in hand evidently sheweth for he saith not onely As by one offence judgement came untocondemnation so by one righteousness to justification of life but expresly maketh the comparison too in regard of their objects As by one offence to all men to condemnation so by one righteousnesse to All men to justification of life I would faine know of M. Ow. what the Apostle says in the 18. v. distinct from what he said before in the precedent verses taking away his equalizing of the Object So that that speech looks but like an Assertion of one resolved not to own a truth be it never so plainely exprest if it suit not with his own opinion that he maintaineth Again whereas he denies that Heb. 2.9 holds out that Christ stood in the roome of every man and refers us for proof to what he said to that Scripture his saying to it being proved impertinent and vaine already we need not here give him any further Answer Sure he that dyed for every man stood in the roome of every man in that his dying or else M. Owens own Argument from the force of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 10. lib. 3. are meer vanities Whereas he sayes further that no one word of God sayes that all men were given to Christ to redeem I answer nor did T. M. say so but having spoken of the Death of Christ in the roome of all mankind and his Resurrection he added by Parenthesis that they are all given him and shall be brought unto him quoting for proof Phil. 2.8.11 Rom. 14.9 which intimates his meaning to be that they were given into his dispose as upon his resurrection and that all are given to Christ in that sense Psal 2.8 9. fully declares I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for thy possession and thou shalt rule them with an Iron Rod c. But I deny that ever the Scriptures say God gave any man to him that he should dye for him In dying for men he bought them rather and upon that God gave all to him in a generall way to rule over them and he gives him some by his gracious call to be his peculiar charge and to be set free by him from all their inthralments in conscience and from the power of pollution and temptation Whereas he sayes Christ is called the last Adam in respect of the efficacy of his death to the promised seed If he meane in that regard only it s but his meer Assertion and so till it be proved needs no more answering it being the same in substance with what he said before against the extent of the Object of his death contrary to Rom. 5.18 which we have even now answered Against this passage of T.M. that Christ by his death brought all men out of the Death they fell into by Adam he opposes this that the Death men fell into in Adam was a death in sin and the guilt of condemnation thereupon For which he quotes Ephes 2.1 2 3. To which I desire the Reader to remember what I said above about Redemption Chap. 5. lib. 3. that we fell into a twofold death in Adam one as the naturall and proper fruit and consequence of that sinning the deading all our powers to that that was spiritually good 2. The wages and punishment of this sin that is destruction and utter ruine Ioh. 8.31 32. The latter of these Christ bare for us not the former for then he should have had our pollution in him too which is crosse to truth Therefore when we speak of bringing us from the death we fell into in Adam we are to be understood of that Christ endured for us not the other which he brings us out of by his Word and Spirit received into us and not by his dying onely or Resurrection also And therefore M. Owen here prevaricates as in another passage fastned upon M. More he abuses him for he no where tells us as M. Owen charges him that the presenting himself just before the Father was the ultimate thing by Christ intended not a tittle that way He hath also many heavie words against M. More for saying God accepted the Sacrifice of Christ as if all had dyed risen sacrificed satisfied c. which spring from his owne mistake as if Christ in dying for All was said to dye and satisfie for all sins that ever they should or might commit and so procure an acquittance and discharge from them All to be without faile as on his part and what ever failing in any condition happen on their part made over unto all which as its contrary to those intimations that speak of their perishing for whom Christ dyed as a thing possible yea and of some ments pulling swift condemnation upon themselves whom he bought which could not be were that position true so it s also a gap to all carelesness and licentiousness for then let all men take what course they will Either Christ dyed for them or not if not no endeavour can do them good God is their enemy and hated them before they offended him even from all eternity and they must have no better do what they can then what the hatred of an Omnipotent God will produce unto them if he did Then eia agite nothing can pull a dram of wrath upon them their score are all wiped off both what they have run into and what they shall The Apostle never preached such Doctrine but that they that walk in the light as he is in it that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit that are rooted in the Faith and not