But of this enough and to this Chapter CHAP. II. Animadversions upon some passages in the second and third Chapters of his First Book THe second Chapter being only speculation about the nature of end and means To Chap. 2. and not at all applyed there to the question I shall pass over only noting a mistake in that expression about the nature of Moral means which he hath pag. 6. line 15 16. that in a moral sense when the action and the end are to be considered in reference to a Moral rule or law prescribed to the agent then the means are the Deserving or Meritorious cause of the end Which I conceive to be false looking upon Moral as contradistinct to Physical or natural as there he doth for it would then follow that Faith as a means considered in reference to the Law of Faith should be the Meritorious cause of its end that is Justification and Salvation and so good works which I think All Orthodox and Protestant Divines do utterly disclaim Though Faith be the way to justification and eternall life yet it s no wayes the meritorious cause otherwise we should be justified not only per fidem but propter fidem too not ex gratiâ but ex debito merito and so that distinction of the Apostle in Rom. 4.2 3 4. is quite overthrown but no more to that it being but by the by His third chapter is spent about the consideration of God as the agent in the work of Redemption To his 3. Chap. about which there is no express difference between us as to the main only a few expressions drop by the by that are considerable as That 1 Tim. 4.10 who is the Saviour of all men chiefly of them that believe calls not God a Saviour with reference to his Redeeming us by Christ but his saving and preserving all by his providence A strange conceit in which opponit non opponenda for though its true he sayes Vs by his providence yet that that providence of his is saving to sinners yea so much as in this life without respect had to the mediation of Christ much less that it s so saving specially to believers as that it becomes the motive and ground to them of such trust in God 2 Cor. 4.17 18. and 5.1.13 14. Phil. 3.20 1. as carries them out to suffer and labour in his Gospel as there it s affirmed to be is unreasonable to conceive and it disagrees with what he sayes to this business in other places where he tells us it was eying God as one that had prepared things not seen eternal in the heavens for them and eying Christs death for All that they might live to him and glorifying his love therein to his and his brethrens hearts expecting a saviour from heaven to change their vile bodies that made them despise their lives and liberties preach the Gospel through sufferings reproaches crosses how ever little esteemed as beside themselves Now here to think the Apostle cuts off all that consideration of his saving and only pitches upon him as a providential Saviour in a salvation out of Christ or without the consideration of Christ intervening as the lovely object of Trust and Confidence in all their labor and afflictions is too jejune and erronious but we shall meet with this again in his eighth chapter Again in considering the obligation and Covenant between God and Christ he promises something that will utterly overthrow the Universal Redemption but defers it to another after-place in lib. 3. chap. 1. where we shall meet with it and give it its answer only whereas he tells us p. 16. that the promise in Isa 53.11 is inconsistent with their perswasion who in termes have affirmed That the Death of Christ might have had its full and utmost effect and yet none be saved To that I shall say how I conceive that may be affirmed and how not not standing here upon it that that in Isa 53.11 is a prophesie of but not a promise uttered to Christ 1. It might have been so supposito quod Deus eam aliter ordinasset as it might have been undertaken and indured and as God might have decreed it might have been so 2. To look upon it as it was indured and take it by it self simply as Death though to such and such ends without Resurrection from which it is distinct then also it might have been so had he not risen too all its effect would not have saved any man So the Apostle intimates 1 Cor. 15.14 16 17. 3. It might have had its full effect as only offered to God without application to men and none saved had it been its end intended it had been contrary to that in Isai 53.11 but the effect and end of a thing differs much The Carpenter builds a house the effect of his work is the house it self the end of its building habitation the end of Christs Death is that men might be saved by him the effect of it as a thing simply done by him between God and him is not the salvation of any one without application of it or dispensation of spirit to men through it so that had Christ died and rose too and done no more none had been saved to the utmost except the business of his Priesthood be in vain and a thing that might have been spared ' so that its effect it might have had as a thing endured by him and none saved as they take saving in that high 4. But to say the thing that God aimed at and that was covenanted to be granted to Christ upon or as a reward of his Death might have been effected or performed and yet none saved is indeed cleerly false nor did the speech opposed affirm so much but that 's as much I suppose as upon second thoughts he aimed at est act Whereas he saies pag. 17. That the pleasure of the Lord that was to prosper in the hand of Christ was the bringing of many sons to glory that 's a truth but whether it be all the truth or no he tells us not and so deals not so fully and plainly as he should whether the glorifying of God in the convincing and just and righteous judging of the rest be not the pleasure of the Lord too he saith nothing much less disproves it and yet I think he shall do that and the pleasure of the Lord too in that matter shall prosper in his hand In the same pag. he tells us the request of our Saviour John 17. was neither for more nor less then God had ingaged himself to him for and that was for a full confluence of the love of God and the fruits of that love upon all his Elect in Faith Sanctification and Glory But of that he gives us no proof neither that there he asked no less for as for more I will not question nor that he requested Faith for all his Elect or any of them To the first I propound to him
limbs strength health food and raiment the shining of the Sun the falling of the rain with fruitful Seasons peace liberty and gladness victories over enemies and good successes Day to day uttereth speech and night to night uttereth knowledge and they all are Evidences and Witnesses of his goodness But whence all these to sinful unworthy creatures Rom. 2.14 1.32 whose consciences daily accuse us of evils and tell us death and vengeance is due unto us Surely as the Scriptures say they are the beamings of his bright goodness the issues or out-flowings of the life in Christ which is the light of men which life was and is in him through his sufferings for us Joh. 1.4 5. For verily Adam forfeited for himself and us what ever might evidence goodness towards us even life it self and all other mercies thereof so as had God dealt with us after the demerit of his sin nothing but wrath and misery had been upon us But verily Christ stepping in upholds all things and makes them consist and stand together for our use and service Yea there-through also have we in these latter days that which is yet more precious the Publishing of the Word and Gospel of God ordered unto all Nations the end and tendency of all which too is to lead us to repentance that repenting of our evils against one so good to us he might shew us greater things still even the blessings of a better life prepared and made ready in Christ Jesus for us pardon and peace and spirit and eternal happiness And surely the gift of Christ and his death and sufferings for us must needs it self be an inestimable favour and deserve at our hands unutterable thanks which is the way and inlet yea in a maner the onely procuring cause under the good Will of God of all these mercies How then are men in generall bound unto thankefulness but especially we in this Nation that enjoy the Scriptures and publishing of the Gospel therein which many other Nations have wickedly put away from themselves and their posterities their supream powers yielding up themselves to the power of darkness and neither imbracing the Word of Truth themselves nor permitting it to others Yea what cause of thanks have we to God that hath broken yokes of Tyranny and Oppression from off us that formerly hindered mens receit and free confession of his goodness What salvations hath God wrought for us in the midst of this earth What plots hath he discovered What designs of the enemies of Sion hath he defeated How hath he guided Counsels and strengthened Armies to deliver us from the Power and Oppressions of those who being ingrateful to God themselves for his goodness could not indure that others should acknowledge it aright and be truly thankeful And O that we also after such an addition of favors above what all have in common may not run into that horrid sin of unthankfulness nor reject the tidings of his great goodness and by observing lying vanities forsake our own mercies much less abuse and turn it into wantonness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 5.3 4. Surely for these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of unperswasibleness Yea not onely destructions and desolations of Persons Families Cities Countries and Nations here but also hereafter eternal vengeance Now of the evil of unthankefulness dear Sirs how greatly guilty are they