ΘΥΡΑ ΑÎΕΩΓΜΕÎΗ THE OPEN DOOR For MANS Appoach to GOD. OR A VINDICATION of the Record of GOD Concerning the Extent of the Death of CHRIST in its Object In Answer to a Treatise of Master Iohn Owen of Cogshall in Essex about that Subject By John Horn a Servant of God in the Gospel of his Son and Preacher thereof at Lyn in Norffolk The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation to All Men hath appeared teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world c. Tit. 2.11 12 13. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life John 3.16 And he is the propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world's 1 John 2.2 Mysticus sol ille justitiae omnibus ortus est omnibus venit omnibus passus est omnibus resurrexit ideo autem passus est ut tolleret peccatum mundi Si quis autem non credit in Christum generali beneficio ipse se fraudat Ambros Ut si quis clausis fenestris radios solis excludat non ideo sol non ortus est omnibus quia colore ejus se ipse fraudavit nam quod solis est praerogativam suam servat quod autem imprudent is communis a se gratiam lucis excludit Ambros in Psal 118. secund vulg Lat. Octon Octavo Omnia probate quod bonum est tenete London Printed by Robert White and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at his Shop at the Sign of the Black-Spred Eagle at the West End of Pauls 1650. REader My necessitated absence from the Press hath occasioned some mistakes both of words and pointings in the printing which least envy take occasion by them to traduce me with the simple and ingenuity it self be at a loss I have here shewed thee how thou shouldst correct Viz. In the Epistle to the Reader PAge 14 Line 6 read 2 for 1. p. 18 l. 18 r. them p. 26 l. 15 r. that rule p. 28 l. 29 r. lately In the Answer Pa. 12 Lin 22 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 15 l. 18r call p 23 l. 10 r. too p. 24 marg r. ver 18. p. 27 l. 11 r. as are then not so p. 28 l. 1 2 r. Psal 78 Mat. 18. p. 45 l. 36 t John 5. p 48 l. 6 r. dawne p 49. l. 25 r. they would not p. 54 l 2 put the stop after second p. 56 l. 15 r. oppose p. 67 l. 20 r. but as an example p. 75 l. 38 r. rather without marks p. 80 l. 35 r. third p 84 l. 29 r. liked not to have p. 85 l. 8 r. talents alike open p. 87 l. 30 r. not that some p. 95 l. 1 r. then p. 118 l. 17 r. Job 5. p. 125 l. 26 r. conferrer p. 131 l. 21 r. having given p. 132 l. 29 r. distinguished p. 141 l. 6 11 r. if we p. 142 l. 38 r. had p. 143 l. 38 r. nor p. 148 l. 38 r. quia post omnia p. 156 l. 6 r. yet p. 161 l. 20 r. pact p 173 l. 3 r. Grecians p. 176 l. 29 r. City l 30 r. 2 Chron. 28. p. 177 l. 39 r. that p. 178 l. 24 r. that that declares l. 35 r. Saviour having p. 182 l. 3 r. them p. 184 l. 7 r. denies l. 9 r. 1 will p. 185 l. 3 r. is as l. 25 r. these words p. 191 l. 8 r. that it doth not l. 33 r. contain p. 195 l. 2 r. stung p. 200 l. 14 r. them or without p. 203 l. 36 r. nor had they any p. 204 l. 29 r. â—lts p 207 l. 11 r. of l. 20 r. warn l. ibid. r. any p. 223 l. 2 r Luc. 19. p. 229 l. 4 r. mistate p. 235 l. 32 r. it s p 236 l. 35. r. reference p. 238 l. 22 r. to all which we p. 255 l. 13 l. delivered from p. 259 l. 16 blot out we p. 262 l. 17 r. would p 263 l. 8 r. to whom they p. 265 l. 14 put the comma after here p. 268 l. 18 r. also p. 271 l. 38 r. as frothy p. 279 l. 17 r. that p. 297 l. 17 r. because l. 28 r. righteousness of the Law p. 299 l. 21 26 put a parenthests before As and after So p. 300 l. 22 take away the stop at name and read name for p. 305 l. 25 r. mea p. 306 l. 26 r. something p. 319 l. 4 r. Repro 〈…〉 To the Honorable Colonel Valentine Walton One of the Members of the Supream Authority of this Commonwealth and of the Council of State and Governor of the Garrisons of Lyn Yarmouth Crowland and the I le of Ely c. AND ALSO To the Right Worshipful Mr. Thomas Toll Burgess for the Town of Lyn Regis and Mr. Miles Corbet Burgess for the Town of Yarmouth in Norfolk Esquires both Members of the said Supream Authority c. Grace and Mercy and Peace in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our LORD Honorable and Right Worshipfull IT was the saying of Socrates as * Zenoph de dictis factis Socratis Xenophon relates a By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That ungrateful persons are to be numbred amongst the unjust and that b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by how much the more and greater favours any have received so much the unjuster he is if he be unthankeful Yea and so hateful was the crime of Ingratitude to the Persians as the same Xenophon tells us that they used to teach their children to abhor and condemn it and c Zenoph de Cyri paediâ lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. severely to punish those that were guilty of it as conceiving that not amiss That Ingratitude is that cursed Principle and a compendium of Vices that leads those in whom it s planted and by whom it s nourished to be injurious to and neglective of both God and man and to be attended with a shameless impudency which is the very Ringleader unto all filthiness and abomination And verily Sir as they guessed not amiss for the d Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris holy Scriptures couples e 2 Tim. 3.2 3. unthankefulness with unholiness yea puts it before it as the inlet to profaneness and follows it with want of natural affections Deut. 32.14 15. truce breaking false accusing c. and elsewhere speaks of it as the beginning of Apostacy so are their sayings especially considerable with reference unto God the supream fountain and soveraign Author of all good towards whom unthankefulness is so much the greater injustice as he exceeds and excels all others in favors towards us If we should go about to number up his kindnesses Psal 40.7 they would arise to such a reckoning as is far beyond us Great and many are his kindnesses to us in this life as his giving us life breath
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
to shew Whether the condition of believing be procured by him for All or for any I leave to its place and in the mean time desire him to prove by Scripture his perswasion that to whom Christ is in any sense a Saviour in the work of Redemption them he saves to the uttermost from all their sins of infidelity and disobedience with the saving of grace here and glory hereafter and in particular that he so saved those to whom in the knowledg of himself as a Saviour he gave an escape from the pollutions in the world who afterward backslid from him 2 Pet. 2.20 21. Whereas answer was further made to his Objection T. M. that he in some sort intercedes for transgressors the sons of men yet in and of the world that they through Gods blessings on their ministration may be convinced and be brought to acknowledg that Jesus is the Lord c. but more especially for the called believers c. Here Mr. Owen first mistakes his Answer M. O. as if he had said he prayed for them that they might be brought to faith in God through Christ effectually saving to life eternal and then opposes him in that conception Whereas he only said to believe the report of the Gospel according to that in Joh. 17.21 23. and to come to some perceptions of light therein whereto attending they might be brought further or which refusing they may