of Christ is a low carnal Conception The Will of God is not moved by any thing without it self k Alterations are in the things altered not in the Will of God concerning them 3 To make this the whole Effect of the Death of Christ that God should determine and promise to lay aside his wrath is l no Scripture discovery either as to Name or Thing 4 The Purposes of God which are all Eternal and the Promises of God which are all made in time are very inconveniently ranged in the same Series 5 That by the Death of Christ Attonement is made everlasting Redemption purchased that God is Reconciled a Right unto Freedom obtained for those for whom he died shall be afterwards declared 6 If God doth only Purpose and Promise to lay aside his Anger upon the Death of Christ but doth it not until our actual believing then 1 our Faith is the proper procuring cause of Reconciliation the Death of Christ but a Requisite Antecedent which is not the Scripture Phrase Rom. 5. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 18. Eph. 2. 16. Col. 1. 20 21. Dan. 9. 24. Heb. 2. 17. Eph. 1. 7. Heb. 9. 12. 2 How comes the Sinner by Faith if it is the Gift of God It must be an Issue of Anger and Enmity for that Schem only is actually ascribed to him before our enjoyment of it Strange that God should be so far reconciled as to give us Faith that we may be reconciled to him that thereupon he may be reconciled to us 3 For the Third Instance of Gods receiving the sinner into love and favour upon his beleeving quite laying aside his anger I Answer To wave the Anthropomorphisme wherwith this Assertion is tainted as the former If by receiving into favour he intend absolute compleat pactional Justification being an Act of favour quitting the sinner from the guilt of sin charged by the Accusation of the Law terminated on the Conscience of a sinner I confess it in order of nature to follow our beleiving I might Consider further the Attempts of others for the right sttating of this business but it would draw me beyond my Intention His failings herein who is so often mentioned and so much used by him who gives occasion to this rescript I could not but remark What are my own Thoughts and Apprehensions of the whole I shall in the next place briefly impart Now to make way hereunto some things I must suppose which though some of them otherwhere controverted yet not at all in reference to the present business and they are these 1 That Christ died only for the Elect or God gave his Son to die only for those whom he chuseth to life and salvation for the praise of his glorious Grace This is granted by Mr Baxter where he affirms That Christ bare not punishment for them who must bear punishment themselves in eternal fire Thes. 33. p. 162. And again Christ died not for final Vnbelief Thes. 32. p. 159. therefore not for them who are finally Unbelievers as all non-Elected are and shall be For what Sinners he died he died for all their sins Rom. 5. 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 1. 7. If any shall say That as he died not for the final Unbelief of others so not for the final Unbelief of the Elect and so not for final Unbelief at all I Answer First If by final Unbelief you mean that which is actually so Christ satisfied not for it His satisfaction cannot be extended to those things whose Existence is prevented by his Merit The Omission of this in the consideration of the Death Christ lies at the bottom of many mistakes Merit and Satisfaction are of equal Extent as to their Objects both also tend to the same End but in sundry respects Secondly If by final Vnbelief you understand that which would be so notwithstanding all means and remedies were it not for the Death of Christ so he did satisfie for it It's Existens being prevented by his Merit So then if Christ died not for final Unbelief he died not for the finally Unbeleeving Though the Satisfaction of his Death hath not paid for it the Merit of his Death would remove it Thirdly I Suppose That the Means as well as the Ends Grace as Glory are the Purchase and procurement of Jesus Christ See this proved in my Treatise of Redemption Lib. 3. Cap. 4. c. Fourthly That God is absolutely immutable unchangable in all his Attributes Neither doth his Will admit of any alteration This proved above Fifthly That the Will of God is not moved properly by any external Cause whatsoever unto any of its Acts whether imminent or transient For 1 m By a moving Cause we understand a Cause Morally Efficient and if any thing were so properly in respect of any Act of Gods Will then the Act which is the Will of God Acting must in some respect viz. As it is an Effect be less worthy and inferiour to the Cause for so is every Effect in respect of it's Cause And 2 Every Effect produced proceedeth from a Passive possibility unto the Effect which can no way be assigned unto God besides it must be temporarie for nothing that is Eternal can have dependance upon that whose Rise is in Time and such are all things external to the Will of God even the Merit of Christ himself 3 I cannot imagine how there can be any other Cause why God Willeth any thing then why he not Willeth or Willeth not other things which for any to Assign will be found Difficult Mat. 11. 25. Chap. 20. 