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CHAPTER
5
OF APPLICATION AND IMPETRATION.
The
allowable use of this distinction, how it may be taken in a sound
sense, the several ways whereby men have expressed the thing
which in these words is intimated, and some arguments for the
overthrowing of the false use of it, however expressed, we have
before intimated and declared. Now, seeing that this is the
proton pseudos of the opposite opinion, understood in the sense
and according to the use they make of it, I shall give it one
blow more, and leave it, I hope, a-dying.
I
shall, then, briefly declare, that although these two things may
admit of a distinction, yet they cannot of a separation, but that
for whomsoever Christ obtained good, to them it might be applied;
and for whomsoever he wrought reconciliation with God, they must
actually unto God be reconciled. So that the blood of Christ, and
his death in the virtue of it, cannot be looked on, as some do,
as a medicine in a box, laid up for all that shall come to have
any of it, and so applied now to one, then to another, without
any respect or difference, as though it should be intended no
more for one than for another; so that although he hath obtained
all the good that he hath purchased for us, yet it is left
indifferent and uncertain whether it shall ever be ours or no:
for it is well known, that notwithstanding those glorious things
that are assigned by the Arminians to the death of Christ, which
they say he purchased for all, as remission of sins,
reconciliation with God, and the like, yet they for whom this
purchase and procurement is made may be damned, as the greatest
part are, and certainly shall be. Now, that there should be such
a distance between these two, —
First,
It is contrary to common sense or our usual form of speaking,
which must be wrested, and our understandings forced to apprehend
it. When a man hath obtained an office, or any other obtained it
for him, can it be said that it is uncertain whether he shall
have it or no? If it be obtained for him, is it not his in right,
thorough perhaps not in possession? That which is impetrated or
obtained by petition is his by whom it is obtained. It is to
offer violence to common sense to say a thing may be a
man’s, or it may not be his, when it is obtained for him;
for in so saying we say it is his..305 And so it is in the
purchase made by Jesus Christ, and the good things obtained by
him for all them for whom he died.
Secondly,
It is contrary to all reason in the world, that the death of
Christ, in God’s intention, should be applied to any one
that shall have no share in the merits of that death. God’s
will that Christ should die for any, is his intention that he
shall have a share in the death of Christ, that it should belong
to him, — that is, be applied to him; for that is, in this
case, said to be applied to any that is his in any respect,
according to the will of God. But now the death of Christ,
according to the opinion we oppose, is so applied to all, and yet
the fruits of this death are never so much as once made known to
far the greatest part of those all.
Thirdly,
[It is contrary to reason] that a ransom should be paid for
captives, upon compact for their deliverance, and yet upon the
payment those captives not be made free and set at liberty. The
death of Christ is a ransom, Matthew 20:28, paid by compact for
the deliverance of captives for whom it was a ransom; and the
promise wherein his Father stood engaged to him at his
undertaking to be a Savior, and undergoing the office imposed on
him, was their deliverance, as was before declared, upon his
performance of these things: on that [being done, that] the
greatest number of these captives should never be released, seems
strange and very improbable.
Fourthly,
It is contrary to Scripture, as was before at large declared. See
[also book in.] chap. 10.
But
now, all this our adversaries suppose they shall wipe away with
one slight distinction, that will make, as they say, all we
affirm in this kind to vanish; and that is this: “It is
true,” say they, “all things that are absolutely
procured and obtained for any do presently become theirs in right
for whom they are obtained; but things that are obtained upon
condition become not theirs until the condition be fulfilled.
Now, Christ hath purchased, by his death for all, all good
things, not absolutely, but upon condition; and until that
condition come to be fulfilled, unless they perform what is
required, they have neither part nor portion, right unto nor
possession of them.” Also, what this condition is they give
in, in sundry terms; some call it a not resisting of this
redemption offered to them; some, a yielding to the invitation of
the gospel; some, in plain terms, faith. Now, be it so that
Christ purchaseth all things for us, to be bestowed on this
condition, that we do believe it, then I affirm that, —
First, Certainly this condition ought to be revealed to all for
whom this purchase is made, if it be intended for them in good
earnest. All for whom he died must have means to know that his
death will do them good if they believe; especially it being in
his power alone to grant them these means who intends good to
them by his death. If I should entreat a physician that could
cure such a disease to cure all that came unto him, but should
let many rest ignorant of the grant which I had procured of the
physician, and none but myself could acquaint them with it,
whereby they might go to him and be healed, could I be supposed
to intend the healing of those people? Doubtless no. The
application is easy.
