Full text of "The works of John Owen"

mm 



^^ 









;44^ 



?#< 



%:<J 






I'liiyirroy. n. j. 



An. Shilt\ Sect;! 






The Joliu >1. K^«>b^ l>onatinn. 



sec 

/O^ la ^^ 



\J 



.S 



IHL 



WORKS 



JOHN OWEN, D. D 



EDITED 

BY THOMAS RUSSELL, M.A. 



MEMOIRS OF HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS, 
BY \VILLLA^M ORME. 



VOL. V. 

CONTAINING 

TWO SHORT CATECHISMS; 

OEOMAXIA A^TEiOYZIArriKH ; OR A DISPLAY OF ARMIKIAN" ISM ; 

SALVS ELECTORUM, SANGUIS JESU; OR 

THE DEATH OF DEATH IX THE DEATH OF CHRIST; 

OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 



LONDON: 



PRINTED FOR RiCllARD BAYNES, 28, PATERNOSTER ROW: 

Anil sold by J. Parker, Oxford ; Deighton and Sons, Cambridge ; D. Brown, 
Waugh and Innes, and U.S. Bav'nes and Co. Edinburgh; Clialmers and 
Collins, and M. Ogle, Glasgow ; M. Keene, and R. IM. Tims, Dublin. 

1826. 




CONTENTS -^^.i 



THE FIFTH VOLUME. 



TWO SHOUT CATECHISMS. 

Page 
The Epistle Dedicatory 3 

The Lesser Catechism • 7 

THE GREATER CATECHISM. 

CHAP. I. 
Of the Scripture 10 

CHAP. II. 
Of God 11 

CHAP. III. 
Of the Holy Trinity 12 

CHAP. IV. 
Of the works of God ; and first, of those that are internal and immanent 13 

CHAP. V. 

Of the works of God that outwardly are of him 15 

CHAP. VI. 
Of God's actual providence 16 

CHAP. VII. 
Of the law of God 17 

CHAP. VIII. 
Of the state of corrupted nature 18 

CHAP. IX. 
Of the incarnation of Christ 1? 

CHAP. X. 
Of the person of Jesus Christ 20 



iv CONTENTS. 

Page 

CHAP. XI. 

Of the offices of Christ ; and first, of his kingly 21 

CHAP. XII. 
Of Christ's priestly office 22 

CHAP. XIII. 
Of Christ's prophetical office 25 

CHAP. XIV. 
Of the twofold estate of Clirist 26 

CHAP. XV. 
Of the persons to whom the benefits of Christ's offices do belong ib. 

CHAP. XVI. 
Of the church - 27 

CHAP. XVII. 
Of faith 28 

CHAP. XVIII. 
Of our vocation, or God's calling us 29 

CHAP. XIX. 
Of justification ib. 

CHAP. XX. 
Of sanctification 30 

CHAP. XXI. 
Of the privileges of believers 32 

CHAP. XXII. 

Of the sacraments of the new covenant in particular ; a holy right whereunto is 
the fourth privilege of believers » 33 

CHAP. XXIII. 
Of baptism ' 34 

CHAP. XXIV. 
Of the Lord's supper 35 

CHAP. XXV. 
Of the communion of saints, the fifth privilege of believers 36 



CONTENTS. V 

Page 
CHAP. XXVI. 
Of particular churches 3o 

CHAP. XXVII. 
Of the last privilege of believers, being the door of entrance into glorj 37 

©EOMAXIA AYTE=OT2IA2TIKH : OR A DISPLAY OF ARMIXIANISM. 

The Epistle Dedicatory 41 

To the Christian Reader ■ 49 

CHAP. I. 

Of the two main ends aimed at by the Arminians, by their innovations in the 
received doctrine of the reformed churches 53 

CHAP. II. 

Of the eternity and immutability of the decrees of Almighty God, denied and 
ovcrtluown by the Armiuiaus 57 

CHAP. III. 

Of the prescience or foreknowledge of God, and how it is questioned and over- 
thrown by the Armijiians 66 

CHAP. IV. 

Of the providence of God in governing the world diversiy, tlirust from this pre- 
eminence by the Arminian idol of free-will 76 

CHAP. V. 

Whether the will and purpose of God may be resisted, and he be frustrate of 
his intentions 92 

CHAP. VI. 

How the whole doctrine of predestination is corrupted by the Arminians 103 

CHAP. VII. 
Of original sin, and tlie corruption of nature 122 

CHAP. VIII. 
Of the state of Adam before the fall, or of original righteousness 139 

CHAP. IX. 
Of the death of Christ, and of the efficacy of his merits 145 

CHAP. X. 
Of the cause of faith, grace, and righteousness 160 



vi CONTENTS. 

Page 

CHAP. XI. 

Whether salvation raaj be attained without the knowledge of, or faith in, Christ 
Jesus 170 

CHAP. XII. 
Of free-will, the nature and power thereof 177 

CHAP. XIII. 

Of the power of free-will, in preparing us for our conversion unto God 188 

CHAP. XIV. 
Of our conversion to God 1 95 



SALUS ELECTORUM, SANGUIS JESU : OR THE DEATH OF DEATH 
IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 

The Epistle Dedicatory 207 

Two Attestations touching the ensuing treatise 209 

To the Reader 213 

BOOK I. 

CHAP. I. 

Of the end of the death of Christ in general, what it is, and how in the Scri p- 
ture proposed, as in the intention of Father and Son. The several particu- 
lars whereiuto that general end is branched: laid down severally from the 
word. The opposition made by some hereunto, because as so proposed it is 
destructive to universal redemption 227 

CHAP. II. 

The nature of an end and a means. Their reference and relation to one another, 
set out by reason and examples. Sundry distinctions about the end of any 
thin". As also concerning the means conducing to an end. An application 
of those distinctions to the present business 231 

CHAP. UI. 

Of the agent in the great work of redemption. The blessed Trinity, in it the 
several persons considered working distinctly. I. The act of the Father, first, in 
sending of his Son, imposing his ofike on him : 1. In his eternal counsel. 2. 
In actual admission of him thereunto byse veral acts according to hispre-engaged 
promise. Secondly, Furnishing him with a plenitude of gifts and graces for 
liis work. Of the fulness that was in Christ ; the divers kinds of it. Thirdly, 
Entering into covenant and compact with him ; that compact declared from the 
word in the several branches and particulars thereof. II. Laying on him the 
punishment due to sin ;. how that was done, and wherein it consisted. Dilem- 
ma to uni versalists ""'* 



CONTENTS. vii 

rage 

CHAP. IV. 

The undertaking and actionsof the Son, the second person of the Trinity, in the 
work of redemption ; his incarnation, oblation, and intercession. His oblation 
and intercession intending the same persons, with an argument against univer- 
sal redemption i.'-18 

CHAP. V. 

Tiie concurrence of the Holy Spirit, the tliird person of the Trinity, to this work, 
will) iiis peculiar actions 253 

CHAP. VI. 

The means used by these agents in this work. The oblation of Christ, wliat it 
is, as also his intercession : how these two are distinguished, and wherein 
united 254 

CHAP. VII. 

Arguments to prove the oblation and intercession of Christ to rcs]iect the same 
persons. Tlu-ir perpetual conjunction in the Scripture. Christ's |>ricsthood 
perfected in them : they both belong to the same priestly olTice. The nature 
of the intercession of Christ, and wherein it consisteth. The end aimed at 
in both these, one and the same ; in.tbeir union, and no otherwise, a ground of 
strong consolation 257 

CHAP. VIII. 

The reply of Thomas More to the former arguments considered. The senseless- 
ness of his e.-vcepiions laid open : tlie several parts of them considered. Christ 
nota double Mediator, a general and special. Ail the acts of his Mediator- 
ship restrained to liis elect. 1 Tim.ii. 5. with I Tim. iv. 10. discussed. God 
how the Saviour of all, and in what sense. The pretended twofold interces- 
sion of Christ, as Mediator, everted. Isa. liii. 12. with Luke xxiii. 24. dis- 
cussed. How Christ prayed for his crucifiers. A twofold praying in our Sa- 
viour granted. John X vii. 21. 23. considered and explained. Christ a priest 
in respect of the end why he sacrificed himself only for his elect 264 

BOOK II. 

CHAP. I. 

The end of the death of Christ, distinguished into supreme and subordinate, 
what these are. Faith and salvation how procured by his death 281 

CHAP. II. 

The end of the death of Christ in respect of himself, his own exaltation not nieii- 
toriously procured by it. The end of it in respect of his Father : not that 
God might save sinners his justice being satisfied. God can forgive sin by his 
absolute power without satisfaction. The end of the death of Christ in respect 



viii CONTENTS. 

Pa-e 
of God (assigned by Arminians) totally destructive to redemption ; the whole 
work made thereby fruitless. The opinion of universalists 204 

CHAP. III. 

Tlie immediate end of the death of Christ discovered, places of Scripture con- 
sidered, holding out the intention and counsel of God in respect of the end 
of the death of Christ : other places holding out the actual accomplishment 
of his death : others likewise designing the persons for whom he died. The 
force of the word man^ : the argument from thence vindicated from the excep- 
tions of Thomas IMore. Of Rom. v. 19. \Vlio the sheep of Christ, who not. 
John X. 10, 11. 1,S. 26. opened and vindicated : with the vanity of the distinc- 
tions invented to wave the force of this argumeut, laid open 290 

CHAP. IV. 

Of impetration and application, the sense wherein this distinction is used by 
our adversaries; their various expressions about it. The true meaning of it. 
Application the end of im|)etration : their strict connexion, and the way 
whereby in the Scriptures they are held fortli. The sense of the adversaries in 
it explained. Their wliole opinion discovered in sundry observations ; and 
the main question rightly slated in the sense of the several parties at va- 
riance 307 

CHAP. V. 

Again of imiietration and application ; the exposition of the Arminians enervat- 
ed by sundry arguments; the whole bottom of their fabric everted 320 

BOOK III. 

CHAP. I. 

The first argument against universal redemption : The nature of the covenant 
of grace. The main ditTerence between the old covenant and new. The se- 
cond argument against universal redemption : the deatli of Christ not re- 
vealed to all. The whole undertaking fruitless without revelation. This not 
done, therefore not intended 325 

CHAP. II. 

Tlie third argument against universal redemption^: Christ purchased redemption 
either absolutely or on condition ; neither way suitable to universal redemp- 
tion. Christ's intention at his death, according to our adversaries. The pur- 
port of God's connnands to believe. The fourth argument against universal 
redemption : God's eternal purposes distinguishing all the sons of men into 
two sorts. Christ died only for the elect. The fiftli argument against uni- 
versal redemption : Christ no where in the word said to die for all men . . 330 

CHAP. III. 

The sixth argument against universal redemption: Christ in dying for men a 
surety. The nature of a surety . Satisfaction attends suretiship. The inten- 
tion of Christ, in being a surety. I'he necessarj- consequents of such an un- 



CONTENTS. ijt 

Page 
dertiiking. Dilernma to universality. Tlie seventh argument from Christ, 
his being a Mediator for them for wliom he died 337 

CHAP. IV. 

The eighth argument against universal redemption: the blood of Christ the 
cause of sanctification, and how. The sacrifice of expiation with what was 
signified by it : vain attempt of Arminius to evade this argument. Rom. vi. 5, 
6. considered. How the promises are confirmed in Christ. Sanctification. The in- 
tendment and procurement of the death of Christ, in what kind it is the cause 
thereof : tlie Spirit of holiness the efficient cause of it. The death of Christ 
the meritorious ; both total in their several kinds ; simile of a prisoner. Ar- 
gument the ninth against universal redemption: faith the fniit of the death 
of Christ. The necessity of faith to salvation. Option and clioice vitlded 
our adversaries as to this particular. In what sense failh is not a fruit of the 
death of Christ. Dilemma to universalists. Absurd consequences of denying 
faith subjective to be a fruit of Christ's death. Five arguments from Scripture 
to prove it so to be. The tenth argument against universal redemption: who 
nnd what persons were typed by the Israelites in their deliverance, and en- 
trance into Canaan 3.}. I 

CHAP. V. 

The eleventh argument against universal redemption: universal redemption 
inconsistent with those expressions whereby tliat which Christ wrought by bis 
death is set out in the Scripture. Those expressions ; redemption, the nature 
of it, and wherein it consisteth. Diflfereiice between civil and spiritual redemp- 
tion, wherein they agree ; definition of it, and arguments from thence 3.52 

CHAP. VI. 

The twelfth argument against universal redemption: Reconciliation, what it is, 
wherein it consisteth. Sense of the word. Corruption of the Socinians. What 
is required to perfect reconciliation. Rom. v. 10,11. opened. What is required 
to the completing of this work. Dilemma from thence 355 

CHAP. VII. 

The thirteenth argument against universal redemption : of the satisfaction of 
Christ; the use and importance of the word, whence derived; what is re- 
quired thereunto. Six things herein necessary ; the satisfaction of Christ prov- 
ed from the Old Testament and New. Words in the original languages an- 
swering that in ours. That Christ by satisfaction paid the same thing that 
was the debt, proved against Grotius : his reasons to the contrary discuss- 
ed and answered. Pardon of sin, not inconsistent with such satisfaction. 
Wherein the free grace of pardon lieth. The act of God in this work of sa- 
tisfaction. 1. Of creditorship by severe justice exacting the due debt. 2. Of 
supreme dominion or sovereignty. Both these proved against Grotius. Ar- 
guments from hence 360 

CHAP. VIII. 

Digression about the satisfaction of Christ. The occasion of it. The ground 
of a great error in this business : God's eternal unchangeable love not incon- 
VOL. V. b 



X CONTENTS. 

Page 
sistentwitli satisfaction. Sundry observations lliereabouts. VViiat ihatctur- 
nal love is. What alteration wrought thereby in tlie person loved. Apprc- 
liension of God's eternal love, not justification. How those who arc eternally 
loved do actually lie under effects of wrath. What those effects arc. John 
iii. 36. considered 37 1 

CHAP. IX. 

Farther of tlie satisfaction of Christ: Six arguments to confirm it from Scrip- 
ture : how Christ bare our sins. He underwent punishment in our stead. A 
commutation of persons asserted. Ransom paid into the hands of God. The 
ransom is also a sacrifice. Christ a surety. Atonement made for sin and 
God reconciled. Ram. v. 11. The priestly office of Christ, and the exercise 
of it, overthrown by denial of his satisfaction. 'J'hat Christ underwent the 
wratli of God, proved by three arguments. Satisfaction of Christ, the only 
bottom for distressed souls. 2 Cor. v. 21. considered ; as also Isa. liii. 5. 
Objections against this doctrine weak 378 

CHAP. X. 

The fourteenth argument against universal redemption : of the merit of Christ ; 
the word what it means. How expressed in the Scripture. What it is. 
The fruits of the merit of Christ. The consequence of merit in the rigour of 
justice. 'J'he fifteenth argument against universal redemption : to die for an- 
other what in the Scripture sense. The force of the prepositions i/irej and 
avTi ; arguments from thence 387 

CHAP. XI. 

The sixteenth argument against universal redemption. Gen. iii. l.">. i\Iatt. vii. 
33. xi. 25. John x. 11. 15, 16. 27, 28. Rom. viii. 32—35. Eph. i. 7. 
2 Cor. V. 21. John xvii. 9. Eph. v. 25. urged and explained. The close of 
the arguments 391 

BOOK IV. 

CHAP. I. 

Entrance into general answers to arguments for universal redemption : tJie 
ground of the whole mistake. Fundamental principles as to this business 
laid down. The first, the suflRciency and infinite virlue of the blood of Christ 
proved from the word. The rise and causes of it. Whence it isa price. The 
distinction of the sutiiciency and etlicacy of the death of Christ discussed. 
The slight esteem universalists have of the innate efficacy of Christ's death. 
The general publishing of the gospel grounded on the fulness of the value of 
Christ's oblation. The bottom of calling all to believe. The second, of the 
economy of the New Testament in the times of the gospel. Consequences 
of its enlargement to the Gentiles. Scripture expressions thereby occasioned. 
The third, man's duty and God's purpose distinguished: no connexion be- 
tween them. Commands not declarative of God's intentions. The offer in 
the gospel what it discovers. Some to be saved where the gospel comes. Three 
things declared by the offer. The fourth, the persuasion of the Jews concern- 



CONTENTS. x» 

Page 
ing deliverance by the Messias. Tlieir esteem of all the world beside them- 
selves. The apostles seasoned with the leaven. By what means it was to 
be removed. The fifth, general terms taken indefinitely. The letter of the 
word how a rule. Of the word world ; a scheme of the several acceptations of 
that word. Those distinctions proved from Scripture, avTsvaxXaa-i; frequent 
in the Scripture. Instances of it in the word world. How only an argument 
may be taken from this word. Of the term all. Christ not said to die for 
all men. Different usage and acceptations of the word all ; instances of its 
being taken distributively; so most usually. Observations about the word 
all. Predictions of the Old Testament, and accomplishments in the New set 
out under the same expressions ; Scripture speaking of things and persons 
according to outward appearance and estimation. Privileges peculiar to be- 
lieverj, ascribed promiscuously to others, by profession only among tliera. Of 
the judgment of charity; instances thereof. The infallible connexion be- 
tween faith and salvation. The reason of a general proffer from hence. Whe- 
ther a conditionate tender, be declarative of God's purpose and intention. 
Of the mixed distributions of elect and reprobates; the tender of Christ 
thereon. Men unacquainted with the particulars of that distribution. The 
sundry acts of faith ; the way, order, and method of acting faith on Christ- • 397 



CHAP. II. 

Answers unto particular arguments. Some things premised. The first general 
argument of our opposers. Its absurd incorisequency, as ordinarily held forth. 
No conclusion from the word world. John iii. 16. at large considered: uni- 
versalists interpretation of this place. Ours opposed unto it : both tliese se- 
verally weighed. What love here mentioned. A general natural propensity 
in God to the good of the creature disproved. The love which was the cause 
of sending Christ, manifested ; who meant by the world in this place. Proved 
that they are the elect only, not considered as such ; five reasons to confirm 
this; exceptions removed. Who meant by, Whosoever believeth. The in- 
tention of God laid down in these words 423 



CHAP. III. 

1 John ii. 1,2 considered ; the argument of our adversaries from this place. 
A brief answer to it. Three things considerable about this text; this epistle 
written to the Jews, proved by sundry reasons. The aim of the apostle in 
this place what it is. Of the word propitiation; what in the original, and 
whence derived. Of that phrase the whole world ; terms equivalent there- 
unto, how to be understood ; reasons to prove that particularity of redemp- 
tion from this text ; exceptions removed. John vi. 5. 1 considered. 2 Cor. v, 
19. Exceptionsof Thomas More refuted. John i. 9. opened. John i. 29. ex- 
plained. John iii. 18. iv. 47. 1 John iv. 14. Answer to the first argument 
closed 440 



CHAP. IV. 

The second general argument of our opposers: the places by them urged. 
1 Tim. ii. 4. 6. considered. Objection from thence answered. Who meant 



x» CONTENTS. 

rage 
by all men ; of the will of God; distinctions about it; acceptations of the 
word; how taken here. Of the sense of the word all; not taken collectively 
in this place. Five reasons to prove it. The full answer to this objection ; 
T. M.'s enforcements waved. 2 Pet. iii. 9. considered ; vindicated from 
corrupt glosses ; who the all in that place, proved from the context. Heb. ii. 
•>. considered ; the text opened by reasons and deductions from the context. 
2 Cor. V. 14, 1,>. opened : an objection thence enforced and answered. Ar- 
gument from the text against the universality of redemption. 1 Cor. xv. 22. 
opened, and vindicated. Rom. v. 18. at large vindicated : Christ for whom 
a public person ; divers errors discovered in the discourse of T. More, on 
this place ; seven arguments about the representation of others 466 

CilAP. V. 

Last argument from Scripture for universal redemption: the precious blood of 
Christ undervalued by universalists. Rom. xiv. 15. explained; the vanity 
of the objection from this place. 1 Cor. viii. 10, 11. considered; how. be- 
lievers arc said to perish. 2 Pet. ii. 1. explained. Ileb. x. 29. opened : 
the mind and intention of the apostle therein : different affirmations con- 
cerning professors and others: declaration upon conditions how fulfilled: 
the outward profession of backsliders: initiated persons how esteemed of 
old : total perishing of believers not to be allowed ; w hat it is to be sancti- 
fied by the blood of the covenant. The close of answers with the arguments 
of the Arminians from .Scripture 476 

CHAP. VI. 

Answer to the argument of T. More for universal redemption. Universal re- 
demption contradictious to Christian reason : his first argument. The plain 
words of the Scripture, to be followed for the plain sense : rules of interpreta- 
tion allowable; who meant by every man in the Scripture. Heb. ii. 9. consi- 
dered. M.More'slogic. His second argument: Scripture interpretaiiveof itself: 
a vain flourish of mis-allegations and useless quotations discovered ; the places 
retorted; number of arguments vainly jiretended : manner of arguing recti- 
fied : sophism of turning indefinite propositions into universals: answer to 
the second argument. The third : Mr. More's ignorance in arguing: the ut- 
ter inconsequence of this argument; the vanity and emptiness of the matter 
of it. Rom. xiv. 9. 11, 12. considered: dominion of Christ over all, proves 
not that he died for all. His fourth argument : the irregularity of his reason- 
ing herein; the whole answered. His fifth argument answered. His sixth argu- 
ment considered in general. His first proof of his main assertion ; 1 John i v. 
14. John i. 4. 7. considered : so also, 1 Tim. ii. 4. The will of God to have all 
saved : what of sulficient grace. His second proof answered. His third proof; 
one ever asserted to maintain another : the pretended proof everted. His 
fourth proof considered and answered , John xvi. 7, &c. unfolded : that tes- 
timony removed. His fifth proof: the word boldly corrupted ; false glosses re- 
moved. Ezek. xviii. 23. unfolded. The scope of the place miserably mis- 
taken : the aim of the prophet, and intention of the words. His sixth proof: 
answer thereunto : words and phrases needlessly repeated. Sense of the 
word all, every man, iScc. The gospel how preached to all nations. The ran- 
som of Christ how purposed to all : several words interpreting one another. 
His seventh proof answered. No tolerable collection herein. The death of 
Cbrist, a privilege peculiar to the elect ; the ransom not extended to all in- 



CONTENTS. xiii 

Page 
dividual ; the ransom paid in the death of Christ, and other fruits united in 
the Scripture: his eighth proof considered. Adam and Christ how compared, 
wlierein that comparison lies : the intention of it in 1 Cor. xv. 'it. Christ and 
Adam two common stocks: roots communicate only to their own branches. 
Proof the ninth considered : no strengtli at all herein appeareth. The preach- 
ing of the gospel to ail, substance of the gospel offers : life and salvation 
jiroposed conditionally : ministers not intrusted with God's secrets. Proof 
tenth considered : many vain suppositions, whether we must pray for all or 
no '■ what we may pray for in respeot to all individuals; our duty not in 
conformity to God's secret will. Proofs 11 — 13. considered. God with his 
people preaching and praying: what may be proved about the extent of the 
death of Christ, from the event ; the powerful influence of love and free 
grace into conversion ; as made universal quite enervate; no such common love 
in God, as by some assigned : efficacy of God's love in Christ. Proof fourteen 
considered : what unbelief the cause of destruction. Christ rejected in lov- 
ing darkness rather than light; of John i. 12. In what sense, light in Christ, 
for all ; all men not in a restored condition by Christ ; hard hearts farther 
hardening themselves ; how men not saved in Christ lose their own souls. 
Arguments to disprove a pretended restoration in Christ: absurd conse- 
quences of that false assertion. Proof fifteen answered : expostulations about 
the abuse of temporal mercies no arguments for a general ransom ; no desires 
properly in God ; expostulations merely declarative of our duty. Proof six- 
teen. What it is to turn the grace of God into wantonness : men of old or- 
dained to condemnation, not redeemed by Christ in time. Proofs seven- 
teen, eighteen, considered and reinoved : the conclusion to Mr. More 487 

CHAP. VII. 

Sophism removed, the remonstrants* Achilles: the first grand sophism from the 
oblijjation to believe considered ; the sense of the objection : what meant 
by believing: the minor proposition denied, reasons of that denial : the ob- 
jection reinforced and answered again : no safe disputing from what might 
have been: what faith required in the preaching of the gospel : the order of 
believing : generals before particulars : the arguments rightly framed and 
granted ; deductions whence. Contradiction in the way of believing from 
thence, a second sophism ; answered doubts and scruples in and about believ- 
ing according to universality : no occasion of scruple given, by the particu- 
larity of redemption ; that proposals whereby the doctrine removes all scru- 
ples : free grace enervated by the general ransom : instances in every part of 
it ; the whole covenant of distinguishing grace made useless. Free grace 
made useless ; free'grace exalted by the effectual redemption of the elect ; the 
sundry particulars instanced. The merit of Christ enervated by the pre- 
tended general ransom; exalted by the opposers of it, asalso our own conso- 
lation ; which is demonstrated by making good four positions : 1. That the 
extending the death of Christ to a universality in the object cannot com- 
fort those whom God would have. 2. That denying the efficacy of the deatl) 
of Christ towards those for whom he died cuts the nerves of their comfort. 
3. Nothing in confining redemption to the elect, doth hinder comfort. 4. 
The doctrine of effectual redemption is the true foundation of all comfort- • • 530 

Some few testimonies of the ancients touching the question in hand 552 

An Appendix upon occasion of a late book jiublished by Master .ToshuaSprigge, 
containing erroneous doctrine 557 



xiv CONTENTS. 

i'agc 

OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 
To the Reader 567 

CHAP. I. 

The occasion of this discourse, wilh ihe intendment of the wliule 573 

CHAP. II. 

An entrance into tlie whole ; of the nature of the payment made by Christ, 
"iili the riglit stating of the tilings in dilference 576 

CHAP. III. 
The arguments of Grotins, and their defence by Mr. Baxter, about the penalty 
undergone by Clirist in making satisfaction, considered 586 

CHAP. IV. 
Farther of the matter of the satisfaction of Christ, \vlierein is proved, that it was 
the same that was in the obligation 59i 

CHAP. V. 
The second head about justification before believing 598 

CHAP. VI. 
Of the acts of Cod's will towards sinners, antecedent and consequent to the sa- 
tisfaction of Christ; of Grotius's judgment herein ^01 

CHAP. VII. 
In particular of the will of God towards tliem for whom Christ died, and their state 
and condition as considered antecedaneous to the death of Christ, and all 
efficiency thereof 607 

CHAP. VIII. 
Of the will of God in reference to tliem for whom Christ died, immediately 
upon the consideration of his death ; and their state and condition before 
actual believing in relation thereunto 612 

CHAP. IX. 
A digression concerning the immediate effect of the death of Christ 615 

CHAP. X. 

Of the merit of Christ, and its immediate efficacy ; what it effecteth ; in what 
it resteth ; with the state of those for whom Christ died, in reference to his 
death, and of their right to the fruits of his death before believing 620 

CHAP. XI. 
More particularly of the state and right of them for whom Christ died, before 
believing 626 

CHAP. XII. 
Of the way whereby they actually attain and enjoy faith and grace, who have a 
right thereunto by the death of Christ 631 

CHAP. XIII. 
The removal of sundry objections to some things formerly taught; about the 
death of Christ, upon the principles now delivered 636 



TWO 

SHORT CATECHISMS 



WHEREIN THE 



PRINCIPLES OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST 



UNFOLDED AND EXPLAINED : 

PROPER FOR ALL PERSONS TO LEARN, BEFORE THEY BE 

ADMITTED TO THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER; AND COMPOSED 

FOR THE USE OF ALL CONGREGATIONS IN GENERAL. 



Come, ye chiidrcii, hearken unto me ; I tvill teach you the fear of the Lord ^ 
Psalm xxxiv. tl. 



VOL. V. 



IMPRIMATUR, 

John Downame. 



MY LOVING NEIGHBOURS 



CHRISTIAN FRIENDS. 



BRETHREN, 

My heart's desire and request unto God for you is, that 
ye may be saved ; I say the truth in Christ also, I lie 
not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy 
Ghost, that I have great heaviness, and continual sor- 
row in my heart, for them amongst you, who as yet 
walk disorderly, and not as beseemeth the gospel, little 
labouring to acquaint themselves with the mystery of 
godliness ; ' for many walk, of whom I have told you 
often weeping, and now tell you again with sorrow, 
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose 
end is destruction, whose god is their belly, who mind 
earthly things.' 

You know, brethren, how I have been amongst 
you, and in what manner, for these few years past ; 
' and how I have kept back nothing' (to the utmost of 

B 2 



IV THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

the dispensation to me committed) ' that was profit- 
able unto you ; but have shewed you, and taught you 
publicly, and from house to house, testifying to all, re- 
pentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord 
Jesus Christ.' Now with what sincerity this hath been 
by me performed ; with what issue and success by you 
received, God the righteous Judge will one day de- 
clare ; for before him, must both you and I appear, to 
give an account of the dispensation of the glorious 
gospel amongst us : in the meanwhile, the desire of 
my heart is, to be servant to the least of you in the 
work of the Lord. And that in any way, which I can 
conceive profitable unto you, either in your persons or 
your families. 

Now, amongst my endeavours in this kind, after 
the ordinance of public preaching the word, there is 
not, I conceive, any more needful (as all will grant 
that know the estate of this place, how taught of 
late days, how full of grossly ignorant persons) than 
catechising, which hath caused me to set aside some 
hours for the compiling of these following, which also 
I have procured to be printed, merely because the least 
part of the parish are able to read it in writing ; my 
intention in them being, principally, to hold out those 
necessary truths, wherein you have been in my preach- 
ing more fully instructed : as they are, the use of them 
I shall briefly present unto you. 

1 . The lesser Catechism may be so learned of the 



THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. V 

younger sort, tliat they may be ready to answer to 
every question thereof. 

2. The greater will call to mind much of what hath 
been taught you in public, especially concerning the 
person and offices of Jesus Christ. 

3. Out of that you may have help to instruct your 
families in the lesser, being so framed for the most 
part, that a chapter of the one is spent in unfolding a 
question of the other. 

4. The texts of Scripture quoted, are diligently to 
be sought out and pondered, that you may know indeed 
whether these things are so. 

5. In reading the word, you may have light into 
the meaning of many places, by considering what they 
are produced to confirm. 

6. I have been sparing in the doctrine of the sacra- 
ments, because I have already been so frequent in ex- 
aminations about them. 

7. The handling of moral duties I have wholly 
omitted, because by God's assistance I intend for you 
a brief explication of the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten 
Commandments, with some articles of the Creed, not 
unfolded in these, by themselves, by the way of Ques- 
tion and Answer. 

Now in all this, as the pains hath been mine, so I 
pray that the benefit may be yours, and the praise his, 
to whom alone any good, that is in this or any thing 
else, is to be ascribed. Now the God of heaven con- 



▼1 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

tinue that peace, love, and amity, amongst ourselves 
which hitherto hath been unshaken, in these divided 
times, and grant that the sceptre and kingdom of his 
Son may be gloriously advanced in your hearts, that 
the things which concern your peace may not be hid- 
den from your eyes in this your day : which is the 
daily prayer of 

Your servant in the work of the Lord, 

J. O. 

From my Study, 
Sept. tlieli>st,[1C45.] 



LESSER CATECHISM. 



Q. WHENCE is all truth concerning God and ourselves to 
be learned ? 

A. From the Holy Scripture, the word of God. 

Q.What do the Scriptures teach that God is? 

A. An eternal, infinite, most holy Spirit, giving being to 
all things, and doing with them whatsoever he pleaseth. 

Q. Is there but one God? 

A. One only, in respect of his essence and being, but 
one in three distinct persons, of Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost. 

Q. What else is held forth in the word concerning God, that 
ice ought to know ? 

A. His decrees, and his works. 

Q. What are the decrees of God concerning us? 

A. His eternal purposes, of saving some by Jesus Christ, 
for the praise of his glory; and of condemning others for 
their sins. 

Q. What are the works of God? 

A. Acts or doings of his power, whereby he createth, 
sustaineth, and governeth all things. 

Q. What is required from us toivards Almighty God? 

A. Holy and spiritual obedience, according to his law 
given unto us. 

Q. Are we able to do this of ourselves? 

A. No, in nowise, being by nature unto every good work 
reprobate. 

Q. How came we into this estate, being at the frst created 
in the image of God, in righteousness and innocency ? 

A. By the fall of our first parents, breaking the cove- 
nant of God, losing his grace, and deserving his curse. 

Q. By what way may we be delivered from this miserable 
estate ? 

A. Only by Jesus Christ. 

Q. What is Jesus Christ ? 



8 thp: principles of 

A. God and man united in one person, to be a Mediator 
between God and man. 

Q. What is he unto us ? 

A. A king, a priest, and a prophet. 

Q. Wherein doth he exercise his kijigly power towards us ? 

A. In converting us unto God by his Spirit, subduing 
us unto his obedience, and ruling in us by his grace. 

Q. /;/ rvhat doth the exercise of his priestly office for us 
chiefly consist f 

A. In oftering up himself an acceptable sacrifice on the 
cross, so satisfying the justice of God for our sins, removing 
his curse from our persons, and bringing us unto him. 

Q Wherein doth Christ exercise his prophetical office to- 
wards us ? 

A. In revealing to our hearts, from the bosom of his Fa- 
ther, the way, and truth, whereby we must come unto him. 

Q. For whose sake doth Chiist perform all these ? 

A. Only for his elect. 

Q. In what condition doth Jesus Christ exercise these 

offices? 

A. He did in a low estate of humiliation on earth, but 
now in a glorious estate of exaltation in heaven. 

Q. What is the church of Christ ? 

A. The universal company of God's elect, called to the 
adoption of children. 

Q. Ho20 come we to be members of this church? 

A. By a lively faith. 

Q. What is a lively faith ? 

A. An assured resting of the soul upon God's promises 
of mercy in Jesus Christ, for pardon of sins here, and glory 
hereafter. 

Q. IIoio come we to har:e this faith ? 

A. By the effectual working of the Spirit of God in our 
hearts, freely calling us from the state of nature, to the 
state of grace. 

Q. Are we accounted nghteousfor our faith ? 

A. No, but only for the righteousness of Christ, freely 
imputed unto us, and laid hold of by faith. 

Q. 1. Is there no more required of us, hut faith only? 

A. Yes, repentance also and holiness. 

Q. 2. What is repentance? 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 9 

A. A forsaking of all sin, with godly sorrow for what we 
have committed. 

Q. 3. What is that holiness which is required of us ? 

A. Universal obedience to the will of God revealed 
unto us. 

Q. What are the privileges of believers. 

A. First, union with Christ; secondly, adoption of 
children ; thirdly, communion of saints ; fourthly, rioht to 
the seals of the new covenant ; fifthly, christian liberty ; 
sixthly, resurrection of the body to life eternal. 

Q. 1. What are the sacraments, or seals, of the neto cove- 
nant ? 

A. Visible seals of God's spiritual promises, made unto 
us in the blood of Jesus Christ. 

Q. 2. Which be thei/ ? 

A. Baptism and the Lord's supper. 

Q. What is baptism ? 

A. A holy ordinance, whereby, being sprinkled with 
water according to Christ's institution, we are by his grace 
made children of God, and have the promises of the cove- 
nant sealed unto us. 

Q. What is the Lord's supper ? 

A. A holy ordinance of Christ, appointed to communi- 
cate unto believers his body and blood spiritually, beino- 
represented by bread and wine, blessed, broken, poured out, 
and received of them. 

Q. Who have a right unto this sacrament ? 

A. They only who have an interest in Jesus Christ by- 
faith. 

Q. What is the communion of saints ? 

A. A holy conjunction between all God's people, par- 
takers of the same Spirit, and members of the same mys- 
tical body. 

Q. What is the end of all this dispensation ? 

A. The glory of God in our salvation. 
Glory he to God on high. 



THE 

GREATER CATECHISM. 



CHAP. I. 

Of the Scripture, 



Q. 1. What is Christian religion? 

A. The only way of knowing God aright,* and living 
unto him; John xiv. 5. xvii. 3. Acts iv. 12. Col. i. 10. 
2 Cor. V. 15. Gal. ii. 19, 20. 

Q. 2. Whence is it to be learned? 

A. From the holy Scripture only ;^ Isa. viii. 20. John 
V. 39. 

Q. 3. What is the Scripture? 

A. The books of the Old and New Testament,'' given by 
inspiration from God, containing all things necessary to be 
believed and done, that God may be worshipped and our 
souls saved ; Isa. viii. 20. Rom. iii. 2. Rev. xxii. 19, 20. 
2Tim.ii. 16, 17. Psal. xix. 7, 8. Jer. vii. 31. John xx. 31. 

Q. 4. How knoiv you them to be the icord of God'^ 

A. By the testimony of God's Spirit,'* working faith in 
my heart, to close with that heavenly majesty, and clear 
divine truth, that shineth in them ; Matt. xvi. 17, John xvi. 
13. 1 Thess. ii. 13. 1 John ii. 20. v. 6. Luke xxiv. 32. 
1 Cor. ii. 14. Heb. iv. 12. 2 Pet. i. 19. 

a Everyone outof this way everlastingly damned. — The life of religion is in the life. 

•> Popish traditions are false lights leading from God. 

c The authority of the Scripture dependeth not on the authority of the church as 
the Papists blaspheme. — All human inventions, unnecessary helps in the worship of 
God. — The word thereof is the sole directory for faith, worship, and life. 

d This alone persuadeth, and inwardly convinceth the heart of the divine verity 
of the Scripture; other motives also there are from without, and unanswerable ar- 
guments to prove the truth of them; as, 1. Their antiquity ; "i. Preservation from 
fury ; 3. Prophecies in them; 4. The holiness and majesty of their doctrine, agreeable 
to the nature of God ; 5. Miracles ; 6. The testimony of the church of all ages ; 7. The 
blood of innumerable martyrs. &c. 



THE DOCTIIIXE OF CHRIST. 11 

CHAP. II. 

Of God. 

Q. 1. What do the Scriptures teach concerning God'^ 

A. First, what he is, or his nature ; secondly, what he 
doth, or his works; Exod. iii. 14. Isa. xlv. 6. Heb. i. 1—3. 
Heb. xi. 6. 

Q. 2. What is God in himself'^ 

A. An eternal, infinite,* incomprehensible Spirit, giving 
being to all things, and doing with them whatsoever he 
pleaseth ; Deut. xxxiii. 37. Isa. Ivii. 15. Rev. i. 8. 1 Kings 
viii. 27. Psal. cxxxix. 2—5, Sec. Exod. xxxii. 20. 1 Tim. 
vi. 16. John iv. 24. Gen. i. 1. Psal. cxv. 3. cxxxv. 6. Isa. 
xlvi. 10. John v. 17. Heb. i. 2. 

Q. 3. Do u-e here know God as he is? 

A. No, his glorious being is not of us, in this life, to be 
comprehended; Exod. xxxiii. 23. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 

Q. 4. Wherein/ is God chiefly made known nnto us in the 
word? 

A. First, by his names; secondly, by his attributes, or 
properties; Exod. iii. 14. vi. 3. Psal. Ixxxiii. 18. Exod. 
xxxiv. 6, 7. Matt. v. 48. 

Q. 5. What are the names of God? 

A. Glorious titles, which he hath given himself,*^ to 
hold forth his excellencies unto us, with some perfections, 
whereby he will reveal himself; Exod. iii. 14, 15. vi. 3. 
xxxiv. 6, 7. Gen. xvii. 1. 

Q. 6. What are the attributes of God? 

A. His infinite perfections, in being and working; Kev. 
iv. 8— 11. 

Q. 7. What are the chief attributes of his being? 

A. Eternity, infiniteness, simplicity,^ or purity, all-sufii- 

• The perfection of God's being is known of us chiefly by removing all imperfec- 
tions.— HeHce, the abominable vanity of idolaters and of the blasphemous Papists that 
picture God.— Let us prostrate ourselves in holy adoration of that which we cannot 
comprehend. , . , , j- 

b The divers names of God, signify one and the same thing, but under divers no- 
tions, in respect of our conception. 

c Some of these attributes belong so unto God, as that they are in no sort to be 
ascribed to any else, as infiniteness, eternity, &c. Others are after a sort attributed 
to some of his creatures, in that he comnmnicateth unto them some of the effects ot 
them in himself, as life, goodness, &c.— The first of these are motives to humble ado- 
ration, fear, self-abhorrency, the other to faith, hope, love, and confidence through 
JesusChrisf. 



12 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

ciency, perfectness, immutability, life, will, and understand- 
ing ; Deut. xxxiii. 37. Psal. xciii. 2. Isa. Ivii. 15. Rev. i. 
11. 1 Kings viii. 27. Psal. cxxxix. 1 — 9. Exod. iii. 14. 
Gen. xvii. 1. Psal. cxxxv. 4, 5. John xi. 7 — 9. Rom. 
xi. 33—36. Mai. iii. 6. James i. 17. Judg. viii. 19. 
1 Sam. XXV. 34. 2 Kings iii. 14. Ezek. xiv. 16. xvi. 48. 
Matt. xvi. 16. Acts xxiv. 15. 1 Thess. i. 9. Dan. xi. 3. Isa. 
xlvi. 10. Eph. i. 5. 11. James i. 18. Psal. vii. 2. cxxxix. 2. 
cxlvii. 4. Jer. xi. 20. Heb. iv. 13. 

Q. 8. What are the attributes ulnch usually are ascribed 
to him in his works, or the acts of' his %vill'^ 

A. Goodness, power,'* justice, mercy, holiness, wisdom, 
and the like, which he delighteth to exercise towards his 
creatures, for the praise of his glory; Psal.cxix.68. Matt. xix. 
17. Exod. XV. 11. Psal. Ixii. 10. Rev. xix. 1. Zeph. iii. 5. 
Psal. xi. 7. Jer. xii. 1. Rom. i. 30. Psal. cxxx. 7. Rom. ix. 
15. Eph. ii. 4. Exod. xv. 11. Josh. xxiv. 19. Hab. i. 13. 
Rev. iv. 8. Rom. xi. 33. xvi. 17. 



CHAP. III. 

Of the Holy Trinity. 



Q. 1. Is there but one God to uJiom these properties do 
belong y 

A. One only, in respect of his essence and being, but 
one in three distinct persons, of Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost; Deut. vi. 4. Matt. xix. 17. Eph. iv. 5, 6. Gen. i. 7. 
1 John V. 7. Matt, xxviii. 19. 

Q. 2. What mean you by person^ 

A. A distinct manner of subsistence or being,* distin- 
guished from the other persons, by its own properties ; John 
V. 17. Heb. i. 3. 

•1 Nothing is to be ascribed unto God, nor imagined of him, but what is exactly- 
agreeable to those his glorious properties. — These last are no less essential unto God 
than the former, only we thus distinguish thera, because these are chiefly seen in 
]iis works. 

* This is that mysterious ark that must not be pryed into, nor the least tittle 
spoken about it, wherein plain Scripture goeth not before. — To deny the Deity of 
iinif one person, is in effect to deny the whole Godhead, for whosoever Lath not 
tlic Son.halh not the Father. — This onl}' doctrine remained undtfiled in the Papacj. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 13 

Q. 3. WI,at is the distinguishing property of the person of 
the Father ? 

A. To be of himself only the fountain of the Godhead ; 
John V. 26, 27. Eph. i. 3. 

Q. 4. What is the propeHi/ of the Soti'^ 

A. To be begotten of his Father from eternity; Psal. ii. 
7. John i. 14. iii. 16. 

Q. 5. What of the Holt/ Ghost? 

A. To proceed from the Father and the Son ; John xiv. 
17. xvi. 14. XV. 26. XX. 22. 

Q. 6. Are these three one? 

A. One every way, in nature, will, and essential proper- 
ties, distinguished only in their personal manner of sub- 
sistence ; John X.30. Rom. iii. 30. John xv. 26. 1 John v. 7. 

Q. 7. Can ive conceive these things as they are in themselves'^' 

A. Neither we, nor yet the angels of heaven,'' are at all 
able to dive into these secrets, as they are eternally in God • 
but in respect of the outward dispensation of themselves to 
us, by creation, redemption, and sanctification,a knowledo-e 
may be attained of these things, saving and heavenly; 1 Tim 
vi. 16. Isa. vi. 2, 3. Col. i. 11—14. 



CHAP. IV. 

Of the iLorhs of God, and first, uf those that are internal and immanent. 

Q. 1. What do the Scriptures teach concerning the works 
of God? 

A. That they are of two sorts; first, internal,* in his 
counsel, decrees, and purposes towards his creatures ; se- 
condly, external, in his works over and about them, to the 
praise of his own glory ; Acts xv. 18. Prov, xvi. 4. 

Q. 2. What are the decrees of God ? 

A. Eternal, unchangeable purposes" of his will, concern- 
ing the being and well-being of his creatures ; Mic. v. 2. 

•> We must labour to make out comfort from the proper work of every person 
towards us. 

* The purposes and decrees of God, so far as by him revealed, are objects of our 
faith, and full of comfort. 

•> Farther reasons of God's decrees than his own will, not to be inquired after 

The changes in the Scripture ascribed unto God, are only in the outward dispensa- 
tions and works, variously tending to one infallible event, by him proposed. — The 
Arminians' blasphemy in saying, God soniciimcs fails of his purposes. 



14 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

Eph.iii. 9. Acts xv. 18. Isa. xiv. 24. xlvi. 10. Rom. ix. 12. 
2 Tim. ii. 19. 

Q. 3. Concerning ichich of his creatures chiejiy are his 
decrees to be considered ? 

A. Angels and men, for whom other things were or- 
dained ; 1 Tim. v. 21. Jude 6. 

Q. 4. What are the decrees of God concerning men^^ 

A. Election and reprobation ; Rom. ix. 11, 12. 

Q. 5. What is the decree of election ? 

A. The eternal, free, immutable'' purpose of God, where- 
by, in Jesus Christ, he chooseth unto himself, whom hepleas- 
eth, out of whole mankind, determining to bestow upon 
them, for his sake, grace here, and everlasting happiness 
hereafter, for the praise of his glory, by the way of mercy ; 
Eph. i. 4. Acts xiii. 48. Rom. viii. 29, 30. Matt. xi. 26. 
2 Tim. ii. 19. Eph. i. 4, 5. Matt. xxii. 14. Rom. ix. 18— 
21. John vi. 37. xvii. 6. 9, 10. 24. 

Q. 6. Doth any thing in us move the Lord thus to choose 
us from amongst others ? 

A. No, in nowise ;<! we are in the same lump with others 
rejected, when separated by his undeserved grace ; Rom. ix. 
11, 1 2. Matt. xi. 25. 1 Cor. iv. 7. 2 Tim. i. 9. 

Q. 7. What is the decree of reprobation ? 

A. The eternal purpose of God, to suffer many to sin, 
leave them in their sin, and not giving them to Christ, to 
punish them for their sin; Rom. ix. 11,12. 21, 22. Prov. 
xvi. 4. Matt. xi. 25, 26. 2 Pet. ii. 12. Jude 4. 

« The decree of election is' the fountain of all spiritual graces, for they are bestowed 
only on theelect.^ — In nothing doth natural corruption more exalt itself against God, 
than in opposing the freedom of his grace in his eternal decrees. 

J From the execution of these decrees flows that variety and difference we see in 
the dispensation of the means of grace, God sending the gospel where he hath a 
remnant according to election. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CII1«ST. 15 



CHAP. V. 

Of the works of God that outwardly are of him. 

Q. 1. W/iat are the works of God, that outwardly respect his 
creatures V 

A. First, of creation ; secondly, of actual providence ;» 

Psal. xxxiii. 9. Heb. i. 2, 3. 

Q. 2. What is the work of creation'^ 

A. An act or work of God's almighty power, whereby 
of nothing, in six days, he created heaven, earth, and the 
sea, with all things in them contained; Gen. i. 1. Exod. 
XX. 11. Prov. xvi. 4. 

Q. 3. Wherefore did God make man '^ 

A. For his own glory in his service and obedience \,^ 
Gen. i. 26, 27. ii. 16, 17. Rom. ix. 23. 

Q. 4. Was man able to yield the service and worship that 
God required of him ? 

A. Yea, to the uttemiost, being" created upright, in the 
image of God, in purity, innocency, righteousness, and ho- 
liness ; Gen. i. 26. Eccle.s. 7. 29. Eph.'iv. 24. Col. iii. 10. 

Q. 5. What tvas the rule, whereby man teas at first to be 
directed in his obedience'? 

A. The moral or eternal law of God, implanted in his 
nature,*" and written in his heart, by creation ; being the te- 
nor of the covenant between God and him, sacramentally 
typified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil ; Gen. 
ii. 15—17. Rom. ii. 14, 15. Eph. iv. 24. 

Q. 6, Do we stand in the same covenant still, and have we 
the same power to yield obedience unto God ? 

A. No, the covenant was broken by the sin of Adam,^ 
with whom it was made, our nature corrupted, and all power 

* The very outward works of God are sufficient to convince men of his eternal 
power and Godhead, and to leave them inexcusable, if they serve him not. 

*> The glory of God is to be preferred above our own, either being, or well-be- 
ing, as the supreme end of them. — The approaching unto God in his service, is the 
chief exaltation of our nature above the beasts that perish. 

e God never allowed from the beginning, that the will of the creature should be 
the measure of his worship and honour. 

<> Though we have all lost our right unto the promise of the first covenant, yet 
all not restored by Christ are under the commlnation and curse thereof. 



16 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

to do good utterly lost; Gen. iii. 16— 18. Gal. iii. 10, 11.21. 
Heb. vii. 19. viii. 13. John xiv. 4. Psal. li. 5. Gen. ri. 5. 
Jer. xiii. 23. 



CHAP. VI. 

Of God's actual providence. 

Q. 1. What is God's actual providence i 

A. The effectual working of his power/ and almighty 
act of his will, whereby he sustaineth, governeth, and dis- 
poseth, of all things, men and their actions, to the ends 
which he hath ordained for them; Exod. iv. 11. Job v. 
10—12. ix. 5, 6. Psal. cxlvii. 4. Prov. xv. 3. Isa. xlv. 6, 7. 
John V. 17. Acts xvii. 28. Heb. i. 3. 

Q. 2. How is this provide}2ce exercised toxonrds iriatdxind? 

A. Two ways : first, peculiarly towards his church, or 
elect, in their generations, for whom are all things ; se- 
condly, towards all in a general manner; yet with various 
and divers dispensations ; Deut. xxxii. 10. Psal. xvii. 8. 
Zech. ii. 8. Matt. xvi. 18, 19. ii. 29. 1 Pet. v. 7. Gen. ix. 5. 
Psal. Ixxv. 6, 7. Isa. xlv. 6. Matt. v. 45. 

Q. 3. Wherein chiefti^ consists the ouluard providence of 
God towards his church ? 

A. In three things ; first, in causing all things to work 
together for their good ;•> secondly, in ruling and disposing 
of kingdoms, nations, and persons, for their benefit ; thirdly, 
in avenging them of their adversaries ; Matt. vi. 31 — 33. 
Rom. viii. 28. 1 Tim.vi. 16.2 Pet. i. 3. Psal. cv. 14, 15. Isa. 
xliv. 28. Dan. ii. 44. Rom. ix. 17. Isa. Ix. 12. Zech. xii. 2. 5. 
Luke xviii. 7. Rev. xvii. 14. 

Q. 4. Doth God rule also in and over the sinful actions of 
rvicked men ? 

A. Yea, he willingly (according to his determinate coun- 

• To this providence is to be ascribed all tlie <jood we do enjoj, and all the afflic- 
tions we undergo. — Fortune, chance, and the like, are names without things, scarce 
fit to be used anioni; Christians, seeing providence certainly ruletli all to ajipointed 
ends. — No free-" ill in man, exempted either from llie eternal decree or the over- 
TulinL' ])rovidence of God. 

*• Though the dispensations of God's providence'towards his people be varioui, 
yet every issue and act of if tends to one certain end, their good in liis glorv. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 17 

sel) sufFereth them to be,^ for the manifestation of his glory 
and by them effecteth his own righteous ends; 2 Sam. xii. 
11. xvi. 10. 1 Kings xi. 31. xxii. 22. Job i. 21. Prov. xxii. 14. 
Isa. X. 6, 7. Ezek. xxi. 19—21. Amos vii. 17. Acts iv. 27, 28- 
Rom. i. 24. ix. 22. 1 Pet. ii. 8. Rev. xvii. 17. 

Q. 5. Doth the providence of God extend itself to every 
small thing '^ 

A. The least grass of the field, hair of our heads, or 
worm of the earth, is not exempted from his knowledge and 
care; Job xxxix. Psal. civ. 21. cxlv. 15 . Jonah iv. 7. Matt, 
vi. 26—29. X. 29, 30. 



CHAP. VII. 
Of the law of God. 



Q. 1. Which is the law that God gave man at first tofulfr^ 

A. The same which was afterward written with the finger 
of God in two tables of stone on mount Iloreb,'' called the 
Ten Commandments ; Rom. ii. 14, 15. 

Q. 2. Is the observation of this law still required ofns ? 

A. Yes, to the uttermost tittle; Matt. v. 17. 1 John iii. 4. 
Rom. iii. 31. James ii. 8. Gal. iii. 

Q. 3. Are we able of ourselves^ to perform it ? 

A. No, in no wise, the law is spiritual, but we are carnal; 
1 Kings viii. 46. Gen. v. 6. John xv. 5. Rom. vii. 11. viii.7. 
1 John i. 8. 

Q. 4. Did then God give a law which could not be kept ? 

A. No, when God gave it, we had power to keep it, w hich 
since we have lost in Adam ; Gen, i. 26. Eph. vii. 29. 
Rom. V. 12. 

Q. 5. Whereto then doth the hno noiu serve ? 

A. For two general ends : first, to be a rule of our duty, 
or to discover to us the obedience of God required; se- 

c Almighty Gort knows how to bring light out of darkness, good out of evil, the 
salvation of his elect out of Judas's treachery, the Jews' cruelty, and Pilate's in- 
justice. 

a This law of God bindeth us now, not because delivered to the Jews on mount 
Horeb, but because written in the hearts of all by the finger of God at the first. 

>> After the fall, the law ceased to be a rule of justification, and became a rule for 
sanctification only. — It is of free grace that God giveth power to yield any obedi- 
ence, and accepteth of any obedience that is not perfect. 

VOL. v. C 



18 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

condly, to drive us unto Christ ; Psal. cxix. 5. 1 Tim. i. 8, 9. 
Gal. iii. 24. 

Q. 6. Hoiv doth the laic drive us unto Christ ? 

A. Divers v^^ays : as first, by laying open unto us the utter 
disability of our nature, to do any good ; secondly, by 
charging the wrath and curse of God, due to sin, upon the 
conscience ; thirdly, by bringing the whole soul under bon- 
dage to sin, death, Satan, and hell, so making us long and 
seek for a Saviour; Rom. vii. 7 — 9. Gal. iii. 19. Rom. iii. 
19, 20. iv. 15. v. 20. Gal. iii. 10. 22. Heb. ii. 15. 



CHAP. VIII. 

Of the slate of corrupted nature. 

Q. 1. How came this 7veakness and disabi/iti/ upon us * 
A. By the sin, and shameful fall, of our first parents ;» 
Rom. V. 12. 14. 

Q. 2. Wherein did that hurt us their posterity*^ 
A. Divers ways: first, in that we were all guilty of the 
same breach of covenant with Adam, being all in him ; se- 
condly, our souls with his were deprived of that holiness, 
innocency, and righteousness wherein they were at first 
created ; thirdly, pollution and defilement of nature came 
upon us ; with, fourthly, an extreme disability of doing any 
thing that is well-pleasing unto God ; by all which, we are 
made obnoxious to the curse ; John iii. 36. Rom. v. 12. Eph. 
ii. 3. Gen. iii. 10. Eph. iv. 23, 24. Col. iii. 10. Job xiv. 4. 
Psal. Ii. 7. John iii. G. Rom. iii. 13. Gen. vi. 5. Eph. ii. 1. 
Jer. vi. 16. xiii. 23. Rom. viii. 7. Gen. iii. 17. Gal. iii. 10. 
Q, 3. Wherein doth the curse of God consist ? 
A. In divers things : first, in the guilt of death,** tempo- 
rial and eternal ; secondly, the loss of the grace and favour 

» This is that whici\ commonlv is called original sin, which in general denoteth 
the whole misery and corruption of our nature ; as first, the guilt of Adam's actual 
sin to us imputed ; secondly, loss of God's glorious image, innocency, and holi- 
ness ; thirdly, deriving by propagation a nature ; 1. defiled with the pollution j 2. 
laden with the guilt ; 3. subdued to the power of sin ; 4. a being exposed to all 
temporal miseries, leading to, and procuring death ; 5. an alienation from God, 
wit'u voluntary obedience to Satan, and lust ; 6. an utter disability to good, or tt> 
labour for mercy ; 7. eternal damnation of body and soul in hell. 

•> All that a natural man hath on this side hell, is free mercy. 



THE DOCTRIXE OF CHRlST. 19 

of God; thirdly, guilt and horror of conscience, despair, 
and anguish here ; with, fourthly, eternal damnation here- 
after ; Gen. ii. 17. Rom. i. 18. v. 12. 17. Eph. ii. 3. Gen. 
iii. 24. Ezek. xvi. 3—5. Eph. ii. 13. Gen. iii. 10. Isa. 
xlviii. 22. Rom. iii. 9. 19. Gal. iii. 22. Gen. iii. 10. 13. 
John iii. 36. 

Q. 4. Are all men horn in this estate ? 

A. Every one without exception; Psal. Ii. 7. Isa. liii.5. 
Rom. iii. 9. 12. Eph. ii. 3. 

Q. 5. And do they continue therein ? 

A. Of themselves they cannot otherwise do,= being able 
neither to know, or will, nor do any thing that is spiritually 
good, and pleasing unto God ; Acts viii. 31. xvi. 14. 1 Cor. 
ii. 14. Eph. V. 8. John i. 5. Jer. vi. 16. xiii. 2, 3. Luke iv. 18. 
Rom. vi. 16. viii. 7. John vi. 44. 2 Cor. iii. 5. 

Q. 6. Have theif then no wai/ of themselves to escape the 
curse and wrath of God? 

A. None at all, they can neither satisfy his justice, nor 
fulfil his law. 



CHAP. IX. 

0/ the incaiTiatioji of C/irist. 



Q. 1 . Shall all mankind then everlastingli/ perish ? 

A. No, God of his free grace hath prepared a way, to 
redeem and save his elect; John iii. 16. Isa. liii. 6. 

Q. 2. What way was this ? 

A. By sending his own Son Jesus Christ," in the likeness 
of sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh ; Rom. viii. 3. 

Q. 3. Who is this you call his own Son? 

A. The second person of the Trinity, co-eternal, and of 
the same Deity with his Father; John i. 14. Rom. i. 3. Gal. 
iv. 4. 1 John i. 1. 

Q. 4. Hoiv did God send him ? 

c The end of this is Jesus Christ, to all that fly for refuge to the hope set be- 

^°'l Thb'is that great mystery of godliness, that the angels themselres admire : 
the most transcendent expression of God's infinite love : the laying forth of all the 
treasure of his wisdom and goodness. 

c 2 



20 THE PRIXCIPLES OF 

A. By causing him to be made flesh of a pure virgin, 
and to dwell among us, that he might be obedient unto 
death, the death of the Cross; Isa. 1. 6. John i. 14. Luke 
i. 35. Phil. ii. 8. 1 Tim. vi. 16. 



CHAP. X. 

Of the person of Jesus Christ, 

Q. 1. What doth the Scripture teach us of Jesus Christ ? 

A. Chiefly two things ; first, his person," or what he is 
in himself; secondly, his offices, or what he is unto us. 

Q 2. JVhat doth it teach of his person ? 

A. That he is truly God, and perfect man, partaker of the 
natures of God and man in one person, between whom he is 
a Mediator; John i. 14. Ileb. 2. 14, 15. Eph. iv. 5. 1 Tim. ii. 
5. 1 John i. 1. 

Q. 3. How prove you Jesus Christ to be truly God ? 

A. Divers ways ; first, by places of Scripture speaking of 
the great God Jehovah, in the Old Testament, applied to 
our Saviour in the New; as. Numb. xxi. 5,6. in 1 Cor. x. 9. 
Psal. cii. 24, 25. in Heb. i. 10. Isa. vi. 2 — 4. in John xii. 
40,41. Isa. viii. 13, 14. in Luke ii. 34. Rom. ix. 33. Isa. 
xl. 3, 4. in John i. Isa. xlv. 22, 23. in Rom. xiv. 11. Phil. ii. 
8. Mai. iii. 1. in Matt. xi. 10. 

Secondly, By the works of the Deity ascribed unto him ; 
as first, of creation ; John i. 3. 1 Cor. viii. 6. Heb. i.21. se- 
condly, of preservation in providence; Heb. i. 3. John v. 17. 
thirdly, miracles. 

Thirdly, By the essential attributes of God, being ascribed 
unto him ; as first, immensity, Matt, xxviii. 20. John xiv. 23. 

* 1 . Though our Saviour Christ be one God with his Father, he is not one person 
with him. 

2. Jesus Clirist is God and raan in one, not a God and a man : God incarnate, 
not a man deified. 

3. The essential propertiesofeithernature, remain in his person theirs still, notcom- 
municated unto the other, as of the Deity to be eternal, every where; of the huma- 
nity to be born and die. 

4. Whatever may be said of either nature, maj- be said of his whole person: so 
God may be said to die, but not the Godhead, the man Christ to be every where 
but not iiis buniaiiil^', for his one person is all this. 

5. The monstrous figment of transubstaniiation, or Christ's corporal presence in the 
sacrament, fully ovcrlhro%vs our Saviour's human nature, and makes him a mere sha- 
dow. 

6. All natural properties are double in Christ, as will, &c. still distinct ; all per- 
sonal, as subsistence, single. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 21 

Eph. iii. 17. secondly, eternity, John i. 1. Rev. i. 11. Mic. 
V. 2. thirdly, immutability, Heb. i. 11, 12, fourthly, omni- 
science, John xxi. 17. Rev. ii. 23. fifthly, majesty and glory 
equal to his Father ; John v. 23. Rev. v. 13. Phil. i. 2. 6. 
9, 10. 

Fourthly, By the names given unto him ; as first, of God 
expressly; John i. 1. xx. 28. Acts xx. 28, Rom. ix. 5. Phil, 
ii. 6. Heb. i. 8. 1 Tim. iii. 16. secondly, of the Son of God; 
John i. 18. Rom. viii. 3, &c. 

Q. 4. Was it necessary that our Redeemer should be God? 

A. Yes, that he might be able to save to the uttermost, 
and to satisfy the wrath of his Father, which no creature 
could perform; Isa. xliii. 25. liii. 6. Dan. ix. 17. 19. 

Q. 5. Hoiv prove i/ou that he teas a perfect man ? 

A. First, By the prophecies that went before, that so he 
should be; Gen. iii. 15. xviii. 18. 

Secondly, By the relation of their accomplishment; Matt, 
i, 1. Rom. i. 4. Gal. iv. 4. 

Thirdly, By the Scriptures assigning to him those things 
which are required to a perfect man ; as first, a body ; Luke 
xxiv. 39. Heb. ii. 17. x. 5. 1 John i. 1. secondly, a soul; 
Matt. xxvi. 39. Mark xiv. 34. and therein, first, a will; Matt, 
xxvi. 39. secondly, affections ; Matt. iii. 5. Luke x. 21. third- 
ly, endowments ; Luke ii- 52. 

Fourthly, General infirmities of nature ; Matt. iv. 2. John 
iv. 6. Heb. ii. 18. 

Q. 6. Wherefore was our Redeemer to be man? 

A. That the nature which had offended might suffer, and 
make satisfaction, and so he might be every way a fit and 
sufficient Saviour for men; Heb. ii. 10 — 17. 



CHAP. XL 

Of the offices of Christ, and first of his kingly. 

Q. 1. How many are the offices of Jesus Christ / 
A. Three ; first, of a king ; secondly, a priest ;" third- 
ly, a prophet; Psal. ii, 6. ex. 4. Deut. xviii. 15. 

a In the exercise of these offices, Christ is also the sole head, husband, and first- 
born of the church. — Papal usurpation upon these offices of Christ, manifest the pope 
tu be the man of sin. 



22 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

Q. 2. Halh he these offices peculiar hi/ tiature? 

A. No, he only received them for the present dispensa- 
tion, until the work of redemption be perfected; Psal. ex. 1. 
Acts ii. 36. X. 42. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. xv. 27, 28. Phil. ii. 9. 
Heb.iii. 2. 6. ii. 7-9 

Q. 3. Wherein doth the hinglij office of Christ consist? 

A. In a twofold power; first, his power of ruling in 
and over his church ; secondly, his power of subduing his 
enemies; Psal. ex. 3 — 7. 

Q- 4. What is his ruling power in and over his people ? 

A. That supreme authority, which, for their everlasting 
good,** he useth towards them, whereof in general there be 
two acts ; first, internal and spiritual, in converting their 
souls unto him, making them unto himself, a willing, obedi- 
ent, persevering people ; secondly, external and ecclesias- 
tical, in giving perfect laws and rules for their government, 
as gathered into holy societies, under him ; Isa. liii. 12. lix. 
20,''21. with Heb. viii. 10—12. Isa. Ixi. 1, 2. John. i. 16. 
xii. 32. Mark i. 15. Matt, xxviii. 20. 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. Matt, 
xvi. 19. 1 Cor. xii. 28. Eph. iv. 8—14. 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 
Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

Q. 5. How many are the acts of his kinglj/ power, towards 
his enemies? 

A. Two also ; first, internal, by the mighty working of 
his word,*^ and the spirit of bondage upon their hearts, con- 
vincing, amazing, terrifying their consciences, hardening 
their spirits for ruin; secondly, external, in judgments and 
vengeance, which oft-times he beginneth in this life, and will 
continue unto eternity; Psal. ex. John vi. 46. viii. 39. ix. 41. 
xii. 40. 2 Cor. x. 4—6. 1 Cor. v. 6. 1 Tim. i. 20. Mark xvi. 
16. Luke xix. 21. Acts xiii. 11. Rev. xvii. 14. 



CHAP. XII. 

Of Christ's priestly office, 

Q. 1. Bif what means did Jesus Christ undertake the office 
of an eternal priest ? 

^ Chris'.'s subjects are all born rebels, and are stubborn, until be make them obe- 
dient by bis word and Spirit — Christ hath not delegated bis kingly powercf law- 
making for his church, to any here below. 

* The end of Christ in exercising his kingly power over bis enemies, is the glory 
tif his go^jicj, and the good of his people. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 23 

A. By the decree, ordination, and will of God his Father, 
whereunto he yielded voluntary obedience, so that concern- 
ing this, there was a compact and covenant between them ; 
Psal. ex. 4. Heb. iv. 5, 6. vii. 17, 18. Isa. 1. 4—6. Heb. x. 
5—10. Psal. ii. 7, 8. Isa. liii. 8. 10—12. Phil. ii. 7. 9. Heb. 
xii. 2. John xvii. 2. 4. 

Q. 2. Wherein doth his execution of this office consist ? 

A. In bringing his people unto God; Heb. ii. 10. iv. 15. 
vii. 25. 

Q. 3. What are the farts of it ? 

A. First, oblation; secondly, intercession;* Heb. ix. 13- 
vii. 25. 

Q. 4. What is the oblation of Christ ? 

A. The offering up of himself upon the altar of the cross, a 
holy propitiatory sacrifice fov the sins of all the elect through- 
out the world, as also the presentation of himself for us in 
heaven, sprinkled with the blood of the covenant ; Isa. 
liii. 10. 12. Johniii. 1(3. xi. 51, 52. xvii. 19. Heb. ix. 13, 
14. 24. 

Q. 5. Whereby doth this oblation do good unto us ? 

A. Divers ways : first, in that it satisfied the justice of 
God ; secondly, it redeemed us from the power of sin, death, 
and hell ; thirdly, it ratified the nev/ covenant of grace ; 
fourthly, it procured for us grace here, and glory hereafter ; 
by all which means, the peace and reconciliation between 
God and us is wrought; Eph. ii. 14, 15. 

Q. 6. Hoio did the oblation of Christ satisfy God's justice 
for our sin ? 

A. In that for us, he underwent the punishment due to 
our sin;'' Isa. liii. 4 — 6. John x. 11. Rom. iii. 25, 26. iv. 25. 
1 Cor. XV. 3. 2 Cor. v. 21. Eph. v. 2. 1 Pet. ii. 24. 

Q. 7. What ivas that punishment ? 

A. The wrath of God, the curse of the law/ the pains of 

a Against both these the Papists are exceedingly blasphemous, against the one by 
making their mass a sacrifice for sins, the other by making saints mediators of inter- 
cession. 

b Christ's undergoing punishment for us was, first, typified by the old sacrifices; 
secondly, foretold in the first promise; thirdly, made lawful and valid in itself; 
first, by God's determination, the supreme lawgiver; secondly, his own voluntary 
undergoing it ; thirdly, by a relaxation of the law, in regard of the subject punish- 
ed ; fourthly, beneficial to us, because united to us; as first, our head; secondly, 
our elder brother; thirdly, our sponsor or surety; fourthly, our husband; fifthly, 
our God, or Redeemer, &c. 

'^ No change in all these, but what necessarily follows the change of the persons 
sustaining. 



24 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

hell, due to sinners, in body and soul ; Gen. ii. 17. Deut. 
xxvii. 27. Isa. lix. 2. Rom. v. 12. Eph. ii. 3. John iii. 36. 
Heb. ii. 14. 

Q. 8. Did Christ jindergo all these ? 

A. Yes, in respect of the greatness and extremity,'' 
not the eternity and continuance of those pains, for it was 
impossible he should be holden of death ; Matt. xxvi. 28, 29. 
Mark xiv. 33. xv. 34. Gal. iii. 13. Eph. ii. 16. Col. i. 20. 
Heb. V. 7. Psal. xviii. 5. 

Q. 9. How could the punishment of one, satisfy for the of- 
fence of all? 

A. In that he was not a mere man only,^ but God also, 
of infinite more value than all those who had offended ; Rom. 
V. 9. Heb. ix. 26. 1 Pet. iii. 18. 

Q. 10. Ifoiv did the oblation of Christ redeem ns from death 
and hell? 

A. First, by paying a ransom to God the judge and law- 
giver,^ who had condemned us ; secondly, by overcoming 
and spoiling Satan, death, and the powers of hell, that de- 
tained us captives ; Matt. xx. 28, John vi. 38. Mark x. 4, 5. 
Rom. iii. 25. 1 Cor. vi. 20. Gal. iii. 13. Eph. i. 7. 1 Tim. ii. 
6. Heb. x. 9. John v. 24. Col. ii. 13—15. 1 Thess. i. 10. Heb. 
ii. 14. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. 

Q. 11. What was the ransoyn thai Christ paid for ns? 

A. His own precious blood; Acts xx. 28. 1 Pet. i. 19. 

Q. 12. IIoiv ivas the neio covenant ratifed in his blood? 

A. By being accompanied with his death,s for that, as all 
other testaments, was to be ratified by the death of the tes- 
tator; Gen. xxii. 18. Heb. ix. 16. viii. 10—12. 

Q. 13. What is this new covenant ? 

A. The gracious, free, immutable promise of God, made 
unto all his elect fallen in Adam, to give them Jesus Christ, 
and in him mercy, pardon, grace, and glory, with a restipu- 
lation of faith from them, unto this promise and new obedi- 
ence ;'' Gen. iii. 15. Jer. xxxi. 32 — 34. xxxii. 40. Heb. viii. 

* The death that Christ underwent was eternal, in itsown nature and tendency, not 
so to him, because of his holiness, power, and the unity of his person. 

c He suffered not as God, but he suffered who was God. 

f We are freed from tiie anger of God, by a perfect rendering to the full value of 
whiithe required, from the power of Satan by absolute conquest on our behalf. 

S The new covenant is Christ's legacy in his last will, unto his ])eople, the eternal 
inheritance of glory being conveyed thereby. 

hThe death of Christ was satisfactory in respect of the strict justice of God, me- 
ritorious in respect of the covenant between him and hi'- Father. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 25 

10—12. Gal. iii. 8. 16. Gen. xii. 3. Rom. viii.32. Eph. i. 3, 
4. Mark xvi. 16. John i. 12. x. 27,28. 

Q. 14. How did Chrht procure for us grace, faith, and 
glory ? 

A. By the way of purchase and merit/ for the death of 
Christ deservedly procured of God, that he should bless us 
with all spiritual blessings, needful for our coming unto him ; 
Isa. liii. 11, 12. John xvii. 2. Acts xx. 28. Rom. v. 17, 18. 
Eph. ii. 15, 16. i. 4. Phil. i. 29. Tit. ii. 14. Rev. i. 5, 6. 

Q. 15. What is the intercession of Christ? 

A. His continual soliciting of God on our behalf,'' begun 
here in fervent prayers, continued in heaven, by appearing 
as our advocate at the throne of grace; Psal.ii.8. Rom. viii. 
34. Heb. vii.25. ix. 24. x. 19—21. 1 Johnii. 1,2. John xvii. 



CHAP. XIII. 

Of Christ's prophetical office. 

Q. 1. Wherein doth the prophetical office of Christ co}i'iist? 

A. In his embassage from God to man,* revealing from 
the bosom of his Father, the whole mystery of godliness, 
the way and truth, whereby we must come unto God; Matt. 
v. John i. 18. iii. 32. x. 9, 14. xiv. 5, 6. xvii. 8. xviii. 37. 

Q. 2. How doth he exercise this office towards its ? 

A. By making known the whole doctrine of truth unto us,'' 
in a saving and spiritual manner; Deut. xviii. 18. Isa. xlii. 
6. Heb. iii. 1. 

Q. 3. By what means doth he peiforni all this? 

A. Divers ; as first, internally and effectually by his Spi- 
rit, writing his law in our hearts ; secondly, outwardly and 
instrumentally, by the word preached; Jer. xxxi. 32, 33. 
2Cor. iii. 3. I Thess. iv. 9. Heb. viii. 10. John xx. 31. 
1 Cor. xii. 28. Eph. iv. 8—13. 2 Pet.i. 21. 

' All these holy truths are directly denied hy the blasphemous Socinians, and of 
the Papists, with their merits, masses, penance, and purgatory, by consequent over- 
thrown. 

'' To make saints our intercessors, is to renounce Jesus Christ from being a suffi- 
cient Saviour. 

» Christ differed from all other prophets ; first, in his sending, which was immedi- 
ately from the bosom of his Father ; secondly, his assistance, which was the fulness of 
the Spirit ; thirdly, ids manner of teaching, with autliorily. 

*> To accuse his word of imperfection, in doctrine or discipline, is to deny him a 
perfect prophet, or to have borne witness unto all truth. 



26 THE PRINCIPLES OF 



CHAP. XIV. 

Of the ttvqfold estate of Christ. ' 

Q. 1 . In what estate or condition doth Christ exercise these 
offices ? 

A. In a twofold estate; first, of humiliation,* or abase- 
ment; secondly, of exaltation, or glory ; Phil. ii. 8 — 10. 

Q. 2. Wherein consisteth the state of Christ's humiliation ? 

A. In three things ; first, in his incarnation, or being- 
born of Avoman ; secondly, his obedience or fulfilling the 
whole law, moral and ceremonial; thirdly, in his passion, 
or enduring all sorts of miseries, even death itself; Luke i. 
35. John i. 14. Rom. i. 3. Gal. iv. 4. Heb. ii. 9. 14. Matt, 
iii. 15. V. 17. Luke ii. 21. John viii. 46. 2 Cor. v. 21. 1 Pet. 
i. 19. 1 Johniii. 5. Psal. liii. 4—6. Heb. ii. 9. 1 Pet. ii. 21. 

Q. 3. Wherein consists his exaltation ? 

A. In, first, his resurrection ; secondly, ascension; third- 
ly, sitting at the right hand of God ; by all which he was de- 
clared to be the Son of God with power; Matt, xxviii. 18. 
Hom.i. 4. iv. 4. Eph. iv. 9. Phil. ii. 9, 10. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 



CHAP. XV. 

Of the persons to ivhom the benefits of Christ's offices do belong. 

Q. 1 . Unto whom do the saving benefits of what Christ per- 
formeth in the execution of his offices belong? 

A. Only to his elect;'' John xvii. 9. Isa. Ixiii. 9. Heb. iii. 
6. X.21. 

Q. 2. Died he for no other? 

A. None, in respect of his Father's eternal purpose, and 
his own intention, of removing wrath from them, procuring 
grace and glory for them; Acts xx. 28. Matt. xx. 28. xxvi. 

a Tlie humiliation of Christ, shews us what we niust here do and suffer ; his ex- 
altation, what we may hope for. — The first of these holds forth his mighty love to us, 
the otlier his mighty power in himself. — The only way to heaven is by the cross. 

^ Christ giveth life to all that world for whom he gave his life.- — None that he died 
for shall ever die. — To say that Christ died for every man universally, is to affirm 
that he did no more for the elect than the reprobates, for them that are saved, than 
for them that are damned, which is the Arniinian blasphemy. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 27 

28. Heb. ix. 28. John xi. 51, 52. Isa. liii. 12. John iii. 16. 
X. 11—15. Eph. V. 25. Rom. viii. 32. 34. Gal. iii. 13. John 
vi. 37. 39. Rom. iv. 25. 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. 

Q. 3. What, shall become of them for whom Christ died not? 

A. Everlasting torments for their sins, their portion in 
their own place ; Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 36. Matt. xxv. 41. 
Acts i. 25. 

Q. 4. For xvhoyn doth he make intercession ? 

A. Only for those who from eternity were given him by 
his Father; John xvii. Heb. vii. 24, 25. 



CHAP. XVI. 

Of the church. 

Q. 1. Hoiv are the elect called, in respect of their obedience 
unto Christ, and anion with him ? 

A. His church ; Acts xx. 28. Eph. v. 32. 

Q. 2. What is the church of Christ ? 

A. The whole company of God's elect,^ called of God, 
by the word and Spirit, out of their natural condition to the 
dignity of his children, and united unto Christ their head, 
by faith in the bond of the Spirit ; Acts ii. 47. 1 Tim. v. 21 . 
Heb. xii. 22—24. Rom. i. 5, 6. Rom. ix. 11. 24. 1 Cor. iv. 
15. 2 Tim. i. 9. Acts xvi. 14. John iii. 8. 1 Cor. iv. 15. 
1 Pet. i. 23. Heb. viii. 10. Eph. ii. 11 — 13. Col. i. 13. Heb. 
ii. 14, 15. 1 Pet. ii. 9. John xvii. 21. Eph. ii. 18—22. 

Q. 3. Is this whole church always iti the same state? 

A. No, one part of it is militant, the other triumphant. 

Q. 4. What is the church mililant ? 

A. That portion of God's elect, which in their generation 
cleaveth unto Christ by faith, and fighteth against the world, 
flesh, and devil ; Eph. vi. 11, 12. Heb. xi. 13, 14. xii. 1.4. 

Q. 5. What is the church triumphant? 

A. That portion of God's people, wdio, having fought their 

a The elect angels belong to this cliiircli. — No distance of time or place, breaks the 
unity of this church; heaven and earth, from the beginning of (he world unto the 
end) are comprised in it. — No mention in Scripture of any church in purgatory. — 
This is the catholic church, though that terra be not to be found in the word in this 
sense, the thing itself is obvious.— The pope challenging unto himself the title of the 
head of the catholic church, is blasphemously rebellious against Jesus Christ.— This 
is that ark, out of which whosoever is, shall surely perish. 



28 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

fight and kept the faith, are now in heaven, resting from their 
labours; Eph. v. 27. Rev. iii, 21. xiv. 13. 

Q. 6. A7-e not the church of the Jews, before the birth of 
Christ, and the church of the Christians since, two churches? 

A. No, essentially they are but one, differing only in 
some outward administrations ; Eph. ii. 12 — 16. 1 Cor. x. 3. 
Gal. iv. 26, 27. Heb. xi. 15, 26. 40. 

Q. 7. Can this church be wholly overthrown on the earth ? 

A. No, unless the decree of God may be changed, and 
the promise of Christ fail; Matt. xvi. 18. xxviii. 20. John 
xiv. 16. John xvii. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 2 Tim. ii. 19. 



CHAP. XVII, 

Offaith. 

Q. 1 . By what means do we become actual members of this 
church of God? 

A. By a lively justifying faith," whereby we are united 
unto Christ, the head thereof; Acts ii. 47. xiii. 48. Heb. xi. 
6. xii. 22, 23. iv. 2. Kom. v. 1,2. Eph. ii. 13, 14. 

Q. 2. What is a justifying faith ? 

A. A gracious resting upon the free promises of God,'' 
in Jesus Christ for mercy, with a firm persuasion of lieart, 
that God is a reconciled Father unto us in the Son of his 
love; 1 Tim. i. 16. John xiii. 15. xix. 25, Rom. iv. 5, Heb. 
iv. 1,6. Rom. vUi, 3«, 39. Gal, ii, 20, 2 Cor. v, 20, 21. 

Q. 3. Have all this faith ? 

A. None, but the elect of God ; Tit. i. 1. John x. 26. 
Matt. xiii. 11. Acts xiii. 48. Rom. viii. 30. 

Q. 4. Do not then others believe that make prof ession? 

A. Yes, with, first, historical faith, or a persuasion, that 
the things written in the word are true ; James ii. 9. secondly, 
temporary faith, which hath some joy of the affections, upon 
unspiritual grounds, in the things believed ; Matt. xiii. 20. 
Mark vi, 20. John ii. 23, 24. Acts viii. 13. 

a Of this faith the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause, the word, the instrumental; 
the law indirectly, by discovering our misery ; the gospel immediately, by holding 
forth a Saviour. 

>> Faith is in the understanding, in respect of ils being and subsistence in the 
will and hcarl, in respect of its ell'ectual working. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 29 

CHAP. XVIII. 

Of our vocation, or God's calling us. 

Q. 1. How come we to have this saving faith ? 

A. It is freely bestowed upon us, and wrought in us, by 
the Spirit of God, in our vocation or callings John vi. 29. 
44. Eph. ii. 8, 9. Phil. i. 29. 2 Thess. i. 11. 

Q. 2. What is our vocation, or this calling of God ? 

A. The free gracious act of Almighty God, ^ whereby in 
Jesus Christ he calleth and translateth us from the state of 
nature, sin, wrath, and corruption, into the state of grace, 
and union with Christ, by the mighty, effectual workings of 
his Spirit, in the preaching of the word; Col. i. 12, 13. 2 Tim. 
i. 9. Deut. XXX. 6. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. Matt. xi. 25, 26. John 
i. 13. iii. 3. 8. Eph. i. 19. Col. ii. 12. 1 Cor. iv. 7. James 
i. 18. 2 Pet. ii. 20. Acts xvi. 14. 

Q. 3. What do we ourselves perform in this change or. loork 
of our conversion ? 

A. Nothing at all, being merely wrought upon, by the 
free grace and Spirit of God,'' when in ourselves we have no 
ability to any thing that is spiritually good ; Matt, vii. 18. 
x. 20. John i. 13. xv. 5. 1 Cor. xii. 3. ii. 5. 2 Cor. iii. 5. 
Eph. ii. 1. 8. Rom. viii. 26. Phil. i. 6. 

Q. 4. Doth God thus call all and every o)ie? 

A. All within the pale of the church, are outwardly called 
by the word, none effectually but the elect ; Matt. xxii. 14. 
Rom. viii. 30. 



CHAP. XIX. 

Of justification. 

Q. 1 . Are ice accounted righteous and saved for our faith, 
when we are thus freely called? 

* Our effectual calling, is the first effect of our everlasting election. — We have 
no actual interest in, nor right unto, Christ, until we are thus called. 

•> They who so boast of the strength of free-will, in the work of our conversion, are 
themselves an example what it is, being given up to so vile an error, destitute of tlie 
grace of God. 



30 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

A. No, but merely by the imputation of the righteous- 
ness of Christ, apprehended and applied by faith, for which 
alone the Lord accepts us, as holy and righteous; Isa. xliii. 
25. Rom. iii. 23—26. iv. 5. 

Q. 2. What then is our justification, or righteousness before 
God? 

A. The gracious free act of God," imputing the righteous- 
ness of Christ, to a believing sinner, and for that speaking 
peace unto his conscience, in the pardon of his sin, pro- 
nouncing him to be just, and accepted before him ; Gen. xv. 
6. Acts xiii. 38, 39. Luke xviii. 14. Rom. iii. 24. 26. 28. 
iv. 4—8. Gal. ii, 16. 

Q. 3. Are we not then righteous before God, by our oivn 
works ? 

A. No, for of themselves, they can neither satisfy his 
justice, fulfil his law, nor endure his trial; Psal. cxxx. 3, 4. 
cxliii. 2. Isa. Ixiv. 6. Luke xvii. 10. 



CHAP. XX. 

Of sanctijieation. 

Q. 1. Is there nothing then required of us, but faith only ? 

A. Yes, repentance, and holiness, or new obedience; 
Acts XX. 2L Matt. iii. 2. Luke xiii. 3. 2 Tim. ii. 19. 1 Thess. 
iv. 7. Heb. xii. 14. 

Q. 2. What is repentance ? 

A. Godly sorrow for every known sin committed against 
God," with a firm purpose of heart, to cleave unto him for 
the future, in the killing of sin, the quickening of all graces, 
to walk before him in newness of life; 2 Cor. vii. 9 — 11. 
Acts ii. 37. Psal. Ii. 17. xxxiv. 14. Isa. i. 16, 17. Ezek. xviii. 
27, 28. Acts xiv. 15. Eph. iv. 21—24. Rom. vi. 12, 13. 18, 
19. viii. 1, 2. Cor. v. 17. Gal. vi. 15. 

* Legal and evangelical juslification differ ; first, on the part of the persons lo be 
justified ; the one requiring a person legally and perfectly righteous, the other a be- 
lieving sinner; secondly, on the part of God, who in one is a severe righteous judge, 
in the other, a merciful reconciled Father; thirdly', in the sentence, which in the 
one acquitteth,as having done nothing amiss, the other as having all amiss pardoned. 

b Repentance inciudeth, first, alteration of the mind, into a hatred of sin, before 
loved ; secondly, sorrow of the afitections, for sin committed ; thirdly, change of 
the actions arising from both. — Repentance is either legal, servile, and terrifying, 
from the spirit of bondage ; or, evangelical, filial, and comforting, from the spirit of 
free grace and liberty, wliich only is available. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 31 

Q. 3. Can we do this of ourselves ? 

A. No, it is a special gift and grace of God, which he be- 
stoweth on whom he pleaseth ; Lev. xx. 8. Dent. xxx. 6. 
Ezek. xi. 19, 20. 2 Tim. ii. 25. Acts xi. 18. 