be hardned for it Then he askes 1. In what sort Christ intercedes for that for such John 17 I answer for him in that sort as Christ expresses himself in John 17.21 23. obliquely as we pray for the good of a Kingdom when we pray for a spirit of wisdom and government on Kings and men in authority It s true believers are the direct Object of his intercession for those things conducing to this convincement and to this knowledge and faith even as Kings and Magistrates are in those prayers instanced 1 Tim. 2.2 though in other instances they may be the direct object as the Fig-tree of that Intercession Luk. 13.7 and the persecutors of that in Luk. 23.34 But then he askes whether it be intended to be accomplished I suppose it is and shall be in due time according to the tenor of our Saviours praying for it but to me he seemes to wrangle with our Saviour himself about his expressions because he gives no fuller account of his petitions It s likely he would the same query about our Saviours praying for believers unity and say Did Christ absolutely intend it or no and if so then why is it not better effected but that there are so many divisions even amongst them Christs prayers have I conceive in part their Answer here but not fully till the perfect day when all the world shall see and say This is Sion the City of the Lord and this is the truth of God c. 2. He demands if it be by vertue of his blood shed for them I answer I conceive it is had he not offered up himself a ransom and removed their death and condemnation he had had no ground to ask any further favor for them had he not come with blood for sin that cryed for vengeance no hearing I conceive of any supplication for them But then he saith it follows that by his death he procured faith for all But that 's a mistake For first Neither is this asserted for All though for others then the Elect only Nor secondly Follows it that his death if he mean simply and per se procured it nay rather the contrary for then what need of any further Mediation or petition for it frustra fit per plura c. A man may with boldness go to request a new lone of another for a man that plaid the bankrupt had run far into his debt bringing pay with him for the former debt that perhaps might have had no admittance for his suit in that kinde without that payment made and yet that payment meerly procured not the second lone That may be causa partialis sine quâ non of a thing that is not causa propriè plenè effectiva of it It s not the payment of the old debt that either obliges him that pays to borrow anew or him that lends to lend anew but grace in both from the * Orgiver lender to the borrower and from both to him for whom he borrows it Christ hath such grace in his Fathers eyes that he having paid our old score may ask a new stock and obtain it though his meer payment without that asking did not oblige the Father to it 3. He askes if he interceded for them with an intention and desire that they should believe or not I answer Yes sure for I suppose else he would not so have prayed and so they do and shall though not so far as his question here supposes That which he desires to be granted conducing to that end shal be granted but the end that he would have men attain to by those means afforded may by them not be so far obtained as he desires them to press to He would have them being convinced of the truth cleave to it follow after it acknowledg it c. but many do not grant him his desires even as he would have gathered Jerusalems children and yet they would not and as he rather pleases that men would turn and live and yet many do not Matth. 23.27 Ezek. 33.11 Yet that that he asks of his Father to that purpose as conducing to that end viz. a blessing with his means afforded so far as that they have light drawn to them to attend on that they have and shall acknowledg when their mouths shall be stopt for abusing it And in this is answered his two following Queries As first Whether it be for all and every man in the world That neither was affirmed nor in that place Joh. 17.21 held forth but men of the world others then the Church Secondly Whether absolutely or conditionally so that absolutely that his Disciples might be made fit means for such an end but for the worlds further believing and making good use of what they have that 's left to them upon the means and those convincements whether to chuse the good and refuse the evil or persist in evil and not â—huse the good and yet not without divers exhortations motions end counsels to chuse that that 's good and therefore for not chusing ahe fear of the Lord they are after charged Pro. 1.29 Whereas he t' demands Whether Christ prayes that they may use well the means ' of grace or not I Answer I finde no such prayer and yet it follows not but that he prayed that they may believe those things there mentioned or rather that the Believers may walk so well as that the world did they not wilfully shut their eyes might see and believe those truths viz. both that that Doctrine concerning Christ is the truth and
as an argument of terror to them that ill requite it reject it or receive it in vain 2 Cor. 5.11 with 6.1 Heb. 2.3 and 10.26.29 and 12.22.24.25 2 Thes 2.10 11. which were vain arguings if because this love was so commendable therefore it was an absolute unchangeable purpose of bringing all that Christ was given for to eternal salvation But he says further Argum. 3. That Gods love is a Velle bonum alicui a willing good to them He loves and therefore sure they are the object of his Love to whom he intends the good which is the issue and effect of his love viz. not perishing but having eternal life But that happens onely to the Elect Believers c. In which Mr. Owen slipt out of the matter in hand the nature of the love to the object of it and builds his Argument but upon an Axiom of the Schoolmen that were not so far Gods privy Councellors as that we may build our saith upon all their Maxims And he faulters too in his Argument For whereas his Major speaks of Gods intending that end and issue that men perish not His Minor tells us of what happens which makes his Argument to continue a Quartus terminus Surely God tells us he so far intends not perishing eternal life to others that he hath no delight in the death of the wicked but rather that they turn and live and that he willeth not that any perish but that all come to Repentance Ezek. 33.11 2 Pet. 3.9 I know because men think themselves wise in this world and prefer their Philosophical Rules before the Apostles counsel To become fools that they may be wise that they will not bear the truth of those sayings but muster up objections against them and say with Nicodemus How can these things be if God willed not that they perish but that all should come to Repentance then these things must happen to all and none are loved of God but they to whom those things happen And so they will teach men to blaspheme that goodness of God that leads men to repentance and to say It was not goodness because they are not prevailed with but according to their own hard hearts treasure up wrath to themselves by sinning against it yea and will make this so wonderfull a transcendent testimony of Love no love except it had been God so loved the world that he not only gave his son