natural suffering nor ever was to be punished meerly on the old score that is meerly for violating and incuring the penalty of the first Law by God as Rector according to that Law God might have refused to accept Christs Sufferings as a Satisfaction for Sinners much more to have freely provided it out of his own Treasure as it were when God therefore did freely himself provide a Satisfaction and freely Accept it He did both only on these terms that as Legislator of the strict Law of Works as standing without remedy he would punish no Man but yet he would not actually and absolutely discharge them for they are still his Subjects and now by a double right and bond viz both of Creation and Redemption and therefore must still be governed by him and therefore must still be Governed by Laws and therefore must still be under Precepts Prohibitions Promises and Threatnings which are the Parts of the Law For the Nature of Man is such as that it must be governed not meerly by Commanding but also per Praemia Poenas Experience tells us that of the best Men on Earth as propounded to them therefore God in mercy would make a New Law commanding all men to repent and that hear the Gospel to Believe and giving to the Redeemed the actual pardon of all their Sins on these Conditions making Christ the Fountain of our Life and Head of all that shall be Saved and Ordaining that Christ and with him Pardon and Adoption and the Spirit for further Sanctification and Salvation shall be given to all that will take Christ and that those that refuse him shall be unpardoned for all his Sacrifice and Satisfaction and shall moreover incur a far sorer punishment These are the terms on which God took Christ's Sufferings as satisfactory to his Justice which terms are well pleasing to the Son himself nor did he ever desire to ransom them on other terms or to bring them into any other Condition than under this his own Government and Laws nor to convey Pardon and Glory the Fruits of his Death to any that refused him still supposing his Everlasting secret Decree of procuring his chosen infallibly to perform the Conditions and partake of the benefits which belongs to another part of Theology Also it must be well observed as the very Principal Point for avoiding the common Errours in this business that the satisfaction is made to God as Legislator and so Rector per Leges and so hath its main direct respect to his Legislative Will His Will de Eventu is naturally Antecedent to it and the Cause of it as Event But his Law was the cause or occasion of it as due or morally necessary and also there are no Acts of his Decretive Will de Eventu caused by it but there are Acts of his Laws and so as to our manner of conceiving of his Will de Debito caused by it and so it was not for Christ's Death that God decreed to give Faith to any and consequently to give actual Pardon and Glory But God Decreed to give these for Christ's death when he so gives them And it is because of Christs death that they are due though not immediately from his death but mediante donatione Testamenti vel faderis Christ's death is the Cause of Faith but not of the Decree to give it Again it must be understood that it is not God as Legislator of the New Law that is satisfied for Sin by Christ's death that were to dye to satisfie himself the Mediator for the Non execution of his own remedying Law But it is God as Legislator of the Law of Works constituting Everlasting Death the due Penalty of every Sin Or if any had rather say that it is not formally the Law of Works which is now in force conjunct with the Law of Grace but it is become part of the Law of Grace the matter comes all to one sense though we change the words There is one Law that saith He that Sinneth shall dye call it what you will this Law as to the end Christ hath satisfied i. e. he hath properly satisfied the Law-giver There is another Law or as they call it the peremptory part of the New Law which saith He that believeth shall be Saved and he that believeth not shall be Damned Christ hath not satisfied the Justice of this Law by his Sufferings The sense of the Commination is He that in the time of this Life believeth not shall be Damned This Law is ever executed on all that are guilty and by it obliged to Everlasting Death that is on those that in their life time here do not Repent and Believe For the violation of the precept of this Law as it requires Belief or other Duty at the present time Christ did dye but not for the non-performance of the Condition which Death is threatned to Lastly It is therefore certain that Christ dyed not for the Sin of Final Impenitency in a prevalent degree and unbelief or Final Rebellion against himself or his Father And therefore when I said before that he satisfyed God as Legislator of the Law of works for sin as sin it is to be understood of the Law of Works as contradistinct from the Law of Grace and so all the sins peremptorily Condemned by the Law of Grace are excepted from the satisfaction Not only nor at all because they are the sins of such Persons but because they are such excepted sins who ever the person be Now therefore to the Argument and first to the Major I deny it and never saw any fair colour of proof of it and therefore having full plain Scripture to the contrary do confidently believe that all those are not Saved that Christ satisfied for and to the Proof brought I answer 1. It is untrue that Christ satisfied for every sin of every Man for whom he satisfied and it will never be proved He hath excepted all those Sins which are comprized in the final non-performance of the Condition of Salvation Object None that he satisfied for are ever guilty of that and that 's the Reason why he may not be said to dye for such Sins Answ That 's denyed and to be better proved before it can be received by Sober Men. I have already proved that he dyed and satisfied for those that are final Unbelievers or Apostates and so perish And I now prove that the Reason why Christ satisfied not for such sins as final Impenitency Infidelity or Rebellion is not accidental from the state of the Redeemed viz. because none of them are guilty of such but it is directly from the Nature of the sin without respect to this person more than that If Christ have expresly excepted the final non-performance of the Gospel Conditions from among the number of those sins which he hath satisfied for and that even in the New Law which he hath enacted for all Elect or Non-Elect then it is not only accidentally or because it
in an infallible prevalency to his chosen And that none might perish merely on the old score or be judged meerly by the Old Law but all stand or fall according to their improvement or abuse of recovering Mercy And all this God hath hereupon granted to his Son And so he hath satisfaction for his satisfaction though many that he hath satisfied for do perish 6. Besides consider though men be punished for the same sins that Christ suffered for yet as to God the same do become new sins and so men suffer for them as it were as for new sins For 1. The old Obligation was so far made void or disabled that of it self it could never more bind them to punishment by reason of the addition of a remedying grant 2. God did quantum in se as Legislator of the old Law forgive them all the debt except the sins of non-performance of the Gospel conditions which God still excepted and Christ never suffered for for God hath delivered the obligation out of his own hand as standing in that first Relation of Rector secundum Legem Naturae sâ—lum and given it up into the hand of the Redeemer to give Remission to whom he please He hath also made a free Deed of Gift of an Universal Pardon to all that will accept it So that though men be not actually pardoned yet God may conveniently be said to have pardoned them in that he did his part as Rector secundum Leges As he saith to Israel I have healed thee and thou art not healed When a true Believer is actually Pardoned God doth put forth no new act to Pardon him but doth it by the general Grant or Act of Oblivion whereby he Pardoned All men conditionally as well as them The Law saith a man hath done a thing or given a benefit when he hath done his part though the effect follow not and the Work be yet undone For Moral Causes may do all their part and â—et the effect not follow for want of the performance of conditions in the receiver or because con-causes do not their part And therefore if the effect follow not the Law enquires Who it is long of Whose fault was it if of the Patient or Receiver then the Donor or Agent is said to have done the thing though yet it be not done For as to him moraliter vel Civiliter it is done There being no default on his part If any say that God followeth not the Rules of Humane Laws I answer God is the Fountain of all right Laws and Reason and Justice and I speak not of any unjust or mistaking Laws This is an ill pretence for men to judge their Maker by when they will not allow him that reasonable apology nor make that construction of his ways according to common undeniable equity as they will do of the ways of men Right Reason and the Laws made thereby are a beam of Gods perfect Wisdom and Justice If any say that God doth not Totum quod ad se attinet all his part in making a Deed of Gift of Christ and Pardon and Glory to all that will accept it unless he also give Faith which is the acceptance it self I shall now only say this much till we come to the point by it self that God doth Totum quod ad se attinet ut Legislatorem vel Rectorem juxta Leges all that belongs to him as Rector according to Laws though not all that belongs to him as absolute Lord and Disposer of events and all Creatures And it is in that Respect sub 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rectoris that Christ made satisfaction to him and not in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Relation of an Eternal-Elector or Absolute Proprietary and Disposer of all So that you see now that quoad Deum all men are pardoned all their sins except those excepted in the conditions of the Grant though quoad delinquentis Receptionem they are still unpardoned They may have Christ and Pardon if they will And when they are deprived of the Gift meerly because they will not have it no Reason can say God did not give it or Christ did not procure it or that God is unjust in that they are without it So that it is not now meerly the obligation of the first Law as unremedied that binds them over to punishment nor as it is in the Hands of God as Creator or Rector secundum Legem operum but it is the Obligation of the new Law primarily He that believeth not shall not be forgiven nor be saved and consequently of the Old Law as the obligation is in the Redeemers hands to be charged only on the Rejecters of Grace It is not primarily for sin as sin according to this Law Whosoever sinneth shall dye but it is primarily for Rejecting the Remedy and then that sin by necessary consequence remains unpardoned so that it is not directly because they were guilty of Death by the first Law but propter rejectam Remissionem for despising the Remission of that guilt So that quoad Deum it may be called the return of Sin or Guilt Remitted and so to be more properly ex novd obligatione from the New Obligation of the Law of Christ binding all their sins again upon them though as to them and their reception it is both from the New Obligation and the old And therefore Jude calleth such twice dead and pluckt up by the Roots If an hundred Traytors be condemned and the Prince Ransom them all at a Price agreeing in the payment of it that they shall now be all his own and none of them be delivered for all that who will not thankfully own him and acknowledge his favour Here it is just that all the Refusers of Pardon yet perish And their Death is directly for the refusing of the Remedy and secondarily from their old crime because they would not have it remedied So that though Materialiter they lose but one Life yet it may be said that the Life they now lose Civiliter is not the same that before they lost but it is vitam de novo donatam a Life newly given them for they were dead in Law and the King gave them a new Life Moraliter etsi non Naturaliter And it is the rejecting of the Gift by which they lose their former Natural Life and their New-given Mortal Life And will any man be so ill advised in this case as to say that it is injustice in the King or Prince to punish the same persons that were before Ransomed Yea if it were not by Money but by suffering publick shame that the Prince had Ransomed them Having thus Explained the Case and Answered the Argument I will looking at Edification and not the usual form of Disputing go beyond the task of a meer Respondent and give you two or three Arguments to prove that it is no injustice in God to punish those for whom Christ hath satisfied or for whose sins he was a sacrifice
Law But c. Ergo c. Prob. Min. that the Law knoweth no other satisfaction but fulfilling Argu. 1. Satisfaction strictly as distinct from fulfilling is Redditio aequivalentis But the Law as continuing the same cannot commute or substitute the aequivalens vel tantundem for the Idem or proper Debt 2. It is essential to the Law to constitute the Debitum vel officij vel Poenae But it constitutes not the Debitum alterius speciei vel tantidem else it should confound the ipsum debitum with the aequivalens The Law never imposed it on Christ to satisfie for our sins This was the obligation of his own Sponsion 3. Satisfaction which is the giving of the value for the proper Debt implyeth a relaxation of the Law to its acceptance But the Law cannot relax it self Ergo c. 4. To admit of satisfaction is the Act of the Lawgiver or Rector as he is above Law therefore it is no act of the Law As to make a Law to pardon an Offender to abrogate a Law c. are acts of one above the Law so is the relaxing of the Law in pardoning the Sinner and taking Christs sufferings for ours Can any obligation dissolve or remit it self 5. If the Law did neither threaten Christ in the first enacting of it nor hath power to change it self since by assuming another sense then Christs sufferings were neither a fulfilling nor satisfaction to the Law At verum prius Ergâ— If the name of Christ were put into the threatning after the Law was made then the Law was changed and so is not the same and it could not change it self Indeed if another for you pay a Debt the Bond is satisfied because it was the ipsum debitum But if another will bear the Death that you deserve the Law that threatens you is not satisfied nor fulfilled But the Law-giver is satisfied and the ends of the Law attained But here note that this relaxation and non fulfilling of the Law is not total and absolute nor such as derogateth at all from the honour of the Law or Lawgiver but it is a relaxation upon such terms as preserve both fully the full weight of the threatned Punishment being born or undertaken by the Son of God before God would relax his Law 6. To this and the two former together I add If the Laws Commination be fulfilled or if Christ suffered the same that was threatned or if we satisfied fully in Christ then we are not by that Law obliged to obedience during this Life But the consequent is false Ergo c. The reason of the consequence is this The Law obligeth aut ad obedientiam aut ad poenam disjunctively pro eodem tempore and not ad obedientiam ad poenam Now Christ hath satisfied for our sin not only against the Law of Works by Adam but against all Laws of Nature or Grace since except the non performance of the condition of the new Covenant and this to our Death So that if we have in Christ fully satisfied the threatning for all sin in this Life then we cannot be bound by the Precept after such satisfaction till after this Life be ended To say we are not obliged to the same Ends is no answer For that Law can oblige us to no ends which is fulfilled already and which did never oblige but aut ad obedientiam aut poenam propter obedientiae defectum CHAP. VII Prop. IV. It was not only the Sins of the Elect but of all even Elect and Non-elect which were the pro-causa meritoria of Christs sufferings Or it was not only the Sufferings Due to the Sins of the Elect but of all which Christ did undergo And accordingly hath made satisfaction for all IT is necessary that we speak of the efficient Causes of Christs Death before we handle the Effects And therefore we must consider quorum loco he Dyed before we consider how far they shall partake of the Benefits Here it must be remembred that we have already proved that Christ did not represent our Persons in satisfying but yet he bore our sins that is the penalty due to them and so did in a larger sence suffer nostro loco or nostri loco not as our Delegate or proper â—â—carius but as a voluntary Sponsor and so substitute in suffering Also understand that Christs sufferings had no real proper meritorious Cause But yet Mans sins were the pro-causa meritoria He undertook to bear that suffering which for them was due to us not to him And therefore when I say he bore the sufferings due to us I mean it materialiter only such sufferings for kind and weight he bore but his obligation to bear them was only from his own Sponsion and not the Law The Law by constituting the Dueness of punishment to us was the occasion of his suffering it but not the obliging cause I add that accordingly he hath satisfied for all For this will not be denyed if the first be proved For he satisfied by suffering what the Sinner deserved And in whose stead soever he suffered for them he satisfied Now I shall think it meet to stand the longer on this point because the decision of the main Question Whether Christ dyed for all men dependeth mainly on it For the strictest sence in which he is said to die for men is to die in their stead or to Die for their Sins as the procuring Cause on his own undertaking Yield this once and we shall much easilier agree on the second Part Pro quorum beneficio or what the benefits be which Christ hath procured to all At least no man will think it unmeet to say that Christ died for all men if we can prove that he dyed for the sins and in the stead of all and satisfied Gods Justice for all And if he dyed for them it is certain that he satisfied for them as is said because God doth neither require nor accept the Death of his Righteous Son but as it is necssary to the satisfaction of his justice for Sin Lastly remember that I put the word all as contradistinct from the Elect pleading specially against them that would confine Christs satisfaction only to the Elect Not that I doubt of Christs sufferings for all in the utmost universality but I think it far safer to dispute it as to all that hear the Gospel For God hath plainlier shewed us how he dealeth with these than the rest and it is not fair nor profitable to carry the disputation into the obscurest part to lose it rather than determine it And if any agree with me in this that I prove That Christ satisfied for all that hear the Gospel I will not trouble them with disputing it about the rest but willingly let them enjoy their opinion though contrary to mine as judging it to be to us of far lesser moment My Arguments shall be first from the scope of Scripture Doctrine and 2. From some particular Texts
Christs Dying for one man cannot procure these great benefits to another It cannot have causality as to such an effect God doth not forgive Thomas because Christ Dyed for Peter 2. A non necessitate There was a necessity of Christs Death as is before proved to the procuring of this pardon But there was no necessity for procuring pardon to one man that Christ should Die for another therefore the necessity was that he Dyed for the person himself 3. If Christs Death were not necessary to the conditional pardoning of the Non-elect but that God doth it without Christs Dying for them then it was not necessary for the conditional pardoning of the Elect but God might have done it without Christs Dying for them But the Consequent is â—alse therefore so is the Antecedent The Major is plain in that there is the same reason both as to their Sin and Case and Remission 1. The Sins of the Elect did not differ from â—hose of the Non-elect so as that they more â—eeded a satisfactory Expiation 2 They were both under the same Law â—urse and Wrath of God 3. The Deed of Gift or Promise which reâ—itteth one is the same with that which remitteth the other The Minor is plain for if any â—ould say that without Christs Death God â—ight conditionally have pardoned all Elect and Non-elect but not Actually I Answer 1. Then Christ should Die only to purchase Faith which is false For God doth perform no new act to make the conditional Gift become actual but only the giving of Grace to believe and so perform the condition 2. Then God might have made this new Law and Covenant of Grace Believe and be pardoned and saved or Whosoever will let him take the Water of Life freely without any expiatory Sacrifice or Satisfaction by Christ which 1. So contradicteth it self seeing the thing given is a Dead revived Saviour with his Benefits and therefore it cannot be given which is not 2. And so subverteth Christianity it self that I think I need not spend more words on it Only I add this which is of considerable moment that on the contrary the great necessity and ends of Christs Death are in respect to God as Rector per leges and not as Dominus absolutus or benefactor merè arbitrarius God received no addition of Love or Goodwill nor of Wisdom or Natural Power by Christs Death But he received a Reparation of his honour as Legislator and a Moral Power consisting in Convenientâ— rei efficiendae to pardon sin by making a general act of pardon to all that will accept the Redeemer and his Benefits So that the proper use of Christs Death was to be an Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin offered to God as the offended Rector And therefore the New Law or Covenant of Grace which followeth hereupon giving Christ and Pardon to all that will Receive him must needs be the proper effect of Christs Death Whereas Faith is given rather by God as Dominus Absolutuâ— arbitrarily doing good to his Creature then as Legislator and is said to be purchased by Christs Death but in a more remote sense as shall anon be shewed so that to deny this Conditional Gift Covenant or Promise to be the fruit of Christs satisfaction is to deny a very great part of the fruit of it and tantum non to make Christ to dye in vain The Consequence needs no proof Therefore I pass to the next Arg. II. If God do offer by his Word and Messengers Remission Justification Adoption and Right to Glorification to all Elect and Non-Elect then Christ hath satisfied for all But God doth so offer these to All Ergo c. A Remissione Salute omnibus Oblatis The former Argument was drawn from the Gift and this is drawn from the Offer which though it be inseparable from the former and so implyed in the former Argument yet I shall annex it because of them who deny the Conditional Gift but confess the Offer The Antecedent I think few will question as to All who hear the Gospel and God as Legislator hath done his part in offering it to those that yet â—eâ—er heard it 1. In making the Tenour of the promise or Offer of Universal extent 2. And in Commanding his Officers to go into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature The Consequent is proved thus 1. The Pardon offered is either a Pardon purchased by Christs Satisfaction for them to whom it is offered or else procured some other way But there is no other way of procurement Ergo c. 1. Not without Christs Blood as is proved 2. Not by Christ's Blood as shed for others as is proved Object But it is by his Blood as shed for all that will Believe Ans 1. Believing is not the Condition of Christs Dying for us but of our participation of the benefits thereby purchased not of the Impetration but of part of the Application Christ never said If men or this man will Believe I will dye for them But If thou Believe thou shalt be justified and saved by him that hath died for thee Belief is not presupposed as the Qualification of the subject for whom Christ must dye but is required after and given freely to his chosen for the further Application of his Death 2. His dying for them that will Believe was either for certain determinate persons who should Believe or else without a determination of the persons If the latter only then he died certainly for none If the former then his dying for one man would not procure pardon for another 2. God doth not offer that which he cannot give for his offer is a gift on condition of Acceptance and we must not dare to charge God with illusory or ludicrous actions But God cannot give Pardon and Justification and Right to Salvation to any sinful man for whom Christ never satisfied When I say God cannot I mean not that he cannot for want of Power but because of his Wisdom Goodness and Justice He cannot being Rector of the World do that which is so Inconvenient and such a Monster in Government and so destructive to the ends of his Government All grant that quoad potentiam ordinatam now he cannot that is He will not If God may give these to one man yea to All the Non-Elect to whom they are offered without Christs satisfaction procuring them then he may do so by all but that is not true Ergo c. Object But iâ— men will Believe God Can and Will give them what he offers Answ This Objection supposeth the Believing of that person for whom Christ died not or else it changeth the subject of the question For the Question now is Whether God can give Pardon to a Man for whom Christ hath not satisfyed And it is hereby answered that He can if that man Believe To which I reply that he cannot or will not supposing that such a Man should believe For it is Christs Death that is
