we intend by that expression of satisfaction But now all those things are openly and fully witnessed unto in the Testimonies before produced as may be observed by suiting some of them unto the several particulars here asserted As 1. What was done in this matter was from the will purpose and love of God the Father Psalm 40. 6 7 8. Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Act. 4. 28. John 3. 16. Rom. 8. 3. 2. It was also done by his own voluntary consent Phil. 2. 6 7 8. 3. He was Substituted and did Substitute himself as the Mediator of the Covenant in the room and stead of sinners that they may be saved Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Chap. 7. 22. Rom. 3. 25 26. Rom. 5. 7 8. 4. And he did therein bear their sins or the punishment due to their sins Isa. 53. 6 11. 1 Pet. 2. 23. And this 5. By undergoing the Curse and penalty of the Law Gal. 3. 13. Or the punishment of sin required by the Law 2 Cor. 5. 21. Rom. 8. 3. 6. Herein also according to the will of God He offered up himself â— propitiatory and expiatory Sacrifice to make Attonement for sin and Reconciliation for sinners Ephes. 5. 2. Rom. 2. 17. Heb. 9. 11 12 13 14. Which he did that the Justice of God being satisfied and the Law fulfilled sinners might be freed from the wrath to come Rom. 3. 25. 1 Thes. 1. last 7. And hereby also He paid a real price of Redemption for sin and sinners 1 Pet. 1. 17 18. 1 Cor. 6. last These are the things which we are to believe concerning the satisfaction of Christ And our Explication of this Doctrine We are ready to defend when called thereunto The consideration of the Objections which are raised against this great fundamental Truth shall close this Discourse And they are of two sorts First In general to the whole Doctrine as declared or some of the more signal heads or parts of it Secondly Particular Instances in this or that supposal as consequences of the Doctrine asserted And in general 1. They say This is contrary to and inconsistent with the Love Grace Mercy and Goodness of God which are so celebrated in the Scripture as the principal properties of his nature and Acts of his Will wherein he will be glorified Especially contrary to the freedom of Forgiveness which we are encouraged to expect and commanded to believe And this exception they endeavour to firm by Testimonies that the Lord is Good and Gracious and that He doth freely forgive us our sins and trespasses Answer First I readily grant that whatever is really contrary to the Grace Goodness and Mercy of God whatever is Inconsistent with the free Forgiveness of sin is not to be admitted For these things are fully revealed in the Scripture and must have a consistency with whatever else is therein revealed of God or his Will Secondly As God is Good and Gracious and Merciful so also He is Holy Righteous True and Faithful And these things are no less revealed concerning him than the other and are no less Essential Properties of his Nature than his Goodness and Grace And as they are all Essentially the same in him and considered only under a different habitude or respect as they are exerted by Acts of his will so it belongs to his Infinite Wisdom that the effects of them though divers and produced by divers waies and means may no way be contrary one to the other but that Mercy may be exercised without the prejudice of Justice or Holiness and Justice be preserved entire without any obstruction to the Exercise of Mercy Thirdly The Grace and Love of God that in this matter the Scripture reveals to be exercised in order unto the forgiveness of sinners consists principally in two things 1. In his Holy Eternal Purpose of providing a relief for lost sinners He hath done it to the praise of the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1. 6. 2. In the sending his Son in the pursuit and for the accomplishment of the holy purpose of his Will and Grace Herein most eminently doth the Scripture celebrate the Love Goodness and kindness of God as that whereby in Infinite and for ever to be adored Wisdom and Grace he made way for the forgiveness of our sins Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world as he gave his only begotten Son Rom. 3. 24 25. Whom he hath set forth to be a propitiation through saith in his blood Rom. 5. 7 8. God commendeth his Love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Titus 3. 4. 1 John 4. 8 9. Herein consists that ever to be adored Love Goodness Grace Mercy and Condescension of God Add hereunto that in that act of causing our iniquities to meet on Christ wherein he immediately intended the Declaration of his Justice Rom. 3. 25. Not sparing him in delivering him up to death for us all Rom. 8. 32. There was a blessed harmony in the highest Justice and most excellent Grace and Mâ—rcy This Grace this Goodness this Love of God toward mankind towards sinners our Adversaries in this matter neither know nor understand and so indeed what lyes in them remove the foundation of the whole Gospel and of all that faith and obedience which God requires at our hands Fourthly Forgiveness or the actual condonation of sinners the pardon and forgiveness of sins is free but yet so as it is every where restrained unto a respect unto Christ unto his death and blood-shedding Eph. 1. 7. We have Redemption in his blood even the forgiveness of sins Chap. 4. 32. God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Rom. 3. 25 26. God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness of sins It is absolutely free in respect of all immediate transactions between God and sinners Free on the part of God First In the Eternal purpose of it when he might justly have suffered all men to have perished under the guilt of their sins 2. Free in the means that he used to effect it unto his Glory 1. In the sending of his Son and 2. In laying the punishment of our sin upon him 3. In his Covenant with him that it should be accepted on our behalf 4. In his tender and proposal of it by the Gospel unto sinnâ—rs to be received without money or without price 5. In the actual condonation and pardon of them that do believe Secondly It is free on the part of the persons that are forgiven In that 1. It is given and granted to them without any satisfaction made by them for their former transgressions 2. Without any merit to purchâ—se or procure it 3. Without any poenal satisfactory suffering here or in a purgatory hereafter 4. Without any Expectation of a future recompence or that being pardoned they should then make or give any satisfaction for what they had done before And as any of these things would so nothing else can
