therefore should be saved Ans The Persons are determined of long ago for whom Christ satisfied Either he hath satisfied for me or he hath not before my Faith If he have not then my Faith will not cause him to satisfie for me either by suffering again or by making that satisfaction to have been paid for me which was not Object But it is a thing that never will be for one to believe for whom Christ did not satisfie And therefore it is a thing not to be supposed Ans 1. Things may and must be supposed in dispute that never will be That the Elect should have the desert of their Sin or be unredeemed or be forsaken of God or deprived of any mercy which God will give them are all things that never will be And yet a Christian may argue on supposition they had been or should be to raise his thankfulness What if God should have denied me his Grace Or his Redemption Or let me perish in my Sin and State of nature What a Case would my Sin have brought me under 2. If it be a thing not to be supposed in dispute that a Man should believe for whom Christ satisfied not then it is because it implieth a contradiction Else it may be supposed But it implieth no contradiction Ergo c. Object It is a contradiction Because Christ purchased Faith for all those for whom he satisfied and therefore for a Man to believe for whom Christ purchased not Faith is a contradiction Ans 1. I shall take it as a groundless fancy till it be proved that Christ purchased Faith to be eventually certainly given to all those for whom he satisfied 2. If he had this argument is not from satisfaction as such but as it is meritorious of Faith 3. still it is no contradiction because it implyeth no contradiction for a man to believe without that Grace which Christ hath purchased though it be a thing that will never be done 4. They that will still affirm the contrary do the more destroy their own Cause For they then assert that all Gods commands by his Laws and Ministers to the unredeemed as they suppose them for believing in Christ do require meer impossibilities and such contradictions as are not to be so much as supposed in dispute which I think few sober men will grant but rather avoid that opinion that is the ground of such an assertion 5. And which is more the same absurdity will follow as to all other means whatsoever as well as Faith which God hath prescribed to such men for pardon and salvation as they are means and so bring this reproach on the whole New Law as made to all such Men. Object But the same may be said against Gods Foreknowledge or Decree For if God Fore-know or Decree that men shall certainly perish then it may as well be said that though they should believe God neither would nor could save them Answ 1. As to the Power of God it is not straitened by his Decree It follows not God will not do such a thing therefore he cannot The same Divines whom I now argue against use to argue thus about Physical Predetermination God 's Determination of his own will destroyeth not his Power or liberty to the contrary act therefore his determination of our wills destroyeth not our Power or Liberty to the contrary acts whereby they grant that God can save those that he decreeth not to save and so can give them Faith c. and that he is still free to do it or not do it Object If he should believe and be saved whom God hath foreknow nor decreed to be condemned for Unbelief then God should be deceived or change But it is impossible for God to be deceived or change therefore it is impossible for him to believe and be saved whom God hath foreknown or decreed to condemn for unbelief Answ It is a vicious Argument There 's more in the conclusion than in the premises No more will follow but this therefore he will not believe and be saved whom God c. not it is impossible for God never foreknew or decreed that it should be impossible for him to believe and be saved but only that he would not eventually believe and be saved 2. When I speak before in the Argument of Gods will it is not of his will of Decree but of his will as he is in the relation of Rector per Leges and so giveth that Salvation as executor of his Laws and Sentence which by his Laws he first gave Right to God as Rector and Legislator neither will nor can give Salvation to any that Christ dyed not for if they should believe But God as Legislator or Rector would give salvation to all that Christ Dyed for if they believe though it were supposed that he had foreknown or decreed that such men would not believe Only it would follow that God was mistaken And therefore such a thing will never come to pass for God will not be mistaken It is God as â—egislator to whom it belongs to be true in making good his promises which is the thing in Question 3. The want of an expiatory sacrifice doth morally necessitate the Damnation of Man though he should believe both in respect of the Law of works as â—hrists Death is Causa necessaria liberationis as want of a Ransome may be said to necessitate a Captives perishing and properly in respect to the new Law whose Penalty is 1. Non-liberation 2. And a sorer punishment For the chief cause of that Non-liberation or non-Non-salvation must needs be the defect of that which should be the chief cause of Deliverance and Salvation rather than the defect of Faith a subservieâ— cause or condition which ever supposeth thâ— former cause If two men at Christs bar be â—â—â—leaded as lyable to Damnation and it be â—â—â—d to one Thou hast no Right to Salvation for Christ never Dyed for thee and to the other thou hast no right because thou didst not believe is not the former more valid then the latter or as valid But to say Thou hast no right because God did decree the contrary is not right arguing 4. We must not argue a minus notis as the Decrees are as shall be shewed Arg. 8th A Causa pereundi negativè If Christ hath not satisfied for all men then the cause of mens perishing is for want of an expiatory sâ—criâ—iâ—e But the want of an expiatory 〈◊〉 is not the cause of mens 〈◊〉 therefore Christ hath satisfied for all By 〈◊〉 cause I mean not the meritorious cause for that no doubt must be some sin of Man And I suppose that Unbelievers are not condemned according to the first Law of works as standing without Remedy that is not meerly because they did not perfectly obey but at the Redeemers bar because they believed not and would not have Christ to Reign over them or because they improved not their Talents of Grace that is of mercy given contrary
to an Angel not to be Redeemed nor to the Devils not to be partakers of Christ and of Pardon and Salvation by him Now its true the Pardon of the Damned and their Salvation was not actually effected but the meritorious cause was full and perfect in Christs satisfaction and moral causes go long before the effects sometimes and may do all their part and yet the effect not follow through the defect of some other and the effects were conditionally given or produced by the New Covenant and thereby become not only possible and probable but certain if the condition were performed So that here is a proper privation and not a bare Negation Nor is it the meer matter of such effects that men are deprived of but formally as they were effects conditionally granted and were to have been effects actually of the death of Christ They should have been such effects if they had done their part to procure them by performing the condition as Christ did in the Cause for he required not them to effect it as concauses but only suspended the effects of his own full sufficient but Moral cause on their condition which all Lawyers and all that know what a Moral Cause is or what a proper condition is know to be most usual Now if you suppose that Christ died not and satisfied not for these men then the loss of Pardon Adoption Membership of Christ final Absolution Salvation besides all the greater Glory and all the Spirits Graces and Workings in this life cannot possibly be punishments to them for they cannot be Privations For there was never any cause to procure them and therefore they were never possible much less due and Mans Faith was not required by God to be the meritorious cause or to satisfie Gods Justice nor yet to procure Christ or any other to satisfie it nor yet to make that satisfaction to be now for us which was made for others and not for us to none of these ends was Faith required but only to be the condition of our enjoying Christ and the fruits of his satisfaction on performance whereof the Moral Cause which was long before in full being should produce its effect or else not as to us so that satisfaction as the Cause is necessarily supposed to Faith as the condition seeing the office of the condition is that on it the effect of the cause be suspended till that condition be performed And therefore there can be no condition where there is not first the Moral Cause I mean there can neither be condition constituted by Law Testament Deed of Gift or Covenant nor yet condition performed for it cannot have the form of a condition Or if that be disputable as to any other case I am sure it is not in the case in hand No man will say that the non-remission non-salvation of the Devils by the Blood of Christ is a Punishment to them Object That is because it was never offered or conditionally given them by Covenant as it was to the Unbelievers Answ Nor could it have been given so to Unbelievers if Christ had not died for them Could God give them Christ as a Satisfier and Redeemer who never had satisfied for them or redeemed Or could he make over to them effects which had no Cause viz. the effects of his dying for them when he did not dye for them Would the New Covenant serve to pardon men without Christs Sacrifice and Satisfaction Nay is it not beyond all doubt that this which I call the New Covenant or Testament He that believeth shall be saved c. is the Redeemers Law and Testament and presupposeth his Death and Satisfaction in esse Morali at least It is the New Testament in his Blood he first buyeth men to be his own by satisfaction and then dealeth with them as his own by Promise and Legislation Only the Promise of God to give Christ for a Redeemer to the World and his Prophesies of him therein are in order of nature before the Moral being of Christs death but so is not the Law of Grace I know nothing that hath any great shew of Reason that can be said against this Argument which so clearly evinceth the truth of Universal Redemption and for vain objections I will not trouble my self and the Reader with them Arg. 30. A Comparatione doctrinae universalem satisfactionem affirmantis cum doctrinâ— eandem negante If they who assert Universal Redemption quoad satisfactionem pretium have all these forementioned Arguments from Scripture for their cause and a multitude of express Texts and no one ill consequence following their doctrine nor one sound Reason nor one text of Scripture against them And if the deniers of Universal Satisfaction have all the contrary disadvantages then they that affirm Universal Satisfaction are in the right and they that deny it do err But the antecedent is true Ergo. c. Here I will 1. Look over these Arguments again and from thence shew you the face of the consequents of the denial of Universal Satisfaction 2. I will lay you down together the express Texts that are for Universal Satisfaction 3. And also the Texts that are brought against it 4. And then the particular search of those texts on both sides and the answer to all the Arguments that are usually brought against Universal Satisfaction I intend shall follow afterward in their own places more fully The Doctrine which denyeth Universal Satisfaction hath all these inconveniences and absurd consequents following therefore it is not of God nor true 1. It either denieth the Universal Promise or Conditional Gift of Pardon and Life to all men if they will believe and then it overturneth the substance of Christs Law and Gospel promise or else it maketh God to give conditionally to all men a Pardon and Salvation which Christ never purchased and without his dying for men 2. It maketh God either not to offer the effects of Christs satisfaction Pardon and Life to all but only to the Elect or else to offer that which is not and which he cannot give 3. It denieth the direct object of Faith and of Gods offer that is Christum qui satisfecit a Christ that hath satisfied 4. It either denieth the Non-Elects deliverance from that flat necessity of perishing which came on man for sinning against the first Law by its remediless unsuspended obligation and so neither Christ Gospel or Mercy had ever any nature of a remedy to them nor any more done toward their deliverance then towards the deliverance of the Devils Or else it maketh this deliverance and remedy to be without satisfaction by Christ for them 5. It either denieth that God commandeth all to believe but only the Elect Or else maketh God to assign them a deceiving Object for their Faith commanding them to believe in that which never was and to trust that which would deceive them if they did trust it 6. It maketh God either to have appointed and commanded the
