foreknown predestinated and called effectually according to the purpose of his Grace shall fall away either totally or so as not to be finally glorified 5. That Faith Repentance a holy Conversation or any Act or Work whatever done by us or wrought by the Spirit of God in us are any part of that Righteousness for the sake of which or on the account whereof God doth justify any Man or entitle him to Eternal Life Then follows a Testimony against the other Extreams viz. Antinomian Errors Again Anno 1696. in a Paper call'd The second Paper sent to our Brethren we thus give our sense 1. Concerning Iustification That altho the express Word of God doth assert the necessity of Regeneration to our entring into the Kingdom of God and require Repentance that our Sins may be blotted out and Faith in Christ that we may be justified and Holiness of Heart and Life without which we cannot see God yet that none of these or any Work done by Men or wrought by the Spirit of God in them is under any Denomination whatsoever any part of the Righteousness for the sake or on the account whereof God doth pardon justify or accept Sinners or entitle them to Eternal Life that being only the Righteousness of Christ without them imputed to them and received by Faith alone 2. Of a Commutation of Persons between Christ and us As we are to consider our Lord Jesus Christ in his Obedience and Sufferings as God and Man invested with the Office of Mediator so it is apparent this Commutation of Persons with us was not natural in respect of either Nature by which his individual Substance should become ours and ours his nor moral in respect of Qualities or Actions whereby he should become inherently sinful and we immediately sinless nor was it any change whereby his Office of Mediator should be transferred on us but it is to be understood in a legal or judicial sense as we may call it viz. He by Agreement between the Father and him came into our room and stead not to repent and believe for us which the Gospel requires of us as our Duty tho he hath undertaken the Elect shall in due time be enabled thereto but to answer for our Violation of the Law of Works he being made Sin for us that knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. 3. Of God's being pleased or displeased with Christ as standing and suffering in our stead We judg that God was always pleased with Christ both in his Person and Execution of all his Offices which is exprest most particularly in that of his Priestly Iohn 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my Life and no otherwise displeased than as having a dispassionate Will to inflict upon him the Punishment of our Sins which he had undertaken to bear that God might without Injury to his Justice or Honour pardon and save penitent Believers for his Satisfaction and Intercession founded thereon Note It was declared that by the words under any Denomination we exclude all Righteousness from being meritorious or atoning yea or a procuring Cause of these Benefits none is at all so but the Righteousness of Christ But we intended not to exclude what the Gospel requireth in order to our Interest in those Benefits given for the sake of Christ's Righteousness We also in 1697 delivered our Iudgment in this Proposal to our Brethren 1. That Repentance towards God is commanded in order to the Remission of Sins 2. That Faith in Christ is commanded by the Gospel in order to the Justification of our Persons before God for the sake of the alone Righteousness of Christ. 3. That the Word of God requires Perseverance in true Faith and Holiness that we may be Partakers of the Heavenly Glory 4. That the Gospel promiseth Pardon through the Blood of Christ to the Penitent Justification before God to the Believer and the Heavenly Glory to such as persevere in Faith and Holiness and also declareth that God will not pardon the Impenitent justify the Unbeliever nor glorify the Apostate or Unholy 5. That justifying Faith is not only a Perswasion of the Understanding but also a receiving and resting upon Christ alone for Salvation 6. That by Change of Person is meant that whereas we were condemned for our Sins the Lord Jesus was substituted in our room to bear the Punishment of our Sins for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice that whoever believes on him may be acquitted and saved but it is not intended that the Filth of Sin was upon Christ nor that he was a Criminal in God's account 7. That by Christ being our Surety is meant that Jesus Christ our Mediator obliged himself to expiate our Sins by his Blood and to purchase eternal Life for all that believe and Faith and every saving Grace for the Elect but it 's not intended that we were legally reputed to make Satisfaction or purchase eternal Life 8. That by Christ's answering for us the Obligations of the violated Law of Works is intended that whereas the Law obliged us to die for our Sins Christ became obliged to die in our stead and whereas we were after we had sinned still obliged to yield perfect Obedience Christ perfectly obeyed the Law that upon the account of his Active and Passive Obedience Believers might be forgiven and entituled to eternal Life but it is not intended that the sense of the Law of Works should be that if we or Christ obey'd we should live and if Christ suffered we should not die tho we sinned nor that Believers are justified or to be judged by the Law of Works but by the Gospel altho the Righteousness for the sake of which they are justified be as perfect as that Law of Works required and far more valuable CHAP. III. The State of Truth and Error published in the Congregational Ministers Declaration against Antinomian Errors about December 1698. Error 1. THat the eternal Decree gives such an Existence to the Justification of the Elect as makes their Estate whilst in Unbelief to be the same as when they do believe in all respects save only as to the Manifestation and that there is no other Justification by Faith but what is in their Consciences Error 2. That the Elect considered as in their natural Estate or as in the first Adam are not under the denunciation of Wrath by the Law as well as other Unbelievers and impenitent Sinners Truth 1. That there is a difference between the state of the Elect whilst in Unbelief and when Believers besides what is manifestative to their Consciences p. 13. Truth 2. That before they believe they are not personally and actually justified in the Court of Heaven p. 13. and none may expect to be pardoned in a state of Unbelief and Impenitence p. 47. Error 3. That pardoned Sin is no Sin and therefore God cannot see Sin in his People to be displeased
