were Baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and were come to Mount Sinai The Apostle alluding to that tells the believing Hebrews partakers of the heavenly Call Heb. 3.1 that they were not come to Mount Sinai to have a Law of works and death put upon them but to Mount Sion * Whence the Law of Grace goeth forth Isai 2.3 to hear him that speaks from heaven and so intimately to have the Law writ in their hearts Heb. 12.18 22 24 25. in which they came also to the blood of sprinkling He doth not say they were come to Mount Sion while they were yet uncalled but in obeying the Call they came thither to meet with and receive the new Covenant opposed to the Covenant made with their Fathers at Mount Sinai That that confirms me in this belief is this that it is by faith that we are made of one body with the Israel of God and are no where called the seed of Promise or Israel of God till brought to Christ but then we are all one with the believing Jews Jews in the inner man the Circumcision the seed of Abraham and heirs according to Promise Gal. 3.26 29. Now the Covenant spoken of is made with the house of Israel and Judah If Mr. Owen think men to be faederates in that Covenant before faith let him shew me that any unbelieving Gentiles or uncalled are called by the name of Israel and Judah Besides That the promises of God are made with Christ Gal. 3.16 and are in him yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 But if any yet out of Christ should be faederates while out of him then they should have a larger object then Christ and a larger performance then in Christ Jesus But I say this ex abundanti to the Minor it being sufficient to the overthrow of the Argument that the Major is proofless Whereas Mr. Owen makes the difference between the Old and New Testament to be That this Covenants the giving of Faith and that not I deny it and say The difference between them is in this That was carnal weak and afforded not such operation of Spirit This spiritual powerful and full of life writing Gods teachings in the heart whereas that writ them but without in Books or Tables of Stones That propounded Precepts and Promises but gave not the performance This in Teaching conforms the heart to Gods VVill and gives in the injoyment and accomplishment of the promises whence as the Apostle saith The righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.4 That this Covenant is propounded conditionally too to those that are not yet believers we have shewed before in Isai 55.3 So that no man short of believing can say as Mr. Owens Objection supposeth The Lord hath promised To write his Law in our hearts but if we listen to Christ he will write them in our hearts but to the believer in Christ to him that is Christs the Covenant is free he being the proper heir of it as is before shewed He repeates his Argument again in the winding up of the Argument That the blood of Jesus Christ was the blood of the Covenant and his Oblation was intended onely for procuring the things intended and promised thereby and therefore it cannot have respect to All c. That it procured the good things contained in the Covenant or rather that he ingages the performance of them to the called for I think the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sponsor hath rather that signification then of a procurer we grant and to that the Quotation of Heb. 7.22 is pertinent but his inference from thence is yet unproved as we have shewed And so we have seen the fallacy and weakness of this Argument 2. His second Argument is thus That if the Lord intended Argu. 2 that he should and so Christ by his death did procure pardon of sin and reconciliation with God for all and every one to be actually injoyed upon condition that they do believe then ought this good will and intention of God with this purchase in their behalf by Jesus Christ be made known to them by the Word that they might believe for faith comes by hearing c. otherwise men may be saved without faith in and the knowledg of Christ or else the purchase is plainly in vain but all men have not those things declared to them in and by the Word c. To this Argument many things may be answered Answ As 1. That it concludes not against the Assertion that he undertook to oppose in lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 4. viz. That Christ gave himself a ransom for all and every one But against his intention of purchasing pardon and reconciliation for All to be injoyed upon condition of believing which is a fallacy that we call Ignoratio elenchi 2. Again The Antecedent of the Major contains and crowds together divers questions which is another fallacy in arguing As with this Of Christs dying for All it jumbles Gods intention of his procuring Reconciliation and Pardon and the intention of bestowing it and upon what condition Now these are three distinct questions viz. First Whether Christ died for All The thing he set himself to oppose Secondly Whether in dying for them he procured Reconciliation and forgiveness for all And Thirdly Whether he procured it for All with intention that they all should injoy it upon condition of believing The first of these I absolutely affirm and Mr. Owen denies The second I thus affirm That for the offence of Adam and the condemnation that came upon All therefore he hath procured justification or pardon for All so as that God dealeth with All after another manner then according to its Merit and the Obligation to Death that came thereby And for their other sins there is with him a treasury of Forgiveness and Redemption full and free for All. So as that in answer to the third All may have forgiveness of all their sins and Reconciliation upon believing in him and it was his intention that whosoever of All yea were it All believe in him should have forgiveness of sins and be reconciled to God by him Whence it s propounded to men in general upon that condition in the Gospel But yet neither is that condition upon which God propounds it to be confounded as Mr. Owen here doth with the act of purchasing it and Gods intention therein nor may we binde up God to that condition in his dispensing it nor his intention of forgiving and saving men in his giving Christ to dye for them as if because All or Any may have it according to the Gospel-tender upon believing therefore he intended that none should have it that have not that believing condition For I dare not say That God intended not that any Infant dying in its Cradle or deaf man that never heard any word at all should have forgiveness or salvation by vertue of Christs purchase
give to this or that muchless to all he dyed for effectually to believe in him and to be saved not a word to that purpose So that that piece of doctrine viz. That for whom Christ dyed them he procured faith for is none of those Scripture-truths that will scatter the supposed clouds and mists Nor yet follows it that the whole impetration of Redemption is made unprofitable For 1. God hath ingaged himself so to glorifie his Son that some shall be brought in though he no were say All he dyed for nor that I know of any particular persons so as that this or that individuall must or else he should be unjust 2. He shall have much glory from his good bounteous and merciful dispensations to men through the Death of Christ that yet he compels not to believe on Christ Matt. 22.2 3 4 5. with Rom. 11.36 yea in the just and righteous condemnation of those that sin'd against that mercy and refused to submit to him For that condition upon which he supposes we will say Christ is to bestow salvation viz. so they do not refuse or resist the means of grace It s a mistake we know no such imposition put upon him for men may receive the means and yet rebel against the grace it self that comes in them have a form and deny the power of godliness and for that perish Though that all Pagans and infidels are left destitute of all means leading them to seek after God or that any that have no outward means from Christ nor ever resist Gods workings in them shall be condemned as Mr. Owen would perswade us I leave for him to prove Christ says to the Jews that if he had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin and for ought I know If Christ neither come in Word Joh. 15.22 nor in any spiritual way as he preached to the old world by his Spirit if any such he can finde they may not have sin charged on them to condemnation and destruction Yet if Mr. Owen can shew me otherwise I will believe it For making Christ but a half Mediator its frivolous yet we shall speak to it lib. 3. c. 3. where it occurs again That Christ did not dye for any on condition of their believing I believe nor that he dyed only for the Elect of God that they should believe nor finde I any Scripture calling any man while yet in and of the world an Elect person He dyed for All that being Lord of them and presenting his light to them according to the good pleasure of the Father whosoever believes might not perish but have eternal life And here ends this Second Book and my Answers to it The Third Book His third Book contains Arguments grounded for the most part upon his former premises against the universality of the Death of Christ we shall Favente Deo orderly view them CHAP. I. An answer to his two first Arguments contained in his first Chapter of this Book The first Chapter contains two Arguments Argu. 1 As FRom the nature of the Covenant of Grace established ratified and confirmed in and by the Death of Christ His Argument runs thus The effects of the death of Christ cannot be extended beyond the compass of the new Covenant or Christ died only for those that are within the New Covenant But this Covenant was not made universally with all but particularly onely with some Therefore those alone were intended in the benefits of the death of Christ A very vitious Argument whereof the Conclusion contains a quartus terminus for in stead of any effects the tearm propounded in the Major He says the benefits therein as is clear by what follows in him comprehending the choice benefits of the death of Christ applied The Major also is ambiguous and uncertain For either it is universal as No effect of the death of Christ c. or else particular as Some do not c. If the latter its impertinent and concludes not against the death of Christ for All but onely its having some effects in All which is besides the thing in question if the former as I suppose he intends it then I deny it I deny I say that Christ died for none or that none have any effect of his death extended to them but onely such as with whom the New Testament is made He brings no other proof for it which he perhaps therefore lisped in because he saw himself weak in the proof of it but onely from that title given to his blood that it s called The blood of the New Testament So that his Argument to prove that runs thus It s called the blood of the New Testament Therefore shed onely for them that are heirs of the New Testament Which is like this The Spirit is called the Spirit of Comfort and the Comforter Therefore whoever it works upon it comforts them and so when it convinces the world of sin it s their comforter too and when it kindles the fire of Tophet Isai 30.33 it comforts them that are tormented with it A wilde Argument and yet such is his The truth is As its an office of the Spirit to comfort and he is a Comforter to all that obey him so is it an office of the blood of Christ or rather one end of its shedding to ratifie the new Covenant which it also doth to all that believe in it But as that is not all the work or business of the Spirit to comfort so neither was that all the work or end of the blood of Christ to establish the new Covenant but first of all to ransom from the death that was passed upon men and then to confirm a Covenant to the house of Israel and Judah This blood where ever it s tendered the Covenant is tendred with it Hear and your souls shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you the sure mercies of David and he that obeys this is entred into Covenant by it but not All for whom it was shed are in Covenant by its shedding no more then all for whom the water of Purification was made were therefore purified because it was made for them and called the water of Purification Numb 19 9.20 Mr. Owen also mistakes the parties with whom the Covenant is made For he understands them to be a certain number of persons yet lying in the world and that its one clause of the Covenant to give them faith or make them to believe whereas indeed especially as pertaining to the Gentiles the proper object with whom the Covenant is made is the called of God believers in Christ Jesus into those mens hearts God will put his fear not to bring them to him but to keep them from departing from him which argues their being brought to him before these shall have the Law written in their hearts an allusion to the old Testament written in Tables of Stone not before they were brought out of Egypt but after they
seeing Christ preached the Kingdome of God to them it s no sufficient evasion God usually punishing men with deprivation of temporal mercies for neglecting eternall Mat. 22.7 Psal 2.10 11 12. He says Rom. 2.5 speaks of the Gentiles who had the works of God to teach them and the Patience of God to wait upon them yet made bad use of both which is too slender an Answer to the place Could he not finde it in the Text that they led them to repentance and can he shew us any ground of Repentance and change of mind for any man that hath no cause in and from God for it nothing better to be enjoyed by them in and with God then what he sets his mind upon already or that any have any such favours afforded them as lead to Repentance with whom God deals according to the sentence pronounced upon All in Adam and for whom Christ never came to procure any such things for them or that Christ procured such things for any for whom he did not interpose himself between the Sentence of Death and them Sure these things deserve a little more consideration then he affords them Besides that they make against his exposition of 2 Pet. 3.9 where he would tye up Gods willing men to come to Repentance to the Elect only for here he speaks of Gods goodness and patience leading such to Repent as treasure up wrath to themselves by occasion of Gods goodness to them Mat. 6.26 Mark 8.36 Sure he will not tell us they are the Elect onely too He makes little of those expressions in which men are said to lose their own souls but onely as if therein was intimated That they make the losse of them sure to themselves then it seems it was not sure enough to them in Adams sinning and why not Sure Adam lost us All sure enough If Christ did nothing for recovering them they are lost sure enough without any mans doing any more to loose them But perhaps he means that they make it evident to themselves that Christ did nothing for them and so that they remain lost by Adam Sure this is a new way of exposition and before it pass for currant he must prove that to lose or save in Scripture signifies onely to make it evident that a thing was lost or saved before-hand or that we are said to lose by doing this or that that that was lost out of our power before we did that As that if a Corporation have forfeited their Charter and it was taken from them an hundred years ago so that now they have none yet they that are now of it do forfeit and lose it by so doing something that they should not let him shew us that the Scripture speaks in that language and we shall listen to his evasion His after Collection from T. M. is spoken to before it s but his own misunderstanding of him and so are all his Inferences drawne from it For his Argument from Gods expostulations pag. 296. it is to shew that God wils them to be saved and delights not in their destruction which opposes M. Owens Interpretation of 1 Tim. 2.4 and by consequent intimates Christs interposing himself between God and them there being no salvation to be had for any but in him and those expostulations being with others then the Elect about looking and listning to him c. What there is in God we cannot tell but as the only begotten Son hath revealed to us and that is indeed that there is in him no imperfection But that he desires not those salvation that miss of it he hath no where told us that I know of but often the contrary and yet that may be in him without imperfection We are no competent Judges by our narrow conceptions of his perfections There is that in and with him that seems foolishness to our wisdome and weakness in our judgements that yet is wiser and stronger then we can conceive of 1 Cor. 1.22 23 24. It s sauciness in us to prescribe rules to Gods wisdome and perfection and rashnesse to say what is or is not in God but as Christ hath revealed to us Obedience is better then Sacrifice and a simple belief of his words better then our wisest reasonings against them In pag. 298 299. There is some difference about judging All men by the Gospel Indeed it should be said according to the Gospel the difference is grounded on the divers understanding of that phrase Rom. 2.16 They take it that this Truth That all shall be Judged is according to the Gospel We understand it also that Christ in judging shall proceed according to the Gospel Not that we mean that they had heard not the Gospel shall be judged for rejecting or not believing what they heard not but that they shall be judged onely for and by what they had given them and they received or abused but that Christ in judging by and for those things shall not go according to the Law of Creation requiring them to have done according to that that was given them in Adam and so according to the strict rule of that first Obligation but only as in rejecting Light and Truth given them or accepting it they have sinned against Rom. 1.18 19 20 21. or submitted to God dealing with them in and by the Mediator the Word of God by whose interposition of himself between God and them their lives liberties mercies and all the light they had since the Fall was derived to them Joh. 1.9 and so according to the Gospel that relates Christ to have died for them and to be Lord over all thereby And that such shall be his proceeding in Judgment I am the rather perswaded by that of Christ himself in Matth 25.31.46 c. where declaring the maner of his Judging All Nations he tells us his Rewards and punishments shall be given according to mens carriages of themselves towards him in such Mediums as he appeared in to them He Judges men to life as feeding and cloathing Him to death as not doing such and such things to him Which he makes out to be an equal sentence though many shall reply that they never see or knew him as an object to be so or so acted toward by them He mentions nothing there to be charged upon them as acted by Adam or by them but with reference to himself which deserves also some consideration Whereas in page 299. He tells us of Totus mundus ex to to mundo a whole world out of the whole world That he says without book I mean without Gods Book speaking of the world as it now is having borrowed it from Prosper or at highest from Austin But we desire not to prefer the Traditions and Documents of the Elders though they might be in many things worthy men in their times so highly as for them to justle out or by them to Interpret Apostolical Doctrine or by them to teach men their fear towards God as was
