That therefore the number of those that shall be saved at the last Day is but small very small in comparison of those that shall be damned in Hell for ever But let us now inquire into this matter For though I say not but that this Warning may have a Measure in it Reaching to all who are the true Disciples of Christ to the end of the World yet will it not afford any Warrant for such an Opinion that is here derived from it Neither can the said Opinion be Justified upon any Terms Having thus in short declared freely my Judgment and Resolution I may possibly have an Imputation put upon me of a bold Singularity And some will be ready to say Tu autem who are you that pretend to have more Understanding than others and will venture thus to Correct your Elders and Superiours But O Benedicite I do not howsoever take upon me to Correct Magnificat neither will I though I be In Artibus Magister Quinquagenarius Censure magisterially all those that maintain the said Opinion but only offer to consideration my Conceptions upon it Wherein if I err I shall be willing and glad to be better Instructed And since the Church of England which is a cheif Pillar and Ground of Truth and which under God is my Oracle to guide me in my way to Heaven hath in her Articles the Summary of her Christian Profession lest this Point undetermined we may have a Latitude in this case every man to propound his Judgment with Humility First then as for this premised Scripture on which the aforesaid Opinion seems to be Grounded Dr. Hammond whom I mention not as if he were to be accounted Infallible but as one approved for Learning and Holiness He I say doth not stretch it to such a Sense but in his Paraphrase upon it rendereth it thus First upon the thirteenth Verse where Christ speaking to his Disciples in effect saith Let all your Care be to set your selves upon the Christian Course and to go thorough with it be it never so strict for it is easie to enter upon a vitious Course and to go thorough that Multitudes there are great Store both of Jews and Heathens as the said Author renders it in another place which pass that way to Eternal Destruction His Prac. catechis And upon the fourteenth Verse he addeth to the same purpose There will be likewise all need of your Care because the Entrance and whole Course of a Christian Life is made of perfect strictness in opposition to the looseness of the World and that makes so many to choose it And the Lesson which I for my part would learn herehence shall be through Gods Grace to teach me who will be a Disciple of Christ to be very watchful over my self that I may be a Christian indeed by a strict and straight Conformity to the Rules of our Lawgiver lest if I follow a Multitude in doing that which is Evil I may in the end fall into Perdition Such or the like use it would become us all to make of these Words rather than by an unwarrantable Interpretation of them to intrude our selves into the Justice-Seat of the great and Omnipotent God taking upon us the boldness to Judge before the time as if a liberty were allowed thereto from this Scripture which upon a due Search into it we shall find yet further that it intendeth no such matter for let it be considered Seeing we are not now under the severe Tutoring of that Rigid Schoolemaster the Law but under the calme and gentle Dispensations of Grace or as my aforesaid excellent Doctor renders it in his Paraphrase upon Rom. 6.14 not under the weak unefficacious Pedagogy of the Law which could only forbid Sin and denounce Judgment but never yeild any man hope of Mercy or amendment but under a Kingdom of Grace where there is Pardon for Sin upon Repentance Seing I say it is so we may be well assured that the way of teaching the Doctrine of Salvation is to be by the sweet and peaceable Suada of the Gospel Which certainly is most prevailing to lead men to Repentance Unlikely therefore is it that Christ himself now at his first entrance upon his Work which the Father had appointed him to do for the Salvation of the World would begin with such Terror as to preach Damnation to the greatest part of mankind which certainly he did if he said that few shall be saved by him and that it was so decreed by the eternal Counsel of Heaven as it is likewise pretended by those that are for this destructive Opinion we have heard otherwise out of the Gospel that when Christ began to Preach he said repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Thus he began and so he continued giving it in charge also to his Disciples that they should preach the same Doctrine which without doubt signified that in all places and among all People where they were to come the World should know there is a possibility of Salvation upon Repentance for them all For let me ask what is this Gate and what is this way that leadeth to Life but Christ himself I am the Door saith he John 10.9 By me if any man enter in he shall be saved And again John 14.6 I am the Way no man can come to the Father but by me And is this Gate so strait and this way so narrow that few can go in the one or enter in at the other It cannot enter into my Heart to imagine let all the World say the contrary but that the Righteousness of