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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	final_a	send_v	unbeliever_n	112	3	17.1578	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96867	The method of grace in the justification of sinners. Being a reply to a book written by Mr. William Eyre of Salisbury: entituled, Vindiciæ justificationis gratuitæ, or the free justification of a sinner justified. Wherein the doctrine contained in the said book, is proved to be subversive both of law and Gospel, contrary to the consent of Protestants. And inconsistent with it self. And the ancient apostolick Protestant doctrine of justification by faith asserted. By Benjamin Woodbridge minister of Newbery.	Woodbridge, Benjamin, 1622-1684.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3426; Thomason E881_4; ESTC R204141	335,019	365

why Because it was the Will of God that none of the elect should perish or be condemned Answ True not executively But Mr. Eyre knows we put a difference between perishing and condemnation in this debate and that by condemnation we mean not the execution of punishment or wrath but a legal obligation to the suffering of it And though God did purpose that the elect should not perish or be condemned executively quoad eventum yet should Mr. Eyre prove that he purposed that the elect should not stand obliged equally with other sinners for some time to the suffering of wrath This if he prove I will yield the cause The purpose of God in it selfe makes no difference between men whose cause is the same before the just and impartial Judge Do we not know that a Prince may purpose to save the life of a Malefactour against whom notwithstanding the Law is in force and judgement proceeds and sentence passeth and the man thereby as much obnoxious to death as any other Melefactours till some other act of the Prince besides his meer purpose interpose and prevent his death But of this we have spoken largely already The Assumption namely that all the world is under condemnation §. 4. before faith I proved from the expresse testimony of the Lord Jesus John 3. 18. He that beleeveth not is condemned already That is saith Mr. Eyre He that never believeth as chap. 8. 24. If you beleeve not i. e. not at all you shall die in your sins Our Saviour had no intent at all to shew the state of the elect before believing but the certain and inevitable misery of them that beleeve not by reason of the sentence of the Law that had passed upon them All the rest of the answer consents well enough with that Explication of the text which I gave in my Sermon Rep. First for that which is pretended to be our Lords intent in these words let me intreat thee Reader to peruse and ponder the text for I think thou shalt hardly meet with the like abuse of the Oracles of God in any Authour that acknowledgeth the Divinity of Scriptures ver 14. As Moses lift up the Serpent in the wildernesse so must the Son of man be lifted up ver 15. That whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but should have everlasting life ver 16. for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but should have everlasting life ver 17. for God sent not his Sonne into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved ver 18. He that beleeveth is not condemned he that beleeveth not is condemned already c. Thou seest Reader that the words contain a most serious and faithful testimony to a sinful world that though they had brought upon themselves eternal miseries yet God had sent his Sonne into the world not to condemn the world but to save them and if any man perish 't is not for want of a sufficient remedy provided in the death of Christ but for their own wilful refusal to embrace and make use of it as himselfe tells us ver 19. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men have loved darknesse rather then light Now what sayes Mr. Eyre why he will have us beleeve that the Lords intention is quite against his expression and that he is come to testifie to the world that their misery is certain and inevitable by reason of the sentence of the Law that had passed upon them It is time to burne our Bibles if such glosses as these must be received for truth 2. If the misery of those that beleeve not be inevitable by reason of the sentence of the Law how is this to be understood either that the Law passed sentence upon them as unbelievers but this I suppose is too unreasonable to be affirmed or that the same men who afterwards prove unbelievers were before sentenced by the Law to certain and unavoidable misery But then their unbeliefe contributed nothing to make their misery unavoidable whereas our Lord chargeth the unavoidablenesse of misery upon wilful unbelief ver 19. This is the condemnation not that men are in darknesse but that light is come into the world and men have loved darknesse rather then light Were it not for this men might do well enough notwithstanding all that the Law had done against them Ergo misery is not made certain and inevitable to any by the Law before unbelief be added 3. Mr. Eyre told us but now that the Law condemned all men equally that 's the sense of his words if there be any sense in them The Law saith he doth not consider men as elect or reprobate I know not how it should for the Law is neither God nor man nor Angel as believers or unbelievers c. how comes it then to passe that misery should be made unavoidable to one and not to another by the same Law Next we shall enquire into Mr. Eyres Exposition of ver 18. §. 