Workmanship But he loveth man after his Faith and Love to him as Rector per Leges as putting on the resemblance of goodness and justice in civil Sense and as he now stands in that Relation to them in which he is by his own Law as it were obliged to do them good Note this difference of Christs love Prov. 8. 17. I love those that love me and those that seek me early shall find me So ver 21. Luke 7. 47. Many sins are forgiven for she loved much If it be meant therefore she loved much yet it would not make against this From John 3. 19. I argue thus If men are condemned for loving darkness rather than Light and Christ is this Light then they were obliged to love Christ the Light But c. Ergo c. And I have shewed it is as Redeemer that he must be loved For to Love Christ as an excellent Prophet only that a Turk may do for Mahomet so confesseth him to be Mat. 10. 37. It is Christs condition propounded to all That if they love not him better than Father Mother House Land or Life they cannot be his Disciples So that those that are not yet his Disciples are obliged at once to love him above all and become his Disciples 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha And then more specially for Gratitude because I have hitherto insisted on the other species Love there are many Parables in the Gospel that shew that wicked men are condemned for ingratitude to their Redeemer Mat. 21. 37 40. c. Christ convinceth his Auditors that those unthankful Husband-men that refused to pay the Fruits and killed the Son that was sent to them he was sent to be entertained as Redeemer would deservedly be destroyed with a miserable destruction and the Vineyard let out to others i. e. that the Kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof And what is that Kingdom here meant but the Gospel The proclaiming and offer of Christ as Redeemer and of mercy in and with him Mat. 22. 8. It is unthankful refusal of the feast prepared when all things were ready and they invited which was the unworthiness that there is mentioned which shut out those Guests Mat. 18. 32. Unthankfulness is intimamated as part of the Sin of that wicked Servant who took his fellow Servant by the throat for 100. Pence when himself had been forgiven 10000 Talents I forgave thee all the debt signifieth such a mercy as Men may have that perish as is plain verse 34. 35. and yet certainly presupposeth Christs dying for them and obligeth them to thankfulness If any ask the sense of the Text I shall give it after by it self more fitly Let me therefore conclude thus That Doccrin which subverteth a very great part of Religion is not of God But so doth this which denieth Universal satisfaction Therefore it is not of God The Minor is proved from what is said It destroyeth the ground of all Mens first love to Christ for Redeeming them It justifieth all the Non-Elect in their ingratitude and not loving Christ as their Redeemer Besides what was said before of its destroying the use of repentance and all Means But we shall recollect more of these consequences in the end and shew you more fully the face of the Doctrin which I dispute against I have proved that all Men that hear the Gospel owe Christ love and thankfulness for Redeeming them by dying for them I should next shew that all Men in the World do owe God love and thankfulness for those mercies which are the effects of Christs satisfaction But especially those within the Church who have in the New Covenant made over to them a conditional remission of their Sins and adoption and everlasting life viz. If they will accept Christ with his benefits Those that are sanctified with the Blood of the Covenant and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost and were escaped from the pollutions of the World through the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and and have tasted the good word of God and the Powers of the World to come c. Certainly these have received the fruits of Christs satisfaction for which they were bound to be thankful But of those more particularly in their place Arg. 14th Acertitudine fidei possibilitate rectè credendi If Christ hath not satisfied for the Sins of all then no Man hath a sufficient ground for his first justifying Faith All Men are left at an utter uncomfortable uncertainty whether they may believe to Justification or not But the consequent is false Therefore so is the Antecedent That which is said before doth shew so much of the grounds of this Argument that I shall be the shorter in it now All the doubt is of the consequence of the Major and to clear that I suppose it is granted that all firm sufficient Faith for justification must not only have a command to warrant it but also a fit object about which it must be exercised God commandeth no Man to believe a falshood to make it become true by believing it nor to trust to a person or promise that is not to be trusted as being not only fallible but certainly will deceive As for the Act of affiance or recumbency commonly called the justifying Act no Man can groundedly or comfortably rest on Christ for justification by his Blood who doth not first know that his Blood was shed for him and hath satisfied for him Else he must rest on that which he knows not to be sufficient for him to rest upon For it hath been proved that Christs death is not sufficient to justifie any for whom it was not suffered though they should believe He suffered not superfluously as I have shewed Take the confession of a Divine that for fear of Arminianism joyned Hands with the Antimonians Maccovius colleg disp de justif disp 5. § 22. Quoad substantiam poenae nihil olus perpessus est Christus quam per legem debebatur Neque enim vel Amor Patris vel etiam justitia permittere potuit plura ut filio imponerentur quam quae illi necessariò tanquam sponsori ferenda erant Quoad circumstantias autem patientis personam patiendi causam passionis efficaciam plusquam sufficiens satisfactio Christi Neque enim lex requirebat ut Deus moreretur neque ut sine peccato proprio quis moreretur neque morstalis quae suffecisset pro peccatis totius mundi sive pro omnibus singulis hominibus Here he confesseth that Christ suffered no more than was due by Law and than was necessary for him to suffer as Sponsor And yet that his Death was sufficient for the Sins of all the World even for all Men and every Man And if so then either he suffered as Sponsor for all Or else circumstances did make that Death sufficient for
the same Again that this sorrow of his is joy and rejoycing to thee if thou wilt believe in him When thou readest that in the Garden he prayed lying grovling on his Face sweating Water and Blood begin to think seriously what an unspeakable measure of Gods wrath was upon thy blessed Saviour that did prostrate his Body upon the Earth and cause the Blood to follow and think that thy Sins must needs be most hainous that brought such bloody and grievous pains upon him Also think it is a shame for thee to carry thy Head to Heaven with haughty looks to wallow in thy pleasures and to draw the innocent Blood of thy poor brethren by oppression and deceit for whom Christ Sweat Water and Blood and take an occasion from Christs agony to lay aside the pride of thy Heart yea even to bleed for thy own offences c. When thou readest that Christ was taken and bound think that thy very Sins brought him into the power of his Enemies and were the very bonds wherewith he was tied Think that thou shouldst have been bound in the very same manner unless he had been a surety and pledg for thee Think also that thou in the same manner art bound and tied with the Chains of thy own Sins c. Lastly think and believe that the bonds of Christ serve to purchase thy liberty from Hell death and damnation When thou hearest that he was brought before Annas and Caiphas think it was meet that thy surety and pledg who was to suffer the Condemnation due to thee should by the High Priest as by the Mouth of God be condemned And wonder at this that the very Coessential and Eternal Son of God even the Soveraign judg of the World stands to be judged and that by wicked Men perswading thy self that this so great confusion comes of thy Sins Whereupon being further amazed at thy fearful state humble thy self in dust and ashes and pray God to soften thy stony Heart that thou maist turn to him and by true Faith lay hold on Christ c. When thou readest that Barrabas the murderer was preferred before Christ c. Thy very Sins pulled on him that shameful reproach and in that for thy cause he was esteemed worse than Barrabas c. When thou readest that he was openly and judicially condemned to the cursed death of the Cross consider what is the wrath and fury of God against Sin and how great is his mercy to Sinners and in this Spectacle look on thy self and with groans of Heart say O good God what settest thou before mine Eyes I even I have sinned I am guilty and worthy of damnation Whence comes this change that thy blessed Son is in my room but of thy unspeakable mercy Wretch that I am How have I forgotten my self and thee my God O Son of God how low hast thou abased thy self for me Therefore give me grace O God that beholding my own Estate in the person of my Saviour thus condemned I may detest my Sins that were the cause thereof and by a lively Faith embrace that absolution which thou offerest me in him who was condemned in my stead and room O Lord Jesus Saviour of the World give me that Holy Spirit that I may judg my self and be as vile in my own Eyes as thou wast vile before the Jews Unite me unto thee by the same Spirit that in thee I may be as worthy to be accepted before God as I am worthy in my self to be detested for my Sins c. When thou readest that he was script of his cloathing think it was that he being naked might bear thy shame ou the Cross c. When thou readest of the complaint of Christ that he was forsaken of his Father consider how he suffered the pangs and torments of Hell as thy Pledge and Surety c When thou readest of his Death consider that thy Sins were the cause of it c. Thus far Mr. Perkins whose words I have thus largely set doown both as a pattern for Ministers how to Preach the Doctrine of Redemption and to shew the necessity there is that Ministers and People do see and discover to others their Sin in this great aggravation as they were the crucifiers of Christ and to shew you what English Ministers Preach to the People whatever they speak in Disputes and what kind of Preaching it is which hath succeeded so in England for the conversion of Souls If this be not a plain Preaching of Universal Redemption or Satitfaction as to all that hear the Gospel whom he requires so oft to consider that Their sins crucified Christ then I know not what is And if any quirke may be produced to wrest so plain words to a contrary sense I am sure the poor sinners to whom it is Preached know not ordinarily those evasions but receive it in the plain sense I could fill a Volume with the like passages as this out of our most powerful and successful Preachers Here then are two distinct aggravations of sin both necessarr to every penitent Soul both which are denyed by the denyal of Universal satisfaction The first is that our sins killed Christ as being the cause of his Death Is not a man bound to mourn over him whom his sins have pierced before he knoweth himself to be Elect How few then of the Elect themselves should do it 2. The second aggravation is that all our sins against recovering mercies are committed against him that Died for us He that denyeth both these aggravations of sin doth not a little wrong Christ and mens Souls Lastly I argue thus If without those forementioned aggravations of sin no man can truly and savingly Repent then all men are bound thus to aggravate their sins in their self accusations But without these there can be no saving Repentance Ergo c. The consequence of the Major is proved in that all men are bound truly to Repentance even with that which is called Repentance unto Life The Antecedent or Minor is proved 1. In that else it can be but a Legal Repentance and not an Evangelical if it be not for sin as the crucifier of Christ and for sin as against our Redeemer 2. From the description of true Gospel Repentance Zech. 12. 10. They shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourn over him c. Or if it were proved that there is besides this a true Repentance foregoing yet it is but part of that great work seeing this Evangelical Repentance must go close with it And if any say tha tmen are bound first to believe before they are bound to this evangelical repentance for sinning against the blood of Christ I answer 1. They are bound to both at once and the Apostles prest both at once on men To Repent and Believe 2. Most Divines make Repentance with Faith to go before Justification 3. Some have writ whole Volumes to prove that it goes before Faith it self 4. All acknowledge
Enemies that rebelled and rejected him 2. And in the Blessedness and Glory of his Saints who are his Body and in the pleasing of God in all Thus much of what Christ was to receive to himself 2. That which Mankind was to receive for whom he satisfied was 1. Immediately in the change of his Condition where is Considerable 1. The Terminus à quo which was A Legal necessity of Destruction or Damnation which consisteth in this that now the Lawgiver God-Creator being satisfied he is no longer necessitated or obliged as we may speak to destroy the Sinner tho' yet the Law is not wholly Abrogate nor its Obligation of the Sinner to Duty or Punishment dissolved but the Sinner is Delivered from that Law as it stands alone without a Remedy seeing a sufficient Remedy is provided and the Law it self is now at the pleasure and dispose of the Redeemer who will Judge no Man by this Law alone or principally So that the Sinner who before was not pardonable but in potentiâ remotiore nor at all quoad Potentiam Dei ordinatam in his former state without this change is now become pardonable in Potentiâ propriore quoad Potentiam Deiordinatam in his present state 2. The Terminus ad quem or state to which he is Delivered is 1. To the Redeemer as Proprietary he being his Own 2. To the Redeemer as Rector to be dealt with on terms of Grace and in order to Recovery from his Misery 3. And in both these to the Redeemer as our grand Benefactor and Saviour whose Office is to lead us to God by the winning demonstration of his Love Mans state having this immediate change of Relation 2. The Benefits Consequential to these which he receiveth are Either 1. From Christ as Rector Or 2. As Dominus absolutus Proprietary 3. And as a free Benefactor doing as he list with his own benefits 1. As Rector Christ is as is said 1. Legislator 2. And seeth to the Execution As Legislator 1. He taketh down the old Law both 1. That of works as it is a proper covenant and means of Life and so freeth man from the necessity of perfect obeying for salvation though yet he destroy not its being or obligation to perfect obedience 2. And he freeth those that were under it from the Mosaical Law of Rites and that by Abrogating it But this was not till the fulness of time but the other was presently upon the beginning of Restauration 2. He 1. Maketh 2. Promulgateth a New Law of Grace containing 1. Essentials 2. Accidentals By the Essentials of the Law 1. He prescribeth to men a sweet and easie Course of Duty and giveth them commands that are not grievious which 1. In some respects he maketh meer Duties and Means 2. And in other respects Conditions of their receiving farther benefits 2. He determineth of what shall be Due to man as by way of Penalty if they Rebel so 1. By conferring farther benefits on men Which are Considerable 1. In themselves 2. In the way of Collation 1. The Benefits given by the new Law or Covenant are 1. Right to relative Benefits or new Relations 2. Or Right to real Benefits The former are 1. Principal and Radical that is Membership of Christ or Union with him 2. Or Consequential Which are 1. The fruits of satisfaction properly as satisfaction that is The Restoring us from the misery we fell into by freeing us from Guilt or Obligation to punishment by pardoning our Sin and Justifying us so far 2. Those that are Consequential to satisfaction not meerly as satisfaction but as a Price Purchasing or Meriting farther good and so are consequents of his Meritorious Works also And that is his bringing us to a higher and better state of Relation than that which was lost which is in 1. Adoption to Sonship 2. Membership of the Church of the Redeemed and Called 2. The real Benefits which the Covenant giveth us right to are 1. Such as are to be received in this Life As 1. The Spirit to be 1. Our further Sanctifier 2. And Comforter 2. And all other things to work for our good and promote our Recovery and Happiness 2. Or such as are to be received in the Life to come Either at the Entrance as 1. Felicity of the Soul first and then Resurrection from the Dead 2. And Justification by sentence and adjudication of Eternal Glory 2. Or in the state thereof which is our Perfect Blessedness in Enjoying God and being perfectly acceptable to him in our Persons and Praises We speak not now of these real benefits as Conferred in themselves but in the Right we have to them before hand All which Right is given by the New Law or Covenant as Gods Instrument 2. And as the benefits given so the manner of the Laws giving must needs be observed Which is 1. By imperfect Collation not ipso facto presently making the thing our own which is 1. When the gift is conditional suspended on some Condition And only thus doth the Law or Covenant give Pardon Justification Adoption with all that Right to real Mercy before mentioned to all men Elect or not Elect before they believe 2. Or when the thing is given only in Diem And so Right to a Resurrection is given to all 2. Or else the Law makes a perfect Collation and that is 1. When it gives the Benefit absolutely and presently So that Christ freed men from the Law of Works and Ceremonies so far as is before expressed 2. Or when it actually confers that Benefit after the performance of the Condition which before was but Conditionally Given For it was the will of the Legislator that the actual Gift should be suspended on that Condition and therefore though the Nature of the Law change not upon that performance of the Condition yet it then begins Moraliter Efficariter agere which it did not before And thus the Law of Grace gives actual Pardon Adoption and Right to glory to men as soon as they sincerely believe And here begin the Effects of Christs death in Law sence to be peculiar to some when they perform the conditions which others do not which condition Christ giveth not as Legislator All that we have spoke till now was common to Non-elect Thus we have shewed what the Law gives by its Essentials 2. By the Integrals or Accidentals which you will call them of this new Law for Laws use to have Preambles Narratives c. to inform men of the ground occasion and end of them Christ doth 1. Give all men that hear it information or objective discovery of whatsoever is necessary to be known for attaining the foresaid benefits As of God Christ his Nature Office Works c. 2. He giveth them potent Reasons Motives Perswasions Exhortations Threatnings c. to work upon their Wills And both these are Grace and sufficient in suo genere Having shewed what Christ giveth as Legislator it followeth 2. That we shew what he giveth
in Execution of these Laws And that is 1. In this Life as was promised 2. After 1. At Death and by Resurrection 2. By Judgment 1. By Sentence where as Judge 1. He Justifieth all Believers 2. Adjudgeth to them Everlasting Glory as he Condemneth their Enemies to Everlasting Fire Both Wickedmen as Rebels and Devils as hostes open Foes 2. In Execution of this Sentence he perfecteth them in Glory So far of Christs Benefits which we receive from him as Rector 2. Next we are to view those which Christ gives as free Benefactor and Dominus absolutus meerly though yet with respect to the Ends of Government And so 1. He disposes of the Means 2. Of the Success 1. He giveth Means differently as he please to some more to some less And they are 1. Outward Means 2. Inward The outward are 1. The Works of God 2. The Ordinances or Justified Means The works which are means to teach and win men are 1. The Creatures themselves as discovering Gods Wisdom Power Goodness and much Mercy to man so much as opened to all Nations that hope of pardon which was their Encouragement to all that Sacrificing Prayers and other Religiousness which they generally in some measure used and would never have used it had it not been for this hope which was grounded in a discovery of Gods Mercifulness to them though Sinners 2. And Providential disposal of Events much furthers this 1. In seasonable Afflicting and Punishing 2. In giving the Mercies of Prosperity 2. The Ordinances or instituted means are 1. His Ordinances strictly so called as 1. His Laws Covenants Doctrine 2. And his Sacraments 1. Baptism 2. And the Lords Supper 2. And the concomitant means 1. For the divulging of his Word by 1. Men appointed thereto 1. Ordinary as 1. Ministers in their places and 2. Other Christians in theirs 2. Extraordinary as Apostles and Prophets 2. And by Artificial means 1. To the Ear by Speaking in Teaching and Perswading by the foresaid men 2. To the Eye by Writing Printing 2. And as he giveth these means for the divulging his word so for the inforcing of it and the success that men may Understand Believe and Obey it he giveth means 1. Extraordinary as the Holy Ghost to work Miracles 2. Ordinary 1. By fellowship with one another in ordinary community whether 1. With private Christians 2. Or Ministers either of which help us 1. Either by Example 2. Or Instruction either 1. By Conference 2. Or solemn Teaching 1. By Voice 2. Or Writing being gifted 1. Meanly 2. Or Eminently 1. By Nature 2. Art Learning Grace as God is pleased to dispose 2. Or else these Ordinary helps are from and in Association and that 1. In lesser bodies as Families 2. In greater as 1. Ecclesiastical Churchches Where we have the benefit 1. Of the Persons 1. Officers 2. Members Common 2. Of the order and ordinances discipline c. 2. Or Civil Societies where we have all civil helps to further our Religious Ends. So much for the Outward Means Only observe that I am not now speaking of these as commanded and made due for so they are not given by Christ as Legislator but as bestowed and disposed of eventually which is by Christ as a free benefactor proprietary or Dominus absolutus so far as he doth it without pre-obligation and differently 2. Next the Inward Means which Christ giveth thus are 1. The disposal and ordering of the temper of the Humours and parts of the Body so as may be more or less fit to receive or retain Impressions 2. The advantitious helps are 1. The service of good Angels 2. Above all the Holy Ghost to work in that season manner and measure as to his Wisdom seems meet So much of the Benefits which Christ giveth as free Benefactor and as Dominus by way of Means 2. Lastly He also succeedeth these means variously as he please 1. To some for the Endowing them only with Common Gifts 1. Extraordinary as working Miracles 2. Ordinary as 1. Intellectual in the knowledge 1. Of Arts and Sciences 2. Or of more Divine Truth 2. Or Moral either 1. In Civility and common Honesty toward Men with excellent quallifications as Meekness Patience c. 2. Or Religiousness or Piety toward God which is of divers degrees some having less and some more even a taste of Gods word and the powers of the World to come with some real Faith Love Joy Cleansing from former filthiness and Sanctification by the Blood of the Covenant which yet are not saying 2. To others he giveth his Spitit to work in such seasons manner and measure accompanied with congruous providential occurrences and removal of temptations and hindrances as shall infallibly prevail 1. For to bring them to Faith and 2. To further Sanctification and Perseverance In a word he useth such means with all his Elect as shall infallibly succeed to bring them to Faith and Perseverance and so much with all the World as shall leave them all without excuse In all this you may see that those benefits which Christ gives as free benefactor and as Dominus absolutus are neither for all men alike nor for all the Elect alike nor for ought we can know for any two persons alike in degree and therefore if Christ may not be said to Die for any man except he give him all that he gives to others without the accusation of being an imperfect Saviour then he could not be said to Die for most of the Elect. Also you may see in this Scheme how far Christ Died for all men and how far not and that the main inequality is not in the Mercies which he gives as Legislator till their own Faith or Unbelief make the difference but in the Mercies which he gives as absolute Lord which flow from his secret Decree de rerum Eventu And lest you should think that all this Power and Operation ascribed to the Mediator is derogatory to the Father understand that as the Father and Son are one so the Mediators Power being but the Supream Derived Power and not the Supream Primitive Power it still supposeth the Primitive Power and Operation of the God-head And therefore both the obtaining and conveying of these benefits to us is still expressed to be as from Christ indeed but in dependance on and by derivation from God And so 1. As they are at first procured by Christs satisfaction they are said to be by Purchase or Redemption 2. And as they are continued or daily given out from the continued Moral Vertue of that satisfaction in Gods acceptation they are said to he procured by Christs intercessions which being but the said continued force of his satisfaction and purchase in producing the remote effects I need not speak of it any further Thus I have given you a Scheme of the Nature Order and Difference of the Effects of Christs Death in the best manner that at present I can learn from the Word And though in this you
