in and by Christ redeemed our selves or are in and by him our own Redeemers it behoves him to consider how he can avoid the just imputation of that thwacking contradiction which upon his swopping mistake he insinuates his adversaries in this point to be guilty of And it concerns him also to consider how his Hypothesis can be maintained without admitting that injustice which he mentions in the Rector who notwithanding his allowance of the said substitution doth deny instantly to confer upon us the benefits of Christs redemption and satisfaction these being no other than what we our selves have in and by Christ made a full satisfaction for and which upon that account we may fitly and properly be said to have purchased for our selves 3. Whatsoever bad consequences there be of Christs being our surrogate and substitute in such a strict Law-sence as he doth fancy to himself there is no such repugnancy or contradiction as here he speaks of that doth follow from what we do assert in this matter viz. That Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us that he died for our sins as a ransom sacrifice atonement or propitiation and forasmuch as he suffered for our sakes and in our stead i. e. such suffering as was equivalent to what we deserved and such as was fit to attain the ends designed by our Creator and Redeemer better than the damnation of all mankind could have done we do not deny but that our sins may be said to be imputed to Christ and his sufferings to us but neither of them properly and in their essential nature not our sin it self to him or his sufferings themselves to us but both of them in their effects our sin to him in its penal and his sufferings to us in its saving effects And this as we do so we may very well and warrantably maintain notwithstanding it be yielded as the truth is That Christ was substituted or given of God to make satisfaction to the demands of the Law and not of the Gospel in the sence here specified by this Author CHAP. VIII Mr. Ferguson's mistake in thinking that a sinner by his justification is freed from the guilt of punishment and fault too That Christs righteousness is not more or otherwise imputed to us for in towards or in order to our justification than the remission of our sin The nature of justification forensick opened both of justification indefinitely considered as also of Gospel-justification in special The truth of the matter laid down in several Propositions HItherto I have related the arguings of this Author word for word as I find them continued together from p. 409. to p. 412. and accordingly the Reader may if he please take view of them all as contiguous But forasmuch as I judg'd it most conducive to the conviction of gain-sayers and to the edification of all to shape my reply thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 period by period I have therefore accordingly recited them and suited my reply to every distinct period in those pages As for his ensuing arguings in the same Chapter to the close thereof I cannot in such sort recite them verbatim without the transcribing of seven or eight whole pages from p. 413. to p. 421. nor will it be at all necessary so to do it being fully satisfactory to demonstrate that his arguings do proceed upon his utter mistake of the true nature of Gospel-justification or that peculiar kind of justification whereof a sinner is the subject or subjective matter and for the manifestation thereof be it considered That he premiseth these two things p. 413 414. 1. That to justifie is in its proper acceptation here a forensick term signifying to acquit and absolve one that is accused 2. That justification not only supposeth us to be indited but withal imports an absolution from the charge of that Law of the breach whereof we are accused viz. The Law of perfect obedience which is not abrogated by the Law of faith but doth remain in force and we being all guilty of the violation of its terms there lyes accordingly a charge against us from which by justification we are as he says to be acquitted Now yielding to the former of the two premisses which he proves by several Scriptures apt to the purpose I reply to the latter That there being a two-fold guilt which the Law of God being violated may be supposed to accuse us of or charge us with the ignorance or non-observance of which distinction is the cause of great confusion and misunderstanding in the doctrine of justification viz. guilt of fault and guilt of punishment i. e. actual obligation to punishment it is the great mistake of this Author as of many other of our Brethren to think that by justification we are freed or acquitted from both the said kinds of guilt or as some do imagine that by pardon of sin we are freed from the latter kind of guilt and by justification with the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to us from the former Whereas the truth is That the righteousness of Christ is no more nor otherwise imputed to or for the justification of a sinner than it is to or for the