reasoning Christ dyed for Believers I am such a one therefore for me though the Major is true yet the Minor cannot well be affirmed of those that know not otherwise before that Christ dyed for them and if they do this medium is needlesse to them for what Faith hath a man before he believe that Christ dyed for him by which he may know and believe that Christ dyed for him not a faith that worketh by love because that springs from an apprehension of Gods love for we cannot love him but as we behold him loving us first Not a Faith by grace because while men doubt or know not that Christ dyed for them they know not the grace that the Gospel holds forth to move them to believing seeing according to the Gospel-Declaration all grace runs by and through Christs mediation And if not such a Faith then the Major and Minor agree not for they will not say that Christ dyed for All that have a dead Faith or conceits of faith wrought by self-endeavor seeing men may have those yet perish So that this argument hath in it a great deal of deceit and puts men upon many inconveniencies to prove the Minor upon which all the grounds of their comfort stand For upon that act of their faith Christ himself with all his death and mediation is laid that being the foundation they lay him upon whereas those things as asserted in the word for them credited by them should lay faith upon him so themselves also upon him by faith Whereas he says that a better syllogisme then this He dyed for All men I am a man ergo for me I deny it For 1. This is a more immediate Divine Faith as springing from and being bottomed upon the Word of God as hath been seen 2. The Minor is more conspicuous and evident 3. The grace of God is more admired to see that he dyed for me while yet I am as other men a sinner then when by my industry I think I am framed to believe for then I look upon his love through something found in me in which I differ from others which lifts me up above others looking upon them as not so framed but the other abases and leads to love and pity others even sinners that are as I. But oh the pride and vanity of mans heart that prefers such consolations as take in something of the creatures frames with them before those that have nothing but God to a naked creature to spring up all his frames from pure love without him How many are the endeavours and strifts of men again and again to make out this proposition I am a Believer while in the mean time they reject and believe not that love of God to them as men and sinners that should indeed in the receit of it and the Spirits setting it home make them believers and spring up all those frames which they as it were by works of the Law endeavour after and cannot that way attain that they might evidence themselves to be believers and when they think they have by much strift attained to believe then those their strifts their faith as they suppose with all the signs that they have annexed to it are taken in together as the ground of their comfort and hope in God yea of their belief that Christ was sent and dyed for them which yet they are at a losse in questioning Gods love to them and their ground and cause of hoping in him as they see cause to question their own love to and so by consequence their own faith in him A miserable way it is God knows that this Doctrine leads multitudes into while they either curiously pry into Gods secrets almost to destraction or else look into themselves for fruits of faith that may evidence them to have faith and so their Election and so right to Christ and his Gospel and all this before they can see that there is any thing in the Gospel that is good news to them or any love in God towards them that works that Faith and those Fruits in its appearance by which their Election should be discerned by them 4. The fourth thing he leaves onely desiring the Reader to peruse that place of Rom. 8.32 33 34. which I also commend to the Reader that upon good grounds knowes himself a Believer one in Christ walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh for to such it is written and to their consolation ver 1.28 29 30 c. and I say to such its a rich Mine of firm lasting comfort consolation joy assurance rest peace refreshment and satisfaction no place fuller or sweeter that I know of and all springing from the consideration of God as their friend and Father justifying them Christ that dyed for them and rose again now interceding at Gods right hand for them that they may be one with Christ in priviledges and glory and have the New Covenant fully performed to them But if the Reader that believes desires to perswade others to faith or if he be one that knows not whether God hath any good-will to him or no and so is not yet by faith in Christ that place will afford little to him But I desire him to read 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. that God wils All to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth That there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for All c. And if he believe that record of God that testimony born to him and his Son he may therein see Gods good-will to him and good ground for him to seek him through Christ that gave himself a ransome for him good cause to Repent of all his evils against him that is so well affected toward him good cause to leave his evill wayes of grieving him and live to him and love him that is so loving to him good cause to hope in his mercy and in that hope to call upon him and seek to enjoy more knowledge of him and experience of his salvation and good matter to hold forth to others for their conversion and bringing in to Christ None of all which their restrictive Doctrine which is Anti-Christian as it hinders the course of the Gospel of Christ and keeps men in ignorance of the grounds they have to repent seek after love and hope in God and not at all held forth in Rom. 8.32 can lead them to for by it none who yet believeth not and so knoweth not himself to be Elected can see any ground to believe in live to love please or serve God inasmuch as for ought he knowes he is from eternity an enemy to him and hates him but it will lead him to go on resolutely in his way and do what seems good to him seeing by that its undeniably true that if Christ dyed for him he cannot miscarry if otherwise he must doe what he can as hath been noted But let
