were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life John 11. 51 52. That Jesus should dye for that Nation and not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together in one the Children of God that were scattered abroad Mat. 1. 21. for he shall save his People from their Sins Joh. 15. 13. Greater Love hath no man than this that a man to lay down his life for his friends 1 John 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us Rom. 8. 34. who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather c. 1 Pet. 3. 18. Christ hath once suffered for Sin the just for the â—njust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain conversation received by Tradition from your Fathers but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 29. He bore our sins on the Tree that me being dead to sin should live to Righteousness Tit. 2. 14. That he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good works Eph. 5. 25 26. Even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle c. Isa 53. 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities John 17. 2. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him Mat. 7. 23. Depart from me I never knew you c. Heb. 9. 28. Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many c. Heb. 10. 14. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Psal 16 9. Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their name into my lips Gen. 3. 15. The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head and his seed bruise her heel Mat. 11. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thoâ— hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them to Babes Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him These are all the Texts that at present I can remember or find used by those that write against Universal Redemption which have any considerable shew of a proof of all which there is not one that excludeth the Non-Elect nor any in the World from being the Persons for whom Christ dyed as we shall see when we come to review them more particularly Nor is there any ill consequence following the Doctrine of Universal Satisfaction but all that terrifies men from it is seeming ill Consequences for want of right understanding it most men think who go that way that Universal Redemption is inconsistent with absolute Election and with special differencing Grace and with Christs special intention of calling and saving his Chosen whereas indeed it is so far from being inconsistent that it is necessarily concomitant and supposed and they may as well think that Universal Creation is inconsistent with Election and special grace Indeed God hath in admirable wisdom laid Universal Grace as a ground work and built special grace as to the executive part thereupon and to deny the Universal Common grace is to destroy the ground-work of special grace If this were well understood there would few sober Divines be against Universal Redemption and therefore I still say that it is a clear explication that must do more here and is more needful than argumentation Yet because some do so importunately call for Arguments I have given these Thirty and might add many more and shall now proceed to those that are drawn from particular Texts of Scriptures having first laid down one or two more general considerations from the Scripture Language in this particular That Election and Redemption are not of the same extent and not all Elected that are Redeemed but Redemption is Universal and Election special may be strongly evinced by comparing together the language of the Scripture concerning one and the other how differently it speaks 1. We find God charging Men to give all diligence to make sure their Calling and Election 2 Pet. 1. 10. But not one word in all the Scripture to command or perswade Men to make sure that they are redeemed unless we meant it not of the price but the fruits Paul saith to his Converts 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates But he never bid any man examine thy self whether thou be redeemed or whether Christ dyed for thee or whether thou be one of those for whom Christ dyed we have marks given in Scripture to know by whether we are the Children of God or no whether sanctified justified pardoned or no but never a mark laid down in Scripture to know by whether we are of those that Christ dyed for no more than there is to know whether we are of those that God Created And would not the perfect holy word of God have given marks of this or bid men make sure of this and try it if it were needful and were not unquestionable because universal 2. We find the Saints as David complaining of God's hiding his face and seeming their Enemy and writing bitter things against them and groaning under that burthen of Sin and crying for Pardon and saying God had forsaken and forgotten them c. But we never find any Man good or bad that believed Gods word to be true to doubt whether Christ dyed for him or whether he were Redeemed or complaining of his danger for want of a Redeemer or Expiatory Sacrifice 3. We find God ordinarily saying of Christ Jesus that he is the Saviour of the World and came not to condemn the World but to save the World and took away the sins of the World and is a propitiation for the fins of the whole World and dyed for all tasted death for every man and was a ransom for all c. But we have no one word in Scripture that saith he predestinated all to Salvation or decreed to save the whole World Nay the very term of Election contradicteth Universality for it is no chusing if it be all and if some be not left 4. We find Wicked Men condemned and their sin aggravated for denying the Lord that bought them 2 Pet. 2. 1. But never for denying the Lord that Elected them 5. We find Christians by the Apostles warned that they destroy not their weak Brethren for whom Christ dyed and saying through thy
fruit in all the World but that it is come into all the World and bringeth forth Fruit viz. in some where it comes 2. But suppose it were otherwise doth not Christ say that the Gospel doth bring forth fruit in more than the Elect viz. in many that fall away when Persecution ariseth Mat. 13. And in whom the cares of the World do choak that Fruit. 3. Were these Colos all Elect to whom Paul speaks 4. It is a known truth that the Gospel comes to more than the Elect for many are called but few chosen next they alledge 2 Cor. 5. 19. which makes sufficiently against their whole cause as shall be shewen anon when we come to it Another place cited by them is 1 Joh. 2. 2. Christ is the propitiation of the sins of the whole World Ans If they may thus beg the question all Texts shall mean as they would have them Of this anon Another place cited is Psal 22. 27. All the ends of the World remember and turn unto the Lord And all the Kindreds of the Nations shall worship before thee For the Kingdom is the Lord's and he is the Governour among the Nations Ans 1. All the ends of the World is not so large as all the World 2. It is plain that this Text speaks of the establishment of Christs visible Kingdom which contains more than the Elect. The Net of the Gospel brings Fishes good and bad The Heathen Countries that have turned to the Lord from Paganism and Infidelity have not all believed to Salvation The Kingdoms of the World shall become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ But they are not all Elect. These are all the Texts that I find urged to to prove that by the World is signified only the Elect. 2. And what if it were so in some places 1. It follows not that it is so here 2. The usual Sense must not be forsaken without cause Nor is it sufficient that unusually it is otherwise taken 3. The conjoyned words will shew the necessity of a restrained Sense where such a Sense is necessary to be received but so they do not here but contrarily as hath been shewed Their 4th Reason to prove that by the World is here meant the Elect only is this If every one in the World be intended why doth not the Lord in the pursuit of this Love reveal Christ to all so loved Ans This is to be fully answered anon among the main Objections by it self Lastly they say else all these will follow 1. That some are beloved and hated also from Eternity 2. That God's Love towards innumerable is fruitless and vain 3. That the Son of God is given to them that never hear word of him and have no power granted to believe in him 4. That God is mutable in his Love or else he still loveth those that be in Hell 5. That he gives not all things to them to whom he gives his Son 6. That he knows not certainly before who shall believe and be saved Ans To the first I thought no Antiarminian Divine ever denied it God hateth all the Workers of iniquity Psal 5. 5. You will not say that he hated them not from Eternity Many of the Workers of iniquity are Elect and so loved from Eternity God's Love is spoken say Divines ab effectu potius quam ab affectu God from Eternity so loved Men not Elect as to give them on Creation Everlasting Life in Adam on condition of fulfilling the first Covenant and to give them everlasting life in Christ on condition of believing according to the second Covenant And yet he decreed not to give any Men Grace to perform the condition of the first covenant nor to give all men Grace to perform the condition of the second To the 2d Consequence I shall answer fully by it self anon among the contrary Arguments To the 3d. also I shall there answer To the 4th I say for it is not worth a fuller answer 1. All Divines that I know say that God loveth those in Hell as his Creatures and as Men Aquinas and the rest of the Schoolmen have it frequently Yea Ursine Rob. Baronius and many of our Protestant Divines say that he punisheth those in Hell short of their deserving and so sheweth some mercy there that I will not meddle with 2. If you speak of God's Love as it is in effectu and not in affectu then it is certainly mutable He gives Men those mercies which for their â—buse he removeth or turneth to judgments He gives to all a conditional Pardon and Life And after condemneth most to Death for not performing the condition To the Elect themselves these Effects are changeable 3. If you say God's Love is but his Velle bonum alicui and therefore he cannot be said now Men are in Hell to continue to will them a conditional Pardon and Life Therefore God's Love must be mutable I answer Let those Owls that love to blind themselves by gazing on the Sun of God's undiscernable Infiniteness undertake to tell what God's Love is and what his Will is and how he Wills that which is past c. For my part I pretend not to a capacity of discerning any such things 2. You may enforce your objection as strongly concerning God's Love to the Elect He once willed their Creation then he willed to redeem them by Christ then he willed to call them and to give them their first justification to deliver them from this sickness and that danger then he willed that they should die and then that they should rise again If you will tell me how God after the Resurrection will continue to all Eternity to will to create Man to redeem him to call him justifie him deliver him raise him c. then I will tell you how God will Eternally will the giving Christ Pardon and Salvation conditionally to all If you say he Wills them as preterita and not as presentia vel futura you may say so by this If you say that there is no preteritum vel futurum with God but all present and therefore he willeth them as preterita sic dicta quoad hominem vel fidem mensuram humanam sed ut presentia quoad Deum the like you may say here also To the 5th Consequence I must answer anon by it self when we speak of their Argument from Rom. 8. 32. To the 6th It is a naked affirmation as easily denied Dare Men say that it was no mercy or love of God to give mankind in Adam Eternal Life on condition of keeping his Law because God foreknew or foredecreed they would not or should not keep it And so not attain the fruit of that Govenant thereby Dare these Men pretending to preach the Gospel tell their hearers that to all of them except the Elect the preaching the Gospel and therein the offer and conditional gift of Christ Pardon Justification and Salvation is no mercy nor from any love of God to