Life yet these with all other saving Benefits were merited by Christ. Note The Socinians are as much for absolutely unlimited free Grace as even our Antinomians would pretend to be if not more Error 2. Faith in Christ is accepted under the Gospel as a perfect Righteousness for a perfect sinless Obedience And as this Faith expresseth it self in our Works our Justification is in it self firmer and surer Crell vol. 1. p. 110 612 613. 474. Truth 1. Tho true Faith be a Gospel Righteousness yet it is not accepted for sinless Obedience nor doth the Gospel entitle us to Salvation upon our believing as the Law did upon a perfect sinless Obedience for the Law entitled us to Life as of Debt for our Obedience as the immediate Merit of that Reward by the adjustment of governing Iustice. Whereas the Gospel of meer Grace tho in a way of Government entitles the Believer to Life as what was merited by the Lord Jesus and not by our Faith or Works Truth 2. Tho a dead Faith cannot justify us and our believing Consent must be executed if we survive it yet are we as truly and firmly justified and in Christ's Right entitled to Glory when we first believe as when those genuine Fruits of it are produced which are contrary to that Barrenness Ungodliness and Apostacy that would subject us to Condemnation We shall provide against Limborg's and some other Arminians Notion of Justification tho it be none of the five Points which constitute Arminianism and that we in the former Papers opposed each of the said Points in concurrence with our British Divines in the Synod of Dort Error 3. By Faith being imputed for Righteousness is meant that God graciously for Christ's sake will account our Obedience which we yield him by Faith as if it were perfect tho it be imperfect As if a Creditor having a Debtor who ows him 1000 Gilders should upon this Debtor's paying him 100 forgive him the rest and graciously impute to him this part of Payment for the Payment of the whole Lib. 6. cap. 4. § 39. 17. Truth Tho we are justified by Christ believed on and Faith in him be accounted a Gospel-Righteousness as it is the performed Condition upon which we are by the Gospel-Promise adjudged to have the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us as our pleadable Security against the Curse of the Law by which Righteousness of Christ alone our Right to Pardon and eternal Life wherein we are personally invested by the Gospel is merited as well as the Blessings themselves Nevertheless our Faith in Christ is no part of the Debt we owed to God by the Law of Innocency nor is it or our sincere Obedience proceeding from it either in themselves or Divine Acceptance a full Conformity to the Gospel Precepts much less doth God impute to us this Faith or that Obedience for the payment of the whole Debt owing by the Law or Gospel tho he grant us thereupon that Pardon Favour and Acceptance Christ hath procured so as to deal with us as righteous Persons and these he doth not suspend until Faith produceth the said Fruit of Obedience but grants them upon our first true purpose to turn from Sin to God and our acceptation of and trust in Christ for doing this and for obtaining all Salvation by him The common POPISH Notion of Justification as stated by Andradius in his authorized Explication of the Decree of the 6th Session of the Council of Trent whereto Bellarmine and the generality of the Papists agree Error 4. The first Justification is the Renovation of an ungodly Man by the infused habit of Love the infusion of which is merited by Christ. The second Justification is this habit of Love producing goods Works by the Merit whereof we are further justified and ex condigno deserve eternal Life but neither the first nor second Justification consists in the forgiveness of Sin Note By preparatory Work the Council intend with the School-men that our Wills moved by the Spirit do by their natural Power prepare themselves to obtain the habit of Grace and ex congruo merit the Infusion of it which Habit is that justifying Righteousness for the Merit whereof the Sinner is at first absolved from Guilt and accepted to eternal Life Truth 1. Neither this first nor second Justification is the Justification described usually in the Gospel which is not the Conversion of a Sinner or the progressive Holiness of a Convert but a forensick Act viz. God's judicial absolving us from the Curse due for Sin and adjudging us entitled to Glory for the Merits of Christ according to the Gospel Truth 2. It is not true that preparatory Works do any way deserve from God the Habit of Grace at first infused tho ordinarily the Divine Spirit doth by Knowledg and humbling Convictions abate the Obstacles to Grace in our Hearts and put us upon seeking help from Christ all which are as truly owing to his more common Operations as saving Grace is to his special Truth 3. Neither the first infused Habit of Grace nor its Acts do merit further Grace or Holiness nor yet any degree of that Pardon or Acceptance which by Divine Ordination ensue thereupon Error 5. Christ hath merited that the Habit of Love should by its virtue extinguish Sin in us by good Works and we by these Works merit Reconciliation with God Forgiveness of Sin and eternal Glory as what do appease his Anger satisfy for our Guilt and are part of the Price of eternal Glory Note The Popish Error concerning Satisfaction leads them to this Error about Justification and when Justification is considered in a Protestant sense viz. as a forensick Act the true Controversy between the Papists and us is about the Doctrine of the Merit of good Works Truth Neither Repentance Faith Love nor any good Work proceeding therefrom do in the least merit Reconciliation Pardon or eternal Life neither did Christ merit that we might merit But Reconciliation Pardon and eternal Life were merited only by Christ's atoning satifying and meriting Sufferings and Obedience And therefore the Righteousness of Christ is accepted and reputed the only meriting Righteousness in God's justifying Act altho this Act terminates on none Adult besides the penitent Believer and on all such by the Ordination of the Gospel Note 1. It 's one thing for Christ to merit that we might by our Works merit Salvation it 's another thing for Christ to merit that Salvation it self which he gives and applies to Men on Gospel-terms the first is Popish the last is Protestant Doctrine 2. It 's one thing what our Judg in his justifying Act accounts to be the thing which appeaseth his Anger for Reconciliation makes Compensation to Justice for Pardon and to be the meriting Price of eternal Life to which Reconciliation Pardon and eternal Life he now adjudgeth the penitent Believer to be entitled Now the thing which our Judg accounts to be that which appeaseth his Anger c. is
