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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	good_a	grace_n	merit_v	5,172	5	10.7916	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B22921	Justification onely upon a satisfaction, or, The necessity and verity of the satisfaction of Christ as the alone ground of remission of sin asserted & opened against the Socinians together with an appendix in vindication of a sermon preached on Heb. 2, 10, from the exceptions of H.W., in a pamphlet called The freeness of Gods grace in the forgiveness of sins by Jesus Christ / by Robert Ferguson.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1668 (1668)	Wing F743; ESTC R37344	97,537	320

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified freely by his grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justification is free in respect of the love that gave Christ to merit it Heb. 2. 9. Given by the grace of God to taste death for every man The alone moving and impulsive cause of God's bestowing Christ was his eternal good pleasure and love It is free also in respect of any works performed by us to deserve justification Tit. 3. 5. Not by works of the law which we have done but according to his mercy he hath saved us Nothing required or done on our part to merit it and this and no more is intimated by grace and freely for that the excluding the merit and satisfaction of Christ is not here intended the opening of the next words will confirm and demonstrate 2ly There then is the material and meritorious means procuring justification Causa impulsiva 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this is the blood of Christ through the redemption that is in Jesus and in his blood Though justification be free in respect of us yet it is merited in respect of him The import of redemption we have formerly opened and proved it to be a deliverance by solution and payment of a ransome See from pag. 146. to 161. though there be nothing done by us to merit justification yet we have it only by the intervention of Christ as the deserving cause this the Apostle amplifies from God's exhibiting of him to this purpose whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation What the intendment of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is is before opened God set him forth to be a means of atton●ing him and appeasing his anger that by him as a meritorious cause we might be set free from the wrath to which we stood obnoxious To this end God constituted and appointed him Mediator proposed him in the types and shadows of the law actually exhibited him in the flesh and offereth him to the world as he through whom as a placamen God's wrath is appeased and his favour recovered 3ly We have the final cause First the finis cujus the end on the part of God to declare his rightousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to show his righteousness ut justus agnoscatur By righteousness here we can by no means understand God's benignity kindness and mercy not that we deny but that it may admit that signification in some other places where the subject matter necessitates to it but here it clearly signifies that property in God by which he is enclined to punish sin and this is the proper and usual import of it in the Scripture Rom. 2. 5. 2 Thes 1. 6. Rev. 16. 5 6. And it is from this principle of his nature carrying him against sin that he is compared to fire Deut. 4. 24. Isa 33. 14. Heb. 12. 29. and in respect of this wrath and anger are often ascribed to him Rom. 9. 32. Exod. 32 10. Psal 6. 1 Rom. 1. 8. That this is the intendment of righteousness here is evident from hence that Christ in the shedding of his blood is set out to be a propitiation which fully argues both that God was angry and that by Christ as a propitiator● sacrifice his vindictive and ang● is appe●sed Then we have th● finis cu● the end with respect t● us that he might be the justifier● The design God had in all this namely his giving Christ in ● way of death and blood to be ● propitiation was the taking ● company of poor creatures wh● lay obnovious to his indignation into his grace and favour again 4ly We have the instrumenta● cause or the means by which w● come to be interested in Christ and to have the redemption an● justification purchased by him applyed to us and that is through faith in his blood By this time I hope the Reader perceives not only how impertinent but how destructive this Text proves to the Pamphleters design and how he falls by his own weapon The second Text which the Gentleman hath been pleased to prefix ● Col. 1. 14. in whom we have re●emption through his blood even the ●orgiveness of sins And this is ●ltogether as unanswerable to the ●nd it was brought for as the for●er For do but observe here ●ur salvation is expresly asserted ●o be by way of redemption and ●he price of this redemption to ●e the blood of Christ which is ●n plain termes to affirm that we ●re saved by the intervention of a ●atisfaction for to be in a proper sense redeemed and redeemed through blood is to be set free through the sufferings of Christ as a valuable compensation for our release But here is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Socinian party and that which hath imposed upon the Pamphleter in his quotations that because there is mention of forgiveness therefore all satisfrction must be excluded but the falsity of this is already demonstrated and to suppose an opposition where there is so perfect a harmony is to profess 〈◊〉 unacquaintance with the Gosp●l It is forgiveness in that it is no● merited by us but doth this any way hinder but that it may b● purchased by Christ We know no inconsistence betwixt these two that it should be of pur● grace in reference to us and ye● of justice in reference to Christ The third and last Scripture mustured up by the Author in his Title Page is Prov. 12. 15. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both ar● an abomination to the Lord. Is it possible a Scripture should be produced more destructive to the design of the bringer is it an abomination that the wicked should be justified and shall we afix such a thing on the righteous God can no Judge acqui● the guilty without a satisfaction but he must act that which in its own nature is an abhorrency and shall we ascribe this to the holy and righteous Governour of the world See the foregoing Treatise from pag. 8. to 16. But I suppose the Gentleman thought of serving himself by one part of the Text not considering how ruinous to his whole enterprise the other part would prove and indeed there is nothing more usual with that sort of men than to urge their mistaken sense of one part of Scripture to the overthrow of the true meaning of another but to reply to the place 1. I deny that it is against justice to condemn one that is personally innocent when he hath put himself legally in the room of criminals It is no ways against equity to send a person to prison who possibly may live dy there and have his whole posterity begger'd who never contracted one penny deb● of his own only became bound for anothers So here though Christ was personally innocent yet he stood legally in the room of the guilty and it was that which he had chosen and in a matter wherein he had as much power as any of us have in our estates see before from pag.

