stuck to amongst the Heathens found such usage and t is nothing better amongst us called Christians if an * Bona conscientia fiduciam mihi dat Honesti amore illud sine lâ—ge poena colo caeteri parietibus januis velis teguntur ego sub dio in propatulo ago omnium oculis inqui sitioni expositus Deo me probo Epict. Epictetus approve himself to God sufferings will follow as he expresses it Cum haec facio evenit ut malè audiam imò ut vapulem at quid mirum à pueris et fatuis et qui ulcera sua tangi nolunt Truth will gall some mens consciences and then they will kick against it so he found it so may I too idque etiam a prudentibus populi senioribus qui sibi sapientiae titulum quasi proprium arrogant O let the Gospel produce its fruits in me parallel in this matter to his following expressions ut affectum nec mutem nec mittam ut eos ipsos qui me verberant diligam tanquam pater omnium tanquam frater that my love may overflow their ignorance or envy and I may overcome their evil with goodness as the Apostle counsels seeking their good as if they were my friends and Lovers yea though they shall as some perhaps will do by my good will as too many do by Gods render me hatred for it at least despise and scorn it As I look not for much better from the most so shall I not be much troubled if I â—o finde it May but God accept and uphold me and good men approve me though not for the worth of my performance yet for the readiness of my endeavours and any be thereby benefited I shall be contented But stay I must speak to one or two objections I know some honest hearts for I would not be conceived to think that none such may dissent from me may be snared with the other perswasion be filled full of scruples about this doctrine as conceiving it cross to what the Scripture saies of Eelction and to go too far in extending it to the Heathen that never heard of him as ascribing to man too much in his salvation establishing his free-will more then gods free grace Which things though they be spoken to in the Treatise Yet give me leave to say a word or two about them here too for thy further satisfaction if it may be premising first That in the matters of God we are to exalt faith above reason admit his word for our sure guide not our wisdome 2 Pet. 1.19 1 Cor. 3.18 knowing that our wisdom in the things of God is but foolishness his word the truth and his Gospel the wisdom of God unto Salvation to them that believe it Thence if any man seem to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise let him be so much a fool as to judge God true and wise not making his own blind reason the measure of Gods unsearchable wisdome and of the truth of his holy words as if all we can fathom and conceive ground for is true and no more and so all the rest to be cut off that is above our reach or crosses our reasonings least that befal us that befel both Jew and Gentile in the like case pretending to be wise we become fools thinking to mend Gods words and carve them into a better fashion for our instruction in the knowledge of him by our additions detractions limitations and contradictions as we think good as they did his works by their inventions we as they turn the truth of God into a lye Rom. 1.25 and change the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made to the capacity of corruptible men I cannot but commend to thee therefore that of Erasmus Desine disceptare incipe credere ita citius intelliges only I would have thee apply it to Gods words not to mine or any mans else but as they evidently agree with Gods and so it s one in meaning with what himself says Isa 7.9 If thou wilt not believe thou shalt not understand or be established thou wilt either mistake or be waved up and down with specious arguments but in minding his sayings and doing his will in yielding up to him in the light and power he affords thee thou shalt understand doctrines John 7.17 whether they be of God or of men Of this also be thou admonished to prefer Gods sayings before mans traditions the Apostles expressions before mens glosses and lame deductions for when men leave Gods word to lean upon men and have the fear of God taught them by their Traditions because of their Authority learning or seeming Sanctity God justly leaves them and then they lean on to run into delusion infatuating their understandings because they refused to give glory to Him But to speak a word to those particulars 1. For the matter of Election I no whit deny it nor doth it rightly looked on as the Scripture expresses it any whit contradict the extent of Christs Death I confess that it was made either in Massa pura or in Massa corrupta simply as they speak I finde no where asserted but in Christ which I conceive holds forth a view of Christ as mediator in the act of Election as in him as mediator we are blessed and so that the Election of believers was made in him tanquam in Radice as in Abraham Isaac and Iacob God chose their seed the Israelites so in Christ Jesus in choosing him in the manhood into unity with God and to be the store-house and treasure of all divine blessings he is said to have chosen to the same priviledges I mean by way of participation of his fulness those that after are brought into him and believe on him As he is in the humane nature chosen to be the holy one of Israel as united to the Divine so we are chosen in him to be holy a dedicate people and select portion for his inhabitation as the Temple in that sense with the Land and People of Israel were called holy and to be blameless before him in love that is as presented without blame and reproof in Christ and to be made blameless by Christ and so those that are believers in Christ are blessed and were so chosen to blessing holiness and blamelesness in him from eternity as the present Freemen of Lynn might be said to have been by foregoing Kings chosen to such priviledges as they have now in the first chusing it to be a Corporation and in those that were then made members of it though many of these present members perhaps all of them were then in their progenitors other Country-men so I say those that are now belivers were in Christ before the Worlds foundation chosen to the priviledges they have in and by him being also foreknown of God both that they should be in Christ and as owned in Christ and predestinuted in that his