15. So then when God Willeth one thing for another as our Salvation for the Death of Christ the one is the Cause of the other neither moveth the Will of God Hence Sixthly All Alterations are in the things concerning which the Acts of the Will of God are none in the Will of God its self These things being premised what was before proposed I shall now in order make out beginning with the Eternal Acts of the Will of God towards us antecedent to all or any Consideration of the DEATH of CHRIST CAP. VII In particular of the Will of God towards them for whom Christ died and their state and Condition as Considered Antecedanous to the Death of Christ and all Efficiency thereof FIRST then the Habitude of God towards man Antecedent to all fore-sight of the Death of Christ is an Act of Supream Soveraignty and Dominion appointing them by means suited to the manifestation of his Glorious Properties according to his Infinitely Wise and Free Disposal to Eternal Life and Salvation for the praise of his glorious Grace That this Salvation was never but one or of one kind consisting in the same kind of Happiness in reference unto Gods appointment needs not much proving To think that God appointed one kind of Condition for man if he had continued in Innocency and another upon his Recovery from the Fall is to think That
3 That as the making out of all spiritual blessings first purposed by the Father then purchased by the Son that they might be bestowed Condecently to divine Justice God hath reserved it to his own Sovereign disposal That it be done so that they for whom this whole Dispensation is appointed may really enjoy the Fruits of it is all that necessarily is included either in the Purpose or Purchase Hence it is that the discharge of the Debtor doth not immediately follow the Payment of the Debt by Christ not because that Payment is refusable but because in that very Covenant and Compact from whence it is that the Death of Christ is a Payment God reserveth to himself this Right and Liberty to discharge the Debtor when and how he pleaseth I mean as to Times and Seasons for otherwise the means of actual freedom is procured by that Payment though not considered meerly as a Payment which denotes only Satisfaction but as it had adjoyned Merit also Therefore that Principle much used and rested on by Mr Baxter in the Business of Satisfaction to obviate this very difficulty of a not immediate discharge if Christ paid the Debt viz. That the Satisfaction of Christ is a refusable Payment which he presseth Page 149 150. is neither true in it self nor accommodate to this difficulty 1 Not True For The Suffering of CHRIST may be Considered either 1 Absolutely as in it self abstracting from the Consideration of any Covenant or Compact thereabout and so it cannot be said to be a refusable Payment not because not refusable but because no Payment That any thing should have any such reference unto God as a Payment or Satisfaction whether refusable or otherwise is not from its self and its own nature but from the Constitution of God alone Between God and the Creature there is no Equality not so much as of Proportion Christ in Respect of his Humane Nature though United to the Deity is a Creature and so could not absolutly satisfie or merit any thing at the hand of God I mean with that kind of merit which ariseth from an absolute Proportion of things This Merit can be found only among Creatures and the Advancement of Christs Humanity takes it not out of that Number Neither in this sense can any Satisfaction be made to God for sin The Sinners own undergoing the Penalty neither is Satisfaction in the sense whereof we speak neither can it properly be said to be so at all no more then a thing to be done which is Endlessly in doing 2 It may be Considered with Reference unto Gods Constitution and Determinatiou Predestmating Christ unto that Work and appointing the Work by him to be accomplished to be satisfactory equaling by that Constitution the End and the Means And thus the Satisfaction of Christ in the Justice of God was not refusable the Wisdom Truth Justice and suitable Purpose of God being engaged to the Contrary 2 This distinction is not accommodate to this difficulty the sole Reason thereof being what was held out before of the Interest of Gods Sovereign Right to the bestowing of Purposed Purchased Promised Blessings as to Times and Seasons according to the free Councel of his own Will 3 Hence then it is That God in the Scripture upon the Death of Christ is said to be reconciled to be returned unto Peace with them for whom he so died the Enmity being slain and peace actually made Ephes. 2. 14 15 16. Collos. 1. 20. because he now will and may suitablely to his Justice Wisdome and Appointment make out unto them for whom the Atonement was made all fruits of Love Peace and Amity Heb. 2. 17. Rom. 5. 10 11. 2 Cor. 5. 