not command any thing that is impossible I mean not that is impossible to such a person as now he is and at such a time but that is impossible in it self to be done But now it is a thing not possible or any way feasable for me to lay hold on Christ a Saviour unless he be ordained and appointed a Saviour for me and this cannot be but by Gods appointment and institution setting him forth to be a common Sacrifice and propitiation thus it is in life spiritual even as in corporal life and the course of nature it is impossible to be fed and nourished by a stone because it never was ordained of God for food Therefore Jesus Christ did give himself a Sacrifice for all men that hear the Gospel and as for them who never heard of him he offered Sacrifice for their sins also and whosoever shall go and tell them so shall tell them but the truth Although untill they hear it they do not sin in not beleeving it as they do who hear and beleeve not So much for the general intention and ordination of Christs Death for all men But as there is this general Redemption by means of that one Sacrifice for all men so there is proper to those who are chosen to life A special Redemption which as it proceeds from Election Eph. 1.4 so it consists in actual forgiveness of sins v. 7 in whom we have Redemption the forgiveness of sins All men are no where said to be elected All men are no where said to be forgiven So some Redemption belongs to all but not every kinde of Redemption And that the intention of benefit by Christs Passion was not alike to all on his part but more to some than to others appeareth hence that there was not the like application of it made by him to all He who offered himself a Sacrifice for the sins of all men yet did pray for some onely Joh. 17. 9. And God who gave his son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish did absolutely intend that the benefit of that promise should infallibly take place in some by removing that infidelitie which might have hindred them and by giving faith which enabled them to perform the condition and lay hold on the promise for want of which faith others are lost If in time and in execution he dealeth not alike the fruit of Christs Death to all men then may we safely gather that his purpose and intention touching the fruit of Christs Death was not alike to all men Executio est speculum Decreti we may safely behold and view Gods purpose and determination in what he doth in time effect and bring to pass And if any man shall now murmure within himself and say I know not whether I be of that selected number for whom Christs Death was intended to be actually every way efficacious nor whether Gods love and good will be as much to me as it is to any other and shall thereupon neglect the duties of Gods law and the means of his own eternal safety giving ear to the whispers of some false teachers by whom he is encouraged so to do or at leastwise excused for so doing rather than listening to the grave and wholsome advice of our Church-Articles which is To receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth in holy Scriptures I shall onely desire him to call to minde that saying of Moses Deut. 29. Secret things belong to the Lord our God but things revealed belong to us In which words the Man of God setteth bounds to our knowledge and to our search as once he did to the people at the foot of the mount that they might know their distance and keep it and not at their utmost peril break thorow ani gaze And whosoever he be that shall refuse to entertain and embrace points of belief and the Doctrine of godliness fully revealed and in the mean time busily intermeddle with secrets reserved shall add to disobedience the sacriledge of curiosity and may fear that God will set his face against him that shall dare to cross and thwart in such a manner so severe an Edict made known and published Having delivered by way of Question and Answer that Christs Death was a satisfactory Ransome for all and that nevertheless the greatest part go to destruction he proceedeth Qu. 96. How can that be if Christs Death was a satisfactory Ransome for their sins what shall they perish for A. Because he here through coming a light into the world they love darkness rather sin against his mediation and refuse to be saved by him Qu. 97. Was not his Death the Ransome for these sins too A. Properly and absolutely it was not so as to make the forgiveness of them due debt but onely for the sin of Adam and the sins that it brought upon us considered as before and without Christs coming which was all the sin we were bound over to death by and must have perished in had not God sent him to die for us Qu. 98. Must all they then that sin against his Mediation and the light and Grace thereby received perish A. All that persist finally so to sin shall but not all that at any time sin such sins for he can forgive them also and doth to them that repent of them Qu. 99. How can that be A. Very well because of the superabundancy of the worth and merit of his Death beyond the demerit of Adams sin and of all the sins that thereby he found upon us The Brief of these Instructions is this All sin and sins whatsoever Original and Actual of all men whomsoever whether they repent of those sins or not do obtain at Gods hand forgiveness as due debt by means and vertue of Christs satisfaction those sins excepted which are against the Gospel and Christ coming a light into the world yet these