sence like man that he should repent Those whom he thus loveth he loveth to the end that is he cannot cast off whom he hath chosen For these councells of grace concerning these persons being without respect either to good or evill in the persons themselves Rom. 9. 11. The good or evill that followed them in such persons could neither confirme them nor overturne them because they stand upon this basis the immutable and unchangable Will of God not upon the uncertain and wavering creature and hence it came to passe that when one means of effecting them viz mans own righteousnesse proved ineffectual God to shew his firmenesse in his Councels found out other means to accomplish them by viz. the righteousnesse of another and therefore gave Christ John 3. 16. 2. Though sinne did not could not overturn the Decree of life yet it broke the Covenant of life and so overthrew that visible state of life in which the elect were whom God had chosen and so brought them into a dreadfull visible state of death though not into a final miserable state because of Gods election Sin altered the state of elect persons though it altered not Gods thoughts concerning them so that it might be said he that was before in the state of salvatiō is now through sin in the state of condemnation though it cannot be said that God will because of sin now damn that person whom his thought and purpose was to have saved Rom. 3. 11. Destruction and misery is in their paths and ver 23. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and Rom. 5. 12. As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed over all men because all had sinned 3. Sin having overthrown the Covenant of life and glory and brought men into the state of death all hope and expectation of life was together with it taken away and nothing but a fearfull expectation of death and condemnation It is said of Adam when he had sinned that he hid himself from God when God came into the Garden as one that expected no good from Cod. We read of the condition of the elect before deliverance that through fear of death they were all their life subject to bondage This is to be interpretend in reference to their consciences which tormented them with the representations of death but this will be granted that Christ came to satisfie the conscience and quiet it but not to satisfie God 4. Though the election of God stand sure and the sove of God could not be broken off yet the amity and friendship of God was brought to an end and wrath was manifested instead of love and God instead of prosecuting his Decree of life prosecutes the breach of the Covenant of life which was violated by sin and ratifies the threatning which was this thou sbalt surely die and doth unfold the curse in it and open it in some part of its latitude which was shut up under these generall words thou shalt die Gen. 3. 16. to 20. And Ephes 2. 3. Elect person are called Children of wrath as well as the reprobate they are in one state till deliverance come And 1 Thes 1. 10. Jesus is said to deliver us from wrath to come Now wrath is not a passion in God as I have shewed but it is Gods righteousnesse conflicting with and prosecuting sinne viz. the first sin in the violation of the Covenant of of life and all after sins also And such which sinne are accursed Gal. 3. 10. that being the sentence of the Law is the sentence of God whose the Law is so that God as a Judge prosecuting sinne on the Lawes behalf is represented unto us 5. If God must be a righteous and just God and faithfull and true God he must be even he himself the prosecutor of the Elect notwithstanding his Decree of life and glory in which he had comprehended them wherein his goodnes freely wrought from all eternity towards them because God had threatned and must not reverse it least he suffer in his truth least his word be falsified which was that Adam transgressing his Commandement should surely die and the law saith That that soule that sins shall die His truth therefore binds him to it God must be true and every man a liar that contradicts him in that which he speaks And the Apostle Paul speaks of some persons That knew the judgement of God that they that commit such things are worthy of death He had mentioned many sins which men committed and brings in the knowledge that they had of the demerit of such sins against them that such sins were worthy of death and that it might not be thought that they judged these sins worthy of death through the working of their consciences only the Apostle shews that they had the knowledge of the judgement of God and that thence it was that they judged these sins worthy of death Now the judgement of God is according to righteousnesse therefore Justice presseth God on to a prosecuting where ever sin is 6. Though God because he hath chosen some to life will not suffer them to perish but will bring them to life everlasting and though he love them so well that to save them he will give Christ to them and for them as from John 3. 16. is manifest he doth yet in the giving of Christ he will have such respect to his justice and to his truth that neither of them may be violated or wronged Hereto the Apostle gives witnesse Rom. 3. 25 26. God hath saith he set forth Christ to declare his righteousnesse that he might be just and the justifier of them that beleeve in Jesus God had regard to both these in sending and setting forth Christ that he might justifie those that he had chosen and had brought to faith and that he might be just in so doing because the sinne that such had commited or participated in was worthy of death by Gods owne dome therefore God minds both that goodness and righteousnesse might be exalted together in the same Christ So in Gal. 3. 10. 13. God had an eye to his truth when he gave Christ it was written in the Law that he that continued not in all things contained there was accursed and because no man did continue in all things written there that God in the Law might be true Christ whom Gods electing love gave to the elect became accursed for them Christ therefore died not for any such end as to ratifie the doctrine which he had brought from the Father for by his miracles he gave sufficient witnesse thereto nor is this made the end of Christs dying any where in Scripture but it was to appease God and to fulfill righteousnesse 7. Gods laying the sinnes of the Elect upon Christ Isa 53. 6. was in order to satisfaction to God It was not only done to assure us that in mercy they are taken away from us that we might not fear
which derives his vertue from him and is dependent upon him a Saviour needed not to have come from heaven for God might have done it by any earthly creature or by any creature-instrument without any respect had to power or ability as inherent in it at all but by his own power manifested by it and so might have saved by an Apostle equally as by a Christ But I shall prove what I designe by another medium 2. That Doctrine which renders Christ insufficient to the work of saving renders him an insufficient Saviour or destroys his sufficiencie as a Saviour But this Doctrine of his renders Christ insufficient to perform the work of saving c. Which I prove thus If Christ be a meer creature he is insufficient to execute those three Offices of King Priest and Prophet to perform the work which those Offices do call for for the saving of men I shall begin with his Prophetical Office unto the execution of which it is necessary not onely to open the Scriptures to men that they may conceive of them but to open the understandings of men to understand them and to give them eye-salve that they may see which because it belongs to his Office as a Prophet he must be able to do from vertue and ability within himself But no creature can effect this by any power of its own nor is capable to receive such power from another because it is not competent to the creature and consequently Christ being onely a creature as he holds him is disabled in the principal work of that Office And as a Priest he was to offer up himself to God through the eternal Spirit that he might purge away sin and that his Blood might be of greater efficacie then the blood of bulls and goats and that he might purchase eternal redemption for believers which as a creature he could not do Heb. 9. 12. So that he disables him in the works of his Priestly Office in holding him onely to be a creature And as a King he must conquer Death by raising himself up from the dead which he was to suffer as a Priest to take away sin And he must also destroy sin in its regnancie by Kingly power in his members as he was to condemn it in its guilt by his death which work is above the power of any meer creature So that by this opinion of his he is made weak to perform all his Offices which yet he came into the world to accomplish and that he is made an insufficient Saviour which overturns the Gospel in the principal scope of it But of this more hereafter The last Argument which I shall now produce to prove another Gospel and Scripture to be brought in and the true Gospel and Scripture to be destroyed is this Arg. 6. That Doctrine which tends to overturn and destroy the mystery of godliness tends also to overturn and destroy the Gospel and Scripture But this Doctrine of his serves to overturn and destroy the mystery of godliness Therefore it destroys the Gospel and Scripture The Major Proposition he will not have the boldness to make question of The Minor Proposition I prove from 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory Thus the words run in all the Original Copies unless one in which the word God is left out as is conceived expunged by the Arrians but the sence of all comes to be subverted by it I shall give the sence of the words and then deduct the consequence from it and shall begin with the subject that is spoken of and then speak of the predicate of that which is asserted God manifest in the flesh The Son of God or God in the person of the Son appearing in flesh by assuming flesh and uniting it to his own person Justified in the Spirit Justified by the Godhead to be God that is by the rays and beams that sparkled out and shined forth in the flesh sutable to the expressions of the Apostle Joh. 1. 