more passable with others He oft recourseth to this Apology viz. that in the Profession of Christianity he serves no other God but the God of his Forefathers See Acts 22. 14. 24. 14. 26. 7. 28. 20. c. In this sence Calvin himself interprets the place in hand on which he hath these words amongst others of like import Certain it is that Pauls Conscience was not always pure in as much as himself confesseth that through hypocrisie he was deceived when he indulged himself a liberty of lusting For whereas Chrysostom excuseth his Pharisaism in that he opposed the Gospel out of ignorance and not out of malice it no ways satisfieth For the elogy or commendation of a pure Conscience is not vulgar or common neither can it be separated from the sincere and serious fear of God Therefore I restrain his words to the present time thus that he worshiped one and the same God with his Forefathers but now since he was enlightened by the Gospel he worshipeth Him with a sincere affection of heart a Certum est non semper puram fuisse Pauli coÌ„scientiam utpote qui fatetur se per hypocrisin fuisse deceptuÌ„ quùm sibi concupiscendi licentiam indulgeret Nam quòd excusat Chrysostomus ejus Pharisaismum eò quòd non maliciâ sed ignoratione Evangelium oppugnabat id non satisfacit Neque enim vulgare elogium est purae conscientiae nâ—c potest à sincero serio Dei timore separari Itaque ad praesens tempus restringo hoc modo quòd unum cum Proavis suis eundem Deum colat sed nunc colat sincero cordis affectu ex quo per Evangelium erat illuminatus and Soul It were easie to second Calvin with several others of his own band in the interpretation mentioned but when little is to be done much help is but a burthen Thus then we see that by a good Conscience which some putting away make shipwrack of Faith as the Apostle saith must needs be meant such a Conscience which hath its goodness from true Faith and cannot be separated from it and consequently that the persons here spoken of were or had been true Beleevers Besides that Faith of which some are said to have made shipwrack cannot reasonably be supposed to have been a feigned counterfeit or pretended Faith onely nor any thing accompanying destruction because it is such a Faith which the Apostle exhorts and encourageth Timothy to hold fast holding Faith and a good Conscience which some having put away concerning Faith which I advise thee to hold and keep have made shipwrack Doubtless the Apostle would not have perswaded Timothy to hold or keep such a Faith with which he might perish Nor had the making shipwrack of no better a commodity then so been any such great loss unto Him 3. That Faith which He exhorteth Timothy to hold must needs be supposed to be that Faith which He was possessed of at present and which was now in Him And that this was a true Faith appears from several Passages in the two Epistles written by this Apostle unto Him especially from those words When I call to remembrance THE UNFEIGNED FAITH that is in thee which dwelt first in thy Grandmother Lois b 2 Tim. 1 5 c. 4. The Faith which He exhorts Timothy to hold and consequently the Faith whereof he admonisheth him that some made shipwrack by the means specified must in reason be such a Faith of which he had discoursed before in the Chapter Now this was a Faith unfeigned out of which that Charity or Love floweth which he saith is the end of the Commandment c 1 Tim. 1 5 such a Faith of which he speaks a few Verses before the place in hand in reference to himself thus And the Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with Faith and Love which is in Christ Iesus d Verse 14. such a Faith by which men were to beleeve on Christ to life everlasting a Vers 16. 5. And lastly the Faith here spoken of is such a Faith in the retention or holding whereof the warring of a good warfare consists This is evident from the Context and connexion between this and the next preceding Verse This charge I commit unto thee Son Timothy according to the Prophecies which went before on thee i. e. according to the sence and judgments of the Prophets or Interpreters of the Scriptures who unanimously agreed in this that thou wert a Person fit for the work of the Ministry and by all means oughtest to be called thereunto that thou by them i. e. being encouraged by them mightest war a good warfare Holding Faith and a good Conscience c. Now if by Faith should be meant nothing but onely an outward Profession of the Gospel or the Doctrine thereof Timothy might have held these and yet not have warred a good warfare For who will say that Judas warred a good warfare who yet held an outward Profession of the Gospel and preached the Doctrine thereof truly And it is generally granted by those who by Faith in the place in hand will needs understand the Doctrine of the Gospel that men who are no good Souldiers of Jesus Christ who are destitute of sound and saving Faith may yet hold yea hold fast the Doctrine of the Gospel yea and this to the suffering of death it self for it Therefore questionless the Faith of which the Apostle speaks in the place before us is a true sound and saving Faith Nor is this any thing but the sence and judgment of very learned and orthodox §. 12. Expositors upon the place Musculus affirmeth that the Apostle speaks here the same thing which before He had expressed in these words But the end of this Commandment or Charge is love out of a pure Heart and good Conscience and Faith unfeigned from which whilest some went astray they turned aside to vain-jangling b Idem dicit quòd suprà ad hunc mâ—dum expressit Finis verò denunciationis hujus est Charitas ex puro corde Conscientiâ bonâ fide non simulatâ à quibus quòd aberrârunt quidam deflexerunt ad vaniloquium c. Presently after the Apostle he saith admonisheth us that they cannot have a good Conscience who are strangers unto Charity a pure Heart and Faith unfeigned and moreover that upon the putting away of a good Conscience we are in imminent danger of making shipwrack of THE TRVE FAITH and Religion of Christ c Monet nos bonam eos conscientiam habere non posse qui alieni sunt à charitate corde puro fide non simulatâ deinde repulsâ bonâ conscientientiâ in proximo esse ut incidamus in naufragium circà veram Christi Fidem Religionem c. Therefore doubtless it came not neer the thoughts of this Author to conceive that any other Faith should be meant in the place in hand but onely that which was
who shall be denied by Christ at the great day which could not be under any degree of true Faith remaining in Him is evident from that generall and expresse intermination of Christ Mat. 10. 33. Whosoever shall deny Me before Men Him will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven 5. And lastly whatsoever the intent or subject matter of Christs Prayer for Peter was evident it is that as His temptation with an eye whereunto this Prayer was made for Him by Christ was singular and particular so was Christs Prayer also for Him And a Man may as well from Peters temptation argue that all true Believers shall be tempted after the same manner and to the same degree as from Christs Prayer for Peter that His Faith might not faile conclude that the Faith of no true Believer shall faile So likewise from Christs looking back upon Peter to provoke Him the more effectually to Repentance as good an argument as that now under Contest may be framed to prove that Christ will visibly look upon all true Believers when they sin to provoke them to Repentance It is in the case of Christs Prayer as it is of His Precepts When He commands any thing upon a particular occasion or ground the obliging force of the command is to be extended no further then where the same or like occasion and ground take place And intimation hath been given formerly that the Apostles in respect of that great and extraordinary service of carrying the Name of Jesus Christ up and down the World so full of enmity and opposition to it had many prerogative favours vouchsafed unto them by Christ wherein the generality of Believers having no such ingagement lying upon them have no ground or reason to expect an equality or share with them Therefore there is nothing of any value in Christs Praying for Peters Faith to support the falling cause of the common Doctrine of Perseverance A fifth Argument advanced in defence of the same Doctrine is drawn from §. 32. the Intercession of Christ at the Right Hand of God for His Saints Who is He that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen againe who is even at the Right Hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Who shall separate us from the love of Christ a Rom 8. 34 35. c. So againe Christ is entered into Heaven it self to appeare in the presence of God for us b Heb. 9. 24. and since he ever liveth to make intercession for them c Heb. 7. 25. From hence it is thus argued If those for whom Christ intercedes at the Right Hand of God may fall away from their Faith so as to perish notwithstanding then is the intercession of Christ ineffectuall and insufficient to preserve them But the Intercession of Christ is not ineffectuall c. Ergo. To this I answer 1. It is no where affirmed that Christ intercedes for the Perseverance of the Saints in their Faith or that they who once believe should never cease believing how sinfull and wicked soever they shall prove afterwards But Christ intercedes for His Saints viz. as such and as continuing such that no accusations from any hand whatsoever may be heard against them that no afflictions or sufferings which they meet with in the World may cause any alienation or abatement in the Love of God towards them but that God will preserve and protect them under them c. and consequently that they may be maintained at an excellent rate of consolation in every estate and condition and against all interposures of any Creature whatsoever to the contrary This to be the tenor and effect of Christs Intercession for His Saints is evident from the first of the three passages cited And for that demand who shall separate us from the love of Christ it is not meant of separating us from that love wherewith we love Christ but from that love wherewith Christ loveth us viz. as we are Saints and abide in His love by keeping His Commandements d Ioh. 15. 10. Neither is it to be so conceived as if sin wickednesse loosenesse prophanenesse c. could not un-Saint Men and hereby seperate them from the love wherewith Christ sometimes loved them for that iniquity will separate between Men and their God is evident from Esa 59. 2. but the cleer meaning is that nothing no Creature whatsoever person or thing can make Christ an enemy unto those who shall in Faith and Love cleave fast unto Him 2. Were it granted that part of Christs Intercession for his Saints is that their Faith may never faile yet the meaning hereof would not necessarily nor indeed with any competent probability be this that no sin or wickednesse whatsoever that shall or can be perpetrated by them might cause them to make shipwrack of their Faith but rather that God would graciously vouchsafe such means and such a presence of His Spirit unto them whereby they may be richly inabled to keepe themselves in Faith and a good Conscience unto the end If Christ should simply and absolutely intercede that no sin or wickednesse whatsoever may destroy the Faith of any true Believer and consequently deprive Him of Salvation should He not hereby become that which the Apostle rejects with indignation as altogether unworthy of Him I mean a Minister of sin Is therefore Christ the Minister of sin God forbid a Gal. 2. 17. Or whereby or wherein can it lightly be imagined that Christ should become a Minister of sin rather then by interceding with His Father that such and such Men how vile and abominable soever they shall become may yet be precious in His sight and receive a Crown of Righteousnesse from His Hand Or doth not such an intercession as some Men put upon Him as viz. they who make Him to intercede simply and absolutely for the Perseverance of Believers in their Faith amount to an Intercession of every whit as vile and unworthy an import as this If it be said that the Men I speak of doe not make Christ an Intercessor §. 33. for the non-failing of the Faith of His Saints upon such terms as I pretend as viz. that their Faith may not faile how wicked or abominable soever they shall be but thus that God will preserve them from such wicked and abominable wayes and practises which should they fall into them would be the ruine of their faith and that he would effectually direct and perswade them into the use of such means which thorough His grace and blessing on them shall preserve them at least from a totall and finall declining To this I Answer 1. If this be asserted for the tenor of Christs intercession for His Saints that God will Preserve them from such sins which would be the bane and ruine of their Faith should they fall into them the assertors render the intercession of Christ every whit as invalid and ineffectuall as they pretend such Men
