Chapter 20: Whether Christ Suffered for Any Sin Against the Gospel Only

It may appear that Christ suffered not for any sin which is only against the Gospel, such as final unbelief: if any sins be considered in any other respect as against the Gospel only, then Christ was not to suffer for any such sin so considered, for where no death is threatened, none is explicitly due, and where it is not so due to the sinner, nor should have been executed upon him, there it could not have been due to Christ nor executed upon him. For the Gospel threatens not death to any sin, but final unbelief and rebellion (and for that Christ never died); therefore Christ died not for any sin as against the Gospel, nor suffered that which is nowhere threatened. But this is most doubtful and cannot well stand. It is true that Christ suffered not for final unbelief, it being the proper sin of some reprobates, to wit, of such as hear the Gospel (John 8:21, 24; 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8). But it seems against all Scripture that Christ should die for these, for whose sins he dies not: and so that, first, Christ should half and part the sins of the reprobates, and the Scripture, I judge, shall not admit that Christ bore in his own body, on the tree, some sins of the reprobate, to wit, all their sins against the Law, absolutely or conditionally, and he that bears not either absolutely or conditionally their other sins against the Gospel, to wit, their final unbelief and rebellion, for Christ was wounded and bruised for the transgressions and iniquities of these for whom he died. He must then have been wounded for some of their transgressions, and not wounded for other of their transgressions. And so the sins of the reprobates are divided between Christ's satisfaction upon the cross, and their own satisfaction in hell. But he suffered (one may say) conditionally only for the reprobates' sins against the Law upon the cross, if they believe, not otherwise? Answer: The same real satisfaction conditionally that he performed on the cross for the elect, the same (say the authors) he performed for the reprobate, conditionally, if either believe; but because the one believes, it is accepted for payment for them, and the other believes not, it is not accepted for them.

