An End of Doctrinal Controversies, Chapter 11
CHAP. XI. Of our Redemption by Christ.
§. 1. SIN having made Man guilty and depraved, unfit for duty and felicity, odious to the most Holy Righteous God, and lyable to his Justice, the eternal Wisdom and Word of God did interpose, and by Mercy did save Man from the deserved rigour of Justice, promising Actual Redemption in the fulness of time, and on that supposition giving fallen Man a pardoning and saving Law (or Covenant of Grace) with answerable help of his Spirit and Means, and outward Mercies fitted to his Recovery and Salvation.
§. 2. But God would not have this Recovery and Salvation to be perfect at the first; but gave Man a certain proportion of Common Deliverance and Mercy, binding him to a Course of Duty, in the performance of which he should receive more by degrees till he were perfected. (As Phisicians cure their Patients.)
§. 3. Therefore God did enter into Judgment with fallen Man, and did sentence him absolutely to some degree of Punishment, even to Labour, Pain, the penalty of the Cursed Earth, and finally to Death; which Temporal Punishment God would not remit, nor give him a Saviour to procure the pardon of it; but only to the Faithful, to turn all this unto their Benefit, and to deliver them from the greater everlasting Sufferings.
§. 4. And their own sinful pravity and privation of Holiness, and communion with God, which also was their greatest punishment by Consequence, God would not at once, nor in this Life perfectly save them from; and therefore accordingly pardoned them their punishment, but by the forementioned degrees. For he is not perfectly pardoned or saved, who is yet left under so much penalty.
§. 5. Some thinking it hard, that for 4000 Years the World should have no Existent Mediator, and that an Existent Faith in the future Mediator, should be more necessary than an Existent Mediator and his Work, and thinking withal that it would solve many Textual Difficulties objected by the Arians, and explain the Appearances of Christ to the Patriarchs, have conceived that Christ hath a threefold Nature, viz. The Divine Nature, a created Super-Angelical Nature to which the Divine Nature was united before the Incarnation, and the Humane Nature assumed at the Incarnation; and that so we had an Existent Mediator from the time of the Fall. But whatever conveniences this Opinion may seem to have, I find no satisfactory proof of it in Scripture, nor that the Christian Church did ever hold it. And it is overmuch boldness to take up so great a Doctrine as a third Nature in Christ, which the Church of Christ was never acquainted with. And the Texts that seem to be for it, are capable of the common Exposition.
§. 6. If any think that this was the Judgment of abundance, yea, the most of the Antient Writers, before the days of Arius, because they have such unhappy expressions of Christ, which the Reader may find truly Collected to his hand by Petavius de Trinitate, and that it is fitter to Expound them as speaking only of Christ's second Nature, than to account them all Arians, or to honour the Arians by making them on their side, I answer, I leave every Man to his own judgment upon perusal of the Fathers words, allowing all Charity that hath sufficient ground: But I cannot perceive, that these Writers talk of any more Natures in Christ than two, and pious ends must be served by no Fictions and Untruths: I think that we must rather gather with Petavius there that the Votes in the Nicene Council tell us, that then the greater part of the Church were against Arius, and therefore they were so before, because they held (in so great a point) the Faith which they had received from their Fathers: And that the greater part of Writers, might differ from the greater part of the Church. And withal, these Writers having more than other men to do with the Heathen Philosophers and Orators, who were prejudiced against the Doctrine of the Trinity, did shun their Offence by too much stretching their speeches to that which they thought they could easilier digest, which gave Arius his advantages. The Conclusions either way are harsh and sad; but I leave others better to avoid them.
§. 7. The Deity it self may not unfitly be called our REDEEMER before the Incarnation, though not so fitly a MEDIATOR, and though Redemption by Christ's Death and Merits in the Flesh was not then wrought: Because the word Redeeming is oft taken for a merciful Delivering, though without a price; and also because the Price was promised from the beginning. But thus the word REDEEMER is equivocal, signifying either the Deity as a promising, undertaking Saviour, or the Mediator who was promised, and who performed the undertaken means.
§. 8. The MEDIATOR himself being purely the Gift of the Divine Love and Mercy, it was no inconvenience, that God then had all the Glory, and that Faith then acknowledged no other existent Saviour, but God himself the infinite Good.
§. 9. It troubleth men much to open, how Christ was any true Cause of our Pardon and Salvation as a Mediator, before his Incarnation? And what his merits, sacrifice and intercession could do, before they did exist? And the common Answer is, That Moral (though not Physical) Causes may cause before they exist, and so operate as foreseen, foredecreed or willed. But these Logical notions must not be used to put off the Question, instead of satisfactorily answering it. This tells us not whether by a Moral Cause they mean a True Cause of some moral Being, or something morally called a Cause which indeed is not so, but quasi causa: Nor yet whether they mean a Cause efficient, final or constitutive: Nor yet whether they mean a Cause of any thing in God, or only of some following effect.
§. 10. It must be concluded that Christ's merits, sacrifice and Intercession make no real Change in God, his Understanding or Will, and therefore have no such Causality.
