In p. 146 of his Appendix, Mr Baxter endeavours to vindicate a thesis of his from some exceptions that he was by his friend pointed to, unto which it seemed liable and obnoxious.
The thesis he lays down is, " That no man is actually and absolutely justified upon the mere payment of the debt by Christ, till they become believers."
Against this " article," as he calls it, he produceth some objections of Maccovius,i censuring his assertions to be " senseless," his positions " strange and abhorred," his arguments " weak and ineffectual ;" with some other expressions to the same purpose.
1. I am now, by the providence of God, in a condition of separation from my own small library, neither can here attain the sight of Maccovius' disputations, so that I shall not at all interpose myself in this contest ; only I must needs say, — •
(1.) I did not formerly account Maccovius to be so senseless and weak a disjiu- tant as here he is represented to be.
(2.) That for Mr Baxter's answer to that argument, " Where the debt is paid, there discharge must follow," by asserting the payment made by Christ to be refusable, and the interest of sinners in that payment to be purely upon the performance of a condition, I have fully before, in both parts of it, demonstrated it to be weak and inconsistent with itself and truth. That the interesting of sinners in the payment
1 Several works by this author were published, partly during his lifetime and partly posthumous, at Traneker and Amsterdam, from 1023 to IGSO, such as his " Quiestiones Theologicae," " Collegia Theo- logica," etc. Maccovius, or Makowski, is said to have been the first among the Keformed that re- stored the scholastic treatment of theology.— Ed.
472 OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
made by Christ, at such and such a season, is from the sovereignty of God, and his free engagement s«6 termino for this end, hath been also fully manifested.
2. But Mr Baxter affirms that to these arguments of Maccovius, Mr Owen adds some in the place agriinst Grotius whereunto he was referred.
" To what end," you will say, " doth Mr Owen add these arguments ? " "Wliy, to prove that men are actually and absolutely justified upon the mere payment of the debt by Christ, before believing!
'&\xt,fidem tuam! Is there any one argument in my whole book used to any such purpose? Do I labour to prove that which I never affirmed, never thought, never believed ? In what sense I affirmed that by the death of Christ Ave are actually and Ipso facto delivered from death, — that is, us 'i'^o; iWuv, we have in due time, the time appointed, free and full deliverance thereby, without the intervention of any condition on our part not absolutely procured for us by his death, — I have before declared. How much this comes short of actual and absolute justification I need not now mention ; I shall therefore only so far consider the answers given by Mr Ba.\;ter as they may seem to impair or intrench upon the main truth I assert, and that in the order by him laid down.
" These," saith he, " Mr Owen layeth down."
1. "By death he delivereth us from death." To which he answers: "Not immediately nor absolutely, nor by his death alone, but by that as a price, supposing other causes on his part and conditions on ours to concur before the actual de- liverance."
(1.) To what end I mention that place of the apostle was before declared.
(2.) By the death of Christ we are immediately delivered from death with that immediation which is proper to the efficiency of causes which produce their effiacts by the way of moral procurement; that is, certainly, -without the intervention of any other cause of the like kind. And, —
(3.) Absolutely, no condition being interposed between the cause and the effect, Christ's death and our total deliverance, but such as is part of our deliverance, and solely procured by that death, though that death of Christ be not considered as alone, that is, separated from his obedience, resurrection, and intercession, when the work of redemption is assigned to it in the Scripture.
(4.) By the death of Christ as a price, I suppose you understand his purchase as well as his payment, his merit as well as his satisfaction ; or else this is a false notion of the death of Christ as the cause of our deliverance.
(5.) All other causes concurring on the part of Christ for our deliverance are, first, either not of the same kind with his death ; or, secondly, bottomed on his death and flowing from thence : so that, summarily, all may be resolved thereinto.
(G.) The conditions on our part, in the sense intended, are often mentioned, never proved; nor, I am persuaded, will ever be. But he adds : —
2. " He .saith the elect are said to die and rise with Christ." Saith he, —
" (1.) Not in respect of time, as if we died and rose at the same time, either really or in God's esteem.
" (2.) Not that we died in his dying, and rose in his rising. But, —
" (3.) It is spoken of the distant mediate effects of his death, and the immediate effects of his Spirit on us, rising* by regeneration to union and communion with Christ." So he.