This section affirms :

1st. That although the decree of God is one eternal, all comprehensive intention, the several elements embraced within it necessarily sustain the relation to one another of means to ends. In determining the ends he intends to accomplish, God at the same time determines the means by which he intends to accomplish them. And God's purpose with respect to the end necessarily, in the logical order, takes precedence of and gives direction to his purpose with respect to the means.

2d. That, in the matter of the redemption of men, the end which God determined was the salvation of certain individuals, called " the elect," and that he appointed, as means to that end, redemption by Christ, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance in grace unto death.

3d. That as the means are intended to effect the end, so they are not to be exorcised in the case of any wliose

god's kternal decree. 105

salvation has not been adopted as that end. None but the elect are redeemed by Christ, or eifectually called, or justified, or adopted, or sanctified.

1st. That the purposes of God do sustain the relation to one another of means to ends is evident — (1.) From the fact that his purposes are the product of an infinite intelligence, the very office of which is to co-ordinate a great system of means in the accomplishment of a great design. (2.) God accomplishes his eternal purposes in his works of creation and providence, and in the economy of both he habitually uses systems of means in subordination to predetermined ends. (3.) All the events decreed as a matter of fact eventuate in the relation of means in subordination to ends. They must therefore have been embraced in the same order in the divine decree. (4.) God explicitly tells us that he determines one thing in order to accomplish another. He predestinates men to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, to the praise of the glory of his grace. 2 Thess. ii. 13 ; Eph. i. 6.

2d. That the gift of Christ to make atonement for sin, and of the Holy Ghost to regenerate and sanctify, are in the divine intention designed as means to accomplish his purpose to secure the salvation of the elect, has been doubted by some theologians, but is explicitly affirmed both positively and negatively in this Section of the Confession. In the time that this Confession was written, the phrase "to redeem'' was used in the same sense in which we now use the phrase " to make atonement for." The Confession affirms, first, positively, that Christ was eternally appointed to make atonement as a means of executing the purpose to save

the elect; and second, negatively, that he has mAde atonement for none others.

The class of theologians who do not agree with the Confession at this point, view the purposes of God, with respect to man's salvation and the gift of Christ to be a Saviour, as sustaining respectively the following order : Out of infinite pity and universal benevolence, God determined to give his Son to die for the redemption from the curse of the law of all mankind, ruined by the fall ; but, foreseeing that if left to themselves all men would certainly reject Christ and be lost, God, in order to carry out and apply his plan of human redemption, and moved by a special love to certain persons, elected them out of the masa of mankind to be recipients of the special effectual grace of the Holy Ghost, and thus to salvation. The doctrine taught in the Confession and held by the great body of the Reformed churches is, that God, moved by a special personal love, elected certain men out of the mass of the fallen race to salvation, and in order to accomplish that purpose he determined to send Christ to die for them and the Holy Ghost to renew and sanctify them.

That the view of the Confession is the true one is plain — (1.) From the very statement of the case. The gift of Christ to die for the elect is a very adequate means to accomplish the decree of their salvation. But, on the other hand, the decree to give the efficacious influences of the Holy Ghost only to the elect is a very inadequate means of accomplishing the purpose of redeeming all men by the sacrifice of Christ. A purpose to save all and a purpose to save only some could not coexist in the divine mind.

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(2.) All the purposes of God, being unchangeable, self-consistent and certainly efficacious, must perfectly correspond to the events which come to pass in time. He must have predestinated to salvation those and those only who are as a matter of fact saved; and he must have intended that Christ should redeem those and those only who are redeemed. God's purpose in the gift of Christ cannot be in any respect in vain.

(3.) Christ says explicitly, " I lay down my life for my sheep." John x. 15.

3d. None but the elect are redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, or justified, or adopted, or sanctified.

This is only the negative statement of the same truth, designed to make the positive affirmation of it the more explicit and emphatic.

Tlie doctrine as to the design of God in the sacrifice of Christ is stated again in Chapter VIII., Section viii. of the Confession, and will be more appropriately stated and discussed in that place.

In this section we have, first, a general statement, that, in the divine purpose, the means and the end are inseparably connected. As God appointed the elect to glory, so he appointed them to obtain that glory in and through Christ, and on account of his merits alone. — 1 Thess. v. 9. He likewise appointed them to all those means which are indispensably necessary to the enjoyment of that glory ; such as faith and sanctification, and perseverance therein to the end. — 2 Thess. ii. 13. Thus, though the mediation of Christ was not the cause of their election, yet his obedience and death were the grand means appointed for the execution of that gracious purpose ; and though the Almighty chose no man

54 CONFESSION OF FAITH, fCHAP. III.

to glory because of his future faitli and holiness, yet provision was made in the eternal purpose of God for the faith and sanctification of all his chosen, prior to their enjoyment of bliss. It is, therefore, a gross abuse of the doctrine of election, for persons to expect that they shall attain the end, while they neglect to use the appointed means. No man acts in this manner in regard to the common affairs of life, and to do so in matters of infinitely higher importance would bo the highest presumption and folly.