even Christ-man is to be looked upon as simply and absolutely unchangeable a Prerogative Royal wherein neither Saints no◠Angels have part with him And because of such an unchangeablenesse in him though otherwise he was a subject capable enough of being tempted yet was he not a person meet to be intreated or dealt with by the Holy Ghost upon those terms of Admonitions Cautions Exhortations unto Watchfulness Constancy or standing fast Informations of danger threatning him in case he should not quit himself worthily c. wherein he frequently turneth himself unto the Saints and true Believers as we heard Nor is that necessity of doing Righteousness and Obeying God which §. 40. rested upon the Will of Christ by the means aforesaid any whit prejudiciall to the merit or rewardableness of what he did and suffered in the flesh though it be most true that any such necessity which should cause the wills of Men other Men necessitatingly or unavoydably to act righteously would be destructive to the rewardableness of what they should act upon such terms The reason of the difference is because in case any such necessity of well doing should come upon or be found in the wills of meere Men they must necessarily be passive herein in as much as they have no Native or inward Principle of their own whereby to contract or induce any such necessity upon themselves and what Men are necessitated to doe in a Passive way wants the ratio formalis the essentiall property of what is rewardable either by the rules of Wisdome or Justice See more upon this account Sect. 19. of this Chapter But that necessity which rested in or upon the Will of Christ of doing righteously though it was not a meere logicall or irresistible necessity neither as was lately intimated but such as it was it was contracted by himself and that voluntarily and freely the God-head or the Divine Nature personally united with the humane which was as much as properly as essentially Christ as the humane Nature it self in this union voluntarily and freely deriving unto the humane so united unto it such a fulness of Grace Holiness and Goodness from which that necessity we spake of of well-doing in a way of a genuine and kindly result arose upon him and abides with him for ever No meere Creature having the like opportunity or means of vesting the like necessity of well doing in it self it followeth upon a very faire account that in case it were or could be supposed that they meere Creatures I meane were unavoydably necessitated to doe well such doings of theirs should be uncapable of reward although it be otherwise in the case of Jesus Christ and of that unparallelable necessity of well doing which was found in him I shall only add one Argument more and therewith conclude this Chapter That Doctrine which naturally and directly tendeth to beget and foment §. 41. Argum. 9. jealousies and evil surmises betweene Brethren in Christ or such as ought cordially to Love Reverence and Honor one another is not confederate with the Gospell nor from God and consequently that which contradicteth it must needs be a Truth The common Doctrine of unquestionable and unconditioned Perseverance is a Doctrine of this tendency apt to beget and foment jealousies suspicions and evill surmises betweene Brethren or such as ought to love and respect one the other as Brethren in Christ c. Ergo. The Major in this Argument will I suppose meet with no adversarie and therefore needs no second The Minor standeth firme and strong upon this foundation That Doctrine which teacheth and perswadeth me to judge the Faith and love of those whom I ought cordially to love and honour as Saints and Brethren in Christ to be no better then the Faith and love of Hypocrites Dissemblers formall Professors c. directly tendeth to beget jealousies and evill surmises in me against them and is of the same tendency to occasion them to measure back againe the same measure towards me The common Doctrine of peremptory Perseverance thus teacheth and perswadeth both me and them Ergo. The Major here also feares no contradiction and so craves no assistance The reason of the Minor is because I cannot reasonably judge either the Faith or love of those whom I stand most bound by the Law of Christ to Love Reverence and Honour as Saints and Brethren to be better greater or more sincere then sometimes I judged or at least ought to have judged that Faith and Love of those to have been whom the Doctrine we speake of teacheth me to judge to have been Hypocrites and false-hearted even then when their Faith and love were at the best For the very truth is that amongst all the Professors of Christian Religion that are at present any wayes known unto me and I make no question but that every other Christian of any considerable standing in the World may with a good conscience professe the like of himself there is not any one who I can reasonably judge to be either more sound in Faith or sincere in love both towards God and Men then I sometimes judged and that upon competent grounds yea the best that either I then was or yet am capable of some others to have been whom now I know to be wretched Apostates and to have given up themselves to work all filthinesse and that with greedinesse Therefore if upon or because of their Apostasie I stand bound to judge them to have been in the best of their spirituall standings no better then Hypocrites it is unpossible but that I should be jealous and suspicious at least lest the best and greatest Professors of Christ that are known to me in all the World should be no better then Hypocrites also notwithstanding any account or satisfaction they give or possibly can give unto me of their sincerity If it be replied that even that Doctrine which I teach in opposition to that other hath a like tendency to create and nourish amongst the Saints reciprocally if not the same jealousies and evill surmises which have been charged upon the other yet others every whit as bad or however not much better then they in as much as this Doctrine it selfe teacheth Saints to looke one upon another as those that may Apostatize and turne enemies unto Christ and the Gospell And is not such a jealousie as this concerning any person every whit as Unchristian hard or uncharitable as to look upon him as a possible Hypocrite To this I answer That a jealousie or suspicion of a present vilenesse or unworthinesse in a Man especially when he that is suspicious hath all the best grounds that can be given why he should not be suspicious in this kinde is a far worse and more Unchristian jealousie and suspicion then that which is conceived against a Man touching any future unworthinesse that onely possibly may be found in him The Doctrine which teacheth a possibility onely of a totall and finall defection in the Saints
is from what hath been said and from the carriage of the Context both before and after and indeed from the scope and purport of the whole Book that Solomon in the place in hand doth not speak of his latter times wherein he turned aside after Idols and said to the stock or graven image Deliver me for thou art my God a Isai 44. 17 wherein he heaped up strange women Wives and Concubines as before he had done Wisdom like the sand upon the sea shâ—re innumerable as if his meaning were that all the while he dishonored himself by serving the Devil in these gross bruitish and unmanlike courses his Religious Wisdom his sound and saving Knowledg of the true God remained with him but of his middle most prosperous and flourishing times when he was to be seen in all his glory when as himself said the Lord had given him rest or peace on every side so that he had neither Adversary nor evil occurrent b 1 Kings 5. 4 And his meaning as hath been said clearly is that the great hear of all this outward Prosperity did not dissolve the spirit or strength of that Wisdom which made his face to shine in eyes of all the Nations and Princes of the World round about him which Wisdom did not so much if at all stand in the devoutness of his Heart or Soul towardâ— God as in the knowledg of natural and civil things as it is described 1 King 4. from Vers 29. to the end of the Chapter Concerning Idols and Idolaters the Father had said before They that make them are like unto them i. e. as Mr J. Deodat himself who is the man that pretended to finde Solomons Faith alive in the words in hand whilest Solomon himself was dead in Baal or in some of Baals Companions interprets it stupid and blinde as the Idols themselves are and so is every one that trusteth in them a Psal 115 8 Therefore questionless the Son after his return from that folly would not have pleaded the standing of his wisdom by him whilest He was an Idolater and Patron of Idols But the truth is that the words insisted upon are every ways so inconsiderable in point of Proof for the continuance of Solomons Faith during his continuance in his Idolatries that the recourse made to them for proof hereof is an Argument to me very considerable that the Patrons of that Opinion are extreamly straitened and put to it through want of so much as any tolerable Argument or Proof for the maintaining of it It is a sign that the Soul is hungry indeed when every bitter thing becomes sweet unto it Thus then we clearly finde that there is no special or particular ground or Argument at all of any value to prove that either David the Father during his impenitency after the horrid crimes of Murther and Adultery perpetrated by him or that Solomon the Son during the like impenitency in him upon his Idolatrous backslidings did retain any saving Principle of grace or Faith in them but that during their respective impenitencies they were children of wrath liable to the same sentence of Condemnation with the promiscuous multitude or generality of Murtherers and Idolaters for the Proof whereof several pregnant Arguments have been levyed from the Scriptures As for such Arguments and grounds by which the certain Perseverance of the Saints in general in the truth and soundness of their Faith is commonly pleaded and maintained they have been formerly weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary and found too light So that we may very safely conclude that both David and Solomon were not onely under a possibility of a total falling away from that grace of God wherein they sometimes stood which is common to all the Saints but that they taught the World the truth and certainty of such a Possibility by reducing it into act I mean by falling away totally from it Neither are Examples of the like sad Miscarriages wanting in the New-Testament §. 9. The Apostle speaks of some in his days who having put away a good Conscience concerning Faith made shipwrack b 1 Tim. 1 19 thereby and in another place speaking of the dangerous Doctrine of Hymeneus and Philetus who taught that the Resurrection was already past he saith that they overthrew or destroyed the Faith of some c 2 Tim. 2 17 Elsewhere he speaks of some who were then turned aside after Satan d 1 Tim. 5 15 They who by putting away a good Conscience make shipwrack of Faith must needs be supposed 1. To have had true Faith 2. To suffer an absolute or total loss of it For the first If we shall suppose that they who put away a good Conscience from them had it or were possessed of it before such their putting it away we must suppose withall that they had true saving Faith because goodness of Conscience cannot take place but onely where such a Faith gives Being unto it which in that respect is said to purifie the heart e Acts 15 9 as on the contrary the very mindes and consciences of Unbeleevers are said to be defiled f Tit. 1 15 Nor doth the Scripture any where to my best remembrance speak of a good or pure Conscience but where the goodness of it is supposed to slow from a sound knowledg of the Will of God in conjunction with an upright desire of doing all things according to the Tenor of the Truth known The end of the Commandment saith the Apostle in this very Chapter is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned a 1 Tim. 1 5 So again Pray for us for we trust we have a GOOD CONSCIENCE in all things willing to live honestly b Heb. 13 18 Another Apostle exhorteth Christians to sanctifie the Lord in their hearts and â—o be ready always to give an answer unto every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that â—is in them with meekness and fear Having a GOOD CONSCIENCE c 1 Pet. 3. 15 16 c. A little after be placeth the sum and substance of true Christianity in a good Conscience The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save â—s not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the Answer or demand of a GOOD CONSCIENCE towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ d Verse 21 meaning to add this by the way that Baptism typified or presignified by the Ark wherein Noah and his Family were prâ—served from perishing with the rest of the world by water doth contribute towards our Salvation from the condemnation of the world round about us for sin not so much by the letter or material effect of it but by typifying holding forth and assuring us that a good Conscience raised or built upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the sound knowledg hereof doth require or demand this Salvation of God and that according
to the Promise and Encouragement given unto it by Himself in that behalf and therefore so as that it shall not cannot be denyed of what it demandeth of Him in this kinde But that a pure which onely is the good Conscience still springeth from a found Faith in Jesus Christ and is found in conjunction with it these places 1 Tim. 3. 9. Heb. 9. 14. â—0 22. compared together and added to the former are sufficient to perswade And concerning the place in hand some of our best and most Orthodox Expositors understand the good Conscience mentioned to be none other Musculus upon the words Which good Conscience some having put away concerning Faith c. commenteth thus Here he speaketh the same which before he had expressed thus Now the end of the Commandment or charge which I give thee is Charity out of a pure heart and a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned from which some going astray have turned aside to vain-jangling e Idem dicit quòd suprà ad hunc modum expressit Finis verò denunciationis hujus est Charitas ex puro corde et conscientiâ bonâ fide non simulatâ à quibus quòd aberrârunt quidam deflexerunt ad vaniloquium c. c. His words immediately following to which I refer the Reader are every whit as plain and pregnant to the same point shewing that by a good conscience he doth not understand a conscience only Morally good and such as may be found in meer natural men ignorant of Christ and the Gospel but a Conscience Spiritually or Christiâ—nly good Nor is Bullinger his Compeer of any other minde The safest ship saith he upon the place in this vast sea of a world of Errors and Wickednesses is Canonical or Scriptural Truth pure Faith and sincere Charity f Tutissima enim navis in vasto hoc mundi errorum scelerum pelago est veritas canonica fides pura charitas siâ—câ—ra c. In which words he explains the Apostles good Conscience by sincereness of Love or Charity Nor could Calvin himself finish what he had to say upon the place until he had given testimony to the same Truth The Metaphor saith he taken from shipwrack answereth most aptly For it implies that the course of our navigation in the world must be steered by a good Conscience that so our Faith may come safe into the Haven otherwise we shall be in danger of shipwrack g Metaphora à naufragio sumpta aptissimè quadrat Nam innuit ut salva fides ad portum usque perveniat navigationis nostrae oursum bonâ conscientiâ regendum esse aliaâ— naufragii esse periculum hoc est ne fides malâ conscientiâ tanquam gurgite in mari procelloso mergatur c. Doubtless he doth not mean that the course of our navigation through the world that so our Faith may come safe into the Harbor should be steered or guided by a meer Moral Conscience how good soever in this kinde or by such a Conscience as Cato Socrates or Seneca had or might have had such a Conscience as this is no fit steers-man or guide to such a Faith with which or by which they must make the Port of Heaven whoever arrive there Therefore certainly He conceiveth that it is such a good Conscience the putting away of which the Apostle renders as the ground reason or cause why some make shipwrack of Faith the goodness whereof ariseth from such a Faith which accompanyeth Salvation and which being carefully preserved and kept preserveth and keepeth that Faith from whence it sprang from corruption or declining Concerning the two places which are commonly insisted upon to prove §. 