and the Mediator give pardon and Salvation to all men conditionally we do not mean that there is any condition of his Making the Grant but of his performing it or of our receiving the thing promised He absolutely maketh a conditional Deed of Gift He makes the Deed and we are conditionally pardoned whether we believe or not But we shall not be actually pardoned till we belive Prop XXXVII The condition of this La Grant is nothing unreasonable nor of Natural proper impossibility it is an Easie Yoake and Commands that are not grievous it being not the least repensum price or requital but only the Hearty Acceptance of the offered Benefit according to its Nature and use It is therefore proper enough to say as Scripture doth that all men are reconciled the Worlds sins taken away and they forgiven though yet none of this is Actually done nor ever shall be to the final Rejecters because in a moral sence that is said to be done which being highly beneficial and necessary may be done if we will all the other impediments being removed and nothing but the refusal can deprive Men of the benefit the Law supposing that he that is compos mentis will accept so great an offered benefit Christ having done all his part or quantum in se as satisfier and Legislator and given himself with his benefits to every man that will accept him so that nothing but their own wilful refusal can deprive them of them in Law sence he may well be said not only to Die for them but to have procured them Pardon Justification and Life Whereas if the condition had either been a thing of proper Natural Impossibility or unreasonable or unhonest or if it were long of Christ that it is not performed than it were improper to say that Christ and Life is given them or that Christ Dyed for them to procure this gift Prop. XXXVIII Christ hath given Faith to none by his Law or Testament though he hath revealed that to some he will as Benefactor and Dominus Absolutus give that Grace which shall infallibly produce it And God hath given some to Christ that he might prevail with them accordingly Yet this is no giving it to the Person nor hath he in himself ever the more Title to it nor can any lay claim to it as their due Prop. XXXIX It belongeth not to Christ as satisfier nor yet as Legislator to make wicked refusers to become willing and receive him and the benefits which he offers therefore he may do all for them that is fore-expressed though he cure not their unbelief Prop. XL. Faith is a fruit of the Death of Christ and so is all the good which we do enjoy But not directly as it is satisfaction to justice but only Remotely as it proceedeth from that â—us Dominii which Christ hath received to send the Spirit in what measure and to whom he will and to succeed it accordingly and as it is necessary to the attainment of the further ends of his Death in the certain gathering and saving of the Elecâ— So that most directly it floweth from the good pleasure of God and the Redeemer which we call Praedestination So that it is an unmeet Speech and such as Scripture never useth to say that Christ dyed to purchase us Faith though it be a Fruit of his Purchase As if a Prince should Ransome or Buy a condemned Malefactor agreeing and resolving that yet he shall not be saved if he will spit in his Redeemers Face and refuse him and his kindness And if it be known that this Malefactor is so desperately wicked that he will thus reject and abuse his Redeemer and refuse his kindness except the Prince send a bosom Friend to perswade him who is the most powerful unresistable Orator in the World If the Prince because he is resolved neither to lose the Man nor his Price of Ransom doth send this Orator with a Charge that he shall take no denial nor cease till he have procured the Malefactors consent is it a convenient Speech to say that he gave his Ransom Mony to purchase the Malefactors consent to be delivered Or to cure his wicked nature No Yet it is true that his Price was a ground-work and Preparative to this effect so is it in our present Case Prop. XLI The Resurrection of the Bodies of all Men is a Benefit procured by the death and Resurrection of Christ For though the Soul it self should everlastingly have suffered yet the Body should have remained in its state of dissolution if Christ had not restored it which Resurrection in it self is a mercy to all and it is a means to Gods further Glory by his Creature though the wicked turn it to be the enterance of unspeakable misery to themselves Prop. XLII There is no mercy which any Man enjoyeth by Right of Law from God but it is from the Covenant or Law of Grace and so from the Blood of that Covenant For from the old riolated rigorous Law it cannot be therefore it must be from the Law of Grace Prop. XLIII Christ by his Law of Grace hath made it every Mans duty that hears it to believe in him and accept him as our Saviour that hath made satisfaction for their Sins and so dyed for them and is their Redeemer And to be highly thankful to him for this his Mercy Prop. XLIV Christ by his Law hath made a far sorer punishment than before belonged to them to be due to all those that believe not in him as one that hath so satisfied and are not thankfull for it and do not take him for their Redeemer And for refusing their Lord-Redeemer shall they be condemned Prop. XLV The consciences of the damned in Hell which will be Gods executioners will everlastingly torment them for refusing that Pardon and Salvation that was so dearly purchased for them and that Redeemer that expressed so much Love to them and for not performing so reasonable and easie a condition as Faith They shall not then have the discovery of an impossibility in the condition or that Christ never died for them and never was their Redeemer and consequently that it was no Sin of theirs to refuse a Redeemer that was not their Redeemer and satisfaction that was none for them I say they shall not have such discoveries to ease their consciences and lessen their torments and make Hell as no Hell to them Prop. XLVI A Christ-Redeemer that hath satisfied justice is the object of Commanded Faith and presupposed to it Annd he that commandeth all Men to believe in Christ a one that hath redeemed them or satisfied for their Sins doth hereby assert the truth of this supposition Prop. XLVII The constitution of Christs Kingdom containeth many great universal mercies Antecedent to those that are given conditionally by his Covenant or Law of Grace Such as are the giving of the Covenant it self and the Institution of Sacraments Ordinances Officers c. Therefore as to
but in order 3. Repentance is a change of the Mind from Sin to God and duty To repent or to turn from unbelief is the same thing with Faith 4. If this repentance which he saith goes before Faith be sincere and saving then sure it is not in an unbeliever and unjustified Man if not how comes it to give them a peculiar Right and occasion their peculiar duty of resting on Christ 5. I shall shew anon that even repentance can be no duty tending to pardon if Christ hath not satisfied for them 3. Others with great confidence say that this is it that all are to believe that there is no other name under Heaven whereby Men must be saved but only by the name of Christ made known in the Gospel and Men perish for not believing the necessity of a Redeemer and that Jesus is the Redeemer Or more fully 1. Men are to repent and believe the Gospel to be the word of God to contain his Will and that Jesus Christ therein revealed is the Wisdom and power of God to Salvation 2. That there is an inseparable connexion between Faith and Salvation by Gods appointment Gospel faith carrying a Sinner quite out of himself and from off his own Righteousness 3. That there be a particular conviction by the Spirit of the necessity of a Redeemer to their Souls in particular whereby they become weary heavy laden and burdened 4. A serious full recumbency and rolling of the Soul upon Christ in the promise of the Gospel as an al-sufficient Saviour able to deliver and save to the utmost them that come to God by him ready able and willing through the pretiousness of his Blood and sufficiency of his Ransome to save every Soul that shall freely give up themselves to him for that end amongst whom he is resolved to be so Mr. Owen Page 304. 305. Sure it is many Acts that are expressed in all these words But 1. As I have said every Man that hears the Gospel is obliged to all these though to be performed in order and not all at once 2. A Judas may believe the necessity of a Redeemer 3. And that Jesus is the Redeemer 4. That there is no other is an exclusion which is necessary to the Faith which justifieth but will not justify it self 5. As to that of repentance I have answered before 6. The Devils believe that Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God to Salvation No Man can believe that Christ hath Power to save him that first believeth not that he hath satisfied for him 7. The Devils may believe truly that there is an inseparable connexion between Faith and Salvation But this is too general a Speech It must be known in what respect and to what use Faith is so connexed to Salvation And what Faith it is No Faith is by God annexed to Salvation but that which supposeth Christ to have satisfied for the believer 8. Judas was convinced of the necessity of a Redeemer and was weary and heavy laden If it be special godly sorrow and hatred of Sin that is meant then such are justified already and therefore were before obliged to believe to justification 9. The recumbency mentioned is an Act of the Will of which we shall speak anon 10. The promise is made to none that Christ died not for For it is a promise of the benefits of his Death 11. Christ is a sufficient Saviour able and willing to save only those that he died for Supposing that he satisfied not for any Man he is not sufficient or willing to save that Man though he should believe How can it be said that by the sufficiency of his Ransome he is able to save them for whom it is no Ransome Indeed the sufficiency of Christs satisfaction is one principal object of that part of Faith which consisteth in Assent But I shall shew anon that if any Man be bound to believe Christs satisfaction sufficient to justifie him for whom it was never paid he is bound to believe an untruth 2. But the main answer given by Dr. Twiss and others is that the object of justifying Faith is not true but good It is Christ whom they are bound to rest upon for Justification and Salvation The truth is here are several Acts of the will requisite The first is consent Christ is offered to all where the Gospel is published and it is their duty to consent to the Offer Now if they should consent it would be an Act meerly frivolous supposing Christ had not satisfied for them For it is certain that he consents not to be the Head and Saviour of any such And Mans consent without Christs would do no good They are commanded therefore according to this Doctrine to do that which if it were done would do no good 2. The next Act is that Affiance which some make the only justifying Act. Now according to this Doctrine this would be to many a vain Act To rest upon Christ to save Men by his Blood which was never shed for them is to rest on an insufficient Ground which would deceive them But according to this Doctrine Men are bound to rest on Christ to save them by his Blood which was never shed for them Therefore according to this Doctrine Men are bound to rest on an insufficient Ground which would deceive them Let none say God knows they will not rest on Christ For we are speaking now but of the Duty God will never make it any Mans duty to rest for Salvation on that Blood that was never shed for him or that satisfaction which was never made for him But because this reacheth but to those that have heard the Gospel the next argument shall reach further Arg. 6th Ab aequitate legis cum sufficientia mediorum in suo genere If Christ hath not satisfied for all then God hath appointed Men to use those means for their recovery and Salvation which would do nothing to recover and save them if they were used But God hath not appointed Men to use such vain and delusory means Ergo c. Here I suppose that God hath appointed to all the World some means which they are to use for their recovery I avoid the Remonstrants extream I say not that all have sufficient means or Grace to believe or to Salvation And I avoid that fouler extream which saith that Heathens are under the meer Law of works as it stands without remedy and have no Means appointed them or helps afforded them towards their recovery I shall after prove that they have much mercy from Christs Blood But now I am to prove that God hath not so left them remediless but that he hath appointed to all Men some means of their recovery And 1. It is apparent they have much of the Light and Law of Nature They have the Book of the Creatures wherein they may read much of God 2. They have teaching providences Mercies and Judgments By these they may know that there is a
