salvation for him by Christ that Christ hath shedd his blood for him that beleeving in him he may bee saved and that God would not the death off him but that he should repent live Thus is al dispaire taken away For the grace off God that bringeth salvation vnto al men hath appeared Tit. 2.11 And al careles presumption cut off For hee that wil not beleeve shal be damned Mark 16 16. Revel 2.25 That which ye have already hold fast til I come for he that overcometh and keepeth my works to the end to him wil I give power over nations and Heb. 3.14 We are made pertakers of Christ if we keepe sure vnto the end that begining wherewith we are vpholden What gratious hart can ever disaprove off this vnderstāding That Christ hath redeamed al. It is most straing that men fearing God shoule be so full off indignation against it why should men thinke much that Christ should be a Saviour for al men aswel as for them especially it being agreable to the whole word off God being a doctrine that doth so magnifie sett furth the mercie off God to al man kind in giveing a Saviour that al beleeving in him might be saved as also advācing the justice off God in condemning vnbeleevers seing he hath left them without excuse in that he hath given them a Saviour in whome because they beleeve not they are justly condemned Much more might be said for the advancement of the great mysterie off Godlines in this point off Christs general redeaming off al men but we especially desire that the true ground of the cause may prevaile with you we doubt not the cōfort wil folow aboundātly Iff we have in any thinge led you from the first ground wee have vttetly gone besids our purpose for the some off al we purposed to speake is this That Adam haveing free-will which no man that knowes God to be Holy may deny then God could not decree any man perticulerly to be saved nor anie man perticulerly to be condemned for life death salvation condemnation were in the Freechoyce off Adam depended not vpon Gods decree but vpon Adams owne wil in that God gave Adam power in over himselff to chuse life or death not decreing him either to life or death For iff God had decreed him either to life or death then had his Freewil bene taken away For Gods decree must needs come to passe therefore this most easie plaine to bee vnderstood that Adam haveing Free-wil power not to have eaten off the Forbidden Fruyt so to have lived for ever God did not decree he should dye And Adam haveing Free-will power in over himselff to eate off the Forbidden Fruit dye God did not decre that Adam should lyve This then is the decree off God as he hath declared in his word to Adā Obey and live Disobey and dye This is the Law off workes which Adam had Freewil power in him selff From God perfectly to kepe God not decreeing as wee have shewed that hee should obey or disobey live or dye And let it bee wel observed that all the decrees off God concerning life or death to man man-kind were made with Adam therefore we produce him for al. And we have shewed that as Christ the promissed seed was given sent to Adam to be his Saviour for the same end he was givē sēt to al the world as also vnder the same cōditiō which was that he should beleeve in him for iff Adam had not beleeved he must have bene condemned iff all the world had not beleeved al the world must have bene condemned as Adā beleeving in the promissed seed was though the Grace mercie off God in Christ to bee saved even so all the world beleeving in the promissed seed was through the grace mercie off God in Christ to be saved And whereas the Holy Ghost Roman 5.14.15 Speaking off Infants saith That death reigned also over them that sinned not after the like manner of thee transgression of Adam the Grace off God and gift by grace which is by one man Christ Iesus hath abounded much more to thē Hereby also is further confirmed that al infāts are freed by the vniversall redemption off Christ From that condemnation which you by your opinion off perticuler redemption would cast vpon the most off them as is also before shewed What els hath bene spoken hath the Word of God for warrant thereoff wee earnestly beseech all that feare God love his truth with the Holiest thoughts of their harts to consider off and the Lord give you all vnderstanding harts And our harts desire and praier to God for you all is that you might bee saved come to the acknowledging off the Truth It is a custome amongst men to conclude that free wil must needs followe this vnderstanding of vniversal redemption and if there meaning were freewill in Christ ād that we have free power ād ability through Christ to worke out our salvation and that through Christ we are made able to every good worke