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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30895	An apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called, in scorn, Quakers being a full explanation and vindication of their principles and doctrines, by many arguments, deduced from Scripture and right reason, and the testimony of famous authors, both ancient and modern, with a full answer to the strongest objections usually made against them, presented to the King / written and published in Latine, for the information of strangers, by Robert Barclay ; and now put into our own language, for the benefit of his country-men.; Theologiae verè Christianae apologia. English	Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing B721; ESTC R1740	415,337	436

deeds but only of his own pleasure and if he hath also decreed long before they were in being or in any capacity to do good or evil that they should walk in those wicked waies by which as by a secondary means they are led to that end who I pray is the first author and cause thereof but God who so willed and decreed This is as natural a consequence as any can be And therefore although many of the Preachers of this doctrine have sought out various strange strained and intricate distinctions to defend their opinion and evite this horrid consequence yet some and that of the most eminent of them have been so plain in the matter as they have put it beyond all doubt Of which I shall instance a few among many passages I say that by the ordination and will of God Adam fell God would have man to fall Man is blinded by the will and commandment of God We refer the causes of hardening us to God The highest or remote cause of hardening is the will of God It followeth that the hidden counsel of God is the cause of hardning These are Calvin's expressions God saith Beza hath predestinated not only unto damnation but also unto the causes of it whomsoever he saw meet The degree of God cannot be excluded from the causes of corruption It is certain saith Zanchius that God is the First cause of obduration Reprobates are held so fast under Gods Almighty decree that they cannot but sin and perish It is the opinion saith Paraeus of our Doctors that God did inevitably decree the temptation and fall of Man The creature sinneth indeed necessarily by the most just Judgment of God Our men do most rightly affirm that the fall of man was necessary and inevitable by accident because of Gods decree God saith Martyr doth incline and force the wills of wicked men into great sins God saith Zwinglius moveth the robber to kill He killeth God forcing him thereunto But thou wilt say he is forced to sin I permit truly that he is forced Reprobate Persons saith Piscator are absolutly ordained to this twofold end to undergo everlasting punishment and necessarily to sin and therefore to sin that they may be justly punished If these sayings do not plainly and evidently import that God is the Author of Sin we must not then seek these Mens opinions from their words but some way else it seems as if they had assumed to themselves that monstrous and twofold will they feign of God one by which they declare their minds openly and another more secret and hidden which is quite contrary to the other Nor doth it at all help them to say that man sins willingly since that willingness proclivity and propensity to evil is according to their judgment so necessarily imposed upon him that he cannot but be willing because God hath willed and decreed him so Which shift is just as if I should take a Child uncapable to resist me and throw it down from a great precipice the weight of the Childs body indeed makes it go readily down and the violence of the fall upon some rock or stone beats out its Brains and kills it Now then I pray though the body of the Child goes willingly down for I suppose it as to its mind is uncapable of any will and the weight of its body and not any immediate stroak of my hand who perhaps am at a great distance makes it die whether is the Child or I the proper cause of its death Let any man of reason judg if Gods's part be with them as great yea more immediate in the sins of men as by the testimonies above brought doth appear whether doth not this make him not only the Author of sins but more unjust than the unjustest of men § III. Secondly This Doctrine is injurious to God because it makes him delight in the death of sinners yea and to will many to die in their sins contrary to these Scriptures Ezek. 33.11 1 Tim. 2.3 2 Pet. 3.9 For if he hath created men only for this very end that he might show forth his Justice and Power in them as these men affirm and for effecting thereof hath not only with-held from them the means of doing good but also predestinated the evil that they might fall into it and that he inclines and forces them into great sins certainly he must necessarily delight in their death and will them to die seeing against his own will he neither doth nor can do any thing § IV. Thirdly It is highly injurious to Christ our Mediator and to the efficacy and excellency of his Gospel for it renders his mediation ineffectual as if he had not by his sufferings throughly broken down the middle wall nor yet removed the wrath of God or purchased the love of God towards all mankind if it was afore-decreed that it should be of no service to the far greater part of mankind It is to no purpose to alledg that the death of Christ was of efficacy enough to have saved all mankind if in effect its vertue be not so far exended as to put all mankind into a capacity of Salvation Fourthly It makes the preaching of the Gospel a meer mock and illusion if many of theseto whom it is preached be by an irrevocable decree excluded from being benefited by it it wholly makes useless the preaching