foreknown predestinated and called effectually according to the purpose of his Grace shall fall away either totally or so as not to be finally glorified 5. That Faith Repentance a holy Conversation or any Act or Work whatever done by us or wrought by the Spirit of God in us are any part of that Righteousness for the sake of which or on the account whereof God doth justify any Man or entitle him to Eternal Life Then follows a Testimony against the other Extreams viz. Antinomian Errors Again Anno 1696. in a Paper call'd The second Paper sent to our Brethren we thus give our sense 1. Concerning Iustification That altho the express Word of God doth assert the necessity of Regeneration to our entring into the Kingdom of God and require Repentance that our Sins may be blotted out and Faith in Christ that we may be justified and Holiness of Heart and Life without which we cannot see God yet that none of these or any Work done by Men or wrought by the Spirit of God in them is under any Denomination whatsoever any part of the Righteousness for the sake or on the account whereof God doth pardon justify or accept Sinners or entitle them to Eternal Life that being only the Righteousness of Christ without them imputed to them and received by Faith alone 2. Of a Commutation of Persons between Christ and us As we are to consider our Lord Jesus Christ in his Obedience and Sufferings as God and Man invested with the Office of Mediator so it is apparent this Commutation of Persons with us was not natural in respect of either Nature by which his individual Substance should become ours and ours his nor moral in respect of Qualities or Actions whereby he should become inherently sinful and we immediately sinless nor was it any change whereby his Office of Mediator should be transferred on us but it is to be understood in a legal or judicial sense as we may call it viz. He by Agreement between the Father and him came into our room and stead not to repent and believe for us which the Gospel requires of us as our Duty tho he hath undertaken the Elect shall in due time be enabled thereto but to answer for our Violation of the Law of Works he being made Sin for us that knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. 3. Of God's being pleased or displeased with Christ as standing and suffering in our stead We judg that God was always pleased with Christ both in his Person and Execution of all his Offices which is exprest most particularly in that of his Priestly Iohn 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my Life and no otherwise displeased than as having a dispassionate Will to inflict upon him the Punishment of our Sins which he had undertaken to bear that God might without Injury to his Justice or Honour pardon and save penitent Believers for his Satisfaction and Intercession founded thereon Note It was declared that by the words under any Denomination we exclude all Righteousness from being meritorious or atoning yea or a procuring Cause of these Benefits none is at all so but the Righteousness of Christ But we intended not to exclude what the Gospel requireth in order to our Interest in those Benefits given for the sake of Christ's Righteousness We also in 1697 delivered our Iudgment in this Proposal to our Brethren 1. That Repentance towards God is commanded in order to the Remission of Sins 2. That Faith in Christ is commanded by the Gospel in order to the Justification of our Persons before God for the sake of the alone Righteousness of Christ. 3. That the Word of God requires Perseverance in true Faith and Holiness that we may be Partakers of the Heavenly Glory 4. That the Gospel promiseth Pardon through the Blood of Christ to the Penitent Justification before God to the Believer and the Heavenly Glory to such as persevere in Faith and Holiness and also declareth that God will not pardon the Impenitent justify the Unbeliever nor glorify the Apostate or Unholy 5. That justifying Faith is not only a Perswasion of the Understanding but also a receiving and resting upon Christ alone for Salvation 6. That by Change of Person is meant that whereas we were condemned for our Sins the Lord Jesus was substituted in our room to bear the Punishment of our Sins for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice that whoever believes on him may be acquitted and saved but it is not intended that the Filth of Sin was upon Christ nor that he was a Criminal in God's account 7. That by Christ being our Surety is meant that Jesus Christ our Mediator obliged himself to expiate our Sins by his Blood and to purchase eternal Life for all that believe and Faith and every saving Grace for the Elect but it 's not intended that we were legally reputed to make Satisfaction or purchase eternal Life 8. That by Christ's answering for us the Obligations of the violated Law of Works is intended that whereas the Law obliged us to die for our Sins Christ became obliged to die in our stead and whereas we were after we had sinned still obliged to yield perfect Obedience Christ perfectly obeyed the Law that upon the account of his Active and Passive Obedience Believers might be forgiven and entituled to eternal Life but it is not intended that the sense of the Law of Works should be that if we or Christ obey'd we should live and if Christ suffered we should not die tho we sinned nor that Believers are justified or to be judged by the Law of Works but by the Gospel altho the Righteousness for the sake of which they are justified be as perfect as that Law of Works required and far more valuable CHAP. III. The State of Truth and Error published in the Congregational Ministers Declaration against Antinomian Errors about December 1698. Error 1. THat the eternal Decree gives such an Existence to the Justification of the Elect as makes their Estate whilst in Unbelief to be the same as when they do believe in all respects save only as to the Manifestation and that there is no other Justification by Faith but what is in their Consciences Error 2. That the Elect considered as in their natural Estate or as in the first Adam are not under the denunciation of Wrath by the Law as well as other Unbelievers and impenitent Sinners Truth 1. That there is a difference between the state of the Elect whilst in Unbelief and when Believers besides what is manifestative to their Consciences p. 13. Truth 2. That before they believe they are not personally and actually justified in the Court of Heaven p. 13. and none may expect to be pardoned in a state of Unbelief and Impenitence p. 47. Error 3. That pardoned Sin is no Sin and therefore God cannot see Sin in his People to be displeased
