of causes and I say your mistake is the not understanding of causes I do allow of as many distinctions of causes as the Scripture doth but I am not so simple as to make several causes of one thing to be diametrially opposed against each other as ye do but consentaneous to one another so that Gods declared cause is adequate to his essential meritorious or final causes My third mstake as you say is my not understanding the extent of the word all and the word world and in this you make a great puther and a stir to prove that the word World is taken many times for lesse then all Who knows not that but 't is sometimes taken for all as you and all men confess and in this case touching the death of Christ I am certainly assured 't is meant all as I have already evinced from John 12.47 Nay moreover you grant it for you also affirm that he dyed for all and therefore when you except against my large extending the word world it may be conceived you are a little out of your self if not I am sure ye are out of the truth For what man that is compos mentis would first assert that Christ died for all and for the world and then except against the places that prove it as not extending unto all because sometimes those terms in other cases extend not to all I hope you will see your folly and be ashamed 4. My fourth mistake you say is my not understanding Ezek. 33.11 where the Lord saith As I live I delight not in the death of a sinner For from this place I conclude you say all sinners and so indeed I do yea the worst and perishing sinners and so the text saith expresly Ezek. 18 ult. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth Who told you that God makes three sorts of sinners and one of them he calls sinners in a Gospel-sence have you eaten of the forbidden fruit if not how come you to know more then is written and more then is true that some sins and sinners are greater then others I do not deny but to divide sinners into so many sorts that exclude the greatest part of them from Gods desire of salvation to them I allow not but detest it as abominable I am sure God tells us no such thing in his word as that he would save onely sinners in a Gospel-sence But he either saith Sinners indefinitely or else particuliarly of such sinners as Mr. Hobsons wisdom excludeth as these Scriptures will abundantly testifie Jer. 25.3 unto 8. Jer. 35.12 unto 17. Chap. 29.19 Chap. 18.11 12 Chap. 6.16 17. Chap. 13.11 Isa. 48. 17 18 19. Where you may see he endeavoured with all earnestness even unto admiration to save not onely those that did accept but those also that refused Salvation and perished That all this was done out of true compassion to them doth appear 2 Chro. 36.14 15 16. That all this also was not a bare outward and helpless means which God used by his Prophets but a most efficacious powerful and prevailing means the Spirit of God going with the word of the Prophet and yet not received doth most manifestly appear in that remarkable place of Zechariah 7.11 12 13. as also Act. 7.51 This is yet farther confirmed and illustrated by the ever blessed Son of God in his most pathetical expressions of sorrow and grieffor and the shedding of tears over the miserable sons and daughters of Jerusalem who had unavoidably and full sore against his blessed will brought themselves into an irrecoverable estate by not knowing the time of their visitation when they were most gently allured and earnestly called upon it being now too late to reverse the Decree that was gone out against them I say yet did our Saviour weep for them Luke 19.41 and weeping he most affectionately breatheth forth this most blessed wish and desire for them O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace c. in which desire he is like unto God his father See Deut. 5.29 Chap. 32.29 Psal. 81.13 Isa. 48.18 Let all this be well weighed without prejudice and see then if you you cannot understand our Saviour as he speaks that is That he came not to call the righteous that is righteous indeed but sinners to repentance that is sinners indeed his designe into the world being more to amend that which was amiss to seek that that was lost and heal that that was sick then to those that were already in a good way and in a saveable condition that had not need of a Physitian Mat. 9.12 Mark 2.17 Whoever do but mark upon what occasion our Lord here speaketh these words they may with ease understand that he means worse sinners then Mr. Hobsons Gospel-sinners for our Saviour being at meat with Publicans and sinners in Levi's house the Scribes and Pharisees complain of it thinking 'tis like as Mr. Hobson doth that he was sent onely to the precise and Gospel-sinners which when our Lord perceived he said unto them They that are whole have not need of the Physitian but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Next you say I mistake in putting one person for another as in Heb. 10.29 where the text saith Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing c. Now you say my mistake is That I take the word he for the party that treads the blood of Christ under foot whenas 't is meant if all were true as you say of Christ himself that was sanctified This fond and I think your own interpretation of this place is not onely against all the judicious learned but against the scope of the Apostle which is both to aggravate the punishment and the sin of the person here spoken of who trampled under his foot the blood of Christ which