2. As there is a satisfaction performed for some sins, not for all, not for final unbelief, that sin then must be in the same case with the sin of the fallen Angels, there is no sacrifice for it, nor is Christ's death applicable by divine ordination to purge men from final unbelief more than to purge Devils from any sins they commit. 3. The same incorruptible price of the blood of the Lamb that is given to ransom all from wrath (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6) conditionally, is given to buy all, for whom Christ died, from their vain conversation, also (1 Peter 1:18), that is to merit faith to them conditionally. Show us the condition of the one more than the other. If a condition cannot be shown, Christ must have paid the price of blood upon the Cross, for some upon intention, for others upon another unlike intention. 4. If Christ died for all, not because they did will and believe, but that they might will and believe; and if Jesus suffered without the Camp, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood (Hebrews 13:12; Hebrews 10:10), that he might wash them from their sins, and make them Kings and Priests to God (Revelation 1:5-6), that they might offer up themselves holy living sacrifices to him (Romans 12:1), upon a great design of love, to cleanse them with the washing of water by the Word, and present them a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:26-27), if he gave himself for them, that they should live to righteousness, being dead to sins (1 Peter 2:24), that they might be delivered from the present evil world (Galatians 1:4), if Christ gave himself for these, for whom he died, that he might redeem them from all iniquity, and might purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14), then did he die to redeem all men from iniquity, even from final unbelief the great iniquity, and from the vain conversation of final unbelief, and that they might be dead to sins, especially the sin of final unbelief. Except it be said that Christ gave a price to buy faith to all Reprobate and Elect, and to redeem them from final unbelief, if all would be willing. But to commit to their free will the efficacy of Redemption, which Prosper says makes the will of God valid and effectual, and invalid and weak, according as the will of man — which Davenantius, Bishop of Salisbury (if that opus posthumum have been written by him in his riper years, and revised by himself) justly censures as the boil of Pelagian Doctrine, which Faustus Rhegiensis did covertly teach: The Lord (says he) redeems such as are willing, being a rewarder of their good or evil wills. Now hardly can these escape this Pelagianism who teach, that the death of Christ is a universal salve applicable, by the decree of God, to save all and every one of mankind, Christian and Pagan, so they actually believe. For it cannot be said, that Christ has died to make all mankind saveable, upon condition of actual faith to receive Christ preached: for so Infants, to whom Christ preached is in no tolerable sense applicable, that way, by any ordination of God, if they actually believe, shall be no parts of the world, and they must be excluded from Baptism. And it cannot be said that this argument shall militate against us: for we do not defend such a conditional applicability of Christ upon condition of faith actual in preached Christ even to infants in the Visible Church, yet we teach they are in Covenant with God, and so God has his decree of election to Glory and Redemption in Christ, among infants as among aged professors. 2. There is a providential, and to many thousands of Pagans, who never heard, nor could hear of Christ, an invincible impediment, and so Christ is not applicable by God's decree to them, upon condition of actual believing (Romans 10:14). How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? It seems to me physically impossible, that there is such a thing as the Indians worship Satan under such a name and in such rites, if I never heard of the Indians, or of their God, or their worship. So neither can they worship Christ in a Gospel-way, who never heard of him. It is impossible to believe a non ens; Christ offered in the Gospel is very nothing and so not applicable to thousands by any decree of God. 3. This is not written in Scripture. God has decreed that Christ be Preached and life be offered actually to all and every one of all and every Nation under Heaven, and this opinion says that Christ died and satisfied offended Justice for the sins of all and every one of all and every Nation under heaven, except for final unbelief. The Antecedent is clear by Scripture and experience. God fulfills his decrees irresistibly: but he never sent the Preached Gospel to as many as these Authors say he died for. Nor can they themselves teach any such thing: nor is this true, God has decreed that Christ in the Preached Gospel and salvation may be offered to all and every one, old and young, of all and every Nation, in all Generations, upon condition of actual believing. And yet for all these, without exception, Christ died, say they. For not to say, God never decreed that such may be offered to infants of Pagans, for whom they say Christ died. To make a thing that physically is possible, the object of a decree of God, we must say that God has decreed to give the gift of tongues to all Professors and Pastors to speak to all and every Nation in their own Language, and to make an offer of Christ: for there be many Nations, who never heard of Christ, and understand not writing or any of the commonest Latin and Greek, and there is not any such decree revealed in the word, and we cannot but know such gifts of Tongues are not bestowed on men, and without this it is physically impossible to communicate the Gospel. It shall not help to say that Christians should travel to all countries and learn their Tongues, that so they may communicate the Gospel; and it is their sin they do not so. And therefore God has decreed that the Gospel may be offered and Christ applicable. Answer 1. What shall become of the aged, and of multitudes, for whom Christ died, who must die in Paganism, before Christians can be so mixed and learn the Tongues of all Nations under Heaven? 2. Did ever the Apostles to whom the Lord gave the gift of the tongues, go to this Nation and not to this, but by the call of the Spirit, to Macedonia, not to Bythinia (Acts 16)? Is there no call of God now required for spreading of the Gospel? Some Nations would kill them, some would persecute Christians to death and not receive them: in the meantime, many for whom Christ died, perish. 3. Show from Scripture that it is the duty of Christians to mix themselves with all Nations, and to learn their Language, and that they sin in not doing so. Nor let it be said, into whatever Nation I come, I may say, if you believe in Christ you shall be saved. Answer 1. You cannot say that, except you Preach the Gospel to them. For they are not obliged to believe upon one sentence, and if you Preach the Gospel to the Nation, God has some chosen ones there, and it is no more a Pagan Nation. [illegible] You are to say to any one by your way (you are obliged to believe that Christ satisfied for all your sins, and for the sins of the whole world) but that is a lie which you teach Pagans as a principle of the Gospel. 