreet to candid Ingenuity For the Second Assertion laid down which goeth somthing farther then the former it is easily deduced from the same Principles therewithal I shall therefore adde only one ARGUMENT for the Confirmation thereof God having appointed that his Eternal Love in the Fruits thereof should be no otherwayes Communicated but only in and by Christ all right thereunto must of necessity be of his procurement and Purchasing Yea the End of the Mediation of the Lord Jesus is To give Right Title and Possession in their several Order and seasons unto and in all the Fruits Issues and Tendency's of that Love unto them whose Mediator he is appointed to be Thus far then all is seated in the bosome of the Almighty All differencing Acts of Grace flowing from hence being to be made out as seems Good unto him in his Infinite wise Sovereignty from whence alone is the disposal of all these things as to that Order which may most conduce to his Glory And this also writes vanity upon the Objection insisted on by Mr Baxter page 157. that when we have a Right we must presently have a Possession All these things being to be moderated according to his free Sovereign disposal And this concerneth the FIRST INSTANT proposed CAP. VIII Of the Will of God in Reference to them for whom Christ died immediately upon the Consideration of his Death and their State and Condition before actual Believing in Relation thereunto THE Second Instant Proposed to be Considered is In the immediate Issue of the Death of Christ as Purposed and accomplished Purpose and Accomplishment are indeed different but their Effects in respect of God are the same In reference to us also the Death of Christ hath the same Efficacy as promised and as performed What Acts the Scripture ascribes unto God antecedent unto any Consideration of the Death of Christ or at least such as are absolutely free and of Sovereignty without any influence of causality from thence we saw before for as for the order of Gods Decrees compared among themselves I will not with any one Contend Here we enquire what it holdeth out of him that being in all its Efficacy supposed And we Affirme 1 That the Will of God is not moved to any thing thereby nor changed into any other Respect towards those for whom Christ died then what it had before This was formerly proved and must again be touched on But 2 The Death of Christ purposed and accounted effectual as before God can agreeable to his infinite Justice Wisdome Truth and appointment make out unto sinners for whom Christ died or was to die all those good things which he before purposed and Willed by such means to them those things being purchased and procured and all hinderances of bestowing them being removed by that Satisfaction and Merit which by free Compact he Agreed and Consented should be in that Death of Christ
the Cause and the first Rise of the Effect lying in an intervening Compact so not simul at once neither though simul and a like procured the Cause of this being that Relation Coherence and Causality which the Lord hath appointed between the several Effects or rather parts of the same Effect of the death of Christ in reference to the main and ultimate End to be thereby attained as at large I have discused Lib. 2. Cap. 1. p. 52 53 c. In one word The first Effect of the Death of Christ in this sense is the first Fruit of Election For for the Procuring and Purchasing of the Fruits thereof and them alone did Christ die If I mistake not Mr Baxter himself is not setled fully in this Perswasion that the suspension of the Rigorous Execution of the Law is the most immediate Effect of the Death of Christ for pag. 52. these words which he useth God the Father doth accept the Sufferings and Merits of his Son as a full satisfaction to his violated Law and as a valuable Consideration upon which he will wholly acquit and forgive the Offendors themselves and receive them again into favour so that they will but receive his Son upon the terms expressed in the Gospel seems to place the ultimate Efficacy of the Death of Christ in Gods acceptation of it as to our good on the Condition of Faith and Obedience Which first makes the suspension of the Law to be so far from being the first effect of the Death of Christ that the last reacheth not so far And 2dly the fond absurdity of this Conditional Acceptation I have before declared Neither am I clear to which of those Assertions that of Page 92 where he affirms That some benefit by Christ the Condemned did receive is most accommodate neither can I easily receive what is here Asserted if by Benefit you understand that which in respect of them is intentionally so For First Condemned Persons as condemned Persons surely receive no Benefit by Christ for they are Condemned Secondly The delay of the Condemnation of Reprobates is no part of the Purchase of Christ The Scripture sayes Nor more nor less of any such thing but peculiarly assigns it to another Cause Rom. 9. CAP. X. Of the Merit of Christ and its immediate Efficacy what it effecteth in what it resteth with the state of those for whom Christ died in reference to his Death of their Right to the Fruits of his Death before Beleeving THAT they for whom Christ died have a right to the things which he Purchased thereby that is an actual Right for so men may have to what they have not in actual Possession is no singular Conception of mineOur Divines freely express themselves to this Purpose Even the Commender and Publisher of Grotius his Book of Satisfaction learned Vossius himself Affirmeth That Christ by his Death Purchased for us a double Right First a Right of escaping punishment and then a Right of obtaining the Reward By the way I cannot close with his Distinction in that place of some things That Christ by his Life and Death purchased for us and other that he daily bestoweth for the things he daily bestoweth are of them which by his Death he purchased My Expressions then alone are not subject to the Consequences charged on them for Asserting a right to Life and Salvation in them for whom Christ Died even before beleeving Yea some have gone farther and Affirmed That those for whom Christ died are in some manner restored into saving favour Not to mention some of them to whose Judgment Mr Baxter seems to accede who assert Vniversal Justification and Restauration into Grace upon the Death of Christ but I lay no weight on these things To cleer my Thoughts in this Particular Two things must necessarily be enquired into and made out 1 Seeing the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ do tend directly for the Good of them for whom he died and that there is a distance and space of Time between that Death and their Participation of the good things purchased therby wherein lyeth or in what resteth the Efficacy of that his Death with the Principle of the certain Futurition of the spiritual things so procured which those for whom he died shall assuredly in due time enjoy 2 Wherin lies the Obligation unto Death Hel Wrath which before beleeving the Scripture Affirms to be upon the Elect seeing Christ hath actually purchased for them freedom from these things and this without more a-do will be cleered in the former 1 For the first then upon the Issue of the Death of Christ something being supposed in God beyond his meer Purpose of which before somethings being actually procured and purchased by it which yet they for whom they are so purchased neither do nor possibly can upon the Purchase immediately possess and enjoy It is enquired Wherein resteth the Efficacy of his Death which in due Time causeth the making out of all those spiritual Blessings which by it are so procured Now this must be either in those for whom he Died or in Himself as Mediator or in his Father who sent him 1 That it is not in them for whom he Died is apparent Upon the Death of Christ in Purpose and Promise when first its Efficacy took place they were not I mean actually Existent True They were Potentially in the Purpose of God but will that make them a meet subject for the Residence of this Right and Merit whereof we speak as is the Thing such are all its Affections and Adjuncts but possible if it be no more This is something actual whereof we speak 2 That it is not in Christ as Mediator is no less evident He that makes Satisfaction and he to whom it is made he who Meriteth any thing and he at whose hands he Meriteth it must be distinguished The second Person under the Notion of performing the work of Mediation receiveth not Satisfaction The Power Christ receiveth of the Father because he is the Son of Man to give eternal Life to those given him of his Father is of latter Consideration to that we have in hand being a Result and Consequence thereof 3 It must therefore be in the Father or God as receiving Satisfaction Of all the Attributes of God where this may be placed to speak after the manner of men one of these Four must needs be the proper seat of it 1 His Power 2 His Will 3 His Justice 4 His Truth 1 His Power and then it must be not that God hath any addition of Power for that cannot be to him who is Omnipotent but that a Way is made for the Exercise of his Power which before by somewhat from himself was shut up And as some suppose it is no otherwise That whereas the Lord could not make out Grace and Favour unto Sinners because of his Justice necessarily enclining him to their punishment and destruction Now that Justice being satisfied in Christ
