Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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A45138
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The middle-way in one paper of election & redemption, with indifferency between the Arminian & Calvinist / by Jo. H.
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Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing H3689; ESTC R20384
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34,415
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44
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Nature or Covenant of Works and in Christs redeeming the Jewes from it as given by Moses he does redeem the World from that covenant which it represented and there I say does lye the cheif point of our Redemption That very thing then or that great immediate effect or benefit which accrewes to man from Christs dying for him is his having other terms procured upon which he may be justified and saved than those which by the Covenant of nature were due from him to obtain that end For God so loved the World that he gave his onely begotten son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life What is the immediate end here of God's giving his Son That must be the Immediate fruit of Christs coming dying and redeeming the World And what is that but that Whosoever beleeveth in him may not perish That is The delivery of him from the law of Works and bringing him under the Covenant or law of Faith that upon the performance only hereof who could not have it else without perfect doing he may obtain everlasting life And whether this favour of Christs procuring new terms upon which man may be saved does belong to the Elect only or to all the world there will need no more but to ask To whom the Gospel is to be preached to decide that question It is true that the freedom of the Jewes from the Mosaical law the breaking down the partition-wall thereby for the Gentiles to be incorporated into one Church visible and a power in Christ himself to dispense all assistances necessary to both for their obedience to the Gospel as also a discharge of mankind from damnation for Adams sin onely are fruits of Christs death which may be said too immediate and universal but the great benefit which indeed comprehends these and the like in it and appeares so notorious in the whole New Testament is The reconciliation of the world unto God by his death or Redemption And what else such a reconciliation can eminently consistin but that I have named I leave to the understanding to give judgment Neither are we to forget that our Redemption in Scripture is said to be from Sin and the Devil as well as from the Law for the one is the Foundation of the other When man fell from God the Devil obtained a right and dominion over him This was not a right as Lord and Proprietour but as Goaler and Executioner that is by vertue of that sentence which the Law as the Covenant of works passed on him When Christ then by his Satisfaction to the Justice of God did put an end to that Covenant this Right which the Devil held thereby must cease with it In the Cessation of this Right As the Slave who is redeemed from his slavery is redeemed also from the work which he lives in as a Slave So must all Mankind be redeemed from sin only this Redemption must be distinguished in regard of Title and in regard of Possession It follows not because the World lies in Wickedness and the Prince of the Air still rules in the Children of Disobedience that Christ hath not done His part in their Redemption No while the Law which held them under an impossible Duty that is the Law of Sin and Condemnation is taken off and the New Law is such as every one is capable to perform the Terms of it if he will It is not for want of Right to come out of this slavery it is not for want of Power but it is because they are not willing to come out of it because they love their sins that the Devil keeps them still in Possession Even as the Hebrew Servant when the Jubile came if he said he loved his Master and would not go out free he was to have his Ears boared to the Door-posts of the House and remain his Slave for ever There is a double work therefore Christ has to do as our Lord-Redeemer The one is to procure Deliverance if we are willing that is our Redemption in regard of Title And the other is To make us Willing which is to put us also in Possession The one of these is that which is properly the work of our Redemption and Universal The other is peculiar to the Elect and hath another name in Scripture that is our Vocation Effectual Calling or Conversion Unless when this Possession comes to be perfectly compleat that is at Death and then it is again called the Day of Redemption Whom he did predestinate saith the Apostle them he also called and whom he called them he also justified And whom he justified them he also glorified If Redemption were not of a larger extent than Election Vocation Justification and Glory then would the Apostle have said Whom he did predestinate he redeemed And whom he redeemed he called But when we find no such Link in this Chain it is a convincing Argument to my understanding for the Vniversalitie of Redemption It is said of Christ that he is the Saviour of the world especially of his own body In that Sentence we have both universal and special Grace together and the one is Applicatory not Destructive to the other The Redemption of Christ is universal The Grace whereby a Man savingly believes and repents and so becomes one of his Body is special and belongs to Election The Death of Christ may be considered as it redounds to the purchasing Remission of Sin and Salvation upon condition or as it redounds to the purchasing the Condition for Remission and Salvation In the first sense Christs Redemption and Grace of the Gospel is universal Doctor Twisse and the like Divines will say twenty times over In the second sense they will have it for his Elect only For my own part I must go from them here and account That the work of Christs Redemption and whole Mediation upon Earth does terminate in the former consideration The business of a Mediatour between parties does lie in this To bring them to some New terms wherein they may be agreed when they were at odds before The business of Christs Mediation Redemption Reconciliation Propitiation Satisfaction or whatsoever word out of Scripture or Orthodox Writers is used does lie I account in this altogether That he hath taken that course with the Father that he shall not deal with the world according to the Covenant of our Creation which requires such terms as no Man now thereby can be justified or saved but according to the Covenant of Grace which is such that whosoever he be that trusting in his Mercy and Goodness through Christ does repent and walk sincerely before him though imperfectly shall be Pardoned Accepted and Saved and yet he be Righteous in so doing This I say is the res ipsa as I take it the thing it self intended in all these sorts of words with the connotations only of the modus also the mode or qualification thereof according to such several Expressions Here then
