give to this or that muchless to all he dyed for effectually to believe in him and to be saved not a word to that purpose So that that piece of doctrine viz. That for whom Christ dyed them he procured faith for is none of those Scripture-truths that will scatter the supposed clouds and mists Nor yet follows it that the whole impetration of Redemption is made unprofitable For 1. God hath ingaged himself so to glorifie his Son that some shall be brought in though he no were say All he dyed for nor that I know of any particular persons so as that this or that individuall must or else he should be unjust 2. He shall have much glory from his good bounteous and merciful dispensations to men through the Death of Christ that yet he compels not to believe on Christ Matt. 22.2 3 4 5. with Rom. 11.36 yea in the just and righteous condemnation of those that sin'd against that mercy and refused to submit to him For that condition upon which he supposes we will say Christ is to bestow salvation viz. so they do not refuse or resist the means of grace It s a mistake we know no such imposition put upon him for men may receive the means and yet rebel against the grace it self that comes in them have a form and deny the power of godliness and for that perish Though that all Pagans and infidels are left destitute of all means leading them to seek after God or that any that have no outward means from Christ nor ever resist Gods workings in them shall be condemned as Mr. Owen would perswade us I leave for him to prove Christ says to the Jews that if he had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin and for ought I know If Christ neither come in Word Joh. 15.22 nor in any spiritual way as he preached to the old world by his Spirit if any such he can finde they may not have sin charged on them to condemnation and destruction Yet if Mr. Owen can shew me otherwise I will believe it For making Christ but a half Mediator its frivolous yet we shall speak to it lib. 3. c. 3. where it occurs again That Christ did not dye for any on condition of their believing I believe nor that he dyed only for the Elect of God that they should believe nor finde I any Scripture calling any man while yet in and of the world an Elect person He dyed for All that being Lord of them and presenting his light to them according to the good pleasure of the Father whosoever believes might not perish but have eternal life And here ends this Second Book and my Answers to it The Third Book His third Book contains Arguments grounded for the most part upon his former premises against the universality of the Death of Christ we shall Favente Deo orderly view them CHAP. I. An answer to his two first Arguments contained in his first Chapter of this Book The first Chapter contains two Arguments Argu. 1 As FRom the nature of the Covenant of Grace established ratified and confirmed in and by the Death of Christ His Argument runs thus The effects of the death of Christ cannot be extended beyond the compass of the new Covenant or Christ died only for those that are within the New Covenant But this Covenant was not made universally with all but particularly onely with some Therefore those alone were intended in the benefits of the death of Christ A very vitious Argument whereof the Conclusion contains a quartus terminus for in stead of any effects the tearm propounded in the Major He says the benefits therein as is clear by what follows in him comprehending the choice benefits of the death of Christ applied The Major also is ambiguous and uncertain For either it is universal as No effect of the death of Christ c. or else particular as Some do not c. If the latter its impertinent and concludes not against the death of Christ for All but onely its having some effects in All which is besides the thing in question if the former as I suppose he intends it then I deny it I deny I say that Christ died for none or that none have any effect of his death extended to them but onely such as with whom the New Testament is made He brings no other proof for it which he perhaps therefore lisped in because he saw himself weak in the proof of it but onely from that title given to his blood that it s called The blood of the New Testament So that his Argument to prove that runs thus It s called the blood of the New Testament Therefore shed onely for them that are heirs of the New Testament Which is like this The Spirit is called the Spirit of Comfort and the Comforter Therefore whoever it works upon it comforts them and so when it convinces the world of sin it s their comforter too and when it kindles the fire of Tophet Isai 30.33 it comforts them that are tormented with it A wilde Argument and yet such is his The truth is As its an office of the Spirit to comfort and he is a Comforter to all that obey him so is it an office of the blood of Christ or rather one end of its shedding to ratifie the new Covenant which it also doth to all that believe in it But as that is not all the work or business of the Spirit to comfort so neither was that all the work or end of the blood of Christ to establish the new Covenant but first of all to ransom from the death that was passed upon men and then to confirm a Covenant to the house of Israel and Judah This blood where ever it s tendered the Covenant is tendred with it Hear and your souls shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you the sure mercies of David and he that obeys this is entred into Covenant by it but not All for whom it was shed are in Covenant by its shedding no more then all for whom the water of Purification was made were therefore purified because it was made for them and called the water of Purification Numb 19 9.20 Mr. Owen also mistakes the parties with whom the Covenant is made For he understands them to be a certain number of persons yet lying in the world and that its one clause of the Covenant to give them faith or make them to believe whereas indeed especially as pertaining to the Gentiles the proper object with whom the Covenant is made is the called of God believers in Christ Jesus into those mens hearts God will put his fear not to bring them to him but to keep them from departing from him which argues their being brought to him before these shall have the Law written in their hearts an allusion to the old Testament written in Tables of Stone not before they were brought out of Egypt but after they
