Packer:

The Truth about the Reformers to be this They habitually spoke of atonement in the language of legal representation. Christ, they said, personam nostram sustinuit at the bar of God, enduring the penalty of the broken law in man’s place. But they did not distinguish the two possible ways in which the notion could be developed, nor opt for one rather than the other. The transaction as they described it could be thought of after the analogy either of civil or of criminal law. In the first case, Christ would have paid our debt, the second our penalty. In the first case, his righteousness would be imputed to the believer in its effects: to say that Christ’s righteousness is reckoned his would then be merely a way of saying that he receives the benefit of legal immunity and as a result of Christ’s intervention on his behalf. Christ paid the debt; therefore he himself need never pay it. Such a conception, is simple. But if the transaction were interpreted in the second way, as a case of penal substitution, the idea becomes more difficult and the pitfalls more numerous. This way in fact the main strand in the Reformers’ thought. On the first view, the ground of the sinner’s acquittal from liability to punishment (i.e., his justification) is the fact that Christ paid the debt he had incurred. On the second view, the ground of justification is God’s attribution (imputation) of Christ’s obedience and suffering to the guilty sinner. The notion is Biblical, but demands careful statement, which in the early days of Protestant theology it did not always receive. In those days, the two lines of thought existed side by side in the minds of the some men without any awareness of inconsistency. Both served to illustrate the position which it was the Reformers’ supreme concern to demonstrate and defend, that the sinner’s justification is secured, not by his own work, but by his faith in the work Christ did on his behalf. To illustrate this point yet further, they sometimes permitted themselves to speak as if Christ became a sinner in fact at Calvary, and as a man becomes righteous in fact when he believes. During the century which followed, Protestant theologians devoted themselves to the task of systematizing, polishing and defending the Reformers’ teaching. One of the results of these analytical labours was the discovery of inconsistency between these two lines of thought concerning Christ’s satisfaction for sin . Hence arose controversy concerning the nature of imputed righteousness.

James I. Packer, “The Redemption and Restoration of Man in the Thought of Richard Baxter: A Study in Puritan Thought,” (Ph.D diss.,University of Oxford, 1954), 276-277. [Note, what he says, in my opinion, was also as true for many of the later Puritans.]

Bullinger:

The Faith is not only a knowledge of the mind, but also, a steadfast and sure confidence of the mind.

In the beginning of this book the matter itself requires that we entreat in few words of faith whereby we are justified before God: this faith is not of men, but is the mere gift of God, by the Holy Ghost, which does lighten men’s minds with his grace and word, that they may truly and rightly understand GOD with his grace, Christ and his righteousness and salvation. And by that means faith is a knowledge and science of our mind. And therefore Isaiah the prophet 53 chapt. And Christ our Lord. 17. John, do name faith a knowledge. And Paul says, “I beseech God the Father to give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, through knowledge of him, the eyes of your mind being lightened, that ye may know what that hope is, unto the which he has called,” &c.

But yet this faith is not only a science of the mind, but also a steadfast and sure confidence of mind, whereby the heart does strongly lean unto the known truth, for the mind of man strays and trusts unto this that is conceived of the mind by understanding, and is at rest in his will, and hereunto brings or gathers together all his powers. And therefore S. Paul expounds faith by hope in these words: but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it, in the which thing doubtless the will also works, the mind alone does not know. In another place the same Apostle says: “Faith is the ground of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Also, but without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that comes unto God, must believe that there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him. Neither also must be referred that most notable example of the faith of Abraham, which is declared by Paul in the fourth chapter of his epistle unto the Romans, where is plainly shown, that Abraham did not only hear & understand the things which were promised by God, but also that he hoped for them, consented with all his heart trusted unto them, and rested, all his powers being gathered together hereunto. And therefore no doubt the Dutch name of faith, glouben is the word globen. And this word globen signifies to promise and assure: wherefore globen faith is a confidence and trust, whereby a man with all his heart & mind stays & surely trusts & sticks unto those promises and assurances of God, which we know to be true.

