hast he leaves not his wits behind him but craftily delivers to us Papisticall Doctrine yet not in the Papists words lest he should be espyed and shunned Thus run his words B. Thes 9. It was not the intent either of the Father or Son that by this satisfaction the offenders should be immediately delivered from the whole curse of the Law and freed from the evil which they had brought upon themselves but some part must be executed upon the soul and body and the creatures themselves and remain upon them at the pleasure of Christ Rev. 1. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 26. The phrase and words of this Position are not a little ambiguous lest I should seem to wrest them to an evill when a good sense may be given them I will not so much as descant upon any thing therein with the least paraphrase but take all in his own Explication which thus followeth Explication B. The Questions that are here to be handled for the explication of this Position are these 1 Quest Whether the Redeemed are immediately upon the price paid delivered from any of the Curse of the Law if not from all Quest 2. Whether the sufferings of the Elect before Conversion are in execution of any part of the Curse of the Law 3 Whether the sufferings of Believers are from the Curse of the Law or onely afflictions of love the Curse being taken off by Christ 4 Whether it be not a wrong to the Redeemer that the people whom he hath ransomed are not immediately delivered 5 Whether it be any wrong to the Redeemed themselves 6 How long it will be till all the curse be taken off the beleevers and redemption have attained its full effect I have oft heard that one fool may put more Questions in an hour then a whole University of Divines can answer in an age If it be true what are we to conclude of the Questions of Mr Baxter the mirror of his age for wit and profoundness in learning who sitteth in the Chair alone passing his censure upon all the Divines that are or have been such are ignorant and unstudied such judicious and learned c. his Questions surely will try the braines of men and oh that he were so dexterous in Answering as in Questioning Then to use his own words we would take him for a Divine indeed yea for a Teacher sent from Heaven for no mortal weight upon Earth can answer many things which he questioneth Let us therefore hear himself answering himself B. To the first Question I answer In this case the undertaking of satisfaction had the same immediate effect upon Adam as the satisfaction it selfe upon us or for us To determine what these are were an excellent work it being one of the greatâ—st and noblest Questions in our How proâ—eâ— he that Adam and Eve were then existent when Christ undertook controverted Divinity what are the immediate effects of Christs death He that can rightly answer this is a Divine indeed and by the 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 nor yet existent and so no subject though it might be for them None but Adam and Eve were then existâ—nt yet assoon as we do exist we do receive benefit from it The suspending of the rigorous execution of the sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate effect of Christs death which suspension is some kinde of deliverance from it Of the other effects elswhere A compleat and profound answer who so stupid or way-ward that he resteth not satisfied with it The Question was Whether the redeemed are immediately upon the price paid delivered from any of the curse of the Law if not from all He answers in this case the undertaking of satisfaction had the same immediate effects upon Adam as the satisfaction it self upon us or for us But what were those immediate effects upon Adam He answereth a riddle unriddle what this is what these effects are eris mihi magnus Apollo such a one shall have a Temple built unto him from which to give answer and resolution to all other questions and doubts in Divinity Oracularly And who more deserving of this honour then Mr. Baxter Who more able to unriddle his own Question than himself That he therefore may be taken for the Divine indeed he so resolveth the Question as his own words above declare The benefit which Adam and Eve forthwith received upon Christs undertaking to make satisfaction for them is the most remarkable immediate effect of Christs death whereof the redeemed partake But the suspension of the rigorous execution of the sentence of the Law was the benefit that Adam and Eve upon such undertaking of Christ for them forthwith received Ergo The suspending of the rigorous execution of the sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate effect of Christs death whereof the redeemed partake The Proposition he proveth thus becaus there were none els existent besides Adam and Eve when Christ so undertook therefore the effects of his satisfaction must be upon them or upon none The assumption he takes to be clear by its own light onely he addeth that this suspending was a kind of deliverance If this be not the sum and force of his answer to the Question Capiat qui capere potis est I must plead my self not guilty of understanding him But it is enough evident that this is his meaning Now if I listed to answer his Argument I