10. that a good Conscience in Scripture doth not always signifie a Conscience Christianly Spiritually or Savingly good but sometimes Morally good onely i. e. which is not defiled or disturbed in the peace of it with sins against knowledg which goodness of Conscience is sometimes found in meer Civil or Natural men though destitute of Evangelical illumination the truth is that neither the one nor the other of them proveth any such thing In the former of these places the Apostle Paul speaketh thus Men and Brethren I have lived in all good Conscience before God until this day a Acts 23. 1 In the latter thus I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure Conscience b 2 Tim. 1. 3 c. For neither of these places do necessarily nor so much as probably relate to the time of Pauls Pharisaism as if his meaning were that all that time he had kept a good Conscience towards God for how could He then with truth or singleness of heart have made this Confession Of sinners I am the chief c 1 Tim. 1. 15 but to the time of his Apostleship or Profession of Christianity as appears clearly from the former place upon this account Paul was accused by the Jews as an Apostate from the Religion of his Forefathers and the true Worship of God as they supposed and that He was fallen from Judaism to the Sect of Christians yea and was become a Ringleader of them This they conceived to have been an high misdemeanor in Him and accused Him as a very wicked and ungodly Person for so doing To this Accusation and Crime objected the Apostle answers to this effect Men and Brethren whereas I have forsaken the Religion and Worship of the Jews and have embraced and do yet embrace the Christian Religion in stead of it I have done nothing I do nothing herein but upon very justifiable grounds and with a good Conscience in as much as I have obeyed God in so doing of which I am ready to give you a perfect Account if you please to hear me This to be the true purport and drift of the Apostles words the sequel of the Context makes yet more apparant For upon the hearing of the words in debate uttered by Him Ananias the High Priest was sorely offended and commanded the standers by to smite Him on the mouth for so speaking Now it is no ways reasonable to conceive that He would have taken it so heinously that Paul should say that He had always lived in all good Conscience before God whilest he professed Judaism and before He became a Christian Such a saying as this would rather have gratified and pleased then offended Him But that He should say that He lived with all good Conscience in the Profession of Christianity this was a sword that passed through Ananias Soul For the other place where the Apostle saith that He served God from His §. 11. Forefathers with a pure Conscience His meaning onely is that he serves none other God but Him whom His Forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob worshiped and that Him he served with a pure Conscience as they also did To qualifie the Jews who took great offence at Him for changing His Religion and withall to make this Practice of His
like maner though the light of Gods countenance may shine in the face of the Soul to such a degree as to make a day of Grace and favorable acceptance with him notwithstanding the interposition of a dark cloud of many Errors yet most certain it is that according to the compass and proportion of such a cloud and during the interposition of it the Soul will be apt to suffer now and then many grudgings and sad impressions of a fear of being rejected by him There is no ray or beam which naturally shineth from the face of God but the interception deprivation and want of it must needs prove both poena damni yea and poena sensus too upon occasion unto the Soul Yea the Scripture it self supposeth men that are ignorant in any thing relating to their spiritual affairs and much more such as are confidently i. e. erroneously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan ignorant to be in a deplorable and sad condition and the proper Objects of pity and compassion in case their Ignorance or Error be not affectate and such from the intanglement and pollution whereof they had competent means to have delivered themselves The Apostle maketh it a worthy character of an High Priest taken from amongst men to be able to have COMPASSION ON THE IGNORANT and such as are out of the way h Hebr. 5. 2 There are but two things that can make the condition of a Creature miserable Sin and Sufferings and both these are the unquestionable fruits or productions of Error Lusts and sinful distempers can be no where ingendred but onely in the dark regions of the Soul the shining of the light of the Truth is as the shadow of Death unto them Nor can fear that hath torment nor any afflicting or sad impression upon the spirits of men climb up into the bed of the Soul to disturb the rest and sweet peace of it but onely in the night of Ignorance and by the opportunity of Error lodging there The light of the knowledg of the Truth as it is in Jesus is unto fears agonies and all perplexity of spirit like unto Solomons King sitting upon his Throne of Judgment in reference to wicked men whom he scattereth or chaseth away with his eyes i Prov. 20. 8 The Truth saith Christ unto the Jews meaning when known by them shall make you free k Iohn 8. 32 All bondage and servility whether under sin or under sorrow is dissolved by the clear shining of the light of the knowledg of God into the Heart and Soul Whereas the darkness of Error strengtheneth the hand of the Oppressors and bindes fast the iron yoke of servitude upon the necks of those that are in bondage The time would fail me to speak at large of all the sad retinue of Evils and Mischiefs that attend upon Error Take in brief the sum as well of what I have said as what I would willingly say yet further upon this account First It hath been said that Error defileth and embaseth the person who coupleth his Judgment with it Secondly That it obstructeth communion with God as far as the malignity of the influence of it extendeth Thirdly That the proper and direct tendency of it is unto death to bring everlasting destruction upon the Soul Fourthly It hath been shâ—wed that Error is the proper Element for Jim and Ojim and doleful creatures I mean for fears sad apprehensions disconsolate thoughts on the one hand and so for wilde Satyrs lusts sensual and sinful distempers on the other hand to be ingendred and bred as also to live and subsist to move and act and take their pastime in the knowledg of the Truth being mortal unto both I now add Fifthly That Error disposeth the Soul to Apostasie from the Gospel and to a recidivation or falling back into the devouring sin of Vnbelief This it doth not only by giving opportunity and encouragement unto lusts and inordinate affections in the Soul the motions and actings of which are to the life of Faith that which poyson is to the natural life of a man but also by representing the Gospel unto the mind and conscience of a man at least in some of the ways and passages of it as weak unworthy dark unpleasant uncouth or whatsoever Error when the Soul by long acquaintance and converse with it shall discover the true nature or genius of it and so grow into a dislike and contempt of it shall now appear unto them For this is much to be considered that a man or woman who have for many years professed the Gospel may in process of time come to discover vanity in some erroneous Principle or Tenent wherewith their Judgments had been leavened for some considerable space formerly and so grow into a disapprobation or contempt of it and yet may very possibly think and suppose that the Gospel favours or countenanceth it and that otherwise they should never have owned or approved it Now when a person shall be brought into the snare of such a conceit or imagination as this that the Gospel in some of the veins or carriages of it teacheth or asserteth things that are vain or of no good consistency with Reason or Truth he is in a ready posture to throw off from his Soul all credence of the Divine Authority of the Gospel and to esteem it no better then a Fable devised by men Nor will all that which he Iudgeth serious and sound and good in the Doctrine of the Gospel otherwise relieve him in such a case He that imagines that he smells but so much as one dead Fly in the oyntment of thâ— Gospel will as he should have sufficient cause to do were his imagination in this case sufficiently grounded conclude that certainly it came not from God but from men No mans heart or conscience will serve him to reverence that as coming from God wherein he savours the least weakness error or untruth Sixthly Though an Error seems to be meerly speculative and in respect of the frame and constitution of it to have no affinity or intermedling at all with the moral principles or practises of men as that of Ana-Baptism amongst some others yeâ— doth it secretly and in a collateral way through the weakness and vanity of the heart infuse malignity even into these occasioning persons otherwise grave sober peaceable meek loving c. to break out many times in strains of pride self conceitedness contention contempt of others cavilling against pregnant and clear Truths with the like for the maintenance and defence of it For as he which hath a child though it be never so hard-favored or deformed never so ill behaviored or conditioned yet â—udgeth himself bound to provide maintenance and support for it So He that embraceth an Opinion about the things of God and of the Gospel be it never so erroneous uncouth irrational and weak yet supposeth himself bound in conscience to plead the cause of it and protect it upon all occasions Now
yet understand not 2. The naturall and plaine inclination of the Context leads to the interpretation §. 38. and sence of the whole World contended for For the Apostle doth not simply say that Christ is the propitiation for the sinnes of the whole World but he saith it by way of an emphaticall antithesis or addition to this saying that He was the propitiation for their sinnes And he is the propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours only but also for the sinnes of the whole World This last Clause but also for the sinnes of the whole World is cleerly added by way of augmentation or further strengthning to the ground of their Faith and comfort Now evident it is that there will be little or nothing found in it tending to any such end as the further enlargement of their comfort or strengthning to their Faith above what the former Clause presented but rather that which will be prejudiciall and insnaring unto both unlesse these words of the whole World be taken in their comprehensive signification I mean for all Men in the World without exception For to say thus unto a Believer or to a Professor of the Faith of Christ who is doubtfull about the grounds of his Faith and but weake in the comfort of i◠which was apparantly the condition of those to whom Iohn Writes this Epistle and in consideration whereof that very Clause we now speak of was added to the former Christ is the propitiation for the sinnes of the Elect or of some few particular Men must needs rather add to their doubtings then their Faith and augment their feares rather then their comforts yea and would take from rather then add to that ground of consolation which He had administred in the former Clause And He is the Propitiation for our sinnes For when I am in suspence and doubtfull in my spirit whether Christ died for me or be a propitiation for my sinnes or no how should it any wayes tend or conduce to my establishment for me to know or consider that Christ died for his Elect or for some particular Men both of Iewes and Gentiles and for some only Hath not such a Doctrine or consideration as this fuell in it to increase the burnings of my feares within me instead of water to quench or allay them Or can I be ever a whit the more strengthened to believe that Christ died for me by believing that He died for some Particular Men or must not my feares in this kinde I meane whether Christ died for me or no needs be the more provoked and enraged within me by considering that Christ died for some few Particular Men only Or doth such an assertion as this that Christ died for some Particular Men though never so substantially proved though never so effectually believed any wayes enable or dispose me to believe that I am one of those Particular Men for whom he died Nay rather must not a rumination or feeding upon such a Notion or conception as that falling in conjunction with the weaknesse and doubtfulnesse of my Faith together with the sence and conscience of my many corruptions and infirmities otherwise of necessity involve and perplex me with so much the more grievous and inextricable fears that I am none of those Particular Men none of those few for whom alone Christ died Therefore any of those restrained interpretations of the whole VVorld which we have opposed do most manifestly oppose the plaine scope and drift of the Holy Ghost which was as hath been proved the strengthening or incouragement of their Faith upon rich and excellent terms whereas the true interpretation of the words and that which we plead hath the fairest and fullest consistance with such an intent which can lightly be imagined For the consideration that Christ by his death became a propitiation or made a full attonement for the sinnes of all Men without exception as it tends to magnifie the unsearchable riches of the Grace of Christ on the one hand and so is proper to strengthen the hand of every Mans Faith so on the other hand it throws down every Mountaine and fills every Valley removes all obstructions takes away all impediments cleers all scruples and so prepares a plain and smooth way for every Man to come unto Christ by believing yea and cuts off all occasion◠of relapses or faintings in Faith afterwards How it comes to passe and how it may well stand with the justice of God that notwithstanding the Death of Christ for the sins of all Men yet all Men are not saved shall be taken into consideration in due Time and Place Concerning the distinction mentioned of Christs dying sufficiently for all §. 