may be forgiven too if they be repented of because Christs gift for Justification superaboundeth for the forgiveness of more sins than Adams transgression brought upon us An accusation that is found to be false reboundeth with greater force upon him that brought it I will not charge the Catechist with this opinion now set down by me It is charitable to think he wrote here he could not well tell what but I do charge his words his Questions and Answers with the collection abovesaid The worst of Pagans may claim it seems as due debt the pardon of their most atrocious crimes because these are sins that Adams sin brought upon them Answ 97. that Christ found upon them Answ 99 Original sin produceth or bringeth upon us all actual sins as the root produceth the fruit The greatest sins of all those by the Apostle enumerated Rom. 1. Sins against the law of nature sins ripe to judgement filled in measure and running over such as for number and greatness and multiplication follow one another till they reach to
coming One text he alledgeth but depraveth it that it may serve his purpose Rom. 5.16,17 The judgement was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences to justification therefore Christs Death was properly for those sins he found upon us for those sins which were brought upon us by Adam but for no other sins properly and absolutely Onely out of the superabundance of Christs Grace upon our Repentance shall be forgiven more sins than ever came by Adam as if infidelity and sinning against the light of the Gospel and refusing to be saved and love of darkness more than light were not found upon us by means of Adams transgression And secondly I answer the meaning of the Apostles words is this The first Adams sin was but one but when the second Adam cometh doth he onely take away that one sin not so he doth set us free from many offences that is from the multitude of offences or actual sins committed by us Now S. Paul doth not distinguish of those many offences and why should any other then but would be taken to mean all kinde of offences whether considered before and without Christs coming or else proceeding out of love of darkness when his coming is made known From all kinde of actual sins properly and intentionally though not absolutely without Repentance Christs off-spring or children are discharged through Christ their Head and Father Qu. 136 What is Election A. A gracious act of Gods free will in which he before the foundations of the world chose or purposed to choose the man Jesus Christ into unity with the eternal Word and and so to be his holy One the treasury of all his blessing and worker out of all his pleasure and in him all the seed springing forth of the travail of his soul to holiness and blessing with him for the praise of his own grace The question is propounded concerning Election the main or chief part of the answer is returned concerning the Incarnation of the son of God or the uniting the man Jesus Christ with the eternal word A bold Innovation Confusion and Elusion Innovation so will I think it and call it untill I can finde who hath gone before him of the Papists Protestants of the Remonstrants Lutherans or any other in this definition Confusion in that he hath confounded and in a manner made all one those things which are of a quite differing and disparate nature Elusion for what greater abuse or mockage can by any man be put upon his friend than to stretch forth his hand and hold out one thing and when he should take it to give him quite another Should any man take such libertie as to imitate him he might reduce not the Incarnation onely but most of the Articles of the Creed and most of the works of God to Election And even this great Mystery of the Incarnation which appertained not to this place he hath expressed very untowardly Had he been so wary as to keep himself to the Athanasian Creed he had not used those words of God choosing the man Jesus Christ to be united with the word but of Christ assuming the manhood into God or to the Eternal word The Man denotes the Person The Manhood denotes the Nature Jesus Christ did not assume mans Person but mans Nature The Humanity was framed and united both at the same instant of time the making taking to himself our flesh was but one Act. If the Son of God had taken to himself a man already made and perfected and having personal subsistence then there should have been two persons in Christ whereas there is but one person consisting of two natures as our Authour hath soundly and fully delivered above in the Answer to the 68 Question So that here wresting that to his purpose which did not belong to it to the intent he might be thought not to deny all personal Election but that God chooseth One man particularly and definitely he hath unwittingly dashed himself upon Nestorianisme And if any man shall say now That I deal not fairly thus to aggravate a mistake of this kinde where no harm is intended but all is meant well as I am willing to acknowledge out of his own words elsewhere I shall alledge that for my self which is to be found if I mistake not and is observed in the Civil Law and as I think in our Laws too Res illicita jocularia casum reddit atrociorem He that being seriously employed in his honest calling or any lawfull action doth by way of mis-adventure procure some danger or damage to his neighbours goods or life or limb shall not incur the same guilt nor draw upon himself the same punishment