An Apology for the True Christian Divinity / Being an explanation and vindication of the principles and doctrines of the people called Quakers

by Robert Barclay

§. III.

Expl. 2.Christ giving himself a Sacrifice for us. Secondly, God manifested this Love towards us, in the sending of his beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the World, who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling Savour; and having made Peace through the Blood of his Cross, that he might reconcile us unto himself, and by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot unto God, and suffered for our Sins, the Just for the Unjust, that he might bring us unto God.

Expl. 3.Thirdly then, Forasmuch as all Men who have come to Man’s Estate (the Man Jesus only excepted) have sinned, therefore all have Need of this Saviour, to remove the Wrath of God from them due to their Offences; in this Respect he is truly said to have borne the Iniquities of us all in his Body on the Tree, and therefore is the only Mediator, having qualified the Wrath of God towards us; so that our former Sins stand not in our Way, being by Virtue of his most satisfactory Sacrifice removed and pardoned. To Remission of Sins.Neither do we think that Remission of Sins is to be expected, sought, or obtained any other Way, or by any Works or Sacrifice whatsoever; though, as has been said formerly, they may come to partake of this Remission that are ignorant of the History. The only Mediator betwixt God and Man.So then Christ by his Death and Sufferings hath reconciled us to God, even while we are Enemies; that is, he offers Reconciliation unto us; we are put into a Capacity of being reconciled; God is willing to forgive us our Iniquities, and to accept us, as is well expressed by the Apostle, 2 Cor. v. 19. God was in Christ, reconciling the World unto himself, not imputing their Trespasses unto them, and hath put in us the Word of Reconciliation. And therefore the Apostle, in the next Verses, intreats them in Christ’s Stead to be reconciled to God; intimating that the Wrath of God being removed by the Obedience of Christ Jesus, he is willing to be reconciled unto them, and ready to remit the Sins that are past, if they repent.

A twofold Redemption.We consider then our Redemption in a twofold Respect or State, both which in their own Nature are perfect, though in their Application to us the one is not, nor can be, without Respect to the other.

I. The Redemption of Christ without us.The First is the Redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in his crucified Body without us: The other is the Redemption wrought by Christ in us, which no less properly is called and accounted a Redemption than the former. The first then is that whereby a Man, as he stands in the Fall, is put into a Capacity of Salvation, and hath conveyed unto him a Measure of that Power, Virtue, Spirit, Life, and Grace that was in Christ Jesus, which, as the free Gift of God, is able to counter-balance, overcome, and root out the evil Seed, wherewith we are naturally, as in the Fall, leavened.

II. The Redemption wrought by Christ in us.The Second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect Redemption in ourselves, purifying, cleansing, and redeeming us from the Power of Corruption, and bringing us into Unity, Favour, and Friendship with God. By the first of these two, we that were lost in Adam, plunged into the bitter and corrupt Seed, unable of ourselves to do any good Thing, but naturally joined and united to Evil, forward and propense to all Iniquity, Servants and Slaves to the Power and Spirit of Darkness, are, notwithstanding all this, so far reconciled to God by the Death of his Son, while Enemies, that we are put into a Capacity of Salvation, having the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace offered unto us, and God is reconciled unto us in Christ, calls and invites us to himself, in which Respect we understand these Scriptures; [70]He slew the Enmity in himself. He loved us first; seeing us in our Blood, he said unto us, Live; he who did not sin his own self, bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree; and he died for our Sin, the Just for the Unjust.

[70] Eph. 2. 15. 1 John 4. 10. Ezek. 16. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 22, 24. & 3. 18.

By the Second, we witness this Capacity brought into Act, whereby receiving and not resisting the Purchase of his Death, to wit, the Light, Spirit, and Grace of Christ revealed in us, we witness and possess a real, true, and inward Redemption from the Power and Prevalency of Sin, and so come to be truly and really redeemed, justified, and made righteous, and to a sensible Union and Friendship with God.[71] Thus he died for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity; and thus we know him and the Power of his Resurrection, and the Fellowship of his Sufferings, being made conformable to his Death. This last follows the first in Order, and is a Consequence of it, proceeding from it, as an Effect from its Cause: So as none could have enjoyed the last, without the first had been, such being the Will of God; so also can none now partake of the first, but as he witnesseth the last. Wherefore as to us, they are both Causes of our Justification; the first the procuring Efficient, the other the formal Cause.