impeach the freedom of pardon and forgiveness Whether then we respect the pardoner or the pardoned Pardon is every way free namely on the part of God who forgives and on the part of sinners that are forgiven If God now hath besides all this provided himself a Lamb for a Sacrifice if he hath in Infinite Wisdom and Grace found out a way thus freely to forgive us out sins to the praise and glory of his own Holiness Righteousness and severity against sin as well as unto the unspeakable advancement of that Grace Goodness and bounty which he immediately exerciseth in the pardon of sin are these mens eyes evil because he is good Will they not be contented to be pardoned unless they may have it at the rate of dispoiling God of his Holiness Truth Righteousness and Faithfulness And as this is certainly done by that way of pardon which these men propose no reserve in the least being made for the glory of God in those holy properties of his nature which are immediately injured and opposed by sin so that pardon it self which they pretend so to magnifie having nothing to influence it but a meer arbitrary act of Gods will is utterly dâ—based from its own proper worth and excellency And I shall willingly undertake to manifest that they derogate no less from Grace and Mercy in pardon than they do from the Righteousness and Holiness of God by the forgiveness which they have feigned and that in it both of them are perverted and dispoiled of all their glory But they yet say If God can freely pardon sin why doth he not do it without satisfaction if he cannot he is weaker and more imperfect than man who can do so Answ. First God cannot do many things that men can do nor that he is more imperfect than they but he cannot do them on the account of his perfection He cannot lye he cannot deny himself he cannot change which men can do and do every day Secondly To pardon sin without satisfaction in him who is absolutely Holy Righteous True and Faithful the absolute necessary supream Governour of all sinners the Author of the Law and sanction of it wherein punishment is threatned and declared is to deny himself and to do what one infinitely perfect cannot do Thirdly I ask of these men why God doth not pardon sins freely without requiring faith repentance and obedience in them that are pardoned yea as the conditions on which they may be pardoned For seeing he is so infinitely good and graciousâ— cannot he pardon men without prescribing such terms and conditions unto them as he knoweth that men and that incomparably the greatest number of them will never come up unto and so must of necessity perish for ever Yea but they say this cannot be neither doth this impeach the freedom of pardon For it is certain that God doth prescribe these things and yet he pardoneth freely And it would altogether unbecome the holy God to pardon sinners that continue so to live and dye in their sins But do not these men see that they have hereby given away their Cause which they contend for For if a prescription of sundry things to the sinner himself without which he shall not be pardoned do not at all impeach as they say the freedom of pardon but God may be said freely to pardon sin notwithstanding it How shall the receiving of satisfaction by another nothing aâ— all being required of the sinner have the least appearance of any such thing If the freedom of forgiveness consists in such a boundless notion as these men imagine it is certain that the prescribing of faith and repentance in and unto sinners antecedently to their participation of it is much more evidently contrary unto it than the receiving of satisfaction from another who is not to be pardoned can to any appear to be Secondly If it be contrary to the holiness of God to pardon any without requiring Faith Repentance and Obedience in them as it is indeed let not these persons be offended if we believe him when he so frequently declares it that it was so to remit sin without the fulfilling of his Law and satisfaction of his Justice Secondly They say There is no such thing as Justice in God requiring the punishment of sin but that that which in him requireth and calleth for the punishment of sin is his Anger and Wrath which expressions denote free Acts of his Will and not any essential properties of his nature So that God may punish sin or not punish it at his pleasure Therefore there is no Reason that he should require any satisfaction for sin seeing he may pass it by absolutely as he pleaseth Answ. Is it not strange that the great Governour the Judge of all the world which on the supposition of the Creation of it God is naturally and necessarily should not also naturally be so righteous as to do right in rendring unto every one according to his works 2. The Sanction and penalty of the Law which is the Rule of punishment was as I suppose an effect of Justice of Gods natural and essential Justice and not of his Anger or Wrath. Certainly never did any man make a Law for the Government of a people in anger Draco's Laws were not made in wrath but according to the best apprehension of right and Justice that he had