ΘΥΡΑ ΑÎΕΩΓΜΕÎΗ THE OPEN DOOR For MANS Appoach to GOD. OR A VINDICATION of the Record of GOD Concerning the Extent of the Death of CHRIST in its Object In Answer to a Treatise of Master Iohn Owen of Cogshall in Essex about that Subject By John Horn a Servant of God in the Gospel of his Son and Preacher thereof at Lyn in Norffolk The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation to All Men hath appeared teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world c. Tit. 2.11 12 13. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life John 3.16 And he is the propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world's 1 John 2.2 Mysticus sol ille justitiae omnibus ortus est omnibus venit omnibus passus est omnibus resurrexit ideo autem passus est ut tolleret peccatum mundi Si quis autem non credit in Christum generali beneficio ipse se fraudat Ambros Ut si quis clausis fenestris radios solis excludat non ideo sol non ortus est omnibus quia colore ejus se ipse fraudavit nam quod solis est praerogativam suam servat quod autem imprudent is communis a se gratiam lucis excludit Ambros in Psal 118. secund vulg Lat. Octon Octavo Omnia probate quod bonum est tenete London Printed by Robert White and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at his Shop at the Sign of the Black-Spred Eagle at the West End of Pauls 1650. REader My necessitated absence from the Press hath occasioned some mistakes both of words and pointings in the printing which least envy take occasion by them to traduce me with the simple and ingenuity it self be at a loss I have here shewed thee how thou shouldst correct Viz. In the Epistle to the Reader PAge 14 Line 6 read 2 for 1. p. 18 l. 18 r. them p. 26 l. 15 r. that rule p. 28 l. 29 r. lately In the Answer Pa. 12 Lin 22 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 15 l. 18r call p 23 l. 10 r. too p. 24 marg r. ver 18. p. 27 l. 11 r. as are then not so p. 28 l. 1 2 r. Psal 78 Mat. 18. p. 45 l. 36 t John 5. p 48 l. 6 r. dawne p 49. l. 25 r. they would not p. 54 l 2 put the stop after second p. 56 l. 15 r. oppose p. 67 l. 20 r. but as an example p. 75 l. 38 r. rather without marks p. 80 l. 35 r. third p 84 l. 29 r. liked not to have p. 85 l. 8 r. talents alike open p. 87 l. 30 r. not that some p. 95 l. 1 r. then p. 118 l. 17 r. Job 5. p. 125 l. 26 r. conferrer p. 131 l. 21 r. having given p. 132 l. 29 r. distinguished p. 141 l. 6 11 r. if we p. 142 l. 38 r. had p. 143 l. 38 r. nor p. 148 l. 38 r. quia post omnia p. 156 l. 6 r. yet p. 161 l. 20 r. pact p 173 l. 3 r. Grecians p. 176 l. 29 r. City l 30 r. 2 Chron. 28. p. 177 l. 39 r. that p. 178 l. 24 r. that that declares l. 35 r. Saviour having p. 182 l. 3 r. them p. 184 l. 7 r. denies l. 9 r. 1 will p. 185 l. 3 r. is as l. 25 r. these words p. 191 l. 8 r. that it doth not l. 33 r. contain p. 195 l. 2 r. stung p. 200 l. 14 r. them or without p. 203 l. 36 r. nor had they any p. 204 l. 29 r. â—lts p 207 l. 11 r. of l. 20 r. warn l. ibid. r. any p. 223 l. 2 r Luc. 19. p. 229 l. 4 r. mistate p. 235 l. 32 r. it s p 236 l. 35. r. reference p. 238 l. 22 r. to all which we p. 255 l. 13 l. delivered from p. 259 l. 16 blot out we p. 262 l. 17 r. would p 263 l. 8 r. to whom they p. 265 l. 14 put the comma after here p. 268 l. 18 r. also p. 271 l. 38 r. as frothy p. 279 l. 17 r. that p. 297 l. 17 r. because l. 28 r. righteousness of the Law p. 299 l. 21 26 put a parenthests before As and after So p. 300 l. 22 take away the stop at name and read name for p. 305 l. 25 r. mea p. 306 l. 26 r. something p. 319 l. 4 r. Repro 〈…〉 To the Honorable Colonel Valentine Walton One of the Members of the Supream Authority of this Commonwealth and of the Council of State and Governor of the Garrisons of Lyn Yarmouth Crowland and the I le of Ely c. AND ALSO To the Right Worshipful Mr. Thomas Toll Burgess for the Town of Lyn Regis and Mr. Miles Corbet Burgess for the Town of Yarmouth in Norfolk Esquires both Members of the said Supream Authority c. Grace and Mercy and Peace in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our LORD Honorable and Right Worshipfull IT was the saying of Socrates as * Zenoph de dictis factis Socratis Xenophon relates a By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That ungrateful persons are to be numbred amongst the unjust and that b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by how much the more and greater favours any have received so much the unjuster he is if he be unthankeful Yea and so hateful was the crime of Ingratitude to the Persians as the same Xenophon tells us that they used to teach their children to abhor and condemn it and c Zenoph de Cyri paediâ lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. severely to punish those that were guilty of it as conceiving that not amiss That Ingratitude is that cursed Principle and a compendium of Vices that leads those in whom it s planted and by whom it s nourished to be injurious to and neglective of both God and man and to be attended with a shameless impudency which is the very Ringleader unto all filthiness and abomination And verily Sir as they guessed not amiss for the d Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris holy Scriptures couples e 2 Tim. 3.2 3. unthankefulness with unholiness yea puts it before it as the inlet to profaneness and follows it with want of natural affections Deut. 32.14 15. truce breaking false accusing c. and elsewhere speaks of it as the beginning of Apostacy so are their sayings especially considerable with reference unto God the supream fountain and soveraign Author of all good towards whom unthankefulness is so much the greater injustice as he exceeds and excels all others in favors towards us If we should go about to number up his kindnesses Psal 40.7 they would arise to such a reckoning as is far beyond us Great and many are his kindnesses to us in this life as his giving us life breath
the truth of what it defendeth rest not in the bare belief of it as if that was enough for thee but follow on to inquire and seek after God that hath such good will toward thee and walk out in what he discovers of himself to thee that so he may be pleased to discover himself more to thee and draw thee by his Spirit into union with and conformity to his Son that thou mayest have the utmost healing that the death of Christ brings to the believer even salvation with eternal glory The right use of truth is in being lead from the world and thy own self to God by it and so attaining the end propounded to thee in it If thou not liking what is writ wi lt reply upon me I desire thee to do it soberly and as a seeker of truth rather then of victory bate pride and passion which will but darken thine understanding and nothing advantage thee in thy answering and take heed lest for fear of losing thine honour or for desire to get any thou robbest God of the honour of his truth and shuttest thine eyes against those flashes of his light that he darts into thee Better lose thine honour then ingage against Gods truth for it If thou likest the truth pleaded for but findest defect or wriness in any of my expressions in asserting it I shall be willing to be helpt to see better by thy spectacles if thou pleasest to lend them me In a word I say to thee with the Poet Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti Si non his utere mecum And so committing thee with my self and this ensuing Treatise to Gods protection I remain Thy friend and servant in the Gospel of Christ Jesus John Horn. ΘΥΡΑ ΑÎΕΩΓΜΕÎΗ OR A VINDICATION OF THE RECORD of GOD Concerning The extent of the Death of Christ in Answer to Mr. Iohn Owen of Cogshall in Essex The Preface WHereas God who is love it self beholding mankinde faln and through the subtlety of the Serpent plunged into death and misery was pleased out of pitty towards him to finde out a way for his recovery even to send forth his own proper Son his Word and Wisdom to take upon him the nature of man so faln with the infirmities weaknesses death and misery attending it yea the whole punishment that the sin of man had in that fall contracted to it that so he dying for man man might be delivered out of that death and life and immortality might be again brought to light yea whereas the Son of God having accordingly given himself a ransom for all it hath pleased the Father out of the same love he bare to man in sending him further to provide for his good in exalting this his Son that suffered and making him Lord and Christ a Prince and Saviour one that should have and answerably hath power and authority over all things and Salvation in him authority and fitness to save and deliver out of evil and to bring to life and glory whoever of the persons of men listen and look to him for Salvation whoever obey his Word submit to his Spirit and give up themselves to be ordered by him and to that end hath in these last dayes given forth a commission to certain Elected and chosen persons appointed for that purpose by him to be his Witnesses and Embassadors to the whole world in general to proclaim publish and declare this that God hath done in and by Christ Jesus for them and to let them know his good will toward them that he would not that any of them should perish but all come to Repentance and to the knowledg or acknowledgment of his truth that they might be saved to which end he hath also given and constituted his Son to be a witness and a Leader to conduct them to Salvation and upon these grounds hath willed them to exhort command intreat and urge all and every man as they have opportunity to it to accept this grace believe the Gospel repent and turn to God from their dead works and from their follies and to Jesus as the only one constituted by him to be his Salvation even to the ends of the earth So it is that since these holy men of God to whom the tenor of the Gospel and doctrine of truth was first committed have faln asleep the vigilant and wicked enemy of mankinde hath not only through his subtlety prevailed with multitudes of those men to whom this proclamation hath been made to reject persecute and put away this Embassage both from themselves and peoples under them and posterities succeeding them and with many others to be slothful and not to take care to propagate this Doctrine of their Lord and Master but also by occasion of this wickedness and slothfulness of men many that pretend themselves to be understanding men and servants of God unto their brethren have come with a counter-doctrine pretending to have better insight into the minde of God then the letter of the Apostolical preaching doth hold forth even as at first Satan pretended to the woman to have a more sublime knowledg of the minde of God and to teach her better understanding of it then in the simple belief of Gods words to them they had attained telling men that God sent not his Son for all of them but only for here and there one they nor any man else not knowing who they be and that Christ gave himself only for them and for no others and this they pretend to have from a more Seraphical understanding of a more secret will of God by which means they both contradict the tenor of the holy Commission delivered out to his Saints and left by them upon record for us by the instinct of his spirit and take away those certain and more excellent grounds motives and inducements to believe repent seek after and love God which that Commission affordeth making the Gospel to give such an uncertain sound that none can by it be induced to prepare himself to battel as is more largely shewed in the Epistle to the Reader In which doing they greatly deny at least disserve the Lord that bought them in that in stead of making him lovely to all and an object meet for all to commit themselves to and forsake all for the worshipping and confessing of they render it doubtful what one hath cause so to do and not rather to hate him as a fore yea eternal hater of them that had such desire to their misery as therefore to create them yea therefore to do all that he doth about them that they might at last for ever be more heavily tormented by him So that they do herein as a company of slaves or persidious Traitors should do to a King who having made open proclamation of satisfaction received by the hand of some Prince for the mischief done him by a company of rebells and of his good will toward them all that he would have them to lay
Whether the salvation of Abraham and Isaac c. was not in the Covenant made between God and Christ if not then some more are saved then were included in that Covenant If yes then I demand what passage in that Prayer requests that they might believe and be sanctified if none then he asked less in that Prayer then God had ingaged himself to him for To the second I desire him to shew in what passage he prayes for the faith of the Elect in all that Prayer not from the sixth to the twentieth for he tells his Father they had it already and I suppose he will not be able to prove that he prayed to his Father there to give them that which they had before that prayer at least in that degree in which they had it nor in ver 20. for them he supposeth as future believers as he makes them the suppositum of his prayer his prayer is not that they might believe but that believing which he supposeth they should they might be one viz in body priviledg and injoyment of the grace of God in Christ except he will say Faith is prayed for in ver 21. and 23. when he saith that the world might believe but first that 's for the world not for the Elect secondly that he himself denies to be the faith of the Elect and so the fruit of that love here said to appertain to the Elect but only a conviction not for any good of the world but onely for the vindication of his people cha 7. pag. 47. therefore I desire him to shew me in what place of that prayer that Faith he here speaks of as a fruit of Gods electing love is prayed for In pag. 19. He tels us That it seems strange to him that Christ should undergo the pains of hell in their stead who lay in the pains of hell before he underwent those pains and shall continue in them to eternity To which I need not say with many of the Antients that he emptied hell by his death Bishop Vsher in his Answer to the Irish Jesuit upon Limbus Patrum c. and descent into those pains as Bishop Vsher relates nor will I put him to prove that any were as then or yet are undergoing those pains before the judgment of the great Day when they shall be sentenced thither which will be somewhat hard for him to do except he take that in Luke 16. to be a Narration or History of things really done and think that the rich man see Lazarus in Abrahams bosome and could call from hell to heaven to him but I say it will not follow from our saying That Christ gave himself a ransom for All that he must undergo those torments for All which were properly inflicted upon men for their abuse of that liberty which he virtually gave them to injoy by his after-death His enduring the sentence of the death he found them under as in Adam was enough to pay for that dispensation of life liberty grace mercy to them which they in their several times injoyed upon the ingagement of his future dying See more to this in cha 3. li. 3. without induring those torments for them to which they stood by the word adjudged for their not receiving him who was the Author of such liberty and mercy to them in those hints of truth and reproofs and counsels in his Spirits strivings despised by them Hence we may fall into an Answer of a Dilemma there propounded to us and again repeated chap. 3. lib. 3. viz. That God imposed his wrath due unto and Christ underwent the pains of hell for either all the sins of all men or all the sins of some men or some sins of all men If the last then all have some sins to answer for and so no man shall be saved if the second then that is it he affirms if the first then all should be saved or why not This may seem at the first view such a three-headed Monster as that there is no conquering it but through Gods assistance we shall grapple with it About his suffering the pains of hell I shall not question with him it s an ambiguous word and variously used And as no Scripture uses his expressions perhaps in his intention so as the Scripture uses the word hell I have no ground from Scripture to deny the expression therefore to the thing it self I may say that in severall respects all those three branches of the Dilemma are true and yet his consequences will not follow As 1. He underwent the wrath of God for some fins of all men 1 Tim. 2.6 Rom. 5.18 else he could not give himself a ransom for them all nor his righteousness come to All men to justification of life nor any favor of God be extended to them except he interposed between God and that sin that in its desert and by Gods sentence of death stopt the passage of all good flowing upon them unless hindred by mediation But then he says All have some sins to answer for Nego consequentiam that follows not for he that bears some sins of all may yet bear also all of some those two are not inconsistent had he said But some sins of any that had excluded All of any but some of All doth not those that may be but some of one mans sins may be All of another as suppose he bare all sins in genere but the sin against the Holy Ghost he then bare all some mens sins Heb. 10.26 for some men are not guilty of that but are kept from it but yet in respect of their sins that run into that he bare but some of their sins not all as so considered 2. He underwent the wrath of God for all the sins of some that is gave such satisfaction to his justice that no sin they have shall be their condemnation namely of those that believe and walk in the light with him as it is 1 John 1.7 Rom. 8.1 otherwise the phrase as he expresses it the Scripture hath not But then that 's it he faith No sure for he says he bare only All the sins of some men and dyed for none else but those some but so neither the Scriptures nor we say He might bear the punishment of all the sins of some men and yet not them only 3. He underwent the wrath of God for all the sins of All men in some sense considered That is as they were sinners in his first stepping in to undertake for men as sin was upon them through the fall of Adam and bound them to curse and death and so they needed a mediator or else they must presently be cut off and perish and so in a consideration and view of them as previous to his steping in to mediate And his bearing all of them was enough to ransome them all from that first condemning sentence and yet neither follows it so that all must then be eternally saved because there are other
