signs of Regeneration And he adds such Power to the Testimony of Conscience for the Truth and In-being of these Graces as begets in the Soul a joyful sense of its reconciled State and some comfortable freedom from those Fears which accompany a doubting Christian and according to the Evidence of these Graces Assurance is ordinarily strong or weak Error Assurance is not attained by the Evidence of Scripture-Marks of Signs of Grace or by the Spirit 's discovering to us that he hath wrought in our Hearts any holy Qualifications But Assurance comes only by an inward Voice of the Spirit saying Thy Sins are forgiven thee and our believing thereupon that our Sins are forgiven Truth 16. The Sins of Believers have the loathsomness of Sin adhering to them which God seeth and accounteth the Committers guilty thereby and they ought to charge themselves therewith so as to stir up themselves to Repentance and renew their Actings of Faith on Christ for Forgiveness Nevertheless they ought not thereby to fear their being out of a justified State further than their Falls give them just cause of suspecting that Sin hath Dominion over them and that their first believing on Christ was not sincere Error God seeth no Sin in Believers tho he see the Fact neither doth He charge them with any Sin nor ought they to charge themselves with any Sin nor be at all sad for them nor confess repent or do any thing as a Means of their Pardon no nor in order to assuring themselves of Pardon even when they commit Murder Adultery or the grossest Wickedness Truth 17. It 's true of Believers that if Sin should have Dominion over them they would thereby be subject to Condemnation And tho the Grace of God will prevent the Dominion of Sin in every elect Believer and so keep them from eternal Death yet true Believers may by Sin bring great hurt upon themselves in Soul and Body which they ought to fear and they may expect a share in National Judgments according as they have contributed to common Guilt Error The grossest Sins that Believers can commit cannot do them the least harm neither ought they to fear the least hurt by their own Sins nor by National Sins yea tho themselves have had a hand therein Truth 18. Tho God is not so angry with his People for their Sins as to cast them out of his Covenant-favour yet by their Sins he is so displeased as for them to correct his Children tho he speaks Instructions by his Rebukes Error None of the Afflictions of Believers have in them the least of God's Displeasure against their Persons for their Sins Truth 19. Tho the present sincere Holiness of Believers be not perfect according to the Precepts of the Word nor valuable by the Sanction of the Law of Innocency nor any Atonement for our Defects and we still need Forgiveness and the Merits of Christ for Acceptance thereof yet as far as it prevails it's lovely in it self and pleasing to God and is not Dung or Filth Error The greatest Holiness in Believers tho wrought in them by the Holy Ghost is meer Dung Rottenness and Filthiness as in them Truth 20. Gospel-preaching is when the Messengers of Christ do publish to fallen Sinners the good News of Salvation by Christ to be obtained in the way which he hath appointed in his Word freely offering Salvation on his Terms earnestly perswading and commanding Men in the Name of Christ to comply with those Terms as ever they would escape the Misery they are under and possess the Benefits he hath purchased directing all to look to him for Strength and acknowledg him as the only Mediator and his Obedience and Sufferings as the sole Atonement for Sin and meriting Cause of all Blessings instructing them in all revealed Truth and by Gospel-Motives urging them to obey the whole Will of God as a Rule of Duty but especially to be sincere and upright pressing after Perfection Error Gospel-Preaching is to teach Men they were as much pardoned and as acceptable to God always as when they are regenerate and while they were ungodly they had the same Interest in God and Christ as when they believe neither can Sin any way hinder their Salvation or their Peace nor have they any thing to do to further either of them Christ having done all for them and given himself to them before any holy Qualification or Endeavour Truth 21. Legal Preaching is to preach the Law as a Covenant of Innocency or Works or to preach the Mosaick or Jewish Covenant of Peculiarity But it is not Legal Preaching to require and perswade to Faith Holiness or Duties by Promises and Threatnings according to the Grace of the Gospel and direct Men to fear and hope accordingly Error Legal Preaching is to call People to act any Grace or do any Duty as a required Means of Salvation or inward Peace or to threaten them with Death or any Affliction to cause Fear if they commit the grossest Sins and backslide and fall away or to promise them any Blessing upon their Obedience to the Commandments of Christ or urge the Threatnings to perswade Sinners to believe and repent CHAP. II. A Renunciation of sundry Errors Anno 1696. A Paper called The