for him To make good which denyall he sayes 1 That no man is bound to believe that that 's false but that he dyed for every man is false and he hath proved it so before This is Petitio Principii and contrary to the Scripture He is no competent Judge in his own cause and any that reads my Answers may see his proofs have all failed 2. Then he says men should be bound to believe immediately that that is not revealed though Divine Revelation be the Object of all Faith I deny this consequence from the Minor either as laid down by me or stated by him in the second way And whereas he says That the Scriptures do not hold out any where that Christ died for this or that particular as such but indefinitely as sinners specified of times antecedently by Gods purpose and consequently by their owne purchased obedience To the first of these passages I say that the Scriptures holding out an Universall proposition of truth are though not immediately yet mediately the Object of Divine Faith to any one particular for himself that 's included in the generall As when it s said All have sinned To believe thence that I have sinned is a Faith closing with and springing from that that is revealed though not immediately in the expression yet by undeniable intimation and consequence And so in the case of the Resurrection and Judgement in closing with this divine Revelation that all shall rise and be judged I necessarily upon the same divine Revelation believe that I shal rise and be judged also Yea unlesse I believe for my self I do not believe the Divine Revelation as concerning All. So is the case here God having revealed that Christ dyed for every one and all men c. In believing that Divine Truth I believe that he hath done so for me for that Divine Revelation includeth me as a man and one of the world And if it be not so I deny that any particular mans Faith in that particular can be proved to be grounded on the the word of God or that he hath any right to believe on the Mediator or that there is a Mediator for him To the latter passage about the Scriptures holding it forth only for sinners indefinitely often so and so specified I answer 1. That 's untrue It s held out also for the world universally 1 Ioh. 2.2 and for men generally 1 Tim. 2.4 6. Heb. 2.9 Again 2 He contradicts himself for if Scriptures specifie those Sinners for whom Christ dyed to be such or such then it holds not out his Death for sinners indefinitely Scripture holds forth nothing in any place but as it agrees with the truth of other places and indefinitely and boundedly are contradictions when spoken of the same subject Sinners unlimitedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and limitedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are incompetible expressions 3. I deny that the Objectum totale the full Object of the Death of Christ is any where specified either by the purpose of God to save them eternally or the consequent obedience found in them which denyall we have managed throughout this discourse 3. He saith The purpose of God and his intention is not propounded as the Object of the Faith of any but only his commands promises and threatnings the latter clause of which is not full enough for neither are his commands properly the Object of Faith but of Obedience nor are those things mentioned the onely object of Faith sure his Declarations may have a share therein too 2. His purpose and intention that he should die for this or that man is necessarily involved in the object of Faith propounding that he died for All men But his purpose or intention of bringing this or that man absolutely to eternal life is not revealed as the object of Faith to any not united to Christ by Faith and the inhabitation of the Spirit But that 's beyond our question not intended at all in the Argument as either way produced and so it s impertinently here mentioned by Mr. Owen In this also is answered his fourth Exception viz. That no command in Scripture to believe is to be measured by Gods purpose and intention His fifth onely answering to the Minor as disowned by me I have nothing to say to it But then he says That the not owning the Argument as in the first way propounded makes it useless as to the cause defended To which I answer That for Christs dying for every man in the world we have more divine proofs then that can come to but as altered into the second form it proves that Tenent untrue that Christ died onely for Gods Elect and them that shall for ever be saved against which I own it Besides this being granted it will follow That the Gospel being proposeable to All the world and that obedience of Faith also requireable thereupon of All there is the same truth in the matter of the Gospel concerning Christs Death for them all also it being otherwise not proposeable nor the obedience of Faith requirable of them His answer to this That it s no safe disputing of what should or would be if things were not as God hath appointed them satisfies not For as 1. We need not such disputings were men contented to be so far fools as to believe Doctrines as God propounds them And 2 As such suppositive Conclusions may be as strong and undeniable upon such supposed principles as positive conclusions 〈◊〉 positive premises yea and may illustrate positive truths too at lest they are as lawful for us to use as for them that oppose us So 3. This is not onely suppositive but positive that the Gospel is predicable to All and therefore the commission runs to preach it to All and I say it s in this positive truth implied that the truth therein declared as true before mens faith is true for All for otherwise there would not be in it