a seed and to that end so to glorifie him with himself and to men and so to exercise his power and goodness amongst them that Nations and people should run in to him and so come to injoy the life that 's in him and glory with him leaving that so far as I finde to his Fathers goodwill whom and how many so to cause to run unto him not doubting but he will make good his word to his satisfaction Thus for his Impetration Now accordingly by way of Application if we may so call it He and God in him 1. Deals with all men in a way of mercy bounty and goodness and not according to the Tenor of the first obligation or the curse deserved by their sin in Adam 2. Hath invested him with supream Authority over All Creatures giving all things into his hands and he rules the Nations with a rod of Iron c. and dispenses to them as seems good to him And 3. Hath life in himself free for and communicable to All or any which he makes over to his people brought into him forgiving their sins sanctifying their souls putting into them his spirit laws fear c. changing them into his likeness till he bring them into the full possession of all his glory And 4. The Father glorifies him amongst men and so works in his word and providences by his Spirit that he hath a Church and Spouse a seed given him to whom he doth impart that fulness that is in him and executes his Lordly office amongst the rest according to his and the Fathers will so as that he brings about the main end of his sufferings the glory of God in all his dispensations even toward them also And these are my thoughts about this distinction Some make use of a Distinction of a Reconcilation wrought in Christ for men and in men by Christ the first for all men the second in all cordial and through-believers Which I make out and approve thus 1. The nature of man was fully and perfectly reconciled to God in the person of Christ by his death for All men or in the behalf of and for the benefit of all men The nature of man though the Word descended into it and was made Flesh yet as it was given in the behalf of other mens persons yea he in it as the publike sinner to ransom all so between it in Christ and God there was a controversy and that so great that God fell upon it wounded bruised afflicted yea cursed it as I may say or made it accursed and his Son as in it pouring upon it the punishment of the sin of man before he took it up into his glory but having done so to the utmost of his will not sparing him he then raised it Acts 13.33 took it up into Sonship with the Word and filled it with all his fulness being at perfect unity with it and it with him never more to be at odds again here is a full compleat and perfect reconciliation of the nature of man in Christs person and this for All as the punishment was suffered in stead of the whole nature in its several individuals and so as that God now le ts go all other from executing the fierceness of his wrath upon them for that sin in which they formerly stood condemned and calls for satisfaction to his justice in that point from none of them Rom. 2.4 5. but extends such means and goodness to them as leadeth to Repentance Yet in their persons they are not reconciled they all except the man Christ remain in enmity against him and the nature of man in all our persons is such that with no one of mankinde can so holy a God have fellowship till something be done to them that is De adultis loquor till there be wrought in them a renouncing of themselves and sins and a willingness to walk with God through his love and goodness which none have in them meerly by Christs dying for them and ascending to God till something be wrought in them from heaven by his Spirit 2 Sam. 14.24 28. Till when men are like Absolom when David at Joabs mediation took of the sentence of his banishment but yet would not let him see his face All yet in that regard children of wrath worthy of wrath though God deal not with them according to desert nor goes about to execute the fierceness of wrath upon them but on the contrary affords them means of seeking him c. to some more to some less as he pleases But 2. When the goodness of God Psa 36.7 8. Eph. 1.13 and the operations of his Word and Spirit the insinuations of divine light and love into the hearts of any is so received and yielded to that they are brought to Repentence and faith in God and Christ and submission to his Spirit then they come in their own persons to be reconciled to receive the reconciliation and atonement then God begins to own and walk with them Rom. 5.11 and take them up into unity and fellowship with his Son and this is the reconciliation wrought in men by Christ to which the Apostle exhorts in 2 Cor. 5.20 How much my sense of these distinctions differ from the Arminians Camero's Testardus and others who as M. Owen tels us all speak of an Impetration of Reconciliation Remission Redemption conditionally if they believe I leave to their Judgments that compare us M. Owens arguments against that first distinction as used by them make nothing against me I affirming an application or donation from the Father to be made to Christ and through Christ to men according to the purpose of his Impetration only some passages in his arguments would be spoken to as whereas in his second Argument p. 89. he affirms that whatsoever is obtained for any is theirs by right for whom it is obtained I think that is not every way true I may purchase a picee of land intentionally for my childe and yet keep the right and title in my own hand so that he may not have right in it or title to it till I actually instate him in it Whatever the thoughts of Christ were to any in dying for them yet we are not made heirs till brought into him till then we have no right either to claim or to receive the promises Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ and if Christs then Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3.29 So Tit. 3.6 being justified by grace we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Whether the condition of faith be purchased or no we shall view elsewhere Again in his third Argument he tels us that these two Impetration and Application are alwayes joyned together in the Scriptures in which he saith not truly for I demand where is the Application in 1 Tim. 2.6 He gave himself a ransom for All or in Heb. 2.9 by the grace of God he might
which is the thing the Apostle brings it to prove but that he hated either of them from Eternity and before they had done either good or evil or that he so hated the greater part of mankinde that God loved only his elect and chosen that he is only their Saviour that Christ died only for them and gave himself a ransom only for his sheep and Church and did not die for the greatest part of men nor hath any fitness or sufficiency as a mediator for them to save them that God did make the greatest part of men with intention to destroy them and never bare any good will to them that they perish for ever for the sin of Adam and that their condemnation is aggravated by their after sins for their neglecting that that was never for them and for not repenting and believing on him though there was neither object meet for them to believe on nor any power vouchsafed to them from God by which in attending to God in the meanes propounded they might have been brought to repent and believe that all that Christ died for shall be saved eternally and none of them shall perish these and the like positions maintained by them we finde no Scripture asserting and so have no divine ground of believing but to maintain them they rely on their reasons adding to and detracting from the Scripture-expressions as they please yea plainly contradicting them making particular affirmative propositions in Scripture equipollent to universal affirmatives as We or the Church are sanctified by his Death ergo All that he died for and particular Affirmatives to be repugnant and contradictory to universal Affirmatives as He gave himself for us ergo Not for all gave his life as a shepherd for his sheep ergo he gave not himself a ransome for all men and many such inept and unscholarlike inferences their wisdomes make to maintain and strengthen their devised Assertions drawing conclusions by them openly contradictory to the Scripture-expressions as ergo He died not for all and every one God would not that all men should be saved c. I would Master Owen and the rest of his minde would be content that God should be true and reason be judged absurd and vain where it opposes him that he may have but that glory of his mercy goodness truth and Justice that he in the Scriptures asserts to himself we should willingly hold us to that bargain with them But alas how injurious they are to the truth of God too and how unbelieving of and contradictory to the Scriptures thou mayst see by this litle tast here given and more fully I hope by the treatise itself here presented to thee as an answer to him but yet I have not set before thee all the good and usefulness of the truth here defended nor all the evil of theirs opposed