that every one that believes might not perish but also will make men so to believe and receive him that they shall never perish VVell then might the Israelites for the far greatest part of them say It s in vain for us to serve God and wherein hath he loved us seeing whatever great things he did for them they found not that he so absolutely purposed their eternall salvation that he would by his omnipotent power compell them to it for but a remnant of them shall be saved But for that willing none to perish but rather to turn and live and so a willing salvation to men God may be said so to will two wayes First In willing it to be and so providing it in Christ and propounding it to men c. and willing or requiring them to look to him for it with promise of conferring it on them in so doing 2. To purpose or determine that this or that man absolutely shall be saved In the first way he hath willed salvation to the world in generall having put it in Christ and willed the Gospell to be preached throughout the VVorld and they all to listen to it and obey it but not in the second way Now some may not receive or receive in vain Gods grace willing their salvation in the first way and turn it into wantonness and so it hath not in them its effect it hath in others that receive it throughly shall we therefore conclude There was no grace extended to them the other only and not they were the object of his love in providing salvation for and propounding it to the world But he adds 4 This that was the cause of giving Christ is the cause of giving all good things with him Rom. 8.32 therefore it must be towards them only that have all those good things I deny the consequence The same love that led God to appoint the brazen Serpent for healing led him to heal them that looked up Ergo he set it up only for them that looked up This argument slides also from the nature of the love to the Object of it The same love that led God to give his Son to the World leads him to give eternall life to them of the World that believe and so to give us that believe All things but it follows not therefore that the object of Gods love in its first act was not distinct from or at least not larger then Believers 5 His last argument is from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies saith he to rest in his love and so it must be a peculiar love This is but vain for this word is used of Christs love to the young man that had great possessions and went away from him Vers 21. Mark 10.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to the Israelites of old that were many of them loved no more and so to Judas Psal 109.3 4. 2. He tells us There is a difference in our acceptions of the word World which I conceive to be sinfull mankinde in generall He to be the Elect scattered abroad in the World with a Tacit opposition to the Nation of the Jews My Reason for mine is 1. Because the word World speaking de mundo contento primarily so signifies as He shall judge the World in Righteousness Psal 9.8 How then shall God judge the World and All the World is become guilty before God Rom. 3.6 9. 2. Because Christ is expresly said to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole World the Ransom for All men 3. Because it here sustains the nature of a whole out of which believers are taken as parts He loved the world that every one that believes that is that every one of it or of the world that believes c. that 's evidently the sense of the place Now its non-sense to say That every one of the Elect that believe for that intimates that some of them might not believe It s as if he should have said of the Israelites He brought Israel out of Egypt that they that follow him obediently in the wilderness might enter into Canaan like that in Iohn 12.48 where the same phrase is used I am come a light unto the world that whosoever believes in me should not abide in darkness c. He is a light to every man John 1.9 a light to them that hate his light Joh 3.19 but they for hating of it shall be deprived of it and abide in darkness John 12.35 26. but all of this world to whom he vouchsafes his light that believe
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
exhort others still to be reconciled and stile themselves the Ambassadors of God for that if the World that God was Reconciling was only the Ambassadors of Reconciliation His confounding hath reconciled us by Christ and was reconciling the World in Christ deserves not looking on the rest we have spoken to Onely where he saith That God was in Christ reconciling holdeth out an actual work of Reconciliation and must be either Conditional or Absolute I answer What God hath done already is absolute but the Reconciliation to be accomplished on mens part and in men is conditional and the actual reconciling on Gods part and tendring the accomplishment of it in men on condition are competible enough as Gods actual leading Israel towards Canaan and the tendring to bring them into Canaan conditionally to many individuals were But then he asks What is that condition I answer That they listen to and cordially receive the grace of God But then he says The words must signifie either that God was reconciling a believing world or an unbelieving world I answer Neither properly for the world could be looked upon as neither if he mean of believing in or unbelief of Christ as God was laying its sins on Christ and punishing him for it and preparing means to reveal his goodness to them for till there be an object of Faith vertually or actually fitted for our faith to lean on and till that be discovered the world is not chargeable with unbelief in it nor can believe on it It was a world at enmity with God and not believing yea without any known ground of believing in him till the revelation of Gods goodness to them come unto them His Dilemma was answered long before He affirms that all that God was in Christ reconciling shall be reconciled but I desire his proof for it for the Apostle intimates that some might possibly receive that grace in vain and so not be reconciled Whereas in answer to T. More He asks if all the Elect are not men I answer that that was not questioned but whether the Apostle saying that he perswaded men meant that he perswaded the Elect only or others Whereas T. More saith That 2 Cor. 5.18 saith that some of those men were reconciled to God for whom Christ died Mr. Owen saith its most false But sure he knows not what he says if he say that 2 Cor. 5.18 says That all that Christ died for were reconciled or that the Apostle in that verse speaks not but of some namely themselves that were employed to preach to others as also if he affirm that all them that the Apostle perswaded were in their first perswading reconciled He tells us Joh. 1.9 may be read thus The true light is that that coming into the world inlightneth every man But that 's not much material for it must needs come before it inlighten The matter is that it inlightens every man Now to say that this is every man that is inlightned a Mr. Owen saith is to leave the matter spoken of wholly uncertain for that may be All or None or the Most or the Fewest Upon this his note he might have put that observation viz. That some corrupt the Scriptures better then where he put it What follows in that