Q. 4. Wherem doth the being of true repentance consist, 
without which it is iiot acceptable ? 

A. In its performance according to the gospel rule,'' with 
faith and assured hope of divine mercy; Psal. li. 1 John ii. 
1, 2. 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11. Acts ii. 38. Matt, xxvii. 4. 

Q. 5. What is that holiness which is required of us ? 

A. That universal, sincere obedience, to the whole will 
of God,« in our hearts, minds, wills, and actions, whereby 
we are in some measure made conformable to Christ our 
head ; Psal. cxix. 9. 1 Sara. xv. 22. John xiv. 15. Rom. vi. 
9. Heb. xii. 14. Tit. ii. 12. 2 Pet. i. 5—7. Isa. i. 16, 17. 
1 Chron. xxviii. 9. Deut. vi. 5. Matt. xxii. 37. Rom. viii. 29. 
1 Cor. xi. 1. Eph. ii. 21. Col. iii. 1—3. 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. 

Q. 6. Is this holiness or obedience in us perfect ? 

A. Yes, in respect of the parts of it,"* but not in respect 
of the degrees wherein God requires it; 2 Kings xx. 3. John 
i. 1. Matt. V. 48. Luke i. 6. 2 Cor. vii. 1. Eph. iv. 24. Tit. 
ii. 12. Isa. Ixiv. 6. Psal. cxxx. 3.- Exod. xxviii. 38. Phil, 
iii. 8. 

Q. 7. Will God accept of that obedience ichich falls so short 
of what he reqnireth ? 

A. Yes, from them whose persons he accepteth,'^ and jus- 
tifieth freely in Jesus Christ ; Rom. xii. 1. Phil. iv. 18. Heb. 
xiii. 16. 1 John iii. 22. Eph. i. 6. 

Q. 8. What are the parts of this holiness? 

A. Internal, in the quickening of all graces, purging all 
sins ; and external, in fervent and frequent prayers, alms, 
and all manner of righteousness ; Heb. ix. 14. Eph. iii. 16, 
17. Rom. ii. 29. vi. 12. Matt. v. 20. Rom. viii. 1, 2. Eph. 
iv. 22, 23. Tit. ii. 12. particular precepts are innumerable. 

Q. 9. MaJ/ not others perform these duties acceptablt/, as 
well as those that believe ? 

•> Every part of popish repentance, viz. contrition, confession, and satisfaction, 
was performed by Judas. 

« All faith and profession without this holiness is vain and of no effect. — True 
faith can no more be witliout true holiness, than true fire without lieat. 

^ Merit of works in unprofitable servants, no way able to do their duty, is a popish 
miracle. 

"^ In Christ are our persons accepted frcrly, and for him our obedience. 



32 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

A. No, all their performances in this kind are but abo- 
minable sins before the Lord ■/ Prov. xv. 8. John ix. 31. Tit. 
i. 15. Heb. xi. 6. 



CHAP. XXI. 

Of the privileges of believers. 

Q. 1. What are the privileges of those that thus believe and 
repent ? 

A. First, union with Christ; secondly, adoption of chil- 
dren ; thirdly. Christian liberty ; fourthly, a spiritual holy 
right to the seals of the new covenant ; fifthly, communion 
with all saints ; sixthly, resurrection of the body unto life 
eternal. 

Q. 2. What is our union with Christ ? 

A. A holy spiritual conjunction unto him,* as our head, 
husband, and foundation, whereby we are made partakers 
of the same Spirit with him, and derive all good things from 
him; 1 Cor. xii. 12. John xv. 1, 2. 5—7. xvii. 23. Eph. 
iv. 15. V. 23. Col.i. 18. 2 Cor.xi.2. Eph. v. 25—27. Rev. 
xxi. 9. Matt. xvi. 18. Eph. ii. 20—22. 1 Pet. ii. 4—7. Rom. 
viii. 9. 11. Gal. iv. 6. Phil. i. 19. John i. 12.16. Eph. i. 3. 

Q. 3. What is our adoption? 

A. Our gracious reception into the family of God, as 
his children, and co-heirs with Christ ; John i. 12. Rom. viii. 
15. 17. Gal. iv. 5. Eph. i. 5. 

Q. 4. How cometve to hioio this? 

A. By the especial working of the Holy Spirit in our 
hearts,b sealing unto us the promises of God, and raising up 
our souls to an assured expectation of the promised inherit- 
ance ; Rom. viii. 15. 17. Eph. iv. 30. 1 John iii. 1. Rom. 
viii. 19. 23. Tit. ii. 12. 

Q. 5. What is our Christian liberty ? 

A. A holy and spiritual freedom from the slavery of 

f The best duties of unbelievers, are but white sins. 

a By virtue of this union, Christ suffereth in our afflictions ; and we fill up in our 
bodies what remaineth as his. — From Christ as head of the church, we have spiri- 
tual life, sense, and motion, or growth in grace; secondly, as the husband of the 
church, love and redemption; thirdly, as the foundation thereof, stability and 
perseverance. 

i* This is that great honour and dignity of believers, which exalts them to a despis- 
ing all earthly thrones. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 33 

sin,' the bondage of death and hell ; the curse of the law, Jew- 
ish ceremonies, and thraldom of conscience, purchased for 
us by Jesus Christ, and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit; 
Gal. V. 1. John viii. 32. 34. 36. Rom. vi. 17, 18. Isa. Ixi. 1. 
1 John i. 7. 2 Cor. v. 21. Rom. viii. 15. Heb. ii. 15. 1 Cor. 
XV. 55. 57. Gal. iii. 13. Eph.ii. 15, 16. Gal. iv. 5. Rom. viii. 
1. Acts XV. 10, 11. Gal. iii. iv. v. 2 Cor. i. 24. 1 Cor. vii. 
23. 1 Pet. ii. 16. 1 Cor. ii. 12. 

Q. 6. Are we then wholly freed from the moral law ? 

A. Yes, as a covenant, "^ or as it hath any thing in it, 
bringing into bondage, as the curse, power, dominion, and 
rigid exaction of obedience, but not as it is a rule of life and 
holiness; Jer. xxxi.31 — 33. Rom. vii. 1^3. vi. 14. Gal. iii. 
19. 24. Rom. viii. 2. Gal. v. 18. Matt. v. 17. Rom. iii. 31. 
vii. 13. 22. 25. 

Q. 7. Are tve not freed by Christ from the magistrate's p02ver, 
and human authority ? 

A. No, being ordained of God,® and commanding for 
him, we owe them all lawful obedience ; Rom. xiii. 1 — 4. 
1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. 1 Pet. ii. 13—15. 



CHAP. XXII. 

Of the sacraments of the new covenant in particular, a holy right whereunto 
is the fourth privilege of believers. 

Q. 1. What are the seals of the New Testamait? 

A. Sacraments instituted of Christ, to be visible seals 
and pledges, whereby God in him confirmeth the promises 
of the covenant to all believers, restipulating of them growth 
in faith and obedience; Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 5. Acts ii. 
38. xxii. 16. Rom. iv. 11. 1 Cor. x. 2—4. xi. 26—29. 

Q. 2. How doth God by these sacraments bestoio grace 
upon us? 

A. Not by any real,'' essential conveying of spiritual 

<= Our liberty is our inheritance here below, which we ought to contend for,agaiiist 
all opposers. 

^ Nothing makes men condemn the law as a rule, but hatred of that universal ho- 
liness which it doth require. 

^ Rule and authority are as necessary for human society, as fire and water for our 
lives. 

»This is one of the greatest mysteries of the Roman magic and juggling, that cor- 
poral elements should have a power to forgive sins, end confer spiritual grace. 

VOL. v. D 



34 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

grace, by corporeal means, but by the way of promise, ob- 
signation, and confirming the grace wrought in us by the 
word and Spirit; Heb. iv. 2. 1 Cor. x, Rom, iv. 11. i. 17. 
Mark xvi. 16. Eph. v. 26. 

Q. 3. How do our sacraments differ from the sacramefits of 
the Jews ? 

A. Accidentally only, in things concerning the outward 
matter and form, as their number, quality, clearness of sig- 
nification, and the like, not essentially in the things signi- 
fied or grace confirmed ; 1 Cor. x. 1 — 3. &c. John vi. 35. 
ICor. V. 7. Phil.iii. 3. Col. ii. 11. 



CHAP. XXIII. 

Of baptism. 

Q. 1. Which are tliese sacraments? 

A. Baptism and the Lord's supper. 

Q. 2. What is baptism? 

A. A holy action appointed of Christ,* whereby, being 
sprinkled with water, in the name of the whole Trinity, by a 
lawful minister of the church, we are admitted into the fa- 
mily of God, and have the benefits of the blood of Christ, 
confirmed unto us ; Matt, xxviii. 19. Mark xvi. 15, 16. 
Acts ii.41. viii. 37. ii. 38, 39. John iii. 5. Rom. vi. 3—5. 
1 Cor. xii. 13. 

Q. 3. To ivhom doth this sacrament belong ? 

A. Unto all to whom the promise of the covenant is 
made, that is, to believers and to their seed; Acts ii. 39. 
Gen. xvii. 11, 12. Acts xvi. 15. Rom. iv. 10, 11. 1 Cor. 
vii. 14. 

Q. 4. How can baptism seal the pardon of all sins to us, all 
our personal sins following it? 

A. Inasmuch as it is a seal of that promise, which gives 
pardon of all to believers; Acts ii. 39. Rom. iv. 11, 12. 

• Not the want, but the contempt of this sacrament is damnable. — It is hard to 
say whether the error of the Papists, requiringbaplisni of absolute indispensable ne- 
cessity to the salvation of every infant; or tliat of the Anabaptiits^ debarring them 
from it aUogether, be the moit uncharitable. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHEIST. 35 

CHAP. XXIV. 

Of the Lord's supper. 

Q. 1. What is the Lord's supper ? 

A. A holy action, instituted and appointed by Christ,* 
to set forth his death, and communicate unto us spiritually 
his body and blood, by faith, being represented by bread 
and wine, blessed by his word and prayer, brokenj^ poured 
out, and received of believers ; Matt. xxvi. 20. 21. Luke 
xxii. 14—20. 1 Cor. xi. 23—26. Luke xxii. 19. Mark xiv. 
22—24. John vi. 63. Matt. xxvi. 26. 

Q. 2. When did Christ appoint this sacrament? 

A. On the night wherein he was betrayed to suffer ; 
1 Cor. xi. 23. 

Q. 3. Whence is the right use of it to be learned? 

A. From the word," practice, and actions of our Saviour, 
as its institution. 

Q. 4. What were the actions of our Saviour to be imitated 
by us ? 

A. First, blessing the elements by prayer; secondly, 
breaking the bread, and pouring out the wine ; thirdly, dis- 
tributing them to the receivers, sitting in a table gesture ; 
Matt. xxvi. 26. Mark xiv. 22. Luke xxii. 19, 20. 1 Cor. 
xi. 23, 24. 

Q. 5. What were the words of Christ? 

A. First, of command, ' take eat ;' secondly, of promise, 
' this is my body ;' thirdly, of institution, for perpetual use, 
* this do,' &c. 1 Cor. xi. 24—26. 

Q. 6. Who are to be receivers^ of this sacrament ? 

A. Those only have a true right to the signs, who by 

* Baptism is tiie sacrament of our new birth, this of our farther growth in Christ. 

•'No part of Christian religion, was ever so vilely contaminated and abused by pro- 
fane wretches, as this pure, holy, plain action, and institution of our Saviour : wit- 
ness the Popish horrid monster of transubstantiation, and their idolatrous mass. 

« Whatever is more than these is of our own. 

"* Faith in God's promises which it doth confirm, union with Christ, whereof it is 
a seal, and obedience to the right use of the ordinance itself, is required of all re- 
ceivers. — There is not any one action pertaining to the spiritual nature of this sa- 
crament, not any end put upon it by Christ; as, first, the partaking of his body and 
Wood ; secondly, setting forth his death for us ; thirdly, declaring of our union with 
him and iiis, but require faith, grace, and holiness, in the receivers. 

D 2 



36 THE PRINCIPLES OF 

faith have a holy interest in Christ, the thing signified ; 
1 Cor. xi. 27—29. John vi. 63. 

Q. 7. Do the elements remain bread and wine still, after the 
blessing of' them ? 

A. Yes, all the spiritual change is wrought by the faith of 
the receiver, not the words of the giver ; to them that be- 
lieve, they are the body and blood of Christ ; John vi. 63. 
1 Cor. X. 4. xi. 29. 



CHAP. XXV. 

Of the communion of saints, the fifth privilege of believers. 

Q. 1 . What is the communion of saints ? 

A. A holy conjunction between all God's people,* 
wrought by their participation of the same Spirit, whereby 
we are all made members of that one body, whereof Christ 
is the head; Cant. vi. 9. Jer. xxxii. 39. John xvii. 22. 1 Cor. 
xii. 12. Eph. iv. 3 6.13. 1 John i. 3. 6, 7. 

Q. 2. Of what sort is this union? 

A. First, spiritual and internal, in the enjoyment of the 
same spirit and graces, which is the union of the church 
catholic ; secondly, external and ecclesiastical in the 
same outward ordinances, which is the union of particular 
congregations ; 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. Eph.ii. 16. 19—22. 1 Cor. 
X. 17. John xvii. 11.21,22. X. 16. Heb. ii. 11. 1 Cor. i. 10, 
11. Rom. xii. 5. 1 Cor. xii. 27, 28. Eph. iv. 11 — 13. PhiL 
ii. 2. Col. iii. 15. 1 Pet. iii, 8. 



CHAP. XXVI. 

Of particular churches. 

Q. 1. What are particular churches? 

A. Peculiar assemblies of professors in one place,* under 
officers of Christ's institution, enj oy ing the ordinances of God, 
and leading lives beseeming their holy calling; Act. xi. 26. 

* By virtueof this we partake in all the good and evil of the people of God throiigh- 
oiil the world. 

» Every corruption doth not presently unchurch a people Unholiness of fel- 
low worshippers, defilcth not God's ordinances. 



THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 37 

1 Cor. iv. 17. xi. 22. 2 Cor. i. 1. Acts xx. 17. 28. xiv.23. 

2 Cor. viii. 23. Heb. xiii. 17. 1 Cor. i. 5. Rev. ii. 1—3. 2 
Thess. iii. 5, 6, U. Gal. vi. 16. Phil. iii. 18. IThess.ii. 12. 

Q. 2. What are the ordinary officers of such churches? 

A. First, pastors or doctors,'' to teach and exhort; se- 
condly, elders, to assist in rule and government; thirdly, 
deacons, to provide for the poor; Rom. xii. 7, 8. Eph. iv. 10. 
1 Cor. xii. 28. Rom. xii. 8. 1 Tim. v. 17. Acts vi. 2, 3. 

Q. 3. What is required of these officers, especial! ij the chief est, 
or 7)iiuisters ? 

A. That they be faithful in the ministry committed unto 
them, sedulous in dispensing the word, watching for the 
good of the souls committed to them, going before them in 
an example of all godliness and holiness of life ; 1 Cor. iv. 2. 
Acts XX. 18—20. 2 Tim. ii. 15. iv. 1—5. Tit. i. 13. 1 Tim. 
iv. 15, 16. Tit. ii. 7. 1 Tim. iv. 12. Matt. v. 16. Acta xxv. 

Q. 4. What is required in the people unto them ? 

A. Obedience to their message and ministry, honour 
and love to their persons, maintenance to them and their 
families ; 2 Cor. v. 20. Rom. vi. 17. Heb. xiii. 17. 2 Thess. 
iii. 14. Rom. xvi. 19. 2 Cor. x. 4 — 6. 1 Cor. iv. 1. Gal. iv. 
14. 1 Tim. V. 17, 18 Luke x. 7. James v. 4. 1 Tim. v. 17, 
18. 1 Cor. ix. 9—13. 



CHAP. XXVII. 

Of the last jjrivilege of believers, being the door of entrance into glory. 

Q. 1. What is the resurrection of the Jiesh? 

A. An act of the mighty power of God's Holy Spirit," 
applying unto us the virtue of Christ's resurrection, where- 
by, at the last day, he will raise our whole bodies from the 
dust, to be united again unto our souls in everlasting happi- 
ness; Job xix. 25 — 27. Psal. xvi. 9 — 11. Isa. xxvi. 19. Ezek. 
xxxvii. 2, 3. Dan. xii. 2. 1 Cor. xv. 16, &c. Rev. xx. 12,13. 

Q. 2. What is the end of this whole dispensation ? 

A. The glory of God in our eternal salvation. 

To him be all glory, and honour for evermore. Amen. 

•• Ministers are the bishops of the Lord ; Lord-bishops came from Rome. 
* The resurrectiori of the flesh hereafter, is a powerful motive to live after the Spi- 
rit here. 



GEOMAXIA AYTESOYSIASTIKH 



DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM: 



A DISCOVERY 



t)LD PELAGIAN IDOL FREE-WILL, 



THE NEW GODDESS CONTINGENCY, ADVANCING 

THEMSELVES INTO THE THRONE OF THE GOD OF HEAVEN, TO THE 

PREJUDICE OF HIS GRACE, PROVIDENCE, AND SUPREME 

DOMINION OVER THE CHILDREN OF MEN: 

WHEREIN 

THE MAIN ERRORS BY WHICH THEY ARE FALLEN OFF 

FROM THE RECEIVED DOCTRINE OF ALL THE REFORMED CHURCHES, 

•WITH THEIR OPPOSITION IN DIVERS PARTICULARS TO THE DOCTRINE 

ESTABLISHED IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, ARE DISCOVERED 

AND LAID OPEN OUT OF THEIR OWN WRITINGS 

AND CONFESSIONS, AND CONFUTED BY THE WORD OF GOD. 



Produce your cause, saith the Lord: bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of 

Jacob. Isaiah xli. 21. 
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker ! Let the potsherds strive xcith the potsherds 

of the earth. Chap.xIv. 9. 
'Gff, S 'AM<Ti\at, K'KiiA.a.x.a, xai ^oyo; ttVa^JiSi itf tov oi/fctvov. Constant, apud Socrat. lib. 1. 

cap. 10. 



2. MARTII, ANNO DOMINI. 1642. 

It is this day ordered by the Committee of the House 
of Commons in Parliament, for the regulating of Print- 
ing and Publishing of Books, that this Book entitled, 
A Display of Arminianism, be printed. 

John White. 



TO 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 



THE LORDS AND GENTLEMEN 

OF THE 

COxMMITTEE FOR RELIGION. 



The many ample testimonies of zealous reverence to 
the providence of God, as well as affectionate care for 
the privileges of men, which have been given by this 
honourable assembly of parliament, encourage the 
adorers of the one, no less than the lovers of the other, 
to vindicate that also, from the encroachments of men. 
And as it was not, doubtless, without divine disposition, 
that those should be the chiefest agents in robbing 
men of their privileges, who had nefariously attempted 
to spoil God of his providence ; so we hope, the same 
all-ruling hand hath disposed of them, to be glorious 
instruments of re-advancing his right and supreme 
dominion over the hearts of men, whose hearts he hath 
prepared with courage and constancy to establish men 
in their inviolated rights ; by reducing a sweet har- 
mony between awful sovereignty and a well mode- 
rated liberty. Now the first of these being deman- 
dated to your particular care, I come unto you, with a 
bill of complaint, against no small number in this king- 
dom ; who have wickedly violated our interest in the 
providence of God, and have attempted to bring in 
the foreign power of an old idol, to the great prejudice 
of all the true subjects and servants of the Most High. 
My accusation I make good by the evidence of the fact, 
joined with their own confessions. And because, to 
wave the imputation of violent intrusion into the do- 



xlil Tin: EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

minion of anotlier, they lay some claim and pretend 
some title unto it, I shall briefly shew how it is con- 
trary to the express terms of the great charter of heaven, 
to have any such power introduced amongst men. 
Your known love to truth, and the gospel of Christ, 
makes it altogether needless for me to stir you up by 
any motives, to hearken to this just complaint, and pro- 
vide a timely remedy for this growing evil : especially 
since experience, hath so clearly taught us here in 
England, that not only eternal, but temporal happiness 
also dependeth on the flourishing of the truth of Christ's 
gospel. 

Justice and religion were always conceived as the 
main columns and upholders of any state, or common- 
wealth ; like two pillars in a building, whereof the 
one cannot stand without the other; nor the whole 
fabric without them both. As the philosopher spake 
of logic and rhetoric, they are arts avAaTporpai, mutually 
aiding each other, and both aiming at the same end, 
though in different manners : so they, without repug- 
nancy, concur and sweetly fall in, one with another, 
for the reiglement and direction of every person in a 
commonwealth, to make the whole happy and blessed : 
•and where they are both thus united, there and only 
there, is the blessing, in assurance whereof Hezekiah 
rejoiced : truth and peace. An agreement without 
truth is no peace, but a covenant with death, a league 
with hell, a conspiracy against the kingdom of Christ, 
a stout rebellion against the God of heaven ; and with- 
out justice, great commonwealths are but great troops 
of robbers : now the result of the one of these is civil 
peace, of the other ecclesiastical, betwixt which two 
there is a great sympathy, a strict connexion ; having 
on each other a nmtual dependancc. Is there any dis- 
turbance of the state ? it is usually attended with 
«chisnis i\n(\ fjtclion? in thr cljinTb; and tlie divisions 



THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. xlili 

of the church are too often even the subversions of 
the commonwealth. Thus it hath been ever since that 
unhappy difference between Cain and Abel : which 
was not concernino- the bounds and limits of their in- 
heritance, nor which of them should be heir to the 
whole world ; but about the dictates of religion, the 
offering of their sacrifices. This fire also of dissension 
hath been more stirred up, since the prince of peace, 
hath by his gospel, sent the sword amongst us : for 
the preaching thereof, meeting with the strong holds 
of Satan, and the depraved corruption of human na- 
ture, must needs occasion a great shaking of the earth. 
But most especially, distracted Christendom, hath 
found fearful issues of this discord, since the proud 
Romish prelates, have sought to establish their hell- 
broached errors, by inventing and maintaining un- 
charitable destructive censures against all that oppose 
them : which first causing schisms and distractions in 
the church, and then being helped forward by the 
blindness and cruelty of ambitious potentates, have 
raised war of nation against nation ; witness the Spanish 
invasion of eighty-eight; of a people within themselves, 
as in the late civil wars of France, where after divers 
horrible massacres, many chose rather to die soldiers 
than martyrs. 

And oh, that this truth, might not at this day, be 
written with the blood of almost expiring Ireland. 
Yea, it hath lastly descended to dissension betwixt 
private parties, witness the horrible murder of Diazius, 
whose brains were chopped out with an axe, by his 
own brother Alphonsus,'' for forsaking the Romish re- 
ligion : what rents in state, what grudgings, hatreds, 
and exasperations of mind, among private men, have 
happened by reason of some inferior differences, we 
all at this day grieve to behold ; ' tantum religio po- 

* Sleid. Com. 



Xliv THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

tuit suadere malorum :' most concerning then is it for 
us to endeavour obedience to our Saviour's precept, of 
seeking first the kingdom of God, that we may be par- 
takers of the good things comprised in the promise 
annexed : were there but this one argument, for to seek 
the peace of the church, because thereon depends the 
peace of the commonwealth, it were sufiicient to 
quicken our utmost industry for the attaining of it. 
Now what peace in the church without truth ? all 
conformity to any thing else, is but the agreement of 
Herod and Pilate, to destroy Christ and his kingdom ; 
neither is it this or that particular truth, but the whole 
counsel of God revealed unto us, without adding or 
detracting, whose embracement is required, to make 
our peace firm and stable. No halting betwixt Jeho- 
vah and Baal, Christ and Antichrist ; as good be all 
Philistine, and worshippers of Dago n, as to speak part 
the language of Ashdod, and part the language of the 
Jews : hence hath been the rise of all our miseries, of 
all our dissensions, whilst factious men laboured every 
day to commend themselves to them, who sate aloft 
in the temple of God, by introducing new Popish Ar- 
minian errors, whose patronage they had wickedly un- 
dertaken. Who would have thought, that our church 
would ever have given entertainment to these Belgic 
Semipelagians, who have cast dirt upon the faces, and 
raked up the ashes, of all those great and pious souls, 
whom God magnified, in using as his instruments to 
reform his church ; to the least of which, the whole 
troop of Arminians shall never make themselves equal, 
though they swell till they break ? What benefit did 
ever come to this church, by attempting to prove, that 
the chief part, in the several degrees of our salvation, 
is to be ascribed unto ourselves, rather than God? 
which is the head and sum of all the controversies be- 
tween them and us : and must not the introducing and 



THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. xlv 

fomenting of a doctrine, so opposite to that truth our 
church hath quietly enjoyed ever since the first refor- 
mation, necessarily bring along with it schisms and 
dissensions, so long as any remain who love the truth, 
or esteem the gospel above preferment. Neither let 
any deceive your wisdoms, by affirming, that they are 
differences of an inferior nature, that are at this day 
aofitated between the Arminians and the orthodox 
divines of the reformed church ; be pleased but to cast 
an eye on the following instances, and you will find 
them hev/ing at the very root of Christianity. Con- 
sider seriously their denying of that fundamental arti- 
cle of original sin. Is this but a small escape in the- 
ology ? why, what need of the gospel ? what need of 
Christ himself, if our nature be not guilty, depraved, 
corrupted ? Neither are many of the rest of less import- 
ance ; surely these are not things, ' in quibus possimus 
dissentire salva pace ac charitate,' as Austin speaks, 
' about which we may differ, without loss of peace or 
charity.' One church cannot wrap in her communion 
Austin and Pelagius, Calvin and Arminius. I have 
here only given you a taste, whereby you may judge 
of the rest of their fruit : ' mors in olla, mors in olla ;' 
their doctrine of the final apostacy of the elect, of true 
believers, of a wavering hesitancy concerning our pre- 
sent grace and future glory, with divers others, I 
have wholly omitted : those I have produced, are 
enough to make their abettors incapable of our church 
communion : the sacred bond of peace, compasseth 
only the unity of that Spirit which leadeth into all 
truth. We must not offer the right hand of fellowship, 
but rather proclaim Ispov iroXefiov,^ 'a holy war,' to such 
enemies of God's providence, Christ's merit, and the 
pov/erful operation of the Holy Spirit : neither let any 
object, that all the Arminians do not openly profess all 

^ Greg. Naz. 



xlvi THE EPrSTLE DEDICATORY. 

these errors I have recounted ; let ours then shew 
wherein they ditfer from their masters ;" we see their 
own confessions, we know their arts, l^aBi] /cat fieSo^uag 
rov aa-ava, ' the depths and crafts of Satan,' we know the 
several ways they have to introduce and insinuate 
their heterodoxies into the minds of men : with some 
they appear only to dislike our doctrine of reproba- 
tion ; with others to claim an allowable liberty of the 
will ; but yet, for the most part, like the serpent, 
wherever she gets in her head, she will wriggle in her 
whole body, sting and all : give but the least admis- 
sion, and the whole poison must be swallowed. What 
was the intention of the maintainers of these strange 
assertions amongst us, I know not : whether the effi- 
cacy of error prevailed really with them or no ; or 
whether it were the better to comply with Popery, 
and thereb}^ to draw us back again unto Egypt ; but 
this I have heard, that it was affirmed on knowledge in 
a former parliament, that the introduction of Armini- 
anism amongst us, was the issue of a Spanish consul- 
tation. It is a strange story that learned Zanchius'* 
tells us, how upon the death of the cardinal of Lor- 
rain there was found in his study a note, of the 
names of divers German doctors and ministers, being 
Lutherans, to whom was paid an annual pension, by 
the assignment of the cardinal, that they might take 
pains to oppose the Calvinists, and so by cherishing 
dissension, reduce the people again to Popery. If 
there be any such amongst us, who upon such poor 
inconsiderable motives, would be won to betray the 
gospel of Christ, God grant them repentance before 
it be too late ; however, upon what grounds, with 

•^ Prontentur Rerconst. hasce ad promotionem csusae sus artes adhibere, ut apud 
Yolgns non ulterius progrediantiir quam de articulis viilgo notis, nt pro ingenioram 
diversilate quosdam lacte diu alant, a'.iis solidiote cibo. Sec. Festus Horn, prasstat ad 
specirocii Con. Bel. 

<* Hieron. Zanch. ad Holderum. Res. Rliscel. 



TIIF. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XVH 

what intentions, for what ends soever, these tares have 
been sowed amonorgt us by envious men, the hope of 
all the piously learned in the kingdom is, that by your 
effectual care and diligence, some means may be 
found to root them out. Now God Almighty in- 
crease and fill your whole honourable society, with 
wisdom, zeal, knowledge, and all other Christian 
graces, necessary for your great calling and employ- 
ments, which is the daily prayer of 

Your most humble and 

devoted servant, 

JOHX OWEX. 



TO THE 

CHRISTIAN READER. 



Reader, 
Thou canst not be such a stranger in our Israel, as 
that it should be necessary for me to acquaint thee with 
the first sowing and spreading of these tares in the field 
of the church, much less to declare, what divisions and 
thoughts of heart, what open bitter contentions, to the 
loss of ecclesiastical peace, have been stirred up amongst 
us about them : only some few things relating to this 
my particular endeavour, I would willingly premonish 
thee of. 

First, Never were so many prodigious errors intro- 
duced into a church, with so high a hand, and so little 
opposition, as these into ours, since the nation of 
Christians was known in the world : the chief cause I 
take to be, that which iEneas Sylvius gave, why more 
maintained the pope to be above the council, than the 
council above the pope, because popes gave archbi- 
shoprics, bishoprics, &c. but the councils sued ' in 
forma pauperis,' and, therefore, could scarce get an ad- 
vocate to plead their cause : the fates of our church 
having of late devolved the government thereof into 
the hands of men tainted with this poison, Armi- 
nianism became backed with the powerful arguments' 
of praise and preferment, and quickly prevailed to beat 
poor naked truth into a corner. It is high time then, 
for all the lovers of the old way, to oppose this inno- 
vation, prevailing by such unworthy means, before our 
breach grow great like the sea, and there be none to 
heal it. 

My intention, in this weak endeavour (which is 

VOL. V. E , 



1 TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. 

but the undigested issue of a few broken hours, too 
many causes in these furious malignant days conti- 
nually interrupting the course of my studies), is but to 
stir up such, who, having more leisure and greater 
abilities, will not as yet move a finger to help vindi- 
cate oppressed truth. 

In the mean time I hope this discovery may not be 
unuseful, especially to such who, wanting either will 
or abilities to peruse larger discourses, may yet be al- 
lured by their words which are smoother than oil, to 
taste the poison of asps that is under their lips. Satan 
hath (5a9ri kuI jueOoSa'ac, depths were to hide, and me- 
thods how to broach, his lies ; and never did any of 
his emissaries employ his received talents with more 
skill and diligence than our Arminians : labouring 
earnestly, in the first place, to instil some errors that 
are most plausible, intending chiefly an introduction 
of them that are more palpable, knowing that if those 
be for a time suppressed, until these be well digested, 
they will follow of their own accord : wherefore, I have 
endeavoured to lay open to the view of all, some of 
their foundation errors, not usually discussed, on which 
the whole inconsistent superstructure is erected, where- 
by it will appear, how, under a ©lost vain pretence of 
farthering piety, they have prevaricated against the 
very grounds of Christianity : wherein. 

First, I have not observed the same method in 
handling each particular controversy, but followed 
such several ways as seemed most convenient to clear 
the truth and discover their heresies. 

Secondly, Some of their errors I have not touched 
at all, as those concerning universal grace, justification, 
the final apostacy of true believers ; because they came 
not within the compass of my proposed method, as you 
may see chap. i. where you have the sum of the whole 
discourse. 



TO THE CHRISTIAN REyVDER. li 

Thirdly, I have given some instances of their op- 
posing the received doctrine of the church of England, 
contained in divers of the thirty-nine articles ; which 
would it did not yield us just cause of farther com- 
plaint, againt the iniquity of those times whereinto we 
were lately fallen. Had a poor Puritan offended against 
half so many canons as they opposed articles, he had 
forfeited his livelihood, if not endangered his life. I 
would I could hear any other probable reason, why 
divers prelates were so zealous for the discipline, and 
so negligent of the doctrine of the church ; but be- 
cause the one was reformed by the word of God, the 
other remaining as we found it in the times of popery. 

Fourthly, I have not purposely undertaken to an- 
swer any of their arguments, referring that labour to a 
farther design ; even a clearing of our doctrine of re- 
probation, and of the administration of God's provi- 
dence towards the reprobates, and over all their ac- 
tions, from those calumnious aspersions they cast upon 
it; but concerning this, I fear the discouragements of 
these woful days will leave me nothing but a desire 
that so necessary a work may find a more able pen. 

John Owen. 



E 2 



_ C 



. c -o »J 



■s 5 



WO! 



. o 



£8 •-.„ 

<s:| 

-o " 



11 


c 
o 


2se 


■* 




>f5 


li 

5 E 


3 

u 





■2 £ 



e g 

.2 ** 



E^ =-^ £.^ E 
c >-* -^ O c P S 

r^ O C^ '^ 



X s 



a; — 
o J2 






0) 



•^.J 



i^ s 



Q. 
CO 



'>< 

e 

o 
® 



3 ^ ___ 

r£< 

.So ra 

S s ^ S a 

C CS 3 •-; 3 
.|0-Cu S 







M 


, 


























c 




<u 


o 
















o 








> 






CS 








(-1 


















E 


o 


-Q 




1) 


a 


CO 





J= -o ■ 



, o 1) .^ .— 







.2-6 
1S c 


P 


(U 


u 


« 


3 




0- 


0^ CS 
















."S E 




<*: 


> 


> 


r. ^ 




CS 3 












. M 








3 


o 
"3 
E 


■a 



3 

■£ 


11 






§•? 


S 




a. 


> 


■Is 


'> 


■|.2 


a-- 

CS £ 


s 


« 


2 

> 






> 


II 





•_3 J3 

• - fl 



t- S 0^ 3 'S o - 



_o 

a 


'fl 


fRcax : 
abituum 
secun- j 
uutabile 


3 

■V, ^ « 


ru 


.^ 5"i 


Gratia e 
Infusioh 

Vocatio 
dum imi 


rop 
gel 
sti 
r vi 




gratu 
Mer 
Ope 
tus 


del p 
Evan 
Chri 
Libe 



s S 



p. u 



° .s."5 



E OX) 



S -a 



E := 



S 5 



E g =: 



3 .| ^.2 -s. 



tn ja 



S c8 »; = o 

1! i: 3 0-0 

p ta c « 

h5 s WD O E 



g_ <u c ^° t: 
S th o^ CO a. 



• C (S 

■3 ii -^ ' 

3 o -^ 

CS Q., ■ 



£ ■* 5 T3 PtH 




A 

DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM, 

SYN eEQ. 



CHAP. I. 

Of the two main ends aimed at hy the Arminians, by their innovations in the 
received doctrine of the reformed churches. 

Ihe soul of man, by reason of the corruption of nature, is 
not only darkened'' with a mist of ignorance, whereby he is 
disenabled for the comprehending of divine truth, but is also 
armed with prejudice and opposition against some parts 
thereof,'' which are either most above, or most contrary to, 
some false principles, which he hath framed unto himself. 
As a desire of self-sufficiency was the first cause of this in- 
firmity, so a conceit thereof, is that wherewith he still lan- 
guisheth ; nothing doth he more contend for, than an inde- 
pendency of any supreme power, which might either help, 
hinder, or control him, in his actions. This is that bitter root, 
from whence have sprung all those heresies,^ and wretched 
contentions, which have troubled the church ; concerning 
the power of man in working his own happiness, and his ex- 
emption from the over-ruling providence of Almighty God. 
All which wrangling disputes of carnal reason against the 
word of God, come at last to this head, whether the first and 
chiefest part, in disposing of things in this world, ought to 
be ascribed to God, or man : men for the most part have 
vindicated this pre-eminence unto themselves,*^ by exclama- 
tions, that so it must be, or else, that God is unjust, and his 
ways unequal. Never did any men postquam Christiana gens 
esse capit, more eagerly endeavour the erecting of this Babel, 

a Eph. iv. 18. John i. 5. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 

•> John vi. 42. vii. 32. Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitii sit, non 
videre. Aug. ^ Pelag. Seraipelag. Scholastic. 

^ In hac causa non judicant secundum aequitatem, sed secundum affectura cora- 
raodi sui, Luth. de Arbit. serv. 



54 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

than the Arminians, the modern blinded patrons of human 
self-sufficiency ; all whose innovations in the received doc- 
trine of the reformed churches, aim at, and tend to, one of 
these two ends. 

First, To exempt themselves from God's jurisdiction, to 
free themselves from the supreme dominion of his all-ruling 
providence ; not to live and move in him, but to have an 
absolute independent power, in all their actions, so that the 
event of all things, wherein they have any interest, might 
have a considerable relation to nothing but chance, contin- 
gency, and their own wills : a most nefarious, sacrilegious 
attempt. To this end. 

First, They deny the eternity, and unchangeableness of 
God's decrees : for those being established, they fear they 
should be kept within bounds from doing any thing but what 
his counsel hath determined should be done : if the purposes 
of the strength of Israel be eternal and immutable, their idol 
free-will must be limited, their independency prejudiced : 
wherefore, they choose rather to affirm that his decrees are 
temporary and changeable ; yea, that he doth really change 
them, according to the several mutations he sees in us ; which, 
how wild a conceit it is, how contrary to the pure nature of 
God, how destructive to his attributes, I shall shew in the 
second chapter. 

Secondly, They question the prescience, or foreknowledge 
of God : for if known unto God are all his works from the 
beginning ; if he certainly foreknew all things that shall here- 
after come to pass, it seems to cast an infallibility of event 
upon all their actions, which encroaches upon the large terri- 
tory of their new goddess contingency ; nay, it would quite de- 
throne the queen of heaven, and induce a kind of necessity 
of our doing all, and nothing but what God foreknows : now, 
that to deny this prescience is destructive to the very es- 
sence of the Deity, and plain atheism, shall be declared, 
chapter the third. 

Thirdly, They depose the all-governing providence of this 
King of nations, denying its energetical, effectual power, in 
turning the hearts, ruling the thoughts, determining the wills, 
and disposing the actions of men, by granting nothing unto 
it, but a general power and influence, to be limited and used 
according to the inclination and will of every particular 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 55 

agent: so making Almighty God a desirer that many things 
were otherwise than they are, and an idle spectator of most 
things that are done in the world, the falseness of which as- 
sertions shall be proved, chapter the fourth. 

Fourthly, They deny the irresistibility and uncontrollable 
power of God's will, affirming, that oftentimes he seriously 
willeth and intendeth what he cannot accomplish, and so is 
deceived of his aim ; nay, whereas he desireth, and really in- 
tendeth, to save every man, it is wholly in their own power 
whether he shall save any one or no, otherwise their idol free- 
will should have but a poor deity, if God could, how and 
when he would, cross and resist him in his dominion : con- 
cerning this, see chapter the fifth. 'His gradibus itur in coelum.' 
Corrupted nature is still ready, either nefariously with Adam, 
to attempt to be like God, or to think foolishly that he is al- 
together like unto us :* one of which inconveniences all men 
run into, who have not learned to submit their frail wills to 
the almighty will of God, and captivate their understandings 
to the obedience ot faith. 

Secondly, The second end at which the new doctrine ot 
the Arminians aimeth, is to clear human nature from the 
heavy imputation of being sinful, corrupted, wise to do evil, 
but unable to do good ; and so to vindicate unto themselves 
a power and ability of doing all that good, which God can 
justly require to be done by them in the state wherein they 
are ; of making themselves differ from other, who will not 
make so good use of the endowments of their natures, that 
so the first and chiefest part in the work of their salvation 
may be ascribed unto themselves : a proud Luciferian endea- 
vour. To this end. 

First, They deny that doctrine of predestination, whereby 
God is affirmed to have chosen certain men before the foun- 
dation of the world, that they should be holy, and obtain 
everlasting life by the merit of Christ, to the praise of his 
glorious grace : any such predestination which may be the 
fountain and cause of grace or glory, determining the persons 
according to God's good pleasure, on whom they shall be 
bestowed : for this doctrine would make the special grace of 
God to be the sole cause of all the good that is in the elect, 
more than the reprobates would make faith the work and 

« Psal. 1. 



56 A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 

gift of God ; with divers other things, which would shew 
their idol to be nothing, of no value : wherefore, what a cor- 
rupt heresy they have substituted into the place hereof, see 
chapter the sixth. 

Secondly, They deny original sin, and its demerit, which 
being rightly understood, would easily demonstrate, that not- 
withstanding all the labour of the smith, the carpenter, and 
the painter, yet their idol is of its own nature but an unpro- 
fitable block ; it will discover not only the impotency of doing 
good, which is in our nature, but shew also whence we have 
it : see chapter the seventh. 

Thirdly, If ye will charge our human nature with a re- 
pugnancy to the law of God, they will maintain that it was 
also in Adam when he was first created, and so comes from 
God himself: chapter the eighth. 

Fourthly, They deny the efficacy of the merit of the death 
of Christ, both that God intended by his death to redeem 
his church, or to acquire unto himself a holy people ; as also, 
that Christ by his death hath merited and procured for us 
grace, faith, or righteousness, and power to obey God, in ful- 
filling the condition of the new covenant; nay, this were 
plainly to set up an ark to break their Dagon's neck : for 
what praise, say they, can be due to ourselves for believing, 
if the blood of Christ hath procured God to bestow faith 
upon us? Increpet te Deus 6 Satan. See chapters nine and ten. 

Fifthly, If Christ will claim such a share in saving of his 
people, of them that believe in him, they will grant some to 
have salvation quite without him, that never heard so much 
as a report of a Saviour : and, indeed, in nothing do they ad- 
vance their idol nearer the throne of God, than in this blas- 
phemy : chapter eleven. . 

Sixthly, Having thus robbed God, Christ, and his grace, 
they adorn their idol free-will with many glorious properties 
no way due unto it: discussed,chapter twelve, where you shall 
find how, 'movet cornicula risum,'furtivis nudata coloribus.' 

Seventhly, They do not only claim to their new made 
deity a saving power, but also affirm, that he is very active 
and operative in the great work of saving our souls. 

First, In fitly preparing us for the grace of God, and 
so disposing of ourselves, that it becomes due unto us : 
chapter thirteen. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 57 

Secondly, In the effectual working of our conversion, to- 
gether with it : chapter fourteen. 

And so at length, with much toil and labour, they placed 
an altar for their idol in the holy temple, on the right hand of 
the altar of God; and on it offer sacrifice to their own net 
and drag; at least, ?iec Deo, nee libera arbitrio, sed dividatiir: 
not all to God, nor all to free-will, but let the sacrifice of 
praise, for all good things, be divided between them. 



CHAP. II. 

Of the eternity and immutahility of the decrees of Almighty God, denied 
and overthrown by the Armiuians. 

It hath been always believed among Christians, and that 
upon infallible grounds, as I shall shew hereafter, that all 
the decrees of God, as they are internal, so they are eternal, 
acts of his will, and therefore unchangeable and irrevoca- 
ble : mutable decrees, and occasional resolutions, are most 
contrary to the pure nature of Almighty God. Such prin- 
ciples as these, evident and clear by their own light, were 
never questioned by any before the Arminians began, ukl- 
vrjTu Kivdv, and to profess themselves to delight in opposing 
common notions of reason, concerning God and his essence, 
that they might exalt themselves into his throne; to ascribe 
the least mutability tc the divine essence, with which all 
the attributes, and internal free acts of God, are one and the 
same, was ever accounted u7rfp/3oX?) a^wrnTog ' transcendent 
atheism,' in the highest degree.^ Now be this crime of what 
nature it will, it is no unjust imputation to charge it on the 
Arminians, because they confess themselves guilty, and glory 
in the crime. 

First, They undermine and overthrow the eternity of 
God's purposes, by affirming, that in the order of the divine 
decrees, there are some which precede every act of the crea- 
ture, and some again that follow them ; so Corvinus,'' the 
most famous of that sect. Now all the acts of every crea- 
ture being but of yesterday, temporary, like themselves, 
surely those decrees of God cannot be eternal, which fol- 

a Phil. lib. quod sit Deus inimutabilis. 
•> In ordiiie volitoruin divirioruni, qiiffidam suiitcjuse onineni actum ciealurae prae- 
ccdunt, quaidaiu quas sequuntur. Coi. ad JMoliii. cap. o. bcc. 1. pag. 67. 



58 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

low them in order of time : and yet they press this, espe- 
cially in respect of human actions, as a certain, unquestion- 
able verity. 'It is certain that God willeth or determineth 
many things, which he would not, did not some act of man's 
will go before it,' saith their great master Arminius.*^ The 
like affirmeth, with a little addition (as such men do always 
projicere in pejus), his genuine scholar Nic. Grevinchovius :"^ 
*I suppose, saith he, that God willeth many things, which he 
neither would, nor justly could will and purpose, did not 
some action of the creature precede.' And here observe, that 
in these places they speak not of God's external works, of 
those actions which outwardly are of him, as inflicting of 
punishments, bestowing of rewards, and other such outward 
acts of his providence, whose administration we confess to 
be various, and diversely applied to several occasions ; but of 
the internal purposes of God's will, his decrees and inten- 
tions, which have no present influence upon, or respect unto, 
any action of the creature : yea, they deny that concerning 
many things God hath any determinate resolution at all, or 
any purpose, farther than a natural affection towards them. 
* God doth or omitteth that, towards which, in his own na- 
ture, and his proper inclination, he is affected, as he finds 
man to comply, or not to comply, with that order which he 
hath appointed,' saith Corvinus." Surely these men care not 
what indignities they cast upon the God of heaven, so they 
may maintain the pretended endowments of their own wills ; 
for such an absolute power do they here ascribe unto them, 
that God himself cannot determine of a thing, whereunto, 
as they strangely phrase it, he is well affected, before, by an 
actual concurrence, he is sure of their compliance : now this 
imputation, that they are temporary, which they cast upon 
the decrees of God in general, they press home upon that 
particular which lies most in their way, the decree of elec- 
tion : concerning this, they tell us roundly, that it is false 
that election is confirmed from eternity ; so the ^Remonstrants 
in their apology; notwithstanding that St. Paul tells us, 

^ Ccrtura est Deum quaedam velle, quae non vellet nisi aliqua voiitio humana ante- 
cederet, Arrnin. anti Perk. p. 211. 

<i Muita tamen arbitror Deum velle, quae non vellet, adeoque nee jusle velle pos- 
set, nisi aliqua actio creatura priecederet. ad Ames. p. 24. 

« Deus facit ve! non facit id, ad quod, ex se, etnatura sua ac inclinatione propria 
est aflectus, prout homo cum isto ordine, conspirat, vel non conspirat. Cor. ad Moi. 
cap. 5. ad sec. 3. 

f Falsum est quod electio facta est ab mterno. Rem. apol. cap. 18 p. 190. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 59 

that it is the purpose of God, Rom. ix. 11. and that we were 
chosen before the foundation of the world ; Eph. i. 4. neither 
is it any thing material, what the Arminians there grant, \i%. 
that there is a decree preceding this, which may be said, to 
be from everlasting; for seeing that St. Paul teacheth us, 
that election is nothing but God's purpose of saving us, to 
affirm that God eternally decreed that he would elect us, is 
all one as to say, that God purposed, that in time he would 
purpose to save us : such resolutions may be fit for their 
own wild heads, but must not be ascribed to God only wise. 
Secondly, As they affirm them to be temporary, and to 
have had a beginning, so also to expire and have an ending, 
to be subject to change and variableness. ' Some acts of God's 
will do cease at a certain time,' saith Episcopius.^ What? 
doth any thing come into his mind that changeth his will? 
Yes, saith Arrainius,*^ 'He would have all men to be saved; but 
compelled with the stubborn and incorrigible malice of 
some he will have them to miss it.' However, this is some 
recompense : denying God a power to do what he will, then 
grant him to be contented to do what he may, and not much 
repine at his hard condition : certainly, if but for this favour, 
he is a debtor to the Arminians : thieves give what they do 
not take. Having robbed God of his power, they will leave 
him so much goodness, as that he shall not be troubled at 
it, though he be sometimes compelled to what he is very 
loath to do. How do they and their fellows, the Jesuits,' ex- 
claim upon poor Calvin, for sometimes using the harsh word 
of compulsion, describing the effectual, powerful working of 
the providence of God in the actions of men ; but they can 
fasten the same term on the will of God, and no harm done: 
surely, he will one day plead his own cause against them. 
But yet blame them not, ' si violandumestjus, regnandi causa 
violandum est:' it is to make themselves absolute, that they 
thus cast off the yoke of the Almighty ; and that both in 
things concerning this life, and that which is to come, they 
are much troubled that it should be said, that ^ every one 

S Volitiones aliquse Dei cessant certo quodam tempore Episcop. disp. de vol. 
Dei. Thes. 7. 

^ Deus vult omnes salvos fieri, sed compulsus pertinaci et incorrigibili malitia 
quorundam, vult illos jacturarn facere salutis. Arrain. Antip. fol. 195. 

' Bell. Amiss, grat. Armi. antip. Rem. apol. 

'' (Decent) unumquenique invariabilem vitae, ac mortis w^orayhv una cum ipso ortu, 
in lucem banc nobiscuni adfcrre. Filii Arrain. in epist. ded- ad Examen. lib. Per 



60 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

of US, bring along with us into the world an unchangeable 
preordination of life and death eternal; for such a supposal 
would quite overthrow the main foundation of their heresy, 
viz. that men can make their election void and frustrate, as 
they jointly lay it down in their apology;' nay, it is a dream, 
saith Dr. Jackson,™ to think of God's decrees, concerning 
things to come, as of acts irrevocably finished, which 
would hinder that which Welsingius lays down for a truth, 
to wit," that the elect may become reprobates, and the re- 
probates elect. Now to these particular sayings is their 
whole doctrine concerning the decrees of God, inasmuch as 
they have any reference to the actions of men, most exactly 
conformable ; as, 

First, ° Their distinction of them into peremptory, and 
not peremptory (terms rather used in the citations of liti- 
gious courts, than as expressions of God's purpose in sacred 
Scripture), is not, as by them applied, compatible with the 
unchangeableness of God's eternal purposes : irpocTKaipoi, 
say they, or temporary believers, are elected (though not pe- 
remptorily), with such an act of God's will, as hath a co-ex- 
istence every way commensurate, both in its original, con- 
tinuance, and end, with their fading faith: which sometimes, 
like Jonah's gourd, is hutji/ia uniiis noctis, in the morning it 
flourisheth, in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and 
withereth : a man in Christ by faith, or actually believing 
(which to do is, as they say, in every one's own power),? is 
in their opinion the proper object of election ; of election, 
I say, not peremptory, which is an act pendent, expecting 
the final perseverance and consummation of his faith: and 
therefore immutable, because man having fulfilled his course, 
God hath no cause to change his purpose, of crowning him 
with reward ; thus also (as they teach), a man according to 
his infidelity, whether present and removable, or obdurate 

' Possunt homines electlonem suam irritam et frustraneam reddere. Rem. apol. 
cap. 9. p. 105. 

'" Jackson of the divine essence. 

° Non niirura videri debet quod aliquando ex electis reprobi et ex reprobis elect! 
fiant. Welsin. de of. Ch. hom. 

° Omnia Uei decreta, non suntperemptoria, sed quaedara conditionafa ac niulabi- 
iia. Concio. Ad Cler. Oxon. ann. 1641. Rem. decla. sent, in synod, alii passim: elec- 
tio sicut et justificatio, et incerta et revocabilis, utrainque vero conditionatam qui 
negaverit, ipsum quoque evangelium negabit. Grevin. ad Ames, pp. 136,137. 

P Ad gloriam participandani pro isto teu)pore quo credunt electi sunt. Rem. apol. 
p. 190. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 61 

and final, is the only object of reprobation : which, in the 
latter cause, is peremptory and absolute; in the former, con- 
ditional and alterable : it is the qualities of faith and unbe- 
lief, on which their election and reprobation do attend. 
Now let a faithful man,'' elected of God, according to his 
present righteousness, apostate totally from grace (as to af- 
firm that there is any promise of God, implying his perse- 
verance, is with them to overthrow all religion), and let the 
unbelieving reprobate, depose his incredulity and turn him- 
self unto the Lord ; answerable to this mutation of their 
conditions, are the changings of the purpose of the Almighty, 
concerning their everlasting estate. Again, suppose these 
two, by alternate courses (as the doctrine of apostacy main- 
taineth they may), should return each to their former estate, 
the decrees of God concerning them must again be changed; 
for it is unjust with him, either not to elect him that believes, 
though it be but for an hour, or not to reprobate unbelievers. 
Now what unchangeableness can we affix to these decrees, 
which it lies in the power of man to make as inconstant as 
Euripus; making it beside to be possible, that all the mem- 
bers of Christ's church, whose names are written in heaven, 
should within one hour be enrolled in the black book of 
damnation. 

Secondly, As these not-peremptory decrees are mutable, 
so they make the peremptory decrees of God to be tempo- 
ral. Final impenitency, say they, is the only cause, and the 
finally unrepenting sinner, is the only object of reprobation, 
peremptory and irrevocable. As the poet thought none hap- 
py/ so they think no man to be elected, or a reprobate, be- 
fore his death : now that denomination he doth receive from 
the decree of God concerning his eternal estate, which must 
necessarily then be first enacted ; the relation that is be- 
tween the act of reprobation, and the person reprobated, im- 
porteth a co-existence of denomination. When God repro- 
bates a man, he then becomes a reprobate ; which, if it be 
not before he hath actually fulfilled the measure of his ini- 
quity, and sealed it up with the talent of final impenitency 

1 Decreta hypothetica possunt mutari, quia conditio respectuhoniinis vel prasta- 
tur vel non preestatur, atque ita existit vel iion existit : et quiim extitit aliquandiu, 
saepe existere desiiiit, et rursus postquara aliquandiu desiit, existere incipit. Corv. ad 
Mol. cap. 5. sec. 10. "^ Dicique beatus ante obitum nemo. 



62 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

in his death, the decree of God must needs be temporal, 
the just Judge of all the world having till then suspended 
his determination, expecting the last resolution of this 
changeable Proteus. Nay, that God's decrees concerning 
men's eternal estates are in their judgment temporal, and 
not beginning until their death, is plain from the whole 
course of their doctrine, especially where they strive to prove, 
that if there were any such determination, God could not 
threaten punishments or promise rewards. * Who,'^ say they, 
'can threaten punishment to him, whom, by a peremptory 
decree, he will have to be free from punishment :' it seems he 
cannot have determined to save any whom he threatens to 
punish if they sin, which is evident he doth all so long as 
they live in this world, which makes God not only mutable, 
but quite deprives him of his foreknowledge, and makes 
the form of his decree run thus : If man will believe, I deter- 
mine he shall be saved, if he will not, I determine he shall 
be damned ; that is, I must leave him in the mean time to do 
what he will, so I may meet with him in the end. 

Thirdly, They afl&rm no decree of Almighty God concern- 
ing men is so unalterable,* but that all those who are now in 
rest or misery, might have had contrary lots : that those 
which are damned, as Pharaoh, Judas, &c. might have been 
saved, and those which are saved, as the blessed Virgin, 
Peter, John, might have been damned, which must needs 
reflect with a strong charge of mutability on Almighty God, 
who knoweth who are his. Divers other instances in this 
nature I could produce, whereby it would be farther evident, 
that these innovators in Christian religion, do overthrow the 
eternity and unchangeableness of God's decrees, but these 
are sufficient to any discerning man : and I will add in the 
close, an antidote against this poison, briefly shewing what 
the Scripture and right reason teach us concerning these se- 
crets of the Most High. 

First, 'Known unto God,' saith St. James, 'are all his works 
from the beginning;' Acts xv. 18. whence, it hath hitherto 
been concluded, that whatever God doth in time bring to 
pass, that he decreed from all eternity so to do : all his 

• Quis enim coraminetur poenam ei, quern peremptoiio decreto a pcena immunen 
esse vult? Rem. Apol. cap. 17. p. 187. 

« Author of God's Love to Mankind, p. 4. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 63 

works were from the beginning known unto him. Consider 
it particularly in the decree of election, that fountain of all 
spiritual blessings ; that a saving sense, and assurance 
thereof, 2 Pet. i. 10. being attained, might effect a spiritual 
rejoicing in the Lord, 1 Cor. xv. 31. such things are every 
where taught, as may raise us to the consideration of it, as 
of an eternal act, irrevocably and immutably established ; 'He 
hath chosen us before the foundation of the world ;' Eph. i. 4. 
his purpose, according to election, before we were born, 
must stand; R,om. ix. 11. for to the irreversible stability of 
this act of his will, he hath set to the seal of his infalli- 
ble knowledge; 2 Tim. ii. 19. His purpose of oar salvation 
by grace, not according to works, was before the world be- 
gan, 2 Tim. i. 9. an eternal purpose, proceeding from such 
a will, as to which none can resist, joined with such a 
knowledge, as to which all things past, present, and to 
come, are open and evident, must needs also be, like the 
laws of the Medes and Persians, permanent and unalterable. 
Secondly, The " decrees of God, being conformable to 
his nature and essence, do require eternity and immutabi- 
lity, as their inseparable properties. God, and he only, 
never was, nor ever can be, what now he is not: passive pos- 
sibility to any thing, which is the fountain of all change, 
can have no place in him who is actus simplex, and purely 
free from all composition, whence St. James affirmeth, that 
' with him there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning;' 
James i. 17. with him, that is in his will and purposes ; and 
himself by his prophet, ' I am the Lord, and I change not, 
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed ;' Mai. iii. 6. 
where he proveththe not changing of his gracious purposes, 
because he is the Lord ; the eternal acts of his will, not 
really differing from his unchangeable essence, must needs 
be immutable. 

Thirdly, Whatsoever God hath determined according to 
the counsel of his wisdom, and good pleasure of his will, to 
be accomplished to the praise of his glory, standeth sure 
and immutable: ' For the strength of Israel will not lie, nor 
repent, for he is not a man that he should repent;' 1 Sam. 
XV. 29. 'He declareth the end from the beginning, and from 
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, 

" Quicquid operatur, operatur ut est. 



G4 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIAMS.M. 

My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;' 
Isa. xlvi. 10. which certain and infallible execution of his 
pleasure, is extended to particular contingent events ; chap, 
xlviii. 17. yea, it is an ordinary thing with the Lord to con- 
firm the certainty of those things that are yet for to come, 
from his own decree : as, * The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, say- 
ing, Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and 
as I have purposed it shall stand, that I will break the As- 
syrian;' &c. Isa. xiv. 24,25. It is certain the Assyrian shall 
be broken, because the Lord hath purposed it ; which were 
a weak kind of reasoning, if his purpose might be altered : 
nay, ' He is of one mind and who can turn him, and what his 
soul desireth, that he doth;' Job xxiii. 13. 'The Lord of 
Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it ;' Isa. xiv. 7. 
So that the purpose of God, and immutability of his coun- 
sel, Heb. vi. 16. have their certainty and firmness from 
eternity, and do not depend on the variable lubricity of 
mortal men, which we must needs grant, unless we intend to 
set up impotency against omnipotency, and arm the clay 
against the potter. 

Fourthly, If God's determination concerning any thing, 
should have a temporal original ; it must needs be, either be- 
cause he then perceived some goodness in it, of which before 
he was ignorant ; or else, because some accident did affix a 
real goodness to some state of things, which it had not from 
him: neither of which, without abominable blasphemy, can 
be affirmed ; seeing he knoweth the end from the beginning, 
all things from everlasting ; being always the same ; the 
fountain of all goodness, of which other things do partici- 
pate in that measure which it pleaseth him to communi- 
cate it unto them: add to this the omnipotency of God, 
there is power and might in his hand, that none is able to 
withstand him, 2Chron. ii, 6. which will not permit that any 
of his purposes be frustrate. In all our intentions, if the de- 
fect be not in the error of our understandings, which maybe 
rectified by better information ; when we cannot do that 
which we would, we will do that which we can, the altera- 
tion of our purpose is for want of power to fulfil it; which 
impotency cannot be ascribed to Almighty God, who is in 
heaven, and hath done whatsoever he pleased; Psal. ex v. 3. 
so that the immutability of God's nature, his almighty 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



65 



power, the infallibility of his knowledge, his immunity from 
error in all his counsels, do shew, that he never faileth in 
accomplishing any thing, that he proposeth for the mani- 
festation of his glory. 

To close up this whole discourse, wherein I have not dis- 
covered half the poison contained in the Arminian doctrine, 
concerning God's decrees, I will, in brief, present to your 
view, the opposition that is in this matter, betwixt the word 
of God, and the patrons of free-will. 



S. S. 

'He hath chosen us in 
him before the foundation of 
the world ;' Eph. i. 4. 

' He hath called us accord- 
ing to his own purpose and 
grace, before the world be- 
gan;' 2 Tim. i. 9. 

* Known unto God are all 
his works, from the beginning 
of the world;' Acts xv. 18. 

* Declaring the end from 
the beginning, and from an- 
cient times, the things that 
are not yet done, saying. My 
counsel shall stand, and I will 
do all my pleasure ;' Isa. 
xlvi. 10. 

' For the children being 
not yet born, neither having 
done either good or evil, that 
the purpose of God according 
to election, might stand ;' as 
Rom. ix. 11. 

' The foundation of God 
standeth sure, having this 
seal, the Lord knoweth who 
are his ;' 2 Tim. ii. 19. 

' The counsel of the Lord 

VOL. V. 



Lib. Arbit. 

' It is false to say, that 
election is confirmed from 
everlasting;' Rem. Apol. 

' It is certain that God de- 
termineth divers things which 
he would not, did not some 
act of man's will go before;' 
Armin. 

' Some decrees of God 
precede all acts of the will of 
the creature, and some fol- 
low ;' Corv. 

' Men may make their elec- 
tion void and frustrate ;' Rem. 
Apol. 



* It is no wonder, if men, do 
sometimes of elect, become 
reprobate, and of reprobate, 
elect ;' Welsin. 



' Election is uncertain and 
revocable, and whoever denies 
it, overthrows the gospel ;' 
Grevin. 

' Many decrees of God, 



66 



A DISPLAY OF A RMINI ANISM. 



s. s. 

standeth for ever, and the 
thoughts of his heart to all 
generations ;' Psal. xxxiii. 12. 
' My counsel shall stand, 
and I will do all my pleasure ;' 
Isa. xlvi. 10. 



' I am the Lord, and I 
change not;' Mai. iii. 6. 



'With the Fatherof lights 
there is no variableness, nor 
shadow of turning ;' James i. 
17. Exod. iii. 13, 14. Psal. cii. 
27. 2 Tim. ii. 13. 1 Sam. xv. 
29. Isa. xiv. 7. Job xxiii. 13. 
Psal. cxv. 3. 



Lib. Arbit. 
cease at a certain time / 
Episcop. 

' God would have all men 
to be saved, but compelled 
with the stubborn malice of 
some, he changeth his pur- 
pose, and will have them to 
perish ;' Armin. 

' As men may change 
themselves from believers to 
unbelievers, so God's deter- 
mination concerning them, 
changeth ;' Rem. 

' All God's decrees are not 
peremptory, but some condi- 
tionate and changeable ;' Ser- 
mon at Oxford. 



CHAP. in. 

Of the prescience or foreknowledge of God, and hoiv it is questioned and 
overthrown by the Arminians. 

The prescience or foreknowledge of God, hath not hitherto, 
in express terms, been denied by the Arminians, but only 
questioned and overthrown, by consequence : inasmuch as 
they deny the certainty and unchangeableness of his decrees, 
on which it is founded : it is not a foreknowledge of all, or 
any thing, which they oppose, but only of things free and 
contingent : and that only to comply with their formerly ex- 
ploded error, that the purposes of God concerning such 
things, are temporal and mutable ; which obstacle being once 
removed, the way is open how to ascribe the presidentship of 
all human actions to omnipotent contingency, and her sire 



A DISPLAY OF AllMINIANISM. 67 

free-will. Now, we call that contingent, which in regard of 
its next and immediate cause, before it come to pass, may be 
done, or may be not done : as that a man shall do such a thing 
to-morrow, or any time hereafter ; which he may choose whe- 
ther ever he will do, or no. Such things as these are free and 
changeable, in respect of men their immediate and second 
causes, but if we, as we ought to do,^ look up unto him who 
foreseeth, and hath ordained the event of them, or their omis- 
sion, they may be said necessarily to come to pass, or to be 
omitted : it could not be but as it was : Christians hitherto, 
yea and Heathens,'' in all things of this nature, have usually 
upon their event, reflected on God, as one whose determina- 
tion was passed on them from eternity, and who knew them 
long before : as the killing of men by the fall of a house, who 
might, in respect of the freedom of their own wills, have not 
been there : or if a man fall into the hands of thieves, we 
presently conclude it was the will of God : it must be so, he 
knew it before. 

Divines, for distinction sake,*^ ascribe unto God a twofold 
knowledge ; one, intuitive, or intellective, whereby he fore- 
knoweth and seeth all things that are possible : that is, all 
things that can be done by his almighty power ; without any 
respect to their future existence, whether they shall come to 
pass or no : yea, infinite things whose actual being eternity 
shall never behold, are thus open and naked unto him ; for 
was there not strength and power in his hand to have created 
another world? was there not counsel in the storehouse of his 
wisdom to have created this otherwise, or not to have created 
it at all? shall we say that his providence extends itself 
every way to the utmost of its activity? or can he not pro- 
duce innumerable things in the world, which now he doth 
not ; now all these, and every thing else that is feasible to 
his infinite power he foresees and knows, scientia, as they 
speak, simplicis inteUigenticc, by his essential knowledge. 

Out *^of this large and boundless territory of things possi- 

* James iv. 13 — 15. '' Sio? J'tTEXiiero Bou^n. Horn. God's will was done. 

<= Quaecunque possunt per creaturam fieri, vel cogitari, vel dici, et etiara quajcunque 
ipse facere potest, omnia cognoscit Deus, etiamsi ncque sunt ncque erunt, nequefu- 
erunt, scientia simplicis intelligentiae. Aquin. p. q. 14. a. 9. c. Ex verbis Apostoli, 
Rom. 4. qui vocat ea quae non sunt tanquam ea quae sunt: sic scholasfici omnes. 
Fer. Scholast. orthod. speci. cap. 3. alii passim. Vid. Hieron. Zancli. de scientia Dei, 
lib. datrib. 3. cap. 2. q. 5. 

<* Vid. Sam. Rhastorfort. exercit. de grat. ex. 1. cap. 4, 

F 2 



68 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

ble, God by his decrees freely determinetli what shall come 
to pass ; and makes them future, which before were but pos- 
sible. After this decree, as they commonly speak, followeth, 
or together with it, as others more exactly/ taketh place, 
that prescience of God which they call visionis ' of vision,'^ 
whereby he infallibly seeth all things in their proper causes ; 
and how and when they shall come to pass ; now these two 
sorts of knowledge difFer,e inasmuch as by the one, God 
knoweth what it is possible may come to pass ; by the other, 
only what it is impossible should not come to pass : things 
are possible in regard of God's power, future in regard of his 
decree. So that (if I may so say), the measure of the first 
kind of science, is God's omnipotency what he can do ; of the 
other his purpose, what certainly he will do, or permit to be 
done. With this prescience then, God foreseeth all, and 
nothing but what he hath decreed shall come to pass. 

For every thing to be produced next and under him,'' God 
hath prepared divers and several kinds of causes ; diversly 
operative in producing their effects ;^ some whereof are said 
to work necessarily ; the institution of their nature being to 
do as they do, and not otherwise ; so the sun giveth light, 
and the fire heat. And yet in some regard, their effects and 
products, may be said to be contingent and free ; inasmuch 
as the concurrence of God, the first cause, is required to their 
operation, who doth all things most freely, according to the 
counsel of his will : thus the sun stood still in the time of 
Joshua; and the fire burned not the three children ; but or- 
dinarily such agents working necessitate naturcc, their effects 
are said to be necessary, 

•= Resipsce nullo iiaturce niomentopossibilesesse dicendae suntpriusquamaDeoin- 
telliguntur, scientia qua; dicitur simplicis intelligentiee, ita etiam scientia quae dicitur 
visionis, et fertur in res futuras, nullo naturaj momento, posterior statuenda videtur, 
ista futuritione, rerum ; cum scientia, &c. D. Twiss. ad errat. vind. grat. 

f Scientia visionis dicitur, quia ea quae videntur, apud nos habent esse distinctum 
extra videntem. Aq. p. q. 14. a. 9. c. 

s In eo diftert pra3scientia intuitionis, ab ea, quae approbationis est, quod ilia praesci- 
at, quod evenire possibile est : hoc vero quod impossibile est non evenire. Ferrius. 
Orthod. Scholast. speci. cap. 23. Caeterum posterior ista scientia non proprie dicitur a 
Ferrio scientia approbationis, ilia enim est, qua Deus dicitur nosse quae amat et ap- 
probat: ab utraque altera distincta. Matt. vii. 23. Rom. xi, 2. 2 Tim. ii. 9. Quamvis 
infinitorum nuraerorum, nullus sit numerus, non f amen est incomprehensibilis ei, cujus 
scientiffi non est numerus : Aug. de civit. Dei. lib. 12. cap. 18. 

i>Quibusdam eiFectibus prajparavit causas necessarias, ut necessario eveniret.qui- 
busdaui vero causas coutingentes ut evenirent contingenter, secundum conditionem 
proximarum causarum. Aquin. p.q. 23. a. 4. in cor. Zanch. de natur. Dei. lib. 5. qu. 
4. thes. 

' The author has omitted the numeral, first, in this place. Editor. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 69 

Secondly, To some things God hath fitted free and contin- 
gent causes, which either apply themselves to operation in 
particular, according to election ; choosing to do this thing, 
rather than that: as ang-els and men, in their free and deli- 
berate actions, which they so perform as that they could 
have not done them : or else they produce effects Kara to 
CTv/i/Bf/SrjKoc, merely by accident ; and the operation of such 
things we say to be casual ; as if a hatchet falling out of the 
hand of a man, cutting down a tree, should kill another whom 
he never saw. Now nothing in either of these ways come to 
pass, but God hath determined it both for matter and the 
manner ;' even so, as is agreeable to their causes ; some ne- 
cessarily, some freely, some casually, or contingently, yet 
also as having a certain futurition from his decree ; he infalli- 
bly foreseeth that they shall so come to pass. But yet, that 
he doth so in respect of things free and contingent, is much 
questioned by the Arminians in express terms, and denied 
by consequence, notwithstanding St. Jerome affirmeth,'' that 
so to do, is destructive to the very essence of the Deity. 

First, Their doctrine of the mutability of God's decrees, 
on whose firmness is founded the infallibility of this pre- 
science, doth quite overthrow it ; God thus foreknowing 
only what he hath so decreed shall come to pass ; if that be no 
firmer settled, but that it may and is often altered according 
to the divers inclinations of men's wills, which I shewed be- 
fore they afiirm, he can have at best but a conjectural fore- 
knowledge, of what is yet for to come : not founded on his 
own unchangeable purpose ; but upon a guess, at the free 
inclination of men's wills. For instance,^ God willeth that 
all men should be saved : this act of his will, according to 
the Arminian doctrine, is his conditionate decree to save all 
men if they will believe ; well, among these is Judas,"" as 
equal a sharer in the benefit of this decree as Peter. God 
then will have him to be saved, and to this end allows him 
all those means which are necessary to beget faith in him, 
and are every way sufiicient to that purpose, and do produce 

i Res et modos reram. Aquin. 

I* Cui prasscientiam tollis, aufers divinitatem. Hieron. ad Pelag. lib. 5. 

' Deus ita omnium salutem ex aequo vult, ut iliam es squo optet et desideret. 
Cor. ad Moli. cap. 3l. sect. 1. 

m Talis gratia omnibus datur quee sufficiat ad fidem generandam. idem : ibid, 
sect. 15. 



70 A DISPLAY OF AllMINI ANISM. 

that effect in others ; what can God foresee then but that Ju- 
das as well as Peter will believe ? He intendeth he should, he 
hath determined nothing to the contrary : let him come then, 
and act his own part, why? He proves so obstinately mali- 
cious," that God with all his omnipotency, as they speak, by 
any way that becomes him, which must not be by any irre- 
sistible efficacy, cannot change his obdurate heart. Well then, 
he determineth, according to the exigence of his justice, that 
he shall be damned for his impenitency ; and foreseeth that 
accordingly : but now, suppose this wretch, even at his last 
moment, should bethink himself and return to the Lord, 
which in their conceit he may, notwithstanding his former 
reprobation (which, ° as they state it, seems a great act of 
mercy) ;P God must keep to the rules of his justice, and 
elect or determine to save him : by which the varlet hath 
twice or thrice deceived his expectation. 

Secondly,'' They affirm, that God is said properly to ex- 
pect and desire divers things which yet never come to pass; 
we grant, saith Corvinus, * that there are desires in God, that 
never are fulfilled.' Now, surely to desire what one is sure 
will never come to pass, is not an act regulated by wisdom 
or counsel : and, therefore, they must grant that before he 
did not know but perhaps so it might be : God wisheth and 
desireth some good things, which yet come not to pass, say 
they, in their confession : whence one of these two things 
must needs follow ; either first, that there is a great deal of 
imperfection in his nature to desire and expect what he 
knows shall never come to pass ; or else he did not know but 
it might, which overthrows his prescience : yea, and say 
they expressly,® ' that the hope and expectation of God is 
deceived by man :' and confess, ' that the strength of their 
strongest argument lies in this, that God hoped and expected 
obedience from Israel.' Secondly, that he complaineth that 

" Pertinaci tiuorundam malilia conipulsus. Ariniii. ubi sup. 

" Reprobalii) populi Judaici fuit actio femporariaet quae bono ipsorum Judeeoruin 
si modo sanabiles adhuc essent, animumque advertere vellent, servire poterat, utque 
eo fiiii serviret a Deo facta erat. Rem. apol. cap. '20. p. 221. 

P Injustuiu est apud Deum vel non credentern eligeie, vel credenlem non eligere. 
Rein. Apol. 

q ConcedirausinDeo desideria, quje nunquam implentur. Corvin. ad Molin. cap. 
5. sect. 2. 

"■ Bona qua^ilam Dens optet et desiderat. Rem. Confes. ca. sect. 9. 

* Dei spes et expectio est ab honiinibus elusa : Rem. Scrip, svn. in cap. 5. Isa. 
V. 1. In eo visargumenti est, (juod Deus ab Israele obedientiam et sperarit, et expec- 
taiit. idem. ibid. Quod Deus de elusa spe sua conqueratur. idem ubi supra. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 71 

his hope is deluded ; which being taken properly, and as 
they urge it, cannot consist with his eternal prescience. 
For they disesteem the usual answer of divines, that hope, 
expectation, and such like passions, which include in them 
any imperfection, are ascribed unto God per avOpwironaOsiav, 
in regard of that analogy, his actions hold with such of ours 
as we perform, having those passions. 

Thirdly,* They teach, that God hath determined nothing 
concerning such things, as these in question. 'That God 
hath determined future contingent things unto either part (I 
mean such as issue from the free-will of the creature), 1 
abominate, hate, and curse as false, absurd, and leading us 
on unto blasphemy,' saith Arminius. To determine of them 
to either part, is to determine and ordain whether they shall 
be, or whether they shall not be ; as that David shall, or 
shall not, go up to-morrow against the Philistines and pre- 
vail. Now the infallibility of God's foreknowing of such 
things depending on the certainty of his decree, and deter- 
mination, if there be no such thing as this, that also must 
needs fall to the ground. 

Fourthly," See what positively they write concerning this 
everlasting foreknowledge of God. First, they call it a trou- 
blesome question. Secondly, they make it a thing disputa- 
ble, whether there be any such thing or no ; and though haply 
it may be ascribed unto God; yet. Thirdly, they think it 
no motive to the worship of him. Fourthly, they say, better 
it were quite exploded, because the difficulties that attend it 
can scarcely be reconciled with man's liberty, God's threat- 
ening and promises; yea. Fifthly, it seems rather to be in- 
vented, to crucify poor mortals than to be of any moment in 
religion ; so Episcopius. It may be excepted, that this is but 
one doctor's opinion : it is true they are one man's words, but 

* Deum futura contingentia, dccreto suo determinasse ad alter utram partem 
(intelligequffi a libera creaturaevoluiUate patrantur), falsum, absurdum, et multiplicis 
blasphemijE praevium abominor et exsecror. Armin. declarat. senten. 

" Disquiri perniittimus. 1. Operosani illara qucestionem, de scientia futurorum con- 
tingentium absoluta et conditionata. 2. Etsi nou negemusDeo illam scientiarn attri- 
bui posse. 3. Tanien an necessarium saluti sit ad hoc ut Deus recte colatur exarai- 
nari pcrmittimus. 4. Tiini merito facesscre debent a scholis et ecciesiis, intricate 
et spinosBB istae qusstiones qua? de ea agitari soleiit, — quoraodo ilia cum libertate ar- 
bitrii, cum seriis Dei comminationibus,- — aliisque actionibus, consistere possit: quae 
omnia crucem potius miseris mortalibus fixerunt, quam ad religionem cnlturaque divi- 
num, raoraenti aliquid inquisitoribus suis altulerunt. Episcopius, disput, 4. sect. 10. 
Rem. Apol. pp. 43, 44. 



72 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANTSM. 

the thing itself is countenanced by the whole sect. As first, 
in the large prolix declaration of their opinions they speak 
not one word of it, and being taxed for this omission by the 
professors of Leyden, they vindicate themselves so coldly in 
their apology, that some learned men do from hence con- 
clude/*' that certainly in their most secret judgments, all the 
Arminians do consent with Socinus, in ascribing unto God 
only a conjectural foreknowledge. And one great prophet 
of their own affirms roundly,^ 'that God after his manner of- 
tentimes feareth, that is, suspecteth, and that not without 
cause, and prudently conjectureth, that this or that evil may 
arise;' Vorst. And their chiefest patriarchs, ^ * that God 
doth often intend what he doth not foresee will come to pass ;' 
Armin. Corvin. Now whether this kind of atheism be tole- 
rable among Christians or no, let all men judge who have 
their senses exercised in the word of God; which, I am sure, 
teaches us another lesson. For, 

First, It is laid down as a firm foundation, that * known 
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world ;' 
Acts XV. 18. Every thing then, that in any respect may be 
called his work, is known unto him from all eternity ; now, 
what in the world, if we may speak as he hath taught us, 
can be exempted from this denomination ? Even actions in 
themselves sinful, are not; though not as sinful yet in some 
other regard, as punishments of others. * Behold,' saith Na- 
than to David, in the name of God, * I will take thy wives 
before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he 
shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun ; for thou 
didst it secretly, but 1 will do this thing before all Israel ;' 
2 Sam. xii. 11, 12. So also when wicked robbers had ne- 
fariously spoiled Job of all his substance, the holy man con- 
cludeth, 'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away;' 
Job i. 1. Now if the working of God's providence be so 
mighty, and effectual, even in and over those actions where- 
in the devil and men do most maliciously offend, as did Ab- 
salom and the Sabean with the Chaldean thieves, that it may 
be said to be his work, and he may be said to do it (I crave 

" Aines. Antisynod,p. 10. 

^ Dens suo modo aliquando metuit, lioc est, merito suspicatur et prudenter conjicit, 
lioc vel illud malum oriturura. Vorsti.de Deo. p. 4.51. 

y Deus non semper ex praescientia finem intendit. Armiiii, Antip. p. 667, Corvin. 
ad. Mol. tap. 5. sect. 5. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 73 

liberfcy to use the Scripture phrase), then certainly nothing 
in the world, in some respect or other, is independent of his 
all-disposing hand; yea, Judas himself betraying our Sa- 
viour did nothing, * but what his hand and counsel before 
determined should be done,"' Acts iv. 28. in respect of the 
event of the thing itself: and if these actions, notwithstand- 
ing these two hinderances, first, that they were contin- 
gent, wrought by free agents, working according to election 
and choice ; secondly, that they were sinful and wicked in 
the agents ; had yet their dependance on his purpose and de- 
terminate counsel ; surely, he hath an interest of operation 
in the acts of every creature ; but his works, as it appears be- 
fore, are all known unto him from the beginning, for he 
worketh nothing by chance, or accidentally, but all things 
determinately, according to his own decree, or the counsel 
of his own will ; Eph. i. 11. 

Secondly, The manner of God's knowing of things, doth 
evidently shew, that nothing that is, or may be, can be hid 
from him :^ which is not by discourse and collection of one 
thing out of another, conclusions out of principles, but alto- 
gether and at once evidently, clearly, and distinctly, both in 
respect tov oti, and tov Stort, by one most pure act of his own 
essence he discerneth all things : ' For there is no creature 
that is not manifest in his sight, but all are naked and opened 
unto his eyes ;' Heb. iv. 13. So that those things concerning 
which we treat,'' he knoweth three ways. First, In himself 
and his own decree, as the first cause, in which respect they 
may be said to be necessary, in respect of the certainty of 
their event. Secondly, In their immediate causes, wherein 
their contingency doth properly consist. Thirdly, In their 
own nature as future, "= but to his infinite knowledge ever 
present. 

Thirdly, The Scripture** is full of expressions to this pur- 

^ Cum et pater tradiderit filium suura, et ipse Christus corpus sunra : et Judas do- 
minum suum : cur in hac traditione Deus est pius, et homo reus, nisi quia in re una 
quam fecerunt, causa non fuit una propter quara fecerunt. Aug. Epist. 48. 

* Deus non particulatim, vel singillatim omnia videt, velut alternanter concepta, 
hinc illuc, inde hue, sed onmia videt simul. August, lib. 1.5. de Trinit. cap. 14. — In 
scientia divina nuUus est discursus, sed omnia perfecte intelligit. Tho. p. q. 14. 
a. 7. c. 

I" Tilen. Syntag. de attrib. Dei. Thes. 22. Zanch. de nat. Dei. 

*^ Unumquodque quod est, dum est, necesse est, ut sit. 

•J Psal. xllv. 21. Job xiv. 11. Dan. ii. 47. Psai. vii. 2. cxxvi. 2. cxlvii. 4. Luke 
xii. 27. Matt. x. 29, 30. Psal, cxxxix. 2. 



74 A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 

pose ; to wit, ' That God knoweth all secrets, and revealeth 
hidden things : he searcheth the reins and the heart : he 
knoweth the number of the stars, and the birds of the air ; 
the lilies of the field, the falling of sparrows, the number of 
the hairs of our heads :' some places are most remarkable, 
as that of the Psalmist, * He knoweth my thoughts long be- 
fore :' even before ever they come into our minds, before 
their first rising ; and yet many actions that are most con- 
tingent, depend upon those thoughts known unto God from 
eternity : nay, which breaketh the very neck of the goddess 
contingency, those things wherein her greatest power is 
imagined to consist, are directly ascribed unto God : as 
our words, 'the answer of the tongue;' Prov. xvi. l.the di- 
recting of an arrow, shot by chance, to a mark not aimed 
at; 1 Kings xxii. 34. Surely God must needs foreknow the 
event of that contingent action ; he must needs know the 
man would so shoot who had determined his arrow should 
be the death of a king. ' He makes men poor and rich ;' 
Prov. xxii. 1 . ' He lifteth up one, and pulleth down another ;' 
Psal. Ixxv. How many contingencies did 'yop7ov o/Ujua tov 
dicTiTOTov, his piercing eye run through, to foresee the crown- 
ing of Esther, for the deliverance of his people. In a word, 
* known unto God are all his works :' now what can possibly 
be imagined to be more contingent, than the killing of 
a man by the fall of an axe, from out of his hand who in- 
tended no such thing ; yet this God assuraeth as his own 
work; Exod. xxi. 13. Deut. ix. 4, 5. and so surely was by 
him foreknown. 

Fourthly, Do but consider the prophecies in Scripture ; 
especially those concerning our Saviour, how many free and 
contingent actions did concur for the fulfilling of them ; as 
Isa. vii. 14. ix. 5. liii. Gen. iii. 15, &.c. The like may be 
said of other predictions ; as of the wasting of Jerusalem 
by the Babylonians, which though in regard of God's pre- 
science, it was certainly to come to pass : yet they did it 
most freely, not only following the counsel of their own 
wills ; but also using divination, or chanceable lots for 
their direction; Ezek. xxi. 21.' yet he who made the eye 
seeth all these things ;' Psal. xciv. 9. 

Divers other reasons and testimonies might be produced 
to confirm our doctrine, of God's everlasting prescience ; 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



75 



which, notwithstanding Episcopius' blasphemy, that it serves 
for nought but to cruciate poor mortals ; we believe to be 
a good part of the foundation of all that consolation which 
God is pleased to afford us in this vale of tears ; amidst all 
our afflictions and temptations, under whose pressure, we 
should else faint and despair ; it is no small comfort to be 
assured that we do, nor can, suffer nothing, but what his 
hand and counsel guides unto us : what is open, and naked 
before his eyes, and whose end and issue he knoweth long 
before : which is a strong motive to patience, a sure anchor 
of hope, a firm ground of consolation. Now to present in 
one view, how opposite the opinions of the worshippers of 
the great goddess contingency, are to this sacred truth, take 
this short antithesis. 



S. S. 
' Known unto God are all 
his works from the beginning 
of the world;' Actsxv. 18. 

* Neither is there any crea- 
ture that is not manifest in 
his sight : but all things are 
naked, and opened unto the 
eyes of him, with whom we 
have to do ;' Heb. iv. 13. 

'He that formed the eye 
shall henotsee ;' Psal. xciv. 9. 
' When a man goeth into the 
wood with his neighbour to 
hew wood, and his hand 
fetcheth a stroke with the axe 
to cut down the tree, and the 
head slippeth from the helve, 
and lighteth upon his neigh- 
bour that he die ;' Deut. xix. 
5. ' God delivers him into his 
hand ;' Exod. xxi. 13. 

* Take no thought, saying. 
What shall we eat, or what 
shall we drink, or wherewithal 



Lib. Arbit. 

