(3.) Whether this answer that which the Scripture holds out, as the most intense distinguishing love, John iii. 16. Rom. v. 8. viii. 32. 1 John iv. 9, 10. is easily discernible. A natural velleity to the good of the creature, is the thing here couched, but was never proved.

2. In the second instance, God,' saith he, 'the death of Christ being supposed, not only determineth, but also promiseth to lay aside his anger.'

1. What terms can be invented to hold out more expressly a change, and alteration in the unchangeable God, than these here used, I know not.

2. That the will or mind of God, is altered from one respect towards us, to another, by the consideration of the death of Christ, is a low, carnal conception. The will of God is not moved by any thing without itself,' alterations are in the things altered, not in the will of God concerning them.

3. To make this the whole effect of the death of Christ, that God should determine, and promise to lay aside his wrath is no Scripture discovery," either as to name or thing.

4. The purposes of God, which are all eternal, and the promises of God, which are all made in time, are very inconveniently ranged in the same series.

5. That by the death of Christ, atonement is made, everlasting redemption purchased, that God is reconciled, a right unto freedom obtained, for those for whom he died, shall be afterward declared.

6. If God doth only purpose and promise to lay aside his anger upon the death of Christ, but doth it not until our actual believing; then, first, Our faith is the proper procuring cause of reconciliation; the death of Christ but a requisite antecedent, which is not the Scripture phrase; Rom. v. 10. 2 Cor. v. 18. Eph. ii. 16. Col. i. 20, 21. Dan. ix. 24. Heb. ii. 17. Eph. i. 7. Heb. ix. 12. Secondly, How comes the sinner by faith, if it is the gift of God? It must be an issue of anger and enmity, for that scheme only is actually ascribed to him, before our enjoyment of it. Strange! that

* Eph. i. 13.

1 Aliud est mutare voluntatem, aliud velle aliquarum rerum mutationem.

m Matt. xviii. 11. 1 Tim. i. 15. Eph. v. 26, 27. ii. 15. 16. Col. i. 13. 1 John i. 7, &c. " Eph. ii. 8. Phil: i. 29.

God should be so far reconciled, as to give us faith, that we may be reconciled to him, that thereupon he may be reconciled to us.

3. For the third instance, of God's receiving the sinner into love and favour upon his believing, quite laying aside his anger. I answer; to wave the anthropomorphism, wherewith this assertion is tainted as the former; if by receiving into favour, he intend absolute, complete, pactional justification, being an act of favour, quitting the sinner from the guilt of sin, charged by the accusation of the law, terminated in the conscience of a sinner; I confess it, in order of nature, to follow our believing.

I might consider farther the attempts of others for the right stating of this business, but it would draw me beyond my intention. His failings herein, who is so often mentioned, and so much used by him, who gives occasion to this rescript, I could not but remark. What are my own thoughts and apprehensions of the whole, I shall in the next place briefly impart.

Now to make way hereunto, some things I must suppose : which though some of them other where controverted, yet not at all in reference to the present business; and they are these:

1. That Christ died only for the elect; or God gave his Son to die only for those, whom he chooseth for life and salvation, for the praise of his glorious grace.

This is granted by Mr. Baxter, where he affirms, ‘That Christ bare not punishment for them, who must bear punishment themselves in eternal fire;' Thess. 33. p. 162. And again, Christ died not for final unbelief;' Thess. 32. p. 159. therefore not for them who are finally unbelievers, as all non-elected are, and shall be. For what sinners he died, he died for all their sins; Rom. v. 6-8. 2 Cor. v. 21 1 John i. 7.

If any shall say, that as he died not for the final unbelief of others, so not for the final unbelief of the elect, and so not for final unbelief at all.

I answer,

First, If by final unbelief, you mean that which is actually so, Christ satisfied not for it. His satisfaction cannot be extended to those things, whose existence is prevented

by his merit. The omission of this in the consideration of the death of Christ, lies at the bottom of many mistakes. Merit and satisfaction, are of equal extent as to their objects both also tend to the same end, but in sundry respects.

Secondly, If by final unbelief, you understand that which would be so, notwithstanding all means and remedies, were it not for the death of Christ, so he did satisfy for it. Its existence being prevented by his merit. So then, if Christ died not for final unbelief, he died not for the finally unbelieving though the satisfaction of his death hath not paid for it, the merit of his death would remove it.

Thirdly, I suppose, that the means, as well as the ends, grace, as glory, are the purchase and procurement of Jesus Christ see this proved in my treatise of redemption; lib. 3. cap. 4, &c.

Fourthly, That God is absolutely immutable and unchangeable in all his attributes: neither doth his will admit of any alteration. This proved above.

