An End to Discord, Introduction · Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
SOCINIAN Errors concerning Christ's Satisfaction. Also LIMBORG's, with some other ARMINIANS concerning Christ's Satisfaction. SOCINIAN Errors as to Justification. LIMBORG's, with some other Arminian Errors about Justification. With a state of Truths opposite to each of these, as also to Popish Errors.
FInding our Brethren suggest in the Preface to this Declaration, that after all we have said in Cap. 1 and 2. yet still we ought to do more to discharge our selves from hurtful Errors about Christ's Satisfaction and our Iustification; we shall to promote Peace renounce several more Errors about those two Doctrines wherein we are suspected, and tell them what we think to be Truths.
Error 1. Punitive Justice against Sin is no Property of God, but only an Effect of his Will, and therefore there was no need of any Satisfaction to be made by Christ for Sin; nor is it less than ridiculous to say God was at once just as well as merciful in bringing about our Salvation by Christ: Socin. opera Theol. Tom. 1. Praelect. cap. 16. & Tom. 2. de Servator. par. 1. cap. 1. Prael. cap. 16. Wolzog. in Mat. 19. 28. Crel. Resp. ad Grot. cap. 1.
Truth. God is essentially just, and so zealous for the Honour of his Law when enacted and his Government, that Sin must not go unpunished; and therefore if Sinners be saved from the Punishments threatned by the violated Law for Christ their Mediator's sake, it was necessary that he made Satisfaction to Punitive Justice by enduring the Penal Effects of God's Wrath.
Error 2. Jesus Christ is not the true eternal most High God, of the same Substance, Authority and Power with the Father. Socin. Tom. 2. Respons. ad Iac. Vujeki, cap. 1, &c.
Truth. Jesus Christ is the true eternal most High God, of the same Substance, Authority and Power with the Father, and in time assumed the Human Nature, and remaineth God-Man for ever more.
Note, This Article is inserted, because the Value of Christ's Obedience and Death, for Satisfaction and Merit, was deprived from the Dignity of Christ's Person as God: And therefore tho the Socinians faintly argue, that if Christ were the eternal God, it would not render his Death a Satisfaction; yet it's evident their great Concern in denying Christ's Satisfaction is to prevent the unanswerable Argument this would be for his Deity. The like is also to be seen by their Notion of the Lord's-Supper.
Error 3. Christ did not by his Blood acquire or purchase the Gospel-Covenant, nor was his Death an impulsive Cause of God's promising to Men the Blessings of that Covenant; nor did it move him to make such Promises: But Christ was only the Mediator, that is, Sponsor of it, who assured Men that God would accomplish it, and who in God's Name, and by his Command, performed such things as belonged to the confirming and executing of the said Covenant. Socin. Tom. 2. 168, 199. Crell. Vol. 1. p. 612. and Vol. 3. Resp. ad Grot. p. 19, 128, 171. & Vol. 1. 612.
Truth. Christ did not only confirm the Gospel-Covenant to Men, and do such things as belonged to the execution of the Gospel Promises, but God as Governor made those Promises in consideration of the Death of Christ, as what vindicated the Glory of his Government in offering and promising such Blessings to condemned Sinners, altho as our absolute Lord and Proprietor he freely purposed within himself, that those Blessings should be granted in what method he judged fit.
Error 4. Christ was for no other cause a Mediator, nor so call'd, but that he was appointed by God a middle Person between himself and Men, not that he should appease God towards Men, but that he should declare God already pacified to them, and most evidently confirm the same by himself: And as for Men who were Haters of and Enemies to God, them he was to reconcile to God (i. e. convert) and be our eternal Lawgiver, and faithful Interpreter of the Divine Will to them, by whom they might always have access to God, and obtain eternal Life. Socin. Tom. 1. 788.
Truth. Jesus Christ was by Divine Adjustment a middle Person between God and Sinners, and as such laid his hand on both; undertaking to appease God's Wrath, and procure Salvation for us at his hand; and also to make God and the way of Salvation known to us for our Reconciliation and Obedience to God: and by him God still imparts his Blessings to us, and admits us free access to himself.