non-imputation i. e. the pardon of his sins and that there is no possibility for a sinner by any plea whatsoever to be justified or acquitted from the former kind of guilt I have already manifested and shall farther manifest according to occasion in the sequel of this Treatise In the mean time I will speak somewhat more at large for the due understanding of the nature of justification both as indefinitely considered and specially as the subject thereof is a sinner And in order thereunto I will lay down the following Propositions 1. Justification as indefinitely taken Propos 1. or as abstracted from the consideration of the special quality of the person justified is the absolution of a person suppos'd to be accused from the guilt that he is charged with and according to the quality of the person accused guilty or not guilty such is the nature of his justification If innocent he is justified à reatu culpae from guilt of fault or from having deserved any punishment through any fault he is charged with In this sence the word is taken in many Scriptures as in Deut. 25.1 Esa 5.23 And so I conceive the word is taken in 1 Cor. 4.4 Only it is to be understood that St. Paul there speaks of that kind of justification which is commonly styled Justificatio causae not personae his meaning being not that he was conscious to himself of no sin at all but not of insincerity or unfaithfulness in his stewardship or Ministerial office in which respect he was able to justifie himself although that was a thing comparatively not so material forasmuch as he must stand to the final sentence of God the Judge of all 2. If the person accused be guilty or culpable Propos 2. his justification is of another kind or nature
legal Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us by or through faith I answer 1. It is not at all imputed to us in the sence of this Author i. e. properly and in its essential nature but only in the saving effects thereof as I have already I hope convincingly demonstrated 2. Nevertheless I grant that in subordination to the Righteousness of Christ faith is a Medium or means of a sinners justification though it is another kind of Medium than is Christs Righteousness to which it is subordinate in the justifying of a sinner Christs Righteousness being such a Medium as hath the nature or efficiency of a meritorious cause but our faith having only the nature of a condition simply so called I have thought meet to intimate this for these two reasons 1. To prevent the mis-understanding of what I said in the foregoing Chapter wherein was said that Gospel-pardon was ex Christi satisfactione and ex peccatoris fide which must not be so understood as if the word ex did imply the self same importance in both places For the truth is that as the particle ex is of different importance it importing sometimes one kind of cause and sometimes another and sometimes no cause at all but an antecedent condition and the same I may say of the particles in English Greek and Hebrew corresponding to the Latine particle ex so in the former application of the particle it doth imply efficiency or an efficient meritorious cause but in the latter only an antecedent or a condition sine quâ non 2. To prevent the mis-construction of the word faith in many places of Scripture where by faith many do understand only its object Christ or his Righteousness whereas as faith and Christs Righteousness are two things of distinct consideration so by faith in such sayings as these We are justified By faith and saved By faith we are to understand not only the object thereof as implyed Christ or his Righteousness but also the act believing or the thing it self faith Lastly I answer That forasmuch as God is graciously pleased in his Gospel to appoint and to declare his acceptance of faith as the condition of a sinners justification through or for the sake of Christs Righteousness therefore I answer as before That a sinners justification is to be denominated rather Evangelical than Legal I shall now return to Mr. Ferguson and reply to certain other passages which I find here and there dispersed in his Book as grounds for the Imputation of Christs Righteousness to us in the sence by him contended for CHAP. XV. Several mistakes in Mr. F. according to the obvious construction of his words detected That Christ suffered not the Idem but the Tantundem manifested by three things distinctly specified and two evil consequences of the contrary Doctrine With a Caution in the close P. 536. MAN having taken off his dependency upon God Mr. F3 by transgressing the Law of Creation Gods Rectorship over him which is regulated by his wisdom holiness veracity and the eternal rectitude and righteousness of his nature would not allow that he should be received into favour but in such a way and by such means as may secure the ends of government manifest the displicency that is in God to sin evidence his truth and immutability in proceeding according to the penal Law which in pursuance of his own Attributes and