a predicability unto All and ground for requiring Belief and Obedience of All we have opportunity and that we might preach it unto upon such preaching it But he excepts That if the Gospel were preached to All the world and All in the world yet this is all the will of God that could in general be signified by it to them viz. That he that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned and so that God hath concatinated these two together Faith and Salvation Which that its untrue we have shewed before in Chap. 1. The Gospel declares good will to All That God would have all men saved and come to know the truth c. ut supra It argues mens wisdom have too much blinded them from seeing into or understanding the Gospel when they finde nothing in it for sinners and men in general but that they that believe shall be saved and can shew them no good reason that any of them have to believe in God more then the Law can shew that says he
herein then the body of Truth it self then the word of God made flesh and manifested in the flesh met with in the dayes of his flesh Came not He from the bosome of the Father to open his name unto men and to shew to them the way of their salvation was not he truly Jesus the salvation of God and Saviour of the world one that came to teach men the knowledg of God and lead them unto life But O what course usage did He finde Did not the world abominate him as if he had been a Devil incarnate filled with Satan the great deceiver of mankinde leading them to Destruction how often did they cry out against him and offer to lay violent hands upon him as if he was unworthy to live amongst them What evil laws enacted they against him casting out of their Synagogues meetings and fellowships those that would own him Did they not call a councel about him and condemnâ— him therein and crave yea almost force it upon the Secular power to deliver him up to be crucified by them till they got their wills in that matter on him how did they after his condemnation all-to revile mock and taunt him yea dispitefully intreat and kill him And as if they would leave no stone unremoved for effecting their designes upon him they seal him up in his Sepulcher and set a guard to keep him therein And who I pray were the persons that thus used him Were they not the generality of the people but principally the Priests and Rulers the zealous and devout the seeming godly party that were so strict for tithing mint and rue for keeping Sabbaths keeping out errors and blasphemies as that a man that judged by the outside would have sworn they were the holiest people and best beloved of God that the world contained The wise the prudent the powerful the Scribes Pharises and Rulers of the people But I pray was Christ less the Son of God or the great Truth of truths because he found so bad entertainment by these prudent zealots because they condemned him and put him to Death was he therefore really guilty of that deceit and blasphemy with which they charged him was it not indeed as himself told them because he spake the truth to them and they could not endure to hear it from him Because he testified of them that their deeds were evil and their doctrine vitious which they set so high a price upon many good deeds have I done saith He for which of them do ye stone me And truly friend so have men dealt with this truth in hand It s cryed out upon as a Doctrine of Satan as error and blasphemy as the most pernicious Doctrine that can be taught almost they sit upon it in councel and condemn it they have reviled it railed on it mocked taunted it yea have they not crucified it and almost killed it and all this too hath been acted by the Learned Prudent Rabbies Scribes and Rulers but what evil hath it done Why disturb the Churches peace so they said Christ and the Gospel did their Synagogues Deprives believers of their comfort nay t is but them that believe it not as Christ did them that believed not in him not any right believers as we shall shew they can prove it guilty of no evil and therefore let not their charges of it move thee Veritas magna est praevalebit let them bury it and set a guard upon it banish it their cities countries kingdomes strike hands with Satan himself and combine with the gates and powers of hell to under it out it will and shall and shall be received As Moses lift up the Serpent in the wilderness so shall the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him may not perish but have eternal life For truth is truth though hated and reproached its cause is just their accusations groundless their opposite positions Antichristian but it self divine no nicety or fancy but of great concernment it being a truth that glorifies God and brings good news or tidings to men which with thy patience I shall a little demonstrate with the differences of their Anti-position of Christs dying only for an elect number in these following particulars 1. It s a doctrine that gives glory to God and magnifies his mercy or goodness and justice toward the sons of men in his dealings with them whereas the opinion it opposeth detracts from his glory in those particulars First I say it commends and magnifies the goodness of God in the exercise of his mercy while it speaks of him as love it self one that is good and therefore doth good good to All a lover and Saviour of mankinde and of the world in general one that delights not in the death of the wicked nor would that any should perish and run themselves into destruction but rather come to repentance and live to which end it shewes that he hath provided a means for banished mankinde to be brought back by to him again from that estate of