though said to be written in blood And shall we think otherwise of the Law of God 3. Anger and Wrath in God express the effects of Justice and so are not meerly free acts of his will This therefore is a tottering cause that is built on the denyal of Gods Essential Righteousness But it was proved before and it is so elsewhere 3. They say that the Sacrifice of Christ was Metaphorically only so That he was a metaphorical Priest not one properly so called And therefore that his Sacrifice did not consist in his death and blood-shedding but in his appearing in Heaven upon his Ascersion presenting himself unto God in the most Holy Place not made with hands as the Mediator of the new Covenant Answ. When once these men come to this Evasion they think themselves safe and that they may go whither they will without controll For they say it is true Christ was a Priest but only he was a Metaphorical one He offered Sacrifice but it was a Metaphorical one He redeemed us but with a Metaphorical Redemption and so we are Justified thereon but with a Metaphorical Justification and so for ought I know they are like to be saved with a Metaphorical Salvation This is the substance of their plea in this matter Christ was not really a Priest but did somewhat like a Priest He offered not Sacrifice really but did somewhat that was like a Sacrifice He redeemed us not really but did somewhat that looked like Redemption And what these things are wherein their Analogâ—e consisteth what proportion the things that Christ hath done bare to the things that
are really so from whence they receive their denomination that it is meet it should be wholly in the power of these persons to declare But 2. What should hinder the death of Christ to be a Sacrifice a proper Sacrifice and according to the nature end and use of Sacrifices to have made Attonement and Satisfaction for sin 1. It is expresly called so in the Scripture wherein he is said to offer himself to make his soul an offering to offer himself a Sacrifice Eph. 5. 2. Heb. 1. 3. Heb. 9. 14 25. 26. Chap. 7. 27. And he is himself directly said to be a Priest or a Sacrificer Heb. 2. 18. And it is no where intimated much less expressed that these things are not spoken properly but Metaphorically only 2. The Legal Sacrifices of the Old Law were instituted on purpose to represent and prepare the way for the bringing in of the Sacrifice of the Lâ—mb of God so to take away the sin of the World And is it not strange that true and real Sacrifices should be Types and R presentations of that which was not so On this supposition all those Sacrifices are but so many seductions from the right understanding of things between God and sinners 3. Nothing is wanting to render it a proper propitiatory Sacrifice for 1. There was the person offering and that was Christ himself Heb. 9. 14. He offered himself unto God He that is the Sacrificer denotes the person of Christ God and Man and Himself as the Sacrifice denotes his Humane Nature whence God is said to purchase his Church with his own blood Act. 20. 28. For he offered himself through the Eternal Spirit so that 2. There was the Matter of the Sacrifice which was the Humane Nature of Christ soul and body His soul was made an offering for Sin Isa. 53. 10 And his body the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Hob. 10 11. His blood especially which is often Synecdochically mentioned for the whole 4. His death had the nature of a Sacrifice For 1. Therein were the sins of men laid upon him and not in his entrance into Heaven for he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2. 23. God made our sins then to meet upon him Isa. 53. 6. Which gives the formality unto any Sacrifices Quod in ejus Caput sit is the formal reason of all Propitiatory Sacrifices and ever was so as is expresly declared Lev. 16. 21 22. And the phrase of bearing sin of bearing iniquity is constantly used for the undergoing of the punishment due to sin 2. It had the End of a proper Sacrifice it made expiation of sin propitiation and attonement for sin with reconciliation with God and so took away that enmity that was between God and sinners Heb. 1. 3. Rom. 3. 25 26. Heb. 2. 17 18. Heb. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. And although God himself pesigned appointed and contrived in Wisdom this way of Reconciliation as he did the means for the attoning of his own Anger towards the friends of Job commanding them to go unto him and with him offer Sacrifices for themselves which he would accept Chap. 4. 28. Yet as He was the Supream Governour the Lord of all attended with Infinite Justice and Holiness Attonement was made with him and satisfaction to him thereby What hath been spoken may suffice to discover the emptiness and weakness of those exceptions which in general these men make against the Truth before laid down from the Scripture A brief examination of some particular instances wherein they seek not so much to oppose as to reproach the Revelation of this Mysterie of the Gospel shall put a close to this discourse It is said then 1. That if this be so then it will follow that God is gracious to Forgive and yet impossible for him unless the debt be fully satisfied Answ. I suppose the confused and abrupt expression of things here in words scarcely affording a tolerable sense is rather from weakness than captiousness and so I shall let the manner of the proposal pass 2. What is this should follow that God is gracious to forgive sinners and yet will not cannot on the account of his own Holiness and Righteousness actually forgive any without Satisfaction and Attonement made for sin the worst that can be hence concluded is that the Scripture is true which affirms both these in many places 3. This sets out the exceeding greatness of the Grace of God in forgiveness that when sin could not be forgiven without