of Faith and Repentance and the whole tenor of the Gospel promises and threatnings as being all relative to a former decree and means before appointed to such which because they cannot fail man needs do nothing but wait for that irresistible snatch which will come though it be but at the last hour of his Life if he be in the decree of Election And be his diligence and waiting what it can he shall never attain it if he belong to the decree of Reprobation Fifthly It makes the coming of Christ and his propitiatory Sacrifice which the Scripture affirms to have been the fruit of Gods love to the world and transacted for the sins and Salvation of all men to have been rather a testimony of Gods wrath to the world and one of the greatest judgments and severest acts of Gods indignation towards mankind it being only ordain'd to save a very few and for the hardening obduring and augmenting the condemnation of the far greater number of men because they believe not truly in it the cause of which unbelief again as the Divines so called above assert is the hidden counsel of God certainly the coming of Christ was never to them a testimony of Gods love but rather of his implacable wrath And if the World may be taken for the far greater number of such as live in it God never loved the world according to this Doctrine but rather hated it greatly in sending his Son to be crucified in it § V. Sixthly This Doctrine is highly injurious to mankind for it renders them in a far

Sun keeps its Prerogative it is such a ones imprudence that he shuts himself out from the common benefit of the Light The same Man in his 11 Book of Cain and Abel cap. 13. saith Therefore he brought unto all the means of Health that whosoever should Perish may ascribe to himself the causes of his Death who would not be cured when he had the remedy by which he might have escaped § IX Seeing then that this Doctrin of the Universality of Christ's death is so certain and agreeable to the Scripture Testimony and to the sense of the purest Antiquity it may be wondered how so many some whereof have been esteemed not only learned but also pious have been capable to fall into so gross and strange an errour But the cause of this doth evidently appear in that the way and method by which the vertue and efficacy of this death is communicated to all men hath not been rightly understood or indeed hath been erroneously affirmed The Pelagians ascribing to all man's will and nature denyed man to have any seed of sin conveighed to him from Adam And the Semi-Pelagians making Grace as a Gift following upon Man's merit or right improving of his nature according to their known Principle Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam This gave Augustine Prosper and some others occasion labouring in opposition to these Opinions to magnifie the Grace of God and paint out the corruption of Man's Nature as the Proverb is of those that seek to make straight a crooked stick to incline to the other extream So also the Reformers Luther and others finding among other errors the strange Expressions used by some of the Popish Scholasticks concerning Free-will and how much the tendency of their Principles is to exalt Man's Nature and lessen Gods Grace having all those sayings of Augustine and others for a pattern through the like mistake run upon the same extreme Tho afterwards the Lutherans seeing how far Calvin and his followers drove this matter who as a Man of subtile and profound judgment foreseeing where it would land resolved above-board to assert that God had decreed the means as well as the end and therefore had ordained men to sin and excites them thereto which he labours earnestly to defend and that there was no avoiding the making God the Author of sin thereby received occasion to discern the falsity of this Doctrin and disclaimed it as appears by the latter writings of Melancthon and the Monpelgartension Conference where Lucas Osiander one of the Collocutors terms it impious calls it a making God the Author of Sin and a horrid and horrible Blasphemy Yet because none of those who have asserted this Universal Redemption since the Reformation have given a clear distinct and satisfactory testimony how it is communicated to all and so have fall'n short of fully declaring the perfection of the Gospel Dispensation others have been thereby the more strengthened in their errors Which I shall illustrate by one singular example The Arminians and other assertors of universal Grace use this as a chief Argument That which every man is bound to believe is true But every man is bound to believe that Christ died for them Therefore c. Of this Argument the other party deny the Assumption saying that they who never heard of Christ are not obliged to believe in him and seeing the Remonstrants as they are commonly called do generally themselves acknowledge that without the outward knowledg of Christ there is no Salvation that gives the other yet party a stronger Argument for their precise decree of Reprobation For say they seeing we all see really and in effect that God hath with-held from many Generations and yet from many Nations that Knowledg which is absolutely needful to Salvation and so hath rendered it simply impossible unto them why may he not as well withhold the Grace necessary to make a saving application of that Knowledg where it is preached For these is no ground to say that this were injustice in God or impartiality more than his leaving those others in utter ignorance the one being but a with-holding Grace to apprehend the object of Faith the other a with drawing the object it self For answer to this they are forced to draw a conclusion from their former Hypothesis of Christ dying for all and God's mercy and justice saying that if these Heathens who live in these remote