contended for and asserted from the Word of Truth in the like publick way wherein it is opposed It hath been the constant practise of all Persons in all Ages who have made it their Design to beget and propagate a Belief of any Doctrine contrary to the form of wholsome words to begin with and insist mainly upon those Parts of their beloved Conception and Off spring which seem to be most beautiful and taking for the turning aside of poor weak unlearned and unstable Souls knowing full well That their Judgements and Assertions being once engaged such is the frame of mens Spirits under Delusion that they will chuse rather to swallow down all that follows then to discharge themselves of what they have already received Upon this Account those who of late dayes have themselves drank large Draughts of the very dregs of Pelagianisme do hold out at first only a desire to be pledged in a taste of the Vniversalitie of the Merit of Christ for the Redemption or rather something else well I wote not what of all and everie man finding this rendred plausible from some general Expressions in the Word seeming to cast an Eye of favour that way in the Light wherin they stand as also to be a fit subject for them to varnish over and deck up with Loose Ambiguous Rhetorical Expressions they attempt with all their might to get entertainment for it knowing that those who shal receive it may well call it Gad being sent before only to take up Quarters for the Troop that follows To obviate this Evil which being thus planted and watered through other subtilties and Advantages hath received no small Increase I have once and again cast in my Mite into the Treasury of that rich Provision which the Lord hath inabled many men of Eminent Learning and Pietie to draw forth from the inexhaustible store-house of Divine Truth and to prepare it for the use of the Saints In one of those Treatises having at large handled the several Concernments of the Death of Christ as to the Satisfaction and Merit thereof in their Nature and tendency as well as their Object and Extent and finding some Opposition made to sundry Truths therein delivered I have attempâ—ed through the Assistance of Grace to Vindicate them from that opposition in this Ensuing Discourse as also taken Occasion to hold forth sundry other things of weight and importance of all which you have an Accounâ— given in the first Chapters thereof whither I remit the Reader For the present there are some few things which Christian Reader I desire to acquaint thee withal in particular which something neerly concern the businesse we have in hand Since not only the compleat finishing of this Treatise under my hand which is now about 5 Months ago but also the Printing of some Part of it the Two Dissertatious of Dr Davenant of the Death of Christ and of Predestination and Reprobation were setforth in both which especially the former there are sundry Assertions Positions and Thesis differing from what is delivered in the ensuing Treatise and as I suppose repugnant unto Truth it self The whole of that Perswasion I confesse which he endeavoureth in them to maintain is suited to the Expressions of sundry Learned men as Austine Hillary Fulgentius Prosper who in their Generations deserved exceeding well or the Church of God But that it is free from Opposition to the Scripture or indeed self-Contradiction is not so apparant Yea through the Patience and Goodnesse of God I undertake to demonstrate That the main Foundation of his whole Dissertation about the Death of Christ with many Inferences from thence are neither found in nor founded on the Word but that the several Parts therof are mutually Conflicting and destructive of each other to the great prejudice of the Truth therein contained It is a thing of the saddest Consideration possible That Wise and Learned men should once suppose by tempering the Truths of God so that they may be suited to the self-Indulgency of unsubdued Carnal Affections to give any Lustre to them or in the least to remove that Scandal and Offence which the fâ—eshlie minded doth take continually at those Wayes of God which are far above out of its sight That this is the grand design of such undertakings as that of the Learned Bishop now mentioned even to force the Mysteries of the Gospel to a Condescention and sutablnesse unto the unpurged Relicks of the Wisdom of Nature when all our thoughts ought to be captivated to the obedience thereof is to me most apparent Whence else should it proceed that so many unscriptural Distinctions of the various Intentions of God in the business of Redemption with the holding out for the Confirmation of one part of their Opinion viz. That Christ died for all and every one in such a sense those very Arguments which the most that own the Truth of their Inferences do imploy meerly against the latter part of their Opinion viz In some sense he died only for the Elect with sundry inextricable Intanglements should fill up both the Pages of their Discourses It is no way cleer to me what Glory redoundeth to the Grace of God what Exaltation is given to the Death of Christ what Encouragement to sinners in the things of God by maintaining That our Saviour in the Intention and from the Designment of his Father died for the Redemption of Millions for whom he purchased not one dram of saving Grace and concerning whom it was the Purpose of God from Eternity not to make out unto them effectually any of those means for a participation in the fruits of his Death without which it is impossible but it should be useless and unprofitable unto them and yet this is the main Design of that Dissertation concerning the Death of Christ What in that and the ensuing Discourse is argued and contended for according to the mind of God we thankfully accept and had it not been condited with the unsavory salt of human wisdom it had been exceeding acceptable especially at this time For 2 That there are some more than ordinary Endeavors for the Supportment and Re-inforcing of the almost conclamated Cause of Arminianisme ready to be handed unto publick view is commonly reported and believed concerning which also many swelling words of which there lies great abundance on every side are daily vented as of some unparalelled product of Truth and Industry as though Nil oriturum alias nil ortum tale for the most part by such as are utterly ignorant how far these Controversies have been sifted and to what Issue they have been driven long ago For my part as I have not as yet of late heard or read any thing of this kind either from Publick Disputes or in Printed Sheets but only long since exploded Sophismes inconsequent Consequencies weak Objections fully soundly Answered many a day since nor by the Taste which I have already received have
as the meritorious cause of Pardon So that this is Pura Ignoratio Elenchi 2 Take Pardon in the large sense I intimated and so the Death of Christ is not the meritorious cause of the whole but only of that particular in it wherein it is commonly supposed solely to Consist of which before But In what sense and upon what grounds I extended gracious Condonation of sin unto that Compasse here mentioned I have now expressed Let it stand or fall as it sutes the Judgement of the Reader the weight of my Answer depends not on it at all My Second Answer to that Objection I gave in these words That Remission Grace and Pardon which is in God for Sinners is not oppossed to Christs Merits and Satisfaction but ours He pardoneth all to us but he spared not his only Son he bated him not one farthing To this Mr B thus expressing it But it is of Grace to us though not to Christ Answereth Doth not that cleerly intimate That Christ was not in the Obligation That the Law doth threaten every man personally or else it had been no favour to accept it of another It is marvelous to me That a Learned man should voluntarily chuse an Adversary to himself and yet Consider the very leaves which he undertakes to Confute with so much Contempt or Oscitancy as to labour to prove against him what he possitively Asserts terminis terminantibus That Christ was not in the Obligation that he was put in as a Surety by his own Consent God by his Soveraignty dispensing with the Law as to that yet as a Creditor exacting of him the due Debt of the Law is the maine Intendment of the place Mr Baxter here Considereth 2 Grant All that here is said how doth it prove that Christ underwent not the very Penalty of the Law Is it because he was not Primarily in the Obligation He was put in as a Surety to be the Object of it's Execution Is it because the Law doth threaten every man Personally Christ underwent Really what was threatned to others as shall be proved but it is not then of favour to accept it but this is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And thus to set it down is but a Petition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 3 How doth this Elude the force of my Answer I see it not at all After this I give a Third Answer to the former Objection manifesting how the FREEDOM of Pardon may Consist with Christ Satisfaction in these words The Freedom then of Pardon hath not its foundation in any defect of the Merit or Satisfaction of Christ but in Three other things 1 The Will of God freely appointing the Satisfaction of Christ Joh. 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. 1 Joh. 4. 9. 2 In a Gracious Acceptation of that decreed Satisfaction in our steads so many no more 3 In a free Application of the Death of Christ unto us Remission then excludes not a full Satisfaction by the solution of the very thing in the Obligation but only the Solution or Satisfaction of him to whom Pardon and Remission is granted It being the Freedom of Pardon that is denied Upon the supposals of such a Satisfaction as I Assert I Demonstrate from whence that Freedom doth accrew unto it notwithstanding a supposal of such a Satisfaction not that Pardon consisteth in the Three things there recounted but that it hath its Freedom from them That is Supposing those Three things notwithstanding the Intervention of Payment made by Christ it cannot be but Remission of Sin unto us must be a free and gracious Act To all this Mr B. opposeth divers things For 1 Imputation of righteousness saith he is not any part of Pardon but a necessary Antecedent 2 The same may be said of Gods Acceptation 3 Its Application is a large Phrase and may be meant of several Acts but of which here I know not In a word this mistake is very great I affirm the Freedom of Pardon to depend on those things he Answereth That Pardon doth not consist in these things It is the Freedom of Pardon whence it is not the Nature of Pardon wherein it is that we have under Consideration But saith he how can he call it a gracious Acceptation a gracious Imputation a free Application if it were the same thing the Law requireth that was paid To pay all according to the full exaction of the Obligation needeth no favour to procure Acceptance Imputation or Application Can Justice refuse to accept of such a payment or can it require any more Though I know not directly what it is he means by saying I call it yet I passe it over 2 If all this were done by the Persons themselves or any one in their stead procured and appointed by themselves then were there some difficulty in these Questions but this being otherwise there is none at all as hath been declared 3 How the Payment made by Christ was of Grace yet in respect of the Obligation of the Law needed no favour nor was refusable by Justice supposing its free Constitution shall be afterwards declared To me the Author seems not to have his wonted cleerness in this whole Section which might administer occasion of further Enquiry and Exceptions but I forbear And thus much be spoken for the cleering and vindicating my Answer to the Arguments of Grotius against Christs paying the Idem of the Obligation The next shall further confirme the Truth CAP. IV. Further of the matter of the Satisfaction of Christ wherein is proved That it was the same that was in the Obligation IT being supposed not to be sufficient to have shewed the weakness of my Endeavour to Assert and Vindicate from Opposition what I had undertaken Mr Baxter addeth That I give up the Cause about which I contend as having indeed not understood him whom I undertook to Oppose in these words Mr Owen giveth up the Cause at last and saith as Grotius having not understood Grotius his meaning as appeareth Pag. 141 142 143. Whether I understand Grotius or no will by and by appear Whether Mr B. understandeth Me or the Controversie by me handled you shall have now a TRYAL The Assertion which alone I seek to Maintain is this That the Punishment which our Saviour under-went was the same that the Law required of us God relaxing his Law as to the Person suffering but not as to the Penalty suffered Now if from this I draw back in any of the Concessions following collected from pag. 141 142 143. I depracate not the Censure of giving up the Cause I contended for If otherwise there is a great mistake in some body of the whole businesse Of the things then Observe according to Mr B. his Order I shall take a brief account 1 He acknowledgeth saith he That the Payment is not made by the Party to whom Remission is granted and so saith every man that is a Christian This is a part of
