8. 10. his soul and spirit is void of the life of God and of the sense of Gods love he is under the power and regiment of sinne and Satan disabled to all spirituall good This spirituall death is the harbinger of eternall death to him an hell upon earth it was when God arraigned him he had no other I conceive then the sentence of death and hell in his conscience till the promise comes Gen. 3. 15. but observe it before that promise is revealed God is just and patient also just in bringing the degrees and pains of death upon Adam patient in forbearing the immediate and full execution even as God was and is just to the Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. yet patient in that he reserveth them to a further judgement and gives them not all their torment before their time Math. 8. 29. and yet this patience is exercised to devils without a purchase or death of a Mediatour so God might deferre from Adam and doth from his posterity keep off judgement though not in and for Christ quâ Mediator And what though Gods dispensations towards Angels is not a rule in all cases for us to collect his transaction about man fallen and his dispensations towards him yet in this case the Apostle b 2 Pet. 2. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 9. makes a clear inference If God spared not them but reserveth them unto judgement he knoweth v. 9. how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgement the same verb being used in ver 4 and 9. for reserving in the Passive and Active voice where he speaks of Angels and men as coming from the same act of Gods just patience and patient-justice And though we know not how this should be he knoweth how to be just and patient too how to be patient in wrath and justice Rom. 9. 22. and how to be just in his patience 2. The threatning Gen. 2. 17. against Adam and all men sinning in him is not taken off by the promise Gen. 3. 15. which is only to the woman and her seed nay that is a threatning too in reference to the Serpent and his seed which are not only evil Angels but wicked reprobates amongst men and that which is threatned is irreconcilable enmity with and conquest over Satan and all his serpentine brood which necessarily infers death and damnation to them as to himself it were strange then if vertually in and for Christ patience should be afforded to Adam and all in him before the promise is actually promulged when at and in the actuall promulgation here is nothing but wrath and enmity between the woman and the serpent Christ and the devil the devils brood and the generation of the righteous true Adam stands by trembling and hears this but if he gets any peace or patience or pardon of his first sinne 't is a personall favour only for himself not to descend upon all his posterity but such as should be the womans seed from their interest in a second Adam Christ Jesus not from any relation to him as the first Adam All therefore who are yet but in the first Adam and as branches of that root are under the sentence of death for that first sinne Christ hath not obtained pardon nor patience that I know for them one moment 3. No man denieth but all was forfeited upon Adam's fall his very life and all creature-comfort and subsistence but God takes not the forfeit for when Christ the promised seed steps in for that part of mankinde who are with Christ the seed of the woman the elect of God the patience mercy and bounty of God steps in for the rest of mankinde even the seed of the serpent and reprobates with whom yet he will carry on a Covenant of works and justice the foundation of which covenant Christ cannot be as Mediatour for then he should be the foundation of two Covenants contradistinct works and grace no a Reprieve only comes forth for them yet under and ever to be under a Covenant of works and justice this is no Redemption 4. This Reprieve is but for a very short time to many not at all to some of the serpents seed who being conceived in the guilt of the first sinne are stifled at first conception â—â— or being born in that guilt and the corruption of nature succeeding in the room of Gods image dead in sinnes and trespasses die corporally the day they are born or soon after in tender infancy and in their immortall souls die eternally as the children of the Sodomites then in the womb or newly crept out who with their parents or fathers of fornication an unclean diabolicall brood Jude v. 7. are suffering the vengeance of eternall fire Others live out their time allotted them in just-patience but are accursed in life and death Isa 65 20. And die as e Morte morieris Hebraismus est qua verboruÌ„ reduplicatione vehementia certitudo significatur morie morieris i. c. certissimè morieris Paulus Fagius in Gen. 2. 17. certainly step by step as they that drop into hell out of their mothers womb And as malefactours who are but reprieved not redeemed and pardoned stay they never so long in Gaole yet they die the death or doe most surely suffer death at the day of full execution being dead men in law long before 5. What Christ the Sonne of God doth in this reprieve of the serpents seed as indeed he doth all that is done 't is as he is God and Lord of all in the Kingdom of his Power which he makes subservient to the Kingdom of his Grace for the saving benefit of the heirs of grace and glory As some great Lord intending to redeem one captive among and out of many prisoners in his fathers great house that he might marry her and make her his beloved Spouse and for whom he laies down a ransome to his father out of his generous and noble disposition common to him and his father also as a Lord and great Prince not as Husband or Bridegroom should throw away little and great summes of money with sutes of cloth upon the common prisoners and appoint them relief out of a common Almes-basket all to this end that these common prisoners might doe some service in the great family for his Spouses advantage So the Lord God and our Lord Iesus Christ so stiled Iude v. 4. being the only Lord God to all men and the Lord Iesus Christ but to a few he comes in the first promise and in the old Prophecies types and shadows and in the fulnesse of time in the substance of our nature among a world of Captives to wooe his Church his â—pouse and Bride to redeem and save her and her only by the ransome of his bloud paid down to his Fathers justice and out of his naturall pity and bounty being God and the Son of God and Lord of all like himself and his greatnesse he casts away life and health
mortification or dying to a mans self and living unto Christ who died for him and I adde what the Apostle addeth and rose again implying he hath no purpose to extend Christs death for any further then he doth his resurrection the fruit whereof goeth along with the fruit of his death the proper and immediate fruit of his death being to kill and crucifie self-esteem and to die unto creature-applause vers 12. 16. And the proper and immediate fruit of his resurrection in all that he died for being to make them non-Creatures and to live to him which died and rose again for them A fourth Scripture-witnesse called in was Rom. 5. 14. Who viz. Adam is the figure of him that was to come Now Rom. 5. 14. vindicated Adam was an universall person and all died in him therefore the second Adam Christ redeemed all else the type was greater then the substance Answ 1. Every man and woman sinned and died in Adam because they were all in him as in a common root and stock and accordingly all and every one who are in Christ the common root and stock of branches truly ingraffed into him and so you must understand vers 18. The free gift comes upon all who are in Christ the second Adam to justification of life 2. In this true sense of the Apostle The figure is not greater ver 20. then the substance for take the Apostle not only as he meaneth but as he speaketh and it is a sure truth That where sinne abounded grace did much more abound though it abounds not to moe persons nor reacheth to half so many yet in this Christ redeemed as much and more then Adam lost that Adam lost but the righteousnesse of the Law and of a meer man Christ restoreth his own righteousnesse the Gospel-righteousnesse of him that is God we are condemned by the sinne of man but justified by the obedience and bloudshed of God Act. 20. 