Universal Redemption OF Mankind BY THE Lord Jesus Christ Stated and Cleared by the late Learned Mr. Richard Baxter Whereunto is added a short Account of Special Redemption by the same Author 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and â—ose again Mors Christi in Sacra Scripturâ— proponitur ut Universale remedium omnibus singulis hominibus exordinatione Dei naturà rei ad salutem applicabile Davenant de morte Christi LONDON Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising-Sun in Cornhill 1694. THE Epistle Dedicatory To the Honoured Thomas Foley Paul Foley Phillip Foley and William Jolliff Esquires Worthy Sirs MY particular Relation to your Honoured Father my Worthy Patron and Benefactor as also to Mr. Baxter the Author of these ensuing Disputations whom I cannot but own as a Spiritual Father to me and the best Friend I had in the World gives me occasion to prefix your Names to this Book Not to flatter you though I truly honour you for your Faithfulness Courage and Constancy in asserting the Rights of Religion and Property in opposition to the prophane and mercenary designs of such as appeared against them but that by their Example I may invite you to go on in filling up the measure of your Fathers Vertues and in following the Counsels of such a Minister of Christ whose gifts and graces gave him the preeminence amongst his Suffering Brethren and made him more than a Bishop even of the first Magnitude to the Inferiour Clergy Your Father is dead long since and Mr. Baxter is dead also But the Memory of the Just is blessed whereas the name of the Wicked shall rot The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance We cannot easily forget such Persons whose good works and great labours for publick good have left them a Name better than of Sons and Daughters A numerous Posterity is a great Blessing a Holy Seed much greater that the Blessing upon both accounts may be entailed upon you and yours to many Generations is the hearty desire of Yours in the Service of Christ JOSEPH READ READER June 27. 1694. HAving been assured from Mr. Baxter himself both by word and writeing that he had given this his Treatise in Manuscript of Universal Redemption c. to Mr. Joseph Read the now Publisher thereof and having seen some of the Manuscript it self whilst it was printing off and knowing it to be Mr. Baxter's own hand writing I do at Mr. Read's request assure thee that this is the Treatise upon that Subject which hath been so long desired and expected by the World from the Author thereof Mr. R. B. And I cannot doubt but that an Impartial and observant Reading thereof will quickly discover that acumen of judgment which will evince it to be his Thine in the best of Bonds and Services MAT. SYLVESTER To the READER IT is necessary that I give some Account how these Disputations with many others came to my hands and of their Publication Being sent to Cambridge by Mr. Baxter be was pleased at my return from thence to receive me into his Family and to make use of me as his Assistant at my first entrance into the Ministry Anno 1657. in Kidderminster the place of my Birth Some of the first work he put me upon was to transcribe these Papers of Redemption which he designed for the Press The Ministers of Worcestershire and Neighbourhood thereabouts who usually attended on his Thursday Lecture and heard these Disputations at their Monthly Meeting were generally desirous to have them Printed Mr. B. had long since raised their expectation thereof by declaring his intention of it in Print At last though long first viz. July 17. 1691. he gave them to me signifying his willingness to have them Printed If any Person question whether he wrote and fitted these Sheets for the Press I shall readily satisfie him by producing the Original of his own hand writing as well as the Copy thereof wrote by me at least 38 years since If these Disputations of Redemption find acceptance which I see no cause to doubt of I shall be thereby incouraged to Print the rest or such of them as may be thought most useful It was a great word of Bishop Wilkins that Mr. Baxter had cultivated every Subject he handled read this Subject of Redemption and judge whether there be not cause to say so of it if he had lived in the Primitive times he had been one of the Fathers of the Church And again It was enough saith he for one Age to produce such a Person as Mr. Baxter But his works praise him much more than the Tongues or Pens of the greatest Doctors or best of Men can do There is therefore no need of Letters of Recommendation to set forth the excellence of this Work or the Praises of the Author thereof Let it suffice to assure the Reader that this Disputation of Universal Redemption was composed by him in the strength of his day about the 40th year of his Age when the opposition of the Learned of differing Opinions had sharpen'd his Pen and made him critically exact in considering what he intended for the Press That which I earnestly desire is that young Ministers and especially all Candidates for the Ministry would put on humbleness of mind and set themselves at the feet of this Great Man as Learners and then through the Divine Blessing I doubt not but their profiting will appear unto all men And let those of different Judgment from him but remember that Mr. Baxter now dead is as much above their clamorous censures as while living he was their Superiour in his Gifts and Graces Had the one or the other but known Mr. Baxter as well as others of his familiar Friends his Works would be highly valued by them or at least his unspotted Holiness and great Charity would so far have conciliated their minds and engaged their affections as to love and honour his memory and imitate his Life which we impatiently wait for an account of from another band being now ready for the Press May every Minister but have that Book when Printed and lay aside prejudice so far at least as calmly to read it and then I may with confidence expect not only that humble Learners but the greatest Scholars will be as desirous of acquaintance with his Works as ever Usher Gataker Vines and many others of the best of men were admirers of his Personal worth and desirous of his Converse and Company If any shall be so far dissatisfied with the Title and Subject of the Book as to throw it aside I only desire they would seriously think of those words p. 286. When God saith so expresly that Christ dyed for all and tasted death for every man and is the Ransom
in our dispute yet with those that are contentious and will needs insist on the supposed advantage which the state of Indians and other Pagans and their Infants do afford them I shall though unwillingly proceed further rather than prejudice the Truth But the greatest Ambiguity in our Question is in the term For. This proposition here may admit of divers Senses Sometime Christ is said to Die For our Sins Sometimes To Die For us When he is said to Die For our Sins it may be understood 1. Either for our Sins as the pro Meritorious procuring Cause of his Suffering through his own undertaking to bear what they deserved Or if any think it fitter to call them the Occasion than the Meritorious Cause they may And so to Die For our Sins is to Die through the Desert of our Sins 2. Or else he may be said to Die For our Sins Finalitèr as Sin is part of the Evil which he intended through death to free us from And so to Die For Sin is To Die against Sin As when we say This Medicine is good For such a Disease we mean it is good against it When Christ is said to Die For us it may be meant either 1. Subjectivè that he Died Loco nosiro of which more anon 2. Or Finaliter And that two ways 1. Either as we are to be his own in propriety and so 1. To be a means to his own glory 2. Or his Propriety a means to our further good And thus he dyeth For Men by way of purchase as a Man gives a Price For a Slave or Condemned Malefactor for I will not say as we buy a Beast in the Market seeing that is only for our selves and not for the good of the Beast 2. Or else more directly as we are the Finis Cui of those benefits which by his Death he procureth And so Dying For us is either taken generally respecting our selves generally considered as the Objects of his love As one Friend or Lover is said to Die for the sake of another in several Cases as in fighting for him or other way of signifying or testifying Love So generally considered Christ Died nostri gratiâ 2. Or in reference to the special Benefits which by his Death he procured for us Which Benefits might be variously considered either 1. As to be offered or to be enjoyed 2. Either quoad possibilitatem vel quoad futuritionem possessionis 3. Quoad rem ipsam vel quoad Jus ad rem with divers other Considerations which I will pass by lest by needless distinguishing I should rather obscure the point than clear it Only before I can go any farther I must needs lay down a few Distinctions which are of great moment and necessity for the right understanding of this matter 1. And first and above all we must both distinguish between the divers Effects or Ends of Christs Death and rightly consider the Reason and the Order of each of them For to know only in general that Christ dyed for us is so far from being a sufficient knowledge for a Divine that it is not sufficient to denominate a man a Christian seeing it saith no more of Christ than may be said of Stephen Peter Paul or one another For we must if called to it die for one another saith John 1 Epist 3. 16. Yet I confess the right ordering of this whole work in our Conceivings is a matter of great difficulty though of great moment At the present time will permit me only to give you this brief Account of my thoughts herein I Consider 1. What Christ did 2. Why he did it 1. That which he did was 1. In sensu Naturali to Suffer and Die 2. In sensu Legali vel Morali It was 1. In General to be Punished 2. In Special it was A voluntary bearing in the person of a Mediator in the stead of fallen Mankind that punishment in weight which for their Sin the Law of works Obliged them to bear Or to speak in the Scripture phrase which it were well if men had been contented with it is the offering himself a Sacrifice for Sin and so to take them away as a Ransom for Attonement and Propitiation 2. Why Christ did this must be answered from the Efficient and Final Causes In general Gods will is the Principal Efficient and Ultimate Final Cause of this and all things More particularly 1. God was the Author or first Cause in committing this work to his Son and sending him to do it 2. Gods Mercy and Compassion speaking after the manner of Men was the Impulsive Cause 3. Mans misery was the Occasion 4. Mans sin was another occasion as being loco Causae Meritoriae for properly there was no Meritorious Cause 5. The Laws Curse or Obligation was another occasion as being Miseriae Causa removenda 6. Christs Voluntary Sponsion or Consent was the Moral Obliging Cause supplying the place both of a Meritorious and of a Legal Obliging Cause 7. Christ himself was the Voluntary Patient 8. God himself was the Principal moral Efficient so far as it had rationem boni For he cannot be a morally deficient Cause nor an Efficient of Punishment so far as it hath in it rationem veri mali 9. Satan was the Principal Author of it as it was Evil. 10. Wicked men were the Instruments 2. And for the Ends there is two ways of discerning and expressing them The 1. is according to Gods order of Intention The 2. accordding to His Order of Attainment and Execution 1. The former is less fit for our observation both because we are utterly uncertain whether it be fully and wholly revealed seeing God may have End◠which he judgeth not fit to communicate to us and where it is not revealed either 1. By Scripture or 2. By Event it is impossible we should know it 2. And because when we do see Events yet we are so vastly distant from God and exceeding strange to his unconceivable unexpressible Nature that we know not what hath the place of an End and what of a means in the Divine Intention farther than He hath told us Nor know what Gods intention is the term being properly appliable only to Creatures and no term of Human Language in strict propriety appliable to the Nature of God But this much the Scripture Revealeth to us 1. That in the sense as God may be said to have an end Gods proper ultimate end is himself He made all things for himself and can have no lower end than himself But how himself is his end is hard to open If we say his Being as such is his End or that his Essential Glory is his End we do but darken the matter and lose our selves For neither Redemption nor any other work can either cause conserve or add to that Being and Glory If we say His Glory in the Esteem of the Creature is his utmost End we suppose him to have an End Infinitely below himself If you say that