§. 11. But God's Promise first, and Christ's Merits and Sacrifice next make a Change in the state of things, laying that Ground-work or necessary Antecedent and Condition, upon which it becometh meet, right and just for God to give the rest of his mercy which this is the Condition of, and the true meritorious Cause: And so the Change was neither on GOD, nor immediately on Man, but for Man on the state of things which God and man were both concerned in: It is a causa ordinis, while that is done first, which is prerequisite to what is to follow: And it is a causa rei (benefici… ) while it not only removeth moral Impediments of our Pardon and Salvation, but also setteth matters in such a state, in which it becometh congruous, meet, right and just for God to pardon and save us; which is a remote disposing the fall'n sinner to be a due Recipient of God's following promised Grace. And thus it is in both senses a moral Cause, as it is a Cause of our Right, and of Congruity, and as it is, though not indeed, yet morally, reputatively, or Quasi causa physica realis, of our Pardon, Grace and Salvation, by making them become just, right and due. And being thus far a Cause of the effects ad extra, per extrinsecam denominationem ex connotatione & relatione ad objectum, it may be called (with cautelous sobriety) a Cause of God's own Intellections and Volitions: For though in themselves they are God's Essence, yet for God [to know us to be redeemed and to will our present Pardon and Salvation as Redeemed ones,] are words that speak more than God's Essence as in it self, and include the termination of his Acts on these Objects as such; and so denominate God's Essence distinctly from the Objects, which else would never be distinguished, nor have but one name; being really but one.
§. 12. Yet all these diversifying, distinguishing, denominating Causes of God's Intellections, Volitions and Operations, must not (even denominatively or relatively) be counted or called Efficient Causes of God's Acts, nor strictly final but objective. And therefore here it must be considered what Cause an Object is, which Philosophers are not well agreed in. But I think I may safely say, That as to moral acts, the Object is to be reduced to such a cause materialis or constitutiva as they are capable of, not of the Act as an Act, but as this act, in specie, denominated from the receptive terminating matter or object. And though to Man, to know this or that, and to will this or that ad extra, seem somewhat really different (or modally at least) from knowing and willing our selves or some other Object, yet in God it is not to be called ex parte sui, a real or modal difference at all.
§. 13. Yet I assert not that the Ratio prima of all these Diversities of the Divine Acts is ex terminis seu recipientibus: For the first Reason is in and of God himself: For it is God that maketh all diversities of Effects and Changes; and so it is from those divers Effects of his own Will, that his Will is relatively ex connotatione termini diversly denominated. But that in God which is the Ratio prima diversitatis, is not divers, but his one simple essential Will; so that it is the diversity of Objects which is the immediate Reason of distinguishing God's acts, (of which before).
§. 14. These things premised, I come nearer to the Question, if that which existeth not do truly cause, it must be either efficiently, constitutively, or finally. The two first are denied by the common Reason of Mankind. That which is not, cannot effect: Nothing can do nothing. And to say it is not, is to say, it constituteth not. And as it is certain, that causa finalis non efficit, yea, is but causa metaphorice operans, so it is certain, that no Creature causeth any thing in God, no not finally.
§. 15. Those that say, That Christ and his death and merits did not cause before Existence, in esse existenti, but in esse cognito, as constituting the Divine Idea's, 1. Must remember that the esse cognitum, as they call it, is no esse rei cognita at all; Therefore if only the esse cognitum do cause, then it was not Christ and his Merits that caused. 2. In Man for an esse cognitum, to cause his further acts, is but for one Thought to cause another Thought, or a Volition or Nolition. And these Thoughts and Volitions are really divers, and constituted by reception of intromitted Objects: But God is no Recipient, nor knoweth any Object as we do by intromission; Nor hath he any such Thoughts or Idea's of Creatures as are really divers ex parte Dei, but only by extrinsick denomination.
§. 16. If it be said, That then God should know nothing till it is, because a denomination must be from something, and nothing can be no Object or terminus; and so of his Will. I Ans. 1. God doth not know any thing as existent now, which doth not exist now. But our Now is in his Eternity, and his Eternity without partition comprehendeth all our Times; prae and post, ab and ad are Prepositions of no signification in and of Eternity; but only [In]. And therefore as Augustine saith, his Prescience is but his Science so denominated from the Order of Objects, but noteth not any difference in him, who hath neither prae nor post. How this is to be understood without making the Creature eternally exist, I have elsewhere fully opened.
§. 17. That plain truth therefore which must here satisfie us is, That God, who is the first efficient and ultimate final Cause of all things, and caused by none, did of his free abundant Mercy undertake the saving of sinful Man, and notwithstanding his Threatning and Man's Defect, resolving to make advantage of our Sin and Misery, for the Glory of his Wisdom, Love, Mercy and Justice, he promised that the Eternal Word should in due time assume Man's nature, and therein do and suffer that which should glorifie him more than Man's Perdition would have done, and which should make it just and meet for him to save the Guilty, both inceptively at the present under the Promise (for 4000 years) and afterward more fully at Christ's Incarnation, and finally to perfect all in Glory.