the Position it self I maintain and so no going back from it So that as to this I may passe as a Christian 2 He saith ads he it was a full valuable Compensation therefore not of the same 1 This Inference would trouble Mr B. to prove 2 Therefore not made by the same nor by any of the Debtors appointment will follow perhaps but no more 3 That by Reason of the Obligation upon us we our selves were bound to undergo the punishment Therefore Christs punishment was not in the Obligation but only ours and so the Law was not fully Executed but Relaxed 1 This is my Thesis fully the Law was Executed as to its Penalty relaxed as to the Person suffering 2 The Punishment that Christ under-went was in the Obligation though threatned to us 4 He saith he meaneth not that Christ bore the same punishment due to us in all Accidents of Duration and the like but the same in weight and preasure therfore not the same in the Obligation because not fully the same Act The Accidents I mention follow and attend the Person suffering and not the Penalty it self All Evils in any suffering as far as they are sinful attend the Condition of the Parties that Suffer Every thing usually recounted by those who make this and the like Exceptions as far as they are purely penal were on Christ 5 He saith God had power so far to relax his own LAW as to have the name of a Surety put into the Obligation which before was not there and then to require the whole debt of that Surety And what saith Grotius more then this If the same things in the Obligation be paid then the Law is Executed and if Executed then not Relaxed Here he confesseth That the Sureties name was not in the Obligation and that God Relaxed the Law to put it in Now the main businesse that Grotius drives at there is to prove this Relaxation of the Law and the non-Execution of it on the Offenders threatned Thus far Mr Baxter 1 All this proves not at all the things intended neither doth any Concession here mentioned in the least take off from the main Assertion I maintain as is apparent any at first view 2 Grotius is so far from saying more then I do that he sayes not so much 3 This Paralogisme if the Law be Executed then not Relaxed and on the contrary ariseth-meerly from a non-Consideration of the nature of Contradictories The Opposition fancied here is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as is required of Contradictions 4 The Observation that Crown main business is other discovereth the Bottom of M. B. his mistake Even a supposal that I should oppose Grotius in his main Intendment in the place Considered which was not once in my thoughts It was meerly about the nature of the Penalty that Christ underwent that I Discoursed How the Relaxation of the Law as to the Commutation of Persons may be Established whether we affirm Christ to have paid the Idem or Tantundem And that Mr B. affirms the same with me I can prove by twenty Instances The Reader if he please may consult Pag. 18. 25. 33 34 35. 42. 48. and in plain terms Pag. 81. In respect of punishment abstracting from Persons the Law was not dispensed withal as to Christ And what said I more And so much if not too much to Mr Baxters Exceptions which of what weight and force they are I leave to others to judge That which I maintain as to this Point in Difference I have also made apparent It is wholly comprized under these Two Heads 1 Christ suffered the same Penalty which was in the Obligation 2 To do so is to make Payment ejusdem and not tantidem The REASONS of both I shall briefly subjoyne And as to the FIRST they are these following 1 The Scripture hath expresly revealed the Translation of Punishment in respect of the Subjects suffering it but hath not spoken one word of the change of the kind of Punishment but rather the contrary is affirmed Rom. 8. 32. He spared not his own SON but delivered him up for us all 2 All the Punishment due to us was contained in the Curse and Sanction of the Law That is the Penalty of the Obligation whereof we spake but this was undergon by the Lord Christ For he hath REDEEMED us from the Curse of the LAW being made a Curse for us Gall 3. 13. 3 Where God condemneth sin there he condems it in that very Punishment which is due unto it in the Sinner or rather to the Sinner for it He hath revealed but one Rule of his proceeding in this case How he condemned sin in the flesh of Christ or in him sent in the likenesse of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 30. God sending his own Son in the likenesse of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned sin in the flesh The condemning of Sin is the infliction of Punishment due to Sin 4 The whole Penalty of Sin is Death Gen. 2. 11. This Christ underwent for us Heb. 2. 14. He tasted Death And to die for another is to undergo that Death which that other should have undergone 2 Sam. 18. 33. It is true this Death may be considered either in Respect of its Essence if I may be allowed so to speak which is called the pains of Hell which Christ underwent Psal. 18. 6. and 22. 1. Luke 22. 44. or of its Attendencies as Duration and the like which he could not undergo Psal. 16. 20. Acts 2. So that whereas Eternal Death may be considered Two wayes either as such in potentia and in its own nature or as actually So our Saviour underwent it not in the latter but first sense Heb. 2. 9. 14. which by the Dignity of his Person 1 Pet. 3. 18. Heb. 9. 26. 28. Rom. 5. 9. which raises the Estimation of Punishment is aequipotent to the other There is a sameness in Christs sufferings with that in the Obligation in respect of Essence and equivalency in respect of Attendencies 5 The meeting of our Iniquities upon Christ Isa. 53. 6. and his being thereby made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. lay the very Punishment of our Sin as to us threatned upon him 6 Consider the Scriptural Descriptions you have of his Perpessions and see if they do not plainly hold out the utmost that ever was threatned to sin There is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Isa. 53. 5. Peters {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1 Pet. 2. 24. the liver nibex wound stripe that in our stead was so on him that thereby we are healed Those Expressions of the Condition of his Soul in his sufferings whereby he is said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Mat. 26. 34. Mark 14. 33. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Luke 22. 44. Sadness unto death Mat. 26. 38. That dreadful cry Why hast thou forsaken me Those cryes out of the deep and
CONDITION to be by them performed not absolutly procured for them thereby whereby they became to have a Right unto the GOOD THINGS by him Purchased to be in due time Possessed according to Gods Way Method and Appointment From a faithful adherence unto this Perswasion I see nothing as yet of the least Efficacy or force to disswade me and am bold to tell these concerned therein That their Conditional Satisfaction or their suspending the Fruits of the Death of Christ upon Conditions as though the Lord should give him to die for us upon Condition of such and such things is a vain Figment contrary to the Scriptures inconsistent in it self and destructive of the true value and vertue of the Death of Christ which by the Lords Assistance I shall be ready at any time to Demonstrate My Intention in the place Excepted against being cleered I shall now tender my Thoughts to these Two things 1 The distinct Consideration of the Acts of the Will of God before and after the Satisfaction of Christ as also before and after our Believing towards us as unto Justification 2 The distinct Estate of the Sinner upon that Consideration with what is the Right to the Fruits of the Death of Christ which the Elect of God have before Believing CAP. VI Of the Acts of Gods Will towards Sinners Antecedent and Consequent to the Satisfaction of Christ Of Grotius Judgment herein THE distinct Consideration of the Acts of Gods Will in reference to the Satisfaction of Christ and our believing according to the former Proposal is the First thing to be Considered Grotius who with many and in an especial manner with Mr Baxter is of very great account and that in Theologie distinguisheth as himself calls them with a School term 3 Moments or Instances of the Divine Will a 1 Before the Death of Christ either actually accomplished or in the purpose and fore-knowledge of God in this instant he saith God is Angry with the Sinner but so as that he is not averse from all Wayes of laying down his Anger b 2 Upon the Death of Christ or that being suppos'd wherein God not only Purposeth but also Promiseth to lay aside his Anger c 3 When a man by true Faith believeth in Christ and Christ according to the Tenure of the Covenant commendeth him to God here now God layes aside his Anger and receiveth man into Favour Thus far he Amongst all the attempts of distinguishing the Acts of Gods Will in reference unto Christ and Sinners what ever I considered I never found any more slight Atheological and discrepant from the Truth then this of Grotius d To measure the Almighty by the Standard of a man and to frame in the mind a mutable Idol instead of the Eternal Unchangeable God is a Thing that the fleshly Reasonings of dark understandings are prone unto Feigns the Lord in one Instant Angry afterwards promising to cease to be so then in another instant laying down his Anger and taking up a contrary affection and you seem to me to do no less What it may be esteemed in Law which was that Authors faculty I know not but suppose in Divinity that notwithstanding the manifold Attempts of some {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in most heads of Religion e the ascribing unto the most holy things alien and opposite unto his glorious nature is by common consent accounted no less then f blasphemy whither this be here don or no may easily appear I hope then without the offence of any I may be allowed to call those Dictates of Grotius to the Rule and Measure of Truth 1 Before the fore-sight of the Death of Christ saith he God is angry with Sinners but not wholly averse from all wayes of laying aside that Anger Answ. 1 That God should be conceived angry after the manner of men or with any such kind of Passion is grosse Anthropomorphisme as bad if not worse then the assigning of him a bodily shape g The Anger of God is a pure Act of his Will whereby he will effect and inflict the Effects of Anger Now what is before the fore-sight of the Death of Christ is certainly from Eternity Gods Anger must respect either the purpose of God or the Effects of it The latter it cannot be for they are undoubtedly all temporal It must be then his purpose from Eternity to inflict punishment that is the Effect of Anger This then is the First thing in the business of Redemption assigned by Grotius unto the Lord viz. He purposed from Eternity to inflict punishment on Sinners and on what sinners even those for whom he gives Christ to die and afterwards receives into favour as he expresseth himself Behold here a Mystery of Vorstian Theology God changing his eternal purposes h This Arminius at first could not down withal inferring from hence That the Will of God differ'd not from his Essence that every act thereof is 1 Most Simple 2 Infinite 3 Eternal 4 Immutable 5 Holy Reason it self would fain speak in this Cause but that the Scriptures do so abound many places are noted in the Margin Ja. 1. 17. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Ps. 33. 9 10 11. Acts. 15. 18. c. may be added A mutable god is of the dunghil 2 That the Death of Christ is not compriz'd in the first consideration of Gods Mind and act of his Will towards Sinners to be saved is assumed gratis 3 He is not saith he averse from all wayes of laying down this Anger This Schem Grotius placeth as is evident in God as the foundation and bottom of sending Christ for our Redemption This he immediatly subjoyns without the least intimation of any further inclination in God towards Sinners for whom he gives his Son But 1 This is a meer negation of inflicting Anger for the present or a suspension of that affection from working according to its Qualitie which how it can be ascribed to the pure and active i Will of God I know not Yea it is above disproved 2 Such a kind of Frame as it is injurious to God so to be held out as the fountain of his sending Christ to die for us is I am perswaded an Abhorrency to Christians And 3 Whether this Answer that which the Scripture holds out as the most intense distinguishing love Joh. 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. Chap. 8. 32. 1 Joh. 4. 9 10. is easily discernable A natural velleity to the good of the Creature is the thing here couched but was never proved In the second Instance God saith he the Death of Christ being suppos'd not only determineth but also promiseth to lay aside his anger 1 What terms can be invented to hold out more expresly a Change and Alteration in the Unchangable God then these here used I know not 2 That the Will or Mind of God is altered from one respect towards us to another by the Consideration of the Death
of Christ is a low carnal Conception The Will of God is not moved by any thing without it self k Alterations are in the things altered not in the Will of God concerning them 3 To make this the whole Effect of the Death of Christ that God should determine and promise to lay aside his wrath is l no Scripture discovery either as to Name or Thing 4 The Purposes of God which are all Eternal and the Promises of God which are all made in time are very inconveniently ranged in the same Series 5 That by the Death of Christ Attonement is made everlasting Redemption purchased that God is Reconciled a Right unto Freedom obtained for those for whom he died shall be afterwards declared 6 If God doth only Purpose and Promise to lay aside his Anger upon the Death of Christ but doth it not until our actual believing then 1 our Faith is the proper procuring cause of Reconciliation the Death of Christ but a Requisite Antecedent which is not the Scripture Phrase Rom. 5. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 18. Eph. 2. 16. Col. 1. 20 21. Dan. 9. 24. Heb. 2. 17. Eph. 1. 7. Heb. 9. 12. 2 How comes the Sinner by Faith if it is the Gift of God It must be an Issue of Anger and Enmity for that Schem only is actually ascribed to him before our enjoyment of it Strange that God should be so far reconciled as to give us Faith that we may be reconciled to him that thereupon he may be reconciled to us 3 For the Third Instance of Gods receiving the sinner into love and favour upon his beleeving quite laying aside his anger I Answer To wave the Anthropomorphisme wherwith this Assertion is tainted as the former If by receiving into favour he intend absolute compleat pactional Justification being an Act of favour quitting the sinner from the guilt of sin charged by the Accusation of the Law terminated on the Conscience of a sinner I confess it in order of nature to follow our beleiving I might Consider further the Attempts of others for the right sttating of this business but it would draw me beyond my Intention His failings herein who is so often mentioned and so much used by him who gives occasion to this rescript I could not but remark What are my own Thoughts and Apprehensions of the whole I shall in the next place briefly impart Now to make way hereunto some things I must suppose which though some of them otherwhere controverted yet not at all in reference to the present business and they are these 1 That Christ died only for the Elect or God gave his Son to die only for those whom he chuseth to life and salvation for the praise of his glorious Grace This is granted by Mr Baxter where he affirms That Christ bare not punishment for them who must bear punishment themselves in eternal fire Thes. 33. p. 162. And again Christ died not for final Vnbelief Thes. 32. p. 159. therefore not for them who are finally Unbelievers as all non-Elected are and shall be For what Sinners he died he died for all their sins Rom. 5. 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 1. 7. If any shall say That as he died not for the final Unbelief of others so not for the final Unbelief of the Elect and so not for final Unbelief at all I Answer First If by final Unbelief you mean that which is actually so Christ satisfied not for it His satisfaction cannot be extended to those things whose Existence is prevented by his Merit The Omission of this in the consideration of the Death Christ lies at the bottom of many mistakes Merit and Satisfaction are of equal Extent as to their Objects both also tend to the same End but in sundry respects Secondly If by final Vnbelief you understand that which would be so notwithstanding all means and remedies were it not for the Death of Christ so he did satisfie for it It's Existens being prevented by his Merit So then if Christ died not for final Unbelief he died not for the finally Unbeleeving Though the Satisfaction of his Death hath not paid for it the Merit of his Death would remove it Thirdly I Suppose That the Means as well as the Ends Grace as Glory are the Purchase and procurement of Jesus Christ See this proved in my Treatise of Redemption Lib. 3. Cap. 4. c. Fourthly That God is absolutely immutable unchangable in all his Attributes Neither doth his Will admit of any alteration This proved above Fifthly That the Will of God is not moved properly by any external Cause whatsoever unto any of its Acts whether imminent or transient For 1 m By a moving Cause we understand a Cause Morally Efficient and if any thing were so properly in respect of any Act of Gods Will then the Act which is the Will of God Acting must in some respect viz. As it is an Effect be less worthy and inferiour to the Cause for so is every Effect in respect of it's Cause And 2 Every Effect produced proceedeth from a Passive possibility unto the Effect which can no way be assigned unto God besides it must be temporarie for nothing that is Eternal can have dependance upon that whose Rise is in Time and such are all things external to the Will of God even the Merit of Christ himself 3 I cannot imagine how there can be any other Cause why God Willeth any thing then why he not Willeth or Willeth not other things which for any to Assign will be found Difficult Mat. 11. 25. Chap. 20. 15. So then when God Willeth one thing for another as our Salvation for the Death of Christ the one is the Cause of the other neither moveth the Will of God Hence Sixthly All Alterations are in the things concerning which the Acts of the Will of God are none in the Will of God its self These things being premised what was before proposed I shall now in order make out beginning with the Eternal Acts of the Will of God towards us antecedent to all or any Consideration of the DEATH of CHRIST CAP. VII In particular of the Will of God towards them for whom Christ died and their state and Condition as Considered Antecedanous to the Death of Christ and all Efficiency thereof FIRST then the Habitude of God towards man Antecedent to all fore-sight of the Death of Christ is an Act of Supream Soveraignty and Dominion appointing them by means suited to the manifestation of his Glorious Properties according to his Infinitely Wise and Free Disposal to Eternal Life and Salvation for the praise of his glorious Grace That this Salvation was never but one or of one kind consisting in the same kind of Happiness in reference unto Gods appointment needs not much proving To think that God appointed one kind of Condition for man if he had continued in Innocency and another upon his Recovery from the Fall is to think That
3 That as the making out of all spiritual blessings first purposed by the Father then purchased by the Son that they might be bestowed Condecently to divine Justice God hath reserved it to his own Sovereign disposal That it be done so that they for whom this whole Dispensation is appointed may really enjoy the Fruits of it is all that necessarily is included either in the Purpose or Purchase Hence it is that the discharge of the Debtor doth not immediately follow the Payment of the Debt by Christ not because that Payment is refusable but because in that very Covenant and Compact from whence it is that the Death of Christ is a Payment God reserveth to himself this Right and Liberty to discharge the Debtor when and how he pleaseth I mean as to Times and Seasons for otherwise the means of actual freedom is procured by that Payment though not considered meerly as a Payment which denotes only Satisfaction but as it had adjoyned Merit also Therefore that Principle much used and rested on by Mr Baxter in the Business of Satisfaction to obviate this very difficulty of a not immediate discharge if Christ paid the Debt viz. That the Satisfaction of Christ is a refusable Payment which he presseth Page 149 150. is neither true in it self nor accommodate to this difficulty 1 Not True For The Suffering of CHRIST may be Considered either 1 Absolutely as in it self abstracting from the Consideration of any Covenant or Compact thereabout and so it cannot be said to be a refusable Payment not because not refusable but because no Payment That any thing should have any such reference unto God as a Payment or Satisfaction whether refusable or otherwise is not from its self and its own nature but from the Constitution of God alone Between God and the Creature there is no Equality not so much as of Proportion Christ in Respect of his Humane Nature though United to the Deity is a Creature and so could not absolutly satisfie or merit any thing at the hand of God I mean with that kind of merit which ariseth from an absolute Proportion of things This Merit can be found only among Creatures and the Advancement of Christs Humanity takes it not out of that Number Neither in this sense can any Satisfaction be made to God for sin The Sinners own undergoing the Penalty neither is Satisfaction in the sense whereof we speak neither can it properly be said to be so at all no more then a thing to be done which is Endlessly in doing 2 It may be Considered with Reference unto Gods Constitution and Determinatiou Predestmating Christ unto that Work and appointing the Work by him to be accomplished to be satisfactory equaling by that Constitution the End and the Means And thus the Satisfaction of Christ in the Justice of God was not refusable the Wisdom Truth Justice and suitable Purpose of God being engaged to the Contrary 2 This distinction is not accommodate to this difficulty the sole Reason thereof being what was held out before of the Interest of Gods Sovereign Right to the bestowing of Purposed Purchased Promised Blessings as to Times and Seasons according to the free Councel of his own Will 3 Hence then it is That God in the Scripture upon the Death of Christ is said to be reconciled to be returned unto Peace with them for whom he so died the Enmity being slain and peace actually made Ephes. 