second Paper 1696. A Proposal made by us 1697. ALtho we hoped the Caution used in the foresaid State of Truth and Error would prevent the Imputation of Socinianism and other hurtful Errors yet finding our Brethren dissatisfied we subscribed with them Anno 1692. about seven Months after the State of Truth was published certain Doctrinal Propositions collected out of the Assembly's Confession which we printed Anno 1693. with this Title An Agreement in Doctrinals c. but that being too long to be here inserted we shall confine our selves to the more material Parts of what further Account we have given of our Judgment concerning the Doctrines of Satisfaction and Iustification which may be seen at large in our Answer to the Report p. 3 11 27 33 c. Anno 1694. In a Paper sent to our Congregational Brethren it 's thus declared We the united Ministers in and about London do renounce and testify against these following Opinions 1. That there is no definite number of Persons elected from all Eternity whom God will by his appointed Means certainly save and bring to Eternal Life leaving the rest who fall under a just Condemnation for their Original and Actual Sins especially for their Neglect and Contempt of the Means of Salvation 2. That Christ died equally for all Men not intending the final Salvation of some more than others 3. That Men have in their own Power by the use of the natural Faculties of their Reason and Will unassisted by the special Light and Grace of the Holy Ghost to perform all that is necessary to Salvation or that his special efficacious Light and Grace is not necessary to their Conversion Perseverance and final Salvation 4. That any of them whom God hath
of the Threatning of the Law Determ 12. When he calls Sin an occasion of Christ's Death he there calls it also a remote meritorious Cause Determ 5. And as for a proper meritorious Cause as when Children are punished for their Parents Sins Determ 5. His Safaction yielded to our most just Rector a sufficient ground on which to forgive penitent Believers spiritual and eternal Punishments Disâ— 2. Nay he sees not supposing the Law of Works how God could forgive our Sins without the Penal Satisfaction of Christ Disp. 2. Determ 15. It were endless to produce the Instances demonstrating the Orthodoxness of this great Man as to the Satisfaction of Christ against Socinianism And by the way such as say Christ's penal Satisfaction was not necessary to the forgiveness of our Sins do a thousand times more favour Socinianism than Mr. Baxter's Notions or Words can be wrested to Perhaps others who follow Episcopius and some other Arminians when all must acquit him of Socinianism may surmise he favoureth their Notion of Christ's Death as if it were a Satisfaction only to the Will of God and not a full Satisfaction to the Iustice of God To this I answer Mr. B. distinguisheth Satisfaction into that which is the fulfilling the Will of a Person and that which is the Payment of what was owing by an Equivalent otherwise not due And he affirms that Christ's Satisfaction was not a mere fulfilling the Will of God tho it supposeth his Consent but it was a full Equivalent to what Punishments we deserved in that it better answered the Ends of Divine Government than the Sinner's Punishment would have done it more fully demonstrated the vindictive Justice of God than if the Sinner had been damned and it was a full Satisfaction to governing Justice and the End of the Law Vbi supra Determ 10 11 12 15. I thought this account necessary not only for the forementioned End but also that our Agreement in opposition to Socinianism might not exclude Mr. B. and such as approve of his Scheme which would add strength to that Heresy and be injurious to many worthy Persons nor ought a few words so fully explained be pressed to brand them with that odious Title who could more plausibly fix the same Character on Persons from things plainly asserted in the Socinian sense and subserving their Hypothesis As Christ's Death was not necessary to the remission of Sin the Promise of Forgiveness is no Effect of Christ's Death Repentance under the Gospel is an Effect of justifying Faith in Christ. The preaching of Reconciliation to Sinners is only to publish to them that God is already reconciled to them and to call them to be reconciled to God Many others might be instanced but I think it were unjust even upon such grounds to call any of these Socinians CHAP. VII An Enquiry into what Difference seems to remain concerning the Satisfaction of Christ and Iustification of a Sinner And this Difference reduced below any Cause of Discord I Think both sides are acquitted from all dangerous Errors concerning the Satisfaction of Christ and Justification of a Sinner nor can I doubt but the impartial Reader must apprehend the remaining Difference doth not lie in Opinions about these Doctrines themselves but in accommodating some words in opposition to other Errors which either Side have more especially applied their Minds to confute unless he should also ascribe it to a Zeal