misery unto which they were banished yea that to that end he enlightens manifests his truth calls to look to him lades with benefits waytes with patience upon sinners chastens them in mercy to keep their souls from the pit and to inlighten them with the light of the living and all this not bounded up to a few the far fewer part of men but in some degree or other inlarged generally to all And is not this a commendation of him as good and loving is it not the nature of love to diffuse it self abroad to extend it self to all as well as to burn intensively to any And 2. Doth not that that speakes of God as so mercifull illustrate also his justice the more brightly when it shewes his wrath and vengeance to come upon men for abusing love undervaluing goodness and for not accepting his grace can any thing be thought more just then to punish him that transgresses a command of an Authority in it self not onely lawful but also good and Fatherly that not only by its soveraignty might exact but also by its clemency and goodness did deserve obedience to its injunctions from all under it such as this doctrine declares Gods dealings with men by way of justice to be not only in respect of Adam our first parent and all in him but also in respect of us in our particulars and yet we ascribe his Soveraignty to him in all things too while we say all these his dispensations are not necessitated to him but free and voluntary so as that his giving Christ the streams of goodness that come to us through Christ were all of his good will not of our works yea his extending these or those means longer or shorter time with less or greater power are all free dispensations according to his will the Law he gives to men and the rewards he propounds all according to his own will only we say he acts forth this his
Soveraignty towards all in a most equal dispensation in which he justifies himself to all that plead with him to be good and holy And yet this doctrine leaves him at liberty too to do to any one more or less to make one more exemplary and singular in mercy and another in severity as he pleases But now the doctrine opposed by us derogates from God in these things for it speakes of him in respect of most as an Abaddon not a Saviour an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a friend and lover of men but a hater and destroyer of them for what else I pray you speakes that language that they preach as a truth concerning the greatest part of men that God hates them from eternity and so in hatred made them and necessitated their sinning and perishing Is this to represent God lovely and gracious or dreadful and one that delights in mans misery and ruine I know they say his love is but velle bonum creaturis to will that that is good to creatures and so that he may be said to love them in that he gives them outward good things in which I conceive they either give too scant a definition of his love or call that good in it that upon second thoughts if made their own portion they would scarcely deem so I conceive his love is rather to be thus defined A velle bonum creaturis quo iis benè esse possit a willing good things to creatures for their good for otherwise the willing of a good thing is not good if it have in it a destructive intention as for a man to will another a massy Wedge of Gold that he might cast him into the Sea and drown him with it and yet such is their doctrine of Gods willing good things to most for they make his first or eternal thoughts of them as to themselves to be their misery and so all the bounty patience and whatsoever they have from him to be to that end that they might by them arrive at it as some have said Gods dealings with some men are as if one should hang a man in a Goldchain or tie a wedg of Gold about his neck to sink him Quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis Now while they thus deny the extent of his mercy and goodness and give such direful representations of him they also by consequence obscure his justice for whereas his justice is illustrated by mercy they that obscure this must needs obscure the other also Justice is then seen in acts Retributive when voluntary unnecessitated transgressions are severely punished and by how much the more have been the advantages incouragements and liberty afforded for doing what is required so much the cleerer is the equity of punishing the fault committed How do they then cleer or magnifie Gods justice that make him to punish only necessitated wickedness Yea that make the Decree of eternal vengeance upon such and such persons to be in order of nature Antecedaneous to any consideration of sin deserving it for these to be some of their conceptions and the sum of their expressions too they well know that are acquainted with any thing in this controversie Now I propound to any rational understanding whether of these two most declare and glorifie justice for a master to punish his servant for not doing something that he could not do or doing what he could not but do yea what he himself necessitates him to do or for a master to punish his servant for that he gave him command and ability yea also incouragement and promised assistance for doing and he voluntarily and slothfully neglected or refused to do it Sure any man that hath his wits about him will say this latter But now against this particular I know what they object and its Mr. Owens in his preface They say the earth-worms of the world must not prescribe to God what way to glorifie himself in it s rather for us to ascribe that glory to him that he makes his own then devise ways for his glory by our inventions and speak lies in his behalf which