Notes: Sect. 3. — The warrant to believe in Christ.
Notes: Sect. 3. — The warrant to believe in Christ.
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Mr. Culverwell’s words, cited here, stand thus at large: “The matter to be believed unto salvation is this: that God the Father, moved by nothing but his free love to lost mankind, has made a deed of gift and grant of his son Christ Jesus to mankind, that whoever of all mankind will receive this gift by a true and lively faith, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” Dr. Gouge, in his preface to this treatise of that author, has these remarkable words concerning him, “No one ever took such pains to so good a purpose, in and about the foundation of faith, as he has done.”
This deed of gift and grant, or the authentic gospel-offer (of which see the preceding note) is expressed in so many words in John 3.16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Where the gospel comes, this grant is published, and the ministerial offer is made, and there is no exception of any of all mankind in the grant. If there was, no ministerial offer of Christ could be warrantably made to the party excepted, more than to the fallen angels; and without question, the publishing and proclaiming of heaven’s grant to anyone by way of ministerial offer, presupposes the grant to be made to them in the first place,: otherwise, it would be of no more value than a crier’s offering of the king’s pardon to one who is not comprehended in it. This is the good old way of revealing to sinners their warrant to believe in Christ; and it does indeed bear the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ for all, and that Christ crucified is the ordinance of God for salvation to all mankind, in making use of which only they can be saved; but not a universal atonement or redemption. “What is your faith? My sure belief that God both may and will save me, etc. Tell me the promise on which you assuredly lean? ‘Whoever (says God) will believe in the death of my Son Jesus, shall not perish, but get eternal life.’ “Mr. James Melvil’s Cat. ubi sup. “He FREELY OFFERS TO SINNERS life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved.” Mark 16.15, 16; John 3.16; Westm. Confess., chap. 7. art. 3. “The visible Church has the privilege of enjoying OFFERS of grace by Christ to all the members of it in the ministry of the gospel, testifying that whoever believes in him shall be saved.” Larger Catechism, quest. 63. “This general offer, in substance, is equivalent to a special offer made to every one in particular, as appears by the apostle making use of it in Acts 16.31. The reason for this offer is given in John 3.16.” Pract. Use of Sav. Knowledge; Westm. Conf. p. 380. The Synod of Dort may be heard without prejudice on this topic. “It is the promise of the gospel [they say] that whoever believes in Christ crucified should not perish, but have life everlasting; this promise, together with the injunction of repentance and faith, should promiscuously, and without distinction, be declared and published to all men and people to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel,” chap. 2, art. 5. But because many, being called by the gospel, do not repent or believe in Christ, but perish in their infidelity, this does not come to pass for lack of, or by any insufficiency of, the sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross, but by their own default,” art. 6.
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That is, from this deed of gift and grant it was that the ministerial offer was appointed to be made in the most extensive terms.
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That the reader may have a clearer view of this passage, which is taken from Dr. Preston’s Treatise of Faith, I shall transcribe the whole paragraph in which it is found. That eminent divine, speaking of that righteousness by which alone we can be saved, and having shown that it is communicated by gift, says, “But when you hear this righteousness is given, the next question will be, to whom is it given? If it is only given to some, what comfort is this to me? But [which is the ground of all comfort,] it is given to every man, — there is not a man excepted; for this we have the sure word of God, which will not fail. When you have the charter of a king well-confirmed, you reckon it a matter of great moment: what is it then when you have the charter of God himself? You will evidently see it in these two places: Mark 16.15, ‘Go and preach the gospel to every creature under heaven;’ What is that? Go and tell every man, without exception, that here is good news for him; Christ is dead for him; and if he will take him, and accept his righteousness, he shall have it; there is no restriction, but go tell every man under heaven. The other text is, Rev. 22.17, ‘Whoever will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely.’ There is a quicunque vult, whoever will come (none excepted) may have life, and it shall cost him nothing. There are many other places of Scripture to prove the generality of the offer; and having a sure word for it, consider it,” p. 7, 8. The words ‘under heaven’ are taken from Col. 1.23. The scope here is the same as that of our author, not to determine the extent of Christ’s death, but to discover the warrant sinners have to believe in Christ, namely, that the offer of Christ is general, the deed of gift or grant is to every man. This necessarily supposes Christ crucified to be the ordinance of God for salvation, to which lost mankind is allowed access, and not fallen angels for whom there is none provided: even as the city of refuge was the ordinance of God for the safety of the manslayer who had killed any person unawares. Numb. 35.16; and the brazen serpent for the cure of those bitten by a serpent, chap. 21.8. Therefore he does not say, ‘Tell every man Christ died for him;’ but tell every man ‘Christ is dead for him;’ that is, for him to come to him, and believe on him; a Saviour is provided for him; there is a crucified Christ for him, the ordinance of heaven for salvation for lost man, in the use-making of which he may be saved; even as one had said of old, Tell every man that has slain any person unawares, that the city of refuge is prepared for him, namely, to flee to, that he may be safe; and every one bitten by a serpent, that the brazen serpent is set up on a pole for him, namely, to look to that he may be healed. Both these were eminent types of Christ; and upon the latter, the Scripture is full and clear in this very point. Numb. 21.8, ‘And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that EVERY ONE that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live.’ — John 3.14-16, ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up; that WHOEVER believes on him should not perish but have eternal life.’ ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever,’” etc.
Thus, what (according to Dr. Preston and our author) is to be told every man, is no more than what ministers of the gospel have in commission from their great Master, Mat. 22.4, “Tell those who are bid, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready, come to the marriage.” There is a crucified Saviour, with all saving benefits for them to come to, feed upon, and partake of freely. See also Luke 2.30, 31; Prov. 9.2—4; Isa. 25.6.
To confirm this is the true and designed sense of the phrase in question, compare the following three passages, of the same treatise, giving the import of the same text, Mark 16, “Christ has provided a righteousness and salvation, that is, his work that he has done already. Now, if you will believe, and take him on these terms that he is offered, you shall be saved. This, I say, belongs to all men. This you have expressed in the gospel in many places: ‘If you believe you shall be saved:’ as it is, Mark 16.15-16, ‘Go and preach the gospel to every creature under heaven; he that will believe shall be saved.’” Preston on Faith, p. 32. “You must first have Christ himself, before you can partake of those benefits by him: and that I take to be the meaning of that in Mark 16, ‘Go preach the gospel to every creature under heaven; he that believes and is baptized, shall be saved;’ that is, he that will believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and that he is offered to mankind for a Saviour, and will be baptized; he that will give up himself to him, that will take his mark upon him, shall be saved.” Ibid. p. 46. “Go and preach the gospel to every creature; go and tell every man under heaven, that Christ is offered to him, he is freely given to him by God the Father; and there is nothing required of you but that you marry him, nothing but to accept him.” Ibid, p. 75.
Thus, it appears, that universal atonement or redemption is not taught here, nor by our author. But that the candid reader may be satisfied as to his sentiments touching the question, — “for whom Christ died?” let him weigh these two things:
1. Our author puts a man’s being persuaded that Christ died for him in particular, in the definition of saving faith, and that as the last and highest step of it. But Arminians, and other Universalists, might as well put there a man’s being persuaded that he was created, or is preserved by Jesus Christ; since in being persuaded that Christ died for him, he applies no more to himself than what, according to their principles, is common to all mankind, as in the case of creation and preservation. Hear Grotius on this topic: “Some,” he says, “have here interpreted faith to be persuasion, whereby a man believes that Jesus died for him in particular, and to purchase salvation all manner of ways for him, or (what with them is the same thing) that he is elected; when on the contrary, Paul in many places teaches, ‘that Christ died for all men;’ and such a faith as they talk of, has nothing in it true or profitable.” Grotius apud Pol. Synop. Those whom this learned adversary taxes here are Protestant anti-Arminian divines. Those were they who defined faith by such a persuasion, and not the Universalists. On the contrary, he argues against that definition of faith from the doctrine of universal atonement or redemption. He rejects that definition of it, as in his opinion having nothing in it true, namely, according to the principles of those who gave it, namely: that Christ died, not for all and every man in particular, but for the elect only, and as having nothing in it profitable; that being, according to his principles, the common privilege of all mankind.
