189. When we tell them, that, If we had fulfilled all the Law reputatively 1by Christ as our Legal person, we could not be bound to further obedience to it, They answer, that we are not bound to obey to the same ends as Christ, that is for Righteousness, or Justification or merit, but in Gratitude. But this is but to give us the cause, and ignorantly to destroy 2their own. For, 1. This is but to say, that when a man is reputed to have fulfilled all the Law, yet it is to be reputed unfulfilled as to certain ends. As if he fulfilled all the Law that fulfilled it not to all due ends: 2. Or as if the Law obliged one man to fulfil it twice over for the same life's time; once simply and in all its obligations, and another time for other ends. 3. Or as if the Law required any more than absolute perfection. 4. Or that absolute perfection had not been in Christ's holy 3obedience. 5. Or as if there were any obedience whose end is not Righteousness and Justification, against the change of the contrary disobedience. Do not these men obey that they may be so far righteous? Or is not every man so far Righteous as he doth Righteousness? Is not every man ⟨p. 76⟩that loveth God justifiable as a Lover of him for so far as he loveth him? 6. And is not Gratitude an end, and a thing commanded by the Law? If we obeyed perfectly in Christ, we were perfectly thankful in Christ. 7. But if they say that Christ fulfilled only the Law made to Adam for us, and not his own Law of Grace, and therefore that he obeyed for us, only to the ends of that Law; I answer, 1. If the ends and matter of that Law be fulfilled by us in him, our obedience to any other must be needless: For he that is supposed never to have sinned, need not use any means for pardon or remedy. 2. By this rule Christ only fulfilled the Law for Adam, and Eve, and for us only as we were in them, which is only Virtually and not Actually at all; but not at all for us according to any obligation that ever fell upon our persons. For, 1. We were never personally bound to perfect personal perpetual obedience as the Condition of life; For that Covenant as to the promise and condition ceased before any man was born. 2. And all the duty in the world which •• are bound to, is to be done for Evangelical ends; for recovering Grace, and unto Gratitude, &c.
189. When we tell them, that, If we had fulfilled all the Law reputatively 1by Christ as our Legal person, we could not be bound to further obedience to it, They answer, that we are not bound to obey to the same ends as Chhist, that is for Righteousness, or Justification or merit, but in Gratitude. But this is but to give us the cause, and ignorantly to destroy 2their own. For, 1. This is but to say, that when a man is reputed to have fulfilled all the Law, yet it is to be reputed unfulfilled as to certain ends. As if he fulfilled all the Law that fulfilled it not to all due ends: 2. Or as if the Law obliged one man to fulfill it twice over for the same lifes time; once simply and in all its obligations, and another time for other ends. 3. Or as if the Law required any more than absolute perfection. 4. Or that absolute perfection had not been in Christ's holy 3obedience. 5. Or as if there were any obedience whose end is not Righteousness and Justification, against the change of the contrary disobedience. Do not these men obey that they may be so far righteous? Or is not every man so far Righteous as he doth Righteousness? Is not every man ⟨p. 76⟩that loveth God justifiable as a Lover of him for so far as he loveth him? 6. And is not Gratitude an end, and a thing commanded by the Law? If we obeyed perfectly in Christ, we were perfectly thankful in Christ. 7. But if they say that Christ fulfilled only the Law made to Adam for us, and not his own Law of Grace, and therefore that he obeyed for us, only to the ends of that Law; I answer, 1. If the ends and matter of that Law be fulfilled by us in him, our obedience to any other must be needless: For he that is supposed never to have sinned, need not use any means for pardon or remedy. 2. By this rule Christ only fulfilled the Law for Adam, and Eve, and for us only as we were in them, which is only Virtually and not Actually at all; but not at all for us according to any obligation that ever fell upon our persons. For, 1. We were never personally bound to perfect personal perpetual obedience as the Condition of life; For that Covenant as to the promise and condition ceased before any man was born. 2. And all the duty in the world which •• are bound to, is to be done for Evangelical ends; for recovering Grace, and unto Gratitude, &c.
- 1More against the wrong sense of Imputation; confuting many Sophisms.More against the wrong sence of Imputation; confuting many Sophisms.
- 2At quis unquam e nostris nos per justitiam Christi imputatam formaliter justificari, asseruit? Prideaux Lect. 5 de Just. cap. 4.
- 3The Papists concur with them that feign a middle state between Just and privatively unjust, viz. not just negatively, so Brianson in 4. q. 8. Cor. 3. fol. 145. at large: But they can give us no instance but in a stone or other incapable creature, that is not obliged: And we confess that if a man can be found that is not obliged to be Just, he is neither just nor (Privatively, but Negatively) unjust: But what's this to our case? And the Papists commonly join with them, that say that God remitteth not only the Reatum vel Obligationem ad poenam, but also the Reatum culpae in se; But when they come to open it, they mean but that God is not displeased with, or hath not a punishing Will against the Sinner: As if they knew not that as Gods Love is our chief reward, so his displeasure is our chief punishment; And that Remission doth make no change in God, but by taking away Guilt of Gods hatred and other punishment, God then is reconciled because they are not objects of his hatred: And to take away the Reatum poenae and the Reatum culpae, non in se, sed quoad poenam is all one, and all that both sides mean if they understand what they say. But to all eternity it will be true, that we once sinned, which none deny.The Papists concur with them that feign a middle state between Just and privatively unjust, viz. not just negatively, so Brianson in 4. q. 8. Cor. 3. fol. 145. at large: But they can give us no instance but in a stone or other incapable creature, that is not obliged: And we confess that if a man can be found that is not obliged to be Just, he is neither just nor (Privatively, but Negatively) unjust: But what's this to our case? And the Papists commonly joyn with them, that say that God remitteth not only the Reatum vel Obligationem ad poenam, but also the Reatum culpae in se; But when they come to open it, they mean but that God is not displeased with, or hath not a punishing Will against the Sinner: As if they knew not that as Gods Love is our chief reward, so his displeasure is our chief punishment; And that Remission doth make no change in God, but by taking away Guilt of Gods hatred and other punishment, God then is reconciled because they are not objects of his hatred: And to take away the Reatum poenae and the Reatum culpae, non in se, sed quoad poenam is all one, and all that both sides mean if they understand what they say. But to all eternity it will be true, that we once sinned, which none deny.
