are needless where Primitives are at hand According to this kinde of expression God may be said to give men one heart and one way that c. and so to put his fear into their hearts that c. when he vouchsafeth and exhibiteth such motives means and opportunities unto them which are efficacious and proper to work them to such a frame and disposition of Heart and Soul out of which men are wont firmly to resolve to love serve and obey him for ever whether they be actually wrought or brought hereunto or no. In this sence it is easie to conceive when and how the said Promises were performed or fulfilled as viz. to a good degree in upon and soon after that famous Deliverance out of their seventy years Captivity God hereby as by many other signal mercies vouchsafed unto them soon after their return about the repairing of their City and Temple as likewise by the effectual Ministry of several great Prophets raised up amongst them from time to time mightily engaging them all to devote themselves unto him and his service for ever But more fully and gloriously when the great Messiah was sent unto them in the flesh by whose unparallel'd âolinesse in Life and Conversation together with His frequent and wonderfull miracles and especially by His Doctrine so full of Heavenly Authority Light and Power they were only not compelled into such an heart and such a way wherewith and wherein to have feared i. e. to have religiously served and obeyed Him for ever In so much that proving such Apostates as they wilfully became under such transcendent means as they had to have rendered them the best and most faithfull People under Heaven unto their God they declared themselves to be the most stiff-necked and rebellious Generation of Men in all the World and were judged by God accordingly Take any other sence of the Promises or words now in question especially that which is so much contended for and which imports a finall Perseverance in grace to be wrought in this People by the irresistible Hand of God and it will be impossible for any Man to finde so much as by probable conjecture when or how they should ever be fulfilled To say that they might even in that sence which I so much oppose be fulfilled constantly in the Elect of this People is to say that which reason will gainesay For 1. An absolute or un-conditioned Promise made to a great number of Men cannot be said to be fulfilled when the thing promised is exhibited only to some few of them Now the Promises under debate were cleerly made to the whole body or nation of the Jews as we have formerly proved from the expresse Context and not to the Elect only amongst them 2. According to their judgments who plead the fulfilling of them in this sence the Persons for whose sakes and comfort they were made the Elect might yea must needs have had every whit as much comfort without them as they could have with or by them For they knew before the making of any of these Promises to them that being Elect and once in an estate of grace they should persevere therein unto the end And thus these great and signall Promises of God shall be rendred voyd and meere impertinencies unto those for whose sake only they are supposed to have been made 3. And lastly to say they were fulfilled in the Elect in the sence gainesaid is to begg the question instead of digging for it 2. The Scriptures many times assert the futurity or comming to passe §. 56. of things not yet in being not only when the comming of them to passe is certaine or certainly known unto God but upon a probability only or likelyhood of their comming to passe in respect of means used or to be used for the bringing of them to passe Upon this account God Himself is represented by our Saviour in his parable of the Vineyard as speaking thus in the person of the Lord of the Vinâyard They will reverence my Son a Mar. 12. 6. in case I shall vouchsafe to send Him unto them And yet the event shewed that they were so far from reverencing Him that when He came to them they tooke Him and slew Him and cast Him out of the Vineyard So when He saith upon occasion of the punishment which he commandeth to be inflicted upon the Man that should doe presumptuously that all the People shall heare and feare and doe no more presumptuously b Deut. 17. 1â 13. He doth not speak it out of any certainty of knowledge in Him that it would or should actually so come to passe for many doubtlesse of this People did not so feare as to forbeare doing presumptuously notwithstanding the exemplarinesse of such a punishment but because the severe and thorough execution of Justice in this kinde was a proper and probable means to restraine all sorts of persons amongst them from the like sins See Sect. 50. of this Chapter In this notion and idiome of Scripture also God may say I will give them one Heart and one way that they may feare Me for ever not out of a certainty of knowledge or determination in Himself that any such Heart or Way should actually and with effect be given unto them which would infallibly produce such an effect in them as is here specified but because he was purposed so to intreat them and to afford such excellent administrations of His Grace and Spirit unto them which should be very Pregnant Proper and Efficacious to create such an Heart in them and to put them into such a Way that they should never have declined from His Worship and Service whilest the Sun and Moone endure This answer I acknowledge is of much affinity with the former Therefore 3. And lastly that no such sence was intended by God in the Words or Promises yet under consideration which imports any certainty of a finall perseverance in Grace in those to whom they are spoken and made fully appeares from all those propheticall passages and predictions in the old Testament which are many in number and very plaine and pregnant in import wherein that sad breach which afterwards happened between God and this People to whom these Promises were made and which amounted even to a rejection of them from being any longer a People unto Him is foretold by Him For that God should absolutely promise such an Heart unto a People which should infallibly cause them to feare Him for ever and not to depart from him and yet withall prophecy the great and generall Apostasie of this People from him and their rejection upon that account by him doubtlesse lieth not within the verge of any Mans belief who takes any competent care what he believeth I trust the Scripture now last Opened will from henceforth be put to no more trouble about any Contribution of aid towards the maintenance of the Doctrine of absolute perseverance Some other Scriptures possibly there may
them as in their simple Existence or Being it self Page 1. Cap. 2. Though there be as absolute and essential a Dependance of second Causes upon the first in point of motion action operation as of simple existence or being yet are not the motions actions or operations of second Causes at least ordinarily so immediately or precisely determined by that Dependance which they have upon the first Cause as their respective Beings are 7 Cap. 3. Concerning the Knowledg and Foreknowledg of God and the Difference between these and his Desires Purposes Intentions and Decrees and how these also are distinguished one from another 28 Cap. 4. Concerning the Perfection of God in his Nature and Being Some things clearly deducible from it particularly his Simplicity Actuality and Goodness of Decrees 40 Cap. 5. Four several veins or correspondencies of Scriptures propounded holding forth the Death of Christ for All Men without exception of any The first of these argued 73 Cap. 6. Herein several texts of the second sort of Scriptures propounded in the former Chapter as holding forth the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ are discussed 97 Cap. 7. The third sort or consort of Scriptures mentioned cap. 5. as clearly asserting the said Doctrine argued and managed to the same point 113 Cap. 8. The Scriptures of the fourth and last Association propounded cap. 5. as pregnant also with the same Great Truth of general Redemption by Christ impartially weighed and considered 120 Cap. 9. Entereth upon a Digression about the commonly-received Doctrine of Perseverance occasioned by several passages in the preceding Chapter avouching and clearly evicting the benefit peace and comfort of that Doctrine which teacheth a possibility of the Saints declining and this unto death above the other contrary unto it 154 Cap. 10. A Continuation of the former Digression wherein the texts of Scripture commonly alledged to prove the impossibility of the Saints declining unto death are taken into consideration and discharged from that service 177 Cap 11. A further Continuation of the former Digression wherein the Arguments and Grounds commonly insisted on in defence of the received doctrine of Perseverance are detected of insufficiency proved and declared Null 225 Cap. 12. The former Digression yet further prosecuted and a possibility of defection in the Saints or true Beleevers and this unto death clearly demonstrated from the Scriptures 268 Cap. 13. Grounds of Reason from the Scriptures evincing a possibility of such a defection even in true Beleevers which is accompanied with destruction in the end 299 Cap. 14. Exhibiting from the Scriptures some Instances of a total Declining and falling away from the Grace and Favor of God in true Beleevers 344 Cap. 15. Declaring the Sence and Judgment as well of the Ancient Fathers of the Christian Church as of Modern Reformed Divines touching the Point of Perseverance and so concluding the Digression concerning this Subject 365 Cap. 16. Several other Texts of Scripture besides those formerly produced in ranks and companies argued to the clear eviction of Truth in the same Doctrine viz. that the Redemption purchased by Christ in his Death was intended for all and every man without exceptiof any 403 Cap. 17. Declaring in what sence the former Passages of Scripture asserting the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ are as to this point to be understood and consequently in what sence the said Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption is maintained in the present Discourse 432 Cap. 18. Exhibiteth several Grounds and Reasons whereby the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ or Christs dying for all men without exception is demonstratively evicted 453 Cap. 19. Wherein the Sence of Antiquity together with the variableness of Judgment in Modern Writers about the Controversie under discussion is truly and unpartially represented 524 Cap. 20. The Conclusion Exhibiting a General Proposal or Survey of Matters intended for Consideration Explication and Debate in the second Part of this Work 562 CHAP. I. There is no created Being or second Cause whatsoever but dependeth upon the first and supream Cause or Being which is God and this as well in the second as in the first Act I mean as well in the Motions and Operations issuing from or performed by every of them as in their simple Existence or Being it self WE shall not need I presume to levy a dispute for the gathering §. 1. or geting in that tribute due to the Crown and Soveraignty of Being from all Beings besides which consists in an acknowledgment of his free bounty in calling them out of the abyss of vanity and nothing by the Word of his Power hereby taking them into part and fellowship with himself in his Prerogative of Being according to what was resolved by the counsell of his Will as meet to be dispeâsed unto every of them respectively in this kind Trees that are throughly and deeply rooted in the Earth will grow and flourish though the dew or rain from Heaven should seldome or never fall upon them but grasse and herbs and tender plants whose roots have but a slender and thin protection of their Element against the scortching violence of the Sun will soon wither and die away if the clouds of Heaven should not ever and anon drop verdure upon them and relieve them In like manner such notions and impressions in the Soul into which Nature is deeply baptized and mightily ãâ¦ã ssest with their Truth are like to live and to maintain their interest and autâârity in men though not seconded or relieved by argument or dispute but those which have only taken a fainter and looser hold of the judgements and consciences of men are in danger of miscarrying and proving like the Corne upon the house top which as David observeth withereth before it be grown up a Psal 129. 6. unlesse they be timely yea and frequently encouraged back'd and strength by discourse That there is a Being which looks upon this Universe âith all the host of it as the workmanship of his own hands and that every creature or finite Being is lineally descended from him as their Great and first Progenitor are I conceive such principles of Light and Truth written in so fair and full a Character in the Tables of all mens hearts that even whilst they run they may read them yea and cannot lightly depose or suffer the losse of âhem though they be not bound upon their judgments and consciences with any other bands of argument or demonstration then those of their own evidence and conviction Therefore what God hath made manifest and clear in men we shall not cast any suspition of darknesse or obscurity upon by making it matter of disputation And though the dependance of things in actuall and compleat Being upon §. 2. God for sustentation and support as well of their simple Existences and Beings themselves as of their Operations respectively which is the sence and substance of the Thesis propounded be not altogether of so pregnant an inspiration as dependance upon him for their
more of them Therefore universality of Redemption by Christ is the most unquestionable Doctrine of the Apostle in this Scripture The next specified in the said Catalogue or Inventory was Because we thus §. 2. judge that if one died for ALL then were ALL dead and that he died for ALL that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose againe a 2 Cor. 5. 14. 15. We see the Apostles judgement here is very cleer that Christ died for ALL he once cleerly supposeth it if one died for ALL. i. e. since one died for ALL the Particle if being racionantis not dubitantis as in twenty places besides meaning Christ and once plainly asserteth it and that he died for ALL i. e. We also judge that he died for ALL. That which is commonly given in by way of answer to this and other Scriptures both of the former and latter import by those who looke another way in the controversie in hand is not much considerable But that which it is is this they pretend that both the word World and such terms of universality as these All All Men every Man c. are in many places of Scripture used and accordingly are to be taken and understood in a restrained signification as sometimes for many or greater numbers of Men sometimes for some of all sorts sometimes for Jewes and Gentiles or the like From whence they would infer that therefore such Terms and Expressions as these are in the Scripture in hand and in the others formerly cited for our purpose to be taken in some of these limited significations and not in the rigor or extent of what they properly signifie as viz. for an absolute and unlimited universality of men For to this we answer 1. By way of Concession most true it is that these Notes or Terms of universality All All Men every Man c. are in many places of Scripture necessarily to be taken in some such limited and restrained signification as is affirmed But then 2. I answer further by way of exception foure things First that neither §. 3. the terms we speak of nor any other words or expressions in Scripture are in any other case or upon any other pretence whatsoever to be taken out of their proper and best known significations but only when the tenor of the Context or some circumstance of the place doth necessitate and inforce such a construction of them Now evident it is by what hath been formerly argued upon the Scriptures alledged that there is no necessity at all in respect of any the respective Contexts nor of any circumstance in any of them to understand the said terms of Universality any otherwise then in their most proper i. e. in their most extensive and comprehensive significations 2. That which is more then this we have evidently proved that the very tenor of the severall Contexts wherein the aforesaid places are found doth absolutely enforce and necessitate us unto such a proper and comprehensive signification of the said terms of universality as hath been contended for so that there can be no Reasonable Regular or Grammaticall sence or construction made of those Places unlesse such a sence of these terms be admitted 3. To reason thus these or these Words or Terms are to be taken in §. 4. this or in that sence in such and such places of Scripture Therefore they must or they may be taken in the same sence in such and such other places of Scripture is to reason our selves into a thousand errors and absurdities As for example evident it is that in that Scripture Joh. 18. 16. where it is said that Peter stood at the doore by the word doore is meant a doore of wood or some such materiall But would it not be ridiculously erroneous to infer from hence that therefore it is to be taken or may be taken in the same sence Joh. 10. 9. where Christ saith I am the Doore So again when Paul saith that Christ sent him to the Gentiles to open their eyes Acts 26. 18. evident it is that by the word eyes he means their inward eyes their Minds Judgements and Understandings but from hence to conclude that therefore when David saith that the Idols which Men make have eyes Psal 116. 5. the word eyes is to be understood or may be understood here also in the same sence is to conclude that which common sence it self abhorreth So that the weaknesse of all such arguings or pleadings as this the words All All Men every Man are in these and these places of Scripture to be taken in a limited sence for some of All sorts of Men for Jewes and Gentiles or the like therefore they are to be taken in the same sence in all others where they are found is notorious and most unworthy considering men Though whilest a man is a Prisoner he cannot goe whither he desires but must be content with the narrow bounds of his Prison it doth not follow from hence that therefore when he is discharged and set at liberty he must needs continue in his Prison still especially when his necessary occasions call him to another place whither also he hath a desire otherwise to goe * See more upon this account in the preceding Chapter Sect. 35. 36. and likewise Sect. 19 of this We have as concerning the former Scripture evidently proved that the §. 5. terms ALL Men must of necessity be taken in their most proper free and unlimited significations and shall God assisting demonstrate the same in those yet remaining Let us at present because the place in hand is pregnant and full to our purpose evince above all contradiction that the word ALL or ALL Men in it cannot with the honour of St. Pauls intellectualls be understood otherwise Because we thus judge saith he that if one died for ALL then were ALL dead and that he died for ALL that they who live c. Observe that clause of distribution that they who live we judge that Christ died for ALL that they who live i. e. That all they without exception who recover and are or shall be delivered from this death by Christ for them should not live c. So then if by the word ALL or ALL Men for whom the Apostle here judgeth or concludeth that Christ died we shall understand the universality of the Elect only for ALL Men i. e. for All the Elect and for these only we shall grievously misfigure the faire face of a worthy sentence and render it incongruous and inconsistent with all Rules and Principles of Discourse For then the tenor of it must rise and run thus we judge that Christ died for all the Elect that all the Elect who shall live and be recovered from death by Christ should not live c. Doth not the eare of every mans reason yea of common sence it self taste an uncouthnesse and unsavourinesse of sound in such a
tu servatus es tuâ temeritate iâque cibi gratiâ inanem reddis Nor doth B. Aretius break ranke but marcheth in close order with his fellowes The Apostles argument saith he is from the effects Thou destroyest him with the use of things indifferent whom Christ redeemed by His Death What madnesse is that And soone after Meate haply preserves thy life but Christ died for him whom thou slayest not by dying but by living what cruelty is this d Ab effectis argumentum est usum rerum mediarum perdis quem Christus redemit suâ morte quae illa est insania Cibus tibi vitam conservat fortè sed Christus pro illo mortuus est quem tu occîdis non moriendo sed vivendo magna est illa crudelitas Let R. Gualter bring up the reere for saying the Apostle in this teacheth §. 8. that Christ Himselfe is sinned against yea and that the Merit of His Death is overthrown when we destroy Him whom He by His Death and Blood hath vindicated or restored unto life e Ita verò in ipsum Christum peccari docet adeoque meritum mortis ejus everti quando eum nos perdimus quem ille per mortem sanguinem suum in vitam asseruit Here are many witnesses though many more might readily be summoned in with the same evidence and those of the first-borne qualification for Authority and credit in such cases I meane men orthodox and sound in the judgement of those who assume the same honour unto themselves and who are the high opposers of the Doctrine under Protection in the present discourse speaking the same things plainly expressly and without Parable with the Assertors of this Doctrine Neither indeed could they or any other Man having such Scriptures before them as that last insisted upon with the former to order their judgements and thoughts conceive or speak otherwise with any tolerable ingenuity or without some such winking with the eyes which is unworthy men pretending friendship to the Truth But let us hear what the Spirit of God saith further in the Point The next Scripture lately directed unto was 1 Cor. 8. 11. And through thy §. 9. knowledge or through thy Meate as Chrysostome reads the place shall the weake Brother perish for whom Christ Died. Some copies read the words with an interrogation and thus either our English Translators or Printers or both deliver them unto us others assertively This difference in the pointing makes none in the matter or substance of the Doctrine contained in the words Only the interrogative is more piercing and provoking to the consideration of the Truth imported The tenor of the place is the same in effect with that last opened and cleerly supposeth upon the account given in the traverse of that Scripture that such a Person may miscarry in the great businesse of Salvation notwithstanding Christs laying down His Life for him The Reader is desired to revise our debate upon the former Place for His satisfaction herein unlesse haply the consent of the best Interpreters in that behalf will balance that accommodation Thy Lord and Master saith Chrysostome on the place refused not to die for him but thou makest no reckoning of him no not so much as to abstraine from a polluted table for his sake but sufferest him to PERISH AFTER SALVATION PROCVRED FOR HIM upon such terms And soon after So that here are foure accusations or matters of charge and these exceeding high 1. That He is a Brother 2. That He is weake 3. That He is one WHOM CHRIST SO HIGHLY PRIZED AS EVEN TO DIE FOR HIM 4. That after all this HE PERISHETH for Meate a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The expressnesse of the words over-ruled even Calvins Pen also to an Assertion §. 10. of the same Truth He is indeed weake whom thou despisest but yet a Brother for God hath adopted him Therefore cruell art thou who hast no care of thy Brother But that which followes is yet more pressing viz. that even those that are rude or weake are redeemed by the Blood of Christ For there is nothing of greater unworthinesse then that Christ should not scruple to die that the weak might not perish and we in the meane time lightly esteeme the Salvation of those who have been Redeemed at so great a price A memorable saying whereby we are taught how highly we ought to value the Salvation of our Brethren and of these not only as considered in the lump or in the generall but of every one of them in particular in as much as CHRISTS BLOOD WAS SHED FOR EVERY ONE OF THEM b Est quidem infirmus queÌ tu contâmnis sed tamen frater nam cum adoptavit Deus Crudelis eâ igitur qui fratris curaÌ non habes Sed vehementius etiaÌ num quod sequitur rudes quoque aut infirmos Christi sanguine redemptos esse Nihil enim indignius quà m ChristuÌ non dubitâsse mori ne infirmi perirent nos floccipendere eoruÌ salutem qui tanto pretio redempti sunt DictuÌ memorabile qâo doceneur quanti nobis esse debeat fratruÌ salus nec omniuÌ modo sed singuloruÌ quando pro unoquoque est âusus Christi sanguis Nor can it reasonably be pretended that by the Brethren for every of which he saith the Blood of Christ was shed he meanes only the Elect. For evident it is that he speaks of the generality of Professors who were joyned in externall communion with the Churches of Christ many of whom he could not but know were not Elect at least in the sence of such pretenders Aretius worketh the place thus Here is another fruit or effect of that licentious liberty greater then the former For the former only was that by means of such an example Men were strengthened in an evill error but here he sheweth that he that is weak is even destroyed And presently after In conclusion this practise mightily differs from the example of Christ for He died for the weak sinner c a Alter fructus est licentiae illius superiori aliquantò gravior Nam prior fructus saltem erat quòd in malo errore confirmarentur hujus exemplo Hic autem quod etiam perdatur indicat nec simpliciter sed qui infirmus est Denique factum hoc vehementer discrepat ab exâmplo Christi is mortuus est pro peccatore infirmo So that this Expositor also clearly supposeth that men may destroy him for whom Christ Died. Nor doth learned Musculus vary an haires bredth from the import of these things upon the place demanding thus How I pray can he be excused who for meats sake destroyeth him whom Christ redeemed with his Blood And not long after what greater sin can be committed against Christ then to slay or destroy Him for whom He Himself Died b Quomodo quaeso excusari potest qui cibi gratiâ eum perdit quem Christus
doth not invite or occasion any Man to judge concerning any Saint or true Believer that he will or that he is likely so to fall but onely that it is possible for him so to fall Nor is such a judgement or thought as this concerning any Man yea or Creature whatsoever any jealousie or suspicion at all concerning him nor hath it any thing reflective or disparaging in it to the Worth Honour or Repute of that Creature how great and worthy soever he be concerning whom it is conceived it being no disparagement at all no not to the first borne of Creatures I mean to the Angels themselves not to partake or not to be thought to partake in any incommunicable property of God such as his unchangeablenesse is To look upon a Saint or a true Believer as one who may possibly Apostatize is but to looke upon him as being a Creature and not God nor would such an eye as this offend the greatest Angell in Heaven considering that he never gave nor is capable of giving any competent ground or reason unto any Man to look upon him with any other But to looke upon a Saint or true Believer especially when he hath given all the Christian satisfaction that reasonably can be desired or expected of his uprightnesse and sincerity as one that for ought we can tell or have any sufficient ground to judge the contrary may be an Hypocrite and rotten at the core is an high straine of Unchristian unworthinesse and what reason it selfe competently informed cannot lightly but abhor The Premisses concerning the subject yet in hand the Doctrine of Perseverance duly considered it fully appeares that that Doctrine which for these many yeares last past hath magnified it self in the Tongues and Pens of Men not onely or simply for a Truth but with many great Elogiums and titles of Soveraigne dignity as that it is a fundamentall Article of the Reformed Religion one of the principal Points or Heads of Christian Religion wherein the Reformed Churches have purged themselves from the Errors of Popery that it is the foundation of all true assurance of Salvation without which true Faith it self cannot stand that it contains that Promise of God which all Ministers of the Gospel stand bound to commend and inculcate with all diligence into all true Beleevers for their comfort with many such like studied and strained-for commendations this Doctrine I say in whose praises the Friends of it have risen up so early and lifted it up so neer unto the Heavens as hath been shewed upon a strict and unpartial enquiry and examination hath been found a meer Impostor an appearance of Satan in the likeness of an Angel of Light a Tenent which cannot stand in Judgment with the sound and wholesom Doctrines of the Gospel We shall further God willing shew unto you in how little request the said Doctrine of Perseverance was with those who are to this day counted Pillars of the Christian Faith in the Primitive and most exemplary times and likewise how unstable and uncertain if not unsatisfied also the greatest Friends and learnedst Abettors of it in latter times or at least those who are commonly taken for such have been in their Judgments about it In the interim we shall onely in order to the further clearing up of the truth against the mist of the said Doctrine give you a brief account from the Scriptures themselves of some Examples who with their own Declinings sealed the truth of that Doctrine which hath been maintained hitherto concerning the possibility of a total Declining in the Saints CHAP. XIV Exhibiting from the Scriptures some Instances of a Total Declining or Falling away from the Grace and Favor of God in true Beleevers THe Contents and undertaking of this Chapter is a surplussage or over-measure §. 1. to the Demonstration of the Doctrine under defence For to prove a possibility that true Beleevers may totally fall away it is not necessary to prove either that any such will so fall away this would be a very prâsumptuous engagement nor that any such are wont to fall away though this be extreamly probable and a borderer to that which is evident and unquestionable nor yet that any have actually and de facto so fallen away which is our present engagement but onely to evince the truth of such Grounds and Reasons whether from the Scriptures or from the nature and consideration of the things themselves from which being granted the said Possibility perfectly appeareth and becomes visible to the eyes of the judgments and understandings of men Nevertheless since the eviction of this assertion that some formerly Saints and true Beleevers have de facto totally fallen away is so pregnant a Proof of the Possibility that such may so fall away I judged it both worth my labour and the Readers consideration to present what the Scriptures hold forth upon that account Let us first insist upon the Example of David concerning whom no man I presume questioneth but that He was as true and real a Saint and Beleever before the Perpetration of those two horrid sins one upon the neck of another Murther and Adultery as He was after His Repentance of or for those Perpetrations For 1. that signal testimony of being a man according to Gods own Heart was given unto Him by God Himself before He committed these sins as appears from Acts 13. 22. compared with Psal 89. 20. 1 King 14. 8. In the first of these places it is said And after He had taken Him away He raised up David to be their King of whom He witnessed saying I have sound David the son of Jesse a man after mine own Heart which will do all things that I will This with the other places mentioned clearly speak of the frame and temper of Davids Heart and of the acceptableness of His Person unto God at the time of His anointing and investiture into the Kingdom whereas it is evident that the two great sins specified were committed by Him many years after he had been King Besides there are many pregnant Arguments in the Scripture of Davids integrity and uprightness before God before that great eclipse of the glory of them whereof we spake But we shall not need to insist upon any thing in this kind our Adversaries themselves in the cause depending generally acknowledg him to have bin a man truly godly and regenerate before the guilt of the two enormous sins mentioned clavâ unto Him The Question is Whether He continued such truly Godly under the guilt of the said sins viz. from the time of the Perpetration of them until the time of His Repentance They affirm I deny and give this account of my Denyal in opposition to their Affirmation He that commits Murther and Adultery not onely against the clear light of His §. 2. Conscience but with delâberation and premeditated contrivance and remains under the pollution and guilt of these sins without Repentance is not a man truly godly or
and these pregnant and strong Sixthly The truth of this latter Doctrine hath been further ascertained by several instances and examples of persons who by their fallings have caused the said Doctrine to stand impregnable Seventhly This Doctrine hath been countenanced also by the concurrent sence of all Orthodox and Christianly-learned Antiquity Eightly It hath likewise received Testimony from the generality of that Learning and Religion since the times of Reformation which have commended themselves unto the World in the Works and Writings of that Party of men in the Protestant Churches which is commonly known by the Name of Lutheran Ninethly Substantial proof hath been made that the professed Adversaries of the Doctrine we now speak of even the most steady grave and best advised of them have at unawares given large and clear Testimony unto it being not able without the help of the spirit which speaketh in it to manage like themselves their discursive affairs in other cases Yea Tenthly and lastly that the Synod of Dort it self convening with a conscientious if not with a concupiscentious prejudice also for this is the strong suspicion of many against it with its fellows and intending and provoking one another to lay the honor of it in the dust for ever hath at several turns and in divers expressions according to the interpretation and sence of their own most orthodox and learned Friends yea and some of themselves fully comported with it asserting that in clearness and evidence of Principle which they deny with solemnity of protest and with a Religious abhorrency in conclusion We now return to the further prosecution of the business principally intended in this Discourse from which we have made somewhat a large digression upon the occasion formerly specified and to compleat our Demonstration of this great and most important Truth viz. That the ever-blessed Son of God and Saviour of the World the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself a Ransom in His Death for all and every man without exception of any CHAP. XVI Several other Texts of Scripture besides those formerly produced in ranks and companies argued to the clear eviction of Truth in the same Doctrine viz. That the Redemption purchased by Christ in his Death was intended for all and every man without exception of any HAving in our late Digression largely vindicated some material proofs §. 1. from the Scripture formerly levyed for the defence of that Great and most important cause both of God and men the Universality of Redemption by Christ we now proceed to a further levy upon the same account and shall raise up more Scriptures to plead the same cause Let us begin with the Parable of the marriage-feast as it is reported by Matthew and Luke We shall not need I suppose to transcribe the whole Protasis of the Parable which is very large but onely insist upon some few known passages of it such as I conceive will joyntly if not severally give a light of demonstration to the Truth of that Doctrine the proof and confirmation whereof is the prize contended for in this Discourse However if the Reader desires an entire enter-view of the Parable He may repair Matt. 22. 2 3 c. Luk. 14. 16 17 c. without much trouble to the Evangelists themselves First Expositors generally agree that by those who were the first and second time called or invited to the wedding He sent forth His servants to call them that had been called a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the wedding Mat. 22. 3. are typified or meant the Jews whom God had anciently invited and called by the Ministry of His Prophets and several other ways to partake of that great Blessedness which He intended to confer upon the sons and daughters of men by means of His onely begotten Son Jesus Christ and who were the second yea and the third time also invited hereunto first by Iohn the Baptist and the Lord Christ Himself and afterwards by His Apostles Secondly The Tenor or form of the invitation which the servants sent forth to call those that had been formerly invited were injoyned by the King to use in calling them is this Behold I have prepared my dinner my Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the marriage b Matth. 22. 4 When he saith to those that are invited I have prepared my dinner my oxen c. doubtless His meaning is not that He had prepared His dinner for others or that His Oxen and Fatlings were killed for the entertainment of others and not for those who were invited by Him Such an intendment as this in His invitation had been meerly delusory and altogether unmeet to represent the intentions of God in calling men to communion and fellowship with His Son Iesus Christ by His Ministers of the Gospel He that should invite a man to a feast and use such an Argument or motive as this to perswade Him to accept of this His invitation and to come accordingly viz. that He had made very liberal preparations for such and such other men but had provided nothing for Him should He not render Himself ridiculous by such a strain of Oratory Thirdly Evident it is that very many of those who were invited to this Marriage-feast by the King and consequently for whom the feast was prepared and for whose sake the Oxen and Fatlings were killed never came to partake of the said Feast but were rejected and excluded from it with great indignation by Him that had so graciously invited them But when the King heard thereof viz. how they had mis-used and murthered His Servants He was wroth and sent forth His Armies and destroyed those Murtherers and burnt up their City c Verse 7 Concerning whom likewise the King said to His Servants that had been sent forth to invite them I say unto you that none of those men that were bidden and refused to come shall taste of my Supper d Luke 14. 24 Fourthly It is no less evident that the true ground or reason why those that were thus excluded from the Feast or suffered this exclusion was not any precedent purpose or intendment in the King to exclude them for had any such intention harbored in Him questionless He would never have invited them no nor yet that subsequent intendment in Him to exclude them when He saw their great unworthiness but this unworthiness of theirs it self Then saith He to His Servants the wedding is ready but they which were bidden were NOT WORTHY Go ye therefore into the high ways e Mat. 22. 8. c. Clearly implying that it was the UNVVORTHINESS of the persons invited which was the true and proper cause of their exclusion Neither the import nor sentence of the Law nor yet the Judg or His just severity in giving sentence according to the Law are so properly the cause of the punishment or death of the Malefactor as the crime committed against the Law by himself It is
Men. 2. By Nature cannot signifie by natural Birth nor by communion in the humane Nature nor by descent from Adam or the like because then it would follow that all Children whatsoever dying Infants or Children should perish everlastingly at least if by children of wrath be meant in an estate of Condemnation or under the actual displeasure of God because all partake alike of the natural Birth of the Nature of Man are of a like descent from Adam c. 3. Some ancient Expositors interpreted the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by Nature prorsus i. e. utterly or altogether Theophylact and Oecumenius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã verè seu germane i. e. truly or indeed 4. Chrysostoms Interpretation of the Place is of much affinity with that first mentioned The Apostle saith he saith we have provoked God and made Him wroth that is we were wrath and nothing else For as he that is the childe of a man is by nature a man even so we also were children of wrath even as others that is none was free but we all did things deserving wrath o ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 5. And lastly By children of wrath the Apostle may very probably mean Persons that had been lost and were worthy wrath or deserving death And thus Calvin interprets By children of wrath saith he understand simply such as were lost and worthy of eternal death p Per filios irae simpliciter intellige perditos ac morte aeternâ dignos According to the import of this Interpretation of the phrase children of wrath all Men may truly be said to be by nature i. e. by natural Propagation or by their descent from Adam children of wrath and yet be born in an estate of Justification or in an actual and immediate capacity of Salvation by Christ. As it is with those who having arrived at years of discretion and actually beleeve they carry original defilement still about with them they were in respect of what was derived unto them from Adam in their natural conception and birth wholly lost and are still notwithstanding their Faith in the rigor and strictness of Justice worthy of eternal death and yet by means of their Faith and the gracious Compact and Covenant which God hath made with those that beleeve they are not in an estate of Condemnation or liable to eternal Death In like manner Children may possibly be conceived and so born into the world with original sin and yet not with or under the guilt of it this may be dissolved and taken away by the superabounding Grace of God vouchsafed unto the World by Jesus Christ though the sin it self remaineth So again Children as soon as conceived or born may be and are in strictness of account worthy of eternal Death by Reason of that communion they had in Adams sin being in his loyns when he sinned and yet this worthiness may not be imputed unto them or charged upon them being as we suppose it clear from the Scriptures expiated or attoned by the great Sacrifice of Christ in His Death This Interpretation of the Apostles saying We were by nature children of wrath even as others is I conceive of all the rest least liable to any material exception But we have gone beyond the line of our late intentions in following this chase We retire with a purpose to conclude this Chapter with the addition onely of one Argument more for the confirmation of our main Doctrine Therefore In the thirteenth and last place The Universality of Redemption purchased §. 41. Argum. 13. by Christ I further argue and demonstrate from the consideration of some of the Principal Types under the Law by which the compass and unlimited extent of it was prefigured I shall insist onely upon two the Brazen Serpent and the Feast of Jubilee First Concerning the Brazen Serpent our Saviour himself owneth and asserteth a typical correspondency in the erection and usefulness hereof with himself in respect of that great and gracious Design and Purpose of God in sending Him unto the World And as Moses saith He lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up That whosoever beleeveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life q Ioh. 3 14 15 A Type being a kinde of Similitude and the property or condition of this not being in the Proverbial expression to run on all four i. e. to answer or hold proportion in all Particulars indeed many times not in more then one onely therefore our Saviour to prevent all misunderstanding in the interpretation or application of the Type mentioned particularizeth that very respect or consideration in himself and his sending into the World which was prefigured and expressed in the Type alledged by him in these words That whosoever beleeveth in Him should not perish c. To understand clearly what there was in the Type answering in a way of pre-signification that consideration in Christs coming or sending into the World which himself here insists upon as presignified hereby we must have recourse to the History concerning the erection of the Brazen Serpent unto which also himself sendeth us in that Particle of comparison or resemblance As As Moses lifted up c. The original of this Brazen Serpent together with the Counsel and Intention of God in his Erection Moses recordeth thus Make thee saith He to Moses a fiery Serpent viz. in similitude or form and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that EVERY ONE THAT IS BITTEN when He looketh upon it shall live r Numb 21 8 From which words it is most evident that this fiery Serpent in form as Christ came in the similitude of that sinful flesh whose sting is so mortal to the World was not intended by God as a means of healing or preservation to a certain definite or determinate number of Persons or that such and such by Name and no other should look upon it in order to their healing or that whosoever in the event did look upon it and no other but these should be healed by it but that whosoever would might look upon it for which end also Moses was commanded to set it up on high upon a pole where it might be readily visible unto all and that whosoever should or did look upon it being bitten or stung with any fiery Serpent might be healed thereby Now all Men without exception being as we all know and confess stung and that mortally with the fiery Serpent Sin unless Christ should be lifted up upon the Cross i. e. suffer Death with an Intent on Gods part 1. That every man if he pleased might beleeve in Him And 2. That every man that should beleeve in Him should be saved by Him He should altogether dis-answer that famous Type we speak of and that in that very consideration and respect wherein He pleads a special conformity to it If it be replyed The correspondency between Christ and the Brazen
Consideration Explication and Debate in the second Part of this Work THough Christ the Lord reigneth whilest His Enemies are yet unsubdued §. 1. and not put under His Feet yet He reigneth not so like unto himself nor with that peaceableness or desirableness of Government unto His Subjects as He shall and will reign at least in the glorious result of His Mediation when all that which in any degree opposeth Him in His Government shall be wholly taken out of the way and no Enemy left with any strength or power to infest trouble or cause the least disquietment or discontent in all His Kingdom In like manner though the Judgment and Conscience of a man may reign with much contentment and satisfaction in the holding and Profession of many a Truth by the demonstrative evidence and strength of such Arguments and Grounds upon which He clearly seeth it built however He may see it also encompassed and assaulted on every side with such Objections and Difficulties which are not at present subdued under him yet can they not be so well apayd so full of Peace and Joy in this their Kingdom as they may and will when these Objections shall be made to bow down before them and lick the dust at their feeâ and all Difficulties be perfectly reconciled with that Truth which they hold and profess in this kinde Upon this account having in the Precedure of our Discourse setled this Great Doctrine That Christ gave Himself a Ransom for all Men without exception upon such Pillars of Scripture Reason and Authority that no man that shall duly weigh the Premisses can reasonably question the Truth thereof I judged it necessary nevertheless God not laying my Intentions in the dust by the hand of Death or otherwise to subjoyn the Vindication of the said Doctrine from all such Objections Exceptions or Encumbrances wherewith I finde it on every side oppugned and the course of it much obstructed in the Mindes and Judgments of some that so they who are or shall be perswaded of the truth of it may sit with so much the more ease in their Judgments and reign in the happy Contemplation and Enjoyment of so blessed a Truth with so much the more Peace and Joy In our intended Vindication of the said Doctrine or second Part of this §. 2. Work we shall God graciously continuing His assistance perform these three things First We shall deliver those Texts and Contexts of Scripture which contrary to their mindes and native tendencies and imports respectively are compelled to serve against the said Doctrine these I say we shall in the first place deliver from this hard service by loosing the bands of such Interpretations wherein they are detained upon that account Secondly We shall shew how the supposed Iron and Steel of such Grounds Arguments and Reasonings wherewith the said Doctrine commonly is assaulted are turned into stubble and rotten wood before it Thirdly and lastly We shall give some general and brief Answer to such Passages and Sayings which are usually alledged and cited from the Ancient Writers in way of opposition to this Doctrine Concerning the Scriptures which are commonly pressed to serve in that warfare we speak of the truth is that as notice hath been formerly given there is none of them can be brought to speak any thing at all no not in appearance against the Doctrine we plead but onely by the mediation of some deduction or inference raised and drawn from them by the Reasons of Men. There is no Scripture that hath yet been or indeed can be produced wherein it is either affirmed that Christ dyed onely for the Elect onely for Beleevers or the like or denyed that He dyed for all Men without exception The particular Places which are commonly managed with greatest confidence in the Actors and with most applause in the Spectators against the said Doctrine are these Mat. 20. 28. The Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give His Life a Ransom for many Unto which several others of like phrase and expression are wont to be added as viz. Mat. 26. 28. Rom. 5. 15 19. Heb. 9. 28 c. From these Scriptures with their fellows such an Argument as this is levyed He that gave his Life a Ransom for many shed his Blood for many for the Remission Vid. Acta Synodi Dordrec part 2. p. 97. p. 112 c. of sins made many righteous c. did not give his Life a Ransom for all did not shed his Blood for all for the Remission of sins c. But Christ gave his Life a Ransom for many shed his Blood for many c. Ergo. Joh. 10. 11. I am the good Shepherd The good Shepherd giveth his Life for the Sheep and Vers 15. I lay down my life for the sheep To these also other Vid. Act. Syn. Dordr part 2 p. 101. Et Chamier tom 3. l. 9. c. 13. Sect. 9. Passages of somewhat a like import are frequently joyned As Eph. 5. 25. where Christ is said to have loved his Church and to have given himself for it c. From such Premisses as these this Inference or Conclusion is much sollicited Ergo Christ gave his Life for his sheep i. e. his Elect onely gave himself for his Church onely c. Mat. 1. 21. Thou shalt call his Name Jesus for He shall save his people from their sins This Text likewise is wont to be seconded with some others Vid. Acta Synodi Dordrec part 2. p. 97 as sembling with it as Acts 10. 43. that through his Name whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive Remission of sins So also Rom. 3. 25. 10. 4. Heb. 5. 9 c. Upon these and such like foundations this Inference is built Ergo Christ came to save his People onely Beleevers onely sanctified ones only from their sins Joh. 15. 13. Greater Love then this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his Friend This I finde paralleld and strengthened with these words from the same Pen 1 Joh. 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because He Vid. Collat. Hagâens adversus secundam the sin Remonstrantium p. 133 layd down his life for us This pair of Scriptures afford unto some the Joy of this Consequence Ergo Christ did not lay down his Life for Reprobates or for those that are damned in Hell because then he should love them with the greatest Love that could be Joh. 17. 9. I pray for them I pray not for the World Upon this Basis this Vid. Acta Synodi Dordrec part 2. p. 100 Chamier Tom. 3. l. 9 c. 13. sect 2 Enthymeme is raised Christ refused to pray for the World i. e. the wicked of the World Ergo certainly he refused to dye for the World Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things From hence the Doctrine
clearly and distinctly see that though Christ be not so ill formed amongst us in some of these Doctrines as he is in others yet he is represented very unlike and much beneath himself in them all So that as Joshua though he performed the part of a valiant Captain and made a worthy progress in the Conquest of the Land of Canaan before his death yet left a very considerable proportion of the work to be atchieved by others after him n Judges 1. â 9 c. in like manner Luther Calvin Melancthon with others who labored with much honor and success in the work of Reformation and reduced the Body of Christian Religion to a far better complexion and constitution then that wherein they found it yet left it under so much craziness and unsoundness that other Physicians also and those of best value have large opportunities before them for enriching the World and themselves also by perfecting the cure I look upon you as Men the likeliest I know to wear this Crown As for those who of late attempted the building of a fence-wall of Discipline under the Name of a Reformation about that Vineyard of Christ amongst us of which I now speak and to this day seem to lie under much regret of spirit both against God and men for hindering them in their Building the truth is in such an attempt the unreformedness and unsoundness of the Doctrine commonly received amongst us and taught by themselves considered they ran a like course of inconsiderateness which an Husbandman would do that should go about to make a strong and tight hedg about his field whilest his Neighbors Cattel are feeding and spoyling the Corn in the midst of it Brethren my Pen hath transgressed the line and law of my Intentions These confined me to a much narrower compass in my Epistle and prohibited me the troubling of you to any such degree as now I have done The truth is my affections to you interposed and occasioned the Transgression Love is bountiful and I trust will as naturally produce Pardon on your side as it hath brought forth such a Transgression on mine In all this address I have desired nothing of you little or much upon mine own account save onely so far as your ingenuous and worthy Deportment in the Particulars offered together with the unspeakable Benefit and Blessing which you shall bring upon the World thereby will be matter of joy and high contentment unto me Envy me not my rejoycing with the Truth though herein I should be found equal to the greatest of you it is the best of my portion in the world I shall discharge you from any further sufferings from my Pen at present onely with my Soul poured out before the Great God and Father of Lights in Prayer for you that he will make his face to shine upon you in quickening your Apprehensions enlarging your Understandings balassing your Judgments strengthening your Memories in giving you ableness of body willingness of minde to labor in those rich Mynes of Truth the Scriptures in breaking up before you the Fountains of those great depths of Spiritual Light and Heavenly Understanding in assisting you mightily by his Spirit in the course of your Studies in lifting you up in the spirit of your mindes above the faces fears respects of men in drawing out your Hearts and Souls to relieve the spiritual necessities and extremities of the World round about you in making you so many burning and shining Lights in his House and Temple the joy glory and delight of your Nation in vouchsafing unto you as much of all that is desirable in the Things of this World as your Spiritual Interest will bear and the Reward of Prophets respectively in the Glory and great Things of the World to come Your poor Brother in CHRIST always ready in Love to serue the meanest of you John Goodwin From my Study in Colemanstreet London Feb. 22. 1650. THE Preface to the Reader GOOD READER THE account of my application unto thee in this Epistle is this Not loving with Job to eat my morsels alone I desire thy company at my Table in the ensuing Discourse If thy intellectual taste be the same with mine which I question not if thou hast not eaten somewhat already which disordereth and corrupteth it and thy spiritual constitution the same also from which if thou beest healthful and sound it cannot much differ I doubt not but in case thou pleasest to accept of the invitation and eat of the bread here set before thee thou wilt finde it both pleasant in thy mouth and strengthening to thy Soul I confess that till some few years last past I was my self accustomed to another dyet and fed upon that bread which was commonly prepared by my Brethren in the Ministry for the People of the Land and Children of God amongst them But the truth is I found it ever and anon gravellish in my mouth and corroding and fretting in my bowels Notwithstanding the reverent and high Esteem I had of many of those who prepared it and fed upon it themselves in conjunction with those harder thoughts which I was occasioned by some undue carriages in many of those who lived upon bread of another molding to take up against them together with a raw and ill-digested conceit I had that there was no better or less-offensive bread to be had from any hand whatsoever prevailed upon me to content my self therewith for a long time though not without some regret of discontentment also with it But to leave my Parable that which first turned to a sharp engagement upon me to search more narrowly and throughly then formerly I had done into the Controversies agitated in the subsequent Discoursâ was a Pamphlet published by a young man about five or six years since under the title of A Vindication of Free Grace c. which though libellous enough and full of broad untruths yet the face of it being fiercely set against me and my Doctrine it was lifted up well-nigh as neer unto the Heavens as Herods Oration a Acts 12 ââ by the applause of such persons in and about the City whose ways in matter of Discipline and thoughts in other more weighty Points of Christian Religion my Vnderstanding would never serve me to make mine Being for a time under a conscientious resentment of a necessity lying upon me to publish some Answer to the said Pamphlet as well the Person as the Doctrine therein stigmatized being innocent of all crimes there charged on them I fell to work accordingly and drew up a competent Answer as I supposed thereunto with the perusal whereof I was willing upon request to gratifie some private friends amongst whom it lay dormant for a time In the Interim perceiving that the noyse which the said Pamphlet had made was but like the crackling of âhorns under a pot and that the heat of the tumultuary rejoycing occasioned by it had exhaled and spent it self I began to