that another shall who doth the very same harm whiles he is either in sport and idle or else bent upon some other mischief Our Authour was meditating a Mock-answer to a serious Question and studying how to elude and evade and make void Gods Election of particular persons to that purpose wresting both the word of God and the Analogy of Faith a bad intent an ill designe and work in prosecution of which while he stumbled upon an old condemned heresie the blame of what befell him may with right and reason rest upon him After the prime and principal part of his Answer followeth something touching what is mentioned in the Question the other I called a Mock-Answer but in such a manner as if he were afraid of being guilty of following his Elders Tradition or of delivering what he hath received of our Church affecting to be wiser then his Teachers who yet have delivered nothing but what they have received of Christ and his Apostles This may appear by these particulars First whereas he saith chose or purposed to choose I do mis-doubt his disjunctive as tending to overthrow all precedaneous Election In Copulatives both must be true to make the proposition true but in Disjunctives it is enough if one of them hold true and it is likely that with some of his partners he will betake himself if need be to the sole purpose or intention to Elect. So abundantly cautelous he is that there should be no Election whatsoever ab aeterno though it be but such as one would think might very safely have been yeelded open door Preface That any uncalled are ever called Elect I can no where finde in Scripture In what terms would he have it delivered that he might say Now have I found it There are Elect from the beginning Elect before the foundation of the world therefore as yet uncalled he may finde Election placed before Vocation in that chain Rom. 8. When as they hear the Elect spoken of they will tell you that Elect doth not signifie chosen but choise or Excellent Tell them it is Electos quos elegit the Elect whom he hath chosen they will say That God chooseth them then when they beleeve Tell them that God doth choose
are the World the Flesh and the Devil Now in this Answer Mr Horn takes the word Flesh for the work of God or created nature even such as was in our blessed Saviour as by his text of Joh. 4. appears But it is not the sinfull lusts of the Flesh it is the Flesh which in Scripture ordinarily without any manner of Addition is spoken of as our Spiritual enemy and it signifies not the Body nor yet sense and appetite inferiour to reason but it signifies the corruption of our nature repugnant to the Law of God defiling Body and Soul and the highest faculties of the minde And thus the best of Popish expositours interpret the word howsoever others of them so give the meaning that many of their common followers think that to crucifie the flesh is to starve themselves as they think that to renounce the world is to go into a Monastery where they enjoy the plenty of the world without the trouble that belongs to it A man would think saith Saint Augustine De Civ. Dei lib. 14. cap. 2 that the Epicureans lived according to the flesh because they followed bodily pleasures and the Stoicks according to the Spirit because they placed happiness in the minde Sed sicut loquitur Scriptura divina secundùm carnem vivere utrique monstrantur but according as the holy Scripture speaketh both of them live according to the flesh That which deceived him was as I suppose the Epithet of sinfull as if therefore some lusts of the flesh were not sinfull Whereas Epithets are not always put for distinction but often for Amplification and Efficacy So may we read Vastum aequor gelidum Boream for Emphasis and not Difference and in Hebr. 12. 23. Spiritus justorum perfectorum out of which one of the Pontifician writers would prove Purgatory This sheweth saith he that there are spirits of just men not yet made perfect A weak argument as it was a wicked one of another that said the Apostle Peter did insinuate some service of Idols to be lawfull because he said 1 Epist. 4. 3. according to their vulgar illicitis idolorum cultibus unlawfull services of Idols The World Flesh and Devil which we have renounced are enumerated by the Apostle Ephes. 2. v. 2 and 3. This world said he there our Church added an Epithet This wicked world The lusts of our Flesh said the Apostle our Church added an Epithet sinfull lusts but neither of them for difference but for Emphasis and Aggravation Qu. and Answ 40. in marg. It was called the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil because God therein would try whether man would do good or evil and Adam had therein distinction of good and evil Good and Evil here do not signifie Duty and Sin or Obedience and Disobedience but Happiness and Misery happiness to be enjoyed and misery to be undergone And Knowledge here signifieth Experience or as we commonly call it wofull Experience when they should know Good by the losse of it and Evil by the sense of it Howsoever Satan took occasion from the name to abuse the womans credulity and curiosity as if she should have attained some rare knowledge that would have made her blessed and even God-like As therefore the one of the two was called the Tree of Life so might the other be called for so it was the Tree of Death and plainly they were told that whensoever they did eat of it they should die the death This being the reason of the name as it