limbs strength health food and raiment the shining of the Sun the falling of the rain with fruitful Seasons peace liberty and gladness victories over enemies and good successes Day to day uttereth speech and night to night uttereth knowledge and they all are Evidences and Witnesses of his goodness But whence all these to sinful unworthy creatures Rom. 2.14 1.32 whose consciences daily accuse us of evils and tell us death and vengeance is due unto us Surely as the Scriptures say they are the beamings of his bright goodness the issues or out-flowings of the life in Christ which is the light of men which life was and is in him through his sufferings for us Joh. 1.4 5. For verily Adam forfeited for himself and us what ever might evidence goodness towards us even life it self and all other mercies thereof so as had God dealt with us after the demerit of his sin nothing but wrath and misery had been upon us But verily Christ stepping in upholds all things and makes them consist and stand together for our use and service Yea there-through also have we in these latter days that which is yet more precious the Publishing of the Word and Gospel of God ordered unto all Nations the end and tendency of all which too is to lead us to repentance that repenting of our evils against one so good to us he might shew us greater things still even the blessings of a better life prepared and made ready in Christ Jesus for us pardon and peace and spirit and eternal happiness And surely the gift of Christ and his death and sufferings for us must needs it self be an inestimable favour and deserve at our hands unutterable thanks which is the way and inlet yea in a maner the onely procuring cause under the good Will of God of all these mercies How then are men in generall bound unto thankefulness but especially we in this Nation that enjoy the Scriptures and publishing of the Gospel therein which many other Nations have wickedly put away from themselves and their posterities their supream powers yielding up themselves to the power of darkness and neither imbracing the Word of Truth themselves nor permitting it to others Yea what cause of thanks have we to God that hath broken yokes of Tyranny and Oppression from off us that formerly hindered mens receit and free confession of his goodness What salvations hath God wrought for us in the midst of this earth What plots hath he discovered What designs of the enemies of Sion hath he defeated How hath he guided Counsels and strengthened Armies to deliver us from the Power and Oppressions of those who being ingrateful to God themselves for his goodness could not indure that others should acknowledge it aright and be truly thankeful And O that we also after such an addition of favors above what all have in common may not run into that horrid sin of unthankfulness nor reject the tidings of his great goodness and by observing lying vanities forsake our own mercies much less abuse and turn it into wantonness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 5.3 4. Surely for these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of unperswasibleness Yea not onely destructions and desolations of Persons Families Cities Countries and Nations here but also hereafter eternal vengeance Now of the evil of unthankefulness dear Sirs how greatly guilty are they who though they confess men faulty for it and can aggravate the evil of it above my Rhetorick yet make it a part of their business and Religion with zeal and earnestness to perswade the most of men that they have cause to doubt whether they have any thing in good will from God and so by consequence whether any real ground and cause to be thankeful to him while they hold forth to them that Christ died but for a few and the rest are the objects of his hatred from everlasting and all they have even the Gospel it self they have in hatred and displeasure from him and so onely to this end that they may work out and increase their own misery by them Against which their evil Doctrine I have written this insuing Treatise in which I have indeavoured to remove that froth of wit and humane reason and high thoughts of error which are with so great noise of Orthodoxness equivalent to the Romanists cry of Catholike lifted up against the Apostles Doctrine and to shew that God is good really good to All but especially to those that his goodness makes good and thankefully through faith to live unto him And so also that all have real cause of believing and living thankefully doing good after his example to All but especially to the good and the believing and that the unbelief of his goodness and unthankefulness to him for it is the true cause of multitudes perishing And now Dear Sirs that I might not run into that odious evil of ingratitude toward you from whom as instruments in the good hand