5. He that beleeveth not is condemned already that is saith he he that never beleeveth which is not only gratis dictum spoken without so much as a pretence of Reason but is manifestly inconsistent with the text Indeed condemnation is executed upon none but final unbelievers but unbelievers in the text are to be understood generally of all unbelievers whatsoever and not to be confined to final unbelievers 1. Such unbelievers are here meant who are part of that world into which Christ is sent for after the Lord had said ver 17. God sent not his Sonne into the world to condemn the world but that the world by him might be saved He distributes this world into two parts Beleevers and Unbeleevers ver 18. He that beleeveth is not condemned he that believeth not is condemned already But final unbeleevers as such are no part of that world into which Christ is sent for a final unbeleever is he that dies in unbelief if he beleeve but one minute before his death he is not a final unbeleever And Christ is not sent to the dead but to the living 2. Such unbelievers are here meant whom Christ was sent to save ver 16 17. But Christ was not sent to save final unbelievers as such Ergo such unbelievers are not here meant 3. We have also mention of a double condemnation in the text one which Christ findes men under when he comes into the world and which he comes to deliver them from ver 17 18. The other which men are left under for final unbelief and rejecting of Christ the light of life ver 19. This is the condemnation c. for Christ could not finde men condemned for a final rejecting of him till he had been preached and tendered to them Ergo they that beleeve not ver 18. are unbeleevers in general 4. The condemnation here spoken of is

believer as much subject to condemnation of conscience as the unbeliever Upon the second branch of the Argument there is nothing I shall §. 20. need reply to saving only that passage of Mr. Eyres That Christs merits will not save those whom God doth condemne To which I say that though none other can justifie those whom God condemnes yet God himself may and doth justifie those whom he had before condemned or else no sonne of Adam ever was or shall be justified Rom. 5. 18. As by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men unto Justification of life A third Argument proving that the condemnation mentioned ● 21. John 3. 18. was not to be meant of condemnation in conscience only was because it is called the wrath which shall abide on unbelievers ver 36. Mr. Eyre answers Therefore we say no elect unbeliever is condemned of God because the wrath of God doth not abide upon him Rep. It is yielded then that the condemnation about which we dispute is not meerly condemnation in conscience which is as much as I ever sought from the place and that Mr. Eyre knows well enough 2. We have shewed before that the wrath of God is upon every one that is an unbeliever at present though it do not abide upon any but final unbelievers Lastly thus I argued The condemnation here spoken of is opposed §. 22. to salvation v. 17. Ergo it is more then condemnation in conscience Mr. Eyre answers That the condemnation opposed to salvation is damnation and then by Mr. Eyres Argument the Elect because they are sometimes unbelievers must all be damned Rep. Sure Mr. Eyre believes not our English Proverb As good never a whit as never the better Salvation is sometimes taken strictly for an executive deliverance from wrath Rom. 5. 9. And so none are saved in this life Sometimes more largely and so it containes both that compleat salvation and the beginnings of it in this life viz. that right which is given us to it in our Justification Luke 19. 9. Rom. 1. 16 17. and 10. 9 10. He that beleeveth not is under condemnation as it is opposed to salvation in the latter sense The second answer is replied to already CHAP. VIII A Reply to Mr. Eyres twelfth Chapter My third fourth and fifth Argument for the Antecedent of faith to Justification vindicated SECT I. A Third Argument by which I proved Justification to §. 1. be consequent to faith was taken from the several similitudes by which Justification by faith is illustrated I instanced particularly in two The first was that of the brazen Serpent John 3. 14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wildernesse supply that whosoever looked on him might recover of the sting of the fiery Serpent See the story it selfe Numb 21. 8 9. so must the Sonne of man be lifted up that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have everlasting life And John 6. 