in his Affairs I answer 1. If God pleaseth to impart his Mind and Counsels in words and writing unto men with an Injunction and Charge that they receive and own them as from him and that they take heed that they do not mistake him or embrace either their own conceits or the minds of others in stead of his in this case for men to put a difference by way of judging and discerning between the Mind of God and that which is not his mind is so far from being an act of Authority Presumption or unseemly Vsurpation in men that it is a fruit of their deep loyalty submission and obedience unto God When Christ injoyned the Disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians to render unto Cesar the things which are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods o Mat. 22. 21 He did not only give them a Warrant and Commission to judg and determine what and which were the things of God as well as which were the things of Cesar but layd a Charge upon them also to put this warrant in execution and this not only by judging actually which were the things of God but by practising and acting also upon and according to this Judgment 2. To judg of God and of the things of God in the sence we now speak is but to acknowledg own and reverence God and the things of God in their transcendent Excellency Goodness and Truth and as differenced in their perfections respectively from all other Beings and things The poorest and meanest Subject that is may lawfully and without any just offence judg his Prince yea or him that is made a lawful Judg over him to be wise just bountiful c. at least when there is sufficient ground for it If it be yet further demanded But is the Reason or Vnderstanding of a man competent to judg of the thingâ of God as for example to determine and conclude what is the mind of God in such or such a passage of Scripture or in such and such a case Doth not the Scripture speaking of men in their natural condition call them Darkness p Ephes 5 8 affirming likewise that the Light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not q John 1. 5 And elsewhere doth it not inform us that the natural man perceiveth or receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned r 1 Cor. 2. 14 And how many Heathen Philosophers Hereticks and others undertaking to judg of the things of God in the Gospel by the light and strength of their own Reasons and Vnderstandings have miscarried to the everlasting perdition of their own Souls and as is much to be feâreâ of many others also To all thiâ I answer by degrees 1. It is a thing as unquestionable as that the Sun is up at noon day that Reason and Vnderstanding in men are competent to judg of the things of God at least of some yea of many of them or rather indeed of all that are contained in the Scriptures according to the degree of their discovery and manifestation there For doth not God Himself own them in this capacity when he appeals and refers himself unto them in several of his great and important Affairs authorizing them to judg in the case between him and his adversaries And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah JUDG I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it s Isai 5. 3 4 So again Hear now O house of Israel is not my way equal are not your ways unequal t Ezek. 18. 25 29 Yet again in the same Chapter O house of Israel are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal In these and such like Appeals he supposeth the persons appealed unto to be as capable or however as well capable of the Equity and Righteousness of his ways and consequently to be in a regular capacity of justifying him as of the unworthiness and unrighteousness of their ways against whom he standeth in the Contest So our Saviour to the chief Priests and Elders in his Parable When the Lord therefore of the Vineyard cometh what will he or rather what shall he do unto those Husbandmen They say unto him He wiâl miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his Vineyard unto other Husbandmen who shall render him the fruits in their season a Mat. 21. 40 41 We see these Priests and Elders though men of great unworthiness otherwise and far from beleeving in Christ were yet able to award a righteous Judgment and such as our Saviour himself approved yea and put in execution not long after between him and his Husbandmen So in another place to the hypocritical Jews Ye Hypocrites ye can discern the face of the Sky and of the Eatth but how is it that ye do not discern this time Yea and why even of or from your selves judg ye not what is right b Luke 12. 56 57 In which passage among other things he clearly implyeth these two 1. That had they set their mindes upon things that most concern'd them they were in a sufficient capacity by the direction and help of those characters and signs which their own Prophets had long before delivered clearly to have discern'd that the days and times in which they now lived were indeed the days of their Messiah 2. That ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from themselves i. e. out of natural and inbred Principles whereby they were enabled to judg of thingâ commodious and expedient for them in like cases they were in a capacity to have come to this issue and conclusion that it was now high time to comprimise that great and weighty Controversie which of a long time had been depending between God and them by Repentance The Apostle Paul willeth the Corinthians in one place to judg what he saith c 1 Cor. 10. 15 in another he directeth that in their Church-meetings the Prophets should speak two or three and that the rest should JUDG d 1 Cor. 14. 29 In both which places he cl ãâ¦ã ly supposeth in them a competency of Judicature or discerning about spiritual things And when in his Defence before Agrippa he demands of him and the rest that were present Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead e Acts 26. 8 he clearly supposeth that the Resurrection it self of the dead which yet is one of the great and deep Mysteries of the Gospel was nothing but what they consulting with the light of Reason and Vnderstanding in themselves for they were not supernaturally enlightened might judg probable enough and no ways unlike to be effected When God commands and calls upon all men every where to repent f Acts 17. 30 and so to beleeve g 1 John 3. 23
he must either suppose them in a capacity to distinguish and discern between the things whereof he would have them repent and the things of which he would not have them repent and so between what he would have them to beleeve and what not or else speak unto them as no otherwise capable of such his Commands then the stones on the Earth or beasts of the field And how then is the Commandment holy and just and good Therefore certainly those noble faculties and endowments of Reason and Vnderstanding in Men as they are sustained supported and assisted by the Spirit of God in the generality of Men are in a capacity of apprehending discerning understanding the things of God in the Gospel Yea and evident it is from the Scriptures that men act beneath themselves are remiss and slothful in awakening those Principles of Light and Vnderstanding that are vested in their Natures or else willingly choke suppress and smother them if they remain in the snare of Vnbelief Pray for us saith Paul to the Thessalonians that we may be delivered from unreasonable and evil men for all men have not Faith h 2 Thess 3. 2 By unreasonable or as the word signifieth absurd and evil men he plainly meaneth not men who naturally or in actu primo were unreasonable such as these were not like to endânger him or to obstruct the course of the Gospel but such as were unreasonable actu secundo i. e. persons who acted contrary to the light and principles of Reason and hereby became ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã industriously evil or wicked That there were such persons as these abroad in the World he gives this account for All men have not Faith which clearly implyeth that men who act and quit themselves according to the true Principles of that Reason which God hath planted in them cannot but beleeve and be partakers in the precious Faith of the Gospel To this purpose that passage in Chrysostom is memorably worthy As to beleeve the Gospel is the part of a raised and nobly-ingenuous Soul so on the contrary not to beleeve is the property of a Soul most unreasonable and unworthy and depressed or bowed down to the sottishness of brute beasts i ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysost in Rom. Hom. 8. Therefore Secondly Whereas it was objected that men in their natural estates are by the Scriptures termed darkness and in this respect presented as unable to comprehend the light of the Gospel I answer There is in the Controversies about the extent and efficacy of the Grace of God vouchsafed unto men as great an abuse of the word natural and so of the word supernatural a term not found in the Scriptures either formally or vertually as there is of the word Orthodox in this and many others The Scripture knoweth not the word natural in any such sence or signification wherein it should express or distinguish the unregenerate estate of a man from the regenerate Our Translators indeed render ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Scripture adjoyning of which a touch presently the natural man but quo jure nondum liquet And however the whole carriage of the Context round about maketh iâ as clear as the light as I have elsewhere argued and proved at large k Novice Presbyter page 86 87 that it is not the unregenerate man but the weak Christian that is there spoken of and termed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as a little after in the same contexture of discourse he is term'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã carnal and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a babe or youngling in Christ If therefore by the natural estate of men the Objection meaneth the unregenerate estate of men according to the whole compass and extent of it and under all the differences which it admitteth I absolutely deny that the Scripture any where termeth natural men darkness Those Ephesians of whom the Apostle saith they were sometime darkness had been not onely or simply unregenerate but had walked in sins and trespasses according to the course of this world and after the Prince that ruleth in the ayr the Spirit that worketh effectually in the children of disobedience by whom their understandings had been darkened and they possessed with many false wicked and blasphemous conceits concerning God and the Gospel c. All which imply an unregenerate estate most dangerously encumbered and from whence it argued the high and signal Grace and Favor of God that ever they should be delivered The Jews also Joh. 1. 5. are termed darkness upon a like account viz. because they were strongly and desperately prejudiced and prepossessed with erroneous Notions and Conceits against Christ and about the estate of their Messiah at his first coming unto them whom they expecting in the form of a great Monarch rejected and crucified in the form of ââervant It was this darkness which they had through an oscitant loose and sensual converse with their own Scriptures voluntarily suffered to grow and spread it self upon the face of their Minds and Vnderstandings that was a snare upon them and occasioned the sad Event here mentioned viz. that when the light shone unto them i. e. when sufficient and pregnant means were vouchsafed unto them to have brought them to the acknowledgment of their Messiah they comprehended it not i. e. did not by the means of it come to see and understand that for the sight and knowledg whereof it was given them For that by the way is to be observed that the Evangelist doth not say that the darkness in which the light shined could not or was not able to comprehend it but onely that it did not comprehend it Now it is a known Principle in Reason that à negatione actus ad negationem potentiae non valet argumentum There may be a defect in action or performance where there is no defect of power for action And the very observation and report which the Evangelist maketh of the non-comprehension of the light by the darkness in which it shone plainly enough imports that the defectiveness of this darkness in not comprehending the light did not consist in or proceed from any natural or invincible want of power to comprehend it but from a blindness voluntarily contracted and willingly if not wilfully persisted in For how can it be reasonably supposed that this Evangelist who flyeth an higher pitch then his fellows in drawing up his Evangelical tydings for the use and benefit of the World should in the very entrance of his Gospel and whilest he was thundering out on high as one of the Fathers speaks the Divinity of Christ insert the relation of a thing that had nothing strange nothing more then of common and ordinary observation in it Or is it any thing more then ordinary or what is most obvious that men do not fly in the ayr like birds or that fishes do not speak on the Earth like men Or is it a thing of any whit a more savory consideration then
lightly can be For if only the Spirit of God within me apprehends the things of God and I my self apprehend them not and apprehend them I cannot but by my Reason or Vnderstanding having no other faculty wherewith to apprehend or conceive such an apprehension of them relateth not at all unto me Nor can I any whit more be said to apprehend them because the Spirit of God apprehends them in me then I may or might in case the same Spirit should apprehend them in another man That which another man meditates or indites in my house without imparting it unto me no whit more concerns me then in case he should have meditated or indited the same things in the house of another man Besides the Spirit of God being but one and the same infinite indivisible Spirit in all men he cannot with any tolerable propriety of speech nor with truth be said to apprehend discern or conceive that in one man which he doth not after the same manner apprehend discern and conceive in another yea in every man Therefore if there be any thing more apprehended or discerned of the things of God in one man then in another the difference ariseth not from the different apprehensions of the Spirit in these men but from the different apprehensions of these men themselves and this by their own reasons and understandings they having as hath been said no other faculties principles or abilities wherewith to apprehend but these If it be demanded But is any man able without the presence and assistance of the Spirit of God to discern the things of God or to judg aright in matters of Religion I answer 1. Plainly and directly to the Heart I suppose of those who make this demand No The Spirit of God hath such a great Interest in and glorious Superintendency over the Minds and Spirits Reasons and Vnderstandings of Men that they cannot act or move regularly or perform any of those operations or functions that are most natural and proper to them upon any worthy or comely terms especially in matters of a spiritual concernment but by the gracious and loving interposure and help of this Spirit For questionless the intellectual frame of the Heart and Soul of man was by the sin and fall of Adam wholly dissolved shattered brought to an absolute Chaos and Confusion of Ignorance and Darkness to a condition of as great an impotency to do him the least service in order to his comfort or peace in any kind as can be imagined So that if the Reasons and Vnderstandings of men quit themselves in their actings or workings with honour or in any due proportion to their benefit comfort or peace it must needs be by means of that Gracious Conjunction of the Spirit of God with them which is a vouchsafement unto the children of men procured by him who raised up the Tabernacle of Adam when it was fallen Jesus Christ Blessed for ever In respect of which vouchsafement purchased by him and given unto men for his sake He is said to enlighten every man coming into the world a Iohn 1. 9. So that what light soever of Truth what clear and sound principle or impression of Reason or Vnderstanding soever is since the Fall to be found in any man is an express fruit of the Grace that is given unto the World upon the account of Jesus Christ and is re-invested in the Soul by the appropriate interposure of the Spirit of God the gift whereof upon this account is so frequently and highly magnified in the Scriptures Yea not only the habitual residency of all principles of Light and Truth in the Soul is to be attributed unto the Spirit of God as supporting and preserving them from defacement but also all the actings and movings of the rational powers of the Soul according to the true exigency ducture and import of them as in all right apprehensions of things in all legitimate and sound reasonings and debates whether for the confirmation of any Truth or the confutation of any Error or the like But 2. Though the Spirit of God contributes by his assistane after that high manner which hath been declared towards the right apprehending understanding discerning the things of God by men yet this no ways proveth but that they are the Reasons and Vnderstandings of men themselves that must apprehend discern and understand these things and consequently must be provoked raised ingaged imployed and improved by men that they may thus apprehend and discern notwithstanding all that assistance which is administred by the Spirit otherwise nothing will be apprehended or discerned by them Nor will the assistance of the Spirit we speak of turn to any account of benefit or comfort but of loss and condemnation unto men in case their Reasons and Vnderstandings shall not advance and quit themselves according to their interest thereupon 3. In case the Spirit of God shall at any time reveal I mean offer and propose any of the things of God or any spiritual Truth unto men these must be apprehended discerned judged of yea and concluded to be the things of God by the Reasons and Vnderstandings of men before they can or ought to receive or believe them to be the things of God yea before such a Revelation can any ways accommodate benefit and bless their Soul When our Saviour speaking of the Spirit to His Disciples saith And he will shew you things to come and again He shall receive of mine and shall shew them unto you Joh. 16. 13 14. He supposeth that they viz. with their own Reasons and Vnderstandings were to apprehend and judg of the things that should be thus shewed unto them to have been shewed unto them by the Spirit of God and not to have proceeded from any other Author Yea in case men shall receive the things of God themselves FOR the things of God or of the Spirit of God before their Reason and Vnderstanding have upon rational Grounds and Principles judged them to be the things of God yet can they not receive them upon these terms As the things of God I mean as the things of God ought in Duty and by Command from Himself to be received by Men or so as to benefit or inrich the Soul by their being received For as God requires of men to be praised with Understanding a Psalm 47 7 i. e. out of a rational apprehension and due consideration of his infinite worth and Excellency so doth He require to be believed also And they that believe him otherwise believe they know not what nor whom and so are Brethren in vanity with those that worship they know not what b John 4. 22 and build Altars to an unknown God c Acts 17. 23 To trust or believe in God upon such terms as these is being interpreted but as the Devotion of a man to an Idol Yea the Apostle Himself arraigns the Athenians of that high crime and misdemeanor of Idolatry upon the account of
their sacrificing to an unknown God d Acts 17. 29 4. And lastly The Interposure and actings of Reason and Vnderstanding in men are of that soveraign and most transcendent use yea necessity in and about matters of Religion that all the Agency of the Spirit notwithstanding a man can perform nothing no manner of service unto God with acceptation nothing in a way of true Edification to himself without their engagement and service First I stand charged by God not to beleeve every spirit but to try the spirits whether they be of God e 1 Iohn 4. 1 I demand by what Rule or Touchstone shall I try any spirit When or upon what account shall I reject one as a spirit of Error Falshood and Delusion and do Homage with my Iudgment and Conscience to another as the Spirit of God If it be said I ought to try the spirits by the Scriptures or Word of God I demand again but how shall I try my Touchstone or be sure that that principle notion or ground which I call the Word of God and by which I go about to try the spirits is indeed the Word of God There is scarce any spirit of Error that is abroad in the Christian World but freely offers it self to be tryed by the Word of God as well as the true Spirit of God Himself i. e. by such meanings sences or conclusions as it self confidently asserts to be the Word of God i. e. the Mind of God in the Scriptures So that I am in no capacity to try such a spirit which upon such an account as this pretends his coming forth from God unless I be able to prove that those sences meanings and conclusions by which he offers to be tryed are not indeed the Word of God Now it is unpossible that I should prove this meerly and only by the Scriptures themselves because unto what place or places soever I shall have recourse for my proof or tryal in this case this spirit will reject my sence and interpretation in case it maketh against him and will substitute another that shall not oppose him Nor can I reasonably or regularly reject his sence in this case at least as an untruth unless I apprehend some relish or taste therein which is irrational or some notion which jarreth with or grateth upon some clear principle or other of reason within me For as on the one hand what Doctrine or notion soever clearly accordeth and is commensurable with any solid and undoubted principle or ground of Reason within me is hereby demonstrably evinced to be a Truth and from God so on the other hand what Doctrine or saying soever bears hard or falls foul upon any such principle must of necessity be an Error and somewhat that proceeds from Satan or from men and not from God The Reason hereof is clearly asserted by the Apostle in these words For God is not the Author of Confusion but of peace a 1 Cor. 14. 33. From whence it appears that God is not divided in himself or contradictions to himself so as to write or assert that in one book as in that of the Scriptures which he denyeth or opposeth in another as viz. in that of Nature or of the fleshly tables of the heart of man but whatsoever he writeth or speaketh in the one he writeth or speaketh nothing Inclinavit Deus Scripturas ad infantium lactentium capacitatem Aug. in Psal 8. * Tertul. De testimonio Animae adversus Gentes c. 1. Mirum si a Deo data homini novit divinare Sic mirum si a Deo data cadem canit quae Deus suis dedit nosse Ibidem c. 5. Si de tuis literis dubitas neque Deus neque natura mentitur ut Deo naturae credas crede animae c. Ib. cap. 6. Cur verba habet Christianonorum quos ne auditos visâs que vult Ibid. O testimonium Animae naturaliter Christianae Tertul. Apologet Ne âui praeclusus esset ad felicitatem aditus non solum hominum mentibus indidit illud quod diximus Religionis semen c. Calvin instit l. 1. c. 5. Sect. 1. in the other but what is fairly and fully consistent with it Vpon this account it is a grave and worthy advertisement of Mr Perkins in his Epistle before his Treatise of Predestination It is saith he also requisite that this Doctrine he speaks of Predestination Election and Reprobation agree with the grounds of common Reason and of that knowledg of God which may be obtained by the light of nature In this saying of his he clearly supposeth that whatsoever should be taught by any man in the mysterious and high points of Predestination otherwise then according to the Scriptures and the Truth may be clearly disproved by this viz. the disagreement of it with the grounds of common Reason and of that knowledg of God which the light of Nature shineth into the hearts of men If himself had kept close to this principle of his own in drawing up his Judgment in the point of Predestination the World had received a far differing and better account from his pen of this subject then now it hath But if his sence were that the heights and depths of Religion for so we may well call the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation c have nothing in them but what agreeth with the grounds and principles of common reason and with the Dictates of Nature in men and consequently may be measured discerned and judged of by these he did not conceive that matters of a more facile and ordinary consideration were above the capacity and apprehension of Reason It was the saying of Augustin that God hath bowed down the Scriptures to the capacity even of Babes and Sucklings Tertullian hath much upon this account to excellent purpose In one place speaking of the Soul being yet simple rude and unfurnished with any acquired knowledge either from the Scripture or other institution he demands why it should be strange that being given by God it should speak out or sing the same things the knowledg whereof God giveth unto his children Not long after he admonisheth the Gentiles that neither God nor Nature lye and thereupon that they may beleeve both God and nature willeth them to beleeve their own Souls A little after he saith that the Soul he speaks of hath the words and therefore the inwards senses and impressions of Christians whom notwithstanding it wisheth that it might never hear or see Elsewhere having mentioned some expressions of affinity with the Scriptures as oft coming out of the mouths of Heathen he triumphs as it were over them with this acclamation O the Testimony of a Soul naturally Christian Nor doth Calvin himself say any whit less then all this when he saith that God hath implanted or inwardly put the seed of Religion in the mind of men Doubtless the seed sympathizeth richly with that body which springs and grows from it But these
spiritual and obstruse contemplation it cannot reasonably be expected but that the Disputes themselves should sometimes soar high so that the ordinary apprehensions of men may possibly lose the sight of them for a time 5. Some plead a non-necessity of bestowing our time in looking into Books that shall now or hereafter be written about the Argument or Subject matter of the present Discourse upon a pretence that nothing more can be said therein then hath been said already and that all Scriptures and Arguments that can be levyed for the defence of the Doctrines maintained herein have been already answered Such a pretence as this is proper for men who hope to make a great purchase with a little money to produce the honour and reputation of much knowledg and learning by uttering a few assuming and daring words For upon what sober and rational account can such a saying proceed from any man Or who can say unto the Almighty with due reverence to the unsearchable Riches either of his Wisdom or of his Grace and Bounty Hitherto indeed thou hast advanced thy self in giving Wisdom and Understanding unto men but further thou canst not go thy treasures are exhaust It becometh not me to say unless I were invested with Paul's priviledg of speaking without offence like a fool e 2 Cor. 11. 16 23 that there are several Considerations and Grounds traversed in the present Discourse and these intimously relating to the Controversies there handled which I beleeve the Masters of the pretence last specified have not observed in all their Travels through those many regions of Books and Authors which they would be supposed to have read and studied for the Information of themselves and others with the Truth in those great Controversies And whereas the Pretext in hand glorieth that all that hath been said in defence of the Opinions avouched in our Discourse hath been already answered unless he takes Sanctuary at some very unproper signification of the word Answer his glorying in this behalf will be found to his shame yea such a Sanctuary as this will not much relieve him Indeed as Tacitus saith of the ancient Britans of this Nation in relation to the Romans eos potius triumphatos quam victos fuisse that the Romans rather triumphed over them then overcame them so have the Adversaries of the Opinions and Doctrines we speak of been at the charge of erecting many Trophies one after another as if they had by the Sword of the Spirit and dint of Argument vanquished and subdued them and trodden down their strength whereas upon a true and unpartial account the main Grounds and Pillars upon which the said Doctrines stand will be found to remain undemolished and unshaken to this day yea and to have too much evidence and clearness of truth in them ever to be shaken Some pretend that the Opinions contended for in this Discourse have been from time to time taken up and held for the most part by a looser and less-Religious generation of men and the contrary by persons of a better Name for Holiness and Worthiness of Conversation This notion is accessory to some mens stumblings at the said Opinions yea and at all those whether men or Books that give the right hand of fellowship unto them But what near communion this notion hath with darkness and untruth is abundantly proved in the nineth fifteenth and nineteenth Chapters of the Discourse besides other places Although the truth is that were there truth in it yet would there be little weight in it to mediate a resolved Enmity between mens Iudgments and these Opinions The Devil held that Jesus Christ was the Holy One of God f Mark 1. 24 and professed it whilest Paul persecuted him and thought verily that he was bound to do many things against his Name g Acts 26. 9 But to this Point I speak more in the said 15 Chapter The noise of Arminianism Pelagianism Socinianism is very terrible in the ears of some and make the said Opinionâ the dread and abhorring of their Souls and all Books and men that own them as the shadow of death unto them To this I answer 1. That it is a saying of Luther that God sometimes puts on the vizor of the Devil and the Devil the vizor of God But God would be known by men under the vizor of the Devil and would have the Devil rejected under the vizor of God h Deus larvam Diaboli Diabâlus Dei induit et Deus sub larva Diaboli cognosci et Diabolum sub larva Dei reprobari vult Luth. in Gal. 5 Odious names and imputations are but the Devils vizors which though they be by men put upon the face of Truth will not excuse us in our rejections of the Truth But 2. Concerning the Charge of Pelagianism I demonstrate in several passages in the Discourse that the Opinions there pleaded have an express diametral antipathy against the Errors of Pelagius and that the sence of our Adversaries in opposition to us is truly Pelagian 3. Concerning Arminianism I confess I do not well understand what men mean by it I suppose they mean the owning of such Doctrines or Opinions in opposition to the Truth so voted and called by men which were held and taught by Arminius If so the formality or essence of Arminianism doth not stand in holding any thing simply in opposition to the Truth but in opposition unto men as supposed by themselves and others to be Truth The Jewish Doctors who love to be called Rabbi have a saying that the Law is on Earth not in Heaven the import of which saying Musculus interprets to be this that the Law meaning of God is subject to their power i Magistri Synagogae dicebant Lex est in terra non est in coeliâ significantes illam suae potestati esse subjectam Mus 1. Cor. 11 or authority If this be the sence of those that are Teachers amongst us that their Authority is competent to over-rule the Scriptures or to make Truth and error of what they please they who dissent from them must for ought I know compose themselves as well as they can to bear the burthen of their imputations If the opinions commended by me for Truth in the work in band be Arminian certain I am that the ancient Fathers and Writers of the Christian Church were generally Arminian yea and that Calvin himself had many sore fits and pangs of Arminianism at times upon him yea and that the Synod of Dort it self was not free from the infection nor scarce any writer of name and note in these latter times These things are brought into a clear and unquestionable light by the Discourse ensuing Concerning Socinianism if the opinions themselves charged herewith know no more then I do of the Truth of the charge they may justly take up Davids complaint and say They lay to our charge things that we know not k Psal 35. 11 But if such Doctrines or Tenents
wicked men which produc'd those glorious and blessed effects the Redemption Justification and Salvation of the World Now Christ to shed his Blood in such a sence as he shed it to lay down his Life in such a manner as he by any act or consent of his concurred and acted towards the laying of it down and so to give his Flesh as he gave it needed not the malice violence or bloudy injustice of men but did all this performed all these acts within his own sphere yea and had performed them before the least drop of his Bloud was spilt by men and consequently the Redemption and Salvation of the World were provided for by him in all things essentiall and simply necessary thereunto before either Herod or Filate the Gentiles or the Jewes interposed with any of their counsels or ingagements for the Crucifying of him Thus then we see what the Christians mean in saying that Herod and Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel gathered together to do whatsoever the hand and counsell of God had determined before to be done viz. to act towards in and about the Death and Crucifying of Christ to the uttermost ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quaecunque of what God had before upon a speciall account and designe determined or Decreed to Permit them to do or rather to Permit to be done notwithstanding his Hand or Power to have prevented them For to touch the second thing propounded the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã translated to be done doth not import any eventuall certainty or indispensable necessity of the comming to passe of those things which Herod Pilate c. gathered themselves together to do and accordingly did about the Crucifying of Christ but only the possibility or if we will the probability of their comming to passe upon the determined Permission of God in that behalf For that the Permissive Decree of God doth not import the certainty or necessity of event in things so Decreed is afterwards proved in this Chapter a Sect. 20. It is a form of speech frequent in the Scriptures to speak of things probable or likely to come to passe as if they should or would simply and certainly come to passe and so again to use the infinitive Mood in a potentiall sence or signification An instance of the former we have Deut. 13. 11. And all Israel shall heare and feare and shall do no more any such wickednesse as this is among you The meaning is not that it shall certainly and infallibly thus come to passe viz. That no Israelite hearing of the judgment executed upon the idolatrous Seducer would ever commit the like wickednesse afterwards but that the hearing of such a severe course taken with such an offender should be a probable and likely means to preserve others from the like wickednesse Another passage of like expression and import you have Deut. 17. 13. and againe Deut. 19. 20. See also Gen. 21. 6. Num. 14. 13. 14. Ioh. 11. 48. to omit other the like without number An See Franciscus Vigerus De praecipuâs Graecae dictionis Idiotismis p. 99. instance of the latter we have Rom. 1. 20. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. That they might be or that they may be as our last translators render it in their margent or that they should be as our former translators had it without excuse viz. in case they glorifie not God as God See also Rom. 4. 11. where the infinitive Mood is twice used in such a potentiall sence as we speake of So when Christ saith unto Simon and Andrew Mar. 1. 17. Follow mee ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. and I will make or cause you to be or to become fishers of men his meaning is not that upon condition they would follow him he would compell or force them to be fishers of men he might have done this as well without perswading them to follow him but that he would furnish them with such wisdome and knowledge with such an heavenly art and skill that if their hearts would serve them for the imployment they might and should be excellently accomplished and fitted by him for the drawing of men out of the World unto God See also Mar. 10. 44. Luk. 8. 35. 23. 24. And to cite no more places upon this account which readily might be done to a far greater number in the next Verse save one to the words in hand the same speakers expresse themselves thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. i. e. And that signes and wonders MAY BE DONE by the Name c. So that whereas in the Scripture in debate we have the Originall ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã translated to be done as if the meaning were that the hand and counsell of God had positively and conclusively determined that all those things should be done which now were done by Herod Pilate c. about the Crucifying of Christ it might as properly with as much consonancy to the Scripture Dialect and Phrase elsewhere and questionlesse with farre better agreement with the truth be rendered MIGHT BE DONE And then the sEnce of the whole Passage imports no more but this that Herod Pilate c. were gathered together to do the uttermost of what God had long before even from eternity graciously and sapientially determined to permit and suffer them to doe in and about the Death and Crucifying of Christ So then here is nothing in this Scripture to prove that God peremptorily decreed or determined before hand the Crucifying of Christ by Herod Pilate the Gentiles or the Jewes or by any other Persons but only that in order to his great and blessed designe of saving the World he thus Decreed that either these or any other in case these had not done it should be at liberty to Perpetrate this great wickednesse and that he would not by his hand or Power interpose to hinder them in case they should attempt it which he from eternity foresaw and certainly knew that they would This sence of the place is fully confirmed from all these and such like expressions in Scripture Who was DELIVERED up meaning by God for our offences a Rom 4. 25. So again He that spared not his own Son DELIVERED HIM UP for us all c. b Rom. 8. 32. And again Him being DELIVERED ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã given out viz. out of the protecting or rescuing Hand of God by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have Crucified c. c Acts 2. 23. Such passages as these evidently shew that God went no further in any of his Determinations or Decrees about the actuall Crucifying of Christ but only to a delivering of him up i. e. to a leaving of him un-guarded unprotected for wicked men to doe with him thus far even what they list not to any necessitating of any person or persons whatsoever to lay violent hands upon him If it be objected but how doth it stand with the
which is the adequate object of his Desire he alwayes interesseth himself to effect Matters relating unto his glory being the only object of his Desires unpossible it is that any of these should be so weake or faint as not to advance and rise up into a purpose and intention and consequently into action especially considering 1. That there is nothing which concerns his glory but which lieth within the compasse of his Power to effect and 2. That by reason of his infinite wisdom being in conjunction with a Power every wayes commensureable to it he is able so to manage all the concernments of his glory as not to prejudice himself in any in or by the Prosecution of others But Secondly though desires and purposes or intentions cannot be separated in God yet intentions or purposes and decrees may God doth not alwayes decree the effecting of what he purposeth or intendeth to effect though he alwayes purposeth and intendeth to effect what he decreeth The reason why he doth not alwayes decree to effect what he purposeth or intendeth to effect is because he judgeth it meet to act only to a certain degree of efficiency for the effecting and obtaining of some things by which if he cannot effect or obtain them he judgeth it not meet to act any further or higher in order thereunto But because he never acteth for or towards the effecting of any thing but with a due and full sufficiency of means the whole course and compasse of his efficiency in this kinde taken together he may well and truly be said to purpose and intend whatsoever he ingageth himself to effect though with the lowest degree of efficiency wherein at any time and in reference to any end he appeareth If you aske me but what are the things in Particular or any of them §. 15. which God may be said to Purpose or Intend and yet not to Decree I Answer 1. In generall they are all such things for the Procurement and effecting whereof he vouchsafeth means and these sufficient for he never starveth his ends for want of means as hath been often in effect said and yet the things themselves many times are not obtaineâ nor ever come to passe in which respect he cannot be said to Decree them because his Decree according to the Proper notion of the Word formerly opened carrieth all before it against and above all opposition and contradiction whatsoever and never faileth to bring forth 2. In Particular the Faith and Repentance of all men the honest and upright lives of all men and consequently the Peace Happinesse and salvation of all men are some of the Principall of the Particulars inquired after For 1. Evident it is that God interposeth and vouchsafeth means for the effecting and procurement of all these of which more hereafter in which respect according to the grounds laid he must needs be said to purpose or intend them And yet 2. Every whit as evident it is that these things are not effected or obtained nor ever will in which respect they cannot be said to be Decreed by God according to the Proper notion of a Decree oft specified To draw up a full and cleer account from the Particulars argued with §. 16. as much brevity as may be how in what sence and upon what grounds Desires Purposes Intentions and Decrees are attributed in Scripture unto God First in the negative that none of them are attributed unto him up on any such ground or supposition as this viz. as being Properly or Formally in him i. e. after such a manner as they are in men really distinct and separable from his Nature or Being hath been already asserted and that I suppose with a nemine contradicente Therefore secondly in direct pursuance of our Preparatory instructions formerly also delivered in order to the businesse in hand the said four Particulars must be acknowledged as attributed unto God upon this ground viz. Because the infinite Perfection of his Nature and Being enableth yea and leadeth him to act and give out himself after some such manner and with such a kinde of efficiency reasonable allowance being made for the great disproportion between him and the Creature as the said Particulars Destres Purposes Intentions and Decrees being found in men are wont to ingage them unto So that 1. God is said to desire or will such and such things because the goodnesse of his Nature leadeth him to act and give out himself and to vouchsafe means for the bringing of them to passe it being an essentiall Property of desire in men 1. When it is cordiall and strong as all Gods Desires are as t was formerly Proved and 2. When men have opportunity to act for the obtaining of the thing desired which God alwayes hath 3. And lastly when their acting for the obtaining of the thing desired is not like to hinder them from obtaining another thing more desireable then that a case never incident unto God in respect of any thing desired by him as hath also lately been shewed it being I say in this case and under these circumstances an essentiall Property of desire in men to ingage them unto action for the obtaining of the thing desired Because whensoever men act or endeavour themselves in any kinde to bring a thing to passe they are alwayes presum'd to desire the thing or the comming of it to passe therefore God also according to Scripture Dialect and Phrase may be said to desire whatsoever he any wayes interposeth himselfe or giveth means to bring to passe Secondly there is the same consideration and ground also of Purposes §. 17. and Intentions attributed unto him He is therefore said to Purpose and Intend such and such things because his Goodnesse Wisdom and Power i. e. The infinite Perfection of his Nature which eminently containeth all these enableth and induceth him to act for or towards the attainement of them after such a kinde of manner and upon such terms according to which men I meane sober and well advised men are wont to act and ingage themselves for the assecution of such things which they Purpose and Intend How and upon what terms such men are wont to act in order to the obtaining of things Properly Purposed and Intended by them and not absolutely Decreed was lately declared viz. so far and to such a degree of ingagement as they judge convenient and meet consideration being had of the value worth and consequence of the things Purposed and Intended by them in case they be obtained Therefore to conclude Gods non-intendments from his non-attainments is a reasoning of no value and supposeth a non-difference between his Purposes or Intentions and Decrees between which notwithstanding as hath been shewed there is a very emphaticall and signall difference The reason why God ingageth not himself to the actuall assecution of all things purposed and intended by him shall God willing be argued in due Time and Place Thirdly and lastly God is also said to Decree
not needlessely trouble either himself his Reader or me with producing the Authors lately either named or referenced or any others as asserting the contrary to what I have argued and proved from them in other places For I can more willingly grant then question that they have many inconsistences in other parts of their Writings with those things which I have quoted from them So that for any man to quote them in oppositum is to gain nothing to their cause but what is already granted to their hand only it may prove the easing of the Truth from the burthensomnesse of their Authority in other Points in as much as the speaking of contradictions is a plaine confession of our ignorance or doubtfulnesse at least of the Truth We have now done with those foure Cautions so necessary as was said §. 21. for the keeping our apprehensions and understandings upright under the reception of this great Truth absolutely necessary to be believed for the vindicating and cleering the perfect actuality and immutability of God viz. that how or after what manner soever God acteth or is interessed in the successive and new Productions of Actions or Beings in the World that which he doth in this kinde he doth it not by any new Influx Operation or Exertion of himself but by that one great Creative Act wherein he gave out himself from eternity This Opinion because it may seeme strange unto many yea and nothing lesse then a truth though we have already sufficiently I trust established it upon the foundations of the Scriptures we will further shew to have been cleerly held and asserted by very judicious and considering men and secondly add a Reason or two for the proofe of it For the first no man I presume will deny that great light of the Church §. 22. and Agent for Christ in his Dayes Austin by name to have been a judicious considering and learned man How full of the Opinion now asserted he was his Writings in many passages declare I shall insist only upon some few So then saith he day was made in what day God made Heaven and Earth and every greene thing of the Field before they were upon the Earth Before seven dayes were reckoned here one day is spoken of in which day God made Heaven and Earth and every greene thing of the Field and every Herb by the name of which day all time may well be conceived to be signified For God made all time with all Creatures that should be in time together or at once a Factus ergo est dies quo die fecit Deus coelum terram omne viride agri antequam essent super terram omne pabulum agri Superius septem dies numerabantur nunc unus dicitur dies quo die fecit Deus coelum terram omne viride agri omne pabulum cujus dici nomine omne tempus significari bene intelligitur Fecit enim Deus omne tempus simul cum omnibus creaturis temporalibus c. Aug. De Gen. contra Manich. l. 2. c. 3. c. If God made all time and all things that were to be in time together he must needs make all things by one and the same Act. Elsewhere the same Author demands And how or after what manner did God say Let there be light in time or in the eternity of his Word If in time it must be mutably or with the change of himself and if so he must speake it by the Creature because he himself is unchangeable Not long after he inquires further about the same Point thus Or whether doth not this belong to the nature of that Word of his of which it is said In the begining was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God For when it is said of him All things were made by him it is evident enough that the Light also was made by him when God said let there be Light which if so that which God said Let there be Light is eternall or from eternity because the Word of God God with God the only Sonne of God is co-eternall with the Father although God speaking in or by his eternall Word the Creature was made in Time b Et quomodo dixlt Deus Fiat lux utrum temporaliter an in verbi aeternitate Et si temporaliter utique mutabiliter c. Aug. de Gen. ad lit l. 1. c. 2. Et paulo post Et utrum hoc ipsum ad naturam pertineat verbi ejus de quo dicitur In principio erat verbum verbum erat apud Deum Deus erat verbum Cum enim de illo dicitur Omnia per ipsum facta sunt satis ostenditur lux per ipsum facta cùm dixit Deus fiat lux Quod si ita est aeternum est quod dixit Deus fiat lux quia verbum Dei Deus apud DeuÌ filius unicus Dei Patri co-aeternus est quanvis Deo hoc in aeterno verbo dicente creatura temporalis factae est Cum enim verba sint temporis cum dicimus quando aliquando aeternum tamen est in verbo Dei quando fieri debeat aliquid tunc fit quando fieri debuisse in illo verbo est in quo non est quando aliquando quoniam illud totum verbum aeternum est From this peece of discourse these three things are evident 1. That the Authors judgement was that God did not give being unto things by any multiplied or distinct acts or workings but by one and the same most simple word the efficacy and force whereof extendeth it self to the production of all particular Creatures or Beings when and at what time or times the Speaker pleaseth 2. That this Word was not spoken by him in time but in or from eternity 3. And lastly that notwithstanding the Word was spoken from eternity yet the Effects or Productions of it receive their respective Beings in time The same Author in the progresse of the same Tractate relating as it seemes to the last-recited words demandeth thus upon occasion of Moses his reducing the works of Creation to one Day Gen. 2. 4. whereas in the former Chapter he had digested them into six Is not this that which we endevoured to shew in a former booke that God MADE ALL THINGS TOGETHER or at once a An fortè hoc illud est quod in libro superiore moliebamur ostendere simul Deum fecisse omnia quandoquidem narrationis illa contextio cuÌ sex dierum ordine cuncta creata consummata memorâsset nunc ad unum diem omnia rediguntur c. Idem de Gen. ad lit l. 5. c. 3. And presently after glancing by the way at those words as the Latin translation readeth them Ecclesiasticus 18. 1. He that liveth for ever hath created all things together he plainely affirmeth that the reason of this expression Gen. 2. 4. In the day that the Lord Created