things are in themselves rightly spoken onely they therein intimate that those things which we have said of God are of our devising and ascribing to him which he neither ascribes to himself nor owneth at our hands to take off which we shall come to another particular viz. That 2. The perswasion I have defended is a truth of Gods own revealing and not of our devising but on the contrary theirs a falshood not revealed by him but devised by them in which they as well give God the lye as deny him to be love What I here defend is grounded on the Scripture-expressions in maintaining which I indeavor to keep close to them and subject reason to faith theirs have no Scripture expression to maintain it but leans upon reason exalting it self against faith They are the plain Scripture expressions that God is love hath loved the world is good to all the Saviour of all men especially of them that believe that he delights in mercy but delights not that the wicked should die but rather turn and live that he is not willing that any should perish but that all come to Repentance that his goodness forbearance and long-suffering is not to be despised it leading to repentance even such as not repenting treasure up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath c. So also that Christ dyed for all and every one that he gave himself a ransome for all and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world if any hear him and believe not he doth not judg him because he came not to judg the world but to save the world That those whom he shall judg to death he will so judge for their not believing in the light he gave them for not hearing his voice not receiving the truth but imprisoning it in unrighteousness c. these and many such like are the revelations and expressions of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures upon which we ground our perswasion desiring simply to believe and hold them for true yea though all things therein held forth we knew not how by reason to comprehend judging him true and his word pure and perfect but our reasons and wisdom against it and where it Judges it absurd to be folly and bruitishness We believe and receive also all those places that they produce to us as that he came to save his people gave himself for his Church Sheep c. that the Saints and faithful were elected in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world that God said to Rebecca concerning Jacob and Esau before they were born or had done good or evil that the elder of them with his posterity should serve the younger with his and that God said by Malachy that he loved the one and hated the other and that God chuses not either according to birth or works in us
I have propounded that distinction Christ is not wanting to apply what is impetrated according to the will of God for application or compact made in Impetration and therefore his second Argument is vain too viz. That 2. It s contrary to reason that the Death of Christ in Gods intention should be applyed to any one that shall have no share in the merits of that Death None of all his adversaries produced by him say any such thing they rather deny the application of it to many then say that some to whom it s to be applyed have no share in his merits Whereas he says many know not of it we have shewed before that a man may have a fruit of love from another that he knows not Cyrus was girded and strengthned by God though he knew him not So men have a release from the dealing of God with them according to the merit of Adams sin which should else unavoidably have come upon them and this by Christ though many know not him And all receive some fruits of Adams sin though many knew not that there was such a one or what his sin was Whereas he saith it s against reason that a ransom should be paid for captives upon compact of deliverance and yet upon payment those captives not be made free and set at liberty that Christ should be a ransom upon compact of deliverance of captives and yet the greatest number of them never be released That is falsly bottomed for God released All from that deadly destroying sentence which hath God taken the forfeit of Adams sin in that very day had ruined Adam and his whole posterity Justification of life is to all so that they All have life here and shall however be released and brought out of the death that is ordered to them by occasion of Adams sin in the resurrection so far are all acquitted that if any perish it s not in that but in a second Death Yea all are released also in this regard that whereas all were cast out of Gods presence and might not approach to him now through Christ all have free leave to approach to him all are commanded to repent and turn to him to look to him and be saved whoever will may come and welcome yea God is so far from keeping them away that he faults men for not coming to him John 5.40 Now if a ransom be paid for captives and the prison doors opened and means afforded for leading them out and prisoners willingly and stubbornly refuse but will stay in prison still as in this later respect many do shall that be imputed as a defect of justice in him to whom the ransom was paid for them Surely no except it could be proved that that was the compact that he should in that regard compel and forcibly cause to come out of prison all that the ransom was paid for which I am sure Mr. Owen will not be able to prove in this matter Christ no where says to any God would not have you come to him you are not included in the ransom nor that all that he dyed for shall be brought in to him but he often tels us God would have them seek him and come to him and faults