Christ and Christ faithful in performance of the same 2 Tim. 2.11 If we be dead with him he saith not If we were dead for him to die for us or as dead in his dying for us having in his sufferings 2 Cor. 5.14 19 20 21. as in the publick Man suffered the sentence of death in account for all we fell into by Adam that as he is risen we might live to him which is true also of such as yet believe not But he saith Rom. 6.2 11. 7.4 Col. 2.20 Phil. 3.3 7 8. Rom. 6.4 5 8 11 7.4 5 6 Joh. 11.25 26. 2 Tim. 2.12 Rom. 8.17 18. If we be dead with him that is believing in his death in his Blood and in acceptance of that die to our own Wisdom sinful lusts and designs and to all hope in any righteousness of our own and so to all the appearing glory ease pleas and excellency of this World and all by and with him which is to be dead with him in Scripture-Language If we be dead note it he saith not he we shall also live with him receive forgiveness be enlived preserved and raised with and by him yea more still If we in this believing dying and living do suffer with him and so for his and his peoples sakes we shall raign with him at his coming but when such glorious grace is discovered and tendered to us by so gracious a One as hath suffered so much for us and hath gone before us and calleth us to follow him and yet we refuse If we deny him he will deny us This is as plain as all the rest If any say He cannot for this his death will be in vain his call frustrate and his word become of none effect This hath been answered before That his death his word hath its effect and his Purpose shall verily be performed according as he purposed that is for life according to the Election of grace and though these deniers of him bring upon themselves swift destruction 2 Pet. 2.1 Rom. 9.6 8. Isa 65.11 15. Joh. 12.48 Rom. 2.16 Prov. 9.12 Phil. 2.9 10 11. 2 Tim. 2.13 others shall be brought in and the effect of his word shall be seen in those that are born of the promise as was said The Lord shall slay thee and call his Servants by another Name nor shall his death and Ministration of the Gospel be in vain he will have the glory of all in judging them by it according to the Gospel and not he but they alone shall suffer and bear it and will have his glory of being by vertue of his death their Lord and so it follows If we believe not yet he abideth faithful faithful in all his promises and sayings yea in this affirmed and faithful saying and so faithful in and according to the manner of his Purpose he cannot he neither will nor can it suits not with his Nature it is impossible he should deny himself he saith not He cannot deny us though we believe not and deny him for if that were so he must deny himself in his own sayings concerning unbelievers Apostates and Deniers of him and in his faithfulness for bringing forth his Father's and his own Purposes according to his Purpose ordered in his Counsel and breathed forth by his Spirit but he cannot deny himself he will make good his own word and shew himself to be even the same his Spirit hath in the Gospel reported him to be denying none that by his grace in the Day of grace believe in him or having departed do again in his recalling turn to him but denying such as persist in refusing or after coming in in departure and denial of him in which is both warning and comfort and so a great motive to hold them in the Faith that were in it and to return them that were gone astray from it 2 Tim. 2.14 15 16 17 18 19. And therefore he willeth Timothy to put them in remembrance of these things c. and urgeth it because some were departed from the Faith assuring him that notwithstanding all this the Foundation of God standeth sure in which we may see not onely the Purpose of God but the Foundation laid according thereto and the sure standing of it to be such as abides with the Truth of all these foresayings and events yet it is meet to answer that conceited strong Argument against this hereto said which is Mr. Owen's saying thus Though the seed of Christ Pag. 132.3 which he is to see to upon the account of his sufferings for them do sin and trangress yet God hath put all these gracious Obligations upon himself to reduce them by corrections and afflictions but never to proceed to final sentence of utter rejection Isa 53.10 Answ This is nowhere affirmed in Scripture and so propounded as is doubtful what his meaning is if other sayings did not explain it as where he saith Pag. 364. The same sins deserve the same punishment and had not Christ answered for the sins of Believers they could not have escaped punishment And if he had said nor raised from the dead it is as true but that any perish for sin because Christ did not suffer for them is not true nor is God any respecter of persons if the manner of sinning be the same though he also saith Pag. 161. 63.2 The guilt of sin is also taken away from all those for whom Christ died by his death that it shall never be a cause of everlasting separation between God and them which hath been plentifully shewn to be contrary to the Scripture besides the taking sin out of the way by his death is one work 2 Cor. 5.21 Eph. 5.25 26 27. 