26.26 1 Pet. 2.21 22. But that that was his end that Mr. Owen propounds towards the conclusion of his 1. Chap viz. That All and every one of them for whom Christ dyed should have All those things conferred upon him that he procured for any or that they All should certainly be brought to God and to eternal glory I deny and leave for him to prove which there he doth not But let us see if he disprove none of the ends laid down by me He tels us Chap. 2. that it was not meerly his own Good he aimed at in his death That it was not meerly his own is without doubt but that it was also his own glory to be manifested is as evident and therefore also he prays the Father for that Iohn 17.4 5. but he says further While he was in the way he merited nothing for himself Whereas the holy ones of God have deemed him worthy to receive honor and glory power and riches Rev. 5.9 wisdom and strength for that his suffering c. and I think God judged him so too for as a reward of his sufferings he hath given it him and that Christ had no eye at that in regard of his humanity as he insinuates is not to be believed seeing the Apostle expresses he had Rom. 14 9. Heb. 12.2 he procured the exaltation of his humane nature and the manifestation of his glory as the word of God more brightly by his sufferings and that God predestinated it to that glory otherwise then by sufferings I no where finde nor I think he neither It s true that was not the onely thing nor perhaps the main thing in his eye He aimed more at the glorifying of his Father and that the world through him might be saved but that That was not in his eye nor procured meritoriously by him and so no end aimed at by him in making satisfaction for sin seem strange positions and yet these are Mr. Owens Conceptions and Conclusions quite cross to that of Rom. 14.9 before mentioned Sure if he procured any thing meritoriously of the Father he procured his own exaltation in the humane nature especially that glory of it to be the habitation and storehouse of that fulness that he hath for us which to me is more plain then that it may be denied in that Psal 68.18 He led captivity captive and received gifts in the man and in Rev. 5. its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he prevailed to open the Book and unloose the seals which was his honor as well as our commodity ver 4 5. whence that after-confession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art worthy to take the Book and open the seals c. ver 7 8. He errs again when he saith The Dominion he hath over All is not founded on his Death for the Scripture saith expresly to this end he died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might have Dominion and for this cause God highly exalted him because he humbled himself and bare the sins of many Isai 53.12 Phil. 2.10 11. But Mr. Owen seems here to leap over hedge and ditch to his own purposes not considering how full the Scriptures are against him And indeed how can we expect a concurrence of Scripture to disprove a Scripture Assertion But let us see how he confirms his opinion He indeavors it from Heb. 1.3 He was appointed heir of all things But what then In what nature was he so appointed Sure he needed no appointment or constitution for his Divine Nature seeing Dominion over all was essential to that If in the Humane Nature united to the Divine then through what way was he appointed to become heir was it not the same in which he was begotten to be his Son and is it not said of him upon his Resurrection in that regard Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee then he was begotten in the Humane Nature to possession of the Divine Glory Besides may it not as well follow that therefore he purchased no glory for his Elect for they were appointed preordained to it too before the foundation of the world So that this is proofless to that particular His next is Heb. 2.7 8. God hath put all things under his feet But doth he not speak of that as a consequent to his abasement Thou madest him little lower then the Angels thou crownedst him with glory and honor c And expresly in ver 9. We see Jesus for the suffering of Death crowned with glory and honor I marvel what could make him quote this place of all the rest it being rather full against him He asks if Christ died for all those things that are subject to him Sed quid hoc ad Rhombum It s enough that he died that he might have such dominion over them which he hath partly by dying for them as in men and partly by conquest over them as in the devils and partly by gift as a reward of his service performed by him to his Father as in all things Phil. 2.10 11. Again He asks if he have not dominion over the Angels Yes and what then But he died not for them True but what then Did he not die that through death his