19. The OBJECTION unto this How then can God deny us the present Possession of Heaven used by Mr Baxter Page 157. is not of any force the whole disposal of these Things being left to his own pleasure And this is the SCHEME which upon the Death of CHRIST we assigne unto God He is atoned appeased actually reconciled at peace with those for whom Christ died and in due time for his sake will bestow upon them all the Fruits and Issues of Love and renewed Friendship This possibly may give some light into the immediate Effect of the DEATH of CHRIST which though I shall not purposely now handle yet Mr Baxter with much diligence having employed himself in the Investigation thereof I shall turn aside a little to Consider his ASSERTIONS in this Particular CAP. IX A Degression concerning the Immediate Effect of the Death of Christ IT is one of the greatest and noblest Questions in our Controverted Divinity What are the immediate Effects of Christs Death He that can rightly Answer this is a Divine indeed and by help of this may expedite most other Controversies about Redemption and Justification In a word The Effects of Redemption undertaken could not be upon a Subject not yet existent and so no Subject though it might be for them None but Adam and Eve were then Existent Yet as soon as we do Exist we receive benefit from it The suspending of the rigorous execution of the Sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate Effect of the Death of Christ which suspension is some kind of Deliverance from it Thus far Mr Baxter Thess. 9. Explicat pag. 67. There are scarce more lines then mistakes in this Discourse Some of them may be touched on 1 Effects are to be Considered with Respect to their Causes Causes are Real or Moral Real or Physical Causes produce their Effects immediately either Immediatione suppositi or Virtutis Unto them the subject must be Existent I speak not of creating power where the Act produceth its Object Moral Causes do never immediately acting their own Effects nor have any immediate influence into them There is between such Causes and their Effects the intervention of some 3d Thing previous to them both viz. Proportion Constitution Law Covenant which takes in the Cause and lets out the Effect And this for all Circumstances of where how when suitable to the limitations in them expressed or implyed with the Nature of the things themselves The Death of Christ is a Moral Cause in respect of all its Effects Whether those subjects on which it is to have its Effects be Existent or not Existent at the time of its performance is nothing at all considerable If it wrought Physically and Efficiently the Existence of the Subjects on which it were to work were requisite It is altogether in vain to enquire of the immediate Effects of Christs Death upon an Existent subject By the way That Adam and Eve only were Existent when Christ undertook the work of Redemption to me is not cleer no nor yet the following Assertion That as soon as we do Exist we receive Benefit by it taking benefit for a benefit actually collated as Mr Baxter doth not for a right to a benefit or the purpose of bestowing one which will Operate
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
he can collate any spiritual Blessings upon them as he seeth good But this I have Disproved elsewhere and Manifested 1 That the foundation of this Apprehension being an impossibility in God to forgive sin without Satisfaction because of the contrariety of it to the Properties of his nature is a groundless Assertion And 2 The foundation of God in sending his Son to die for his Elect is oppugned hereby And it 3 Is destructive to all the proper Fruits and Effects of the Death of Christ c. Lib. 2. Cap. 2. 2 In the Will of God it seems that the Merit and Fruits of the Death of Christ whereof we treat seem better to be treasured and from hence it is That he can Will or Willeth to us the Good things purchased by it But 1 That the Will of God should by the Death of Christ be changed into any other Habitude then what it was in before was before disproved 2 That now God can Will Good things to us holds out the enlargement of his Power as to the acting thereof mentioned above rather then any thing properly belonging to the Will of God 3 Gods Willing Good things to us it cannot consist in his willing of a thing is operative of it it is his Efficacious Energetical Will whereof we speak When he actually willeth Grace we have Grace and when he Willeth Glory we have Glory but that concerning which we speak is Antecedent to the actual making out of Grace and Glory to us being the procuring cause of them though not of that Act of the Will of God whereby they are bestowed His Justice and Truth only remain For Justice that which is Commutative properly with one Consent is removed from God Who hath given first unto him and it shall be rendered unto him again Neither is distributive Justice to be supposed in him antecedent to some free engagement of his own Where no Obligation is there cannot be so much as distributive Justice properly All Obligation from God to the Creature is from his own free engagement otherwise he stands in no Relation to it but of absolute Dominion and Sovereignty All the Justice of God then we consider not the universal Rectitude of his nature but in reference to the Creature is Justitia regiminis Psal. 33. 4 5. 1 Joh. 1. 