Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A45146
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One sheet (or second letter) concerning the difference in some points which is between our united brethren, in order to accommodation
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Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing H3696A; ESTC R219058
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7,417
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8
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Covenant of the Gospel Sub ratione officii the Gospel requires all that and no less than that the Law of Nature does for the Law of Nature and Remedying Grace are both parts of Christ's Law and no Sin against That but is also a Breach of His and makes us liable to Death But the Gospel sub ratione Conditionis requires only Sincerity consistent with Human Frailty and Imperfection so that when we sin against any Precept of Christ's Law the Law of Nature which is founded in God's Nature and ours being unchangeable and thereby were Condemnandi we sin not yet against it as a conditional Covenant by non-performance And so long as the Condition is when the Duty is not performed by the Grace of that Covenant we are pardoned and saved There are three things more leaving the rest of it wherein this Paper taxes Mr W's for differing with another of his Eminent Brethren 1. That Christ purchased the Covenant of Grace 2. That its Condition is an antecedent Condition 3. That Faith and Repentance are not Covenant Blessings For the first of these I have already affirm'd it And when the Assembly's Confession tells us of a First Covenant with Adam of Works and upon his Fall of a Second of Grace and that this is called a Testament in reference to Christ's Death the Testator it is a Wonder to me if any United Brother in opposition to Mr W's shall gainsay this not withstanding what is in their Larger Catechism That Covenant which God promises to make with the House of Israel in Christ's days and the Apostle calls a New Covenant is not made with the Elect in Christ from Everlasting For the second such a distinction as of an Antecedent Condition and Subsequent in the Doctrine of Election where it is not God's foreseeing that we will believe and repent makes him chuse us but his chusing us makes us believe and repent may do some Service there is indeed a Subsequent no Antecedent Condition here Likewise in the Doctrine of Works Good Works is a Consequent Condition to what Faith is Antecedent because Good Works do justifie our Faith But as for this Point of the Covenant when we say Faith is the Condition of it understanding it of the Covenant of Grace made with fallen Man if we do not make it such a Condition as antecedes the Benefits and that which being perform'd gives right to them that we may not mince the matter it is but trifling to maintain that it hath any Condition at all For the third I pray understand these Covenant-Blessings of the Gospel Covenant the Covenant of Reconciliation made with Man and the Absolute Promise of the First Grace or the giving a new Heart to belong to the Covenant of Redemption or God's Engagement to his Son that he shall have a Seed that Nations shall be brought in and the like and that therefore he will give it this new Heart or First Grace to the end that his Elect may in their time enter Covenant the Gospel Covenant with him and not as if they were in Covenant before and so God gave Faith this new Heart or First Grace as one of the Benefits of it Understand him thus and I apprehend the better end of the Staff to be in Mr Williams's Hands I will say no more therefore to this Paper but I will write my Sheet out for my own sake I know for God to require Faith on our part to bring us into Covenant and yet promise it to require a Condition and yet give it may sound strange to Human Reason but when the Language is so frequent in Scripture Circumcise your Hearts make them new walk in my ways and yet the new Heart is God's Work and it is he causes us to walk in them the sound is not harsh in those Ears that are used to it It is yet a thing something harder of digestion to say That God does not only give but Christ hath purchased the Condition for the Elect by his death and not for others who yet are bound to the performance or must perish while the Gospel Covenant is preached to one as well as the other This hath made me in my Letter to Mr W's deliver my Opinion for Universal Redemption accounting that the First Grace or Condition of the Covenant flows from Election and not as the Benefits do from the purchase of Christ's Redemption Unto what I have therefore said there against the common Cry of our Divines That Christ's Redemption must not be held such as that when the Work is done it might be possible that none might be saved and so he dye in vain and I have answer'd it is but an idle Complaint because Election takes care of that I do now add as glad of the occasion and room Nor have we need to deny to them that Christ in his dying for All did intend the Salvation only of his Elect for Christ being God with the Father and having decreed from Eternity that such and such shall be saved he must intend still what he decreed but this draws no implication on the point seeing there is the Intent or End of the Redeemer which must be distinguish'd from the End of the Redemption it self There is Finis Operis and Finis Operantis Finis Redemptoris and Finis Redemptionis the Intent or End of the Doer and the End of the Work done The End of Christ is so to dye for all the World as that some of the World to wit those that believe in him that is the Elect may be saved The End of the Work of Redemption it self is the making satisfaction to God's Justice so that He may in Honour or Righteousness deal with the World otherwise than his Law required which is to pardon and save whom he will and upon what terms he will For seeing the price of our Redemption or Ransom which he paid that is his Obedience unto Death was properly a Satisfaction not debiti solutio which Christ therefore might chuse to lay down and God might have refus'd to accept the benefit we have by it is not such a present legal discharge as in payment of a Debt where one is bound for another upon which there is nothing farther can be requir'd of the Debtor but a discharge upon such terms as pleased the Father and Son to agree upon and offer to the World by the Gospel And this is the Will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life In the Work then of Redemption it self this is all Christ has to do to reconcile the World to God so as to obtain the Grant of a general Conditional Pardon There is other Work for him to do in regard to his Elects performing the Condition Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour As a Priest and Saviour he did his satisfactory redeeming Work but as a King and Saviour he gives Faith and Repentance and