such a freewil we hold But that man hath any freewil or power in himself to worke his owne salvation or to chuse life we vtterly deny haveing learned of Thappostli Ephes 2.8.9 That by grace mē are saved through Faith that not off themselves but off the gift off God not off workes least any man should boast himselff But this grace of God which is his mercie by Christ hath God given to al but all receive it not as appeareth joh 1.10.11 He was in the World the World knewe him not He came to his owne his owne receaved him not And Act. 13.46 Paule and Barnabas pake boldly and said it was necessary that the word of God should first have bene spokē vnto you but seeing you put it from you ād judg your selves vnworthy of everlasting life loe we turne to the Gentiles And Stephen saith Act. 7.51 Yee stifenetked and of vncircumcised harts and earesryee have always resissed the holy Ghost Thus Christ offering himself man hath power and doth reject Christ Put the Word off God from him Resist the Holy Ghost and freely off his owne will worke his owne condēnation But he hath no power at all to worke his owne salvation And so much onely to cleare our selves from that grosse and fearefull error of freewil from the which the Lord in great mercie hath freed vs. The End
A SHORT AND PLAINE proofe by the Word and workes off God that Gods decree is not the cause off anye Mans sinne or Condemnation AND That all Men are redeamed by Christ As also That no Infants are Condemned Collos 2.8 Beware least there be anie man that spople you through Philosophie and vaine deceipt Psal 119 113. I hate vaine inventions but thy Law doe I love Printed 1611. To the ladie Bovves Grace and vvisedome from aboue WOrthy Ladie when I began to consider to whome I might best commend the care of this so great a cause my hart could conceiue of none so fitt as you that for two causes the third may not be wanting The first is because I knowe your faithful vnfained loue to God his truth that in manie thinges according to knowledg The second because I knowe there is none in that Land that hath better meanes to procure a cause of religion to be handled according to the judgmēt of the best The third is the faithful reverēd loueing respect I beare to you that from your owne worthie deserts in the best things in all good vnto me I pray beseech you by that loue of God that hath bene in you of long time the which I wish may abound in you more more that you faile not my hopes herein which are That you wil either plainely see an upright consionable sound answere from the word of truth to this groūd here propounded or els giue glorie to God receiue it for the blessed truth of God The ground is easilie plainelie set downe which is that God giueing Adam freewil and power in himself not to eate of the forbidden fruit and live or to eate and dye could not in his eternal decree ordeyne or appoint him to life or death for then had his Freewil bene overthrowne if Adam had not eaten sinned which was to his owne power then had not death entred Therefore God did not decree that death should enter then Gods decree is not the cause of anie mans condemnation I now pray you Ladie with all the loue off my soule ' entertaine this great cause off God into your thoughts lett it take vp your best meditations that good thereby being produced you may stil be an instruement to advance the gospell off Iesus Christ you shal be sure off an high recompence off reward at the hands off the most high in heauen your remembrance shal be blessed amonge the Saints upon earth Thus praieing the Lord to blesse you and to giue you his holie Spirit with a gracious wise vnderstanding hart to descorne a right the thinges that differ I take leaue withal the grace faithfull honestie off my hart as I haue cause desiering your best good Tho Helvvys Iune 2. 1611. Psal 111.2 The works of the Lord are great ought to be sought out off all them that love them To all that waite for salvation by Iesus Christ Grace and peace from God WHereas we formerly in a little treatise intituled a Declaration off Faith of English people remayning at Amsterdam have in the fifth Article in short set downe our faith of Election and Reprobation concerning salvation and condemnation there haveing bene som eprivate opposition since wee writt it the love of God and vnto his truth constraineth vs to speake thus much more as we are able for the mainteynance of this cleere light of truth that God hath not in his eternal decre apointed some perticuler men to be saved and some perticuler men to be condemned and so hath redeamed but some But that Christ is given a ransome for all men yea even for the wicked that bring swift damnation vpon themselves