that doctrine that we should hold forth that word of life by which we should win men for it makes it uncertain to them that undertake to preach whom they should hold forth Gospel motives of Repentance and Faith to I mean any good will in God toward them to be testified to them to draw them to repent and believe in him whence many Ministers are put to it about Gospel preaching yea in stead thereof become teachers of the Law and jumble Law and Gospel together so that they confound them that they neither preach Law or Gospel but a mingle mangle of both not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm talking of duties to them that want principles to perform them rightly and not declaring to them that doctrine of Gods goodness that should by declaring his love to them rightly principle them telling men of believing and of the fruits and priviledges of faith but not holding forth Christ to men as one that dyed for them and so is become a sure foundation for their faith Yea telling men that are yet in unregeneracy of election and reprobation though none can understand them aright or make use of them profitably till brought into Christ in whom Election is and for rejecting whom God rejecteth and reprobateth an unprofitable doctrine to them and good for little as many teach it to such but either to lead men to a careless presumption or drive them into desperation Nay in stead of preaching Gospel to every creature they cannot preach Gospel in a certain sound so as they or the hearer may say its Gospel to him to any creature except they presume they first see in him some fruits of Election And so I conceive its a doctrine very serviceable to Satans design of hindering men from seeing that glorious grace of God in Christ in and by which they should be turned into him the contrary to all which is evidently affirmable of the Doctrine there pleaded for Vpon these and such like differences good Reader as also to stop the clamors of some and herein give answer to them that deny me liberty thereof otherwise was I moved to undertake this task of grapling with Mr. Owen in this controversie not for any hopes I have to finde preferment and advantage in this world the hopes of which I have thrown behinde me and desire further so to do for Christ being well acquainted with the worlds temper in this matter I know it s ever an enemy to the truth of God and to its own good through the subtile working of Satan with the craftiness of the seeming prudent men high in esteem with it I know for I sometimes hear how suporbous supercilious men deride the simplicity of the words and Gospel of Christ how generally they fling against it and cast dirt upon it so that we may truly say the visage and form of Christ is marred more then any form and the truth of God in this matter rendred more contemptible then any doctrine they that will not abide an argument or two to their faces yet if they get into a Pulpit where none may interrupt them or elsewhere where there are none to answer them like the hypocritical mockers at feasts spoken of Psal 35.16 then they will gird and argue strenuously against it or deride and vilifie those that preach it and more ingenuous men and confident of their cause appear in print against it I know the most odious names of Pelagianism Semipelagianism and Arminianism are cast upon it as Samaratinism and Sathanism too were often cast on Christ to make him odious and fear people from him on the other side their device is clothed with the names of sound and Orthodox doctrine and shews its pedegree as high as Prosper and Saint Austin The world deals with these two doctrines as some would have the Kingdom deal with Presbyterie and Independency as they call them as Tamars Midwise dealt with her two children It says concerning their doctrine as she of Zarah this came out first it is the eldest brother and they would have a Scarlet thred upon it establish it by a civil bloody Sanction and so authorize it to suppress the truth that is opposed by them of which they say as she of the supposed yonger but indeed the Elder for Christ was in his bowels and he came out first it s name shall be Pharez it s a maker of Schism upon it and its Preachers be charged our breaches and divisions and so they vilifie and reproach Christ whose it is and who is in it and who for all the others forwardness will give it the dominion I know the truth of the old adage Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit flattery is befriended and conformity to mens determinations is esteemed but the truth is hated I look for my cleaving in this to the word of God to be ranked with the worst of Hereticks and to meet with no better name with this generation then Christ and his former servants have met with in theirs I look to have my name cast out as odious and made to stink in the nostrils of men or else Satan and his instruments will want of their will while they that oppose the truth of God grow famous but I much matter not it s but the reward with men that Christ hath appointed for his followers It s his saying to his servants ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake and it s properly the name of Christ viz. That he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Saviour of the World that is defended by us and it s his consolation too that the servant is not greater then his Lord If they call the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold and again Blessed are yee when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their companies as some have endeavoured and shall reproach you and cast out your names as evil for the Son of mans sake rejoyce yee in that day and leap for joy for great is your reward in Heaven for in the like manner did their Fathers unto the Prophets We have in our dayes too them that can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scoff and deride my weakness in such an undertaking that will say in their puff-pride swelling in conceits of their learning and abilities as sometimes the Athenians did of poor Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What will this illiterate babler say Our age will afford those that read and preach the commendations of the Prophets and Apostles garnishing their writings though they believe them not as their fathers did their Sepulchres but yet will oppose and hate those that follow their footsteps and cleave close to the word of God that they have published Non ignota loquor I have the experience of some things of this nature and know that truth cannot be sincerely profest at easier rate then such course usage the glimmerings of it in inferior streams when
all Unbelievers CHAP. III. A consideration of 1 Joh. 2.2 and 2 Cor. 5.19 In Answer to what Mr. Owen says about him IN his third Chapter he proceeds to another instance of Scripture for us viz. 1 John 2.2 He is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins onely but also for the sins of the whole world Urged by us both from the plain full expression which except in opposition to some called out of the world always signifies All men the world and then All men besides those spoken of with or opposed to it when so joyned And 2. From its opposition here to believers or speaking of it as a distinct party beyond them To pass by his frivolous exposition of men living in all parts of the world which is as good as nothing by way of opposition to us That expression reaching to All men in the world except it were bounded with some limitation as onely some of all sorts living in All places And then we challenge him to shew us the words whole world so taken in any divine expression I shall view his more serious reply consisting of an indeavor to do these three things 1. Clear it to whom the Apostle writ 2. What his purpose and aim in this place is 3. What the meaning of Christs being a propitiation is and what he means by the whole world 1. For the first he saith This Epistle was peculiarly directed to the Jews But he holds in his proof of it For 1. He confesses he hath nothing in the Epistle that nominates them to whom he writ it to make the assertion infallibly true de fide and so what he can say is no matter of faith nor sufficient ground of limiting what what is evidently propounded in it to our faith Onely he brings probabilities as he calls them that it was intended to the Jews to them onely he must mean or he says nothing to the purpose they are these four 1. That John was one of them that was to preach to the Circumcision with Peter and James Now they writ to the Jews Ergo John also I answer Whether by the twelve Tribes and the strangers scattered abroad James and Peter mean the Jews onely is questionable seeing the place where the ten Tribes were carried was scarcely then known nor yet is And besides the Christians are taken into their place and made one body with them and I suppose are by our Saviour meant to be the twelve Tribes when he says The Apostles shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matth. 19.28 Luke 22.30 And the Christians were strangers to the world more then the scattered Jews even the Gentile Christians also because of their conversation 1 Pet. 4.3 4. And sure that in 1 Pet. 2.10 Sometimes not a people but now a people agrees rather to the Gentiles then the Jews Again We finde Paul was one of them that was to preach to the Gentiles the prime of them and yet it s supposed he wrote to the Jews the Epistle to the Hebrews However that he preached often to them is manifest Acts 17. c. So John though firstly he was to preach to the Jews yet did take care of the seven Asian Churches and living after all the rest of the Apostles took care of all the Churches as an Apostle and its most probable that he writ to them all too his Epistle being Catholike that is universal and without any particular limitation and inscription to any Church or any sort of believers more then them of James and Peter were Yea he inscribes it to believers indefinitly not to Jew-believers Chap. 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe He says not to you that are believing Jews or the like but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believers then as such and so all such are those he directed it to that they might know that they have eternal life c. So that there is more probability yea more from the very letter of the Epistle against his conceit then for it But 2. He tells us John frequently intimates that those he wrote to received the Word from the beginning Now the Jews had it first preached to them He instances Chap. 2. ver 7. That commandment which ye heard from the beginning The words are thus I write no new Commandment to you but an old Commandment which ye heard from the beginning the old commandment is the word that ye heard from the beginning Now who would conceive that the meaning of that is this The word that ye heard before the Gentiles The truth is He tells them He writes no new Commandment to them but that which they alwayes had heard from the beginning of the Gospels being preached to them They should not think they preached one to them at first but now as some false Apostles would perswade them and as many Deceivers would do believers now that its necessary that they should have some other Doctrine then that at first preached to them some higher things then the Gospel contains new things that they never heard of before no says he it s but the same as in ver 24. Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you Let not that slip those first foundamental Truths With that also in Revel 2.24 25. and 3.3 and if that abide in you that ye heard from the beginning ye shall abide in the Father and in the Son It s the same in substance with that of Paul to the Gentiles at Corinth 1 Cor. 15 1 2 3. I do you to wit of the Gospel which I preached to you not of another but that which ye also received and in which ye also stand and by which ye are saved if ye keep in memory how I preached to you viz. How that amongst the first truths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ died for our sins Keep saith he those truths heard in the first place the word of the beginning of the Gospel of Christ as Marke calls it Mar. 1.1 and as it s called Heb. 6.1 The Word of the beginning of Christ and in Chap. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of the Confidence those Doctrines which first begat confidence in them that 's the old Commandment though new in it self and comparatively to former Dispensations in shadows in darker Ages of the Church So that makes not one jot for him Beza In locum expounds it Verbum Evangelii ab iis jam pridem auditum quibus insâ—ribitur Epistola Christianis sc minime novitiis c. 3. He argues from the opposition between us and the world as a Jew reckoning himself with the Jews in opposition to the rest of believers in the world Which he thinks is enough alone to manifest whom he wrote to But this is the most improbable of all the rest as if the Apostle writing to all believers would not reckon himself one with them whether Jew or Gentile but keep open yet the
