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personally disobedient), which the law judgeth to him that was personally disobedient, undergoes the idem that the law requires.

The idem is suppliciam delinquenti debitum by whoever it be undergone, not supplicium ipsius delinquentis only.

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He proceeds: The law never threatened a surety, nor granteth any liberty of substitution: that was an act of God above the law; therefore Christ did not undergo the idem.' I deny the consequence. Nor is the least shadow of proof made of it. The question is not whether Christ be the sinner, but whether he underwent that which was due to the sinner.

He adds: If therefore the thing due was paid, it was we ourselves morally or legally, that suffered.' I know not well what is meant by morally; but however I deny the consequence; the thing itself was paid by another for us, and the punishment itself was undergone by another, in our stead.

That which follows, falls with that which went before, being built thereon. 'It could not be ourselves legally,' saith he, 'because it was not ourselves naturally.' Though for the security of the hypothesis opposed, there is no need of it, yet I deny his proposition, also, if taken universally. A man may be accounted to do a thing legally by a sponsor, though he do it not in his own person.

But he says, 'If it had been ourselves legally, the strictest justice could not have denied us a present deliverance, 'ipso facto,' being no justice can demand any more than the 'idem quod debitur' (as Mr. Baxter's printer speaks). But 1. It is supposed, that all legal performance of any thing, by any one, must be done in his own person.

2. It supposes, that there is such an end as deliverance assigned, or assignable, to the offender's own undergoing of the penalty, which is false.

3. The reasons and righteousness of our actual deliverance at the time, and in the manner prescribed by God, and as to the last revealed in the gospel, upon Christ's performance of personal obedience, and undergoing the penalty due to us in our stead; which are founded in the economy of the Trinity, voluntarily engaged into for the accomplishing

the salvation of the elect, I have elsewhere touched on, and may, if I find it necessary, hereafter handle at large.

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That which is feared in this business is, that if the' idem' be paid, then according to the law, the obligation is dissolved, and present deliverance follows. But if by the law, be meant the civil law, whence these terms are borrowed, it is most certain, that any thing, instead of that which is in the obligation, doth, according to the rules of the law dissolve the obligation; and that whether it be paid by the principal debtor, or delinquent, or any for him. The beginning of that section, quibus modis tollitur obligatio,' lib. 3. Instit. will evince this sufficiently. The title of the section is, ' Si solvitur id quod debetur, vel aliud loco illius, consentiente creditore, omnis tollitur obligatio, tum rei principalis, quam fide-jussoris.' The words of the law itself are more full. 'Tollitur autem omnis obligatio solutione ejus quod debetur; vel siquis consentiente creditore aliud pro alio solverit; nec interest quis solverit, utrum ipse qui debet, an alius pro eo : liberatur enim et alio solvente, sive sciente, sive ignorante debitore, vel invito, et solutio fiat. Si fide-jussor solverit, non enim ipse solus liberatur, sed reus.' So that there is no difference in the law, whether' solutio' be 'ejusdem' or 'tantidem;' and this is the case in the things that are ex maleficio, aut quasi ;' as may be seen at large in the commentators on that place.

To caution all men against the poison of Antinomian doctrines, now so strenuously opposed by Mr. Baxter, and to deliver students from the unhappy model of theology, which the men of the preceding contests have entangled themselves and others withal, Mr. B. seriously advises them to keep in their minds, and carefully to distinguish between the will of God's purpose, and his precepts or law, his determining and commanding will, in the first place; the ignorance whereof it seems, confounded the theology of Doctor Twiss, Pemble, and others.

Nextly, that they would carefully distinguish between the covenant between the Father and the Son about the work of his mediation, and the covenant of grace and mercy confirmed to the elect in his blood.

Now if these two distictions, as carefully heeded, and as warily observed as we are able, will prove such an antidote

against the infection, for my part, in all probability, I shall be secure, having owned them ever since I learned my catechism.

Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν δὲ ταῦτα·

And so am I dismissed. This may perhaps be the close of this controversy; if otherwise, I am indifferent; on the one side it will be so: I delight not in these troubled waters. If I must engage again in the like kind, I shall pray that he from whom are all my supplies, would give me a real humble frame of heart, that I may have no need with many pretences, and a multitude of good words, to make a cloak for a spirit breaking frequently through all with sad discoveries of pride and passion; and to keep me from all magisterial insolence, pharisaical supercilious self-conceitedness, contempt of others, and every thing that is contrary to the rule whereby I ought to walk.

If men be in haste to oppose what I have delivered about this business, let them (if they please, I have no authority to prescribe them their way) speak directly to the purpose, and oppose that which is affirmed, and answer my reasons in reference to that end only for which by me they are produced and insisted on.

Because I see some men have a desire to be dealing with me, and yet know not well what to fix upon, that I may deliver them from the vanity of contending with their own surmises, and if it be possible, to prevail with them to speak closely, clearly, and distinctly to the matter of their contests, and not mix heterogeneous things in the same discourse, I will briefly shrive myself for their satisfaction.