Revelation of his will 2. This Revelation of Gods will de Debito we call his Law This therefore is the second thing which I call Gods will de debito or his Legislative will that is the Law as it is signum voluntatis Divinae that is formally as a Law This I call Gods will de Debito only Metonymically as it is the sign of his will before expressed If the proper will of God were separated from this it would then be no producer of Dueness or Right at all for it would be no Law no signum it would lose its Nature as Abrogated Laws do Also observe that you must here carefully distinguish between Gods Act in making a Law and the Moral Act of that Law or of his will by that Law when it is made I call not Legislation it self God 's will de Debito or his Legislative will His ordaining the sign it self or making the Law which is his instrument is an Act of his will de rerum Eventu vel Naturae For it only maketh that instrument or sign by which Right shall be after produced but doth not directly thereby produce that Right But it is the signification and Moral Act of that Law which floweth from its Nature which doth produce Right and which we here intend The Scribe that writes a Statute and the Sovereign himself in composing the Matter Order and Terms doth but make that Signum or Instrument which being made doth therefore Institute Right because it signifieth the Sovereigns will to institute it So much for the explication of my meaning in this Distinction 2. Next I shall say somewhat to prove the soundness of it which is therefore necessary because some ignorant persons laugh at it as if we feigned two wills in God and one of them contrary to the other Otherwise to men of understanding it is not very needful And therefore I shall say but this briefly It is not two Wills in God as two distinct Essences or Faculties that I assert but only two distinct Acts Distinct I say in regard of their distinct products or Effects and so to mans apprehension though in God we say there is no diversity or distinction Yet as we cannot hansomely conceive of his will to save Peter and his will to damn Judas as one act having such different Effects so it is here Who knows not that Naturality and Morality Physicks and Ethicks Event and Right are different things and consequently we may and must distinguish of Gods willing them accordingly When a Man saith You shall do this preceptively he doth only say It shall be your duty to do it but saith not that eventually you shall do it Nor are his words false if you never do it He that saith prophetically or by prognostication you shall do this means that it shall so come to pass and if it do not his words are false But he doth not say It is or shall be your Duty 12. Accordingly we must distinguish between the antecedent and consequent Acts and Will of Christ as Ruler of Mankind For the understanding of which and avoiding mistakes observe 1. That we speak not now of Eternal Decrees but of the will of Christ in this Relation as he is the Ruler of the World and Church and as he is the conveyer of his mercies according to and by his Covenant and as he judgeth the World according thereunto 2. That by his Antecedent will and acts we mean only that which in his Government is Antecedent to Mans Obedience or Disobedience which is principally Legislation and and making his new Covenant and also the giving of Preachers and other acts which are the first part of his Administration And by his consequent Acts and Will we mean only that second part of Government which findeth Man Obedient or Disobedient and is commonly called Judgment and Execution And when we say that by his Antecedent Acts and Will Christ giveth Pardon Justification and Right to Glory equally to all we mean that as Legislator and Promiser he hath antecedently made an Universal Act of Oblivion or Deed of Gift Conditionally Pardoning c. all and no farther than Conditionally Pardoning any And when we say that he consequently justifieth and saveth none but true Christians and in that Sence dyed for no other according to his consequent will we mean that as Judge of Mankind he will give Justification and Salvation to Believers and to no others nor ever intended to do otherwise Let the Reader know that the foresaid Scheme of the Effects of Christs Death is more accurately and yet more briefly done in my Methodus Theologiae And therefore let him that disliketh the Number or Order of Distributions pass it by But I have not time to reform it here CHAP. III. Explicatory Conclusions Proposition I. CHRIST Died nullius loco so as strictly and properly and fully to represent Mens Persons as if in sensu Legali vel Civili they themselves did suffer and satisfie Prop. II. Christ Died loco nostro so as to bear that Suffering partly for kind and wholly for weight which our sins deserved and we should have born Prop. III. Christ's Dying in our stead is in order of Nature before his procuring us Benefits by his Death as the means necessary thereto Prop. IV. Christ dyed not for any Mans final non-performance of the conditions of the Law of Grace Prop. V. Christ did not bear for any the proper punishment threatned by the New Law as such nor taketh off its Actual proper obligation from any Prop. VI. Christs Obedience was a perfect fulfilling of the preceptive part of that Law whose actual obligation he submitted himself to Prop. VII Christs sufferings were not a fulfilling of the Laws commination as obliging us nor was it fulfilled but relaxed to us by a pardon Prop. VIII Christs sufferings were a satisfaction or Redditio aequivalentis non ejusdem for our not fulfilling the Precept and the Fathers not fulfilling the Threatning upon us or our not bearing the penalty Prop. IX Christs satisfaction was not made to the Law properly but to the Law-giver for the transgression of the Law Prop. X. The Law as binding us was the great Occasion of Christs Death and Loco-causa Obligatoriae But not the Obligatory Cause it self Prop. XI Christs own Sponsion and his Fathers will were the only proper obligations Prop. XII Christ satisfied God most properly as Legislator or Rector per legem operum and not without respect to his Law His satisfaction was for the obtaining the principal ends of the Law Prop. XIII Christ suffered in our stead that we might not suffer but he did not in proper sence obey in our stead that we might not obey but for our sakes and benefit and that we might obey Prop. XIV All mens sins equally were the occasion or Loco causae meritoriae of Christs sufferings except the fore excepted sins Prop. XV. Christ in suffering bore the punishment antecedently due to all Mankind
be a subject is Antecedent to the being of an Obedient or a Rewarded Subject so Christs Antecedent mercies of Redemption extend to more than his consequent mercies do which suppose the performance of the conditions of his Covenant Prop. XLVIII The foundations of Christs Kingdom being first laid in his undertaking Performances Death Resurrection and Legislation or Covenant-making so there are three distinct states of his subjects 1. The Antecedent state Antecedent to any act of their own is to be subditi obligati obliged subjects 2. The mediate state is to be consenting obedient subjects or rebellious and disobedient 3. The consequent state is to be justified rewarded subjects or Condemned Subjects And it will not follow that Christ never brought men into the first condition because he never brought them into the last Prop. XLIX Accordingly the Kingdom of Christ the Mediator in its largest extent containeth all Mankind as redeemed and made his obliged Subjects though most prove Rebells But in a limited sense it containeth only the faithful obedient and justified part of the universal Kingdom Prop. L. It is this second consenting Part of his subjects only who are his Church and are by Baptism engaged to him So that the Kingdom of Christ as Redeemer is larger than his Church and they are not words of the same signification unless when the word Kingdom is taken in the narrow sense Prop. LI. God hath not divided the World into two Parts and put one Part only under the Government of Christ and Governeth the other immediately himself only as meer Creator But Christ is Administrator General over all Mankind Prop. LII They that say that God giveth all the mercies which the ungodly have according to the first Covenant of Innocency must make that Covenant another thing than indeed it was Prop. LIII They that feign God to continue the Covenant of Innocency as to the Promissory Part and to Covern those that are born in sin and misery by that Law which saith Be Innocent and Live do expose Gods Government falsly to reproach Prop. LIV. They that hold that Heathens and Hypocrites are under no Covenant or Law that hath conditional promises do deny a great Part of Gods Government of Mankind and give them more excuse for their neglect of all means for their Salvation than is true or than God will allow of Prop. LV. They that say that all the mercies bestowed on Heathens or Hypocrites are given them without the purchase of Christ by the meer will of God not respecting any reconciler or Propitiation do Sin against the Scripture reasons of Christs Office and undertaking and do open a Gap for the reasonings of them who plead against the necessity of Christs death for the Elect. Prop. LVI Though Christs Dominion over inanimates and Bruits do not prove that he dyed for them Yet his dying for Mankind in general procured his Dominion over them which is joyned with his Empire over the same Persons which he exerciseth by such Laws as have a tendency to their repentance Pardon and Salvation Prop. LVII All this considered It is de nomine a proper Speech much used in Scripture to say that Christ dyed for all Men and is the Saviour of the World and is the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World and is a propitiation for the Sins of the whole World and tasted Death for every man and that if one Died for all then were all Dead c. Seeing all the foresaid Benefits of his Death are actually given them Some Expository Thesis about the Effects of the Death of Christ Proposition I. THE First and most Immediate Use and Effect of Christs Death was the satisfaction of Gods Justice for mans Violation of his Law Prop. II. It was not the Law it self that Christ satisfied if we speak properly but the Law-giver Though improperly the Law it self may be said to be satisfied when its Ends are attained that is the Ends of the Legislator in giving the Law The Law knows no proper satisfaction To admit of satisfaction instead of fulfilling and execution is beyond the power of the Law and is the act of the Legislator as he is above the Law Prop. III. Christ did not suffer from the Obligation of the Law but from the Obligation of his own Sponsion on occasion of the Laws obliging us to suffer The Law never obliged Christ to Suffer though it did to obedience Prop. IV. Christs sufferings were not a fulfilling of the Laws Threatning though he bore its Curse Materially but a satisfaction for our not fulfilling the Precept and to prevent Gods fulfilling the Threatning on us Prop. V. Christ paid not therefore the Idem but the Tantundem or aequivalens not the very Debt which we owed and the Law required but the Value Else it were not strictly satisfaction which is Redditio aequivalentis And it being improperly called the Paying of a Debt but properly A suffering for the Guilty the Idem is nothing but Supplicium Delinquentis In Criminals Dum alius solvit simul aliud solvitur The Law knoweth no Vicarius Poenae though the Lawmaker may admit it as he is above Law Else there were no place for Pardon if the proper Debt be Paid and the Law not Relaxed but Fulfilled Prop. VI. The Meriting and Purchasing of further Benefits is consequential to the satisfactoriness of Christs Death It would be so far from meriting as it is his meer hurt were it not first necessary for satisfaction that it would be displeasing to God who is merciful and delighteth not in the Blood of the Just Prop. VII Though Christs Death be first satisfactory and next Meritorious of further good Yet hic Obedience is first Meritorious and afterward Satisfactory For it could not Satisfie but by Meriting Prop. VIII Because Punishment is not a Thing Commanded by the Law but Threatued therefore all Obedience properly is active for suspensive is by act of will and the distinction between Christs Active and Passive Obedience must be carefully understood or else it will tend to confound Obedience and Punishment His Passive Obedience is but his Obeying in Submission to suffering where the Consent or Submission is the direct matter of Obedience and not the suffering it self submitted to Prop. IX Christ did Give his Satisfaction directly and strictly not to Man for whom he suffered but to God whom he satisfied Prop. X. Yet he may be said to Give it to men especially in their Union with him and Justification in that he gives them the fruits of it As a Father is said to give his Son a thousand pound that layeth it out in Lands for him Though properly the Seller hath the Mony and the Son the Lands only Prop. XI It was not the Sins of the Elect only but of all Mankind fallen which lay upon Christ satisfying And to assert the contrary injuriously diminisheth the Honour of his Sufferings and hath other desperate ill consequences Prop. XII Christs
satisfaction was made to God as Legislator and Rector Supremus and not â—as Dominus absolutus or meer Proprietary Prop. XIII Christ did neither Obey nor Suffer in any Mans stead by a strict proper Representation of his Person in point of Law so as that the Law should take it as done or suffered by the party himself But only as a third person as a Mediator he voluntarily bore what else the Sinner should have born To assert the contrary specially as to particular persons considered in actual Sin is to overthrow all Scripture Theology and to introduce all Antinomianism to overthrow all possibility of pardon and assert Justification before we Sinned or were Born and to make our selves to have satisfied God Therefore we must not say that Christ dyed nostro loco so as to personate us or Represent our Persons in Law Sence but only to bear what else we must have born Prop. XIV Christ by his Death and so satisfaction to Justice hath purchased to himself a full Propriety in all the Creatures which were under the Curse and so is become Dominus Absolutus of all on a new Title of Redemption as God was before on the Title of Creation Prop. XV. Christ hath hereby purchased also a Supream Rectorship so far as a Derived Power may be called Supream and God as he is Redeemer is properly Supream grounded on his Absolute propriety even as Gods Rectorship as Creator was grounded on his Absolute Propriety as Creator Every man may rule his own according to its Nature and Capacity Prop. XVI Hereupon by actual Rendition all things are Delivered up to Christ both as Proprietary and Rector Prop. XVII As Proprietary or Dominus Christ over-ruleth the World and disposeth of all Events and Beings Naturally as most conduceth to his Redemption Ends. Prop. XVIII As Plenipotent Rector he now Ruleth all inferior Rational Creatures by his Laws as the Universal Lord-Redeemer Prop. XIX Seeing both the Rational Creature and the visible frame of the Creation are delivered up to Christ the Redeemer it must needs follow that the very Law of Nature whether it be in Natura rerum ut signum or in mente humanâ ut principia Cognita is Christs Law And so that those that are ruled by the meer Law of Nature are ruled by Christ so far as they do well Prop. XX. As God is the Ruler as to Title and some Legislation and Judgment of those very Pagans who know him not but deny a Godhead so Christ is so the Ruler of those very Infidels who know him not but deny the Mediator Prop. XXI In giving up all Propriety and Rule to Christ God has not divested himself of any thing save only a Right or as it were an Obligation to punish the pardoned For as Christ is God himself so the Father still Possesseth and Ruleth by the Redeemer As he hath still the Title of Creator so is he in the Son God-Redeemer Prop. XXII Seeing no Man can fulfill the First Law or Covenant and no Man can be saved by a Covenant not kept and Christ Redeemed not Man into absolute liberty to be from under Law and Rule which were Misery to him and not liberty Therefore it hath pleased the Father and Mediator to make to Man a New Law and Covenant suited to his present State of Misery Prop. XXIII The Tenor of this Law is that whosoever will Repent Thankfully and heartily accept Jesus Christ to be his Saviour Teacher King and Head believing him to be the Redeemer and will Love him and God in him above all and obey him sincerely to the Death shall upon his first acceptance be Justified and Adopted and upon his perseverance be justified at Judgment saved from Hell and Glorified And whosoever rejecteth him shall bear the Guilt and punishment of all his Sins against the Law and for his refusal be far sorelier punished Prop. XXIV By this New Law or Covenant Christ hath brought all Men where it is Promulgate under the Duty of receiving him and Life in him And under a Promise of Life if they do receive him and a Threatning of Death if they reject him Prep XXV The tenour of this New Law in all these Parts is Universal extending to all No Man is excepted out of Precept Promise or Threatning whether the Promulgation be Universal or not Prop. XXVI It can hardly be proved that there is any great Part of the World that have not heard of Christ or had some means to have come neerer to the knowledg of him Prop. XXVII All those that have not heard of Christ have yet much Mercy which they receive from him and is the Fruit of his Death According to the well or ill using whereof it seems probable that God will judg them Prop. XXVIII But it is safest to leave the Case of those that never heard of Christ and their Infants as a thing unrevealed or so darkly revealed that God would not have us know any more of it than that our condition is far better than theirs that so we may be thankful Prop. XXIX It is a course to blind and not to inform Men to lay the main stress in the Doctrine of Redemption upon our uncertain conclusions of Gods dealing with such as never heard of Christ Seeing all proof is per notiora And we must reduce points uncertain to the certain and not the certain to the uncertain in our Trial. Prop. XXX Christ may be Ruler de jure and in Part de facto where yet Satan prevaileth and the Sinner shall perish for Rebellion Prop. XXXI In the New Law Christ hath truly given himself with a Conditional Pardon Justification and Conditional Right to Salvation to all Men in the World without Exception Prop. XXXII This Law giveth Christ to no Man in the World by name now nor more then other antecedently to their believing But to all if they will believe Prop. XXXIII It is therefore a proper and true Speech to say that Christ dyed for all especially all that ever heard his Gospel Seeing that in Law sence he did Dye for them in all the forementioned respects As the nature of the Law is to constitute Debitum Dueness so it constitutes to all Men 1. The Dueness of Obedience that they accept Christ offered them 2. The Dueness of the Benefit if they accept him a conditional due 3. And the Dueness of the punishment if they reject him So that in Law Sense Christ dyed for all Prop. XXXIV If Christ were not their Redeemer and his Satisfaction had been no way for them nor a Mercy to them then the Damned should not perish for rejecting their Redeemer nor for refusing the mercy of Redemption Nor their consciences accuse them for it But undoubtedly for this will be their destruction and for this their consciences will accuse them Prop. XXXV It being not the satisfaction it self that is tendered to Sinners but the Fruit of it It cannot by any Minister nor will not
