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
sins against his mediation and the fruits of it extended to them as considered in a condition consequent thereto as refusing the light and abusing the power and liberty given them in the strivings and operations of his grace and spirit a turning away from him that did so much for them a denying him that bought them not believing on his name c. But then he says further If this unbelief be a sin then Christ underwent the punishment of it or not if he did then why must that hinder more then other sins c. To which I answer that though properly and most directly those sins and evils came upon him into which the fall of Adam plunged us sins not against him as Mediator or God as giving a Mediator and dealing with us there-through which was consequent to the fall and to mans sinning yet inasmuch as God knew that which they would do against his Mediating for them he not only laid upon him that sin previous to it with its proper operations in that way but also provided in that his Death against other sins that would follow so as that he might be perfectly able to save to the utmost any that should come to God by him And so he did so much in that one Death and offering as by virtue thereof patience and forbearance might be afforded for some space to the Rebellious while God is striving with them by his Spirit and leading them to Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it s said there is forgiveness with the Lord that he might be feared and with him is plenteous Redemption Psal 130.4 6. with him before it be with us or before we have it made ours before we fear him for it s provided with him and he exercises patience answerably with Declarations of it that he might be feared and this held forth to such as yet are supposed may despise and perish Acts 13.37.40.41 And thence in urging the wicked to Repentance it s added as the motive for he is gracious and will multiply pardon He hath received so much satisfaction for any wicked man whoever short of that unpardonable sin that he hath power and readiness of forgiveness for them with him Matth. 22.3 4 7. and desires not their ruine but that they might turn and live such a Caution hath Christ put in with his Father for them and not onely so but also he so far fore-provided that upon submission of any of them to him all their sins against his light goodness and Mediation during the time of Gods calling findes Remission from him Isa 55.7 and the after-follies to that his own Called-Ones run into are provided against 1 Joh 1.9 remission is in him for them and upon their confession and returning they have it dispensed to them and for them he hath provided that they shall not fail of seasonable operations of Spirit with due chastisements Ephes 5.26 27. whereby they may be sanctifyed and made pure in his sight and for the sanctified he hath provided for their utmost perfection and all this in one sacrifice But all this power of pardoning obtained by his Death is deposited in his hand and the pardon not immediately passed over from God to us or any he died for as if Christ bare all the Curse and Death and then for his sake we have Remission blessing and life presently confer'd upon us but as Christ bare all our evil God-ward so he hath received and is the treasury of Gods fulness of blessing Man-ward and men receive it from him and with him it being Gods Ordinance that he and life go together so as that we have not life till we have him nor Redemption till translated into his Kingdom who then sets us free by revealing his Truth to and in us Iohn 8.32 36. Col. 1.13 14. 1 Corinth 1.30 But the persisting in obstinacy and Rebellion till the space of Grace be expired deprives men of that Mercy and Salvation they might have found in submission to him Jon. 2.8 Psalm 81.10 11 12. Luke 19.41 42 c. And so unbelief Condemns not onely as it deserves Condemnation for in that regard he hath power to forgive it but as its necessary operation is the keeping a soul at a distance from him in whom is all Salvation and Remission and without whom we cannot have whatever of that nature is given to us all being intailed upon and bound up in him 1 Joh. 5.11 So that in a word he hath born all the sins of all men as in their first transgression and as considered precedaneous to his mediation and hath obtained such power against all other sins of all or any man that he hath made them all pardonable except that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that upon repentance he can and will pardon any of them though yet we say not that he bare upon himself all the sins of all men as considered sinning against his mediation CHAP. III. A Veiw of his fourth Chapter with Answer thereto IN his fourth Chapter he tels us how Christ was Agent in the work of Redemption by voluntary susception of the office imposed on him and so was incarnate and offered up himself a sacrifice to God which we affirme also only some of the Scriptures that he quotes for this though they intimate his suffering and offering yet speak to a further business as the washing us in his blood Rev. 1.5 is in the sprinkling his blood upon our consciences compare it with Heb. 10.22 1 Cor. 6.11 Ephes 5.26 so the sanctifying himself Joh. 17.19 is not his yeelding up himself to death fure or not that only that they might be yeelded up to death by his death but the devoting himself to God to receive and make known the knowledg of God to them that they might be sanctified and set apart through the truth to that ministration to which he sent them for neither speaks he there of all the Elect except Mr. Owen think that all the Elect are sent to minister to the world Psal 18. as Christ was but of those actual believers whom he sent into the world verse 4. for he makes this prayer as one that had finished the work that God gave him to do on earth and as one committing the business of the Father toward the world in point of ministration unto others fitted for it even as Paul prayed for the Elders of Ephesus when he was leaving them and the flock of God to them Asts. 20. but to passe that Besides those other two acts of his undertaking Incarnation and Oblation he mentions also a third viz. Intercession which we grant also but whereas he says It s for all and every one of those for whom he gave himself as an oblation he did not suffer and then refuse to intercede for them do the greater and omit the less that position though I will not peremptorily deny it yet as Mr. Owen by Intercession means and takes in