20. And all who are in Christ receive this abounding grace Rom. 5. 17. Thus you see these four positive Scriptures called in as witnesses speak nothing for but rather much against universall Redemption It is a strange boldnesse to call forth Scripture to witnesse against it self may any man take that boldnesse No let their mouths first be stopped and silenced for ever who are such false criers and intelligencers as to bring an evil report upon the Scriptures Now let us examine those which are like the former and seem as he said to favour that which he cals truth and we errour and heresie too First That in John 3. 14 15 16. The Question was whether Moses did lift up the serpent to all or not if to all then Joh. 3 14 c. Christ not dying for all the type will be more then the substance therefore it cannot be but he must die for all Answ 1. The scope of that type is given by the Lord himself the Serpent was lifted up to hold out Christ lifted up vindicated on the crosse and in the Gospel and as the Serpent was lifted up to all who should lift up their eyes and look upon it to be healed So Christ is lifted up to and for all which shall lift up the eyes of their faith that they may be saved we here agree that as none are healed but those that looked up so none are saved but such as believe still as in all such Scriptures take it for the adulâ—i or those of years and in this respect the type is not more then the substance 2. What gets he by saying The Serpent was lifted up to all in the wildernesse Were not all in the wildernesse the Church typicall And who denieth that Christ gave himself for the Church or his whole body mysticall Ephes 5. 23 26 Act. 7. 38. This text then in John favours beleevers and Christs dying for them not the c. of all the world But to v. 16. what doe we say even what we have said before unto 1 Joh. 22. that the world of Iews and Gentiles are so loved that whosoever he be Iew or Gentile and beleeveth he shall not perish c. Suppose it so will some say as our adversary said in his discourse in granting that there is nothing lost Yes but there is on his part 1. In that he gets nothing for the upholding of his opinion by such an Exposition he loseth 2. He loseth by being convinc't this is an Exposition stands with good sense the Noun partitive whosoever strengthening and attending the distributive sense of the word world into Iew and Gentile whosoever viz. of the world be he Jew or be he Gentile and beleeveth And if this be good sense and most agreeable to other Scriptures neither he nor any man is forc't for the avoiding of non-sense to run to the Arminian interpretation of world for every singular man of every kinde or sort of men for it is neither said nor meant that God loved every man and gave his son for him but God so loved the world or common nature and kinde of men or mankinde indefinitely taken and found among Jews and Gentiles that he gave his Son that every believer or every one that beleeveth so the Greek strictly in him should not perish c. Observe it Gods love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in order and reference to the gift of Christ and the gift of Christ in order and reference to the gift of faith and that in reference to salvation there is no separating of these links of the golden chain which they do who would make Gods love and the gift of Christ common to those to whom faith and salvation is not common A second favourable Scripture which the man imagined to smile upon his opinion is in Ioh. 1. 29. Behold the lamb of Joh. 1. 29. vindicated God which taketh away the sinne of the world Yet this is a place of as great fears to him as hopes for putting forth the Question What is meant here by the world he answered himself thus If not as we exprest before that is for the whole bulk of men we are left in the briars Now to examine and answer to it a little first take notice that in this Scripture Iohn Baptist speaketh not of Christs death expresly but of the fruit thereof Taking away sin So that if any will prove Christs dying for all from hence he must hold with all that by that death of his the sin of all men is expiated and satisfied for and here indeed the man hath brought himself into the briars get out how he can for he did peremptorily affirm That though Christ did not bear the unbelief of any but of the elect * Nor is he stedfast in that faith but is of opinion unles he be changed since he was here that all the satisfaction the father demands and accepts for the elects sinnes against the Gospel is the sense of his wrath upon their consciences
yet he bare the curse of the Law for such as are not elect which if he did hold according to Scripture he must proceed with St Paul and affirm that which is peculiar to the elect Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Iesus Christ Gal. 3. 13 14. Behold here a Gospel-blessing comes upon all those who are freed from the Legall-curse and if then the non-elected by this mans doctrine have the one he must yeeld the other also if freed from the curse they are blessed justified and saved ones this is worse then non-sense even impure blasphemy against the truth That world is here meant from whom sin in the latitude and utmost extent is taken away viz. Sin originall sin actuall sinne in the guilt and sinne in the power and who shall certainly be saved perfectly as inchoatively But all men never had nor shall have their sin originall and actuall in the guilt and power and in all it's dimensions and damnable consequences taken away therefore not all and every singular person in the world is here understood Take the true meaning of the words thus as I conceive 1. That which is the common sinne of the world so it be not the sin of the holy Ghost totall and finall apostacy and the sinne of the devils and damned totall and finall despair Christ taketh away from whom from those to whom he is a lamb and for whom he was sacrificed And he totally and finally giveth out this vertue of his death to any one in the world who takes hold of him as an All-sufficient expiation 2. And again there is not any one sinne taken away but by him there much of the emphasis lieth nor any one sinner in the world pardoned but by his satisfaction to the Father Look not upon me as if Iohn Baptist should have said nor upon the water of Baptisme as if the Minister or sacramentall sign did or could take away sin but behold and behold him with the eye of faith as of sense who taketh away the sin of all who have their sins taken away in the whole world Object It may be replied 't is of the world not in the world Answ And why because in themselves they are exceeding many whose sinne Christ taketh away reckon them up if you can in all ages and countreys c. so the world is used Ioh. 12. 19. Obj. It may be argued and urged further the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who beareth and so Christ bare all the worlds sinne though all be not saved by him Answ 1. Christ so bare the sins of men as he takes them away from them by pardon mortification salvation and that is the full signification of the word he so beareth sin as a Surety another mans debt which he taketh off the debtours shoulders and sets him at liberty Christ so bare the sin of men upon the Crosse as to abolish guilt and enmity and to obtain eternall redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. 