2. 14 15 16. Collos. 1. 20. because he now will and may suitablely to his Justice Wisdome and Appointment make out unto them for whom the Atonement was made all fruits of Love Peace and Amity Heb. 2. 17. Rom. 5. 10 11. 2 Cor. 5. 19. The OBJECTION unto this How then can God deny us the present Possession of Heaven used by Mr Baxter Page 157. is not of any force the whole disposal of these Things being left to his own pleasure And this is the SCHEME which upon the Death of CHRIST we assigne unto God He is atoned appeased actually reconciled at peace with those for whom Christ died and in due time for his sake will bestow upon them all the Fruits and Issues of Love and renewed Friendship This possibly may give some light into the immediate Effect of the DEATH of CHRIST which though I shall not purposely now handle yet Mr Baxter with much diligence having employed himself in the Investigation thereof I shall turn aside a little to Consider his ASSERTIONS in this Particular CAP. IX A Degression concerning the Immediate Effect of the Death of Christ IT is one of the greatest and noblest Questions in our Controverted Divinity What are the immediate Effects of Christs Death He that can rightly Answer this is a Divine indeed and by help of this may expedite most other Controversies about Redemption and Justification In a word The Effects of Redemption undertaken could not be upon a Subject not yet existent and so no Subject though it might be for them None but Adam and Eve were then Existent Yet as soon as we do Exist we receive benefit from it The suspending of the rigorous execution of the Sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate Effect of the Death of Christ which suspension is some kind of Deliverance from it Thus far Mr Baxter Thess. 9. Explicat pag. 67. There are scarce more lines then mistakes in this Discourse Some of them may be touched on 1 Effects are to be Considered with Respect to their Causes Causes are Real or Moral Real or Physical Causes produce their Effects immediately either Immediatione suppositi or Virtutis Unto them the subject must be Existent I speak not of creating power where the Act produceth its Object Moral Causes do never immediately acting their own Effects nor have any immediate influence into them There is between such Causes and their Effects the intervention of some 3d Thing previous to them both viz. Proportion Constitution Law Covenant which takes in the Cause and lets out the Effect And this for all Circumstances of where how when suitable to the limitations in them expressed or implyed with the Nature of the things themselves The Death of Christ is a Moral Cause in respect of all its Effects Whether those subjects on which it is to have its Effects be Existent or not Existent at the time of its performance is nothing at all considerable If it wrought Physically and Efficiently the Existence of the Subjects on which it were to work were requisite It is altogether in vain to enquire of the immediate Effects of Christs Death upon an Existent subject By the way That Adam and Eve only were Existent when Christ undertook the work of Redemption to me is not cleer no nor yet the following Assertion That as soon as we do Exist we receive Benefit by it taking benefit for a benefit actually collated as Mr Baxter doth not for a right to a benefit or the purpose of bestowing one which will Operate
in its due time This is easily Affirmed and therefore Eadem Facilitate is Denyed I have no fancy to strive to carry the Bell and to be accounted a Divine indeed by attempting at this time a right Stating of and Answer to this Question Proposed I am not altogether ignorant of the endeavour of others even as to this Particular and have formerly spoken somthing that way my self Mr Baxter seems here to understand by this Question viz. What is the immediate Effect of the Death of Christ what is the first benefit which from the Death of Christ accreweth unto them for whom he died Not what is the first thing that every particular person is actually in his own Person in his own time made partaker of but a Benefit Generally established and in being upon the designment of the work of Redemption which every one for whom Christ died hath a share of And of this he Positively Affirms That the suspending of the rigorous execution of the Sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate Effect of the Death of Christ and so deserves the Title of a Divine indeed Now truly though not to contend for the Bell with Mr Baxter whereof I confess my self utterly unworthy and willingly for many commendable Parts ascribe it unto him I cannot close with him nor Assent unto that Assertion Very gladly would I see Mr Baxters Arguments for this but those as in most other Controverted things in this Book he is pleased to Conceal and therefore though it might suffice me to give in my Dissent and so wait for further Proof yet that it may be apparent That I do not Deny this meerly because its said not Proved which in things not cleer in themselves is a Provocation so to do I shall oppose One or Two ARGVMENTS unto it All the Effects of the Death of Christ are peculiar only to the Elect to some the suspension of the rigorous execution of the Law is not so Ergo The Minor is apparent The Major proved by all the Arguments against Vniversal Redemption used in my former Treatise 2 All the Effects of the Death of Christ are Spiritual distinguishing and saving to the praise of Gods free Grace The suspending of the vigorous Execution of the Law is not so Ergo The Assumption is manifest 't is only a not immediate casting into Hell which is not a spiritual distinguishing Mercy but in respect to many tends to the manifestation of Gods Justice Rom. 9. 22. The Proposition is evident The Promises made unto Christ upon his undertaking this Work doubtless do hold out all that he Effected by his Death Of what Nature they are and what is the main tendance of them I have elsewhere discovered from the first to the last they are restrained to distinguishing Mercies see Isa. 49. 6 7 8 9 10. Chap. 53. 10 11 12. Isa. 61. 1 2. and no less is positively affirmed Eph. 1. 4. Rev. 1. 5 6. If Mr Baxter say that his meaning in this is That if Christ had not undertaken the Work of Redemption and Satisfaction then the Law must have had rigorous Execution upon all and therefore this being suspended upon his undertaking of it is the first fruit of the Death of Christ Notwithstanding this yet that suspension which in respect of the different Persons towards whom it is actually exercised hath different ends is not a Fruit nor Effect of the Death of Christ but a free Issue of the same eternally wise Providence Sovereignty and Grace as the Death of Christ himself is If then by the rigorous Execution of the Law you intend the immediate Execution of the Law in all its rigour and punishments this if it had been effected could in your own Judgment have reached Adam and Eve and no more and would have so reached them as to cut off the Generation of Mankind in that Root If so and this be the Fruit of Christs Death Why do you not reckon the Procreation of humane race among those Fruits also for had it not been for this suspension that also had failed which is as good a Causative Connection as that between the Death of Christ and this Suspension had not he undertaken the Work of Redemption it had not been If by a rigorous Execution you intend the Penalty of the Law inflicted in that way which hath pleased the Will of the Law-giver by several parts and degrees from conception through birth life death to Eternity the Curse of it being wholly incumbent in respect of desert and making out it self according to Gods appointment then the suspension thereof is not the immediate Effect of the Death of Christ which opposing the first Arguments to the former acceptation I further prove If those for whom Christ died do lie under this rigorous Execution of the Law that is the Curse of it until some other Effect of Christs Death be wrought upon them then that is not the first Effect of the Death of Christ but that supposal is true Joh. 3. 36. Ephes. 2. 3. therefore so also the Inference 2 In a word Take the suspending of the rigorous execution of the Law for the Purpose of God and his acting accordingly not to leave his Elect under the actual Curse of it so it is no Fruit of the Death of Christ but an Issue of the same Grace from whence also the Death of Christ proceeds Take it for an actual freeing of their Persons from the Breach of it and its Curse and so it differs not from Justification and is not the immediate effect of Christs Death in Mr Baxters Judgment Take it for the not immediately executing of the Law upon the first offence and I can as well say Christ died because the Law was suspended as you that the Law was suspended because Christ died had not either been the other had not been Take it for the actual forbearance of God towards all the World and so it falls under my Two first Arguments Take it thus that God for the Death of Christ will deal with all men upon a new Law freeing all from the Guilt of the first broken Law and Covenant So it is non Ens. If you mean by it Gods entring into a New way of Salvation with those for whom Christ died this on the part of God is antecedaneous to the Consideration of the Death of Christ and of the same free Grace with it self For the Question it self as I said before I shall not here in Terms take it up the following Discourse will give Light into it I have also spoken largely to it in another place and that distinctly The Sum is I conceive that all the intermediate Effects of the Death of Christ tending to its ultimate Procurement of the Glory of God are all in respect of his death immediate that is with such an immediation as attends Moral Causes Now these concerning them for whom he died as they are not immediatly bestowed on them the ultimate Attingency of