of God I acknowledge I have received very much favor and kindness and under whom I enjoy my Place and Liberty of Gospel-preaching and many others with me have received many ingagements of thanks for and to you having finished this Treatise I am imboldened to thrust it out into the world under your Protection and Patronages under God and the Lord Jesus to whom supreamly I have devoted my self and service I hope your Honors will not expect it should exceed its Author in whom you know weakness but I hope you will take it in good part as a Testimony of my thankefulness I expect it will meet with oppositions good store against it as is always the Lot of Truth in an unthankeful world especially from those it argues guilty of mens unthankefulness may it but finde with you that entertainment Truth should have with the Saints so far as you shall see Truth held forth in it I shall rejoyce therein concerning you For whom with your beloved Consorts and all yours My desire is That God would please so to order guide and keep you that walking righteously in the earth and serving your generation with faithfulness in the Work of God you may receive the reward of the righteous in eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord in whom I remain From my House in South-Lyn June 20th 1650. SIR Your Honour and Worships faithfully to serve you in the Gospel JOHN HORN A Brief Revise of some few Passages THere is a passage good Reader in the Epistle to the Reader Pag. 14. viz. where I say That none till brought into Christ can make any profitable use of or rightly understand the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation of which I desire thy candid and favourable construction as spoken of as they are most usually looked upon as secret Decrees and Counsels of God about the future estates of men and not as acts or executions of decrees passing upon men in time for indeed in this latter sense the Scripture and we
that doctrine that we should hold forth that word of life by which we should win men for it makes it uncertain to them that undertake to preach whom they should hold forth Gospel motives of Repentance and Faith to I mean any good will in God toward them to be testified to them to draw them to repent and believe in him whence many Ministers are put to it about Gospel preaching yea in stead thereof become teachers of the Law and jumble Law and Gospel together so that they confound them that they neither preach Law or Gospel but a mingle mangle of both not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm talking of duties to them that want principles to perform them rightly and not declaring to them that doctrine of Gods goodness that should by declaring his love to them rightly principle them telling men of believing and of the fruits and priviledges of faith but not holding forth Christ to men as one that dyed for them and so is become a sure foundation for their faith Yea telling men that are yet in unregeneracy of election and reprobation though none can understand them aright or make use of them profitably till brought into Christ in whom Election is and for rejecting whom God rejecteth and reprobateth an unprofitable doctrine to them and good for little as many teach it to such but either to lead men to a careless presumption or drive them into desperation Nay in stead of preaching Gospel to every creature they cannot preach Gospel in a certain sound so as they or the hearer may say its Gospel to him to any creature except they presume they first see in him some fruits of Election And so I conceive its a doctrine very serviceable to Satans design of hindering men from seeing that glorious grace of God in Christ in and by which they should be turned into him the contrary to all which is evidently affirmable of the Doctrine there pleaded for Vpon these and such like differences good Reader as also to stop the clamors of some and herein give answer to them that deny me liberty thereof otherwise was I moved to undertake this task of grapling with Mr. Owen in this controversie not for any hopes I have to finde preferment and advantage in this world the hopes of which I have thrown behinde me and desire further so to do for Christ being well acquainted with the worlds temper in this matter I know it s ever an enemy to the truth of God and to its own good through the subtile working of Satan with the craftiness of the seeming prudent men high in esteem with it I know for I sometimes hear how suporbous supercilious men deride the simplicity of the words and Gospel of Christ how generally they fling against it and cast dirt upon it so that we may truly say the visage and form of Christ is marred more then any form and the truth of God in this matter rendred more contemptible then any doctrine they that will not abide an argument or two to their faces yet if they get into a Pulpit where none may interrupt them or elsewhere where there are none to answer them like the hypocritical mockers at feasts spoken of Psal 35.16 then they will gird and argue strenuously against it or deride and vilifie those that preach it and more ingenuous men and confident of their cause appear in print against it I know the most odious names of Pelagianism Semipelagianism and Arminianism are cast upon it as Samaratinism and Sathanism too were often cast on Christ to make him odious and fear people from him on the other side their device is clothed with the names of sound and Orthodox doctrine and shews its pedegree as high as Prosper and Saint Austin The world deals with these two doctrines as some would have the