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
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
hath not been revealed to them C. I confess I thought thus within my self but I was willing to hear your opinion but when you said a little before speaking of the Church that it was wheresoever men did believe or should believe wherefore made you that addition should believe M. Because at all times and in all ages many are elected to this kingdom which are not yet called not compelled by faith to enter as were Saul Cornelius the Centurion and Sergius Paulus the Proconsul and innumerable others whose vocation and ingress was by the Lord for some time deserred who because they were from all eternity appointed to this kingdom are therefore all Citizens and Members of this heavenly Common-wealth this is manifest by these and others who the goodness of God being revealed are afterwards received into this kingdom C. They say that Cornelius oponed a passage into this kingdom by his prayers and Alms-deeds and this they confirm by those words of the Angel to him Thy prayers and thy Almes are come up for a memorial before God M. The abettors of such fancies are contumelious to God and ignorant of the Scriptures they reproch God for they rob him of his Honour and give the glory to man they are ignorant of the Scriptures not discerning an open truth Their errour ariseth partly from a non-consideration of the words preceding and subsequent which if they had perpended they had never dashed against this Rock What hath St. Luke written in the beginning of this Chapter That Cornelius was a devour man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much Almes to the people and prayed to God alway Afterwards those men that were sent by Cornelius give him this Character that he was a just man feared God and of good report among all the nation of the Jews Who now doth not plainly see that his piety to and his fear of God are first commended then his Almes and good deeds are spoken of he was a Religious and a good man and therefore gave many Almes to the poor and prayed to God alway which were the fruits and effects of his piety Therefore it is said he was of good report among the Jews But from whence came these good effects Not from his good deeds for the tree must be good before the fruit can be good as our Lord saith Matth. 7. For the cause cannot follow the effect any more than a daughter can bring forth her Mother But who made him Religious and just and fearing God Who but he that circumciseth the foreskins of our hearts That taketh away our stony hearts and giveth us hearts of flesh and new Spirits Ezech. 11. He I say made Cornelius both Religious and devout and were not these things declared unto Peter by the Divine oracle of God for when he supposed that all the rest of the Nations were alienated from the benefit of the Gospel the Angel telleth him Those things which God hath purified call not thou unclean Acts 10. Here God witnesseth that he had purged prepared and consecrated Cornelius to himself And although it was spoken because of Cornelius yet the words concern all those that God hath chosen and adorned with the beautiful knowledge of the Gospel And whereas it is said that his prayers and giving of Almes went up to God as a memorial nothing more is intended but that God heareth the prayers of the Godly that their good works are acceptable to him and that he hath them in remembrance as flowing from himself the Fountain of all good gifts And where it is said that he was frequent in prayer it is evident that this proceeded from a Divine inspiration For as Paul saith We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with unutterable groans Rom. 8. Now if he was endued with the Spirit of God as certainly he was and that his Almes-deeds and his prayers were accepted it is as certain that he had saith without which it is impossible to please God as St. Paul doth most plainly teach Rom. 10. And if he had the illustrations of Faith then his heart was purified and cleansed as Peter testifieth of Cornelius and other Gentiles in St. Luke saying That God had enlightened them by his Holy Spirit and purged their minds by Faith C. I perceive that by degrees you have come to the right explication of the truth but there is yet one thing to be enucleated for Peter saith Of a truth I now perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted by him Act. 10. Here he sheweth that by good works a man is reconciled to God M. This speech of the Apostle meaneth nothing else but what diverse other holy sentences do teach that God in his election of and his Love to mankind hath regard onely to their goodness and glorie not to their original their pedigree their country their sex their age their merit or any other personal attributes This truth is exemplified in the person of Cornelius whom God called being an alien and dignified him with a place in his kingdom The signs of Election are an ingenuous and a reverential fear of God like to that of obedient children towards their parents from whence there ariseth in them a confidence and a stedfast perswasion of the love of God to them and from thence again groweth a delight in the Law of God a complacency in the works of righteousness he that is accepted by God he feareth he honoureth loveth and trusteth in God for it behoveth that the person of that man be gracious and acceptable whose duties or offices of Love are accepted for no performances are acceptable from him against whom we entertain a prejudice or aversation of this we have experience in the common civilities of life but with God there is no prejudice for he is the searcher of the heart And John saith Whosoever doth work righteousness is born of God Also Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ he is born of God that is therefore some men live justly some man believeth Jesus to be the Christ because he is justified by God and endued with holiness and righteousness by him for unless he thus be born of God he is unable to perform any thing justly and rightly or to believe that Jesus is the Christ This the Lord himself confirmeth upon Peters confession that he was the Son of the Immortal God Verily saith our Saviour flesh and bloud hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven Now there is this difference between Divine and humane justice he that is not justified by God may execute humane justice for fear of punishment expectation of glorie or hope of other reward but no man is exercised in heavenly justice who is not first justified purged by Faith and assisted with grace Therefore it is no wonder that whosoever