but those for whom he purchased it But if you can believe it will be a sign to you ab effectu that Christ died for you Sinner Alas Then all that are not redeemed and I if I be one of them are far worse then hopeless and remediless For they have neither any price paid for them nor any one hath redeemed them nor are they able nor can be able to believe and yet their torment must be multiplied for ever because they did not believe and take him for their redeemer that never paid one farthing of their debt But what is it that you would have me believe Min. That Christ hath died for all that will believe Sinner Will that justifie When the Devils believe that Min. That Christs Death is sufficient to pardon all if they would believe Sinner Then I should believe an untruth for â—is all should believe it is not sufficient to pardon them because it was not suffered for them Besides the Devils do believe the sufficiency of Christs Death as far as it is true Min. But they believe not that it is sufficient for themselves Sinner Nor can I except I knew that it was suffered for me Min. But you must rest on Christ as a sufficient Redeemer and then by reflecting on that Act you may know as by a certain sign that he redeemed you Sinner Then I must believe a Proposition of uncertain truth that I may know it to be true and rest on an uncertain ground of trust that I may have a Sign of its certainty And so my first faith must be groundless and uncertain But as it is not in my power of my self to believe so I have long been endeavouring to believe and trying my Faith and though I find I have some Faith and so had many that perish yet I cannot find whether it be sincere and saving And I know many yea most that seem godly that never are sure all their life time that their Faith is that which is justifying and proper to the Elect and more then the unrooted Faith of temperaries How shall I then or any that are uncertain of the truth of their Faith know that Christ died for them Min. You must labour for assurance of the Truth of your Faith that you may know that Christ died for you Sinner I no where find the Scripture using that motive to perswade Men to believe or to get assurance But what must I do in the mean time and all such as I that never come to assurance Min. Adhere to Christ as thy Redeemer sufficient and willing to save Sinner But I have no knowledg whether he be either my Redeemer or sufficient or willing And must I still continue that groundless Act and that meerly to get a Sign when yet it will be no sign till I attain assurance of the truth of my Faith And must I never love Christ as my Redeemer nor be thankful to him nor praise him for it till I have assurance Respondeat qui potest Arg. 22. A differenti statu hâ—minum non-electorum Daemonum If Christ died only for the Elect. then all the rest have no more remedy provided for their misery then the Devils nor are in any more capacity or possibility of Salvation But the Consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent Only the Minor requires proof for the consequence of the Major is evident For he that hath no expiatory Sacrifice or satisfaction made for his Sin is left utterly remediless To say he is not remediless because Christ is offered him is but to deride him while they say withal that he is offered only an interest in the satisfaction that was never made for him that so by not believing as by a sign he might manifest that it was not made for him and so that Christ did not purchase him Faith And can the Devils be left worse then remediless Now that Christ hath not left the Non-Elect as remediless as the Devils appears 1. Christ speaketh of his coming into the World and executing his office as having such ends to all Men as they had not to the Devils as he was the 2d Adam and took on him our nature and not the nature of Angels so he never saith that he came into the World to save Devils but he saith that he came into the World not to judg the World but to save the World of whom he expresseth unbelievers to be part Joh. 12. 47. 48. And God sent his Son into the World not to judg the World but that the World by him might be saved Even that World which in the next verse is distinguished into believers and unbelievers Joh. 3. 16 17 18. It is never said that God sent his Jesus to bless the Devils in turning every one of them from their iniquities But it is said so of every one of the Jews Elect or not to whom the Apostle spake Act 3 last unbelievers perish not for want of an expiatory Sacrifice but for rejecting it not for want of a Jesus but for want of Faith But it cannot be said so of the Devils God sendeth Men in his stead to beseech unbelievers to be reconciled to God upon supposition of the payment of the price of Reconciliation by Christ to the Father But he doth not so to the Devils All say Christs Death is sufficient to pardon all Men if they will believe Ames cont Belâ—ar saith we never doubted of it Sadeel cont human satisfact saith let him be blotted out from among the number of Christians that denieth it But I know none that dare say â—o of the Devils To unbelievers is given Christ himself and all his benefits by Gods Act and Deed on condition they will receive him But who can shew such a deed of gift to the Devils Giving Christ though but on condition of acceptance to any one implieth and presupposeth giving him on the Cross for them God entreateth wicked Men daily to accept of Christ that they may live but he never did so by the Devils The Spirit of Christ convinceth and soliciteth some of the Non-elect to believe and striveth with them till they grieve and quench it But so he doth not by the Devils All Men in the Church Elect and Non-Elect are called on to take heed lest a promise being left them of entering into rest any of them should prove to come short of it through unbelief Heb. 4. 1. The wicked are condemned and everlastingly punished for refusing a Redeemer and not coming in to the â—east when all things were ready and for neglecting so great Salvation and treading under Foot the Blood of the Covenant and because they would not have Christ to Raign over them But it is far otherwise with the Devils the wicked will be left unexcusable at the Redeemers Bar when they are judged according to the New Law for refusing Christ that bought them But the Devils would have excuse enough if they were judged on those Terms So that I may
suffer injustly He doth what he doth of this kind for unbelievers arbitrarily Let any Man shew where God is engaged by any Covenant to save unbelievers from bodily dangers But their Souls he hath redeemed by Christ and so saved them quoad pretium And he hath made a Deed of Gift of Christ and Eternal Life to all on condition they refuse it not So that he may in respect of his Covenant and so in a fuller Sense be called their Saviour in Spiritual respects than in temporal for all that they are not eventually saved The word Saviour here implies such a Relation as God hath undertaken and that Men may assure themselves he will perform all that belongs to it Or else it could not be the ground of our confidence But wicked Men have no promise for or assurance of an hours Life or any outward deliverance whatsoever no not though it were never so good for them For God will not be in Covenant with them for common things till they first accept of his Covenant of Grace in Christ But for Salvation he hath made them a conditional promise as aforesaid 3. And it is less probable that the Apostle calls God a Saviour here so equivocally as not to mean in the same kind of Salvation when yet he intimateth no difference in the Text. 4. But let us suppose all this were as the opponents would have it yet for ought I can see the Text will fully prove the point in question For even in temporal respects God is the Saviour of no Man but those whom Christ died for For all Men have forfeited all his Salvation and are under his Curse And he can be no Saviour to them according to the tenor of that cursing violated Law It must be therefore according to the New Law or Covenant or not at all And the New Law is founded in the Blood of Christ shed for those to whom it is made Indeed according to the first Law he may uphold the Life and Being of Sinners But it is only as he doth the Devils to make them capable of punishment But neither do we for that call him the Saviour of the Devils nor would it be any such great encouragement to Paul and all Christians in labour and sufferings for godliness sake So that even this Temporal Salvation doth presuppose the Relaxation or Non Execution Plenary of the Law of Works And that is done only by the remitting Law of Grace and that presupposeth Christs Blood shed or undertaken to beshed for the sinners I know nothing more that needs to be spoken to for vindicating this Text. The 11th Text shall be 1 Joh. 5. 9 10. 11 For this is the witness which he hath testified of his Son He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son And this is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life Hence I thus argue If Eternal Life in Christ be given to unbelievers who make God a Lyar and have not Christ or Life then Christ was first given on the Cross as a Sacrifice for those unbelievers But the Antecedent is true Therefore so is the Consequent And consequently Christ died for more than the Elect and therefore for all 1. I Suppose none that is not willing to be deceived will maintain that it is only such unbelievers as afterward shall be converted and are Elect who are here said to make God a Lyar For the Record which they are condemned here for not believing is the object propounded to Elect and not Elect without such Distinction as they are all considered in number of sinful Mankind 2. As for the Minor or Antecedent of the Major proposition it is very plain in the Text. If all men should believe who hear the Gospel that Eternal Life in Christ is given them and those that believe it not do make God a Lyar then it 's certain that Eternal Life in Christ is given to them all But c. Ergo c. There is nothing here to be questioned but only who are meant in the term Us when it is said God hath given Us Eternal Life And it is plain that it is the same persons included with others who are charged with making God a Lyar. 1. Else their Unbelief should consist only in not believing that Life is given to other men and consequently the Faith required of them should consist only in believing that God hath given Life in Christ to others without any inclusion of themselves But that is not true Ergo c. The falshood of this consequent is proved thus 1. True saving Faith is of a Receiving or Applying nature as it is the act of the Will and it is introductory thereto as it is the act of the Understanding But believing that God hath given Life in Christ to other men is not receptive nor applicatory nor introductory thereto Ergo c. All our Divines against the Papists do fully maintain the Major 2. The Devils and the most despairing men have not saving Faith But the Devils and Despairing men do believe that God hath given Eternal Life to others therefore to believe that God doth give that Life to others is not saving Faith 3. True saving Faith is of greatest concernment to the Believer as to the object of it as being the means of his Salvation But the believing meerly what God giveth to other men is of no such concernment to any Ergo c. Obj. It is not Saving Faith that is here mentioned nor any act that is proper to a true Believer nor is it the want of that which is here condemned But it is the not believing the Truth of the Gospel which is only a preparatory act and which the Devils themselves may have who believe and tremble For though this meer assent will not save yet the want of it will condemn Answ 1. Saving Faith hath two parts according to the Souls faculties which have each their several Offices about this saving object the one is the assent of the Understanding the other is the consent of the Will and affiance thence following when ever Justifying Faith is mentioned in the Scripture it is usually by one of these acts alone sometime one and sometime another And when one only is expressed the other is still implied And so it is in this Text. 2. Assent is true saving Faith though not the whole of saving Faith 3. It is not meerly assent to this proposition in general the Gospel is true that is here made the Record of God and object of Faith nor yet assent to this Jesus is the Son of God and Saviour of Believers But it is this God hath given us Eternal Life and this life is in his Son so that it