should tell him that both premisses labour of one and the same fallacy which is in Schools termed Petitio principij an assuming of that as granted which is in Question The validity of both Propositions depending upon these begg'd Principles that Christ first undertook to make satisfaction to God for the sin of Adam and Eve when they were existent and that they were in the number of the redeemed ones as soon as they had sinned for so was the Question whether the redeemed c. are freed from any of the Curse of the Law Now what Mr. Baxter goes about to prove he doth it by the example of Adam and Eve which is in no wise a competent proof unless they be proved first to have been existent when Christ undertook to satisfie and secondly to have been then redeemed For the most observable effects of Christs death pertain to the redeemed not to the world Both propositions then being faulty the Conclusion is not worth a button In charity indeed we do not in any wise question the redemption and salvation of our first parents though the time of their conversion be disputable whether before the curse inflicted But not the judgment of charity but the undeceiving word of God must be made the ground of our Faith Untill therfore he bring some proof of Scripture that Adam and Eve were existent when Christ undertook then also and redeemed in all that he saith he
necessary consequent of Adams disability to overcome deaâ—h and deliver himself which God was not bound to do And whether the loss of Gods image were part of the death threatned or rather the effect of our sin only executed by our selves and not by God whether God did take away his image or man did thrust it away Admirable profoundness and learning but after all this stirr and such egregiously deep speculations as preparatories to the determining of the first question whether Christ did discharge our debt by way of solution or by way of satisfaction how doth he at length determine it Bax. P. 29 30. Much may be said this seemeth that is unlikely one thing probable another possible But for a finall conclusion p. 31. It is hard to conclude peremptorily any thing in so obscure a case And so he leaves us so wise as if he had slept and said nothing But afterwards recalling himself though he can conclude nothing as to the forementioned particular preparatories to the determination of the question yet p. 35. to the substance of it in generall he thus answereth Bax. I canclude then that in regard of the proper penalty Christ did suffer a pain and penalty of the same sort and of equall weight with that threatned but yet because it was not in all respects the same it was rather satisfaction than the payment of the proper debt being such a payment as God might have chosen to accept I list not to quarrel with him about the conclusion it being not a point mainly controverted between us and the Papists Only who sees not that he might as easily have thus concluded without medling with so many frivolous and arrogant questions leaving them where he found them as not giving the least fulture to such a conclusion And when he hath thus determined the question they that lock up to themselves his Conclusion as a treasure shall gaine so much by it as he that rejoyceth of a chip in his pottage Possibly it may do no hurt but certainly it will do no good to salvation But the answer to the second question comes without the help or push of a leaver to heave it after viz. whether the threatning was executed or relaxed and dispensed with B. The answer to this is plain in the Answer to the former p. 35. Both alike for were it worth the scanning we should find both either answered or unanswered and the things searched after no less plain to be seen and taken up than a needle in a bottle of hay And so much M. Baxter seeth for he comes after 1 with his distinction B. In regard of the meer weight of punishment considered as abstracted from person and duration it was executed and to avoid the mistake of the Printer I conceive it should be not relaxed Yet taking the threatning entirely as it was given out and we must say viz. if we say after Mr. Baxter it was dispensed with for mankind doth not suffer all that was threatned When I attain the meaning of the words I shall be able to judg of the strength of the reason therein contained And 2ly he brings in a doubt viz. B. If the death threatned did consist in our present miseries and temporall death only then the answer must be recanted c. And a little further Conference with these Diviners rather than Divines it seemeth would make him of their minds And so the answer to the question depends upon ifs if Mr. Baxter change his mind his answer must fall after him In the mean while the third question must depend upon the uncertain answer to the second B. If the threat be dispensed with how it can stand with the truth and justice of God so to dispense with it Lo the answer to the former question is stuck so deep in the mire that the best Team in Worcestershire cannot draw it out Nevertheless such an artizan is Mr. Baxter that with the spell of a few distinctions he doth it while a man would wipe his mouth thus B. Concerning the justice of God the question is not difficult and I shall say