Chapter in its substance all answered already Onely I must note that he abuses Luk 2.34 Telling us that it says Christ was set for the fall of many stopping too soon and leaving out a main word of the Text for it s thus For the fall and rising again of many And yet a Decree to condemn some for not listening to and believing in Christ sent for them to be their Saviour may well stand with yea necessarily presupposeth a Decree to send Christ to be their Saviour first or as looked upon in a condition preceding that their not believing on him but rejecting him And so we have scaled the walls of hiâ— Defence against that part of our first Argument CHAP. IIII. An Answer to his fourth Chapter about the words All and Every used in divers Scriptures that speak of this business HE next sets himself to oppose our perswasion or faith as it leans upon those Scriptures that expresly say He dyed for All. And that he needs to do or else he should acknowledg himself to be exceedingly blame-worthy for that in express tearms point blank contradictory to the express tearms of the Apostles he hath very frequently in this Treatise denyed him to have dyed for All. If he will make his saying to be Gospel he must pull down the sayings of the Apostle and the Gospel he preached and make that no Gospel and those expressions to be dangerous and erroneous which because he durst not do in direct opposition to him as he is bold to do against us therefore he indeavors subtly to undermine the Apostles expressions telling us That no strength of Argument can be taken from the words themselves that so generally express the matter because the word All is often taken for fewer then every man in the World Now that the word All is sometimes so taken I grant that is in places where reference is had in it to particular Nations Countries Families societies c. in which the foregoing passages manifest that the writer speaks not of all the world or of men indefinitely as also in certain Historical narrations of mens sayings many times when the things spoken of are the actions councels passages of men In which places yet it signifies the Generality or Universality of men in those places parts societies c. or so far as the actions speeches and carriages of men may reach Of this nature are All shall know that ye are my Disciples Provide things honest in the sight of all men Ye are our Epistle read and known of all men All took John to be a Prophet All Judea went out to John to be Baptized c. But that ever the Scripture speaking of God and his actions thoughts will knowledg toward men uses the expression All men without some particular reference to some particular place Country or Kingdom only spoken of or to and therein means fewer then all Generally or Universally much less that he thereby signifies the Elect or Believers or the like I do deny till I can see something brought to convince me otherwise especially in Doctrinal and fundamental truths such as the Creation Redemption Resurrection and Judgment are And I conceive in such cases it s not ground sufficient to straighten and limit our faith about a truth so expressed no other Scripture denying it of any or restraining it only to some that these general expressions in places not Dogmatical or not speaking of the actions thoughts c. of God toward men but of mens sayings actions c. whose abilities are of lesser circumference signify less then All Universally I think by Mr. Owens Rules the Apostle to the Hebrews argued very fallaciously when from the word All the very word
I finde no other price mentioned in the New Testament but the blood of Christ either as shed or as also testified if Mr. Owen doth let him shew it for us to devise prices is to add of our own heads to the Scriptures Now if Christ be the price it s not material whether we say that the Lord that bought them be God or Christ the act of buying or purchasing being attributed to both Acts 20.28 1 Cor. 6.20 Rev. 5.9 Christ buys men unto God and God buys men by Christ God gave Christ as a price to purchase men and Christ gave himself for and gives himself to men And there are these two things in this buying or price by which people are bought 1. Christ given by God and Himself to the Death for men that they might be preserved and delivered and from the destruction due to them in Adam 2. Christ given of God and by Himself to them in point of tender and free offer as in Joh. 6.32 and at least good things given unto them by and through him And as I understand none are said in Scripture to be bought or redeemed from their vain conversations or unto God from men till this price made known to them buy them off from their love to those other things and ingage them for God to be his Thence men reason inconsequently from those Scriptures which say By the blood of Christ men out of all Nations Peoples or Families are bought or redeemed to God As that in Rev. 5.9 and 14.4 and 1 Pet. 1.18 19. which speak of the efficacy of his blood declared and believed ingaging their hearts and spirits to and for God as Hosea bought him a wife by a price given her Hos 3.2 to deny the extent of Christs given himself a ransom and dying for men These two things then I understand in this place of Peter 1. That God had given Christ to the death and he gave himself a ransom for these false Teachers amongst all the rest of men and thereby they with all other were delivered from perishing in that sentence of death which should in Adam have else destroyed them and had with others their liberty to the Church and Kingdom of Christ 2. That God in the Gospel presenting this his love unto them and this his Son that dyed for them or the Son presenting himself so and so as the onely Lord and Saviour able and ready to save them with promises of salvation upon their submission to him bought them or disingaged their hearts from their former idols worships vain and evil ways called ver 20. the pollutions of the world and had ingaged and purchased their affections to his Gospel People Salvation and Glory set before them and so to the service of him and they now after all this denying him as the Israelites after their bodily redemption did Deut. 32.6 They brought upon themselves swift destruction If Mr. Owen would fasten any other sense upon this place he must shew us that any people are said to be bought or redeemed from their vain conversations as these were ver 20. for such are the pollutions of the world by any other price then the bloud of Jesus 1 Pet. 1.18 or 2. That some are bought with that for whom it was never shed That God glorifies it to and purchases those by it for whom it hath done nothing nor shall do any thing for we have proved and do believe him to have dyed for All. If he perform either of those two things we shall listen further to his exposition Whereas he sayes The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he deals not ingeniously with his Reader For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all those places he brings for proof of it viz. Deut. 7.8 15.15 and Jer. 15.21 and in all other places generally so far as I find yet is in the Greek translated by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so those places of 1 Pet. 1.18 and Luke 1.78 may better be applyed to that observation that Mr. Owen