' God sometimes feareth 
and prudently conjectureth, 
that this or that evil may 
arise ;' Vorsti. 

' God d oth not always fore- 
see the event of what he in- 
tendeth ;' Corvin. ad Mol. 



* Future contingencies are 
not determined unto either 
part;' Armin.thatis, God hath 
not determined, and so con- 
sequently doth not foreknow^ 
whether they shall come to 
pass or no. 



' God hopeth and expect- 
eth divers things that shall 
never come to pass ;' Rem. 



76 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

S. S. Lib. Arbit. 

shall we be clothed, for your 
heavenly Father knoweth that 
you have need of all these 
things;' Matt. vi. 31,32. 

'Take away God's pre- 'The doctrine of prescience 
science and you overthrow seems to be invented only to 
his Deity ;' Jerom. vex and cruciate poor mortal 

men;' Episcop. 



CHAP. IV. 

Of the "providence of God in governing the world diversly, thrust from 
this pre-eminence by the Arminian idol of free-will. 

I COME now to treat of that, betwixt which and the Pela- 
gian idol, there is helium acnrovEov, implacable war and im- 
mortal hatred, absolutely destructive to the one side ; to 
wit, the providence of God. For this, in that notion Chris- 
tianity hath hitherto embraced it; and that, in such a sense 
as the Arminians maintain it, can no more consist together, 
than fire and water, light and darkness, Christ and Belial ; 
and he that shall go to conjoin them, ploughs with an ox 
and an ass, they must be tied together with the same liga- 
ment ' quo ille mortua jungebat corpora vivis,' wherewith 
the tyrant tied dead bodies to living men. This strange ad- 
vancement of the clay against the potter, not by the way of 
repining, and to say, Why hast thou made me thus ? but by 
the way of emulation, I will not be so, I will advance myself 
to the sky, to the sides of thy throne, was heretofore un- 
known to the more refined Paganism :^ as these of contin- 
o-ency, so they, with a better error, made a goddess of pro- 
vidence ; because, as they feigned, she helped Latona to 
bring forth in the isle of Delos : intimating, that Latona or 
nature, though big and great with sundry sorts of effects, 
could yet produce nothing, without the interceding help of 
divine providence : which mythology of theirs, seems to con- 
tain a sweeter gust of divine truth, than any we can expect 

» Qila wavTwv a^yy SI ^; aVMra Jtai k(m aal ita/xhil, TlieophrastUS apud PlcuiQ. 
vid. Senecatn de Pro. vid. ct Piolinum. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 77 

from their towering fancieSjb who are inclinable to believe 
that God for no other reason, is said to sustain all things, 
but because he doth not destroy them : now that their proud 
God-opposing errors may the better appear, according to 
my former method, I will plainly shew what the Scripture 
teacheth us concerning this providence, with what is agree- 
able to right and Christian reason, not what is dictated by 
tumultuating affections. 

Providence, is a word which in its proper signification 
may seem to comprehend all the actions of God, that out- 
wardly are of him ; that have any respect unto his creatures ; 
all his works that are not ad intra essentially belonging vmto 
the Deity; now because God worketh all things according 
* to his decree or the counsel of his will;' Eph. i. 11. for 
whatsoever he doth now, it pleased him from the beginning; 
Psal. cxv. seeing also, that known unto God are all his 
works from eternity, therefore, three things concerning his 
providence are considerable. 1. His decree or purpose,'^ 
whereby he hath disposed of all things in order, and ap- 
pointed them for certain ends, which he hath fore-ordained. 
2. His prescience, whereby, he certainly foreknoweth all 
things that shall come to pass. 3. His temporal operation, 
or working in time. My Father worketh hitherto; John v. 17. 
whereby he actually executeth all his good pleasure : the 
first and second of these have been the subject of the former 
chapters, the latter only now requireth our consideration. 

This then we may conceive, as an ineffable act or work 
of Almighty God, whereby he cherisheth, sustaineth, and 
governeth the world, or all things by him created, moving 
them agreeably to those natures, which he endowed them 
withal in the beginning, unto those ends, which he hath 
proposed : to confirm this, I will first prove this position, 
that the whole world is cared for by God, and by him go- 
verned, and therein all men, good or bad, all things in par- 
ticular, be they never so small, and in our eyes inconsidera- 
ble : secondly, shew the manner, how God worketh all, in 

^ An actus divinae providentiae omnium rerum conservatrix, sit affirraativus poten- 
liEB, an tantura negativus voluntatis, quo nolit res creatas perdere. Rem. Apol. cap. 6. 

•= Providentia sen ratio ordinis ad finem duo prrecipue continet: principium de- 
cernens seu ipsam rationem ordinis in raente divina, ipsi Deo coaeternum, et prin- 
cipium exequens, quo sno modo, per debita media, ipsa in ordine et numero dis- 
ponit. Tiiom, 



78 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

all things, and according to the diversity of secondary causes 
which he hath created : whereof, some are necessary, some 
free, others contingent, which produce their effects, nee 
iravToJg nee eirX to ttoXu sed Kara avjuj^ejdrjKog, merely by ac- 
cident. 

The providence of God in governing the world, is plen- 
tifully made known unto us, both by his works and by his 
word. I will give a few instances of either sort. 1. In ge- 
neral, that the Almighty ^rifxiovpyoQ, and framer of this whole 
universe, should propose unto himself no end in the creation 
of all things : that he should -want either power, goodness, 
will, or wisdom, to order and dispose the works of his own 
hands is altogether impossible. 2. Take a particular in- 
stance, in one concerning accident, the knowledge whereof 
by some means or other, in some degree or other, hath spread 
itself throughout the world ; and that is, that almost univer- 
sal destruction of all by the flood, whereby the whole world 
was well-nigh reduced to its primitive confusion, — is there 
nothing but chance to be seen in this ? was there any cir- 
cumstance about it that did not shew a God, and his provi- 
dence ? Not to speak of those revelations whereby God fore- 
told that he would bring such a deluge ; what chance, what 
fortune, could collect such a small number of individuals 
of all sorts, wherein the whole kind might be preserved ? 
What hand guided that poor vessel from the rocks, and gave 
it a resting place on the mountains? Certainly, the very read- 
ing of that story. Gen. vii. having for confirmation, the 
catholic tradition of all mankind, were enough to startle 
the stubborn heart of an atheist. 

The word of God doth not less fully relate it, than his 
works do declare it ; Psal. xix. ' My Father worketh hitherto,' 
saith our Saviour; John v. 17. but did not God end his 
work on the seventh day, and did he not ' then rest from all 
his works?' Gen. ii. 2. True, from his work of creation by 
his omnipotence ; but his work of gubernation by his pro- 
vidence, as yet knows no end : yea, and divers particular 
things he doth, besides the ordinary course, only to make 
known ' that he thus worketh ;' John ix. 3. as he hath framed 
all things by his wisdom, so he continueth them by his pro- 
vidence in excellent order ; as is at large declared in that 
golden Psal. civ. and this is not bounded to any particular 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM, 79 

places or things, but ' his eyes are in every place beholding 
the evil, and the good ;' Prov. xv. 3. * so that none can hide 
himself, in secret places, that he shall not see him ;' Jer. 
xxiii. 24. Acts xvii. 24. John v. 10, 11. Exod. iv. 11. and all 
this, he saith, that men may know ' from the rising of the 
sun, and from the west, that there is none besides him, he 
is the Lord, and there is none else ; he formeth the light, and 
createth darkness, he maketh peace, and createth evil, he 
doth all these things ;' Isa. xlv. 7. in these and innumerable 
like places, doth the Lord declare that there is nothing 
which he hath made, that with the good hand of his provi- 
dence he doth not govern and sustain. 

Now, this general extent of his common providence to 
all, doth no way hinder, but that he may exercise certain 
special acts thereof, towards some in particular : even by 
how much nearer than other things they approach unto him, 
and are more assimilated unto his goodness. I mean his 
church here on earth, and those whereof it doth consist : 
* for what nation is there so o-reat that hath God so nisrh 
unto them ;' Deut. iv. 7. in the government thereof he most 
eminently shewethhis glory, and exerciseth his power; join 
here his works with his word, what he hath done with what 
he hath promised to do for the conservation of his church 
and people, and you will find admirable issues of a more 
special providence .-against this he promiseth * the gates of 
hell shall not prevail;' Matt. xvi. 18. amidst ' of these he 
hath promised to remain;' Matt, xviii. 20. supplying them 
with an addition of all things necessary ; Matt. vi. 33. de- 
siring, ' that all their care might be cast upon him, who 
careth for them ;' 1 Pet. v. 7. forbidding any to touch his 
anointed ones ; Psal. cv. 15. and that because ' they are 
unto him as the apple of his eye ;' Zech. ii. 8. Now this 
special providence hath respect unto a supernatural end, to 
which that and that alone is to be conveyed. 

For wicked men, as they are excepted from this special 
care and government, so they are not exempted from the 
dominion of his almighty hand : he 'who hath created them 
for the day of evil ;' Prov. xvi. 4. and provided a place of 
their own. Acts i. 25. for them to go unto ; doth not in 
this world, suffer them to live without the verge of his all- 
ruling providence, but by suft'ering and enduring their ini- 



80 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

quities ' with great patience, and long-sufFering ;' Rom. 
ix. 20. defending them oftentimes, from the injuries of one 
another ; Gen. iv. 15. by granting unto them many temporal 
blessings ; Matt. v. 45. disposing of all their works to the 
glory of his great name ; Prov. xxi. 1, 2. he declareth, that 
they also live, and move, and have their being in him, and 
are under the government of his providence. Nay, there is 
not the least thing in this world to which his care and 
knowledge doth not descend : ill would it become his wis- 
dom not to sustain, order, and dispose, of all things by him 
created, but leave them to the ruin of uncertain chance. 
Jerome*^ then was injurious to his providence, and cast a ble- 
mish on his absolute perfection, whilst he thought to have 
cleared his majesty, from being defiled with the knowledge 
and care of the smallest reptiles and vermin every moment ; 
and St. Austin is express to the contrary,*^ ' Who,' saith he, 
* hath disposed the several members of the flea and gnat, 
that hath given unto them order, life, and motion?' &c. even 
most agreeable to holy Scriptures; so Psal. civ. 20, 21. 
cxlv. 15. Matt. vi. 26. ' He feedeth the fowls and clotheth 
the grass of the field;' John xxxix. 1, 2. Jonah iv. 6. 7. 
Sure it is not troublesome to God to take notice of all that 
he hath created ; did he use that great power in the produc- 
tion of the least of his creatures, so far beyond the united 
activity of men and angels, for no end at all ? Doubtless, 
even they also must have a well disposed order, for the ma- 
nifestation of his glory, * not a sparrow falls to the ground, 
without our Father ;' Matt. x. 29, 30. * even the hairs of our 
head are numbered, he clotheth the lilies and grass of the 
field which is to be cast into the oven ;' Luke xii. 27, 28. 
Behold his knowledge and care of them ; again he used 
frogs and lice, for the punishment of the Egyptians ; Exod. 
viii. with a gourd and a worm, he exercised his servant Jo- 
nah, chap. iii. yea, he calls the locusts his terrible army, and 
shall not God know and take care of the number of his 
soldiers, the ordering of his dreadful host? 

^ Majestatem Dei dedecet, scire per momenta singula, quot nascantur culices, 
quaj pulicura et muscarum in terra multitudo. Hieron. in cap. 1. Haback. 

" Quis disposuit membra pulicis ac culicis, ut liabeant ordinem suum, habeant 
vitam suam, liabeant motura suum : &c. qui fecit in coelo angelum, ipse fecit in ter- 
ra vermiculum, sed angelum in coelo pro habitatione coelesti, vermiculum in terra 
pro habitatione terrestri, nunquid angelum fecit repere in coeno, aut vermiculum in 
ccelo; &c. August, torn. 8. in Psal. cxlviii. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 81 

That God by his providence governeth and disposeth of 
all things by him created, is sufficiently proved; the man- 
ner how he worketh all in all, how he ordereth the works of 
his own hands, in what this governing and disposing of his 
creatures doth chiefly consist, coraes now to be considered. 
And here four things are principally to be observed : First, 
the sustaining, preserving, and upholding, of all things by 
his power : for * he upholdeth all things by the word of 
his power;' Heb. i. 3. Secondly, his working together with 
all things, by an influence of casuality, into the agents them- 
selves, ' for he also hath wrought all our works in us ;' Isa. 
xxvi. 12. Thirdly, his powerful overruling of all events, 
both necessary, free, and contingent, and disposing of them 
to certain ends for the manifestation of his glory : so Joseph 
tells his brethren, * As for you, you thought evil against me, 
but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is at this 
day, to save much people alive ;' Gen. 1. 20. Fourthly, his 
determining and restraining second causes to such and such 
effects : * even the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord ; 
as the rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he will ;' 
Prov. xxi. 1. 

First, His sustentation or upholding of all things, is his 
powerful continuing of their being, natural strength, and fa- 
culties, bestowed on them at their creation; 'in him we live, 
and move, and have our being;' Acts xvii. So that he doth 
neither work all himself in them, without any co-operation 
of theirs, which would not only turn all things into stocks, 
yea, and take from stocks their own proper nature, but also 
is contrary to that general blessing he spread over the face 
of the whole world in the beginning, ' increase and multiply ;' 
Gen. i. 22. nor yet leave them to a self-subsistence, he in 
the meantime only not destroying them,*^ which would make 
him an idle spectator of most things in the world, not to 
work hitherto, as our Saviour speaks ; and grant to divers 
things here below an absolute being, not derivative from 
him; the first whereof is blasphemous, the latter impossible. 

Secondly, For God's working in and together with all 
second causes, for producing of their effects; what part or 
portion in the work punctually to assign unto him, what 
to the power of the inferior causes, seems beyond the reach 

' Rem. apol. cap. 6. 
VOL. V. G 



82 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

of mortals ; neither is an exact comprehension thereof any- 
way necessary, so that we make every thing beholding to 
his power for its being, and to his assistance for its ope- 
ration. 

Thirdly, His supreme dominion exerciseth itself in dispo- 
sinp' of all thiiiscs to certain and determinate ends for his own 
glory ; and is chiefly discerned advancing itself over those 
things which are most contingent, and making them in some 
sort necessary, inasmuch as they are certainly disposed of to 
some proposed ends. Between the birth and death of a man, 
how many things merely contingent do occur ? How many 
chances ? how many diseases, in their own nature all evitable ? 
and in regard of the event, not one of them but to some prove 
mortal ; yet certain it is, that a man's ' days are determined, 
the number of his months are with the Lord, he hath ap- 
pointed his bounds which he cannot pass ;' Job xiv. 5. And 
oftentimes by things purely contingent and accidental, he 
executethhis purposes, bestoweth rewards, inflicteth punish- 
ments, and accomplisheth his judgments ; as when he deli- 
vereth a man to be slain by the head of an axe, flying from 
the helve in the hand of a man cutting a tree by the way : 
but in nothing is this more evident, than in the ancient cast- 
ing of lots, a thing as casual and accidental as can be ima- 
gined, huddled in the cap at a venture : yet God overruleth 
them to the declaring of his purpose, freeing truth from 
doubts, and manifestation of his power ; Prov. xvi. 33. * The 
lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is from 
the Lord ;' as you may see in the examples of Achan ; Josh, 
vii. 16, 17. Saul, 1 Sam. x. 21. Jonathan, 1 Sam. xiv. 41. 
Jonah, chap. i. 8. Matthias, Actsi. 26. And yet this overruling 
act of God's providence (as no other decree or act of his), 
doth not rob things contingent of their proper nature ; for 
cannot he, vdio effectually causeth that they shall come to 
pass, cause also that they shall come to pass contingently ? 

Fourthly, God's predetermination of second causes (which 
1 name not last as though it were the last act of God's pro- 
vidence about his creatures, for indeed it is the first that con- 
cerneth their operation), is that effectual working of his, ac- 
cording to his eternal purpose, whereby, though some agents, 
E^s the wills of men, are causes most free and indefinite, or 
unlimited lords of their own actions, in respect of their in- 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINl ANISM. 83 

ternal principle of operation, that is their own nature, are yet 
all, in respect of his decree, and by his powerful working, de- 
termined to this or that effect in particular : not that they 
are compelled to do this, or hindered from doing that ; but 
are inclined and disposed to do this or that, according to 
their proper manner of working, that is, most freely ; for truly 
such testimonies are every where obvious in Scripture, of the 
stirring up of men's wills and minds, of bending and inclining 
them to divers things ; of the governing of the secret thoughts 
and motions of the heart ; as cannot by any means be refer- 
red to a naked permission, with a government of external 
actions, or to a general influence, whereby they should have 
power to do this or that, or any thing else, wherein as some 
suppose his whole providence consisteth. 

Let us now jointly apply these several acts to free agents, 
working according to choice, or relation, such as are the wills 
of men ; and that will open the way to take a view of Armi- 
nian heterodoxies, concerning this article of Christian belief ; 
and here two things must be premised : First, That they be 
not deprived of their own radical, or original internal liberty ; 
Secondly, That they be not exempt from the moving influence 
and gubernation of God's providence. The first whereof would 
leave no just room for rewards and punishments ; the other, 
as I said before, is injurious to the majesty and power of God. 
St. Augustine^ judged Cicero worthy of special blame, even 
among the heathens, for so attempting to make men free, that 
he made them sacrilegious ; by denying them to be subject to 
an overruling providence ; which gross error was directly 
maintained by Damascen,'' a learned Christian, teaching, 
things whereof we have any power not to depend on provi- 
dence, but on our own free-will ; an opinion fitter for a hog 
of the epicures' herd, than for a scholar in the school of 
Christ; and yet, this proud prodigious error is now, though 
in other terms, stiffly maintained. For what do they else, 
who ascribe such an absolute independent liberty to the will 
of man, that it should have in its own power every circum- 
stance, every condition whatsoever that belongs to operation; 
so that all things required on the part of God, or otherwise to 

? Qui sic homines voluit esse liberos ut fecit sacrileges. Aug. 
h Ta i^' vfMV oi) rni; Trjovoiaj aXXa rou hfxerspov auri^oviriov. Daniascen. 

G 2 



84 A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 

the performance of an action being accomplished, it remain- 
eth solely in the power of a man's own will, whether he will 
do it or no j which supreme and plainly divine liberty,joined 
with such an absolute uncontrollable power and dominion 
over all his actions, would exempt and free the will of man, 
not only from all fore-determining to the production of such 
and such effects, but also from any effectual working or in- 
fluence of the providence of God into the will itself, that 
should sustain, help, or co-operate with it, in doing or willing 
any thing; and, therefore, the authors of this imaginary li- 
berty, have wisely framed an imaginary concurrence of God's 
providence answerable unto it ; viz. a general and indifferent 
influence, always waiting and expecting the will of man to 
determine itself to this or that effect, good or bad; God being, 
as it were, always ready at hand to do that small part which 
he hath in our actions, whensoever we please to use him ; or, 
if we please to let him alone, he no way moveth us to the 
performance of any thing. Now God forbid that we should 
give our consent to the choice of such a captain, under whose 
conduct we might go down again unto Paganism ; to the 
erecting of such an idol into the throne of the Almighty. No, 
doubtless, let us be more indulgent to our wills, and assign 
them all the liberty that is competent unto a created nature, 
to do all things freely according to election and foregoing 
counsel, being free from all natural necessity, and outward 
compulsion : but for all this, let us not presume to deny God's 
effectual assistance, his particular powerful influence into 
the wills and actions of his creatures, directing of them to a 
voluntary performance of what he hath determined ; which 
the Arminians opposing in the behalf of their darling free- 
will, do work in the hearts of men an overweening of their 
own power, and an absolute independence of the providence 
of God. For, 

First, They deny that God (in whom we live and move and 
have our being), doth any thing by his providence,' whereby 
the creature should be stirred up, or helped in any of his ac- 
tions ; that is, God wholly leaves a man in the hand of his 
own counsel, to the disposal of his own absolute independent 

' Deus influxu sno nihil confert creaturae, quo ad agendum incitetur ac adjuvetur. 
Cor. ad Molin, cap. 3. sect 15. p. 35. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 85 

^ower, without any respect to his providence at all : whence, 
as they do, they may well conclude,*" that those things which 
God would have to be done of us freely (such as are all hu- 
man actions), he cannot himself will or work more powerful 
and effectually, than by the way of wishing or desiring, as 
Vorstius speaks ; which is no more than one man can do con- 
cerning another, perhaps far less than an angel. I can wish 
or desire that another man would do, what I have a mind he 
should ; but truly to describe the providence of God by such 
expressions, seems to me intolerable blasphemy ; but thus it 
must be ; without such helps as these, Dagon cannot keep 
on his head, nor the idol of uncontrollable free-will enjoy his 
dominion. 

Hence Corvinus will grant,' that the killing of a man by 
the slipping of an axe's head from the helve, although con- 
tingent, may be said to happen according to God's counsel 
and determinate will ; but on no terms will he yield that 
this may be applied to actions wherein the counsel and free- 
dom of man's will do take place, as though that they also 
should have dependence on any such overruling power : 
whereby he absolutely excludeth the providence of God from 
having any sovereignty within the territory of human actions ; 
which is plainly to shake off the yoke of his dominion, and 
to make men lords paramount within themselves ; so that 
they may well ascribe unto God, as they do,™ only a de- 
ceivable expectation of those contingent things that are yet 
for to come, there being no act of his own in the producing 
of such effects on which he can ground any certainty ; only 
he may take a conjecture, according to his guess, at men's 
inclinations. And, indeed, this is the Helen for whose enjoy- 
ment, these thrice ten years, they have maintained warfare 
with the hosts of the living God ; their whole endeavour being 
to prove, that notwithstanding the performance of all things 

'' Quae Deus libere prorsus et contingenter, a nobis fieri vult ea potentius aut cffi- 
cacius quam per modura voti aut desiderii, velle non potest. Vorst. parasc. p. 4. 

' Deinde efsi in isto casu deslinatum aliquod consilium ac voluntas Dei determi- 
nata consideranda esset, tamen in omnibus actionibus etin iis quidem quae ex deli- 
berato hominum consilio et libera voluntate et male quidem fiunt, ita se rem habere 
inde concludi non possit, pula, quia hie nullum consilium et arbitrii libertas locum 
habent. Cor. ad Molin. cap. 3. s. 14. p. 33. 

" Respectu contingentiae quam res habent in se, turn in divina scientia Deo eipec- 
tatio tribuitur. Rem. defen. sent, in act. syn. p. 107. 



86 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

on the part of God required for the production of any action," 
yet the will of man remains absolutely free ; yea, in respect 
of the event, as well as its manner of operation, to do it, or 
not to do it : that is, notwithstanding God's decree that such 
an action shall be performed, and his foreknowledge that it 
will so come to pass, notwithstanding his co-operating with 
the will of man (as far as they will allow him), for the doing 
of it, and though he hath determined by that act of man to 
execute some of his own judgments ;° yet there is no kind 
of necessity, but that he may as well omit, as do it : which 
is all one, as if they should say. Our tongues are our own, we 
ought to speak, who is Lord over us? We will vindicate our- 
selves into a liberty of doing what, and how we will, though 
for it we cast God out of his throne ; and indeed, if we mark 
it, we shall find them undermining and pulling down the 
actual providence of God, at the root and several branches 
thereof. For, 

First, For his conservation or sustaining of all things, 
they affirmP it to be very likely that this is nothing but a 
negative act of his will, whereby he willeth or determineth 
not to destroy the things by him created ; and when we pro- 
duce places of Scripture which affirm that it is an act of his 
power, they say, they are foolishly cited. So that truly, let 
the Scripture say what it will (in their conceit), God doth no 
more sustain and uphold all his creatures, than I do a house 
when I do not set it on fire, or a worm when I do not tread 
upon it. 

Secondly, For God's concurring with inferior causes in 
all their acts and working, they affirm it to be only "^ a gene- 
ral influence, alike upon all and every one, which they may 
use or not use at their pleasure ; and in the use determine 

" Potentia voluntatis, ab orani interna et externa necessitate immunis debet ma- 
nere. Rem. confess, cap. 6. sect. 3. — Vid. plura. Rem. apol. cap. 6. p. 69. a. 

Inarbitrio creaturae semper est vcl influere in actum vel influxura suum suspen- 
dere, et vel sic, vel aliter influere. Corvin. ad Molin. cap. 3. sect. 15. 

P An conservatio ista sit vis sive actus potentiae an actus merus voluntatis negati- 
vus, quo vult res creatas non destruere aut annihilare, — posterius non sine magna 
veri specie affirmatur : locus ad Heb. i. 3. inepte adducitur. Rem. apol. cap. 6. sect. 
1. p. 68. a. 

1 Curandum diligentcr, nt Deo quidem universalis, honiini vero particularis in- 
fluxus in actus tribuatur, quo universaiem Dei influxum, ad particularem actum 
deterniinet. Cor. ad Mol. cap. 3. sect. 5. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 87 

it to this or that effect, be it good or bad (so Corvinus), as it 
seems best unto them ; in a word, to the will of man"" it is 
nothing but what suffers it to play its own part freely, accord- 
ing to its inclination, as they jointly speak in their confes- 
sion. Observe also, that they account this influence of his 
providence, not to be into the agent, the will of man, where- 
by that should be helped or enabled to do any thing (no, 
that would seem to grant a self-sufficiency)/ but only into 
the act itself for its production, as if I should help a man to 
lift a log it becomes perhaps unto him so much the lighter, 
but he is not made one jot the stronger, which takes off 
the proper work of providence, consisting in an internal as- 
sistance. 

Thirdly, For God's determining or circumscribing the 
will of man to do this or that in particular, they absolutely 
explode it as a thing destructive to their adored liberty.* It 
is no way consistent with it, say they, in their apology : so 
also Arminius,'' 'The providence of God doth not determine 
the will of man to one part of the contradiction :' that is, 
God hath not determined that you shall, nor doth by any 
means overrule your wills, to do this thing rather than that, 
to do this or to omit that ; so that the sum of their endea- 
vour is to prove that the will of man is so absolutely free, 
independent, and uncontrollable, that God doth not, nay, with 
all his power, cannot, determine it certainly and infallibly to 
the performance of this or that particular action, thereby to 
accomplish his own purposes, to attain his own ends. Truly 
it seems to me the most unfortunate attempt that ever Chris- 
tians lighted on, which if it should get success answerable 
to the greatness of the undertaking, the providence of God, 
in men's esteem, would be almost thrust quite out of the 
world; tanta molis erat: the new goddess contingency could 
not be erected until the God of heaven was utterly despoiled 
of his dominion over the sons of men, and in the room there- 
of a home-bred idol of self-sufficiency set up, and the world 

•■ Itaconcurrit Deus in'agendo.cumhominis voluntate, utistam pro genio suo agere 
et libere suas partes obire final. Rem. confes. cap. 6. sect. 3. 

s Influxus divinus est in ipsurn actum non in voluntatera. Arrain. Antip. alii 
passim. 

' Determinatio cum libertate vera nuUo modo consistere potest. Rem. apol. cap. 
7. fol. 82. 

" Providentia divina non deterrainat voluntatera jiberara ad unam contradictionis 
vel contrarietatis partem. Armin. Artie, perpen. 



88 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

persuaded to worship it. But that the building climb no 
higher, let all men observe how the word of God overthrows 
this Babylonian tower. 

First, then, In innumerable places it is punctual that his 
providence doth not only bear rule in the counsels of men, 
and their most secret resolutions, whence the prophet infer- 
reth that he knoweth that the way of man is not in himself, 
that 'it is not in man that walketh to direct his vv^ays ;' Jer. 
X. 23. And Solomon, * that a man's heart deviseth his way, 
but the Lord directeth his steps;' Prov, xvi. 9. David also 
having laid this ground, ' that the Lord bringeth the coun- 
sel of the heathen to nought, and maketh the devices of the 
people to be of none effect, but his own counsel abideth for 
ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations ;' Psal. 
xxxiii. 10, 11. proceedeth accordingly in his own distress to 
pray, that the Lord would infatuate and make ^'foolish the 
counsel of Ahithophel ;' 2 Sara. xv. 31. which also the Lord 
did by working in the heart of Absalom, to hearken to the 
cross counsel of Hushai. 

But also, secondly. That the working'of his providence is 
effectual even in the hearts and wills of men to turn them which 
way he will, and to determine them to this or that in particular, 
according as he pleaseth. ' The preparations of the heart 
in man, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord,' saith 
Solomon; Prov. xvi. 1. which Jacob trusted and relied on 
when he prayed that ' the Lord would grant his sons to find 
favour and mercy before that man;' Gen. xliii. 14. whom 
then he supposed to be some atheistical Egyptian ; whence 
we must grant, if either the good old man believed that it 
was in the hand of God, to incline and unalterably turn and 
settle the heart of Joseph to favour his brethren, or else his 
prayer must have had such a senseless sense as this : * Grant, 
O Lord, such a general influence of thy providence, that the 
heart of that man may be turned to good towards my sons, 
or else that it may not, being left to its own freedom.' A 
strange request, yet how may it be bettered, by one believ- 
ing the Arminian doctrine, I cannot conceive. Thus Solo- 
mon afiirmeth, that 'the heart of the king is in the hand of the 

* Dominus dissipavit consilium quod dederat Achitophel agendo in corde Abso- 
lon, ut talc consilium repudiaret, ct aliud quod ei non expediebat ellgeret. August, de 
grat. et lib. Arbit. cap. 20. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 89 

Lord, like the rivers of water he turneth it which way he will ;' 
Prov. xxi . 1 . If the heart of a king, who hath an inward na- 
tural liberty equal with others, and an outward liberty be- 
longing to his state and condition above them, be yet so 
in the hand of the Lord, as that he always turneth it to what 
he pleaseth in particular, then certainly other men are not 
excepted from the rule of the same providence ; which is the 
plain sense of these words, and the direct thesis which we 
maintain in opposition to the Arminian idol of absolute in- 
dependent free-will. So Daniel also, reproving the Baby- 
lonian tyrant, affirmeth, ' that he glorified not God in whose 
hand was his breath, and whose were all his ways ;' Dan. v. 
23. not only his breath and life, but also all his ways, his 
actions, thoughts, and words were in the hand of God. 

Yea, secondly, sometimes the saints of God, as 1 touched 
before, do pray that God would be pleased thus to determine 
their hearts, and bend their wills, and wholly incline them 
to some one certain thing, and that without any preju- 
dice to their true and proper liberty: so David, Psal. cxix. 
36. * Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not unto 
covetousness.' This prayer being his may also be ours, and 
we may ask it in faith, relying on the power and promise of 
God in Christ, that he will perform our petitions ; John xiv. 
14. Now I desire any Christian to resolve, whether by 
these and the like requests, he intendeth to desire at the 
hand of God, nothing but such an indifferent motion to any 
good as may leave him to his own choice, whether he will do 
it or no ; which is all the Arminians will grant him : or rather 
that he would powerfully bend his heart and soul unto his 
testimonies, and work in him an actual embracing of all the 
ways of God, not desiring more liberty, but only enough to 
do it willingly ; nay, surely the prayers of God's servants re- 
questing with Solomon, that the Lord would be with them, and 
* incline their heart unto him to keep his statutes, and walk 
in his commandments ;' 1 Kings viii. 5. 7. And with David, 
to ' create in them a clean heart, and renew a right spirit 
within them;' Psal. li. when according to God's promises 
they entreat him * to put his fear into their hearts ;' Jer. 
xxxi. 32. * to unite their hearts to fear his name ;' Psal. 
Ixxxvi. 11. to work in them both the will and the deed, 
an actual obedience unto his law, cannot possibly aim at no- 



90 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

thing but a general influence, enabling them alike either to 
do, or not to do, what they so earnestly long after. 

Thirdly, The certainty of divers promises and threat- 
enings of Almighty God, dependeth upon his powerful de- 
termining and turning the wills and hearts of men which 
way he pleaseth ; thus to them that fear him he promiseth 
that they shall find favour in the sight of man ; Prov. iii. 4. 
Now if, notwithstanding all God's powerful operation in 
their hearts, it remaineth absolutely in the hands of men, 
whether they will favour them that fear him or no ; it is 
wholly in their power whether God shall be true in his pro- 
mises or no. Surely when Jacob wrestled with God on 
the strength of such promise. Gen. xxxii. 12. he little 
thought of any question, whether it were in the power of 
God to perform it; yea, and the event shewed that there 
ought to be no such question. Gen. xxxiii. for the Lord turned 
the heart of his brother Esau, as he doth of others, when 
he 'makes them pity his servants when at anytime they 
have carried away captives ;' PsaL cvi. 46. See also the same 
powerful operation required to the execution of his judg- 
ments ; Job xii. 17. xx. 21, &c. In brief, there is no 
prophecy nor prediction in the whole Scripture, no pro- 
mise to the church or faithful, to whose accomplishment the 
free actions and concurrence of men is required, but evident- 
ly declareth that God disposeth of the hearts of men, ruleth 
their wills, inclineth their affections, and determines them 
freely to choose and do what he in his good pleasure hath 
decreed shall be performed ; such as were the prophecies of 
deliverance from the Babylonish captivity by Cyrus ; Isa. 
xlii. of the conversion of the Gentiles ; of the stability of the 
church; Matt. xvi. of the destruction of Jerusalem by the 
Romans; Matt. xxiv. with innumerable others. I will add only 
some few reasons for the close of this long discourse. 

This opinion, that God hath nothing but a general influ- 
ence into the actions of men, not effectually moving their 
wills, to this or that in particular. 

First, Granteth a goodness of entity, or being, unto divers 
things, whereof God is not the author; as those special ac- 
tions which men perform without his special concurrence ; 
which is blasphemous : the apostle affirms that ' of him are 
all things.' 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



91 



Secondly, It denieth God to be the author of all moral 
goodness ; for an action is good, inasmuch as it is such an 
action in particular -J which that any is so, according to 
this opinion, is to be attributed merely to the will of man : 
the general influence of God moveth him no more to prayer, 
than to evil communications tending to the corruption of 
good manners. 

Thirdly, It maketh all the decrees of God, whose execu- 
tion dependeth on human actions, to be altogether uncer- 
tain, and his foreknowledge of such things to be fallible, and 
easily to be deceived ; so that there is no reconciliation pos- 
sible to be hoped for, betwixt these following and the like 
assertions. 



S. S. 
' In him we live and move 
and have our being;' Acts 
xvii. 28. 

* He upholdeth all things 
by the word of his power;' 
Heb. i. 3. 

* Thou hast wrought all 
our works in us ;' Isa. xxvi. 
12. 

' My Father worketh hi- 
therto ;' John v. 17. 

' The preparations of the 
heart in man, and the answer 
of the tongue is from the 
Lord;' Prov. xvi. 1. 

* The heart of the king is 
in the hand of the Lord, like 
the rivers of water he turneth 
it which way he will ;' Prov. 
xxi. 1. 

' Incline my heart unto 
thy testimonies, and not unto 
covetousness;' Psal.cxix.36. 



Lib. Arbit. 

'God's sustaining of all 
things is not an aiRrmative act 
of his power, but a negative 
act of his will ;' Rem. apol. 
whereby he will not destroy 
them. 

' God by his influence be- 
stoweth nothing on the crea- 
ture whereby it may be incit- 
ed or helped in its actions ;' 
Corvinus. 

' Those things God would 
have us freely do ourselves ; 
he can no more effectually 
work or will than by the way 
of wishing;' Vorstius. 



' The providence of God 
doth not determine the free- 
will of man to this or that 



y Qui aliquid boni a Deo noii effici affirmat, ijie Dcura esse negat : sinanique vel 
tantillunibonia Deo non est : jam non oiiinisboni effector est eoque necDeus. Buccr. 
in cap. 9. ad Roin. 



92 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 



* Unite my heart to fear 
thy name ;'Psal. Ixxxvi. 11. 

* Thou hast not glorified 
God in whose liand is thy 
breath, and whose are all 
thy ways ;' Dan. v. 23. 

See Matt, xxvii. 1. com- 
pared with Acts ii. 23. and 
iv. 27, 28. Luke xxiv. 26. 
John xix. 34. 36. For the ne- 
cessity of other events, see 
Exod. xxi. 17. Job xiv. 5. 
Matt. xix. 7, &c. 



particular, or to one part of 
the contradiction:' Arminius. 



' The will of man ought to 
be free from all kind of inter- 
nal and external necessity in 
its actions;' Rem. that is, God 
cannot lay such a necessity 
upon any thing, as that it shall 
infallibly come to pass as he 
intendeth : see the contrary 
in the places cited. 



CHAP. V. 

Whether the will and purpose of God may be resisted, and he he 
frustrate of his intentions. 

By the former steps, is the altar of Ahaz set on the right 
hand of the altar of God ; the Arminian idol, in a direct op- 
position, exalted to an equal pitch with the power and will 
of the Most High. I shall now present unto you, the Spirit 
of God once more contending with the towering imaginations 
of poor mortals, about a transcendent privilege of greatness, 
glory, and power: for having made his decrees mutable, his 
prescience fallible, and almost quite divested him of his pro- 
vidence ; as the sum and issue of all their endeavours, they 
affirm that his will may be resisted, he may fail of his inten- 
tions, be frustrate of his ends, he may, and doth propose 
such things, as he neither doth nor can at any time accom- 
plish ; and that, because the execution of such acts of his 
will, might haply clash against the freedom of the wills of 
men : whicli, if it be not an expression of spiritual pride, 
above all that ever the devil attempted in heaven, divines do 
not well explicate that sin of his. Now, because there may 
seem some difficulty in this matter, by reason of the several 
acceptations of the will of God, especially in regard of that, 
whereby it is affirmed that his law and precepts are his will, 
which, alas, we all of us too often resist or transgress, I will 



A DISPLAY OF ARM 1 XI ANISM. 93 

unfold one distinction of the will of God, which will leave it 
clear, what it is that the Arrainians oppose, for which we 
count them worthy of so heavy a charge. 

' Divinum velle est ejus esse,' say the schoolmen,* 'The 
will of God is nothing but God willing,' not differing from 
his essence, secundum rem, in the thing itself, but only secun- 
dum rationem, in that it importeth a relation to the thing 
willed. The essence of God then, being a most absolute, pure, 
simple act, or substance, his will consequently can be but 
simply one, whereof we ought to make neither division nor 
distinction: if that, whereby it is signified, were taken al- 
ways properly and strictly for the eternal will of God, the 
differences hereof that are usually given, are rather distinc- 
tions of the signification of the word than of the thing. 

In which regard they are not only tolerable, but simply 
necessary ; because without them it is utterly impossible to 
reconcile some places of Scripture, seemingly repugnant. In 
the 22d chapter of Genesis ver. 2. ' God commandeth Abraham 
to take his only son Isaac, and offer him for a burnt-offering 
in the land of Moriah.' Here the words of God are decla- 
rative of some will of God unto Abraham, who knew it 
ought to be, and little thought but that it should be, perform- 
ed ; but yet, when he actually addressed himself to his duty 
in obedience to the will of God, he receiveth a countermand, 
ver. 12. * that he should not lay his hand upon the child, to 
sacrifice him :' the event plainly manifesteth, that it was the 
will of God that Isaac should not be sacrificed ; and yet, 
notwithstanding by reason of his command, Abraham seems 
before bound to believe, that it was well-pleasing unto God 
that he should accomplish what he was enjoined. If the will 
of God in the Scripture be used but in one acceptation, here 
is a plain contradiction : thus God commands Pharaoh to 
let his people go. Could Pharaoh think otherwise ; nay, w^as 
he not bound to believe, that it was the will of God that he 
should dismiss the Israelites at the first hearing of the mes- 
sage? Yet God affirms that he would harden his heart, that 
he should not suffer them to depart until he had shewed his 
signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. To reconcile these, 
and the like places of Scripture, both the ancient fathers and 
schoolmen, with modern divines, do affirm that the one will 

* Aquin. p. q. 19. ar. ad. 1. 



94 A DISPLAY OF A RMINI ANISM. 

of God may be said to be divers or manifold, in regard 
of the sundry manners whereby he willeth those things to be 
done which he willeth, as also in other respects, and yet, taken 
in its proper signification, is simply one and the same. The 
vulgar distinction of God's secret and revealed will, is such 
as to which all the other may be reduced, and therefore I 
have chosen it to insist upon. 

The secret will of God, in his eternal, unchangeable pur- 
pose, concerning all things which he hath made, to be 
brought by certain means to their appointed ends : of this 
himself affirmeth, 'that his counsel shall stand, and he will 
do all his pleasure ;' Isa. xlvi. 10. This some call the absolute 
efficacious will of God, the will of his good pleasure always 
fulfilled ; and indeed this is the only proper, eternal, con- 
stant, immutable will of God, whose order can neither be 
broken, nor its law transgressed, so long as with him 
there is neither change nor shadow of turning. 

The revealed will of God containeth not his purpose and 
decree, but our duty ; not what he will do according to his 
good pleasure, but what we should do if we will please him; 
and this, consisting in his word, his precepts and promises, 
belongeth to us and our children, that we may do the will 
of God. Now this indeed is rather to ^cXt/toi;, than to S'tXrj^a, 
that which God willeth, than his will ; but termed so, as we 
call that the will of a man which he hath determined shall 
be done : ' This is the will of him that sent me, that every one 
which seeth the Son and believeth on him, may have everlast- 
ing life,' saith our Saviour; John vi. 40. that is, this is that 
which his will hath appointed ; hence it is called voluntas 
sig7ii, or the sign of his will ; metaphorically only called his 
will, saith Aquinas :' for inasmuch as our commands are the 
signs of our wills, the same is said of the precepts of God ; 
this is the rule of our obedience, and whose transgression 
makes an action sinful, for 7j aixapria lanv y] avofxia, ' sin is the 
transgression of a law,' and that such a law as is given to the 
transgressor to be observed. Now God hath not imposed on 
us the observation of his eternal decree and intention, which 
as it is utterly impossible for us to transgress or frustrate, so 
were we unblamable if we should; a master requires of his 
servant, to do what he commands, not to accomplish what 

•> Aquin. q. g. 19. a 11. c. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 95 

he intends, which perhaps he never discovered unto him ; 
nay, the commands of superiors are not always signs that 
the commander will have the things commanded actually 
performed, as in all precepts for trial : but only that they 
who are subjects to this command, shall be obliged to obe- 
dience, as far as the sense of it doth extend, ' et hoc clarum 
est in prseceptis divinis,'saith Durand,'^ &c. 'and this is clear 
in the commands of God,' by which we are obliged to do 
what he commandeth ; and yet it is not always his pleasure 
that the thing itself, in regard of the event, shall be accom- 
plished, as we saw before in the examples of Pharaoh and 
Abraham. 

Now the will of God, in the first acceptation, is said to 
be hid or secret ; not because it is so always, for it is, in some 
particulars, revealed and made known unto us two ways. 

First, By his word, as where God affirmeth that the dead 
shall rise : we doubt not, but that they shall rise, and that 
it is the absolute will of God that they shall do so. Se- 
condly, By the effects, for when any thing cometh to pass, 
we may cast the event on the will of God as its cause, and 
look upon it as a revelation of his purpose. Jacob's sons 
little imagined, that it was the will of God, by them to send 
their brother into Egypt ; yet afterward, Joseph tells them 
plainly, it was not they, but God that sent him thither; Gen. 
xlv. but it is said to be secret for two causes : first. Because 
for the most part it is so, there is nothing in divers issues 
declarative of God's determination but only the event; which, 
while it is future, is hidden to them who have faculties to 
judge of things past and present, but not to discern things 
for to come. Hence, St. James bids us not be too pe- 
remptory in our determinations that we will do this, or that, 
not knowing how God will close with us for its perform- 
ance. Secondly, It is said to be secret, in reference to its 
cause, which for the most part is past our finding out: his 
paths are in the deeps, and his footsteps are not known. 

It appeareth, then, that the secret and revealed will of 
God are divers, in sundry respects, but chiefly in regard of 
their acts, and their objects. First, In regard of their acts, the 
secret will of God is his eternal decree and determination, 
concerning any thing to be done in its appointed time: his 

•= Durand. dist. c. 48. q. 3. 



96 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

revealed will is an act whereby he declareth himself to love 
or approve any thing, whether ever it be done or no. 

Secondly, They are divers in regard of their objects. The 
object of God's purpose and decree, is that which is good in 
any kind, with reference to its actual existence, for it must 
infallibly be performed ; but the object of his revealed will, is 
that only which is morally good (I speak of it inasmuch as 
it approveth or commandeth), agreeing to the law and the 
gospel : and that considered, only inasmuch as it is good ; 
for whether it be ever actually performed or no, is accidental 
to the object of God's revealed will. 

Now of these two differences the first is perpetual, in 
regard of their several acts, but not so the latter. They are 
sometimes coincident in regard of their objects : for in- 
stance, God commandeth us to believe : here his revealed 
will is that we should so do; withal he intendeth we shall 
do so, and therefore ingenerateth faith in our hearts that we 
may believe. Here his secret and revealed will are coin- 
cident, the former being his precept that we should be- 
lieve, the latter his purpose that we shall believe. In this 
case, I say, the object of the one and the other is the same, 
even what we ought to do, and what he will do. 

And this, inasmuch * as he hath wrought all our works 
in us;' Isa. xxvi. 12. they are our own works, which he 
works in us ; his act in us, and by us, is oft-times our duty 
towards him. He commands us by his revealed will to walk 
in his statutes, and keep his laws : upon this he also pro- 
miseth that he will so effect all things, that of some this shall 
be performed ; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. * A new heart also will 
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will 
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give 
you a heart of flesh : and I will put my Spirit within you, 
and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep 
my judgments and do them ;' so that the self-same obedience 
of the people of God is here the object of his will, taken in 
either acceptation; and yet the precept of God is not here, 
as some learned men suppose, declarative of God's intention, 
for then it must be so to all to whom it is given, which evi- 
dently it is not; for many are commanded to believe, on 
whom God never bestoweth faith : it is still to be looked 
upon as a mere declaration of our duty, its closing with 



A DISPLAY OF A RMl N'l AX ISM. 97 

tjod's intention, being accidental unto it. There is a wide 
difference betwixt, do such a thing, and you shall do it : if 
God's command to Judas to believe, imported as much as it 
is my purpose and intention that Judas shall believe, it must 
needs contradict that will of God, whereby he determined 
that Judas for his infidelity should go to his own place : his 
precepts are in all obedience of us to be performed, but do 
not signify his will, that we shall actually fulfil his com- 
mands. Abraham was not bound to believe, that it was 
God's intention that Isaac should be sacrificed, but that it 
was his duty ; there was no obligation on Pharaoh to think 
it was God's purpose the people should depart, at the first 
summons, he had nothing to do with that; but there was 
one, to believe thatif he would please God, he must let them 
go. Hence divers things of good use in these controversies 
may be collected. 

First, That God may command many things by his word, 
which he never decreed that they should actually be per- 
formed ; because, in such things, his words are not a revela- 
tion of his eternal decree and purpose: but only a declara- 
tion of some thing wherewith he is well-pleased, be it by us 
performed or no ; in the forecited case, he commanded 
Pharaoh to let his people go, and plagued him for refusing 
to obey his command ; hence we may not collect, that God 
intended the obedience and conversion of Pharaoh by this 
his precept, but was frustrated of his intention ; for the 
Scripture is evident and clear, that God purposed by his 
disobedience, to accomplish an end far different, even a 
manifestation of his glory by his punishment; but only that 
obedience unto his commands is pleasing unto him; as 
1 Sam. XV. 22. 

Secondly, That the will of God to which our obedience 
is required, is the revealed will of God, contained in his 
word, whose compliance with his decree is such, that hence 
we learn three things tending to the execution of it. First, 
That it is the condition of the word of God, and the dispen- 
sation thereof, instantly to persuade to faith and obedience. 
Secondly, That it is our duty, by all means to aspire to the 
performance of all things by it enjoined, and our fault if we 
do not. Thirdly, That God by these means, will accomplish 
his eternal decree of saving his elect, and that he willeth the 

VOL. V. H 



98 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

salvation of others, inasmuch as he calleth them unto the 
performance of the condition thereof. Now our obedience is 
so to be regulated by this revealed will of God, that we may 
sin, either by omission, against its precepts, or commission, 
against its prohibitions; although by our so omitting, or com- 
mitting, of any thing, the secret will or purpose of God be 
fulfilled. Had Abraham disobeyed God's precept, when he 
was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac ; though God's 
will had been accomplished thereby, who never intended it, 
yet Abraham had grievously sinned against the revealed will 
of. God, the rule of his duty. The holiness of our actions, 
consisteth in a conformity unto his precepts, and not unto 
his purposes; on this ground, Gregory affirmeth,'' 'that many 
fulfil the will of God (that is, his intentions) when they think 
to change it (by transgressinghis precepts) ; and by resisting, 
imprudently obey God's purpose :' and to shew how merely 
we in our actions are tied to this rule of our duty. St. 
Austin' shews how a man may do good in a thing cross to 
God's secret will, and evil in that which com.plieth with it ; 
which he illustrates by the example of a sick parent having 
two children, the one wicked, who desires his father's death, 
the other godly, and he prays for his life ; but the will of 
God is he shall die, agreeably to the desire of the wicked 
child ; and yet it is the other who hath performed his duty, 
and done what is pleasing unto God. 

Thirdly, To return from this not unnecessary digression, 
that which we have now in agitation, is the secret will of 
God, which we have before unfolded, and this it is that we 
charge the Arminians for affirming, that it may be resisted ; 
that is, that God may fail in his purposes, come short of 
what he earnestly intendeth ; or be frustrated of his aim 
and end : as if he should determinately resolve the faith and 
salvation of any man, it is in the power of that man, to 
make void his determination, and not believe, and not be 
saved. Now it is only in cases of this nature, wherein our 
own free-wills have an interest, that they thus limit and cir- 
cumscribe thepower of the Most High: in other things, they 
grant his omnipotence to be of no less extent than others 

^ Multi voluntatem Dei faciunt, cum illatn nituntur vitarc, et resistendo impruden- 
ter obsequiintur divino consilio. Greg. IMoral. lib. 6. cap. 11. 
^ August. Enchirid. ad Lauren, cap. 101. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 99 

do ; but in this case, tiiey are peremptory and resolute, 
without any colouring or tergiversation ; for whereas there is 
a question proposed by the apostle, Rom. ix. 19. ' Who 
hath resisted his will V which that none hath or can, he 
grants in the following verses ; Corvinus affirms/ 'it is only 
an objection of the Jews rejected by the apostle ;' which is 
much like an answer young scholars usually give to some 
difficult place in Aristotle, when they cannot think of abet- 
ter, ' loquitur ex aliorum sententia :' for there is no sign of 
any such rejection of it by the apostle, in the whole follow- 
ing discourse : yea, and it is not the Jews, that St. Paul 
disputeth withal here, but weaker brethren concerning the 
Jews ; which is manifest from the first verse of the next 
chapter, where he distinguisheth between brethren to whom, 
and Israel of whoui, he spake. Secondly, He speaks of the 
Jews in the whole treatise in the third person, but of the 
disputer in the second. Thirdly, It is taken for a confessed 
principle, between St. Paul and the disputer as he calls 
him; that the Jews were rejected, which surely themselves 
would not readily acknov/ledge. So that Corvinus rejects 
as an objection of the Jews, a granted principle of St. Paul, 
and the other Christians of his time. With the like confi- 
dence, the same author affirmeth,^ 'That they nothing doubt 
but that many things are not done which God would have 
to be done :' Vorstius'' goes farther, teaching * that not only 
many things are done, which he would have done, but also 
that many things are done, which he would not have done:* 
he means not our transgressing of his law, but God's failing 
in his purpose; as Corvinus clears it, acknowledging, that 
the execution of God's will, is suspended or hindered by 
man : to whom Episcopius subscribes ;' as for example, 
God purposeth and intendeth the conversion of a sinner ; 
suppose it were Mary Magdalen, can this intention of his 
be crossed and his will resisted ? Yea, say the Arminians ; 
for God converts sinners by his grace ; ' but we can resist 

f Ea sententia non continetapostoli verba, sed JudaKorum objectionem ab apostolo 
rejeclam. Corvin. ad Mol. cap. 3. per. 19. 

s Multa non fieri qufe Deus fieri vult, vel non dubitamus/Corvin. ibid.'cap.5. p. 5. 

'' IMulta fiiint quee Deus fieri non vult : nee semper fiunt quae ipse fieri vult. Vorst. 
de Deo. pag. 64. 

' Ab homine esse agnoscimus, quod voluntatis (divine) exccutio saspe suspenda- 
tur. Corvin. ubi sup. paiag. 12. — Episcop. disput, pri, de vohin. Dei coral, b. 

H 2 



100 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

God when he would convert us by his grace,"' say six of 
them jointly in their meeting at the Hague. ' But some one 
may here object,' say they, ' that thus God faileth of his in- 
tention, doth not attain the end, at which he aims : we an- 
swer. This we grant:' or be it the salvation of men, they say, 
' they are certain that God intendeth that for many,' which 
never obtain it ;' that end he cannot compass. 

And here, methinks, they place God in a most unhappy 
condition, by affirming that they are often damned, whom 
he would have to be saved, though he desires their salva- 
tion with a most vehement desire and natural affection ;"■ such, 
[ think, as crows have to the good of their young ones, for 
that there are in him such desires as are never fulfilled," be- 
cause not regulated by wisdom and justice; they plainly 
affirm. For although by his infinite power, perhaps, he might 
accomplish them, yet it would not become him so to do. 

Now let any good natured man, who hath been a little 
troubled for poor Jupiter in Homer, mourning for the death 
of his son Sarpedon, which he could not prevent ; or hath 
been grieved for the sorrow of a distressed father, not able 
to remove the wickedness and inevitable ruin of an only 
son ; drop one tear for the restrained condition of the God 
of heaven, who, when he would have all and every man in 
the world to come to heaven to escape the torments of hell, 
and that with a serious purpose and intention that it shall 
be so, a vehement affection and fervent natural desire that 
it should be so, yet being not in himself alone able to save 
one, must be forced to loose his desire, lay down his affec- 
tion, change his purpose, and see the greatest part of them 
to perish everlastingly :" yea, notwithstanding that he had 
provided a sufficient means for them all to escape, with a 
purpose and intention that they should so do. 

''iPossumus Deo resisfere, cum nos voll per gratiaiu suam convertere. Rem. coll. 
Hag. p. 193 — Objiciet quis, ergo ilium suuiii fineiii Deus noii est assecutus, respon- 
deiDus, nos hoc concedere. Rem. defens. sent, in Synod, p. 256. 

' Nobis certum est, Deuni niultorum salutera iutendere, in quibus earn non asse- 
quitur, Grevin. ad Ames. p. 'J71. 

™ Veliemens est in Deo aftectus ad horaini benefaciendum. Cor. ad Molin. cap. 
5. sect. is. 

" Esse in Deo desideria qiife non implentur concedimus ; idem. sect. 9. — -Non 
decet ut Deus infinita sua potentia utatur ad id efficiendum, quo desiderio suo na- 
turali fertur Armi. Anliper. p. 584. 

" Deus eo line et intentione remediuiu praeparavit, ut omnes ejus actu fierent par- 
ticipes, quamvis id non actu evenit. Rem. Apol. cap. 7. fol, 86. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 101 

In brief, their whole doctrine in this point is laid down 
by Corvinus, chap. iii. against Moulin, and the third sec- 
tion : where first, he alloweth of the distinction of the will 
of God, into that whereby he will have us do something, and 
that whereby he will do any thing himself: the first is 
nothing but his law and precepts, which we with him affirm 
may be said to be resisted, inasmuch as it is transgressed : 
the latter, he saith, if it respect any act of man's, may be 
considered as preceding that act, or following it : if preced- 
ing it, then it may be resisted, if man will not co-operate. 
Now this is the will of God whereby himself intendeth to 
do any thing : the sum of which distinction is this, the will 
of God concerning the future being of any thing, may be 
considered as it goeth before the actual existence of the 
thing itself, and in this regard it may be hindered or resisted ; 
but as it is considered to follow any act of man, it is always 
fulfilled : by which latter member, striving to mollify the 
harshness of the former, he runs himself into inexplicable 
nonsense, affirming, that, that act of the will of God, where- 
by he intendeth men shall do any thing, cannot be hindered 
after they have done it, that is, God hath irresistibly pur- 
posed they shall do it, provided they do it. In his following 
discourse also, he plainly grants, that there is no act of 
God's will about the salvation of men, that may not be made 
void and of none effect, but only that general decree, where- 
by he hath established an inseparable connexion between 
faith and salvation, or whereby he hath appointed faith in 
Christ, to be the means of attaining blessedness ; which is 
only an immanent act of God's will, producing no outward 
effect : so that every act thereof, that hath an external issue 
by human co-operation, is frustrable and may fall to the 
ground : which in what direct opposition it stands to the 
word of God, let these following instances declare. 

First, 'Our God is in heaven,' saith the Psalmist, 'he 
hath done whatsoever he pleased;' Psal. cxv. 5. not only 
part, but all, whatsoever he pleased, should come to pass by 
any means. ' He ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth 
it to whom he will ;' Dan. iv. 23. The transposition of 
kingdoms, is not without the mixture of divers free and vo- 
luntary actions of men, and yet in that great work, God doth 
all that he pleaseth ; yea, before him^ ' all the inhabitants 



102 A DISPLAY OF ARMI NI ANISM. 

of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doth according 
to his will, in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants 
of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him. 
What dost thou V ver. 35. ' My counsel,' saith he, ' shall 
stand, and I will do all my pleasure;' Isa. xlvi. 10. 'I have 
purposed, I will also do it ;' ver, 11. Nay, so certain is he 
of accomplishing all his purposes, that he confirms it with 
an oath; 'The Lord of hosts hath sworn, Surely as I have 
thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed 
so it shall stand;' Isa. xiv. 24. And indeed it were a very 
strange thing, that God should intend what he foreseeth 
will never come to pass; but I confess this argument will 
not be pressing against the Arminians who question that 
prescience; but yet, would they also would observe from the 
Scripture, that the failings of wicked men's counsels and 
intentions is a thing that ' God is said to deride in heaven ;' 
as Psal. ii. 4. He threatens them with it, ' Take counsel,' 
saith he, 'together, and it shall come to nought;' Isa.viii. 10. 
'speak the word ^ and it shall not stand;' see also chap. 
xxix. 7, 8. and shall they be enabled to recriminate, and cast 
the like aspersion on the God of heaven? No, surely; saith 
St. Austin, P ' Let us take heed we be not compelled to be- 
lieve that Almighty God would have any thing done which 
doth not come to pass:' to which truth also that the school- 
men have universally consented is shewed by Alvarez, disput. 
32. pro. 3. and these few instances will manifest the Armi- 
nian opposition to the word of God in this particular. 

S. S. Lib. Arbit. 

'Our God is in heaven, 'We nothing doubt but 

and hath done whatsoever many things which God will- 
pleaseth him ;' Psal. cxv. 3. eth, or that it pleaseth him to 

have done, do yet never come 

to pass;' Corvin. ' We grant 

that some of God's desires 

'I will do all my pleasure;' are never fulfilled;' Idem. 

Isa. xlvi. 10. 'Who can stay ' It is in the power of man 

hishandor say unto him, what to hinder the execution of 

dost thou?' Dan. iv. 35. God's will;' Idem. 

P Ne credere cogamur aliquid omiiipotcntem Deura voluisse facfumquc non esse. 
August. En. cap. 103. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIA NISM. 103 

S. S. Lib. Arbit. 

'I have purposed, I will ' It is ridiculous to imagine 
also do it;' Isa. xlvi. 11. that God doth not seriously 

will any thing but what tak- 
eth effect;' Episcopius. 
' As I have purposed, so it ' Tt may be objected that 

shall stand;' chap. xiv. 24. God faileth of his end: this 

we readily grant;' Remonstr. 
Synod. 



CHAP. VI. 

How the whole doctrine of predestination is corrupted by the Arminians. 

The cause of all these quarrels, wherewith the Arminians and 
their abettors have troubled the church of Christ, comes 
next unto our consideration. The eternal predestination of 
Almighty God, that fountain of all spiritual blessings, of all 
the effects of God's love derived unto us through Christ, the 
demolishing of this rock of our salvation, hath been the chief 
endeavour of all the patrons of human self-sufficiency; so to 
vindicate unto themselves a power, and independent ability 
of doing good, of making themselves to differ from others, 
of attaining everlasting happiness, without going one step 
from without themselves : and this is their first attempt, to 
attain their second proposed end, of building a tower, from 
the top whereof they may mount into heaven; whose founda- 
tion is nothing but the sand of their own free-will and en- 
deavours : quite on a sudden (what they have done in effect) 
to have taken away this divine predestination, name and 
thing, had been an attempt as noted as notorious, and not 
likely to attain the least success, amongst men professing 
to believe the gospel of Christ ; wherefore, suffering the 
name to remain, they have abolished the thing itself, and 
substituted another so unlike it, in the room thereof, that any 
one may see they have gotten a blear-eyed Leah instead of 
Rachel, and hug a cloud instead of a Deity. The true doc- 
trine itself, hath been so excellently delivered by divers 
learned divines, so freed from all objections, that I shall 



104 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

only briefly and plainly lay it down, and that with special 
reference to the seventeenth article of our church, where it 
is clearly avowed ; shewing withal, which is ray chief inten- 
tion, how it is thwarted, opposed, and overthrown by the 
Arminians. Predestination, in the usual sense it is taken, is 
a part of God's providence, concerning his creatures, distin- 
guished from it by a double restriction. 

First, In respect of their objects ; for whereas the decree 
of providence, comprehendeth his intentions towards all the 
works of his hands, predestination respecteth only rational 
creatures. 

Secondly, In regard of their ends ; for whereas his provi- 
dence directeth all creatures in general, to those several 
ends to which at length they are brought, whether they are 
proportioned unto their nature, or exceeding the sphere of 
their natural activity ; predestination is exercised only in di- 
recting rational creatures to supernatural ends : so that in 
general it is the counsel, decree, or purpose of Almighty 
God, concerning the last and supernatural end of his rational 
creatures, to be accomplished for the praise of his glory. 
But this also must receive a double restriction, before we 
come precisely to what we in this place aim at: and these 
again in regard of the objects or the ends thereof. 

The object of predestination is all rational creatures ; 
now these are either angels or men ; of angels I shall not 
treat. Secondly, the end by it provided for them, is either 
eternal happiness or eternal misery : I speak only of the for- 
mer, the act of God's predestination, transmitting men to 
everlasting happiness : and in this restrained sense, it differs 
not at all from election, and we may use them as synonyma, 
terms of the same importance, though by some affirming that 
God predestinateth them to faith whom he hath chosen, 
they seem to be distinguished as the decrees of the end, and 
the means conducing thereunto; whereof the first is elec- 
tion, intending the end, and then takes place predestination 
providing the means ; but this exact distinction appeareth 
not directly in the Scripture. 

This election the word of God proposeth unto us, as the 
gracious immutable decree of Almighty God, whereby, be- 
fore the foundation of the world, out of his own good plea- 
sure, he chose certain men, determining to free them from 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 105 

sin and misery, to bestow upon them grace and faith, to give 
them unto Christ, to bring them to everlasting blessedness, 
for the praise of his glorious grace : or as it is expressed in 
our church articles, ' Predestination to life, is the everlasting 
purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world 
were laid, he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret 
to us, to deliver from curse and damnation, those whom he 
hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them 
by Christ unto everlasting salvation, as vessels made unto 
honour : wherefore they who are endued with so excellent a 
benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose,' &c. 

Now to avoid prolixity I will annex only such anno- 
tations, as may clear the sense, and confirm the truth of the 
article by the Scriptures ; and shew briefly how it is over- 
thrown by the Arminians, in every particular thereof. 

First, The article, consonantly to the Scripture, affirmeth, 
that it is an eternal decree, made before the foundations of the 
world were laid, so that by it we must needs be chosen be- 
fore we were born, before we have done either good or evil : 
the words of the article are clear, and so also is the Scrip- 
ture, ' He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the 
world :' Eph. i. 4. 'The children being not yet born, before 
they had done either good or evil, it was said,' &c. Rom. ix. 
11. ' We are called with a holy calling, not according to 
our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which 
was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began;' 2 Tim. 
i. 9. Now from hence it would undoubtedly follow, that no 
good thing in us can be the cause of our election, for every 
cause must in order precede its effect; but all things whereof 
we by any means ore partakers, inasmuch as they are ours, 
are temporary, and so cannot be the cause of that which is 
eternal : things with that qualification, must have reference 
to the sole will and good pleasure of God, which inference 
would break the neck of the Arminian election. Wherefore, 
to prevent such a fatal ruin, they deny the principle, to wit, 
that election is eternal :^ so the remonstrants in their apolo- 
gy ;'^ ' Complete election regardeth none bu L him that is dying, 

* Electio non est ab reterno. Rem. apol. 

•• Electio alia completa est, quajneininem spectat nisi iniinocientem. — -Electio per- 
emptoria totum saliilis complenientuni et consuiiimationeni decernit, ideoque in ob- 
jecto requirit totain consummatani fidei obedientiam. Grevin. ad Ames. p. 136, 
passim, dis. 



106 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

for this peremptory election decreeth the whole accomplish- 
ment and consummation of salvation, and therefore requir- 
eth in the object, the finished course of faith and obedience,' 
saith Grevinchovius : which is to make God's election no- 
thing but an act of his justice, approving our obedience, and 
such an act as is incident to any weak man, who knows not 
what will happen in the next hour, that is yet for to come. 
And is this post-destination, that which is proposed to us in 
the Scripture, as the unsearchable fountain of all God's love 
towards us in Christ ? ' Yea,'*" say they, ' we acknowledge no 
other predestination to be revealed in the gospel, besides that 
whereby God decreeth, to save them who should persevere in 
faith;' that is, God's determination concerning their salvation 
is pendulous, until he find by experience, that they will per- 
severe in obedience. But I wonder why, seeing election is 
confessedly one of the greatest expressions of God's infinite 
goodness, love, and mercy towards us, if it follow our obe- 
dience, we have it not like all other blessings and mercies, 
promised unto us ; is it because such propositions as these, 
believe, Peter, and continue in the faith unto the end, and I will 
choose thee before the foundation of the world, are fitter for 
the writings of the Arminians than the word of God ? Neither 
will we be their rivals in such an election, as from whence 
no fruit,*^ no effect, no consolation, can be derived to any 
mortal man, whilst he lives in this world. 

Secondly, The article aflirmeth that it is constant, that 
is, one immutable decree, agreeably also to the Scriptures, 
teaching but one purpose, but one foreknowledge,' one good 
pleasure, one decree of God, concerning the infallible ordina- 
tion of his elect unto glory ; although of this decree there 
may be said to be two acts, one concerning the means, the 
other concerning the end, but both knit up ' in the immuta- 
bility of God's will ;' Heb. vi. 17. ' The foundation of God 
standeth sure ; having this seal, God knoweth who are his ;' 
2 Tim. ii. 19. 'His gifts and calling are without recalling, 
not to be repented of;' Rom. xi. 29. Now what say our Ar- 
minians to this? why a whole multitude of notions and terms 
have they invented to obscure the doctrine. Election, say 

* Non agnoscimus aliam prjedestinationem in evangelio pafefactani, quam qua 
Deus decrevit credentes et qui in eadem fide perseverarent, salvos facere. Rem. coll. 
Hag. p. 34. 

^ Electionis fructum aut scnsura in hac vita nullum agnosco. Grevin. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 107 

they,' is either legal or evangelical, general or particular, 
complete or incomplete, revocable or irrevocable, peremp- 
tory or not peremptory, with I know not how many more 
distinctions of one single eternal act of Almighty God, 
whereof there is neither vola nee vestigium, sign or token in 
the whole Bible, or any approved author. And to these qua- 
vering divisions they accommodate their doctrine, or rather 
they purposely invented them to make their errors un- 
intelligible : yet something agreeably thus they dictate ; 
' there ^s a complete election belonging to none but those 
that are dying, and there is another incomplete, common to 
all that believe, as the good things of salvation are incom- 
plete which are continued whilst faith is continued, and re- 
voked when that is denied, so election is incomplete in this 
life and revocable :' again, there are, they^say in their 
confession, s ' three orders of believers and repenters in the 
Scripture, whereofsome are beginners, others having conti- 
nued for a time, and some perseverants, the two first orders 
are chosen, vere truly, but not absolute j)rorsus absolutely, but 
only for a time, so long as they will remain as they are, the third 
are chosen finally and peremptorily ; for this act of God is 
either continued or interrupted according as we fulfil the con- 
dition :' but whence learned the Arminians this doctrine? Not 
one word of it from the word of truth, no mention there of any 
such desultory election, no speech of faith, but such as is con- 
sequent to the one eternal irrevocable decree of predestina- 
tion, 'They believed who were ordained to eternal life ;' Acts 
xiii. 48. no distinction of men half and wdioUy elected, where 
it is affirmed that it is impossible ' the elect should be 
seduced ;' Matt. xxiv. 24. that none should snatch Christ's 
sheep out of his Father's hand ; John xi. 28, 29. What would 
they have more ? God's purpose of election is sealed up ; 
2 Tim. ii. 19. and therefore cannot be revoked, ' it must 
stand firm,' Rom. ix. 11. in spite of all opposition; neither 
will reason allow us to think any immanent act of God, to 

e Episcop. Thes. p. 35. Epist. ad Walach. p. 38. Grevinch. ad Ames. p. 133. 

f Electio alia completa est, quEe neminem spectatiiisi morientera, alia inconipleta, 
quae ommbus fidelibus communis est, — ut saliitis bona, sunt incorapleta qure continu- 
antur, fide continuata, et abnegata revocantur, sic electio est incorapleta in hac vita, 
non peremptoria, revocabilis. G re v. ad Ames. 

B Tres sunt ordines credentium et resipiscentium in Scripturis, novitii, credentes 
allquandiu.perseverantes, duo priores ordines credentiura eliguntur vere quidera, at 
non prorsus absolute, nee nisi ad tempus, puta quamdiu et quatenus tales sunt, &c. 
Rem. confess, cap. 18. sect. 6, 7. 



108 A DISPLAY or ARMINIANrs:\r. 

be incomplete or revocable, because of the mere alliance it 
hath with his very nature ; but reason. Scripture, God him- 
self, all must give place to any absurdities, if they stand in 
the Arminian way, bringing in their idol with shouts, and 
preparing his throne, by claiming the cause of their predes- 
tination to be in themselves. 

Thirdly, The article is clear that the object of this predes- 
tination is some particular men chosen out of mankind, that 
is, it is such an act of God as concerneth some men in par- 
ticular ; taking them as it were aside from the midst of their 
brethren, and designing them for some special end and pur- 
pose, the Scripture also aboundeth in asserting this verity, 
calling them that are so chosen, 'a few;' Matt. xx. 16. 
which must needs denote some certain persons ; ' and the 
residue according to election ;' Rom. xi. 5. those ' whom God 
knows to be his;' 2 Tim. ii. 19. 'Men ordained to eternal 
life ;' Acts xiii. 48. 'us;' Rom. viii. 39. those that are 'writ- 
ten in the Lamb's book of life ;' Rev. xxi. 27. all which and 
divers others clearly prove, that the number of the elect is 
certain, not only materially, as they say,*" that there are so 
many, but formally also that these particular persons, and 
no other are they, which cannot be altered ; nay, the very 
nature of the thing itself doth so demonstratively evince it, 
that I wonder it can possibly be conceived under any other 
notion : to apprehend an election of men not circumscribed 
with the circumstance of particular persons, is such a con- 
ceited Platonical abstraction, as it seems strange that any 
one dares profess to understand that there should be a pre- 
destination and none predestinated, an election and none 
elected, a choice amongst many, yet none left or taken, a de- 
cree to save men, and yet thereby salvation destinated to no 
one man, either re aiit spe, in deed or in expectation : in a 
word, that there should be a purpose of God to bring men 
unto glory, standing inviolable, though never any one at- 
tained the proposed end, is such a riddle as no CEdipus can 
unfold: now such an election, such a predestination, have 
the Arminians substituted in the place of God's everlasting 
decree ; 'we deny,'' say they, 'that God's election extendeth 

h Aquinas. 
' Nos negaraus Dei electionem ad salutein exteiuiere sesead singulares personas, 
qua singulares personas. Rem, Coll. Hag. fol. 76. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMIMANISM. 109 

itself to any singular persons, as singular persons ;' that is, 
that any particular persons, as Peter, Paul, John, are by it 
elected; no, how then? '''Why God hath appointed without 
difference, to dispense the means of faith, and as he seeth 
these persons to believe or not to believe, by the use of those 
means, so at length he determineth of them,' as saith Cor- 
vinus. Well then ; God chooseth no particular man to sal- 
vation, but whom he seeth believing by bis own power, with 
the help only of such means as are afforded unto others who 
never believe, and as he maketh himself thus differ from 
them by a good use of his own abilities, so also he may be 
reduced again into the same predicament, and then his elec- 
tion which respecteth not him in his person, but only his 
qualification, quite vanisheth : but is this God's decree of 
election ? Yes, say they, and make a doleful complaint,' that 
any other doctrine should be taught in the church. ' It is ob- 
truded (say the true-born sons of Arminius) on the church 
as a most holy doctrine, that God by an absolute immutable 
decree from all eternity, out of his own good pleasure, hath 
chosen certain persons, and those but few in comparison, 
without any respect had to their faith and obedience, and 
predestinated them to everlasting life.' But what so great 
exception is this doctrine liable unto, what wickedness doth 
it include, that it should not be accounted most holy? Nay, 
is not only the matter, but the very terms of it contained in 
the Scripture? Doth it not say the elect are few, and they 
chosen before the foundation of the world; without any re- 
spect to their obedience or any thing that they had done ; 
out of God's mere gracious good pleasure, that his free pur- 
pose according to election might stand ; even because so it 
pleased him ; and this that they might be holy, believe, and 
be sanctified, that they might come unto Christ, and by him 
be preserved into everlasting life ? yea, this is that which 
galls them,™ ' no such will can be ascribed unto God where- 

^ Deus statuit indlscriminatim media ad fidera administrare, et proat has, vel illas 
personas, istis mediis credituras vel non credituras videt, ita tandem de illis statuit. 
Corvi. ad Tiien. 76. 

Ecclesiffi tanquam sacrosancta doctrina obtruditur, Deum absolutissirao et irarou- 
tabili decreto ab omni retro seternitate, pro puro sue beneplacito, singulares quos- 
dara liomines, eosque, quoad cateros, paucissimos, citra ullius obediential aut fidei 
in Christum intuitu prsedestinasse ad vitani. Prsfat. lib. Armm. ad Perk.^ 

" Nulla Deo tribui potest voluntas, qua ita velit hominera^ullum salvari, ut saius 
inde illis constet ccrto et infallibiliter. Arm. Antiperk. p..')8r>. 



110 A DISPLAY OF AKMINI ANISM. 

by he so willeth any one to be saved, as that thence their 
salvation should be sure and infallible/ saith the father af 
those children. 

Well then let St. Austin's" definition be quite rejected, 
* that predestination is a preparation of such benefits where- 
by some are most certainly freed and delivered from sin and 
brought to glory;' and that alsoof St. Paul, that (by reason of 
this) nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in 
Christ; what is this election in your judgment? "/Nothing 
but a decree whereby God hath appointed to save them that 
believe in Christ/ saith Corvinus, be they who they will ; or 
a general purpose of God, whereby he hath ordained faith in 
Chri sto be the means of salvation ; yea, but this belongs to 
Judas as well as to Peter, this decree carrieth as equal an as- 
pect to those that are damned, as to those that are saved ; sal- 
vation under the condition of faith in Christwas also proposed 
to them, but was Judas and all his company elected ? How 
came they then to be seduced and perish ? That any of 
God's elect go to hell, is as yet a strange assertion in Chris- 
tianity ; notwithstanding this decree, none may believe, or 
all that do may fall away, and so none at all be saved, which 
is a strange kind of predestination ; or all may believe, con- 
tinue in faith, and be saved ; which were a more strange kind 
of election. 

We poor souls thought hitherto that we might have be- 
lieved according unto Scripture, that some by this purpose 
were in a peculiar manner made the Father's (' Thine they 
were'), and by him given unto Christ that he might bring 
them unto glory, and that these men were so certain and un- 
changeable a number, that not only God knoweth them as 
being his, but also that Christ ' calleth them all by name;' 
John X. 3. and looketh that none taketh them out of his 
hand : we never imagined before, that Christ hath been the 
mediator of an uncertain covenant, because there are no cer- 
tain persons covenanted withal but such as may or may not 
fulfil the condition; we always thought that some had been 
separated before by God's purpose from the rest of the pe- 
rishing world, that Christ might lay down his life for his 

° Prfedestinatio est pra?.paratio beueficiorum quibus certissiine liberantur qiiicun- 
que liberantur. Aug. de bono per. sen. cap. 14. 

" Decretum electionis nihil aliiid est quam decretum quo Dens constiluit credeutes 
in Christo justificarc, pt salvarc. Corvin. ad Tilen. p. 13. 



A DISPLAY OF AllMINIANISM. HI 

friends, for his sheep, for them that were given him of his 
Father ; but now it should seem he was ordained to be a 
king, when it was altogether uncertain whether he should 
ever have any subjects, to be a head without a body, or to 
such a church whose collection and continuance depends 
wholly and solely on the will of men. 

These are doctrines that I believe searchers of the Scrip- 
ture had scarce ever been acquainted withal, had they not 
lighted on such expositors as teach," 'that the only cause why 
God loveth(or chooseth) any person is, because the honesty, 
faith, and piety, wherewith, according to God's command and 
his own duty he is endued, are acceptable to God :' which, 
though we grant it true of God's consequent or approving 
love ; yet surely there is a divine love, wherewith he looks 
upon us otherwise, when he gives us unto Christ ; else either 
our giving unto Christ is not out of love, or we are pious, 
just, and faithful, before we come unto him, that is, we have 
no need of him at all ; against either way, though we may 
blot these testimonies out of our hearts, yet they will stand 
still recorded in Holy Scripture, viz. that God so loved us 
when we were his enemies ; Rom. v. 8. sinners, ver. 10. of no 
strength, that he sent his only-begotten Son to die, that we 
should not perish, but have life everlasting ; John iii. 16. but 
of this enough. 

Fourthly, Another thing that the article asserteth accord- 
ing to the Scripture, is, that there is no other cause of our 
election, but God's own counsel, it recounteth no motives in 
us, nothing impelling the will of God, to choose some out of 
mankind, rejecting others, but his own decree, that is, his ab- 
solute will and good pleasure ; so that as there is no cause in 
any thing vathout himself, why he would create the world or 
elect any at all, for he doth all these things for himself, for 
the praise of his own glory, so there is no cause in singular 
elected persons, why God should choose them, rather than 
others; he looked upon all mankind in the same condition, 
vested with the same qualifications, or rather without any at 
all : for it is the children not yet born, before they do either 
good or evil, that are chosen or rejected, his free grace em- 
bracing the one, and passing over the other ; yet here we must 

• Ratio dilectionis persona; est, quod probitas, fides, vel pietas, qua ex officio suo 
et praescripto Dei ista persona prredita est, Deo grata sit. Rem. Apol. pag. 13. 



112 A DISPLAY OF A R.MINIA NISM. 

observe, that although God freely without any desert of 
theirs, chooseth some men to be partakers both of the end 
and the means, yet he bestoweth faith or the means on none, 
but for the merit of Christ ; neither do any attain the -end or 
salvation, but by their own faith through that righteousness 
of his: the free grace of God, notwithstanding choosing Ja- 
cob, when Esau is rejected, the only antecedent cause of any 
difference, between the elect and reprobates, remaineth firm 
and unshaken ; and surely unless men were resolved to trust 
wholly to their own bottoms, to take nothing gratis at the 
hands of God, they would not endeavour to rob him of his 
glory ; of having mercy on whom he will have mercy, of 
loving us without our desert, before the world began. If we 
must claim an interest in obtaining the temporal acts of his 
favour, by our own endeavours ; yet oh, let us grant him the 
glory of being good unto us, only for his own sake, when we 
were in his hand as the clay in the hand of the potter : what 
made this piece of clay fit for comely service, and not a vessel 
wherein there is no pleasure, but the power and will of the 
framer? it is enough, yea, too much for them to repine and 
say. Why hast thou made us thus, who are vessels fitted for 
wrath ? Let not them who are prepared for honour, exalt them- 
selves against him, and sacrifice to their own nets, as the sole 
providers of their glory: but so it is; human vileness will 
still be declaring itself, by claiming a worth no way due unto 
it : of a furtherance of w hich claim, if the Arminians be not 
guilty, let the following declaration of their opinions in this 
particular determine. 

' We confess,' say they,'' ' roundly, that faith in the consi- 
deration of God choosing us unto salvation, doth precede, and 
not follow as a fruit of election ;' so that, whereas Christians 
have hitherto believed, that God bestoweth faith on them 
that are chosen, it seems now it is no such matter, but that 
those whom God findeth to believe, upon the stock of their 
own abilities, he afterward chooseth. Neither is faith in their 
judgment, only required as a necessary condition in him that 
is to be chosen, but as a cause moving the will of God to 
elect him that hath it,") ' as the will of the judge is moved to 

P Rotunde fatennir, fidem in consideratione Dei in eligendo ad salutem antece- 
dere, et non tanquainfructum electionis sequi. Rem. Hag. coll. p. 35. 
M (Jitviii. ad Ames. p. 2-1. Cor. ad Rlolin. p. 260. 



A DISPLAY OF AUMINIANISM. 113 

bestow a reward on him, who according to the law hath de- 
served it;' as Grevinchovius speaks : which words of his, in- 
deed, Corvinus strives to temper, but all in vain, though he 
wrest them contrary to the intention of the author ; for with 
him agree all his fellows : ' the one,"" only, absolute cause of 
election, is not the will of God, but the respect of our obe- 
dience/ saith Episcopius. At first they required nothing but 
faith, and that as a condition, not as a cause;' then perseve- 
rance in faith, which at length they began to call obedience, 
comprehending all our duty to the precepts of Christ ; for 
the cause, say they, of this love to any person, is the righte- 
ousness, faith, and piety, wherewith he is endued, which 
being all the good woi'ks of a Christian, they, in effect, affirm 
a man to be chosen for them ; that our good works are the 
cause of election, which whether it were ever so grossly taught, 
either by Pelagians or Papists, I something doubt. 

And here observe, that this doth not thwart my former 
assertion, where I shewed, that they deny the election of any 
particular persons, which here they seem to grant upon a 
foresight uf their faith and good works ; for there is not 
any one person, as such a person, notwithstanding all this, 
that in their judgment is in this life elected ; but only as he 
is considered with those qualifications of which he may at 
any time divest himself, and so become again to be no more 
elected than Judas. 

The sum of their doctrine in this particular, is laid down 
by one of ours in a tract entitled ' God's love to mankind,' 8cc. 
A book fall of palpable ignorance, gross sophistry, and abo- 
minable blasphemy, whose author seems to have proposed 
nothing unto himself, but to rake all the dunghills of a few 
the most invective Arrainians, and to collect the most filthy 
scum and pollution of their railings to cast upon the truth of 
God, and, under I know not what self-coined pretences, belch 
out odious blasphemies against his holy name. 

The sum, saith he, of all these speeches (he cited to his 
purpose) is,*' That there is no decree of saving men, but what 

f Electionis el reprobationis, causa unica vera et absoluta non est Dei voluntas, sed 
respectu obedientiee et inobedientiae. Epis. disput. 8. 

» Cum peccatura pono causara meritoriam reprobationis, ne existiniato e contra me 
ponere.justitiam causam meritoriam electionis. Armin. Anteperk. — Rem. Apol. p. 73. 
' God's Love, pag. 6. 

VOL. v. I 



114 A DISPLAY OF ARMIXI ANISM. 

is built on God's foreknowledge of the good actions of men-' 
No decree? No, not that whereby God determineth to give 
some unto Christ, to ingraft them in him by faith, and bring 
them by him unto glory ; which givetli light to that place of 
Arminius," where he affirmeth, ' That God loveth none precise- 
ly to eternal life, but considered as just either with legal or 
evangelical righteousness.' Now to love one to eternal life^ 
is to destinate one to obtain eternal life by Christ ; and so it 
is coincident with the former assertion, that our election or 
choosing unto grace and glory is upon the foresight of our 
g^ood works ; which contains a doctrine so contradictory to 
the words, and meaning of the apostle ; Rom. ix. 11. con- 
demned in so many councils, suppressed by so many edicts 
and decrees of emperors and governors ; opposed as a pes- 
tilent heresy, ever since it was first hatched, by so many or- 
thodox fathers and learned schoolmen; so directly contrary 
to the doctrine of this church, so injurious to the grace and 
supreme power of Almighty God, that I much wonder any 
one in this light of the gospel, and flourishing time of learn- 
ing, should be so boldly ignorant or impudent, as to broach 
it amongst Christians. To prove this to be a heresy exploded 
by all orthodox and catholic antiquity, were to light a can- 
dle in the sun ; for it cannot but be known to all and every 
one, who ever heard or read any thing of the state of Christ'^s 
church, after the rising of the Pelagian tumults.''' 

To accumulate testimonies of the ancients is quite beside 
my purpose ; I will only add the confession of Bellarmine,^ 
a man otherwise not over-well affected to truth : ' Predestina- 
tion,' saith he, ' from the foresight of w^orks, cannot be main- 
tained, unless we should suppose something in the righteous 
man, which should make him differ from the wicked, that he 
doth not receive from God ; which truly all the fathers with 
unanimous consent do reject.' But we have a more sure tes- 
timony to which we will take heed, even the Holy Scripture 
pleading strongly for God's free and undeserved grace. 

First, Our Saviour Christ; Matt. xi. 26. declaring how 

" Deum nuUam creaturam prascise ad vitam aitemam amare, nisi consideratum ut 
iustam sive justitia legali sive evangelica, Armin. artic. perpend, fol. 21. 

" Vid. Prosp. ad excep. Gen. ad dub. 8, 9. vid. Car. de ingratis. c. "2. 3. 

