(Owen, Trinity. part 7) many were made sinners." Secondly. That, by this sin of our first parents, all men are brought into an estate of sin and apostasy from God, and of enmity unto him: - Gen. 6: 5, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Ps. 51: 5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Rom. 3: 23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Chap. 8: 7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Eph. 4: 18, "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart," Chap. 2: l; Col. 2: 13. Thirdly. That in this state all men continue in sin against God, nor of themselves can do otherwise: - Rom. 3: 10-12, "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Fourthly. That the justice and holiness of God, as he is the supreme governor and judge of all the world, require that sin be punished: - Exod. 34: 7, "That will by no means clear the guilty." Josh. 24: 19, "He is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins." Ps. 5: 4-6, "For thou art not a God that has pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing." Hab. 1: 13, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity." Isa. 33: 14, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Rom. 1: 32, "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death." Chap. 3: 5, 6, "Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?" 2 Thess. 1: 6, "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you." Heb. 12: 29, "For our God is a consuming fire;" from Dent. 4: 24. Fifthly. That God, has also engaged his veracity and faithfulness in the sanction of the law, not to leave sin unpunished: - Gen. 2: 17, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Dent. 27: 26, "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." In this state and condition, mankind, had they been left without divine aid and help, must have perished eternally. Sixthly. That God out of his infinite goodness, grace, and love to mankind, sent his only Son to save and deliver them out of this condition. - Matt. 1: 21, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shalt save his people from their sins." John 3: 16, 17, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." Rom. 5: 8, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 1 John 4: 9, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." Verse 10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 Thess. 1: 10, "Even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Seventhly. That this love was the same in Father and Son, acted distinctly in the manner that shall be afterward declared; so, vain are the pretences of men, who, from the love of the Father in this matter, would argue against the love of the Son, or on the contrary. Eighthly. That the way, in general, whereby the Son of God, being incarnate, was to save lost sinners, was by a substitution of himself, according to the design and appointment of God, in the room of those whom he was to save: - 2 Cor. 5: 21, "He has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might become the righteousness of God in him." Gal. 3: 13, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" Rom. 5: 7, 8, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet per adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Chap. 8: 3, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us" 1 Pet. 2: 24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." Chap. 3: 18, "For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." All these expressions undeniably evince a substitution of Christ as to suffering in the stead of them whom he was to save; which, in general, is all that we intend by his satisfaction, namely, that he was made "sin for us," a "curse for us," "died for us," that is, in our stead, that we might be saved from the wrath to come. And all these expressions, as to their true, genuine importance, shall be vindicated as occasion shall require. Ninthly. This way of his saving sinners is, in particular, several ways expressed in the Scriptures. 1. That he offered himself a sacrifice to God, to make atonement for our sins; and that in his death and sufferings: - Isa 53: 10, "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." John 1: 29, "Behold the lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." Eph. 5: 2, "Christ hath loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." Heb. 2: 17, Was "a merciful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Chap. 9: 11-14, "But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls," etc., "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works?" 2. That he redeemed us by paying a price, a ransom, for our redemption: - Mark 10: 45, "The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many." 1 Cor. 6: 20, 7: 23, "For ye are bought with a price." 1 Tim. 2: 6, "Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Tit. 2: 14, "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity." 1 Pet. 1: 18, 19, "For ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." 3. That he bare our sins, or the punishment due unto them: -Isa. 53: 5, 6, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Verse 11, "For he shall bear their iniquities." 1 Pet. 2: 24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 4. That he answered the law and the penalty of it: - Rom. 8: 3, 4, "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Gal. 3: 13, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." Chap. 4: 4, 5, "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law" 5. That he died for sin, and sinners, to expiate the one, and in the stead of the other: - Rom. 4: 25, "He was delivered for our offenses." Chap. 5: 10, "When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." 