limbs strength health food and raiment the shining of the Sun the falling of the rain with fruitful Seasons peace liberty and gladness victories over enemies and good successes Day to day uttereth speech and night to night uttereth knowledge and they all are Evidences and Witnesses of his goodness But whence all these to sinful unworthy creatures Rom. 2.14 1.32 whose consciences daily accuse us of evils and tell us death and vengeance is due unto us Surely as the Scriptures say they are the beamings of his bright goodness the issues or out-flowings of the life in Christ which is the light of men which life was and is in him through his sufferings for us Joh. 1.4 5. For verily Adam forfeited for himself and us what ever might evidence goodness towards us even life it self and all other mercies thereof so as had God dealt with us after the demerit of his sin nothing but wrath and misery had been upon us But verily Christ stepping in upholds all things and makes them consist and stand together for our use and service Yea there-through also have we in these latter days that which is yet more precious the Publishing of the Word and Gospel of God ordered unto all Nations the end and tendency of all which too is to lead us to repentance that repenting of our evils against one so good to us he might shew us greater things still even the blessings of a better life prepared and made ready in Christ Jesus for us pardon and peace and spirit and eternal happiness And surely the gift of Christ and his death and sufferings for us must needs it self be an inestimable favour and deserve at our hands unutterable thanks which is the way and inlet yea in a maner the onely procuring cause under the good Will of God of all these mercies How then are men in generall bound unto thankefulness but especially we in this Nation that enjoy the Scriptures and publishing of the Gospel therein which many other Nations have wickedly put away from themselves and their posterities their supream powers yielding up themselves to the power of darkness and neither imbracing the Word of Truth themselves nor permitting it to others Yea what cause of thanks have we to God that hath broken yokes of Tyranny and Oppression from off us that formerly hindered mens receit and free confession of his goodness What salvations hath God wrought for us in the midst of this earth What plots hath he discovered What designs of the enemies of Sion hath he defeated How hath he guided Counsels and strengthened Armies to deliver us from the Power and Oppressions of those who being ingrateful to God themselves for his goodness could not indure that others should acknowledge it aright and be truly thankeful And O that we also after such an addition of favors above what all have in common may not run into that horrid sin of unthankfulness nor reject the tidings of his great goodness and by observing lying vanities forsake our own mercies much less abuse and turn it into wantonness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 5.3 4. Surely for these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of unperswasibleness Yea not onely destructions and desolations of Persons Families Cities Countries and Nations here but also hereafter eternal vengeance Now of the evil of unthankefulness dear Sirs how greatly guilty are they who though they confess men faulty for it and can aggravate the evil of it above my Rhetorick yet make it a part of their business and Religion with zeal and earnestness to perswade the most of men that they have cause to doubt whether they have any thing in good will from God and so by consequence whether any real ground and cause to be thankeful to him while they hold forth to them that Christ died but for a few and the rest are the objects of his hatred from everlasting and all they have even the Gospel it self they have in hatred and displeasure from him and so onely to this end that they may work out and increase their own misery by them Against which their evil Doctrine I have written this insuing Treatise in which I have indeavoured to remove that froth of wit and humane reason and high thoughts of error which are with so great noise of Orthodoxness equivalent to the Romanists cry of Catholike lifted up against the Apostles Doctrine and to shew that God is good really good to All but especially to those that his goodness makes good and thankefully through faith to live unto him And so also that all have real cause of believing and living thankefully doing good after his example to All but especially to the good and the believing and that the unbelief of his goodness and unthankefulness to him for it is the true cause of multitudes perishing And now Dear Sirs that I might not run into that odious evil of ingratitude toward you from whom as instruments in the good hand of God I acknowledge I have received very much favor and kindness and under whom I enjoy my Place and Liberty of Gospel-preaching and many others with me have received many ingagements of thanks for and to you having finished this Treatise I am imboldened to thrust it out into the world under your Protection and Patronages under God and the Lord Jesus to whom supreamly I have devoted my self and service I hope your Honors will not expect it should exceed its Author in whom you know weakness but I hope you will take it in good part as a Testimony of my thankefulness I expect it will meet with oppositions good store against it as is always the Lot of Truth in an unthankeful world especially from those it argues guilty of mens unthankefulness may it but finde with you that entertainment Truth should have with the Saints so far as you shall see Truth held forth in it I shall rejoyce therein concerning you For whom with your beloved Consorts and all yours My desire is That God would please so to order guide and keep you that walking righteously in the earth and serving your generation with faithfulness in the Work of God you may receive the reward of the righteous in eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord in whom I remain From my House in South-Lyn June 20th 1650. SIR Your Honour and Worships faithfully to serve you in the Gospel JOHN HORN A Brief Revise of some few Passages THere is a passage good Reader in the Epistle to the Reader Pag. 14. viz. where I say That none till brought into Christ can make any profitable use of or rightly understand the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation of which I desire thy candid and favourable construction as spoken of as they are most usually looked upon as secret Decrees and Counsels of God about the future estates of men and not as acts or executions of decrees passing upon men in time for indeed in this latter sense the Scripture and we
answerably may doth speak of them more intelligibly and profitably As when it says The Lord hath set apart for himself the man that is godly Psal 4.3 Such a chusing or setting apart for himself as is there spoken of is and may be profitably propounded as an inducement unto godliness Also when it s said That God for such wilfull refusings of him and his Word Truth and Grace cast off reprobated or gave over such and such men as in Psal 81.9 10 11 14. Jer. 6.16 30. Rom. 1.28 Such a propounding of Reprobation may both be apprehended and good use may be made of it to and by men yet unrenewed to deter them from their obstinacy in evill and warn them to give diligent heed to God lest they should be so dealt with but in such a maner of speaking of and propounding these things I would not be understood there but as under those tearms men understand hidden abstruse acts of the Counsell and Will of God in himself from everlasting In Pag. 21. of the same Epistle there is lapsus memoriae a mistake of Hubberdine for Dr. Buckneham through the defect of my memory I not then having the Martyrology by me In Pag. 74. lin 15 16 17 c. some interlined passages of Mr. Owens Inferences were mistaken and misplaced by the Printer It should have been printed thus All that Christ dyed for 1. He gives that is compels to believe an inference wholly groundless from that Text it speaking of actuall believers and not of faith as a thing yet to be given them 2. All that he dyed for he justifies makes righteous and brings them to glory 3. All he dyed for he makes Intercession for for collating on them all the choise benefits of his death In Pag. 75. Where I say The ascribing an antecedent will Whose fulfilling depends on any free contingent act of ours fals not upon us my meaning is it fals not upon what I said in the beginning of that Chapter about Impretration and Application That that follows viz. But I conceive c. should have been yet I conceive that without injury to God that may be called an Antecedent will which respects some Antecedent condition in us in respect of some will of God respecting us as its proper object in a consequent condition in which I hope the ingenuous Reader will conceive that I speak of the Actings or determinations of Gods will which are called sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not that I assert that there are in God divers Wills or Principia volendi for that would be all one as to assert divers Gods or divers Essences of the same God What I say in Pag. 58. About Christs meriting his own exaltation in the humane nature is so clear that I hope none will deny it and yet I find that Zanchy was somewhat questioned about it by some in his time the learned Reader may see his defence of himself and his confirmation of the Orthodoxness of that assertion by the Testimony of divers of the Ancient Fathers as Augustine Jerome Ambrose Beda c. in Epist ad Lectorem tractatui de Fide Christianâ five Confessioni suae praefixâ amongst the rest that of Augustine is curt and pithy in Phil. 2.10 Wherefore God hath highly exalted him Humilitas claritatis meritum olaritas humilitireis praemium sed hoc factum est in formâ servi c. And by Humility he merited his glory and his glory was the reward of his humility but this was not in the form of God but in the form of a servant or as he was made man c. Zanchies Assertion that occasioned that defence is thus De Relig. Christ Cap. 11. Apho. 15. Credimus Christum suâ perfectâ obedientiâ non solùm sibi sed etiam nobis vitam aeternam promeruisse c. What I say Pag. 125 to that place in Phil. 1.29 That the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should rather be translated As pertaining to Christ is the judgment of divers Learned men as well as mine Zanchi renders it Pro Christi id est In Christi negotio vid. Zanch. in loc Beza In negotio Christo ad verbum in eo quod pro Christo suscipitur alioqui inquit redundaret articulus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bez Annot. in loc Camerarius in loc thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod attinet ad Christum ea vobis contigit gratia c. In Pag. 173. That of every herb I think upon further conâ—â—deration may be numbered amongst those places which speak 〈◊〉 the species or sorts of things and so the sense is they took the tenth individual of every species of herbs but yet that will make nothing to prove the word All to be taken so in the places in question To the Reader Reader WHosoever thou art quaedam tecum vellem in limine I have a word or two to say to thee before thou goest any further I desire thee to peruse this Treatise throughly for it cannot harm thee but if thou beest not thine own hindrance it may profit thee Though it be hostile its only against that that would hinder thee of good or obstruct those passages by which thou mightest be led out to do good It pleads for God and thy good yea the common good of all that do not wilfully deprive themselves thereof for vanity It pleads for Love to defend and maintain that God loves thee and to let thee see that there is good ground and cause for thy loving him And it s the nature of love to stand enemy to nothing but that that hinders its course and keeps the parties loved from the good it wishes them It pleads for a truth a part of that Doctrine of truth which the Apostle and Teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth both instructed our Fathers in 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6 7. and left upon record for us their posterity namely that God wills that men be saved and come to the knowledg of truth and that evidenced in this that as there is but one God so there is one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus by whom God dispenses his goodness and makes known his good will to us and by whom we may have access to him and he is ready to accept of and imbrace us He having given himself a Ransome for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A truth to be testified to men in due or proper or in their own times A truth it is though in these dayes covered over with reproachful tearms of error and heresie and as from the beginning the way of Christ hath been every where ill spoken of and exploded as little better then blasphemy Such force hath Satan Gods and mans adversary in the hearts of many that they love not nor believe that that speaks good of God to them and that which might do them good But marvel not at that good Reader for this beam of truth findes no worse entertainment
stuck to amongst the Heathens found such usage and t is nothing better amongst us called Christians if an * Bona conscientia fiduciam mihi dat Honesti amore illud sine lâ—ge poena colo caeteri parietibus januis velis teguntur ego sub dio in propatulo ago omnium oculis inqui sitioni expositus Deo me probo Epict. Epictetus approve himself to God sufferings will follow as he expresses it Cum haec facio evenit ut malè audiam imò ut vapulem at quid mirum à pueris et fatuis et qui ulcera sua tangi nolunt Truth will gall some mens consciences and then they will kick against it so he found it so may I too idque etiam a prudentibus populi senioribus qui sibi sapientiae titulum quasi proprium arrogant O let the Gospel produce its fruits in me parallel in this matter to his following expressions ut affectum nec mutem nec mittam ut eos ipsos qui me verberant diligam tanquam pater omnium tanquam frater that my love may overflow their ignorance or envy and I may overcome their evil with goodness as the Apostle counsels seeking their good as if they were my friends and Lovers yea though they shall as some perhaps will do by my good will as too many do by Gods render me hatred for it at least despise and scorn it As I look not for much better from the most so shall I not be much troubled if I â—o finde it May but God accept and uphold me and good men approve me though not for the worth of my performance yet for the readiness of my endeavours and any be thereby benefited I shall be contented But stay I must speak to one or two objections I know some honest hearts for I would not be conceived to think that none such may dissent from me may be snared with the other perswasion be filled full of scruples about this doctrine as conceiving it cross to what the Scripture saies of Eelction and to go too far in extending it to the Heathen that never heard of him as ascribing to man too much in his salvation establishing his free-will more then gods free grace Which things though they be spoken to in the Treatise Yet give me leave to say a word or two about them here too for thy further satisfaction if it may be premising first That in the matters of God we are to exalt faith above reason admit his word for our sure guide not our wisdome 2 Pet. 1.19 1 Cor. 3.18 knowing that our wisdom in the things of God is but foolishness his word the truth and his Gospel the wisdom of God unto Salvation to them that believe it Thence if any man seem to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise let him be so much a fool as to judge God true and wise not making his own blind reason the measure of Gods unsearchable wisdome and of the truth of his holy words as if all we can fathom and conceive ground for is true and no more and so all the rest to be cut off that is above our reach or crosses our reasonings least that befal us that befel both Jew and Gentile in the like case pretending to be wise we become fools thinking to mend Gods words and carve them into a better fashion for our instruction in the knowledge of him by our additions detractions limitations and contradictions as we think good as they did his works by their inventions we as they turn the truth of God into a lye Rom. 1.25 and change the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made to the capacity of corruptible men I cannot but commend to thee therefore that of Erasmus Desine disceptare incipe credere ita citius intelliges only I would have thee apply it to Gods words not to mine or any mans else but as they evidently agree with Gods and so it s one in meaning with what himself says Isa 7.9 If thou wilt not believe thou shalt not understand or be established thou wilt either mistake or be waved up and down with specious arguments but in minding his sayings and doing his will in yielding up to him in the light and power he affords thee thou shalt understand doctrines John 7.17 whether they be of God or of men Of this also be thou admonished to prefer Gods sayings before mans traditions the Apostles expressions before mens glosses and lame deductions for when men leave Gods word to lean upon men and have the fear of God taught them by their Traditions because of their Authority learning or seeming Sanctity God justly leaves them and then they lean on to run into delusion infatuating their understandings because they refused to give glory to Him But to speak a word to those particulars 1. For the matter of Election I no whit deny it nor doth it rightly looked on as the Scripture expresses it any whit contradict the extent of Christs Death I confess that it was made either in Massa pura or in Massa corrupta simply as they speak I finde no where asserted but in Christ which I conceive holds forth a view of Christ as mediator in the act of Election as in him as mediator we are blessed and so that the Election of believers was made in him tanquam in Radice as in Abraham Isaac and Iacob God chose their seed the Israelites so in Christ Jesus in choosing him in the manhood into unity with God and to be the store-house and treasure of all divine blessings he is said to have chosen to the same priviledges I mean by way of participation of his fulness those that after are brought into him and believe on him As he is in the humane nature chosen to be the holy one of Israel as united to the Divine so we are chosen in him to be holy a dedicate people and select portion for his inhabitation as the Temple in that sense with the Land and People of Israel were called holy and to be blameless before him in love that is as presented without blame and reproof in Christ and to be made blameless by Christ and so those that are believers in Christ are blessed and were so chosen to blessing holiness and blamelesness in him from eternity as the present Freemen of Lynn might be said to have been by foregoing Kings chosen to such priviledges as they have now in the first chusing it to be a Corporation and in those that were then made members of it though many of these present members perhaps all of them were then in their progenitors other Country-men so I say those that are now belivers were in Christ before the Worlds foundation chosen to the priviledges they have in and by him being also foreknown of God both that they should be in Christ and as owned in Christ and predestinuted in that his