* Non potest defendi prajdestinatio ex operibus praevisis, nisi aliquid boni ponatiir 
in homine jiisto, quo discernaturab impio, quod non sit ilii a Deo, quod sane patres 
oiunes suinraa conscruioae rejiciunt. Bellar.de grat. et lib. Arbit. cap. 14, 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 115 

God revealeth the gospel vnio some, which is hidden from 
others ; a special fruit of election, resteth in his will and good 
pleasui'e, as the only cause thereof: ' Even so, O Father, for so 
it seemed good in thy sight;' so comforting his little flock, 
Luke xii. 32 he bids them fear not, ' for it is your Father's 
good pleasure to give you the kingdom;' his good pleasure 
is the only cause why his kingdom is prepared for you, ra- 
ther than others. But is there no other reason of this discri- 
mination ? No ; he doth it all, ' that his purpose according to 
election might stand firm ;' Rom. ix. 11. For we are predes- 
tinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh 'all 
things after the counsel of his own will;' Eph. i. 1 1. But 
did not this counsel of God direct him to choose us rather 
tiian olhers, because we had something to commend us more 
than they? No; 'The Lord did not set his love upon you, 
nor choose you because you were more in number than any 
people, but because the Lord loved you ;' Deut. vii. 7, 8. 
He hath mercy, on whom he will have mercy, yea, ' before 
the children were born, and had done either good or evil, that 
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not 
of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her. The 
elder shall serve the younger; as it is written, Jacob have I 
loved, but Esau have I hated;' Rom. ix. 11, 12. In brief, 
wherever there is any mention of election or predestination, 
it is still accompanied witli the purpose, love, or will of God ; 
his foreknowledge, v/hereby he knoweth them that are his ; 
his free power and supreme dominion overall things : of our 
faith, obedience, or any thing importing so much, not one 
syllable, no mention, unless it be as the fruit and effect thereof ; 
it is the sole act of his free grace and good pleasure, that 'he 
might make known the riches of his glory towards the ves- 
sels of mercy ;' Rom. ix. 23. for this only end hath he saved 
us and called us 'with a holy calling, not according to our 
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which 
v.as given in Jesus Christ before the world began;' 2 Tim. 
i. 9. Even our calling is free and undeserved, because flow- 
ing from that most free grace of election, whereof we are par- 
takers before we are. It were needless to heap up more tes- 
timonies, in a thing so clear and evident. When God and 
man stand in competition, who shall be accounted the cause 
of an eternal good, we mav be sure the Scripture will pass 

' I 2 



110 A DISPLAY OF A UMINI ANISM. 

the verdict on the part of the Most High. And the sentence, 
in this case, may be derived from thence by these following- 
reasons. 

First, If final perseverance in faith and obedience be the 
cause of, or a condition required unto, election, then none can 
be said in this life to be elected; for no man is a final perr 
severer until he be dead, until he hath finished hi-s course and 
consummated the faith ; but certain it is that it is spoken of 
some in the Scripture, that they are even in this life elected : 
' few are chosen;' Matt. xx. 16. ' for the elect's sake those 
days shall be shortened ;' Matt. xxiv. ' and shall seduce, if it 
were possible, the very elect ;' ver. 24. where it is evident 
that election is required to make one persevere in the faith ; 
but nowhere is perseverance in the faith required to election. 
Yea, and Peter gives us all a command that we should give aU 
dilio-ence, 'to aet an assurance of our election even in this 
life ;' 2 Pet. i. 10. and, therefore, surely it cannot be a decree 
presupposing consummated faith and obedience. 

Secondly, Consider two things of our estate, before the 
first temporal act of God's free grace (for grace is no grace if 
it be not free), which is the first effect of our predestination, 
comprehendeth us : First, ' Were we better than others ? no, 
in nowise ; both Jews and Gentiles were all under sin ;' 
Rom. iii.9. 'There is no difference, for we have all sinned and 
come short of the glory of God;' ver. 23. 'Being all dead 
in trespasses and sins;' Eph. ii. 1. 'Being by nature chil- 
dren of wrath as well as others ;' ver. 3. ' Afar off until we are 
made nigh by the blood of Christ;' ver. 12. 'We were ene- 
mies against God ;' Rom. v. 10. Titus iii. 3. And look what 
desert there is in us with these qualifications, when our vo- 
cation, the first effect of our predestination, as St. Paul 
sheweth ; Rom.viii. 30. and as I shall prove hereafter, sepa- 
rateth us from the world of unbelievers ; so much there is in 
respect of predestination itself; so that if we have any way 
deserved it, it is by being sinners, enemies, children of wrath, 
and dead in trespasses ; these are our deserts ; this is the glory 
whereof we ought to be ashamed. 

But, secondly. When they are in the same state of actual 
alienation from God, yet then, in respect of his purpose to save 
them by Christ, some are said to be his ; ' Thine they were, 
and thou gavest them unto me ;' John xvii. 6. They were his 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 1 17* 

before they came unto Christ by faith ; the sheep of Christ 
before they are called, ' for he calleth his sheep by name ;' 
John X 30. before they come into the flock or congregation : 
' For other sheep,' saith he, ' 1 have which are not of this fold, 
which must also be gathered ;' John x. 16. To be beloved of 
God before they love him, ' herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us ;' 1 John iv. 10. Now all this must 
be with reference to God's purpose of bringing them unto 
Christ, and by him unto glory ; which we see goeth before 
all their faith and obedience. 

Thirdly, Election is an eternal act of God's will, ' He hath 
chosen us before the foundation of the world ;' Eph. i. 4. con- 
summated antecedently to all duty of ours ; Rom. ix. 11. Now 
every cause must, in order of nature, precede its effect; no- 
thing hath an activity in causing, before it hath a being : 
operation, in every kind, is a second act, flowing from the 
essence of a thing, which is the first ; but all our graces and 
works, our faith, obedience, piety, and charity, are all tem- 
poral, of yesterday, the same standing with ourselves, and 
no lop.ger, and, therefore, cannot be the caiise of, no, nor so 
much as a condition necessarily required for, the accomplish- 
ment of an eternal act of God, irrevocably established be- 
fore we are. 

Fourthly, If predestination be for faith foreseen, these 
three things, with divers such absurdities, will necessarily 
follow : First, That election is not of him that calleth, as the 
apostle speaks; Rom. ix. 11. that is, of the good pleasure of 
God, who calleth us with a holy calling, but of him that is 
called ; for, depending on faith, it must be his whose faith is, 
that doth believe. Secondly, God cannot have mercy on 
whom he will have mercy, for the very purpose of it is thus 
tied to the qualities of faith and obedience, so that he must 
hav€ mercy only on believers, antecedently to his decree. 
Which, thirdly, hinders him from being an absolute free agent, 
and doing of what he will with his own ; of having such a 
power over us, as the potter hath over his clay, for he finds 
us of different matter, one clay, another gold, when he comes 
to appoint us to different uses and ends. 

Fifthly, God sees no faith, no obedience, perseverance ; 
nothing but sin and wickedness in any man, but what himself 
intendeth graciously and freely to bestow upon them, for 



118 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANIS.M. 

' faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; it is the work 
of God that we do believe ;' John vi. 29. ' He blesseth us with 
all spiritual blessings in Christ ;' Eph. i. Now all these gifts 
and graces, God bestoweth only upon those whom he hath 
antecedently ordained to everlasting life : * For the election 
obtained it and the rest were blinded;' Rom. xi. 7. * God 
added to his church daily those that should be saved ;' Acts ii. 
47. therefore, surely God chooseth us not, because he fore- 
seeth those things in us, seeing he bestoweth those graces 
because he hath chosen us. ' Wherefore,^ saith Austin, doth 
Christ say, ' you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' 
but because they did not choose him that he should choose 
them ; but he chose them that they might choose him.' We 
choose Christ by faith, God chooseth us by his decree of 
election; the question is, whether we choose him, because he 
hath chosen us; or he chooseth us, because v,e have chosen 
him, and so indeed choose ourselves : we affirm the former, 
and that because our choice of him is a gift he himself be- 
stoweth only on them whom he hath chosen. 

Sixthly, and principally, The effects of election infallibly 
following it, cannot be the causes of election, certainly pre- 
ceding it. This is evident, for nothing can be the cause and 
the effect of the same thing, before and after itself; but all 
our faith, our obedience, repentance, good works, are the ef- 
fects of election flowing from it, as their proper fountain, 
erected on it, as the foundation of this spiritual building. 
And for this the article of our church is evident and clear; 
' Those,' saith it, ' that are endued with this excellent benefit 
of God, are called according to God's purpose, are justified 
freely, are made the sons of God by adoption, they be made 
like the image of Christ, they walk religiously in good works,' 
&c. Where, first, they are said to be partakers of this benefit 
of election, and then by virtue thereof, to be entitled to the 
fruition of all those graces. Secondly, it saith. Those who are 
endued v.'ith this benefit, enjoy those blessings; intimating 
that election is the rule whereby God proceedeth in bestow- 
ing those graces ; restraining the objects of the temporal acts 
of God's special favour, to them only whom his eternal de- 
cree doth embrace ; both these indeed are denied by the Ar- 

» ^011 ()b aliuc] ciicit ' nan vos mceligistis scd ego voS elegi.'niii quiauoM elegeruiit 
turn lit eligoiet cv%, ttd ut eligcrcnt cum elegit cos. Aug. dc bono jitrse. cap. t6. 



A DISPLAY or AllMINIANlSM. 119 

minians, which maketh a farther discovery of their hetero- 
doxies in this particular. ' You say,"'' saith Arminius to Per- 
kins, * that election is the rule of giving, or not giving of faith, 
and, therefore, election is not of the faithful, but faith of the 
elect ; but by your leave this I must deny :' but yet, whatever 
it is the sophistical heretic here denies, either antecedent or 
conclusion, he falls foul on the word of God. ' They believed,' 
saith the Holy Ghost, 'who were ordained to eternal life ;' 
Acts iii. 48. 'And the Lord added daily to his church such as 
should be saved ;* Acts ii. 47. From both which places it is 
evident that God bestoweth faith only on them whom he hath 
preordained to eternal life: but most clearly; Rom. viii. 
29, 30. ' For whom he did foreknow, he also predestinated to 
be conformed to the image of his Son ; moreover, whom he 
did predestinate, them also he called; and whom he called, 
them he also justified ; and whom he j ustified, them he also glo- 
rified.' St. Austin interpreted this place, by adding in every 
link of the chain, ' only those,' however the words directly im- 
port a precedency of predestination, before the bestowing 
of other graces : and also a restraint of those graces, to them 
only, that are so predestinate; now the inference from this 
is, not only for the form logical, but for the matter also, it 
containeth the very words of Scripture, 'Faith is of God's 
elect;' Tit. i. 1. 

For the other part of the proposition, that faith and obe- 
dience are the fruits of our election, they cannot be more 
peremptory in its denial, than the Scripture is plentiful in 
its confirmation: 'he hath chosen us in Christ, that we 
should be holy ;' Eph. i. 4. not because we were holy, but 
that we should be so : holiness, whereof faith is the root, and 
obedience the body, is that whereunto, and not for which, 
we are elected. The end, and the meritorious cause, of any 
one act cannot be the same ; they have divers respects, and re- 
quire repugnant conditions. Again, we are predestinated unto 
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ ; ver. 5. adoption 
is that whereby we are assumed into the family of God, 
when before we are foreigners, aliens, strangers, afar off, 
which we see is a fruit of our predestination, though it be 

» Dicis electionem divinam c?.sc rejriilnm ndei dandw vel non dandw : ergo flcclio 
lion est fidclium sed fides clectoium : scd liccat inihi Uia bona vcnia lioe ntgare. Ar- 
iwiii. Anliji. p. 221. 



120 



A DISPLAY OF ARxM INIANISM. 



the very entrance into that estate, wherein we begin first to 
please God in the least measure. Of the same nature are all 
those places of holy writ, which speak of God's giving some 
unto Christ, of Christ's sheep hearing his voice, and others 
not hearing, because they are not of his sheep ; all which, and 
divers other invincible reasons I willingly omit, with sundry 
other false assertions, and heretical positions, of the Armi- 
nians, about this fundamental article of our religion, conclud- 
ing this chapter with the following scheme. 



S. S. 

'Whom he did foreknow 
he also did predestinate to be 
conformed to the imag-e of his 
Son, that he might be the first- 
born among many brethren : 
moreover, whom he did pre- 
destinate, them he also called ; 
and whom he called, them he 
also justified; and whom he 
justified, them he also glori- 
fied ; so that nothing shall be 
able to separate us from the 
love of God in Christ;' Rom. 
viii. 29, 30—39. 

' He hath chosen us in 
him before the foundation of 
the world, that we should be 
holy;' Eph. i.4. 

' Not for the works that 
we have done, but according 
to his own purpose and grace, 
which was given us in Jesus 
Christ before the world be- 
gan;' 2 Tim. i. 9. 

* For the children beino- 
not yet born, before they had 
done either good or evil, that 
the purpose of God wliich is 
according to election might 
stand, not of Avorks but of 



Lib. Arbit. 

'No such will can be as- 
cribed unto God, whereby he 
so would have any to be sav- 
ed, that from thence his sal- 
vation should be sure and in- 
fallible ;' Arminius. 

' I acknowledge no sense, 
no perception of any such 
election in this life;' Grevinch. 

* We deny that God's elec- 
tion unto salvation extendeth 
itself to singular persons;' 
Remonst. Coll. Hag. 

' As we are justified by 
faith, so we are not elected 
but by faith;' Grevinch. 

'We profess roundly that 
faith is considered by God as a 
condition preceding election, 
and not following as a fruit 
thereof;' Rem. Coll. Hag. 

' The sole and only cause 
of election is not the will of 
God, but the respect of our 
obedience ;' Episcopius. 

* For the cause of this love 
to any person, is the good- 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



121 



S. S. 
him that calleth ;' &c. Rom. 
ix. 11. 

' Whatsoever the Father 
giveth that cometh unto me;' 
John xi.= 

' Many are called, but few 
are chosen ;' Matt. xxii. 14. 

' Fear not little flock, it is 
your Father's pleasure to give 
you the kingdom ;' Luke xii. 
32. 

' What hast thou that thou 
hastnot received;' 1 Cor. iv. 7. 

* Are we better then they ? 
no, in no wise;' Rom. iii. 9. 

* But we are predestinated 
to the adoption of children by 
Jesus Christ, according to the 
goodpleasureofhiswill;' Eph. 
i. 5. John vi. 37 — 39. John x. 
3. xiii. 18. xvii. 6. Acts xiii. 
48. Tit. i. 1. 2 Tim. ii. 19. 
James i. 17, &c. 



Lib. Arbit. 
ness, faith, and piety, where- 
with, according to God's com- 
mand and his own duty, he is 
endued, is pleasing to God ;' 
Rem. Apol. 

• God hath determined to 
grant the means of salvation 
unto all without difference, 
and according as he foreseeth 
men will use those means so 
he determineth of them ;' Cor- 
vin. 

The sum of their doctrine 
is: God hath appointed the 
obedience of faith to be the 
means of salvation; if men 
fulfil this condition, he deter- 
mineth to save them, which 
is their election ; but if, after 
they have entered the way 
of godliness, they fall from it, 
they loose also their predes- 
tination; if they will return 
again they are chosen anew, 
and if they can hold out to 
the end, then, and for that 
continuance they are per- 
emptorily elected, or post- 
destinated, after they are 
saved. Now whether these 
positions may be gathered 
from those places of Scrip- 
ture which deliver this doc- 
trine, let any man judge.' 



Sf 'All that the Father giveth nic, shall coiue to ine ;' Jnhn vi. 37. Editor. 



122 A DISPLAY OI- ARMINIANISM. 



CHAP. VII. 

Of original sin, andthe corruption of nature. 

Herod the Great, imparting his counsel of rebuiicling the 
temple unto the Jews, they much feared he would never be 
uble to accomplish his intention ;" but like an unwise builder, 
having demolished the old, before he had sat down and cast 
up his account, whether he v^ere able to erect a new, they 
should (by his project) be deprived of a temple ; wherefore, 
to satisfy their jealousies, he resolved as he took down any 
part of the other, presently to erect a portion of the new in 
the place thereof. Right so the Arminians, determining to 
demolish the building of divine providence, grace, and fa- 
vour, by which men have hitherto ascended into heaven, 
and fearing lest we should be troubled, finding ourselves on 
a sudden deprived of that, wherein we reposed our confi- 
dence for happiness, they have, by degrees, erected a Baby- 
lonish tower in the room thereof, whose top they vtould per- 
suade us shall reach unto heaven. First, therefore, the 
foundation stones they bring forth, crying, Hail, hail, unto 
them, and pitch them on the sandy rotten ground of our 
own natures. Now, because heretofore some wise master- 
builders had discovered this groxind to be very unfit to be 
the basis of such a lofty erection, by reason of a corrupt 
issue of blood and filth, arising in the midst thereof, and 
over-spreading the whole platform ; to encourage men to an 
association in this desperate attempt, they proclaim to all, 
tiiat there is no such evil fountain in the plain which they 
have chosen for the foundation of their proud building, set- 
ting up itself against the knowledge of God in plain terms, 
having rejected the providence of God, from being the ori- 
ginal of that goodness of entity which is in our actions, and 
his predestination from being the cause of that moral and 
spiritual goodness, Mherewith any of them are clothed, they 
endeavour to draw the praise of both to the rectitude of 
their nature, and the strength of their own endeavours : but 
this attempt, in the latter case, being thought to be alto- 

. » Joseph. Aiitiq. Ju<]2S. lib. Ij, caj), 14. 



A DISPLAY OF A UMINI ANISM. 123 

gether vain, because of the disability and corruption of nature, 
by reason of original sin, propagated unto us all by our first 
parents, whereby it is become wholly void of integrity and 
holiness, and we all become wise and able to do evil, but to 
do good have no power, no understanding; therefore, they ut- 
terly reject this imputation, of an inherent original guilt, and 
demerit of punishment, as an enemy to our upright and well 
deserving condition ; and oh, that they were as able to root 
it out of the hearts of all men, that it should never more be 
there, as they have been to persuade the heads of divers, that 
it u^as never there at all. 

If any would know how considerable this article con- 
cerning original sin, hath ever been accounted in the church 
of Christ, let him but consult the writings of St. Augustine, 
Prosper, Hilary, Fulgentius, any of those learned fathers, 
whom God stirred up to resist, and enabled to overcome, 
the spreading Pelagian heresy; or look on those many coun- 
cils, edicts, decrees of emperors, wherein that heretical doc- 
trine, of denying this original corruption, is condemned^ 
cursed, and exploded. Now, amongst those many motives 
they had to proceed so severely against this heresy, one es- 
pecially inculcated deserves our consideration ; viz. 

That it overthrew the necessity of Christ's coming into 
the world to redeem mankind. It is sin only that makes a 
Saviour necessary ; and shall Christians tolerate such an 
error, as by direct consequence, infers the coming of Jesus 
Christ into the world to be needless? My purpose, for the 
present, is not to allege any testimonies of this kind ; but 
holding myself close to my first intention, to shew how far 
in this article as well as others, the Arminians have apos- 
tated from the pure doctrine of the word of God, the consent 
of orthodox divines, and the confession of this church of 
England. 

In the ninth article of our church, wliich is concerning 
original sin, I observe especially four things : First, Tliat it is 
an inherent evil, the fault and corruption of the nature of 
every man. Secondly, That it is a thing not subject, or con- 
formable, to the law of God; but hath in itself, even after 
baptism, the nature of sin. Thirdly, That by it we are averse 
from God, and inclined to all manner of evil. Fourthly, That 
it deservelh God's wrath and damnation, all which are fre- 



124 A DISPLAY OF AR3IIXI AXISM . 

quently and evidently taught in the word of God, and every 
one denied by the Arminians, as it may appear by these in- 
stances, in some of them. 

First, That it is an inherent sin and pollution of nature, 
having a proper guill of its own, making us responsible to 
the wrath of God : and not a bare imputation of another's 
fault, to us his posterity, which because it would reflect 
upon us all with a charge of a native imbecility and insuf- 
ficiency to good, is by these self-idolizers quite exploded. 

' Infants'* are simply in that estate in which Adam was 
before his fall,' saith Venator : ' Neither"^ is it all considerable, 
whether they be the children of believers, or of heathens and 
infidels; for infants, as infants, have all the same innocency,' 
say they, jointly in their apology ; nay, more plainly,'^ * It can 
be no fault wherewith we are born :' in which last expression, 
these bold innovators, with one dash of their pens, have 
quite overthrown a sacred verity, an apostolic catholic fun- 
damental article, of Christian religion: but truly to me, there 
are no stronger arguments of the sinful corruption of our 
nature, than to see such nefarious issues of uusanctified 
hearts. Let us look then to the word of God confounding 
this Babylonish design. 

First, That the nature of man, vv'hich at first was created 
pure and holy, after the image of God, endowed with such a 
rectitude and righteousness as was necessary and due unto 
it, to bring it unto that supernatural end to whicli it was or- 
dained, is now altogether corrupted and become abominable, 
sinful and averse from goodness, and that this corruption or 
concupiscence is originally inherent in us, and derived from 
our first parents, is plentifully delivered in holy writ, as that 
which chiefly compels us to a self-denial, and drives us unto 
Christ. 

' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my 
mother conceive me,' saith David ; Psal. li. 5. 

Where, for the praise of God's goodness towards him, he 
begins with the confession of his native perverseness, and of 
the sin wherein he was wrapped before he was born. Neither 

^ Infantes sunt simplicps, et stantes in eodem statu in quo Adanius fuit ante lap- 
sum. Vcnaf. Tlicol. re et nie. fol. 2. 

<■ Ncc refert an infantes isti sint fidelium, an etlmicorum liberi, infantium enim ; 
qua infantium, eadcni est innocentia. Ren). Apol. p. 87. 

'' Malui'i culprE rioii est, quia nasci plane est involuntarium, &:g. ibid. p. 84. 



A nrSPLAY OF AIIMINIANISM. 125 

was this peculiar to him alone; he had it not froin the par- 
ticular iniquity of his next progenitors, but by an ordinary 
propagation from the common parent of us all ; though in 
some of us, Satan, by this Pelagian attempt for hiding the 
disease, hath made it almost incurable. For even those in- 
fants, of whose innocency the Arminians boast, are unclean 
in the verdict of St. Paul ; I Cor. vii. 14. if not sanctified 
by an interest in the promise of the covenant; and no unclean 
thing shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. ' The^ weakness 
of the members of infants is innocent, and not their souls:' 
they want nothings but that the members of their bodies are 
not as yet ready instruments of sin: they are not sinful only 
by an external denomination, accounted so, because of the 
imputation of Adam's actual transgression unto them; for 
they have all an uncleanness in them by nature. Job xiv. 4. 
from which they must be cleansed, ' by the washing of water 
and the word ;' Eph. v. 20. their whole nature is overspread 
with such a pollution, as is proper only to sin inherent, and 
doth not accompany sin imputed, as we may see in the ex- 
ample of our Saviour, who was pure, immaculate, holy, un- 
defiled, and yet the iniquity of us all was imputed unto him: 
hence are those phrases of' washing away sin ;' Acts xxii. 16- 
* of cleansing filth;' 1 Pet. iii. 21. Titus iii. 5. something 
there is in them, as soon as they are born, excluding them 
from the kingdom of heaven, for ' except they also be bora 
again of the Spirit they shall not enter into it;' John iii. 5. 

Secondly, The opposition that is made between the 
righteousness of Christ, and the sin of Adam, Rom. v. which 
is the proper seat of this doctrine, sheweth that there is in 
our nature an inbred sinful corruption; for the sin of Adam 
holds such relation unto sinners, proceeding from him by 
natural propagation, as the righteousness of Christ doth 
unto them who are born again of him by spiritual regenera- 
tion: but we are truly, intrinsically, and inherently sanctified, 
by the Spirit and grace of Christ ; and therefore there is no 
reason, why being so often in this chapter called sinners, be- 
cause of this original sin, we should cast it ofi", as if we were 
concerned only by an external denomination, for the right 
institution of the comparison, and its analogy quite over- 
throws the solitary imputation. 

Thirdly, All those places of Scripture, which assert the 

« Imbeciiiitas nicmbroruni infantiliuni iimocens est, non animus. Aug. 



126 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

proneness of our nature to all evil, and the utter disability 
that is in us to do any good, that wretched opposition to the 
power of godliness, wherewith from the womb we are re- 
plenished, confirms the same truth : but of these places, I 
shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 

Fourthly, The flesh, in the Scripture phrase, is a quality 
(if I may so say) inherent in us : for that, with its concu- 
piscence, is opposed to the Spirit and his holiness, which is 
certainly inherent in us ; now the whole man by nature is 
flesh; 'for that which is born of the flesh is flesh ;' John iii. 
6. it is an inhabiting thing, a thing that dwelleth within us; 
Rom. vii. 17. in brief, this vitiosity. sinfulness, and corrup- 
tion of our nature, is laid open : First, By all those places 
which cast an aspersion of guilt, or desert of punishment, or 
of pollution, on nature itself; as Eph. ii. 1 — 3. 'We are 
dead in trespasses and sins, being by nature children of 
wrath, as well as others,' being wholly encompassed by ' a sin 
that doth easily beset us.' Secondly, By them which fix 
this original pravity in the heart, will, mind, and understand- 
ing; Eph. iv. 18. Rom. xii. 2. Gen. vi. 5. Thirdly, By those 
which positively decipher this natural depravation ; 1 Cor. 
■ii. 14. Rom. viii. 7. or. Fourthly, That place it in the flesh, or 
whole man, Rom. vi. 6. Gai. v. 16. so that it is not a bare 
imputation of another's fault, but an intrinsical adjacent 
corruption of our nature itself, that we call by this name of 
original sin : but, alas, it seems we are too large carvers for 
ourselves, in that wherewith vve will not be contented. 

The Arminians deny all such imputation, as too heavy a 
charge for the pure unblamable condition, wherein they are 
brought into this world ; they deny, I say, that they are 
guilty of Adam's sin, as sinning in him, or that his sin is any 
way imputed unto us, which is their second assault upon 
the truth of this article of faith. 

' Adam ^sinned in his own proper person, and there is no 
reason why God should impute that sin of his unto infants,' 
saith Boreus. The nature of the first covenant, the rioht 
and power of God, the comparison instituted by tlie apostle 
between Adam and Christ, the divine constitution whereby 
Adam was appointed to be the head, fountain, and origin of 
all human kind, are with him no reasons at all to persuade 

f AdaiiHis ill pr()j)ii;t pcr'>oiia peccavji, ct nulla est ratio ciir Deus peccatum ilind 
ini'antibus impulcf. ]5or. in artic- .SI. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 127 

it : * For it is against equity,'" saith their apology, ' that one 
should be counted guilty for a sin that is not his own, that 
he should be reputed nocent who, in regard of his own will, 
is truly innocent :' and here Christian reader, beliold plain 
Pelagianism obtruded on us, without either welt or guard ; 
men on a sudden made pure and truly innocent, notwith- 
standing all that natural pollution and corruption, the Scrip 
ture every where proclaims them to be replenished withal ; 
neither is the reason they intimate of any value that their wills 
assented not to it, and which a little before they plainly 
urge. ' It is,''' say they, * against the nature of sin, that 
that should be counted a sin to any by whose own proper 
will it was not committed ;' which being all they have to say, 
they repeat it over and over in this case ; ' it must be volun- 
tary or it is no sin.' But I say this is of no force at all. For. 
first, St. John in his most exact definition of sin, requires not 
voluntariness to the nature of it, but only an obliquity, a de- 
viation from the rule, it is an anomy, a discrepancy from the 
law, which whether voluntary or no, it skills not much; but 
sure enough there is in our nature such a repugnancy to the 
law of God. So that, secondly, if originally we are free from 
a voluntary actual transgression, yet we are not from an ha- 
bitual voluntary digression and exorbitancy from the law. 
But, thirdly, in respect of our wills, we are not thus innocent 
neither, for we all sinned in Adam, as the apostle affirmeth. 
Now all sin is voluntary, say the remonstrants, and therefore 
Adam's transgression was our voluntary sin also, and that in 
divers respects ; first, in that his voluntary act is imputed 
to us as ours, by reason of the covenant which w^as made 
with him on our behalf; but because this consisting in an 
imputation, must needs be extrinsical unto us, therefore, se- 
condly, we say, that Adam being the root and head of all 
human kind, and we all branches from that root, all parts of 
that body whereof he was the head, his will may be said to 
be ours; we were then all that one man,' we were all in him, 
and had no other will but his; so that though that be ex- 

e Contra sequitatcm est, ut qnis reus agafur propter peccatniTi nori sviurn, ut vere 
nocens judicetur, qui quoad propriaiu suain voluntatem iunocens e>t. Rem. Apol. 
C.7. p. 84. 

^ Contra naturam peccati est, ut censcatur peccatusii, ant ut propria in peccatuin 
imputetiir, quod propria voluntate commissum r.ou est. ibid. 

' Oiiines eraums uuiis ille homo. Autr. 



128 A DISPLAY OF ARMIXIAXISM. 

trinsical unto us, considered as particular persons, yet it i» 
intrinsical, as we are all parts of one common nature ; as in 
him we sinned, so in him we had a will of sinning. Thirdly, 
Original sin is a defect of nature, and not of this or that par- 
ticular person,'' whereon Alvarez grounds this difference of 
actual and original sin, that the one is always committed by 
the proper will of the sinner; to the other is required only 
the will of our first parent, who was the head of human na- 
ture. 

Fourthly, It is hereditary, natural, and no way involun- 
tary, or put into us against our wills: it possesseth our wills 
and inclines us to voluntary sins. 

I see no reason, then, why Corvinus should affirm as he 
doth,' ' That it is absurd, that by one man's disobedience 
many should be made actually disobedient;' unless he did 
it purposely to contradict St. Paul teaching us, that ' by one 
man's disobedience, many were made sinners;' Rom. v. 19. 
Panlus oit, Corvinus iiegat, eligife cui credatis ; choose whom 
you will believe, St. Paul or the Arminians. The sum of their 
endeavour, in this particular, is to clear the nature of man 
from being any way guilty of Adam's actual sin, as being then 
in him, a member and part of that body whereof he was the 
head, or from being obnoxious imto an imputation of it, by 
reason of that covenant wliich God made with us all in him; 
so that denying, as you saw before, all inherent corruption 
and pravity of nature, and now all participation by any 
means of Adam's transgression, methinks they cast a great 
aspersion on Almighty God, however he dealt with Adam for 
his own particular, yet for casting us, hismost innocent pos- 
terity, out of paradise. It seems a hard case, that having no 
obliquity or sin in our nature to deserve it, nor no interest 
in his disobedience, whose obedience had been the means of 
conveying so much happiness unto us, we should yet be in- 
volved in so great a punishment as we are. For that we are 
not now by biith under a great curse and punishment, they 
shall never be able to persuade any poor soul who ever 
heard of paradise, or the garden where God first placed 
Adam: and though all the rest in their judgment be no 

^ Est voluntaiiuiii, voluiilatc prirni originantis, non voluntate contrahentis ratione 
naturee.non persons. Thoni. 1, 2. q. 81. a. 

' Absurduiu est i.t ex unius obedieiUia multi aclu inobcdientes, facti essent. 
Corvin. ad Mol. cap. 7. sec. 8. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 129 

great matter, but an infirmity and languor of nature, or some 
such thing, yet whatever it be, they confess it lights on us 
as well as him, ' We™ confess/ say they, * that the sin of 
Adam may be thus far said to be imputed to his posterity, 
inasmuch as God would have them all born obnoxious to 
that punishment which Adam incurred by his sin, or per- 
mitted that evil which was inflicted on him to descend on 
them.' Now be this punishment what it will, never so small, 
yet if we have no demerit of our own, nor interest in Adam's 
sin, it is such an act of injustice as we must reject from the 
most holy, with a God forbid. Far be it from the judge of 
all the world to punish the righteous with the ungodly : if 
God should impute the sin of Adam unto us, and thereon 
pronounce us obnoxious to the curse deserved by it ; if we 
have a pure, sinless, unspotted nature, even this could scarce 
be reconciled with that rule of his proceeding in justice with 
the sons of men, ' the soul that sinneth it shall die ;' which 
clearly granteth an impunity to all not tainted with sin. 
Sin and punishment, though they are sometimes separated 
by his mercy, pardoning the one, and so not inflicting the 
other, yet never by his justice, inflicting the latter where the 
former is not : sin imputed, by itself alone without an inhe- 
rent guilt, was never punished in any but Christ : the un- 
searchableness of God's love and justice, in laying the ini- 
quity of us all upon him who had no sin, is an exception from 
that general rule he walketh by, in his dealing with the pos- 
terity of Adam. So that if punishment be not due unto us 
for a solely imputed sin, much less when it doth not stand 
with the justice and equity of God, to impute any iniquity 
unto us at all, can we justly be wrapped in such a curse and 
punishment, as woful experience teaches us, that we lie un- 
der. Now in this act of injustice, wherewith they charge 
the Almighty, the Arminians place the whole nature of ori- 
ginal sin : * We" account not,' say they, ' original sin for a 
sin properly so called, that should make the posterity of 
Adam to deserve the wrath of God, nor for an evil that may 

"> Fatemur peccatum Adami, a Deo posse dici imputatum posteris ejus, quatenus 
Deus posteros Adami eidem male, cui, Adaraus, per peccatum obnoxium se reddidit, 
obnoxios nasci voluit; sive quatenus Deus, malum, quod Adarao inflictum erat in 
poenam, in posteros ejus dimanare et transire permisit. Rem. Apol. p. 84. 

■' Peccatum itaque originale nee habent pro peccato proprie dicto, quod posteros 
Adami odio Dei dignos faciat, nee pro malo, quod per modum proprie dictae poense 
ab Adarao in posteros diraanet sed pro infirmltate, &c. Rem. Apol. fol. 84. 

VOL, V. K 



130 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

properly be called a punisliment, but only for an infirmity 
of nature.' Which they interpret to be a kind of evil, that 
being inflicted on Adam, God suffereth to descend upon his 
posterity; so all the depravation of nature, the pollution, 
guilt, and concupiscence, we derive from our first parents ; 
the imputation of Adam's actual transgression, is all strait- 
ened to a small infirmity, inflicted on poor innocent crea- 
tures. 

But let them enjoy their own wisdom, which is earthly, 
sensual, and devilish ; the Scripture is clear that the sin of 
Adam is the sin of us all, not only by propagation and com- 
munication (whereby not his singular fault, but something of 
the same nature is derived unto us), but also by an imputation 
of his actual transgression unto us all, his singular disobedi- 
ence being by this means made ours. The grounds of this 
imputation I touched before, which may be all reduced to his 
being a common person and head of all our nature, which 
investeth us with a double interest in his demerits, whilst 
so he was. 1. As we were then in him and parts of him. 2. 
As he sustained the place of our whole nature, in the cove- 
nant God made with him, both which, even according to the 
exigence of God's justice, require that his transgression be 
also accounted ours. And St. Paul is plain not only ' that by 
one man's offence many were made sinners,' Rom v. 19. by 
the derivation of a corrupted nature, ' but also that by one 
man's offence judgment came upon all ;' ver. 18. even for 
his one sin, all of us are accounted to have deserved judg- 
ment and condemnation; and therefore, ver. 12. he affirmeth, 
* that by one man sin and death entered upon all the world : 
and that because we have all sinned in him ;' which we no 
otherwise do, but that his transgression in God's estimation 
is accounted ours, and the opposition the apostle there 
maketh between Christ and his righteousness, and Adam 
and his disobedience, doth sufficiently evince it, as may ap- 
pear by this figure :° 

Sicut ^ "\ Adamo ^ "^"S"/"" r" ^xaraKpii/.a ^ ^Tra.^i.'STrcDjA.a 

1 f Jinom-^ 7 reduiida- f 1 per ^Adaini, 

sic \ ' ^ Chris- \ nes (?C"P'? } vit, eis /"Sixai'cunv \ unum {'^Malooixa. 

C 3to C J®ioZ C ^^"^C C ^Christi. 

The whole similitude chiefly consists in the imputation of 

° Parajus. ad 5. Koin. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 131 

Adam's sin, and Christ's righteousness, unto the seed of the 
one by nature, and of the other by grace; but that we are 
counted righteous, for the righteousness of Christ is among 
Protestants (though some differ in the manner of their ex- 
pressions) as yet without question, and therefore, are no less 
undoubtedly accounted sinners by, or guilty of, the first sin 
of Adam, 

I shall not shew their opposition unto the truth in many 
more particulars, concerning this article of original sin : hav- 
ing been long ago most excellently prevented even in this 
very method, by the way of antithesis to the Scripture, and 
the orthodox doctrine of our church, by the famously learned 
Master Reynolds, in his excellent treatise of the sinfulness 
of sin ; where he hath discovered their errors, fully answer- 
ed their sophistical objections, and invincibly confirmed the 
truth from the word of God ; only as I have shewed already, 
how they make this we call original sin, no sin at all, neither 
inherent in us, nor imputed unto us, nor no punishment truly 
so called; so because our church saith directly, that it me- 
riteth damnation, I will briefly shew what they conceive to 
be the desert thereof. 

First, For Adam himself, they affirm, ' that the death 
threatened unto him, if he transgressed the covenant, and 
due unto him for it,P was neither death temporal, for that 
before he was subject unto, by the primary constitution of 
his nature ; nor yet such an eternal death, as is accompanied 
with damnation, or everlasting punishment.' No! Why, then, 
let us here learn some new divinity. Christians have hitherto 
believed, that whatsoever may be comprised under the name 
of death, together with its antecedents, consequents, and at- 
tendants, was threatened to Adam, in this commination ; and 
divines until this day, can find but these two sorts of death in 
the Scripture, as penal unto men, and properly so called : and 
shall we now be persuaded that it was neither of these that was 
threatened unto Adam? It must be so, if we will believe the 
Arminians ; it was neither the one nor the other of the for- 
mer; but whereas he was created mortal, and subject to a 
temporal death, the sanction of his obedience, was a threat- 
ening of the utter dissolution of his soul and bod)^ or a re- 

P Cum de ffiterna niorte loquuntiir Remonstrantes in hac de Adamo qusestione, 
lion intelligmu mortem illani, qua; aeterna, poena sensus, &c. Rem. Apol. cap, 4. 
p. 57. 



132 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

duction to their primitive nothing : but what if a man will 
not here take them at their words, but believe accordino: to 
St. Paul, that death entered by sin; that if we had never 
sinned, we had never died, that man in the state of inno- 
cency was by God's constitution, free even from temporal 
death, and all things directly conducing thereunto? Se- 
condly, That this death threatened to our first parents, com- 
prehended damnation also of soul and body for evermore, 
and that of their imaginary dissolution, there is not the least 
intimation in the word of God. Why, I confess they have 
impudence enough in divers places to beg that we would be- 
lieve their assertions, but never confidence enoug-h to ven- 
ture once to prove them true. Now they who make so slight 
of the desert of this sin in Adam himself, will surely scarce 
allow it to have any ill merit at all, in his posterity. 

' Whether*' ever any one were damned for original sin, 
and adjudged to everlasting torments, is deservedly doubted 
of: yea, we doubt not to affirm, that never any was so damned,' 
saith Corvinus. And that this is not his sole opinion, he de- 
clares, by telling you no less of his master, Arminius : ' If is 
most true,' saith he, ' that Arminius teacheth, that it is per- 
versely said, that original sin makes a man guilty of death.' 
Of any death, it should seem, temporal, eternal, or that anni- 
hilation they dream of; and he said true enough. Arminius' 
doth affirm it, adding this reason, 'because it is only the pu- 
nishment of Adam's actual sin.' Now what kind of punish- 
ment they make this to be I shewed you before. But truly 
I wonder, seeing they are every where so peremptory, that 
the same thing cannot be a sin, and a punishment ; why they 
do so often nickname this infirmity of nature, and call it a 
sin, which they suppose to be as far different from it, as fire 
from water. Is it because they are unwilling, by new nam- 
ing it, to contradict St. Paul in express terms, never pro- 
posing it under any other denomination? or if they can 
get a sophistical elusion for him, is it lest, by so doing. 
Christians should the more plainly discern their heresy ? 

s An ullus omnino homo, propter peccatum originis solum damnctur, ac sEtemis 
cruciatibus addicatur, raerito dubitari potest : imo nullum ita daranari affirraare non 
veremur. Cor. ad Molin. cap. 9. sect. .5. 

■■ Vcrissiraura est Arminium docere, perverse dici peccatum originis reuni facere 
ihortis. Corvin. ad Tilen. p. 388. 

• Perverse dicitur peccatum originis, reum facere mortis, quum peccatum iilud 
poena sit pcccati actualis Adanii. Arniin. Resp. ad qiia'st. 9. a. .S. 



A DISPLAY OF A IIMINI ANISW. 133 

or whatever other cause it be, in this I am sure they con- 
tradict themselves, notwithstanding in this they agree full 
well, 'That* God rejecteth none for original sin only,' as 
Episcopius speaks. And here, if you tell them that the ques- 
tion is not de facto, what God doth ; but de jure, what such 
sinners deserve, they tell us plainly? 'That" God will notde- 
stinate any infants to eternal punishment for original sin, 
without their own proper actual sins, neither can he do so, 
by right, or in justice :' so that the children of Turks, Pagans, 
and the like infidels, strangers from the covenant of grace, 
departing in their infancy, are far happier than any Christian 
men, who must undergo a hard warfare against sin and Sa- 
tan, in danger to fall finally away at the last hour; and 
through many difficulties entering the kingdom of heaven, 
when they, without farther trouble, are presently assumed 
thither for their iimocency. Yea, although they are neither 
elected of God ; for as they affirm, he chooseth none but for 
their faith, which they have not; nor redeemed by Christ, 
for he died only for sinners, he saveth 'his people from their 
sins,' which they are not guilty of ; nor sanctified by the Holy 
Ghost, all whose operations they restrain to a moral suasion, 
whereof infants are not a capable subject. Which is not much 
to the honour of the blessed Trinity, that heaven should 
be replenished with them whom the Father never elected, the 
Son never redeemed, nor the Holy Ghost sanctified. 

And thus you see what they make of this original pra- 
vity of our nature, at most an infirmity, or languor thereof: 
neither a sin, nor the punishment of sin properly so called ; 
nor yet a thing that deserves punishment as a sin. Which 
last assertion, whether it be agreeable to Holy Scripture or 
no, these two following observations will declare. 

First, Thei'eisno confusion, no disorder, no vanity in the 
whole world, in any of God's creatures, that is not a punish- 
ment of our sin in Adam. That great and almost universal 
ruin of nature, proceeding from the curse of God overgrow* 
ing the earth, and the wrath of God revealing itself from 
heaven, is the proper issue of his transgression. It was of 
the great mercy of God, that the whole frame of nature was 

• Deus nemiiiem ob solum peccatuni originis rejecit Episcop. disp. 9. Tlies. 2. 

" Pro certo statuunt Deuin luillos infantes, sine actualibus ac propriis peccatis, 
morientes, aeternis cruciatibus destinare ve!le, ant jure di'sdnare posse ob peccafuin 
quod vocatur originis. Rem. Apol. p. 87. 



134 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

not presently rolled up in darkness, and reduced to its pri- 
mitive confusion. Had we ourselves been deprived of those 
remaining sparks of God's image in our souls, which vindi- 
cates us from the number of the beasts that perish ; had we 
been all born fools, and void of reason, by dealing so with 
some in particular, he sheweth us, it had been but justice to 
have wrapped us in the same misery, all in general. All things 
when God first created them, were exceeding good, and 
thought so by the wisdom of God himself; but our sin even 
compelled that good and wise Creator to hate and curse the 
work of his own hands : * Cursed is the ground,' saith he to 
Adam, ' for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the 
days of thy life : thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth 
unto thee ;' Gen. iii. 17, 18. Hence was that heavy burden of 
vanity, that bondage of ' corruption, under which to this day 
the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain until it 
be delivered ;' Rom. viii. 21, 22. Now, if our sin had such a 
strange malignant influence upon those things which have 
no relation unto us, but only as they were created for our 
use, surely it is of the great mercy of God that we our- 
selves are not quite confounded ; which doth not yet so in- 
terpose itself, but that we are all compassed with divers sad 
effects of this iniquity, lying actually under divers pressing 
miseries, and deservedly obnoxious to everlasting destruc- 
tion. So that. 

Secondly, Death temporal, with all its antecedents and 
attendants, all infirmities, miseries, sicknesses, wasting de- 
stroying passions, casualties that ai'e penal, all evil con- 
ducing thereunto, or waiting on it, is a punishment of ori- 
ginal sin : and this, not only because the first actual sin of 
Adam is imputed to us, but most of them are the proper 
issues of that native corruption, and pollution of sin, which 
is stirring and operative within us; for the production of such 
sad effects, our whole nature being by it thoroughly defiled. 
Hence are all the distortures and distemperatures of the 
soul, by lusts, concupiscence, passions, blindness of mind, 
perverseness of will, inordinateness of affections, wherewith 
we are pressed and turmoiled ; even proper issues of that 
inherent sin, which possesseth our whole souls. 

Upon the body also, it hath such an influence in dis- 
posing it to corruption and mortality, as it is the original of 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 135 

all those infirmities, sicknesses, and diseases, which make \\s 
nothing but a shop of such miseries for death itself; as these 
and the like degrees are the steps which lead us on apace 
in the road that tends unto it ; so they are the direct inter- 
nal efficient causes thereof, in subordination to the justice 
of Almighty God, by such means inflicting it as a punish- 
ment of our sins in Adam. Man before his fall, though not 
in regard of the matterwhereof he was made, nor yet merely 
in respect of his quickening form, yet in regard of God's 
ordination, was immortal, a keeper of his own everlasting- 
ness. Death, to which before he was not obnoxious, was 
threatened as a punishment of his sin : ' In the day thou 
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die :' the exposition of which 
words, given by God, at the time of his inflicting this pu- 
nishment, and pronouncing man subject to mortality, clearly 
sheweth that it comprehended temporal death also: * Dust 
thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' Our return to 
dust, is nothing but the soul leaving the body, whereby be- 
fore it was preserved from corruption. Farther, St. Paul 
opposeth that death we had by the sin of Adam, to the re- 
surrection of the body by the power of Christ : * For since 
by man came death, by man also came the resurrection from 
the dead : for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be 
made alive;' 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. The life, which all shall re- 
ceive by the power of Christ at the last day, is essentially a 
reunion of soul and body, and therefore their separation i§ 
a thing we incurred by the sin of Adam. The same apostle 
also, Rom. v. describeth a universal reign of death over ajl, 
by reason of the first transgression : even diseases also, in 
the Scripture, are attributed unto sin, as their meritorious 
cause ; John v. 14. 1 Cor. xii. 30. Rev. ii. 22. and in respect 
of all these, the mercy of God doth not so interpose itself, 
but that all the sons of men are in some sort partakers of 
them. 

Thirdly, The final desert of original sin, as our article 
speaketh, is damnation ; the wrath of God to be poured on 
us, in eternal torments of body and soul. To this end also, 
many previous judgments of God are subservient; as the 
privation of original righteousness, which he took, and with- 
held, upon Adam's throwing it away ; spiritual desertion, 
permission of sin, with all other destroying depravations of 



136 A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 

our nature, as far as they are merely penal ; some of which 
are immediate consequents of Adam's singular actual trans- 
gression, as privation of original righteousness ; others, as 
damnation itself, the proper effects of that derived sin and 
pollution that is in us : there is none damned but for their 
own sin. When divines affirm that by Adam's sin we are 
guilty of damnation, they do not mean, that any are actu- 
ally damned for his particular fact, but that by his sin, and 
our sinning in him, by God's most just ordination we have 
contracted that exceeding pravity, and sinfulness of nature, 
which deserveth the curse of God, and eternal damnation. 
It must be an inherent uncleanness that actually excludes 
out of the kingdom of heaven; Rev. xxi. 27. which un- 
cleanness the apostle shews to be in infants not sanctified 
by an interest in the covenant: in brief *we are baptized 
unto the remission of sins, that we may be saved ;' Acts 
ii. 38. that, then, which is taken away by baptism, is that 
which hinders our salvation, which is not the first sin of 
Adam imputed, but our own inherent lust and pollution. We 
cannot be washed, and cleansed, and purged from an im- 
puted sin, which is done by the laver of regeneration, from 
that which lies upon us, only by an external denomination. 
We have no need of cleansing ; we may be said to be freed 
from it, or justified, but not purged; the soul, then, that is 
guilty of sin shall die, and that for its own guilt. If God 
should condemn us for original sin only, it were not by rea- 
son of the imputation of Adam's fault, but of the iniquity of 
that portion of nature, in which we are proprietaries. 

Now here, to shut up all, observe, that in this inquiry of 
the desert of original sin, the question is not, what shall 
be the certain lot of those that depart this life under the 
guilt of this sin only? but what this hereditary and native 
corruption doth deserve, in all those in whom it is ? For, as 
St. Paul saith, ' we judge not them that are without' (espe- 
cially infants); 1 Cor. v. 13. but for the demerit of it in the 
justice of God, our Saviour expressly affirmeth, that unless 
a man be born again, ' he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
heaven ;' John iii. and let them that can, distinguish be- 
tween a not going to heaven, and a going to hell : a third 
receptacle of souls in the Scripture we find not. St. Paul 
also tells us, that bv ' nature we sje children of wra<th ;" 



A DISPLAY OF ARMIXIANISM. 137 

Epb. ii. 3. even originally and actually, we are guilty of, 
and obnoxious unto, that wrath, which is accompanied with 
fiery indignation, that shall consume the adversaries. Again, 
we are assured ' that no unclean thing shall enter into hea- 
ven ;' Rev. xxi. with which hell-deserving uncleanness chil- 
dren are polluted, and therefore, unless it be purged with 
the blood of Christ, they have no interest in everlasting 
happiness. By this means sin is come upon all to condem- 
nation, and yet do we not peremptorily censure to hell all 
infants departing this world without the laver of regenera- 
tion, the ordinary means of waving the punishment, due to 
this pollution. That is the question de facto, which we before 
rejected : yea, and two ways there are, whereby God saveth 
such infants, snatching them like brands out of the fire. 

First, By interesting them into the covenant, if their im- 
mediate or remote parents have been believers : he is a 
God of them, and of their seed, extending his mercy unto 
a thousand generations of them that fear him. 

Secondly, By his grace of election, which is most free 
and not tied to any conditions ; by which I make no doubt, 
but God taketh many unto him in Christ, whose parents 
never knew, or had been despisers of, the gospel : and this 
is the doctrine of our church, agreeable to the Scripture, 
afiirming the desert of original sin, to be God's wrath and 
damnation ; to both which how opposite is the Arminian 
doctrine may thus appear. 

S. S. Lib. Arbit. 

* By the offence of one man ' Adam sinned in his own 
judgment came upon all to proper person only, and there 
condemnation;' Rom. v. 18. is no reason why God should 

impute that sin unto infants ;' 
BorraBus. 

* By one man's disobedi- * It is absurd that by one 
ence many were made sin- man's disobedience, many 
ners ;' ver. 19. should be made actually dis- 
obedient ;' Corvinus. 

* Behold, I was shapen in 'Infants are simply in that 
iniquity, and in sin did my estate in which Adam was 
mother conceive me;' Psal. before his fall;' Venator. 

li. 5. 



138 



A riSPLAY OF AllMINIANISM. 



s. s. 

'Else were your children 
unclean, but now they are 
holy;' 1 Cor. vii. 14. 

* Who can bring a clean 
thing out of an unclean? not 
one ;' Job xiv. 4. 

' Except a man be born 
again he cannot see the king- 
dom of God ;' John iii. 3. 

' That which is born of 
the flesh is flesh ;' John iii. 6. 

' We were by nature the 
children of vv'rath even as 
others ;' Eph. ii. 3. 

' By one man sin entered 
into the world, and death by 
sin, and so death passed upon 
all men, for that all have sin- 
ned ;' to wit, in him ; Rom. 
V. 12. 

* For I know that in me, 
that is, in my flesli, dwelleth 
no good thing;' Rom. vii. 18. 

' In the day you eat there- 
of you shall surely die ;' Gen. 
ii. 17. 

' For as in Adam all die, 
so;' 1 Cor. xv. 22. 

'By nature children of 
wrath;' Eph. ii. 3. 

' And there shall in no- 
wise enter into it any thing 
thatdefileth;' Rev. xxi. 27. 



Lib. Arbit. 

* Neither is it considerable 
whether they be the children 
of believers, or of heathens, 
for all infants have the same 
innocency;' Rem. Apol. 

* That which we have by 
birth can be no evil of sin, 
because to be born is plainly 
involuntary;' Idem. 



* Original sin, is neither a 
sin properly so called which 
should make the posterity of 
Adam guilty of God's wrath, 
nor yet a punishment of any 
sin on them ;' Rem. Apol. 

' It is against equity that 
one should be accounted 
guilty of a sin, that is not 
his own, that he should be 
judged nocent, who in re- 
gard of his own will is truly 
innocent.' 

' God neither doth, nor 
can in justice, appoint any to 
hell for original sin ;' Rem. 
Apol. 

' It is perversely spoken 
that original sin makes any 
one guilty of death ;' Armin. 

• We no way doubt to af- 
firm, that never any one was 
damned for original sin ;' 
Corvinus. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMIXIAXISM. 159 

CHAP. VIII. 

Of the state of Adam before the fall, or of original righteoxisness. 

In the last chapter we discovered the Arminian attempt of 
re-advancing the corrupted nature of man, into that state of 
innocency and holiness, wherein it was at first by God 
created ; in which design, because they cannot but discern 
that the success is not answerable to their desires, and not 
being able to deny, but that for so much good as we want, 
having cast it away, or evil of sin that we are subject unto, 
more than we were at our first creation, we must be respon- 
sible for, to the justice of God; they labour to draw down 
our first parents, even from the instant of their forming into 
the same condition wherein we are engaged by reason of cor- 
rupted nature. But truly, I fear they will scarce obtain so 
prosperous an issue of their endeavour as Mahomet had, 
when he promised the people he would call a mountain unto 
him ; which miracle when they assembled to behold, but the 
mountain would not stir for all his calling, he replied. If the 
mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the 
mountain; and away he packed towards it; but we shall find 
that our Arminians can neither themselves climb the high 
mountain of innocency, nor yet call it down into the valley 
of sin and corruption, wherein they are lodged. We have seen 
already, how vain and frustrate was their former attempt : 
let us now take a view of their aspiring insolence, in making 
the pure creatures of God holy and undefiled with any sin, 
to be invested with the same wretchedness and perverseness 
of nature with ourselves. 

It is not my intention to enter into any curious discourse 
concerning the state and grace of Adam before his fall ; but 
only to give a faithful assent to what God himself affirmed 
of all the works of his hands, they were exceeding good. No 
evil, no deformity, or any thing tending thereunto, did im- 
mediately issue from that fountain of goodness and wisdom, 
and therefore, doubtless, man, the most excellent work of his 
hands, the greatest glory of his Creator, was then without 
spot or blemish, endued with all those perfections his na- 



140 A DISPLAY Ol' ARMINIAXISM. 

ture, and state of obedience, was capable of: and careful we 
must be of casting any aspersions of defect on him, that we 
will not with equal boldness ascribe to the image of God. 

Nothing doth more manifest the deviation of our nature 
from its first institution, and declare the corruption wherewith 
we are polluted, than that propensity which is in us to every 
thing that is evil, that inclination of the flesh, which lusteth 
always against the spirit, that lust and concupiscence, which 
fomenteth, conceiveth, hatcheth, bringeth forth, and nourish- 
eth sin ; that perpetual proneness that is in unregenerate na- 
ture to everything that is contrary to the pure and holy law 
of God. Now because neither Scripture nor experience will 
suffer Christians quite to deny this pravity of our nature, this 
averseness from all good, and propensity to sin, the Armi- 
nians extenuate as much as they are able, affirming that 
it is no great matter, no more than Adam was subject unto 
in the state of innocency. But what ? did God create in Adam 
a proneness unto evil ? was that a part of his glorious image, 
in whose likeness he was framed ? Yea, saith Corvinus, 'By* 
reason of his creation, man had an affection to what was for- 
bidden by the law;' but yet this seems injustice, that God 
should give a man a law to keep,^ and put upon this nature 
a repugnancy to that law, as one of them affirmed at the sy- 
nod of Dort. 'No V saith the former author :'' ' man had not 
been fit to have had a law given unto him, had he not been 
endued with a propension, and natural inclination, to that 
which is forbidden by the law.' But why is this so necessary 
in men, rather than angels ? No doubt there was a law, a rule, 
for their obedience, given unto them at their first creation, 
which some transgressed, when others kept it inviolate. Had 
they also a propensity to sin, concreated with their nature ? 
had they a natural affection put upon them by God, to that 
which was forbidden by the law ? Let them only, who will be 
wise beyond the word of God, affix such injustice on the 
righteous Judge of all the earth ; but so it seems it must be. 
• There was an inclination in man to sin before the fall,'' though 

a Ex ratioue creationis homo liabebat affectum ad ea quic vctabantur. Cor. ad Mol. 
cap. 6. s. 1. 

b Deus liomini rcpugnantiam indidit adversus legem. Joh. Cast, in Synod, confess. 

<= Homo non est idoneus cui lex feratur, quando in eo, ad id quod lege vetatur, non 
est propensio, ac inclinatio naturalis. Cor. ad Molin. cap. 10. sect. 15. 

•^ Inclinatio ad peccandum ante !apsi\ni in liomine fuit, licet nou i(a vehemens ac 
iuordinata ut nunc cbt. Aimin. ad Artie. Rcspon. 



A DISPLAY OF A UM IN I AXIS.M. 141 

not altogether so vehement and inordinate as it is now,' saith 
Arminius. Hitherto we have thought that the original righte- 
ousness, wherein Adam was created, had comprehended the 
integrity and perfection of the whole man : not only that 
whereby the body was obedient unto the soul, and all the 
affections subservient to the rule of reason for the perform- 
ance of all natural actions ; but also a light, uprightness, and 
holiness of grace, in the mind and will, whereby he was en- 
abled to yield obedience unto God, for the attaining of that 
supernatural end, whereunto he was created. No; but 'ori- 
ginal righteousness,'* say our new doctors, ' was nothing but a 
bridle, to help to keep man's inordinate concupiscence within 
bounds :' so that the faculties of our souls, were never endued 
with any proper innate holiness of their own. 'In^ the spiri- 
tual death of sin, there are no spiritual gifts properly wanting 
in the will, because they were never there/ say the six collo- 
cutors at the Hague. 

The sum is, man was created with a nature, not only weak 
and imperfect, unable by its native strength and endowments 
to attain that supernatural end, for which he was made, and 
which he was commanded to seek, but depraved also, with a 
love and desire of things repugnant to the will of God, by 
reason of an inbred inclination to sinning. It doth not pro- 
perly belong to this place, to shew how they extenuate those 
gifts also, with which they cannot deny but that he was en- 
dued, and also deny those which he had ; as a power to be- 
lieve in Christ, or to assent unto any truth that God should 
reveal unto him : and yet they grant this privilege to every 
one of his posterity, in that depi'aved condition of nature, 
whereintoby sin he cast himself and us. We have all now a 
power of believing in Christ, that is, Adam by his fall ob- 
tained a supernatural endowment far more excellent than any 
he had before. And let them not here pretend the universa- 
lity of the new covenant, until they can prove it ; and I am 
certain it will be long enough : but this, I say, belongs not to 
this place : only let us see, how from the word of God we 
may overthrow the former odious heresy. 

' God in the beginning created man in his own image ;' 

e Justilia origiualis instar fraenifuit, quod prccstabatin ternse concupisccntis oidi- 
nptioneiu. Cor. ad. Mol. c. 8. s. 1. 

^ 111 spiiituali luorte noii separantur proprie dona spiritualia a voluiilate, quia ilia 
uunquani fuerunt ei insita. Hem. coll. Hag. p. 2J0. 



142 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

Gen. i. 26. that is, * upright;' Eccles. vii. 29. endued with a 
nature composed to obedience and holiness : that habitual 
grace and original righteousness, wherewith he was invested, 
was in a manner due unto him for the obtaining of that su- 
pernatural end, whereunto he was created ; a universal recti- 
tude of all the faculties of his soul, advanced by supernatural 
graces, enabling him to the performance of those duties 
whereunto they were required, is that which we call the in- 
nocencyof our first parents. Our nature was then inclined to 
good only, and adorned with all those qualifications that 
were necessary to make it acceptable unto God, and able to 
do Avhat was required of us by the law, under the condition 
of everlasting happiness. Nature, and grace, or original 
righteousness before the fall, ought not to be so distin- 
guished, as if the one were a thing prone to evil, resisted and 
quelled by the other ; for both complied in a sweet union and 
harmony, to carry us along in the way of obedience to eternal 
blessedness ; no contention between the flesh and the spirit, 
but as all other things at theirs, so the whole man jointly 
aimed at his own chiefest good, having all means of attain- 
ing it in his power ; that there was then no inclination to sin, 
no concupiscence of that which is evil, no repugnancy to the 
law of God, in the pure nature of man, is proved, because. 

First, The Scripture, describing the condition of our na- 
ture, at the first creation thereof, intimates no such propen- 
sity to evil, but rather a holy perfection, quite excluding it : 
we were created in ' the image of God ;' Gen. i. 27. in such 
a perfect uprightness as is opposite to all evil inventions ; 
Eccles. vii. 29. to which image, when we are again in some 
' measure renewed, by the grace of Christ ;' Col. iii. 10. 'we 
see by the first-fruits, that it consisted in righteousness and 
holiness, in truth and perfect holiness;' Eph. iv. 24. 

Secondly, An inclination to evil, and a lusting after that 
wliich is forbidden, is that inordinate concupiscence, where- 
with our nature is now infected, whicli is every where in the 
Scripture condemned as a sin. St. Paul in the seventh to 
the Romans, aflurming expressly that it is a sin, and forbidden 
by the law; ver. 1. producing all manner of evil, and hinder- 
ing all that is good; 'a body of death;' ver. 24. and St. 
James malceth it even the womb of all iniquity; James i. 
14, 15. Surely our nature was not at first yoked with such a 



A DISPLAY OF A R aI I X I A X i SM'. 143 

troublesome inmate. Where is the uprightness and innocencv 
we have hitherto conceived our first parents to have enjoyed 
before the fall ? A repugnancy to the law must needs be a 
thing sinful ; an inclination to evil, to a thing forbidden, is 
an anomy, a deviation, and discrepancy, from the pure and 
holy law of God : we must speak no more then of the state 
of innocency, but only of a short space, wherein no outward 
actual sins were committed ; their proper root, if this be true, 
was concreated with our nature. Is this that obediential har- 
mony to all the commandments of God, which is necessary 
for a pure and innocent creature, that hath a law prescribed 
unto him ? By which of the ten precepts, is this inclination 
to evil required? is it by the last, Thou shalt not covet? or 
by that sum of them all. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, 
with all thy heart, &,c.? is this all the happiness of paradise ? 
to be turmoiled with a nature swelling with abundance of 
vain desires ? and with a main stream carried headlono- to 
all iniquity, if its violent appetite be not powerfully kept in 
by the bit and bridle of original righteousness ? So it is we 
see with children now,s and so it should have been with them 
in paradise, if they were subject to this rebellious inclination 
to sin. 

Thirdly, and principally, Whence had our primitive na- 
ture this affection to those things that were forbidden it?- 
this rebellion and repugnancy to the law, which must needs 
be an anomy, and so a thing sinful ; there was as yet no de- 
merit, to deserve it as a punishment? what fault is it to be 
created ? The*" operation of any thing which hath its origi- 
nal with the being of the thing itself, must needs proceed 
from the same cause, as doth the essence or being itself: as 
the fires tending upwards, relates to the same original, with 
the fire : and, therefore, this inclination or affection, can 
have no other author but God ; by which means he is en- 
titled not only to the first sin, as the efficient cause, but to 
all the sins in the world, arising from thence. Plainly and 
without any strained consequences, he is made the author 
of sin : for even those positive properties, which can have 
no other fountain but the author of nature, being set on evil 

s Vidi ego zelantem parvuluni qui nondiim loquebatur, et iiituebatur pallidus, 
ainaro aspectu colluctaiieuni snum. Aug. 

^ Operatio qua? siniul incipitcuui esse rei, est ei ab ngente.a quohabet esse, sictit 
luoveri sursuni iiicst igni a geiicrantc. Alvar. p. 19?. 



144 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



are directly sinful. And here the idol of free-will may tri- 
umph in this victory over the God of heaven : heretofore all 
the blame of sin lay upon his shoulders, but now he begins 
to complain, ovkIjoj airiog dfxi aWa ^ivg kol ixoipa' it is God 
and the fate of our creation, that hath placed us in this con- 
dition of naturally affecting that which is evil : back with 
all your charges, against the ill government of this new deity, 
within his imaginary dominion: what hurt doth he do, but 
incline men unto evil; and God himself did no less, at the 
first? But let them that will, rejoice in these blasphemies, 
it sufficeth us to know, that God created man upright, 
though he hath sought out many inventions ; so that in this 
following dissonancy, we cleave to the better part. 



S. S. 

* So God created man in 
his own image, in the like- 
ness of God created he him, 
male and female created he 
them;' Gen. i. 27. 

' Put on the new man, 
which is renewed in know- 
ledge after the image of him 
that made him ;' Col. iii. 10. 
« which after God is cre- 
ated in righteousness and 
true holiness ;' Eph. iv. 24. 

*Lo this only have I found, 
that God hath made man up- 
right, but he hath sought out 
many inventions ;' Eccles. 
vii. 29. 

* By one man sin entered 
into the world, and death 
by sin ;' Rom, v. 12. 

' Let no man say when he 
is tempted, I am tempted of 
God ; for God tempteth no 
man, but everyone is tempted 
when he is drawn away of his 
own lust;' James i. 13, 14. 



Lib. Arbit. 

' There was in man before 
the fall an inclination to sin- 
ning, though not so vehement 
and inordinate as now it is ;' 
Armin. 

' God put upon man a re- 
pugnancy to his law ;' Ges- 
teranus in the Synod. 

* Man by reason of his 
creation had an affection to 
those things that are forbid- 
den by the law ;' Corvinus. 

* The will of man had ne- 
ver any spiritual endow- 
ments ;' Rem. Apol. 



' It was not fit that man 
should have a law given him, 
unless he had a natural incli- 
nation to what was forbidden 
by the law;' Corvinus. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 1'15' 



CHAP. IX. 

Of the death of Christ, and of the efficacy of his nieritf. 

The sura of those controversies, wherewith the Arminians 
and their abettors have troubled the church, about the death 
of Christ, may be reduced to two heads. First, Concerning 
the object of his merit, or whom he died for. Secondly, 
Concerning the efficacy and end of his death, or what he 
deserved, procured, merited, and obtained, for them for 
whom he died. In resolution of the first, they affirm, that ha 
died for all, and every one ; of the second, that he died for 
no one man at all ; in that sense Christians have hitherto 
believed that he laid down his life, and submitted himself 
to bear the burden of his Father's wrath, for their sakes. 
It seems to me a strange extenuation of the merit of Christ, 
to teach, that no good at all by his death doth redound to 
divers of them for whom he died : what participation in the 
benefit of his suffering, had Pharaoh or Judas ? Do they not 
at this hour, and shall they not to eternity, feel the weight 
and burden of their own sins ? Had they either grace in 
this world, or glory in the other, that they should be said 
to have an interest in the death of our Saviour ? Christians 
have hitherto believed, that for whom Christ died, for their 
sins he made satisfaction ; that they themselves should not 
eternally suffer for them : is God unjust to punish twice, 
for the same fault ? His own Son once, and again the poor 
sinners, for whom he sufiered ? I cannot conceive an inten- 
tion in God, that Christ should satisfy his justice for the 
sin of them that were in hell some thousands of years be- 
fore, and yet be still resolved to continue then punishment 
on them to all eternity ? No, doubtless ; Christ giveth life 
to every one, for whom he gave his life ; he loseth not one 
of them, whom he purchased with his blood. 

The first part of this controversy, may be handled, under 
these two questions. First, Whether God giving his Son, 
and Christ making his soul a ransom for sin, intended there- 
by to redeem all and every one, from their sins, that all and 

VOL. V. L 



146 A DISPLAY OF ARMINI A NISM. 

every one alike from the beginning of the world, to the last 
day, should all equally be partakers of the fruits of his death 
and passion ; which purpose of theirs is in the most frus- 
trate. Secondly, Whether God had not a certain infallible 
intention, of gathering unto himself a chosen people, of 
collecting a church of first-bom, of saving his little flock, 
of bringing some certainly to happiness, by the death of his 
only Son, which in the event he doth accomplish. 

The second part also may be reduced to these two heads. 
First, Whether Christ did not make full satisfaction for all 
their sins for whom he died, and merited glory, or everlast- 
ing happiness, to be bestowed on them, upon the perform- 
ance of those conditions, God should require ? Secondly 
(which is the proper controversy I shall chiefly insist upon). 
Whether Christ did not procure for his own people, a power 
to become the sons of God, merit and deserve at the hands 
of God for them, grace, faith, righteousness, and sanctifica- 
tion, whereby they may be enabled infallibly, to perform the 
conditions of the new covenant, upon the which they shall 
be admitted to glory. 

To the first question, of the first part of the controversy, 
the Arminians answer affirmatively, to wit, that Christ died 
for all alike, the benefit of his passion, belongs equally to 
all the posterity of Adam. And to the second, negatively, that 
God had no such intention of bringing many chosen sons 
unto salvation by the death of Christ ; but determined of 
grace and glory, no more precisely to one than to another, 
to John than Judas, Abraham than Pharaoh? both which, 
as the learned Moulin observed," seem to be invented to 
make Christianity ridiculous, and expose our religion to 
the derision of all knowing men. For who can possibly con- 
ceive that one by the appointment of God should die for 
another ; and yet that other, by the same justice be allotted 
unto death himself, when one's death only was due : that 
Christ hath made a full satisfaction for their sins, who shall 
everlastingly feel the weight of them, themselves ; that he 
should merit and obtain reconciliation with God for them, 
who live and die his enemies : grace and glory for them, 
who are graceless in this life, and damned in that which is 

» Molin. sufFrag. ad Sjnod. Dordra, 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 147 

to come: that he should get remission of sins for them* 
whose sins were never pardoned ? In brief, if this sentence 
be true, either Christ by his death did not reconcile us unto 
God, make satisfaction to his justice for our iniquities, re- 
deem us from our sins, purchase a kingdom, an everlasting 
inheritance for us, which, I hope no Christian will say, or 
else all the former absurdities must necessarily follow, which 
no rational man will ever admit. 

Neither may we be charged, as straiteners of the merit 
of Christ: for we advance the true value and worth thereof 
(as hereafter will appear) far beyond all the Arminians as- 
cribe unto it ; we confess that ' that blood of God ;' Acts 
XX. 28. 'of the Lamb without spot or blemish;' 1 Pet. i. 19. 
was so exceedingly precious, of that infinite worth and va- 
lue, that it might have saved a thousand believing worlds ; 
John iii. 16. Rom. iii. 22. His death was of sufficient dignity, 
to have been made a ransom, for all the sins of every one in 
the world: and on this internal sufficiency of his death and 
passion, is grounded the universality of evangelical pro- 
mises, which have no such restriction in their own nature, as 
that they should not be made to all, and every one, though 
the promulgation and knowledge of them, is tied only to the 
good pleasure of God's special providence ; Matt. xvi. 17, 
As also that'economy and dispensation of the new covenant, 
whereby the partition wall being broken down, there remains 
no more difference between Jew and Gentile, the utmost 
borders of the earth being given in for Christ's inheritance. 
So that in some sense, Christ may be said to die for all, and 
the whole world : first. Inasmuch as the worth and value of 
Ills death, was very sufficient to have been made a price for 
all their sins : secondly, Inasmuch as this word all, is taken 
for some of all sorts, not for every one, of every sort, as it is 
frequently used in the Holy Scripture, so Christ ' being 
lifted up drew all unto him;' John i. 2. 32. that is, believers 
out of all sorts of men ; the apostles cured all diseases, or 
some of all sorts, they did not cure every particular disease, 
but there was no kind of disease, that was exempted from 
their power of healing : so that where it is said, that 
Christ died for all, it is meant either, first. All the faithful ; or, 
secondly. Some of all sorts ; thirdly. Not only Jews, but Gen- 
tiles. For, 

L 2 



148 



A DISPLAY OF ARMIXI ANISAI. 



Secondly, The proper counsel and intention of God, in 
sending his Son into the world to die, was, that thereby he 
might confirm and ratify the new covenant to his elect ; and 
purchase for them, all the good things, whicli are contained 
in the tenure of that covenant ; to wit, grace and glory : 
that by his death, he might bring many (yet some certain) 
children to glory, obtaining for them that were given unto 
him by his Father, that is, his whole church, reconciliation 
with God, remission of sins, faith, righteousness, sanctifica- 
tion, and life eternal. That is the end, to which they are to 
be brought, and the means whereby God will have them at- 
tain it : he died that he might gather the dispersed children 
of God, and make them partakers of everlasting glory, to 
give eternal life, ' to all that God gave unto him;' John xvii. 
2. And on this purpose of himself, and his Father, is found- 
ed the intercession of Christ, for his elect and chosen peo- 
ple, performed partly on the earth, John xvii. partly in hea- 
ven before the throne of grace ; which is nothing but a pre- 
sentation of himself and his merits, accompanied with the 
prayers of his mediatorship before God, that he would be 
pleased to grant, and effectually to apply, the good things, 
he hath by them obtained, to all for whom he hath obtained 
them : his intercession in heaven, is nothing but a continued 
oblation of himself. So that whatsoever Christ impetrated, 
merited, or obtained, by his death and passion, must be in- 
fallibly applied unto, and bestowed upon them, for whom he 
intended to obtain it; or else his intercession is vain, he is 
not heard in the prayers of his mediatorship : an actual re- 
conciliation with God, and communication of grace and 
glory, must needs betide all them that have any such inter- 
est in the righteousness of Christ, as to have it accepted for 
their good ; the sole end, why Christ would so dearly pur- 
chase those good things, is an actual application of them 
unto his chosen : * God set forth the propitiation of his 
blood, for the remission of sins, that he might be the justifier 
of him that believeth on Jesus ;' Rom. iii. 25, 26. But this 
part of the controversy is not that which I principally intend : 
only I will give you a brief sum of those reasons which over- 
throw their heresy, in this particular branch thereof. 

First, The death of Christ, is in divers places of the 
Scripture restrained ' to his people, and elect, his church. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMIXIANISM. 149 

and sheep;' Matt. i. 21. John x. 11—13. Acts xx. 28. Eph. 
V. 25. John xi. 52. Rom. viii. 32, 33. Heb. ii. 10. 13. Rev. v. 
9. Dan. ix. 27. and therefore the good purchased thereby, 
ought not to be extended, ' to dogs, reprobates, and those 
that are without.' 

Secondly, For whom Christ died, he died as their spon- 
sor, in their room and turn, that he might free them from 
the guilt and desert of death ; which is clearly expressed, 
Rom. V. G — 8. ' He was wounded for our transgressions, he 
was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed;' Isaliii. 
5, 6, &c. ' He hath redeemed us, from the curse, being 
made a curse for us;' Gal. iii. 13. ' He made him to be sia 
for us, who knew no sin;' 1 Cor. v. 21. Evidently he 
changeth turns with us, that we might be made the righte- 
ousness of God in him: yea, in other things, it is plain in 
the Scripture, that to die for another, is to take his place 
and room, with an intention that he should live ; 2 Sam. 
xviii. 33. Rom. v. So that Christ dying for men, made satis- 
faction for their sins, that they should not die : now for 
what sins he made satisfaction, for them the justice of God 
is satisfied, which surely is not done for the sins of the re- 
probates, because he justly punisheth them to eternity upon 
themselves ; Matt. v. 26. 

Thirdly, For whom Christ died, for them also he rose 
again, to make intercession for them: 'for whose offences he 
was delivered, for their justification he was raised ;' Rom. iv. 
25. V. 10. ' He is a high priest to make intercession for 
them in the holiest of holies, for whom by his blood he ob- 
tained everlasting redemption;' Heb. ix. 11, 12. Those two 
acts of his priesthood are not to be separated, it belongs to 
the same Mediator for sin, to sacrifice, and pray; our assur- 
ance that he is our Advocate, is grounded on his being a 
propitiation for our sins : he is an Advocate for every one, 
' for whose sins his blood was a propitiation ;' 1 John ii. 1, 2. 
But Christ doth not intercede, and pray for all, as himself 
' often witnesseth;' John xvii. He maketh intercession only 
for them ' who come unto God by him ;' Heb. vii. 24. He 
is not a Mediator of them that perish, no more than an Ad- 
vocate of them that fail in their suits, and therefore the 
benefit of his death also must be restrained to them, who 



150 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

are finally partakers of both : we must not so disjoin the 
offices of Christ's mediatorship, that one of them may be 
versated about some towards whom he exerciseth not the 
other ; much less ought we so to separate the several acts of 
the same office. For whom Christ is a priest, to offer him- 
self a sacrifice for their sins, he is surely a king, to apply 
the good things purchased by his death unto them, as Ar- 
minius himself confesseth ; much more to whom he is a priest 
by sacrifice, he will be a priest by intercession : and there- 
fore, seeing he doth not intercede and pray for every one, he 
did not die for every one. 

Fourthly, For whom Christ died, he merited grace, and 
glory, faith, and salvation, and reconciliation with God, as 
I shall shew hereafter: but this he hath not done for all, and 
every one : many do never believe, the wrath of God remain- 
eth upon some, the wrath of ' God abideth on them that do 
not believe;' John iii. 36. To abide, argueth a continued 
uninterrupted act ; now to be reconciled to one, and yet to 
lie under his heavy anger, seem to me aavaTara, things that 
will scarce consist together ; the reasons are many, I only 
point at the heads of some of them. 

Fifthly, Christ died for them, whom God gave unto him 
to be saved : ' Thine they were, and thou gavest them unto 
me ;' John xvii. 6. ' He layeth down his life, for the sheep 
committed to his charge ;' John x. 11. But all are not the 
sheep of Christ, all are not given unto him of God, to be 
brought to glory ; for of those that are so given, there is not 
one that perisheth, for ' he giveth eternal life to as many as 
God hath given him ;' John xvii. 2. ' No man is able to pluck 
them out of his Father's hands ;' chap. x. 28, 29. 

Sixthly, Look whom, and how many, that love of God 
embraced, that was the cause of sending his Son to redeem 
them ; for them, and so many, did Christ, according to the 
counsel of his Father, and in himself, intentionally lay down 
his life : now this love is not universal, being his good plea^ 
sure of blessing with spiritual blessings, and saving some in 
Christ; Eph. i. 4, 5. Which good pleasure of his evidently 
comprehendeth some when others are excluded ; Matt. xi. 
25, 26. Yea, the love of God in giving Christ for us, is of the 
same extent with that grace whereby he calleth us to faith, 
or bestoweth faith on us : ' For he hath called us with a holy 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 151 

calling, according to his own purpose and grace, which was 
given us in Jesus Christ ;' 2 Tim. ii. 9. Which doubtless is 
not universal and common unto all. 

Innumerable other reasons there are to prove, that seeing 
God hath given his elect only, whom only he loved, to Christ 
to be redeemed ; and seeing that the Son loveth only those 
who are given him of his Father, and redeemeth only whom 
he loveth : seeing also that the Holy Spirit, the love of the 
Father and the Son, sanctifieth all, and only them, that are 
elected and redeemed ; it is not our part, with a prepos- 
terous liberality against the witness of Christ himself, to as- 
sign the salvation attained by him, as due to them that are 
without the congregation of them whom the Father hath loved 
and chosen ; without that church, which the Son loved and 
gave his life for it; nor none of the members of that sanc- 
tified body, whereof Christ is the head and Saviour. I urge 
no more, because this is not that part of the controversy 
that I desire to lay open. 

I come now to consider the main question of this differ- 
ence, though sparingly handled by our divines ; concerning 
what our Saviour merited and purchased for them for whom 
he died. And here you shall find the old idol playing his 
pranks, and quite divesting the merit of Christ, from the 
least ability or power, of doing us any good ; for though the 
Arminians pretend very speciously, that Christ died for all 
men : yet, in effect, they make him die for no one man at all ; 
and that by denying the effectual operation of his death, and 
ascribing the proper issues of his passion to the brave en- 
deavours of their own Pelagian deity. 

We (according to the Scriptures) plainly believe, that 
Christ hath by his righteousness, merited for us grace and 
glory ; that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings, in, 
through, and for him; that he is made unto us righteousness, 
and sanctification, and redemption; that he hath procured 
for us, and that God for his sake, bestoweth on us, every 
grace in this life, that maketh us differ from others, and all 
that glory we hope for, in that which is to come; he pro- 
cured for us remission of all our sins, an actual reconciliation 
with God, faith, and obedience. Yea, but this is such a des- 
perate doctrine, as stabs at the very heart of the idol ; and 
would make him as altogether useless, as if he were but a 



"J52 A DiSPLxiY OF AKMINIANISSI. 

fig-tree log : what remaineth for him to do, if all things 
in this great work of our salvation, must be thus ascribed 
tmto Christ, and the merit of his death ? Wherefore the wor- 
shippers of this great god, Lib. Arbit. oppose their engines 
against the whole fabric, and cry down the title of Christ's 
merits, to these spiritual blessings, in the behalf of their 
imaginary deity. 

Now, because they are things of a twofold denomination, 
about which we contend, before the King of heaven ; each 
part producing their evidence ; the first springing from the 
favour of God towards us : the second from the working of 
his grace, actually within us ; I shall handle them severally 
and apart; especially because to things of this latter sort, 
gifts, as we call them, enabling us to fulfil the condition re- 
quired, for the attaining of glory, w^e lay a double claim on 
God's behalf : first. As the death of Christ is the meritorious 
cause procuring them of him : secondly. As his free grace is 
their efficient cause working them in us ; they also producing 
a double title, whereby they would invest their beloved 
darling, with a sole propriety in causing these effects. First, 
In regard that they are our own acts performed in us, and by 
us : secondly, As they are parts of our duty, which we are 
enjoined to do, so that the quarrel is directly between Christ's 
merits and our own free-will, about pi'ocuring the favour of 
God, and obtaining grace and righteousness. Let us see what 
they say to the first. 

They affirm"^ that the immediate and proper effect, or end, 
of the death and passion of Christ, is not an actual oblation of 
sin from men, not an actual remission of iniquities, justifi- 
cation and redemption, of any soul : that is, Christ's death 
is not the meritorious cause of the remission of our sins, of 
redemption and justification; the meritorious cause, I say, 
for of some of them, as of justification, as it is terminated in 
us, we confess there are causes of other kinds, as faith is the 
instrument, and tlie Holy Spirit the efficient thereof. But for 
the sole meritorious procuring cause of these spiritual bless- 
ings, we always took it to be the righteousness and death 
of Christ; believing plainly, that the end why Christ died, 
and the fruit of his sufferings, was our reconciliation with 

b Inimediata mortis Christi effectio, ac passionis, ilia est non actuaiis pcccatorum 
ab his aut illis ablatio, non actuaiis remissio, non justificatio, non actuaiis horum aiU 
jlloium redemptio. Armin. Antiperk. p. 76. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 153 

God, redemption from our sins, freedom from the curse, deli- 
verance from the wrath of God, and power of hell : though we 
be not actual partakers of these things to the pacification of 
our own consciences, without the intervening operation of 
the Holy Spirit, and faith by him wrought in us. 

But if this be not, pray what is obtained by the death of 
Christ? Why 'a potential j*^ conditionate reconciliation, not 
actual and absolute,' saith Corvinus. But yet this potential 
reconciliation, being a new expression, never intimated in 
the Scripture, and scarce of itself intelligible, we want a 
farther explanation of their mind, to know what it is that di- 
rectly they assign to the merits of Christ : wherefore, they 
tell us,'' that the fruit of his death, was ' such an impetra- 
tion, or obtaining of reconciliation with God, and redemption 
for us: that God thereby hath a power, his justice being 
satisfied, and so not compelling him to the contrary, to grant 
remission of sins, to sinful men, on what condition he would :' 
or as another speaketh it,^' There was by the effusion of 
Christ's blood, a right obtained unto, and settled in God, of 
reconciling the world, and of opening unto all, a gate of re- 
pentance, and faith in Christ.' But now, whereas the Scrip- 
ture every where affirmeth, that Christ died for our good, to 
obtain blessings for us, to purchase our peace, to acquire and 
merit for us the good things contained in the promise of 
the covenant ; this opinion seems to restrain the end and 
fruit thereof, to the obtaining of a power and liberty unto 
God, of prescribing us a condition whereby we may be saved : 
but yet it may be, thus much at least Christ obtained of God 
in our behalf, that he should assign faith in him, to be this 
condition, and to bestow it upon us also. No, neither the 
one nor the other,*" ' after all this, had it so seemed good unto 
his wisdom, God might have chosen the Jews, and others, 

« Reconciliatio potentialis et conditionata non actualis et absoluta, per mortem 
Christi impetratur. Corvin ad IMolin. cap. 28. st-ct. 11. 

d Reruissionis.'justificationis, et redemptionis, apud Deum impcfratio, qua factum 
est, ut Deusjam possit, utpote justitia cui satisfactum est non obstante lioraiuibus 
peccatoribus peccata remittere. Armin. ubi sup. 

^ Autorismens non estalia, quameffuso sanguine Christi reconciliandi muiidum Deo 
jus impetratum fuisse, et inito novo faidere et gratioso cum hominibus, Deum grntiae 
ostium, omnibus denuo pajnitentise ac verae in Christum fidei.legeadaperuisse. Epis- 
tol. ad Walac. pag. 93. 

^ Potuisset Deus, si ita sapientiae sua; visum fuisset, operarios, Jadasos, vel alios 
etiam praeter fideles eiigere, quia potuit aliam salutis cotiditioncm, quam fideni in 
Christum cxigere. Grevinch. ad Ames. p. 'Hb. 



154 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

following the righteousness of the law, as well as believers, 
because he might have assigned any other condition of sal- 
vation besides faith in Christ/ saith Grevinchovius. Not- 
withstanding then the death of Christ for us, we might have 
been held to the old rule, * Do this and live :' but if this be 
true, I cannot perceive how it may be said, that Christ died 
to redeem us from our sins, to save our souls, and bring us 
unto glory ; neither, perhaps, do they think this to be any 
great inconvenience, for the same author affirmeth,^ 'that 
Christ cannot be said properly to die, to save any one.' And 
a little after he more fully declares himself,'' * That after Christ 
had obtained all that he did obtain by his death, the right 
remained wholly in God, to apply it, or not to apply it, as it 
should seem good unto him : the application of grace and 
glory to any man, was not the end for which Christ obtained 
them, but to get a right and power unto God, of bestowing 
those things on what sort of men he would :' which argues 
no redemption of us from our sins, but a vindication of God 
from such a condition, wherein he had not power to forgive 
them ; not an obtaining of salvation for us, but of a liberty 
unto God of saving us, on some condition or other. 

