The Life of Justification Opened, Chapter 26
CHAP. XXVI.
Christ did not procure by his death the New Covenant, or the termes thereof.
WE heard what the Author of the discourse of the two Covenants, & what Iohn Goodwine said of this New Covenant. As the foundation of their assertion of the imputation of faith, properly taken, they tell us, that the New Covenant wherein this Righteousness is required, as the condition thereof, is founded wholly in the blood of Christ, so that whatever is required of man by way of condition of his acceptation with God, becomes accepted to that end, upon account of Christ's suffering, Mr. Allen p. 16. & p. 53. 54. saith. Nor doth this, that faith accompanied with obedience is imputed for righteousness, at all derogate from the obedience & sufferings of Christ, in reference to the ends, for which they serve. Because the whole Covenant, & all the parts & termes of it, both promises of benefites, & the Condition on which they are promised, are all founded in Christ his undertaking for us; and all the benefites of it accrue to us upon our beleeving & obeying, upon his account & for his sake. Mr. Baxter also telleth us, in his book against D. Tully p. 66. That that which Christ did by his merites, was to procure the new Covenant. And elsewhere p. 181, that they were the meritorious cause of the forgiving Covenants, & the like he …aith elsewhere frequently. The Arminians ground the imputation of faith upon the merites & obedience of Christ Apol. f. 113. And Arminius himself disp. 19. thes. 7. that justification is attribute to faith, not because it is the very righteousness, which may be proposed to God's rigide & severe judgment, howbeit acceptable to God; but because, by the judgment of mercy triumphing over judgment, it obtaineth pardon of sins, & is graciously imputed unto righteousness, the cause of which is both God righteous & merciful, & Christ by his obedience, oblation & intercession. And in his Epistle ad Hyppolet. he tels us, that the word imputing signifieth that faith is not the righteousness it self, but that it is graciously accounted for righteousness, whereby all worth is taken away from faith, except, that which is by God's gracious estimation & that gracious estimation of God is not without Christ, but in respect of Christ, in Christ, & for Christ. Christ by his obedience is the impetrating cause, or meritorious, why God imputeth faith to us unto righteousness. And againe in his Artic. perpend. de justif. What fault is it so say, that faith by free & gracious acceptation is accounted for righteousness, because of Christ's obedience.
But with this assertion, we are not satisfied, for these reasons
1. The Arminians, who maintaine this so confidently, make it the whole of what Christ merited by his death & Satisfaction, saying that Christ by his death did so satisfie the offended party, as he would be favourable to the offender; and so say, that he acquired to the father a jus & a will to enter into a new Covenant with men. See their Confess. c. 8. §. 9. collat. cum Apolog. c. 8. §. 9. and as the learned Voetius inferreth Select. dispp. p. 2. p. 233, 234. it followeth hence, that Christ was not in very deed our Cautioner; that he died not in our room & stead; that he did properly obtaine & acquire nothing to us; & that he did not sustaine the person of the elect, while he suffered on the crosse.
2. ... that Christ procured no more, but a power or liberty unto God of prescribing new Conditions; and some go so far, as to say, that this liberty was such only, at the Lord might, if he had pleased, have appointed the old way of works againe, for the condition; So said Grevinchovius ag. Amesius. But it is true, they yeeld more, who grant, that he purchased the New Covenant: Yet by this purchase, they can not say, that Christ died to redeem us from our sinnes from the wrath of God, from a vaine conversation, & to save us: And indeed the same person last named, saith expresly, that Christ died not properly to saye any one. And what can else be said by such, as make this the whole of what Christ did purchase? And how-rational is that consequence, which the same person hath, when he saith it might so have come to passe, that Christ had had the end of his death, & that no one had fulfilled the new Covenant, & had been saved; for they will not grant, that Christ did purchase faith.
3. Hence we see, that such as say, that this was all which Christ procured by his Death & Merites, do manifestly spoile us of all the rich Benefites, which Christ hath purchased, as being no immediat fruites of his death; such as Faith, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, Grace, & Glory, & thus evacuat the whole vertue of the death of Christ: And this do Mr. Allen's words p. 54. import while he saith, that all the benefites of the Covenant accrue to us upon our beleeving & obeying, upon his account & for his sake: and so they do not accrue to us upon his account & for his sake immediately; but immediatly upon the account & for the sake of our Beleeving & Obeying; only for Christ's sake is this connexion made.
4. Who ever assert, that Christ hath purchased the framing & Constitution of this Covenant, in its termes & conditions, ought to confirme this their assertion out of Scripture; & till this be done, we are a liberty to deny it, how confidently so ever it be affirmed. It is certane, that such a principal point & ground article of our Religion would not be darkly expressed in the Scriptures, far less wholly passed over in silence, as, for any thing that yet is made to appear, it is: for as for 1. Cor. 1: 30. & Ier. 23: 6. which Mr. Allen citeth, any may see how impertinent they are, that we say no more.
5. If so, then we must say with Papists, that Christ hath procured a worth to our Faith & Obedience, to merite ex pacto, the good things promised unto such, as are beleevers & obedient: Yea hereby there would be more of merite in our Faith, then in Christ's obedience.
6. We mnst say, that Christ hath purchased that we might be Justified by an Imperfect Righteousness; For sure, our faith & new Obedience is not perfect even when sincere, they laboure of many Imperfections, & have drosse & faultiness admixed: As also that he hath purchased, that an Imperfect Righteousness should be accounted & estemed a perfect Righteousness; & consequently that the judgment of God shnuld not be according to truth: which were blasphemeous & iniquous to imagine.