3. It is false that I may say and Preach truly such a thing to every Nation, and all in it. 4. Nor is it physically possible that Christians can so speak to all and every old and young. Also all is indeed referred to the free will — except the Authors say that God does insuperably determine the will of the Elect to believe, and the places speak of the efficacious redemption of the Elect only: but so God had two intentions in Christ's dying, one general to render all mankind saveable; another special, actually to save the Elect. But 1. who can believe multiplied intentions in God of half redemption from wrath, and of whole redemption from both vain conversation and wrath upon their bare word, when the Scripture says Christ in suffering without the Camp — suffered for the world of Jew and Gentiles, that he might sanctify them he died for? 2. What warrant to separate these two conjoined by God, to wit, that Christ should bear on the Cross the sins of reprobate, and not intend that they should die to sin, and be redeemed, but not from all iniquity: be loved and washed, and not made Kings and Priests to God? That Christ should be wounded for the transgressions of many, and yet the chastisement of his peace not be upon them? 3. The dying for all and every one cannot be conditional, in so far as the condition is referred to dying, to wit, if they believe; for so believing must go before dying, either really, which is manifestly false: for multitudes for whom Christ died had neither being nor believing, when he died for them; or in the prescience of God, and that destroys their principles: for so Christ cannot have died for all and every one, foreseeing that all and every one would believe: for he never foresaw that the Reprobate should believe. Then must the condition of dying or Redeeming, or of paying the ransom of his blood (these being all one) be referred to God's accepting of Christ's death for so many or for all, if they should believe. And the same way the Argument is as formerly: for God accepts the paid ransom for all and every one, if they all really believe, or if they all and every one be foreseen of God to believe before the Lord's accepting of them. Both are false, as is evident, [illegible] they say in the issue what we say, and contradict themselves, to wit, that believers, and only believers, are these for whom Christ died. We before said, the promises are conditionally to all within the Visible Church, but so as the condition relates only to the benefit promised, we shall have remission and life, if we believe, but not otherwise: but now the Covenant-promise, which is accepted of, and assented to by Professors, in their very profession in themselves or their parents, is absolutely made to all within the Visible Church, and they are Covenant-ways engaged and say, and profess they are the Lord's people, and they take him, and no other, for their God, whether they obey and believe, or no: for a people, not right in heart, may bind themselves in Covenant with God (Deuteronomy 29:10-14 compared with 21-23; Deuteronomy 31:27; Joshua 24:22 compared with Judges 2:12-13). So God absolutely intends to save all for whom Christ dies, and by his death intends to give a price to redeem them from hell and from unbelief, or their vain conversation (1 Peter 1:18), from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), from this present evil world (Galatians 1:14). Therefore, from final unbelief the greatest iniquity of a present evil world. But here the case widely varies, upon no condition, that we can read in holy Scripture, gave Christ a price, a ransom of blood to redeem men from unbelief and from all iniquity, this price must be absolutely given, and grace purchased to all whose sins Christ did bear on the Cross that they may believe, that they may be sanctified (Hebrews 13:12; 1 Peter 2:24). 2. Sins of Thomas, refusing to believe the resurrection of Christ, and of Peter denying the Lord before men, and the Gospel-sins of believers, after they are justified, and are enlightened, must be sins against the Covenant of Grace, as well as against the Law. And the denying of Christ before men has a sad threatening of everlasting death (Matthew 10:32; Mark 8:38) annexed to it, if they repent not. And shall these within the Visible Church, who receive not Christ, be in a harder condition than Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:14-15), if no sins against the Gospel be punished with eternal death but only unbelief? Indeed the Scripture says such as live in the Visible Church and are in Covenant with God, not only for final unbelief are condemned, but because they are unrighteous, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers (1 Corinthians 6:9), whoremongers, unclean, covetous persons (Ephesians 5:5-6), murderers, sorcerers, dogs, liars (Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15), for all their ungodly deeds and hard speeches (Jude verse 15; 2 Peter 2:17), for all disobedience (1 Corinthians 4:5; Matthew 12:36-37), they are everlastingly punished. And if Christ has suffered on the Cross for all the sins of the Reprobate, how are they judged and condemned for these sins, as the Scripture says? And what Scripture says they are condemned for the guilt of only unbelief: or that Pagans are condemned for Gospel-unbelief, whereas Sodom, Gomorrah (Matthew 10:15), the men of Nineveh (Matthew 12:41), Tyrus and Sidon (Matthew 11:21), and such as have sinned without the Law (Romans 2:12-15) are freed of Gospel-guiltiness, and condemned for sins against the Law, and yet this same way says that there is a Gospel-Covenant made with all, even thousands of Pagans who never heard of a Gospel, never engaged themselves by any profession to take the Lord for their God in Christ, yet Christ bore their sins on the Tree, and made his blood applicable to them by a Gospel-Covenant, if they shall believe. From where they must all break the Covenant of Grace, of which many of them never heard, and be condemned for no sins but the last act of Sodomy, gluttony, parricide, for the Gospel threatens not death to any sin but to final unbelief, say they. There are not any sins committed against the Gospel, but they are also sins against the Law: because God incarnate and Immanuel is God, and leaves not off to be God consubstantial with the Father, because he assumes the nature of man. Then as the first Command obliges Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, when God shall reveal that Command, and Moses and the people are by that first Command to believe their deliverance out of Egypt, and so if the first Command obliges us to believe and obey all Commands and Promises and Threatenings of God, revealed and to be revealed, because the Lord is God, then must Christ God Redeemer and Immanuel be believed by this Command, and so final unbelief and final despising of Christ God Redeemer is as directly against the first Command (and so not a sin only threatened and forbidden in the Gospel) as simple unbelief and simple despising of Christ God Redeemer. For the believing and final believing, and unbelief and unbelief, continuing to the end, differ in the accident of duration, not in nature and essence, as a Rose that grows for a month only, and a Rose of the same nature that grows and flourishes for three months. Otherwise Christ could not have pronounced Peter blessed [reconstructed: in Greek] (Matthew 16:17) in the present, for believing in the present: for he should not have been blessed to the end: as Solon said of his blessed man. And this cannot but subvert our faith, crush the peace, hope, consolation of weak Believers, to whom undoubtedly the promise of perseverance is absolutely made (Jeremiah 31:31-35; Jeremiah 32:39-40; Isaiah 54:10; Isaiah 59:20-21; John 4:14; John 10:27-28).