40. It is the Will of God that whosoever seeth and believeth the Sonne should be justified Mr. Eyre doth utterly deny that it was the intent of the Holy Ghost to shew by these comparisons in what order or method we are justified in the sight of God Wherein he fights not only against me but against a Comparamus fidem cum intuitu serpentis aen i. Intuitus ille vim medicam in se non habuit sed ut instrumentum conditio est à Deo ad san●tatem impetr●ndam ordinata Anton. Wallaeus oper Tom. 1. p. 423. all men that I can read upon the place and against common sense which upon the reading of the words cannot but apprehend the order and method of our spiritual healing represented by that bodily cure wrought upon those that looked up to the brazen Serpent But it may be he intends to deny Justification to be included in the Promise of not perishing but having eternal life Let us try it His second answer therefore is The stinging of the fiery Serpents did plainly shadow forth the effects of the Law in conscience Now as the Israelites when they were stung by those fiery Serpents found no ease till they looked up unto the brazen Serpent so the soule that is smitten and wounded by the Ministry of the Law will never finde rest till it look unto him in whose wounds and stripes is the healing of sinners Rep. The effects of the Law in conscience might very well be shadowed §. 2. forth by the stinging of the fiery Serpents as part of that punishment which is due to sinners but that it should represent no more is spoken gratis Sin stings because it kills the person as well as because it disquiets the conscience 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. and a fiery sting it is because it makes the sinner obnoxious to the displeasure of God who is a consuming fire and whose wrath burnes to the very bottome of hell not in the conscience only but upon the whole person unlesse it be prevented by faith and repentance 2. Observe also Reader how Mr. Eyre is constrained to mince the matter that he may make his Interpretation the more current The Israelites saith he being stung of the fiery Serpents could find no ease till they looked up to the brazen Serpent As if their wound had been only painful but not mortal And as if they had looked up to the brazen Serpent not for life but only for ease whereas they were all mortally stung many died actually all had received their deaths wound death was begun upon them all and would unavoidably have grown on to the last and utmost degree if it had not been prevented by the brazen Serpent To teach us though Mr. Eyre will not learn it that every unbeliever is in a state of death and condemnation nor can escape the last and sorest part of this death but by looking up to Jesus Christ 3. The reddition of the comparison is this in our Lords words So must the Sonne of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life which according to Mr. Eyres sense is this That whosoever beleeveth on him should not be disquieted in conscience but should have rest and ease in his Spirit This indeed for the most part doth in some measure follow upon our Justification as no doubt but the Israelites recovered life and ease together But to be delivered from perishing and to have everlasting life in right or possession is surely more then to have ease from present anguish of spirit Should I take this liberty of interpreting Scripture Mr. Eyre might justly have been angry with my forehead In the third place Mr. Eyre tells his Reader that this very comparison §. 3. makes against me I had need look to that But how doth it make against me As saith he the Israelites were alive when they looked upon the

brazen Serpent else they could not have seen it so they that look upon Jesus Christ i e. beleeve in him are spiritually alive or else they could not put forth such a vital act Rep. But wherein doth this make against me The most that follows from hence is either that the habit of faith is before the act as the faculty of sight before the operation of it which is no part of the Question between Mr. Eyre and me or that a man is quickened internally by faith before he is quickened morally by Justification and pardon even as they put forth the vital act of seeing before they received that healing which prevented their approaching death which is the very thing I am proving 2. But in every similitude there is some dissimilitude and if Mr. Eyre will instance in things that do not come into the comparison he may as well inferre that faith is an act of natural power because their looking to the brazen Serpent which represented faith was so I say therefore that they that were stung with the fiery Serpents though they were not dead as to the utmost and last act of death which consists in the separation of the soule from the body yet they were dead in effect and as much as the nature of the type and the scope of the comparison requires as having received their deaths wound which would soon have prevailed over the remainders of their life if it had not been prevented by looking up to the brazen Serpent And therefore of him that looked on the Serpent of brasse 't is said that he lived Numb 21. 