Vindiciae Redemptionis IN THE FANNING AND SIFTING OF SAMVEL OATES His Exposition upon Mat. 13. 44. WITH A faithfull search after our LORDS meaning in his two Parables of the TREASURE and the PEARL Endeavoured in severall Sermons upon Mat. 13. 44 45. Where in the former part UNIVERSALL REDEMPTION is discovered to be a particular Errour Something here is inserted in answer to PAULUS TESTARDUS touching that Tenet And in the later Part CHRIST the peculiar TREASURE and PEARL of GODS Elect is laid as the sole Foundation and the Christians faith and joy in him and self-deniall for him is raised as a sweet and sure superstructure By John Stalham Pastour of the Church at Terling in Essex 2 Tim. 2. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fideles verò minimè decet Reproborum in gratiam Ecclesiam turbare Testard The. 2 v4 1 John 4. 1. Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world London Printed by A. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Sign of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1647. TO MY BELOVED BRETHREN AND NEIGHBOVRS in TERLING Beloved YOu are the people among whom my lot hath fallen for these fourteen years and upwards unto whom I came and with whom I have been in weaknesse and in fear and in much trembling Yet in regard of Gods presence and indulgence of Preaching-liberties with some successe all the Prelates times and since with his protection in these times of warre I may say The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea in God the portion of my cup I have a goodly heritage And for you I cannot but remember to Gods honour that inviting report which was given of you that you were a fasting and a praying people which I found true among the best of you who gave me a call hither I doe not forget what example of Non-Conformity to Prelaticall injunctions you held out to me nor what forbearance you allowed me for a time in the use of the Ceremonies which * M. T. Weld my Reverend and godly Predecessour had refused and I through inconsiderate timidity and temerity had introduced till God convinc'd me of my folly I must needs acknowledge with thankfulnesse to God and you that some competent number of you have fallen in with me in a time of Publique Reformation to witnesse against Popery Prelacy Superstition Schisme Heresie Profanenesse and Formality and have helpt towards their Extirpation according to Covenant But in this I question how the rest of you are or will be approved to Christ and your consciences Some for leading others for following and persisting in a way of Needlesse separation from me and your Brethren and that privately as publikely and that after you had upon conferences and debates granted a true Church here in being and have seen it come forth more visibly in the way to further purity after our renouncing all dependency upon Prelacy our casting out of Ceremonies and service-Service-book as a menstruous cloth with a Get thee hence our seeking after with joynt-consent all Christs own Institutions and our chusing of his Officers this is an un-Saint-like separation not to be justified scarce to be parallel'd Some for running to another Baptisme or disclaiming my Ministery and the above mentioned first Call which other of your Brethren have stuck to avouched and renewed by these as other evidences which might be produced but that I spare you it appears the more Christ hath whistled and wooed you in the more you have fled from the fold the more I his poor servant have been yours the lesse you have been mine and with a clear conscience I may write and publish it the more I have endeavoured to love you abundantly the lesse I am loved of you But that which Christ hath most against You the ignorant and profane multitude I mean not but Professours is that some have taken upon you the office of teaching and re-baptizing others have hearkned after you and you with them after false teachers who have drawn disciples after them not only to another Baptisme but to another Gospel never fancied but ever abhorred in this place since I knew it and before in my Orthodox Predecessours time which yet is not another for the Gospel of Christ is but one eternall Truth but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Everlasting Gospel by preaching an universall and when all comes to all but temporary Redemption by the death of Christ as they say for all He that started this first among you stirred my spirit least this leven should speedily spread thorow the whole lump with all instancy and constancy on Lectures and Lords daies publiquely to witnesse in these following Sermons against that which was too publiquely and boldly vented though in a private house And as at that time I acquainted you with some reasons or causes why I conceived God sent in that subtle seducer so now I will re-minde you of them 1. For your countenancing the way of Anabaptisme and compliance with what they who run that course say and doe as if all they said were Gospel and all they did were godlinesse 2. For your want of love to the truth and of this truth That Christ died but for some which is a truth or Christ died in vain for the most of men for what shall it profit if any of Christs purchased ones should win the world and not win Christ but lose their souls and all grant most men will lose their souls and that it is a blasphemy to say Christ died in vain 3. For your Triall Deut. 13. 