Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A29414
|
A Brief account of the state of the differences now depending and agitated about justification, and some other points of religion declaring plainly wherein both sides agree and wherein they differ.
|
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing B4521; ESTC R31279
|
7,448
|
14
|
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE STATE of the DIFFERENCES Now Depending and Agitated about Justification And some other POINTS of RELIGION Declaring plainly Wherein both Sides AGREE and wherein they DIFFER OONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs over-against Stocks-Market MDCXCII A Brief Account of the State of the Differences now depending and agitated about JUSTIFICATION c. I Thought it might much conduce to the service of Truth and Peace to State plainly the Points that are in present Dispute among us For I find many are led to one side and another and yet understand not aright the Grounds of what they do but are led by their Affections animated with Passions and the respect they bear unto mens Persons And in many things I observe the Dispute is about Words when both Sides mean the same Thing Now so far as I can gather both from Discourses and Writings on one Side and the other I shall here set down wherein both Sides agree and wherein they differ If they have declared their minds plainly and sincerely and will stand to their own Assertions and not revoke what they have granted Now the more sober and judicious on both Sides agree in these things 1. Both Sides agree That there is an Eternal Election of a determinate number of Persons to Eternal Life 2. Both Sides agree That all these shall be certainly Called Justified and Saved 3. Both agree That eventually none others shall be Saved though they yield That if any others should Repent and truly Believe they might be Saved which is more than can be supposed of the Fallen Angels And that no Adult Persons do perish merely and only because they are not Elected 4. Both agree That there is no Justification by the Law of Works but by the Righteousness of Christ alone and that not by the Effects of his Righteousness but the Righteousness it self 5. Both agree That there was an Eternal Compact betwixt the Father and the Son in the Covenant of Redemption about man's Salvation A Council of Peace betwixt them both and Antecedent to Christ's Sufferings 6. Both agree That something is required to be done by men in order to their Justification and that they are not merely Passive in it and none are Justified from Eternity but only in the Decree of God nor actually Justified either by the Death or Resurrection of Christ till they actually Believe 7. Both agree That what God requires of man to do it is his Grace that enableth him to do it and the improvement of Nature or common Grace is not sufficient of it self much less Meritorious of special Grace 8. Both agree That whatever Qualifications God worketh in man as they do not Merit Justification neither are they the Righteousness wherein he is Justified before God 9. Both agree That though Justifying Faith is always accompanied with other Graces yet it is Faith alone that doth Justify a Sinner in the sight of God and that not as a moral qualification as other Graces are but as a recipient instrument receiving Christ and his Righteousness as a free gift tendred to Sinners in the Gospel 10. Again both agree That it is Christ's Obedience both Active and Passive that is the meritorious and material cause of Justification and not any Obedience performed by our selves 11. Both agree That the Covenant of Grace is absolute to the Elect tho conditionally administred in the Preaching of the Gospel as He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned 12. Both agree That a man is Compleatly justified as to his State at his first Believing and that there is not a second Justification to perfect the first but only declarative at the Day of Judgment and by good Works in this World 13. Both agree That Justification consisteth not only in the Pardon or not imputing of Sin but in the imputing of Christ's Righteousness whereby a Sinner is reputed and accepted as Righteous in the sight of God and so differs from Sanctification by infusing Grace 14. Both Sides agree That no Works men perform are acceptable to God but through Faith and the Mediation of Jesus Christ 15. Both agree That Jesus Christ is the only Mediator of the New Covenant and the Surety of it both on God's Part and Man's and therein doth discharge the Office of a Mediator 16. Both agree That Jesus Christ was without all Sin Holy Harmless and Undefiled and though he had the Sin of all his People imputed to him yet God never looked upon him as formally a sinner as he looks upon wicked men 17. Further both agree That more is required to our compleat Salvation than to our first Justification as in Marriage mutual Consent doth enter Persons into the Married state but many more Duties are required as conditions of the Marriage Covenant to be performed afterwards 18. Both also agree That the Moral Law is still in force as a rule of life to Believers though it is abolish'd as a Covenant of Works so as to live by doing it though done by the special help of God's Grace and that every Transgression doth in its own nature deserve Death still 19. Both agree That some preparatory Work upon the Soul usually goes before Justifying Faith yet that it is not the like in all nor any further necessary than to make the Sinner willing to come to Christ and to accept of him as offered in the Gospel And that a Legal Repentance wrought by the Spirit of Bondage may be before Justifying Faith 20. Both Sides agree That tho no Act of Obedience concurs with Faith in our Justification yet all Justifying Faith contains in it a purpose of Future Obedience and will certainly bring it forth And it 's hoped that both Sides agree to exalt Christ and the freeness of Grace in man's Salvation and Holiness and Righteousness among men and not to expose their present Liberty to Hazard or Religion to Contempt by any passionate heats which are the fruits of the flesh and not that true Zeal which is the grace of the Spirit The Differences wherein they Disagree Which I shall state impartially on both Sides 1. THAT the Gospel is a Law of Grace wherein God as a Soveraign Rector doth dispense Pardon Adoption and all saving Benefits to men according to the Terms of the Moral Law as it is mitigated in Christ and some other Terms of Faith and Repentance required by the Gospel yet not without respect to the Merits of Christ herein which they term a subordinate Righteousness wherein others differ from them and say that this is not a Covenant of Grace but a milder Covenant of Works wherein a man is justified before God by some Works done by himself tho done by the help of Grace and through the Merits of a Mediator are accepted with God For the Apostle speaking of Abraham's Justification Rom. 4.3 mentions none of his Works but saith Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for