that have as good conceits of their wit as Mr. Owen hath have hinted if not expressed such a distinction I can shew him one by name Mr. How who lately put out an Answer to the Vniversalist as he stiles him who in a writing to my self grants that all men had interest in the Act of Christs Death as buying or purchasing men into his dispose and yet stifly denies him to be the ransom for all Well Answ but what was the Answer to the Objection It was this The mediation of Christ is more general or more special More general as he mediates between God and men 1 Tim. 2.5 More special as Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 9.15 Which Answer first he Turkases as if he had said Repl. a general Mediator and a special and then digresses into a little Rhetorical passion against the barbarousness of the expression whenas indeed the sense is plain enough and the proofs pat to the purpose For though he be but one Mediator and the Office one intire Office in it self yet in regard of his mediation or exercise of that Office he may exercise it in some way and for some things for more then in some other way and for some other things Even as God is but one and his Government one in him yet in regard of the exercise of it it in some things and way comprehends more then in some others and so his saving acts in some expressions and exercises are towards more then in others as in 1 Tim. 4.10 is plain Now to me this is plain that the mediation of Christ as spoken of in 1 Tim. 2.5 is of other and larger extent in respect of reference to its Object then as it s spoken of in Heb. 9.15 In the former place it s spoken of as a demonstration of Gods good will to and in some sense a ground for our praying for All men not for the Church and chosen onely but for All men for Kings and all in authority which never any man yet affirmed to be all members of Christ and heirs of life Now that that demonstrates Gods good will to all men and is a ground of our Mediating or Interceding for All ver 1. must it self be something extending to All or else the building should be greater then may be supported by its foundation So that there surely he is spoken of as a Mediator so appointed of God and so acting as a Mediator that thereupon All or as Beza renders it any one may be the Object of our prayers and hath incouragement to seek to God to be saved by him and so as a general Mediator or a Mediator that is set up for All men and hath accordingly given himself a ransome for All men But in Heb. 9.15 his Mediation is spoken of as exercised about a peculiar Object in a more special maner for specal things the performance of the Legacies given to Sion for the called of God that they might receive that to which they are called and of which they are made heirs even the eternal inheritance As a Prince may mediate between his Father offended and rebellious subjects in general for many things and in a special maner for those that lay down Arms and come over to him he may demand or urge his Father to shew more favor to them then to all the rest and yet ask favor for them too But this is admired that Christ should be Mediator and not of a New Testament Whereas we affirm him Mediator of the New Testament and deny it not But that he mediates that for All or that his mediation for men as spoken of in 1 Tim. 2.5 6. is that the New Testament might be performed to them all whose Mediator he is will require some time for him to prove He saies a Mediator is not of one which we grant and all mediation respects an agreement of several parties and every Mediator is the Mediator of a Covenant All which may be granted with reference to Christ if by Covenant we understand the Covenant made between God and Christ but as otherwise it s not always true Joab may mediate for Absolom and yet no Covenant made between David and Absolom and the Vine-Dresser for the barren Fig-tree and yet not mediate any Covenant made with the Fig-tree nor for any Legacies fore-given to the Fig-tree so neither follows it thence that Christ mediates the New Testament for all he mediates for The word there in Heb. 9.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Testament or Will made and confirmed by Death as ver 16. shews and the New Testament is the promises of God bequeathed to the believer the called the chosen Now though Christ mediates not the giving these to them that are uncalled yet he may notwithstanding mediate for Gods forbearance patience dispensation of means such as in which they may be invited and have opportunities to look to him for mercy to be afforded I think not the Assertor so much as the Opposer of that passage needs further Consideration I will not say Catechising in this business and I am perswaded the Assertor is pretty able to answer for himself were Mr. Owen his Catechiser Nay were Mr. Owen asked this question how he can prove that Jesus Christ mediates nothing but the New Testament nor for any but those that are made heirs of it it would put him to it to finde proofs for it I am confident he could produce no better proofes then what he doth produce here to disprove this general extent of his mediation viz. That it was his Church that he redeemed loved and gave himself for his sheep he laid down his life for appears in heaven for us c. And what then who denies that or how doth that disprove the other It was Israel that God created Ergo none else they that have the Spirit of Christ in them shall be raised Ergo none else God will raise us up by his power 1 Cor. 6.14 Ergo none else or not all Again he sayes Because the children partooke of flesh and blood therefore he also took part with them Heb. 2.14 Therefore he took part with none else in them or mediated for none but them Like this Because many undertook to write the Gospel of Christ therefore Luke wrote also Luk. 1.1 therefore he wrote for no mans cause but theirs as if the word Because always intimates or refers to the whole cause or reason of a thing So for their sakes viz. whom I have sent into the world as thou hast sent me I sanctifie my self John 17.18 19. Ergo I mediate for none but them But then I pray to what purpose sent he them into the world if none in and of the world to which they were sent had and Oblation offered up for them So he rose for our Justification but how far that us extends he tells us not whether it reach to all the Object of his Death and Resurrection and if so whether that be
not as large an us as that in Act. 17.27 not far from any one of us for in him we live or as that our in those expressions Jesus Christ our Lord. Again I go to my father to prepare a place for you Ergo to mediate for nothing for any but you only So he ever lives to make Intercession for all that come to God by him therefore he mediates for nothing for any else Contrary to Isa 53.12 He excluded the world from his prayers for conferring such and such priviledges on believers not desiring His Father to confer them on the world or any of it while such Therefore he never prayed for any of the world while and considered as such contrary to Luk. 23.34 These are Mr. Owens reasonings which whether they be inconsequent yea or no and whether the * T. Moore Answerer that he opposes or himself that pretends to far more learning be more to be admired for their strange inferences I leave to the impartial Reader soberly to judge He Objects against his in consequent reasoning upon 1 Tim. 2 5. Between God and man Therefore for All men Are not the Elect men c. But in this he mistakes we reason it not meerly from that as barely so expressed but from that as laid down for a demonstration of Gods good will to All his willing all men to be saved and as the foundation of our praying for All and from that that the Apostle addes he gave himself a Ransom for All which I conceive to be an act of mediation Our reasoning then runs thus That which argues the good will of God to All pertains to All But Christs being a Mediator between God and men is an argument of his love and good will to All Therefore it pertains to all The major leans upon this proposition That which holds forth love but to some cannot be an Argument of love to All That that argues love to All must concern all The minor is the coherence of the fourth and fifth verses Again thus That which Christ hath acted in for All pertains to All but Christ hath acted in his mediation for All c. This arises from the fifth coupled with the sixth verse Again thus If the mediation of Christ be a good foundation for our praying for All or any men then it self must concern All But so it is as it s laid down by the Apostle in that place compared with vers 1 2 3. Our prayers are groundless for any that he is not appointed as mediator for therefore to incourage us to pray for all he shews us a mediator that hath acted for All. His conceit on 1 Tim. 4.10 we have seen and spoken to before in Chap. 3. and shewed it to be a vain conceit that God as the object of the Apostles trust in all his labor and sufferings should be considered but as a Saviour out of Christ for the word Saviour is but once used there and if it signifie at all a Saviour without Christs mediation then it doth so to both branches besides that neither he nor any of them can prove God a Saviour to sinners as all men are without the interposition of a mediator I would ask how he deals with men in that saving them whether according to the Covenant of works which curseth according to deserts If so then no room for saving them from the death deserved by them no not for a moment If not then I ask according to what he saves and what it is that procures that he deals not with them in that severe way of their deserts The case of beasts instanced in Psal 36. admits of a twofold exception 1. That they have not sinned nor is there a law imposed upon them the transgression of which needs a mediator for their saving as the case of man is 2. That as they partook of vanity for mans sins sake so why may not their preservation for and to men be looked upon as a mercy safed to man by vertue of Christs mediation for the sin of man which laid them open to destruction for the punishment of man as far wide is his instancing 2 Cor. 1.9 10. the Apostles trusting in God that raises the dead as if he would tels that God as he acts in raising the dead acts not through Christs mediation or through Jesus Christ and so that 's false that As by man came Death so also by man came the resurrection of the Dead for he intimates that he raises the Dead without eyeing the interposition or mediation of man the man Christ As vain is that that the place fore-quoted speakes of God the Father as if Christ was excluded from being the object of the Apostles faith for preservation and as if God the Father wrought without Christ contrary to John 5.20 and were a Saviour to sinners in any way out of Christ and not through him all which are postulata's no way proveable For his wonder that Christ should be a Saviour of them that are not saved it s no greater then that God should purge some that yet were not purged and yet the Scripture plainly affirms that Ezek. 24.13 or made a Feast for them that never eat of it Mat. 22.4 Luk. 14.24 to say nothing that in some acts of saving they are saved and might in more did they not by observing lying vanities forsake their own mercies But we shall say more to this in Chap. 2. Lib. 2 where it is further urged O but he never gives grace to some to believe I believe he gives to All more then they improve or well like of and would give them more did they not smother what he gives them and that 's all I shall say to it here for we shall meet with it in fitter place as also with that other absurdity as he thinks that he should be a Saviour to them that never hear one word of saving If they have the thing in any sense it s not material that they never hear of its name God did gird Cyrus though Cyrus knew him not Isa 45.5 and many may have real good by that whose right name they never heard of I hope Mr. Owen is so charitable that if one of his children should dy in infancy he would think it might be saved by Christ though it never heard or understood a syllable of Christ or of a Saviour He things it absurd too that Christ should be a Saviour in a twofold sense for all and for believers But I hope he doth what the Father doth Josh 5.19 but the Father is the Saviour of All and especially of believers as himself grants and Christ saith he came to save the lives of men Luk 9.56 whether he do no more to believers then is there spoken of I leave to his consideration He is the Saviour of the World 1 John 4.14 and the Saviour of his body the Church Ephes 5.25 26. whether the world be his Church and body I leave to him also
thing I know not what is CHAP. II. On the latter part of his third Chapter lib. 2. in which he urges the phrases For many and for the sheep and pretends to answer what T. Moore hath observed about them HE proceeds in the next place to application and to demonstrate this Assertion That Jesus Christ according to the Councel and will of his Father did offer himself on the cross to the procurement of eternal salvation with all the branches and means of it and makes continual Intercession with this intent and purpose that all the good things so procured by his death might be actually and infallibly bestowed on and applyed to All and every one for whom he dyed according to the will and counsel of God A position manifestly false for then we must all be Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers nay have a name above every name c. for these things Christ procured by his death But to pass that He endeavors to make good this by a threefold consideration 1. From Scriptures holding out the intention and counsel of God 2. From Scriptures laying down the actual accomplishment or effect of his oblation 3. From those that point out the persons for whom Christ dyed His prevarications and weakness in the pointing out and arguing from each of which we sufficiently shewed in our answer to the first Chapter of his first Book and therefore here shall add only this That his arguments run but to this purpose Some one subordinate end of Christs death only agrees to some therefore he dyed only for those and with no respect to the supream end dyed for any other and so by consequence God hath no glory brought to him by the death of Jesus Christ but only in and from the Elect and Christ hath got no glory from any other but them he leaving them as he found them and doing nothing in his mediation for them Truly God and Christ are not beholding to Mr. Owen for his arguing So again Believers have had such and such effects in and by the death of Christ believed in by them therefore he dyed only for them like this such as go to a feast are well refreshed by eating it therefore it was made for no more then them that go to it or this Such prisoners being ransomed and following the Prince that ransomed them met with such bounty from him Therefore he ransomed none but them And again Many were ransomed Ergo not All. God made Israel Therefore he made no body else c. but no more to them arguments only there are diverse passages in the latter part of this Chapter from p. 79. that we have not spoken to and therefore shall take them in here As He denies that the death of Christ in any place of Scripture is said to be for all men For Answer to which I desire the Reader to turn to 1 Tim. 2.5 6. Heb. 2.9 Rom. 5.18 I know his objection is elswhere that the word Men is not in the original To which I answer first That by the same reason he may say that in Rom. 5.12 It s not affirmed that All men sinned seeing its but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word Men is not expressed and the like in 1 Cor. 15.22 that All men dyed not in Adam But 2. The word Men is expresly in Rom. 5.18 And 3. The word Men is the substantive clearly to be supplyed because the whole precedent speech was about men All men to be prayed for 1 Tim. 2.1 and expresly verse 4. that God would have All men to be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and that demonstrated by this that there is but one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for All. For All what must it not needs be men between whom and God he is a Mediator and whom he tels us God would have to be saved All men and so in Heb. 2.9 was not the Apostle admiring Gods goodness to man Lord what is man and the Son of man exalting man above all his works which is now verified in one Man Jesus that dyed for every one What can it be referred to as before spoken about but man or the sons of men But of this we shall have cause to speak further hereafter That there are more ends of the death of Jesus Christ then what is the immediate fruit of it by way of ransome and propitiation before faith in it we have shewed in the conclusion of the first Book and upon his first Chapter of the second Some fruits there are of it from God towards men before faith and while in state of unbelief as the opening the door for entrance and for exhortations to strive to enter a feast prepared in Christ and a way of participating of it made and invitations vouchsafed as in Matth. 22.4 Prov. 9.3 4 5. Luk. 13.24 and those for and to more then enter and eat other fruits there are of it that flow in upon faith as satisfaction justification sanctification the contents of the new Testament c. And he that cannot see these to be distinct fruits and produced for or upon diverse objects and objects diversly considered is blinde and cannot see afar off nor into the things evidently held forth in the Gospel And what the ransome either immediately with God and for men or mediately upon and in men produceth were subordinate ends and aimes that Christ had in his eye upon his death as Mr. Owen himself also implies when he makes the ends of Christs death to be coincident with its effects His following observation objected against that that where the word many is used there are more ends of Christs death mentioned I shall pass it being not material and in some passages at least doubtful But in page 80. To this exception of ours Christs death is not limited to many and to his sheep c. as the ransome and propitiation as if he dyed for them only he tels us 1. That Christ saying he dyed for his sheep and Church and Scripture witnessing that all are not his sheep they conclude and argue by undeniable consequence that he dyed not for those that are not so At which assertion I can but wonder when first I heard of Mr. Owens Book he was so commended to me for a disputant that I could not expect any such lame arguments from him If we must take his saying of a thing to be an infallible proof that it s so then we have done with him but sure no Logick rule or good reason that I have ever met with can prove this assertion Had he said Christ saying he dyed for his sheep and the Scripture saying all are not his sheep it argues that in that saying he extended not the speech there about his Death to All he had spoken reason but to argue that because he mentions no more there as the object of his Death therefore he had no greater