God Himself as it was might very well had they not been negligent or willingly blind have been apprehended and submitted unto by them as a way and means of Justification far more rationall more full of Wisdom and Equity and every wayes more honourable unto and better becoming God then that way and Method of their imagination I mean by the observation of Moses Law 3. Though it be not to be denied but that God hath an absolute Sovereignty §. 37. and Lordship over his Creature i. e. a lawfull power to dispose of it as he pleaseth yet it is an horrible indignity and affront put upon him and no lesse then a constructive deniall of his Infinite Grace Goodnesse Mercy Bounty Love c. to affirm that he exerciseth or administreth this Soveraignty and Power upon the hardest terms and most grievous unto his Creature that can lighâây be imagined yea and no wayes conducing unto his own glory which notwithstanding they affirm in effect who maintain that from eternity He left or purposed to leave the far greatest part of his most excellent Creaturââ Men to everlasting Misery and Ruine without any possibility of making an escape therefrom Suppose that God should grant an absolute Power unto Parents over their Children as that if they pleas'd they might slay them or dispose of them to be stain which some learned Men are not far from supposing that God did grant unto Parents under the Law a Vi. Ludov. Cappell de voto Jepthae Diatrib or else to expose them to the wide World as soon as they are borne to suffer all the extremities that are incident to flesh and blood can it be imagined that persons of loving kinde and âender disposâtions by Nature would ever marry out of a desire to have Children that they might shew their Prerogative or absolute Power over them either in disposing of them unto death or exposing them unto misery as soon as they should be borne Or are such Intentions or Desires as these any wayes consistent with sweetnesse goodnesse and tendernesse of disposition How prodigiously then and portentuously inconsistent must it needs be with the Grace Goodnesse Mercy Bounty Love of God which are all Infinite to create millions of Men-creatures with a desire or intention to declare his Prerogative over them in leaving them irrecoverably irrevocably unavoydably to the âaslesse endlesse torments of Hell 4. Suppose such a Preterition or Dereliction of the Creature as this §. 38. could be reconciled or argued into some tolerable consistency with the Grace Goodnesse Sweetnesse Love Bounty and Mercy of God yet the Wisdom of God will not bear them as being most disadvantagious unto him in point of glory or at least comparaâively disadvantagious I mean in respect of that other most wise just and equall disposition of them wherein and according unto which he is asserted to have predestinated or purposed so many of them be they fewer or be they more as should truly believe unto life and glory and the residue be they fewer or be they more viz. all those who should not believe being capable through years of believing and otherwise competently rationall unto destruction Such a Predestination of men from eternity as this the Scriptures cleerly and frequently hold forth yea those that are contrary minded in the present controversies subscribe hereunto and without controversie such a Predestination as this is fairly and fully consistent with the glory of his Wisdom and highly commends and magnifies either all or the greatest part of his Attributes without the least disparagement or obscuration unto any Whereas that doom-full preterition that blood which many wring out of the Scriptures in stead of Milke hath no rationall or intelligible comport at all with any of them but casts a kinde of spirit of obscurity and contristation upon them all Nor did any of those I verily believe who have been the rigidest and most confident assertors of it ever so much as undertake to shew how or wherein it gratifieth or complieth with any of them no nor have they all been able with any tolerable satisfaction to Men of unpartiall and free judgements to discharge it of those imputations of Malignancy against the glory of the Divine Attributes which the Dis-assertors of it have charged upon it 5. And lastly the Scriptures are so far from countenancing or asserting §. 39. any such exercise of prerogative in God over his Creature which consists in a most severe and dreadfull dereliction of them from eternity to unavoydable and endlesse misery that they still present Him as a Creator of far another Spirit yea of a Spirit directly contrary to that which such a dereliction notoriously imports These frequently commend Him as a Creator very Gracious Loving Mercifull and Bountifull towards all the works of his hands and towards Men above all in so much that our Saviour himself recommends him unto his Saints in his deportments even towards the worst and most unworthy of Men as an absolute pattern for them to imitate in doing good and shewing mercy even to their enemies But I say unto you love your enemies blesse them that curse you doe good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you That yee may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evill and on the good and sendeth raine on the just and on the unjust a Mat. 5. 44. 45. If it shall be supposed that God from eternity hath irreversibly doomed to eternall destruction those evill and unjust ones on whom he maketh his Sun to rise and sendeth Raine it must be supposed withall that he intends the greatest evill unto them that can be imagined even whilest he doth these good things unto them If so then must they who imitate him in such wayes be the most accursed Hypocrites and Dissemblers under Heaven making shew of Love and Kindnesse in their outward deportments whilest War and Blood are in their hearts towards men yea and doing good unto them with a purpose and desire of bringing so much the greater evill and destruction upon them thereby But the Scripture every where abounds in giving testimony to the Love and Goodnesse of God towards all his Creatures The Apostle Peter styleth him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Faithfull Creator â Pet. 4. ult and willeth Christians to commit their Soules unto him in well doing upon that account viz. as one or as a God that would faithfully perform and discharge the Relation of a Creator unto them In calling him a Faithfull Creator he cleerly intimates that there is a kinde of naturall tie or ingagement upon every Author of Being whether unto persons or things which promiseth unto those who receive Being from them in any kinde a regular and due care in them for their preservation and good The relation of a Parent Father or Mother promiseth unto the Child a regular care
desire and endevour in the Parent for the comfort and well being of it By vertue of this Promise it is that as the Apostle inform us Parents stand bound to provide and lay up for their Children b 2 Cor. 12. 14. And Parents who do carefully perform such ingagements as these unto their Children may well and properly be called Faithfull Parents So the Relation of a Mother promiseth unto the Infant born of her and that with much asseveration and naturall solemnity of protest all care and tendernesse for the well being of it In respect of this solemn promise it is that God himself demandeth Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that shee should not have compassion on the Sonne of her Womb c Esa 49. 15. implying that such Women are very unnaturall and unfaithfull that can Yea God himself speaking thus of the Ostrich shee is hardened against her young ones as if they were not hers Job 39. 16. cleerly implies that this Creature only excepted there is an universall tendernesse and care in all others towards their young ones In like manner every Creature hath a very great and rich assurance from that very relation wherein it stands unto God as a Creator that upon a regular deportment of it self towards him and such as any wayes becomes a Creature towards the Creator or Maker of it it shall receive protection preservation and every good thing from him Yea the Scripture plainly implieth that there must be a very great breach on the Creatures part in point of degeneration and unworthinesse before God lookes upon himself as discharged from that care for the preservation and well being of it which he promised as it were unto it in his being the Author of Being unto it Consider that passage in the Prophet Esay For it is a People of no understanding therefore he that MADE them will not have mercy on them and HE THAT FORMED THEM will shew THEM NO FAVOVR a Esa 27. 11. Doth not this cleerly imply that had not this People been very enormously and intolerably corrupted and degenerated as it were into the spirit and actions of bruite beasts suffering the glory of the Work of God in their Creation utterly to sink within them had they but quitted themselves like a People of any competent reason or understanding the relation of a Creator in God towards them would have wrought so effectually in him on their behalf that he would have shewed them mercy and favour in delivering them The Creature must depart and go astray very far from the Creator and grow in a manner quite out of kinde before the Creator will or can cease to know love and respect it as his Creature Hence it is that we finde God himself so frequently mentioning and insisting upon his Relation of a Creator unto his People when he seekes to satisfie and comfort them as touching his love towards them and care over them Thus saith the Lord that MADE thee and that FORMED thee from the womb which will help thee Feare not O Jacob my Servant b Esa 44. 2. c. So again Hearken unto me O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel which are borne by me from the belly which are carried from the womb And even to your old Age I am He and even to hoare haires will I carry you I have MADE and I will beare even I will carry and will deliver you c Esa 46. 3 4. Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel and HIS MAKER d Esa 45. 11. c. Once more to passe by many other places of like import But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the Clay and thou our Potter and we are all the work of thy Hand e Esa 64. 8. As in the former passages God strengthened the Faith of this People by remembring them that he was their Creator and Maker and consequently bare the affection and love of a Creator towards them So in this last they themselves declare how effectually that consideration viz. of the Relation of a Creator in God towards them had wrought upon them to the strengthening of their Faith in his Love towards them and care over them and accordingly plead the same in their requests to him Nor is it prejudiciall in the least to that demonstration which we intend §. 40. to make from the said passages with their fellowes viz. of the love and care of God as a Creator to all the Works of his Hands to pretend that in these places and the like God speaks only to his Church and his Elect ones For 1. The Relation of a Creator in God is uniform one and the same towards the Elect Believers and towards Reprobates or Unbelievers the one being the workmanship of his hands as well as the other and therefore as promising to the one as to the other if they understood or considered the voyce of this promise 2. If God notwithstanding the Relation of a Creator in him were likely to have reprobated his Creatures from eternity especially had this people believed that he had de facto so reprobated millions of them it had been a very slender support and incouragement to their Faith that he should remember them of his relation unto them as their Creator For might not they upon such a supposition as this have replied unto him Lord why dost thou so much inculcate into us the consideration of thy Being our Maker and Creator as if there were any thing in this to comfort us or to relieve our Faith concerning thy love to us or care for us Do we not know that thou art a Creator to many thousand thousands in the World whom notwithstanding thou hatest and casted'st out of thy Love without any cause given on their parts from eternity Therefore what assurance of grace and favour with thee can we receive upon any such account as this that thou art our Maker and Creator So that evident it is that God himself doth acknowledge a gracious tie and ingagement upon him as a Creator to love respect and take care for his Creatures untill they voluntarily renounce and disclaime their relation unto him as his Creatures by walking rebelliously against him or suffering the God of this World to deface the glory of his workmanship in them And whereas he compareth himself in tendernesse and care over his Creature unto an Hen which gathereth her Chickens under her wings they who make him like unto the Ostrich which leaveth her Eggs in the Earth and forgetteth that the foote may crush them or that the wilde Beasts may break them and is hardened against her young Iob 39. 14 15. ones as if they were not hers which astorgy God himself imputeth to want of wisdome and understanding in her have the greater sin representing him altogether unlike unto himself Other Scriptures there are exceeding many which testifie aloud the grace §. 41. and love and
accustomed to error and mistake presume to levy from them together with such arguments and grounds which upon examination will be found either to have no consistency with the sound Principles either of Reason or Religion or else no legitimate coherence with the cause which they pretend unto Let us first hearken unto the Scriptures lifting up their voyces together for the Redemption of all Men by Christ without exception we shall afterwards in due processe of Discourse give a faire consideration to those inferences and consequences of Men wherein the strength of their Scripture Proofes standeth for the support of the contrary Opinion And first it is considerable that the Scriptures doe not only speak to the §. 2. heart of the Doctrine asserted in great variety of Texts and Places but also in great Veyns and Correspondencies or Consorts of Texts each Consort consisting of severall particulars of like Notion and Phrase I shall recommend only foure of these companies unto the Reader which when we shall have pondered in some or all the particulars respectively relating unto them we shall add to make full measure the contributions of some single Texts besides The first Division or Squadron of Scriptures which speak aloud the universality §. 3. of Redemption by Christ are such which present the gift and Sacrifice of Christ as relating indifferently unto the World The name of this kinde of Scriptures for the number of them may be Legion for they are many Some of the principall and best known of them are these So God loved THE WORLD that he gave his only begotten c. Joh. 3. 16. That THE WORLD through him should be saved vers 17. This is the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of THE WORLD Joh. 1. 29. My flesh which I will give for the life of the World Joh. 6. 51. And he is the propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours only but also for the sinnes of the WHOLE WORLD 1 Joh. 22. And we have seene and doe testifie that the Father sent the Sonne to be the Saviour of the WORLD 1 Joh. 4. 14. For I came not to judge the WORLD but to save the WORLD Joh. 12. 48. For God was in Christ reconciling the WORLD unto Himself c. 2 Cor. 5. 19. To omit many others The second post of Scriptures standing up to maintaine the same Doctrine §. 4. with uniformity of expressions amongst themselves are such which insure the Ransome of Christ and the Will or Desire of God for matters of salvation unto ALL MEN and EVERY MAN Some of these are who gave Himself a Ransome for ALL. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Because we thus judge that if one died for ALL then were all dead and that he died FOR ALL that they who live c. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. that he by the Grace of God should taste of Death FOR EVERY MAN Heb. 2. 9. who will have ALâ MEN to be saved c. 1 Tim. 2. 4. not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL should come to Repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. Therefore as by the offence of one the judgement came upon all Men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all Men to the justification of life Rom. 5. 18. with some others A third sort or party of Scriptures confederate with the former for substance §. 5. of import and between themselves for matter of expression are such which hold forth and promise salvation indifferently to Him and to whosoever will or shall believe Of this sort are these with their fellowes and HIM that commeth unto me I will in no wise cast out Joh. 6. 37. HE that believeth in me shall never thirst vers 35. HE that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mar. 16. 16. That WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish c. Joh. 3. 16. That through his Name WHOSOEVER believeth in Him shall receive remission of sinnes Acts 10. 43. Even the Righteousnesse of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ UNTO ALL and upon all that believe For all have sinned Rom. 3. 22 23. It were easie to make this pile also much greater A fourth association of Scriptures all pregnant with the Doctrine we §. 6. assert consists of such places where Christ is said to have died for those who yet may perish yea and actually do perish and again where such Men are said to have been bought by him and to have been sanctified by his blood who yet through their own negligence and wilfulnesse in sinning bring destruction upon themselves and perish everlastingly Places of this kinde are famously known Destroy not Him with thy meat FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED Rom. 14. 15. And through thy knowledge shall the weak BROTHER PERISH FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED 1 Cor. 8. 11. even denying the Lord that BOVGHT them and bring upon themselves swift DESTRVCTION 2 Pet 2. 1. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. Of how much sorer punishment suppose yee shall He be thought worthy who hath troden under foote the Sonne of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10. 29. Then his Lord after he had called him said unto him O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me Should not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him So likewise shall my Heavenly Father doe also unto you if yee from your Heart forgive not every one his Brother their trespasses Mat. 18. 32. 33 c. Let us begin with the Texts of the first of the foure Orders mentioned §. 7. where the Death of Christ is presented as relating unto the World From the tenor and import of all the Scriptures of this Denomination and Tribe it will be made evident that Christ died for all Men without exception of any the word World in these places being necessarily to be understood in the proper and comprehensive signification of it I mean for all Men and Women in the World in and according to their successive generations and not for any lesser or smaller number as for some of all sorts for the Elect for those that shall believe or the like We shall for brevity sake argue only some of these places and leave the light of their interpretations for a discovery of the sence and meaning of the rest The first proposed of these was that place of Renowne Joh. 3. 16. So §. 8. God loved the World that He gave c. Evident it is from hence that Christ was given viz. unto Death for them or for
their sakes whoever they be that are here meant by the World There are but three significations of the Word that to my Remembrance I ever heard of as competitors in this place First some by the World here understand the elect dispersed up and down the World By the Elect they meane all those and those only who shall in time actually be saved whom they call the Elect because they judge them to have been chosen by God from eternity out of the generality of Man-kinde with an intent to be by him in time with a strong hand and power irresistible 1. Brought to believe 2. Caused or made to persevere believing unto the end and 3. Hereupon eternally saved the residue of Men being absolutely rejected and left to that unavoydable and heavy doome of perishing everlastingly But that this is not the sence of the word World in the Scripture in hand will appeare by the light of these considerations 1. The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã here translated World was never known to have any §. 9. such sence or signification in the Greek Tongue nor was it nor is it to be found in any Author who wrote in this language before or about the time when John wrote his Gospell in such a signification nor yet in any neere to it Now the Gospell as is generally acknowledged and that upon sufficient grounds being written in the Greek Tongue chiefly for the Gentiles sake amongst whom this Language was known and understood far and neer that they might be brought to believe and so be saved by it it is no wayes likely that the Evangelist should use words especially in such Masterveyns and maine passages of it as this is in an uncouth unknown and unheard signification 2. Nor can it be proved that it is to be taken in the sence now opposed §. 10. in any other place of the Scriptures themselves but in very many places it signifies the Universall Systeme Body or generality of Men in the World we shall not need to instance for the proof of this places being so frequent and obvious as also for that part of the generality of Men which is opposite and contradistinguished to the Saints i. e. to the Elect in their sence of the word Elect who yet would have these signified by the World This latter signification of the word World is evident in these Scriptures We know that we are borne of God and that the whole WORLD lieth in wickednesse a 1 Joh. 5 19. Even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive b Joh. 14. 17. c. If yee were of the WORLD the WORLD would love her own but because yee are not of the WORLD but I have chosen you out of the WORLD therefore the VVORLD hateth you c Joh. 15. 19. §. 11. to omit many others 3. If by the World in the Scripture in hand be meant the Elect in the sence of the assertors of this signification then it will follow that God out of his great love gave Christ unto those or for those who stood in no need of Him at least either to preserve them from perishing or to invest them with a Right or Title to eternall life which yet are here laid down as the two only or at least as two maine ends of that great gift For if exemption from perishing or salvation be absolutely and without all consideration awarded or decreed by God unto Men before or from eternity they have a full Right and Title unto them or unto the possession and enjoyment of them by vertue of this award or decree without the intervening of any thing else whatsoever For what better Right or Title can there be to the injoyment of any thing then a decree of Heaven or the award of him who hath an unquestionable Right and Power to dispose of all injoyments whatsoever as and to whom he pleaseth But more of this consequence hereafter 4. The structure it self of the sentence and tenor of the words riseth up §. 12. against this sence of the word in question For 1. If by the word World we understand the Elect we destroy the very Grammar of the place and make it an uncouth and harsh sentence such doubtlesse as cannot be parallel'd in any Author nor yet in the Scriptures themselves Read we then the place thus So God loved His Elect that He gave His only begotten Sonne that whosoever I demand how or in what regular sence that Universall distributive particle whosoever or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã every one that shall be understood It is a thing generally known to those that understand any thing in the Rules of Grammar yea the vulgar dialect of those that speak Reason or common Sence confirmeth it that partitive or distributive Particles of Speech alwayes suppose a difference at least in possibility between the things parted or distributed and this in reference to what occasioneth the distribution As for example Suppose a great King having many Sons should expresse himself thus I so love my Children that which soever of them shall be dutifull unto me I will bestow Principalities Dukedomes or other great matters upon them should he not plainly imply a possibility at least that some of them might not prove dutifull unto him In like manner if the word World in the Scripture in hand should signifie the Elect the distributive whosoever must needs imâly that some of these Elect might possibly not beleeve and so perish because beleeving and not perishing thereupon occasion the distribution here made 2. Though our Saviour in this Period of Scripture mentioneth only the §. 13. benefit intended by God in the gift of his Son to those that shall believe viz. non-perishing and the obtaining of everlasting life yet he plainly implies and supposeth withall the misery and losse which they should certainly suffer who shall not believe Except this he supposed we shall altogether misfigure our Saviours Mind and Scope in the place and make him speak more like a Man void of understanding then himself For then the taste and savour of his words would be this God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth or not believeth in Him should not perish but c. Therefore certaine it is that he in the place in hand as well insinuates the condemnation or perishing of those who shall not believe as asserts the salvation or non perishing of those who shall believe And besides it is contrary to Reason especially in seriousnesse of discourse in a positive and strict manner to suspend that upon the performance of such or such a condition which may be had without any such performance This then being granted that our Saviour here supposeth the certaine perishing of those who shall not believe the place according to their sence who by the World will needs understand the Elect must run thus So God loved the Elect that whosoever of them believed should not
lieth in the Physician He came to save or heal the sick He slayeth Himself who will not observe the Precepts of the Physician He came a Saviour unto the World Why is He called the Saviour of the World but that He should save the World b Ergo quantum in medico est sanare venit aegrotum Ipse se interimit qui praecepta Medici observare non vult Venit Salvator ad Mundum Qâare Salvator dictus est Mundi nisi ut salvet Mundum c. Aug. in JohaÌ tractat 12. Doubtlesse he that speaketh these things had not yet dream'd of any other signification of the World in the Scripture in hand but only that which we have asserted nor did he imagine that Christ was given or sent into the World upon any other terms then those which equally and indifferently respected the healing of all that were sick or the saving of all that were lost otherwise why should he insert this Provisionall Clause as much as in the Physician lieth meaning Christ This plainly importeth that he came to heale such sick ones who notwithstanding slew themselves by neglecting His Precepts yea and that he could do no more then he did in or by his Death to save those from perishing who do perish and consequently that he died as much for these as for those who are saved Nor doubtlesse had the other I mean Chrysostome any other Notion of §. 27. the World in the said Scripture then the former For describing those whom God is here said to have loved he gives no other description of them then which agreeth as well to the Reprobate as Elect affirming them to be such who come from the Earth and Ashes who are full of an infinite number of sinnes who injured or offended Him without ceasing very wicked or deserving no Pardon And afterwards but we neglect or despise Him being naked and a stranger who died for us And who then shall deliver us from the punishment or judgement which is to come a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrys Homil. 27. in Johan ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ibid. Cleerly implying that those for whom Christ died may notwithstanding suffer and undergoe the wrath or punishment which is to come It were easie to levy many more quotations both from the Authors already mentioned and from many others as well ancient as Moderne of a full and cleer concurrence with the interpretation given But I take no pleasure in quotations from Men nor doe I know any great use of them unlesse it be to heale the offence which truth is alwayes apt to give to prepossessed and prejudicate minds The use which more commonly is made of them is a grand abuse being nothing else but the interposing or thrusting of the credits and authorities of Men between the judgements of Men and the truth that so the one should not easily come at the other However we have I trust made it fully evident by many demonstrations in full conjunction with the judgements of learned Men that the Scripture in hand casteth the light of that love of God out of which he gave his only begotten Sonne to Death with an equall brightnesse upon all Mankinde and consequently that this Death of his faceth the whole Posterity of Adam with the same sweetnesse and graciousnesse of aspect The Scripture last opened speaking so plainely and fully as we have §. 28. heard the point in hand might well be accepted as a sufficient security that all its fellowes mentioned with it as in effect they speak so likewise they intend and meane the same thing Yet because prejudice is froward and hard of satisfaction let us unpartially examine one or two more of the company we shall finde Universall Attonement as well at the bottome as at the top as well in the heart as in the face of them The former of the two shall be that of the Apostle Paul To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of Reconciliation a 2 Cor. 5. 19. That by the World which God is here said to have been in Christ Reconciling unto Himself cannot be meant the Elect only but the universality of Men is cleer upon this account First it is not here said that God in Christ did actually or in facto esse Reconcile the World unto Himself but that he was Reconciling the World c. i. e. God was and is and ever will be for the unchangeable Perpetuation of the Acts of God are usually expressed in the Scriptures by Verbs signifying the time past for the reason specified in the last Chapter in i. e. by or through Christ following and prosecuting his great and Gracious designe of Reconciling the World unto Himself Participles of the present tense active import the currency or carrying on not the consummation or ending of an action or endevour Secondly by the Reconciling the World unto Himself in or through Christ which is here ascribed unto God must of necessity be meant either such an act or endeavour in him by which he gaines or rather seeks and attempts to gaine the love and friendship of the World which was and is full of hatred and enmity against him or else such an act by which he went about to Reconcile Himself i. e. to render and make Himself Propitious and Benevolous unto the World Now take either of these Sences it is unpossible that by the word World should be signified only the Elect or indeed any thing but the generality of Men. If we take the Act of God here termed the Reconciling the World unto Himself §. 29. in the former sence which doubtlesse is the true sence of it as cleerly appears from the next Verse and subsequent Clause in this by the World cannot be meant only the Elect because God doth not by Christ or in Christ held forth and Preached in the Ministry of the Gospell seeke to bring over these only unto him in love or to make only these his friends neither doth he send the word of Reconciliation as the Apostle calleth it i. e. the gracious message of the Gospell by which this Reconciliation is to be actually made only unto them but Promiscuously to the generality or universality of Men without exception of any Gâe and Preach the Gospell to every Creature under Heaven b Mar. 16. 15. And therefore Paul did but keep to his Commission when as he saith he Preached Christ warning EVERY Man and teaching EVERY Man in all wisdome that he might present EVERY Man perfect in Christ Jesus a Colos 1. 28. And 2. Evident it is that in the Ministry and Preaching of this word God doth as well and as much and after the same manner perswade the obstinate and many of those who never come to believe as he doth those who are overcome and Perswaded hereunto It is said concerning the ancient Jewes that the Lord
will have all Men to be destroyed at least in their sence who hold an irreversible reprobation of Persons Personally considered from eternity because not simply some but a very great part of All sorts of Men now extant in the World will in time perish and that according to the Decree or Will of God the tenor whereof is that all Persons dying in impenitency and unbelief shall perish Yet the Scriptures do no where say upon any such account as this either in terminis or in substance that God will have All Men to perish and not to come to the knowledge of the Truth Which is somewhat more then a âopique argument that God is not therefore said to will that all Men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth only because he will have some some few of all sorts of Men to be saved and come to this knowledge but simply because his will is to have all Men without exception viz. as they are Men and whilest they are yet capable of Repentance to be saved and in order thereunto to come to the knowledge of the saving Truth i. e. the Gospell Nor doth it follow that the Will of God is changeable in case he should Will the same Man as this day to be saved and as on the morrow to perish but only that such a Man is changeable as we shall further shew God willing in due time Now then if it be the Will of God to have All Men without exception saved c. most certaine it is that Christ died and that intentionally on Gods Part for ALL Men without exception because it is not imaginable that God should be willing to have those saved for whom he was unwilling that Salvation should be procured The latter of the two Scriptures lately brought upon the Theatre of our §. 11. present Discourse acts the same part with the former There it is said of the Lord Christ that he is not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL should come to Repentance If so then certainly there neither was nor is nor ever shall be any for whom Christ was not willing did not intend to die and to purchase Repentance So that his Death was intentionally for All Men as well in respect of himself as of God the Father Besides those slimme evasions and shifts of making bondmen of Christs Free-men I meane of an arbitrary and importune confining the expressions importing a simple and absolute universality in such Scriptures as these to petty universalities as of the Elect of Species Sorts or kinds of Men c. the nakednesse whereof hath been detected over and over a Cap. 5. Sect. 9. 10 11 c. Sect. 34. 35. c And again in this Chapter Sect. 3. 4. our adversaries in the cause in hand are wont to take Sanctuary from such Scriptures as the two now in debate under the wing of this Distinction It is true say they God Wills that all Men should be saved and so that all should come to Repentance voluntate signi with his Signified or Revealed Will but this doth not prove but that voluntate beneplaciti with the will of his Pleasure or Purpose he may be willing that many even far the greatest part of men should perish But to shew the vanity or at least the impertinency of this Distinction to the businesse in hand 1. I would demand of those who leane upon the broken Reed of this §. 12. distinction in opposition to the cleer and direct sence given of the two Scriptures last mentioned what they meane by their voluntas signi the signified or revealed Will of God and wherein the opposition or difference lieth between this and that other Will of God which they terme the Will of his good Pleasure or Purpose If by his signified or revealed Will they meane only the Precepts or Commandements of God concerning such and such duties which God would have practised and done by Men which is all the account that some of the greatest Opposers in the Point in hand give of it I doe not understand how or in what respect God can be said to will the Salvation of all Men or that none should perish For 1. Salvation actively taken is an act of God himself not of men and consequently cannot be said to be a duty injoyned by him unto men and therefore not to be willed neither by him by way of Precept or Command 2. Salvation Passively taken is not an act but a state or condition and consequently is no matter of duty and so cannot be said to be willed by God in such a sence If by the signified or revealed Will of God in the distinction now under §. 13. canvasse be meant the Declaration which he hath made in his Word concerning the finall or eventuall Salvation and Condemnation of men evident it is that neither in this sence can he be said to will the Salvation of all Men because he hath declared and signified unto the World that few comparatively will or shall in fine be saved If it be pleaded that in this sence God may be said to will the Salvation of all Men with his signified or revealed Will because he injoynes Faith and Repentance unto all Men which are the means of Salvation and he that injoynes the means may in a consequentiall way be said to injoyn the end in the same injunction I answer 1. If God injoynes Faith and Repentance unto all men it argues that he Preacheth the Gospell unto All men and consequently that they who have not the letter of the Gospell Preached unto them by Books or Men as many Heathen Nations have not at this day yet have the spirit substance and effect of the Gospell Preached to them otherwise as viz. by the Creation and gracious Government of the World which is as I have shewed elsewhere a Divine Authority of the Scriptures c. p. 184. 185 c. Again p. 332. 333 c. purely Evangelicall and corresponding with the Scriptures But how this will stand with our adversaries judgement in the cause depending I understand not 2. It is the sence of one of the greatest Patrons of the adverse cause that §. 14. the precept or injunction of God is not properly the Will of God b Mandatum Dei non est vâluntas Dei proprie dicta quia illo non tam significet quid ipse vult fieri quam qu. d nostri officii sit sacere D. Twissâ Vindiciae Gra tiae c. p. 171. because saith he he doth not hereby so much signifie what himself willeth to be done as what is our duty to doe I confesse that no signification whatsoever whether of what a man willeth or decreeth to be done or of what is the duty of another to do can properly be said to be the will of the signifier but yet that will wherewith or out of which God willeth or Commandeth us to do that which is our
and deportments which according to the revealed Will of God render him utterly uncapable thereof According to the latter of these wills as he peremptorily willeth the Salvation of all those who are faithfull unto Death so doth he as peremptorily will the condemnation of all those who shall not be found in the Faith of Jesâs Christ at their end These latter through their own deplorable and voluntary carelessenesse and negligence proving to be in number far the greater part of men God upon this supposition and in a consequentiall way may be said to will the condemnation of the greatest part of Men and the Salvation only of a few comparatively But of these things more hereafter In the meane time evident it is from the Scriptures argued that Christ d ãâ¦ã §. 17. intentionally for All men without exception considered as men anâ that there was nothing more procured nor intended to be procured thereby for one man then another personally considered or simply as men Only this was intended in this Death of Christ in the generall that whosoever whether few or whether many should with a true and persevering Faith believe in Him should actually partake of the benefit and blessing of this his Death in the great reward of Salvation and on the other hand that whosoever whether few or whether many should not believe in him with such a Faith should upon this account be excluded from all Participation in the great blessing of Salvation purchased by his Death notwithstanding the purchase was as much made and intended to be made for them as for those who come actually to inherit even as the marriage-feast in the Parable was as much provided prepared and intended for those who upon their invitation came not as it was for those who came and actually partooke of it unlesse we shall say that the King who made this Feast intended it not for those whom notwithstanding he solemnly invited to it and with whom he was highly displeased for their refusall to come being invited a Mat 22. 3 4 c. And that the Death of Christ and the gracious intentions of God therein did and doe equally and uniformly respect All men is abundantly manifest from that Declaration made by the Lord Christ Himself on this behalf formerly opened So God loved the World that he gaâe his only begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life b Joh. 3. 16. Those words that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish c. evidently import un-differenced and impartiall intentions on Gods Part towards men in the gift of His Son The last Scripture of the Division yet in hand was this Therefore as by §. 18. the offence of one the judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon ALL MEN unto the justification of Life Rom. 5. 18. Evident it is that the Apostle in this Passage compareth the extent of the condemnation which came by the sin of Adam with the extent of the Grace of justification which came by Christ in respect of the numbers of Persons unto whom they extended respectively and finds them in this point commensurable the one unto the other The Persons upon whom the gift of justification cometh by Christ are made equall in number unto those upon whom the judgement of condemnation came by Adam For as the offence of Adam is here said to have come upon ALL MEN unto condemnation so also is the gift of justification of Life i. e. of such a justification upon which and by means whereof men are saved which comes by Jesââ Christ said to come UPON ALL MEN likewise Now to say that ALL MEN in the former clause is to be taken properly and signifies ALL MEN indeed without exception of any which all Expositors grant without exception of any but in the latter unproperly and with limitation yea with such a limitation which comparatively and a few only excepted excludes ALL MEN there being not the least ground or reason in the Context to vary the signification of the words or to make them to signifie more in the one clause and fewer in the other is to exercise an arbitrary dominion over the expressions of the Holy Ghost and to invent and set up significations and senseâ of words at pleasure Nor doth it at all ease the matter to say or prove that in other places of §. 19. Scripture this word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã All men signifies not all without exception but only a great number or all of one particular sort or kinde of Persons because 1. If it can be proved that in other places of Scripture it so signifies I meane not All without exception but only some greater number or numbers of men it seemes then there is a reason why it should or must so signifie in these places otherwise it could not be proved that there it so signifies a See more of thiâ Sect. 3. 4. of this Cap. as also cap. 5. sect 35. 36. But here is no reason at all to be given why it should be taken out of the proper and native signification or signifie any lesser number then All Men simply Now to refuse the proper signification of aword where there is no other reason why it should be refused but only because it is to be refused where there is a reason and so a necessity to refuse it is as if one should perswade a man that is an hungry to forbeare Meat whilest he may have it because he must forbeare it when he cannot get it When the Context or Subject matter doth require a by lesse proper or limited signification of a word or Phrase this signification is put upon them by God But when there is no occasion or necessity either in respect of the one or of the other why such a signification should be put upon them now if it be done the doing of it is arbitrary and from the lawlesse presumption of men How much more when men shall do it not only without any sufficient ground or reason but against reason which is the case of those who by All men in the latter clause of the verse in hand will needs understand only some men and these but very few comparatively For 2. Though one and the same word or Phrase is sometimes to be taken §. 20. in a different signification in one and the same Period or sentence as elswhere is observed yet this is no where to be done but where there is a manifest and pregnant reason for the doing of it as in these and the like places Let the DEAD bury their DEAD Mat. 8. 22. So again Whosoever drinketh of this WATER shall thirst againe but whosoever shall drinke of the WATER that I shall give him shall never thirst more Joh. 4. 13 14. There is a plain reason why by the dead in the end of the former of these places
Grace of Christ the Grace of Christ cannot be said to have profited Man-kinde more then the sin of Adam damnified it Yet again upon Verse 16 For whereas the World was lost or undone by the one sinne of Adam the Grace of Christ did not only abolish this sinne and that death which it brought upon the World but likewise tooke away an infinite number of other sinnes which we the rest of Men added to that first sinne * Cum enim ex uno Adae peccato orbis perditus sit gratia Christi non hoc soluÌ peccatum mortem quaÌ intulit abolevit sed simul infinita illa sustulit peccata quae reliqui homines primo illi peccato adjecimus The commensurablenesse of the Grace of Christ with the sin of Adam in respect of the number of Persons gratified by the one and damnified by the other cannot lightly be asserted in terms more significant Nor do the words following import any thing contrary hereunto wherein the Author addeth that the said Grace of Christ bringeth all that are of Christ into a full or Plenary justification For by a full or Plenary justification it is evident that he meanes an actuall justification yea as he explaines himself a little after that justification which shall be awarded unto the Saints at the great day of the Resurrection to the obtaining of which it is acknowledged that Men must receive a new being from Christ by Faith In what sence Christ abolished the inque plenam justificationem quotquot ex Christo sunt adduxit sin of Adam together with that Death which it brought into the World and so in what sence he is said to have brought Righteousnesse Justification and Salvation unto all Men remaines to be unfolded in due Place Upon the 17 Verse the aforesaid Author yet more cleerly attests the substance of our Interpretation where he gives an account how the Grace of Christ mây be said to be of larger extent then the sin of Adam notwithstanding it be true that this grace took away nothing but what in a sence was the fruit and effect of his sin If we consider saith he that every particular Man by his transgressions increaseth the misery of Man-kinde and that whosoever sinneth doth no lesse hurt his Posterity then Adam did all Men it is a plaine case that the Grace of Christ hath removed more evils from Men then the sinne of Adam brought upon them For though there be no sinne committed in all the World which hath not its originall from that first sinne of Adam yet all particular Men who sinne as they sinne voluntarily and freely so do they make an addition of their own proper guilt and misery ALL WHICH EVILLS since the alone BENEFIT OF CHRIST HATH TAKEN AVVAY it must needs be that it hath taken away the sinnes of many and not of one only Manifest therefore it is that more evills have been removed by Christ then were brought in by Adam a Verum si consideramus singulos mortalium suis quoque transgressionibus maluÌ generis humaÌi auxisse non minùs quicunque peccant suis posteris nocere atque nocuit omnibus Adam in aperto est gratiam Christi plura depulisse ab hominibus mala quam Adâ noxa intulerit Nam licet nihil in orbe peccatuÌ sit quod ex illo primo Adae lapsu non trahat originem tamen singuli qui peccant ut suâ quoque lâberâ voluntate peccant ita suum quoque adjiciunt reatum suam adferunt perniciem Quae omnia mala cum beneficium Christi solum sustulit certe jam multorum peccata sustulit non unius Adae Manifestum est igitur plura per Christum mala submota esse quà m Adam obtulerat And yet more plainely and expresly to the Point in hand if more may be upon Verse 18. The sence whereof he gives thus As by the fall of one sinne prevailed over all so as to make all liable unto condemnation so likewise the righteousnesse of one so far tooke place on the behalf of all Men that all Mân may obtaine the justification of life thereby b Infert hic Apostolus repetit summat quae tribus praemissis collationibus disseruit haec scilicet Sicut ex unius lapsu peccatum in omnes invaluit ut reddiderit omnes condemnationi obnoxios sic etiam unius justiciam in omnes homines obtinuisse ut just ficatio vitae omnibus contingat By this time I suppose Bucer hath said enough both to assert the Interpretation of the Scripture in hand that hath been given as also the universality of Redemption by Christ The said Scripture calls for the sence and exposition asserted with such a §. 25. loud and distinct voyce that Gualter also another Divine of the same rank and quality with the former could not but hearken to it As by the offence of one saith he compleating the Apostles sentence and rendring his sence therein condemnation was propagated unto all Men So also by the righteousnesse of one Justification of life was propagated or imparted unto ALL MEN. Againe thus As by the offence of one Adam the judgement or guilt came upon all Men to condemnation so also by the righteousnesse of one Jesus Christ the Gift or Benefit of God abounded unto ALL MEN to Justification of life a Itaque quâmadmodum per unius offensam in omnes homines pro pagataest coÌdemnatio sic etiam per unius justiciam in omnes homines propagata est Justificatio vitae Sicuti per unius Adami offensam judicium sive reatus venit in omnes homines ad condemnationem sic etiam per unius Jesus Christi justiciam donum sive beneficium Dei redundavit in omnes homines ad justificationem vitae Any Man that shall reade with a single eye what Calvin himself hath written upon the said Contexture of Scriptures cannot judge him an adversary to the Premised Exposition Paul saith he upon Verse 15. simply teacheth that the amplitude or compasse of the Grace purchased by Christ is greater then of the condemnation contracted by the first Man b Sed simpliciter majorem gratiae per Christum acquisitae amplitudinem esse docet quà m contractae per primum hominem damnationis Not long after The sum of all comes to this that Christ overcomes Adam the righteousness of Christ vanquisheth Adams sinne Adams malediction or curse is overwhelmed with Christs Grace the Death which proceeded from Adam is swallowed up by that Life which comes from Christ c Huc autem summa tendit quia Christus Adamum superat Hujus peccatum illius vincit justicia hujus maledictio illius obruitur gratiâ ab hoc mors profectâ illius vitâ absorbetur Doubtlesse if the curse brought upon Men by Adam prevailes and remaines still untaken off upon far the greatest part of Men it is not over-whelmed with the Grace of Christ nor is the
which is prepared or any wayes made fit for us and withall so disposed of or set in our way that we may readily and lawfully serve our selves with it is said to be GIVEN unto us by Him or them who thus prepare and dispose of it He that shall prepare wholesome and savoury Meat such as a man loveth and shall set it before Him and give Him free leave to take it or eat of it may in sufficient propriety of speech be said to GIVE this Meate unto him yea whether he takes or eats of it upon such terms or no. So God the Father having wrought and fitted the men whom Christ chose for Apostles to serve and honor Him in this capacity and withall disposed of them in their Times Residences and Conditions in the World so that Christ might both readily and lawfully call them to His Service He may very well in these respects be said to have given them unto Him Thus by a diligent and narrow inquiry into Mr. Rutherfords Scripture it evidently appears that there is nec vola nec vestigium not the least mutter or peepe of any such Notion in it as he imagineth viz. that if Christ should Offer eternall life unto any more then only unto the Elect so called by Him He must needs doe it besides His own and His Fathers Intention Here is not the least word syllable letter apex or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã concerning either the Fathers or the Sons intentions about the offer of Salvation unto Men. By the briefe Discussions of this Chapter it fully appears that all those §. 11. Texts of Scripture which offer either forgivenesse of Sins or Salvation unto all men without exception and which promise either or both these unto all men upon or upon condition of their believing which are very frequent and numerous doe with the clearest light and evidence of Truth hold forth the universality of Redemption by Christ From whence it followes in regular and due processe of reason and discourse that all they make God a lyar in such Scriptures who restrain the Salvation or Redemption purchased by Christ to any lesser number of men then All. CHAP. VIII Wherein the Scriptures of the fourth and last Association Propounded Cap. 5. Sect. 6. as pregnant also with that Great Truth hitherto Maintained are impartially Weighed and Considered VVE shall God assisting examine every of these Scriptures particularly §. 1. and so shall have occasion to exhibit the purport and tenor of them respectively as they shall be produced to act their severall parts in Order In which respect we shall not here transcribe them especially considering the Reader may with a very little paines see them in their Muster Cap. 5. Sect. 6. but shall only point at their severall Dwellings or Scituations in the Booke of God which are these Rom. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 8. 11. 2 Pet. 2. 1. 2 Pet. 2. 20. Heb. 10. 29. Mat. 18. 32 33. c. We make these Scriptures of one and the same Combination and Associate them by themselves because their import is in effect one and the same they all supposing that Christ hath Died for those who may perish notwithstanding yea for those who will perish And certainly if He Died for those who notwithstanding His Dying for them may perish yea and for those who will actually perish as well as for those who shall be saved He Died for all Men without exception For as for that opinion of the Valentine Councell in France mentioned by Estius a In 2 Pet. 2. 1. vi Jo. Ball. Covenant of Grace p. 238. and adopted by him as it seems for his own which supposeth some Reprobates as he calleth them to have been redeemed by Christ but not all this opinion I say is not like as far as I conceive to make many Proselytes nor to attract the judgements of considering Men. For if the Dying of Christ for Men be to be esteemed matter of Love to them as without all controversie and question it ought what reason can there be imagined why he should die for Apostate Reprobates who yet are that kinde of Reprobate for which only Christ Died according to that opinion rather then for those who though living and dying in unbeliefe yet never contracted the guilt of so desperate and provoking a sin But this by the way The tenor of the Scripture first in view amongst those lately appearing is §. 2. this destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ Died b Rom. 14. 15. First that the destruction here spoken of whereunto the strong Christian is so earnestly admonished and dehorted by the Apostle from exposing the weake is not any temporall destruction but that which is of body and soule for ever is more cleare then to require Proof It is not easily imaginable how or that a strong Christian or any other Man by eating meate sacrificed unto Idols should expose a weake Christian unto the danger of any other destruction but of that only which is Decreed by God against those who shall depart from the Faith or finally apostatize from the Profession of Christ Besides it is every mans Notion that this is that Destruction that first borne of things formidable and dreadfull unto the precious soules of men with which this great Apostle had so much to doe and from which the great Prize that he runs for with all his might in all his Epistles was to deliver them 2. Whereas he chargeth Men not to destroy those for whom Christ Died §. 3. though he doth not indeed suppose that all those shall be actually destroyed or perish whom another may be said to destroy i. e. to doe things tending to their destruction which is the sence of the word in this place yet this he cleerly supposeth that such men for whom Christ Died are obnoxious to destruction may be destroyed and perish everlastingly Otherwise we shall quench the spirit of his zealous tendernesse over the Precious soules of weake Christians expressed in this serious Item or charge unto others not to destroy them yea and make him speake very weakly and indeed ridiculously To admonish men in a serious and solemne manner to take heed of destroying those who are out of all possibility of being destroyed especially this being known to the Men that are thus admonished is as if a Man should seriously and affectionately intreat an Archer with his Bow and Arrowes about him to take heed of shooting too high for feare of hurting the Sun and cause him to fall down out of the firmament of Heaven If it be said yea but though it be supposed that the Persons admonished §. 4. in this case do know in in the generall that they for whom Christ Died are not under a possibility of Perishing yet they may be ignorant in Particular whether those Men whose destruction they are like to Procure or Promote by the abuse of their Christian liberty be of the number of those Men
