at all to shew to whom the Law was given or not but onely that the Christian Church at Rome specially many of them being Iewes as appears chap. 16 to which he wrote was not ignorant of the Law whether generall or particular to which he had reference in that place To Deut. 11. 2 besides things answered by Mr. Ainsworth I adde that Moses there excludes not onely infants but many grown men as appears v. 3. 4. The other two places Matth. 13. 9 and 1 Cor. 10. 15 exclude too many mens of years also considering how few haue ears to hear or understanding to judg aright of spirituall things For the third head and that all sinned in Adam it is so plain from Rom. 5 as they haue nothing at all to answer though they object the place onely they bring certain other Scriptures in such a manner as if they would disproue one Scripture by another And indeed what exposition can be given or evasion found considering the expressenes of the words As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed upon all men for that or as the originall hath it in whom all men haue sinned So v. 19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners c. If they say as some doe that all are made sinners by imitation onely they are clearly confuted first by daily experience in which it is plain that children comming to some discerning will lie filch and revenge themselvs though they never heard lie told c. It is alas too evident that they bring this corruption into the world with them Secondly by the Apostles words v. 19 For as by ones mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If wee bee made unrighteous onely by imitation of Adams sin and not by his performing it as our root naturally then we are made righteous onely by imitation of Christs righteousnesse and not by his performing righteousnesse and fulfilling the Law for us as our spirituall root in which wee are grafted by faith Lastly these Adversaries grant that by Adams sin all his posterity haue weak natures by which when the commandement comes they cannot obey and liue but sin and so die Rom. 8. 3. Can they which are accustomed to doe evill doe well Or will these men never leav their godlesse custom of corrupting the words of the text for advantaging of an evill cause For flesh which the Text hath they put nature wheras it is without all question that by flesh the Apostle there understands properly sin and sinfull flesh as he expresly calleth it and as is plain in the whole context v. 1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7 c. In all which hee opposeth the flesh to the spirit and the sinfull life of the one to the righteous life of the other And I would know of these deep Divines what but sin could possibly make Adams posterity unable to keep the Law This flesh or nature as they will haue it must be contrary to this good and holy Law and resist it And is not that properly sinfull and unholy which resists and is contrary to that which is good and holy Lastly this enemy to the Law of God in a man must be in his soule And what else can it be then a disposition in the understanding to ignorance and errour touching God and heavenly things and an inclination in the will and affections to evill Which is as properly sinne as their acts and effects are properly sinfull Infants therefore bring sin properly into the world with them Two things they here object First that Christ often accounts children innocents as Math. 18. 3. 4 19. 14. I answer first not as they mean that is such as haue in them nothing vertuous or vitious good or evill but as being humble and without pride and such as unto whom the Kingdom of God and his blessing did appertain Secondly He speaks not of all children but of those of and in the Church Their second objection is that our soules being the subjects of sin are created of God imediately But to this objection they that referrs the soules originall imediately to Gods supernaturall and indeed miraculous work do giue divers answers which these Adversaries should haue refuted Amongst others Mr. Ainsworths answer is worthy the consideration But let us consider their proofs for the soules immediate creation The first is Act. 17. 26 Of one bloud God made all mankind c. But this place makes rather against them seeing the body alone makes not mankind but the soule with it by which specially the man is The next place is Heb. 12. 9 whence they gather that Adam is the Father of our bodies and God the Father of our Spirits But first the Text neither mentions Adam nor can agree to him in the state of creation seeing in that estate there was no use of correction Secondly it saith not the fathers of our bodies but of our flesh nor the father of our Spirits but of Spirits And the meaning seems unto me with due respect had to other mens different judgment onely to be this that if we giue honour to men our carnall or fleshly fathers chastening us as they think good how much more owe honour to our spirituall father chastening us for our eternall good And surely God in his kinde is the father of the whole man not of the soule onely So is man in his kinde the father of the whole man and not of the body onely Lastly seeing the drift of the place is to shew that God as a father chasteneth his sons which he loveth and on the contrary that they that are not chastened are not sons and so haue not God for their Father I see not how the Apostle can speak of the creation of soules seeing in that respect wicked and godly children and bastards haue God alike their father The Preacher ch 12. 