This section next states more particularly the means by which the elect are brought to glory. They are redeemed by Christ, and his redemption is effectually applied to them by the working of his Spirit. In order to determine the import of the phrase " redeemed by Christ," it is necessary to ascertain in what sense the word redeemed is here used. The term redemption in Scripture frequently signifies actual deliverance from sin and all its penal consequences ; but primarily and properly it means a deliverance effected by i\\e payment of a ransom. Hence, theologians have usually distinguished between redemption by price, and redemption by p)ower ; the latter coincides with actual deliverance; the former denotes the payment of the price, by which Christ meritoriously procured the deliverance of his people. When the Westminster Confession was compiled, the term redemption was generally used as almost exactly equivalent to the modern term atonement ; and, of course, what was then called general and particular redemption, corresj)onds to the modern phrases, general and limited atonement. Some have contended that in this section the term redemption is equivalent, not to the payment of a price, but to the deliverance obtained through the payment of a price ; or, that the word redeemed is used as equivalent to saved. But the section clearly distinguishes between the elect being redeemed, and their being saved ; and it represents their redemption by Christ as being effected and completed previous to their being effectually called unto faith in Christ. Their justification, adoption, sanctification, and final salvation, are just the blessings which constitute the deliverance obtained for them through the death of Christ ; and, therefore, their redemption by Christ must signify, not the deliverance itself, but the payment of the price which procured their deliverance. Their redemption by Christ is already complete, — it was finished by Christ on the cross ; but their actual deliverance is to be effected in due season, — namely, when they are united to Christ by faith.

In this section, then, we are taught, — 1. That Christ, bv his death, did not merely render the salvation of all m'^n

])0ssible, or bring them into a salvable state, but purchased and secured a certain salvation to all for whom he died. — John xvii. 4; Heb. iv. 12. 2. That Christ died exclusively for the elect, and purchased redemption for them alone; in otiier words, that Christ made atonement only for the elect, and that in no sense did he die for the rest of the race. Our Confession first asserts, positively, that the elect are redeemed by Christ; and then, negatively, that none other are redeemed hy Christ hut the elect only. If this does not affirm the doctrine of particular redemption, or of a limited atonement, we know not what language could express that doctrine more explicitly. It is diametrically opppsed to the system of the Arminians, who hold, " that Jesus Christ, by his death and sufferings, made an atonement for the sins of all mankind in general, and of every individual in particular." It is not less opposed to the doctrine maintained by many, that though the death of Christ had a special reference to the elect, and, in connection with the di\ine purpose, infallibly secures their salvation, yet that it has also a general reference, and made an equal atonement for all men. The celebrated Richard Baxter, who favoured general redemption, makes the following remark upon this and another section of our Confession : — " Chap. iii. sec. 6, and cliap. viii. sec. 8, which speak against universal redemption, I understand not of all redemption, and particularly not of the mere bearing the punishment of man's sins, and satisfying God's justice, but of tliat special redemption proper to the elect, which w^as accompanied with an intention of actual application of the saving benefits in time. If I may not be allowed this interpretation, I must herein dissent."* The language of the Confession, in my opinion, will not admit of this interpretation ; and, what is more, the Bible is silent about this general redemption, or the genei-al reference of the death of Christ. The Saviour himself declares, " I lay down my life for the sheep ; " and ne affirms that the sheep for whom he laid down his life are the definite number chosen by God, and given to him in the eternal covenant, and to whom he will eventually give eternal life.— John x. 15, 28, 29. "It is true, the Christian religion being to be distinguished from the Jewish in this main point, that whereas the Jewish was restrained to Abraham's posterity, and confined within one race and nation, the Christian was to be preached to every creature, universal words are used concerning the death of Christ ; but as the words, ' preaching to every creature,' and to * all the world,' are not to be understood in the utmost extent, — for then they * Baxter's Confession of his Faith, p. 21.

56 CONFESSION OF FAIXn. [^CIIAP. III.

have never been verified, since the gospel has never yet, for aught that appears to ns, been preached to every nation under heaven, — but are only to be explained generally of a commission not limited to one or more nations, none being excluded from it ; the apostles were to execute it, in going from city to city, as they should be inwardly moved to it by the Holy Ghost ; so ' Calvinists ' think, that those large words that are applied to the death of Christ, are to be understood in the same qualified manner ; that no nation, or sort of men, are excluded from it, and that some of all kinds and sorts shall be saved by him. And this is to be carried no further, without an imputation on the justice of God ; for if he has received a sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, it is not reconcileable to justice, that all should not be saved by it, or should not at least have the offer and promulgation of it made them ; that so a trial may be made, whether they will accept of it or not." *

3. We are further taught, that salvation shall be effectually applied by the Holy Spirit, to all those who were chosen of God, and redeemed by Christ ; and that it shall be effectually applied to them alone. The elect are all in due time, by the power of the Spirit, effectually called unto faith in Christ. " All that the Father giveth me shall come to me." — John vi. 37. " As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." — Acts xiii. 48, They are all justified, adopted, sanctified, and shall be enabled to persevere in grace, and at length their salvation shall be consummated in glory. " Whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." — Rom. viii. 30.

Thus our Confession, agreeably to Scripture, represents each of the divine persons as acting a distinct part in the glorious work of human redemption, and as entirely concurring in coiinsel and operation. The Father chose a definite number of mankind sinners to eternal life ; the Son laid down his life for those who were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and obtained for them eternal redemption ; and the Holy Spirit applies the purchased redemption to them in due season. Here all is perfect harmony. The Son fulfils the will of the Father, and the Spirit's work is in entire accordance with the purpose of the Father and the mediation of the Son. But according to the scheme of general redemption, or of universal atonement, this harmony is utterly destroyed. The Son sheds his blood for multitudes whom the Father never purposed to save, and the * Burnet on the Thirty- Nine Articles, Art. 17.

Spirit does not piit forth the influence necessary to secure the application of salvation to all for whom Christ died !