Whether the salvation of Abraham and Isaac c. was not in the Covenant made between God and Christ if not then some more are saved then were included in that Covenant If yes then I demand what passage in that Prayer requests that they might believe and be sanctified if none then he asked less in that Prayer then God had ingaged himself to him for To the second I desire him to shew in what passage he prayes for the faith of the Elect in all that Prayer not from the sixth to the twentieth for he tells his Father they had it already and I suppose he will not be able to prove that he prayed to his Father there to give them that which they had before that prayer at least in that degree in which they had it nor in ver 20. for them he supposeth as future believers as he makes them the suppositum of his prayer his prayer is not that they might believe but that believing which he supposeth they should they might be one viz in body priviledg and injoyment of the grace of God in Christ except he will say Faith is prayed for in ver 21. and 23. when he saith that the world might believe but first that 's for the world not for the Elect secondly that he himself denies to be the faith of the Elect and so the fruit of that love here said to appertain to the Elect but only a conviction not for any good of the world but onely for the vindication of his people cha 7. pag. 47. therefore I desire him to shew me in what place of that prayer that Faith he here speaks of as a fruit of Gods electing love is prayed for In pag. 19. He tels us That it seems strange to him that Christ should undergo the pains of hell in their stead who lay in the pains of hell before he underwent those pains and shall continue in them to eternity To which I need not say with many of the Antients that he emptied hell by his death Bishop Vsher in his Answer to the Irish Jesuit upon Limbus Patrum c. and descent into those pains as Bishop Vsher relates nor will I put him to prove that any were as then or yet are undergoing those pains before the judgment of the great Day when they shall be sentenced thither which will be somewhat hard for him to do except he take that in Luke 16. to be a Narration or History of things really done and think that the rich man see Lazarus in Abrahams bosome and could call from hell to heaven to him but I say it will not follow from our saying That Christ gave himself a ransom for All that he must undergo those torments for All which were properly inflicted upon men for their abuse of that liberty which he virtually gave them to injoy by his after-death His enduring the sentence of the death he found them under as in Adam was enough to pay for that dispensation of life liberty grace mercy to them which they in their several times injoyed upon the ingagement of his future dying See more to this in cha 3. li. 3. without induring those torments for them to which they stood by the word adjudged for their not receiving him who was the Author of such liberty and mercy to them in those hints of truth and reproofs and counsels in his Spirits strivings despised by them Hence we may fall into an Answer of a Dilemma there propounded to us and again repeated chap. 3. lib. 3. viz. That God imposed his wrath due unto and Christ underwent the pains of hell for either all the sins of all men or all the sins of some men or some sins of all men If the last then all have some sins to answer for and so no man shall be saved if the second then that is it he affirms if the first then all should be saved or why not This may seem at the first view such a three-headed Monster as that there is no conquering it but through Gods assistance we shall grapple with it About his suffering the pains of hell I shall not question with him it s an ambiguous word and variously used And as no Scripture uses his expressions perhaps in his intention so as the Scripture uses the word hell I have no ground from Scripture to deny the expression therefore to the thing it self I may say that in severall respects all those three branches of the Dilemma are true and yet his consequences will not follow As 1. He underwent the wrath of God for some fins of all men 1 Tim. 2.6 Rom. 5.18 else he could not give himself a ransom for them all nor his righteousness come to All men to justification of life nor any favor of God be extended to them except he interposed between God and that sin that in its desert and by Gods sentence of death stopt the passage of all good flowing upon them unless hindred by mediation But then he says All have some sins to answer for Nego consequentiam that follows not for he that bears some sins of all may yet bear also all of some those two are not inconsistent had he said But some sins of any that had excluded All of any but some of All doth not those that may be but some of one mans sins may be All of another as suppose he bare all sins in genere but the sin against the Holy Ghost he then bare all some mens sins Heb. 10.26 for some men are not guilty of that but are kept from it but yet in respect of their sins that run into that he bare but some of their sins not all as so considered 2. He underwent the wrath of God for all the sins of some that is gave such satisfaction to his justice that no sin they have shall be their condemnation namely of those that believe and walk in the light with him as it is 1 John 1.7 Rom. 8.1 otherwise the phrase as he expresses it the Scripture hath not But then that 's it he faith No sure for he says he bare only All the sins of some men and dyed for none else but those some but so neither the Scriptures nor we say He might bear the punishment of all the sins of some men and yet not them only 3. He underwent the wrath of God for all the sins of All men in some sense considered That is as they were sinners in his first stepping in to undertake for men as sin was upon them through the fall of Adam and bound them to curse and death and so they needed a mediator or else they must presently be cut off and perish and so in a consideration and view of them as previous to his steping in to mediate And his bearing all of them was enough to ransome them all from that first condemning sentence and yet neither follows it so that all must then be eternally saved because there are other
not with the word Men but the men being as bruitish as such creatures speak evil of things they understand not He compares them to the beasts that are made for such ends in regard of their absurd irrationall carriages as by the parallel place in Jude 10. appears and Master Owen would make men believe contrary to the originall which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Apostle applies those words Made to be taken and destroyed to the men compared to them He tels us also that some are appointed to wrath 1 Thess 5.9 the Apostle says not some as faln in Adam or muchless as created were appointed to condemnation and that Christ should not dy for them We deny not that believers are not appointed to wrath and that 's all the Apostle there says nor that unbelievers are appointed to condemnation as they remain unbelievers not believing in him whom they had so good ground to have believed in he having done so much for them and having such a name of salvation as is reported to them John 3.18 but this comes not up to Mr. Owens intention His last quotation is Act. 1.25 To go to his own place which I conceive is rather applicable to the Apostle to be chosen and so the words to be read thus That he may take the lot of this ministration and Apostleship Compare Acts 1.20 with Psal 109.4 5 8. to go to his own place and the words From which Judas fell are only put in by a parenthesis but take it as it s usually understood yet then it shews but that such as requite Christ hatred for his love and betray him after the knowledg of the truth received loose whatever honor in the Gospel they had before attained and have for their own place hell and destruction and what doth this make against Christs having loved and come forth to ransom him as faln in Adam that he so highly abusing that love had a place fell to him amongst the Divel and his Angels What follows in his p. 93.94 95. is party impertinent and partly spoken to He tels of several ways that men go in to make out their conceptions in this point and I could also shew such differences amongst those that oppose the extent of Christs death some more fully opposing it then others some denying that there is any Gospel sent to any but to the Elect as Doct. Laighton Mr. How c. some that the Gospel is sent indeed to All and to be preached to All so the most of them Some that Christ dyed to purchase all into his dispose but yet bare not any sin of theirs nor did ransom them from any foregoing sentence upon them Some that he hath not bought them or dyed for them at all onely seemed to buy them others that he dyed to buy many good things for them but not to buy them c. but to what purpose doth he repeat or I recriminate such things which shew but that we have not attained to unity of faith in perfection or that there are imperfections in our apprehensions of truth not that this or that is the truth I doubt not but Veritas magna est praevalebit As truth shines forth more brightly so the many oppositions against it by them and the many swarvings from it in some conceptions that may be amongst us will all vanish and be scatterred nor shall its abettors need such distinctions as are not founded in the Scriptures nor such expressions as there finde no footing as many of Mr. Owens are as we shall see as what he gives us as the summ of the truth in this matter viz. That god out of his infinite love to his Elect sent his dear Son in the fulness of time to dy and pay a ransome of infinite value and dignity for the purchasing eternal redemption and bringing unto himself all and every one of those whom he had before ordained to eternal life for the praise of his grace Not that we deny that God sent his Son to dy and pay such a ransom or that he purchased eternal Redemption or will bring to himself all those that he fore-ordained to eternal life c. But that the Elect was the sole object of Gods love or that it was love to them only and none but them as he after concludes that moved God to send his Son Our Saviour himself expressed not himself so He saith not God so loved his Elect that he gave his only begotten Son that every one that believes should not perish c. but God so loved the World Mr. Owen confounds the Elect and the World together and makes as if Christ had said that every one of the Elect that believes should not perish Besides I would have Mr. Owen shew me that any persons were considered as Elect before the consideration of Christs dying for men and how they are said then to be Elect in Christ and not in Adam rather if men looked upon either as in Massâ purâ or as in Massâ corruptâ were the object of Election and not rather as Christ was eyed intervening between God and them What he says about the value and dignity of the ransom and price which Christ paid viz. That it was infinite and fit for the accomplishing of any end and procuring any good for all and every one for whom it was intended had they been millions of men more then ever were created we shall meet with it again in li. 4. ca. 1. and therefore I shal onely say this to it here That it fairly intimates that Christ hath merited more by it then ever shal be applyed the desert or merit of it being immeasurable for extent but the application of it bounded and so if strictly looked into he grants such difference between the meriting of it and its application as he faults his adversaries for nay and makes a great yea an infinite part of its merit to be to no purpose His following Assertions are things again and again affirmed but never as yet proved by Scripture viz. Either that the whole adaequate intention of God in giving Christ was the bringing many sons to glory or that all the things procured by Christs death are to be bestowed on All that Christ dyed for I conceive my expressions laid down in the beginning of this Chapter are cleerer and less cloudy yea and more consonant to the Scripture expressions then what he hath given us as the Sum of the Truth in this business CHAP. IIII. A view of what is further said by Mr. Owen to this matter in his fifth Chapter HIs next Chapter is spent in Arguments against that Distinction of Impetration and Application as he had expressed it in the Arminian sense which differing from mine I might pass over yet I shall speak to diverse passages in it which somewhat intrench upon what I have laid down in my second observation about Impetration As In the entrance he hath an Assertion without proof viz. That for