1 Cor. 15: 3, "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." 2 Cor. 5: 14, "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead," 1 Thess. 5: 9, 10. 6. Hence, on the part of God it is affirmed, that "he spared him not, but delivered him up for us all," Rom. 8: 32; and caused "all our iniquities to meet upon him," Isa. 53: 6. 7. The effect hereof was, - (1.) That the righteousness of God was glorified. Rom. 3: 25, 26, "Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins." (2.) The law fulfilled and satisfied, as in the places before quoted, chap. 8: 3, 4; Gal. 3: 13, 4: 4, 5. (3.) God reconciled. 2 Cor. 5: 18, 19, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Heb. 2: 17, "he made reconciliation for the sins of the people." (4.) Atonement was made for sin. Rom. 5: 11, "By whom we have now received the atonement;" and peace was made with God. Eph. 2: 14, 16, "For he is our peace, who has made both one, ... that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." (6.) He made an end of sin. Dan. 9: 24, "To finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." The glory of God in all these things being exalted, himself was well pleased, righteousness and everlasting redemption, or salvation, purchased for sinners. Heb. 9: 14, For in that "the chastisement of our peace was upon him," and that "by his stripes we are healed," he being punished that we might go free, himself became a captain of salvation unto all that do obey him. I have fixed on these particulars, to give every ordinary reader an instance how fully and plainly what he is to believe in this matter is revealed in the Scripture. And should I produce all the testimonies which expressly give witness unto these positions, it is known how great a part of the Bible must be transcribed. And these are the things which are indispensably required of us to believe, that we may be able to direct and regulate our obedience according to the mind and will of God. In the explanation of this doctrine unto farther edification, sundry things are usually insisted on, which necessarily and infallibly ensue upon the propositions of Scripture before laid down, and serve to beget in the minds of believers a due apprehension and right understanding of them; as, - 1. That God in this matter is to be considered as the chief, supreme, absolute rector and governor of all, - as the Lord of the law, and of sinners; but yet so as an offended ruler: not as an offended person, but as an offended ruler, who has right to exact punishment upon transgressions, and whose righteousness of rule requires that he should so do. 2. That because he is righteous and holy, as he is the supreme Judge of all the world, it is necessary that he do right in the punishing of sin; without which the order of the creation cannot be preserved. For sin being the creature's deduction of itself from the order of its dependence upon, and obediences unto, the Creator and supreme Lord of all, without a reduction of it by punishment, confusion would be brought into the whole creation. 3. That whereas the law, and the sanction of it, is the moral or declarative cause of the punishment of sin, and it directly obliges the sinner himself unto punishment; God, as the supreme ruler, dispenses, not with the act of the law, but the immediate object, and substitutes another sufferer in the room of them who are principally liable unto the sentence of it, and are now to be acquitted or freed; - that so the law may be satisfied, requiring the punishment of sin; justice exalted, whereof the law is an effect; and yet the sinner saved. 4. That the person thus substituted was the Son of God incarnate, who had power so to dispose of himself, with will and readiness for it; and was, upon the account of the dignity of his person, able to answer the penalty which all others had incurred and deserved. 5. That God, upon his voluntary susception of this office, and condescension to this work, did so lay our sins, in and by the sentence of the law, upon him, that he made therein full satisfaction for what ever legally could be charged on them for whom he died or suffered. 6. That the special way, terms, and conditions, whereby and wherein sinners may be interested in this satisfaction made by Christ, are determined by the will of God, and declared in the scripture. These, and the like things, are usually insisted on in the explication or declaration of this head of our confession; and there is not any of them but may be sufficiently confirmed by divine testimonies. It may also be farther evinced, that there is nothing asserted in them, but what is excellently suited unto the common notions which mankind has of God and his righteousness; and that in their practice they answer the light of nature and common reason, exemplified in sundry instances among the nations of the world. I shall therefore take one argument from some of the testimonies before produced in the confirmation of this sacred truth, and proceed to remove the objections that are commonly bandied against it. If the Lord Christ, according to the will of the Father, and by his own counsel and choice, was substituted, and did substitute himself, as the mediator of the covenant, in the room and in the stead of sinners, that they might be saved, and therein bare their sins, or the punishment due unto their sins, by undergoing the curse and penalty of the law, and therein also, according to the will of God, offered up himself for a propitiatory, expiatory sacrifice, to make atonement for sin, and reconciliation for sinners, that the justice of God being appeased, and the law fulfilled, their might go free, or be delivered from the wrath to come; and if therein, also, he paid a real satisfactory price for their redemption; then he made satisfaction to God for sin: for these are the things that we intend by that expression of satisfaction. But now all these things are openly and filly witnessed unto in the testimonies before produced, as may be observed by suiting some of them unto the several particulars here asserted: - As, 1. What was done in this matter, was from the will, purpose, and love of God the Father, Ps. 40: 6-8; Heb. 10: 5-7; Acts 4: 28; John 3: 16; Rom. 8: 3. 