he can collate any spiritual Blessings upon them as he seeth good But this I have Disproved elsewhere and Manifested 1 That the foundation of this Apprehension being an impossibility in God to forgive sin without Satisfaction because of the contrariety of it to the Properties of his nature is a groundless Assertion And 2 The foundation of God in sending his Son to die for his Elect is oppugned hereby And it 3 Is destructive to all the proper Fruits and Effects of the Death of Christ c. Lib. 2. Cap. 2. 2 In the Will of God it seems that the Merit and Fruits of the Death of Christ whereof we treat seem better to be treasured and from hence it is That he can Will or Willeth to us the Good things purchased by it But 1 That the Will of God should by the Death of Christ be changed into any other Habitude then what it was in before was before disproved 2 That now God can Will Good things to us holds out the enlargement of his Power as to the acting thereof mentioned above rather then any thing properly belonging to the Will of God 3 Gods Willing Good things to us it cannot consist in his willing of a thing is operative of it it is his Efficacious Energetical Will whereof we speak When he actually willeth Grace we have Grace and when he Willeth Glory we have Glory but that concerning which we speak is Antecedent to the actual making out of Grace and Glory to us being the procuring cause of them though not of that Act of the Will of God whereby they are bestowed His Justice and Truth only remain For Justice that which is Commutative properly with one Consent is removed from God Who hath given first unto him and it shall be rendered unto him again Neither is distributive Justice to be supposed in him antecedent to some free engagement of his own Where no Obligation is there cannot be so much as distributive Justice properly All Obligation from God to the Creature is from his own free engagement otherwise he stands in no Relation to it but of absolute Dominion and Sovereignty All the Justice of God then we consider not the universal Rectitude of his nature but in reference to the Creature is Justitia regiminis Psal. 33. 4 5. 1 Joh. 1. 5. and therefore must suppose some free Constitution of his Will This then rightly considered do I Affirm to be affected with the Merit of Christ There I place the procuring Efficacy thereof whence it is That all the Fruits of it are made out unto us But this in due order The first Thing of immediate Concernment hereunto is the Covenant of the Father with the Son the free engagement of God to do such and such things for Christ upon the performance of such other things to him appointed This is the foundation of the Merit of Christ as was before declared Hence is distributive Justice ascribed to God as to this thing It is righteous with him being engaged by his own free Purpose and Promise to make out those things which he appointed to be the Fruit and Procurement of the Death of Christ And from thence it is that all the things purchased by the Death of Christ become due to those for whom he died even from the Equity attending this Justice of God Herein also his Truth hath a share By his Truth I understand his Fidelity and Veracity in the performance of all his engagements This immediately attends every Obligation that by any free Act of his Will God is pleased in his Wisdom to put upon himself and is naturally under Consideration before that distributive Justice whereby he is inclined to the Performance it self of them This then is that I say God by free Purpose and Compact making way for the Merit of Christ which absolutely could be none is obliged from the Veracity and Justice which attends all his Engagements to make out as in his infinite Wisdom shall seem meet all those things which he hath set appointed and proposed as the Fruit and Purchase of his Death unto all them for whom he died And in This rests the Merit of Christ Here Two things may be observed 1 What we ascribe to the Merit of Christ viz. The Accomplishment of that Condition which God required to make way that the Obligation which he had freely put upon himself might be in actual force And so much how rightly I leave to himself to Consider doth Mr Baxter assign to our own works Thes. 26. p. 140. 2 The mistake of those who wind up the MERIT of Christ as affecting God if I may so speak unto a Conditional Engagement viz. That we shall be made Partakers of the Fruits of it upon such and such Conditions to be by us fulfilled For 1 All such Conditions if spiritual Blessings are part of the Purchase of the Death of Christ and if not are no way fit to be Conditions of such an Attainment 2 It cannot be made apparent how any such Conditional stipulation can be ascribed unto God That God should engage upon the Death of Christ to make out Grace and Glory Liberty and Beauty unto those for whom he died upon CONDITION they do so or so 1 Leaves no proper place for the Merit of Christ 2 Is very improperly ascribed unto God Lawyers tell us That all stipulations about things future are either sub Conditione or sub Termino Stipulations or Engagements upon CONDITION that are properly so do suppose him that makes the Engagement to be altogether uncertain of the Event thereof Stipulations sub Termino are absolute to make out the things engaged about at such a Season Upon the very Instant of such a Stipulation as this an Obligation follows as to the thing though no Action be allowed to him to whom it is made until the Term and Time appointed be come In those Stipulations that are under CONDITION no Obligation ariseth at all from them it being wholly uncertain whether the Condition will be fulfilled or no Only in Two Cases doth such an Engagement bring on an immediate Obligation 1 If the Condition required be in things necessary and unalterable As if Cajus should engage himself into Tilius to give him an 100. l. for his House on the morrow if the Sun shine here ariseth an immediate Obligation and it is the same as if it had been conceived only sub Termino without Condition at all 2 If by any means he that makes the Stipulation knows infallibly that the Condition will be fulfilled though he to whom it is made knows it not In this Respect also the Stipulation sub Conditione introduceth an immediate Obligation and in that regard is co-incident with that which is only sub Termino Wheither an Engagement upon Condition properly without the former Respects that is a Stipulation to an Event dubious and uncertain can be ascribed unto God is easie to determine To Assert it oppugnes the whole nature of
the Deity and over-throws the Properties thereof immediatly and directly All other Stipulations under Condition are co-incident as I said before with that which is sub Termino only from whence ariseth an immediate Obligation for the performance of the thing stipulated about though there be not an immediate Action granted him unto whom it is made Surely they are wide if not very wild who Affirm That all the Stipulations on the part of God upon the Death of Christ are upon a Condition which himself knows to be impossible for them to perform to whom they are made which amongst wise men are alwayes accounted Nugatory and Null This being then so vain I say that the Merit of Christ flowing from the free purpose and Compact of God resteth on his Justice thence also arising fixing thereon an Obligation to make out all the Fruits of it unto them for whom he died sub Termino only whereby a present right is granted them thereunto though they cannot plead for present Enjoyment CAP. XI More particularly of the State and Right of them for whom Christ died before Beleeving THE former Assertions about the Merit of Christ being in some measure cleered we may hence have light into the State and Condition of those for whom Christ died in their several Generations before Beleeving To make this the more fully appear we must distinguish between their present State or Possession and their present right Their State is not changed because all the procurements of the Death of Christ are to be made out unto them by vertue of a Stipulation sub Termino that Term or Season being not come So that still in present actual state I leave them as before not Justified not Sanctified not entred into Covenant Right also is twofold 1 In re as the Father hath a right to his Estate And this Jus in re holds though the Estate be unjustly or forcibly detained from him 2 Ad rem so the Son hath a Right to the Estate of his Father being to enjoy it at his Death The first right is presently actionable upon any detainment the latter not so The first we do not ascribe to the Elect in this Condition viz. That which is in re and instantly actionable but that which is ad rem and sub termino This being That which I Aimed at and being by Mr Baxter Opposed I will further Consider it that it may appear whether any thing in this Assertion be justly blamable I said That by the Death of Christ we have actual Right to the good things purchased by that Death That Right which is not actual to speak a word to that Term is not The Contradistinct Affection hereunto is Potential And this is totally destructive to the Nature of a Right All Right is actual or not at all To evince the main Assertion I shall 1 Shew the Nature and Quality of this Right 2 The Bottome or Foundation of it And 3 Prove the Thesis 1 By Right I understand Jus in general now jus est quod justum est Aug. in Psal. 144. sub Fon. That is right which it is just should be And Quiquid rectum est justum est Aâ—sel de verit Cap. 13. it is just all that should be which hath a Rectitude in it self Farther What this justum is Aquinas tells you 22. ae q. 57. a. 1. c. justum est quod respondet secundum aliquam aequalitatem alteri Then a thing is just when it stands in some aequality unto those things whereunto it relates And this Aequality or Adaequation of things is Twofold 1 That which ariseth from the Nature of the Things themselves As an Eye for an Eye a Tooth for a Tooth c. 2 That which ariseth from a Proportion condescended unto by Condict Agreement Covenant or Common Consent Dupliciter est aliquid adaequatum uno modo ex natura ipsius rei alio modo cum est Commensuratum ex condicto sive ex commune placito Aqui. In the first Sense as to a Right that should accrew unto the Creatures in respect of God from the Commensuration of the things themselves we shewed before that it cannot be It must be from some grant Compact Covenant or the like from whence a Right in Reference to the Faithfulnesse or Righteousnesse of God may arise The Right then whereof we speak which they for whom Christ died have to the things which by his Death are procured consists in that Equity Proportion and Equality which upon the free Compact Constitution and Consent of God the Father is between the Death of Christ and their Enjoyment of the Fruits of that Death It is just and equal that they should enjoy the Fruits of his Death in due time Neither is the Right of any Man to any Thing any more but such a Frame and Order of things that it is just either from the Nature of the Things themselves or from common Consent and Agreement That he should enjoy that thing This is the Right whereof we speak which in their sense the very Socinians grant Christus Jus quoddam ad obtinendam remissionem peccatorum salutem morte sua nobis dedit Crellius adu Groti Cap. 1. 