places where the outward knowledg of Christ is not did improve that common knowledg they have to whom the outward Creation is for an object of Faith by which they may gather that there is a God then the Lord would by some Providence either send an Angel to tell them of Christ or conveigh the Scripture to them or bring them some way to an opportunity to meet with such as might inform them Which as it gives alwayes too much to the power and strength of mans will and nature and savours a little of Socinianism and Pelagianism or at least of Semi-pelagianism so since it is only built upon probable conjectures neither hath it evidence enough to convince any strongly tainted with the other Doctrin nor yet doth it make the equity and wonderful Harmony of Gods Mercy and Justice towards all so manifest to the understanding So that I have often observed that these assertors of Universal Grace did far more pithily and strongly overturn the false Doctrine of their Adversaries then they did establish and confirm the truth and certainty of their own And though they have proof sufficient from the Holy Scriptures to confirm the Universality of Christ's Death and that none are precisely by any irrevocable decree excluded from Salvation yet I find when they are expressed in the respects above mentioned to shew how God hath so far equally extended the capacity to partake of the benefit of Christ's Death unto all as to communicate unto them a sufficient way of so doing they are somewhat in a strait and are put more to give us their conjectures from the certainty of the former presupposed Truth to wit that because Christ hath certainly dyed for all and God hath not rendred Salvation impossible to any therefore there must be some way or other by which they may be saved which must be by improving some common Grace or by gathering from the works of Creation and Providence then by really demonstrating by convincing and Spiritual Arguments what that way is § X. It falls out then that as Darkness and the great Apostasie came not upon the Christian World all at once but by several degrees one thing making way for another until that thick and gross vail came to be overspread wherewith the Nations were so blindly covered from the seventh and eighth until the sixteenth Centuries even as the Darkness of the Night comes not upon the outward Creation at once but by degrees according as the Sun declines in each Horizon so neither did that full and clear Light and Knowledg

was no other than of unjust to be made just through the Grace of God for Christ. He mentioneth more but this may suffice to our purpose § VIII Having thus sufficiently proved that by justification is to be understood a really being made righteous I do boldly affirm and that not only from a notional knowledg but from a real inward experimental feeling of the thing that the immediate nearest or formal cause if we must in condescendence to some use this word of a man's justification in the sight of God is the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Soul changing altering and renewing the mind by whom even the Author of this inward work thus formed and revealed we are truly justified and accepted in the sight of God For it is as we are thus covered and cloathed with him in whom the Father is alwaies well pleased that we may draw near to God and stand with confidence before his throne being purged by the blood of Jesus inwardly poured into our Souls and cloathed with his Life and Righteousness therein revealed And this is that order and method of Salvation held forth by the Apostle in that Divine saying Rom. 5.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life For the Apostle first holding forth the reconciliation wrought by the death of Christ wherein God is near to receive and redeem man holds forth his Salvation and Justification to be by the Life of Jesus Now that this Life is an inward Spiritual thing revealed in the Soul whereby it is renewed and brought forth out of death where it naturally has been by the fall and so quickned and made alive unto God The same Apostle shews Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickened us together in Christ by whose Grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together Now this none will deny to be the inward work of renovation and therefore the Apostle gives that reason of their being saved by Grace which is the inward Vertue and Power of Christ in the Soul but of this place more hereafter Of the Revelation of this inward Life the Apostle also speaketh 2 Cor. 4.10 That the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Bodies and ver 11. That the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal Flesh. Now this inward Life of Jesus is that whereby as is before observed he saith We are saved Secondly That it is by this revelation of Jesus Christ and the new Creation in us that we are justified doth evidently appear from that excellent saying of the Apostle included in the Proposition it self Tit. 3.5 according to his mercy he hath saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost c. Now that whereby we are saved that we are also no doubt justified by which words are in this respect synonimous Here the Apostle clearly ascribes the immediate cause of Justification to this inward work of Regeneration which is Jesus Christ revealed in the Soul as being that which formerly states us in a capacity of being reconciled with God the washing or regeneration being that inward Power and Vertue whereby the Soul is cleansed and cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ so as to be made fit to appear before God Thirdly This Doctrin is manifest from 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your own selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates