dices. "It is this operous law of Moses which Paul meaneth usually by the law of works, and the old or former covenant." He does not term the mere moral law a law of works. This moral law, as a law of grace, and with the Mosaic ceremonial appended, "is called the law of works, because of the great and burdensome and costly externals" which are superadded to it, "and because as a political law it so much insisteth comparatively on those externals, and the doctrine of grace is comparatively more obscure in it than in the Gospel; and because the Jews had by their abusive interpretation overvalued the externals and operous ceremonies and sacrifices of it," When Paul

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says, "He that doeth these things shall live by them," he does not mean, he that has never sinned shall live; for "we must not put such a scorn on the infinitely wise and righteous Governor of the world" as to suppose that he promises a blessing on condition that we be perfectly innocent, which now we cannot be. Neither "does Paul mean that the condition was, 'If you will never sin more, I will pardon all that is past,' for God never made such a law with man; not to sin being morally impossible, and pardon never offered on such terms." But Paul's meaning is: He that will heartily observe all the burdensome ceremonies of the Mosaic law shall live. This is the peculiar command of that law; the peculiar condition of that covenant. When Paul declares, that none can be justified by the works of the law, he means, that none can be justified by "the mere body of Moses's law separated from the law of grace which is its soul," he cannot be justified "by the written political law and its externals put in opposition to Christ." These marked peculiarities of Baxter's interpretation pervade and characterize all his speculations on the economy of redemption.

The fourth covenant is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the law or covenant of grace in the last edition. In this covenant more is required of us: the law is more spiritual and comprehensive, than in the preceding; for our faith in the atonement must be fuller than before the New Testament was given; more is done for us the Holy Spirit is given more copiously, a richer reward is proffered, and a severer punishment threatened than by any previous economy. "The law is magnified by Christ as man hath an intellect, and will, and an executive power, and the

1 Chap. XII. Sect. IV. § 17.

2 Ib. §§ 19, 20.

Gospel is to work on all, so the [Apostles'] creed is the summary of our belief, the Lord's prayer of our desire, and the Christian decalogue and institutions of our practice, as expounding what baptism generally expresseth." It is a great mistake to imagine "that Christ made no law, and that the Gospel is not a law." "There is now no law of God that we are under, but what is truly the law of Christ." This law of grace in Christ does not now require us to be perfectly innocent; "for that were to command not only a moral, but a physical, absolute impossibility, as saying, thou shalt not have sinned." But this law of Christ, as a rule of duty, "obligeth us for the future to as much perfection of duty as we are naturally capable of performing at that time; though viciously indisposed, it being only natural disability, and not moral vicious unwillingness that hindereth obligation. But though not to do all we can be peccare, yet it is not a sin unto death or damnation," if a man perform so much as is made by Christ the condition of life; i. e. if he exercise faith in the atonement of Christ. Therefore, "it is the law of Christ or of grace, which is norma officii et judicii, and by which we must be judged at the last day.""

8. The Work of Christ.

On this theme, the "End of Controversy" has the same tendency, with all the preceding works of Baxter, to represent the grace of God as free and generous. This volume teaches, that Christ assumed, not the nature of the elect only, but of all mankind. So the promise of redemption was made to Adam, not as the Father of the elect alone, but of the whole race. Hence it was not the sin of merely the elect, but of every man, which occasioned the sufferings of Christ. Moreover, "it is not to the elect only, but for all the world (as to the tenor of it) that Christ hath purchased and given a conditional pardon of sin, and a conditional donation of life eternal in the covenant of grace, both of the first and second edition. That is, the conditional grace is universal: Whosoever believeth shall be saved; though the promulgation of it hath many stops." Accordingly, Christ has commanded his ministers to offer salvation to all men, not to the elect only, and to command all men to accept it. In point of fact, also, many favors are bestowed on all men, the non-elect as

1 Chap. II. Sect. V. § 19. VOL. XII. No. 46.

2 Ib. §§ 32, 35, 40.

32

Chap. XXIII. § 4.

well as the elect, in consequence of the atonement; for all men do receive great favors from heaven, and none can obtain any blessing except through Christ." "There are no people on earth that are not obliged to the use of some means appointed them to be used for their full pardon and salvation; else despair would be their duty, and they should not be judged sinners for neglecting any such means. And were they not bound to do anything for their own salvation, their sin and misery would be far less than it is. Therefore, all people have some such means, that have a tendency to recovery and salvation afforded them by God." The atonement, then, is general in the following particulars: "Christ died so far in the stead of all mankind as to suffer death by his voluntary sponsion, as a punishment deserved to themselves by sin, to free them all from it, on condition of their suitable acceptance of his grace." His death is fitted or adapted to promote the salvation of all men. It has actually procured many temporal blessings for all men, and the conditional promise of eternal life to all. Christ intended to bless the whole race by his death; therefore, it is sufficient for the rescue of the whole race from punishment, and it is efficient in securing common grace for the non-elect as well as the elect. It has "effectually procured" "the conditional gift of life to all mankind." Probably, also, it has been, and is still, efficient in securing such influences of the Spirit for some of the non-elect as give them a moral power to repent, although they refuse to perform the duty thus made easy for them; a duty which they might perform "without any more grace." "Common redemption and the decree of common grace both antecede that which is properly called election, in order of nature in esse objectivo; that is, God decreeth to give faith and salvation effectively to some of them that had common grace.' Therefore, in this sense Christ died for all, but not for all alike or equally; that is, he intended good to all, but not an equal good with an equal intention. Whatever Christ giveth men in time as the fruit of his death, that he decreed from eternity to give them; and whatever he never giveth them, he never decreed to give them. What he giveth them absolutely, he decreed to give them absolutely; and what he giveth them but conditionally, he decreed to give them but conditionally." And "all the world hath grace or merciful help