way we apprehend an ascribing much more to Faith than we dare because it makes Faith efficacious from its natural Aptitude and Activity without a Divine Ordination of it to that end by any Promise The Reason of any Debate concerning these Expressions lies in this Our Brethren consider all the Gospel-Duties and Benefits as a mere physical Order of Blessings decreed by God to the Elect and so one is given before the other according as the Gospel describeth that Order We grant the said Order and should insist on no more were not the Benefits offered to more besides the Elect and still used as Motives to induce Men to submit to those Duties and this by Promises of the Benefits if the Duty be performed and Threatnings of withholding the Benefits with additional Misery to be inflicted if they be not performed with an account of judicial Proceedings towards Men with respect to their performance or non-performance of the said official Terms But things being thus and so very apparently the Indications of governing Methods and the Aptitude of our Ministry for Conversion and Perseverance so much depending upon the affecting of Mens hopes and fears we are forced to own that the Gospel is not only a description of the foresaid Order but that it is a Law of Grace subordinate to the Covenant of Redemption Yet that none may suspect the difference above what it is I shall recite what our Brethren grant in their Declaration They say p. 13. We are true Owners of Iustification at the instant when we believe P. 15. It must be said that even in foro Dei in God's Court and according to the Iudgment in that open Court which God hath set up in his Word and according to the Proceedings of his Word which is the Rule he professeth to judg Men by and therein he keeps to the Rule of his Word as Christ saith I judg no Man but the Word that I speak shall judg you Ioh. 12. 47 48. God doth judg and pronounce his Elect ungodly and unjustified till they believe All these are the words of Dr. Goodwin which they approve of and note that he in vol. 2. of the Creatures lib. 2. cap. 7. p. 51 to 63. proves at large that Faith in Christ is of another kind than the Faith required by the Law of Works They also say p. 46. God in the Covenant of Grace freely offereth unto Sinners Life and Salvation by Iesus Christ requiring of them Faith in him that they may be saved Note the Assembly of Divines in Westminsier larger Catech. Q. 32. add requiring Faith as the Condition to interest them in Christ. And less Cat. to escape the Wrath and Curse of God due to us for Sin God requireth Faith in Iesus Christ Repentance unto Life c. And in the Savoy Confession as well as theirs Cap. 18. S. 2. The true Believer's Certainty of Salvation is not a bare conjectural and probable Perswasion grounded upon a fallible hope but an infallible assurance of Faith founded upon the Divine Truth of the Promises of Salvation the inward Evidences of those Graces unto which these Promises are made c. Of all which our Brethren have approved To add no more they declare p. 47. it 's an Error That continued Repentance and Holiness are not in the nature of the thing nor by the Constitution of the Gospel necessary to our being possessed of eternal Life And may it not be supposed that nor is put for and Also that necessary by Constitution of the Gospel as distinguished from necessary in the nature of the thing Some of them may mean an authoritative or rectoral Constitution i. e. this Order is appointed by Christ as our Ruler wherein he hath enacted this Connexion and requireth our Compliance These things being put together must acquit our Brethren from the imputation of rendering Faith Repentance or Holiness needless or useless to Salvation tho they scruple to call it a Gospel-Righteousness and we hope it may encline them to a forbearance towards us who think these Concessions contain for substance all that we intend by the Terms Condition and Gospel-Righteousness which we make use of as 〈◊〉 do more exactly comprehensively and to some purposes more safely express what we conceive to be the true import of these Passages when connected and which we approve of Yet to put things in a fuller Light I shall represent the matter as it stands by the forecited Passages to all which they declare their Assent p. 63. The Brethren affirm God in his Covenant offering Life and Salvation to Sinners and requiring Faith in him that they may be saved and this Faith in a Mediator commanded by the Gospel and not by the Law of Works as Dr. Goodwin saith with Gospel-Promises of an Interest in Christ and his Benefits and these are made to this Faith as a Condition saith the Assembly of Divines and this in such a manner that the Believer may have an infallible assurance of the Benefits upon an inward evidence of his having this Faith as that Grace to which the Promise was made wherein the said Benefits were included And also that this Gospel includes that Word which is the Rule of Iudgment by which Rule God judgeth that Man tho Elect who hath not this Faith to be a Christless unpardoned Child of Wrath and him who hath this Faith to be a true Owner of Christ and Pardon Also that Repentance is of such necessity to all Sinners that it as well as Faith is required that they may escape and none may expect to be pardoned in a state of Unbelief and Impenitence yea continued Repentance and Holiness are necessary to our possession of eternal Life And all this to be necessary not only from the nature of the thing but also by the Constitution of the Gospel I apprehend this Account is so equivalent to a Gospel-Law of Grace for all its great purposes that I shall not be offended at what name they please to give it and did not a fear of offending them prevent me I would prove it to be all the Law of Grace which we assert especially if they would allow that when they say God requireth Faith that Sinners under Offers of Life may be saved it 's upon his Throne tho a Throne of Grace that God in Christ requireth it and from thence directs his Offers of Salvation to Sinners and thence sentenceth them who live under Gospel-Offers by their asserted Rule of Iudgment However we have no reason to contend especially when both agree the Debate is about the Instrument of Donation and the Qualification of the Subject to receive a Gift and not about any thing that meriteth the Gift freely bestowed on God's part and thankfully and humbly received on our part A low degree of Charity would make allowances on both hands when the Difference is so minute They seem jealous of the Honour of Free-Grace yet owning Christ's Merits we are for Free-Grace in opposition to