Humane nature might be taken up into glory transcending theirs But he sayes All things are rather given him out of the Immediate love of the Father What he means here by Immediate I well know not if that without consideration of his death and sufferings the forecited Scriptures say enough against him If he mean onely that that was the bottom-fountain of his giving all to him Then doth he not see how by that manner of reasoning he also overthrows the effect of Christs death that he pleads for in procuring grace and glory for his chosen for by the same reason he purchased not that neither nor eyed it they flowing from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure and love of God as is declared at large Ephes 1.4 5 6 7. and 2.4 5. c. Certainly in all this Argument he hath horribly mistaken But yet at length he sayes Suppose this be true What proof follows from thence of the general Ransom seeing this Dominion is a power of condemning as well as saving and it s not reasonable to assert that Christ died to Redeem them that he might have power to condemn them nay if he died to Redeem them then he aimed not at any such power to condemn them To this I onely say 1. We ground not our Assertion of the generality of the Ransom upon this bottom meerly but upon plainer testimonies also onely we assert this end 2. We say at the power of saving or condemning them he aimed though not at their condemnation And that Rom. 14.9 proves He had not power over them to save them nor were there any just ground for their looking to him for salvation as the case stood he not dying to ransom them from the power of that condemnation that was already
I have propounded that distinction Christ is not wanting to apply what is impetrated according to the will of God for application or compact made in Impetration and therefore his second Argument is vain too viz. That 2. It s contrary to reason that the Death of Christ in Gods intention should be applyed to any one that shall have no share in the merits of that Death None of all his adversaries produced by him say any such thing they rather deny the application of it to many then say that some to whom it s to be applyed have no share in his merits Whereas he says many know not of it we have shewed before that a man may have a fruit of love from another that he knows not Cyrus was girded and strengthned by God though he knew him not So men have a release from the dealing of God with them according to the merit of Adams sin which should else unavoidably have come upon them and this by Christ though many know not him And all receive some fruits of Adams sin though many knew not that there was such a one or what his sin was Whereas he saith it s against reason that a ransom should be paid for captives upon compact of deliverance and yet upon payment those captives not be made free and set at liberty that Christ should be a ransom upon compact of deliverance of captives and yet the greatest number of them never be released That is falsly bottomed for God released All from that deadly destroying sentence which hath God taken the forfeit of Adams sin in that very day had ruined Adam and his whole posterity Justification of life is to all so that they All have life here and shall however be released and brought out of the death that is ordered to them by occasion of Adams sin in the resurrection so far are all acquitted that if any perish it s not in that but in a second Death Yea all are released also in this regard that whereas all were cast out of Gods presence and might not approach to him now through Christ all have free leave to approach to him all are commanded to repent and turn to him to look to him and be saved whoever will may come and welcome yea God is so far from keeping them away that he faults men for not coming to him John 5.40 Now if a ransom be paid for captives and the prison doors opened and means afforded for leading them out and prisoners willingly and stubbornly refuse but will stay in prison still as in this later respect many do shall that be imputed as a defect of justice in him to whom the ransom was paid for them Surely no except it could be proved that that was the compact that he should in that regard compel and forcibly cause to come out of prison all that the ransom was paid for which I am sure Mr. Owen will not be able to prove in this matter Christ no where says to any God would not have you come to him you are not included in the ransom nor that all that he dyed for shall be brought in to him but he often tels us God would have them seek him and come to him and faults them that they will not For that after-shift as he cals it of conditional and absolute obtaining of things it fals not upon me I affirm that liberty from that first sentence's execution upon us was absolutely obtained Justification of life to All. And that liberty is opened in the Gospel to All and men exhorted to enter and for not striving to enter now the door comes to be shut upon many that which they have shall be taken from them because they liked to have it and then they cannot enter Also that all life remission and fulness are absolutely put into Christs hands only I say the will of God for his dispensation and so to his proposition of the things to be dispensed not his obtaining them into his dispose nor the freeness and openness of them for men to look after and come to him for them hath a condition annexed God wils Christ to dispense them to men upon coming to him and Christ holds them forth upon that condition to any Whoever will let him