mans rational nature and relation he had at first enacted Answ I assent to the whole of what is here recited except this That God did for the ends specified proceed according to the penal Law which at first was enacted in which saying there is a complication of mistakes involved for 1. That Law was only dispenced and not executed neither upon Christ nor upon mankind not upon Christ for Christ was not at all threatned in that Law neither did he die the death by vertue of that Law however by occasion of it as hath been already said Nor was that Law executed upon all mankind supposing and taking it for granted that by the death there threatned is meant eternal as well as temporal death 2. A mistake of the nature of that obligation which a divine commination doth induce seems to be implyed in the said words of this Author for Comminatio est obligatio Legem violantis ad poenam ferendam The threatnings of God do induce only an obligation upon transgressors to suffer the punishment threatned but not any necessary obligation upon God to inflict it non Legem ferentis ad inferendam that commination did signifie what man was bound to suffer not what God was bound to do Upon disobedience man was bound to suffer but God was not thereupon bound to inflict punishment otherwise supream Law-givers could have no power to pardon and therefore there is no necessity that the punishment threatned should be executed and it is an error to assert or imagine any such necessity The only inevitable effect of that threatning was That upon mans sin punishment should be his due and so it was man being bound to punishment Ipsofacto upon his offence committed And herein is the difference betwixt a Commination and a Denunciation of punishment this being an act of judgment or sentence or else a prediction of a decree to punish whereupon the punishment denounced is always inflicted 3. There seems also to be this mistake a mistake of very evil consequence implyed in the clause fore-cited viz. That Christ suffered the Idem not the Tantundem the same suffering to which that Commination did oblige and that a sinners liberation from the punishment to which he was obliged was by the way of strict payment not satisfaction or compensation 4. There seems also to be this mistake implyed in the said clause viz. That the ends of Gods soveraign rule and government could not be secured by a Compensation or without strict solution or payment of that very debt of punishment which was by the sin of man contracted And if I were sure that this Author would own this opinion for God forbid that I should causlesly fasten any thing upon him or any of my Brethren viz. That the sufferings of Christ were Ipsa debiti solutio and not Pro debito satisfactio Christs sufferings were not the very payment of our debt in kind but a valuable satisfaction to divine justice for our not payment of it or for Gods not exacting of us the payment thereof I would more at large suggest somewhat of my own and endeavour to improve what hath been so far as my knowledge reacheth said by others against it Nevertheless because there are of my Brethren who do maintain that Christ suffered the very Idem which was in a sinners obligation and not the Tantundem at least that it is not much material whether we say the one or the other I will for their satisfaction do these two things 1. I will briefly set down the substance of what is commonly and
eternal The premisses considered I infer these three or four Conclusions 1. That upon the removal of eternal evil from a person who is pardoned eternal good is immediately introduced by Gods order and appointment 2. That to grant as the Objector here doth that forgiveness of sin doth remove the eternal evil is to yield the cause and to acknowledg that by Gods order and appointment forgiveness of sin doth introduce eternal good or a title to eternal life 3. That if we do suppose a sinner pardoned to be only freed from hell and then annihilated we do even then therein and thereby suppose him not pardoned according to the tenor of the Gospel or with such a plenary pardon as the Gospel promiseth and consequently that to argue after such a rate as is here argued is to forsake or to depart from the subject of the Question a thing much unbeseeming a close Disputant such as this Author was by many accounted 4. That it is a groundless imagination to think as too too many do who having first unnecessarily distinguished of Christs obedience into active and passive do sort them to several distinct purposes dogmatizing thereupon That Christ by his passive obedience hath freed us from the guilt of eternal death and by his active obedience hath procured us a title to eternal life and That by forgiveness of sin we have freedom from the one and by Justification by Christs Righteousness we have title to the other As particularly Dr. Owen speaks in his Book of Communion with God And because it is much to be desired that Christians would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the Apostles prayer