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Neo. But, sir, what would you advise me to do?

Evan. Why, man, what aileth you?

Neo. Why, sir, as you have been pleased to hear those two declare their condition unto you, so I beseech you to give me leave to do the same; and then you will perceive how it is with me. Sir, not long since, it pleased the Lord to visit me with a great fit of sickness; so, that, indeed, both in mine own judgment, and in the judgment of all that came to visit me, I was sick unto death. Whereupon I began to consider whither my soul was to go after its departure out of my body; and I thought with myself, that there were but two places, heaven and hell; and therefore it must needs go to one of them. Then my wicked and sinful life, which, indeed, I had lived, came into my mind, which caused me to conclude, that hell was the place provided for it; the which caused me to be very fearful, and to be very sorry that I had so lived; and I desired of the Lord to let me live a little longer, and I would not fail to reform my life, and amend my ways; and the Lord was pleased to grant me my desire. Since which time, though, indeed, it is true I have not lived so wickedly as formerly I had done, yet alas! I have come far short of that godly and religious life which I see other men live, and especially my neighbour Nomista; and yet you seem to conceive that he is not in a good condition, and therefore surely I must needs be in a miserable condition. Alas! sir, what do you think will become of me?

Evan. I do now perceive that it is time for me to show how God, in the fullness of time, performed that which he purposed before all time, and promised in time, concerning the help and delivering of fallen mankind. And touching this point, The Scripture testifies, that God "did, in the fullness of time, send forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law," &c., (Gal. 4:4). That is to say, look how mankind by nature are under the law, as it is the covenant of works; so was Christ, as man's surety, contented to be; so that now, according to that eternal and mutual agreement that was betwixt God the Father and him, he put himself in the room and place of all the faithful, ¹ (Isa 53:6), "And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Then came the law as it is the covenant of works, and said; "I find him a sinner, ² yea, such an one as hath taken upon him the sins of all men, ³ therefore let him die upon the cross." Then said Christ, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me; in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord!" (Heb 10:5-7). And so the law proceeding in full scope against him, set upon him, and killed him; and, by this means, was the justice of God fully satisfied, his wrath appeased, and all true believers acquitted from all their sins, both past, present, and to come. ⁴ So that the law, as it is the covenant of works, hath not anything to say to any true believer, ⁵ for indeed they are dead to it, and it is dead to them.

Nom. But, sir, how could the sufferings of Christ, which in respect of time were but finite, make full satisfaction to the justice of God, which is infinite?

Evan. Though the sufferings of Christ, in respect of time, were but finite, yet in respect of the person that suffered, his sufferings came to be of infinite value; for Christ was God and man in one person, and therefore his sufferings were a sufficient and full ransom for man's soul, being of more value than the death and destruction of all creatures.

Nom. But, sir, you know that the covenant of works requires man's own obedience or punishment, when it says, "He that doeth these things shall live in them"; and "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them": how then, could believers be acquitted from their sins by the death of Christ?

Evan. For answer, I pray you consider, that though the covenant of works requires man's own obedience or punishment, yet it nowhere disallows or excludes that which is done or suffered by another in his behalf; neither is it repugnant to the justice of God: for so there be a satisfaction performed by man, through a sufficient punishment for the disobedience of man, the law is satisfied, and the justice of God permitteth that the offending party be received into favour; and God acknowledges him, after such satisfaction made, as a just man, and no transgressor of the law; and though the satisfaction be made by a surety, yet when it is done, the principal is, by the law, acquitted. But yet, for the further proof and confirmation of this point, we are to consider, that as Jesus Christ, the second Adam, entered into the same covenant that the first Adam did, so by him was done whatsoever the first Adam had undone. So the case stands thus,—that as whatsoever the first Adam did, or befell him, was reckoned as done by all mankind, and to have befallen them, even so, whatsoever Christ did, or befell him, is to be reckoned as to have been done by all believers, and to have befallen them. So that as sin cometh from Adam alone to all mankind, as he in whom all have sinned; so from Jesus Christ alone cometh righteousness unto all that are in him, as he in whom they all have satisfied the justice of God; for as being in Adam, and one with him, all did, in him and with him, transgress the commandment of God; even so, in respect of faith, whereby believers are ingrafted into Christ, and spiritually made one with him, they did all, in him and with him, satisfy the justice of God in his death and sufferings. ⁶ And whosoever reckons thus reckons according to Scripture; for in Romans 5:12, all are said to have sinned in Adam's sin; in whom all have sinned, says the text, namely, in Adam, as in a public person: all men's acts were included in his, because their persons were included in his. So likewise in the same chapter it is said, "that death passed upon all men"; namely for this, that Adam's sin was reckoned for theirs. Even so, (Rom 6:10), the apostle, speaking of Christ, says, "In that he died, he died unto sin; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God": so likewise, says he in the next verse, "Reckon ye yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And so, as touching the resurrection of Christ, the apostle argues, (1 Cor 15:20), that all believers must and shall arise, because "Christ is risen, and is become the first fruits of them that sleep." Christ, as the first fruits, arises, and that in the name and stead of all believers; and so they rise in him and with him; for Christ did not rise as a private person, but he arose as a public head of the church; so that in his arising all believers did virtually arise. And as Christ at his resurrection was justified, and acquitted from all the sins of all believers, by God his Father, as having now fully satisfied for them, even so were they. ⁷ And thus you see the obedience of Christ being imputed unto believers by God for their righteousness, it puts them into the same estate and case, touching righteousness unto life before God, ⁸ wherein they should have been, if they had perfectly performed the perfect obedience of the covenant of works, "Do this and thou shalt live." ⁹

