sheep I haue which are not of this fold whom also I must bring c hee means the elect amongst the Heathens destinated to that one Sheep-fold under him that one Shepheard and by his voyce to be brought therto This is yet more plain v. 15 where he saith I giue my life for my sheep Christ dyed for the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. 8. By his sheep therfore in this place are meant the elect from eternity for whom he dyed the fruit of which election of God and death of Christ sheweth forth it selfe in their timeous faith and obedience Further note we for the thing in hand that Christ giues unto his sheep that hears his voyce and obey him eternall life as elsewhere also he saith He that beleeveth on the Son hath everlasting life If this life which they haue given them and haue in the beginnings of it even in this life be eternall and everlasting how can it be broken off afterwards Or if it can be interrupted and broken off how is it everlasting and eternall Lastly if none be able to pluck Christs sheep out of his and his Fathers hand then no sinfull person or temptation no malice of Satan can turn them from God for if they can then they can pluck them out of Gods hand Is not the destroying and corrupting of mens faith and obedience the plucking them out of the hand of God V. 12 the same word is used the wolfe catcheth and scattreth the sheep that is corrupteth them as Math. 7. 10 Act. 20. 29 where the same word is used also As they are elsewhere too prodigall of Christs benefits to all the goats in the world so are they here too niggardly of them to his own sheep Although in truth they grant though unawares as much as we plead for in saying that those sheep so long as they continue his sheep haue spirituall peace and safety c. Spirituall peace and safety is against all assaults of all spirituall enemies labouring to subvert the spirituall state of Gods people To the Scriptures here alledged by them for their purpose the answers formerly given touching conditional threatnings and Gods people in appearance must be applyed Of the former of the two Scriptures following which is Ioh. 13. 1 Whom he loveth he loveth to the end they speak as the thing is of Gods loue but as loath to be too much beholden to him for it and desirous Pharisaically to justifie themselvs they pull down what they formerly built in saying that the question is not of Gods and Christs loue unto his but of the continuance of our loue unto him wherein they both gainsay themselvs in this whole Treatise and the Scriptures throughout They put the question themselvs of Gods election and of the promise of election And is election and the promise of election a work of our loue to God or of Gods to us The Scriptures also ascribe the whole work of our salvation as election redemption by the bloud of Christ vocation revelation of heavenly things justification sanctification adoption faith repentance and the giving of the Spirit issue out of temptations and continuing blamelesse to the comming of the Lord unto the good pleasure and loue of God alone It is true that we must also loue God as they say But we must know withall that this our loue of God depends upon his loue of us first and the same shead abroad into our hearts by his Spirit which giues testimony therof to our spirits which as it were forceth loue again from us to God and the continuance of it the continuance of our loue according to that of the Apostle The loue of Christ constraineth us For as the beams of the Sun shed into the bosome of the earth first heat it and so cause it to reflect heat again towards heaven so by the loue of God shead into our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us our hearts are most effectually drawn and perswaded to loue God againe and men for and according to him Which I further also manifest thus Our loue whether to God or man ariseth from faith unfeyned Faith stands in the assured perswasion of the heart by the Holy Ghost of Gods loue to us Wherupon I conclude that our salvation depending immediately upon our faith loue and obedience as conditions requisite by Gods ordination and they upon Gods loue and the same known to us and so the continuance of them upon the continuance of it the question is properly and principally of the loue of God to us and the unchangeablenesse therof For Rom. 11. 29 they dream waking that the meaning is that God will never repent of saving all persons at all times in all places that seek salvation by faith in Christ and continue therin If this were all what needed the Apostle v. 33 to break out into that admiration of the riches of the wisedom and knowledge of God and of the unsearchablenes of his judgments What strange thing is it that God should not repent of so gracious a purpose and promise as is that of saving such as beleev in his Sonne Secondly it is more then evident that he speake not here of saving all at all times but of the saving of some at sometimes namely of the Israelites in their time and of the Gentiles in theirs Thirdly the Apostle speaks not of saving them that beleev but of giving the election to obtain mercy to beleev Lastly the words are a reason of that which goes before the Israelites touching election are beloved for the Fathers sake v. 28. For or because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance as if he should haue said though for the present the body of the Israelites be enemies for the Gospell