satisfaction and the sinner himself could no way make any such satisfaction that he provided himself a Sacrifice of Attonement that the sinner might be discharged and pardoned 4. Sin is not properly a debt for then it might be paid in kind by sin it self but is called so only because it binds over the sinner to punishment which is the satisfaction to be made for that which is properly a Transgression and improperly only a debt It is added 2. Hence it follows that the finite and impotent creature is more capable of extending Mercy and Forgiveness than the Infinite and Omnipotent Creator Answ. God being Essentially Holy and Righteous having ingaged his faithfulness in the sanction of the Law and being naturally and necessarily the Governour and Ruler of the World the Forgiving of sin without satisfaction would be no perfection in him but an effect of impotency and imperfection a thing which God cannot do as he cannot lye nor deny himself 2. The direct contrary of what is insinuated is asserted by this Doctrine for on the supposition of the Satisfaction and Attonement insisted on not only doth God freely forgive but that in such a way of Righteousness and Goodness as no Creature is able to conceive or express the glory and excellency of it And to speak of the poor halving pardons of private Men upon particular offences against themselves who are commanded so to do and have no right nor authority to require or exact punishment nor is any due upon the meer account of their own concernment in comparison with the forgiveness of God ariseth out of a deep ignorance of the whole matter under consideration 3. It is added by them that hence it follows that God so loved the World he gave his only Son to save it and yet that God stood off in high displeasure and Christ gave himself as a compleat satisfaction to offended Justice Answ. 1. Something these Men would say if they knew what or how for 1. That God so loved the World as to give his only Son to save it is the expression of the Scripture and the foundation of the Doctrine whose truth we contend for That Christ offered himself to make Attonement for sinners and therein made satisfaction to the Justice of God is the Doctrine it self which these Men oppose and not any consequent of it 3. That God stood off in high displeasure is an expression which neither the Scripture useth
Christo servatore which is an Answer to this Covetus is genuine and that which ought not to be receded from as having been the direct ground of all the Controversial Writings on that subject which have since been published in Europe And it is in these words laid down by Socinus himself Communis Orthodoxa ut asseris sententia est Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse quia divinae Justiciae per quam peccatores damnari merebamur pro peccatis nostris plene satisfecerit quae satisfactio Per fidem imputatur Nobis ex dono Dei credentibus This he ascribes to Covet The Common and Orthodox Judgement is that Jesus Christ is therefore our Saviour because he hath satisfied the Justice of God by which we being sinners deserved to be condemned for all our sins In opposition whereunto he thus expresseth his own opinion Ego vero censeo Orthodoxam sententiam esse arbitror Iesum Christum ideo servatorem nostrum esse quia salutis aeternae viam nobis annuntiaverit confirmaverit in sua ipsius persona cum vitae exemplo tum ex mortuis resurgendo manifeste ostenderit vitamque aeternam nobis ei fidem habentibus ipse daturus sit Divinae autem justitiae per quam peccatores damnari meremur pro peccatis nostris neque illum satisfecisse neque ut satisfaceret opus fuisse arbitror I judge and suppose it to be the Orthodox Opinion that Jesus Christ is therefore our Saviour because he hath declared unto us the way of eternal salvation and confirmed it in his own person manifestly shewing it both by the example of his life and by rising from the dead and in that he will give eternal life unto us believing in him And I affirm that he neither made satisfaction to the Justice of God whereby we deserved to be damned for our sins nor was there any need that he should so do This is the true state of the Question and the principal subtilty of Crellius the great Defender of this part of the Doctrine of Socinus in his Book of the Causes of the Death of Christ and the Defence of this Book De Iesu Christo servatore consists in speaking almost the same words with those whom he doth oppose but still intending the same things with Socinus himself This Opinion as was said of Socinus Covetus opposed and everted on the Principle before mentioned The same Truth was confirmed also by Zarnovitius who first wrote against Socinus his Book as also by Otto Casmannus who engaged in the same work and by Abraham Salinarius Vpon the same Foundation do proceed Paraeus Piscator Lubbertus Lucius Camero Voetius Amiraldus Placaeus Rivetus Walaeus Thysius Altingius Maresius Essenius Arnoldus Turretinus Baxter With many others The Lutherans who have managed these Controversies as Tarnovius Meisnerus Calovius Stegmannus Martinius Franzius with all others of their way have constantly maintained the same great fundamental Principle of this Doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ and it hath well and solidly been of late asserted among our selves on the same foundation And as many of these Authors do expresly blame some of the Schoolmen as Aquinas Durandus Biel Tataretus for granting a possibility of pardon without satisfaction as opening a way to the Socinian Error in this matter so also they fear not to affirm that the foregoing of this Principle of Gods Vindictive Justice indispensibly requiring the Punishment of sin doth not only weaken the cause of the Truth but indeed leave it indefensible However I suppose men ought to be wary how they censure the Authors mentioned as such who expose the Cause they undertook to defend unto contempt for greater more able and Learned Defenders this Truth hath not as yet found nor doth stand in need of J. O. THE PREFACE THE Disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ having made that great confession of him in distinction and opposition unto them who accounted him only as a Prophet thou art Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 14 15 16. He doth on the occasion thereof give out unto them that Great Charter of the Churches stability and continuance Vpon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it v. 18. He is himself the Rock upon which his Church is built as God is called the Rock of his People on the account of his eternal power and immutability Deut. 32. 