Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A67000
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The freeness of Gods grace in the forgiveness of sins by Jesus Christ, vindicated. Against the doctrine of Mr. Fergusson, in his sermon preached at the morning lecture, the fifth of August 1668. in a letter to a friend. By H. W. a lover of the truth that is according to Godliness.
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H. W.
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1668
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Wing W35; ESTC R217619
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15,119
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consider this Text that is cited by us both and that upon a contrary account and see if it can possibly be meant by the Lords not clearing the guilty after his being merciful gracious c. that he will indeed pardon sin when he hath taken as much punishment as the Law requires but he wil by no means bate any thing of that As if the Lord were very gracious and merciful because he takes no more than the Law allows O wonderful Mercy that this Preacher attributes to the most merciful Lord God! see Psal 103. 8 10. The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plentious in mercy He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities But according to this Gentlman God must reward every one according to his Iniquities for every one must bear the full punishment of his sins either in his own person or in the person of another See v. 13. Like as a Father pityeth his Children so the Lord pityeth them that fear him That is if the Lord can get any body to be punished in their stead and make full satisfaction to his avenging Justice then they shall go free See also Jer. 3.12 Joel 2.13 Jona 4.2 or shall I transcribe a great part of the Bible to this purpose I cannot omit to mind you of our Lords precept Luk. 6.35 36. where he saith Love ye your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the Children of the Highest for he is kind unto the unthankeful and to the evil Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful Is God kind to the unthankful and evil how comes it to pass according to this Gentleman either Christ or some other made satisfaction for them or else I know not how it could be 2 Cor 1. 3. God is called the Father of mercies In that Prophesie Luke 1. 77 78. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy marg Bowels of mercy of our God The great reason of the blessings of the new Covenant is this for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 8. 12. I would sain pass from this matter as obvious to every one but that text in Jam. 2. 13. will not let me go For he shall have Judgement without Mercy that hath shewed no Mercy and Mercy rejoyceth against Judgement Where you may observe that Mercy is opposed to Judgement or satisfaction of Justice and that gloryeth against this Whereas were this Gentlemans doctrine true Judgement would glory against Mercy That this Doctrine of full satisfaction to avenging Justice I say is contrary to all those Sriptures that attribute our remission or salvation to the Grace of God me thinks I should not need to cite texts in this case to such as profess to live under a Covenant of Grace and commonly suspect every thing that is but said to lessen the Grace or favour of God But give me leave to mention one or two among a multitude And that of the Apostle to the Ephesians ch 1. 7. doth first present it self In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace Here forgiveness of sins is ascribed to the riches of Gods Grace though it comes through the Blood of Christ Would it have bin any such rich Grace for God to let men alone after he had punished their sins to the utmost See Col. 1. 14. a parallel place to this in Eph. I. In both which you may note that redemption is expounded by remission of sins See also Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ How justified by Grace or savour if by a full satisfaction O you will say Because God gave Christ and procur'd him to make this satisfaction But suppose that could be How then justified freely or gratis by his grace if he received a ful satisfaction Can a man be said to deliver his imprisoned Debtor freely or gratis by his Grace out of prison and from his obligation though he procure another to pay him the mony sure Mr. F. would not think so if he were that captive Debtor and so deliver'd And this Apostle in the next Chap. Rom. 4. 4. and 11. 6. argues the opposition between Grace and Debt and Grace and works shewing that they mutually destroy each other so that if God received full satisfaction he is obliged in Justice as this Preacher saith to take no more and our Justification accordingly will be no longer of Grace but of Debt Thus this Preacher doth unawares destroy the Grace of God while he preaches up a penal satisfaction of Justice Now I might proceed to other Scriptures and Arguments to which this Doctrine of satisfaction is contrary but I am writing a Letter and perhaps I may have occasion to produce some of them by way of Answer to some of his Argumentations And I shall as I go along prove against him that which I proposed in the beginning as the third and greatest fault in a Preacher namely That his Doctrine is not only false but false in a matter of high comcernment in the faith of a Christian And first I take notice he argues from Gods threatnings that there must be a satisfaction but he allows this satisfaction to be made either by the Criminal or by his Surety But I would fain have him to shew me that threatning of punishment that may be satisfied either by the party offending or his Surety To Adam he saith In the day thou eatest dying thou shalt die Gen. 1. 17. and Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things c. Deut. 27.26 Cal. 3.10 The soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18.4 Here is no mention of a Surety Let him that addeth or its Surety take heed of the Curse denounced against him that addeâ—â— or diminisheth c but perhaps he hath a Surety that can and will bear it for him 2. He argues from the congruity of it to the Righteousness Wisdom and other Attributes of God to pardon sin upon a full compensation He cites Rom. 3 25 26. that he might be just But we have seen already in the 24. vers of that Chap. that the Justice there meant is such as consists with justifying gratis and therefore without a full compensation 3. He argues from the Holiness Purity and Righteousness of the Nature of God to the necessity of the punishment of every sin But he doth here again take the boldness of adding a surety for the bearing of this punishment I beseech you my Friend make a stand and tell me supposing such a nature in God as obliges him to punish every sin whether that Nature can be satisfied with the punishment of another that is innocent instead of him