that is in not beleeving it till the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in yet the election such as are that Israel according to election and Gods people which he foreknew v. 2 them he loues in his decree unchangeably for their father Abraham Isaak and Iakobs sake and without repentance and so will in their time make them actually partakers of his most gracious gift and calling They here add certain Scriptures and may doe many moe proving that God denies the effect to conditionall promises men breaking the conditions first But as the Scriptures cited by them speak not all of salvation in Christ so neither doe any other shew that God ever alters purpose or promise of saving any whom he once loved in Christ whether in decree or application of loue The last place which they labor to elude is 1 Ioh. 2. 19. They went out of us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt haue continued with us but they went out that they might be manifest that they were not all of us And here in stead of answering directly to the place they make out-leaps as their manner is making us to affirm that
also the workers of iniquity not with a passion of the mind as hatred is in man but with a holy will to punish the violation of his righteous Law And though with a generall loue of the Creator to the creature he alwaies after a sort loue the persons of men as being his generation yet he loues as is meet the honour of his holinesse more then the happinesse of his creature having violated and prophaned it without repentance They further bewray their ignorance where they think to mend the matter in saying that God hates the persons as weapons and instruments of those wicked qualities Where hath God ever so spoken or any other man before them The godly qualities or graces of knowledge faith loue patience and the like are the spirituall armour and weapons of godly men the members also of men are called the weapons of righteousnesse or unrighteousnes for that with them they practise perform the works thereof But to say the persons are weapons and instruments of the qualities is to put the person in the hand of the weapon to be used by it wheras on the contrary all know that the weapon and instrument is in the hand of the person and to be used and exercised by him They here in desiring the Reader well to observ what they haue said as being a most blessed truth are loath that their nakednesse should not be seen in their spirituall drunkennesse ADVERSARIES NOW for the words of the Apostle to which they return after so long wandring their comment is They went out from us c. that is say they Those lying spirits those persons who had once the spirit of truth in them went out from the Apostles and other Saints And again those lying spirits and Antichrists in mens persons went out c. and were never of the truth the summe of all being that lying spirits and Antichrists in mens persons went out of the truth DEFENCE A Riddle better fitting H. N. then the professours of the truth in simplicity It behoues us therefore a little to insist upon the Text opening it according to the Apostles meaning and ours with him and first proving against them that by those that went out are not meant the lying spirits in the persons but the persons themselues And first these words They went out from us or better from out of us shew that those out-goers were formerly of them in a respect else how could they haue gone out from them But lying spirits were never of the Apostles and Saints but the persons sometimes were Secondly hee saith not as they corrupt the Text If they had been of the truth but of us nor they would hane continued with it but with us nor but they are not of it but they were not of us all carrying it to persons so and so qualified Thirdly Is it to be conceived that the Apostle would complain as heere he doth that lying spirits did not continue with the Churches Fourthly in saying They went out of us that it might be manifest that they were not all of us he shews that by their out-leaps something was manifested which was hid before But it was plain before to the Apostles and Saints that lying spirits were not of the truth He speaks therefore of the persons of hypocrites whom by this their professed defection God discovered Fithly in saying they were not all of us he insinuates that some of them were What some lying spirits of the Spirit of truth No but that not all the persons that formerly professed the truth with them were true members of Christs body which they were Lastly v. 20 He makes an opposition between them of whom hee writes and to whom But yee What yee spirits and so v. 28 little children that is little spirits All may see with what spirit these men are led He then speaks of the going out of persons not of spirits as they mean but being indeed Antichrists as v. 18 in regard of their spirits and doctrines for which they pretended the spirit of Christ. That which they add of the spirit of Hymeneus together with his person being in fellowship with Paul is like the rest By his Spirit it seems they mean his faith in saying faithfull Hymeneus was of the truth erroneous Hymeneus was never of it Hath the faith of a person fellowship with the Saints Or did Hymeneus his faith sometimes hold faith and a good conscience and after put them away Or are not these things plainly spoken of the person of men Paul speaking that of Hymeneus and others which hee knew in