the Communication of himself to his Creature is his End either you speak of the Acts of Communication as in God and so it is himself as before expressed Efficiently and not Finally Considered Or else you speak of the form produced by it or as received by the Creature and so it is quid Creatum extra Naturam Divinam and too low to be his End I conclude therefore that man is uncapable of a clear and full conceiving of the Nature of Gods End or Intending But the conception and expression which I judge to be most favoured by Scripture and Reason is That Gods will is the Beginning and End of all things Whatsoever pleased him that did he And when he hath done it the pleasing him is his End And therefore he Rested after the work of Creation and expresseth himself well pleased by and in his Son in the work of Redemption as seeing his work in both to be very good and therefore instituted a day of Rest in Commemoration of both The term Rest expresseth the End and his Well-pleasedness Content or Will is his Rest and so his End And in this sense God himself is his own End and indeed this Pleasing him should be Mans End also 2. But besides this Ultimate End though properly God can have no End but himself yet there are some means so closely conjunct with this End as being the immediate matter of Gods Approbation Delight that they may not unfitly be called Gods secondary or less principal ends themselves especially we may so say in regard of Christs intentions who is Man as well as God And these are 1. The Glory or Image or Perfections of God as appearing in all his works thus his own Power and Wisdom and Goodness there shining forth is that Glory in which he is well-pleased and which he loveth And thus the Glory of God is materially only or objectively his utmost End as that in which his Will doth Rest 2. The Glorifying of the Mediator in his Human Nature and his full satisfaction and content in the fruits of his Redemption 3. The Glory and Happiness of his Elect who are his Body 4. Their Everlasting perfect Praises of God loving him and rejoycing in him 5. And even in this Life the Just Wise Merciful Administrations of the Mediator in his Kingdom and the imperfect Deliverance and Holiness of the Saints and the glory that redounds to God hereby may not unfitly be said to be the Ends of the Redeemer But I will meddle with this Order of Intention no farther as intending God willing to speak more fully and accurately of that Question de ordine decretorum de fine de mediis in a fitter place 2. But let us consider of the Order of these Ends as Executed I mean of the Effects of Christs Death And they are 1. Such as immediatly follow it as it is the Discharge of the Sufferers undertaking being indeed 1. Part of his Work in its Moral Consideration 2. Or else the immediate results of that Discharge These are 1. That Christs Death doth demonstrate Gods justice and hatred of Sin 2. In it an Example is given for the deterring of Offenders 3. And for preserving the Lawgiver and the Law from contempt 4. And a demonstration made of unspeakable Love to Men. 5. And in and by these 1. The Lawgiver satisfied 2. And the chief Ends of the Law are attained though we cannot strictly say that the Law it self is satisfied because its sense and nearest end is not fulfilled Thus satisfaction of Justice is the sum of these most immediate Effects And the whole work together may well be called A Satisfactory Penalty 2. Satisfaction being thus made there are immediately hereupon several Relative Effects resulting from it Whereof some are from the Nature of the Work supposing that which is called The Covenant between the Father and the Son that is Gods Acceptation And some are given as it were by way of Retribution or in Communication to Christ for his satisfaction Of the first sort are these 1. Christ himself is now free from his Voluntary obligation to suffer In the same sense as he was before made Sin he is now Justified and upon his Resurrection declared just He oweth no more nor can any more be required of him 2. The Father therefore doth give him an Acquittance and acknowledgeth the satisfaction proclaiming himself well-pleased in his Son 3. And hereby is Christ become Conquerour over Death and Him who had the Power of Death even the Devil Supposing his Resurrection 2. Satisfaction is so pleasing to God that upon the giving thereof the work becomes Meritorious of Reward to the satisfier 1. Because it was not Due from Him nor Compelled but voluntary 2. Because though God be not capable of receiving good yet it was from his own earnest desire which he was moved to by Compassion to Man and so it was reputative in bonum Dei as being pleasing to him The things given to the Satisfier by way of Retribution are 1. Some directly to himself as necessary to the Ends of Redemption 2. Some for the Sinners in whose stead he suffered To himself is given 1. Something to be received before the End and Delivering up of the Kingdom and something after Before he Received 1. Real the glorifying of his person 2. Relative Fruits Novum jus Dominii a full Propriety in the Creature as his own which he bought And that is 1. Over Mankind whom he Redeemed 2. And all the Creatures as they may be serviceable to his Ends. By his Propriety in Man he hath Power 1. To use what means he seeth meet to perswade them to himself Either 1. External 1. As the Word or 2. Works 2. Or Internal by his Spirit and their Conscience 2. And to succeed the means By his Propriety in other Creatures he hath Power to dispose of 1. Persons both 1. Angels and 2. Enemies as Devils and 2. Things As 1. Creatures 2. Actions and Thoughts so as many serve his Ends of Redemption 2. Beside this Propriety he hath Novum Jus Imperii and is become Rector of the Rational Creature whom he Redeemed This is partly consequential to his Jus Dominii For every Man hath Power to Rule his Own according to its Capacity By this Rectorship Christ hath Power 1. To Determine both 1. What shall be Due from Man 2. And What shall be Due to him Which he doth 1. By making Laws de novo 2. And disposing of the Old at his pleasure And as he hath this power of the Laws So 2. Of their Execution 1. By Sentence 2. And by the Execution of the Sentence Thus much of that which Christ himself was to receive for his satisfaction in this time before the End 2. After the End he was further to receive 1. The continuation or perpetuating of his Personal Glory and Blessedness 2. A full Content in the perfect accomplishment of his work 1. In the just Destruction of his
Christs Dying for one man cannot procure these great benefits to another It cannot have causality as to such an effect God doth not forgive Thomas because Christ Dyed for Peter 2. A non necessitate There was a necessity of Christs Death as is before proved to the procuring of this pardon But there was no necessity for procuring pardon to one man that Christ should Die for another therefore the necessity was that he Dyed for the person himself 3. If Christs Death were not necessary to the conditional pardoning of the Non-elect but that God doth it without Christs Dying for them then it was not necessary for the conditional pardoning of the Elect but God might have done it without Christs Dying for them But the Consequent is â—alse therefore so is the Antecedent The Major is plain in that there is the same reason both as to their Sin and Case and Remission 1. The Sins of the Elect did not differ from â—hose of the Non-elect so as that they more â—eeded a satisfactory Expiation 2 They were both under the same Law â—urse and Wrath of God 3. The Deed of Gift or Promise which reâ—itteth one is the same with that which remitteth the other The Minor is plain for if any â—ould say that without Christs Death God â—ight conditionally have pardoned all Elect and Non-elect but not Actually I Answer 1. Then Christ should Die only to purchase Faith which is false For God doth perform no new act to make the conditional Gift become actual but only the giving of Grace to believe and so perform the condition 2. Then God might have made this new Law and Covenant of Grace Believe and be pardoned and saved or Whosoever will let him take the Water of Life freely without any expiatory Sacrifice or Satisfaction by Christ which 1. So contradicteth it self seeing the thing given is a Dead revived Saviour with his Benefits and therefore it cannot be given which is not 2. And so subverteth Christianity it self that I think I need not spend more words on it Only I add this which is of considerable moment that on the contrary the great necessity and ends of Christs Death are in respect to God as Rector per leges and not as Dominus absolutus or benefactor merè arbitrarius God received no addition of Love or Goodwill nor of Wisdom or Natural Power by Christs Death But he received a Reparation of his honour as Legislator and a Moral Power consisting in Convenientâ— rei efficiendae to pardon sin by making a general act of pardon to all that will accept the Redeemer and his Benefits So that the proper use of Christs Death was to be an Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin offered to God as the offended Rector And therefore the New Law or Covenant of Grace which followeth hereupon giving Christ and Pardon to all that will Receive him must needs be the proper effect of Christs Death Whereas Faith is given rather by God as Dominus Absolutuâ— arbitrarily doing good to his Creature then as Legislator and is said to be purchased by Christs Death but in a more remote sense as shall anon be shewed so that to deny this Conditional Gift Covenant or Promise to be the fruit of Christs satisfaction is to deny a very great part of the fruit of it and tantum non to make Christ to dye in vain The Consequence needs no proof Therefore I pass to the next Arg. II. If God do offer by his Word and Messengers Remission Justification Adoption and Right to Glorification to all Elect and Non-Elect then Christ hath satisfied for all But God doth so offer these to All Ergo c. A Remissione Salute omnibus Oblatis The former Argument was drawn from the Gift and this is drawn from the Offer which though it be inseparable from the former and so implyed in the former Argument yet I shall annex it because of them who deny the Conditional Gift but confess the Offer The Antecedent I think few will question as to All who hear the Gospel and God as Legislator hath done his part in offering it to those that yet â—eâ—er heard it 1. In making the Tenour of the promise or Offer of Universal extent 2. And in Commanding his Officers to go into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature The Consequent is proved thus 1. The Pardon offered is either a Pardon purchased by Christs Satisfaction for them to whom it is offered or else procured some other way But there is no other way of procurement Ergo c. 1. Not without Christs Blood as is proved 2. Not by Christ's Blood as shed for others as is proved