as the first is God accepted the satisfaction on those terms only that no final Rebel should partake of the saving benefit If it be a wrong it is either against Christ or the Sinner Not to the Sinner for he suffereth but once And the former suffering of Christ was not in personation or representation of his person nor as his substitute nor appointed or procured by him But by a third Person in the Person of a Mediator sent by God and voluntarily undertaking it Nor to Christ is it any wrong For 1. He is willing Volenti non fit injuria 2. It was the agreement it should be so 3. Yea it is he that doth it He as Judge condemns them for ingratitude and Rebelling against himself and consequently leaves all the rest of their Sins upon them Prop. L. Nor is it any more absurd that Christ should satisfie for those that were in Hell when he sufferd then that he should do it for those that were in Heaven at his suffering He paid the Price which he had agreed to pay which became effectual upon the agreement and undertaking before the payment And was then offered to Mankind Of whom some suffered for rejecting it as others were saved upon the accepting it even before his death Prop. LI. Nor was Christs Satisfaction for those that perish Vain Seeing it is the ground of his New Title of Lord-redeemer as to Dominion and Rectorship and so the ground of his New Legislation Judgment Administration and Government of the World and will be the occasion of his just destruction of the Rejectors of him even those Rebels that would not have him to Reign over them and of his glory therein Even as Gods Creation and preservation of Men is not to be called Vain or no mercy because he gives not all Men Hearts to repent and so some perish For as Creation laid the ground of the Creators Dominion Rectorship Legislation and Rule and Judgment if the first Covenant had stood in force as it was at first So did Redemption by satisfaction do in respect of the Redeemer and Covenant of Grace Prop. LII All that Christ by the work of Redemption did purchase a propriety in and Dominion over were not Redeemed by him Bruits and Devils are hereby under his Dominion and Devils shall be judged by him But not as Subjects For he procured as Mediator a Dominion over these but as utensils in his House or as Enemies to be restrained ordered and destroyed Therefore Christs judging Devils will not prove that he redeemed them When yet his judging unbelieving Men will prove that he Redeemed them Devils are judged as Enemies but not as Rebels against their Lord-Redeemer But wicked Men are condemned as Rebels against him for ungrateful rejecting a benefit given them If a Country fall into Rebellion and the King sentenceth all to Fire and Sword and the Prince by satisfaction purchase all to himself both Men and Country And send Heralds to proclaim mercy and pardon to all that will accept him and thankfully accknowledg his favour Some accept and some reject him The same Prince destroyeth these Rebels for rebelling And he destroyeth also all the Bears Lyons Wolves and devouring Beasts that annoyed and kill'd his subjects Now will any say that because he appointeth the Wild Beasts to death and yet satisfied not for them nor Redeemed them that therefore he redeemed not the Rebels neither All sayings and writings have different Sences in the same words sometimes according to the difference of the Materia Subjecta Prop. LIII The Doctrine of Universal Redemption thus delivered runs with the whole Scope of Scripture and hath not the least inconveniences when the denial of it contradicteth a multitude of express Texts and bringeth on more desperate consequences than can easily be conceived Prop. LIV. Though Christ dyed equally for all Men in the foresaid Law-Sence as he satisfied the offended Legislator and as giving himself to all alike in the conditional Covenant Yet he never properly intended or purposed the actual justifying and saving of all nor of any but those that come to be justified and saved He did not therefore dye for all nor for any that perish with a Decree or Resolution to save them much less did he dye for all alike as to this intent Prop. LV. All that conditional Pardon with the means of Grace and common Mercies which the Non-elect do actually receive in time were purposed for them before time and intended to them as Fruits of Christs Death and so far even in regard of his Purpose de eventu applicationis Christ may be said to Die for them besides the foresaid satisfaction For God being Rector per Leges deals with men on Law terms and gives Mercies and Executes Justice only according to his Laws He would not so much as relax the Old Law for the pardon of any Sin but by a new Law which is Lex Remedians But the old Law being broken God can shew no mercy now according to its tenour It must be therefore according to the Law of Grace and from it that all men receive their Mercies and consequently from the Blood of that Covenant which is the ground thereof and by which Apostates are said to have been sanctified Heb. 10. Prop. LVI When we say that Christ did Die for men conditionally as to his Death it self and the satisfaction to Justice immediately thence flowing we cannot intend it or truly say so Nor yet as to the granting of his Universal Conditional pardon For Christ absolutely procured all these But we mean it only in regard of Actual Remission Justification and Salvation The Covenant or Promise is indeed Conditional that is there are conditions required on our part to the fulfilling of it that we may have right to the Benefit But no conditions for the granting of it much less for Christs Actual Dying and Satisfying Prop. LVII Though it be disputable whether God have any Decretive will de eventu properly Conditional yet is it beyond all doubt that he hath a Conditional will de Debito and Conditional Laws and it being to God as Legislator that Christ made Satisfaction and it being by Law that the Dueness of Justification and Salvation is conveyed to believers and the Dueness of Punishment to Unbelievers therefore it is very proper to say that Christ by his Death hath purchased Salvation for all Men Conditionally Prop. LVIII Yea it is undoubted that the very Decretive Will of God de Eventu applicationis is Conditional in this sence that Faith and Repentance are Decreed by God to be Conditions of Justification and Salvation but not conditions of Gods act of Decreeing Twisse saith that in this Sense no man denyeth Gods will to be conditional Vid. Consid of Syn. Dort and Arles c. Page 61. And against Cotton Page 74. Prop. LIX Those that dare say that Christ is an imperfect Redeemer if he do not procure Faith it self for every Man that he Dyeth for
therefore should be saved Ans The Persons are determined of long ago for whom Christ satisfied Either he hath satisfied for me or he hath not before my Faith If he have not then my Faith will not cause him to satisfie for me either by suffering again or by making that satisfaction to have been paid for me which was not Object But it is a thing that never will be for one to believe for whom Christ did not satisfie And therefore it is a thing not to be supposed Ans 1. Things may and must be supposed in dispute that never will be That the Elect should have the desert of their Sin or be unredeemed or be forsaken of God or deprived of any mercy which God will give them are all things that never will be And yet a Christian may argue on supposition they had been or should be to raise his thankfulness What if God should have denied me his Grace Or his Redemption Or let me perish in my Sin and State of nature What a Case would my Sin have brought me under 2. If it be a thing not to be supposed in dispute that a Man should believe for whom Christ satisfied not then it is because it implieth a contradiction Else it may be supposed But it implieth no contradiction Ergo c. Object It is a contradiction Because Christ purchased Faith for all those for whom he satisfied and therefore for a Man to believe for whom Christ purchased not Faith is a contradiction Ans 1. I shall take it as a groundless fancy till it be proved that Christ purchased Faith to be eventually certainly given to all those for whom he satisfied 2. If he had this argument is not from satisfaction as such but as it is meritorious of Faith 3. still it is no contradiction because it implyeth no contradiction for a man to believe without that Grace which Christ hath purchased though it be a thing that will never be done 4. They that will still affirm the contrary do the more destroy their own Cause For they then assert that all Gods commands by his Laws and Ministers to the unredeemed as they suppose them for believing in Christ do require meer impossibilities and such contradictions as are not to be so much as supposed in dispute which I think few sober men will grant but rather avoid that opinion that is the ground of such an assertion 5. And which is more the same absurdity will follow as to all other means whatsoever as well as Faith which God hath prescribed to such men for pardon and salvation as they are means and so bring this reproach on the whole New Law as made to all such Men. Object But the same may be said against Gods Foreknowledge or Decree For if God Fore-know or Decree that men shall certainly perish then it may as well be said that though they should believe God neither would nor could save them Answ 1. As to the Power of God it is not straitened by his Decree It follows not God will not do such a thing therefore he cannot The same Divines whom I now argue against use to argue thus about Physical Predetermination God 's Determination of his own will destroyeth not his Power or liberty to the contrary act therefore his determination of our wills destroyeth not our Power or Liberty to the contrary acts whereby they grant that God can save those that he decreeth not to save and so can give them Faith c. and that he is still free to do it or not do it Object If he should believe and be saved whom God hath foreknow nor decreed to be condemned for Unbelief then God should be deceived or change But it is impossible for God to be deceived or change therefore it is impossible for him to believe and be saved whom God hath foreknown or decreed to condemn for unbelief Answ It is a vicious Argument There 's more in the conclusion than in the premises No more will follow but this therefore he will not believe and be saved whom God c. not it is impossible for God never foreknew or decreed that it should be impossible for him to believe and be saved but only that he would not eventually believe and be saved 2. When I speak before in the Argument of Gods will it is not of his will of Decree but of his will as he is in the relation of Rector per Leges and so giveth that Salvation as executor of his Laws and Sentence which by his Laws he first gave Right to God as Rector and Legislator neither will nor can give Salvation to any that Christ dyed not for if they should believe But God as Legislator or Rector would give salvation to all that Christ Dyed for if they believe though it were supposed that he had foreknown or decreed that such men would not believe Only it would follow that God was mistaken And therefore such a thing will never come to pass for God will not be mistaken It is God as â—egislator to whom it belongs to be true in making good his promises which is the thing in Question 3. The want of an expiatory sacrifice doth morally necessitate the Damnation of Man though he should believe both in respect of the Law of works as â—hrists Death is Causa necessaria liberationis as want of a Ransome may be said to necessitate a Captives perishing and properly in respect to the new Law whose Penalty is 1. Non-liberation 2. And a sorer punishment For the chief cause of that Non-liberation or Non-salvation must needs be the defect of that which should be the chief cause of Deliverance and Salvation rather than the defect of Faith a subservieâ— cause or condition which ever supposeth thâ— former cause If two men at Christs bar be â—â—â—leaded as lyable to Damnation and it be â—â—â—d to one Thou hast no Right to Salvation for Christ never Dyed for thee and to the other thou hast no right because thou didst not believe is not the former more valid then the latter or as valid But to say Thou hast no right because God did decree the contrary is not right arguing 4. We must not argue a minus notis as the Decrees are as shall be shewed Arg. 8th A Causa pereundi negativè If Christ hath not satisfied for all men then the cause of mens perishing is for want of an expiatory sâ—criâ—iâ—e But the want of an expiatory 〈◊〉 is not the cause of mens 〈◊〉 therefore Christ hath satisfied for all By 〈◊〉 cause I mean not the meritorious cause for that no doubt must be some sin of Man And I suppose that Unbelievers are not condemned according to the first Law of works as standing without Remedy that is not meerly because they did not perfectly obey but at the Redeemers bar because they believed not and would not have Christ to Reign over them or because they improved not their Talents of Grace that is of mercy given contrary
to desert And of those that hear the Gospel this is undenyable and I think it is certainly true of all others So that it is perishing in reference to a Gospel Judgment at the Mediators Bar that we mean and specicially in a comparative sence And by cause I mean the Reason of their perishing to be alledged So that if you ask seeing all are equally condemned by the Law of works and mercy hath found out a Remedy what is the reason that this man is condemned at the Redeemers Bar when that is acquit Or that this Man Judas is not delivered and saved as well as that Peter Is it because Christ Dyed only for one or that one only believed and the other refused Christ Here according to the Doctrine which denyeth Universal Satisfaction it must be said that either the only or the principal reason that men perish when others are saved is for want of an expiatory sacrifice or satisfaction for their Sin i. e. because they had no Redeemer when others had or no Christ to Die for them But this is contrary to the Scripture The consequence is evident that it is more principally the want of a Saviour or satisfaction then the want of Faith that is the reason of their perishing if Christ satisfied not for them 1. Because satisfaction is prerequisite to the efficacy or usefulness of Faith Sed non è contra 2. Satisfaction hath the greatest work to do and is the greatest cause And faith hath a far and a lower work and is a lesser cause or indeed no cause at all but a meer condition 3. God could not fitly save Sinners without satisfaction But he could if he had pleased have saved them for that satisfaction without a personal Faith as he doth Infants and as he saved the Church before Christs Incarnation without that Faith which now justifieth viz. Believing that this Jesus is the Christ and without believing in any Articles of our Creed If two Men be mortally sick and one be healed and the other not because one had a costly Cordial and the other had none prepared for him but only a nonimal offer without the thing though this Man refuse that nominal or feigned offer yet the chief cause why he was not healed was the want of the medicament rather then his refusal And for the Minor its plain through the whole New Testament that the cause of Mens perishing is not for want of an expiatory Sacrifice but for want of Faith to receive the Redeemer and his benefits Mat. 23. 37. How oft would I have gathered thee c. ye would not Isa 5. 4. What could have been done more to my Vineyard c. Mat. 24. 4. 5. Tell them which are bidden behold I have prepared my dinner My Oxen and Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage But they made light of it c. verse 8. The Wedding is ready but they which were bidden were not worthy i. e. There is no want on Christs Part his Sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient But they lost the benefits for want of believing Mat. 25. 1. 2. All the Virgins might have been accepted at the Marriage if their own sloath had not shut out the foolish verse 14. All the Servants had Talents mercies purchased by Christs Death but it was not well using them that condemned one Men treade under Foot the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified And deny the Lord that bought them Mens destruction is of themselves But in God through Christ is their help All the Scripture shews this that Men perish for their rejecting a Redeemer and not for want of the Price of Redemption For quoad pretium Christ hath taken away the Sins of the World Arg. 9th A Sufficientià pretii pro omnibus If Christ died for all Men quoad sufficientiam pretii then he hath satisfied for all But he died for all Men quoad sufficientiam pretii Ergo c. The Minor is maintained by the generality of our Ancienter Protestant Divines who use ordinarily this distinction to solve the doubt whether Christ died for all viz. he died for all sufficiently and for the Elect only effectually And indeed this one distinction rightly understood and this answer thence fitted is most full and apt for the resolution of the question The Schoolmen go the same way The consequence of the Major proposition is acknowledged by our late most rigid Anti-Arminians who on that reason do deny the Minor For our new Divines have utterly forsaken the old common opinion and in stead of saying that Christ died for all Men sufficienter They will not so much as say that His Death was sufficiens pretium pro omnibus But only that It is sufficient to have been a price for all For all our former Divines and the most of these times so far as I can discern who acknowledg that Christ died for all Men quoad sufficientiam pretii and for the Elect quoad efficaciam they say the same and as much as I and therefore I need not say much more to them For Christ cannot dye for Men sufficienter and yet not die for them at all or not satisfie for them I may well take up with this one argument If Christs Death be a sufficient price for all then it is a Price for all But Christs Death is by their confession a sufficient Price for all Therefore it is a Price for all Here understand that it is first in order of nature a Sacrifice expiatory or a satisfaction before it is meritorious of further benefits or is a Price for them Had it not been to satisfie Justice God would have been so far from taking his Sons Death for meritorious that he would have been utterly displeased in it For he delighteth not in the Death of him that dieth how much less of the innocent and lest of all of his only Son Note here also in what sence we say Christs Death is sufficient and in what sence it is called effectual There is a double effect of Christs Death and so a double efficacy and so a double sufficiency to those effects The first effect is to be a satisfaction to the offended Justice of God and a demonstration of his legal Justice The sufficiency to this effect was in the dignity of the Person and greatness of the suffering supposing Gods voluntary Acceptation of it instead of the Sinners own suffering The efficacy immediately followed the suffering Yea it went long before it upon the undertaking and the acceptation as in Moral Causes it is not unusual The 2d sort of effects are more remote even the actual good of the Sinner Of these some are general and common as the freeing of all Men from that necessity of perishing which lay on them by the Curse of the first Law as it stood without remedy c. And so Christs Death is sufficient for all and effectual too Some fruits of his Death are
satisfaction though common not only may be but is the ground or motive of our first special love if it be orderly and rightly raised though Christs special love be the efficient Object Then none do love God a right at first but those that hold Universal Redemption Ans 1. Yet they may love him sincerely though they are brought to it through the fault of their Teachers in a disadvantageous and disorderly way 2. Young Converts are not used so soon to be troubled with the Controversy of Universal Redemption 3. I have known few in my observation but at their first closing with Christ they have had the same judgment of the Universality of Christs satisfaction so as to be sufficient for all Sinners and wanting only their own Faith to make it effectual to Remission which I plead for 4. It is the usual way of Preachers in their popular Sermons to speak far more soundly in these points then in their disputations And indeed their way of Preaching for the Conversion of Sinners doth plainly intimate Universal satisfaction For they use to lay all the blame on the Wills of Sinners and justly as that only which can deprive them of the benefits of Christs sufferings and to urge them to accept him and to let them know that their case is not left remediless and desperate Yea and to tell them plainly that Christs Death is sufficient for all to pardon all their Sins be they never so many or great and if they will believe they shall have the Fruits of it Which is in other words to say Christ hath satisfied for all So that upon these right grounds they use to bring Men to believe and love Christ at the first and then they must have some longer time before they can pervert them again by working out these apprehensions and acquainting them that Christ hath not satisfied for all but for the Elect only Object Mens first love to Christ is not to him for what he hath done but for what he can do for us and as he is to us a desirable good because it is but Amor Concupiscentiae Ans It is also a love of gratitude And all the good that we can expect from him for the future or desire him for is but the fruit of what he hath done for us already and therefore presupposeth it And he that looketh for Mercy from Christ as not procured by his satisfactory sufferings knows not the Gospel nor what he expecteth The Gospel at its first Preaching is glad tidings and brings news first of what Christ hath done for Men and next of what he will further do Object But it is not for Dying for me in particular that I am first obliged to love Christ but for paying a sufficient price Ans 1. If by For me in particular you mean more for me then others I grant it But it is for dying and satisfying for fallen Mankind in general of whom I am a Member 2. I have shewed that according to this New Doctrin Christs Death is not sufficient to pardon all if they did repent nor formally a sufficient price but only materially or Aptitudinally sufficient to have been a price Now that this can engage any to love or thankfulness is past my reach to apprehend For it is not a benefit to such as for whom it was no price If 100 Men lie in Prison for debt and one shall pay as much for the debt and discharge often of them as was sufficient to have satisfied for the debts of them all and yet would not pay it for them but rather give it superfluously then that they should have any benefit by it how doth this oblige these Prisoners to love and thankfulness to this Man At least not as any Redeemer or Friend of theirs Rather they will think him envious and an Enemy to them that would rather cast away his Mony Giving for one that which was sufficient for all then they should have any benefit by it Object But it is not for his Death that Men are bound at first to love Christ and be thankful but for the free and general offer of himself and his benesits to them in the Gospel Ans 1. The negative is wicked and Unchristian 2. The part affirmed is a contradiction to their denial of Universal satisfaction For Christ is offered to Men as their Redeemer only And the Word Redeemer signifies 1. One that hath paid a price for them already 2. One that will recover them by the effectual conveyance of his benefits if they accept his offer And the later always implies the former The effect cannot be without its cause He is no Redeemer to them for whom he suffered not And he cannot be a Redeemer to them by Pardon and Salvation for whom he hath not been already a Redeemer by satisfaction And he doth not offer to satisfie for them de futuro a new and therefore the offer certainly proves a general satisfaction as is shewed before 3. And if Christ offer himself to any Men as their Redeemer whom he never did Redeem no nor can Redeem by Remission and Salvation because he hath not first Redeemed them by price and satisfaction charging the refusal upon them to their deep damnation doth this oblige Men to love and gratitude If he procure by his Death no possibility of their Salvation but induce a necessity of their deep condemnation If he offer them the benefits of a death never suffered for them that is effects without their cause and which he cannot give them and destroy them for not receiving them Is this all the obligation Object But it is the Law of God that obligeth them to love and gratitude And therefore they are obliged though Christ be none of their Redeemer and though his Death were not a benefit to them Ans 1. These are duties that result ex natura rei viz. boni oblati beneficii â—ollati and so from the Law of nature and not from a meer positive Law Love and gratitude are not ceremonies and therefore where the nature of the thing obligeth not there is no obligation 2. There must be an objective cause of love and gratitude as well as an efficient and exemplary cause And therefore our question is only of the objective cause God doth not alter the nature of love and gratitude by commanding them He doth not command love that hath not good for its object for there is no such thing in rerum natura nor doth he command a gratitude that is not for a benefit Object But it is unknown to them whether Christ died for them or not For ought they know he did And therefore they are bound to love and gratitude Ans 1. An unknown benefit bindeth not to love and thankfulness 2. It is Real favours and not feigned that Christ obligeth Men by As it is real love and thanks and not feigned that he expecteth from them 3. Else that common love and thankfulness which the Non-elect