7 speaks of the manner of the creation of the first man Adam onely but no more proues that our soules or spirits are created by God imediately then that our bodies are made of dust immediately That ch 8. 8 hath no colour of proof in it Against our fourth and last assertion that all by Adams sin are guilty of death Rom. 5. 12 they cavill that we were not in Adam to bring any soule to hell for the breach of that commandemant Thou shalt not eat Where first to passe by their incongruity of speech they free Adam himselfe from the guilt of condemnation of which our question is as well as his posterity by that his sin seeing it brought not him himself to hell But secondly for the thing it selfe They grant acording to the Scriptures that death as a part of the curse came over all Adams posterity for his sin And will they then deny that eternall death was also due by the same law of justice Is
person in the world and so might haue been an effectuall price for all if it had pleased the Father and him so to haue ordained But that it was the Fathers purpose in giving his Son or his in giving himself to the death to pay the price of the sins of the whole world and of every particular person therin and to satisfy Gods justice for the same we deny and they in vaine go about to prov That Christ dyed for sinners and the ungodly and such as were dead Rom. 5. 6. 8 we grant as being the Apostles assertion but that he dyed for all such is their bold addition and which is worse plainly against the drift of the place The Apostle having before treated at large of justification by faith shews in this chapter the singular benefit acrewing therby to the faithfull as peace with God accesse into grace rejoycing in hope of the glory of God and that also in tribulation that their tribulation working patience their patience experience of Gods power and grace in sustaining them that experience hope that they should never be confounded as having such assurance of the loue of God in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given of God unto them The ground of all which hee layeth v. 6. 8 for that Christ dyed for them being ungodly and sinners and thereby appropriates this dying of Christ unto these sinners who are in their time thus justified by faith haue peace with God c. which limitation the Apostle most plainely makes where he saiâ—h For when we were yet without strength God commendeth his loue towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us He speaks of them and them alone in this plaee as dyed for by Christ who were justified by him And let me here turn into the very bowels of these mens errour the sword of the spirit which the Apostle in this place puts into mine hand and proue briefly but evidently that Christ dyed not for all and every person as is said but onely for them and for all them who in the end are saved and obtain eternall life by him These men and rightly in this very place make it all one for Christ to die for sinners and to be their reconciliation as the Apostle makes them all one who are justified by faith and for whom Christ dyed Shall we then make doubt to conclude with the Apostle that they which are justified by Christ bloud which are the sinners for whom hee dyed v. 9 shall be saved from wrath through him v. 9 or that they which are reconciled to God by the death of his Son that is say they for whom he dyed shall much more be saved by his life For which purpose also hee after enters into comparison of the first and second Adam shewing that as by the offence of one all were dead so by the righteousnesse of one the gift of grace should abound to many or to all by which gift afterwards he shews himselfe to mean both justification and reigning in life He puts the two Adams as two common roots the former as a naturall root and the latter as a spirituall and affirms that all that were and are in the former and naturally growing of him dyed by his sin and proportionably that all in the latter liue by his righteousnes I say that were in the first Adam for Eve though she were of mankind yet dyed not by Adams sin because she was not in him when he sinned neither yet Christ as man not coming of him by naturall generation but by miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost So on the contrary they and onely they who by faith are planted in Christ and justified by his bloud shall be saved from wrath through him and receiving of the gift of righteousness shall raign in life by him The Apostles meaning therefore is not that Christ died for all particulars but that all for whom he dyed shall be saved by him which seeing all are not it followeth that he dyed not for all as they mean For the right interpretation of 2. Cor. 5. 14. 15. For the loue of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselues but unto him which dyed for them and râ—se again and of many the like places the common and true rule must haue place that note of universalitie as all whatsoever and the like must be restrained to the matter in hand as Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will doe that is whatsoever according to my will So whatsoever they the Pharisees bid you doe that doe to wit accordâ—ng to Moses So they that beleeved had all things common that is all things lawfull and for necâ—ssitie Likewise Luk. 4. 