denying the Lord that hath bought them 2. Pet. 2.1 It may and wil seeme straing that we of all others should take in hand to denie in a cause of so great controversie and so deepe a misterie to which we aunswere that it concernes vs asmuch as anie and therefore though we be not so able as we desire we were yet because we ought we are readie to shew our selves willing with the best abilitie we have and in that it is a deepe misterie as the whole truth of God is the more need had wee to search into i◠that by the grace of God we might find the depth of it so far as God hath revealed in his word as al men ought to doe And we pray the Godly Reader not to bee deceaved by that old deceipt of the misterie of iniquitie the man of sinne which is to perswade that it is to high a point and to deepe a misterie for thee to enter into for by this deceipt hath the misterie of iniquitie prevailed ād doth to this day prevaile with thousands and ten-thousands not to search into anie part off the Scriptures at all But to rest vpon the faith of the Church ād though manie blessed be God be broken out from that depth of darknes yet they are not come to that cleare fountaine of light to knowe professe and practice that the Lord doth require at their hands to search into ād knowe his whole truth revealed in the scriptures And for this misterie in had let it be plaine vnto the that if thou oughest to knowe that a Saviour is sent then thou oughest also to knowe to whome he is sent ād if thou thinke to satisfie thy self in that thou knowest he is sent a saviour to thee therein dost thou not seeke the glorie of God nor the good of thy brother and then the love of God is not in thee Therefore cast away all excuse and applie thy hart withall care full diligence and faithful vprightnes to search and find out the depth of this high point ād misterie that thou maist give glorie to God for sending his sonne a Saviour for all Men. And so praying the God of light to make this truth also to breake furth and increase amongst you as blessed be his name it hath done and doth daylie breake furth and increase in these partes and that amongst them which your selves accomt best reformed Churches Wee require thy loveing patience to beare with our wants and thy conscionable consideration of that which is spoken to the from the word of God whose Spirit bee vpon thee Amen AMonge the rest of the fearefull works of the misterie of iniquitie this is not the least if not the greatest that men seduced by Sathan sinne through ignorance are growne to that hight off evil as they do call the Creator who is a Spirit to accōpt they wil have a natural reason off al his works And to come to one particuler they will have a reason how sinne came who or what was the first cause thereoff the word off God cannot restraine these men they will not be kept within the bounds thereoff But they will enter into the secret counsels off God by their vanie Philosophy measuring Gods thoughts by
doubting as the Holy Prophet Davids did manie times In the 40. psalm he saith My sinnes have taken such hold vpō me that I am not able to looke vp Yea they are no in number then the hayres of my head therefore my hart hath fayled me Iff thou fal vnder such an estate condition which the most Godly do where shal be thy comfort In the mercies off God Why thou knowest not whether God have decreed to shew mercie on thee or no Wilt thou say thou knowest God hath decreed to shew mercy on al that beleeve so say we but how knowest thou that God hath decreed that thou art one off those that shall beleeve seeing thou haist much more cause to feare thou art none off them thou mayst ymagine thy selff to bee one but this opinion that God hath decreed some especially to bee saved some perticulerly to bee condemned overthrowes thy Faith vtterly For thou canst not certenly knowe it then thou canst not beleeve it And let this bee well observed off all that have any vnderstanding or love off Gods truth that this opinion setts Faith before knowledg For thou must first beleeve that Christ is given a Saviour for thee before thou canst knowe that hee is a Saviour for thee which cannot bee that a man should beleeve that he knowes not For how shall they beleeve in him off whome they have not heard Roma 10.14 And iff a man must first knowe that God hath sent his Sonne a Saviour For him before he can beleeve it which iff men bee not void off all religion they must confesse then lett the misterie off iniquitie the man off sinne himselff devise whose device this perticuler redemption is how any man shal knowe by the word off God that Christ is given a Saviour For him but by knowing that he is given a Saviour for all men except he can