[71] Tit. 2. 14. Phil. 3. 10.

Expl. 4.Fourthly, We understand not by this Justification by Christ barely the good Works even wrought by the Spirit of Christ; for they, as Protestants truly affirm, are rather an Effect of Justification than the Cause of it; The Formation of Christ in us begets good Works.but we understand the Formation of Christ in us, Christ born and brought forth in us, from which good Works as naturally proceed as Fruit from a fruitful Tree. It is this inward Birth in us, bringing forth Righteousness and Holiness in us, that doth justify us; which having removed and done away the contrary Nature and Spirit that did bear Rule and bring Condemnation, now is in Dominion over all in our Hearts. Those then that come to know Christ thus formed in them, do enjoy him wholly and undivided, who is the LORD our RIGHTEOUSNESS, Jer. xxiii. 6. This is to be clothed with Christ, and to have put him on, whom God therefore truly accounteth righteous and just. This is so far from being the Doctrine of Papists, that as the Generality of them do not understand it, so the Learned among them oppose it, and dispute against it, and particularly Bellarmine. Thus then, as I may say, the formal Cause of Justification is not the Works, to speak properly, they being but an Effect of it; but this inward Birth, this Jesus brought forth in the Heart, who is the well-beloved, whom the Father cannot but accept, and all those who thus are sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus, and washed with it. By this also comes that Communication of the Goods of Christ unto us, by which we come to be made Partakers of the divine Nature, as faith Peter, 2 Pet. i. 4. and are made one with him, as the Branches with the Vine, and have a Title and Right to what he hath done and suffered for us; Christ’s Obedience, Righteousness, Death and Sufferings are ours.so that his Obedience becomes ours, his Righteousness ours, his Death and Sufferings ours. And by this Nearness we come to have a Sense of his Sufferings, and to suffer with his Seed, that yet lies pressed and crucified in the Hearts of the Ungodly, and so travail with it, and for its Redemption, and for the Repentance of those Souls that in it are crucifying as yet the Lord of Glory. Even as the Apostle Paul, who by his Sufferings is said to fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ for his Body, which is the Church. Though this be a Mystery sealed up from all the wise Men that are yet ignorant of this Seed in themselves, and oppose it, nevertheless some Protestants speak of this justification by Christ inwardly put on, as shall hereafter be recited in its Place.

Expl. 5.Lastly, Though we place Remission of Sins in the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ performed by him in the Flesh, as to what pertains to the remote procuring Cause, and that we hold ourselves formally justified by Christ Jesus formed and brought forth in us, yet can we not, as some Protestants have unwarily done, exclude Works from Justification. Good Works are not excluded Justification.For though properly we be not justified for them, yet are we justified in them; and they are necessary, even as Causa sine quâ non, i. e. the Cause, without which none are justified. For the denying of this, as it is contrary to the Scripture’s Testimony, so it hath brought a great Scandal to the Protestant Religion, opened the Mouths of Papists, and made many too secure, while they have believed to be justified without good Works. Moreover, though it be not so safe to say they are meritorious, yet seeing they are rewarded, many of those called the Fathers have not spared to use the Word [Merit] which some of us have perhaps also done in a qualified Sense, but no-ways to infer the Popish Abuses above-mentioned. And lastly, if we had that Notion of good Works which most Protestants have, we could freely agree to make them not only not necessary, but reject them as hurtful, viz. That the best Works even of the Saints are defiled and polluted. For though we judge so of the best Works performed by Man, endeavouring a Conformity to the outward Law by his own Strength, and in his own Will, yet we believe that such Works as naturally proceed from this spiritual Birth and Formation of Christ in us are pure and holy, even as the Root from which they come; and therefore God accepts them, justifies us in them, and rewards us for them of his own free Grace. The State of the Controversy being thus laid down, these following Positions do from hence arise in the next Place to be proved.