of Christ is a low carnal Conception The Will of God is not moved by any thing without it self k Alterations are in the things altered not in the Will of God concerning them 3 To make this the whole Effect of the Death of Christ that God should determine and promise to lay aside his wrath is l no Scripture discovery either as to Name or Thing 4 The Purposes of God which are all Eternal and the Promises of God which are all made in time are very inconveniently ranged in the same Series 5 That by the Death of Christ Attonement is made everlasting Redemption purchased that God is Reconciled a Right unto Freedom obtained for those for whom he died shall be afterwards declared 6 If God doth only Purpose and Promise to lay aside his Anger upon the Death of Christ but doth it not until our actual believing then 1 our Faith is the proper procuring cause of Reconciliation the Death of Christ but a Requisite Antecedent which is not the Scripture Phrase Rom. 5. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 18. Eph. 2. 16. Col. 1. 20 21. Dan. 9. 24. Heb. 2. 17. Eph. 1. 7. Heb. 9. 12. 2 How comes the Sinner by Faith if it is the Gift of God It must be an Issue of Anger and Enmity for that Schem only is actually ascribed to him before our enjoyment of it Strange that God should be so far reconciled as to give us Faith that we may be reconciled to him that thereupon he may be reconciled to us 3 For the Third Instance of Gods receiving the sinner into love and favour upon his beleeving quite laying aside his anger I Answer To wave the Anthropomorphisme wherwith this Assertion is tainted as the former If by receiving into favour he intend absolute compleat pactional Justification being an Act of favour quitting the sinner from the guilt of sin charged by the Accusation of the Law terminated on the Conscience of a sinner I confess it in order of nature to follow our beleiving I might Consider further the Attempts of others for the right sttating of this business but it would draw me beyond my Intention His failings herein who is so often mentioned and so much used by him who gives occasion to this rescript I could not but remark What are my own Thoughts and Apprehensions of the whole I shall in the next place briefly impart Now to make way hereunto some things I must suppose which though some of them otherwhere controverted yet not at all in reference to the present business and they are these 1 That Christ died only for the Elect or God gave his Son to die only for those whom he chuseth to life and salvation for the praise of his glorious Grace This is granted by Mr Baxter where he affirms That Christ bare not punishment for them who must bear punishment themselves in eternal fire Thes. 33. p. 162. And again Christ died not for final Vnbelief Thes. 32. p. 159. therefore not for them who are finally Unbelievers as all non-Elected are and shall be For what Sinners he died he died for all their sins Rom. 5. 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 1. 7. If any shall say That as he died not for the final Unbelief of others so not for the final Unbelief of the Elect and so not for final Unbelief at all I Answer First If by final Unbelief you mean that which is actually so Christ satisfied not for it His satisfaction cannot be extended to those things whose Existence is prevented by his Merit The Omission of this in the consideration of the Death Christ lies at the bottom of many mistakes Merit and Satisfaction are of equal Extent as to their Objects both also tend to the same End but in sundry respects Secondly If by final Vnbelief you understand that which would be so notwithstanding all means and remedies were it not for the Death of Christ so he did satisfie for it It's Existens being prevented by his Merit So then if Christ died not for final Unbelief he died not for the finally Unbeleeving Though the Satisfaction of his Death hath not paid for it the Merit of his Death would remove it Thirdly I Suppose That the Means as well as the Ends Grace as Glory are the Purchase and procurement of Jesus Christ See this proved in my Treatise of Redemption Lib. 3. Cap. 4. c. Fourthly That God is absolutely immutable unchangable in all his Attributes Neither doth his Will admit of any alteration This proved above Fifthly That the Will of God is not moved properly by any external Cause whatsoever unto any of its Acts whether imminent or transient For 1 m By a moving Cause we understand a Cause Morally Efficient and if any thing were so properly in respect of any Act of Gods Will then the Act which is the Will of God Acting must in some respect viz. As it is an Effect be less worthy and inferiour to the Cause for so is every Effect in respect of it's Cause And 2 Every Effect produced proceedeth from a Passive possibility unto the Effect which can no way be assigned unto God besides it must be temporarie for nothing that is Eternal can have dependance upon that whose Rise is in Time and such are all things external to the Will of God even the Merit of Christ himself 3 I cannot imagine how there can be any other Cause why God Willeth any thing then why he not Willeth or Willeth not other things which for any to Assign will be found Difficult Mat. 11. 25. Chap. 20. 