4 18 31. Isa. 26. 4. And himself the Spiritual Rock which gave out supplies of Mercy and Assistance to the people in the Wilderness 1 Cor. 10. 4. The Relation of the Professing Church unto this Rock consists in the faith of this Confession that he is Christ the Son of the living God This our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised to secure against all attempts yet so as plainly to declare that there should be great and severe opposition made thereunto For whereas the Prevalency of the Gates of Hell in an enmity unto this confession is denyed a great and vigorous attempt to prevail therein is no less certainly foretold neither hath it otherwise fallen out In all Ages from the first solemn foundation of the Church of the New Testament it hath one way or other been fiercely attempted by the Gates of Hell For some time after the Resurrection of Christ from the dead the principal endeavours of Satan and Men acting under him or acted by him were pointed against the very foundation of the Church as laid in the expression before mentioned Almost all the Errours and Heresies wherewith for three or four Centuries of years it was perplexed were principally against the Person of Christ himself and consequently the Nature and Being of the holy and blessed Trinity But being disappointed in his design herein through the watchful care of the Lord Christ over his Promise in the following Ages Satan turned his craft and violence against sundry parts of the superstructure and by the assistance of the Papacy cast them into confusion nothing as it were remaining firm stable and in order but only this one confession which in a particular manner the Lord Christ hath taken upon himself to secure In these latter Ages of the World the power and care of Jesus Christ reviving towards his Church in the Reformation of it even the ruined heaps of its building have been again reduced into some tolerable order and beauty The old Enemy of its peace and welfare falling hereby under a disappointment and finding his travail and labour for many Generations in a great part frustrate he is returned again to his old work of attacqueing the Foundation it self as he is unweary and restless and can be quiet neither Conquerour nor conquered nor will be so until he is bound and cast into the lake that burneth with fire For no sooner had the Reformation of Religion firmed it self in some of the Europaean Provinces but immediately in a proportion of distance not unanswerable unto what fell out
suppose that this is the first time that this Doctrine fell under this imputation nor could it possibly be lyable unto this charge from any who did either understand it or the grounds on which it is commonly opposed For there is no end of the Life or death of Christ which the Socinians themselves admit of but it is also allowed and asserted in the Doctrine now called in Question Do they say that he taught the Truth or revealed the whole mind and will of God concerning his Worship and our obedience We say the same Dâ— they say that by his death he hare testimony unto and confirmed the truth which he had taught it is also owned by us Do they say that in what he did and suâ—fered he set us an Example that we should labour after conformity unto it is what we acknowledge and teach Only we say that all these things belong principally to his Prophetical Office But we moreover affirm and believe that as a Priest or in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office he did in his death and sufferings offer himself a Sacrifice to God to make Attonement for our sins which they deny and that he dyed for us or in our stead that we might go free without the faith and acknowledgement whereof no part of the Gospel can be rightly understood All the ends then which they themselves assign of the Life and death of Christ are by us granted and the principal one which gives life and efficacy to the rest is by them denyed Neither 2. doth it fall under any possible imagination that the praise due unto God should be Ecclipsed hereby The Love and Kindness of God towards us is in the Scripture fixed principally and fundamentally on his sending of his only begotten Son to dye for us And certainly the greater the work was that he had to do the greater ought our acknowledgement of his Love and kindness to be but it is said 5. That it represents the Son more kind and compassionate than the Father whereas if both be the same God then either the Father is as loving as the Son or the Son as angry as the Father Answ. 1. The Scripture referreth the Love of the Father unto two heads 1. The sending of his Son to dye for us John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 8. 1 John 4. 8. 2. In choosing sinners unto a participation of the fruits of his love Ephes. 1. 3 4 5 6. The Love of the Son is fixed signally on his actual giving himself to dye for us Gal. 2. 20. Ephes. 5. 25. Rev. 1. 5. What ballances these Persons have got to weigh these Loves in and to conclude which is the greatest or most weighty I know not 2. Although only the actual discharge of his Office be directly assigned to the Love of Christ yet his condâ—scention in taking our nature upon him expressed by his mind Ephes 6. 