9. That is saith Mr. Eyre he had ease from his anguish And §. 4. so by looking up to Christ by faith we finde ease and rest to our wearied soules A man is said to live when he lives comfortably and happily Rep. Which is neither true in the Proposition nor Reddition of the comparison Not in the first for in the type the opposition is not between ease and paine but between life and death Numb 21. 6. The fiery Serpents bit the people and much people of Israel died and ver 9. It came to passe that if a Serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the Serpent of brasse he lived as Hezekiah is said to live Isa 38. 21. when he recovered of a mortal disease not only from the pain and anguish of it but principally from the mortality of it Nor in the second for though life in Scripture may sometimes signifie a happy prosperous and comfortable life yet in our Saviours use of it it hath not that sense precisely though that may very well be included consequently partly because the life obtained by looking up to Christ is opposed not to pain and sickness precisely but to the death and destruction of the whole person John 3. 15. The Sonne of man must be lifted up that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have everlasting life partly because the same life is called salvation ver 17. God sent not his Sonne into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him should be saved Now though a man may be said to live when he lives comfortably yet he is never said to be saved in Scripture precisely because he lives comfortably When Paul sayes Now we live if ye stand fast 1 Thes 3. 8. I think he is to be understood of a joyful comfortable life But it had been very uncouth to expresse the same life thus Now we are saved if ye stand fast But Mr. Eyre hath a sad quarrel against me for reading that §. 5. text John 6. 40. thus It is the Will of God that he that seeth and beleeveth the Sonne shall be justified whereas the words are That whosoever seeth the Sonne and beleeveth on him may have everlasting life Herein he saith I have corrupted and falsified the text Rep. What you please Sir provided you take in all manner of Commentators as well as my selfe for I know no man but you that excludes Justification from being there contained in eternal life As when the Law sayes Do this and thou shalt live the life promised includes Justification primarily so when it is said He that believes shall have eternal life life includes Justification in like manner And though there be many more blessings included then that single one of Justification yet that only being to my purpose I thought I might mention it only without being guilty o● corrupting or falsifying the text I had thought also the believer may be said to have eternal life in right as well as in possession as the Lord speaks a little below ver 47. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life And to have right to life or life in right is to be justified and therefore is our Justification called Justification of life Rom. 5. 18. And grace reignes through reghteousnesse unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord ver 21. SECT II. THe next comparison I made use of for illustration and proof §. 6. of this matter was out of John 6. 51 52 53 54. where faith is compared to eating and Justification to the nourishment we receive by our meat As then we are not first nourished and then eat the meat that nourisheth us but we eat our meat that we may be nourished by it so neither are we first justified and then beleeve on Christ that hath justified us but we beleeve in Christ that we may be justified Mr. Eyre answers That this is a mistake like the former for it is Christ himself who throughout that Chapter is compared to bread and food whom by faith we receive for our refreshment consolation and spiritual nourishment Rep. As if Justification were none of that nourishment which we receive by faith because Christ himself is the meat on whom we feed This answer is a plain yielding of the Argument unlesse Mr. Eyre intend that it is only comfort and refreshment and not Justification and pardon which is the nourishment we receive by feeding on Christ which if he doth intend we oppose from the text 1. That Christ invites us to eat of his flesh that we may live not simply that we may be refreshed and comforted it s in vain to talk of refreshing and comforting him that is dead ver 33. The bread of God giveth life to the world the very substance and being of life not only the well-being which consists in refreshment and consolation And though life may now and then though very rarely signifie precisely a comfortable life yet here surely it signifies more as being opposed to eternal death under which the world is supposed to be till Christ give them life ver 50. to be I mean in respect of guilt and that very life in the losse of which consists the whole misery of unbelievers ver 53. Except you eat the flesh of the Sonne of man and drink his blood you have no life in you 2. And that Justification or