Error 5. Christ is called a Surety as a Sponsor or Messenger on God's part to us, but he promised nothing to God for us. Crell. vol. 1. p. 612.
Truth. Tho Christ was not a joint federating Party with us in the Covenant of Works, yet he was not only a Surety on God's part to us, but he was a mediating Surety on both parts; and as such he engaged in the Covenant of Redemption to make Atonement for us, and in the Gospel-Covenant, that all true Believers shall persevere to the obtaining of eternal Life.
Error 6. Christ was not an High-Priest while on Earth, nor was his Blood offered by him to God, but it was himself was offered, and that not on the Cross, but when he entred into Heaven; yet the Death of Christ so far belongs to his Priesthood, that he was prepared by his Death to become a High-Priest, and to offer himself a perfect Sacrifice for Sin in Heaven, neither of which could be according to the Decree of God, if his Death had not intervened. Crell. vol. 2. Resp. ad Grot. cap. 10. vol. 1. 613. vol. 2. par. 1. 162. Socin. Tom. 1. Praelect. Theol. cap. 23.
Truth. Christ was an High-Priest while he was on Earth, and as such upon the Cross offered up himself by his bloody Death a perfect Sacrifice, whereby his Blood was a propitiatory offering at the very time it was shed; and tho in the virtue thereof the Saints were saved before his Incarnation, and Christ for ever intercedeth in the Heavens, yet the presenting of himself or it there, makes no addition to the Perfection of it as a Sacrifice.
Error 7. There is no use nor place in the Priesthood of Christ for appeasing God's Wrath, or offering any Sacrifice, no not in Heaven, as a Condition of obtaining Remission properly as from God, or impetrating the same; but Christ's Death is a means of our enjoying that Remission from God, and it was indirectly a Condition thereof as to be given to us, i. e. it was a Condition imposed: on Christ, without which, by the Divine Decree, he was not to obtain Authority from God to forgive us our Sins; and it may be called a Sacrifice to God's Mercy, as of his own free Grace reconciled, but not as offended with Sinners. Socin. Tom. 2. 665, 666. Crell. vol. 1. 612. Wolzog. in Ioh. 3. 16.
Truth. The first and principal use of Christ's Priesthood, was to offer on the Cross a Sacrifice to appease God's Wrath against Sinners, and to impetrate Remission and eternal Life, that so God the offended Governor might, consistently with the Honour of his Law, and of all his Divine Perfections, be at liberty, and inclined as well to give the said Blessings, as that we might become actual Partakers of them from Christ, as authorized to apply them to us: And all the other Sacerdotal Acts of Christ do refer to this.
Error 8. Redemption mentioned in the New Testament, signifies no more nor other than a freeing us from the Punishment of Sin without any proper Price intervening. And when it's said, Redemption is obtained by the Blood of Christ, it's not meant that the Blood of Christ could move God, or that God was thereby obliged to grant us Deliverance from the Punishment of our Sins, but that the shedding of his Blood ought to intervene, that we might be moved thereby to accept that Deliverance when offered to us. Neither did Christ buy us, but God by Christ asserted his Right to us; and tho our Deliverance from Punishment is gotten as if by a Price, yet this is not as if the Blood of Christ were paid to any. Socin. Tom. …. Prael. Theol. cap. 19. Tom. 2. 145, 147. Slicht. in Rom. cap. 5. v. 10.
Truth. Redemption by the Blood of Christ, is that we are bought by his Blood as a proper Price, and delivered from the Curse of the Law, and Captivity under Sin and Satan, as by a proper Ransom paid to the just Governor of the World.
Error 9. Christ by his Death did not reconcile God to us, but he reconcileth us to God by his Death, i. e. we come thereby to be converted to God, and cease to offend him; yea, God's Anger was so far from being appeased by the Death of Christ, that thereby it was declared, that God was before pacified to us. Socin. Tom. 1. 144, 145, 665, 666. Crell. vol. 3. Resp. ad Grot. 154, 155, 107. Slicht. Tom. 2. 214, 401. & in Rom. 5. 10. & 2 Cor. 5.