come c. we deny that Christ is bound to make known to all for whom he dyed the fulness that is in him like evidently or himself or the way of salvation to all alike expresly or expresly at all That all are bound to minde and imbrace what he revealeth to them is clear but that he is bound to make known this or that to all he dyed for I deny that Mr. Owen can any where prove He may bring infants to himself and dispense his salvation to them and yet never give them capacity to hear the condition of salvation and yet we believe what the Scripture saith John 1.9 that he is the true light that inlightens every man coming into the world He is not bound to give every man ten talents alike open and plain declation of himself and Father no not for saving them but every man is bound to improve and submit to God in what he gives them be it more or less and if they do so he is able and ready to give more being liberal and free and can tell how to save them if not he is just to take away what they have and not bound to save them He being Lord of them Nor yet say we that men have power of themselves to improve what is given them but he who gives them the talents gives them the power too in which he requires them to improve them and it s not inability but slothfulness and obstinacy for which they are faulted and condemned by him because they rather chuse to live idly in themselves and dy then stir abroad to seek God John 8.31 32 34 36. or yeeld to what he brings home to them and live Christ as he is the Truth of God is the great Physitian of souls and by revelations of truth both cals to himself for healing and by further revelations of it to those that come to him doth heal John 14.6 The truth shall make you free and this because He hath given himself a ransom for them in the first place without which neither ground of calling nor fitness to heal them Now this Great Truth of God doth send abroad his beams of divine light and so some sparklings of himself as the Word of God and God by vertue of his relation to the humane nature first virtually and then actually united to him to men in generall John 1 4 5 9 though not so clearly nor so many beams at all times as in some nor to All men as to some Yet to the generality some Beams of truth Rom. 1.18 19 21.28 Acts 17 27 28.27 Job 21.14 those beams have their force in their leading them to know something of God so to
a seed and to that end so to glorifie him with himself and to men and so to exercise his power and goodness amongst them that Nations and people should run in to him and so come to injoy the life that 's in him and glory with him leaving that so far as I finde to his Fathers goodwill whom and how many so to cause to run unto him not doubting but he will make good his word to his satisfaction Thus for his Impetration Now accordingly by way of Application if we may so call it He and God in him 1. Deals with all men in a way of mercy bounty and goodness and not according to the Tenor of the first obligation or the curse deserved by their sin in Adam 2. Hath invested him with supream Authority over All Creatures giving all things into his hands and he rules the Nations with a rod of Iron c. and dispenses to them as seems good to him And 3. Hath life in himself free for and communicable to All or any which he makes over to his people brought into him forgiving their sins sanctifying their souls putting into them his spirit laws fear c. changing them into his likeness till he bring them into the full possession of all his glory And 4. The Father glorifies him amongst men and so works in his word and providences by his Spirit that he hath a Church and Spouse a seed given him to whom he doth impart that fulness that is in him and executes his Lordly office amongst the rest according to his and the Fathers will so as that he brings about the main end of his sufferings the glory of God in all his dispensations even toward them also And these are my thoughts about this distinction Some make use of a Distinction of a Reconcilation wrought in Christ for men and in men by Christ the first for all men the second in all cordial and through-believers Which I make out and approve thus 1. The nature of man was fully and perfectly reconciled to God in the person of Christ by his death for All men or in the behalf of and for the benefit of all men The nature of man though the Word descended into it and was made Flesh yet as it was given in the behalf of other mens persons yea he in it as the publike sinner to ransom all so between it in Christ and God there was a controversy and that so great that God fell upon it wounded bruised afflicted yea cursed it as I may say or made it accursed and his Son as in it pouring upon it the punishment of the sin of man before he took it up into his glory but having done so to the utmost of his will not sparing him he then raised it Acts 13.33 took it up into Sonship with the Word and filled it with all his fulness being at perfect unity with it and it with him never more to be at odds again here is a full compleat and perfect reconciliation of the nature of man in Christs person and this for All as the punishment was suffered in stead of the whole nature in its several individuals and so as that God now le ts go all other from executing the fierceness of his wrath upon them for that sin in which they formerly stood condemned and calls for satisfaction to his justice in that point from none of them Rom. 2.4 5. but extends such means and goodness to them as leadeth to Repentance Yet in their persons they are