SERMON VI

The true chriftian Doctrine of the
Satisfaction of Chrift vindicated.

SER M.

VI.

ROM. iii. 26,

That he might be just; and the justifier of him which believeth in Fefus.

MT

HE whole verfe runs thus, To declare, I fay, at this time his righteousness, &c. In a former difcourfe upon this text, I fhewed that the full fenfe of it was to be rendered thus: That he might be just himself, and yet at the fame time a juflifier of him which believeth in fefus; fo that one part of the sentence is not confequent to the other, as the Socinians would have it, but both parts oppofed. I proceeded to fhew what their opi nions and principles were concerning the juftice of God, and particularly how they refolved the justice and mercy of God into his rectitude and goodness; pursuant to this I fhewed how the goodness and mercy of God were to be confidered in two very different respects;

refpects; one as they are really in God part SE R M. of his nature, and confidered antecedently VI. to any purpose or decree of fending a Saviour ; in which fenfe I allowed that they were attributes of God, infinite and effential to him, and in that fense they are more properly called rectitude and goodness.

Secondly, they were to be confidered as confequent to the purpose of God, of sending a Saviour; and in this fenfe I allowed they were not fo properly attributes of God as particular limitations of them, by exerting themselves in the instances of punishing and forgiving of fin; and withal that there was no fuch things as juftice and mercy in God, according to the notion of juftice and mercy among us, and thofe conceptions that we frame of them, any more than there are human paffions in him : Upon the strength of this diftinction I confidered the force of fome of their most specious arguments. I come now to confider the reft, together with the weight of their most plaufible objections. And now we are come to a true ftate of the queftion, we shall clearly apprehend the meaning and import of all their expreffions on this head; and at the fame time difcern how unconclufive and frivolous their arguments and objections are.

And first they diftinguish two sorts of justice in God, one which is opposed to mercy; the other to pravity and iniquity, called his rectitude;

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SER M. rectitude; which is the very diftinction I have VI. made pursuant to theirs, when I confidered the juftice of God, 1ft, antecedently to any promise or decree of fending a Saviour; 2dly, fubfequently to fuch promife and decree. The first is properly called his rectitude, and it is opposed to pravity and iniquity, and not fo properly to his mercy: Since, as I have obferved, mercy is a notion confequent to his purpose of fending a Saviour; and therefore here we have no difference with them, fince the question in debate is concerning the rectitude or justice of God, confidered as it is in himself, antecedently to his purpose of sending a Saviour. And we do allow that though the word juftice, in common use of scripture, be more immediately meant of the justice of God in the former fense of the word, as it fuppofes the promise of a Saviour; yet confidered in respect of God himself, and applied directly to him (as it may without any fuch refpect) is not opposed to mercy, but to pravity and iniquity : All this we grant, and have no more to say here but this, that the firft, though it is not immediately and primarily intended by the word juftice in fcripture, nor directly opposed to mercy; yet it is the very thing in the nature of God, to which we affirm the propitiation and atonement to have been made : So then, they have sweat and toiled to much. purpose in proving what we allow; let them now begin again, and prove there is nothing

in the rectitude or perfection of God's nature S ER M. that could require any propitiation or atone- VI. ment to be made to it, in order to the pardon of fin. I am of opinion that when they have faid as much over again as they have done, they must after all leave God himself to be the propereft judge of it, and reft in the revelation.

Again, that juftice which is opposed to mercy they fubdivide; one by which God never fails to punish obftinate unrepenting finners; the other by which he fometimes punishes even repenting finners, and might punish them eternally, notwithstanding their repentance, if he had not freely promised to do otherwife. (Socin. de Ser. par. i. cap. 1.) Dixi duplicem effe Dei juftitiam, unam qua perpetuo utitur, dum fceleftos, et contumaces, et perditæ fpei homines plectit atque exterminat alteram quâ peccatores nonnunquam neque contumaces neque omnino defperatos, eorum pœnitentiâ non expectatâ, ex fuâ lege punit, vel etiam fi velit quanquam refipifcentes, promiffione mifericordiæ fuæ qua fe volens nobis quodammodo devinxit exclufâ, punire poteft. We have no controverfy with them as to the justice of God in this fenfe, because both thefe, in the fense of their diftinction, are confequent to the decrees of a Saviour. It doth not come up to the queftion, which is concerning the rectitude of God confidered antecedently to any fuch purpofe; and therefore all they have faid upon this is thrown away.

I fhall

SERM. I fhall only observe here, that without the VI. promise and decree of a Saviour all men had been obftinate and unrepenting finners; and fo according to themfelves all would have been punished eternally; and this would have proceeded from that juftice of God which they call rectitude, by which he never would have failed to have punished all men; fince none of them could have been repenting finners; and then there would have been no occafion for this diftinction. No man could have repented without the grace and affiftance of God's holy fpirit, and this had never been afforded if Christ had not been decreed a propitiation and atonement to that very justice of God, by which they themselves do own, he never fails to punish all obftinate unrepenting finners; fo that their diftinction is grounded upon this very great mistake, viz. that without the promise of Chrift some might have been unrepenting, and others repenting finners. Obferve how this mistake leads Socinus unwarily to a frank acknowledgment of the truth; (de Serv. par. i. cap. 1.) Deum iniquitatem impunitam non relinquere, boc quidem verum eft, idque perpetuò; fi veram iniquitatem, boc eft obftinatam hominis malitiam, ejufque perfeverantiam et perpetuam delectationem in malis perpetrandis intelligis; this is the very condition of all men confidered antecedently to a propitiation and atonement; and but for it there would not have been one inftance to the contrary in all mankind.