Truth. We being Children of Wrath because of our Sin, the Lord Jesus did by his Death atone our offended God, who became thereby so reconciled, that he offereth Peace to Sinners, and requireth and urgeth us by believing aright to accept thereof; and upon our penitent believing he becomes actually reconciled to us, delighting in us, and dealing with us as Objects of his restored Favour.
Note 1. Crellius Resp. ad Grot. cap. 8. part. 3. disputes against this as the Error of Grotius and the rest of the Orthodox, stating it in these words, God was before angry, but being appeased by the Death of Christ he determined to lay aside his Anger, and upon our believing and repenting he doth actually lay aside his Anger.
2. Grotius de Satisf. cap. 7. distinguisheth the Actings of the Divine Will; 1. As before Christ's Death is decreed, &c. then God is angry with the Sinner, yet so as not to be averse to all methods of Reconciliation. 2. VponUpon Christ's Death (as well when fixed as when undergone) then God not only appoints the way, but promiseth to be reconciled. 3. When a Man believes in Christ with a right Faith, and Christ according to the Tenor of the Covenant presents the Believer to God; then God lays aside his Anger, and receives the Person into Favour (or is actually reconciled.)
3. How little do well-meaning Antinomians consider, that not only in the third Error, &c. but in this last Error, they agree with the Socinians, and that in a Point whence most of their false Notions about Christ's Satisfaction proceed. For, see you not? they hold that after God's absolute Decree to justify us, there's no Wrath in God to appease, the change is only on our part: And no Reconciliation but on our side, whom God begs to be reconciled to him, he being already at Peace with us.
Error 10. By Christ's dying for our Sins as being laid on him, is not meant, that Christ according to his Sponsion satisfied Divine Iustice for our Sins, or that he paid to God any thing which we owed for our Sins; but when he is said to have died for our Sins as they were laid on him, nothing else is meant, but that he died by occasion of our Sins, to take them away, i. e. he died to reclaim us from our Sins, and to assure us, that if we did leave our Sins we should be forgiven; and besides this, that we might perceive and obtain the fruit of that Forgiveness, &c. Socin. Tom. 2. 153. Tom. 1. Prael. Theol. cap. 18, 20. Crell. Vol. 3. Resp. ad Grot. cap. 9.
Truth. When it's said, Christ died for our Sins as being laid on him, it's not only to bring about the forementioned Ends, and such other Purposes as are assigned by the Socinians, but they were imputed to him as what he had for our Salvation engaged to make Satisfaction for: And he did by his Death make a real, full and proper Satisfaction to God's Justice, vindicating the Honour of his Justice and Government, and of the violated Law as fully, as if the pardoned Sinner had endured the utmost Punishment threatned by the said Law.
Error 11. God did not inflict Death on Christ our Mediator to express his hatred of Sin, and deter us from it by his Death as any instance of Divine Displeasure against our Offences, and therefore our Sins were not punished in Christ. Socin. Tom. 1. 577, 578, 581. Tom. 2. 194. Crell. vol. 1. de Morte Christi p. 611.
Truth. God did punish our Sins in the Death of Christ, by shewing his real Hatred against Sin in all the Extremities Christ did endure; which Extremities and Death thus inflicted were not only fit, but truly design'd to deter us from all Disobedience, against which God thus testified his high Displeasure.
Error 12. Christ did not by his Death properly merit Salvation or any other thing for us, nor did he by the Merit of his great Obedience appease God's Anger. Socin. Tom. 2. de Servat. Part. 3. cap. 6. p. 205. Ruari Epist. 164. Smal. Disp. 2. contr. Frantz.
Truth. Christ by his Death and Obedience did properly merit our Salvation, and the Reconciliation of God to us; his Death being to be considered first as satisfactory, and hen meritorious; and his Obedience first as meritorious, and then satisfactory.