7. and the readiness of his Will Psalm 40. 8. doth eminently comprise Love in it also Thirdly The Love of the Father in sending of the Son was an act of his will which being a natural and essential property of God it was so far the act of the Son also as he is partaker of the same nature though eminently and in respect of order it was peculiarly the act of the Father 4. The anger of â—od against sin is an effect of his essential Righteousness and Holiness which belong to him as God which yet hinders not but that both Father and Son and Spirit acted Love towards sinners They say again 6. It robs God of the gift of his Son for our redemption which the Scriptures attribute to the unmerited Love he had for the World in affirming the Son purchased that redemption from the Father by the gift of himself to God as our compleat satisfaction Answ. 1. It were endless to consider the improper and absurd expressions which are made use of in these exceptions as here the last words have no tolerable sence in them according to any principles whatever 2. If the Son 's purchasing Redemption for us procuring obtaining it do rob God of the gift of his Son for our redemption the Holy Ghost must answer for it For having obtained for us or procured or purchased eternal redemption is the word used by himself Heb. 9. 14. And to deny that he hath laid down his Life a ransome for us and to have bought us with a price is openly to deny the Gospel 2. In a word the great gift of God consisted in giving his Son to obtain Redemption for us 3. Herein he offered himself unto God and gave himself for us and if these Persons are offended herewithal what are we that we should withstand God They say 7. Since Christ could not pay what was not his own it follows that in the payment of his own the case still remains equally grievous Since the debt is not hereby absolved or forgiven but transferred only and by consequence we are no better provided for salvation than before owing that now to the Son which was once owing to the Father Answ. The looseness and dubiousness of the expressions here used makes an appearance that there is something in them when indeed there is not There is an Allusion in them to a debt and a payment which is the most improper expression that is used in this matter and the interpretation thereof is to be regulated by other proper expressions of the same thing But to keep to the Allusion 1. Christ paid his own but not for himself Dan. 9. 26. 2. Paying it for us the debt is discharged and our actual discharge is to be given out according to the wayes and means and upon the conditions appointed and constituted by the Father and Son 3. When a debt is so transferred as that one is accepted in the room and obliged to payment in the stead of another and that payment is made and accepted accordingly all Law and Reason require that the original Debtor be discharged 4. What on this account we owe to the Son is praise thankfulness and obedience and not the debt which he took upon himself and discharged for us when we were non-solvent by his love So that this matter is plain enough and not to be involved by such cloudy expressions and incoherent discourse following the Metaphor of a debt For if God be considered as the Creditor we all as Debtors and being insolvent Christ undertook out of his Love to pay the debt for us and did so accordingly which was accepted with God it follows that we are to be discharged upon Gods terms and under a new obligation unto his Love who hath made this satisfaction for us which we shall eternally acknowledge It is said 8. It no way renders Men beholding or in the least obliged to God since by their Doctrine he would not have abated us nor did he Christ the least farthing so that the acknowledgements are peculiarly the Sons which destroyes the whole current of
Scripture Testimony for his good will towards Men. O the infamous portraicture this Doctrine draws of the Infinite Goodness is this your retribution O injurious Satisfactionists Answ. This is but a bold Repetition of what in other words was mentioned before over and over Wherein the Love of God in this matter consisted and what is the obligation on us unto thankfulness and obedience hath been before also declared And we are not to be moved in Fundamental Truths by vain exclamations of weak and unstable Men. It is said 9. That Gods Justice is satisfied for sins past present and to come whereby God and Christ have lost both their power of injâ—yning Godliness and prerogative of punishing disobedience for what is once paid is not revokable and if punishment should arrest any for their debts it argues a breach on God or Christs part or eâ—se that it hath not been sufficiently solved and the penalty compleat sustained by another Answ. The intention of this pretended consequence of our Doctrine is that upon a supposition of satisfaction made by Christ there is no solid foundation remaining for the prescription of Faith Repentance and Obedience on the one hand or of punishing them who refuse so to obey believe or repent on the other The Reason of this Inference insinuated seems to be this that sin being satisfied for cannot be called again to an Account For the former part of the pretended consequence namely that on this supposition there is no foundation left for the prescription of Godliness I cannot discern any thing in the least looking towards the confirmation of it in the words of the Objection laid down But these things are quite otherwise as is manifest unto them that read and obey the Gospel For 1. Christs satisfaction for sins acquits not the creature of that dependance on God and duty which he owes to God which notwithstanding that God may Justly and doth prescribe unto