sanguine suo redemit Quid enim gravius peccatum in Christum committi poterit quam eum occidere pro quo ipse est Mortuus I finish this account with Mr. I. Deodates glosse upon the words Perish i. e. saith he shall be in danger of wounding his Conscience mortally and whereas before through tendernesse of conscience he abhorred any thing that drew neer to Idolatry he may peradventure use himself to it to the Ship-wracke of Salvation These Expositors doe not mince the words as Piscator and some few others §. 11. doe who destroying hereby the best of the nourishment in them glosse them thus Thy weake Brother shall perish viz. as to thee or as much as lieth in thee c Peribit nempe per te quidem seu quantum per testat See also the Annotations of the English Ministers upon 1 Cor. 8. 11. I confesse such a bridle as this doth well in the lips of some other Scripture expressions which will not be ruled by the Truth without it but it incumbers the Scripture in hand and abridgeth the serviceablenesse of it For if it shall be supposed that that kinde of offender against the weak Christian of whom the Apostle here speaketh knoweth certainly before hand that his act in eating meate sacrificed unto Idolls can have no such sad effect or sequell upon it as the destruction of a weak Brother must he not needs be tempted hereby to despise the Apostles charge on that behalf being grounded mainely upon such an Assertion or Supposall and so be comforted or incouraged in his sinfull Practise To put restrictions upon Scripture Phrases or Assertions without necessity and this demonstrable either from other Scriptures or unquestionable grounds of Reason is not to interpret the Scriptures now in being but upon the matter to make new If it be replied in favour of the said limitation or explication of Piscator §. 12. that there will be great weight and force enough to command the Consciences of Men in the Apostles argument and to take them off from abuse of their liberty though it should be supposed that there is only a tendency in such a Practise towards the destruction of weak Believers whether it be supposed that such Persons may actually Perish and be destroyed or not I answer there can be no tendency supposed in any action or meanes towards an impossibility For that which is simply impossible or which is the same in effect impossible upon a condition that is immutable and cannot faile is never the more possible nor any whit neerer unto being upon any other account or for any thing whatsoever that can be done Therefore there is nothing can be done with any tendency towards the effecting of such a thing Besides were it granted that there is a tendency in such a Practise the forbearance whereof the Apostle urgeth towards the destruction of a weake Brother yea and further that this Practise in respect of such a tendency in it were sinfull yet would there be very little in either or both of these to deter men from such a Practise unlesse it be withall supposed that that sad effect whereunto the said tendency is acknowledged to relate may possibly be Effected or Produced by it For the more secure a sinner may be that his sinfull Practise will not be so sadly consequenced as the Nature and Property of it only considered it might very possibly be the greater tentation lieth upon him to adventure upon it The confidence which Judas had that his act in betraying his Master would not have been accompanied with His Death but that he would now as severall times before he had done finde some way or other to make an escape from those into whose hands He was betrayed was one maine thing which betrayed Him into the deadly snare of that most abominable fact For it is said that when Judas saw that he was condemned which implies that this was more then He feared or expected notwithstanding his act in betraying Him he repented himself c. and cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple and departed and went and hanged Himself a Mat. 27. 3 5 Thirdly and lastly the mention and tender of an impossible effect by way of motive to over-rule the Consciences of men against a Practice in one kinde or other whereunto they are inclined is little lesse then ridiculous especially when the said impossibilitie is presumed to be known before hand to him the over ruling of whose Conscience is attempted thereby Suppose I be full of this Perswasion 1. That I am a true Believer 2. That being such I am under an impossibility ever to fall away so as to Perish and under this double Perswasion were very much addicted to such or such a sinfull course the consideration of my falling away and perishing were the most improper and impertinent argument that lightly could be Pressed upon me to perswade me out of the Way and Practice of my sin But some as willing to break loose from the Scripture in hand as the former §. 13. yet being not satisfied with their Projection for an escape trie the same conclusion another way and by another device The Apostle say they calls a weak Professor of the Gospell by the name of a Brother not as if it could be demonstratively known that he is a Brother indeed but because others stand bound by the Law of Charity to judge him such after the same manner he saith that Christ died for him not as if he would have men to believe this according to the judgement or with the certainty of Faith but only with the judgement of Charity Upon this supposall they draw up the Apostles argument for him thus thy Brother shall perish for whom c. i. e. by the abuse of thy knowledge thou mayst be the destruction of him whom thou art bound in Charity to look upon as thy Brother in Christ and one of those for whom Christ died But 1. Why stand we not bound to believe only with the judgement of Charity and not with the certainty of Faith that Christ is the Son of God or Saviour of the World c. as well as to believe only after this manner that he may perish for whom Christ died this latter being as positively as cleerly as roundly and fully asserted by the Holy Ghost as either of the former Or what is such a liberty of Interpreting Scriptures as this being interpreted but an effectuall door opened for the reducing of all things whatsoever in matters of Religion yea the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures themselves to the judgement of Charity and consequently to the casting the judgement of Faith out of doores But 2. To enjoyn me a beliefe only according to the judgement of Charity §. 14. where a belief according the judgement of Faith would be ten times more beneficiall and serviceable unto me for the preserving of me from sin especially when the ground-work of
them and they shall afflict them foure hundred yeares a Gen. 15. 13. And 2. Though there be a sence wherein all things are said to be theirs the Saints All things are yours b 1 Cor. 3. 22 c. yet wicked Men are in no other sence here said to be theirs then that wherein Paul Apollos and Cephas are said to be theirs Therefore as it doth no wayes argue that Paul Apollos and Cephas were bought by Christ for slaves because they are here said to be the Saints i. e. for their service and benefit so neither doth it prove that wicked or impenitent Men were bought for slaves by Him because they are here said to be theirs also or because in some sence they are or may be serviceable to them Some seeme to grant upon the accompt of the Scripture in hand that §. 27. Christ did buy some Reprobates viz. such as are spoken of herein and afterwards See Mr. I. Ball Covenant of Grace p. 238. 239. more fully described in the Chapter but say they this concludes not the question in Hand unlesse it can be shewed that there is the same reason of all Reprobates For they say on the thing to be proved is that Christ Died equally for all and every Man And it is one thing to die for the Reprobate in some sence and to die for them with an intention and purpose to save them and if Christ Died for some and but some that perish in a manner not common to all and every Man it is manifest He died not equally for all Men. How unlike Himselfe is the Author in these Passages or what Pen ever dropt such Divinity as this with that which followes in the same Contexture of Discourse besides For 1. is it reasonable to demand a Proofe that there is the same reason of all Reprobates viz. in all circumstances or in every respect to evince this that Christ Died equally for them all Suppose some of them be greater sinners and some lesser and sufficient proofe can be made that Christ Died for the greater sinners amongst them which the Author of the said passages plainely grants is it a reasonable ground of deniall that He died for the rest that they are lesser sinners then they Or suppose there can be ten thousand differences shewed between Reprobates and Reprobates yet if there be none of them competent to evince a difference in the intentions of Christ in or about His dying for them they are all of them put together of no consideration at all to prove that Christ Died not equally for them nor yet to infringe their Assertion who affirme He did As suppose some of them be Taylors others Carpenters a third part Mariners or the like such differences as these though never so many are no ground whereon to conclude that Christ Died not equally for them all Secondly whereas He makes this the state of the Question between Him §. 28. and His Antagonists whether Christ Died equally for all and every Man or no confident I am that this is a very palpable mistake especially if by equally He meanes as meane He must if He meanes to speake congruously to the interest of his own Discourse intentions of procuring them by His Death the actuall injoyment of equall conveniences equall opportunities equall accommodations in every kinde for their respective Salvations For certainly no Remonstrant was ever dis-sensed to such a degree as to hold that Christ intended in or by His Death to purchase any such uniformity of Divine dispensations in the Government of the World at the Hand of God that all and every Man for example should injoy a Ministry of the same Efficacy and Power for Conversion Edification Establishment c. or that all and every Man should be disposed of unto callings equally free from and equally subject unto Temptations Occasions Opportunities of sinning c. with twenty and ten Particulars more of like consideration which might readily be instanced nor was ever any contra-Remonstrant ingaged or occasioned by any Adversary to remonstrate against any such Opinion as this But the Question between them touching the intentions of God and of Christ in His Death was whether God did not as truly as really as cordially intend the Salvation of one Man as another considered as Men in or by Christs Death That God in His Providentiall dispensations putteth a difference between one Mans spirituall opportunities and anothers doth at no hand argue any different intentions in Him towards the one and the other in Christs Death but may flow from severall other Principles or Causes as either from a different use and improvement in Men of their originall stocks of Grace or from different applications that have been made unto God by others as in Prayer Intercession c. in the behalf of some in respect of others or from different respects borne by God to the Parents or Forefathers of some in regard of their signall Piety and Serviceablenesse to His great Name in their Generations above others or lastly from the Wisdome of God in conjunction with His Goodnesse in and about the government of the World according unto which He judgeth it most expedient as well for His own Glory as for the comfort and equitable consideration of His Saints and such as walk before Him with upright and perfect hearts to make or to permit all that variety and disparity which is now seene in the World in the spirituall conveniences or accommodations of Men some Mens Proportion and allowance in this kinde being but the Omer and other Mens the Ephah which the Scripture makes ten times larger then the other a Exod. 16. 36 From some or all of these considerations and possibly from some others besides these that inequality mentioned between Men and Men in the injoyment of the meanes of Grace may very probably arise so that there is not the least colour of a necessity to resolve it into any difference of intentions in God in the Death of Christ And if difference of meanes vouchsafed unto Men would argue different intentions in God touching their respective Salvation in the attonement made by Christs Death it will be found every whit as true that Christ Died not equally for the Elect themselves as that He died not equally for all Reprobates Nay if an estimate be made of the Intentions of God in the Death of Christ concerning the Salvations of Men by this Rule it will be found that He bare more gracious intentions in the Death of Christ towards many Reprobates and their Salvation then towards many of the Elect or of those who in the end come to be saved For nothing is more evident then that many Perish under greater and more excellent meanes of Salvation then are vouchsafed unto many others who yet are saved thereby b Mat. 8 10. and Mat. 15. 28 compared with C. 11. 10. 21 c. So that it is a reasoning of no value which concludeth
same Apostle saith that God hath purchased the Church with his own blood b Acts 20. 28 why do they not gloss here God hath purchased the Church with c. i. e. the Church PROFESSETH her self thus purchased c. Partiality in Interpretation of Scripture is every whit as bad and Unchristian as in civill Judicatures Secondly the great sin by which these false Teachers are said to bring §. 35. swift damnation upon themselves is said to be their denying the Lord that bought them If then they denied this Lord that bought them how can these Expositors say that they professed themselves bought by Him If it be replied they might formerly professe themselves bought by Him though afterwards they denied Him and the Apostle may charge them with sin in their present deniall of him upon the account of their former profession I answer that if formerly they professed themselves bought by him but were not indeed so bought and afterwards coming to understand or apprehend the truth viz. that they were not so bought they are not at all to be blamed for denying themselves to have been bought by him or for denying that he bought them To deny that to be so which is not so especially when a Man verily believes and apprehends it not to be is no Mans sin Or if it be further pleaded in favour of the said glosse that these false Teachers might at the same time when they professed themselves bought by Chrisâ deny him viz. in a consequentiall way as either by teaching such hereticall Doctrines which overthrew his God-head Man-hood c. or else by an impious conversation I answer 1. That if they professed themselves bought by him they could not lightly teach or hold forth any Doctrine wherein they should deny either his God-head Man-hood Satisfaction or any other thing relating to him without which he could not in a rationall way have made such a purchase of them Or 2. If they did teach any such Doctrine it must be supposed that they did it unwittingly and because they apprehended nothing in it of any inconsistency with their profession of being bought by Christ For it is not to be thought that Men will willingly and knowingly teach contradictions or teach any opinion which they apprehend contradictory to what they daily professe to believe Now for a Man unwittingly and contrary to his intention and desire to teach such a Doctrine which consequently involves or leads unto an opinion that is dangerous and damnable is nothing but what is incident to the best and most approved Teachers as I could readily demonstrate by many instances and therefore not like to be a sin of such high provocation as to bring swift damnation upon them But 3. and lastly that the Apostle doth not speake of any such deniall of the Lord Christ by these false Teachers which is by workes or by wickednesse of life and conversation but of Doctrine is evident enough by the expresse tenor and carriage of the words themselves But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying c. which cleerly sheweth that the deniall of the Lord here charged upon false Teachers stood not in works but in words in false Hereticall and damnable Teachings Therefore they are not they cannot be here said to have been bought by Christ because they professed themselves to have been redeemed by him Some to evade that mortall stroke which the Scripture in hand reacheth §. 36. to that opinion which denieth a possibility of perishing in those who are truly bought and Redeemed by Christ not being satisfied with any of the former come-offs have devised this The Lord say they is said to have bought these false Teachers not because he really indeed and in truth bought them but because in the opinion and judgement of Men he had bought them they were looked upon as persons Redeemed and bought by Him And to credit this Interpretation they alledge severall Texts where things or persons are said to be so or so such or such not because they were really that which they are said to be but only because they were this in appearance or according to the common estimate of Men. As Mat. 9. 13. Joh. 9. 39. Mat. 13. 12. com ãâ¦ã ed with Luk. 8. 18. But this colour is as faint as any of the former and as easily washed off And 1. It is very questionable whether in any of these places either things or persons receive any denomination meerly from appearance or opinion of Men. Many things might be argued and that with much probability in oppositum But concerning the first of the places most certaine it is that there is no such notion to be found there For that by the righteous whom Christ saith that he came not to call to Repentance should be meant righteous only in shew or in the opinion of Men whether themselves or others and not righteous truly and properly so called contradicts the manifest and declared intentions of Christs comming into the World which are frequently avouched and found to be the calling of sinners of all sorts kinds and degrees unto Repentance and therefore of Hypocrites also as well as others and of persons conceited in the highest of their own Righteousnesse See Mat. 3. 7 8. c. 1 Tim. 1. 12 13 14 15. compared with Philip. 3. 6 7 c. to omit many other places of like import Besides the occasion and tendency of our Saviours Words are of pregnant eviction that by righteous he meanes persons truly such and not in conceit or opinion only He was charged as with matter of undue deportment in eating with Publicans and Sinners For his justification he pleads that the whole have no need of a Physician but the sick meaning that as the calling of the Physician is no wayes necessary in respect of those that are strong healthfull and sound but only of the sick so neither had His comming into the World been of any such necessity as now it was but for sinners and that had Men been righteous and spiritually sound there had been no need of His comming unto them And therefore as a Physician is not to be blamed for conversing with the sick in as much as the nature and end of his calling requires his presence with them and not with those that are sound so neither was he to be blamed for being in the company of sinners seeing the great end and intent of his calling to the Office of a Saviour was not to save or to be helpfull unto such as were righteous who upon such an account stood in no need of him but to administer comfort and help unto sinners who without help from him must needs perish Now certaine it is that the righteous whom Christ compares unto the whole who in that respect need no Physician are not men righteous in shew or in opinion only for these
implacable that doe not forgive their Brethren although they have been diversly and grievously injured by them In these words they clearly suspend the Gracious Act of God in Remission of Sins in respect of the ultimate and compleat exercise of it upon the Christian deportment and behaviour of Men in forgiving one another their Trespasses How perfectly it stands with the immutability of God the unchangeablenesse of his love the unalterablenesse of his counsells and generally with all his Attributes to Reverse Acts or Grants of favour to re-demand debts once forgiven c. shall be cleer'd in the processe of the Digression following occasioned by the contents of this Chapter CHAP. IX Containing a Digression about the commonly received Doctrine of Perseverance occasioned by severall passages in the preceding Chapter wherein the benefit and comfort of that Doctrine which teacheth a possibility of the Saints declining even to destruction is avouched and cleerly evicted above the other NOtwithstanding the frequently experienced Truth of the common saying §. 1. pessimus Consiliarius Timor Fear is a very bad counsellor yet is it very incident to the natures of Men never to thinke themselves wiser then in their feares nor to be more importunely wedded to any apprehensions then those which they conceive to be sovereigne for the prevention of evill With what height of confidence and unrelentingnesse of judgement did the Jewes please themselves in their opinion of justification by works through an apprehension that they must needs disclaime or reject Moses and the authority of his Law or Writings in case they admitted the Doctrine of Paul concerning Justification by Faith Whereas this Apostle expresly poves and demonstrates unto them that this Doctine of his was so far from reflecting prejudice in the least upon Moses his Law that indeed it did establish it i. e. avouch the Truth and authority of it a Rom. 3. 31. and cap. 4. thoroughout yea I verily believe that a very considerable part of those Doctrines and Tenents which are at this day held by Professors of Christian Religion are not maintained or held by them so much upon any evidence or confidence they have of their Truth upon those positive grounds whether from Scripture or Reason which they comonly plead for them as out of apprehensions and conceits that the contrary Doctrines are of evill consequence and will in one kinde or other doe them harme in case they should give intertainment to them Lactantius reports that one principall thing which intangled the Heathen with Idolatry or worse shiping of Idols was a certaine feare or conceit that possessed them that all their Religion or devotions would be in vaine in case they saw not with their eyes something that they might worship b Verentur geâtes ne Religio vana sit si nihil videant quod adorent Tertullian as Austin reports who held the Soul to be corporeall or a body held it upon the account of this feare least if he made not a body of it he should make nothing at all of it a âenique Tertullianâ qui cor pââ esse unâam credâ dit non obaliud nisi quod eam incorporeâm cogita re non potuit âdâô timuit ne nihil esset si corpus non esset Aug. de Gen. ad lit l. 12. c. 25. The ancient Jewes Mr. Brightman affirmeth it held it not meet for young Men to read the Book of the Canticles out of a feare they would receive harm by it b In Cantic p. 5. Mercer likewise relates that the Ancient wise Men of this Nation judged it best to restraine the common People from reading the Booke of Ecclesiastes out of a conceit that it both contradicted it selfe and other parts of Scripture likewise c Nec vulgo legendum tradere quòd repugnantia contineret aliis libris contraria Mercer in Pro. 8. 9. Luther it is sufficiently known rejected the Epistle of James out of a conceit that it contradicted the Doctrine of Paul concerning Justification by Faith only And severall others both learned and good Men some the second Epistle of Peter some other pieces only or chiefly upon the like account of fear Concerning the Doctrine which maintaineth a possibility of defection in §. 2. the Saints themselves or true Believers unto destruction though I am not ignorant but that many both Texts of Scripture and arguments otherwise have been levied and are wont to be brought into the field against it yet I verily believe that that which makes Professors generally so impatiently zealous in their opposition to it is not so much any satisfaction they finde either in these Scriptures or arguments for the Proof of that which is contrary unto it as their inconsiderate and tumultuary feares least this Doctrine should bereave them of those inward accommodations of Peace and Comfort which they conceive themselves to be befriended with by the other In this respect being little lesse then necessitated for the securing of some passages in the former Chapter very materiall for the carrying on the maine designe of this Discourse to ingage a little about the Doctrine of Perseverance I conceive it best in my entrance hereupon to remove this stumbling stone out of the way and to demonstrate not only that this Doctrine hath every whit as faire and full a consistency with the Peace and Comfort of the Saints as that contrary to it but that of the two it is of a far better and more healthful complexion to make a Nurse for them When we have cleared the innocency and inoffensivenesse of it in respect of the Peace and Comfort of Men and so shall have reconciled it unto their affections it will be no great mastery I conceive to gaine in their judgements unto it afterwards And 1. I must crave leave the truth and deere interest of the precious Soules §. 3. of Men so commanding me to say and to affirme that the Doctrine of preseverance so much magnified amongst us as it is comonly taught and received is in the nature and proper tendency of it very obstructive yea and destructive unto the true peace and sound comfort of Soules For if we shall diligently inquire after the common and ordinary causes of those doubts and feares so incident to Professors of Religion as also of those extreme burnings and ragings of Conscience wherewith both such persons and others are sometimes most grievously handled and tormented we shall finde them if not universally yet generally and with very few cases of exception to be these with their fellowes negligence and slothfullnesse in watching over their hearts and wayes omission of known duties formality in services unprofitablenesse in their course and callings non-proficiency in Grace and especially the frequent prevailings breakings out of base corruptions vile affections noysome lusts c. Therefore what Doctrine soever is in the Native Frame and Constitution of it apt to lead men into such snares of Death to fill
loosing of the Soule And for the latter I meane the English Ministers and those mentioned with them there is the like consideration of these also The works of such of them as have written bewray them to have had both the Nations we speak of in their womb in which works or writings of theirs if they speak one word for a necessity of Perseverance in the Saints it is ten to one but they speak another for a possibility of such a defection which is never accompanied with Repentance For those godly Ministers now upon the Stage who are looked upon as rigid Patrons and Assertors of the received Doctrine of Perseverance the truth is that whatsoever they are in the letter of their Conclusion they are in the Spirit of their Principles and Premises builders up of that Faith which destroyes the Faith of that Doctrine most of their Sermons which any wayes relate unto that subject having Janus-like two Faces with the one of which they countenance this Doctrine and with the other that which is contrary unto it So that the experience pretended in the objection of so many pious men embracing the Doctrine of Perseverance is but a meer presumption the men generally are divided in their own judgements about the Point True it is our English Ministers and Professors more generally profess themselves for the Doctrine of Perseverance and cry out upon the Doctrine of falling away as Arminian but as it fell to Esaus lot through Divine dispensation to be first-borne and so to have the precedency of Iacob in worldly honours in respect of time though at last his Mountaine and his Heritage was laid wast a Mal. 1 3 4. for ever so it seemed good to the Providence of God that of the Doctrinall twins we speak of striving together in the wombs of the minds and judgements of those men now under consideration that of Perseverance should first lift up its head in the World and be applauded making no question withall but that the time is a comming yea and is even at the doore when this Doctrine must decrease and the contrary to it increase and be exalted in the judgements and tongues writings of Men. The maine Providentiall occasion I conceive which hath caused the Doctrine of Perseverance to flourish hitherto like a greene bay Tree in this Land as it hath done was the Permission of Mr. Perkins his judgement to be over-ruled on this hand by those Texts of Scripture some or all of them together with those reasons which are commonly at this day insisted upon for the Proof of this Doctrine The great worth of the Man otherwise commended his Opinion unto many far above the worth thereof And it being so incident unto men malle credere quam judicare rather to believe then Omnes malumus credere quam judicaâe Sen. judge and again to believe persons reputed singularly Pious and learned rather then others it may very well be conceived how by the authority and repute of this worthy Instrument of God in His Generation this land should come to be so generally levened as it is not so much indeed with the opinion it self of which we speak as with the Profession of it Before his dayes this Doctrine found no such generall applause or intertainment amongst conscientious Persons in this Land and many of the learned Martyrs in Queene Maries dayes leaned another way who likewise dessented from him in severall other Tenents about the Arminian controversies And when I consider what grudgings there are of the contrary Opinion I meane of that which avoucheth a Possibility of falling away in the judgements of the most consciencious Ministers amongst us though the streame of their Professions runs in opposition hereunto withall what Principles they cleerly and frequently hold forth especially in the applicatory Parts of their Sermons I am easily induced to believe that as by the authority of one Man or some few the Profession of such a judgement came in upon them and surprised them so likewise they want nothing in order to the Profession of a change of their judgements in the Point but only the authority and countenance of some one or some few Men of like Popular acceptance to goe before them 2. Suppose it should be granted that the godly Persons minded in the Objection as holding the Doctrine of Perseverance were perfectly whole and intire and not divided as hath been said in their judgements thereupon yet would it nâ wayes follow from hence that therefore this Doctrine was any wayes accessory to that godlinesse whereof they gave so good an accompt in their lives and conversations These men I presume held many Principles of Christian Religion which taught them to live godâily righteously and soberly in this present World So that if they did live according to all these worthy and commendable straines of Christianity yet is there no necessity of entituling the Doctrin of Perseverance held by them either in whole or in part thereunto 3. Concerning the Persons chiefly intended in the Objection for the confirmation §. 26. of the experience therein averred on the left hand who I suppose were the worst of our late Bishops such as Romanized and Tyrannized most amongst them together with their Clergy creatures and favourites who were generally inclined to the Doctrine of falling away and with all took more liberty in their lives then men truly Religious ought to have done my Answer is 1. That as was said concerning the godlinesse of the other that it did not necessarily flow from the Doctrine of Perseverance either as held or professed by them so neither did that loosenesse or unworthinesse in any kinde which was found in these necessarily no nor so much as probably arise from that Opinion concerning the possibility of a totall and finall defection in the Saints professed by them They held other Principles more then enough sufficient to teach them all that irregularnesse and unrighteousnesse of conversation which can with truth be charged on them So that neither the good nor the bad neither the godly nor the ungodly deportments of persons professing such or such particular Doctrines principles or opinions are any demonstrative no nor yet so much as any Dialecticall or probable arguments either of truth or error in them The Scribes and Pharises were full of all Hypocrisie and unrighteousnesse yet did they hold and teach many Doctrines that were sound in so much that the Lord Christ himself commanded his own Disciples to observe and doe whatsoever they taught as necessary to be observed a Mat. 23. 3. And if the soundnesse or rottenesse of Opinions should be estimated by the goodnesse or badnesse of the lives of any parcell or number of persons professing them as well the Opinion of Atheisme which denies the being of any God as the Opinion of Polytheisme which affirmes a plurality of Gods must be esteemed better and more sound then that which maintaineth the being of one God and
making away themselves or destroying their own lives though there be no absolute Decree of God to secure them in this behalf the Naturall desire of self-preservation which God hath planted in them easily over ruling by the Power and Strength of it all motions âor dispositions towards self-destroying which are wont to arise from such occasions in like manner the strength of that inclination or desire which is or ought to be and very possibly as hath been Proved might be in the Saints to save their Soules and consequently to preserve themselves from apostasie is sufficient without any such Decree in God as was mentioned to secure them both from all danger and from all feare of apostatizing to destruction notwithstanding all weaknesses or infirmities that they are subject unto The truth is that the infirmities and weaknesses of the Saints as such are so far from being any necessary or just ground of fear unto them that they shall fall away that the sence and acknowledgement of them are most cleer pregnant and effectuall Antidotes and Preservatives against falling away For he that is inwardly and truly sensible of his own weaknesse and inability to stand will especially being a Saint or Believer most certainly depend upon him for strength who is both able and willing to supply and furnish him upon such terms 3. And lastly upon the former accompt and for a close of this Chapter §. 36. I answer that if the Doctrine of falling away be so uncomfortable unto the Saints as the objection pretends the truth is as we have in the Premisses of this Chapter made it to appear they are not much relieved at this Point by the Received Doctrine of Perseverance For this Doctrine as hath been shewed scarce suffereth any man to believe upon any Rationall competent or sufficient grounds that he is a true Saint or Believer yea and doth little lesse then tempt him to such things which are exceeding apt and likely to fill him with feares and questionings touching the truth of his Faith And what great comfort can it then be unto him to hear or believe that true Believers cannot fall away or perish whereas the other Doctrine leaveth them a good latitude of competent ground whereon to judge themselves true Saints and true Believers nor doth it deprive them of sufficient ground on which to secure themselves both against the danger and against all feare of the danger of Apostatizing or falling away to Perdition This Doctrine therefore of the two is questionless of the more benevolous aspect and influence upon the Peace and Comforts of the Saints CHAP. X. A Continuation of the former Digression wherein the Texts of Scripture commonly alledged to prove the impossibility of Saints declining unto Death are taken into consideration and discharged from that Service BEing occasioned and after a sort necessitated for the securing of §. 1. some passages of interpretation Cap. 8. being of main concernment to the Principall cause undertaken in this Discourse to ingage home in the Question about Preseverance I should according to ordinary Method and that hitherto observed in the traverse of the maine Doctrine first have argued my Sence and Judgement in the Question ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã assertively and then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. by answering such Objections whether from Scripture or otherwise which are wont to be levied by Men of contrary judgement in opposition thereunto But finding by experience that weaker men through too much fulnesse and aboundance in their own sence in matters of Controversie and this chiefly by meanes of some Texts of Scripture running still and working in their heads which in sound of words and surface of Letter seeme to stand by them in their Sence and Notion are under a very great disadvantage either for minding or understanding such things which are spoken unto them for their information in the Truth I thought it best for their relief in this case to invert that Method in the present Dispute and first to endeavour to take from them those weapons whether of Scripture or argument wherein they trust and afterwards present them with such other Scriptures and grounds which are Able Pregnant and Proper to build them up and establish them in the Truth We shall not tie our selves to any Rule or Prescript of Order in bringing §. 2. those Scriptures upon the theatre of our Discourse which men of differing judgement in the cause in hand are wont to plead in defence thereof themselves as far as I have observed observing none but shall produce them one by one as God shall please to bring them to mind unlesse haply two or more of them by reason of affinity or likenesse in Phrase or import may commodiously enough be handled together Most of the places compelled to serve in this warfare I finde scituate in the New Testament The first that commeth to hand is that of our Saviour unto Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it a Mat. 16. 18 From hence it is argued that those that are once built by Faith upon the Rock Christ or upon the truth of the Gospell are not in danger or in a possibility of being prevailed against viz. to destruction by all the Powers of darkness whatsoever I answer 1. That this promissory assertion of Christ the Gates of Hell shall not prevaile §. 3. c. doth not necessarily respect every individuall and single Person who de praesenti is a Member of his Church so as to secure him of his Salvation against all possible sins or wayes of sinning whereunto he may or can be drawn by Satan but may well be understood of the Church in generall i. e. considered as a body of men separate and distinguished from the world Now the Church in this sence may be said to stand and be secured against all the Power and Attempts of the Devill though not only some but even all the Particular Saints of which this body consists at present should be prevailed against by Satan to destruction Because the ratio formalis or essence of the Church in this sence doth not consist in the Persons of those who do at present believe and so are members of it for then it would follow that in case these should die or when they shall die Christ should have no Church at all upon the Earth in as much as nothing can be without the essence of it but in the successive Generation of those who in their respective times believe whether they be fewer or whether they be more whether they be such and such Persons or whether others As suppose there be not now one drop of that Water in the chanell of the River of Thames as it is like there is not which was in it seven years since yet is it one and the same River which it was then and so put the case there be not one Person now alive in any
whatsoever opposeth the happiness of it being so built and adhering constantly and perseveringly unto him For the Pronounce Relative ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it doth not Relate to the Verb ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will build but to the Substantive ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Church 2. Whereas in the said Proposition Christs building of His Church is expounded by the constant adhering of this Church unto him that which is the Principall thing in question is taken for granted which is very in-argumentative For the matter in question is whether the Church of Christ in all the members of it once built upon the Rock must or doth necessarily so adhere to him 3. And lastly the said exposition renders a sence very preposterous and importune For upon this account Christ should speak at no better Rate of of Reason then thus The Gates of Hell shall not prevaile i. e. the Subtilty Policy and Machinations of Satan shall not be able to seduce those that are built upon the Rock i. e. that constantly adhere unto Christ Which amounts to no more then if he should have said the Devill shall not be able to make those inconstant who shall be and remaine constant or to cause those who shall firmly adhere unto Christ not to adhere firmly to him Which strain of discourse whether it becomes him who spake as never man spake I leave unto sober men to judg Another Argument urged by some against the interpretation given is §. 8. this If by the prevailing of the Gates of Hell be meant nothing else but the eternall condemnation of or perpetuall prevailing of Death against the Church then Christ here promiseth nothing but only in the behalf of those that are Dead and consequently nothing but what may stand with a totall defection of his Church on Earth But this seems to be contrary to his intention in the place Ergo. I answer 1. It is no inconvenience to suppose or grant that Christ in this place and in the Promise here mentioned doth not insure the perpetuall continuance or Residence of a Church on Earth no more then he doth in many other Promises which yet are of very high and blessed importance in their Respective kinds In that great Evangelicall Promise whosoever believes shall be saved there is nothing but what may possibly stand with an universall defection of a Church on earth yet is the Promise great and Precious It were easie to instance many others of like nature But 2. As in the Promise last mentioned though there be nothing which necessarily includes an un-interrupted succession of Believers in the World yet is there that which exceeding much conduceth towards the propagation and raising of such a succession as viz. a promissory proposall of the greatest reward that is unto whosoever shall believe even no lesse then that of eternall life so may it be said concerning this Promise of Christ And the Gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it Here is enough said if Men would but consider and quit themselves like Men to replenish the Earth with a Generation of Believers like unto the Waters of a River which fayle not Therefore 3. And lastly It is not truly said that this Promise And the Gates of Hell shall not c. in the sence asserted relates only to those that are dead The truth is that if we speak properly neither this nor any other promise whatsoever relates only if at all unto the dead or is made only on the behalf of the Dead the Dead in propriety of Speech are utterly uncapable of Promises though not of performances of Promises But cleerly this and all other Promises are made to the living and for their accommodation and comfort though for the letter and reality of the performance of them they are not to be partakers hereof untill they have undergone the state and condition of Death It is just matter of joy unspeakeable and glorious to him that is yet living to know and consider that though he dieth yet death shall not have any such dominion over him but what he shall shake off and that with a blessed advantage and conquest in due time But this exception against the exposition asserted is but like a moat in the Sun which darkeneth not at all the Rayes or light thereof but only gaines by being here a discovery of it felf to be a thing inconsiderable and next to nothing Another passage of Scripture compell'd to bear the Crosse of the same service §. 9. with the former is that Mat. 24. 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible they shall or should deceive the very elect From hence it is inferr'd that the deceiving or seducement of those who truly believe is a thing impossible But whether the drawing of such conclusions as this from such Scriptures as that be not a drawing of darkness out of light the considerations ensuing will be competent enough to determine 1. In their Notion who trie to fetch the Water of Perseverance out of the Flint of the Scripture mentioned the word Elect doth not signifie Saints or true Believers but such as they suppose to have been in a personall consideration chosen by God from eternity out of the great body of mankinde with an intent to save them against all possible interveniencies or oppositions whatsoever Now that such as these at least before their calling are as liable to be deceived or seduced as other Men is their own confession without feare And the Apostle Paul to whom questionlesse they will not deny the grace of their Election acknowledgeth himself with Titus to have sometimes been foolish disobedient and DECEIVED a T it 3. 3. Yea 2. It is frequently confessed by the same party that such Elect as they meane and we lately described may even after they are called and have believed by the Just and Wise sufferance of God fall into Heresie and this in fundamentall Points yea and into that fearfull sin of an abnegation and abjuration of Christ and Christian Religion If so then certainly there is no impossibility of their seduction Yea the great Patrons of the Doctrine of Perseverance which managed the Conference at the Hague about these Questions Anno. 1611. acknowledged that even true Believers may fall so far as that the Church according to the command of Christ shall be compelled to testifie against them that they cannot beare or tolerate them in their outward communion and that they shall have no part in the Kingdome of Christ except they repent or be converted b Dâinde respondemus ad minorem fieri posse ut vere fideles eo prolabantur ut Ecclesia ex mandato Christi cogatur pronunciare se in externa sua communione tolerare non posse neque cos partem in regno Christi habituros nist resipiscant Collat. Hag. p. 399. Doubtlesse they who having once truly believed become
sinneth not nor doth the Apostle John affirm it as hath been cleerly shewed in any such sence If by Sinneth not the Argument meaneth walketh not ordinarily or §. 28. customarily in any known way or course of sin maketh not as it were a Trade or Occupation of sinning which we have formerly proved to be the sence of the Phrase ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Scriptures and more particularly in the writings of this Apostle a Cap. 9. Sect. 11. the said minor proposition is granted as to this clause whosoever is borne of God Sinneth not For that further clause in it neither can Sin this also as to the Scripture use of the words can and cannot is very ambiguous and of doubtfull signification For 1. a Man may be said to can or to be able to doe a thing when the thing is meet or comely for him to doe and in opposition hereunto when a thing is uncomely or unmeet to be done by him it may be said of him in Scripture Phrase that he cannot doe it How then saith Ioseph to his mistrisse CAN I doe this great wickednesse and Sin against God b Gen. 39. 9 which is as if he had plainly said I cannot doe it So againe Can the children of the bride-chamber mourne saith Christ as long as the Bridegroome is with them c Mat. 9. 15 meaning that it was an irrationall or uncomely thing for them so to doe and in this respect saith he they cannot doe it Thus Exod. 8. 26. where our English Translators reade It is not meet so to doe Ierom Translated it Non potest ita fieri i. e. it cannot so be done Thus also the Apostle Paul to spare other places For we CAN doe nothing against the truth d 2 Cor. 13. 8 c. meaning that it was a most unworthy and unseemly thing for him to act in any kinde against the truth or to the prejudice of the Gospell and in this respect he saith that he could not doe it * See also 1 Cor. 3. 1. 1 Cor. 10. 21 12 21 Gal. 4. 15. Luke 6. 42. Gen. 24. 50. 29 8 c. Secondly a person may be said to can or to be able to doe such or such a thing when being otherwise provided of strength sufficient He is under a present disposition or inclination of minde and will to do it In this sence the Lord Christ is said to can or to be able to have compassion on the ignorant Heb. 5. 2. and in opposition hereunto when a Man wants such a disposition especially when a contrary disposition rules in him it may in Scripture language be said of him that he cannot do it Thus it is said of the Lord Christ himself that being in his own Country He COVLD there do no mighty work d Mark 6. 5 meaning that he had no disposition of mind or will hereunto and this because of the general unbelief of the People here as one of the Evangelists accounteth for otherwise his naturall or executive power of doing mighty workes was the same here which it was in other places So he demands of the Pharises How CAN yee being evill speake good things a Mat. 12. 34 implying that having a disposition in them contrary unto that by which Men are inclined to speak good things they were as Men unable and wanting Power to speak such things Again speaking to the same Generation of Men he demands Why doe yee not understand my speech and answers his own question thus even because yee CANNOT hear my Word b Ioh. 8. 43 meaning that they ãâã a mervellous averse disposition as to the hearing or minding of it which he plainly signifieth in the words immediately following yee are of your Father the Devill c. i. e. you are of a devillish disposition enemies unto God and goodnesse and this renders you unable to hear i. e. duely to minde and consider my words This signification of the word cannot is most frequent in Scripture See further upon this account Gen. 37. 4. Rev. 2. 2. Mat. 20. 22. Mar. 9. 39. Luke 11. 7. 14. 20. c. Thirdly the word cannot sometimes notes only the difficulty of a thing to be performed In this sence our Saviour approving that saying of his Disciples It is good not to marry saith thus All Men CANNOT receive this saying c Mat. 19. 11 c. meaning that it was very difficult for some Men to acknowledge the goodnesse of that saying in reference to themselves or to refraine marrying For that it was not or is not simply impossible for any Man in this sence to receive the said saying or to judge the forbearance of marriage good for him and to forbeare accordingly is in selfe evident and besides may be inferr'd from these words of our Saviour following and there be Eunuches which have made themselves Eunuches for the Kingdome of Heavens sake He that is able to receive it i. e. whose heart serves him to encounter and engage against the difficulty and shall overcome it let him receive it i. e. Let him forbeare to marry For concerning those of whom he saith that they have made themselves Eunuches for c. evident it is that he meaneth not by them either such who by nature are indisposed to marriage nor such upon whom an incapacity in this kinde hath been forced for of these he had spoken plainely in the former part of the Verse but of such who had over-ruled and vanquished their inclinations and desires that way by the weight and great import of spirituall considerations proper to obtain a conquest of that nature In this sence also Amaziah the Priest of Bethel saith concerning the Prophet Amos that the Land is not able to or cannot beare all his words d Amos 7. 10 i. e. can hardly beare them without falling soule up on him because of them So when our Saviour saith A City that is set on an Hill CANNOT be hid e Mat. 5. 14 he doth not import an absolute impossibility of the hiding of it for doubtlesse there may be means found out to hide a City so scituate as well as another standing in a valley but only a difficulty thereof * See also Gen. 32. 12 Gen. 45. 1. Exod. 7. 21. 24. Fourthly the Word or Phrase we speak of cannot sometimes imports only a present incapacity in a Person for the doing of a thing when there is a remote Principle or Power in him notwithstanding to doe it Thus God Himself saith to his Prophet Ezekiel Thou art not sent to a People of a strange speech or of an hard language whose words thou CANST NOT understand f Ezek. 3. 6 implying that there were some People whose words he could not understand viz. de praesenti for the present not but that there was a Principle of reason and understanding in him by the improvement whereof accordingly he might come in time to be very able to understand them