1. All the world should be taxed that is aâ—l under Caesar which a great part of the world was not So All things are lawful for me and I become all to all that is not all absolutely but all things in themselves indifferent and of that kinde of which the Apostle speakes I then answer that by all in this place he means all of that sort of whom he speakes all whom the loue of Christ constrained all that so judge of Christs death all that were dead that is were dead but are aliue by grace and so should not henceforth live to themselues but unto him which died for them Christ that one Mediator died for all them To 1. Tim. 2. 6. Christ gave himselfe a ransom for all We answer that by all is not meant all particulars in the world but all sorts of people as well Kings which many Christians considering their cruell hatred of Christ and other enormities thought rather to be prayed against then for as others The Apostle here informes them better and that Christ dyed for all and would haue all that is men of all sorts saved even Kings as well as others It is not possible for any Christian to pray for every particular person in the world nor lawfull to pray that God would saue all in generall seeing we know by the Scriptures that all shall not be saved and are also forbidden to pray for some in particular The Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 10. speaks not of Christs dying for all men but of Gods saving of all men specially them that beleev If he speak of salvation by Christs death God should save unbeleevers so living and dying for he sayth not that God would be but that God is the saviour of all men He speaks apparantly of Gods providence over all preserving good and bad yea saving man and beast specially them who suffer reproch because they trust in the living God To conclude Those for whom Christ died he died alike for and therefore not specially for any aboue others but alike for all for whom he dyed To 1. Ioh. 2. 2. I answer that
he speakes not onely of Christ as dying for us but also as he is our Advocate in heaven with the Father propitiating or pacifying his anger towards us in procuring actually the forgivenesse of our sinnes and acceptance with him By the whole world therefore he understands such as confess their sins such as whose sins God forgivs cleansing them from all unrighteousness such as have Christ their Advocate with the father for whose sins he is a propitiation c. which are onely the faithfull and that not onely of the Iewes intended in these words and not for ours onely but of the Gentiles also as the whole world here and els where by Christ and the Apostles opposed to the Iewes Mark 16. 15. Iohn 3. 16. specially Rom. 11. 12. where as here by the world is meant the beleeving Gentiles obtaining salvation opposed to the Iewes And this our limitation in just proportion the very next place cited by our adversariâ—s confirmeth The whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1. Ioh. 5. 19. that is all such Iewes and Gentiles as are not born of God v. 20. not Iohn or other beleevers one or other The Apostle Peter 2. Epist. 3. 9. speaks not at all of Christs death but of Gods patience that none might perish but all repent By which all he means all the elect which were in their time to repent and so to be saved for whose sakes and not in slackness as the mockers accounted he deferred his judgments Reve. 6. 11. we haue this poynt notably exemplified And it was sayd unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fuâ—filled For which purpose it must be minded that Peter sayth The Lord is long suffering towards us not willing that any should perish opposing us as the elect to the reprobate Scoffers at God both in his word and works The last place being 2. Chron. 36. 16. is impertinent as neither meant of Christs death of which the question is nor of mans salvation by it but of a bodily and visible judgement in which kind of works God tieth himself to no certain form of proceeding Against their error of universall redemption by Christs death I thus argue Them whom God and Christ love to wit with that speciall loue of mercy they love unto the end and therefore never come to hate them as they do the wicked and damned But for whomsoever Christ dyed God in giving his Sonne and he in giving himselfe to the death for them love with the most speciall love of mercy that can be Therefore they for whom Christ died never perish but in time haue wrought in them faith and repentance and are kept in the same by the power of God to life Christ therefore dyed effectually and in his and his fathers intention of love for them onely that are saved and perish not This is also more manifest Ioh. 17. whence may be drawn many arguments to prove that all for whom Christ died are saved seeing all that are given to Christ of the Father keep the word of God and haue eternall life given them by him Now it cannot be denyed but that all for whom Christ dyed are given him of the Father that he might redeem and save them by his death Furthermore the death and bloodshed of Christ is every where called the price of our redemption and a ransome for sinners Vpon this holy foundation most clearly layd in the Scriptures these men and others would build a more hatefull Babell then that of old in the East by which they would as it were scale heaven and depriue God of divers his most