For 3. This truth is profitable too for men both in respect of themselves and others in both which regards too their counter-positions are injurious First In respect of mens selves to whom its propounded who are to believe and receive it its profitable for them to hear and receive it because it presents to them an object for their faith a motive to repent believe serve and love God and matter of comfort to them that lye in sadness and distress for want of seeing ground to hope in him for this presents God as loving and gracious to them and what can be a greater motive to a man to listen to God then that his Doctrine comes in love and good will and brings good to him or what so powerful as love to break a man off from evils against him a loving carriage in David toward Saul melts him into tears and brings him from seeking to harm him to confess his evil and give good language to him how much more shall the love of God preached to men and believed by them work upon them Rom. 2.4 5. Psal 36.7 8. or else they shall be left the more excuseless and God shall be the more glorified in their destruction It is not commands to repent but love and goodness in him that is offended that indeed leads and brings in the heart to true repentance So what will so effectually draw a soul to trust in God as when it hears and believes the goodness of God Mansheart is so conscious of its own evil that neither commands or promises especially being so uncertain whether they appertain to us or no will draw us in to betrust our selves with God 1 John 4.19 except we perceive some real Testimonies of his love first towards us And what so strong a cord to love and service of him as to see his love preventing us Love seen and believed in him Tit. 3.4 5. begets love and service in us to him We love him because he loved us first Such our contrariety to God in our selves and such our apprehensions of his contrariety to us that till our hearts be purged from both by the demonstrations of his love and goodness we will not love and serve him not serve him in love without which our service is not acceptable and delightful to him so that from this love of God preached and believed springs true obedience and the hearty keeping of Gods Comandmments Yea herein it is that men see their sins most exactly odious and are abased in the sight of them True the Law saies what is good and evil righteous and sinful but the Gospel shews most lively the hainousness of that sin while it presents it not otherwise to be expiated then by the bloud of Gods own Son and shews otherway no remission yea this love and goodness at once both humbles for sin against God and leads to hope in and expect good from God yea and while it speaks not of an absolute certainty of life and happiness for all for whom Christ died but these things to be certainly obtained in submission to him believing on him and yielding up to his Spirit it leads the soul to serve the Lord with an holy fear and to rejoyce in him with trembling through which holy fear the heart is preserved from departing from him So that this doctrine from the very word and Oracle of God discovers to thee or any man while yet not sinning that great sin to death an object meet to look upon and admire God meet to be turned to sought after hoped in and served yea is a motive to and a ground foundation and spring of true comfort and godliness of all which the contrary position deprives a man No man by that beeing able as from the word of God to see good and right ground of loving hoping in and serving God till he see that he do love hope in and serve him there being nothing that bears witness of God to any particular soul in their doctrine that he loves and hath good will towards it untill it see the discriminating and distinguishing electing love of God towards
see no one place that proves that His answer then is still as unsatisfactory as if to this who shall rise again I should answer they are many that sleep in the dust of the earth Dan. 12.3 and then quote that in 1 Cor. 15.27 first Christ then they that are Christs at his coming and that Rom. 8.11 if the spirit of Christ dwell in you he that raised up Jesus will also quicken our mortal bodies and 1 Cor. 6.14 He hath raised up the Lord and will also raise Vs up by his power and then say that these are a description of those many that shall rise again should I be thought substantially to prove that Many limited only to them And yet if such an answer would not be fair then neither is his If it be Objected That other Scriptures say that some shall rise to condemnation I answer that other scriptures suppose a possibility of his perishing for whom Christ died 1 Cor. 8.11 and say that the false Teachers were bought by the Lord and yet pull upon themselves swift destruction for denying him that bought them 2 Pet. 2.1 so that the arguments are alike as is evident to any judicious impartial reader We have nothing but Master Owens word that those forecited epithites and sentences are the full description of that Many for whom Christ gave himself a ransome and that 's too weak a ground to build our faith upon That they are included in that Many we grant that they are all that Many that he died for we deny and he hath not proved Now not to recriminate and fling back upon himself that froth of wit which in his coming to answer what is objected to his argument from the word Many he casts upon a godly though less learned writer I shall view his confirmations of his argument or evasions from objections made against it The Objection mainly insisted on is that the word Many is used for All and aequivalently to All as in Dan. 12.3 compared with John 5.29 and Rom. 5.19 To which he sayes 1. That if the proof was taken from the word Many meerly and not from the description of those Many annexed with a presupposed distinction of all men into several sorts by the purpose of God that exception would bear some colour So that he leans more upon his description then upon the word Many but now that description being a partial description and no where in Scripture averred to be the adaequate description of those Many for whom Christ dyed this argument will ex confesso fall to nothing with a following simile which runs not parallel with the argument for that distinction of men into several sorts that he mentions here we shall view it hereafter 2. To Dan. 12.3 he sayes that there a distribution of the word to the several parts of it must be allowed as thus the dead shall rise Many to life and Many to shame which is a meer evasion crossing the text for the word Many is the Totum congregatum and there are distributive particles of that whole following in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these to life and those to shame or some to life and some to shame besides which he adds a gross mistake of the Apostle as if it might be said Many shall rise because the Apostle sayes All shall not dye Whereas the Apostle no where hath such a saying It s not all shall not dye but all shall not sleep which signifies a resting in death not a dying simply in that sudden change opposed to sleeping there is a death and resurrection though not a sleeping in death and resurrection from the grave Besides though that were granted that All dye not yet I hope the Many that sleep in the grave that shall thence rise Iohn 5.29 are the same with All that are in their graves shall come forth All that are in their graves have dyed and all them are called Dan. 12.2 Many that sleep in the dust 3 To that in Rom. 5.19 he sayes Many seems there to be all but not spoken with an intent to denote all with an amplification because no comparison there instituted between the numbers c. But neither is there any strength in that for 1. though here he mince the matter with seems to be All yet p. 77. he confesseth the word Many to be placed absolutely for All and instances this place and that 's enough to my purpose 2. It s plain that a comparison is there instituted between Number and Number thus far that both numbers are Many yea and verse 18. the Apostle is as strict in the words of number as in any thing else As by one offence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so by one obedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All men to all men and so in verse 19. Many to many the comparison is in this that both have their effects upon many as well as in the effects themselves Yea and the word Many is clearly a word of amplification of both parts The All made sinners are truly Many exceeding Many and that Many All for producing other places in which the word Many is All though it be a trivial business in which only the Author that he bends himself against is challenged yet because he is confident that there is no other I shall with the Authors leave and his propound one or two to consideration as that in Numb 6.36 Return O Lord to the many thousands in Israel is to All the thousands of Israel and not to many of those thousands only so Mic. 4.4 He shall Judg among many Nations is among all Nations for other Scriptures say The Lord shall be one and his name one in All the earth and he shall judge the World in Righteousnes and All Nation shall glorify him But to return to the first Chapter in which those expressions of the end of Christs coming that is to save sinners c. are good and approved by us as the word of God But how he understands this word Saved or how this phrase of Coming to save he doth not fully express to supply which defect I shall consider them a little And 1. For the word Save it s of a large signification in Scripture when it s attributed to God and Christ as 1. It signifies to preserve or keep life yea when it is forfeited by our sin and God might justly deprive us of it to keep out of perishing as in Luke 9.56 The Son of Man came not to destroy mens lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to save them Truly I conceive that in the day that Adam sinned he forfeited his soul or life and in his own ours also who were vertually in him and had God strictly taken the forfeiture of him He and we all in him had in that very day forthwith perished but Christ who was fore ordained to this business stept in between God and man and by way of ingagement became the dead Man the Lamb slain for us