regard of outward appearance and not that which he knew not of the inward truth in the heart The meaning of Iohn is plain enough that these Antichrists went out of the Church not by making any seperation or schism from it as some thinke for they still continued in the outward fellowship preaching and prophesying and deceiving but in it by heresie and prophanenesse contrary to that outward profession of faith and holinesse which they had formerly made by which their defection they shewed that they were never truely regenerate and inwardly and indeed living members of the body but having been hypocrites at their best God so ordered that they should hereby discover themselvs For had they been indeed of the number of the faithfull they had so continued to the end Which truth this Apostle confirms further ch 3 very evidently saying whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin For his that is Gods seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God He doth not say as some would haue him he cannot sin or commit sin that is giue himselfe to sin as the wicked doe whilst the seed of God remains in him or whilst hee is born of God but for or because this seed of the new birth remaineth in him One observation I will here annex and so conclude this Head It cannot be saith Christ but offences will come And of all offences none is greater and which more wounds the tender heart of a weak Christian then when he sees such as by their former profession and appearances haue purchased to themselvs the opinion of piety and godlinesse to apostate and fall away from that their former profession either to grosse errour or prophanenesse This occasions him to suspect Satan by suggestions of unbelief furthering him herein that there is not in the course of Christianity that power of grace stablenesse and true comfort which it promiseth This stone of offence which Satans malice casts in the way Gods spirit removeth in providing that where there is in the Scriptures either mention or insinuation of mans falling away from the grace of God there is withall commonly an item given in the same place that such persons were never effectually sanctified but hypocrites at their best whatsoever they seemed either to others or to themselvs Thus where some at the first
person in the world and so might haue been an effectuall price for all if it had pleased the Father and him so to haue ordained But that it was the Fathers purpose in giving his Son or his in giving himself to the death to pay the price of the sins of the whole world and of every particular person therin and to satisfy Gods justice for the same we deny and they in vaine go about to prov That Christ dyed for sinners and the ungodly and such as were dead Rom. 5. 6. 8 we grant as being the Apostles assertion but that he dyed for all such is their bold addition and which is worse plainly against the drift of the place The Apostle having before treated at large of justification by faith shews in this chapter the singular benefit acrewing therby to the faithfull as peace with God accesse into grace rejoycing in hope of the glory of God and that also in tribulation that their tribulation working patience their patience experience of Gods power and grace in sustaining them that experience hope that they should never be confounded as having such assurance of the loue of God in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given of God unto them The ground of all which hee layeth v. 6. 8 for that Christ dyed for them being ungodly and sinners and thereby appropriates this dying of Christ unto these sinners who are in their time thus justified by faith haue peace with God c. which limitation the Apostle most plainely makes where he saiâ—h For when we were yet without strength God commendeth his loue towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us He speaks of them and them alone in this plaee as dyed for by Christ who were justified by him And let me here turn into the very bowels of these mens errour the sword of the spirit which the Apostle in this place puts into mine hand and proue briefly but evidently that Christ dyed not for all and every person as is said but onely for them and for all them who in the end are saved and obtain eternall life by him These men and rightly in this very place make it all one for Christ to die for sinners and to be their reconciliation as the Apostle makes them all one who are justified by faith and for whom Christ dyed Shall we then make doubt to conclude with the Apostle that they which are justified by Christ bloud which are the sinners for whom hee dyed v. 9 shall be saved from wrath through him v. 9 or that they which are reconciled to God by the death of his Son that is say they for whom he dyed shall much more be saved by his life For which purpose also hee after enters into comparison of the first and second Adam shewing that as by the offence of one all were dead so by the righteousnesse of one the gift of grace should abound to many or to all by which gift afterwards he shews himselfe to mean both justification and reigning in life He puts the two Adams as two common roots the former as a naturall root and the latter as a spirituall and affirms that all that were and are in the former and naturally growing of him dyed by his sin and proportionably that all in the latter liue by his righteousnes I say that were in the first Adam for Eve though she were of mankind yet dyed not by Adams sin because she was not in him when he sinned neither yet Christ as man not coming of him by naturall generation but by miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost So on the contrary they and onely they who by faith are planted in Christ and justified by his bloud shall be saved from wrath through him and receiving of the gift of righteousness shall raign in life by him The Apostles meaning therefore is not that Christ died for all particulars but that all for whom he dyed shall be saved by him which seeing all are not it followeth that he dyed not for all as they mean For the right interpretation of 2. Cor. 5. 