when man is already condemned the Law of Grace say that he shall undergo a far sorer punishment and it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than him except he will do these impossibilities this is still harder It is not all the believing in the World supposing it were performed that would make Christs Death which is past to be suffered for those that it was not suffered for This makes Christ to come into the World to condemn the World and that to a far sorer punishment than the Law of Works did oblige them to without procuring them any possibility of escaping For there 's no possibility of that mans escape for whom no price of Redemption is paid Nay it lays an absolute necessity ab extra and unavoidable on men of perishing under this double damnation For he that before I am born makes a Law that I shall dye except I have part in a payment that was made 1000 years ago and that only for others and not at all for me he doth necessitate my Death by that Law For it is impossible that I should ever have part in it if it were not paid for me Now I know our Divines speak of Gods necessitating mans Damnation by Foreknowledge and Decree which they call only Necessitas Antecedentis non Causae But who ever affirmed that Christ in giving the New Law He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned did necessitate and that Causally and that Antecedenter ad Culpam the far greater damnation of miserable wretches that were condemned already And that the Gospel is not so much harder than the Law I prove Mat. 11. 27 28 30. My Yoak is easie and my Burden is light Heb. 8. 6. Jesus is the Mediator of a better Covenant stablished on better promises Heb. 7. 22. And the Author of a better Testament Rom. 5. 14 15 20. Where sin abounded Grace much more abounded John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave c. Eph. 3. 19 20. Heb. 11. 40. His service is a reasonable service His Commandments are not grievous His tender mercy is over all his Works He is kind to the unthankful and unjust His mercies lead men to Repentance He delighteth not in the death of him that dyeth but rather that he Repent and Live He calleth all men every where to repent and seek after God All the day long doth he stretch out his hand to a froward and gain-saying generation He dealeth not with us after our sins He inviteth the Non Elect to the Wedding Feast and telleth them that all things are ready and some of them he compelleth to come in as he did him that had not on the Wedding Garment he chargeth his Messengers to beseech men in his stead to be reconciled unto God He would gather under his Wings even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens those that Will not be gathered All these with a multitude the like are the Scripture expressions of Gods gentle and merciful dealing with men under the Law of Grace And so much of the execution as we see is answerable He offers mercy to all in the Church and confers much Mercy on every man in the World He dealeth with no man according to the strict rigour of the unremedied Curse of the Law of Works Abuse of the Talents of undeserved Mercy is the thing that men must be condemned and perish for No one sinner on Earth is excepted or excluded by him out of his Offer and Promise of Mercy so be it they will themselves consent whoever Will may have the Living Waters freely without Money and without Price and if their sins be as red as Scarlet he offers to make them as white as Snow and to cast them all behind his back and bury them in the depths of the Sea He calls to them return why will ye dye How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and ye scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Prov. 1. 22 23. He hath received Gifts for men even for the Rebellious that the Lord may dwell among them God hath sent his Son Jesus to you saith the Apostle Act. 3. last to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquities And when men will not hear he saith O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my mays Psal 81. 13. O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always that it might be well with them and their Children for ever Deut. 5. 29. Can any man then believe that the tenour of the new Law or Covenant is so much harder than ever was the Law of Works as is before expressed As for them that say the New Covenant is no Law and Wicked men or the Non-Elect are not under it they manifest so great ignorance and go against so full light of express Scripture that I think them not worthy a confutation Only I would have the Lutheran Divines remember that near to the Apostles times it was not only an unquestioned truth but also was part of the Christian Creed Christum predicasse Novam legem novam promissionem Regni Caelorum Tertullian de Prescription cap. Arg. 20. A Legis Mosaicae Abrogatione If all men that were any way under it are freed by the blood of Christ from the Bondage of the Mosaical Law of Ceremonies then Christ died for All such and consequently not only for the Elect But the Antecedent is certain Ergo c. Some Divines say that All the World were thus far subject to the Jewish Law that they could not be saved without knowing it and submitting to it in obedience because God had then no other Church nor stablished way of Worship If this be true then all the World hath a deliverance in the Abrogation of that Law Others say that it obliged only the Jews and Proselites and that others at the remotest distance should not have been obliged by that Law if they had known it If that be so then it was only the Jews and Proselytes such as had opportunity to incorporate with them or joyn to them that had this deliverence However it is evident it was to all the Jews and so to more than the Elect and then almost all the Arguments against Universal Satisfaction are hereby overthrown for they are built on this that Christ died only for the Elect. Here I must prove 1. That Moses Ceremonial Law is abrogate 2. That it was done by the shedding of Christ's Blood for those that were under it 3. That it is abrogated to All. 1. And for the first it is so generally acknowledged and the Scripture so express in it specially Act. 15. and all the Epistle to the Galatians that I may spare that labour only some doubt whether
the Moral Law as part of Moses Law be abrogate But as long as we acknowledge 1. That the same Moral Law standeth as it was part of Christ's New Law which most confess 2. And also as part of the Law of Works or Nature given to Adam as most think we need not much matter the former Though I think that all Moses Law is Abrogated 1. Because the Matter cannot stand as part of that Law when the Form ceaseth for with the form the essence and name is gone and most if not all confess that the form of Moses Law as it is specifically distinct from the Law of Grace is abrogated 2. The Apostle expresly saith 2 Cor. 3. 7 11. that The Ministration of death written and engraven in Stones was glorious and that was only the Decalogue so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the Face of Moses for the glory of his Countenance which was to be done away For if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious some say it was the Glory and not the Law that was done away but it was not the glorious which ver 11. is called glorious but the Law from the manner of delivery and therefore it was not the Glory only but the Law that is done away Obj. But it was only the manner of delivery then that is done away and not the Law Answ That was a transient act and ceased at the time and was not done away by Christ The Moral Law therefore as part of Moses Law is abrogated because it is impossible the matter should remain without the Form as part of that Compositum But the same Moral Law is in force as much as ever as it is the matter of another Compositum viz. the Law of Christ proper to the Gospel times The Law is in force still quae fuit materia Legis Mosaicae sed non quâ materia Legis Mosaicae But for this if any think otherwise I will not contend with them It sufficeth to my present purpose that it is granted that the Law of Ceremonies is abrogated And that this Law was a burden and bondage is plain even such as the Church was not able to bear Act. 15. 10. see Gal. 3. 23. 21. 4. 21. 5. 3. c. 2. And that it was Christs dying for men that freed them from the Law is proved Gal. 4. 3 4 5. When we were Children we were in bondage under the Elements of the World but when the fulness of the time was come God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law c. Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Col. 2. 14. Blotting out the hand writing of Ordinances which was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross see ver 20 21. Ephes 2. 13 14 15 16. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle Wall of Partition between us having abolished in his Flesh the enmity even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man so making Peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross having slain the Enmity thereby 3. And for the 3d. point that Christ hath abrogated Moses Law to all Elect and Non-Elect without difference is evident in that all are forbidden to keep it And that which is abrogated is abrogate to all because the Word signifieth the total nulling of it and destroying of its Essence and that which is not doth not bind 1. Else the Non-Elect Jews at least should still be bound to offer all the Sacrifices and use all the Ceremonies prescribed by the Law But I never yet heard or read any Divine Preaching such Doctrin and I hope never shall do He that reads Act. 15. and the Epist to the Gal. and Heb. sure will not believe it to be true Doctrin if he understand what he readeth 2. Nay the very curse is so far taken away for all that it now lyeth not on them as the unremedied curse of the Law but is put into the power of the Lord-Redeemer who hath by the tenour of his Testament or New Law taken it away from all Men on condition they will accept him And this may be said also of the Law of Works as given to Adam So that he that saith Christ died only for the Elect must needs say I think if he will not contradict himself that all the Non Elect must turn Jews and be circumcised and keep all the Law of Moses And consequently that all the Elect themselves must do so till God assure them that they are Elect and so that Christ died for them Because they cannot avoid the duty upon a ground that is wholly to them unknown Arg. 21. Ab officio praedicantium Doctrinam Evangelii If the whole or main work of the Preachers of the Gospel do suppose Christs Universal satisfaction as its ground then Christ hath satisfied for all But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the consequent It is only the Antecedent of the Major proposition that requires proof To which end let us enumerate the parts of the Work of Preaching And the enumeration is to be taken from the enumeration of the parts of the New Law for that is the subject which we must preach of Now the Law is first a Declaration of the Occasion or Narration of the matter of Fact as an Introduction to the more essential parts 2. Those parts themselves which are 1. The precept constituting duty To which I joyn the prohibition as one part of it being but preceptum de non agendo 2. The constitution of the debitum premii vel beneficii 1. By an absolute promise 2. By a conditional promise or gift 3. The constitution of the condition as such 4. The constitution of the debitum Poenae by the threatning This much quoad materiam And then quoad finem the Preacher must manage all these 1. To the glorifying of God for the great work of Redemption 2. For the winning of Souls to Christ and confirming them in the Faith This is the Ministerial Work Now. 1. For the Narration or Declarative part of the Gospel which is matter of Assent I have already shewed that if his Universal satisfaction be not declared the main part is left out that should honour the Redeemer and there is nothing declared that can groundedly encourage a Sinner to believe and rest on Christ as a sufficient Saviour 2. The precept is that Men believe in Christ and rest on him as their Redeemer for justification by his Blood And the contrary unbelief and distrust is forbidden Now what ground can a Minister have to press
well conclude that the Doctrin is not sound which makes Christ to have died no more to expiate the Sins of the Non-Elect then of the Devils but left them equally remediless But such is the Doctrin now opposed Ergo c. Argum. 23d A statu hominum saltem non pejore statu Daemonum If Christ Died not for all that hear the Gospel then Gods dealing with the Non-elect part of fallen Man is much harder than his dealing with the Devils but the Consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The Minor I think I need not prove all acknowledge it that ever I heard or read on this subject If they should think that God dealt alike with the Non-elect and the Devils yet sure none will say that he deals far hardlier with the Non-elect Hell is prepared for the Devil and his Angels they are reserved in Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the great Day till then they believe and tremble and look for the time of their full torment without any hope of escape Compare with this but what I have before proved to be Gods dealing with men even them that perish and you will see that their case is not worse than the Devils And for the Consequence of the Major Proposition I prove it thus by comparing both together When the Devils had fallen from their first estate God leaves them without remedy or hope of recovery But when man is fallen according to the Doctrine which I oppose God doth not only leave him remediless but also makes a new Law that shall oblige him to suffer a far sorer punishment except he will believe in a Redeemer that is not his Redeemer and trust for salvation to that Blood that was never shed for him and accept the benefits of a satisfaction that was never made for him even effects without a cause Yea and causeth his Son to make a satisfaction materially sufficient for the sins of all and yet had rather it were superfluous and vain and meerly lost then that it should be paid for him As if he would rather when three Men owe 100 l. a piece pay 300 l. for one of the three than the other 200 l. should be tendred for the rest And when he knows that Christ never satisfied for any of the Non-elect yet doth he follow them with daily sollicitations by his Word Spirit and Embassadors beseeching them to come in and accept of Christ ordaining and resolving that all these beseechings shall harden them or at least aggravate their sin and and misery that it may be easier with Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than with them that refuse these Offers And thus Christ shall necessitate them causally by his Law to a far greater torment as if their misery were not sad enough before without procuring them any possibility of escape for there is no such possibility without satisfaction to God's justice If God should make a Law that the Devils who are miserable already should have â—ar sorer punishment if they would not believe in Christ as their Redeemer who never redeemed them would not this be harder dealing than now God useth toward them when all the offer is on supposition that they cannot and therefore will not believe and if it were possible to believe it would do them no good If then this would be harder dealing with them than those are hardlier used than the Devils with whom God so deals and therefore he dealeth so with none Arg. 24. A beneficâ Naturâ Evangelii If Christ died only for the Elect then should the Gospel to most men where it comes be of it self directly one of the greatest plagues and signs of God's wrath that ever he sendeth on a People on earth but the Gospel is no such Curse but a great blessing Ergo c. The Consequence is thus proved That which brings an unavoidable obligation to a far sorer punishment without giving any possiblity either of escaping former misery or this additional misery must needs be one of the greatest Curses and Plagues in the World and so the sign of Gods greatest wrath but such were the Gospel or new Law to most men where it comes if the opposed Doctrine were true Ergo c. Let him that denys the Major shew me a sorer Plague that ever God inflicted on any man on Earth if he can Object Is not the Gospel the savour of death to some and Christ a stumbling stone and Rock of offence Answ That is not of his own nature nor of the nature of the Gospel nor yet as a proper Cause per se but as an occasion and by accident through Mans own wickedness and wilful rejection and abuse A Man may burn himself with the fire that should warm him or choak himself with the food that should nourish him Object But doth not God decree it Answ His decree causeth not the thing any more than his foreknowledge having no influence into the Object as our Divines actus immanens nihil ponit in objectio Predestinatio â—iâ—â—l ponit in praedestinato It imposeth no causal necessity as all confess only as foreknowledge so decree hath a Logical necessity in ordine argumentandi called Necessitas Consequentiae Twisse himself saith there is no more and the Schoolmen are of his mind in that and affirm no more And for the minor its evident in each part 1. The new Law obligeth all that believe not to damnation because they believe not and to a far sorer punishment than before was due to them Heb. 10. 29. Mar. 16. 16. Joh. 3. 18 19. Mat. 25. last 2. And that it is an unavoidable obligation appears 1 In that God made the Law whether Man will or not Man could not hinder that 2. And it is an impossibility which the Law is feigned to require To accept a Redeemer that never Redeemed them to rest on a satisfaction for their justification and pardon which is no satisfaction for as to them it is none It being maintain'd by them whom I oppose that it is none and that it is only materially sufficient that is matter of suffering sufficient to have made a satisfaction if God would but not formally sufficient that is indeed it is no price or satisfaction as to their debt at all for if my Neighbour and I owe each of us 20 l. he that pays his debt though he over-pay doth no more thereby to the discharge of mine than if he had done nothing at all I have proved before that here is no sufficient ground for that faith supposing Christ satisfied not for the Believer And even those whom I argue against will not endure to have it supposed that any Man should believe for whom Christ dyed not Or if they will let us sppose such a thing then it is undeniable that such a Man would be never the more pardoned or saved because there is no Salvation withont a Saviour and no Remission without satisfaction And as in those that are
all for them nor was their Redeemer and that if they could have or had believed it would not have saved them yea that Christ being never given for them could not consequently be given to them and consequently could not be accepted or received as being not an object caprble of being received yea that God could not give them pardon and Salvation as purchased by that Blood that was never shed for them had they believed never so much will not this take of all the accusations of conscience and turn all their clamors against God himself And so make Hell thus far to be no Hell If a great Man come to a poor Prisoner and say take me for the payer of thy debt as having already done it and thou shalt be free and moreover advanced but otherwise thy imprisonment and punishment shall be far sorer suppose the Man believes him not and thereupon is closer imprisoned and grievously punished If the offer were real upon a true discharge of his debt the Prisoner will blame himself But if it be certainly known to him that there was no such discharge or payment and that it was offered meerly to increase his misery because the offerer had some foreknowledg that he would not believe him and that if he had believed him he had been never the better because no payment was made would this Man blame himself Or would he not approve of his owâ— unbelief and say why should I have trusted such a one And would he not have cried out on the offerer as a deceiver and unjust and cruel Consider and judg And thus with the Minor I have also confirmed the Major Proposition Christ told the Jews If he had not come and spoak to them and done the Works that no Man else could do they had not had Sin in not believing on him but now they had no Cloak for their Sin But if Christ had not redeemed Men nor been an object for their Faith then much more evidently may it be said that they had not had Sin who had not believed in him or taken him as their Redeemer For defect of an object will more excuse then defect of evidence If the Works of God discovering his invisible things leave Sinners Heathens as most Exspositors judg without excuse and so they had been excusable but for those works much more excusable would unbelievers be if they had no Redeemer to believe in whatever proclamations of him were made to the World And consequently conscience would excuse the damned and so would not torment them for an excusing conscience tormenteth none But whatever Men may say now I am certain that those miserable damned Souls will have no such alleviation of their misery They shall not be able then to stop the Mouth of conscience by all the Arguments against their Redemption that now seem so strong nor to say what should I vex my self for that which I could never help if I would and torment my self or accuse my self for not accepting a Redeemer that never was given me Or for not redeeming my own Soul Arg. 29th A natura Poenae infernalis Privativae If Christ died not for all but only for the Elect then the punishment of the damned should not at all consist in a Privation of the But Fruits of Christs Sacrifice or satisfaction the punishment of the damned at least many if not all will consist in a privation of the Fruits of Christs satisfaction Ergo c. For the better understanding of the force of this Argument you must know 1. That there may be a Privation of that which we are but in a possibility or probability of enjoying much more if we have a certainty on some easie and reasonable condition specially if the condition be but the accepting of a free gift as well as there may be a Privation of what is actually enjoyed 2. Though some that understand not the nature of the New Covenant or Law do deny that it hath any peculiar penalty yet it is a clear truth beyond doubt For 1. It is an entire law and therefore doth promise and threaten and consequently doth premiare punire reward and punish 2. It is that Law by which we shall be judged at the Redeemers bar and therefore it doth reward and punish that is constitute the dueness of rewards and punishments else it could not possibly be Norma judicii in Absolution and condemnation 3. It is said expresly Heb. 10. 22. Of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy that tread under Foot the Son of God c. And therefore the punishment of unbelievers in the New Testament is expressed to be in unquenchable Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels whereas the punishment of the old Law was expressed but by the name of Death or at least not so hideously as the other Not that I am any whit of their opinion that think there was no actual everlasting pain threatned by the old Law but only annihilation Nor will I contest against any Man that saith it is only a punishment gradually different as to the positive part and much of the privative from that of the first Law which is threatned by the second For a gradual natural difference may constitute a moral specifical difference It is but in degree of pain that a prick with a pin differs from Caesars stabs in the Senate House or from the pulling of a Mans Flesh of his Back with Nails or hot Pincers Yet some of the privative and objective of the positive torments of the two Laws do differ in specie For as to the positive the consciences of the damned shall torment them for rejecting a Redeemer and pardon Adoption and Glory with him But according to the first Law conscience should only torment Men for casting away that Life that Adam did enjoy or if more were promised for not obeying perfectly that they might attain it 4. And it is undeniable that this New Law hath a punishment privative specifically distinct in Natura rei from that of the old Law That is the privation of Christ as their Head and of pardon justification by him Adoption by him and Salvation from deserved misery beside the loss of a greater promised glory yea and a second loss of their first happiness If any therefore shall say that because Men are condemned already and the Gospel doth only Non-liberare not save unbelievers therefore it is a meer promise and not a Law and so hath no proper penalty of its own I answer 1. I have shewed it hath a sorer punishment as its positive penalty 2. The denial of a greater glory which Christ giveth by the New Law above what the old Law gave is a proper and grievous punishment 3. The denial of those blessed Relations of a Member of Christ and in him an adopted Son of God and Heir of Heaven c. is a sore and proper punishment 4. The Privation even of that Life which was given by the first