bring into Canaan all that he brought out of Aegypt and then prove it by shewing that he so intended to all that believed and followed him Or else 2. Those places show not that those things so mentioned were the absolute intentions of God and Christ taken upon themselves to be effected by them without suspending them upon condition in us and if the Minor take not the word intended in that sense it suits not with the Major but contains a quartus terminus and the major not so taken is untrue If it be said the words are I came to save that that 's lost he gave himself that he might purge Vs and suffered for the unjust to bring us to God c. and where things are so spoken of as the ends and aimes of God in acting there though we have not the expressions He intended this and that yet we are to understand that God absolutely intended to accomplish and bring about those things and so that all those that are the object of those acts which were acted to such an end obtained or shall obtain that end Then I deny it and will prove it that in such speeches where two acts are mentioned as end and means and God the agent in the act directed to such an end it is not safe to say that alwayes that act propounded as the end in his acting was absolutely intended to be and answerably is brought about by him in all those upon whom or for whom he acted that act that 's mentioned as the means as to instance Act. 17 26 27. He made of one bloud all the kinde of men to inhabit all the face of the earth and hath determined the times appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they might seek the Lord c. Here is end and means propounded the making all of one bloud bounding their times habitations the means directed to this end that they might seek the Lord. Will any man hence say that God absolutely intended that he would cause all that he made and whose times and habitations he bounded to seek him and who ever seek him not and so call those in Rom. 3.11 were not made by him So John 1.6 7. John was sent to bear witness to the light that all through him might believe Doth it follow that because that was the end propounded therefore God absolutely purposed to make all believe to whom he bare witness and so its true that he bare witness to none else is not that contrary to Mat. 11.16 17 18. and 21.32 So John 5.34 Christ tels the cavilling Jews that he spake those things to them that they might be saved will it follow that it was his absolute intent that they should all be saved hear him or not or to make all hear him and be saved even those that would not come to him that they might live vers 40. Christ came to save that which was lost Doth it follow that he absolutely determined to bring all them to eternal life to whom he came even those also to whom he came and they received him not John 1.11 So Psal 105.33 34. He brought his chosen into Canaan that they might observe his Statutes and keep his Laws Therefore he intended to make them all do so and all that he brought into that land did so contrary to Psal 106.34 35 36. And to say no more God came down to bring Israel out of Aegypt to bring them into Canaan Exod. 3.7 and he brought them out thence that he might bring them into and give them that land Deut. 6.23 Ergo he absolutely purposed it concerning all that came out of Egypt and no more were brought out thence then were brought into Canaan Such his Argument Like to which he hath another taken from the effects of Christs Death Lib. 2. cap. 3. pag. 66. the Minor of which Affrmes that his Death sanctifies and and purges all them for whom he dyed redeems them from Law Curse Death c. none of all which he proves none of all those Scriptures alledged for proof This argument he hath again in lib. 3. cap. 4 where we shall speak further to it having such a clause in it as All for whomsoever he dyed or any thing sounding that way they being but applicative speeches not universal assertions It s such an argument as this The Lord brought us out of Egypt and brought us into this place viz. Canaan Deut. 26.8 9. And the Lord made you to go up out of Egypt and hath brought you into this Land Judg. 2.1 Therefore all that God brought out of Egypt he brought into Canaan Besides he hath for the bottom of this Argument this proposition in p. 4 line 71. and again in page 66. that the things before recounted are the immediate fruits and products of Christs Death namely Reconciliation Justification Sanctification Adoption Glorification which is as true as that the dispossessing the Canaanites and the giving their Land to the Israelites was the immediate fruit and product of their bringing out of Egypt over the red Sea as may be seen by what we sayed to them p. 10. No one of those things as accomplished in men is the immediate fruit and product of his Death Not Reconciliation though that be by the Death of Christ yet not immediately there is requisite to it beside Christs death the word of Reconciliation to declare it and that heard and submitted to as is plain 2 Cor. 5.19 20. We beseech you be ye reconciled to God yea and all these things come between the death of Christ and Reconciliation and are mediums of it Justification is not the immediate fruit and product of his death but mediante fide We are justified by faith Rom. 5.1 thence we have believed that we might be Justified Gal. 2.16 and that presupposes the word and spirit opening the death of Christ and shedding abroad the love of God and sprinkling the bloud of Christ upon the soul as in Tit. 3.5 6 7. He shed on us the Spirit abundantly that being justified by his Grace we might be made heires c so 1 Cor. 6.11 ye are Justified by the Name of the Lord and by the Spirit of our God Sanctification is not the immediate fruit and product of Christs Death but mediante fide too Sanctified by faith that is in Christ Jesus Acts. 26.18 and so there intervenes the being called out of the world and Church't Ephes 5.26 27. Adoption is not the immediate fruit and product of Christs death but hath Faith and Justification intervening John 1.12 To them that received him he gave this priviledge to be the sonnes of God to them that believed on his Name Gal. 3.26 27. Ye are all the Sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ Tit. 3.7 That being Justified by his grace ye might be made heirs c. And I am sure glory and immortality follows all these except we will have the inheritance go before the heirship and right to it
sins against his mediation and the fruits of it extended to them as considered in a condition consequent thereto as refusing the light and abusing the power and liberty given them in the strivings and operations of his grace and spirit a turning away from him that did so much for them a denying him that bought them not believing on his name c. But then he says further If this unbelief be a sin then Christ underwent the punishment of it or not if he did then why must that hinder more then other sins c. To which I answer that though properly and most directly those sins and evils came upon him into which the fall of Adam plunged us sins not against him as Mediator or God as giving a Mediator and dealing with us there-through which was consequent to the fall and to mans sinning yet inasmuch as God knew that which they would do against his Mediating for them he not only laid upon him that sin previous to it with its proper operations in that way but also provided in that his Death against other sins that would follow so as that he might be perfectly able to save to the utmost any that should come to God by him And so he did so much in that one Death and offering as by virtue thereof patience and forbearance might be afforded for some space to the Rebellious while God is striving with them by his Spirit and leading them to Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it s said there is forgiveness with the Lord that he might be feared and with him is plenteous Redemption Psal 130.4 6. with him before it be with us or before we have it made ours before we fear him for it s provided with him and he exercises patience answerably with Declarations of it that he might be feared and this held forth to such as yet are supposed may despise and perish Acts 13.37.40.41 And thence in urging the wicked to Repentance it s added as the motive for he is gracious and will multiply pardon He hath received so much satisfaction for any wicked man whoever short of that unpardonable sin that he hath power and readiness of forgiveness for them with him Matth. 