[Back] [1] That is, all those who have, or shall believe, or all the elect, which is one and the same in reality, and in the judgment of our author, expressly declared in the first sentence of his preface.

[Back] [2] By imputation and law-reckoning; no otherwise, as a sinner believing in him is righteous before God. [Thus Isaac Ambrose, speaking of justification, says, "This righteousness makes a sinner sinless"; i.e., as to guilt.] This must be owned to be the meaning of this expression, unless one will shut one's eyes to the immediately foregoing and following words,—I find him a sinner, said the law; such an one as hath taken sin upon him. They are the words of Luther, and he was not the first who spoke so. "He made him who was righteous to be made a sinner, that he might make sinners righteous," says Chrysostom, on 2 Cor. 5. Hom. 11. cit. Owen on Justification, p. 39. Famous Protestant divines have also used the expression after him. "When our divines," says Rutherford, "say, Christ took our place, and we have his condition,—Christ was made us, and made the sinner; it is true, only in a legal sense. He [Christ] was debitor factus,—a sinner; a debtor by imputation, a debtor by law, by place, by office." Trial and Triumph of Faith, p. 245, 257. Charnock argues the point thus: "How could he die, if he were not a reputed sinner? Had he not first had a relation to our sin, he could not in justice have undergone our punishment. He must, in the order of justice, be supposed a sinner really, or by imputation. Really, he was not; by imputation then he was," vol. 2. p. 547. Serm. on 1 Cor. 5:7. "Though personally he was no sinner, yet by imputation he was," says the Contin. of Poole's Annot. on 2 Cor. 5:21. "What Illyricus wrote," says Rivet, "that Christ might most truly be called a sinner, Bellarmine calls blasphemy and cursed impudence. Now Bellarmine himself contends, that Christ might attribute our sins to himself, therefore he might also truly call himself a sinner, while in himself innocent, he did represent our person. What blasphemy, what impiety is here?" Comment. on Psalm 21:1. The Scripture phrase to this purpose is more forcible; (2 Cor 5:21), "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." For as it is more to say we are made righteousness, than to say we are made righteous, since the former plainly imports a perfection of righteousness, if I may be allowed the phrase, righteousness not being properly capable of degrees; so it is more to say, Christ was made sin for the elect world, than to say he was made a sinner, since the first of these doth accordingly point at the universality and complete tale of the elect's sins, from the first to the last of them laid on our spotless Redeemer. Compare Leviticus 16:21,22, "And Aaron shall confess over him [viz: the scape-goat, which the apostle hath an eye to here] all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities," (Isa 53:6). "And the Lord [marg.] hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on [Heb. in] him." These two texts give the just notion of the true import of that phrase, "He was made sin for us."