supposition that Christ bore not Punishment for any mans sins but those whom he intended infallibly to bring to Heaven which they have never yet proved nor ever will do there being no Word of God that promiseth to save all that Christ died for Lay all this together and you will see the truth of these Conclusions 1. That it was not the absence of Faith in Christ the Remedy but the Old Laws Obligation of us to Punishment or the guilt of sin which required Christ's satisfaction to God's Justice 2. That Christ by this satisfaction did not immediately merit Faith it self but only those intermediate causes from whence the Faith of his Elect is produced that is He purchased all men from the Legal necessity of perishing that they were in into his own Power as their Owner and Ruler that so he might make over Reconciliation Remission and Salvation to all if they will believe and might send forth sufficient means and help of Grace to draw all men towards him resolving to draw his Elect Infallibly to him 3. That it is therefore an improper and unfit phrase to say that Christ Died to purchase us Faith though rightly explained it hath truth in it But rather that Faith is an effect or fruit of Christ's Death viz. where Faith is given For the former phrase would intimate as if Faith were the thing that God was to give in requital of Christ for his Bloodshed and that directly and so Faith should be given by God as Legislator of the Old Law For the stipulation supposed to be between the Father and Son was made by the Father on his part not as Redeemer or Legislator of the New Law but as the offended Rector according to the Law of Creation now treating with the Mediator about mans Recovery Though these things spoken after our manner do but signifie Gods Decrees yet they shew us in what Relation God stood towards Man and towards the Redeemer when he required and accepted of Satisfaction Whereas the thing given to Christ was Power of Dominion and Rectorship and so the Redeemed delivered to him not all to one final end nor with a like intent And so Faith is procured by Christ only in this remote sense in that he procured full power to use the fittest means to draw men to him in the season and degrees he please with a full resolution in his own mind to make all this effectual upon his chosen that he might attain the full end of his Blood-shed So that Faith is the effect of that degree of Grace which from his Plenipotency he gives lest his chosen should miss of the intended Salvation and therefore is improperly said to be purchased by Christs Blood though yet it be a remote effect of his Blood to those that have it and none could have had it without the Intervention of his Blood because there would have been no saving use of Faith without that Blood otherwise they might if we look to Faith but as such an act considered without its object given 4. And therefore the Scripture no where useth any such phrase as to say that Christ Died to purchase us Faith But ordinarily that he died to purge or put away sin c. And in controverted cases it is safest to speak in Scripture Language Suppose a man pay 1000 l. to Ransom certain Prisoners that owed that sum and upon the Ransom it is agreed that they shall now be delivered up to him as his Ransomed ones to dispose of at his pleasure yet both parties agree that only those shall be actually delivered into freedom who thankfully accept the favour and the Ransomer as their Lord The Redeemer knows that these are men of such stubborn hearts that they will refuse his offer yet he resolves to send them under his hand a conditional discharge that all shall come forth that will accept him and his offer and to tell them that all the rest shall by him be still detained and as his Prisoners suffer greater misery Yet out of a special love to some of them he resolves to send a friend who is so effectual an Orator as will certainly prevail with them to lay by their obstinacy and yield to his motion Doth it seem a proper phrase in this case to say that this man paid 1000 l. to purchase for these men a yielding Heart or to purchase their consent to accept him and his kindness Rather he did it to purchase their Freedom from Prison which he gives to all as far as belongs to him as Ransomer But he sends this Orator with a resolution to prevail in another superadded relation viz. as one that beareth a special love to those particular men above the rest or as one at least that is resolved to attain infallibly that fruit of his Ransom even the actual deliverance of those men Nor can it therefore be concluded that he paid not the debt of any of the rest because he will not as importunately solicite them to accept of his offer 5. We must therefore distinguish of meer Ransoming or Redemption by Sacrifice and the same Sacrifice or Redemption as it is conjoyned with Election and is subordinate to it Effectual Grace to work Faith infallibly proceeds from Redemption as it is accompanied with Election or with a special absolute resolution of saving those particular persons but it comes not from mere Redemption by Sacrifice as divided from Election and therefore is common to all the Elect but not common to all the Redeemed For God hath means of two different sorts for the accomplishing his Decree of Election as to execution First general means and secondly special means and the general is the Foundation on which he means to build the special Let us again remember Amesius's words that Redemption is to the whole work of Grace viz. both common and special what Creation is to the work of Nature Nay better we may say what Creation was to Gods Governing Administrations under the first Law that is Redemption to Gods Governing Administrations under the Second or New Law For in Creation God did two things 1. He gave man his Being that he might be a Subject fit for Government 2. He gave him his Right Being Real and Relative making him after his Image in his favour and in a state of happiness and in this state he made a Law with him even with all mankind in Adam and Eve promising him further everlasting life on condition of obedience Now here Gods Creation of man in his favour and in rectitude was a common work and so was his giving him that Law But so was not the fulfilling of its Promise which implieth the Intervention of mans performance of the condition Suppose now that man had been multiplied by propagation before the fall of any and then one half of mankind had kept this Law of Works and the other had broke it Had it been fit for any man to say that God did not Create any of those
that fell in his favour or placed them not in happiness or set them not in the way to a further happiness because he did not infallibly cause them to keep his Law which was the condition of further happiness No more can it be truly said that Christ did not Redeem them because he did not cause them infallibly to believe Indeed it may be said of both that God in Creating or in Redeeming had not the same Decree or Absolute Resolution to save them as he had to save the Elect whom he causeth to perform the condition And yet our Divines use commonly to say that God created all Mankind in Adam in a state of happiness and to a further happiness that is as Legislator set them in a way to a further happiness and conditionally promised it to them whether it were any greater happiness or only the perpetuation of the same I will not now dispute And so hath Christ done all for men that pertains to a satisfier of Justice and setteth them in a way to full deliverance from the misery that they were fallen into and conditionally promiseth it to them with an additional happiness 6. And Lastly Besides all this let it be well considered that if there be any man on Earth that hath the use of Reason of whom only actual Faith is required that doth not actually Believe in Christ it is their own fault and is not long of Christ He will not condemn them meerly for their sin against that Law of works which saith obey perfectly or dye but for rejecting recovering Grace and that sufficient in its kind and to its own work I say it again confidently all men that perish who have the use of reason do perish directly for rejecting sufficient Recovering Grace By Grace I mean mercy contrary to merit by recovering I mean such as tendeth in its own nature toward their Recovery and leadeth or helpeth them thereto By sufficient I mean not sufficient directly to save them for such none of the Elect have till they are saved nor yet sufficient to give them Faith or cause them savingly to Believe But it is sufficient to bring them nearer Christ than they are though not to put them into immediate possession of Christ by Union with him as Faith would do It is an easie truth that all men naturally are far from Christ and 2. That some by custom in sinning for want of informing and restraining means are much further from him than others as the Heathens are 3. And that it is not Gods usual way nor to be expected to bring these men to Christ at once by one act or without any preparation or first bringing them nearer to him It is a similitude used by some that oppose what I now say suppose a man in a lower room and another in a room below him and you stand at the Stair head and call them both up to you and offer them somewhat if they will come It is not your intent that they should leap up at one leap but come up step by step nor do you mean that he in the lower room should go no more steps than he in the middle room He must go many steps before he come to be as near you as the other is Now suppose you offer to take them by the hand when they come to the upper Stairs and give them some other sufficient help to come up the lower steps If these men will not use the help given them to ascend the first steps though intreated who can be blamed but themselves if they come not to the top It is not your fault but theirs that they have not your hand to lift them up at the last step So is our present case Worldlings and sensual ignorant sinners have many steps to ascend before they come to Justifying Faith and Heathens have many steps before they come as far as ungodly Christians as might easily be manifested by enumeration of several necessary particulars Now if these will not use that sufficient help that Christ gives them to come the first or second or third step who is it long of that they have not Faith Obj. But here you vent two points of Arminianism one that there is sufficient Grace which is not effectual The other that God will give men Spiritual Blessings on the good use of natural Answ No Arminianism at all I. I say not that God giveth all men sufficient Grace to Salvation or to Believe II. That there is such a thing in rerum naturâ as sufficient Grace not effectual as it is confessed by Dr. Twiss so it is undeniably proved 1. In the case of Adam who had sufficient Grace to have stood or else all the sin and misery in the World must come principally from Gods denial of sufficient Grace before ever man did trespass Yet the event shewed that hat Grace was not effectual 2. From the Case of the Godly who have sufficient Grace to think speak and do more good and less evil than they do 3. From the Case of the Wicked who have sufficient Grace to enable them to do less evil than they do and use more means for the geting of Grace to Salvation They might pass by an Ale-house Door and might go to a Sermon when they go to a Whore and might go among good company when they go to bad To the second point I answer I. I say not that God gives Spirituals on our right use of Naturals but that God gives Special Grace on our right use of Common Grace Or rather that he may most justly deny men special Grace that will not make that use of Common Grace as they might II. And I do not say that God hath any where promised to give men Special Grace if they will use well their Common Grace For God hath not thought meet to make any such Covenant with Unbelievers nor to engage himself to them but when he giveth the first Special Grace for Repenting and Believing he doth it as not pre-engaged to do it and therefore as Dominus Absolutus and not per legem premiantem And therefore the Papists in their Language say the first Grace is not of merit at least of Condignity Obj. Then they that come not the first step are excusable for if they had come to the step next Believing they had no assurance that Christ would have given them Faith Ans No such matter For though they had no assurance they had both Gods Command to seek more Grace and sufficient encouragement thereto They had such as Mr. Cotton calls half promises that is a discovery of a possibility and high degree of probability of obtaining as Peter to Simon Pray if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven They may think God will not appoint men vain means and he hath appointed some means to all men to get more grace and bring them nearer Christ than they are Yea no man can name that man since the World was made
Knowledge Prop. IX All this Revelation is some part of the Law of Jesus Christ and so these Truths are discovered and this light sent by him as the Lord Redeemer of the World or as Rector upon his Redemption Title For all things being now delivered into his hands and the whole frame of Government being laid on his shoulders and built on his Redemption even on Christ the head Corner Stone the very moral Law now is his Law and its obligation to obedience is his obligation yea the very Law of Works obligeth to punishment now not as it was at first given and remaineth in the hands of an offended unsatisfied Creator but as it is suspended and delivered up into the hands of the Satisfier or Redeemer to remit wholly or execute only conditionally as men shall receive or reject the grace of Redemption so that as God ruleth among those blindest of Heathens that yet know him not so doth Christ Rule among them that know not him Prop. X. The Ten last Particulars before mentioned which these men may know are properly Gospel Truths for the Law of Works sheweth nothing of Mercy contrary to desert nor of any hope of Recovery Object But how can the meer light of Nature discern Gospel Truths without a supernatural Revelation Answ The Light of Nature is either Reason it self which is the Souls viâ—ive faculty 2. Or the External Light which in the nature of things shines forth 3. Or the Species and Knowledge received by Reason through the mediation of this External Light Also supernatural Revelation is 1. Either the Rectitude of the Soul as a Recipient Power or Faculty which was natural to Adam and may be called supernatural to us because it is not born with us and because it is not wrought but by a supernatural efficient though it be most natural to us as a thing congruous to our Natures welfare as health is to our Bodies 2. Or it is the Objective Extrinsical Revelation by a supernatural way and that either as distinct from that which should have been according to the Tenor of the first Law or from that which is ordinary by common Causes tho' beyond the former 3. Lastly it is taken for the actual efficient impressing of the Species on the Intellect by a supernatural Assisting Power On these distinctions I Answer 1. Natural Reason or the Intellectual faculty is the recipient of all Revelations natural or supernatural 2. There are many Objective Revelations supernatural as being such as according to the first Law of Nature would never have been manifested which yet are not supernatural as Miracles are in opposition to a natural Causality in the way of Revealing And so Rain and Fruitful Seasons Health Wealth Deliverances c. are Mercies that come in a natural way of Causality and yet they may teach a Sinner those Truths which the meer Law of Nature never taught him Mercies and such Mercies given to those that deserve Misery and are obliged to extremity of Punishment by Law do teach us that there is Remission of Sin and a way found out for the Relaxing the obligation that mens deserts do not fall upon them These Providences therefore are so far supernatural as being the clear effects of the Law of Grace which relaxeth the obligation of the Law of Nature Prop. XI It is not proper or fit to say that the Gospel is Preached to these Heathens that never heard of Christ because that the word Gospel most properly signifieth the main heart and substance of it viz The discovery of Christs Incarnation Life Death Resurrection Ascention Dignity Office and the full New Covenant But yet it may truly be said that some Gospel Truths and so some small part of the Gospel is revealed to these men viz. the ten particulars forementioned No doubt Paul Preached part of the Gospel to the Heathens at Lystra Acts 14. 