One Sheet or Second LETTER concerning the Difference in some Points which is between our United Brethren in order to Accommodation SIR HHaving perused the Exceptions you let me see in a Paper that Confronts Mr. Williams with the Books of others of his Brethren which shews the Collector to be a Learned and Industrious man and bent I suppose upon Reconciliation of this late Breach between them and whose Labour therefore is Accepted and in that generous self-denyal I see in it to be imitated I could not choose but take my Pen and make my Animadversions upon them in the perusal but without producing or medling at all with the Opposite Citations The Words or Questioned Passages of Mr Williams CHrist where He is called a Surety was a Surety of a better Covenant and therefore not of the Law of Works For the former part of this it is express Scripture Heb. 7.22 For the latter by the Law Mr W's understands the Covenant of Works that was made with man in Innocency requiring perfect Obedience as the condition of Life Now the Difference between this Covenant and that of Grace with man Faln does lie in this That the same Duty is required in both but speaking Largely the one has and so the Condition laxed the other had no Mediator And no Mediator no Surety It was not a Covenant that obliged us to Die for Sin or perfectly Obey in a way of Merit that He is called a Surety of By the Better Covenant Mr W's apprehends the Covenant of Grace and so speaks this But I remember these words of Mr Rutherford The Lord Jesus hath a Room in each Covenant that of Works and that of Grace I will add to it A Room but not Strictly as Surety of either It is the Covenant of Redemption the Covenant of Suretiship he calls it that is the Covenant between God and Christ not the Covenant between God and Man of Works or Grace wherein the foundation of this Suretiship is to be laid The excellency of Christ's Priesthood is set out by this that it was made by an Oath The Lord hath Sworn God hath Sworn can be no less than his Decree Hath When was that Why when God did Covenant with Christ that he should make his Soul an Offering for Sin then was this Oath took then was this Suretiship Priesthood Mediatorship constituted and established Christ is a Surety according to this Covenant and of that of Grace upon the account only of coincidence with it As to the Covenant of Works Christ hath this Room He hath undertook to satisfie for the breach of it And as for the Covenant of Grace or Covenant of Reconciliation he hath this Room that by that Satisfaction or Suffering he hath procured it for us Christ can be bound by the Covenant of which he is Surety to no more than what we are engaged to do and suffer by the Gospel-Covenant This calls for Mr. W's second Thoughts on what is already said Christ is not bound by the Gospel-Covenant to any thing at all That Covenant belongs only to us He was bound by the Law as Man to perfect Obedience and by his Surety-Covenant to suffering in regard of his Undertaking which was not ex delicto but ex voluntario contractu in our behalf Mr. W's wont deny this or he must explain himself The calling God Creditor and Sin Debts is Metaphorical and using such words as proper hath given advantage to the Socinian This I think judiciously spoken The ransom Christ gave for Sinners is not properly a Payment but Satisfaction that is Redditio oequivalentis aliter indebiti as Scotus hath defined it If Christ was ex ordinatione Dei strictly and precisely a constituted proper Surety of the Covenant of Works He having performed it in our stead we should be freed from the Penalty and enjoy the Reward without any terms to be required farther on our parts it were not just to impose any And if he was such a Surety as some would have it of the Covenant of Grace then must he perform those our terms and so believe and repent for us which is the true Antinomian consequence of it But when he becomes a Surety only upon his Covenant with God and so has a Room only in either Covenant with Man he hath so mediated his Work that we are reconciled to God and God still requires our Duty Though in Gal. 4.4 5. it is said that Christ was made under the Law it 's not meant of the Moral but Ceremonial Law I have not Mr. W's Books now to examine the Quotations but I am verily perswaded that Mr. Williams upon recollection and Dr. Bates who says otherwise and orthodoxly will both agree in this Position Mr W's differing I guess only as to the meaning of this particular place from another Third All Men being born under the Law and Covenant of Works Christ Man must be under the same I believe further that both the one and the other will agree also that Obedience to the Moral Law was the Condition of the Covenant of works which Man Christ as Man was oblig'd to that he might himself have right jure merito federis Operum to Life eternal There is no change of Person between Christ and the Elect Of this particular Point of Commutation I have 9 Pages on purpose against Dr. Owen in my Book call'd Peaceable Disquisitions or betwixt him and Believers Here Mr. W's must have line He will not certainly deny but that Christ dy'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for us so as that it was loco nostro in our stead and allow a Commutation of Person so far that he dying for us we shall not therefore be damn'd our selves but not such a Commutation as that we are to be reckoned to have obey'd suffered and satisfied in his Person so as to be our own Redeemers which is that he means and being therefore at some little loss here I will craving his Pardon lend him my Hand It is not only bono nostro but loco nostro in our stead as Grotius hath evinc'd that Christ dy'd for Sinners Well then In our stead that is Not in our Person strictly but in the Person of a Mediator says Mr. Baxter In our stead that is as a common Person ex re gesta but not a common Person ex fictione suppositi as Mr. Woodbridge hath wrung it out more elaborately from his studying the Civil Lawyers There is a change of the Penal sanction of the Law the gospel-Gospel-Law doth not denounce Death for the same Sins and for every Sin as Adam 's Law did The words of Mr. Williams here and Dr. Bates are indeed plain contrary but it is some Slip only I believe and in the bottom sence both will reconcile easily Distinguish we therefore with care between what the Gospel requires sub ratione officii and what it requires sub ratione couditionis between the Duty and the Condition of the Law of Grace or