First it appears here how earnest the Apostle was that they should know Christ in them so that he presses this exhortation upon them and inculcates it three times Secondly he makes the cause of reprobation or not-justification the want of Christ thus revealed and known in the Soul whereby it necessarily follows by the rule of contraries where the parity is alike as in this case it is evident that where Christ is inwardly known there the persons subjected to him are approved and justified For there can be nothing more plain than this that if we must know Christ in us except we be reprobates ortunjustified persons that if we know him in us we are not reprobates and consequently justified ones Like unto this is that other saying of the same Apostle Gal. 4.19 My little Children of whom I travel in Birth again until Christ be formed in you and therefore the Apostle terms this Christ within the hope of Glory Col. 1.27.28 Now that which is the hope of Glory can be no other than that which we immediately and most nearly relie upon for our Justification and that whereby we are really and truly made Just. And as we do not hereby deny but the Original and Fundamental cause of our Justification is the Love of God manifested in the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh who by his Life Death Sufferings and Obedience made a way for our Reconciliation and became a Sacrifice for the remission of sins that are past and purchased unto us this Seed and Grace from which this birth arises and in which Jesus Christ is inwardly received formed and brought forth in us in his own pure and Holy Image of Righteousness by which our Souls live unto God ond are cloathed with him and have put him on even as the Scripture speaks Eph. 4.23 24. Gal. 3.27 We stand justified and saved in and by him and by his Spirit and Grace Rom. 3.24 1 Cor. 6.11 Tit. 3.7 So again reciprocally we are hereby made partakers of the fulness of his merits and his cleansing blood is near to wash away every sin and infirmity and to heal all our back-slidings as often as we turn towards him by unfeigned Repentance and become renewed by his Spirit Those then that find him thus raised and ruling in them have a true ground of hope to believe that they are Justified by his Blood But let not any deceive themselves so as to foster themselves in a vain hope and confidence that by the Death and Sufferings of Christ they are Justified so long as sin lies at their door Gen. 4. v. 7. Iniquity prevails and they remain yet unrenewed and unregenerate lest it be said unto them I know you not Let that saying of Christ be remembred not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter but he that doth the will of my Father Matth. 7.21 To which let these excellent sayings of the beloved Disciple be added Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he is Righteous He that committeth sin is of the Devil because if our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 3.7 20. Many Famous Protestants bear witness to this inward Justification by Christ inwardly revealed and formed in man as 1. M. Borrhaeus In the Imputation saith he wherein Christ

saith is in his sinning and then as if he purposed expresly to shut out such an opinion he assures us the Son shall not bear the Fathers Iniquity From which I thus argue If the Son bear not the Iniquity of his Father or of his immediate Parents far less shall he bear the iniquity of Adam But the Son shall not bear the Iniquity of his Father Therefore c. § V. Having thus far shewn how absurd this Opinion is I shall briefly examine the reasons its Authors bring for it First They say Adam was a publick Person Obj. and therefore all men sinned in him as being in his loins And for this they alledg that of Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned c. These last words say they may be translated in whom all have sinned To this I answer That Adam is a publick person is not denyed and that through him there is a seed of sin propagated to all men Answ. which in its own nature is sinsiul and inclines men to iniquity yet will it not follow from thence that Infants who joyn not with this Seed are guilty As for these words in the Romans the reason of the guilt there alledged is for that all have sinned Now no man is said to sin unless he actually sin in his own person for the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well relate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the nearest antecedent so that they hold forth how that Adam by his sin gave an entrance to sin in the world and so death entred by sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. upon which viz. occasion or in which viz. death all others have sinned that is actually in their own person to wit all that were capable of sinning of which number that infants could not be the Apostle clearly shews by the following verse Sin is not imputed where there is no Law and since as is above proved there is no Law to Infants they cannot be here included Their second Objection is from Psal. 51.5 Obj. Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Hence they say it appears that Infants from their Conception are guilty How they infer this consequence for my part I see not The iniquity and sin here Answ. appears to be far more ascribable to the Parents than to the Child It is said indeed In sin did my mother conceive me not my mother did conceive me a sinner Besides that so interpreted contradicts expresly the Scripture before mentioned in making Children guilty of the sins of their immediate Parents for of Adam there is not here any mention contrary to the plain words the Son shall not bear the Fathers iniquity Obj. Thirdly They object that the wages of sin is death and that seeing Children are subject to Diseases and Death therefore they must be guilty of sin Answ. I answer That these things are a consequence of the fall and of Adams sin is confessed but that infers necessarily a guilt in all others that are subject to them is denyed For though the whole outward Creation suffered a decay by Adam's fall which groans under vanity according to which it is said in Job that the Heavens are not clean in the sight of God yet will it not from thence follow that the Herbs Earth and Trees are sinners Next Death though a consequent of the fall incident to mans earthly Nature is not the wages of sin in the Saints but rather sleep by which they pass from death to life which is so far from being troublesome and painful to them as all real punishments for sin are that the Apostle counts it gain To me saith he to die is gain Psal. 1.21 Obj. Some are so foolish as to make an objection farther saying That if Adam 's sin be not imputed to those who actually have not sinned then it would follow that all Infants are saved But we are willing that this supposed absurdity should be the consequence of our Doctrine rather than that which it seems our adversaries reckon not absurd though the undoubted and unavoidable consequence of theirs viz. that Many Infants eternally perish not for any sin of their own but only for Adams iniquity where we are willing to let the controversie sist commending both to the illuminated understanding of the Christian Reader This error of our adversaries is both denied and refuted by Zwinglius that eminent Founder of the Protestant Churches of Zwitzerland in his Book De Baptismo for which he is anathematized by the Council of Trent in the fifth Session We shall only add this information that we confess then that a seed of sin is transmitted to all men from Adam although imputed to none until by sinning they actually joyn with it in which seed he gave occasion to all to sin and it is the orignal of all evil actions and thoughts in mens hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the 5. of the Romans i. e. in which death all have sinned For this seed of sin is frequently called Death in the Scripture and the body of death seeing indeed it is a death to the Life of Righteousness and Holiness Therefore its seed and its product is called the old man the old Adam in which all sin is for which cause we use this name to express this sin and not that of original sin of which phrase the Scripture makes no mention and under which invented and unscriptural Barbarism this notion of imputed sin to Infants took place among Christians The Fifth and Sixth Propositions Concerning the Vniversal Redemption by Christ and also the saving and Spiritual Light wherewith every man is inlightned The Fifth Proposition GOD out of his Infinite love who delighteth not in the Death of a Sinner but that all should live and be saved hath so loved the World that he hath given his only Son a LIGHT that whosoever believeth in him shall be saved John 3.16 Who inlighteneth every man that cometh into the World John 1.9 And maketh manifest all things that are reprovable Eph. 5.12 And teacheth all Temperance Righteousness and Godliness And this light lighteneth the hearts of all in a day in order to Salvation and this is it which reproves the Sin of all Individuals and would work out the Salvation of all if not resisted nor is it less Universal than the Seed of Sin being the purchase of his death who tasted death for every man For as in Adam all dye even so in Christ all shall be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 The Sixth Proposition According to which Principle or hypothesis all the objections against the Universality of Christs Death are easily solved neither is it needful to recur to the Ministry of Angels and those other miraculous means which they say God useth to manifest the Doctrine and

have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World The way which our Adversaries take to evite this Testimony is most foolish and ridiculous The World here say they is the World of Believers For this Commentary we have nothing but their own assertion and so while it manifestly destroys the Text may be justly rejected For first let them shew me if they can in all the Scripture where the whole world is taken for Believers only I shall shew them where it is many times taken for the quite contrary as the world knows me not the world receives me not I am not of this world Besides all these Scriptures Psal. 17.14 Isa. 13.11 Matth. 18.1 John 7.7 8.26.12.19.14.17.15.18 19.17.14.18.20 1 Cor. 1.21.2 12.6.2 Gal. 6.14 Jam. 1.27 2 Pet. 2.20 1 Joh. 2.15.3.1 and 4.4 5. and many more Secondly the Apostle in this very place contradistinguisheth the World from the Saints thus And not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world What means the Apostle by ours here Is not that the sins of Believers Was not he one of those Believers And was not this an universal Epistle written to all the Saints that then were So that according to these mens comment there should be a very unnecessary and foolish redundancy in the Apostles words as if he had said he is a Propitiation not only for the sins of all Believers but for the sins of all Believers Is not this to make the Apostles words void of good sense Let them shew us where ever there is such a manner of speaking in all the Scripture where any of the Pen-men first name the Believers in concreto with themselves and then contradistinguish them from some other whole world of Believers That whole World if it be of Believers must not be the world we live in But we need no better interpreter for the Apostle than himself who uses the very same expression and phrase in the same Epistle c. 5.19 saying We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness there cannot be found in all the Scripture