2. He teaches plainly throughout the book that they were the elect, the chosen, or believers, whom Christ represented, and obeyed, and suffered for. See among others, pages 22, 23, 54, 86. I shall repeat only two passages; the one, page 81: “According to that eternal and mutual agreement “that was between God the Father and him, he put himself in the stead and place of all the faithful.” The other in the first sentence of his own preface: “Jesus Christ, the second Adam, as a common person, entered into covenant with God his Father for all the elect (that is to say, all those that have or shall believe on his name) and kept it for them.” What can be more plain than that: in the judgment of our author, they were the elect whom Jesus Christ, the second Adam, entered into covenant with God for; it was in the elect’s stead that he put himself when he came to actually obey and suffer, and it was for the elect that he kept that covenant, by doing and suffering what was required of him as our Redeemer. As for the description or character he gives of the elect, namely: he understands by the elect all that have or shall believe in it; in this, he follows our Lord himself, John 17.20, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who shall believe on me;” and in so doing, he is accompanied with orthodox divines. “Thus the sins of all God’s elect, or all true believers” (for such, and only such, he says there Isa. 53.6), meet together on the topic of their common surety, the Lord Christ,” Brinsley’s Mesites, p. 64. “The Father is well-satisfied with the undertakings of the Son, who entered as Redeemer and Surety to pay the ransom of believers,” Pract. Use of Saving Knowl. Westm. Conf., tit. 4. “The invisible church is the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head,” Larg. Cat. quest. 64. “Christ’s church, only in which stands remission of sins, purchased by Christ’s blood to all those who believe,” The Confess. of Faith used in Geneva, approved by the Church of Scotland, sect. 4. sect. ult. But Arminians neither will nor can, consistent with their principles touching election and the falling away of believers, admit that description or character of the elect, otherwise they are widely mistaken by one of their own who tells us that, “On consideration of his [i.e., Christ’s] blood, as shed, he [i.e., God] decreed, that all those who would believe in that Redeemer, and persevere in that faith, would be made partakers of salvation by him, through mercy and grace,” Exam, of Tilen. p. 131. “Brought to faith, and persevere in it; this being the condition required in everyone that is to be elected to eternal life,” Ibid. p. 139. Behold the Arminian election: “They utterly deny that God destined, by an absolute decree, to give Christ a Mediator only to the elect, and to give faith to them alone,” Ibid. p. 149. As for Universalists, not Arminians, “They contend that the decree of the death of Christ went before the decree of election, and that God, in sending Christ, had no respect to some more than others, but destined Christ for a Saviour to all men alike.” This account of their principles is given us by Turretine, loc. 14, q. 14, th. 6. I leave it to the impartial reader to judge the evident contrariety between this and our author’s words repeated above.
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Namely, the deed of gift and grant, or the offer of Christ in the word, of which our author is all along speaking. And if there is any man to whom it does not belong particularly, that man has no warrant to believe on Jesus Christ: and whoever pretends to believe on him without believing that the grant or offer belongs to himself particularly, acts but presumptuously, seeing he has no warrant to believe on Christ, whatever others may have.
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So far as he has made the deed of gift and grant, or authentic gospel-offer of the pardon of all our sins, as of all other saving benefits in Christ. Such a thing among men is called the king’s pardon, though in the mean time, none have the benefit of it except those who come upon its being proclaimed, and accept it; and why may it not be called the King of heaven’s pardon? The holy Scripture warrants this manner of expression. “And this is the record, that God has given us eternal life,” 1John 5.11; without question, the pardon of all our sins is included in this life: “Through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins,” Acts 13.38. The preaching of the gospel is the proclaiming of pardon to condemned sinners. But pardon of sin cannot be preached or proclaimed unless it is granted in the first place, even as the king’s pardon must be granted before it can be proclaimed to the rebels.