for sundry received Phrases on the one part and an apprehension in the other part that more accuracy is become needful since those Phrases were received 1. In both these Doctrines the visible Spring of what Difference remains is a different Notion of Christ's Suretiship For by this the word Imputation as used in both these Doctrines is governed viz. how our Sins were imputed to Christ when he satisfied and how Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us when we are justified both which depend upon the various Conceptions of the Suretiship of Christ and the manner of his representing us which I will begin with One Side thinks him a mediating Surety and distinguishing both as to the matter engaged and Instrument wherein he voluntarily engaged himself as also the respect he had to us therein 1. In the Covenant of Redemption they consider Christ agreeing with his Father the Terms of Satisfaction to Justice and Impetration of Life for Sinners and obliging himself to assume our Nature and therein perfectly to obey the Law die an accursed Death with whatever was equivalent to what by the Covenant of Works our Sins deserved Here they think Christ did not covenant strictly in our stead or as our Proxy tho he covenanted to die in our stead even strictly so He transacted as a free Interposer tho for our Salvation we were no federating Party tho we were the Persons whose Salvation was his promised Reward And therefore we have more reason since we are become his Members to say we intercede in Christ now than to say that we covenanted in Christ then Finally they account his Act of engaging so peculiar to himself that his non-performance of what he engaged which was impossible had not made us more guilty tho it would have left us miserable for our own Sins there being no other way to redeem us 2. They find Christ called a Surety in the Gospel-Covenant made with fallen Man Heb. 7. 22. and no where else This Covenant supposeth the former yea supposeth Christ's having executed his Engagements by the Covenant of Redemption to make Satisfaction to Justice i. e. it was at first accepted as if executed for this Covenant with Man doth not adjust the terms of Redemption but the way of conveying the Effects of that Redemption and is called the Testament of our Lord Jesus whereby he bequeaths the Blessings he acquired by his atoning Death In this Covenant Christ is such a Surety as not only assures us all will be performed which is promised to us on God's part but that undertakes to bring in the Elect and for the Perseverance of Believers unto eternal Life by his exerting that Power and Authority he hath received But here also they apprehend Christ a distinct federating Party A Mediator treating and obliging himself to make the Covenant stand sure and effect the Ends it was designed for but he binds not himself to believe repent or persevere for us but that we shall repent believe and persevere nor doth his Engagement that we should do so prevent our personal Engagement by Covenant to do it our selves tho in his Strength Now our Act of engaging is not his engaging Act but an Effect of it nor is our repenting his repenting Act but the Effect of his engaged Assistance nor is that Assistance of his reckoned to be legally our assisting our selves nor can we say that we covenanted in Christ to bring in the Elect or that Believers shall persevere By which with other Reasons we are induced to think that in covenanting he
depends not on any such mere words But was Christ appointed and did he consent to endure what the Sinner was to suffer that in virtue thereof the offended God might be appeased and the Sinner delivered This is the thing they oppose Crell Resp. ad Grot. cap. 9. par 14. explaining this very Phrase 3. Nor is with them the Question Whether Christ's Sufferings were in part the Idem and in other respects a full Equivalent to the Punishments the Sinner deserved No their Arguments run against the Equivalency and on that account deny that his Sufferings could be a full Price of Redemption or a Satisfaction and well they may when they call him a mere Creature Crell Resp. ad Grot. c. 4. par 2. c. 6. par 18. It 's the Proportion in the Value they most directly militate against 4. Nor whether Christ was a Sinner in judicial Esteem or was he reputed the innocent Mediator making amends to Iustice for our Sins that we the Offendors might be redeemed by his merits who to make Satisfaction submitted to be dealt with as if he had been a Sinner The last is enough for their Abhorrence and tho Socinus took all Advantages to expose the Orthodox in representing their Opinion as to the Imputation of Sin to Christ yet grants they hold that Christ was truly innocent and reputed so by God even when he was punished as if an Offender De Servat cap. 6. It 's true sometimes they would force some such Consequence on the words of the Orthodox as if Christ must be legally reputed a Sinner but that is to furnish themselves with an Argument to ridicule the true Doctrine of Satisfaction And note they deny that 