[Back] [3] Our Lord Jesus Christ died not for, nor took upon him the sins of, all and every individual man, but he died for, and took upon him the sins of, all the elect, (John 10:15, 15:13, Acts 20:28, Eph 5:25, Titus 2:14), and no other doctrine is here taught by our author touching the extent of the death of Christ. In the preceding paragraph, where was the proper place for giving his judgment on that head, he purposely declares it. He had before taught, that Jesus Christ did from eternity become man's surety in the covenant that passed betwixt him and the Father. A surety puts himself in the place of those for whom he becomes a surety, to pay their debt, (Gen 44:32,33, Prov 22:26,27). And our author tells us, that now, when the prefixed time of Christ's fulfilling the eternal covenant, paying the debt he had taken on him, and purchasing man's redemption by his sufferings, was come, he did, according to the tenor of that covenant, which stated the extent of his suretyship, put himself in the room and place—he says not, of all men, but—of all the faithful, or elect of God; Jesus Christ thus standing in their room and place, actually to take on the burden. "The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all"; the which Scripture text can bear no other sense in the connection of it here, that what is the genuine sense of it, as it stands in the holy Scripture, namely, that the Father laid on Christ the iniquities of all the spiritual Israel of God, of all nations, ranks, and conditions; for no iniquities could be laid on him but theirs in whose room and place he put himself to receive the burden, according to the eternal and mutual agreement. These iniquities being thus laid on the Mediator, the law came and said, I find him such an one as hath taken on him the sins of all men. This is but an incident expression on the head of the extent of Christ's death, and it is a scriptural one too. (1 Tim 2:6), "Who gave himself a ransom for all," i.e., for all sorts of men, not for all of every sort. (Heb 2:9), "That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man," i.e., for every man of those whom the apostle is there treating of, namely, sons brought or to be brought unto glory, (verse 10); those who are sanctified, Christ's brethren, (verse 11); given to him, (verse 13); and the sense of the phrase, as used here by the author, can be no other; for the sins, which the law found that he had taken on him, could be no other but the sins that the Lord had laid on him; and the sins the Lord had laid on him were the sins of all the faithful or elect, according to the author; wherefore, in the author's sense, the sins of all men which the law found in Christ were the sins of all the elect, according to the genuine sense of the Scripture phraseology on that head. And an incident expression, in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, and determined in its connection to the orthodox scriptural meaning, can never import any prejudice to his sentiment upon that point purposely declared before in its proper place. It is true, the author, when speaking of those in whose room Christ put himself, useth not the word alone; and in the holy Scripture it is not used neither on that subject. And it may be observed, that the Spirit of God in the word, doth not open the doctrine of election and reprobation, but upon man's rejecting or embracing the gospel offer; the which different events are then seasonably accounted for, from the depths of the eternal counsel of God. See Luke 10:17-22, Matthew 22:1- 14, Romans 9 throughout; Ephesians 1:3-5. To every thing there is a season. The author hitherto hath been dealing with the parties, to bring them to Christ; and particularly here, he is speaking for the instruction and direction of a convinced trembling sinner, namely, Neophytus; and, therefore, like a wise and tender man in such a case, he useth a manner of speaking, which being warranted by the word, was fitted to excite the awakening of the ordinary scruples in that case, namely, "It may be I am not elected,—it may be Christ died not for me"; and which pointed at the duty of all, and the encouragement that all have to come to Christ. And all this, after he had in his very first words to the reader, sufficiently provided for his using such a manner of expression, without prejudice to the truth. further, the law adds, "Therefore let him die upon the cross." Wherefore? For their sins, of the laying of which upon him there is no mention made? or for the sins of those in whose room he is expressly said to have put himself, accoding to the eternal agreemtn betwixt the Father and him? Then said Christ, "Lo! I com"; viz: actually to pay the debt for which I have become surety in the eternal compact; the which, whose it was, acccording to our author, is already sufficiently declared. The law then set upon him, and killed him; for whom, according to our author? For these, surely, in whose room and place he put himself, and so stood. If one considers his account of the effect of all this, one does not find it to be, as Arminians say, "tath Christ, by the merit of his detah, hath so far forth reconciled God the Father to all mankind, that the Father, by reason of the Son's merit, both could and would, and did enter and establish a new and gracious covenant with sinful man, liable to condmenation." [Examination of Tilenus, p. 164, art. 2, sect 2.] "and obtained for all and every man a restoration into a sttate of grace and salvation; so that none will be condemened, nor are liable to condmenation for original sin, but all are free from the guilt of that sin." [Teste. Turret. loc. 14. ques. 14. th. 5.] Neither does he tell us, that Christ died to "render sin remissible to all persons, and them savalbe," as the Continuator of Poole's Annotations on Hebrews, chapter 2:9, says, with other Universalists. By this means, says our author, "was the justice of God fully satisfied, his wrath appeased, and all true believers acquitted." Compare Westm. Confess. chap. 8. art. 4, 5. "This office [viz: of a surety] the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake, which that he might discharge, he was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfil it, endured most grievous torments, &c. The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience, and sactifice of himself—hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him. Christ, by his obedience and deth, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified," Chap. 11, art. 3. Wherefore the author does not here teach an universal redemption or atonement. Of this more afterward.