2. His bearing of the worlds sin mentioned here in Iohn is limited to the sin of many Isa 53. ult though being very many in themselves they are called the world here and elswhere This Scripture we see favours not the errour of universall atonement but the truth of Christs bearing away the sins only of his people and of no more A third followeth Joh. 4 42. We know that this is indeed Joh. 4 42. answered and cleared the Christ the Saviour of the world what say you to that Answ Beloved the light we have given you into the fore-cited Texts might suffice for answer here and save me a further labour but that the Expositour bestowed much pains to pull down the truth and it were a shame if I should not work as long and longer then two hours to build up the breaches which this plunderer of the Scripture hath made amongst you I observe also that some are staggered at his glosses upon one Scripture some upon another First then Consider who spake these words Samaritans newly converted to the faith who if they had not apprehended him to be the Saviour of more then beleeving Jews could not tell where to have set their foot but we Samaritans of the Gentiles have heard him and doe know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of Iews and Gentiles all over the world Secondly The Saviour they call him what an imperfect or perfect one If he saveth all the world take it in the Arminian sense yet it is but imperfectly and what blasphemy is this again to render him but an imperfect Saviour yea but a titular Saviour not so in truth For thus I argue Either he saveth in truth and perfectly and that is but some or all in title and shew and that is not at all and so in making him a generall Saviour they make him none at all Thirdly I cannot see though I desire to be as charitable as I may but that the Arminians and their followers in alleadging this place must fight against their own light for they say though Christ died for all yet he saveth not all why then is this Scripture mentioned which speaketh not of Christs death but of the fruit of it Salvation to Iews and Samaritans and to any other of the world who shall hear and believe as they did A fourth place Luke 2. 10. Fear not for behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people that Luk. 2 10. vindicated a Saviour is borne c. How could it be great joy to hear that Christ was come and yet not dye for all people Answ 1. To the shepherds of Bethlem being Iews is this Gospel of Christs birth and of salvation by his birth and death published as Act. 10. 36. The word which God sent to the children of Israel and sent and spoke it first to them Act. 13. 46. Yet not only to them but to all people or to all Nations afterward in Asia Africa Europe France Spain England As Saint Iohn enlargeth Caiaphas Joh. 11. 51 52. speech when he prophecied that one man should die for that Nation viz. of the Jews and not for that Nation only c. Where I beseech you observe his limitation with his enlargement his enlargement in these words Not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together in one his restriction or limitation in these the children of God that were scattered abroad Whence a second answer Though the Gospel or good tidings comes to all people yet it comes with this limitation that Christ died intentionally and only for the children of Gods election scattered in all Nations Whosoever of any Nation hearing this Gospel shall beleeve it will be matter of great joy and because there will be some of every Nation that are the chosen of God and believers who shall finde this true Treasure and precious Pearl it shall
this follows upon Christs dying for sinners prae-elected or that we hold God will damn because he will damn God can send his Son to die for and save whom he pleaseth and yet doth not damn any but for sin 2. If men sinne against the Gospel and sinne with that disobedience as to stumble and fall too into despair it is of themselves not from Christ or the Gospel but by accident God ordaineth the Gospel for salvation and Christs death for salvation if man and devil agree to pervert the Scripture to their damnation 't is the devils invention and mans ordinance not Gods 3. Yet this we say That no devil shall teach a man to despair note by the way 't is the devils doctrine not ours nor shall man voluntarily damn himself against Gods over-ruling will and power but with it for the Scripture so attributes the cause of damnation and despair to the creature as yet it subordinates all this to the fore-appointment of God to order 1 Pet. 2. 8. Jude v. 4. and suffer it so to be And so you may conclude That although none ought to despair nor hath any warrant for it from Christs dying but for some or from any other Scripture-truth yet if they do despair upon fleshly worldly and satanicall motions God will order it to his glory And what vanity now appears in our opposing that errour of Christs dying for all the world or rather what impiety and impudence doth not appear in his exclaiming against the Truth as having many dingerous consequences attending upon it Were they consequences they were dangerous enough but we have discovered them not to be consequences and the Adversarie's challenges to be but flourishes and bravadoe's fighting all this time in the air and with his own shadow to amuse the people his Auditours and ensnare your souls which is the only dangerous consequence of his not our Doctrine that I am for the present afraid of But lest he should want an Adversary he cals forth one Objection which he said comes out as the Forlorn Hope from us Object Christ died not for all because he praied not for all Joh. 17. 9. Answ His answer was two-fold 1. Although he praied not there for all he might elsewhere 2. He did pray for his enemies when upon the Crosse and let any prove there were none but the elect Reply Reply to the first Answer This Argument from Scripture he cals our forlorn Hope and strong enough for him to encounter withall nor shall he finde it so forlorn but that it will make good it's line and ground For 1. Whereas he saith Although Christ praied not for the world in that place he might elsewhere Himself loseth ground for such as Christ leaveth but once out of his prayer by way of exception and caution he never takes in nay 't is a sign he never took them in 2. Again To shew the Lords meaning whom he praied for here and elsewhere he gives his own limitation vers 9. But for those that thou hast given me and his enlargement or extent ver 20. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word these are but a few to all the world 1. When he praied for his enemies they were to be considered To the second Answer under a double notion 1. As those whom he died for and converted soon after Act. 2. 3. 4. Chapters Or 2. As his personall enemies whether elect or others and so he did but set us an example what we should do when hated and persecuted what forgive them and pray as he did Luk. 23. 24. Father forgive them c. either as being those he should die for for whom he would and did make satisfaction and so to be forgiven eternally and absolutely or such as should be forgiven respectively as doing injury Numb 14. 