give to this or that muchless to all he dyed for effectually to believe in him and to be saved not a word to that purpose So that that piece of doctrine viz. That for whom Christ dyed them he procured faith for is none of those scripture-Scripture-truths that will scatter the supposed clouds and mists Nor yet follows it that the whole impetration of Redemption is made unprofitable For 1. God hath ingaged himself so to glorifie his Son that some shall be brought in though he no were say All he dyed for nor that I know of any particular persons so as that this or that individuall must or else he should be unjust 2. He shall have much glory from his good bounteous and merciful dispensations to men through the Death of Christ that yet he compels not to believe on Christ Matt. 22.2 3 4 5. with Rom. 11.36 yea in the just and righteous condemnation of those that sin'd against that mercy and refused to submit to him For that condition upon which he supposes we will say Christ is to bestow salvation viz. so they do not refuse or resist the means of grace It s a mistake we know no such imposition put upon him for men may receive the means and yet rebel against the grace it self that comes in them have a form and deny the power of godliness and for that perish Though that all Pagans and infidels are left destitute of all means leading them to seek after God or that any that have no outward means from Christ nor ever resist Gods workings in them shall be condemned as Mr. Owen would perswade us I leave for him to prove Christ says to the Jews that if he had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin and for ought I know If Christ neither come in Word Joh. 15.22 nor in any spiritual way as he preached to the old world by his Spirit if any such he can finde they may not have sin charged on them to condemnation and destruction Yet if Mr. Owen can shew me otherwise I will believe it For making Christ but a half Mediator its frivolous yet we shall speak to it lib. 3. c. 3. where it occurs again That Christ did not dye for any on condition of their believing I believe nor that he dyed only for the Elect of God that they should believe nor finde I any Scripture calling any man while yet in and of the world an Elect person He dyed for All that being Lord of them and presenting his light to them according to the good pleasure of the Father whosoever believes might not perish but have eternal life And here ends this Second Book and my Answers to it The Third Book His third Book contains Arguments grounded for the most part upon his former premises against the universality of the Death of Christ we shall Favente Deo orderly view them CHAP. I. An answer to his two first Arguments contained in his first Chapter of this Book The first Chapter contains two Arguments Argu. 1 As FRom the nature of the Covenant of Grace established ratified and confirmed in and by the Death of Christ His Argument runs thus The effects of the death of Christ cannot be extended beyond the compass of the new Covenant or Christ died only for those that are within the New Covenant But this Covenant was not made universally with all but particularly onely with some Therefore those alone were intended in the benefits of the death of Christ A very vitious Argument whereof the Conclusion contains a quartus terminus for in stead of any effects the tearm propounded in the Major He says the benefits therein as is clear by what follows in him comprehending the choice benefits of the death of Christ applied The Major also is ambiguous and uncertain For either it is universal as No effect of the death of Christ c. or else particular as Some do not c. If the latter its impertinent and concludes not against the death of Christ for All but onely its having some effects in All which is besides the thing in question if the former as I suppose he intends it then I deny it I deny I say that Christ died for none or that none have any effect of his death extended to them but onely such as with whom the New Testament is made He brings no other proof for it which he perhaps therefore lisped in because he saw himself weak in the proof of it but onely from that title given to his blood that it s called The blood of the New Testament So that his Argument to prove that runs thus It s called the blood of the New Testament Therefore shed onely for them that are heirs of the New Testament Which is like this The Spirit is called the Spirit of Comfort and the Comforter Therefore whoever it works upon it comforts them and so when it convinces the world of sin it s their comforter too and when it kindles the fire of Tophet Isai 30.33 it comforts them that are tormented with it A wilde Argument and yet such is his The truth is As its an office of the Spirit to comfort and he is a Comforter to all that obey him so is it an office of the blood of Christ or rather one end of its shedding to ratifie the new Covenant which it also doth to all that believe in it But as that is not all the work or business of the Spirit to comfort so neither was that all the work or end of the blood of Christ to establish the new Covenant but first of all to ransom from the death that was passed upon men and then to confirm a Covenant to the house of Israel and Judah This blood where ever it s tendered the Covenant is tendred with it Hear and your souls shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you the sure mercies of David and he that obeys this is entred into Covenant by it but not All for whom it was shed are in Covenant by its shedding no more then all for whom the water of Purification was made were therefore purified because it was made for them and called the water of Purification Numb 19 9.20 Mr. Owen also mistakes the parties with whom the Covenant is made For he understands them to be a certain number of persons yet lying in the world and that its one clause of the Covenant to give them faith or make them to believe whereas indeed especially as pertaining to the Gentiles the proper object with whom the Covenant is made is the called of God believers in Christ Jesus into those mens hearts God will put his fear not to bring them to him but to keep them from departing from him which argues their being brought to him before these shall have the Law written in their hearts an allusion to the old Testament written in Tables of Stone not before they were brought out of Egypt but after they
because they have not that act of believing that comes by hearing whence also 3. I deny the consequence of the major proposition if by ought to made known he means as I suppose he doth that God ought or is bound so to have done for that word ought may be otherwise applyed as we shall see anon for though its true that whosoever by hearing the word believes shall have remission yet God nor tying himself in his dispensation thereof to that condition for them to dy in infancy and to be born and continue deaf to death should be necessary evidences of reprobation which I think none is so hardy as to affirm it will follow that God is not bound to that making known to every one the purchase and intention spoken of lest he should be frustrate of his intention Besides that a man may possibly be brought to believe and receive forgiveness that never heard of that purchase and intention and yet their Faith may come by hearing too a man may be brought to believe that God is is a rewarder of them that seek him which is as much as the Apostle says is of necessity for coming to him Heb. 11.6 yea many have believed so much that have not known of Christs death or that he should dy muchless of the purchase and intention of God in his death As the Disciples had faith and so had Cornelius too such as in which they were accepted of God before they understood that Christ should dye and by dying purchase them forgiveness and reconciliation and doubtless many of the Ancients heard less then they of him as Rahab Ruth Naaman and many others so that at least a making known to all for so he intends so much as he speaks of would not necessarily appertain to God though the Antecedent were granted in the very form in which he puts it Indeed God binds us to preach and declare in these last dayes since the ascension of Christ this his purchase and intention and men are bound to give credit to it when preached that so they might the better be brought to him and they that keep back that doctrine from men if they perish are guilty of their blood but God hath not by any thing he hath done or by his intention therein bound himself to make known to every one for whom he hath so done that his intention doing A Prince may ransom from destruction a Nation appoitned thereto for some default against their Soveraign with intention that every one that obeys his counsels shall injoy the priviledges of free subjects and so that they all shall have such priviledges so obeying yet that may put no ingagement upon him to cause every particular of them to know what he hath done for them what was his intention therein especially too they never knowing distinctly how they came to be lyable to their ruine from which he ransomed them only he may propound though at a distance from them and as to persons unknown to them some advices and counsels in obeying which he may do to them as he intended and in disobeying them frustrate them of the otherwise intended benefits yea and order punishment also to them without any absurdity or crosness to his intention 4. The words ought to be made known may signifie It ought to be made known by men such as are the messengers of Christ and preachers of the word and then indeed we grant it to be a truth that All ought to have it made known to them by us to the utmost of our opportunities and abilities and so it reproves Mr. Owen and many other Ministers for their faultiness herein because they not only make not known to All without restrictions this good will and purchase of Christ for them but they on the contrary make it uncertain to men whether Christ dyed for them or not yea hinder and oppose the making known this good will to All men I would they would cease to do what they ought not and do as they ought 5. But then The minor of this Argument is faulty and containes a Quartus terminus for whereas he should have assumed thus But this purchase good will and intention ought not to be made known to All he hath assumed thus All have not these things made known to them in and by the word But who sees not that between what men have and what they ought to have there is a great difference God may have done what appertains to him not only in giving to Adam and Noah the knowledg of his truth though less clearly that it might be propagated by one to another sucessively in all their generations but also and that more clearly in giving it forth to his servants to be made known to All Nations for the obedience of faith willing all to come to the knowledg of it as indeed he hath done Rom. 16.25 26. 1 Tim. 2.4 and yet those to whom this charge of divulging it appertains being slothful and negligent herein and others not coming to it when and as held forth to them as in many divulgers and others is too true they may not have what they ought to have and might have had had the will of God aforesaid been obeyed by them So that this argument the further we look into it the less hurt it doth us But I shall say no more to it lest I be too tedious many passages he hath about it are but the same with what we had lib. 2. cap. ult where I have answered them and shall not need here again further to repeat Only whereas he saith The Spirit forbad the Apostles to go to sundry places with the word as if God would not have some hear of his word though they might have had it the places he aims at are Acts 16.6 7. where Paul assaying to go to Asia and Bithinia were forbidden this is to be noted that that was not because he would not have the Gospel preached to them but because the Apostle not being able to go two ways at once and there being others whom God pleased to prefer sent them elsewhere first ordering others to preach at those places or the same to preach there when the other work was over therefore the Holy Ghost as if he would give us an account of this action to prevent our rash misprisions particularly names these places to have been peculiarly preached to As concerning Asia we have a fuller testimony then of any other place Acts 19.10 All that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord and for Bithinia there were many believing people scattered abroad in it as appears in 1 Pet. 1.1 who were to shine as lights and shew forth the praises of him that called them in the places where they lived Again whereas in the conclusion of this Argument he saith That Paul tels us that by the works of creation they might be led to know his eternal power and Godhead but that they should know
they know not who If the latter this not yet meet to beget faith in God in them it being yet uncertain wheher he bean object for faith to them That many believe not this that are outwardly called is not material nor proves that there is no more Gospel-Truth that appertains to them proposable to them And indeed one thing that makes many not believe it is that they regard not the report of it and they regard it not perhaps because it propounds nothing for certain that may be beneficial to them 3. That Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified at Jerusalem was this Saviour This also is a truth to be believed but yet affords no certain ground or motive for any mans expecting good from God to himself nor propounds him as a fit object for this or that man to believe on But then 4. He says The Gospel requires resting in this Christ as an All-sufficient Saviour with whom is plenteous redemption able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him But can a soul rest on him that it knows not to have done any thing for it to rest in To rest in is to sit down and be at quiet in the belief of something in which the soul sees it need stir no where else for satisfaction but it may certainly have it there But how can a man preach to any one or he believe that Christ is an All-sufficient Saviour as to him and so meet for him to rest on for safety and yet cannot say by the Word of God That Christ died for him or was appointed by God to be a Mediator for him to rest on Is Christ sufficiently furnished for saving a man without an offering made to God for him Or can he remit his sins without shedding blood for him To come to God by Christ is through the viewing and considering his Person Sufferings and Mediation to be incouraged to hope in God and in that hope to ask and waite for his salvation Now what am I more helped for trusting in God by believing that all that finde such incouragement in him as Mediator as that they are raised up to hope and to have confidence in God thereby have Him Al-sufficient to save them if in the mean time not knowing whether he be sufficient to save me that is whether he hath done any thing as Mediator for me I cannot see incouragement from thence to hope and rest on God for his saving me It s true few within the Pale of the Church may finde strength to perform that act of resting on God and that is because they see not nor are shewed what ground they have to do so They are held in suspense about their right to rest on him or to think he is appointed for them They see not the way of entrance to God how then should they approach by it but deceive themselves oftentimes in thinking they approach to him when they do not The Truth of God which being believed should work in them effectually to draw them to God is kept back from