14. 15. For the loue of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselues but unto him which dyed for them and râ—se again and of many the like places the common and true rule must haue place that note of universalitie as all whatsoever and the like must be restrained to the matter in hand as Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will doe that is whatsoever according to my will So whatsoever they the Pharisees bid you doe that doe to wit accordâ—ng to Moses So they that beleeved had all things common that is all things lawfull and for necâ—ssitie Likewise Luk. 4. 1. All the world should be taxed that is aâ—l under Caesar which a great part of the world was not So All things are lawful for me and I become all to all that is not all absolutely but all things in themselves indifferent and of that kinde of which the Apostle speakes I then answer that by all in this place he means all of that sort of whom he speakes all whom the loue of Christ constrained all that so judge of Christs death all that were dead that is were dead but are aliue by grace and so should not henceforth live to themselues but unto him which died for them Christ that one Mediator died for all them To 1. Tim. 2. 6. Christ gave himselfe a ransom for all We answer that by all is not meant all particulars in the world but all sorts of people as well Kings which many Christians considering their cruell hatred of Christ and other enormities thought rather to be prayed against then for as others The Apostle here informes them better and that Christ dyed for all and would haue all that is men of all sorts saved even Kings as well as others It is not possible for any Christian to pray for every particular person in the world nor lawfull to pray that God would saue all in generall seeing we know by the Scriptures that all shall not be saved and are also forbidden to pray for some in particular The Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 10. speaks not of Christs dying for all men but of Gods saving of all men specially them that beleev If he speak of salvation by Christs death God should save unbeleevers so living and dying for he sayth not that God would be but that God is the saviour of all men He speaks apparantly of Gods providence over all preserving good and bad yea saving man and beast specially them who suffer reproch because they trust in the living God To conclude Those for whom Christ died he died alike for and therefore not specially for any aboue others but alike for all for whom he dyed To 1. Ioh. 2. 2. I answer that
he speakes not onely of Christ as dying for us but also as he is our Advocate in heaven with the Father propitiating or pacifying his anger towards us in procuring actually the forgivenesse of our sinnes and acceptance with him By the whole world therefore he understands such as confess their sins such as whose sins God forgivs cleansing them from all unrighteousness such as have Christ their Advocate with the father for whose sins he is a propitiation c. which are onely the faithfull and that not onely of the Iewes intended in these words and not for ours onely but of the Gentiles also as the whole world here and els where by Christ and the Apostles opposed to the Iewes Mark 16. 15. Iohn 3. 16. specially Rom. 11. 12. where as here by the world is meant the beleeving Gentiles obtaining salvation opposed to the Iewes And this our limitation in just proportion the very next place cited by our adversariâ—s confirmeth The whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1. Ioh. 5. 19. that is all such Iewes and Gentiles as are not born of God v. 20. not Iohn or other beleevers one or other The Apostle Peter 2. Epist. 3. 9. speaks not at all of Christs death but of Gods patience that none might perish but all repent By which all he means all the elect which were in their time to repent and so to be saved for whose sakes and not in slackness as the mockers accounted he deferred his judgments Reve. 6. 11. we haue this poynt notably exemplified And it was sayd unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fuâ—filled For which purpose it must be minded that Peter sayth The Lord is long suffering towards us not willing that any should perish opposing us as the elect to the reprobate Scoffers at God both in his word and works The last place being 2. Chron. 36. 