22.3 4 7. and desires not their ruine but that they might turn and live such a Caution hath Christ put in with his Father for them and not onely so but also he so far fore-provided that upon submission of any of them to him all their sins against his light goodness and Mediation during the time of Gods calling findes Remission from him Isa 55.7 and the after-follies to that his own Called-Ones run into are provided against 1 Joh 1.9 remission is in him for them and upon their confession and returning they have it dispensed to them and for them he hath provided that they shall not fail of seasonable operations of Spirit with due chastisements Ephes 5.26 27. whereby they may be sanctifyed and made pure in his sight and for the sanctified he hath provided for their utmost perfection and all this in one sacrifice But all this power of pardoning obtained by his Death is deposited in his hand and the pardon not immediately passed over from God to us or any he died for as if Christ bare all the Curse and Death and then for his sake we have Remission blessing and life presently confer'd upon us but as Christ bare all our evil God-ward so he hath received and is the treasury of Gods fulness of blessing Man-ward and men receive it from him and with him it being Gods Ordinance that he and life go together so as that we have not life till we have him nor Redemption till translated into his Kingdom who then sets us free by revealing his Truth to and in us Iohn 8.32 36. Col. 1.13 14. 1 Corinth 1.30 But the persisting in obstinacy and Rebellion till the space of Grace be expired deprives men of that Mercy and Salvation they might have found in submission to him Jon. 2.8 Psalm 81.10 11 12. Luke 19.41 42 c. And so unbelief Condemns not onely as it deserves Condemnation for in that regard he hath power to forgive it but as its necessary operation is the keeping a soul at a distance from him in whom is all Salvation and Remission and without whom we cannot have whatever of that nature is given to us all being intailed upon and bound up in him 1 Joh. 5.11 So that in a word he hath born all the sins of all men as in their first transgression and as considered precedaneous to his mediation and hath obtained such power against all other sins of all or any man that he hath made them all pardonable except that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that upon repentance he can and will pardon any of them though yet we say not that he bare upon himself all the sins of all men as considered sinning against his mediation CHAP. III. A Veiw of his fourth Chapter with Answer thereto IN his fourth Chapter he tels us how Christ was Agent in the work of Redemption by voluntary susception of the office imposed on him and so was incarnate and offered up himself a sacrifice to God which we affirme also only some of the Scriptures that he quotes for this though they intimate his suffering and offering yet speak to a further business as the washing us in his blood Rev. 1.5 is in the sprinkling his blood upon our consciences compare it with Heb. 10.22 1 Cor. 6.11 Ephes 5.26 so the sanctifying himself Joh. 17.19 is not his yeelding up himself to death fure or not that only that they might be yeelded up to death by his death but the devoting himself to God to receive and make known the knowledg of God to them that they might be sanctified and set apart through the truth to that ministration to which he sent them for neither speaks he there of all the Elect except Mr. Owen think that all the Elect are sent to minister to the world Psal 18. as Christ was but of those actual believers whom he sent into the world verse 4. for he makes this prayer as one that had finished the work that God gave him to do on earth and as one committing the business of the Father toward the world in point of ministration unto others fitted for it even as Paul prayed for the Elders of Ephesus when he was leaving them and the flock of God to them Asts. 20. but to passe that Besides those other two acts of his undertaking Incarnation and Oblation he mentions also a third viz. Intercession which we grant also but whereas he says It s for all and every one of those for whom he gave himself as an oblation he did not suffer and then refuse to intercede for them do the greater and omit the less that position though I will not peremptorily deny it yet as Mr. Owen by Intercession means and takes in
were Baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and were come to Mount Sinai The Apostle alluding to that tells the believing Hebrews partakers of the heavenly Call Heb. 3.1 that they were not come to Mount Sinai to have a Law of works and death put upon them but to Mount Sion * Whence the Law of Grace goeth forth Isai 2.3 to hear him that speaks from heaven and so intimately to have the Law writ in their hearts Heb. 12.18 22 24 25. in which they came also to the blood of sprinkling He doth not say they were come to Mount Sion while they were yet uncalled but in obeying the Call they came thither to meet with and receive the new Covenant opposed to the Covenant made with their Fathers at Mount Sinai That that confirms me in this belief is this that it is by faith that we are made of one body with the Israel of God and are no where called the seed of Promise or Israel of God till brought to Christ but then we are all one with the believing Jews Jews in the inner man the Circumcision the seed of Abraham and heirs according to Promise Gal. 3.26 29. Now the Covenant spoken of is made with the house of Israel and Judah If Mr. Owen think men to be faederates in that Covenant before faith let him shew me that any unbelieving Gentiles or uncalled are called by the name of Israel and Judah Besides That the promises of God are made with Christ Gal. 3.16 and are in him yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 But if any yet out of Christ should be faederates while out of him then they should have a larger object then Christ and a larger performance then in Christ Jesus But I say this ex abundanti to the Minor it being sufficient to the overthrow of the Argument that the Major is proofless Whereas Mr. Owen makes the difference between the Old and New Testament to be That this Covenants the giving of Faith and that not I deny it and say The difference between them is in this That was carnal weak and afforded not such operation of Spirit This spiritual powerful and full of life writing Gods teachings in the heart whereas that writ them but without in Books or Tables of Stones That propounded Precepts and Promises but gave not the performance This in Teaching conforms the heart to Gods VVill and gives in the injoyment and accomplishment of the promises whence as the Apostle saith The righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.4 That this Covenant is propounded conditionally too to those that are not yet believers we have shewed before in Isai 55.3 So that no man short of believing can say as Mr. Owens Objection supposeth The Lord hath promised To write his Law in our hearts but if we listen to Christ he will write them in our hearts but to the believer in Christ to him that is Christs the Covenant is free he being the proper heir of it as is before shewed He repeates his Argument again in the winding up of the Argument That the blood of Jesus Christ was the blood of the Covenant and his Oblation was intended onely for procuring the things intended and promised thereby and therefore it cannot have respect to All c. That it procured the good things contained in the Covenant or rather that he ingages the performance of them to the called for I think the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sponsor hath rather that signification then of a procurer we grant and to that the Quotation of Heb. 7.22 is pertinent but his inference from thence is yet unproved as we have shewed And so we have seen the fallacy and weakness of this Argument 2. His second Argument is thus That if the Lord intended Argu. 2 that he should and so Christ by his death did procure pardon of sin and reconciliation with God for all and every one to be actually injoyed upon condition that they do believe then ought this good will and intention of God with this purchase in their behalf by Jesus Christ be made known to them by the Word that they might believe for faith comes by hearing c. otherwise