who though they confess men faulty for it and can aggravate the evil of it above my Rhetorick yet make it a part of their business and Religion with zeal and earnestness to perswade the most of men that they have cause to doubt whether they have any thing in good will from God and so by consequence whether any real ground and cause to be thankeful to him while they hold forth to them that Christ died but for a few and the rest are the objects of his hatred from everlasting and all they have even the Gospel it self they have in hatred and displeasure from him and so onely to this end that they may work out and increase their own misery by them Against which their evil Doctrine I have written this insuing Treatise in which I have indeavoured to remove that froth of wit and humane reason and high thoughts of error which are with so great noise of Orthodoxness equivalent to the Romanists cry of Catholike lifted up against the Apostles Doctrine and to shew that God is good really good to All but especially to those that his goodness makes good and thankefully through faith to live unto him And so also that all have real cause of believing and living thankefully doing good after his example to All but especially to the good and the believing and that the unbelief of his goodness and unthankefulness to him for it is the true cause of multitudes perishing And now Dear Sirs that I might not run into that odious evil of ingratitude toward you from whom as instruments in the good hand of God I acknowledge I have received very much favor and kindness and under whom I enjoy my Place and Liberty of Gospel-preaching and many others with me have received many ingagements of thanks for and to you having finished this Treatise I am imboldened to thrust it out into the world under your Protection and Patronages under God and the Lord Jesus to whom supreamly I have devoted my self and service I hope your Honors will not expect it should exceed its Author in whom you know weakness but I hope you will take it in good part as a Testimony of my thankefulness I expect it will meet with oppositions good store against it as is always the Lot of Truth in an unthankeful world especially from those it argues guilty of mens unthankefulness may it but finde with you that entertainment Truth should have with the Saints so far as you shall see Truth held forth in it I shall rejoyce therein concerning you For whom with your beloved Consorts and all yours My desire is That God would please so to order guide and keep you that walking righteously in the earth and serving your generation with faithfulness in the Work of God you may receive the reward of the righteous in eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord in whom I remain From my House in South-Lyn June 20th 1650. SIR Your Honour and Worships faithfully to serve you in the Gospel JOHN HORN A Brief Revise of some few Passages THere is a passage good Reader in the Epistle to the Reader Pag. 14. viz. where I say That none till brought into Christ can make any profitable use of or rightly understand the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation of which I desire thy candid and favourable construction as spoken of as they are most usually looked upon as secret Decrees and Counsels of God about the future estates of men and not as acts or executions of decrees passing upon men in time for indeed in this latter sense the Scripture and we
answerably may doth speak of them more intelligibly and profitably As when it says The Lord hath set apart for himself the man that is godly Psal 4.3 Such a chusing or setting apart for himself as is there spoken of is and may be profitably propounded as an inducement unto godliness Also when it s said That God for such wilfull refusings of him and his Word Truth and Grace cast off reprobated or gave over such and such men as in Psal 81.9 10 11 14. Jer. 6.16 30. Rom. 1.28 Such a propounding of Reprobation may both be apprehended and good use may be made of it to and by men yet unrenewed to deter them from their obstinacy in evill and warn them to give diligent heed to God lest they should be so dealt with but in such a maner of speaking of and propounding these things I would not be understood there but as under those tearms men understand hidden abstruse acts of the Counsell and Will of God in himself from everlasting In Pag. 21. of the same Epistle there is lapsus memoriae a mistake of Hubberdine for Dr. Buckneham through the defect of my memory I not then having the Martyrology by me In Pag. 74. lin 15 16 17 c. some interlined passages of Mr. Owens Inferences were mistaken and misplaced by the Printer It should have been printed thus All that Christ dyed for 1. He gives that is compels to believe an inference wholly groundless from that Text it speaking of actuall believers and not of faith as a thing yet to be given them 2. All that he dyed for he justifies makes righteous and brings them to glory 3. All he dyed for he makes Intercession for for collating on them all the choise benefits of his death In Pag. 75. Where I say The ascribing an antecedent will Whose fulfilling depends on any free contingent act of ours fals not upon us my meaning is it fals not upon what I said in the beginning of that Chapter about Impretration and Application That that follows viz. But I conceive c. should have been yet I conceive that without injury to God that may be called an Antecedent will which respects some Antecedent condition in us in respect of some will of God respecting us as its proper object in a consequent condition in which I hope the ingenuous Reader will conceive that I speak of the Actings or determinations of Gods will which are called sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not that I assert that there are in God divers Wills or Principia volendi for that would be all one as to assert divers Gods or divers Essences of the same God What I say in Pag. 58. About Christs meriting his own exaltation in the humane nature is so clear that I hope none will deny it and yet I find that Zanchy was somewhat questioned about it by some in his time the learned Reader may see his defence of himself and his confirmation of the Orthodoxness of that assertion by the Testimony of divers of the Ancient Fathers as Augustine Jerome Ambrose Beda c. in Epist ad Lectorem tractatui de Fide Christianâ five Confessioni suae praefixâ amongst the rest that of Augustine is curt and pithy in Phil. 2.10 Wherefore God hath highly exalted him Humilitas claritatis meritum olaritas humilitireis praemium sed hoc factum est in formâ servi c. And by Humility he merited his glory and his glory was the reward of his humility but this was not in the form of God but in the form of a servant or as he was made man c. Zanchies Assertion that occasioned that defence is thus De Relig. Christ Cap. 11. Apho. 15. Credimus Christum suâ perfectâ obedientiâ non solùm sibi sed etiam nobis vitam aeternam promeruisse c. What I say Pag. 125 to that place in Phil. 1.29 That the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should rather be translated As pertaining to Christ is the judgment of divers Learned men as well as mine Zanchi renders it Pro Christi id est In Christi negotio vid. Zanch. in loc Beza In negotio Christo ad verbum in eo quod pro Christo suscipitur alioqui inquit redundaret articulus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bez Annot. in loc Camerarius in loc thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod attinet ad Christum ea vobis contigit gratia c. In Pag. 173. That of every herb I think upon further conâ—â—deration may be numbered amongst those places which speak 〈◊〉 the species or sorts of things and so the sense is they took the tenth individual of every species of herbs but yet that will make nothing to prove the word All to be taken so in the places in question To the Reader Reader WHosoever thou art quaedam tecum vellem in limine I have a word or two to say to thee before thou goest any further I desire thee to peruse this Treatise throughly for it cannot harm thee but if thou beest not thine own hindrance it may profit thee Though it be hostile its only against that that would hinder thee of good or obstruct those passages by which thou mightest be led out to do good It pleads for God and thy good yea the common good of all that do not wilfully deprive themselves thereof for vanity It pleads for Love to defend and maintain that God loves thee and to let thee see that there is good ground and cause for thy loving him And it s the nature of love to stand enemy to nothing but that that hinders its course and keeps the parties loved from the good it wishes them It pleads for a truth a part of that Doctrine of truth which the Apostle and Teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth both instructed our Fathers in 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6 7. and left upon record for us their posterity namely that God wills that men be saved and come to the knowledg of truth and that evidenced in this that as there is but one God so there is one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus by whom God dispenses his goodness and makes known his good will to us and by whom we may have access to him and he is ready to accept of and imbrace us He having given himself a Ransome for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A truth to be testified to men in due or proper or in their own times A truth it is though in these dayes covered over with reproachful tearms of error and heresie and as from the beginning the way of Christ hath been every where ill spoken of and exploded as little better then blasphemy Such force hath Satan Gods and mans adversary in the hearts of many that they love not nor believe that that speaks good of God to them and that which might do them good But marvel not at that good Reader for this beam of truth findes no worse entertainment