imputed to us in Justification against the Popish Doctrine the generality of the Learned among them do only exclude every thing besides that Righteousness of Christ from being meritorious of Acceptance Pardon Life and any other Blessing and from being any Satisfaction or Compensation for any Sin affirming that this alone can atone the Anger of God for the sake of this alone will he absolve us and nothing below this is perfect enough for us to stand in before the Bar of his Justice And therefore the Work of Faith it self can be no justifying Righteousness in that sense they took justifying Righteousness all which we heartily own and hence they oft appropriate the justifying Aptitude and Office of Faith mostly to a Reliance on that sole meriting Righteousness of Christ and its receiving Forgiveness Acceptance and a Right to Life of meer Mercy for the sake of Christ's alone Merits All which is justly and truly spoken as they accommodate it to the defence of Christ's Righteousness as the only thing appointed or fit for the fore-described Purposes and in opposition to the Popish Doctrine of Merit The Dispute they had with the Popish Church was about this meriting atoning satisfying Righteousness and you I find them often propose that if the Papists would grant that this Righteousness was that of Christ alone the great Controversy about Justification was at an end But at the same time most Protestants and our Homilies do fully grant that Repentance was necessary and required to Forgiveness and Faith to Justification and these Blessings promised to those Graces tho they were not led to dispute whether these were to be called a Righteousness as qualifying the Subject on whom God's justifying Act terminated But whether in that Act God regarded any thing as a meriting absolving satisfying Righteousness any thing as a Satisfaction to Justice any thing as an impelling Motive or valuable Consideration besides the Righteousness of Christ. To this their Debates were confined in their day and this they were intent to maintain as all Christians ought to be Whereas the reason of debating the Name of that by which the Subject of Justification was determined in opposition to such whom God did not justify was not so much before them as before others of later years assaulted by such as went into another Extreme from the Doctrine of Popish Merit Nor was this matter otherwise stated by our able Divines who contend against such Arminians as affirmed the Tò credere to be our justifying Righteousness for by Righteousness such Arminians mean the Righteousness which is part of Payment and stands in the place of and answers the same Ends in our Justification as perfect Obedience served for to sinless Man which we have before stated and renounced Were there need abundant Testimonies offer by which this Head is easily proved tho I grant some Men may be found to vent some Inconsistent Expressions Having premised these things I reassume the Difference about Justification that seems to continue which lies 1. In the manner of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness Both agree it is imputed but how is not so universally assented to One side thinks the sense of imputing Christ's Righteousness to be that God reckons us to have legally done and suffered what Christ did and this to the full Satisfaction of Justice and the Law of Works and therefore are reputed to have perfectly obeyed the Precepts of this Law and fully endured its Curse and for our legally doing so God judgeth and pronounceth us righteous in full Conformity to the Law and therefore entituled to Pardon Adoption and eternal Life If you ask Is this justifying Sentence the Sentence of the Law of Works viz. it s premiant Sanction applied to us by God as the righteous Judg judging us by the Law of Works They answer It is the Sentence of the Law of Works but it is of Gospel-Grace that God allowed Christ to be one Person with us in the Covenant of Works whereby we are thus accounted to obey and suffer in him But others think that the Righteousness of Christ is imputed in the following manner viz. 1. They consider that the Father promised to Christ in Reward of his Obedience and Suffering that they who believed on him should be pardoned adopted dealt with as righteous Persons who had not sinned and be eternally sav'd Hence the Lord Iesus has a right to Believers obtaining these things And as Faith describes the Persons in this Covenant who shall obtain them so when we become Believers we are accounted and adjudged to be such Believers and such as are to obtain those Blessings in Christ's Right 2. They consider God in Christ for sapiential Ends making in the Gospel an Offer of Pardon Adoption and eternal Life to poor Sinners if they believe and promising these Blessings when they believe and still as Blessings bought by Christ's Obedience and Sufferings and promised to him for Believers tho withal used in his Gospel as Motives to inforce his Command of Faith and Calls to it These things thus considered we apprehend that when God in Christ justifieth us he doth not only give us Pardon Adoption and Life but he adjudgeth and sentenceth us to be the Persons that by the Covenant of Redemption were to be pardoned