" God was in Christ, reconcil- ing the world unto himself," 2 Cor. V. 19.
"When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand," Isa. liii. 10,
" By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities," Isa. liii, 11.
Lib. Arbit. " The immediate effect of the death of Christ is not the remis- sion of sins, or the actual redemp- tion of any," Arniin. " Christ did not properly die to save any one," Grevincli.
" A potential and conditionate reconciliation, not actual and ab- solute, is obtained by the death of Christ," Corv,
" I believe it might have come to pass that the death of Christ might have had its end, though never any man had believed," Corv.
" The death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished, yet it may so come to pass that, none at all fulfilling the condition of the new covenant, none might be saved," Idem.
" The impetration of salvation for all, by the death of Christ, is nothing but the obtaining of a possibility thereof; that God, with- out wronging his justice, may open
^ " Sic efficacia meriti Christi tota penes nos stabit, qui vocationem alioqui ineffi- cacem, efficacem reddimus; sane, fieri aliter non potest." — Rem. Apol., p. 93,
"Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many," Heb, ix, 28. " By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, hav- ing obtained eternal redemption
100
A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
s. s.
for lis,"* chap. ix. 12. " He hath reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable," Col. i. 21, 22.
" Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiatiou through faith in his blood, to declare his right- eousness for the remission of sins," etc. : " that he might be just, and the justifier of him which be- lieveth in Jesus," Rom. iii. 25, 26.
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes we were healed," 1 Pet, ii. 24.
Lib. Arbit. unto them a gate of mercy, to be entered on some condition," Rem. ColL Hag.
" Notwithstanding the death of Christ, God might have assigned any other condition of salvation as well as faith, or have chosen the Jews following the righteousness of the law," Grevinch.
" Why, then, the efficacy of the death of Christ depends wholly on us." " True ; it cannot other- wise be," Rem. ApoL
CHAPTER X.
Of the cause of faith, grace, and righteousness.
The second part of this controversy is in particular concerning grace, faith, and holiness, sincere obedience to the precepts of the new covenant, all whose praise we appropriate to the Most High by reason of a double interest, — first, Of the merit of Christ, which doth procure them for us ; secondly. Of the Holy Spirit, which works them in us. The death of Christ is their meritorious cause ; the Spirit of God and his effectual grace their efficient, Avorking instrumentally with power by the word and ordinances. Now, because this would deprive the idol of his chiefest glory, and expose him to open shame, like the bird " furtivis nudata coloribus," the Arminians advance them- selves in his quarrel, and in behalf of then- darling quite exclude both merit of Christ and Spirit of God from any title to their production.
First, For the merit of Christ. Whereas we affirm that God "bless- eth us with all spiritual blessings in him," or for his sake, Eph. i. 3, amongst which, doubtless, faith possesseth not the lowest room; that "he is made unto us righteousness, and sanctification,and redemption ;" that "he was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;" that he is " the Lord our righteousness," and glories to be called by that name (and whatever he is unto us, it is chiefly by the way of merit) ; that " to us it is given v^lp xporoD, for Christ's
OF THE CAUSE OF FAITH. 101
sake, to believe on him," Phil. i. 29, where Imp XpiUTov is plainly re- ferred to didorai, [s'xapiadn,^ "is given," — as if the apostle should have said, "Christ is the meritorious cause of the bestowing of those good gifts, faith and constancy unto martyrdom, upon you;" — when, I say, we profess all these to be the proper and immediate products of the passion and blood of Christ, these turbulent Davusses come in with a prohibition, and quite expel it from having any interest therein.
^" There is nothing more vain, nothing more foolish," say they in their Apolog}^, " than to attribute our regeneration and faith unto the death of Christ ; for if Christ may be said to have merited for us faith and regeneration,; then faith cannot be a condition whose performance God should require at the hands of sinners under the pain of eternal damnation." And again, ^ " If faith be the effect of the merit of Christ, it cannot be our duty." No? Suppose, then, that the church should pray that it would please God, for Christ's sake, to call home those sheep that belong to his fold not as yet collected, — that he would grant faith and repentance, for the merit of his Son, to them that are as yet afar off, — were this an altogether vain and foolish prayer? Let others think as they please, it is such a vanity as I desire not to be weaned from ; nor any one else, I believe, that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity. Oh, that Christians should patiently endure such a diminution of their Saviour's honour, as with one dash of an Arminian pen to have the chief effects of his death and passion quite obliterated ! If this be a motive to the love and honour of the Son of God, if this be a way to set forth the preciousness of his blood, by denying the efficacy thereof in enabling us by faith to get an inte- rest in the new covenant, most Christians in the world are under a necessity of being new catechised by these seraphical doctors. Until when, they must give us leave to believe, with the apostle, that God " blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in Christ," Eph. i. 8 ; and we will take leave to account faith a spiritual blessing, and, therefore, bestowed on us for Christ's sake. Again ; since our regene- ration is nothing but a " purging of our consciences from dead works that we may serve the living God," which being done by " the blood of Christ," as the apostle witnesseth, Heb. ix. 1 4, we will ascribe our new birth, or forming anew, to the virtue of that grace which is pur- chased by his blood ; that " precious blood" it is which " redeemeth us from our vain conversation," 1 Pet. 118, 19, by whose efficacy we are vindicated from the state of sin and corrupted nature wherein we are born.