15. So then when God Willeth one thing for another as our Salvation for the Death of Christ the one is the Cause of the other neither moveth the Will of God Hence Sixthly All Alterations are in the things concerning which the Acts of the Will of God are none in the Will of God its self These things being premised what was before proposed I shall now in order make out beginning with the Eternal Acts of the Will of God towards us antecedent to all or any Consideration of the DEATH of CHRIST CAP. VII In particular of the Will of God towards them for whom Christ died and their state and Condition as Considered Antecedanous to the Death of Christ and all Efficiency thereof FIRST then the Habitude of God towards man Antecedent to all fore-sight of the Death of Christ is an Act of Supream Soveraignty and Dominion appointing them by means suited to the manifestation of his Glorious Properties according to his Infinitely Wise and Free Disposal to Eternal Life and Salvation for the praise of his glorious Grace That this Salvation was never but one or of one kind consisting in the same kind of Happiness in reference unto Gods appointment needs not much proving To think that God appointed one kind of Condition for man if he had continued in Innocency and another upon his Recovery from the Fall is to think That
Justice so repaired as above For Positive good things in Grace and Glory by Satisfaction alone they are not at all respected 2 There is the Merit of the Death of Christ and that Principally intendeth the Glory of God in our enjoying those good things whereof it is the Merit or desert And this is the Foundation of that Right whereof we treat What Christ hath Merited for us it is just and equal we should have that is We have Right unto it and this before Beleeving Faith gives us actual Possession as to some Part and a new Pactional right as to the whole but this Right or that equalling of things upon divine Constitution Jus est operatio illa qua sit aequalitas Pesant in Tom. 22. ae q. 57. whereby it becomes Just and Right that we should obtain the things Purchased by it is from the Merit of Christ alone What Christ hath Merited is so far granted as that they for whom it is so Merited have a Right unto it The Sum then of what we have to prove is That the Merit of the Death of the Lord Jesus hath according to the Constitution of the Father so procured of him the good things aimed at and intended therby that it is Just Right and Equal that they for whom they are so procured should certainly and infallibly enjoy them at the appointed Season and therefore unto them they have an actual Right even before Beleeving Faith it self being of the number of those things so procured All which I prove as followeth 1 The very Terms before mentioned enforce no less If it be justum before their Beleeving that those for whom Christ Died should enjoy the Fruits of his Death then have they even before Beleeving jus or a right thereunto for jus est quod justum est That it is right and equal that they should enjoy those Fruits is manifest For. 1 It was the Engagement of the Father to the Son upon his undertaking to die for them that they should so do Isa. 53. 10 11 12. 2 In that Undertaking he Accomplished all that was of him required Joh. 17. 4. 2 That which is Merited and Procured for any one thereunto he for whom it is procured certainly hath a Right That which is obtained for me is mine in actual right though not perhaps in actual Possession The thing that is obtained is granted by him of whom it is obtained and that unto them for whom it is obtained In some sense or other that is a man's which is procured for him In saying it is procured for him we say no less If this then be not in Respect of Possession it must be in Respect of Right Now all the Fruits of the Death of Christ are obtained and procured by his Merit for them for whom he died He OBTAINS for them eternal Redemption Heb. 9. 12. purchasing them with his own Blood Act. 20. 28. Heb. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Gal. 1. 4. Rev. 14. 3 4. The very Nature of Merit described by the Apostle Rom. 4. 4. infers no less Where Merit intercedes the Effect is reckoned as of debt That which is my due debt I have a Right unto The Fruits of the Death of Christ are the Issues of Merit bottomed on Gods gracious Acceptation and reckoned as of debt He for whom a Ransome is paid hath a Right unto his Liberty by vertue of that Payment 3 2 Pet. 1. 1. The Saints are said to obtain precious Faith through the reghteousness of God It is a righteous thing with God to give Faith to them for whom Christ died because thereby they have a Right unto it Faith being amongst the most precious Fruits of the Death of Christ by vertue thereof becometh their due for whom he died 4 The Condition of Persons under Merit and de-Merit in respect of Good or Evill is alike The Proportion of things requires it Now men under de-Merit are under an Obligation unto Punishment and it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation unto them 2 Thess. 1. 6. It being the judgement of God that they who do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. They then who are under Merit have also a Right unto that whereof it is the Merit It is not of any force to say That they are not under that Merit but only upon Condition For this is 1 False 2 With God this is all one as if there were no Condition at the Season and Term appointed for the making out the Fruit of that Merit as hath been declared Neither yet to Object That it is not their own Merit but of another which Respects them That Other being their Surety doing that whereby he Merited only on their behalf yea in their stead they dying with him though the same in them could not have been Meritorious they being at best meer men and at worst very sinful men 5 A Compact or Covenant being made of giving Life and Salvation upon the Condition of Obedience to certain Persons that Condition being compleatly fulfilled as it was in the Death of Christ Claim being made of the Promise according to the Tenure of the Compact and the Persons presented for the Enjoyment of it surely those Persons have an Actual Right unto it That all this is so see Isa. 49. 