tast death for every one and where is the impetration in that By him whosoever believes shall receive the remission of sins Acts 10.43 He hath also diverse indirect and vitious inferences as when from Isa 53.11 He shall justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities he infers All whose sins he bare he also justifieth whenas such a conclusion cannot fairly be drawn from those premises no more then if a man should say from that in 1 Cor. 6.19 20. The Holy Ghost is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price that all that are bought with a price have the Holy Ghost in them and so those false Teachers in 2 Pet. 2.1 which bring upon themselves swift destruction That clause For he bare their iniquities shews the ground upon which by his knowledg he might and so did justifie them that he proceeded legally not the adequate object of his act of bearing sins Thence also he adds by his knowledg that is by making known his truth or doctrine or himself in it he shall justifie many how comes that about that he by his knowledg should produce such an effect the reason is rendred for he bare their iniquities He shall make known himself to them as one able to save them and so draw them in to him and then by vertue of his sufferings for them he shall justifie them for that was it by which he was perfected for conferring such a favor on them that obey him as in Heb. 5.9 He saith not he justifies many by bearing their sins as if that alone did it but by his knowledg which knowledg whoso regard not nor receive they go without that justification or accounting righteous there spoken of yea though he dyed for them and had they received that knowledg of him both could and would have justified them men stumbling at him and not believing on him may perish though Christ have dyed for them 1 Cor. 8.11 Again his inference from that in Isa 53.5 By his stripes we are healed Therefore All that he dyed for hath no more force then if some Israelites that were healed by looking to the brazen Serpent should say By the brazen Serpent we are healed Therefore All that it was set up for were healed by it Of no more force are those other inferences from Rom. 8.32 33. He that spared not his Son but gave him up to the Death for us All how shall he not with him give us all things Vs that are in Christ Jesus that walk after the spirit that have received the first fruits of it that are called justified c. It s like the confident reasoning of the believing Israelites Exod. 13.13 14 16 17. God that brought us out of Egypt by so mighty a hand redeeming us and bringing us forth in his mercy will guide us by his strength to his holy habitation Numb 14.9 10. bring us in and plant us c. that is such as in this confidence follow his conduct and rebel not against him Now as if one from thence should infer Ergo all that he brought out of Egypt he surely brought into Canaan just such are those three inferences of Mr. Owens from that Rom. 8. viz. That all he gave Christ for 1. He gives to believe in him that is compels them to believe And 2. Brings them to glory an inference wholly groundless from that Text that speaking of actual believers and not of faith as a thing yet to be given them and All that he dyed for 3. He makes intercession for for the collating all the choise benefits of his Death upon for that 's the meaning of his third inference though not so in terminis expressed otherwise I should not deny it but I have said enough before to these kinde of inferences and I shall speak fullier to that place where he more fully urges it lib. 3. chap. 11. That which follows in him hath something in it worthy the noting viz. those Assertions repeated and spoken to by him As 1. In that he denies Gods inclination to do us good to be naturall and necessary he crosses that common maxime Quicquid in Deo est Deus est every thing in God is God and if that be true then its necessary and natural to God for that which is God cannot but be and so whatever love is in him to us must be necessary it being something in him Besides the Scripture defines him by love God is love which sure hath in it an inclination to do good and what he is is natural to him and as necessary as he though what object to act forth his love toward and in what way is not necessary but meerly free to him and therefore when he says that every thing acted by him towards us is an act of his free-will opponit non opponenda seeing though his actings be voluntary yet his nature is essentiall and necessary and these two cross not each other Whereas he saith the ascribing an Antecedent will to God whose fulfilling depends on any free contingent act of ours is injurious to God This falls not upon us But I conceive that that may be called an Antecedent VVill of God which respects some Antecedent condition in us in respect of some VVill of God respecting us as its proper object in a consequent condition As to explain my meaning God viewing Adam as innocent willed him Paradise and fellowship with himself yet the injoyment of this to be according to his standing in that created condition but viewing him as voluntarily faln he willed to expel him from Paradise c. the former of these in respect of the latter may be called Antecedent as it was a Will respecting an Antecedent or former condition of Adam and the latter a consequent will to that fall from his former condition beheld by him So a Will to provide a Saviour for men as helpless and faln and to extend goodness to them through him compared with his Will to exclude them his Kingdom and seal them up under wrath as obstinately after light and power vouchsafed rebelling against his Son and abusing his goodness may be called an Antecedent will and the latter a Consequent though that denomination of Antecedent and Consequent arises rather from the priority and posteriority in the objects then the will it self For that place Who hath resisted his will as it makes nothing against what I have here said so I shall say nothing to it here but refer what I have to say about it to my Answer to cap. 4. lib. 4. where he urges it again as also his third Assertion viz. 3. That a meer common Affection and Inclination to do good to all sets not out the freedom fulness and dimensions of the Love of God asserted in Scripture as the cause of sending Christ To my Answer to his fourth Book and second Chapter where he further urges it again 4. Whereas he denies that all mankinde
was the object of that love of God that moved him to send Christ We believe he denies it but how doth he disprove it why thus He made some for the day of wrath Prov. 16.4 but he should have told us whom The Scripture saith The wicked such as persist in wickedness if by evil day we mean a day of destruction to themselves for otherwise in turning they shall live and God swears he had rather they should turn and live then go on in sin and die Ez. k 33.11 which rather argues a Mediator for them to turn to God by and such as refuse to turn to God by him God works them as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to an evil day Omnia operatur Deus sibi vel in causam suam etiam improbum in Diem mali Drus like that in Rom. 2.4 5. If Mr. Owen think that them that are now wicked God made them at first for the day of destruction and therefore left them to be wicked for I hope he thinks not that God made any wicked then he must say his creating work was to most an act of hatred and that God hated men while innocent and righteous and while his own meer workmanship for in that instant he intimates that he made them unto wrath which suits not with the Nature of God which is Love nor with the Truth of God that saith That God loves the righteous as all were when God created them The truth is the word Made signifies also to order and frame providentially and so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more properly signifies being never that I finde applied to his creating things and so his disposing Israel to Mercy or Judgment in his providential government of them is compared to a Potter making a Vessel Jer. 18.4 5 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or making it another Vessel when marred Jer. 18.4 5 6. The meaning of the sentence then is this That the Lord wrought as all things for himself or for its cause as Drusius notes so the wicked those that are so and persist to be so against the goodness and grace of God leading them to Repentance them he works or by an Ellipsis they are for the evil day That is to be his rods to afflict and exercise men withall to make a day of affliction and tryall which in Scripture is called a Eph. 6.