passed upon them therefore that he might be able to save them and he and God in him be a fit object for them to look to for it to that end he died for them John 3.17 though t is true that by the same he is able also to judge and condemn them for neglecting and rejecting him and his salvation which he could not reasonably be thought to have had if there had been no salvation in him or way to salvation opened to them by him and so his power to condemn yea his actual condemning of them had not been with so much subserviency to the highest end of all Gods glory manifested Gods glory had been less gloriously manifested in condemning men for their sin in another meerly the sin of the publike man then for their personal abuses neglects refusals and wilful rebellions against grace afforded personally to them which they had no way to obtain but through his sufferings to ransom them from destruction in their former sentence of condemnation 2. Another end rejected by him is this That Gods Justice being satisfied he might save sinners In which in effect He either denies that Christ died to make satisfaction to Gods Justice contrary to his after discourse against the Socinians and his Chapter about Satisfaction or that that satisfaction was any means of the salvation of sinners Lib. 3. c. 7.8 9. or at best a needless means for God might otherwise have saved them None of which he proveth Now whereas he adds that the Arminians say that after the satisfaction made by Christ Deo integrum fuit it was freely in Gods dispose whether to save any or no I shall pass it as wholly impertinent either to what I have laid down as the ends of Christs death Chap. 1. or to the Position here rejected by him viz. That Christ died that Gods Justice being satisfied he might save sinners For this adds also he might or might not save any one sinner Which that Position said not But he further lays down this Position That it was not to procure any thing to God but to obtain all good things to us But how agrees this with those Scriptures that say He bought us by his blood to God Rev. 5.9 Act. 20.28 and God purchased a Church by it to himself Will M. Owen exclude these acts from being in Gods intention in giving Christ to die or doth he think Vs the Church to be nothing Besides what need I pray of obtaining any good to us if God was equally at liberty to dispense those good things to us without his dying as through it notwithstanding his sentence of condemnation forepassed and that the supream end aimed at was to be accomplished for we speak not of satisfying Justice or opening a way for Gods goodness to flow forth without consideration either of the sentence requiring satisfaction or the end of God in glorifying his Justice for how then should we make it a subordinate end thereto in which his first argument is answered We say if that sentence being passed He could otherwise have saved man and given him all good things then is the Death of Christ evacuated no need of him to have obtained any thing of God God from eternity loving them and being free to give them all good things and his justice as well dispensing with sin unsatisfied for as requiring satisfaction but this he declines the asserting of His second Argument being only against that clause That God might save none notwithstanding that satisfaction I pass over as nothing against our Assertions In his third He says that then Christ should be said rather to redeem a liberty to God then to us from evil to enlarge God c. To that I say He hath in a manner confessed himself that he dyed supreamly to make way for the breaking out of Gods glory for what else is it to manifest his glory as if otherwise it would have lain more hid and could not have so appeared had not Christ dyed and then doth not this absurdity lie as much upon himself as us We say but Posito Decreto God having decreed to have no fellowship with sinners nor to dispense favor to their persons but through satisfaction for their sins he could not act forth the manifestations of his glorious grace but through satisfaction and he says the same otherwise he will make it but a needless means to the supream end the manifestation of his glory And yet from neither his saying nor ours is it meet to say that Christ dyed to redeem a liberty to God rather then to redeem us for he was in no real bondage in himself nor ever a whit the less glorious in himself had he bound up himself for ever from doing us good but ours would have been the bondage and misery that thereby should have been debarred from experimenting his goodness upon us to eternity his love to us led him to think it as a strait as it did to Ephraim Hos 11.8 but that was because his love made ours his What he saith about the merit of Christ we shall have occasion to speak to more fully afterward in answer to Chap. 10. lib. 3. and Chap. 1. lib. 4. His next argument also being against the assigning that as All the end of the death of Christ so as that being accomplished none might be saved intrenches not upon us as is manifest by what I laid down in the beginning of this Chapter That Christ is given for a Covenant as is afterward affirmed by him I believe and that also as a Covenant is propounded in respect of future benefit conditionally to men upon submission and obedience is as true See this latter in Isa 55.3 4 5. Hear and your souls shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you here is the promise of making that Covenant even the sure mercies of David which is Christ dead and risen c. but it s upon this condition hear and then your souls shall live and I will make it with you thence men that take hold on Christ by faith take hold on the Covenant Isa 56.6 the former is propounded Isa 49.6 I will give thee for a Covenant to the people c. that is as I understand one through whom believed on the people shall be in Covenant with me they accepting him as I accept him we shall be agreed and made at one but of this subject we shall have occasion to speak more afterward His after-denying that Christs death effected a liberty to God of doing that which otherwise his justice by vertue of his sentence of punishing the sinner would have hindred him from doing is as much as if he should say That Christ dyed in vain and without any need for he might have manifested his justice and his mercy as much in his dealings with the sons of men if Christ had never dyed in stead of them which if it be not to make the Death of Christ an unnecessary supervacaneous