to desert And of those that hear the Gospel this is undenyable and I think it is certainly true of all others So that it is perishing in reference to a Gospel Judgment at the Mediators Bar that we mean and specicially in a comparative sence And by cause I mean the Reason of their perishing to be alledged So that if you ask seeing all are equally condemned by the Law of works and mercy hath found out a Remedy what is the reason that this man is condemned at the Redeemers Bar when that is acquit Or that this Man Judas is not delivered and saved as well as that Peter Is it because Christ Dyed only for one or that one only believed and the other refused Christ Here according to the Doctrine which denyeth Universal Satisfaction it must be said that either the only or the principal reason that men perish when others are saved is for want of an expiatory sacrifice or satisfaction for their Sin i. e. because they had no Redeemer when others had or no Christ to Die for them But this is contrary to the Scripture The consequence is evident that it is more principally the want of a Saviour or satisfaction then the want of Faith that is the reason of their perishing if Christ satisfied not for them 1. Because satisfaction is prerequisite to the efficacy or usefulness of Faith Sed non è contra 2. Satisfaction hath the greatest work to do and is the greatest cause And faith hath a far and a lower work and is a lesser cause or indeed no cause at all but a meer condition 3. God could not fitly save Sinners without satisfaction But he could if he had pleased have saved them for that satisfaction without a personal Faith as he doth Infants and as he saved the Church before Christs Incarnation without that Faith which now justifieth viz. Believing that this Jesus is the Christ and without believing in any Articles of our Creed If two Men be mortally sick and one be healed and the other not because one had a costly Cordial and the other had none prepared for him but only a nonimal offer without the thing though this Man refuse that nominal or feigned offer yet the chief cause why he was not healed was the want of the medicament rather then his refusal And for the Minor its plain through the whole New Testament that the cause of Mens perishing is not for want of an expiatory Sacrifice but for want of Faith to receive the Redeemer and his benefits Mat. 23. 37. How oft would I have gathered thee c. ye would not Isa 5. 4. What could have been done more to my Vineyard c. Mat. 24. 4. 5. Tell them which are bidden behold I have prepared my dinner My Oxen and Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage But they made light of it c. verse 8. The Wedding is ready but they which were bidden were not worthy i. e. There is no want on Christs Part his Sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient But they lost the benefits for want of believing Mat. 25. 1. 2. All the Virgins might have been accepted at the Marriage if their own sloath had not shut out the foolish verse 14. All the Servants had Talents mercies purchased by Christs Death but it was not well using them that condemned one Men treade under Foot the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified And deny the Lord that bought them Mens destruction is of themselves But in God through Christ is their help All the Scripture shews this that Men perish for their rejecting a Redeemer and not for want of the Price of Redemption For quoad pretium Christ hath taken away the Sins of the World Arg. 9th A Sufficientià pretii pro omnibus If Christ died for all Men quoad sufficientiam pretii then he hath satisfied for all But he died for all Men quoad sufficientiam pretii Ergo c. The Minor is maintained by the generality of our Ancienter Protestant Divines who use ordinarily this distinction to solve the doubt whether Christ died for all viz. he died for all sufficiently and for the Elect only effectually And indeed this one distinction rightly understood and this answer thence fitted is most full and apt for the resolution of the question The Schoolmen go the same way The consequence of the Major proposition is acknowledged by our late most rigid Anti-Arminians who on that reason do deny the Minor For our new Divines have utterly forsaken the old common opinion and in stead of saying that Christ died for all Men sufficienter They will not so much as say that His Death was sufficiens pretium pro omnibus But only that It is sufficient to have been a price for all For all our former Divines and the most of these times so far as I can discern who acknowledg that Christ died for all Men quoad sufficientiam pretii and for the Elect quoad efficaciam they say the same and as much as I and therefore I need not say much more to them For Christ cannot dye for Men sufficienter and yet not die for them at all or not satisfie for them I may well take up with this one argument If Christs Death be a sufficient price for all then it is a Price for all But Christs Death is by their confession a sufficient Price for all Therefore it is a Price for all Here understand that it is first in order of nature a Sacrifice expiatory or a satisfaction before it is meritorious of further benefits or is a Price for them Had it not been to satisfie Justice God would have been so far from taking his Sons Death for meritorious that he would have been utterly displeased in it For he delighteth not in the Death of him that dieth how much less of the innocent and lest of all of his only Son Note here also in what sence we say Christs Death is sufficient and in what sence it is called effectual There is a double effect of Christs Death and so a double efficacy and so a double sufficiency to those effects The first effect is to be a satisfaction to the offended Justice of God and a demonstration of his legal Justice The sufficiency to this effect was in the dignity of the Person and greatness of the suffering supposing Gods voluntary Acceptation of it instead of the Sinners own suffering The efficacy immediately followed the suffering Yea it went long before it upon the undertaking and the acceptation as in Moral Causes it is not unusual The 2d sort of effects are more remote even the actual good of the Sinner Of these some are general and common as the freeing of all Men from that necessity of perishing which lay on them by the Curse of the first Law as it stood without remedy c. And so Christs Death is sufficient for all and effectual too Some fruits of his Death are
effects products and Issues of it with what in its own nature it is fit and able to do Is it not therefore strange that this Author should Page 175. 176 say 1. That this fulness and sufficiency of the merit of the Death of Christ is a foundation for the general publishing of the Gospel to all Nations with the right that it hath to be preached to every creature because the way of Salvation which it declares is wide enough for all to walk in There is enough in the remedy it brings to light to heal all their diseases to deliver them from all their evils If there were 1000 Worlds the Gospel of Christ might on this ground be Preached to them all there being enough in Christ for the Salvation of them all if so be they will derive vertue from him by touching him by Faith the only way to draw refreshment from this Fountain of Salvation 2. That the Teachers of the Gospel in their particular Congregations c. may from hence justifiably call upon every Man to believe with assurance of Salvation to every Man in particular upon his doing knowing and being fully perswaded of this that there is enough in the death of Christ to save every one that shall so do To all which I briefly reply 1. I have disproved this in what is said before and shewed that Christs death cannot be affirmed sufficient for any Mans Salvation for whom it never satisfied though he should believe 2. How can he say there is sufficient merit where there is no merit at all The Death of Christ hath no merit as to the Pardon of Devils or any for whom it was never suffered 3. How can he call any thing a way of Salvation wide enough which presupposeth not Christs satisfaction for the person Can Men walk to Heaven by Faith without a Redeemer Or is there such a true Faith 4. How can he truely say there is enough in the remedy Which is as to them no Remedy Is there enough in that remedy to heal the Devils if they believed 5. How can there be enough in it or how can it be any remedy to heal all diseases and deliver from all evils before it have made satisfaction Must it not do that before it can heal any other disease 6. How can he say There is enough in Christ for the Salvation of them all if so be they will derive virtue from him by touching him by Faith Must not the application be first to God by satisfying him before it can be made to Man by believing Is not the Salvation of Men the Fruit of Christs dying for them And can there be the effect without the cause Hath Christ virtue to be derived for the saving of any that he died not for Will believing make Christ to die for them that he hath not died for already 7. In plain truth your ground of preaching Christ to all is your foreknowledge that only the Elect will believe and not the sufficiency of Christs Death knowing that there is nothing in Christs Death to save any man that he did not Die and Satisfie for though he should believe never so strongly 2. But let us come to the first effect of Christs Death and see whether it were sufficient to that viz. to be a satisfaction for the Sins of all And here they do maintain that it is only materially or aptitudinally sufficient as the money which my rich neighbour hath in his purse is sufficient to pay my debt which he resolveth never to pay Or as the Ransome paid for one man was enough to have redeemed another also if it had been paid for him And what the better is he for whom it was never paid And what difference as to their ransome between most men and Devils For the form of a satisfaction or Price for all they affirm that Christs Death hath it not sufficiently or at all These men must once more therefore new moddel their Doctrine or reform their expressions and give over saying that Christs death is sufficient for the pardon of all if they would believe for that is notoriously false according to them seeing the effecting of satisfaction is that wherein the sufficiency of it lyes as to remission But they must hereafter say only that Christs Death was sufficient to have procured pardon for all men if he would have suffered it for all And I will give them this encouragement so far to innovate viz. Though they speak not only against Scripture and the Primitive Fathers and the Church of Christ in all Ages and the generallity of our most severe Protestant Divines yet because 1. It is against Arminius an adversary 2. And tendeth to extreams 3. And so is agreeable to Nature they shall perhaps with applause at least with far less wounding of their Reputation raise up these novelties than a Sober Moderate Judicious Divine shall beat them down again or revive any one Truth which extreams have clouded laid by and trodden under foot But I will not stay here to shew the absurdity of mens so confident asserting Christs death to be aptitudinally sufficient for so many for whom it was never suffered seeing I shall deal on this purposely in the next Argument But how useless this sufficiency is and no foundation at all for our general offer of Christ and mercy to all if they will believe may be seen in what is said before And how useless and insufficient it is to encourage any man to believe we shall yet further have occasion to shew anon In the mean time I think the unsoundness of their Doctrine who deny Universal Satisfaction is manifest hence in that it fully overthrows the sufficiency of Christs Death for the pardon of all mens sins if they should believe which yet the generality of our Divines do maintain Arg. 10th Ab absurdo injurià coutrariae Doctrinae in Christum If Christ have paid a Price of satisfaction sufficient for the sins of all the World and yet paid it not for all the World then he suffered much in vain But he suffered not any thing in vain Ergo c. The Minor none will deny that is a Christian The consequence of the Major is proved ad hominem by the concessions of them of the contrary Opinion For 1. No Reformed Divine doth deny but that as one part of the value of Christs sufferings was from the Dignity of the person so the other and a necessary part was from the greatness of his sufferings 2. And all conclude that there was more suffering necessary for the expiation of the sins of all the World than for one particular sin or then for one mans sins and so more necessary to expiate the sins of all men then of the few only that are chosen And consequently if Christ suffered no more than was sufficient for the Redemption of the Elect then it was not sufficient for the Redemption of all And if it were sufficient for the Redemption of
Universal Redemption OF Mankind BY THE Lord Jesus Christ Stated and Cleared by the late Learned Mr. Richard Baxter Whereunto is added a short Account of Special Redemption by the same Author 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and â—ose again Mors Christi in Sacra Scripturâ— proponitur ut Universale remedium omnibus singulis hominibus exordinatione Dei naturà rei ad salutem applicabile Davenant de morte Christi LONDON Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising-Sun in Cornhill 1694. THE Epistle Dedicatory To the Honoured Thomas Foley Paul Foley Phillip Foley and William Jolliff Esquires Worthy Sirs MY particular Relation to your Honoured Father my Worthy Patron and Benefactor as also to Mr. Baxter the Author of these ensuing Disputations whom I cannot but own as a Spiritual Father to me and the best Friend I had in the World gives me occasion to prefix your Names to this Book Not to flatter you though I truly honour you for your Faithfulness Courage and Constancy in asserting the Rights of Religion and Property in opposition to the prophane and mercenary designs of such as appeared against them but that by their Example I may invite you to go on in filling up the measure of your Fathers Vertues and in following the Counsels of such a Minister of Christ whose gifts and graces gave him the preeminence amongst his Suffering Brethren and made him more than a Bishop even of the first Magnitude to the Inferiour Clergy Your Father is dead long since and Mr. Baxter is dead also But the Memory of the Just is blessed whereas the name of the Wicked shall rot The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance We cannot easily forget such Persons whose good works and great labours for publick good have left them a Name better than of Sons and Daughters A numerous Posterity is a great Blessing a Holy Seed much greater that the Blessing upon both accounts may be entailed upon you and yours to many Generations is the hearty desire of Yours in the Service of Christ JOSEPH READ READER June 27. 1694. HAving been assured from Mr. Baxter himself both by word and writeing that he had given this his Treatise in Manuscript of Universal Redemption c. to Mr. Joseph Read the now Publisher thereof and having seen some of the Manuscript it self whilst it was printing off and knowing it to be Mr. Baxter's own hand writing I do at Mr. Read's request assure thee that this is the Treatise upon that Subject which hath been so long desired and expected by the World from the Author thereof Mr. R. B. And I cannot doubt but that an Impartial and observant Reading thereof will quickly discover that acumen of judgment which will evince it to be his Thine in the best of Bonds and Services MAT. SYLVESTER To the READER IT is necessary that I give some Account how these Disputations with many others came to my hands and of their Publication Being sent to Cambridge by Mr. Baxter be was pleased at my return from thence to receive me into his Family and to make use of me as his Assistant at my first entrance into the Ministry Anno 1657. in Kidderminster the place of my Birth Some of the first work he put me upon was to transcribe these Papers of Redemption which he designed for the Press The Ministers of Worcestershire and Neighbourhood thereabouts who usually attended on his Thursday Lecture and heard these Disputations at their Monthly Meeting were generally desirous to have them Printed Mr. B. had long since raised their expectation thereof by declaring his intention of it in Print At last though long first viz. July 17. 