I have propounded that distinction Christ is not wanting to apply what is impetrated according to the will of God for application or compact made in Impetration and therefore his second Argument is vain too viz. That 2. It s contrary to reason that the Death of Christ in Gods intention should be applyed to any one that shall have no share in the merits of that Death None of all his adversaries produced by him say any such thing they rather deny the application of it to many then say that some to whom it s to be applyed have no share in his merits Whereas he says many know not of it we have shewed before that a man may have a fruit of love from another that he knows not Cyrus was girded and strengthned by God though he knew him not So men have a release from the dealing of God with them according to the merit of Adams sin which should else unavoidably have come upon them and this by Christ though many know not him And all receive some fruits of Adams sin though many knew not that there was such a one or what his sin was Whereas he saith it s against reason that a ransom should be paid for captives upon compact of deliverance and yet upon payment those captives not be made free and set at liberty that Christ should be a ransom upon compact of deliverance of captives and yet the greatest number of them never be released That is falsly bottomed for God released All from that deadly destroying sentence which hath God taken the forfeit of Adams sin in that very day had ruined Adam and his whole posterity Justification of life is to all so that they All have life here and shall however be released and brought out of the death that is ordered to them by occasion of Adams sin in the resurrection so far are all acquitted that if any perish it s not in that but in a second Death Yea all are released also in this regard that whereas all were cast out of Gods presence and might not approach to him now through Christ all have free leave to approach to him all are commanded to repent and turn to him to look to him and be saved whoever will may come and welcome yea God is so far from keeping them away that he faults men for not coming to him John 5.40 Now if a ransom be paid for captives and the prison doors opened and means afforded for leading them out and prisoners willingly and stubbornly refuse but will stay in prison still as in this later respect many do shall that be imputed as a defect of justice in him to whom the ransom was paid for them Surely no except it could be proved that that was the compact that he should in that regard compel and forcibly cause to come out of prison all that the ransom was paid for which I am sure Mr. Owen will not be able to prove in this matter Christ no where says to any God would not have you come to him you are not included in the ransom nor that all that he dyed for shall be brought in to him but he often tels us God would have them seek him and come to him and faults them that they will not For that after-shift as he cals it of conditional and absolute obtaining of things it fals not upon me I affirm that liberty from that first sentence's execution upon us was absolutely obtained Justification of life to All. And that liberty is opened in the Gospel to All and men exhorted to enter and for not striving to enter now the door comes to be shut upon many that which they have shall be taken from them because they liked to have it and then they cannot enter Also that all life remission and fulness are absolutely put into Christs hands only I say the will of God for his dispensation and so to his proposition of the things to be dispensed not his obtaining them into his dispose nor the freeness and openness of them for men to look after and come to him for them hath a condition annexed God wils Christ to dispense them to men upon coming to him and Christ holds them forth upon that condition to any Whoever will let him come c. we deny that Christ is bound to make known to all for whom he dyed the fulness that is in him like evidently or himself or the way of salvation to all alike expresly or expresly at all That all are bound to minde and imbrace what he revealeth to them is clear but that he is bound to make known this or that to all he dyed for I deny that Mr. Owen can any where prove He may bring infants to himself and dispense his salvation to them and yet never give them capacity to hear the condition of salvation and yet we believe what the Scripture saith John 1.9 that he is the true light that inlightens every man coming into the world He is not bound to give every man ten talents alike open and plain declation of himself and Father no not for saving them but every man is bound to improve and submit to God in what he gives them be it more or less and if they do so he is able and ready to give more being liberal and free and can tell how to save them if not he is just to take away what they have and not bound to save them He being Lord of them Nor yet say we that men have power of themselves to improve what is given them but he who gives them the talents gives them the power too in which he requires them to improve them and it s not inability but slothfulness and obstinacy for which they are faulted and condemned by him because they rather chuse to live idly in themselves and dy then stir abroad to seek God John 8.31 32 34 36. or yeeld to what he brings home to them and live Christ as he is the Truth of God is the great Physitian of souls and by revelations of truth both cals to himself for healing and by further revelations of it to those that come to him doth heal John 14.6 The truth shall make you free and this because He hath given himself a ransom for them in the first place without which neither ground of calling nor fitness to heal them Now this Great Truth of God doth send abroad his beams of divine light and so some sparklings of himself as the Word of God and God by vertue of his relation to the humane nature first virtually and then actually united to him to men in generall John 1 4 5 9 though not so clearly nor so many beams at all times as in some nor to All men as to some Yet to the generality some Beams of truth Rom. 1.18 19 21.28 Acts 17 27 28.27 Job 21.14 those beams have their force in their leading them to know something of God so to
CHAP. V. An Answer to his fifth Chapter In which is considered How Christ gave himself a ransom for All. HAving done with those Arguments we follow him now to Arguments taken from words used in this matter which he saith Disagree in their genuine signification from the Opinion that extends to all the matter spoken of in them Arg. 10 And first He lays down his Argument generally thus That Doctrine that will not by any means suit which and be conformable to the thing signified by it but contradicts the expressions literal and deductive whereby in Scripture it s held out to us cannot possibly be sound and sincere But such is the perswasion of Vniversal Redemption or General Ransom Ergo It s unsound And this strange Argument that grants the Doctrine held forth in Scripture expressions Instance 1. and yet contradicts those Scriptures he labors to prove by Induction and first from the word A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dransom or price of Redemption He argues thus That the thing signified in it agrees not to all therefore the word is not to be so applied Which is in substance Paul spake unadvisedly when he made so general an expression this is not to believe the Scripture but to judge and deny it to be right VVell let us see what the word signifies It signifies a price for Redemption Now saith Mr. Owen If Christ pay a price for Redemption his aim is their deliverance for whom it s paid to that end he satisfies the Judge and conquers the Jaylor but this agrees not to All All are not ransomed Shall we believe Mr. Owen or the Apostle here who also tells us in Rom. 5.18 That by one mans Righteousness to all men to Justification of life And again in 1 Cor. 15 22. As in Adam All die so in Christ all shall be made alive But Mr. Owen says Why are not all saved then I might say Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God But I have answered before From the first death they are from the second they are not because many are disobedient against their Saviour As all Israel were saved out of Egypt Jude 5. Its the Apostle Judes expression But why then not all preserved into Canaan He tells us He afterwards destroyed them that believed not So here he afterward in a second death destroyes all those that know like or approve not God and all that disobey the Gospel of Christ 2 Thes 1.7 8. All were in thrall to the sentence of death and so to the execution of vengeance from God upon them all in Adam in an utter ruine and again for slighting and sinning against Light and Goodness afforded deserve destruction to come suddenly upon them in plagues famines c. The bond that held them in the former was their sin in Adam and to the latter many sins against Gods goodness now exposes them VVhat price pays Christ Himself to bear that blow for them and be the propitiation for their sin Now in that the sentence passed not or rather lyes not upon men Men are not debarred reaccess to God for that folly the sentence of banishment is reversed and the banished called home again here is a Redemption made from that thraldom And whereas many times they are liable to destruction again in their persons Christ Mediating and Interposing himself as the Propitiation preserves them And on this ground we are to pray for All and make Intercession with thanksgiving for All as in 2 Tim. 1.2 6. But I suppose he thinks All not ransomed because many remain thralled in their corruption To which I might say but as Prosper Ad capit Gallor Sanguis Christi est totius mundi pretium pro omnium redemptione verè persolutum and that 's as much as 1 Tim. 2.6 says sed illi homines ab eo pretio extranei sunt qui aut captivitate delectati redimi noluerunt aut post redemptionem ad eandem servitutem sunt reversi and again Omnes rectè dicantur redempti sed non ownes a captivitate eruti But to clear it I shall propound these following considerations 1. That men in sinning fell under a double bondage 1. To death to be inflicted from God according to his sentence In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death and death came on all in that all sinned 2. To corruption or sinfulness of Nature in themselves and the delusions of Satan Ephe. 2.1 Dead in sins and trespasses conceived in sin and born in iniquity 2. The latter of these thraldoms was not the curse or death inflicted as the punishment of the fall but the proper consequence of it That it was not its punishment nor any essential part of it appears in this that every essential part of the punishment of it Christ was to bear by way of satisfaction and so he bare anguish in body and soul death of body and separation from Gods presence but he bare not the inherency of sin for us nor inability for serving his Father nor was he subject to the deceits of Satan as if it had been an essential part of that punishment he must have done for it appertains to and spreads over the whole nature But the first was the punishment to which we were subjected and which had we abid never so pure in our natures must have been executed for the fault committed because the word was not If thou becomest so polluted but In the day thou eatest thou shalt die and therefore Christ also suffered that becoming a ransom for us though innocent 3. In the latter the Justice of God did not detain us but as man being debarred from any new grace without that could not do what he should but we ought that notwithstanding to do our best to serve him we had his permission to it if such a thing might be supposed that we might have lived under that sentence unsuffered for us He neither put sin into us nor kept it in us But the former came directly from God upon us and his Justice detained us in our Mediator in it till his sentence was satisfied 4. That first was the death of which Satan had power and the fear of which though but now a carkass detains men in their spirits in bondage Heb. 2.14 Men fear not but love the other their corruptions now Christ conquered Satan when he brake his snare and got victory over that death that should else have swallowed us up for ever So that Satan could not as else he would have done play the Executioner upon us 5. God neither putting men into corruption nor corruption into them nor his Justice standing against our doing better he would that they should come out of it if they could the price was not given to God properly as the price of Redemption from that but onely as the ransoming them from the death inflicted makes a passage for means also to be afforded to them for their recovery and setting free from
that bondage too Were it not for this Ransom he would not afford him any means to help him out of this but his Justice required not any positive influence upon him to hold him in and hinder him from getting out of it till he was satisfied in the other Thence Christ given himself to bear the blow and deliver men from that proper punishment inflicted by God and men being thereby delivered out of that sentence they may be said properly to be ransomed though still they are not brought out of the bondage to their corruption especially the prison door being opened with help afforded for their coming out of that too To clear it by a Simile A King makes a Law That he that shall eat such a fruit suppose as in the eating of it hath a property to make men leprous should for so doing be forthwith adjudged to death and executed A certain company of men notwithstanding being overcome by some evil inticement transgress the Law and immediately become leprous The Executioners seize upon them and are drawing them to punishment in the interim one gives a sum of money for their ransom The intention of it is to ransom them from the sentence to the execution of which they are going the ingagement or performance of the paiment being accepted he that gave the price receives power to rescue them from the Tormentors and doth it still they remain leprous and lye exposed to the subtilty of former inticers shal we say now these men are not ransomed or that he that payed the price ransomed them not because they remain leprous Nay we will go further suppose the Ransomer obtaining by the same price the best Surgeons and skilful Physitians for their healing too and by all loving Arguments intreating them to be healed and no longer to hearken to the contrary suggestions of their inticers some of them trust him and are healed others peremptorily listening to their inticers like their leprous condition better because they like not the Ransomers society and think they shall not be troubled with it so long as they are leprous having great suspition also perhaps that the things he prescribes for them will poyson them and so refuse to be healed and abide lepers all their dayes yea perhaps also for disobedience to their Ransomer and the King again come to be again condemned and executed shall we say now that this man did not give a price of Redemption for them all because they through their folly were never freed and redeemed as it were from the power of their leprosie Such is the case in hand I need not to apply it the case is so clear If it be objected That Similitudes prove nothing I Answer There is no need of proving a Scripture saying that 's to be believed and Similitudes may be apt to illustrate how we may conceive the thing expressed sutably to the expression in Scripture used Let me this say further that the word Redemption is sometime applied to the effect of the believing application of the blood of Christ for healing men in regard of their corruptions and setting their mindes free to serve God as in 1 Pet. 1.18 Rev. 5.9 and 14.3 4. being the same in substance with Heb 9.14 As also sometimes for a powerful freeing the body from mortality weakness and death Rom. 8.23 In which further significations it is not to be confounded with the use of it here but distinguishing from it CHAP. VI. Concerning Reconciliation in answer to his sixth Chapter HIs next Instance and Argument from thence is about Reconciliation Instan 2. Which he rightly makes to be in the mutuall joynt turning of affections to each other and coming into amity accord and friendship His Argument from that runs thus All are reconciled to God for whom Christ died But all are not so c. We are to minde that he speaks here of reconciliation of men in their own persons For otherwise the definition and the thing defined would disagree and he should prevaricate in his arguing Now reconciliation so considered I deny his Major viz. That all for whom Christ died are reconciled to God His proof for it is this That Reconciliation is the immediate effect and product of the death of Christ which though he is confident none can deny I have before disproved Lib. 1. ca. 1. Yea that mens affections are not turned unto God immediately upon Christs death for them as before the Call of God hath overcome them I appeal to Mr. Owens own Doctrine against the Socinians Chap. 8. But he thinks to help it by distinguishing Reconciliation into meritorious and accomplished and so through all are not yet actually reconciled to God yet he says That Christ hath merited that they shall be and so they all shall and must be Which distinction so applied I deny Indeed that God hath done so much for all in dying for them and God in giving him to die for them that he hath highly deserved at their hands that they should all love and live to him I freely grant yea and if we take Reconciliation for a making their peace so with God for them as to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to change change their condition into a far better then what it was before so as that whereas they were by sin debarred the Presence and Kingdom of God now God is ready to receive them hath opened the way for them yea calls and commands them to come back again to him in such a sense I will grant his Assertion but that Christ hath obliged or made it due debt to himself from the Father to make all for whom he died affect and live to him I deny nor can he prove it He indeavors it from sundry Scriptures which I shall view and discover his mistakes in His first is 2 Cor 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself c. Which we may understand in the sense even now yielded or else also taking the word World for the Gentiles it holds forth that God in Christ brake down the partition wall and slew the enmity the Law of Commandments in Ordinances that kept them at a distance from fellowship with the Jews and so made way for their coming in to him to be at one with him not imputing their trespasses or contrary walkings to his Ordinances to them but so remitting them as no longer to count them or any of them common or unclean in that respect but all or any of them may be welcome to his Church or Kingdom notwithstanding their uncircumcision according to that Acts 10.22 God hath shewed me that I should call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no one man common or unclean But whether we take it onely in the former or this sense also as I think it comprehends both yet it comes far short of Mr. Owens Assertion viz. That God was obliged by the