nothing to that See he is half out of the labyrinth already and never moves a finger for it O rare dexterity It costs a little more labour to get free from the other half and thus de doth it B. The question is how to reconcile this dispensation with Gods truth Here you must distinguish 1. Betwixt the letter of the Law and the sense 2. Betwixt the Law and the end of the Law 3. Between a threat with exception either expressed or reserved and that which hath no exception 4. Between a threatning which only expresseth the desert of the sinn and what punishment is due and so falleth under the will of precept and that which also intendeth the certain prediction of event and so falleth under the will of purpose also And now I Answer 1. The end of the Law is the Law and that being the manifestation of Gods justice and hatred of sin c. was fulfilled and therefore the Law was fulfilled a Let the Judg of assizes then chide and lay by the feet a murtherer for an hour declaring therby his justice and hatred of the offeÌ„ce M. Baxter must conclude him to be a just Judg to have fulfilled the Law if hereupon he forth-with discharge him 2. Most think that the threatning had this reserved exception Thou shalt dye i. e. by thy self or thy surety and though it be sinfull for man to speak with mentall reservations when he pretends to reveal his mind yet not in God because as he is subject to no law so he is not bound to reveal to us all his mind nor doth he indeed pretend any such thing 3. So that the sense of the same is fulfilled 4. But the special answer that I give is this when threatnings are meerly parts of the Law and not also predictions of the event and discoveries of Gods purpose thereabouts then they may be dispensed with without any breach of truth For as when God saith Thou shalt not eat of the tree c. the meaning is only It is thy duty not to eat and not eventually that he should not eat So when he saith Thou shalt dye the death the meaning is Death shall be the due reward of thy sin and so may be inflicted for it at my pleasure and not that he should certainly suffer it in the event b This Doctrine wipes off all feare from scandalous sinners having this plea put into their mouth by Mr. Baxter God hath said thou shalt not so offend but his meaning is not that I should eventually abstain and hath said Thou shalt be condemned not meaning eventually to execute it Ergo I may go on in sin without fear Read the rest he that loves it I have enough even to nauseousness What Jesuite reading this will not cry out O delicatum animulum a babe of the same mould with the Scholastick
justifyed if we beleeve our safety being as loose and uncertain then as before depending still upon the residence and abode of faith in us as before it did upon the possibility of its future ingeneration into us and acting in us and that we are no longer justifyed then while we beleeve and obey so that by beleeving and unbeleeving obeying and rebelling we may be justifyed and unjustifyed again a thousand times before we die and how often after himself expresses not I need not mention more these two differences are enough to declare that although here he speak in the same tone with some of our Divines yet his judgement no more agrees with theirs then the Pope with Luther and Calvine Elymas with Paul Simon Maguâ— with Peter or the Scribes and Pharisees with Christ In stead of speaking what might be further expected I shall onely content my self here to lay open some of the many monstrous absurdities and mischiefs that follow this doctrine 1. It proclaims mutability in God and alteration in his minde and will as swift and sudden as in mutable and sinfull man For if God justifie and unjustifie forgive and unforgive love and hate as oft as belief and unbelief obedience and disobedience do nod and succeed either after other in man through infirmity then is there no more stedfastnesse and consistency with himself in God then in man but rather God is swayed hither and thither in willing and nilling love and hatred by influx from man as the Sea by the influx of the Moon then man by influx from God Mr. Baxter sees this absurdity as well as his fellows the Arminians and goes about here and there by the Arminians Sophisms for lack of better to wipe off the stain telling us that the change is in man the object and not in God God hates Paul unbeleeving and persecuting but loves him beleeving and obeying the change is here in the object not in God No more then the Sun is changed by the variety of the Creatures which it enlightneth and warmeth or the glasse by the variety of faces which it represents or the eye by the variety of colours which it beholdeth pag. 174. But Aethiopem dealbat If God love to salvation and hate to damnation one and the same person and love succeeds into the place of hatred and hatred into the place of love and God that erewhile willed the salvation anon willeth the damnation and after that again the salvation of the same man c. as this kinde of Anti-Gospellers assert this is one and the same mutablenesse in God whether it proceed from a principle of inconstancy within or from the mutation of the object without him It denies not the Chameleons that change their