men may be saved without faith in and the knowledg of Christ or else the purchase is plainly in vain but all men have not those things declared to them in and by the Word c. To this Argument many things may be answered Answ As 1. That it concludes not against the Assertion that he undertook to oppose in lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 4. viz. That Christ gave himself a ransom for all and every one But against his intention of purchasing pardon and reconciliation for All to be injoyed upon condition of believing which is a fallacy that we call Ignoratio elenchi 2. Again The Antecedent of the Major contains and crowds together divers questions which is another fallacy in arguing As with this Of Christs dying for All it jumbles Gods intention of his procuring Reconciliation and Pardon and the intention of bestowing it and upon what condition Now these are three distinct questions viz. First Whether Christ died for All The thing he set himself to oppose Secondly Whether in dying for them he procured Reconciliation and forgiveness for all And Thirdly Whether he procured it for All with intention that they all should injoy it upon condition of believing The first of these I absolutely affirm and Mr. Owen denies The second I thus affirm That for the offence of Adam and the condemnation that came upon All therefore he hath procured justification or pardon for All so as that God dealeth with All after another manner then according to its Merit and the Obligation to Death that came thereby And for their other sins there is with him a treasury of Forgiveness and Redemption full and free for All. So as that in answer to the third All may have forgiveness of all their sins and Reconciliation upon believing in him and it was his intention that whosoever of All yea were it All believe in him should have forgiveness of sins and be reconciled to God by him Whence it s propounded to men in general upon that condition in the Gospel But yet neither is that condition upon which God propounds it to be confounded as Mr. Owen here doth with the act of purchasing it and Gods intention therein nor may we binde up God to that condition in his dispensing it nor his intention of forgiving and saving men in his giving Christ to dye for them as if because All or Any may have it according to the Gospel-tender upon believing therefore he intended that none should have it that have not that believing condition For I dare not say That God intended not that any Infant dying in its Cradle or deaf man that never heard any word at all should have forgiveness or salvation by vertue of Christs purchase
justification by a lesser revelation of God then Paul had Josh 2.10 11 12. with Heb. 11.31 and so Cornelius before Peters coming to him believed in a lower act by less light then Peter brought to him and the Ninivites by far lesser then the Jews rebelled against now that power accompanies these mediums too in their lesser or greater dispensations is evident in that the Spirit is said to have preached to striven with men even those that yet obeyed it not Gen. 6 3. 1 Pet. 3 19. the hand of the Lord was stretched out with his reproofs and councels Prov 1.24 and in the effects it produceth as that they attain to some knowledg of God convincements illuminations c. against which they often willfully rebel and close their eyes and I say further that God doth in many by these means effect faith and bring them actually to believe and I conceive many more might have faith did they not wilfully turn away from God for I conceive a fore going act propounded or injoyned to men you may call it a condition if you please upon which they might be brought to believe Whereas Mr. Owen askes what that is I answer it is to listen to the voice of God not hardning the heart So Isa 55.3 hearken diligently and your souls shall live by diligent attendance to the voice of God the soul is quickned up to a life of faith and hope in God so Isa 49.1 Listen O Isles unto me and hearken ye people from far and in Psal 95. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Lift not up your reasons and understandings against the authority of God be swift to hear hear him out and make not haste to speak and cavil against him As also to minde those demonstrations of his Divine Power and Goodness that he affords not winking with the eye and wilfully turning from the light when he makes it appear or from the means of light which beheld would give us to see what he holds forth to us according to that Call Hear ye deaf and look ye blinde that ye may see Isai 42.18 So Behold my servant whom I have chosen ver 1. And look to me and be ye saved Isai 45.22 And consider the works of God Job 37.14 That that is to be known of God is in them manifested c. Rom. 1.19.20 But then Is not this same hearing and listening believing I answer No It s but a mean to it We are to attend that we may believe by this hearing Faith and the spirit of it are given unto us But it will be objected Its obeying and obeying is believing So M. Owen But there is a fallacy in that for neither is every Act of hearing obeying nor every Act of obeying the believing spoken of As obeying in some acts follows believing so in some it may be but a tendency to the meeting with that which will cause us to believe so believingly to obey Take this Simile Two men are at controversie suppose a Master and a Servant the Master would have him do such things as the servant doth not nor will The Master begins to expostulate with him and to shew him reasons for his demands the servant hears what he says this is not yet an act of obedience to his Master for perhaps he may yet prove refractory and more obstinate then before and perhaps in hearing he may be perswaded and become obedient to him being convinced and changed in minde by what he hears till which change his act of hearing will not denominate him obedient or pass for an act of obedience Mr. Owen saith If we can propound a condition for Faith that is not Faith he will hear it And yet I suppose he will not think his hearing us propound it an act of obedience to us at all But then he says This is procured by by Christ or not In the sense before explained we grant it procured otherwise not and that to the power of exercising it is absolute but as to the act of exercising of it its voluntary and to the most uncompelled or unnecessitated Many have absolute power and ability given them of hearing and seeing the hints of Light and Truth that come from God that yet have it in their choise whether they will act so or so and therefore are faulted for not acting as they might for not chusing the fear of the Lord Prov. 1.29.30 For shutting their eyes against his Light and stopping their ears Matth. 13.15 Acts 28.27 And yet the cause of Faith is not resolved into our selves but into him that gives the power to hear and that speaks such words when we do listen as overcomes our reason and our hearts Our faith is justly still ascribed to him For if he spake not we could not hear yea if he gave us not power to hear yea if when we hear he spake not suitable words and exercised not power with his words we should not yet believe in him So that Inference is as absurd as these That because the blind man went and washed in the Pool of Siloam Therefore he was the cause of his own healing or Not Christ so much as he and The ten Lepers were the cause of their own cleansing because they went on their own legs to shew themselves to the Priests at his Commandment VVe avoid also all his following Consequences If by procuring Faith he means his meriting and obliging God to cause all to believe in him for whom He died For denying that it follows not either 1. That Faith is an act of our own wills and so our own as not to be wrought by Grace and that its wholly sited in our own power to perform that spiritual act No such thing follows upon that Proposition denied 1. That Faith is an act of the VVill no man can deny for in it the Will closes with an Object propounded as good to be relied on but that it s not wrought by Grace is clearly false from what is said above It s our act to hear and yet not that without the VVord of God buts t is Gods Act even the act of his Grace to perswade us by what he speaks to lean upon him and believe in him Besides 2. God might freely work it in some without being obliged to it by the Death of Christ the same love that led him to give Christ may sin being removed and the enmity being slain by Christ work as much as it pleases without being obliged and tied to work it Besides 3. Christ might oblige him to work it in some and yet not in all He died for So that every way this is inconsequent And we neither 1. Contradict any Scripture Nor 2. Speak contrary to the nature of the new Covenant of Grace which indeed is sealed by Christs Death to believers but says not that Christs Death obliged God to make this and that man much less all he died for to believe Nor is it 3. Destructive