not reconciled they all except the man Christ remain in enmity against him and the nature of man in all our persons is such that with no one of mankinde can so holy a God have fellowship till something be done to them that is De adultis loquor till there be wrought in them a renouncing of themselves and sins and a willingness to walk with God through his love and goodness which none have in them meerly by Christs dying for them and ascending to God till something be wrought in them from heaven by his Spirit 2 Sam. 14.24 28. Till when men are like Absolom when David at Joabs mediation took of the sentence of his banishment but yet would not let him see his face All yet in that regard children of wrath worthy of wrath though God deal not with them according to desert nor goes about to execute the fierceness of wrath upon them but on the contrary affords them means of seeking him c. to some more to some less as he pleases But 2. When the goodness of God Psa 36.7 8. Eph. 1.13 and the operations of his Word and Spirit the insinuations of divine light and love into the hearts of any is so received and yielded to that they are brought to Repentence and faith in God and Christ and submission to his Spirit then they come in their own persons to be reconciled to receive the reconciliation and atonement then God begins to own and walk with them Rom. 5.11 and take them up into unity and fellowship with his Son and this is the reconciliation wrought in men by Christ to which the Apostle exhorts in 2 Cor. 5.20 How much my sense of these distinctions differ from the Arminians Camero's Testardus and others who as M. Owen tels us all speak of an Impetration of Reconciliation Remission Redemption conditionally if they believe I leave to their Judgments that compare us M. Owens arguments against that first distinction as used by them make nothing against me I affirming an application or donation from the Father to be made to Christ and through Christ to men according to the purpose of his Impetration only some passages in his arguments would be spoken to as whereas in his second Argument p. 89. he affirms that whatsoever is obtained for any is theirs by right for whom it is obtained I think that is not every way true I may purchase a picee of land intentionally for my childe and yet keep the right and title in my own hand so that he may not have right in it or title to it till I actually instate him in it Whatever the thoughts of Christ were to any in dying for them yet we are not made heirs till brought into him till then we have no right either to claim or to receive the promises Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ and if Christs then Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3.29 So Tit. 3.6 being justified by grace we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Whether the condition of faith be purchased or no we shall view elsewhere Again in his third Argument he tels us that these two Impetration and Application are alwayes joyned together in the Scriptures in which he saith not truly for I demand where is the Application in 1 Tim. 2.6 He gave himself a ransom for All or in Heb. 2.9 by the grace of God he might
him that yet doubts of Gods love to him reject that devised Doctrine that contradicts the Scriptures and letting alone the secrets of God which pertain not to him yet to know nor shall hurt him if he attend and yield up to that that is revealed yea shall be also profitably revealed to him if he submit to what is revealed Psal 25.14 let him I say mind the record of God that he hath given of his Son that he hath given himself a Ransom for All yea and that God hath given us eternal life even us whom he commands to believe in the name of his Son 1 Ioh. 3.23 and this life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life thence shall he see both ground to believe that God hath given him eternall life and put it into Christ and also both necessity and incouragement to believe on Christ that in believing he may have that life even that eternall injoyment of God in Christ that will for ever satisfie him and make him happy FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Symphony of some Ancient Doctors of the Church with the truth here defended added to shew that it is no novelty of yesterdays standing as some are pleased to charge it Chrysostome in Joh. 1.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Heb. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clemens Alexandrinus Orat. ad Gentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Athanasius De incarnatione verbi Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Et Paulo Post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those sentences forealledged are in English thus Chrysostome upon Joh. 1.29 That Lamb speaking of the Paschall Lamb or the Lambes offered up in the Jewish sacrifices never took away any one mans sins But this that is Christ the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the whole world for it being in great danger to be destroyed he quickly freed it from the wrath of God The same Author upon Heb. 2.9 saith thus That by the grace of God he might tast death for every one not for the believers only but also for the whole world for he dyed for All but what if all believe not yet he hath performed that which concerned him to do Clemens Alexand. Hear ye that are afar off and hear ye that are nigh hand The Word is not hid from any the Light is common and shineth unto All men Athanasius in his tractate about the Incarnation of the