thence makes then this The Hebrew word that Answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He objects further the Apostles not mentioning the Word Price Isa 55.1 But that 's frivilous for if we speak of buying things especially of Gods buying a price is necessarily intimated as the correlate to buying though we may buy the grace of God without price yet he buyes not us at that rate we are well paid for what ever God hath of us Whereas he would have this buying to be onely a deliverance by Gods goodnesse from the defilements of the world a seperation of them from them by the knowledge of the truth Besides that that note is grounded on his former mistake that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deliver I would faine have him shew me that God extends any reall goodnesse to men without Christs buying them from their obligation to the misery contracted to them by Adam or else that rather confirmes that Christ dyed for them and the knowledge of him as so dying for them and able and ready thereby to save them bought them yea what else is it to know him Lord and Saviour How Lord but by dying for them especially how else a Saviour Againe did God give them any thing in that truth made known to them worthy their forsaking the world for him had they any share right interest in that truth namely in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was there any good for them to get there for to be sure the worlds good they were not like to get by that knowledge in those dayes If yes then whence proceeded that if he never dyed for them if it declared no salvation as attainable by them would men leave all and expose themselves to persecutions for meer uncertainties when they could not be told that Christ had done any thing for them or God by Christ or that Christ was a Mediator for them to attaine to happinesse by If they had no right to the truth nor that had any thing of goodnesse in it for them what had they to doe with that truth that so little concerned them If he say it had matter of advantage in it for them for ought they knew they might think it had though it had not Then I answer they had made but a blind bargain and they knew not the Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus It was rather a mistake about him that gave them that escape from the worlds pollutions then any knowledge of him had they known him rightly they should have known that they had no such reason to let all go for him that had excluded them his mediation and could not save them not having dyed for them And then having made some tryall and
not ever true that he that believes that God delivered him from one danger is confident he will from another much less That that belief in all that so believe yea or in any is the confidence that he will deliver from another 2. Whereas he askes if it include not a sense of the spirituall love of Christ I answer That where the Death and Resurrection of Christ are opened to the heart by the Holy Ghost there the love of God is shed abroad into the heart also but not wherever this proposition is believed viz. Christ dyed for me many a man believes that and yet seeth not into the glory of it nor the depth of goodness held forth in it and so hath not the love of God therethrough shed into his heart yet the minding God in this is the way to meet with the holy Ghosts displaying that love Many Israelites believed that God brought them out of Egypt 2 Pet. 1.9 that had not such a view of his power and love therein or at least like them that forget that they were purged from their old sins forgat what they had seen as to be lead to confidence in God for the future by it 3. Whereas he says By this a man must believe before he believe What strange thing is that with reference to diverse acts of believing did not he himself say that we must have a faith of reliance and recumbence in Christ and before that too believe many truths of the Gospell before we can believe that Christ dyed for us so that there is believing before believing and believing before believing again and yet he counts that absurd in us when we say only we must believe the word of God to be true before we can by it be led to believe in God we must believe Gods goodwill to us-ward and a medium provided for us by whom to go to God before we can be perswaded to go to him by faith whom otherwise we look upon as angry and dreadfull ready to consume us We cannot put our confidence in his blood and there through rise up to assurance of eternall life except we first be perswaded that he shed his blood for us So long as we doubt whether he be a Mediator for us or no and whether he hath given himself to ransome us from death we shall doubt whether God will accept us or no or whether he hare us from eternity or not and whether we have any thing to do to take incouragement from the blood of Christ to approach him because we know not we have any right unto it Nor can Master Owen nor all the world beside to help him make it appear to be otherwise but that the soul will question whether it may expect salvation from God or betrust it self with God so long as it knows not but he hates it and Christ hath never done any thing with him for it 3. He denies That a perswasion that it was Gods will that Christ should dy for him in particular neither is nor can be necessary that a sinner be drawn to believe because other grounds will do it without The consequence of this is that many things were spoken unnecessarily by the Apostles Act. 3.26 as when Peter says Christ was sent to turn every one of them from their iniquities And Paul that the grace of God reconciling the world 2 Cor. 5.19 20. 6.1 was to them Corinthians to perswade them to be reconciled That he preached to the Corinths in the first place that Christ dyed for our sins 1 Cor. 15.2 3. And so all those generall phrases that include mens particulars But let us see what other grounds he gives viz. That it is the duty of sinners as such to believe Math. 11.28 Isa 55.1 To believe in what in the blood of Christ as Rom. 3.25 Then it supposes it shed for them all and so it s a truth according to the Gospell-declaration but denying the extent of his Death how can he make it out that sinners as such * A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia which reaches to All sinners ought to believe in Christ What have sinners if not Elect to do with Christ besides he had said before they must be sinners so and so convinced and qualified before they are to be called upon to believe in Christ And I fear he will upon second thoughts say that those Scriptures hold forth that sinners not as such but as so qualified with thirsting after Christ and being weary c. are there required to believe but many a soul is hereby put upon doubting whether it be Elected or so convinced and thirsty c. as is required and so whether God be not an enemy to it from eternity and so whether it hath cause of trusting in him 2. The command of God John 3.23 That shews it to be its duty if it could be proved to extend to it for that says That we believe in his name and a soul may more justly doubt whether that We reach to it seeing they that deny the extent of Christs Death and teach it to doubt of it use such applicatives as We to oppose an Universality and