Secondly,
This condition of them to be required is in their power to
perform, or it is not. If it be, then have all men power to
believe; which is false: if it be not, then the Lord will grant
them grace to perform it, or he will not. If he will, why then do
not all believe? why are not all saved? if he will not, then this
impetration, or obtaining salvation and redemption for all by the
blood of Jesus Christ, comes at length to this: — God
intendeth that he shall die for all, to procure for them
remission of sins, reconciliation with him, eternal redemption
and glory; but yet so that they shall never have the least good
by these glorious things, unless they perform that which he knows
they are no way able to do, and which none but himself can enable
them to perform, and which concerning far the greatest part of
them he is resolved not to do. Is this to intend that Christ
should die for them for their good? or rather, that he should die
for them to expose them to shame and misery? Is it not all one as
if a man should promise a blind man a thousand pounds upon
condition that he will see.
Thirdly,
This condition of faith is procured for us by the death of
Christ, or it is not. If they say it be not, then the chiefest
grace, and without which redemption itself (express it how you
please) is of no value, doth not depend on the grace of Christ as
the meritorious procuring cause thereof; — which, first, is
exceedingly injurious to our blessed Savior, and serves only to
diminish the honor and love due to him; secondly, is contrary to
Scripture: Titus 3:5, 6; 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He became sin
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him.” And how we can become the righteousness of God but by
believing, I know not. Yea, expressly saith the apostle, “It
is given to us for Christ’s sake, on the behalf of Christ,
to believe in him,” Philippians 1:29; “God blessing us
with all spiritual blessing in him,” Ephesians 1:3, whereof
surely faith is not the least. If it be a fruit of the death of
Christ, why is it not bestowed on all, since be died for all,
especially since the whole impetration of redemption is
altogether unprofitable without it? If they do invent a condition
upon which this is bestowed, the vanity of that shall be
afterward discovered. For the present, if this condition be. So
they do not refuse or resist the means of grace, then I ask, if
the fruit of the death of Christ shall be applied to all that
fulfill this condition of not refusing or not resisting the means
of grace? If not, then why is that produced 1 If so, then all
must be saved that have not, or do not resist, the means of
grace; that is, all pagans, infidels, and those infants to whom
the gospel was never preached.
Fourthly,
This whole assertion tends to make Christ but a half mediator,
that should procure the end, but not the means conducing
thereunto. So that, notwithstanding this exception and new
distinction, our assertion stands firm, — That the fruits of
the death of Christ, in respect of impetration of good and
application to us, ought not to be divided; and our arguments to
confirm it are unshaken.
For
a close of all; that which in this cause we affirm may be summed
up in this: Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do
believe; but he died for all God’s elect, that they should
believe, and believing have eternal life. Faith itself is among
the principal effects and fruits of the death of Christ; as shall
be declared. It is nowhere said in Scripture, nor can it
reasonably be affirmed, that if we believe, Christ died for us,
as though our believing should make that to be which otherwise
was not, — the act create the object; but Christ died for us
that we might believe. Salvation, indeed, is bestowed
conditionally; but faith, which is the condition, is absolutely
procured. The question being thus stated, the difference laid
open, and the thing in controversy made known, we proceed, in the
next place, to draw forth some of those arguments,
demonstrations, testimonies, and proofs, whereby the truth we
maintain is established, in which it is contained, and upon which
it is firmly founded: only desiring the reader to retain some
notions in his mind of those fundamentals which in general we
laid down before; they standing in such relation to the arguments
which we shall use, that I am confident not one of them can be
thoroughly answered before they be everted.