moved from the hope of the Gospell shall have this benefit by Christs death that no condemnation shall befall them all their sins are cleansed c. Verily Christ putting himself into the place of Adam in the day that he sinned and in due time bearing that heavie death that else had seised on All and overcoming it and presenting himself to God as a Conqueror over it was far more acceptable to God then if all men in the world had dyed and overcome For we had done it but for our selves and out of love to our selves but he out of obedience to his Father and love to us and the same worke is far more acceptable to God when done out of Charity then when done out of selfe-love and meer necessity Beside the dignity of his Person and neernesse to his Father far above ours but I pass that too Heobjects further against T. M. because he sayes comparing Christ and Adam in respect of the effect and fruit of their works in the publick place that as by the sin of Adam all his posterity were in and by him deprived of that life and righteousnesse they had in him and are fallen under sin and death though secretly invisibly and in some sort inexpressibly so by the efficacy of the obedience of Christ All men without exception are redeemed
the truth of what it defendeth rest not in the bare belief of it as if that was enough for thee but follow on to inquire and seek after God that hath such good will toward thee and walk out in what he discovers of himself to thee that so he may be pleased to discover himself more to thee and draw thee by his Spirit into union with and conformity to his Son that thou mayest have the utmost healing that the death of Christ brings to the believer even salvation with eternal glory The right use of truth is in being lead from the world and thy own self to God by it and so attaining the end propounded to thee in it If thou not liking what is writ wi lt reply upon me I desire thee to do it soberly and as a seeker of truth rather then of victory bate pride and passion which will but darken thine understanding and nothing advantage thee in thy answering and take heed lest for fear of losing thine honour or for desire to get any thou robbest God of the honour of his truth and shuttest thine eyes against those flashes of his light that he darts into thee Better lose thine honour then ingage against Gods truth for it If thou likest the truth pleaded for but findest defect or wriness in any of my expressions in asserting it I shall be willing to be helpt to see better by thy spectacles if thou pleasest to lend them me In a word I say to thee with the Poet Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti Si non his utere mecum And so committing thee with my self and this ensuing Treatise to Gods protection I remain Thy friend and servant in the Gospel of Christ Jesus John Horn. ΘΥΡΑ ΑÎΕΩΓΜΕÎΗ OR A VINDICATION OF THE RECORD of GOD Concerning The extent of the Death of Christ in Answer to Mr. Iohn Owen of Cogshall in Essex The Preface WHereas God who is love it self beholding mankinde faln and through the subtlety of the Serpent plunged into death and misery was pleased out of pitty towards him to finde out a way for his recovery even to send forth his own proper Son his Word and Wisdom to take upon him the nature of man so faln with the infirmities weaknesses death and misery attending it yea the whole punishment that the sin of man had in that fall contracted to it that so he dying for man man might be delivered out of that death and life and immortality might be again brought to light yea whereas the Son of God having accordingly given himself a ransom for all it hath pleased the Father out of the same love he bare to man in sending him further to provide for his good in exalting this his Son that suffered and making him Lord and Christ a Prince and Saviour one that should have and answerably hath power and authority over all things and Salvation in him authority and fitness to save and deliver out of evil and to bring to life and glory whoever of the persons of men listen and look to him for Salvation whoever obey his Word submit to his Spirit and give up themselves to be ordered by him and to that end hath in these last dayes given forth a commission to certain Elected and chosen persons appointed for that purpose by him to be his Witnesses and Embassadors to the whole world in general to proclaim publish and declare this that God hath done in and by Christ Jesus for them and to let them know his good will toward them that he would not that any of them should perish but all come to Repentance and to the knowledg or acknowledgment of his truth that they might be saved to which end he hath also given and constituted his Son to be a witness and a Leader to conduct them to Salvation and upon these grounds hath willed them to exhort command intreat and urge all and every man as they have opportunity to it to accept this grace believe the Gospel repent and turn to God from their dead works and from their follies and to Jesus as the only one constituted by him to be his Salvation even to the ends of the earth So it is that since these holy men of God to whom the tenor of the Gospel