2 For the Foundation of this Right Seeing that before the Consideration of the Death of Christ as was declared it is not from thence it must needs be nothing of any likelihood to be such a Foundation being co-incident therewithal Now whereas in the Death of Christ Two things are Considered 1 The Satisfaction And 2dly the Merit thereof it may be enquired after under whether Respect this right relates thereunto 1 The Satisfaction of Christ tends in all that it is to the Honor and Reparation of the Justice of God This then in its utmost extent and Efficacy cannot give ground to build such a Right upon The ultimate Effect of Satisfaction may be accomplished and yet not the least right to any good thing Communicated to them for whom this Satisfaction is made The good things attending the Death of Christ may be referred unto two heads The Amotion of Evil and the Collation of Good For the First The Amotion of Evil the taking that from us that it may not grieve us and subducting us from the Power and Presence thereof it is immediatly aimed at by Satisfaction That the Curse of the Law be not executed That the Wrath to come be not powred out is the utmost reach of the Death of Christ considered as Satisfactory Yea in it self as only such it proceedeth not so far as to give us a Right to escape these things but only presents that to the Justice of God whereby it may be preserved in all its Glory Severity and exact Purity though these things be not inflicted on us This I say I conceive to be the utmost Tendency of the Death of Christ as Satisfactory That Condemnation cannot possibly de facto follow where such Satisfaction hath been made is immediatly from the Equity of
Justice so repaired as above For Positive good things in Grace and Glory by Satisfaction alone they are not at all respected 2 There is the Merit of the Death of Christ and that Principally intendeth the Glory of God in our enjoying those good things whereof it is the Merit or desert And this is the Foundation of that Right whereof we treat What Christ hath Merited for us it is just and equal we should have that is We have Right unto it and this before Beleeving Faith gives us actual Possession as to some Part and a new Pactional right as to the whole but this Right or that equalling of things upon divine Constitution Jus est operatio illa qua sit aequalitas Pesant in Tom. 22. ae q. 57. whereby it becomes Just and Right that we should obtain the things Purchased by it is from the Merit of Christ alone What Christ hath Merited is so far granted as that they for whom it is so Merited have a Right unto it The Sum then of what we have to prove is That the Merit of the Death of the Lord Jesus hath according to the Constitution of the Father so procured of him the good things aimed at and intended therby that it is Just Right and Equal that they for whom they are so procured should certainly and infallibly enjoy them at the appointed Season and therefore unto them they have an actual Right even before Beleeving Faith it self being of the number of those things so procured All which I prove as followeth 1 The very Terms before mentioned enforce no less If it be justum before their Beleeving that those for whom Christ Died should enjoy the Fruits of his Death then have they even before Beleeving jus or a right thereunto for jus est quod justum est That it is right and equal that they should enjoy those Fruits is manifest For. 1 It was the Engagement of the Father to the Son upon his undertaking to die for them that they should so do Isa. 53. 10 11 12. 2 In that Undertaking he Accomplished all that was of him required Joh. 17. 4. 2 That which is Merited and Procured for any one thereunto he for whom it is procured certainly hath a Right That which is obtained for me is mine in actual right though not perhaps in actual Possession The thing that is obtained is granted by him of whom it is obtained and that unto them for whom it is obtained In some sense or other that is a man's which is procured for him In saying it is procured for him we say no less If this then be not in Respect of Possession it must be in Respect of Right Now all the Fruits of the Death of Christ are obtained and procured by his Merit for them for whom he died He OBTAINS for them eternal Redemption Heb. 9. 12. purchasing them with his own Blood Act. 20. 28. Heb. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Gal. 1. 4. Rev. 14. 3 4. The very Nature of Merit described by the Apostle Rom. 4. 4. infers no less Where Merit intercedes the Effect is reckoned as of debt That which is my due debt I have a Right unto The Fruits of the Death of Christ are the Issues of Merit bottomed on Gods gracious Acceptation and reckoned as of debt He for whom a Ransome is paid hath a Right unto his Liberty by vertue of that Payment 3 2 Pet. 1. 1. The Saints are said to obtain precious Faith through the reghteousness of God It is a righteous thing with God to give Faith to them for whom Christ died because thereby they have a Right unto it Faith being amongst the most precious Fruits of the Death of Christ by vertue thereof becometh their due for whom he died 4 The Condition of Persons under Merit and de-Merit in respect of Good or Evill is alike The Proportion of things requires it Now men under de-Merit are under an Obligation unto Punishment and it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation unto them 2 Thess. 1. 6. It being the judgement of God that they who do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. They then who are under Merit have also a Right unto that whereof it is the Merit It is not of any force to say That they are not under that Merit but only upon Condition For this is 1 False 2 With God this is all one as if there were no Condition at the Season and Term appointed for the making out the Fruit of that Merit as hath been declared Neither yet to Object That it is not their own Merit but of another which Respects them That Other being their Surety doing that whereby he Merited only on their behalf yea in their stead they dying with him though the same in them could not have been Meritorious they being at best meer men and at worst very sinful men 5 A Compact or Covenant being made of giving Life and Salvation upon the Condition of Obedience to certain Persons that Condition being compleatly fulfilled as it was in the Death of Christ Claim being made of the Promise according to the Tenure of the Compact and the Persons presented for the Enjoyment of it surely those Persons have an Actual Right unto it That all this is so see Isa. 49. 2 3 4 5 6 c. Psal. 2. 2. 4 5. Isa. 53. 10 11 12. Joh. 17. 3. 2. 21. Heb. 2. And so much for this also concerning the Issue of the Death of Christ and the Right of the Elect to the Fruits of it before Beleeving CAP. XII Of the way whereby they actually attain and enjoy Faith and Grace who have a Right thereunto by the Death of Christ THE Way and Causes of bestowing Faith on them who are under the Condition before described is the next thing to be enquired after What are the Thoughts of God from Eternity concerning those for whom Christ was to die with the State they are left in in relation to those Thoughts as also what is the Will of God towards them immediatly upon the Consideration of the Death of Christ with the Right which to them accrews thereby being Considered it remaineth I say that we declare the Way and Method whereby they obtain Faith through the righteousness of God And here we must lay down certain POSITIONS As 1 Notwithstanding the Right granted them for whom Christ died upon his Death to a better State and Condition in due Time that is in the Season suiting the Infinitly-Wise-Sovereignty of God yet as to their present Condition in point of Enjoyment they are not actually differenced from others Their Prayers are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28. 9. all Things are to them unclean Tit. 1. 15. they are under the Power of Satan Eph. 2. 2. in bondage unto death Heb. 2. 14. Obnoxious to the Curse and Condemning power of the Law in the Conscience Gal. 3. 13. having sin reigning in them Rom. 6. 17. c. 2 What
mentioned never proved nor I am perswaded will never be But he Addes 2 He saith the Elect are said to die and rise with Christ Answ. 1 Not in respect of time as if we died and rose at the same time either really or in Gods esteem 2 Not that we died in his Dying and rose in his Rising But 3 It is spoken of the distant mediate Effects of his Death and the immediate Effects of his Spirit on us Rising by Regeneration to Union and Communion with Christ So he Reply 1 I pass the 1 and 2 Exceptions notwithstanding that of Gods not esteeming of us as in Christ upon his Performance of the Acts of his Mediation for us might admit of some consideration 2 The Inference here couched That these things are the immediate Effects of Christs Spirit on us therefore the distant and mediate Effects of his death for us is very weak and unconcluding The death of Christ procureth these things as a Cause Moral and Impelling the Spirit worketh as an Efficient and therefore the same thing may be the immediate Effect of them both according to their several kinds of Efficacy And so indeed they are Our actual Conversion the Efficient whereof is the Spirit is the immediate procurement of the Merit of Christ see this at large in my Treatise opposed I know not any man that hath run out into more wide mistakes about the immediate Effects of the death of Christ than Mr Baxter who pretends to so much Accurateness in this Particular 3 He saith ads Mr Baxter Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse being made a Curse for us Answ. I explained before how far we are freed by Redemption He hath restored us that is paid the price but with no intent that we should by that Redemption be immediately or absolutely freed Yet when we are freed it is to be ascribed to his death as the Meritorious Cause but not as the Only Cause Reply 1 A being freed so FAR or so far by Redemption and not wholly fully or compleatly what ever men may explain the Scripture is wholly silent of 2 That Christ in paying a price had no intent that those he paid it for should be immediatly or absolutely freed is crudely enough asserted 1 Of the immediateness of their Delivery I have spoken already It