sion of any part of their attention to another quarter. This distrust however cannot intrude, where the plenitude of his blessings hath once been truly known. CHAPTER XVII. Christ truly and properly said to have merited the Grace of God and Salvation for us. We must devote an additional Chapter to the solution of this question. For there are some men, more subtle than orthodox, who though they confessed that Christ obtained salvation for us, yet cannot bear the word merit, by which they suppose the grace of God is obscured. So they maintain that Christ is only the instrument or minister, not as he is called by Peter, the Author, or Leader, and "Prince of life." (q) I grant, indeed, if any man would oppose Christ simply and alone to the judgment of God, there would be no room for merit; because it is impossible to find in man any excellence which can merit the favour of God: nay, as Augustine most truly observes, "The brightest illustration of predestination and grace is the Saviour himself, the man Christ Jesus, who hath acquired this character in his human nature, without any previous merit either of works or of faith." Let any one tell me, how that man merited the honour of being assumed into one person with the Word, who is co-eternal with the Father, and so becoming the only-begotten Son of God? Thus the fountain of grace appears in our Head, and from him diffuses its streams through all his members according to their respective capacities. Every one from the commencement of his faith is made a Christian, by the same grace, by which this man from the commencement of his existence was made the Christ. Again, in another treatise, Augustine says, "There is not a more illustrious example of predestination than the Mediator himself. For he who made of the seed of David this righteous (9) Acts iii. 15. man, so that he never could be unrighteous, without any previous merit of his will, he converts unrighteous persons into righteous ones, and makes them members of that Head," &c. When we speak of the merit of Christ therefore, we do not consider him as the origin of it, but we ascend to the ordination of God, which is the first cause; because it was of his mere good pleasure, that God appointed him Mediator to procure salvation for us. And thus it betrays ignorance, to oppose the merit of Christ to the mercy of God. For it is a common maxim, that between two things, of which one succeeds or is subordinate to the other, there can be no opposition. There is no reason therefore why the justification of men should not be gratuitous from the mere mercy of God, and why at the same time the merit of Christ should not intervene, which is subservient to the mercy of God. But to our works are directly and equally opposed the gratuitous favour of God and the obedience of Christ, each in its respective place. For Christ could merit nothing except by the good pleasure of God, by which he had been predestinated to appease the Divine wrath by his sacrifice, and to abolish our transgressions by his obedience. To conclude, since the merit of Christ depends solely on the grace of God, which appointed this method of salvation for us, therefore his merit and that grace are with equal propriety opposed to all the righteousnesses of men. II. This distinction is gathered from numerous passages of Scripture. "God so loved the world, that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish." (r) We see, that the love of God holds the first place, as the supreme and original cause, and that faith in Christ follows, as the second and proximate cause. If it be objected, that Christ is only the formal cause, this diminishes his merit more than the words now quoted will bear. For if we obtain righteousness by a faith which relies on him, it is in him we are to seek the cause of our salvation. This is evident from many passages. "Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." ($) These words clearly demonstrate, that to remove every ob stacle in the way of his love towards us, God appointed a method of reconciliation in Christ. And there is much contained in the word "propitiation;" for God, in a certain ineffable manner, at the same time that he loved us, was nevertheless angry with us, till he was reconciled in Christ. This is implied in the following passages: "He is the propitiation for our sins." (t) Again: "It pleased the Father, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself." (v) Again: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." (w) Again: "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." (x) Again: "That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross." (y) The reason of this mystery may be learned from the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where Paul, having taught that we are chosen in Christ, adds at the same time, that we are accepted in him. How did God begin to favour those whom he had loved before the creation of the world, but by the manifestation which he made of his love when he was reconciled by the blood of Christ? For since God is the fountain of all righteousness, he must necessarily be the enemy and judge of every sinner. Wherefore the beginning of his love is the righteousness described by Paul: "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.”(~) For his meaning is, that by the sacrifice of Christ we obtain gratuitous righteousness so as to be acceptable to God, though by nature we are the children of wrath, and alienated from him by sin. This distinction is indicated also wherever the grace of Christ is connected with the love of God; whence it follows that our Saviour bestows on us what he has purchased; for otherwise it would be inconsistent to ascribe this praise to him distinctly from the Father, that grace is his, and proceeds from him. III. Now that Christ by his obedience has really procured and merited grace from the Father for us, is certainly and justly concluded from various passages of Scripture. For I assume this as granted: If Christ has satisfied for our sins; if (t) 1 John ii. 2. (v) Col. i. 19, 20. (z) 2 Cor. v. 19. he has sustained the punishment due to us; if he has appeased God by his obedience; in a word, if he has suffered the just for the unjust; then salvation has been obtained for us by his righteousness, which is the same as being merited. But according to the testimony of Paul, "We were reconciled by his death, by whom we have received the atonement," or reconciliation. (a) Now there is no room for reconciliation without a previous offence. The sense therefore is, that God, to whom our sins had rendered us odious, has been appeased by the death of his Son, so as to be propitious to us. And the antithesis, which follows just after, is worthy of careful observation: "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (b) For the meaning is, that as by the sin of Adam we were alienated from God and devoted to destruction, so by the obedience of Christ we are received into favour, as righteous persons. Nor does the future tense of the verb exclude present righteousness; as appears from the context. For he had before said, "The free gift is of many offences unto justification." (c) IV. But when we say that grace is procured for us by the merit of Christ, we intend, that we have been purified by his blood, and that his death was an expiation for sins. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." (d) "This blood is shed for the remission of sins." (e) If the non-imputation of our sins to us be the effect of the blood which he shed, it follows that this was the price of satisfaction to the justice of God. This is confirmed by the declaration of the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (f) For he opposes Christ to all the sacrifices of the law, to shew that what they prefigured was accomplished in him alone. Now we know what Moses frequently says, that an atonement shall be made for sin, and it shall be forgiven. In short, the ancient figures give us a fine exhibition of the power and efficacy of the death of Christ. And the apostle copiously discusses this subject in the Epistle to the Hebrews, judiciously assuming this as a fundamental (a) Rom. v. 10, 11. VOL. I. (b) Rom. v. 19. (c) Rom. v. 16. principle, that "without shedding of blood there is no remission." Whence he infers, that Christ hath "once appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself:" and that "he was offered to bear the sins of many." (i) He had already said, that "Not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood; he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." (k) Now when he argues in this manner; "If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works?" () it evidently appears that we too much undervalue the grace of Christ, unless we attribute to his sacrifice an expiatory, placatory, and satisfactory efficacy. Therefore it is immediately added; "He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." (m) But we ought particularly to consider the relation described by Paul, that he was "made a curse for us." (n) For it would be unnecessary, and consequently absurd, for Christ to be loaded with a curse, except in order to discharge the debts due from others, and thereby to obtain a righteousness for them. The testimony of Isaiah likewise is clear, that "the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (0) For if Christ had not made a satisfaction for our sins, he could not be said to have appeased God by suffering the punishment to which we were exposed. This is confirmed by a subsequent clause: "For the transgression of my people was he stricken."(p) Let us add the interpretation of Peter, which will remove all difficulty, that "he bare our sins in his own body on the tree;"(4) which imports that the burden of condemnation, from which we have been relieved, was laid upon Christ. V. The apostles explicitly declare, that he paid a price to redeem us from the sentence of death. "Being justified freely (i) Heb. ix. 22, 26, 28. (n) Gal. iii. 13. (p) Isaiah liit. 8. (k) Heb. ix. 12. |