Object But it is by his Blood as shed for all that will Believe Ans 1. Believing is not the Condition of Christs Dying for us but of our participation of the benefits thereby purchased not of the Impetration but of part of the Application Christ never said If men or this man will Believe I will dye for them But If thou Believe thou shalt be justified and saved by him that hath died for thee Belief is not presupposed as the Qualification of the subject for whom Christ must dye but is required after and given freely to his chosen for the further Application of his Death 2. His dying for them that will Believe was either for certain determinate persons who should Believe or else without a determination of the persons If the latter only then he died certainly for none If the former then his dying for one man would not procure pardon for another 2. God doth not offer that which he cannot give for his offer is a gift on condition of Acceptance and we must not dare to charge God with illusory or ludicrous actions But God cannot give Pardon and Justification and Right to Salvation to any sinful man for whom Christ never satisfied When I say God cannot I mean not that he cannot for want of Power but because of his Wisdom Goodness and Justice He cannot being Rector of the World do that which is so Inconvenient and such a Monster in Government and so destructive to the ends of his Government All grant that quoad potentiam ordinatam now he cannot that is He will not If God may give these to one man yea to All the Non-Elect to whom they are offered without Christs satisfaction procuring them then he may do so by all but that is not true Ergo c. Object But iâ— men will Believe God Can and Will give them what he offers Answ This Objection supposeth the Believing of that person for whom Christ died not or else it changeth the subject of the question For the Question now is Whether God can give Pardon to a Man for whom Christ hath not satisfyed And it is hereby answered that He can if that man Believe To which I reply that he cannot or will not supposing that such a Man should believe For it is Christs Death that is
all materially then it was more than was sufficient for the Redemption of the Elect. Our Divines generally disclaim and exclaim against that presumptuous fancy of the Fryers that say Minima guttula sanguinis Christi sufficeret ad redimendos mille mundos Vid. Parker de Descens l. 3. p. 107 108. And I meet yet with few that like John Geodwins conceit of the sufficiency of Christs meer willingness and readiness to suffer without any actual suffering They that say the same degree of suffering is sufficient for a thousand men as for one may as well say next that one sigh or groan or one drop of Christs Blood had been sufficient for all And next they may as well say it had been sufficient though he had only been willing to suffer and next that his suffering was needless Socinianism if not Infidelity may easily creep in at this Gap 3. And as thus it is evident that Christs suffering for some had been enough to have redeemed all doth make him to suffer in vain as to the proper end of his suffering viz. Expiation of Sin so they that go this way have not yet shewed us to what other end or use such great sufferings of Christ were necessary And till they have done that we must take it as if they charged Christ with suffering in vain 4. Moreover the consequence is fully granted by themselves For they accuse those that maintain Universal Satisfaction as making Christ to suffer in vain if he suffered for those that after perish though we can easily repel that vain objection by shewing them many excellent ends and effects of those his sufferings How much more evidently do they themselves make him suffer in vain that feign him to have suffered the same degree of Punishment even enough for all the World when yet they say he suffered it not so much as in the stead of all nor as any satisfaction for their sins We say his Death was for all in some kind and therefore not vain They say it was for them in no kind and yet enough for them and therefore he suffered Superfluously Arg. 11th Ab absurdo injuriâ contra Justitiam Divinam If Christ suffered enough for to have been a satisfaction for all and yet not for all then God did inflict on him more sufferings than were due to him But God did not inflict on Christ more sufferings than were due Ergo c. He that denyeth the Minor doth directly accuse God of injustice The consequence of the Major is proved thus He that inflicteth that or requireth as much for the Sins of the Elect only as is due for the sins of all the World doth inflict and require more than is due for there is not so much due for the sins of the Elect only as for the sins of all the World But thus they suppose God to have done which is not to be supposed Ergo c. They that will fly from the force of these Arguments by flat denying even the Material and Hypothetical sufficiency of Christs satisfaction for all men will fall under many and great inconveniencies before intimated and also under the force of this next Argument Read my Answer to their Fourth Argument asserted Arg. 12th Ab injuriosa negatione Passionum Christi It is very injurious to Christ for men to extenuate or deny his sufferings but so do they that deny that he hath satisfied for all men Ergo c. When God hath laid upon him the Iniquity of us all and he hath born the sins of the whole World and was a Propitiation for them doth not that man vilifie that I say not blaspheme his sufferings who shall say it is not so he bore the Sins but of the few that are chosen he suffered no more than was due to them he paid no more than would discharge their Debt If he that denyeth all Christs satisfaction do sin so damnably then sure he that denyeth the greatest part both of his satisfaction formally and his suffering materially doth not lightly offend If he should sin so hainously that should deny God to be Creator of the greater part of the World and so rob him of the honour of the most of his Workmanship then it cannot be a trifle to deny the greatest part of Christs sufferings and satisfaction and so rob him of so much of the honour of the work of Redemption by the extenuation of his sufferings For God hath set up the work of Redemption as that wherein he expecteth to be as much honoured as in the work of Creation Suppose the Kings Messengers Mat. 22. should have told those whom they invited Though we are commanded to invite you all to the Wedding yet the truth is there is not half provision enough made ready for you all if you should come but yet we are commanded to perswade you all because the King knows your minds that you will not come should these Messengers have deserved thanks for such a Message Arg. 13. A Debito Amoris gratitudinis erga Redemptorem If all Men do owe Love and thankfulness to Christ for his satisfying for their Sins and for the Fruits of that satisfaction then he hath satisfied for all But all Men do owe him love and thankfulness c. ergo c. I mean all Men that hear of Christ are bound to love him as Redeemer and be thankful to him for making satisfaction for them and those that never heard of him are bound to love Deum Miserecordem God as merciful to them and to be thankful for those mercies which are the Fruits of Christs Death The Antecedent hath two Parts 1. That all are bound to love and gratitude 2. That they owe these for Christs dying for them And as to the debt it self I hope few Christians will deny it For if they do 1. They will deny a great part of the Law of Christ and if such a curse be denounced against him that addeth or diminisheth as to the Law of ceremonies what shall be due to him that wipeth out so great a part of the Gospel at a dash 2. It is plainly High Treason to discharge so many of Christs Subjects of their Allegiance or of the chief part of their duty even Love and Gratitude His Subjects I may call them though Rebellious because though they acknowledg him not or not sincerely yet he is their rightful Lord. 3. It is notorious compliance with Satan to say Duty is no Duty and that so great Duties as these and that Sin is no Sin and that such hainous Sins 4. If tendeth most desperately to the Damnation of Souls by drawing them to neglect these duties and hardening them in impenitency when they have done For if it be no duty to Love Christ for Redeeming them and to be thankful for it then it is no Sin not to love him and not to be thankful and if it be no Sin they need not repent of it 5. They will wickedly justifie
Men from the Accusation of the guilt of these Sins at the Bar of Christ and dare any that now boldly maintain this cause in dispute undertake to justifie and vindicate them at Judgment and prove that it was never their duty to love Christ or be thankful to him for Redeeming them and therefore that it was not their Sin that they did it not This will be a harder task then it is now to find a flourish of words which seem to prove it 6. And worse then all this They will condemn Christ for condemning them for these Sins When he hath sentenced them Go you cursed For not loving him and shewing it to his Members Mat. 25. And pronounced that Man Anathema Maranatha that loves not the Lord Jesus if these Men can prove that it was none of their duty then they must accuse Christ and his Law of injustice and condemn his condemnatory sentence 2. And as they owe Christ this Love and Gratitude so the thing that they owe it for is his Redeeming them or dying in their stead or satisfying for their Sin For 1. It is doubtless that they owe it him not only as Creator but as Redeemer and if so it is either for Redeeming others or themselves Not only for Redeeming others For 1. The nature of gratitude is to respect some benefits that our selves receive either in our own Persons or in those whose welfare is part of ours And 2. Man is naturally so near to himself and the love of himself so deeply rooted by God in his nature that he naturally looks at himself before others and values things as they respect himself 3. Others good is no mercy to us further then we participate with them in the benefit Yea Divines generally conclude that it will be so far from comforting the damned to see that the Godly are in Heaven that it will encrease their torment 4. Else it would lay no greater an obligation on these Men to love Christ and be thankful to him than it doth on the Devils that Men are redeemed or than they owe God that the good Angels are preserved while themselves are condemned 5. Scripture not only alloweth Men to love and be thankful in reference to our selves even for that which is good to us but shews it to be our duty and the nature of those affections and that for our own mercies received we are obliged hereto 2 Thes 2. 10 Men are forsaken and damned for not receiving the love of the Truth that they might be saved How oft are the Israelites all of them Commanded to love the Lord with all their Hearts as their Redeemer from Egypt which was both an effect and Type of Christs work of Redemption Deut. 6. 5. and 10. 12. and 11. 1 13 22. and 19. 9. and 30. 16. 20. Yea all Gods mercies as well as this deliverance from Egypt is made in divers of these Texts the motive that should provoke them to love and thankfulness And doubtless these are all effects of the Death of Christ for them To love for love and for benefits is that which Sinners do Luk. 6. 32. Not as Sinners but from the common humanity that is left in them We love him because he first loved us 1 Job 4. 