7 15. c. when he mentioned Jesus Christ ver 23. Heb. 4. 2 3. It is said that the Gospel was Preached to the Jews in the Wilderness who yet had little of that which now is the substance of our Creed about Christ Prop. XII That Repentance which God requirerh now of all men even them that never heard the Gospel is not a Hellish Judas-like despairing Repentance such as was due according to the violated Law of works but it is a Repentance that is appointed as means toward recovery and therefore hath a tendency to Salvation Gods mercies lead to Repentance but not to a despairing Repentance for they contradict that All the precepts of Repentance prove this and the course of Gods dealings And indeed else all the remnants of Religion would be banished out of the World For despairing men will not Worship God nor seek to please him nor forbear sinning but will hate God and live like Devils and sin while they may without voluntary restraint All the Sacrifices that the Heathens offered and all their Prayers and Conscience of Sinning shewed that they apprehended God merciful and placable and their case remediable Hope did keep up all that remnant of Religion which all Nations of the World have maintained which else had been extinguished long ago and Earth been like Hell Prop. XIII These Heathens do all of them receive some Grace which was purchased by the Blood of Christ and there is a Natural aptitude in it as in other effects to lead the enquirer to the knowledge of the cause and fountain caeteris concurrentibus Grace is Mercy contrary to Merit Heathens have much Mercy contrary to Merit therefore they have some Grace Now all such Grace is inseparable from some Revelation of Gospel Truths Nay indeed it is a Revelation there of it self Prop. XIV Though Christ giveth not to these Heathens sufficient Grace to believe in his name yet he giveth them sufficient Grace or merciful aid to receive and obey those or some of those Truths fore-mentioned which he doth reveal to them and so to come nearer to Christ than before they were I have before shewed that all men are far from Christ Naturally and that they must be brought divers steps or degrees nearer him before they are brought to the very act of Faith which unites men to him specially Heathens that are at the remotest distance Also I have shewed that there is such a thing as sufficient Grace not effectual as to the event and that both from the example of Adam of the wicked now and fot he Godly themselves I shall therefore now suppose what is already proved I have shewed also that though God thought it not meet to engage himself in Covenant with such nor to make any thing short of true Faith to be the condition of his Promise yet he hath appointed means to others that yet have not Faith which they are bound to use towards the getting of it and he hath given them sufficient encouragement to address themselves cheerfully and vigorously to the use of those means with hope to speed So
effects products and Issues of it with what in its own nature it is fit and able to do Is it not therefore strange that this Author should Page 175. 176 say 1. That this fulness and sufficiency of the merit of the Death of Christ is a foundation for the general publishing of the Gospel to all Nations with the right that it hath to be preached to every creature because the way of Salvation which it declares is wide enough for all to walk in There is enough in the remedy it brings to light to heal all their diseases to deliver them from all their evils If there were 1000 Worlds the Gospel of Christ might on this ground be Preached to them all there being enough in Christ for the Salvation of them all if so be they will derive vertue from him by touching him by Faith the only way to draw refreshment from this Fountain of Salvation 2. That the Teachers of the Gospel in their particular Congregations c. may from hence justifiably call upon every Man to believe with assurance of Salvation to every Man in particular upon his doing knowing and being fully perswaded of this that there is enough in the death of Christ to save every one that shall so do To all which I briefly reply 1. I have disproved this in what is said before and shewed that Christs death cannot be affirmed sufficient for any Mans Salvation for whom it never satisfied though he should believe 2. How can he say there is sufficient merit where there is no merit at all The Death of Christ hath no merit as to the Pardon of Devils or any for whom it was never suffered 3. How can he call any thing a way of Salvation wide enough which presupposeth not Christs satisfaction for the person Can Men walk to Heaven by Faith without a Redeemer Or is there such a true Faith 4. How can he truely say there is enough in the remedy Which is as to them no Remedy Is there enough in that remedy to heal the Devils if they believed 5. How can there be enough in it or how can it be any remedy to heal all diseases and deliver from all evils before it have made satisfaction Must it not do that before it can heal any other disease 6. How can he say There is enough in Christ for the Salvation of them all if so be they will derive virtue from him by touching him by Faith Must not the application be first to God by satisfying him before it can be made to Man by believing Is not the Salvation of Men the Fruit of Christs dying for them And can there be the effect without the cause Hath Christ virtue to be derived for the saving of any that he died not for Will believing make Christ to die for them that he hath not died for already 7. In plain truth your ground of preaching Christ to all is your foreknowledge that only the Elect will believe and not the sufficiency of Christs Death knowing that there is nothing in Christs Death to save any man that he did not Die and Satisfie for though he should believe never so strongly 2. But let us come to the first effect of Christs Death and see whether it were sufficient to that viz. to be a satisfaction for the Sins of all And here they do maintain that it is only materially or aptitudinally sufficient as the money which my rich neighbour hath in his purse is sufficient to pay my debt which he resolveth never to pay Or as the Ransome paid for one man was enough to have redeemed another also if it had been paid for him And what the better is he for whom it was never paid And what difference as to their ransome between most men and Devils For the form of a satisfaction or Price for all they affirm that Christs Death hath it not sufficiently or at all These men must once more therefore new moddel their Doctrine or reform their expressions and give over saying that Christs death is sufficient for the pardon of all if they would believe for that is notoriously false according to them seeing the effecting of satisfaction is that wherein the sufficiency of it lyes as to remission But they must hereafter say only that Christs Death was sufficient to have procured pardon for all men if he would have suffered it for all And I will give them this encouragement so far to innovate viz. Though they speak not only against Scripture and the Primitive Fathers and the Church of Christ in all Ages and the generallity of our most severe Protestant Divines yet because 1. It is against Arminius an adversary 2. And tendeth to extreams 3. And so is agreeable to Nature they shall perhaps with applause at least with far less wounding of their Reputation raise up these novelties than a Sober Moderate Judicious Divine shall beat them down again or revive any one Truth which extreams have clouded laid by and trodden under foot But I will not stay here to shew the absurdity of mens so confident asserting Christs death to be aptitudinally sufficient for so many for whom it was never suffered seeing I shall deal on this purposely in the next Argument But how useless this sufficiency is and no foundation at all for our general offer of Christ and mercy to all if they will believe may be seen in what is said before And how useless and insufficient it is to encourage any man to believe we shall yet further have occasion to shew anon In the mean time I think the unsoundness of their Doctrine who deny Universal Satisfaction is manifest hence in that it fully overthrows the sufficiency of Christs Death for the pardon of all mens sins if they should believe which yet the generality of our Divines do maintain Arg. 10th Ab absurdo injurià coutrariae Doctrinae in Christum If Christ have paid a Price of satisfaction sufficient for the sins of all the World and yet paid it not for all the World then he suffered much in vain But he suffered not any thing in vain Ergo c. The Minor none will deny that is a Christian The consequence of the Major is proved ad hominem by the concessions of them of the contrary Opinion For 1. No Reformed Divine doth deny but that as one part of the value of Christs sufferings was from the Dignity of the person so the other and a necessary part was from the greatness of his sufferings 2. And all conclude that there was more suffering necessary for the expiation of the sins of all the World than for one particular sin or then for one mans sins and so more necessary to expiate the sins of all men then of the few only that are chosen And consequently if Christ suffered no more than was sufficient for the Redemption of the Elect then it was not sufficient for the Redemption of all And if it were sufficient for the Redemption of
all which yet quoad substantiâ poenae as he calls it had none of that which the Law required and was necessary for the Sponsor to undergo And thus I think with that added which is said before it is evident that none have ground to rest on Christs Blood to justifie them or on Christ to justifie them by his Blood till they know that his Blood was shed for them seeing it is sufficient for no more But no Man before justifying Faith knows that Christs Blood was shed for him any more then for others that shall never be justified by it therefore no Man hath ground thus to believe And for the intellectual Act of Faith if it be that which Maccovius saith it is ibid. disput 3. § 17. Fides in Christum quae requiritur a nobis ad nostri justificationem est ut credamus pro redemptionem sanguinem nos justificari salvari then most Men are bound to believe an untruth if they are bound to believe to justification If it be said that it 〈…〉 believe that Christs Death is sufficient to pardon him if he believe I answer that no Man can truly believe that neither but he that first knows that he died for him which none can do but he that knows that he died for all I marvail how such Divines as Twiss and Maccovius who hold the main Antimonian Principles who say that Faith justifieth only as we are ascertained or receive the knowledg of justification already past at Christs death can tell how to Salve this How can they choose but say that either God doth not command all where the Gospel comes to believe to justification or else that he commands most Men to believe a falshood Or else that all Men are justified by Christs death Let me add here for I will not make another Argument of it being built on the same grounds with the former that if Christ died not for all then not only all Men at their first invitation but even all true believers whenever they loose the fight of their evidences that is of their own Faith and other Graces have no ground left them to renew an Act of justifying Faith nor to cast their Souls with any confidence on Christ For as long as he knows not himself to be Elect and a true believer he cannot tell whether Christ died for him and consequently he knows not whether he may rest on him as a sufficient Redeemer as not knowing whether he satisfied for him or not If any say he must believe that he may know I answer 1. It must be a revealed truth before it is believed 2. Believing will not make it true if it were not true before We are not to believe that Christ may die for us but to believe that he did die for us Hear Maccovius his confession of that also Ibid disp 9. § 16. At toto caelo errat Haereticus Socinus Neque enim fidem requiri ad hoc dicimus ut pro nobis satisfiat sed ut pro fidem satisfactio ista Christi quae perac to est ante fidem nobis innotescat so that when God commandeth Men to believe he commandeth them to take knowledg of Christs satisfaction for them before made And surely men cannot know that which is not true unless it be to know it to be false And thus it seems plain to me that many if not most true believers will be