Kingdom deal with Presbyterie and Independency as they call them as Tamars Midwise dealt with her two children It says concerning their doctrine as she of Zarah this came out first it is the eldest brother and they would have a Scarlet thred upon it establish it by a civil bloody Sanction and so authorize it to suppress the truth that is opposed by them of which they say as she of the supposed yonger but indeed the Elder for Christ was in his bowels and he came out first it s name shall be Pharez it s a maker of Schism upon it and its Preachers be charged our breaches and divisions and so they vilifie and reproach Christ whose it is and who is in it and who for all the others forwardness will give it the dominion I know the truth of the old adage Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit flattery is befriended and conformity to mens determinations is esteemed but the truth is hated I look for my cleaving in this to the word of God to be ranked with the worst of Hereticks and to meet with no better name with this generation then Christ and his former servants have met with in theirs I look to have my name cast out as odious and made to stink in the nostrils of men or else Satan and his instruments will want of their will while they that oppose the truth of God grow famous but I much matter not it s but the reward with men that Christ hath appointed for his followers It s his saying to his servants ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake and it s properly the name of Christ viz. That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Saviour of the World that is defended by us and it s his consolation too that the servant is not greater then his Lord If they call the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold and again Blessed are yee when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their companies as some have endeavoured and shall reproach you and cast out your names as evil for the Son of mans sake rejoyce yee in that day and leap for joy for great is your reward in Heaven for in the like manner did their Fathers unto the Prophets We have in our dayes too them that can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scoff and deride my weakness in such an undertaking that will say in their puff-pride swelling in conceits of their learning and abilities as sometimes the Athenians did of poor Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What will this illiterate babler say Our age will afford those that read and preach the commendations of the Prophets and Apostles garnishing their writings though they believe them not as their fathers did their Sepulchres but yet will oppose and hate those that follow their footsteps and cleave close to the word of God that they have published Non ignota loquor I have the experience of some things of this nature and know that truth cannot be sincerely profest at easier rate then such course usage the glimmerings of it in inferior streams when
not finding that which they had mistakingly looked for but that he was a dry tree and barren wilderness to them was it not more excusable that they should leave him and take such comforts as the world would afford them and not go on to suffer for him that would not save them he having not dyed for them Whereas he further adds that the Apostle is silent about washing them in the bloud of the Lamb what a sorry shift is that How many places speak of buying men and yet mention not the washing them in the bloud of the Lamb where yet there is no doubt but his bloud was the price that bought them as to instance in Rev. 14.4 1 Cor. 6.20 Again What is it to wash in the bloud of the Lamb I feare there may be some mistake in that Is it any thing else but when the death sufferings or bloud of Christ declared in the Gospel set home by the Spirit do cause the heart for his loves sake that so loved it to renounce its vanities affections lusts c. and removes its fears despairs horrors c. that the guilt of sin before the remedy was known filled it with do we think that this washing the souls in the bloud of Jesus is without application of the bloud to it Was there ever such a washing heard of in which the medium of the washing and the thing washed were not to each other applyed Or do we fancy any bodily or materiall application of the materiall bloud of Christ that issued out of his side Sure it s nothing but through the Spirits revelation of the death and sufferings of Christ for us and the hope therein set before us a cleansing of the heart and conscience from guilt and pollution And is not that intimated here Is not the knowledge of Jesus Christ Lord and Saviour to know him as one that dyed for us and is appointed to be our Mediator and way to God able and ready to save us by vertue of those his sufferings for us could there be lesse in that knowledge of Christ that will give a man escape from the worlds pollutions and when that knowledge doth wash from pollutions is it not the bloud of Christ therein known that washes Was not that it that washed Paul from his former conceits in his Pharisaisme and from all his pollutions Phil. 3.7 8 9. Tit. 3.4 5 6. and that washed the believing Corinths 1 Cor. 6.11 because he names but the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the appearance of Gods love to man the name of Christ and Spirit of God as the way of his and their washings shall we say neither he nor they were washed in the bloud of Christ These are sorry evasions unmeet to shift off the shining truth with 3. But his last evasion is vainer then any of these viz. That he might speak of them only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to Truth but according to appearance for which he quotes again that formerly answered place of 2 Chron. 