Christ is sufficient to Justifie all mankind yea that the major part of mankind shall be saved by him It is a saying worthy of all Acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners And doth he now say that few shall be saved by him What a Dishonour must this be both to him and to his Father that sent him Yea did he come to destroy the Works of the Devil as became the Captain of our Salvation and can the Devil Immure himself still in his Works and strong Holds so as to be able to draw yea to drive the greatest part of the World under his Power for ever This unavoidably must be granted if that Opinion be true viz. Because Christ hath said strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life c. Few therefore shall be saved These things considered we must necessarily render some other account of these Words than hath been wont to be given of them For certain it is the Usual Sense carryeth with it such a Sound of Horrour as is utterly inconsistent with the Nature of God the Merits of Christ and the glad Tidings of the Gospel as may be here seen at large in the pursuance of this Discourse First then this caution of Christian Strictness and Difficulty seems to be a Branch of that great Law of Equity written by the Evangelist in the
King 't is true he is and hath a Kingdome which his Enemies shall find to their everlasting Confusion when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Glory to judge them that have said Nolumus hunc regnare we will not have this Man to Reign over us for thus he makes a Protestation of his Faith with a confident Resignation of himself unto Christ as his leige Lord and King Lord saith he Remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom O admirable Faith O incomparable Faith never was the like heard of neither indeed could be since the World began This was the last Confessor that Christ had while he was living in this World but he outstripped all those that were before him fulfilling that Word which was spoken by Christ viz. The last shall be fust he was able we see by his Faith to remove Mountains of Opposition which lay in his way that he might cleave unto Christ It was a Faith I say again that surpassed all other that we read of in Scripture a great Word but by that time it be duly weighed it will appear to be most true One of good Note in the Church makes the Comparison in this manner what is more worthy of Wonder and Amazement than that a Theif should have a better knowledge of Christ upon the Cross than some of his Disciples had when they sate with him at Supper that a Theif should have a more eminent Degree of Faith than the Patriarch Abraham the Father of the Faithful than Moses the Servant of God than the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah than his own Domestick Attendants to whom it was given by aspecial Grace of Dispensation to know Christ and the Mysteries of his Kingdom Abraham beleived in the Lord but it was when he was so much honoured as to have God himself to be his own Messenger and to parley with him from Heaven Moses beleived in the Lord but it was when he appeared to him in the midst of a Fiery Bush wonderfully Esay beleived in the Lord but it was when he saw him sitting upon a high Throne The Apostles beleived in the Lord but they were Eye-witnesses how his Miracles posed Nature and all the Creatures did their Homage to him as to their Creatour These were easie Taskes of Faith but this noble Confessor beleived in the Lord when which way soever he looked about him his Eyes could meet with nothing but Horrour and Misery He doth not supplicate Jesus sitting at the right Hand of the Father so he is crowned with Majesty nor unto Jesus judging the Quick and Dead so he is attended with Angells c. But when he saw his Sides Hands Feet all bleeding his Face Ghastly his Head drooping and his Soul heavy to the Death even then he said to Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome as if he had been lifted upon the Cross to overlook Christs Debasements and to make a shew openly that his Faith should outvy his Sense But now it may well be demanded from whence hath this man this great Power where did he learn all these things not surely upon the Highway not under Hedges not in his Dens of Thievery no but it was given him from above by the immediate Work of Gods Spirit which breatheth where it listeth not discernable by men Joh. 3 8. And verily whatsoever hath been otherwise thought of this man the things here premised being well considered his Example alone may satisfie us that Gods Mercy is not limited either to time or means for the Salvation of those whom he hath ordeined to eternal Life Which being so how can any man I say again be so peremptory as to conclude and that against the very Nature of the Almighty and Merciful God so often and so fully made known to the Church in the Holy Scripture that the greatest Part of Mankind shall perish eternally in the Torments of Hell without any Remedy Sed Obiter let all men beware that they be not so unwise as to lose themselves in this Comfortable Doctrine which though it be in Truth most Evangelical yet I fear as Grace can Work good out of Evil so may the corrupt Heart