left without any sufficient ground to believe through a great part of their lives For I think assurance is not so common a thing as some imagine nor so constant with them that have it Though Maccovius saith as one Error draws on another Ibid. disp 9. § 11. Respondeo salvo aliorum judicio negando sensum illum qui in nobis oritur ex agnitione nostrae Iustificationis aliquando tolli penitus in homine Our Divines that teach poor Souls to use their Faith of Adherence when they want evidence do go another way to work and suppose an Universal promise and before that an Universal satisfaction Or else Adherence without evidence hath no sufficient object or ground and then farewel the Christians most constant stay Arg. 15. Ab ordine credendi perverso If Christ satisfied not for all then the knowledg or assurance that we have justifying Faith must go before justifying Faith But that is impossible as being a contradiction Ergo c. The reason of the consequence is plain in what was said on the last argument For no Man can believe to justification but by believing that Christ is a sufficient Redeemer and hath made sufficient satisfaction for his Sins and by accepting him as offered to apply the fruits of that satisfaction to us and by resting on him for those fruits Now all this hath no ground till a Man knows that Christ hath already died and satisfied for him And that cannot be known if Christ died not for all till Men first know themselves to be Elect and believers and that cannot be known till after we do believe For if the thing to be believed is that Christ died for believers and for me if I believe I must know that I believe before I can know that he died for me and yet I must know that he hath died and satisfied for me before I can believe to Justification See what contradictions are here and how Men are put upon impossibilities I know the necessity of believing that Christ hath satisfied for me is denied but I have proved it before Arg. 16. A peccatorum aggravatione If it be the great aggravation of all Mens Sins committed against that mercy which tendeth to their Recovery that they are against the Lord that died for them then Christ did die for all such Men But the Antecedent is true Ergo c. Only the Antecedent requires proof That wicked Men do partake of Mercy tending towards their recovery as to the nature of the mercy and in Gods legal Ordination I think I need not prove among Christians And that they Sin against such mercy is a thing that needs as little proof The main proof of the Antecedent that these mens Sins are aggravated in that they are against Christ that died for them will be from several Texts of Scripture which do thus aggravate such Mens Sin which because I intend to handle particularly I will refer you thereto and now pass them by Further 1. It is confessed that these Mens Sin is aggravated in that they are against the Blood of Christ as offered to them in its Fruits and as against Christ himself offered to them as Crucified and as Redeemer and as against the offers of pardon Adoption and Salvation which are all Fruits of Christs satisfaction But all these imply satisfaction for them to whom they are offered as is proved already Ergo c. Many of our Divines as Perkins Reform Cathol of Justif and others say that in this we differ from the Papists that they make Christs satisfaction
all Men to believe in Christ as their Redeemer when they know he redeemed but the smallest part Or to charge them to rest on his Blood for Remission when he knows it was shed for the smaller number and will profit none but those whom it was shed for Yea how can he urge any to rest on Christ at all For till they know they are Elect they know not that Christ died for them according to the opposed Doctrin And till they know that Christ died for them they cannot rest on him as their Redeemer nor on his Blood as sufficient to procure their pardon seeing as is confessed it is but materially and not formally sufficient to pardon them if they should believe And they cannot know that they are Elect or that Christ died for them till they rest on him And therefore I see not how any Minister can press Men groundedly to rest on Christ by a justifying Faith or to accept him as their Lord-Redeemer And then for the duties of repentance Love and Thankfulness to Christ for redeeming them I have shewed before how this Doctrin evacuates them all and so that no Minister can groundedly press them 3. And for the promise how can any Minister in Christs Name assure a sinner of pardon by that Blood which was never shed for him on condition he will believe As if you should say to a Debtor believe that such a Man hath paid thy debt or trust him and then thy debt shall be discharged when you know he hath not paid it or know not that he hath Indeed a Man may come off with some kind of truth in his words if he certainly know that the Party will not believe But the certain knowledg that Men will not believe is not the reason why God calls them to believe and offers them Christ and Life 4. And for the threatening with what Heart can a Minister tell Sinners Christ is a Redeemer but to the Elect yet all the rest of you shall perish for not taking him for your Redeemer and for not resting on that Blood that was never shed for you And that as to the ends of preaching 1. How will the divulging of these glorify God When he hath purposely designed the glorifying of Love and Mercy directly and justice accidentally by this great work of the Redemption of the World and hath unhinged the Sabbath which was for Commemoration of the work of Creation to the first day of the Week for the Commemoration of the Work of Redemption which he will now have admired as his most glorious work which as Ames in the place cited in Argument 18. saith is to the works of Grace the same that Creation is to the works of Nature and so is the ground of Gods New Right of Dominion and Empire and of his governing and judging the World And how is this glory eclipsed by the opposed Doctrin 2. And for Mans Convesiron to the Faith I have shewed how unfurnished a Minister is rightly to endeavour it on the opposed grounds Whereto let me add this The Soul is never closed to Christ sincerely till it close in Love Love â—eing as all Divines say at the same moment of time as Faith produced And as Maccovius before-cited truly saith and so doth Chamier and many more Love to the Redeemer the object of Faith is of the Essence of justifying Faith it self Now it is Love that must cause Love I mean objectively and not only efficienter He cannot close in Love with Christ that knoweth nothing of Christs Love to him though he know it to others so near is Man to himself and Christ is to be received as my Redeemer and not only as another Mans. Now no Man can know that Christ loveth him with a special love before he know that he himself loveth Christ that 's past question And yet no Man can soundly love Christ as Redeemer that knows not Christs love to him What remains therefore but that it must be Christs common love in redeeming the World and making the conditional gift of pardon and Life and this offered to me in particular among others that must first cause my grounded love to Christ Let us see what Scripture saith of the ground of Ministerial duties Math. 22. The work of the Ministers was to invite the Guests and compel them to come in And the ground was all things are ready Else might not the Guests have said If we should come there is nothing for us we may go as we come You do but take this advantage to jeer us because you know our minds that we will not come 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20. The work of Preachers is the Ministry of teconciliation And wherein lies it vers 20. Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye Reconciled to God so then the work of the Ministry is to beseech Men in Christs stead and Gods name to be reconciled to God But on what ground is this verse 19 21. To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of Reconciliation which Text we shall afterwards further explain and vindicate Is there not an absolute necessity that the price of Reconciliation be first paid to God and accepted by him before any Sinner can be intreated to be reconciled to God on the ground of that price paid and accepted Let me desire Ministers seriously to consider with what Face they can stand up in the name of the Lord Jesus to beseech poor Sinners to be reconciled to God and tell them that else they shall be doubly miserable when yet there is no price paid for making them way to God nor Gods justice satisfied for their Sin which is supposed before any of their own endeavours can do any thing towards Reconciliation Let me imagine such a Dialogue as this between such a Teacher and a Sinner Minister Sinner I beseech thee in Christs stead be reconciled to God Sinner I have Sinned so much that he will not be reconciled to me All that I can do will do nothing to bring me again into his favour Min. Christ hath satisfied for all the Elect. Sinner But what 's that to me unless I knew my self to be Elect. M. But Christ hath satisfied for all if they will believe Sinner Did you not tell me he satisfied only for the Elect and that determined by name Either he hath satisfied for me before I believe or not if not my believing will not satisfie nor cause him to do it now If he have how shall I know it Min. You must believe first and then you shall know it afterwards For God hath ordained inseparable connexion between Christs dying for Men and their believing And therefore for all my beseeching you to believe if you be not one that Christ died for you neither will nor can believe for none is able
Salvation but God offers no other Pardon or Salvation but what is purchased by Christ's Blood He that tells us there neither is nor can be any other Remission or Salvation but what Christ purchaseth will not offer any other to men and urge them to accept it yea Pardon and Life as purchased by Christ are in Gods deed of gift together with Christ himself conditionally bestowed on all even if they will have them a Condition which among men is seldom thought worthy the name of a Condition it being supposed in nature that every man is willing of his own good and so of all excellent advantages thereto Is all this so with those in Hell Christ is neither given nor Pardon and Life offered to them they are not commanded to repent and believe to this end that they may be justified and saved But those on Earth are and therefore their Pardon and Salvation is possible for God will not command them to seek or to accept of an impossibility and then Condemn them for not seeking and not accepting it If the Damned could repent or believe it would not save them but it would save them on Earth Nor is their belief it self such an impossibility as is the Damneds believing Moreover Christ saith now how oft would I have gathered you But he would not gather the Damned God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth but he saith not that he would have the Damned to be saved This Life is called the day of their Visitation the day of grace the acceptable time the day of Salvation and they are called on to hear the voice of God to day while it is called to day and not to harden their hearts least he swear in his wrath that they shall not enter into his rest that is least their case become desperate and their Salvation impossible therefore it was not so before They are warned to take heed least sinning wilfully after the knowledge of the truth there remain no more Sacrifice for Sin c. Implying that before there is a Sacrifice for their sin it is said that it is impossible to renew them by repentance who tread under foot the blood of the Covenant and do despight to the Spirit of Grace implying that before it was not impossible and also that they might have had if they had not a share in that blood and that Spirit They have a promise left them of entring into his rest Heb. 4 1. and a Salvation proclaimed to them and if they perish it will be for neglecting so great Salvation Heb. 3. 2. They are invited to come in because all things are ready they are commanded to seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near None of this is so with the Damned God is not near them nor may be found of them nor have they any day of Grace Visitation or Salvation where the word is preached it is that they might be saved 1 Thes 2. 16. Paul sought the profit of many and to please all men that they might be saved 1 Cor. 10. 33. Even when men are delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh it is that the Spirit might be saved 1 Cor. 5. 5. yea God sent his Son into the World that the World thro him might be saved that World which consisteth of Believers and Unbelievers Joh. 3. 16. 17. when Jesus was proving his Mediatorship to the Jews he saith These things I say that ye might be saved Joh. 5. 34. so that Mens Salvation is possible while they are on Earth till they have sinned against the Holy Ghost or totally Apostatiz'd by abrenunciation of Christ else what business have Preachers with them Why do we intreat them to be reconciled to God Do we not tell them daily and truly that yet there is time yet there is hope and advise them to take time while they have it and let not slip the Day of Grace and Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 1 2. We beseech them that they receive not the Grace of God in vain for behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation And Christ saith weeping over Jerusalem If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy Peace but now they are hid from thine eyes c. Because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation Luk. 19. 