“What think you of conditional
redemption? ...We are gravely told by some, that ‘Christ did indeed die; but he
did not die absolutely, nor purchase forgiveness and eternal life for us
certainly: his death only puts us into a salvable state; making God placable,
and pardon possible.’ The whole efficacy of his sufferings, according to these
persons, depends on our being towardly and complying: which if we are, we then
come in for a share in the subsidiary and supplementary merits of Christ;
having first qualified ourselves for his aid, by a performance of certain
conditions required on our part, and entitled ourselves to the favour and
notice of God. According to this scheme (which is only the religion of nature
spoiled;—spoiled by an injudicious mixture of nominal Christianity), the
adorable Mediator, instead of having actually obtained eternal redemption for his
people, and secured the blessings of grace and glory to those for whom he died;
is represented as bequeathing to them only a few spiritual lottery-tickets,
which may come up, blanks or prizes, just as the wheel of chalice and human
caprice happens to turn. Our own righteousness and endeavours, must first make
the scale of eternal life preponderate in our favour; and then, the merits of
Christ are thrown in, to make up good weight. The Messiah's obedience and
sufferings stand it seems, for mere ciphers; until our own freewill is so kind
as to prefix the initial figure, and render them of value.—I tremble at the
shocking consequences of a system, which (as one well observes) considers the
whole mediation of Christ as no more than a pedestal, on which human worth may
stand exalted: nay, (to use the language of another) which sinks the Son of
God—how shall I speak it?—‘into a spiritual huckster, who, having purchased
certain blessings of his Father, sells them out afterwards to men upon terms
and conditions.’” - A Caveat Against Unsound Doctrines
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