to all that call upon him Which with other like expressions are general and opposed to the restrictive speeches proper to the former Dispensation large enough to take in the Believers and Elect of all Nations and to remove the restraining expressions and yet far enough from comprehending an Universality of all individual men all not having these adjunct qualifications But of such expressions is not our Controversie but of those that are comprehensive of an universality of all Individuals as All All men The whole world Every one Now that in them is intended onely the Elect of All Nations is to beg the Question and is denyed by us and that neither weakly nor groundlesly as I hope will appear when we view the particular Scriptures There are other passages in that Consideration untrue also As that there is not in the world Greek Jew Circumcision Barbarian Scythian c. but Christ is All in All that is only truly of the new Creature Col. 3.10 11. not of the world Again That the Spirit was poured out upon all flesh in its being poured out upon the Apostles That was of it indeed but not the accomplishing or full fulfilling of it that 's referred yet to a further day in which the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the water shall cover the Sea that indeed was partly fulfilled that was forespoken about their Sons and Daughters prophecying Again that That in Rev. 5.9 10. contains a Distribution of that that is set down more generally in other places meaning the 1 Tim. 2.6 and the like which is untrue for that speaks of another business the buying men to God to serve and live to him by the blood of Christ not only as shed by him but also as presented in its vertue and excellency to their hearts as Hosea bought him a wife by a price given to her and as God bought him a people by bringing them out of Egypt and doing great things for them which prevailed with them to be Gods and not their own and this is out of all Nations and Languages But the other in 1 Tim. 2.6 comprehends all the Nations and Languages out of which these were taken too whence also there is Gospell still to be preached to all Nations and Languages c. after these redeemed ones are mentioned Rev. 14.4 5 6 7. What he says to John 11.52 is answered before in the close of the last Chapter of the third book 3. His third Premise is Consid 3. That we must distinguish between mans duty and Gods purpose That 's true God doth not alwaies purpose to make us do what we ought to do or effect what he wils us to do Nor do we confound these two nor say that God purposed to make all to believe that he bids to believe whether they listen to him or not or save all that he bids look up to him and be saved whether they look to him or not but we would fain have Mr. Owen shew us that God ever bids any man attend upon an ordinance that was not provided for him and punished any for not attending on what was not ordained for them to attend to that he bids any believe in Christ for whom he did not send Christ bid any believe in his blood for whom he shed no blood As we distinguish between the precept and purpose of God so do we also between the foundation of the precept and his purpose and affirm that God bids not men to attend to him for Good where he hath not appointed them some medium in attendance to him in which they might have good He bid none look to the brazen Serpent for whom he had not set it up nor punished any such for not looking to it So that for his after-inference I shall only put this to Mr. Owen to shew that it is acceptable to God and the duty of man that any man for whom Christ dyed not and for whom God sent him not should believe and stay upon his Mediation or approach to God by him that those men whom Christ excluded his Mediation as much as he did the Devills have any more duty lying upon them to believe in Christ then the Divels have or that they should in so doing be any whit more acceptable unto God As we would not confound Gods precept and his purpose so neither would we disjoyn Gods precept from the true ground of it 4. His fourth is Consid 4. That the Jews had an ingraffed erronious perswasion that the salvation or deliverance of the Messias or promised seed belonged only to themselves who were the off-spring of Abraham according to the flesh which is also untrue they ever held and believed that any people of any other Nations being converted and proselyted to them were capable of fellowship with them in their ordinances and blessings and thence they endeavoured to make many proselytes which had been bootless had they thought by so doing they should yet have had no share in their blessings the rest its true that remained unproselyted were looked upon as Dogs but any man though not of Abrahams seed yet by Circumcision and being proselyted did grow into one body with them Thence the false Apostles zealous of the Law and honor of the Jewish Nation did not plead against Gentiles coming to their priviledges but that as Gentiles and Uncircumcised they should be so admitted that was their great stumble as in Acts 11.3 Thou wentest into men uncircumcised and didst eat with them and Chap. 15.2 Except ye be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses ye cannot be saved but to the proselyted Gentiles as well as to the Jews of the flesh of Abraham they preached from the beginning without scruple as in Acts 2. Peter and the rest preached to peoples of all Nations round about that were proselytes c. and so in Acts. 6.1 2. Their Church consisted of Jews and Grecians Not that but this was the Mysterie that the Gentiles being yet such uncircumcised in the flesh should be made fellow-heirs of the same body and partakers of the promises of Christ But he tels us That this taking in of the Gentiles gave occasion to many generall expressions which we have granted before But that therefore the words All men World Whole world signifie only the people of God scattered throughout the Whole World I deny and desire Mr. Owen to prove seeing those expressions of All that fear God Jew and Gentile All that believe Jew and Gentile c. were sufficient for that purpose expressions used frequently when the Apostles speak of the participation of the speciall benefits that come by Christs Death as salvation acceptation to favor the promises of God c. in which cases the words All men the World the Whole world are never used It s never said the Whole world is accepted of God All men shall be saved c. and yet in those cases there are such words used as exclude all limitations
the Appellation of God put upon them His Conclusion then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is groundless By that rule 1 Joh. 5.19 and Rom. 3.19 which he forgot should signifie the whole Catholike Church lies in wickedness and is guilty before God c. 2. He says All Flesh All Nations All Men c. are as large as the whole world I Answer In themselves they are but they may be otherwise used This is to fly from the terms not to explain them to tell us what other words signifie not that that 's spoken to and yet in his Instances of the use of those words in the Prophesies there is this disparity which he considers not viz. That the whole world is spoken of as a distinct party from and a party reaching beyond those that are clearly spoken of as believers beyond the we that walk in the light confess our sins that have an Advocate c. But in those Instances That All flesh shall see the salvation of God All the ends of the earth shall remember and to turn to God He will pour out his Spirit upon All flesh c. There is in none of them places such a distinction as speaking of a party at present existing beyond those that are believers To say nothing that those are Prophesies not affirmed of people in all times but onely fully to be fulfilled in the last times in which all flesh good and bad then living shall see God saving his people and every eye shall see Christ the salvation of God coming in the clouds of heaven and all in the last dayes shall remember and turn to the Lord so that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters shall cover the sea and the Lord shall be one and his name one in all the earth Though I believe all of them shall not be through with Christ and his people for after a thousand years Satan shall deceive many multitudes of them Rev. 20.8 9. Yea then also shall the Spirit be poured upon all flesh the power and breath of God shall in abundance be upon it to abase and confound it not to make all flesh grow and be admired or prophesie and do wonders but then shall the sons and daughters of Sion prophesie It shall be a spirit of Prophesie upon them but he says not so to all flesh upon whom it s poured So that those may be taken in the fullest latitude of those times and of those ages pointed at chiefly without any error I conceive The Spirit of the Lord shall breathe upon all flesh and make it wither as in Isai 40.6 7. And in the children of Sion it shall be a spirit of Prophesie Now whereas it s said that that was fulfilled in the day of Pentecost Acts 2. I answer Prophesies of that nature have a twofold fulfilling 1. In a first-fruits so it was then and since in its measure in the Churches 2. Fully in the full accomplishment of them and then it shall have its latitude and extent Again 2. When it s said This is that spoken of by such a Prophet it s not always meant this is the full accomplishment of that or the thing primely pointed at there but this is of the nature of that as in Matth. 