2. It was also done by his own voluntary consent, Phil. 2: 6-8. 3. He was substituted, and did substitute himself, as the mediator of the covenant, in the room and stead of sinners, that they may be saved, Heb. 10: 5-7, 12: 22; Rom. 3: 25, 26, 5: 7, 8. 4. And he did therein bear their sins, or the punishment due to their sins, Isa. 53: 6, 11; 1 Pet. 2: 24. And this, - 5. By undergoing the curse and penalty of the law, Gal. 3: 13; or the punishment of sin required by the law, 2 Cor. 5: 21; Rom. 8: 3. 6. Herein, also, according to the will of God, he offered up himself a propitiatory and expiatory sacrifice, to make atonement for sin and reconciliation for sinners, Eph 5: 6; Rom. 5: 6; Heb. 9: 11-14; - which he did, that the justice of God being satisfied, and the law fulfilled, sinners might be freed from the wrath to come, Rom. 3: 25; 1 Thess. 1: 10. 7. And hereby also he paid a real price of redemption for sin and sinners, 1 Pet. 1: 18, 19; 1 Cor. 6: 20. These are the things which we are to believe concerning the satisfaction of Christ. And our explication of this doctrine we are ready to defend when called whereunto. The consideration of the objections which are raised against this great fundamental truth shall close this discourse. And they are of two sorts: - First, In general, to the whole doctrine, as declared, or some of the more signal heads or parts of it. Secondly, Particular instances in this or that supposal, as consequences of the doctrine asserted. And, in general, - First, they say "This is contrary to, and inconsistent with, the love, grace, mercy, and goodness of God, which are so celebrated in the Scripture as the principal properties of his nature and acts of his will wherein he will be glorified; -especially contrary to the freedom of forgiveness, which we are encouraged to expect, and commanded to believe." And this exception they endeavour to firm by testimonies that the Lord is good and gracious and that he does freely forgive us our sins and trespasses. Ans. 1. I readily grant that whatever is really contrary to the grace, goodness, and mercy of God, whatever is inconsistent with the free forgiveness of sin, is not to be admitted; for these things are fully revealed in the Scripture, and must have a consistency with whatever else is therein revealed of God or his will. 2. As God is good, and gracious, and merciful, so also he is holy, righteous, true, and faithful. And these things are no less revealed concerning him than the others; and are no less essential properties of his nature than his goodness and grace. And as they are all essentially the same in him, and considered only under a different habitue or respect, as they are exerted by acts of his will; so it belongs to his infinite wisdom, that the effects of them, though divers, and produced by divers ways and means, may no way be contrary one to the other, but that mercy be exercised without the prejudice of justice or holiness, and justice be preserved entire, without any obstruction to the exercise of mercy. 3. The grace and love of God, that in this matter the Scripture reveals to be exercised in order unto the forgiveness of sinners, consists principally in two things: - (1.) In his holy eternal purpose of providing a relief for lost sinners. He has done it, "to the praise of the glory of his grace," Eph. 1: 6. (2.) In the sending his Son in the pursuit and for the accomplishment of the holy purpose of his will and grace. Herein most eminently does the Scripture celebrate the love, goodness, and kindness of God, as that whereby, in infinite and for ever to be adored wisdom and grace, he made way for the forgiveness of our sins. John 3: 16, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." Rom. 3: 25, "Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." Rom. 5: 8, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Tit. 3: 4; 1 John 4: 9, 10. Herein consists that ever to be adored love, goodness, grace, mercy, and condescension of God. Add hereunto, that, in the act of causing our iniquities to meet on Christ, wherein he immediately intended the declaration of his justice, Rom. 3: 25, - "not sparing him, in delivering him up to death for us all," Rom. 8: 32, - there was a blessed harmony in the highest Justice and most excellent grace and mercy. This grace, this goodness, this love of God towards mankind, towards sinners, our adversaries in this matter neither know nor understand; and so, indeed, what lies in them, remove the foundation of the whole gospel, and of all that faith and obedience which God requires at our hands. 