19. to his person and temporarily as many in the wildernesse are said to be forgiven who were not presently cut off which as a godly man may obtain of God for a reprobate so Christ for such as did ignorantly crucifie him though God did afterwards visit the sinnes of the fathers upon the children who went on to crucifie Christ in his members at Jerusalems destruction 2. What ever Christ praied for when he praied for his enemies in order to this life he had viz. a temporall forbearance or keeping off a temporall punishment c. But what he praied for in order to eternall life he received much more and had it been for any more then the elect that man had been both a reprobate and yet eternally forgiven which things are inconsistent and cannot hold together that either Christ should so pray or praying not be heard or being heard the person or persons praied for should be eternally reprobated and yet eternally pardoned You see then we make good the passe here and shall maintain the fight our Forlorn Hope as he called it I wisse not in derision not receiving so much as one wound His next Use was To comfort mens consciences in the consideration Examination and dissipation of the second Use of Gods love and this generall love from which none are excluded much more this comfort was for the elect and Christs friends for if Christ died for his enemies then surely there is abundance of love for those that be his friends Answ 1. He should not need to have taken this fetch and compasse to raise comfort for Christs friends for they have enough from the Doctrine of Christs dying but for some and more comfort thence then if he had died for all for 1. They have the comfort of Gods speciall love and that is more then what ariseth but from a generall love which is no more then a reprobate may have 2. They have this comfort that being sometimes enemies they are made friends Rom. 5. 9 10. which is not the priviledge of all grant that Christ died for his enemies and that all are his enemies yet he died not for all his enemies but for such as were in Gods speciall love his Favourites from all eternity in time made enemies by the first Adam and in the fulnesse of time made friends by him the second Adam Answ 2 Secondly There is some comfort it seems by the universall Doctrine for men while they continue enemies though more for his friends this is implied because Christ died for all from a generall love my Beloved observe the fallacy Though God bears a generall love to that kinde of his creatures Man-kinde and not such a love to Angel-kinde as to appoint a Redeemer in that nature for men of the common kinde and those as bad and as forlorn as any of their kinde his elect while enemies yet this doth not administer one dram of comfort to any individuall person of man-kinde while an enemy but when comfort comes in it is to his elect called home and to them only not as uncalled or outwardly
the application and that by gift of all other good things from the gift of Redemption and of the Redeemer himself Rom. 8. 32. 3. That of Christs satisfaction for all men and obtaining the pardon of all sinnes against the Covenant of works for all them and his satisfaction for and pardon of the sinnes against the Covenant of Grace only for the elect whereas all men originally and actually hanging upon a Covenant of works for life and yet continually breaking that Covenant are actually in all ages and in this present age as in the Apostles age under the curse Gal. 3. 10. And they who have any sin forgiven have all sins forgiven them Col. 2. 13. Zach. 13. 1. which are the elect only Christs peculiar people Mat. 1. 21. Tit. 2 14. 4. That of the Gospel and of the promise of life the former being as our new teacher said * After his Lecture to a brother of ours for all the promise of life for believers only Whereas at the first dawning of the Gospel the promise of life and immortality comes to light 2 Tim. 1. 10. whoever have the Gospel preached to them that they might believe have the promise of life also preached to them that they might believe and before a man doth believe he hath no more interest in the Gospel or in Christs death then in the promise of life Joh. 3. ult 5. It makes Christs death not at all the execution of Gods election or if at all but of a conditionall election producing but a conditionall Redemption for all not absolute for any hence 6. It frames Gods intention after mans fancy and Christs love to be no more to Peter then to Iudas as some have confest it 7. It imagines the grace of God to be for all or none and Christs death to be for none certainly but contingently 8. It shuts out Infants from any benefit by Christs death but what say they is common to Reprobates as freedome from originall sinne bodily life and Resurrection The first we deny that any Reprobate hath or shall have As for present life and future Resurrection if Infants have no more advantage by Christs death then have they not so much either as a benefit or not as by his death if they have more why do the Assertours of such grace deny them the seal thereof in Baptisme 9. It leads to other errours as pernitious and pestilent I 'le instance in three 1. That of free will for Christs death for all obtains but of God by their Doctrine a possibility that men may be saved converted c. If they will and that will left in their common Nature is Grace Gospel-grace they must make it or they make nothing of it a Gospel-will let it be then contributing to mans conversion what just nothing saith the Scripture Ioh. 5. 40. 6. 44. All say they in effect for let all operations of grace be put that may be put into the balance will must cast the scales and determine the case whether the man shall be converted or no saved or no. And what the vote of the will is in that case reade Psalm 81. 11 12. Jeremy 44. 17. Oh slavish will as Luther call'd thee and Oh Legall will may I call thee continually in bondage What is the pride of that opinion which would exalt thee such a bond-slave above a promise above the Spirit above God and his decrees c 2. That of falling away from Grace for if Christ died for all and that to obtain remission of sinnes for all and a will for all to be converted then all men are not only fallen in the first Adam but are and shall fall in Christ the second Adam from a pardon'd state and a state of free-will and of free-grace in their sense who are not elected yea but when the Scripture a Luk. 1. 77. Joh. 6. 44 45. attributeth remission of sinnes and a will to be regenerate or a will set at liberty for the receiving and acting of grace onely to the Elect such falling away from such grace is an imputation by Arminian Doctrine cast upon the Elect of God such Doctrine and Doctours therefore to be abandoned 3. That which issueth from both the former deniall of the Spirits efficacy first and last They that teach Christ died for all doe grant he gives his Spirit but to some here they plainly separate Christs death and the Spirit of his death and when the Spirit is given hee workes but at the courtesie of the will how farre and how long it willeth and pleaseth Can that Doctrine be for Christs honour that tends to the dishonour of his Spirit 10. And lastly It engenders unto that conceit That the damned may in time be saved b As since these Sermons were preached I have met with a Pamphlet not worthy confutation entituled Divins Light per antiphrasin it should be diabolicall darknesse manifesting it should be smoking out of the bottomlesse pit the love of God unto the whole world and to his Church wherein six times at least that place in Zach. 9. 11. As for thee also by the bloud of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water is applied beyond some of the old Doctours expolitions to Limbus patrum or of Bellarmines to Purgatory a part of hell as he dreams even to the deepest place of the damned men and devils too who shall saith the namelesse notelesse Authour by vertue of the Covenant of Generall Redemption be delivered from thence and rewarded too for all their torments and losses in grace and glory Much Atheisme and blasphemy there is in such an hereticall assertion and this contradiction in adjecto that eternity of hell-tormenting fire as is expresly threatned Math. 25 ult Mark 9 45. shall have an end doth alone call aloud to have that Pamphlet condemned to and consumed in some Cheap-side or kitchin fire or if not so yet as Arminius and Vorstius dreamed it promiseth Levamen aliquod some easement and mitigation of their pains for ever in hell I should now proceed to the true Exposition pertinent Observations and Applications of the Text but there lieth a rub and remora or two in my way which I shall endeavour to remove viz. Quest May not the former Exposition stand in some founder sense then that of this Seducer viz. Although Christ did not redeem all mens souls yet he did buy the world of creatures for the common good of all men Answ 1. Suppose he did buy the world of creatures for the common good of all men yet it is not the scope of the Parables or either of them in the Text to affirm or illustrate any such matter 2. Our late Expositour took not the Field for the structure and store of other creatures but for the whole bulk of mankinde and every singular man and woman and mothers childe as we say 3. Grant that he or any man should draw the