But now, after God hath got this power by the death of 
Christ, and out of his gracious good pleasure, assigned faith 
to be the means for us to attain those blessings, he hath pro- 
cured himself a liberty to bestow. Did Christ obtain this 
faith for us of him ; if it be a thing not in our own power ? 
No :' 'faith is not obtained by the death of Christ,' saith Cor- 
vinus : so that there is no good thing, no spiritual blessing, 
into which any man in the world hath any interest by the 
death of Christ : which is not so great an absurdity, but that 
they are most ready to grant it. Arnoldus confesseth,'' 'that 
he believes, that the death of Christ might have enjoyed its 
end, or his merit its full force, although, never any had be- 
lieved :' and again,' ' the death and satisfaction of Christ being 

f Christus non pst proprie mortuus ad aliqnem salvandum. idem, ibid. pag. 8. 

h Postquani impetratio pijestita ac pcracta esset, Deo jus suum integrum inansit, 
pro avbitrio fuo, eani applicaie, vel non applicarc, ncc applicati^) finis inipt-trationis 
propria fuit, sed jus, et potostas applicandi, qiiibus et qualibus vellet. pag. 9. 

> Fides non est impetrata nierito Clirisli. &c. Cor. ad Mol. cap. 28. pag. 419. 

■< Se oninino credere, futuruni fuisse, ut finis mortis Ciiristi conslaret, etiamsi nemo 
credidisset. Idem, cap, 27. sect. 3, 4. 

' Posita et priestitaChristimorte et satisfactione, fieri potest, ut nemine, novi fa»- 
deris conditionem, prsestante, nemo saharetur. Idem. Grevincli. ad Ames. pag. 9. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 155 

accomplished, it might come to pass, that, none fulfilling the 
condition of the new covenant, none should be saved ;' so also 
saith Grevinchovius. Oh Christ! that any pretending to pro- 
fess thy holy name, should thus slight the precious vs^ork of 
thy death and passion! Surely, never any before, who counted 
it their glory to be called Christians, did ever thus extenuate 
(their friends the Socinians only excepted), the dignity of his 
merit and satisfaction. Take but a short view of what be- 
nefit they allow to redound to us, by the effusion of his pre- 
cious blood, and you may see what a pestilent heresy, these 
men have laboured to bring into the church: neither faith 
nor salvation, grace nor glory, hath he purchased for us, not 
any spiritual blessing, that by our interest in his death we 
can claim to be ours : it is not such a reconciliation with 
God, as that he thereupon, should be contented again to be 
called our God, it is not justification, nor righteousness, nor 
actual redemption from our sins, it did not make satisfaction 
for our iniquities, and deliver us from the curse :" ' only it was 
a means of obtaining such a possibility of salvation, as that 
God, without wronging of his justice, might save us if he 
would one way or other.' So that when Christ had done all 
that he could, there was not one man in the world immedi- 
ately the better for it : notwithstanding the utmost of his 
endeavour, every one might have been damned with Judas 
to the pit of hell :° for 'he died as well for Simon Magus and 
Judas, as he did for Peter and Paul,' say the Arminians. 
Now, if no more good redound to us by the death of Christ 
than to Simon Magus, we are not much obliged to him for 
our salvation. Nay, he may be rather said to have redeemed 
God, than us, for he procured for him, immediately a power 
to redeem us if he would ; for us, only by virtue of that 
power, a possibility to be redeemed : which leaves nothino* 
of the nature of merit annexed to his death : for that de- 
serveth that something be done, not only that it may be 
done : the workman deserveth that his wages be given him, 
and not that it may be given him. And then what becomes 
of all the comfort and consolation that is proposed to us in 

"' Impetratio salntis pro omnibus, est acquisitio possibilitatis, ut niniiriim Deus 
illffisa sua justitia honiinem peccatorem possit lecipere ingratiani. Rem. Coll. Hag. 
p. 17y. 

" Pro Juda ac Petro mortaus est Christus, et pro Siiiione Mago et Juda tarn pr» 
Paulo et Petro. Rem. Synod, p. 320. 



156 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

the death of Christ? But it is time to see how this stubble 
is burned and consumed by the word of God, and that es- 
tablished which they thought to overthrow. 

First, It is clear that Christ died to procure for us an ac- 
tual reconciliation with God; and not only a power for us to 
be reconciled unto him : for when we ' were enemies, we 
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ;' Rom. v. 
10. We enjoy an actual reconciliation unto God by his death ; 
he is content to be called our God, when we are enemies, 
without the intervening of any condition on our part re- 
quired, though the sweetness, comfort, and knowledge of 
this reconciliation do not compass our souls before we be- 
lieve in him. Again, we have remission of sins by his blood 
and justification from them, not a sole vindication into such 
an estate, wherein, if it please God and ourselves, our sins 
are pardonable ; for we are justified 'through the redemp- 
tion that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be 
a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his 
righteousness for the remission of sins ;' Rom. iii. 24, 25. 
Yea, he obtained for us by his death, righteousness and ho- 
liness. ' He gave himself for his church that he might sanc- 
tify and cleanse it ;' Eph. v. 26. ' tiiat he might present it 
unto himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle ; that 
we should be holy and without blemish ;' ver. 27. Where, 
first, we have whom Christ died or gave himself for, even 
his church : secondly, what he obtained for it, holiness and 
righteousness, a freedom from the spots and blemishes of 
sin, that is, the grace of justification and sanctity ; ' He made 
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be- 
come the righteousness of God in him ;' 2 Cor. v. 21. And, 
lastly, he died to purchase for us ' an everlasting inherit- 
ance ;' Heb. ix. 15. So that both grace and glory are be- 
stowed on them for whom he died, as the immediate fruits of 
his death and passion. 

Secondly, See what the Scripture prirwg, 'expressly' as- 
sio-neth as the proper end and immediate effect (according 
to the purpose of God, and his own intention) of the effu- 
sion of the blood of Jesus Christ, and you shall find that he 
intended by it, to take away the sins of many^ * to make his 
soul an offering for sin ; that he might see his seed, that the 
counsel of God might prosper in his hand ;' Isa. liii. ' to be 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 157 

a ransom for many ;' Matt. xx. 28. ' to bear the sins of many ;' 
Heb. ix. 28. ' he bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 
that we should live unto righteousness ;' 1 Pet. ii. 24. ' that 
we might become the righteousness of God in him ;' 2 Cor. 
V. 21. thereby ' reconciling us unto God;' ver. 19. he died, 
'to reconcile us unto God, in the body of his flesh, through 
death, that we might be holy and unblamable;' Col. i. 
21, 22. ' to purge our sins;' Heb. i. 3. ' to obtain an ever- 
lasting redemption for us;' Heb. ix. 12. So that if Christ 
by his death obtained what he did intend, he hath pur- 
chased for us, not only a possibility of salvation, but ho- 
liness, righteousness, reconciliation with God, justification, 
freedom from the guilt and condemning power of sin, ever- 
lasting redemption, eternal life, and glory in heaven. 

Thirdly, I appeal unto the consciences of all Christians. 
First, Whether they do not suppose the very foundation of 
all their consolation, to be stricken at when they shall find 
those places of Scripture," that affirm Christ to have died 
' to take away our sins, to reconcile us unto God, to put 
away or abolish our transgressions, to wash and regenerate 
us, perfectly to save us, and purchase for us an everlasting 
redemption, whereby he is become unto us, righteousness, 
and redemption, and sanctification, the Lord our righteous- 
ness, and we become the righteousness of God in him ;' to be 
so wrested, as if he should be said only to have done some- 
thing, which these things might happily follow. 

Secondly, Whether they think it not a ready way to Im- 
pair their love and to weaken their faith in Christ, when 
they shall be taught that Christ hath done no more for them 
than for those that are damned in hell ; that be their assur- 
ance never so great that Christ died for them, yet there is 
enough to be laid to their charge to condemn them ; that 
thouo;h God is said to have reconciled them unto himself 
in Christ, Col. i. 19, 20. yet indeed he is as angry with 
them as with any reprobate in the v»'orld; that God loveth us 
not first, but so long as we continue in a state of enmity 
against him before our conversion, he continues our enemy 
also ; so that the first act of friendship or love, must be per- 
formed on our part, notwithstanding that the Scripture saith, 
we were reconciled unto God being enemies ; Rom. v. 10, 

» Heb. vij. 12. 16. 24. ix. 14. 28. Isa. liii. 11. 1 John ii. ?, 6c 



158 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

Thirdly, Whether they have not hitherto supposed them- 
selves bound to believe, that Christ died for their sins and 
rose for their justification? Do they not think it lawful to 
pray that God would bestow upon them grace and glory for 
Christ's sake? and to believe that Jesus Christ was such a 
Mediator of the new covenant, as procured for the persons 
covenanted withal, all the good things comprehended in the 
promise of that covenant ? 

I will not farther press upon this prevarication against 
Christian rehgion, only I would desire all the lovers of 
Jesus Christ seriously to consider, whether these men do 
truly aim at his honour, and advancing the dignity of his 
merit, and not rather at the crying up of their own endea- 
vours, seeing the sole cause of their denying these glorious 
effects of the blood of Christ, is to appropriate the praise of 
them unto themselves, as we shall see in the next chapter. 

These charges are never to be waved by the vanity of 
their sophistical distinctions, as of that of impelration and 
application, which though it may be received in an ortho- 
dox meaning, yet not in that sense or rather nonsense where- 
unto they abuse it ; viz. as though Christ had obtained that 
for some which shall never be imparted unto them, that all 
the blessings procured by his death are proper to none, but 
pendent in the air for them that can or will catch them : where- 
upon when we object, sthat by this means all the efficacy of 
the merit of Christ is in our own power, they readily grant it, 
and say it cannot otherwise be. Let them that can receive 
these monsters in Christianity, for my part in these following 
contradictory assertions, I will choose rather to adhere to 
the authority of the word of God, than of Arminius and 
his sectaries. 

S. S. Lib. Arbit. 

* He made him to be sin for 'The immediate effect of 
us who knew no sin, that we the death of Christ is not the 
might become the righteous- remission of sins, or the ac- 
ness of God in him ;' 2 Cor. tual redemption of any;' Ar- 
V. 21. Diin- 

* He loved his church and * Christ did not properly 

1 Sic efficacia meriti Christi tola penes nos stabit, qui vocationem alioqui ineffi- 
caceru, cfficaceni reddiaius ; sane, fieri aliter non potest. Rem. ApoJ. p.. 93. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



153 



S. S. 
gave himself for it, that he 
might present it unto himself 
a glorious church, not having 
spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
thing;' Eph. v. 26, 27. 

' God was in Christ re- 
conciling the world unto him- 
self;' 2 Cor. V. 19. 

* When thou shalt make 
his soul an offering for sin, 
he shall see his seed, he shall 
prolong his days, and the 
pleasure of the Lord shall 
prosper in his hand;' Isa. 
liii. 10. 

' By his knowledge shall 
my righteous servant justify 
many, for he shall bear their 
iniquities ;' ver. 11. 

' Christ was once offered 
to bear the sins of many ;' 
Heb. ix. 28. 

* By his own blood he en- 
tered in once into the holy 
place, having obtained eter- 
nal redemption for us ; ver. 
12. 

* He hath reconciled you 
in the body of his flesh, 
through death to present you 
holy and unblamable;' Col. 
i. 22. 

'Whom God hath set forth 
to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood, to declare 
his righteousness for the re- 
mission of sins, &c. — that 
he might be just, and the 
justifier of him that belie veth 
in Jesus ;' Rom. iii. 25, 26. 



Lib. Arbit. 
die to save any one;' Gre- 
vinch. 

* A potential and condi- 
tionate reconciliation, not ac- 
tual and absolute, is obtained 
by the death of Christ;' Cor- 



' I believe it might have 
come to pass that the death 
of Christ might have had its 
end, though never any man 
had believed;' Corvin. 



' The death and satisfac- 
tion of Christ being accom- 
plished, yet it may so come 
to pass that none at all fulfil- 
ing the condition of the new 
covenant, none might be sav- 
ed;' Idem. 

' The impetration of sal- 
vation for all by the death of 
Christ, is nothing but the ob- 
taining of a possibility there- 
of; that God without wrong'- 
ing his justice may open unto 
them a gate of mercy, to be 
entered on some condition ;' 
Rem. Coll. Hag. 

' Notwithstanding the 
death of Christ, God might 
have assigned any other con- 
dition of salvation as well as 
faith, or have chosen the 
Jewsfollowing the righteous- 
ness of the law;' Grevin. 



160 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

S. S. Lib. Arbit. 

'Who his ownself bare 'Why then the efficacy 

our sins in his own body on of the death of Christ de- 

the tree, that we being dead pends wholly on us : true; it. 

to sin, should live unto righte- cannot otherwise be;' Rem. 

ousness, by whose stripes Apol. 
we are healed ;' 1 Pet. ii. 24. 



CHAP. X. 

Of the came of faith, grace, and righteousness. 

The second part of this controversy is in particular concern- 
ing grace, faith, and holiness, sincere obedience to the pre- 
cepts of the new covenant, all whose praise we appropriate to 
the Most High by reason of a double interest. First, Of the 
merit of Christ which doth procure them for us. Secondly, 
Of the Holy Spirit which works them in us. The death of 
Christ is their meritorious cause, the Spirit of God and his 
effectual grace their efficient, working instrumentally with 
power by the word and ordinances. Now because this would 
deprive the idol of his chiefest glory, and expose him to open 
shame, like the bird ' furtivis nudata coloribus,' the Arminians 
advance themselves in his quarrel, and in behalf of their dar- 
ling, quite exclude both merit of Christ and Spirit of God 
from any title to their production. 

First, For the merit of Christ : whereas we affirm that 
God blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in him or for his 
sake; Eph. i. 3. amongst which, doubtless, faith possesseth 
not the lowest room ; that he is made unto us righteousness, 
and sanctification, and redemption ; he was made sin for us, 
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ; that 
he is the Lord our righteousness, and glories to be called by 
that name'; and whatever he is unto us, it is chiefly by the 
way of merit ; that to us it is given uTrep xpiaTov, for Christ's 
sake to believe on him; Phil. i. 29. where vTrcp xP"''^ou is 
plainly referred to '^i'^oTai, ' is given ;' as if the apostle should 
have said, Christ is the meritorious cause of the bestowing 
of those good gifts, faith and constancy unto martyrdom 
upon you ; when I say we profess all these to be the pro- 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 161 

p€r and immediate products of the passion and blood of 
Christ, these turbulent Davusses come in with a prohibition, 
and quite expel it from having any interest therein. 

'There is nothing more vain,** nothing more foolish,' 
say they in their apology, ' than to attribute our regenera- 
tion and faith unto the death of Christ; for if Christ may be 
said to have merited for us faith and regeneration, then faith 
cannot be a condition, whose performance God should re- 
quire at the hands of sinners under the pain of eternal dam- 
nation.' And again, ' If faith be the effect of the merit of 
Christ, it cannot be our duty.' No ? Suppose then that the 
church should pray that it would please God, for Christ's 
sake, to call home those sheep that belong to his fold, not 
as yet collected ; that he would grant faith and repentance 
for the merit of his Son to them that are as yet afar off, 
were this an altogether vain and foolish prayer ? Let others 
think as they please, it is such a vanity as I desire not to be 
weaned from, nor any one else I believe, that loves the Lord 
Jesus in sincerity. Oh that Christians should patiently en- 
dure such a diminution of their Saviour's honour, as with 
one dash of an Arminian pen to have the chief effects of his 
death and passion quite obliterated : if this be a motive to 
the love and honour of the Son of God, if this be a way to 
set forth the preciousness of his blood by denying the effi- 
cacy thereof, in enabling us by faith to get an interest in 
the new covenant; most Christians in the world are under 
a necessity of being new catechised by these seraphical 
doctors. 

Until when, they must give us leave to believe with the 
apostle, that God blesseth us with all ' spiritual blessings in 
Christ;' Eph. i. 3. and we will take leave to account faith a 
spiritual blessing; and, therefore, bestowed on us for Christ's 
sake ; again, since our regeneration is nothing but a purging 
of our consciences from dead works that we may serve the 
living God, which being done by the blood of Christ, as the 
apostle witnesseth, Heb.ix. 14. wewill ascribe ournewbirth, 
or forming anew, to the virtue of that grace which is pur- 

* Nihil ineptius, nihil vanius, quam regenerationem et fidera, merito Christi tribu- 
ere, si enim Christus dicatur nobis meritus fidem et regenerationem, turn tides con- 
ditio esse non poterat : quam a peccatorlbus, Dou:i sub comminatione mortis asterua 
exigent. Rem. Apol. cap. 8. pag. 95. Si tides sit eifectum nieriti Cbristi iiou po- 
test esse actus ollicii nostri : idem. 

VOL. V, M 



162 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

chased by his blood, ' that precious blood it is which re- 
deemeth us from our vain conversation ;' 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. by 
whose efficacy we are vindicated from the state of sin and 
corrupted nature wherein we are born. 

The Arminians have but one argument that ever I could 
meet with, whereby they strive to rob Christ of this glory of 
meriting and procuring for us faith and repentance ; and that 
is, because they are such acts of ours, as in duty and obe- 
dience to the precepts of the gospel we are bound to per- 
form ;'' and this they every where press at large, usque et us- 
que, in plain terms, they will not suffer their idol to be ac- 
counted defective in any thing that is necessary to bring us 
unto heaven. Now concerning this argument, that nothing 
which God requireth of us can be procured for us by Christ, 
I would have two things noted. First, That the strength of 
it consists in this, that no gift of God bestowed upon us 
can be a thing well pleasing to him as being in us ; for all 
his precepts and commands signify only what is well pleas- 
ing unto him that we should be or do ; and it is not the me- 
riting of any thing by Christ, but God's bestowing of it as 
the effect thereof, which hinders it from being a thing re- 
q uirable of us as a part of our duty, which I shall consider 
hereafter ; only now observe, that there being nothing in us 
by the way of habit or act, from the beginning of our faith 
to the consummation thereof, from our new birth until 
we become perfect men in Christ by the finishing of our 
course, that is not required of us in the gospel, all and every 
grace, whereof we are in this life partakers, are by this means 
denied to be the gifts of God. Secondly, Consider the ex- 
tent of this argument itself: nothing whose performance is 
our duty can be merited for us by Christ ; when the apostle 
beseecheth us to be reconciled unto God, I would know 
whether it be not a part of our duty to yield obedience to 
the apostle's exhortation? If not, his exhortation is frivolous 
and vain; if so, then to be reconciled unto God is a part of 
our duty ; and yet the Arminians sometimes seem to confess, 
that Christ hath obtained for us a reconciliation with God. 
The like may be said in divers other particulars, so that this 
argument either proveth that we enjoy no fruit of the death 
of Christ in this life, or (which is most true), it proveth 

h Rem. ApoK ubi sup. Corvin. ad Moli. cap. 28. sect. 9. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINTANTSM. 163 

nothing at all: for neitheri the merit of Christ procuring, 
nor God bestowing, any grace, in the habit, doth at all hin- 
der, but that in the exercise thereof, it may be a duty of 
ours, inasmuch as it is done in us, and by us. Notwithstand- 
ing then this exception, which cannot stand by itself alone 
without the help of some other, not as yet discovered ; we 
will continue our prayers, as we are commanded, in the name 
of Christ : that is, that God would bestow upon us those 
things we ask for Christ's sake, and that by an immediate 
collation, yea, even then when we cry, with the poor peni- 
tent, ' Lord help our unbelief,' or with the apostles, * Lord in- 
crease our faith.' 

Secondly, The second plea on God's behalf, to prove 
him the author and finisher of all those graces, whereof in 
this life we are partakers, ariseth from what the Scripture 
affirmeth, concerning his working these graces in us, and 
that powerfully, by the effectual operation of his Holy Spi- 
rit : to which, the Arminians oppose a seeming necessity, 
that they must needs be our own acts, contradistinct from 
his gifts, because they are in us, and commanded by him : 
the head then of this contention betwixt our God, and their 
idol, about the living child of grace, is, whether he can 
work that in us, which he requireth of us : let iis hear them 
pleading their cause. 

* It is most certain,*^ that that ought not to be commanded, 
which is wrought in us : and that cannot be wrought in us, 
which is commanded : he foolishly commandeth that to be 
done of others, who will work in them what he commandeth,' 
saith their apology. O foolish St. Prosper,*^ who thought 
that it was the whole Pelagian heresy, to say, 'That there 
is neither praise nor worth, as ours, in that which Christ 
bestoweth upon us :' foolish St. Augustine,* praying, * Give 
us, O Lord, what thou commandest, and command what thou 
wilt :' foolish Benedict, bishop of Rome, who gave such a 
form to his prayer, as must needs cast an aspersion of folly 

<^ Ulud certissiinum est, nee jubenduni est quod efficitur, nee eflicienduin quod 
jubetur, stulte jubet et vult, ab alio fieri aliquid, qui ipse quod jubet in co efficere 
vuit. Rem, Apol. cap. 9. p. 105. a. 

•i At exigua coiiclusione pene tu totura Pelagianuni dogma confirmas, dieendo, 
nullius iaudis esse ae raeriti ; si id in eo Christus quod ipse donaverat pr<etulisset. 
Prosp. ad CoUat. cap. 36. 

* Da, Domine, quodjubes, et jube quod vis. Aug. 

M 2 



164 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANTSM. 

on the Most High;* ' O Lord,' paith he 'teach us what we 
should do ; shew us whither we shoukl go, work in us 
what we ought to perform :' O foolish fathers of the second 
Arausican council, afRrming,s ' that many good things are 
done in man, which he doth not himself, but a man doth no 
good, which God doth not so work, that he should do it.' 
And again, ' as often as we do good, God worketh in us, 
and with us, that we may so work.' In one word, this makes 
fools of all the doctors of the church, who ever opposed the 
Pelagian heresy, inasmuch as they all unanimously main- 
tained, that we are partakers of no good thing, in this kind, 
without the effectual powerful operation of the almighty 
grace of God ; and yet our faith and obedience so wrought 
in us, to be most acceptable unto him ; yea, what shall we 
say to the Lord himself, in one place commanding us to 
fear him, and in another promising that he will put his fear 
into our hearts, that we shall not depart from him ; is his 
command foolish, or his promise false? The Arminians must 
affirm the one, or renounce their heresy : but of this, after 
I have a little farther laid open this monstrous error, from 
their own words and writings. 

'Can any one,'*" say they, 'wisely and seriously prescribe 
the performance of a condition to another, under the pro- 
mise of a reward, and threatening of punishment, who will 
effect it in him, to whom it is prescribed ? this is a ridicu- 
lous action, scarce worthy of the stage :' that is, seeing 
Christ hath affirmed, that 'whosoever believeth shall be 
saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned ;' Matt. 
xvi. 16 whereby faith is established the condition of sal- 
vation, and unbelief threatened with hell : if God should 
by his Holy Spirit, ingenerate faith in the hearts of any, 
causing them so to fulfil the condition, it were a mere 
mockery, to be exploded from a theatre as an unlikely 
fiction : which, what an aspersion it casts upon the whole 
gospel of Christ, yea, on all God's dealing with the children 

f O Doraine, doce nos quid agaraus, quo gradiamur ostende, quid efficiamus ope- 
rare. Ben. Pap. in Concil. Legunstad. 

s Multa in honiine bona fiunt, qua? non facit homo : nulla vero facit homo bona, 
quaj non Deus prastet, ut facial. Consil. Arau. 2. Can. 20. — Quotiesenim bona ani- 
mus, Deus in nobis et nobiscum, ut operemur, operatur. Can. 9. 

h Anne conditionem quis serio et sapienterpraescribetalteri, sub proraisso prfemii 
et poeniB gravissimaj comminatione, qui earn, in eo cui pra?scribit efficere vult, lisc 
actio tola ludicra, et vix scasna digna est. Rem. Apol. cap. 9. p. 105. a, 



A DISPLAY OF AIIMINI ANISM. 165 

of men, ever since, by reason of the fall, they became una- 
ble of themselves to fulfil his commands, I leave to all men's 
silent judgment. Well then, seeing they must be accounted 
aavarara, things inconsistent, that God should be so righ- 
teous, as to shew us our duty, and yet so good and merci- 
ful, as to bestow his graces on us : let us hear more of this 
stuff: 'Faith and conversion cannot be our obedience,' if 
they are wrought in us by God,'^ say they at the Hague : and 
Episcopius,*" ' That it is a most absurd thing, to affirm, that 
God either effects by his power, or procureth by his wis- 
dom, that the elect should do those things that he requiretli 
of them/ So that where the Scripture calls faith the gift, 
and work of God, they say it is an improper locution, inas- 
much as he commands it ; pi'operly, it is an act or work of 
our own. And for that renowned saying of St. Augustine,' 
that * God crowneth his own gifts in us, that it is not to be 
received without a grain of salt :' that is, some such gloss 
as wherewith they corrupt the Scripture : the sum at which 
they aim is, that to affirm, that God bestoweth any graces 
upon us, or effectually worketh them in us, contradicteth 
his word, requiring them as our duty and obedience : by 
which means they have erected their idol into the throne 
of God's free grace and mercy ; and attribute unto it all the 
praise due to those many heavenly qualifications, the ser- 
vants of God are endowed withal, for they never have more 
good in them, no, nor so much as is required ; all that they 
have, or do, is but their duty : which how derogatory it is 
to the merit of Christ, themselves seem to acknowledge, 
when they affirm, that he is no otherwise said to be a Sa- 
viour, than are all they, who confirm the way to salvation 
by preaching, miracles, martyrdom, and example : so that 
having quite overthrown the merits of Christ," ' they grant 

* Fides et conversio non possnnt esse obedientia, si tantum ab aiiquo, in alio, 
efficiantur. Rem. Colloq. Hag. p. 196. 

'' Absurdutu est statnere Deum, aut efficere per potentiam, aut procurare per sa- 
pientiam,ut elect! ea faciant, quae ab ipsis, ut ipsi ea faciant, exigit et postulat. Epis- 
cop. disp. pri. 8. Tliess. 7. 

• Apol. cap. 9. ubi. sup. — Deum dona sua in nobis coronare, dictum hoc Au- 
gustini nisi cum grano sails accipiatur, neutiquam est admittendura : idem. ibid, 
p. 115. 

"" Atqui dices, sic servalores nostri essent omnes (eodem scnsu quo Christus), 
saltern ex parte qui praeconio, rairaculis, luartyriis salutis viam, confirraant; esto, 
quid turn ? Idem. cap. 8. 



166 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

US to be our own saviours in a very large sense;' Rem. 
Apol. fol. 96. All which assertions, how contrary they are 
to the exprfess word of God, T shall now demonstrate. 

There is not one of all those plain texts of Scripture, not 
one of those innumerable and invincible arguments, whereby 
the effectual working of God's grace, in the conversion of a 
sinner, his powerful translating us from death to life, from the 
state of sin and bondage to the liberty of the sons of God, 
which doth not overthrow this prodigious error. I will con- 
tent myself with instancing in some few of them which are 
directly opposite unto it, even in terms. 

First, Deut. x. 16. The Lord commandeth the Israelites, 
' to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, and to be no more 
stiff-necked ;.' so that the circumcising of their hearts, was 
a part of their obedience, it was their duty so to do in obe- 
dience to God's commands: and yet in the thirtieth chapter 
verse 6. he affirmeth, ' That he will circumcise their hearts, 
that they might love the Lord their God with all their 
hearts :' so that it seems, the same thing, in divers respects, 
may be God's act in us, and our duty towards him : and 
how the Lord will here escape that Arminian censure, that 
if his words be true, in the latter place, his command in the 
former is vain and foolish, ipse viderit, let him plead his cause, 
and avenge himself on those that rise up against him. 

Secondly, Ezek. xviii. 31. * Make you a new heart, and 
a new spirit, for why will you die, O house of Israel?' The 
making of a new heart, and a new spirit, is here requii'ed 
under a promise of a reward of life, and a great threatening 
of eternal death ; so that, so to do, must needs be a part of 
their duty and obedience : and yet, chap, xxxvi. 36. he 
affirmeth that he will do this very thing, that here he 
requireth of them ; ' A new heart also will I give you, and a 
new spirit, will 1 put within you, and I will take away the 
stony heart out of your flesh, and give you an heart of 
flesh ; and I will cause you to walk in my statutes,' 8ic. In 
how many places also, are we commanded to fear the Lord, 
which when we do, I hope none will deny to be a perform- 
ance of our duty ; and yet Jer. xxxii. 40. God promiseth 
that he will put his fear in our hearts, that we shall not de- 
part from him. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 167 

Thirdly, Those two, against which they lay particular 
exceptions, faith and repentance, are also expressly attri- 
buted to the free donation of God : * he granteth unto the 
Gentiles repentance unto life;' Acts xi. 18. and of faith di- 
rectly, ' it is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God ;' Eph. ii. 8. 
To which assertion of the Holy Spirit, I shall rather fasten 
my belief, than to the Arminians, affirming that it is no gift 
of God, because it is of ourselves : and yet this hindereth 
not, but that it may be stiled, * our most holy faith ;' Jude 
20. Let them that will deny, that any thing can properly be 
ours, which God bestoweth on us : the prophet accounted 
them not inconsistent, when he averred, ' that God worketh 
all our works in us;' Isa. xxvi. 12. They are our works, 
though of his working : the apostle laboured, though it was 
not he, but ' the grace of God that was with him ;' 1 Cor. 
XV. 10. He worketh in us koi to ^tXuv, koX to IvepyeXv, ' of 
his good pleasure ;' Phil. ii. 13. and yet the performance 
of our duty, may consist in those acts of our wills, and those 
good deeds, whereof he is the author : so that, according to 
St. Austin's counsel," we will still pray, that he would be- 
stow what he command eth us to have. 

Fourthly, 1 Cor. iv. 'Who made thee differ from another, 
or what hast thou, that thou hast not received V Every thing 
that makes us differ from others, is received from God : 
VA'herefore, the foundation of all difference in spiritual things, 
between the sons of Adam, being faith and repentance, they 
must also of necessity, be received from above. In brief, 
' God's circumcising of our hearts,' Col. ii. 11. 'His quick- 
ening us when we are dead,' Eph. i. 1, 2. ' Begetting us anew,' 
John. i. 23. Making us in all things, such as he would have 
us to be ; is contained in that promise of the new covenant, 
Jer. xxxii. 40. ' I will make with them an everlasting cove- 
nant, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, 
but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not de- 
part from me :' and is no way repugnant to the holy Scrip- 
ture, declaring our duty to be all this, that the Lord would have 
us. And now let all men judge, whether against so many 
and clear testimonies of the Holy Ghost, the Arminian rea- 
sons borrowed from the old philosophers, be of any value : 
the sum of them all, you may find in Cicero, his third book 

n Petaraus ut dct quud ut habeamas jubet. Aug. 



168 A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 

De Natura Deorum : * Every one,'o saith he, 'obtaineth virtue 
for himself: never any wise man thanked God for that; for 
our virtue we are praised, in virtue we glory, which might not 
be, were it a gift of God :' and truly this in softer terms, is 
the sum of the remonstrants' arguments in this particular. 

Lastly, Observe, that this error is that which of all others, 
the orthodox fathers did most oppose, in the Pelagian here- 
tics : yea, and to this day,^ the more learned schoolmen stout- 
ly maintain the truth herein, against the innovating Jesuits. 
With some few of the testimonies of the ancients, I will shut 
up this discourse :'^ ' It is certain that when we do any thing 
we do it,' saith St. Augustine, ' but it is God that causeth 
us so to do :' andin another place;"^ ' Shall we notaccount that 
to be the gift of God ? because it is required of us, under 
the promise of eternal life ? God forbid that this should seem 
so, either to the partakers or defenders of grace:' where he 
rejecteth both the error, and the sophism wherewith it is 
upholden. So also Ccelestius, bishop of Rome,^ in his epis- 
tle to the bishops of France : * So great,' saith he, 'is the good- 
ness of God towards men, that he will have those good things 
to be our good duties (he calls them merits according to the 
phrase of those days) which are his own gifts: to which pur- 
pose I cited before two canons, out of the Arausican council :' 
and St. Prosper in his treatise against Cassianus the Se- 
mipelagian,' affirmeth it to be a foolish complaint of proud 
men, that free-will is destroyed, if the beginning, progress, 
and continuance in good, be said to be the gifts of God : and 
so the imputation of folly, wherewith the Arminians, in my 
first quotation,5,charge their opposers,being retorted on them, 
by this learned father, I refer you to these following excerpta 
for a close. 

" Quia sibi quisque virtutem acquirit, — neniinem de sapientibns unquain dc ea 
gratias Deo egisse, propter virtutem enim laudamur, et in virtute glorianiur, quod 
non fieret, si donuni esset Dei, non a nobis. Cicero De Nat. Deor. 

P Alvarez, disput. 86. ubi Aug. Thorn, alios, citat. 

1 Certum est nos facere cum facimus, scd iile facit nt faciamus. Aug. de Grat. et 
Lib. Arbit. cap. 16. 

■■ Neque id donum Dei esse fateamnr, quoiiiam exigi aiidivinius a nobis, 

praemio vitffi si hoc fecerimus obiato? absit, iit hoc placeat particibus et defensori- 
bus gratise. Aug. de Prsedest. San. cap. 20. 

'Tanta est eiga homines bonilas Dei, ut nostra vclit esse merita quaa sunt ipsius 
dona. Coelest. Epist. ad Ep. Gal. cap. ly. 

' Non enim conturbat nos, superbienliuin inepta quferiraonia; quia Liberum Ar- 
bitrium causantur auferri : si et principia et profcctus, et perserantia in bonis usque 
ad fiaem Dei dona esse dicantur. Prosp. ad CoJIat. pag. 404. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANI8M. 



160 



s. s. 

'Circumcise the foreskin 
ofyour hearts, and be no more 
stiff-necked;' Deut. x. 16. 
' And the Lord thy God will 
circumcise thy heart, and the 
heart of thy seed;' chap. 
XXX. 6. 

' Make you a new heart, 
and a new spirit, O house of 
Israel ;' Ezek. xviii. 3 1 . ' A new 
heart also will I give you, and 
a new spirit will I put within 
you ;' chap, xxxvi. 36. 

* If you will fear the Lord 
and serve him, then shall you 
continue following the Lord 
your God ;' 1 Sam. xii. 14. 

' And I will put my fear 
into your hearts, that ye shall 
ilot depart from me ;' Jer. 
xxxii. 40. 

' He hath wrought all our 
works in us ;' Isa. xxvi. 12. 

* He worketh in us both to 
will and to do, of his good 
pleasure;' Phil. ii. 13. 



* He hath blessed us with 
all spiritual blessings in him;' 
Eph. i.3. 

* To you it is given in the 
behalf of Christ to believe in 
him;' Phil. i. 29. 

* The blood of Christ purg- 
eth our consciences from dead 
works, to serve the living God ;' 
Heb. ix. 14. 



Lib. Arbit. 
*This is most certain, that 
thatoughtnottobe command- 
ed which is wrought in us : he 
foolishly commandeth that to 
be done of others, who will 
work in them what he com- 
mandeth ;' Rem. Apol. 



* It is absurd to affirm that 
God either worketh by his 
power, or procureth by his 
wisdom, that the elect should 
do those things which God 
requireth of them ;' Epis- 
copius. 

* Faith and conversion 
cannot be acts of our obedi- 
ence if they are wrought by 
God in us ;' Rem. Col. Hag. 

* That God should re- 
quire that of ^s, which him- 
self will work in us, is a ri- 
diculous action scarce fit for 
a stage ;' Rem. Apol. 

* That saying of Augus- 
tine that God crowneth his 
own gifts in us, is not easily 
to be admitted;' Ibid. 

' There is nothing more 
vain and foolish, then to as- 
cribe faith and regeneration 
to the merit of Christ ;' Idem. 



170 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



CHAP. XL 

Whether salvation may he attained without the knowledge of, or 
faith in, Christ Jesus. 

I SHALL shut up all this discourse concerning the meritori- 
ous cause of salvation, with their shutting out of Christ, from 
being the only one, and absolutely necessary means, to bring 
us unto heaven, to make us happy : this is the last pile they 
erect upon their Babylonish foundation, which makes the 
idol of human self-sufficiency, every way perfect, and fit to 
be sacrificed unto. Until these proud builders, to get mate- 
rials for their own temple, laid the axe to the root of Chris- 
tianity, we took it for granted, that there is no salvation in 
any other, because there is 'none other name under heaven, 
given unto men, whereby we must be saved;' Acts iv. 12. 
Neither yet shall their nefarious attempts, frighten us from 
our creed, nor make us be wanting to the defence of our Sa- 
viour's honour, but I shall be very brief in the consideration 
of this heterodoxy, nothing doubting, but that to have re- 
peated it, is fully to have confuted it, in the judgment of all 
pious Christians. 

First, then. They grant salvation to the ancient patriarchs 
and Jews, before the coming of Christ, without any know- 
ledge of, or faith in, him at all : nay, they deny that any such 
faith in Christ, was ever prescribed unto them, or required of 
them. * It is certain that there is no place in the Old Testa- 
ment,* from whence it may appear that faith in Christ (as a 
Redeemer) was ever enjoined, or found in any of them ;' say 
they jointly in their apology: the truth of which assertion, 
we shall see hereafter : only they grant a general faith, in- 
volved under types and shadows, and looking on the promise, 
as it lay hid in the goodness and providence of God, which 
indirectly might be called a faith in Christ : from which kind 
of faith, I see no reason why thousands of heathen infidels 
should be excluded. Agreeable unto these assertions are the 
dictates of their patriarch Arminius, affirming,'' ' that the 

a Certuni est locum nullum esse, unde appareat, fidera istam, sub Vet. Test, prae- 
ceptam fuisse.aut viguisse. Rem. Apol. cap. 7. p. 91. 

b Consideretur oranis descriptio fidei Abraliae, Rom. iv. et apparebit in ilia Jesu 
Christ! noil fieri mcntionem, expresse, sed ilia tantuni iinplicatione, quani cxplicare 
cuivisnon est facile. Aniiin. Gavisusestviderenatalem Isaac.qui full ty pus mei. Idem. 



A DISPLAY OF AllMINI ANISM. 171 

whole descriptionof the faith of Abraham, Rom. iv. makes 
no mention of Jesus Christ, either expressly or so implicit- 
ly as that it may be of any one easily understood;' and to the 
testimony of Christ himself, to the contrary ; John viii. 56. 
' Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, 
and was glad:' he answereth, * He rejoiced to see the birth 
of Isaac, who was a type of me ;' a goodly gloss corrupting 
the text. 

Secondly, What they teach of the Jews, that also they 
grant concerning the Gentiles, living before the incarnation 
of Christ; they also might attain salvation, and be justified 
without his knowledge : ' For although,'*^ saith Corvinus, ' the 
covenant was not revealed unto them by the same means that 
it was unto the Jews, yet they are not to be supposed to be 
excluded from the covenant (of grace), nor to be excluded 
from salvation ; for some way or other, they were called.' 

Thirdly, They are come at length to that perfection, in 
setting out this stain of Christianity, that Berlins,*^ on good 
consideration, denied this proposition, * that no man can be 
saved, that is not ingrafted into Christ, by a true faith :' and 
Venator to this question,*^ ' Whether the only means of salva- 
tion, be the life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension 
of Jesus Christ,' answereth, ' No?' Thus they lay men in Abra- 
ham's bosom, who never believed in the Son of Abraham ; 
make them overcome the serpent, who never heard of the seed 
of the woman ; bring goats into heaven, who never were of the 
flock of Christ, never entered by him the door ; make men 
please God without faith, and obtain the remission of sins, 
without the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb ; to be saved 
without a Saviour, redeemed without a Redeemer ; to become 
the sons of God, and never know their elder brother ; which 
prodigious error, might yet be pardoned, and ascribed to hu- 
man imbecility, had it casually slipped from their pens as it 
did from some others ;^ but seeing it hath foundation in all the 

•^ Gentes sub veteri testaraento viventes licet ipsis ista ratione qua Jud^is non fuit 
revelatum : non taraen iade continuo ex federe absolute exclusaj sunt, nee a salute 
praecise exclusi judicari debent quia aliquo saltern modo vocantur. Corvi. defens. 
Armin. ad Tilen. p. 107. 

•1 Nego liaiic propositionem ; nemineni posse salvari, quam qui Jesu Christo, per 
veram Kdeiu sit insitus, Bert, ad Sibrand. p. 133. 

e Ad banc qusstionem an unicavia salutis, sit vita, passio, mors, resuirectio, ct as- 
censio Jesu Chrisli ? respondeo, non. Venat. apud Fest. Honi. et Peltium. 

f Zuing. profes. fid. ad reg. Gal. 



172 A DISPLAY OF ARM IN I ANISM. 

grounds of their new doctrine, and is maintained by them, on 
mature deliberation,^ it must be looked on by all Christians 
as a heresy to be detested and accursed. For, first, deny the 
contagion and demerit of original sin ; then make the cove- 
nant of grace to be universal, and comprehend all and every 
one of the posterity of Adam; thirdly, grant a power in our- 
selves to come unto God, by any such means as he will ap- 
point and affirm, that he doth assign some means unto all, 
and it will naturally follow, that the knowledge of Christ is 
not absolutely necessary to salvation : and so down falls the 
pre-eminence of Christianity, its heaven-reaching crown 
must be laid level with the services of dunghill gods.** 

It is true, indeed, some of the ancient fathers, before the 
rising of the Pelagian heresy, who had so put on Christ, as 
Lipsius speaks, that they had not fully put off Plato, have un- 
advisedly dropped some speeches, seeming to grant, that di- 
vers men before the incarnation, living fiera \6yov, ' according 
to the dictates of right reason,' might be saved without faith 
in Christ ; as is well shewed by learned Causabon in his first 
excercitation on Baronius : but let this be accounted part of 
that stubble, which shall burn at the last day, wherewith the 
writings of all men, not divinely inspired, may be stained. It 
hath also since (as what hath not), been drawn into dispute 
among the wrangling schoolmen ; and yet, which is rarely 
seen, their verdict in this particular, almost unanimously 
passeth for the truth. Aquinas* tells us a story of the corpse 
of a heathen, that should be taken up in the time of the em- 
press Irene, and her son Constantine, with a golden plate on 
his breast, wherein was this inscription : ' Christ is born of a 
virgin, and I believe in him, O sun, thou shalt see me again in 
the days of Irene and Constantine.' But the question is not, 
whether a Gentile believing in Christ may be saved, or whe- 
ther God did not reveal himself and his Son, extraordinarily 
to some of them? For shall we straiten the breast, and 
shorten the arm, of the Almighty, as though he might not do 
what he will with his own. But whether a man by the con- 
duct of nature, without the knowledge of Christ, may come 

s Atlic. of the Church of Eng. art. 18. 

h Nihil magis repugnat fidei, quam sine fide salvum esse posse quenipiani homi- 
num. Acost. dc indo. Salu. Proc. 

> Aquin. 2. Sae. q. 2. a. 7. c. Christus nascitur ex virgine, ct ego credo in eum, O 
Sol, sub Irenae et Constantini teinporibus iteruni me videbii. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 173 

to heaven : the assertion whereof, we condemn as a wicked 
Pelagian, Socinian heresy ; and think that it was well said of 
Bernard,'' ' that many labouring to make Plato a Christian, 
do prove themselves to be heathens.' And if we look upon the 
several branches of this Arrainian novel doctrine, extenuat- 
ing the precious worth and necessity of faith in Christ, we 
shall find them hewed off by the two-edged sword of God's 
word. 

First, For their denying the patriarchs and Jews, to have 
had faith, ' in Christum exhibendum et moriturum,' as we in 
him, 'exhibitum et mortuura/ it is disproved by all evangeli- 
cal promises, made from the beginning of the woild, to the 
birth of our Saviour, as that Gen. iii. 15. 'The seed of the 
woman shall break the serpent's head;' and chap. xii. 3. xlix. 
10. Psal. ii. 7, 8. ex. with innumerable other, concerning 
his life, office, and redeeming of his people : for sui'ely they 
were obliged to believe the promises of God. 

Secondly, By those many clear expressions of his death, 
passion, and suffering for us; as Gen. iii. 15. Isa. liii.6 — 10, 
&c. Ixiii. 2, 3. Dan. ix. 26. but what need we reckon 
any more ? our Saviour taught his disciples, that all the pro- 
phets from Moses, spake concerning him, and that the sole 
reason why they did not so readily embrace the faith of his 
passion and resurrection, was because they believed not the 
prophets ; Luke xxiv. 25, 26. shewing plainly, that the pro- 
phets required faith in his death and passion. 

Thirdly, By the explicit faith of many Jews, as of old Si- 
meon ; Luke iii. 34. of the Samaritan woman who looked for 
a Messias, not as an earthly king, but as one that should tell 
them all things, redeem them from sin, and tell them all such 
things as Christ was then discoursing of, concerning the wor- 
ship of God ; John iv. 25. 

Fourthly, By the express testimony of Christ himself; 
'Abraham,' saithhe, 'rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, 
and was glad ;' John viii. 56. his day, his hour, in the Scrip- 
ture principally denote his passion : and that which he saw 
surely he believed, or else the father of the faithful, was more 
diffident than Thomas the most incredulous of his children. 

Fifthly, By these following and the like places of Scrip- 

^ Dum niultum sudant nonnuUi, quomodo Platonem faciant Christianum, se pro- 
bant esse ethnicos. Bern. Epist, 



174 A DISPLAY OF ARM INI ANISM. 

ture; 'Christ is a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;' 
Rev. xiii. 8. slain in promises, slain in God's estimation and 
the faith of believers ; ' He is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
for ever ;' Heb. xiii. 8. mider the law and the gospel ; ' There 
is none other name under heaven given unto men, whereby 
they must be saved ;' Acts iv. 12. Never any then, without the 
knowledge of a Redeemer, participation of his passion, com- 
munication of his merits, did ever come to the sight of God : 
no man ever came to the Father but by him : hence St. Paul 
tells the Ephesians, that they were without Christ, 'because 
they were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel ;' Eph. 
ii. 12. intimating that God's covenant with the Jews, included 
Christ Jesus and his righteousness, no less than it doth now 
with us : on these grounds, holy Ignatius' called Abel ' a mar- 
tyr of Christ,' he died for his faith in the promised seed ; and 
in another place,"" ' all the saints were saved by Christ, hoping 
in him, and waiting on him, they obtained salvation by him.' 
So Prosper also," ' We must believe that never any man was 
justified by any other faith, either before the law, or under 
the law, than by faith in Christ, coming to save that which 
was lost.' Whence Eusebius contendeth," that all the old 
patriarchs might properly be called Christians, they all eat 
of the same spiritual meat, and all drank of the same spiritual 
drink, even of the rock that followed them, which rock was 
Christ. 

Secondly, If the ancient people of God, notwithstanding 
divers other especial revelations of his will, and heavenly in- 
structions, obtained not salvation without faith in Christ; 
much less may we grant this happiness without him, to them 
who were deprived of those other helps also : so that though 
we confess the poor natural endeavours of the heathen, not 
to have wanted their reward ; either positive in this life, by 
outward prosperity, and inward calmness of mind, in that 
they were not all perplexed, and agitated with furies, like 

' napaJo&eij y£, TaJv Sia p^pnTTOv avat^ovfjiiViiv, awo tou aShX tou JiKaiou. Ignat. Epist- 
ad Epiies. 

'" rtiivTE; ouv aj/ioi li/ p^pitTTM sa-oi&na-ttv, IXwiVaVTEj li; aurav *af at/Tov ava^wEivavTS?, 5^' 
auTou a"a)Ti]jittj 'irvxov. Epist. ad Phil. 

n Non alia fide queraquani hominuiu sive ante legem, sive legis tempore, justifica- 
tuiii esse credendum est, quain hac eadeiu qua Dominus Jesu, &c. Prosp. ad ob. 8. 
Galloruiu. 

o Onines ergo illos qui ab Abraham sursum versus, ad primum homiuera, genera- 
tiouis ordine conscribuntur, etsi non nomine, rebus tamen, et religione Christianus 
fuisse, si quis dicat, non niihi videtur errare. Eus. Histor. eccles. lib. 1. cap. 1. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 175 

Nero and Caligula; or negative in the life to come, by a di- 
minution of the degrees of their torments; they shall not be 
beaten with so many stripes : yet we absolutely deny, that 
there is any saving mercy of God towards them revealed in 
the Scripture, which should give us the least intimation of 
their attaining everlasting happiness. For not to consider the 
corruption and universal disability of nature, to do any thing 
that is good {' without Christ we can do nothing') ; John xv. 5. 
nor yet the sinfulness of their best works and actions, the 
sacrifices *of the wicked being an abomination unto the 
Lord ;' Prov. xv. 8. ' Evil trees cannot bring forth good fruit, 
men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles ;' 
Matt. vii. 16. The word of God is plain, ' that without faith, 
it is impossible to please God ;' Heb. xi. 6. that he, 'who be- 
lieveth not, is condemned ;' Mark xvi. 16. that no nation or 
person can be blessed, but in the seed of Abraham ; Gen. xii. 
and the blessing of Abraham, comes upon the Gentiles only 
by Jesus Christ ; Gal. iii. 14. ' He is the way, and the truth, 
and the life ;' John xiv. 6. none comes to the Father but by 
him, he is the door, by which those that do not enter, are 
without, * with dogs and idolaters ;' Rev. xxii. ' So that other 
foundation (of blessedness), can none lay, but what is already 
laid, even Jesus Christ ;' 1 Cor. iii. 12. In brief, do but com- 
pare those two places of St. Paul ; Rom. viii. 30. where 
he sheweth, that none are glorified, but those that are called ; 
and chap. x. 14, 15. where he declares, that all calling is in- 
strumentally by the preaching of the word and gospel ; and 
it will evidently appear, that no salvation can be granted unto 
them, on whom the Lord hath so far poured out his indig- 
nation, as to deprive them of the knowledge of the sole means 
thereof, Christ Jesus. And to those that are otherwise minded, 
I give only this necessary caution, let them take heed, lest 
whilst they endeavour to invent new ways to heaven for 
others, by so doing they lose not the true way them- 
selves. 

S. S. Lib. Arbit. 

' O fools, and slow to be- ' There is no place in the 

lieve all that the prophets Old Testament, whence it 

have written : ought not may appear, that faith in 



176 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 



s. s. 

Christ to have suffered these 
things ;' Luke xxiv. 25, 26. 

* Abraham rejoiced to see 
my day, and he saw it, and 
was glad ;' John viii. 56. 

' By his knowledge shall 
my righteous servant justify 
many, for he shall bear their 
iniquities;' Isa. liii. 11: see 
the places before-cited. 

* At the time they were 
without Christ; being aliens 
from the commonwealth of 
Israel, and strangers from 
the covenant of pioraise, hav- 
ing no hope, and without God 
in the world;' Eph. ii. 12. 

* There is no other name 
under heaven given unto men, 
whereby we must be saved, 
but only by Christ ;' Acts 
iv, 12. 

'The blessing of Abraham 
comes on the Gentiles by Je- 
sus Christ;' Gal. iii. 14. ' He 
that believeth not is con- 
demned;' Mark xvi. 16. 'With- 
out faith it is impossible to 
please God ;' Heb. xi, 6. 

' Other foundation can no 
man lay, but what is already 
laid, even Jesus Christ;' 1 Cor. 
iii. 12. 



Lib. Arbit. 
Christ as a Redeemer, was 
either enjoined or found in 
any then ;' Rem. Apol. 

' Abraham's faith had no 
reference to Christ;' Armin. 



•The Gentiles living under 
the Old Testament, though 
it was not revealed unto them 
as unto the Jews, yet were 
not excluded from the cove- 
nant of grace, and from sal- 
vation;' Corv. 

* 1 deny this proposition, 
that none can be saved that 
is not ingrafted into Christ 
by a true faith ;' Pert. 

*To this question, whether 
the only way of salvation, be 
the life, passion, death, resur- 
rection, and ascension of Je- 
sus Christ, I answer, No ;' Ve- 
nator. 



A DISPLAY OF A RMI NT ANISM. 177 



CHAP. XII. 

Of free-will, the nature and power thereof. 

Our next task is to take a view of the idol himself; of this 
great deity of free-will, whose original, being not well known, 
he is pretended, like the Ephesian image of Diana, to have 
fallen down from heaven, and to have his endowments from 
above ; but yet, considering what a nothing he was at his 
first discovery, in comparison of that vast giant-like huge- 
ness to which now he is grown, we may say of him, as the 
painter said of his monstrous picture, which he had mended, 
or rather marred, according to every one's fancy : ' hunc po- 
pulus fecit,' it is the issue of the people's brain. Origen* 
is supposed to have brought him first into the church ; but 
among those many sincere worshippers of divine grace, this 
setter forth of new demons found but little entertainment : 
it was looked upon but like the stump of Dagon, with his 
head and hands laid down before the ark of God ; without 
whose help he could neither know, nor do, that which is good 
in any kind : still accounted but * truncus ficulnus, ixiutile lig- 
num;' ' a fig-tree lop;, an unprofitable piece of wood ;' 'incerti 
patres scamnum facerentne ?' The fathers of the succeeding 
ages had much debate to what use they should put it; and 
though some exalted it a degree or two above its merits, yet 
the most concluded to keep it a block still : until at length 
there arose a stout champion,"^ challenging on his behalf the 
whole church of God, and like a knight-errant wandered from 
the west to the east, to grapple with any that should oppose 
his idol ; who, though he met with divers adversaries," one 
especially,** who in the behalf of the grace of God continually 
foiled him and cast him to the ground, and that in the judg- 

» Hieron. ad RufF. 

*> Pelagins: Dogma quod — pestifero vorauit coluber sermone Britaiinus. Prosper, 
de ingral. cap. 1. 

« Adfuit, exliorlante Deo provisa per orbeni, sanctorum pia cura pafrnm. 1. Pes- 
tciu subeuntem prima recidit, sedes Roma Petri. 2. Non segnior inde, orientis recto- 
nim cura emicuit. Synod. Palest. 3. Hieronymus libris valde exccilentibus hostem 
dissecuit. 4. Atticus Constantinop. 5. Do re S^inodi Aricanas. Prosper, de ingrat. 

<i Concilium cui dux Aurelius ingcniumque Augustinus crat. Quern Cliristi gratis 
cormi uberiore rigans, nostro lumen dcdit n?vo. Prosp. ibid. 

VOL. V. N 



178 A DISPLAY OF AR]MINI AXISM. 

ment of all the lawful judges, assembled in councils/ and 
in the opinion of most of the Christian by-standers/ yet by 
his cunning insinuation, he planted such an opinion of his 
idol's deity and self-sufficiency in the hearts of divers, that 
to this day it could never be rooted out. 

Now after the decease of his Pelagian worshippers, some 
of the corrupter schoolmen, seeing of him thus from his birth 
exposed without shelter to wind and weather, to all assaults, 
out of mere charity and self-love built him a temple, and 
adorned it with natural lights, merits, uncontrolled inde- 
pendent operations, with many other gay attendances. But 
in the beginning of the reformation, that fatal time for idol- 
atry and superstition, together with abbeys and monasteries, 
the zeal and learning of our forefathers, with the help of 
God's word, demolished this temple, and brake this build- 
ing down to the ground ; in the rubbish whereof we well 
hoped the idol himself had been so deeply buried, as that his 
head should never more have been exalted to the trouble of 
the church of God ; until not long since, some curious wits, 
whose weak stomachs were clogged with manna, and loathed 
the sincere milk of the word, raking all dunghills for no- 
velties, lighted unhappily upon this idol ; and presently, 
with no less joy than did the mathematician at the discovery 
of a new geometrical proportion, exclaim. We have found it, 
we have found it ! and without more ado, up they erected a 
shrine, and until this day continue offering of praise and 
thanks for all the good they do to this work of their own 
hands. 

And that the idol may be free from ruin, to which in 
himself they have found by experience that he is subject, 
they have matched him to contingency, a new goddess of 
their own creation ; who, having proved very fruitful in 

* Dixit Pelagius, quis est niilii Augustinus ? Universi acclamabant blaspheniantem 
ill episcopuin, ex cujus ore, dominus univcrsfe Africa, unitatis indulserit felicitatem, 
non solum acoiiventuillo, sed ab oinni ecclesia pellendura. Ores. Apologet. pag. 621. 
de Synod. Palest. Pra; omnibus studium gerite iibros. S. August, quos ad Prosp. et 
Hilar, scripsit, memoratis fiatribus legendos ingerere, &c. Epist. Synod. Byzac. 

^ Imo noverunt, non solum Romanam Africanamque ccclesiara, sed per omnes 
mundi partes, universse proniissionis filios, cum doctrina hujus viri, sicut in tola fide, 
ita in gratia; confessione congruere. Prosp. ad Ruffin. Augustinum saiictaj recorda- 
tionis virura pro vita sua, et meritis, in nostra communione semper habuiraus, nee un- 
quam bunc sinistrsesuspitionis saltem rumor suspexit. Coelest. Epist. ad Gal. Episcop. 
These I have cited to shew what a heavy prejudice the Arminian cause lies under, 
being professedly opposite to the doctrine of S.Austin, and they continually slight- 
ing uf his authority. 



A DIS5PLAY OF ARMIXIANISM. 179 

monstrous births, upon their conjunctions, they nothing 
doubt they shall ever want one to set on the throne and 
make president of all human actions : so that after he hath 
with various success, at least twelve hundred years, con- 
tended with the providence and grace of God, he boasteth 
now as if he had obtained a total victory. But yet all his 
prevailing is to be attributed to the diligence and varnish 
of his new abettors, with (to our shame be it spoken) the 
negligence of his adversaries : in him and his cause there is 
no more real worth than was, when by the ancient fathers he 
was exploded and cursed out of ijie church : so that they, 
who can attain through the many winding labyrinths of cu- 
rious distinctions to look upon the thing itself, shall find 
that they have been like Egyptian novices, brought through 
many stately frontispieces and goodly fabrics, with much 
show of zeal and devotion, to the image of an ugly ape. 

Yet here observe, that we do not absolutely oppose free- 
will as if it were nomeii inane, a mere figment, when there is 
no such thing in the world ; but only in that sense the Pe- 
lagians and Arminians do assert it. About words we will 
not contend: we grant man, in the substance of all his ac- 
tions, as much power, liberty and freedom, as a mere cre- 
ated nature is capable of. We grant him to be free in his 
choice, from all outward coaction, or inward natural neces- 
sity, to work according to election and deliberation, spon- 
taneously embracing what seemeth good unto him. Now 
call this power, free-will, or what you please ; so you make 
it not supreme, independent, and boundless, we are not at all 
troubled. The imposition of names, depends upon the dis- 
cretion of their inventors. Again, even in spiritual things 
we deny that our wills are at all debarred, or deprived of, 
their proper liberty ; but here we say indeed, that we are 
not properly free until the Son makes us free. No great use 
of freedom in that wherein we can do nothing at all : we 
do not claim such a liberty as should make us despise the 
grace of God,s whereby we may attain true liberty indeed, 
which addeth to, but taketh nothing from, our original free- 
dom. But of this, after I have shewed what an idol the 
Arminians make of free-will, only take notice in the en- 
trance, that we speak of it now, not as it was at first by 

B Homo non libertata giatium, sed gratia libertatem, asseqiiitur. Aug. 
N 2 



180 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

God created, but as it is now by sin corrupted ; yet being 
considered in that estate also, they ascribe more unto it 
than it was ever capable of. As it now standeth, according 
to my formerly proposed method, I shall shew ; First, what 
inbred native virtue they ascribe unto it, and with how abso- 
lute a dominion and sovereignty, over all our actions, they 
endow it. Secondly, what power they say it hath in prepar- 
ing us for the grace of God. Thirdly, how effectually opera- 
tive it is in receiving the said grace ; and with how little 
help thereof it accomplisheth the great work of our con- 
version : all briefly, with so many observations as shall suf- 
fice to discover their proud errors in each particular. 

' Herein,''' saith Arminius, ' consisteth the liberty of the 
will, that all things required to enable it to will any thing 
being accomplished, it still remains indifferent to will, or 
not.' And all of them at the synod ; ' There is,'* say they, ' ac- 
companying the will of man, an inseparable property, which 
we call liberty, from whence the will is termed a power r' 
which, when all things pre-required as necessary to opera- 
tion are fulfilled, may will any thing, or not will it ; that is, 
our free-wills have such an absolute and uncontrollable 
power, in the territory of all human actions, that no in- 
fluence of God's providence, no certainty of his decree, no 
unchangeableness of his purpose, can sway it at all in its 
free determinations, or have any power with his highness, 
to cause him to will, or resolve, on any such act as God by 
him inteudeth to produce. Take an instance, in the great 
work of our conversion : ' All unregenerate men,"" saith Ar- 
minius, * have, by virtue of their free-will, a power of resist- 
ino- the Holy Spirit, of rejecting the offered grace of God, 
of contemning the counsel of God concerning themselves; 
of refusing the gospel of grace, of not opening the heart to 
him that knocketh.' What a stout idol is this, whom neither 
the Holy Spirit, the grace and counsel of God, the calling- 

•> Libertas Arbitrii consistit in eo, qiioti homo, posilis omnibus requisilis ad voien- 
dum, indifferens tauien sit, ad volt-nduiii vel nolenduiii hoc vcl iilud. Arrain. art. 
perpend, pag. 11. 

' Voluntatcin comitatur propiietas qu^daui inseparabilis, quam libcrtatem voca- 
nius : aqua voluntas dicitur, potentiaquie positis omnibus prierequisitis ad agendum 
necessariis, potest velle, et nolle aut vellc t-t nonvelle. Ramon, in act. S^'nod. pag. 16. 

k Omnes irrcgcniti habent Lib. Arbit. et potentiam Spiritui Saiicto rcsislendi j 
eraiiani Dei oblatani re[)udiandi, consilium Dei adversus se contenmendi, evange- 
lium gratia; repudiandi, ei qui cor pulsat non aperiendo. Armin. artic. perpend. 



A DISPLAY or ARMINIANISM. 181 

of the gospel, the knocking at the door of the heart, can 
move at all, or in the least measure prevail against him. 
Woe be unto us then, if when God calls us, our free-will be 
not in good temper, and well disposed to hearken unto him : 
for it seems there is no dealing with it by any other ways, 
though powerful and almighty. ' For grant,'' saith Corvinus, 
' all the operations of grace which God can use in our con- 
version, yet conversion remaineth so in our own free power, 
that we can be not converted ; that is, we can either turn or 
not turn ourselves :' where the idol plainly challengeth the 
Lord to work his utmost, and tells him, that after he hath 
so done, he will do what he please ; his infallible prescience, 
his powerful predetermination, the moral efficacy of the 
gospel, the infusion of grace, the effectual operation of the 
Holy Spirit, all are nothing ; not at all available in helping 
or furthering our independent wills in their proceedings. 
Well, then, in what estate will you have the idol placed ? 
' In™ such a one, wherein he may be suffered to sin, or to do 
well at his pleasure,' as the same author intimates. It seems 
then, as to sin, so nothing is required for him to be able to 
do good but God's permission ? No ! For the Remonstrants'* 
(as they speak of themselves) ' do always suppose a free 
power of obeying, or not obeying, as well in those who do 
obey, as in those who do not obey :' that he that is obedient, 
may therefore be counted obedient, because he obeyeth, 
when he could not obey ; and so on the contrary ; where all 
the praise of our obedience, whereby we are made to differ 
from others, is ascribed to ourselves alone, and that free power 
that is in us. Now this they mean, not of any one act of obe- 
dience, but of faith itself, and the whole consummation there- 
of. ' For° if a man should say, that every man in the world 
hath a power of believing if he will, and of attaining salva- 
tion, and that this power is settled in his nature, what ar- 

' Posilis omnibus operationibiis gratije, quibiis Deus in conversione nostri uti pos- 
sit, nianit taiiien conversio ita in nostra poteslate libera, iit possimus non convcrti, 
Itoc est, nosniet ipsos converterc vel non convertere. Cor. ad Bog. pag. 263. 

™ Non potest Deus Lib. Arbit. integrum servare, nisi tam peccare homineni sine- 
ret, quani bene agere. Corvin. ad Molin. cap. 6. 

" Semper Remonstrantes supponunt liberani obediendi potentiara, et non obedi- 
endi ; ut qui obediens est idcirco obediens censcatur, quia cum possit non obedira 
obedit tamen, et e contra. Rem. Apol. p. 70. 

" Quod si quis dicat omiies in universum homines, habere potentiam credendi si 
rp!int, et sa'.utem consequcndi : et hanr potenliam esse natur.-^ hominum divinitus 
t'ollatuin, quo tuo argumento eum confutabis.' Armin. Antip. pag. 372. 



182 A DISPLAY OF AllMlM ANISM. 

gument have you to confute him,' saith Arminius trium- 
phantly to Perkins. 

Where the sophistical innovator as plainly confounds 
grace and nature, as ever did Pelagius. That then, which the 
Arminians claim here in behalf of their free-will, is an abso- 
lute independence on God's providence, in doing any thing, 
and of his grace, in doing that which is good. A self-suffi- 
ciency in all its operations, a plenary indifferency of doing 
what we will, this, or that, as being neither determined to 
the one, nor inclined to the other, by any overruling influ- 
ence from heaven ; so, that the good acts of our wills have 
no dependance on God's providence as they are acts, nor 
on his grace as they are good ; but in both regards pro- 
ceed from such a principle within us, as is no way moved 
by any superior agent. Now the first of these we deny unto 
our wills, because they are created ; and the second, because 
they are corrupted : their creation hinders them from doing 
any thing of themselves without the assistance of God's 
providence, and their corruption, of doing any thing that 
is good without his grace, A self-sufficiency for operation, 
without the effectual motion of Almighty God, the first 
cause of all things, we can allow neither to men, nor angels, 
unless we intend to make them gods ; and a power of do- 
ing good, equal unto that they have of doing evil, we must 
not grant to man by nature, unless we will deny the fall of 
Adam, and fancy ourselves still in paradise; but let us con- 
sider these things apart. 

First, I shall not stand to decipher the nature of human 
liberty, which perhaps would require a larger discourse 
than my proposed method will bear : it may suffice, that ac- 
cording to my former intimation, we grant as large a free- 
dom and dominion to our wills over their own acts, as a 
creature subject to the supreme rule of God's providence 
is capable of; endued we are with such a liberty of will, 
as is free from all outward compulsion and inward neces- 
sity, having an elective faculty of applying itself unto that 
which seems good unto it, in which it is a free choice, notwith- 
standing it is subservient to the decree of God, as I shewed 
before ; chap. iv. Most free it is in all its acts, both in re- 
gard of the object it chooseth, and in regard of that vital 
power and faculty whereby it worketh ; infallibly comply- 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINl ANISM. 183 

ing with God's providence, and working by virtue of the 
motion thereof: but surely to assert such a supreme inde- 
pendency, and every way unbounded indifFerency, as the 
Arminians claim, whereby all other things requisite being 
pre-supposed, it should remain absolutely in our own power, 
to will, or not to will, to do any thing, or not to do it, is 
plainly to deny that our wills are subject to the rule of the 
Most High. It is granted, that in such a chimerical fancied 
consideration of free-will, wherein it is looked upon as 
having no relation to any act of God's, but only its creation, 
abstracting from his decree, it may be said to have such 
a liberty in regard of the object ; but the truth is, this di- 
vided sense is plain nonsense, a mere fiction of such an es- 
tate, wherein it never was, nor ever can be, so long as men 
will confess any deity but themselves, to whose determina- 
tions they must be subject: until then, more significant 
terms may be invented for this free power in our nature, 
which the Scripture never once vouchsafed to name, I shall 
be content to call it with Prosper,? 'a spontaneous appetite 
of what seemeth good unto it,' free from all compulsion, 
but subservient to the providence of God. And against its 
exaltation to this height of independency, I oppose. 

First, Every thing that is independent of any else in opera- 
tion, is purely active, and so consequently a god; for nothing 
but a divine will can be a pure act, possessing such a liber- 
ty by virtue of its own essence. Every created will must have 
a liberty by participation, which includeth such an imper- 
fect potentiality, as cannot be brought into act without some 
promotion (as I may so say) of a superior agent ; neither 
doth this motion, being extrinsical, at all prejudice the true 
liberty of the will, which requireth indeed that the internal 
principle of operation be active and free, but not that that 
principle be not moved to that operation, by an outward 
superior agent ; nothing in this sense can have an indepen- 
dent principle of operation, which hath not an independent 
being : it is no more necessary to the nature of a free cause, 
from whence a free action must proceed, that it be the first 
beginning of it, than it is necessary to the nature of a cause, 
that it be the first cause. 

P Lib. Arbit. csl ici slbi platitrt; si)oiitancus appiliUu. Trosp. nil Collat. cap. 18. 
p. 379. 



184 A DISPLAY OF ARMIXIANISM. 

Secondly, If the free acts of our wills are so subservient 
to the providence of God, as that he useth them to what end 
he will, and by them effecteth many of his purposes, then 
they cannot of themselves be so absolutely independent as 
to have in their own power every necessary circumstance 
and condition, that they may use, or not use, at their plea- 
sure. Now the former is proved by all those reasons and 
texts of Scripture I before produced, to shew that the pro- 
vidence of God overruleth the actions and determineth the 
wills of men, freely to do that which he hath appointed ; and 
truly were it otherwise, God's dominion over the most things 
that are in the world were quite excluded ; he had not power 
to determine that any one thing should ever come to pass, 
which hath any reference to the wills of men. 

Thirdly, All the acts of the will, being positive entities, 
were it not previously moved by God himself, in whom we 
live, move, and have our being, must needs have their es- 
sence and existence solely from the will itself, which is 
thereby , made avTo ov, a first and supreme cause, endued with 
an underived being : and so much to that particular. 

Let us now, in the second place, look upon the power of 
our free-will, in doing that which is morally good, where 
we shall find not only an essential imperfection, inasmuch 
as it is created, but also a contracted defect, inasmxich as it 
is corrupted. The ability which the Arminians ascribe unto 
it in this kind, of doing that which is morally and spiritually 
good, is as large as themselves will confess to be competent 
unto it, in the state of innocency ; even a power of believing, 
and a power of resisting, the gospel; of obeying and not obey- 
ing ; of turning, or of not being converted. 

The Scripture, as I observed before, hath no such term 
at all, nor any thing equivalent unto it; but the expressions 
it useth concerning our nature and all the faculties thereof, 
in this state of sin and unregeneration, seem to imply 
the quite contrary ; as that ' we are in bondage;' Heb. ii. 
15. 'dead in sin;' Eph. ii. 3. 'and so free from righteous- 
ness ;' Rom. vi. ' servants of sin ;' ver. 16. 'under the reio-n 
and dominion thereof;' ver. 12. 'all our members being in- 
struments of unrighteousness ;' ver. 13. Not free, indeed, un- 
til the Son make us free ; so that this idol of free-will, in re- 
spect of spiritual things, is not one whit better than the other 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 185 

idols of the Heathen. Though it look like silver and gold, 
it is the work of men's hands : it hath a mouth, but it speaks 
jiot ; it hath eyes but it sees not ; it hath ears but it hears not ; 
a nose but it smells not; it hath hands, but it handleth not; 
feet, but it walks not; neither speaketh it through the throat: 
-all they that made it are like unto it, and so is every one that 
trusteth in it. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord, &c. That 
it is the work of men's hands, or a human invention I shewed 
before. For the rest it hath a mouth, unacquainted with the 
mysteries of godliness, 'full only of cursing and bitterness ;' 
Rom. iii. 14. 'speaking great swelling words;' Jude 16. 
" great things and blasphemies;' Rev. xiii. 5. *a mouth caus- 
ing the flesh to sin ;' Eccles. vi. 5. * his eyes are blind, not 
able to perceive those things that are of God, nor to know 
those things that are spiritually discerned ;' 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
'eyes before which there is no fear of God;' Rom. iii. 18. 
'' his understanding is darkened, because of the blindness of 
his heart;' Eph. iv. 18. 'wise to do evil, but to do good he 
hath no knowledge ;' Jer. iv. 22. So that without farther 
light, all the world is but a mere darkness; John i. 5. He 
hath ears, but they are like the ears of the deaf adder to the 
word of God, 'refusing to hear the voice of charmers, charm- 
ing never so wisely ;' Psal. Iviii. 5. being dead when his voice 
first calls it ; John v. 25. 'ears stopped that they should 
not hear;' Zech. viii. 11. 'heavy ears that cannot hear ;' Isa. 
vi. 10. a nose, to which the gospel is 'the savour of death 
unto death;' 2 Cor. ii. 16. ' hands full of blood ;' Isa. i. 15. 
and fingers defiled with iniquity ;' chap. lix. 3. feet indeed, 
but like Mephibosheth, lame in both by a fall, so that he 
cannot at all walk in the path of goodness : but ' swift to shed 
blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way 
of peace they have not known ;' Rom. iii. 15—17. These and 
divers other such endowments, and excellent qualifications, 
doth the Scripture attribute to this idol, which it calls * the 
old man,' as I shall more fully discover in the next chapter: 
and is not this a goodly reed whereon to rely in the paths 
of godliness ? a powerful deity, whereunto we may repair 
for a power to become the sons of God, and attaining eter- 
nal happiness ? The abilities of free-will, in particular, I 
shall consider hereafter ; now only I will by one or two 
reasons shew, that it cannot be the sole and proper cause 



186 A DISPLAY OF ARM 1X1 ANISM. 

of any truly good and spiritual act, well pleasing unto 
God. 

First, All spiritual acts well pleasing unto God, as faith, 
repentance, obedience, are supernatural; flesh and blood re- 
vealeth not these things ; ' Not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man ; but of the will of God ;' John i. 
13. ' That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which 
is born of the Spirit, is spirit ;' John iii. 6. Now to the per- 
formance of any supernatural act it is required, that the pro- 
ductive power thereof be also supernatural, for nothing hath 
an activity in causing above its own sphere, *nec imbelles 
generant feroces aquilas columbse :' but our free-will is a 
merely natural faculty, betwixt which, and those spiritual 
supernatural acts, there is no proportion, unless it be ad- 
vanced above its own orb by inherent habitual grace. Di- 
vine theological virtues, differing even in the substance of 
the act from- those moral performances about the same 
things, to which the strength of nature may reach (for the 
difierence of acts ariseth from their formal objects, which 
to both these are divers), must have another principle and 
cause, above all the power of nature, in civil tilings and ac- 
tions morally good, inasmuch as they are subject to a na- 
tural perception, and do not exceed the strength of our own 
wills : this faculty of free-will may take place, but yet not 
without these following limitations : First, That it always 
requireth the general concourse of God, whereby the whole 
supposition, in which free-will hath its subsistence, may be 
sustained ; Matt. x. 29, 30. Secondly, That we do all these 
things imperfectly and with much infirmity ; every degree 
also of excellency, in these things must be counted a special 
gift of God ; Isa. xxvi. 22. Thirdly, That our wills are de- 
termined by the will of God, to all their acts and motions 
in particular; but to do that which is spiritually good, we 
have no knowledge, no power. 

Secondly, That concerning which I gave one special in- 
stance, in whose production the Arminians attribute much 
to free-will, is faith. This they afiirm (as I shewed before) 
to be inbred in nature, every one having in him from his 
birth, a natural power to believe in Christ and his gospel : 
for Episcopius denies, ' thaf any action of the Holy Spirit 

n An ulia actio S. S. immctliala in mciitcm nut voUmlalem, ncccsfniin sit, aul in 



A DISPLAY or AllMI^flAXISM. 187 

upon the understanding, or will, is necessary, or promised 
in the Scripture, to make a man able to believe the word 
preached unto him :' so that it seems every man hath at all 
times a power to believe, to produce the act of faith upon 
the revelation of its object, which gross Pelagianism is con- 
trary. 

First, To the doctrine of the church of England, affirm- 
ing that a man cannot so much as prepare himself by his 
own strength, to faith and calling upon God, until the grace 
of God, by Christ, prevent him that he may have a good 
will. Artie. 

Secondly, To the Scripture, teaching that it* is the work 
of God that we do believe ;' John vi. 29. * It is not of our- 
selves, it is the gift of God ;' Eph. ii. 8. ' To some it is 
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven ;' 
Matt. xiii. 11. And what is peculiarly given to some, can- 
not be in the power of every one; ' To you it is given on the 
behalf of Christ to believe on him;' Phil. i. 19. Faith is our 
access or coming unto Christ, which none can do, unless 
* the Father draw him ;' John vi. 44. and he so draweth, or * hath 
mercy, on whom he will have mercy ;' Rom. ix. 19. And al- 
though Episcopius rejects any immediate action of the Holy 
Spirit, for the ingenerating of faith, yet St. Paul affirmeth, 
that there is no less effectual power required to it, than that 
which raised Christ from the dead, which sure was an ac- 
tion of the Almighty Godhead. ' Thatwemay know,'saith 
he, ' what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward 
who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 
which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the 
dead;' Eph. i. 19, 20. So that, let the Arminians say what 
they please, recalling that I write to Christians, I will spare 
my labour of farther proving that faith is the free gift of 
God ; and their opposition to the truth of the Scripture in 
this particular is so evident to the meanest capacity, that 
there needs no recapitulation to present the sum of it to 
their understandings. 

Scriptura proraittatur ad hoc, ut quis credere possit verbo extrinsecus proposito, ne- 
gativam tuebimur. Episcop. disput. privat. 



188 A DISPLAY OF A RMI NI ANTSM. 

CHAP. XIII. 

Ofthepoweroffree-uill, in preparing us for our convenion unto God. 

The judgment of the Arrainiaiis concerning the power of 
free-will about spiritual things, in a man unregenerate, 
merely in the state of corrupted nature, before and without 
the help of grace, may be laid open by these following po- 
sitions. 

First, That every man in the world, reprobates and 
others, have in themselves power and ability of believing in 
Christ, of repenting, and yielding due obedience to the new 
covenant, and that because they lost not this power by the 
fall of Adam. 'Adam after his falU'^^saith Grevinchovius, 're- 
tained a power of believing, and so did all reprobates in him. 
He did not lose"" (as they speak at the synod) the power of 
performing that obedience, which is required in the new co- 
venant considered formally, as it is required by the new co- 
venant, he lost not a power of believing, nor a power of for- 
sakino- sin by repentance :' and those graces that he lost not 
are still in our power; whence tliey afhrm, * that'' faith is call- 
ed the work of God, only because he requireth us to do it.' 
Now having appropriated this power unto themselves, to be 
sure that the grace of God be quite excluded, which before 
they had made needless, they teach. 

Secondly, That for the reducing of this power into act, 
that men may become actual believers, there is no infused 
habit of grace, no spiritual vital principle, necessary for them, 
or bestowed upon them, but every one, by the use of his na- 
tive endowments, do make themselves differ from others : 
' Those things'* which are spoken concerning the infusion of 
habits, before we can exercise the act of faith, we reject,' 

* Adamus post lapsiim potentiam cicdendi relinuit, ct reliqui reprobi etiani in 
illo. Grevinclio. ad Ames. pag. 18j. 

b Adamus noii aniisit vires earn obedicntiam prreslandi, qiise in novo federe cxi- 
iritur, prout puta ea tonsideratur fornialiter, hoc est, prout novo foedere exacla est, 
iicc potentiam credendi amisit, nee amisit potentiam, perresipisccntiam, ex peecatu 
resurgcndi. Rem. Declarat. sent, in Syn. p. 107. 

■ c Fides vocatur opus Dei, quia Deus ipse id a nobis fieri posfnlat. Rem. Apnl. 
cap. 10. pag. 112. 

^ Ea quw de babituuni infusionc dicuntur, ante oinnem fidei actum, rcjitiuntiii a 
nobis. Ei)i5t. ad Wal. p. 67. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 189 

saith the epistle to the Walachians. ' That* the internal prin- 
ciple of faith, required in the gospel, is a habit divinely in- 
fused, by the strength and efficacy whereof the will should 
be determined, I deny,' saith another of them. Well, then, 
if we must grant that the internal vital principle of a super- 
natural spiritual grace is a mere natural faculty, not elevatf^d 
by any divine habit; if it be not God that begins the good 
work in us, but our own free-wills, let us see what more goodly 
stuff will follow. One man, by his own mere endeavours, 
without the aid of any received gift, makes himself differ 
from another : ' What*^ matter is it in that, that a man should 
make himself differ from others? There is nothing truer; 
he who yieldeth faith to God commanding him, maketh 
himself differ from him who will not have faith when he com- 
mandeth.' They are the words of their apology ; which, 
without question, is an irrefragable truth, if faith be not a 
gift received from above ; for, on that ground only, the apo- 
stle proposeth these questions, 'Who made thee differ from 
another ? or what hast thou that thou hast not received ? 
and if thou hast received, why boasteth thou as if thou 
hadst not received?' The sole cause why he denies any one, 
by his own power, to make himself differ from another is, 
because that wherein the difference consisteth, is received, 
being freely bestowed upon him. Deny this, and I confess 
the other will fall of itself. But until their authority be 
equal with the apostles, they would do well to forbear the 
naked obtrusions of assertions so contradictory to theirs ; 
and so they would not trouble the church. Let them take all 
the glory unto themselves, as doth Grevinchovius : 'I make* 
myself,' saith he, 'differ from another, when I do not resist 
God and his divine predetermination, which I could have 
resisted. And why may I not boast of this as of mine own? 
That I could, is of God's mercy (endowing his nature with 
such an ability as you heard before) but that I would, when 

e Principium interniim fidei a nobis in evangelio requisituni, esse habitum quen- 
dam divitiitus iiifusuin, cujus vi ac efficacitate voluntas determinetur ; lioc negavi. 
Grevinchov. ad Ames. pag. j2\. 

f Quid in eo positum est, quod homo discriminare seipsum dicitur? Nihil verius, 
qui fidem Deo praacipienti habet, is discriminat se ab eo, qui Deo praecipienti fidein 
habere non vult. Rem. Apol. cap. 14. pag. 144. 

e Ego meipsuni discertio, cum enitii Deo ac divinaj praedeterminationi resisfere 
possem, non restiti titmen, atqiii in eo quid ni liceat milii tanquam de meo gloriari ? 
quod enim potui Dei miserentis est, quod autem volui cum possem nolle, id niea? 
putcstalis est. Grev. ad Auies. p. 'i:)3. 



190 



A DISPLAY OF ARMIXI ANISM. 



I might have done otherwise, is of my power.' Now when, 
after all this, they are forced to confess some evangelical 
grace, though consisting only in a moral persuasion, by the 
outward preaching of the word, they teach. 

Thirdly, That God sendeth the gospel, and revealeth 
Christ Jesus unto men, according as they well dispose them- 
selves for such a blessing. ' Sometimes'' (say they in their 
synodical writings) God calleth this or that nation, people, 
city, or person, to the communion of evangelical grace, 
whom he himself pronounceth worthy of it, in comparison 
of others :' so that whereas, Acts xviii. 10. God encourageth 
Paul to preach at Corinth by affirming that he had 'much 
people in that city' (which doubtless were his people then, 
only by virtue of their election); in these men's judgments* 
' they were called so, because that even then they feared God, 
and served him with all their hearts, according to that 
knowledge they had of him, and so were ready to obey the 
preaching of St. Paul.' Strange doctrine, that men should 
fear God, know him, serve him in sincerity, before they ever 
heard of the gospel, and by those means deserve that it 
should be preached unto them! This is that pleasing of 
God before faith that they plead for; Act. Synod, pag. 66. 
' That'' preparation and disposition to believe, which men at- 
tain by the law, and virtuous education ;' that * something 
which is in sinners,' whereby though they are not justified, 
yet they are made worthy of justification :' for"" conversion 
and the performance of good works is, in their apprehension, 
a condition pre-required to justification;* for so speak the 
children of Arminius : which if it be not an expression, not 
to be paralleled in the writings of any Christian, I am some- 
thing mistaken. The sum of their doctrine, then, in this par- 

'' Iriterdum Dens banc vel illam gentcm, civitatem, personam, ad evangclicne gratije 
conimunioneiTi vocat, quam ipse dignani pronuiitiat comparative, &c. Rem. Decla- 
rat. Sent. Synod. 

' lili, in qiiorinn gratiam, Dominiis Paulum in Coriiitlium niisit,diciinfur Dei po- 
puliis, quia Deuni turn tiiuebant eique, secundum cognitionem quam de eo habe- 
bant, serviebant ex animo, et sic ad prwdicationem Pauii, &i.c. Cor. ad Molin. 3. 
sect. 27. 

•' Per legem, vel per j^iarn educationem vel per institutioncm — per hajc enini lio- 
niinem prseparari, et disponi ad credendum, planissimum est. Rem. act. Synod. 

' Praecedit aliquid in peccatoribus, quo quamvis nondum justificati sunt, digni 
efficiantur justificatione. Grevin. ad Am. pag. 434. 

"' Tenendum est, veram conversionem prnestalionemque bonorum operum esse 
coiiditionem prserequisitam ante justificalionem. Filii. Arm. praef. ad cap. 7. 
ad Rem. 



A DISPLAY or ARMIXIANISM. 191 

ticular concerning the power of free-will, in the state of sin 
and unregeneration, is. That every man having a native in- 
bred power of believing in Christ, \ipon the revelation of 
the gospel, hath also an ability of doing so much good, as 
shall procure of God that the gospel be preached unto him; 
to which, without any internal assistance of grace, he can 
give assent and yield obedience : the preparatory acts of 
his own will, always proceeding so far, as to make him ex- 
cel others, who do not perform them, and are therefore ex- 
cluded from farther grace : which is more gross Pelagian- 
ism than Pelagius himself would ever justify; wherefore, 
we reject all the former positions, as so many monsters in 
Christian religion, in whose room we assert these that 
follow. 