to signify but the Elect and Church c. This therefore yet leaves the soul to doubt whether it may hope in him for salvation especially being told that these things God sends to men indefinitely that the Elect onely might be brought to him he hath no goodwill to any other and that its Elect it knows not commands to believe while men are taught to doubt whether the object to be believed in as such pertains to them can give no more security from doubting then the building with one hand and pulling down with another secures the building from falling 3. The threats against unbelief That indeed doth as much as the threat for not keeping the Law fils the soul with terror on every side while it hears that God commands more to believe then have cause so to do and threatens them for not believing and yet gives them nothing to induce them to it no evidence of his goodwill to them to draw them to believe this may fill them with hard thoughts of God representing him to them like one that bids another eat or else he will kill him but yet gives him no meat to feed on no evidence of his goodness that may induce him to hope and trust in him 4. The alsufficiency of the blood of Christ to save all believers This may make the soul say O how happy are they that do believe and that have his blood to drink for its able to save them but as for me I know not whether it belong to me or not or whether one drop of it was shed for me and so how I can lean upon it I hear it s not sufficient to save any that it was not shed for not for want of inward worth in it but because it s not for them and I may
be one of them for ought I know 4.5 The promise of life upon believing and the assured salvation of all believers without exception These two are of the same nature with the former only the soul hath this to except It s not every believer for many fall away in time of temptation having no root in them as my faith cannot have if I know not that Christ dyed for me and so grow not upon Gods love therein evidenced to me The soul cannot so believe as to love God and so but with a dead faith unless it believe his love first It may see all its endeavors to believe and to rest on God to be but fleshly strivings out of self principles and at the best it argues Gods love but from its own believing which it may justly question the heart being deceitfull and he a fool that trusts for it for evidencing his condition This is but a promise and an assurance of thriving to all that eat duely of a meat which it knows not whether it may or can duely eat or not for to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ and so to believe on them is when the soul beholding the love of God and Christ in his Death and sacrifice commended to it doth gather boldness and incouragement to love and cast it self upon God and so grows up into the full assurance of peculiar love to him even to eternall life without the knowledge of love to the soul first it can but at highest come to this It may be I am one that God loves and perhaps not well I will leave thinking about it and tyring my self with thoughts if I can and let it alone I must submit when all is done to be disposed to Heaven or Hell by him which indeed is a condition most sit and needfull for the Gospell to be preached to but is far from faith in God which works by Love and is justifying These things The call to believe the command threatning promise c. are good evidences that the ransome is given and accepted for All and there is good provision in Christ for them God never using to call men to any ordinance that he appointed not for them and coming with this they may incourage thee to believe on and love him that gave his Son for thee to believe on And this implyed by them is that declaration that good tidings to sinners that indeed draws them into believe through the spirits working in them or else if they turn their backs upon it renders them throughly guilty when they shall say in their hearts O what did God for me and what cause had I to believe and to have stayed upon him but I refused it As the Israelites in Egypt were indeed sinners for not believing when God had done so much for them to ingage them to it His conclusion then under this head is false viz. That those are enough to remove all doubts and fears much less which I would rather urge against it are they sufficient to incourage and imbolden the heart and frame it to believe but more especially is that false that follows in him viz. That those are All that the Scripture holds out to that purpose It holds out others as we have noted from Acts 3.26 13 37. 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. but of this he can take no notice they are nothing for his purpose I could give him back here some of his own expressions as that in pag. 283. That if pride and error had not taken too much possession of mens minds they could not so far deny what they reade in plain texts of Scripture as if they had never seen them to maintain their corrupt and false opinions But he answers further 4. That that perswasion which asserts the certainty of the Death of Christ to All believers and 2. That affirms the command of God and call of Christ to be infallibly declarative of that duty which is required of the person commanded and called which if it be performed will be assuredly acceptable to God 3. That holds out purchased free grace to all distressed burthened consciences whatsoever and 4. Discovers a fountain of blood alsufficient to purge all the sin of every man in the World that will use the appointed means for coming unto it that doctrine cannot possibly be the canse of any doubt or scruple in the hearts of convinced burthened sinners whether they ought to believe or no. I answer that this is in a manner the same with the former and there answered I will adde this touching the second particular that its ambiguous whether by the person called he mean by man in the preaching of the Gospell or by God effectually for many are of that mind that God cals not nor holds forth Gospell to all that the Ministers declare it to but only to the Elect if he be of that mind too it s not so undoubtedly true to the hearer as he would make it that God requires what the Minister doth because they may be divided the command and call may be intended only to some that the hearer knows not whether he be one of or not though the Preacher out of ignorance direct it to all and this may beget much doubting in the hearer whether its Gods voice to or him no. Again he supposeth more in this Doctrine he pleads for in two last particulars then is in it as that it holds forth purchased free grace to all distressed burthened consciences there are many among the Heathen have their consciences accusing them yea sometimes like furies burthening them there are many that profess Christ conscious of heinous sins and are ready to despaire and make away themselves for them there are many burthened that they can no more walk up to the righteousness and labor to stablish righteousness to themselves and cannot be setled Will Master Owen say that their doctrine holds forth purchased free grace to all these that I deny for it says he purchased free grace only for the Elect and that all such are Elected I suppose he will be put to it to prove seeing many such go on in their sins notwithstanding their burthens and many seek to put them off and sometimes do stifle them by worldly imployments and vanities and many actually despair and make away themselves If he say he means not such the matter is where it was the distressed conscience may yet doubt and is apt so to do whether it may not be one of those in the issue As for that in the fourth that there is an alsufficiency in the blood of Christ for all that will use the appointed means c. I will not stand to tell him though I might that his speech here is like one of them that in us he uses to tax with-holding Free-will which seeing he declaims against I hope he will be so charitable as to allow us the like liberty of speaking without fastening upon us that Odium But I say