for the Philippians Ch. 1.10 first try and then approve or disapprove according to the different nature of things my purpose is in certain Chapters of this Treatise to expose to an impartial examination what that Author hath dictated concerning this matter In the mean while I shall offer two things to consideration 1. Mr. Baxter says in those sheets which he wrote in reference to Mr. Edw. Fowler 's Book styled The design of Christianity We believe says he p. 17. That Christs habitual perfection with his Active Righteousness and his sacrifice or sufferings all set together and advanced in value by their conjunction with his Divine Righteousness were the true meritorious procuring cause of our pardon justification sanctification and salvation Not one part imputed to this effect and another to that but all thus making up one meritorious cause of all these effects even of the Covenant and all its benefits He adds saying and which is the main truth which I do by this whole Treatise contend for And thus Christs Righteousness is imputed and given to us not immediately in it self but in the effects and fruits As a ransom is said to be given to a Captive because it is given For him though strictly the ransom is given to another and only the fruits of it to him This I take to be the Catholick Faith in the Article before us 2. Be it considered That there is no Medium betwixt Life and Death no middle condition rationally imaginable betwixt these two Hereupon we may certainly conclude That he who by the forgiveness of his sins is freed from eternal death cannot otherwise but be conceived to have a right to life eternal I proceed to answer certain other Arguments objected from the Scriptures Object The Apostle having said Acts 13.38 39. that through Christ was preached to them the forgiveness of sins he adds as a further priviledg or benefit saying And by him all that believe are justified This is objected if I do not mis-remember in the said Book styled Communion with God Answ 1. The words being translated out of the original run thus Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that by this man forgiveness of sins is preached unto you and from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses this is the entire v. 38. in the Greek and then it follows v. 39. By him every believing man is justified The words being thus rendred and an Emphasis laid upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is oft-times in Scripture as much as even do clearly make the same thing to be meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do clearly I say make justification and remission of sin to be the same thing or of the self same adequate importance that implying no more priviledg or benefit than this 2. Read the words as we find them translated and it is sufficiently clear that the words justification and remission are but varied phrases of one and the same thing it being the manner of Scripture frequently to express the self same thing by varied words and phrases 3. The said Scripture being alledged usually for the proving that justification doth denote a further priviledg than forgiveness of sin especially the Imputation of Christs active obedience must for that purpose thus be paraphrased Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe have Christs active obedience imputed to them from all things from which you could not have Christs active obedience imputed to you by the Law of Moses Hereupon let any Reader judg whether this Scripture makes for the purpose for which it is alledged whether by Dr. Owen or any other of the adverse Brethren in this controversie Some other Objections there are but they are so weak that no impartial or unprejudicate person will I am most assured be swayed by them and therefore having answered the most considerable I shall let pass the rest I shall now propound another Question Quest Are not believing sinners restored by Christ unto a greater degree of felicity than Adam did lose or forfeit by his sin and are not Believers entitled to this greater degree of glory by their justification through the Imputation of Christs Righteousness to them and not upon the meer score of the forgiveness of their sins Answ In answer hereunto I will set down in the first place what the opinion of others is in this matter and then speak my own sence 1. There be many who as they judg that Believers are restored to a greater degree of felicity in this life than Adam did enjoy in Paradise so also that they shall enjoy through the Imputation of Christs Righteousness a greater degree of heavenly glory than Adam should have enjoyed upon his continuance in a state of innocency But there are others who think that both of them are justly questionable and scarce proveable by the Scriptures especially the latter 2. There be others asserting That there is in the merits of Christ not only Plenitudo sufficientiae but also redundantiae or that his satisfaction was super-satisfactory not only Legalis justitiae but also Super-legalis meriti as are the expressions of the very learned Dr. Reynolds Bishop of Norwich in some of his Sermons if I