28.23 As if the Apostle writing Dogmatically and laying down Propheticall declarations of things that would be and aggravating the hainousness of their sinne that should deny Christ should conjoyn things according to truth not conjungible If he had spoken of some particular person then in being there had been somewhat more shew for such an evasion and yet in truth not enough to make the Apostle couple as incompatible things together in his expressions as to talk of Christs or his Elects perishing But much lesse colour when he speaks of things in the Theory and Dogmatically not with Designation of this or that person This is but all one as to say Christ or God seemed but to be their Lord and Master and they to be his servants by way of purchase and so they had the more ground of denying him seeing he was not what he seemed to be nor had done what he seemed to do And whereas he addes That its the custome of the Scripture to ascribe all those things to every one that are in fellowship of the Church which are proper to them only that are true spirituall members of it as to be Saints Elect c. Not to examine the truth of that again were it so yet it could not be of force here these in the very formality of them as the subject spoken of being stiled false Teachers Sure though he might write to All in fellowship with the Church that is in Doctrine and Profession as Saints c. as in some sense they were truly yet it s not supposeable that he judged these he looks upon as departed from the Truth and false Teachers to be such or to be bought by Christ if he thought indeed such manner of people were never so bought To be a member of the Church and to be Elect are terms very competible but to be and so to be spoken of as a false Teacher bringing swift destruction on himself and yet in the same view to be looked upon and spoken of as bought by the Lord if no such are indeed bought is componere non componenda to couple words and things together that are we not competible like those that talk of Almighty nothings So that wee see no solidity in his exceptions to this place neither Whereas in his winding up he tels us that this will not conclude Vniversall Redemption and 2. That those who are so redeemed may perish is contrary to expresse Scripture and 3. That this could be no peculiar aggravation of the sin of any if the matter was common to All. These are but prevarications For 1. We conclude not hence the universality of Christs death but onely that it s not so bounded up to the Elect onely as Mr. Owen and his partners bound it 2. That its contrary to expresse Scripture as to Rev. 14.4 That any so redeemed should perish is a speech fallacious and untrue For 1. How knows he that that in Rev. 14.4 is expresse Scripture and speaks according to truth and not only according to appearance more then this might not we by as good Authority say that the Apostle speaks there but according as things seemed to him in a vision but not that all he sayes there is spoken according to truth as he hath to say so of Peter here 2. What means he by So redeemed if only that Christ dyed really for them and not in shew only and that the knowledge hereof and of that salvation that thereby is in him even for them to look after and attainable to them by Faith bought them really off from the world and engaged them to Christ then there is no such passage in Rev. 14.4 as that none such can perish That speaks onely of a certain number redeemed from the earth and men that were virgins and defiled not themselves but followed the Lamb where ever he went But it says not either that All bought by Christ and brought to escape the pollutions of the
to pass that I fear he will be put to it again to prove this also by his doctrine seeing many are willing to run to Ordinances and do any thing to have ease and comfort and yet afterward forget that they were purged from their old sins and having escaped the pollutions of the world and walked in the means appointed for a while afterward imbrace the present world and fall off again which their doctrine intimates they must do and will if not elected or else never meet with any thing of God to purpose though they should continue attending the means to the last gasp I fear he will not say Christ had any Free grace for these and yet all weary heavy laden sinners one and other Christ calls to him yea and the fools and scorners too the wicked unrighteous and who not to listen to his Doctrine for salvation So that these are but fair flourishes that being looked into wind up onely in this Though ye be never so much troubled and weary and never so diligent now in the use of means yet forasmuch as your Election is unknown to us we cannot say that there is any thing purchased by Christ for you or that the blood of Christ is sufficient to purge you because we yet know not whether it was shed for you whatever inward worth it hath in it yet it being shed onely for the Elect he may not be able to save you by it nor unless ye be elected will all your use of means profit you if you should continue in them And so all depends yet even its future use of means too upon that hidden purpose and till that be known whether there be any cause for it to rely on Christ and love him and God in him he knoweth not so that all these answers avail him nothing therefore he doth well to leave his answering and fall to querying viz. What that is that according