That this is all that is meant by pardon here, and not a formal personal pardon, is evident from the whole strain of the author’s discourse on it. In the proposal of the simile, of which this passage is the application, he tells us that after it has pleased the king (thus) to pardon the rebels, they should not doubt they will obtain pardon; and in the following paragraph he brings in Neophytus objecting that in such a case, an earthly king does indeed intend to pardon all, but the King of heaven does not; which Evangelista grants in his answer. So that, despite this general pardon, the formal personal pardon remains to be obtained by the sinner: namely, by accepting the pardon offered. And in the foresaid answer, Evangelista expounds the pardon in question of the Lord’s offering pardon generally to all. This, one would think, may well be admitted as the fruit of Christ’s obedience and desert, without supposing a universal atonement or redemption. And to restrain it to any particular set of men under heaven, is to restrain the authentic gospel-offer: as explained before.
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Col. 1.2 3: “The gospel which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.”
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Have no doubt of the pardon offered, nor of the proclamation, bearing that every one of us may safely return to God in Christ; but upon that, draw near to him in full assurance of faith. That there can be no saving faith, no acceptance with God, where there is any doubting, can hardly enter the head of any sober Christian if he is not under a grievous temptation in his own soul’s case; nor is it in the least insinuated here. Nevertheless, doubting mixed with faith is sin, and it dishonours God; believers have ground to be humbled for it, and ashamed of it before the Lord; and therefore the full assurance of faith is duty. The Papists indeed contend earnestly for doubting, and they know very very well, why they so do; for if doubting is removed, and the assurance of faith in the promise of the gospel takes its place, their market is marred; their gain by indulgences, masses, pilgrimages, etc., is gone; and the fire of purgatory extinguished. But as Protestant divines prove against them, the holy Scripture condemns it. Mat. 14.31, “O you of little faith! why did you doubt?” Luke 12.29, “Neither be of doubtful mind.” 1Tim. 2.8, “Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
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Had the author once dreamt of a universal pardon, other than that God offers the pardon generally to all, all this would have been needless; it would have furnished him with a short answer, namely: That God has pardoned all already.
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By believing the offered pardon, with particular application to himself; without which one can never accept it, but will undoubtedly come short of it.
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Like that man mentioned Mark 9.24, who at once did and said.
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Believe on the name of Christ.
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Namely, your believing.
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This is what is commonly called the reflex act of faith, which presupposes, and here includes the direct act: namely, a man’s doing his duty in obedience to the command to believe on Christ; by reflecting on this, he may put it out of question that he is a believer, one of God’s elect, and one of those for whom Christ died; which he insists upon in the following words, See the foregoing note. This passage is taken out of Dr. Preston’s Treatise of Faith, p. 8.
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“This manner of applying,” says Luther, “is the very true force and power of faith.”
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He had told him that for his warrant to believe on Christ, he had God’s command, 1John 3.23. And for his encouragement, he had God’s promise, John 3.16. This is what motivates the question; the particular application to oneself is a matter of no small difficulty in the experience of many who lay salvation to heart.
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Believe the word of promise, the offer of the spiritual marriage, which is Christ’s declared consent to be yours. Believe that it is made to you in particular, and that it shall be made out to you — which is to embrace the offer, to receive Christ, as the evangelist teaches, John 1.12; [which was adverted to before]; so shall you indeed be married or espoused to Christ. Thus the holy Scripture proposes this matter in Isa. 4.3, “Hear and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you;” to persuade us of the reality of the covenant between God and the believer of his word, “the Father has made a fourfold gift,” etc., Pract. Use of Sav. Knowl. tit.; “Warrant to Believe,” fig. 7; Compare Isa. 53.1; Heb. 4.1, 2.
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An eminent type of this glorious mystery was that tabernacle so often mentioned in the Old Testament under the name of the tabernacle of the congregation, or rather the tabernacle of meeting, as the original word bears; and the Lord himself seems to give the reason for the name in Exo. 30.36, “In the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with you;” or, “in the tabernacle of meeting, where I will be met with by you.” — Chap, 33.7, “And it came to pass, that everyone who sought the Lord, went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation,” or meeting.