hath as strict an Immediation as the Nature of such Causes and Effects will bear 2 If he intended not that those for whom he died should be absolutly freed then either he intended not their freedom at all and so the Negation is upon the term freed or the Negation of his Intention is only as to the qualification absolutly and so his Intention to free them is Asserted and the Affection of absolutness in that Intention only denyed If the First be meant 1 It is contrary to innumerable express Testimonies of Scriptures 2 It renders the Son of God dying with no determinate End or designed Purpose at all in Reference to them for whom he dyed A thing we would not ascribe to a Wise man in a far more easie Undertaking If the Second 1 I desire to know What is this Intention here assigned to our Saviour He payd a Price or Ransom for us he bought and purchased us by his blood to be a peculiar People to himself he redeemed us from the Curse and Wrath due to us that we may be conditionally freed All things intended under Condition are as to their Accomplishment uncertain The Condition may be fulfilled or it may not be fulfilled and therefore the thing intended thereon can have no certainty as to its Accomplishment in the mind of the Intender This then is That which is ascribed to the Lord Jesus Making his Soul an Offering for sin laying down his Life a ransom for Mercy and tasting Death to free the Children given him from Death praying together that those for whom he died might be partakers of his Glory yet was altogether uncertain whether ever any one of them should at all partake of the Good things which in his whole undertaking of Mediation he aimed at Thus is he made a Surety of an uncertain Covenant a Purchaser of an Inheritance perhaps never to be enjoyed a Priest Sanctifying none by his Sacrifice c. 2 Is the Accomplishment of this Condition upon which freedom depends in the Intention of Christ certain in his mind under that Intention I ask then Whence that Assurance doth accrew Is it from his foresight of their good using their Abilities to fulfil the Condition to them prescribed See then whither you have rolled this stone The Folly and Absurdity of this hath been long since sufficiently discovered But is it from hence because by his Death he Purchaseth for them the compleating of that Condition in them Thus he payes a Price with Intention that those for whom he payes it shall be freed by enjoying that freedom under such a Condition as he procures for them and thereupon knows That at the appointed time it shall be wrought in them What differs this in the Close from absolute freedom Further Feign some of them for whom Christ died to fulfil this Condition others not and it will be more evident That the greatest uncertainty possible as to the Issues of his Death must be assigned to him in his dying The pretence of an effectual discriminating purpose of free Grace following the Purpose of giving Christ promisuously for all will not salve the Contradictions of this Assertion But the Truth is This whole figment of Conditional freedom is every way unsavoury That very thing which is assigned for the Condition of our freedom being it self the chiefest part of it the whole indeed as here begun Potential Conditional not actual not absolute Issues and Effects of the Death of Christ have been abundantly disproved already That which follows in Mr Baxter from Page 152 unto page 155. Chap. 19. belongs not to me being only a Declaration of his own Judgement about the things in hand wherein although many things are not only incommodiously expressed to suit the un-Scriptural Method of these Mysteris which he hath framed in his mind but also directly opposite to the Truth yet I shall not here meddle with it refering them who desire Satisfaction in this Business to a serious Consideration of what I have above-written to this purpose Page 155. C. 20. he returns to the Consideration of My Assertion concerning our Deliverance ipso facto by the bloud of Christ And tells you I do not understand Mr Owen his meaning for he saith That Christ did actually and ipso facto deliver us from the Curse and Obligation yet we do not instantly apprehend and perceive it nor yet possess it but only we have actual Right to all the Fruits of his Death c. So he Answ. The things of that Treatise were written with the Pen of a vulgar Scribe that every one might run and read whence then it should be That so learned a man should not
himself acquitted and exonerated of the whol Debt of their Sin for whom he suffered which was charged on him he makes Demand of the Accomplishment of the forementioned Engagement made to him concerning the freedom and deliverance of the Persons whose Sins were laid on him and whose bringing unto Glory he undertook On these Two I say it is That our Right to the Fruits of the Death of Christ even before beleeving doth depend from hence at least it is right and equal That we do in the time appointed enjoy these things Yea to say That we have Right upon beleeving to the Fruits of the Death of Christ affirmed universally can only be affirmed of a Jus in re such a Right as hath at least in part conjoyned actual Possession beleeving it self being no smal Portion of these Fruits This Argument then being fallacious omitting the chief Causes in Annumeration concludes not the thing proposed Besides it is in no small measure faulty in that the first thing proposed to be confirmed was That Remission of Sin and Justification are not the immediate Effects of Christs Death whereof in this Argument there is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Argum. 2. If God hate all the Works of Iniquity and we are all by Nature the Children of Wrath and without Faith it is impossible to please God and he that beleeveth not is Condemned already then certainly the Elect while they are unbeleevers are not actually de facto no nor in personal Right delivered from this Hatred Wrath Displeasure and Condemnation But Ergo Answ. 1 This Argument for what indeed it will prove is handled at large in my Treatise of Redemption as also re-urged in the Pages foregoing Against actual Justification from Eternity it hath its Efficacy 2 It doth also Conclude That the Elect whilest unbeleevers are not actually and de facto put in Possession of the Issues of Love Faith being with the first of them But 3 That they have not upon the Grounds forementioned a Right to these things Or 4 That Justification is not the immediate Effect of the Death of Christ being the sole things in question it hath the same unhappiness with the former not once to mention Argum. 3. If we are Justified only by Faith then certainly not before Faith But we are Justified only by Faith Ergo Answ 1 If I mistake not it is not Justification before Faith but a Right to the Fruits of the Death of Christ before Faith that is to be proved 2 That Justification is not the immediate Effect of the Death of Christ to which Ends for this Argument Valeat quantum valere potest to me it comes not within many miles of the thing in Question So that with the absurd ANSWERS supposed thereunto we passe it by The like also I am enforced to say of the Two other that follow being of the same length and breadth with those foregoing too short narrow to cover the things in Question so that though they may have their strength to their own proper End yet as to the things proposed to be proved there is nothing in their Genuine Conclusions looking that way If I might take the Liberty of ghessing I should suppose the Mistake which lead this Author to all this labor in vain is That the immediate Effects of the Death of Christ must be immediatly enjoyed by them for whom he died Which Assertion hath not indeed the least Colour of Truth The Effects of the Death of Christ are not said to be immediate in reference to others enjoyment of them but unto their Causality by that Death Whatever it be that in the first place is made out to Sinners for the Death of Christ when ever it be done that is the immediate Effect thereof as to them As to them I say for in its first tendency it hath a more immediate Object If Mr Baxter go on with his Intentions about a tract concerning universal Redemption perhaps we may have these things cleered and yet we must tell him before hand That if he draw forth nothing on that Subject but what is done by Amiraldus and like things to them he will give little Satisfaction to learned and stable men upon the Issue of his undertaking I shall not presume to take another mans Task out of his hand especially one's who is so every way able to go through with it Else I durst undertake to demonstrate that Treatise of Amiraldus mentioned by Mr Baxter to be full of weak and sophistical Argumentations absurd Contradictions vain strife of Words and in sum to be as birthless a tympanous Endeavour as ever so learned a man was engaged in For the present being by Gods Providence removed for a Season from my Native soyl attended with more then ordinary weaknesses and infirmities separated from my Library burdened with manifold Employments with constant Preaching to a numerous multitude of as thirsting a People after the Gospel as ever yet I conversed withal it sufficeth me That I have obtained this Mercy Briefly and plainly to Vindicate the Truth from mistakes and something further to unfold the Mystery of our Redemption in Christ all with so facile and placid an Endeavour as is usually upon the Spirits of men in the familiar writings of one Friend to another That it hath been my Aim to seek after Truth and to keep close to the forme of wholesome words delivered to us will I hope appear to them that love Truth and Peace Dublin-Castle Decemb. 20. 1649. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} FINIS ERRATA The Author having no opportunity to attend the Press and being absent many miles during the Printing the most part of it finds the Accenting of sundry Greek Expressions omitted with other mistakes which he desireth the Reader to Correct as followeth PAg. 5. l. 10. r. have p. 9. l. 23. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 10. l. 8. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} so also in other places l. 9. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 11. l. 10. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 26. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 12. l. 21. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 15. l. 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 14. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 16. l. 9. hudled p. 19. l. 10. alius p. 20. l. 4. now p. 22. l. 22. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 24. l. 22. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 27. l. 12. observed p. 28. l. 24. not all the thing l. 26. to any p. 29. l. 4. Now the p. 30. l. 6. Now he p. 31. l. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 11. pressures p. 32. l. ult. Pactional p. 33. l. 24. Contradiction p. 34. l. 33. Oblation made p. 36. l. 22. that ever I. l. 31. feigne p. 44. l. 8.