say much to these places quoted by him to hold forth the thing meant by the word Merit viz. Isai 53.5 Heb. 9.12 Acts 20.28 save that they prove not any obligation put upon God to do those things there mentioned to all that he died for but onely that God was pleased to do such things upon such considerations or by such mediums Onely the latter place of Acts 20.28 seems least to the business for it speaks not of Christs meriting of God but Gods procuring acquiring or obtaining as the 〈◊〉 most usually signifies a people to be a Church by that way of his blood the sufferings of Christ But to pass those things Let this be observed which himself grants lib 4. cap. 1. That however pretious and valuable the sufferings of Christ be yet they oblige and binde God to nothing but according to his own appointment and free ingagement Having noted that we come to his Argument which is this That Christ did merit and purchase by his death for all those for whom he died all those things which in the Scriptures are assigned to be the fruits and effects of his death But all have not all those effects and fruits Ergo he died not for All. Ans If by his Major he means He procured them into himself as into Gods Treasury to be free for them all to look after and come to him for and to be dispensed to all that do look after him and come to him Then it nothing hurts us But then his Minor assumes not rightly as it doth not however for it should be thus That Christ hath not purchased all those things for All and not as it is That all have them not But if in his Major he means as he seems to do that he obliged the Father to bestow upon All for whom he died and bring them to enjoy all those things which his Death either as presented to God or as believed by us is said to effect as his after-enumeration of its effects argue him to mean then I deny it and desire his proof of it which because he brings not his Argument falls to the ground and needs no further answering Onely I shall minde the Reader that the effects enumerated by him are such for the most part as it produceth in us by believing on it such as the Delivering us from the hand power of all our enemies which we are not till called nay till raised from the dead from wrath to come which we are not till justified by faith as is evident by his own confession against the Socinians The works of the Devil which are overcome and destroyed by him in being believed on Ephes 6.13.16 the curse of the Law which he says we are subject to till believers Cap. 8. Sect. 6. from our vain conversation the present evil world the earth and from men all which he doth by his blood and sufferings as being accepted of God they are made known to us and withall the Covenant ratified by it held forth to us By letting us see such love in God towards us and such good-will in Christ with such perfection to save us and so great promises ratified to believers he moves and perswades us to let go our vain conversations renounce the world its fellowships vanities and wickedness to cease cleaving to the earth and earthy men and having our confidence in them and reliance on them for teaching worship satisfaction delight c. Thus God is said to have bought Israel to himself Deut. 32.6 in that he by so great things done for them purchased or gained them in to own and follow him And so in Hos 3.2 Gods buying Israel to be a people for himself is compared to Hoseahs buying an harlot off from other lovers to be his wise for a certain consideration or Sum given her So Christ buys men unto God from other things by setting before us his great sufferings for us and profering to us the great glory he will thereby bring vs to if we will renounce all for him But this note is over and above what was needful for shewing the invalidity of the Argument All his other quotations too are impertinent and none of them prove either that God is obliged by the Death of Christ and ought to grant to and possess all for whom he died of those good things that he mentions or that he was or is bound thereby otherwise then as he freely ingaged himself to do them to any They say That by his Death we are reconciled as we may say By Joabs Mediation Absolom was recalled from banishment and brought into Davids favor Which speech proves not that the inward worth of his Mediation bound David to that So He is our Propitiatory through Faith in his blood and God hath set him forth to be so that proves not that he obliged God to forgive the sins of All he died for The like I might say for Peace-making and salvation Believing on him we are at peace with God and shall be saved by him but no place sayes All that he died for shall be saved or that God ought to make them all believe and so save them as was before shewed For his next Instance from the Phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inst 6. For All and for Many and Interrogatory Whether Christ died in the stead of All It s answered in those Chapters that speak about Satisfaction with all the Queries he propounds upon it Onely I shall spake to one of them viz. Whether Christ hung upon the Cross for Reprobates I say I conceive as they were men faln in Adam he did but not as besides that Reprobated also It s like that The Gospel was preached to the dead 1 Pet. 4.6 and the Spirits in prison Was the Gospel preached to dead men and men in hell Yes To them that are now dead and in hell But not when and as dead and in hell Men were not Reprobates as they were the Objects of Christs Death but as they are considered and actually found guilty of sinning wilfully and pertinaciously against the truth discovered and benefits afforded to them through his Death If we will speak of things according to the Scripture If otherwise Eâdem facilitate rejicitur quâ asseritur The Scriptures say men that corrupt themselves and notwithstanding the means of purging used to them which sure are all consequent in order of Nature to the death of Christ for men there being nothing affordable to men towards purging according to the demerit of Adams sin but All were forthwith to have perished stand out and remain in their corruptions are the reprobate silver men rejected of God Jer. 6.30 And for such obstinacy against God in lower or higher means the Scripture often tells us that God reprobates or rejects men as is to be seen in Rom. 1.19 20 21 28. Gen. 6.3 Psa 81.9 10 11 12. Pro. 1.22 23 24 25. Matth. 13.15 16. Acts 28.27 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. And no
his hand for All Israel Why seeing that was the greatest act of love a man could shew did he not do all other acts of love to them all as to Jonathan Again This This life is more then food Matth. 6.25 Why then doth God suffer any to perish for want of food which is the less seeing he hath given them life which is the greater Why doth he not inrich and furnish them to the utmost Where is the sobriety of Faith that should keep men from being sick about such questions His next is Scrip. 8. I pray for them I pray not for the world and for their sakes I sanctifie my self Joh. 17.9.19 Ergo He died onely for them This is answered before lib. 1. cap. 2 3 5. It s like this A Prince procuring pardon for a company of Rebels releases them from the sentence of death and by publishing his grace to them gains in some of them to be his servants whom he makes his Favorites and imploys them to negotiate for him with the rest that they also might become his servants and finde favor Being about to leave that Country and go a far journey he commits them to his Father and intreats him to have a special care of them his Servants and Favorites admit them at all times into his presence make them acquainted with his counsels assist them in their work against all Opposers And tells him in his request making he asks not those things for the Rebels yet standing out but for those reconciled ones for whom in special he set himself apart to make this request and yet intreats him also That whoever of the Rebels yet in Arms shall by their ministration be won in to like affection and service to him they might finde like respect from him as they Ergo. This Prince procured not the former pardon for all the Rebels or did not rescue them from the death they were going to A baculo ad Angulum Such also is his last His last is Ephe. 5.25 Acts 20.28 Christ loved the Church Scrip. 9.10 and gave himself for it Ergo Christ died not for all David fought with the Philistin and exposed his life to danger for his friends and Fathers House suppose to bring them to honor Ergo He did it not at all for All Israel The Church People called are properly the object of Christs care to be washed and presented glorious as a fit Bride for himself Ergo He loved he died for no more It s like this A mans wife is properly the object of his Conjugal affection Ergo A man may love none but his wife with a love of charity The brazen Serpent was to heal no more then looked up to it Therefore it was provided for none to look to but them that did look to it and were healed Such are Mr. Owens Inferences Christ eyed such as were to be given him of the Father as a people that would stand in need of much healing and washing and provided in his Death that such should have what ever tends to their perfection Ergo he laid down his life for no more to ransom them and set them at liberty to seek after him A Prince ransoming a thousand prisoners makes it in his bargain that all of them that submit to him upon view of this act should be made Courtiers Onely fifty of them submit and are made so Ergo he ransomed no more out of Prison Such Arguments as these are scarce worth so much time and labor as to answer No one of the places alledged by Mr. Owen says That Christ died not for All or tells us that there are some that he died not for nor can such a Conclusion be fairly and by Scripture-proof be inforced from any one of them or all of them together And whereas he thought to have added more He did better as he did except they had more force in them And so I have passed through all his Arguments which I have found propounded with more confidence of their weight then he had reason And so we have done also with his Third Book Lib. Quartus A view of and a reply to his Fourth BOOK His Fourth Book is spent about answering our Arguments for the extent of Christs Death as a Ransom So that as in the other three we had his Arguments to throw down So in this we have to defend our own against him CHAP. I. A view of an Answer to the Premises laid down by him in his first Chapter IN the first Chapter of this Book he lays down some Previous Considerations as Grounds upon which he intends to frame his Answers to our Arguments Of which 1. The first is Consid 1. about The innate Sufficiency of the death of Christ That the death of Christ is sufficient for the Redemption of the whole world for the expiation of all the sins of All and every man in the world and that arising from the dignity of his person the greatness of the pains that he suffered he undergoing the whole curse of the Law and wrath of God due to sin This he says is its own Internall worth which I will not deny but then he adds that It s being a price for any and being beneficiall to them according to the worth that is in it arises not from that but is meerly Externall and depends upon the Intention and Will of God The intention of the offerer and accepter that it should be for such some or any All which I will grant him also But thence he comes to view the Distinction used by some Protestant Divines Of his Dying for All Sufficienter but not Efficaciter in regard of the Sufficiency of the Ransome he paid but not in regard of the Efficacy of its Application which he denies except in this sense That it was sufficient to have been made a Price for All but it was not a sufficient price and ransom for All not because not sufficient but because not a Ransome In which he speaks 1. Improperly as to his own intention for that it was a Ransome is as undoubtedly a Truth as that it had an innate sufficiency for All but he should have said had he spoken rightly to his own meaning not because not sufficient but because not intended for All as a Ransome 2. Untruly and so as he overthrows that distinction for that which was not done at all for All was not sufficiently done for All. Now I on the contrary affirm That it was sufficiently indured for All yea as a ransome yea and so effectuall with God too for All that he inflicts not upon All what justice exacted according to the sentence gone out upon Adam and All in him had he dealt with All men according to that word He and all in him had that day perished and been cut off for ever but Christ interposing made All things to consist and upheld the pillars of the earth which else were dissolved Yea God deals mercifully and bountifully with
All and dispenses of his goodness to All quite contrary to the Demerit of All in that sin And further he hath done for All so sufficiently in his Death that He is a meet object for All to believe on and hope in and especially where the Gospel-proclamation comes its great unrighteousness and iniquity in men not to depend on him live to and serve him even as great or greater then it was for the Israelites brought wonderously out of Egypt not to believe Gods word for bringing them to Canaan He hath done so much for All and every man that he is worthy they should look up to him and able in so doing to save them without renewing his sufferings or making a new bargain about them for them His inferences from that first premise I shall view also they are 1. That he conceives Infer 1. That the Assertors of Vniversall Redemption do much undervalue the infinite value and worth of the Death of Christ which I deny and challenge him to make it good against us which he assays By telling us that we Affirm that a door of grace was opened by it for sinners but deny that any were effectually carryed in at the door by it Which 1. Is a false imposition for we affirm that the sight and discovery of this hath such vertue in it that it effectually pulls in many at the door reconciles washes begets to hope c. Yea this is the proper or ordinary way of Gods bringing in men effectually to glorify his Son in these his sufferings and sacrifice to them 2. Suppose we should say he obliged not God by his Death to bring in any at All yet it will not thence follow that we extenuate the value and worth of the sacrifice of Christ If Mr. Owens principle be true it salves that for he says It s being a price for this or that man sure then by consequence too for this or that thing ariseth not from its inward worth but is meerly externall to that arising solely from the Intention of the offerer and accepter that is from the mutual part or Covenant agreed upon between them Therefore if it was not agreed upon by Christ and God that God should bring in this or that man or any at all to believe in him it would be no diminishing the vertue of it that being not hereby to be measured No should we say any of or All those things that he imputeth to the Arminians viz. That God might if he would and upon what condition he would save those for whom Christ dyed and Christ procured not a right of salvation for any so that God might have dealt with man according to a legall condition again or that all and every man might have been damned and yet the Death of Christ have had its full effect c. That Christ purchased no more for any then that they might go to hell with yet supposing that such had been the Covenant between God and Christ as doubtless they do suppose so that so express themselves by Mr. Owens own principle before laid down we should be acquitted of dishonoring or undervaluing the Death of Christ therein that not being the Measure of its worth what he purchased by it but what the dignity of his person and greatness of his sufferings The things purchased being only according to the agreement between God and Christ not the sufficiency of his Death to have purchased by it Such expressions may not rightly declare the agreement between God and Christ about the end of his sufferings but no way deny the inward worth of them by his principles from which this is wondrously inconsequently inferred 2. His second is Infer 2. That the innate vertue and sufficiency it hath is a foundation to the generall preaching of the Gospel to All Nations and of the right that it hath to be preached to every creature because the way to salvation it declares is wide enough for all to walke in How that should be a foundation for that I see not more then the paying for ten prisoners in a thousand ten times as much to ransome them as might have sufficed to have ransomed them all but yet excluding in the bargain All but ten is a good foundation to go tell all those thousand that there is very good news for them All ther 's as much paid for ten of them as would have ransomed them All ten times over but 990. of them were excluded the bargain yet good ground to bid every one of them look for freedom by it Sure it s not the wideness of the way that is ground enough to tell All that there is good news for them but the liberty that they may have to walk in it The Truth is that Doctrine not only makes the Gospel needless to be preached to All but needless also to be preached at All seeing none for whom Christ dyed can possibly miss of life by their doctrine All their sins past present and to come being satisfied for and of due to be discharged should they hear nothing at all But he infers further 3. That Infer 3. That inward sufficiency in it self made insufficient to the most by that exclusive intention is a good ground to call all men every where to Repent and to believe I wonder what ground that can be for that Sure as much as the telling a thousand prisoners That one had paid as much for the ransome of ten of them as would have sufficed for the ransoming ten times so many as they all are is a good ground to call upon them All to have good thoughts of him that gave the ransome for them some to be sorry for their faults against him and to be broken at the hearsay of his love to them and expect every one of them to be set at liberty by vertue of that Ransome I pray what greater ground should a thousand men have All to look for deliverance because of the payment of so much for so few more then if they should hear that he had paid only so much as would suffice to ransome them few How can we exhort All to admire and be affected with Gods love to them mourn for their follies against such a lover of them love him for his love and hope that he by vertue of Christs Death will fully save them if we cannot say by the word of God which is only meet to beget divine faith that Christ hath dyed for half nay for any of them for such may be the case for ought any of them know of their whole Congregation Is our humane conjectures and peradventures that such and such a one may be of that Number ground enough to bid men affect and love and hope in God as one that hath loved them Or do we speak of Faith and Repentance neither springing from Love believed nor accompanied with love to God in our hearts Sure such Faith and Repentance are not those the Scriptures call for