difficulties than any of those that are to follow him Is he not thereby the more fit to be their Captain may there not from hence be given a good account of all the sufferings and the death of Christ that he was to be the Captain of our Salvation Did it not well become the Wisdom and Holiness of God to give repentance and remission of sins through such a person as should obtain this Glory and Power by an obedience accompanyed with the hardest sufferings He now goes on to tell us that Christ underwent this Curse in our stead And here he cites Dan. 9 26. Rom. 4 25. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Isa 53. which in my Judgment are not the most probable prooss he might have brought for that purpose But it being salfe that Christ underwent the eternal Curse there is no place for his doing it in our stead Neither did he undergo that which he did undergo in our stead but on our behalf for our good and that we should follow his steps So saith the Apostle Peter Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 He that doth any thing in another's stead doth it that the other may not do it but Christ suffered for our Example not to free us from suffering the like Christ suffered for us so he entred into Heaven for us Heb. 6.20 not in our stead but for our good to be a Priest and to interceed for us that we may come thither also Under this third particular concerning what Christ hath wrought for us he talks of a price for Grace and that all Grace is given by vertue of the satisfaction of Jesus Christ He cites to this purpose 2 Pet. 1. 1. To them that have obtained like precious Faith through the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Whence he collects that God is bound in Justice to give Grace and Faith because Christ hath bought it It 's strange he should be unmindfull of the Apostle Paul's making Grace and Debt such opposites as destroy each other and cannot have place in the same matter Of which I have soken something before Again he considers not the words he utters for Faith is said in this Text to be obtained by us not only through the Righteousness of God but also through the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Is Christ obliged to give us Faith because he bought it It is in the Greek Faith in the Righteousness of God c. so Righteousness may be taken for the Object of Faith and denotes here the saithfulness of God and Christ promising to us eternal life These are the men that cry up the Grace of God the free Grace of God bat my dear Friend if you will be but at the pains to weigh the matter throughly which alas few will you will perceive that their Doctrine of Grace rightly understood doth quite overthrow Grace I have shewed you here how his Doctrine of Satisfaction is diametrically opposite to the Grace of forgiveness of sins which God did design before the World to magnisie by Jesus Christ in the Gospel But he hath a pretty setch here whereby he thinks to free himself of this charge and that is by telling us as he doth in his Application That the great Mercy as well as Justice of God appears in this Satisfaction because my Friends saith he though God will have a Satisfaction yet he will procure it himself be will be at the cost of it himself O the wisdom of God in finding it out O that men would but consider what this means But men are mighty idle and popishly credulous in matters of Faith The meaning then is this That God Almighty is necessitated by his Nature to execute the punishment due to all the sins of men for so he saith that by sin punishment became due and being due it became necessary to be executed So that God can no more pardon one sin without due punishment than he can lie or deny himself Now it seems this necessity of his Nature gave him liberty I know not how to execute this punishment upon others that were righteous in case they had been Sureties if any such there had been instead of the guilty But there being none such but only one to wit Jesus Christ his wel-beloved Son who was of so excellent a Nature that he could bear as much punishment in a few hours as all the World deserved and was not able to bear to eternity Therefore he commands this Son who would not disobey him to take upon him a humane nature and therein to bear this infinite punishment that so his avenging Justice being satisfied he might then justifie some part of those that had finned This is God's procuring the Satisfaction himself this is being at the cost of it But let me argue with him a little How can that be a true and proper satisfaction which the Creditor is at the cost of himself It is but a shew of satisfaction when one receives but what he himself gives or is at the cost of And so this specious Doctrine of satisfying Justice will be but a meer representation of a thing that is not real If the Creditor did receive what he did not give then his Mercy is just so much diminished If he receiv'd all that was due his Mercy is nothing at all You will say his mercy appears in this that being at liberty to punish the sinner himself or a righteous person in his stead he chose to punish the righteous person and to let the sinner go free This seems to have some little weight in it but consider it narrowly Here is indeed some kindness shewn to the person of the sinner but there is just as much unkindness shewed to the person of the Righteous but in respect to the sin there is no mercy at all for whether he punish the Sinner or the Righteous the sin is fully avenged And what good Governour I pray would not rather in such a case punish the sinner than the Righteous But you will say he rewarded the Righteous for bearing this punishment I answer that is just as if one did owe me a Thousand pounds and I should procure another to pay me the money in his stead and for his encouragement I tell him I will give him a Thousand pounds value in somewhat else I say this is no real but an imaginary and represented satisfaction So that let him turn himself which way he will he shall never be able to make full satisfaction to Justice and Mercy in forgiveness to stand together By all this it appears that his doctrine is false in a matter of great concernment as that which obscures lessens disparages or overthrows the Righteousness Goodness Mercy and Grace of God in the Gospel Having now finished what I intended wherein I pray excuse me if I have been too long and pardon the errors of haste I will take my leave beseeching you to be very careful of receiving any Doctrine you do not understand especially if it seem to darken the Wisdom or any way lessen the Grace of God but cherish such Principles as represent God and Christ full of Wisdom Grace and Goodness and so beget in you humility love and considence towards them Suffer not your self to be imposed upon by the bare name of Mystery nor by the multitude of those that profess any Doctrine but look whether you can find it in the holy Scriptures Consider the great Vanities Superstitions yea and Idolatries that have crept into the Church so that it is no great marvel if many err in this point also Let us pray that God would be pleased to vindicate the Truth of the Gospel from the Inventions of men that it may appear in its native beauty and loveliness I hope you will not satisfie your self with only reading what I have wrote but will weigh it seriously as a matter of great concernment I shall much rejoyce to be serviceable to you in it for I am Sir Your Friend in the best bands H. W. London Aug. 13. 1668. Page 6. line 14. for impale read impute