Gospel Truth Stated and Vindicated, Chapter 3
CHAP. III. Of the Discharge of the Elect from Sins upon their being laid on Christ.
Truth. THE Atonement made by Christ, by the Appointment of God, is that, for which alone the Elect are pardoned, when it is applied to them. But the Elect are not immediately pardoned upon Christ's being appointed to suffer for them, nor assoon as the Atonement was made; nor is that Act of laying sins on Christ, God's forgiving-Act, by which we are personally discharged.
Errour. The very Act of God's laying Sins on Christ upon the Cross, is the very actual Discharge of all the Elect from all their sins.
Proved that this is Doctor Crisp's Opinion.
This is so much the declared Opinion of the Doctor, that it runs, as a Line, through all his Discourses; and is the foundation he builds most upon. P. 298. I say, all the Weight, and all the Burthen, and all that very Sin it self, is long agone laid upon Christ; and that laying of it upon him, is a full Discharge, and a general Release and Acquittance unto thee; that there is not any one Sin now to be charged upon thee. See p. 375. 281, 285. and hence he shews, that the Elect are justified before they do believe; otherwise, till such Believing, the Person of the Elect doth bear his own Transgression, and is chargeable for his own Transgressions. p. 616, 617. See more Ch. 9.
Wherein the Difference is not.
The Difference is not, 1. Whether Christ made a full Atonement for sin. 2. Nor whether that shall in time be applied to the Elect for their actual Remission as the Effect of it. 3. Nor whether we be so far released thereupon, as that God can demand no Atonement from any who shall submit to the Gospel-way of the Application of it. 4. Nor whether the Law be answered, and God's Honour so vindicated thereby, that the sins of Men cannot hinder an Offer and Promise of Forgiveness, and Life. 5. Nor whether, when we are pardoned, the whole meritorious Cause of Pardon be that Atonement; and what is required of Sinners is only a Meetness to receive the Effects of it. 6. Nor whether this Atonement was the only way of Forgiveness, which we can apprehend. All these I affirm.
The real Difference.
The real Difference is, 1. Whether the Elect were actually discharged of all their sins at the time that Christ made Atonement. This the Doctor affirms; and I deny. 2. Whether that very Act of God's laying Sins upon Christ, on the Cross; be the Discharge of the Elect from all sin. This the Doctor affirms and I deny.
The Truth confirmed.
The first point of Difference thou mayst find handled in Chap. 1, 9, 11, 12. the last I do refer to in this Chap. viz. that the very Act of laying of Sin on Christ upon the Cross, is not the actual immediate Discharge of the Elect from sin.
1. It was not the Will or Purpose of God or Christ, that the laying of our sins on Christ should be the immediate Discharge of the Elect. I suppose thou wilt grant, that if it was not the Will of God or Christ, that this should discharge them; then it did not discharge them. And it's plain, God did not will it should be so: For we have a full Account, that it is the Elect when he is a Believer, that is to be discharged. Joh. 6. 40. This is the Will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting Life. The Decree it self adjusted this Order: 1 Pet. 1. 2. Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience, and sprinkling of the Blood of Christ. This is further evidenced elsewhere; even in all such Places as be produced to prove that Faith and Repentance is required to our actual Remission, and that declare the Impenitent and Unbelieving to be unpardoned: For we cannot suppose, that Christ's revealed Will in his Word is repugnant to his Purposes, when dying; or that he should add other Requisites to the Pardon of the Elect, if they were immediately pardoned on his Death.
2. This overthrows the whole Scheme so wisely contriv'd for the Distribution of the Effects of his Death. Things are so adjusted that, forgiving the Elect, should be an Effect of Christ's Kingly Office, as well as his Priestly Office: He is exalted to be a Prince, and a Saviour, to give Repentance, and Remission of Sins, Acts 5. 31. The Holy Ghost is to influence in the Application of Christ's Merits for Forgiveness, 1 Cor. 6. 11. But you are washed; but you are sanctified, but you are justified, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Hence the Design of the Gospel-Ministry is to open mens eyes, and turn them from Darkness to Light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive Forgiveness of Sin, Act. 26. 18. It's a Mercy received in this Order, which is quite overturned, if the Elect be discharged when Christ died.
3. By the opposite Errour, the Elect would have been discharged, if Christ had never risen again. For, if meer laying our Sins on Christ did acquit the Elect, let Christ never have risen, we were rid of them, they ceased to be ours; and so could not condemn us, by returning upon our Persons, tho' Christ had continued dead; yea, his continuing dead had been the surest Release. Whereas we are said to be begotten to a lively hope by Christ's resurrection, 1 Pet. 1. 3. and saved thereby, 1 Pet. 3. 21.