Error 13. By Christ's dying for us, or in our stead (as some of them sometimes word it, tho they expresly dispute against it) is not meant, that Christ was substituted to die in the room of us who were condemned to die, that God might be pacified, nor that his Death was instead of our Death, that we for the Merit of it might be delivered; but the meaning is, that Christ for our good did by his Death come to be crowned with Glory and Power, whereby he is able to make us meet for Pardon, and authorized to give that Pardon to us. Socin. Praelect. cap. 20, 21. & de Scrvat. cap. 8. Crell. Resp. ad Grot. cap. 9. Par. 1, &c.
Truth. By Christ's dying for us, and in our stead, is meant, that whereas we Sinners were condemned to die for our Sins, our Lord Jesus, tho he became not a Sinner in our stead, yet as Mediator, he was substituted to die in our stead, that by his Death God might be inclined to forgive us who otherwise must have died (and by virtue of his Death, as a Satisfaction to Divine Justice, we are delivered from Death.) This Parenthesis I add to the Description Grotius gives of Christ's dying in our stead. De Satisf. cap. 9.
LIMBORG's Opinion of Christ's Satisfaction consonant to EPISCOPIVS and some few other Arminians.
Error 14. Vindictive Justice required not Satisfaction to be made in order to the remission of Sin. Limbor. Theol. Christian. lib. 3. cap. 18. §. 4.
Truth. Vindictive Justice for the Honour of the Divine Law required Satisfaction in order to the remission of Sin, at least after the enacting of Adam's Covenant.
Error 15. Christ's Sufferings were not a full Satisfaction to Justice, nor was the Price of our Redemption fully equivalent to the Misery we deserved: But God might accept as a redeeming Price much or little as himself judged fit, and might be satisfied with any sort of Affliction laid on Christ. Nor did Christ satisfy the Rigor of Divine Justice, but the Will of God considered at once merciful as well as just (i. e. Mercy abated to Christ in the terms of Satisfaction, what Iustice demanded) Lib. 3. cap. 2. §. 8, 9. cap. 22. §. 2. cap. 23. §. 6.
Truth. Tho the great Mercy of God appeared in his being willing to admit, accept and provide Christ our Mediator to make Satisfaction for our Sins, yet God our just Governor would have it that the terms of Satisfaction proposed to our Mediator should be such as strict Iustice demanded for the Honour of his violated Law, and securing the Ends of his Government; which terms were no lower than that he should suffer what was fully equivalent to the Punishments they whom he was to redeem deserved to endure. And as our Lord Jesus did suffer in kind much of what we deserved to suffer; so he suffered (considering the Dignity and Innocency of his Person) what was in the intrinsick Value fully equivalent to such of our deserved Punishments, as he was not capable of suffering in kind. Nay the Price of our Redemption paid by him, was not only equivalent to what the Law of Works required of us, but it was supralegal, that is, it far exceeded what any Sinners were thereby obliged to; nor see we how a full Satisfaction for all our Sins could be otherwise made.
Error 16. Our Faith and Regeneration were not merited by Christ. Lib. 3. cap. 22. §. 3.
Truth. Considering that our New-birth and Faith are the Fruits of the holy Spirit, whom by Sin we had expelled, his return to regenerate and make us Believers must be for the sake and with respect to the Merits of Christ, as what vindicated the Honour of God who restored him to us.
Truth. No Penance, Pilgrimage, Fastings or good Works of our own, or other Men, can make proper Satisfaction to Divine Justice for the least of our Sins as to any part of their Fault or Guilt.
This last we add in opposition to what POPISH Opinions seem to militate against the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction.
Socinian Notions of Iustification.
Error 1. In our Justification by Christ our Sins are blotted out, not by Christ's Death and Obedience as any Compensation or Satisfaction to God for them, but only by God's simple Forgiveness and Pardon absolutely free in all respects, without any Merit of Christ's or our own. Socin. Tom. 1. Praelect. Theol. cap. 15, 16. Crell. vol. 1. in Phil. 3. 9. & in Rom. 3. 24.
Truth. In Justification upon our penitent believing our Sins are pardoned, and our Persons accepted for the sake of Christ's Death and Obedience, as what compensated and made Satisfaction for our Sins: And tho neither our Graces nor Works do merit our Pardon, Acceptance or eternal Life, yet these with all other saving Benefits were merited by Christ.