him viz. That there is a Mediator between God and them who hath died for them That Word of God is suspended upon acts in themselves which indeed properly slow forth from that Truth first believed by them It s love in God discovered to us that makes us hope in and stay upon him but that in this way is held back from men till they do hope in him and so the Cart is set before the Horse the thing that should draw us is set after our drawing in O poor preposterous way that souls are led in 5. Now after all this He tells us We are called on every one in particular to believe the efficacy of the Redemption that is in the blood of Christ towards our souls This also is obscurely or preposterously laid down For why I pray says he The efficacy of that Redemption is then to be believed and not rather our interest in that act of the Redeemer in giving himself a ransom for us Doth he think that came in before why then did he in no place mention it and shew where it comes in that we are to believe that Christ died for us The efficacies of his Redemption in and upon us we indeed look for and expect in and upon our coming to him and we therefore come to him that we might receive them even grace and mercy to help us in times of need and in believing and resting on him we shall experiment them After believing we are assured of remission of sins and eternal life but where come we to know that Christ died for us and so that the Mediation of Christ hath that in it for us that we may be imboldned by to hope in God Men talk of Gods working faith by an Almighty power in them as if he wrought it through the Air and not by opening his love and goodness in the Mediation of Christ and so by his VVotd that declares him I cannot but question a great many of these mens faith whether they yet know what it truly is they talk so strangely of the working of it It s by an Almighty power its true ay but that 's put forth in the Record of the Gospel concerning Gods goodness in Christ to us Doth he mean by efficacy of Redemption but this that Christ died for us Beside that that 's an notable confusion of an act done without us for us and the operations of it by faith in us it crosses the way of the Apostles who laid down the Gospel thus There is one God and one Mediator between God and man they staid not there Nor yet at this the Man Christ Jesus Which is all the Gospel that Mr. Owen hints at that is to be preached before mens coming to rest on God but the Apostle goes a step further Who gave himself a ransom for All. All this the Apostle the Teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity lays down as the Testimony of God the object of our Faith concerning God and Christ the foundation of our approaching to God for salvation and the demonstration that God would have us saved Now what 's the matter that men can dare to venture upon all the other parts or steps of the Gospel Truth to be preached to men as that there is a difference between God and Man a Mediator and Saviour appointed for men and that this is the Man Jesus Christ and then in stead of the last He gave himself a ransom for All boggling at that and avoiding it as a dangerous rock put in this That you must rest upon 〈…〉 in him before you have ground to believe 〈…〉 ransom for you and then you shall know 〈…〉 for All that believe and so for you 〈…〉 that men have departed from the 〈…〉 down by the Teacher of the Gentiles in Faith and that that he calls Verity is accounted a dangerous Very-lye and yet they say they can set before men an object
the freedom for all or any to look after that benefit and through Faith to obtain it Now in this Mr. Owen differs from us That he notes the world to signifie lost men of all sorts both Jews Gentiles peculiarly loved and that love to be an unchangeable act or purpose of Will concerning their salvation intending absolutely the salvation of all this world to whom he gave him that whosoever believeth not to be a distributive of that general the world but the very self-same with the word World Before he confirm his own he labors to evert the other and 1. Against that pity or propensity to be affirmed to be in God to the good of the creature he says thus If there be no natural affection in God whereby he is necessarily carried to any thing without himself then no such pity or affection to their good as is here intended I deny the Consequence for though there be no such thing as necessarily is so carried yet there is that 's voluntarily and freely carried so Gods Will that is in him to do this or that is not necessarily carried to do this or that but freely but being freely carried to this or that it s necessarily carried in a way suteable to his holy good Nature Now that there is that in God that carries him to desire or approve freely the good of man appears in that he is said to be Love 1 Joh. 4.8 Now Love freely seeks the good of things So again he swears that he delights not in the death of the wicked but rather that they should turn live Yea and saith of him that dieth That he hath no pleasure in his death Eze. 33.11 18. ult And bewails those that had miscarried through their folly and deprived themselves of his mercy Psal 81.11.14 Isai 48.17 18. And so our Saviour the express Image of God wept over and pitied the folly and misery of Jerusalem Luke 19.41 But then he says This intimates imperfection in God But he is not imperfect I answer no the imperfection is in our conception this in him is highest perfection As Moses saith He is perfect though he says He took the Isaelites out of Egypt to bring them into Canaan and many came not in that might seem an imperfection in God and that he failed of his expressed purpose but the imperfection is in our apprehension So he said of Elies house He would establish it but afterwards said otherwise But we are to believe what he says though it seem to us who want ability to comprehend him to argue imperfection The rest of his Reasonings are meer carnal he brings no patch of Scripture to prove that God hath not such good will to man but vainly pries and inquires Why doth not God ingage his power to accomplish it and how comes it hindered Which are brutish reasonings against Gods Assertions When he says Hadst thou done thus I would have done so and so And O that thou hadst done so And I delight rather he should live Then to say why doth not God effect it then Nay rather Who is vain brutish man dust and ashes to dispute against God and reject his Words upon his shallow Reason Will man propound to God what shall be Wisdom to him Doth not he indeed say That his Wisdom is foolishness to men And doth not Mr. Owen here make it good and say It s brutish wisdom amongst men But know O vain Earth-worm That the Wisdom of God is indeed foolishness to men and they cannot comprehend it and the wisdom of men is foolishness to God 1 Cor. 1.19.22.23 24. It s wisdom O vain man to give credit to the Word and Oath of God and say Amen to it That he delights not in the death of the wicked but rather that they shall turn and live how ever foolish it seems to man and whatever absurdities his wisdom findes in it For the foolishness of God is wiser then the wisdom of man and that weakness and imperfection that appears in Gods wayes is stronger then the strength of men His ways are unsearchable his judgments past finding out Not to be measured by the shallow models our Reason but his Words are all Words of Truth and he that will understand his Wayes must believe them and be willing to deny the wisdom of the flesh which is enmity to God and which God will destroy and become a fool that he may be wise The Scriptures we see in Psal 81.14 Isai 48.17 18. Ezek. 33.11 and 18.32 1 Tim. 2.4 hold forth what I speak of The Nature of God which is Love acting forth it self in expressions of good Will to men yea men in general and such as miscarry His other exception with its confirmations being onely against his acting necessarily are all vain and invalid For conformation of his own Exposition That by Love is meant an unchangeable purpose or act of his Will to save them He gives this Reason Because its the most eminent and transcendent love that ever God bare or shewed towards any miserable creature Well Let us first reade it according to his Exposition and see what it will help him It will run thus God so Loved that is unchangeably purposed the salvation of the world That he gave his onely begotten Son that whosever believeth in him should not perish c. Which is in effect that he so unchangeably purposed the salvation of lost mankinde as that he provided the most eminent transcendent medium for it to be saved by upon condition of believing And so it will be an unchangeable conditional purpose to the world and an unchangeable absolute purpose to believers that have that condition And may it not consist or rather spring from his pity and compassion to faln man so to will and purpose Yea and may not the word Love rather signifie that pity in which he so purposed then that purpose that sprung therefrom seeing its the more prime moving cause of his sending Christ that is here spoken of Or will this Exposition content him No though this is as much as the words will bear with the following expressions in the Text yet this is not it he aims at but this That his Love signifies an absolute unchangeable purpose of saving every one for whom he gave Christ and so of giving and causing them all effectually to receive whatsoever is needful to their salvation But the Text speaks not up to this conception for then it should rather have been thus God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son and will make it believe in him so that it shall never perish c. But neither such not to that purpose is our Saviours expression Such an expression indeed would have represented God as propounding the salvation of the world as an end undertaken by himself to accomplish and bring about with all the mediums conducing thereunto without condition on our part whereas our Saviour speaks of it as an
ever that were broken off might and did miss of by observing lying vanities forsaking their own mercies Jonas 2.8 either by unbelief or negligence in a vain cursory receit of the Ordinances and grace of Reconciliation therein tendered So that neither doth that conclude the thing intended namely that by the word world is there meant only Gods Elect and Chosen His proof from Colos 1.6 Lib. 3. ca. 6. We have before spoken to in Chap. 1. That of 2 Cor. 5.19 We have also spoken to largely before in the Chapter about Reconciliation Onely I shall add here that the word world cannot there mean the Elect onely for then no need of fearing that any toward whom that grace was vouchsafed should receive it in vain as is intimately feared by the Apostle Chap. 6.1.2 As for the Argument used from the Non-imputation there spoken of we have shewed it to be weak also God reckoned not the sins of the world to it in that he winked at them and did not demand satisfaction at their hands for them but preached forgiveness to them which indeed was a very great blessing but it comes to life and happiness onely upon them that receive it and believe as the Apostle says Rom. 4.6 7 9. His reasons why the Elect should be called the world as they are especially the three first very slender ones so they do all fall to the ground except it can be first proved that it is so called 4. His fourth Reason is like Nicodemus's How can these things be Why doth not God give the Gospel to all then who do any perish c. He might as well say If God brought Israel out of Egypt that they might go to Canaan why did he not make them all trust in him and carry them all thither This is not to believe the VVord of God that says Christ is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world c. But to set our Reason against it though we could say God hath told us more about his revealing Christ then he doth believe viz. That He is the true Light that inlightneth every man that comesin to the world But hewil there say too as the manner of our darkness and unbelief is at every truth of God that it cannotcomprehend Durus est hic sermo How can this be for he will scarce conceive that the Word can sparkle through the Humanity united to it into the hearts of every man except the Manhood too be plainly declared or that that divine being that the Gentiles are led to see in the VVorks of God is no other then the VVord that was incarnate and is the true God this may seem as strange to him as that to the Jews Before Abraham was I Am and may meet with as many stones about it For Truth is full of Paradoxes to the wisdom of the Flesh though plain to him that findes understanding Besides God hath sent his Gospel to All Nations and Peoples though many have put the light from them and chosen darkness rather even whole Countries and Peoples and therefore shall be justly condemned not for that they had it not but because when God sent it they received it not but have from age to age slighted and rejected it 5. He heaps up another nest of absurdities upon us As 1. That we cannot understand this to be All and Every man except we grant some to be loved hated from eternity But how our granting that should depend upon that large extent of the Word it will pose Reason it self to conceive and Scripture too Sure he meant Except we deny it as we do if by hatred he mean a purpose not to send his Son for them without their disobedience to his Son and the light extended through him to condemn and destroy them 2. He says We must make the Love of God toward innumerable to be fruitless and vain We deny that too For there-through they injoy their lives liberties patience bounty goodness hints of truth to their mindes some more some less as he sees fit in his wisdom and God shall receive much glory Though its true and no absurdity to say that some do reject much grace or receive it in vain in regard of many further fruits it would effect yea and turn that that was for their welfare into a snare Turning that grace and goodness into wantonness that should lead them to repentance 3. That then the Son of God is given to them that never hear word of him nor have any power to believe Answer It s not said He gave him to the world but gave him simply out of love to the world and give him he might for them to whom so properly he may not be said to give him I suppose you think he was given for if not also to some children that die in infancy and yet they never hear of him and so many former Jews might never hear of him distinctly as that he should be crucified and yet they had good by that they heard not of Death came in upon All through Adam though many never heard of him and so may and doth much mercy by Christ to such as never hear distinctly of him And did men in that mercy grope after God as the Apostles say they might haply finde him What power God gives to men to yield up to the light that comes from him I cannot say for others I am not in their bosoms but for my self I am sure more then I have acted forth and followed him in And that God gives no power to believe or at least soberly to attend to God that they might be helpt to believe but onely where men indeed do believe is as inevident as that God gave not power to Adam to forbear eating the forbidden fruit because he did not forbear I cannot see into those secrets how far God acts or acts not upon others but the not seeing such secrets shall be no reason to me to wave what is revealed if not plainly in this yet in other Scriptures of larger expression If Mr. Owen see into mens spirits and can tell us what God doth to all and how far he deals with them or finds the Scripture expressing it let him demonstrate to us that God doth give no power to any to attend to him in the ways wherein he useth to beget faith according to the means vouchsafed but onely to them that are actually brought to faith and I shall listen to him 4. He says Then God is mutable in his Love Answer That follows not for so far as he says he loved it he acted and never altered it he did give his Son and never reversed it that whosoever believes should not perish c. And yet we being mutable and corrupting our selves God may say to us as well as to Ephraim Hos 9.15 I will love them no more and yet the alteration in us onely not in him The effects of the same act may be different to an object without