to our perswasion men are bound to believe when they first know that Christ died for them I answer They are to believe that Christ is their lawful Lord and able to save them and that they ought to live to him also that God is good and loving to them which is not a thing known before-hand as he says but in and through the knowing Christ to have died for them as the Cause though it be before the Effect yet in ordins cognoscendi it may be through and in order of nature after the knowledg of the effect which also the Spirit will there through be now glorifying and presenting to the soul they attending the doctrine of Christ and following him therein till it raise them up to full assurance as it did the Apostles Yea upon the knowing of the death of Christ for them it s to believe that God delights not in their death but is ready in and through Christ to save them and will do it they as they herein see good ground and as also they are by the Gospel that declares it obliged to do waiting on him and trusting in him Now whereas he says That they cannot there being no fruits of his Death but what are common to All which may be Damnation as well as Salvation That 's very untrue 1. Damnation is not the fruit of his Death but of mens abusing the mercies they have by his Death and their refusing to listen to him and look to him for salvation 2. The fruits of his Death in them and to them that come to him are washing purging sanctifying giving in remission peace joy spirit and life everlasting So that that is either an ignorant mistake or a wilful slander and yet as its true that some men may so abuse the Doctrine of Christs Death for them or so disserve him that his Death for them may be an aggravation of their punishment and misery so in that sense As the fruit of Gods Presence with the Israelites that led them out of Egypt into the Wilderness was to them that believed as they all had reason to have done protection and guidance into Canaan and possessing them thereof but to others that causlesly rebelled through their own folly destruction So is Christ and the Gospel of Christ a Savour of life to life in them that receive but of death to death in them that reject him So that as he answered impertinently and inconcludently for himself before so he answers untruly and irrationally here for us But I leave that also From this he comes to tell us That there are two things that both perswasions pretend to the exaltation of Gods free Grace and the Merit of Christ To the first of these he plays the Rhetorician more then either Logician or Divine He asks what that free grace is And I answer This That God hath given his Son to die for All and through him tenders salvation freely in the Gospel to All Whoever will let him come he is ready to receive him rejecting or reprobating none from it to destruction but for their rejecting his Truth and goodness made known to them His Queries Whether it stand in Election effectual Vocation Justification Sanctification Redemption in the blood of Christ If by Redemption in Christs blood he means the actuall setting their spirits at liberty from sin and corruption and from the power of Satans delusions to worship and live to God effected by the sprinkling of his blood upon them Heb. 9.13 14 as is there intended Rev. 5.9 miss the cushion Though Free Grace standeth in all these things which we maintain as well as they yet the extent of it we say not standeth in them but in giving his Elect one in whom his Election and purposes all are to the death for All and setting him up as a medium to whom coming any of them may and in coming shall finde Justification Sanctification Redemption and what ever follows which the Gospel holds forth freely to All as ready in him for them and to be dispensed by him to them upon believing which so held forth is the medium also of his effectual calling Whereas he asks If it be not universally a figment of our own brains or a new name for the old Idol Freewill I answer That it is not the first the authority of Gods Word acquits us which we dare not for all the Sophisms he hath brought against it renounce to cleave to that onely Elect which he and the Elders traditions have created and to which they bow the knew of their faith more then to Gods Word And if no device of our own then no new name For that Idol of Freewill which we no more adore if so much as they who substracting the declaration of Gods good Will to men as pertaining to them the medium appointed by him for his power to work in to uninthral men and impower them to believe do yet call upon men to believe and get Christ as if they had power of themselves to get him and to believe on him thundring damnation
will he busy himself to prevent impossibilities or about them that God hath hated from eternity What follows about Christs merit are but Rhetoricall disparagements of the grace of God as Universall in which he frequently puts the ly or brat of our own brain or some such like language upon Gods and his Apostles declarations for such are these That Christ dyed for All and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world c. To which we shall give no other Answer they being not Arguments but frothy flourishes but remembring him that brought no railing accusations refer it to the Lord to rebuke Sathan the adversary of Gods free-grace and goodness He applands afterward his own opinion and casts dust upon the truth representing his own in these four following propositions 1. That Christ dyed only for the Elect. 