First, That we being by nature dead in trespasses and 
sins, have no power to prepare ourselves for the receiving 
of God's grace ; nor in the least measure to believe, and 
turn ourselves unto him. Not that we deny, that there are 
any conditions pre-required in us for our conversion, dis- 
positions preparing us in some measure for our new birth or 
regeneration ; but we affirm that all these also, are the ef- 
fects of the grace of God, relating to that alone as their 
proper cause ; for of ourselves, * without him we can do no- 
thing;' John Kv, 15. * We are not able of ourselves to think 
any thing as of ourselves;' 2 Cor. iii. 5. much less do that 
which is good : in respect of that, every one of our mouths 
must be stopped, * for we have all sinned and come short of 
the glory of God ;' Rom. v. 19. 23. 'we are by nature the 
children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins ;' Eph. ii. 1. 
Rom. viii. 9. Our new birth is a resurrection from death, 
wrought by the greatness of God's power. And what ability, 
I pray, hath a dead man, to prepare himself for his resur- 
rection ? Can he collect his scattered dust, or renew his pe- 
rished senses? If the leopard can change his spots, and the 
Ethiopian his skin, then can we do good, who, by nature, 
are taught to do evil ; Jer. xiii. 23. we are all ungodly, 
and without strength considered when Christ died for us ; 
Rom. v. 6. wise to do evil, but to do sood, we have no 
strength, no knowledge. Yea, all the faculties of our souls, 
by reason of that spiritual death under which we are de- 
tained by the corruption of nature, are altogether useless in 



192 A DISPLAY QF ARMINIANISM. 

respect of any power, for the doing of that which is truly 
good ; our understandings are blind or darkened ; * being- 
alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that 
is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts ;' Eph, 
iv. 18. whereby we become even darkness itself; chap. v. 8. 
So void is the understanding of true knowledge, that the 
natural man ' receiveth not the things that are of God ; they 
are foolishness unto him;' 1 Cor. ii. 14. Nothing but con- 
founded and amazed at spiritual things, and if he doth not 
mock, can do nothing but wonder, and say, * What meaneth 
this ;' Acts ii. 12, 13. Secondly, we are not only blind in our 
understandings, but captives also to sin in our wills ; Luke 
iv. 18. whereby 'we are servants to sin;' John viii. 34. free 
only in our obedience to that tyrant ; Rom. vi. Yea, thirdly, 
all our affections are wholly corrupted, ' for every imagina- 
tion of the thoughts of the heart of man is evil continually;' 
Gen. vi. 5. While we are in the flesh, the motions of sin do 
work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death ; Rom. 
vii. 5. 

These are the endowments of our nature, these are the 
preparations of our hearts for the grace of God, which we 
have within ourselves. Nay, 

Secondly, There is not only an impotency, but an enmity, 
in corrupted nature to any thing spiritually good. * The 
thino-s that are of God are foolishness unto a natural man ;' 
1 Cor. ii. 14. And there is nothing that men do more hate and 
contemn, than that which they account as folly. They mock 
at it, as a ridiculous drunkenness ; Acts ii. 13. And would 
to God our days yielded us not too evident proofs of that 
universal opposition, that is between light and darkness, 
Christ and Belial, nature and grace ; that we could not see 
every day the prodigious issues of this inbred corruption 
swelling over all bounds, and breaking forth into a contempt 
of the gospel, and all ways of godliness. So true it is, that 
the ' carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject 
unto his law, neither indeed can it be ;' Rom. viii. 7. So tliat. 

Thirdly, As a natural man, by the strength of his own 
free-will, neither knoweth norwilleth; so it is utterly impos- 
sible he should do any thing pleasing unto God. ' Can the 
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then can 
he do o-ood;' Jer. xiii.23. 'An evil tree cannot bring forth 



A DISPLAY OF A KMINIA NISM. 193 

good fruit/ ' without faith it is impossible to please God ;' 
Heb. xi. 6. And ' that is not of ourselves, it is the gift of 
God;' Eph. ii. So that though Almighty God, according 
to the unsearchableness of his wisdom, worketh divers ways 
and in sundry manners, for the translating of his chosen 
ones, from the power of darkness to his marvellous light ; 
calling some powerfully in the midst of their march in the 
ways of ungodliness, as he did Paul, preparing others by out- 
ward means and helps of common restraining grace, moral- 
izing nature before it be begotten anew by the immortal seed 
of the word ; yet this is certain, that all good in this kind, is 
from his free grace, there is nothing in ourselves as of our- 
selves but sin : yea, and all those previous dispositions 
wherewith our hearts are prepared by virtue of common 
grace, do not at all enable us to concur by any vital opera- 
tion, with that powerful blessed renewing grace of regenera- 
tion whereby we become the sons of God. Neither is there 
any disposition unto grace so remote as that possibly it can 
proceed from a mere faculty of nature, for every such dis- 
position must be of the same order with the form that is to 
be introduced, but nature in respect of grace is a thing of 
an inferior allay, between which there is no proportion ; a 
good use of gifts may have a promise of an addition of more, 
provided it be in the same kind. There is no rule, law, or 
promise, that should make grace due upon the good use of 
natural endowments. But you will say, here I quite over- 
throw free-will which before I seemed to grant ; to which I 
answer : that in regard of that object concerning which now 
we treat, a natural man hath no such thing as free-will at all, 
if you take it for a power of doing that which is good and 
well pleasing unto God in things spiritual, for an ability of 
preparing our hearts unto faith and calling upon God, as our 
church article speaks, a home-bred self-sufficiency, preceding 
the change of our wills by the almighty grace of God, where- 
by any good should be said to dwell in us, and we utterly 
deny that there is any such thing in the world. The will 
though in itself radically free, yet in respect of the term or 
object to which in this regard it should tend, is corrupted, 
enthralled, and under a miserable bondage; tied to such a 
necessity of sinning in general, that though unregenerate 
men are not restrained to this or that sin in particular, yet 

VOL. v. O 



194 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINTANISM. 



for the main they can do nothing but sin. All their actions 
wherein there is any morality, are attended with iniquity, 
' an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit ; even the sacrifice 
of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.' These things 
being thus cleared from the Scripture the former Armi- 
nian positions will of themselves fall to the ground, having 
no foundation but their own authority ; for any pretence of 
proof they make none from the word of God. The first two 
I considered in the last chapter, and now add only concern- 
ing the third. That the sole cause why the gospel is sent 
unto some and not unto others, is not any dignity, worth, 
or desert of it in them to whom it is sent, more than in the 
rest, that are suffered to remain in the shadow of death, but 
only the sole good pleasure of God, that it may be a subser- 
vient means for the execution of his decree of election. 'I 
have much people in this city;' Acts xx. ' I thank thee, Fa- 
ther, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these 
things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
unto babes ; even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
sight;' Matt. xi. 25, 26. So that the Arminian opposi- 
tion to the truth of the gospel in this particular, is clearly 
manifest. 



S. S. 

' Of ourselves we can do 
nothing;' John xv, 5. 

' We are not able of our- 
selves to think any thing as 
of ourselves ;' 2 Cor. iii. 5. 

' We are by nature chil- 
dren of wrath, dead in tres- 
passes and sins;' Eph. ii. 1. 

* Faith is not of ourselves, 
it is the gift of God ;' Eph. ii. 

' Who maketh thee differ 
from another? or what hast 
thou, that thou hast not re- 
ceived 1 and if thou hast re- 
ceived, why boastest thou, as 
if thou hadst not received ?' 
1 Cor. iv. 7. 



Lib. Arbit. 
' We retain still after the 
fall, a power of believing and 
of repentance, because Adam 
lost not this ability ;' Rem. 
Declarat. Sen. in Syn. 

' Faith is said to be the work 
of God, because he command- 
eth us to perform it;' Rem. 
Apol. 

' There is no infusion of any 
habit or spiritual vital princi- 
ple necessary to enable a man 
to believe ;' Corvin. 

'There is nothing truer than 
that one man maketh himself 
differ from another: he who 
believeth when God com- 



A DISPLAY OP ARMINIANISM. 



195 



s. s. 

' If the leopard can change 
his spots, and the Ethiopian 
his skin, then can ye do good 
who are taught to do evil ;' 
Jer. xiii. 23. 

' Believing on him wiio 
justifieth the ungodly;' Rom, 
iv. 5. ' Being justified freely 
by his grace ;' Rom. iii. 24. 

' I thank thee. Father, Lord 
of heaven and earth, that thou 
hast hid these things from the 
wise and prudent, and hast re- 
vealed them unto babes ; even 
so. Father, for so it seemed 
good in thy sight;' Matt. xi. 
25, 26. 



Lib. Arbit. 
niandeth, maketh himself dif- 
fer from him who Vv ill not ;' 
Rem. Apol. 

' I may boast of mine own, 
when I obey God's grace, 
which it was in my power not 
to obey, as well as to obey ;' 
Grevinch. 

' True conversion and the 
performance of good works, 
is a condition required on our 
part before justification ;' Fi- 
lii Armin. 

' God sendeth the gospel 
to such persons or nations, 
that in comparison of others, 
may be said to be worthy of 
it;' Rem. Apol. 



CHAP. XIV. 



Of our conversion to God. 

How little or nothing at all it is that the Arminians assign 
to the grace of God, in performing the great work of our 
conversion, may plainly appear from what I have shewed al- 
ready, that they ascribe to our own free-will ; so that I shall 
briefly pass that over, which otherwise is so copiously deli- 
vered in Holy Scripture, that it would require a far larger 
discussion. A prolix confirmation of the truth we profess, 
will not suit so well with my intention, which is merely to 
make a discovery of their errors, by not knowing the depths 
whereof so many are deceived and inveigled. 

Two things in this great conjunction of grace and nature, 
the Arminians ascribe unto free-will : First, A power of co- 
operation and working with grace to make it at all effectual. 
Secondly, A power of resisting its operation, and making it 
altogether ineffectual : God in the meantime bestowing no 
grace, but what awaits an act issuing from one of these two 

o 2 



196 A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 

abilities, and hath its effect accordingly. If a man will co- 
operate, then grace attains its end ; if he will resist, it returns 
empty. To this end they feign all the grace of God bestowed 
upon us for our conversion, to be but a moral persuasion by 
his word, not an infusion of a new vital principle by the pow- 
erful working of the Holy Spirit. And, indeed, granting this, 
I shall most willingly comply with them, in assigning to free- 
will one of the endowments before recited, a power of resist- 
ing the operation of grace ; but instead of the other, must 
needs ascribe to our whole corrupted nature, and every one 
that is partaker of it, a universal disability of obeying it, or 
coupling in that work which God by his grace doth intend. 
If the grace of our conversion be nothing but a moral per- 
suasion, we have no more power of obeying it in that estate 
wherein we are dead in sin, than a man in his grave hath in 
himself to live anew, and come out at the next call. God's 
promises, and the saints' prayers in the Holy Scripture, seem 
to design such a kind of grace, as should give us a real in- 
ternal ability of doing that which is spiritually good ; but it 
seems there is no such matter : for if a man should persuade 
me to leap over the Thames, or to fly in the air, be he never 
so eloquent, his sole persuasion makes me no more able to 
do it, than I was before ever I saw him. If God's grace be 
nothing but a sweet persuasion (though never so powerful), 
it is a thing extrinsical, consisting in the proposal of a de- 
sired object, but gives us no new strength at all, to do any 
thing we had not before a power to do. But let us hear them 
pleading themselves to each of these particulars concerning 
grace and nature. And, 

' First, for the nature of grace : God^hath appointed to save 
believers by grace, that is a soft and sweet persuasion, conve- 
nient and agreeing to their free-will, and not by any almighty 
action,' saith Arminius. It seems something strange, that the 
carnal mind being enmity against God, and the will enthralled 
to sin,andfull of wretched opposition to all his ways, yet God 
should have no other means to work them over unto him, but 
some persuasion that is sweet, agreeable, and congruous unto 
them in thatestate wherein they are; and a small exaltation it is 

a Dcus statuit salvare credentes per gratiara, id est, lenem ac suaveni liberoque 
ipsorum arbitrio convenientem seucongruam suafionem, non per oranipotentem acti- 
oaem seu motionem. Arrain. Antip. pag. 211. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 197 

of the dignity and power of grace, when the chief reason why it 
is effectual, as Alvarez observes, may be reduced to a well di- 
gested supper, or an undisturbed sleep, whereby some men 
may be brought into better temper than ordinary, to comply 
with this congruous grace. But let us for the present accept 
of this, and grant that God doth call some by such a congru- 
ous persuasion, at such a time and place, as he knows they 
will assent unto it. I ask whether God thus calleth all men, 
or only some ? If all, why are not all converted ? For the very 
granting of it to be congruous, makes it effectual. If only 
some, then why they and not others ? Is it out of a special 
intention to have them obedient? But let them take heed, for 
this will go near to establish the decree of election ; and out 
of what other intention it should be, they shall never be able 
to determine. Wherefore,'' Corvinus denies that any such 
congruity is required to the grace whereby we are converted, 
but only that it be a moral persuasion which we may obey if 
we will, and so make it effectual. Yea, and Arminius himself, 
after he had defended it as far as he was able, puts it off from 
himself, and falsely fathers it upon St. Austin. So that as 
they jointly affirm/ * they confess no grace for the begetting 
of faith to be necessary, but only that which is moral ;' which 
one of them interpreteth,'' to be 'a declaration of the gospel 
unto us.' Right like their old master Pelagius ; ' God,' saith* 
he, ' worketh in us to will that which is good, and to will that 
which is holy, whilst he stirs us up with promise of rewards, 
and the greatness of the future glory, who before were given 
over to earthly desires, like brute beasts loving nothing but 
things present, stirring up our stupid wills to a desire of God, 
by a revelation of wisdom, and persuading us to all that is 
good.' Both of them affirm the grace of God, to be nothing 
but a moral persuasion working by the way of powerful con- 
vincing arguments, but yet herein Pelagius seems to ascribe 

•> Corvin. ad Molin. — His ita expositis ex mcnte Augustini, &c. Arniin. Antip, 
de elec. 

<= Fatemur, aliatn nobis ad actum fidei eliciendum necessarian! gratiam non ag- 
nosci quam moralern. Rem. act. Synod, ad art. 4. 

^ Annuntiatio doctrinae evangelicae. Popp. August, port. pag. 110. 

« Operatur in nobis velle quod bonum est, velle quod sanctum est, dum nos terre- 
nis cnpiditatibus dcditos nnitorum more animalium, tantummodo pra-sentia diligen- 
tes, futursE gloria; magnitudine, ct pra>miorum poUicitatione, succendit : dum revela- 
tione sapientiiB in desiderium Dei stupentem suscitat voluntateni, dum nobis suad-* 
omiie quod bonum est. Pelag. ap. Aug. de grat. Ch. cap. 10. 



198 A DISPLAY OF AKMINIANISM. 

a greater efficacy to it, than the Arminians, granting that it 
works upon us, when after the manner of brute beasts, we 
are set merely on earthly things ; but these, as they confess, 
that for the production of faithj^t is necessary that such ar- 
guments be proposed on the part of God, to which nothing 
can probably be opposed, why they should not seem credible ; 
so there is, say they, required on our part, a pious docility 
and probity of mind. So that all the grace of God bestowed 
on us, consisteth in persuasive arguments out of the word, 
which if they meet with teachable minds, may work their 
conversion. 

Secondly, Having thus extenuated the grace of God, they 
affirm, * that^ in operation the efficacy thereof dependeth on 
free-will,' so the remonstrants in their apology. 'And to speak 
confidently,' saith Grevinchovius, ' I say'' that the effect of 
orace in an ordinary course, dependeth on some act of our free- 
will.' Suppose then that of two men made partakers of the same 
grace, that is, have the gospel preached unto them by the 
same means, one is converted and the other is not ; what 
may be the cause of this so great a difference ? Was there any 
intention or purpose in God, that one should be changed ra- 
ther than the other? No ! he equally desireth and intendeth 
the conversion of all and every one. Did then God work 
more powerfully in the heart of the one, by his Holy Spirit, 
than of the other ? No : the same operation of the Spirit al- 
ways accompanieth the same preaching of the word. But 
was not one by some almighty action, made partaker of real 
infused grace, which the other attained not unto? No: for 
that would destroy the liberty of his will, and deprive him of 
all the praise of believing. How then came this extreme dif- 
ference of effects ? Who made the one differ from the other, 
or what hath he that he did not receive ? Why all this pro- 
ceedeth merely from the strength of his own free-will, yielding 
obedience to God's gracious invitation, which like the other 
he might have rejected. This is the immediate cause of his 

f Ut autem assensus hie eliciatur in nobis, duo in primis necessaria sunt. 1. Ar- 
gumenta talia ex parte Dei, quibus nihil verisimiliter npponi potest, cur credibilia nou 
sint. 2. Pia docilitas aniniique probitas. Rem. decla. cap. 17. sect. 1. 

g Ut gratia sit effica-ic in acta secundo pendet a libera voiuntate. Rem. Apol. 
pag. 164. 

'' Imo ut contldc-utiusagam, dico efFectum gratise, ordinaria lege, pendere ab actu 
^'luo arbitrii. Grevin. ad Ames. p. 198. 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINI ANISM. 199 

conversion, to which all the praise thereof is due. And here 
the old idol may glory to all the world, that if he can but get 
his worshippers to prevail in this, he hath quite excluded the 
grace of Christ, and made it nomeu inane, a mere title, whereas 
there is no such thing in the world. 

Thirdly, They teach, that notwithstanding any purpose 
and intention of God to convert, and so to save, a sinner not- 
withstanding the most powerful and effectual operation of 
the blessed Spirit, with the most winning persuasive preach- 
ing of the word, yet it is in the power of a man to frustrate 
that purpose, resist that operation, and reject that preaching 
of the gospel. I shall not need to prove this, for it is that, 
which in direct terms they plead for; which also they must 
do, if they will comply \\\i\\ their former principles. For 
granting all these to have no influence upon any man but by 
the way of moral persuasion, we must not only grant that it 
may be resisted, but also utterly deny that it can be obeyed. 
We may resist it, I say, as having both a disability to good, 
and repugnancy against it; but for obeying it, unless we will 
deny all inherent corruption and depravation of nature, we 
cannot attribute any such sufficiency imto ourselves. 

Now concerning this weakness of grace, that it is not 
able to overcome the opposing power of sinful nature, one 
testimony of Arminius shall suffice, * It' always remaineth in 
the power of free-will, to reject grace that is given, and to 
refuse that which followeth, for grace is no almighty action 
of God, to which free-will cannot resist.' Not that I would 
assert in opposition to this, such an operation of grace, as 
should, as it were, violently overcome the will of man, and 
force him to obedience, which must needs be prejudicial unto 
our liberty, but only consisting in such a sweet effectual 
working, as doth infallibly promote our conversion, make us 
willing, who before were unwilling, and obedient, who were 
not obedient, that createth clean hearts, and reneweth right 
spirits within us. 

That then which we assert in opposition to these Armi- 
nian heterodoxies is, that the effectual grace which God 
useth in the great work of our conversion, by reason of its 

' Manet semper in potestate Lib. Arbit. gratiara datara rejicere et subsequciitem 
repudiare, quae gratia non est oninipotentis Dei actio, cui resist! a libero honiinis arbi- 
trio lion possit. Armiu. Antip. pag. 243. 



200 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 

own nature, being; also the instrument of, and God's inten- 
tion for, that purpose, doth surely produce the effect intend- 
ed; without successful resistance, and solely without any 
considerable co-operation of our own wills, until they are 
prepared and changed by that very grace. The infallibility 
of its effect depends chiefly on the purpose of God, when by 
any means he intends a man's conversion, those means must 
have such an efficacy added unto them, as may make them 
fit instruments for the accomplishment of that intention; 
that the counsel of the Lord may prosper, and his word not 
return empty. But the manner of its operation, that it re- 
quires no human assistance, and is able to overcome all re- 
pugnance, is proper to the being of such an act, as wherein 
it doth consist. Which nature and efficacy of grace, in op- 
position to an indifferent influence of the Holy Spirit, a me- 
taphorical motion, a working by the way of moral persua- 
sion, only proposing a desirable object easy to be resisted, 
and not effectual unless it be helped by an inbred ability of 
our own, which is the Arminian grace, I will briefly confirm, 
having premised these few things. 

First, Although God doth not use the wills of men in 
their conversion, as malign spirits use the members of men 
in enthusiasms, by a violent wrested motion, but sweetly and 
agreeably to their own free nature; yet in the first act of our 
conversion the will is merely passive, as a capable subject 
of such a work, not at all concurring co-operatively to our 
turning. It is not, I say, the cause of the work, but the sub- 
ject wherein it is wrought, having only a passive capability 
for the receiving of that supernatural being, which is intro- 
duced by grace. The beginning of this good work is mere- 
ly from God ; Phil. i. 6. Yea, faith is ascribed unto grace, not 
by the way of conjunction with, but of opposition unto, our 
wills ; ' not of ourselves, it is the gift of God ;' Eph. ii. 8. 
* Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, our sufficiency is of 
God;' 2 Cor. iii. 5. 'Turn thou me, O Lord, and I shall be 
turned.' 

Secondly, Though the will of man conferreth nothing to 
the infusion of the first grace, but a subjective receiving of it, 
yet in the very first act that is wrought in and by the will, it 
most freely co-operateth (by the way of subordination) with 
the grace of God ; and the more effectually it is moved by 



A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM. 201 

grace, the more freely it worketh with it. Man being con- 
verted, converteth himself. 

Thirdly, We do not affirm grace to be irresistible, as 
though it came upon the will with such an overflowing vio- 
lence, as to beat it down before it, and subdue it by com- 
pulsion to what it is no way inclinable ; but if that term 
must be used, it denoteth in our sense only such an uncon- 
querable efficacy of grace, as always and infallibly produc- 
eth its effect. For, 'Who is it that can withstand God ?' 
Acts xi. 17. As also it may be used on the part of the will 
itself which will not resist it ; ' all that the Father gives unto 
Christ will come unto him;' John vi. 37. The operation of 
grace is resisted by no hard heart, because it mollifies the 
heart itself. It doth not so much take away a power of re- 
sisting, as give a will of obeying, whereby the powerful im- 
potency of resistance is removed. 

Fourthly, Concerning grace itself, it is either common 
or special; common or general grace, consisteth in the ex- 
ternal revelation of the will of God by his word, with some 
illumination of the mind to perceive it, and correction of the 
affections not too much to contemn it ; and this, in some de- 
gree or other, to some more to some less, is common to all 
that are called ; special grace is the grace of regeneration, 
comprehending the former, adding more spiritual acts, but 
especially presupposing the purpose of God, on which its 
efficacy doth chiefly depend. 

Fifthly, This saving grace, whereby the Lord converteth 
or regenerateth a sinner, translating him from death to life, 
is either external or internal; external consisteth in the 
preaching of the word, &c. whose operation is by the way 
of moral persuasion, when by it we beseech our hearers in 
Christ's stead, * that they would be reconciled unto God ;* 
2 Cor. V. 20. and this in our conversion is the instrumental 
organ thereof; and may be said to be a sufficient cause of 
our regeneration, inasmuch as no other in the same kind is 
necessary; it may also be resisted in sensu diviso, abstract- 
ing from that consideration, wherein it is looked on as the 
instrument of God for such an end. 

Sixthly, Internal grace, is by divines distinguished into 
the first or preventing grace, and the second following co- 
operating grace ; the first is that spiritual vital principle, that 



202 A DISPLAY OF AKMINIANISM. 

is infused into us by the Holy Spirit, that new creation, and 
bestowing of new strength, whereby we are made fit and able 
for the producing of spiritual acts, to believe and yield evan- 
gelical obedience ; ' For we are the workmanship of God, cre- 
ated in Christ Jesus unto good works;' Eph. ii. 10. By this 
God gives us a new heart, and a new spirit he puts within 
us ; he taketh the stony hearts out of our flesh, and gives us 
a heart of flesh ; he puts his Spirit within us, to cause us to 
walk in his statutes ;' Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. 

Now this first grace is not properly and formally a vital 
act, but cansaliter only, in being a principle moving to such 
vital acts within us. It is the habit of faith bestowed upon 
a man, that he may be able to eliciate and perform the acts 
thereof; giving new light to the understanding, new inclina- 
tions to the will, and new affections unto the heart. For 
the infallible efficacy of which grace, it is that we plead 
against the Arminians, and amongst those innumerable 
places of holy Scripture confirming this truth, I shall make 
use only of a very few, reduced to these three heads. 

First, Our conversion is wrought by a divine almighty 
action, which the will of man will not, and thei'efore cannot, 
resist : the impotency thereof, ought not to be opposed to 
this omnipotent grace, which will certainly effect the work, 
for which it is ordained : being an action not inferior to the 
greatness of his mighty power, 'which he wrought in Christ 
when he raised him from the dead;' Eph. i. 19,20. and shall 
not that power which could overcome hell, and loose the 
bonds of death, be effectual for the raising of a sinner from 
the death of sin, when by God's intention it is appointed 
unto that work? ' He accomplisheth the work of faith with 
power ;' 2 Thess. i. 11. It is 'his divine power, that gives 
unto us all things that appertain to life and godliness ;' 2 Pet. 
i. 3. Surely a moral resistible persuasion, would not be thus 
often termed the power of God, which denoteth an actual 
efficacy, to which no creature is able to resist. 

Secondly, That which consisteth in a real efficiency, and 
is not at all, but when and where it actually worketh, what 
it intendeth cannot without a contradiction be said to be so 
resisted that it should not work, the whole nature thereof 
consisting in such a real operation. Now that the very es- 
sence of divine grace consisteth in such a formal act, may be 



A DISPLAY OF ARJVIINI ANISM. 203 

proved by all those places of Scripture, that affirm God by 
his grace, or the grace of God, actually to accomplish our 
conversion: as Deut. xxx. 6. 'And the Lord thy God will 
circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, that thou 
mayest live.' The circumcision of our hearts, that we may 
love the Lord with all our hearts, and with all our souls, is 
our conversion, which the Lord affirmeth here that he himself 
will do : not only enable us to do it, but he himself really 
and effectually will accomplish it. And again, ' I will put my 
law into them, and write it in their hearts ;' Jer. xxxi. 33. 'I 
will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart 
from me;' chap, xxxii. 39. He will not offer his fear unto 
them, but actually put it into them and most clearly ; Ezek. 
xxxvi. 26. * A new heart also will I give you, a new spirit 
will I put within you, and I will take the stony heart out of 
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh; and I will 
put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my sta- 
tutes.' Are these expressions of a moral persuasion only? 
Doth God affirm here he will do, what he intends only to 
persuade us to ? and which we may refuse to do if we will? 
Is it in the power of a stony heart to remove itself? What an 
active stone is this in mounting upwards? What doth it at 
all differ from that heart of flesh that God promiseth? Shall 
a stony heart be said to have a power to change itself into 
such a heart of flesh, as shall cause us to walk in God's sta- 
tutes? Surely, unless men were wilfully blind, they must needs 
here perceive such an action of God denoted, as effectually, 
solely, and infallibly worketh our conversion ; ' opening our 
hearts that we may attend unto the word;' Acts xvi. 14. 
' Granting us on the behalf of Christ to believe in him ;' Phil, 
i. 29. Now these and the like places prove, both the nature 
of God's grace to consist in a real efficiency, and the opera- 
tion thereof to be certainly effectual. 

Thirdly, Our conversion is 'a new creation,' 'a resurrec- 
tion,' ' a new birth.' Now he that createth a man, doth not per- 
suade him to create himself, neither can heif he should, nor 
hath he any power to resist him that will create him, that 
is, as we now take it, translate him from something that he 
is, to what he is not. What arguments do you think were 
sufficient to persuade a dead man to rise ? or what great aid 



204 A DISPLAY OF AllMINI ANISM. 

can he contribute to his own resurrection? Neither doth a 
man beget himself, a new real form was never yet introduc- 
ed into any matter by subtle arguments. These are the 
terms the Scripture is pleased to use concerning our con- 
version : ' If any man be in Christ he is a new creature ;' 
2 Cor. V. 17. 'The new man after God is created in righte- 
ousness and holiness;' Eph.iv. 24. It is our new birth; 'Ex- 
cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God ;' John iii. 3. ' Of his own will begat he us with the 
word of truth ;' James i. 18. and so we become born again, 
*not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of 
God, which liveth and abideth for ever ;' 1 Pet. i. 23. It is our 
vivification and resurrection; ' The Son quickeneth whom he 
will,' John V. 21. even those ' dead who hear his voice and 
live;' ver. 25. 'When we were dead in sins we are quickened 
together with Christ by grace ;' Eph. ii. 5. ' For being buried 
with him by baptism, we are also risen with him through 
the faith of the operation of God ;' Col. ii. 12. And blessed 
and holy is he that hath part in that first resurrection ; on 
such the second death hath no power, but they shall be 
priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a 
thousand years. 



SALUS ELECTORUM, SANGUIS JESU: 

OR TUB 

DEATH OF DEATH 

IN 

THE DEATH OF CHRIST: 

A TREATISE 

OF THE REDEMPTION AND RECONCILIATION THAT 
IS IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST: 

WITH THE 

MERIT THEREOF, AND THE SATISFACTION WROUGHT THEREBY 

WHEREIN 

THE PROPER END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST IS ASSERTED: 

THE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS AND FRUITS THEREOF ASSIGNED; WITH 

THEIR EXTENT IN RESPECT OF ITS OBJECT; AND THE 

WHOLE CONTROVERSY ABOUT UNIVERSAL 

REDEMPTION FULLY DISCUSSED. 



The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life 

a ransom for many. Matt. xx. 28. 
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to 

thg riches of his grace. Eph. i. 7. 



THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 

ROBERT, EARL OF WARWICK, kc. 



My Lord, 
It is not for the benefit of any protection to the ensu- 
ing- treatise, let it stand or fall, as it shall be found in 
the judgments of men ; nor that I might take advantage 
to set forth any of that worth and honour which, being 
personal, have truly ennobled your Lordship, and made 
a way for the delivering over of your family unto pos- 
terity, with an eminent lustre added to the roll of your 
worthy progenitors, which if by myself desired, my un- 
fitness to perform must needs render unacceptable in the 
performance ; neither yet have I the least desire to at- 
tempt a farther advancement of myself into your Lord- 
ship's favour, being much beneath what I have already 
received, and fully resolved to own no other esteem 
among the sons of men but what shall be accounted due 
(be it more or less), to the discharge of my duty to my 
Master Jesus Christ, whose wholly I would be. It is 
not all, nor one of these, nor any such as these, the usual 
subjects and ends of dedications, real or pretended, that 
prevailed upon me unto this boldness of prefixing your 
honoured name to this ensuing treatise (which yet for 
the matter's sake contained in it I cannot judge unwor- 
thy of any Christian eye), but only that I might take 
the advantage to testify (as I do) to all the world, the 
answering of my heart unto that obligation which your 
Lordship was pleased to put upon me in the undeserved, 
undesired favour, of opening that door wherewith you 
are intrusted, to give me an entrance to that place for the 



CCVIH THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

preaching of the gospel, whither I was directed by the 
providence of the Most High, and where I was sought 
by his people. In which place, this, I dare say, by the 
grace of God, that such a stock of prayers and thank- 
fulness as your heart, which hath learned to value the 
least of Christ in whomsoever it be, will not despise, is 
tendered to and for your Lordship, even on his behalf 
who is less than the least of all the saints of God, and un- 
worthy the name which yet he is bold to subscribe him- 
self by, 

Your honour's most obliged servant 

in the service of Jesus Christ, 

John Owen. 



TWO ATTESTATIONS 

TOUCHING 

THE ENSUING TREATISE. 



Reader, 

There are two rotten pillars on which the fabric of 
late Arminianism (an egg- of the old Pelagianism, which 
we had well hoped had been long since chilled, but is 
sit upon and brooded by the wanton wits of our dege- 
nerate and apostate spirits), doth principally stand. 

The one is, That God loveth all alike, Cain as well 
as Abel, Judas as the rest of the apostles. 

The other is, That God giveth (nay is bound ex 
debito so to do) both Christ the great gift of his eternal 
love, for all alike to work out their redemption ; and 
vires credendi, power to believe in Christ to all alike to 
whom he gives the gospel : whereby that redemption 
may effectually be applied for their salvation, if they 
please to make right use of that which is so put into 
their power. 

The former destroys the free and special grace of 
God, by making it universal. The latter gives cause 
to man of glorying in himself rather than in God ; God 
concurring no farther to the salvation of a believer 
than a reprobate. Christ died for both alike : God 
giving power of accepting Christ to both alike : men 
themselves determining the whole matter by their free- 
will : Christ making both saveable ; themselves make 
them to be saved. 

This cursed doctrine of theirs, crosseth the main 

VOL. V. p 



CCX TWO ATTESTATIONS TOUCHING 

drift of the Holy Scripture, which is to abase and pull 
down the pride of man, to make him even to despair 
of himself, and to advance and set up the glory of God's 
free grace from the beginning to the end of man's sal- 
vation. His hand hath laid the foundation of his 
spiritual house, his hand shall also finish it. 

The reverend and learned author of this book, hath 
received strength from God (like another Samson), to 
pull down this rotten house upon the head of those 
Philistines who would uphold it. Read it diligently, 
and I doubt not but you will say with me, There is such 
variety of choice matter running through every vein of 
each discourse here handled, and carried along with 
such strength of sound and deep judgment, and with 
such life and power of a heavenly spirit, and all ex- 
pressed in such pithy and pregnant words of wisdom, 
that you will both delight in the reading, and praise 
God for the writer. That both he and it may be more 
and more profitable, shall be my hearty prayers. 

The unworthiest of the ministers of the gospel, 

Stanley Gower. 



Christian Reader, 

Unto such alone are these directed. If all and every 
one in the world in this gospel-day did bear this pre- 
cious name of Christian, or if the name of Christ were 
known to all, then were this compilation very impro- 
per, because it is distinguishing ; but if God distin- 
o'uish men and men, choose we or refuse we, so it is, 



THE ENSUING TIVEATISE. CCXI 

and so it will be, there is a difference; a diiFerence 
which God and Christ doth make of mere good 
pleasure. 

This book contends earnestly for this truth against 
the error of universal redemption. With thy leave I can- 
not but call it an error, unless it had been, it were, and 
while the world continueth it should be, found indeed, 
that Adam and all that come of him, in a natural way 
of generation, are first set by Christ the second Adam 
in an estate of redeemed ones and made Christians ; 
and then they fall whole nations of them, and forfeit 
that estate also, and lose their Christendom, and thereby 
it is come to pass, that they are become atheists, with- 
out God in the world, and Heathen, Jews, and Turks, 
as we see they are at this day. 

The author of this book I know not so much as by 
name : it is of the book itself that I take upon me the 
boldness to write these few lines. It beings delivered 
unto me to peruse, I did read it with delight and profit :- 
with delight in the keenness of argument, clearness and 
fulness of answers, and candour in language ; with 
profit in the vindication of abused Scriptures, the open- 
ing of obscure places, and chiefly in disclosing the hid 
mystery of God and the Father, and of Christ, in the 
glorious and gracious work of redemption. The like 
pleasure and profit this tractate promiseth to all dili- 
gent readers thereof. For the present controversy is 
so managed, that the doctrine of faith, which we ought 
to believe, is with dexterity plentifully taught; yea, the 
glory of each person in the unity of the Godhead about 
the work of redemption is distinctly held forth with 
shining splendour, and the error of the Arminians 

p 2 



CCxii TWO ATTESTATIONS, &C. 

smitten in the jaw-bone, and the broachers of it bri- 
dled with bit and curb. 

When on earth the blood can be without the water 
and the Spirit ; can witness alone, or can witness there 
where the water and the Spirit agree not to the record ; 
when in heaven, the Word shall witness without the Fa- 
ther and the Holy Ghost ; when the Father, the Word, 
and the Holy Ghost, shall not be one, as in essence, so 
in willing, working, witnessing the redemption of sin- 
ners ; then shall universal redemption of all and every 
sinner by Christ be found a truth, though the Father 
elect them not, nor the Spirit of grace neither sanctify 
nor seal them. The glory of God's free and severing 
grace, and the salvation of the elect through the re- 
demption that is in Jesus Christ (which is external, or 
none at all) ; are the unfeigned desires and utmost aims 
of all that are truly Christian. In pursuit of which 
desire and aims, I profess myself to be, for ever to 
serve thee. 

Thine in Christ Jesus, 

Richard Byfield. 



TO 

THE READER. 



Reader, 
If thou intendest to go any farther, I would entreat thee to 
stay here a little. If thou art, as many in this pretending 
age, a sign or title-gazer, and comest into books as Cato 
into the theatre, to go out again, thou hast had thy enter- 
tainment ; farewell. With him that resolves a serious view 
of the following discourse, and really desireth satisfaction 
from the word and Christian reason, about the great things 
contained therein, I desire a few words in the portal. Divers 
things there are, of no small consideration to the business 
we have in hand, which I am persuaded thou canst not be 
unacquainted with, and therefore I will not trouble thee with 
a needless repetition of them. 

1 shall only crave thy leave to preface a little to the point 
in hand, and my present undertaking therein, with the 
result of some of my thoughts concerning the whole, after 
a more than seven years' serious inquiry (bottomed, I hope, 
upon the strength of Christ, and guided by his Spirit) into 
the mind of God about these things, with a serious perusal 
of all which I could attain, that the wit of man in former or 
latter days hath published in opposition to the truth; which 
I desire according to the measure of the gift received here to 
assert. Some things then as to the chief point in hand I 
would desire the reader to observe. As, 

1. That the assertion of universal redemption, or the ge- 
neral ransom, so as to make it in the least measure benefi- 
cial for the end intended, goes not alone. Election of free 
grace, as the fountain of all following dispensations, all dis- 
criminating purposes of the Almighty, depending on his own 
good pleasure and will, must be removed out of the way. 
Hence those who would for the present, * Populo ut placerent 
quas fecere fabulas,' desirously retain some show of asserting 
the liberty of eternally distinguishing free grace, do them- 
selves utterly raze, in respect of any fruit or profitable issue,, 



CCXIV TO THE READER. 

the whole imaginary fabric of general redemption, which 
they had before erected. Some of these make the decree 
of election to be antecedaneous to the death of Christ (as 
themselves absurdly speak), or the decree of the death of 
Christ ; then frame a twofold election," one, of some to be 
the sons, the other, of the rest to be servants ; but this elec- 
tion of some to be servants, the Scripture calls reprobation, 
and speaks of it as the issue of hatred, or a purpose of re- 
jection ; Rom. ix. 11, 12. To be a servant in opposition to 
children and their liberty, is as high a curse as can be ex- 
pressed; Gen. ix. 25. Is this Scripture election? Besides, 
if Christ died to bring those he died for unto the adoption 
and inheritance of children, what good could possibly re- 
dound to them thereby, who were predestinated before to be 
only servants? Others ''make a general conditionate decree 
of redemption to be antecedaneous to election, which they 
assert to be the first discriminating purpose concerning the 
sons of men, and to depend on the alone good pleasure of 
God : that any others shall partake of the death of Christ or 
the fruits thereof, either unto grace or glory, but only those 
persons so elected, that they deny. Cui bono now ? to what 
purpose serves the general ransom? but only to assert, that 
Almighty God would have the precious blood of his dear 
Son poured out for innumerable souls, whom he will not 
have to share in any drop thereof; and so in respect of them 
to be spilt in vain, or else to be shed for them, only that 
they might be the deeper damned. This fountain then of 
free grace, this foundation of the new covenant, this bottom 
of all gospel dispensations, this fruitless womb of all eter- 
nally distinguishing mercies, the purpose of God according 
to election, must be opposed, slighted, blasphemed, that the 
figment of the sons of men may not appear to be ' truncus 
ficulnus, inutile lignum,' an unprofitable stock ; and all the 
thoughts of the Most High, differencing between man and 
man, must be made to take occasion, say some, to be caused, 
say others, by their holy-self-spiritual endeavours : ' Gratum 
opus agricolis,' a savoury sacrifice to the Homan Belus, a 
sacred orgie to the long bewailed manes of St. Pelagius. 

And here, secondly. Free-will, ' amor et delitiae humani 
generis,' corrupted nature's deformed darling, the Pallas or 

* T. M. Universality' of fiee grace. '' Coinro. Amirald. 6cc. 



TO THE readp:r. ccxv 

beloved self-conception of darkened minds, finds open hearts 
and arms, for its adulterous embraces ; yea, the die being- 
cast and Rubicon passed over/ eodevenere fata ecclesiae,' that 
having opposed the free distinguishing grace of God, as the 
sole sw^orn enemy thereof, it advanceth itself, or an inbred 
native ability in every one to embrace a portion of generally 
exposed mercy, under the name of free grace. ' Tantane nos 
tenuit generis fidvicia vestri V This, this is universalists' free 
grace, which in the Scripture phrase is cursed, corrupted na- 
ture. Neither can it otherwise be. A general ransom without 
free-will, is but ' phantasise inutile pondus,"a burdensome 
fancy ;' the merit of the death of Christ being to them as an 
ointment in a box, that hath neither virtue nor power, to act 
or reach out its own application unto particulars, being only 
set out in the gospel to the view of all, that those who will by 
their own strength lay hold on it, and apply it to themselves, 
may be healed. Hence the dear esteem and high valuation 
which this old idol free-will hath attained in these days, be- 
ing so useful to the general ransom, that it cannot live a day 
without it. Should it pass for true what the Scripture af- 
firms, viz. that we are by nature ' dead in trespasses and 
sins;' &c. there would not be left of the general ransom a 
sherd to take fire from the hearth : like the wood of the vine, 
it would not yield a pin to hang a garment upon, all which 
you shall find fully declared in the ensuing treatise. But 
here, as though all the undertakings and Babylonish attempts 
of the old Pelagians, with their varnished offspring the late 
Arminians, were slight and easy, I shall shew you greater 
abominations than these, and farther discoveries of the ima- 
gery of the hearts of the sons of men. In pursuance of this 
persuasion of universal redemption, not a few have arrived 
(whither it naturally leads them) to deny the satisfaction 
and merit of Christ. Witness P. H. who not being able to 
untie, ventured boldly to cut, this Gordian knot, but so as to 
make both ends of the chain useless. To the question. Whe- 
ther Christ died for all men or no? he answers. That he died 
neither for all, nor any, so as to purchase life and salvation 
for them w 'rav ttoiov as. ettoc <f)vyev epKog oSovtwv ; shall 
cursed Socinianism be worded into a glorious discovery of 
free grace ? Ask now for proofs of this assertion, as you 
might justly expect Achillean arguments from those who 



CCXVl TO THE READER. 

delight uKivnTa kivhv, and throw down such foundations (as 
shall put all the righteous in the world to a loss thereby), 
' Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba,' i;7r£^07K:a /xaratorrj- 
TOQ, great swelling words of vanity, drummy expressions, a 
noise from emptiness, the usual language of men who know 
not what they speak, nor whereof they do aflBrm, is all that 
is produced : such contemptible products have our tympa- 
nous mountains. Poor creatures, whose souls are merchan- 
dized by the painted faces of novelty and vanity ; whilst 
these Joabs salute you with the kisses of free grace, you see 
not the sword that is in their hands, whereby they smite you 
under the fifth rib, in the very heart blood of faith and 
all Christian consolation. It seems our blessed Redeemer's 
deep humiliation in bearing the chastisement of our peace, 
and the punishment of our transgressions, being made a curse 
and sin, deserted under wrath and the power of death, pro- 
curing redemption and the remission of sins, through the 
effusion of his blood, offering himself up a sacrifice to God, 
to make reconciliation and purchase an atonement, his pur- 
suing this undertaking with continued intercession in the 
holiest of holies, with all the benefits of his mediatorship, do 
no way procure either life and salvation, or remission of sins, 
but only serve to declare that we are not indeed what his 
word affirms we are, viz. cursed, guilty, defiled, and only not 
actually cast into hell. ' Judas betrayest thou the Son of 
man with a kiss V See this at large confuted, lib. 3. Now 
this last assertion thoroughly fancied, hath opened a door 
and given an inlet to all those pretended heights, and new- 
named glorious attainments, which have metamorphosed 
the person and mediation of Christ, into an imaginary dif- 
fused goodness and love, communicated from the Creator 
unto the new creation ; than which familistical fables, Cer- 
don's two principles were not more absurd, the Platonic 
numbers, nor the Valentinian iEones,*^ flowing from the 
teeming wombs of nX^jpajjua, Aiwv, TiXeiog, BvOog, St^r), and 
the rest, vented for high glorious attainments in Christian re- 
ligion near fifteen hundred years ago, were less intelligible; 
neither did the corroding of Scriptures by that pontic 
vermin Marcion, equalize the contempt and scorn cast upon 
them by these impotent impostors, exempting their whispered 
c Iren.l. 2. c. 6, 7. 14, 15, &c. Cle. stroni. 3. Ep. Hasres. 31. Terlul. ad Valen. 



TO THE READER. CCXVll 

discoveries from their trial, and exalting their revelations 
above their authority. Neither do some stay here ; but * his 
gradibus itur in coelum,' heaven itself is broke open for all : 
from universal redemption, through universal justification, 
in a general covenant, they have arrived (' baud ignota lo- 
quor') at universal salvation : neither can any forfeiture be 
made of the purchased inheritance. 

Quare agite, 6 jiivenes, tantarum in rnunere lauduni, 
Cingite fronde comas, et pocula porgite dextris, 
Comraunenique vocate Denm, et dare vina volentes."' 

March on brave youths, 'ith praise of such free grace. 
Surround your locks with bays ; and full cups place 
In your right hands : drink freely on, then call 
Olh' public faith, the ransom general. 

These and the like persuasions I no w^ay dislike, be- 
cause wholly new to the men of this generation : that I 
may add this by the way : every age hath its employment 
in the discovery of truth. We are not come to the bottom 
of vice or virtue : the whole world hath been employed in 
the practice of iniquity five thousand years and upwards, 
and yet aspice hoc novum, may be set on many villanies ; 
behold daily new inventions. No wonder then, if all truth 
be not yet discovered. Something may be revealed to them 
who as yet sit by. Admire not if Saul also be among the 
prophets, for who is their father ? Is he not free in his 
dispensations? Are all the depths of Scripture, where the 
elephants may swim, just fathomed to the bottom ? Let any 
man observe the progress of the last century in unfolding 
the truths of God, and he will scarce be obstinate, that no 
more is left, as yet discovered. Only the itching of cor- 
rupted fancies, the boldness of darkened minds, and lascivi- 
ous wanton wits, in venting new created nothings, insignifi- 
cant vanities, with an intermixed dash of blasphemy, is that 
which I desire to oppose. And that especially considering 
the genius (if I may so speak) of the days wherein we live, 
in which what by one means, what by another, there is al- 
most a general deflection after novelty, grown amongst us ;' 
some are credulous, some negligent, some fall into errors, 
some seek them ; a great suspicion also every day grows 

* Virg. J£n. viii. 273. et seq. 
« Quidam creduli, quidam negligentes sunt, quibusdam mendacium obrcpit qui- 
busdani placet. 



CCXVlll TO THE READER. 

upon me, which I would thank any one upon solid grounds 
to free me from, that pride of spirit, with an Herostratus-like 
design to grow big in the mouths of men, hath acted many 
in the conception and publication of some easily invented 
false opinions. Is it not to be thought also, that it is from 
the same humour possessing many, that every one of them 
almost strives to put on beyond his companions, in framing 
some singular artifice ? To be a follower of others, though 
in desperate engagements, is too mean an undertaking. 

Audef allquid brevibus Gyaiis, elcarcere digaum, 
Si vis esse aliquis: probitas laudatur et alget.s 

And let it be no small peccadillo ; no underling opinion, 
friends, if in these busy times, you would have it taken no- 
tice of; of ordinary errors you may cry. 



-quis leget haec ? nemo hercule nemo, 



Aut duo, aut nemo.'' 

They must be glorious attainments, beyond the under- 
standing of men, and above the wisdom of the word, which 
attract the eyes of poor deluded souls. The great Shepherd 
of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ, recover his poor wan- 
derers to his own fold. But to return thither from whence 
we have digressed. 

This is that fatal Helena, a useless, barren, fruitless fancy, 
for whose enthroning such irksome, tedious contentions 
have been caused to the churches of God, a mere Rome, a 
desolate dirty place of cottages, until all the world be 
robbed and spoiled to adorn it. Suppose Christ died for all, 
yet if God in his free purpose, hath chosen some to obtain 
life and salvation, passing by others, will it be profitable 
only to the former^ or unto all ? Surely the purpose of God 
must stand, and he will do all his pleasure. Wherefore elec- 
tion, either with Huberus, by a wild contradiction, must be 
made universal, or the thoughts of the Most High suspended 
on the free-will of man. Add this borrowed feather to the 
general ransom, that at least it may have some colour of pom- 

*' In tam occupata civitate fabulas vulgaris nequitia noii invenit. Sen. Ep. I'i'O. 
? Juv. Sat. i. 74. 

h In the text I Iiave not altered the Author's punctuation. The quotation is from 
the beginning of tlie first Satire of Persius. 

O Curas horainum ! 6 quantum est in rebus inane ! 

Quis leget haec? Mill' tu istud ais? neino hercule nemo 

Vcl duo, vel nemo. — [Editor.] 



TO THE READER. CCXIX 

pous ostentation : yet, if the free grace of God work effec- 
tually in some, not in others, can those others, passe d by in 
its powerful operation, have any benefit by universal redemp- 
tion ? No more than the Egyptians had, in the angel's pass- 
ing over those houses, whose doors were not sprinkled with 
blood, leaving some dead behind him. Almighty, powerful, 
free grace then must strike its sail, that free-will, like the 
Alexandrian ships to the Roman havens, may come in with 
top and top-galiant ; for without it, the whole territory of 
universal redemption will certainly be famished ; but let these 
doctrines, of God's eternal election, the free grace of con- 
version, perseverance, and their necessary consequents, be 
asserted, ' movet cornicularisum, furtivisnudata coloribus;' it 
hath not the least appearance of profit or consolation, but 
what it robs from the sovereignty and grace of God : but of 
these things more afterward. 

Some flourishins; pretences are usually held out by the 
abettors of the general ransom, which by thy patience, cour- 
teous Reader, vv'e will a little view in the entrance, to remove 
some prejudice that may lie in the way of truth. 

First, The glory of God, they say, is exceedingly exalted 
by it, his good will and kindness towards men abundantly 
manifested in this enlarg-ement of its extent, and his free grace 
by others restrained, set out with a powerful endearment. 
This they say, which is, in effect, all things will be well, when 
God is contented with that portion of glory whicli is of our 
assigning. The prisoners of the earth account it their 
greatest wisdom, to varnish over their favours, and to set out 
with a full mouth, what they have done with half a hand, but 
will it be acceptable to lie for God, by extending his bounty 
beyond the marks and eternal bounds fixed to it in his word : 
change first a hair of your own heads, or add a cubit to your 
own statures, before you come in with an addition of glory, 
not owned by him, to the Almighty. But so for the most 
part is it with corrupted nature, in all such mysterious things 
discovering the baseness and vileness thereof. If God be 
apprehended, to be as large in grace, as that is in offence 
(I mean in respect of particular offenders, for in respect of his, 
he is larger), though it be free, and he hath proclaimed to all, 
that he may do what he will with his own, giving no account 



CCXX TO THE READER. 

of his matters, all shall be well, he is gracious, merciful, &c. 
but if once the Scripture is conceived to hold out his sove- 
reignty, and free distinguishing grace, suited in its dispensa- 
tion to his ow^n purpose according to election, he is* immanis 
truculentus, diabolo, Triberio tetrior, (horresco referens).' 
The learned know^ well where to find this language, and I will 
not be instrumental to propagate their blasphemies to others. 
' Sideushomini non placuerit, deus nonerit,' said Tertullian 
of the heathen deities, and shall it be so with us? God forbid, 
this pride is inbred ;' it is a part of our corruption to defend 
it. If we maintain then the glory of God, let us speak hin is 
own language, or be for ever silent. That is glorious in him 
which he ascribes imto himself. Our inventions, though 
never so splendid in our own eyes, are unto him an abomina- 
tion, a striving to pull him down from his eternal excellency, 
to make him altogether like unto us. God would never allow 
that the will of the creature should be the measure of his 
honour. The obedience of paradise was to have been regu- 
lated ; God's prescription hath been the bottom of his accep- 
tation of any duty, ever since he had a creature to worship 
him : the very heathen knew, that that service alone was 
welcome to God, which himself required, and that glory 
owned, which himself had revealed that he would appear 
glorious in it. Hence, as Epimenides'' advised the Athenians 
in a time of danger to sacrifice, S'et^ Trpocr/jKovn *to him to 
whom it was meet and due,' which gave occasion to the altar 
which Paul saw bearing the superscription of ayvworw ^fw 'to 
the unknown God ;' so Socrates tells us in Plato,' that every 
god will be worshipped t(^ fxaXiara avr^o apecTKOvn tqottio ' in that 
way which pleaseth best his own mind;' and in Christianity, 
Hierome sets it down for a rule, that ' honos praeter manda- 
tum estdedecus,' God is dishonoured by that honour, which is 
ascribed to him beyond his own prescription : and one wittily 
on the second commandment, * non imago, non simulachrum 
damnatur, sed non facies tibi,' assigning to God any thing, 
by him not assumed, is a making to ourselves a deifying of 
our own imaginations. Let all men then cease squaring the 
glory of God, by their own corrupted principles, and more 

Naturasic apparet vitiata uthoc majoris vitii sit non videre. Aug. 
'' Laert. in vit. Epiraen. Plato de legib. lib. 7. 



TO THE READER. CCXXl 

corrupted persuasions. The word alone is to be arbitrator in 
the things of God, which also I hope will appear by the fol- 
lowing treatise, to hold out nothing in the matter in hand 
contrary to those natural notions of God and his goodness, 
which in the sad ruins of innocency have been retained. On 
these grounds we affirm, that all that glory of God which is 
pretended to be asserted by the general ransom, however it 
may seem glorious to purblind nature, is indeed a sinful 
flourish, for the obscuring of that glory wherein God is de- 
lighted. 

Secondly, It is strongly pretended that the worth and value 
of the satisfaction of Christ, by the opposite opinion limited 
to a few, are exceedingly magnified in this extending of 
them to all; when, besides which was said before unto hu- 
man extending of the things of God beyond the bounds by 
himself fixed unto them, the merit of the death of Christ 
consisting in its own internal worth and sufficiency, with that 
obligation which by his obedience unto death was put upon 
the justice of God, for its application unto them for whom 
he died, is quite enervated and overthrown by it, made of no 
account, and such as never produced of itself absolutely the 
least good to any particular soul ; which is so fully manifested 
in the following treatise, as I cannot but desire the reader's 
sincere consideration of it, it being a matter of no small im- 
portance. 

Thirdly, A seeming smile cast upon the opinion of uni- 
versal redemption, by many texts of Scripture, with the am- 
biguity of some words, which though in themselves either 
figurative or indefinite, yet seem to be of a universal extent, 
raaketh the abettors of it exceedingly rejoice. Now concern- 
ing this I shall only desire the reader not to be startled at 
the multitude of places of Scripture which he may find 
heaped up by some of late about this business (especially by 
Thomas More, in his Universality of Free Grace), as though 
they proved and confirmed that for which they are produced, 
but rather prepare himself to admire at the confidence of 
men, particularly of him now named, to make such a flourish 
with colours and drums, having indeed no soldiers at all; 
for, notwithstanding all their pretences, it will appear that 
they hang the whole weight of their building on three or 
four texts of Scripture, viz. 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. John iii. 16, 17. 



CCXXU TO THE READER. 

Heb. ii. 9. 1 John ii. 2. with some few others, and the am- 
biguity of two or three words which themselves cannot deny 
to be of exceeding various acceptations. All which are at 
large discussed in the ensuing treatise, no one place that 
hath with the least show or colour been brought forth by 
any of our adversaries in their own defence, or for the oppos- 
ing of the effectual redemption of the elect only, being omit- 
ted ; the book of Thomas More, being in all the strength 
thereof fully met withal and enervated. 

Fourthly, Some men have, by I know not what mispris- 
ion, entertained a persuasion, that the opinion of the 
universalists serves exceedingly to set forth the love and 
free grace of God; yea, they make free grace, that glorious 
expression, to be that alone which is couched in their per- 
suasion, viz. that God loves all alike, gave Christ to die for 
all, and is ready to save all if they will lay hold on him : 
under which notion how greedily the hook as well as the 
bait is swallowed by many, we have daily experience; when 
the truth is, it is utterly destructive to the free distinguish- 
ing grace of God, in all the dispensations and workings there- 
of. It evidently opposeth God's free grace of election, as 
hath been declared, and therein that very love from which 
God sent his Son ; his free' distinguishing grace also of ef- 
fectual calling must be made by it, to give place to nature's 
darling, free-will : yea, and the whole covenant of grace 
made void by holding it out no otherwise but as a general 
removins: of the wrath which was due to the breach of the 
covenant of works ; for what else can be imagined (though 
this certainly they have not, John iii. 36.) to be granted to 
the most, of those all, with whom they affirm this covenant 
to be made. Yea, notwithstanding their flourish of free 
grace, as themselves are forced to grant, that after all that 
was effected by the death of Christ it was possible that none 
should be saved ; so I hope I have clearly proved that if he 
accomplished by his death no more than they ascribe unto 
it, it is utterly impossible that any one should be saved. 
• Quid dignum tanto ?' 

Fifthly, The opinion of universal redemption is not a little 
advantaged by presenting to convinced men a seeming ready 
way to extricate themselves out of all their doubts and per- 
plexities, and to give them ail the comfort the death of Christ 



TO THE READER. CCXXlll 

can afford, before they feel any power of that death working 
within them, or find any efficacy of free grace drawing their 
hearts to the embracing of Christ in the promise, or obtain- 
ing a particular interest in him, which are tedious things to 
flesh and blood to attend unto and wait upon. Some boast 
that by this persuasion, that hath been effected in an hour 
which they waited for before seven years without success. 
To dispel this poor empty flourish, I shall shew in the pro- 
gress that it is very ready and apt to deceive multitudes with 
a plausible delusion, but really undermines the very founda- 
tions of that strong unfailing consolation which God hath 
shewed himself abundantly willing that the heirs of promise 
should receive. 

These and the like are the general pretences wherewith the 
abettors of a general ransom do seek to commend themselves 
and opinion to the affections of credulous souls, through 
them making an open and easy passage into their belief, for 
the swallowing and digesting of that bitter potion which 
lurks in the bottom of their cup. Of these I thought meet 
to give the reader a brief view in the entrance to take off his 
mind from empty generals, that he might be the better pre- 
pared to weigh all things carefully in an equal balance, when 
he shall come to consider those particulars afterward in- 
sisted on, wherein the great strength of our adversaries lies. 
It remaineth only, that I give the Christian reader a brief 
account of my call unto, and undertaking in, this work, and 
so close this preface. First, then, I will assure thee it is not 
the least thirst in my affections to be drinking of the waters 
of Meribah, nor the least desire to have a share in Ishmael's 
portion, to have my hand against others, and theirs against 
me, that put me upon this task. I never like myself worse, 
than when faced with a vizard of disputing in controversies. 
The complexion of my soul is much more pleasant unto me 
in the waters of Shiloah. 

Nuper me in littore vidi, 

Cum placidum ventis staret mare.™ 

What invitation there can be in itself, for any one to 
lodge, much less abide, in this quarrelsome scrambling terri- 
tory, where, as Tertullian" says of Pontus, ' omne quod fiat 

"> Virg. Buc. Eel. ii. 25. " Ad Mar. 



CCXXIV TO THE READER. 

Aquilo est,' no wind blows but what is sharp and keen, I 
know not. Small pleasure in those walks which arc at- 
tended with dangerous precipices and unpleasing difficulties 
on every side. 

Utque viam teneas, nulloque errore traharis ; 
Per tamen adversi gradieris cornua Tauri, 
Haeraoniosque arcus violentique ora Leonis." 

No quiet nor peace in these things and ways, but conti- 
nual brawls and dissensions. 

Non hospes ab hospite tutus, 

Non socer a genero : fratrurn quoque gratia rara est.P 

The strongest bonds of nearest relations are too com- 
monly broken by them. Were it not for that precept, Jude 
3. and the like, of 'contending earnestly for the faith once 
delivered unto the saints,' with the sounding of my bowels 
for the loss of poor seduced souls, I could willing engage 
myself into an unchangeable resolution to fly all wordy 
battles and paper combats for the residue of my few and 
evil days. 

It is not then (that I may return) any Salaraandrian com- 
plexion that was the motive to this undertaking. Nei- 
ther, secondly, was it any conceit of my own abilities for this 
work, as though I were the fittest among many to under- 
take it; I know that as in all things I am less than the 
least of all saints, so in these I am 

OVTt TglTO; oStE TETapTOf 

Abler'' pens have had within these few years the discus- 
sing and ventilating of some of these questions, in our own 
language ; some have come to my hands, but none of weight, 
before I had well nigh finished this heap of mine own, which 
was some twelve months since and upwards. In some of 
these, at least in all of them, I had rested fully satisfied, but 
that I observed they had all tied up themselves to some cer- 
tain parts of the controversy, especially the removing of ob- 
jections, neither compassing nor methodizing the whole ; 
whereby I discerned that the nature of the things under de- 
bate, viz, satisfaction, reconciliation, redemption, and the 
like, was left exceedingly in the dark ; and the strong foun- 

« Ovid. Met. ii.79. P Ovid. Met. i. 144. 

1 Vindic. Reden)pt. by my reverend and learned brother M. John Stalham, Mr. 
Rather. Christ drawing sinners. 



TO THE READER. CCXXV 

dation of the whole building not so much as once discovered. 
It was always upon my desires, that some one would under- 
take the main, and unfold out of the word from the bottom, 
the whole dispensation of the love of God to his elect in Jesus 
Christ, with the conveyance of it through the promises of the 
gospel, being in all the fruits thereof purchased and procured 
by the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ ; by which 
it could not but be made apparent, what was the great design 
of the blessed Trinity in this great work of redemption, with 
how vain an attempt and fruitless endeavour, it must needs 
be, to extend it beyond the bounds and limits assigned unto 
it by the principal agents therein ; that arguments also might 
be produced for the confirmation of the truth we assert, in 
opposition to the error opposed ; and so the weak established 
and dissenters convinced, — was much in my wishes. The 
doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ, his merit, and the re- 
conciliation wrought thereby, understood aright by few, and 
of late oppugned by some, being so nearly related to the point 
of redemption, I desired also to have seen cleared, unfolded, 
vindicated by some able pen ; but now after long waiting, 
finding none to answer my expectation, although of myself 
I can truly say with him in the Comedian, * Ego me neque 
tam astutum esse, neque ita perspicaceni id scio,' that I 
should be fitfor sucl* an undertaking; the counsel of the poet 
also running much in my mind, 

Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, sequara, 
Viribus : et versate diu, quid ferre recusent 
Quid valeant humeri.'' 

Yet, at the last, laying aside all such thoughts, by looking 
up to him who supplieth seed to the sower, and doth all our 
works for us, I suffered myself to be overcome unto the work, 
with that of another, ' Ab alio quovis hoc fieri mallem quam 
a me : sed a me tamen potius quam a nemine :' ' I had rather 
it should have been done by any than myself, of myself only, 
rather than of none;' especially considering the industrious 
diligence of the opposers of truth in these days. 

Scribunt indocti doctique 

Ut jugulent homines, surgunt rle nocte latrones: 
Ut leipsum serves non expergisceris.' 

Add unto the former desire, a consideration of the fre- 
quent conferences I had been invited unto about these things, 

' Hor. ])e Art. Poet. ver. 38. * Her. Epist. lib. ii. Epist. i. 117. lib. 1. Epist ii. 32' 
VOL. V. Q 



CCXXVl TO THE READER. 

the daily spreading of the opinions here opposed, about the 
parts where I live, and a greater noise concerning their pre- 
vailing in other places, with the advantage they had obtained 
by some military abettors, with the st,irring up of divers emi- 
nent and learned friends, and you have the sum of what I 
desire to hold forth as the cause of my undertaking this task. 
What the Lord hath enabled me to perform therein, must 
be left to the judgment of others; altogether hopeless of 
success I am not ; but fully resolved that I shall not live to 
see a solid answer given unto it : if any shall undertake to 
vellicate, and pluck some of the branches, rent from the roots 
and principles of the whole discourse, I shall freely give 
them leave to enjoy their own wisdom, and imaginary con- 
quest : if any shall seriously undertake to debate the whole 
cause, if 1 live to see it effected, I engage myself by the 
Lord's assistance, to be their humble convert, or fair antago- 
nist. In that which is already accomplished, by the good 
hand of the Lord, I hope the learned may find something for 
their contentment, and the weak for their strengthening and 
satisfaction ; that in all some glory may redound to him 
whose it is, and whose truth is here unfolded ; by the un- 
worthiest labourer in his vineyard, 

J. O. 



BOOK I. 

THE 

DEATH OF DEATH 

IN 

THE DEATH OF CHRIST: 



A TREATISE OF THE REDEMPTION AND RECONCILIATION THAT IS IN 
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, WITH THE MERIT THEREOF, AND 
SATISFACTION WROUGHT THEREBY. 



CHAP. I. 

In general of the end of the death of Christ, as it is hi the 
Scripture proposed. 

Ijy the end of the death of Christ, we mean in general, 
both first, that which his Father and himself intended in 
it; and, secondly, that which was effectually fulfilled <nd 
accomplished by it. Concerning either, we may take a brief 
view of the expressions used by the Holy Ghost, 

For the first. Will you know the end wherefore, and the 
intention wherewith, Christ came into the world ? Let us ask 
himself (who knew his own mind, as also all the secrets of 
his Father's bosom), and he will tell us, that the Son of man 
came to 'save that which was lost;' Matt, xviii. 11. to re- 
cover and save poor lost sinners ; that was his intent and 
design, as is again asserted, Luke xix. 10. Ask also his 
apostles, who know his mind, and they will tell you the 
same. So Paul ; 1 Tim. i. 15. ' This is a faithful sayino-, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners.' Now if you will ask who these sin- 
ners are, towards whom he hath this gracious intent and 
purpose, himself tells you ; Matt. xx. 28. that he came to 
give his life a ransom for mani/ ; in other places called its, 
believers, distinguished from the world ; for he gave him- 
self for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present 

Q 2 



228 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

evil world, according to the will of God and our Father ; 
Gal. i. 4. That was the will and intention of God, that he 
should give himself for us, that we might be saved, being 
separated from the world ; they are his church ; Eph. v. 25 
— 27. * He loved his church, and gave himself for it, that 
he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water, 
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious 
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but 
that it should be holy and without blemish.' Which last 
words express also the very aim and end of Christ, in giv- 
ing himself for any, even that they may be made^fV for God, 
and brought nigh unto him ; the like whereof is also as- 
serted. Tit. ii. 14. ' He gave himself for us, that he might 
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a pe- 
culiar people, zealous of good works.' Thus clear, then, and 
apparent, is the intention and design of Christ and his Fa- 
ther in this great work, even what it was, and towards 
whom, viz. to save us, to deliver us from the evil world, to 
purge and wash us, to make us holy, zealous, fruitful in good 
works, to render us acceptable, and to bring us unto God, 
for through him * we have access into the grace wherein we 
stand ;' Rom. v. 2. 

The effect also, and actual product of the work itself, or 
what is accomplished and fulfilled by the death, bloodshed- 
ding, or oblation of Jesus Christ, is no less clearly mani- 
fested ; but is as fully and very often more distinctly ex- 
pressed; as first, Heconciliation with God, by removing and 
slaying the enmity that was between him and us : for when 
*we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the 
death of his Son ;' Rom. v. 10. God was in him ' reconciling 
the world unto himself, not imputing their sins unto them ;' 
2 Cor. v. 19. yea, he hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus 
Christ; ver. 18. And if you would know how this reconcilia- 
tion was effected, the apostle will tell you, that 'he abolished 
in himself, the enmity, the law of commandments consisting 
in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain, one new man, 
so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto 
God, in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity 
thereby;' Eph. ii. 15, 16. so that he is our peace ; ver. 14. 
Secondly, Justification, by taking away the guilt of sin, pro- 
curing remission and pardon of them, redeeming us from 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 229 

their power, with the curse and wrath due unto us for them ; 
'for by his own blood he is entered into the holy place, 
having obtained eternal redemption for us ;' Heb. ix. 13. ' he 
redeemed us from the curse, being made a curse for us ;' 
Gal. iii. 13. ' his own self bearing our sins in his own body 
on the tree ;' 1 Pet. ii. 24. 'we have all sinned and come 
short of the glory of God ; but are justified freely by his 
grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ; whom 
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his 
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins ;' 
Rom. iii. 23 — 25. for 'in him we have redemption through 
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins ;' Col. i. 13. Thirdly, 
Smictification, by the purging away of the uncleanness and 
pollution of our sins, renewing in us the image of God, and 
supplying us with the graces of the Spirit of holiness : for the 
blood of' Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered him- 
self unto God, purgeth our consciences from dead works, 
that we may serve the living God;' Heb. ix. 14. yea, 'the 
blood of Jesus Christ, cleanseth us from all our sins;' 
1 John i. 7. ' by himself he purged our sins ;' Heb. i. 3. ' to 
sanctify the people with his own blood he suffered without 
the gate ;' Heb. xiii. 12. ' he gave himself for his church to 
sanctify and cleanse it, that it should be holy and without 
blemish ;' Eph. v. 25, 26. Peculiarly amongst the graces of 
the Spirit, ' it is given to us' virlp xpiarov ' for Christ's sake 
to believe on him;' Phil. i. 29. 'God blessing us in him, 
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places;' Eph. i. 31. 
Fourthly, Adoption, with that evangelical liberty, and all 
those glorious privileges which appertain to the sons of 
God; 'for God sent his Son made ofa woman, made under the 
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might 
receive the adoption of sons;' Gal.iv.4, 5. Fifthly, Neither 
do the effects of the death of Christ rest here, they leave us not 
until we are settled in heaven, in glory, and immortality for 
ever, our inheritance is a 'purchased possession ;' Eph. i. 14. 
' And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testa- 
ment, that by means of death, for the redemption of the 
transgressions that were under the first Testament, they 
which are called may receive the promise of eternal inherit- 
ance ;' Heb. ix. 15. The sum of all is; the death and blood- 
shedding of Jesus Christ hath wrought, and doth effec-^ 



230 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

tually procure, for all those that are concerned in it, eternal 
redemption, consisting in grace here and glory hereafter. 

Thus full, clear, and evident, are the expressions in the 
Scripture concerning the ends and effects of the death of 
Christ, that a man would think every one might run and 
read ; but we must stay : among all things in Christian reli- 
gion, there is scarce any thing more questioned than this, 
which seems to be a most fundamental principle, a spread- 
ing persuasion there is of a general ransom, to be paid by 
Christ for all, that he died to redeem all and every one, not 
only for many, his church, the elect of God, but for every one 
also of the posterity of Adam. Now the masters of this 
opinion, do see full well and easily, that if thai be the end 
of the death of Christ which we have from the Scripture as- 
serted, if those before recounted be the immediatey?'w/^s and 
products thereof, that then one of these two things will neces- 
sarily follow : that either, first, God and Christ failed of 
their end proposed, and did not accomplish that which they 
intended ; the death of Christ being not a fitly proportioned 
means, for the attaining of that end (for any cause of failing 
cannot be assigned), which to assert, seems to us blasphe- 
mously injurious to the wisdom, power, and perfection of 
God, as likewise derogatory to the worth and value of the 
death of Christ; or else, that all men, all the posterity of 
Adam, must be saved, purged, sanctified, and glorified, which 
surely they will not maintain, at least the Scripture, and the 
woful experience of millions, will not allow : wherefore, to 
cast a tolerable colour upon their persuasion, they must, 
and do deny, that God, or his Son, had any such absolute 
aim or end, in the death or bloodshedding of Jesus Christ ; 
or that any such thing, was immediately procured and pur- 
chased by it, as we before recounted; but that God intended 
nothing, neither was any thing effected by Christ ; that no 
benefit ariseth to any immediately by his death, but what is 
common to all and every soul, though never so cursedly un- 
believing here, and eternally damned hereafter, until an act 
of some, not procured for them by Christ ; (for if it were, 
why have they it not all alike?) to wit, faith, do distinguish 
them from others. Now this seeming to me, to enervate 
the virtue, value, fruits, and effects of the satisfaction and 
death of Christ, serving besides for a basis and foundation, 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 231 

to a dangerous, uncomfortable, erroneous persuasion, I shall, 
by the Lord's assistance, declare, what the Scripture holds 
out in both these things, both that assertion which is in- 
tended to be proved, and that which is brought for the proof 
thereof; desiring the Lord by his Spirit to lead us into all 
truth, to give us understanding in all things, and if any one 
be otherwise minded, to reveal that also tinto him. 



CHAP. n. 

Of the nature of an end in general, and some distinctions about it. 

The end of any thing, is that which the agent intendeth to 
accomplish, in and by the operation which is proper unto 
its nature, and which it applieth itself unto, that which any 
one aimeth at, and designeth in himself to attain, as a thing 
good and desirable unto him, in the state and condition 
wherein he is : so the end which Noah proposed unto himself 
in the building of the ark, was the preservation of himself 
and others, according to the will of God : * he made an ark 
to preserve himself and his family from the flood, according 
to all that God commanded him so did he.' Gen. vi. 22. That 
which the agent doth, or whereto he applieth himself, for 
the compassing his proposed end, is called the means, which 
two do complete the whole reason of working in free intel- 
lectual agents, for I speak only of such as work according to 
clioice or election : so Absalom intending a revolt from his 
father to procure the crown and kingdom for himself, * he 
prepared him horses and chariots, and fifty men to run be- 
fore hitn;' 2 Sam. xv. 1. and farther, by fair words and gloss- 
ing compliances, ' he stole the hearts of the men of Israel ;' 
ver. 6. then pretends a sacrifice at Hebron, where he makes 
a strong conspiracy ; ver. 12. all which were the means he 
used for the attaining of his fore-proposed end. 

Between both these, end and means, there is this relation, 
that (though in sundry kinds) they are mutually causes one 
of another : the end is the first principal moving cause of the 
whole ; it is that for whose sake the whole work is; no agent 
applies itself to action but for an end, and were it not by 
that determined to some certain effect, thing, way, or man- 



232 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

ner of working, it would no more do orie thing than another. 
The inhabitants of the old world, desiring and intending unity 
and cohabitation, with (perhaps) some reserves to provide 
for their safety against a second storm, they cry, 'Go to, let 
us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto 
heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered 
abroad upon the face of the whole earth;' Gen. xi. 4. First, 
They lay down their aim and design, and then let out the 
means in their apprehension conducins; thereunto, and mani- 
fest then it is that the whole reason and method of affairs, 
that a wise-worker or agent according to the counsel pro- 
poseth to himself, is taken from the etid which he aims at, 
that is in intention and contrivance the beoinning; of all 
that order which is in working. Now the means are all those 
things which are used for the attaining of the end proposed 
(as meat, for the preservation of life ; sailing in a ship, for him 
that would pass the sea ; laws for the quiet continuance of 
human society) : and they are the procuring cause of the end 
in one kind or another, their existence is for the end's sake, 
and the end hath its rise out of them, following them either 
morally as their desert, or naturalli/ as their fruit and product. 
First, In a moral sense, when the action and the end are to 
be measured or considered in reference to a moral rule, or 
laxv prescribed to the agent, then the means are the deserv- 
ing, or meritorious cause of the end : as if Adam had con- 
tinued in his innocency, and done all things according to 
the law given unto him, the end procured thereby had been 
a blessed life to eternity : as now the end of any sinful act 
is death, the curse of the law. Secondly, When the means 
are considered only in their natural relation, then they are 
the instrumentally efficient cause of the end : so Joab intend- 
ing the death of Abner, 'he smote him with his spear under 
the fifth rib that he died ;' 2 Sam. iii. 27. and when Benaiah, 
by the command of Solomon, fell upon Shimei, the wounds 
he gave him were the efficient of his death ; 1 Kings ii. 46. 
In which regard there is no difference, between the murder- 
ing of an innocent man, and the executing of an offender ; 
but as they are under a moral consideration, their ends fol- 
low their deservings, in respect of conformity to the rule, 
and so there is xaafxa fiiya between them. 

The former consideration, by reason of the defect and 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 233 

perverseness of some agents (for otherwise these things are 
coincident), holds out a twofold end of things. First, of the 
work; and. Secondly, of the workman : of the act, and the 
agent; for when the means assigned for the attaining of any 
end, are not proportioned unto it, nor fitted for it, accord- 
ing to that rule which the agent is to work by, then it can- 
not be but that he must aim at one thing, and another fol- 
low in respect of the morality of the work : so Adam is enticed 
into a desire to be like God ; this now he makes his aim, 
which to effect he eats the forbidden fruit, and that contracts 
a guilt which he aimed not at. But when the agent acts 
aright and as it should do; when it aims at an end that is 
proper to it, belonging to its proper perfection and condi- 
tion, and worketh by such means as are fit and suitable to 
the end proposed, the end of the work and the workman 
are one and the same : as when Abel intended the worship 
of the Lord, he offered a sacrifice through faith acceptable 
unto him ; or as a man desiring salvation through Christ, 
applieth himself to get an interest in him. Now the sole 
reason of this diversity is, that secondary agents, such as 
men are, have an end set and appointed to their actions, by 
him which giveth them an external ride or law to work by ; 
which shall always attend them in their working whether 
they will or no. God only, whose will and good pleasure is, 
the sole rule of all those works which outwardly are of him, 
can never deviate in his actions, nor have any end attend or 
follow his acts, not precisely by him intended. 

Again, the end of every free agent is either that which he 
effecteth, or that for whose sake he doth effect it; when a 
man builds a house to let to hire, that which he effecteth is 
the building of a house, that which moveth him to do it is 
love of gain. The physician cures the patient, and is moved 
to it by his reward : the end which Judas aimed at in his 
going to the priests, bargaining with them, conducting the 
soldiers to the garden, kissing Christ, was the betraying of 
his master ; but the end for whose sake the whole undertak- 
ing was set on foot, was the obtaining of the thirty pieces of 
silver : 'what will you give me and I will do it ?' The end 
which God effected by the death of Christ, was the satis- 
faction of his justice, the end for whose sake he did it, 
was either supreme, or his own glory, or subordinate, ours 
with him. 



234 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

Moreover, the means are of two sorts. First, Such as have 
a true goodness in themselves, without reference to any far- 
ther kind ; though not so considered as we use them for 
means : no means as a means is considered as sood in it- 
self, but only as conducible to a farther end; it is repugnant 
to the nature of means as such, to be considered as good 
in themselves. Study is in itself the most noble employment 
of the soul; but aiming at wisdom or knowledge, we consi- 
der it as good only inasmuch as it conduceth to that end ; 
otherwise as 'a weariness to the flesh;' Eccl.xii. 12. Second- 
ly, Such as have no good at all, in any kind as in themselves 
considered, but merely as conducing to that end, which they 
are fit to attain, they receive all their goodness (which is 
but relative) from that whereunto they are appointed; in 
themselves no way desirable, as the cutting off a leg or an 
arm for the preservation of life ; taking a bitter potion for 
health's sake, throwing corn and lading into the sea to prevent 
shipwreck ; of which nature is the death of Christ, as we 
shall afterward declare. 

These things being thus proposed in general, our next 
task must be to accommodate them to the present business 
in hand ; which we shall do in order, by laying down the agent 
working, the ineaus rcroiight, and the end effected, in the great 
work of our redemption ; for those three must be orderly 
considered and distinctly, that we may have a right appre- 
hension of the whole, into the first whereof avv ^tio we make 
an entrance in. 



CHAP. III. 

Of the agent or cMef author of the work of our redemption, and of the 
first thing distinctly ascribed to the person of the Father. 

The agent in, and chief author of, this great work of our re- 
demption, is the whole blessed Trinity ; for all the works 
which outwardly are of the Deity are undivided, and belong 
equally to each person ; their distinct manner of subsistence 
and order being observed, it is true, there were other sundry 
instrumental causes in the oblation, or rather passion of 
Christ ; but the work cannot in any sense be ascribed unto 
them : for in respect of God the Father, the issue of their 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 235 

endeavour was exceeding contrary to their own intentions ; 
and in the close they did nothing, but what the hand and 
counsel of 'God had before determined should be done;' Acts 
iv. 28. and in respect of Christ, they were no way able to 
accomplish what they aimed at, for he himself 'laid down his 
life, and none was able to take it from him;' John x. 17, 18. 
so that they are to be excluded from this consideration. In 
several persons of the Holy Trinity, the joint author of the 
whole work, the Scripture proposeth distinct and sundry 
acts or operations peculiarly assigned unto them, which, ac- 
cording to our weak manner of apprehension, we are to con- 
sider severally and apart : which also we shall do, beginning 
with them that are ascribed to the Father. 

Two peculiar acts there are in this work of our redemp- 
tion by the blood of Jesus, which may be and are properly 
assigned to the person of the Father. First, The sending of 
his Son into the world for this employment. Secondly, A 
laying the punishment due to our sin upon him. The Fa- 
ther loves the world and sends his Son to die. ' He sent his 
Son into the world that the world through him might be 
saved ;' John iii. 16, 17. ' He sent his Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the 
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us;' Rom. viii. 
3. ' He set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his 
blood;' Rom. iii. 25. ' For when the fulness of time was come, 
God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the 
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might 
receive the adoption of sons ;' Gal. iv. 4, 5. So more than 
twenty times in the gospel of John, there is mention of this 
sending ; and our Saviour describes himself by this peri- 
phrasis, 'him whom the Father hath sent;' John vi. 39. and 
the Father by this, ' he who sent me ;' John viii. 16. So that 
this action of sending is appropriate to the Father, accord- 
ing to his promise that he would ' send us a Saviour, a great 
one to deliver us ;' Isa. xix. 20. and to the profession of our 
Saviour, ' I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, 
from the time that it was, there am I ; and now the Lord God 
and his Spirit hath sent me ;' Isa. xlviii. 16. hence the Fa- 
ther himself is sometimes called our Saviour; 1 Tim. i. 1. 
' according to the commandment Oeov awrfipog I'lfxiov of God 
our Saviour :' some copies indeed read it, Oaov koL aisJTxipoQ jjjuwv 



236 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

* of God and our Saviour ;' but the interposition of that parti- 
cle /cm, arose doubtless from a misprision, that Christ alone 
is called Saviour. But directly this is the same with that 
parallel place of Titus i. 3. kut liriTajriv tov nojTripog -t^fXMv 
3'fou, 'according to the commandment of God our Saviour;' 
where no interposition of that conjunctive particle can have 
place, the same title being also in other places ascribed to 
him, as Luke i. 47, 'My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Sa- 
viour.' As also 1 Tim. iv. 10. ' We have hoped in the living 
God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that 
believe ;' though in this last place, it be not ascribed unto 
him, with reference to his redeeming us by Christ, but his 
saving and preserving all by his providence. So also Tit. ii. 
11. iii. 4. Deut. xxxii. 15. 1 Sam. x. 19. Psal. xxiv. 5. xxv. 
5, Isa. xii.2. xi. lO.xlv. 15. Jer. xvi. 8. Micah vii. 7. Heb. 
iii. 17. most of which places have reference to his sending 
of Christ, which is also distinguished into three several acts, 
which in order we must lay down. 

First, An authoritative imposition of the office of Media- 
tor, which Christ closed withal, by his voluntary susception 
of it, willingly undergoing the office wherein by dispensation 
the Father had and exercised a kind of superiority, which the 
Son, though in the form of God humbled himself unto; Phil, 
ii. 6, 7. and of this there may be conceived two parts. 

First, The purposed imposition of his counsel ; or his eter- 
nal counsel for the setting apart of his Son, incarnate to this 
office; saying unto him, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I 
begotten thee ; ask of me, and I will give thee the nations 
for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for 
thy possession ;' Psal. ii. 7, 8. He said unto him, ' Sit thou at 
my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool ; for 
the Lord sware and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever 
after the order of Melchizedek;' Psal. ex. 1.4.' He appoint- 
ed hira to be heir of all things ;' Heb. i. 2. ' having ordained 
him to be Judge of quick and dead;' Acts x. 42. for unto 
' this he was ordained before the foundation of the world ;' 
1 Pet. i. 20. and determined 6pi(r9dg, 'to be the Son of God 
with power ;' Rom. i. 4. ' that he might be the first-born of 
many brethren ;' Rom. viii. 29. I know that this is an act 
eternally established in the mind and will of God, and so not 
to be ranged in order with the other, which are all temporary. 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 237 

and had their beginning in the fuhiess of time, of all which 
this first is the spring and fountain, according to that of 
James, Acts xv. 18. ' Known unto God are all his works from 
the beginning of the world ;' but yet, it being no unusual 
form of speaking that the purpose should also be compre- 
hended in that which holds out the accomplishment of it, 
aiming at truth and not exactness, we pass it thus. 

Secondly, The actual inauguration, or solemn admission 
of Christ unto his ofHce, ' committing all judgment unto the 
, Son;' John v. 22. ' making him to be both Lord and Christ;' 
Acts ii. 36. ' appointing him over his whole house;' Heb.iii. 
1 — 3. which is that anointing of the most holy; Dan. ix. 24. 
God ' anointing him with the oil of gladness above his fel- 
lows ;' Psal. xlv. 7. For the actual setting apart of Christ to 
his office, is said to be by unction, because all those holy 
things which were types of him, as the ark, the altar, &c. 
were set apart and consecrated by anointing ; Exod. xxx. 
25 — 27, &c. To this also belongs that public testification 
by innumerable angels from heaven of his nativity, declared 
by one of them to the shepherds ; * Behold,' saith he, * I bring 
you good tidings of joy, which shall be unto all people, for 
unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord;' Luke ii. 10, 11. which message 
was attended by, and closed with, that triumphant exultation 
of the host of heaven, ' Glory be to God on high, on earth 
peace, towards men good will ;' ver. 14. with that redoubled 
voice which afterward came from the excellent glory, * This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;' Matt. iii. 17. 
xvii. 5. 2 Pet. i. 17. If these things oug-ht to be distinguish- 
ed, and placed in their own order, they may be considered 
in these three several acts. First, The glorious proclamation 
which he made of his nativity ; when he ' prepared him a 
body;' Heb. x, 5. bringing his first-begotten into the world, 
and saying, * Let all the angels of God worship him;' Heb.i. 
6. sending them to proclaim the message which we before 
recounted. Secondly, Sending the Spirit visibly in the form 
of a dove to light upon him, at the time of his baptism; Matt. 
iii. 16. when he was endued with a fulness thereof, for the ac- 
complishment of the work, and discharge of the ofiicewhere- 
unto he was designed; attended with that noise, Avhereby 
he owned him from heaven as his only beloved. Thirdly, 



238 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

The crowning of him with glory and honour, in his resurrec- 
tion, ascension, and sitting down ' on the right hand of Ma- 
jesty on high ;' Heb. i. 3. setting ' him as his King upon his 
holy hill of Sion ;' Psal. ii. 7, 8. when * all power was given 
unto him in heaven and in earth;' Matt, xxviii. 18. 'all 
things being put under his feet;' Heb. ii. 7, 8. himself highly 
exalted, and ' a name given him above every name that at,' 
&c. Phil.ii. 9. of which it pleased him to appoint witnesses 
of all sorts, angels from heaven, Luke xxiv. 4. Acts i. 10. the 
dead out of the graves. Matt, xxvii. 52. the apostles among 
and unto the livino-. Acts ii. 32. with those more than five 
hundred brethren, to whom he appeared at once ; 1 Cor. xv. 
6. Thus gloriously was he inaugurated into his office, in 
the several acts and degrees thereof; God saying unto him, 
' It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise 
up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel ; I 
will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest 
be my salvation unto the end of the earth;' Isa. xlix. 6. 