39. Men but not efficaciously or intentionally on Gods Part as it was first hammered out by workmen of no great credit with us for spirituall building the Schoolemen I meane so is it built upon a false foundation or supposition as viz. that intentions are attributable unto God upon the same terms See also Cap. 7. Sect. 5. And cap. 8. 33. in every respect wherein they are competible unto Men the contrary whereof hath been undeniably proved Cap. 3. Sect. 7 8. c. where likewise it was particularly argued and made good that God is and very properly may be said to intend whatsoever He vouchsafeth proper and sufficient meanes to effect especially with a command to improve or use them accordingly whether the thing be effected or no. So that to affirme and grant that Christ died sufficiently for all Men and yet deny that he died intentionally for all Men is to speak contradictions and to pull down with the left hand what a Man hath built up with his right Certainly he that levieth and imployeth a proportion of meanes sufficient and proper for the bringing of any thing to passe must needs in one sence or other in one degree or other be supposed to intend the bringing to passe of such a thing Nor is it any dishonour at all unto God nor in the least unworthy of him that he doth not alwayes attaine his ends or things intended by him no more then it is that sin should be committed in the World notwithstanding his opposing it by his Authority Law and Threatnings though in strictnesse and propriety of speech it is most true that God never failes of his intentions or ends if by intentions and ends we meane only such things which are absolutely and positively intended by him But in this sence the actuall salvation of Particular Men under any other consideration then as believers is none of his intentions So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Sonne not simply or absolutely that the World i. e. every Man no nor yet that any Man should be saved or have everlasting life but that whosoever believeth should have it So that the absolute and positive intentions of God concerning the salvation of Men are no◠concerning the salvation simply of Men or of any
Divine Revelation before me will better and with lesse descant upon the words admit the latter beliefe then the former which is the case in the Scripture in hand is very contrary to the Rule of Charity which restraineth me from doing my Neighbour any prejudice or harme as well in his spirituall as outward estate yea and much more in the former then in the latter 3. If I stand bound to believe with the judgement of Faith that it is unpossible §. 15. for any man to perish for whom Christ Died what will such a consideration as this whether believed according to the one judgement or the other viz. that Christ Died for such or such a man advantage me by way of preserving me from such a practise which is apt to destroy him For if it be a truth that Christ did die for him I need not according to the supposition mentioned be at all tender about doing any thing or forbearing any thing out of any apprehension of danger lest by the one or the other I should occasion his destruction If it be a truth that Christ did not die for him upon what account should the Apostle suggest unto me that he did die for him or that it may be that he did die for him by way of argument to deter me from doing that which may tend to his destruction Suppose one part of the men in the World were impenetrable and invulnerable the other part as now they are exposed unto the danger of death upon wounds received were it a congruous motive or gound of perswasion whereby to caution me from wounding or smiting such or such a man with a Sword Dagger or the like to inform me that this man is or may be invulnerable or that I ought to presume or judge this man to be invulnerable Would not such an argument as this rather strengthen my hand to a smiting of him then any wayes occasion me to forbeare They cleerly make the Holy Ghost Himself to reason at no better rate of understanding then this in the Scripture in hand who make it only a matter of Charity to believe that Christ Died for a weake Brother and that in case he did die for him he is upon this account undestroyable 4. And lastly most evident it is that the scope of the Apostle in that §. 16. 1 Cor. 8. and there is the same consideration of Rom. 14. is to deterre Christians from an unseasonable and undue use of their liberty and knowledge and this by an argument or motive drawn not so much from what is unseemely uncomely or dangerous in respect of themselves but from the consideration of what danger or damage may very possibly accrue thereby unto others The whole tenor and carriage of both Contexts Proclaime this aloud so that there needs no more proof of it then only the perusall of the Chapters themselves Now the danger or dammage which a Christian by such an abuse of his liberty as is here expressed may very possibly create or occasion to another the Apostle affirmes to be the destroying of his Brother for whom Christ Died i. e. the depriving of him of that great Salvation and blessednesse which Christ by His Death purchased for him Now if this strong Christian stands bound to believe according to the judgement of Charity that this Person is a true Brother and one for whom Christ Died he stands bound to believe according to the same judgement at least if not according to the judgement of Faith it self that he may perish through the abuse of his liberty Otherwise the Apostles argument for the disswading of him from such an abuse cannot be supposed to take any place in him nor worke at all upon him in order to such an end For no consideration or saying whatsoever unlesse believed with one kinde of Faith or other can have any influence or operation upon men either to perswade them to or from any practise If then the strong Christian stands bound to believe be it only according to the judgement of Charity that the weak Professor is a Brother indeed and one for whom Christ Died he stands bound also to believe according to the one judgement or the other that he may perish through his Unchristian misdemeanor in the use of his liberty If so then he and consequently every other Christian stands bound in Conscience to believe that such a man may perish for whom he stands bound in Conscience likewise to believe that Christ Died. For a belief according to the judgement of Charity where it is required is matter of duty and of Conscience as well as a belief according to the judgement of Faith in cases appropriate hereunto Neither is it true according to the Principles of that opinion which we now implead that a Christian stands bound in Conscience to believe no not according to the judgement of Charity that all that Professe the Faith of Christ are true Brethren or Persons for whom Christ Died. For the Patrons of this opinion generally hold 1. That many who make such a Profession are Hypocrites and not true Brethren 2. That many of this number will perish at last in their Hypocrisie and Unbelief And thus far they hold nothing but truth But 3. and lastly they hold yet further which they should doe better to let goe that Christ Died for none of those Professors who perish in the end These things they hold and believe not with a beliefe according to the judgement of Charity but dogmatically and according to the judgement or certainty of Faith Now certaine it is that no man stands bound in Conscience to believe that according to the judgement of Charity which is contrary to what he believeth or what he truly judgeth Himself bound in Conscience to believe according to the judgement of Faith because no Law or Rule of Charity bindeth me to believe with any kinde of belief whatsoever that God is a Lyar or Untrue in his Word which is the Foundation and Rule of what I stand bound to believe according to the judgement of Faith Such men therefore who believe according to the judgement of Faith that all Professors of Christianity shall not at last be saved cannot with the safety of their own Principles say they stand bound in Conscience to believe with the belief of Charity that Christ Died for them all because in their Notion and according to their grounds these two Propositions are inconsistent in Truth viz. that Christ should die for all and yet some perish But thus it still happeneth to those who are ingaged in the defence of an error I meane to intangle themselves and to non-sensifie such Passages of Scripture which manifestly oppose their error by such evasions such unnaturall and forc'd Interpretations which for the keeping alive of such a Tenet which were better dead they are necessitated unto Nor will it availe them here to reply that they doe not judge themselves §. 17. bound in Conscience to
we now speak of not only such things upon the sight and knowledge whereof in men we ought to judge them true Believers but even such things further which we ought to reverence and honour as the lovely and majestique characters of Faith and Holinesse in their exaltation Therefore it is but an importune pretence in men to deny them to have been true Believers To say that whilest they stood men were indeed bound in charity to judge them true Believers but by their declining they discovered themselves not to have been the men is but to beg the question and that upon very ill terms to obtain it 3. If our Saviours Rule be authentique By their fruits we shall know them a Mat. 7. 20. §. 7. we did not only stand bound by the Law of charity but by the Law of a righteous or district judgement it selfe to judge the persons we speak of true Believers whilest they adorned the Gospell with such fruits of righteousnesse as were mentioned For our Saviour doth not say by their fruits you shall have ground to conceive or to conjecture them such or such or to judge them in charity such or such but you shall know them Now what a man knows he is not bound to conjecture or to judge it in a way of charity to be that which he knoweth it to be but positively to judge and conclude of it acordingly If then it be possible as hath been said for men by any Signs Fruits Works Expressions in one kinde or other to know true Believers which our Saviour in the said Rule and elseqhere seemeth to suppose to be very possible the persons we speak of may be known to have been such 4. And lastly if that Doctrine of Perseverance in the comfort whereof §. 8. men so much rejoyce intangles them with such a necessity for the defence of it as this I meane to judge all those to have been Hypocrites or unsound in the Faith who afterwards apostatize and decline to prophannesse it will be found upon a true account to be a Doctrine of no such good accord with their peace or comfort as is pretended or as they in considerately imagine For what will it availe me to my Peace or Comfort though I be never so fully resolved or perswaded that in case I be a true Believer I shall never fall away to Perdition if in the meane time I be so intangled in my judgement that I can hardly if at all have any sufficient or cleare ground to judge when or that I am a true Believer or be otherwise occasioned strongly to suspect and doubt of the truth of my Faith Now if I must of necessity conclude all those to have been Hypocrites or pretenders only unto true Faith who afterwards fall and rise no more I must needs hereby minister an occasion of a thousand feares and jealousies to my self and my own conscience touching the truth and soundnesse of mine own Faith lest this should be of no better kinde or constitution then theirs And being compassed about with such fears and jealousies as these what great peace or comfort am I capable of touching my Salvation Or what is it to me whether true Believers may fall away or no when as I lie under the heavy pressure of so many doubts and debates with my selfe whether I be a true Believer or no If it be replied yea but I may have security and assurance enough for the §. 9. truth and soundnesse of mine own Faith because I am perfectly conscious to the uprightnesse and simplicity of mine own heart which I could not be of theirs and therefore though I might very possibly be mistaken touching the truth of their Faith having nothing to found my judgement in this kinde upon but only their outward deportments yet having the testimony of mine own heart and conscience together with my outward conversation I may here be confident though I miscarried there To this also I answer 1. Far be it from me to deny but that a man may very possibly attaine unto a very strong and potent assurance and that upon grounds every wayes sufficient warantable and good that his Faith is sound and saving yea and such wherein persevering unto the end he shall undoubtedly be actually saved I shall not need to argue this because it is nothing but what is owned on both sides But 2. I verily believe withall that there is not one true Believer of an hundred §. 10. I might say of many thousands who hath any such assurance as this of the truth and soundnesse of their Faith such an assurance I meane which is built upon solid and pregnant foundations and which are proper to beare it my reasons are two 1. Because though the testimony of a mans Heart and Conscience touching his uprightnesse towards God or the soundnesse of any thing that is saving in Him be comfortable and cheering yet seldom are these Properties this comfortablenesse and cheeringnesse of it built upon such foundations which are sufficient to warrant them at least upon such whose sufficiency in this kinde men duly apprehend For the testimony of the Conscience of a Man touching any thing which is spiritually and excellently good is of no such value unlesse first it be excellently inlightned with the knowledge of the Nature Properties and Condition of that of which it testifieth and 2. Be in the actuall Contemplation Consideration or Remembrance of what it knoweth in this kinde when it rendreth such testimony Now there are I question not many thousands both of Men and Women in the World who truly believe and whose Hearts are upright with God who yet are not to any such degree inlightened about the Natures and Properties either of a true Faith or uprightnesse of Heart but that the testimony which their Consciences give concerning these is liable to many Disputes and Questions about the certainty and truth of it in the Consciences themselves which give it This is the constant and known experience of in a manner the whole believing World there being not one amongst many of the inhabitants hereof the testimony of whose Consciences touching the soundnesse of his Faith is upon any such terms or to any such Degree either Comforting or Cheering but that He conflicts with many feares and scruples and doubtfull apprehensions notwithstanding 2. The comfortablenesse and cheeringnesse of the testimony which any §. 11. Mans Conscience gives touching the soundnesse of his Faith and the uprightnesse of his Heart towards God depending mainly and Principally upon the uniforme regulate and constant tenor of his life and conversation in wayes of Holiness and there being so few even among the Saints themselves who are to any competent or considerable degree carefull to walke without stumblings and slippings and many straines of unworthinesse hence it must needs follow that that testimony of Conscience we speake of will faulter and be divided in it self and though that which is comforting and