4

1 Chap. XIII. §§ 10, 11.

sufficient to enable them [with a moral ability] to do less evil and more good than they do, and to use some means better than they do, which tend to further grace."1

9. Effectual Grace.

By effectual grace is meant, "first, the gracious means or second causes appointed by God to cause our faith." "Christ is the chief means, and instituteth the rest; Scripture, ministers, example, good company, merciful providences, afflictions, meditation, books, prayer, sacraments, etc. are all appointed for such effects." "The Spirit first indited the word, as we cut a seal to be the instrument of impression, and then by that word, doth work on souls." By effectual grace is meant, "secondly, the first moving impress on the soul, as it is antecedent to act and habit." "The thing received by us from God seemeth to be a certain impress, impulse, vis, or disposition to act in order of nature before the act itself, which impress sometimes is made ineffectual by a prevalent indisposition or resistance of the will." Although in natural phenomena, even the miraculous, Baxter was reluctant to admit an agency of the First Cause, without the instrumentality of second causes (see § 2 above), yet in spiritual phenomena, we find no such, or, at least, not an equal, reluctance. We read in the "End of Controversy":

"We all confess, that God worketh by means, and we cannot name an act on us which he always ordinarily doth without any means or second cause. And we acknowledge that there are gracious means, and that ordinarily these must have a sufficiency in their kind. But withal we must say, that God worketh immediately as to proximity of causation, when he worketh not so immediately as without second causes. And that whether by means or without means (as he pleaseth), there must be such a disposition communicated to a depraved, undisposed soul, as shall be a moral power, and put it into an immediate capacity to consent or act."*

This distinction between immediateness as to proximity of causation, and immediateness as to freedom from all instrumentalities, is one of great value.

"All means will be uneffectual without God's inward operation by his Spirit. He must work on the speaker and on the hearer, to make means

1 Chap. XIII. § 42. See pp. 349-361 above. 8 Ib. § 1.

2 Chap. XV. §§ 1, 3.

* Chap. XIII. § 39.

effectual, as is agreed on. But whether as God worketh in naturals, according to the aptitude of natural second causes, so he worketh faith and other graces by a settled proportion of concourse, agreeable to the aptitude of gracious second causes, or means of grace, is a question too hard to be boldly and peremptorily determined by us that are in so much darkness. But it seemeth to us, that God would not have made it so great a part of his government to establish a course of means, if he did not intend to work ordinarily by them, and according to their fitness."

The fitness, adaptedness, tendency of the means of regenera. tion to their end, is elsewhere very frequently asserted by Mr. Baxter.

"But there is no question but God can work without means; and, intellectual souls, being so near to the first cause, it is utterly uncertain to us, whether in works of grace God have not a double operation on the soul, one by his appointed means, and another by immediate influx; and if it be so, how these concur to one and the same effect and also how God doth immediately move souls, are all past man's reach, and should be acknowledged above our disputes."

The first impress or motus which the Holy Spirit effects upon the soul is said by Mr. Baxter to be produced on man as "a mere patient, though not antecedent to all former acts of man, or all preparative dispositions." "God, sometimes at least, maketh so powerful an impress as doth necessarily determine man's will, by a necessity consistent with his liberty;" that is, such a moral necessity, as is not a mere certainty, but such a certainty as would render the man's refusal to obey highly painful, a necessity the opposite of moral ability; see pp. 359–361 above. "It cannot be proved by any man, that no man believeth by that deficient motion which doth not necessarily determine his will, seeing that many preparatory acts are done by such a motion. And it is probable that it is oft so." "But by which degree of grace soever the effect be produced, still God's will is the chief cause of it, which can procure the effect infallibly when it doth not necessitate." Whenever divine grace does subdue the soul, it is effectual grace, although the same degree of it

1 Chap. XV. § 2.

2 Ib. § 7.

3 Ib. §§ 13, 17, 18. Baxter makes a distinction between infallible certainty and necessity. So he makes a distinction between "infallible certainty" and "perfect certainty." He says that we may be infallibly certain of our conversion, although not perfectly certain. See "Saints' Everlasting Rest," Works, Vol. XXII. pp. 496, 498.