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
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
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
as not being far from the Kingdom of God and some with Agrippa are almost perswaded to be Christians Those that be not come so far must ordinarily by degrees be brought to this before they can go further If you be in a higher room and call your Servants to you you intend they shall come up the stairs step by step and if one be two stories distant from you and another but one the former must go up all the first stairs before he come as near you as the latter is The Gentiles that believed not are further off and more strangers to God than the common Jews were Now God hath not given them that hear not of Christ sufficient means or help to Believe nor hath he given any believer sufficient Grace for Salvation till he saveth him But he prescribeth some means to all men in the World which they are to use to bring them nearer Christ and Faith and to remove impediments As to consider of what the Book of Nature and daily providences teach them of God To study him in his mercies and Judgments To study their own hearts till they find their Sin and misery To use all their interest and utmost endeavours to enquire what remedy God hath revealed to the World To continue in Prayer fasting and Alms deeds as Cornelius did and to break off their Sins by repentance These are their duties And for not doing these in the improvement of their Talents they shall be condemned by Christ the Redeemer at the Bar of grace as opposed to that of Justice according to the sole Law of works And though that belong not to this controversie I doubt not but they have sufficient help which is not effectual to the doing of more in these means then they do and so they will be left unexcusable at Judgment Even as the Ignorant and ungodly where the Gospel is preached have sufficient power which is not effectual through their own wilfulness to hear the word to come into better company and to use more means to get Faith then they do though they have not power or grace sufficient to believe And the duty of hearing c. Goes in order before that of believing All this being thus evinced That God hath prescribed to all Men means of recovery I come to the Argument And for the Minor I think I need not stand to prove it That God hath not appointed Men delusory means which if used according to his appointmennt would not do any thing towards the attainment of the end so apparently is such a conceit injurious to the Wisdom goodness and faithfulness of God And for the Major it seems to me as plain That no means can do any thing to the recovery or Salvation of that Man for whom Christ made not satisfaction by his Death Supposing this means were used never so rightly For 1. The use of all means is but to apply or convey the benefits of Christs Satisfaction Therefore where Christ hath made no satisfaction for a Man there it is impossible that any means should give him to participate of the benefits of his satisfaction At least of Pardon and Salvation 2. Else you make a Saviour of the means or make them more necessary then Christs Satisfaction For if by means that Man may be saved that Christ dyed not for then he is saved without Christs Death And if God might do so by all the Non Elect why not by all the rest If any say It is certain that they will not use the means rightly and therefore will not be saved I answer 1. This shall be anon further considered 2. That is nothing to the matter The question is Why these Men are not saved Whether it be not for want of a right use of the means But according to the Doctrin opposed it is not For no means could save them if they were never so well used 1. No Prayer can be heard if satisfaction be not first made for the Sins of the Petitioner 2. Repentance can be no means but only a Concomitant of desperation if satisfaction for Sin go not before it 3. Faith is but resting for Salvation on one that never redeemed the Person and so cannot save him if satisfaction for that Person go not before it 4. Hope would be wholly ungrounded and deceitful like the hopes of the wicked if there were no satisfaction 5. Love to Christ as our Redeemer and gratitude for satisfaction would be a mistaken Act as being for a mercy never received 6. Nay should the Non-redeemed live as holily as any Saint on Earth yea as innocently as an Angel it would not save him because of the guilt which he hath already contracted So that by this Doctrin all the means which God hath appointed most Men for their pardon and Salvation would be delusory and vain if never so well performed Which is not true nor tollerable Arg. 7th A veritate promissionis fidei conditionalitate If Christ satisfied not for all those to whom God promiseth pardon and Life on condition of believing then God maketh promises which he would not nor could he fulfill though the condition were performed But the consequent is false Therefore so is the Antecedent There is nothing here requires any proof but the consequence of the Major proposition And that is proved thus God would not nor could give pardon and Life to any Man for whom Christ hath not satisfied Therefore the consequence is good 1. Else God should give pardon and Life without a Redeemer Which he will not 2. And he should do that which in the Judgment of most Divines he cannot do Not through impotence but because of the inconvenience and unfitness of the thing For though he can alter the nature of the Creatures and so make that to be fit which now is unfit yet stante rerum naturâ he cannot make those things fit which ex natura rei are unfit Nor can God do that which is unfit And if it had not been unfit for the supream Rector of the World to pardon Mans Sin without satisfaction God would not so dearly have satisfied his own justice Yea all say that quoad potentiam ordinatam God would not forgive Sin without satisfaction whatsoever he might have done quoad potentiam absolutam Now how gross is it for any Man to imagine that God should make so solemn a promise in form of a Law of Grace that he will pardon and save Men if they will believe when if they could and should believe he neither would nor could pardon or save them for want of satisfaction to his Justice Yea that he should require his Ministers so importunately and unweariedly to intreat Men in his name to believe and be reconciled to him and to tell them from him Man by Man If thou wilt believe thou shalt be saved When yet if he did believe he should not be saved Object But if he should believe then he is one that Christ satisfied for and