he hath appointed them to Salvation Note Reader that these Divines do here join together the Covenant of Redemption with Christ and the Gospel-Covenant whereby are dispensed to us the Benefits impetrated by Christ which two distinguished would lead to clearer thoughts Error The Covenant of Grace hath no Condition to be performed on Man's part tho in the strentgh of Christ Neither is Faith it self the Condition of this Covenant but all the saving Benefits of this Covenant are actually ours before we are born Neither are we required so much as to believe that we may come to have an Interest in the Covenant Benefits Truth 9. I shall express this in the words of the Assembly and Congregational Elders at the Savoy Confes. of Faith ch 14. 2. Declarat ch 14. a. 2. of saving Faith By this Grace a Christian believeth to be true whatever is revealed in the Word for the Authority of God speaking therein and acteth differently upon that which each particular Passage thereof containeth yielding Obedience to the Commands trembling at the Threatnings and embracing the Promises of God for this Life and that which is to come But the principal Acts of saving Faith are accepting receiving and resting upon Christ alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by virtue of the Covenant of Grace Error Saving Faith is nothing but our Persuasion or absolute concluding within our selves that our Sins are pardoned and that Christ is ours Truth 10. Christ is freely offered to be a Head and Saviour to the vilest Sinners who will knowingly assent to the Truth of the Gospel and from a Conviction of their Sin and Misery out of Christ are humbled and truly willing to renounce all their Idols and Sins denying their own carnal Self and Merits and accept of Christ as offered in the Gospel relying on him alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life Error Christ is offered to Blasphemers Murderers and the worst of Sinners that they remaining ignorant unconvinced unhumbled and resolved in their purpose to continue such they may be assured they have a full Interest in Christ and this by only concluding in their own Minds upon this Offer that Christ is theirs Truth 11. Every Man is without Christ or not united to Christ until he be effectually called but when by this Call the Spirit of God enclineth and enableth him willingly to accept of Christ as a Head and Saviour a Man becomes united to him and Partaker of those Influences and Privileges which are peculiar to the Members of the Lord Jesus Error All the Elect are actually united to Christ before they have the Spirit of Christ or at all believe in him even before they are born yea and against their Will Truth 12. Tho Faith be no way a meritorious Cause of a Sinner's Justification yet God hath promised to justify all such as truly believe and requires Faith as an indispensible Qualification in all whom he will justify for Christ's Merits declaring that Unbelief shall not only hinder Mens knowing that they are justified but that it is a bar to any Person 's being justified while he continues an Unbeliever Error The whole use of Faith in Justification is only to manifest that we were justified before and Faith is no way necessary to bring a Sinner into a justified State nor at all useful to that end In a Digression there about Repentance is added Truth Altho neither Faith nor Repentance be any part of the meriting Righteousness for which we are justified and the Habits of both are wrought at the same time and included in the Regenerating Principle and there must be an assenting Act of Faith before there be any exercise of true Repentance And Repentance as consisting in the fruits meet for it viz. an external Reformation and a fruitful Life must follow Pardon as doth also an ingenuous Sorrow for Sin in the sense of Pardon Nevertheless Repentance as it consists in some degree of Humblings and Sorrow from Convictions of our lost State and the Evil of Sin with a sincere purpose of Heart to turn from our Sin and Idols to God is absolutely necessary in order to the forgiveness of Sin Error Our Sins are forgiven before any Repentance and Believers ought not to complain or mourn or sorrow for the Sins they have committed Truth 13. Tho neither Holiness sincere Obedience or good Works do make any Atonement for Sin or are in the least the meritorious Righteousness whereby Salvation is caused or for which this or any Blessing becomes due to us as of Debt yet as the Spirit of Christ freely worketh all Holiness in the Soul and enableth us to sincere Obedience and good Works so the Lord Jesus hath of Grace and for his own Merits promised to bring to Heaven such as are Partakers of true Holiness perform this sincere Obedience and do these good Works perseveringly and appoints these as the Way and Means of a Believer's obtaining Salvation and several other Blessings requiring these as indispensible Duties and Qualifications of all such whom he will so save and bless and excluding all that want or neglect them or live under the Power of what 's contrary thereto viz. Profaneness Rebellion and utter Unfruitfulness Error Men have nothing to do in order to Salvation nor is Sanctification a jot the way of any Person to Heaven nor can the Graces or Duties of Believers no nor Faith it self do them the least Good or prevent the least Evil nor are they of any use to their Peace or Comfort yea tho Christ be explicitely owned and they be done in the strength of the Spirit of God And a Believer ought not to think he is more pleasing to God by any Grace he acteth or Good he doth nor may Men expect any Good to a Nation by the Humiliation earnest Prayer or Reformation of a People Truth 14. Tho we ought to intend God's Glory as our supream End in all our Duties and design therein the expressing our Love and Gratitude to God for his Benefits with a great regard to publick Good Yet we also lawfully may and ought to strive after Grace grow in it and perform holy Duties and Services with an Eye to and Concern for our own spiritual and eternal Advantage Error No Man ought to propose to himself any Advantage by any Religious Duty he performeth nor ought he in the least to intend the Profit of his own Soul by any Christian Endeavours it being vain and unlawful to do any thing with an Eye to our spiritual or eternal Good tho in Subordination to God's Glory in Christ. Truth 15. The ordinary way whereby a Man attaineth a well-grounded Assurance is not by immediate objective Revelation or an inward Voice saying Thy Sins are forgiven thee But when the Believer is examining his Heart and Life by the Word the holy Spirit enlightens the Mind there to discern Faith and Love and such other Qualifications which the Gospel declareth to be infallible