Note, The Socinians are as much for absolutely unlimited free Grace as even our Antinomians would pretend to be, if not more.
Error 2. Faith in Christ is accepted under the Gospel as a perfect Righteousness for a perfect sinless Obedience: And as this Faith expresseth it self in our Works, our Justification is in it self firmer and surer. Crell. vol. 1. p. 110, 612, 613. 474.
Truth 1. Tho true Faith be a Gospel Righteousness, yet it is not accepted for sinless Obedience; nor doth the Gospel entitle us to Salvation upon our believing, as the Law did upon a perfect sinless Obedience: for the Law entitled us to Life as of Debt for our Obedience, as the immediate Merit of that Reward by the adjustment of governing Iustice. Whereas the Gospel of meer Grace (tho in a way of Government) entitles the Believer to Life, as what was merited by the Lord Jesus, and not by our Faith or Works.
Truth. 2. Tho a dead Faith cannot justify us, and our believing Consent must be executed if we survive it; yet are we as truly and firmly justified, and in Christ's Right entitled to Glory when we first believe, as when those genuine Fruits of it are produced, which are contrary to that Barrenness, Ungodliness and Apostacy that would subject us to Condemnation.
We shall provide against Limborg's and some other Arminians Notion of Justification (tho it be none of the five Points which constitute Arminianism) and that we in the former Papers opposed each of the said Points in concurrence with our British Divines in the Synod of Dort.
Error 3. By Faith being imputed for Righteousness, is meant, that God graciously for Christ's sake will account our Obedience which we yield him by Faith as if it were perfect, tho it be imperfect. As if a Creditor having a Debtor who ows him 1000 Gilders, should upon this Debtor's paying him 100, forgive him the rest, and graciously impute to him this part of Payment for the Payment of the whole. Lib. 6. cap. 4. §. 39.—17.
Truth. Tho we are justified by Christ believed on, and Faith in him be accounted a Gospel-Righteousness, as it is the performed Condition upon which we are by the Gospel-Promise adjudged to have the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us as our pleadable Security against the Curse of the Law; by which Righteousness of Christ alone our Right to Pardon and eternal Life (wherein we are personally invested by the Gospel) is merited as well as the Blessings themselves. Nevertheless our Faith in Christ is no part of the Debt we owed to God by the Law of Innocency, nor is it, or our sincere Obedience proceeding from it, either in themselves, or Divine Acceptance, a full Conformity to the Gospel Precepts, much less doth God impute to us this Faith, or that Obedience for the payment of the whole Debt owing by the Law or Gospel, tho he grant us thereupon that Pardon, Favour and Acceptance Christ hath procured, so as to deal with us as righteous Persons; and these he doth not suspend until Faith produceth the said Fruit of Obedience, but grants them upon our first true purpose to turn from Sin to God, and our acceptation of and trust in Christ for doing this, and for obtaining all Salvation by him.
The common POPISH Notion of Justification as stated by Andradius in his authorized Explication of the Decree of the 6th Session of the Council of Trent, whereto Bellarmine, and the generality of the Papists agree.
Error 4. The first Justification is the Renovation of an ungodly Man by the infused habit of Love, the infusion of which is merited by Christ. The second Justification is this habit of Love producing goods Works, by the Merit whereof we are further justified, and ex condigno deserve eternal Life; but neither the first nor second Justification consists in the forgiveness of Sin.
Note. By preparatory Work, the Council intend with the School-men, that our Wills moved by the Spirit do by their natural Power prepare themselves to obtain the habit of Grace, and ex congruo, merit the Infusion of it, which Habit is that justifying Righteousness, for the Merit whereof the Sinner is at first absolved from Guilt, and accepted to eternal Life.
Truth 1. Neither this first nor second Justification is the Justification described usually in the Gospel, which is not the Conversion of a Sinner, or the progressive Holiness of a Convert, but a forensick Act, viz. God's judicial absolving us from the Curse due for Sin, and adjudging us entitled to Glory for the Merits of Christ, according to the Gospel.