2 3. whether you doe soundly love God and sincerely professe Christ crucified There must be such heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. in their solidity of judgement sincerity of heart and stedfastnesse of conversation among you 4. For your caution lest contending for circumstances above the substance you lose the substance while you catch at the shadow For Satan by Gods permission hath set Pioneers while you are seeking to set up the Roof on work to undermine and rase the Foundation 5. To quicken up your diligence in the search of the Scriptures And lastly To make you more carefull in holding fast of all Gospel-truth lest you be plundered of it Now if any of you have been plundered t is possible Brethren to recover this with other truths out of the hands of spoilers Bestir you therefore and quit your selves as living stones of the spirituall Temple of the living God the Pillar and ground of truth Doe not only regain hold fast but as you hold out any colours of a visible Church hold forth the truths that appertain to the Head of the Church visibly gloriously And I do now more solemnly call you out to witnes with me against this Errour of Vniversall Redemption let it be qualified how it will it hath an ill savour
a Covenant of grace while he fights for a Covenant of works and nature all along as he speaks of the non-elect or reprobate as * Fideles verò minimè decet Reproborum in gratiam Ecclesiam turbare inquit ipse Test The. 294 295. himself cals them Now I leave it to others to ravel his bottom and to exauthorize this Authour from the number of Classick and Orthodox Truth is not afraid to enter errours den because though it be dark truth carrieth a light with it to search it out I shall desire my Countrey-Reader to peruse all that I commend to him in the controversie with a Bible in his hand and with humility and self-deniall in his heart My learned Reader I intreat may have Testardus in his left-hand and the two Testaments in his right What is practicall will serve for all who have spirituall palats and can relish spirituall nourishment Let Jesus Christ be thy Pearl and Treasure and thou wilt not make him common Jesus Christ in his Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascention Session Intercession at Gods right-hand is not ordinary nor for all but for the man and Merchant that findes him hideth him joyeth in him and selleth all to make sure of him So we preach so ye have believed and so we shall and must still believe that we may be saved And for you M. Oates my Countrey-man as I have acquainted my Reader in generall so I must charge it upon you as the principall stickler in these parts with your new Gospel and Baptisme that you provok't me both to the preaching and printing of what here followeth in reference chiefly to the Parables and your Exposition First You preacht in the town and to some of my ordinary hearers and fellow-Members without my leave then you defended what you had preacht to him that noted from your mouth You returned me word from Colchester goal whither and when as thinking it a fit time and place for reflection I sent for your Recantation that you would fain see me in print And you seconded it at Chelmsford-Assizes to my face in the Market-place that if I came forth if you did not answer me you would procure one that would You may remember I then admonisht you as a Christian to forbear the spreading of your errour You told me you took it to be a truth but if you have no surer props to uphold it then you gave me at that time and place Actum est de tua causa For then and there you informed me you learnt this Doctrine of the Church of England and to my answer you were an apter Scholar then I who never suckt such milk from her brests and to my question where your Reply was Doth not the Catechisme in the service-Service-book teach it Where in Answer to the Question What dost thou chiefly learn in these Articles of thy belief It is said First I believe in God the Father c. Secondly I believe in God the Son who hath redeemed me and all man-kinde But remember what I left with you at a present parting upon those words partly out of your desire lest the people should flock about us partly out of my respect to what the holy Ghost saith Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge That Book nor Catechisme never went for the Doctrine of the Church of England but as Prelaticall spirits might have framed those words or as you with them have wrested the sense so you did act the Prelats part For as I since finde in the Title of that Catechisme it was to be learned of every childe before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop It seems you learnt it from your childehood and it may be the Bishops hands have been upon you at Confirmation though not at Ordination You are a true sonne by this Confirmation it may be I am sure by your Doctrine of the Prelaticall Church and an Apocryphall text is good enough for Apocryphall doctrâ—ne A plainer text it was for your darling point That Christ died for the bulk of man-kinde then the mans buying of the field in the Parable you wot of from which you have as it were made your appeal to the Church of England To that you shall go But first we must agree What is the Church of England Dare you say the Prelaticall company or the profane multitude This were to speak against light Turn you rather to the 