19. This because is not meant only Effectivè but also objectivè as to Gods love The first love of the Soul to Christ cannot be moved from the knowledg of Christs special love to the Soul For 1. Love accompanieth justifying Faith in the same moment And indeed in some Sense is part of it And doth not stay till the Soul discern his own believing and thence discern Gods special love 2. There is a love of desire which goes before the knowledg of Gods special love 3. Many a poor Christian loves Christ long before they know the special love of Christ And therefore this first sincere love must needs be raised from the apprehension of Christs excellency as to us and his general love to mankind Which can be no other then that which is manifested in their Redemption Object Wicked Men are bound first to believe and thtn to love when they know by their believing that Christ died for them Ans They are bound immediately in the same instant to love Christ as to believe and not to delay their love till they try their Faith or by discerning it get assurance of Gods favour They are bound to accept Christ as good for them when he is offered them And that acceptance is essentially love as it is said to be in the rational appetite He that loveth not truly believeth not truly And how can any Man prove Gods special love by the evidence of a false Faith Must Men first believe without love that by the Mark of such a Faith they may have ground for love That will be a deceitful ground as it is a deceitfull Mark Object At least Men are bound to be humbled first and believe that there is no other name under Heaven but Christs by which they can be saved and then to rest on him and love him Ans This is answered before If the humiliation and Assent that they mention be proper to the Regenerate and so be a true note of Gods special love 1. Then it will follow that other Graces go before that Faith which unites us to Christ Which few will grant 2. Then Men must find special Marks Antecedent to Faith that from thence they may gather a warrant to believe Which is false Doctrine I think in the judgment of all 2. But if these Antecedent Acts be common and such as reprobates also may perform then either every Man that performs them is bound to love Christ as his Redeemer And to rest on him for pardon Or only some If every Man then some reprobates are bound to love Christ as their Redeemer And to rest on him for pardon by his Blood-shed for them And to be thankful for his satisfaction And then certainly Christ did Redeem them by satisfying for them If but some then how shall any Man know that he is one of them So that I think I may conclude that they that deny universal satisfaction by Christs bloodshed do leave Men no ground for their first special love to Christ as Redeemer For that first love must be raised upon the knowledg of Christs general love and mercy or be groundless Seeing there is no knowledg of special love and Mercy Antecedent Object But how can the knowledg of Christs common love cause in us a special love to him Then we must love him first with a special love Ans Christ hath a special love to us before we have a special love to him But we cannot know it and therefore cannot love him for it His special love is the efficient cause of our love to him but not the objective or moving cause of our first love The love of Christ is not the less because its manifestation is general And therefore that glorious mercy of general
satisfaction though common not only may be but is the ground or motive of our first special love if it be orderly and rightly raised though Christs special love be the efficient Object Then none do love God a right at first but those that hold Universal Redemption Ans 1. Yet they may love him sincerely though they are brought to it through the fault of their Teachers in a disadvantageous and disorderly way 2. Young Converts are not used so soon to be troubled with the Controversy of Universal Redemption 3. I have known few in my observation but at their first closing with Christ they have had the same judgment of the Universality of Christs satisfaction so as to be sufficient for all Sinners and wanting only their own Faith to make it effectual to Remission which I plead for 4. It is the usual way of Preachers in their popular Sermons to speak far more soundly in these points then in their disputations And indeed their way of Preaching for the Conversion of Sinners doth plainly intimate Universal satisfaction For they use to lay all the blame on the Wills of Sinners and justly as that only which can deprive them of the benefits of Christs sufferings and to urge them to accept him and to let them know that their case is not left remediless and desperate Yea and to tell them plainly that Christs Death is sufficient for all to pardon all their Sins be they never so many or great and if they will believe they shall have the Fruits of it Which is in other words to say Christ hath satisfied for all So that upon these right grounds they use to bring Men to believe and love Christ at the first and then they must have some longer time before they can pervert them again by working out these apprehensions and acquainting them that Christ hath not satisfied for all but for the Elect only Object Mens first love to Christ is not to him for what he hath done but for what he can do for us and as he is to us a desirable good because it is but Amor Concupiscentiae Ans It is also a love of gratitude And all the good that we can expect from him for the future or desire him for is but the fruit of what he hath done for us already and therefore presupposeth it And he that looketh for Mercy from Christ as not procured by his satisfactory sufferings knows not the Gospel nor what he expecteth The Gospel at its first Preaching is glad tidings and brings news first of what Christ hath done for Men and next of what he will further do Object But it is not for Dying for me in particular that I am first obliged to love Christ but for paying a sufficient price Ans 1. If by For me in particular you mean more for me then others I grant it But it is for dying and satisfying for fallen Mankind in general of whom I am a Member 2. I have shewed that according to this New Doctrin Christs Death is not sufficient to pardon all if they did repent nor formally a sufficient price but only materially or Aptitudinally sufficient to have been a price Now that this can engage any to love or thankfulness is past my reach to apprehend For it is not a benefit to such as for whom it was no price If 100 Men lie in Prison for debt and one shall pay as much for the debt and discharge often of them as was sufficient to have satisfied for the debts of them all and yet would not pay it for them but rather give it superfluously then that they should have any benefit by it how doth this oblige these Prisoners to love and thankfulness to this Man At least not as any Redeemer or Friend of theirs Rather they will think him envious and an Enemy to them that would rather cast away his Mony Giving for one that which was sufficient for all then they should have any benefit by it Object But it is not for his Death that Men are bound at first to love Christ and be thankful but for the free and general offer of himself and his benesits to them in the Gospel Ans 1. The negative is wicked and Unchristian 2. The part affirmed is a contradiction to their denial of Universal satisfaction For Christ is offered to Men as their Redeemer only And the Word Redeemer signifies 1. One that hath paid a price for them already 2. One that will recover them by the effectual conveyance of his benefits if they accept his offer And the later always implies the former The effect cannot be without its cause He is no Redeemer to them for whom he suffered not And he cannot be a Redeemer to them by Pardon and Salvation for whom he hath not been already a Redeemer by satisfaction And he doth not offer to satisfie for them de futuro a new and therefore the offer certainly proves a general satisfaction as is shewed before 3. And if Christ offer himself to any Men as their Redeemer whom he never did Redeem no nor can Redeem by Remission and Salvation because he hath not first Redeemed them by price and satisfaction charging the refusal upon them to their deep damnation doth this oblige Men to love and gratitude If he procure by his Death no possibility of their Salvation but induce a necessity of their deep condemnation If he offer them the benefits of a death never suffered for them that is effects without their cause and which he cannot give them and destroy them for not receiving them Is this all the obligation Object But it is the Law of God that obligeth them to love and gratitude And therefore they are obliged though Christ be none of their Redeemer and though his Death were not a benefit to them Ans 1. These are duties that result ex natura rei viz. boni oblati beneficii â—ollati and so from the Law of nature and not from a meer positive Law Love and gratitude are not ceremonies and therefore where the nature of the thing obligeth not there is no obligation 2. There must be an objective cause of love and gratitude as well as an efficient and exemplary cause And therefore our question is only of the objective cause God doth not alter the nature of love and gratitude by commanding them He doth not command love that hath not good for its object for there is no such thing in rerum natura nor doth he command a gratitude that is not for a benefit Object But it is unknown to them whether Christ died for them or not For ought they know he did And therefore they are bound to love and gratitude Ans 1. An unknown benefit bindeth not to love and thankfulness 2. It is Real favours and not feigned that Christ obligeth Men by As it is real love and thanks and not feigned that he expecteth from them 3. Else that common love and thankfulness which the Non-elect
Workmanship But he loveth man after his Faith and Love to him as Rector per Leges as putting on the resemblance of goodness and justice in civil Sense and as he now stands in that Relation to them in which he is by his own Law as it were obliged to do them good Note this difference of Christs love Prov. 8. 17. I love those that love me and those that seek me early shall find me So ver 21. Luke 7. 47. Many sins are forgiven for she loved much If it be meant therefore she loved much yet it would not make against this From John 3. 19. I argue thus If men are condemned for loving darkness rather than Light and Christ is this Light then they were obliged to love Christ the Light But c. Ergo c. And I have shewed it is as Redeemer that he must be loved For to Love Christ as an excellent Prophet only that a Turk may do for Mahomet so confesseth him to be Mat. 10. 37. It is Christs condition propounded to all That if they love not him better than Father Mother House Land or Life they cannot be his Disciples So that those that are not yet his Disciples are obliged at once to love him above all and become his Disciples 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha And then more specially for Gratitude because I have hitherto insisted on the other species Love there are many Parables in the Gospel that shew that wicked men are condemned for ingratitude to their Redeemer Mat. 21. 37 40. c. Christ convinceth his Auditors that those unthankful Husband-men that refused to pay the Fruits and killed the Son that was sent to them he was sent to be entertained as Redeemer would deservedly be destroyed with a miserable destruction and the Vineyard let out to others i. e. that the Kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof And what is that Kingdom here meant but the Gospel The proclaiming and offer of Christ as Redeemer and of mercy in and with him Mat. 22. 8. It is unthankful refusal of the feast prepared when all things were ready and they invited which was the unworthiness that there is mentioned which shut out those Guests Mat. 18. 32. Unthankfulness is intimamated as part of the Sin of that wicked Servant who took his fellow Servant by the throat for 100. Pence when himself had been forgiven 10000 Talents I forgave thee all the debt signifieth such a mercy as Men may have that perish as is plain verse 34. 