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 24.13 Isa 10.5 an evil day as the word is here* As it s said Wickedness proceeds from the wicked and Ashur the rod of my wrath And so it s said That ungodly men turners of the grace of God into wantonness were b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fore-written to this condemnation or judgment viz. to be exercises to the Saints of God and put them to trial about their faith Jude 4. another place quoted by him but surely they had that grace vouchsafed to them which they abused or else how did they abuse it c Compare 2 Pet. 2. with this Epistle of Jude These are the same men with those in 2 Pet. 2.1 that are said to be bought by the Lord and that buying them and his goodness toward them being bought was the grace they turned into wantonness And surely he that says that God fore-ordained that those that being bought by him and having grace and favor extended to them through Christ leading them to Repentance should deny the Lord and turn his grace into wantonness and so persist in wickedness should be for exercises and rods to the Church for so the words to this judgment or condemnation seem to import or if ye will that they should be condemned He say that so saith doth intimately say that God ordained them first to be bought by Christ and to have such grace extended to them and I think grace is love and favor and then he saies nothing to deny that even those also though not looked upon as such persisting in ungodliness and wickedness but in an Antecedent condition as we noted before were also the objects of Gods love in sending his Son no more then he that saies that God intended to throw faln Adam out of Paradise and deny him communion with himself denies that God made Adam righteous and shewed him much favor in Paradise But he saith again That some were hated before they were born pointing to Rom. 9.12 But there is no such passage there Onely that before the children were born or had done good or evil it was said to Rebeccah The elder shall serve the younger And that we shal finde indeed spoken before they were born Gen. 25.22 23. but the other Esau have I hated was spoken in Malachies time long after they were dead and was spoken inclusively of Esaus posterity too as the other part of the speech of Jacobs and it s produced by the Apostle to shew the standing of Gods purpose for exalting the younger above the elder for this proves Gods purpose to stand that Esau not submitting to serve Jacob according to the Oracle in which he might have met with blessing God hated rejected and cast him out and destroyed his mountains You may as well say that God laid his mountains wast before he was born too and so before he had any as that he hated him before he was born For they are put together Mal. 1.2 yet I hated Esau and made his mountains wast But again From Rom. 9.22 He tells us that some were fitted for destruction but that 's impertinent For it s not He that is God fitted them to destruction much less in his first creating them But they being fitted for destruction yet he says God to shew his power and wrath to make known his Name for the good of others spares them As when Pharoah to whom he seems there to allude was fitted and ripened for destruction and might have been justly cut off Yet that he might make him more exemplary he treated with him a long time before he destroyed him and what doth this hinder but that he might send his Son to dye for such as considered in a precedent condition A man for whom Christ died by stumbling and turning from Christ may be fitted for destruction So the Apostle intimates 1 Cor. 8.11 2 Pet. 2.1 Except a man may perish and not be fit for it which I think none shall He produces also 2 Pet. 2.12 like bruit beasts made to be taken c. which being spoken of such as deny the Lord that bought them vers 1. it cannot be in reason conceived that Christ dyed not for them except he bought them by some other price then his death which I finde not affirmed Beside Mr. Owen may abuse his reader making him believe that the Apostle says that those men were made to be taken and destroyed when indeed the words are these Like bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed the words Made to be taken and destroyed agree with the word Beasts
seek him groping after him if happily they may finde him yea such power as that men are fain to suppress and keep them under and bid them be gone and shut their eyes against them lest they work too much upon them Now though they see not what a one or who he it whence these beams come and those operations in their hearts yet they knowing in their consciences that they ought to obey them and that it would be better for them so to do though what that betterness is they comprehend not and contrary to that knowledg they have willfully rebelling they cannot plead ignorance total ignorance of this great physitian but for not obeying what they know shall be excuse less before him So that Mr. Owens comparison of Christ to a physitian tendring cure he wholly unknown Rom. 1.20.28 is a mistake also nor shall men be able to make good that plea when he comes to judge them though many shall say in respect of his person and fuller appearances when saw we thee thus and thus as if they would plead ignorance of him yet he shall take away that plea from them making it appear that in such and such mediums as his poor people Matth. 25.42 43 44 55. he was evidencing himself to them and presenting himself before them and there they would not know him Nor is he as one tendring a thousand pound to a blinde man on condition he will see and yet giving no ability to see but he in tendring gives forth such light that men see some glimmerings and bids them look though but with their blinde holes that they may see which did they the light would make them see and see more clearly yea it would turn them Isa 42.18 and he would heal them Act. 28.27 but many wilfully loving their own ease and wils will not see lest they should be turned and be healed by him they see they should listen to him yea many see that in looking to him they might have healing and yet refuse to look to him they desire not his healing Whereas he saith the condition of faith is procured for us by the death of Christ or not I shall here say but this viz. 1. That Christ is become an object fit for us to believe on and hope in through his death which else he had not been for us sinners 2. That God in Christ hath done so much for All men and doth so much for them through him that he deserves highly at their hands to be trusted in by them I know this agrees not with Mr. Owens principles yet I shall stand to it against him that all men have good cause and ground to believe in him or to betrust themselves to him and so much we are in preaching Gospel to demonstrate to them not having sinned to death or blasphemed against the Holy Ghost It s but a righteous thing for any man to believe in God and in Christ and its unrighteousness and hainous sin not to believe in him being declared to them that is not to commit souls and bodies to him as to one ready to save them 3. All the ways and means with all the power that comes in and with them to inable men to believe are vouchsafed to men through the Death of Christ none of them had been afforded to us had not Christ dyed for us 4. It s the promise of God to Christ so to exalt and glorifie him that some should be brought in to him and be given him to believe and be his seed 5. Yea it s by the discovery of Gods good-will in the death and resurrection of Christ that God useth to overcome men to believe and so his blood and death as so discovered and set home redeems men out of their bondage to Sathan and world and corruption Rev. 5.9 10 14.4 But that Christ obliged the Father to make all those men that he dyed for to walk out in the exercise of such power and liberty of acting as he should in his gracious dispensations afford them for attendance to means receit of light given looking up to him in that light yea to believe in him and rely on him for salvation this I desire him to prove It s not proveable by Scripture so far as I can finde nay I may use this argument against it bottomed upon Mr. Owens own maxime viz. Whatever Christ procured or merited by his oblation that he intercedes to have collated or bestowed on men But Scripture no where shews that Christ intercedes for faith saving faith to be given to one or other Ergo Scripture no where proves that he procured that by his oblation The major is Mr. Owens own in cap. 4.6 7. lib. 1. The minor is easily proved by Induction no one place speaking of Christs Intercession mentions his interceding for saving faith not that platform as some say of his Intercession in John 17. as we shewed lib. 1. chap. 2. if not there no where else for in Rom. 8.33 he mentions his interceding for Vs men in Christ believers but says not for what much less for faith that they had already In Heb. 7.25 It s for those that come unto God by him that some might come to God by him I leave it for him to finde any one place in which Christ prays that God would make any to believe Nor will this diminish at all the honor and love due to him for as Mr. Owen says We are not to invent ways of honoring him but give him that that in the Scripture God gives to him He produces Tit. 3.5 6 2 Cor. 5.21 but neither of them say that Christ procured faith for us as obliging God to give it us the former shews but how God wrought it in discovering his love and the latter that Christ became sin for us that we might in him that is in believing in him be made the righteousness of God and so that he opened the way for our believing and making righteous not that he obliged God to make us or all that he dyed for righteously to believe no more then in vers 15. where He says he dyed for all that they that live might not henceforth live to themselves he shews that therefore he obliged God to make all cease from thenceforth to live to themselves and God performs not his obligation to him in that so many even after believing live so much to themselves and minde their own things as Paul complaineth That he shall bring in a seed to him I grant but that he is obliged to bring in this or that Individual to be of that seed muchless all that he dyed for I no where finde That in Eph. 1.3 Phil. 1.29 We shall meet with afterward and with the point it self also more fully urged viz. in lib. 3. cap. 4. where we shall speak to them only this I shall say to them here that neither of them say that Christ by his death obliged the Father to