gift of God Joh. 3. 27. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from Heaven If nothing then not Faith If they say they received it not the Apostles question may shame them What hast thou which thou hast not received Obj. That 's meant of gifts that were for Edification Answ I. Much more of Faith which is a special Grace II. It is General implying that we have nothing that we received not that thence he might conclude Therefore not such Gifts Joh. 6. 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him ver 65. Therefore said I unto you No man can come unto me except it were given to him of my Father Obj. God drawing Morally those that will not follow him Answ I. The Drawing here mentioned is the same with giving to come to him II. It is given as the Reason why some Believed not because none can come except it be given them and they be drawn Those that believed not had your Moral drawing which was uneffectual but it is evident they had not the drawing which Christ mentioneth Luk. 17. 5. Lord increase our Faith Therefore he must give it Obj. That is a Faith of Miracles Answ Saving Faith is as much Gods Gift as that and the Soul as unapt to it till he give it Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe help thou mine Unbelief He that must Help our Unbelief that is give us more Faith must help our total Unbelief by giving us our first Faith which we are most unable to perform of our selves Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the Spirit is Love Faith c. Obj. That 's meant of Fidelity Answ I. That 's unproved that it 's only meant of that II. If common fidelity must be wrought by the Spirit much more Saving Faith in Christ To all these it 's further objected that God giveth Faith equally to All that is his help to Believe but it is only the Materia Disposita that receiveth it and the reason why some have it not is because they are not disposed or prepared Ans 1. If this be so that this is the Reason of his denying faith to some yet the contrary disposition is not the Reason of his giving faith to others And therefore the Undisposedness is only a Reason sufficient to Justifie God's denial of Grace but not Disabling him to give it or necessitating him to deny it Else all men should perish who are undisposed unless they dispose themselves And this is plain Semi-Polagianism that Grace is tyed to such Dispositions of our own 2. Prove if you can that ever God hath made a Promise of Faith to men on condition of any prerequisite Dispositions I find no such thing in the Word 3. Are those Dispositions Gods Gifts or not If not then all is ultimately resolved into mans will and we have something that we have not received If they be then they are given Absolutely or Conditionally If Absolutely then they are not so given to All else All should have them and so Believe If Conditionally 1. What is the Condition They say our Non-resistance But our Resistance is either Habitual or Actual The Actual is our Actual Niâ—ing The Habitual is our Habitual Unwillingness Deadness c. Must we cure all this of our selves before God will give us Faith I will not say as Dr. Twisse that Non-resistance is Credere that is Faith it self that is the contrary to this Resistance or Unwillingness because you may tell me that to be unwilling of Christ as offered and to be Unwilling that God should make me willing of Christ or give me Faith by the means of my hearing is not all one But this I say that the best did resist and were unwilling both of Christ and Faith till God did overcome their Resistance And that God hath not promised Faith on condition of mans Non-resistance that I know of 2. Is this Non-resistance or Willingness to Believe the Gift of God or not If not then we have somewhat which we did not receive and then all Grace still is ultimately resolved with the Pelagians into mans will and man makes himself to differ which I disproved in the last days Exercise If it be Gods Gift then either Absolute and so proper to some Or Conditional and then that must have a Condition and so in infinitum till you stop in some Absolute Gift not common to all Object God is not the total but partial Cause and therefore he doth quantum in se give Faith to all and that some are yet without it is long of themselves Answ I. I confess that it is long of themselves that any are Unbelievers II. Though man believe yet it seems to me that God is not to be called Causa partialis but totalis in that Supream Causality which he exerciseth III. That God doth quantum in se give all men Faith may be understood either 1. Quantum in se quoad potentiam as much as â—e can But that 's Blasphemy 2. Quantum in se quoad Decentiam as much as is meet for him to do But who dare say that it is unmeet for God to give men such effectual grace as shall Infallibly cause them to Believe He giveth such to his Elect and therein doth not any thing that is unmeet 3. Or else it is meant that God giveth so much help to unbelievers as leaves all the blame of their unbelief upon themselves and justifieth him from being the culpable deficient or efficient Cause And this I grant but this is no advantage to the Adversary But I have been too long on this first Argument Arg. II. Jesus Christ dying intended the Infallible Glorification of Gods free grace in the certain Regeneration Justification and Glorification of certain men therefore he intended the infallible certain Regeneration or Faith and Justification and Glorification of those men That Christ came into the World with a certain intention to accomplish the glorifying of God as his end is undoubted For to say either that he undertook so great a work without an end or that the glory of Gods grace and love was not that end are both impious And as certain is it that it was the glory of Gods grace in the certain Salvation of some men that was intended For as there is no other way of this full glorification of Gods grace manifested to us but only by mans Salvation so the Scripture most frequently tells us that this is the way and this was God's design and therefore Christ is stiled the Saviour which certainly implyeth that he hath some infallibly to save and that he came to seek and to save that which was lost And if it were not the Salvation of Determinate Persons that God intended to glorify himself in then was it not in the Salvation of any man at all for all Salvation is some ones Salvation Accidents exist not without a Subject And if it were not a certain obtaining of this end by