1 Joh. 1.1 7. and the taking the guilt of sin c. from Men another following work the first done where the later is not done and the first done that by vertue of that by which it was done the later might in his way be done and it is a great perverting of the Scripture to render that done where it saith it is to be done of which enough hath been said but his Expression here being more moderate I will so view it for here he saith not All that Christ died for but his Seed By the Seed of Christ See par 1. ch 13. and par 4. ch 2. is not meant any of the Sons of Adam considered as he was to die and had undertaken it and did die for them for so they were Men fallen Adam's Seed and sinners and enemies to God which the Seed of Christ are nowhere called but they come in upon the account of his Death Resurrection and Sacrifice compleated and Spirit sent forth in the means prevailing with them And this express by the Prophet taught by our Saviour and so the Children of the Promise Isa 53.8 10 11. Joh. 12.23 24. Rom. 9.25 26 8. those that were born of the promise that were not before in that sense
and so he approveth as good and rejoyceth in all his own Works e Gen. 1.31 Job 38.4 7. Psa 104 4.31 Act. 15.18 And so having made not onely Mankinde but the Angels before holy and well-qualified he did approve their Essence which he made and the holy Qualifications he endued them with and the Place or Habitation or Degree he put them in and so loved them their Essence their Persons their Qualifications and in love so placed them as he did Mankinde whom he made Righteous c. And that he loved the Angels as he did Mankinde before they fell is evident by the Spirits Testimony That God is righteous and so both loveth the Righteous f Psal 146.8 and Righteousness g Psal 11.7 and knoweth that is owneth and approveth his own Works h Act. 15.8 and upholdeth the Righteous i Psal 37.17 and preserveth the way of the Saints k Prov. 2.8 Psal 1.6 and blesseth the Righteous and will not suffer them to be removed l Psal 5.12 and in all this God is the same for ever immutable without change or shadow of change in himself or in his minde to such approved and beloved ones Whence also it is evident That God did not first forsake the Angels nor did withhold or withdraw from them any part of that Wisdom Holiness and Strength wherewith he had indued them and by which they might have abode in that righteous happy estate he made and put them in and so have continued righteous and holy still and in acknowledging their supreme Lord have been established for ever m Job 4 7 18. 36.7 Psa 34 15. 37.28 Prov. 8.22.36 with Joh. 14.21 17.5 But those of the Angels that did fall they did voluntarily aspire to a higher degree of Dignity and Equality with their supreme Lord and so did first of themselves forsake God and so sinned and ceased to be Righteous and Saints they kept not their first Estate or Principality but left their own Habitation n Jude 6. and so by their Transgression provoked the Love of God to wrath whose Love is such as it abhorreth and hateth wickedness and so by their sinning they made themselves such that in their Persons Qualifications and Wayes they became the Object of God's hatred and wrath so that the change was in them not in God who because they so sinned and sinned of themselves without any other Tempter and sinned not all in one publick Representative but every one in their own Persons freely against so great Light and Goodness he hath therefore forsaken them and cast them down to Hell and reserved them in Chains of Darkness to the Judgement of the great Day to be then tormented in that Everlasting Fire prepared for them and such as by them are led to such-like personal Transgression o Jude 6. 2 Pet. 2.4 Mat. 25.41 Rev. 20.10 And yet in all this is there no change in God he in his Love is the same still though these sinning Angels be fallen out of his Love under wrath and hatred yea it would rather have implied a change in God if he had continued his Love on such presumptuous Transgressors And this also is written to admonish and warn men yea even Believers That none tempt the Lord by presumptuous sinning crying peace to themselves from the Love Mercy and Goodness of God fore-testified to them and the immutability of God in his Love and purposes which though true yet that argues not the immutability of all that are in any sort loved of him so as though they sin presumptuously his immutability engages him to love such notwithstanding so as those persons once loved cannot by any misdemeanor fall from being under that Love and become under hatred we are warned to take heed of such thoughts for it hath with some and may with others so fall out and yet no alteration in God for he hath shewn his mind to be even so p 2 Pet. 2.1.4 Jude 5 6. Deut. 29.18 19.20 And as for the Soveraignty of God it is one and the same and ever agreeing with his Wisdom Holiness Truth Justice Love and Purpose so that change by presumptuous sinning of Persons from being under Love to be under Hatred argues no change in God And this is clear in the case