he would have bin damn'd first if it had not bin for the grace of God that wrought him over after he had stood so long out And this is a sad truth I grant which needs not the proof of one or two single texts when the scope of the whole Scripture which attributes our destructon to our selves and our life and help unto God does seal to it Who is it hath made thee to differ Of him we have the will and the deed By grace ye are saved You may say If the will then be of God why does he not give the will as well as the power to all seeing he would have all men to be saved I answer in the first place what Augustine hath before that God will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth but yet so as the free will of man be not destroyed My meaning though is not as I take the Father 's to be there as if the will in believeing could not be of God of unwilling making man willing but this freedome were lost when I doubt not but the case is the same in believeing as in well-doing where mans free will and Gods grace would stand together alwayes in his account I say farther God will have all to be saved in vouchsafing the means to all to be saved if they will This appeares in these three particulars 1. That he hath given his Son to dye for all the world 2. The Lord Jesus hath by his death procured the New Covenant or such termes upon which Salvation may be had as are possible to all the World This is a point to be known that there is this difference between the Covenant of Works under which we are by Nature and the Covenant of Grace unto which we are Redeemed that The condition of the one as to our falne Estate is Impossible and the condition of the other is Possible If it be not possible or in Mans Power to perform if he will then hath Christ done nothing for the World but died onely for his Elect. For To procure a Benefit on a Condition that is impossible is all one as to procure no Benefit at all 3. There is sufficient light by the Gospel or by other means from within and without to instruct all men so that if they be not wanting to that Light they may be saved And thus are we to make good this Truth God will have all to be saved if they will of themselves which yet doth not hinder but he may will the Salvation of some more than so that is not only if they Will of themselves but if they Will by his Grace which he gives or refuses to whom he pleases Cur autem illum adjuvet Deus illum non adjuvet Illum tantum illum non tantum istum illo illum isto modo penes ipsum est aequitatis tam secreta ratio excellentia potestatis But why He helps this man and not that this man so much and that man not so much this man one way that man another we must leave it to Him whose Power and Wisdom is above our reach De peccatorum meritis remissione l. 2. c. 5. I know indeed The Scripture speaks ordinarily of a Cannot but there is a Cannot which denotes an Impossibility and a Cannot which denotes an Indisposition onely In the Parables the Steward says be cannot digg and the Man in Bed he cannot rise In the same sense the Scripture says We cannot come to Christ unless we be Drawen and we cannot learn to do well that are accustomed to do evil When a man is so disposed against any thing as that he certainly never will do it under that disposition it is common for us to say he cannot as of the Idle person we say he cannot work of the Abstemious he cannot drink The Scripture accommodates it self to our Language He that is born of God cannot sin sayes the Apostle That is he is under that disposition through the New Nature that he can no more find in his heart to live in any deliberate course of sin than the Wicked can endure to come up to an Universal unreserved Resignation of himself unto God Thus are we to understand such Texts St. Augustine I remember in the book last quoted which he persues De spiritu litera is very wary of denying a Possibility to a man even of living without sin when he is industriously proving that none in Earth but do sin and there are some learned Divines stand much on this that we have our faculties and the object sufficily proposed and therefore a Natural Power to every thing which is our duty But the Father is more cautious who distinguishes between what we can do by Nature and what by Grace Without me sayes Christ ye can do nothing and through Him sayes the Apostle I am able to do all things By Grace he thinks it safest to hold that Possible which by Nature or to our bare natural strength and faculties he doubts-not to count Impossible There is a medium therefore between both They that dare say If it be the duty of a man that is without Grace to live perfectly it is possible or That it is in the power of man in the state of Nature without Grace to keep all Gods Commandements and live without sin because it is his Duty are too boysterous on the one hand for Augustine does manifestly account this to be the extreamest Pelagianism and the Father I count in framing this distinction for this purpose is too tender on the other It is true a man hath his Natural Faculties and the Object may be revealed but these faculties are corrupt and unsutable to the object There is Nature then and corrupt Nature The Scripture speaks of Man as he is and that is impossible to Falne Nature which to Original Nature was possible The Law it self nevertheless being founded in Gods Nature and Man as Created after his Image is unchangable and cannot cease to require of all men what it did at first of Adam when given in Innocency It is the duty consequently of every body whether he hath Grace or hath not To keep this perfect Law of our Maker entire but we are not to affirm it to be Possible or within the power of any whatsoever No certainly seeing the Scripture tells us so often and so flatly that By the deeds of the Law no flesh living shall be justified Seeing there is no man but is born in original sin which he cannot help and the Apostle calls Concupiscence sin and seeing the Grace of God or the Spirit is not given to any for their fulfilling the Law ef Works but the Law of Grace which is a point not considered on by Augustine I take it and most others we must choose rather to say that the whole duty indeed of man according to the Law of Works take it together is Impossible for so does the Apostle I account