But while Socinus despised and set at nought him and his grace, is it to be wondered at if he " became vain in his imaginations," and that his " foolish heart was darkened?"
For what need I say more? Doth not God exercise supreme and in- finite mercy towards us, miserable and lost sinners, in pardoning our sins through Christ? Have we deserved any such thing, who, after doing all that we can do, even when roused and assisted by his grace, are still unprofitable servants? Did we apj^oint a sacrifice, that his anger might be averted, and that an atonement to his justice might be made from our own store-house, sheeiD-fold, or herd ? Yea, when we were enemies to him, alienated from his life, without help and without strength, dead in trespasses and hi sins, knowing of no such thing, wishing for or expecting no such thing, he himself " made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin," that he might " save us from the wrath to come ;" that, an expiation being made for our sins, we might be presented blameless before him, to the praise and glory of his grace. But whether he showed the strictest justice and severity towards our surety, over whom he exercised a most gracious care,
PROGRESS OF THE DISPUTE IN BRITAIN. 583
both on his o^Yn account^ and for our sakes, and whom he did not; spare, shall afterward be considered.
Whether, then, when our opponent, relying on these subtleties of his, concludes, " That there is no justice in God which dictates the necessity of punishing sin, and that therefore there is no reason why God cannot freely pardon the sins of whomsoever he may please, without any satisfaction received," and then, as if he had accom- plished a glorious achievement, triumphs over the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, be not acting the part of a most silly trifler and absurd heretic, let the reader determine. But, as all the arguments which he afterward uses against the satisfaction of Christ have their foundation in this most false supposition, which the Scriptures, as hath been shown, so often contradict, and on which he always depends in all his disputations, whetlier those have acted for the interest of the church of God who have vohmtarily surren- dered to him this impregnable tower of truth, which he hath in vain laid siege to, that he might with greater audacity carry on his at- tacks upon the gospel, is well known to God. We, as we hope, in- structed by his word, entertain very different sentiments from theirs on this point.
But when our opponent has come to the conclusion of this dis- pute, he introduces many fictions about the mere good-will of God in pardoning sins, about his ceasing from his right without injury to any one, about the injustice of the substitution of a surety in the room of sinners; — all which arguments, as they depend on a false foundation, yea, on a most base error, it would be easy here to show how vain, false, inconclusive, and absurd they are, unless we had de- termined, with God's will, to explain the doctrine of the satisfaction of Jesus Christ, the greatest treasure of the gospel, and to defend and vindicate it from the unjust calumnies of heretics, in the proper place and time.
CHAPTER XII.
The progress of the dispute to the theologians of our own country — The supreme authority of divine truth — Who they are, and what kind of men, \^ho have gone into factions about this matter — The Coryph?eus of the adversaries, the very iUustrious Twisse — The occasion of his pubHshing his opinion — The opi- nion of the Arminians— The effects of the death of Christ, what — Twisse ac- knowledges punitory justice to be natural to God — The division of the dispute with Twisse — Maccovius' answers to the arguments of Twisse — The plan of our dispiitation.
We come now to those, and the consideration of their opinion, who, agreeing with us concerning the satisfaction of Jesus Christ,
1 " Behold my servant, whom I uphold ; mine elect, in whom my soul dclighteth."'--* Isa. xlii. 1. — Tr. *^
584 A DISSERTATION ON DIVINE JUSTICE. [PART II.
as revealed in the Scriptures, yet, it being supposed that God willed the salvation of sinners, contend that the whole necessity of it flowed from the most free will of God, though they by no means deny sin- avenging justice to be natiu'al to God.^
But those who maintain this opinion are so numerous and respect- able, and men who have merited so highly of the church of God, that although the freeman of Christ, and taught to call no man on earth master in matters of religion, unless I had on my side not fewer and equally famous men, I should have a religious scruple publicly to differ from them. I acknowledge that every, even the least particle of divine truth is furnished from heaven with authority towards every disciple of Jesus Christ,who is the way, the truth, and the life, of holding it fast in the love and admiration of it, and of enforcing its claim, defence, and declaration, even though the Avhole world should rise up against him ; but, perhaps, it would be unbecoming in one who would cheerfully enter as a disciple to op- jDose such great, learned men, and those, too, so well trained to the field of dispute, unless supported by the dignity and suffrages of others not inferior even to those in merit.