Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

An Appendix to this Premonition. fo many excellent men out of their wits. The truth is, fo many fpeak fo, that I have been doubt- ful I (hould be fmartly cenfured for laying otherwife.] Forma qua juftificamur of mifericordia Patris & perfeiba Juffitiaflii, faith Ant. Fayas in his AccurateThefes,Th. 6o. p. 2 80. (And by mifericordtaPatris being the form, you may fee how he underftood Imputation.) The numberthat thus (peak, are too great here tobe recited : fothat even the moll judicious Davenant, left he fhould go out of the road, was fain to make this the Thefts to be proved by him ; Imputatam Chriffi obedientiam effecaufamformalem jufüftcationis nofre,probatter ; Cap. 28. p. 36z.3rc. de Inffle. habit. But let none turn this to our reproach, nor takeall thefe for mad ; for it is but an unapt name,and by him and many others foundly meant: for the greater part of three Divines fay but that Imputatio gufitie Chriffi &Remiffiopeccatorum arc the form, not of Juttifi- cation, as in us, but as it is A(ius gu(fifcantis, (asAltingius, Marefius, Sharpius, Butanut, Span- bemius, Nigrinut, Sobnies, Beumler, and many others : And Pawls, gob. Crocius de fuflif and many more exprefly deny Chrift's righteoufnefs tobe theformal taufe : And I believe that all theythat affect ir, mean as the tell, though they fpeak incauteloufly and unaptly. And What they mean by [Imputation,' let Damnant fpeak, ib. c. z7, p.359. [Imputantur quando illorum intuitus & re /peaky valent nabis ad aliquem effefum, eque acfi, anobis, aut in nabis feat, --fiquis indignas' ant ignavus ob paternam virtutem&merita erga rempublicam, in gratiam . regis admittatur, -- gratum& nobilitatum dicamus per & propter Imputationem virtu*paterne.] This is Brad.fhaw's fence, but yet the fimilitude falls Thort. SoAltingiusstates the Queftion> Loe.Com.part.z.p.679. [An jufificatio confiffat in Impu- tationJut#tie Chrifi, boo eft in Imputation guffitieper Chrisum acquifitu?] And what Prote- Rant will deny this ? And Mareftut (with him) faith, [Cum Paulo ju(titie Imputatio & peccatorum remio idem jinn, prout nullum eft diferimen inter fatisfa(ttonem Chrifi &Mitts meritum, nonof neceffefubtilius in- ter het duo fcrupulofe difinguere, cum remiltofit peccatorum turn commionis, turn °miff & per illam jus plenumadvitam eternam babeamus.] (But this needethfomewhat more I think,) Loc. i t.p. 284. And thedefcription of the effe(i fhewethwhat the Imputation is, which Marefius truly thusde- fcribeth, Exeg. Art. 23.2.326, 327. Tranfit reatu (peccatumorig.) utnon amplino imputetur ; ad beret quidem ei infeparabiliter Reatas potentialis five in a(iinprime ; ut gnat intrinfecum meritun} pone ; fed ablatus of Afinado, five quoad a(iomfecundum, utfont jus &voluntatem Deidepana illaadbue exigenda: N. B. Thyfius infynopfi LeidenfDifß.33p 4t3.faith, [Mirum bic vieleri non debet Chrifi jufitiam, non meritorie folten & ntaterialn, imo er Formalin cau(e rationemhabere, cum id flat diverfi mode, ñernpe qua illa ef,propter quad, in quo, feu ex quo, &per quod jufiftcamur.] So he taketh Chrift's righteoufnefs to be all three, (the meritorious,material, and formal caufé of our Jutìißcation.) Denomine, I add asto qur Author : r. Thope few will follow him, in calling the Decrees of God, the Covenant, and confoundingEle(iion and the Covenant inConftitution. For my part, I will not. 2. Conftitution fignifieth, r. alumConfituentis ; 2. more ufually paffively,(}atom feu rem con- fitutam : God's Eternal Purpofe is not properly the Covenant in Conftitution in either fence. 3. God's Eternal Decree is nothing but his Effence (for there isnothing in God but God, and- nothing but God eternal) denominated, as related to its connoted objeá, (which from eternity was nothing.) And theCovenant in Conftitution isnot God,nor lhallbe by me focalled. 4. Nor will I call thewhole execution of ,God's Ele6rion byChrift, the Covenant in. Execu- timo; nor any partof it but that which Scripturefo'calleth. 5. I grant him that vw.snxt isufually taken for a divine difpofition and constitution : but that is not meetly in, God'sDecree, but (as Gettino hath at large opened,) (Prat. ad Annot.in Evang.) as it is God's (Waal revealed determinationof the terms of life and death ; or as it is a Law and aCovenant on God's part imposed on us, before we content. And Jer. 33. zo. doth not call God's meer Decree, his Covenant t (but his created courfe and lawof nature.) 6. He that will but try the Texts which his Concordance referreth him to, and cannot find a multitude of places where the word [Covenant] is taken for fomewhat elfe than God's Decrees, and theirgeneral Execution, even for a Lam with its premiant and penal fantion, andfor a free donation orpromise, which yet hath its proper conditions, as the moralis dfpofitio recipiéntium and that cannot find di crs fuch Covenants made, by God, with Chrifi and us, that are really diftintt, and not to be confounded, mutt not expeâ that I here trouble other Readers with fuch a task as his conviction. 7. I fully agree, that Chrift's righteoufnrfs is fitly called, both the meritorious and material cause of our Righteoufnefs orpaflive juftification: (Though I lately read one contending than itcannot be both.) For we mean but that it is that Matter or Thing which meriteth it. THE

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