glorious Attributes by name his Wisdom his Power and his Iustice. His wisdom they â—mpeach in affirming that he would buy with so rich precious a price as the bloud and death of his onely begotten Son that and them whom he certainly knew before he should never possesse by it for that end for which he bought them their justification sanctification and salvation Secondly it impeacheth Gods power and makes him unable doe he what he can to save any more then he doth save though he desire it never so much For look for whom he would do the greatest thing that possibly he could which was the giving of his onely begotten and beloved Sonne to the cursed death of the crosse for them and their salvation without all doubt hee he will doe whatseever other good as lesse that possibly he can Whereupon it should follow that God cannot possibly give the Gospell to more then he doth and by it convert and confirm them to and in his grace which are lesse things then the former it being the foundation they but the building upon it it being the meritorious and deserving causeâ— and they effects thereof Thirdly this conceit makes God unjust in taking a full price and ransom for mens sins at the hands of their surety Christ as was his death and obedience and yet not resting satisfied with it but exacting the debt of their sinnes at their hands by eternall punishment which is the condition of many thousands in the world ADVERSARIES OTher things follow tending to prove Gods purpose to save all even such as slew Christ blasphemed and resisted the spirit of God to their condemnation c. Act. 3. 25. 26. 5. 30. 31. 7. 51. 13. 46. 15. 6. DEFENCE I Answer that the persons of whom those Scriptures speak were the peculiar people of God and not yet wholly cast off by him The argument therefore from Gods will and work for the saving of them is stretched beyond its reach to prove such purpose will or work of God to save all which are not his people as they were Secondly I grant that where the Gospell is preached there the Lord truely wills that is commands the conversion of sinners and their turning from iniquity as the text hath â—t approving and rewarding the same with salvation in them in whom it is found as it is ordinarily in some of them to whom the Gospell is preached and so was in some of the persons to whom the men of God spake in those places who before were elect of God and redeemed of Christ and were in their time effectually called to that grace whatsoever before they had done or been Now the Apostles not knowing which in particular were elect and redeemed in the secret purpose of God and Christ were to sow the seed of grace upon all grounds and to preach to all indifferently as they had occasion hoping in charity that this and that and any one particular might be of the elect vessels and good ground in Gods destination by whose preaching such as were preordained to life beleeved actually The Lord tels Paul abiding in Corinth that he had much people in that Citie and that therefore he should speak the word there and not hold
God through faith to salvation and that being born of God they doe not sin nor can to wit as the children of the devill doe because his seed remaineth in them Their objections following that by our doctrine men need not fear falling into condemnation though they fall into notorious sin nor repent having committed such sins are of no weight seeing God though he promise salvation to the truely called certainly yet he neither promiseth it neither are they to beleev it immediately but by means of fearing to sin and of repentance when sin is committed which hee also promiseth to work and put in their heart that they shall not depart from him The Lord promâ—sed by the Prophet Ieremy that after 70 years of the Iews captivity accomplished at Babylon he would visit them and cause them to return to Ierusalem And whereas it might be objected against the certainty of this promise and event What Shall they return though they repent not nor seek the Lord but remain rebellious as they haue been and their fore-fathers before them He answers that then they shall call upon God and pray unto him and seek unto him and he will hearken unto them be found of them and return their captivity He promiseth both the end and the means and hee that promiseth is faithfull in performing and providing for both temporall and eternall deliverance and the meanes thereof Their Argument taken from exhortations and admonitions in the Scriptures that we receiv not the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1 and the like hath formerly been fully answered They are not in vain either in respect of elect or reprobate neither yet will we own their absurd answer here fathered upon us that the whole Scriptures are given to keep both elect and reprobate from falling into grosse sins yet that neither the elect can be damned by transgressing them nor the reprobate saved by observing them The Scriptures haue divers ends and amongst others are given to keep all not onely from grosse but from all sins Neither doe we affirm that the elect cannot be damned by transgressing them or that the reprobate cannot be saved by observing them as they like deceitfull proctors plead for us or rather for their own advantage But this we say that the elect and truely sanctified are so kept by the power of God in his feare that they never transgresse as the wicked do nor