straiten and preclude the passage into that kingdom Thus by crafty enticement he beguiled our first parents and had not the wisdom and great goodness of God intervened all mankind had perished in their fall But no violence no power no fraudulencie of Hell can nullifie the eternal decrees of God His purpose therefore hath still taken effect and in all ages his Church hath been enlarged according to the predetermination of his good pleasure nor could the seed of God be scattered and lost by all the oppositions of the Devil That Anti-God considereth this and applies his malice to new stratagems amongst others spreads this opinion of the small number of the Elect and the ineffable multitude of the damned among those that are commonly called the wiser sort of men From hence came those verses Omnibus in terris quae sunt à Gadibus usque Ad Gangen pauci dignoscere possunt vera bona Also Rari quippe boni numero vix sunt totidem Quot Thebarum portae vel divitis ostia Nili Another Authour also saith The number of fools is infinite these words are commonly quoted as out of Salomon in his Ecclesiastes yet let the Text be rightly weighed and Cicero must own the saying Another saith All things are full of folly Which speeches fall from such men who think none good none wise none happy but themselves Plato in his book to Phaedon the Philosopher is more moderate for he saith Few men are extreamly good or bad but most men are of a midling iniquitie so likewise the extremities of all things are few and rare as very little or very great very white or very black very swift or very slow but the indifferencies are many and frequent Now if you compare the number of the best men with that of the tolerably good this last number will infinitely exceed the other C. It is even as you say And verily this Philosopher hath ever seemed to me more Religious than the rest But those others I take to be such men as a couple which were lately amongst us when they met in the street and had saluted one another quoth the one I tell thee John there are but two honest men in all our Citie and I assure thee replied the other I think George thou art one of them and truly John saith he thou art the other M. They knibbled one another like horses But I return to that serpent who by little and little rigled himself and insinuated into the judgement of wise men and by subtile extenuations and malicious diminutions gave them to understand that the mercy of God and the goodness of God to mankind was not so great as was imagined That God was good and merciful was undenyable truth but withall he was just and a most severe revenger of offences and transgressions Two wayes he devised to instil this perswasion one from witnesses another from signes and causes His witnesses were those who wrested the fore-mentioned places of Scripture which by the blessing of God we have so far vindicated that hereafter they will not be able to alledge the least matter of moment in opposition His causes are the actions and bad deeds of men which that experienced deceiver doth use to term so And these nets he spreadeth with such diligent and cunning artifice that truely it is no hard matter to fall into them nay it is a most difficult thing to avoid them for thus he encroacheth upon the understanding Wilt thou know O man the truth of thy salvation or damnation and not onely of thine but of all others Contemplate the inclinations the studies the meditations the pursuits the actions of men which are the causes of eternal happiness or eternal misery if the actions be good of salvation if bad of condemnation Now look about thee judge the trees by their fruits and thou wilt easily discern how few they are that keep the commandments and observe the multisarious parts of righteousness how small and contemptible number there is of good men how vast a multitude of wicked men and unjust Wherefore dispelling all doubts and hesitations thus conclude If good works are the inerrable signs of Salvation and wicked actions the infallible causes of everlasting desolation it follows by unavoydable consequence That small is the number of the Elect infinite the number of Reprobates C. O old Serpent O hellish monster compacted of malice and deceit I am afraid too many wise men of this world have been tutord and disciplined by this Sophister whom I have often heard to knit and interweave thus their Fallacies and Sophismes M. Do you doubt it there is nothing more sure than they are taught and instructed by him who seperate themselves from the Communion and fellowship of other Christians as if they onely were Religious and Holy but all other men execrable profane and reprobates For this opinion had its first spring from the Philosophers afterwards by degrees it got a slide into the unwarie perswasion of Christians C. I make no doubt of that But I would now know how to be unintangled from these fallacies M. First I would grant all those things that God is most just that no man perfectly worketh