of Faith as rightly as the Apostles No no Our charge yet stands faster against them then that the strongest hand of them All can move it They cannot preach or represent God Doctrinally in that their way as an object that the people they speak to hath good ground to rest in for safety and satisfaction for they know not confessedly whether he hath appointed Christ as a medium of access for them and as a Sacrifice and Ransom for their souls They can tell men he is able to save them that believe provided they be the Elect otherwise not but cannot assure that he is a meet object for them to believe through because they cannot assure them he hath done any thing for them And thus we have viewed his previous Considerations Come we now to view his following Answers to our Arguments CHAP. II. An Answer to his evasions from those Scriptures that declare Christ sent for the world and the whole world BEfore he comes to the Arguments that he would Answer he dips his Pen in Gall and slings durt upon the faces of them that will not forsake the sure Word of God to take heed to his contradictory Conclusions made against it Pretending his Opinion to be undeniably confirmed by the Word of God by many Demonstrations and innumerable Testimonies of Scripture though not one place hath been brought to the purpose for it Yea I will make Mr. Owen this offer That if he can produce any one Testimony of Scripture that denied Christ to have died for any one man of the world or that limits his Ransom and Propitiation to fewer then All I say That limits it and I will yield him the Cause and say that I have been egregiously deceived But to let that pass Our first general Argument he frames weakly and then makes us by reasoning as weakly to defend it that so he might have the more advantage against it I would make this and the second from general expressions of Scripture into one thus That Matter or Article of Faith Argum. that is frequently delivered in the largest and most general expressions of Scripture without other Scripture in any place excluding any or limiting as but to some is to be received according to the latitude of those large expressions But such is this business of the Death of Christ as the Ransom it s delivered in the largest and most general expressions and no other Scripture any where limits it but to some or excludes any particular Therefore according to the latitude of those expressions its to be received The Major of this is founded upon this Rule Every Word of God is pure nothing to be added to it nothing to be taken from it But to limit where it no where limits or to exclude where it excludes not is to take from it of our own heads and therefore is not to be attempted Besides it may be seen by induction No other Truth that is so frequently laid down in such general terms is taken limitedly to fewer if no other Scripture limit or restrain it or the very Circumstances of the places where it is as might be instanced in Creation Sinfulness Preservation Resurrection Judgment The Minor hath been cleared throughout this Discourse that though there be places that speak not of all its object as also there are many about Creation Sin Resurrection Judgment yet there is no limitation of it in any of those places as a Ransom or Propitiation to a less object then the general places will reach to And that the largest expressions are used about it is clear as All men Rom. 5.18 1 Tim. 2 6. Every one Heb 2.9 The whole world 1 Joh. 2.2 That those phrases are in themselves extendible to All and Every man in the world is plain and confest by Mr. Owen That sometimes in the Scriptures they are so used and that very usually too and most properly as is easie to shew And therefore may so signifie there His Argumentations from the word World I disclaim nor doth he finde any so to use them as he propounds them We argue not the extent simply from the word World but from the words All and Every and whole World and we understand the word World extendible as far as them not from the word World simply but from these other places reaching it to the whole World and All men As when it s said God created man upon the earth the force of the word Man proves it not that he created every Man in the world but yet we believe it extendible so far because other Scriptures say it of All Nations of men and that he made them of one blood The Argument from the word World we use against their conceit of For the Elect onely In that we never finde any Scripture calling the world Elect or the Elect the World but distinguishing them from the world they being in election separated from the world They that would have us restrain general words but to some particulars must shew us some ground for it that the Scripture somewhere in the same business so restraineth them for the restraining of a word usually and Properly of a large extent in other things is no sufficient ground for our straitning it in this or another thing where the Scripture doth not plainly declare that it ought to be so straitned And this is our defence against them in straitning this Word to the Elect. But Mr. Owen endeavors to shew that the general words in such places ought to be straitned from the consideration of the places themselves Beginning with that in Joh 3 16. In which the great Saviour of the world assisting us we will follow him He thereupon first gives us our construction of the place and that with as much weakness as he can I shall give my Paraphrase my self thus God beholding man faln even the men of the world pitied him in that condition and out of pity to him sent him for a Saviour his own onely Son to this end and with this intention that he dying for him and rising again and being perfected for saving man all those of mankinde whosoever that upon declaration of him do believe on him should not perish but have eternal life In which observe 1. That the motive of Gods sending his Son was that love or good will that he bore to lost man and readiness to shew forth his mercy to them in providing a fit medium and way to salvation 2. The object of this love was Mankinde faln as here expressed indefinitely but as other Scriptures explain this indefinite All men the whole world 3. His act of giving was both to death for men and in the Gospel preaching Him to men as an object to be believed on 4. The end That whosoever believes should not perish In which we have 1. The Way to the participation of the choise benefits of him viz. believing on him 2. The Extent of that choise benefit whosoever believes In which is also
〈◊〉 Be merciful to me whence the Lord is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 merciful and of which comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying The mercy Seate Though we translate it Propitiation Rom. 3.25 But indeed is the Propitiatory In Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to cover Whence he argues That to be a Propitiation is to cover sin appease wrath and reconcile God so as to make the sinner be pardoned and received to mercy for his sake so that the Law shall never be produced or brought forth to his condemnation Whence he askes Are the sins of every one expiated Is God reconciled to every one Is every sinner pardoned Shall none have the transgression of the Law charged on him Why then is not every one saved For Answ to this 1. I say That he prevaricates in what he notes upon the word Propitiation in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he confounds with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifying the Propitiatory or Mercy Seate this the Propitiation or Sacrifice offered to make atonement Concerning which 2. He doth not nor can prove that the offering of it up to God for a person or persons did in it self cover that persons sins and exempt him from the punishment of them according to Law or reconcile them actually to God except where the persons whom it concerned closed with it or came by faith unto God through it the atonement made for all the Congregation on the day of expiation did not exempt such a one as whose soul was not afflicted within him that day from cutting off Levit. 16.29 30 31. with Chap. 23.28 29.30 So in 2 Chron. 29.24 It s said An atonement was made for All Israel and yet ten Tribes of them were in Captivity and many of the rest laughed Hezekiah and his zeal to scorn That by that offering they were so much as typically and legally all reconciled to God and their sins against the Law expiated so as the punishments appointed in the Law for despising it were not to be inflicted upon them I fear Mr. Owen will not be able to demonstrate Nay the Apostle intimates in Heb. 10.26.29 That they that had the sacrifice of Christ offered up for them and the blood of it in some sense sanctifying them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wilfully after the knowledg of the Truth sinning against it and despising it have no more benefit of it there remains not further a sacrifice for them It seems there was one even that of Christ for them before The Propitiatory Sacrifice did indeed expiate sin and reconciled legally the person to God when it was accompanied with Faith in him that brought it or for whom it was offered or with a submission unto God according to Law and so the comers to this Sacrifice of Christ have all those effects by him enumerated to perfection but not all for whom it was offered or for whom he is a Propitiation 3. A Propitiation he is for them all in this That by his offering of himself he is that Thing or Person unto which God having respect is propitious or favorable to them deals not with the world according to their deserts but is patient and bountiful to them delights not that any perish but that all should rather come to Repentance unto which his goodness and patience also leadeth As also in this that Christ is He that hath done so much in his Death and Mediation for the world that he is set before it in the Gospel as a mean of reconciliation and acceptance into the favor of God he is free for the whole world to come to God by and any person of it may finde favor with God through him Yea 4. The sin of the world even of Adam and all in him is so covered or expiated by his Death and Sacrifice that God took not the forfeiture of our lives according to the desert thereof out of respect to him but in that sense at least justification of life is to all both a being under mercy here and away to life for us in Christ for hereafter That Law I finde not I mean the Law inflicting death upon Adam and all his Posterity for eating the forbidden fruit shall be produced against any as the cause of perpetual ruine Yea that the whole world through this Sacrifice of Christ are brought neer to God the Kingdom exposed to them and no man to be called common or unclean as formerly So as upon that ground its unlawful for him to enter it we have shewed before Acts 10.28 so that this word cannot straiten the following words signification Which in the next place comes to be spoken to viz. The whole world in which the greatest weight lies and of which he saith That it being seven or eight times in the New Testament it cannot except in one and that in Re necessariâ be made appear that it compriseth all and every man To which we say That we affirm not that it so signifies here because it s evidently a distinct party from believers but we say it signifies All besides them and they and the whole world beside are all and every man And I desire him to prove that the words whole world when distinguished from believers doth not signifie all the rest and with them make All and every man He instances 1 Rev. 3.10 where the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so not so pertinent and yet his note there is not right for he saith There it cannot signifie All and every man because whereas its said an hour of temptation should come upon All the world it s said some shall be preserved from it But the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of not from and a man may be preserved out of that that comes upon him as the preserving the Israelites out from Egypt doth not argue but that they were in it first The hour of temptation comes upon all that dwell upon the earth but all are not preserved in that and out from that hour of temptation from being swallowed up of it However The word whole earth there may signifie all but them that should be preserved and with them All and every one and that 's enough to our purpose 2. Col. 1.6 Is impertinent as I shewed before and his observation that it signifies onely believers is very vain The Apostle says not It brings forth fruit in all to whom it comes that 's evidently false if he meane it of fruits to life but in all parts of the world it did The same impertinency is in that of Rom. 1.8 It speaking of place not of persons too In all the world not by all the world The like or worse is in that of Luke 2.1 where neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used nor the speech the Word of God but of a proud Emperor that was the tenor of his Decree not
excepted against he thus argues Heb. 2.8 Thou hast put all things under his feet In that he put all things under him he left nothing not put under him To this Mr. Owen might as well except and say That follows not for the word All things doth not signify Universally and collectively but only some things of all sorts and sometimes only the elect and beleivers Now if the Apostle so reason in that Doctrinal expression in things attributed to God as the Agent I would fain see some reason why also we may not infer from this He gave himself a ransome for all men Ergo He left out no man from his ransome-giving If he answer we do not see all men ransomed we might reply in the Apostles words neither do we yet see all things put under him Our sight or not seeing of things is no sufficient ground of denying credit to Gods sayings But I pass on to view Mr. Owen in what follows in which first He falls upon the consideration of 1 Tim. 2.4 God wills all men to be saved in which he considers 1. What is that will of God there spoken of 2. Who are the All of whom the Apostle is there treating To the first he says The will of God is taken either for the will of God intending or will commanding and approving and wishes us to take our option of what we will understand it To that I answer That of his will intending to effect their salvation I do not understand it if by saving we mean in eternal life otherwise I may the form of speech is passive not God will save all men or God purposes and determines to save all men but God wills all men to be saved Nor is it God will bring all men to the knowledg of the truth but God wills that or would have all men come to the knowledg of the Truth and in such like speeches the word signifies its desirable or approved of God that all men be saved c. He hath provided a medium by which they might and he desires that they would be saved c. as in Psa 81. Oh that my people had he arkened c. Isa 48.17 Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandements and Luke 19.41 Oh that thou hadst known at least in this thy day c. and 2 Pet. 3.9 Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance according to that Ezek. 34.11 As I live I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he should turn and live And so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used as Mark 12.38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pharisees desired or liked to walk in long Robes So Mark 14.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not what I will that is like or desire so Cor. 7.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire that all men were as I am that is that they had such power over their wills and affections as I have that they could abstain from marrying or marry as they see cause or ground as I can So we take it here to signify voluntatem beneplaciti It s good in his sight that All be saved And thence he commands All every where to repent and to look to him and be saved Now to this he replies that then this All can be no more then to whom he granteth the means of grace which are indeed a great many but not the hundreth part of the posterity of Adam But here 1. I deny his inference He approves the salvation of Infants that have not those means of grace he speaks of 2. We say that those that have the most full means of grace are others then Mr. Owen bounds it up to so that yet his exposition is untrue 3. We say with the Apostle that God created all Nations that is Adam and all his posterity to seek after him and wills them to feel after him from any one of whom he is not far off yea he hath granted the knowledg of truth Rom. 1.18 as the words are here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all the Heathen debarring none of them from it but would have them acknowledg what they see and not smother as they do Yea he hath sent out his Gospel to them all willing them all to come to that though many have rejected it and hinder one another from coming to it Mark 16.15 Col. 1.23 Now whereas he says That stream of light which the Gentiles have about God cannot save them So I say of the Scriptures too of themselves but he from whom that light comes and to whom it leads is able to save them and the Gospel is his power to salvation to them that believe it and he would have all look to him and grope after him by what they have and let him alone with what follows And though Mr. Owen tells us that it will not follow from thence that Christ dyed for All yet I conceive it doth God never commanding any to look to him and be saved or never approving any mans saving so far as I can find but in and by the vertue of a Mediators Death it being point-blank contrary to the rule of his justice to save a condemned man upon whom he hath pronounced Death without satisfaction by Christ But because we have a firmer bottom for that even that that follows ver 6. I shall here wave it Having left us to our option he gives us his own opinion viz. That it seems to him exceeding clear that his efficacious will is here intended viz. the will of his purpose and that it s here affirmed that he will save All which is evidently false for the words are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who will save all men I would wish Mr. Owen who is so lavish in his expressions against others pretended sorry and irrational dealing as he shews himself to be cha 6. would put on his Spectacles and minde well what he affirms as truth when he writes again for as he falsifies the affirmation so he indeavors to confirm his conception by a sorry argument viz. That the purpose of God should be the bottom of our prayers which contradicts his former previous consideration cap. 1. where he asserts that between Gods purpose and our duty there is no connexion And against the practice of the Saints as of Jeremy who prayed for a people that God determied to destroy and give over to their enemies And contrary to our Saviour who prayed the Cup might pass from him though he submitted himself to his Fathers Will. It s enough that we do what God bids us and what he tells us its acceptable to him though we know not his purposes If he approve all mens being saved and coming to the knowledg of Truth that 's ground enough for our so desiring too and furthering it what we can So Pauls desire and prayer for Israel were that they might be saved even them whom he generally says of that they were