he aggravates by rehearsing the vertue of it and what it had done for him to wit sanctified him from his sins which the party wickedly how slighted and rejected though formerly had imbraced it and been sanctified by it and this right well agreeth with Saint Peter 2 Pet. 1.9 2.20 21 22. I am still filled with amazement that you should be so void of reason as to interperet Scripture after such a heedless manner as to confront all wise and learned men yea and the truth also Do you think it would aggravate the sin of the sinner to tell him that he hath trampled under his foot that blood which he had no benefit nor sanctification by but that blood by which Christ was sanctified or do you think that Christ needed to be sanctified by his own blood himself I am well aware that sanctification is sometimes taken for setting apart but sanctification by Christs blood is never
salvation unto all men for the same purpose that they should deny ungodlyness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously in this present world W. P. Sound Doctrine OR The Doctrine of the Gospel about the extent of the Death of Christ DEar friend I received your book in which you prerend to answer my fourteen Queries and ten Absurdities which how well you have done let the Godly wise judge that have read it I am amazed to take notice how consident you seem to be in so bottomless a business as you maintain and with what subtilty not to say fraud you pass over the energie and force of my Arguments without notice and how you pretend that 't is an opinion very dangerous to hold that Christ died for all alike and yet you your self maintaining he died for all as if he died more for one then another and as if he died to save onely some and dyed for the rest to damne them I pray where do you learn that distinction of dying for all but not all alike was ever such a thing heard of among any that had the use of their reason I desire no greater advantage against you then that you are constrained and so are all of your opinion to speak without Art without Scripture without Reason and against all the best of Antiquities The holy Scriptures do indeed most plainly tell us that Christ died for all as you have also quoted Joh. 3.16 16.33 2 Cor. 5.19.1 Jo. 2.2.1 Joh. 4.14 Heb. 2.9 but do any or all of these or any other say that he died not for them alike or that he died for some more then other I shall not take upon me to write an answer to all your impertinent allegations and particulars in your book because I judge 't will be a mis-pence of time and blotting of paper to no purpose And were it not that I feared my silence would occasion you to be wise in your own conceit I would not have troubled my self to make any Reply unto your feigned doctrine for I do not much fear that many considerate good and sober men will be misled by such groundless conceits But being perswaded that possibly some weak persons may be misled by the pretended holyness of your self and Doctrine therefore I did resolve to write an Answer to your book which if you will weigh seriously in the balance of truth I hope it may put a stop to the exorbitancy of your Judgment it being the most fit way yea the way of our blessed Lord Jesus to reduce mens vile conversations by first purifying their hearts by faith and he who is not first cleansed in the inside of his heart no marvel if his actions be unclean he that judgeth not rightly of Gods wayes no marvel if he order not his own aright if I judge that God may pretend the grace of the Gospel i.e. remission of sins and Salvation upon amendment of life unto all protesting to them all that he desires their weal and yet intends it onely to a few of them I say If I judge God may do thus and yet be just no marvel then if I do also deal so with men my self this opinion altogether indulging such a practise for we are to follow the example of God both in Justice and holyness and all other perfection and 't is notoriously known to all considerate men that the Doctrine of the Gospel in every part of it is calculated for the Meridian of Godliness that being the great design of God in the world by all the Doctrines and preceps of the Gospel to lay obligations upon men to be holy in their conversations now by this you may know Truth from Errour for that Doctrine whose natural tendencie is to excite and provoke men to good and godly life is most assuredly from heaven but that teaching or those opinions that so much as but incline men to or allow them in any unclean or unrighteous pathes as your Doctrine doth is certainly not from heaven but earthly sensual and devilish as will afterward more fully appear I shall now begin with your first thing You say page a that I did not propound my questions to be informed and therein you were very right for indeed I thank my God I was not diffident of but believing in them when I put them to you but I did it to inform you and to rectifie your and others Judgements that judge not aright of God You say That my Queries are founded upon a groundless supposition to wit that you do not hold that Christ died for all which you say you do but not all alike I answer My Queries have a good foundation for if you maintain Christs dying for all in no other way then your nonsensical way 't is all one as if you had said in terminis he had not died for all for if he did not die effectually for all at least so far as to open a door of salvation for one as freely as another to