and doctrine of truth was first committed have faln asleep the vigilant and wicked enemy of mankinde hath not only through his subtlety prevailed with multitudes of those men to whom this proclamation hath been made to reject persecute and put away this Embassage both from themselves and peoples under them and posterities succeeding them and with many others to be slothful and not to take care to propagate this Doctrine of their Lord and Master but also by occasion of this wickedness and slothfulness of men many that pretend themselves to be understanding men and servants of God unto their brethren have come with a counter-doctrine pretending to have better insight into the minde of God then the letter of the Apostolical preaching doth hold forth even as at first Satan pretended to the woman to have a more sublime knowledg of the minde of God and to teach her better understanding of it then in the simple belief of Gods words to them they had attained telling men that God sent not his Son for all of them but only for here and there one they nor any man else not knowing who they be and that Christ gave himself only for them and for no others and this they pretend to have from a more Seraphical understanding of a more secret will of God by which means they both contradict the tenor of the holy Commission delivered out to his Saints and left by them upon record for us by the instinct of his spirit and take away those certain and more excellent grounds motives and inducements to believe repent seek after and love God which that Commission affordeth making the Gospel to give such an uncertain sound that none can by it be induced to prepare himself to battel as is more largely shewed in the Epistle to the Reader In which doing they greatly deny at least disserve the Lord that bought them in that in stead of making him lovely to all and an object meet for all to commit themselves to and forsake all for the worshipping and confessing of they render it doubtful what one hath cause so to do and not rather to hate him as a fore yea eternal hater of them that had such desire to their misery as therefore to create them yea therefore to do all that he doth about them that they might at last for ever be more heavily tormented by him So that they do herein as a company of slaves or persidious Traitors should do to a King who having made open proclamation of satisfaction received by the hand of some Prince for the mischief done him by a company of rebells and of his good will toward them all that he would have them to lay
CHAP. V. An Answer to his fifth Chapter In which is considered How Christ gave himself a ransom for All. HAving done with those Arguments we follow him now to Arguments taken from words used in this matter which he saith Disagree in their genuine signification from the Opinion that extends to all the matter spoken of in them Arg. 10 And first He lays down his Argument generally thus That Doctrine that will not by any means suit which and be conformable to the thing signified by it but contradicts the expressions literal and deductive whereby in Scripture it s held out to us cannot possibly be sound and sincere But such is the perswasion of Vniversal Redemption or General Ransom Ergo It s unsound And this strange Argument that grants the Doctrine held forth in Scripture expressions Instance 1. and yet contradicts those Scriptures he labors to prove by Induction and first from the word A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dransom or price of Redemption He argues thus That the thing signified in it agrees not to all therefore the word is not to be so applied Which is in substance Paul spake unadvisedly when he made so general an expression this is not to believe the Scripture but to judge and deny it to be right VVell let us see what the word signifies It signifies a price for Redemption Now saith Mr. Owen If Christ pay a price for Redemption his aim is their deliverance for whom it s paid to that end he satisfies the Judge and conquers the Jaylor but this agrees not to All All are not ransomed Shall we believe Mr. Owen or the Apostle here who also tells us in Rom. 5.18 That by one mans Righteousness to all men to Justification of life And again in 1 Cor. 15 22. As in Adam All die so in Christ all shall be made alive But Mr. Owen says Why are not all saved then I might say Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God But I have answered before From the first death they are from the second they are not because many are disobedient against their Saviour As all Israel were saved out of Egypt Jude 5. Its the Apostle Judes expression But why then not all preserved into Canaan He tells us He afterwards destroyed them that believed not So here he afterward in a second death destroyes all those that know like or approve not God and all that disobey the Gospel of Christ 2 Thes 1.7 8. All were in thrall to the sentence of death and so to the execution of vengeance from God upon them all in Adam in an utter ruine and again for slighting and sinning against Light and Goodness afforded deserve destruction to come suddenly upon them in plagues famines c. The bond that held