1691. he gave them to me signifying his willingness to have them Printed If any Person question whether he wrote and fitted these Sheets for the Press I shall readily satisfie him by producing the Original of his own hand writing as well as the Copy thereof wrote by me at least 38 years since If these Disputations of Redemption find acceptance which I see no cause to doubt of I shall be thereby incouraged to Print the rest or such of them as may be thought most useful It was a great word of Bishop Wilkins that Mr. Baxter had cultivated every Subject he handled read this Subject of Redemption and judge whether there be not cause to say so of it if he had lived in the Primitive times he had been one of the Fathers of the Church And again It was enough saith he for one Age to produce such a Person as Mr. Baxter But his works praise him much more than the Tongues or Pens of the greatest Doctors or best of Men can do There is therefore no need of Letters of Recommendation to set forth the excellence of this Work or the Praises of the Author thereof Let it suffice to assure the Reader that this Disputation of Universal Redemption was composed by him in the strength of his day about the 40th year of his Age when the opposition of the Learned of differing Opinions had sharpen'd his Pen and made him critically exact in considering what he intended for the Press That which I earnestly desire is that young Ministers and especially all Candidates for the Ministry would put on humbleness of mind and set themselves at the feet of this Great Man as Learners and then through the Divine Blessing I doubt not but their profiting will appear unto all men And let those of different Judgment from him but remember that Mr. Baxter now dead is as much above their clamorous censures as while living he was their Superiour in his Gifts and Graces Had the one or the other but known Mr. Baxter as well as others of his familiar Friends his Works would be highly valued by them or at least his unspotted Holiness and great Charity would so far have conciliated their minds and engaged their affections as to love and honour his memory and imitate his Life which we impatiently wait for an account of from another band being now ready for the Press May every Minister but have that Book when Printed and lay aside prejudice so far at least as calmly to read it and then I may with confidence expect not only that humble Learners but the greatest Scholars will be as desirous of acquaintance with his Works as ever Usher Gataker Vines and many others of the best of men were admirers of his Personal worth and desirous of his Converse and Company If any shall be so far dissatisfied with the Title and Subject of the Book as to throw it aside I only desire they would seriously think of those words p. 286. When God saith so expresly that Christ dyed for all and tasted death for every man and is the Ransom
in our dispute yet with those that are contentious and will needs insist on the supposed advantage which the state of Indians and other Pagans and their Infants do afford them I shall though unwillingly proceed further rather than prejudice the Truth But the greatest Ambiguity in our Question is in the term For. This proposition here may admit of divers Senses Sometime Christ is said to Die For our Sins Sometimes To Die For us When he is said to Die For our Sins it may be understood 1. Either for our Sins as the pro Meritorious procuring Cause of his Suffering through his own undertaking to bear what they deserved Or if any think it fitter to call them the Occasion than the Meritorious Cause they may And so to Die For our Sins is to Die through the Desert of our Sins 2. Or else he may be said to Die For our Sins Finalitèr as Sin is part of the Evil which he intended through death to free us from And so to Die For Sin is To Die against Sin As when we say This Medicine is good For such a Disease we mean it is good against it When Christ is said to Die For us it may be meant either 1. Subjectivè that he Died Loco nosiro of which more anon 2. Or Finaliter And that two ways 1. Either as we are to be his own in propriety and so 1. To be a means to his own glory 2. Or his Propriety a means to our further good And thus he dyeth For Men by way of purchase as a Man gives a Price For a Slave or Condemned Malefactor for I will not say as we buy a Beast in the Market seeing that is only for our selves and not for the good of the Beast 2. Or else more directly as we are the Finis Cui of those benefits which by his Death he procureth And so Dying For us is either taken generally respecting our selves generally considered as the Objects of his love As one Friend or Lover is said to Die for the sake of another in several Cases as in fighting for him or other way of signifying or testifying Love So generally considered Christ Died nostri gratiâ 2. Or in reference to the special Benefits which by his Death he procured for us Which Benefits might be variously considered either 1. As to be offered or to be enjoyed 2. Either quoad possibilitatem vel quoad futuritionem possessionis 3. Quoad rem ipsam vel quoad Jus ad rem with divers other Considerations which I will pass by lest by needless distinguishing I should rather obscure the point than clear it Only before I can go any farther I must needs lay down a few Distinctions which are of great moment and necessity for the right understanding of this matter 1. And first and above all we must both distinguish between the divers Effects or Ends of Christs Death and rightly consider the Reason and the Order of each of them For to know only in general that Christ dyed for us is so far from being a sufficient knowledge for a Divine that it is not sufficient to denominate a man a Christian seeing it saith no more of Christ than may be said of Stephen Peter Paul or one another For we must if called to it die for one another saith John 1 Epist 3. 16. Yet I confess the right ordering of this whole work in our Conceivings is a matter of great difficulty though of great moment At the present time will permit me only to give you this brief Account of my thoughts herein I Consider 1. What Christ did 2. Why he did it 1. That which he did was 1. In sensu Naturali to Suffer and Die 2. In sensu Legali vel Morali It was 1. In General to be Punished 2. In Special it was A voluntary bearing in the person of a Mediator in the stead of fallen Mankind that punishment in weight which for their Sin the Law of works Obliged them to bear Or to speak in the Scripture phrase which it were well if men had been contented with it is the offering himself a Sacrifice for Sin and so to take them away as a Ransom for Attonement and Propitiation 2. Why Christ did this must be answered from the Efficient and Final Causes In general Gods will is the Principal Efficient and Ultimate Final Cause of this and all things More particularly 1. God was the Author or first Cause in committing this work to his Son and sending him to do it 2. Gods Mercy and Compassion speaking after the manner of Men was the Impulsive Cause 3. Mans misery was the Occasion 4. Mans sin was another occasion as being loco Causae Meritoriae for properly there was no Meritorious Cause 5. The Laws Curse or Obligation was another occasion as being Miseriae Causa removenda 6. Christs Voluntary Sponsion or Consent was the Moral Obliging Cause supplying the place both of a Meritorious and of a Legal Obliging Cause 7. Christ himself was the Voluntary Patient 8. God himself was the Principal moral Efficient so far as it had rationem boni For he cannot be a morally deficient Cause nor an Efficient of Punishment so far as it hath in it rationem veri mali 9. Satan was the Principal Author of it as it was Evil. 10. Wicked men were the Instruments 2. And for the Ends there is two ways of discerning and expressing them The 1. is according to Gods order of Intention The 2. accordding to His Order of Attainment and Execution 1. The former is less fit for our observation both because we are utterly uncertain whether it be fully and wholly revealed seeing God may have End◠which he judgeth not fit to communicate to us and where it is not revealed either 1. By Scripture or 2. By Event it is impossible we should know it 2. And because when we do see Events yet we are so vastly distant from God and exceeding strange to his unconceivable unexpressible Nature that we know not what hath the place of an End and what of a means in the Divine Intention farther than He hath told us Nor know what Gods intention is the term being properly appliable only to Creatures and no term of Human Language in strict propriety appliable to the Nature of God But this much the Scripture Revealeth to us 1. That in the sense as God may be said to have an end Gods proper ultimate end is himself He made all things for himself and can have no lower end than himself But how himself is his end is hard to open If we say his Being as such is his End or that his Essential Glory is his End we do but darken the matter and lose our selves For neither Redemption nor any other work can either cause conserve or add to that Being and Glory If we say His Glory in the Esteem of the Creature is his utmost End we suppose him to have an End Infinitely below himself If you say that
with some For they deny that Christ is given conditionally to any Unbeliever Elect or not Elect but only is decreed for the Elect before time and given to Believers in time The Sence is that there is no conditional promise or deed of Gift but all absolute For if it be made only to Men that do believe their first believing cannot be the condition and if it be made on condtion of First believing it is made to Men that do not yet believe But the main Scope of the Gospel proves the Minor by proving the conditional Gift or promise As the Texts even now cited among others Where note to put it out of doubt 1. That the time of Gods enacting this Law or making this Testament Gift or promise was before we were born and therefore before we believed 2. that in its nature it first speaks to unbelievers as its Subject For who will offer a gift to us to be accepted that it may be ours if we have accepted it already Nay how can it be accepted before it is offered And how can we consent to have Christ and so be united to him except he first give himself to us on condition that we will consent 3. Note that the promise is made in most proper conditional terms If thou confess with thy Mouth and believe in thy heart Rom. 10. That whosoever believeth should not perish c. 4. And also note that faith hath here the Definition of a condition agreeing to it i. e. It is an Arbitrary act on which the free Donour hath suspended the efficacy of his Testament or Deed of Gift It is Arbitrary conditions that we have here to speak of which some call Potestative And not casual or mixt So to suspend the effect of the Instrument that hoc posito efficiet donec ponatur non efficiet that upon the doing or not doing the Effect shall follow or not follow and this by the Positive ordination of the Donor is the very essence of a Condition in Law-sence And such â—s Faith And what Divine except Antinomians doth deny Faith to be the Condition And if it be so then the Promise or Conditional Gift must needs be made to Unbelievers that it may become effectual when they believe For it can be no condition in this proper sence if it be past already And therefore it must needs be made to all Unbelievers seeing Scripture limitteth it not to any but speaketh universally Inded it is a very hard questionhow far the promulgation may be said to be Universal and how far not But that is nothing against the Universality of the Tenor of the Law or Gift And the command to the Promulgators is Go into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature Next let us prove the consequence of the Major Proposition and that thus The thing conditionally given is Pardon purchased by Christs Blood shed for the Sinner to whom it is Given Therefore the gift presupposeth the shedding of his Blood for that Sinner The Antecedent hath two branches to be proved 1. That the Pardon conditionally given to all is a pardon purchased by Christs Blood 2. That it is by Christs blood as shed for him to whom that pardon is given For the first there is no Pardon given any other way but by Christs blood shed therefore this is from his Bloodshed 1. If there be Remission which is not purchased by Christs blood shed then there are two distinct ways of Remission one by his blood and another without But the consequent is false Ergo c. 2. If there be a remission without Christs bloodshed then all remission might have been without it But the consequent is false else Christ Dyed needlesly 3. Heb. 9. 22. Without shedding of Blood there is no Remission 4. Heb. 9. 16. For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the Death of the Testator But this conditional Gift is Christs Testament So ver 15. For this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by means of Death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritants viz. all that are externalâ—y called receive the conditional Promise and Believers the thing promised 5. Luke 24. 46 47. It behoved Christ to â—uffer and Rise from the Dead the third day and â—hat Repentance and Remission of Sins should be reached in his name among all Nations c. â—o that even Remission Preached that is offered â—n condition of repentance and Faith presupposeth Christs Death as the Cause 6. In the Institution of his Supper he calleth â—e Cup the New Testament in his Blood that this signifieth my Blood which procureth the â—ew Testament Now none sure dare say that the â—â—omise of Pardon and Life on condition of Beâ—â—ving is not the New Testament either whole or â—â—t 7. And therefore it is called the Blood of the â—venant even to them that tread it under â—â—â—t Heb. 10. 29. and 13. 20. Zech. 9. 11. 8. Justification is by Christs Blood Rom. 5. 9. Being Justified by his Blood But Justification is the Effect of this Conditional Covenant or Gift when the Condition is performed therefore the effect of this Covenant is from Christs blood and consequently the Covenant it self which is an intermediate cause Though there be other sorts of Justification yet that this is one and the first is undenyable 9. Actual Remission to Believers is from Christs Blood Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the remission of Sins Col. 1. 14. therefore conditional remission to unbelievers is from his Blood The reason of the consequence is that Christ procureth the Effect of Justification or Remission not immediately by his Blood as shed but by procuring the Covenant or Promise as the immediate Cause and the effect by that Cause and it is the same Gift oâ— Covenant which conditionally Justifieth all and actually Justifieth Believers and that without any other â—â—tervening act of God When the condition is performed whose Nature is to suspend the Effect then the effect resulteth from thaâ— same Promise which before did not effect Indeed Christ giveth his Spirit to causé his Own tâ— perform the condition but still the justifying aâ— is by the conditional Covenant If therefore iâ— be the same promise which effectually justifieâ— the Elect and only conditionally justifieth otheâ— and Christs Blood causeth that promise which eâ— fectually justifieth the Elect then his Bloâ—â— caused that promise which conditionally justifieâ— all John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gâ— his only begotten Son 1. For men on the Crâ—â— 2. To men by the promise that whosoever believe c. So that this conditional grant of Life comes from the giving of Christ to Death And for the second part of the Antecedent viz. That it is from Christs Blood as shed for him to whom the Promise is made And 1. Ab â—nefficacia