[Back] [4] Pardon is the removing of the guilt of sin. Guilt is twofold: 1. The guilt of eternal wrath, by which the sinner is bound over to the eternal revenging wrath of God; and this, by orthodox divines, is called the guilt of sin by way of eminency. 2. The guilt of fatherly anger, whereby the sinner is bound over to God's fatherly anger and chastisements for sin. Accordingly, there is a two-fold pardon: the one is the removal of the guilt of eternal wrath, and is called legal pardon; the other the removal of the guilt of fatherly anger, and is called gospel pardon. As to the latter, the believer is daily to sue out his pardon, since he is daily contracting new guilt of that kind; and this the author plainly teaches afterwards in its proper place. As to the former, of which only he speaks here, all the sins of a believer, past, present, and to come, are pardoned together, and at once, in the first instance of his believing; that is to say, the guilt of eternal wrath for sin then past and present is actually and formally done away; the obligation to that wrath which he was lying under for these sins is dissolved, and the guilt of eternal wrath for sins then to come is effectually prevented from that moment for ever, so that he can never come under that kind of guilt any more; and this pardon, as it relates to these sins, is but a pardon improperly so called, being rather a not imputing of them, than a formal remission, forasmuch as a formal remission being a dissolution of guilt actually contracted, agrees only to sins already committed. Therefore our author here uses the word acquitted, which is of a more extensive signification. All pardon of sin is an acquittance, but all acquittance of sin is not a formal pardon of it: "For at the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment." Short. Cat. But they will not then be formally pardoned. Now, this is the doctrine of the holy Scriptures, (Rom 4:48), "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord WILL NOT IMPUTE sin."—(7:1), "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." That is, not only they shall never be actually damned, i.e., sent to hell, as that phrase is ordinarily taken, for that is the privilege of all the elect, even before they believe, while yet they are under condemnation according to the Scripture; but there is no binding over of them that are in Christ to eternal wrath, no guilt to that kind to them. Compare John 3:18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already."—"The one [viz: justification] doth equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation." Larg. Cat. quest. 77. "Albeit sin remain, and continually abide in these our mortal bodies, yet it is not imputed unto us, but is remitted and covered with Christ's justice," [i.e., righteousness]. Old Confess. art. 25. Q. "What then is our only joy in life and death? A. That all our sins, by past, present, and to come, are buried; and Christ only is made our wisdom, justification, sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor 1:30) Craig's Cat. quest. 43. "The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers, under the gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law." Westm. Confess. chap. 20, art. 1. See 11, art. 5; chap. 17, art 3. "They [the Arminians] do utterly deny, that no sins of the faithful, how great and grievous soever they be, are imputed unto them, or that all their sins present and future are forgiven them." Exam. of Tilen. p. 226, art. 5. sect. 5.

[Back] [5] "What things soever it saith, it saith to them who are under it," (Rom 3:19). But believers are not under it, nor under the law of the covenant of works, (6:14), therefore it saith nothing to them. As such, it said all to Christ in their room and place; and, without the Mediator's dishonour, it cannot repeat its demands on them which it made upon him as their surety. Meanwhile the law, as a rule of life to believers, saith to them all, in the name and authority of God, the Creator and Redeemer, (Matt 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Howbeit, they are under a covenant, under which, though no less is required, yet less is accepted, for the sake of Christ their covenant head.