41 42 43 44. An hundred places more might be produced to prove that men on Earth are not left as desperate deplorate or remediles as those in Hell which yet they must be if they had no Redeemer or no Sacrifice for their sin Arg. 26. A processu Judiciali causa condemnationis If Christ himself shall therefore condemn men in Judgment because they received him not as their Lord-Redeemer or because they abused the fruits of his Death suffered for them then he died for All men But Christ will condemn men in Judgment because they received him not as their Lord-Redeemer or because they abused the said fruits of his Death Therefore he died for All-men That he will condemn all the Unbelievers that heard his Gospel because they did not believe in him nor receive him for their Redeemer and Saviour and Lord to Reign over them nor rest on him for Salvation is confessed by all and past dispute Luke 21. 27. Joh. 1. 10 11 12 3. 18. 1 Joh. 5. 11. 2 Thes 1. 8. 2. 10 11 12 Mar. 16. 16. Job 5. 22. Mat. 25. per totum That all men shall be judged according to their well or ill usage of the Talents of Mercy bestowed on them and repenting or not repenting in the day of Grace is plain in Mat. 25. in the Parable of the ten Virgins and of the Talents I have proved before that these Talents are Grace i. e. Miserecordiae contra meritum effectus and procured by Christs satisfaction and not given without Christs satisfaction The consequence therefore of the Major proposition is evident For shall any man dare without better proof to affirm that Christ will sit as Lord-Redeemer in Judgment and condemn most of the World to everlasting flames for refusing a Redeemer that was not their Redeemer and for not believing in him to save them by his death who never died for them and for not resting for Salvation on him that never made the least satisfaction for them and therefore was not a sufficient stay to rest on and for not believing where if they had believed Faith would do no good And where it is objected as before they should have believed that it might have been a sign to them that Christ died for them I answer besides what I answered before 1. It being first granted that Christ did not dye for them then if they had believed it would have been no sign that he died for them for it cannot be a sign of that which was not And Christs dying or not dying for them
Law is a proper penalty of the second because the New Law doth restore to all Men their lost right to Life on an easy condition and therefore as the Privation of Life is first given or promised in the first Law was the penalty of that Law so the Privation of the same Life as redeemed and restored by the Mediator is the penalty of the new Law So that it is a recovered happiness that they this way lose and so are twice dead as Jude speaks 5. The very Non-Liberation of the new Law in denial of Remission and Salvation is a great and proper penalty As the Non-continuation of Adams happiness in paradise was a penalty of that Law and the not-giving of a greater if that Law did promise a greater If a Prince make an Act of pardon and oblivion for a company of imprisoned condemned Malefactors in these terms that if they will repent and thankfully accept his favour they shall all be pardoned and also dignified to be Princes and his Favourites If they will not none of them shall be pardoned but all shall die by a more cruel Death Here this Law of Grace hath as its peculiar penalty 1. Their Non-liberation and so their first deserved Death not as first deserved but as confirmed and peremptorily adjudged to them for their ingratitude and so 2. The loss of Life as it was conditionally restored and was in Law as it were a new Life 3. And the loss of the promised offered dignities 4. And the sorer kind of death so is it in the case in Hand For the confirmation of the Minor I need not to say much more seeing for ought I know it is generally granted I never met yet with any that durst say that all the Non-Elect do undergo none of the fore described penalties of the new Law but only the meer penalties of the first Law Doubtless God is offended specially at their unbelief and will destroy them as Christs Enemies because they would not that he should Reign over them Luke 21. 27. and Christ will come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them for not knowing God and not obeying the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 2. Thes 1. 7. 8. 9. and he will damn them all that obeyed not the Truth of the Gospel but had pleasure in unrighteousness 1 Thes 2. 10. 11. 12. And this is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil And because when Christ came to his own his own received him not Joh. 1. 10. 21 11. For it shall come to pass that every Soul that heareth not the voice of this Prophet shall be destroyed Acts 3. 23. And they that believe not Jesus is the Christ shall dye in their sins And except men repent they shall all perish Luk. 13. 3 5. yea whoever believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16. 16. For he is the Author of Eternal Salvation to them only that obey him Heb. 5. 9. So that as men suffer for sin against the new so also from the obligation of that Law binding them over to Judgment and therefore they are judged by that Law Mat. 25. yea I doubt not but all the World shall be judged by the Redeemer for misimploying his Talents of Grace those that perish and not only for not perfect fulfilling the Law of Works none is condemned meerly for that And if it be so then the same Law of Christ must needs constitute the penalty to be executed Nor did I ever meet with any that durst say that it was no punishment to Unbelievers to be denied Pardon and Justification and Salvation from their deserved damnation which were all offered to them in the Gospel and which Believers do receive much less should any say that the additional torments of such and the loss of the greater promised glory are no punishments Yea even in this life the non-elect receive of the punishments proper to the new Law viz. non remission and non reconciliation and the forsaking of God when he casts them off and gives them up to themselves because they would none of him Psal 81. 11 12. and leaves them desolate because when Christ would have gathered them to him in tender mercy they would not Mat. 23. 37 38. and gives them over to believe lyes because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2. 10 11. and takes his holy Spirit from them because they grieved and quenched it And all this will be out of doubt if we consider the definition of Punishment which is a natural evil inflicted because of a Moral or the hurt of our persons inflicted for sin Now there is no doubt but all these forementioned are evils to us or hurtful to mens persons and no doubt but they are inflicted for sin and then as to the species They are inflicted for sins against the Law of Christ by force of the obligation of the commination of that Law and the sentence past by Christ as Redeemer and Author of that Law Yea what if I said that strictly and directly men suffer not at all the penalty of the Law of Works For all are delivered from that penalty on condition they Repent and Believe and so the obligation of that Law is suspended to all though not strictly abrogated and transferred and as it were sequestred into the hands of Christ to be disposed of by him inflicting or not inflicting it as men deal with him according to his terms of Grace so that now the penalty is immediately and strictly the penalty of the Law of Christ as it doth both non-liberare and peremptorily bind men over to it and it is properly the loss of a Life recovered by Christs blood which is the punishment though remotely it be also from the obligation of the first Law which being but suspended by Christ and conditionally dissolved remaineth in force upon the non-performance of the condition as soon as the time of performance is expired So that it is undeniable that the damned suffer the privation of the fruits of Christs death and satisfaction yea and of his satisfaction for them in perticular For as it is certain that there is no remission without blood and no Justification or Salvation without Christs satisfaction so it is as much beyond doubt with all sober men that Christs satisfaction for one man will not procure Pardon and Salvation for another So that the Minor is fully clear And for the Major proposition it is as clear For there can be no effects without a cause As no man can receive the effects of Christs Death but those for whom he died so no man can lose or be deprived of those effects but those for whom he died for the cause is presupposed A Negation is no Punishment It is not a punishment to a Stone that it is not a Man that it is mute liveless c. nor to a Beast not to be saved nor
will tell me then we must say Christ is a Door a Way a Vine and the Bread is his Body c. But this is nothing to what I am speaking of For I did never say that we must take the literal sense in opposition to the figurative but only the plain obvious sense in opposition to a wyer-drawn extorted sense Some figurative speeches are so usual or plain and well known that he that should interpret them literally would be derided by any Plowman And every ignorant man useth figurative speeches in his common talk and use makes the true sence as plain and obvious as if they were not figurative You can scarce hear three sentences from any Countryman but will convince you of this If any man of common reason had heard Christ say I am the way to the Father would he have thought his plain obvious sense to be I am an Earthly or other Material way to be trodden on by the Feet of them to come to God What will not the lust of contradicting persuade men to Now I would know of any man would you believe that Christ died for all men if the Scripture plainly speak it If you would do but tell me what words can you devise or would you wish more plain for it than are there used Is it not enough that Christ is called the Saviour of the World You 'l say but is it of the whole World Yes it saith He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole World Will you say but it is not for All men in the World yes it saith he died for All men as well as for all the World But will you say it saith not for every man Yes that it doth he tasted death for every man But you may say It means all the Elect if it said so of any Non-Elect I would believe Yes it speaks of those that denied the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And yet all this seems nothing to men prejudiced 3. Furthermore it deserves consideration whether men can considerately go against the plain light of so many express Texts of Scripture without some reluctancy and regret of Judgment And then whether using a mans Judgment to such a course to bear down the evidence of of many express texts of Scripture be not a matter of a dangerous nature both symptomatically and effectually Doth it not signifie a defect in our belief of the truth of Scripture Or at least of our reverend esteem of it when we dare use it as a Leaden rule and Nose of Wax as the Papists presumptuously call it He that can think it will endure such bending is in danger of thinking it may endure breaking Hath it not too plain a tendency to infidelity and disobedience It is the truth of this word that must preserve us from both And he that thinks so meanly of the Scripture as that it will patiently endure such violence and stretching is in great danger of being drawn to question whether it be Gods Word or no and of venturing over its bounds in practicals in case of temptation For what have we to persuade us that Christ is the eternal God but plain Scripture And is it plainer in this than in its affirming that Christ died for All All tender conscionable Christians should be as fearful to adventure against the plain meaning of Scripture in the matter of Faith as to adventure against its plain precepts and prohibitions in matter of practice And therefore I conclude that when God saith so expresly that Christ died for All and tasted death for every man and is the Ranfom for all and the propitiation for the sins of the whole World It beseems every Christian rather to explain in what sense Christ died for All men then flatly to deny it The first text of Scripture ordinarily used and which I shall insist on is Job 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Here it is plainly expressed that the giving of Christ proceeded from Gods Love to the World as the principal efficient and that it was to this end that whosoever of this World believe in him should be saved One would think all were plain here yet men have found or made almost as many knots as words If a King had his whole Army prove false to him and turn to the Enemy and when they are in his power the Enemy Imprisoneth them and maketh them Slaves in this misery the King saith of them I so love my Army that I give so much money or my own Son in Ransom that whosoever will thankfully accept my kindness and return to his Allegiance shall not remain in slavery but be delivered fully into my favour and their dignities would not ordinary men easily understand this speech Would so many doubts be raised whether he mean the whole Army or part What is meant by Love by Whosoever c. yet here we have such a dust raised in as plain a case or as plain words as such Divine mysteries could well be expressed by 1. It is doubted what is meant by the World 2. And then what is meant by Loved 3. And what is meant by Whosoever The 4. What is meant by Believeth in him we need not here stand on And for the first some say by the VVorld is meant the Elect part of the VVorld some say as Dr. Twiss and others it is meant of Mankind as distinct from Angels excluding none and not of the Elect only and withal that it speaks only of the sufficiency of Christ's Satisfaction which if it were not sufficient for All there were no place for the General Promise Whoever believeth shall be Saved There is more truth and soundness in this exposition than will stand with some other contradictory passages in the same Authors For my part I stand to this exposition of Dr. Twiss as you may find him industriously explaining this text Vindic. Grat. lib. 1. part 2. § 7. pag. mihi 203. I will repeat part of his words Ad locum illum Joh. 3. 16. quod attinet negamus ex his evinci posse Mundum eo in loco significare Electos in mundo degentes Ad cujus loci majorem elucidationem observandum est cum decrevisset Fidem Rescipiscentiam electis suis non modo concedere sed easdem modo naturae ipsorum rationali convenientissimo nempe per Suasionem exhortationem in ipsis operari consequenter Evangelium sub generali invitationis formâ proponendum esset in hunc modum Quisquis crediderit salvus erit qui non damnabitur hinc evincitur mittendi Mediatoris duplicem Deo habendam fuisse rationem alteram Pretii alteram Efficaciae Nam Pretium oportuit sufficiens esse redimendis omnibus alias enim tam generali promissioni quisquis crediderit salvus erit locus nullus fuisset rursus oportuit