2.17 The weeping of the Bethlemitish mothers for their children kill'd by Herod was as that spoken of by Jeremy Chap. 31. There was then such a weeping as was there spoken of But yet to any Reader its evident that the Prophet Jeremy aimed not primely at that but at the carrying away of the Ephramites descended of Joseph and so of Rachel Thence that promise in the next verse They shall come again from the land of the Enemy So that in Acts 2. was a pouring out of the Spirit to abase the flesh and a giving them to Prophesie as was spoken of in Joel though Joels eye pierced further then that very pouring it out upon those persons in that manner and those present insuing effects That All the Nations shall be believers I grant and then the whole world ye all that believe shall have little difference and so much those places and that of Isai 2.2 will hold forth But that the whole world now or in Johns time were so or that the words whole world distinguished from believers who have Christ a propitiation signifies onely believers I deny the former as evidently false and the latter as a groundless conceit 3. He reasons thus The words whole world signifies sometimes the worser part of the world and why may it not then the better To which I answer that the word world hath reason when distinguished from men called out of the world and opposed to them to signifie the worser part because distinguished from the better But why when distinguished from the better it should signifie the better I know none I ask him why in that case it must not signifie the worse too Now here it s manifestly extended beyond the better part Us that have an Advocate and not for us onely but for the whole world If he could finde me any place where it s distinguished from a bad party as bad as any can be there we might allow it happily so to signifie rather then here After these considerations and from them he mentions some small reasons which are all spoken to in what is said already except the first viz. That he speaks not of Impetration but of Application but none ever said that the Application of the death of Christ is universal To which I answer That what ever it speaks of its Vniversal we must not square the Scripture to our speakings but our speakings to the Scriptures 2. It s not spoken here of the application of Christs Death by Faith but of what Christs death doth with God for All men or rather what Christ is with God for them by vertue of it not what Christ doth in men nor the fruits that follow upon this Propitiation believed in by men as Rom. 3.25 doth This Scripture 1 Joh. 2.2 tells us what Christ is with God for All the world that in Rom. 3.25 tells us how God propounds him to men in the Gospel and what he is to become to them by Faith and what benefit they shall receive There is the mercy Seat here the atoning Sacrifice as here considered he keeps off many a blow from All as there propounded and received by Faith he brings to us remission of all c. His other Reasons and Reasonings being fore-spoken to I pass He is out again about 2 Cor. 5.19 when he tells us That the world that God was reconciling ver 19. was the Us that he reconciled and put the word of Reconciliation into the hearts of ver 18. that is indeed the Apostles and Preachers of the Gospel onely which is so evidently false that it needs no other answer then the noting of it For why doth the Apostle
not finding that which they had mistakingly looked for but that he was a dry tree and barren wilderness to them was it not more excusable that they should leave him and take such comforts as the world would afford them and not go on to suffer for him that would not save them he having not dyed for them Whereas he further adds that the Apostle is silent about washing them in the bloud of the Lamb what a sorry shift is that How many places speak of buying men and yet mention not the washing them in the bloud of the Lamb where yet there is no doubt but his bloud was the price that bought them as to instance in Rev. 14.4 1 Cor. 6.20 Again What is it to wash in the bloud of the Lamb I feare there may be some mistake in that Is it any thing else but when the death sufferings or bloud of Christ declared in the Gospel set home by the Spirit do cause the heart for his loves sake that so loved it to renounce its vanities affections lusts c. and removes its fears despairs horrors c. that the guilt of sin before the remedy was known filled it with do we think that this washing the souls in the bloud of Jesus is without application of the bloud to it Was there ever such a washing heard of in which the medium of the washing and the thing washed were not to each other applyed Or do we fancy any bodily or materiall application of the materiall bloud of Christ that issued out of his side Sure it s nothing but through the Spirits revelation of the death and sufferings of Christ for us and the hope therein set before us a cleansing of the heart and conscience from guilt and pollution And is not that intimated here Is not the knowledge of Jesus Christ Lord and Saviour to know him as one that dyed for us and is appointed to be our Mediator and way to God able and ready to save us by vertue of those his sufferings for us could there be lesse in that knowledge of Christ that will give a man escape from the worlds pollutions and when that knowledge doth wash from pollutions is it not the bloud of Christ therein known that washes Was not that it that washed Paul from his former conceits in his Pharisaisme and from all his pollutions Phil. 3.7 8 9. Tit. 3.4 5 6. and that washed the believing Corinths 1 Cor. 6.11 because he names but the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the appearance of Gods love to man the name of Christ and Spirit of God as the way of his and their washings shall we say neither he nor they were washed in the bloud of Christ These are sorry evasions unmeet to shift off the shining truth with 3. But his last evasion is vainer then any of these viz. That he might speak of them only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to Truth but according to appearance for which he quotes again that formerly answered place of 2 Chron. 28.23 As if the Apostle writing Dogmatically and laying down Propheticall declarations of things that would be and aggravating the hainousness of their sinne that should deny Christ should conjoyn things according to truth not conjungible If he had spoken of some particular person then in being there had been somewhat more shew for such an evasion and yet in truth not enough to make the Apostle couple as incompatible things together in his expressions as to talk of Christs or his Elects perishing But much lesse colour when he speaks of things in the Theory and Dogmatically not with Designation of this or that person This is but all one as to say Christ or God seemed but to be their Lord and Master and they to be his servants by way of purchase and so they had the more ground of denying him seeing he was not what he seemed to be nor had done what he seemed to do And whereas he addes That its the custome of the Scripture to ascribe all those things to every one that are in fellowship of the Church which are proper to them only that are true spirituall members of it as to be Saints Elect c. Not to examine the truth of that again were it so yet it could not be of force here these in the very formality of them as the subject spoken of being stiled false Teachers Sure though he might write to All in fellowship with the Church that is in Doctrine and Profession as Saints c. as in some sense they were truly yet it s not supposeable that he judged these he looks upon as departed from the Truth and false Teachers to be such or to be bought by Christ if he thought indeed such manner of people were never so bought To be a member of the Church and to be Elect are terms very competible but to be and so to be spoken of as a false Teacher bringing swift destruction on himself and yet in the same view to be looked upon and spoken of as bought by the Lord if no such are indeed bought is componere non componenda to couple words and things together that are we not competible like those that talk of Almighty nothings So that wee see no solidity in his exceptions to this place neither Whereas in his winding up he tels us that this will not conclude Vniversall Redemption and 2. That those who are so redeemed may perish is contrary to expresse Scripture and 3. That this could be no peculiar aggravation of the sin of any if the matter was common to All. These are but prevarications For 1. We conclude not hence the universality of Christs death but onely that it s not so bounded up to the Elect onely as Mr. Owen and his partners bound it 2. That its contrary to expresse Scripture as to Rev. 14.4 That any so redeemed should perish is a speech fallacious and untrue For 1. How knows he that that in Rev. 14.4 is expresse Scripture and speaks according to truth and not only according to appearance more then this might not we by as good Authority say that the Apostle speaks there but according as things seemed to him in a vision but not that all he sayes there is spoken according to truth as he hath to say so of Peter here 2. What means he by So redeemed if only that Christ dyed really for them and not in shew only and that the knowledge hereof and of that salvation that thereby is in him even for them to look after and attainable to them by Faith bought them really off from the world and engaged them to Christ then there is no such passage in Rev. 14.4 as that none such can perish That speaks onely of a certain number redeemed from the earth and men that were virgins and defiled not themselves but followed the Lamb where ever he went But it says not either that All bought by Christ and brought to escape the pollutions of the