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten Son of God c. Seen of angels Attended by Angels in his incarnation ministery sufferings rising ascending as the story of the Gospel shews which gave witness to this mystery of God in flesh Preached to the Gentiles Preached in this mystery of the incarnation to be God over all blessed for ever Believed on in the world Received as God in our nature as the Immanuel as very God as the most high God by faith as Thomas did receive him so all Saints ought My Lord saith he and my God Received up into glory Taken up to heaven to receive the glory not that which was of new given to him as a reward of his sufferings but the glory which he had before the world was which Divine glory was made more apparent in flesh which was obscured before very much and veiled in it That which is predicated or declared of this subject is that it is a mystery of godliness Great is the mystery It is one of the great depths of God it is the depth of depths the head and height of all mysteries which eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard and which hath not entred into the heart of man to conceive which flesh and blood hath not revealed but the Father that is in heaven by the Spirit viz. that God in the person of the Son was sent by the Father and by consent with the Father gave himself to a state of debasement humbled himself and appeared in the fashion of a man by taking flesh of the Virgin and becoming together with it one person viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-man God in the person of the Son and the Son of man making one Christ This truth was witnessed by the Spirit viz. by the Divinity of the second person made flesh by some glory of the Godhead of the Son which in flesh appeared and declared him to be what he was and testified by the attendance of Angels and preached and believed by all sorts of men whom God hath ordained to life and sealed to the satisfaction of all that might doubt by his assumption into glory Jehovah the Father therein speaking to Jehovah the Son Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot stool Some such enemies were those which contradicted him and called it blasphemy when he said that he was the Son of God or God in the person of the Son which is all one This saith the Apostle is the great mystery which is transcendent above all reason in the sons of men Of godliness This is that truth in the acknowledgement of which and in the assent to which all godliness is founded and bottomed For it is the Gospel in the grand mystery of it the
of himself to act such a work in such a way The 8th Argument or Instance as he calls it is this If Christ be a meer creature then the value of that offering which Christ offered when he offered himself to God is taken away and the satisfaction which Christ gave to divine justice is destroyed for if the person that dyed were a meer man and the blood that was shed was the blood of a meer man and not of God as it is called Acts 20. 28. then how could it satisfie for the sins of many transgressours For there is no proportion betwixt one meer man dying for sin and many men sinning and deserving death each of them for the sins they have committed And how an finite justice offended should be satisfied with a sacrifice infinite in value is unconceiveable and against the tenor of the Scripture He puts it into this forme That doctrine which takes away the value of Christs offering and destroyes the satisfaction which he gave to divine justice brings in as it were another Gospel c. But that doctrine which makes Christ a meer creature doth so therefore He grants the Major and answeres to the proofs of the Minor proposition which are presented in the forme of two Queries the first was If Christ was a meer creature then how could he satisfie for the sins of many transgressours To this he makes this reply If it please you to consider Rom. 5. 12 and so forward you may answer your own Querie or see a good reason of this which I shall now propound If Adam were a meer creature how could his sin make many transgressours If through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many Rom. 5. 15. Christ as well as Adam was a common person and therefore the Lord having laid on him the iniquity of us all and he bearing the curse of the Law his members are delivered both from the sinne and curse Reply There is nothing in the place which he hath directed me to viz. Rom. 5. 15. which he hath or can fetch out with all his consideration that will answer my Querie His asking of an other question will be no answer to mine Adams sinne might make many transgressours upon that account as no mans righteousnesse can render them being transgressours righteous and just persons 1. All persons which afterward sprung from him were in his loyns at that time when he sinned and were parts of him and consequently they sinned in him and with him his sinne was their sinne it extended unto them and they could not but participate of it as of Levi it is said that he paid tythes in Abrahams loynes Heb. 7. 9 10. 2. Adams state in which he stood when the whole world was in him was a state of grace and favour with God from which if he sinned himself was to fall and all his posterity with him after the manner of some persons that holds an estate upon the good will of their Lord whom if they offend they are cast out and all their posterity with them for that is the condition upon which it is given to be possessed and the children and off-spring are in volved in the guilt of such persons trespasses whose favour is on such termes God is to be looked upon as soveraigne Lord of all creatures to whom it belongs to shew favour to what creatures he will and upon what termes he will and under what conditions he pleaseth and under what penalties in case of transgression liketh him therefore it was that he set Adam over the works of his hands entred into a conditionall League and Covenant with him and did both priviledge him and restrain him and abridge him therein and this was done under penalty of dying both to him and his in case of trespasse thou shalt dye the death saith God to him And thus it came that through the offence of one many are dead 3. Sinne was propagated and generated to and in Adams posterity after that Adam fell and lost Gods image It is said of him that begat a son after his own image Gen. 5. 3. And so all persons came to be conceived in iniquity and to be borne in sin for out of an unclean thing nothing that is clean can proceed And so it comes to passe that Adams sinne made many transgressours for by propagation all men have sins of their own over and above the sinne of Adam imputed to them Thus the passage of sin and death from one Adam to all men appears facile and easie there is no obstruction in the way soveraignty and holinesse and justice and truth furthered it effected it But now in reference to Christ it cannot be thus asserted that righteousnesse passeth upon men after this manner 1. Righteousnesse is not propagated at all but only imputed 2. It is not by participation because none are in Christs loynes by nature Christ hath no naturall seed that are parts of him 3. If there be any such relation betwixt Christ and men as that Christ should be a father to them and they children to him that he should be as a second Adam it is not unto all but to those only that beleeve and this is also meerely through grace and so there may be an imputation of righteousnesse from one to many but it is through grace Therefore it is said the grace of God hath abounded by one man unto many Not unto all men but to all that receive it that do beleeve vers 17. 4. being to be imputed through grace there comes to be an obstruction to it justice and truth must be satisfied before there be any place for grace and if grace cannot passe the gift of grace which is righteousnesse and life to men through Christ cannot passe neither And so it appears that the way of sins passing is more ready from one man to many then the way of righteousnesse abounding through one to many Because of satisfaction that must interpose that grace may have a free and open passage unto many 5 If it be through satisfaction that must interpose before the grace of God and the gift by grace can by one abound to many and if first the sins of those many that grace abounds to through one must be laid upon that one that that one might bear the curse of the Law that by this means the grace of deliverance which consists in righteousnesse imputed and in life might passe over through that one and abound to those many as he himself though somewhat darkely doth confesse then this one man through whom grace must abound to many cannot be any one but such an one who is able to give satisfaction for many And concerning this satisfaction the querie is made how it could be that any one meer man could satisfie for the sinnes of many transgressours and the disproportion is pleaded No proportion betwixt one meer