2. That all those for whom Christ dyed are eternally saved 3. That Christ purchased all saving grace from them he means for All that so as to be effectually made over to All for whom he dyed 4. Christ sends the means and reveals the wayes of life to all those for whom he died I suppose he means in the declaration of the Gospell to them in this their life time If M. Owen can prove any one of these to be true from Scripture for in all this his book he hath failed of it then I will be bound to give up the cause to him and say that he hath done more then all his brethren could yet attaine to The Assertions he lays down as ours are diverse of them meer slanders as that we say 1. Most of them for whom Christ dyed are damned which is more then we know or dare determine not knowing what a numerous increase there may be of believers in the last Ages of Christs reigne nor being able fully to comprehend those sayings 1 Pet. 3.19 4.6 2. That he purchased not any saving grace for them that he dyed for 3. That he ratified and sealed not any Covenant of grace with any federates 4. Hath no intention to redeem his Church c. as if he had learned to practise that evill principle Calumniare andacter haerebit aliquid His last disquisition is about Gospel-consolation Whether perswasion gives the most before which he propounds some considerations as 1. That all true Evangelicall consolation belongs only to believers but I think this at first dash is unsound for I hope poor sad souls that sit in distress and through the sight of their sins dare not believe nay prehaps are in despaire have nothing in the Gospell to comfort them and induce them to believe 2. That to make out consolation to them to whom it is not due is as great a crime as to withhold it from them to whom it is I grant that both are crimes 3. That T. M. attempt to set forth the Death of Christ so as All might be comforted is a proud attempt I can say this for him of my own hearing from his mouth that he is cleer in that for I heard him say long since that the title was not of his appointing but the Printers or some other above for him 4. That Doctrine that holds out consolation to unbelievers from the Death of Christ is a crying Peace peace where God says there is no peace That 's true if by unbelievers he means men as such and so persisting otherwise it may not be true as is noted to the first we endeavor not to comfort unbelievers in their unbelief further then to let them see there is ground for their repentance but as the Gospel was first preached to Abraham and his Family before the Law so we preach the Death of Christ for all as a medium to their better convincement of their unbelief and impenitence and an argument to perswade them to Faith For how shall they indeed be convinced that its their sin not to believe or be perswaded to believe except they have God set forth as a meet Object for them to believe on And if they persist in their disobedience we have in the Gospel-Declaration Acts 10.36 Luke 10.5 6.9.11 12. that that will strike terror and amazement into them for their unbelief It was the preaching of Christ and so of his Apostles whom we desire to follow first to preach peace to the world and exhort them not to rest without it and in so doing we preach peace to none but whom it s to be preached to God first hangs out a white Flag of Reconciliation and Peace in Christ before he holds out his red of Judgement and Indignation which follows where that peace is despised Mat. 10.12 13 14 15. Having premised these things he lays down these four Conclusions 1. That the extending the Death of Christ to an universality in Object cannot give the lest ground of consolation to them whom God would have to be comforted by the Gospel 2. That the denying the efficacy of the Death of Christ towards them for whom he died cuts the nerves and sinews of all strong consolation such as is proper for the believer to receive and the Gospel to give 3. That there is nothing in the restraining Christs Death to the Elect that in the least measure debars consolation from them to whom it is due 4. That the Doctrine of the effectual Redemption of the sheep of Christ by the blood of the Covenant is the true solid foundation of all durable consolation 1. To confirm the first He premises That all Gospel-Consolation belongs onely to believers which I have before shewed to be untrue The Gospel propounds comfort also to souls ready to despair utterly that they might believe And the best way to comfort such is to let them know that Christ died for them and that by opening to them according to the Scripture-affirmation the extent of Christs Death and of Gods goodness therein Having propounded that he nextly argues against its being of use to believers as that 1. No Scripture so propounds it Which is untrue also for that in 1 Joh. 2.2 doth as we have seen for Mr. Owen confesses his business there is to comfort believers and the Apostle to that propounds Christ as a Propitiation for the sins of the whole world and not onely of us the believers to be comforted See what I have said to it largelier cap. 3. lib. 4. He says further 2. That no comfort can accrue to them from that which is common to those 1. That shall perish to eternity Isa 51.13 Psa 100.2 1 Pet. 4 19. Ps 31.15 and 103.18.22 c. 2. That God would not have comforted And 3. that stand in open rebellion against Christ And 4. That hear not of Christ This also is disproved De facto from the forementioned place as was shewed before upon it Besides The Creation is common to them All that he mentions and yet that 's of Consolation to the believer and so Gods Governing all things the Resurrection Judgement c.