them that they will not For that after-shift as he cals it of conditional and absolute obtaining of things it fals not upon me I affirm that liberty from that first sentence's execution upon us was absolutely obtained Justification of life to All. And that liberty is opened in the Gospel to All and men exhorted to enter and for not striving to enter now the door comes to be shut upon many that which they have shall be taken from them because they liked to have it and then they cannot enter Also that all life remission and fulness are absolutely put into Christs hands only I say the will of God for his dispensation and so to his proposition of the things to be dispensed not his obtaining them into his dispose nor the freeness and openness of them for men to look after and come to him for them hath a condition annexed God wils Christ to dispense them to men upon coming to him and Christ holds them forth upon that condition to any Whoever will let him come c. we deny that Christ is bound to make known to all for whom he dyed the fulness that is in him like evidently or himself or the way of salvation to all alike expresly or expresly at all That all are bound to minde and imbrace what he revealeth to them is clear but that he is bound to make known this or that to all he dyed for I deny that Mr. Owen can any where prove He may bring infants to himself and dispense his salvation to them and yet never give them capacity to hear the condition of salvation and yet we believe what the Scripture saith John 1.9 that he is the true light that inlightens every man coming into the world He is not bound to give every man ten talents alike open and plain declation of himself and Father no not for saving them but every man is bound to improve and submit to God in what he gives them be it more or less and if they do so he is able and ready to give more being liberal and free and can tell how to save them if not he is just to take away what they have and not bound to save them He being Lord of them Nor yet say we that men have power of themselves to improve what is given them but he who gives them the talents gives them the power too in which he requires them to improve them and it s not inability but slothfulness and obstinacy for which they are faulted and condemned by him because they rather chuse to live idly in themselves and dy then stir abroad to seek God John 8.31 32 34 36. or yeeld to what he brings home to them and live Christ as he is the Truth of God is the great Physitian of souls and by revelations of truth both cals to himself for healing and by further revelations of it to those that come to him doth heal John 14.6 The truth shall make you free and this because He hath given himself a ransom for them in the first place without which neither ground of calling nor fitness to heal them Now this Great Truth of God doth send abroad his beams of divine light and so some sparklings of himself as the Word of God and God by vertue of his relation to the humane nature first virtually and then actually united to him to men in generall John 1 4 5 9 though not so clearly nor so many beams at all times as in some nor to All men as to some Yet to the generality some Beams of truth Rom. 1.18 19 21.28 Acts 17 27 28.27 Job 21.14 those beams have their force in their leading them to know something of God so to
proclaime openly upon the house tops And then Gods chusing weak simple men to be the first Teachers and so by consequence the first understanders of the divine truth doth neither prove that others that were wise and prudent were left destitute of the means of salvation or operation of the Spirit in them or much less that Christ dyed not for them or for All men but only That these wise and prudent would they be saved must stoop to God in embracing the knowledge of his mind by weak and sorry men and that indeed is the Genuine meaning as I conceive of that Scripture Whenas God had he pleased might have opened his mysteries to the Learned Rabbies Scribes and Pharisees to have been divulged by them he pleased to hide them from them putting them beside their way and to reveal them to others poor simple men by whom they were to be preached to them and to All Nations and that meerly out of his good will that no flesh might glory in his presence c. His next alledged place is John 10.15 Scrip. 4. in cap. 3. lib 2. 16 27 28. which we have before considered and shewed the vanity of his inferences from it there is no new thing here to be spoken to that is not there answered except that he tels us of Christ dying as a Shepheard spoken of in that place and Therefore he dyed only for his sheep which indeed is a new fallacious argument Logicians call it fallacia à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter as if I should argue thus In 1 Pet. 2.21 22. Christ is spoken of as dying as a pattern of patience to believers suffering unjustly from men Ergo he dyed for none but actuall believers so suffering Our question is whether Christ dyed for All or no not whether he dyed for All as a Shepheard though he laid not down his life for All as a Shepheard for sheep to preserve them in a life fore-given them yet he might and did lay down his life for All as a ransome to deliver them out of a Death come upon them for the sin they fell into in Adam and to be a propitiation for their sins c. To Matth. 