of man by a Satanical Chimistry draw Evil out of Good as many wretched People have done by making an ill use of this Example of Gods Mercy to the Thief upon the Cross I do therefore desire all that shall read or hear of this Doctrine of Salvation thus enlarged to forbear their hasty and pernicious Misconstructions of it till they have informed themselves better by the Cautions that shall be here added unto it Now then to summ up this whole matter Since the Holy Scripture being rightly understood doth clearly speak of a great Multitude which no man can number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues that shall be saved but speaketh no where so largely of those that shall be Damned in Hell for ever only faith they shall be many If none of all the Churches of Christ in the Primitive times and since to this very day have in any of their publick Confessions Creeds and Attestations of Faith applyed any part of the Scripture to such a Sense in the least Tittle and Iota of them so as to condemn the major part of mankind to everlasting Fire Since God hath accepted of that full Satisfaction which hath been given to his Justice for the Sin of the World by the Blood of the Cross it being the Godhead of Christ which did put an infinite worth upon all that he did and upon all that he suffered the Obedience of God to the Rule of the Law sufficing to justifie all sorts of Sinners of what quality soever they be upon the Face of the Earth if they Repent and Believe and the Blood of God given up to the Sentence of the Law being as much as Divine Justice did expect for a full Satisfaction for the universal Breach of Gods Law throughtout the World from the beginning to the end If Faith and Repentance may be suddenly wrought by the secret Work of the Holy Ghost in the Hearts of men who are destitute of the ordinary means of Salvation If Divine Grace and Mercy be not limited during mans Life in this World to time or means for the Conversion of those whom God hath chosen to eternal life If God Governs the World not according to the Model of our Imaginations but according to the good Pleasure of his Will and this Government be managed for the Glory of his great Name and for the general Good of those that are in Subjection to him and that certainly God will at last be Justified in his Government against the Malice of Hell however the Sequel of it prove and be clear when he is Judged If God takes no Pleasure in the Death and Damnation of Sinners but delighteth in shewing Mercy to the Children of men and where there is but some Goodness 1. Reg. 14.13 as there may be in many that
and Holy Bishop Sanderson hath written in his third Sermon ad Aulam against this Pharisaical Arrogancy viz. these assume to themselves the Terms of Brotherhood of Professors or Christianity the Communion of Saints the Godly party as if none but they were to be owned either as Brethren or Professours or Christians or Saints or Godly Men. Such an abhorrency hath this destructive Opinion wrought in the Minds of pious men that have been before us And as it is destructive to the eternal Estate of many precious Souls so may it especially by keeping up these separating Distinctions tend to the overthrow of Nations and Kingdomes we here in this Nation have reason so to account of it Sure I am the said good Bishop did so long agone being about fourty Years past foretel in a manner the dismal Breaches which have since arisen among us thereby his Words are these viz. Who knoweth of what ill Consequence the Usage of such Appropriating and distinctive Titles may prove and what evil Effects they may produce in future Times But such hath been our Misery we may now say who knoweth it not the Experience that we have had hath taught us sufficiently to know it And we cannot but know that the same dividing Spirit still haunteth us in this Nation as if we had known nothing or at least as if we had forgotten the woful effects which this Spirit of Division and Delusion hath produced But that I may not doe them wrong these are not the only chief upholders of this Opinion there is another sort also that joyn with them that is the Romanishs both which as the same Reverend Bishop hath compared them are like Sampsons Foxes tied together by the Tailes to set all on Fire though their Faces look quite contrary wayes and albeit the former sort be too Phantastical and selfconceited yet may these latter likewise well be adjudged as they have been too Fanatical Do not these make their Church the only Suburbs of Heaven maintaining expresly that none can enter therein but only those that will pass through their Gates which in truth are too narrow for any yea for themselves to enter They contrary to all Truth and Reason make the Roman and the Catholick Church Termes convertible exacting eternal Communion with them and Subjection to their Bishop as a condition so essentially requisite for the qualifying any Person to be a Member of that Church of Christ out of which there is no Salvation as that they have inserted a Clause to that purpose into the very definition of a Church viz. Ecclesia est coetus hominum sub regimine Legitimoâ—um Pastorum ac praecipue unius christi Vicarii Romani