all Merits besides Christ's but not exclusively of all governing Methods in applying the effects of Free-Grace They grant Faith in Christ is required that we may be saved we more expresly say it 's by a rectoral Authority they grant it so by the Law of Works we say it 's by a Gospel positive Law tho we grant when this positive Law requireth it we are obliged also by the general Law of Nature to yield Obedience yet not by the Law of Works as specified by Adam's Covenant which Faith in Christ was inconsistent with from the essential Nature of that Covenant Our Brethren are watchful against any inherent Righteousness of man mingling with Christ's Righteousness We besides avoiding of that are solicitous lest men come short of Salvation by the Righteousness of Christ through a neglect of what he requireth in all those who shall be saved by it and yet we declare against all things besides Christ's Righteousness to be any impetrating satisfying atoning meriting or compensating Righteousness and as Faith hath no share or place in this Office so Christ's Righteousness tho the sole meritorious Cause is not that which God by the Gospel requires of Sinners that they may be saved by the Righteousness of Christ. Faith is that commanded Requisite and no more than that its place is thereto confined and therefore here 's no mingling of our Righteousness with Christ's because their Use Place and Offices be so very distinct They seem most afraid of Popery and Arminianism and therefore keep to this sense of being justified by Faith alone viz. we are justified only by Christ believed on or the Object of Faith only is imputed to us for Righteousness We are truly afraid of Popery and Arminianism but not only of these but of Antinomianism too and therefore are intent to maintain two great Truths included in that one Sentence We are justified by Faith viz. 1. That the Believer is absolv'd from Guilt accepted into God's Favour and entituled to eternal Life in and for Christ's Righteousness and neither Faith nor any Grace or Act of ours make the least recompense to God or is the least Price or Merit of Pardon or Life or any motive inclining divine Justice to promise or accept us into his favour or to treat us as righteous Persons This from our heart we own and know that this is what sound Protestants intended by it against the Papists 2. Yet as God promised to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption all Belivers should be absolv'd c. so in the the Gospel Offer of his Grace to Sinners he promised to Men that he would in and for the Righteousness of Christ absolve accept treat as righteous Persons and give eternal Life already purchased by Christ to every true Believer commanding Sinners to believe and threatning that if they believed not they should remain condemned yea become subject to sorer Punishments And that he would judg them by this Gospel Rule of Iudgment Whence we are attentive to a second Truth viz. That God accepts and accounteth Faith a performed Condition of this Gospel-Covenant and upon it acquits the Sinner from the Charge of damning Infidelity and adjudgeth the Believer qua such in opposition to Infidels to be in Christ's Right and by his Gospel Promise entitled to a present personal Interest in the foresaid Absolution Acceptance and Gift of eternal Life yet as procured by Christ's Righteousness alone and applied for his sake To add no more our Brethren in the Doctrine of Justification almost confine their Regards to the Satisfaction of Christ wherein Christ transacted with the provoked Justice of God We besides that consider a propitiated God in Christ applying the effects of his Redemption to Men in a Method of governing Grace but without any real difference in the Doctrine of Satisfaction and withal sincerely granting the Condition is performed in the Strength of Christ freely dispensed Yet upon the whole they provide against carnal Security and we against carnal Boasting They are far from designing to eclipse the Glory of Christ as King Lawgiver and Iudg and we as far from intending the diminution of his Glory as a Priest How unreasonable and unhappy would perpetuated Contests by where the Grounds pretended are of so little weight Thus I have insisted on what seems most like a Difference in the Doctrine of Satisfaction and Iustification Some weak persons may think there is a great Controversy where I see nothing worth our notice they will say Some think we are justified by one Act of Faith viz. Reliance Well but they say justifying Faith is receiving Christ c. as well as a Reliance Ay but a Man sees only with his Eye tho more is of the Essence of a Man But I say no Man sees without that which is of the Essence of his Eye Another thinks justifying Faith as such receives Christ only as a Priest others say it receives him also as a King and Prophet yet the last say the convinced Sinner hath an especial respect to Christ's Priesthood as most agreeable to his present case and the former will say its but an hypocritical Faith that receives not Christ as Prophet and King as well as Priest Nay it s not the true Christ the anointed Messias who is received unless it be as Prophet King and Priest even Christ Iesus the Lord. Ay but some say Repentance is an effect of Iustification but there be very few of our Congregational Brethren of that mind and I suppose they mean Works meet for Repentance and not a change of the purpose of the heart Nay but several say Faith alone is the instrument of Iustification others make Repentance the Condition of Forgiveness What then seeing the first grant there is no justifying Faith without Repentance and the last grant the aptitude of Faith to receive and acknowledg Christ which I suppose they mean by instrument is far greater than Repentance But when both sides consider Faith as an ordained Condition as well as an Instrument they 'l scarce dispute but that Repentance is a Condition of Pardon as well as Faith unless they would agree to join them together by calling Faith a penitent Faith or Repentance a believing Repentance connoting at once a Sinner's purpose to return to God by Christ the Mediator and his closing with Christ the Mediator that he may return to God by him tho I think the end is first agreed to before the way or means to that end is resolved on or made use of Obj. But sure there is a vast difference between those who think we are justified by Faith only and those who think we are justified by Works as well as by Faith Answ. 1. Not so very great when both mean that we are justified neither by Faith nor Works as the word justified is commonly taken for both agree that we are absolved accepted as righteous and entitled to eternal Life only for Christ's Death and Obedience as the only meriting satisfactory and