man dying for sin and many men sinning and deserving death each of them for the sins they have committed But he makes no answer at all unto it but sends me to Rom. 5. 15. to answer my self which sleight proceedings will satisfie none but such who are willing to be deluded by him The question only will be what satisfaction is necessary that grace may abound to many Because there be many that conceive that any satisfaction will serve to make man capable of grace which God will accept and they do not look at proportion And there are others that hold that no satisfaction at all is necessary in respect of God because God having loved the Elect loves them for ever and there is no change at all in Gods love nor is God capable of changing but is immutable in his nature and therefore though man sinned yet his love was not broken off thereby nor was there any breach on his part at all nor did Christ dye to satisfie him at all for he was satisfied always in his own love which continued the same after man had sinned as before for in his love he gave Christ after man had transgressed therefore the breach was on mans part he had wronged God and merited nothing but hatred and wrath and all evill and no love at all and having an evil and guilty conscience he was suspicious of God and expected no good from him but feared all evil and could not conceive how God could love such a creature or shew any grace or favour to him that had sinned in such sort against him and knew not how God could do it without satisfaction Thus unsatisfied was mans conscience having sinned concerning the finding of any mercy from Gods hands therefore God gave Christ and delivered him up to death and layed him under the curse of the Law not to satisfie himself thereby but to satisfie mans conscience and to give rest and quiet to it and that God cared not for a few drops of bloud but there was a wound in the conscience of those that had sinned that would not be healed but by such a manifestation of the Fathers love as in giving Christ and delivering him up for such appeared And some say Christ came to reveal the Fathers councells and dyed for the confirmation of them This opinion takes hold of many and spreads and prevailes much my designe is not to make a large discourse in way of answer because it is beside my present undertaking only because I am necessitated in reply to him to insist a little on the point of satisfaction and because the point is of great concernment I shall not oversleightly passe over it but stay a while in answer to both the forementioned Tenents and shall first shew that some satisfaction to God is necessary and then declare what it is Sol. And first I shall premise some things and afterward lay down some positions That which is to be premised is 1. That there are no passions and affections in God after the manner of men there is neither love nor hatred nor wrath nor anger nor joy nor grief nor any such by which the mindes and spirits of men are moved and disturbed for God had all things before him at first that should come to passe afterward and if it were good it was of his own operation and if it were evill it was of his own permission and ordering also and that which he could easily have prevented So that it is irrationall to conceive that God should be stirred or moved with any thing that comes to passe or that he should be in divers tempers or mindes or that he should be one thing to day and an other thing to morrow this is inconsistent to that absolute blessedlesse of God therefore though these things are spoken of God in Scripture yet they be humanitus dicta they be attributed to God after the manner of men And those things that are passions and affections in men are attributes and decrees and counsels and actions and operations in God and imply not the least mutation or change in God As for example Gods loving of Jacob before he had done good to deserve such a thing what was it but Gods goodnesse and graciousnesse which is an attribute in God noted in decreeing Iacob to glory which is called Election and Gods hatred to Esau before he had done evill what was it but his soveraignty and absolute dominion which God hath over the creatures without being capable to give any account exercised iâ— appâ—inting him to perdition and destruction 〈◊〉 they are not passions and affections in God but they are acts of the unchangeable will of God in which the above mentioned properties in God are expressed And Gods wrath and anger is not a passion in God but it is an act of Gods righteousnesse and justice by which he repells that which is evill in the creature and contrary to his own holinesse in testification of the unsuitablenesse of it to him and of that which he justly expects from the creature 2. There is difference to be put betwixt the decree and purpose of God concerning life and glory in reference to such persons whom he will glorifie goodnesse towards and the way and means by which God will effect it and accomplish it which is in advancing holinesse and righteousnesse in order to which he made the first Adam after his image gave him an holy and righteous nature writte his will in his heart and then entred into a Covenant of life and peace and glory with him upon the observation of his will and threatened death and all evil and misery upon the violation thereof and this Covenant was in reference to himself and his posterity that were in his loyns This latter is called in Scripture the way of peace and life Rom. 3. 16 17. The former is hid in God for who hath been of his counsell or who knoweth further then he reveals and it hath its being in God and no where else The latter is declared to the creature and it is the creatures capacity of life or the visible state of life into which God did put him and it hath its being in the creature 3. There is difference to be put betwixt the love of God to the creature and the amity of God with the creature or betwixt the decree of grace in electing the creature to life and glory the prosecution of the decree in suteable and proportionable actings of God toward the creature If there be a right distinguishing betwixt these things that thus differ these following propositions and conclusions will be better understood and more easily granted 1. When sin was committed against God the love of God was not broken off nor the councell purpose and thoughts of God concerning glorifying of such persons whom he had chosen to life and glory were not altered nor changed for this foundation stands sure the Lord knoweth who are his nor is God in this
his custody sin is but as the fetters and cords in which such persons are held the world is but as the prison and death is but as the torments persons are put to but properly we are Gods Captives and are doomed and sentenced of God to banishment from his presence as Cain was and are delivered up to the power and dispose of the God of this world For 1. God is the Soveraign Lord and supream Monarch and Judge and the power primarily belongs to him to cast body and soule into hell 2. Men are guilty of that which they call crimen laesae majestatis or treason against divine Majesty Against thee thee only I have sinned said David therefore worthy to be rejected 3. Therefore they are by nature children of wrath The wrath of God is revealed from heaven Upon those that beleeves not the wrath of God abides 4. We ask to be losed and discharged from our sins not from Satan but from God and to be losed from the bonds and snares of hell and death therefore primarily we are held in bondage to God and not to Satan or any other Hereto agrees the witnesse of Scripture God hath shut up all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Rom. 11. 32. The Scripture that is God in the Scripture hath shut up all under sinne that the promise of faith through Iesus Christ might be given unto them that beleeve Gal. 3. 22. God gave some up to vile affections Rom. 1. 26. and verse 28. because they liked not to retain God in their thoughts therefore God gave them up to a reprobate mind God gave them up to worship the Host of Heaven Acts 7. 42. The Parable of the King that was wrath with him that was unmerciful to his fellow-servant is pertinent to the same purpose he delivered him to the tormentors Matth. 18. 34. And that exhortation of Christ To agree with our adversary while in the way lest the Judge deliver to the officer c. Which places do all shew that we through sin are primarily the Captives of God as a King and Judge offended and that only secondarily we are Captives to the devil and other enemies as to Gods Ministers and Servants though enemies to which we are committed for without commission and permission we are taught that the greatest tyrants can effect nothing against Gods Elect and the very devils themselves could not go into the herd of swine without leave therefore the price paid to God to satisfie him is the principal thing in redemption It is also to be understood that these two To be redeemed from God and to be redeemed to God will consist very well together for the captivity of the Elect is not like the captivation of a person taken in war and detained by the enemy from whom when he is redeemed he is totally alienated and separated and hath no more to do with him nor is it like the captivation of a person who is violently and unjustly detained in the hand of a cruel one who tyrannizeth over him after the manner of Pharaoh who laid unjustly heavy burdens upon the children of Israel from whom if he be once freed he is totally withdrawn from such an one and divided never to come into his hands or power any more But the captivity of the Elect is as when a subject for some offence against his Prince is delivered into the Serjeants hand or into some other officers custody and power to be imprisoned or scourged or punished with death according to the nature of the offence