will he busy himself to prevent impossibilities or about them that God hath hated from eternity What follows about Christs merit are but Rhetoricall disparagements of the grace of God as Universall in which he frequently puts the ly or brat of our own brain or some such like language upon Gods and his Apostles declarations for such are these That Christ dyed for All and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world c. To which we shall give no other Answer they being not Arguments but frothy flourishes but remembring him that brought no railing accusations refer it to the Lord to rebuke Sathan the adversary of Gods free-grace and goodness He applands afterward his own opinion and casts dust upon the truth representing his own in these four following propositions 1. That Christ dyed only for the Elect. 2. That all those for whom Christ dyed are eternally saved 3. That Christ purchased all saving grace from them he means for All that so as to be effectually made over to All for whom he dyed 4. Christ sends the means and reveals the wayes of life to all those for whom he died I suppose he means in the declaration of the Gospell to them in this their life time If M. Owen can prove any one of these to be true from Scripture for in all this his book he hath failed of it then I will be bound to give up the cause to him and say that he hath done more then all his brethren could yet attaine to The Assertions he lays down as ours are diverse of them meer slanders as that we say 1. Most of them for whom Christ dyed are damned which is more then we know or dare determine not knowing what a numerous increase there may be of believers in the last Ages of Christs reigne nor being able fully to comprehend those sayings 1 Pet. 3.19 4.6 2. That he purchased not any saving grace for them that he dyed for 3. That he ratified and sealed not any Covenant of grace with any federates 4. Hath no intention to redeem his Church c. as if he had learned to practise that evill principle Calumniare andacter haerebit aliquid His last disquisition is about Gospel-consolation Whether perswasion gives the most before which he propounds some considerations as 1. That all true Evangelicall consolation belongs only to believers but I think this at first dash is unsound for I hope poor sad souls that sit in distress and through the sight of their sins dare not believe nay prehaps are in despaire have nothing in the Gospell to comfort them and induce them to believe 2. That to make out consolation to them to whom it is not due is as great a crime as to withhold it from them to whom it is I grant that both are crimes 3. That T. M. attempt to set forth the Death of Christ so as All might be comforted is a proud attempt I can say this for him of my own hearing from his mouth that he is cleer in that for I heard him say long since that the title was not of his appointing but the Printers or some other above for him 4. That Doctrine that holds out consolation to unbelievers from the Death of Christ is a crying Peace peace where God says there is no peace That 's true if by unbelievers he means men as such and so persisting otherwise it may not be true as is noted to the first we endeavor not to comfort unbelievers in their unbelief further then to let them see there is ground for their repentance but as the Gospel was first preached to Abraham and his Family before the Law so we preach the Death of Christ for all as a medium to their better convincement of their unbelief and impenitence and an argument to perswade them to Faith For how shall they indeed be convinced that its their sin not to believe or be perswaded to believe except they have God set forth as a meet Object for them to believe on And if they persist in their disobedience we have in the Gospel-Declaration Acts 10.36 Luke 10.5 6.9.11 12. that that will strike terror and amazement into them for their unbelief It was the preaching of Christ and so of his Apostles whom we desire to follow first to preach peace to the world and exhort them not to rest without it and in so doing we preach peace to none but whom it s to be preached to God first hangs out a white Flag of Reconciliation and Peace in Christ before he holds out his red of Judgement and Indignation which follows where that peace is despised Mat. 10.12 13 14 15. Having premised these things he lays down these four Conclusions 1. That the extending the Death of Christ to an universality in Object cannot give the lest ground of consolation to them whom God would have to be comforted by the Gospel 2. That the denying the efficacy of the Death of Christ towards them for whom he died cuts the nerves and sinews of all strong consolation such as is proper for the believer to receive and the Gospel to give 3. That there is nothing in the restraining Christs Death to the Elect that in the least measure debars consolation from them to whom it is due 4. That the Doctrine of the effectual Redemption of the sheep of Christ by the blood of the Covenant is the true solid foundation of all durable consolation 1. To confirm the first He premises That all Gospel-Consolation belongs onely to believers which I have before shewed to be untrue The Gospel propounds comfort also to souls ready to despair utterly that they might believe And the best way to comfort such is to let them know that Christ died for them and that by opening to them according to the Scripture-affirmation the extent of Christs Death and of Gods goodness therein Having propounded that he nextly argues against its being of use to believers as that 1. No Scripture so propounds it Which is untrue also for that in 1 Joh. 2.2 doth as we have seen for Mr. Owen confesses his business there is to comfort believers and the Apostle to that propounds Christ as a Propitiation for the sins of the whole world and not onely of us the believers to be comforted See what I have said to it largelier cap. 3. lib. 4. He says further 2. That no comfort can accrue to them from that which is common to those 1. That shall perish to eternity Isa 51.13 Psa 100.2 1 Pet. 4 19. Ps 31.15 and 103.18.22 c. 2. That God would not have comforted And 3. that stand in open rebellion against Christ And 4. That hear not of Christ This also is disproved De facto from the forementioned place as was shewed before upon it Besides The Creation is common to them All that he mentions and yet that 's of Consolation to the believer and so Gods Governing all things the Resurrection Judgement c.