2. If there be as formal a transgression of the first Command in final unbelief, as in unbelief simply considered, and in the other sins of Judas and other Apostates. Why but as Christ bore in his body the sins of unbelief and satisfied for them, he must so also bear the sins of final rebellion and unbelief? And shall we believe that Christ paid a satisfactory ransom of blood upon the cross for the yesterday's unbelief of Judas, and not for the day's unbelief?

If it be said, No man can break the Gospel Covenant, for it is an everlasting Covenant. Ans. It's an everlasting Covenant, but yet all who sin against the commanding love and authority of our Immanuel, especially they so professing to be his, do truly break the Covenant: but they so break it, as it leaves not off to be the Covenant of Life both to the breakers, if they repent and believe, and to others: for so is the nature of this Covenant, and so it is everlasting, but the Covenant of Works if once broken, ceases to be a Covenant of Life for ever, because the nature of it is, to admit of no repentance at all. Obj. Does not the Law command the sinner offending God to mourn and be humbled, and confess? Ans. It does. But it enjoins not repentance as a way of life, with a promise of life to the repenter, as the Law or as a Covenant of Works commands to its native and proper Covenanters obedience and every single act of obedience as a way to obtain the reward of a Law-life, nor does the Law as a Covenant of Works command justifying faith and reliance upon God Redeemer, or Immanuel: but rather as the Law of Nature, or as the Law of thankfulness to a Ransoming and Redeeming God, the Law does this. Though in a special Covenant way the Gospel commands faith in Christ.

Obj. But final unbelief as against God Redeemer and so considered is the only breach of the Covenant of Grace: He that believes not is condemned, as the man that rejects the only remedy of sin.

The only breach of the Covenant of Grace is too narrow to be the adequate cause of damnation, for many Pagans who never heard of Christ and are under no Covenant, but that of Works, are condemned not for not believing in him of whom they never heard (Romans 10:14), nor for breach of the Covenant of Grace, but for breach of the Covenant of Works. Unbelief may be called the nearest cause of damnation to such as [illegible] within the Visible Church, as the willful refusing of medicine which only and infallibly would heal the sick man of such a disease is the cause of his death, but is the moral cause. For the disease itself is the physical cause, or the material cause of the man's death. And without doubt, uncleanness, covetousness, sorcery, lying, idolatry, etc., and many the like sins, beside unbelief, are (1 Corinthians 6:9; Ephesians 5:5-6; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15; Jude 6-8; 2 Peter 2:17, 10-13; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10; 1 Peter 4:3-4; 2 Peter 2:2-5) the causes of the damnation of many visible professors, whereas this way says Christ did satisfy upon the cross for all these sins, and the damned of visible professors suffer in hell only for final unbelief. And it seems unjust that both Christ and they should suffer satisfactory punishment for these same sins done against the Law. And as strange that Christ should die for any, and not die for their sins, since the Scripture uses the word of dying for sins (Romans 4:25) — delivered from our sins — Christ is a propitiation for our sins, and (the same way) not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world; he died for sinners (Hebrews 2:17) that he might make reconciliation for the sins of the people: that is, for the sinful people, or sinners. Hebrews 9:28: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many — that is, to bear the sins of the sinful many that he died for. Hebrews 10:12: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down on the right hand of God — that is, after he had offered a sacrifice for sinners. 1 Peter 3:18: Christ once suffered for sin — that is, for sinners. 1 Corinthians 15:3: I delivered to you how Christ died for our sins — that is, for the persons of us sinners. 1 John 3:5: He was manifested to take away our sins. 1 John 4:10: Herein is love — that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Revelation 1:5: To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins — be glory. Galatians 1:4: He gave himself for our sins. Now it must not be asserted, but proven, that in all these places where he is said to be a propitiation for the sins of the world and has taken away our sins — speaking (as these authors say) of the whole Visible Church, and not of the elect only — that Christ has died and by his death has taken away some sins, and has suffered for some sins, and not for all sins, not for the final unbelief of sinners. If it be said that we cannot teach that Christ suffered for final unbelief, we grant it. But then we say that Christ suffered not for final unbelievers and for the other sins of final unbelievers, since suffering for sins and for persons that are sinners, to bring them to God (1 Peter 3:18), are conjoined. And God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them (2 Corinthians 5:19). Therefore there must be a pardoned and a justified world, and so a truly blessed world, as Paul and David teach (Psalm 32:1-2; Romans 4), and so a loved (John 3:16) and chosen world followed with the separating love of God to man, which saves some foolish ones and serving diverse lusts, and saves not others. And so there must be a love and mercy of predestination, [illegible], not common to all the world, as is clear (Titus 3:3-5; Ephesians 2:1-5). We seek a warrant of God's not imputing to this loved world their trespasses against the Law, and of his imputing to the same world the trespasses of rebellion and final unbelief. And how Christ's blood, shed for persons, both reconciles them to God and leaves them in wrath, imputes not their trespasses to them and makes them blessed (as David says, Psalm 32:1), and imputes their final unbelief to them and leaves them under a curse. Nor shall it help the matter to say that final unbelief may be considered as both against the Law, and as only forbidden in the Gospel. And in the former respect Christ has suffered for it, not in the latter. For if the [illegible], the contrariety between final unbelief and the first Command, as it is a rebellion against God manifested in the flesh, be satisfied for by Christ on the cross — how can it condemn the person, as sure it does (John 3:18, 36; John 8:21, 24)? It cannot be said that Christ died for final unbelief, so we believe.