unlesse satisfaction be given and he be released upon that account such a redemption as this is viz. of a subject from the wrath of his Prince is not the alienation of the subject from his Prince but the reconciliation of him to his Prince and the person that is redeemed from is redeemed to man for these do consist well enough together from the wrath and justice of the Prince to the love and favour of the Prince he is redeemed And though God offended doth deliver the Elect to enemies and not to subjects for the devil is an enemy both to God and to the Elect and not a subject yet this makes no difference but that the Elects captivation may fitly be resembled captivation of a subject to his own Prince because God is the Lord of devils and they as truly subject though not as willingly subject as any other that are under Gods power Object 5. It is further asserted that it is God that gave Christ to redeem men and if there be any satisfaction given to God by Christ God himself is the author of it and gave it to himself if he gave it to himself he was satisfied before and the price moves him nothing to release the captive because it is not from the captive but from himself and of his own providing and nothing is added to God by it for it is but Gods satisfying of himself And what a kinde of satisfaction is this In the truth of the thing it is as no satisfaction for if the satisfaction must come out of himself he is satisfied in himself without any satisfaction from the captive Sol. God must be looked upon as one that dearly loves the captivated elect persons who had sinned against him and would not have them perish and withall he must be looked upon as one that dearly loved justice and truth and cannot suffer either of them to be violated for they are himself as dear to him as himself therefore he provides that Justice and Truth and the life and welfare of such poor captives may consist together and because he sees it impossible by any thing that the electcan do who had offended because they are without strength and can make no satisfaction for any trespasse therefore he himself in his wisdome and love to the Elect and in his love to Justice and Truth findes out a way to save them from ruine and to satisfie these And that is by Christ whom he sends and this is all his designe and he lookes for no further gain nor advantage to himself but that his goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth might be glorified together in the salvation of the Elect that had sinned for what standeth God in need of and what can be given to him for satisfaction which may be added to his store If his justice and truth in reference to his law be maintained and kept on foot with his love to those whom he hath chosen this is more to him then all the earth and the fulnesse of it and other satisfaction he looks for none The declaration of his justice and truth is satisfaction enough and a motive strong enough to let the captive go free and this he obtained by the intervention of the death and blood of his Son What advantage had Zaleucus who made a law that adulterers should lose both their eyes and he to satisfie this law that he might be accounted just and
could not save by Christ without transmitting that curse and wrath which was due to all and every of the Elect to Christ and if Christ had been but a meer man then there would have been need of so many Christs to have suffered and endured as there are Elect persons and every one of these Christs must have suffered hel viz. the torments of hell as well as death and then they must have suffered ever also without any end and yet could not have justified the Elect because while they should be suffering till that be ended God could not be satisfied and if God could not be satisfied the Elect could not be justified and discharged and so to all eternity the Elect could not be acquitted and this appears in Christ if he had suffered and had never got through his suffering we had never been saved if he had dyed and had never risen we had never risen to life and glory And this is that which I presented in that Argument or Instance as he calls it of mine viz. that the satisfaction which Christ gave to Gods justice is destroyed if Christ be but a meer man and not God for how could the blood of aman satisfie for the sins of many transgressours whereas there is no proportion betwixt one meer man dying for sin and many men sinning and deserving death each of them for the sins they have committed The righteousnesse is in Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5 18. which signifies a just satisfaction or satisfaction according to the exactnesse of justice and Gods scope is thereby to declare himself just that is to magnifie his justice thereby Rom. 3. 26. By all this that hath been presented it appeares how sleight and weak he is in his answer to an Argument of the highest weight and moment For what thing is there of greater consequence for the satisfying of the conscience then to know that the satisfaction is full and sufficient which Christ hath given which was shewed by the Argument that I brought to be disproportionable upon his Tenent of Christs meer creatureship to which he returnes no other answer but this As the sin of one meere man was imputed unto and brought death upon all men even so the gift of grace by one man Jesus Christ whom he makes but a meer man abounded unto many unto justification and life In the next place he comes to discusse and give answer to my 2d Querie How it may be conceivable that an infinite justice offended should be satisfied by a sacrifice finite in value And thus he expresseth himself What matters it if it be unconceivable must it therefore be uncredible doubtlesse in all controversall doctrines you will not hold this for an orthodox all Tenent In the doctrine of the Trinity credit must be given to things unconceiveable but the like liberty will not be allowed in Christs Mediatorship Reply 1. If no more words had been added by me to these expressions It is unconceivable yet if there be a truth therein that it is unconceivable these bare expressions without any addition might have passed with him for an unanswerable Argument because he professeth himself to be a man so given up to reason that he will prostrate himself to use his own expressions to the shadow of it and his faith will not carry him beyond reason how shallow soever his apprehension is he will not beleeve further then he can see which hath caused him to be so unsetled and unstable in the doctrine of the Trinity and to question it so long till at last he hath rejected it 2. That which is unconceivable and wants the authority of Scripture so to countenance it is not receivable So did not the doctrine of the Trinity for though it be an incomprehensible mystery yet it is not an unscriptural doctrine but it is compassed about with a cloud of witnesses both of the old and new Testament which do declare it with the greatest clearnes but that such a thing should be in Christs Mediatorship that that which is finite in nature value should yet satisfie for that which is infinite in provocation and offence hath neither the light of reason nor the truth of Scripture to draw out consent unto it therfore is worthy to be expunged out of the Saints beliefs 3. That which is unconceivable against the tenor of the Scripture which words I added but he would take no notice therof deservs no credit with Christians but must be razed from among the articles of their faith but that a sacrifice that is finite in value should satisfie an infinite Justice offended is both incomprehensible by reason and contradictory to Scripture as appears from Heb. 9. 9. Gifts and Sacrifices while the first Tabernacle was standing were offered which could not make him that did the service perfect it could not purge away his sin nor justifie him what was the reason of it could not God have taken these gifts and sacrifices for satisfaction no he could not the Apostle faith it could not be there was no proportion an offence against God must be purged away with better sacrifices then these Tâ—â— Apostle that was of Gods counsel and knew the truth tels us so Heb. 9. 23. It was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices then these why necessary because the justice of God could not be satisfied by these nor the truth of God fulfilled therefore it was necessary there should be better then these but if these better be not proportionable to the offence to purge the guilt away in a satisfactory way to justice wherin is the betternes betwixt them there is no difference in this respect they are alike without preheminence one to the other He repeats it again Heb. 10. 1. as that which is of weighty consideration and which he would have the Christian Hebrews to be throughly instructed in The Law saith he having a shadow of good things to come can never with those sacrifices which they offered make the comers thereto perfect and v. 4. It is not possible that the blood of buls and goats should take away sin It was possible at first but after God had said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death it was not possible aâ—ter the law had cursed every one that continues not in all things written therein it was not possible and the Apostle fetcheth his confirmation from Christs own words in Ps 40. which he mentions and applies to this purpose v. 5. Wherefore he saith when he cometh into the world sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared in burnt offering and sacrifice thou delightest not then said I loe I come to do thy will O God Why would not God have sacrifice but prepared a body for his Son the reason is because this flesh of Christ is called a greater and more