them alone fo● expiation of guilt and right to life But that no satisfaction can b● made by sacrifices appears 1. In that Scripture expresl● Sacrificia considerantur vel qua●enus typi crant futurae satis facticnis Messia vel quatenus illis vis expiandi per se adscribebatur priori modo Deu● illa voluit posteriori carejecit Walth rejects all sacrifices when truste● to for that end and purpose Psal● 40. 6. Sacrifice and offering th● didst not desire mine ears hast th● opened burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required i. e. h● did not desire them as means b● which sin could be expiated S● Psal 50. 8. to 12. Micah 6. 6 7 Heb. 9. 9. and 10. 1 2 3 4. Go● in Scripture expresseth his disli● of sacrifices upon three occasion● 1. Because of the prophaness ● the Offerers Isa 1. 11 12. c. ● 18. Isa 66. 5. Jer. 6. 20. 2● When they were preferred to moral obedience 1 Sam. 15. 22. Hos 6. 6. Jer. 7. 21 22. 3. When trusted to for justification and life as we have just before expressed 2. There is no worth in the blood of a Bull or Goat to make reparation for the dishonour done by sin to God he must have very mean thoughts both of sin and God that thinks his justice can be satisfied or the guilt of sin expiated by the bloud of a Calf or Lamb. The wrong done by sin being infinite justice requireth that the satisfaction should be proportionable 3. Nor was there any propor●ion nor relation either betwixt the sinner and the sacrificed beast that the blood and death of the one should pass for a satisfaction ●or the sin and offense of the other There should be a conjunction in Nature betwixt him that commits ●he offence and him that makes the satisfaction in what nature the sin is committed in that nature the reparation should be made there being therefore no communion in nature betwixt a beast and a man the blood of the one cannot pass for a satisfaction for the crime of the other 4. Because it is necessary that whoever makes satisfaction for another should consent and willingly submit to such an undertaking now a beast is altogether uncapable of stipulation or agreeing to such an exchange Psal 118. 27. and therefore can no wise make satisfaction The Heathen could say Quum sis ipse nocens moritur cu● victima prote Stultitia est morte alterius sperar● salutem So that upon the whole it is clear we cannot plead a satisfaction b● sacrifice 2. Others possibly may be ready to insist on moral obedience as if by that we could make God a valuable compensation for the wrong we have done him This was the the great refuge of the Jews of old Rom. 2. 17. They rested in the law Rom. 9. 31. They followed after the law i. e. they expected life and righteousness in and through the observance of the law not that they thought themselves able so universally to keep it as not at all to sin but they apprehended that they sufficiently kept the law to justification if they performed the outward acts of duety and forbore the outward acts of sin or if their good works were more than their evil Mat. 19. 18 19 20. Phil. 3. 6. but that there is no coming off on this Plea 1. The Scripture every where informs us in its disclaiming all possibility of being justified by works Rom. 3. 20. By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight Gal. 3. 21 22. If there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin c. Rom. 8 3. what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh c. The law had we kept it by continuing in the s●ate wherein we were created was both appointed and able to have given life but man by sin becoming flesh the law stood by as altogether insufficient to help such an one and is therefore called the ministration of death 2 Cor. 3. 7. and of condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 9. and though it was afterward continued for other ends yet it was never intended that they should have life and righteousness by it 2. The obedience of the law is such as never any sinner did or can perform Psal 143. 2. In thy sight shall no man living be justified i. e. upon a personal righteousness of his own Psal 130. 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand The law required not only a personal but an universal perfect and perpetual obedience and as to all the last three we are sadly defective and accordingly those Saints who had as much to plead this way as any yet constantly disclaim'd being justified on this score Psal 19. 12. Psal 40. 12. My sins are more than the hairs of my head As if he had s●id I may sooner tell my hairs than reckon my sins Job 9. 2 3 15 20 21 30. read it at leisure See also 2 Cor. 4 4. Though I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified Phil. 3 8 9. 3 Were it possible that we coul● give God a perfect and universal obedience which we never can yet it were no more than a debt which we owe him as we are his Creatures and therefore could be no satisfaction from us as we are his delinquents Whatever we are or have it being from God we owe him the farthest improvement of all without rendring him beholding yea in the state wherein he created us he might have obliged us to the utmost obedience and after all that instead of any reward have reduced us into the state of nothing out of which he raised us being fallen more than we can yield is a debt we owe him as our Maker and therefore can be no satisfaction to him as an offended Judge One debt useth not to go in payment for another if a man commit one treasonable act and for a time make an escape but be afterwards apprehended it will be no Plea in Law to say he is Loyal now because he was bound to have been so before and therefore must satisfie for his former disloyalty 4. All the obedience we are ●er able to yield to God it is ●rough the alone strength and in●uence of his grace Joh. 15. 5. Cor. 3. 5. And therefore instead ● being a satisfaction to his ju●ce we are made fresh debtors to ●s mercy 5. One sin dishonours God ●ore than an eternity of obedience ●n recompence all our service ●ings no accession to God to me● any thing at his hand Job 22. 3. Can a man be profitable to ●d is it pleasure to the Almighty ●at thou art righteous or is it ●in to him that thou makest thy ●ys perfect Job 35. 7. If thou ● righteous what givest thou unto ●m or what receiveth he at thine ●nd see also Psal 16. 2 3. Luc.