cheering in it may be predominant yet the consciousness and sence of irregularities in Mens wayes must needs detract proportionably from the same The credit and authority of that testimony which any Mans Conscience gives in unto him touching the truth and soundnesse of his Faith must needs in a very great measure depend upon the equable flowings or issuings forth hereof in wayes and workes of Righteousness because when there is any considerable interruption in these that testimony will be suspended and put to silence for the time unless the Conscience it self be under the power of some delusion This is evident from the Scriptures themselves in many places Little Children saith John let no Man deceive you he that doth Righteousnesse is righteous a 1 Joh. 3. 7 This caveat let no Man deceive you plainely intimates that the Consciences even of Christians and true Believers themselves for such Johns little Children here are on all hands presum'd to be may very possibly be deceived in their estimate of a righteous Man or which is the same of a sound Believer and judge him to be either the one or the other who is neither This is chiefly spoken and is accordingly to be understood concerning a Mans judging of himself Whereas he adds he that doth righteousnesse is righteous it is to be understood emphatically and exclusively so that he and he only who doth righteousnesse is to be judged a righteous Man the Scripture frequently expressing it selfe after the same manner a See Esa 66 2 Gal. 3. 12. Joh 3. 16. Now by doing righteousnesse he doth not meane the doing of some righteous acts now and then but a constant and uniforme practise of righteousness humane frailties only excepted which come not in to this account For in the Writings of this Apostle as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 1 Ioh. 3. 8 9 usually if not constantly signifies as it were to follow a Trade or Course of sinning to sin with the like frequency and dexterity that a Tradesman works upon his ordinary calling or occupation so doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 1 Ioh. 2. 29. 7. 10. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 1 Ioh. 1. 6 Ioh 3. 21. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Ioh. 7. 17 9. 31 c. signifie a proportionable acting of righteousness and of the truth and of the Will of God Now if no Man can or ought upon Scripture grounds to be judged a righteous Man or sound Believer but only he who doth or worketh righteousnesse upon such terms as these evident it is that in what degree Men fall short of these terms in working righteousnesse the testimony of their Consciences touching the soundness of their Faith and uprightness of their Hearts towards God must needs fâ—ulter and be incumbred with doubts and fears proportionably unless thâ—â— Consciences themselves be mis-inform'd or hardned Therefore what Doctrine soever occasioneth Men to question the sufficiency of their obedience or righteous walkings for rendring the testimony of their Consciences touching the soundnesse of their Faith valid and worthy belief can be of no such lovely or desireable Consequence for their Comfort and Peace and consequently the Doctrine of Perseverance cannot in a righteous judgement be adjudged such Because as hath been already argued it still necessitateth Men to give sentence against a better and more uniforme Righteousnesse then their own I meane the practicall Righteousnesse of many who 〈…〉 erwards apostatized without returning as being invalid and insufficient to evince those to have been true Believers in whom it was found And if I stand bound in Conscience to judge those to have been Hypocrites or Pretenders only to a true Faith and not true Believers indeed whose Righteousnesse and Fruitfulnesse of conversation by many degrees exceeded mine am I not strongly hereby occasioned yea ingaged to question the truth and soundnesse of mine own Faith especially considering as hath been said that the evidence of the truth and reality of every Mans Faith depends so much upon the fruitfulnesse and operativenesse of it in wayes and works of Righteousness The Premises duly considered that Doctrine of Perseverance over which §. 12. the generality of Professors so impotently rejoyce as being of so desireable and rich a compliance with their spirituall Comfort and Peace must needs appeare to be a Doctrine of no such import or accommodation to them but rather a Doctrine very apt and likely to intice them into a boldnesse and venturousnesse in sining and consequently must needs dispose them to apostasie and declining yea and fill their Consciences many times with dread and horror and very frequently with great jealousies inextricable Questions and Disputes about the truth and soundness of their Faith Yea but will the friends of the said Doctrine it is like still say we §. 13. finde it very sweet and comfortable to us whereas the contrary Doctrine which tells us of a possibility of our finall apostacy and falling away is very sad and full of discouragement c. To these things and all that can be pretended in this kind we answer 1. Suppose the Doctrine we speak of were never so comfortable yet this would be no Argument of the truth or goodnesse of it unlesse the comfortablenesse of it be found in due consistence with the Wisdome and Righteousnesse of God It were easy to invent twenty Doctrines every whit as comfortable nay much more comfortable as this in respect of the Natures and Imports of them which yet will be found notoriously defective in point of Truth because they hold not any regular Proportion with those Attributes of God As for example such Doctrines as these All Men without exception shall be saved whether they believe or not no Man shall be punished for any sinâ—â— whatsoever neither in this World nor in that which is to come Men are as much appâ—â—ed of by God in the committing of the greatest sinne as in the performance of the greatest duty such Doctrines I say as these are much more sweet and comfortable in respect of their frame constitution and import then that which affirmes a necessity of the Saints preseverance But as those Doctrines with their fellowes are not to be commended nor entertained for their sweetnesse or comfortablenesse sake having no approbation or countenance from God in His Word so neither is the common Doctrine of Perserverance at all to be regarded for any thing of like accommodation I meane for any thing sweet or comfortable in it unlesse the stamp of Divine Authority could be shewed upon it which by no light yet extant is to be seene 2. Though Doctrines and other means of spirituall comfort are very §. 14 desireable and earnestly to be pursued and contended for when they are regular and lawfull yet as we must be content to be at the allowance of our Heavenly Father for the accommodations and comforts of this present Life and not be our own Carvers of all that
observing the difference between Sin reigning and not reigning of the former speaketh thus Sin reigning is all or every Sin in Men unregenerate or in Men regenerate an error contrary to the Articles of Faith or against conscience excluding out of the heart actuall belief of remission of sins and making the sinner liable to eternall Death unlesse he should be forgiven In one word Sin reigning is to obey the lusts of the flesh Even those that are regenerate sometimes fall into this sin as David Peter and this the Apostles exhortation witnesseth b Regnans est omne peccatum in non renatis aut in renatis error contrà articulos fidei aut conscientiam excludens ex corde actualem fiduciam remissionis peccatorum obnoxium faciens peccantem exitio aeterno nisi fiat remissio uno verbo est obedire cupiditatibus carnis Renati etiam aliquando incidunt in tale peccatum ut David Petrus quod testatur hortatio Apostoli c. Par. ad Rom. 6. ver 13. Hi enim etiam mortaliter contrà dictamen conscientiae aliquando ruentes ut Aaron David Petrus c. ibid. in Dub. 7. And afterwards speaking of Regenerate Men and true Believers he grants that they may mortally and against the dictate of their consciences rush into Sin as Aaron David Peter did and saith moreover that when they thus sin they lay waste their Consciences disturb the Holy Ghost lose the joy of their heart and incur the wrath of God Doubtlesse these are not the symptomes or effects of sins of infirmity though the Author is pleased to say that which I think pleaseth few Men to believe that the sins of Aaron David Peter were not committed by them ex contemptu Dei out of any contempt of God but out of a preoccupation with or through the infirmity of the flesh Concerning the Sin of David certaine I am that the Prophet Nathan by the Word of the Lord chargeth it upon his despising or contempt of the Commandement of the Lord 2 Sam. 12. 9. Ursine is yet more cordiall and through in the point The most sad falls saith he of holy Men as of Aaron making the golden Calf for which God being angry was minded to slay him and of David committing Adultery and Murther to whom Nathan said Thou art a Man of Death doe plainely shew that even Regenerate Men may rush or fall headlong into reigning sin a Quòd etiam renati possunt ruere in peccatum regnans satis ostendunt lapsus tristissimi etiam Sanctorum hominum ut Aaronis vitulum aureum facientis quem Deus iratus propterea voluit perdere Et Davidis committentis adulterium homicidium cui Nathan dixit Tu es vir mortis Ursinus vol. 1. pag. 207. And those of the Contra-Remonstrancie in the Conference at the Hague held Anno 1613. confesse and teach that true Believers may fall so far that the Church according to the Commandement of Christ shall be obliged to pronounce that she cannot tolerate them in her externall Communion and that they shall have no part in the Kingdome of Christ except they repent b Deinde respondemus ad miâ—orem fieri posse ut verè fideles eò prolabantur ut Ecclesia ex mandato Christi cogatur pronunciare se eos in externâ communione tolerare non posse neque eos partem in regno Christi habituros nisi resipiscant Coll. Hag. p. 399. Therefore certainly their sence was that true Believers may sin above the rate of those who Sin out of infirmity in as much as there is no Commandement of Christ that any Church of his should eject such persons out of their externall Communion who Sin out of infirmity onely So that by the confession of our Adversaries themselves even true Believers may perpetrate such Sins which are of a deeper demerit then to be numbred amongst Sins of infirmity yea such Sins for which the Church of Christ according to the Commandement of Christ stands bound to judge them for ever excluded from the Kingdome of God without Repentance From whence it undeniably followes that they may commit such Sins whereby their Faith in Christ will be totally wreck'd and lost because there is no condemnation or exclusion from the Kingdome of God unto those that are by Faith in Christ Jesus whether they repent or not And therefore they that stand in need of Repentance to give them a right and title to the Kingdome of God are no Sons of God by Faith for were they Sons they would be heires also c Rom. 8. 17. and consequently have the clearest right and title to the inheritance that is So that to pretend that however the Saints may fall into great and grievous Sins yet they shall certainly be renewed againe by Repentance before they die though this be an Assertion without any bottome of Reason or Truth yet doth it no wayes oppose but suppose rather a Possibility of the totall defection of Faith in true Believers Some to maintaine this Position that all the Sins of true Believers are §. 24. Sins of infirmity lay hold on this Shield Such Men as these they say never Sin with their whole wills or with full consent Therefore when they Sin they never Sin but through infirmity That they never Sin with full consent they conceive they prove sufficiently from that of the Apostle For the good that I would I doe not but the evill which I would not that I doe Now if I doe that I would not it is no more I that doe it but Sin that dwelleth in me d Rom. 7. 19 20. I answer 1. That the Saints oft Sin with their whole wills or full consents is undeniably proved by this consideration viz. because otherwise there should be not only a plurality or diversity but even a contrariety of wills in the same person at one and the same instant of time viz. when the supposed act of Sin is produced Now it is an impossibility of the first evidence that there should be a plurality of acts and these contrary the one unto the other in one and the same subject or agent at one and the same instant of time It is true between the first moving of the flesh in a Man towards the committing of the Sin and the compleating of this Sin by an actuall and externall patration of it there may be successively in him not onely a plurality but even a contrariety of volitions or motions of the will according to what the Scripture speaketh concerning the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh but when the flesh having prevailed in the combate bringeth forth her desire into act the spirit ceaseth from his act of lusting otherwise it will follow that the flesh is greater and stronger in her lustings then the Spirit of God in his and that when the flesh lusteth after the perpetration of such or such a Sin the spirit as to the hindering of it