them in the former was their sin in Adam and to the latter many sins against Gods goodness now exposes them VVhat price pays Christ Himself to bear that blow for them and be the propitiation for their sin Now in that the sentence passed not or rather lyes not upon men Men are not debarred reaccess to God for that folly the sentence of banishment is reversed and the banished called home again here is a Redemption made from that thraldom And whereas many times they are liable to destruction again in their persons Christ Mediating and Interposing himself as the Propitiation preserves them And on this ground we are to pray for All and make Intercession with thanksgiving for All as in 2 Tim. 1.2 6. But I suppose he thinks All not ransomed because many remain thralled in their corruption To which I might say but as Prosper Ad capit Gallor Sanguis Christi est totius mundi pretium pro omnium redemptione verè persolutum and that 's as much as 1 Tim. 2.6 says sed illi homines ab eo pretio extranei sunt qui aut captivitate delectati redimi noluerunt aut post redemptionem ad eandem servitutem sunt reversi and again Omnes rectè dicantur redempti sed non ownes a captivitate eruti But to clear it I shall propound these following considerations 1. That men in sinning fell under a double bondage 1. To death to be inflicted from God according to his sentence In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death and death came on all in that all sinned 2. To corruption or sinfulness of Nature in themselves and the delusions of Satan Ephe. 2.1 Dead in sins and trespasses conceived in sin and born in iniquity 2. The latter of these thraldoms was not the curse or death inflicted as the punishment of the fall but the proper consequence of it That it was not its punishment nor any essential part of it appears in this that every essential part of the punishment of it Christ was to bear by way of satisfaction and so he bare anguish in body and soul death of body and separation from Gods presence but he bare not the inherency of sin for us nor inability for serving his Father nor was he subject to the deceits of Satan as if it had been an essential part of that punishment he must have done for it appertains to and spreads over the whole nature But the first was the punishment to which we were subjected and which had we abid never so pure in our natures must have been executed for the fault committed because the word was not If thou becomest so polluted but In the day thou eatest thou shalt die and therefore Christ also suffered that becoming a ransom for us though innocent 3. In the latter the Justice of God did not detain us but as man being debarred from any new grace without that could not do what he should but we ought that notwithstanding to do our best to serve him we had his permission to it if such a thing might be supposed that we might have lived under that sentence unsuffered for us He neither put sin into us nor kept it in us But the former came directly from God upon us and his Justice detained us in our Mediator in it till his sentence was satisfied 4. That first was the death of which Satan had power and the fear of which though but now a carkass detains men in their spirits in bondage Heb. 2.14 Men fear not but love the other their corruptions now Christ conquered Satan when he brake his snare and got victory over that death that should else have swallowed us up for ever So that Satan could not as else he would have done play the Executioner upon us 5. God neither putting men into corruption nor corruption into them nor his Justice standing against our doing better he would that they should come out of it if they could the price was not given to God properly as the price of Redemption from that but onely as the ransoming them from the death inflicted makes a passage for means also to be afforded to them for their recovery and setting free from
seeing Christ preached the Kingdome of God to them it s no sufficient evasion God usually punishing men with deprivation of temporal mercies for neglecting eternall Mat. 22.7 Psal 2.10 11 12. He says Rom. 2.5 speaks of the Gentiles who had the works of God to teach them and the Patience of God to wait upon them yet made bad use of both which is too slender an Answer to the place Could he not finde it in the Text that they led them to repentance and can he shew us any ground of Repentance and change of mind for any man that hath no cause in and from God for it nothing better to be enjoyed by them in and with God then what he sets his mind upon already or that any have any such favours afforded them as lead to Repentance with whom God deals according to the sentence pronounced upon All in Adam and for whom Christ never came to procure any such things for them or that Christ procured such things for any for whom he did not interpose himself between the Sentence of Death and them Sure these things deserve a little more consideration then he affords them Besides that they make against his exposition of 2 Pet. 3.9 where he would tye up Gods willing men to come to Repentance to the Elect only for here he speaks of Gods goodness and patience leading such