him suitable to his own Nature Holiness and Will The whole of our regard unto God doth not lye in an acquitment from sin It is moreover required of us as a necessary and indispensible consequence of the Relation wherein we stand unto him that we live to him and obey him whether sin be satisfied for or no. The manner and measure hereof are to be regulated by his prescriptions which are suited to his own Wisdom and our condition And they are now referred to the heads mentioned of Faith Repentance and new Obedience 2. The Satisfaction made for sin being not made by the sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and law-Constitution how the sinner may come to be interested in it and made partaker of it For the consequent of the Freedom of one by the suffering of another is not natural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-Constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way Constituted and Appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture If Men believe not they are no less liable to the punishment due to their sins than if no satisfaction at all were made for sinners And whereas it is added forgetting that every one must Appear before the Judgement seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the body Yea and every one must give an Account of himself to God closing all with this but many more are the gross absurdities and Blasphemies that are the genuine fruits of this so confidently believed Doctrine of satisfaction I say it is 3. Certain that we must all Appear before the Judgement seat of Christ to receive according to the things done in the body and therefore Wo will be unto them at the great day who are not able to plead the Attonement made for their sins by the blood of Christ and an Evidence of their interest therein by their faith and obedience or the things done and wrought in them and by them whilst they were in the body here in this World And this it would better become these persons to betake themselves unto the consideration of than to exercise themselves unto an unparallel'd confidence in reproaching those with absurdities and blasphemies who believe the Deity and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God who dyed for us which is the ground and bottom of all our Expectation of a blessed life and immortality to come The removal of these Objections against the Truth scattered of late up and down in the hands of all sorts of Men may suffice for our present purpose If any amongst these Men who judge that they have an ability to mannage the opposition against the Truth as declared by us with such pleas Arguments and exceptions as may pretend an interest in appearing Reason they shall God assisting be attended unto With men given up to a spirit of railing or reviling though it be no small honour to be reproached by them who reject with scorn the eternal Deity of the Son of God and the Satisfactory Attonement he made for the sins of Men no Person of Sobriety will contend And I shall further only desire the Reader to take notice that though these few sheets were written in few hours upon the desire and for the satisfaction of some private Friends and therefore contain meerly an expression of present thoughts without the least design or diversion of mind towards accuracy or Ornament yet the Author is so far confident that the Truth and nothing else is proposed and confirmed in them that he fears not but that an opposition to what is here declared will be removed and the Truth reinforced in such a way and manner as may not be to its disadvantage FINIS An Appendix THE preceding Discourse as hath been declared was written for the Use of Ordinary Christians or such as might be in danger to be seduced or any way entangled in their minds by the late attempts against the Truths pleaded for For those to whom the dispensation of the Gospel is committed are debtors both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the Wise and to the unwise Rom. 1. 14. It was therefore thought meet to insist only on things necessary and such as their faith is immediately concerned in and not to immix therewithall any such Arguments or Considerations as might not by reason of the Terms wherein they are expressed be obvious to their Capacity and Understanding Unto Plainness and Perspicuity Brevity was also required by such as judged this work necessary That design we hope is answered and now discharged in some usesul measure But yet because many of our Arguments on the head of the satisfaction of Christ depend upon the genuine signification and notion of the Words and Terms wherein the Doctrine of it is delivered which for the Reasons before mentioned could not conveniently be discussed in the foregoing discourse I shall here in some few Instances give an Account of what farther confirmation the Truth might receive by a due Explanation of them And
I shall mention here but few of them because a large Dissertation concerning them all is intended in another way First For the Term of satisfaction it self It is granted that in this matter it is not found in the Scripture That is it is not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Syllabically but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thing it self intended is asserted in it beyond all Modest contradiction Neither indeed is there in the Hebrew Language any word that doth adequately answer unto it no nor yet in the Greek As it is used in this cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is properly sponsio or fide jussio in its actual discharge maketh the nearest approach unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used to the same purpose But there are Words and Phrases both in the Old Testament and in the New that are equipollent unto it and express the matter or thing intended by it As in the Old are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This last word we render satisfaction Numb 35. 