19. of the 39. Articles put out an 1562. and you wâ—ll finde what a visible Church is viz. A Congregation of faithfull men c. A Congregation of faithfull men in England is a Church in or of England Now what Church or company of faithfull men will you select as a pillar of your supposed truth that hath held out your doctrine of universal Redemption I shall call forth three witnesses as a sufficient enumeration 1. The company that agreed to the 39. Articles They * Art 2. acknowledge That Christ suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a sacrifice not only for originall guilt but also for all actuall sins of men But t is one thing for Christ to be a sacrifice for all sins of men originall actuall another thing for him to die for all mens sins or to dâ—e for the expiating of the sins of every singular man 2. The company of * Confession of the faith of 7 Anabaptist Churches in London 7. Congregations of your own way of Anabaptisme who though they be distinct in respect of their particular bodies for conveniency sake yet are all one in Communion They a Sect. 5. acknowledge The elect which God hath loved with an everlasting love are receemed c. And that b Sect 17 See also Sect. 21 Christ being consecrated c. hath fully performed and suffâ—red all those things by which God through the bloud of that his Crosse in an acceptable Sacrifice might reconcile his Elect only 3. The company or companies of faithfull men who differ only or chiefly in point of Baptisme from you and those fore-named in London but are with joynt-consent united and knit together in fellowship of the Apostles doctrine breaking of bread and praiers Produce me any of them who for these 100. years and upwards have in England held forth your doctrine of universal Redemption as the Doctrine of the Church of England or of the Churches in England No they have ever been more pure in Doctrine what-ever pollutions too many we have had the Lord humble us and make us ashamed for them in Discipline I hope by this time you will be ashamed with a shame and sorrow that brings forth repentance not to be repented of And my hearts desire to God for you and the rest of my seduced Countrey-men in Norfolk Norwich Lin is that they may be reduced with you and saved with you For I bear you record that you have a zeal
founded in him but in the seed of the woman the Lord Jesus nor is Adams enmity with Satan and reconciliation with God there mentioned but only the womans and her seed partly exprest partly implied 3. All died as they sinned in Adam before this promise but the promise is not made of or to all mankinde who died vertually in him only of and to the woman is it spoken and her seed the principall whereof should be the redeemer and the rest of her seed the redeemed ones of the Lord between whom and the old Serpent Satan and his seed there should be irreconcilable enmity 4. If you would know who and who only and what number they are for whom if you speak of the certain individuals the Lamb was a ransome from the beginning you must wait till the Lambs book of life be opened of which we read Revel 13. 8. and 17. 8. where plainly you may learn That 1. He was not slain for any first or last but for such whose names are in his book 2. Comparing those Texts with Rev. 13. 3. there are a world of people whose names are not written in his book therefore not slain in the Arminian sense for all the world nor must this last place in Timothy nor any of the former be so understood We have now done with the Scriptures alleadged and abused by him and vindicated by us which I desire you to hold fast in the true sense not in a perverted interpretation these were his out-works which we have taken and possesse we them for the Truth Come we at length to batter down the enemies Forts and strong-holds of his carnall-reasonings and confident arguments Two Reasons and two Arguments were brought to prove his Doctrine That Christ gave himself for the whole world Now such as have studied Logick or artificiall reasoning know no difference between Reasons and Arguments for it they be Reasons and do not argue they are irrationall Reasons and if they be Arguments without reason they are unreasonable Arguments But to follow him in his own method and to deal with him at his own weapon If we have taken the Scriptures out of his mouth we shall not doubt but to take his weaponâ— of Reason and Argument out of his hand or leave him a bare Sceleton of reason without flesh or substance much lesse having any soul or life of faith or divine truth in his assertions And first of the two Reasons Reason 1. Reasons disproved The whole harmony of the Scriptures such as he had proved his point withall are they not enough and do they not sound all one way Answ 1. Call to minde every of those Scriptures but remember their sense as well as their sound He is a foolish man who thinkes as the bell tinks Nor yet do the Scriptures give an uncertain sound but in opening and examining of them with the context and scope and with other Scriptures you hear with one consent they speak not absolutely of Christs dying for all but of and for such an all and such a world as is the all and the whole world of believers elect Gods people his true Israel some of all sorts of people out of all Nations some 2. Search and consult with other Scriptures which neither he nor I have yet mention'd and you will be more fully convinc't that we have the truth with us and that this Doctrine of Christs dying for the whole bulk of men is another Gospel from that which Christ and his Apostles or we from them have ever preached I shall instance but in three places the first in Joh. 15. 10. Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay down his life for his friends and presently to shew whom he laid down his life for he addeth v. 11. Ye are my friends c. It is most true what the Apostle saith Rom. 5. 10. When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne But 1. What We meaneth he there Not all men but such as are justified by faith and have peace with God by faith v. 1. 2. Though the elect of God are enemies as considered in themselves and in their naturall estate yet being loved of God from eternity with the love of good pleasure they have a price laid down for them by Christs death to bring them under the love of friendship and when they do actually believe they are actually reconciled and of enemies are made friends so that Christ laid down his life for such as were in Gods choice and love his friends and by Christs death and the fruits of it brought into a state of actuall friendship A second follows John 10. 15. And I lay down my life for the sheep whom in the verse precedent he had called his sheep See here I beseech you ye that love the truth and love not to be seduced though that is a weak property of sheep to wander yet if you be Christs sheep hear the voice of the good shepherd and not of strangers for whom doth Christ himself say that he died he best knows and is only able to resolve this doubt why if you will believe him who is truth it self I lay down my life for my sheep he doth not say for goats at all but for the sheep behold and hearken after the harmony 'tween this and the fore-alleadged Scriptures certainly where Christ or his Apostles speak in larger tearms of all and world and whole world must not these tearms be limited to Christs sheep It was a subtill counsel your new Lecturer gave you that other Scriptures which he cited in the second place as but favouring his opinion should be expounded by the positive Scriptures but be you as wise as he was subtle and learn to reduce all his positive Scriptures which yet had Synecdoches in them of the whole for a part or of the generall for the speciall to and by this main Position of our Lord a fundamentall truth Let this be first laid down I lay down my life for my sheep and whosoever shall after so plain a foundation laid by Christ himself in his Word and by his Spirit in your hearts teach universall Redemption or Christs dying for the bulk of mankinde tell him he doth nothing else but build hay and stubble upon the foundation nay he doth yet more wickedly even lay another foundation with Christ or besides his purpose A third and last is in these words Ioh. 17. 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my self Christs sanctifying himself is his preparation for death setting himself apart to die for whom for their sakes his eleven Apostles not Iudas v. 12. and for those which should and shall believe on him through the Apostles doctrine this is not for the sake of all men that he so much as prepares to die much lesse that he died for them for whom he fitted not himself to die in their behalf So as you see to make up the harmony and consent
in Scripture you must as on a musicall instrument not put on great strings only but the smaller also and in a Consort take the Tenour and Counter-tenour with the Base You must not only hearken to the loud noise of the world and the sound of all all c. but take in the smaller sounds of sheep and friends and believers and then when we have the Scriptures in a compleat harmony set together they doe all unanimously make against universall Redemption not for it Behold the first Reason is without an Argument Reason 2. If Christ did not die for all every one could not have a ground of believing the report of the Gospel Answ What is there no ground of beleeving but upon a false Alarme and Report as this man hath brought amongst you 1. This Reason is the voice of unbelief The Arminian Doctrine helpes a lame Dogge over the stile viz. An unbeleeving heart to reason against the truth because all men are not bought and redeemed by Christ therefore I must not beleeve I say again this is nothing else but the language of unbeliefe beware of it 2. I retort it To lay forth this Doctrine before carnall men That Christ died for all is to lay a stumbling block before the blinde and to throw dust in the eyes of faith the faith of Gods elect that it shall not see at all but live by sense and not by it's own principles or not see by it's owne eyes Beloved in true beleeving there is a mystery When Christ dying for sinners is preached to the world it is a self-denying act to beleeve in him before I know I am of Gods secret number of the names in the Lambs book for whom Christ died but 't is no self-deniall when I hear Christ died for all to beleeve I am one This Doctrine then is an enemy to true beleeving and indeed a false Doctrine as I called it at first and have so proved it can beget but a false faith that which is but temporary not to be nourished or cherished by any true teacher or dispenser of the word 3. Is there no ground of believing except Christ died for all I will name you a few without this and sufficient I suppose to convince and draw a soul to believing 1. That Proposition or true and faithfull saying 1 Tim. 1. 