[Back] [6] Namely, in the sense of the law; for in the law-reckoning, as to the payment of a debt, and fulfilling of a covenant, or any the like purposes, the surety and the original debtor, the federal head or the representative, and the represented, are but one person. And thus the Scripture determining Adam to be the figure [or type] of Christ, (Rom 5:14), teaches upon the one hand, that all mankind sinned in Adam, (verse 12), and died in him, (1 Cor 15:22); and on the other hand, that believers were crucified with Christ, (Gal 2:20), and raised up in him. (Eph 2:6) "The covenant [of works] being made with Adam as a public person—all mankind—sinned in him." Lar. Cat. Quest. 22. "The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam," Quest. 31. "He satisfied divine justice, the which he did as a public person, the head of his Church," Quest. 52. "that the righteousness of the law," says the apostle, "might be fulfilled in us," (Rom 8:4); so believers satisfied in him, as they sinned in Adam. "The threatening of death, (Gen 2:17), is fulfilled in the elect so that they die, and yet their lives are spared: they die, and yet they live, for they are reckoned in law to have died when Christ their surety died for them." Ferguson on Galatians 2:20. "Although thou," says Beza, "hast satisfied for the pain of thy sins in the person of Jesus Christ," Beza's Confess. point 4, art. 12. "What challenges Satan or conscience can make against the believer—hear an answer; I was condemned, I was judged, I was crucified for sin, when my surety Christ was condemned, judged, and crucified for my sins.—I have paid all, because my surety has paid all," Rutherford's Trial and Triumph of Faith, serm. 19, p. 258. "As in Christ, we satisfied, so likewise in Adam we sinned," Flint. Exam. p. 144. This doctrine, and the doctrine of the formal imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers stand and fall together. For if believers be reckoned in law to have satisfied in Christ, then his righteousness, which is the result of his satisfaction, must needs be accounted theirs, but if there be no such law-reckoning, Christ's righteousness cannot be imputed to them otherwise than as to the effects of it, for the judgment of God is always according to truth, (Rom 2:2). This the Neonomians are aware of, and deny both, reckoning them Antinomian principles as they do many other Protestant doctrines. Hear Mr. Gibbons: "They [viz: the Antinomians] are dangerously mistaken in thinking that a believer is righteous in the sight of God, with the self-same active and passive righteousness wherewith Christ was righteous, as though believers suffered in Christ, and obeyed in Christ." Morn. Exer. Method. sec. 19, p. 423. On the other hand, the Westminster divines teach both as sound and orthodox principles, affirming Christ's righteousness, obedience, and satisfaction, themselves to be imputed to believers, or reckoned their righteousness, obedience, and satisfaction. "Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us." Short. Cat.—"Only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to them," Large. Cat. quest. 70.—"By imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them," Westm. Confess. chap. 11, art 1.

[Back] [7] Virtually justified, not actually, in his justification, even as in his resurrection they did virtually arise. That this is the author's meaning is evident from his own words, when speaking of Neophytus, he says expressly, "He was justified meritoriously in the death and resurrection of Christ, but yet he was not justified actually, till he did actually believe in Christ."

[Back] [8] So called to distinguish it from inherent righteousness, which is righteousness from life.

[Back] [9] This is a weighty point, the plain and native result of what is said, namely, that since Jesus Christ hath fully accomplished what was to have been done by man himself for life according to the covenant of works, and that the same is imputed to believers; therefore, believers are in the same state, as to righteousness unto life, that they would have been in if man himself had stood the whole time appointed for his trial. And here is the true ground in the law of the infallible perseverance of the saints; their time of trial for life is over in their Head the second Adam—the prize is won! Hence the just by faith are entitled to the same benefit which Adam by his perfect obedience would have been entitled to. Compare Romans 10:5, "The man which doeth these things shall live," with Habakkuk 2:4, "The just by his faith shall live"; the which is the true reading according to the original. And here, for clearing of the following purpose of the believer's freedom from the law, as it is the covenant of works, let it be considered, that if Adam had stood till the time of his trial had been expired, the covenant of works would indeed from that time have remained his everlasting security for eternal life, like a contract held fulfilled by the one party; but, as in the same case, it could have no longer remained to be the rule of his obedience, namely, in the state of confirmation. The reason is obvious, viz: that the subjecting of him still to the covenant of works, as the rule of his obedience, would have been a reducing him to the state of trial he was in before, and the setting him anew to work for what was already his own, in virtue of his [supposed] fulfilling of that covenant. Nevertheless it is absolutely impossible but the creature, in any state whatsoever, must be bound to and owe obedience unto the Creator; and being still bound to obedience, of necessity he behoved to have had a rule of that obedience; as to which rule, since the covenant of works could not be it, what remains but that the rule of obedience in the state of confirmation, would have been the law of nature, suited to man's state of immutability, improperly so called, and so divested of the form of the covenant of works, namely, its promise of eternal life, and threatening of eternal death, as it is, and will be in heaven, for ever? The application is easy, making always, as to the rule of believers' obedience, suitable reserves for the imperfection of their state, in respect of inherent righteousness; the which imperfection, as it leaves room for promises of fatherly smiles, and threatenings of fatherly chastisements, so it makes them necessary; but these also shall be done away in heaven when their real estate shall be perfect, as their relative state is now.