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
a seed and to that end so to glorifie him with himself and to men and so to exercise his power and goodness amongst them that Nations and people should run in to him and so come to injoy the life that 's in him and glory with him leaving that so far as I finde to his Fathers goodwill whom and how many so to cause to run unto him not doubting but he will make good his word to his satisfaction Thus for his Impetration Now accordingly by way of Application if we may so call it He and God in him 1. Deals with all men in a way of mercy bounty and goodness and not according to the Tenor of the first obligation or the curse deserved by their sin in Adam 2. Hath invested him with supream Authority over All Creatures giving all things into his hands and he rules the Nations with a rod of Iron c. and dispenses to them as seems good to him And 3. Hath life in himself free for and communicable to All or any which he makes over to his people brought into him forgiving their sins sanctifying their souls putting into them his spirit laws fear c. changing them into his likeness till he bring them into the full possession of all his glory And 4. The Father glorifies him amongst men and so works in his word and providences by his Spirit that he hath a Church and Spouse a seed given him to whom he doth impart that fulness that is in him and executes his Lordly office amongst the rest according to his and the Fathers will so as that he brings about the main end of his sufferings the glory of God in all his dispensations even toward them also And these are my thoughts about this distinction Some make use of a Distinction of a Reconcilation wrought in Christ for men and in men by Christ the first for all men the second in all cordial and through-believers Which I make out and approve thus 1. The nature of man was fully and perfectly reconciled to God in the person of Christ by his death for All men or in the behalf of and for the benefit of all men The nature of man though the Word descended into it and was made Flesh yet as it was given in the behalf of other mens persons yea he in it as the publike sinner to ransom all so between it in Christ and God there was a controversy and that so great that God fell upon it wounded bruised afflicted yea cursed it as I may say or made it accursed and his Son as in it pouring upon it the punishment of the sin of man before he took it up into his glory but having done so to the utmost of his will not sparing him he then raised it Acts 13.33 took it up into Sonship with the Word and filled it with all his fulness being at perfect unity with it and it with him never more to be at odds again here is a full compleat and perfect reconciliation of the nature of man in Christs person and this for All as the punishment was suffered in stead of the whole nature in its several individuals and so as that God now le ts go all other from executing the fierceness of his wrath upon them for that sin in which they formerly stood condemned and calls for satisfaction to his justice in that point from none of them Rom. 2.4 5. but extends such means and goodness to them as leadeth to Repentance Yet in their persons they are not reconciled they all except the man Christ remain in enmity against him and the nature of man in all our persons is such that with no one of mankinde can so holy a God have fellowship till something be done to them that is De adultis loquor till there be wrought in them a renouncing of themselves and sins and a willingness to walk with God through his love and goodness which none have in them meerly by Christs dying for them and ascending to God till something be wrought in them from heaven by his Spirit 2 Sam. 14.24 28. Till when men are like Absolom when David at Joabs mediation took of the sentence of his banishment but yet would not let him see his face All yet in that regard children of wrath worthy of wrath though God deal not with them according to desert nor goes about to execute the fierceness of wrath upon them but on the contrary affords them means of seeking him c. to some more to some less as he pleases But 2. When the goodness of God Psa 36.7 8. Eph. 1.13 and the operations of his Word and Spirit the insinuations of divine light and love into the hearts of any is so received and yielded to that they are brought to Repentence and faith in God and Christ and submission to his Spirit then they come in their own persons to be reconciled to receive the reconciliation and atonement then God begins to own and walk with them Rom. 5.11 and take them up into unity and fellowship with his Son and this is the reconciliation wrought in men by Christ to which the Apostle exhorts in 2 Cor. 5.20 How much my sense of these distinctions differ from the Arminians Camero's Testardus and others who as M. Owen tels us all speak of an Impetration of Reconciliation Remission Redemption conditionally if they believe I leave to their Judgments that compare us M. Owens arguments against that first distinction as used by them make nothing against me I affirming an application or donation from the Father to be made to Christ and through Christ to men according to the purpose of his Impetration only some passages in his arguments would be spoken to as whereas in his second Argument p. 89. he affirms that whatsoever is obtained for any is theirs by right for whom it is obtained I think that is not every way true I may purchase a picee of land intentionally for my childe and yet keep the right and title in my own hand so that he may not have right in it or title to it till I actually instate him in it Whatever the thoughts of Christ were to any in dying for them yet we are not made heirs till brought into him till then we have no right either to claim or to receive the promises Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ and if Christs then Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3.29 So Tit. 3.6 being justified by grace we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Whether the condition of faith be purchased or no we shall view elsewhere Again in his third Argument he tels us that these two Impetration and Application are alwayes joyned together in the Scriptures in which he saith not truly for I demand where is the Application in 1 Tim. 2.6 He gave himself a ransom for All or in Heb. 2.9 by the grace of God he might