Word of God Now forasmuch as the debt of All ought to be paid for All ought to dy therefore for that cause especially he came and sojourned here and after the manifestations of his Divinity by his works it remained that he offer up a sacrifice for All delivering up his Temple the Temple of his body unto Death for All that he might discharge and free All from the old transgression And a little after in the same Tractate There was need of Death and it behoved that Death should be indured for All that the Debt due from all might be satisfied wherefore the Word for that it could not dy for it was immortall took to itself a body capable of dying that he might offer that as his own for All and that he suffering for All by reason of his conjunction with that he might destroy him that hath the power of Death to wit the Devill Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophylact in Johan 6.51 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 August in Joh. 3.14 15. Serpens aneus in ligno positus venena vivorium serpentum superavit Christus in cruce suspensus mortuus antiqua diaboli venena restinxit omnes qui ab eo percussi fuerant liberavit Idem in Psal 69. Judas abjecit pretium quo ipse vendidit Christium non agnovit pretium quo ipse a Christo redemptus erat Prosper in Respons ad object Gallorum Christus dedit pro mundo sanguinem suum mundus redimi noluit Item sent quartâ super capita Gallorum Qui dicit quod non pro totius mundi redemptione salvator sit crucifixus non ad Sacramenti virtutem sed ad infidelium respicit partem quum sanguis Jesus Christi pretium totius mundi sit A quo pretio extranei sunt qui aut delectati captivitate redimi noluerunt aut post redemptionem ad candem servitutem sunt reversi Vide Ambrosium in pag. titul Cyrillus Alexandrinus in Joh. Evang. lib. 11.25 Quemadmodum praevaricatione primi hominis ut in primitiis generis nostri morti addicti sumus eodem modo per obedientiam justitiam Christi in quantum seipsum legi subjecit quamvis legis author esset benedictio atque vivificatio quae per spiritum est ad totam nostram penetravit naturam Leo Epist 72. ad Juvenalem Vt autem repararet omnium vitam recepit omnium causam vim veteris Chirographi pro omnibus solvendo vacuavit ut sicut per unius reatum omnes facti suerant Peccatores ita per unius obedientiam omnes fierent innocentes inde in homines manante justitiá ubi est humana suscepta natura Cyrill of Hierusalem in his Instruction or Catechise 13. The Crown of the Cross is that it inlightned those that were blind in ignorance and loosed All that were held in bondage under sin and redeemed the whole World of mankind Nor marvell thou that the whole world was redeemed by it for he was not a bare Man but the only begotten Son of God that dyed upon it Theophylact in John 6.51 By the life of the World perhaps he meaneth the Resurrection for the Death of the Lord procured the Generall Resurrection of all the whole kind or race of man perhaps also he named the life of holiness and happiness the life of the World for though All have not received that sanctification and that life that is in the spirit yet Christ gave himself for the World and as to what appertained to him the world is saved and the whole nature sanctified inasmuch as he hath received power to conquer sin and sin fled away by that one Man Our Lord Jesus Christ even as by that one man Adam it that is the world or the nature of man fell into sin Austine in Joh. 3.14 15. The brazen Serpent put upon a pole of Wood overcame all the venome of the living Serpents And Christ being hung upon the cross and dying quenched the force of the old poisons of the Devil and freed All that were smitten by him The same upon Psal 69. Judas cast away the price for which he sold Christ and acknowledged or owned not the price by which he was redeemed by Christ Prosper in Answer to some objections of the Gaules Christ gave his blood for the World and the World refused to be redeemed that is actually set at liberty by him So again He that saith the Saviour was not crucified for the Redemption of the Whole world hath not his eye upon the pretiousness or vertue of that mystery but upon the part of them that believe not whereas the blood of Jesus Christ is the price of the whole World from which price they are strangers who either being delighted with their captivity refuse to be set free or after they are set free return again unto their former bondage Cyrill of Alexandria upon Johns Gospell lib. 11. cap. 25. As by the transgression of the first man we were as in the first fruits of our kind bound over unto Death after the same manner by the obedience and righteousness of Christ forasmuch as he subjected himself unto the Law who was the Author of the Law the blessing and quickning which is by the Spirit or Divine nature hath pierced to our whole nature Leo in his 7◠Epistle to Juvenal That Christ might repaire the life of All he took the Cause of All and loosed the force of the old handwriting by satisfying for All. That so as by the Guilt of one All were made sinners so also by the obedience of one All might be made innocent righteousness thence flowing down unto men where is taken the nature of man I Might have added more Testimonies both Ancient and moderne as amongst the ancient Ignatius Jrenaeus Theodoret c. and amongst the moderne Luther Hemingius and in a word the generality of the Lutheran Divines as also Musculus Vrsinus Suffragium Britanicum Bishop Davenant yea the Articles and Catechise of the Church of England but these already alledged may be sufficient