3 '■ Tertium est, cum homo vera fide in Christum credit, et Christus ex foederis formula credentem Deo commendat. Hie jam Deus depouit iram, hominemque id gratiam recipit."— De Satisfact. Christi, cap. vii.
4 Ps. 1. 21 ; E\-od. iii. 14 ; 1 Sam. xv. 21 : Job xxiii. 13 ; Ps. cii. 26, 27 ; Isa. xiv. 27.
5 2 Kings xix. 6 ; Isa. xxxvii. 3 ; 1 Tim. i. 13. . .
6 " Quicunque negat aliquid de Deo, quod ei convenit, vel asserit de eo, quod ei non convenit, (lero- gat divina; bonitali, et est bla.sphemus."— Thorn. 22, se. q. 13, a. 1. c.
452 OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
Biich kind of passion, is j?ross Anthropomorphism,' — as barl, if not worse than the assigning of him a ])odily sliape. ^ The anger of God is a pure act of his will, whereby he will effect and inflict the effects of anger. Now, what is before the foresight of the death of Christ is certainly from eternity. God's anger must re- spect either the purpose of God or the effects of it. Tlie latter it cannot be, for thevare undoubtedly all temporal. It must be, then, his purpose from eternity to inflict punishment tliat is the effect of anger. This, then, is the first thing in the business of redemption assigned by Grotius unto the Lord, — namely, he purposed from eternity to inflict punishment on sinners. And on what sinners? Even on those for whom he gives Christ to die, and afterward receives into favour, as he ex- presseth himself. Behold here a mystery of Vorstian theology ; God changing his eternal purposes! 'This Arminius at first could not down withal; inferring fi'om hence that the will of God differed not from his essence; — tliat every act thereof is, first, most simple; secondly, infinite; thirdly, eternal; fourthly, immut- able; fifthly, holy. Reason itself would fiun speak in this cause, but that the scriptures do so abound. Many places are noted in the margin.* James i. 17; 2 Tim. ii. 19; Ps. xxxiii. 9-11; Acts xv. 18, etc., may be added. A mutable god is of the dunghill.
2. That the death of Christ is not comprised in the first considei-ation of God's mind and act of his will towards sinners to be saved, is assumed gratis.
3. " He is not," saith he, " averse from all ways of laying down this anger." This scheme Grotius placeth, as is evident, m God, as the foundation and bottom of sending Christ for our redemption. This he immediately .subjoins, without the least intimation of any farther inclination in God towards sinners, for whom he gives his Son. But, —
(1.) This is a mere negation of inflicting anger for the present, or a suspension of that affection from working according to its quality ; which how it can be as- cribed to the pure and active will of God I know not. ^ Yea, it is above disproved.
(2.) Such a kind of frame, as it is injurious to God so to be held out as the fountain of his sending Christ to die for us, is, I am persuaded, an abhorrency to Christians. And, —
(3.) Whether this answer that which the Scripture holds out as the most in- tense distinguishing love, John iii. 10; Rom. v. 8, viii. 32; 1 John iv. 9, 10, is easily discernil)le. A natural velleity to the good of the creature is the thing here couched, but was never proved.
II. " In the second instance, God," saith he, " the death of Christ being sup- posed, not only determineth, but also promiseth to lay aside his anger."
1 . What terms can be invented to hold out more expressly a change and altera- tion in the unchangeable God than these here used, I know not.
2. That the will or mind of God is altered, from one respect towards us to an- other, by the consideration of the death of Christ, is a low, carnal conception. The will of God is not moved by any thing without itself." Alterations are in the things altered, not in the will of God concerning them.
3. To make this the whole effect of the death of Christ, that God should de- termine and promise to lay aside his wrath, is no Scripture discovery,' either as to name or thing.
4. The purposes of God, which are all eternal, and the promises of God, which are all made in time, arc very inconveniently ranged in the same series.
1 Quic dicuntur a.y(puT.:iVa.6us intelligcnda sunt ^io<rpivZs. Amor et gauduim, ct alia ejusmodi, Cum iittnbiuintur Pco, .significant simplicim actum voluntatis, cum similitudine effectus, absque passione. — Aiiiiiti. Vl i\. '11. a. 3.
i Libera volmitus ulcl^icndw injuria).— Epb. i. 11.
3 Arm. Disp I'ul.. dc Natur. Dei, tlios. 51.
* AVhat has l)ccome of tlic rel'orenccs alluded to, it is difficult to pav.— En.
e Kph. i. 13. 0 Aliud est mutare voliintatcm aliud vcllo aliiinarutn ronim mutationem.
1 Matt, xviii. 11 ; 1 Tim. i. 15; Kph. v. 25-27, il. 15, 10; Col. i. 13; 1 John i. 7, etc.
THE ACTS OF GOD's WILL TOWARDS SINNERS. 453
5. That by the death of Christ atonement is marie, everlasting redemption purchased, that God is reconciled, a right unto freedom obtained, for those for whom he died, shall be afterward declared.