adopted and saved in the right of Christ and to whom the Gospel by its Promise gives a personal Right to that Pardon Adoption and Life as purchased by Christ And he esteems and adjudgeth that the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ in their full virtue is our pleadable Security for the enjoyment of them whereby we have a right to plead his Death and Merits with God as what procured these for us as well as God's Fidelity who promised them to us in his Gospel You see by this account that we rise not so high as to say we are accounted to do and suffer what Christ did and to be absolved immediately by the Sentence of the Law of Works nor fall we so low as a mere Participation of the Effects of Christ's Righteousness but assert an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness it self relatively to those Effects Christ's Right is applied and his very Obedience reckoned to us as what pleads with God for those Effects and secures us against all condemning Obstacles and Challenges The justifying Sentence is not the Sentence of the Law God saith not You have perfectly obeyed therefore you shall live you have satisfied the Curse therefore you shall not die Yet the Righteousness which procured our Salvation and is our adjudged pleadable Security of enjoying this promised Salvation includes an Obedience as perfect as that to which the Law promised Life if we had not sinned and Sufferings equivalent to what the Curse pronounced against us when we sinned But because we apprehend not where this Law includes such a Sentence as this viz. because Christ obeyed you shall live tho you obeyed not and because Christ who sinned not did suffer for your Sins you
all Merits besides Christ's but not exclusively of all governing Methods in applying the effects of Free-Grace They grant Faith in Christ is required that we may be saved we more expresly say it 's by a rectoral Authority they grant it so by the Law of Works we say it 's by a Gospel positive Law tho we grant when this positive Law requireth it we are obliged also by the general Law of Nature to yield Obedience yet not by the Law of Works as specified by Adam's Covenant which Faith in Christ was inconsistent with from the essential Nature of that Covenant Our Brethren are watchful against any inherent Righteousness of man mingling with Christ's Righteousness We besides avoiding of that are solicitous lest men come short of Salvation by the Righteousness of Christ through a neglect of what he requireth in all those who shall be saved by it and yet we declare against all things besides Christ's Righteousness to be any impetrating satisfying atoning meriting or compensating Righteousness and as Faith hath no share or place in this Office so Christ's Righteousness tho the sole meritorious Cause is not that which God by the Gospel requires of Sinners that they may be saved by the Righteousness of Christ. Faith is that commanded Requisite and no more than that its place is thereto confined and therefore here 's no mingling of our Righteousness with Christ's because their Use Place and Offices be so very distinct They seem most afraid of Popery and Arminianism and therefore keep to this sense of being justified by Faith alone viz. we are justified only by Christ believed on or the Object of Faith only is imputed to us for Righteousness We are truly afraid of Popery and Arminianism but not only of these but of Antinomianism too and therefore are intent to maintain two great Truths included in that one Sentence We are justified by Faith viz. 1. That the Believer is absolv'd from Guilt accepted into God's Favour and entituled to eternal Life in and for Christ's Righteousness and neither Faith nor any Grace or Act of ours make the least recompense to God or is the least Price or Merit of Pardon or Life or any motive inclining divine Justice to promise or accept us into his favour or to treat us as righteous Persons This from our heart we own and know that this is what sound Protestants intended by it against the Papists 2. Yet as God promised to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption all Belivers should be absolv'd c. so in the the Gospel Offer of his Grace to Sinners he promised to Men that he would in and for the Righteousness of Christ absolve accept treat as righteous Persons and give eternal Life already purchased by Christ to every true Believer commanding Sinners to believe and threatning that if they believed not they should remain condemned yea become subject to sorer Punishments And that he would judg them by this Gospel Rule of Iudgment Whence we are attentive to a second Truth viz. That God accepts and accounteth Faith a performed Condition of this Gospel-Covenant and upon it acquits the Sinner from the Charge of damning Infidelity and adjudgeth the Believer qua such in opposition to Infidels to be in Christ's Right and by his Gospel Promise entitled to a present personal Interest in the foresaid Absolution Acceptance and Gift of eternal Life yet as procured by Christ's Righteousness alone and applied for his sake To add no more our Brethren in the Doctrine of Justification almost confine their Regards to the Satisfaction of Christ wherein Christ transacted with the provoked Justice of God We besides that consider a propitiated God in Christ applying the effects of his Redemption to Men in a Method of governing Grace but without any real difference in the Doctrine of Satisfaction and withal sincerely granting the Condition is performed in the Strength of Christ freely dispensed Yet upon the whole they provide against carnal Security and we against carnal Boasting They are far from designing to eclipse the Glory of Christ as King Lawgiver and Iudg and we as far from intending the diminution of his Glory as a Priest How unreasonable and unhappy would perpetuated Contests by where the Grounds pretended are of so little weight Thus I have insisted on what seems most