of being as also because it is naturally apt to produce and yeild such bodies or things which according to the course of Nature are corruptible likewise in like manner the seed of the Word of God is not therefore said to be an incorruptible seed because it cannot be taken from or forsaken by those in whom it hath a residence for the present but because whether it be taken or not taken from whether it be forsaken or not forsaken by these it retaines its proper Nature which is to be incorruptible For it is meerly extrinsecall and accidentall to the Word of God to be either imbraced or refused to be either retained or let goe or lost by Men nor doe any of these things make the least alteration in the nature of it no more then the taking up or removing a corne of Wheat or of any other corruptible graine from the Ground or Field wherein at present it resteth or the letting of it there alone altereth the Nature or Essentiall Properties thereof But 2. It may be some question whether by the seed of God in the Scripture §. 34. in hand said to remaine in him that is borne of him be meant precisely the Word of God and not rather that which the Scripture elsewhere calls the Divine Nature which is the proper effect of the Word of God according to that of Peter Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature c 2 Pet. 1. 4 c. together with that of the Apostle James Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth d Iames 1 18 c. If you ask me what this Divine Nature is I answer it is a certaine Heavenly impression made by the Gospel in or upon the Heart or Soul of a Man or a Divine Principle Quality or Disposition wrought in him by the Word of God by which he resembles God Himself and is effectually inclin'd to walke and act according to those Principles of Righteousnesse and Holinesse in all things appertaining unto him to doe by which God Himself walketh and âacteth in the World If you aske me further but why doe I conceive that by the seed of God in the Scripture in hand the Apostle should meane such an impression or disposition as this I answer because some such thing must of necessity be meant by it which is very spiritfull vigorous and active in turning the Heart and Soul of a Man against sin First the metaphoricall expression of seed importeth as much I meane somewhat that is very spirituous full of Vigor Power and Efficacy in the kinde of it Naturall Philosophy and experience joyntly teach that it is the nature of Seed to be full of spirits and thereby exceedingly vigorous and operative Secondly the effect here ascribed to it the keeping or preserving of the Man in whom it remaines from sinning which requires a Principle of very great Strength and Power to effect implieth the same Now such a Principle genius or quality in a Man as the Holy Ghost calls the Divine Nature may well be conceived to be very spiritfull and vigorously operative according to the kinde and tendency of it in which respect it is frequently termed Spirit and consequently to be sufficiently active and powerfull to preserve its subject from sinning Yea our Apostle in assigning the reason of his latter Assertion in this place which is that he that is borne of God cannot Sin the reason whereof he alledgeth to be this because he is borne of God supposeth the seed here spoken of whatsoever is meant by it to be so actuous and powerfull that it doth not only actually and de facto preserve him in whom it remaines from Sinning but also renders him impotent or unable to sin For this reason because he is borne of God is the same in effect and for substance with that of the former assertion for his seed abideth in him only it doth somewhat more emphatically import that the reason why the Seed of God remaining in a Man is so potently exclusive of sin in the same subject with it is the absolute Holinesse or most perfect hatred of sin which is in God Himself of whom the Person is begotten againe by such his seed As the reason why a Lion hath courage strength and other like leonine Properties is because he came of a Lion a Creature naturally endued with the same Properties But whatsoever is here meant by the Seed of God whether the Word of God or the Divine Nature so notioned as hath been described evident it is by what hath been argued that no inseparablenesse of it from the present subject nor consequently any impossibility of falling away from Faith can be inferr'd from any thing spoken of it as attributed to it in this Place There is only one objection more as far as I am able to apprehend that §. 35. lieth with any seemingnesse of strength against the Premisses The tenor hereof is this If the Seed of God whatever it be remaining in a Man regenerate worketh in him the greatest and strongest antipathy against or alienation and abhorrency of minde and affection from sin that can lightly be imagined which hath been granted all along in the traverse of the Scripture in hand how is it possible that such a man should fall away especially totally and finally from his Faith It is no wayes reasonable to suppose that it is possible for a Man so to fall away from his Faith without sinning no nor yet without sinning very grievously nor is it much more reasonable if not as unreasonable altogether to suppose that a Man may sin and that grievously who hath the greatest and strongest antipathy against sin the deepest alienation and abhorrency of minde and will from sin that lightly can be conceived Therefore how is it possible for him that cannot sin even in this sence to fall away totally or finally I answer He that hath the greatest and strongest antipathy against sin that flesh and blood is capable of yet retaines that essentiall character or property of a creature mutability which supposeth a possibility at least of Sinning if not in sensu composito i. e. whilest such an antipathy remaines in its full vigor and strength yet in sensu Diviso i. e. in case or when this antipathy shall abate and decline As though Water made hot to the highest degree of heat whereof the nature of it is capable cannot possible coole any thing whilest it remaines under such a degree of heate yet this hinders not but that it may in time its present heat notwithstanding returne to its naturall coldnesse and then coole other things in like manner a Man may by the Spirit of Grace and Regeneration be carried up to a very effectuall and potent antipathy of minde and will against Sin by meanes whereof he is in no Capacity or Possibility of sinning in the sence formerly declared whilest
i. e. This antipathy standing either doe that which is sinfull but especially omit or neglect the doing of that which is his duty yea and of great concernment likewise unto him to doe Thus we have at last fully and cleerly we suppose acquitted that Scripture 1 Joh. 3. 9. more vehemently suspected and charged then all his fellows with confederacy against that Doctrine which affirms a Possibility of a totall and finall defection in the Saints Another Scripture hath the same imputation cast upon it for speaking §. 37. only thus My Father which gave them me is greater then all and no Man is able to take them out of my Fathers Hand a Ioh. 10. 29 From hence it is argued and conceived that God ingageth himself with his Omnipotency to preserve the Saints or Sheep of Christ from either totall or finall apostasie and consequently that it is unpossible but that they should be preserved But to this place of Scripture a sufficient answer hath been given already in this Chapter b Sect. 18. 19 20 c. where we shewed that the ingagement of the mighty Power of God for the Protection and safeguarding of the Saints as such or remaining such against all adverse Power whatsoever is frequently asserted in Scripture but no where for the compelling or necessitating of them to Persevere or continue such Nor is there the least intimation of any such thing in the Text before us And yet here I shall further add in reference unto it That by the tenor and carriage of the Context it appeares 1. That that security for which our Saviour ingageth the greatnesse of His Fathers Power unto his Sheep is promised or ascertained unto them not in order to the effecting or procuring their finall perseverance but rather by way of toward to it 2. That this promise of eternall safety made by Christ unto His Sheep doth not relate to their estate or condition in this present World but to that of the World to come My Sheepe saith he verse 27. heaâ my voyce and I know them and they follow me In which expressions of hearing his voyce and following him he intimates or includes their perseverance c Intellige autem loqui Christum de oviâus quâ tales sunt ac maâent Hag. Grot in locum as appeares by the words immediately following Verse 28. And I give unto them etenall life This gift of his presupposeth the finall perseverance of those to whom it is given It followes and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand In these words he seems further to explaine how and in what sence he calls that life eternall which he promiseth to confer upon them as viz. that by the eternalnesse of it he doth not only meane such a constitution or condition of it which secureth it from perishing or dissolving in respect or by means of any intrinsecall cause upon which account the lives they live in the flesh are perishable but which secureth it likewise against all externall means or power that may seem to threaten or indanger it And for a further confirmation that the life which he promiseth unto his Sheepe hearing his voyce and following him viz. as was said perseveringly is eternall in the best largest most comprehensive most desireable sence of the word he subjoynes the words in hand Verse 29. My Father which gave them me is greater viz. in power then all and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers Hand as if he should have said God Himself by whose grace they became my Sheepe and followed me and whose power is abundantly sufficient for the work would maintaine and make good unto them to the uttermost that life which I shall give unto them against all dangers all enemies all adversary powers whatsoever This being the naturall and cleer disposition of the Context it is a plaine case that here is not the least aire or breathing of any ingagement of the great power of God to bring about the perseverance of the Saints upon those terms of infallibility or necessity which are so much contended for Another Scripture much intreated in the behalf of the Doctrine of perseverance §. 38. is that of the Evangelist John concerning our Saviour having loved his own which were in the World he loved them unto the end a Ioh. 13. 1. Out of this light some draw this darknesse Therefore whom Christ once loves He loves alwayes or unto the end Which inference they suppose is further strengthened by that of the Prophet For I am the Lord I change not b Mal. 3. 6. I Answer 1. From the passage in John there can nothing more be concluded in Reference to the Question in hand then by way of immediate deduction the greatnesse and constancy of Christs love towards such of His Disciples who continued in their obedience and faithfulnesse unto him for the Evangelist I suppose did not intend Judas amongst those whom Christ loved unto the end and 2. By way of Proportion or Rationall consequence from this deduction that the love of Christ is great and constant towards all those who persevere in love and faithfulnesse unto him This is the constant Doctrine of the Scriptures but no wayes concerns the present Dispute Yet for the passâge it self if it hath any aspect at all upon it it is rather by way of favour and countenance to that side against which then to that for which it is commonly alledged For if the love of Christ towards His Disciples unto the end necessârily supposeth or requireth the concurrent continuance of the same affection in them towards him it plainely follows that if men shall draw back from Him His Soul will have no further pleasure or delight in them And this indeed was the expresse Doctrine of that Man of God who was sent to meet King Asa and the People with him upon the late Presence of God with them against their enemies O Asa and all Juda and Benjamin hear yee me The Lord is with you while yee be with Him and if yee seeke Him He will PE FOVND of yoâ but IF YEE FORSAKE HIM He will forsake you c 2 Chron. 15. 2 Which cleerly supposeth 1. A possibility of their forsaking God who for a time are truly and really with Him 2. A certainty of Gods forsaking those who forsake Him 2. It is not here said that Christ having loved His own loved them unto the §. 39. end of their lives or dayes but to the end viz. of his life and abode in the World the emphaticall and clear meaning of the place being thus that to declare the exceeding greatnesse and mervellous constancy of his affection towards His Disciples and that whilest they were yet in the World and so subject to many weaknesses and infirmities which might seeme to render them lesse lovely unto Him then those that were made perfect d Heb. 12. 23. as the Apostle speaks thorough death
those who should love Him not of those who should cease to love Him or apostatize from their affection towards Him nor yet to teach imply or insinuate in the least the undecayablenesse or unquenchablenesse of this affection in Men. But enough for the clearing of this place I shall only Propound and Answer one Scripture more upon the account §. 52. we are now drawing up which is frequently argued with great importunity for the Doctrine of Perseverance The tenor of the place is this And I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare into their hearts that they shall not depart from me a Ier. 31. 39. 40. In these words say our Antagonists in the present controversie is manifestly contained an absolute Promise of Perseverance made by God unto his Church To this I answer that it can no wayes be proved nor is it any wayes probable that the grace of Perseverance should be here absolutely Promised unto Saints or Believers For 1. Evident it is from the whole tenor of the Chapter that the words contain a speciall Promise made particularly to the Jews 2. As evident it is upon the same account that the Promise here mentioned was not made only to the Saints or sound Believers amongst the Jews who were but few but to the whole body or generality of them Peruse the latter part of the Chapter from about ver 30. to the end 3. It is yet upon the same account as evident as either of the former that this Promise was made unto this Nation of the Jews when and whilest they were or at least considered as now being in the iron furnace of the Babylonian captivity Behold I will gather them out of all Countries whither I have driven them in mine anger and in my sury and in great wrath and I will bring them again unto this place c. ver 37. 4. From these words now cited so immediately preceding the Passages offered to debate it cleerly appears that the Promise in these Passages relates unto and concerns their Reduction and returne from and out of that captivity into their own Land Therefore 5. It cannot be a Promise of absolute and finall Perseverance in grace unto the end of their lives respectively For 1. The Promise was made unto the body or generality of this People even unto all those that God had driven into all Countries in his anger and fury and not only unto the Saints or true Believers amongst them unlesse we shall say that they were only the holy Persons amongst them that were thus driven by him The Promise then respects as well the unfaithfull as the true Believers in this Nation and so cannot be a Promise of Perseverance in grace unto these 2. The Promise here exhibited was a Promise appropriated and fitted to the present State and Condition of the Jews who were now scattered up and down the World and in a sad captivity at least were thus considered in this promise as was lately said in which respect it must needs be conceived to containe somewhat peculiar to that their condition Now the promise of perseverance in grace according to the Doctrine of our adversaries was a standing promise amongst them and so had been from the first equally respecting them or the elect amongst them in every estate and condition 3. The promise of perseverance in grace according to the same principles includes in it or supposeth such an interposure of God by his spirit and grace which shall and will and must needs infallibly produce the effect of perseverance in all those to whom it is made i. e. true Believers wherâas evident it is from the Prophet Ezekiel that this promise notwithstanding the Jewes might rebell against and apostatize from God The whole passage in Ezekiel is this Therefore say thus saith the Lord God although I have cast them far off among the Heathen and although I have scattered them among the Countries yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the Countries where they shall come Therefore say thus saith the Lord God I will even gather you from the People and Assemble you out of the Countries where yee have been scattered and I will give you the Land of Israel And they shall come thither and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one Heart and I will put a new Spirit within you and I will take the stony Heart out of their Flesh and will give them an Heart of Flesh That they may walke in my Statutes and keepe mine Ordinances and doe them and they shall be my People and I will be their God a Ezek. 11. 17. 18. c. There is nothing more clear then that the promise contained in these words is for substance and import the same with that in consideration from the Prophet Jeremy Yet here it followes But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations I will recompence their way upon their own head saith the Lod God b Verse 21. Which evidently supposeth that notwithstanding the former promise pretended to be a promise either in whole or in part of persevering in grace yet they to whom it is made may walk after the Heart of detestable things i. e. so practise detestable things as to promote their interest and cause them to be practised by others and that to their own ruine and destruction For that this threatning But as for them c. concernes the same persons or nation to whom the precedent promises were made the carriage of the Context makes out of question and besides is the generall sence of Interpreters upon the place yea and Calvin Himself understands it of the Israelites c Nec aliud vult Propheta quam Deum sore vindicem si cor suum sequantur Israelitae ut ambulent in suis spârcitiis abominationibus So that no absolute perseverance can with reason be supposed to be contained in the said promise 4. And lastly If absolute perseverance should be here promised there is no time or season can be imagined wherein the promise should have been fulfilled by God If it be said that it hath alwayes been fulfilled in the Elect and faithfull I answer 1. That it hath been already proved that it was made to the maine body and community of the Jewish Nation and not only to the Elect or faithfull amongst them And therefore if it should be fulfilled in these only it should be fulfilled but by half and indeed not to that proportion and consequently if propriety of speech be admitted not fulfilled at all 2. If this be all the fulfilling of it it was as
be besides those inquired into in this Chapter wherein some may imagine the treasure of such a perseverance to be hid but these which we have strictly examined upon the matter have still been counted the Pillars of that Doctrine and yet as we have seen are no supporters of it Nor doe I question but that by those unquestionable principles and rules of interpretation by which the Minde of God in the Scriptures discussed in this Chapter hath been brought into a cleare light all seeming compliance that way in others also may be reduced and so the wisdom which hath been revealed from Heaven perfectly acquitted from all interposure by way of countenance on the behalf of the commonlytaught Doctrine of Perseverance Two Texts I call to minde at present which are sometimes called in to the assistance of the Doctrine of Perseverance hitherto opposed and have not received answer in this Chapter The former is Mat. 7. 18. The latter Rom. 11. 29. But for this latter it hath been sufficiently handled upon another account Cap. 8. Sect. 56. As to the former we shall I conceive have occasion to speak in the second part of this Discourse We now proceede to the Examination of such Arguments and Grounds otherwise upon which the said Doctrine in some Mens eyes stands impregnable CHAP. XI A further Continuation of the former Digression wherein the Arguments and Grounds commonly alledged in defence of the received Doctrine of Perseverance are detected of insufficiency proved and declared null WE shall begin with that which is the First borne of the strength of §. 1. our Adversaries in this kinde That say they which God hath Promised in His Word is certaine and shall take place against all opposition and contradiction whatsoever But God hath Promised in his Word that all true Believers shall both totally and finally Persevere Therefore all such shall certainly so Persevere against whatsoever may or shall at any time oppose their Presevering To this I Answer 1. By explaining the major proposition What God hath Promised in His Word is certaine and shall take place c. viz. in such a sence and upon such terms as God would be understood in His promise But what God Promiseth in one sence is not certaine of performance in another As for example God promised the preservation of the lives of all that were with Paul in the Ship but his intent and meaning in this promise was not this preservation against whatsoever might possibly be done by those in the Ship against it or to hinder it but with this proviso or condition that they in the Ship should hearken unto him and follow his advice in order to their preservation as is evident from those words of Paul himself to whom this promise was made Except these abide in the Ship yee cannot be safe a Acts 27. 31. So that had the Centurion and rest in the Ship suffered the Mariners to have left the Ship whilest it was yet at Sea there had been no failing in promise with God though they had all been drowned In like manner though Christ promised to His twelve Apostles Judas being yet one of the twelve that in the Regeneration i. e. in the Resurrection or Restauration of the World they should fit upon twelve Thrones and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel b Mat. 19. 28. yet is he not to be judged a promise-breaker though Judas never comes to sit upon one of these Thrones And in case the rest of the twelve had declined from that integrity of Heart under which that promise was made unto them as Judas did neither would it have argued any breach of promise in Christ to have advanced others upon these Thrones instead of them The reason whereof is elsewhere noted from Peter Martyr whose Doctrine it is that the Promises of God are wont to be made with respect had to the present estate and condition of things with Men c Promissiones itaque illae Dei pro statâ praesentirerum sunt intelligendae P. Mar. Loc. Class 3. c. 13. Sect. 4. His meaning is as appeares by the tenor of the adjacent Discourse that all Gods promises made unto Men being or considered as being under such and such qualifications are not to be understood as any otherwise intended by him to be performed unto them then as abiding and whilest they shall abide in the same qualifications As for example what promises soever God makes unto Believers with respect had to their Faith or as they are Believers are not to be looked upon as performable or oblieging the Maker of them unto them in case they shall relapse into their former unbelief But of this we spake plentifully in our last Chapter d Sect. 43. 51. See also Sect. 9. of this Chapter and elsewhere The major proposition thus explained and understood we admit Whatsoever God Promiseth is certaine c. viz. according to the true intent and meaning of the promise The Minor also releived with an Orthodox and sober Explication as §. 2. likewise the conclusion it self and whole Argument is blameless and thinketh no evil against the Doctrine now under vindication For in this sence it is most true that God hath promised that all true Beleevers shall persevere i. e. that all true Beleevers formally considered i. e. as such and abiding such shall persevere viz. in his grace and favor But this I presume is not the sence of the Argument-makers Their meaning is that God hath promised that all true Beleevers shall persevere thus beleeving or in the truth of their Faith against all interveniences whatsoever and that he will so interpose with his Grace and Power that none of them shall ever make shipwrack of their faith upon what quick-sands of lust and sensuality soever they shall strike against what rocks of obduration and impenitency soever they shall dash In this sence their Proposition I confess is sore against us but their Proofs are weak and contemptible nor will any of the Scriptures from which they claim countenance and confirmation own the cause or comport with them therein Some of the fairest appearance and greatest hope that way we examined narrowly in the next preceding Chapter and found them in heart much estranged from them as viz. Jer. 32. 38 39 40. Mat. 16. 18. Joh. 10. 9. with some others I acknowledg that there are several others besides those there discharged chosen by men of that judgment to serve in the same warfare but they are all of the same minde with their fellows who as we have heard detract that service Most of these are Promises anciently made unto the Jewish Nation in the Old Testament all or most of them of like import with that Ier. 32. 39 c. largely opened towards the end of the former Chapter and are to be measured with the same line of interpretation Nor can it ever be so much as competently proved that they were made with appropriation unto Saints or
sides simply and in case of a non-intervention of very materiall circumstances in order to the breaking or dissolving of the contract ratified by them yet are they seldome or never ingaging or obliging on either side upon such terms that no possible interposition whether of Providences or other things can discharge them A contract of marriage ratified and confirmed by both parties with earnest given and received may notwithstanding lawfully be dissolved upon an act of adultery committed by the one party if the other pleaseth There is the same consideration likewise of confirmation by earnests in other cases 4. And lastly if the Apostles intent had been to informe the Ephesians that the gift of the Holy Spirit which they had received from God was the earnest of their inheritance upon such terms that no unworthinesse or wickednesse whatsoever on their parts could ever hinder the actuall collation of this inheritance upon them he had plainly prevaricated with that most serious admonition wherein he addresseth Himself unto them afterwards For this yee know that no Whoremonger nor uncleane person nor Covetous Man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God Let no Man deceive you with vaine words for because of these things commeth the Wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience a Eph. 5. 5. 6. To what purpose should he thus severely discipline and nurture those in order to their escaping the wrath of God which would certainly come for such and such sins upon Men whom he had a little before assured that there was no danger no possibility of their falling under the Wrath of God or of their miscarrying in Point of Salvation A ninth Argument taught by some to speak for the Doctrine of Perseverance §. 44. hitherto opposed consists of such Scripture similitudes wherein true Believers are resembled to such things which seeme to import the certainty of their Perseverance As viz. Psal 1. 3. they are compared to a Tree planted by the Rivers of Water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season whose leafe also shall not wither c. Mat. 7. 24 25. to a wise Man that built his House upon a Rock so that though the Raine fell and the Floods came and the Winds blew and beate upon that House yet it fell not Luk. 8. 8. to seede that fell upon good ground which sprang up and bare fruit an hundred fold To this I answer 1. In the generall that no similitude whatsoever whereby the Prosperity Safety or Glory of the Saints or Children of God are set forth in the Scriptures doe any wayes reach the Point in Question Because the question is not whether the Saints viz. as such and abiding such shall stand for ever in the greatest Prosperity Safety and Glory but as hath oft in effect been said whether those who have been Saints at any time heretofore must necessarily be such at this day and cannot possibly degenerate into any other kind or sort of Men for ever The similitudes produced evince no such thing as this And therefore 2. I answer in Particular 1. That the comparison of a Man delighting in the Law of the Lord Psal 1. to the Tree there described doth not suppose that he can never cease delighting in His Law nor is any such thing as this signified by the non falling of the leafe of this Tree too too frequent experience commandeth acknowledgement on both sides that the Saints themselves or Men sometimes delighting in the Law of the Lord may otherwhile delight themselves in wayes of vanity and great wickednesse But the Purport of the similitude is only to shew that the condition of a Person eschuing evill and observing the Law of God and continuing such shall be ever prosperous and blessed There is nothing more ordinary in Scripture then to attribute or predict unto Men both future Punishments and Rewards in respect of their present wayes whether good or evill simply and without any clause of exception in case of an after change in either whereas notwithstanding the Possibility of a change is cleerly supposed and a suspension likewise as well of the said Punishments as Rewards hereupon according as the change shall be Thus wicked Men in severall kinds Whoremongers Adulterers Idolaters Extortioners Drunkards c. are very frequently 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 Heb 13. 4. threatened with the losse of the Kingdome of Heaven without any mention made either of that Possibility they are in of Repenting afterwards or of any reversall of such a Punishment in case they shall Repent whereas it is a cleer case from other Scriptures that both the one and the other are supposed notwithstanding as viz. where forgivenesse of sins is Promised unto sinners of all kinds upon Repentance I forbeare to cite places being so frequent and obvious So God often Promiseth life and salvation unto just and righteous Men without mentioning that Possibility they are in of turning aside from their Righteousnesse or any deprivation or losse of Life and Salvation they are like to sustaine in case they shall thus turne aside yet evident it is from other places of which we shall have occasion to produce many in the following Chapter that both the one and the other are there supposed as viz. where backsliders are threatened with the displeasure of God and destruction But of this idiome of Scripture expression we have taken knowledge formerly and that more then once See Sect. 9. of this Chapter And that by the Man delighting in the Law of God compared unto a Tree planted c. in the Passage in hand is meant not simply that Man thus delighting at present but such a Man who should constantly and with Perseverance thus delight is evident from the antithesis which the Psalme maketh between him and the wicked Man who is described as perseveringly wicked unto the end Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgement Vers 5. and againe and the way of the wicked shall perish Vers 6. which expressions cleerly shew that by the Sinner or wicked Man here opposed to the godly is not meant simply such a Person who at present is wicked or a sinner but who shall continue such without Repentance unto his end 2. There is the same consideration of the second comparison Mat. 7. 25. By §. 45. him who should heare Christs sayings and doe them and in that respect is compared to a wise Man who built his House upon a Rock c. is not to be understood such a Person who shall at present and for a time after hearing doe the sayings of Christ and afterwards doe that which is contrary unto them but who shall doe them and continue in the Practise and doing of them unto the end This is evident by the course of the Scriptures in such Passages as these Look to your selves that we loose not the things which we have done but that we may receive a full reward a 2 Joh. ve
that we shall also live with Him Knowing that Christ being raised againe from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over Him For in that He died He died unto sin once but in that He liveth He liveth unto God Likewise reckon yee also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin c. The intent of the Apostle in these passages is nothing lesse then to teach or insinuate a non-possibility of their returning or living againe unto sin who at present are dead unto it such a supposall as this is diametrally inconsistent with the emphaticall energy of His exhortation Verse 12. Let not sin therefore reigne in your mortall bodies as likewise with many other pregnant Scriptures which shall be consulted with in due time but to set forth the spirituall condition of the Children of God partly in respect of what it is partly in respect of what it should or ought to be by a metaphor or similitude borrowed from what happened unto Christ corporally or literally after this manner As Christ died once corporally for the abolishing or taking away of the sins of Men but now liveth and acteth for the advancement of the Glory of God and is not obnoxious unto any more dyings in that kinde in like manner they who are his or desire or professe themselves to be His ought to be conformable to Him in these things in a spirituall way as viz. by dying unto sin i. e. by endvouring to destroy and work out all sinfull dispositions from within them and by ceasing from all Sinfull actions and wayes and againe by living unto God i. e. Righteously Holily and so that God may be glorified in the World by the excellency of their conversations and by persevering and continuing in this course of living unto God without relapsing into that death in sin which is opposite hereunto even as Christ liveth unto God so as never to cease thus living unto Him Therefore all that can be inferr'd from this contexture of Scripture is the duty of Perseverance in Faith and Holinesse or necessity of it in respect of the great obligation to it that lieth upon the Saints and that professe interest in Christ and expect Salvation by Him not any absolute not any such necessity of it which is unavoideable or undeclineable by the Saints For to what purpose should they be so solemnly so seriously cautioned against that whereby they were not in any possibility of suffering inconvenience If it were impossible that sin should reigne in their mortall bodies after they were once dead to it needlesse and vaine had that exhortation been Let not sin reigne in your mortall bodies The common maxime among Divines and interpreters of Scriptures is that Similitudes or Metaphors doe not run on all foure meaning that they are not to be extended or applied to the spirituall thing intended to be illustrated by them in all the properties or relations which are found in those things from which they are taken but in respect of that only which suits naturally with the scope of the place where they are used From the consideration of Christs death once suffered by him without being liable to die the second time and so of His living unto God without danger of ever having this life extinguished or taken from Him cannot be proved either that Men who are once dead unto sin can no more live to it or that Men once alive unto God cannot possibly suffer any interruption or losse of this life Because these particulars are not mentioned or insisted upon by the Apostle to prove the absolute but only an Hypotheticall or conditionall necessity of the Saints conforming themselves spiritually unto them or unto Christ Himself in respect of them viz. if they meane to answer the tenor and import of their holy Profession or to obtaine Life and Salvation herein in the end Nor doe these words 1 Joh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is borne of God overcometh §. 53. the World and this is the victory i. e. the means of the victory or that victorious thing that overcometh the World even our Faith imply any absolute necessity that he that is borne of God or that truly believeth viz. at the present and in this respect is victorious over the World must alwayes retaine the strength and vigor of His new Birth or true Faith and so be victorious alwayes and to the end All that can be reasonably and according to the usuall import of such Scripture expressions concluded from this place is 1. That all the true-borne Sons and Daughters of God by means of that Spirit of Faith which works in them in this estate of Regeneration are for the present above the temptations and allurements of the World wherewith others are overcome and hereby remaine in imminent danger of perishing 2. That they are likewise in such a posture or condition by means of their Faith that if they shall ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Apostle Pauls word is quit themselves like Men and act their Faith or with their Faith according to the vertue vigor and usefulnesse of it they may make good the ground or standing which they have gained and maintaine their present victory or conquest over the World unto the end But here is not the least or lightest intimation given but that those who are at present victorious over the World by the aid and working of their Faith may through carelesnesse security and inconsideratenesse suffer the World to recover her former advantage and so far to insinuate with them as to cause them to let fall the Shield of Faith out of their hand before they be aware of it See more to this point Sect. 9. of this Chapter Nor is there any whit more reliefe for the cause now in distresse in that §. 54. other place Ver. 18. of this Chapter We know that whosoever is borne of God sinneth not but he that is begotten of God keepeth Himself and that wicked one toucheth Him not For that which is here asserted and held forth by the Holy Ghost is only this that the naturall genius or property of a true-borne In Scriptura saepe ea facta vel futura dicuntur quae fieri âecât aut debent sive quâ ut fiant honestas rerum natura postulat vel quibus ut sâant justa gravisque causa datur Cornel. Lap. in Zachar. 13. 12. Child of God as such and whilest such is to refraine from wayes or customary practises of sin and to set a guard as it were of holy and potent considerations and resolutions about his Heart that the Devill may have no entrance or accesse thither by the mediation of any temptation whatsoever Not that such vigilancy and care as this are always perform'd and taken by Him the contrary hereunto is too much experimented but that there is a certaine propensnesse in that Divine nature wherein He partakes by being borne of God that inclines Him hereunto Men are often in Scripture Dialect
they keepe possession of what they have at present unto the end Some learned and grave Authors by the first Resurrection in this passage understand not a spirituall or metaphoricall but a literall and proper Resurrection which shall take place and be effected by God in the beginning and as it were in the morning of the great day of Judgement as they conceive another far greater then it to follow after it in the close or evening of this day b Mede Comment Apocalyp p. 277. This interpretation of the first Resurrection is marvellously probable from the Context it self For Iohn having Ver. 4. described the happy condition of those who had borne the heat and burthen of the day of Anti-Christ without fainting in this that they sate upon thornes and had judgement i. e. power of judging the World given unto them and that they reigned with Christ a thousand years He adds Ver. 5. This is the first Resurrection where likewise He saith that the rest of the dead lived not againe untill the thousand years were finished Much more might be argued for this Exposition but our present engagement craveth it not 2. Nor doth the sence contended for of the Resurrection any wayes opitulate the cause in distresse For in case it should be said that the second death shall have no Power on those that are Regenerate it must according to the constant Rule formerly delivered c Sect. 9. Sect. 44. of this Chap. Cap. 10. Sect. 43 for the interpretation of such like passages be understood with this Proviso or Explication viz. if they continue Regenerate or be found in the estate of Regeneration at their death Which condition is expressed and insisted upon in severall places and particularly Rev. 2. 11. where ouâ Saviour Himself in His Epistle to the Church of Revel 2. 11. Smyrna promiseth exemption from harme by the second death only upon condition of victory i. e. of such a victory which imports a standing fast and faithfull unto Christ in the Profession of the Gospell against all temptations allurements persecutions and whatsoever should attempt their loyalty and faithfulnesse in this kinde unto the end He that overcommeth shall not be hurt of the second Death The sence now given of these words is fully confirmed by those in the Verse immediately preceding be thou faithfull UNTO DEATH and I will give thee a Crown of life as also by other passages from the same blessed Hand to other Churches And He that overcometh saith He to the Church of Thyatira and keepeth my words UNTO THE END to Him will I give power over the Nations a Revel 2. 26. So to the Church of Sardis Behold I come quickly HOLD that FAST which thou hast that no Man take thy Crown b Revel 3. 11. To which many others of like character might be added from other places but this hath been done already in part and remaines to be done more fully in place more convenient In the meane time we cleerly see that however the received Doctrine of Perseverance saith unto the Scriptures Scriptures Scriptures yet these make no other answer but Depart from us we know you not you are a Doctrine that gather not with us but scatter what we gather CHAP. XII The former Digression yet further prosecuted and a Possibility of Defection in the Saints or true Believers and this unto Death Cleerly Demonstrated from the Scriptures IT is the saying as I remember of Quintilian Many men might have §. 1. Multi ad Sapientiam pervenire potuissent nisi se jam pervenisse putassent been wise had they not prevented themselves with an Opinion of being wise before they came to it Nor is there much Question to be made but that many have miscarried and doe miscarry daily in the great and important affaire of their everlasting Peace out of a presumption or conceit that they are under no danger in no Possibility of any such miscarrying whose most deplorable and irremediable diaster and losse in this kinde might otherwise have been prevented and their Persons Crowned with eternall glory which now are like to suffer the vengeance of eternall Fire Of so dismall a consequence it is to misunderstand pervert or wrest the Scriptures especially in order to the gratifying of the flesh or to the occasioning or incouragement of Men to turne the Grace of God in the Gospell into wantonnesse The truth is that the Scriptures seeme in many Points and matters of question to speak very doubtfully and to deliver such things in severall places and sometimes in the same which Men of contrary judgements may very plausibly interpret into a compliance with them in their respective Opinions though the unquestionable truth be that even in such cases as these they love the one Opinion and hate the other It is no part of our present ingagement to prescribe any perfect or compleat method or rule how to discover which way the Heart of the Scripture leaneth when the Tongue or Mouth of it seems to be cloven or divided between two inconsistent Opinions I shall only by the way make my Reader so far of my counsell in the businesse as to give him to know that when the letter of the Scripture hath for a time left me in a great straite and exigency of thoughts between contrary Opinions a condition that hath more then once befallen me that brief Periphrasis or Description of the Gospell which the Apostle delivers calling it the Truth which is according unto godlinesse a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tit. 1. 1. hath upon serious consideration oft delivered me yea and brought me to such a cleer understanding of the letter it self wherein before I was intangled that I evidently and with the greatest satisfaction I could desire discerned the minde of God therein and that with full consonancy to the ordinary Phrase and Manner of speaking in the Scripture upon a like occasion For having this touchstone by an unerring hand given unto me that the Gospell is a Truth according unto Godlinesse i. e. a Systeme or Body of Truth calculated and framed by God in all the veyns and parts of it for the exaltation of godlinesse in the World I was directed hereby in the case of Doctrines and Opinions incompatible between themselvs to own and cleave unto that as the truth and comporting with the Gospell the face whereof was in the clearest and directest manner set for the Promotion and Advancement of Godliness amongst Men and to refuse that which stood in opposition hereunto Nor did I finde it any matter of much difficulty or doubtfulnesse of dispute within my self especially in such cases and between such Opinions wherein I most desired satisfaction to decide and determine which of the two Opinions competitors for my consent was the greater friend unto Godlinesse That competent knowledge which God had given me of the generall course of the Scriptures together with the experimentall knowledge I had of mine
in case he had not continued to keep it under he might be a Reprobate Nay as in case Christ had not died there had not been a Possibility onely but even a certainty of their perishing who now by believing on him are saved in like manner in case Paul had deserted his exercise of keeping under his Body there had been more then a possibility and no whit lesse then a certainty of his proving a Reprobate though now by means of his persevering therein unto the end as we have cause in abundance to judge concerning him he be saved So that the Argument recoyles as we see upon the Author himself and the cause which he seekes to maintaine by it Our English Annotators upon the place are very tender of admitting any §. 17. such sence of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which should imply any uncertainty in the Apostle of his Election or of obtaining the prize But the truth is that that sence of the Word for which we have contested doth no wayes imply the former nor yet if by uncertainty be meant any thing grievous or discourageing to the Apostle the latter For 1. He might notwithstanding a possibility of becoming a Reprobate afterwards know certainly that for the present He was elected in as much as know He might with the greatest certainty and doubtlesse did that He did believe And that all those who truly believe are elected our Adversaries themselves will not deny 2. Notwithstanding such a possibility as we suppose of his becoming a Reprobate He might have as much certainty of obtaining the prize as He desired or was any wayes meet or reasonable for him either to desire or enjoy This certainty He might have and questionlesse had upon his continuance in well doing and for any Man to be certaine of obtaining the prize though He should apostatize and decline into wayes of wickednesse is not a certainty either meet for God to give or for any Man to receive Somewhat more was said upon this account in the nineth Chapter The next passage we shall insist upon to evince the possibility of a finall §. 18. defection in the Saints openeth it self in these words For it is unpossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the Heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come If they shall fall away to renew them againe unto Repentance seeing they Crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame For the Earth which drinketh in the raine that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth Herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which beareth Thornes and Briers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned a Heb. 6. 4 5 6 7 c. Answerable hereunto is another in the same Epistle For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins But a certaine fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose yee 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 and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace b Heb. 10. 26 27 c. Evident it is that in these two passages the Holy Ghost after a most serious manner and with a very pathetique and moving straine of speech and discourse scarce the like to be found in all the Scriptures admonisheth those who are at present true Believers to take heed of relapsing into the wayes of their former ignorance and impiety This Caveat or admonition he vehemently presseth by an argument of this import that in case they shall thus relapse there will be very little or no hope at all of their recovery or returne to the estate of Faith and Grace wherein they now stand Before the faces of such sayings and passages as these rightly understood and duly considered there is no standing for that Doctrine which denies a possibility either of a totall or finall defection in the Saints But this light also is darkened in the Heavens thereof by the interposition of the vailes of these two exceptions 1. That the Apostle in the said passages affirms nothing positively concerning the falling away of those he speaks of but only conditionally and upon supposition 2. That he doth not speak of true and sound Believers but of Hypocrites and such who had Faith onely in shew not in substance The former of these exceptions hath been already non-suited and that by some of the ablest Patrons themselves of the cause of Perseverance c Cap. 11. Sect. 9. where we were taught from a pen of that learning That such conditional sayings upon which Admonitions Promises or Threatenings are built do at least suppose something in possibility however by vertue of their Tenor and Form they suppose nothing in being But 2. As to the Places in Hand there is not any Hypothetical sign or conditional Particle to be found in either of them as they come from the Holy Ghost and are carried in the Original Those two iffs appearing in the English Translation the one in the former Place the other in the latter shew it may be the Translators inclination to the cause but not their faithfulness in their engagement an infirmity whereunto they were very subject as we shall have occasion to take notice of the second time ere long in another instance of like partiality But the Tenor of both the Passages in hand is so ordered by the Apostle that He plainly declares how great and fearful the danger is or will be when Beleevers do or shall fall away not if or in case they shall fall away To the latter exception which pretends to finde onely Hypocrites and §. 19. not true Beleevers staged in both Passages we likewise answer that it glosseth no whit better then the former if not much worse considering that the Persons presented in the said Passages are described by such characters and signal excellencies which the Scriptures are wont to appropriate unto Saints and true Beleevers and that when they intend to shew them in the best and greatest of their glory What we say herein will I suppose be made above all gainsaying by instancing Particulars 1. The Persons spoken of are in the former of the Passages said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. enlightened meaning with the knowledg of God and of Jesus Christ in the Gospel How frequently is this Grace of illumination or enlightening attributed unto the Saints or true Beleevers The Apostle having said that the god of this world had blinded the eyes of those who beleeve nor lest the light
Creatures of a better kinde All the lineaments of the Persons presented in these Tables before the mention of their falling away become the best and fairest faces of the Saints as hath been proved and are not to be found in any other Yea the greatest and most intelligent Believer under Heaven hath no reason but to desire part and fellowship with the Hypocrites here described in all those Characters and Properties which are attributed unto them before their falling away or sinning wilfully 2. True Believers are in an estate of honour and are lifted up on high towards the Heavens in which respect they have from whence to fall But Hypocrites are as neere Hell already as lightly they can be till they be actually fallen into it From whence then are they capable of falling Men of estates may faile and break but beggers are in no such danger If Hypocrites fall away it must be from their Hypocrisie but this is rather a rising then a Fall A Begger cannot be said to break but onely when he gets an estate When he doth this the begger is broke 3. It is no punishment at all to Hypocrites to be under no Possibility of being renewed againe by Repentance Nay in case they should Fall away it would be a benefit and blessing unto them to be under an impossibility of being renewed againe For if this were their case it would be unpossible for them to be ever Hypocrites again and doubtlesse it is no great judgement upon any Man to be made uncapable of such a preferment 4. And lastly it stands off forty foot at least from all probability that the Apostle writing onely unto those whom he judged true and sound Believers as appears from severall places in the Epistle as Cap. 3. 14. 6. 9. c. should in the most serious emphaticall and weighty passages hereof admonish them of such evills or dangers which only concern'd other Men and wherunto themselves were not at all obnoxious yea and whereunto if they had been obnoxious all the Cautions Admonitions Warnings Threatnings in the World would not according to their Principles with whom we have now to doe have relieved or delivered them To say that such admonitions are a means to preserve those from apostasie who are by other means as suppose the absolute Decree of God or the interposall of his irresistible Power for their Perseverance or the like are in no possibility of apostatizing is to say that washing is a means to make Snow white or the rearing up of a Pillar in the Aire a means to keepe the Heavens from falling But more of this in the Chapter following Thus then we cleerly see by the unpartiall discussion of the two Scriptures §. 29. lately insisted upon that there is a possibility that true Believers yea the greatest in this rank or order of Men may fall away and that to an impossibility of a returne to their former standing by Repentance Whither the Apostle speakes of a distriââ and absolute impossibility in this place or of such an impossibility only which our Saviour expoundeth by a difficulty a Mat. 19. 23. 26. doth no wayes alter the state of that conclusion âhich we have wrought from it Pâreâs from Nazianzen mentioneth six severall significations of the word impossible and preferreth two of them with equall approbation to the Apostle service in this place Neither of them imports that rigid or district impossibility we speak of but the one such an impossibility which is caused through want of strength in Him that should performe a thing the other such whââh exceedeth the course of nature and efficiency of second causes So that he supposeth a liberty or Power remaining in God to renew againe by Repentance the Persons here spoken of after their falling away notwithstanding that impossibility whicâ is here asserted of their recovery Whicâânterpretation of his I willingly subscribe unto and could plead the cause of such a subscription if it were pertinent to the proââsse of the businesse in hand That which is commonly alledged in opposition to what hath been argued §. 30. concerning the two last Scriptures is of little consideration excepting onely those Scriptures and Arguments by which the Doctrine of Persevevance in the generall is wont to be maintained both which we have answered at large in the two next preceding Chapters To say with Pareus that the Apostasie and event prove the persons spoken of to have been Hypocrites b Hypocritas fuisse apostasiâ eventus declarat is to cause a Mans opinion to rise up early to praise it self His refuge of an Hypotheticall forme in the words is but a sanctuary built in the Aire as we shewed formerly There is nothing Hypotheticall in either of the passages if there were his greatest friends and abettors have polluted that Sanctuary and made it uncleane for his use as hath once and againe been declared And with how little truth he or any Man can affirme that all things here attributed to the Apostates spoken of illumination gifts of Tongues and Miracles the tasting of the good Word of God and Faith c. amount to nothing more then to what Hypocrites may have a Apostolus autem non dicit categorice semel illuminatos prolabi sed Hypotheticè si prolabantur Ab Hypotheticâ autem non valet consequentia nisi conditione positâ hath been our chiefe designe in the traverse of the places to shew and prove The next Scripture testimony we shall produce and briefly urge in the §. 31. cause now under maintenance is in the same Epistle with the former and speaketh these words Now the Just shall live by Faith but if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him b Heb. 10. 38. Our English Translators out of good will doubtlesse to a bad cause have almost defaced this Testimony by substituting any Man for the just Man For whereas they âranslate but if any Man draw back the originall readeth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. and if or but if Hâ i. e. the just Man who should live by his Faith viz. if he continues in it shall draw back Beza Himself likewise before them had stained the honour of his faithfulnesse with the same blot in his Translation But the minde of the Holy Ghost in the words is plaine and without Parable viz. that if the just Man who lives i. e. who at present injoyes the favour of God and thereby is supported in all his trialls and should live alwayes by his Faith if he continues in it as Pareus well glosseth shall draw back or shall be withdrawn viz. through feare or sloath as the word properly signifieth see Acts 20. 27. from his believing my Soul shall have no pleasure in him i. e. according to the import of the Hebraisme my Soul shall hate or abhor him to the Death as it is Apud Hebrâos adverbia negandi contrarium ejuâ cui adhibentur significant Med.