to free Grace but leaves it still as free to some as if the Death of Christ obliged him to bestow such grace upon them Grace bestowed without an obligation to it is as free as grace bestowed upon obligation Nor set we up the power of Free will to the sleighting or undervaluing of Free-grace For we say that its grace that gives men that freedom to good they have and its mens abusing the freedom given by grace and turning grace into wantonness and not improving it but receiving it in vain that brings destruction upon many Therefore we exhort men so to magnifie grace as to believe and receive it and that not in vain and fault men because they will abuse the liberty that God gives them of his goodness and grace chusing their own ways and not his refusing to come to Christ c. And I think in such language the Scripture speaketh Nor do we 4. Contradict the received doctrine of our natural depravedness and inability to good We say that what power men have to good they have it in and by Gods striving with them light manifested in them and grace preventing them and that otherwise they are wholly unable to any thing that is good Nor say we 5. That a natural faculty is able to produce of it self without some spiritual elevation an act purely spiritual no more then the blinde mans natural act of washing was able to produce a supernatural gift of sight to him and so neither are we guilty of contradicting right reason Nor 2. Must we resolve almost the sole cause of our salvation ultimately into our selves as being able to make all that God and Christ do to that end effectuall or ineffectuall This we have before disproved And here say again That we leave it in the Power and Will of God to use what means he pleases to any man and how long and compell whom he will to come in and believe And yet it follows not that either Christ obliged God to do it to this and that man or much less to All for whom he died the thing he should have proved which he further endeavors after these premises by the following Arguments viz. Argu. 1 The death of Jesus Christ purchased holiness and sanctification for us as was proved at large Argument 8. But faith is a part of our sanctification and holiness Ergo he procured faith for us If this Argument should be wholly granted yet his Assertion goes unproved viz. That he hath purchased faith for All for whom he died The word Vs being applicative may be diversly expounded as Vs that are of this Nation Vs that are of this minde Vs that believe c. and so its ambiguous But if by Vs he means All for whom he died then the Major with the eight Argument brought to uphold it is already disproved Beside the Minor is questionable whether Faith be a part of our sanctification VVe are sanctified by Faith its true that 's the instrument that receives it but that no more proves it a part thereof then that the Israelites were healed by looking to the brazen Serpent proves their looking to it a part of their healing The Church Ephes 5.26.27 as a Church are a people called and believing and them he is to sanctifie and will sanctifie but that rather proves Sanctification a consequent of Faith then Faith a part of that sanctification All the fruits of Election are purchased by Christ Argu. 2 But Faith is a fruit of Election c. The Major is proof-less and deficient too for it should have been general as to the object of his Death thus All the fruits of Election were purchased by Christ for All he died for or it concludes not if he mean it so then I deny it as he takes the word purchase and desire his proof for it Nor yet is the Minor without exception Luke 8.17 For faith is scarce a fruit of Election in all that believe except such as believe for a time were elected for a time too His proofs as they reach not that so neither are they all pertinent to what he brings them In Eph. 1.4 the Vs is the Saints and faithful ver 1. if not of a narrower signification as distinct from the persons spoken to as the 12 13. verses seem to import as first speaking of their own experiences and priviledges and then of theirs At furthest the Text extends it but to Saints and faithful in Christ blest with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in him And so it shews that it was according to the eternal purpose and counsel of God that men in Christ should be holy in him and that in chusing Christ before the world was they also were by consequent chosen He chose not either in Adam or in the Law or in mens selves but in * See further about this place in the Epistle to the Reader Christ a holy people for himself which holiness is a consequent of mens faith and being in Christ as was said before and as is proved 1. Cor. 1.30 I question too whether Rom. 8.29 says that unbelievers as so eyed was the object of predestination and not men fore-known as future believers to which in time they are called So that though that Scripture in a manner couples them yet it says not Faith at least in all that believe is the fruit of Predestination or Election Much more is that in 1 Cor. 4.7 impertinent to that it s brought for for as Beza also expounds it and as any man that seriously mindes the Apostles duft in the three foregoing Chapters and in the verse before may see the Apostle is not speaking of men differenced from the world by believing in comparison with the world but of believers differing from one another in gifts and crying up one above another according to that difference or lifting up themselves for that one above another Nor is the difference he speaks of in the act of believing as if one had believed and another not as if he had said Who made thee to receive but in the matter of their receits who had all received something What hast thou that thou hast not received The meaning is Believers are not to lift up themselves or one another one above another for their gifts in that one hath more or better gifts then another and so not to fault and disown them that have less and dote on them that have more But they may fault and disown them that believe not and commend them that do and they have good warrant so to do which they might not if the want of Faith in men was because there was none for them A company of poor beggers receiving alms some six pence some a shilling have no cause to brag one over another and fault one another when the gift was free to each and not out of desert to any more then other yet they may fault other beggers and glory over them that were slothful
difference in the act as the same shine of the Sun may refresh a sound eye and yet hurt the same eye when sore 5. Then he says He gives not all things to All to whom he gave his Son This with the Scripture alledged for it is once and again answered before 6. Then he knows not certainly who shall believe and be saved Which no more follows from it then this God loved Israel to bring them out of Egypt that he might bring them that followed him into Canaan But he brought not all the Israelites into Canaan Ergo If he brought all the Israelits out of Egypt he knew not who would believe in him and follow him into Canaan What a piece of Non-sense is such an Inference But against the inlarging of the object he further thus reasons from the next particular That who so believes thus If the object be restrained there to believers then that depends upon the will of God or upon themselves If upon themselves That contradicts 1. Cor. 1.7 and men make themselves to differ If upon God then we make the place say thus God so loved All that but some should partake of the fruits of his Love and to what end then did he love All Is not this Out with the Sword and run the Dragon through with the Spear To which I answer That the second act the giving the injoyment of eternal life is here asserted but for them that believe and both the appointing life to the believer and the effecting of that faith depend upon Gods Will. As we can make no Law upon what terms to have that life So neither can we work in our selves that condition upon which God giveth that life Faith is the gift of God Acts 28.26 27. with Joh. 12.40 Yet this latter is so of God as that it is not without some actings of man to which he exhorts men and for want of which he justly faults them yea brings them not to faith It s by mans hearing though not of mans power Whence though one man listen to the means and is brought to believe and another that had as much power to have listened stop his ear and believes not yet it follows not that the first made himself to differ because not his listening but God by it gave the faith no more then one Israelite looking to the brasen Serpent being healed might be said to have made himself to differ from another that looked not up in point of healing in which they had both yet remained alike had not God given healing to the one and not to the other The impertinency of the Allegation of 1 Cor. 4.7 I shewed before Nor yet follows that other Inference That it s but thus God loved All that but some might partake of the fruits of his love For 1. There are other fruits then eternal life of which all partake 2. There is no exclusion of any from that condition by which we may partake of that When he says That every one that believes It s to incourage all to believe not to hinder any The whole Argument is but like this God brought Israel out of Egypt that he might bring them that obeyed and followed him into Canaan Either that restriction was determined by Gods Will or their own If their own then they made themselves differ one from another contrary to the Apostle If by Gods then the sense is He brought all out of Egypt