like a Difference in the Doctrine of Satisfaction and Iustification Some weak persons may think there is a great Controversy where I see nothing worth our notice they will say Some think we are justified by one Act of Faith viz. Reliance Well but they say justifying Faith is receiving Christ c. as well as a Reliance Ay but a Man sees only with his Eye tho more is of the Essence of a Man But I say no Man sees without that which is of the Essence of his Eye Another thinks justifying Faith as such receives Christ only as a Priest others say it receives him also as a King and Prophet yet the last say the convinced Sinner hath an especial respect to Christ's Priesthood as most agreeable to his present case and the former will say its but an hypocritical Faith that receives not Christ as Prophet and King as well as Priest Nay it s not the true Christ the anointed Messias who is received unless it be as Prophet King and Priest even Christ Iesus the Lord. Ay but some say Repentance is an effect of Iustification but there be very few of our Congregational Brethren of that mind and I suppose they mean Works meet for Repentance and not a change of the purpose of the heart Nay but several say Faith alone is the instrument of Iustification others make Repentance the Condition of Forgiveness What then seeing the first grant there is no justifying Faith without Repentance and the last grant the aptitude of Faith to receive and acknowledg Christ which I suppose they mean by instrument is far greater than Repentance But when both sides consider Faith as an ordained Condition as well as an Instrument they 'l scarce dispute but that Repentance is a Condition of Pardon as well as Faith unless they would agree to join them together by calling Faith a penitent Faith or Repentance a believing Repentance connoting at once a Sinner's purpose to return to God by Christ the Mediator and his closing with Christ the Mediator that he may return to God by him tho I think the end is first agreed to before the way or means to that end is resolved on or made use of Obj. But sure there is a vast difference between those who think we are justified by Faith only and those who think we are justified by Works as well as by Faith Answ. 1. Not so very great when both mean that we are justified neither by Faith nor Works as the word justified is commonly taken for both agree that we are absolved accepted as righteous and entitled to eternal Life only for Christ's Death and Obedience as the only meriting satisfactory and
he hath appointed them to Salvation Note Reader that these Divines do here join together the Covenant of Redemption with Christ and the Gospel-Covenant whereby are dispensed to us the Benefits impetrated by Christ which two distinguished would lead to clearer thoughts Error The Covenant of Grace hath no Condition to be performed on Man's part tho in the strentgh of Christ Neither is Faith it self the Condition of this Covenant but all the saving Benefits of this Covenant are actually ours before we are born Neither are we required so much as to believe that we may come to have an Interest in the Covenant Benefits Truth 9. I shall express this in the words of the Assembly and Congregational Elders at the Savoy Confes. of Faith ch 14. 2. Declarat ch 14. a. 2. of saving Faith By this Grace a Christian believeth to be true whatever is revealed in the Word for the Authority of God speaking therein and acteth differently upon that which each particular Passage thereof containeth yielding Obedience to the Commands trembling at the Threatnings and embracing the Promises of God for this Life and that which is to come But the principal Acts of saving Faith are accepting receiving and resting upon Christ alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by virtue of the Covenant of Grace Error Saving Faith is nothing but our Persuasion or absolute concluding within our selves that our Sins are pardoned and that Christ is ours Truth 10. Christ is freely offered to be a Head and Saviour to the vilest Sinners who will knowingly assent to the Truth of the Gospel and from a Conviction of their Sin and Misery out of Christ are humbled and truly willing to renounce all their Idols and Sins denying their own carnal Self and Merits and accept of Christ as offered in the Gospel relying on him alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life Error Christ is offered to Blasphemers Murderers and the worst of Sinners that they remaining ignorant unconvinced unhumbled and resolved in their purpose to continue such they may be assured they have a full Interest in Christ and this by only concluding in their own Minds upon this Offer that Christ is theirs Truth 11. Every Man is without Christ or not united to Christ until he be effectually called but when by this Call the Spirit of God enclineth and enableth him willingly to accept of Christ as a Head and Saviour a Man becomes united to him and Partaker of those Influences and Privileges which are peculiar to the Members of the Lord Jesus Error All the Elect are actually united to Christ before they have the Spirit of Christ or at all believe in him even before they are born yea and against their Will Truth 12. Tho Faith be no way a meritorious Cause of a Sinner's Justification yet God hath promised to justify all such as truly believe and requires Faith as an indispensible Qualification in all whom he will justify for Christ's Merits declaring that Unbelief shall not only hinder Mens knowing that they are justified but that it is a bar to any Person 's being justified while he continues an Unbeliever Error The whole use of Faith in Justification is only to manifest that we were justified before and Faith is no way necessary to bring a Sinner into a justified State nor at all useful to that end In a Digression there about Repentance is added Truth Altho neither Faith nor Repentance be any part of the meriting Righteousness for