suffer Persecution a while before âheir Faith expired So that the Faith of those who in the Parable are called Temporaries can by no argument or allegation be âvicted of any degenerateness or unsoundnesse in kinde but onely of a deficiency in point of rooting or firme fixation in the Soul Nor doth our Saviour any wayes blame or reprove it but upon this account onely Yea in blaming it upon this account onely and reproving those who had it for being no more diligent and carefull in the use of means for confirming and establishing themselves better in it He plainely gives testimony unto it in Point of truth and soundness in as much as no Man deserveth blame for not consulting or endevouring the Perpetuation of an Hypocriticall Faith in his Soul or such which though Persevered in would yet have left Him in the hand of eternall Death These Considerations and Discussions are so full of Light Evidence and Power that were not the foot of our Adversaries held in this snare to judg of the truth and Soundness and so of the Hollowness and Unsoundness of Faith by the issue and event of it as viz. the Perseverance or non-Perseverance of it unto the end they could not lightly stand in the way of their present judgements before them And yet this Rule or Method of judging is not of any good accord with their own Principles otherwise Concerning those helps or assistances of grace say our English Divines present in the Synod of Dort which are afforded by God unto Men we are to judge of them meaning in point of sufficiency or efficaciousness by the nature of the benefit offered as attainable by them and by the most manifest Word of God NOT BY THE EVENT or abuse of them a Ex naturâ benefiâij oblatâ verbo Dei âpertissimo iudicandum est dâ illis Gratiae auxilijs quae hominibus suppeditantur non autem ex eventu aut abusu Synod Dordr Act. Pag. 128. The last proof from the Scriptures which we shall at present insist §. 39. upon and urge for the confirmation of the Doctrine under Protection shall be that passage which holds forth these things unto us For when they speak great swelling words of vanity they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonnesse those who were CLEANE ESCAPED from those who live in error While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a Man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are againe intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousnesse then after they have known it to turne from the holy Commandement delivered unto them But it is happened unto them according to the true Proverbe the Dogg is turned to his own vomit againe and the Sow that was washed to his wallowing in the mire b Pet. â 18 19 c. The Possibility of a totall and finall defection in true Believers lieth as large and full in these quarters as truth lightly can be lodged in words the Holy Ghost here plainely supposing that which is clearly consistent with yea and equipollent thereunto viz. that they who by the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ have cleane or truly or really ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã escaped the pollutions of the World being againe intangled therewith may be overcome so as that their spirituall state and condition will be worse at the last then it was at the first or before they believed What is this being interpreted but that true Saints or Believers may possibly apostatize from their believing condition so as to perish everlastingly But here also our Adversaries attempt to hide the Truth shining in the recited §. 40. passage under that old covering or veyle which hath been rent in twaine already both in this Chapter and elsewhere Thâse expressions say they who were clean escaped from those who live in error who have escaped the pollutions of the World through the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ to have known the way of righteousnesse c. doe not suppose the Persons spoken of to have had true Faith nor import any thiââ but what may very possibly be found in Hypocrites But with how little truth yea or semblance of truth these things are asserted hath been already exposed to open view when we traversed the Scripture in hand upon another occasion a Cap. 8. Sect. 4 5 46 c. Neverthelesse we here add 1. If the said expressions import nothing but what Hypocrites and that in sensu composito i. e. whilest Hypocrites are capable of theâ may those be Hypocrites who are separated from Men that live in error ãâã from the pollutions of the World and that through the knowledge of Jesus C ãâ¦ã and on the other hand those may be Saints and sound Believers who wallow in all manner of filthiness and defile themselves daily with the pollutions of the World This consequence according to the Principles and known Tenets of our Adversaries is legitimate and true in as much as they hold that true Believers may fall so foule and so far that the Church according to Christs institution may be constrained to testifie that they cannot bear them in their outward communion and that they shall have no part in the Kingdome of Christ except they repent b Repondemus posse quidem verè credentes eousque prolabi ut Ecclesia juxtà constitutionem Christi cogatur âesta ãâ¦ã ipsos in externâ ipsorum communione non posse tolerare neque habituros partem ullam in regnâ Christâ nisi convertantur Contr-Remonstr in Coll. Hag. p. 399. c. But whether this be wholesoââând sound Divinity or no to teach that they who are separate from sinnââ and live holily and blamelesly in this present World and this by means of the knowledge of Jesus Christ may be Hypocrites and children of perdition and they on the other hand who are companions with Theeves Murtherers Adulterers c. Saints and sound Believers I leave to Men whose judgements are not turn'd upside down with prejudice to determine 2. The Persons here spoken of are said to have ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã truly or really escaped from those who live in error Doubtlesse an Hypocrite cannot be said truly or really but in shew or appearance at most to have made such an escape I mean from Men who live in error considering that for matter of reality and truth remaining in Hypocrisie he lives in one of the greatest and foulest errors that is 3. An Hypocrite whose foot is already in the snare of Death cannot upon any tolerable account either of reason or common sence be said to be allured i. e. by allurements to be deceived or overcome by the pollutions of the World
Possibility of their finall fall by the dim light of some sensuall Principles and Apprehensions and in an overly and superficiall manner as it were at a distance are much troubled at it as if it were a Doctrine of an Anti-evangelicall spirit that would bring them into a Bondage of fear and torment them Which Doctrine notwithstanding would they look upon it narrowly and with an unprejudiced attention and this by the clear light of such considerations which exhibit it like it self unto them they would then soon confesse to be a Doctrine which was set not at all to curse but to blâss them altogether The sole undertaking of this Chapter is to commend the said Doctrine unto §. 2. Argum. 1. the Judgements and Consciences of Men for a Truth by a Proposall of such worthy things which relate to it either by way of causality or affinity in Truth In the first place I pleade the cordiall sympathy it hath with that righteousness of God which the Scripture calls ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or a non-acceptation of Persons thus That Doctrine which rendereth God free from that unrighteousness which the Scripture calls a respecting the Persons of Men is a Doctrine of perfect consistency with the Scriptures and the Truth The Doctrine which teacheth a Possibility of the Saints declining and this unto death is a Doctrine of this import Ergo. The reason of the former Proposition is plaine in as much as the Scriptures frequently assert that Principle of non-respecting Persons most worthy the judge of all the Earth unto God Deut. 10. 17. Gal. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 17. c. The latter Proposition needeth no labouriousnesse of Proof neither Evident it is that the Doctrine here spoken of representeth God as a non-respecter of Persons in as much as it rendreth him a Judge of the same righteous severity against the enormous transgressions of his own Children and Friends which he exerciseth towards his enemies and those that are strangers unto Him upon the like Provocations This Doctrine subjecteth Saints as well as others to this righteous Law of God Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with Mankinde nor Theâves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God a 1 Cor. 6. 9. meaning as is evident from other Scriptures without Repentance Whereas the common Doctrine of Perseverance exempteth all such who have at any time been true Believers or Children of God from the penalty or doome of this Law teaching that though such as these should turne Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers c. and continue never so long in these abominations without Repentance yet they retaine their Right and Title of Inheritance in the Kingdome of God and that they remaine under the greatest love that God can shew or beare towards Men the love of Election and of Children even in the midst of these deep and desperate Provocations And thus it maketh God the greatest accepter of Persons in the World rendring Him implacably severe towards lesser sinners and indulgent above measure to the greater For that such who have or have had the knowledge of God and have believed in Jesus Christ and made Profession of love and service to Him when they turn Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers c. are far greater sinners then Men committing the same sins in ignorance and unbeliefe is I think no Mans doubt or question Certaine I am that the Scripture still representeth God as more severe in punishing where greater means of Righteousnesse and well doing have been vouchsafed You said He to His own People the Children of Israel of old onely have I knowne of all the Families of the Earth Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities b Am. 3. 2. In the Gospell And that servant which knew His Lords will and prepared not himself neither did according to His Will shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes For unto whom much is given of him shall much be required c Luk. 12. 47 48. c. It cannot be denied and confessed it is by our Adversaries themselves as hath been formerly observed but that true Believers have fallen into the Practise of the foule transgressions mentioned yea and have remained impenitent in them for a long season Therefore if during the time of such Practise and impenitency they should not be in the same or worse condition to God-ward and Salvation-wise then ignorant Persons and such who were alwayes strangers unto God are when they live in the same impieties God must needs be an accepter of Persons in the highest and shew a thousand times more favour to grand and signall Delinquents then to ordinary and lighter Offendors in comparison So that to pretend though true Believers may and oft doe fall into the fore-named sins and continue for a time in them without Repentance yet God alwayes reneweth them by Repentance before their death though this was never yet proved nor ever will be it doth not at all salve the honour of the said Doctrine Because such a supposall notwithstanding the Persons contended about may and doe according to the tenor of the Premises lately Proved suffer a totall eclipse and intercision of the grace and favour of God in the mean season Secondly for a Possibility of the Saints defection either totall finall or §. 3. both I thus argue If the common Doctrine of Perseverance rendereth the Ministry of the Gospell Argum. 2 so far as it concerneth the Perseverance of the Saints vaine impertinent and voyd then is it not a Doctrine of God but of Men and consequently that which opposeth it is the Truth But certaine it is that the said Doctrine is of this un-Christian tendency and import Ergo. The consequence in the Major Proposition is pregnant of truth in as much as the Preservation of the Saints in Faith and Holinesse unto the end is one of the most considerable ends of the Ministry of the Gospell about the effecting whereof it is mainly conversant Therefore if God who hath ordained the Ministry of the Gospell for the advancement of this end should assert any such Doctrine which rendereth it unnecessary and impertinent in Reference to this end He should be divided in Himself and pull down with one hand what He buildeth up with another The Minor Proposition is demonstrable thus That Doctrine which rendreth the labour and faithfulnesse of a Minister in pressing such Exhortations Threatnings and Promises which tend to the Preservation of the Saints in Faith and Holinesse unto the end uselesse rendereth the Ministry of the Gospell as far as it concerns the incouragement or inabling of the Saints to Persevere needless and vaine but guilty of such a tendency as this is the commonly-received Doctrine of Perseverance Ergo. The truth of the Major Proposition here shineth clearly enough with its own light or however
they cannot be said to co-operate or to worke the one with the other No more then two when the one runs and the other walks a soft pace can be said to go or walk together But when two perswade to one and the same action one may perswade more effâctually by many degrees then the other may have a peculiar Act or Method of perswading above the other But it may be further objected If that Act of God by which he affecteth §. 7. or moveth the wills of Men be in any consideration physicall must it not thus far and in this respect have a physicall effect assignable unto it If so what effect of this kinde can we assigne unto that Act of His we speak of unlesse it be the determining or necessitating of the will to that action or course whereunto it is moved by it I answer 1. They who make the Act of God inquired after in this demand meerly and solely physicall doe not suppose the effect which they ascribe to it I meane the necessitating of the will to that election whereunto it moveth to be a physicall effect but morall affirming but with what consistency either with Reason or Truth I understand not that the will though necessitated by God is yet free in her election of that whereunto she is so necessitated whereby they conceive the morality of the action salved But 2. The Physicall or necessary effect which answers that Physicall act or efficiencie of God upon the will now under consideration is that inclineing or moving impression towards such or such an election which is acted upon the will by this act of His together with the perswading force or weight of the Exhortation wherein or wherewith he so inclineth it or at least attempteth to incline it Thus far and in this sence it is granted that the Act of God whereby he inclines or moves the wills of Men either to believe or to Persevere believing is irresistible or infrustrable i. e. Men cannot hinder or prevent those moving impressions unto good in one kinde or other which God is pleased at any time to impart unto them or to act upon their wills though they may hinder and prâvent the further and full prevailing of them to that desireable end or issue which is intended by God in and by them As the Jewes of old could not hinder or prevent God from rising early and sending His Prophets unto them to call them by Promises and Threatnings to Repentance but they could and did hinder and prevent the desired event and successe of these applications of God unto them which was the actuall Reducement of them to Repentance It is true they neither did nor could hinder or prevent that secoâdary end as we may call it or intention of God in thâse applications of Himself unto them which was to render them inexcuseable and more worthy punishment in case they remained still impenitent Nor is it in the power of Men to frustrate disappoint or defeat the like intentions of God in his administrations of Grace unto them If they receive this grace of his in vaine or so as not to believe not to be converted not to persevere by it they will be will they nill they altogether inexcuseable and deeply obnoxiouâ to the wrath and vengeance of God who will take vengeance on them accordingly 3. If God makes use of Scripture Exhortations unto Perseverance to cause the Saints irresistibly and necessitatingly to Persevere then are all his Promises made unto them that they shall Persevere or that he will infallibly work Perseverance in them in vaine If a Father should first promise with the greatest assureance he could give or make that he would make his Son his heir and bestow his inheritance upon him yea and should earnestly presse and perswade this Son of his to believe and expect as much from him would it not be very incongruous or rather indeed ridiculous for this Father afterwards to exhort admonish entreat and beseech this his Son that he would take heed that he lose not the inheritance assured i. e. made past losing unto him Indeed if this Father should onely purpose in himself though with a purpose absolutely unchangeable to make his Son his Heire and not declare his purpose in this behalf unto his Son it might be somewhat prudentiall in him to admonish and exhort his Son to behave Himself so that the inheritance may not be given away from him But thus to exhort or admonish him after a Declaration made to him that he is unchangeably resolved to make him his heire would be to send him into a far Country to fetch that which he certainly knows before he goes is at home In like manner if it shall be supposed that God hath no where absolutely promised Perseverance unto the Saints though it should be supposed withall that his intent is to work it with a strong and irresistible hand in them there were some face of Reason in it that he should seriously admonish and exhort them to persevere though the truth is that even such a dispensation as this upon due inquiry will hardly be found a dispensation worthy of God I meane to exhort Men to doe that which he intends by a strong Hand to necessitate or make them to do But that first he should injoyn them to beleeve beyond all question or fear that they shall persevere yea and that He will engage His Omnipotency to effect it and afterwards with a profession of much love and care over them shall exhort and admonish them to take heed of falling away is such a broad Soloecism in Reason thaâ no considering man can lightly imagine should be incident to a Wisdom thaâ is infinite Some notwithstanding to salve the consistency of such a course with §. 8. Principles of Wisdom alledg the Passage Act. 27. where Paul notwithstanding the Promise which He had clearly received from the Angel which likewise He made known unto all that were with Him in the ship viz. thât there should be no loss of any mans life amongst them yet when the Marinerâ were about to leave the ship said to the Centurion and the Souldiers Excepâ these abide in the ship ye cannot be safe From whence they infer that an absolute Promise though declared and made known to the Persons concerned in it doth not take away the usefulness of Exhortations for the obtaining of the good things promised But how irrelative this allegation is to the business in Hand is visible enough by the light of these considerations 1. It is the generally received Opinion of Divines that Promises of temporal good things are still conditional and not absolute which Opinion they maintain upon grounds not easily shaken Now evident it is that the Promise under question was a Promise of this nature and kinde relating onely to the Preservation of the temporal lives of men 2. It hath been formerly observed and that more then once and confirmed by pregnant instances that
allegation of these words Except these abide c. to prove the usefulness of Exhortations or the necessity of means properly so called for the accomplishment of any absolute Promise of God is as broad an impertinency as is lightly incident to ink and paper By the way to search as neer to the bottom of the Passâge in Hand as we can when the Apostle said to the Centurion and Souldiers Except these abide in the ship ye cannot be safe His intent was not simply to deny all Possibility of safety unto them save onely upon the abiding of the Mariners in the ship but to deny all Probability or likelyhood a Cannot in Scripture frequently notes the difficuâty or great unlikelyhood of a thing not always a district impossibility See Cap. 10. Sect. 28. of safety but upon this condition onely in as much as there was very little or no hope or likelyhood of their escaping with their lives in respect of the imminent dangers wherewith they were now encompassed on every side in case they had rendered themselves or suffered themselves to have been rendered by any uncapable of that safety which God had revealed Himself willing for Pauls sake to grant unto them And of this safety as hath been shewed they had been uncapable in case any one of the company had left the ship before it was broken Other Scriptures there are by which the Teachers of unconditioned Perseverance §. 10. conceive they are able to prove a rational consistency between an absolute Promise of Perseverance and an Exhortation hereunto Of this sort are these Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall There hath no tentation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation also make away to escape that ye may be able to bear it b 1 Cor. 10. 12 13. So again Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure c Philip. 2 12 13. So the Apostle having admonished the Hebrews to take heed of falling away yet professeth thus concerning them But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and such as accompany Salvation though we thus speak d Heb. 6. 4 5 9. In these and such like places say they Exhortations unto Perseverance and Promises of Perseverance are joyned together by the Holy Ghost therefore men who deny a regular and due consistency between them impute folly or weakness to the Holy Ghost I answer 1. They are ten degrees neerer to the guilt of the crime specified who affirm the conjunction mentioned to be found in the said Scriptures then they who deny the Legitimacy of such a Conjunction The incongruity of the Conjunction hath been sufficiently evinced but that any such Conjunction is to be found either in the Scriptures cited or in any others is no mans Vision but His who hath Darkness for a Vision For 2. That in none of the Places cited is there any Promise of Perseverance is evident to Him that shall duly consider the Tenor and import of them For 1. It is one thing to say and teach that God will so limit as well the force as the continuance of Temptations that the Saints MAY BE ABLE to bear them another to make a Promise of absolute Perseverance Yea those very words that ye may be able to bear it clearly import that all that is here promised unto the beleeving Corinths is a sufficiency of means to persevere if they will improve them accordingly not an infallible certainty of their Perseverance And that Caveat Let Him that thinketh that He standeth take heed c. plainly supposeth a possibility of His falling who thinketh upon the best Terms and Grounds for His Thought that He standeth sure For that this Caveat is not given to Hypocrites or unsound Beleevers or unto such who please themselves with a loose and groundless conceit of the goodness of their condition God ward is evident because it were better that such men should fall from their present standing in a groundless conceit then continue their standing nor would the Apostle ever have cautioned such to take heed of falling whose condition was more like to be made better then worse by their falling And besides to understand the said Caveat of loose Beleevers overthrows the pertinency of it to their cause who insist upon it to prove a due consistency between Exhortations to Perseverance and Promises of Perseverance as is evident If then it be directed to true and sound Beleevers it clearly supposeth a possibility at least of their falling in case they shall not take heed otherwise their taking heed would be no means at least no necessary means of their standing and further it supposeth also a possibility at least of their non-taking heed or that they might possibly not take heed hereof otherwise the Caveat or Admonition had been in vain Men have no need of being admonished to do that which they are under no possibility to omit If then the standing or persevering of the Saints depends upon their taking heed lest they fall and their taking heed in this kinde be such a thing which they may possibly omit evident it is that there is a possibility of their non persevering Again 2. It is one thing to affirm that God worketh in men as to will so to do §. 11. i e. to enable men to do or put in execution what they first will or to assist them in the doing or execution it self another to promise or work infallibly and without all possibility of frustration by men Perseverance There is little or no affinity between these but how and in what sence God is said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã working in men both to will and to do of his good pleasure we shall have occasion God willing to open more at large in the latter part of this Work 3. And lastly It is one thing to promise Perseverance another to hope or to perswade our selves that such or such of our Christian friends will not fall into those horrid sins from which it is very hard and next to an impossibility for them to be renewed by Repentance But such Arguments and Proofs from the Scriptures as these are of the two fitter to harden or strengthen our wills in what we hold then to ballance our Judgments There is not in all nor in any one of the Scriptures pretended the least whisper or breathing of any such Promise of Perseverance as our Adversaries lift up their imaginations unto It is true there are in many places express Promises of such Grace and precious vouchsafements from God unto the Saints whereby they shall be enabled yea and whereby they are encouraged to persevere and if men will call such Promises as these Promises of Perseverance and explain them
observing the difference between Sin reigning and not reigning of the former speaketh thus Sin reigning is all or every Sin in Men unregenerate or in Men regenerate an error contrary to the Articles of Faith or against conscience excluding out of the heart actuall belief of remission of sins and making the sinner liable to eternall Death unlesse he should be forgiven In one word Sin reigning is to obey the lusts of the flesh Even those that are regenerate sometimes fall into this sin as David Peter and this the Apostles exhortation witnesseth b Regnans est omne peccatum in non renatis aut in renatis error contrà articulos fidei aut conscientiam excludens ex corde actualem fiduciam remissionis peccatorum obnoxium faciens peccantem exitio aeterno nisi fiat remissio uno verbo est obedire cupiditatibus carnis Renati etiam aliquando incidunt in tale peccatum ut David Petrus quod testatur hortatio Apostoli c. Par. ad Rom. 6. ver 13. Hi enim etiam mortaliter contrà dictamen conscientiae aliquando ruentes ut Aaron David Petrus c. ibid. in Dub. 7. And afterwards speaking of Regenerate Men and true Believers he grants that they may mortally and against the dictate of their consciences rush into Sin as Aaron David Peter did and saith moreover that when they thus sin they lay waste their Consciences disturb the Holy Ghost lose the joy of their heart and incur the wrath of God Doubtlesse these are not the symptomes or effects of sins of infirmity though the Author is pleased to say that which I think pleaseth few Men to believe that the sins of Aaron David Peter were not committed by them ex contemptu Dei out of any contempt of God but out of a preoccupation with or through the infirmity of the flesh Concerning the Sin of David certaine I am that the Prophet Nathan by the Word of the Lord chargeth it upon his despising or contempt of the Commandement of the Lord 2 Sam. 12. 9. Ursine is yet more cordiall and through in the point The most sad falls saith he of holy Men as of Aaron making the golden Calf for which God being angry was minded to slay him and of David committing Adultery and Murther to whom Nathan said Thou art a Man of Death doe plainely shew that even Regenerate Men may rush or fall headlong into reigning sin a Quòd etiam renati possunt ruere in peccatum regnans satis ostendunt lapsus tristissimi etiam Sanctorum hominum ut Aaronis vitulum aureum facientis quem Deus iratus propterea voluit perdere Et Davidis committentis adulterium homicidium cui Nathan dixit Tu es vir mortis Ursinus vol. 1. pag. 207. And those of the Contra-Remonstrancie in the Conference at the Hague held Anno 1613. confesse and teach that true Believers may fall so far that the Church according to the Commandement of Christ shall be obliged to pronounce that she cannot tolerate them in her externall Communion and that they shall have no part in the Kingdome of Christ except they repent b Deinde respondemus ad miâorem fieri posse ut verè fideles eò prolabantur ut Ecclesia ex mandato Christi cogatur pronunciare se eos in externâ communione tolerare non posse neque eos partem in regno Christi habituros nisi resipiscant Coll. Hag. p. 399. Therefore certainly their sence was that true Believers may sin above the rate of those who Sin out of infirmity in as much as there is no Commandement of Christ that any Church of his should eject such persons out of their externall Communion who Sin out of infirmity onely So that by the confession of our Adversaries themselves even true Believers may perpetrate such Sins which are of a deeper demerit then to be numbred amongst Sins of infirmity yea such Sins for which the Church of Christ according to the Commandement of Christ stands bound to judge them for ever excluded from the Kingdome of God without Repentance From whence it undeniably followes that they may commit such Sins whereby their Faith in Christ will be totally wreck'd and lost because there is no condemnation or exclusion from the Kingdome of God unto those that are by Faith in Christ Jesus whether they repent or not And therefore they that stand in need of Repentance to give them a right and title to the Kingdome of God are no Sons of God by Faith for were they Sons they would be heires also c Rom. 8. 17. and consequently have the clearest right and title to the inheritance that is So that to pretend that however the Saints may fall into great and grievous Sins yet they shall certainly be renewed againe by Repentance before they die though this be an Assertion without any bottome of Reason or Truth yet doth it no wayes oppose but suppose rather a Possibility of the totall defection of Faith in true Believers Some to maintaine this Position that all the Sins of true Believers are §. 24. Sins of infirmity lay hold on this Shield Such Men as these they say never Sin with their whole wills or with full consent Therefore when they Sin they never Sin but through infirmity That they never Sin with full consent they conceive they prove sufficiently from that of the Apostle For the good that I would I doe not but the evill which I would not that I doe Now if I doe that I would not it is no more I that doe it but Sin that dwelleth in me d Rom. 7. 19 20. I answer 1. That the Saints oft Sin with their whole wills or full consents is undeniably proved by this consideration viz. because otherwise there should be not only a plurality or diversity but even a contrariety of wills in the same person at one and the same instant of time viz. when the supposed act of Sin is produced Now it is an impossibility of the first evidence that there should be a plurality of acts and these contrary the one unto the other in one and the same subject or agent at one and the same instant of time It is true between the first moving of the flesh in a Man towards the committing of the Sin and the compleating of this Sin by an actuall and externall patration of it there may be successively in him not onely a plurality but even a contrariety of volitions or motions of the will according to what the Scripture speaketh concerning the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh but when the flesh having prevailed in the combate bringeth forth her desire into act the spirit ceaseth from his act of lusting otherwise it will follow that the flesh is greater and stronger in her lustings then the Spirit of God in his and that when the flesh lusteth after the perpetration of such or such a Sin the spirit as to the hindering of it
yea though he should intice you away from God by the allurements of the World and intangle you with them againe yea and should cause you to run and rush headlong against the light of your own judgements and consciences into all manner of horrid sins and abominations yet shall all his attempts and assaults upon you in every kinde be in vaine you shall be in never the more danger or possibility of perishing unto you I say attend and consider how sore and dangerous a combate you are like to sustaine for you are to wrastâe not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers the Governors of this World and spirituall wickednesses against that old Serpent the Devill that great red Dragon who was a murtherer from the beginning and who still goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure who will set himself with all his might to thrust you headlong into all manner of sins and so to separate betweene God and you for ever and truly I am afraid lest as the Serpent by his subâilty deceived Eve so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus lest the Tempter should any wayes tempt you and my labour about you be in vaine Therefore watch pray and resist him stedfast in the Faith take unto you the whole Armour of God that you may be able to resist in an evill day and having done all things stand fast stand having your loynes girt with the girdle of truth and the brest-Plate of Righteousnesse upon you c. Would such an Oration or speech as this be any wayes worthy the infinite Wisdome of the Holy Ghost Or is it not the part of a very weak and simple person to admonish a Man and that in a most serious and solemn manner of a danger threatning him or hanging over his head and withall to instruct and teach him with a great variety of Rules Precepts and Cautions how to escape this danger when as both himself knows and the person admonished likewise knoweth and this with the knowledge also of the Admonisher that it is a thing altogether unpossible that ever the danger should befall him or the evill against which he is so solemnly cautioned come upon him Therefore they who make the Holy Ghost to have part and fellowship in such weaknesse as this are most insufferably injurious unto him And whereas they still plead or pretend rather that such admonitions §. 38. as those lately specified may well stand with an unconditioned promise of Perseverance we have formerly shewed a See from Sect 4. of this Chapter to the end of Sect. 16. that they are not able to make good this Plea nor to give any reasonable account of it Whereas they adde that their Sence or Opinion is not that it is a thing absolutely or every wayes impossible for true Believers to fall away totally or finally from their Faith but that they willingly grant that even true Believers what through their own weaknesse and what through the subtil baits and temptations of Satan may so fall away c. I answer that this is but a Fig-leafe sought out to cover the nakednesse of their Opinion which hath no strength at all nor wear in it For what though it were in a thousand other respects never so possible for true Believers to perish yet if it be altogether unpossible in such a respect which over rules all those other and which will and of necessity must hinder the coming of it to passe all those other notwithstanding it is to bee judged simply and absolutely impossible and all those respects wherein it is pretended possible are not to be brought into account in such a case The Rule in the Civill Law and in Reason is Omnia invalida nihilo sunt aequiparanda i. e. All things which together are invalid are to be judged as none at all Yea the Scripture it self when it speakes of any thing which God hath promised or ingaged Himselfe to bring to passe though there be never so many second causes and these never so potent in their kinde to oppose it it nullifies the validity of all these and asserts the certaine futurity of the effect upon such termes as if in no respect whatsoever it were impossible or obnoxious to a non being or non-comming to pass If God BE FOR US saith Paul who can be against us a clearely b Rom. 8. 31. implying that no enmity no opposition or interposition of things or persons whatsoever against our Comfort and Peace are of any consideration at all when we have the Power of God ingaged for our security And is there not altogether the same reason of the Perseverance of the Saints in case God hath made an absolute Promise hereof unto them Or is it reasonable or any wayes considerable to say that in this respect or in that respect or in a third respect they may possibly not Persevere in case it be supposed that God hath absolutely peremptorily and irreversibly against all possible Interveniences whatsoever Decreed their Perseverance Whereas some pretend that Christ Himselfe was tempted who yet §. 39. was in no danger of sinning or of perishing the answer is that this indeed is a truth but palpably irrelative to the cause in hand It would have parallel'd in case the Holy Ghost should have applied Himself unto Christ in such admonitions detections of Satans malice and methods against him exhortations to be watchfull to pray to stand fast and resist him with professing himself afraid lest Satan should circumvent him c. as those wherein we heard he addresseth himself unto Believers but there being no such applications as these made unto him by the Holy Ghost the case is altogether different It is true Christ as Man was subject to the whole Law of God and to every branch and particular Precept thereof so far as it concerned him i. e. so far as it concerned Men considered simply as Men or as righteous and good Men but as it relates unto Men considered as subject to morall weaknesses and infirmities or as in a capacity of being over-grown and overcome with sinfull corruptions and so liable unto perishing he was not in subjection to it Neverthelesse it is not to be denied but that even Christ Himself considered simply as Man had upon him the image and superscription of a Creature or finite Being I meane mutability yet so that all potentiality in him in this kinde was abundantly balanced over-balanced by the hypostaticall union and the unmeasureablenesse of that Grace which flowed from this Spring upon and into his humanity by means whereof there is an impossibility though neither meerly Logicall or Naturall nor yet meerly Morall but compounded and as it were mixed of both such as hath no place in the condition of any meere Creature whatsoever that he should be actually changed to the dayes of eternity So that in respect of the personall union with the God-head
import they speak only of Faith of the second degree i. e. of such Faith which is not only justifying and saving in respect of the nature of it but which actually saveth and in places of the latter import that they speak only of Faith of the third and highest degree i. e. of a perfect solid rooted and groundââ Faith For the Readers better satisfaction I shall exhib ãâ¦ã ãâã ãâ¦ã hors own words at large This nevertheless is to be taken intââpecial consideration that when the Illud interim maximoperé in considerationem venit quòd cum Patres fidem posse amitti eóque ex Fide haut rectè aeternaÌ electionem colligi posse contendunt non omnes de quacunque Fidei mensur âloquuntur cum plurimi eoruÌ distinguant tres Fidei gradus Quorum primus dat Fidei essentiam secundum quam justificat dicitur Fides viva atque oppositam habet Fidem mortuam ac putatitiam qualis hypocritarum Alter gradus addit durationem quâ ratione salvificat sibique oppositam habet Fidem ut vulgò loquimur quod de hominibus dicit Scriptura Fidei eorum per ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã tribuentes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sive temporariam qualis est Apostatarum Tertius gradus superaddit soliditatem dicitur perfecta solida radicata quae quocunque vitae tempore certificat hoc est ut Gregorii Magni verbis utar sic confirmat ut quis ulteriùs caedere non possit hoc de sese certissimé sciat Cui gradui opponitur Fides debilis qualis etiam multorum est Electorum Patrum loca quibus dicunt Fidem veram quidem amitti posse sed nunquam non reparari semper loquuntur de secundo Fidei gradu At illa quibus ajunt neutiquam posse amitti omninò intelligi debent de gradu tertio Cum quibus mininè pugnat quòd universi alià s dicunt multos per defectionem à Fide aeternùm perire Nam intelligunt Fidem primi gradus hoc est formaliter sive essentialiter veram sive quod idem est justificam etsi non salvificam sed justificam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã per quam quis in praesentiâ est justus non justificam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quaendo si veritatem finis spectemus vere justifica non est quae aliquando desinit justificare quia non alia habet promissionem vitae aeternae quam quae perseverat Gerard. Joh. Voss Hist Pelag. lib. 6. Thes 13. Fathers affirm that Faith may be lost and ãâ¦ã fore that eternal Election cannot rightly be inferred from Faith they do not all speak of any measure or degree of Faith whatsoever since many of them distinguish three several degrees of Faith The first of which gives Essence or Truth of Being unto Faith in respect whereof it justifieth and is called a lively Faith opposite hereunto is a dead and putatitious i. e. an imaginary Faith which is proper to Hypocrites The next degree adds Duration or Perseverance in respect whereof it saveth i. e. becomes actually saving Opposite to this Faith is that which we commonly call Temporary attributing that unproperly unto mens Faith which the Scripture attributes to men themselves which is the Faith of Apostates The third and last degree superaddeth Solidity this Faith is termed perfect solid rooted which at any time of a mans life gives him assurance i. e. to use the words of Gregory the Great doth so confirm or strengthen that a man cannot fall afterwards and knoweth this most certainly of himself To this degree of Faith a weak Faith is opposed which is the Faith of many of the Elect. Those passages of the Fathers wherein they say That true Faith may be lost but is always recovered again always speak of the second degree of Faith But those where they say That such Faith cannot be lost must necessarily be understood of the third and highest degree of Faith Between which expressions and what they generally teach otherwise viz. That many perish eternally through a falling away from their Faith there is no repugnance For in such assertions as this they understand Faith of the first degree i. e. such a Faith which is formally and essentially true or which is the same which is justifying though not actually or in the event saving but justifying in the essence or substance of it in respect whereof a man is at present righteous or just not justifying in respect of continuance since if we consider the Truth of the end that Faith is not truly justifying which at any time ceaseth to justifie because no other Faith hath the promise of eternal life but only that which persevereth By the express tenor of these things it fully appears that the uniform and §. 5. constant opinion of all Orthodox Antiquity was that true Faith true Grace true Justification and forgiveness of sins may by security carelessness ungodliness and profaneness of life and conversation be totally and finally lost and the persons in whom they were sometimes found eternally perish As for that which some of them teach concerning the inamissibility or infallible Perseverance of such a Faith which is perfected and radicated in the Soul so throughly and to such a degree as we have heard expressed were it granted that they speak of a simple and absolute inamissibility in this kind and that their meaning is that there is an utter impossibility and not a great difficulty or improbability only that such a Faith should miscarry or no instance producible to prove that such a Faith ever did miscarry it no ways rebuketh the confidence of that Assertion which we have in this present Chapter and elsewhere in the Discourse formerly avouched viz. That a possibility of the falling away of true Saints and true Beleevers and that both totally and finally was the general and joynt Doctrine of the Primitive Christians for several ages together after Christ. The consideration whereof is abundantly sufficient to stop the mouth of that undue pretext which presumeth to say and that with confidence That the best and most conscientious men were always of this Judgment that true Grace is imperishable and true Beleevers under no possibility of miscarrying finally But of this we spake more at large in the nineth Chapter I here only add That when any of the ancient Fathers or Councils express themselves in words of any such import as this that there is or may be a Faith so raised rooted or strongly built that it cannot either totally or finally miscarry it is no ways probable that their meaning should be that there is an utter simple or logical impossibility that such a Faith should be wholy lost but that they rather speak rhetorically and would be understood of a kind of moral impossibility only which imports a great difficulty improbability or rareness of an event in which sence or notion the Scriptures themselves as knowledg hath been given elsewhere d Cap. 10. §. 28.