20.28 a Ransome for Many we have spoken in Chap. 1. Lib. 1. for John 11.52 He dyed for that Nation and not for that Nation only but to gather together the children of God scattered abroad That tels us he dyed for the Nation which were not all Elect people to eternall life there being in it those Scribes and Pharisees whom he cals generation of vipers 2. He saith not For the Children of God much less for the Children of God only but shews that that was one end of his Death reaching further then the Nation namely to gather the scattered Jews or to bring all that should believe into an unity of faith and priviledges by slaying the enmity the Law of ordinances between them this puts no limitation to the Death of Christ nor saith that any were excluded it His next is Rom. Scrip. 5. 8.32 33 34. which indeed is brought as a consolation to believers in affliction assuring them they have God to justify them and he greater then any against them to condemn them and then they have Christ to intercede for them who had also dyed and risen and he would not faile them it being his business to present believers and walkers in the Spirit perfect before him as we noted before he that had given his Son for them would surely supply them with all strength them that were the called of God and believers in him Now whereas Mr. Owen observes that this act of giving Christ to dy for them was the greatest expression of Gods love toward believers I answer That the Apostle couples two acts together there 1. His giving Christ for them that expresly 2. His giving him to them that 's intimated in that repetition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with him for God gave not all things to be crucified with Christ nor did he give Christ to believers or to any in his beating him but delivered him up to Death and judgement and Christ gave up himself to bear the wrath of God but as one dead and risen God gives him with his excellencies to men Yea this is said to be done to the murmuring unbelieving Jews who not receiving him deprived themselves of that life and all those glorious things in and with him But to go on with Mr. Owens observation He infers from that thus If God gave his Son to dy for All then he had as great an act of love and made as great a manifestation of it to them that perish as to them that are saved But this follows not for though in it self it was exceeding great yea compared singly with other acts as to the outward expression the greatest act of love to give Christ to dy for men yet in regard of the heart of God in it and the conjoying that act with others he manifested not nor acted so great love to them that perish as to them that are saved 1. I say in regard of the heart of God for in chap. 8. Mr. Owen tels us Gods love is his velle bonum creaturis his purpose and will of grace which if so then that 's to be accounted the greatest to them to whom he purposed the greatest good by that act which was but the medium of good to men Now in as much as he purposed more grace to some through that gift then to others to the saved then to those that perish though in the medium they all shared yet it cannot be said that he manifested or acted as much love to one as to another To illustrate it take this comparison David put his life in hazzard from the Israelites when he fought with the Philistin in that he laid his life down at the stake as it were 1 Sam. 19.5 and it was the greatest act of love he could have shewed to his friend to lay down his life for him yet in this act he might love his Father with a more intense love then many others of them yet he hazzarded his life for them all and shewed forth that act of love to them all that in expression is highest 2. In respect of other acts Though that act was greater then any other act of love I say suppose that yet not so great as that and other acts also joyned with it He loved believers with that and diverse others as in compelling them in c. 3. Yea suppose all loved alike in that yet if some of them all so alike loved requiting that his same like-love worse then others As Hosea 9.15 are left and he takes their slighing his so great love so ill that he will love them no more And others not so requiting him but accepting it continue in his love as the phrase is Joh. 15.10 and he saves them shall we say he loves not these more then
kinde of Faith not so infallibly attended with eternal salvation as that compared to the stony ground Matth. 13.19 20. And in those that made shipwrack of faith and a good conscience But he says That that 's the substance of the Gospel promulgation whoever believe shall be saved that 's the onely thing held out to innumerable That Faith shal be attended certainly with eternal life Truly I believe that that 's All the Gospel held out to innumerable indeed For they that know of no other Gospel predicable to them at least believe it not how should they preach it And truly though that 's a truth yet not a truth meet to beget Faith but that declares God in Christ an object fit for souls in general and particular to believe on That that 's all the divine Truth that God bids us preach as Gospel to innumerable of men I deny He quotes for it Matth. 