2 3 4 5 6 c. Psal. 2. 2. 4 5. Isa. 53. 10 11 12. Joh. 17. 3. 2. 21. Heb. 2. And so much for this also concerning the Issue of the Death of Christ and the Right of the Elect to the Fruits of it before Beleeving CAP. XII Of the way whereby they actually attain and enjoy Faith and Grace who have a Right thereunto by the Death of Christ THE Way and Causes of bestowing Faith on them who are under the Condition before described is the next thing to be enquired after What are the Thoughts of God from Eternity concerning those for whom Christ was to die with the State they are left in in relation to those Thoughts as also what is the Will of God towards them immediatly upon the Consideration of the Death of Christ with the Right which to them accrews thereby being Considered it remaineth I say that we declare the Way and Method whereby they obtain Faith through the righteousness of God And here we must lay down certain POSITIONS As 1 Notwithstanding the Right granted them for whom Christ died upon his Death to a better State and Condition in due Time that is in the Season suiting the Infinitly-Wise-Sovereignty of God yet as to their present Condition in point of Enjoyment they are not actually differenced from others Their Prayers are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28. 9. all Things are to them unclean Tit. 1. 15. they are under the Power of Satan Eph. 2. 2. in bondage unto death Heb. 2. 14. Obnoxious to the Curse and Condemning power of the Law in the Conscience Gal. 3. 13. having sin reigning in them Rom. 6. 17. c. 2 What
the Cause and the first Rise of the Effect lying in an intervening Compact so not simul at once neither though simul and a like procured the Cause of this being that Relation Coherence and Causality which the Lord hath appointed between the several Effects or rather parts of the same Effect of the death of Christ in reference to the main and ultimate End to be thereby attained as at large I have discused Lib. 2. Cap. 1. p. 52 53 c. In one word The first Effect of the Death of Christ in this sense is the first Fruit of Election For for the Procuring and Purchasing of the Fruits thereof and them alone did Christ die If I mistake not Mr Baxter himself is not setled fully in this Perswasion that the suspension of the Rigorous Execution of the Law is the most immediate Effect of the Death of Christ for pag. 52. these words which he useth God the Father doth accept the Sufferings and Merits of his Son as a full satisfaction to his violated Law and as a valuable Consideration upon which he will wholly acquit and forgive the Offendors themselves and receive them again into favour so that they will but receive his Son upon the terms expressed in the Gospel seems to place the ultimate Efficacy of the Death of Christ in Gods acceptation of it as to our good on the Condition of Faith and Obedience Which first makes the suspension of the Law to be so far from being the first effect of the Death of Christ that the last reacheth not so far And 2dly the fond absurdity of this Conditional Acceptation I have before declared Neither am I clear to which of those Assertions that of Page 92 where he affirms That some benefit by Christ the Condemned did receive is most accommodate neither can I easily receive what is here Asserted if by Benefit you understand that which in respect of them is intentionally so For First Condemned Persons as condemned Persons surely receive no Benefit by Christ for they are Condemned Secondly The delay of the Condemnation of Reprobates is no part of the Purchase of Christ The Scripture sayes Nor more nor less of any such thing but peculiarly assigns it to another Cause Rom. 9. CAP. X. Of the Merit of Christ and its immediate Efficacy what it effecteth in what it resteth with the state of those for whom Christ died in reference to his Death of their Right to the Fruits of his Death before Beleeving THAT they for whom Christ died have a right to the things which he Purchased thereby that is an actual Right for so men may have to what they have not in actual Possession is no singular Conception of mineOur Divines freely express themselves to this Purpose Even the Commender and Publisher of Grotius his Book of Satisfaction learned Vossius himself Affirmeth That Christ by his Death Purchased for us a double Right First a Right of escaping punishment and then a Right of obtaining the Reward By the way I cannot close with his Distinction in that place of some things That Christ by his Life and Death purchased for us and other that he daily bestoweth for the things he daily bestoweth are of them which by his Death he purchased My Expressions then alone are not subject to the Consequences charged on them for Asserting a right to Life and Salvation in them for whom Christ Died even before beleeving Yea some have gone farther and Affirmed That those for whom Christ died are in some manner restored into saving favour Not to mention