two places which run more parallel seeing in both the same Apostle in the same Epistle to the same persons contradistinguisheth himself and the Saints to whom he writes from the whole world which according to these mens commentary ought to be understood of Believers as if John had said We know particular Believers are of God but the whole World of Believers lieth in wickedness What absurd wresting of Scripture were this And yet it may be as well pleaded for as the other for they differ not at all seeing then that the Apostle John tells us plainly that Christ not only died for him and for the Saints and Members of the Church of God to whom he wrote but for the whole world Let us then hold it for a certain and undoubted Truth notwithstanding the cavils of such as oppose This might also be proved from many more Scripture testimonies if it were at this season needful All the Fathers so called and Doctors of the Church for the first four centuries preached this Doctrin according to which they boldly held forth the Gospel of Christ and efficacy of Death inviting and intreating the Heathens to come and be partakers of the benefits of it shewing them how there was a door open for them all to be saved through Jesus Christ not telling them that God had predestinated any of them to Damnation or had made Salvation impossible to them by with-holding Power and Grace necessary to believe from them But of many of their sayings which might be alledged I shall only instance a few Austin on the 95 Psalm saith The Blood of Christ is of no less value than the whole World Prosper ad Gall. c. 9. The redeemer of the World gave his blood for the World and the World would not be redeemed because the darkness did not receive the Light He that saith the Saviour was not crucified for the redemption of the whole World looks not to the vertue of the Sacrament but to the part of Infidels since the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the price of the whole World from which redemption they are strangers who either delighting in their captivity would not be redeemed or after they were redeemed returned to the same servitude The same Prosper in his answer to Vencentius's first objection Seeing therefore because of one common nature and cause in Truth undertaken by our Lord all are rightly said to be redeemed and nevertheless all are not brought out of Captivity the property of Redemption without doubt belongeth to those from whom the Prince of this World is shut out and now are not vessels of the devil but Members of Christ whose Death was so bestowed upon mankind that it belonged to the Redemption of such who are not to be regenerated But so that which was done by the Example of one for all might by a singular mystery be celebrated in every one For the Cup of Immortality which is made up of our Infirmity and the Divine Power hath indeed that in it which may profit all but if it be not drunk it doth not heal The Author de vocat Gentium lib. 11. cap. 6. There is no cause to doubt but that our Lord Jesus Christ died for Sinners and wicked Men and if there can be any found who may be said not to be of this number Christ hath not died for all he made himself a Redeemer for the whole World Chrysistom on the 1. chap. of John If he inlightens every man coming into the World how comes it that so many men remain without Light For all do not so much as acknowledg Christ how then doth he inlighten every Man he illuminates indeed so far as in him is but if any of their own accord closing the eyes of their mind will not direct their eyes unto the beams of this Light the cause that they remain in darkness is not from the nature of the Light but through their own malignity who willingly have rendred themselves unworthy of so great a gift But why be lieved they not Because they would not Christ did his part The Arelatensian Synod held about the year 490 Pronounced him accursed who should say that Christ hath not dyed for all or that he would not have all men to be saved Ambr. on Psal. 118. Serm. 8. The mystical Sun of Righteousness is arisen to all he came to all he suffered for all and rose again for all And therefore he suffered that he might take away the Sin of the World But if any one believed not in Christ he bros himself of this general Benefit even as if one by closing the Windows should hold out the Sun-beams the Sun is not therefore not arisen to all because such a one hath so robbed himself of its heat But the

is ascribed and imputed to Believers for Righteousness the merit of his Blood and the Holy Ghost given unto us by Vertue of his merits are equally included And so it shall be confessed that Christ is our Righteousness as well from his Merit Satisfaction and Remission of sins obtained by him as from the gifts of the Spirit of Righteousness And if we do this we shall consider whole Christ proposed to us for our Salvation and not any single part of him The same man pag. 169. In our Justification then Christ is considered who breaths and lives in us to wit by his Spirit put on by us concerning which putting on the Apostle saith Ye have put on Christ. And again pag. 171. We endeavour to treat in Justification not of part of Christ but him wholly in so far as he is our Righteousness every way And a little after as then blessed Paul in our Justification when he saith whom he Justified them he Glorified comprehends all things which pertains to our being reconciled to God the Father and our renewing which fits us for attaining unto glory such as Faith Righteousness Christ and the Gift of Righteousness exhibited by him whereby we are regenerated to the fulfilling of the Justification which the Law requires so we also will have all things comprehended in this cause which are contained in the recovery of Righteousness and