Law is a proper penalty of the second because the New Law doth restore to all Men their lost right to Life on an easy condition and therefore as the Privation of Life is first given or promised in the first Law was the penalty of that Law so the Privation of the same Life as redeemed and restored by the Mediator is the penalty of the new Law So that it is a recovered happiness that they this way lose and so are twice dead as Jude speaks 5. The very Non-Liberation of the new Law in denial of Remission and Salvation is a great and proper penalty As the Non-continuation of Adams happiness in paradise was a penalty of that Law and the not-giving of a greater if that Law did promise a greater If a Prince make an Act of pardon and oblivion for a company of imprisoned condemned Malefactors in these terms that if they will repent and thankfully accept his favour they shall all be pardoned and also dignified to be Princes and his Favourites If they will not none of them shall be pardoned but all shall die by a more cruel Death Here this Law of Grace hath as its peculiar penalty 1. Their Non-liberation and so their first deserved Death not as first deserved but as confirmed and peremptorily adjudged to them for their ingratitude and so 2. The loss of Life as it was conditionally restored and was in Law as it were a new Life 3. And the loss of the promised offered dignities 4. And the sorer kind of death so is it in the case in Hand For the confirmation of the Minor I need not to say much more seeing for ought I know it is generally granted I never met yet with any that durst say that all the Non-Elect do undergo none of the fore described penalties of the new Law but only the meer penalties of the first Law Doubtless God is offended specially at their unbelief and will destroy them as Christs Enemies because they would not that he should Reign over them Luke 21. 27. and Christ will come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them for not knowing God and not obeying the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 2. Thes 1. 7. 8. 9. and he will damn them all that obeyed not the Truth of the Gospel but had pleasure in unrighteousness 1 Thes 2. 10. 11. 12. And this is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil And because when Christ came to his own his own received him not Joh. 1. 10. 21 11. For it shall come to pass that every Soul that heareth not the voice of this Prophet shall be destroyed Acts 3. 23. And they that believe not Jesus is the Christ shall dye in their sins And except men repent they shall all perish Luk. 13. 3 5. yea whoever believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16. 16. For he is the Author of Eternal Salvation to them only that obey him Heb. 5. 9. So that as men suffer for sin against the new so also from the obligation of that Law binding them over to Judgment and therefore they are judged by that Law Mat. 25. yea I doubt not but all the World shall be judged by the Redeemer for misimploying his Talents of Grace those that perish and not only for not perfect fulfilling the Law of Works none is condemned meerly for that And if it be so then the same Law of Christ must needs constitute the penalty to be executed Nor did I ever meet with any that durst say that it was no punishment to Unbelievers to be denied Pardon and Justification and Salvation from their deserved damnation which were all offered to them in the Gospel and which Believers do receive much less should any say that the additional torments of such and the loss of the greater promised glory are no punishments Yea even in this life the non-elect receive of the punishments proper to the new Law viz. non remission and non reconciliation and the forsaking of God when he casts them off and gives them up to themselves because they would none of him Psal 81. 11 12. and leaves them desolate because when Christ would have gathered them to him in tender mercy they would not Mat. 23. 37 38. and gives them over to believe lyes because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2. 10 11. and takes his holy Spirit from them because they grieved and quenched it And all this will be out of doubt if we consider the definition of Punishment which is a natural evil inflicted because of a Moral or the hurt of our persons inflicted for sin Now there is no doubt but all these forementioned are evils to us or hurtful to mens persons and no doubt but they are inflicted for sin and then as to the species They are inflicted for sins against the Law of Christ by force of the obligation of the commination of that Law and the sentence past by Christ as Redeemer and Author of that Law Yea what if I said that strictly and directly men suffer not at all the penalty of the Law of Works For all are delivered from that penalty on condition they Repent and Believe and so the obligation of that Law is suspended to all though not strictly abrogated and transferred and as it were sequestred into the hands of Christ to be disposed of by him inflicting or not inflicting it as men deal with him according to his terms of Grace so that now the penalty is immediately and strictly the penalty of the Law of Christ as it doth both non-liberare and peremptorily bind men over to it and it is properly the loss of a Life recovered by Christs blood which is the punishment though remotely it be also from the obligation of the first Law which being but suspended by Christ and conditionally dissolved remaineth in force upon the non-performance of the condition as soon as the time of performance is expired So that it is undeniable that the damned suffer the privation of the fruits of Christs death and satisfaction yea and of his satisfaction for them in perticular For as it is certain that there is no remission without blood and no Justification or Salvation without Christs satisfaction so it is as much beyond doubt with all sober men that Christs satisfaction for one man will not procure Pardon and Salvation for another So that the Minor is fully clear And for the Major proposition it is as clear For there can be no effects without a cause As no man can receive the effects of Christs Death but those for whom he died so no man can lose or be deprived of those effects but those for whom he died for the cause is presupposed A Negation is no Punishment It is not a punishment to a Stone that it is not a Man that it is mute liveless c. nor to a Beast not to be saved nor
to an Angel not to be Redeemed nor to the Devils not to be partakers of Christ and of Pardon and Salvation by him Now its true the Pardon of the Damned and their Salvation was not actually effected but the meritorious cause was full and perfect in Christs satisfaction and moral causes go long before the effects sometimes and may do all their part and yet the effect not follow through the defect of some other and the effects were conditionally given or produced by the New Covenant and thereby become not only possible and probable but certain if the condition were performed So that here is a proper privation and not a bare Negation Nor is it the meer matter of such effects that men are deprived of but formally as they were effects conditionally granted and were to have been effects actually of the death of Christ They should have been such effects if they had done their part to procure them by performing the condition as Christ did in the Cause for he required not them to effect it as concauses but only suspended the effects of his own full sufficient but Moral cause on their condition which all Lawyers and all that know what a Moral Cause is or what a proper condition is know to be most usual Now if you suppose that Christ died not and satisfied not for these men then the loss of Pardon Adoption Membership of Christ final Absolution Salvation besides all the greater Glory and all the Spirits Graces and Workings in this life cannot possibly be punishments to them for they cannot be Privations For there was never any cause to procure them and therefore they were never possible much less due and Mans Faith was not required by God to be the meritorious cause or to satisfie Gods Justice nor yet to procure Christ or any other to satisfie it nor yet to make that satisfaction to be now for us which was made for others and not for us to none of these ends was Faith required but only to be the condition of our enjoying Christ and the fruits of his satisfaction on performance whereof the Moral Cause which was long before in full being should produce its effect or else not as to us so that satisfaction as the Cause is necessarily supposed to Faith as the condition seeing the office of the condition is that on it the effect of the cause be suspended till that condition be performed And therefore there can be no condition where there is not first the Moral Cause I mean there can neither be condition constituted by Law Testament Deed of Gift or Covenant nor yet condition performed for it cannot have the form of a condition Or if that be disputable as to any other case I am sure it is not in the case in hand No man will say that the non-remission non-salvation of the Devils by the Blood of Christ is a Punishment to them Object That is because it was never offered or conditionally given them by Covenant as it was to the Unbelievers Answ Nor could it have been given so to Unbelievers if Christ had not died for them Could God give them Christ as a Satisfier and Redeemer who never had satisfied for them or redeemed Or could he make over to them effects which had no Cause viz. the effects of his dying for them when he did not dye for them Would the New Covenant serve to pardon men without Christs Sacrifice and Satisfaction Nay is it not beyond all doubt that this which I call the New Covenant or Testament He that believeth shall be saved c. is the Redeemers Law and Testament and presupposeth his Death and Satisfaction in esse Morali at least It is the New Testament in his Blood he first buyeth men to be his own by satisfaction and then dealeth with them as his own by Promise and Legislation Only the Promise of God to give Christ for a Redeemer to the World and his Prophesies of him therein are in order of nature before the Moral being of Christs death but so is not the Law of Grace I know nothing that hath any great shew of Reason that can be said against this Argument which so clearly evinceth the truth of Universal Redemption and for vain objections I will not trouble my self and the Reader with them Arg. 30. A Comparatione doctrinae universalem satisfactionem affirmantis cum doctrinâ— eandem negante If they who assert Universal Redemption quoad satisfactionem pretium have all these forementioned Arguments from Scripture for their cause and a multitude of express Texts and no one ill consequence following their doctrine nor one sound Reason nor one text of Scripture against them And if the deniers of Universal Satisfaction have all the contrary disadvantages then they that affirm Universal Satisfaction are in the right and they that deny it do err But the antecedent is true Ergo. c. Here I will 1. Look over these Arguments again and from thence shew you the face of the consequents of the denial of Universal Satisfaction 2. I will lay you down together the express Texts that are for Universal Satisfaction 3. And also the Texts that are brought against it 4. And then the particular search of those texts on both sides and the answer to all the Arguments that are usually brought against Universal Satisfaction I intend shall follow afterward in their own places more fully The Doctrine which denyeth Universal Satisfaction hath all these inconveniences and absurd consequents following therefore it is not of God nor true 1. It either denieth the Universal Promise or Conditional Gift of Pardon and Life to all men if they will believe and then it overturneth the substance of Christs Law and Gospel promise or else it maketh God to give conditionally to all men a Pardon and Salvation which Christ never purchased and without his dying for men 2. It maketh God either not to offer the effects of Christs satisfaction Pardon and Life to all but only to the Elect or else to offer that which is not and which he cannot give 3. It denieth the direct object of Faith and of Gods offer that is Christum qui satisfecit a Christ that hath satisfied 4. It either denieth the Non-Elects deliverance from that flat necessity of perishing which came on man for sinning against the first Law by its remediless unsuspended obligation and so neither Christ Gospel or Mercy had ever any nature of a remedy to them nor any more done toward their deliverance then towards the deliverance of the Devils Or else it maketh this deliverance and remedy to be without satisfaction by Christ for them 5. It either denieth that God commandeth all to believe but only the Elect Or else maketh God to assign them a deceiving Object for their Faith commanding them to believe in that which never was and to trust that which would deceive them if they did trust it 6. It maketh God either to have appointed and commanded the
cap. 10. Videtur declarare non est eis reliqua hostia pro peccato postquam unicam Christi hostiam semel abjecerunt conculcarunt Impossible igitur est eos resipiscere servari So Calvin also Porro haec ratio est cur iterum dicat Christum crucifigi quia nos hâc conditione illi commorimur ut meditemur perpetuam vitae novitatem Qui◠ergo in mortem recidunt opus habent secundo sacrificio ut capite decimo habebimus Crucifigentes sibi hoc est quantum in se est Yea Beza himself who seeing what might be said for Universal Redemption from this Text endeavours to put in a bar yet concludeth thus Et fortasse sic potest ista sententia explicari acsi declaretur istos non posse rursum renovari quoniam rursus oporteret Christum crucifigi illis ludibriis exponi quod fieri amplius non potest illo semel pro mortuis credituris crucifixo nec in gratiam istorum apostatarum rursum crucifigendo quam sententiam si amplectamur uti sane probablis commoda mihi videtur c. I will add no more though many more might be added Now according to this exposition it is evident that it is implied that Christ died for these men or else there seems no force in the Argument to prove their sin unpardonable and themselves unrecoverable For the Holy Ghost here plainly intimateth that this unrecoverableness is the fruit of their Apostacy and that they were not unrecoverable before they were Apostates and yet the reason of their uncureableness lies in this that it is necessary to their pardon and cure that Christ should die again which cannot be Now it implieth that he died for them as they were in their state before Apostacy or else on this reason it might be said as well that their recovery and pardon was as impossible then and so their Apostacy should not be the reason but Christs not dying for them at all should be it Which is plainly contrary to the Text. But if any will needs deny this most probable interpretation and expound it efficienter that they do as much as they can to kill Christ again by their malice and contempt and making him to be but as a malefactor do approve of the Jews crucifying him as Grotius and many more expound it still it intimates that their sin did put him to Death once before or else what force is there in the Argument For it seems to run thus they that as much as in them lieth put Christ to Death twice or a second time are remediless But so do these Apostates Ergo c. Now if their sin as the pro-causa meritoria had no hand in his Death at first how can they be therefore remediless for endeavouring it a second time For it was but once by them And if the same sin was pardonable in those that not only in desire but in act did put him to Death viz. the Jews then it appears that it was a pardonable sin And that the same sin nay the Conatus or meer desire of it which was pardonable then should become unpardonable since as it is a fancy and hath no Scripture proof so it is apparently false seeing it supposeth that the Law of Christ is not now the same as then which is false A second Argument for Universal satisfaction this Text affordeth us Christ satisfied for all those who are inlightened and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost c. But some Non-Elect are such Therefore Christ satisfied for some Non Elect and consequently for all This Argument is urged before therefore I shall say little to it Some answer to the Minor that it is to be denied because this Text doth nihil ponere sed tantum supponere Answer But it doth not suppose that which never was nor will be nor is possible Most Interpreters almost all that are against Universal satisfaction do expound this Text of those gifts which may and oft are really lost The number is so many that I will cite none 2. It is further said by some that these benefits presuppose not Christs dying for them Answer This is answered already They that can prove that God can will and doth give all these without satisfaction to his Justice first made are but a step from Socinianism and may next say he can and will give pardon without satisfaction And then they are within a step of infidelity and next in danger of saying that Christ Died in vain surely the Holy Ghost is given by Christ Crucified and I think only to them for whom he was Crucified The Devils are not therefore uncurable for ought any Scripture reveals because they would put Christ to Death through malice if it were in their power nor had they ever these fruits of his Death But according to their sense against whom I argue the Devils might hence be said to be unpardonable as well as Apostates Which is no Scripture Doctrine The 7th Text which I shall urge is Heb. 10. 26 27 28 29. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden nunder Foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was Sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace Hence I raise two Arguments 1. Those who receive the mercies here mentioned are of the number of them for whom Christ diéd But such are some Non-elect Ergo c. The Blood of the Covenant is shed before it is sprinkled or Sanctifieth shed Physically or morally and it cannot sanctifie Men before it is shed for them For Sanctification being some degree of application presupposeth it shed for them I mean If by Sanctification be meant either separation relative from the World to the Church and to Christ secundum quid Or else Sanctification real by giving Men a temporary Faith and other Graces proportionable and their escaping the pollutions of the World by that Faith But some think that by Sanctification is meant that cleansing which immediately followed the Sacrifice the word being used from the Jewish Sanctifyings and so by Sanctification should be meant that conditional justification or cleansing which all Men have immediately from Christ crucified before any further Personal application And if this be so then the Case is plain and past question The 2d Argument is from those words there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins but c. Here the Apostle proveth the uncurableness and desperateness of their Case in that there remaineth no more Sacrifice And this is proper to them when they are Apostates Now if there were never
all Unbelievers in their own damnation Christ did by his Sufferings only pay as it were that which is a valuable consideration for the non-execution of the Law as to all that will perform the conditions of the Gospel or New Law Obj. Did not Christ bear the Curse of the Law for us that he might Redeem them that were under the Law Answ Yes he bore the Curse of the Law Materially that is that Cursed Death which the Law threatned But he bore it not ex formali Legis obligatione sed tantum ex obligatione sponsionis propriae precepti paterni The Law obliged us to punishment but it never obliged Christ to Punishment only its obliging us to it was the occasion of Christs Obligation because it occasioned him to Oblige himself by his own voluntary sponsion that he might free us But still it was only his own sponsion that obliged him together with that peculiar will of his Father that he should undertake and discharge our debt so that you see the Law is but once executed even on the Damned as to full execution for mans mortality and sufferings here are a small part of the Execution which Christ saw it not meet to take off And so the ipsum Debitum is paid but once Christs Sufferings being not solutio ejusdem sed satisfactio i. e. solutio aequivalentis alias indebiti 2. Nay consider further that the equivalency lay not in the proportion of Punishment pain or loss equal to that which was due to all or to the Elect but in the sufficient aptitude of that Degree or Punishment which Christ bore becoming a publick spectacle of shame for the demonstration of Justice c. from the exceeding Dignity of the person to be a means to Gods obtaining the remote ends of his Law viz. the demonstration of Justice and right governing the Creature and preserving the Authority of the Lawgiver though the nearest ends of that Law were not attained viz. the personal obedience of man and for want of that his personal suffering Many Learned Divines have written largeiy to prove that Christ did not properly suffer the pains of Hell on his Soul I will not meddle much with that question But doubtless it was a very great part of our punishment which Christ was uncapable of undergoing much less may any dare to affirm that his Sufferings Materially were as great as All the Sufferings of All that he died for should have been The Death due to us was Temporal Spiritual and Eternal The Temporal Death is so much the least that many Divines will not be persuaded that it hath now to the Godly any nature of Punishment but is only materially a suffering The Spiritual Death so far as it consisted in the loss of Gods Image and privation of Holiness and Dominion of Sin and Slavery to Satan Christ bore not at all Nor yet as it lay in any Torments or Gripes of Conscience which are the fruits only of personal proper guilt in the remembrance of the Folly or Wilfulness or Negligence or Unkindness or the like Evils manifested in Sinning Christ had no sin of his own to look on to torment him and other mens Sins could not procure to him the gripes of a Guilty Conscience Nor yet was his Soul or Body so deprived of Gods Love as are the wicked nor so hated by God nor at all disunited from God For upon the loss of Union with God and Spiritual Communion with him would have followed the loss of Grace and depravation of the Soul and prevalency of sin nor yet were any of Christs sufferings Eternal Yet did he endure that debasedness and publick shame and that forsaking of God by the denial of Spiritual Comforts and by giving him up to the Will of his Enemies and by an inward sense of Gods displeasure in trouble of Soul which was a full satisfaction to Justice or a Sacrifice sufficient for God to do what he did upon the reception of it But you see that quoad Materiale poenae there was much difference between Christs Sufferings and the Damneds in Hell 3. Consider Christs sufferings being not solutio ipsius Debiti but satisfactio as is before explained therefore it was solutio recusabilis God might have chosen to accept it and there must intercede as it were a new agreement for its acceptance Now God did accept it and Christ suffer it only on these terms that none should for all that have the Pardon of his sins till he accepted Christ as his Lord Redeemer and Repented of his sins and this is the true reason why Christs Satisfaction is no hinderance to the punishment of those that reject him and his favours 4. The Satisfaction of Christ is sufficient and perfect ad suum finem to all its own ends but not ad omnem finem to every use and end and it was not its use and end to acquit ipso facto any sinner but only to acquit all on condition of Repenting and Believing it being also the full intent of God to give that condition to all his Elect as shall be anon opened Some very Wise Godly and Learned men that I have spoke with wish that the Word Satisfaction had been never here used but instead of it the terms of an Expiatory or Propitiatory Sacrifice because the last is the Scripture phrase and the first is not But yet Satisfaction is no such unfit term but that it may well be used though still Scripture phrase I confess is better 5. As Christ hath satisfied the Father so the Father hath satisfied Christ in the larger sense i. e. he hath fulfilled his desire It was not man himself that satisfied but Christ for man nor did Christ satisfie in our person as a delegate pays a Debt in the Debtors name so as in Law-sense Civiliter it is the Debtor himself that pays it For then it should have been Solutio not Satisfactio There being no Vicarius Poenae allowed by the Law it is indeed impossible for such a solution to be made For it should be the Idem and not the Idem quod debetur quia non naturaliter per eundem and consequently not civiliter per eundem Yet a satisfaction may be made by suffering alterius loco and so Christ did But as Christ suffered in his own person viz. Sponsoris and not our selves so the effect that he desired was that he might himself be the first Recipient of the fruits of that satisfaction in that sense as he is capable of receiving them that he might be the Head and the publick Treasury of all the Mercy procured by his Death and being made Lord of all might give them out to whom and when and how he pleased and in special that he might make a general Deed of Gift of himself and Pardon and Salvation to All that would accept it and might send forth the Spirit and Word to bring in men to himself in what measure he please and in particular