non invenient ullam Marlorat adds talibus ergo contemptoribus nulla sâ—es veniae relinquitur So that they had a Sacrifice for sin till they Apostatised So Dickson also in loc Piscator and many more for I will name none but who are known to be against universal Redemption lest their exposition be rejected To all this I find no more objections of our opponents but to the first argument which we draw hence they return many words Which was both from all those benefits which here Apostates are said to partake of which only Christs Blood hath procured them and specially in that they are expresly ascribed to Christs Blood for they are said to have been sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant Now to this they say to give you the Sense briefly For if I should recite and answer the maze of words which some here use I should provoke the Reader to throw away all in weariness or loathing 1. This speaks only of some that were professors of the Faith of the Gospel separated from the World brought into the Church c. but these are not all Men. Answ Grant that it is some Non-Elect and it is as much as I desire from this Text. And if that be granted I think there is few would question but that it is for all the Non-Elect in the Church that Christ died And for those that never heard of him though I am past doubt that Christ satisfied for the sins of all Mankind yet the use of the point is so small that I will not contend much about it with any 2. They say the Apostle doth neither declare what hath been nor assert what may be but only adds a commination upon a supposition of a thing c. Ans This I answered before I 'll stand to the Judgment of almost any learned Expositor on this Text though against Universal Redemption See Calvin Beza Paraeus Piscator Perkins Dickson Bullinger c. 3. They say It is certain that these Men made profession of all these things c. and therefore the open renouncing them was a sin so hainous as deserved all this Commination though the Apostates themselves had never interest in Christs Blood Answ What 's this to the point The Text saith they were sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant and not only they professed that they were 4. They say it was the manner of the Saints and Apostles themselves to esteem of all baptised initiated persons ingrafted into the Church as sanctified persons So that speaking of Backsliders he could not make mention of them any otherwise than as they were commonly esteemed to be and at that time in the Judgment of charity were to be considered c. Answ 1. How much doth it differ from the language of Men when they are pleading for Separation Then they cannot endure to hear that all the baptised are called Saints by the Apostles and Churches 2. Indeed only those are so called that seem probably to be so 3. And therefore what is this to them that by Apostacy into a remediless misery shew themselves not to be so The Apostles will not encourage known falshood in the Speeches or Opinions of others much less be the Authors of it and lead them into it doth the Apostle here pronounce their Case hopeless and remediless and tell them there is no Sacrifice for their sin but a fearful looking for of Judgment c and doth he at the same time perswade People to believe that they were sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant c. if it were not true Even then when it openly discovereth it self false or is supposed so to do 5. They say if the Text be interpreted positively and according to the truth of the thing it self in both parts thereof viz. 1. That these of whom the Apostle speaketh were truly sanctified 2. That such may totally perish then these two things will follow 1. That faith and Sanctification is not the Fruit of Election 2. That Believers may fall finally from Christ Answ 1. These were truly sanctified though not with that Sanctification which is proper to the Elect and saved 2. No doubt such may and do fall away and perish He that denieth this must deny to believe Christ who hath expresly affirmed it in Mat. 13. That they in whom the Word is not deeply rooted do believe for a while and in the time of temptation or persecution fall away What else is our distinction between Temporary Faith and saving 3. When common Faith and Sanctification is antecedent to special Faith and Sanctification and so found in the Elect it is then a Fruit of Election But when it is found in others it is no Fruit of Election And why should they wonder at that who deny it to be a Fruit of Satisfaction or Ransom which is a more Universal cause then Election is 6. They further say there is nothing in the Text to perswade that the Persons here spoken of must needs be truly justified and regenerated Believers much less that Christ died for them c. Answ 1. That they were illuminated and partakers of the Holy Ghost and sanctified by Christs Blood the Text speaks without strained consequence with Heb. 6. 6. But that they had true special saving Faith Regeneration or Sanctification I affirm not Yet was it true 2. Is it a strained consequence to conclude 1. That he who by Apostacy is fallen into that misery which he was never in before and other sinners are not in that now there is no more Sacrifice for his sin had before a Sacrifice And so have other sinners that be not fallen so far as he is 2. Or that he who is sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant was one whose sins caused that Blood and for whom it was shed If you had proved that it sanctifieth those for whom it was never shed then you had done something so much for this Text. I had thought to have answered all the objections of the contrary-minded which the Books at hand afford but I shall do far less than I thought to do in it as finding that they are so disordered wordy and weak in many that I shall but fill Paper with needless Lines and be tedious and ungrateful to the judicious Readers The 8th Text which I will insist on is Matth. 22. 2 3 4 12 13. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain King which made a Marriage for his Son and sent forth his Servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come And he sent forth other Servants saying Tell them that were bidden saying Behold I have prepared my Dinner My Oxen and my Fatlings are killed and all things are ready Come unto the Marriage c. Then said he to his Servants the Wedding is ready but they which were bidden were not worthy So 12. 13. Here it is agreed on that God is the King The Wedding feast is Christ and the benefits of his
Death offered by the Gospel The killing of the Fatling most say doth intimate the killing of Christ that he may be to us the Bread of Life and his Flesh Meat indeed and his Blood Drink indeed The Messengers are Preachers The message is the Gospel Invitation or Offer Hence therefore I thus argue If all the things are ready before hand which upon coming in to Christ are to be received yea and ready for those that refused to come and only their not coming or not coming preparedly do hinder their participation then Christ was a Sacrifice made ready even for all that refused to come But c. Ergo c. I mean not that Christ was appointed to save final refusers considered as such But he was a Sacrifice for all the Sins of the same Men except their final refusal and thereby made ready for them all those saving benefits which upon coming in they were to receive This message any Minister of the Gospel may now deliver to unbelievers Come in to Christ accept him as a Redeemer Lord and Saviour and with him pardon and Salvation for all this is ready All that is prerequisite to believing or coming in is done by Christ as far as concerned him as a Sacrifice and a Donor of his Testamentory benefits and as far as unsatisfied Justice did require All things that are requisite objectively to your believing are ready Now this could not be a truth if Christ had not been a Sacrifice for these Mens Sins For how is all ready when the very first and most needful thing is unready that is an expiatory Sacrifice for sin When satisfaction to justice is unready Can they make this Or are they called to make it Or would their coming in make it which was not before made Or would coming in serve turn without satisfaction Rather it should be said to them as to the Devils come not for nothing is ready For where Christ is not ready and satisfaction for sin not ready there nothing is ready which a sinner is called to by the Gospel The Cause being wanting all the Effects must needs be wanting Obj. All may be said to be ready in that Christs Death is sufficient for All. Ans That 's true and I desire no more if you understand it as Divines have hitherto done and as this Text proves it that is that it is a sufficient Ransom Sacrifice Price Satisfaction for all But then this implieth that it is a Ransom Sacrifice c. for All. But according to the new futile evasion it is false viz. that Christs Death was only sufficient to have been a Sacrifice or Ransom for All if God or Christ had so been willing but indeed was no Ransom for them at all For is this making all ready Is Christ any readier for those he died not for than for the Devils or than if he had never died at all VVill you send to a Prisoner and say I have paid 1000 l. for thy fellow Prisoner that owed but 500 l. the sum is sufficient to have discharged thy debt too if I had ever intended it therefore come and receive a discharge for all is ready Or will you bid your Servant go to all the Town and say I have killed and dressed meat enough for you all resolving that some of you shall never tast of it on any conditions therefore come now and partake of it all for all things are ready The Readiness that Christ speaks of here is such as supposeth all things to be ready except receiving by Faith nothing but coming is wanting Obj. But Faith it self is not ready therefore Christ died not for them Ans A false consequence which yet bears the whole fabrick of the opposers Cause 1. Doth not the Text plainly distinguish here between Faith and all the Benefits that by Faith we are partakers of Doth it not plainly say that all things else are ready when yet Faith in them was unready for they would not But the Invitation was come for all things are ready what a silly cavil would men put into the mouths of the invited teaching them to say my coming is not ready therefore all things are not ready nay nothing is made ready for me This Text expresly distinguisheth between all other things and coming and so shews that when men will not come yet all things were ready and nothing but Faith was wanting to their participation And therefore Christ may be a Sacrifice made ready for those that have not Faith and therefore receive him not 2. And you might see some of the reason of this in the Text The King in one Relation prepares the feast and in a further invites his Guests and in a further compels them to come in God and the Redeemer as preparer of the feast which is 1. By satisfying Justice 2. By enacting the New Law have made all things ready But to give Faith belongeth not to him in either of these respects 2. God and Christ as the Inviter of his Guests doth all things requisite to the invited 3. But God as one that resolveth de Eventu what particular persons shall be compelled to come in gives that Faith or so compels them Faith follows this compelling which say Interpreters truly and generally is an importunate prevailing persuasion Now may not God 1. Make Christ a Sacrifice for all ready 2. And by Legislation or conditional Donation make a free gift of Christ to all that will have him 3. And invite multitudes that will refuse and yet compel but his chosen only to come in Here it is that special differencing Grace begins in the execution and it confoundeth men in the whole body of Theology when they will needs suppose it to begin where it doth not that is in Redemption by Sacrifice All men shall one day confess all things were ready if I would have come in I had been saved it was my own wilful refusal that deprived me Obj. But why doth not God compel all to come in as well as some Ans 1. O man who art thou that disputest against God May he not do with his own as he list He compelleth some from the superabundance of his Mercy He inviteth the rest in great mercy also 2. This will be no excuse to the refusers what if God had only invited all and compelled none What if he had suffered all to perish in their wilfulness would that have been any ease to any and if he compel some is that any wrong to the rest will not Conscience say another day I perish justly that would not be saved must I need compulsion to accept of a Redeemer and Salvation with him Obj. But it is not in my Power to come I cannot Ans There 's no man that would come that can say so if you will you can yea you do come If you will not who will you blame but your self you may come if you will As your will-not may be called a cannot so it 's true you cannot