some of them to whose Judgment Mr Baxter seems to accede who assert Vniversal Justification and Restauration into Grace upon the Death of Christ but I lay no weight on these things To cleer my Thoughts in this Particular Two things must necessarily be enquired into and made out 1 Seeing the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ do tend directly for the Good of them for whom he died and that there is a distance and space of Time between that Death and their Participation of the good things purchased therby wherein lyeth or in what resteth the Efficacy of that his Death with the Principle of the certain Futurition of the spiritual things so procured which those for whom he died shall assuredly in due time enjoy 2 Wherin lies the Obligation unto Death Hel Wrath which before beleeving the Scripture Affirms to be upon the Elect seeing Christ hath actually purchased for them freedom from these things and this without more a-do will be cleered in the former 1 For the first then upon the Issue of the Death of Christ something being supposed in God beyond his meer Purpose of which before somethings being actually procured and purchased by it which yet they for whom they are so purchased neither do nor possibly can upon the Purchase immediately possess and enjoy It is enquired Wherein resteth the Efficacy of his Death which in due Time causeth the making out of all those spiritual Blessings which by it are so procured Now this must be either in those for whom he Died or in Himself as Mediator or in his Father who sent him 1 That it is not in them for whom he Died is apparent Upon the Death of Christ in Purpose and Promise when first its Efficacy took place they were not I mean actually Existent True They were Potentially in the Purpose of God but will that make them a meet subject for the Residence of this Right and Merit whereof we speak as is the Thing such are all its Affections and Adjuncts but possible if it be no more This is something actual whereof we speak 2 That it is not in Christ as Mediator is no less evident He that makes Satisfaction and he to whom it is made he who Meriteth any thing and he at whose hands he Meriteth it must be distinguished The second Person under the Notion of performing the work of Mediation receiveth not Satisfaction The Power Christ receiveth of the Father because he is the Son of Man to give eternal Life to those given him of his Father is of latter Consideration to that we have in hand being a Result and Consequence thereof 3 It must therefore be in the Father or God as receiving Satisfaction Of all the Attributes of God where this may be placed to speak after the manner of men one of these Four must needs be the proper seat of it 1 His Power 2 His Will 3 His Justice 4 His Truth 1 His Power and then it must be not that God hath any addition of Power for that cannot be to him who is Omnipotent but that a Way is made for the Exercise of his Power which before by somewhat from himself was shut up And as some suppose it is no otherwise That whereas the Lord could not make out Grace and Favour unto Sinners because of his Justice necessarily enclining him to their punishment and destruction Now that Justice being satisfied in Christ
spiritual Blessings soever are bestowed on any Soul I mean peculiarly distinguishing Mercies and Graces they are all bestowed and collated for Christs sake That is They are purchased by his Merit and procured by his Intercession thereupon That supernatural Graces cannot be traduced from any natural Faculty or attained by the utmost Endeavour of Nature howsoever affected with outward advantages I now take for granted These things I looked upon as the free-gifts of Love So the Scripture Joh. 15. 5. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Eph. 2. 8. 1 Cor. 4. 7. Eph. 2. 10. Mat. 11. 25 26. Act. 16. 14. c. Now the Dispensation of all these as it is through Christ so they are for Christ On whomsoever they are bestowed it is for Christs sake For Instance Peter and Judas are Unbeleevers Faith is given for Faith is given to Peter not to Judas Whence is this difference Presupposing Gods Sovereign discriminating Purpose the immediate procuring Cause of Faith for Peter is the Merit of Christ To us it is given on the behalf of Christ to beleeve on him Phil. 1. 20. We are blessed with all spiritual Blessings in him Eph. 1. 3. Whatsoever is in the Promise of the Covenant is certainly of his procurement for therefore he is the Surety Heb. 7. 22. And his Bloud the Ransome he paid is the Bloud of the Covevenant Mat. 26. 28. Whereby all the Promises thereof become in him Yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. And whether Faith be of the Blessings of the Covenant and Conclude in the Promise thereof or no let the Scripture be Judge Jer. 31. 31 32. Ezek. 36. 26. Heb. 8. 9 10 11. Furthermore What we have through him we have so him All these things being made out on this Condition that he should make his Soul an Offering for sin Isa. 53. 