16. is impertinent as neither meant of Christs death of which the question is nor of mans salvation by it but of a bodily and visible judgement in which kind of works God tieth himself to no certain form of proceeding Against their error of universall redemption by Christs death I thus argue Them whom God and Christ love to wit with that speciall loue of mercy they love unto the end and therefore never come to hate them as they do the wicked and damned But for whomsoever Christ dyed God in giving his Sonne and he in giving himselfe to the death for them love with the most speciall love of mercy that can be Therefore they for whom Christ died never perish but in time haue wrought in them faith and repentance and are kept in the same by the power of God to life Christ therefore dyed effectually and in his and his fathers intention of love for them onely that are saved and perish not This is also more manifest Ioh. 17. whence may be drawn many arguments to prove that all for whom Christ died are saved seeing all that are given to Christ of the Father keep the word of God and haue eternall life given them by him Now it cannot be denyed but that all for whom Christ dyed are given him of the Father that he might redeem and save them by his death Furthermore the death and bloodshed of Christ is every where called the price of our redemption and a ransome for sinners Vpon this holy foundation most clearly layd in the Scriptures these men and others would build a more hatefull Babell then that of old in the East by which they would as it were scale heaven and depriue God of divers his most glorious Attributes by name his Wisdom his Power and his Iustice. His wisdom they â—mpeach in affirming that he would buy with so rich precious a price as the bloud and death of his onely begotten Son that and them whom he certainly knew before he should never possesse by it for that end for which he bought them their justification sanctification and salvation Secondly it impeacheth Gods power and makes him unable doe he what he can to save any more then he doth save though he desire it never so much For look for whom he would do the greatest thing that possibly he could which was the giving of his onely begotten and beloved Sonne to the cursed death of the crosse for them and their salvation without all doubt hee he will doe whatseever other good as lesse that possibly he can Whereupon it should follow that God cannot possibly give the Gospell to more then he doth and by it convert and confirm them to and in his grace which are lesse things then the former it being the foundation they but the building upon it it being the meritorious and deserving causeâ— and they effects thereof Thirdly this conceit makes God unjust in taking a full price and ransom for mens sins at the hands of their surety Christ as was his death and obedience and yet not resting satisfied with it but exacting the debt of their sinnes at their hands by eternall punishment which is the condition of many thousands in the world ADVERSARIES OTher things follow tending to prove Gods purpose to save all even such as slew Christ blasphemed and resisted the spirit of God to their condemnation c. Act. 3. 25. 26. 5. 30. 31. 7. 51. 13. 46. 15. 6. DEFENCE I Answer that the persons of whom those Scriptures speak were the peculiar people of God and not yet wholly cast off by him The argument therefore from Gods will and work for the saving of them is stretched beyond its reach to prove such purpose will or work of God to save all which are not his people as they were Secondly I grant that where the Gospell is preached there the Lord truely wills that is commands the conversion of sinners and their turning from iniquity as the text hath â—t approving and rewarding the same with salvation in them in whom it is found as it is ordinarily in some of them to whom the Gospell is preached and so was in some of the persons to whom the men of God spake in those places who before were elect of God and redeemed of Christ and were in their time effectually called to that grace whatsoever before they had done or been Now the Apostles not knowing which in particular were elect and redeemed in the secret purpose of God and Christ were to sow the seed of grace upon all grounds and to preach to all indifferently as they had occasion hoping in charity that this and that and any one particular might be of the elect vessels and good ground in Gods destination by whose preaching such as were preordained to life beleeved actually The Lord tels Paul abiding in Corinth that he had much people in that Citie and that therefore he should speak the word there and not hold
as in a generall root was so conceived and brought forth by his mother in sin Secondly it is one thing to be conceived and born in sin another thing to be made of sin The former David affirms of himself the latter they vainly impute to us and refute in us with many words That Infants are under condemnation that is naturally guilty thereof hath been formerly proved that actuall faith in Christ is required for their reconciliation to God doth not follow hereupon Actuall I say for the seed of faith they haue and of all graces for but by Gods holy Spirit in them which carries all graces with it they cannot be holy and so not bee glorified if they be not holy first but that hereupon they need actuall faith is their saying without proof Actuall sins indeed require actuall faith but for sin in disposit on called originall why may not faith in disposition suffice through the mercy of God for the applying of it About the Infants of Sodom and Gomorrah they discourse marvellously as first in ranking them in their deaths with unreasonable creatures in theirs secondly in making them not onely innocent but godly also The Scriptures teach that besides the temporary death those Cities suffer the vengeance of eternall fire Let them proue children not to haue been of those Cities If God exempted them or any of them from that vengeance it was not for any condition cōmon to them with bruit beasts as they insinuate but with respect to Christ besides whom the Scriptures acknowledg no other Saviour nor no other salvation but by him ADVERSARIES TO a question moved by themselves What need Infants haue of Christ if they be not under condemnation they answer that through his redemption they liue and moue and haue their being and injoy all other earthly blessings with resurrection from the dead and glorification 1 Cor. 15. 