righteousness And doth make our Justifying Righteousness to consist in a gracious Act of God upon the Sinner in covering and not imputing his sin And not in any Works of his own either of Nature or of Grace Rom. 4.7 8. 2. That Christ made a Compact with the Father for us in a distinct Covenant by himself and was not ever himself a Party in the Covenant and was not as a Surety bound in the same Bond with men but as a Surety giving a Bond of his own to obey the Law and suffer death for us and to pay our Debts owing to the Law or Justice of God Whereas others say this is a great mistake and say That Christ came under the same Law that man was under Gal. 4.4 and thereby became obliged to give obedience to the Law and not only so but to suffer the penalty of the Law For those that had broken the Law being in the same Bond with them as the Apostle saith Gal. 3.16 That the promises were made to Abraham and his seed which Seed he saith is Christ And the Covenant God made with David was made with him as a Type of Christ and with his Seed Psal 18.50 So that God saith of this seed Psal 89.33 If his children break my law I will visit their iniquities with stripes but my loving-kindness I will not take from him that is Christ nor break my Covenant with him as it follows in the new Verse And in the Covenant of Redemption it self made before the foundation of the World Christ stood not alone in that neither For then all the Elect were chosen in Christ Eph. 1.3 And Grace was given them in Christ then 2 Tim. 1.9 before the world began So that they judge it a great mistake to say that the Covenant of Redemption is only pleadable by Christ himself For tho part of that Covenant respect himself only that he should come into our Nature and suffer c. yet then he undertook for all that God gave him to bring them to glory 3. Further They say that God lookt upon Christ's Obedience as a valuable Consideration only why he should make a Covenant of Grace with men and that there was no necessity that Christ should come into the nature of man and be made under the Law and suffer death for our sins from the nature of the work of our Redemption but only from the designation and appointment of his Father thereunto And if he had appointed him to perform some Heroick Acts of Obedience in any other nature or of another kind it might have been as available for our Redemption and as meritorious for us as what he did perform But others look upon this as a great Error and say That the nature of the work of our Redemption did necessarily require that Christ should not only merit for us but make satisfaction which they don't consider and should satisfy Justice in the same Nature that sinned and perform obedience to that Law which man had broken and bear the Curse of that Law which man was under to redeem him from it For it seems necessary that God should secure the Honour of his Law and Justice of his Government 4. They will not allow Christ to do and suffer what he did as a Publick Person representing all the Elect comprehending a Spiritual Seed in himself as the first Adam did his Natural Seed so that the Elect may be said to obey suffer and satisfy Justice in him Though they yield that he did do all this for them For then they say the Elect may be said to merit in him as Christ merited and to be Redeemers of the World as Christ was and to perform sinless Obedience as Christ did But others judge this a great mistake For the Apostle in the fifth Chapter to the Romans doth parallel the two Adams and saith the first was the Figure of him that was to come And that all Mankind sinned in him and not only by him through the Corruption of Nature derived from him And as in Adam all died so in Christ are all made alive 1 Cor. 15. All died not only by him but in him Even Infants that have committed no actual Sin As an Insolvent Debtor may be said to pay the Debt in the Sureties paying it for him or in his stead Or if a Friend dies for a Malefactor the Malefactor may be said to satisfy the Law in him And the Objections against this they answer them thus That though Christ merited yet it doth not follow that those that are justified in his Merits did merit in him For Christ and they are not the same person naturally but only legally as the Client and the Advocate the Surety and the Debtor And Christ's Merits did arise from the Dignity of his Person and his voluntary Undertaking that for us which he was not antecedently obliged unto which is not the case of those whom he undertook for A Surety that pays another's Debt may merit from the Debtor but the Debtor is not at all concern'd in that Merit but only in the Discharge that he receives thereby So if a Believer is justified in the sinless Obedience of Christ doth it therefore follow that he must be accounted no Sinner Is it necessary that a Debtor who pays his Debt in a Surety be Partaker of all the Endowments and Qualifications of his Surety Or be judged so to do It may be yielded that hereby a Believer is justified in a more excellent Righteousness than his own tho it should be perfect or than Adam had in innocency but not that we should be accounted in all respects as righteous as Christ himself was tho it seems necessary that we should be justified in a Righteousness which should answer to the Infinite Justice of God offended by man's Sin And if any object Christ fulfill'd not the whole Moral Law not performing many Duties required of us as of an Husband a Father c. Answer He that performs all that the Law requires of him fulfils the Law Thus Christ did and so being under the Ceremonial Law he performed all requir'd of him by that Law And being also in the Gospel-Covenant he did all required of him there He did not indeed repent because not required of him not being a Sinner And if it be objected again That if our debt be paid in Christ and we justified thus in him What need any thing more to be done by a sinner for his discharge They Answer to this That though the Elect Believer is thus virtually and fundamentally discharged and justified in Christ's Obedience yet God hath appointed Faith to be the mean or way whereby he should be actually justified God having so provided that his Grace should be dispensed in a way that might conduce to his own Glory as well as man's Salvation May not a Surety who pays the Money to discharge the Debtor require something from him to do whereby he may be made sensible of the kindness he