is in a manner agreed upon by all I marvell why our Authour should balk it and give us two other reasons why it is called the tree of Knowledge whereof the one is obscure and the other unsound referring it to Gods knowledge as if God did thereby come to know what man would do Yet should I not have noted this or made any stay at it but that I know how far the Socinians have gone in denial of Divine Prescience and what haste some of the Remonstrants make in following after them and what Doctrine one of the prime Universalists delivered long ago namely Fr. Puccius in his Catholick Assertion of the Efficacie of Christs Death in all men as they are men confuted both by Papist and Protestant above three score years now past The ways of Men and Angels saith he before the fall and after the fall which they might have gone in and did not as well as those they did go in were both alike foreseen of God not these more then those adeòut juxta sensum humanism possemus dicere cum ignorasse quae nos contingentia dicimus I grant that in holy Scripture God is said to Tempt or trie and no more then that is said here and that in Genes 22 12. Now I know thou fearest God is just as much as is said v. 1 God did tempt Abraham But who knoweth not that this and many the like are spoken humanitùs in a manner of speech borrowed from men as when he doeth as a man being angry useth to do then is he said to be angry and when he doeth as a man that repenteth him of anything useth to do then is he said to repent So commanding Abraham to offer his son yet not intending that he sould offer him he is said to tempt or trie him because he did ad similitudinem tentantis after the manner of men who will usually do or say this or that onely to learn or know the purpose or disposition of another as yet unknown And in like sort it may be said that God did tempt or trie Adam in the Precept touching the tree of knowledge But then first let us not make more figurative or tropical locutions than need or than there are And secondly whatsoever improper speeches there are found in Gods word that should be proper and plain and easie that is intended for the capacity and instruction of children They should be told and the common people also what irreligious principles those who plead so hard for Their libertie of mans will after all their tragical declamations are forced to maintain that so they may tremble to set foot in such ways as necessarily and naturally end among other things in denying Gods fore-knowledge of humane actions For what good Christian is there that will not soon take check at this though but meanly seasoned with Religion In the Question and Answer 83. he sheweth how Christ did exercise the office of a Prophet of a King and of a Priest of the last in these words As a Priest he prepared the sacrifice to be offered up to God for us and made intercession both for his Disciples and transgressours Q. 86. What was the Sacrifice that as a Priest he prepared to offer for us A. But one propitiatory Sacrifice which was himself or his own body Q. 87. How did he prepare himself this Sacrifice A. By giving up himself in obedience to his Father a ransome for us from sin and death Q. 88. How
meaning upon him in the very next verse vers. 22. he might have seen explained what is meant by vessels of dishonour namely vessels made up and fitted to destruction not less forborn less regarded and honoured Fifthly according to the tenour of the answer abovesaid the same person may be a vessel to honour and dishonour both successively at several times that confessedly but not onely so but sensu composito at the same time he shall be a vessel of honour because he is preferred before some others and a vessel of dishonour because some others again are preferred before him in participation of divine patience and goodness and outward aid For thus it must needs be in the several degrees and the variety of these kinds of savours vouchsafed of God to the sons of men Sixthly if we view the words before that gave the occasion to these we shall soon perceive how unlikely a matter it is that either Jew or Gentile should charge God above with injustice or that the Apostle should defend Gods justice by checking the presumption of humane reason and yet nothing be objected but this that God useth some men better than he useth others in patience towards them and means tending to life and power exercised for their good Lastly there would be no colourable cause of complaint against God nor should any man need to say why hast thou made me thus if it be in his power to make himself otherwise to make himself even as he will notwithstanding any thing that God hath done He may haply honour one man more than another in outward mercies and dispensations which thereafter as a man shall well or ill make use of he shall make himself accordingly a vessel of wrath or mercy God in mercy made the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida vessels of honour if we can be perswaded so to call it by the mighty and gracious works wrought among them But they by abusing this honour made themselves truly and indeed vessels of dishonour And others again who were dishonoured of God by having fewer Talents through good improvement of them became vessels of glory and honour The rule of our belief teacheth us otherwise Gods purpose of Election doth stand or abide firm Rom. 9.11 his Counsel is immutable towards the heirs of promise Hebr. 6.17 vessels of honour and dishonour being no more interchangeable here than gold and silver wood and earth of which the divers vessels are made 2 Tim. 2. 