which we are justified and the Habits of both are wrought at the same time and included in the Regenerating Principle and there must be an assenting Act of Faith before there be any exercise of true Repentance And Repentance as consisting in the fruits meet for it viz. an external Reformation and a fruitful Life must follow Pardon as doth also an ingenuous Sorrow for Sin in the sense of Pardon Nevertheless Repentance as it consists in some degree of Humblings and Sorrow from Convictions of our lost State and the Evil of Sin with a sincere purpose of Heart to turn from our Sin and Idols to God is absolutely necessary in order to the forgiveness of Sin Error Our Sins are forgiven before any Repentance and Believers ought not to complain or mourn or sorrow for the Sins they have committed Truth 13. Tho neither Holiness sincere Obedience or good Works do make any Atonement for Sin or are in the least the meritorious Righteousness whereby Salvation is caused or for which this or any Blessing becomes due to us as of Debt yet as the Spirit of Christ freely worketh all Holiness in the Soul and enableth us to sincere Obedience and good Works so the Lord Jesus hath of Grace and for his own Merits promised to bring to Heaven such as are Partakers of true Holiness perform this sincere Obedience and do these good Works perseveringly and appoints these as the Way and Means of a Believer's obtaining Salvation and several other Blessings requiring these as indispensible Duties and Qualifications of all such whom he will so save and bless and excluding all that want or neglect them or live under the Power of what 's contrary thereto viz. Profaneness Rebellion and utter Unfruitfulness Error Men have nothing to do in order to Salvation nor is Sanctification a jot the way of any Person to Heaven nor can the Graces or Duties of Believers no nor Faith it self do them the least Good or prevent the least Evil nor are they of any use to their Peace or Comfort yea tho Christ be explicitely owned and they be done in the strength of the Spirit of God And a Believer ought not to think he is more pleasing to God by any Grace he acteth or Good he doth nor may Men expect any Good to a Nation by the Humiliation earnest Prayer or Reformation of a People Truth 14. Tho we ought to intend God's Glory as our supream End in all our Duties and design therein the expressing our Love and Gratitude to God for his Benefits with a great regard to publick Good Yet we also lawfully may and ought to strive after Grace grow in it and perform holy Duties and Services with an Eye to and Concern for our own spiritual and eternal Advantage Error No Man ought to propose to himself any Advantage by any Religious Duty he performeth nor ought he in the least to intend the Profit of his own Soul by any Christian Endeavours it being vain and unlawful to do any thing with an Eye to our spiritual or eternal Good tho in Subordination to God's Glory in Christ. Truth 15. The ordinary way whereby a Man attaineth a well-grounded Assurance is not by immediate objective Revelation or an inward Voice saying Thy Sins are forgiven thee But when the Believer is examining his Heart and Life by the Word the holy Spirit enlightens the Mind there to discern Faith and Love and such other Qualifications which the Gospel declareth to be infallible
of the Threatning of the Law Determ 12. When he calls Sin an occasion of Christ's Death he there calls it also a remote meritorious Cause Determ 5. And as for a proper meritorious Cause as when Children are punished for their Parents Sins Determ 5. His Safaction yielded to our most just Rector a sufficient ground on which to forgive penitent Believers spiritual and eternal Punishments Disâ— 2. Nay he sees not supposing the Law of Works how God could forgive our Sins without the Penal Satisfaction of Christ Disp. 2. Determ 15. It were endless to produce the Instances demonstrating the Orthodoxness of this great Man as to the Satisfaction of Christ against Socinianism And by the way such as say Christ's penal Satisfaction was not necessary to the forgiveness of our Sins do a thousand times more favour Socinianism than Mr. Baxter's Notions or Words can be wrested to Perhaps others who follow Episcopius and some other Arminians when all must acquit him of Socinianism may surmise he favoureth their Notion of Christ's Death as if it were a Satisfaction only to the Will of God and not a full Satisfaction to the Iustice of God To this I answer Mr. B. distinguisheth Satisfaction into that which is the fulfilling the Will of a Person and that which is the Payment of what was owing by an Equivalent otherwise not due And he affirms that Christ's Satisfaction was not a mere fulfilling the Will of God tho it supposeth his Consent but it was a full Equivalent to what Punishments we deserved in that it better answered the Ends of Divine Government than the Sinner's Punishment would have done it more fully demonstrated the vindictive Justice of God than if the Sinner had been damned and it was a full Satisfaction to governing Justice and the End of the Law Vbi supra Determ 10 11 12 15. I thought this account necessary not only for the forementioned End but also that our Agreement in opposition to Socinianism might not exclude Mr. B. and such as approve of his Scheme which would add strength to that Heresy and be injurious to many worthy Persons nor ought a few words so fully explained be pressed to brand them with that odious Title who could more plausibly fix the same Character on Persons from things plainly asserted in the Socinian sense and subserving their Hypothesis As Christ's Death was not necessary to the remission of Sin the Promise of Forgiveness is no Effect of Christ's Death Repentance under the Gospel is an Effect of justifying Faith in Christ. The preaching of Reconciliation to Sinners is only to publish to them that God is already reconciled to them and to call them to be