Innocency And pag. 181. The form saith he of our Justification is the Divine Righteousness it self by which we are formed just and good This is Jesus Christ who is esteem'd our Righteousness partly from the forgiveness of sins and partly from the renewing and the restoring of that integrity which was lost by the fault of the first Adam so that his New and Heavenly Adam being put on by us of which the Apostle saith Ye have put on Christ ye have put him on I say as the form so the Righteousness Wisdom and Life of God So also affirmeth Claudius Alberius Inuncanus see his Orat. Apodeict Lausaniae excus 1587. orat 2. pag. 86 87. Zuinglius also in his Epistle to the Princes of Germany as cited by Himelius c. 7. p. 60. saith That the Sanctification of the Spirit is true Justification which alone suffices to Justifie Essius upon 1 Cor. 6.11 saith Lest Christian Righteousness should be thought to consist in the washing alone that is in the remission of sins he addeth the other degree or part but ye are sanctified that is ye have attain'd to purity so that ye are now truly Holy before God Lastly expressing the sum of the benefit received in one word which includes both the parts But ye are Justified the Apostle adds in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that is by his merits and in the Spirit of our God that is the Holy Spirit proceeding from God and communicated to us by Christ. And lastly Richard Baxter a Famous English Preacher who yet liveth in his Book called Aphorisms of Justification pag. 80. saith that some ignorant wretches gnash their Teeths at this Doctrine as if it were flat Popery not understanding the Nature of the Righteousness of the New Covenant which is all out of Christ in our selves though wrought by the Power of the Spirit of Christ in us § IX The third thing proposed to be considered is concerning good Works their necessity to Justification I suppose there is enough said before to clear us from any imputation of being Popish in this matter But if it be queried Whether we have not said or will not affirm that a man is justified by Works Quest. I answer I hope none need neither ought to take offence if in this matter we use the plain Language of the Holy Scripture Answ. which saith expresly in answer hereunto Jam. 2.24 Ye see then how that by works a man is Justified and not by Faith only I shall not offer to prove the Truth of this saying since what is said in this Chapter by the Apostle is sufficient to convince any man that will read and believe it I shall only from this derive this one argument If no man can be Justified without Faith and no Faith be living nor yet available to Justification without works then works are necessary to Justification But the First is true Therefore also the Last For this Truth is so apparent and evident in the Scriptures that for the proof of it we might transcribe most of the precepts of the Gospel I shall instance a few which of themselves do so clearly assert the thing in question that they need no commentary nor further demonstration And then I shall answer the objections made against this which indeed are the arguments used for the contrary opinion Heb. 12.14 Without Holyness no man shall see God Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Joh. 13.7 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and through the Gates may enter into the City and many more that might be instanced from all which I thus argue If those only can enter into the Kingdom that do the will of the Father If those be accounted only the wise builders and happy Arg. that do the sayings of Christ if no observation avail but only the keeping of the Commandments and if they be blessed that do the Commandments and thereby have right to the Tree of Life and entrance through the gate into the City then works are absolutely necessary to Salvation and Justification But the First is true And therefore also the Last The consequence of the antecedent is so clear and evident that I think no man of sound reason will call for a proof of it Obj. § X. But they object that works are not necessary to Justification First because of that saying of Christ Luk. 17.10 When ye shall have done all these things that are commanded you say We are unprofitable Servants c. Answ. Answer as to God we are indeed unprofitable for he needeth nothing neither can we add any thing unto him but as to our selves we are not unprofitable else it might be said that it is not profitable for a man to keep God's Commandments which is most absurd and would contradict Christ's Doctrine throughout Doth not Christ Matth. 5. through all those beatitudes pronounce men blessed for their Purity for their Meekness for their Peaceableness c. And is it not then that for which Christ pronounceth men blessed profitable unto them Moreover Matth. 25.21 23. doth not Christ pronounce the men good and faithful Servants that improved their Talents Was not their doing of that then profitable unto them and verse 30. It is said of him