always have access to God and obtain eternal Life Socin Tom. 1. 788. Truth Jesus Christ was by Divine Adjustment a middle Person between God and Sinners and as such laid his hand on both undertaking to appease God's Wrath and procure Salvation for us at his hand and also to make God and the way of Salvation known to us for our Reconciliation and Obedience to God and by him God still imparts his Blessings to us and admits us free access to himself Error 5. Christ is called a Surety as a Sponsor or Messenger on God's part to us but he promised nothing to God for us Crell vol. 1. p. 612. Truth Tho Christ was not a joint federating Party with us in the Covenant of Works yet he was not only a Surety on God's part to us but he was a mediating Surety on both parts and as such he engaged in the Covenant of Redemption to make Atonement for us and in the Gospel-Covenant that all true Believers shall persevere to the obtaining of eternal Life Error 6. Christ was not an High-Priest while on Earth nor was his Blood offered by him to God but it was himself was offered and that not on the Cross but when he entred into Heaven yet the Death of Christ so far belongs to his Priesthood that he was prepared by his Death to become a High-Priest and to offer himself a perfect Sacrifice for Sin in Heaven neither of which could be according to the Decree of God if his Death had not intervened Crell vol. 2. Resp. ad Grot. cap. 10. vol. 1. 613. vol. 2. par 1. 162. Socin Tom. 1. Praelect Theol. cap. 23. Truth Christ was an High-Priest while he was on Earth and as such upon the Cross offered up himself by his bloody Death a perfect Sacrifice whereby his Blood was a propitiatory offering at the very time it was shed and tho in the virtue thereof the Saints were saved before his Incarnation and Christ for ever intercedeth in the Heavens yet the presenting of himself or it there makes no addition to the Perfection of it as a Sacrifice Error 7. There is no use nor place in the Priesthood of Christ for appeasing God's Wrath or offering any Sacrifice no not in Heaven as a Condition of obtaining Remission properly as from God or impetrating the same but Christ's Death is a means of our enjoying that Remission from God and it was indirectly a Condition thereof as to be given to us i. e. it was a Condition imposed on Christ without which by the Divine Decree he was not to obtain Authority from God to forgive us our Sins and it may be called a Sacrifice to God's Mercy as of his own free Grace reconciled but not as offended with Sinners Socin Tom. 2. 665 666. Crell vol. 1. 612. Wolzog. in Ioh. 3. 16. Truth The first and principal use of Christ's Priesthood was to offer on the Cross a Sacrifice to appease God's Wrath against Sinners and to impetrate Remission and eternal Life that so God the offended Governor might consistently with the Honour of his Law and of all his Divine Perfections be at liberty and inclined as well to give the said Blessings as that we might become actual Partakers of them from Christ as authorized to apply them to us And all the other Sacerdotal Acts of Christ do refer to this Error 8. Redemption mentioned in the New Testament signifies no more nor other than a freeing us from the Punishment of Sin without any proper Price intervening And when it 's said Redemption is obtained by the Blood of Christ it 's not meant that the Blood of Christ could move God or that God was thereby obliged to grant us Deliverance from the Punishment of our Sins but that the shedding of his Blood ought to intervene that we might be moved thereby to accept that Deliverance when offered to us Neither did Christ buy us but God by Christ asserted his Right to us and tho our Deliverance from Punishment is gotten as if by a Price yet this is not as if the Blood of Christ were paid to any Socin Tom. 〈◊〉 Prael Theol. cap. 19. Tom. 2. 145 147. Slicht in Rom. cap. 5. v. 10. Truth Redemption by the Blood of Christ is that we are bought by his Blood as a proper Price and delivered from the Curse of the Law and Captivity under Sin and Satan as by a proper Ransom paid to the just Governor of the World Error 9. Christ by his Death did not reconcile God to us but he reconcileth us to God by his Death i. e. we come thereby to be converted to God and cease to offend him yea God's Anger was so far from being appeased by the Death of Christ that thereby it was declared that God was before pacified to us Socin Tom. 1. 144 145 665 666. Crell vol. 3. Resp. ad Grot. 154 155 107. Slicht Tom. 2. 214 401. in Rom. 5. 10. 2 Cor. 5. Truth We being Children of Wrath because of our Sin the Lord Jesus did by his Death atone our offended God who became thereby so reconciled that he offereth Peace to Sinners and requireth and urgeth us by believing aright to accept thereof and upon our penitent believing he becomes actually reconciled to us delighting in us and dealing with us as Objects of his restored Favour Note 1. Crellius Resp. ad Grot. cap. 8. part 3. disputes against this as the Error of Grotius and the rest of the Orthodox stating it in these words God was before angry but being appeased by the Death of Christ he determined to lay aside his Anger and upon our believing and repenting he doth actually lay aside his Anger 2. Grotius de Satisf cap. 7. distinguisheth the Actings of the Divine Will 1. As before Christ's Death is decreed c. then God is angry with the Sinner yet so as not to be averse to all methods of Reconciliation 2. Vpon Christ's Death as well when fixed as when undergone then God not only appoints the way but promiseth to be reconciled 3. When a Man believes in Christ with a right Faith and Christ according to the Tenor of the Covenant presents the Believer to God then God lays aside his Anger and receives the Person into Favour or is actually reconciled 3. How little do well-meaning Antinomians consider that not only in the third Error c. but in this last Error they agree with the Socinians and that in a Point whence most of their false Notions about Christ's Satisfaction proceed For see you not they hold that after God's absolute Decree to justify us there 's no Wrath in God to appease the change is only on our part And no Reconciliation but on our side whom God begs to be reconciled to him he being already at Peace with us Error 10. By Christ's dying for our Sins as being laid on him is not meant that Christ according to his Sponsion satisfied Divine Iustice for our Sins or that he paid to God
