Lastly, it is objected, that if God did elect and choose some men to grace and glory in and through Jesus Christ, Christ needed1 not, nor yet could make satisfaction for them; for in as much as they were beloved of God, we cannot conceive how satisfaction should be needful or could be made for them. Thus some dispute with great confidence, but little strength. For this Proposition, God loveth whom he hath chosen, or to choose is to love, doth admit a double sense: one this, whom God doth elect, them he loveth, or willeth well unto them, in time to make them actual heirs of grace and glory in Jesus Christ, and thus it is most true,2 and doth not exclude, but infer the necessity of satisfaction; another sense may be, that whom God doth elect, them he doth love as made actual heirs of grace and glory by the influence of his love, and in this, it should exclude the necessity of satisfaction, but so it is not to be admitted. It is not absurd to say, the elect are in grace with God in respect of ordination or appointment; but after are brought into grace by Christ in respect of the actual collation and communication. When Christ is said to reconcile us unto God, the meaning is not, that God did then first begin to love, or will well unto us, as if he did hate and will to damn us before: for then we must admit a proper change in the purpose and internal will of God proceeding from an external cause, ⟨p. 293⟩which is contrary both to Scripture and sound reason: but whereas formerly we lay under wrath deserved by sin, now we are received into favour and friendship with God. For reconciliation is a transient act, done in time, which infers a change in the creature reconciled, a change of state, not of qualities, and follows the obedience of Christ, as the effect the cause, and which God imparteth to believers. Reconciliation, as the Scripture speaks of it, imports not any change in God, nor the external good will or love of God, which remains in himself, and worketh not any change in the creature: but a blessing granted to us in time, that we who were the children of wrath by nature, should be the Sons of God by grace; we who were enemies, and hated in respect of the effects of wrath, and desert of sin, should be made friends and dear to God, the enmity being taken away by the blood of Christ.
Lastly, it is objected, that if God did elect and choose some men to grace and glory in and through Jesus Christ, Christ needed1 not, nor yet could make satisfaction for them; for in as much as they were beloved of God, we cannot conceive how satisfaction should be needfull or could be made for them. Thus some dispute with great confidence, but little strength. For this Proposition, God loveth whom he hath chosen, or to chuse is to love, doth admit a double sence: one this, whom God doth elect, them he loveth, or willeth well unto them, in time to make them actuall heires of grace and glory in Jesus Christ, and thus it is most true,2 and doth not exclude, but inferre the necessity of satisfaction; another sence may be, that whom God doth elect, them he doth love as made actuall heires of grace and glory by the influence of his love, and in this, it should exclude the necessity of satisfaction, but so it is not to be admitted. It is not absurd to say, the elect are in grace with God in respect of ordination or appointment; but after are brought into grace by Christ in respect of the actuall collation and communication. When Christ is said to reconcile us unto God, the meaning is not, that God did then first begin to love, or will well unto us, as if he did hate and will to damne us before: for then we must admit a proper change in the purpose and internall will of God proceeding from an externall cause, ⟨p. 293⟩which is contrary both to Scripture and sound reason: but whereas formerly we lay under wrath deserved by sin, now we are received into favour and friendship with God. For reconciliation is a transient act, done in time, which inferrs a change in the creature reconciled, a change of state, not of qualities, and followes the obedience of Christ, as the effect the cause, and which God imparteth to believers. Reconciliation, as the Scripture speaks of it, imports not any change in God, nor the externall good will or love of God, which remains in himselfe, and worketh not any change in the creature: but a blessing granted to us in time, that we who were the children of wrath by nature, should be the Sons of God by grace; we who were enemies, and hated in respect of the effects of wrath, and desert of sin, should be made friends and deare to God, the enmity being taken away by the bloud of Christ.
- 1Synodal. Dord. ubi supra.
- 2Illi tantum à parte ante ratione Dei n•gant meritum Christi & effectum electionis illud constituunt, ita ut Deus prius homines elegisse, postea sic absolutè electis Filium tanquā salutis medium d•disse dicatur▪ St•g• pag. 49•Illi tantum à parte ante ratione Dei n•gant meritum Christi & effectum electionis illud constituunt, ita ut Deus prius homines elegisse, postea sic absolutè electis Filium tanquā salutis medium d•disse dicatur▪ St•g• pag. 49•