that he might bring but some into Canaan To what end then I pray did he bring All out of Egypt Is not this Out with the Sword and run the Dragon through with the Spear Is not this folly and soppery thus to reason or from such a reason to deny the Truth of Gods Word and say God surely did not bring any out of Egypt but whom he brought into Canaan Or will he ascribe Caleb and Joshuah's faith more to will then the believing that which is attested by the VVord of God or by the powerful working of miracles or the like is the Truth of God Ay But if believers onely be the object that shall have salvation Then the general ransom is an empty sound Answer It is so to Unbelief as God himself is in respect of that infinite satisfaction that is in him and so was Gods bringing Israel out of Egypt to them that believed not Such is the pernicious nature of Unbelief that it turns wholsom food into poyson but to such as have learned to become fools that God might make them wise to those that learn to subject their reason to Gods Truth it s not so for they finde it a motive to draw them in to believe in God and to admire his Love to men and the depth of his judgments towards them yea in a word to teach them to deny ungodliness and live godlily as Tit. 2.11 12. And they finde it a very wholsom useful Truth to hold forth to others to let them see cause for believing in God and hoping in him and to charge them with folly and madness that having such ground to believe yet refuse it The most pretious Truth that is is an empty found in respect of spiritual good to the Unbeliever Shal we conclude Ergo it s a falshood Gods goodness it self that lead men to Repentance is an empty thing to those that harden themselves against it and brings them to no spiritual good or happiness shall we therefore teach men to say God is good to none but them that rightly use his goodness and receive the fruit of it in life eternal Is not this to teach men to despise the riches of Gods goodness O the blindeness of our reason in the things of God the folly of preferring it as Umpire in matters of our faith waving the Word of God that should rightly guide us But yet this let me say Unbelievers shall see and finde one day that this general ransom was no empty thing in it self it was meerly their folly and wickedness that made it so to them and then it shall be full of dread and terror to them that they have denied him that bought them His premises being such humane mistakes high thoughts lifted up and strengthned against the Scripture-Declaration his Conclusion that Christ died not or God gave not his Son for them that believe not c. falls with them They being notable justifications of all Unbelievers and Patronizers of slothfulness from which these things follow That to Unbelievers God was not an object meet to be believed on by them nor had any reall reason to love him they being ever hated by him and he never doing them any good in his Son That the want of faith was no fault of theirs for they could no way have avoided what they did in not believing God neither gave them cause nor grace to believe c. But I shall rake no further in so unclean a dunghill that savors so much of Satan and justifies the case of
for him To make good which denyall he sayes 1 That no man is bound to believe that that 's false but that he dyed for every man is false and he hath proved it so before This is Petitio Principii and contrary to the Scripture He is no competent Judge in his own cause and any that reads my Answers may see his proofs have all failed 2. Then he says men should be bound to believe immediately that that is not revealed though Divine Revelation be the Object of all Faith I deny this consequence from the Minor either as laid down by me or stated by him in the second way And whereas he says That the Scriptures do not hold out any where that Christ died for this or that particular as such but indefinitely as sinners specified of times antecedently by Gods purpose and consequently by their owne purchased obedience To the first of these passages I say that the Scriptures holding out an Universall proposition of truth are though not immediately yet mediately the Object of Divine Faith to any one particular for himself that 's included in the generall As when it s said All have sinned To believe thence that I have sinned is a Faith closing with and springing from that that is revealed though not immediately in the expression yet by undeniable intimation and consequence And so in the case of the Resurrection and Judgement in closing with this divine Revelation that all shall rise and be judged I necessarily upon the same divine Revelation believe that I shal rise and be judged also Yea unlesse I believe for my self I do not believe the Divine Revelation as concerning All. So is the case here God having revealed that Christ dyed for every one and all men c. In believing that Divine Truth I believe that he hath done so for me for that Divine Revelation includeth me as a man and one of the world And if it be not so I deny that any particular mans Faith in that particular can be proved to be grounded on the the word of God or that he hath any right to believe on the Mediator or that there is a Mediator for him To the latter passage about the Scriptures holding it forth only for sinners indefinitely often so and so specified I answer 1. That 's untrue It s held out also for the world universally 1 Ioh. 2.2 and for men generally 1 Tim. 2.4 6. Heb. 2.9 Again 2 He contradicts himself for if Scriptures specifie those Sinners for whom Christ dyed to be such or such then it holds not out his Death for sinners indefinitely Scripture holds forth nothing in any place but as it agrees with the truth of other places and indefinitely and boundedly are contradictions when spoken of the same subject Sinners unlimitedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and limitedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are incompetible expressions 3. I deny that the Objectum totale the full Object of the Death of Christ is any where specified either by the purpose of God to save them eternally or the consequent obedience found in them which denyall we have managed throughout this discourse 3. He saith The purpose of God and his intention is not propounded as the Object of the Faith of any but only his commands promises and threatnings the latter clause of which is not full enough for neither are his commands properly the Object of Faith but of Obedience nor are those things mentioned the onely object of Faith sure his Declarations may have a share therein too 2. His purpose and intention that he should die for this or that man is necessarily involved in the object of Faith propounding that he died for All men But his purpose or intention of bringing this or that man absolutely to eternal life is not revealed as the object of Faith to any not united to Christ by Faith and the inhabitation of the Spirit But that 's beyond our question not intended at all in the Argument as either way produced and so it s impertinently here mentioned by Mr. Owen In this also is answered his fourth Exception viz. That no command in Scripture to believe is to be measured by Gods purpose and intention His fifth onely answering to the Minor as disowned by me I have nothing to say to it But then he says That the not owning the Argument as in the first way propounded makes it useless as to the cause defended To which I answer That for Christs dying for every man in the world we have more divine proofs then that can come to but as altered into the second form it proves that Tenent untrue that Christ died onely for Gods Elect and them that shall for ever be saved against which I own it Besides this being granted it will follow That the Gospel being proposeable to All the world and that obedience of Faith also requireable thereupon of All there is the same truth in the matter of the Gospel concerning Christs Death for them all also it being otherwise not proposeable nor the obedience of Faith requirable of them His answer to this That it s no safe disputing of what should or would be if things were not as God hath appointed them satisfies not For as 1. We need not such disputings were men contented to be so far fools as to believe Doctrines as God propounds them And 2 As such suppositive Conclusions may be as strong and undeniable upon such supposed principles as positive conclusions 〈◊〉 positive premises yea and may illustrate positive truths too at lest they are as lawful for us to use as for them that oppose us So 3. This is not onely suppositive but positive that the Gospel is predicable to All and therefore the commission runs to preach it to All and I say it s in this positive truth implied that the truth therein declared as true before mens faith is true for All for otherwise there would not be in it a predicability unto All and ground for requiring Belief and Obedience of All we have opportunity and that we might preach it unto upon such preaching it But he excepts That if the Gospel were preached to All the world and All in the world yet this is all the will of God that could in general be signified by it to them viz. That he that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned and so that God hath concatinated these two together Faith and Salvation Which that its untrue we have shewed before in Chap. 1. The Gospel declares good will to All That God would have all men saved and come to know the truth c. ut supra It argues mens wisdom have too much blinded them from seeing into or understanding the Gospel when they finde nothing in it for sinners and men in general but that they that believe shall be saved and can shew them no good reason that any of them have to believe in God more then the Law can shew that says he