12. DEFENCE THus they make Christ and Infants amends But how proue they that by Christs redemption they liue moue c The Scripture Act. 17 to which they haue reference is meant of the naturall life of all by Gods work of creation and providence which is nothing but continuation of creation and nothing at all to Christ as Redeemer The redemption for which Christ came is from sin and so from the curse due for sin as the Scriptures every where testifie The first Adam was made a living soule the last Adam a quickning spirit We haue therfore our naturall life motion and being common to Heathens with Christians by the first Adam our spirituall and glorious life by the second Lastly the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 15. 22 In Christ shall all be made aliue speaks onely of all beleevers as is evident v. 14. 17. 18. 19 who haue Christ for the first fruits and are Christs v. 20. 23. Are any Christs but Christians Is not the lump and the first fruits one Men should haue risen again though Christ had never come or been promised but to condemnation Our resurrection onely in regard of the glory of it is from Christs glorious resurrection And if Infants haue glorification from Christ then they haue the pardon of sinne from Christ also 1 Cor. 15. 17. 23 and therewith his Spirit dwelling in them for sanctifying and quickning them Rom. 8. 9. 10. 11. These men divide Chrst making him a King to some for glorification to whom hee is not a Priest for redemption by his bloud Next to a question by themselvs moved How wee must haue the Son they answer by keeping his commandements forgetting faith by which alone we receiv Christ from which followeth loue purity of heart and obedience Which faith hath more properly the consideration of a condition as a hand to receiv a promise then of an act of obedience to a commandment It is true being rightly understood which they add that repentance is of all sin to wit particularly of all sins known and generally of sins unknown For Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults said he that observed and knew his wayes better then either these men or I. Doe they think nothing amisse slips from them in thought word or deed or ever hath done whereof they doe not or haue not repented particularly Is their knowledge so perfect as they need not pray for further enlightning as Eph. 1. 17. 18 Are they certain they are ignorant of and erre in nothing in the Scriptures written for their bearning This their book sufficiently reproues their Pharisaicall dream of perfection Where speaking of Idolatry they affirm that God cannot bee worshipped after a false manner they expresly contradict the Scripture saying The people did sacrifice still in the high places yet unto the Lord their God onely Here was worshipping the true God and him onely and yet after a false manner in a respect The same the Apostle teacheth the Athenians The God whom you ignorantly worship declare I unto you When Papists direct their prayers to God the maker of the world and father of Iesus Christ hoping the rather to be heard by means of the Virgin Maries intercession who doubts but they worship the true God but in a false manner Neither doth Deut. 18. 20 proue the sin one of speaking in the name of a false God and speaking falsehood in the name of a true God but divers though both deserving death Next they in their wilde order come to treat of Faith where they affirm that no man can haue faith to justification before he haue repented If they had sayd that no man hath the grace or habit of faith before the grace of repentance it had been true God by the spirit of regeneration infusing the habits of all graces at once But that the act and exercise of faith in beleeving is before our repenting appears both by Scripture and common sense We liue the life of Christ wherof our repenting is a part by the faith of the Sonne of God God purifieth the heart by faith and justifies the ungodly by his faith In all which it is plain that faith hath the preheminence and first work So 2 Cor. 7. 10 Godly sorrow workes repentance Repentance then presupposeth godly sorrow Godly sorrow or whatsoever is truely godly must needs please God which without faith no man can doe but even every thing is sin Faith working that which worketh repentance must goe before it Secondly godly sorrow is not onely for the fear of punishment for so the devils are sorrie but for the offence of God specially Now none can be sorrie for his offending God except he loue God nor loue him except he know first that he bee loved of him in Christ in which faith consisteth We beleev therefore before we repent in the truth of the thing and order of causes though we can hardly discern this order in our own sense CHAP. VI. Of Baptisme IN the next place they come to