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The acceptance, love, and favour of God treated here, do not refer to the real state of believers, but to their relative state, to their justification, reconciliation, and adoption. And so they have no respect to any qualities inherent in them, good or evil, to be increased by the one or diminished by the other. They proceed purely upon the righteousness of Christ which is theirs by virtue of their union with him, and which is imputed to them. This righteousness is the self-same righteousness with which Christ, as Mediator and Surety for elect sinners, pleased the Father. And therefore, says one whom nobody suspects of Antinomianism, “We are as perfectly righteous as Christ the Righteous,” citing 1John 3.7: “He that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous,” Isaac Ambrose’s Media, chap. 1, sect. 2, p. 4. This I take to be the true meaning of these passages of our author and Isaac Ambrose, expressed in terms stronger than I would desire to use. Where God is concerned, there is a danger in expressing even what is true.
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The original word here rendered “one,” indeed signifies “one thing.” And it is evident from the text that believers are united to God as well as to Christ. “Faith is that grace by which we are united to, and made one with, God and Christ,” says the author of the Supplement to Poole’s Annot. on the place. See 1John 4.16; 2Cor. 4.16, compared with Eph. 3.17. Whoever admits that Jesus Christ is one with the Father, must grant this, or else deny believers are united to Christ. This derogates nothing from the prerogative of our Lord Jesus, who is one with the Father; for he is one with him, as the Holy Ghost also is, by the adorable substantial union; but believers are so only by mystical union. Neither does it intrench upon God’s supremacy more than their confessed union with Christ does; who notwithstanding believers’ union with him, remains, along with the Father and Holy Spirit, the only supreme and most high God.
“Whoever, therefore, clings to Christ through faith, abides in the favour of God; he shall also be made beloved and acceptable as Christ is, and shall have fellowship with the Father and the Son.” Luther’s Chosen Sermons, “Sermon of the Appearing of Christ,” p. 23. “Here I will abide in the arms of Christ, clinging inseparably about his neck, and creeping into his bosom, whatever the law shall say, and my heart shall feel,” Ibid. Sermon of the Lost Sheep, p. 81. “Seeing, therefore that Christ, the beloved Son, being in such great favour with God in all things that he does, is yours, then without doubt you are in the same favour and love of God that Christ himself is in.” And again, “the favour and love of God are insinuated to you as deeply as they are to Christ, so that now God, together with his beloved Son, wholly possesses you, and you have him wholly in return — so that God, Christ, and you become as one certain thing, — that they may be one in us, as you and I are one, John 17.” Ibid. Sermon of the Appearing of Christ, p. 25.
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Luther, from whom this is taken, in the place quoted by our author, confirms it this way: “For he that is a searcher of God’s majesty, shall be overwhelmed by his glory. I know [he adds] by experience, what I say. But these vain spirits, which so deal with God that they exclude the Mediator, do not believe me.” And on Psalm 130, he has these remarkable words, “Ego saepe, et libenter hoc inculco, ut extra Christum, oculos et anres claudatis, et dicatis nullum vos scire Deum nisi qui fuit in gremio Mariae et suxit ubera ejus:” that is, “Often and willingly I inculcate this, that you should shut your eyes and your ears, and say that you know no God apart from Christ, none but him that was in the lap of Mary, and suckled her breasts.” He means none out of him. Burroughs on Hos. 3.5. p. 729.
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This is the conclusion of that, which one, “by faith clinging to Christ, and hanging about his neck,” has by that means warrant to say, according to our author. Whether or not there is sufficient warrant for it according to the Scripture, let the reader judge: I do not see what shadow of the doctrine of universal atonement, or universal pardon, is in it.
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That is, such as are really so, and not, in their own opinion, only respectively so.
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As the people, observing Christ’s call to blind Bartimeus (Mar 10.46) bid him to be of good comfort (or be confident) and arise; intimating that upon his going so to Christ, he would cure him; so one observing the gospel call may with all boldness bid a sinner comply with it confidently; assuring him that thereupon Christ will justify and save him.
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See the note on the Definition of Faith, fig. 1.
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It is to believe the offer of the gospel with particular application — to embrace it, and in this to receive Christ. And no man can ever receive and rest on Christ for salvation, without believing in greater or lesser measure, that Christ will accept him unto justification and salvation. Remove that gospel truth, that Christ will accept him, and his faith has no ground left to stand upon. See the note on the Definition of Faith, fig. 1, 2.