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ was made Sin to be Christ was made a Sacrifice for Sin yea some render it he was made a Sinner as Slicht c. God dealt with him as a Sinner Socin in loc 5. It 's far enough from the Socinian Controversy whether Christ was immediately obliged by the Law of Works to die i. e. Did God thus sentence him Thou Christ hast sinned and therefore thou shalt die Or was he immediately obliged to die by the Govenant of Redemption and mediately by the Law of Works i. e. the Sentence is to be thus apprehended Whereas thou my Son the Mediator hast with my Consent declared thy willingness to expiate Sin and ransom Sinners justly condemned by the Curse of my Law to die And whereas my Vindictive Iustice the Honour of my Law and Government required that I the Rector should exact Satisfaction and Reparation for the Crimes of these Sinners by thy Death if I agreed to thy redeeming and saving them and thou hast obliged thy self to die in their stead to redeem them therefore thou shalt die this accursed shameful Death This I say is no part of the Dispute with the Socinians for the last account doth as directly oppose their Notions as the former nay much more for it asserts the Compact before his Incarnation and consequently the Divinity at least Preexistence of Christ. 6. Nor yet is it of any moment with them whether Men say Sin would be in a more proper sense the immediate meritorious Cause of the Sinner's dying who committed the Sin than of Christ's dying who did not commit the Sin tho he obliged himself to make Satisfaction for it in the Sinner's stead that the provoked God might be reconciled to him The Point with them being this Did our Sins notwithstanding God's merciful Disposition retain that Demerit in his account as rendered Satisfaction for it by Death necessary to reconcile him to Sinners and consequently did Christ suffer Death to make that Satisfaction which was become thus necessary by Sin and yet impossible for the Sinner to make 7. It 's true the Socinians usually say our Sins were the occasion of Christ's Death yet oft they call them the antecedent Cause but occasion being more common and agreeable to their Hypothesis I wish others had waved that word to prevent Abuse Nevertheless the mere using of that word is far from arguing any Man to Socinianize so that he apply it to a sense opposite to what Socinians do This will appear if we consider in what sense the Socinians use it they say our Sin was an occasion of Christ's Death as Sin was that which we were to be reclaimed from and our hope supported against And the Death of Christ was that way in which God who was not unreconciled before did appoint Christ to reclaim us from our Sins as his Death assureth us of the Truth of his Doctrine and Promises manifesteth God's prior Reconciliation and so his Death became an Argument to encline us to believe and repent and also a causa sine qua non both of a strong Motive to Holiness viz. the endless Glory designed in Heaven for us which was before shut up and of that Power Authority and Care of Christ at God's Right-hand to bring us into the Possession of it But when others shall call our Sins an occasion of Christ's Death and explain it thus That it was an occasion of Christ's Death as a penal Satisfaction to the Iustice of God and that he endured it to pacify God to Sinners that God's hatred of Sin and his Justice yea punitive Justice might be no less demonstrated in Christ's Satisfaction than if the Sinners had been damned And his Obedience and his Punishments wherein Vindictive Iustice was thus glorified did merit the Pardon of our Sins and eternal Life such an Explication doth as much oppose Socinianism as if they had used the word meritorious Cause instead of occasion That no Person may pretend the Reverend Mr. Baxter's Authority in favour of Socinianism because he sometimes calls our Sins an occasion of Christ's Death I do assure the Reader that he explains the word occasion in the last sense and in the most direct opposition to Socinianism nor can any pretend but the reason he useth this word as also pro causa meritoria or instead of a meritorious Cause is only to distinguish Christ the Sponsor making Satisfaction to Justice for our Sins from the Sinner himself when suffering for his own Sins To evidence which I have repeated his own Assertions under this seventh Head and could easily cite his own words which agree exactly to what 's Antisocinian in the six foregoing Heads See Method Theol. par 3. cap. 1. determ 11 12 15. Need I add that he says God declared to the feeling of Christ his Displeasure against Sin which was the Cause of all the Miseries which he endured i. e. saith he Christ bare those Punishments which the Anger and Displeasure of God against Sin and Sinners caused to be inflicted on him our Sponsor Vbi sup Disp. 4. and all this in our stead Det. 10. He made Satisfaction for our Sins to God as Rector and as the injured Party Determ 14. Christ's Death answered all the Ends of the most proper Punishments and