the apostasie if we did not this way stand immoveable to the Truth revealed but should join with them both our testimony for God would be weakned and lost and it would be impossible steadily to propagate this worship in the world whose progress we dare neither retard nor hinder by any act of ours though therefore we shall lose not only worldly honour but even our lives And truly many Protestants through their unsteadiness in this thing for politick ends complying with the popish abominations have greatly scandalized their profession and hurt the reformation as appeared in the Example of the Elector of Saxony who in the Convention at Ausburg in the year 1530. being commanded by the Emperor Charles the Fifth to be present at the Mass that he might carry the Sword before him according to his place which when he justly scrupled to perform his Preachers taking more care for their Princes Honour than for his Conscience perswaded him that it was lawful to it against his Conscience which was both a very bad Example and great scandal to the Reformation and displeased many as the Author of the History of the Council of Trent in his first book well observes But now I hasten to the objection of our adversaries against this method of praying Obj. § XXV First They object that if such particular influences were needful to outward acts of worship then they should also be needful to inward acts as to wit desire and love God But this is absurd Therefore also that from whence it follows I answer that which was said in the state of the controversie cleareth this because as to those general duties Answ. there never wants an influence so long as the day of a man's visitation lasteth during which time God is alwaies near to him and wrestling with him by his Spirit to turn him to himself so that if he do but stand still and cease from his evil thoughts the Lord is near to help him c. But as to the outward acts of Prayer they need a more special motion and influence as hath been proved Secondly they object that it might be also alledged Obj. that men ought not to do moral duties as Children to honour their Parents men to do right to their neighbours except the Spirit moved them to it I answer there is a great difference betwixt these general duties betwixt man and man Answ. and the particular express acts of worship towards God the one is meerly Spiritual and commanded by God to be performed by his Spirit the other answer their end as to them whom they are immediatly directed to and concern though done from a meer natural principle of self-love even as beasts have natural affections one to another and therefore may be thus performed though I shall not deny but that they are not works accepted of God or beneficial to the Soul but as they are done in the fear of God and in blessing in which his Children do all things and therefore are accepted and blessed in whatsoever they do Thirdly they object Obj. that if a wicked man ought not to pray without a motion of the Spirit because his Prayer would be sinful neither ought he to plough by the same reason because the ploughing of the wicked as well as his praying is sin This objection is of the same nature with the former Answ. and therefore may be answered the same way seeing there is a great difference betwixt natural acts such as eating drinking sleeping and seeking for sustenance for the body which things Man hath common with Beasts and Spiritual acts And it doth not follow because man ought not to go about Spiritual acts without the Spirit that therefore he may not go about natural acts without it The analogy holds better thus and that for the proof of our affirmation that as man for the going about natural acts need his natural Spirit so to perform Spiritual acts he needs the Spirit of God That the natural acts of the wicked and unregenerate are sinful is not denied though not as in themselves but in so far as man in that state is in all things reprobated in the sight of God Fourthly they object that wicked men may according to this doctrin Obj. forbear to pray for years together alledging they want a motion to it Answ. I answer the false pretences of wicked men do nothing invalidate the truth of this doctrin for at that rate there is no doctrin of Christ which men might not turn by That they ought not to pray without the Spirit is granted but then they ought to come to that place of watching where they may be capable to feel the Spirits motion They sin indeed in not praying but the cause of this sin is their not watching so their neglect proceeds not from this doctrin but from their disobedience to it seeing if they did pray without this it would be a double sin and no fulfilling of the command to pray nor yet would their Prayer without this Spirit be useful unto them and this our Adversaries are forced to acknowledg in another case for they say It is a duty incumbent on Christians to frequent the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as they call it Yet they say No man ought to take it unworthily yea they plead that such as find themselves unprepared must abstain and therefore do usually excommunicate them from the Table Now though according to them it be necessary to partake of this Sacrament yet it is also necessary that those that do it do first examine themselves lest they eat and drink their own condemnation and though they reckon it sinful for them to forbear yet they account it more sinful for them to do it without this examination Fifthly they object Acts 8.22 where Peter commanded Simon Magus Obj. that wicked Sorcerer to pray from thence inferring that wicked men may and ought to pray Answ. I answer that in the citing of this place as I have often observed they omit the first and chiefest part of the verse which is thus Acts 8. verse 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee So here he bids him first repent now the least measure of true Repentance cannot be without somewhat of that inward retirement of the mind which we speak of and indeed where true repentance goeth first we do not doubt but the Spirit of God will be near to concur with and influence such to pray to and call upon God Obj. And Lastly they object that many Prayers begun without the Spirit have proved effectual and that the Prayers of wicked men have been heard and found acceptable as Achab's Answ. This objection was before solved for the acts of God's compassion and indulgence at sometimes and to some persons upon singular extraordinary occasions are not be a rule of our actions For if we should make that the measure of our obedience great inconveniencies