4. Yea, if taking sins off from the Elect, and laying them on Christ, was their Discharge, they would be discharged before the sufferings and Death of Christ: This appears; for they were laid on Christ before he suffered; and, according to the Doctor's Scheme, were taken off us, to lay on Christ; and their being laid on Christ, made the Sufferings of Christ to be just: From which it must follow, that the Elect were eased of their Burthen before Christ suffered; yea it would be easily proved, they were released tho' he had not suffered.
5. If this Errour hold, the Gospel-Notion of Forgiveness by the Blood of Christ, is destroyed. Forgiveness denotes the Person guilty; and it's a judicial Act of God, as a Rector, acting by the Gospel-Rule; and this supposeth the full and perfect Atonement made by Christ, and the Grant made in the Virtue thereof. But, in the Doctor's Opinion, the Person is never guilty; for sins were laid on Christ before we were born, and therefore they were never upon us. A judicial Act by a Rule, there is none; for the Gospel-grant of Pardon, is not to the Elect, as elect; but as penitent Believers; neither is the Atonement of Christ supposed to our Forgiveness: For the Doctor owneth, that our sins being laid on Christ is before the making of the Atonement; and without our sins lay on Christ, he could not justly be punished. So that, our Discharge being a Transferring of sin from us to Christ, and this being done before Christ made Atonement, we are discharged, not for the Atonement of Christ, nor by an Act of Forgiveness for the sake of this Atonement. I need not add, that by this Notion, Heathens may be in a pardoned state, and there's no need of the Gospel, or Knowledge of Christ, to bring them out of a state of Wrath.
Testimonies.
Thou hast read before, Ch. 1. How the Assembly, and the Elders at the Savoy declare, We are not justified before the Spirit apply Christ to us in our effectual Vocation. They both agree in Conf. ch. 8. a. 1. That God, from Eternity, gave Christ a People to be his Seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. Here thou seest Redemption, and Justification are distinct things; and the Elect are, in Time, called before they be justified. In the Larger Catechis. Q. What doth God require of us, that we may escape his Wrath and Curse due to us? The Assembly answer, That we may escape Wrath, &c. He requireth of us, Repentance towards God, and Faith towards our Lord Jesus, and the diligent Use of the outward Means whereby Christ communicates to us the Benefits of his Mediation. Here thou seest, that, 1. We may be, for a time, without the Benefits of Christ's Mediation. 2. That, notwithstanding his Mediation, we are under the Curse and Wrath, as still due to us for sin till we repent and believe: For it's to escape these, God requires Repentance and Faith. 3. It's by Means attended to and operating on us; that the Benefits of Christ's Mediation are communicated for the Removal of the Curse and Wrath. VVhat can be more fully spoken against our being discharged when Christ suffered; yea or before we repent and believe?
The Synod of New-England condemn this Speech, viz. To say, We are justified by Faith, is an unsafe Speech: VVe must say we are justified by Christ; the Synod tells us it is no unsafe Speech. But on the contrary, to say a Man is justified before Faith, or without Faith, is unsafe, as contrary to the Language of the Scripture, p. 17, 18.—and they confute That as the 68. Errour, viz. Faith justifies an Unbeliever, that is, the Faith that is in Christ justifies me that have no Faith in my self. p. 13. Doctor Owen of Justif. p. 306. saith, But yet the Act of God, in laying our sins on Christ, conveyed no actual Right and Title to us unto what he did and suffered: They are not immediately thereon, nor by virtue thereof ours, or esteemed ours; because God hath appointed somewhat else, not only antecedent thereunto, but as the Means of it, unto his own Glory.
The Grounds of the Doctor's Mistakes.
Because it was God's Act to appoint Christ to suffer for our sins, that we might in his VVay and Time, be discharged; therefore he thinks we are immediately discharged by that Act. Because Christ's Atonement is the sole meritorious Cause of Forgiveness; therefore he thinks God suspends not Forgiveness till he works any thing else in the Soul, which he hath made requisite to our being forgiven; tho' not as any meritorious cause. Because the Scape-Goat carried their sins into the Wilderness, who expressed their Faith and Repentance, by laying on hands on it, and confessing sin; therefore the sins of men are taken away by Christ, while they continue impenitent and unbelieving.