these words To appoint to them that mourn in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness So that by the whole of that expression we can understand no more than the great goodness and bounty of God let the particulars in the retail thereof whether in temporals or spirituals or in both be what they will promised or manifested to his Church and manifested by them in a suitable manner of open and solemn rejoycing for them Quest May it not be truly said in some sence that Believers are clothed with Christs Righteousness Answ Yes Yet more fully be it known that as it may be truly and falsly said that Christs Righteousness is imputed to us according to the different sences of the word Righteousness mentioned in the third Chapter so it is both true and false to say That we are clothed with the Righteousness of Christ e. g. Christs Righteousness being taken properly in its essential nature it is notoriously false to say that we are clothed therewith For so taken it is Christs own clothing and not ours he is glorious in this apparrel and he will not give this his glory to another and as Saul's Armour would not fit David so neither will Christs Righteousness taken in this sence suit with any other but himself who was God and man in one person As it is a point of disloyalty in a vassal to put on the Ensigns of Majesty upon himself The Crown Royal upon his head so it is a disloyal thought a most unbecoming thing for a wretched sinner to imagine himself vested with the Royal Robe of Christs Righteousness the only begotten Son of God But as the word Righteousness is taken improperly Effectivè for the fruits and effects of it so it is true to say That we are clothed with his Righteousness i. e. we are clothed our spiritual nakedness is covered we are arrayed with a garment or garments procured or purchased with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ So that if the Question were thus formed May Christs Righteousness be truly said to be a sinners clothing It must be answered That this Proposition Christs Righteousness is a sinners clothing is true Praedicatione causali but not Essentiali or formali i. e. it it self or in it self is not our clothing nor are we vested in or with it but with the fruits of it it being the meritorious cause that hath procured all necessary clothing for the covering of our nakedness for our comfortable appearance before God and our gracious acceptance with him which clothing may summarily be refer'd I think to these two heads viz. Justification and Sanctification both which may be said to be our clothing Nevertheless I do judg it to be more fitly and intelligibly said That our sins are covered with a pardon rather than with Christs Righteousness the one being verified in an immediate sence the other in a sence more remote both in it self and from common understanding But it must ever be remembred that the pardon which covers our sins is a blessing purchased by the Righteousness of Christ and for that reason in such a sence as a ransomed Captive or bought Servant is said to be his Masters or Redeemers money because he was bought with their money in a like sence may the clothing wherewith we are clothed be said to be the Robe of Christs Righteousness because Christs Righteousness was the price wherewith that our clothing whatsoever it be be it sanctification or justification grace or glory for even with this Believers are said to be clothed upon 2 Cor. 5.2 4. was dearly bought or purchased And in this sence the price or hire it self which is given for an House is used to signifie the House wherewith it was hired as appears by Act. 28.30 where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth properly signifie the hire of a thing be it of an House or ought else and which was given by St. Paul or some other in his behalf is styled His own hired House CHAP. XXXI Dr. Owen's mistake in thinking That when all sin is answered for all the Righteousness which God requireth for that time is not fulfilled the contrary whereunto is proved Several other of his mistakes discovered and his mis-interpretations of several Scriptures FOrasmuch as there are several passages in Dr. Owen's Book of Communion with God wherein the contrary is asserted to what hath been maintained in the foregoing Chapters he asserting That over and above the taking away the guilt of sin it is necessary in order to our being saved that we should be actually righteous and for that purpose that the Righteousness of Christ should be imputed to us I shall therefore think it not amiss to recite the chief of those passages and to reply thereunto which shall be the subject of three or four of the ensuing Chapters The Doctor having told us That Christ satisfies for sin and procures the remission of it p. 116. he proceeds to say in the following page There is something more required it is not enough we are not guilty We must also be actually