those his wrastlings have been rejected as is plain to any that minde Psal 81.9 10 11 14. Prov. 1.22 23 24. Matth. 23.37 Luke 19.41 c. Now for these All that the Apostle says God would have to be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth Mr. Owen confesses the 6. verse proves that Christ gave himself a ransom that All being of the same extent with this in verse 4. Therefore he said not right when he denied that the Scripture saith he gave himself a ransom for All men that in ver 4. being expresly All men And also his Conclusion here is wrong viz. That Christ died and gave himself onely for his Elect and such as shall be eternally saved for that 's the sum of his Conclusion His Argument from the word Ransom and so the commutation he speaks of is answered before in lib. 3. cap. 5. Mr. Rutherfords reasons being the same in substance with what we have had before in Mr. Owen I shall not insert any thing of them here nor give them any other answer then what I have given in Mr. Owen to him 2. The next place that he endeavors to bear off the force of is 2 Pet. 3.9 God is patient to us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance To avoid the light of which he corrupts the Text by adding to the words but detracting from the sense he will have it read that he is patient toward us not willing that any of us should perish but all of us should come to Repentance By such liberty he might answer any Argument For he doth like the Papists when we tell them of being justified by Faith and not by Works they can answer with this addition the Works of the Law we are not justified by them but by other works we are Besides who are that Us none of which he would have perish and all of whom he would have come to Repentance He says Those that had pertook of the precious promises chap. 1.4 whom he calls Brethren chap. 3.1 and that he might be sure to make the text speak what he would have it he runs back as far as Math. 24. the Elect intimating that they include some part of the world uncalled But besides that he no where proves that and that it s very far fetcht to find the substantive of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there can that be any reason of his patience Could any of them perish should Christ come the sooner who can in no wise be deceived or drawn away by perverse Doctrines from Christ Or are those that have received the precious promises of eternal salvation and Brethren to the Apostles in danger to perish if Christ should come sooner who are ready to think long for his coming for their deliverance Or are they yet short of Repentance Apage has nugas The plain sense is That God is patient in behalf of us that believe and doth not speedily execute Judgment for us as the like phrase also signifies in Luke 18.7 8. though he be much provoked to come and plead our cause and destroy ungodly men yet he forbears not willing any should perish not being hasty to destroy any as one that would have them perish or as one that delighteth in their destruction but affording all men in general space for repentance of their follies and evils desires and approves of it that they repent his goodness and forbearance leading to that even such as abuse it and treasure up wrath against themselves by it as is affirmed of Jezabel Rev. 2.21 and others Rom. 2.4 5. Now as we desire not to stretch the latter clause to every individual as to Infants while not capable of it so neither can it be limited to the Elect only he willing others also as that fore-quoted Scripture proves to come to Repentance but to the generality of men we do extend it That God hated any from eternity he hath often said but never yet proved it nor hath he shewed that God denies repentance to any before they put away obstinately what would lead them to it He that gives that which leads to Repentance cannot be said to deny it to them to whom he gives that while that is giving to them as he that gives a plaister that will heal if men according to the power they have would apply it cannot be said to deny healing though some refusing to apply the plaister are never healed 3. The next place sought to be eluded is Heb. 2.9 That by the grace of God he might tast Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for every man Where first he tells us all acknowledg that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every one is put for All by an Enallage of number Which as he but begs so see I no ground for granting him It s as proper a speech to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if not a tittle of the Law shall pass away till all be fulfilled then why should we causlesly let such a change be made of whole words of the Gospel seeing the Gospel is more permanent But then again he tells us That this expression of Every man is commonly used in Scripture to signify men under some restriction That it s so used in speeches about mens actions thoughts knowledg c. and in places where the foregoing speeches to which it hath reference are evidently bounded up to particular Nations Countries Parties I grant it then signifying but any one without restriction that come within the reach or opportunity of such men to act such things towards as are in those speeches spoken of or that appertain to those places or parties as in that of Col. 1.28 but that in speeches in which it s coupled with God or Christ as Mediator acting willing purposing or knowing it signifies but some of those that it refers to I deny cheifly in matters of fundamental concernment as the death of Christ for men is That that he produces from 1 Cor. 12.7 might seem to evert the truth of this The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man But to that I answer 1. That there is not the same word it s not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Distributive alwaies of some Totum before mentioned which there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about spiritual men the members of Christ to every one of them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Spirit given and the like is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Cor. 4 5. Then shall every one that is of the Stewards or Embassadors of Christ have praise of God in which I conceive is also a Synecdoche Speciei pro genere praise for judgment or doom But that it fignifies All and Every one here Mr. Owen will not allow for these Reasons 1. Because to tast Death is to drink up the cup due to sinners Which is as
for him To make good which denyall he sayes 1 That no man is bound to believe that that 's false but that he dyed for every man is false and he hath proved it so before This is Petitio Principii and contrary to the Scripture He is no competent Judge in his own cause and any that reads my Answers may see his proofs have all failed 2. Then he says men should be bound to believe immediately that that is not revealed though Divine Revelation be the Object of all Faith I deny this consequence from the Minor either as laid down by me or stated by him in the second way And whereas he says That the Scriptures do not hold out any where that Christ died for this or that particular as such but indefinitely as sinners specified of times antecedently by Gods purpose and consequently by their owne purchased obedience To the first of these passages I say that the Scriptures holding out an Universall proposition of truth are though not immediately yet mediately the Object of Divine Faith to any one particular for himself that 's included in the generall As when it s said All have sinned To believe thence that I have sinned is a Faith closing with and springing from that that is revealed though not immediately in the expression yet by undeniable intimation and consequence And so in the case of the Resurrection and Judgement in closing with this divine Revelation that all shall rise and be judged I necessarily upon the same divine Revelation believe that I shal rise and be judged also Yea unlesse I believe for my self I do not believe the Divine Revelation as concerning All. So is the case here God having revealed that Christ dyed for every one and all men c. In believing that Divine Truth I believe that he hath done so for me for that Divine Revelation includeth me as a man and one of the world And if it be not so I deny that any particular mans Faith in that particular can be proved to be grounded on the the word of God or that he hath any right to believe on the Mediator or that there is a Mediator for him To the latter passage about the Scriptures holding it forth only for sinners indefinitely often so and so specified I answer 1. That 's untrue It s held out also for the world universally 1 Ioh. 2.2 and for men generally 1 Tim. 2.4 6. Heb. 2.9 Again 2 He contradicts himself for if Scriptures specifie those Sinners for whom Christ dyed to be such or such then it holds not out his Death for sinners indefinitely Scripture holds forth nothing in any place but as it agrees with the truth of other places and indefinitely and boundedly are contradictions when spoken of the same subject Sinners unlimitedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and limitedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are incompetible expressions 3. I deny that the Objectum totale the full Object of the Death of Christ is any where specified either by the purpose of God to save them eternally or the consequent obedience found in them which denyall we have managed throughout this discourse 3. He saith The purpose of God and his intention is not propounded as the Object of the Faith of any but only his commands promises and threatnings the latter clause of which is not full enough for neither are his commands properly the Object of Faith but of Obedience nor are those things mentioned the onely object of Faith sure his Declarations may have a share therein too 2. His purpose and intention that he should die for this or that man is necessarily involved in the object of Faith propounding that he died for All men But his purpose or intention of bringing this or that man absolutely to eternal life is not revealed as the object of Faith to any not united to Christ by Faith and the inhabitation of the Spirit But that 's beyond our question not intended at all in the Argument as either way produced and so it s impertinently here mentioned by Mr. Owen In this also is answered his fourth Exception viz. That no command in Scripture to believe is to be measured by Gods purpose and intention His fifth onely answering to the Minor as disowned by me I have nothing to say to it But then he says That the not owning the Argument as in the first way propounded makes it useless as to the cause defended To which I answer That for Christs dying for every man in the world we have more divine proofs then that can come to but as altered into the second form it proves that Tenent untrue that Christ died onely for Gods Elect and them that shall for ever be saved against which I own it Besides this being granted it will follow That the Gospel being proposeable to All the world and that obedience of Faith also requireable thereupon of All there is the same truth in the matter of the Gospel concerning Christs Death for them all also it being otherwise not proposeable nor the obedience of Faith requirable of them His answer to this That it s no safe disputing of what should or would be if things were not as God hath appointed them satisfies not For as 1. We need not such disputings were men contented to be so far fools as to believe Doctrines as God propounds them And 2 As such suppositive Conclusions may be as strong and undeniable upon such supposed principles as positive conclusions 〈◊〉 positive premises yea and may illustrate positive truths too at lest they are as lawful for us to use as for them that oppose us So 3. This is not onely suppositive but positive that the Gospel is predicable to All and therefore the commission runs to preach it to All and I say it s in this positive truth implied that the truth therein declared as true before mens faith is true for All for otherwise there would not be in it a predicability unto All and ground for requiring Belief and Obedience of All we have opportunity and that we might preach it unto upon such preaching it But he excepts That if the Gospel were preached to All the world and All in the world yet this is all the will of God that could in general be signified by it to them viz. That he that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned and so that God hath concatinated these two together Faith and Salvation Which that its untrue we have shewed before in Chap. 1. The Gospel declares good will to All That God would have all men saved and come to know the truth c. ut supra It argues mens wisdom have too much blinded them from seeing into or understanding the Gospel when they finde nothing in it for sinners and men in general but that they that believe shall be saved and can shew them no good reason that any of them have to believe in God more then the Law can shew that says he
not ever true that he that believes that God delivered him from one danger is confident he will from another much less That that belief in all that so believe yea or in any is the confidence that he will deliver from another 2. Whereas he askes if it include not a sense of the spirituall love of Christ I answer That where the Death and Resurrection of Christ are opened to the heart by the Holy Ghost there the love of God is shed abroad into the heart also but not wherever this proposition is believed viz. Christ dyed for me many a man believes that and yet seeth not into the glory of it nor the depth of goodness held forth in it and so hath not the love of God therethrough shed into his heart yet the minding God in this is the way to meet with the holy Ghosts displaying that love Many Israelites believed that God brought them out of Egypt 2 Pet. 1.9 that had not such a view of his power and love therein or at least like them that forget that they were purged from their old sins forgat what they had seen as to be lead to confidence in God for the future by it 3. Whereas he says By this a man must believe before he believe What strange thing is that with reference to diverse acts of believing did not he himself say that we must have a faith of reliance and recumbence in Christ and before that too believe many truths of the Gospell before we can believe that Christ dyed for us so that there is believing before believing and believing before believing again and yet he counts that absurd in us when we say only we must believe the word of God to be true before we can by it be led to believe in God we must believe Gods goodwill to us-ward and a medium provided for us by whom to go to God before we can be perswaded to go to him by faith whom otherwise we look upon as angry and dreadfull ready to consume us We cannot put our confidence in his blood and there through rise up to assurance of eternall life except we first be perswaded that he shed his blood for us So long as we doubt whether he be a Mediator for us or no and whether he hath given himself to ransome us from death we shall doubt whether God will accept us or no or whether he hare us from eternity or not and whether we have any thing to do to take incouragement from the blood of Christ to approach him because we know not we have any right unto it Nor can Master Owen nor all the world beside to help him make it appear to be otherwise but that the soul will question whether it may expect salvation from God or betrust it self with God so long as it knows not but he hates it and Christ hath never done any thing with him for it 3. He denies That a perswasion that it was Gods will that Christ should dy for him in particular neither is nor can be necessary that a sinner be drawn to believe because other grounds will do it without The consequence of this is that many things were spoken unnecessarily by the Apostles Act. 3.26 as when Peter says Christ was sent to turn every one of them from their iniquities And Paul that the grace of God reconciling the world 2 Cor. 5.19 20. 6.1 was to them Corinthians to perswade them to be reconciled That he preached to the Corinths in the first place that Christ dyed for our sins 1 Cor. 15.2 3. And so all those generall phrases that include mens particulars But let us see what other grounds he gives viz. That it is the duty of sinners as such to believe Math. 11.28 Isa 55.1 To believe in what in the blood of Christ as Rom. 3.25 Then it supposes it shed for them all and so it s a truth according to the Gospell-declaration but denying the extent of his Death how can he make it out that sinners as such * A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia which reaches to All sinners ought to believe in Christ What have sinners if not Elect to do with Christ besides he had said before they must be sinners so and so convinced and qualified before they are to be called upon to believe in Christ And I fear he will upon second thoughts say that those Scriptures hold forth that sinners not as such but as so qualified with thirsting after Christ and being weary c. are there required to believe but many a soul is hereby put upon doubting whether it be Elected or so convinced and thirsty c. as is required and so whether God be not an enemy to it from eternity and so whether it hath cause of trusting in him 2. The command of God John 3.23 That shews it to be its duty if it could be proved to extend to it for that says That we believe in his name and a soul may more justly doubt whether that We reach to it seeing they that deny the extent of Christs Death and teach it to doubt of it use such applicatives as We to oppose an Universality and to signify but the Elect and Church c. This therefore yet leaves the soul to doubt whether it may hope in him for salvation especially being told that these things God sends to men indefinitely that the Elect onely might be brought to him he hath no goodwill to any other and that its Elect it knows not commands to believe while men are taught to doubt whether the object to be believed in as such pertains to them can give no more security from doubting then the building with one hand and pulling down with another secures the building from falling 3. The threats against unbelief That indeed doth as much as the threat for not keeping the Law fils the soul with terror on every side while it hears that God commands more to believe then have cause so to do and threatens them for not believing and yet gives them nothing to induce them to it no evidence of his goodwill to them to draw them to believe this may fill them with hard thoughts of God representing him to them like one that bids another eat or else he will kill him but yet gives him no meat to feed on no evidence of his goodness that may induce him to hope and trust in him 4. The alsufficiency of the blood of Christ to save all believers This may make the soul say O how happy are they that do believe and that have his blood to drink for its able to save them but as for me I know not whether it belong to me or not or whether one drop of it was shed for me and so how I can lean upon it I hear it s not sufficient to save any that it was not shed for not for want of inward worth in it but because it s not for them and I may