35. and yet certainly presupposeth Christs dying for them and obligeth them to thankfulness If any ask the sense of the Text I shall give it after by it self more fitly Let me therefore conclude thus That Doccrin which subverteth a very great part of Religion is not of God But so doth this which denieth Universal satisfaction Therefore it is not of God The Minor is proved from what is said It destroyeth the ground of all Mens first love to Christ for Redeeming them It justifieth all the Non-Elect in their ingratitude and not loving Christ as their Redeemer Besides what was said before of its destroying the use of repentance and all Means But we shall recollect more of these consequences in the end and shew you more fully the face of the Doctrin which I dispute against I have proved that all Men that hear the Gospel owe Christ love and thankfulness for Redeeming them by dying for them I should next shew that all Men in the World do owe God love and thankfulness for those mercies which are the effects of Christs satisfaction But especially those within the Church who have in the New Covenant made over to them a conditional remission of their Sins and adoption and everlasting life viz. If they will accept Christ with his benefits Those that are sanctified with the Blood of the Covenant and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost and were escaped from the pollutions of the World through the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and and have tasted the good word of God and the Powers of the World to come c. Certainly these have received the fruits of Christs satisfaction for which they were bound to be thankful But of those more particularly in their place Arg. 14th Acertitudine fidei possibilitate rectè credendi If Christ hath not satisfied for the Sins of all then no Man hath a sufficient ground for his first justifying Faith All Men are left at an utter uncomfortable uncertainty whether they may believe to Justification or not But the consequent is false Therefore so is the Antecedent That which is said before doth shew so much of the grounds of this Argument that I shall be the shorter in it now All the doubt is of the consequence of the Major and to clear that I suppose it is granted that all firm sufficient Faith for justification must not only have a command to warrant it but also a fit object about which it must be exercised God commandeth no Man to believe a falshood to make it become true by believing it nor to trust to a person or promise that is not to be trusted as being not only fallible but certainly will deceive As for the Act of affiance or recumbency commonly called the justifying Act no Man can groundedly or comfortably rest on Christ for justification by his Blood who doth not first know that his Blood was shed for him and hath satisfied for him Else he must rest on that which he knows not to be sufficient for him to rest upon For it hath been proved that Christs death is not sufficient to justifie any for whom it was not suffered though they should believe He suffered not superfluously as I have shewed Take the confession of a Divine that for fear of Arminianism joyned Hands with the Antimonians Maccovius colleg disp de justif disp 5. § 22. Quoad substantiam poenae nihil olus perpessus est Christus quam per legem debebatur Neque enim vel Amor Patris vel etiam justitia permittere potuit plura ut filio imponerentur quam quae illi necessariò tanquam sponsori ferenda erant Quoad circumstantias autem patientis personam patiendi causam passionis efficaciam plusquam sufficiens satisfactio Christi Neque enim lex requirebat ut Deus moreretur neque ut sine peccato proprio quis moreretur neque morstalis quae suffecisset pro peccatis totius mundi sive pro omnibus singulis hominibus Here he confesseth that Christ suffered no more than was due by Law and than was necessary for him to suffer as Sponsor And yet that his Death was sufficient for the Sins of all the World even for all Men and every Man And if so then either he suffered as Sponsor for all Or else circumstances did make that Death sufficient for
all Men to believe in Christ as their Redeemer when they know he redeemed but the smallest part Or to charge them to rest on his Blood for Remission when he knows it was shed for the smaller number and will profit none but those whom it was shed for Yea how can he urge any to rest on Christ at all For till they know they are Elect they know not that Christ died for them according to the opposed Doctrin And till they know that Christ died for them they cannot rest on him as their Redeemer nor on his Blood as sufficient to procure their pardon seeing as is confessed it is but materially and not formally sufficient to pardon them if they should believe And they cannot know that they are Elect or that Christ died for them till they rest on him And therefore I see not how any Minister can press Men groundedly to rest on Christ by a justifying Faith or to accept him as their Lord-Redeemer And then for the duties of repentance Love and Thankfulness to Christ for redeeming them I have shewed before how this Doctrin evacuates them all and so that no Minister can groundedly press them 3. And for the promise how can any Minister in Christs Name assure a sinner of pardon by that Blood which was never shed for him on condition he will believe As if you should say to a Debtor believe that such a Man hath paid thy debt or trust him and then thy debt shall be discharged when you know he hath not paid it or know not that he hath Indeed a Man may come off with some kind of truth in his words if he certainly know that the Party will not believe But the certain knowledg that Men will not believe is not the reason why God calls them to believe and offers them Christ and Life 4. And for the threatening with what Heart can a Minister tell Sinners Christ is a Redeemer but to the Elect yet all the rest of you shall perish for not taking him for your Redeemer and for not resting on that Blood that was never shed for you And that as to the ends of preaching 1. How will the divulging of these glorify God When he hath purposely designed the glorifying of Love and Mercy directly and justice accidentally by this great work of the Redemption of the World and hath unhinged the Sabbath which was for Commemoration of the work of Creation to the first day of the Week for the Commemoration of the Work of Redemption which he will now have admired as his most glorious work which as Ames in the place cited in Argument 18. saith is to the works of Grace the same that Creation is to the works of Nature and so is the ground of Gods New Right of Dominion and Empire and of his governing and judging the World And how is this glory eclipsed by the opposed Doctrin 2. And for Mans Convesiron to the Faith I have shewed how unfurnished a Minister is rightly to endeavour it on the opposed grounds Whereto let me add this The Soul is never closed to Christ sincerely till it close in Love Love â—eing as all Divines say at the same moment of time as Faith produced And as Maccovius before-cited truly saith and so doth Chamier and many more Love to the Redeemer the object of Faith is of the Essence of justifying Faith it self Now it is Love that must cause Love I mean objectively and not only efficienter He cannot close in Love with Christ that knoweth nothing of Christs Love to him though he know it to others so near is Man to himself and Christ is to be received as my Redeemer and not only as another Mans. Now no Man can know that Christ loveth him with a special love before he know that he himself loveth Christ that 's past question And yet no Man can soundly love Christ as Redeemer that knows not Christs love to him What remains therefore but that it must be Christs common love in redeeming the World and making the conditional gift of pardon and Life and this offered to me in particular among others that must first cause my grounded love to Christ Let us see what Scripture saith of the ground of Ministerial duties Math. 22. The work of the Ministers was to invite the Guests and compel them to come in And the ground was all things are ready Else might not the Guests have said If we should come there is nothing for us we may go as we come You do but take this advantage to jeer us because you know our minds that we will not come 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20. The work of Preachers is the Ministry of teconciliation And wherein lies it vers 20. Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye Reconciled to God so then the work of the Ministry is to beseech Men in Christs stead and Gods name to be reconciled to God But on what ground is this verse 19 21. To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of Reconciliation which Text we shall afterwards further explain and vindicate Is there not an absolute necessity that the price of Reconciliation be first paid to God and accepted by him before any Sinner can be intreated to be reconciled to God on the ground of that price paid and accepted Let me desire Ministers seriously to consider with what Face they can stand up in the name of the Lord Jesus to beseech poor Sinners to be reconciled to God and tell them that else they shall be doubly miserable when yet there is no price paid for making them way to God nor Gods justice satisfied for their Sin which is supposed before any of their own endeavours can do any thing towards Reconciliation Let me imagine such a Dialogue as this between such a Teacher and a Sinner Minister Sinner I beseech thee in Christs stead be reconciled to God Sinner I have Sinned so much that he will not be reconciled to me All that I can do will do nothing to bring me again into his favour Min. Christ hath satisfied for all the Elect. Sinner But what 's that to me unless I knew my self to be Elect. M. But Christ hath satisfied for all if they will believe Sinner Did you not tell me he satisfied only for the Elect and that determined by name Either he hath satisfied for me before I believe or not if not my believing will not satisfie nor cause him to do it now If he have how shall I know it Min. You must believe first and then you shall know it afterwards For God hath ordained inseparable connexion between Christs dying for Men and their believing And therefore for all my beseeching you to believe if you be not one that Christ died for you neither will nor can believe for none is able
pardoned and saved the efficacy of Christ's satisfaction is before all possibility of any power or snccess of Man's Faith So in those that perish if they had no price of satisfaction paid for them the want of a Redeemer would be the first want concluding their damnation and non-deliverance from former misery and the want of Faith could be but the secondary consequential want which Faith if it were present would not satisfie or save no more than believing now would save the Devils And thus it is evident that on the grounds opposed the Gospel would causally per â—e unavoidably be the greatest plague on earth to all where it comes except the Elect and not only accidentally by their own Sin Now for the Minor that the Gospel is not so I prove from Scripture it is called the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God Luke 8. 1. Before men are Converted the Apostles say we declare unto you glad tidings Acts 13. 32. 33. The Preachers of it bring glad tidings of good things preaching the Gospel of peace Rom. 10. 15. even the unsanctified receive the word with joy Mat. 13. 20. and not so great joy as they had cause so Mark 4. 16. it is called the Gospel of the grace of God Acts 20. 24. it is a Wedding-Feast even ready for those that would not come to it who are therefore said to be unworthy of it and so it was to him that came without the Wedding garment Mat. 22. if it were not a mercy then Men did not sin against mercy in rejecting it which who dare say It gives men promises of entring into rest who yet by wilful unbelief may come short of it Heb. 4. 1 2 3 c. See 1 Cor. 10. to the 13th God sent Jesus to bless the Jews more than Elect in turning every one of them from his Iniquity Acts 3. last The unthankful Servant had his debt freely pardoned him and that was a mercy who after took his fellow by the throat and by ingratitude lost that pardon which he had It declareth God's tender Mercies over all his works and such mercies as are to lead all men to Repentance Psal 145. 