what purpose was his death and what benefit have most men by his death you say They are freed from the curse of Adam but is that all are you so carnal have you such ignoble thoughts of the ever-blessed God and have you forgotten Joh. 3.17 Joh. 1.7 That all men might be saved and the many other places might be named wherein the Lord declares his desire to have all saved bâ—ing grieved and troubled in spirit when they will perish according to these Scriptures Ezek. 18.32 Chap. 33.11 Jer. 4.19 Judg. 10.16 Luke 19.41 You make such a confused work in your proofs for Christs dying for all as I never heard First you will not have it proved from these places Joh. 3.16 2 Cor. 25.19 c. because you say the word World is taken diversly in Scripture Sometimes for the whole sometimes for a part sometimes for the wicked and sometimes you say also for believers also but that 's false that the word World is taken many times for less then the whole I know and you needed not so have belabored your self to prove it What if it be meant for less then all sometimes yet sometimes it doth include all as you also confess and whensoever the death of Christ for all or his desire to save all is spoken of in this case it must be meant all for several good Reasons and Considerations as you shall hear afterwards onely take this one to chew upon in the mean time 'T is taken from Joh. 12.47 where our blessed Saviour saith If any man hear his words and believe not he will not judge him that is now rendring this reason For I came not to judge the world but to save the world By the word World here which Christ came to save and not to judge cannot be meant onely believers if at all but such as hearing do not believe or else the text will not be sense nor will the latter part be a reason to prove the affirmation in the
properly is an act of judgement a preferring of the better before the worse They that say God elected such a number of men without the least intuition of their qualifications by which they are differenced from the Reprobate crew do speak illogically to say no worse how much safer is it to say that because such men as are in Christ by faith are better then such as are out of Christ by infidelity therefore those are taken and these are left And it seems this very Argument from the nature and use of the word Election did prevail with St. Austin who saith expresly That Justification precedeth Election and his Reason is Because no man is elected unless he differ from him that is rejected Fourthly I consider That the whole tenure of Scripture and that in the judgement of all the Ancients teacheth no other predestination then in and through Christ which is respective and conditional First the Scripture gives us none but conditional promises such as If any man keep my saying he shall not tast death Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap And we shall reap if we faint not If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him c. If ye be willing and obedient c. If ye continue rooted and grounded and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel c. Nay even the very texts which are wont to be urged for irrespective Election do seem very precisely to evince the contrary For when God is said to predestinate according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which is rendered good pleasure doth not signifie the absoluteness but the respectiveness of his will for it relateth to something in which God is well pleased and that is Christ it being impossible for God to please himself with Mankinde any other wayes then in him of whom it was said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Besides all those Scriptures that do teach universal grace and redemption of which there is a multitude do seem to me most clearly to infer a conditional Election For if it be true that Christ did die really for all if he did earnestly desire that every one would come in upon the preaching of his word and receive the benefit of his death and passion if his warning were not in jest and his invitation were serious if depart from me ye cursed was therefore foretold that every one might beware and not obtrude himself upon that sentence if he is unwilling that any should be caught in the Serpents snare who shews to all without exception a certain way to escape if he is not desirous to strike who bids us look to our posture and stand upon our guard if he shews his power to punish none but onely those that refuse his mercy Then his refusing of the Goats in respect of that which makes them differ from Sheep inferreth his Election of the Sheep in respect of that which makes them differ from Goats Unto this fourth thing let me adde but this one thing more viz. That since our Saviour upon the cross did very heartily pray even for those * Homicides that put him to death we have no reason but to believe that he layd down his life for those that took it away and that he died for all for whom he prayed And yet we reading of their murders but not of their repentance I should be loath to say that those crucifying wretches were precious vessels of Election in compliance with your wicked opinion that say Christ died onely for Elect and yet to him that hath but a shallow judgement he must needs die for those he prayed for and 't is as plain that he died for those that cursed themselves his blood be upon us said they and on our children and yet said he Father forgive them he made his