difference in the act as the same shine of the Sun may refresh a sound eye and yet hurt the same eye when sore 5. Then he says He gives not all things to All to whom he gave his Son This with the Scripture alledged for it is once and again answered before 6. Then he knows not certainly who shall believe and be saved Which no more follows from it then this God loved Israel to bring them out of Egypt that he might bring them that followed him into Canaan But he brought not all the Israelites into Canaan Ergo If he brought all the Israelits out of Egypt he knew not who would believe in him and follow him into Canaan What a piece of Non-sense is such an Inference But against the inlarging of the object he further thus reasons from the next particular That who so believes thus If the object be restrained there to believers then that depends upon the will of God or upon themselves If upon themselves That contradicts 1. Cor. 1.7 and men make themselves to differ If upon God then we make the place say thus God so loved All that but some should partake of the fruits of his Love and to what end then did he love All Is not this Out with the Sword and run the Dragon through with the Spear To which I answer That the second act the giving the injoyment of eternal life is here asserted but for them that believe and both the appointing life to the believer and the effecting of that faith depend upon Gods Will. As we can make no Law upon what terms to have that life So neither can we work in our selves that condition upon which God giveth that life Faith is the gift of God Acts 28.26 27. with Joh. 12.40 Yet this latter is so of God as that it is not without some actings of man to which he exhorts men and for want of which he justly faults them yea brings them not to faith It s by mans hearing though not of mans power Whence though one man listen to the means and is brought to believe and another that had as much power to have listened stop his ear and believes not yet it follows not that the first made himself to differ because not his listening but God by it gave the faith no more then one Israelite looking to the brasen Serpent being healed might be said to have made himself to differ from another that looked not up in point of healing in which they had both yet remained alike had not God given healing to the one and not to the other The impertinency of the Allegation of 1 Cor. 4.7 I shewed before Nor yet follows that other Inference That it s but thus God loved All that but some might partake of the fruits of his love For 1. There are other fruits then eternal life of which all partake 2. There is no exclusion of any from that condition by which we may partake of that When he says That every one that believes It s to incourage all to believe not to hinder any The whole Argument is but like this God brought Israel out of Egypt that he might bring them that obeyed and followed him into Canaan Either that restriction was determined by Gods Will or their own If their own then they made themselves differ one from another contrary to the Apostle If by Gods then the sense is He brought all out of Egypt that he might bring but some into Canaan To what end then I pray did he bring All out of Egypt Is not this Out with the Sword and run the Dragon through with the Spear Is not this folly and soppery thus to reason or from such a reason to deny the Truth of Gods Word and say God surely did not bring any out of Egypt but whom he brought into Canaan Or will he ascribe Caleb and Joshuah's faith more to will then the believing that which is attested by the VVord of God or by the powerful working of miracles or the like is the Truth of God Ay But if believers onely be the object that shall have salvation Then the general ransom is an empty sound Answer It is so to Unbelief as God himself is in respect of that infinite satisfaction that is in him and so was Gods bringing Israel out of Egypt to them that believed not Such is the pernicious nature of Unbelief that it turns wholsom food into poyson but to such as have learned to become fools that God might make them wise to those that learn to subject their reason to Gods Truth it s not so for they finde it a motive to draw them in to believe in God and to admire his Love to men and the depth of his judgments towards them yea in a word to teach them to deny ungodliness and live godlily as Tit. 2.11 12. And they finde it a very wholsom useful Truth to hold forth to others to let them see cause for believing in God and hoping in him and to charge them with folly and madness that having such ground to believe yet refuse it The most pretious Truth that is is an empty found in respect of spiritual good to the Unbeliever Shal we conclude Ergo it s a falshood Gods goodness it self that lead men to Repentance is an empty thing to those that harden themselves against it and brings them to no spiritual good or happiness shall we therefore teach men to say God is good to none but them that rightly use his goodness and receive the fruit of it in life eternal Is not this to teach men to despise the riches of Gods goodness O the blindeness of our reason in the things of God the folly of preferring it as Umpire in matters of our faith waving the Word of God that should rightly guide us But yet this let me say Unbelievers shall see and finde one day that this general ransom was no empty thing in it self it was meerly their folly and wickedness that made it so to them and then it shall be full of dread and terror to them that they have denied him that bought them His premises being such humane mistakes high thoughts lifted up and strengthned against the Scripture-Declaration his Conclusion that Christ died not or God gave not his Son for them that believe not c. falls with them They being notable justifications of all Unbelievers and Patronizers of slothfulness from which these things follow That to Unbelievers God was not an object meet to be believed on by them nor had any reall reason to love him they being ever hated by him and he never doing them any good in his Son That the want of faith was no fault of theirs for they could no way have avoided what they did in not believing God neither gave them cause nor grace to believe c. But I shall rake no further in so unclean a dunghill that savors so much of Satan and justifies the case of
blinded Rom. 10.1 2. and 11.5 6. His Premises being so faulty his Conclusion must needs be untrue viz. That all men then must be saved if by all men be meant every man in the world To the consideration of which words he nextly proceedeth 2. By All men he says the Apostle intends all sorts of men indefinitely living under the Gospel or under the inlarged dispensation of the means of grace That this is in it no man I think will deny but that this is all the truth of it I expect he should confirm but in coming over it again he says That by all men is meant only of all sorts of men that is but some of all sorts Which is larger then the former expression in this that before he confined it to men living under the Gospel now to all sorts indefinitely for indeed there is a sort of men that through their own former wickedness or others slothfulness have not the Gospel now preached to them as we have as the Indians c. which here he may seem to include too and then this latter expression contradicts the former but scanter in this that he said before all sorts of men which might reach to all of all sorts Now it s but of all sorts that is but some of all which he endeavors thus to confirm 1. That the word All most usually signifies in Scripture many of all sorts and therefore it must do so here too To this I answer 1. That his Proposition is false Where it signifies many of all sorts onely in Scripture once it signifies all of all sorts of those things whereabout the word is used twenty times And this I will undertake to make good against him 2. In those very places he propounds to shew that it so signifies he doth but Petere principium * Viz. About Christs curing all diseases and the Pharisees tithing all herbs We have spoken to them before 3. I say That when it speaks of the actions of God towards men or of his purposes thoughts knowledg or the like it very feldom if ever signifies in any other place but many of all sorts but all generally or universally if the speech be not bound up to some particular Place or Countrey Besides 4. Did it so elsewhere it would not follow It must do so here too Whereas he says There is nothing to impel another signification that 's larger I answer yes This that it s laid down as a ground of praying for all men Now we are not to limit our prayers to some of all sorts for then we should be ready to say though we refuse to pray for such and such as we have not seen sin to death yet we have done our duty Yea though we pray but for them all that seem to be of our minde of all sorts for then we might say we have prayed for some of all sorts that 's all that 's required however in praying for the Church only we might say we have prayed for many of all sorts and so that we have done what is required there being as we think some of all sorts of the Church and so we should elude the Apostles exhortation by our own Tradition as the Jewish Elders used to do with Gods Commandements the Apostle speaking here of all men as a distinct party from yea all the residue above and beyond the Church of God who are to pray for them And that his former gloss is untrue also of all sorts of men living under the inlarged dispensation of grace is here evident for we are not onely to pray for all those that live under the Gospel but for all not under it also that it might be extended to them seeing he would have all men imbrace that and be saved by him But by Mr. Owens Exposition we need not pray for inlarging the Gospel to those Indians or any further then it is but onely pray for such as have it preached unto them and not for all of them neither but for some of them which when it s left to our judgments and wills to regulate us in the Apostles precept will scarce amount to this Pray for whom ye list or will 2. He says Paul leads us plainly to this Interpretation for having wished us to pray for all men he expresly intimates that by all men he understands men of all sorts ranks conditions c. To this I say That his intimating that we should pray for all sorts and ranks doth not prove that he limits it to but some of all sorts and ranks which is the thing to be proved Nay The words of the Apostle confutes such a limitation rather for he says not for some Kings some people c. but for Kings indefinitely and all in Authority universally so that he mentioning but one sort of men as especially to be prayed for amongst all men because they are such as all the rest are chiefly concerned in and bidding us pray for all them that is all in Authority and place of Government he rather shews us by that instance of all of one sort what he would have us do in all the rest then any way teaches us to limit it but to some of all For that those words contain a formal distribution of All into many sorts I deny But onely there he particularizeth one sort in praying for whom all the rest under them are in a manner included so that his paralleling it with Jer. 29.31 where after the people are mentioned Kings Queens Eunuches Princes Carpenters Smiths is both vain and impertinent For besides that there is no such destribution here except he include Carpenters and Smiths under that phrase All in Authority it would not did he serve his purpose it not proving a limitation of the former General to but some of all sorts As if Jeremy had said Some of the Kings and Queens and Princes onely were carried away 3. He says We are to pray for all whom God would have to be saved But we ought not to pray for all and every one knowing that some are Reprobates and sin to death concerning whom we have an express Caution not to pray for them To this I answer First That the words are not Pray for All that God would have saved but absolutely Pray for All for God would have all saved c. Secondly We are to pray for all or any whosoever by this Precept only the other tells us how long till we see they have sinned to death That doth but exclude a certain condition or sin of some not exclude their persons in all conditions Nor are we to judge any Reprobates by an eternal purpose and so exclude them God no where calls any so but such as have actually rejected and are given over of him As he doth good and affords patience and mercy till then to leade them to repentance 1 Joh. 5.16 so till then we are not to reject them Thirdly Nor are the words Thou shalt