him that yet doubts of Gods love to him reject that devised Doctrine that contradicts the Scriptures and letting alone the secrets of God which pertain not to him yet to know nor shall hurt him if he attend and yield up to that that is revealed yea shall be also profitably revealed to him if he submit to what is revealed Psal 25.14 let him I say mind the record of God that he hath given of his Son that he hath given himself a Ransom for All yea and that God hath given us eternal life even us whom he commands to believe in the name of his Son 1 Ioh. 3.23 and this life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life thence shall he see both ground to believe that God hath given him eternall life and put it into Christ and also both necessity and incouragement to believe on Christ that in believing he may have that life even that eternall injoyment of God in Christ that will for ever satisfie him and make him happy FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Symphony of some Ancient Doctors of the Church with the truth here defended added to shew that it is no novelty of yesterdays standing as some are pleased to charge it Chrysostome in Joh. 1.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Heb. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clemens Alexandrinus Orat. ad Gentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Athanasius De incarnatione verbi Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Et Paulo Post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those sentences forealledged are in English thus Chrysostome upon Joh. 1.29 That Lamb speaking of the Paschall Lamb or the Lambes offered up in the Jewish sacrifices never took away any one mans sins But this that is Christ the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the whole world for it being in great danger to be destroyed he quickly freed it from the wrath of God The same Author upon Heb. 2.9 saith thus That by the grace of God he might tast death for every one not for the believers only but also for the whole world for he dyed for All but what if all believe not yet he hath performed that which concerned him to do Clemens Alexand. Hear ye that are afar off and hear ye that are nigh hand The Word is not hid from any the Light is common and shineth unto All men Athanasius in his tractate about the Incarnation of the Word of God Now forasmuch as the debt of All ought to be paid for All ought to dy therefore for that cause especially he came and sojourned here and after the manifestations of his Divinity by his works it remained that he offer up a sacrifice for All delivering up his Temple the Temple of his body unto Death for All that he might discharge and free All from the old transgression And a little after in the same Tractate There was need of Death and it behoved that Death should be indured for All that the Debt due from all might be satisfied wherefore the Word for that it could not dy for it was immortall took to itself a body capable of dying that he might offer that as his own for All and that he suffering for All by reason of his conjunction with that he might destroy him that hath the power of Death to wit the Devill Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophylact in Johan 6.51 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 August in Joh. 3.14 15. Serpens aneus in ligno positus venena vivorium serpentum superavit Christus in cruce suspensus mortuus antiqua diaboli venena restinxit omnes qui ab eo percussi fuerant liberavit Idem in Psal 69. Judas abjecit pretium quo ipse vendidit Christium non agnovit pretium quo ipse a Christo redemptus erat Prosper in Respons ad object Gallorum Christus dedit pro mundo sanguinem suum mundus redimi noluit Item sent quartâ super capita Gallorum Qui dicit quod non pro totius mundi redemptione salvator sit crucifixus non ad Sacramenti virtutem sed ad infidelium respicit partem quum sanguis Jesus Christi pretium totius mundi sit A quo pretio extranei sunt qui aut delectati captivitate redimi noluerunt aut post redemptionem ad candem servitutem sunt reversi Vide Ambrosium in pag. titul Cyrillus Alexandrinus in Joh. Evang. lib. 11.25 Quemadmodum praevaricatione primi hominis ut in primitiis generis nostri morti addicti sumus eodem modo per obedientiam justitiam Christi in quantum seipsum legi subjecit quamvis legis author esset benedictio atque vivificatio quae per spiritum est ad totam nostram penetravit naturam Leo Epist 72. ad Juvenalem Vt autem repararet omnium vitam recepit omnium causam vim veteris Chirographi pro omnibus solvendo vacuavit ut sicut per unius reatum omnes facti suerant Peccatores ita per unius obedientiam omnes fierent innocentes inde in homines manante justitiá ubi est humana suscepta natura Cyrill of Hierusalem in his Instruction or Catechise 13. The Crown of the Cross is that it inlightned those that were blind in ignorance and loosed All that were held in bondage under sin and redeemed the whole World of mankind Nor marvell thou that the whole world was redeemed by it for he was not a bare Man but the only begotten Son of God that dyed upon it Theophylact in John 6.51 By the life of the World perhaps he meaneth the Resurrection for the Death of the Lord procured the Generall Resurrection of all the whole kind or race of man perhaps also he named the life of holiness and happiness the life of the World for though All have not received that sanctification and that life that is in the spirit yet Christ gave himself for the World and as to what appertained to him the world is saved and the whole nature sanctified inasmuch as he hath received power to conquer sin and sin fled away by that one Man Our Lord Jesus Christ even as by that one man Adam it that is the world or the nature of man fell into sin Austine in Joh. 3.14 15. The brazen Serpent put upon a pole of Wood overcame all the venome of the living Serpents And Christ being hung upon the cross and dying quenched the force of the old poisons of the Devil and freed All that were smitten by him The same upon Psal 69. Judas cast away the price for which he sold Christ and acknowledged or owned not the price by which he was redeemed by Christ Prosper in Answer to some objections of the Gaules Christ gave his blood for the World and the World refused to be redeemed that is actually set at liberty by him So again He that saith the Saviour was not crucified for the Redemption of the Whole world hath not his eye upon the pretiousness or vertue of that mystery but upon the part of them that believe not whereas the blood of Jesus Christ is the price of the whole World from which price they are strangers who either being delighted with their captivity refuse to be set free or after they are set free return again unto their former bondage Cyrill of Alexandria upon Johns Gospell lib. 11. cap. 25. As by the transgression of the first man we were as in the first fruits of our kind bound over unto Death after the same manner by the obedience and righteousness of Christ forasmuch as he subjected himself unto the Law who was the Author of the Law the blessing and quickning which is by the Spirit or Divine nature hath pierced to our whole nature Leo in his 7◠Epistle to Juvenal That Christ might repaire the life of All he took the Cause of All and loosed the force of the old handwriting by satisfying for All. That so as by the Guilt of one All were made sinners so also by the obedience of one All might be made innocent righteousness thence flowing down unto men where is taken the nature of man I Might have added more Testimonies both Ancient and moderne as amongst the ancient Ignatius Jrenaeus Theodoret c. and amongst the moderne Luther Hemingius and in a word the generality of the Lutheran Divines as also Musculus Vrsinus Suffragium Britanicum Bishop Davenant yea the Articles and Catechise of the Church of England but these already alledged may be sufficient