of the fallen Angels that I say nothing of Mankinde changed from being under well-pleasedness to be under wrath and displeasure though compassions were yet toward them who sinned all in one and by the subtilty of a Tempter yet the change in Man great in God none at all which shews the vanity of the Pleas and Inferences of some about and from the immutability of God in his minde and purposes 1. Pag. 13. p 2. That saying of Mr. Owen's That if God can by his power and Spirit keep them whom he doth not forsake in a state and condition of not forsaking him he doth forsake them before they forsake him is not fit for Argument to build Doctrine on or confirm with for it is neither true nor Scripture-like but is plainly derogatory to God and his Truth and Goodness and far from acknowledging that depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God Rom. 11.33 and rather tendeth to lead to fancy a depth of some openly appearing respect of Persons and causeless indignation cruelty and unrighteousness to be though no man can yet see how Righteousness which I hope Mr. Owen will not allow nor will he say His saying is meant of the fallen Angels yet Gods proceeding with them overturneth the truth of his saying so as it can be no ground or proof for him or others to ground any Opinion on or prove it by None in their right mind will say The fallen Angels transgressed not without cause God forsook them first and so free them from that number Psal 25.3 that transgress without cause as if God did first forsake them before they forsook him and so lay the beginning of the blame upon the Almighty whereas is was first wholly in themselves who were the first sinners and sinned from the beginning and so sin still Christ saith not Because there was no Truth in them before the fall but 1 Joh. 3.8 Joh. 8.44 Because he abode not in the Truth and so since the fall there is no Truth in him which reproves this foresaid saying 2. Another saying by this also appears untrue though used by many namely That whom God loves once he loves for ever if it had been What God loves once or such as God loves once he loves ever it would have stood for God loves Righteousness and so the Righteous and so Believers and Saints for ever But to say Whom or what Persons all and Every of them whom God loves once he loves for ever is not true and the surmise of it is grounded on a false conceit as if the unchangableness of God did either depend on or at least argue necessitate
the same danger or were there any more individuals come forth to make a some of or had any any other wayes sinned and fallen under sin and death then in this publick Man and what then shall the some be the Male or the Female the Soul or the Body or some part of either Such whimsies are in the dreams of some but sure we are far from them I wish we may use no Expressions to strengthen them But then did not God finde out a Mediator for the first publick Man whole Adam as fallen to take away sin destroy death and the works of the Devil which was already entred into the world and did not this Mediator interpose and undertake in that very moment of the Fall to be a second publick Man to take the Nature the Place the Cause of the first publick Man in hand to work a restauration for him and so for all that were in him and naturally to come forth from him even all Mankinde where then shall we finde the some of them if there were any left out for whom there was no purpose of God for any saving them in and by the Mediation of Christ why do they not perish in that first death denounced why are they not at last judged according to that Law under which they fell in Adam why do they not in dying die so as to have every thing filling them with horror and torment till they perish for ever in the first death in the utmost of it How comes Mercy Patience and Means to lead to Repentance to be extended to them if no ransome hath been given for them God being not onely merciful but righteous in all his wayes if Christ did not die and give himself a ransome for them if he have wrought no Salvation for them and so have none to bestow on them how is he become their Lord Why is the Gospel to be preached to them why are their sins aggravated by the means he useth towards them and how shall they be said to reward him hatred for love and be judged by him according to the Gospel and sentenced unto a second death which if he had not come and used means towards them and they rebelled against him they could never have been or did God first purpose in and through Christ this second death to them that were already under the first death and no Redemption wrought for them and so send Christ into the world to be an Abaddon or Man-Destroyer to condemn so great a part of Mankinde farther then they were condemned in Adam I will proceed no further in this The Gospel and the Purposes of God as by his word and works declared and as set forth in this Treatise tells us another story which takes away all these absurdities brought in by this some and yet neither does he express it of what saving he means whether of that Salvation of the Nature of