their due And he mentions Prov. 30. 4. Who hath ascended up into heaven and descended c. Repl. Some conceive that Agur speaks of God in the persons of the Father and the Son whom he describes to ascend up into heaven and descend to give signes of his presence in both places and be every where and who gathers the winds in his fist and binds the waters in a garment and that he proposeth this as an hard question to his two friends Ithiel and Vcal Others conceive that Agur doth speak of man and that his interrogation is in the force and vertue of it a negation Who hath ascended c. that is no man can do such things as he mentions and that if his friends do know any that can effect such things let them declare what his name is and what his sons name is But they all understand it of ascending to the very place of heaven and not any that I have seen in the sense that he drives at nor doth either the text or context necessitate that this ascending should be a discovering of Gods hidden secrets for what then is descending As for Piscator I have never seen him upon the Proverbs and can say nothing to it He mentions Pauls rapture into the third heaven to be only a discovery of the things of God It 's somewhat presumptuous for him to determine when the Apostle himself durst not for whether he was in the body or out of the body he could not tell But if his rapture were not reall it was in vision and to the third heaven and paradise he went either really or in vision to the place he went that he might understand the thing But he quotes Grotius and Musculus and Bucer as Writers who understand ascending in a spirituall sense for penetrating the secrets of heaven I confesse some good Expositors do so interpret the word ascend but how it will quadrare and what adequateness there will be betwixt the sense they give to the word ascend and the sense they put upon the word descend I cannot understand However it be the concurrence of Expositors in the interpretation of ascending will avail him nothing in reference to the controversie betwixt him and me for it lies not in that word but in these words is in heaven whether they be literally to be understood or in respect of knowledge onely Expositors do not at all countenance his Metaphoricall sense he gives of those words but they fall upon the distinction of Natures and say Christ was in heaven according to the Deity but not in heaven according to the Humanity 3. He saith his sense is fitly conjoyned with the context Christ saith he reproves Nichodemus his unbeleef aggravating it from the certainty of the things spoken We speak what we know And then from the perspicuity in speaking If I have told you of earthly things that is either things that may or are necessary to be known in the earth Or else the words respect the manner of Christs holding them forth And ye beleeve not how can yee beleeve if I should tel you of heavenly things In this 13. verse you have a exclusion of all men Christ excepted from the knowledge of heavenly things Repl. All may be granted that he saith till he come to the 13. ver which is more probably an explication of the 11. ver We speak what we know and testifie what we have seen saith Christ Nichodemus and others might object against the certainty of those things that Christ asserted and might say The judgments and wayes of the Lord are unsearchable who hath known the mind of the Lord Who shall ascend into heaven for us to relate the mind of the Lord to us Unto this Christ answers No man hath ascended nor can ascend up to heaven to make discovery of the will of God of the deep things of God but the onely begotten Son he came from God and he ascends thither again and he hath seen and known and what he hath seen he declares and testifies and if you be not satisfied with that which the Son hath brought you from heaven who also ascends thither again it is an aggravation of your unbelief And unto this coherence there is a concurrence of Expositors in their witnesse The last Scripture is now to be discussed which he hath excepted against and laboured to disable that it might not speak that which I brought it to give witnesse to which was to justifie the deity of Christ and it is Joh. 17. 5. And now ô Father glorifie me with thine owne selfe with the glory I had with thee before the World was He gives his gloss to these words after this manner O thou Father who dost abound in kindness and art the Fountain of goodness the time being come of finishing my course in earth and returning to thy selfe glorifie me in Heaven who have emptied my selfe taking to me a naturall and mortall body and walking among men in forme of a servant and now being ready to humble my selfe to the death of the Cross in obedience to thee with that glory which I had in Heaven before the world was being then with thee as heir of all things clothed with Majesty and glory answerable to that high station wherein thy pleasure was to set me and to that great domminion wherewithall thou wast pleased to invest me And then he concludes that all lyes in darkenesse which I can fetch to countenance my opinion Repl. He knowes what is written in Rev. 22. 18 19. in terrour to those that add to the word of God I wonder therefore how he dare interpose words in this prayer of Christ according to his owne fancy and not fear and tremble 1. He inserts these words into the preface of Christs prayer Thou O Father who art the fountain of goodness And this he doth unnescessarily for in this prayer-of Christ there is no preface at all and why should be frame one this is not to interpret Scripture but it is plainly to add to it and it is done with a designe which makes it the worse for he would bring Christ in acknowledging the Father the sole fountain of goodnesse excluding himselfe as Son of the Father and excluding the Holy Ghost which is a false thing and full of injury to Christ who was so far from making such an acknowledgment that he thought it not robbery to be equall with God his assuming of equality with the Father was not counted robbery by himselfe 2. He inserts these words in the close of Christs prayer speaking of the glory Christ had with God he addes these words answerable to that high state wherein thy pleasure was to set me and to that great dominion wherewithall thou wast pleased to invest me These words wherein thy good pleasure was to set me and wherewithall thou wast pleased to invest me are not in the text nor is there any thing that lookes that way that might give him occasion to
Saviour or an unequal Saviour to Christ because Christ and not he is called a Saviour And is not Christ called both the blessed hope and the great God our Saviour Are not both titles put upon him as due to him And though they are used by the Apostle to distinguish the persons of Father and Son from each other when they are spoken of together yet both these are applyed to both persons and are proper to him alone that is the most high God But he saith Scripture doth prefer God in the work of salvation before our Lord Jesus Christ making him to be the principal Agent therein when it declares that the work of Christ in saving was from the purpose of God who appointed him for it from the precept of God who injoyned him to it and from the presence of God who assisted him in it Reply But where doth Scripture witness this of God the Father in reference to the whole of Christ He saith Scripture doth abundantly set forth all these but he doth not quote any one place for proof of them but would have us receive it upon his word That God purposed to save by Christ considered as David's and Mary's son considered according to his Manhood that God enjoyned him as such that God assisted him as such God being taken essentially and properly for Father Son and holy Ghost and not improperly and personally for the Father will be granted and it will be plentifully made out by Scripture but that the Father purposed without the Son and holy Ghost and commanded and enjoyned without the Son and holy Ghost and assisted without the Son and holy Ghost this is denied For as the Father without the Son and holy Ghost made not man but the Trinity sate in Councel Let us make man so it was in the work of Salvation it was an act of Councel The Father gave the Son and the Son gave himself emptied himself every Person concurred and wrought in the work so far as concerns efficiencie All decreed it all acted in it as one principal Agent and onely the Humanity of Christ was Instrumental And if we consider the Material and Meritorious cause of mens salvation God the Father or God in the person of the Father is far from being the Principal cause thereof for he is no cause at all for the Father took not flesh upon him nor was Mediator either of Satisfaction or Intercession he made not the Atonement but this was the Son's sole work he did all in it he was the person that was made of a Virgin and was made under the Law he was the person that was made flesh and manifested in flesh and hath a peculiar right in this respect to the denomination of Saviour And though all was acted and endured in and by the flesh that he assumed for he bare our sins on his body on the tree yea and in his soul also when he cried out My God my God c. in such manner yet if that flesh had not been supported by the Godhead of the Son which assumed it it would have been crumbled to dust and powder by that weight of wrath that lay upon it So that it was by the vertue and power of the Godhead that such actings and such sufferings were and all was accounted as done and suffered by the Son though the Son as the Son was not capable of it but by assuming flesh into the unity of his person and so it came to be reckoned as his work and it was in account as if the Lord of glory had been crucified and as if the blood of God had been spilt and the merit was from the excellencie of the person of the Son that did and suffered all But he further saith That the Scripture revealeth the Lord Christ to be in the work of salvation but an instrumental Saviour For this saith he see Tit. 3. 