be one of them for ought I know 4.5 The promise of life upon believing and the assured salvation of all believers without exception These two are of the same nature with the former only the soul hath this to except It s not every believer for many fall away in time of temptation having no root in them as my faith cannot have if I know not that Christ dyed for me and so grow not upon Gods love therein evidenced to me The soul cannot so believe as to love God and so but with a dead faith unless it believe his love first It may see all its endeavors to believe and to rest on God to be but fleshly strivings out of self principles and at the best it argues Gods love but from its own believing which it may justly question the heart being deceitfull and he a fool that trusts for it for evidencing his condition This is but a promise and an assurance of thriving to all that eat duely of a meat which it knows not whether it may or can duely eat or not for to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ and so to believe on them is when the soul beholding the love of God and Christ in his Death and sacrifice commended to it doth gather boldness and incouragement to love and cast it self upon God and so grows up into the full assurance of peculiar love to him even to eternall life without the knowledge of love to the soul first it can but at highest come to this It may be I am one that God loves and perhaps not well I will leave thinking about it and tyring my self with thoughts if I can and let it alone I must submit when all is done to be disposed to Heaven or Hell by him which indeed is a condition most sit and needfull for the Gospell to be preached to but is far from faith in God which works by Love and is justifying These things The call to believe the command threatning promise c. are good evidences that the ransome is given and accepted for All and there is good provision in Christ for them God never using to call men to any ordinance that he appointed not for them and coming with this they may incourage thee to believe on and love him that gave his Son for thee to believe on And this implyed by them is that declaration that good tidings to sinners that indeed draws them into believe through the spirits working in them or else if they turn their backs upon it renders them throughly guilty when they shall say in their hearts O what did God for me and what cause had I to believe and to have stayed upon him but I refused it As the Israelites in Egypt were indeed sinners for not believing when God had done so much for them to ingage them to it His conclusion then under this head is false viz. That those are enough to remove all doubts and fears much less which I would rather urge against it are they sufficient to incourage and imbolden the heart and frame it to believe but more especially is that false that follows in him viz. That those are All that the Scripture holds out to that purpose It holds out others as we have noted from Acts 3.26 13 37. 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. but of this he can take no notice they are nothing for his purpose I could give him back here some of his own expressions as that in pag. 283. That if pride and error had not taken too much possession of mens minds they could not so far deny what they reade in plain texts of Scripture as if they had never seen them to maintain their corrupt and false opinions But he answers further 4. That that perswasion which asserts the certainty of the Death of Christ to All believers and 2. That affirms the command of God and call of Christ to be infallibly declarative of that duty which is required of the person commanded and called which if it be performed will be assuredly acceptable to God 3. That holds out purchased free grace to all distressed burthened consciences whatsoever and 4. Discovers a fountain of blood alsufficient to purge all the sin of every man in the World that will use the appointed means for coming unto it that doctrine cannot possibly be the canse of any doubt or scruple in the hearts of convinced burthened sinners whether they ought to believe or no. I answer that this is in a manner the same with the former and there answered I will adde this touching the second particular that its ambiguous whether by the person called he mean by man in the preaching of the Gospell or by God effectually for many are of that mind that God cals not nor holds forth Gospell to all that the Ministers declare it to but only to the Elect if he be of that mind too it s not so undoubtedly true to the hearer as he would make it that God requires what the Minister doth because they may be divided the command and call may be intended only to some that the hearer knows not whether he be one of or not though the Preacher out of ignorance direct it to all and this may beget much doubting in the hearer whether its Gods voice to or him no. Again he supposeth more in this Doctrine he pleads for in two last particulars then is in it as that it holds forth purchased free grace to all distressed burthened consciences there are many among the Heathen have their consciences accusing them yea sometimes like furies burthening them there are many that profess Christ conscious of heinous sins and are ready to despaire and make away themselves for them there are many burthened that they can no more walk up to the righteousness and labor to stablish righteousness to themselves and cannot be setled Will Master Owen say that their doctrine holds forth purchased free grace to all these that I deny for it says he purchased free grace only for the Elect and that all such are Elected I suppose he will be put to it to prove seeing many such go on in their sins notwithstanding their burthens and many seek to put them off and sometimes do stifle them by worldly imployments and vanities and many actually despair and make away themselves If he say he means not such the matter is where it was the distressed conscience may yet doubt and is apt so to do whether it may not be one of those in the issue As for that in the fourth that there is an alsufficiency in the blood of Christ for all that will use the appointed means c. I will not stand to tell him though I might that his speech here is like one of them that in us he uses to tax with-holding Free-will which seeing he declaims against I hope he will be so charitable as to allow us the like liberty of speaking without fastening upon us that Odium But I say
to pass that I fear he will be put to it again to prove this also by his doctrine seeing many are willing to run to Ordinances and do any thing to have ease and comfort and yet afterward forget that they were purged from their old sins and having escaped the pollutions of the world and walked in the means appointed for a while afterward imbrace the present world and fall off again which their doctrine intimates they must do and will if not elected or else never meet with any thing of God to purpose though they should continue attending the means to the last gasp I fear he will not say Christ had any Free grace for these and yet all weary heavy laden sinners one and other Christ calls to him yea and the fools and scorners too the wicked unrighteous and who not to listen to his Doctrine for salvation So that these are but fair flourishes that being looked into wind up onely in this Though ye be never so much troubled and weary and never so diligent now in the use of means yet forasmuch as your Election is unknown to us we cannot say that there is any thing purchased by Christ for you or that the blood of Christ is sufficient to purge you because we yet know not whether it was shed for you whatever inward worth it hath in it yet it being shed onely for the Elect he may not be able to save you by it nor unless ye be elected will all your use of means profit you if you should continue in them And so all depends yet even its future use of means too upon that hidden purpose and till that be known whether there be any cause for it to rely on Christ and love him and God in him he knoweth not so that all these answers avail him nothing therefore he doth well to leave his answering and fall to querying viz. What that is that according to our perswasion men are bound to believe when they first know that Christ died for them I answer They are to believe that Christ is their lawful Lord and able to save them and that they ought to live to him also that God is good and loving to them which is not a thing known before-hand as he says but in and through the knowing Christ to have died for them as the Cause though it be before the Effect yet in ordins cognoscendi it may be through and in order of nature after the knowledg of the effect which also the Spirit will there through be now glorifying and presenting to the soul they attending the doctrine of Christ and following him therein till it raise them up to full assurance as it did the Apostles Yea upon the knowing of the death of Christ for them it s to believe that God delights not in their death but is ready in and through Christ to save them and will do it they as they herein see good ground and as also they are by the Gospel that declares it obliged to do waiting on him and trusting in him Now whereas he says That they cannot there being no fruits of his Death but what are common to All which may be Damnation as well as Salvation That 's very untrue 1. Damnation is not the fruit of his Death but of mens abusing the mercies they have by his Death and their refusing to listen to him and look to him for salvation 