I finde no other price mentioned in the New Testament but the blood of Christ either as shed or as also testified if Mr. Owen doth let him shew it for us to devise prices is to add of our own heads to the Scriptures Now if Christ be the price it s not material whether we say that the Lord that bought them be God or Christ the act of buying or purchasing being attributed to both Acts 20.28 1 Cor. 6.20 Rev. 5.9 Christ buys men unto God and God buys men by Christ God gave Christ as a price to purchase men and Christ gave himself for and gives himself to men And there are these two things in this buying or price by which people are bought 1. Christ given by God and Himself to the Death for men that they might be preserved and delivered and from the destruction due to them in Adam 2. Christ given of God and by Himself to them in point of tender and free offer as in Joh. 6.32 and at least good things given unto them by and through him And as I understand none are said in Scripture to be bought or redeemed from their vain conversations or unto God from men till this price made known to them buy them off from their love to those other things and ingage them for God to be his Thence men reason inconsequently from those Scriptures which say By the blood of Christ men out of all Nations Peoples or Families are bought or redeemed to God As that in Rev. 5.9 and 14.4 and 1 Pet. 1.18 19. which speak of the efficacy of his blood declared and believed ingaging their hearts and spirits to and for God as Hosea bought him a wife by a price given her Hos 3.2 to deny the extent of Christs given himself a ransom and dying for men These two things then I understand in this place of Peter 1. That God had given Christ to the death and he gave himself a ransom for these false Teachers amongst all the rest of men and thereby they with all other were delivered from perishing in that sentence of death which should in Adam have else destroyed them and had with others their liberty to the Church and Kingdom of Christ 2. That God in the Gospel presenting this his love unto them and this his Son that dyed for them or the Son presenting himself so and so as the onely Lord and Saviour able and ready to save them with promises of salvation upon their submission to him bought them or disingaged their hearts from their former idols worships vain and evil ways called ver 20. the pollutions of the world and had ingaged and purchased their affections to his Gospel People Salvation and Glory set before them and so to the service of him and they now after all this denying him as the Israelites after their bodily redemption did Deut. 32.6 They brought upon themselves swift destruction If Mr. Owen would fasten any other sense upon this place he must shew us that any people are said to be bought or redeemed from their vain conversations as these were ver 20. for such are the pollutions of the world by any other price then the bloud of Jesus 1 Pet. 1.18 or 2. That some are bought with that for whom it was never shed That God glorifies it to and purchases those by it for whom it hath done nothing nor shall do any thing for we have proved and do believe him to have dyed for All. If he perform either of those two things we shall listen further to his exposition Whereas he sayes The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he deals not ingeniously with his Reader For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all those places he brings for proof of it viz. Deut. 7.8 15.15 and Jer. 15.21 and in all other places generally so far as I find yet is in the Greek translated by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so those places of 1 Pet. 1.18 and Luke 1.78 may better be applyed to that observation that Mr. Owen thence makes then this The Hebrew word that Answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He objects further the Apostles not mentioning the Word Price Isa 55.1 But that 's frivilous for if we speak of buying things especially of Gods buying a price is necessarily intimated as the correlate to buying though we may buy the grace of God without price yet he buyes not us at that rate we are well paid for what ever God hath of us Whereas he would have this buying to be onely a deliverance by Gods goodnesse from the defilements of the world a seperation of them from them by the knowledge of the truth Besides that that note is grounded on his former mistake that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deliver I would faine have him shew me that God extends any reall goodnesse to men without Christs buying them from their obligation to the misery contracted to them by Adam or else that rather confirmes that Christ dyed for them and the knowledge of him as so dying for them and able and ready thereby to save them bought them yea what else is it to know him Lord and Saviour How Lord but by dying for them especially how else a Saviour Againe did God give them any thing in that truth made known to them worthy their forsaking the world for him had they any share right interest in that truth namely in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was there any good for them to get there for to be sure the worlds good they were not like to get by that knowledge in those dayes If yes then whence proceeded that if he never dyed for them if it declared no salvation as attainable by them would men leave all and expose themselves to persecutions for meer uncertainties when they could not be told that Christ had done any thing for them or God by Christ or that Christ was a Mediator for them to attaine to happinesse by If they had no right to the truth nor that had any thing of goodnesse in it for them what had they to doe with that truth that so little concerned them If he say it had matter of advantage in it for them for ought they knew they might think it had though it had not Then I answer they had made but a blind bargain and they knew not the Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus It was rather a mistake about him that gave them that escape from the worlds pollutions then any knowledge of him had they known him rightly they should have known that they had no such reason to let all go for him that had excluded them his mediation and could not save them not having dyed for them And then having made some tryall and
