procured for all. The procurement has been partial and defective in the most essential point. In this view, vain and delusive has been the act by which salvation is said to have been provided; for the condition annexed to it is one, with which the sinner is utterly unable to comply-it is a condition, which will never be performed, and which God not only foresaw would never be complied with, but he also decreed not to give the power to fulfil it, while he alone is able to give it. Finally, this subterfuge represents Christ as having had a double intention in his atonement; one conditional, in favour of all, the other absolute, in favour of the elect a representation unsupported by reason and revelation, and irreconcilable with the unity and simplicity of the decree, which appointed the death of Christ. 5. Another source from which we argue in favour of limiting the atonement, is the extent and fulness of the blessings which Christ purchased for all those for whom he died. Christ suffered death for those only, for whom he merited salvation, and with salvation all the means necessary to put them in possession of it, especially faith and repentance; and opened a way for the application by the Holy Spirit, the author of both; without all which, salvation is unattainable. That he purchased faith, repentance, and the graces of the Holy Spirit, for all men universally, cannot be said; for then all men would necessarily be saved by his death. He procured them for the elect only; therefore for the elect only he died. This argument is irresistibly conclusive, urless it is denied that Christ purchased those means of salvation. But that Christ purchased faith for man, is proved, by the most luminous scriptural testimony. 1. Christ is said to be* σε αρχηγός καὶ τελαιωτὴς πίστεως, the author and finisher of our faith." If he is the author of our faith, he must be its purchaser, for he bestows nothing on us, which he has not procured for us by his merits. 2. Christ is the meritorious cause of salvation. To him and his merits we are entirely indebted for our salvation, and consequently for every part Heb. xii. 5. Acts, v. 31. of it, for every thing which contributes to our salvation. But faith and spiritual life which he works and implants in us, are the chief part of our salvation. 3. Christ is the cause and foundation of all spiritual blessings;* “Who," Christ, "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings." And faith is one of the greatest spiritual blessings which God bestows on man. Hence it is elsewhere said, "It is given you on the part of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." In what other sense can faith be said to be given us for Christ's sake, but because he purchased it for us? 4. Christ promised to send the Spirit; he must have opened a way by his death for the Spirit's operations, and established such a connection between his purchase and the communication of the graces of the Spirit, that the Spirit necessarily, though freely, works all these graces in the hearts of those for whom Christ shed his blood. Hence the Spirit is spoken of as one of the fruits of Christ's death.‡ All the gifts of the Spirit, especially faith, are the fruits of Christ's purchase. Here we are not to distinguish between the Spirit as sanctifying and comforting, and the Spirit as imparting spiritual illumination to the mind; as if Christ had merited the former only, and not the latter. For as all the graces of the heart proceed from the same Spirit, he who opened by his purchase a way for the operations of the Spirit, the author of these graces; must also have purchased for us all his gifts; and as faith is the principle and root of our sanctification, he who purchased the graces of the Spirit who sanctifies, must also have purchased "faith, which worketh by love, and purifieth the heart." 5. Christ could not be a full and perfect Saviour, unless he had procured for us faith, without which it is impossible to be made partakers of salvation. This doctrine has been uniformly taught in the Reformed church. They maintained that Christ had not less procured for us faith, than salvation-and that he is the cause of all the gifts which the Father bestows upon us. Hence the venerable divines of the synod of Dort in their * Eph. i. 3. † Phil. i. 29. + John xvi. 7. exhibition of the doctrines of truth, say, "Christ, by his death, purchased for us faith and all the other saving graces of the Spirit." And to the same purpose, in their condemnation of errors,† they pronounce those "unsound in the faith," who teach that Christ, by his satisfaction, did not merit salvation for any definite number, and also that faith, by which his satisfaction is efficaciously applied for salvation, and that he purchased no more than a power, and entire willingness for the Father to enter into a new covenant with man, and to prescribe whatever conditions he might think fit; the compliance with which conditions depended upon the free will of man; so that either all, or none might fulfil them. Such teachers think too meanly of the death of Christ, are ignorant of its glorious fruits, and the blessings procured by it, and drag from its grave the Pelagian heresy." It is a vain distinction which some make here, respecting the decree. They say "that we must distinguish between & the decree to deliver Christ up to death," and his death, which took place in time; that the decree to deliver Christ up to die for sinners, was