to Repent as treasure up wrath to themselves by occasion of Gods goodness to them Mat. 6.26 Mark 8.36 Sure he will not tell us they are the Elect onely too He makes little of those expressions in which men are said to lose their own souls but onely as if therein was intimated That they make the losse of them sure to themselves then it seems it was not sure enough to them in Adams sinning and why not Sure Adam lost us All sure enough If Christ did nothing for recovering them they are lost sure enough without any mans doing any more to loose them But perhaps he means that they make it evident to themselves that Christ did nothing for them and so that they remain lost by Adam Sure this is a new way of exposition and before it pass for currant he must prove that to lose or save in Scripture signifies onely to make it evident that a thing was lost or saved before-hand or that we are said to lose by doing this or that that that was lost out of our power before we did that As that if a Corporation have forfeited their Charter and it was taken from them an hundred years ago so that now they have none yet they that are now of it do forfeit and lose it by so doing something that they should not let him shew us that the Scripture speaks in that language and we shall listen to his evasion His after Collection from T. M. is spoken to before it s but his own misunderstanding of him and so are all his Inferences drawne from it For his Argument from Gods expostulations pag. 296. it is to shew that God wils them to be saved and delights not in their destruction which opposes M. Owens Interpretation of 1 Tim. 2.4 and by consequent intimates Christs interposing himself between God and them there being no salvation to be had for any but in him and those expostulations being with others then the Elect about looking and listning to him c. What there is in God we cannot tell but as the only begotten Son hath revealed to us and that is indeed that there is in him no imperfection But that he desires not those salvation that miss of it he hath no where told us that I know of but often the contrary and yet that may be in him without imperfection We are no competent Judges by our narrow conceptions of his perfections There is that in and with him that seems foolishness to our wisdome and weakness in our judgements that yet is wiser and stronger then we can conceive of 1 Cor. 1.22 23 24. It s sauciness in us to prescribe rules to Gods wisdome and perfection and rashnesse to say what is or is not in God but as Christ hath revealed to us Obedience is better then Sacrifice and a simple belief of his words better then our wisest reasonings against them In pag. 298 299. There is some difference about judging All men by the Gospel Indeed it should be said according to the Gospel the difference is grounded on the divers understanding of that phrase Rom. 2.16 They take it that this Truth That all shall be Judged is according to the Gospel We understand it also that Christ in judging shall proceed according to the Gospel Not that we mean that they had heard not the Gospel shall be judged for rejecting or not believing what they heard not but that they shall be judged onely for and by what they had given them and they received or abused but that Christ in judging by and for those things shall not go according to the Law of Creation requiring them to have done according to that that was given them in Adam and so according to the strict rule of that first Obligation but only as in rejecting Light and Truth given them or accepting it they have sinned against Rom. 1.18 19 20 21. or submitted to God dealing with them in and by the Mediator the Word of God by whose interposition of himself between God and them their lives liberties mercies and all the light they had since the Fall was derived to them Joh. 1.9 and so according to the Gospel that relates Christ to have died for them and to be Lord over all thereby And that such shall be his proceeding in Judgment I am the rather perswaded by that of Christ himself in Matth 25.31.46 c. where declaring the maner of his Judging All Nations he tells us his Rewards and punishments shall be given according to mens carriages of themselves towards him in such Mediums as he appeared in to them He Judges men to life as feeding and cloathing Him to death as not doing such and such things to him Which he makes out to be an equal sentence though many shall reply that they never see or knew him as an object to be so or so acted toward by them He mentions nothing there to be charged upon them as acted by Adam or by them but with reference to himself which deserves also some consideration Whereas in page 299. He tells us of Totus mundus ex to to mundo a whole world out of the whole world That he says without book I mean without Gods Book speaking of the world as it now is having borrowed it from Prosper or at highest from Austin But we desire not to prefer the Traditions and Documents of the Elders though they might be in many things worthy men in their times so highly as for them to justle out or by them to Interpret Apostolical Doctrine or by them to teach men their fear towards God as was