4 5 6. which puts it past all question But after that the kindness and love of God and our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord. Reply Here is in these words of his First A bold assertion viz. That Scripture revealeth Christ to be but an instrumental Saviour Secondly A peremptory Conclusion that Tit. 3. 4 5 6. puts it out of question Thirdly A defective and insufficient probation or confirmation he alledgeth the words of the Text as if they did carry with them conviction of what he asserts in the very letter of them when as there is no such matter 1. Scripture is so far from revealing such a thing of Christs instrumentalness that it reveals the contrary to it in Heb. 1. 3. it is said That Christ by himself purged away our sins but of any instruments can it be said that by himself he doth any thing Doth an instrument act by himself that is by his own vertue and sufficiency and by himself that is without the power of the principal efficient Is an Instrument any thing out of the hand of the chief Agent Also in Heb. 7. 25. it is said That Christ is able to save to the utmost But is any Instrument able to save to the utmost Hath he the ability within himself So that it may be said of him that he is able What greater thing can be predicated of the principal efficient or chief Agent then that he is able to save to the utmost This is too high an expression for an Instrument And in Psal 89. 19 it is said of Christ whom David typified that God had laid help upon one that was mighty If Christ be onely but an Instrument what needs he to be mighty in himself for every Instrument if it be mighty through the might of another as the Rams horns were it is sufficient What needed the choice of a mighty one if the Saviour be onely instrumental The weaker the Instrument the more honour will the Principal Efficient have The excellencie of Power is known to be of God when the instrumental means is Weakness and Foolishness Why also could not the blood of Goats have cleansed the Conscience but the Blood of JESUS CHRIST God's Son was necessary if an Instrument may be a Saviour Doubtless a word of Institution would have made the one as effectual as the other But indeed there is no might that any creature-Instrument is capable to be recipient or the subject of that can save to the utmost because it requires an infinite power to conquer Sin and Satan Death and Hell to abolish these and to bring Life and Immortality to light to effect a first and second Resurrection for men who were to be saved Secondly The Scripture that he alleadgeth out of Titus 3. 3 4 â— hath no such thing engraven upon it as he produceth it for such that he that runs may read it
but might possesse our soules in quietnesse but it was done to assure us that in justice and righteousnesse they are taken away and upon such termes as that God is no loser therefore they were laid upon Christ when he was upon the tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. to intimate to us that it was to that end that they were laid upon him that he might there and then satisfie for them in which regard it is said in Isa 53. 5. that he was wounded for our transgressions he was brused for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him The meaning is he had wounds and bruises by chastisements which belonged to us because of our iniquities by reason of which God was wrath with us that he by enduring and bearing them might make peace for us 8. It is asserted in Scripture that Christ suffered for us died for us Rom. 5. 6. 1 Pet. 3. 18. and in many other places which must not be understood finaliter as if we onely were the end of Christs sufferings and had onely some profit by them but for us is as much as in our stead as when David said of Absolom would God I had died for thee that is in thy stead so it is to be understood in Rom. 5. 6 7 8. Scarcely for a righteous man would one die that is scarcely in stead of him to deliver him from death and so in application to Christ for us is as much as in his roome and place and stead which further appears because first the very evils which were due to us Christ endured as first the wrath of God in his soule such which the very damned have in hell but more intolerable it is said that his soul was heavy unto death and that on a cold winters day he did through the meere anguish of his soule and while he was conflicting with Gods anger sweat drops of water and blood notwithstanding all the support he had which was his fathers immediate stroke for no hand was upon him at this time but Gods and it was the torment of the mind that had such an influence upon his body for his body was put to no paine Now this wrath was upon him because wrath was due to us we were children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. 2. He endured the curse of the law and was not the curse of the law our portion for transgression Col. 3. 10. 3. He suffered death and was not death the wages of our sinne The wages of sinne is death saith the Apostle Rom. 6. 23. Secondly Christ endured the very evils that were due to us to deliver us from enduring them as 1 Thes 1. 10. He delivereth us from wrath to come it was by his bearing wrath and from the curse he saves us that is by becoming a curse Gal. 3. 13. And by death it was that he delivered us from the fear of death to which we were in bondage Heb. 2. 15. Now if he suffered in stead of us then it was in a satisfactory way because our sufferings would have been to satisfie the law and Gods justice which is in the law and the damned in hell do suffer for that reason to pay that debt to justice which because they can never compleatly do therefore they do ever suffer 9. Our salvation which through Christ we partake of is through redemption Rom. 3. 24. But redemption in a proper acception hath satisfaction in it for it may be thus described Redemption is a freeing a captive from the hands of him that detains him by a price given unto him as when a person is taken captive by the Turks there is a price given to him for the freeing of such a person So it is in the redemption effected by Christ on the behalfe of the Elect and there are these following particulars in it 1. The captives that are detained in bondage and misery these are those that were appointed unto glory before the world was but through sin are become captives Rom. 8. 21 22 23. Col. 1. 13. Rom. 7. 24 25. 2. The person that detains them in this bondage this is God for it is the wrath of God that holds them in it they are the children of wrath under the power of wrath Ephes 2. 3. and they are held under it till they be delivered from it 1 Thes 1. 10. Rom. 5. 9. Now wrath relates to God as the subject in whom it is for it is God that was wronged therefore he it is that was offended and is angry and whose wrath burnes like fire till satisfaction be given and then it is turned away It is also the justice and judgment of God that detains them Rom. 1. 31. The conscience of the sinner is brought in by the Apostle acknowledging the righteous judgment of God and subscribing unto this that they that commit such things are worthy of death It is also the Law that detaines them for the Law worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. that is the wrath of God is revealed in the Law against all unrighteousnesse of men and this worketh disquietnesse in the mind till the Law be satisfied God is not satisfied for the Law is Gods Law and his righteousnesse in it and till both the Law and God the Author of it be satisfied the prisoner the poore captive must necâ—ssarily be detained 3. The enemies and evils under whom and which these Prisoners and Captives are detained These are Satan death the infernal pit sin Acts 26. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Col. 1. 13. Heb. 2. 45. Luke 1. 74. and unto these was man delivered viz. unto the power of these after he had sinned in and by that sentence of God viz. in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Gen. 2. 17. And God hath soveraign power over all these plagues and evils for though some of them be Gods grand enemies as well as ours yet they are Gods servants as well as his enemies and they do but hold men while Gods will is they should Rev. 16. 9. and chap. 19. 10 15 14. And indeed there is no reason but that Gods proceedings must be with men that have finned as well as Angels that sinned till he have satisfaction but he spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them to chains of darknesse to be reserved to judgement 2 Pet. 2. 4. Therefore it is he that delivers men to death and to him that hath the power of death that is the devil and to hell also and those chains of darknesse there to be reserved till either satisfaction come or the last doom be passed 4. The person that redeems these captives from Gods just judgement and from his wrath and from these enemies and evils and this is Christ Rom. 5. 9. 1 Thes 1. 10. Gal. 3. 13. and chap. 4. 4 5. Luke 1. 69 70 71. 5. The price that is given by this Redeemer unto God for his satisfaction This is the life of Christ John 10. 15. And the