16.16 1 John 5.11 but fails in them of his purpose He shews his mistake of the first in that he thinks that that in Mark 16.16 is a declaration of the Gospel that they should preach As if our Saviour had said This is the Gospel you shall preach He that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned Now that this cannot be the Gospel is plain for then the latter sentence He that believes not shall be damned should be part of the Gospel too and so good news which I suppose will be hardly judged so The truth is Our having Saviour bid them preach the Gospel informs them what should be the consequences of their preaching it He that believes that is that believes the Gospel that you preach shall be saved but he that believes not but rejects it shall be damned The Gospel that they were to preach was his Mission into the world as the Saviour of it his Death for our sins his Resurrection Ascention c. with the promises of Life to them that believing the Gospel believe on him and so the Apostle preached also as we have before shewed We declare to you good tidings that God hath performed his Promises to us in raising up Christ from the dead And be it known that in this mans name is preached to you remission of sins And to instance no more his other proof is plain that they preached more fully then as he tells us For in that 1 John 5.11 He says not onely this is the Record that life is in Christ and he that hath him hath it but also which he leaps over God hath given us that life eternal that is in Christ so as that it behoves us to receive it in receiving him or else we are ingreateful and guilty of our own destruction Whereas he chargeth us with a Conditional will in God for saving men I speak not of any thing conditional in him but I say God propounds to men salvation on condition and will make good his VVord where-ever that condition is performed by men That which follows in this Consideration is spoken to generally before and therefore I shall pass it and come to the next Consideration 9. He mindes us of the mixt distribution of Elect and Reprobates Consid 9. Believers and Vnbelievers throughout the world in the several places thereof in all or most of the single Congregations and that 's another ground of tendring the blood of Christ to them for whom it was never shed Here are a heap of beg'd questions all without proof As 1. That some are Elect and others Reprobates before the Gospel come to them and fasten upon some to pull them to Christ and his Justice pass upon others in hardning them for their rejection of Christ 2. That there are believers and unbelievers in the Congregations throughout the world antecedently to the Gospels publishing to them and therefore the Gospel must be tendred to All and the blood of Christ offered to them for whom it was never shed 3. That there are some men for whom Christ never shed his blood and that God hath ordered it to be offered to them But 4. Chiefly This is to be admired that the holy Ghost that knows the secrets of God and revealed them to the Apostles should out of these grounds affirm that Christ died and gave himself a ransom for All when he wrote to one of the Churches All which are no matters of our Faith till they have better proof VVhat he says of the Promises there is impertinent for it s not of those we speak but of the affirmations of the extent of Christs Death Propitiation and Ransom which are not promises upon any condition propounded but Declarations and Assertions of things done for us in Christ that are grounds to us for Faith Even such grounds as upon which the Apostles exhorts to Faith Matth. 22.4 2 Cor. 5.19 20. c. and from them though not from the promises which are the believers portion Faith meets with something to perswade us of his Death for All. VVhereas he says the offer is not absolutely universal If he speak of it as profferd in act by men its true but if as proferable and according to the terms of its Proposition in the Scripture its untrue for there it s expresly said To all the ends of the earth and to the whole Creation For Gods refusing to bestow Faith I would have him shew me that God any where expresses himself as unwilling and unready to bestow Faith upon men where they have not first wilfully rejected him as if it was a vain thing to preach to most and for most to hear because God will not afford them power of believing 10. His last Consideration is of the several degrees of Faith Consid 10. tending to clear this That men have an object fit to believe on though they believe not that Christ died for them Which I deny for this believing on God the onely ultimate object of Faith being a reliance or depending on him presupposes an apprehension of God as one able and willing to help him and that apprehension springing from his VVord reporting him to be such which cannot be apprehended with this in question Whether God hath given Christ for him or not for if that be doubted or uncertain its uncertain too whether God be willing to help him seeing he hath appointed help no ways but by him and through his dying for men But let us see what are his Positions He tels us there is 1. This That sinners cannot have salvation in themselves in as much as all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Nor can be justified by the works of the Law This is indeed a truth to be believed but not properly Gospel or good news much less doth it shew the object to be believed on 2. That life is to be had in the promised seed But this is a lame Proposition for it expresses not whether life is there for them to whom it s preached or onely for some
