In response to Rutherford:
627. To prove that God willeth the existence of sin, he bringeth the instance of Joseph’s case, Gen. 45. To which I say that the text saith not at all that God willed the will or Act or Sin of Joseph’s brethren, but only the vendition passive or effect and the consequents; Nay only the consequents are mentioned in the Texts . . . Nothing so much deceit them, as not distinguishing between the sinful act, and the effect or passion when they are called by the same name . . . (Richard Baxter, Catholick Theologie: Plain, Pure, Peaceable, For Pacification of the Dogmatical Word-Warriors, Book 1, Part 1, section 19 [London: 1695], 106)
99. The particle [For] when we question whether Christ died [For] All is ambiguous: 1. It may mean [In the first representation of the persons of all as several, so that they may be said to have died or satisfied in and by him, as civilly in their own persons, though not naturally]. And thus Christ died not for all, or for any man, which is yet in some men’s conceits, who thence say that Christ died not for all, because he did not so personate all. 2. It may signifie [to die by the procurement of all men, since, as the assumed promeritorious cause.] And thus Pureus himself in his Irenicon saith, That the sins of all men lay on Christ, and So he died for all, that is, for all men’s sins as the cause of his death: And you may tell any wicked men, Thy sins killed Christ (what-ever the deniers say to execute them). 3. Or it meanth that Christ died finally for the good of all men. And that is true, as afore explained. He died for the good of all, but not equally, that is, not with the same absolute Will, Decree or Intention of attaining Salvation. (Richard Baxter, Catholick Theologie: Plain, Pure, Peaceable, For Pacification of the Dogmatical Word-Warriors, Book 1, Part 2, Section 6 [London: 1695], 53)
In “A Dialogue Between A. (an Arminian) and B. (the Conciliator.)”:
A. You deny all conditional Decrees in God, and so make them all absolute, and consequently arbitrary, merely because God will do it.
B. Do you think we differ in this? You dare not profess your different from any of this following explication of our sense.
1. God’s Will is the Cause and End of the whole Creation: And what ever pleaseth him to do he doth; whatever it pleaseth him shall come to pass, it shall come to pass; and whatever he is pleased to make our Duty by a Law, is made our Duty. All that God doth and commandeth is Arbitrary: His Wisdom indeed and his Will concur; but his Ends are within himself; and his Will is the end of his Will, so far as it may be said to have an end. Arbitariness and self-willedness is God’s Perfection, which is man’s Sin and Usurpation. If you will stretch to that impropriety, as to say that He willeth it, because his Understanding seeth it fittest it to be willed; and so make Causes and Effects in God; yet must you add, that the fitness, or goodness, so understood, is the Apitudinal congruency to his Will.
2. We affirm that God hath many Decrees which are conditional in respect to the thing decreed. So Dr. Twisse frequently tells you. HE maketh one thing a means and a condition of the event of another. And we say that God hath conditional Promises and Threatenings, [IF thou confess with thy mouth and believe in thy heart, &c thou shalt be saved]. And we believe that God’s Will made these Promises and Threats, and that they are the true signs of his Will: And that he will fulfill them. And so far he hath a conditional Will, and conditional expressions of his Will.
3. But as to the Act of Volition, we believe that his Wills are eternal, and have no proper condition of their existence, or not existing, because being existent, they are Necessary necessities existentiae, e.g., God never had such a Will as this, [If thou repent, I will purpose or will to pardon thee if thou repent, or to make the pardoning conditional promise;] But [if thou repent I will pardon thee, and whether thou repent or not, I will conditionally pardon thee, or make that Covenant which saith, I will pardon thee if thou repent,] our Acts are the Conditions of God’s Gifts and Acts, but not of his Will, as suspended on those Acts.
4. Sure this is our own sentiment: For you deny not that God knoweth from eternity whether the condition of each Event will it self be nor not; And if so, it must be only the condition of the Event, and not of his Decree: For he that e.g. willeth absolutely that all shall perish that repent not, and knoweth certainly that Judas will not repent, doth thenceforth absolutely Will that Judas shall perish, though only that he perish conditionally. For that Will is no longer suspended on a Condition, but it is the Event only that is suspended. And least you must say, that it is passed into a certainty, equal to the absolute Will.
5. But we will come as near as truth will lead us. If by a Condition you mean only that Condition of the event which is not a suspender of God’s Decree, but only a constituent qualification of the Object; so I grant to you, that though God’s Will as it signifieth his Essence, or his essential Principle of operation, in it self, have no cause or condition; yet as it is extrinsically denominated, the Volition or Nolition of this or that, the Object hath its Conditions; that is, qualifications, without which God’s Will is not so denominable. And so God’s Will hath its Conditions of complacency or displinency in the Creature, without which he cannot truly be said to be pleased or displeased in them; yea, I Told you, that these may be ortri de novo, without change in God. And whether his judicial Will to condemn men as Judge, have the same conditions, we shall enquire further hereafter. I have already manifested, that the Objects of it have their proper qualifications. (Richard Baxter, Catholick Theologie: Plain, Pure, Peaceable, For Pacification of the Dogmatical Word-Warriors, Book 2, “The First Day Conference About Predestination,” The Sixth Crimination [London: 1695], 16-17)
224. The Faith by which we are justified is not a believing that we are justified, but a believing that we may be justified: Not a believing that Christ is ours more than other men’s, or that we shall be saved; but a believing in Christ that he may be ours, and we may be saved by him.
225. There is assurance in his Fath; not assurance that we are sincere, or shall be saved: But assurance that God’s Promises and all his Words are true, and that he will perform them; and that Christ is the Saviour of the world, and that the love of God is our End and Happiness, and that all this is offered to us in Christ, even Pardon and Life, as well as others; which offer Faith accepeth truly; But the Believer is oft uncertain of the sincerity of his own belief, and so of his Salvation.
226. How much certainty we have of Divine Revelation and Scripture verity, I have so fully opened in many Tractates, and lastly in one called [The certainty of Christianity without Popery] that I will not here repeat it, further than to say, that it is not a perfect apprehension which we call our certainty, nor yet an uneffectual doubtful one; But such a one as will carry a man on confidence of God’s Word to a holy life, and to the forsaking of all other hopes, even life it self, for the hopes which are given us by Christ: which yet may have several degrees in several persons. But objective certaintiy, which is the evidence of verity, is more full than our subjective certainty (for want of our due receptivity in us) and is still the same in it self, though not equally brought or reealed to all. (Richard Baxter, Catholick Theologie: Plain, Pure, Peaceable, For Pacification of the Dogmatical Word-Warriors, Book 1, Part 2, Section 16 [London: 1695], 88)