5. and therefore must suppose some free Constitution of his Will This then rightly considered do I Affirm to be affected with the Merit of Christ There I place the procuring Efficacy thereof whence it is That all the Fruits of it are made out unto us But this in due order The first Thing of immediate Concernment hereunto is the Covenant of the Father with the Son the free engagement of God to do such and such things for Christ upon the performance of such other things to him appointed This is the foundation of the Merit of Christ as was before declared Hence is distributive Justice ascribed to God as to this thing It is righteous with him being engaged by his own free Purpose and Promise to make out those things which he appointed to be the Fruit and Procurement of the Death of Christ And from thence it is that all the things purchased by the Death of Christ become due to those for whom he died even from the Equity attending this Justice of God Herein also his Truth hath a share By his Truth I understand his Fidelity and Veracity in the performance of all his engagements This immediately attends every Obligation that by any free Act of his Will God is pleased in his Wisdom to put upon himself and is naturally under Consideration before that distributive Justice whereby he is inclined to the Performance it self of them This then is that I say God by free Purpose and Compact making way for the Merit of Christ which absolutely could be none is obliged from the Veracity and Justice which attends all his Engagements to make out as in his infinite Wisdom shall seem meet all those things which he hath set appointed and proposed as the Fruit and Purchase of his Death unto all them for whom he died And in This rests the Merit of Christ Here Two things may be observed 1 What we ascribe to the Merit of Christ viz. The Accomplishment of that Condition which God required to make way that the Obligation which he had freely put upon himself might be in actual force And so much how rightly I leave to himself to Consider doth Mr Baxter assign to our own works Thes. 26. p. 140. 2 The mistake of those who wind up the MERIT of Christ as affecting God if I may so speak unto a Conditional Engagement viz. That we shall be made Partakers of the Fruits of it upon such and such Conditions to be by us fulfilled For 1 All such Conditions if spiritual Blessings are part of the Purchase of the Death of Christ and if not are no way fit to be Conditions of such an Attainment 2 It cannot be made apparent how any such Conditional stipulation can be ascribed unto God That God should engage upon the Death of Christ to make out Grace and Glory Liberty and Beauty unto those for whom he died upon CONDITION they do so or so 1 Leaves no proper place for the Merit of Christ 2 Is very improperly ascribed unto God Lawyers tell us That all stipulations about things future are either sub Conditione or sub Termino Stipulations or Engagements upon CONDITION that are properly so do suppose him that makes the Engagement to be altogether uncertain of the Event thereof Stipulations sub Termino are absolute to make out the things engaged about at such a Season Upon the very Instant of such a Stipulation as this an Obligation follows as to the thing though no Action be allowed to him to whom it is made until the Term and Time appointed be come In those Stipulations that are under CONDITION no Obligation ariseth at all from them it being wholly uncertain whether the Condition will be fulfilled or no Only in Two Cases doth such an Engagement bring on an immediate Obligation 1 If the Condition required be in things necessary and unalterable As if Cajus should engage himself into Tilius to give him an 100. l. for his House on the morrow if the Sun shine here ariseth an immediate Obligation and it is the same as if it had been conceived only sub Termino without Condition at all 2 If by any means he that makes the Stipulation knows infallibly that the Condition will be fulfilled though he to whom it is made knows it not In this Respect also the Stipulation sub Conditione introduceth an immediate Obligation and in that regard is co-incident with that which is only sub Termino Wheither an Engagement upon Condition properly without the former Respects that is a Stipulation to an Event dubious and uncertain can be ascribed unto God is easie to determine To Assert it oppugnes the whole nature of
spiritual Blessings soever are bestowed on any Soul I mean peculiarly distinguishing Mercies and Graces they are all bestowed and collated for Christs sake That is They are purchased by his Merit and procured by his Intercession thereupon That supernatural Graces cannot be traduced from any natural Faculty or attained by the utmost Endeavour of Nature howsoever affected with outward advantages I now take for granted These things I looked upon as the free-gifts of Love So the Scripture Joh. 15. 5. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Eph. 2. 8. 1 Cor. 4. 7. Eph. 2. 10. Mat. 11. 25 26. Act. 16. 14. c. Now the Dispensation of all these as it is through Christ so they are for Christ On whomsoever they are bestowed it is for Christs sake For Instance Peter and Judas are Unbeleevers Faith is given for Faith is given to Peter not to Judas Whence is this difference Presupposing Gods Sovereign discriminating Purpose the immediate procuring Cause of Faith for Peter is the Merit of Christ To us it is given on the behalf of Christ to beleeve on him Phil. 1. 20. We are blessed with all spiritual Blessings in him Eph. 1. 3. Whatsoever is in the Promise of the Covenant is certainly of his procurement for therefore he is the Surety Heb. 7. 