murderers execration become his prayer he wished as well as they that his blood might be both upon them and their children but in his most merciful not in their barbarous and cruel sense for they meant the guilt he the benefit of his blood and yet I dare not affirme that they were all a portion of Gods elect Fifthly and lastly I consider which to me is an Argument of some weight That the main stream of those ancient learned men that are usually called the Fathers doth run this way as it is notoriously known to any man that is acquainted with History and because I would not overburthen my self in writing nor my Reader in reading I shall not recite the innumerable quotations that might be I shall onely refer you to the Paraphrases of Erasmus and the Confessions of Beza and Dr. Twiss. First Beza in his Comment upon Rom. 11.2 rejects the Judgement of the Fathers because they were not as he would have them for the absolute unconditional way Secondly D. Twiss confesseth That all the Ancients before St. Austin did place the Object of God's Election in * fide pravisa at which Austin was so far from being displeased as that with great Reverence to their Authority he made it appear to be an innocent and harmless Opinion he affirmed That all the Fathers who lived before himself agreed in this And because Dr. Twiss so readily subscribeth to it also I ought in reason to be secured from being guilty of novelty or singularity herein for truely I am loath to forsake the Ancients until I plainly see them shaking hands to part from Truth And so I will conclude these five Considerations onely with desiring the Liberty of Conscience to believe from what hath been spoken with St. Paul That God is a Respecter not of persons but of works That my sins are perfectly and intirely my own and That if I do any thing that is Good it is the Grace of God in me yet so as that I may do all things through him that strengthens me and who doth so strengthen me that I may do them but not so force me as that I must If all this doth not yet satisfie and convince you I have small hope that any thing will that is behinde yet because it may do much good to others as I am confident it will to considering people I will proceed to what doth follow In the next place you pretend to answer to some Objections which are made by some of my Judgement The first Objection made against Eph. 1.4 and such other places where 't is said That God haâ—h chosen us in Christ before the world was you say is this Object 1. That God is pleased many times to cast things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 as he did to Abraham And so Christ is said to be a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 So must Election be understood in posse but not in esse The force of this Objection you think to take away with
more then you can do meaning with a good conscience Like this Saint Paul hath a saying in 2 Cor. 13.8 We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth But for further satisfaction to my ingenuous Reader I refer him to that famous and worthy work of Mr. John Goodwin of London intituled Redemption Redeemed in which not onely these Scriptures but also all others that are usually brought against the points now in controversie are most amply handled and the truth evinced beyond all exception CHAP. IX Concerning Foreknowledge in God THere be many that by fore-knowledge will needs understand approbation and love rather then knowledge properly taken but that cannot be because then the Apostle Paul and Peters difference between fore-knowledge and to predestinate to fore-know and to Elect would be quite taken away But if any should contend to have it so notwithstanding I will fetch a poor Almanack to wipe away this gloss by the common use of the word Prognostication Therefore though God approveth not yet he fore-sees all things or rather sees them as present to him Which fore-knowledge or knowledge doth not lay a necessity upon the things so to be for the very nature of knowledge doth not imply a necessity that the thing must but a certainty that it will be as for example When I see a man walk and at the same time see the sun shine I see the first as voluntary and the second as natural and though at the instant that I see both done there is a necessity that they be done or else I could not see them when I do yet before they were done there was a necessity but of onely one i.e. the sun shining but none at all of the other i. e. of the mans walking the sun could not but shine being a natural agent the man might not have walked being a voluntary one upon which it followes There is a twofold necessity one absolute the other on supposition the absolute is that by which a thing moves when 't is forced the Suppositive is that by which a man shall be damned if he die impenitent the latter of these though not the first doth mighty well consist with the liberty of mans will and Gods conditional decrees I am now writing and God foresaw that I am writing yet it followes not that I must needs write for I can chuse What God fore-sees will be will certainly come to passe but it will come to pass so as he foresaw it that is I will do it of choise If all things are present to God as indeed they are his foresight must needs be all one with our sight As therefore when I see a man dance as he pleases it is necessary that he doth what I see he doth but yet my looking on doth not make it necessary for that a thing may