Truth 2. It is not true, that preparatory Works do any way deserve from God the Habit of Grace at first infused, tho ordinarily the Divine Spirit doth by Knowledg and humbling Convictions abate the Obstacles to Grace in our Hearts, and put us upon seeking help from Christ; all which are as truly owing to his more common Operations, as saving Grace is to his special.
Truth 3. Neither the first infused Habit of Grace, nor its Acts, do merit further Grace or Holiness; nor yet any degree of that Pardon or Acceptance which by Divine Ordination ensue thereupon.
Error. 5. Christ hath merited that the Habit of Love should by its virtue extinguish Sin in us by good Works, and we by these Works merit Reconciliation with God, Forgiveness of Sin, and eternal Glory, as what do appease his Anger, satisfy for our Guilt, and are part of the Price of eternal Glory.
Note. The Popish Error concerning Satisfaction leads them to this Error about Justification; and when Justification is considered in a Protestant sense, viz. as a forensick Act, the true Controversy between the Papists and us is about the Doctrine of the Merit of good Works.
Truth. Neither Repentance, Faith, Love, nor any good Work proceeding therefrom, do in the least merit Reconciliation, Pardon, or eternal Life; neither did Christ merit that we might merit: But Reconciliation, Pardon, and eternal Life were merited only by Christ's atoning, satifying, and meriting Sufferings and Obedience: And therefore the Righteousness of Christ is accepted and reputed the only meriting Righteousness in God's justifying Act, altho this Act terminates on none (Adult) besides the penitent Believer, and on all such by the Ordination of the Gospel.
Note 1. It's one thing for Christ to merit, that we might by our Works merit Salvation, it's another thing for Christ to merit that Salvation it self, which he gives and applies to Men on Gospel-terms; the first is Popish, the last is Protestant Doctrine.
2. It's one thing what our Judg in his justifying Act accounts to be the thing which appeaseth his Anger (for Reconciliation) makes Compensation to Justice (for Pardon) and to be the meriting Price (of eternal Life) to which Reconciliation, Pardon, and eternal Life he now adjudgeth the penitent Believer to be entitled. Now the thing which our Judg accounts to be that which appeaseth his Anger, &c. is the Righteousenss of Christ, and only that.
It's another matter whom our Judg in his justifying Act accounts and adjudgeth in conformity to the Gospel-Offer, to be the Persons who he therein promised should be actually reconciled, pardoned, and entitled to Glory in the alone meriting virtue of what appeased his Anger, made amends for Sin, and was the Price of Glory. Now this Person is the penitent Believer, and he is accounted to be such from his having Gospel-Faith in Christ, with true Repentance, and as such is adjudged to be under the Favour of the foresaid Gospel Promise of Reconciliation, Pardon and Glory, yet procured and merited not by his Faith, but by Christ's alone Righteousness, as before accounted for, and obtained in his Right, who as well had these promised to him for Believers in the Covenant of Redemption, as they are promised by God in Christ in the Gospel to Believers themselves for a personal Title to possess them, and to plead the Merits of Christ for the enjoyment of them.
Having testified our Concord with our Brethren, and and added this further account of what we esteem Truth and Error in the Doctrines of Satisfaction and Justification, we must express our Thankfulness to God, that our Brethren in the foresaid Declaration have testified against ignorant and scandalous Persons intruding themselves into the Ministry. And tho the Vindication of our selves in this matter be needless, when our Principles and Practice are so well known; and it's so notorious, that of the great number of unqualified Men who are of late turned Preachers, those very few who broke out of any of our Congregations in this City, receiv'd no Approbation or Countenance from us; and to avoid Restraint and Discouragement they renounced the Name of Presbyterians, yea, preach'd against us; yet to support what we can this present Testimony of our Congregational Brethren, we'll publish one of the Articles agreed to by all of us for strengthening our Vnion after our said Brethrens Recess, which is as follows,
6. That no Ministers of the Union shall admit, or consent that any Person shall preach in their Congregations, unless they have been solemnly admitted to the Ministry by Ordination, or approved by some of the United Brethren, or produce a Testimony that they have been under proper and preparatory Studies to qualify them for that sacred Function.