can because his seed remaineth in them that they continually renue their repentance particular for sins known into which through infirmity they fall and generall for sinns unknown as David did and that even by means of those exhortations and admonitions which God opens their hearts to attend unto and giues increase accordingly And the contrary the reprobates being left to themselvs of God haue by their own and satans malice their eyes so blinded and hearts hardened as though those means of exhortation come unto them they either understand them not or beleev them not or despise them but never observ or obey them aright Their curses of the doctrine in this point received in all Reformed Churches as Atheisticall and damnable and their blessing themselvs from it is here as every where the fruit of that wilde zeale wherewith their ignorant hearts are possessed Their answers follow to the Scriptures brought against them The first is Math. 24. 24. If it were possible they the false Teachers should deceiv the very elect Whence we conclude as they say that it is not possible the elect should perish And here first they shew who are the elect of God noting indeed the persons but perverting the order of grace If in saying as they doe that the elect of God are those that receiv and obey the truth of Christ and abide in him unto the death they meant that such as are chosen of God in his decree before the world and actually and effectually chosen and called in time by the Word and Spirit to beleev and obey did so abide to the death it were but the truth which the Scriptures teach and we professe But intending as they doe that men haue onely the promise of actuall and particular election till then but are not absolutely elected and that absolute election follows this abiding in Christ till death they are like the foolish builder which would lay the foundation upon the roofe of the house By their comment upon Christs words men should be in danger to be seduced by false Prophets when they haue abiden in Christ unto death for till then they will haue none elect and the elect are here said to be in danger to be seduced That which they gather from the manifold warnings in the Scriptures to the elect that none deceiv them c. is true namely that the elect may fall from their election or rather from the grace received if they take not heed But they should withall proue that God doth ever so far leav and forsake any truely justified and sanctified in Christ as that they take no heed at all as they ought It is certain that if the very elect Angels in heaven or Christ Iesus upon earth had taken no heed to Gods commandements they could not haue observed them That which is added that many fall away not by being deceived but willingly forsaking the truth and again that many fall away willingly not being deceived is neither pertinent seeing the place in question speaks onely of such as are deceived nor true seeing a man cannot will any evill but under a shew and appearance of good so presented to the will by a deceived and eâ—â—ing understanding And so the Scriptures every where ascribe all manner of defection from God and his holy commandements to errour either in the generall ground or particular case The next place is Ioh. 10. 27. 28 My sheep hear my voyce and they know me and follow me and I giue unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any take them out of mine hand My Father which hath given them me is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand They here conceiv the purpose of Christ to be to confirm his sheep so long as they continue his sheep c. But herein they draw violently Christs purpose to their own For Christ as may be seen by comparing herewith v. 16. 26. 27 is to shew how it came to passe that some of his hearers beleeved and obeyed his voyce and some not Many of the Iews beleeved not because they were not his sheep some did being his sheep to wit by destination of God Christ saith not that they are not his sheep because they beleev not but that they beleev not because they are not his sheep that is not being of the elect of God they are left to their own impenitent and unbeleeving heart which they also willingly harden against Christs voyce Where v. 16 he saith Other
sin by giving him the spirit of faith and grace goes before his beleeving for hee cannot beleev before hee haue faith nor haue it before God giue him it but his actuall saving by justification and glorification follows after faith The discourse which here they fall into touching Gods deliberating and decreeing to make man c is impertinent considering that our question is onely of that decree which is Evangelicall and of mercy and so presupposeth man faln and in misery by reason therof So is the deliberation which they imagine in God incompetent to his infinite wisedom and providence They make God like a weak man contriving his purposes with ifs ands as though he stood in a mammering and unresolved what to doe till hee found by experience what men would doe first And here I demand of these men what if some of those so actually really and particularly chosen to salvation as they speak upon their faith and obedience and to whom God hath so fully purposed without ifs or ands to impart the Kingdom of heaven doe afterwards wholly fall away as they hold any may and many doe then all this actuall reall and particular chusing and setled purpose