accepted with God But this was Davids case He committed Murther and Adultery not onely against the light of His Conscience but c. Ergo. The Minor Proposition is in all points evident from the Tenor of the story layd down Chap. 11 12 of the second of Samuel where the Holy Ghost very particularly and at large reporteth the manner and method of Davids actings and behaviors in order to the committing of the said sins But this Proposition I conceive hath so much light of truth shining upon it from the Scriptures that they who deny the Conclusion will not deny it For the Major this hath been sufficiently argued and proved in the former Chapter in our traverse of the fifth Argument there propounded to prove a Possibility of a total defection in the Saints Sect. 20 21 c. where likewise all the Pleas of exception commonly made against it were largely debated and answered to the full I shall here onely add this brief Argument for the further confirmation of it Whosoever is truly godly hath by Grace and Promise from God a Right and Title to the Kingdom of God This Proposition is current Doctrine amongst our Adversaries Therefore I assume But whosoever commits Murther and Adultery and this against the light of Conscience with deliberation and premeditated contrivance and remains impenitent under the guilt of such commissions during such His impenitency hath no Right or Title to the Kingdom of God Ergo. This is proved ex abundanti from Gal. 5. 21. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. places formerly argued Touching the former the Apostle after a large enumeration of the works of the flesh Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Envyings Murthers c. subjoyns of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that THAT WHICH DO SVCH THINGS SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM O◠GOD. The other place is of the same import So likewise are the Passages Ephes 5. 5 6. It seems this was a Doctrine frequently incultated by the Apostle into the mindes and consciences of such as were Saints at least so judged and reputed by Him and therefore such as we ought to judg to have been none other Now if those who formerly had been Saints and in this capacity Heirs of the Kingdom of God should have retained the same capacity under the doing of the things mentioned and before any remorse of Soul or Repentance for them the Apostle could not either with reason or truth have pronounced this heavy doom against them that they should not inherit the Kingdom of God So that David having done two of the most notorious and vile works of the flesh in the Practise or Perpetration of Murther and Adultery and that as hath been said with circumstances of greatest aggravation doubtless for the time whilest He remained impenitent in or under the defilement of them was obnoxious to that Law of Death by which the workers of iniquity or of the works of the flesh are sentenced with the deprivation or loss of their Right and Title to the Kingdom of Heaven and consequently was not a godly person or accepted with God We have already profaned all those lawless Sanctuaries at which Men being pursued by the Scriptures lately mentioned are wont to take shelter as viz. 1. That the said places are not to be understood as applicable unto the Saints they mean such as at any time have been Saints but unto natural or unregenerate men onely 2. That Saints have an absolute Promise from God that they shall never totally lose their Faith 3. That the Saints sin onely out of infirmity and not premeditatedly or with full consent These Alledgments with their fellows we have once and again in several places upon occasion clearly detected to be of the spurious and ignoble race of shifts and evasions fought out by men for the gratification and relief of Error and to obstruct the Truth in the course of it that it might not run and be glorified But some object that David prayed unto God during his impenitency §. 3. under the said sins and that this is a sufficient proof that He was all the while a Person truly Godly and endued with Justifying Faith I answer 1. It no where appears that David did pray unto God during the term of His impenitency or until Nathan the Prophet came unto Him to awaken His Conscience unto a consideration of them The 51 Psalm which is indeed Precatory and Penitentiary is in the Title said to have been made by David when Nathan the Prophet came unto Him i. e. upon his coming unto Him after He had gone in to Bathsheba Which implies that David was now in a Posture of Repentance when He conceived the Prayer expressed in this Psalm 2. Neither from one act of Prayer nor from many can the truth or soundness of any mans Faith be concluded Our Saviour Himself supposeth that Hypocrites pray and that often a Matth. 6. 5 Yea and that the Scribes and Pharisees were wont to make long Prayers b Mat. 23. 14 and affirmeth that they were liable to the greater damnation upon the account of these Prayers in respect of the wicked ends intended in them Yea men may pray unto God with some degree or kinde of acceptation with Him whilest they are yet but unregenerate men as some of our Adversaries themselves more considering then their fellows do acknowledg Nor doth that of the Apostle Without Faith it is unpossible to please God c Heb. 11. 6 any ways contradict it of which place we shall I conceive have occasion to speak more at large hereafter 3. It it yet further the Doctrine and sence of our Adversaries That Reprobates themselves may have and many times have some excellent gifts of the Spirit conferred upon them and among others the gift of Prayer it self So that were it granted or could it be proved that David under His impenitency for His crying sins did pray or was wont to pray unto God it cannot be inferred from hence that therefore He was not in an estate of Reprobation or destitute of the saving Grace or Favor of God It is not necessary that He that totally falls away from saving Faith should be especially on the sudden devested or dispossest of any much less of all such gifts of the Holy Ghost which are consistent with an estate of Reprobation or Unregeneracy 4. If David was a true Beleever during the time of His wallowing in the mire of those two foul crimes oft mentioned then was not His washing by Repentance necessary to His Salvation The reason is because true Faith giveth a sufficient Right and Title to Salvation and it is the main stream and current of the Gospel that Whosoever beleeveth shall be saved But if Davids washing by Repentance was not necessary to His Salvation how can the Holy Ghost be justified in ranging Murtherers and Whoremongers amongst those who shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire
Councels and Synods were not of the same Judgment with Augustin may be gratified to satisfaction by recourse had to the oft-mentioned Author Gerard. Joh. Vossius in his Historia Pelagiana lib. 6. Thes 12. The transcribing of more passages in this kinde being already drawn together and directed unto by another and that in a Book of no difficult procurement will not I suppose be judged necessary or much expedient to the business in hand by a considerate Reader How a Doctrine of that soveraign import in Christian Religion of that §. 15. pregnant assertion in the Scriptures themselves so generally and constantly held forth and maintained by Orthodox Antiquity as the Doctrine of a Conditional Perseverance hath in all these respects been clearly proved to be should be especially with so much heat and confident zeal denyed and opposed by a great party of the Reformers of Religion in these latter days is of somewhat a strange â—ut of a much more sad consideration But as it often happeneth in sweeping of Houses especially when they are full of dust or soyl that pieces of silver or gold and other things of value are either through negligence or too much haste made in the work by those that do it or through a badness of their sight swept up among the soyl and cast together with it upon the dunghil so may it very possibly fall out in great Reformations of Religion when corruptions and matters requiring Reformation whether in Doctrine or Manners are very numerous and of a long gathering that together with the corruptions Errors and things necessary to be removed and abandoned some things also of worth and good import and which appertain to the purity and soundness of Religion are renounced and cast out likewise partly through too much zeal of an over-hasty dispatch in the work partly through an injudiciousness in some things in the principal Reformers partly through that infirmity of incogitancy which is so importune an attendant upon flesh and blood how vigilant soever Or as it constantly falleth out in purgings and lettings of blood that together with the bad humors and corrupt blood somewhat of that which is good and serviceable for the health and strength of the body is parted with and lost so is it hardly to be expected but that when an attempt shall be made to purge the body of Christian Religion being now encumbered and over-grown with Errors unsound Notions and Opinions having insinuated into the veins and incorporated themselves as it were with the pure substance of it which was the condition of it by falling into the hands of and remaining so long amongst those Daemoniolatrical Apostates whose want of love to the Truth God avenged by sending them strong delusions which caused them to beleeve lyes somewhat of the soundness and native substance of it also should be divided from it and cast into the draught together with that excrementitious and noisom matter which is wrought out of it by the purge Notwithstanding if we shall limit our Discourse to the Point in hand §. 16. and onely speak of the Doctrine of Perseverance the truth is that a very considerable part of those who were interessed in the Reformation of Religion about Luthers times and who since maintain and carry on that Reformation have not departed therein from the Faith of Primitive Antiquity as it hath been presented in the preceding part of this Chapter but clearly teach and assert with them a possibility of the Saints declining even unto death Concerning those of the Reformed Religion commonly distinguished by the name of Lutherans who I suppose are equal in numbers and not inferior in parts of learning or in zeal towards the Religion which they profess unto those who are contra-distinguished by the name of Calvinists it is sufficiently known that they more generally if not universally hold and teach with Luther Himself whose Judgment in the Point was briefly touched Cap. 14. Sect. 16. no other Perseverance of the Saints or true Beleevers then that which possibly may miscarry both totally and finally I shall not multiply Quotations from their Writings but onely lay before you some passages of Melancthon who was Luthers Companion and Allay together with two or three sayings from Chemnitius and for the general sence of the Lutheran party of Reformers in the Controversie in hand refer you to the Testimony and Confession of a great Defender of the common Faith in the Point of Perseverance who I beleeve was better acquainted with their writings then any man that shall rise up to oppose Him in His Testimony There are two Errors saith Melancthon of fanatique men which must briefly be confuted who conceit that men regenerate cannot lapse or fall and that though they do fall and this against the light of their Conscience that yet they are righteous or in an estate of Justification This madness is to be condemned and both instances and sayings from the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles opposed to it Saul and David pleased God were righteous had the Holy Ghost given unto them yet afterwards fell so that one of them perished utterly the other returned again unto God There are many sayings to the same Point And having cited upon the said account Mat. 12. 43 44. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. 1 Cor. 10. 12. Apoc. 2. 5. He subjoyneth These and the like sayings being spoken of Regenerate men testifie that they may fall and that in case they fall against their consciences they please not God unless they be converted a Sed ante explicationeÌ„ partium breviter refutandi sunt duo errores fanaticorum hominum qui finxeruÌ„t renatos non posse labi quanvis labuntur coÌ„trà conscientiam tamen justos esse Haec amentia damâ—anda est opponenda ex emplà dicta Scripturae Propheticae Apostolicae vt Saul David placuerunt Deo fuerunt justi donati Spiritu Sancto tamen posteà lapsi sunt ita vt alter prorsùs perierit alter rursus ad Deum coÌ„versus sit Dicta multa sunt c. Melancthon Loc. de Poenitentiâ Et paulò post Haec similia dicta de renatis testantur posse eos labi lapsos contrà conscientiam non placere Deo nisi rursus convertuntur Elsewhere thus Whereas it hath been said that sins remain in the Regenerate it 's necessary that a difference be made For certain it is that they who rush into sinful practices against Conscience do not continue in Grace nor retain Faith Righteousness or the Holy Ghost neither can Faith stand with an evil purpose of heart against Conscience b Cum dictum sit in renatis manere peccata necesse est tradi discrimen Nam hos qui ruunt in delicta contrà Conscientiam certum est non manere in gratiâ nec retinere Fidem Justiciam Spiritum Sanctum nec potest stare cum malo proposito contrà Conscientiam Fides c. Idem in Loc.