And 1. I argue thus If it be no injustice in God to oblige men to punishment for all Christs satisfaction then it is no injustice actually to punish men for all Christs satisfaction But the former is true therefore so is the latter First I will prove the consequence of the Major Proposition thus from the essential offices of the Law 1. The Law is Juris constitutiva vel saltem declarativa It constituteth Right or at least declareth right I put in the latter declareth not as my own sense but to prevent the quarrel of any that may think this or any Right was constituted from Eternity before there was any Law or at least before that which we say obligeth sinners to punishment Though indeed the Law doth constitute before it declare And so the Law is Regula jussitiâ— vel saltem regula justa And if so then to execute such a Law can be no injustice 2. The Law is Norma judicii that 's past question I speak of a Law in force and as to the subjects to whom it is in force And if so then it can be no injustice to execute it But I think few sober men will deny the Major and therefore I leave that And one would think none should doubt of the Minor Whether it be any injustice in God by his Law to oblige to punishment those that Christ Died for But because the Antinomians deny it let us prove it If God do de facto oblige to punishment those for whom Christ Died then it is no injustice so to do But God doth so actually Ergo c. I hope if we prove that God doth it none dare say it is unjust If he be not Just he is not God And that God doth it I prove thus 1. Those that God Hateth and are Children of Wrath and without Hope and without God in the World and Strangers to the Covenant of Promises and Aliens to the Common-Wealth of Israel c. are certainly obliged to punishment But such many have been and still are for whom Christ Died Ergo c. God hateth all the workers of Iniquity and they are all by Nature Children of Wrath c. But many that Christ Died for are before Regeneration workers of Iniquity Ergo c. 2. All that are under the Curse of the Law are obliged to punishment But many that Christ Died for were under the Curse of the Law since his Death undertaken when his satisfaction was in force yea since his actual suffering Ergo. c. Many Scriptures shew both that we were under the Curse of the Law when Christ actually suffered and that all the Elect are under it still as well as others till their conversion I am loth to trouble the Reader in heaping up Testimonies 3. All that are condemned already and the Wrath of God abideth on them are doubtless obliged to punishment But such are many for whom Christ Died even all the Elect as well as others while they are unbelievers John 3. 18. 4. All that are guilty are obliged to punishment Proved Reatus est obligatio ad poenam they are all one thing But some that Christ Died for are Guilty Ergo c. Even all before pardon and that is all before Conversion are guilty 5. All those whose sins Christ doth pardon were first guilty or obliged to punishment But some that Christ Died for have their sins pardoned Ergo c. The Major is proved beyond all doubt from the formal Nature of Pardon which is the Remitting of Guilt or the Dissolving of an Obligation to punishment therefore where is no such obligation there can be no Dissolution of it For that which is not cannot be dissolved And so there is no capacity for pardon no more than a living man can be raised from the Dead or a Man cured of a Disease which he never had The like may be said of Justification also Our Divines have fully proved against the Antinomians that we are unpardoned and unjustified till we believe We are Justified by Faith and therefore were unjustified before Faith 6. If none be obliged to punishment for whom Christ Died then none such may pray for Pardon nor confess that they need any Pardon from Christ For Pardon being the dissolving of an obligation to punishment there can be no pardon where there is no obligation and therefore no need of it nor of prayer for it But the consequent is very wicked We must daily pray Forgive us our Debts and Trespasses Ergo c. The Second Argument is this If God do actually punish those for whom Christ Died then he may justly punish them But God doth actually punish such Ergo c. The Major is unquestionable The Minor is fully proved thus 1. The express words of Scripture shew it Lev. 26. 41 43. Lam. 3 39. and 4. 6 22. Amos 1. 3 6 9 11 13. and 2. 1 4 6. 2 Cor. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 14. Jer. 44. 13. Ezra 9. 13. Hos 4. 9 15. Jer. 9 25. Read the places 2. The execution of that sentence Gen. 3. 16 17 18 19. is certainly punishment I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy Conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth Children c. Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy Life c. Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return But this sentence is executed on those that Christ Died for Ergo c. 3. Those whom God chastiseth he punisheth But he chastiseth those whom Christ Died for Ergo c. The Major is undeniable to all that know what chastisement and punishment is Punishment is the Genus being a Natural Evil or the privation of a Natural Good inflicted for a Moral Evil the privation of a Moral Good Rigorous vindictive Punishment tending most to the ruine of the Sinner is one species of it Chastisement is another species which by the hurt of a sinner tendeth to his good And though this be called Paternal yet 1. Chastisement is not the proper act of Parents Masters may Chastise Servants and Princes their Subjects 2. It is Metaphorically called Paternal in one respect as God exerciseth it when yet in other respects it is the act of God as Rector per Legâ—s for so all Gods Chastisements are according to his Laws Object All shall work together for good to them that Love God to the Called c. therefore nothing is Punishment Answ 1. The best Interpreters according to the plain truth expound that Text of Affliction only and most of such Affliction as is suffered for Christs cause or at least not for hainous sinning against God And it is unlikely it should be otherwise 1. Because the defect of Love to God seems excepted in limiting it to them that love God But one that Christ Died for may be defective in love to God therefore that is not promised to work for good 2. Every Man dieth in some sin and how that
to Christ the Redeemer or else to the Sinners that perish But it is no wrong to God the Father Christ the Redeemer nor the Sinner Therefore it is no injustice nor wrong at all The Major consisteth of two parts both which are beyond dispute 1. That whatsoever is injurious is injurious to some person or Society 2. That the enumeration is sufficient in the present Case None else can be imagined to be wronged but God or the Redeemer or the Sinner And 1. That it is no wrong to God himself is past doubt for God cannot and will not wrong himself Object But it would be contrary to the goodness of his Nature and so contrary to himself and to Universal Righteousness Answ Not so There can nothing in Gods Nature be manifested which should necessitate or cause him certainly to save all that Christ Died for Not his Justice for that requires him to give every Man his Right But I shall shew you that this was never the Right of all that Christ Died for nay I have shewed already that all of them are after Christs Dying for them actually obliged to punishment so that punishment was then their Right Not his truth For he hath no where promised it 2. It is no injury to Christ that some should perish for whom he Died. 1. Because it is his own will He never intended to save any that he Died for but only those that accept him and his benefits 2. It is according to the contract as we may improperly call it between him and the Father God never required nor accepted satisfaction nor did Christ ever give it but on these terms that only those should be saved by it that accept him and it God hath done what he promised to the Redeemer He hath delivered up all mens Obligations into the hands i. e. the power and dispose of Christ and so hath remitted the Debt to all that will accept it Christ may now give pardon to whom he please It was not we but Christ that made the satisfaction and therefore it is not to us immediately that God hath delivered up the Obligation but to Christ that satisfied As it is usual among men for a friend that is surety for another to have his obligation delivered to him for his own security So hath Christ that if Sinners prove unthankful rejecters of his kindness he may punish them for it accordingly 3. It is Christs own doing to condemn those for whom he Died And he will not wrong himself And he therefore doth it because they will not accept him and his favour nor thankfully acknowledge what he hath done for them 4. No man can shew one word in Scripture where God hath promised Christ to save all that he Died for I conclude therefore that God is no more bound to save all that Christ Redeemed than to save all that himself Created And the vulgar Argument of the Prophane God did not make us to Damn us or God made us therefore he will not Damn us is as good as this Christ Died for us therefore he will not Damn us 3. That it is no injury or injustice to the Damned themselves is as easily manifested and yet here is all the shew of injury that is 1. It is no wrong to give men their due But Damnation is the due of all Unbelievers even those that Christ Died for Therefore it is no wrong for God to Damn them The Major is past doubt The Minor is as clear as any point that I know in the Gospel A single obligation makes it their due but here is a double obligation 1. That of the Law of Works obliging them to Death as Sinners which is not dissolved because they accepted not of Pardon in and with Christ and so they are condemned already For none is pardoned till he Believeth and Punishment remaineth due till men be Pardoned 2. The obligation of the new Law both binding their former guilt on them by a peremptory irreversible Decree and condemning them for contempt of recovering Mercy to a sorer Punishment This last I mention as belonging only to final Unbelievers The first obligation lyeth on the Elect themselves till they Believe And moreover the New Law pronounceth them all that time non-liberatos unpardoned and doth not give them any remission though it pass not on them the peremptory irreversible Sentence Obj. If this be so then God should do the Elect themselves no wrong if he did damn them before they Believe Answ None at all nor dare any â—ober knowing man tell God that he had wronged him if he had so done But on the contrary it 's the use of all Godly Orthodox men Ministers or private persons so far as ever I could observe to confess to God in their Prayers that he might justly have cut them off before their Regeneration and have cast them into Hell and that it was then their due yea that he might have sent them to Damnation from the Womb yet it followeth not that God might Damn the Elect For he hath Decreed the contrary But the Purpose or Decree of God doth no more give them a Right to Pardon or Salvation than my Purpose to make such a man my Heir or to give him 100 l. doth give him right to that 100 l. or to my Inheritance So that God Damns not any of his Elect but the reason is not because that Damnation was not due to them before they believed or because God could not damn them in Justice or without wronging them but because he cannot change his Purpose or Will which properly is to say God will not Damn the Elect rather than He cannot Obj. But it would be a wrong to Christ for they are given him to save effectually by the Covenant between God and Him Answ I am indifferent how this is answered seeing we are agreed in the sense that God never will condemn his Elect But by the Covenant between the Father and Son either they mean somewhat from eternity or before the Fall and this is but Gods Decree and is no more a Covenant indeed than any other Decree of God is Doth God make Covenants with himself 2. Or else they mean the Prophecies and Promises in the Old Testament or Scriptures before Christs Incarnation made to or of Christ as God-man to be Incarnate and these are more properly Predictions de suturo as other Prophecies are which God cannot but fulfil because he is immutable and infallible than the Divine Obligations which God must fulfil because he is Just or if any will say that they are strictly obligations about which I will not contend yet the Elect are not named or individuals mentioned in them Or suppose that the Individuals names be implied yet this is nothing to the time before such promises were made Or if they had been made in the beginning still this is nothing to the point in question If God were obliged to Christ to save all the Elect yet he was never
And as Dr. Ames saith in the place before cited Anti-Bellarm it is to the work of Grace as Creation is to the work of Nature And therefore as none can deny but the Non-Elect have common grace as Conditional Pardon Illumination the Holy Ghost c. else how do they turn grace into wantonness so none can well deny but they have it from the general Fountain of Redemption Let us then consider what is the proper use of satisfaction as such and what it was that made satisfaction necessary And it is evident that it was the justice of God Creator as Rector according to the Law of Works and the misery of Man that haâ— offended God by the breach of that Law and was become liable to the Penalty which he could not bear without his everlasting undoing These made satisfaction necessary God's Justice required that either the Sinner must perisâ— or satisfaction by an Expiatory Sacrifice must bâ— made by which the remote and main ends â—â— the violated Law might be as well attained â— by the Sinners Damnation they would have been so that it was the death which was become due to Mankind which required the death of Christ their Sacrifice as on Man's part and God's Justice which would not remit sin but on a valuable consideration for the demonstration of its self and of God's Holiness which required it on God's part so that you see that on our part which required a Sacrifice was guilt that is obligation to everlasting punishment And it doth not belong to the satisfier as such to see that the guilt be actually done away quoad eventum or that the Damnation be actually escaped but that a sufficient Sacrifice or satisfaction be given on consideration whereof Remission and Salvation may be given on the terms as the Legislators and Redeemers Wisdom shall appoint How Christ doth give out this Pardon we shall shew you anon de quadruplici Remissione so that it is apparent that the want of the act or habit of Faith or the want of the Holy Ghost to effect Faith is not the thing that required satisfaction to God's Justice directly but that Faith is only a remote effect of this satisfaction and such an effect as hath no such Natural Connection with this Cause but that the Cause materially may be and oft is without that effect in many and the effect might have been without that cause from another if God had so pleased To manifest this that it is not want of Faith that required satisfaction as such and that satisfaction may be made for those that shall never believe observe these things 1. That Man's Suffering is not a thing pleasing to God in and for it self but for its end viz. The Demonstration of Justice and Right Governing of the World God professeth that he hath no pleasure in the death of a Sinner Ezek. 18. nor in the death of him that dyeth Ezek. 33. but rather that he repent and live Much less hath he pleasure in the death of the innocent and least of all in the death of his own Son God is not blood-thirsty who abhorreth the blood-thirsty man 2 It is not therefore for Christ's Sufferings as in themselves considered that God doth give men either Faith or any Mercy God doth not sell his mercies for blood as if he would give the World Remission of Sins on condition he might put his Son to so much torment And therefore Faith is not the immediate effect of Christ's death in sensu morali It comes not from his death as death or suffering nor may it without Blasphemy be conceived that ever God made such an agreement with his Son as to give Faith to Men meerly on Condition that Christ would suffer death without first considering somewhat else that required that suffering and something that put a value upon it 3. So that the thing which did require Christs Suffering was as is said before the obligation to punishment called guilt on mans part and vindictive justice on God's part Unbelief as Unbelief did not necessarily require it but the guilt of unbelief or any other sin did require it if ever it be pardonable 4. So that the following effects of Christ's death do all presuppose the satisfaction of Justice and hence Christs death becomes so pleasing to God not as death but as satisfaction and so a means fitted to the attainment of his ends And because this means so pleaseth him he esteemeth Christs satisfaction meritorious of further benefits joyned with his meritorious obedience upon which estimation and his own will called the Covenant with Christ he annexeth further benefits thereto For the end why he satisfied his justice by the Sacrifice of his Son was that he might honourably wisely and justly give out the following benefits which he giveth out hereupon So that Christs death is as to God first satisfactory and then meritorious of further benefits Now Faith very remotely followeth all this as shall be shewn 5. The thing that God could not do without satisfaction was the remitting of sin and freeing the delinquent from punishment it was not directly nor in its self the bestowing of Faith 6. For I would desire any Judicious Man to consider whether if Christ had by his death satisfied God's justice for mans guilt and had not at all done any more by his death for the meriting of Faith might not God have given man Faith at his own pleasure without the least shew of injustice or any other prohibiting inconvenience though Christ de facto did merit more yet we may well in dispute for searching out the truth separate in our thoughts guilt of sin and want of Faith in Christ and we may suppose that Christ had done no more by his death than to satisfie God's justice for man's guilt by bearing that which was due to man Now I would fain know this being once done why God or the Redeemer might not give Faith to whom he will Is there a further necessity of any new death or suffering to merit Faith for us If there be what is that necessity It is no injustice in God to do it There is no Law standing in the way by which he is obliged to the contrary Perhaps some will object that the same may be said of Pardon and Salvation that there needs no new suffering to merit them if once Justice be satisfied and yet Christ dyed for our Justification and Salvation To which I answer All this is true but then observe the difference separate in your thoughts Remission Justification and Salvation on one side from Faith in Christ on the other side as we by supposition may well do in disputation and you will find that God could not give Remission Justification and Salvation from Punishment without Christ's satisfaction but he could have given Faith in Christ if you will suppose it to go alone without the former benefits without satisfaction I say he could not give the former not by reason of any