to be but the meritorious cause of our Righteousness but not our Righteousness it self as we affirm it I do not now judg of these words but if Christs satisfaction be our very Righteousness or any part of it then certainly Christ satisfied for all to whom he offers his Righteousness But that he offers his Righteousness to all without exception is beyond doubt And he would never offer them a Non-ens that which is not He doth not offer to one Man the satisfaction made only for another and not for him for that would be no Righteousness for him But it is Righteousness that Christ offers and therefore it is satisfaction for that sinner himself which is offered to that sinner to be his Righteousness Now the offer supposeth the being of the thing offered except it were only an offer to do or give something hereafter which is not the case here And for them that say Christ is only offered to Men if they will receive him or believe it is idle For Christ is offered to Men whether they will receive him or not but none but receivers do enjoy him God doth not make our receiving the condition of his offering as to say I will offer thee Christs satisfaction if thou wilt receive it but he makes it the condition of our attaining the good offered q. d Christ with his benefits offered to thee shall be thine if thou wilt receive him 2. If it be only the Blood of Christ shed for others and not for them which unbelievers sin against then the sin of Devils might as to this respect be as well aggravated from the Blood of Christ sinned against as theirs But the consequence is palpably absurd Ergo c. 3. Consider what hainous consequents will follow if you deny this aggravation of the Sins of unbelievers 1. You harden them in the most desperate impenitency For they cannot repent of that which they know not to be a Sin and they cannot know that they have sinned against him that dyed for them till they know that he did die for them and who dare say to all the World that yet know not that they are true believers you ought not to repent for any Sin as being committed against him that died for you Perkins Treat of repentance and multitudes of our godly English Writers when they press Men to repentance do use this as the greatest motive to consider what our Sins did cost the Lord Jesus They cost him Blood and should they not cost us tears and should we make light of that which lay so heavy on him Such arguings are common in almost all Writers and Preachers Now if Christ did not bear all Mens Sins and if all Mens Sins did not cost Christ so dear then this Argument or Motive to repentance can be used to no Man nor by any Man but only those that have got assurance of a special interest in Christ 2. Hereby you deny that God may justly aggravate Mens Sins or condemn Men for Sinning against Christ that died for them 3. Hereby you perswade Men that their consciences shall not thus agravate them in Hell nor torment them for Sinning against him that suffered for them all which I shall shew anon to be false 4. Hereby you forbid Ministers from thus aggravating their Peoples Sins and so from using the most effectual motive to draw them to repentance And hereby you condemn almost all the most powerful Preachers in England who generally take this course And you reject the most powerful Books and Sermons which God hath blest to the Conversion of many Souls I mention this the rather because some still object that those who are against Universal Redemption succeed as much in their Ministry to the Conversion of Souls as those that are for it The reason is because they commonly Preach for it or on grounds that suppose it in their practical Sermons when in their disputes they speak against it That you may see I wrong them not I will instance in one learned Holy Perkins who hath writ more confidently against Universal Redemption then he And when he comes to win Men to Repentance and to Christ see how he Writes in particular in that excellent short Treatise the choicest piece I think that ever he wrote I am sure a piece that hath long agoe workt more on my own Heart then most if not then any that ever I read and which I have cause to thank God that ever I saw I mean his Treat of the Right Knowledg of Christ Crucified in the first Vol. of his Works Page 626 c. I will transcribe some passages Page 626. When he hath shewed that we must feel the need of Christ and desire him he adds The ad Part of knowledg is Application every Man is bound to apply Christ whereby thou must know and believe not only that Christ was Crucified but that he was Crucified for thee for thee I say in particular Here two rules must be remembred and practised one that Christ on the Cross was thy pledg and surety in particular that he stood there in the very room and place in which thou thy self in thy own person shouldest have stood That thy very personal and particular Sins were imputed and applied to him That he stood guilty as a Malefactor for them and suffered the very Pangs of Hell And that his sufferings are as much in acceptation with God as if thou hadst born the curse of the Law in thy own person eternally The holding and believing of this point is the very foundation of Religion as also of the Church of God c. The 2d Rule is that Christ Crucified is thine being really given thee of God the Father even as truly as Houses and Lands are given of Earthly Fathers to their Children And hence it is that the benefits of Christ are before God ours indeed for our justification and Salvation and Page 630. First of all the serious consideration of this that the very Son of God himself suffered all the pains and torments of Hell on the Cross for our Sins is the proper and most effectual means to stir up our Hearts to a godly sorrow for them And that this thing may come to pass every Man must be setled without doubt that he was the Man that Crucified Christ that he is to be blamed as well as Judas Herod Pilate or the Jews and that his Sins should be the Nails the Spears and the Thorns that pierced him When this meditation begins to take place bitterness of Spirit with Wailing and Mourning takes place in like manner Zach 12. 10. And they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall lament for him as one lamenteth for his only Son What a Doctrin then is it that teacheth us that none but they that know themselves to be Elect should once accuse themselves of this that their Sins did Crucifie Christ Peter in his first Sermon struck the Jews as with a Thunder-clap from
the same Again that this sorrow of his is joy and rejoycing to thee if thou wilt believe in him When thou readest that in the Garden he prayed lying grovling on his Face sweating Water and Blood begin to think seriously what an unspeakable measure of Gods wrath was upon thy blessed Saviour that did prostrate his Body upon the Earth and cause the Blood to follow and think that thy Sins must needs be most hainous that brought such bloody and grievous pains upon him Also think it is a shame for thee to carry thy Head to Heaven with haughty looks to wallow in thy pleasures and to draw the innocent Blood of thy poor brethren by oppression and deceit for whom Christ Sweat Water and Blood and take an occasion from Christs agony to lay aside the pride of thy Heart yea even to bleed for thy own offences c. When thou readest that Christ was taken and bound think that thy very Sins brought him into the power of his Enemies and were the very bonds wherewith he was tied Think that thou shouldst have been bound in the very same manner unless he had been a surety and pledg for thee Think also that thou in the same manner art bound and tied with the Chains of thy own Sins c. Lastly think and believe that the bonds of Christ serve to purchase thy liberty from Hell death and damnation When thou hearest that he was brought before Annas and Caiphas think it was meet that thy surety and pledg who was to suffer the Condemnation due to thee should by the High Priest as by the Mouth of God be condemned And wonder at this that the very Coessential and Eternal Son of God even the Soveraign judg of the World stands to be judged and that by wicked Men perswading thy self that this so great confusion comes of thy Sins Whereupon being further amazed at thy fearful state humble thy self in dust and ashes and pray God to soften thy stony Heart that thou maist turn to him and by true Faith lay hold on Christ c. When thou readest that Barrabas the murderer was preferred before Christ c. Thy very Sins pulled on him that shameful reproach and in that for thy cause he was esteemed worse than Barrabas c. When thou readest that he was openly and judicially condemned to the cursed death of the Cross consider what is the wrath and fury of God against Sin and how great is his mercy to Sinners and in this Spectacle look on thy self and with groans of Heart say O good God what settest thou before mine Eyes I even I have sinned I am guilty and worthy of damnation Whence comes this change that thy blessed Son is in my room but of thy unspeakable mercy Wretch that I am How have I forgotten my self and thee my God O Son of God how low hast thou abased thy self for me Therefore give me grace O God that beholding my own Estate in the person of my Saviour thus condemned I may detest my Sins that were the cause thereof and by a lively Faith embrace that absolution which thou offerest me in him who was condemned in my stead and room O Lord Jesus Saviour of the World give me that Holy Spirit that I may judg my self and be as vile in my own Eyes as thou wast vile before the Jews Unite me unto thee by the same Spirit that in thee I may be as worthy to be accepted before God as I am worthy in my self to be detested for my Sins c. When thou readest that he was script of his cloathing think it was that he being naked might bear thy shame ou the Cross c. When thou readest of the complaint of Christ that he was forsaken of his Father consider how he suffered the pangs and torments of Hell as thy Pledge and Surety c When thou readest of his Death consider that thy Sins were the cause of it c. Thus far Mr. Perkins whose words I have thus largely set doown both as a pattern for Ministers how to Preach the Doctrine of Redemption and to shew the necessity there is that Ministers and People do see and discover to others their Sin in this great aggravation as they were the crucifiers of Christ and to shew you what English Ministers Preach to the People whatever they speak in Disputes and what kind of Preaching it is which hath succeeded so in England for the conversion of Souls If this be not a plain Preaching of Universal Redemption or Satitfaction as to all that hear the Gospel whom he requires so oft to consider that Their sins crucified Christ then I know not what is And if any quirke may be produced to wrest so plain words to a contrary sense I am sure the poor sinners to whom it is Preached know not ordinarily those evasions but receive it in the plain sense I could fill a Volume with the like passages as this out of our most powerful and successful Preachers Here then are two distinct aggravations of sin both necessarr to every penitent Soul both which are denyed by the denyal of Universal satisfaction The first is that our sins killed Christ as being the cause of his Death Is not a man bound to mourn over him whom his sins have pierced before he knoweth himself to be Elect How few then of the Elect themselves should do it 2. The second aggravation is that all our sins against recovering mercies are committed against him that Died for us He that denyeth both these aggravations of sin doth not a little wrong Christ and mens Souls Lastly I argue thus If without those forementioned aggravations of sin no man can truly and savingly Repent then all men are bound thus to aggravate their sins in their self accusations But without these there can be no saving Repentance Ergo c. The consequence of the Major is proved in that all men are bound truly to Repentance even with that which is called Repentance unto Life The Antecedent or Minor is proved 1. In that else it can be but a Legal Repentance and not an Evangelical if it be not for sin as the crucifier of Christ and for sin as against our Redeemer 2. From the description of true Gospel Repentance Zech. 12. 10. They shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourn over him c. Or if it were proved that there is besides this a true Repentance foregoing yet it is but part of that great work seeing this Evangelical Repentance must go close with it And if any say tha tmen are bound first to believe before they are bound to this evangelical repentance for sinning against the blood of Christ I answer 1. They are bound to both at once and the Apostles prest both at once on men To Repent and Believe 2. Most Divines make Repentance with Faith to go before Justification 3. Some have writ whole Volumes to prove that it goes before Faith it self 4. All acknowledge