Councels and Synods were not of the same Judgment with Augustin may be gratified to satisfaction by recourse had to the oft-mentioned Author Gerard. Joh. Vossius in his Historia Pelagiana lib. 6. Thes 12. The transcribing of more passages in this kinde being already drawn together and directed unto by another and that in a Book of no difficult procurement will not I suppose be judged necessary or much expedient to the business in hand by a considerate Reader How a Doctrine of that soveraign import in Christian Religion of that §. 15. pregnant assertion in the Scriptures themselves so generally and constantly held forth and maintained by Orthodox Antiquity as the Doctrine of a Conditional Perseverance hath in all these respects been clearly proved to be should be especially with so much heat and confident zeal denyed and opposed by a great party of the Reformers of Religion in these latter days is of somewhat a strange âut of a much more sad consideration But as it often happeneth in sweeping of Houses especially when they are full of dust or soyl that pieces of silver or gold and other things of value are either through negligence or too much haste made in the work by those that do it or through a badness of their sight swept up among the soyl and cast together with it upon the dunghil so may it very possibly fall out in great Reformations of Religion when corruptions and matters requiring Reformation whether in Doctrine or Manners are very numerous and of a long gathering that together with the corruptions Errors and things necessary to be removed and abandoned some things also of worth and good import and which appertain to the purity and soundness of Religion are renounced and cast out likewise partly through too much zeal of an over-hasty dispatch in the work partly through an injudiciousness in some things in the principal Reformers partly through that infirmity of incogitancy which is so importune an attendant upon flesh and blood how vigilant soever Or as it constantly falleth out in purgings and lettings of blood that together with the bad humors and corrupt blood somewhat of that which is good and serviceable for the health and strength of the body is parted with and lost so is it hardly to be expected but that when an attempt shall be made to purge the body of Christian Religion being now encumbered and over-grown with Errors unsound Notions and Opinions having insinuated into the veins and incorporated themselves as it were with the pure substance of it which was the condition of it by falling into the hands of and remaining so long amongst those Daemoniolatrical Apostates whose want of love to the Truth God avenged by sending them strong delusions which caused them to beleeve lyes somewhat of the soundness and native substance of it also should be divided from it and cast into the draught together with that excrementitious and noisom matter which is wrought out of it by the purge Notwithstanding if we shall limit our Discourse to the Point in hand §. 16. and onely speak of the Doctrine of Perseverance the truth is that a very considerable part of those who were interessed in the Reformation of Religion about Luthers times and who since maintain and carry on that Reformation have not departed therein from the Faith of Primitive Antiquity as it hath been presented in the preceding part of this Chapter but clearly teach and assert with them a possibility of the Saints declining even unto death Concerning those of the Reformed Religion commonly distinguished by the name of Lutherans who I suppose are equal in numbers and not inferior in parts of learning or in zeal towards the Religion which they profess unto those who are contra-distinguished by the name of Calvinists it is sufficiently known that they more generally if not universally hold and teach with Luther Himself whose Judgment in the Point was briefly touched Cap. 14. Sect. 16. no other Perseverance of the Saints or true Beleevers then that which possibly may miscarry both totally and finally I shall not multiply Quotations from their Writings but onely lay before you some passages of Melancthon who was Luthers Companion and Allay together with two or three sayings from Chemnitius and for the general sence of the Lutheran party of Reformers in the Controversie in hand refer you to the Testimony and Confession of a great Defender of the common Faith in the Point of Perseverance who I beleeve was better acquainted with their writings then any man that shall rise up to oppose Him in His Testimony There are two Errors saith Melancthon of fanatique men which must briefly be confuted who conceit that men regenerate cannot lapse or fall and that though they do fall and this against the light of their Conscience that yet they are righteous or in an estate of Justification This madness is to be condemned and both instances and sayings from the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles opposed to it Saul and David pleased God were righteous had the Holy Ghost given unto them yet afterwards fell so that one of them perished utterly the other returned again unto God There are many sayings to the same Point And having cited upon the said account Mat. 12. 43 44. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. 1 Cor. 10. 12. Apoc. 2. 5. He subjoyneth These and the like sayings being spoken of Regenerate men testifie that they may fall and that in case they fall against their consciences they please not God unless they be converted a Sed ante explicationeÌ partium breviter refutandi sunt duo errores fanaticorum hominum qui finxeruÌt renatos non posse labi quanvis labuntur coÌtrà conscientiam tamen justos esse Haec amentia damâanda est opponenda ex emplà dicta Scripturae Propheticae Apostolicae vt Saul David placuerunt Deo fuerunt justi donati Spiritu Sancto tamen posteà lapsi sunt ita vt alter prorsùs perierit alter rursus ad Deum coÌversus sit Dicta multa sunt c. Melancthon Loc. de Poenitentiâ Et paulò post Haec similia dicta de renatis testantur posse eos labi lapsos contrà conscientiam non placere Deo nisi rursus convertuntur Elsewhere thus Whereas it hath been said that sins remain in the Regenerate it 's necessary that a difference be made For certain it is that they who rush into sinful practices against Conscience do not continue in Grace nor retain Faith Righteousness or the Holy Ghost neither can Faith stand with an evil purpose of heart against Conscience b Cum dictum sit in renatis manere peccata necesse est tradi discrimen Nam hos qui ruunt in delicta contrà Conscientiam certum est non manere in gratiâ nec retinere Fidem Justiciam Spiritum Sanctum nec potest stare cum malo proposito contrà Conscientiam Fides c. Idem in Loc.
Travellers i. e. amongst the Saints that are yet in the course of their pilgrimage upon the Earth b Dicimus igitur FideÌ quoad habituÌ manere perfici in futurâ vitâ licét evacuetur quoad accidentaleÌ aliquaÌ conditioneÌ pro statu viae illam concomitanteÌ Ipsi enim beati sic dispositi sunt quòd non solùm Deo assentire velint ex evidentia rei sed etiam propter Authoritatem asserentis quaÌvis res affirmata esset in se inevidens Imò multò promptiùs propter AuthoritateÌ dicentis crederet Deo quivis ex numero BeatoruÌ quaÌ ille qui maximâ Fide praeditus est inter viatores Hoc auteÌ arguit habituÌ Fidei esse in beatis perfectissimuÌ quaÌvis obscuritas ejus ratione status glorioâi evacuetur Dr Jo Daven Praelect de duob in Theolog. contr capitibus c. pag. 326. Therefore questionless his sence also was at least when he wrote these things that a true firm and unfeigned assent unto God speaking asserting or revealing is true Faith and justifying for about this was the Contest between him and his Adversary And besides the whole Tenor of the Discourse there managed makes this manifest Fearing least I have over-charged the Readers patience already I supersede the citation of the ancient Fathers besides others more of our later Protestant Authors who generally look upon it as no injury to Truth to hold and teach that a true real and unfeigned assent unto the Gospel and Promises of Salvation herein is nothing less then a true justifying and saving Faith a Faith enstating a person in the Grace and Favor of God So that by the express Testimony 1. Of the Scriptures themselves 2 By the conviction of sound Reason And lastly by a verdict of the most judicious and learned of their own friends at least claimed and owned for such by themselves the Synod of Dort who levyed an hard and most severe sentence against the possibility of the Saints perishing by Apostacy have stumbled at that stone of inexcusableness of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 2. 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things Yea it hath been proved that this Synod it self flew an higher pitch of opposition against the Perseverance of the Saints then those who upon this account were made such grant offenders by them This Indictment we have hitherto managed and made good against them §. 29. by the consideration of one character or expression onely from their own pen whereby they describe those whom they expose to a possibility of apostatizing to perdition viz. a true and unfeigned belief of or consent unto the Evangelical Compact and whatsoever is revealed by God in the Gospel This we have proved by a cloud of witnesses some speaking from Heaven others from the Earth to be an inseparable and essentially distinguishing Character of true Saints and justified men But 2. If we judged or could think that the Reader would judg that which hath been done already insufficient to evince the Synod though not of Error or Heresie yet of Autocâtacrisie or self-condemnation we should insist upon and urge other expressions from them whereby it might be made yet further to appear that their foot is in very deed in that snare we speak of For do they not say and confess in words plain enough which have been cited that the persons put by them under a possibility yea some of them horrendum dictu UNDER a NECESSITY of that doomful Apostacy which is always accompanyed with eternal perdition may have and that many of them de facto have the true knowledg of God and of Christ or of God in Christ in their minde for what other knowledg they should here mean is not imaginable and that out of this knowledg they may as oft as is needful is not this constantly and without turning aside act conformably And what is this but to bring forth fruits worthy Repentance yea and to equalize the best and worthiest of the Saints in doing Righteousness which the Holy Ghost makes the most emphatical and unerring property or character of such men Little children let no man deceive you saith John He that doth Righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous a 1 Joh. 3. 7. of which passage formerly b Cap. 9. Sect. 11. cap. 11. sect 55. And again In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil Whosoever doth not Righteousness is not of God c 1 Ioh. 3 10. and consequently whosoever doth righteousness is of God For otherwise the not-doing of righteousness were no manifestation of the one sort of these children from the other 3. And lastly whereas the Synod pleads that the seed falling upon the stony ground Luk. 8. 13. imports such Hearers which for a time beleeve i. e. give an unfeigned assent unto the things revealed by God in the Gospel d Act a. Synod Dordrec part 2. pag. 189. and afterwards fall away whereby they would insinuate that these Hearers notwithstanding their unfeigned assent unto the things of God and the Gospel were never true Saints nor persons justified before God we have formerly by an unpartial enquiry into the Parable and by many pregnant Arguments drawn from the carriage of it evinced that the persons emparabled by the seed falling upon the stony ground were true Saints and their Faith of the same kinde and during the continuance of it equally justifying with theirs who were represented by the good ground e Cap. 12. sect 32 33 c. Leaving therefore the Synod at present let us recollect and draw up into §. 30. a brief account the sum of all that hath been argued in the present digression and so conclude this Chapter First It hath been clearly proved that the Doctrine which maintains an absolute necessity or infallibility of the Saints Perseverance in Grace or Faith unto the end hath nothing more in it or rather nothing so much for the true and real consolation of the Saints then that which is contrary unto it Secondly Diligent and unpartial search hath been made into those passages of Scripture which the greatest Advocates of the said Doctrine of Perseverance mainly insist upon for the defence of it none of which it hath been made fully to appear holdeth any true or real correspondency with it Thirdly The best and most substantial Arguments and Grounds upon which the said Doctrine is wont by the skilfullest workmen of Her Party to be built have been weighed in the balance and found too light Fourthly The Doctrine contrary hereunto and which avoucheth the possibility of the Saints declining and this unto death hath been asserted by the express Testimony and consent of many Scriptures Fifthly This Doctrine also hath received further credit and confirmation from several Principles and grounds as well of Reason as Religion
gratifies it in another For in making the Apostle to say that the saving Grace of God hath appeared unto all men they suppose him to be of their Judgment who conceive the Gospel and the saving Grace thereof to be discovered and preached by God unto men not only by the Ministry of Men or by the Letter of the Gospel it self but by the Works of Creation also and the gracious Government of the World For certain it is that the saving Grace of God of which the Apostle here speaks had not at this time appeared unto all men upon any other terms But this by the way Our former Translators dealt much more fairly with the Holy Ghost at this place rendering and pointing the words thus For that Grace of God that bringeth Salvation unto all men hath appeared The Grace of God in Christ is here said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã salvifical unto all men not because it is such to all sorts or ranks of men only or to some men of all sorts and degrees as some not fearing to destroy the clear sence of the Holy Ghost to salve their own interpret but because it is such to all men simply and without exception of any This Exposition is confirmed 1. From the Context in the words immediately following wherein the proper end or ducture of this saving Grace of God now discovered is declared thus Teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world If then this saving Grace of God teacheth i. e. be apt to teach perswade and lead all men without exception as well one as another to a denyal of all ungodliness and to live soberly then must it needs be alike saving unto all For if this teaching property in it flows from the savingness of it which the Apostle here clearly supposeth then must the savingness of it necessarily be of equal extent with that property An Act of Grace Love or Bounty inviteth obligeth no more unto thankfulness then those to whom it is meant and intended Now certain it is that the saving Grace of God held forth and profered unto all men in the Gospel teacheth inviteth perswadeth obligeth all mân without exception as well one as another to deny ungodliness c. to live soberly c. Otherwise we must say that there are some men who ought not who are no ways bound to learn any of these things from the Gospel nor to practise them upon any accompt of Grace or love âendered herein from God unto them which I suppose is a saying too hard for any considering man to digest 2. The words themselves in their Grammatical native and proper signification give out the sence and Exposition specified The Grace of God here spoken of is expresly said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. saving or salvisical unto or apt to save all men And of what dangerous consequence it is to turn the words of the Holy Ghost out of their proper and best known significations into any by devious and qualified sence when there is no necessity of doing it hath been once and again admonished and declared in the Premisses a Cap. 5. Sect. 35. Cap. 6. §. 2 3 4 c. 3. The Exposition given fairly accordeth the passage in hand with many other its fellow-Scriptures as where God is said to have prepared His Salvation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before the face of ALL People b Luke 2. 30. to be willing to have ALL Men saved and to come to the knowledg of the Truth c 1 Tim. 2. 4. So again to have NONE perish but to have ALL MEN come to Repentance d 2 Pet. 3. 9. And again where Christ is said through the Grace of God to have tasted death for EVERY MAN e Heb. 2. 9. to omit several others which we have demonstratively proved to be of one mind and one heart with the said passage so understood as now interpreted 4. And lastly The Exposition given is attested by Orthodox Interpreters so owned and acknowledged by our Adversaries By name saith Pelican he testifieth the Grace of God to be COMMON TO THE UNIVERSE OF MEN or to men universally because of Servants of whom he had spoken And presently after But we are ALL one in Christ we are ALL UNIVERSALLY called to the Kingdom of God we were ALL after the offence given to be reconciled unto our Father f Nominatim universiis communem esse gratiam Dei testatur propter servos de quibus locutus erat sed cuncti in Christo unum sumus universi ad regnum Dei vocamur omnes post offensam Patri nostro reâonciliandi suimus Aretius upon the place affirmeth That the Gospel offers the Grace of God unto ALL MEN and hereupon infers that therefore it concerns ALL MEN to adorn the Doctrine hereof with their lives and manners g Prima ratio est Evangelium omnibus hominibus offert gratiam Dâi Ergo omnium interest hanc Doctrinam ornare vita moribus If the Gospel offers the saving Grace of God unto all men and all men upon this account stand bound to adorn the Doctrine thereof then must this Grace in the offer of it and so in the intention of him who offers it in the Gospel be saving i. e. of a saving tendency and import unto all men Yea if all men stand alike bound in respect of the alike offer of it respectively unto them neither of which alikeness can reasonably be denyed or indeed questioned it is a plain case that the savingness of it and Salvation by it is by God alike intended unto all men But from the Universal Offer of Grace unto men in the Gospel we have formerly argued and evicted real intentions in God of Salvation by Christ unto all men without exception h Cap. 7. Sect. 2. 3. c. As for those trivial evasions from this and such-like Scriptures as viz. that by all men may be meant either great numbers of men or all sorts or some of all sorts and ranks of men or Jews and Gentiles and so again that the Grace of God may be said to be saving unto all men because there is a sufficiency of merit in Christ to save all men though the Salvation of all men by him be not intended by God c. These I say with the like put-offs we have already upon like occasions frequently occurring detected of vanity and shewed their clear inconsistency with the principles as well of that Wisdom which is revealed from Heaven in the Scriptures as of that reason and understanding which are naturally ingrafted in men If any mans judgment be yet tempted with a face of any seeming beauty or strength in any of them he may I presume be delivered from further inconvenience in this kind by a second review of the sixth Chapter of this Discourse at least if he shall diligently consider what is to be seen
there In the next Chapter of the same Epistle the Apostle addeth light unto §. 3. light in the business in hand expressing himself thus But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards men appeared a Tit. 3. 4. c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the goodness and the love of God towards man I here demand How or whether God can in any tolerable construction of Reason or common sence be said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a lover of men or to bear an affection of love to men in case he should hate incomparably the far greatest part of men and that with the hatred of a Reprobation from eternity leaving them without all possibility of escaping eternal misery and torment and this when as at the same cost and charge which he hath been at for the saving of a few he might have provided for the Salvation of them all For this they affirm who grant that Christ dyed sufficiently for all but intentionally only for a few Can we say that a King or Prince is a Lover of his Kingdom or of his Subjects only because he loves two or three Favorites about his Court especially when the generality and great Body of his Subjects are in imminent danger of perishing or being undone unless he provides for their relief he in the midst of the greatest abundance of means to relieve them and this without the least prejudice or hinderance to himself shall altogether neglect them in their danger and misery Doubtless there was never Prince or King since the World began that ever obtained the Name or Honor of a Lover of his Subjects upon such terms as these And yet they make God a Lover of men in no other sence upon no whit better terms who affirm and teach that he loved only that small number of men which they call His Elect which the Scripture very frequently affirms to be few in comparison of those who perish when as that great generality and vast Body of men were from the greatest to the least of them in most imminent danger of being undone and that in the most dreadful manner that can be imagined to the days of eternity teaching withall that the Death of Christ which was bestowed upon these few only was sufficient for the saving of the rest also and that God upon meer will and pleasure not to ease his Son Jesus Christ in the least nor to accommodate himself at all otherwise implacably resolved from eternity to exclude all these from part and fellowship in that Salvation With a great desire my Soul desireth that men whose consciences serve them to oppose in the present Controversie would seriously and calmly confider whether that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that love to mankind which the Scripture reporteth to be in God be at all compossible or consistent with such a dismal design in reference unto men as that now represented Again If God loveth only such a small number of men as the Opinion which we oppose supposeth why is not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the love of Angels as well as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the love of Men ascribed unto him For doubtless if God loves no more men then those who come to be actually saved he might more properly and truly be said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Lover of Angels rather then a Lover of Men. Because if we shall restrain his love towards men only to those comparative few who will be actually and eventually saved he will be found to love a far greater proportion of Angels then of men it being no ways probable but that the number of Angels who keep their standing and are Elect is far greater being compared with those that fell then the number of men who according to the Scriptures are like to be actually saved is being compared with those that perish To say that Gods Love though but to a few men expressed in the gift of §. 4. his Son Jesus Christ to dye for them is more considerable and so a more reasonable ground of giving the denomination of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unto him then the love which he bears to Angels though more in number or in proportion is to say that which no way easeth the matter or salveth the difficulty First Because the Angels the Elect Angels as the Scripture calleth them are partakers with men in the gift of Jesus Christ given unto men though not in that Redemption from sin misery which accrues unto men by him unless haply it be by sympathy with their fellow creatures in their joy and blessedness yet otherwise as appears from Col. 2. 10. and other places and besides is generally acknowledged by Divines Secondly One of the highest expressions I remember whereby the happiness procured for men by the gift of Christ is set forth in the Scripture is but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an equality with the Angels or likeness of condition with them Luk. 20. 36. Therefore Gods Love to the Angels that stand doth not fall short at least to any such considerable degree of the Love which he beareth unto men that are saved Therefore the Reason why he is stiled ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Lover of Men not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Lover of Angels is not because he loves some men more then he doth any Angels but because he loved all men and not all Angels Besides if God should love only such a small parcel of men as some imagine with the hatred of all the rest he might much more properly be termed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an Hater of men then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Lover of men Whereas the Scripture frequently extols and magnifies the Love of God towards all men yea towards his Enemies on whom he maketh his Sun to arise and sendeth rain as well as on his Friends a Mat. 5 45. and strictly injoyneth all those that would be accounted his children to resemble and imitate him in this his goodness but no where suggesteth the least degree of any hatred in him against any person of man personally considered nor any other then what doth redundare in personam as the School-men speak i. e. which redoundeth and as it were runs over from the sin which he hateth unto the person in whom that sin is found Again if God should not love the generality of mankind in order to their Salvation by Christ then all the good which he doth unto them in outward things as in making his Son to arise and his Rain to fall upon them as our Saviour saith he doth as well upon the unjust as the just and so his filling of their heart with food and gladness with the like must be conceived to be done by him upon such terms and with such intentions as men use to lay scraps for birds or bait hooks for fishes which they do for none other end but to take and destroy them For if God hath no intent
before Calvin Chrysostom had declared for the substance of the Interpretation given That which the Apostle saith saith he upon the place is some such thing as this Thou hast been cleansed thou hast been discharged from matter of crime or accusation against thee thou hast been made a Son if now thou shalt return to thy former vomit dis-inheritance fire and all such like terrible things abide thee for there is not a second Sacrifice for thee b ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We shall upon the account of this Chapter produce only one brief passage §. 10. of Scripture more wherein the Gracious Intentions of God towards all men in point of Salvation by the Death of Christ are like Solomons King upon his Throne against whom there is no rising up The intire Verse wherein the words we mind are extânt runneth thus The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance c 2 Pet. 3. 9. Evident it is and Expositors generally consent that the Apostle in these words propounds a further Reason or consideration to satisfie those that being weak were apt to stumble and take offence that the Lord Christ delayed his coming to judg the World and to deliver his Saints so long No man saith the Apostle in effect upon this account hath any reason to be offended or take it amiss at the hand of Christ that he makes no more haste in coming to judg the World seeing that his delay in this kind proceeds not at all from any neglect or backwardness in him to perform his Promise in that behalf though some men count all delay which is contrary to their minds and desires to be no better then neglect or slackness unto action but from his great patience and long-sufferance towards men His will and desire being that no person whatsoever of mankind either in present being in the world or that shall be born hereafter should perish everlastingly but that every man of them should come to Repentance whereunto his patience and long-sufferance inviteth yea and leadeth them d Rom. 2. 4. and by which many are actually led and brought unto it that so they may be saved From the passage thus understood I argue thus If Christ be not willing that any man should perish but that all should come to Repentance then questionless he intendeth the Salvation of all and consequently dyed intentionally for all for unless he intended to dye for them yea and did dye for them it is not possible that he should either will or intend their Salvation in as much as no man can will or intend that which he knows to be unpossible But certain it is that Christ is not willing that any man should perish but that all should come to Repentance the Holy Ghost in the Scripture in hand expresly affirming it Ergo. Against the sence and Interpretation of the words given and so to the invaliditating §. 11. of the Argument built thereon it is pretended by some that the Apostle doth not here assert an unwillingness in Christ that any person whatsoever of mankind should perish but only that any person of the Elect should perish To give colour to this Exposition they circumscribe the particle or pronoune ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã us with the limit or line of their Election so carrying the sence thus The Lord is not slack c. but is long-suffering to us-ward viz. who are his Elect and consequently to all others that are partakers of the same Election with us not willing that any viz. of these the Elect of his Father should perish but that all these should come to Repentance not any others This sence of the place is commended by Estius a Popish Expositor but we shall find Calvin leaning with the Truth another way So then Peter saith Estius upon the place saith that the Lord dealeth patiently i. e. delayeth his promised Coming and Judgment for the Elects sake that they might not perish but being converted to Repentance be saved a Sic ergo Petrus dicit Dominum patienter agââe i. e. adventum promissum judicium suum differre propter Electos ut ne per ãâ¦ã âed ad poenitentiam conversi salventur c. Estius in 2 Pet. 3. 9. This Exposition he labors in the very fire to make to stand but as one said in another case oportet aliquid intus esse an Exposition that hath not truth in it cannot be made to stand 1. I would demand of this Expositor and of those who sence with him in the Interpretation specified why or by what authority they expound ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã towards us the Elect rather then towards us Beleevers For if they will needs have the persons here spoken unto to be considered by the Apostle not in their Natures or general capacities viz. as they were men but in some particular or special capacity wherein other men or all men did not partake with them the capacity of Saintship or of Faith was as neer at hand as that of Election For that the persons we speak of were Saints and Beleevers is far less questionable then that they were Elect in their sence of the word Election who thus interpret It is true what Estius alledgeth to credit his Exposition that this Epistle was written to the same persons with the former who are stiled Elect 1 Pet. 1. 2. But 1. Whether his Elect and the Apostles Elect be the same is very questionable unless haply the Apostle puts it out of question that they are not the same by setting forth his Elect in the place cited by such a description which will not agree with Estius his Elect Estius with the Generality of Divines amongst us by his Elect understands as well those that shall repent and beleeve hereafter though they be at present sons of Belial and to every good work Reprobate as the Apostle speaketh as those who actually do beleeve whereas Peter in the place now mentioned estimateth his ELECT by the Sanctification i. e. the actual Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ according to the fore-knowledg or pre-approbation of God i. e. as God approved and judged it meet and consequently decreed from eternity to regulate his Election of men in time But this only by the way for as to this Scripture with others which treat of Election we shall God favouring speak more fully in due time 2. Though the Epistle was as this Author alledgeth written to the same persons with the former who in the beginning of the said former Epistle are termed Elect yet are these persons in this very Epistle and much neerer to the place in hand described or considered in their capacity of Beleeving Simon Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious FAITH with us b 2 Pet. 1. 1.
ingredients of Wisdom which He puts into them past finding out c Rom. 11. 33 So then it being contrary to the Laws and Rules of true Wisdom or of that infinite Wisdom which rules in God for him to act his Creatures at least ordinarily in opposition to those natural and essential Properties and Principles which himself hath planted in them it may easily be conceived how and in what respect he hath no Power i. e. no liberty in himself to prevent the ruine of his Creature Man further or otherwise then by such an interposure of Himself or of his Grace in order hereunto which will in respect of any forcibleness or efficacy in working well consist with the natural and essential freedom and liberty of his Will In respect whereof the utmost line or extent of the liberty or Power of God is to proceed no further with men nor with any man at any time in the vouchsafement of Grace or means of Grace in order to the preventing of their ruine and destruction then to leave them a Power at least or Possibility of rejecting the Grace offered unto them and so to ruine and destroy themselves Nor doubtless did God ever go further or rise higher then this no not in the most signal or miraculous Conversions which either we read of âin the Scriptures or otherwise have heard of according to Truth I suppose there is not a greater or more notable instance in this kinde then that of the Conversion of Paul which we know was effected in a very extraordinary way and with as high an hand of means as ever was lifted up by God for the conversion of a man as viz. by a Vision of the Lord Christ himself from Heaven in splendor and great glory speaking with an audible voyce unto him although I know not whether it be necessary to suppose that the work of Pauls Conversion was perfected I mean specifically perfected for gradually I presume it was not by this Vision onely or until Ananias to whom the Vision directed him had made known unto him those things concerning the Gospel which he did But whether his Conversion was specifically perfected by the Vision without Ananias his Ministry or no doubtless there was a liberty or possibility left in Paul himself to the very last moment or minute of time before this his Conversion was actually wrought to have not onely resisted but even frustrated all the means that were used for the effecting of it frustrated I mean not simply or universally as if Christ should have been disappointed and lost all he had done in order to his Conversion in case he had not been converted but frustrated in respect of that particular end his Conversion For God hath always more ends then one though but one primary and antecedent in vouchsafing means of Grace and Salvation unto men and whether he obtains the one or the other it is of much alike concernment unto him according to that of the Apostle For we Apostles or Ministers of the Gospel are unto God in our Ministry a sweet or the sweet savor of Christ i. e. we render Christ or the Mystery of Christ by a diligent and faithful spreading abroad the knowledg of them in the world as full of satisfaction and contentment unto God as they are capable of being improved unto in them that are saved and in those that perish meaning that the destruction of those who perish through a 2 Cor. 2. 15. rejection of his rich Grace in Christ offered to them is matter of good satisfaction unto him even as the Salvation of those is who accept of this Grace from him So that let men who have Christ and means of Salvation offered unto them take either the right hand or the left God will be no loser by them his counsels and ends of one kinde or other will be advanced howsoever How that most serious and solemn Profession and Oath of God that he delighteth not in the death of the wicked or of him that dyâth Ezek. 18. 32. and 33. 11. is of good consistence with the Apostles being the sweet savor of Christ unto Him in them that perish as also with that Profession which himself maketh by Solomon unto wicked men I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh and your destruction cometh as a whirlewind a Prov. 1. 26 27. c. we shall I conceive have opportunity to unfold in the latter Part of our present Discourse But this by the way in this place Yet give me leave to add one thing further here of necessary consideration §. 16. for the full clearing of the business in hand Though it be well consistent with the Wisdom of God and the Principles thereof to rise sometimes and in some cases in the vouchsafement of the means of Grace and of Salvation unto men to the highest pin or degree in point of efficacy and Power which the native and essential freedom and liberty of the Will will bear yet is it not consistent with this Wisdom of his to do it often much less ordinarily or of course The Wisdom of a Man leads and teacheth him sometimes upon occasion and in order to some more then ordinary design to vary from his customary and constant course of acting yea though this customary and constant course of his be simply the best and most agreeable to the Rules of Wisdom for him ordinarily to follow Upon this account the wise man informeth us That there is a time to kill and a time to heal a time tâ build up and a time to pull down a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together b Eccles 3. 2. 3 c. with several other instances of like import When he saith there is a time to do this and a time to do that which is contrary unto it his meaning clearly is that it is prudential and agreeable to Rules of Wisdom for a man according to time place and other circumstances to vary the manner and kinde of his ordinary actions yea to act at one time with a kinde of contrariety to himself at another In like manner it is perfectly consistent with the infinite Wisdom of God upon some special occasion and in order to some gracious design to open the hand of his bounty in the vouchsafement of means of Salvation unto Men much wider then will stand with the same Wisdom to do ordinarily or at another time And as it may be truly said of a truly wise man that he cannot cast away stones when the time is for him to gather stones together and so on the contrary that he cannot gather stones together when the time and season is to cast them away such a man cannot mis-time his actions because his Wisdom which frames and fashions both the consents and dissents of his Will cannot frame or raise a consent of Will in him to do any thing contrary to it self or to its own Nature and
procuring the Salvation of any of those who come to be actually saved 4. When with the Scriptures we deliver this for a Doctrine of Truth that Christ dyed for all Men we suppose and mean that God intends the Salvation of all Men by this Death onely so after such a manner or with such a kinde of Intention which is competible to and consistent with His infinite simplicity and Perfection of Being Of this kinde of Intention we argued in our third Chapter where we gave a particular and clear account of it and shall take it the second time into some brief consideration in this Chapter This Particular is of affinity with the first but is not altogether the same 5. When we teach that Christ dyed for all Men we mean not onely that He put all Men without exception into a capability of being saved as viz. by beleeving but also that He wholly dissolved and took off from all Men the guilt and condemnation which was brought upon all Men by Adams Transgression So that now no Man shall perish or be condemned but upon his own personal account and for such sins onely which shall be actually and voluntarily committed by him or for such omissions which was in his power to have prevented 6. When with the Scriptures we affirm that Christ dyed for all Men our sence and meaning is that by His Death He procured this Grace and Favor with God for all Men without exception viz. that they should receive from Him sufficient strength and means or be enabled by Him to Repent and to beleeve yea and to persevere in both unto the end and that in this sence and none other He is or may be said to have by His Death purchased the Grace of Faith and Repentance for Men and this upon equal terms in an antecedent consideration for all Men. 7. And lastly Our sence and meaning in the said Doctrine further is that Christ by His Death purchased this transcendent Grace also and Favor in the sight of God for all Men without exception that upon their Repentance and Beleeving in Him they should be justified and receive forgiveness of all their sins and that upon their Perseverance in both unto the end they should be actually and eternally saved and that in this sence and in this onely He is and may be said to have purchased Justification or Remission of sins Redemption Salvation c. for Men for any Man or any number of Men yea and in this sence for all Men. The imputation from the guilt whereof we desire in special manner to §. 2. wash our hands in innocency by this Explication is that as we hold Universal Redemption so we hold likewise Universal Salvation or that all Men shall be saved by Christ. That such an Opinion as this is no consequent of the Doctrine maintained in this Discourse concerning the Death of Christ for all Men sufficiently appeareth from that ground which we have layd and built upon once and again in the former part of this Discourse viz. That such Intentions and Desires in God and in Christ which are real and cordial may yet very possibly never take place or be fulfilled See what hath been proposed and debated upon this account Cap. 2. Sect. 13. And again Cap. 3. Sect. 7. 11. c. And yet again Cap. 10. Sect. 49. This supposed it may very easily be conceived that God may intend the Salvation of all Men by the Death of Christ and yet all Men not be saved Which Opinion I mean that all Men shall be saved as it hath no communion at all with the Doctrine avouched in this Discourse so hath it every whit as little with the Authors sence or Judgment otherwise who approveth the sentence of the Constantinopolitan Synod assembled under the Emperor Justinian wherein this Opinion held as it seems by Origen with a susplussage of Error joyned with it c Origens Opinion was not onely that all Men but that all the Devils also should at last be saved by Christ was condemned Yea to me it seemeth not a little strange how any man professing subjection of Judgment unto the Scriptures should ever come to a confederacy with such an Opinion For with what frequency and evidence of expression do these rise up against it ever and anon intimating and asserting on the one hand the Paucity of those that will or shall be saved in comparison of those that will perish and on the other hand the Perpetuity or everlastingness of the Perdition and misery of those who do perish Nor do they give the least intimation or hope of release from misery unto those who dye in their sins and perish in their unbelief Enter in at the strait gate saith Christ unto the children of men in His Doctrine upon the Mount for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and MANY there be that go in thereat but we read of none that return or come out thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and FEVV there be that finde it d Matt. 7. 13 14. i. e. that finde it either first or last or ever For that this is His Meaning appears from these and such like sayings Wherefore if thine Hand cause thee to offend cut it off it is better for thee to enter into life maimed then having two hands to go into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched He doth not say into the fire that is hard to be quenched or which will be long in quenching but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. into that fire which differs from all other kindes of fire in this that whereas they are quenchable no Decree of God interposing to the contrary this by the unchangeable Law of Heaven is made unquenchable for the redoubling of the Article ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hath this import which is likewise further confirmed by that which followeth Where their worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched e Mark 9. 43 44. These expressions dyeth not is not quenched though according to their precise Grammatical import they onely deny the act the one of dying the other of quenching yet according to Scripture-dialect they deny also the very power or possibility of these acts f Negatio actus saepe connotat etiaâ negationem potentia For there is nothing more frequent here then by the denyal of the act to deny the power or possibility of a thing Thus Gen. 13. 6. where our Translation readeth And the Land was not ABLE to bear them the Original onely saith And the Land DID not bear them as Mr Ainsworth also translateth the place So Prov. 24. 7. where our last Translation respecting the Original hath it He OPENETH NOT His mouth in the gate our former Translators rather minding the sence and import of the place read it thus He CANNOT OPEN His mouth in the gate to omit many the like So that
when our Saviour saith concerning the estate of those that go or are cast into Hell that their worm dyeth not and their fire is not quenched His Meaning is that their worm cannot dye nor their fire be quenched i. e. their punishment or torment can never have an end or interruption viz. because the Counsel of the Will of the Almighty hath resolved against both and judged it meet to make them easless and endless Upon this account also John the Baptist saith concerning Christ That He hath His Fan in His Hand and will throughly purge His floor and gather His Wheat into His Garner but will burn up the Chaff with UNQUENCHABLE FIRE g Mat. 3. 12. So likewise the Apostle Paul clearly teacheth That the Lord Jesus shall shew Himself from Heaven with His mighty Angels In flaming fire rendering vengeance unto them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who saith He shall be punished with EVERLASTING DESTRVCTION from the presence of the Lord h 2 Thess 1. 7 8 9. c. To this purpose the Evangelist John reports it for the saying of an Angel unto him in his Vision that If any man worship the Beast and His image and receive His mark in his forehead or hand The same shall dâink of the wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out WITHOVT MIXTVRE into the Cup of His Indignation and He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for EVER AND EVER i Rev. 14. 9 10 11. c. These last words are again used in the description of the vengeance that shall be executed upon the whore And again they the People that were in Heaven said Alleluja and Her smoke rose up FOR EVER AND EVER k Rev. 19. 3. Afterwards in the same Book we read That the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be TORMENTED DAY NIGHT FOR EVER AND EVER l Rev. 20. 10. This expression for ever and ever so signally expressed in all the three Testimonies last recited plainly imports that the duration or continuance of the punishment and torment of those who who perish in their sins and are cast into Hell is not commensurable with the continuance of the Mosaical Law long since expired which in the Old Testament is frequently signified by a word signifying or at least commonly rendered for ever m Exod. 28. 43 29. 28. Lev. 16 29 c. but usually interpreted for a long time or for the time of a mans life c. but commensurable with the duration of the Kingdom of God of the Life of God and of Jesus Christ for these in respect of their continuance are almost constantly said to be for ever and ever n Psal 10. 16. 21. 4. Rev. 4. 9. 5. 14. 10. 6. 15 7 c. i. e. for Eternity or without end The notion and term likewise of the bottomless pit frequently used in the Book of the Revelation to signifie the state or condition of the damned plainly enough imports the endlessness or everlastingness of their misery If we could suppose a ditch or pit without a bottom into the midst of which a man should be thrown we could not with congruity of notion but suppose also that this Person would be always falling and that his motion or fall would never be at an end The like apprehension doubtless concerning the case and state of those who dye in their sins in respect of their torment and misery the Holy Ghost seeks to form and plant in our Souls and Consciences by the Metaphor or borrowed resemblance of a bottomless pit It were easie to multiply Texts of Scripture to make that voyce which hath now spoken unto us in those last cited far greater and louder but those which we have heard speak already in the point have spoken so plainly that the rest may keep silence at the present without loss or disadvantage to the Truth Neither do the Scriptures so much as whisper any thing of semblance or §. 3. comport with the Opinion now rejected As for that of the Apostle Eph. 1. 10. which some well-willers to the said Opinion look upon as sympathizing with them in their judgments that way it will upon a due enquiry be found of another spirit That in the Dispensation of the fulness of times saith this place He might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are on Earth even in Him o Ephes 1 10 c. Whereunto for affinity sake we may joyn that from the same Pen For it pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell And having made Peace through the blood of His Cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself by Him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven p Col. 1. 19 20 From these Passages layd together some judg it to be a very legitimate inference that in the Dispensation of the fulness of times i. e. as they understand in due time though it be very long before all things i. e. all Persons of Men or Mankinde whether in Heaven or in Earth i. e. as well those who at present are at the greatest distance from the Love and Favor of God whether alive or dead the Earth containing both as those that are already in His Favor and therefore in Blessedness and Glory shall be gathered into one by Christ i. e. shall be reconciled unto Him and so be invested together in one and the same condition of Happiness and Glory by vertue of the Death of Christ who dyed for them all and that to procure their actual reconcilement unto God sooner or later however wickedly and unbeleevingly they should either live or dye But that such a gloss as this is quite besides the Text and the true import of it is not hard to demonstrate For 1. Neither of the said Passages speak of the event issue or success of that glorious design of God by Jesus Christ specified in them but of the design it self or what was projected or intended by Him Now the Design or Projection of God by Jesus Christ here reported was as the Apostle expresseth it in the former place ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. to recollect reduce or gather all things into an Head by Christ or in Christ both things in Heaven and things on Earth In the latter place this Design is said to be the reconciling of all things to Himself by Christ whether things on Earth or things in Heaven By All things whether in Heaven or on Earth by the joynt consent of all Interpreters He means Angels Holy Angels and Men. The Neuter gender for the Masculine is a frequent construction in the Scriptures and emphatical ãâã ãâã