That faith leans unto God and his word: also of the articles of the holy Christian faith.

The second Chapter.

For true faith leans, and wholly depends upon God (who is the true & only foundation and object of faith) and his true word. Therefore a faithful man trusts in God, as the only eternal sovereign, and true, & almighty good, craves and looks for all things at his hand as of a father, which are necessary for his soul and body: and without all staying believes his words as the undoubted truth: but if any doubts arise in him of man’s infirmity, he withstands them, and takes them away.

And because God in the promising of Christ has most clearly shown himself unto us, a faithful man, especially trusts unto him, & makes sure accounts that he possesses all heavenly treasure in Christ, that he is perfect in him, and needs no other thing unto salvation.

For this does Christ our Lord testify, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life.” Also, “The words which thou hast given me, I have unto them: and they received it, and knew truly that I came from thee, and believed that thou hast sent me.” And Saint Paul says: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of GOD.” The same also in the second Chapter of his first Epistle unto the Corinthians, “leaneth not unto man’s wisdom, but unto the power of GOD.” And unto the Ephesians he says, that the faithful are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, which is JESUS CHRIST, by whom all the promises of God, are yea and Amen. Henry Bullinger, Common places of Christian Religion, Compendiously written, by Master Henry Bullinger, and translated into English by Iohn Stockwood, minister, (Imprinted at London by Tho, East, and H. Middleton: for George Bishop. 1572. January. 31.), 118-121.

[“Amandus Polanus vons Polansdorf studied at Tubingen, Basel, and Geneva. He was appointed professor of Old Testament at Basel in 1596 and served as dean of the theological faculty from 1598-1609. His dogmatic works are Partitiones theologicae, pars I (1590), pars II (1596); Syntagma theologiae christianae (1609).” Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 1:44 (first edition).]

Polanus:

And this much touching the wisdom of God. Now follows concerning his will.

The will of God is an essential property of God, by which he wills all things that he wills, and that from all eternity, of himself also, and that by one constant act.

And this will is most free, so that God does not anything, or command or suffer it to be done, but freely willing it: whereupon also it is called God’s most free will.

And because it does not depend of any other former beginning out of itself, it alone properly deserves to be called free will.

And indeed and truth it is but one will, because it is the very essence of God. Howbeit in respect of us, it is sundry, ways distinguished.

1. The will of God is either his will of effecting, or of permitting only.

His will of effecting, is that according to which God effects all good things, whether it be by himself or by others.

The will of permitting is that, according to which God suffers sin to be committed: for God certainly does willingly permit sin, and not unwillingly, that is to say, against his will and enforced (for who can constrain God?). And this he does for a double end: first that he might manifest the infirmity and weakness of the creature, because it cannot stand, unless it it be every moment upheld in uprightness by God. Secondly, that by this occasion, God might declare, either his mercy and power, in delivering the elect from sin, or else his justice and power in punishing the reprobate for their sin.

2. Again the will of God is either absolute or conditional.

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Daille:

The word here employed by the apostle signifies precisely that. And, finally, That it a grace peculiar to believers and not common to other men; “it is given to you,” says he, opposing them to others, and particularly to the adversaries of whom he spoke in the preceding verse. That faith is a gift of God, is a truth so evident, that there is no Christian who does not acknowledge it to be so. And you will see it easily, if you consider for a moment, on the one side, what is the object of faith; and, on the other, what is the power of our nature. FAITH is a certain and assured knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel; it is “to believe in Jesus,” to see, with open eyes, the mercy, the wisdom, the power, and the justice of God displayed in their highest degree on the cross of his Son for the redemption of men. The things which are the objects of faith are all heavenly and Divine; viz. the purpose of God to send his Son into the world, and to clothe him with our flesh, and to deliver him up to the death of the cross, the price of his sufferings, and the expiation of our sins; his resurrection, and his triumph, a blessed immortality, the exquisite and singular example of holiness and of love which the gospel presents to us. Never had the eye of man seen any of these things, his ear had never heard them, nor had they ever entered into his heart to conceive.

John Daille, The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1843), 40.