righteous Not only all sin must be answered for but all righteousness is to be fulfilled By taking away the guilt of sin we are as persons innocent but something more is required to make us to be considered as persons obedient I know nothing to teach me that an innocent person shall go to heaven be rewarded if he be no more but so Adam was innocent at his first creation but he was to do this to keep the Commandments before he entred into life he had no title to life by innocency This then moreover is required that th◠whole Law be fulfilled and all the obedience performed that God requires at our hands This is the souls second enquiry and it finds a resolution only in the Lord Christ For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life his death reconciled us then are we saved by his life The actual obedience which he yielded to the whole Law of God is that Righteousness whereby we are saved If so be we are found in him not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but the Righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 This I shall have occasion to handle more at large hereafter Answ Somewhat to this purpose being alledged by other Authors hath been already answered in Chap. 23. Nevertheless I shall here make reply to every dictinct passage in the words recited 1. When all sin is answered for all the righteousness which God requireth for that time is fulfilled For the Law is fulfill'd two ways viz. Either by performance of perfect obedience to it or by suffering sufficient punishment for the breach of it Either of these is a satisfaction to the justice of God Now Gods Law doth not bind to both these Copulativè i. e. it
Righteousness shall not be theirs Where by the way observe the unjustifiableness of those Antinomian sayings of the Doctor p. 118. That Christ himself is the Righteousness that he requires at our hands And p. 166. It will one day appear that God abhors the janglings of men about the place of their own works and obedience in the business of their acceptation with God To these sayings I reply 1. Christ himself is our Righteousness in such a sence as he is said to be our Life i. e. not in a formal but in a causal sence the predication in such Propositions not being Formalis or Essentialis but Causalis as is the manner of Logicians to express such matters 2. As it is not truly said in a literal but only in a tropical sence that Christ himself is our Righteousness so it is not true in any sence I know to say That Christ himself is the Righteousness which he requires at our hands neither do I remember any such saying in Scripture but rather that Christs Righteousness or Obedience How many disputes have been managed says Dr. O. p. 166 167. how many distinctions invented how many shifts and evasions studied to keep up something in some place or other to some purpose or other that men may dally withal Hereby it appears that the Doctor will not suffer evangelical obedience to have any manner of place one or another in order to our acceptance with God was a thing required at his hands and not at ours 3. As Christs Righteousness was a thing required at his hands so it is apparent by the Scriptures that there is a personal evangelical Righteousness required at our hands in order to our acceptation with God by through or for the Righteousness sake of Christ and without which evangelical Righteousness the unrighteous shall not be accepted with God Mat. 5.20 and 25. last 1 Cor. 6.9 4. It will one day appear how God abhors the vain janglings that I may not say also the juglings of men who not perceiving or acknowledging the consistency or subordination of our own personal Righteousness to Christs in the business of our acceptation with God would thrust either of them out of their proper place i. e. either Christs Righteousness out of the place or office of the alone meritorious cause or our own evangelical Righteousness i. e. our return to God by faith and repentance from the office or place of a condition of our acceptation What God said to Cain Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted the same in effect doth God in his Gospel say to every sinner If thou dost well i. e. If thou dost believe in Christ if thou dost repent and convert thou shalt be accepted through Christ if otherwise sin lies at the door and will obstruct thy acceptation with God Again Observe from the premisses the unreasonableness of that other saying of the Doctor p. 219. where having quoted 1 Cor. 1.30 he says Not that Christ is this or that part of our Acceptation with God but he is all he is the whole To this I answer as the very truth is 1. Although Christ be the whole and sole meritorious cause of our acceptation with God yet he is not the whole nor any the least part of our acceptation it self For Christ being altogether a cause extrinsecal to our acceptation with God he cannot possibly be any part of or ingredient into the thing it self For this were to make Christ to be a cause intrinsecal to it and consequently either