righteousness or fulfilleth the Law in all its requisites and therefore that by nature or the observation of the Commandments no man is justified Eminent is that saying There is none that doth good no not one Also John saith There is none good but God onely But I would remember also that God the Father hath transferred all our iniquities which was his goodness and the universal punishment due to our sins upon the obedience of Christ as Isaiah teacheth He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray and have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all This also the Father himself testifieth saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The Son also attests it I lay down my life for my sheep Then I would deny the antecedent of the connexed words I would answer That good works are not the causes of Salvation but the purpose of God and his everlasting mercy in Jesus Christ comprehended by faith I would also answer that wicked actions are not simply and absolutely the causes of damnation but diffidence unbelief and pertinacy As the Lord saith in the 16. of John The spirit must reprove the world of sin because they did not believe in him As Paul also saith Through unbelief the branches are broken off also That God hath shut up all men under unbelief that he might have mercy upon all both Jews and Gentiles And because I have faith in God and embrace his mercy and am delighted in the Law of the Most High though the appetite and vitious nature of the outward man resist and gainsay yet I
THE CHURCH Triumphant OR A Comfortable Treatise of the Amplitude and Largeness of the Kingdom of CHRIST Wherein is proved by Scriptures and Reason That the number of the Damned is inferiour to that of the Elect. Nè Redarguas ea falsitatis de quorum contrariis non est demonstratio Rabbi Mos By JOSEPH ALFORD M. A. sometime of Oriell Colledge in Oxford Exercere nos Deus vult diffiâ—ultate Quaestionis Non decipere falsitate sententiae Augustin Printed by W. Bentley for J. Williamâ— at the Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard Anno Domini 1649. 〈…〉 with that usefull observation of Irenaeus who speaking of Prophecies and some other abstruse points in Religion saith Antequam effectum habent aenigmata sunt ambiguitates hominibus they are clouds in the eyes and riddles in the understandings of men until they be explained I humbly intreat you therefore to accept my indeavours and to suspend your judgement till you have weighed the Reasons on both sides Let not the seeming novelty of the opinion retard your enquiry for although Truth be the daughter of the most High and therefore there can be no new Truth yet many Errours are ancient embraced reverenced unsifted and uncontroverted meerly in regard of their Antiquity when notwithstanding some doctrines of great consolation may languish and be suppressed under those errours The treasures of Divine knowledge are inexhaustible and to the dissolution of the World the Oracles of God will suppeditate new matter wherewith to recreate a holy diligence to confirm a doubting spirit and to confound a sawcy curiosity If I have delivered a truth unto the world which hath lien as an Embrion buried in the womb of errour it is a wealthy blessing upon my poor endeavours If I doe hallucinate in the prosecution of it I am willing to be confuted without obstinacy I am not less desirous to demolish an errour than I am sollicitous to hearken to a corrected judgement Sir I wish you felicities both temporal and eternal that when you have finished the progress of faith and hope you may be translated into this Church Triumphant together Sir with Your most devoted servant JOS. ALFORD OF THE LARGENESSE OF THE Church Triumphant IN the Misteries of Theology some questions are not yet un-muffled from their obscurity This Doctrine concerning the Paucity or Multitude of the Elect fruitful of consolation and conducible to the knowledge of God hath seemed not onely difficult but inexplicable The opinion of the Learned asserting the Paucity hath augmented the Difficulty as if the bare authority of men were sufficient to prevail with after Ages without the concurrence of their reasons It hath been inveloped with obscurity by a surmize that the knowledge of it is hid in the secret councel of God and is to us unrevealed neither hath it appeared what reasons can be raised from the Doctrine of Faith and good Works which might greatly perswade us to a belief of the greater number to be saved But the clouds of erroneous prejudice being dissipated truth will be manâ—fested in a more vigorous excellency What tidings can arrive more acceptable to a consternated spirit labouring under sin and an apprehension of eternal torments than to receive an assurance that between the exhaustible mercy of his God and his iniquities there is no proportion That the goodness of God is not circumscribed in the salvation of some few men just and perfect and eminent for sanctity but that he will