of God is voyd and frustrate and God must unpurpose what he had formerly purposed really actually and particularly and undecreâ— what he had formerly decreed They should therfore haue learnt in this place from their more learned Masters to haue added the condition of their persevering to the end without which it is certain none shall be saved But then they must needs rush upon the same deperate rock with the other which is that none are thus actually and particularly elect or chosen till they be dead seeing they deny all certainty of perseverance to the living not acknowledging any thus elect either before the world or in it but after the world and in heaven The Scriptures here produced to proue that men are not actually really and particularly Gods people and partakers of the grace of Christ before the world and they also be and before they haue learned Christ might well haue been spared as proving that onely which no man doubts of Onely they must learn that it is one thing for a people to become actually Gods people and partakers of his grace and another thing for God actually to purpose in himselfe from eternity in time to make them such Nothing in God is potent all but all actuall Their proofs of an universall calling in the means of salvation we will presently examine notâ—ng onely by the way their apparant contradiction of themselues and unjust insinuation against us They contradict themselues in saying that God chuseth all men good and bad upon condition of faith and obedience the partition wall being broken down To chuse is to take some from the rest and not to take all He that takes all alike chuseth none Besides by this the same persons are both elected and reprobated chosen and refused and every one alike either of both Then which nothing is more absurd The insinuation is that we make God an accepter of persons in saying that he chuseth men that haue not put on Christ. Nothing lesse To accept persons in the Scriptures is to judge of or doe to a person better or worse for some by thing in or about him whereas God in chusing one before another whether in the decree or actuall application of grace respecteth nothing in the chosen but onely the good pleasure of his own will in himselfe This is the highest cause that God would haue us take knowledge of though wee also know in the generall that God is no way wilfull in his will though hee be most free but alwaies most wise and holy To remoue a little further out of the way this stone at which divers stumble First we know that all by nature and of themselvs are subject to sin and condemnation and so might in justice haue been left of God without remedy of redemption If then it had been but just with God to haue left all in that state of sin and misery into which they haue cast themselvs it is then meere mercy that he hath chosen any in his Son or given him for any Now if of all men indefinitely considered as faln God haue purposed in himself from eternity to raise up some by working effectually in them faith and obedience so to saue them and not to work the same in others but to leav them to their own affected and effected pravity and sin and so in justice to condemn them for that their wickedness by them freely committed and obstinately continued in I would know in regard of whether of these two works we can be said to make God a respecter of persons The one being a pure work of his mercy and the other of his justice Why God should thus chuse some and passe by others in the generall we see reason both by the light of nature and the Scriptures namely that the glory of his power and justice might be seen in the one and of the riches of his mercy in the other But why in particular the Lord God should rather chuse this man or woman then that we leav unto himselfe to know till the day of revelation of hidden things Onely let our care and diligence be in the mean while first to know assuredly that we are our selvs of that blessed number and by such marks as cannot deceiv and so knowing both to haue in our hearts and to expresse in word and deed all thankfulnes unto our good God and most gracious Father who hath vouchsafed unto us aboue many others such singular mercy ADVERSARIES IT now remains we come to examine whether to use their own words the wicked that come to damnation had by this purpose of God spoken of before means of salvation if they had not refused it DEFENCE FIrst if this of outward means were granted them it would not help them to proue the purpose of God to saue all except they could also proue that there needed nothing on Gods part but the outward means This as they cannot doe so haue I formerly proved plainely the contrary and that though God so provide that even Paul plant and Apollos water in the most full and free offer of the outward means that can be yet except the same God by the inward and effectuall work of his Spirit giue the increase also all is nothing Secondly I deny that the wicked who perish all and every one of them haue had or haue the outward meanes of salvation offered them ADVERSARIES BVT here before they come to that which they promise they offer and enterprise the proving of another thing which is that Christ dyed unfeynedly for all without exception by whose death all might be saved if they did not reject it DEFENCE FIrst I here acknowledge that the death of Christ being God is in it selfe sufficient for all and every