32 33. where God denyes that any compensation Sacred or Civil shall be received to free a Murderer from the punishment due unto him which properly expresseth what we intend Thou shalt admit of no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer In the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of the same importance and some of them accommodated to express the thing intended beyond that which hath obtained in vulgar use For that which we intended hereby is the Voluntary Obedience unto Death and the Passion or suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ God and Man whereby and wherein he offered himself through the Eternal Spirit for a propitiatory Sacrifice that he might fulfill the Law or answer all its universal Postulata and as our Sponsor undertaking our Cause when we were under the sentence of condemnation underwent the punishment due to us from the Justice of God being transferred on him whereby haveing made a perfect and absolute Propitiation or Attonement for our sins he procured for us deliverance from death and the Curse and a Right unto life everlacting Now this is more properly expressed by some of the words before mentioned than by that of Satisfaction which yet nevertheless as usually explained is comprehensive and no way unsuited to the matter intended by it In general men by this word understand either reparationem offensae or solutionem debiti either Reparation made for offence given unto any or the payment of a debt Debitum is either oriminale or pecuniarium that is either the obnoxiousness of a man to punishment for crimes or the guilt of them in answer to that justice and Law which he is necessarily liable and subject unto or unto a payment or compensation by and of money or what is valued by it which last consideration neither in it self nor in any reasonings from an Analogie unto it can in this matter have any proper place Satisfaction is the effect of the doing or suffering what is required for the answering of his charge against faults or sins who hath Right Authority and Power to require exact and inflict punishment for them Some of the Schoolment define it by voluntaris radditio aequivalentis indebiti of which more elsewhere The true meaning of to satisfie or make satisfaction is tantum facere aut pati quantum satis sit juste irato ad vindictam This satisfaction is impleaded as inconsistent with free Remission of Sins how causlesly we have seen It is so far from it that it is necessary to make way for it in case of a Righteous law transgressed and the publick Order of the Universal Governour and Government of all disturbed And this God directs unto Lev. 4. 31. The Priest shall make an Attonement for him and it shall be forgiven him This Attonement was a Legal Satisfaction and it is by God himself premised to Remission or Pardon And Paul prayes Philemon to forgive Onesimus though he took upon himself to make satisfaction for all the wrong or dammage that he had sustained Epist. v. 18 19. And when God was displeased with the friends of Job he prescribes a way to them or what they shall do and what they shall get done for them that they might be accepted and pardoned Job 42. 7 8. The Lord said unto Eliphaz my wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends therefore take unto you now seven Bullocks and seven Ramms and go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt offering and my servant Job shall pray for you for him I will accept lest I deal with you after your folly He plainly enjoyneth an Attonement that he might Freely pardon them And both these namely satisfaction and pardon with their order and consistency were solemnly represented by the great Institution of the Sacrifice of the Scape Goat For after all the sins of the people were put upon him or the punishment of them transferred unto him in a Type and Representation with quod in ejus caput-sit the Formal Reason of all Sacrifices propitiatory he was sent away with them denoting the oblation or forgiveness of sin after a Translation made of its punishment Lev. 16. 21 22. And whereas it is not expresly said that that Goat suffered or was slain but was either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hircus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Goat sent away or was sent to a Rock called Azazel in the Wilderness as Vatablus and Oleaster with some others think which is not probable seeing though it might then be done whilest the people were in the Wilderness of Sinai yet could not by reason of its distance when the people were setled in Canaan be annually observed it was from the poverty of the Types whereof no one could fully represent that Grace which it had particular respect unto What therefore was wanting in that Goat was supplyed in the other which was slain as a sin offering v. 11. 15. Neither doth it follow that on the supposition of the satisfaction pleaded for the Freedom Pardon or Acquitment of the person originally guilty and liable to punishment must immediately and ipso facto ensue It is not of the nature of every solution or satisfaction that deliverance must ipso facto follow And the Reason of it is because this satisfaction by a succedaneous substitution of one to undergo punishment for another must be founded in a voluntary compact and Agreement For there is required unto it a Relaxation of the Law though not as unto the punishment to be inflicted yet as unto the person to be punished And it is otherwise in personal guilt than in pecuniary debts In these the Debt it self is solely intended the person only obliged with reference thereunto In the other the person is firstly and principally under the Obligation And therefore when a pecuniary debs is paid by whomsoever it be paid the Obligation of the person