10 3 That all the procurements of the Death of Christ in the behalf of his are to be made out by vertue of a Stipulation sub termino or in respect of their actual collation and bestowing they are to be made out in the season limited and appointed by the Will of the Father Of this before 4 No Blessing can be given us for Christs sake unless in Order of Nature CHRIST be first reckoned unto us Here I must do two things 1 Declare what I mean by reckoning Christ unto us And then 2 Prove the Assertion as laid down Gods reckoning Christ in our present sense is the imputing of Christ unto ungodly unbeleeving Sinners for whom he died so far as to account him theirs to bestow Faith and Grace upon them for his sake This then I say at the Accomplishment of the appointed time the Lord reckons and accounts and makes out his Son Christ to such and such Sinners and for his sake gives them Faith c. Exercising of Love actually in the bestowing of Grace upon any particular soul in a distinguishing manner for Christs sake doth suppose this accounting of Christ to be his and from thence he is so indeed which is the present Thesis and may be proved For 1 Why doth the Lord bestow Faith on Peter not on Judas Because Christ Dying for Peter and purchasing for him the Grace of the Covenant he had a Right unto it and God according to his Promise bestowed it With Judas it was not so But then Why doth the Lord bestow Faith on Peter at the 40th yeer of his Age and not before or after Because then the Term is expired which upon the Purchase was by the Counsel of Gods Will prefixed to the giving in the beginning of the thing Purchased unto him What then doth the Lord do when he thus bestoweth Faith on him For Christs sake his Death procuring the Gift not moving the Will of the Giver he creates Faith in him by the way and means snited to such a work Eph. 1. 18 19. Chap. 2. 1 c. If then this be done for Christs sake then is Christ made ours before we beleeve Else Why is Faith given him at this instant for Christs sake and not to another for whom also he died That it is done then is because the appointed time is come that it is done then for Christ is because Christ is first given to him I cannot conceive how any thing should be made out to me for Christ and Christ himself not be given to me he being made unto us of God Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2 The Apostle holds out this very Method of the Dispensation of Grace Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his Son but delivered him up to Death for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things First Christ is given for us then to us then with him he having the preheminence in all things all things and this being also for him Phil. 1. 29. he is certainly in the Order of Nature given in the first place He being made ours we receive the Atonement by him Rom. 5. 11. How Christ is said to be received by Faith if he be ours before Beleeving is easily resolved Christ is ours before and after Beleeving in a different sense He who is made ours in an Act of Gods Love that for him we may have Faith may be found and made ours in a Promise of Reconciliation by Beleeving I offer also Whether Absolution from the guilt of sin and obligation unto death though not as terminated in the Conscience for compleat Iustification do not proceed our actual Beleeving For What is that Love of God which through Christ is effectual to bestow Faith upon the Unbeleeving And how can so great Love in the actual exercise of it producing the most distinguishing Mercies consist with any such Act of Gods Will as at the same instant should bind that Person under the Guilt of sin Perhaps also this may be the Iustification of the ungodly mentioned Rom. 4. Gods absolving a Sinner in Heaven by accounting Christ unto him and then bestowing him upon him and for his sake enduing him with Faith to beleeve That we should be blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ and yet Christ not ours in a peculiar manner before the bestowing of those blessings on us is somwhat strange Yea he must be our Christ before it is given to us for him to beleeve Why else is it not given to all others so to do I speak not of the supream distinguishing Cause Mat. 11. 25 26. but of the proximate procuring Cause which is the bloud of Christ Neither yet do I hence assert compleat Justification to be before beleeving Absolution in Heaven and Justification differ as part and whole Again Absolution may be considered either as a pure Act of the Will of God in it self or as it is received beleeved apprehended in and by the soul of the Guilty For Absolution in the first sense it is evident it must proceed beleeving as a discharge from the Effects of Anger naturally proceeds all Collation of any fruits of Love such as is
himself acquitted and exonerated of the whol Debt of their Sin for whom he suffered which was charged on him he makes Demand of the Accomplishment of the forementioned Engagement made to him concerning the freedom and deliverance of the Persons whose Sins were laid on him and whose bringing unto Glory he undertook On these Two I say it is That our Right to the Fruits of the Death of Christ even before beleeving doth depend from hence at least it is right and equal That we do in the time appointed enjoy these things Yea to say That we have Right upon beleeving to the Fruits of the Death of Christ affirmed universally can only be affirmed of a Jus in re such a Right as hath at least in part conjoyned actual Possession beleeving it self being no smal Portion of these Fruits This Argument then being fallacious omitting the chief Causes in Annumeration concludes not the thing proposed Besides it is in no small measure faulty in that the first thing proposed to be confirmed was That Remission of Sin and Justification are not the immediate Effects of Christs Death whereof in this Argument there is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Argum. 