Redemption Thes 4. Cap. 6. per tot page 65. ad p. 87 hath said so much to this pointt hat I may well refer the Reader thither for satisfaction without adding any more 3. Yet I shall first briefly Answer the Argument and then more fully open the truth about this point in certain conclusions And 1. We must distinguish of several terms in the Arguments and some other necessary to be here considered 1. Christ is said to Die for men 1. Dying in their stead and for their sin as lying on him in the undertaken suffering 2. Or else final it er in eorum bonum Which is 1. Common 2. Or Special And both 1. Either given as Legislator quoad jus by a conditional grant 2. Or given as Dominus absolutus and the disposer of all things quoad eventus Prop. When I say Christ Died for all men I mean not that he finally intended as Dominus absolutus eventually to save all by his Death But that he Died in the stead of all suffering the punishment which by the Law of works was due to all mankind And how far he died in bonum ominum for the good of all is shewed before and shall be shewed more anon Secondly We must distinguish betwixt the the Gospel as it signifieth the Covenant of Grace with its grounds and fruits fully expressed and as it signifieth only some particular Gospel truths which go before the full revelation of the said Covenant Grounds and Effects as the Break of Day goeth before the Sun Rising and the Revealing of some of the fruits of Christ's Death by which streams men should be drawn to enquire after the Fountain in the later sense all have the Gospel In the former all have it not Thirdly We must distinguish of Preaching which is either taken in general for any way of Revelation or specially for a Revelation by Writing or Speaking The former All have the later not when I say All men I still mean All that have the use of their senses and reason and not Infants Mad Men Ideots or Senseless of whom more anon By this much you may see in what sense we acknowledge or deny the Truth both of Major and Minor proposition of the Argument And hence also you may see how far I deny the Major of the next subservient Argument if withal you distinguish 3. Between Frustra being in vain absolutely as to all ends and uses yea Gods chiefest ends or in vain to the particular end of the Sinners own Salvation 4. And as to the cause hereof you must distinguish between being in vain through any defect of Christ's Satisfaction or on his part and being in vain as to their Salvation meerly through their own fault According to the last members of these two distinctions we confess Christ's Death is in vain to all that perish but not according to either of the former 5. We distinguish between Christs procuring Remission and Salvation to be made over to all by him as Legislator in the tenour of his Conditional Grant And being eventually conferred on all by God as the disposer of events 6. We must distinguish between the extent of the new Law or Grant of it as to its own Tenour or Sense and the extent of it as to the Promulgation 7. Also between promulgation initial imperfect and full and perfect 8. And between means sufficient to the first Duties that Christ by Gospel Truths calls men to and all means absolutely necessary or sufficient to Faith and Salvation And so I answer to the second Prosyllogisme that Christ did not procure that all he died for should eventually receive Remission and Salvation or sufficient means thereto nor yet that the Covenant of Grace which conferreth Right to these should be as to the Infallible event fully promulgate or revealed to all But he hath procured not only that all mens sins be made pardonable in a nearer sense than they were before his satisfaction but also that as to the tenour of his Law or Covenant Remission and Salvation be conferred on all so be it they will not reject it and also that some part of his Gospel Truth and the effects of Christs Death be revealed in some measure to all and so some part of his New Law promulgate to all and all have sufficient means to help to perform the Duties which he thus calls them first to perform 9 We must distinguish between Believing that God is and that he is reconciled to man so far as that he will reward them that diligently seek him and believing that Jesus Christ was Incarnate and satisfied by his Death 10. And between Necessary to Salvation Necessitate Precepti and Necessitate Medii and so I answer to the last confirmation that Faith in the first sense is necessary to the Salvation of all that have the use of reason both necessitate precepti medii but faith in the last sense is neither necessary to Ideots Mad-men Infants nor yet to those that never heard the Gospel necessitate precepti And whether or no it be necessary necessitate medii etsi non prescripti we shall say more to anon So much directly to the Argument Next I shall for the fuller opening of my Judgment on this point lay down what I conceive to be the truth in these following Propositions Proposition I. As Christ hath born the sins of all and done all for them which pertaineth to the Ransomer by an expiatory Sacrifice and hath obtained thereby a new Title of Lordship and Soveraignty over all and all are delivered to him accordingly so doth he faithfully perform the office of a Soveraign Redeemer to all governing them as his Ransomed ones by such Laws and Ways of undeserved Mercy as have a natural tendency and conducibility to their Salvation Though still as Absolute Lord he giveth out the Mercies which belong to him to bestow in that Relation with great diversity to all the World but yet a great measure even of these doth he give to all men Prop. II. Christ dealeth not with any Heathens on the meer terms of the Law of works as it was given to Adam or stood without the connexion of any Remedy These are not the full terms on which God deals with them If you perfectly obey without any sin you shall live If you ever sin you shall dye This will be proved in that which follows and might easily be proved more largely were it not so plain as to prohibit such vain endeavours Prop. III. Christ is not properly said to be in mutual Covenant with all that he died for and I think he is not so in Covenant with any Unbeliever as to a true mutual Covenanting nor to any that never heard the Gospel as to the Legal promissory Covenant The Covenant of Christ is taken in several senses Among others for the two here mentioned 1. For his New Law Testament Gospel Promise or Conditional Gift of Pardon and Life call it what you will By this he
commands men to Repent and Believe and giveth them his foresaid Benefits on condition they perform this laying a kind of engagement or obligation upon himself which he cannot break For God cannot lye and shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Righteously How else should God judge the World And God in the relation of a Righteous Judge will give the Crown of Righteousness at that day to all them that love his appearing Now I conceive that in a full proper sense none that hear not the Gospel i. e. that have not some Revelation of Christ Crucified are in this Covenant nor God in Covenant thus with them For the Preceptive part of the New Law doth not actually oblige them to the performance of the full condition of Believing in Jesus Christ Crucified nor doth the promisory part oblige Christ to give them the benefit in so full a sense as to those that have this Covenant revealed to them nor can Christ be said conditionally to give it them in so full a sense because the Law or Deed of Gift is not Promulgate fully to them as it is to others I shall open this more in the following conclusions 2. The Covenant of Christ is taken also for this same forementioned Covenant when it is accepted by Believing and so become a Mutual Covenant when men engage themselves to Christ as Christ first doth to them and so the Promise comes into force for the actual conveying of Right to the thing promised This is the fullest sense in which it is called a Covenant according to our common custom of speech and the first is most properly called a Law Testament Disposition c. yet is the word Covenant in Scripture used oftest in this less proper sense Now it is only Believers and their Seed that are in this mutual full Covenant with Christ But this belongs not so nearly to our present enquiry about the state of the Heathens as the former doth Prop. IV. The New Law Testament Promise or Gift which saith Whosoever Repenteth and Believeth shall be saved and whoever doth not shall be Damned doth as to its Tenour or extent of the sense of the words belong to all men in the World even those that never heard the Gospel This is so ordinarily acknowledged that I need not prove it Nor doth it need any other proof than the recital of the Covenant-terms The Promise is universal and no man on Earth is excepted or excluded so that Christ may be said to have 1. Obliged All men to Believe 2. And constituted Faith a condition of Salvation to all men 3. And obliged himself to give them Remission and Salvation if they do Believe quantum attinet ad merum Legislatorem as far as belongs to him as mere Legislator or as to the meer enacting of his new Law Grant Testament which is constituted and perfected with his Fiat And of the three forementioned Acts the last which is the obligation on Christ's part is most full and irreversible For though there goes yet more to the actual obliging of the Subject to perform the condition and of Christ to give the benefit when the condition is performed yet to the first conditional Obligation of Christ to give it there is no more requisite to make it real and irreversible than this enacting so that the New Law or Covenant extendeth to all the World as to its sense or tenour Prop. V. This New Law or Covenant doth not actually oblige men for all the enacting of it till it be Promulgate that is a rational sufficient publication of it made to the World It belongeth to the Rector after the enacting of his Law to promulgate it And though promulgation be not in the strictest sense I think a part of Legislation though many think otherwise I confess yet it is a necessarily subsequent act of the Rector without which his Law cannot actually oblige even as Revelation is a natural requisite of our actual Believing any Truth of God tho' not as I think the ipsum formale objectum fidei sed potius quod dicitur vinculum inter formale materiale For it is the Sense and Will of the Legislator that his enacted Law do oblige those and only those to whom it is promulgate else it should be apparently unjust as obliging to natural Impossibilities And it cannot oblige beyond his Sense and Will And therefore though the Tenour of the New Law extend to all men in the World yet it cannot be said that any man is by it obliged to Believe in Jesus Christ Crucified further than this Law hath been published or promulgate to him with a Rational sufficiency It is therefore a vain objection that one makes J. G. against Mr. Barlow p. 47. that if men be not obliged before the revelation of the Gospel then either they must remain disobliged when it is revealed or else God must make a new Law for them or be changeable that is his sense For it is sufficient that he make a Promulgation of that Law which before he had enacted and which was before an Instrument fit to oblige but wanted the application by a Promulgation without which it could not actually oblige By all this it appears that if the Heathens may be said to be not-obliged to Believe or to be not under the New Law or Covenant it must be only for want of a sufficient Promulgation of that Law and not for want of an Universal Tenour or from any exceptions against them in the Law it self Let us therefore next see how far the New Law is Promulgate to them Prop. VI. The Lord Jesus having enacted his New Law did purposely ordain Universal Officers to Promulgate his Universal Law giving them this Commission and Command Go ye into all the World Preach the Gospel to every Creature He that Believeth and is Baptized shall be Saved and he that Believeth not shall be Damned So that Christ hath not been wanting quoad actus morales as to the moral part which consisteth in commanding and authorizing his Officers for the Universal Promulgation of his New Law Yea for my part I doubt not but this work of publishing the Gospel to all Nations and so carrying it to them that have not heard it doth lye on some men to this day and God would have such Universal Ministers yet in the World and so far the Apostolical Work is not ceased And I believe it is a most hainous sin of Christian Princes and States that they procure not able Ministers to be sent into all the Heathenish parts of the World as far as possibly they can and that it is the sin of those Ministers who have ability fitness and opportunity for this Work that they do not how hazardous and painful and chargeable soever set themselves resolvedly to it So that if Christs Laws were well obeyed there is no likelihood that there would be any known part of the World where the Gospel would not be published Prop. VII So