nisi virtute satisfactionis plenae Deo anteapro nobis presentatae Neque quidquam per nos facit quod ipsemet antea satis perfecte fecit 3. Per Causas secundas Deus non operatur Creationem ex nihilo sed Satisfactio Redemptio eundem locum habent in ordine Gratiae quem Creatio habet in ordine naturae p. 172. Deus aliquando parcit iis quibus non est propriè reconciliatus c. 2. Sadeel is full this way Adversus humanas Satisfactiones p 211. he saith Aut Christus merito mortis suae delet culpam peccatorum venialium ut vocant aut non delet Si dicant non delere Ergo Christus non pro omnibus peccatis mortuus est sed tantum pro mortalibus O blasphemos homines si quidem id dixerint quid est aliud delere ac remittere culpam ejus peccati quod ex ipsorum sententia poenas temporales promeretur quam nullas exigere poenas temporales propter illud peccatum promeritas Nesciunt profectò isti homines quid sit peccati culpa nec advertunt poenam peccati non posse definiri absque mentione culpae So that sin it self may be said so far to be pardoned as the punishment is remitted and therefore he saith it was only the punishment and not the fault that Christ bore p. 215. At quomodo Christus satisfecit Deo pro peccatis nostris An non id factum est quia Christus peccatorum nostrorum non culpam pertulit sed poenam Sic. p. 228. Nam Chrisius ut nostram non nostris sed Augustini verbis explicemus sententiam suscipiendo poenam non suscipiendo culpam culpam delevit poenam 3. So Chamier at large shews that it is only through Christ's Satisfaction that fault or punishment is remitted and that God cannot remit without satisfaction Tom. 3. l. 23. c. 2. § 22. Itaque in genere concedo non posse Deum impunita peccata dimittere id est nisi puniantur vel in peccatore vel in Mediatore of which Voetius in his Thesis is full and § 31. Nihil ergo rectius quam luisse pro nobis Christum poenas num aliquas tantum an vero omnes c. si non luisset omnes neminem liberant ab omnibus So that he takes the argument to be good a liberatione ad solutionem per Christum and § 27. Remissio opponitur exactioni poenarum Now I have proved that God remitteth much punishment to wicked men not Elect yea even in Scripture phrase the remitting of that punishment is called the Remission of their sin as is shewed before and lest any should say it is but a delay of their punishment till the Life to come I answer 1. Is not punishment due to them both in this Life and that to come And therefore to remit one is true remission 2. No Scripture intimateth that God will lay so much the more on them in Hell meerly because he punished them not more on Earth but for their abuse of Mercy on Earth 3. Doth not Christ himself expresly speak of not forgiving sin in this life or that to come 4. Many have so much remission here as tends to the great abatement of their everlasting torments for Christ gives them that freedom from temptations and such means and common Grace as brings them to be almost Christians and almost Saved and such as the man whom he is said to have loved and said to him thou art not far from the Kingdom of God Whereas doubtless the rigorous execution of the Curse of the Law requires that men be wholly forsaken of God as to any such Grace or Mercy and consequently given up to the prevalency of their own Lusts And it is a doubt whether they that make all this Remission and Mercy to the Non-Elect to befal them without the satisfaction of Christ do not wrong Christ somewhat more than the Papists themselves who in their vile Doctrine of Satisfaction and Indulgence do ascribe all to Christ radically and remotely and to man directly saying that for temporal punishments Christ satisfieth in and by man to whom he hath procured that power by his own immediate satisfaction These give Christ some part of the honour but the other none at all And that a conditional remission of the eternal punishment is given in the Gospel to the Non-Elect under Gods hand is so plain that he that knows it not knows not the plain tenour of the Gospel Besides if it be said that all this can be given to the Non-Elect without Christs satisfying for them then it would follow that it may be given to the Elect also without Christs satisfying for them but all our Divines call that Impious and blasphemous in their disputes against Purgatory Indulgences and humane Satisfactions Nay mark well that the same conditional deed of Gift of Christ and his Benefits which is uneffectual to Unbelievers because they perform not the condition is the same that becomes effectual to the Justification and Adoption of Believers and that without any new additional real act of God Lastly Satisfaction for one man will not serve to the remitting of any part of the Debt of another so that I may conclude that Christ satisfied for All seeing all receive the fruits of that satisfaction The effects cannot be without their cause Arg. 19. A comparatione Legis Gratiae cum Lege operum If Christ Died not for all to whom the Gospel comes then the Law of Grace doth contain far harder terms than the Law of Works But the consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The Consequence of the Major Proposition I prove thus The Law of Works as given to man in Innocency required nothing that was Impossible for man in that state to do But if Christ satisfied not for all the Law of Grace should require Impossibilities and condemn men for want of them and so should contain much harder terms than the Law of Works Yea the Law of Works as given to fallen man if so it were contained nothing contradictory and so impossible in it self though man through sin was disabled to perform it But the Law of Grace should if this Doctrine opposed were true If the Law of Grace require men to take him for their Redeemer and rest on him as their Redeemer that never redeemed them it should contain a contradiction If according to this Law men must be everlastingly condemned because they did not receive him as their Lord-Redeemer that never paid for them any price of Redemption and because they did not receive and apply to themselves the effects and benefits of a satisfaction which was never made for them and so could not possibly be a cause of such effects and because they did not rest on Christ to Justifie and Save them by his Blood which was never shed for them these are impossibilities and far harder terms than those of the Law of Works Yea if
Non-Elect to use no means at all for their Recovery and Salvation or else to have appointed them means which are all utterly useless and insufficient for want of a prerequisite cause without them yea which imply a contradiction 7. It maketh the True and Righteous God to make promises of Pardon and Salvation to all men on condition of believing which he neither would nor could perform for want of such satisfaction to his Justice if they did believe 8. It denieth the true sufficiency of Christs Death for the pardoning and saving of all men if they did believe 9. It makes the cause of mens Damnation to be principally for want of an expiatory Sacrifice and of a Saviour and not of believing 10. It maketh Christ to have suffered much in vain enduring as much for the sins of the Elect only as if the sins of all men had layen on him 11. Or else it dangerously extenuateth and denieth the sufferings of Christ as if he did not suffer as much as was due for the sins of all and it extenuateth his love as if he took on him only the sins of the Elect. 12. It either denieth that any but the Elect should love Christ or be thankful to him as their Redeemer yea or any Elect that have not the knowledg of their Election and so should not repent of the want of this love and thankfulness or else that they should love him and be thankful for that which never was true and never was done for them or given them 13. It maketh God to have inflicted more on Christ then was due even as much for the Sins of the Elect only as was due for the Sins of all the World 14. It leaveth all the World Elect as well as others without any ground and object for their first justifying Faith and in an utter uncertainty whether they may believe to justification or not 15. It maketh the knowledg that we have justifying Faith to go before the having of that Faith 16. It denieth the most necessary humbling aggravation of Mens Sins so that neither the Minister can tell wicked Men that they have sinned against him that bought them nor can any wicked Man so accuse himself no nor any Man that doth not know himself to be Elect They cannot say my Sins put Christ to Death and were the Cause of his sufferings Nay a Minister cannot tell any Man in the World certainly thy Sins put Christ to death because he is not certain who is Elect or sincere in the Faith 17. It subverteth Christs new Dominion and Government of the World and his general legislation and Judgment according to his Law which is now founded in his Title of Redemption as the first Dominion and Government was on the Title of Creation 18. It maketh all the benefits that the Non-Elect receive whether Spiritual or corporal and so even the relaxation of the curse of the Law without which relaxation no Man could have such mercies to befall Men without the satisfaction of Christ and so either make satisfaction as to all those mercies needless or else must find another Satisfier 19. It maketh the Law of Grace to contain far harder terms then the Law of Works did in its utmost rigor 20. It maketh the Law of Moses either to bind all the Non-Elect still to all Ceremonies and bondage-ordinances and so sets up judaism or else to be abrogated and taken down and Men delivered from it without Christs suffering for them 21. It destroys almost the whole work of the Ministry disabling Ministers either to humble Men by the chiefest aggravations of their Sins and to convince them of ingratitude and unkind dealing with Christ or to shew them any hopes to draw them to repentance or any love and mercy tending to Salvation to melt and win them to the Love of Christ or any sufficient object for their Faith and affiance or any means to be used for pardon or Salvation or any promise to encourage them to come in or any threatening to deter them 22. It makes God and the Redeemer to have done no more for the remedying of the misery of most of faln mankind then for the Devils nor to have put them into any more possibility of pardon or Salvation 23. Nay it makes God to have dealt far hardlier with most Men then with the Devils making them a Law which requireth their believing in one that never died for them and taking him for their Redeemer that never redeemed them and that on the meer foresight that they would not believe it or decree that they should not and so to create by that Law a necessity of their far sorer punishment without procuring them any possibility of avoiding it 24. It makes the Gospel of its own Nature to be the greatest Plague and Judgment to most of Men that receive it that ever God sendeth to Men on Earth by binding them over to a greater punishment and aggravating their Sin without giving them any possibility of remedy 25. It maketh the case of all the World except the Elect as deplorate remediless and hopeless as the Case of the damned and so denieth them to have any day of Grace Visitation or Salvation or any price for happiness put into their Hands 26. It maketh Christ to condemn Men to Hell Fire for not receiving him for their Redeemer that never redeemed them and for not resting on him for Salvation by his Blood which was never shed for them and for not repenting unto life when they had no hope of mercy and Faith and repentance could not have saved them 27. It putteth sufficient excuses into the Mouths of the condemned 28. It maketh the torments of conscience in Hell to be none at all and teacheth the damned to put away all their sorrows and self accusations 29. It denieth all the privative part of those torments which Men are obliged to suffer by the obligation of Christs Law and so maketh Hell either no Hell at all or next to none 30. And I shall anon shew how it leads to Infidelity and other Sins And after this what Face of Religion is left unsubverted Not that I charge those that deny Universal satisfaction with holding all these abominations but their Doctrin of introducing them by necessary consequence It is the opinion and not the Men that I accuse 2. Next let me give you some express Texts of Scripture which I shall anon run over more fully and vindicate and see which opinion is the truth of God Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life 2 Pet. 2. 1 20 21. But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction 20. 21. And as Jude hath it 4. There are certain Men crept