whole scope of the Gospel must be contradicted if Unbelievers do not remain condemned and Believers only are justified But yet it seems hard to apprehend that God by the Law of Works accounts the Person of a Believer to have suffered in Christ and therefore to be absolved whom yet he did not account to suffer in Christ while he was an Vnbeliever and therefore condemned him and this by that very same Law which now acquits him I know to make this consist it 's offered that the Elect are not Christ's Seed till they become Believers But this comes short for it will thence follow that Christ in his Death was a strict Representative who personated Believers qua Believers which will induce ill Consequences And yet further it is not true that the Persons of Believers were seminally in Christ when he died as we were in Adam when he sinned and so no Argument can be brought from that Instance I grant that both the Merit and the powerful Virtue whereby our Persons in time obtain Faith were in Christ before we were born but that makes not Christ the Root of our Persons at that time but of that regenerating Virtue whereby we become Believers and therefore tho as to this change of our Qualification we may be called Christ's Seed when we believe yet it 's not such a Seed as it may be said of we suffered in him as we sinned in Adam who was the natural Root of our Persons and thereupon such a Representative as his Descendents sinned in What may be said of Christ's adopting Merit will have no place here for these Authors make Adoption to be an Effect of Justification and so the Imputation is prior 2. There be others who are for imputed Righteousness in se but cannot approve of the former manner of Imputation among whom there is some variety in wording their Conceptions but they come to one and the same thing viz. that God adjudgeth the Believer to be one whose Absolution Adoption and Glory were promised to Christ in Reward of his Death and Obedience by the Covenant of Redemption which are promised also to the Believer himself in the Gospel-Covenant and for his actual Interest and Enjoyment thereof as also Acceptance and Treatment as a righteous Person against all Challenges God judicially accounts what Christ hath done and suffered to be his pleadable Security This we take to be Imputation Secondly By the Opinion of those who say Christ's Righteousness is not imputed in se but only as to Effects they in Expressions oppose all the forementioned account denying that the first Head is true and that the second is any Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in se. Nevertheless they grant that Christ's Righteousness is the meritorious Cause of our Justification by Faith and seem to insist mostly upon its Efficacy to that end as Christ's Satisfaction was the ground upon which God enacted the Gospel-Covenant wherein our Faith tho imperfect is accounted for Righteousness Concerning this Opinion I shall offer a few things 1. None ought to narrow it as if the Authors meant that Pardon and eternal Life are not merited by the Righteousness of Christ for they affirm that these and other Gospel-Blessings are merited by Christ as well as the Gospel-Covenant Pray say not this it 's not only the Covenant it self but those very Blessings which that Covenant conveys that are the merited Effects of Christ's Death and Obedience they were his deserved Rewards which are dispensed to us upon believing This I insert to obviate a Conceit too much improved by some so stupid or worse that they will not own this Distinction and still cry out as if their Opinion confined the Influence of Christ's Righteousness to the procuring of a Law whereby Men were to purchase Pardon and Life by their own Faith Whereas they are so far from this that they affirm these Blessings were already accounted purchased and Authority in Christ to dispense them before he could enact such a Law 2. They intend not to exclude Christ's Righteousness from being imputed in any sense for they say it's imputed quoad effectus and therefore should not be charged to deny all Imputation or represented to say we are pardoned and saved for our own Works without any Imputation of Christ's Death and Obedience at all 3. In all which they affirm concerning Justification they still suppose Christ's complete Satisfaction and are sound therein None can accuse them to differ from the Orthodox as to Christ's expiating Sacrifice or impetration of eternal Life 4. I could wish a very worthy Person of this Opinion would review his own account of Justification wherein he saith it 's that Act whereby God imputes to every sound Believer his Faith for Righteousness upon the account of Christ's Satisfaction and Merits and gives Pardon and Life as the Benefits of it i. e. of Justification which he further explicates Through Christ's Sacrifice the Defects of this Faith which is our Righteousness are pardoned and by his Merits that imperfect Duty is accounted or imputed to us for Righteousness which it is not in it self Had I thus stated this Point I should ask my self Do not I set Pardon too remote from Christ's Sacrifice as the meritorious Cause And how can Pardon be the Effect of imputing Faith for Righteousness which is Justification and yet God cannot impute Faith for Righteousness unless he first pardon its Defects for the sake of Christ's Sacrifice But the cause of my mentioning this Account follows 5. They do affirm what amounts to a real Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in se at least what supposeth this Imputation and infers it to be necessary For how by Christ's Merits can a Righteousness in it self imperfect be reckoned before a just God for our perfect Righteousness and yet those Merits for which it is so reckoned not be imputed at all for Righteousness to us who have that Faith Would Faith be no Righteousness except the Divine Mind did apply the Merits of Christ to Faith to make it a Righteousness upon which I am accounted righteous by this Faith and yet the Divine Mind not apply to me that Righteousness of Christ without which my Faith had left me still unrighteous whereas it seems undeniable as far as Christ's Righteousness is necessary to make my personal Faith my Righteousness in God's account that same very Righteousness is necessary to make my Person righteous in God's account Moreover they own that God promised to Christ in reward of his meriting Sufferings and Obedience that all Believers should be absolved and glorified and can they be adjudged to this Absolution and Glory without a judicial acknowledgment that they are to be absolved and glorified in that Right of Christ which resulted from that Promise made to him And can that be without an Imputation of those Sufferings and Obedience of Christ which are rewarded in that Right of Christ and thereby in those Blessings wherein Believers have this judicially acknowledged