Between these two acts 1 confess there intercedes a two- 
fold promise of God ; one, of giving a Saviour to his people, 
a Mediator according to his former purpose, as Gen. iii. 15. 
* The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head;' and 
' the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from 
between his feet, till Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the 
gathering of the people be;' Gen. xlix. 10. Which he also 
foresignified by many sacrifices, and other types, with pro- 
phetical predictions; ' for of this salvation the prophets have 
inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the 
grace that should come unto you, searching what or what 
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did 
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, 
and the glory that should follow ; unto whom it was reveal- 
ed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister 
the things which are now reported unto you by them that 
preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven, which thing the angels desire to look 
into ;' 1 Pet. i. 10 — 12. The other is a promise of applying 
the benefits purchased by this Saviour so designed to them 
that should believe on him, to be given in fulness of time, 
according to the former promises; telling Abraham, 'that 
in his seed the nations of the earth should be blessed;' and 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 239 

justifying himself by the same faith; Gen. xv. 6. But these 
things belong rather to the application wholly, which was 
equal both before and after his actual mission. 

The second act of the Father's sending the Son, is the 
furnishing of him in his sending with a fulness of all gifts 
and graces, that might any way be requisite for the office he 
was to undertake, the work he was to undergo, and the 
charge he had over the house of God. There was indeed 
in Christ a twofold fulness and perfection of all spiritual ex- 
cellencies. First, the natural all-sufficient perfection of his 
Deity, as one with his Father, in respect of his divine na- 
ture : for his glory was * the glory of the only-begotten of 
the Father;' John i. 14. ' He was in the form of God, and 
counted it no robbery to be equal with God;' Phil. ii. 6. 
'being the fellow of the Lord of Hosts;' Zech. xiii. 7. Whence 
that glorious appearance, Isa. vi. 3,4. when ' the cherubims 
cried one to another, and said. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of 
hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of 
the door moved at the noise of him that cried, and the house 
was filled with smoke ; and tlie prophet cried. Mine eyes have 
seen the King, the Lord of hosts;' ver. 5. even concerning 
this vision, the apostle saith, ' Isaiah saw him and spake of 
his glory;' John xii. 41. of which glory Iku'wcte, he as it were 
emptied himself for a season, when ' he was found in the 
form or condition of a servant humbling himself unto death ;' 
Phil. ii. 7, 8. laying aside that glory which attended his 
Deity, outwardly appearing to have neither form, nor beauty, 
nor comeliness, that he should be desired ; Isa. liii. 2. But 
this fulness we do not treat of, it being not communicated 
to him, but essentially belonging to his person, which is 
eternally begotten of the person of his Father. 

The second fulness that was in Christ, was a communi- 
cated fulness, which was in him by dispensation from his 
Father; bestowed upon him to fit him for his work and 
office, as he was and is the ' Mediator between God and 
man, the man Christ Jesus;' 1 Tim. ii. 5. not as he is the 
Lord of hosts, but as he is 'Immanuel, God with us, as he 
was a Son given to us, called Wonderful, Counsellor, the 
Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, 
upon whose shoulders the government was to be;' Isa. ix.6. 
It is a fulness of grace, not that essential, which is of the 



240 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

nature of the Deity, but that which is habitual and infused 
into the humanity, as personally united to the other ; which 
though it be not absolutely infinite as the other is, yet it 
extends itself to all perfections of grace, both in respect of 
parts and degrees, there is no grace that is not in Christ, 
and every grace is in him in the highest degree ; so that 
whatsoever the perfection of grace, either for the several 
kinds, or respective advancements thereof, require th, is in 
him habitually by the collation of his Father, for this very 
purpose, and for the accomplishment of the work designed; 
which though (as before) it cannot properly be said to be 
infinite, yet it is boundless and endless : it is in him as the 
light in the beams of the sun, and as water in a living foun- 
tain, which can never fail ; he is the candlestick from whence 
the 'golden pipes do empty the golden oil through them- 
selves,' Zech. iv. 12. into all that are his : ' for he is the be- 
ginning, the first-born from the dead, in all things having 
the pre-eminence ; for it pleased the Father that in him should 
all fulness dwell ;' Col.i. 18, 19. in him he caused to be ' hid 
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ;' Col. ii. 3. and in 
him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead (rwjuartKwc, substan- 
tially or personally ; ver. 9. ' that of his fulness we might all 
receive grace for grace;' Johni. 16. in a continual supply. So 
that setting upon the work of redemption he looks upon this, 
in the first place, 'The Spirit of the Lord God,' saith he, ' is 
upon me; because the Lord God hath anointed me to preach 
good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the 
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the 
opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the 
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our 
God; to comfort all that mourn;' Isa. Ixi, 1, 2. And this was 
the anointing with the oil of gladness which he had above 
his fellows ; Psal. xlv. ' it was upon his head, and ran down 
to his beard, yea, down to the skirts of his clothing;' Psal. 
cxxxiii. 2. that every one covered with the garment of his 
righteousness might be made partaker of it. * The Spirit of 
the Lord did rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and under- 
standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of know- 
ledge and of the fear of the Lord ;' Isa. xi. 2. and that not in 
parcels and beginnings as in us, proportioned to our measure 
and degrees of sanctification, but in a fulness, for ' he re- 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 241 

ceived not the Spirit by measure;' John iii. 34. that is, it 
was not so with him, when he came to the full measure of 
the stature of his age; as Eph. iv. 13. for otherwise it was 
manifested in him, and collated on him by degrees, for he 
' increased in wisdom and stature, and favour with God and 
man;' Luke ii. 52. Hereunto was added all 'power in heaven 
and earth, which was given unto him;' Matt, xxviii. 18. 
* power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as he 
would ;' John xvii. 2. Which we might branch into many 
particulars, but so much shall suffice to set forth the second 
act of God, in sending his Son. 

The third act of this sending, is his entering into cove- 
nant and compact with his Son, concerning the work to be 
undertaken, and the issue or event thereof; of which there be 
two parts. First, His promise to protect and assist him in 
the accomplishment and perfect fulfilling of the whole busi- 
ness and dispensation about which he was employed, or which 
he was to undertake. The Father engaged himself, that for 
his part, upon his Son's undertaking this great work of re- 
demption, he would not be wanting in any assistance in trials, 
strength against oppositions, encouragement against tempta- 
tions, and strong consolation in the midst of terrors, which 
might be any way necessary or requisite to carry him on 
through all difficulties to the end of so great an employment. 
Upon which he undertakes this heavy burden, so full of mi- 
sery and trouble : for the Father before this engagement, re- 
quires no less of him, than that he should ' become a Saviour, 
and be afflicted in the afflictions of his people ;' Isa. Ixiii. 8, 9. 
Yea, that although he were ' the fellow of the Lord of hosts, 
yet he should endure the sword that was drawn against him, 
as the shepherd of the sheep ;' Zech. xiii. 7. treading the 
wine-press alone, until he became red in his apparel ; Isa. 
Ixi. 2, 3. yea, ' to be stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, 
wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniqui- 
ties : to be bruised and put to grief, to make his soul an of- 
fering for sin, and to bear the iniquity of many ;' Isa. liii. 
to be destitute of comfort so far as to cry, ' My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me?' Psal. xxii. I. No wonder then 
if upon this undertaking, the Lord promised to make 'his 
mouth sharp like a sword, to hide him in the shadow of his 
hand, to make him a polished shaft, and to hide him in his 

VOLV. R 



242 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

quiver, to make him his servant in whom he would be glori- 
fied ;' Isa. xlix. 2, 3. that though 'the kings of the earth 
should set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together 
against him, yet he would laugh them to scorn, and set him 
as King upon his holy hill of Zion ;' Psal. ii. 2, 4. 6. though 
the builders did reject him, yet he should 'become the head 
of the corner,' to the amazement and astonishment of all the 
world; Psal. cxviii. 22,23. Matt. xxi. 42. Mark xii. 10. 
Luke xii. 17. John iv. 11. 2 Pet. ii. 4. yea, he would 'lay him 
for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner- 
stone, a sure foundation;' Isa. xxviii. 16. that whosoever 
should fall upon him, should be broken, but upon whomso- 
ever he should fall, he should grind them to powder. Hence 
arose that confidence of our Saviour in his greatest and ut- 
most trials, being assured by virtue of his Father's engage- 
ment in this covenant, upon a treaty with him about the re- 
demption of man, that he would never leave him nor forsake 
him; 'I gave,' saith he, 'my back to the smiters, and my 
cheeks to them that plucked off the hair ; I hid not my face 
from shame and spitting ;' Isa. 1. 6. But with what confi- 
dence (blessed Saviour), didst thou undergo all this shame 
and sorrow? Why! ' The Lord God will help me ; therefore I 
shall not be confounded : therefore have I set my face like a 
flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is nearthat 
justifieth me ; who will contend with me ? let us stand toge- 
ther : who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Be- 
hold, the Lord Godwin help me; who is he that shall condemn 
me ? lo ! they shall all wax old as a garment ; the moth shall 
consume them ;' ver. 7 — 9. With this assurance he was brought 
as a 'lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearers 
is dumb, so opened he not his mouth ;' Isa. liii. 7. ' for when 
he was reviled, he reviled not again ; when he suffered, he 
threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth 
rightly ;' 1 Pet. ii. 23. So that the ground of our Saviour's 
confidence and assurance in this great undertaking, and a 
Strong motive to exercise his graces received, in the utmost 
endurings, was this engagement of his Father upon this com- 
pact of assistance and protection. 

Secondly, Of success, or a good issue out of all his suf- 
ferings, and a happy accomplishment and attainment of the 
end of his great undertaking. Now of all the rest this chiefly 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 243 

is to be considered, as directly conducing to the business 
proposed, which yet would not have been so clear without the 
former considerations ; for whatsoever it was that God pro- 
mised his Son, should be fulfilled and attained by him, that 
certainly was it, at which the Son aimed in the whole under- 
taking, and designed it as the end of the work, that was com- 
mitted to him; and which alone he could and did claim upon 
the accomplishment of his Father's will. What this was, and 
the promises whereby it is at large set forth, ye have Isa. xlix. 
'Thoushalt be my servant,' saith the Lord, 'to raise up the 
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel ; I will 
also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayestbe 
my salvation to the end of the earth. Kings shall see and 
arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is 
faithful :' and he will certainly accomplish this engagement; 
* I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the peo- 
ple, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate he- 
ritages ; that thou mayest say to the prisoners. Go forth; to them 
that are in darkness. Shew yourselves : they shall feed in the 
ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall 
not be hungry neither shall they be thirsty; neither shall the 
heat smite them, nor the sun : for he that hath compassion on 
them shall lead them, even to the springs of water shall he 
drive them ; and I will make all my mountains as away, and 
my paths shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far; 
and, lo, these from the north, and from the west ; and these 
from the land of Sinim;' ver. 6 — 12. By all which expres- 
sions, the Lord evidently and clearly engageth himself to his 
Son, that he should gather to himself a glorious church of 
believers, from among Jews and Gentiles, through all the 
world, that should be brought unto him, and certainly fed in 
full pasture, and refreshed by the springs of water ; all the 
spiritual springs of living water, which flow from God in 
Christ, for their everlasting salvation. This then our Saviour 
certainly aimed at, as being the promise upon which he un- 
dertook the work ; the gathering of the sons of God together, 
their bringing unto God, and passing to eternal salvation ; 
which being well considered, it will utterly overthrow the 
general ransom, or universal redemption, as afterward will 
appear. In the iifty-third chapter of the same prophecy, the 
Lord is more express and punctual in these promises to his 

E 2 



244 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

Son, assuring him, that when he ' made his soul an offering 
for sin he should see his seed, and prolong his days, and the 
pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand ; that he 
should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied: by his 
knowledge he should justify many ; that he should divide a 
portion with the great, and the spoil with the strong ;' ver. 
10 — 12. He was, you see, to see his seed by covenant, and to 
raise up a spiritual seed unto God, a faithful people, to be 
prolonged and preserved throughout all generations ; which 
how well it consists with their persuasion, who in terms have 
affirmed, that the death of Christ might have had its full and 
utmost effect, and yet none be saved, I cannot see ; though 
some have boldly affirmed it, and all the assertors of universal 
redemption, do tacitly grant, when they come to the assign- 
ing of the proper ends and effects of the death of Christ. 
The pleasure also of the Lord was to prosper in his hand : 
which what it was he declares, Heb. ii. 10. even bringing of 
many sons unto glory ; 'for God sent his only-begotten Son 
into the world that we might live through him •,' 1 John iv. 9. 
as we shall afterward more abundantly declare. But the pro- 
mises of God made unto him in their agreement, and so con- 
sequently his own aim and intention, may be seen in nothing 
more manifestly, than in the request that our Saviour makes 
upon the accomplishment of the work about which he was- 
sent, which certainly was neither for more nor less than God 
had engaged himself to him for : ' I have,' saith he, ' glorified 
thee on earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me 
to do ;' John xvii. 3. a,nd now what doth he require after the 
manifestation of his eternal glory, of which for a season he 
had emptied himself; ver. 4. clearly a full confluence of the 
love of God, and fruits of that love upon all his elect, in faith, 
sanctification, and glory ; God gave them unto him, and he 
sanctified himself to be a sacrifice for their sake, praying for 
their sanctification, ver. 17, 18. their preservation in peace, 
or communion one with another, and union with God ; ver. 
20, 21. * I pray not for them alone' (that is, his apostles), 
'but for them also which shall believe on me through their 
word ; that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and 
I in thee, that they also may be one in us ;' and lastly, their 
glory ; ver. 24. 'Father, I will that they also whom thou hast 
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 245 

glory which thou hast given me.' All which several postu- 
lata, are no doubt grounded upon the fore-cited promises, 
which by his Father were made unto him : and in this not 
one word concerning all and every one, but expressly the con- 
trary ; John xvii. 9. Let this then be diligently observed, 
that the promise of God unto his Son, and the request of the 
Son unto his Father, are directed to this peculiar end of 
bringino; sons unto God. And this is the first act, consisting 
of these three particulars. 

The second is of laying upon him the punishment of 
sins, everywhere ascribed unto the Father. ' Awake, O sword, 
against my Shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, 
saith the Lord of hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep 
shall be scattered;' Zech. xiii. 7. What here is set down 
imperatively by way of command, is in the gospel indica- 
tively expounded ; ' I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep 
of the flock shall be scattered abroad;' Matt, xxvi.31. * He 
was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted;' yea,' the Lord 
laid upon him the iniquity of us all;' yea, 'it pleased the Lord 
to bruise him and to put him to grief;' Isa. liii. 4. 6. 10. ' He 
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in him ;' 2 Cor. v. 21. 
The adjunct in both places is put for the subject, as the op- 
position between his being made sin, and our being made 
righteousness declareth. * Him who knew no sin,' that is, 
who deserved no punishment ; * him hath he made to be sin,' 
or laid the punishment due to sin upon him ; or perhaps in 
the latter place, sin may be taken for an offering or sacrifice 
for the expiation of sin, ajxapria, answering in this place to 
the word DNDn in the Old Testament, which signifieth both 
sin and the sacrifice for it. And this the Lord did ; for as 
for Herod, Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people 
of Israel, when they were gathered together they did nothing 
but ' what his hand and counsel had determined before to be 
done;' Acts iv. 27, 28. Whence the great shakings of our 
Saviour were in his close conflict with his Father's wrath, 
and that burden which by himself he immediately imposed 
on him, when there was no hand or instrument outwardly 
appearing to put him to any suffering or cruciating tor- 
ment; then ' began he to be sorrowful, even unto death ;' 
Matt. xxvi. 37, 38. to wit, when he was in the garden with his, 



246 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

three choice apostles, before the traitor or any of his accom- 
plices appeared; 'then was he sore amazed and very heavy ;' 
Mark xiv. 34. that was the time in ' the days of his flesh, 
when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
cries and tears unto him that was able to save him from 
death ;' Heb. v. 7. Which how he performed the apostle de- 
scribeth, Luke xxii. 43, 44. ' There appeared an angel unto 
him from heaven strengthening him ; but being in an agony, 
he prayed more earnestly ; and his sweat was as it were 
great drops of blood falling down to the ground.' Surely 
it was a close and strong trial, and that immediately from 
his Father, he now underwent ; for how meekly and cheer- 
fully doth he submit without any regret or trouble of spirit 
to all the cruelty of men, and violence offered to his body, 
until this conflict being renewed again, he cries, * My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me V And this, by the way, 
will be worth our observation, that we may know with whom 
our Saviour chiefly had to do, and what was that which he 
underwent for sinners, which also will give some light to the 
grand query concerning the persons of them for whom he 
undertook all this. His sufferings were far from consisting 
in mere corporal perpessions and afflictions, with such im- 
pressions upon his soul and spirit, as were the effects and 
issues only of them ; it was no more nor less than the curse 
of the law of God, which he underwent for us ; ' for he freed 
us from the curse by being made a curse ;' Gal. iii. 13. which 
contained all the punishment that was due to sin, either in 
the severity of God's justice, or according to the exigence of 
that law which required obedience. That the execration of 
the law should be only temporal death, as the law was con- 
sidered to be the instrument of the Jewish polity, and serv- 
ing that economy or dispensation, is true ; but that it should 
be no more, as it is the universal rule of obedience and the 
bond of the covenant between God and man, is a foolish 
dream. Nay, but in dying for us Christ did not only aim at 
our good, but also directly died in our stead ; the punishment 
due to our sin and the chastisement of our peace was upon 
him : which that it was the pains of hell in their nature and 
being, in their weight and pressure, though not in tendence 
and continuance (it being impossible that he should be de- 
tained by death), who can deny, and not be injurious to the 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 247 

justice of God, which will inevitably inflict those pains to 
eternity upon sinners ; it is true, indeed, there is a relaxation 
of the law in respect of the persons suffering, God admitting 
of commutation ; as in the old law when in their sacrifices 
the life of the beast was accepted (in respect to the carnal 
part of the ordinances) for the life of the man ; this is fully 
revealed and we believe it ; but for any change of the pu- 
nishment, in respect of the nature of it, where is the least in- 
timation of any alteration ? We conclude then, this second 
act of God, in laying the punishment on him for us, with 
that of the prophet ; ' All we like sheep have gone astray, we 
have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath 
laid upon him the iniquity of us all ;' Isa. liii. 6. And add 
thereunto this observation, that it seems strange to me that 
Christ should undergo the pains of hell in their stead, who 
lay in the pains of hell before he underwent those pains, and 
shall continue in them to eternity, for * their worm dieth not, 
neither is their fire quenched.' To which I may add this di- 
lemma to our universalists : God imposed his wrath due unto, 
and Christ underwent the pains of hell for, either all the sins 
of all men, or all the sins of some men, or some sins of all 
men. If the last, some sins of all men, then have all men 
some sins to answer for, and so shall no man be saved ; for 
if* God enter into judgment with us,' though it were with 
all mankind for one sin, 'no flesh should be justified in his 
sight: if the Lord should mark iniquities who should stand?' 
Psal. cxxx. 3. We might all go to cast all that we have, 
* to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the 
rocks, and to the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the 
Lord, and for the glory of his majesty;' Isa. ii. 20, 21. If 
the second, that is it which we affirm, that Christ in their 
stead and room suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the 
world. If the first, why then are not all freed from the pu- 
nishment of all their sins ? You will say, because of their un- 
belief, they will not believe : but this unbelief, is it a sin or 
not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, 
then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not : 
if so, then why must that hinder them more than their 
other sins for which he died, from partaking of the fruit of 
his death ; if he did not, then did he not die for all their sins. 
Let them choose which part they will. 



248 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 



CHAP. IV. 

Of those things, which in the work of redemption are pecuJiarhj ascribed 
to the person of the Son. 

Secondly, The Son was an age?7t in this great work, con- 
curring by a voluntary susception, or willing undertaking, 
of the office imposed on him ; for when the Lord said, ' Sa- 
crifice and offerings he would not, in burnt-offerings and 
sacrifice for sin he had no pleasure ; then said Christ, Lo, I 
come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy 
will, O God ;' Heb. x. 17, 18. All other ways being rejected 
or insufficient, Christ undertaketh the task, * in whom alone 
the Father was well pleased;' Matt. iii. 13. Hence he pro- 
fesseth that * he came not to do his own will, but the will of 
him that sent him;' John vi. 38. Yea, that it was 'his meat and 
drink to do his Father's will, and to finish his work ;' John iv. 
34. The first words that we find recorded of him in the 
Scripture are to the same purpose, ' Wist ye not that I must 
be about my Father's business ;' Luke ii. 49. And at the close 
of all he saith, ' I have glorified thee on earth ; I have finished 
the work which thou gavestme to do;' John xvii. 4. calling 
it every where his Father's work that he did, or his Father's 
will which he came to accomplish, with reference to the impo- 
sition which we before treated of. Now this undertaking of 
the Son may be referred to three heads : the first being a com- 
mon foundation for both the other, being as it were, the 
means in respect of them as the end ; and yet in some sort 
partaking of the nature of a distinct action, with a goodness 
in itself in reference to the main end proposed to all three ; 
we shall consider it apart : and that is. 

First, His incarnation, as usually it is called, for his taking 
ofjiesh and pitching his tent amongst us ; John i. 4. His ' be- 
ing made of a woman,' Gal. iv. 4. is usually called his ivaap- 
Kwcng or incarnation; for this was the mystery of godliness, 
that ' God should be manifested in the flesh ;' 1 Tim. iii. 13. 
thereby assuming not any singular yjerson but our human 
nature into personal union with himself; for, ' forasmuch as 
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself 
likewise took part of the same, that through death he 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 249 

might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, tlie 
devil;' Heb. ii. 14. it was the children that he considered, 
the ' children whom the Lord gave him ;' ver. 13. Their par- 
ticipation in flesh and blood moved him to partake of the 
same ; not because all the world, all the posterity of Adam, 
but because the children were in that condition, for their 
sakes he sanctified himself. Now this emptying of the 
Deity, this humbling of himself, this dwelling amongst us, 
was the sole act of the second person, or the divine nature in 
the second person, the Father and the Spirit having no 
concurrence in it, but by liking, approbation, and eternal 
counsel. 

Secondly, His oblation or offering himself up to God for 
us ' without spot, to purge our consciences from dead works ;' 
Heb. ix. 14. ' for he loved us and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood ;' Rev. i. 5. ' he loved his church, and gave 
himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it ;' Eph. 
v. 25, 26. taking the cup of wrath at his Father's hands, 
due to us, and drinking it off, 'but not for himself;' Dan. 
ix. 6. for, for our sakes 'he sanctified himself;' John xvii. 19. 
that is, to be an offering, an oblation for sin ; for 'when we 
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the 
ungodly ;' Rom. v. 6. This being that which was typified 
out by all the institutions, ordinances, and sacrifices of old ; 
which when they were to have an end, then said Christ, ' Lo, 
I come, to do thy will.' Now though the perfecting or con- 
summating of this oblation, be set out in the Scripture 
chiefly in respect of what Christ suffered, and not so much 
in respect of what he did, because it is chiefly considered 
as the means used by these three blessed agents, for the at- 
taining of a farther end, yet in respect of his own voluntary 
giving up himself, to be so an oblation and a sacrifice, with- 
out which it would not have been of any value (for if the 
will of Christ had not been in it, it could never have purged 
our sins), therefore in that regard, I refer it to his actions. 
He was the ' Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the 
world;' John i. 29. the Lamb of God, which himself had 
provided for a sacrifice. And how did this Lamb behave him- 
self in it? with unwillingness and struggling? No, he opened 
not his mouth; "he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, 
and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened 
not his mouth ;' Isa. liii. 7. Whence he saith, * I lay down 



250 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

my life, no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my self ; 
I have power to lay it down, and 1 have power to take it 
again;' John x. 17,18. He might have been cruciated on 
the part of God, but his death could not have been an obla- 
tion and offering had not his will concurred. 'But he loved 
me,' saith the apostle, ^and gave himself for me ;' Gal. ii. 20. 
Now that alone deserves the name of a gift, which is from a 
free and a willing mind, as Christ's was, when he loved us 
and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God 
for a sweet smelling savour ; Eph. v. 2. He does it cheerfully, 

* Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God;' Heb. ix. 10. and so 

* his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree ;' 
1 Pet. ii. 24. Now this oblation or offering of Christ, I 
would not tie up to any one thing, action, or passion, per- 
formance, or suffering ; but it compriseth the whole economy 
and dispensation of God manifested in the flesh, and con- 
versing among us, with all those things which he performed 
in the days of his flesh, vi'hen he offered up prayers and 
supplications, with strong cries and tears, until he had 
fully 'by himself purged our sins, and sat down on the right 
hand of the Majesty on high ;' Heb. i. 3. ' expecting until his 
enemies be made his footstool :' all the whole dispensation 
of his coming and ministering, until he had given his soul a 
price of redemption for many ; Matt. xxvi. But for his en- 
tering into the holiest of holies, sprinkled with his own 
blood, and appearing so for us, before the majesty of God, 
by some accounted as the continuation of his oblation, we 
may refer unto. 

Thirdly, His intercessio7i, for all and every one of those, 
for whom he gave himself for an oblation ; he did not suffer 
for them, and then refuse to intercede for them ; he did not 
do the greater, and omit the less. The price of our redemp- 
tion is more precious in the eyes of God and his Son, than 
that it should, as it were, be cast away on perishing souls, 
without any care taken, of what becomes of them afterward : 
nay, this also is imposed on Christ, with a promise annexed. 

* Ask of me,' saith the Lord, ' and I will give thee the na- 
tions for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the 
earth for thy possession;' Psal. ii. 8. Who accordingly tells 
his disciples, that he had more work to do for them in hea- 
ven ; * I go,' saith he, ' to prepare a place for you, that I may 
come again and receive you unto myself;' John xiv. 2, 3. 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 251 

For as ' the high priest went into the second alone, once every 
year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and 
the errors of the people;' Heb. ix. 7. so ' Christ being come 
a high priest of good things to come, by his own blood 
entered once into the holy place, having obtained for us eter- 
nal redemption ;' Heb. ix. 11, 12. Now what was this holy 
place whereinto he entered, thus sprinkled with the blood 
of the covenant, and to what end did he enter into it? Why, 
* he is not entered into the holy place, made with hands, 
which is the figure of the true, but into heaven itself, now 
tc^appear in the presence of God for us ;' ver. 24. And what 
doth he there appear for ? Why, to be our advocate to plead 
our cause with God, for the application of the good things, 
procured by his oblation unto all them for whom he was an 
offering ; as the apostle tells us, ' If any man sin we have an 
advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous ;' 
1 John ii. 1. Why, how comes that to pass ? He is a propitia- 
tion for our sins; ver. 2. His being iXaafxog a propitiatory sa- 
crifice for our sins, is the foundation of his interceding, the 
ground of it ; and therefore, they both belong to the same 
persons. Now, by the way, we know, that Christ refused to 
pray for the world, in opposition to his elect; ' I pray for 
them,' saith he, ' I pray not for the world, but for them thou 
hast given me out of the world ;' John xix. 9. And there- 
fore there was no foundation for such an interceding for 
them, because he was not tXatrjuoc for them. Again, we know 
the Father always heareth the Son ; * For I know,' saith 
he, * that he heareth me always;' John xi. 42. that is, so to 
grant his request, according to the forementioned engage- 
ment ; Psal. ii. 8. and therefore, if he should intercede for 
all; all should undoubtedly be saved; *for he is able to 
save to the utmost, them that come unto God by him, see- 
ing he ever liveth to make intercession for them ;' Heb. 
vii. 25. Hence is that confidence of the apostle, upon that 
intercession of Christ, ' Who shall lay any thing to the 
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth ; who is he 
that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is 
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us ;' Rom. viii. 33, 34. Where also 
we cannot but observe, that those for whom he died, may 
assuredly conclude he maketh intercession for them, and 
that none shall lay any thing to their charge ; which breaks 



252 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

the neck of the general ransom, for according to that, he 
died for millions, that have no interest in his intercession, 
who shall have their sins laid to their charge, and perish 
under them ; which might be farther cleared up, from the 
very nature of this intercession, which is not a humble de- 
jected supplication, which beseems not that glorious state 
of advancement, which he is possessed of, that sits at the 
right hand of the Majesty on high ; but an authoritative pre- 
senting himself before the throne of his Father, sprinkled 
with his own blood, for the making out to his poeple all 
spiritual things that are procured by his oblation ; sayixSfg, 
* Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be where 
I am ;' John. xvii. So that for whomsoever he suffered, he 
appears for them in heaven with his satisfaction and merit. 
Here also, we must call to mind what the Father promised 
his Son, upon his undertaking of this employment ; for there 
is no doubt, but that, for that and that alone doth Christ, 
upon the accomplishment of the whole, intercede with him 
about, which was in sum, that he might be the captain of 
salvation to all that believe on him, and effectually bring 
many sons to glory. And hence it is, having such a high 
priest over the house of God, we may draw near with the 
full assurance of faith, for by one offering he hath perfected 
them that are sanctified ; Heb. x. 13. But of this more must 
be said afterward. 



CHAP. V. 

The peculiar actions of the Holy Spirit in this business. 

In few words we may consider, the actions of that agent, 
who in order is the third in that blessed one, whose all is the 
whole, the Holi/ Spirit, who is evidently concurring in his 
own distinct operation, to all the several chief or grand parts 
of this work, we may refer them to three heads. 

First, The incarnation of the Son, with his plenary as- 
sistance in the course of his conversation whilst he dwelt 
amongst us ; for his mother was found Iv •yaorpi \\ovaa, ' to 
have conceived in her womb of the Holy Ghost ;' Matt, 
xviii. If you ask with Mary, how that could be, the angel 
resolves both her and us, as far as it is lawful for us to be 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 253 

acquainted with these mysterious things; Luke i. 35. 'The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing 
which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.' 
It was an overshadowing power in the Spirit, so called by 
an allusion taken from fowls that cover their eggs, that so 
by their warmth young may be hatched; for by the sole power 
of the Spirit was this conception, who did hicubarefatui, as 
in the beginning of the world. Now in process as this child 
was conceived by the power, so he was filled with the Spirit, 
and waxed stronger in it, Luke i. 80. until having received 
a fulness thereof, and not by any limited measure in the 
gifts and graces of it, he was thoroughly furnished and fitted 
for his great undertaking. 

Secondly, In his oblation, or passion, for they are both the 
same, with several respects, one to what he suffered, the other 
to what he did with, by, and under those sufferings ; how by 
the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot unto God ; 
Heb.ix 14.whetherit bemeantoftheofferinghimself abloody 
sacrifice on the cross, orhis presentation of himselfcontinually 
before his Father, it is by the eternal Spirit. The willing offer- 
ing himself through that Spirit, was the eternal fire under this 
sacrifice, which made it acceptable unto God. That which 
some contend, that by the eternal Spirit is here meant our 
Saviour's own Deity, I see no great ground for : some Greek 
and Latin copies read, not as we commonly, irvevixaTog 
ai(i)viov but TrvsvfxaTog ayiov, and so the doubt is quite re- 
moved ; and I see no reason, why he may not as well be 
said to offer himself, through the Holy Spirit, as to be 'de- 
creed to be the Son of God, according to the Spirit of holi- 
ness by the resurrection from the dead;' as Rom. i. 3. as also 
to be 'quickened by the Spirit;' 1 Pet. iii. 18. The working of 
the Spirit was required as well in his oblation as resurrec- 
tion, in his dying as quickening. 

Thirdly, In his resurrection, of which the apostle, Rom. 
viii. IL 'But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from 
the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised Christ from the dead 
shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that 
dwelleth in you.' And thus have we discovered the blessed 
agents and undertakers in this work, their several actions 
and orderly concurrence unto the whole, which though they 
may be thus distinguished, yet they are not so divided, but 



254 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

that every one must be ascribed to the whole nature, where- 
of each person is in solidiim partaker. And as they begin 
it, so they will jointly carry along the application of it 
unto its ultimate issue and accomplishment, for we must 
* give thanks to the Father who hath made us meet (that is, by 
his Spirit) to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, 
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in 
whom we have redemption through his blood even the for- 
giveness of sins ;' Col. i. 11 — 13. 



CHAP. VI. 

The means iised by the fore-recounted agents in this work. 

Our next employment, following the order of execution, not 
intention, will be the discovery or laying down of the means 
in this work, which are indeed no other but the several ac- 
tions before recounted, but now to be considered under an- 
other respect, as they are a means ordained for the obtain- 
ing of a proposed end, of which afterward. Now because 
the several actions of Father and Spirit, were all exercised 
towards Christ, and terminated in him, as God and man, he 
only, and his performances, are to be considered as the means 
in this work, the several concurrences of both the other per- 
sons before mentioned, being presupposed as necessarily 
antecedent or concomitant. 

The means then used or ordained by these agents for the 
end proposed, is that whole economy or dispensation carried 
along to the end, from whence our Saviour Jesus Christ is 
called a Mediator ; which may and are usually, as I mentioned 
before, distinguished into two parts. First, his oblation ; Se- 
condly, his intercession. By his oblationwe do not design only 
the particular offering of himself upon the cross, an offering 
to his Father, as the Lamb of God without spot or blemish, 
when he bare our sins or carried them up with him in his 
own body on the tree ; which was the sum and complement 
of his oblation, and that wherein it did chiefly consist ; but 
also his whole humiliation, or state of emptying himself, 
whether by yielding voluntary obedience unto the law, as 
being made under it, that he might be the end thereof to 
them that believe; Rom. x. 4. or by his subjection to the 



AS ETERNALLY INTENDED. 255 

curse of the law, in the antecedent misery, and suffering of 
life, as well as by submitting to death, the death of the cross : 
for no action of his as Mediator is to be excluded, from a 
concurrence to make up the whole means in this work. 
Neither by his intercession, do I understand only that hea- 
venly appearance of his in the most holy place for the ap- 
plying unto us all good things purchased and procured by 
his oblation ; but also every act of his exaltation conducing 
thereunto, from his resurrection to his sitting down at the 
right hand of Majesty on high ; 'angels and principalities and 
powers, being made subject unto him.' Of all which his re- 
surrection (being the basis, as it were, and the foundation 
of the rest, * for if he had not risen, then is our faith in vain ;' 
1 Cor. XV. 13, 14. 'and then are we yet in our sin;' ver. 17. 'of 
all men the most miserable;' ver. 18.) is especially to be con- 
sidered, as that to which a great part of the effect is often 
ascribed ; for he died for our sins, and rose for our justifica- 
tion ; Rom. iv. 25. Where, and in such other places, by his 
resurrection the whole following dispensation and the per- 
petual intercession of Christ for us in heaven is intended ; 
for * God raised up his son Jesus to bless us, in turning every 
one of us from our iniquities;' Acts iii. 26. 

Now this whole dispensation, with especial regard to 
the death and bloodshedding of Christ, is the means we 
speak of, agreeable to what was said before, of such in ge- 
neral. For it is not a thing in itself desirable, for its own 
sake, the death of Christ had nothing in it (we speak of his 
suffering distinguished from his obedience) that was good, 
but only as it conduced to a farther end, even the end pro- 
posed for the manifestation of God's glorious grace. What 
good was it, that Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gen- 
tiles, and people of Israel, should with such horrid villany 
and cruelty gather themselves together against God's holy 
child whom he had anointed ? Acts iv. 27. or what good 
was it, that the Son of God should be made sin, and a curse, 
to be bruised, afflicted, and to undergo such wrath as the 
whole frame of nature, as it were, trembled to behold ? what 
good, what beauty and form is in all this, that it should be 
desired in itself, and for itself? doubtless none at all. It 
must then be looked upon, as a means conducing to such an 
end ; the glory and lustre tliereof must quite take away all 



256 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

the darkness and confusion that was about the thino- itself. 
And even so it was intended by the blessed agents in it, by 
'whose determinate counsel and foreknowledoe he was de- 
livered and slain;' Acts xii. 12. 23. there beino; done unto 
him, * whatsoever his hand and counsel had determined ;' 
Acts iv. 34. which what it was, must be afterward declared. 
Now concerning the whole, some things are to be observed. 

That though the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ, 
are distinct acts in themselves, and have distinct immediate 
products and issues, assigned oft-times unto them (which I 
should now have laid down, but that I must take up this in 
another place), yet they are not in any respect or regard to 
be divided or separated, as that the one should have any 
respect to any persons, or any thing, which the other also 
doth not in its kind equally respect : but there is this mani- 
fold union between them. 

First, In that they are both alike intended for the ob- 
taining and accomplishing the same entire and complete 
end proposed ; to wit, the effectual bringing of many sons 
to glory for the praise of God's grace ; of which afterward. 

Secondly, That what persons soever the one respecteth, 
in the good things it obtaineth, the same, all, and none else, 
doth the other respect, in applying the good things so ob- 
tained ; for ' he died for our sins, and rose again for our jus- 
tification;' Rom. iv. 26. That is, in brief, the object of the 
one is of no larger extent than the object of the other; or, 
for whom Christ offered himself, for all those, and only 
those, doth he intercede ; according to his own word, ' for 
this cause I sanctify myself (to be an oblation), 'that they 
also might be sanctified through the truth ;' John xvii. 19. 

Thirdly, That the oblation of Christ is, as it were, the foun- 
dation of his intercession, inasmuch as by the oblation was 
procured every thing, that by virtue of his intercession is 
bestowed; and that because the sole end why Christ pro- 
cured any thing by his death, was, that it might be applied 
to them for whom it was so procured. The sum is, that the 
oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ, are one entire 
means for the producing of the same effect, the very end of 
the oblation being that all those things which are bestowed 
by the intercession of Christ, and without whose application 
it should certainly fail of the end proposed in it, be effected 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 257 

accordingly, so that it cannot be affirmed, that the death or 
offering of Christ, concerned any one person or thing, more 
in respect of procuring any good, than his intercession doth 
for the collating of it, for interceding there for all good pur- 
chased, and prevailing in all his intercessions (for the Fa- 
ther always hears his Son), it is evident that every one for 
whom Christ died must actually have applied unto him, all 
the good things purchased by his death ; which because it 
is evidently destructive to the adverse cause, we must a little 
stay to confirm it, only telling you the main proof of it lies 
in our following proposal of assigning the proper end, in- 
tended and effected by the death of Christ, so that the chief 
proof must be deferred until then. I shall now only propose 
those reasons which may be handled apart, not merely de- 
pending upon that. 



CHAP. VII. 

Containing reasons to prove that the oblation and intercession of Christ 
to be one entire means respecting the accomplishment of the same proposed 
end, and to have the same personal object. 

Our first reason is taken from that perpetual union which 
the Scripture maketh of both these, almost always joining 
them together, and so manifesting those things to be most 
inseparable, which are looked upon as the distinct fruits and 
effects of them: * By his knowledge shall my righteous ser- 
vant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities ;' Isa. liii. 
1 1 . The actual j ustification of sinners, the immediate fruit of 
his intercession, certainly follows his bearing of their iniqui- 
ties. And in the next verse, they are of God so put together 
that surely none ought to presume to put them asunder ; 'he 
bare the sin of many (behold his oblation), and made interces- 
sion for the transgressors ;' even for those many transgres- 
sors whose sin he bears ; and there is one expression in that 
chapter, ver. 5. which makes it evident, that the utmost ap- 
plication of all good things for which he intercedes, is the im- 
mediate effect of hi s passion, ' for by his stripes we are healed :* 
our total healing, is the fruit and procurement of his stripes, 
or the oblation consummated thereby. So also Rom. iv. 25. 
' He was delivered for our offences, and rose again for our jus- 
VOL. v. s 



258 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

tification:' for whose offences he died, for their justification 
he rose : and therefore if he died for all, all must also be 
justified, or the Lord faileth in his aim and design, both in 
the death and resurrection of his Son ; which though some 
have boldly affirmed, yet for mypart I cannot but abhor the 
owning of so blasphemous a fancy. Rather let us close with 
that of the apostle, grounding the assurance of our eternal 
glory, and freedom from all accusations, upon the death of 
Christ ; and that because his intercession also for us doth 
inseparably and necessarily follow it. * Who,' saith he, ' shall 
lay any thing to the charge of God's elect (it seems also 
that it is only they for whom Christ died) ? It is God that jus- 
tifieth ; who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died : 
(shall none then be condemned for whom Christ died ? what 
then becomes of the general ransom ?) yea, rather who is risen 
again, who is even at the right hand of God ; who also mak- 
eth intercession for us;' Rom. viii. 33, 34. Here is an equal 
extent of the one, and the other ; those persons who are con- 
cerned in the one, are all of them concerned in the other ; 
that he died for all, and intercedeth only for some, will 
scarcely be squared to this text, especially considering the 
foundation of all this, which is ver. 32. that love of God, which 
moved him to give up Christ to death for us all ; upon which 
the apostle infers a kind of impossibility in not giving us all 
good things in him ; which how it can be reconciled with 
their opinion, who affirm that he gave his Son for millions, 
to whom he will give neither grace nor glory, I cannot see. 
But we rest in that of the same apostle, ' When we were yet 
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly;. so 
that being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the 
wrath by him ;' Rom. v. 6. 9. The same between the oblation 
and intercession of Christ, with their fruits and effects, being 
intimated in very many other places. 

To offer and to intercede, to sacrifice and to pray, are 
both acts of the same sacerdotal office, and both required in 
him who is a priest, so that if he omit either of these, he 
cannot be a faithful priest for them ; if either he doth not 
offer for them, or not intercede for the access of his oblation 
on their behalf, he is wanting in the discharge of his office 
by him undertaken. Both these we find conjoined (as before) 
in Jesus Christ. 1 John ii. 1, 2. ' If any man sin we have an 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 259 

advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he 
is a propitiation for our sins :' he must be an advocate to in- 
tercede, as well as offer a propitiatory sacrifice, if he v.'ill be 
such a merciful high priest over the house of God, as that 
the children should be encouraged to go to God by him. 
This the apostle exceedingly clears, and evidently proves, 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews, describing the priesthood of 
Christ, in the execution thereof, to consist in these two acts 
of offering up himself in, and by the shedding of his blood, 
and interceding for us to the utmost ; upon the performance 
of both which, he presseth an exhortation to draw near with 
confidence to the throne of grace, ' for he is come a high 
priest of good things to come, not by the blood of goats and 
calves, but by his own blood he entered into the holy place, 
having obtained for us eternal redemption ;' chap. ix. 11, 12. 
His bloody oblation, gave him entrance into the holy place 
not made with hands, there to accomplish the remaining part 
of his office : the apostle comparing his entrance into heaven 
for us, with the entrance of the high priest into the holy place, 
with the blood of bulls and goats upon him ; ver. 12, 13. 
(which doubtless was to pray for them in whose behalf he had 
offered ; ver. 1.) so presenting himself before his Father that 
his former oblation might have its efficacy : and hence he 
is said to have O7rajoaj3arov hp(i)(Tvvi)v, because he continueth 
forever; Heb. vii. 24. So being" able to save to the uttermost 
them that come unto God by him; wherefore we have bold- 
ness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus ;' chap. x. 
19 — 22. So then it is evident that both these are acts of the 
same priestly office in Christ ; and if he perform either of 
them for any, he must of necessity perform the other for 
them also : for he will not exercise any act or duty of his 
priestly function in their behalf, for whom he is not a priest. 
And for whom he is a priest, he must perform both, seeing 
he is faithful in the discharge of his function to the utmost, 
in the behalf of the sinners for whom he undertakes. These 
two then, oblation and intercession, must in respect of their 
objectsbe of equal extent, and can by no means be separated. 
And here, by the way (the thing being by this argument 
in my apprehension made so clear), I cannot but demand of 
those who oppose us about the death of Christ, whether they 
will sustain that he intercedeth for all or no ; if not, then 

s 2 



260 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST , 

they make him but half a priest ; if they will, they must be 
necessitated either to defend this error, that all shall be saved ; 
or own this blasphemy, that Christ is not heard of his Father, 
nor can prevail in his intercession ; which yet the saints on 
earth are sure to do, when they make their supplications ac- 
cording to the will of God; Rom. viii. 27. Besides that of our 
Saviour, it is expressly said that the Father always heareth him ; 
John xi. 42. and if that were true, when he was yet in the way, 
in the days of his flesh, and had not finished the great work 
he was sent about, how much more then now, when having 
done the will, and finished the work, of God, he is set down 
on therighthand of Majesty on high, desiring and requesting 
the accomplishing of the promises that were made unto him 
upon his undertaking this work : of which before. 

The nature of the intercession of Christ, will also prove 
no less than what we assert, requiring an inseparable con- 
junction between it and its oblation ; for as it is now per- 
fected in heaven, it is not a humble dejection of himself, 
with cries, tears, and supplications ; nay, it cannot be con- 
ceived to be vocal, by the way of entreaty, but merely real, 
by the presentation of himself sprinkled with the blood of 
the covenant, before the throne of grace in our behalf. 'For 
Christ,' saith the apostle, * is not entered into the holy place 
made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the 
presence of God for us;' Heb. ix. 24. His intercession there 
is an appearing for us in heaven in the presence of God, a 
demonstration of his sacred body, wherein for us he suffered. 
For (as we said before) the apostle in the ninth to the Hebrews 
compares his entrance into heaven for us, unto the entrance 
of the high priest into the holy place, which was with the 
blood of bulls and goats upon him ; ver. 12, 13. Our Sa- 
viour's being with his own blood so presenting himself, that 
his former oblation might have its perpetual efficacy, until 
the many sons given unto him are brought to glory. And 
herein his intercession consisteth, being nothing (as it were) 
but his oblation continued. He was a Lamb ' slain from 
the foundation of the world;' Rev. xiii. 3. Now his interces- 
sion before his actual oblation in the fulness of times, being 
nothing but a presenting of the engagement that was upon 
him for the work in due time to be accomplished, certainly 
that which follows it, is nothing but a presenting of what ac- 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 261 

cording to that engagement is fulfilled, so that it is nothing 
but a continuation of his oblation, in postulating by remem- 
brance and declaration of it, those things which by it were 
procured. How then is it possible, that the one of these 
should be of larger compass and extent than the other? Can 
he be said to offer for them for whom he doth not intercede, 
when his intercession is nothing but a presenting of his obla- 
tion in the behalf of them for whom he suffered, and for 
the bestowing of those good things which by that were pur- 
chased. 

Again, If the oblation and death of Christ, procured and 
obtained that every good thing should be bestowed, which 
is actually conferred by the intervening of his intercession, 
then they have both of them the same aim, and are both 
means tending to one and the same end. Now for the proof 
of this supposal, we must remember that which we delivered 
before, concerning the compact and agreement, that was be- 
tween the Father and the Son, upon his voluntary engaging 
of himself unto this great work of redemption ; for upon that 
engagement the Lord proposed unto him as the end of his 
sufferings, and promised unto him as the reward of his la- 
bours, the fruit of his deservings,every thing which he after- 
ward intercedeth for. Many particulars I before instanced 
in, and therefore now to avoid repetition will wholly omit 
them, referring the reader to chap. iii. for satisfaction : only 
I shall demand, what is the ground and foundation of our 
Saviour's intercession, understanding it to be by the way of 
entreaty, either virtual or formal, as it may be conceived to 
be either real or oral, for the obtaining of any thing, must 
it not rest upon some promise made unto him? or is there 
-any good bestowed that is not promised ? Is it not apparent 
that the intercession of Christ doth rest on such a pro- 
mise, as Psal. ii. 8. 'Ask of me, and I will grant thee the 
Heathen to be thine inheritance,' &c. ? Now upon what con- 
sideration was this promise and engagement made unto our 
Saviour? Was it not for his undergoing of that, about which 
' the Kings set themselves, and the rulers took counsel to- 
gether against him ;' ver. 3. which the apostles interpret of 
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the people of the Jews, pro-, 
secuting him to death, and doing to him whatsoever the 
hand and counsel of God had before determined should be 



262 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

done; Acts iv. 27,28. The intercession of Christ then, being 
founded on promises made unto him, and these promises be- 
ing nothing but an engagement to bestow, and actually col- 
late upon them for whom he suffered, all those good things 
which his death and oblation did merit and purchase, it can- 
not be but that he intercedeth for all for whom he died, that 
his death procured all and every thing, which upon his in- 
tercession is bestowed, and until they are bestowed, it hath 
not its full fruits and effects ; for that which some say, viz. 
that the death of Christ doth procure that which is never 
sranted, we shall see afterward whether it do not contradict 
Scripture, yea, and common sense. 

Farther, What Christ hath put together let no man pre- 
sume to put asunder; distinguish between them they may, 
but separate them they may not. Now these things con- 
cerning which we treat (the oblation and intercession of 
Christ) are by himself conjoined, yea united John xvii. for 
there and then he did both offer and intercede ; he did then 
as perfectly offer himself in respect of his own will and in- 
tention, ver. 9. as on the cross ; and as perfectly intercede 
as now in heaven, who then can divide these things, or put 
them asunder? especially considering that the Scripture 
affirmeth that the one of them without the other would have 
been unprofitable; 1 Cor. xv. 17. For complete remission and 
redemption could not be obtained for us, without the en- 
tering of our high priest into the most holy place ; Heb. 
ix. 12. 

Lastly, A separation and dividing of the death and inter- 
cession of Christ, in respect to the objects of them, cut off 
all that consolation which any soul might hope to attain by 
an assurance that Christ died for him ; that the doctrine of 
the general ransom is an uncomfortable doctrine, cutting all 
the nerves and sinews of that strong consolation which God 
is so abundantly willing that we should receive, shall be af- 
terward declared : for the present I will only shew, how it 
tendeth upon our comfort in this particular ; the main foun- 
dation of all the confidence and assurance, whereof in this 
life we may be made partakers (which amounts to joy un- 
speakable, and full of glory), ariseth from this strict connex- 
ion of the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ; that by 
the one he hath procured all good things for us, and by the 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 2G3 

other lie will procure them to be actually bestowed ; where 
by he doth never leave our sins but follows them into every 
court, until they be fully pardoned and clearly expiated ; Heb. 
ix. 26. He will never leave us until he hath saved to the ut 
termost them that come unto God by him ; his death with 
out his resurrection would have profited us nothing, all our 
faith in him had been in vain ; 1 Cor. xv. So that separated 
from it, with the intercession following, either in his own in- 
tention or in the several procurements of the one or the other 
it will yield us but little consolation; but in this connexion it 
is a sure bottom for a soul to build upon ; Heb. vii. 25. What 
good will it do me to be persuaded that Christ died for my 
sins, if notwithstanding that my sins may appear against me 
for my condemnation, where and when Christ will not 
appear for my justification? If you will ask with the apostle, 
* Who ishethatcondemneth? It is Christ that died ;' Rom. yiii. 
34. It may easily be answered ; Why, God by his law may 
condemn me, notwithstanding Christ died for me ! Yea, but 
saith the apostle, ' He is risen again, and sitteth at the right 
hand of God, making intercession for us;' he rests not in his 
death, but he will certainly make intercession for them for 
whom he died, and this alone gives firm consolation ; our sins 
dare not appear, nor any of our accusers against us, where he 
appeareth for us. Cavilling objections against this text shall 
be afterward considered, and so I hope I have sufficiently 
confirmed and proved, what in the beginning of thi-s chapter 
I did propose, about the identity of the object of the obla- 
tion and intercession of Jesus Christ. 



264 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 



CHAP. VIII. 

Objections against the former proposal answered. 

By what was said in the last chapter, it clearly appeareth, 
that the oblation and intercession of Christ are of equal com- 
pass and extent, in respect of their objects, or the persons for 
whom he once offered himself, and doth continually intercede, 
and so are to be looked on, as one joint means for the attain- 
ing of a certain proposed end: which, what it is comes next 
to be considered ; but because I find some objections laid by 
some against the former truth, I must remove them before I 
proceed, which I shall do as a man removeth dung until it 
be all gone. 

The sum of one of our former arguments was, that to sa- 
crifice and intercede belong both to the same person as high 
priest, which name none can answer, neither hath any per- 
formed that office, until both by him be accomplished. 
Wherefore, our Saviour being the most absolute, and indeed 
only true high priest, in whom were really all those perfec- 
tions which in others received a weak typical representation, 
doth perform both these in the behalf of them for whose 
sakes he was such. 

An argument not unlike to this I find by some to be un- 
dertaken to be answered, being in these words proposed, 
* The ransom and mediation of Christ is no larger than his 
office of priest, prophet, and king; but those offices pertain 
to his church and chosen, therefore his ransom pertains to 
them only.' 

The intention and meaning of the argument is the same 
with what we proposed, viz. that Christ offered not for them 
for whom he is no priest, and he is a priest only for them, 
for whom he doth also intercede. If afterward I shall have 
occasion to make use of this argument, I shall by the Lord's 
assistance give more weight and strength to it, than it seems 
to have in their proposal, whose interest it is, to present it as 
slightly as possible, that they may seem fairly to have waved 
it; but the evasion, such as it is, let us look upon. 

'This,' saith the answerer, 'is a sober objection ;' which 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 265 

friendly term I imagined at first, he had given this reason, 
because he found it kind and easy to be satisfied : but reading 
the answer, and finding that so wide from yielding any co- 
lour or appearance of what was pretended, that it only served 
him to vent some new, weak, false conceptions, I imagined 
that it must be some other kindness that caused him to give 
this objection, as he calls it, so much milder an entertain- 
ment than those others, which equally gall him; which hear 
nothing, but this is horrid, that blasphemy, that detestable 
abominable and false, as being indeed by those of his per- 
suasion, neither to be endured nor avoided: and at leno-th I 
conceived that the reason of it was intimated in the first 
words of his pretended answer which are, that ' this objection 
doth not deny the death of Christ for all men, but only his 
ransom and mediation for all men.' Now truly if it be so, I 
am not of his judgment, but so far from thinking it a sober 
objection, that I cannot be persuaded that any man in his 
right wits would once propose it; that Christ should die for 
all, and yet not be a ransom for all; himself affirmino-, that 
he came to 'give his life a ransom for many;' Matt. xx. 28. 
is to me a plain contradiction. The death of Christ, in the 
first most general notion and apprehension thereof, is a ran- 
som. Nay, do not this answer, and those who are of the same 
persuasion with him, make the ransom of as laro-e extent as 
any thing in, or about, or following, the death of Christ ? or 
have they yet some farther distinction to make, or rather di- 
vision about the ends of the death of Christ ? as we have had 
already; for such he not only paid a ransom, but also inter- 
cedeth for them, which he doth not for all for whom he paid 
a ransom. Will they now go a step backward and say, that 
for some he not only died, but also paid a ransom for them, 
which he did not for all for whom he died ? Who then were 
these that he thus died for? They must be some beyond all 
and every man, for as they contend, for them he paid a ran- 
som ; but let us see what he says farther, — in so easy a cause 
as this, it is a shame to take advantages. 

' The answer to this objection,' saith he, ' is easy and plain 
in the Scripture, for the mediation of Christ, is both more 
general, and more special ; more general as he is the one Me- 
diator between God and man ; 1 Tim. ii. 5. and more special 
as he is the Mediator of the New Testament, that they which 



266 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance; 
Heb. ix, 14. According'to that it is said he is the Saviour of 
all men, especially of those that believe ; 1 Tim. iv. 10. So 
in all the offices of Christ, the priest, the prophet, the king, 
there is that which is more general, and that v.'hich is more 
special and peculiar.' 

And this is that which he calls a clear and plain answer 
from the Scripture, leaving the application of it, unto the ar- 
gument, to other men's conjecture, which as far as I can con- 
ceive must be thus : It is true Christ paid a ransom for none 
but those for whom he is a mediator and priest ; but Christ 
is to be considered two ways : First, As a general mediator 
and priest for all. Secondly, As a special mediator and priest 
for some. Now he pays the ransom as a general mediator. 
This I conceive may be some part of his meaning, for in it- 
self, the whole is in expression so barbarous, and remote from 
common sense, in substance such a wild unchristian mad- 
ness, as contempt would far better suit it, than a reply. The 
truth is, for sense and expression, in men who from their 
manual trades leap into the office of preaching, and employ- 
ment of writing, I know no reason why we should expect. 
Only it can never enough be lamented that wildness, in such 
tattered rags should find entertainment, whilst sober truth is 
shut out of doors; for what I pray you is the meaning of this 
distinction, Christ is either a general mediator between God 
and man, or a special mediator of the New Testament? was it 
ever heard before, that Christ was any way a mediator but as 
he is so of the New Testament ? A mediator is not of one, all 
mediation respects an agreement of several parties, and every 
mediator, is the mediator of a covenant ; now if Christ be a 
mediator more generally, than as he is so of the new cove- 
nant, of what covenant I beseech you was that? Of the co- 
venant of works? Would not such an assertion overthrow the 
whole gospel? would it not be derogatory to the honour of 
Jesus Christ, that he should be the mediator of a cancelled 
covenant? Is it not contrary to Scripture affirming him a 
surety (not of the first, but) of a better Testament? Heb. vii. 
22. Are not such bold assertors fitter to be catechised than to 
preach ? But we must not let it pass thus, the man harps upon 
something that he hath heard from some Arminian doctor, 
though he hath had the ill-hap, so poorly to make out his 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 267 

conceptions ? Wherefore, being in some measure acquainted 
with their occasions, which they colour with those texts of 
Scripture which are here produced, I shall briefly remove 
the poor shift, that so our former argument, may stand un- 
shaken. 

The poverty of the answer as before expressed, hath been 
sufficiently already declared : the fruits of Christ's mediation 
have been distinguished by some, into those that are more 
general, and those which are more peculiar, which in some 
sense may be tolerable ; but that the offices of Christ should 
be said to be either general or peculiar, and himself in rela- 
tion to them so considered, is a gross unshapen fancy. I 
answer then to the thing intended, that we deny any such 
general mediation, or function of office in general in Christ, 
as should extend itself beyond his church or chosen. It was 
his church which he ' redeemed with his own blood ;' Acts 
XX. 28. his church that ' he loved and gave himself for it, that 
he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water and 
the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious 
church ;' Eph. v. 25 — 27. they were his sheep he laid down 
his life for ; John x. and ' appeareth in heaven for us ;' Heb. 
ix. 26. Not one word of mediating for any other in the Scrip- 
ture. Look upon his incarnation ; it was 'because the children 
were partakers of flesh and blood;' Heb. ii. 14. not because 
all the world were so. Look upon his oblation : ' for their sakes' 
(saith he, 'those whom thou hast given iBe')* do I sanctify my- 
self;' John xvii. 19. that is, to be an oblation, which was the 
work he had then in hand. Look upon his resurrection; 'he 
died for our sins, and rose for our justification;' Rom. iv. 26. 
Look upon his ascension ; ' I go,' saith he, ' to my Father and 
your Father, and that to prepare a place for you ;' John xiv. 
Look upon his perpetuated intercession ; is it not to 'save to the 
uttermost them that come unto God by him?' Heb. vii. 25. 
Not one word of this general mediation for all. Nay, if you 
will hear himself, he denies in pi in terms to mediate for all ; 
*For I pray not,' saith he, 'for the world, but for those whom 
thou hast given me ;' John xvii. 9. 

But let us see what is brought to confirm this distinction; 
1 Tim. ii. 5. is quoted for the maintenance thereof. ' For 
there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, 
the man Christ Jesus ;' What then I pray? What will be con- 



268 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

eluded hence? Cannot Christ be a Mediator between God 
and man, but he must be a Mediator for all men ? are not the 
elect, men? do not the children partake of flesh and blood? 
doth not his church consist of men? What reason is there to 
assert out of an indefinite proposition a universal conclu- 
sion ? Because Christ was a Mediator for men (which were 
true had he been so only for his apostles), shall we conclude 
therefore he was so for all men ? , Apage nugas,' but let us see 
another proof which haply may give more strength to the 
uncouth distinction we oppose, and that is 1 Tim. iv. 10. 
• Who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that be- 
lieve;' had it been, who is the Mediator of all men especially 
of them that believe, it had been more likely : but the con- 
sciences, or at least the foreheads of these men ; is there any 
word here spoken of Christ as Mediator? Is it not the living 
God in whom we trust that is the Saviour here mentioned; 
as the words going before in the same verse are? and is 
Christ called so in respect of his mediation? That God the 
Father is often called Saviour I shewed before, and that he 
is here intended, as is agreed upon by all sound interpreters, 
so also it is clear from the matter in hand, which is the pro- 
tecting providence of God, general towards all, special and 
peculiar towards his church ; thus he is said to ' save man and 
beast,' Psal, xxxvi. 6. avS'pwTrouc Kcix ktt/vjj auxreig Kvpie ren- 
dering the Hebrew yti^in by (ruxreig, ' Thou shall save or pre- 
serve.' It is God then that is here called the Saviour of all, 
by deliverance and protection in danger, of which the apo- 
stle treats, and that by his providence, which is peculiar to- 
wards believers ; and what this makes for a universal media- 
tion I know not. 

Now the very context in this place will not admit of any 
other interpretation, for the words render a reason why, not- 
withstanding all the injury and reproaches wherewith the 
people of God are continually assaulted, yet, they should 
cheerfully go forward to run with joy the race that is set be- 
fore them, even because as God preserveth all, for in him 
we live and move and have our being ; Acts xvii. Psal. cxlv. 
14 — 16. so that he will not sufler any to be injured and un- 
revenged ; Gen. ix. 5. So is he especially the preserver of 
them that do believe, for they are as the apple of his eye ; 
Zech.ii. 8. Deut. xxxii. 10. So that if he should suffer them 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 269 

to be pressed for a season, yet let them not let go their hope 
and confidence, nor be weary of well doing, but still rest on 
and trust in him. This encouragement being that which the 
apostle was to lay down, what motive would it be hereunto, 
to tell believers that God would have those saved, who nei- 
ther do, nor ever will, or shall believe? That I say nothino- 
how strange it seems that Christ should be the Saviour of 
them who are never saved, to whom he never gives grace to 
believe, for whom he denies to intercede; John xvii, 9. which 
yet is no small part of his mediation whereby he saves sin- 
ners. Neither the subject then, nor the predicate proposition 
(he is the Saviour of all men) is rightly apprehended, by 
them who would wrest it to the maintenance of universal re- 
demption. For the subject He, it is God the Father, and not 
Christ the Mediator; and for the predicate, it is a providential 
preservation, and not a purchased salvation that is intimated ; 
that is the providence of God, protecting and governing all, 
but watching in an especial manner for the good of them that 
are his, that they be not always unjustly and cruelly traduced 
and reviled, with other pressures that the apostle here rests 
upon : as also he shews that it was his course to do, 2 Cor. 
i. 9, 10. * But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that 
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God thatraiseth the 
dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth de- 
liver us, and whom we trust, that he will yet deliver us ; for 
he is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that do be- 
lieve.' If any shall conceive that these words (' because we 
hope in the living God who is,' 8cc.) do not render an ac- 
count of the ground of Paul's confidence, in going through 
with his labours and afflictions, but rather are an expression 
of the head and sum of that doctrine, for which he was so 
turmoiled and afflicted, I will not much oppose it, for then 
also it includes nothing but an assertion of the true God 
and dependance on him, in opposition to all the idols of the 
Gentiles, and other vain conceits whereby they exalted them- 
selves into the throne of the Most High. But that Christ 
should be said to be a Saviour of, 1. Those who are never 
saved from their sins, as he saves his people; Matt. i. 21. 2. 
Of those who never hear one word of saving or a Saviour. 3. 
That he should be a Saviour in a twofold sense. (1.) For all, 
(2.) For believers. 4. That to believe is the condition whereby 



270 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

Christ becomes a Saviour in an especial manner unto any, 
and that condition not procured nor purchased by him; that 
this I say,is the sense of this place 'credatJudoeus Apella;' to 
me nothing is more certain, than that to whom Christ is in 
any sense a Saviour in the work of redemption, he saves them 
to the uttermost, from all their sins of infidelity and disobe- 
dience, with the saving of grace here, and glory hereafter. 

Farther attempts also there are to give strength to this 
evasion, and so to invalidate our former argument, which I 
must also remove. 

* Christ,' say they, ' in some sort intercedeth and putteth in 
for transgressors, even the sons of men, yet in and of the world, 
that the Spirit may so still unite and bless those that believe 
on him, and so go forth in their confessions and conversa- 
tions, and in the ministration of his gospel by his servants, 
that those among whom they dwell and converse might be 
convinced and brought to believe the report of the gospel^ 
Isa, liii. 12. as once ; Luke xxiii. 24. as himself left a 
pattern to us; John xvii. 21. 23. that so the men of the 
world might be convinced, and the convincers allured to 
Christ and to God in him; Matt. v. 14 — 16. yea, so as that 
he doth in some measure enlighten every man that cometh 
into the world ; John i. 9. But in a more special manner 
doth he intercede, &c.' 

Here is a twofold intercession of Christ as Mediator : 
1 . For all sinners, that they may believe (for that is it which 
is intended by the many cloudy expressions wherein it is in- 
volved) : 2. For believers that they ma^ ^e saved, it is the 
first member of the distinction which we oppose, and there- 
fore must insist a little upon it. 

First, Our author saith. It is an interceding in some sort. 
I ask in what sort? Is it directly or indirectly? Is it by virtue 
of his blood shed for them, or otherwise? Is it with an inten- 
tion and desire to obtain for them the good things interceded 
for, or with purpose that they shall go without them ? Is it 
for all and every man, or only for those who live in the out- 
ward pale of the church? Is faith the thing required for them, 
or something else? Is that desired absolutely, or upon some 
condition? All which queries must be clearly answered, be- 
fore this general intercession can be made intelligible. 

First, Whether it be directly or indirectly, and by conse- 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 271 

quence only, that this intercession after a sort is used ; for 
that thing interceded for is represented, not as the immediate 
issue or aim of the prayer of Christ, but as a reflex arising 
from a blessing obtained by others: for the prayer set down, 
is that God would so bless believers, that those amongst 
whom they dwell, may believe the report of the gospel. It is 
believers that are the direct object of this intercession, and 
others only glanced at through them : the good also so de- 
sired for them is considered, either as an accident that 
may come to pass, or follow the flourishing of believers, Kara 
<tuju/3ijj3(k:oc, or as an end intended to be accomplished by it. 
If the first, then their good is no more intended than their 
evil. If the latter why is it not effected? why is not the in- 
tention of our Saviour accomplished ? Is it for want of wis- 
dom to choose suitable and proportionable means to the end 
proposed, or is it for want of power to effect what he in- 
tend eth ? 

Secondly, Is it by virtue of his blood shed for them, or 
otherwise ? If it be, then Christ intercedeth for them, that they 
may enjoy those things which for them by his oblation he did 
procure : for this it is to make his death and bloodshedding 
to be the foundation of his intercession ; then it follows that 
Christ by his death procured faith for all, because he inter- 
cedeth that all may believe, grounding that intercession upon 
the merit of his death. But, first, This is more than the as- 
sertors of universal redemption will sustain ; among all the 
ends of the death of Christ by them assigned, the effectual 
and infallible bestowing of faith on those for whom he died, 
is none. Secondly, If by his death he hath purchased it for 
all, and by intercession entreateth for it, why is it not ac- 
tually bestowed on them? Is not a concurrence of both these 
sufficient for the making out of that one spiritual bless- 
ing? But, secondly. If it be not founded on his death and 
bloodshedding, then we desire that they would describe unto 
us this intercession of Christ, differing from his appearing 
for us in heaven sprinkled with his own blood. 

Thirdly, Doth he intercede for them that they should be- 
lieve, with an intention or desire that they should be so, or 
no? If not, it is but a mock intercession, and an entreaty for 
that which he would not have granted. If so, why is it not 
accomplished ? why do not all believe ? Yea, if he died for 



272 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

all, and prayed for all, that they might believe, why are not 
all saved? for Christ is always heard of his Father; John 
xi. 42. 

Fourthly, Is it for all and every one in the world, that 
Christ makes this intercession, or only for those who live 
within the pale of the church ? If only for those latter, then 
this doth not prove a general intercession for all, but only 
one more large than that for believers ; for if he leaves out 
any one in the world, the present hypothesis falls to the 
ground. If for all, how can it consist in that petition, that the 
Spirit would so lead, guide, and bless believers ? and so go forth 
in the ministration of the gospel by his servants, that others 
(that is, all and every one in the world) may be convinced 
and brought to believe ? How, I say, can this be spoken with 
any reference to those millions of souls that never see a be- 
liever, that hear no report of the gospel ? 

Fifthly, If his intercession be for faith, then either Christ 
intercedeth for it absolutely, that they may certainly have it, 
or upon condition; and that, either on the part of God or 
man. If absolutely, then all do actually believe ; or that is not 
true, the Father always hears him; John xii. 42. If upon 
condition on the part of God, it can be nothing but this, if 
he will or please, now the adding of this condition may de- 
note in our Saviour two things. 1. A nescience of what is 
his Father's will in the thing interceded for : which, first, 
cannot stand with the unity of his person as now in glory; 
and, secondly, cannot be, because he hath the assurance of 
a promise to be heard in whatever he asketh; Psal. ii. 8. 
Or, secondly, an advancement of his Father's will, by sub- 
mission to that, as the prime cause of the good to be bestow- 
ed, which may well stand with absolute intercession, by virtue 
whereof all must believe. Secondly, Is it a condition on the 
part of those for whom he doth intercede ? Now I beseech 
you what condition is that ; where in the Scripture assigned ; 
where is it said that Christ doth intercede for men that they 
may have faith, if they do such and such things ? Nay, what 
condition can rationally be assigned of this desire ? * Some 
often intimate that it is, if they suffer the Spirit to have its work 
upon their hearts, and obey the grace of God.' Now what is 
it to obey the grace of God ? Is it not to believe ? Therefore it 
seems that Christ intercedeth for them that they may believe. 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 273 

upon condition that they do believe. Othersmore cautiously 
assert the good using of the means of grace, that they do en- 
joy, to be the condition upon which the benefit of this inter- 
cession doth depend. But again, first, What is the good using 
of the means of grace, but submitting to them, that is believ- 
ing, and so we are as before. 2. All have not the means of 
grace to use well or ill. 3. Christ prays that they may use 
the means of grace well, or he doth not. If not, then how can 
he pray that they may believe, seeing to use well the means 
of grace, by yielding obedience unto them, is indeed to be- 
lieve? If he do, then he doth it absolutely or upon condition, 
and so the argument is renewed again as in the entrance. 
Many more reasons might be easily produced to shew the 
madness of this assertion, but those may suffice. Only we 
must look upon the proof and confirmations of it. 

First, Then, the words of the prophet, Isa. liii. 12. * He 
made intercession for the transgressors,' are insisted on. Aiis. 
The transgressors here, for whom our Saviour is said to make 
intercession, are either all the transgressors for whom he 
suflTered, as is most likely, from the description we have of 
them ; ver. 6. Or the transgressors only by whom he suf- 
fered, that acted in his sufferings, as some suppose? If the 
first, then this place proves that Christ intercedes for all 
those for whom he suffered, which differs not from that which 
we contend for. If the latter, then we may consider it as ac- 
complished; how he then did it, so it is here foretold that 
he should, which is the next place urged, viz. Luke xxiii. 34. 
* Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, they know not what 
they do.' 

Ans. The conclusion which from these words is inferred 
being,* therefore there is a general intercession for all that they 
may believe,' I might well leave the whole argument to the 
silent judgment of men, without any farther opening and dis- 
covery of the invalidity and weakness ; but because the ablest 
of that side, have usually insisted much on this place, for a 
general successless intercession, I will a little consider the 
inference in its dependance on these words of the gospel, and 
search whether it have any appearance of strength in us. To 
which end we must observe. 

Secondly, That this prayer is not for all men, but only foi- 
that handful of the Jews by whom he was crucified; now 
VOL. v. T 



274 THE END OF THE DEviTH OF CHRIST, 

from a prayer for them, to infer a prayer for all and every 
man, that ever were, are, or shall be, is a wild deduction. 

It doth not appear that he prayed for all his crucifiers 
neither, but only for those who did it out of ignorance, as 
appears by the reason annexed to his supplication, 'for they 
know not what they do.' And though. Acts iii. 17. it is said 
that the rulers also did it ignorantly, yet that all of them did 
so is not apparent, that some did is certain from that place, 
and so it is that some of them were converted as afterward ; 
indefinite propositions must not in such things be made uni- 
versally. Now doth it follow, that because Christ prayed for 
the pardon of their sins, who crucified him out of ignorance, 
as some of them did, that therefore he intercedeth for all that 
they may believe ; crucifiers who never once heard of his 
crucifying .' 

Thirdly, Christ in those words doth not so much as pray 
for those men that they might believe, but only that that sin 
of them in crucifying of him might be forgiven, not laid to 
their charge: hence to conclude, therefore, he intercedeth for 
all men that they may believe, even because he prayed that 
the sin of crucifying himself might be forgiven them that 
did it, is a strange inference. 

Fourthly, There is another evident limitation in the busi- 
ness ; for among his crucifiers he prays only for them that 
were present at his death, amongst whom, doubtless, many 
came more out of curiosity to see and observe, as is usual in 
such cases, than out of malice and despite ; so that whereas 
some urge that notwithstanding this prayer, yet the chief of 
the priests continued in their unbelief, it is not to the pur- 
pose, for it cannot be proved that they were present at his 
crucifying. 

Fifthly, It cannot be aflPirmed with any probability, that 
our Saviour should pray for all and every one of them, sup- 
posing some of them to be finally impenitent : for he himself 
knew full well what was in man; John ii. 28. yea, he knew 
from the beginning who they were that believed not ; John 
vi. 64. Now it is contrary to the rule which we have, 1 John 
V. 16. * there is a sin unto death,' &c. to pray for them whom 
we know to be finally impenitent, and to sin unto death. 

Sixthly, It seems to me that this supplication was effec- 
tual and successful, that the Son was heard in this request 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 275 

also ; faith and forgiveness being granted to them for whom 
he prayed; so that this makes nothing for a general ineffec- 
tual intercession, it being both special and effectual. For, 
Acts iii. of them whom Peter tells, ' that they denied the 
Holy One and desired a murderer ;' ver. 14. ' and killed the 
Prince of life;' ver. 15. Of these, I say, five thousand be- 
lieved ; Acts iv. 4. ' Many of them which heard the word be- 
lieved, and the number of them was about five thousand.' 
And if any other were among them, whom our Saviour prayed 
for, they might be converted afterward. Neither were the 
rulers, without the compass of the fruits of this prayer, for a 
great company of the priests were obedient to the faith; Acts 
vi. 7. So that nothing can possibly be hence inferred for 
the purpose intended. 

We may, nay we must, grant a twofold praying In our 
Saviour; one, by a virtue of his office as he was Mediator; the 
other, in answer of his duty, as he was subject to the law; 
but yet those thino^s which he did in obedience to the law as 
a private person, were not acts of mediation; nor works of 
him as Mediator, though of him who was Mediator. Now as 
he was subject to the law, our Saviour was bound to forgive 
offences and wrongs done unto him, and to pray for his ene- 
mies, as also he had taught us to do, whereof in this he 
gave us an example ; Matt. v. 44. ' 1 say unto you love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and per- 
secute you;' which doubtless he inferreth from that law. Lev. 
xix. 18. 'Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against 
the children of thy people, but shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself;' quite contrary to the wicked gloss put upon it by 
the Pharisees : and in this sense, our Saviour here, as a pri- 
vate person, to whom revenge was forbidden, pardon enjoin- 
ed, prayer commanded, prays for bis very enemies and cruci- 
fiers; which doth not at all concern his interceding for us as 
Mediator, wherein he was always heard, and so is nothing 
to the purpose in hand. 

Again, John xvii. 21. 23. is urged to confirm this general 
intercession, which we have exploded. Our Saviour praying 
that by the unity, concord, and flourishing of his servants, 
the world might believe and know, that God had sent him. 

T 2 



276 THE END or THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

From which words though some make a seeming flourish, yet 
the thing pretended is no way confirmed. For, 

First, If Christ really intended and desired that the whole 
world, or all men in the world, should believe, he would also 
no doubt have prayed for more effectual means of grace to 
be granted unto them, than only a beholding of the blessed 
condition of his (which yet is granted to a small part of the 
world), at least the preaching of the word to them all, that 
by it, as the only ordinary way, they might come to the 
knowledge of him. But this we do not find that ever he 
prayed for, or that God hath granted it ; nay, he blessed his 
Father that so it was not, because so it seemed good in his 
sight; Matt. xi. 25, 26. 

Secondly, Such a gloss or interpretation must not be put 
upon the place, as should run cross to the express words of 
our Saviour, ver. 9. ' I pray not for the world ;' for if he here 
prayed, that the world should have true, holy, saving faith, 
he prayed for as great a blessing and privilege for the 
world as any he procured, or interceded for, for his own. 
Wherefore, 

Thirdly, Say some, the world is here taken for the world 
of the elect, the world to be saved, God's people throughout 
the world. Certain it is that the world, is not here taken 
properly, pro mundo continente, for the world containing, but 
figuratively, pro mundo continento, for the world contained, 
or men in the world ; neither can it be made appear that it 
must be taken universally for all the men in the world, as 
seldom it is in the Scripture, which afterward we shall 
make appear ; but may be understood indefinitely, for men 
in the world, few or more, as the elect are in their several 
generations. But this exposition, though it hath great au- 
thors, I cannot absolutely adhere unto, because through this 
whole chapter, the world is taken, either for the world of 
reprobates, opposed to them that are given to Christ by his 
Father, or for the world of unbelievers (the same men under 
another notion), opposed to them who are committed to his 
Father by Christ. Wherefore, I answer. 

Fourthly, That by believing, ver. 21. and knowing, ver. 
23. is not meant believing in a strict sense, for a saving com- 
prehension and receiving of Jesus Christ, and so becoming 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHEP. 277 

the sons of God ; which neither ever was, nor ever will be, 
fulfilled in every man in the world, nor was ever prayed for ; 
but a conviction and acknowledgment, that the Lord Christ 
is not, what before they had taken him to be, a seducer and 
a false prophet, but indeed what he said, one that came out 
from God, able to protect and do good for, and to, h s own; 
which kind of conviction and acknowledgment that it is often 
termed believing in the Scripture, is more evident than that 
it should need to be proved, and that this is here meant the 
evidence of the thing is such, as that it is consented unto 
by expositors of all sorts. Now this is not for any good of 
the world, but for the vindication of his people and the ex- 
altation of his own glory, and so proves not all the thing in 
question. But of this word world afterward. 

The following place of Matt. v. 15, 16. (containing some 
instructions given by our Saviour to his apostles, so to im- 
prove the knowledge and light which of him they had, and 
were farther to receive, in the preaching of the word, and 
holiness of life, that they might be a means to draw men to 
glorify God) is certainly brought in to make up a show of 
a number, as very many other places are ; the author not 
once considering, what is to be proved by them, nor to 
what end they are used ; and therefore, without farther in- 
quiry may well be laid aside, as not at all belonging to the 
business in hand, nor to be dragged within many leagues of 
the conclusion, by all the strength and skill of Mr. More. 

Neither is that other place of John i. 9. any thing more 
advisedly or seasonably urged, though wretchedly glossed, 
and rendered, *In some measure enlightening every one that 
comes into the world.' The Scripture says that Christ is the 
true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the 
world, * in some measure,' says Mr. More. Now I beseech you 
in what measure is this? how far, into what degree, in what 
measure, is illumination from Christ? by whom, or by what 
means separated from him, independent of him, is the rest 
made up? who supplies the defect of Christ. I know your 
aim is, to hug in your illumination by the light of nature, 
and I know not what common helps, that you dream of, to- 
wards them, who are utterly deprived of all gospel means of 
grace, and that not only for the knowledge of God as Crea- 
tor, but also of him as in Christ the Redeemer. But whe- 



278 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, 

ther the calves of your own setting up should be thus sacri- 
ficed unto, with wresting and perverting the word of God, 
and undervaluing of the grace of Christ, you will one day, I 
hope, be convinced. It sufficeth us, that Christ is said to en- 
lighten every one, because he is the only true light, and every 
one that is enlightened, receiveth his light from him, w-ho is 
the sum, the fountain thereof. And so the general defence, 
of this general ineffectual intercession is vanished ; but yet 
farther, it is particularly replied concerning the priesthood 
of Christ, that, 

* As a priest in respect of one end, he offered sacrifice, 
that is, propitiation for all men ; Heb. ix. 9. 26. John i. 29. 
1 John ii. 2. In respect of all the ends, propitiation, and 
sealing the New Testament, and testification to the truth, 
and of the uttermost end in all, for his called and chosen 
ones ;' Heb. ix. 14, 15. Matt. xxvi. 26. (What follows after, 
being repeated out of another place, hath been already an- 
swered.) 

Alls. First, These words as here placed, have no tolerable 
sense in them, neither is it an easy thing to gather the mind 
of the author out of them, so far are they from being a clear 
answer to the argument as was pretended. Words of Scrip- 
ture indeed are used, but wrested and corrupted, not only 
to the countenance of error, but to bear a part in unreason- 
able expressions. For what, I pray, is the meaning of these 
words, he offered sacrifice in respect of one end, then of all 
ends, then of the uttermost end in all ? To inquire back- 
wards : 1. What is this uttermost end in all? Is that in all, 
in, or among all the end proposed and accomplished ? or in 
all those for whom he offered sacrifice ? or is it the utter- 
most end and proposal of God and Christ in his oblation ? 
If this latter, that is the glory of God, now there is no such 
thing once intimated in the places of Scripture quoted ; 
Heb. ix. 14, 15. Matt. xxvi. 26. 2. Do those places hold 
out the uttermost end of the death of Christ (subordinate to 
God's glory)? Why in one of them it is the obtaining of 
redemption, and in the other, the shedding of his blood for 
the remission of sins is expressed ? Now all this you aflirm 
to be the first end of the death of Christ, in the first words 
used in this place, calling it propitiation, that is, an atone- 
ment for the remission of sins; which remission of sinsand 



AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISflED. 279 

redemption, are for the substance one and the same, both of 
them the immediate fruits, and first end, of the death of 
Christ, as is apparent; Eph. i. 7. Col. i. 14. So here you 
have confounded the first and last end of the dtath of 
Christ, spoiling indeed and casting down (as you may law- 
fully do, for it is your own) the whole frame and building, 
whose foundation is this, that there be several and divers 
ends of the death of Christ, towards several persons, so that 
some of them belong unto all, and all of them only to some, 
which is the irpCjTov ipivdog of the whole book. Thirdly, 
Christ's offering himself to put away sin, out of Heb. ix. 26. 
the place for the first end of the death of Christ, and his shed- 
ding of his blood for the remission of sins, from Matt, xxvi, 
26. to be the last. Pray, when you write next, give us the differ- 
ence between these two. Fourthly, You say, ' He offered sa- 
crifice, in respect of one end, that is propitiation for all men ;' 
now truly, if ye know the meaning of sacrifice and propitia- 
tion, this will scarce appear sense unto you upon a se- 
cond view. 

But to leave your words and take your meaning, it seems 
to be this, in respect of one end, that Christ proposed to 
himself, in his sacrifice, he is a priest for all, he aimed to 
attain and accomplish it for them, but in respect of other 
ends, he is so only for his chosen and called. Now, truly 
this is an easy kind of answering, which if it will pass for 
good and warrantable, you may easily disappoint all your 
adversaries, even first by laying down their arguments, then 
saying your own opinion is otherwise ; for the very thing that 
is here imposed on us for an answer is the to KpivofXEvov, the 
chief matter in debate ; we absolutely deny, that the several 
ends of the death of Christ, or the good things procured by 
hi sdeath are thus distributed as is here pretended. To 
prove our assertion, and to give a reason of our denial of 
this dividing of these things in respect of their objects, we 
produce the argument above proposed, concerning the 
priesthood of Christ ; to which the answer given is a bare 
repetition of the thing in question. But you will say divers 
places of Scripture are quoted for the confirmation of this 
answer. But these, as I told you before, are brought forth 
for pomp and show, nothing at all being to be found in them 
to the business in hand ; such are Heb. ix. 26. John i. 29. 



280 THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, &C. 

For what consequence is there from an affirmation indefinite, 
that Christ bare or took away sin, to this, that he is a priest 
for all and every one in respect of propitiation? Besides, in 
that of John i. 29. there is a manifest allusion to the pas- 
chal lamb, by which there was a typical ceremonial purifi- 
cation, and cleansing of sin, which was proper only to the 
people of Israel, the type of the elect of God, and not of all 
in the world, of all sorts, reprobates and unbelievers also. 
Those other two places of Heb. ii. 9. 1 John ii. 2. shall be 
considered apart, because they seem to have some strength 
for the main of the cause ; though apparently there is no 
word in them that can be wrested to give the least colour 
to such an uncouth distinction, as that which we oppose. 
And thus our argument from the equal objective extent of 
the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ, is confirmed 
and vindicated; and withal, the means used by the blessed 
Trinity for the accomplishment of the proposed end, unfolded; 
which end, what it was, is next to be considered. 



BOOK II. 



CHAP. I. 



Some precious connderatums to a more particular iiujuiry after the proper 
end and effect of the death of Christ. 