beautifie innumerable others lame and infirm and dislocated members On the other side what can more encline the hearts of men to desperation than to feign God to be some severe and importunate Exactor who will admit none into his Heavenly Kingdom but Enoch Elias Prophets and Apostles and some few men of Angelical holiness For as in the body all the members are not Eyes but the Ears the Nose the Hands the Feet and other more ignoble parts have their distinct and proper functions So in the Body of the Church Triumphant whereof our Lord Christ is the Head the members are divers and subordinate some being dignified above others and as in a well constituted City there are the chief Magistrates men of middle ranks and the poorer sort so in the City of God which through his benignity is congregated and constituted by degrees in this world there will be found not onely Prophets and Apostles but also many inferior persons out of all Kingdoms People and Nations In the Tabernacle of Moses and upon the building and beautifying of that illustrious Temple of Solomon they did not onely bestow gold silver and jewels but they made use also of brass wood stones Badgers-skins and Goat-skins to let us understand no doubt that into this Heavenly Temple whereof that was a shadow some shall be received who in the judgement of men want the austere conversation and refined piety But if any man object Nothing that is defiled and impure shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that God hath commanded us to be holy even as He is holy Let that man also know that he who upon the Cross purified the thief in the fire of his own sacrifice and torments will in like manner deal with all those that are ordained to salvation It is the commandement of God that we should be perfect but imperfect is that charity that refuseth salvation to those that have not fulfilled that commandment he commandeth what we are unable to perform that the riches of his mercy might abound to make the whole world obnoxious to his benignity for by the fulfilling of the law or the accumulation of good works no man can be perfectly just before him For this cause I have framed this Disputation of the Amplitude of the Kingdom of God conceiving it no less profitable than if it had consisted of the Mercy Goodness Wisdom Power or in a word of the Nature of God For these things are so concatenated knit and interwoven that unless the confines of it exceed the territories of the devil we can neither truly apprehend his mercy nor those other attributes that declare his nature But such is the peevishness of some spirits they choose rather to defend an opinion with obstinacy which they dote upon than to enquire what may be stedfastly maintained without contumacy but we who defend the better Cause to wit the magnifying of the Mercy of God in the salvation of Mankind for beyond these we shall not proceed are prepared to refute without pertinacity and to be convinced without passion I have not enterprised this Disputation with any secret end divided from the glory of God not to anticipate more able pens nor to introduce any superannuated Heresie not to tyrannize over the judgements of men by an upstart Opinion nor to impose a necessity of belief upon the meanest capacity but to unbosom my Meditations to the Pious and the Learned and to have this liberty judged by the Church of Christ according to the
not he himself in Christ the Lord come to constitute this Sanctuary to reveal this Tower of liberty safety and refuge And with what reason and upon what conditions he did it will easily be understood for they that hastened to those Sanctuaries fled thither with body and goods and were oftentimes taken or killed before they escaped thither But to this Refuge of our Salvation it is enough to run with faith and unfeigned desires Their Sanctuaries were limited to a certain place and a certain number of years but to this there may at any time be a confluence of any people from any part of the world Their places of refuge were not capable of all men and were appointed almost but for one Nation this Heavenly Tower of Defence will receive an infinit multitude of people and is common to all men The body onely and the goods were there preserved here man is invested with glorious immortality and enfeaffed with eternal liberty Few were there made better but if they came thither wicked wicked they there continued Here upon our first entrance we are transsubstantiated into new creatures and throughly changed as if we were new born again for our gracious King who hath opened unto us this Sanctuary of Salvation doth not onely remit unto us the punishment due to our transgressions but doth also make us just holy and innocent Lastly they who fled to the places of Succour appointed by Moses and Romulus changed their Lord and were free from all past dangers but afterwards they were severely punished if they were found guilty of new delinquency nor after that relapse was there any Refuge