So that the Work of our Salvation is one entire frame, composed by Divine Wisdom and Love; where one part is the Reason of another, though none be the Cause of any thing in God: And Christ's Mediation, though coming after 4000 years, yet was then to do that which should make it meet and right and just for God to pardon Sin before: Even as in a Building the several parts may be the reason of each other, because they must be all compaginated and fitted to their relative places and uses: And though the Foundation make not the Superstructure, it upholdeth …it… And as Aquinas briefly faith, Deus non propter hoc vult hoc, sed vult hoc esse propter hoc; nothing is the Cause of God's Will, but it is God's Will that one thing shall be for another: And when all his Work must be one Frame, the part last made may be a reason of the former. And so Christ's merits and sacrifice, though after 4000 years, perform that for which it became just and meet before for God to pardon Sinners. For though it was not then existent, yet (besides the Decree) the Promise, Prediction and Publication made it useful to its ends, in respect to GOD and Man.
§. 18. So then, though the Cause be not truly a Cause till it exist, and though all the Pardon and Salvation given for 4000 years, was before the existence of the merits and sacrifice of Christ, yet the Promise and Notification of the Mediator and his merits and sacrifice, as the reason of this Pardon, did then exist, and was the cause of that Pardon, which Christ was afterward to merit.
§. 19. It is therefore no absurdity, that the existence of Man's Faith and Repentance should be necessary, when the Mediator's Existence and his Merits was not necessary: For it was not then an existent Mediator (and Sacrifice, &c.) that was the Object of Faith, but only a Promised Mediator.
§. 20. And whereas it is a doubt, seeing the Head is essential to the Church, and the Divine Nature only was Head of the Church before the Incarnation, and the Divine and Humane united was afterward the Head, whether it follow not the Church before the Incarnation and after (and so Faith and Religion) were divers in specie, and not the same? I answer, That while we agree all de re, that so much difference there is, it is not worth our trouble to strive about the Name or Logical Notion of [Sameness of Species.]
§. 21. When God hath chosen to save Man by way of a Mediator, and by his Sacrifice and Merits, as that way in which his Wisdom, Love, Holiness, Mercy and Justice are eminently glorified, it seemeth to me too bold Presumption to dispute, Whether he could not have saved us otherwise, and pardoned Sin without a Saviour? as it would be to dispute, Whether he could not illuminate the Earth without the Sun? He wanteth not Power to do whatsoever is meet for God to do; but all the question is, Whether it be meet, supposing Man's Nature and Sin to be what they are?
§. 22. God did illuminate the World without the Sun, till the Sun was made: But it was the imperfect World, and before the perfecting of his Work: And so God did save Man without an Existent Mediator, (unless God may be called a Mediator between himself and us, which is a harsh Phrase). But it was before the Work of our Salvation was brought to maturity; for the Cure of Man is perfectest at last.
§. 23. We must take great heed, that in considering of the parts of our Redemption by Christ, we look not all at one and over-look the rest, nor set not those Works of Christ in opposition which must be taken in conjunction: But his Incarnation, Obedience, Contempt of the World, Victory over Satan, Suffering, Resurrection, Ascension, Glory, Intercession, Reign, Raising the Dead, Judgment, glorifying his Church, must be all conjoined, though not confounded.
§. 24 The Benefits of Redemption, or recovering Mercies, are not all given in the same way: We must carefully distinguish of those that God giveth absolutely and antecedently; that is, before any Condition or Duty on Man's part, and those that he giveth consequently upon Man's Duty performed as the means of Reception.
§. 25. Antecedent Mercies are some common to all men, and some proper to some Countries, Ages and Persons, as the free Benefactor pleaseth.
§. 26. Of the former sort is the Sustentation of Nature, reprival from deserved miseries, the Law of Grace, as to the tenor, and some degree of promulgation, with all the common Mercies, Means, Duties which tend to Recovery. Of the later sort are the greater degrees of such mercies and means, which God freely giveth to some more than others.
§. 27. Therefore we must not say that Infidels or wicked men have no Mercies, or no Right to what they do possess as from God, as being no Consenters to the Covenant or Performers of it: Because there are Antecedent Mercies given before such Consent or Performance; not as to Covenanters but as to miserable men, invited to enter Covenant with God in Christ. Though these are so forfeited by their refusal, that they have no assurance of their continuance, but God may soon take them all away.
§. 28. The consequent Mercies are Pardon, Iustification, Adoption, the Spirit, a secured filia… Right to all outward Mercies that are good and suitable to us, and final Glory, and whatever God hath promised on Conditions by us to be performed.
§. 29. The question of universal Redemption, and special, I shall pretermit till I speak of universal Grace.
§. 30. Seeing Life, Health, Food, Hope, and all that is truly good, were forfeited by Sin, and none of them can be due to us by the Law of Innocency, it followeth, that wherever they are given, it is upon other terms, which can be no other than those of the Law of Grace, as fruits of our Redeemer's Mercy (antecedently or consequently.) And where the Fruits are apparent, we may know the Cause.
§. 31. The Fruits of Redemption are one entire frame consisting of various and unequal parts, to divers persons (yet mutually related:) And therefore it will not follow, that nothing but what certainly inferreth the person's Salvation is any such effect of Man's Redemption.