atoning Righteousness 2. They who say it 's by Faith alone that we apply this Righteousness do also grant that Faith is not alone in the person to whom God applies the Righteousness of Christ and when they apply it to themselves Repentance Love c. are Concomitants with Faith And they who think we are justified by Works as they think its God's applying Christ's Righteousness to us and not our applying it to our selves that is the great justifying Act so they grant God justifieth us as soon as we repent and believe with the heart and suspends not a justified State till Works meet for Repentance or the Effects of Faith are produced yea should a man dy then he would be certainly saved 3. They who say it s by Faith alone acknowledg that justifying Faith will certainly produce good Works and if good Works and persevering Holiness do not follow it was a dead Faith and because dead it never was a justifying Faith however men flatter'd themselves Also that Mens Faith tho not their Persons is justified by their Works yea the most Judicious own that if Sin should reign in Believers and they apostatize they would be condemned tho the Promise of Perseverance make that impossible and therefore persevering Holiness and good Works so far continue their justification as they prevent what would bring them into Condemnation and Faith is the Condition of the Continuation of Justification See Dr. Owen of Iustification p. 207 208 306. On the other hand they who say we are justified by Works do account Works to be no more but the executing the foederal consenting Act of Faith and so its Faith exerting it self by various occasions and considering that the Believer's not only forgiving his Enemies but his persevering in Faith and Holiness are plain Conditions in many Promises made thereto and God pronounceth to Believers that he will have no pleasure in any Man who drawerh back and he shall die if Sin reigneth in him Heb. 10. 38. Rom. 8. 13. Mat. 6. 14 15. They conceive that by Perseverance in Faith and true Holiness they are kept from being chargeable with final and total Apostacy and from Obnoxiousness to the Evils denounced by the Gospel against Apostates as such and are adjudged to be under the Influence and Safeguard of the Promises made to Believers as persevering nevertheless they abhor a thought that Perseverance in Faith and Holiness or any good Work is any meriting Righteousness or the least Compensation for Sin or entitling Price of the least Benefit nor exclude they the need of multiplied and continued Pardon or make they any Blessing due of Debt but they rely wholly on Christ's Merits for these things as the only procuring Cause tho they are affected and governed by these places of God's Word which are directed to Believers as part of his Rule of Iudgment well knowing that whatever Sentence the said Words pass in this Life God executes in part now and more at Death but at the great Day it will be solemnly pronounced and perfectly executed These respective Concessions duly weighed secure those who say we are justified by Faith alone from the danger of Licentiousness and those who say we are justified by Works also from detracting from the Honour of Christ's Righteousness as having the sole meriting atoning Virtue and Efficacy in Justification and do not only grant Perseverance but think these conditional Promises and Comminations are apt and designed means of it in Subjects capable of moral Government and whose Warfare is unaccomplished However such different Sentiments may appear to others I lay so little stress upon them that I had not thought it worth my labour to have printed a Sheet against any man who confessed the necessity of saving Faith as described in the Gospel to Justification Repentance and Love still accompanying that Faith in the Object on whom God's justifying Act doth terminate and the Uneffectualness of Faith to save any who neglected to perform good Works and to persevere in Faith and Holiness Such as granted but these things I had never wrote against for scrupling the conditional respect of them to the Gospel-Law But Dr. Crisp's Notions I apprehended dangerous and they so greatly prevailing my Brethren thought my confuting them necessary at that time whereas I had no purpose when I wrote against Dr. Crisp to intermeddle with these other points but some Congregational Brethren in their Attempts against my Book did from a very few occasional Expressions therein accuse us of Socinianism Arminianism and Popery and that they might have some pretence to fix that Charge they turned the Controversy into these lesser Matters whereby I was necessitated either to insist on them however against my Will or else abide under the foresaid severe Imputation to the prejudice not only of my own Ministry but also of most of my Brethren CHAP. VIII An Attempt to accommodate the difference between such as say Christ's Righteousness is imputed only as to Effects and not in se and those of us who think it is imputed in se. FOreseeing an Objection that will be improved against a