the Appellation of God put upon them His Conclusion then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is groundless By that rule 1 Joh. 5.19 and Rom. 3.19 which he forgot should signifie the whole Catholike Church lies in wickedness and is guilty before God c. 2. He says All Flesh All Nations All Men c. are as large as the whole world I Answer In themselves they are but they may be otherwise used This is to fly from the terms not to explain them to tell us what other words signifie not that that 's spoken to and yet in his Instances of the use of those words in the Prophesies there is this disparity which he considers not viz. That the whole world is spoken of as a distinct party from and a party reaching beyond those that are clearly spoken of as believers beyond the we that walk in the light confess our sins that have an Advocate c. But in those Instances That All flesh shall see the salvation of God All the ends of the earth shall remember and to turn to God He will pour out his Spirit upon All flesh c. There is in none of them places such a distinction as speaking of a party at present existing beyond those that are believers To say nothing that those are Prophesies not affirmed of people in all times but onely fully to be fulfilled in the last times in which all flesh good and bad then living shall see God saving his people and every eye shall see Christ the salvation of God coming in the clouds of heaven and all in the last dayes shall remember and turn to the Lord so that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters shall cover the sea and the Lord shall be one and his name one in all the earth Though I believe all of them shall not be through with Christ and his people for after a thousand years Satan shall deceive many multitudes of them Rev. 20.8 9. Yea then also shall the Spirit be poured upon all flesh the power and breath of God shall in abundance be upon it to abase and confound it not to make all flesh grow and be admired or prophesie and do wonders but then shall the sons and daughters of Sion prophesie It shall be a spirit of Prophesie upon them but he says not so to all flesh upon whom it s poured So that those may be taken in the fullest latitude of those times and of those ages pointed at chiefly without any error I conceive The Spirit of the Lord shall breathe upon all flesh and make it wither as in Isai 40.6 7. And in the children of Sion it shall be a spirit of Prophesie Now whereas it s said that that was fulfilled in the day of Pentecost Acts 2. I answer Prophesies of that nature have a twofold fulfilling 1. In a first-fruits so it was then and since in its measure in the Churches 2. Fully in the full accomplishment of them and then it shall have its latitude and extent Again 2. When it s said This is that spoken of by such a Prophet it s not always meant this is the full accomplishment of that or the thing primely pointed at there but this is of the nature of that as in Matth. 2.17 The weeping of the Bethlemitish mothers for their children kill'd by Herod was as that spoken of by Jeremy Chap. 31. There was then such a weeping as was there spoken of But yet to any Reader its evident that the Prophet Jeremy aimed not primely at that but at the carrying away of the Ephramites descended of Joseph and so of Rachel Thence that promise in the next verse They shall come again from the land of the Enemy So that in Acts 2. was a pouring out of the Spirit to abase the flesh and a giving them to Prophesie as was spoken of in Joel though Joels eye pierced further then that very pouring it out upon those persons in that manner and those present insuing effects That All the Nations shall be believers I grant and then the whole world ye all that believe shall have little difference and so much those places and that of Isai 2.2 will hold forth But that the whole world now or in Johns time were so or that the words whole world distinguished from believers who have Christ a propitiation signifies onely believers I deny the former as evidently false and the latter as a groundless conceit 3. He reasons thus The words whole world signifies sometimes the worser part of the world and why may it not then the better To which I answer that the word world hath reason when distinguished from men called out of the world and opposed to them to signifie the worser part because distinguished from the better But why when distinguished from the better it should signifie the better I know none I ask him why in that case it must not signifie the worse too Now here it s manifestly extended beyond the better part Us that have an Advocate and not for us onely but for the whole world If he could finde me any place where it s distinguished from a bad party as bad as any can be there we might allow it happily so to signifie rather then here After these considerations and from them he mentions some small reasons which are all spoken to in what is said already except the first viz. That he speaks not of Impetration but of Application but none ever said that the Application of the death of Christ is universal To which I answer That what ever it speaks of its Vniversal we must not square the Scripture to our speakings but our speakings to the Scriptures 2. It s not spoken here of the application of Christs Death by Faith but of what Christs death doth with God for All men or rather what Christ is with God for them by vertue of it not what Christ doth in men nor the fruits that follow upon this Propitiation believed in by men as Rom. 3.25 doth This Scripture 1 Joh. 2.2 tells us what Christ is with God for All the world that in Rom. 3.25 tells us how God propounds him to men in the Gospel and what he is to become to them by Faith and what benefit they shall receive There is the mercy Seat here the atoning Sacrifice as here considered he keeps off many a blow from All as there propounded and received by Faith he brings to us remission of all c. His other Reasons and Reasonings being fore-spoken to I pass He is out again about 2 Cor. 5.19 when he tells us That the world that God was reconciling ver 19. was the Us that he reconciled and put the word of Reconciliation into the hearts of ver 18. that is indeed the Apostles and Preachers of the Gospel onely which is so evidently false that it needs no other answer then the noting of it For why doth the Apostle