15. 2. The Command Believe God bids thee believe faith is obedience to the Command Rom. 16. 26. 3. The Promise He that beleeveth shall not perish Joh. 3. 16. but he hath everlasting life Joh. 6. 47. and shall certainly be saved Act. 16. 31. 4. Gods act of justifying the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. 5. Gods raising Christ from the dead Rom. 4. 24. 1 Pet. 1. 20 21. consult and ponder the places 6. This very Proposition That Christ died but for some namely for his sheep hath been a ground of believing as Joh. 10. 15 c. after much discourse about his sheep and dying for them the result and close is v. ult And many beleeved on him there 7. Christ himself held forth indefinitely as a sufficient necessary and only meane of salvation which who so believeth Ames Anti. Synodatia 188. in chuseth and relieth upon under that notion may be sure that Christ hath an effectuall intention and purpose of saving him So the Apostle Paul and others held forth Christ We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews indeed who will not see sufficiency a stumbling blocke and unto the Greeks 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. who will not see the necessary determinations of Gods wisdom this way foolishnesse But unto them which are called perswaded to hearken after a crucified Saviour the sufficiency necessity and sole-soveraignty of his soul-saving bloud and palsion Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God so we preach so Gods elect do believe though they know not at the first whether they be of the number for whom Christ was crucified Hence Fourthly and lastly I answer The first act of thy faith is not to beleeve Christ died for all or for thee in particular the one is not true the other is not certain to thee till thou beleevest but this is that thou art called unto to believe in Christ as dying for sinners and able and willing to save thee beleeving then when thou comest to reflect upon thy faith thou shalt finde Christ died for thee not one man or person of years more then other is included or excluded but by his faith or unbelief Behold again his second Reason without an Argument viz. without nerves or sinews of truth to argue for this tenet of his and of all unbeleevers in a practicall way Let none then go away from such a Lecture and say We were led into and kept in errour all this time for we were taught that we must first know we were elected before we should beleeve but now that we hear Christ died for all we see ground for beleeving for it is as much as your souls are worth to miscarry here you may be lost for ever upon this verticall point For I deny that Christs dying for all or Gods electing of some and the particular knowledge of it is the foundation that we lay for mens beleeving not the first because false not the later because though it be most true that God gave his Sonne for none but his elect yet that thou shouldest know thy self of the number before thou believest who but ignorant men will teach so who but ignorant hearts will think so Election is a cause of beleeving and so many as are ordained to life have and shall believe Act. 13. 48. And if men doe finally persist in unbelief it is a sign they are not of Christs sheep Joh. 10 26. He that would know his election or redemption before he believeth is never like to know it 2. Come we to his Arguments as he cals them Arg. 1. Arguments disarmed The. 1. From the text Math. 22. 14. Many are called but few are chosen It was thus argued If Christ died for all that are called he died for more then the elect but he died for all that are called else they should not have been called or being called they are bound to believe that which is false if Christ did not die for them Answ I deny the Assumption and the two proofs of it The Assumption to be denied of you beloved as of my self is this That Christ died for all that are called t is a presumption without any found proof for 1. The first proof Else they should not have been called is a non sequitur or a false consequence for many are called because among the many God hath his choise number and will one day more distinguish them before all the world then yet he doth as in vers 47. The Parable following these of the Text. 2. The second proof proves not that it is brought for Being called they are bound to believe that which is true or false and if Christ
dissemble and Consequences tried cut off preach a lie telling them that Christ died for them when he did not Answ 1. When we according to Scripture preach Christ crucified to the world not yet believing we do not we dare not say that Christ died for them but that Christ died for sinners that they might believe in him And doe we here dissemble or is this a lie Is it not a true and faithfull saying c. 1 Tim. 1. 15. And hath it not worth and weight in it 2. If upon our preaching and mens hearing faith be wrought we say to such and of such Christ died for them and doe we here dissemble or is this a lie to say Christ died for thee and me beleeving in him 3. Is not the dissimulation and lie the result of such stuff as this Christ died for all and every singular person when by the event it plainly appears he did not let Deut. 18. 