Man wrought in himself as the publick Man for Men all Men or of that Salvation upon the account of the former extended to Men to save them or of the efficacy of the first in the extention of the second on the same account in Believers and Receivers which is opened in the Gospel and exprest according to it in this Treatise but some Expressions elsewhere used imply to mean it of all so that this term some is not rightly used Yet this is true That he saith God's Purpose of saving was in and by the Mediation of Christ yea his saving in every respect onely this glory to God in Christ that he is the first purposed and first elected and all following Purpose of Salvation is in and by him And so this also That the coming of Jesus Christ and the Salvation wrought by him and Preparation made in him is a Fruit of the Love Will and Purpose of God is true and the extending of this Salvation in any or all the Fruits thereof to Men and the Efficacies thereof in Men are the Fruits of the Mediation of Christ and so of the same Will and Purpose of God in and through the Mediation of Christ this is true also But that this act of his Will whether he mean it of his Purpose of preparing Salvation for Men in Christ or of extending Salvation to Men through the Mediation of Christ or of the Efficacy of this Salvation in Believers for he leaves this in the dark That the Scripture knows it by no other Name then that of Election Adoption or the Purpose of God according to Election or the Purpose of his Will in Jesus Christ is a dark saying and full of confusion and intimately untrue unless he deny it to be called by all these Names and then there is subtilty and room left for evasion in the Expression Let it be considered The Will of God in his Purpose is in it self an act sure one single real act before any accomplishment come forth and if he mean of that it will not reach some of the other terms and if he mean of that act which is outward toward the Creature which is confest the act of his Will and alwayes suitable and according to his Purpose he saith not of which he meaneth but take it for either or for both yet there is confusion in his saying as if there were no distinction between Election and Adoption and the Purpose of God according to Election and the Purpose of his Will in Christ and that all or any of these were and are equally and alike the Name of this Purpose of his Will in his Purpose of saving Men in and by the Mediation of Christ True it is It may and doth bear the Name of the Purpose of his Will in Christ and the Scripture will bear it out to be known by that Name the Eternal Purpose Eph. 3.11 1.9 11. Psal 2.7 2 Tim. 1.9 which he purposed in Christ Jesus which he had purposed in himself the Purpose of him that worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will yea it is called The Decree preached by Christ and to be preached by his Servants yea and for the good Will of God and Grace given us in this Decree it is called His own Purpose and Grace given us in Christ Jesus before the World began And if Mr. Owen had but added his Purpose of electing and adopting in and by Christ and his Purpose that all should take place according to the Election of Grace the Scripture would have borne it out But for Election without distinction to be that Purpose or the Name of that Purpose or that act of his Will that is called his Purpose of saving fallen Mankinde by the Mediation of Christ no one place of Scripture saith it speaking of the Oracles and Works of God in this business Rom. 9.11 saith They were so ordered that the purpose of God according to election might stand Where by standing is meant abiding taking effect and coming to pass to have its
principles receiving And yet after by evill teachers and temptations turned aside and fall into doubtfullness of or denyall of some of the Oracles and decay of that towardness that was in them towards the Principles and so are found fallen away for by farther opening the Doctrin of Christ and from the foundation and Oracles of God opening and pressing for the first Principles to bee received They may bee recovered and their recovery is to bee hopefully sought But they are such as have by the Oracles of God been brought upon the foundation and so had the forementioned Principles framed in them with such enlightenings and tastes as hath been shown 5 Yet they are not such as these through weakness or some violent temptation prevailed with and so overcome Gal. 6.1 1 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 2 3-11 12.19 -21. 