Parable or any other Scripture to speak this way viz. That Christ did buy the creature for all men our Vniversalists will not rest there give them but an inch of this or other texts to hold out Christs temporall purchase for every man and they will take an ell of his spirituall purchase in with it witnesse the Texts c Joh. 4. 42. 1 Tim. 24. 6 c. fore-alleadged and vindicated all which doe speak expressely of spirituall and saving benefits and so farre doth our new Expositour carry it beyond a temporall common good even to a Redemption from all sinnes against the Covenant of works which indeed is but that one first sinne of Adam before the promise by the tenour of his Doctrine for all having sinned in Adam and a Covenant of grace entered with those all after his sinne it must needs follow that all sinnes of Adam and of all his posterity afterwards are sinnes against the Covenant of grace only and Christ being the Mediatour of this Covenant he mediates for all that all may have Adams sinne forgiven which is beyond all temporall benefits for it puts them into a blessed state of Justification and life which the Apostle Rom. 5. sets in opposition to the state of guilt and death wherein all are involved by Adams sinne And it may be some over-indulgent expressions of some reverend and godly learned Teachers in our Churches have encouraged our Adversaries by what they have preached or written to this effect That some common benefit comes in to all men by Christ and that Christ as a Lord hath bought and purchased all wicked men their lives and their reprievall all that time that here they live and all the blessings and dispensations of goodnesse which here they do enjoy That which is indulgent is for Christ as a Lord to allow wicked men common benefits c. That which I thinke over-indulgent is that Christ hath bought and purchased these men and the world for them And the stretching inferences which our Arminian-Novellists doe wier-draw from hence are That such acts of Gods mercy are effects of Christs Mediatour-ship And if Christ doth it as a Lord thinke they yea and as a Jesus too and if God hath given them their lives c. for a time Christ hath purchased these lives of theirs and if he hath purchased them it is upon some satisfaction which Christ hath made to his Father and from some generall pardon which he hath obtained of his Father for Adam's and all mens first fault in Adam But that the world and the lives of wicked men and the blessings of this life though the earth be given to the sons of men even into the hands of the wicked Job 9. 24. come not in to them by Christs purchase I think I may evince by these Demonstrations 1. Either such a purchase is by some satisfaction to Gods Demonstratiōs against Christs purchase of all men for the world of creatures or of the creatures for all mankinde justice or not If not by any satisfaction then something Christ doth and offereth to God is a price unsatisfactory or no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or price of redemption at all which is the dotage and madnesse of Socinus and his followers If by some satisfaction where Christ satisfies in part he satisfieth wholly where he obtains one mercy he obtains all and wicked men even reprobates must have the rest of the purchase or God gives not Christ what he hath purchased we may safely conclude therefore he purchased nothing for them at all neither spirituals nor temporals but all and only for them for whom he obtained an eternall Redemption as 't is called Heb 9. 13. 2. Then would Gods love and favour be known by outward Demon. 2. benefits at the first view and by good events of providence without any other consideration it is enough Christ purchased the world for them and them for the world God loves them nor is there any hatred to be taken notice of from other notions contrary to Ecclesiastes chap. 9. 1. 3. Then all are under Grace and Gospel-grace and Gospel-Covenant Demon. 3. Nature is grace even naturall reason and will or nature endued with reason and will as Pelagius fancied for this was part of the purchase 4. Grant but all temporall things even of men excommunicate Demon. 4. and of Heathens to be founded in grace I mean Gospel-purchase and Gods free favour in Christ and you Daven deter q. 30. lay a foundation for the Popes Supremacy and his deposing of Princes for that being granted 't is founded in grace and many Princes denying Romes grace and faith they conclude such are to be deprived of their temporall dominions and dignities 5. This confounds the Kingdom of Power and the Kingdom Demon. 5. of Grace and brings all humane Powers and Magistrates States and Common-wealths immediately under Christs mediatory Kingdom and that as they are Magistrates and civil States As Mr Hussey * Plea for Christian Magist 36 would have Christ by his mediation obtain of the Father that he shall not judge any man according to rigour but as they are in or out of Christ all deferring of judgement from the wicked is in and for Christ which otherwise the justice of God would not allow Mr Gillespy a Malè audis 29. well infers Then Christ dieth for them and did thus farre make satisfaction in the behalf of the wicked that judgement might be deferred from them and thus farre he hath performed acts of mediation for Savages and Mahumetans who never heard of the Gospel and thereby hath obtained that they shall be judged not according to rigour but by the Gospel which intimateth That Christ hath taken away all their sinnes against the Law so that all men shall now go upon a new score c. being all of them immediately upon Adams fall under a new Covenant and in a Kingdome of grace which sutes well and jumps in with Mr Oats's opinion not as good wits use to doe but as bad counsellours and conspiratours against a good cause or two as well that of Church-government confounded with the civil as that of a Covenant of grace confounded with a Covenant of works But I ask M. Hussey or any rationall Doctour Cannot Gods power be exercised where his grace in Christ is denied and cannot God be just and patient too why should we set one Attribute of God against the other when none of them doe interfere Object Gen. 2. 17. It will be said The threatning was full and peremptory In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Except Christ steps in Justice proceeds upon him immediately God shews not a drop of mercy but for his Sonne I answer 1. Justice did proceed upon Adam at the instant of his sinning he begins to die the death his body becomes mortall and obnoxious to death in which sense the Apostle saith The body is dead Rom.