de bonis Oper. Qu. 5. Quod autem excidant ex gratiâ effundant Fidem Spiritum Sanctum fiant rei Irae Dei aeter narum poenarum qui admittunt delicta contrà Conscientiam id multae sententiae claré testantur Ibid. c. A little after But that they fall from Grace and shed Faith and the Holy Ghost and become guilty of the Wrath of God and of eternal punishment who commit sin against Conscience many sayings in the Scriptures clearly testifie to which purpose He cites Gal. 5. 19. 1 Cor. 6. 9 c. Yet again Let us saith 〈◊〉 minde the Examples of Saul and David who before their Fall retained thosâ— benefits or blessings which I rehearsed amongst which the Discovery of God the sending of His Son the Donation of His Word and Gospel the Donation of the Holy Ghost the Promise of Life eternal were reckoned and after their Fall were not onely devested of these good things but felt also the evils or punishments which I mentioned whereof these were some the Wrath of God Eternal Punishments the loss of their Gifts c Exempla cogitemus Saulis Davidis qui beneficia quae recensui inter quae erant Patefactio Dei Missio Filij Donatio Verbi Evangelij Donatio Spiritus Sancti Promissio Vitae Aeternae c. tenuerunt ante lapsum post lapsum exuti tantis bonis poenas senserunt quas recitavi inter quas erant Ira Dei Poenae Aeternae amissio Donorum c. Idem in Loc. de Fide c. No more from this Author at present from whom notwithstanding much more of the same import might readily be cited but onely that short saying of His writing upon those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. Let Him that thinketh He standeth take heed lest He fall But that in some who had the beginnings of Faith and afterwards FALLING RETVRN NOT that FAITH of theirs was TRVE BEFORE it was LOST or shaken out the saying of Peter 2 Pet. 2. testifieth d Quod autem in aliquibus qui initia Fidei habuerunt posteà lapsi non redeunt Fides illa prinsquà m excutitur vera sit dictum illud Petri testatur 2. Pet. 2. Idem in 1 Cor. 10. So that there is little or no question to be made but that Melancthon was full of enmity in His Judgment against the Tenent of those who affirm an impossibility of the Saints declining unto Death Nor did Chemnitius another learned and famous Assertor of the Lutheran §. 17. Cause dissent from him herein I answer saith he having mentioned a Tridentine Argument against assurance of Salvation pretended from the Scriptures that as well the Scripture as Experience teach that many do not persevere but fall from Grace But this cometh not to pass from hence or because God is not willing to preserve or keep those to the end whom He hath once received into His Grace or Favor but from hence viz. because many shed or spill the Holy Ghost and shake or dash Faith out of their hearts by security diffidence and the works of the flesh a Respondeo multos non perseverare sed gratiâ excidere et Scriptura experientia docet Sed hoc fit non inde ideò quasi nolit Deus credeÌ„tes quos semel in gratiam recepit ad FineÌ„ usque conservare sed ideò fit quia multi securitate diffidentiâ et operibus carnis SpirituÌ„ Sanctum effunduÌ„t Fidem excutiunt Chemn Exam. de Fide Justif p. 172. b. Not long after speaking of such Scripture-passages as these Let Him that standeth take heed that He fall not Work out your Salvation with Bear and Trembling c. He saith There is a general Answer to these Sayings For they are monitory unto men lest through a perswasion of the certainty of Salvation they degenerate into a carnal security whereby Faith it self is choked and quite put out and that we should not indulge any corrupt affections because by this means Faith is extinguished and that unless we abide in the goodness of God we shall be cut off Rom. 11. But concerning Faith it abideth not in those who without Repentance indulge vicious or depraved affections b Et paulò post Ad has sententius respoÌ„sio generalis est Monent enim ne persuasione certitudinis de salute degeneremus in carnaleÌ„ securitateÌ„ qua ipsa Fides suffocâ—tur extinguitur Nec indulgeamus vitiosis affectibus ita enim Fides extinguitur Et nisi permanserimus in bonitate Dei excindemur Rom. 11. Non manet auteÌ„ Fides in illis qui sine poenitentiâ indulgent pravis affectibus The same Author elsewhere having recited very many Texts of Scripture which speak of making shipwrack of Faith of denying the Faith of turning aside from the Faith c. as 1 Tim. 1. 19. cap. 4. 1. cap. 5. 8. with several others speaketh thus All these sentences speak of a true living and justifying Faith which they teach may be shaken out cast away and lost two several ways as either by sins against Conscience for Faith doth not remain in those who give way unto and indulge evil desires against Conscience 1 Tim. 1. 2. cap. 5. 6. or else by admiting an Error in the Foundation or by overthrowing the Foundation of Religion c Quae sententiae omnes loquuntur de verâ vivâ justificante Fide quaÌ„ docent excuti abjici amitti duâ—bus modis vel per peccata contrà conscientiaÌ„ Fides enim non manet in illis qui indulgent pravis cupiditatibus contrà conscientiaÌ„ 1 Tim. 1. 2. c. 5. 6. vel admisso errore in fundamento aut fundamento Religionis subverso 1 Tim. 4. 6. 2 Tim. 2. 3. Chemnit Exam. part 3. de Coelibat Virgin p. 33. a. 1 Tim. 4. 6. and 2 Tim. 2. 3. It were easie to make the pile of Testimonies from these Authors yet far greater for the eviction of their sence in the Question depending but these produced are enough to satisfie Ingenuity and as for Prejudice and Partiality the greatest abundance is not like to prove competent or sufficient That the main stream of Lutheran Judgments run in the same channel with §. 18. the Opinions of those two great Masters of this way already specified is once and again acknowledged by Doctor Prideaux Himself a man of opposite Judgment in the present Controversie who as well in the Doctrine of Perseverance as in those other Points of Election Reprobation the Death of Christ c. coupleth the Lutherans with the Remonstrants or Arminians from place to place See upon this account His Lectures De Absoluto Decreto de Gratia Universali de Perseverantia Sanctorum c. Therefore certainly the Protestant party of the Lutheran denomination are generally so far from magnifying the necessity or worth of that Doctrine which asserteth that fatal Perseverance of the Saints hitherto opposed so
of God in such a sence as that wherein we have now interpreted it is not material By that inhibition which was served upon him by the Angel to surcease all further Proceedings in and about the offering up of his Son by death before he was thus offered he clearly enough understood that to have been the sence and minde of God in the said Command which we have asserted So that 6. And lastly It is a clear case that the Explication and account given formerly in this Treatise concerning the Intentions of God or rather concerning the Ground and Reason why Intentions are attributed unto Him is no ways incumbred or disabled by the Instance of Gods Command given unto Abraham concerning the offering up of Isaac notwithstanding Isaac's non-oblation by death There is nothing in this Example to prove that God doth at any time vouchsafe means competent and proper for the bringing of any thing to pass especially when he commands that these means be used accordingly but that he truly and really intends as he is capable of intending any thing the coming to pass thereof Nor can it here with any face of Reason be replyed that by such a construction as we have put upon the words of God in His Command unto Abraham concerning the offering up of his Son when He vouchsafeth means of Salvation unto Men and commandeth them to use them accordingly it cannot be concluded from thence that therefore He really intendeth the Salvation of Men but onely that they should use the said Means to obtain Salvation Because though God in Abrahams case did in His Intentions separate the Means of offering up Isaac from the actual Oblation of Him this not being the end of His Command given unto Him as was said yet He did not separate between the said Means and that which was His true end in the Command which was the Tryal of Abrahams Faith and for the effecting whereof the said Command and all that which was meant thereby was as natural and proper a means as it was for the actual oblation of Isaac by death In like manner when He vouchsafeth Means of Salvation unto Men and commandeth the use of them accordingly He cannot be supposed to divide or separate in His Intentions between the use of these Means and their proper end Salvation there being no other end proper to be effected by the use of the Means of Salvation but Salvation it self or at least none but in conjunction with Salvation And certain it is that there is no man of wisdom who intends the use of such Means which are determinately appropriate to the production of one end and no more or however of no more but onely by and through the production of that one but that He intends the production of this end peculiarly How God may intend the Salvation of Men and yet Men never come to be saved hath been already explained t Cap. 3. Sect. 7 17. and that as I remember more then once and may be yet further opened upon occasion CHAP. XVIII Exhibiteth several Grounds and Reasons whereby the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ or Christs dying for All Men without Exception is Demonstratively evicted ALthough Scripture-Authority be greater then all Demonstration otherwise §. 1. for the Eviction and Confirmation of any Doctrine or Tenet in matter of Religion as simply and in it self so also with those whose Faith mainly or solely beareth upon the foundations of the Scriptures yet have Arguments and Grounds of Reason if they be pregnant and clear a very acceptable influence upon the Judgments and Consciences of Men when they are levyed and drawn up in the nature of Seconds or Assistants to the Scriptures and plead the same cause with them For when a Doctrine or Opinion is held forth as the Minde of God in the Scriptures and Scripture-Authority produced and insisted upon either singly or in consort for the proof thereof in case this Doctrine shall be found to have a fair and clear consistence with the unquestionable Principles of sound Reason there remains no place in the Consciences of Men for fear or jealousie concerning the Truth thereof God Himself being the Author of those noble endowments in Men Reason and Understanding must needs be conceived the Author also of whatsoever truly consorteth with them But in case the Authority of the Scriptures shall be urged and pressed upon the Consciences of Men in defence of such a Doctrine which grates or bears hard upon the common and clear Dictates of that Light which God hath planted in the Souls of Men it is unpossible but that a considering Man should much question such a sence or interpretation which is put upon the Scriptures in such a case The Reason hereof hath been given elsewhere a Epist to the Reader The Premisses considered I judg it a matter of signal consequence in order to the securing the Judgments and Consciences of Men about the truth of the main Doctrine maintained in this Discourse to demonstrate the perfect and clear consistency of it with Grounds of Reason though substantially proved already from the Scriptures yea and satisfactorily also I trust unto those who so understand the Scriptures as not to make either the Wisdom or Justice of God Sufferers by them My Reasons then for the Universality of Redemption by Jesus Christ in reference unto Men are these following If Christ dyed not for all Men without exception in the sence formerly declared §. 2. Argum. 1. then is that Great Covenant of Grace which God hath made with the World and ratified in His Blood made with unknown Persons and such who are no ways exprest in this Covenant neither by Name nor by any other Character or qualification by which they may at least for a long time be known or distinguished But this Great Covenant we speak of is not struck or made with unknown Persons I mean with such who for a long time if ever neither can tell themselves whether they be the Covenanted ones or no nor are capable of any reasonable information hereof by others Therefore Christ dyed for all men without exception The Reason of the former Proposition and the Consequence therein is this because the Elect so called in the common Notion of Election with whom onely this Covenant of Grace is pretended to be made and for whom onely Christ is supposed to have dyed are Persons no ways distinguishable from others neither before at all and very hardly if at all after their Regeneration and Conversion unto God That they are not at all discernable from others before Conversion is evident from several places For we our selves saith the Apostle to Titus meaning who are now so much altered and changed by a work of Grace and Regeneration in us were sometimes viz. before our Conversion foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another b Tit. 3. 3. Certainly these are no