20. Thus much concerning Election Of the means of salvation he hath formerly spoken sundry times in several Questions and Answers But he did not tell us how far that term should be extended whether beyond the Church or no Now he asketh in Q. 149. What be those means namely that God affordeth us towards faith in Christ and the blessings in him A. All those things in which God by Christ as the light of the world and great Prophet speaks forth himself and goodness to men whether more generally and darkly or more specially and plainly of the former sort are his works ordered by way of enlargement or chastisement concerning which he proceedeth thus Qu. 152. They speak of God and his Attributes but do they speak any thing of Christ A. Distinctly they do not but by interpretation and more obscurely they do as the effect speaks some hidden cause or the work the workman Qu. 153. Declare this more plainly A. They manifest and speak that Goodness of God that could not have been toward us had not Christ interposed between God and us so that as the Death of men speaks Adams sin so they speak Christs Mediation The brief of these instructions is this according to the New light that some blazing Comets have afforded us The works of Creation and Providence bring men to the knowledge of Christ our Saviour and the Sun Moon and Stars preach the Gospel As for Christs interposing betwixt God and us I do in the first place acknowledge that his Mediation is not onely sufficient that is to say potentially efficacious but moreover actually efficacious for all men in the world whether they come to know any thing of him or no yea for the other creatures also thus far as to that mixture and measure of mercy which they enjoy and conservation of them in that estate wherein we now behold them God did so far accept of Noahs sacrifice Gen. 8 from which he smelled a sweet savour that he said I will not again curse the ground any more but while the earth remaineth Seed-time and Harvest Cold and Heat Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease It is more likely that the weight of so great a promise and of such extent to the worlds end should rest and bear it self upon the virtual contents of Noahs sacrifice than upon the Dutie Obedience or Religious exercise of Noahs person at that time The sacrifice of Noah might please God but that with which he was pacified and appeased was the virtue of Christs sacrifice contained Sacramentally in that of Noah as it was also in all the Propitiatory offerings of the Old Testament in which was offered and performed true satisfaction and propitiation though not truly or in truth but onely in Type and figure And as this promise or purpose of God touching the preservation and upholding of Man and all flesh although it were absolute and not conditionate nor with any contract made is yet called in Scripture a Covenant Gen. 9 taking that term at large and improperly So hath the Rain-bowe been called a Sacrament of it in like large and improper acception Thus far we hold that Jesus Christ did interpose as a general Mediatour but this no way conduceth to the purpose of these Questions and Answers and that for these two reasons 1. Because thus much is not known to all men by means of the works or creatures of God but to some onely and that by means of his word 2. Because this Mediation availeth onely and extendeth onely to temporal and worldly benefits not to salvation or life eternal Whereas in this Catechisme the works of God are said to speak a further Mediation and to be means with which Gods spirit and power is conversant To bring men to faith in Christ and so to the blessings in him even to be vessels of mercy Quest and Answ 146 147 148. In gainsaying which opinion I craveleave to ask this question Do the Sun Moon and Stars together with other works of Gods Creation speak any other language now then they did before the fall of man it must be answered No As the Sun doth shine alike at this day upon the just and the unjust so did it upon Adam while he was in Paradise and when he was thence excluded All things continue alike from the beginning of the Creation 2 Pet. 3. which though brought in as the saying of the Impostours yet doth not the Apostle deny the truth of what is said but onely
heaven Revel. 18.5 these all if they be but against the Law of nature and not against the Grace of Christ claim pardon as due debt first without asking pardon it is but just and just it is to give or pay due debt though it be not demanded secondly without Repentance indeed for sins against Christs Mediation there is a Condition or Proviso that they be repented of but none at all for other sins they are forgiven absolutely without further suit or service So that according to this Doctrine it is far better to hold of the first Adam as our Head and as our Root than to hold of the second or to hear of him For by the first Adam and the priviledge procured for him we are clear of our old debts and by means of the second we contract new If any shall say to salve his words from this worse than heathenish Divinity that whereas he speaks Answ 96. of sinning against Christs Mediation he may haply mean that Mediation which the works of Creation do speak according to his Instructions Qu. and Answ 152 153. and that thus all hainous sins against