4. Forgiveness, or the actual condonation of sinners, the pardon and forgiveness of sins, is free; but yet so as it is everywhere restrained unto a respect unto Christ, unto his death rind blood- shedding. Eph. 1: 7, "We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Chap. 4: 32. "God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." Rom. 3: 25, 26, "God has set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins." It is absolutely free in respect of all immediate transactions between God and sinners. (1.) Free on the part of God. [1.] In the eternal purpose of it, when he might justly have suffered all men to have perished under the guilt of their sins. [2.] Free in the means that he used to effect it, unto his glory. 1st. In the sending of his Son; and, 2dly. In laying the punishment of our sin upon him. 3dly. In his covenant with him, that it should be accepted on our behalf. 4thly. In his tender and proposal of it by the gospel unto sinners, to be received without money or without price. 5thly. In the actual condonation and pardon of them that do believe. (2.) It is free on the part of the persons that are forgiven; in that, [1.] It is given and granted to them, without any satisfaction made by them for their former transgressions. [2.] Without any merit to purchase or procure it. [3.] Without any penal, satisfactory suffering here, or in a purgatory hereafter. [4.] Without any expectation of future recompense; or that, being pardoned, they should then make or give any satisfaction for what they had done before. And as any of these things would, so nothing else can, impeach the freedom of pardon and forgiveness. Whether, then, we respect the pardoner or the pardoned, pardon is every way free, - namely, on the part of God who forgives, and on the part of sinners that are forgiven. If God now has, besides all this, provided himself a lamb for a sacrifice; if he has, in infinite wisdom and grace, found out a way thus freely to forgive us our sins, to the praise and glory of his own holiness, righteousness, and severity against sin, as well as unto the unspeakable advancement of that grace, goodness, and bounty which he immediately exercises in the pardon of sin; are these men's eyes evil, because he is good? Will they not be contented to be pardoned, unless they may have it at the rate of despoiling God of his holiness, truth, righteousness, and faithfulness? And as this is certainly done by that way of pardon which these men propose, no reserve in the least being made for the glory of God in those holy properties of his nature which are immediately injured and opposed by sin; so that pardon itself, which they pretend so to magnify, having nothing to influence it but a mere arbitrary act of God's will, is utterly debased from its own proper worth and excellency. And I shall willingly undertake to manifest that they derogate no less from grace and mercy in pardon, than they do from the righteousness and holiness of God, by the forgiveness which they have feigned; and that in it both of them are perverted and despoiled of all their glory. But they yet say, "If God can freely pardon sin, why does he not do it without satisfaction? If he cannot, he is weaker and more imperfect than man, who can do so." Ans. 1. God cannot do many things that men can do, - not that he is more imperfect than they, but he cannot do them on the account of his perfection. He cannot lie, he cannot deny himself, he cannot change; which men can do, and do every day. 2. To pardon sin without satisfaction, in him who is absolutely holy, righteous, true, and faithful, - the absolute, necessary, supreme Governor of all sinners, - the author of the law, and sanction of it, wherein punishment is threatened and declared, - is to deny himself, and to do what one infinitely perfect cannot do. 3. I ask of these men, why God does not pardon sins freely, without requiring faiths repentance, and obedience in them that are pardoned; yea, as the conditions on which they may be pardoned? For, seeing he is so infinitely good and gracious, cannot he pardon men without prescribing such terms and conditions unto them as he knows that men, and that incomparably the greatest number of them, will never come up unto, and so must of necessity perish for ever? Yea, but they say, "This cannot be: neither does this impeach the freedom of pardon; for it is certain that God does prescribe these things, and yet he pardons freely; and it would altogether unbecome the holy God to pardon sinners that continue so to live and die in their sins" But do not these men see that they have hereby given away their cause which they contend for? For, if a prescription of sundry things to the sinner himself, without which he shall not be pardoned, do not at all impeach, as they say, the freedom of pardon, but God may be said freely to pardon sin notwithstanding it; how shall the receiving of satisfaction by another, nothing at all being required of the sinner, have the least appearance of any such thing? If the freedom of forgiveness consists in such a boundless notion as these men imagine, it is certain that the prescribing of faith and repentance in and unto sinners, antecedently to their participation of it, is much more evidently contrary unto it, than the receiving of satisfaction from another who is not to be pardoned can to any appear to be. Secondly, if it be contrary to the holiness of God to pardon any without requiring faith, repentance, and obedience in them (as it is indeed), let not these persons be offended if we believe him when he so frequently declares it, that it was so to remit sin, without the fulfilling of his law and satisfaction of his justice. Secondly, they say, "There is no such thing as justice in God (continued in part 8...) ---------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-01: owent-07.txt .