First, then, I do not believe that any man is actually justified from eternity; because of that of the apostle, Rom. viii. 28-30. but yet what is the state of things, in reference to the economy of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, engaged in from eternity for the salvation of sinners, with that fountain union, that is between Christ and his body in their predestination, I shall desire a little more time to deliver myself unto.

2. I do believe that there was a covenant, compact, or agreement between Father and Son for the salvation of the elect by his mediation, which, upon sin's entering into the world, had an efficacy and effect of the very same nature

with that, which it hath when he hath actually accomplished what was on his part required for the end proposed to him; and that therefore in the Old Testament his death is spoken of sometimes as past, Isa. liii. 4-6. and that to make this covenant in its constitution to be contemporary to its revelation, or the promises of it to be then made to Christ, when the church is acquainted that those promises are made, is a wide mistake.

But under what consideration the elect lie unto God, upon the transaction of this original covenant with the Mediator, I desire liberty for awhile as above.

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3. I do not believe that the elect, that live after the death of Christ, are all actually in their own persons justified and absolved at his death; because the wrath of God abides on men that believe not;' John iii. 36. But yet what to the advantage of the church is enwrapped in the discharge of their great representative, who died in their stead (for that I believe also, and not only for their good) I desire respite for my thoughts as formerly.

4. I do believe that Christ underwent the very same punishment for us, for the nature and kind of it, which we were obnoxious unto, and should have undergone, had not he undertaken for us, and paid the idem that we should have done; 2 Cor. v. 12. Gal. iii. 13.

5. I believe that upon the death of Christ, considering what hath been said before concerning the compact and agreement between God and the Mediator, about that matter, it became just and righteous, with reference to God's justice, as supreme Governor and moderator of the creatures, and all their concernments, that those for whom he died, should all be made partakers of all the good things, which Christ by his death procured for them, in the season appointed by the sovereign will of God. But that this right, though indissoluble, is so actually vested in them, as to be actionable in the gospel without faith, I believe not.

6. I believe that all spiritual blessings, mercies, privileges whatever, are fruits of the death of Christ, and that notwithstanding the order wherein they stand one to another, they all depend immediately on its casuality; though re spectu termini' they have not a natural immediation.

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7. I profess that we are absolved, pardoned, and justified

for Christ's sake, and therefore that Christ is reckoned to us, or made righteousness to us, in order of nature antecedently to all those things, which for his sake we do receive, and are made partakers of with and by him, &c.

For a close of all, I must profess, that I will not contend with any man, who discovers in himself such a resolution Jéo diapuλárrav, that if he be pressed, rather than let it go, he will go backward, and attempt dkívηra kɩvɛiv, and to question common received principles; knowing the multitude of errors and abominations that the church of God hath been pestered withal by men of this principle and practice. Hence are the beginnings of men modest, but their endings desperate hence is Arminianism ended in Episcopianism; and Arianism in Socinianism, and in many, Socinianism in Mahometanism and Atheism. If I find this resolution and spirit in any man, he shall rather enjoy his own present conceits, than by me be precipitated into worse abominations. Nor shall I (the Lord assisting) be unmindful of that of the apostle, 1 Tim. vi. 3-5. Ei riç ETEρodidaoκαλεῖ, καὶ μὴ προσέρχεται ὑγιαίνουσι λόγοις τοῖς τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ, καὶ τῇ κατ ̓ εὐσέβειαν διδασκαλία, τετύφωται, μηδὲν ἐπιστάμενος, ἀλλὰ νοσῶν περὶ ζητήσεις καὶ λογομαχίας, ἐξ ὧν γίνεται φθόνος, ἔρις, βλασφημίαι, ὑπόνοιαι πονεραὶ, παpadiarpıẞai, &c. as also that of the same apostle, Tit. iii. 9. Μωρὰς δὲ ζητήσεις, καὶ γενεαλογίας, καὶ ἔρεις, καὶ μάχας νομιχὰς περιΐστασο· εἰσὶ γὰρ ἀνωφελεῖς καὶ μάταιοι. If I must contend with any, as I am resolved for the matter πρоτчμãν Thν dλýdɛlav, so for the manner of handling it, it shall not be my endeavour to cloud and darken things easy, trite, common in themselves, with new, dark, artificial expressions, but rather to give plainness and perspicuity to things hard and difficult, confirming them with the authority of Scripture, opened by the import of the words insisted on, and design of the Holy Ghost in their contexture. Nor will I contend with any, whose motto is that of him in Plautus; 'dicat quod quisque vult, ego de hac sententia non dimovebor:' or that hath thoughts of his own notions, like those of him in Nævius, who cried out,' primum quod dicebo recte, secundum quod dicebo eo melius.' And as my aim is to know Christ and him crucified, to exalt him, and ascribe to him the pre-eminence in all things, to discover the whole of our

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