peaceable Forbearance towards a number however small and that Rigidness may include in that number whomever the Objectors shall disaffect it 's of use to state it Object Granting the forementioned Points to be reduced below a Cause of Dissention yet the Difference cannot be compromised between such as say the Righteousness of Christ is imputed in se for Justification and them who say it is not imputed in se but quoad effectus Answ. I think it may be accommodated at least so far as to cut off just Pretences for hereticating and dividing from each other To which end I will consider these several Opinions and then reduce the difference First Among them who say Christ's Righteousness is imputed in se there be two Opinions most noted and whereto all others are reducible Of both these I have already treated so much that little more is needful 1. Some think the Elect are judicially according to the Law of Works accounted to have done and suffered in Christ all the Law demanded both as the Punishment of Sin and the Merit of eternal Life Such must hold that Christ's Death and Obedience are the formal Righteousness of the Elect and the formal Cause of Justification and that from the first moment of their personal Subsistence yea and except making Christ to be their Representative without any Gift of that Righteousness it being imputed not of Grace but of Legal Iustice as Adam's Obedience had been if he had finally obeyed and his Offence now is upon his sinning There are others who are for this judicial reckoning Sinners to obey and suffer in Christ but they hold they are not adjudged to have done this till they are Believers and then they are legally just before God and as such entitled to eternal Life These speak more safely but less consistently they limit the time from a Conviction that the
Libertinism in Practice 3. As it hinders a well-grounded Assurance and encourageth Presumption 4. As it reproacheth Christ our blessed Redeemer Against each of which our Brethren bear their Testimony 1. The hurtful Antinomian Errors which render the Ministry unapt to its proper Ends are 1. Unduly limiting the Offers of Salvation and decrying Arguments to excite Sinners to use their Endeavours under the Assistance of Gospel Means and common Grace Against this see Error 10. and from p. 41 to 47. 2. Forbidding and branding as legal the preaching of Duties and Threatnings and the applying of promised Benefits as Motives to Faith and other Duties whereto those Benefits are promised Against which see Error 9. and p. 36 39. Error 6. and p. 25 26 45. 3. Denying that the Elect whilst unconverted are under the Curse of the Law and affirming they are united to Christ and justified before God and pardoned whilst impenitent Infidels Against which see Errors 1 2 11. and p. 12 to 18. and 47 58. 2. The hurtful Antinomian Errors tending to Libertinism in Practice besides the Impediments to a Sinner's Conviction and Conversion under the fore-mentioned Head of the Ministry are such as these 1. That God seeth no Sin in his People accounts them not their Sins but Christ's and is not displeased with his People nor afflicts them for their Sins Against which see Error 3. and p. 19. 2. That Repentance is not necessary to Forgiveness nor are Believers to mourn for Sin or to beg Pardon nor to confess it unless it be to shew for Christ's Glory how many the Sins are which are become his Against which see Error 4. and p. 19 20 21 47 58. 3. That their Sins can do Believers no hurt Against this see Error 5. p. 22 23. 4. That we ought not to intend our own Benefits by our Duties neither are bound to perform Duties unless excited thereto by the Spirit nor are any Acts of our Obedience rewardable and that continued Repentance and Holiness are not by the Constitution of the Gospel necessary to our being possessed of Eternal Life Against this see Errors 6 10 11. and p. 25 26 27 47 58 59. 5. That justifying Faith is a Perswasion that Christ is mine and that my Sins are pardoned in Christ. Against this see Error 8. and p. 30 31. 3. The hurtful Antinomian Error which hinders a well-grounded Assurance and Peace and also encourages Presumption is that besides the last description of Faith we are not to try our State by marks and signs of Sanctification Against this see Error 8. and p. 32 33 34. 4. The hurtful Antinomian Errors reproachful to Christ our Redeemer are such as these that Christ is as sinful as we and we are as righteous as Christ. Against which see Error 11. p. 48 57. If the Reader consult these places and compare them with our State of Truth and Error in the first Chapter he cannot but rejoice in our Brethrens Agreement with us in a Testimony against Antinomianism CHAP. V. SOCINIAN Errors concerning Christ's Satisfaction Also LIMBORG's with some other ARMINIANS concerning Christ's Satisfaction SOCINIAN Errors as to Justification LIMBORG's with some other Arminian Errors about Justification With a state of Truths opposite to each of these as also to Popish Errors FInding our Brethren suggest in the Preface to this Declaration that after all we have said in Cap. 1 and 2. yet still we ought to do more to discharge our selves from hurtful Errors about Christ's Satisfaction and our Iustification we shall to promote Peace renounce several more Errors about those two Doctrines wherein we are suspected and tell them what we think to be Truths Error 1. Punitive Justice against Sin is no Property of God but only an Effect of his Will and therefore there was no need of any Satisfaction to be made by Christ for Sin nor is it less than ridiculous to say God was at once just as well as merciful in bringing about our Salvation by Christ Socin opera Theol. Tom. 1. Praelect cap. 16. Tom. 2. de Servator par 1. cap. 1. Prael cap. 16. Wolzog. in Mat. 19. 