pontificis Whereby they do in effect adjudge all that are not under the Popes Jurisdiction and Government to everlasting Perdition And now I beseech you are not both these sorts of People miserably deluded by Satan that whereas they speak of the Strait Gate and narrow Way that leadeth unto Life and that they have found it yea that they are the only Guides to all others that desire to find it they themselves both one and the other are extreamly mistaken in their way which without Repentance they will undoubtedly find in the end to their everlasting Confusion This Opinion therefore having such Authors and Abettors and producing such pernicious Effects to the overthrow not only of Christian Charity but of Humanity also yea to the lessening if not utter annulling of Gods infinite Goodness for besides what Papists foolishly boast of the Church of Rome that there can be no Salvation out of it I have heard a prime Leader among our Nonconformists Preaching in his Pulpit before a great Congregation in this manner what cares God if he throwes the greatest part of the World into Hell and being as it appears without any express Warrant from Holy Writ it should to speak modestly be the less regarded by us though it hath been and still is countenanced by those that have been and are at this day of good esteem among us A second Caution shall be this let no man mistake so far as to imagine that this preceding Discourse doth aim at any wider way that leadeth to Life than the Holy Scripture and the Church following the Rule of it will allow The way is plain which is set before us viz. Jesus Christ and he whosoever he be Christian or Heathen that will with Faith and Repentance keep stedfastly in this way looking upon Jesus to the last Gasp he shall undoubtedly be saved but no other of what Nation Rank or Condition or Perswasion soever he be shall ever be interessed in this Mercy Should I here maintain as an eminent Author of late hath Pablished in a Book called Theologia Veterum that the Heathen by the light of Nature without Christ may attain to such a Knowledge of God as is enough for their Salvation or as some of the Antients even in the primitive Times of the Church as our Bishop Mountague reports of them in his Acts and Monuments of the Church before Christs Incarnation Cap. 1. Sâ—ct 86. have held that the Heathen by following only the Rules of Philosophy may be saved or by Ethica Justitia and that Philosophy was necessary to Justification not alone antecedently by way of Allistance in promoting or furthering saving Knowledge but properly Primarily and of it self these are the Words of my Author the said Bishop or should I say Dr. Montague as others in these times that the sweet Disposition of good humoured men worthy indeed of all to be beloved is enough to commend and approve them unto God and bring them to Heaven I may justly fall under the premised Censure though my adherence to such Opinions would have added some Strength to my premised Position But for my part the Sense of my good Mother the Holy Church of England shall next to the Holy Scripture be my Guide herein and she in the eighteenth Article of our Confession entitled to eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ thus beleiveth They are to be held as Cursed who presume to say every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law and the Light of Nature for the Holy Scripture doth set out unto us onely the Name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved Thus hath the Church given Judgment in this case and thus do I hereupon affirm that where there is nothing of Christ no Interest in him by Faith nor no Influence from him by his Spirit there can be no Salvation St. Austin is very punctual herein Serm. de verb. dom cap. 4. Qui cuiquam promittit salutem sine Christo nescio utrum ipse salutem habere possit in Christum i e whosoever he be that promiseth Salvation to any without Christ I question whether he himself may ever be saved by Christ A modern Divine renders
the Eye as one makes the Comparison is dearer unto a man than the whole Frame and Circle about it the Signet upon the right Hand in more regard either for the Matter or for the Form or for the Use whereto it serveth than all his other Ornaments a writing in the Palmes of his Hands more carefully preserved than all his other Papers and Records Doubtless there are some sew amongst the rest of their Brethren whom God doth tender as the Apple of his Eye weare as a Signet upon his Finger engrave as a writing in the Palmes of his Hands and with whom is the Secret of the Lord and his hidden Treasures St. Paul was a chosen Vessel to bear the name of Christ before the Gentilos c. Act. 9.15 above the other Apostles and according to his Election he laboured more abundantly than they all did yet were they all the called of the Lord and interessed in one and the same Hope of their Calling St John was the best beloved Disciple of Christ and might lean in his Bosom yet had the rest of the Apostles the privilege to sit with him at the Table And did he not prefer Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee whereof the said John was one when he led them apart into a Mountain