I have propounded that distinction Christ is not wanting to apply what is impetrated according to the will of God for application or compact made in Impetration and therefore his second Argument is vain too viz. That 2. It s contrary to reason that the Death of Christ in Gods intention should be applyed to any one that shall have no share in the merits of that Death None of all his adversaries produced by him say any such thing they rather deny the application of it to many then say that some to whom it s to be applyed have no share in his merits Whereas he says many know not of it we have shewed before that a man may have a fruit of love from another that he knows not Cyrus was girded and strengthned by God though he knew him not So men have a release from the dealing of God with them according to the merit of Adams sin which should else unavoidably have come upon them and this by Christ though many know not him And all receive some fruits of Adams sin though many knew not that there was such a one or what his sin was Whereas he saith it s against reason that a ransom should be paid for captives upon compact of deliverance and yet upon payment those captives not be made free and set at liberty that Christ should be a ransom upon compact of deliverance of captives and yet the greatest number of them never be released That is falsly bottomed for God released All from that deadly destroying sentence which hath God taken the forfeit of Adams sin in that very day had ruined Adam and his whole posterity Justification of life is to all so that they All have life here and shall however be released and brought out of the death that is ordered to them by occasion of Adams sin in the resurrection so far are all acquitted that if any perish it s not in that but in a second Death Yea all are released also in this regard that whereas all were cast out of Gods presence and might not approach to him now through Christ all have free leave to approach to him all are commanded to repent and turn to him to look to him and be saved whoever will may come and welcome yea God is so far from keeping them away that he faults men for not coming to him John 5.40 Now if a ransom be paid for captives and the prison doors opened and means afforded for leading them out and prisoners willingly and stubbornly refuse but will stay in prison still as in this later respect many do shall that be imputed as a defect of justice in him to whom the ransom was paid for them Surely no except it could be proved that that was the compact that he should in that regard compel and forcibly cause to come out of prison all that the ransom was paid for which I am sure Mr. Owen will not be able to prove in this matter Christ no where says to any God would not have you come to him you are not included in the ransom nor that all that he dyed for shall be brought in to him but he often tels us God would have them seek him and come to him and faults them that they will not For that after-shift as he cals it of conditional and absolute obtaining of things it fals not upon me I affirm that liberty from that first sentence's execution upon us was absolutely obtained Justification of life to All. And that liberty is opened in the Gospel to All and men exhorted to enter and for not striving to enter now the door comes to be shut upon many that which they have shall be taken from them because they liked to have it and then they cannot enter Also that all life remission and fulness are absolutely put into Christs hands only I say the will of God for his dispensation and so to his proposition of the things to be dispensed not his obtaining them into his dispose nor the freeness and openness of them for men to look after and come to him for them hath a condition annexed God wils Christ to dispense them to men upon coming to him and Christ holds them forth upon that condition to any Whoever will let him come c. we deny that Christ is bound to make known to all for whom he dyed the fulness that is in him like evidently or himself or the way of salvation to all alike expresly or expresly at all That all are bound to minde and imbrace what he revealeth to them is clear but that he is bound to make known this or that to all he dyed for I deny that Mr. Owen can any where prove He may bring infants to himself and dispense his salvation to them and yet never give them capacity to hear the condition of salvation and yet we believe what the Scripture saith John 1.9 that he is the true light that inlightens every man coming into the world He is not bound to give every man ten talents alike open and plain declation of himself and Father no not for saving them but every man is bound to improve and submit to God in what he gives them be it more or less and if they do so he is able and ready to give more being liberal and free and can tell how to save them if not he is just to take away what they have and not bound to save them He being Lord of them Nor yet say we that men have power of themselves to improve what is given them but he who gives them the talents gives them the power too in which he requires them to improve them and it s not inability but slothfulness and obstinacy for which they are faulted and condemned by him because they rather chuse to live idly in themselves and dy then stir abroad to seek God John 8.31 32 34 36. or yeeld to what he brings home to them and live Christ as he is the Truth of God is the great Physitian of souls and by revelations of truth both cals to himself for healing and by further revelations of it to those that come to him doth heal John 14.6 The truth shall make you free and this because He hath given himself a ransom for them in the first place without which neither ground of calling nor fitness to heal them Now this Great Truth of God doth send abroad his beams of divine light and so some sparklings of himself as the Word of God and God by vertue of his relation to the humane nature first virtually and then actually united to him to men in generall John 1 4 5 9 though not so clearly nor so many beams at all times as in some nor to All men as to some Yet to the generality some Beams of truth Rom. 1.18 19 21.28 Acts 17 27 28.27 Job 21.14 those beams have their force in their leading them to know something of God so to