What special [illegible] and repugnance to the Law of God is there in final unbelief that is not a repugnance to the Covenant of Works and Grace both? And what repugnance to the Covenant of Grace which is not also contrary to the Law? This I grant (which I desire the reader carefully to observe): the Law and the Covenant of Grace do not one and the same way command faith and forbid unbelief. I speak now of the Covenant of Works and of the Covenant of Grace as they are two Covenants specifically and formally different.

For first, the Law as the Law commands faith in the superlative degree, as it does all acts of obedience, and so does it Gospel repentance. Because the Law commands all obedience most exact and perfect, and condemns faith in the positive degree, though sincere and lively, as sinfully deficient. The Gospel does only require sincere faith, and condemns not for the want of the degrees of faith most perfect, though the Law of thankfulness to the Ransom-payer (which Law is common to both Covenants) requires that we believe in the highest degree, because Christ has expressed to us the greatest love (John 3:16; John 15:13).

The Law as the Law requires faith not final only, but faith in Immanuel for ever, and that we be born with the image of God that we believe at all times, under the pain of damnation. But the Covenant of Grace, because it admits of repentance, and holds forth the meekness, forbearance, and longsuffering of Christ, is satisfied with faith at any time, or what hour of the day they shall be brought in.

3. The Law requires faith, with the promise of Law-life: The Covenant of Grace requires faith, promises grace to believe, with promise of a Gospel-life.

4. The Law requires not faith in Christ with sinners covenant-ways as a work to be legally rewarded, for it finding all sinners, and all by nature, covenant-breakers, cannot indent with them that have broken the Covenant, to promise life to them by tenor of the Covenant, which now ceases to be a Covenant of life, and cannot but condemn, and is now rendered impossible to justify and save, by reason of the weakness of the flesh (Romans 8:3). All the reprobate then are this way under the Covenant of Works, that they are (as it were) possible covenanters liable to suffer the vengeance of a broken Covenant, but not formally active covenanters as Adam was. But if Christ suffer for final unbelief, as it is against the Law as the Law, how is it charged upon reprobates as a sin against the Gospel only? Since no wrong done to God Redeemer can be anything but a sin against God, and a breach of the first Command. I deny not but final unbelief has an aggravation that it is the nearest bar and iron gate between the sinner and the only Savior of sinners, but yet the putting of such a bar is a sin against the Law. Neither can it be said that only final unbelief is the only meritorious cause of damnation to such as hear the Gospel. For beside final unbelief there is also a contrariety between the murders, sodomies, etc. of professors and the Law for which they suffer in hell eternally (Revelation 21:8; Revelation 18:7).

Question. Whether does the Lord Mediator as Mediator, command the same good works in the Covenant of Grace which are commanded in the Covenant of Works?