non invenient ullam Marlorat adds talibus ergo contemptoribus nulla sâ—es veniae relinquitur So that they had a Sacrifice for sin till they Apostatised So Dickson also in loc Piscator and many more for I will name none but who are known to be against universal Redemption lest their exposition be rejected To all this I find no more objections of our opponents but to the first argument which we draw hence they return many words Which was both from all those benefits which here Apostates are said to partake of which only Christs Blood hath procured them and specially in that they are expresly ascribed to Christs Blood for they are said to have been sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant Now to this they say to give you the Sense briefly For if I should recite and answer the maze of words which some here use I should provoke the Reader to throw away all in weariness or loathing 1. This speaks only of some that were professors of the Faith of the Gospel separated from the World brought into the Church c. but these are not all Men. Answ Grant that it is some Non-Elect and it is as much as I desire from this Text. And if that be granted I think there is few would question but that it is for all the Non-Elect in the Church that Christ died And for those that never heard of him though I am past doubt that Christ satisfied for the sins of all Mankind yet the use of the point is so small that I will not contend much about it with any 2. They say the Apostle doth neither declare what hath been nor assert what may be but only adds a commination upon a supposition of a thing c. Ans This I answered before I 'll stand to the Judgment of almost any learned Expositor on this Text though against Universal Redemption See Calvin Beza Paraeus Piscator Perkins Dickson Bullinger c. 3. They say It is certain that these Men made profession of all these things c. and therefore the open renouncing them was a sin so hainous as deserved all this Commination though the Apostates themselves had never interest in Christs Blood Answ What 's this to the point The Text saith they were sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant and not only they professed that they were 4. They say it was the manner of the Saints and Apostles themselves to esteem of all baptised initiated persons ingrafted into the Church as sanctified persons So that speaking of Backsliders he could not make mention of them any otherwise than as they were commonly esteemed to be and at that time in the Judgment of charity were to be considered c. Answ 1. How much doth it differ from the language of Men when they are pleading for Separation Then they cannot endure to hear that all the baptised are called Saints by the Apostles and Churches 2. Indeed only those are so called that seem probably to be so 3. And therefore what is this to them that by Apostacy into a remediless misery shew themselves not to be so The Apostles will not encourage known falshood in the Speeches or Opinions of others much less be the Authors of it and lead them into it doth the Apostle here pronounce their Case hopeless and remediless and tell them there is no Sacrifice for their sin but a fearful looking for of Judgment c and doth he at the same time perswade People to believe that they were sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant c. if it were not true Even then when it openly discovereth it self false or is supposed so to do 5. They say if the Text be interpreted positively and according to the truth of the thing it self in both parts thereof viz. 1. That these of whom the Apostle speaketh were truly sanctified 2. That such may totally perish then these two things will follow 1. That faith and Sanctification is not the Fruit of Election 2. That Believers may fall finally from Christ Answ 1. These were truly sanctified though not with that Sanctification which is proper to the Elect and saved 2. No doubt such may and do fall away and perish He that denieth this must deny to believe Christ who hath expresly affirmed it in Mat. 13. That they in whom the Word is not deeply rooted do believe for a while and in the time of temptation or persecution fall away What else is our distinction between Temporary Faith and saving 3. When common Faith and Sanctification is antecedent to special Faith and Sanctification and so found in the Elect it is then a Fruit of Election But when it is found in others it is no Fruit of Election And why should they wonder at that who deny it to be a Fruit of Satisfaction or Ransom which is a more Universal cause then Election is 6. They further say there is nothing in the Text to perswade that the Persons here spoken of must needs be truly justified and regenerated Believers much less that Christ died for them c. Answ 1. That they were illuminated and partakers of the Holy Ghost and sanctified by Christs Blood the Text speaks without strained consequence with Heb. 6. 6. But that they had true special saving Faith Regeneration or Sanctification I affirm not Yet was it true 2. Is it a strained consequence to conclude 1. That he who by Apostacy is fallen into that misery which he was never in before and other sinners are not in that now there is no more Sacrifice for his sin had before a Sacrifice And so have other sinners that be not fallen so far as he is 2. Or that he who is sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant was one whose sins caused that Blood and for whom it was shed If you had proved that it sanctifieth those for whom it was never shed then you had done something so much for this Text. I had thought to have answered all the objections of the contrary-minded which the Books at hand afford but I shall do far less than I thought to do in it as finding that they are so disordered wordy and weak in many that I shall but fill Paper with needless Lines and be tedious and ungrateful to the judicious Readers The 8th Text which I will insist on is Matth. 22. 2 3 4 12 13. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain King which made a Marriage for his Son and sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come And he sent forth other Servants saying Tell them that were bidden saying Behold I have prepared my Dinner My Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage c. Then said he to his Servants the Wedding is ready but they which were bidden were not worthy So 12. 13. Here it is agreed on that God is the King The Wedding feast is Christ and the benefits of his
Death offered by the Gospel The killing of the Fatling most say doth intimate the killing of Christ that he may be to us the Bread of Life and his Flesh Meat indeed and his Blood Drink indeed The Messengers are Preachers The message is the Gospel Invitation or Offer Hence therefore I thus argue If all the things are ready before hand which upon coming in to Christ are to be received yea and ready for those that refused to come and only their not coming or not coming preparedly do hinder their participation then Christ was a Sacrifice made ready even for all that refused to come But c. Ergo c. I mean not that Christ was appointed to save final refusers considered as such But he was a Sacrifice for all the Sins of the same Men except their final refusal and thereby made ready for them all those saving benefits which upon coming in they were to receive This message any Minister of the Gospel may now deliver to unbelievers Come in to Christ accept him as a Redeemer Lord and Saviour and with him pardon and Salvation for all this is ready All that is prerequisite to believing or coming in is done by Christ as far as concerned him as a Sacrifice and a Donor of his Testamentory benefits and as far as unsatisfied Justice did require All things that are requisite objectively to your believing are ready Now this could not be a truth if Christ had not been a Sacrifice for these Mens Sins For how is all ready when the very first and most needful thing is unready that is an expiatory Sacrifice for sin When satisfaction to justice is unready Can they make this Or are they called to make it Or would their coming in make it which was not before made Or would coming in serve turn without satisfaction Rather it should be said to them as to the Devils come not for nothing is ready For where Christ is not ready and satisfaction for sin not ready there nothing is ready which a sinner is called to by the Gospel The Cause being wanting all the Effects must needs be wanting Obj. All may be said to be ready in that Christs Death is sufficient for All. Ans That 's true and I desire no more if you understand it as Divines have hitherto done and as this Text proves it that is that it is a sufficient Ransom Sacrifice Price Satisfaction for all But then this implieth that it is a Ransom Sacrifice c. for All. But according to the new futile evasion it is false viz. that Christs Death was only sufficient to have been a Sacrifice or Ransom for All if God or Christ had so been willing but indeed was no Ransom for them at all For is this making all ready Is Christ any readier for those he died not for than for the Devils or than if he had never died at all VVill you send to a Prisoner and say I have paid 1000 l. for thy fellow Prisoner that owed but 500 l. the sum is sufficient to have discharged thy debt too if I had ever intended it therefore come and receive a discharge for all is ready Or will you bid your Servant go to all the Town and say I have killed and dressed meat enough for you all resolving that some of you shall never tast of it on any conditions therefore come now and partake of it all for all things are ready The Readiness that Christ speaks of here is such as supposeth all things to be ready except receiving by Faith nothing but coming is wanting Obj. But Faith it self is not ready therefore Christ died not for them Ans A false consequence which yet bears the whole fabrick of the opposers Cause 1. Doth not the Text plainly distinguish here between Faith and all the Benefits that by Faith we are partakers of Doth it not plainly say that all things else are ready when yet Faith in them was unready for they would not But the Invitation was come for all things are ready what a silly cavil would men put into the mouths of the invited teaching them to say my coming is not ready therefore all things are not ready nay nothing is made ready for me This Text expresly distinguisheth between all other things and coming and so shews that when men will not come yet all things were ready and nothing but Faith was wanting to their participation And therefore Christ may be a Sacrifice made ready for those that have not Faith and therefore receive him not 2. And you might see some of the reason of this in the Text The King in one Relation prepares the feast and in a further invites his Guests and in a further compels them to come in God and the Redeemer as preparer of the feast which is 1. By satisfying Justice 2. By enacting the New Law have made all things ready But to give Faith belongeth not to him in either of these respects 2. God and Christ as the Inviter of his Guests doth all things requisite to the invited 3. But God as one that resolveth de Eventu what particular persons shall be compelled to come in gives that Faith or so compels them Faith follows this compelling which say Interpreters truly and generally is an importunate prevailing persuasion Now may not God 1. Make Christ a Sacrifice for all ready 2. And by Legislation or conditional Donation make a free gift of Christ to all that will have him 3. And invite multitudes that will refuse and yet compel but his chosen only to come in Here it is that special differencing Grace begins in the execution and it confoundeth men in the whole body of Theology when they will needs suppose it to begin where it doth not that is in Redemption by Sacrifice All men shall one day confess all things were ready if I would have come in I had been saved it was my own wilful refusal that deprived me Obj. But why doth not God compel all to come in as well as some Ans 1. O man who art thou that disputest against God May he not do with his own as he list He compelleth some from the superabundance of his Mercy He inviteth the rest in great mercy also 2. This will be no excuse to the refusers what if God had only invited all and compelled none What if he had suffered all to perish in their wilfulness would that have been any ease to any and if he compel some is that any wrong to the rest will not Conscience say another day I perish justly that would not be saved must I need compulsion to accept of a Redeemer and Salvation with him Obj. But it is not in my Power to come I cannot Ans There 's no man that would come that can say so if you will you can yea you do come If you will not who will you blame but your self you may come if you will As your will-not may be called a cannot so it 's true you cannot
your cannot and will-not is all one As for those men that open their mouths against the most High and say that if God give not willingness and faith to men he doth but delude them to tell them that Christ died for them and to give them Christ if they will I intreat them to consider 1. God hath laid the cause of mens perdition on their own will still in his word and will do at Judgment 2. God hath taught all men naturally to accuse themselves when their wilfulness was the cause 3. The light of Nature teacheth all Nations under Heaven to lay the blame on the wilful and to make all their Laws and execute all their Judgments on that ground acquitting men so far as they can be discovered to have been forced and involuntary excusing him that can say I did it against my Will condemning those that did it willingly Deny this therefore and you deny 1. The Law of God in Scripture 2. The Law of natural Conscience 3. And overthrow all Laws of Nature and Nations and all Churches and Commonwealths Did ever any sober Prince say I will not condemn a man for wilful Murther because he hath not free-will nor power to forbear it except God give it him Or did ever wise Judge absolve an offender on that ground If a VVhore-monger or Drunkard so accustom themselves to those sins that they have contracted a habit and cannot forbear them did ever any Law-giver Judge or Wise man take that for an excuse Or rather for the most hainous aggravation of his fault God and Nature hath taught all men in their enquiries after the cause of sin to stop at mans Will and lay the blame there In intreat wise godly men therefore that they would not shut the very eyes of Nature it self and overthrow all order of things for their by-conceits and when they have done to fly in Gods Face with such horrid desperate unreverence and presumption as to say God deceives and deludes men if he give a Ransom for them and give them Christ and Pardon on condition of their willingness except he also make them willing I have before shewed it without any participation with Pelagius that all men that perish do suffer for abuse of Grace sufficient to its immediate use and end and if God will not suffer all so to perish but compel some to come in when he doth but invite others our Eye must not be evil because he is good He deals mercifully with all but more mercifully with some those therefore shall for ever glorifie his Mercy and the rest be left without all just excuse and be speechless The 9th Text is Mat. 18. 