colour from white to black and black to white to be mutable because these changes befall them from outward objects the divers coloured Carpets on which they are laid Or if he shall object as do the Arminians Here is no shew of change in God for God changeth not his purpose of saving because he had never but a conditionall purpose and will to save viz. if man will beleeve and obey and this conditionall intent remains in God still together with a conditionall intent to hate and damn him if he perform not the conditions I should answer him in the words of our Divines in answer to the Arminians and Mr. Baxter knows them to be beaten with shame out of this plea therefore to decline the strokes I finde him not yet adventuring to make use of this obiection 2. It denies in effect and substance the justification and remission of any man in this life for to forgive upon such a condition as no man hath power in himself to perform is but a verball not a reall forgivenesse And Mr. Baxter will not let out one gry or iote from his lips that shall give hope to the sinner yea to the believer of any dram of grace and power that the Lord will minister to the Elect more then to the reprobates for the supportation of their Faith and from themselves they have all propensivenesse to fall and no strength to stand In this respect therefore he makes the state of beleevers worse then the state of unbeleevers For Miserrimum est fuisse beatos To have had Faith yea Christ in hand and Heaven in hope and then to fall from all makes their case more miserable in the losse of it then it would have been if they had never had any thing in hand or in hope It utterly destroyeth all joy in beleeving all peace of Conscience all consolation in the holy Ghost while it sets the beleever in the arms of Christs love and participation of his merits and benefits as Dionysius placed Damocles at his table with all sumptuous provisions before him Musick attendance and whatsoever else was Majestical or delightful to cheer him but with a sharp sword hanging by a single hair over his head threatning him No other after Mr. Baxter is the state of a beleever in all his most spiritual enlargements and comforts in Christ there is but a single hair between him and hell fire Death is in the pot of all his contentments Fear of imminent vengeance gives him not leave to taste one of the sweet morsels upon or crums that fall from Gods table And this is a Gospel from hell contrary to the everlasting Gospel which Christ brought from heaven giving a joy that none shall take from beleevers Joh 16. 22. The foundation thereof the love of God in Christ remaining immutable impregnable I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom 8. 38 39. 4. Whereas there are three acts considerable about our Justification 1. Christs giving 2. Gods accepting the satisfaction given for us and 3. Gods justifying or declaring and evidencing us justified in and to our consciences for this satisfaction so given and accepted I would here demand of which of these Faith is a Condition If he say of Christs giving satisfaction this is a contradiction for Christ gave satisfaction before we beleeved or lived so that Faith which came after could not be the Condition of an Act that went before except he will say that Christ must so oft dye as sinners attain to beleeve If of Gods acceptance then more is ascribed to our faith then to Christs death for our justification and faith shall be more then collateral with the sacrifice of Christ to our salvation the sufficiency of satisfaction remaining only in Christs bloud but the efficacy thereof arising from mans faith yea and so Christ should have paid our debts and spilt his bloud for us at the feet of the Father without knowing whether he would accept it or no and so whether there should be the least fruit of his death for the justification of the beleevers before his death is but conditionall
that time shall never be wholly done nor bee known to all whose works were vitall and whose dead works 3. That the very Saints as compared one with another shall be judged according to their works i. e. shall be adjudged to glory in severall measures above according to the severall measures of their services and sufferings heere is the opinion of many eminent for learning and godliness neither doe their Reasons yet wholly sway me who dissent from them and will have neither right hand nor left hand nor sun nor stars nor great nor small but all equall in one degree of glory It is no proper place heer to dispute it but I see no reason to conclude that hee which distributeth his gifts of grace heer in different measures may not so also there distribute the degrees of glory Seeing both are by the purchase of his death and whether by the former he puts us in a greater or lesser capableness of the later is in question But in any other sense how as he sayth the sentence of justification shall passe according to works and that as hee infers from 2. Co. 5. 