say God loved such a creature and yet is angry with such a creature then to say a father loves such a child and yet is angry with such a child because he hath offended him especially when God is wise enough and knows how to declare his goodnesse and his righteousnesse together and to prosecute his decree of grace in bringing such persons to glory and to prosecute their sin with wrath with a curse and with death at the same time without thwarting with himself nor are love and anger opposite to one another considered in a divers respect a father loves his child as his child yet is angry with him as wanton as froward as disobedient and God loves the elect as elect as such whom he freely chose and set his heart upon and yet is angry with them as breaking his Law and doing things derogatory to his glory Obj. 3. It is asserted that redemption is taken in Scripture many times in a metaphoricall sense when only power is put forth to deliver persons from enemies and an evil state no price paid at all so in the deliverance from Egypt there was power exercised against Pharaoh and his Realm by which Israel was fetched out from bondage but no price paid to any yet it is called redemption in many places and Moses a Redeemer Acts 7. 35. And because this deliverance from Egypt was a type of the spiritual deliverance which comes by Christ and Moses a type of Christ in this deliverance therefore the deliverance which is effected by Christ is not redemption by any price paid to God but in a metaphorical sense by power put forth against Satan death hell all enemies that detained the Elect. Sol. Though redemption be taken metaphorically in some places of Scriptures yet it follows not it should be taken so in all places and though external deliverances are many times by power only and without price it will not therefore follow that this great spiritual and eternal deliverance must be a deliverance of the same kind And though this temporal deliverance from Egypt be a type of this spiritual by Christ from sin and death and hell yet it follows not that therefore there must be a similitude and parity in all things betwixt them and though Moses be a type of Christ yet the type reacheth not the perfection of the thing typified it is clear in the person of Moses compared with the person of Christ and it is as clear in the redemption that Moses effected from God which was from outward servitude and bondage and that redemption which was wrought by Christ which was from hell and from the devil There are many dissimilitudes betwixt the one redemption and the other and this is one that there is no price paid in the one but power used but in the other there was both And to convince of this the better consider the one was without blood for there needed none but the other must be with blood for there could be no remission without it Heb. 9. 22. The one was without the intervening of the Redeemer in the place and room of the redeemed Moses was not to be in bondage in the room and place stead of those that were by him to be redeemed from bondage but in this spiritual deliverance it must be so the Redeemer must be in the condition that the redeemed were in Christ must come in the room of sinners and must bear their sins and suffer their plagues instead of them as hath been proved And the reason of this difference is because Moses had not in the redemption of Israel any thing to do with an offended God who had a controversie against the people whom Moses was to redeem and from whom he would have satisfaction before he would save them for then in such a case against the enemy that held them power would not have been sufficient for their deliverance but a price would have been required but Christ in his redemption hath to do with Gods wrath and anger and with Gods righteousnesse which were shewed and revealed against the Elect for the Elect had sinned whom he was to redeem and God had threatned they should die the death and they had deserved it and God must be just and true in what he had said therefore Christ must first prevail with God in the deliverance of this people before he could exercise any power agalnst the devil or death or hell and this prevailing must be by a price paid to satisfie for transgression for it could not be by power God might be appeased but overcome he could not be as those enemies must whom he was to deliver the Elect from THis hath all been shewed already and this is it that makes the disparity betwixt the two deliverances which do typifie one the other Object 4. It is asserted in Scripture that redemption in Scripture is never said to be from God as it must needs be were any price paid to God or satisfaction given to God but redemption is said to be from Satan Acts 26. 18. from death Heb 2. 14 15. from the power of darknesse Col. 1. 13. from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. from iniquity Tit. 2. 14. yea it is so farre from being a redemption from God that it is a redemption to God Rev. 14. 4. Sol. Redemption in Scripture though it be nowhere said in so many words to be from God yet it is said to be from the wrath of God from the judgement of God from the curse of God the Laws curse is Gods curse and so in a sense redemption is from God as an enemy and an Avenger it is from God as a Judge whose office is to search out iniquity and to passe sentence according to the Law and hath his officers to attend upon him to whom he delivers up the sinner and offender from God as such an one the redemption of Christ is but not from God in reference to relation interest communion fellowship acquaintance dependance power and dispose c. for in all these respects redemption is to God and not from him Though Redemption be from Sin Satan the world death hell and all such enemies and evils yet it is to be understood that it is from these only as the lesse principal causes of the detention of Gods Elect in bondage even as when a person is delivered from the Gaole he is delivered from the Gaoler from the daungeon or pit into which he was cast and from his bolts and chains and from all the noisomenesse and filthinesse and nastinesse that attends that condition yet these are but the lesse principal causes of the evils he is firstly and principally delivered from his Creditor and the Judge that committed him to these So it is in this case God is the principal person that detains and the rest that are mentioned in Scripture are but his servants The devil is as the officer that receives persons that are sentenced of God into
impartiall therein when his son whom he loved had offended by adultery caused one of his sons eyes and another of his own to be put out save only the praise of his justice and truth in his lawes and this is that which God grieves at And if the Judge loving the prisoner that is before him and knowing he hath nothing to pay and yet the law recovers payment will give his own son to be his surety and will lay the debt upon him and is content that his son shall fetch the price out of his own treasure yet the law is satisfied and the judges righteousnesse in reference unto it and his love to the Prisoner are glorified Nor is the satisfaction the lesse because God the offended person procures it and not man that offended him for the truth of God stands firme by that means and the law takes place and is not made of none effect as it would have been had no satisfaction been given which would have redounded to Gods dishonour Yea the righteousnesse of God and his love to undeserving creatures shines forth because the satisfaction is of Gods own procuring And though it proceed from God yet it cannot be said that God satisfies himself or that he was satisfied before for he that provides it doth not act it but it is acted in and by an other person The Father sends the Son and the Father in the Son receives satisfaction and though the Father and Son be the same God yet they are not the same person nor is the satisfaction that the Son gives materially considered given in the divine nature or God-head but the Sonne took flesh and in that flesh by dying and sheding his blood gave satisfaction so that it is from God but not in God if we speak of the next and immediate subject which is the man-hood if the matter of the satisfaction be respected And though it may be said that God was satisfied before in reference to his own love to such persons he did not repent of it in such sort as to cast them off nor was his purpose of glorifying them one whit shaken yet he was not satisfied after they had sinned and after he had sentenced them to death in point of righteousnesse and truth to passe by their transgression without satisfaction his Law was not satisfied in a free forgivenesse without satisfaction and so God was unsatisfied because the Law was Object 6. It is likewise asserted that there is an unsatisfied conscience in men men having sinned cannot discerne how Gods heart can be towards them without satisfaction therefore the Scripture speaks of propitiation through Christs bloud and of atonement by his death condescending therein to mans infirmity which could not otherwise apprehend how God could communicate life and glory to men after they had sinned without being first appeased and pacified by Christs blood But if things be rightly considered in themselves as in truth they are Christ dyed not to reconcile us to God but to heal us of an evill conscience and that we might know that God loved us after we had sinned as well as he did before by the gift of Christ who is the manifestation of the Fathers love after the fall which the Elect could not be perswaded of but by a pledge of it Therefore it is said that Christ shed his bloud to purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. and not to satisfie God Sol. It will readily be confessed that it was an end of Christs dying to reconcile men to God and that they might have the answer of a good conscience before God 1 Pet. 3. 