shewe his name especially set downe in the Word They that see not this let it not offend are blind cannot see at noone day These are some off the Fearefull proper Fruyts off this opinion That God hath decreed some perticuler men to salvation they cannot but bee saved some perticuler men to bee damned they must bee damned and cannot bee saved because God hath decreed their condemnation And thus Far off that Now will we endeavor to shew what vnderstanding God hath given vs in this high misterie great worke off Redemption iff wee can prove by plaine evidence off Scripture that Christ by his death sufferings hath redeamed all men then is this whole cause at an end And First to prove that the first promisse concerning Christ was generall to all it is evident Gen 3.15 Where the promisse off Christ is made off Adam Hevah which were al mankind in whome were al mankind in whome al had sinned for the takeing away off the condemnation due for that sinne Christ was there promissed given not for a parte which is Further proved 1. Ioh. 22 And he is a reconsiliatiō for our sinnes speaking off al the Faithfull to whome he writ and not for ours onely but also for the sinnes off the whole world how is it possible that the holy ghost should speake more plainely to shew that Iesus Christ is a reconsiliation for the Faithful which are not off the world and For the vnfaithful which are the World Moreover 2. Cor. 5.15 Thus reasoneth the Appostle to prove that all were dead in that one was dead for al. That if one bee dead for al then were al dead and he died for al and vers 19. God was in Christ ād reconsiled the world to himself not imputing their sinnes vnto them and 1. Tym 2.5.9 There is one God and one Mediator betwene God and man the mā Christ Iesus who gave himself a ransome for al mē Thus we se Christ is a reconsiliatiō for the sinnes off the Faithful not so onely but also of the sinnes off the whole world that al were dead he is dead for al that God in Christ recōsiled the World to himselff that Iesus Christ hath givē him selff a ransome for al men This might be sufficient to satisfie every vpright hart but let vs yet see Further. The Holy Ghost by the Apostle Peter 2. Pet. 3.9 speaketh thus vnto those Mockers which said where is the promisse off his comming The Lord of that promisse is not slack as some men count slacknes but is patiēt towards vs ād would have no mā perish but would al come to repentance Here doth the Apostle shew that it is not slacknes in the Lord that he comes not to judgment but it is his patience the reason off the lords patience is because hee would have no man to perish but would al men come to repentance therefore certenly he hath redeamed al 1. Tym. 2.4 God wil that all men shal be saved and come to thee acknowledging of the truth Furthermore Col. 2.20 ād through peace made by that blood of that his crosse to reconsile to himselff through him through him I say al things both which are in earth and which are in Heaven What shal we need to allege any moe grounds of scripture to prove that Christ hath redeamed al men that he would have no man perish These may suffice oh that they might suffice what gladnes should come to our soules to see men tractably mynded to submitt thēselves to the Word off truth which is so evident in this point Far bee it from any feareing God either off a Froward or necligent mynd to passe by this great point though hād led by so weake meanes by reason off which exceeding weaknes wee are not able to the ful desire off our soules to discover the depth off the misterie off iniquitie in this opinion off particuler Election Reprobation so off perticuler Redemption nor to shew furth the great misterie off Godlines in the true holy vnderstanding off vniversal or the general Redemption off al by Christ yet let us in a few words shew vnto you how greatly the mercy of God towards mankind is advanced by Christs redeaming off all In that when man had off his owne Fre wil being tēpted yeilded vnto the tēptation off the serpent neclecting the comaundement off his God Creator brought condemnation vpon himselff al mankind God of his infinit mercy would not leave Adam in him al mankind to perish vnder that condemnation but hath sent a Saviour to redeame Adam al mankind frō that sinne shewing himself equally merciful equally just vnto al being no respecter of persons not perdoning Adā giveing him a Saviour condemning the greatest part of his posterity for that his sinne but hath givē his sonne a Saviour For al iff through vnbeleefe they deprive not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ves And what a comfortable doctrine is this vnto al whē every poore soule may knowe that there is grace