2. If God hate all the Works of Iniquity and we are all by Nature the Children of Wrath and without Faith it is impossible to please God and he that beleeveth not is Condemned already then certainly the Elect while they are unbeleevers are not actually de facto no nor in personal Right delivered from this Hatred Wrath Displeasure and Condemnation But Ergo Answ. 1 This Argument for what indeed it will prove is handled at large in my Treatise of Redemption as also re-urged in the Pages foregoing Against actual Justification from Eternity it hath its Efficacy 2 It doth also Conclude That the Elect whilest unbeleevers are not actually and de facto put in Possession of the Issues of Love Faith being with the first of them But 3 That they have not upon the Grounds forementioned a Right to these things Or 4 That Justification is not the immediate Effect of the Death of Christ being the sole things in question it hath the same unhappiness with the former not once to mention Argum. 3. If we are Justified only by Faith then certainly not before Faith But we are Justified only by Faith Ergo Answ 1 If I mistake not it is not Justification before Faith but a Right to the Fruits of the Death of Christ before Faith that is to be proved 2 That Justification is not the immediate Effect of the Death of Christ to which Ends for this Argument Valeat quantum valere potest to me it comes not within many miles of the thing in Question So that with the absurd ANSWERS supposed thereunto we passe it by The like also I am enforced to say of the Two other that follow being of the same length and breadth with those foregoing too short narrow to cover the things in Question so that though they may have their strength to their own proper End yet as to the things proposed to be proved there is nothing in their Genuine Conclusions looking that way If I might take the Liberty of ghessing I should suppose the Mistake which lead this Author to all this labor in vain is That the immediate Effects of the Death of Christ must be immediatly enjoyed by them for whom he died Which Assertion hath not indeed the least Colour of Truth The Effects of the Death of Christ are not said to be immediate in reference to others enjoyment of them but unto their Causality by that Death Whatever it be that in the first place is made out to Sinners for the Death of Christ when ever it be done that is the immediate Effect thereof as to them As to them I say for in its first tendency it hath a more immediate Object If Mr Baxter go on with his Intentions about a tract concerning universal Redemption perhaps we may have these things cleered and yet we must tell him before hand That if he draw forth nothing on that Subject but what is done by Amiraldus and like things to them he will give little Satisfaction to learned and stable men upon the Issue of his undertaking I shall not presume to take another mans Task out of his hand especially one's who is so every way able to go through with it Else I durst undertake to demonstrate that Treatise of Amiraldus mentioned by Mr Baxter to be full of weak and sophistical Argumentations absurd Contradictions vain strife of Words and in sum to be as birthless a tympanous Endeavour as ever so learned a man was engaged in For the present being by Gods Providence removed for a Season from my Native soyl attended with more then ordinary weaknesses and infirmities separated from my Library burdened with manifold Employments with constant Preaching to a numerous multitude of as thirsting a People after the Gospel as ever yet I conversed withal it sufficeth me That I have obtained this Mercy Briefly and plainly to Vindicate the Truth from mistakes and something further to unfold the Mystery of our Redemption in Christ all with so facile and placid an Endeavour as is usually upon the Spirits of men in the familiar writings of one Friend to another That it hath been my Aim to seek after Truth and to keep close to the forme of wholesome words delivered to us will I hope appear to them that love Truth and Peace Dublin-Castle Decemb. 20. 1649. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} FINIS ERRATA The Author having no opportunity to attend the Press and being absent many miles during the Printing the most part of it finds the Accenting of sundry Greek Expressions omitted with other mistakes which he desireth the Reader to Correct as followeth PAg. 5. l. 10. r. have p. 9. l. 23. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 10. l. 8. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} so also in other places l. 9. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 11. l. 10. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 26. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 12. l. 21. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 15. l. 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 14. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 16. l. 9. hudled p. 19. l. 10. alius p. 20. l. 4. now p. 22. l. 22. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 24. l. 22. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 27. l. 12. observed p. 28. l. 24. not all the thing l. 26. to any p. 29. l. 4. Now the p. 30. l. 6. Now he p. 31. l. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} l. 11. pressures p. 32. l. ult. Pactional p. 33. l. 24. Contradiction p. 34. l. 33. Oblation made p. 36. l. 22. that ever I. l. 31. feigne p. 44. l. 8.