reconciled to God Many others might be instanced but I think it were unjust even upon such grounds to call any of these Socinians CHAP. VII An Enquiry into what Difference seems to remain concerning the Satisfaction of Christ and Iustification of a Sinner And this Difference reduced below any Cause of Discord I Think both sides are acquitted from all dangerous Errors concerning the Satisfaction of Christ and Justification of a Sinner nor can I doubt but the impartial Reader must apprehend the remaining Difference doth not lie in Opinions about these Doctrines themselves but in accommodating some words in opposition to other Errors which either Side have more especially applied their Minds to confute unless he should also ascribe it to a Zeal for sundry received Phrases on the one part and an apprehension in the other part that more accuracy is become needful since those Phrases were received 1. In both these Doctrines the visible Spring of what Difference remains is a different Notion of Christ's Suretiship For by this the word Imputation as used in both these Doctrines is governed viz. how our Sins were imputed to Christ when he satisfied and how Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us when we are justified both which depend upon the various Conceptions of the Suretiship of Christ and the manner of his representing us which I will begin with One Side thinks him a mediating Surety and distinguishing both as to the matter engaged and Instrument wherein he voluntarily engaged himself as also the respect he had to us therein 1. In the Covenant of Redemption they consider Christ agreeing with his Father the Terms of Satisfaction to Justice and Impetration of Life for Sinners and obliging himself to assume our Nature and therein perfectly to obey the Law die an accursed Death with whatever was equivalent to what by the Covenant of Works our Sins deserved Here they think Christ did not covenant strictly in our stead or as our Proxy tho he covenanted to die in our stead even strictly so He transacted as a free Interposer tho for our Salvation we were no federating Party tho we were the Persons whose Salvation was his promised Reward And therefore we have more reason since we are become his Members to say we intercede in Christ now than to say that we covenanted in Christ then Finally they account his Act of engaging so peculiar to himself that his non-performance of what he engaged which was impossible had not made us more guilty tho it would have left us miserable for our own Sins there being no other way to redeem us 2. They find Christ called a Surety in the Gospel-Covenant made with fallen Man Heb. 7. 22. and no where else This Covenant supposeth the former yea supposeth Christ's having executed his Engagements by the Covenant of Redemption to make Satisfaction to Justice i. e. it was at first accepted as if executed for this Covenant with Man doth not adjust the terms of Redemption but the way of conveying the Effects of that Redemption and is called the Testament of our Lord Jesus whereby he bequeaths the Blessings he acquired by his atoning Death In this Covenant Christ is such a Surety as not only assures us all will be performed which is promised to us on God's part but that undertakes to bring in the Elect and for the Perseverance of Believers unto eternal Life by his exerting that Power and Authority he hath received But here also they apprehend Christ a distinct federating Party A Mediator treating and obliging himself to make the Covenant stand sure and effect the Ends it was designed for but he binds not himself to believe repent or persevere for us but that we shall repent believe and persevere nor doth his Engagement that we should do so prevent our personal Engagement by Covenant to do it our selves tho in his Strength Now our Act of engaging is not his engaging Act but an Effect of it nor is our repenting his repenting Act but the Effect of his engaged Assistance nor is that Assistance of his reckoned to be legally our assisting our selves nor can we say that we covenanted in Christ to bring in the Elect or that Believers shall persevere By which with other Reasons we are induced to think that in covenanting he
whole scope of the Gospel must be contradicted if Unbelievers do not remain condemned and Believers only are justified But yet it seems hard to apprehend that God by the Law of Works accounts the Person of a Believer to have suffered in Christ and therefore to be absolved whom yet he did not account to suffer in Christ while he was an Vnbeliever and therefore condemned him and this by that very same Law which now acquits him I know to make this consist it 's offered that the Elect are not Christ's Seed till they become Believers But this comes short for it will thence follow that Christ in his Death was a strict Representative who personated Believers qua Believers which will induce ill Consequences And yet further it is not true that the Persons of Believers were seminally in Christ when he died as we were in Adam when he sinned and so no Argument can be brought from that Instance I grant that both the Merit and the powerful Virtue whereby our Persons in time obtain Faith were in Christ before we were born but that makes not Christ the Root of our Persons at that time but of that regenerating Virtue whereby we become Believers and therefore tho as to this change of our Qualification we may be called Christ's Seed when we believe yet it 's not such a Seed as it may be said of we suffered in him as we sinned in Adam who was the natural Root of our Persons and thereupon such a Representative as his Descendents sinned in What may be said of Christ's adopting Merit will have no place here for these Authors make Adoption to be an Effect of Justification and so the Imputation is prior 2. There be others who are for imputed Righteousness in se but cannot approve of the former manner of Imputation among whom there is