him that yet doubts of Gods love to him reject that devised Doctrine that contradicts the Scriptures and letting alone the secrets of God which pertain not to him yet to know nor shall hurt him if he attend and yield up to that that is revealed yea shall be also profitably revealed to him if he submit to what is revealed Psal 25.14 let him I say mind the record of God that he hath given of his Son that he hath given himself a Ransom for All yea and that God hath given us eternal life even us whom he commands to believe in the name of his Son 1 Ioh. 3.23 and this life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life thence shall he see both ground to believe that God hath given him eternall life and put it into Christ and also both necessity and incouragement to believe on Christ that in believing he may have that life even that eternall injoyment of God in Christ that will for ever satisfie him and make him happy FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Symphony of some Ancient Doctors of the Church with the truth here defended added to shew that it is no novelty of yesterdays standing as some are pleased to charge it Chrysostome in Joh. 1.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Heb. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clemens Alexandrinus Orat. ad Gentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Athanasius De incarnatione verbi Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Et Paulo Post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those sentences forealledged are in English thus Chrysostome upon Joh. 1.29 That Lamb speaking of the Paschall Lamb or the Lambes offered up in the Jewish sacrifices never took away any one mans sins But this that is Christ the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the whole world for it being in great danger to be destroyed he quickly freed it from the wrath of God The same Author upon Heb. 2.9 saith thus That by the grace of God he might tast death for every one not for the believers only but also for the whole world for he dyed for All but what if all believe not yet he hath performed that which concerned him to do Clemens Alexand. Hear ye that are afar off and hear ye that are nigh hand The Word is not hid from any the Light is common and shineth unto All men Athanasius in his tractate about the Incarnation of the Word of God Now forasmuch as the debt of All ought to be paid for All ought to dy therefore for that cause especially he came and sojourned here and after the manifestations of his Divinity by his works it remained that he offer up a sacrifice for All delivering up his Temple the Temple of his body unto Death for All that he might discharge and free All from the old transgression And a little after in the same Tractate There was need of Death and it behoved that Death should be indured for All that the Debt due from all might be satisfied wherefore the Word for that it could not dy for it was immortall took to itself a body capable of dying that he might offer that as his own for All and that he suffering for All by reason of his conjunction with that he might destroy him that hath the power of Death to wit the Devill Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophylact in Johan 6.51 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 August in Joh. 3.14 15. Serpens aneus in ligno positus venena vivorium serpentum superavit Christus in cruce suspensus mortuus antiqua diaboli venena restinxit omnes qui ab eo percussi fuerant liberavit Idem in Psal 69. Judas abjecit pretium quo ipse vendidit Christium non agnovit pretium quo ipse a Christo redemptus erat Prosper in Respons ad object Gallorum Christus dedit pro mundo sanguinem suum mundus redimi noluit Item sent quartâ super capita Gallorum Qui dicit quod non pro totius mundi redemptione salvator sit crucifixus non ad Sacramenti virtutem sed ad infidelium respicit partem quum sanguis Jesus Christi pretium totius mundi sit A quo pretio extranei sunt qui aut delectati captivitate redimi noluerunt aut post redemptionem ad candem servitutem sunt reversi Vide Ambrosium in pag. titul Cyrillus Alexandrinus in Joh. Evang. lib. 11.25 Quemadmodum praevaricatione primi hominis ut in primitiis generis nostri morti addicti sumus eodem modo per obedientiam justitiam Christi in quantum seipsum legi subjecit quamvis legis author esset benedictio atque vivificatio quae per spiritum est ad totam nostram penetravit naturam Leo Epist 72. ad Juvenalem Vt autem repararet omnium vitam recepit omnium causam vim veteris Chirographi pro omnibus solvendo vacuavit ut sicut per unius reatum omnes facti suerant Peccatores ita per unius obedientiam omnes fierent innocentes inde in homines manante justitiá ubi est humana suscepta natura Cyrill of Hierusalem in his Instruction or Catechise 13. The Crown of the Cross is that it inlightned those that were blind in ignorance and loosed All that were held in bondage under sin and redeemed the whole World of mankind Nor marvell thou that the whole world was redeemed by it for he was not a bare Man but the only begotten Son of God that dyed upon it Theophylact in John 6.51 By the life of the World perhaps he meaneth the Resurrection for the Death of the Lord procured the Generall Resurrection of all the whole kind or race of man perhaps also he named the life of holiness and happiness the life of the World for though All have not received that sanctification and that life that is in the spirit yet Christ gave himself for the World and as to what appertained to him the world is saved and the whole nature sanctified inasmuch as he hath received power to conquer sin and sin fled away by that one Man Our Lord Jesus Christ even as by that one man Adam it that is the world or the nature of man fell into sin Austine in Joh. 3.14 15. The brazen Serpent put upon a pole of Wood overcame all the venome of the living Serpents And Christ being hung upon the cross and dying quenched the force of the old poisons of the Devil and freed All that were smitten by him The same upon Psal 69. Judas cast away the price for which he sold Christ and acknowledged or owned not the price by which he was redeemed by Christ Prosper in Answer to some objections of the Gaules Christ gave his blood for the World and the World refused to be redeemed that is actually set at liberty by him So again He that saith the Saviour was not crucified for the Redemption of the Whole world hath not his eye upon the pretiousness or vertue of that mystery but upon the part of them that believe not whereas the blood of Jesus Christ is the price of the whole World from which price they are strangers who either being delighted with their captivity refuse to be set free or after they are set free return again unto their former bondage Cyrill of Alexandria upon Johns Gospell lib. 11. cap. 25. As by the transgression of the first man we were as in the first fruits of our kind bound over unto Death after the same manner by the obedience and righteousness of Christ forasmuch as he subjected himself unto the Law who was the Author of the Law the blessing and quickning which is by the Spirit or Divine nature hath pierced to our whole nature Leo in his 7◠Epistle to Juvenal That Christ might repaire the life of All he took the Cause of All and loosed the force of the old handwriting by satisfying for All. That so as by the Guilt of one All were made sinners so also by the obedience of one All might be made innocent righteousness thence flowing down unto men where is taken the nature of man I Might have added more Testimonies both Ancient and moderne as amongst the ancient Ignatius Jrenaeus Theodoret c. and amongst the moderne Luther Hemingius and in a word the generality of the Lutheran Divines as also Musculus Vrsinus Suffragium Britanicum Bishop Davenant yea the Articles and Catechise of the Church of England but these already alledged may be sufficient