allowed them But in our Sanctuary as often as a man offendeth so often is he pardoned provided that with true repentance he maketh his appeal and preferreth his petition to the King And he that runneth to this Holy Asylum this Heavenly Temple is no longer a servant but for ever free being manumitted by the son of God For such is the goodness of our King that he will make us all the sons of God and coheirs with his Son Priests Prophets and partakers of the Divine Nature 2. Pet. 1. C. But what and where is this Asylum this City of Refuge and year of Salvation M. This Caelius is the Church of the living the City of the Saints the Pillar and Prop of truth and this year of Jubilee is all that intervention of time from the Nativity of Christ to the Day of Judgement of which time the Apostle saith Now the acceptable time approacheth the Day of Salvation draweth neer This is not more at this time than at another not more in this year than in another not more in Europe than in Asia or Africa not more at London than at Rome and therefore is the Church stiled the Catholick Church For seeing this great City consisteth of such men as believe in and reverence the living God wheresoever they are dispersed there is the Church and the year of Jubilee and that sempiternal place of Refuge C. What is your opinion of those that never heard of these things or if they have heard of them it was onely by a scattered report but they had not the insinuations of them by the preaching of the Gospel or any Divine Institutions For it is certain that many Nations as we have lately had experience by the discoveries in America have lived and died who never heard of Christ But to think that all those men for so many ages were predetermined to damnation is not consentaneous to the Divine goodness and just government of our Heavenly King Although it may appear a difficult matter to conclude either way of their final condition yet I conceive no otherwise of them then those who lived before the coming of Christ and the promulgation of the Law of Moses for if they did or now do observe â—he law of nature worship our God do nothing to others that they would not have done to themselves or repent them of such evil doings my opinion is they may be saved for they that feared God were always dear and acceptable to him as Peter witnesseth in the Acts of the Apostles such were Abimelech Melchisedech Jethro Joh and his four friends Hiram also the King of the Tyrians the Queen of Sheba Cyrus and Darius Kings of Persia and the Wise men at the Nativity of Christ with innumerable others as it is highly probable un-mentioned in the Book of God For this was the judgement of the most Ancient Fathers Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus as it is recorded in their writings Qui verbum non accepit auditione saith Clemens ei vema dandi propter ignorantiam Who hath not heard the Word preached his ignorance shall excuse him for as the Apostle saith Rom. 10. How shall thâ—y believe in him of whom they have not heard The untaught shall not be condemned but they who have heard the Embassadours of Christ and despise the offers of his grace This is the peremptory Sanction of our Lord himself Go saith he preach the Gospel and teach all Nations he that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned This is the Law and most just Decree of our King that as he who heareth the Gospel and believeth shall be saved so he that heareth and believeth not shall be damned From whence it follows that he is not condemned by the Gospel who hath not heard the Gospel but they are therefore seperated to condemnation because they contemned the law of nature and the testimony of conscience by which they shall be judged as St. Paul witnesseth in the second to the Romanes this is the eternal purport of all Laws that they to whom a law is given shall if they transgress that law be judged by it but not those who are not bound by that law And if this be observed in all well-governed Common-wealths which are as images of that Heavenly Kingdom much more may we presume that it is observed by God himself who is King of kings and the common Father of all mankind C. Indeed these things seem most worthy of our righteous God and altogether agreeable to his gentle nature thus we see he would not inflict punishments upon the Ninivites without cause declared for he first sent his Prophet to them that by his preaching they might understand the will of God Yet that saying of Peter in the Acts doth seem to thwart this opinion for he teacheth That there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ Acts. 4. M. That is not otherwise to be understood than as we said before to concern them to whom that name hath been preached although whosoever is saved hath salvation by God his Saviour as he proclaimeth of himself in Isaiah I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour But that is Jesus Christ God to be praised for ever although explicitly and declaratively he