some variety in wording their Conceptions but they come to one and the same thing viz. that God adjudgeth the Believer to be one whose Absolution Adoption and Glory were promised to Christ in Reward of his Death and Obedience by the Covenant of Redemption which are promised also to the Believer himself in the Gospel-Covenant and for his actual Interest and Enjoyment thereof as also Acceptance and Treatment as a righteous Person against all Challenges God judicially accounts what Christ hath done and suffered to be his pleadable Security This we take to be Imputation Secondly By the Opinion of those who say Christ's Righteousness is not imputed in se but only as to Effects they in Expressions oppose all the forementioned account denying that the first Head is true and that the second is any Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in se. Nevertheless they grant that Christ's Righteousness is the meritorious Cause of our Justification by Faith and seem to insist mostly upon its Efficacy to that end as Christ's Satisfaction was the ground upon which God enacted the Gospel-Covenant wherein our Faith tho imperfect is accounted for Righteousness Concerning this Opinion I shall offer a few things 1. None ought to narrow it as if the Authors meant that Pardon and eternal Life are not merited by the Righteousness of Christ for they affirm that these and other Gospel-Blessings are merited by Christ as well as the Gospel-Covenant Pray say not this it 's not only the Covenant it self but those very Blessings which that Covenant conveys that are the merited Effects of Christ's Death and Obedience they were his deserved Rewards which are dispensed to us upon believing This I insert to obviate a Conceit too much improved by some so stupid or worse that they will not own this Distinction and still cry out as if their Opinion confined the Influence of Christ's Righteousness to the procuring of a Law whereby Men were to purchase Pardon and Life by their own Faith Whereas they are so far from this that they affirm these Blessings were already accounted purchased and Authority in Christ to dispense them before he could enact such a Law 2. They intend not to exclude Christ's Righteousness from being imputed in any sense for they say it's imputed quoad effectus and therefore should not be charged to deny all Imputation or represented to say we are pardoned and saved for our own Works without any Imputation of Christ's Death and Obedience at all 3. In all which they affirm concerning Justification they still suppose Christ's complete Satisfaction and are sound therein None can accuse them to differ from the Orthodox as to Christ's expiating Sacrifice or impetration of eternal Life 4. I could wish a very worthy Person of this Opinion would review his own account of Justification wherein he saith it 's that Act whereby God imputes to every sound Believer his Faith for Righteousness upon the account of Christ's Satisfaction and Merits and gives Pardon and Life as the Benefits of it i. e. of Justification which he further explicates Through Christ's Sacrifice the Defects of this Faith which is our Righteousness are pardoned and by his Merits that imperfect Duty is accounted or imputed to us for Righteousness which it is not in it self Had I thus stated this Point I should ask my self Do not I set Pardon too remote from Christ's Sacrifice as the meritorious Cause And how can Pardon be the Effect of imputing Faith for Righteousness which is Justification and yet God cannot impute Faith for Righteousness unless he first pardon its Defects for the sake of Christ's Sacrifice But the cause of my mentioning this Account follows 5. They do affirm what amounts to a real Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in se at least what supposeth this Imputation and infers it to be necessary For how by Christ's Merits can a Righteousness in it self imperfect be reckoned before a just God for our perfect Righteousness and yet those Merits for which it is so reckoned not be imputed at all for Righteousness to us who have that Faith Would Faith be no Righteousness except the Divine Mind did apply the Merits of Christ to Faith to make it a Righteousness upon which I am accounted righteous by this Faith and yet the Divine Mind not apply to me that Righteousness of Christ without which my Faith had left me still unrighteous whereas it seems undeniable as far as Christ's Righteousness is necessary to make my personal Faith my Righteousness in God's account that same very Righteousness is necessary to make my Person righteous in God's account Moreover they own that God promised to Christ in reward of his meriting Sufferings and Obedience that all Believers should be absolved and glorified and can they be adjudged to this Absolution and Glory without a judicial acknowledgment that they are to be absolved and glorified in that Right of Christ which resulted from that Promise made to him And can that be without an Imputation of those Sufferings and Obedience of Christ which are rewarded in that Right of Christ and thereby in those Blessings wherein Believers have this judicially acknowledged