any thing which we owed for our Sins but when he is said to have died for our Sins as they were laid on him nothing else is meant but that he died by occasion of our Sins to take them away i. e. he died to reclaim us from our Sins and to assure us that if we did leave our Sins we should be forgiven and besides this that we might perceive and obtain the fruit of that Forgiveness c. Socin Tom. 2. 153. Tom. 1. Prael Theol. cap. 18 20. Crell Vol. 3. Resp. ad Grot. cap. 9. Truth When it 's said Christ died for our Sins as being laid on him it 's not only to bring about the forementioned Ends and such other Purposes as are assigned by the Socinians but they were imputed to him as what he had for our Salvation engaged to make Satisfaction for And he did by his Death make a real full and proper Satisfaction to God's Justice vindicating the Honour of his Justice and Government and of the violated Law as fully as if the pardoned Sinner had endured the utmost Punishment threatned by the said Law Error 11. God did not inflict Death on Christ our Mediator to express his hatred of Sin and deter us from it by his Death as any instance of Divine Displeasure against our Offences and therefore our Sins were not punished in Christ. Socin Tom. 1. 577 578 581. Tom. 2. 194. Crell vol. 1. de Morte Christi p. 611. Truth God did punish our Sins in the Death of Christ by shewing his real Hatred against Sin in all the Extremities Christ did endure which Extremities and Death thus inflicted were not only fit but truly design'd to deter us from all Disobedience against which God thus testified his high Displeasure Error 12. Christ did not by his Death properly merit Salvation or any other thing for us nor did he by the Merit of his great Obedience appease God's Anger Socin Tom. 2. de Servat Part. 3. cap. 6. p. 205. Ruari Epist. 164. Smal. Disp. 2. contr Frantz Truth Christ by his Death and Obedience did properly merit our Salvation and the Reconciliation of God to us his Death being to be considered first as satisfactory and hen meritorious and his Obedience first as meritorious and then satisfactory Error 13. By Christ's dying for us or in our stead as some of them sometimes word it tho they expresly dispute against it is not meant that Christ was substituted to die in the room of us who were condemned to die that God might be pacified nor that his Death was instead of our Death that we for the Merit of it might be delivered but the meaning is that Christ for our good did by his Death come to be crowned with Glory and Power whereby he is able to make us meet for Pardon and authorized to give that Pardon to us Socin Praelect cap. 20 21. de Scrvat cap. 8. Crell Resp. ad Grot. cap. 9. Par. 1 c. Truth By Christ's dying for us and in our stead is meant that whereas we Sinners were condemned to die for our Sins our Lord Jesus tho he became not a Sinner in our stead yet as Mediator he was substituted to die in our stead that by his Death God might be inclined to forgive us who otherwise must have died and by virtue of his Death as a Satisfaction to Divine Justice we are delivered from Death This Parenthesis I add to the Description Grotius gives of Christ's dying in our stead De Satisf cap. 9. LIMBORG's Opinion of Christ's Satisfaction consonant to EPISCOPIVS and some few other Arminians Error 14. Vindictive Justice required not Satisfaction to be made in order to the remission of Sin Limbor Theol. Christian. lib. 3. cap. 18. § 4. Truth Vindictive Justice for the Honour of the Divine Law required Satisfaction in order to the remission of Sin at least after the enacting of Adam's Covenant Error 15. Christ's Sufferings were not a full Satisfaction to Justice nor was the Price of our Redemption fully equivalent to the Misery we deserved But God might accept as a redeeming Price much or little as himself judged fit and might be satisfied with any sort of Affliction laid on Christ. Nor did Christ satisfy the Rigor of Divine Justice but the Will of God considered at once merciful as well as just i. e. Mercy abated to Christ in the terms of Satisfaction what Iustice demanded Lib. 3. cap. 2. § 8 9. cap. 22. § 2. cap. 23. § 6. Truth Tho the great Mercy of God appeared in his being willing to admit accept and provide Christ our Mediator to make Satisfaction for our Sins yet God our just Governor would have it that the terms of Satisfaction proposed to our Mediator should be such as strict Iustice demanded for the Honour of his violated Law and securing the Ends of his Government which terms were no lower than that he should suffer what was fully equivalent to the Punishments they whom he was to redeem deserved to endure And as our Lord Jesus did suffer in kind much of what we deserved to suffer so he suffered considering the Dignity and Innocency of his Person what was in the intrinsick Value fully equivalent to such of our deserved Punishments as he was not capable of suffering in kind Nay the Price of our Redemption paid by him was not only equivalent to what the Law of Works required of us but it was supralegal that is it far exceeded what any Sinners were thereby obliged to nor see we how a full Satisfaction for all our Sins could be otherwise made Error 16. Our Faith and Regeneration were not merited by Christ. Lib. 3. cap. 22. § 3. Truth Considering that our New-birth and Faith are the Fruits of the holy Spirit whom by Sin we had expelled his return to regenerate and make us Believers must be for the sake and with respect to the Merits of Christ as what vindicated the Honour of God who restored him to us Truth No Penance Pilgrimage Fastings or good Works of our own or other Men can make proper Satisfaction to Divine Justice for the least of our Sins as to any part of their Fault or Guilt This last we add in opposition to what POPISH Opinions seem to militate against the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction Socinian Notions of Iustification Error 1. In our Justification by Christ our Sins are blotted out not by Christ's Death and Obedience as any Compensation or Satisfaction to God for them but only by God's simple Forgiveness and Pardon absolutely free in all respects without any Merit of Christ's or our own Socin Tom. 1. Praelect Theol. cap. 15 16. Crell vol. 1. in Phil. 3. 9. in Rom. 3. 24. Truth In Justification upon our penitent believing our Sins are pardoned and our Persons accepted for the sake of Christ's Death and Obedience as what compensated and made Satisfaction for our Sins And tho neither our Graces nor Works do merit our Pardon Acceptance or eternal