the formal or material cause thereof for these only are Causae or Partes Constitutivae which do Ingredi naturam rei neither of which he can be said to be but the meritorious cause 2. As was afore said so I say again That in order to our acceptation with God both Christ hath his part and we have our part to act both of them being severally and joyntly assigned us of God So that if by the whole of our acceptation with God the Doctor doth mean that Christ and his Righteousness is all that God requires in order to our acceptation with him his saying is to be rejected as false and a branch of Antinomian doctrine 2. I desire that the foresaid distinction may the rather be observed because it may serve to discover the maleyolence or in-sincerity or at least to speak most favourably and with the utmost of charity the ignorance of those who say That the dispute here is Whether we are justified before the Just and Holy God by our own righteousness or by the Righteousness of a Mediator These are the very words of the Author of the late Book styled ‖ In the last Page of the Preface to his Book Anti-Sozzo who should either have had more wit to know or more grace to acknowledg the contrary viz. That the Dispute between Protestant and Protestant is not Whether sinners be justified before God by their own Righteousness or by the Righteousness of Christ our Mediator but whether there be not also an evangelical Righteousness consisting in a return to God by faith and repentance required of every sinner in order to his being justified for the sake of Christs Mediatory Righteousness as the alone meritorious cause thereof And this is that which however some Protestants do dispute and seem to gainsay yet others do not but do professedly maintain among whom I shall instance in the late Assembly of Divines as appears by the Confession of their Faith and Catechism they professing Ch. 15. Sect. 3. of their Confession That although repentance be not to be rested in as a satisfaction for sin or any cause of the pardon thereof which is the act of Gods free grace in Christ nevertheless it is of such necessity to all sinners that none may expect pardon without it And as appears also by the express answer which they do instruct every Catechumen to make unto this Question What doth God require of us that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us by reason of the transgression of the Law the answer put into their mouths being this That we may escape the wrath and curse of God due to us by reason of the transgression of the Law he requireth of us repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and I might also instance in the judgment of our own Church touching the necessity of a personal Righteousness in sinners that so they may be justified before God through the Righteousness of Christ or for his sake absolved from their sins This appears by the tenor of that discharge or absolution which after the general Confession in the Liturgy every Minister is in Gods Name and as his Commissioner to pronounce saying He pardoneth and absolveth all them that do truly repent and wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance and so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy through Jesus Christ our Lord. I do well remember
that or any other consideration of his death die in our stead i. e. strictly and in a Law-sence In personâ nostrâ as if so be God had reckoned his death to be our death or that we had suffered death in and by him or as if our obligation to suffer punishment had been transfer'd upon him 3. Forasmuch as the Doctor doth simply deny that which for my own part I never did but do simply and positively affirm the contrary viz. That the death of Christ was in our stead I may well think it strange that he hath hitherto escaped the charge of Socinianism whereas if my self or any of my Brethren who maintain what I have professedly asserted in this controversie should simply deny That Christs death was in our stead I am much afraid that we should not so escape but that rather our names would be enrolled in that black List But that it may farther appear what a great gulf there is fixed betwixt us and the Socinians I do here profess in my own and I do not know but that I may sincerely make the same profession in the name of all those my Brethren saying After all this Dispute I do freely and plainly confess and acknowledg and this I do without any of Dr. Owen's distinctions That All Christs Mediatory Obedience To Any Law Whatsoever Common To Us Or Peculiar To Himself Especially His Obedience To The Death Of The Cross Was Under All Considerations Both As A Penalty As A Price And As A Sacrifice In Our Stead And Forasmuch As The Dignity Or Value Of All His Obedience Did Depend Upon The Dignity Of His Person He Being Both God And Man I Do Confess That All His Obedience Was In Our Stead That is To Bestead Us And That It Did Bestead Us In The Purchasing Of A Pardon And Life Eternal For Us Upon Terms Expressed In the Gospel Promised To Us And