be certain in respect of its event and yet not necessary in respect of its cause is no news at all to a considering person who will but duly distinguish Gods Omniscience from his Omnipotence They that make the fore-knowledge of God to be the cause of all future events must needs father all the wickedness in the world upon him for he fore-knowes the evil as well as the good he fore-knew that Adam would fall that the Jews would crucifie Christ that Judas would betray him with all other wickedness in other men but his fore-knowledge did not cause them to do it for they were voluntary agents or else could not be said wickedly to have done what they did do Queries on the universal love of God to all mankinde 1. IF Christ died not for all what ground hath any man to believe he dyed for him 2. How can God be said to be just in case he condemns those persons for whom Christ never died 3. How can remission of sins be preached to those for whom Christ never died 4. Whether do men perish because Christ died not or because they believed not if because Christ died not it is not their unbelief which destroyes them but they perish because Christ never died for them or because there is no Christ for them to believe in 5. If Christ did not die for all wherefore do they exhort all to repentance and call upon all men to believe or would you make some men believe and so be saved which Christ never died for 6. Whether hath not Christ given out a power or ability to all men to believe on him 7. Whether the fault be in Christ or in the Creature that the Creature is not saved if the fault be not in Christ that the Creature is not saved then whether hath not Christ given out a power or ability to believe 8. Whether unbelief be the condemning sin if unbelief be the condemning sin and sinners be condemned for not believing which never had a power to believe where then is the fault 9. whether God hath not appointed all to be saved with this proviso or condition if they believe 10. Whether was not Adam in a state of grace before his fall which if so whether did not Adam fall from grace and we in him 11. What is the state of infants by generation from Adam whether are they in a state of salvation or in a state of damnation 12. If infants are in a state of salvation whether do they fall from that state when they come to act 13. If the elect can never fall from their election by disobeying the Scripture no more then the reprobate can be saved by obeying them to what purpose is the Scripture set forth 14. Whose names they are that are written in the book of life whether be they the Elect's or the reprobate's if the elect's whether they shall not be blotted out if they adde or diminish from the word of God These Absurdities will unavoydably fall on those which deny Christs death for all 1. IF Christ died but for some of the sons of men then the divel destroyes not those men for whom Christ died not but they perish for want of Christ and should so perish if there were no devil to devour them contrary to this Scripture 1 Pet. 1.8 2. If Christ died not for all men then despaire is no sin in them who perish through it seeing there is nothing for them to believe in unto salvation for whom Christ died not 3. If Christ died not for all men then I think it were a sin for some men to believe he died for them because they should believe a lie if they should believe that Christ dyed for them seeing he did not if they speak true which say he died not for all 4. If there were some persons for whom Christ died not such persons should be exempted or freed from the condemnation of unbelief or treading underfoot the blood of the Covenant by which they were sanctified if it were true that Christ had not once died for them for how can that man crucifie Christ afresh or tread underfoot the blood by which he was sanctified for whom no Christ died or no blood was shed if they say true that say Christ died not for all 5. If Christ died not for all Satan in perswading people that Christ died not for them doth not evil if that be true that Christ died not for them and therein he were no deceiver but rather perswades them to that which is truth if Christ died not for all as they say 6. If Christ died not for all men then it were no heresie for to teach some men to deny that Christ bought them contrary to that Scripture 2 Pet. 2.1 who said Some men bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them bringing on themselves swift destruction But it is impossible for him who Christ died not for to deny the Lord that bought him or to be a heretick in so doing if Christ bought him not 7. If there be some whom Christ died not for it is an error for them to believe that Christ died for them which say they he died not for 8. If Christ died not for all men then some men for whom Christ died not do believe a truth in believing that Christ died not for them which were a blasphemy to say 9. If Christ died not for all men then some men shall be damned in hell for not believing that which is not truth because some men shall be damned in hell for not believing that Christ dyed for them yet some say that it is not truth that Christ died for them and so shall be damned in hell for not believing a lie 10. If Christ died not for all men then their damnation is not to be ascribed to their not believing but to Christ not dying for them which is contrary to these Scriptures Joh. 3.18 36. FINIS * Men-slayers * Fore-sight of Faith