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I doubt if the sin against the Holy Ghost can justly be said to be a limitation of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. For in the original authentic gospel-offer is found the proper place for such a limitation (if there was any) that grace is so laid open to all men, without exception, that no man is excluded; but there is free access to it for every man by believing, John 3.15, 16; Rev. 22.17; and this offer is sometimes intimated to these reprobates, who fall into that sin, or else they would not be capable of it. It is true, that sin is a bar in the way of the guilty, so as they can never partake of the grace of God in Christ, for it shall never be forgiven, Mat. 12.31; Mark 3.29; and any further ministerial application of the offer to them seems to cease to be lawful or warranted, 1John 5.16. But all this arises from their own wilful, obstinate, despiteful, and malicious rejecting of the offer: and fighting against the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to apply the grace of Christ; and not from any limitation or exclusive clause in the offer, for it still remains true, “Whoever shall believe, shall not perish.”
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Which may put you in mind that you are one of that sort which “Christ Jesus came into the world to save,” 1Tim. 1.15; and in pleading for mercy, may furnish you with an argument as David used in Psalm 25.11 [For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity], and the woman of Canaan in Mat. 15.27, “even the dogs eat the crumbs,” etc.
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He adds, in the place quoted, these weighty words, “I do not say this for nothing; for I have often proved by experience, and I daily find what a hard matter it is, to believe (especially in the conflict of conscience) that Christ was given not for the holy, righteous, worthy, and such as were his friends, but for wicked sinners, for the unworthy, and for his enemies.”
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It is not in vain added, “if he can;” for in this matter there is a great difference between what a sinner may do in point of warrant, and what he will or can do in point of the event. “If we say to a man, the physician is ready to heal you; but before you will be healed, you must have a sense of your sickness: this sense is not required by the physician (for the physician is ready to heal him); but if he is not sick, and has a sense of it, he will not come to the physician.” Preston on Faith, p. 12. I have no doubt that before a sinner will come to Christ by believing, he must be an awakened, convinced, and sensible sinner; pricked in his heart with a sense of his sin and misery; made to groan under his burden, to despair of relief from the law, himself, or any other creature, and to desire and thirst after Christ and his righteousness; and our author teaches this afterwards on this subject. These things are also required of the sinner in point of duty. And therefore the law must be preached by all those who would preach Christ rightly. But that these or any other things in the sinner are required to warrant him, that he may come to Christ by believing, is what I conceive the Scripture does not teach; rather, the general offer of the gospel, mentioned before, warrants every man that he may come. And in practice it will be foundthat requiring such and such qualifications in sinners to warrant them to believe in Christ, is no great help to them in their way toward him; for because it engages them in a doubtful dispute as to the being, kind, measure, and degree of their qualifications for coming to Christ, the time spent in this might be better used in going forward to Christ for all, by believing. And since no man can ever believe in Christ without knowing that he has a warrant for believing in him — otherwise he can only act presumptuously: to tell sinners that none may come to Christ, or have warrant to believe, except those who have true repentance — he must in a special way entangle distressed consciences, so that they dare not believe until they know that their repentance is true repentance. This must inevitably be the issue in that case, unless they either reject that principle, or venture to believe without seeing their warrant. For even though they hear of Christ and his salvation offered in the gospel, these will be like forbidden fruit to them, which they are not allowed to touch till they are persuaded that they have true repentance. And before they can attain to this, it must be made out to their consciences that their repentance is not legal but evangelical, having such a character as to distinguish it from the repentance of the Ninevites, Judas, and many reprobates. So that one would think that suggesting this principle is but a bad service done to a soul brought to “the place of the breaking forth of children.” Hos 13.13 Let no man say, arguing at this rate, that one must also know the truth of his faith before he can come to Christ; for faith is not a qualification for coming to Christ, but the coming itself, which will have its saving effects on the sinner whether he knows the truth of his faith or not.
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Take them freely, and possess them; which everyone sees is not a proper condition.