the Appellation of God put upon them His Conclusion then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is groundless By that rule 1 Joh. 5.19 and Rom. 3.19 which he forgot should signifie the whole Catholike Church lies in wickedness and is guilty before God c. 2. He says All Flesh All Nations All Men c. are as large as the whole world I Answer In themselves they are but they may be otherwise used This is to fly from the terms not to explain them to tell us what other words signifie not that that 's spoken to and yet in his Instances of the use of those words in the Prophesies there is this disparity which he considers not viz. That the whole world is spoken of as a distinct party from and a party reaching beyond those that are clearly spoken of as believers beyond the we that walk in the light confess our sins that have an Advocate c. But in those Instances That All flesh shall see the salvation of God All the ends of the earth shall remember and to turn to God He will pour out his Spirit upon All flesh c. There is in none of them places such a distinction as speaking of a party at present existing beyond those that are believers To say nothing that those are Prophesies not affirmed of people in all times but onely fully to be fulfilled in the last times in which all flesh good and bad then living shall see God saving his people and every eye shall see Christ the salvation of God coming in the clouds of heaven and all in the last dayes shall remember and turn to the Lord so that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters shall cover the sea and the Lord shall be one and his name one in all the earth Though I believe all of them shall not be through with Christ and his people for after a thousand years Satan shall deceive many multitudes of them Rev. 20.8 9. Yea then also shall the Spirit be poured upon all flesh the power and breath of God shall in abundance be upon it to abase and confound it not to make all flesh grow and be admired or prophesie and do wonders but then shall the sons and daughters of Sion prophesie It shall be a spirit of Prophesie upon them but he says not so to all flesh upon whom it s poured So that those may be taken in the fullest latitude of those times and of those ages pointed at chiefly without any error I conceive The Spirit of the Lord shall breathe upon all flesh and make it wither as in Isai 40.6 7. And in the children of Sion it shall be a spirit of Prophesie Now whereas it s said that that was fulfilled in the day of Pentecost Acts 2. I answer Prophesies of that nature have a twofold fulfilling 1. In a first-fruits so it was then and since in its measure in the Churches 2. Fully in the full accomplishment of them and then it shall have its latitude and extent Again 2. When it s said This is that spoken of by such a Prophet it s not always meant this is the full accomplishment of that or the thing primely pointed at there but this is of the nature of that as in Matth. 2.17 The weeping of the Bethlemitish mothers for their children kill'd by Herod was as that spoken of by Jeremy Chap. 31. There was then such a weeping as was there spoken of But yet to any Reader its evident that the Prophet Jeremy aimed not primely at that but at the carrying away of the Ephramites descended of Joseph and so of Rachel Thence that promise in the next verse They shall come again from the land of the Enemy So that in Acts 2. was a pouring out of the Spirit to abase the flesh and a giving them to Prophesie as was spoken of in Joel though Joels eye pierced further then that very pouring it out upon those persons in that manner and those present insuing effects That All the Nations shall be believers I grant and then the whole world ye all that believe shall have little difference and so much those places and that of Isai 2.2 will hold forth But that the whole world now or in Johns time were so or that the words whole world distinguished from believers who have Christ a propitiation signifies onely believers I deny the former as evidently false and the latter as a groundless conceit 3. He reasons thus The words whole world signifies sometimes the worser part of the world and why may it not then the better To which I answer that the word world hath reason when distinguished from men called out of the world and opposed to them to signifie the worser part because distinguished from the better But why when distinguished from the better it should signifie the better I know none I ask him why in that case it must not signifie the worse too Now here it s manifestly extended beyond the better part Us that have an Advocate and not for us onely but for the whole world If he could finde me any place where it s distinguished from a bad party as bad as any can be there we might allow it happily so to signifie rather then here After these considerations and from them he mentions some small reasons which are all spoken to in what is said already except the first viz. That he speaks not of Impetration but of Application but none ever said that the Application of the death of Christ is universal To which I answer That what ever it speaks of its Vniversal we must not square the Scripture to our speakings but our speakings to the Scriptures 2. It s not spoken here of the application of Christs Death by Faith but of what Christs death doth with God for All men or rather what Christ is with God for them by vertue of it not what Christ doth in men nor the fruits that follow upon this Propitiation believed in by men as Rom. 3.25 doth This Scripture 1 Joh. 2.2 tells us what Christ is with God for All the world that in Rom. 3.25 tells us how God propounds him to men in the Gospel and what he is to become to them by Faith and what benefit they shall receive There is the mercy Seat here the atoning Sacrifice as here considered he keeps off many a blow from All as there propounded and received by Faith he brings to us remission of all c. His other Reasons and Reasonings being fore-spoken to I pass He is out again about 2 Cor. 5.19 when he tells us That the world that God was reconciling ver 19. was the Us that he reconciled and put the word of Reconciliation into the hearts of ver 18. that is indeed the Apostles and Preachers of the Gospel onely which is so evidently false that it needs no other answer then the noting of it For why doth the Apostle