not pray for him but There is a sin to death I say not that thou shouldst pray for or concerning it 4. He says All shall be saved whom God will have to be saved for who hath resisted his will Answer That all shall be saved that God would have to be saved I deny For God would have all men saved Isai 49.4 5. but all men shall not be saved He would often have gathered Jerusalem for that often plainly refers to his coming in his Prophets by his Spirit and in his many great works done for them for often he came not in the flesh to them and yet they were not gathered He hath pleasure or will as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that men should rather turn and live then sin on and die but all of whom that is spoken do not so c. His confirmation is no divine testimony but he onely strikes in with the Caviller Rom. 9. For that 's not Pauls affirmation or Doctrine That none resists the Will of God but it s the voice of fleshly Reason cavilling against sound Doctrine Thou wilt say to me why doth he yet complain for who hath resisted his Will Therefore it may suffice to answer as the Apostle doth Nay but O man who art thou that answerest against God that art bold to contradict Gods Word with thy reason Who art thou thou canst not see wood for trees as we use to say thou art in thy reason resisting him and yet thou saiest Who hath done it Many a man rejects and resists the Counsel of God to his own hurt The Kings and Rulers that take counsel against Christ resist Gods Will or Counsel they stand up against it Psal 2.1 2. It s true they overthrow it not but they miss of the good it would have brought unto them had they submitted to it They may Stare contra consilium Dei they cannot evertere consilium Dei Had the Apostle said He will save all men Mr. Owens reason had been weighty but as it is said it is not Many a man doth not what God would have him nor attains what God sets before him See Psal 81.11 14 15. Isai 48.17 18. Luke 13.41 42. 5. He says God would have no more to be saved then to come to the knowledg of the truth for these two things are conjoyned in the Text. But 1. If Mr. Owen means of coming to it by outward hearing we deny it He would have Infants saved too that he wills not to listen to the truth 2. If otherwise we deny his Minor That God would have not All in all Ages come to the knowledg of the truth His confirmations of it are not concludent viz. Psal 149.19 20. He shewed his Word to Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Jsrael he dealt not so with any Nation c. That says not he would not have all in those ages come to know the truth If his not dealing so with them as with Jacob argue it then he would not have Job and his friends or any of other Nations come to know it for he dealt not so with any of them as with Israel Though he revealed his Statutes and Judgments in that manner and measure to the Jews onely as to no Nation else yet he would have had the Nations about them at the hearing of his name by them have come to them for it And besides the Apostle saith not and come to know his Statutes and Judgments but to know Truth And truth they had ask the same Apostle else He tells us so in Rom. 1.11 They imprisoned the Truth in unrighteousness Sure they had it then though they had it not so much nor were so dealt with as Israel was And he would not have had them imprison it in unrighteousness and bound it by their understandings and exaltations of their own reasons as they did but retain and acknowledg it and submit to glorifie God in it and be thankful So might they have had the truth come more in upon them and revealed much more unto them Nor matters it that God suffered them to walk in their own wayes and winked at those times of ignorance Acts 14.15 and 17.30 for that shews but his patience partly in not consuming them for their follies and partly his Justice in giving them over to their own delusions but not that they had not truth or that he would not have had them own and acknowledg it and seek after him in it nay both those places intimate the contrary The first saith he left not himself without witness in that he did them good c. The other that even some of their own Poets had and held forth such glimpses of truth as had they minded and submitted to them they would not have worshipped Idols and Images of their own framing but groped after him that made themselves Nor doth the hiding of his mystery from former Ages confirm it Col. 1.26 for that was the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in such glorious priviledges in Christ which is the mystery there spoken of which was hidden too from the Jews Yea from the Apostles too in former Ages and yet they had Truth though not all Truth Matth. 11.25 26. was before spoken to But 3. Besides all this we may say that he speaks not here of the Ages past nor in the time past It s not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he in times past would nor is it he will bring all to know the truth But now for the present he wills all to come to know it Over and above what they had formerly God now sends his Gospel unto all Nations and would have them come to know it embrace it and propagate and preserve it to all their individuals and posterities This he would have them do and this is approveable before him and acceptable to him and so God wills all to be saved He would have had them acknowledge Truth in times past but now he would have them much more come to it and acknowledge it it being more fully opened So that our Assertion and Exposition will bear up it self against his Arguments We may use the Apostles All men without limiting or restraining it which is all I desire and defend our selves against the loud clamor of Error and Heresie which the spirit of Error fastens upon us by those that have exalted their reason above the Scripture and carry themselves as Masters to it not scholars of the Spirit of God in it not onely the words themselves but the scope of the place too will bear us out but it will not them that limit it to the Believers and to the Elect for beside that they never are called all men we finde both precept and practice for praying for such men as are not so but prove reprobate and we finde God by his Spirit contesting with many to seek him and to look after and receive the knowledg of the Truth and be saved by him which yet for rejecting
good a note as Mr. Garners that to tast is to put a tast and rellish into it That to tast signifies so to drink up a thing that no one drop remains for any to drink after one as Mr. Owen saith is an exposition of the word Tast contrary to its usual signification for men are said to tast when they do but sip or make tryal or the sweetness or bitterness c. of a thing not when they eat or drink it all up Sure when Jonathan tasted a little honey the meaning is not that he eat all up that he found 1 Sam. 14.43 or when some are said to tast the good word of God and powers of the world to come the meaning is not that they had got all the knowledg that was to be had of them and left none for others Surely Mr. Owen thinks not that the righteous tast of any afflictions or drop of anger and therefore this of Christs death need not be propounded to them by way of consolation to let them know that he experimented what they suffer and knows how to succour them for they need no succour that grapple with no death But grant that he tasted and swallowed up into victory too that death which was common to all in Adam and thence will raise all out of it by the vertue of his Death and Resurrection Will it thence follow there may no second Death befall any * De secundâ morte ita Ambr. in Comm. in Rom. 5.14 Est alia mors quae secunda dicitur quam non Adae peccato patimur sed ejus occasione propriis peccatis acquiritur for despising and despiting him living still to themselves and not to him or that whoever perish in a second death Christ never tasted the first for them even that displeasure which would have for ever taken away all dispensations of favor and goodness to them But 2. He tells us He sees an evident appearing cause why he should use that phrase and call them for whom Christ died All viz. because he writ to the Hebrews who were deeply tainted with an erronious opinion that the benefits purchased by the Messiah were proper to them of that Nation excluding all others Not to question here whether they had any such conception which we have spoken to in chap. 1. but supposing it to have been so yet how doth this expression any way help them The Apostle should rather have been the more wary of writing but the Truth to them and telling them that is was for every one that believes for that might have bin better born then for every one as if he extended to one and other believer and unbeliever If that had been an error he would not have made way for it to put the Jews out of one error into another that might rather more stumble them then the other it being an expression of large extent Sure if in any place this might have been limited to the Elect and believers it ought to have been to those that were ready to stumble that but they should share with them 3. He tels us There is a description of those for whom Christ died in the Chapter which will not suit to All viz. many sons to be brought to glory the sanctified ones his brethren the children that God gave him those that are delivered from bondage of death c. That Christ died for them and had in his eye such ends in his dying for them as are spoken of with reference to them is true But that he died for them onely or that those after-clauses are a full description of that All or every one that he died for I deny 1. Because its suits not with the phrase here every one or All by his own confession Sure that can be no description of the persons contained in the word All that will not suit with the expression it describes or that will not suit to All. 2. It s against those other places we have spoken to 3. It s an uncouth exposition making the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an Adjective and so cannot have a full signification in it self without another word as its Substantive to stand alone without a just signification till another verse between which and it is a full period come to make up its sense and then that that is supplied for its Substantive is of a different number and hath another Adjective of number joyned with it A thing unusual and scarce to be parallel'd in any other place And here I might take up Mr. Owens own words in lib. 2. cap. 4. Such is the powerful force and evidence of the Scripture-expressions of this truth Mr. How 's Answer to the Vniversalist cap. 1. that it scatters all its opposers and makes them fly to several hiding corners as Mr. Garner upon this is forced to make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Verb transitive and to signifie to put a tast into death leaving the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it was Mr. How with as silly an evasion as his throwing by the Proposition which he should have opposed in terminis and not as he did thrust another into its room and bend his Arguments against that as if I defending That Faith alone without Works justifies a Papist should come and tell me I mistake the question I should say thus Faith which is alone without Workes justifies and so spend his Arguments to prove that false he I say will have it read Hee tasted whole Death or every Death and not to expresse for whom at all though to make way for that conceit he breaks downe all Grammer rule and example making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Verbe of sense to governe a Genitive case with the Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without giving any one example for such a thing And now M. Owen as also M. Stalham as fondly will make it stand alone without a Substantive till the other Verses afford it two or three whereas indeed its substantive was intimated before as it s ever in other places understood to be man when it s put alone without another to declare its meaning Lord what is man sayes he that thou art mindfull of him or the son of man that thou shouldst visit him thou madest him a little lower then the Angels which was true of him in Adam and in Christ both thou hast crowned him with glory and honor thou hast set him over the workes of thine hands which is true too of man in Adam and in Christ but we see not All things yet put under him that is under man spoken of before with reference to a second subjecting them in the world to come but we see Jesus made lower then the Angels that he might tast Death by the grace of God for every one for or by the suffering of Death crowned with glory and honor We see him who for that end that he might suffer Death for all or for every
souls and dâ—wb them up with morter not duly tempered To tell them that either Christ dyed for them or not If he did they are sure to be safe they cannot out-sin the efficacy of his bloud upon them nor fail of the inheritance sure our way to comfort souls is not by such words as the Scripture warrants not But while we comfort souls by minding them what God hath done for them in Christ and what he is ready to do further we are also to let them know that its in his way in attending to his word looking to his son abiding in him c. that they shall meet with all the efficacy of Christs bloud to eternall salvation so it will cleanse them from all their sins and present them righteous and obtain the dispensation of Spirit to them to abide in them for ever But if they neglect and slight him they cannot escape his chastisements which negligences too upon confession of them and turning from them it is ordered to wash away but abidden in they shall for them be cut off from him and I think this is according to the Apostles manner of preaching See Rom. 8.1.13 1 Ioh 1.7 8 9. Joh. 15.2 4 5 6 7 10. c. 14 15 16 17. But other wayes of comforting from it we know none And if to speak of it as the Holy Ghost speaks of it be to vilifie and count it a common thing I know not wherein truly to magnifie it we must stick to his speaking however any censure us for so doing And yet we account the bloud of Christ truly precious as being the bloud of God the bloud of the Covenant and as such not common to All much lesse prophane and of little vertue We judge it of infinite esteem with God so that it obtains what ever according to the agreement between Christ and him it requireth and being obeyed and the sprinkling of it received it speaks peace purges the conscience cleanses from sin keeps off punishment yea abid in it leads up the soul that 's sanctified by it to all perfection yea so vertuous we judge it and of such value with God that he most severely revenges mens slighting and contemning it not believing on it or not abiding in it yea to utter destruction according to the intimations of these Scriptures that we come to speak to That which he makes an Argument of our slighting it that we make an Argument of our prizing it and counting it precious in the sight of God even that he so severely punishes and destroyes them that having it shed for them propounded to them would not trust it but rebelled against him that shed it I think it springs from the preciousness excellency of Christ Psa 2.10 11. Ioh. 3 36. both in himself with God that God so severely punishes those that believe not on him that refuse to Kiss him It nothing hindred the preciousness of the Feast Mat. 21.4 6 7. that they that were bidden were so severely destroyed for refusing it Rom. 2.4 5. Iude 4.13 nor is it an undervaluing of Gods goodness that men for hardning their hearts against it treasure up wrath against themselves or of the grace of God that some turning it into wantonnesse procure to themselves the blackness of darkness The better a thing is that God propounds to us and cals us to the greater is his displeasure against its rejectors Heb. 2.3 c. 10.29 they shall lesse escape and be more punished that neglect the salvation preached by Christ then they that neglected what was preached by Moses Gods speaking in a way of grace to people and calling to the bloud of the Covenant as they are greater encouragements to hear him and hope in him then when he spake from Mount Sinai in terror So shal the slighting such a way as affords such encouragements be more severely punished Heb. 12.18 22 24 25. We esteem not a Plaister lesse precious because men that will not apply it or not let it lye on are not healed by it but if it cure every wound to which its applyed and on which its permitted to lye we highly esteem it M. Owen should remember that himself granted that the innate worth and vertue of a thing and its efficacie as to persons are very different and that not to be measured by this therefore these are but Sophistical