will he busy himself to prevent impossibilities or about them that God hath hated from eternity What follows about Christs merit are but Rhetoricall disparagements of the grace of God as Universall in which he frequently puts the ly or brat of our own brain or some such like language upon Gods and his Apostles declarations for such are these That Christ dyed for All and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world c. To which we shall give no other Answer they being not Arguments but frothy flourishes but remembring him that brought no railing accusations refer it to the Lord to rebuke Sathan the adversary of Gods free-grace and goodness He applands afterward his own opinion and casts dust upon the truth representing his own in these four following propositions 1. That Christ dyed only for the Elect. 2. That all those for whom Christ dyed are eternally saved 3. That Christ purchased all saving grace from them he means for All that so as to be effectually made over to All for whom he dyed 4. Christ sends the means and reveals the wayes of life to all those for whom he died I suppose he means in the declaration of the Gospell to them in this their life time If M. Owen can prove any one of these to be true from Scripture for in all this his book he hath failed of it then I will be bound to give up the cause to him and say that he hath done more then all his brethren could yet attaine to The Assertions he lays down as ours are diverse of them meer slanders as that we say 1. Most of them for whom Christ dyed are damned which is more then we know or dare determine not knowing what a numerous increase there may be of believers in the last Ages of Christs reigne nor being able fully to comprehend those sayings 1 Pet. 3.19 4.6 2. That he purchased not any saving grace for them that he dyed for 3. That he ratified and sealed not any Covenant of grace with any federates 4. Hath no intention to redeem his Church c. as if he had learned to practise that evill principle Calumniare andacter haerebit aliquid His last disquisition is about Gospel-consolation Whether perswasion gives the most before which he propounds some considerations as 1. That all true Evangelicall consolation belongs only to believers but I think this at first dash is unsound for I hope poor sad souls that sit in distress and through the sight of their sins dare not believe nay prehaps are in despaire have nothing in the Gospell to comfort them and induce them to believe 2. That to make out consolation to them to whom it is not due is as great a crime as to withhold it from them to whom it is I grant that both are crimes 3. That T. M. attempt to set forth the Death of Christ so as All might be comforted is a proud attempt I can say this for him of my own hearing from his mouth that he is cleer in that for I heard him say long since that the title was not of his appointing but the Printers or some other above for him 4. That Doctrine that holds out consolation to unbelievers from the Death of Christ is a crying Peace peace where God says there is no peace That 's true if by unbelievers he means men as such and so persisting otherwise it may not be true as is noted to the first we endeavor not to comfort unbelievers in their unbelief further then to let them see there is ground for their repentance but as the Gospel was first preached to Abraham and his Family before the Law so we preach the Death of Christ for all as a medium to their better convincement of their unbelief and impenitence and an argument to perswade them to Faith For how shall they indeed be convinced that its their sin not to believe or be perswaded to believe except they have God set forth as a meet Object for them to believe on And if they persist in their disobedience we have in the Gospel-Declaration Acts 10.36 Luke 10.5 6.9.11 12. that that will strike terror and amazement into them for their unbelief It was the preaching of Christ and so of his Apostles whom we desire to follow first to preach peace to the world and exhort them not to rest without it and in so doing we preach peace to none but whom it s to be preached to God first hangs out a white Flag of Reconciliation and Peace in Christ before he holds out his red of Judgement and Indignation which follows where that peace is despised Mat. 10.12 13 14 15. Having premised these things he lays down these four Conclusions 1. That the extending the Death of Christ to an universality in Object cannot give the lest ground of consolation to them whom God would have to be comforted by the Gospel 2. That the denying the efficacy of the Death of Christ towards them for whom he died cuts the nerves and sinews of all strong consolation such as is proper for the believer to receive and the Gospel to give 3. That there is nothing in the restraining Christs Death to the Elect that in the least measure debars consolation from them to whom it is due 4. That the Doctrine of the effectual Redemption of the sheep of Christ by the blood of the Covenant is the true solid foundation of all durable consolation 1. To confirm the first He premises That all Gospel-Consolation belongs onely to believers which I have before shewed to be untrue The Gospel propounds comfort also to souls ready to despair utterly that they might believe And the best way to comfort such is to let them know that Christ died for them and that by opening to them according to the Scripture-affirmation the extent of Christs Death and of Gods goodness therein Having propounded that he nextly argues against its being of use to believers as that 1. No Scripture so propounds it Which is untrue also for that in 1 Joh. 2.2 doth as we have seen for Mr. Owen confesses his business there is to comfort believers and the Apostle to that propounds Christ as a Propitiation for the sins of the whole world and not onely of us the believers to be comforted See what I have said to it largelier cap. 3. lib. 4. He says further 2. That no comfort can accrue to them from that which is common to those 1. That shall perish to eternity Isa 51.13 Psa 100.2 1 Pet. 4 19. Ps 31.15 and 103.18.22 c. 2. That God would not have comforted And 3. that stand in open rebellion against Christ And 4. That hear not of Christ This also is disproved De facto from the forementioned place as was shewed before upon it Besides The Creation is common to them All that he mentions and yet that 's of Consolation to the believer and so Gods Governing all things the Resurrection Judgement c.
and so preserved his soul and ours also and so he yet as Mediator between God and us preserves us from many deaths being patient toward us when our follies deserve them to come upon us 2 Pet. 3.15 in which regard his forbearance is to be accounted Salvation by us And so when the Samaritans brutishly rejecting him had deserved such a destruction as the Disciples would have called for upon them Christ tells them No he came to Save mens lives even from such deserved destructions also not to destory them in them 2. To Save is sometime further to pull and deliver out of the state of ignorance blindness and corruption that men naturally lie in and so it s used in Tit. 3.5 saved us by the washing of regeneration 3. Sometimes to preserve a man in that Saved estate or in that grace of God to which the soul through the call of God is brought as in 1 Cor. 15.2 3. by which ye are saved if ye keep in minde how I have declared them to you and so in 1 Tim. 4.16 in continuing in them in the words of Christ thou shalt Save that is preserve from falling thy self and them that hear thee Again sometimes 4. To Save is ultimately to deliver from and out of all dangers fears and miseries and to bring to everlasting Glory And that 's the utmost and highest act of saving the obtaining the Salvation that is in Christ with eternal Glory 2 Tim. 2.10 Now in which of these senses Christ came to save the lost and sinners or whether he came to save each of them that he came for in All of them he declareth not but so far as I perceive he takes it as including all together and intends this proposition for a truth that whosoever Christ came to dye for them he came to save in all these acts of saving but then he neither proves that proposition so universally propounded but only brings some scriptures which say he came to save sinners to wash and purge his Church Vs believers c. not proving them to be the whole adaequate object of his Death as was before noted nor doth he tell us how we may understand the phrase of Coming to save which in the second place we shall briefly speak to for thereby we are to understand 1. Either that God sent him and he came forth to bring absolutely and effectually all and every sinner for and to whom he came and for whom he dyed to Salvation in its highest acts or to the utmost Salvation 2. Or else that he came from God with the authority and Office of a Saviour to reveal that to men and do that in dying for men by which they listening to him should be saved but rejecting him they may miss of that exercise of his office and work of saving which they otherwise might have from him Indeed in the first sense the series and drift of his discource argues that he takes it but the latter sense seemes to be as agreeable to Scripture which saith that he would have gathered them and they would not They would not come unto him that they might have life that he is the bread of God that came down from heaven and gives life to the world the true bread that God gave to the murmuring Jews who yet not eating him have not life in them All which expressions argue an authority and office given to Christ to save and give life to men and his readiness to give it though they also shew that the execution of that office or rather its fulfilling in men is suspended and takes not its effect towards those that refuse to come to him and submit to his order prescribed for executing it on them Such a phrase we have in Exod. 3.8 I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good land and a large c. in which his meaning cannot be that he came with an absolute intent and purpose to bring all that his people certainly and effectually out of Aegypt into Canaan but there was an implicit condition couched in it of their hearkning to him and following him otherwise though he came down to bring them into Canaan many might never come into as the event also proved it Now if thus we take those Scriptures of his coming to save sinners and that that was lost then though we understand the word Save to comprehend all those forementioned acts it will be little to the Authors advantage But I pass from this part of his consideration to the next viz. 2 The effect and actual product of the work it self the thing effected and accomplished by the Death Oblation and blood-shedding of Jesus Christ which he expresses more distinctly to be Reconciliation Justification Sanctification Adoption Glory and Immortality for which he produces divers Scriptures some pertinent some not Now to this part we shall grant that by the death of Jesus Christ some men attain to all these things which is as much as those Scriptures produced by him prove But I shall briefly declare how they are by his Death 1. His Death and bloudshedding was that way through which God went to effect these things and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be translated through his Death as Gods dividing the red sea was part of that way by which he brought Israel into Canaan and the ordering Joseph to prison was the way through which God brought him to his preferment in Pharaohs Court and made provision for the people of those countries in the 7 years of famine Davids fight with Goliah was the way through which the Israelites were victorious over the Philistins c. Had not Christ died we had not been reconciled justified sanctified received the adoption of sons and so not glorified by that our sin was expiated the way between God and us cleared and made open Redemption obtained salvation is in Christ for us so as that by believing in his Name any may be saved Acts 4.11 12. 2. By his Death we are Reconciled Justified Sanctified made Sons c. as its the way through which discovered to us and believed in by us we are brought to union with Christ and to receive that salvation and redemption that is in him not that Christ in the act of his dying made us at one with God and so reconciled us to God in our selves or justified or sanctified us made us sons and glorified us in our persons But this death of his made known to us in the Gospel is that by which God draws us to his Son and to himself and so its it by which he reconciles us Thence the Colossians are said Now to be reconciled since the enmity in their minds was slain by him and so reconciled by his death is a phrase like those in 1 Pet. 1.3 and 3.20 begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and so the conscience
gives a good answer by his resurrection that is by it as not only acted in Christ but as discovered to us in the word and as its that medium by which we behold Gods goodness toward us Rom. 3.25 and 5.1 And so the bloud of Christ Justifies us by faith in it as by vertue of the satisfaction made by it Christ presents us righteous being brought into him through the faith of it and so for sanctification it 's by his bloud sprinkled on us and through the power of the spirit working powerfully in us That place in Heb. 9.14 quoted by him p. 64. to prove sanctification to be an immediate product of his death is horribly mistake for it speaks not of his Death simply assuffered or his blood as presented by him to God but as sprinkled upon the conscience and therefore it s brought to answer the type of the red heifer Numb 19. which not by its death and oblation immediately sanctified the people but the ashes of it being reserved and after mixed with clean water and sprinkled on the unclean then Sanctified to the purifying of the flesh and not otherwise so also he hath misapplyed 2 Cor. 5.19 in his first chapter p. 2. bringing it to prove Reconciliation accomplished in the Death of Christ When the Apostle speaks but of it in fieri not in facto its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reconciling to the accomplishment of which in them he exhorts them in ver 20. Be ye reconciled unto God so in pag. 3. he hath to wrong purpose quoted Heb. 9.12 and 1 Pet. 2.24 as speaking of redemption or justification as accomplished upon men when they so far as he quotes them speak but of Christs finding or obtaining it of the father in himself or into his hand nor is it there expressed for whom or for how many he obtained it the words for us being not in the Text. Again he there misquotes Rom. 3.25 rendring it We have all sinned and are justified as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas it is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All have sinned being justifyed c. But I pass from these things His drift in all this he afterward in pag. 4. and more plainly chap. 3. lib. 2. discovers to us It s to beat down a spreading perswasion as he calls it of Christs giving himself aransome for all and every one a perswasion which the Teacher of the Gentiles in truth and verity broached in those very expressions 1. Tim. 2.5 6 7. Heb. 2.9 a sad time when men of parts study to oppose his doctrine totidem verbis in the very tearms that he delivered it in But Hic labor hoc opus est To this purpose the aforesaid considerations were laid down to be the foundation and Basis of an argument or two as to that purpose he hath inlarged them also lib. 2 cap. 3. producing more scriptures tending to the same thing to which those above mentioned were produced as That he shall save his people from their sins shall see his seed and carry on the pleasure of the Lord Sanctified himself that they may be Sanctified through the truth gave himself for us that he might deliver us from this present evil world was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him most or all of which we shall after meet with and speak more particularly to from all which he draws this argument That which the Father and Son intend to accomplish in and towards all those for whom Christ died by his death that is most certainly effected But the Father and Son intended by the Death of Christ to redeem purge sanctifie purifie deliver from Death Satan the curse of the Law to quit of all sin to make righteousness in Christ all those for whom he dyed Therefore He dyed for all and only those in and towards whom all those things recounted are effected and so not for All. This is a main pillar of his edifice let us by Gods assistance assay to shake and evert it And first not to speak to the form how the conclusion should have been inferred for the major if taken in this sense What the Father and Son did intend purpose and wholly take upon themselves absolutely to do by his death that was and shall be thereby effected His determinate purpose shall not fail so it s granted But if by intended we understand what he propoundeth as an end intended in which there may be something suspended in the proposition upon some condition in that way I say what ever is propounded as his intent may not be fulfilled and accomplished in All for whom he dyed But I know he intends it in the former sense and therefore 2. I shall deny the Minor and desire his proof for it namely that the Father and Son intended that is absolutely purposed and wholly took upon themselves without condition to redeem purge sanctify c. all for whom Christ died For 1. This is beside the scripture that saith He dyed for all but never that he so intended to purge sanctifie set free and save All. 2. It s against that intimation in Rom. 14.15 and 2 Cor. 8.11 that one for whom Christ dyed may possibly perish and makes a meer scare-Crow of the Apostles reasoning as if he would deter them from evils by propounding impossible consequences of it and suppositions quite contrary to the faith to say nothing that it thwarteth that too in 2 Pet. 2.1 3. None of all the Places quoted prove what is affirmed for either they say not that the object named is all that Christ died for but some specially distinguished from others by the intervention of faith either in the eye of God or in real existence in them as his people 1 Pet. 2.10 them that believe on him the Church that is a people called out of the world Vs who were then actually believers them that were given him out of the World had received his words believed were sent into the world by him to preach the Gospel to say nothing of his begging the question that by sanctifying himself he meanes his dying or setting himself apart to dye in Joh. 17.19 so that that Minor is peccant in that it wants proof none of those Scriptures saying that those things he aymed at in all he dyed for To illustrate the business the proof is like this It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe and he called you by the Gospel to the obtaining of the Glory of the Lord Jesus Ergo All to whom it pleased God that the Gospel should be preached shall be saved and obtain eternal Glory To propound as a truth that God intended to redeem purge and save All for whom Christ dyed and then to prove it by telling us he intended to do so to Vs that believe to his Church and people is as lame a proof as if I should propound for truth that God intended to