7. Thus in effect, Christ should be made the minister of sin, by changing the conditions of the old Law, which were perfect & compleet Obedience, into an obedience far short of that, & thus he must be come either to dissolve the Obligation of the Law, that it should not exact now, what it did exact of old; or to loose us from the Obligation thereof; that we should be in part Law less; neither of which can be asserted; & yet this Position maketh clear way for either, or for both.
8. Then we must say, that Christ hath purchased such a way of Justification, as leaveth ground to men to glory & boast though not before God, yet before men; for hereby he is made to purchase the renewing of the old Covenant of works, with some mitigation, as to tht termes, though with little mitigation, as to the persons; unless we say with these Arminians, that Man is as able to beleeve & obey sin…erely, if he will, as Adam was to obey perfectly: But sure Christ came for a far other end, than to leave man any ground of boa…ting, or of glorying in himself for his Justification & Salvation, as having made himself to differ.
9. Then Christ hath purchased a way, whereby man might hold his Pardon, Justification, Adoption &c. more of himself, than of Christ; for Christ by this way cannot be said to have purchased our Pardon, Justification &c. but only that we should have these favoures upon our Faith: or have such & such a reward of our Faith & Obedience; As he, who procureth that a person shall have such a benefite upon condition he performe such a piece of service, cannot be said to have procured that reward; for notwithstanding of this procurement (if it may be so called, which is at best, but a conditional uncertain thing) the person might never have gote the reward.
10. Then the making of the New Covenant, and the making of it on these termes, should be an act of meer Justice, in God, and not an act of his free Grace, Love, good Pleasure, Will & Kindness: for it is Justice & Righteousness in God, to do that, which Christ hath purchased & procured to be done; though, it is true, it may thus be accounted a meer favoure, that it was of God's free will, to enter into such termes of agreement with the Mediator, & to yeeld to the making of such a condition, upon Christ's purchase. But the Apostle tels us Ephes. 1: 9. that God made known unto us …he mysterie of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. Which mysterie of his will is the New Covenant & dispensation of grace in the Gospel; & it is ascribed not to the merites of Christ; but to God's good Pleasure, & to the Purpose, which he purposed in himself. So the saving of such as beleeve, floweth from the love of God, as well as, & no less then the sending of Christ Ioh. 3: 16. God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten son, that every beleever in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So Ephes. 3: 9, 10, 11. the fellowshipe of the mysterie was hid in God; & the manifold wisdom of God (which shineth forth in the New Covenant) was according to the eternal Purpose; which he had purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is ascribed to God's Love Ioh. 3: 16. & will Ioh. 6: 40.
11. I grant, it may be said, that as Christ hath purchased to his own Pardon, Justification, Adoption & Salvation; so, as a consequence of this, he hath purposed the Meanes, or rather the Application of the meanes, thereunto, that so the good things purchased may be actually conferred, according to the manner & methode condescended upon by Jehovah and the Mediator in the Coveuant of Redemption; for He hath chosen us, in himself having predestinat us unto the Adoption of children, by Iesus Christ, unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us acctpted, in the beloved, in whom we have redemption, through his blood, the forgivness of sins &c. Ephes. 1: 4, 5, 6, 7. the chosen ones are predestinated both to the end, & to the meanes leading to the end…: But this matter is not consistent with their Assertion, who say, that Christ by his death hath purchased Faith & New Obedience to be the Condition of the Covenant, because by their Universal Redemption they leave all at an uncertainty, especially when also they will not grant, that Christ hath purchased Faith itself to any person.
12. It must be said ... that Christ purchased the termes of the new Covenant. ... and purchased, that God should abolish the Law quite, and not require a conformitie thereunto, as our Righteousness, by vertue of the new Covenant, nor exact full Obedience to the Law, from any, in our name; & consequently it must be said, that Christ hath purchased, that the Law giver should wholly passe from that established Constitution, do & live, without any real accomplishment thereof, or requiring the accomplishment thereof from any, on their behalf, to the end, the Lord might be just, when he is the justifier of him that beleeveth in Jesus.
13. This assertion also stricketh against Christ's being the Surety of the New Covenant: for it is not the work of a Surety, as such, to purchase the Making & Constitution of a Covenant; but to confirme & ratifie the same, & to engage for the party, for whom he is a Surety, that he shall performe the conditions, accorded to in the Covenant; & so to establish the Covenant or contract, already agreed unto & constituted.
14. Thus it should be said, that Christ died rather for graces, than for persons, to wit. That Faith & new obedience may be elevated beyond their ordinare sphere, & exalted to be the Condition of the New Covenant. But the whole Scriptures speak otherwise of Christ's death.
15. If this were the thing that Christ procured, he could not be said to have Redeemed any, not so have died in the room & stand of any, but only for our good, as say the Sociniant, To purchase a new Covenant, is not to be a Propiltation, an foreign, to …ear our sins, to Reconcile any, unto God.
16. Mr. Baxter himself against Mr. Cartwright p. 91. hath these words. And therefore the Performer & the Accepter did themselve… (NB.) choose, on what termes it (i.e. Christ's Righteousness) should be applied to us, or be made ours, quoad fructus: And the termes resolved on were the New Covenants conditions, which are now required of us to our participation hereof. These words import some other rise unto this Covenant, than the purchase of Christ.