tast death for every one and where is the impetration in that By him whosoever believes shall receive the remission of sins Acts 10.43 He hath also diverse indirect and vitious inferences as when from Isa 53.11 He shall justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities he infers All whose sins he bare he also justifieth whenas such a conclusion cannot fairly be drawn from those premises no more then if a man should say from that in 1 Cor. 6.19 20. The Holy Ghost is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price that all that are bought with a price have the Holy Ghost in them and so those false Teachers in 2 Pet. 2.1 which bring upon themselves swift destruction That clause For he bare their iniquities shews the ground upon which by his knowledg he might and so did justifie them that he proceeded legally not the adequate object of his act of bearing sins Thence also he adds by his knowledg that is by making known his truth or doctrine or himself in it he shall justifie many how comes that about that he by his knowledg should produce such an effect the reason is rendred for he bare their iniquities He shall make known himself to them as one able to save them and so draw them in to him and then by vertue of his sufferings for them he shall justifie them for that was it by which he was perfected for conferring such a favor on them that obey him as in Heb. 5.9 He saith not he justifies many by bearing their sins as if that alone did it but by his knowledg which knowledg whoso regard not nor receive they go without that justification or accounting righteous there spoken of yea though he dyed for them and had they received that knowledg of him both could and would have justified them men stumbling at him and not believing on him may perish though Christ have dyed for them 1 Cor. 8.11 Again his inference from that in Isa 53.5 By his stripes we are healed Therefore All that he dyed for hath no more force then if some Israelites that were healed by looking to the brazen Serpent should say By the brazen Serpent we are healed Therefore All that it was set up for were healed by it Of no more force are those other inferences from Rom. 8.32 33. He that spared not his Son but gave him up to the Death for us All how shall he not with him give us all things Vs that are in Christ Jesus that walk after the spirit that have received the first fruits of it that are called justified c. It s like the confident reasoning of the believing Israelites Exod. 13.13 14 16 17. God that brought us out of Egypt by so mighty a hand redeeming us and bringing us forth in his mercy will guide us by his strength to his holy habitation Numb 14.9 10. bring us in and plant us c. that is such as in this confidence follow his conduct and rebel not against him Now as if one from thence should infer Ergo all that he brought out of Egypt he surely brought into Canaan just such are those three inferences of Mr. Owens from that Rom. 8. viz. That all he gave Christ for 1. He gives to believe in him that is compels them to believe And 2. Brings them to glory an inference wholly groundless from that Text that speaking of actual believers and not of faith as a thing yet to be given them and All that he dyed for 3. He makes intercession for for the collating all the choise benefits of his Death upon for that 's the meaning of his third inference though not so in terminis expressed otherwise I should not deny it but I have said enough before to these kinde of inferences and I shall speak fullier to that place where he more fully urges it lib. 3. chap. 11. That which follows in him hath something in it worthy the noting viz. those Assertions repeated and spoken to by him As 1. In that he denies Gods inclination to do us good to be naturall and necessary he crosses that common maxime Quicquid in Deo est Deus est every thing in God is God and if that be true then its necessary and natural to God for that which is God cannot but be and so whatever love is in him to us must be necessary it being something in him Besides the Scripture defines him by love God is love which sure hath in it an inclination to do good and what he is is natural to him and as necessary as he though what object to act forth his love toward and in what way is not necessary but meerly free to him and therefore when he says that every thing acted by him towards us is an act of his free-will opponit non opponenda seeing though his actings be voluntary yet his nature is essentiall and necessary and these two cross not each other Whereas he saith the ascribing an Antecedent will to God whose fulfilling depends on any free contingent act of ours is injurious to God This falls not upon us But I conceive that that may be called an Antecedent VVill of God which respects some Antecedent condition in us in respect of some VVill of God respecting us as its proper object in a consequent condition As to explain my meaning God viewing Adam as innocent willed him Paradise and fellowship with himself yet the injoyment of this to be according to his standing in that created condition but viewing him as voluntarily faln he willed to expel him from Paradise c. the former of these in respect of the latter may be called Antecedent as it was a Will respecting an Antecedent or former condition of Adam and the latter a consequent will to that fall from his former condition beheld by him So a Will to provide a Saviour for men as helpless and faln and to extend goodness to them through him compared with his Will to exclude them his Kingdom and seal them up under wrath as obstinately after light and power vouchsafed rebelling against his Son and abusing his goodness may be called an Antecedent will and the latter a Consequent though that denomination of Antecedent and Consequent arises rather from the priority and posteriority in the objects then the will it self For that place Who hath resisted his will as it makes nothing against what I have here said so I shall say nothing to it here but refer what I have to say about it to my Answer to cap. 4. lib. 4. where he urges it again as also his third Assertion viz. 3. That a meer common Affection and Inclination to do good to all sets not out the freedom fulness and dimensions of the Love of God asserted in Scripture as the cause of sending Christ To my Answer to his fourth Book and second Chapter where he further urges it again 4. Whereas he denies that all mankinde