9. Rom. 2. It is good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Acts 2. 10. It freely giveth to all the water of life if they refuse not the gift Rev. 22. It is the Gospel that bringeth Salvation to all men Tit. 12. 11. A hundred Texts might be brought to prove how great a blessing of it self the Gospel is to that People to whom it is given and if it be turned to a Judgment and hurt them it is meerly accidentally through their wilful rejecting it or turning the grace of God into wantonness or sinning because Grace hath abounded and not from any thing in it nor for want of a reality in the benefit which it offereth Arg. 25. A differentiâ status damnatorum viatorum If Christ dyed not for all men then the state of most men all that he dyed not for were as deplorate and remediless as the State of the Damned But the consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The Consequence of the Major proposition is plain in that the state of all men that Christ dyed not for must needs be utterly hopeless and remediless for there is no other satisfaction to be hoped for besides that made by the blood of Jesus and that is nothing to them nor is there any hope or possibility that ever they should have part in a satisfaction that is no satisfaction for them without blood there is no remission If they should believe and repent and pray for mercy night and day it would be but as the Rich Epicure in Hell pray'd for a drop of water all in vain for betwixt God and them is so great a gulf or distance by sin that nothing without a Redeemer can do them any good as to the least hope of Salvation If you say it is not to be supposed that they can believe repent and pray I answer that is in your own sense because it is supposed they are not redeemed and the impossibility of their not repenting and believing shews the more fully the impossibility of their Salvation And the reason why they do not actually despair is not because they have any more remedy than the Damned or cause to hope but only because they are yet ignorant of the hopelesness of their own Condition and as soon as they know the truth they will fully despair So that there is no more possibility that a Man for whom Christ dyed not should be pardoned or saved than that the Damned should for both are equally impossible If any say that God can find out another remedy besides and without Christs satisfaction though he will not and therefore it is not impossible I will not examine the truth of that now but if it be true of them on Earth why not also of them in Hell When once Men are in that state that there is no Sacrifice for their sin then there remaineth nothing but the fearful expectation of Judgment and Fire that shall devour the Adverâ—ary Object But doth not God's foreknowledge and decree make mens Salvation impossible as well as Christs not Dying for them and so your argument is as much against them Answ No They do nihil ponere in Objecto nor are the removal or denyal of any efficient cause of Salvation they infer only Necessitatem Consequentiae they make no Mans Salvation impossible but only prove it not future And as it is not omne Possible that is futurum so neither omne non futurum that is Impossibile And it is agreed that foreknowledge presupposeth the futurition or non futurition of the thing foreknown But there is much more necessary to be said to resolve this doubt which I may not now insist on only I add that the matter of God's Decrees and the futurition of things as depending thereon are so high and so far above us that it becomes us not to be too inquisitive into them much less so peremptorily to determine of them as some do and least of all to try plainer Cases by such determinations and reduce certainties to uncertainties when we should tather reduce uncertainties to certainties And for the Minor that the state of most men even in the Church is not so hopeless deplorate and remediless as is the case of the Damned I prove it thus They might be saved who are yet on Earth if they would but receive the love of the truth 2 Thes 2. 9 10. If they would believe they might all be justified and should not perish but have everlasting life whoever of them will may have the water of Life freely and it is offered them and they intreated to take it and if they have it not it is because they will not and not because there was no object or ground for their willing or no Sacrifice for their sin God offers them pardon and
knowledge shall he perish c. But he nevea saith destroy not him or by thy knowledge shall he perish whom God hath Elected but contrarily Christ saith if it were possible they would deceive the very Elect. 6. We find them that fall away described to be such as were sanctified by the blood of the Covenant but never to be such as were Elected to Salvation And their Sin is aggravated as being a treading under foot the Son of God and putting him to open shame but not as treading under foot Gods Election And their misery is in this that there is no more Sacrifice for Sin but a fearful looking for of Judgment and Fire c. But not that there is no more Election 7. Men are warned to see that they refuse not Christ that speaketh and threatned that they shall not escape if they neglect so great Salvation and they shall speed worse at Judgment than Sodom and Gomorrhah But none are so threatned for sinning against Election nor are they warned to take heed of rejecting it nor is it said how shall we escape if we neglect so great a mercy as Election Also men that unworthily receive the Sacrament are said to eat and drink damnation to themselves and to be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord But no Man that is not Elect is said either to be the cause of his own Non Election or to be guilty of abusing or rejecting his Election 8. Also I find men warned on pain of Damnation to receive Christ as their Redeemer Be they never so wicked it is our office to perswade them to this and therefore to preach the Gospel to every Creature But we are not to command men to take God for their Elector I may not go to all the ignorant prophane men men in the Countrey and charge them to take God for their Elector 9. We must command all men to love Christ as their Redeemer and be thankful to him and in thankfulness to obey him and we may say to them You are not your own you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your Bodies and Spirits for they are his But we cannot perswade all men to love God as their Elector or to be thankful to him for Election or to obey God because he hath chosen them 10. We find Scripture telling us how hardly flesh and blood will digest the Doctrine of predestination and how they will quarrel at Gods chosing one and not another and how God stops their mouths with an answer drawn from his absolute Lordship and Propriety over them as the Potter over the clay he may make them vessels of honour or dishonour and do with his own as he list But we never find any murmurrings of Flesh and Blood that Christ should die for one man and not for another Nor do we find God ever acknowledging any such thing much less giving them a reason from his Absolute Dominion 11. Besides we find God useth to give the reason why men be not saved by Christ from their own wilfulness and rebellious rejecting him This is the cause given why his blood is not applyed to them But when it comes matter of Election or Non-Election the Answer is Oh Man Who art thou that disputest against God So that all these things laid together and considered it seems to me clear that Redemption is a Universal Cause as Creation is and not a thing proper to the Elect only as Gods Election is and that on this Universal Ground of Redemption Christ is entitled the Redeemer of the World and hath founded his jus Dominii imperii his right of Propriety and Government over all even those That will not that he should Reign over them as God was called the Creator of the World because he Created them and on that ground did found his first Title of Dominion and Empire over all the World And that Redemption hath no more an infallible connexion to the Salvation of all the Redeemed as subsequent than Creation hath with the Salvation of all the Created But both Creation and Redemption as they are the means between Election and its End have an infallible connexion with the consequent of the Salvation of the Elect. 2. It is a rule of great use and approved generally by Divines that when texts seem contradictory one to another or several interpretations and opinions are contradictory indeed that we must ever reduce uncertainties to certainties and not contrarily certainties to uncertainties and we must interpret obscure texts by reducing them to the plain ones and not the plain ones by reducing them to the obscure This rule Dr. Sanderson presseth well And Augustine said excellently Shall we deny that which is plain because we cannot comprehend that which is hid and secret Shall we say that is not so which we see to be so because we cannot find why it is so Aug. l. de bono persever c. 14 O that this rule were better observed When God telleth us as plain as can be spoken that Christ died for and tasted death for every man men will deny it and to that end subvert the plain sense of the words meerly because they cannot see how this can stand with Christs damning men and with his special Love to his chosen It is not hard to see the fair and harmonious consistency But what if you cannot see how two plain Truths of the Gospel should agree Will you therefore deny one of them when both are plain Is not that in high pride to prefer your own understandings before the wisdom of the Spirit of God who indicted the Scriptures Should not a humble man rather say doubtless both are true though I cannot reconcile them So others will deny these plain truths because they think that All that Christ died for are certainly Justified and Saved For whomsoever he died and satisfied Justice for them he procured Faith to Believe in him God cannot justly punish those whom Christ hath satisfied for c. But doth the Scripture speak all these or any of these opinions of theirs as plainly as it saith that Christ died for all and every man Doth it say as plainly any where that he died not for all Doth it any where except any one man and say Christ died not for him Doth it say any where that he died only for his Sheep or his Elect and exclude the Non-Elect There is no such word in all the Bible Should not then the certain truths and the plain texts be the Standard to the uncertain points and obscure texts Also Divines generally make it a rule for the Interpretation of Scripture that we must not leave the most obvious plain sense of the words without necessity and clear compelling evidence Now then let them be viewed by any unprejudiced man and let him tell us what is the plain and obvious sense of these foresaid words And for my part I see no necessity of going from that plain sense Some here