to make them Eye-witnesses of his Transfiguration Mat. 17. â— And after that in chusing the same men from the rest of their fellow Apostles to keep him company and to watch with him when he was in his Agony overwhelmed with Sorrow Yea even here in this Parable are not those that came in last to work in the Vineyard as much favoured as those that had been there before them the Labourers indeed took Offence thereat but the good Householder who is God himself justifieth his own Act against their causeless Exceptions asserting his Liberty to do what he will with his own neither is there any Wrong done to them though he prefers one before another so long as the first as well as the last have a full Reward given them As at a publick Dole a multitude may be called to it but it lieth in the Breast of the charitable Donour to distribute it as he pleaseth possibly to some few whom he chuseth out he may be more liberal than he is to the rest and no man may ask him why he doth so Even thus will God dispose of his Bounty to his poor Servants as seemeth good unto him without rendring an account to any which cannot justly be required of him to give unto the last that entreth into Covenant with him though they doe him but little Service as he giveth to the first who had been labouring all the day yea to set the last before the first and the first after the last that it may appear it is not as hath been before said for the Works sake which the Jealous God doth much disdain that his Goodness is more enlarged to some few but that whatsoever Favour is shewed either to one or other it is Grace and Grace alone that they have it vouchsas'd unto them for why God will never endure that any man should boast in his Presence to which we are all for the most part very apt Upon this account St. Paul expresly Disavows it not of works saith he lest any man should boast Eph. 2.9 This I take to be the true Sense of this Scripture and so is it of the other where the same words are used Mat. 22.14 The sixt and last Caution that shall be here put in is this viz. whereas it is written Wide is the Gate and Broad is the Way that leadeth to Destruction and many there be that go in thereat but Strait is the Gate and Narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and few there be that sind it the meaning whereof hath certainly been much mistaken yet I say not but that these Words carry in them such a Sense which may and will being rightly considered rouze us all up out of our carnal Security and make us fall to our Work viz. the working out of our own Salvation as with fear and trembling so with all Care and Diligence and to strive according to our Saviours Warning Luk. 13.24 with all our might to enter in at the Strait Gate for without doubt though they found terribly yet is there an Evangelical Truth in them such as hath been before declared but to hold that our Saviour spake them Dogmatically as if it was so decreed of the Father from Eternity that few should be saved for my part I can by no means consent unto it for what would that signify but that he did Preach Condemnation to the major part of mankind Which Doctrine certainly could not well agree with the Anointing which he had from the Spirit of the Lord God Luk. 4.18 nor with the Commission which he had received from the Father for God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved Joh. 3.17 and accordingly he saith I came not to judge the World but to save the World Joh. 12.47 Nevertheless it is as true that to the Unbelievers and Impenitent such as were the Scribes and Pharisees who traduced his Person despised his Doctrine and spake evil of his Miracles he spared not to proclaim Woe upon Woe nor was it inconsistent with his Commisson so to do for it was as good Gospel as the other was to preach the glad Tidings of Salvation He came as he saith to seek and save that which was lest and he will save them in such a way as seemeth good unto him sometimes by the Spirit of meekness perswading and inviting men to Repentance and sometimes by snaking the Rod over them But for such as are obstinate in their Wickedness and will by no means be reclaimed from their Sins he saith to them for Judgment am I come into the World that they which see not that is will not see might be made blind Joh. 9.39 which is a Judgment questionless very dreadful yea what worse can be imagined than to be struck with a spiritual Blindness a blindness that brings such a thick Darkness upon the Soulâ— of man that though the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God shineth clearly about him yet is he not able to discern it but walks on still in darkness till he fall into the mist or blackness of Darkness which will hold for ever But here a doubt must of necessity be resolved doth Christ say that he came not to judge the World and doth he say also that for Judgment he did come into the World doth he the same thing which he saith he doth not is Christ divided is there yea and nay in the Word of Truth and dissension in the Spirit of Unity God forbid any of us should so think much less write or teach so certainly there is a Truth in both these sayings which is most infallible but how then shall