antecedent to the election of a definite number, but his death procured the decree of special election." Amyraut, speaking of Christ's death in time, says, "redemption ought to be equal, that it may respect all, as the creatures of God equally sinful," &c. He elsewhere says, "that the nature of the thing proves this, for seeing the affection of the Son must be the same with that of the Father, for all men as his children; so the death of Christ in time, must be conformed to the eternal decree of the Father, as he would not make an atonement, unless according to the decree, and command of his Father. Therefore, when the decree of the Father respecting Christ's death, proceeded from equal fatherly affection towards all, before any were elected to faith; Christ, in his death, could have no other end and intention than to execute his counsel." Even in this view of the subject, Christ in his death, must have consider * Th. 8. †Th. 3. * De Prædesti. p. 77. ed some as elect, and others as reprobate; for when there could be no election without reprobation, it was impossible for Christ to think of some as elected, without at the same time, viewing others as passed by, or reprobated. If, then, he willed to die for those whom he knew to have been elected, and that with a special affection for them as elected ones; he must, according to Amyraut, have been willing to die with the same affection for those whom he knew to be reprobates, and that as reprobates; for, says Amyraut, "he died to fulfil the decree of the Father, which proceeded from an equal love to all." Hence, this monstrous absurdity will follow, that Christ, out of the most ardent affection for those who he knew would never be saved, died with an intention and desire to save them; while both he and his Father had decreed, that they should not be saved! It will not avail to free our opponents from this absurdity, to say, that he did not die for the reprobate formally as reprobate, but that he died for those as men, who at another time had been passed by, and thus excluded from salvation. Besides, that it is inconceivable how such abstractions can belong to a unique, and simple decree; it would follow that Christ did not die for the elect as such. Here we reason by the rule of contraries. If Christ did not die for the reprobate as reprobate, we infer the same with respect to the elect. It appears inexplicable, how Christ in his death, could have respect to a first and fourth decree, respecting the elect-that he should die for them formally as elect, and materially as men; for so Amyraut speaks. It is inconceivable how much abstraction he uses, and represents God, in relation to the reprobate, viewing them as men and not as reprobate, especially when election and reprobation go hand in hand, and mutually imply each other. But certain learned men being aware, that their hypothesis, which makes faith no fruit of Christ's death, but a gift of the Father, leads to great absurdities, offers indignity to Christ, and is injurious to salvation, have invented some other curious, intricate distinctions to free themselves from the difficulties which meet them. Some times they teach, "that Christ did procure faith and repentance for all, conditionally however." Again they say, "that he did not procure them in the way of satisfaction, or meritoriously; but in the way of final cause, that faith might be given to the elect to bring them to Christ." But neither of these can be affirmed with truth. The former supposition is inadmissible; for how could faith be procured for us conditionally, when it is itself a condition. Although faith is usually represented as a condition, required to interest us in Christ, and put us in possession of the salvation which he hath procured; yet it is also held forth as one of the blessings of the new covenant,―a blessing which Christ has purchased for us. Whence Christ is not only to be viewed as having procured for us salvation, if we believe, but also faith, that we may believe. The latter supposition is equally without any foundation in truth. In the schools of theology, no one ever before heard of a procurement, in the way of final cause, and not in the way of meritorious cause, or of satisfaction. The procuring of salvation, and all things connected with it, is founded in the atonement, and merits of the person who procures it. Then, if Christ did not procure for us faith in the way of meritorious cause, he did not merit faith. It cannot be said, that Christ, in the way of final cause, procured faith for a limited number; for, on the hypotheses of those who make this distinction, there were none elected when God decreed that procurement, which Christ was to effect by his death. Again, faith must either have been procured in the way of final cause, for all those, for whom salvation has been procured, or it is not. If the former be said, then as they maintain that salvation has been procured for all, all will be saved. If the latter be said, then to what purpose has salvation been procured, by the atonement for those, who have not had procured for them in the way of final cause, that, without which, they can never be made partakers of the salvation which is said to have been provided for them? Again, faith has either been procured for all in the way of final cause, or for the elect only. If for all, then all shall be saved, which our opponents do not maintain. If it was obtained for the elect only, then Christ, in and |