10. according to works whether good or evill I cannot conjecture 1. Not according to works as they are a condition which is the next thing hee undertakes to prove for evill works cannot be the condition of our justification either negatively that if we have done evill we neyther are nor shal be justified then all must bee damned nor positively that whosoever hath done evill shall be justified then all shall be saved Nor 2. shall it passe so as that according to our good works we shall be justified and according to our evill works we shall be condemned then every man at least every true Christian should be both saved and damned 3 Nor that we shal be much justified if we have all good works little justified if we have done some evil works also for that is the last judgment where every man shall have a full discharge or no discharge I must leave this as one of Mr. Baxters Mysteries it must die with him as to my understanding unless hee vouchsafe his interpretation As for the thing it selfe I utterly deny that they which are in Christ shall be so judged or justified according to their works as other men that they shall stand as prisoners with the world at the bar of Christ to bee judged for life and death as the other according to their works What that the Lord Christ should then discover the nakedness and lay open in the sight of men and divels all the sin and shame of his beloved members That he should cast in their faces all the filth of all their originall and actuall pollution even when they are upon the threshold of heaven Let it be Mr. Baxters doctrine my eares are abhorrent from the sound thereof It is against the stream of Gospel doctrine which tells us that Christ hath born their sin and curs and done their law therfore they are not to be called to such a reckoning That their iniquities are forgiven and sins covered Ro. 4. 7. That the Lord will no more remember them Heb. 10. 17. That they are not under the Law but under Grace Ro. 6. 14. Therfore exempted from the accusations of the Law at the Bar of Justice where the world is to be tried and to receive no other judgement but what flowes from the throne of grace That there is no condemnation to them that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed them from the law of â—in and death Ro. 8. 1. 2. So that the Law hath no mâ—re power of judgmeÌ„t over theÌ„ than the lawes of our Land to try an Angel of Heaven for life and death That none can lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect because God justifieth them and who is hee that is the judge and condemner even Christ which is their Saviour Ro. 8. 33. 34. That they are the sheep that shal be first separated and set at the right hand of Christ before he enters upon the judging of the world and so freed from judgement by the mercy of God in separating them as Augustine well observeth Aug. de Consens Evang. lib. 2. cap. 30. That they shall not come into condemnation but are passed from death to life Jo. 5. 24. That what to the world is the day of judgement to these is the day of Redemption Lu. 21. 28. They shall not come into judgement to answer for any one of their sins as is well observed by Reverend Mr. Fox the author of that which we call the De Christo gratis Justif p. 336. Book of Martyrs for saith he Sublatâ offensâ tollitur simul Judicii obligatio i. e. The sin being taken away viz. by the Lamb of God as appears Io. 1. 29. all obligation of judgement is taken away with it As for the works and righteousness which these Scriptures declare shal be mentioned to beleevers in that their Jubilizing day this speaks out the infinit freeness and riches of Gods grace in covering their nakedness and setting forth only the beauty and ornaments which he hath put upon them but in no wise any sufficient ground or reason upon which they might expect so great a salvation Suppose a noble and indulgent Father hath a prodigall and rebellious son that for many yeers hath grieved the spirit of his Father with his impure cariage and exorbitant outrages to whom notwithstanding his Fathers heart is no less indeared than was Davids to Absolom therfore never hath a thought of disinheriting him but reserves his whole heritage together with a boundles treasâ—re entire for him in the mean while wooing and even melting him with loving kindness into love and duty â— at length the son repenteth becomes ashamed of his base carriage toward so good a Father returns to him waits on him ministreth to him in his weakness and sickness and his Father by his last Will and Testament gives him all naming him therin his good and beloved son that hath done him great service ministred to him much comfort in the time of his necessity Will any hence gather that the attendance of such a son on such a Father at last is a sufficient ground and reason for the Fathers setling on him so vast an estate Could not the Father have hired a stranger for a few Crowns to have done him as much service Doth not the mentioning of the sons good deeds which he would seem to reward with so rich munificence speak out only the remarkable goodness of the Father that hath buried in oblivion all the disobedience and mischiefs which his son hath committed and will have his good parts alone to be mentioned or if another that was not his son had done a thousand times more in his service should he have been entitled for it to the inheritance So also in this case to attribute to the works of beleevers the