that universal Redemption whereby he grants to poor sinners a faculty only of salvation that is the natural faculty and power of understanding which with the essential liberty of the will distinguisheth a man from a beast and a stock or stone so it seemeth Christ died to purchase that which sinne destroied not and God restoreth that which was not lost or rather Testardus â—â—avels in this Argument to stifle his own conceptions 3. No man e The 53 could justly charge God of injustice if he should have adjudged all men of years to eternall death for f The. 144. Adams first transgression And yet he will not have that first finde nor the actual sins of the Heathen against nature without their sinning as he supposeth also in some sort against a Covenant of grace to be the cause of their eternal condemnation and punishment and his reason is Vt justitiae divinae in iis puniendis habeatur ratio that regard may be had in our thoughts to divine justice in their punishment Is not this interfeering with the former clause and Thesis As if unlesse the Heathen had sinned some way against a Covenant of grace Gods justice might be called in question when he had granted before that God had been most just to have thrown all men into hell for the first sinne And the like self-contradiction he hath about children g The. 53. who dares challenge God for injustice if he should stifle and sting with eternal death the of-spring of sinfull parents for Adams sinne in ipso vita limine at their first stepping into this world And yet h The. 145. he thinks it difficult to define what became of the Heathens children nor doth it appear to him how they are to be punished with the eternal torments of hell when as The. 53. he had made it evident by a similitude of the Serpents egges or young ones which if poor man may crush beriâ—es for their in bred propensity and poison why may not the Creatour and Lord of heaven and earth doe the like to Infants by nature prone to sinne against him before they put it forth in act 4. i The. 113. Sustentation of nature suspension of divine vengeance c. are fruits and testimonies as he thinks of a Covenant of grace and that with all men And yet k The. 18. elswhere he doubts not but God the Creatour and Preserver of Nature instained Adam and his faculties hiâ— sight hearing minde will appetite hand and teeth also in the very act of his sinning and as a fundamental proof thereof he â—iâ—eth that in Act. 17. 28. In him we live move â—â—e which to serve his purpose at another time he l The. 162. expounds of God as a Redeemer God can and did saith Testurdus as preserver of nature sustain Adam in to actu qâ—o peccavit in that act wherein he sinned and why may he not sustain his posterity say I in and under the guilt of that sin and in the actual fruits of that sin as Creatour and Preserver of nature suspending some of his own acts of highest justice for a time And yet that sustentation be no more a fruit of redemption then Adams was in the first act of sinning And so Gods being the Saviour of all men 1 Tim. 4. 10. which Testardus m The. 97. applieth to redemption be no more then what is in Job 7. 20. O thou preserver of men and what we have in Psal 36. 6. O Lord thou preservest man and beast A common act of providence 5. Christ offered himself he n The. 55. saith pro peccatis mundi for the sins of the world and quotes that in 1 Joh. 2. 2. for it whence elswhere o The. 87. he infers that Christ died pro omnibus singulis for all and every one and yet p The. 194. declaring and laying forth the peculiar benefit of Justification he dare not affirm it as belonging to any other but to the elect beleevers and the sheep of Christ who are united to Christ their surety and professedly saith Haec duo conjungit Apostolus The Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 30. joyneth these two together union and justification Now how can that cohere with his doctrine of separating the imputation of sin from the imputation of righteousnesse All mens sinnes are imputed to Christ and yet Christs righteousnesse first or last is imputed but to some Either he must let goe the Doctrine of singular and sole imputation of Christs righteousnesse to the elect which is a glorious truth to be adhered unto for ever or he must desert the opinion of universall imputation of the sins of the non elect unto Christ which is an errour worthy to be exploded and abandoned for ever 6. Man however a sinner q The. 45. hath reliquias quâ—sâ—am primigeâ—ia lucia some common notions of God naturally Imprinted in the heart c. and hath withall extrinsecally a light set before him and added to that imbred quâ—lity of his minde viz. Arguments of the God-head his power and goodnesse easily to beperceived in the Creation and administration of the world for proof whereof he quotes Rom. 1. 19 20. Act. 17. 26 27. And r Eatenâ—s tantum c The. 141. the utmost power exerted or put forth by this naturall light he holds according to Scripture Rom. 2. 14 15. Rom. 1. 21. that having the work or effect of the Law written in their hearts the Heathenish Gentiles did many things according to that Law as to acknowledge God in part to be powerfull good c. to worship him after their manner follow the shadow of vertue feel their consciences excusing and accusing c. Thus farre we have a fair pail of milk but doth he not spill it within a Thesis or two Å¿ Clarum est gratiam Christi ipsius sub Evangelij quibusdam velut rudimentis illis aliquâ—tenùs oblatam The 143. Where he cals these Reliques of natures light as it were certain rudiments of the Gospel offering and holding forth to blinde Heathen The grace of Iesus Christ Is not this a clashing with what he had said before of the whole power of nature Is it not a disparagement to the grace of Christ who it seems by this passage begins with Adams leavings We read of Scripture rudiments the ceremonies Gods positive institutions yet these are but beggarly in the point of justification Gal. 4. 7. And natures-reliques are as beggarly in the work of faith and sanctification but in the office of revelation and manifestation of Christ for righteousnesse and life much more beggarly Now if you will beleeve Testardus in this place where he saith Christ was presented and tendered to the Heathen by those most beggarly rudiments of nature and that every testimony of mercy in a way of providence is the grace of Christ where he speaks unsoundly you must not beleeve him in another place t The. 235. that faith depends
