If men be in haste to oppose what I have delivered about this business, let them (if they please, I have no authority to prescribe them their way) speak directly to the purpose, and oppose that which is affirmed, and answer my reasons in reference to that end only for which by me they are produced and insisted on.
Because I see some men have a desire to be deaUng with me, and yet know not well what to fix upon, that I may deliver them from the vanity of contending with their own surmises, and, if it be possible, prevail with them to speak closely, clearly, and distinctly, to the matter of their contests, and not mix heterogeneous things in the same discourse, I will briefly shrive myself, for their satisfaction.
First, then, I do not believe that any man is actually justified from eternity, because of that of the apostle, Rom. viii. 28-30. But yet what is the state of things in reference to the economy of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, engaged in from eternity for the salvation of sinners, with that fountain union that is between Christ and his body in their predestination, I shall desire a little more time to de- liver myself unto.
Secondly, I do believe that there was a covenant, compact, or agreement, between Father and Son for the salvation of the elect by his mediation ; which, upon sin's entering into the world, had an efficacy and effect of the very same nature with that which it hath when he hath actually accomplished what was on his part re- quired for the end proposed to him, and that therefore in the Old Testament his death is spoken of sometimes as past, Isa. liii. 4-6 ; and that to make this cove- nant in its constitution to be contemporary to its revelation, or the promises of it to be then made to Christ when the church is acquainted that those promises are made, is a wide mistake. • But under what consideration the elect lie unto God upon the transaction of this original covenant with the Mediator, I desire liberty for a wliile, as above.
Thu-dly, I do not believe that the elect that live after the death oi' Christ are all actually in their oiun persons justified and absolved at his death, because the wrath of God abides on men that believe not, John iii. 36 ; but yet what to the advantage of the church is inwrapped in the discharge of their great Representa- tive, who died in their stead (for that I believe also, and not only " for their good"), I desire i-espite for my thoughts, as formerly.
Fourthly, I do believe that Christ underwent the very same punishment for us, for the nature and kind of it, which we were obnoxious unto, and should have undergone had not he undertaken for us, and paid the idem that we should have done, 2 Cor. v. 21, Gal. iii. 13.
Fifthly, I believe that upon the death of Christ, considering what hath been said before concerning the compactor agreement between God and the Mediator about that matter, it became just and righteous, with reference to God's justice, as supremo governor and moderator of the creatures and all their concernments, that those for whom he died should all be made partakers of all the good things
616 OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST AND OF JUSTIFICATION.
■\vliich Christ by his death procured for them, in the season appointed by the sovereign will of God; but that this right, though indissoluble, is so actually vested in them as to be actionable in the gospel without faith, I believe not.
Sixthly, I believe that all spiritual blessings, mercies, privileges whatevei*, are jfruits of the death of Christ, and that, notwithstanding the order wherein they stand one to another, they all depend immediately on its causality, though "re- spectu termini " they have not a natural immediation.
Seventhly, I profess that we are absolved, pardoned, and justified, for Christ's sake, and therefore that Christ is reckoned to us, or made righteousness to us, in order of nature antecedently/ to all those things which for his sake we do receive, and are made partakers of with and by him, etc.
For a close of all, I must profess that I will not contend with any man who discovers in himself such a resolution Sia-iv ^loKpuXdmiv, that if he be pressed, rather than let it go, he will go backward, and attempt axivtira kivuv, and to question common received principles, knowing the multitude of errors and abominations that the church of God hath been pestered withal by men of this principle and practice. Hence are the beginnings of men modest, but their endings desperate ; hence is Arminianism ended in Episcopianism, and Arianism in Socinianism, and in many, Socinianism in Mohammedanism and atheism. If I fiind this resolution and spirit in any man, he shall rather enjoy his own present conceits than by me be precipitated into worse abominations. Nor shall I (the Lord assisting) be un- mindful of that of the apostle, I Tim. vi. 3-5, E'/ ti; iripiiSi^airKa.XiT, xa) fih Tfioffip- y,iTa.i vyiaivovfi Xoyoi; rtn; tov xvpioti rifMHv 'Inirou XpitrTov, x.ai <r^ koct il/criSsixy 6ioatrxa\icp, riTv^urai, fm^lv l-rKTrccfitvo;, d.X\a, voiruv vifl ZnT^cnis xa) Xoyof/.a.x,"'.;, 1| cov yivirai tp^ovoc,
ipis, SiXa,(r<pnfji,'ia.i, v'TTovoixi ■^ov/ipa), •TTafa'^ia.'rfiZcci, etc. ; as also that of the same apostle.