the law of nature may be said to be against the Grace of Christ and thus the Sodomites might be said to sin against Christs Mediation obscurely intimated in that God gave them a pleasant countrey and caused the sun to rise upon their city To this I answer He cannot mean the Mediation and Grace made known by the creatures but must mean the Mediation made known by Christs Incarnation because Answ. 97. he saith Christs Death was a Ransome for those sins that were upon us Before and considered Without Christs coming a light into the world now I think Christs coming cannot possibly be understood otherwise than of his coming in the flesh and Answ 96. He here-through coming that is by his Death as is plain by the Question And howsoever there weit no sins before God did speak his goodness in the heavens and works of Creation or that can be considered without Christs Mediation supposed to be shown in temporal blessings So that the sense which the words yeeld cannot be but as is said There be some opinions if they be fit to be rehearsed in Christian ears need nothing but their mere rehearsal for their confutation for their detestation I love not to rake in this worse than Pelagian puddle where the Preaching of the Gospel is so far from being made a benefit or a blessing upon a People that Christians and none but Christians thorowout the world are capable of being cast away or perishing But for his Pelagian Crambe I call it so as by him urged of the Universal particle All he hath alledged two texts One Rom. 5. 18. By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification the other 1 Cor. 15.22 for I take that verse and not the 21 to be meant as being the parallel place In christ shall all be made alive concerning this last place whether it be the 21 or 22 or both somewhat is to be premised because it may be diversly understood I think it is to be taken of a glorious vivification or Resurrection to life for this properly is a Resurrection and of this onely is treated in that whole chapter for the wicked or cast-aways shall arise not by efficacy of Christ the Saviour but by sentence of God the Judge for being by him sentenced to Death they must come forth of prison to be led to execution That Resurrection which is a priviledge of the holy Catholick Church in the Apostles Creed That which is spoken of Luke 20. 36. children of God being children of the Resurrection is that spoken of in this chapter also in 1 Thess. 4. the comfort of Gods people being intended both there and here Now for the Texts brought to prove the forgiveness of mens sins that were brought upon them by Adam to be Due Debt I answer he might have looked within a few verses of his second text and thus have read But when he saith all things it is manifest that he is excepted c. In some universals there be manifest exceptions and in every universal there is restriction to the subject matter or that which for the present is spoken of he chargeth us somewhere with broad denial of Scripture-sayings Not so but it is the Denial of the broad sense of some Scripture-sayings this we own and acknowledge All things that are said in Scripture or anywhere else are not to be taken in the full latitude Divinâ gratiâ opus est saith St Chrysostom Hom. in Joann 39. nè {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} insistamus itâ haeretici in errorem incidunt We had need pray that God would give us grace not to stand too much upon the bare words for so come hereticks to fall into their errours Gods word is written for them that are awake and have understanding and make use of it when they read But for those two places he needed not to have looked far to finde a limitation of the universal particle all for Rom. 5.18 it is limited in the very next verse vers. 17. recipientibus to them that receive the abundance ot Grace And in 1 Cor. 15.22 it is limited in the very next verse 23. to those that are Christs christ the first fruits afterward they that are christs And as tor the difference he hath given us between the sins against the Law of Nature and the sins against the light of the Gospel that Christs Death should be properly for the pardon of the former and not of the other I can no where finde nor do I acknowledge any ground for it St John telleth us that the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and the Apostle Paul who persecuted Christ when he was come a light into the world was nevertheless made a pattern to those that should afterwards believe 1 Tim. 1.16 if he who fiercely persecuted Jesus Christ be made of God a Pattern and Precedent to others of the vertue of his Death surely then was Christs Death as proper for him as for others and as proper for them that sin as he did as for him They who never heard of Christ are commanded to repent Act. 17.30 as well as they who crucified the Lord of life Act. 2. 38. Christ died for both and both must repent and neither of them can claim forgiveness of due debt without Repentance M H. talks much and unseasonably enough of the extent of Christs Death and makes it almost an unpardonable crime to limit it to Gods elect or them that shall be saved But who ever made so odious a restraint of it as he hath here made as if it were not properly and absolutely a Ransome for any person this day in England or yet in all Christendome for all the sins of Christians must needs be against the light of the Gospel their sins cannot be considered before or without Christs