21. But that this was the solitary end or the principall end or that satisfaction to God is no end but is wholly excluded is denyed and hath been disproved all along in the discourse upon this subject 1. What need would there have been that Christ should have dyed at all if only satisfaction to mens consciences concerning Gods goodnesse and love to fallen creatures had been intended therein For God could best have done that by his spirit and must yet do it by his spirit if it be ever done in the hearts of men Indeed God having given Christ and delivered him up to death the spirit represents it as a great manifestation of the Fathers love but the spirit might have abundantly assured the heart of a sinner of the Fathers love without it so that there was no necessity of Christs dying in that regard 2. The love of God represented unto men in giving Christ is much lessened to them in the representation if Christ were only given to satisfie their hearts in reference to their fears of God not to satisfie Gods justice if there were no need of Christ in reference to any danger they were in in regard of God if God could or would have pardoned sin without him and his justice and truth could have remitted it 3. It is derogatorie to Gods wisdome and love to assert that Christ was delivered up to be crucified upon the crosse and there to shed his blood principally for this end to cure mans panique fears and his groundlesse causeles suspicions of God and not from any necessity that there was in mans evill condition in regard of sin committed by him and of Gods righteousnesse and truth prosecuting it against him For God might have done this in an easier way and have spared his dear Son God is represented prodigall of his dear Sons bloud if he must die and bleed out his spirits to cure some false conceits that men have entertained of God 4. What need was there that the Son should come in flesh and should empty himself of his glory and that he that is the Lord of glory should be crucified if no satisfaction to divine justice was looked at but only the satisfaction of the conscience the bloud of God as it is called would not have been necessary but the bloud of a meer creature Christ would have served the turne for such a purpose had that been all 5. How came those fears in the heart of man after the fall after sinne committed What bred them was there no ground for them were they meer conceipts and jealousies that wanted a right bottom did not the threatning before sinne was committed cause the horrours and terrours that were in the soul after sinne was committed and if they had Gods threatning as the ground of them viz. in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death were they not well grounded and was it possible that these fears should be cured by the bloud of Christ and the cause not removed by the bloud of Christ the threatning not taken away the truth of God and his righteousnes not fulfilled and satisfied which were in the threatning and which bred the feares 6. These fears and terrors of the Elect before Christs bloud be brought to their hearts to remove them are they not of the same nature with the
horrours of the reprobate in hell And if so are not both the one and the other that wrath of God which God poures into the soul because of sinne which he prosecutes against men are they not punishments for sin from God is not Gods righteousnesse therein revealed against sin the truth of God in the threatning fulfilled which did reach to both Elect and Reprobate And if so how can God remove them from the Elect through Christ without satisfaction given by Christ and yet suffer them to lie upon the Reprobate without palpable unrighteousnesse and untruth when the threatning viz. Thou shalt dye the death extended to all mankinde in Adams loynes without exception 7. How may Scripture come to be eluded and the strength and force of it infringed in all other cases if plain pregnant places of it may be evaded after this manner as when it is said God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation that is to be one that appeaseth God Rom. 3. 25. and by Christ we have received the attonement Rom. 5. 11. that is we have received God attoned to us for all the offerings in the Law were to attone God to men that had sinned if such an answer may be taken and may passe God doth in these expressions condescend to mans infirmity who thinks God to be angry and had need to be appeased and reconciled how easie would it be to wrest and pervert all Scripture By this that hath been represented it appears that some satisfaction to God is necessary to be given by Christ and the contrary doctrine is dangerous and desperate and overthrows our justification for if God be not satisfied for our sins they are not pardoned and we are yet in our sins and this doctrine that thus oppugnes Christs satisfaction doth deny Christ to have bought us for if he payed not any price to God for us I am sure he paid none to the divel nor to any other enemy for he conquered them by force and power and might and paid not any price to them therefore it utterly overthrows Christs purchase of the Elect and yet which is much to be lamented this doctrine spreads very much and corrupts very many Q. 2. The second thing that I promised to speak to is this that seeing some satisfaction must be given to God in reference to a trespasse committed and an offence taken and a threatning given out upon supposition and afterward inflicted upon the perpetration of such an evill what satisfaction it is that is necessarie whether any satisfaction will serve or whether it must be a proportionable satisfaction Sol. 1. It cannot be denyed but that God is the soveraigne Lord over all and hath none above him to appoint him or to enjoyne him to give rules and laws to him how he ought to walk towards the creature none can limit or restraine him or set bounds unto him but his will which is always holy and just and good is the rule that he acts by and he doth whatsoever pleaseth him Ps 115. 3. further then he sets bounds to himself he cannot be bound up to any thing or by any one and further then he restrains and limits himself he cannot be restrained and limited by any other Therefore he might at the first if it had pleased him have pardoned sin without satisfaction or he might have accounted that for satisfactiō which himself would accept for satisfaction be it more or lesse and so the blood of bulls and goats might have satisfied as well as the blood of a man and the blood of a meer man such as my Antagonist would have Christ to be as well as the blood of Christ who is God and man but this comes not home to the point for we are to consider what satisfaction is now necessary not what might at first have been accepted of 2. Satisfaction that will now be admitted of and accepted is satisfaction according to the Law that holds proportion to it for the Law is Gods Law which flowed from Gods righteousnesse and holinesse and in which and to which God hath limited himself and bound up himself so that God must deny his own Law and his own Truth righteousnesse and holinesse that is in it if he do in the least kind wave that satisfaction that it requires Now the law to Adam which compriseth all his posterity was Thou shalt not eat c. for if thou do eat thou shalt surely dye that soul that sins shall dye and cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do the same Therefore the satisfaction could not have been lesse then death or lesse then the curse of the Law what ever that evil is that is understood by death or by the curse 3. What ever that evill is that reprobated persons doe or shall endure upon whom the curse of the law is laid and the death threatned lighteth because they were in Adams loynes when he fell under the threatning of death and because they continued not in all things written in the Law and so incurred the curse I say what ever the anguish torture and torment is either in mind or body which such persons pass or must pass abide or mustabide under at present or hereafter the like punishment in all degrees without any abatement have the Elect merited and deserved being in the same state and condition with the Reprobate being equally in the loynes of Adam with him and not abiding any more then he did in all things written in the Law and if there be deliverance for the Elect and the Law in the death and curse of it be not laid nor doth light upon them but satisfaction is made in Christ for them then it must be a proportionable satisfaction that must be given to God in reference to which God doth remit such pains of hell such everlasting destruction and perdition and doth release the Elect from them that is Christ must suffer the whole and the full of that which either any or all the Elect have deserved and from which they are acquitted and discharged in Christ Christ must satisfie as far as the guilt of all and every of the Elect extends to which is as great as the light of the Reprobate and so Christs sufferings in one kind or other must be equivalent to the eternal damnation of all the Elect from which they are discharged by his sufferings equivalent unto those exquisite torments which the damned in hell do or shal suffer which the Elect had merited as well as they The consequence of this is that Christs sufferings were not the sufferings of a meer man for had Christ been but a meer man his sufferings for all the Elect could not have been proportionable to their guilt demerit For the righteous God which without respect of persons had laid all men under the same curse and wrath because of the same sin and guilt which without difference all were under