27 32 34 35. Then the Lord of that Servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the Debt c. Then his Lord after that he had called him said unto him O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow Servant even as I had pity on thee And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also to you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his Brother their trespasses Here it 's plainly said by Christ himself that the debt was forgiven him who afterward perished Whence I argue ab offectu ad causam therefore Christ died for him For without Blood there is no remission Two things are said against this 1. That Theologia parabolica non est Argumentativâ— Ans And I am sure that Christ's Theology is not delusory or false If he taught by Parables then his Parables were and are teaching and if teaching then we may argue from them But consider though it 's certain that nothing in Parables is to be stretched beyond the intent yet this is the plain sense and intent Christ shewing that those that have received mercy for their own sins must forgive others or else they shall perish as ungrateful for what they had received and as unmerciful to others 1. It is twice over expresly said that he forgave him the Debt 2. The effect followed he loosed him viz. from Prison 3. It is the aggravation of his following sin to be ungrateful for his own pardon and there is no ingratitude possible if it had not been true that he received that mercy himself 4. Christ expresly openeth and applieth all this to his own Disciples saying so also will my Heavenly Father do to you if you from your Hearts forgive not c. so that it is past doubt that this forgiveness was real 2. The other objection is this Those that are forgiven never fall away or perish and therefore this parable is not so to be understood Ans The text saith plainly the debt was forgiven and therefore it is certainly true There is a fourfold forgiveness of sin which I desire may be well observed First upon Christs undertaking to suffer and so his moral satisfying God the Father as the offended Legislator of the Law of Nature remitted his right of punishing and advantage of honouring his Justice meerly on that ground and in that Relation suspending the obligation of that Law and delivering up the sinner and all his Debts into the full power or hands of him that Redeemed him giving him authority to give remission to whom he pleased on terms of Grace so that as Christ and not man did satisfie Justice so it seemed most meet to the Wisdom of God that Christ and not man himself should be the first receiver of the pardon and other benefits but with this difference 1. Christ receiveth them eminenter in potestate conferendi as he hath power to confer them on the Redeemed But we receive them from Christ formaliter in themselves 2. Christ receiveth them for our good It is not the pardon of any sins of his own that he receiveth But we receive them for our own good So that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son and he that hath the Son hath life God hath put a Pardon for us into Christs hands in giving him this Power and Christ must be the conveyer to us in the exercise of his Power For as the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son so he Absolveth no man but hath committed all Absolution to the Son For Absolution is one half of Judgment That is God as the Rector according to the meer Law of Nature and as meer Creator on the first ground judgeth no man But now he judgeth all as Redeemer on terms of Mercy by him that Redeemed us and so Absolveth So then the first pardon of sin was in Potentia Remittendi virtual put into the hand of Christ only for his Sacrifice and Satisfaction and not to the sinner immediately himself 2. The second Pardon is by Christ thus Authorized and it is by him as
And as Dr. Ames saith in the place before cited Anti-Bellarm it is to the work of Grace as Creation is to the work of Nature And therefore as none can deny but the Non-Elect have common grace as Conditional Pardon Illumination the Holy Ghost c. else how do they turn grace into wantonness so none can well deny but they have it from the general Fountain of Redemption Let us then consider what is the proper use of satisfaction as such and what it was that made satisfaction necessary And it is evident that it was the justice of God Creator as Rector according to the Law of Works and the misery of Man that haâ— offended God by the breach of that Law and was become liable to the Penalty which he could not bear without his everlasting undoing These made satisfaction necessary God's Justice required that either the Sinner must perisâ— or satisfaction by an Expiatory Sacrifice must bâ— made by which the remote and main ends â—â— the violated Law might be as well attained â— by the Sinners Damnation they would have been so that it was the death which was become due to Mankind which required the death of Christ their Sacrifice as on Man's part and God's Justice which would not remit sin but on a valuable consideration for the demonstration of its self and of God's Holiness which required it on God's part so that you see that on our part which required a Sacrifice was guilt that is obligation to everlasting punishment And it doth not belong to the satisfier as such to see that the guilt be actually done away quoad eventum or that the Damnation be actually escaped but that a sufficient Sacrifice or satisfaction be given on consideration whereof Remission and Salvation may be given on the terms as the Legislators and Redeemers Wisdom shall appoint How Christ doth give out this Pardon we shall shew you anon de quadruplici Remissione so that it is apparent that the want of the act or habit of Faith or the want of the Holy Ghost to effect Faith is not the thing that required satisfaction to God's Justice directly but that Faith is only a remote effect of this satisfaction and such an effect as hath no such Natural Connection with this Cause but that the Cause materially may be and oft is without that effect in many and the effect might have been without that cause from another if God had so pleased To manifest this that it is not want of Faith that required satisfaction as such and that satisfaction may be made for those that shall never believe observe these things 1. That Man's Suffering is not a thing pleasing to God in and for it self but for its end viz. The Demonstration of Justice and Right Governing of the World God professeth that he hath no pleasure in the death of a Sinner Ezek. 18. nor in the death of him that dyeth Ezek. 33. but rather that he repent and live Much less hath he pleasure in the death of the innocent and least of all in the death of his own Son God is not blood-thirsty who abhorreth the blood-thirsty man 2 It is not therefore for Christ's Sufferings as in themselves considered that God doth give men either Faith or any Mercy God doth not sell his mercies for blood as if he would give the World Remission of Sins on condition he might put his Son to so much torment And therefore Faith is not the immediate effect of Christ's death in sensu morali It comes not from his death as death or suffering nor may it without Blasphemy be conceived that ever God made such an agreement with his Son as to give Faith to Men meerly on Condition that Christ would suffer death without first considering somewhat else that required that suffering and something that put a value upon it 3. So that the thing which did require Christs Suffering was as is said before the obligation to punishment called guilt on mans part and vindictive justice on God's part Unbelief as Unbelief did not necessarily require it but the guilt of unbelief or any other sin did require it if ever it be pardonable 4. So that the following effects of Christ's death do all presuppose the satisfaction of Justice and hence Christs death becomes so pleasing to God not as death but as satisfaction and so a means fitted to the attainment of his ends And because this means so pleaseth him he esteemeth Christs satisfaction meritorious of further benefits joyned with his meritorious obedience upon which estimation and his own will called the Covenant with Christ he annexeth further benefits thereto For the end why he satisfied his justice by the Sacrifice of his Son was that he might honourably wisely and justly give out the following benefits which he giveth out hereupon So that Christs death is as to God first satisfactory and then meritorious of further benefits Now Faith very remotely followeth all this as shall be shewn 5. The thing that God could not do without satisfaction was the remitting of sin and freeing the delinquent from punishment it was not directly nor in its self the bestowing of Faith 6. For I would desire any Judicious Man to consider whether if Christ had by his death satisfied God's justice for mans guilt and had not at all done any more by his death for the meriting of Faith might not God have given man Faith at his own pleasure without the least shew of injustice or any other prohibiting inconvenience though Christ de facto did merit more yet we may well in dispute for searching out the truth separate in our thoughts guilt of sin and want of Faith in Christ and we may suppose that Christ had done no more by his death than to satisfie God's justice for man's guilt by bearing that which was due to man Now I would fain know this being once done why God or the Redeemer might not give Faith to whom he will Is there a further necessity of any new death or suffering to merit Faith for us If there be what is that necessity It is no injustice in God to do it There is no Law standing in the way by which he is obliged to the contrary Perhaps some will object that the same may be said of Pardon and Salvation that there needs no new suffering to merit them if once Justice be satisfied and yet Christ dyed for our Justification and Salvation To which I answer All this is true but then observe the difference separate in your thoughts Remission Justification and Salvation on one side from Faith in Christ on the other side as we by supposition may well do in disputation and you will find that God could not give Remission Justification and Salvation from Punishment without Christ's satisfaction but he could have given Faith in Christ if you will suppose it to go alone without the former benefits without satisfaction I say he could not give the former not by reason of any
supposition that Christ bore not Punishment for any mans sins but those whom he intended infallibly to bring to Heaven which they have never yet proved nor ever will do there being no Word of God that promiseth to save all that Christ died for Lay all this together and you will see the truth of these Conclusions 1. That it was not the absence of Faith in Christ the Remedy but the Old Laws Obligation of us to Punishment or the guilt of sin which required Christ's satisfaction to God's Justice 2. That Christ by this satisfaction did not immediately merit Faith it self but only those intermediate causes from whence the Faith of his Elect is produced that is He purchased all men from the Legal necessity of perishing that they were in into his own Power as their Owner and Ruler that so he might make over Reconciliation Remission and Salvation to all if they will believe and might send forth sufficient means and help of Grace to draw all men towards him resolving to draw his Elect Infallibly to him 3. That it is therefore an improper and unfit phrase to say that Christ Died to purchase us Faith though rightly explained it hath truth in it But rather that Faith is an effect or fruit of Christ's Death viz. where Faith is given For the former phrase would intimate as if Faith were the thing that God was to give in requital of Christ for his Bloodshed and that directly and so Faith should be given by God as Legislator of the Old Law For the stipulation supposed to be between the Father and Son was made by the Father on his part not as Redeemer or Legislator of the New Law but as the offended Rector according to the Law of Creation now treating with the Mediator about mans Recovery Though these things spoken after our manner do but signifie Gods Decrees yet they shew us in what Relation God stood towards Man and towards the Redeemer when he required and accepted of Satisfaction Whereas the thing given to Christ was Power of Dominion and Rectorship and so the Redeemed delivered to him not all to one final end nor with a like intent And so Faith is procured by Christ only in this remote sense in that he procured full power to use the fittest means to draw men to him in the season and degrees he please with a full resolution in his own mind to make all this effectual upon his chosen that he might attain the full end of his Blood-shed So that Faith is the effect of that degree of Grace which from his Plenipotency he gives lest his chosen should miss of the intended Salvation and therefore is improperly said to be purchased by Christs Blood though yet it be a remote effect of his Blood to those that have it and none could have had it without the Intervention of his Blood because there would have been no saving use of Faith without that Blood otherwise they might if we look to Faith but as such an act considered without its object given 4. And therefore the Scripture no where useth any such phrase as to say that Christ Died to purchase us Faith But ordinarily that he died to purge or put away sin c. And in controverted cases it is safest to speak in Scripture Language Suppose a man pay 1000 l. to Ransom certain Prisoners that owed that sum and upon the Ransom it is agreed that they shall now be delivered up to him as his Ransomed ones to dispose of at his pleasure yet both parties agree that only those shall be actually delivered into freedom who thankfully accept the favour and the Ransomer as their Lord The Redeemer knows that these are men of such stubborn hearts that they will refuse his offer yet he resolves to send them under his hand a conditional discharge that all shall come forth that will accept him and his offer and to tell them that all the rest shall by him be still detained and as his Prisoners suffer greater misery Yet out of a special love to some of them he resolves to send a friend who is so effectual an Orator as will certainly prevail with them to lay by their obstinacy and yield to his motion Doth it seem a proper phrase in this case to say that this man paid 1000 l. to purchase for these men a yielding Heart or to purchase their consent to accept him and his kindness Rather he did it to purchase their Freedom from Prison which he gives to all as far as belongs to him as Ransomer But he sends this Orator with a resolution to prevail in another superadded relation viz. as one that beareth a special love to those particular men above the rest or as one at least that is resolved to attain infallibly that fruit of his Ransom even the actual deliverance of those men Nor can it therefore be concluded that he paid not the debt of any of the rest because he will not as importunately solicite them to accept of his offer 5. We must therefore distinguish of meer Ransoming or Redemption by Sacrifice and the same Sacrifice or Redemption as it is conjoyned with Election and is subordinate to it Effectual Grace to work Faith infallibly proceeds from Redemption as it is accompanied with Election or with a special absolute resolution of saving those particular persons but it comes not from mere Redemption by Sacrifice as divided from Election and therefore is common to all the Elect but not common to all the Redeemed For God hath means of two different sorts for the accomplishing his Decree of Election as to execution First general means and secondly special means and the general is the Foundation on which he means to build the special Let us again remember Amesius's words that Redemption is to the whole work of Grace viz. both common and special what Creation is to the work of Nature Nay better we may say what Creation was to Gods Governing Administrations under the first Law that is Redemption to Gods Governing Administrations under the Second or New Law For in Creation God did two things 1. He gave man his Being that he might be a Subject fit for Government 2. He gave him his Right Being Real and Relative making him after his Image in his favour and in a state of happiness and in this state he made a Law with him even with all mankind in Adam and Eve promising him further everlasting life on condition of obedience Now here Gods Creation of man in his favour and in rectitude was a common work and so was his giving him that Law But so was not the fulfilling of its Promise which implieth the Intervention of mans performance of the condition Suppose now that man had been multiplied by propagation before the fall of any and then one half of mankind had kept this Law of Works and the other had broke it Had it been fit for any man to say that God did not Create any of those