Fifthly, That the will of God is not moved properly by any external cause whatsoever, unto any of its acts, whether immanent, or transient. For,

1. By a moving cause, we understand a cause morally efficient; and if any thing were so properly in respect of any act of God's will, then the act, which is the will of God acting, must in some respect, viz. as it is an effect, be less worthy, and inferior to the cause; for so is every effect, in respect to its cause. And,

2. Every effect produced, proceeded from a passive possibility unto the effect, which can no way be assigned unto God, besides it must be temporary; for nothing that is eternal can have dependance upon that, whose rise is in time: and such are all things external to the will of God, even the merit of Christ himself.

3. I cannot imagine how there can be any other cause, why God willeth any thing, than why he not willeth, or willeth not other things, which for any to assign, will be found difficult; Matt. xi. 25. xx. 15. So then when God willeth

• Cum voluntas sit ejus essentia, non movetur ab alio a se, sed a se tantum, eo modo loquendi, quo intelligere, et velle, dicitur motus, et secundum hoc Plato dixit, primum movens movet seipsum. Aq. p. 1. q. 19. a. 2. a. 3.

one thing for another, as our salvation for the death of Christ, the one is the cause of the other; neither moveth the will of God. Hence,

Sixthly, All alterations are in the things concerning which the acts of the will of God are, none in the will of God itself.

These things being premised, what was before proposed, I shall now in order make out; beginning with the eternal acts of the will of God towards us, antecedent to all, or any consideration of the death of Christ.

CHAP. VII.

In particular of the will of God towards them for whom Christ died, and their state and condition as considered antecedaneous to the death of Christ, and all efficiency thereof.

FIRST, then, the habitude of God towards man, antecedent to all foresight of the death of Christ, is an act of supreme sovereignty and dominion, appointing them, by means suited to the manifestation of his glorious properties, according to his infinitely wise, and free disposal, to eternal life and salvation, for the praise of his glorious grace.

That this salvation was never but one, or of one kind, consisting in the same kind of happiness, in reference unto God's appointment, needs not much proving. To think that God appointed one kind of condition for man, if he had continued in innocency, and another upon his recovery from the fall; is to think that his prescience is but conjectural, and his will alterable.

In this instant then, we suppose no kind of affection in God, properly so called: no changeable resolution, no inclinableness, and propensity of nature, to the good of the creature in general, no frame of being angry, with only a notaverseness to the laying down of his anger, &c. All which, and the like, are derogatory to the infinite perfection of God. Nor yet any act of pitying and pardoning mercy, much less any quitting or clearing of sinners, whereby they should be justified from eternity; the permission of sin itself in the purpose of it, being not presupposed, but included in this habitude of God's will towards man, to make it complete. Neither any absolute intention of doing good unto man,

without respect unto Christ and his merits; they referring to the good to be done, not to his appointment; for by them is this purpose of his to be accomplished. Nor, lastly, doth it contain any actual relaxation, suspension, or abrogation of that law and its penalties, by which it is his will the creature shall be regulated, in reference to the person concerning whom this act of his will is: they standing indeed in that relation thereunto, as in the season of their existence, their several conditions expose them to, by virtue of the first constitution of that law.

But it is such an act of his will, as in the Scripture is termed póуvwotę, Acts ii. 23. Rom. viii. 29. 1 Pet. i. 20. Tρółεσis, Rom. viii. 28. ix. 11. Eph. iii. 11. evdokia, Matt. xi. 26. Eph. i. 5. 2 Thess. i. 11. Luke xii. 32. Bovλǹ Oedńμaros, Eph. i. 11. θεμέλιος τοῦ θεοῦ, 2 Tim. ii. 19. προορισμός, Eph. i. 5. 11. Rom. viii. 29. Ordination, or appointment unto life, Acts xiii. 48. 1 Thess. v. 5. 9, All which, and divers other expressions, point at the same thing.

Divines commonly in one word call it his decree of election, and sometimes according to Scripture, election itself; Eph. i. 4. Neither doth the word hold out any habitude of God towards man, antecedaneous to all efficiency of the death of Christ, but only this: I speak of them only in this whole discourse for whom he died.

That this is an act of sovereignty, or supreme dominion, and not of mercy, properly so called, hath been by others abundantly proved. And this I place as the causa πρoɛyoʊuévn of the satisfaction of Christ, and the whole dispensation of making out love unto us, through various acts of mercy.

This in the Scripture is called the love of God;' Rom. ix. 13. and is set out as the most intense love, that ever he beareth to any of his creatures; John iii. 16. Rom. v. 8. 1 John iv. 9. Being indeed as properly love as love can be assigned unto God. His love is but an act of his will, whereby 0 Tivì T'ayalòv. And in respect of effects (in which respect, chiefly affections are ascribed unto God) it hath the most eminent possible. Now this being discriminating can no way be reconciled with the common affection before disproved.

For the order and series of the purposes of God, as most natural for our apprehension of God, and agreeable to his own infinite wisdom, tending to the completing of this love,