22. And his Bloud the Ransome he paid is the Bloud of the Covevenant Mat. 26. 28. Whereby all the Promises thereof become in him Yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. And whether Faith be of the Blessings of the Covenant and Conclude in the Promise thereof or no let the Scripture be Judge Jer. 31. 31 32. Ezek. 36. 26. Heb. 8. 9 10 11. Furthermore What we have through him we have so him All these things being made out on this Condition that he should make his Soul an Offering for sin Isa. 53. 10 3 That all the procurements of the Death of Christ in the behalf of his are to be made out by vertue of a Stipulation sub termino or in respect of their actual collation and bestowing they are to be made out in the season limited and appointed by the Will of the Father Of this before 4 No Blessing can be given us for Christs sake unless in Order of Nature CHRIST be first reckoned unto us Here I must do two things 1 Declare what I mean by reckoning Christ unto us And then 2 Prove the Assertion as laid down Gods reckoning Christ in our present sense is the imputing of Christ unto ungodly unbeleeving Sinners for whom he died so far as to account him theirs to bestow Faith and Grace upon them for his sake This then I say at the Accomplishment of the appointed time the Lord reckons and accounts and makes out his Son Christ to such and such Sinners and for his sake gives them Faith c. Exercising of Love actually in the bestowing of Grace upon any particular soul in a distinguishing manner for Christs sake doth suppose this accounting of Christ to be his and from thence he is so indeed which is the present Thesis and may be proved For 1 Why doth the Lord bestow Faith on Peter not on Judas Because Christ Dying for Peter and purchasing for him the Grace of the Covenant he had a Right unto it and God according to his Promise bestowed it With Judas it was not so But then Why doth the Lord bestow Faith on Peter at the 40th yeer of his Age and not before or after Because then the Term is expired which upon the Purchase was by the Counsel of Gods Will prefixed to the giving in the beginning of the thing Purchased unto him What then doth the Lord do when he thus bestoweth Faith on him For Christs sake his Death procuring the Gift not moving the Will of the Giver he creates Faith in him by the way and means snited to such a work Eph. 1. 18 19. Chap. 2. 1 c. If then this be done for Christs sake then is Christ made ours before we beleeve Else Why is Faith given him at this instant for Christs sake and not to another for whom also he died That it is done then is because the appointed time is come that it is done then for Christ is because Christ is first given to him I cannot conceive how any thing should be made out to me for Christ and Christ himself not be given to me he being made unto us of God Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2 The Apostle holds out this very Method of the Dispensation of Grace Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his Son but delivered him up to Death for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things First Christ is given for us then to us then with him he having the preheminence in all things all things and this being also for him Phil. 1. 29. he is certainly in the Order of Nature given in the first place He being made ours we receive the Atonement by him Rom. 5. 11. How Christ is said to be received by Faith if he be ours before Beleeving is easily resolved Christ is ours before and after Beleeving in a different sense He who is made ours in an Act of Gods Love that for him we may have Faith may be found and made ours in a Promise of Reconciliation by Beleeving I offer also Whether Absolution from the guilt of sin and obligation unto death though not as terminated in the Conscience for compleat Iustification do not proceed our actual Beleeving For What is that Love of God which through Christ is effectual to bestow Faith upon the Unbeleeving And how can so great Love in the actual exercise of it producing the most distinguishing Mercies consist with any such Act of Gods Will as at the same instant should bind that Person under the Guilt of sin Perhaps also this may be the Iustification of the ungodly mentioned Rom. 4. Gods absolving a Sinner in Heaven by accounting Christ unto him and then bestowing him upon him and for his sake enduing him with Faith to beleeve That we should be blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ and yet Christ not ours in a peculiar manner before the bestowing of those blessings on us is somwhat strange Yea he must be our Christ before it is given to us for him to beleeve Why else is it not given to all others so to do I speak not of the supream distinguishing Cause Mat. 11. 25 26. but of the proximate procuring Cause which is the bloud of Christ Neither yet do I hence assert compleat Justification to be before beleeving Absolution in Heaven and Justification differ as part and whole Again Absolution may be considered either as a pure Act of the Will of God in it self or as it is received beleeved apprehended in and by the soul of the Guilty For Absolution in the first sense it is evident it must proceed beleeving as a discharge from the Effects of Anger naturally proceeds all Collation of any fruits of Love such as is