that if they neglect them they are left without excuse Prop. XV. It belongeth to Christ in drawing men towards Salvation by his Rectorship to reveal-oft times some of the forementioned Gospel Truths by way of preparation and to draw men nearer him before he reveal the full substance of his Covenant or fully promulgate his Law As the Sun sendeth forth some light before it appeareth it self at its rising which light yet comes from the same Sun So doth the Gospel oft-times Prop. XVI Those that have the forementioned truths revealed to them with hearing the Gospel are bound in all reason for the safety of their Souls to use all possible diligence to make a fuller discovery which is not likely that any Indians or others have done Had they been as diligent in improving the truth received till they had been civilized and then in sending to all others for information where there was a probability of receiving information even as men are diligent in trading tedious Voyages for Merchandize and Worldly Gain it 's like there is no Nation under Heaven but might have had the Gospel ere now Prop. XVII If men will wilfully reject and abuse that measure of light and help which they do injoy which was sufficient to that end whereto it was given to have brought them nearer Christ than they were And if they will not use the means for getting of the Gospel which they have sufficient help to use then it is apparently just with Christ even as Rector according to the Law of Grace to condemn such men after he hath Died for them And if his Death prove in vain as to their Salvation the fault is only in themselves and themselves shall they blame for ever And this is the case of these men Prop. XVIII Nay in this case the very Law of Grace commanding Faith in Christ Crucified doth oblige these men remotely to the Duty and to punishment for neglect of the Duty For though a Law not promulgate cannot oblige yet the Question is Who it was long of Or Who was the faulty cause that it was not Published If the Law-giver then it cannot oblige But if it were the subject then it doth actually though remotely oblige For no man is to receive benefit saith the Civil Law by his own fault Who knows not that among us if a Man will lie in an Ale-House and never come to hear the word God will judge him guilty of being Ignorant of all the Truths which he might have there learnt And of neglecting all the Duties which he might have been informed of And if a man know some few preparatory Truths here as that he is a sinner and miserable and ought to seek out for remedy and should come to hear the word and forsake his known sin and keep good company c. and yet he despise or disobey these shall we say this Man was never bound to believe I say he is bound remotely that is first to do some other Duties which tend towards the obtaining of the Gospel and then to believe For the obligation to both Duties lyeth on him at once but not an obligation to perform both Duties at once Object But if they should improve their degree of Light and sufficient Grace they have no certainty ty because no promise that the Gospel shall be given them Answ That 's no excuse as long as they have so full encouragement as is before expressed Should a man in danger of Death do nothing for his own safety without a certainty of success Should not the least hope of probability much more so high a probability be enough to excite men to seek the saving of their own lives Suppose a King having past an Act of Oblivion upon a ransom to that end for a whole Nation of Traytors as Ireland should send his Herald to proclaim it to all But to some of them he sendeth before hand some inferior messenger telling them in the Kings Name that he is placable and their case remediable and he requires them to use certain means as Submission Petition Laying down Arms c. and try what the King will do If these men reject unthankfully this favour and abuse the messenger and persist in Rebellion is it not just with the King to forbid the Herald that he proclaim not to them the act of oblivion And is it not long of themselves if they never hear it nor have any benefit by it so is it in the present case By the abuse of sufficient Grace to have come nearer Christ do the Pagans forfeit all other fruits of his blood So that Christ may truly be said to have done his part even as Legislator and to have promulgated his new Law among them in that he did his part and so it's promulgate moraliter vel Reputativè though it was not actualiter perfectè through their own fault It is not long of Christ but of themselves that it was not done fully in that they ungratefully rejected his Precursors or Harbingers that came before the Gospel Seeing they would not make use of the Twilight or Day-break Christ justly denieth them the Sun-Rising Prop. XIX It seems most probable that it was not only Adams first sin that is imputable to his Posterity but that we are all still guilty of all our Parents sin to this Day and that therefore God may justly deprive a whole Nation of the light of the Gospel for their Progenitors sins and that not only according to the Law of Works but even according to the Law of Grace I will not stand now on the proof of this any further than to tell you 1. That the same solid Arguments which prove the imputableness of Adams sin seem to me to prove this and by denying this we overthrow the grounds of the Doctrine of the said Imputation 2. And that the Second Commandment with all those Examples of Gods destroying the Children with the Parents and for their sin do seem fully to prove it together with the practice of Godly men to humble themselves for their Fathers Sins Yet understand me thus that though according to the Law of Works we are guilty of all our Parents Sins yet the Law of Grace Promiseth that no man shall be destroyed for them who disowneth them by true Repentance and taking a contrary course in obedience when he comes to Age. This is the sense of Ezek. 33. and 18. And so the guilt is cut off and the Child by the Covenant of Grace taken in with its Parents and so is looked on as in his immediate Parents and the sin of former Parents forgiven him though yet that guilt will return if when he comes to Age he ungratefully reject the mercy by renouncing the Covenant of Grace I do but propound this to Divines to consider For certainly if we prove all guilty of all our Parents Sins it is sad that the Church hath no better understood it and that we have none almost that ever bewailed
or offered to them nor any satisfaction ever made for them by Christ then should they escape all the sorer punishment of the new Law and never suffer at all for Abuse of that mercy or rejecting a Redeemer or any fruit of his satisfaction which he made for them And this would be an easie Hell in comparison of theirs that refuse Christ offered them Prop. XXVIII We must in all our Controversies try the Minus nota pro notiora minus certa per certiora non contra We must reduce uncertainties to certainties and dark points to clear ones and not certainties to uncertainties Seeing therefore it hath pleased God to leave his final dealing with Pagans that hear not the Gospel Ideots and Infants so uncertain and dark the Controversy of Universal Redemption is not to be tryed hereby nor all the plain Scripture for it to be reduced to the uncertainties herein So much to this Argument Let the Reader note that since the writing of this I am clearer than I was then in the assurance of this Truth that the Covenant or Law of Grace as it is the Rule of Duty and Retribution was made with all Mankind in the first Edition in Adam and Noah and is not repealed to any that have not the second Edition in the Gospel but the rest of the World are still under it When I had gone thus far Dalleus's Defence of Universal Redemption and Grace came out with Blondels Preface where are so great a number of Witnesses cited of all Ages that I not only stopt my work but cast away a multitude of Testimonies which I had collected even of English Anti-Arminians such as Davenant Ward Hall Carlton Rob. Abbots Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Preston Whately Will. Fenner Ezek. Culverwel and many such DISPUTATION OF Special Redemption Whether Christ Died with a Special Intention of bringing Infallibly Immutably and Insuperably certain Chosen Persons to Saving Faith Justification and Salvation THE Question is so cautelously and clearly expressed that I need not say much for the explication of it but shall directly determine it Affirmatively only in brief take notice of these things as the Reasons of the Terms First We mean here the Intention of Christ as God for so he knew all things and Willed all the Good which he knew But whether as Man he that knew not the day nor hour of his own coming to Judgment did know the number and names of his own Elect that ever were and should be and consequently whether he had a special Intention concerning the Salvation of each of them in particular this I shall purposely leave undetermined Secondly It is therefore implied by us that the Father and Holy Ghost had the same Intention which we affirm Christ to have had Thirdly By the word Intention we mean that Act of Christ's Will which is resembled by Intention in mere man and so is Analogically called Intention And we confine it not to the Will alone but take it as comprehending that Counsel of the Understanding or that simple Knowledge which the act of the Will supposeth Nor do we take it in the strict sense as it is terminated only on the End and so Intentio Finis is distinct from Election of the means but more largely as it may comprehend either of these for that which we commonly call a Purpose or Resolution Fourthly We call it a Special Intention because it is about a Special Object and is not General or Common to all Fifthly We call it an Intention of Bringing men to Faith c. because it is Christ's own Work to give these things which he Intendeth and so we difference it both from his Intention to Permit if such there be in case of Sin and from that imagined Intention of a Partial Causation of a Concurse determinable by the Will of Man But tho' it be an intention of Effecting that we mention yet the Manner of this effecting or bringing men to Believe we here meddle not with Sixthly It is an Infallible effecting of this that we mention thereby differencing it from a mere Velleity or a conditional willing so as that the very act of willing should depend upon some uncertain condition as distinct from this we may call it Absolute And in the word Infallible which respecteth the act of the Divine Understanding we imply also Immutable which respecteth Gods Will and Invincible as to his operation and had we one word that comprehended these it would contain our full sense It is the same thing which our Divines mean by the word Irresistible or Insuperable Seventhly It is Certain Persons or Individuals that are the objects of this Purpose which we mention as against the Arminian Conceit that it is only Believers in General or All men Conditionally if they will Believe that Christ Decreed to Justifie and Save without determining infallibly of any certain Individuals till he foresaw that themselves would make the difference by Believing Eighthly We call them Chosen Persons not a Posteriore upon the foresight of their Faith but a priore before and without any moving cause or condition in themselves It is the same act which we here call Chusing as considered in Eternity determining of the future difference of Persons and which we before call Special Intention there considering it as respecting the time of Christ's Death Ninthly The Intended effect is 1. Saving Faith such as is not common to the Unjustified This we express against the Pelagian Conceit that giveth Justification and Salvation on condition of Faith but not Faith it self or at least not Certainly and Infallibly to any we say both that God Decreeth us to Faith as well as to Salvation by Faith and that Christ dying did purpose Infallibly to bring his chosen to Believe and this as a fruit of his Death 2. When we speak of Justification as the second Intended effect we take it in Connexion with the foregoing Faith and subsequent Salvation meaning that all the Elect that are at Age and Believe and they only have that Justification which follows their personal Faith We own not their opinion that think that many persons that were never Elected to Salvation were yet Elected to Faith and Justification and do fall from these at last and perish Tho' yet we reverence many that have maintained or owned this opinion as precious Servants of God and think not so hardly of their opinion as of their's who maintain the Apostacy of the Elect if now there be any such Austin himself seems fully to go that way who yet maintaineth the perseverance of all the Elect And so doth Musculus and some others among the Reformed Divines called Calvinists But for the Justification of Infants which hath no such connexion to a personal Faith of their own whether it may cease when they come to the use of Reason for want of personal faith to continue it which was the Judgment of Davenant Dr. Ward Amyraldus and many of our own this