28. Crel Resp. ad Grot. cap. 1. Truth God is essentially just and so zealous for the Honour of his Law when enacted and his Government that Sin must not go unpunished and therefore if Sinners be saved from the Punishments threatned by the violated Law for Christ their Mediator's sake it was necessary that he made Satisfaction to Punitive Justice by enduring the Penal Effects of God's Wrath. Error 2. Jesus Christ is not the true eternal most High God of the same Substance Authority and Power with the Father Socin Tom. 2. Respons ad Iac. Vujeki cap. 1 c. Truth Jesus Christ is the true eternal most High God of the same Substance Authority and Power with the Father and in time assumed the Human Nature and remaineth God-Man for ever more Note This Article is inserted because the Value of Christ's Obedience and Death for Satisfaction and Merit was deprived from the Dignity of Christ's Person as God And therefore tho the Socinians faintly argue that if Christ were the eternal God it would not render his Death a Satisfaction yet it 's evident their great Concern in denying Christ's Satisfaction is to prevent the unanswerable Argument this would be for his Deity The like is also to be seen by their Notion of the Lord's-Supper Error 3. Christ did not by his Blood acquire or purchase the Gospel-Covenant nor was his Death an impulsive Cause of God's promising to Men the Blessings of that Covenant nor did it move him to make such Promises But Christ was only the Mediator that is Sponsor of it who assured Men that God would accomplish it and who in God's Name and by his Command performed such things as belonged to the confirming and executing of the said Covenant Socin Tom. 2. 168 199. Crell Vol. 1. p. 612. and Vol. 3. Resp. ad Grot. p. 19 128 171. Vol. 1. 612. Truth Christ did not only confirm the Gospel-Covenant to Men and do such things as belonged to the execution of the Gospel Promises but God as Governor made those Promises in consideration of the Death of Christ as what vindicated the Glory of his Government in offering and promising such Blessings to condemned Sinners altho as our absolute Lord and Proprietor he freely purposed within himself that those Blessings should be granted in what method he judged fit Error 4. Christ was for no other cause a Mediator nor so call'd but that he was appointed by God a middle Person between himself and Men not that he should appease God towards Men but that he should declare God already pacified to them and most evidently confirm the same by himself And as for Men who were Haters of and Enemies to God them he was to reconcile to God i. e. convert and be our eternal Lawgiver and faithful Interpreter of the Divine Will to them by whom they might
the Righteousenss of Christ and only that It 's another matter whom our Judg in his justifying Act accounts and adjudgeth in conformity to the Gospel-Offer to be the Persons who he therein promised should be actually reconciled pardoned and entitled to Glory in the alone meriting virtue of what appeased his Anger made amends for Sin and was the Price of Glory Now this Person is the penitent Believer and he is accounted to be such from his having Gospel-Faith in Christ with true Repentance and as such is adjudged to be under the Favour of the foresaid Gospel Promise of Reconciliation Pardon and Glory yet procured and merited not by his Faith but by Christ's alone Righteousness as before accounted for and obtained in his Right who as well had these promised to him for Believers in the Covenant of Redemption as they are promised by God in Christ in the Gospel to Believers themselves for a personal Title to possess them and to plead the Merits of Christ for the enjoyment of them Having testified our Concord with our Brethren and and added this further account of what we esteem Truth and Error in the Doctrines of Satisfaction and Justification we must express our Thankfulness to God that our Brethren in the foresaid Declaration have testified against ignorant and scandalous Persons intruding themselves into the Ministry And tho the Vindication of our selves in this matter be needless when our Principles and Practice are so well known and it 's so notorious that of the great number of unqualified Men who are of late turned Preachers those very few who broke out of any of our