any probable ground whereon to judg that he is Elected If it be objected Yes an unregenerate Person hath the Command of God to beleeve or depend on Christ for Salvation and this is a sufficient ground in Reason for him to do accordingly To this I answer by granting the whole Argument but retrench that if unregenerate Persons have the Command of God to depend on him for Salvation it is upon the ground lately evinced u Sect. 22. of this Chap. above all contradiction viz. that there is Salvation in Him for them and consequently purchased by him for them by his Death For He hath Salvation for no man upon any other account Joh. 12. 24. So that this Objection rather strengtheneth then weakeneth the Doctrine we maintain The Minor Proposition in the Argument last advanced by us which onely affirmeth as to the exigency of our cause that many unregenerate Persons stand bound in duty to beleeve on Christ for Salvation is too rich in evidence to stand in need of Proof For 1. The Scripture saith expresly that God now commandeth all men every where and therefore unregenerate men as well as others to repent x Acts 17. 30 if to repent then to beleeve also in as much as there can be no sound Repentance such as God commandeth without Faith And if so be men yet unregenerate stand not bound in duty or conscience to beleeve on Christ then is it no matter of sin in them to make God a lyar For He that beleeveth not God maketh Him a lyar because he beleeveth not the record God gave of His Son y 1 John 5. 10 meaning that whosoever justifieth or beleeveth God in the record he hath given of his Son must needs beleeve on him viz. because the Tenor of this Record is that whosoever beleeveth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life Now he that beleeveth this can no more refuse or forbear to beleeve on Christ then he can be content eternally to perish or refuse everlasting life as not worthy his beleeving for the obtaining of it But doubtless it is sinful in any man to make God a lyar i. e. either to do or to neglect to do any act by the doing or neglect whereof God is any ways represented as untrue of his Word as he is by any mans non-beleeving on Christ and consequently every man except the before excepted stands bound in duty and conscience to beleeve on Christ. Again secondly If no unregenerate men had any band of Duty or Precept from God lying upon them to beleeve on Christ whosoever of this sort of men should at any time beleeve on Him should super-erogate and do more then what he is by God commanded to do and consequently all Beleevers without exception should be Super-erogators in their first act of Beleeving because until now they were unregenerate Persons But the Proof of this Proposition is I suppose super-erogatory and more then any darkness or doubtfulness in it yea and haply more then our Adversaries themselves require Therefore we pass on to another Argument If God intended not the Death of Christ for all Men and that in order to their §. 27. Argum. 10. Salvation then have not all Men a sufficiency of means vouchsafed â—nto them whereby to be saved But all Men have a sufficiency of means in this kinde vouchsafed unto them Ergo. The Consequence in the former Proposition is pregnant without Proof For it is greater then contradiction that they who have no Propitiatory Sacrifice offered up for them nor Attonement made for their Sins have no sufficiency of means for Salvation So that if God intended no such Oblation no such Attonement for any man or number of men most certain it is that such men are in no capacity of Salvation and consequently can have no sufficiency of means whereby to be saved The truth of the Minor Proposition which avoucheth a sufficiency of means vouchsafed by God unto all Men whereby to be saved might be evidenced by sundry Demonstrations But because the compleat and full Demonstration of this Proposition is one of the most considerable atchievements to be undertaken and managed in the second Part of the Work in hand I shall for the present onely propose some few Considerations for the proof of it respiting the through-arguing of them until that opportunity First then If all Men have not a sufficiency of Means vouchsafed unto them whereby to be saved then God dealeth with men far more districtly and with greater severity in the new Covenant the Covenant of Grace then He did in the first Covenant which was a Covenant of Works The Reason hereof is because in or under the Covenant of Works Men were invested by God with sufficient Means for the performance of that Covenant and so for the obtaining of the great Reward promised or covenanted therein which was no less then eternal Life though possibly not a life so rich in Blessedness as that Covenanted with men in the Covenant of Grace That all Men without exception had a sufficiency of Means in Adam to have persisted in Innocency and to perform all the Articles and Terms required of them in that Covenant which was made with them in Him is the sence of all men learned in the Scriptures as well Modern as Ancient that yet I have heard of nor will it I suppose be denyed by our Adversaries themselves If it should there is proof upon proof at hand to make it good but what needs a levy of men to gain that by force which is voluntarily offered Now then it being far greater rigor and severity to impose such terms or conditions upon a man in order to the saving of his life or for the obtaining of any desirable good which are of an impossible performance unto him then to impose onely such which he hath competent abilities to perform evident it is that God must needs be more â—igorous and hard unto men in the Covenant of Grace made with them in and by Christ then He was in the Covenant of Works made with them in Adam in case it be supposed that He required unpossible Conditions of them in the former and onely such which were possible in the latter But that God dealeth more graciously and bountifully with Men in the second Covenant made with them in Christ then He did in the first which was made with them in Adam is the pregnant result of all things in a manner that God hath spoken unto the World by His Son in the Gospel Nor can our Adversaries themselves deny it without the loud reclamation of Evidence and Truth To pretend that God dealeth more graciously and bountifully with His Elect in the Covenant of Grace then He did in the Covenant of Works but not with the generality of Men is but a slim evasion and supposeth either that the Covenant of Grace is not made with the generality of Men which is a notorious untruth and hath been detected
the latter part of this Discourse In the mean time let us briefly consider what Companions and Friends we have even amongst those of the Reformed Religion and Protestant Party of Men in that great Article of our Faith which we have contended for hitherto the Gracious Intentions of God towards all Men without exception in the Death of Christ and the Redemption purchased thereby First concerning those whose Judgments and Consciences rather consorted §. 17. with Luthers Doctrine then with Calvins being upon this account distinguished by the Name of Lutherans these more generally and almost universally at least as far as my inspection into their Writings informeth me teach the Doctrine of General Redemption by Christ as orthodox and found I shall onely insâ—st upon a few Passages from the Writings of two or three known Authors of the Lutheran Perswasion leading men in their way Melancthon Luthers great Associate teacheth that EVERY PERSON of us apart ought to be firmâ—â— resolved of this that we are pardoned and received by God and that with this special or particular Faith EVERY particular MAN ought to apply the benefit of Christ to himself b Singâ—li statuere debemus nobis ipsis ignosci nos ipsos à Deo recipi Hac Fide speciali vt sic dicam quisque sibi applicare beneficium Christi debet Melancth Loc. De Fide Elsewhere He saith that the Counsel of God was that MANKIND should be redeemed and presently after asserteth the Love of God in His Son TOVVARDS MANKIND c Esi autem causas hujus mirandi consilij cur hoc modo redimendum fuerat genus humanum nondum in hâc infirmitate cernimus c. Conspiciuntur in hac victimâ Justicia Dei ira adversâ—s peccatum immensa miserecordia erga nos amor in filio erga genus humanum Idem De Justificatione In another place He affirmeth that God poured out His Wrath against the SINS OF MANKIND not of a few particular men upon His Son A little after speaking of Christ He saith He feels a greater burthen viz. the Wrath of God against the SINS OF MANKIND which He knoweth to be poured out upon Him He sorrowed also and was troubled that a great part of Mankinde would perish through a contempt of this great benefit of God b in quâ iram Dei adversus generis humani peccata in filium effudit Idem De Filio Et mox loquens de Christo sentit majus onus scilicet iraÌ„ Dei adversus peccata generis humani quam scit in sese effundi Doluit item magnam partem generis humani perituram esse spreto hoc beneficio Dei Ibid. In another place He saith It is necessary to know that the Gospel is an UNIVERSAL PROMISE i. e. that Reconciliation with God is offered and promised unto ALL Mâ—â— This universal Promise it is necessary to hold fast against any dangerous conceits about Predestination lest we fall to reason thus that this Promise belongeth to some few others but doth not belong unto us But let us be resolved of this that the Promise of the Gospel is universal For as the preaching of Repentance is universal so the preaching of Remission of Sins is universal also But that all Men do not obtain the Promises of the Gospel i. e. the things here promised it ariseth from hence that all Men do not beleeve e Necesse est scire Evangelium promissionem universalem esse hoc est offerri promitti omnibus reconciliationem Hanc universalem tenere necesse est adversus periculosas imaginationes de Praedestinatione ne disputemus hanc Promissionem ad paucos quosdam alios pertinere non pertinere ad nos Nos verò statuamus Evangelij promissioneÌ„ universaleÌ„ esse Sicut enim praedicatio poenitentiae universalis est ità praedicatio remissionis peccatorum universalis est Quod â—â—teÌ„ non omnes consequuntur Evangelij promissa eò sit quia non omnes credunt Idem De Promissione Evangelii The Writings of this Author have in them a large and full eye of that Doctrine which hath been protected hitherto Chemnitius another learned Champion of the Lutheran Faith riseth up §. 18. in his might from place to place to maintain the same Doctrine The whole Transaction saith He of the Mediator is considerable in this whether God the Father be willing to accept that satisfaction and obedience for THE WHOLE WORLD Now this He declared most signally in this that He left not His Son whom He smote for the Sins of THE PEOPLE in Death but raised Him up from the dead and placed Him at the right Hand of His Majesty f Et tota illa actio Mediatoris in eo vertitur an Pater illaÌ„ satisfactioneÌ„ obedientiam acceptare velit pro toto Mundo Illud verò Pater in eo maximé ostendit quod FiliuÌ„ quem propter peccata populi percusserat non dereliquit in morte sed resuscitavit ex mortuis collocavit ad dexteraÌ„ Majestatis suae Chemn Examen part 1. De Justificatione Elsewhere He saith Lest therefore all Mankinde should perish for ever that wonderful Decree of the Counsel of God concerning the Incarnation of the Son of God was enacted that He being our Mediator in our Nature assumed without sin should be made subject to the Law for us and should bear sin the guilt of sin the Wrath of God and THE PVNISHMENTS OF THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD being derived or cast upon Him g Ne igitur totum genus humanuÌ„ in aeternuÌ„ periret pactuÌ„ est mirabile illud Divini Consilij Decretum de Incarnatione Filij Dei vt is Mediator noster in assumptâ sine peccato nostrâ naturâ pro nobis Legi subderetur peccatuÌ„ reatuâ— peccati iram Dei supplicia peccatorum totius Mundi in se derivata portaret c. Idem Ibid. part 2. De Satisfactione Again The Father did not pour out part of his Wrath or of the Curse but his WHOLE WRATH with all the dregs of the Curse into that cup which He gave unto his Son the Mediator to â—e drunk by him in his sufferings And presently after Christ upon the Cross being about to commend his Spirit unto his Father saith It is finished whereby He testifieth that all those things which were necessary for the Expiation of Sins and for Redemption from the curse of the Law were fully sufficiently and super-abundantly consummated and discharged in or by his obedience and sufferings h Non enim partem irâ— vel maledictionis sed totam iram suam cum universis faecibus maledictionis Pater effudit in caliceÌ„ illuÌ„ quem Filio Mediatori in passione bibenduÌ„ proposuit Idem Ibid. part 4. De Indulgentiis Immediatè pòst Et Christus in cruce traditurus Patri spirituÌ„ dicit consuÌ„matuÌ„ est quâ voce testatur omnia ea quae ad expiationem peccatoruÌ„ ad