but no doubt it is mediante Sanguine Christi and in a remote sense are fruits of Christ's death By what hath been said it may appear that Faith is not the proper effect of satisfaction as satisfaction nor is it any neer or inseparable effect of satisfaction as it is meritorious God did not give Christ Faith for his bloodshed in exchange the thing that God was to give the Son for his satisfaction was Dominion and Rule of the Redeemed Creature and power therein to use what means he saw fit for the bringing in of Souls to himself even to send forth so much of his word and Spirit as he pleased both the Father and Son resolving from Eternity to prevail infallibly with all the Elect. But never did Christ desire at his Fathers hands that all whom he satisfied for should be infallibly and irrisistibly brought to believe nor did God ever grant or promise any such thing Jesus Christ as a Ransom dyed for all and as Rector per Leges or Legislator he hath conveyed the Fruits of his death to all that is those Fruits which it appertained to him as Legislator to convey which is right to what his New Law or Covenant doth promise But those Mercies which he gives as Dominus Absolutus arbitrarily besides or above his engagement he neither gives nor ever intended to give to all that he dyed for no nor to all his Elect doth he give all those fruits of his death nor for ought I know to any in the same degree for these are but remotely the Fruits of Christ's death and not constant nor inseparable Fruits Peruse the foresaid Table of the Fruits of Christs death and it will shew you which the mercies be that Christ gives by Law and which arbitrarily as besides his engagement Is it not manifest then that it is a desperate charge against the Lord Christ to say that he is an imperfect Saviour if he do not perfectly save all that he Died for or convey to them all the fruits of his Death The Preaching of the Gospel expresly is a fruit of Christs Death Some have this in great power clearness and constancy some but weakly darkly or seldom and some not at all Shall they that have been at one or two dark Sermons of Christ in all their Lives say That either Christ Died not for them or else was an imperfect Saviour Some are endowed with the gift of Prophecy Tongues Miracles as fruits of Christs Death shall all that receive not these say that Christ is an imperfect Saviour because he gave them none of these fruits of his Death Some are made Kings and Rulers and some Apostles Evangelists Pastors Teachers c. and all are fruits of Christs Death Yet all are not Apostles Pastors Teachers c Some have Learning and some none Some have good Parents and good Education and some bad Some of the Elect have Health of Body and Helps Opportunities and Advantages to to serve God which others want Some are permitted to live long in sin as Manasses And others converted in the morning of their Days Some are preserved in a more even and comfortable walking with God And some are permitted to fall into most hainous scandalous sins to the great dishonour of God and their Profession and to walk sadly for it all their Days Nay some to suffer Death by the hands of publick justice Shall all these say Christ is an imperfect Saviour to them Some are kept in vigor and growth in grace and some remain Infants and some lose their first degree of Love and grow more luke-warm and Die in a very low ebb of Grace Comfort and Assurance Some enjoy much fellowship with the Father and Son in the Spirit And others are almost wholly strangers to it Some are made instruments of doing God abundance of service and the Church much good and bringing home or building up many Souls and that to the end of their Lives Others are kept without parts and gifts next to useless if not burdensome Some Distracted and after a Godly Life fall into stark madness and so spend their days as being uncapable of making use of their Affliction or of any Mercy And some are cut off in Infancy or in the Womb before they did ever believe or love God or do him any service And is Christ an imperfect Saviour to all these Nay and he hath revealed to us that according to this diversity here in degrees of Grace Holiness and Obedience so will be the diversity in the degrees of glory One shall be Ruler of ten Cities and another but of two For he will reward every Man according to his works How vast a difference then is there like to be between the Glory of an Infant that being born of a weak believer Died from the Womb and the Glory of Peter John Paul or those to whom it shall be given to sit on Christs Right Hand and Left Hand in his Kingdom And yet all these are Elect. Where is it then that the force of the Argument lyeth that would prove that all must needs have Faith for whom Christ Died If he be an imperfect Saviour except he save all alike or give to all that he Died for all the fruits of his Death then such a charge might as truly be grounded on his dealings with the Elect themselves as with others Object But he saveth all the Elect though not all alike He bringeth them all safe to Heaven at last but so he doth not others Answ That 's true But then 1. It 's yielded that it belongs not to the perfection of Christs Office or Work to give all the fruits of his Death quoad speciem to all that he Died for 2. It belongs as truly to his office of saving to save men from sin and to give them a full degree of Grace and Glory as to give men Faith And yet it belongs not to his office necessarily to give these to all that he Died for No doubt a greater measure of Glory is a greater good than that small measure which some enjoy Specially if the joy of some saved Infants were no greater than Nazianzene Orat. 40. and other antients did think the pain of some condemned Infants would be 3. Some of these parts of Salvation which the Elect themselves do come short of are penally denied them and so are given by Christ as Legislator being propounded on a condition and they not performing the condition to the performance whereof Grace was necessary to assist them If then Christ may give good things by a conditional grant as Legislator to his Elect and yet not give them that Grace which may cause them infallibly to perform the condition and so deny them the benefit conditionally given for want of that performance what reason can be given why he may not do so by the Non-Elect in respect of Salvation and Faith and Repentance the Conditions thereof So that all the weight of their Argument lyeth on this
Redemption Thes 4. Cap. 6. per tot page 65. ad p. 87 hath said so much to this pointt hat I may well refer the Reader thither for satisfaction without adding any more 3. Yet I shall first briefly Answer the Argument and then more fully open the truth about this point in certain conclusions And 1. We must distinguish of several terms in the Arguments and some other necessary to be here considered 1. Christ is said to Die for men 1. Dying in their stead and for their sin as lying on him in the undertaken suffering 2. Or else final it er in eorum bonum Which is 1. Common 2. Or Special And both 1. Either given as Legislator quoad jus by a conditional grant 2. Or given as Dominus absolutus and the disposer of all things quoad eventus Prop. When I say Christ Died for all men I mean not that he finally intended as Dominus absolutus eventually to save all by his Death But that he Died in the stead of all suffering the punishment which by the Law of works was due to all mankind And how far he died in bonum ominum for the good of all is shewed before and shall be shewed more anon Secondly We must distinguish betwixt the the Gospel as it signifieth the Covenant of Grace with its grounds and fruits fully expressed and as it signifieth only some particular Gospel truths which go before the full revelation of the said Covenant Grounds and Effects as the Break of Day goeth before the Sun Rising and the Revealing of some of the fruits of Christ's Death by which streams men should be drawn to enquire after the Fountain in the later sense all have the Gospel In the former all have it not Thirdly We must distinguish of Preaching which is either taken in general for any way of Revelation or specially for a Revelation by Writing or Speaking The former All have the later not when I say All men I still mean All that have the use of their senses and reason and not Infants Mad Men Ideots or Senseless of whom more anon By this much you may see in what sense we acknowledge or deny the Truth both of Major and Minor proposition of the Argument And hence also you may see how far I deny the Major of the next subservient Argument if withal you distinguish 3. Between Frustra being in vain absolutely as to all ends and uses yea Gods chiefest ends or in vain to the particular end of the Sinners own Salvation 4. And as to the cause hereof you must distinguish between being in vain through any defect of Christ's Satisfaction or on his part and being in vain as to their Salvation meerly through their own fault According to the last members of these two distinctions we confess Christ's Death is in vain to all that perish but not according to either of the former 5. We distinguish between Christs procuring Remission and Salvation to be made over to all by him as Legislator in the tenour of his Conditional Grant And being eventually conferred on all by God as the disposer of events 6. We must distinguish between the extent of the new Law or Grant of it as to its own Tenour or Sense and the extent of it as to the Promulgation 7. Also between promulgation initial imperfect and full and perfect 8. And between means sufficient to the first Duties that Christ by Gospel Truths calls men to and all means absolutely necessary or sufficient to Faith and Salvation And so I answer to the second Prosyllogisme that Christ did not procure that all he died for should eventually receive Remission and Salvation or sufficient means thereto nor yet that the Covenant of Grace which conferreth Right to these should be as to the Infallible event fully promulgate or revealed to all But he hath procured not only that all mens sins be made pardonable in a nearer sense than they were before his satisfaction but also that as to the tenour of his Law or Covenant Remission and Salvation be conferred on all so be it they will not reject it and also that some part of his Gospel Truth and the effects of Christs Death be revealed in some measure to all and so some part of his New Law promulgate to all and all have sufficient means to help to perform the Duties which he thus calls them first to perform 9 We must distinguish between Believing that God is and that he is reconciled to man so far as that he will reward them that diligently seek him and believing that Jesus Christ was Incarnate and satisfied by his Death 10. And between Necessary to Salvation Necessitate Precepti and Necessitate Medii and so I answer to the last confirmation that Faith in the first sense is necessary to the Salvation of all that have the use of reason both necessitate precepti medii but faith in the last sense is neither necessary to Ideots Mad-men Infants nor yet to those that never heard the Gospel necessitate precepti And whether or no it be necessary necessitate medii etsi non prescripti we shall say more to anon So much directly to the Argument Next I shall for the fuller opening of my Judgment on this point lay down what I conceive to be the truth in these following Propositions Proposition I. As Christ hath born the sins of all and done all for them which pertaineth to the Ransomer by an expiatory Sacrifice and hath obtained thereby a new Title of Lordship and Soveraignty over all and all are delivered to him accordingly so doth he faithfully perform the office of a Soveraign Redeemer to all governing them as his Ransomed ones by such Laws and Ways of undeserved Mercy as have a natural tendency and conducibility to their Salvation Though still as Absolute Lord he giveth out the Mercies which belong to him to bestow in that Relation with great diversity to all the World but yet a great measure even of these doth he give to all men Prop. II. Christ dealeth not with any Heathens on the meer terms of the Law of works as it was given to Adam or stood without the connexion of any Remedy These are not the full terms on which God deals with them If you perfectly obey without any sin you shall live If you ever sin you shall dye This will be proved in that which follows and might easily be proved more largely were it not so plain as to prohibit such vain endeavours Prop. III. Christ is not properly said to be in mutual Covenant with all that he died for and I think he is not so in Covenant with any Unbeliever as to a true mutual Covenanting nor to any that never heard the Gospel as to the Legal promissory Covenant The Covenant of Christ is taken in several senses Among others for the two here mentioned 1. For his New Law Testament Gospel Promise or Conditional Gift of Pardon and Life call it what you will By this he
Knowledge Prop. IX All this Revelation is some part of the Law of Jesus Christ and so these Truths are discovered and this light sent by him as the Lord Redeemer of the World or as Rector upon his Redemption Title For all things being now delivered into his hands and the whole frame of Government being laid on his shoulders and built on his Redemption even on Christ the head Corner Stone the very moral Law now is his Law and its obligation to obedience is his obligation yea the very Law of Works obligeth to punishment now not as it was at first given and remaineth in the hands of an offended unsatisfied Creator but as it is suspended and delivered up into the hands of the Satisfier or Redeemer to remit wholly or execute only conditionally as men shall receive or reject the grace of Redemption so that as God ruleth among those blindest of Heathens that yet know him not so doth Christ Rule among them that know not him Prop. X. The Ten last Particulars before mentioned which these men may know are properly Gospel Truths for the Law of Works sheweth nothing of Mercy contrary to desert nor of any hope of Recovery Object But how can the meer light of Nature discern Gospel Truths without a supernatural Revelation Answ The Light of Nature is either Reason it self which is the Souls viâ—ive faculty 2. Or the External Light which in the nature of things shines forth 3. Or the Species and Knowledge received by Reason through the mediation of this External Light Also supernatural Revelation is 1. Either the Rectitude of the Soul as a Recipient Power or Faculty which was natural to Adam and may be called supernatural to us because it is not born with us and because it is not wrought but by a supernatural efficient though it be most natural to us as a thing congruous to our Natures welfare as health is to our Bodies 2. Or it is the Objective Extrinsical Revelation by a supernatural way and that either as distinct from that which should have been according to the Tenor of the first Law or from that which is ordinary by common Causes tho' beyond the former 3. Lastly it is taken for the actual efficient impressing of the Species on the Intellect by a supernatural Assisting Power On these distinctions I Answer 1. Natural Reason or the Intellectual faculty is the recipient of all Revelations natural or supernatural 2. There are many Objective Revelations supernatural as being such as according to the first Law of Nature would never have been manifested which yet are not supernatural as Miracles are in opposition to a natural Causality in the way of Revealing And so Rain and Fruitful Seasons Health Wealth Deliverances c. are Mercies that come in a natural way of Causality and yet they may teach a Sinner those Truths which the meer Law of Nature never taught him Mercies and such Mercies given to those that deserve Misery and are obliged to extremity of Punishment by Law do teach us that there is Remission of Sin and a way found out for the Relaxing the obligation that mens deserts do not fall upon them These Providences therefore are so far supernatural as being the clear effects of the Law of Grace which relaxeth the obligation of the Law of Nature Prop. XI It is not proper or fit to say that the Gospel is Preached to these Heathens that never heard of Christ because that the word Gospel most properly signifieth the main heart and substance of it viz The discovery of Christs Incarnation Life Death Resurrection Ascention Dignity Office and the full New Covenant But yet it may truly be said that some Gospel Truths and so some small part of the Gospel is revealed to these men viz. the ten particulars forementioned No doubt Paul Preached part of the Gospel to the Heathens at Lystra Acts 14. 7 15. c. when he mentioned Jesus Christ ver 23. Heb. 4. 2 3. It is said that the Gospel was Preached to the Jews in the Wilderness who yet had little of that which now is the substance of our Creed about Christ Prop. XII That Repentance which God requirerh now of all men even them that never heard the Gospel is not a Hellish Judas-like despairing Repentance such as was due according to the violated Law of works but it is a Repentance that is appointed as means toward recovery and therefore hath a tendency to Salvation Gods mercies lead to Repentance but not to a despairing Repentance for they contradict that All the precepts of Repentance prove this and the course of Gods dealings And indeed else all the remnants of Religion would be banished out of the World For despairing men will not Worship God nor seek to please him nor forbear sinning but will hate God and live like Devils and sin while they may without voluntary restraint All the Sacrifices that the Heathens offered and all their Prayers and Conscience of Sinning shewed that they apprehended God merciful and placable and their case remediable Hope did keep up all that remnant of Religion which all Nations of the World have maintained which else had been extinguished long ago and Earth been like Hell Prop. XIII These Heathens do all of them receive some Grace which was purchased by the Blood of Christ and there is a Natural aptitude in it as in other effects to lead the enquirer to the knowledge of the cause and fountain caeteris concurrentibus Grace is Mercy contrary to Merit Heathens have much Mercy contrary to Merit therefore they have some Grace Now all such Grace is inseparable from some Revelation of Gospel Truths Nay indeed it is a Revelation there of it self Prop. XIV Though Christ giveth not to these Heathens sufficient Grace to believe in his name yet he giveth them sufficient Grace or merciful aid to receive and obey those or some of those Truths fore-mentioned which he doth reveal to them and so to come nearer to Christ than before they were I have before shewed that all men are far from Christ Naturally and that they must be brought divers steps or degrees nearer him before they are brought to the very act of Faith which unites men to him specially Heathens that are at the remotest distance Also I have shewed that there is such a thing as sufficient Grace not effectual as to the event and that both from the example of Adam of the wicked now and fot he Godly themselves I shall therefore now suppose what is already proved I have shewed also that though God thought it not meet to engage himself in Covenant with such nor to make any thing short of true Faith to be the condition of his Promise yet he hath appointed means to others that yet have not Faith which they are bound to use towards the getting of it and he hath given them sufficient encouragement to address themselves cheerfully and vigorously to the use of those means with hope to speed So
that if they neglect them they are left without excuse Prop. XV. It belongeth to Christ in drawing men towards Salvation by his Rectorship to reveal-oft times some of the forementioned Gospel Truths by way of preparation and to draw men nearer him before he reveal the full substance of his Covenant or fully promulgate his Law As the Sun sendeth forth some light before it appeareth it self at its rising which light yet comes from the same Sun So doth the Gospel oft-times Prop. XVI Those that have the forementioned truths revealed to them with hearing the Gospel are bound in all reason for the safety of their Souls to use all possible diligence to make a fuller discovery which is not likely that any Indians or others have done Had they been as diligent in improving the truth received till they had been civilized and then in sending to all others for information where there was a probability of receiving information even as men are diligent in trading tedious Voyages for Merchandize and Worldly Gain it 's like there is no Nation under Heaven but might have had the Gospel ere now Prop. XVII If men will wilfully reject and abuse that measure of light and help which they do injoy which was sufficient to that end whereto it was given to have brought them nearer Christ than they were And if they will not use the means for getting of the Gospel which they have sufficient help to use then it is apparently just with Christ even as Rector according to the Law of Grace to condemn such men after he hath Died for them And if his Death prove in vain as to their Salvation the fault is only in themselves and themselves shall they blame for ever And this is the case of these men Prop. XVIII Nay in this case the very Law of Grace commanding Faith in Christ Crucified doth oblige these men remotely to the Duty and to punishment for neglect of the Duty For though a Law not promulgate cannot oblige yet the Question is Who it was long of Or Who was the faulty cause that it was not Published If the Law-giver then it cannot oblige But if it were the subject then it doth actually though remotely oblige For no man is to receive benefit saith the Civil Law by his own fault Who knows not that among us if a Man will lie in an Ale-House and never come to hear the word God will judge him guilty of being Ignorant of all the Truths which he might have there learnt And of neglecting all the Duties which he might have been informed of And if a man know some few preparatory Truths here as that he is a sinner and miserable and ought to seek out for remedy and should come to hear the word and forsake his known sin and keep good company c. and yet he despise or disobey these shall we say this Man was never bound to believe I say he is bound remotely that is first to do some other Duties which tend towards the obtaining of the Gospel and then to believe For the obligation to both Duties lyeth on him at once but not an obligation to perform both Duties at once Object But if they should improve their degree of Light and sufficient Grace they have no certainty ty because no promise that the Gospel shall be given them Answ That 's no excuse as long as they have so full encouragement as is before expressed Should a man in danger of Death do nothing for his own safety without a certainty of success Should not the least hope of probability much more so high a probability be enough to excite men to seek the saving of their own lives Suppose a King having past an Act of Oblivion upon a ransom to that end for a whole Nation of Traytors as Ireland should send his Herald to proclaim it to all But to some of them he sendeth before hand some inferior messenger telling them in the Kings Name that he is placable and their case remediable and he requires them to use certain means as Submission Petition Laying down Arms c. and try what the King will do If these men reject unthankfully this favour and abuse the messenger and persist in Rebellion is it not just with the King to forbid the Herald that he proclaim not to them the act of oblivion And is it not long of themselves if they never hear it nor have any benefit by it so is it in the present case By the abuse of sufficient Grace to have come nearer Christ do the Pagans forfeit all other fruits of his blood So that Christ may truly be said to have done his part even as Legislator and to have promulgated his new Law among them in that he did his part and so it's promulgate moraliter vel Reputativè though it was not actualiter perfectè through their own fault It is not long of Christ but of themselves that it was not done fully in that they ungratefully rejected his Precursors or Harbingers that came before the Gospel Seeing they would not make use of the Twilight or Day-break Christ justly denieth them the Sun-Rising Prop. XIX It seems most probable that it was not only Adams first sin that is imputable to his Posterity but that we are all still guilty of all our Parents sin to this Day and that therefore God may justly deprive a whole Nation of the light of the Gospel for their Progenitors sins and that not only according to the Law of Works but even according to the Law of Grace I will not stand now on the proof of this any further than to tell you 1. That the same solid Arguments which prove the imputableness of Adams sin seem to me to prove this and by denying this we overthrow the grounds of the Doctrine of the said Imputation 2. And that the Second Commandment with all those Examples of Gods destroying the Children with the Parents and for their sin do seem fully to prove it together with the practice of Godly men to humble themselves for their Fathers Sins Yet understand me thus that though according to the Law of Works we are guilty of all our Parents Sins yet the Law of Grace Promiseth that no man shall be destroyed for them who disowneth them by true Repentance and taking a contrary course in obedience when he comes to Age. This is the sense of Ezek. 33. and 18. And so the guilt is cut off and the Child by the Covenant of Grace taken in with its Parents and so is looked on as in his immediate Parents and the sin of former Parents forgiven him though yet that guilt will return if when he comes to Age he ungratefully reject the mercy by renouncing the Covenant of Grace I do but propound this to Divines to consider For certainly if we prove all guilty of all our Parents Sins it is sad that the Church hath no better understood it and that we have none almost that ever bewailed