this life l Armin Desp. prin The. 4â— â— 8 Arminius reckons the Word and Spirit for the proper appointed means of faith and salvation m Testard The 16â— â—â—â— 277 281 â—â—5 Testardus every where assigneth the good things of this life as means apt and in themselves sufficient where the Word and Spirit are not afforded Arminius with the â—ona the good things of this life putâ— in the mala the afflictions and corrections of Gods hand the benefit whereof is purchased for the elect is the use and benefit of life and health c. But Testardus reckons the good things temporall to be testimonies of Christ and grace by themselves which I doe not finde Arminius to averre no more then of the mala or evil events of providence by themselves but as they are elevated and sanctified beyond their proper element and sphere so they both shall work together with the proper means of salvation for good to those that love God and are loved of him and called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. But in these three particulars above others I finde Testardus and Arminius mainly to conspire and jump into one minde 1. That Christ did intentionally die for every singular make satisfaction to justice for all 2. They doe both exceedingly set up and magnifie nature and naturall parts which will never doe the reprobate any good for they are flesht enough in self-conceits of will and wisdome from their own hearts but it hath and will doe hurt unto and among the elect of God for a time to lose their waking thoughts and admirations of free-grace and to fall into a dream of free-will as if that were the umpire of grace and of a strange liberty unknown to a right-principled Christian as if because God leaves the non-elect in justice to their own wils therefore Gods children dealt with in rich mercy should have their wils and swinge also whence many are ready to turn the Doctrine of Grace especially of such grace and such a Doctrine into wantonnesse Not to speak of that which is so obvious trite and common yet true their putting of titles upon nature as calling it grace and a testimony of grace doe savour strongly n Naturam gratiae titule ornare aut velo ejus palltare Pela gianum est Act. â—ynod Dord par â— p. 178. of old Pelagianisme This is a wonder to me how Testardus could stile his book A Synopsis de Natura Gratia when as all along the book he confounds the one with the other but my wonder ceaseth when as I consider the title must be in his sense inconsistent as well as the contents of the book 3. They place the decree of Christs death in order of nature before the decree of election as perceiving that if redemption by Christs death be brought in as â— fruit of election then as election iâ— but of some out of the whole lump of mankinde â—o redemption must be affirmed to be but of those some or that certain number whom God had elected only with some difference Arminius frames a predestination of beleevers Testardus foundeth election upon Christ not as yet received by faith but as given and destinated of God for faith Arminius giveth that to the will of man in beleeving which Testardus gives to the efficacy of grace beyond a morall swasion and hangs not the faith of Gods elect upon the contingency of the will nor doth he make faith an antecedent condition of election as Arminius But he is me thinks as wide in another notion as Arminius in the former That Christ being first decreed to be given as a common victima or sacrifice propitiatory he represents Gods thoughts as waiting not for time but order on the courtâ—sie of the rest of the world o The. 80. Ac tandem cum pravideret Deus c. and at length or then next in order when God foreseeth all will not receive his Sonne prepared and offered for all then and not before in Testardus thoughts comes out Gods purpose of saving some and that from an absolute choice of them to faith and the fruits of it infallibly necessarily c. Absolute p The 87. because not out of fore-seen faith c. as Arminius but not so absolute as to be the foundation of our Redemption for Christ and that q The 288. with 282. as the immaculate Lambs satisfying justice is the foundation of our election and not only of election but of the whole gracious predestination as he calleth it and so he makes Christ a foundation of so much of Gods predestination as in the common Covenant call and grace which we have discovered to be inconsistent with Scripture belongs to reprobates Here are new notions that may please some mens fancies but they are very cloudy to me while I apprehend they cloud and eclipse the glory of election which although r The. 286. he saith it is purae particularis misericordia belongs to meer and speciall mercy yet the notion of the Scripture goes higher for as it excludes faith from being either cause or condition of election and brings it in as the effect thereof Act. 13. 38. So it assigns not Christ as the fundamentall cause of election when we speak or reade of him as a Redeemer offering up himself a Sacrifice but as that gift of God Joh. 4. 10. sent as Gods great love-token for manifestation of his mercy and love to those who are the chosen people of God Math. 1. 21. and the children of Gods election whom he should by his death gather together Joh. 11. 52. And when the Scripture saith We are chosen in him Ephes 1. 4. It is neither to be understood with Arminius That he chose us as fore-seen beleevers on him nor with Testardus as redeemed first to God by Christ his sacrifice and upon fore-sight of what all the world the elect as others would doe left to themselves reject Christ and of what himself would doe for some for this is to build election upon works though they be Christs works partly for us partly in us But as blessed Baines upon that place in him as a Head The grace of election beginneth first with Christ our head and descendeth to us in him And Christ being primarily chosen as an head of men and Angels too then such men as are chosen in him being fallen as others when as none of the elect Angels fell with the rest by force of that former choice of a head to the end appointed The glory of free-grace he is secondarily chosen upon the coming in of sin unto the means of bringing many sons unto glory viz. his death and as these sons and heirs of glory were chosen in Christ to that end without a first consideration of the fall So upon a second consideration as we may so speak of their fal they are chosen in Christ to the means viz. Vocation Justification c. I shall adde as a Corollary