me you have sinned against my blood and troden me under foot and therefore it now requires vengeance on you Mark by the way that it s not said Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect because Christ dyed for them but God justifies them who is he that condemns them Not who shal condemn them but who is he that is in comparison of God that justifies them that here reproaches and condemns them It s Christ that dyed one who hath infinite favor with God dyed for them being enemies and shall not such a one being now at his right hand prevaile for more strength for God to uphold them they being his choise ones men in him and believers on him then is in all their adversaries to overthrow them But as for those that neglect his salvation he saith How shall they escape Heb. 2 3. not how shall they but be owned and protected in their way by him His next Scripture-proof is Matth. 11.25 26. Scrip. 3. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent c. thence he gathers That from whom the Lord in his Soveraignty hides the Gospel either in regard of its outward preaching or inward revelation in their hearts Them Christ dyed not for But our Saviour here affirms there are such c. Both these propositions I deny The first for he reveales it not to children dying in infancy by the outward preaching yet we dare believe they are not all heirs of hell and he may justly hide the inward revelation from those that stop their ears against or attend not to the outward preaching and yet Christ might dy for them to ransome them from the Death that they were adjudged to in Adam that so he might further glorify the Father in his dispensations towards them and dispose of them Besides he hath not one patch of Scripture to attest that proposition Again I deny the minor for Christ saith not there that those wise and prudent men never heard of the Gospel in its power The words are not I thank thee that thou hast hid the Gospel from them much less that thou will never reveal it to them But These things which may be understood they way of his Judgments of which he had been speaking ver 20.24 and also how mens names are writ in Heaven Luk. 10 13-20.21 In Matth. 13.11 It s the Mysteries of the Kingdom Secreta abdita the things only to be shewed to those that are Scholars to Christ as there are certain mysteries in trades that are for none but those that are bound prentices to know and he there gives a reason in ver 15. they had closed their eyes against the powerfull convincements of the Gospel they refused to turn at Christs reproofs and therefore he would not pour out his Spirit Prov. 1.22 23 24. These things he hath hid from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes by babes he means men humbled and emptyed of themselves like infants that knowing nothing are docible and dispute not against what is taught them but believe it though they comprehend not what is in it attending till growing up to perfecter capacity they be able to comprehend the truth of it By wise and prudent men he means them that being strong-parted men of reason and learning do think by reason to finde out truth or to be the measure of truth propounded able to judge of what is said to them and therefore believe not upon the bare authority of the Master as Children and babes do but measuring what God says by their reason and prudence judge many things to be cross to reason and absurd and so receive them not Now these men while they thus lift up their wisdom and think to comprehend truth in a way of reason they finde fault with truth overlook despise and condemn it and so come not to see into the mysterious things of it which God hath put out of that way of reason in which they think to finde it But men that think not themselves wise but are willing to learn of to be taught of God and his word and therefore dare not but own and receive his sayings and cry to him for light about them they finde wisdom and to them he shews one thing after another even the mysteries of the kingdom Prov. 2.2 6. thence the necessity of mens becoming humble as little children and that they that are wise in this world become fools that is deny their own reason and wisdom not leaning to it as it objects against and findes absurdities in the truth of God that they may be made wise Now though God doth this according to his meere good will yet he doth it also as a just judgment upon some for exalting their reason against Gods word as in Isa 29.13 15. and also to abase flesh that he that glories may glory in God and that men might be instructed to deny themselves and cease from their own and other mens wisdome becoming as babes in a simple belief of Gods sayings so should they understand what now by the just will of God is hidden from them I might apply it by way of Caution to these very men who exercise not babe-like simplicity in giving credit to Gods word but exalt and lift up their own understanding they are sick about questions 1 Tim. 6.3 4. as the manner of unbelief is and say with Nicodemus How can these things be To what purposeshould Christ dy for All seeing all are not saved and many hear not of it c. who have the truth and usefulness of it hidden from them God having not ordained that men should know it by reason and wisdom but by faith and supplication Thence that in Isa 9.9 If ye will not believe ye shall not understand and that in Jam. 1.19 Be swift to hear slow to speak be more ready to hear what God says then to exercise thy reason in objecting against God Yet I will not say that Christ dyed not for these men that being prudent and full of humane wisdome and exalting that above faith have the things they dispute against hidden from them that would be found as too harsh so too unjust a censure Some of these wise and prudent from whom these things are hidden may become babes and then have them revealed to them Again we may apply that saying to the mysteries of Christ revealed to weak despised men to be published by them and not to the Scribes and Pharisees and wise men that so the glory of God might not be obscured by their Wisdom as if that found out or helped forward the propagating of the Gospel but even those things though revealed to poor weak simple men were not to be concealed by them but to be divulged to the wise and prudent also for their conversion or just confusion if they when revealed would not accept or yield up to them for what he told them secretly in the ear they were bidden to