2 Theâ—â— 14 15. that they are fallen into some gross sin against some of the ten Commands or some breach of charity in sinning against some branches of the Precept of the Gospel for the recovery of these by the words of grace and reproof and means appointed thereby may bee hopefully sought but they are such as these so far proceâ—ded that are fallen away from Foundation Heb. 10.26 27 28 29 30. Oracles Principles after all that light wilfully contemn and turn from this grace and despite it and this is their sin as before related in Part. 2. chap. 7. pag. 80-81 2 That such as so grievously sin against grace it is impossible to renew them again to repentance It is impossible The Apostle speaketh here of his ministration by preaching or writing for hee gives it as the reason why hee forbears going over again the foundation Oracles and thereby opening and pressing the first Principles because for such as need it and to whom it may bee profitable they to whom hee writes are fitted and may do that but the usefullness hee is pressing to is needfull for them but to such fallen ones all hee hath to say will be of no avail to them therefore hee will proceed and let such alone for it is impossible to renew them again to repentance Wee have nothing to say of the Mediatour to press any thing on them but what they have crucified to themselves and contemn So it is impossible to us to renew them it is out of the bounds of our ministration 1 Tim. 1.20 2 Tim. 2.21 Tit. 3.10 11. wee use either to reject such or deliver them to Satan and not exercise our ministry farther towards them while they are such and so wee would have you to do They are fallen into the hands of God who hath left us nothing in our ministration Heb. 10 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. to shew how God may deal graciously with them through a Mediatour but all wee have to say of the Mediatour whom they have so despitefully used will aggravate their sin and present nothing but terrour to them they are in a fearfull condition and in danger of eternall damnation But the Power of God wee will not limit Mar. 3.29 And all things are possible to him Though hee will do nothing but according to the counsell of his own Will And so in this sense hee saith it is impossible to renew c. which is a terrible sentence 3 The Reason Why it is impossible to renew them again to Repentance is exprest seeing or because They crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Hee that was once willingly crucified and put to an open shame for them and by his Spirit commending his love there through to their hearts hath been glory and beauty to them precious and efficacious in them yet now they turning aside to some vain dreams have hardened their hearts against him and for lying vanities have forsaken him and now are turned adversaries to him and by their own reasonings and lusts and magnifying some other thing do make his blood and sacrifice of no account and efficacy to themselves but crucifie him Heb. 10.26 2 29 30. and cast shame on him to make him despicable to themselves and others And there is no other Sacrifice to help them no mean of any help but in the freeness of Gods love that gave his Son and through that blood and Sacrifice of his made known by his gracious Spirit And all this they have trodden under foot despised despighted And yet that 's not all they are not by any Judgements or warning reclaimed but they go on and continue so doing And so hee saith not only they have fallen away and have crucified but they are even now still so doing they fall away they crucifie c. that is their business And they are so doing it is impossible and therefore impossible to renew them again to Repentance the words are very plain in themselves 4 That this great danger of eternall damnation into which some have fallen is in some cases to bee declared Chap. 2 3 4 6 10. and set before them that are not fallen into it that they may be warned to avoid all those evils by which by degrees Gal. 4. if not avoided they may bee brought to fall into it And so the Apostle sets this danger before the Hebrews to warn them to avoid all that leads to it as hath been shown And so did he to the Galatians And so hee directs them to no other or better faith than here set forth which suppose some were fallen from yet hee would have them abide and bee stedfast and grow in this faith and if any say God cannot so proceed with such as once have such faith though they fall away Hee answers Heb. 6.7 8. For the Earth which drinketh in the Rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth Herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which beareth thorns and bryars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to bee burned The Apostle here setteth forth the holiness and justness of Gods proceedings that as their standing is by faith so they may take heed of presumptuousness as he admonished the Romans Rom. 11.18.23 So here the Hebrews still justifying God as by setting forth the height and grievousness of such sinning being like the sin of the Angels that fell having no cause for it Jude 6. they had happiness enough in their condition in which abiding they might have been established but aspiring after a higher estate they left their habitation c. So suitable thereto is this sinning and in some degree beyond that of our first Father Adam Rom. 5.14 Numb 16. Jude 11. in respect of his own particular which men are not naturally guilty of so great but this is wilfully resembling that of Corah They willingly first forsaking God Isa 1.12 13 14. Iude. that shewed such mercy to them as was better than all they could set eye on So as without cause they