Richard Baxter's Catholic theology plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriors who,…Richard Baxter's Catholick theologie plain, pure, peaceable, for pacification of the dogmatical word-warriours who,…

120. For if this were so, we could need no pardon; for he that is reputed to be Innocent, by fulfilling all the Law, is reputed never to have sinned, by omission or commission: And he can have no pardon of sin, who hath no sin to be pardoned. Therefore such an Imputation of Christs Righteousness to us, would make his satisfaction null or vain, or certainly neither imputable to us, nor useful for us.

121. Some to avoid this do divide the Time of our Lives, and suppose Christs sufferings to have satisfied and purchased pardon of our sins, for all the Time before our Believing, and his Righteousness to be imputed to us for the Time since our Believing: But this is a humane fiction: For our sins after believing must have pardon too, by Christ's satisfaction.

And some distinguish of our Time and State under the two Covenants, and say that Christ's satisfaction was for the pardon of our sins under the first Covenant, which continued but till the promise made to Adam, Gen. 3. 15. And so was for none but Adam's sin imputed to us; and that after that all being under the new Covenant, it condemneth none but the finally impenitent (who scape not) and so that Gods pardoning men since the new Covenant is but his preventing their need of pardon, or else pardoning temporal punishments only: But this is contrary to the Gospel, ⟨p. 60⟩which tells us that Christ dyed for our sins, even all that ever are forgiven, and that all are forgiven to believers, (and not the necessity of forgiveness prevented) and not only Adam's sin as ours: Nor only the temporal, but the perpetual punishment. And even temporal punishment is not due to the innocent.