2. The fruits of his Death in them and to them that come to him are washing purging sanctifying giving in remission peace joy spirit and life everlasting So that that is either an ignorant mistake or a wilful slander and yet as its true that some men may so abuse the Doctrine of Christs Death for them or so disserve him that his Death for them may be an aggravation of their punishment and misery so in that sense As the fruit of Gods Presence with the Israelites that led them out of Egypt into the Wilderness was to them that believed as they all had reason to have done protection and guidance into Canaan and possessing them thereof but to others that causlesly rebelled through their own folly destruction So is Christ and the Gospel of Christ a Savour of life to life in them that receive but of death to death in them that reject him So that as he answered impertinently and inconcludently for himself before so he answers untruly and irrationally here for us But I leave that also From this he comes to tell us That there are two things that both perswasions pretend to the exaltation of Gods free Grace and the Merit of Christ To the first of these he plays the Rhetorician more then either Logician or Divine He asks what that free grace is And I answer This That God hath given his Son to die for All and through him tenders salvation freely in the Gospel to All Whoever will let him come he is ready to receive him rejecting or reprobating none from it to destruction but for their rejecting his Truth and goodness made known to them His Queries Whether it stand in Election effectual Vocation Justification Sanctification Redemption in the blood of Christ If by Redemption in Christs blood he means the actuall setting their spirits at liberty from sin and corruption and from the power of Satans delusions to worship and live to God effected by the sprinkling of his blood upon them Heb. 9.13 14 as is there intended Rev. 5.9 miss the cushion Though Free Grace standeth in all these things which we maintain as well as they yet the extent of it we say not standeth in them but in giving his Elect one in whom his Election and purposes all are to the death for All and setting him up as a medium to whom coming any of them may and in coming shall finde Justification Sanctification Redemption and what ever follows which the Gospel holds forth freely to All as ready in him for them and to be dispensed by him to them upon believing which so held forth is the medium also of his effectual calling Whereas he asks If it be not universally a figment of our own brains or a new name for the old Idol Freewill I answer That it is not the first the authority of Gods Word acquits us which we dare not for all the Sophisms he hath brought against it renounce to cleave to that onely Elect which he and the Elders traditions have created and to which they bow the knew of their faith more then to Gods Word And if no device of our own then no new name For that Idol of Freewill which we no more adore if so much as they who substracting the declaration of Gods good Will to men as pertaining to them the medium appointed by him for his power to work in to uninthral men and impower them to believe do yet call upon men to believe and get Christ as if they had power of themselves to get him and to believe on him thundring damnation
reasoning Christ dyed for Believers I am such a one therefore for me though the Major is true yet the Minor cannot well be affirmed of those that know not otherwise before that Christ dyed for them and if they do this medium is needlesse to them for what Faith hath a man before he believe that Christ dyed for him by which he may know and believe that Christ dyed for him not a faith that worketh by love because that springs from an apprehension of Gods love for we cannot love him but as we behold him loving us first Not a Faith by grace because while men doubt or know not that Christ dyed for them they know not the grace that the Gospel holds forth to move them to believing seeing according to the Gospel-Declaration all grace runs by and through Christs mediation And if not such a Faith then the Major and Minor agree not for they will not say that Christ dyed for All that have a dead Faith or conceits of faith wrought by self-endeavor seeing men may have those yet perish So that this argument hath in it a great deal of deceit and puts men upon many inconveniencies to prove the Minor upon which all the grounds of their comfort stand For upon that act of their faith Christ himself with all his death and mediation is laid that being the foundation they lay him upon whereas those things as asserted in the word for them credited by them should lay faith upon him so themselves also upon him by faith Whereas he says that a better syllogisme then this He dyed for All men I am a man ergo for me I deny it For 1. This is a more immediate Divine Faith as springing from and being bottomed upon the Word of God as hath been seen 2. The Minor is more conspicuous and evident 3. The grace of God is more admired to see that he dyed for me while yet I am as other men a sinner then when by my industry I think I am framed to believe for then I look upon his love through something found in me in which I differ from others which lifts me up above others looking upon them as not so framed but the other abases and leads to love and pity others even sinners that are as I. But oh the pride and vanity of mans heart that prefers such consolations as take in something of the creatures frames with them before those that have nothing but God to a naked creature to spring up all his frames from pure love without him How many are the endeavours and strifts of men again and again to make out this proposition I am a Believer while in the mean time they reject and believe not that love of God to them as men and sinners that should indeed in the receit of it and the Spirits setting it home make them believers and spring up all those frames which they as it were by works of the Law endeavour after and cannot that way attain that they might evidence themselves to be believers and when they think they have by much strift attained to believe then those their strifts their faith as they suppose with all the signs that they have annexed to it are taken in together as the ground of their comfort and hope in God yea of their belief that Christ was sent and dyed for them which yet they are at a losse in questioning Gods love to them and their ground and cause of hoping in him as they see cause to question their own love to and so by consequence their own faith in him A miserable way it is God knows that this Doctrine leads multitudes into while they either curiously pry into Gods secrets almost to destraction or else look into themselves for fruits of faith that may evidence them to have faith and so their Election and so right to Christ and his Gospel and all this before they can see that there is any thing in the Gospel that is good news to them or any love in God towards them that works that Faith and those Fruits in its appearance by which their Election should be discerned by them 4. The fourth thing he leaves onely desiring the Reader to peruse that place of Rom. 8.32 33 34. which I also commend to the Reader that upon good grounds knowes himself a Believer one in Christ walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh for to such it is written and to their consolation ver 1.28 29 30 c. and I say to such its a rich Mine of firm lasting comfort consolation joy assurance rest peace refreshment and satisfaction no place fuller or sweeter that I know of and all springing from the consideration of God as their friend and Father justifying them Christ that dyed for them and rose again now interceding at Gods right hand for them that they may be one with Christ in priviledges and glory and have the New Covenant fully performed to them But if the Reader that believes desires to perswade others to faith or if he be one that knows not whether God hath any good-will to him or no and so is not yet by faith in Christ that place will afford little to him But I desire him to read 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. that God wils All to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth That there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for All c. And if he believe that record of God that testimony born to him and his Son he may therein see Gods good-will to him and good ground for him to seek him through Christ that gave himself a ransome for him good cause to Repent of all his evils against him that is so well affected toward him good cause to leave his evill wayes of grieving him and live to him and love him that is so loving to him good cause to hope in his mercy and in that hope to call upon him and seek to enjoy more knowledge of him and experience of his salvation and good matter to hold forth to others for their conversion and bringing in to Christ None of all which their restrictive Doctrine which is Anti-Christian as it hinders the course of the Gospel of Christ and keeps men in ignorance of the grounds they have to repent seek after love and hope in God and not at all held forth in Rom. 8.32 can lead them to for by it none who yet believeth not and so knoweth not himself to be Elected can see any ground to believe in live to love please or serve God inasmuch as for ought he knowes he is from eternity an enemy to him and hates him but it will lead him to go on resolutely in his way and do what seems good to him seeing by that its undeniably true that if Christ dyed for him he cannot miscarry if otherwise he must doe what he can as hath been noted But let