signs of Regeneration And he adds such Power to the Testimony of Conscience for the Truth and In-being of these Graces as begets in the Soul a joyful sense of its reconciled State and some comfortable freedom from those Fears which accompany a doubting Christian and according to the Evidence of these Graces Assurance is ordinarily strong or weak Error Assurance is not attained by the Evidence of Scripture-Marks of Signs of Grace or by the Spirit 's discovering to us that he hath wrought in our Hearts any holy Qualifications But Assurance comes only by an inward Voice of the Spirit saying Thy Sins are forgiven thee and our believing thereupon that our Sins are forgiven Truth 16. The Sins of Believers have the loathsomness of Sin adhering to them which God seeth and accounteth the Committers guilty thereby and they ought to charge themselves therewith so as to stir up themselves to Repentance and renew their Actings of Faith on Christ for Forgiveness Nevertheless they ought not thereby to fear their being out of a justified State further than their Falls give them just cause of suspecting that Sin hath Dominion over them and that their first believing on Christ was not sincere Error God seeth no Sin in Believers tho he see the Fact neither doth He charge them with any Sin nor ought they to charge themselves with any Sin nor be at all sad for them nor confess repent or do any thing as a Means of their Pardon no nor in order to assuring themselves of Pardon even when they commit Murder Adultery or the grossest Wickedness Truth 17. It 's true of Believers that if Sin should have Dominion over them they would thereby be subject to Condemnation And tho the Grace of God will prevent the Dominion of Sin in every elect Believer and so keep them from eternal Death yet true Believers may by Sin bring great hurt upon themselves in Soul and Body which they ought to fear and they may expect a share in National Judgments according as they have contributed to common Guilt Error The grossest Sins that Believers can commit cannot do them the least harm neither ought they to fear the least hurt by their own Sins nor by National Sins yea tho themselves have had a hand therein Truth 18. Tho God is not so angry with his People for their Sins as to cast them out of his Covenant-favour yet by their Sins he is so displeased as for them to correct his Children tho he speaks Instructions by his Rebukes Error None of the Afflictions of Believers have in them the least of God's Displeasure against their Persons for their Sins Truth 19. Tho the present sincere Holiness of Believers be not perfect according to the Precepts of the Word nor valuable by the Sanction of the Law of Innocency nor any Atonement for our Defects and we still need Forgiveness and the Merits of Christ for Acceptance thereof yet as far as it prevails it's lovely in it self and pleasing to God and is not Dung or Filth Error The greatest Holiness in Believers tho wrought in them by the Holy Ghost is meer Dung Rottenness and Filthiness as in them Truth 20. Gospel-preaching is when the Messengers of Christ do publish to fallen Sinners the good News of Salvation by Christ to be obtained in the way which he hath appointed in his Word freely offering Salvation on his Terms earnestly perswading and commanding Men in the Name of Christ to comply with those Terms as ever they would escape the Misery they are under and possess the Benefits he hath purchased directing all to look to him for Strength and acknowledg him as the only Mediator and his Obedience and Sufferings as the sole Atonement for Sin and meriting Cause of all Blessings instructing them in all revealed Truth and by Gospel-Motives urging them to obey the whole Will of God as a Rule of Duty but especially to be sincere and upright pressing after Perfection Error Gospel-Preaching is to teach Men they were as much pardoned and as acceptable to God always as when they are regenerate and while they were ungodly they had the same Interest in God and Christ as when they believe neither can Sin any way hinder their Salvation or their Peace nor have they any thing to do to further either of them Christ having done all for them and given himself to them before any holy Qualification or Endeavour Truth 21. Legal Preaching is to preach the Law as a Covenant of Innocency or Works or to preach the Mosaick or Jewish Covenant of Peculiarity But it is not Legal Preaching to require and perswade to Faith Holiness or Duties by Promises and Threatnings according to the Grace of the Gospel and direct Men to fear and hope accordingly Error Legal Preaching is to call People to act any Grace or do any Duty as a required Means of Salvation or inward Peace or to threaten them with Death or any Affliction to cause Fear if they commit the grossest Sins and backslide and fall away or to promise them any Blessing upon their Obedience to the Commandments of Christ or urge the Threatnings to perswade Sinners to believe and repent CHAP. II. A Renunciation of sundry Errors Anno 1696. A Paper called The second Paper 1696. A Proposal made by us 1697. ALtho we hoped the Caution used in the foresaid State of Truth and Error would prevent the Imputation of Socinianism and other hurtful Errors yet finding our Brethren dissatisfied we subscribed with them Anno 1692. about seven Months after the State of Truth was published certain Doctrinal Propositions collected out of the Assembly's Confession which we printed Anno 1693. with this Title An Agreement in Doctrinals c. but that being too long to be here inserted we shall confine our selves to the more material Parts of what further Account we have given of our Judgment concerning the Doctrines of Satisfaction and Iustification which may be seen at large in our Answer to the Report p. 3 11 27 33 c. Anno 1694. In a Paper sent to our Congregational Brethren it 's thus declared We the united Ministers in and about London do renounce and testify against these following Opinions 1. That there is no definite number of Persons elected from all Eternity whom God will by his appointed Means certainly save and bring to Eternal Life leaving the rest who fall under a just Condemnation for their Original and Actual Sins especially for their Neglect and Contempt of the Means of Salvation 2. That Christ died equally for all Men not intending the final Salvation of some more than others 3. That Men have in their own Power by the use of the natural Faculties of their Reason and Will unassisted by the special Light and Grace of the Holy Ghost to perform all that is necessary to Salvation or that his special efficacious Light and Grace is not necessary to their Conversion Perseverance and final Salvation 4. That any of them whom God hath