pry into a curious piece of workmanship 2. In his offices as he is 1. A Prophet teaching the whole will of God the Messiah teaching all things Joh. 4. 25. In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge 2. A Priest 1. Making full and perfect satisfaction by his obedience and sufferings his life and the compleat obedience to all his Fathers commands how precious of more value then all the lives of the Saints His death and every drop of his bloud shed for satisfaction and atonement how precious One drop of more merit then all the blood of Martyrs 2. Making perpetuall intercession in the heavens an able Advocate and a righteous one able to prevail with a just as a mercifull God by his righteous pleadings mercifull and faithfull in all cases committed to his plea And a most free Advocate doth all for nothing in the behalf of every one who comes to God by him in formâ pâ—â—peris 3. A King declared so to be by his glorious resurrection ascension and exaltation at Gods right hand And by his gathering and governing his Saints and the Churches of the Saints inwardly by his Spirit and outwardly by his Word and Gospel-order and Discipline unknown worth is here of great price is he in every of these respects as might be amplified and cleared at large 3. Of what price and great value is Christ to us in that Principium culmenque omnium rerum pretij margaritae teneÌ„t Plin. lib. 9 c. 35 Gospel-grace which he communicates first and last such as it makes every choice grace flowing from him to be a pearl enriching a Christian with enough 1. To live and spend upon for the present 2. To lay up for the future 1. For the present How precious that which is given to live upon 1. The Spirit of grace and praier and purity and liberty 2. Faith the precious faith of Gods elect the g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1. 7. triall of it more precious then gold much more in it's self most precious 3. Union with Christ there is a pearl indeed Pearls me called unionâ—s say some because but one or two are found together and why not because they unite the heart in love and high esteem of such as finde them to themselves I am sure this is an uniting pearl the pearl of union with Christ which brings in h 1 Joh. 1. 3. fellowship with the Father and his Spirit and his Saints and i Ephes 4. 16. whole Churches of them 4. Justification in which there are four things of great price 1. The Righteousnesse of Christ imputed 2. The non-imputation or plenary remission of all sin in the guilt and punishment 3. The acceptation of our persons as righteous 4. The title to eternal life thereby 5. Reconciliation a precious fruit of our Justification and pardon whereby of enemies to God we are accepted as his friends and are in termes of peace with him 6. Redemption a precious benefit whereby of bondslaves to sinne and Satan we are accepted as Gods-Covenant servants and Christs free-men the more precious being purchased by such a price as the precious bloud of Christ 7. Adoption a precious free-enlarged act of Gods love whereby of children of wrath we are accepted as his own sonnes and daughters Behold what manner of love is this 1 Ioh. 3. 1. Declare it who can when the Apostle is at a stand about it 8. Sanctification in the parts 1. The quickning of a new divine nature and in particular the habit of love k Lyra makes charity the choice pearl among and with other vertues 2. The mortifying of an old corrupt nature how precious therestoring of Gods image and the destroying of the devils likenesse And in the first generall acts and fruits Repentance and a broken heart a precious jewell and pearl All these as they are Christs-grace and Gospel-grace may have the denomination to farre as they have the precious nature of Pearls which as Pliny l Nat. Hist l. 9. c. 35. writes are begotten of the dew of heaven which at a certain time of the year the shell-fish draws in and as they are specious to sight so for use are very medicinall to heal the palpitation or beating of the heart to comfort the vitall spirits and drive away the dizzinesse of the head of farre choicer use is Christ and this grace which floweth from his divine distilling influences but I follow not the metaphor as some doe who reading in Pliny and other Authours of what m MargaritaruÌ„ omnis dos saith Pliny consistit in candore magnitudine orbe laevere pondere See Cor. à lapide in loc Dos and due proportion of whitenesse greatnesse â—oâ—idnesse smoothnesse and weight a pearl consisteth lay out the resemblance unto Christs being conceived of the Virgins substance by the over-shadowing dew of the Spirit coming forth most-white by his innocency little by his humility bright by his wisdome most round by his compleat perfection weighty in conscience smooth in mildenesse full of the price of blessednesse it is enough and agreeable enough to the scope of our Lords own Parables that we take notice of the great value and worth of Christ and his grace moving every one that truly understands it to make out in a purchase for the possession of it 2. For the future the full growth of grace comfortable evidences of it and of Gods love the root of it Perseverance and victory over sinne world Satan Antichrist and death a joyfull glorious resurrection and redemption of the body boldnesse at Christs coming with eternall life in the beatificall vision of God for ever and ever Here is as much as ever I heard of or knew any Christian desired and how great is the price hereof no man can tell mee Secondly The rarity and peculiar one-nesse of this Pearl all is summed up in one Iesus Christ In him you are compleat Col. 2. 9. If he be the Sonne of God he is the only jewell of the Crown of heaven if he be a King head and husband of the Church he is but one c. Act. 4. 12. 15. 11. if we take in every grace of the Gospel to be a Pearl and if we take in the Gospel too with Gospel-grace and every promise of the Gospel with the knowledge thereof n The knowledge of Christ is the pearl which â—â—â—re exceeds all other sciences Annot. upon the Bible Branch 3. 1 How hid yet all these are bound up in one Volume of Jesus Christ which when a Christian hath well read thorow and studied he desires to know and enjoy nothing else 1 Cor. â— 2. Phil. 3. 8. Branch 3. Christ and Gospel-grace is a hidden treasure where two things are worth our enquiry how and where this Treasure is hid In it self and it's worth it is hid thus 1. As not known to naturall men at all by any capacity or principle they have to discern Christ or the things of