flourishes to scare souls from receiving the truth or leading to a negligence in attending to it while they carry in them this intimation that if a man can but find an act of Faith in him at any time though perhaps that 's but his conceit too the bloud of Christ belongs to him and he is suâ—e enough from falling no matter for abiding in Gods wayes and taking heed to his Word he may hear any Doctrine do any thing the vertue of Christs bloud will preserve him from finall miscarrying and to say it will not is to dishonour it Truth will fling off many such foolish flourishes as these which yet I meet with taken up and used sometimes with great confidence in Pulpits but I confesse I pity them that so do The Word of the Lord is a reproach to them and they cannot bear it they will not give that honour to Christs bloud that God gives it in the Scripture but yet will plead for an honour of their own framing like the old Pharisees that honoured the Sepulchers of the Prophets and in the mean time believed not their witness and killed their successors I shall shut up this point with M. Owens own words in his Preface If we maintain the vertue of Christs bloud let us do it in his own language or be for ever silent that is preciousnesse in it that God ascribes to it our inventions though never so splendid in our own eyes are unto him an abomination The places oppugned by him in their native intimations and significations are Rom. 14.15 1 Cor. 8.11 2 Pet. 2.1 Heb. 10.29 which we do not bring to prove as he suggests that Christ dyed for All and every man in the world but to prove that he dyed for more then the Elect and so use not so directly for the proof of the extent of it to its fulnesse as to disprove their limitation of it to the Elect and Believers Let us view what he sayes to them 1. The First is Rom. 14.15 Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed We say thence that the Apostle intimates that one may perish for whom Christ dyed else his admonition was altogether groundlesse as empty and superfluous as if he had bidden them not to make Christs bloud by his Father to be abhorred or not to pull the stars out of the Firmament c. To this M. Owen ut nodum quem solvere nequit gladio dissecet denies that there is any such intimation he might as well have said these words are not written onely sayes he others are commanded not to do that that
upon them that believe not though they say God never gave any power to them setting men upon an indeavouring by their own power and approving their such indeavors as the products of Gods Grace as the Pharisee did Luke 18.10 11. though they have not declared that to them as pertaining to them We attribute no more to Will then the Scripture affords It s meerly with our expressions suitable to the Scriptures that they quarrel at As when we say God would have done this or that but they would not they will not come to Christ for life they did not chuse the fear of the Lord. These kinde of expressions many when they hear from us as if they were so wholly taught the Fear of God by the Precepts of mâ—â— or were so destitute of the fear of the Lord as not to minde whose expressions those have been by and by they cry out What have men free-will then You set up Freewill now as if the expressions of our Lord and Saviour were judged dangerous and hereticall by them and not fit for his servants scarce to mention but these are of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom Paul speakes from whom we have need to pray God to deliver us We know no power or freedom of will that men have to good that God hath not given them And we think it less derogation to his grace and more agreeable to the Scriptures to say that God in his workings with men gives them liberty and power to make use of and listen to the means of light and life afforded them and that when he in those means works and convinces moves at and strives with their hearts he gives them in those strivings and convincements power and liberty to see and minde and acknowledge what they could not do before and in such acknowledgement yet to attend the means and grope further after him if perhaps he may when he hath unraveled them of themselves inable them to believe and that they wink with the eye refuse and reject the means put within their reach and suited to their infirmity or if they do attend them yet that when they meet with reproof and convincement they refuse to see or take notice of what God shews them and to hear the inward voices of spirit that speak to them rebell against the light and pull away the shoulder quenching smothering and imprisoning the operations of Gods Spirit and truth and that for these things he justly rejects them then to say that God doth nothing for men gives no power to them requires all that they had in Adam for which the Scripture affords them not one title of proof cals upon them to do things to which he gives no power or means and yet condemns them for ever not for doing them and yet such are M. Owens expressions as when he says We make God to propound life upon such a condition as he knows they cannot perform without him and yet in it he will do nothing for them he will not give them it Which is a great mistake for want of believing the truth of God recorded for when he bids men listen to him and their souls shall life if some refuse to listen and others when convincements come tending to the saving them out of their sinfull condition willingly turn from them and will not abide them nor fall down under them and so not listen to his inward convictions of them but run away from him that would not be wanting in their further listening to him to quicken them up to believe and so to gather them shall we slander God and say now because these never come to that believing that he would not bestow upon them that condition he knows that they cannot believe of themselves and he will give them no faith Because they cannot believe of themselves followes it therefore that they receive no power from him by which they might attend upon the means in which he uses to beget faith and give it to men shall he be said to deny them faith when they refuse to listen to him that would gather them to the faith says not he himself that he would have gathered Jerusalems children and they would not was not this gathering them a bringing them by faith into himself as the Chickens under the Hens wings for safety was not their refusall in not soberly attending to him but shutting their ears against his sayings shall we say he refused to give that that he chides them for refusing to receive Come forth the best of you all and prove that God hath not given you in his workings upon you power to have sought him and attended to him better then ye have done and then I will say your reasoning for the wicked is good that he set salvation before them upon a condition that they could not have without his gift and yet he refused to give it them otherwise his after-comparison in which he says We make God like a man tendring a blind man a thousand pounds if he will open his eyes which he cannot is but an inept one for God complains of men for shutting their eyes and otherwhere bids them but look with their blind eye-holes that they might see his word that he sends giving light to them that attend upon it being never so blind But enough to these Rhetoricall Flourishes and Rabshekah like language against the glorious grace of God and scripture-Scripture-truth for which I am perswaded one way or other serius aut citius God will rebuke him What he says about the Gentiles is before answered Where he gives less he lookes for less again obedience to his truth being acceptable to him and rebellion against him detestable whether in more or less nor will it be an excuse to them that they had no more when they have volunrarily put away and rejected that more that God sent them I mean the Gospell or imprisoned and abused that less they had And yet I am perswaded many of them shall rise up in judgement with their lesse against many amongst us that have more he lets them know and perceive more then they acknowledg and gives them more of his goodness and kindness then they answer so that when he pleads with them they shall have no excuse Romans 1.18 19 20 21. That our Doctrine everts the whole Covenant of distinguishing grace is another untruth we hold and prove that the Death of Christ seals and ratifies it and we think the free grace of God freely made it and powerfully puls men into it as he pleases holding it forth to men largely and ready to enter into it any that will hear him Isa 55.2 3 4 Whereas he askes Did that ever do good to any as to salvation which is common to all he speaks as one despising the riches of the bounty of God that leads men to repentance because of their wickedness that are not lead by it teaching others also wickedly to blaspheme it The Gospell that
's common to good and bad doth good to many being the power of God to salvation to them that believe The Death of Christ yea and the patience of God that 's common to all is effectuall for good to salvation to many and shall be to any that are led to repentance by it * The grace of God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all men saving teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godlily righteously and soberly c. 1 it 2.11 12. He askes further If they be not the two properties of the grace of God that it be Discriminating and effectuall He should have proved rather then have moved questions only We say it is both effectuall in all that receive it rightly and Discriminates them both in priviledge and disposition from all those that reject it and so doth this that 's extended in Christ to All men Besides the grace of God in the Death of Christ discriminates men from fallen Angels its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he say all they for whom it is and to whom it is extended in any degree are made to receive it effectually to life eternall we waite for his proof for it but surely Paul intimates otherwise 2 Cor. 6.1 These that follow are slanders viz. That we make the bestowing of Faith no part of free grace or at least leave room to free-will to have the best share in the work of salvation even of believing it self which is as untrue or more then that Naaman had the best share in the work of his healing because he washed in the river Jordan or the blind man Joh 9. in his receiving his eye-sight because he went at Christs bidding to the pool of Siloam and washed there would that be good Doctrine that Because upon the doing those triviall things God gave them healing therefore not God and Christ but themselves were to have the greatest share in the glory of it Apage has impietates calumniosissimas of which nature is that too that follows That this Assertion brings Roprobates to be the object of free grace and denies the free grace of God to the Elect makes it Vniversall to all but ineffectuall to the Elect all to have a share in it and none to be saved by it which are all as gross untruths against us as he could have invented But then he askes In what point their Doctrine makes it not free grace I answer in that ye debar the greatest numbers of any liberty and possibility of coming to partake of it ye make it not free to or for all but bound it up to some few We know in some regard ye make it free that is in point of any merit of it in them to whom yee say it is but not free for any to come to and hope in as pertaining to them nay for none so without much fored one by them to evidence that it belongeth to them but he says He cals not that grace that goes to hell No sure nor we neither nor is that goodness or patience that goes to hell or Gospell that goes to hell but I hope we may say they that having free grace extended and held forth to them not receiving it or receiving it in vain or turning it into wantonness may go to Hell as well as they that abuse Gods goodness patience Gospell and yet none of these things abused go to hell So Psal 139 8. Jonas 2.3 except in a sense to the disordered dismall conditions of men to bring them from the nethermost hell in that sense as David sometime speaketh Psal 86.13 6.3 I can but wonder that wise men should be so infatuated as to think there is any weight in such their sorry expressions but for not inlarging it to all he says Is it in their power to enlarge it No Sir not further then it is but it s in your power surely to let it alone to have its own bounds that God hath given it and so to speak largelyer of it then you do We know he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy in point of more abundant striving with men and compelling them and in receiving whom he pleases even the worst of sinners coming to him and hardens and gives over whom he will and we know too by the same authority that he is good to all and free for all to look to would have all to be saved and come to know the truth delights not in the Death of the wicked but rather that he should turn and live and that Christ hath given himself a ransome for all Le ts not have the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ neither with respect of persons nor of places of Scripture either let us believe all or reject all He says further Should he throw the childrens bread to Dogs Nor Sir nor yet be wiser and holier then God to shun his words out of pretense of service to him nor call that common that God hath cleansed esteem any as Dogs but such as turn again and bite against the favours shewed them and are scorners of the mercies tendred them or deceitfull workers that bark against Gods truths and are ready to bite too if power be given them otherwise take heed that you deny not free grace to ungodly and sinners under opinion that they are Dogs to whom mercy is not to be tendred He saith further that they believe that the grace of God works faith in all to whom its extended Yes I believe that they are readier to believe their own conceptions for which they have no Scripture proof yea against diverse intimations of Scripture then the plain Scripture-expressions For the New Covenant here again mentioned by him I have before expressed my self about it I believe righter then that he can disprove it What follows are generally revilings of the truth of God despising the grace extended to All as not worthy mens thanking God for it a grace that doth no good a sigment of our own making c. only he tels us he will pray for us that we may have infinitely more of his love then is contained in effectual Vniversal Grace and indeavor to keep people from being seduced by us For the first We tell him it s his unbelief of it makes it seeme ineffectual to him Tit. 2.11 12. 3.4 5. but to such as believe it we we find it effectual both towards God and others and prove it an open doore and way for our approaching to him for those more especiall things that all through unbelief receive not For the second I pray God shew him and his companions in doctrine how much they stand in peoples light to hinder them from seeing that goodness by which they should be saved But what need he indeavor to keep me from being seduced Seeing he thinks it impossible for any that Christ dyed for to be seduced and all the rest must perish to to what end