Upon Performance Thereof To Be Confer'd Upon Us And That the Said Obedience Of Christ Both Active and Passive As It Is Usually Stiled Is Imputed To Us Although Not Immediately And In It Self Yet To As Much Purpose And Real Benefit As If It Were Actually Or Could Possibly Be So Imputed that is That It Is Imputed To Us In All Its Saving Fruits And Blessed Effects All That His Foresaid Obedience Making Up One Entire Meritorious Cause Of All The Said Benefits And Blessings Hereupon as God makes his appeal saying And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge I pray you between me and my vineyard what could have been done more than in like sort shall I make my appeal to all saying And now Men Brethren and Fathers judge I pray you betwixt us who do make the said Confession of our faith in this matter and our adversaries who notwithstanding will clamour against us and stigmatize us with that odious name of Socinianism what need we what can we saâ—vâ veritate say more whereby to acquit our selves from all cause or colour of being accused as Socinians Lastly I reply upon occasion of the Doctor 's fore-cited words That forasmuch as he doth acknowledg Christs death to have been in our stead only as it was penal or a punishment it is therefore justly enquirable under what consideration or in what respect his death was not in our stead and by observing what he says concerning the death of Christ p. 188. Comm. it seems to me That he denies it to be in our stead as it was a Price and as it was a Sacrifice and that this may appear to others as well as to my self I will recite his words as followeth The death of Christ is in Scripture proposed under a three-fold consideration Of a Price of a Sacrifice and of a Penalty 1. It is a Price 1 Cor. 6.20 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Tim. 4.6 Now the proper effect and issue of the death of Christ as a price or ransom is Redemption 2. P. 189. It was a Sacrifice also Heb. 10.5 Esa 53.10 Eph. 5.2 Now the end of Sacrifices such as his was bloody and for sin Rom. 4.3 Heb. 2.17 was Atonement and Reconciliation Eph. 5.2 Esa 53.10 Dan. 9.24 Rom. 5.10 3. It was also a Punishment a punishment in our stead Esa 53.5.6.12 1 Pet. 2.34 Now bearing of punishment tends directly to the giving satisfaction to him who was offended and on that account inflicted the punishment His substituting himself in our room being allowed of by the Righteous Judg satisfaction to him doth thence properly ensue To this I reply saying 1. Redemption and Reconciliation are not at all distinct benefits of the death of Christ for they are one and the self same saving benefit they being but distinct or several names given in several respects to one and the same thing And the very truth is That Redemption i. e. redemption from the guilt of sin I mean the word Redemption passively taken and Reconciliation with God even as also forgiveness of sin and justification with many other words which might be named are Synonimous expressions in Scripture importing in effect the self same thing as may appear by the current of the Scriptures many whereof have been already named to which more were it needful may easily be added 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Rom. 5.9 10. and 4.24 25. Gal. 3. 13 14. with v. 8. 2. As Redemption and Reconciliation are one and the same saving benefit of Christs death so much less do they flow from any such nice or distinct consideration as the Doctor affirms i. e. the one from the consideration of Christs death as a Price and the other as a Sacrifice But as they are in effect one saving benefit so they flow from one cause the death of Christ our reconciliation flowing no more or otherwise from the death of Christ as a Sacrifice than as a Price nor doth our redemption more flow from the death of Christ as a Price however it may be thence denominated than from it as a Sacrifice but entirely from the death of Christ as a meritorious cause it being all one in effect to say it follows from it as an expiatory Sacrifice as to say it follows from it as a valuable Price 3. I know no more reason to say That satisfaction is the issue of Christs death considered as a Penalty than as it was a Price or Sacrifice for Christs death was as well a Price satisfactory and a Sacrifice satisfactory as a Punishment satisfactory For the end of paying a Price and the end of Sacrifices was satisfaction of its kind and to say that Christs death was a Propitiatory or Expiatory Sacrifice is all one I ever thought as to say it is a Satisfactory Sacrifice So that I am altogether dissatisfied as to the fountain or rise of the Satisfaction here mentioned by the Doctor God being as well satisfied by the death of Christ under the notion of a Price or Sacrifice as of a Penalty 4. In what sence the death of Christ was or may be said to be a Punishment I have already declared in answer to Mr. F. and it will not be needful here to repeat what hath been there said 5. 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