Congregations in this City receiv'd no Approbation or Countenance from us and to avoid Restraint and Discouragement they renounced the Name of Presbyterians yea preach'd against us yet to support what we can this present Testimony of our Congregational Brethren we 'll publish one of the Articles agreed to by all of us for strengthening our Vnion after our said Brethrens Recess which is as follows 6. That no Ministers of the Union shall admit or consent that any Person shall preach in their Congregations unless they have been solemnly admitted to the Ministry by Ordination or approved by some of the United Brethren or produce a Testimony that they have been under proper and preparatory Studies to qualify them for that sacred Function CHAP. VI. Some further Examination what is Socinianism as to the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction and what is not so with a brief account of several Phrases used by Socinians and by the Orthodox in a very contrary sense A Strict Observation in how uncertain a sense Terms and Phrases are made use of must convince one that Errors may be easily concealed from the Ignorant and the Orthodox as easily impeached without ground by sagacious Persons who design imposing on the Vulgar I shall give an instance in the Controversy before me which makes it evident that Mens Explications and main Hypothesis must be regarded above words otherwise their sense will be mistaken 1. I find the Socinians admit and make use of the words which some Orthodox Divines esteemed most distinguishingly expressive of their own sense as Commutation of Persons as well as things for Persons Substitution and Surrogation of Christ's Person in our room Dying in our stead Christ was an Expiatory Sacrifice His Sufferings were Punishments Our Sins were an impulsive Cause of Christ's Death God was moved by Christ's Death to give us Forgiveness Yea it was a Satisfaction Christ was made a Sinner yea the chief Sinner And many more such I could mention But this evidenceth that these very Phrases are capable of a very ill sense as well as a good one Ruarus admits Christ did in a sense impetrate our Pardon by his Death Epist. 64. So doth Crellius Resp. ad Got. cap. 9. part 3. 2. The last Chapter gave us such a Summary of their Assertions as demonstrates they use these Expressions in no good sense but if you consult the places last cited and in Chap. 5. you 'll find them wrested to consist with the fore-mentioned Errors but because it will be tedious to particularize I shall enumerate the Causes and Ends they plainly and truly ascribe the Death of Christ to 1. They assign Christ's Death to God's meer Dominion over him as his entire Creature whom he would reward for it tho not as merited 2. It was an Example of Patience 3. It was a Preparation of his Sacrifice to be offered to God in Heaven for our Sins 4. It shew'd how much he desired our Salvation tho such great Sinners and how faithful he would be in expiating our Sins in Heaven when he endured such dreadful things for our sakes which God would have chiefly considered in our High-Priest 5. His Death impressed a tender Affection and Pity towards us that so he would succour us who were to be so extreamly afflicted God would not have put Mankind in his hands unless he first suffered Death for Sinners And that God might render us more assured that if we obeyed we should have eternal Life Christ should be so fashioned that in a sense it should appear Christ had more Tenderness for us than God himself or otherwise it had been as to us alike that God had saved us immediately as to have saved us by Christ. Or 6. To establish the new Covenant and Promises 7. To confirm his Doctrine 8. To come pursuant to God's Decree to be crowned with Glory and Honour and invested with Authority and Power to convert protect forgive and give us eternal Life 9. That there might be greater Rewards promised to induce us to repent than there were before 10. To take away those greater Sins which the legal Sacrifices were not appointed for 11. Beget in us a firm hope of Life tho we should die as terrible a Death 12. That we might not fear Death or the Curse which we see conquered by him 13. That we might be induced to leave our Sin when he died that we might be reclaimed from it by such hope of Pardon upon leaving of it 14. To make known how highly kind and pacified God was to us I pass by a compliance with Pagan Customs 3. As they limit Christ's Death in this manner exclusively of and in opposition to other Causes and Ends which the proper Satisfaction of Christ more directly supposeth as you see in the fifth Chapter So I could easily shew how they dilute their own seeming Concessions as well as reduce plain Scripture-Expressions to that Insignificancy that no Man can hope by their method to apprehend any kind of words with certainty as to their meaning one while an as if a quasi is all they intend by their large Grants as if a redeeming Price c. God is as it were moved and as it were obliged by Christ to pardon us another while all is figurative