intended or intendeth the Salvation of all Men in or by the Death of Christ The actions of men and so of Angels and of any Creature whatsoever as well immanent as transient inward as outward not being really the same things with their respective Natures Essences or Beings have their peculiar and appropriate forms really distinct from their said Natures and Beings so that they may be actually separated from these and yet these continue and remain As for example David once had a Purpose or Intention to build God an House or Temple but upon a discovery made unto Him by God that His Will was otherwise and that not He but his Son Solomon should do it His Purpose and Intentions that way expired and had no longer a Being yet David after this Purpose and Intention of his were fallen continued the same Person for Nature and Essence which He was before Now because that which we call an Intent or Intention in created subjects as Men hath a peculiar Nature or form really distinct as hath been said from the subject and Nature thereof and Names and words were at first imposed upon things according to what men generally knew or apprehended to be in them hence it is that these words Intent Intention c. properly and in ordinary discourse between men signifie such an act of the Minde or Will of the reasonable Creature which is in his Power as well to let fall and lay aside as to conceive or raise up within him yea and which falleth and ceaseth constantly and of course when the thing intended is effected Therefore in this strict and formal signification of the word Intentions are altogether inattributable unto God in as much as all His Acts and Actings in one kinde or other are divisim conjunctim joyntly and severally one and the same thing with His Nature Essence and Being as we have heretofore demonstratively proved and that from the express Principles and constant assertions of our Adversaries themselves as likewise from the Doctrine concerning the Nature of God generally received amongst us n Cap. 3. Sect. 7 8 c. Cap. 4. Sect. 5. 12 c. and consequently are not perishable or liable to any expiration fall or change upon any events accomplishments or effectings of things whatsoever more then Himself or His simple Essence and Being So that when with the Scriptures we ascribe Intentions unto God our meaning with theirs also is that God in and by that one great indesinent unintermittable unconceivable Act of his which is Himself and wherein He put forth Himself from Eternity and by which He gave and gives Being to all Creatures Motions and Actings of Creatures whatsoever successively o See Cap. 4. Sect. 12 13 14 c. 22 c. acteth and expresseth Himself in order to the effecting or obtaining of such ends or things as He is said to intend after some such manner as men do when they intend the effecting or procuring of what they project or desire Therefore as men when they intend such and such ends are wont to levy and use means proper and likely at least in their Judgments to effect and bring them to pass in like manner God is said to intend such and such things when He providentially acteth in due order towards and with a sufficient proportion of strength in acting for the effecting and procurement of them And thus and in this sence we desire to be understood when we affirm and hold that God intendeth the Salvation of all Men without exception in and by the Death of Christ viz. that upon the account of Christs Death He vouchsafeth a sufficiency of means unto all Men considered as men and before their wilful sinning that most heinous and unpardonable sin whereby to be saved so that if any particular Person man or woman perish or be not saved the cause or Reason hereof is not any want of sufficient means from God for their Salvation but their own voluntary neglect or non-improvement of the means vouchsafed unto them in order thereunto yea such a neglect which they were no ways necessitated unto neither by any Decree of God nor by any strength or subtilty of temptation from the Devil or from the World nor yet by any weakness or strength of corruption in themselves but which they might all these notwithstanding very well have prevented and not have incurred the guilt or danger of it When in the premised Explication of our Doctrine we say that God did §. 9. onely antecedently intend the actual Redemption and Salvation of all Men in and by the Death of Christ and not consequently our meaning is that He so far and upon such terms intended the Salvation of all Men without exception as to vouchsafe unto them all sufficient grace and means for their Salvation not purposing or intending to interpose by any Providence of His either positive or privative but that every man without exception may or might so improve or use the grace and means vouchsafed unto them as to obtain Salvation thereby This with the ancient Fathers Chrysostom and Damascene I call His willing or intending the Salvation of all Men antecedently Of this Intention or Will of God the Apostle speaks plainly 1 Tim. 2. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the Truth But this antecedent Intention of His notwithstanding He may and doth intend and will likewise that whosoever shall not use the said grace and means so graciously vouchsafed unto them so as by them truly to repent and beleeve yea and persevere thus repenting and beleeving unto the end should perish everlastingly So that according to this latter this consequent Intention of His He intendeth the Salvation onely of those who shall beleeve and persevere beleeving unto the end and the condemnation of all others we speak now of Persons actually capable of Faith and Unbelief not of Infants who admit of a peculiar consideration by themselves This with the forementioned Authors I call His consequent Will or Intention The former of these is not called His Antecedent Will or Intention either because it precedes the other in time or in eternity or in worth or dignity or the like no precedency in any of these kindes hath place amongst the Decrees Wills or Intentions of God which are all equally eternal equally honorable and worthy of him But the reason of this denomination is because it is so ordered and cometh to pass by divine Dispensation that Grace and Means for the obtaining of Salvation are always in the first place vouchsafed unto Men before either Salvation be actually conferred upon any man that beleeveth or any thing Penal I mean spiritually Penal or any ways tending either to obduration or condemnation be inflicted upon Unbeleevers and much more before actual destruction is brought upon them So that the latter of the said two Wills or Intentions in God is therefore termed consequent because He never acteth
set a quite contrary way as viz. to multiply soment and encrease those evil and hard thoughts of God which the sense of sin and guilt as hath been said are marvelously apt to ingender in the hearts and spirits of Men must needs be Anti-Evangelical and of another inspiration much differing from that whereby the Gospel was given unto the World So that to cloath this Proposition with light we shall not need to labor or spin Nor need we be put to much trouble for proof of the latter Proposition had not the adverse Doctrine gotten the advantage of possession against the clear Truth in the Judgments of Men. For what can be more apparant then that such a Doctrine which manifestly importeth the causless peremptory irremediable and unremovable hatred of God against far the greatest part of Men and this burning to the bottom of Hell the Persons also against whom this Hatred is supposed to be lodged in Him being unknown What I say can be more apparant then that such a Doctrine as this directly and with open face tends to a most sad horrid and desperate alienation of the Heart and Soul of the poor Creature Man from his dear and ever-blessed Creator God Or is it possible that such a Creature should truly cordially or entirely love or delight in Him that made him in case he either knows or otherwise hath strong grounds of jealousie and fear that before he made him and without any offence taken at or respect had unto any of his future sins or unworthy carriages in the least he so far hated and abominated him as to resolve against all mediation whatsoever to cast him out of his sight to devote and doom him to suffer the vengeance of eternal sire Or doth not that Doctrine which denyeth that God intended the Death of Christ for the Salvation of all Men manifestly import and suppose that God to such a degree hated and abhorred or however purposed and decreed to hate and abhor the far greatest part of Men from Eternity as to resolve against all means possible to be used by them or purposed to be used by himself for prevention to pour out the fierceness of his Wrath upon their heads in flames of unquenchable fire The Holy Ghost teacheth us that the Love of God i. e. Love towards God must or ought to be kindled in the Hearts of Men by a sense or apprehension of a precedency of this affection in him towards them We love Him saith John because He first loved us 1 Iohn 4. 19 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or as the Original will indifferently bear as Calvin himself observes and grants Let us love Him because He loved us first According to either of these constructions of the words the intimation is pregnant that the Love of God towards Men apprehended and beleeved is and ought to be the proper seed of a reciprocal affection in Men towards Him And the Scripture most frequently conjures Men to love God upon the account of his great Love towards them manifested by the gift of his Son Jesus Christ unto them Now if Love declared and resented be the natural and proper seed of the same affection in another then Hatred discovered and apprehended must needs be a seed of a contrary import and of like aptness to beget in its own likeness also For though God chargeth Men to love their enemies and those that hate them yet he doth it upon the account of that great and signal Love which he hath first shewed unto them in the gift of his onely begotten and dear Son And we see notwithstanding this great Commandment imposed by God upon Men and that upon the advantage of such a rational and equitable ground or motive for the performance of it yet with what difficulty and renitency of the flesh even in Men truly sanctified yea and with what rareness of example it is effectually if at all performed How unpossible then must it needs be that Men should truly love God whilest they apprehend him as an Enemy bent in an unplacable and unappeasable manner to destroy them and that with the most formidable destruction they are capable of enduring and this to the days of Eternity Especially considering that they have no advantage or motive of any love shewed unto them by another any ways considerable whereby to be strengthened or enabled to love him against so sore a stumbling block and obstruction in the way of this affection as a Reprobating of them from Eternity This Demonstration is so pregnant of Proof and Conviction that certain I am nothing can with any strength scarce with any face of Reason be alledged against it But meet it is that the Poor should be hearâ in his cause as well as the rich Therefore 1. To the Argument now urged it may be replyed That the Doctrine §. 13. Object which affirmeth that Christ dyed onely for the Elect and not for all Men in general hath no such tendency or aptness in it as the said Argument chargeth upon it to separate between God and any of his Creatures because it leaveth an hope to every Person of Mankinde distributively considered that they may be of the number of the Elect and consequently of those for whom Christ dyed There is no man or woman but may the said Doctrine notwithstanding be of a good and comfortable hope that Christ dyed for them and so have no ground to conceive hardly of God or to be alienated in their mindes or hearts from him To this I answer Be it granted that the Doctrine we blame leaveth a degree of hope to every Answ Person that he is one of those for whom Christ dyed yet it is an hope very faint and feeble and which must needs be sick at the heart as being over-ballanced many degrees by contrary jealousies and fears and so can at no hand be termed a good or comfortable hope or give any advantage by way of motive unto the Creature to think well and honorably of God The truth is it is rather a possibility of conceit then any well-grounded Hope that such a Doctrine leaveth or affordeth unto any man being yet in his unregenerate estate that he is one of those for whom Christ dyed Suppose fourty or an hundred men should be arraigned and found guilty of High Treason against their Prince and He should declare without naming any of their Persons that he would graciously pardon the Offence of one or two of them but was resolved against all possible interveniencies whatsoever to inflict in the most severe manner the Penalty of Death upon all the rest would such an hope of escape or of finding favor in the eyes of their Prince as should be afforded or left unto these men in this case be any considerable encouragement or ground of motive unto them respectively to conceive honorably of their Prince for clemency goodness and mercy Or would not the severity and peremptoriness of his resolutions to take away the
lives of the generality or far greatest part of them rather represent him to their mindes as a man of rigor and extremity against those that provoke him Much more should these men and all others have just ground to judg this Prince to be a Person of an hard spirit addicted unto cruelties and blood in case they should know especially from himself and by his own profession that long before any of the said Persons were touched with the least guilt yea or thought of Treason he was peremptorily resolved to have the blood and lives of them all one or two onely excepted And as for his granting Pardon unto this one or two there being no ground in Reason or Equity why he should respect these more then the other may it not seem rather the working of a meer humor or a conceited and groundless action then any fruit of an habitual goodness or clemency of disposition or of any mature or considerate deliberation And doth not the Doctrine which we condemn for that capital crime of denying that Christ dyed for all Men draw the portraicture of God resembling in all the lineaments of his face the hard favor'dness of such a Prince First It represents him as engaged and this against all possibility of relenting yea and this to the days of Eternity in Counsels and Purposes of Blood yea of the Blood of the precious Souls of Men. Secondly It presenteth him as thus engaged against millions of millions of these Souls yea against the whole mass or element of Mankinde a small remnant comparatively onely excepted and these for a long time if not during the whole term of their Mortality undiscernable from the rest within the compass of which term notwithstanding they must be prevailed with to love God or else they are lost for Eternity Thirdly The said Doctrine portraitureth him engaged as aforesaid before and without any consideration or respect had to any the future sins impenitency unbelief or any other of those against whom it supposeth him so implacably and unmercifully engaged Fourthly and lastly It holdeth Him forth unto the World as purposing and intending without any reasonable or equitable cause onely upon his peremptory and meer Will to make that vast difference between that small remnant of men mentioned and the numberless multitudes of them besides which consists in the unmeasurable blessedness of the former and the unconceivable misery and torment of the latter Now whether this be to form the most Blessed God in the Mindes Judgments Souls and Consciences of Men as amiable and lovely as attractive of their hearts and affections as worthy to be delighted in to be depended on by all Persons of Mankinde without exception of any for all and all manner of good temporal spiritual eternal I am not much afraid to make it the arbitrement of those that dare so much as pretend to ingenuity fairness and freedom of spirit amongst our Adversaries themselves If it be here replyed and said that our Doctrine also representeth God as §. 14. Object 1. irreversibly engaged and this from Eternity upon the same destruction or punishment and this of the same numbers of men with the other in as much as it granteth or supposeth that God from Eternity unchangeably purposed the eternal Destruction of all those without exception that shall remain finally impenitent and unbeleeving which are the same men both for numbers and personality which the other Doctrine so much opposed by us presenteth as the Objects of those unalterable reprobating Purposes or Intendments of His from Eternity and consequently that the one Doctrine representeth God as little lovely or desirable unto his Creature as the other To this I answer 1. Though the Doctrine asserted by us supposeth such a Decree in God Answ from Eternity whereby all Persons that should remain finally impenitent and unbeleeving are decreed or adjudged unto the vengeance of eternal fire yet doth it not adjudg to this account any such who either through defect of years as Children dying Infants or defectiveness in discretion otherwise are not capable of Faith or Repentance of which we have already in part given an account a Cap. 6. Sect. 18 19 c. and shall God willing account more fully in the latter part of this Discourse Whereas the Doctrine impugned by us includeth as well Infants of days as Defectives of years especially the former in that Decree of Reprobation which it notioneth in God So that this Doctrine doth at no hand engage God so deep in the Blood of Mankinde as the other and consequently in this respect rendereth Him unto His Creature far more gracious lovely and desirable then the other 2. The Doctrine we plead though it sets the face of Gods Reprobating Decree against all finally impenitent and unbeleeving and so materially and in a consequential way against the same Persons capable of impenitency which the other Doctrine subjecteth unto it Yet 1. It subjecteth no Person of Mankinde as such or by Name unto it but supposeth all Men as Men in a capacity and under a fair possibility of being Elected this Decree of Reprobation notwithstanding though it concludeth from many Prophetical Scriptures otherwise that a very great number of Men will in time be Reprobated for their Wickedness and Unbelief whereas the Doctrine opposed bends this Decree against the Persons of Men personally considered and so leaveth such and such Men from first to last irrecoverably doomed to destruction 2. The Doctrine asserted by us presenteth God in His Decree of Reprobation as truly and really intending the Salvation of Men as in His Decree of Election it self Yea and questioneth not but that His Decree of Reprobation according to His gracious Purpose and Intendment therein hath occasioned and doth occasion dayly the Salvation of many The principal Intent of the Law threatening such and such Malefactors as Traytors Murtherers c. with Death is not to take away the lives of such Persons who shall commit these foul crimes and misdemeanors by Death this is but the subordinate intention or end of it but to prevent the perpetration of these crimes in all that live under this Law and consequently their suffering of Death for them Much less is it any part of the Intent of such a Law to make any Person or Persons by Name Traytors Murtherers or the like that so they may be cut off by Death In like manner we judg and teach that the soveraign and primary Intent of this Decree of God He i. e. whosoever beleeveth not shall be damned b Mark 16. 16 besides which in respect of the substance and import of it which may be expressed in other terms we finde no Decree of Reprobation in God mentioned no nor yet so much as intimated in the Scriptures is not to bring Damnation upon those who shall not beleeve much less to expose any man or numbers of men to an unavoydable necessity of a non-beleeving that so they may be damned
out their silver for that which is not bread from leaning upon broken reeds from expecting Rain from Clouds without water from putting their trust in things that cannot help or profit c. it is at no hand to be beleeved that He will counsel or command any man to buy gold or white rayment of Jesus Christ unless He knew that He had both the one and the other for them to depend upon Him for Salvation unless this great and blessed commodity were in his Hand ready for them Yea it is the manner of God and so of the Lord Christ also to take men off and turn their expectations and dependencies aside even from himself in respect of a receiving such things from Him which He finds them inclined to expect from him and himself in no posture of minde or will to give them Upon this account He speaketh unto Jeremy thus Therefore pray not thou for this people neither lift up cry or prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not hear thee e Jer. 7. 16 The emphasis of all this variety of expressâon pray not lift not up cry nor prayer make no intercession c. standeth I conceive in this viz. to declare that when He is fully purposed and resolved not to do a thing He would not have any thing at all little or much in one kinde or other done by the Creature for the obtaining of it at His hand He expresseth himself once and again to the same Prophet in words of like effect and almost of the same tenor f Jer. 11. 14 14 11 So when He perceived that Amaziah and the men of Judah expected and depended upon his presence with those hundred thousand men of valor which they had hired with a great sum of money out of Israel to assist them against the Edomites and He was fully purposed not to be present with them or to prosper them in Battel He gave knowledg unto Amaziah and those with him accordingly and by an express from himself by the hand of a Prophet advised him to discharge this Army which accordingly he did and prospered g 2 Chron. 25 6 7 c. In like manner our Saviour in the Gospel knowing that the Scribe who came unto him with this profession Master I will follow thee whither soever thou goest h Mat. 8. 19 expected some great accommodations by him in the World quenched his expectations in this kinde with this water cast upon them The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the ayr have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay His Head i Mat. 8. 20 That passage also of his to his Disciples savors much of the same spirit In my Fathers House are many Mansions IF IT WERE NOT SO I WOVLD HAVE TOLD YOV k John 14. 2 c. Clearly implying that his disposition and spirit stood to deal clearly and plainly with them about such things which they might and might not expect from him and that he would not suffer them to look for more from him then what he was fully able and provided of and withall ready and willing to confer upon them And it being as we all know the determinate Counsel and most fixed Will and Purpose of God not to give Salvation unto final Impenitents and Unbeleevers he hath openly and aloud proclaimed the thing accordingly in the hearing of all the World that Men might not be deceived frustrated or undone by any their expectations from him in this kinde So that we may without the least regret of minde or thought conclude that God enjoyneth no man requireth no man to beleeve on Jesus Christ for Salvation or to expect Salvation by him but onely those for whom he hath purchased or provided Salvation and is accordingly ready and willing to give it unto them Therefore if the Doctrine of our Adversaries be Orthodox which teacheth that Christ dyed not for all Men but for the Elect onely certain it is that none but the Elect are enjoyned by God to beleeve on him for Salvation and consequently no other Person who beleeveth not on him transgresseth any Commandment of God in this his non-beleeving and so cannot be liable unto any Condemnation at all thereby much less to the Condemnation of Hell This for Proof of the Major Proposition in the Argument last proposed The Tenor of the Minor was this But there are many that will be found §. 23. liable to Condemnation yea that will be actually condemned for Unbelief This Proposition hath I conceive such pregnant affinity with the express and unavoydable letter of the Scripture that the mention of a place or two speaking to the point will be proof in abundance He that beleeveth on Him is not condemned but He that beleeveth not viz. in case this Son of God hath been declared or preached unto him for it is a non-beleeving in this case onely of which he here speaketh is condemned already because He hath not beleeved in the Name of the onely begotten Son of God l Iohn 3. 18 Is condemned already i. e. his Sin in not beleeving is so notorious and so provoking in the sight of God that it carries Condemnation as it were in the very face of it and renders the Person guilty as good as condemned before the sentence of Condemnation passeth from the mouth of the Judg upon him according to the ancient saying Illo nocens se damnat quo peccat die i. e. The self same day wherein He sinneth The Person guilty Himself condemneth Yea the Scripture it self the better to set forth the greatness and great danger of the sin of Unbelief speaketh of it much after the same manner It was necessary say Paul and Barnabas with great boldness unto the Jews that the Word of God should first have been spoken unto you but seeing ye put it from you ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. and judg or adjudg decernitis your selves unworthy of eternal life i. e. saith Beza by this your own fact pass sentence as it were and give Judgment against your selves m Hoc vestro facto que si sententâa in vos lata stâtuitis deccraitis lo we turn to the Gentiles n Acts 13. 46 Their rejecting or non-beleeving in Christ revealed by the Ministry of the Gospel unto them is interpreted by the Holy Ghost as a sentence of Condemnation pronounced against themselves by themselves So again He that beleeveth not shall be damned o Mark 16. 16 meaning not onely if so much for his other sins as for his non-beleeving as is fully evident from other places where the high-provokingness of the sin of Unbelief in the sight of God is very plainly and significantly asserted For if the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Which at first began to be spoken by the Lord
ever will be proved that no Heathen wanting the letter of the Gospel and the Oral Ministry of it ever yet beleeved on God to Justification or was accepted with Him yet would it be no sufficient proof that therefore they had âo power thus to beleeve on Him or to do that upon the doing whereof they should have been accepted with Him But that the Heathen had and have power vouchsafed unto them by God whereby to repent and to beleeve if their Will were answerable to their Power in this kinde might be yet further evidenced by a far greater Vote from the Scriptures but that in levying this here we should anticipate a considerable part of our Intentions relating to the second part of this Work And besides three of the most considerable Passages a Rom. 10. 18 Acts 14. 16 17 Rom. 2. 4 pregnant with the Truth we now contend for have I remember been largely opened and argued by us upon the same account elsewhere b Divine Author of the Scriptures asserted p. 183 184 185 c. I shall at the present conclude the Point in hand with a parcel of Discourse from the Writings of Mr Calvin who in an Epistle shewing how Christ is the end of the Law prefixed before the French New Testament discourseth to this effect After that Adam was left in such confusion he was fruitful in his cursed seed to bring forth a generation like unto him that is to say Adam apres avoir esté deietté en telle confusion il a esté second en sa maudite semence pour enger dier generation semblable a luy cest a dire vicieuse perverse corrompue vuide despourveue de tout bien riche abondante en mal Toutesfois le Seigneur de misericorde qui n'aâme pas seulement mais luy mesme est amour charité voulant encores par sa bonté infinie aimer ce qui n'est digne d'aimer n'a pas du tout dissipé perdu abysmé les hommes comme leur iniquité le requeroit mais les a soustenus supportés en douceur patience leur donnant terme loisir de se retourner a lui se r'adresser a l'obeissance de laquelle ils s'estoyent destournés Et combien que dissimulast se teust comme s'il se'ust voulu cacher d'eux les laissant aller apres les desirs souhaits de leur concupiscence sans loix sans regime sans correction queleonque de sa Parole neantmoins il leur a baillé assez d'advertissements qui les devoyent inciter a le cercher taster trouuer pour le cognoistre honnorer comme il appartenoit Car il a eslevé par tour en tous lieux en toutes choses ses enseignes armoiries voire sous blasons de si claire intelligence que ni avoit celui qui peust pretendre ignorance de ne cognoistre vn si souverain Seigneur qui avoit si amplement exalté sa magnificence Ce'st quand en toutes les parties du monde au ciel ââ en la terre il a eserit quasi engravé la gloire de sa puissance bonté sapience eternité Sainct Paul donc a dic bien vray Que le Seigneur ne s'estoit iamais laissé sans tesmoignage mesme envers ceux ausquels il n'a envoyé aucune cognoissance de la Parole Veu que toutes les creatures depuis le firmament iusqu'au centre de la terre pouvoyent estre tesmoigns messagers de sa gloire a tous hommes pour les attirer a le cercher apres l'avoir trouué lui faire recueil hommage selon la dignité dun Seigneur si bon si puissant si sage eternel mesmes aidoyent chacune en son endrâit a ceste queste Car les oiselets chantans chantoyent Dieu les bestes le reclamoyent les eslemens le redoutoyent les montagnes le raisonnoyent les fleuues fontaines lui âettoyent ceilladâs les herbes sleurs luy riovent Combien que veritablement il ne feust pas mestier de le cercher fort loin Veu que chacun le pouvoât trouuer en soi mesme entant que nous sommâs tous substantes conserves de sa vertu habâtante en nous Cependant encore pour plus amplement manifester sa bonte clemence infinie entre les hommes il na pas este content de les instruite tous par tels enseignements qua'vons declaire mais il a specialement fait entendre sa voix a vn certain Peuple c. vicious perverse corrupted voyd and destitute of all good rich and abounding in evil Nevertheless the Lord of his Mercy who doth not onely love but is Himself Love and Charity being yet willing by his infinite goodness to love that which is not worthy of love hath not altogether dissipated lost and overwhelmed men as their sin did require but hath sustained and supported them in sweetness and patience giving them time and leasure to return unto Him and set themselves to that Obedience from which they had strayed And though He did dissemble and was silent as if He would hide himself from them suffering them to go after the desires and wishes of their lust without Laws without Government without any correction by his Word yet he hath given them warnings enough which might have incited them to seek taste and finde him for to know and honor him as it behoved them For he hath lifted up every where and in all places and things his Ensigns and Arms yea so clearly and intelligibly imblazoned that there was no one could pretend ignorance of the Knowledg of so soveraign a Lord who had in so ample a manner exalted his magnificence viz. That in all parts of the World in Heaven and in Earth he hath written and even engraven the Glory of his Might Goodness Wisdom and Eternity Saint Paul therefore saith very true That the Lord never left himself without witness even towards them unto whom he hath not sent any knowledg of his Word For as much as all the Creatures from the Firmament to the center of the Earth might be witnesses and messengers of his glory unto all Men to draw them to seek him and after having found him to welcom him and do him homage according to the dignity of a Lord so good so powerful so wise and eternal And also did help each one in its place to this quest For the Birds singing sung God Beasts cryed aloud unto him the Elements stood in fear of him Mountains reasoned with him Rivers and Fountains cast their eyes upon him Herbs and Flowers smiled on him Although that indeed there was no necessity to seek him very far by reason that each one might finde him in his own self being that we are all kept up and preserved by his vertue dwelling in us In the mean while for to manifest more
personal consideration whatsoever altereth their Natures or essential Properties Again 2. If the intent of God were to express or signifie His Approbative Will of the Repentance and Salvation of his Creature or the agreeableness of these to His Nature Minde and Goodness He would rather have expressed it in applications of himself unto such persons or subjects whose Repentance and Salvation he really intendeth and desireth then in addressments made to those whose Repentance and Salvation he desireth not nay whom he was resolved from Eternity for this is the voyce of the Oracle consulted by our Adversaries to destroy for ever It were very unproper and hard for a Judg or Prince to make a feeling and affectionate Discourse of their clemency goodness and sweetness of Nature their great averseness to acts of severity c. unto such persons whom they had been of a long time resolved and before any cause administred by these persons of such a resolution against them to put to a terrible torturing and ignominlous death especially at or neer the time when this most severe execution is intended to be done upon them 3. And lastly The Argument propounded by us and with whose vindication we are yet in labor doth neither suppose that God will work Repentance as our Adversaries call working Repentance in the persons there spoken of i. e. that he will work it upon any such terms that it shall necessarily or infallibly be effected nor yet that the persons themselves can repent without God That which it supposeth is this that God is so far moving and assisting the Hearts Wills and Consciences of these men in order to their Repentance that if they were but willing to do what he enableth them to do in reference and order to the same their Repentance would be effected and they saved upon it In which case I mean if they should repent this Repentance were most justly ascribable unto God not to themselves in as much as it is he that 1. Giveth them power and abilities to repent 2. That secretly forms and fashions their Wills so as to make them willing actually to repent 3. That supports their Wills thus framed to and in the production of the act it self of Repentance Whereas that which men themselves do in towards or about their Repentance is so inconsiderable in comparison of what God doth that the greatness of his Grace and interposure herein deserves in a manner all the praise and honor that belongs unto the action although it be true also that the person himself who repenteth or in whom Repentance is wrought must of necessity be so far or to such a degree interessed and active in the work that the work it self may be as truly and properly ascribed unto him or called His as it is ascribed unto God and termed his For it is man that repenteth not God though what he doth in repenting he doth by the operating and assisting Grace of God in which respect it is said to be his gift But concerning the conjuncture and respective interests of the first and second Causes in the production or raising of one and the same act we shall God willing discourse more particularly in the second part of this Work where also we shall clear and discharge all those Passages and Texts of Scripture from their hard service which are compelled by some to serve against this great Truth of that high importance for the glory as well of the Grace as Justice of God That all Men without exception have a sufficiency of power vouchsafed unto them by God whereby to Repent and to beleeve unto Salvation and that it is through want of Will or rather willingness not of Power that any man perisheth At present to the further confirmation of the main Doctrine commended in this Discourse we argue thus In the eleventh place If God intended not the Death of Christ as a Ransom §. 37. Argum. 11. or Satisfaction for all Men then are there some Men whom He never intended to save but to leave irrecoverably to everlasting destruction and perdition This Proposition I suppose stands firm and strong upon its own basis and needs no Prop of Proof or Argument to support it For God intending to save no man but by the Death of Christ evident it is that if there be any man or number of men for whose Salvation he did not intend this Death that he never intended their Salvation Therefore I assume But there are no such Men or number of Men whose Salvation God never intended or whom He intended to leave irrecoverably to everlasting perdition Ergo. The Reason of this Proposition is partly because whatsoever God at any time intends he intended always yea from Eternity partly also because there was a time when all Men were righteous and holy viz. during the whole time of Adams integrity in whose loyns all Men then were and so must needs be Partakers of the same Holiness and Integrity with him So that unless we shall say and hold that God never intended the Salvation of just and holy men but to leave them irrecoverably to everlasting perdition we cannot say that there are or were any men or any number of men whose Salvation he never intended or whom he intended to leave irrecoverably to everlasting destruction Yea all Men had a Being in God himself before they received or had a Being in Adam in which respect Adam himself is called the Son of God a Luke 4. 38 viz. because he received his Being from him as though not after the manner that children receive their Beings from their Parents or Fathers Now wheresoever or in what estate and condition soever Adam was there were all Men in the same estate and condition with him So then all Men considered as being in God were nothing but God himself according to the common and most true Maxim of Divines Quicquid in Deo est est Deus whatsoever is in God is God The truth of this Maxim was clearly evinced by us Cap. 4. of this Discourse where we argued the absolute simplicity of the Divine Essence or God Therefore if God purposed from Eternity to leave any man or number of men irrecoverably to eternal destruction this Purpose was conceived or taken up by Him against these men whilest they were yet onely in His Will and Power and consequently whilest they were nothing but Himself But that God should peremptorily resolve and decree never to save nor to intend to save but to design and consign over irrevocably irreversibly irrecoverably to eternal misery and destruction millions of men whilest they were yet perfectly righteous and holy yea whilest they were yet nothing but Himself is doubtless a Notion hardly incident to the judgment or thoughts of any man who trembles to think irreverently or unworthily of God It is like it will be here pleaded that God in His Purpose or Decree to §. 38. leave the men we speak of to everlasting perdition doth
of particular Redemption is countenanced with this Argument Unto all those for whom God spared not but delivered up his own Son for them he will freely give all things But there are many thousands in the World unto whom God will not give all things Ergo for none of these did God deliver up his Son As to these Arguments and Deductions pretending legitimacy of descent §. 3. from the recited Scriptures respectively we shall clearly demonstrate the nullity of such their claim and prove that they have neither footing nor foundation in any the Premisses But Secondly Besides the recited Pleas against the Doctrine of General Redemption claiming such an immediate interest as hath been represented in the Scriptures there are many others seemingly confederate with some unquestionable Principles and Grounds both of Reason and Religion and bearing themselves upon the Scriptures also though in somewhat a more remote way The most considerable and those insisted upon with greatest importunity by the Adversaries of the said Doctrine are these following Such of them as I finde in the Writings of men of Worth and Name I shall set down with their respective Authors or Abettors noted in the Margent If Christ by his Death merited for us i. e. for those for whom He dyed 1 Reason against Gen Redemption the Reconciliation it self of our persons with God and that Grace should actually and really be communicated unto us which if he should not have done he should not have benefited those that are his to such a degree as Adam damnified those Acta Synodi Dordrect part 2. p. 82 that are his then did he not dye for all men without exception But the Antecedent is true therefore the Consequent also The Reason of the Consequence in the Proposition is because certain it is both from the Scriptures and by experience that the persons of all Men are not truly reconciled with God nor is Grace actually communicated unto them The Minor presumeth of it self If Salvation being the thing promised in the New Covenant be not promised 2 Reason but onely upon condition of beleeving and all men do not will not beleeve then Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 82 certain it is that Christ by his Death obtained not Salvation for all men but for Beleevers onely But the former of these is true therefore the latter also The Consequence in the Proposition is presumed to be undenyable If the Death of Christ procured Restitution unto Life for all Men then 3 Reason were all Men restored hereunto either when Christ from Eternity was destinated unto Death which must needs be false because then no man should be born a child of wrath nor should original sin hurt any man in as much as this according to such an opinion should have been pardoned from Eternity nor should Infants or others stand in need of the Laver of Regeneration which is contrary to the assertion of Christ Joh. 3. 5. Or else they were restored in the Person of their first Parent Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 82 83 when the Promise concerning the seed of the woman was promised which also is false because our first Parents themselves were not restored to an estate of Grace but by Faith in Christ therefore neither their posterity and so not All whether Beleevers or Unbeleevers Or else they were restored when Christ Himself suffered Death upon the Cross but this also is false For so none should have been restored before this moment of time which no man hâldeth nor are all Men restored since this time for without all doubt the Wrath of God burned at the same instant of time and afterwards against some of the Accusers Condemners Crucifiers and Mockers of Christ If the Impetration and Application of the Benefits of Christ be never separated §. 4. 4 Reason or dis-joyned in their subjects then did He not impetrate these Benefits for All Men and consequently not dye for all Men because certain it is that Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 87. vid. p. 94 97 113 c. there is not an Application of them made unto all Men. But the Impetration and Application of these Benefits are never separated the one from the other in their subjects Ergo. They for whom Christ by His Death actually procured and obtained Reconciliation 5 Reason with God Forgiveness of sins Righteousness and Eternal Life are made Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 89 113 c. real Partakers of these Benefits The Reason is because nothing can be said to be procured and obtained by Christ for any man which at one time or other he doth not partake and enjoy But Unbeleevers who perish eternally never come to be Partakers of these Benefits Reconciliation with God Forgiveness of sins c. Ergo. They who by the Death of Christ are reconciled unto God are saved by His 6 Reason Life This Proposition beareth it self upon the Authority of Rom. 5. 10. But Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 89 90 not All Men but onely the Elect and Beleevers are saved by the Life of Christ Ergo. They unto whom Christ was not ordained or given for a Mediator He 7 Reason did not reconcile unto His Father by His Death nor purchase Remission of Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 90 sins or Eternal Life for them But Christ was not ordained or given for a Mediator unto Reprobates persevering in Unbelief c. Ergo. The Assumption presumeth to lean on the brest of Rom. 8. 32. a place already specified upon a like account If Reconciliation with God Remission of Sins and Eternal Life be 8 Reason obtained for all Men without exception by the Suffeâings and Death of Christ then it will follow that all those who have not by actual Incredulity Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 90 rejected the Merits of Christ remain truly reconciled unto God have their sins remitted and shall be eternally saved But this Consequent is absurd Therefore the Antecedent also If Christ by His Death made Satisfaction for all Men then might all 9 Reason Men upon the performance of the Condition of the New Covenant be saved and again upon an universal non-performance of this Condition all Acta Synodi Dordr part 2 p. 9â ex pââte Men might be damned But as well the one as the other of these are and were impossible Ergo. The Reason of the Consequence as to the first branch of it is because satisfaction being made for any mans sins there remains nothing further necessary to his actual discharge or Salvation but onely the performance of the Condition upon which the application of the said Satisfaction is suspended The Reason of the latter branch of the Consequence is because if Satisfaction was made by Christ upon none other terms for some then it was for all it clearly follows that in case there be a possibility of a non-application of
actions necessitated 319. Natural Causes why ordinarily left to themselves 28 Nazianzen for Vniversal Redemption 534 Necessity free Causes not necessitated by any act of God 53 Nicene Council for General Redempt 544 Notions some of a lighter others of a deeper impression in the Soul 1 Nyssen for Vniversal Redemption 534 O OBedience natural and spiritual how differ 315. Spiritual the more perfect by how many the more motives raised Ibid. Oecumenius for Vniversal Redemption 543 Origen for Vniversal Redemption 535 536 For Falling away 334 Original sin not necessarily supposeth liableness to condemnation 519 P PArable of the Sower opened 291 Patience Gods Patience respecteth chiefly wicked men generally not elect or beleeving 422 Pelicanus for Vniversal Redemption 407 Perfection of life not fixed by God 42 43 Periods of life not fixed by God 8 9 Permissive Gods permissive Decrees not illative 25 26 Perseverance of Saints not promised absolutely 317 318. Such a supposition dishonoreth God Ibid. 319. Common Doctrine of Perseverance a most dangerous snare upon men 322. Reflects weakness upon the Holy Ghost 339. Occasioneth Jealousie amongst Brethren 342. Hath been unduly magnified 343 c. Ancient Doctr of Perseverance how come to be lost in the Reformation 383 384. Of signal necessity in matters of Christian Religion 388 Asserted by Ancient Fathers 378 379 380 c. Both by Councils and Synods 394. ãâ¦ã fessions of many Churches Ibid. Piscator sometimes for Falling away 393 Denyeth Christ to have dyed sufficiently for all men 97 Possibility of perishing no ground of Fear that hath torment 474. God hath provided more then a bare possibility of Salvation for all 400 Praying no sign of Regeneration 346 Predestination what consistency with Gods Glory p. 69. Anciently held to be from foreseen Faith or Works 366 Prerogative wherein Gods Prerogative Will consisteth 67 68 Primasius for General Redemption 541 Promises made unto Perseverance made voyd by the common Doctrine of Perseverance 317 c. Promises conditional more engaging unto action 334 Prosper for Vniversal Redemption 539 540 Providence interposeth not out of course for most events Pag. 14 Mr Pryn his undue report of Austins Judgment in the point of Perseverance 383 Punishment what wonderful means God useth to prevent the eternal Punishment of the Creature 444 Purpose Gods Purposes and Executions still parallel 460 R REason some Reasons in general may be assigned of the equitableness of Gods ways not all in particular 349. Grounds of Reason how necessary for confirmation of Doctrines 453 454. No man to act without a ground in Reason 496 Reconciliation how God may be said to reconcile the World 88 89 Redemption Doctrine of general Redemption so necessary that the greatest enemies it hath cannot but build upon it at some turns 405 523. In what sence general Redemption is maintained in this Discourse 433 434 c. General Redemption typified by the brazen Serpent 520 c. by the Feast of Jubilee 521 522 What places of Scripture are commonly argued in opposition to it 563 564. The Arguments ordinarily produced against it 564 565 c. Redemption limited makes the Gospel a lottery 412 dishonorable unto God 413. quencheth hope and endeavor in men 414. frustrateth Christs Death in the main 465. representeth God as hollow-hearted 468. nourisheth Jealousies against God 476. injurious unto God 478. Scriptures commonly pleaded for limited Redemption 563 564 Arguments 564 565 c. Regeneration wherein resembleth the Birth natual 265 266. Repeated no inconvenience 329. It importeth a repetition of a generation or birth but not natural 329 330 Repentance why rather to be ascribed to God then to men themselves though it be their act 511 512 Reprobation 47 not from Eternity 514. not of individuals but species 63. The end of Gods Reprobation is that men should not be Reprobates 479. No Reprobation of men whilest righteous 513. Common Doctr of Reprobation miserably encumbred 514 515 Reward what actions capable of reward 319 341 Mr S. Rutherford his undue censure of general Attonement 73. His mistake about Joh. 17. 2. 116 S SAints capable of sinning out of malice 323 Sealing of the Saints with the Spirit 255 256 Servile what Obedience servile or mercenary 315 Simplicity of God 43 44 Simulation not in God 472 Sinners Pardon for wilful sinners typified in the Feast of Jubilee 521 Sins of infirmity what 323. Sin upon what account eternally punishable 443. What wonderful means God useth to prevent the eternal Punishment of the Creature for sin 444. Shortness of time to sin rather an aggravation then extenuation of sin 446 Spirit to be quenched what 325 T TAste what signifieth in Scripture 285 Tertullian for Falling away 371. For Vniversal Redemption 535 Threatenings against Apostates made voyd by the Common Doctrine of Perseverance 311 312 313. Work not but by the mediation of Fear Ibid. Truth many Truths oft asserted in the Scripture not so much for knowledg or belief as consideration p. 2. Reigneth when Objections are answered 562. Acknowledgment of the Truth proper unto Saints 283 Reigns not until Objections be answered 562 Dr Twiss his Notion about Christs praying for his Crucifiers 245. about Gods permissive Decrees 25 U UNbelief without power to beleeve no cause of wonder or of shame 500 501 c. Unbelievers upon what account unexcuseable 502 503 c. Unchangeable how God is unchangeable 208 Unregenerate no unregenerate person can have any ground of hope that he is or may be according to our Adversaries one of the Elect. 414 494 W WIll of God diversly taken in Scriptture 38. When or in what sence efficacious 473 474. How distinguished into Antecedent and Consequent 448 106 Will of Man not determined by God p. 5. Gods actings upon it how unfrustrable how Physical how Moral 305 306 307 c. Wisdom the more wisdom the less liberty to do unwisely 427. Requires variation in practice 428 429. Wisdom of God infinitely perfect 431 World what it signifieth 76 80 81 Z ZAnchius defines Justifying Faith by assent 400. for universal Redemption 559 A Table or brief Collection of some general Rules for the Interpretation of Scriputres delivered in the foregoing Discourse The Knowledg and Consideration whereof will give much Light into the Controversies there debated 1. IT is frequent in Scripture to express a thing after the manner of an Event or Consequent which shall or will follow upon such or such an occasion or means some ways likely to produce it which yet frequently cometh not to pass nay the contrary whereunto many times follows and comes to pass in stead thereof Pag. 216 221 234 2. Many Promises absolute in form are yet conditionate in matter and meaning 154 209 218 221 225 258 231 307 3. Promises m ade with respect to special qualifications are to be understood with such an Explicarion or Caution wherewith Threatenings against particular sins are to be interpreted 231 4. There is nothing more frquent in Scripture then to ascribe the Effects