all may accept it if they will and then there would be no distribution But because all will not and this is foreknown therefore consequently it is distributive So here and that it is distributive is from the will of Man and the event and other exteriour differencing Causes but not properly from the promise or deed of gift at all except by accident 3. The next words shew what World it is that is here spoken of viz. That which comprizeth men that believe and so are not Condemned and those that believe not which Consideration is consequential and not antecedent to Christ's dying for them and so are Condemned already because they have not believed c. v. 18. They that will affirm a greater restriction in the sense of the word must prove it For though I have proved here the larger sense yet indeed it belongs to them to prove their assertion who recede from the commoner and more extensive sense I shall briefly examine what they say to that end Only I must intreat the Reader that if they compare my Writings with any Book which contains the Reasons which I confute that you would not expect that I should take any notice of any of those strangely-confident Juvenile Triumphant Expressions which some do abound with but that I draw out only the pith of their Arguments and set Reason against Reason and let the heaps of Worldly Rhetorical Gloryings alone Much more must I expect that you will not take me to be engaged to defend any Arminian misinterpretations and weaknesses and to confute what any man saith against them but only that which seems of force against the interpretations or assertions that I my self do maintain The first Reason they give for proving that it is only the Elect that here are called the World is drawn from the Love which is here said to have the World for its object which cannot be common to all but is proper to the Elect. This we deny and they attempt to prove by these five Reasons 1. Say they it is the most transcendent and remarkable Love and therefore proper to the Elect. I must desire the Reader to see this answered afterward in my answer to their interpretation of John 2. It is an Eternal act of God's will Answ But what that is to the purpose I know not 3. It was the cause of sending Christ Answ That 's true it was one cause but how follows the consequence 4. They say that Love which is the cause of giving Christ is always the cause of bestowing all other good things Answ That Love which caused the giving of Christ for the Elect is the cause of giving them all things with him but that love which caused the giving of Christ for all shall not eventually give them all things I refer you to what I shall say anon to Rom. 8. 32. for the full answer to this 5. They say this Love is an assured Fountain of Salvation to all that are beloved with it Answ I deny it if they mean by assured such as shall eventually be saved but say they the issue of this Love being not perishing but obtaining Eternal Life happens only to the Elect Ergo c. Answ The Text speaks of no other effect of this Love but the giving of Christ and the giving of Eternal Life on Condition of believing Now for the former there is a twofold giving of Christ First giving him on the Cross for us Secondly Giving him in the word of Promise to us The Text seems to comprehend both He is given on the Cross for all he is given in the word conditionally to all and so is Eternal Life with him Now though the actual right to Eternal Life and fruition of it be not the portion of all yet that makes no alteration or differencing nature in this Universal Conditional promise it is because one believed and another did not The Promise antecedently to the performance or non-performance of the Condition gave Christ alike to the Elect and non-Elect and Life with him But that some believed rather than others was not from the gift of this Universal Conditional Promise but from another cause even Gods secret decree of Election Their second Reason for proving that by the World is meant only the Elect is because it is the same World that Christ came to save ver 17. but that is only the Elect else God should fail of his intention Answ This is to pervert one Text by perverting another as I shall shew anon when we come to that Text. Their Third Reason is that its usual to call the Elect the World Answ It was a very Pious Judicious Grave Divine that said I profess I cannot find any one clear place where the World must of necessity be taken for the Elect only Ezek. Culverwell in his Answer to Objections against his Treaty of Faith They alledge for what they say these Texts John 4. 42. where Christ is called the Saviour of the World a Saviour of Men not saved is strange Answ So are all things strange to Men till they understand them It 's no more strange than that God Created all Men to Life that Happiness which the first Covenant promised who yet did dye for Sin The Second is John 6. 33 57. which shall be vindicated anon The Third is Rom. 4. 13. Abraham is said by Faith to be Heir of the World which ver 11. is called to be the Father of the Faithful Answ A bold interpretation but here 's no proof nor appearance of any that the Father of the faithful is all one with Heir of the World is too unlikely a thing to be received on a Mans bare word Especially considering that it is proper to Abraham to be Father of all them that believe verse 11. But to be Heir of the World verse 13. is not proper to him For it is said the promise that he should be Heir of the World was not to Abraham or to his Seed through the Law I never read where Abraham is called Heir of the Faithful nor can he so be conveniently called But he is called Heir of the World Therefore by the World is not meant only the Faithful The Next is Rom. 11. 12. If the fall of them be the Riches of the World and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles c. Ans It is more than the Elect Gentiles that shall be and are enricht by Christ though not as the Elect others are enriched with that Church state visible which Paul here speaks that the Jews were broken off from As also with the Gospel and ordinances and conditional gift of Christ and justification and glory besides many other mercies The next Text cited to prove that the World is put only for the Elect is Col. 1. 6. Which Gospel is come unto you as it is in all the World and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you c. Ans 1. It is not said that it bringeth forth
but no doubt it is mediante Sanguine Christi and in a remote sense are fruits of Christ's death By what hath been said it may appear that Faith is not the proper effect of satisfaction as satisfaction nor is it any neer or inseparable effect of satisfaction as it is meritorious God did not give Christ Faith for his bloodshed in exchange the thing that God was to give the Son for his satisfaction was Dominion and Rule of the Redeemed Creature and power therein to use what means he saw fit for the bringing in of Souls to himself even to send forth so much of his word and Spirit as he pleased both the Father and Son resolving from Eternity to prevail infallibly with all the Elect. But never did Christ desire at his Fathers hands that all whom he satisfied for should be infallibly and irrisistibly brought to believe nor did God ever grant or promise any such thing Jesus Christ as a Ransom dyed for all and as Rector per Leges or Legislator he hath conveyed the Fruits of his death to all that is those Fruits which it appertained to him as Legislator to convey which is right to what his New Law or Covenant doth promise But those Mercies which he gives as Dominus Absolutus arbitrarily besides or above his engagement he neither gives nor ever intended to give to all that he dyed for no nor to all his Elect doth he give all those fruits of his death nor for ought I know to any in the same degree for these are but remotely the Fruits of Christ's death and not constant nor inseparable Fruits Peruse the foresaid Table of the Fruits of Christs death and it will shew you which the mercies be that Christ gives by Law and which arbitrarily as besides his engagement Is it not manifest then that it is a desperate charge against the Lord Christ to say that he is an imperfect Saviour if he do not perfectly save all that he Died for or convey to them all the fruits of his Death The Preaching of the Gospel expresly is a fruit of Christs Death Some have this in great power clearness and constancy some but weakly darkly or seldom and some not at all Shall they that have been at one or two dark Sermons of Christ in all their Lives say That either Christ Died not for them or else was an imperfect Saviour Some are endowed with the gift of Prophecy Tongues Miracles as fruits of Christs Death shall all that receive not these say that Christ is an imperfect Saviour because he gave them none of these fruits of his Death Some are made Kings and Rulers and some Apostles Evangelists Pastors Teachers c. and all are fruits of Christs Death Yet all are not Apostles Pastors Teachers c Some have Learning and some none Some have good Parents and good Education and some bad Some of the Elect have Health of Body and Helps Opportunities and Advantages to to serve God which others want Some are permitted to live long in sin as Manasses And others converted in the morning of their Days Some are preserved in a more even and comfortable walking with God And some are permitted to fall into most hainous scandalous sins to the great dishonour of God and their Profession and to walk sadly for it all their Days Nay some to suffer Death by the hands of publick justice Shall all these say Christ is an imperfect Saviour to them Some are kept in vigor and growth in grace and some remain Infants and some lose their first degree of Love and grow more luke-warm and Die in a very low ebb of Grace Comfort and Assurance Some enjoy much fellowship with the Father and Son in the Spirit And others are almost wholly strangers to it Some are made instruments of doing God abundance of service and the Church much good and bringing home or building up many Souls and that to the end of their Lives Others are kept without parts and gifts next to useless if not burdensome Some Distracted and after a Godly Life fall into stark madness and so spend their days as being uncapable of making use of their Affliction or of any Mercy And some are cut off in Infancy or in the Womb before they did ever believe or love God or do him any service And is Christ an imperfect Saviour to all these Nay and he hath revealed to us that according to this diversity here in degrees of Grace Holiness and Obedience so will be the diversity in the degrees of glory One shall be Ruler of ten Cities and another but of two For he will reward every Man according to his works How vast a difference then is there like to be between the Glory of an Infant that being born of a weak believer Died from the Womb and the Glory of Peter John Paul or those to whom it shall be given to sit on Christs Right Hand and Left Hand in his Kingdom And yet all these are Elect. Where is it then that the force of the Argument lyeth that would prove that all must needs have Faith for whom Christ Died If he be an imperfect Saviour except he save all alike or give to all that he Died for all the fruits of his Death then such a charge might as truly be grounded on his dealings with the Elect themselves as with others Object But he saveth all the Elect though not all alike He bringeth them all safe to Heaven at last but so he doth not others Answ That 's true But then 1. It 's yielded that it belongs not to the perfection of Christs Office or Work to give all the fruits of his Death quoad speciem to all that he Died for 2. It belongs as truly to his office of saving to save men from sin and to give them a full degree of Grace and Glory as to give men Faith And yet it belongs not to his office necessarily to give these to all that he Died for No doubt a greater measure of Glory is a greater good than that small measure which some enjoy Specially if the joy of some saved Infants were no greater than Nazianzene Orat. 40. and other antients did think the pain of some condemned Infants would be 3. Some of these parts of Salvation which the Elect themselves do come short of are penally denied them and so are given by Christ as Legislator being propounded on a condition and they not performing the condition to the performance whereof Grace was necessary to assist them If then Christ may give good things by a conditional grant as Legislator to his Elect and yet not give them that Grace which may cause them infallibly to perform the condition and so deny them the benefit conditionally given for want of that performance what reason can be given why he may not do so by the Non-Elect in respect of Salvation and Faith and Repentance the Conditions thereof So that all the weight of their Argument lyeth on this