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
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
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
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