2â— be the judge Cons 2. If we deny Christ died for all the world we may as well say God made a people on purpose to damn them as if you or I should marry a wife on purpose by the blessing of God to have children and then when God hath bestowed them you or I should go and cut the throat of one and hang another up by the tongue and throw a third at the fires back were it not a woefull thing then much more that a mercifull tender-hearted God should deal thus with the workmanship of his own hands Ans What have we here but great swelling words of vanity and the foam of a distempered fancy yea daring and desperate words against the truth 1. Let us examine the Consequence Doth it follow at all that because we say the one Christ died not for all therefore we may say the other that God made a people to damn them He would indeed teach us to blaspheme but we will not learn of him The Scripture tels us Eccles 7. ult God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions waies enough to damn themselves yea that one invention of eating the forbidden fruit was sufficient to have damned the elect of God with all the rest of mankinde but that Christ stept in for them the devil shall not swallow all Again the Scripture tells us Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil He made them not wicked but if men make themselves wicked God who would not permit the evil but for a greater good his own glory c. makes or orders these wicked ones to suffer their just punishment on the execution day 2. Because God will not lose his elect but purchase them at a dear rate Is he bound to doe as much for others as he freely doth for them Who art thou that repliest thus against God as if because man takes delight in sinning God should take delight in meer damning no no 'T is the sinner cuts his own throat and throws himself into the fire and when upon offers and entreaties the sinner will not return and live but sinne and die the mercifull God will shew no mercy He that made them will shew them no favour Isa 27. after his patience is abused his mercie sleighted and his tender bowels grieved justice breaks forth and fury ceaseth upon the poor sinner 3. Here is nothing but jugling and delusion in this pretended Consequence and plea for even they that plead Christ died for all doe not dare not say he died on purpose to save all or to take away from all sinners their purpose of sinning And if notwithstanding such universall grace and Redemption as the Adversaries boast of men will and do go on with their purpose of sinning shall not God go on with his purpose of punishing the works of the devil in his own workmanship Cons 3. It implieth and concludeth as true believers under condemnation as any that are saved for the truest believer doth but believe what is reported to him and if it be reported to some that Christ died not for them they believe it and so perish Ans 1. None that believeth and comes under condemnation can never be said to be a true believer in a true Theologicall but only metaphysicall sense as copper is true copper but standing for gold 't is not gold e're the more or true gold so the faith of a temporary believer is a right copper-faith not faith of Gods elect or a golden faith 2. A true believer indeed receiveth the whole testimony of God about his Son not a part only 3. In all the report of the Doctrine there is no such Doctrine as this taught Christ died not for these particulars or Christ died for every singular person He therefore who believes upon this ground Christ died for every one therefore for me beleeveth a false Proposition and his faith is false And he that beleeveth Christ died not for him because he is told â—o without book believeth without book and so if he perisheth he perisheth by and for beleeving his own heart or Satan a lying spirit in the mouth of his heart not for believing truly This is a meer scandall they would cast upon the true Gospel with the rest Cons 4. The grace of Christ is straitned for they speak of free grace and upstart nothing but a plea for one of a hundred or one of a thousand Answ 1. Is it nothing to have one of a hundred or one of a thousand written in the Lambs book of life Though who taught him or any other this Arithmetick The Lord only knoweth who and how many are his he is an upstart nothing who puts this reproach upon Gods diminutives and his little flock 2. The freenesse of grace is magnified and manifested the more by Christs dying for a certain number given to him of his Father whom he thanketh and praiseth Math. 11. 25 6 7. for this free reservation of grace to a few Contracted beams of the Sunne have the greater strength in a burning Glasse to warme and fire and so have the raies of divine favour contracted into a narrow compasse Rom. 9. 28. 3. Our plea for Gods elect will hold and come to something in the end none of the Lords people but shall obtain the fruit of Christs death when as their plea for all the world besides the elect will fail them in the experimentall issue and come to nothing Cons 5. God will damn men they hold because he will damn them and so they make damnation Gods Ordinance not mans sin the cause of it And in this we may go so farre as to justifie the devil who taught Cain and Julian and Spira to despair and Judas to hang himself Now you will conclude the devil to be a lier from the beginning and that he cannot teach a truth and on the contrary you will conclude none ought to despair c. Ans 1. It is a double reproach either that