The main thing upon which the whole controversy about the 
death of Christ turneth, and upon which the greatest weight 
of the business dependeth, comes next to our consideration, 
being that which we have prepared the way unto, by all that 
hath been already said. It is about the proper end of the 
death of Christ, which whoso can rightly constitute and 
make manifest, may well be admitted for a day's-man and um- 
pire in the whole contestation ; for if it be the end of Christ's 
death, which most of our adversaries assign, we will not 
deny, but that Christ died for all and every one ; and if that 
be the end of it which we maintain so to be, they will not 
extend it beyond the elect, beyond believers. This then 
must be fully cleared, and solidly confirmed by them who 
hope for any success in their undertakings. The end of the 
death of Christ we asserted in the beginning of our discourse, 
to be our approximation or drawing nigh unto God, that be- 
ing a general expression for the whole reduction and reco- 
very of sinners, from the state of alienation, misery, and 
wrath, into grace, peace, and eternal communion with him. 
Now there being a twofold end in things, one of the worker, 
the other of the work wrought, we have manifested how, that 
unless it be either for want of wisdom, and certitude of mind 
in the agent, in choosing and using unsuitable means for the 
attaining of the end proposed, or for want of skill and power to 
make use of, and rightly to improve well proportioned means 
to the best advantage, those things are always coincident ; 
the work efFecteth what the workman intendeth. In the 
business in hand the agent is the blessed Three in One, 
as was before declared ; and the means whereby they col- 
limed and aimed at the end proposed, was the oblation and 
intercession of Jesus Christ which are united, intending the 
same object as was also cleared. Now unless we will bias- 



282 THE PROPER END OF 

phemously ascribe want of wisdom, power, perfection, and 
sufficiency in working unto the agent, or affirm that the death 
and intercession of Christ, was not suitable and proportioned 
for the attaining the end proposed by it to be effected ; we 
must grant that the end of these is one and the same, what- 
soever the blessed Trinity intended by them that was effect- 
ed ; and whatsoever we find in the issue ascribed unto them, 
that by them the blessed Trinity intended. So that we shall 
have no cause to consider these apart, unless it be sometimes 
to argue from the one to the other; as where we find any 
thing ascribed to the death of Christ as the fruit thereof, we 
may conclude that that God intended to effect by it, and so 
also on the contrary. 

Now the end of the death of Christ is either supreme and 
ultimate, or intermediate and subservient to that last end. 
The first is the glory of God, or the manifestation of his glo- 
rious attributes, especially of his justice, and mercy tem- 
pered with justice unto us. The Lord doth necessarily 
aim at himself in the first place as thechiefest good; yea, in 
deed that alone which is good, that is absolutely and simply 
so, and not by virtue of communication from another: and 
therefore in all his works, especially in this which we have 
in hand, the chiefest of all, he first intends the manifestation 
of his own glory, which also he fully accomplisheth in the 
close, to every point and degree by him intended, he mak- 
eth all things for himself; Prov. xvi. 4. and every thing in 
the end must redound to the glory of God; 2 Cor. iv. 15. 
wherein Christ himself is said to be God's ; 1 Cor. iii. 23. 
serving to his glory in that whole administration that was 
committed to him. So Eph. i. 6. The whole end of all this 
dispensation, both of choosing us from eternity, redeeming us 
by Christ, blessing us with all spiritual blessings in him, is 
affirmed to be the praise, the glory of his grace ; and ver. 13. 
'that we should be to the praise of his glory.' This is the end 
of all the benefits we receive by the death of Christ ; for * we 
are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus 
Christ unto the glory and praise of God;' Phil. i. 11. which 
also is fully asserted, chap. ii. 11. 'That every tongue should 
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father.' This the apostle fully clears in the ninth to the 
Romans ; where he so asserts the supreme dominion and in- 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 283 

dependency of God in all his actions, his absolute freedom 
from taking rise, cause, or occasion to his purposes, from any 
thing among us sons of men, doing all things for his own 
sake, and aiming only at his own glory. And this is that 
which in the close of all shall be accomplished, when every 
creature shall say, 'Blessing, honour, glory, and power, be 
unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb 
for ever and ever;' Rev. v. 13. But this is avafi(pia(5i]TaTov. 

2. There is an end of the death of Christ which is inter- 
mediate and subservient to that other, which is the last and 
most supreme, even the effects which it hath in respect of 
us, and that is it of which we now treat ; which as we before 
affirmed, is the bringing of us unto God. Now this though 
in reference to the oblation and intercession of Christ, it be 
one entire end, yet in itself, and in respect of the relation 
which the several acts therein have one to another, it may 
be considered distinctly in two parts ; whereof one is the 
end, and the other the means for the attaining of that end ; 
both the complete end of the mediation of Christ, in respect 
of us. The ground and cause of this is, the appointment of 
the Lord, that there should be such a connexion and cohe- 
rence, between the things purchased for us by Jesus Christ, 
that the one should be a means and way of attaining the 
other ; the one the condition, and the other the thing promis- 
ed upon that condition, but both equally and alike procured 
for us by Jesus Christ; for if either be omitted in his pur- 
chase, the other would be vain and fruitless, as we shall af- 
terward declare. Now both these consist in a communica- 
tion of God and his goodness unto us (and our participation 
of him by virtue thereof), and that either to grace or glory, ho- 
liness or blessedness, yojV/i! or salvation. In this last way 
they are usually called, ya/i/t being the means of which we 
speak, and salvation the end ; faith the condition, salvation 
the promised inheritance ; under the name o^ faith we com- 
prise all saving grace that accompanies it; and under the name 
of sa/uflfio/i, the whole glory to be revealed; the liberty of the 
glory of the children of God ; Rom. viii. all that blessedness 
which consisteth in an eternal fruition of the blessed God. 
'SV'ith faith go all the effectual means thereof, both external 
and internal ; the word and almighty sanctifying Spirit; all 
advancement of state and condition attending it, as justifi- 



284 THE PROPER END OF 

cation, reconciliation, and adoption into the family of God ; 
all fruits flowing from it in sanctification, and miiversal holi- 
ness ; with all other privileges and enjoyments of believers 
here, which follow the redemption and reconciliation pur- 
chased for them by the oblation of Christ. A real, effectual, 
and infallible bestowing and applying of all these things ; as 
well those that are the means, as those that are the end ; the 
condition, as the thing conditioned about ; faith and grace, 
as salvation and glory, unto all and every one, for whom he 
died, do we maintain to be the end, proposed and efFected.by 
the bloodshedding of Jesus Christ; with those other acts of 
his mediatorship, which we before declared to be therewith 
inseparably conjoined ; so that every one for whom he died 
and offered up himself, hath by virtue of his death or obla- 
tion, a right purchased for him unto all these things, which 
in due time he shall certainly and infallibly enjoy ; or which 
is all one, the end of Christ's obtaining grace and glory with 
his Father was, that they might be certainly bestowed upon 
all those for whom he died, some of them upon condition 
that they do believe, but faith itself absolutely upon no con- 
dition at all. All which we shall farther illustrate and con- 
firm, after we have removed some false ends assigned. 



CHAP. II. 

Containing a removal of some mistakes arid false assignations of the 
end of the death of Christ. 

That the death, oblation, and bloodshedding of Jesus Christ, 
is to be considered as the means for the compassing of an ap- 
pointed end, was before abundantly declared ; and that such 
a means as is not in itself any way desirable, but for the at- 
taining of that end ; now because that which is the end of 
any thing must also be good, for unless it be so it cannot 
be an end (for bonum etjinis convertuniur) ; it must be either 
his Father's good, or his own good,orourgood, which was the 
end proposed. That it was not merely his own is exceed- 
ingly apparent ; for in his divine nature he was eternally and 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 285 

essentially partaker of all that glory which is proper to the 
Deity; which though in respect of us it be capable of more 
or less manifestation, yet in itself it is always alike eternally 
and absolutely perfect. And in this regard at the close of 
all, he desires and requests no other glory, but that which 
he had with his Father before the world was ; John xvii. 4. 
And in respect of his human nature, as he was eternally pre- 
destinated, without any foresight of doing or suffering, to be 
personally united, from the instant of his conception, with 
the second person of the Trinity ; so neither while he was 
in the way, did he merit any thing for himself by his death 
and oblation ; he needed not to suffer for himself, being per- 
fectly and legally righteous ; and the glory that he aimed at, 
by enduring the curse, and despising the shame, was not so 
much his own, in respect of possession, by the exaltation of 
his own nature, as the bringing of many children to glory, 
even as it was in the promise set before him ; as we before 
at large declared. His own exaltation indeed, and power over 
all flesh, and his appointment to be Judge of the quick and 
the dead, was a consequent of his deep humiliation and suf- 
fering; but that it was the effect and product of it, procured 
meritoriously by it ; that it was the end aimed at by him in 
his making satisfaction for sin, that we deny. Christ hath a 
power and dominion over all, but the foundation of this do- 
minion is not in his death for all ; for he hath dominion 
over all things; being appointed 'heir of them, and upholding 
them all by the word of his power ;' Heb. i. 3,4. ' He is set 
over the works of God's hands, and all things are put in sub- 
jection under him;' Heb. ii. 7, 8. And what are those all 
things, or what are amongst them, you may see in the place 
of the psalmist from whence the apostle citeth those words; 
Psal. viii. 6 — 8. And did he die for all these things? Nay, 
hath he not power over the angels ; are not principalities and 
powers made subject to him ? Shall he not at the last day, 
judge the angels; for with him the saints shall do it, by 
giving attestation to his righteous judgments; 1 Cor. vi. 
And yet, is it not expressly said that the angels have no 
share in the whole dispensation of God manifested in the 
flesh, so as to die for them to redeem them from their sins ? 
Of which some had no need, and the other are eternally ex- 
cluded. Heb. ii. 16. ' He took not on him the nature of an- 



286 THE PROPER END OF 

gels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.' God set- 
ting him 'King upon his holy hill of Sion ;' in despite of 
his enemies, to bruise them and to rule them with a rod of 
iron; Psal. ii. 9. is not the immediate effect of his death 
for them; but rather all things are given into his hand, out 
of the immediate love of the Father to his Son ; John iii. 35. 
Matt. xi. 27, That is the foundation of all this sovereignty 
and dominion over all creatures, with his power of judging 
that is put into his hand. 

Besides, be it granted (which cannot be proved), that 
Christ by his death did procure this power of judging; 
would any thing hence follow that might be beneficial to the 
proving of the general ransom for all ? No, doubtless ; this 
dominion and power of judging is a power of condemning 
as well as saving; it is all judgment that is committed to 
him ; John. v. 22. He hath authority given unto him to exe- 
cute judgment, because he is the Son of man ; that is, at that 
hour when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, 
and come forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrec- 
tion of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection 
of condemnation ; ver. 28, 29. 2 Cor, v. 10. Now can it 
be reasonably asserted, that Christ died for men to redeem 
them, that he might have power to condemn ? Nay, do not 
these two overthrow one another? If he redeemed thee by 
his death, then he did not aim at the obtaining of any power 
to condemn thee ; if he did the latter, then that former was 
not in his intention. 

Nor, secondly, was it his Father's good. I speak now of the 
proximate and immediate end and product of the death of 
Christ, not of the ultimate and remote; knowing that the su- 
preme end of Christ's oblation, and all the benefits purchased 
and procured by it, was the praise of his glorious grace ; but 
for this other, it doth not directly tend to the obtaining of 
any thing unto God, but of all good things from God to us. 
Arminius, with his followers, with the other universalists of 
our days, affirm this to be the end proposed, that God might, 
his justice being satisfied, save sinners, the hinderance being 
removed by the satisfaction of Christ; he had by his death a 
right and liberty obtained, of pardoning sin upon what con- 
dition he pleased : so that after the satisfaction of Christ 
yielded and considered, * integrum Deo fuit' (as his words are). 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 287 

as it was wholly in God's free disposal, whether he would save 
any or no, and upon what condition he would, whether of 
faith, or of works, God, say they, had a good mind and will 
to do good to human kind, but could not by reason of sin, 
his justice lying in the way ; whereupon he sent Christ to 
remove that obstacle, that so he might, upon the prescribing 
of what condition he pleased, and its being by them fulfilled, 
have mercy on them. Now because in this they place their 
chief, if not the sole, end of the oblation of Christ, I must a 
little shew the falseness and folly of it ; which may be done 
plainly by these following reasons. 

First, The foundation of this whole assertion seems to me 
to be false and erroneous, viz. that God could not have 
mercy on mankind, unless satisfaction were made by his Son. 
It is true, indeed, supposing the decree, purpose, and consti- 
tution of God, that so it should be, that so he would mani- 
fest his glory by the way of vindicative justice, it was im- 
possible that it should otherwise be; for with the Lord, there 
is neither change nor shadow of turning; James i. 18. 1 Sam. 
XV. 29. But to assert positively, that absolutely and antece- 
dently to his constitution he could not have done it, is to 
me an unwritten tradition ; the Scripture affirming no such 
thing, neither can it be gathered from thence in any good 
consequence. If any one shall deny this, we will try what 
the Lord will enable us to say unto it ; and in the mean time 
rest contented in that of Augustine ; though other ways of 
saving us were not wanting to his infinite wisdom, yet cer- 
tainly the way which he did proceed in, was the most con- 
venient, because we find he proceeded therein. 

Secondly, This would make the cause of sending his Son 
to die, to be a common love ; or rather wishing that he 
might do good, or shew mercy to all, and not an entire act 
of his will, or purpose of knowing, redeeming, and saving 
his elect, which we shall afterward disprove. 

Thirdly, If the end of tlie death of Christ were to acquire 
a right to his Father, that notwithstanding his justice he 
might save sinners, then did he rather die to redeem a liberty 
unto God, than a liberty from evil unto us ; that his Father 
mightbe enlarged from that estate, wherein it was impossible 
for him to do that which he desired, and which his nature in- 
clined him to, and not that we might be freed from that con- 



288 THE PROPER END OF 

dition, wherein, without this freedom purchased, it could not 
be but we must perish. If this be so, I see no reason why Christ 
should be said to come and redeem his people from their sins ; 
but rather plainly to purchase this right and liberty for his Fa- 
ther. Now where is there any such assertion, wherein is any 
thing of this nature, in the Scripture ? Doth the Lord say that 
hesenthis Son out of love to himself or unto us? IsGodor are 
men made the immediate subject of good attained unto by this 
oblation ? Rep. But it is said that although immediately, and 
in the first place, this right did arise unto God by the death 
of Christ, yet that that also was to tend to our good ; Christ 
obtaining that right, that the Lord might now bestow mercy 
on us if we fulfilled the condition that he would propose. 
But I answer that this utterly overthrows all the merit of the 
death of Christ towards us, and leaves not so much as the 
nature of merit unto it ; for that which is truly meritorious 
indeed, deserves that the thing merited, or procured and ob- 
tained by it, shall be done, or ought to be bestowed, and 
not only that it may be done. There is such a habitude and 
relation between merit and the thing obtained by it, whether 
it be absolute or arising on contract, that there ariseth a 
real right to the thing procured by it in them, by whom or 
for whom it is procured : when the labourer hath wrought all 
day, do we say now his wages may be paid, or rather now 
they ought to be paid : hath he not a right unto it ? Was 
ever such a merit heard of before, whose nature should con- 
sist in this, that the thing procured by it might be bestov/ed, 
and not that it ought to be : and shall Christ be said now to 
purchase by his meritorious oblation, this only at his Father's 
hand, that he might bestow upon, and apply the fulness of 
his death to some or all, and not that he should so do ? To 
him that worketh, saith the apostle, ' the reward is not due 
of grace but of debt ;' Rom. iv. 4. Are not the fruits of the 
death of Christ, by his death, as truly procured for us, as if 
they had been obtained by our own working? And if so, 
though in respect of the persons on whom they are bestowed 
they are of free grace, yet in respect of the purchase, the 
bestowing of them is of debt. 

Fourthly, That cannot be assigned as the complete end 
of the death of Christ, which being accomplished, it had not 
only been possible, that not one soul might be saved, but 



T?IE DEATH OF CHRIST. 289 

also impossible that by virtue of it any sinful soul should 
be saved; for sure the Scripture is exceedingly full in declar- 
ing that through Christ we have remission of sins, grace and 
glory (as afterward), but now notwithstanding this, that 
Christ is said to have procured and purchased by his death 
such a right and liberty to his Father, that he might bestow 
eternal life upon all, upon what conditions he would, it might 
very well stand, that not one of those should enjoy eternal 
life ; for suppose the Father would not bestow it, as he is by 
no engagement, according to this persuasion, bound to do: he 
had a right to do it, it is true ; but that which is any one's right 
he may use or not use at his pleasure. Again, suppose he had 
prescribed a condition of works, which it had been impos- 
sible for them to fulfil, the death of Christ might have had 
its full end, and yet not one been saved. Was this his com- 
ing to save sinners, to save that which was lost? or could 
he upon such an accomplishment as this pray as he did, 
' Father, I will, that those whom thou hast given me, may be 
where I am to behold my glory V John xvii. 24. Divers other 
reasons might be used to evert this fancy, that would make 
the purchase of Chi'ist, in respect of us, not to be the remis- 
sion of sins, but a possibility of it ; not salvation but a salva^ 
bility ; not reconciliation and peace with God, but the open- 
ing of a door towards it : but I shall use them in assigning 
the right end of the death of Christ. 

Ask now of these, what it is that the Father can do, and 
will do, upon the death of Christ; by which means his justice 
that before hindered the execution of his good will towards 
them is satisfied? and they tell you, it is the entering into a 
new covenant of grace \vith them, upon the performance of 
whose condition, they shall have all the benefits of the death 
of Christ applied to them : but to us it seemeth that Christ 
himself, with his death and passion, is the chief promise of 
the new covenant itself; as Gen. iii. 15. and so the covenant 
cannot be said to be procured by his death. Besides the na- 
ture of the covenant overthrows this proposal, that they that 
are covenanted withal shall have such and such good things, 
if they fulfil the condition, as though that all depended on 
this obedience, when that obedience itself, and the whole 
condition of it, is a promise of the covenant ; Jer. xxxi. 32. 
Which is confirmed and sealed by the blood of Christ. W§ 

VOL. v. U 



.290 IHE PROPER END OF 

deny not, but the death of Christ hath a proper end in re- 
spect of God; to wit, the manifestation of his glory, whence 
he calls him his servant in whom he will be glorified ; Isa. xlix. 
And the bringing of many sons to glory wherewith he was 
betrusted, was to the manifestation and praise of his glorious 
grace, that so his love to his elect might gloriously appear, 
his salvation being borne out by Christ to the utmost parts of 
the earth, and this full declaration of his glory by the way of 
mercy tempered with justice ; ' for he set forth Christ to be a 
propitiation through faith in his blood, that he might be just, 
and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus ;' Rom. iii. 25. 
Is all that which accrued to the Lord by the death of his Son, 
and not any right and liberty of doing that which before he 
would have done, but could not for his justice. In respect 
of us the end of the oblation and bloodshedding of Jesus 
Christ was, not that God might if he would, but that he should 
by virtue of that compact and covenant, which was the foun- 
dation of the merit of Christ, bestow upon us all the good 
things which Christ aimed at, and intended to purchase and 
procure by his offering of himself for us unto God, which is 
in the next place to be declared. 



CHAP. III. 

More particularly of the immediate end of the death of Christ, with the 
several ways whereby it is designed. 

What the Scripture affirms in this particular, we laid down 
in tlie entrance of the whole discourse ; which, now having 
enlarged in explication of our sense and meaning therein, 
must be more particularly asserted by an application of the 
particular places (which are very many), to our thesis as be- 
fore declared, whereof this is the sum : 'Jesus Christ, accord- 
ing to the counsel and will of his Father, did offer himself 
npon the cross, to the procurement of those things before re- 
counted, and maketh continual intercession, witli this intent 
and purpose ; that all the good things so procured by his 
death, might be actually and infallibly bestowed on, and ap- 
plied to, all and every one for whom he died, according to 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST 



291 



the will and counsel of God.' Let us now see what the Scrip- 
ture saith hereunto, the sundry places whereof we shall range 
under these heads. 

First, Those that hold out the intention and counsel of God, 
with our Saviour's own mind, whose will was one with his 
Father's in this business. 

Secondly, Those that lay down the actual accomplishment 
or effect oi his oblation; what it did really procure, effect, and 
produce. 

Thirdly, Those that point out the persons for whom Christ 
died, as designed peculiarly to be the object of this work of 
redemption in the end and purpose of God, 

For the first, or those which hold out the counsel, pur- 
pose, mind, intention, and will of God, and our Saviour in 
this work. Matt, xviii. 11, 'TheSonof man came to save that 
which was lost;' which words he repeateth again upon an- 
other occasion ; Luke xix. 10. In the first place, they are in 
the front of the parable of ' seeking the lost sheep ;' in the 
other, they are in the close of the recovery of lost Zaccheus ; 
and in both places set forth the end of Christ's coming, which 
was to do the will of his Father, by the recovery of lost sin- 
ners ; and that as Zaccheus was recovered by conversion, 
by bringing into the free covenant, making him a son of 
Abraham; or as the lost sheep, which he lays upon his 
shoulder, and bringeth home ; so that unless he findeth that 
which he seeketh for, unless he recover that which he cometh 
to save, he faileth of his purpose. Secondly, Matt, i, 21. 
Where the angel declareth the end of Christ's coming in the 
flesh, and consequently of all his sufferings therein, is to the 
same purpose, he was to save his people from their sins. 
Whatsoever is required for a complete and perfect saving of 
his peculiar people from their sins, was intended by his 
coming • to say that he did but in part, or in some regard 
effect the work of salvation, is of ill report to Christian ears. 

Thirdly, The like expression is that also of Paul, 1 Tim. 
i. 15. evidently declaring the end of our Saviour's coming 
according to the will and counsel of his Father; viz. To save 
sinners ; not to open a door for them to come in, if they 
will or can ; not to make a way passable, that they may be 
saved ; not to purchase reconciliation and pardon of his 
Father, which perhaps they shall never enjoy; but actually 

u 2 



292 THE PROPER END OF 

to save themTrom all the guilt and power of sin, and from 
the wrath of God for sin, which if he doth not accomplish, 
he fails of the end of his coming; and if that ought not to 
be affirmed, surely he came for no more than towards whom 
that effect is procured. The compact of his Father with 
him, and his promise made unto him, ' of seeing his seed, 
and carrying along the pleasure of the Lord prosperously ;' 
Isa. liii. 10 — 12. I before declared; from which it is ap- 
parent, that the decree and purpose of giving actually unto 
Christ a believing generation, whom he calleth ' the chil- 
dren that God gave him ;' Heb. ii. 13. is inseparably an- 
nexed to the decree of Christ's ' making his soul an offer- 
ins: for sin,' and is the end and aim thereof. 

Fourthly, As the apostle farther declareth, Heb. ii. 
14, 15. ' Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh 
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; 
that through death he might destroy him that had the power 
of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through 
fear of death,' &c. Than which words nothing can more 
clearly set forth the entire end of that whole dispensation 
of the incarnation and offering of Jesus Christ, even a de- 
liverance of the children whom God gave him from the 
power of death, hell, and the devil; so bringing them nigh 
unto God : nothing at ail of the purchasing of a possible 
deliverance for all and everyone; nay, all are not those chil- 
dren which God gave him, all are not delivered from death, 
and him that had the power of it, and therefore it was not 
for all for whom he then took flesh and blood. 

Fifthly, The same purpose and intention we have, Eph. 
V. 25, 26. ' Christ loved his church and gave himself for it, 
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of 
water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a 
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such 
thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish.' As 
also, Tit. ii. 14. ' He gave himself for us, that he might re- 
deem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a pecu- 
liar people, zealous of good works,' I think nothing can be 
clearer than those two places ; nor is it possible for the wit 
of man to invent expressions so fully and lively to set out 
the thing we intend, as it is in both these places by the 
Holy Ghost, 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 29lf 

Sixthly, What did Christ do ? * He gave himself,' say both 
these places alike ; 'for his church,' saith one; 'for us/ saith 
the other; both words of equal extent and force, as all men 
know. To what end did he this? 'To sanctify and cleanse it, 
to present it to himself a holy and glorious church, without 
spot or wrinkle,' saith he to the Ephesians; 'to redeem us 
from all iniquity, and to purify to himself a peculiar people, 
zealous of good works,' saith he to Titus. I ask now, are all 
men of this church ? Are all in that rank of men, among 
whom Paul placeth himself and Titus? are all purged, pu- 
rified, sanctified, made glorious, brought nigh unto Christ ? 
or doth Christ fail in his aim towards the greatest part of 
men ? 1 dare not close with any of these. 

Seventhly, Will you have our Saviour Christ himself ex- 
pressing this more evidently, restraining the object, declar- 
ing his whole design and purpose, and affirming the end of 
his death ; John xvii. 19. ' For their sakes I sanctify myself, 
that they also maybe sanctified through the truth.' For their 
sakes ? Whose I pray ? ' The men whom thou hast given me 
out of the world ;' ver. 6. Not the whole world, whom he 
prayednotfor; ver. 9. 'I sanctify myself.' Whereunto? To the 
work 1 am now ooing; about, even to be an oblation. And to 
what end? iva koi avroi wcnv r^yiacrfiivoi Iv aXri^sla, ' that they 
also may be truly sanctified ;' that 'Iva there (that they) sig- 
nifies the intent and purpose of Christ, it designs out the 
end he aimed at, which our hope is, and that is the hope of 
the gospel, that he hath accomplished ; * for the Deliverer 
that comes out of Sion, turns away ungodliness from Jacob;' 
Rom. xi. 26. And that herein there was a concurrence of the 
will of his Father, yea that this his purpose was to fulfil the 
will of his Father, which he came to do. 

Eighthly, And that this also was his counsel is apparent ; 
Gal. i. 4. ' For our Lord Jesus gave himself for our sin, that 
he might deliver us from this present evil world, according 
to the will of God and our Father;' which will and purpose 
of his, the apostle farther declares, chap. iv. 4 — 6. ' God sent 
forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to re- 
deem them that were under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons;' and because sons, our deliverance from 
the law, and thereby our freedom from the guilt of sin ; our 
adoption to sons, receiving the Spirit, and drawing nigh unto 



294 THE PROPER END OF 

God, are all of them in the purpose of the Father, giving^ 
his only Son for us. 

Ninthly, I shall add but one place more, of the very many 
more that might be cited to this purpose, and that in 2 Cor. 
V. 21. * He hath made him to be sin for us, that knew no 
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him/ 
The purpose of God in making his Son to be sin is, that 
those for whom he was made sin might become righteous- 
ness ; that was the end of God's sending Christ to be so, 
and Christ's willingness to become so : now if the Lord 
did not purpose what is not fulfilled, yea, what he knew 
should never be fulfilled, and what he would not work at all 
that it might be fulfilled (either of which are most atheisti- 
cal expressions), then he made Christ sin for no more than 
do in the effect become actually righteousness in him ; so 
that the counsel and will of God, with the purpose and inten- 
tion of Christ by his oblation and bloodshedding was to fulfil 
that will and counsel, is from these places made apparent : 
from all which we draw this argument ; that which the Fa- 
ther and the Son intended to accomplish, in and towards 
all those for whom Christ died by his death, that is most 
certainly effected ; (if any shall deny this proposition, I will 
at any time, by the Lord's assistance, take up the assertion 
of it). But the Father and his Son intended by the death 
of Christ to redeem, purge, sanctify, purify, deliver from 
death, Satan, the curse of the law, to quit off all sin, to make 
righteousness in Christ, to bring nigh unto God, all those 
for whom he died, as was above proved. Therefore, Christ 
died for all, and only those in and towards whom all these 
things recounted are effected : which whether they are all 
and every one, 1 leave to all and every one to judge that hath 
any knowledge in these things. 

Secondly, The second rank contains those places which lay 
down the actual accomplishment and effect of this oblation; 
or what it doth really produce and effect in and towards 
them for whom it is an oblation. Such are Heb. ix. 12. 14. 
' By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, 
having obtained eternal redemption for us, — the blood of 
Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without 
spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to 
serve the living God.' Two things are here observed to the 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 295 

blood of Christ; one referring to God, ' it obtains eternal re- 
demption ;' the other respecting us, * it pnrgeth our con- 
sciences from dead works :' so that justification with God, 
by procuring for us an eternal redemption from the guilt of 
our sins, and his wrath due unto them, with sanctification 
in ourselves (or as it is called Heb. i. 3. ' a purging our sins'), 
is the immediate product of that blood by which he entered 
into the holy place, of that oblation which through the eternal 
Spirit he presented unto God. Yea, this meritorious purg- 
ing of our sins is peculiarly ascribed to his offering, as per- 
formed before his ascension ; Heb. i. 13. * For when he had 
by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand 
of the Majesty on high ;' and again, most expressly, Heb. 
ix. 26. ' he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice 
of himself,' which expiation or putting away of sin by the 
way of sacrifice must needs be the actual sanctification of 
them for whom he was a sacrifice, ' even as the blood of 
bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the un- 
clean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ;' ver. 13. 
Certain it is that whosoever was either polluted or guilty, 
for whom there was an expiation and sacrifice allowed in 
those carnal ordinances, ' which had a shadow of good things 
to come,' that he had truly, first, a legal cleansing and sanc- 
tifying to the purifying of the flesh; and, secondly, freedom 
from the punishment which was due to the breach of the 
law, as it was the rule of conversation to God's people, so 
much his sacrifice carnally accomplished for him that was 
admitted thereunto. Now these thino-s beino; but ' shadows 
of good things to come,' certainly the sacrifice of Christ did 
effect spiritually for all them for whom it was a sacrifice, 
whatever the other could typify out, that is spiritual cleans- 
ing by sanctification and freedom from the guilt of sin, 
which the places produced do evidently prove. Now, whe- 
ther this be accomplished in all, and for them all, let all that 
are able, judge. Again, Christ by his death, and in it, is 
said to ' bear our sins :' so 1 Pet. ii. 24. ' His own self bare 
our sins ;' where you have both what he did, ' bare our sins,* 
avi)vayK£, he carried them rp with him upon the cross ; and 
what he intended, ' that we being dead unto sin, should live 
to righteousness;' and what was the effect? ' By his stripes 
we are healed :' which latter, as it is taken from the same 



296 THE PROPER END OF 

place, of the prophet where our Saviour is affirmed to 'bear 
our iniquities, and to have them laid upon him ;' Isa. liii. 6. 
11. So it is expository of the former, and will tell us what 
Christ did by ' bearing our sins ;' which phrase is more than 
once used in the Scripture to this purpose. 1. Christ then 
so bare our iniquities by his death, that by virtue of the 
stripes and afflictions which he underwent in his offering 
himself for us ; this is certainly procured and effected, that 
we should go free, and not suffer any of those things which 
he underwent for us. To which also you may refer all those 
places which evidently hold out a commutation in this point 
of suffering between Christ and us ; Gal. iii. 13. ' He deli- 
vered us from the cvu'se, being made a curse for us ;' with di- 
vers others which we shall have occasion afterward to men- 
tion. Peace also and reconciliation with God, that is, ac- 
tual peace by the removal of all enmity on both sides, with 
all the causes of it, is fully ascribed to this oblation ; Col. 
i. 21, 22. ' And you that were sometimes alienated and ene- 
mies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he recon- 
ciled in the body of his flesh through death, to preserve you 
holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight;' as also 
Eph. ii. 13 — 16. ' Ye who were sometimes afar off, are made 
nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace; having abo- 
lished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of command- 
ments, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body 
by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.' To which 
add all those places wherein plenary deliverances from an- 
ger, wrath, death, and him that had the power of it, is like- 
wise asserted as the fruit thereof; as Rom. v. 8—10. And 
ye have a farther discovery made of the immediate effect of 
the death of Christ, peace and reconciliation, deliverance 
from wrath, enmity, and whatever lay against us to keep us 
from enjoying the love and favour of God ; a redemption 
from all these he effected for his church ' with his own 
blood ;' Acts xx. 28. Whence all and everyone for whom he 
died may truly say, * Who shall lay any thing to our charge ? 
It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is 
Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even 
dt the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for 
us ;' Rom. viii. 33, 34. Which that they are procured for all 
and every one of the sons of Adam, that they all may use 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 297 

that rejoicing in full assurance, cannot be made appear ; and 
yet evident it is that so it is with all for whom he died, that 
these are the effects of his death in and towards them for whom 
he underwent it; for by his being slain, ' he redeemed them to 
God by his blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, 
and nation, and made them kings and priests unto our 
God ;' Rev. v. 9, 10. For he ' made an end of their sins, he 
made reconciliation for their iniquity, and brought in ever- 
lasting righteousness ;' Dan. ix. 24. Add also those other 
places, where our life is ascribed to the death of Christ, and 
then this enumeration will be perfect; John vi, 33. 'He 
came down from heaven to give life to the world ;' sure 
enough he giveth life to that world, for which he gave his 
life ; it is the world of ' his sheep for which he layeth down 
his life ;' John x. 15. even that he might ' give unto them eter- 
nal life, that they might never perish;' ver. 28. So he ap- 
peared ' to abolish death, to bring life and immortality to 
light ;' 2 Tim. i. 10. as also, Rom. v. 4 — 10. Now there is 
none of all these places but will afford a sufficient strength 
against the general ransom, or the universality of the merit 
of Christ. My leisure v/ill not serve for so large a prosecu- 
tion of the subject as that would require, and, therefore, 
shall take from the whole this general argument. If the 
death and oblation of Jesus Christ (as a sacrifice to his Fa- 
ther) doth sanctify all them for whom it was a sacrifice ; doth 
purge away their sin, redeem them from wrath, curse, and 
guilt; work for them peace and reconciliation with God ; pro- 
cure for them life and immortality ; bearing their iniquities 
and healing all their diseases ; then died he only for those 
that are in the event sanctified, purged, redeemed, justified, 
freed from wrath and death, quickened, saved, &:c. But 
that all are not thus sanctified, freed, &c. is most apparent; 
and, therefore, they cannot be said to be the proper object 
of the death of Christ. The supposal was confirmed before, 
the inference is plain from Scripture, experience, and the 
whole argument (if I mistake not) solid. 

Thirdly, Many places there are that point out the persons 
for whom Christ died, as designed peculiarly to be the object 
of this work of redemption, according to the aim and purpose 
of God ; of which, some we will briefly recount. In some 
places they are called mami: Matt, xxvi.28. 'The blood of 



298 THE PROPER END OF 

the New Testament is shed for many, for the remission of 
sins :' and, ' by his knowledge shall my righteous servant jus- 
tify many, for he shall bear their iniquities ;' Isa. liii. 11. * For 
the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, 
and give his life a ransom for many ;' Mark x. 45. Matt. 
XX. 28. He was 'to bring many sons unto glory, and so was 
to be the captain of their salvation through suffering ;' Heb. 
ii. 10. And though perhaps the word ma//j/ itself be not suf- 
ficient to restrain the object of Christ's death unto some, in 
opposition to all, because 7nau^ is sometimes placed abso- 
lutely for a//; as Rom. v. 19. yet these ma iii/ being described 
in other places to be such, as it is most certain all are not, 
so it is a full and evident restriction of it; for those many 
are the sheep of Christ; John x. 85. 'the children of God 
that were scattered abroad ;' John xi. 52. those whom our 
Saviour calleth, 'brethren;' Heb. ii. ll.'the children that God 
gave him, which were partakers of flesh and blood ;' ver. 13, 
14. and frequently, those ' who were given unto him of his 
Father;' John xvii. who should certainly be preserved : the 
sheep whereof he was the Shepherd through the blood of 
the covenant ; Heb. xiii. 20. his elect ; Rom. viii. 34. and his 
people ; Matt. i. 21. Farther explained to be his visited and 
redeemed people ; Luke i. 68, 69. even the people which he 
did foreknow ; Rom. xi. 2. even such a people as he is said 
to have at Corinth before their conversion ; his people by 
election ; Acts xviii. 10. the people that he suffered without 
the gate, that he might sanctify ; Heb. xiii. 12. his church 
which he redeemed by his own blood'; Acts xx. 28. which he 
loved and gave himself for; Eph. v. 25. the many, whose 
sins he took away ; Heb. ix. 28. with whom he made a cove- 
nant ; Dan. ix. 24. Those many being thus described, and 
set forth, with such qualifications as by no means are com- 
mon to all, but proper only to the elect, do most evidently 
appear to be all and only those that are chosen of God, to 
obtain eternal life through the offering and bloodshedding 
of Jesus Christ. Many things are here excepted with much 
confidence and clamour, that may easily be removed. And 
so you see the end of the death of Christ, as it is set out in 
the Scripture. 

That we may have the clearer passage, we must remove 
the hinderances that are laid in the way, by some pretended 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 299 

answers and evasions, used to escape the force of the argu- 
ment drawn from the Scripture, affirming Christ to have 
died for many, his sheep, his elect, and the like. Now to 
this it is replied, that this reason, as it is called, is weak and 
of no force, equivocal, subtle, fraudulent, false, ungodly, de- 
ceitful, and erroneous ; for all these several epithets are ac- 
cumulated to adorn it withal. (Universality of Free Grace, 
page xvi.) Now this variety of terms (as I conceive), serves 
only to declare with what copia verborum the unlearned elo- 
quence of the author is woven withal ; for such terrible 
names imposed on that, which we know not well how to 
gainsay, is a strong argument of a weak cause. When the 
Pharisees were not able to resist the spirit whereby our 
Saviour spake, they call him devil and Samaritan. Waters 
that make a noise are usually but shallow. It is a proverb 
among the Scythians, that the dogs which bark most, bite 
least. But let us see * quid dignum tanto feret hie responsor 
hiatu,' and hear him speak in his own language, he says 
then, 

* First, this reason is weak and of no force, for the word 
man^ is oft so used, that it both signifies all and every 
man, and also araplifieth or setteth forth the greatness of that 
number; as in Dan. xii. 2. Rom. v. 19. and in other places ; 
where man^ cannot, nor is by any Christian understood for 
less than all men.' 

Rep. First, That if the proof and argument were taken 
merely from the word maiiy, and not from the annexed de- 
scription of those many, with the presupposed distinction of 
all men into several sorts by the purpose of God, this excep- 
tion would bear some colour; but for this see our arguments 
following : only by the way, observe that he that shall divide 
the inhabitants of any place, as at London, into poor and 
rich, those that want, and those that abound, afterward affirm- 
ing that he will bestow his bounty on many at London, on 
the poor, on those that want, will easily be understood to 
give it unto, and bestow it upon, them only. Secondly, Nei- 
ther of the places quoted prove directly, that ma?i7/ must ne- 
cessarily in them be taken for all. In Dan. xii. 2. a distribution 
of the word to the several parts of the affirmation must be 
allowed, and not an application of it to the whole, as such : 
and so the sense is, the dead shall arise, manv to life, and 



300 THE PROPER END OF 

many to shame : as in another language it would have been 
expressed ; neither are such Hebraisms unusual, besides per- 
haps it is not improbable, that many are said to rise to life, 
because, as the apostle says. All shall not die. The like also 
may be said of Rom. v. 19. though the many there seem to 
be all, yet certainly they are not called so with any intent to 
denote all, with an amplification (which that many should 
be to all, is not likely) ; for there is no comparison there insti- 
tuted at all, between number and number ; of thosethatdied 
by Adam's disobedience, and those that were made alive by 
the righteousness of Christ; but only in the effects of the sin 
of Adam, and the righteousness of Christ, too-ether with the 
way and manner of communicating death and life from the 
one and the other; whereunto any consideration of the num- 
ber of the participators of those effects, is not inserted. 
Thirdly, The other places whereby this should be confirmed, 
I am confident our author cannot produce, notwithstanding 
his free inclination of such a reserve; these being those 
which are in this case commonly urged by Arniinians ; but if 
he could, they would be no way material to infringe our ar- 
gument, as appeareth by what was said before. 

'Secondly, This reason,' he adds, 'is equivocal, subtle, and 
fraudulent, seeing where all men and every man is affirmed 
of, the death of Christ, as the ransom and propitiation, and 
the fruits thereof only is assumed for them; but where the 
word many is in any place used in this business, there are 
more ends of the death of Christ, than this one affirmed of.' 
Hep. 1. It is denied that the death of Christ, in any place 
of Scripture, is said to be for all men, or for every man, which 
with so much confidence is supposed and imposed on us, as 
a thing acknowledged. 2. That there is any other end of the 
death of Christ, besides the fruit of his ransom and propitia- 
tion, directly intended, and not by accident attending it, is 
utterly false; yea, what other end, the ransom paid by Christ, 
and the atonement made by him, can have but the fruits of 
them, is not imaginable ; the end of any work, is the same with 
the fruit, effect, or product of it : so that this wild distinction, 
of the ransom and propitiation of Christ, with thefruits of them 
to be for all, and other ends of his death to be only for many ; 
is an assertion neither equivocal, subtle, nor fraudulent. 
But, — I speak to what I conceive the meaning of the ])lace. 



THE DEATH OF CHUIST. 301 

for the words themselves bear no tolerable sense. 3. The 
observation, that where the word many is used, many ends 
are designed, but where all are spoken of there only the ran- 
som is intimated, is : 1. Disadvantageous to the author's per- 
suasion, yielding the whole argument in hand, by acknow- 
ledging that where many are mentioned, there all cannot be 
understood ; because more ends of the death of Christ, than 
do belong to all are mentioned, and so confessedly all the 
other answers, to prove that by many, all are to be under- 
stood, are against the author's own light. 2. It is frivolous, 
for it cannot be proved, that there are more ends of the death 
of Christ, besides the fruit of his ransom. 3. It is false, for 
where the death of Christ is spoken of as for many, he is said 
to give his life a ransom for them; Matt. xx. 28. Which are 
the very words where he is said to die for all ; 1 Tim. ii. 
6. What difference is there in these, what ground for this 
observation? Even such as these are divers others of that 
author's observations : as his whole tenth chapter is spent 
to prove that wherever there is mention of the redemption 
purchased by the oblation of Christ, there they for whom it 
is purchased are always spoken of in the third person ; as, by 
all the world or the like, when yet, chapter one of his book, 
himself produceth many places to prove this general re- 
demption, where the persons for whom Christ is said to 
suffer, are mentioned in the first or second persons ; 1 Pet. 
ii. 24. iii. 18. Isa. liii. 5, 6. 1 Cor. xv. 4. Gal. iii. 13, &c. 

Thirdly, He proceeds, 'This reason is false and ungodly, 
for it is no where in Scripture said, that Christ died or gave 
himself a ransom but for many, or only for many, or only for 
his sheep, and it is ungodliness to add to, or diminish from, 
the word of God in Scripture.' 

Jiep. To pass by the loving terms of the author, and allow- 
ing a grain to make the sense current. I say. First, That Christ 
affirming that he gave his life for many, for his sheep, being 
said to die for his church, and innumerable places of Scrip- 
ture witnessing, that all men are not of his sheep, of his 
church, we argue and conclude, by just and undeniable 
consequence, that he died not for those who are not so. If 
this be adding to the word of God (being only an exposition 
and unfolding of his mind therein), who ever spake from the 
word of God and was suiltless. 

Secondly, Let it be observed, that in the very place where 



302 THE PROPER END OF 

our Saviour says, that he gave his life for liis sheep ; he pre- 
sently adds, that some are not of his sheep; John xx. 26. 
which if it be not equivalent to his sheep only, I know not 
which is. 

Thirdly, It were easy to recriminate ; but. 
Fourthly, 'But,' says he, * the reason is deceitful and er- 
roneous, for the Scripture doth no where say, 2. "Those many 
he died for, are his sheep (much less his elect as the reason 
intends it). As for the place, John x. 15. usually instanced 
to this end, it is therein much abused; for our Saviour, John 
X. did not set forth the difference, between such as he died 
for, and such as he died not for ; ''or such as he died for, so and 
so, and not so and so, 'but the difference between those that 
believe on him, and those who believe not on him; ver. 4, 
5. 14. 26, 27. One hear his voice and follow him, the other 
not. *^Nor did our Saviour here set forth the privileges of all 
he died for, or for whom he died for so and so, but of those 
that believe on him through the ministration of the gospel ; 
and so to know him and approach to God, and enter the 
kingdom by him ; ver. 3, 4. 9. 27. ^Nor was our Saviour here 
setting forth the excellency of those for whom he died, or 
died for so only, wherein they are preferred before others ; 
but the excellency of his own love, with the fruits thereof to 
those (not only that he died for, but also) that are brought in 
by his ministration to believe on him; ver. 11. 27. ^Nor was 
our Saviour here treating so much of his ransom giving and 
propitiation making, as of his ministration of the gospel, and 
so of his love and faithfulness therein, wherein he laid down 
his life for those ministered to, and therein gave us ex- 
ample, not to make propitiation for sin, but to testify love 
in suffering.' 

Rep. I am persuaded of nothing, but an acquaintedness 
with the condition of the times wherein we live, can afford 
me sanctuary from the censure of the reader to be lavish of 
precious hours, in considering and transcribing such canting 
lines, IS these last repeated. But yet seeing better cannot be 
afforded ; we must be content to view such evasions as these, 
all whose strength is in incongruous expressions, in colerent 
[in incoherent] structure, cloudy, windy phrases, all tending to 
raise such a mighty fog as that the business in hand might not 
be perceived, being lost in this smoke and vapour cast out to 
darken the eyes, and amuse the senses, of poor seJuced souls. 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 303 

The argument undertaken to be answered, being that Christ is 
said to die for many, and those many are described and de- 
signed to be his sheep ; as John x. What answer I pray or any 
thing like thereunto is there to be picked out of this confused 
heap of words which we have recited ; so that I might safely 
pass the whole evasion by without farther observation on it, 
but only to desire the reader to observe, how much this one 
argument pres=eth, and what a nothing is that heap of con- 
fusion which is opposed to it. But yet lest any thing should 
adhere, I will give a few annotations to the place answering 
the marks wherewith we have noted it ; leaving the full vin- 
dication of the place, until I come to the pressing of our ar- 
guments. I say then. First, ''That the many Christ died for 
were his sheep, was before declared ; neither is the place of 
John X. at all abused ; our Saviour evidently setting forth 
a difference between them for whom he died, and those for 
whom he would not die, calling the first his sheep; ver. 15. 
' Those to whom he would give eternal life;' ver. 28. Those 
given him by his Father ; chap. xvii. evidently distinguish- 
ing them from others who were not so. Neither is it material 
what was the primary intention of our Saviour in this place, 
from which we do not argue, but from the intention and aim 
of the words he uses, and the truth he reveals for that end 
aimed at, which was the consolation of believers. 

Secondly, ''For the difference between them he died for 
so and so, and those he died for so and so, we confess he 
puts none, for we suppose that this so and so, doth neither 
express nor intimate any thing that may be suitable to any 
purpose of God, or intent of our Saviour in this business, to 
us for whom he died, he died in the same manner and for the 
same end. 

Thirdly, ''We deny that the primary difference that here 
is mf'de by our Saviour, is between believers and not be- 
lievers, but between elect and not elect, sheep and not sheep, 
the thing wherein they are thus differenced, being the be- 
lieving of the one; called healing of his voice and knowing 
him, and the not believing of the other : the foundation of 
these acts being their different condition, in respect of God's 
purposa and Christ's love, as is apparent from the antithesis 
and opposition which ye have in ver. 26 and 27. * Ye be- 
lieve not, because ye are not of my sheep, and my sheep hear 



304 THE PROPER END OF 

my voice.' First, There is a distinction put in the act of be- 
lieving and hearing (that is, therewithal to obey), and then is 
the foundation of this distinction asserted, from their distin- 
o-uished state and condition, the one being not his sheep, the 
other being so, even them whom he loved and gave his life for. 
Fourthly, '* First, It is nothing to the business before us, 
what privileges our Saviour here expresseth, our question is, 
for whom he says he would give his life, and that only. Se- 
condly, This frequent repetition of that useless so and so, 
serves for nothing but to puzzle the poor ignorant reader. 
Thirdly, We deny that Christ died for any but those who 
shall certainly be brought unto him by the ministration of 
the gospel. So that there is not 'a not only those whom he 
died for, but also those that are brought in unto him;' for he 
died for his sheep, and his sheep hear his voice ; they for 
whom he died, and those that come in to him, may receive 
different qualifications, but they are not several persons. 

Fifthly, "^ First, The question is not at all, to what end our 
Saviour here makes mention of his death, but for whom he 
died, who are expressly said to be his sheep, which all are not. 
Secondly, His intention is to declare the giving of his life for 
a ransom, and that according to the commandment received 
of his Father ; ver. 18. 

Sixthly, *^ First, The love and faithfulness of Jesus Christ, 
in the ministration of the gospel ; that is, his performing 
the office of the Mediator of the new covenant, is seen in 
nothing more, than in giving his life for a ransom; John xv. 
13. Secondly, Here is not one word of giving us an ex- 
ample, though in laying down his life he did that also, yet 
here it is not improved to that purpose. From these brief an- 
notations I doubt not, but that it is apparent that that long- 
discourse before recited, is nothing but a miserable mis- 
taking of the text and question, which the author perhaps 
perceiving, he adds divers other evasions which follow. 

'Besides,' saith he, ' the opposition appears here to be not 
so much between elect and not elect, as between Jews called 
and Gentiles uncalled.' 

llep. The opposition is between sheep and not sheep, and 
that with reference to their election, and not to their voca- 
tion. Now who would he have signified by the not sheep ? 
Those that were not called, the Gentiles, that is against the 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 305 

text, terming them sheep, that is in designation, though not 
as yet called ; ver. 9. And who are the[called ; the Jews ? True, 
they were then outwardly called, yet many of them were not 
sheep ; ver. 26. Now truly such evasions from the force of 
truth as this, by so foul corrupting of the word of God, 
is no small provocation of the eye of his glory. But he 
adds, 

' Besides, there is in Scripture, great difference between 
sheep, and sheep of his flock and pasture, of which he here 
speaketh ; ver. 4, 5. 11. 15, 16.' 

Rep- First, This unrighteous distinction well explained 
must needs, no doubt (if any know how), give a great deal 
of light to the business in hand. 2. If there be a distance to 
be allowed, it can be nothing but that the sheep who are 
simply so called, are those who are only so to Christ, from 
the donation of his Father ; and the sheep of his pasture, 
those who by the effectual working of the Spirit are actual- 
ly brought home to Christ, and then of both sorts we have 
mention in this chapter; ver. 16.27. both making up the 
number of those sheep for whom he gave his life, to whom 
he giveth life. But he proceeds ; 

* Besides sheep, ver. 4, 5. 11. 15. are not mentioned, as 
all those for whom he died, but as those who by his minis- 
tration are brought in to believe, and enjoy the benefit of his 
death, and to whom he ministereth and communicateth 
spirit.' 

Rep. 1. The substance of this and other exceptions is, 
that by sheep is meant believers ; which is contrary to ver. 
9. 16. calling them sheep who ai'e not as yet gathered to his 
fold. 2. That his sheep are not mentioned as those for whom 
he died, is in terms contradictory to ver. 15. * I lay down my 
life for my sheep.' 3. Between those for whom he died, and 
those whom he brings in by the ministration of his Spirit, 
there is no more difference, than is between Peter, James, 
and John, and the three apostles that were in the mount 
with our Saviour at his transfiguration. This is childish 
sophistry to beg the thing in question, and thrust in the opi- 
nion controverted into the room of an answer. 4. That bring- 
ing in, which is here mentioned, to believe and enjoy the be- 
nefit of the death of Christ, is a most special fruit and bene- 
fit of that death, certainly to be conferred on all them for 

VOL. V. X 



30G THE PROPER EX 13 OF 

whom he died, or else most certainly his death will do them 
no good at all. Once more, and we have done.^ 

* Besides, here are more ends of his death mentioned, than 
ransom or propitiation only; and yet it is not said only for 
his sheep, and when the ransom or propitiation only is men- 
tioned, it is said for all men. So that this reason appears 
weak, fraudulent, ungodly, and erroneous/ 

Rep. 1. Here are no word mentioned nor intimated of the 
death of Christ, but only that which was accomplished by 
his being a propitiation, and making his death a ransom for 
us, with the fruits which certainly and infallibly spring 
therefrom. 2. If more ends than one of the death of Christ 
are here mentioned, and such as belong not unto all, why do 
you deny that he speaks here of his sheep only ? Take heed 
or you will see the ti'uth. 3. Where it is said of all men, I 
know not, but this I am sure that Christ is said to give his 
life a ransom, and that only mentioned where it is not said 
for all, as Matt. xx. 28. x. 45. And so from those brief anno- 
tations I hope any indifferent reader will be able to judge, 
whether the reason opposed, or the exceptions against it de- 
vised, be to be accounted weak, fraudulent, ungodly, and er- 
roneous. 

Although I fear that in the particular I have already in- 
trenched upon the reader's patience, yet I cannot let pass 
the discourse immediately following in the same author, to 
those exceptions which we last removed, laid by him against 
the arguments we had in hand, without an obilist; as also an 
observation of his great abilities, to cast down a man of 
clouds, which himself had set up to manifest his skill in its 
direction. To the preceding discourse he adds another ex- 
ception, which he imposeth on those that oppose universal 
redemption, as though it were laid by them against the un- 
derstanding of the general expressions in the Scripture, in 
that way and sense wherein he conceives them ; and it is, 
that those words were fitted for the time of Christ and his 
apostles, having another meaning in them than they seem to 
import. Now having thus gaily trimmed and set up this 
man of straw, to whose framing I dare boldly say, not one of 
his adversaries did ever contribute a penful of ink; to shew 
his rare skill, he chargeth it with I know not how many er- 
rors, blasphemies, lies, set on with exclamations, and vehe- 



THE DKATII OF CHRIST. 307 

ment outcries, until it tumble to the ground ; had he not 
sometimes answered an argument, he would have been 
thought a most unhappy disputant. Now to make sure that 
once he would do it, I believe he was very careful that the 
objection of his own framing, should not be too strong for 
his own defacing. In the mean time how blind are they who 
admire him for a combatant, who is skilful only at fencing 
with his own shadow; and yet with such empty j anglings as 
these, proving what none denies, answering what none ob- 
jects, is the greatest part of Mr. More's book stuffed. 



CHAP. IV. 

Of the distinction of impetration and application ; the use and abuse there- 
of; with the opinion of the adversaries upon the whole matter in controversy 
unfolded ; and the question on both sides stated. 

The farther reasons whereby the precedent discourse may 
be confirmed, I defer until I come to oppose some argu- 
ment to the general ransom : for the present I shall only 
take away that general answer, which is usually given to the 
places of Scripture, produced to wave the sense of them, 
which is (papfittKov iravao^ov to our adversaries, and serves 
them as they suppose, to bear up all the weight wherewith 
in this case they are urged. They say then, that in the ob- 
lation of Christ, and concerning the good things by him 
procured, two things are to be considered. First, The impe- 
tration, or obtaining of them; and, secondly, The application 
of them to particular persons. The first, say they, is gene- 
ral, in respect of all ; Christ obtained and procured all good 
things by his death, of his Father; reconciliation, redemption, 
forgiveness of sins, for all and every man in the world, if they 
will believe and lay hold upon him ; but in respect oi appli- 
cation, they are actually bestowed and conferred but on a 
few, because but a few believe, which is the condition on 
which they are bestowed : and in this latter sense are the 
texts of Scripture, which we have argued, all of them to be 
understood ; so that they do no whit impeach the universa- 
lity of merit which they assert, but only the universality of 
application, which they also deny. Now this answer is com- 
monly set forth by them in various terms and divers dresses, 

X 2 



308 THE PROPER END OF 

according as it seems best to them that use it, and most sub- 
servient to their several opinions ; for. 

First, Some of them say, that Christ by his death and 
passion, did absolutely, according to the intention of God, 
purchase for all and every man, dying for them, remission of 
sins, and reconciliation with God, or a restitution into a 
state of grace and favour, all which shall be actually bene- 
ficial to them, provided that they do believe. So the Ar- 
minians. 

Secondly, Some* again, that Christ died for all indeed, 
but conditionally for some if they do believe, or will so do 
(which he knows they cannot of themselves); and absoUitelif 
for his own, even them on whom he purposeth to bestow faith 
and grace, so actually to be made possessors of the good 
things by him purchased. So Camero, and the divines of 
France, which follow a new method by him devised. 

Thirdly, Some'' distinguish of a twofold reconciliation and 
redemption ; one wrought by Christ with God for man, which, 
say they, is general for all and every man. Secondly, A re- 
conciliation wrought by Christ in man unto God, bringing 
them actually into peace with him. 

And sundry other ways there are, whereby men express 
their conceptions in this business, the sum of all comes to 
this, and the weight of all lies upon that distinction, which 
we before recounted, viz. that, in respect oi impetration, Christ 
obtained redemption and reconciliation for all ; in respect of 
application it is bestowed only on them who do believe, and 
continue therein : their arguments whereby they prove the 
generality of the ransom and universality of the reconcilia- 
tion, must afterward be considered : for the present we han- 
dle only the distinction itself, the meaning and misapplica- 
tion whereof I shall briefly declare, which will appear if we 
consider. 

First, The true nature and meaning of this distinction, 
and the true use thereof: for we do acknowledge that it may 
be used in a sound sense and right meaning, which way so- 
ever you express it, either by impetration and application, 
or by procuring reconciliation with God and a working of 
reconcilation in us. For by impetration, we mean the meri- 

> Camero, Testardus, Amiraldns. ■> More, with some others of late. 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 309 

torious purchase of all good things made by Christ for us, 
with and of his Father ; and by application, the actual en- 
joyment of those good things upon our believing ; as if a man 
pay a price for the redeeming of captives, the paying of the 
price supplieth the room of the impetration of which we speak, 
and the freeing of the captives, is as the application of it. 
Yet then we must observe, 

First, That this distinction hath no place in the intentmi 
and purpose of Christ, but only in respect of the things pro- 
cured by him ; for in his purpose they are both united, his 
full end and aim being to deliver us from all evil, and procure 
all good actually to be bestowed upon us ; but in respect of 
the things themselves, they may be considered either as pro- 
cured by Christ, or as bestowed on us. 

Secondly, That the will of God is not at all conditional in 
this business, as though he gave Christ to obtain peace, re- 
conciliation, and forgiveness of sins upon condition that we 
do believe. There is a condition in the things, but none in the 
will of God ; that is absolute, that such things should be pro- 
cured and bestowed. 

Thirdly, That all the things which Christ obtained for us, 
are not bestowed upon condition, but some of them absolutely: 
and as for those that are bestowed upon condition, the con- 
dition on which they are bestowed, is actually purchased and 
procured for us, upon no condition, but only by virtue of the 
purchase. For instance : Christ hath purchased remission 
of sins, and eternal life for us, to be enjoyed on our believing, 
upon the condition of faith ; but faith itself which is the 
condition of them, on whose performance they are bestowed, 
that he hath procured for us absolutely, on no condition at 
all ; for, what condition soever can be proposed, on which 
the Lord should bestow faith, I shall afterward shew it vain, 
and to run into a circle. 

Fourthly, That both these, impetration and application, 
have for their objects, the same individual persons ; that look 
for whomsoever Christ obtained any good thing by his death, 
unto them it shall certainly be applied, upon them it shall 
actually be bestowed ; so that it cannot be said, that he ob- 
tained any thing for any one, which that one shall not, or 
doth not, in due time enjoy. For whomsoever he wrought 
reconciliation with God, in them doth he work reconciliation 



310 THE PROPEU END OF 

unto God. The one is not extended to some, to whom the 
other doth not reach. Now because this being established, 
the opposite interpretation and misapplication of this dis- 
tinction vanisheth, I shall briefly confirm it with reasons. 

First, If the application of the good things procured, be 
the end why they are procured, for whose sake alone Christ 
doth obtain them, then they must be applied to all for whom 
they are obtained ; for otherwise Christ faileth of his end and 
aim ; which must not be granted. But that this application 
was the end of the obtaining of all good things for us, ap- 
peareth. First, Because if it were otherwise, and Christ did not 
aim at the apjylying of them, but only at their obtaining, then 
might the death of Christ have had its full effect and issue, 
without the application of redemption and salvation to any 
one soul, that being not aimed at ; and so notwithstanding 
all that he did for us, every soul in the world might have pe- 
rished eternally : which whether it can stand with the dignity 
and sufficiency of his oblation, with the purpose of his Fa- 
ther, and his own intention, who ' came into the world to save 
sinners, that which was lost, and to bring many sons unto 
glory,' let all judge. Secondly, God in that action of send- 
ing his Son, laying the weight of iniquity upon him, and 
giving him up to an accursed death, must be affirmed to be 
altooether uncertain, what event all this should have in re- 
spect of us. For did he intend that we should be saved by it? 
then the application of it is that which he aimed at, as we 
assert. Did he not? certainly, he was uncertain what end it 
should have; which is blasphemy, and exceeding contrary to 
Scripture, and right reason. Did he appoint a Saviour, with- 
out thought of them that were to be saved ? a Redeemer, not 
determining who should be redeemed? Did he resolve of a 
means not determining the end ? It is an assertion opposite 
to all the glorious properties of God. 

Secondly, If that which is obtained by any, do by virtue 
of that action, whereby it is obtained, become his in right 
for whom it is obtained, then for whomsoever any thing is by 
Christ obtained, it is to them applied; for that must be made 
theirs in fact, which is theirs in right. But it is most certain 
that whatsoever is obtained for any, is theirs by right, for 
v/hom it is obtained ; the very sense of the word, whether you 
call it merit, impctration, purchase, acquisition, or obtaining, 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 311 

doth bespeak a right in them, for whose good the merit is 
effected, and the purchase made. Can that be said to be ob- 
tained for me, which is no ways mine ? When I obtain any- 
thing- by prayer or entreaty of any one, it being obtained it 
is mine own ; that which is obtained by one, is granted by 
him, of whom it is obtained ; and if granted, it is granted by 
him to them for whom it is obtained. But they will say it is 
obtained upon condition, and until the condition be fulfilled 
no right doth accrue. I answer, if this condition be equally 
purchased and obtained with other things that are to be be- 
stowed on that condition, then this hinders not but that 
every thing is to be applied, that is procured; but if it be 
uncertain whether this condition will be fulfilled or not, then. 
First, This makes God uncertain what end the death of his 
Son will have : Secondly, This doth not answer but deny the 
thing we are in proving which is confirmed. 

Thirdly, Because the Scripture perpetually conjoining 
these two things together, will not suffer us so to sever them, 
as that the one should belong to some and not to others, as 
though they could have several persons for their objects, as 
Isa. liii. 11. 'By his knowledge shall my righteous servant 
justify many ;' there is the application of all good things, ' for 
he shall bear their iniquities;' there is the impetration ; he 
justifieth all, whose iniquities he bore. As also ver. 5. of 
that chapter ; ' But he was wounded for our transgressions, 
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our 
peace was upon him, and by his stripes are we healed;' his 
wounding and our healing, impetration, and application, his 
chastisement and our peace are inseparably associated. So 
Rom. iv. 25. 'He was delivered for our offences, and was 
raised again for our justification.' So Rom. v. 18. 'By the 
righteousness of one' (that is, his impetration), 'the free gift 
comes upon all men to justification of life,' in the application. 
See there who are called all men, most clearly ; Rom. viii. 
32 — 34. ' He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him 
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us 
all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's 
elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth ? 
It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is 
even at the right hand of God ; who also maketh intercession 
for us.' From which words we have these several reasons of 



312 THE PROPER END OF 

our assertion : First, That for whom God gives his Son, to 
them, in him, he freely gives all things, therefore all things 
obtained by his death must be bestowed, and are, on them 
for whom he died ; ver. 32. Secondly, They for whom Christ 
died are justified, are God's elect, cannot be condemned, nor 
can any thing be laid to their charge ; all that he hath pur- 
chased for them must be applied to them, for by virtue thereof 
it is that they are so saved; ver. 33, 34. Thirdly, For whom 
Christ died, for them he maketh intercession. Now his in- 
tercession is for the application of those things, as is con- 
fessed, and therein he is always heard ; those, to whom the 
one belongs, theirs also is the other. So John x. 10. The 
comino; of Christ is, that ' his mioht have life, and have it 
abundantly ;' as also 1 John iv. 9. Heb. x. 10. ' By which 
will we are sanctified,' that is the application ; 'through the 
offering of the body of Jesus, that is the means of impetra- 
tion ; ' for by one offering he hath perfected them that are 
sanctified;' Heb. x. 14. In brief, it is proved by all those 
places which we produced, rightly to assign the end of the 
death of Christ. So that this may be rested on, as I con- 
ceive, as firm and immoveable, that the impetration of good 
things by Christ, and the application of them, I'espect the 
same individual persons. 

Secondly, We may consider the meaning of those who 
seek to maintain universal redemption by this distinction in 
it, and to what use they do apply it. Christ, say they, died 
for all men, and by his death purchased reconciliation with 
God for them, and forgiveness of sins; which to some is ap- 
plied, and they become actually reconciled to God, and have 
their sins forgiven them; but to others not, who therefore 
perish in the state of irreconciliation and enmity under the 
guilt of their sins ; this application, say they, is not pro- 
cured nor purchased by Christ, for then he dying for all, all 
must be actually reconciled, and have their sins forgiven 
them and be saved : but it attends the fulfilling of the con- 
dition which God is pleased to prescribe unto them, that is, 
believing which, say some, they can do by their own strength, 
though not in terms, yet by direct consequence: others not, 
but God must give it; so that when it is said in the Scrip- 
ture, Christ hath reconciled us to God, redeemed us, saved 
us by his blood, underwent the punishment of our sins, and 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 313 

SO made satisfaction for us, they assert that no more is 
meant but that Christ did that which upon the fulfilling of 
the condition that is of us required, these things will follow. 
To the death of Christ indeed, they assign many glorious 
things, but what they give on the one hand, they take away 
with the other, by suspending the enjoyment of them on a 
condition by us to be fulfilled, not by him procured; and in 
terras assert, that the proper and full end of the death 
of Christ was, the doing of that, whereby God, his jus- 
tice beino; satisfied, mio;ht save sinners if he would, and on 
what condition it pleased him; that a door of grace might be 
opened to all that would come in, and not that actual justi- 
fication and remission of sins, life and immortality, were pro- 
cured by him, but only a possibility of those things that so 
it might be. Now that all the venom that lies under this 
exposition and abuse of this distinction may the better ap- 
pear, I shall set down the whole mind of them, that use it, 
in a few assertions, that it may be clearly seen what we do 
oppose. 

'First, God,' say they, 'considering all mankind as fallen 
from that grace and favour in Adam wherein they were created, 
and excluded utterly from the attainment of salvation by 
virtue of the covenant of works, which was at the first made 
with him, yet by his infinite goodness was inclined to desire 
the happiness of them all and every one, that they might be 
delivered from misery and be brought unto himself; which 
inclination of his they call his universal love, and antecedent 
will, whereby he would desirously have them all to be saved, 
out of which love he sendeth Christ.' 

That God hath any natural or necessary inclination by 
his goodness, or any other property, to do good to us, or any 
of his creatures, we do deny: every thing that concerns us 
is an act of his free-will and good pleasure, and not a natural 
necessary act of his Deity, as shall be declared. 

Secondly, The ascribing an antecedent conditional will 
unto God, whose fulfilling and accomplishment should de- 
pend on any free contingent act or work of ours, is injurious 
to his wisdom, power, and sovereignty, and cannot well be 
excused from blasphemy ; and is contrary to Rom. ix. 19. 
'Who hath resisted his will?' I say. 

Thirdly, A common affection and inclination to do good 



314 



THE PROPER END OF 



to all, doth not seem to set out the freedom, fulness, and di- 
mensions of that most intense love of God, which is asserted 
in the Scripture to be the cause of sending his Son; as John 
iii. 16. ' God so loved the world that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son ;' Eph. i. 6. ' Having made known to us the mystery 
of his will; according to his good pleasure, which he hath 
purposed in himself;' Col. i. 19. ' It pleased the Father that 
in him should all fulness dwell;' Rom. v. 8. 'God com- 
mendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sin- 
ners, Christ died for us.' These two I shall, by the Lord's 
assistance, fully clear, if the Lord give life and strength, and 
his people enconragement to go through with the second part 
of this controversy. 

Fourthly, We deny that all mankind is the object of that 
love of God, which moved him to send his Son to die. 'God 
having made some for the day of evil;' Prov. xvi. 4. ' Hated 
them before they were born;' Rom. ix. 12. 'Before of old 
ordained them to condemnation ;' Jude 4. ' Being fitted for 
destruction ;' Rom. ix. 22. ' Made to be taken and destroyed ;' 
2Pet.ii. 12. 'Appointed to condemnation;' 1 Thess.v,9. 'To 
go to their own place ;' Acts i. 25. 

Secondly, ' The justice of God being injured by sin, un- 
less something might be done for the satisfaction thereof, 
that love of God whereby he wouideth good to all sinners, 
could no way be brought forth into act, but must have its 
eternal residence in the bosom of God without any effect 
produced.' 

That neither Scripture nor right reason, will enforce nor 
prove an utter and absolute want of power in God to save 
sinners by his own absolute will, without satisfaction to his 
justice, supposing his purpose that so it should be, indeed 
it could not be otherwise; but, without the consideration of 
that, certainly he could have effected it, it doth not imply 
any violating of his holy nature. 

An actual and necessary velleity, for the doing of any 
thing; which cannot possibly be accomplished without some 
work fulfilled outwardly of him, is opposite to his eternal 
blessedness and all-sufficiency. 

Thirdly, ' God therefore to fulfil that general love and 
goodwill of his towards all, and that it might put forth itself 
in such a way as shoidd seem good to him, to satisfy his 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 315 

justice which stood in the way, and was the only hinderance, 
he sent his Son into the world to die.' 

The failing of this assertion we shall lay forth, when we 
come to declare that love, whereof the sending of Christ was 
the proper issue and effect. 

Fourthly, * Wherefore the proper and immediate end and 
aim of the purpose of God, in sending his Son to die for all 
men was, that he might, what way it pleased him, save sin- 
ners, his justice which hindered being satisfied, as Arminius ; 
or that he might will to save sinners, as Corvinus ; and the 
intention of Christ was to make such satisfaction to the jus- 
tice of God, as that he might obtain to himself, a power of 
saving upon what conditions it seemed good to his Father 
to prescribe.' 

Whether this was the intention of the Father in sending 
his Son or no, let it be judged ; something was said before 
upon the examination of those places of Scripture, which 
describe his purpose, let it be known from them whether 
God in sending of his Son intended to procure to himself a 
liberty to save us, if he would, or to obtain certain salvation 
for his elect.' 

That such a possibility of salvation, or at the utmost a 
velleity or willing of it upon an uncertain condition, to be 
by us fulfilled, should be the full, proper, and only imme- 
diate end of the death of Christ, will yet scarcely down with 
tender spirits. 

The expression of procuring to himself ability to save, 
upon a condition to be prescribed, seems not to answer that 
certain purpose of our Saviour in laying down his life, which 
the Scripture saith was 'to save his sheep,' and to 'bring 
many sons to glory,' as before ; nor hath it any ground in 
Scripture. 

Fifthly, ' Christ therefore obtained for all and every one 
reconciliation with God, remission of sins, life, and salvation, 
not that they should actually be partakers of these things, 
but that God (his justice now not hindering) might and would 
prescribe a condition to be by them fulfilled, whereupon he 
would actually apply it, and make them partake of all those 
good things purchased by Christ.' And here comes their 
distinction of impetration and application, which we before 



316 THE PROPER END OF 

intimated, and thereabout in the explication of this assertion 
they are wondrously divided. 

Some say that this proceeds so far, that all men are there- 
by received into a new covenant; in which redemption Adam 
was a common person as well as in his fall from the old, 
and all we again restored in him ; so that none shall be 
damned, that do not sin actually against the condition 
wherein they are born, and fall from the state whereinto all 
men are assumed through the death of Christ ; so Borreus, 
Corviniis, and one of late, in plain terms, that all are recon- 
ciled, redeemed, saved, and justified in Christ, though how 
he would not understand (More, p. 10). But others, more 
warily deny this, and assert that hy nature roe are all dtUdren 
oftvrath, and that until we come to Christ, the wrath of God 
ahideih on all, so that it is not actually removed from any; so 
the assertors of the efficacy of grace in France. 

Again, some say that Christ by this satisfaction removed 
original sin in all, and by consequent that only : so that all 
infants, though of Turks and Pagans, out of the covenant, 
dying before they come to the nse of reason, must un- 
doubtedly be saved ; that being removed in all, even the ca- 
lamity, guilt, and alienation contracted by our first fall, 
whereby God may save all upon a new condition. But others 
of them (more warily) observing, that the blood of Christ is 
said to ' purge all our sins;' 1 John i. 8. 1 Pet. i. 18. Isa. liii. 
6. they say he died for all sinners alike, absolutely for none, 
but conditionally for all. Farther, some of them affirm that 
after the satisfaction of Christ, or the consideration of it in 
God's prescience, it was absolutely undetermined, what con- 
dition should be prescribed, so that the Lord might have re- 
duced all again to the law and covenant of works ; so Cor- 
vinus. Others, that a procuring of a new way of salvation by 
faith was a part of the fruit of the death of Christ. So 
More, p. 35. 

Again, some of them, that the condition prescribed is by 
our own strength, with the help of such means, as God at 
all times and in all places, and unto all, is ready to aflTord to 
be performed ; others deny this, and affirm that effectual 
grace flowing peculiarly from election is necessary to believ- 
ing. The first establishing the idol oi free-tuill, to maintain 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 317 

their own assertion, others overthrowing their own asser- 
tion for the establishment of grace. So Amiraldus, Ca- 
mero, &c. 

Moreover, some say that the love of God in sending of 
Christ is equal to all ; others go a strain higher, and main- 
tain an inequality in the love of God, although he send his 
Son to die for all, and though greater love there cannot be 
than that whereby the Lord sent his Son to die for us ; as 
Rom. viii. 32. and so they say that Christ purchased a greater 
good for some and less for others ; and here they put them- 
selves upon innumerable uncouth disthtctions, or rather (as 
one calleth them) extinctions ; blotting out all sense and rea- 
son, and true meaning of the Scripture : witness Testardus, 
Amiraldus, and as every one may see that can but read Eng- 
lish in T. M. Hence that multiplicity of the several ends of 
the death of Christ ; some that are the fruits of his ransom 
and satisfaction, and some that are I know not what; besides 
his dying for some so and so, for others so and so, this way 
and that way, hiding themselves in innumerable unintelli- 
gible expressions, that it is a most difficult thing to know 
what they mean, and harder to find out their mind than to 
answer their reasons. 

In one particular they agree well enough, viz. in denying 
that faith is procured or merited for us by the death of 
Christ ; so far they are all of them constant to their own 
principles ; for once to grant it would overturn the whole 
fabric of universal redemption; but in assigning the cause 
of faith they go asunder again. 

Some say, that God sent Christ to die for all men, but 
only conditionally if they did and would believe; as though 
if they believed, Christ died for them ; if not, he died not, and 
so make the act the cause of its own object. Other some, 
that he died absolutely for all, to procure all good things 
for them, which yet they should not enjoy, until they fulfil 
the condition that was to be prescribed unto them ; yet all 
conclude, that in his death Christ had no more respect unto 
the elect than others, to sustain their persons, or to be in 
their room; but that he was a public person in the room of 
all mankind. 

Concerning the close of all this, in respect of the event 
and immediate product of the death of Christ, divers have 



318 THE PROPER EI^fD OF 

diversly expressed themselves; some placing it in the power, 
some in the will of God; some in the opening of a door of 
grace; some in a right purchased to himself of saving whom 
he pleased ; some that in respect of us he had no end at all, 
but that all mankind might have perished after he had done 
all. Others make divers and distinct ends not almost to be 
reckoned of this one act of Christ, according to the diver- 
sity of the persons for whom he died; whom they grant to 
be distinguished and differenced by aforegoing decree ; but 
to what purpose the Lord should send his Son to die for 
them, whom he himself had determined not to save, but at 
least to pass by and leave to irremediless ruin for their sins, 
I cannot see ; nor the meaning of the twofold destination by 
some invented. Such is the powerful force and evidence of 
truth, that it scatters all its opposers, and makes them fly 
to several hiding corners ; who if they are not willing to yield 
and submit themselves, they shall surely lie down in dark- 
ness and error. None of these, or the like intricate and in- 
volved impedite distinctions, hath itself need of; into none 
of such poor shifts and devices doth it compel its abettors; 
it needeth not any windings and turnings to bring itself into 
a defensible posture ; it is not liable to contradictions in 
its own fundamentals, for without any farther circumstances, 
the whole of it in this business may be thus summed up. 

God out of his infinite love to his elect, sent his dear Son in 
the fulness of time, whom he had promised in the heginning of the 
world, and made effectual by that promise; to die, pay a ransom 
of infinite value and dignity , for the purchasing of eternal re- 
demption, and bringing unto himself, all and every one of these 
whom he had before ordained to eternal life, for the praise of his 
own glory. So that freedom from all the evil from which we 
are delivered, and an enjoyment of all the good things that 
are bestowed on us, in our traduction from death to life, from 
hell and wrath to heaven and glory, are the proper issues 
and effects of the death of Christ, as the meritorious cause 
of them all; which may in all the parts of it be cleared by 
these few assertions. 

First, The fountain and cause of God's sending Christ, is 
his eternal love to his elect, and to them alone; which I shall 
not now farther confirm, reserving it for the second general 
head of this whole controversy. 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 319 

Secondly, The value, worth, and dignity of the ransom, 
which Christ gave himself to be, and of the price which he 
paid, was infinite and immeasurable, fit for the accomplish- 
ing of any end, and the procuring of any good, for all and 
every one for whom it was intended, had they been millions 
of men more than ever were created ; of this also afterward : 
see Acts xx. 28. ' God purchased his church with his own 
blood ;' 1 Pet. i. 18. ' Redeemed not with silver and gold, but 
with the precious blood of Christ;' and that answering the 
mind and intention of Almighty God; Johnxiv. 31. 'As the 
Father gave me commandment, so I do.' Who would have 
such a price paid, as might be the foundation of that eco- 
nomy and dispensation of his love and grace which he in- 
tended, and of the way whereby he would have it dispensed. 
Acts xiii. 38, 39. ' Through this man is preached unto you 
the forgiveness of sins ; and by him all that believe are jus- 
tified from all things, from which ye could not be justified 
by the law of Moses.' 2 Cor. v. 20, 21. 'We are ambassa- 
dors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we 
pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God ; for he 
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in him.' 

Thirdly, The intention and aim of the Father in this great 
work was, a bringing of those many sons to glory, viz. his 
elect, whom by his free grace he had chosen from amongst 
all men, of all sorts, nations, and conditions ; to take them 
into a new covenant of grace with himself, the former being 
as to them, in respect of the event, null and abolished ; of 
which covenant Jesus Christ is the first and chief promise; 
as he that was to procure for them all other good things pro- 
mised therein ; as shall be proved. 

Fourthly, The things purchased or procured for those per- 
sons, which are the proper effects of the death and ransom 
of Christ, in due time certainly to become theirs, in posses- 
sion and enjoyment, are remission of sin, freedom from wrath 
and curse of the law, justification, sanctification, and recon- 
ciliation with God, and eternal life ; for the will of his Fa- 
ther sending him for these, his own intention in laying down 
his life for them, and the truth of the purchase made by him, 
is the foundation of his intercession, begun on earth and 
continued in heaven ; whereby he whom his Father always 



320 THE PROPER END OF 

hears, desires and demands that the good things procured 
by him, may be actually bestowed on them all, and every 
one for whom they were procured. So that the whole of 
what we assert in this great business is exceedingly clear, 
and apparent without any intricacy, or the least difficulty 
at all, not clouded with strange expressions, and unneces- 
sary divulsions and tearings of one thing from another, as is 
the opposite opinion, which in the next place shall be dealt 
withal by arguments, confirming the one and everting the 
other. But because the whole strength thereof lieth in, and 
the weight of all lieth on, that one distinction we before 
spoke of, by our adversaries diversly expressed and held 
out, we will a little farther consider that, and then come to 
our arguments, and so to the answering of the opposed ob- 
jections. 



CHAP. V. 

Of application and impetralioii. 



The allowable use of this distinction, how it may be taken 
in a sound sense, the several ways whereby men have express- 
ed the thing, which in these words is intimated; and some 
arguments for the overthrowing of the false use of it, however 
expressed, we have before intimated and declared ; now see- 
ing that this is the ttqwtov ipevdog of the opposite opinion, 
understood in the sense, and according to the use they make 
of it, I shall give it one blow more, and leave it I hope a dy- 
ing. I shall then briefly declare, that although these two 
things may admit of a distinction, yet they cannot of a sepa- 
ration ; but that for whomsoever Christ obtained good, to 
them it might be applied ; and for whomsoever he wrought 
reconciliation with God, they must actually unto God be re- 
conciled. So that the blood of Christ, and his death in the 
virtue of it, cannot be looked on (as some do) as a medicine 
in a box, laid up for all that shall come to have any of it, 
and so applied now to one, then to the other, without any 
respect or difference, as though it should be intended no 
more for one than for another; so that although he hath ob- 
tained all the good that he hath purchased for us, yet it is 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 321 

left indifferent and uncertain whether it shall ever be ours or 
no ; for it is well known, that notwithstanding those glori- 
ous things, that are assigned by the Arminians to the death 
of Christ; which they say he purchased for all, as remission 
of sins, reconciliation with God, and the like ; yet they for 
whom this purchase and procurement is made may be damn- 
ed, as the greatest part are and certainly shall be. Now that 
there should be such a distance between these two. 

First, It is contrary to common sense or our usual forai 
of speaking, which must be wrested, and our understandings 
forced to apprehend it. When a man hath obtained an office, 
or any other obtained it for him, can it be said that it is un- 
certain whether he shall have it or no? If it be obtained for 
him, is it not his in right, though perhaps not in possession? 
That which is impetrated or obtained by petition, is his by 
whom it is obtained. It is to offer violence to common 
sense, to say a thing may be a man's, or it may not be his, 
when it is obtained for him, for in so saying we say it is 
his : and so it is in the purchase made by Jesus Christ, and 
the good things obtained by him for all them for whom 
he died. 

Secondly, It is contrary to all reason in the world, that 
the death of Christ in God's intention should be applied to 
any one, that shall have no share in the merits of that death. 
God's will that Christ should die for any, is his intention, 
that he shall have a share in the death of Christ, that it 
should belong to him ; that is, be applied to him, for that is 
in this case said to be applied to any, that is his in any re- 
spect, according to the will of God ; but now the death of 
Christ, according to the opinion we oppose, is so applied to 
all, and yet the fruits of this death are never so much as once 
made known to far the greatest part of those all. 

Secondly, That a ransom should be paid for captives, 
upon compact for their deliverance, and yet upon the pay- 
ment those captives not be made free, and set at liberty. 
The death of Christ is a ransom ; Matt. xx. 28. paid by com- 
pact for the deliverance of captives for whom it was a ran- 
som ; and the promise wherein his Father stood engaged to 
him, at his undertaking to be a Saviour, and undergoing the 
office imposed on him, was their deliverance (as was before 
declared), upon his performance of the things on that the 

VOL. V. Y 



322 THE PROPER END OF 

greatest number of these captives should never be released, 
seems strange and very improbable. 

Thirdly, It is contrary to Scripture, as w^as before at large 
declared. See chap. x. 

But now all this our adversaries suppose they shall wipe 
away with one slight distinction, that will make, as they say, 
all we affirm in this kind to vanish, and thatis this. It is true, 
say they, all things that are absolutely procured and ob- 
tained for any, do presently become theirs in right for whom 
they are obtained ; but things that are obtained upon condi- 
tion, become not theirs until the condition be fulfilled; now 
Christ hath purchased by his death, for all, all good things, 
not absolutely, but upon condition, and until that condition 
come to be fulfilled, unless they perform what is required, 
they have neither part nor portion, right unto, nor possession 
of, them. Also, what this condition is, they give in, in sun- 
dry terms, some call it a not resisting of this redemption, 
offered to them; some, a yielding to the invitation of 
the gospel ; some, in plain terms, faith. Now be it so that 
Christ purchaseth all things for us, to be bestowed on this 
condition, that we do believe it; then I affirm, that, first. 
Certainly this condition ought to be revealed to all for whom 
this purchase is made, if it be intended for them in good 
earnest ; all for whom he died must have means to know 
that his death will do them good, if they believe, especially 
it being in his power alone to grant them these means, who 
intends good to them by his death. If I should entreat a 
physician, that could cure such a disease, to cure all that 
came unto him, but should let many rest ignorant of the grant, 
which I had procured of the physician, and none but myself 
could acquaint them with it, whereby they might go to him 
and be healed, could I be supposed to intend the healing of 
those people? Doubtless, no. The application is easy. Se- 
condly, This condition of them to be required, is in their 
power to perform, or it is not. If it be, then have all men 
power to believe; which is false. If it be not, then the Lord 
will grant them grace to perform it, or he will not. If he 
will, why then do not all believe? why are not all saved? 
If he will not, then this impetration or obtaining salvation 
and redemption for all by the blood of Jesus Christ, comes 
at length to this, God intendeth that he shall die for all, to pro- 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 323 

cure for them remission of sins, reconciliation vnth him, eternal 
redemption and glory, but yet so, that they shall never have the 
least good by these glorious things, unless they perform that, 
which he knoivs they are no way able to do, and ivhich none but 
himself' can enable them to perform ; and which concerning for 
the greatest part of them, he is resolved 7iot to do. Is this to 
intend that Christ should die for them, for their good, or 
rather that he should die for tliem to expose them to shame 
and misery ? Is it not all one, as if a man should promise a 
blind man a thousand pounds upon condition that he will 
see. Thirdly, This condition of faith, is procured for us by 
the death of Christ, or it is not. If they say it be not, then 
the chiefest grace, and without which redemption itself (ex- 
pressed how you please) is of no value, doth not depend on 
the grace of Christ, as the meritorious procuring cause 
thereof; which, first, is exceedingly injurious to our blessed 
Saviour, and serves only to diminish the honour and love 
due to him. Secondly, Is contrary to Scripture ; Tit. iii. 
5, 6. 2 Cor. V. 21. ' He became sin for us, that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in him;' and how we 
can become the righteousness of God, but by believing, I 
know not ; yea, expressly saith the apostle, ' It is given to 
us for Christ's sake, on the behalf of Christ, to believe on 
him ;' Phil i. 29. * God blessing us with all spiritual bless- 
ings in him ;' Eph. i. 3. Whereof surely faith is not the 
least. If it be a fruit of the death of Christ, why is it not 
bestowed on all, since he died for all, especially since the 
whole impetration of redemption is altogether unprofitable 
without it ? If they do invent a condition upon which this is 
bestowed, the vanity of that shall be afterward discovered ; 
for the present, if this condition be, so they do not refuse or 
resist the ineans of grace ; then I ask, if the fruit of the death 
of Christ shall be applied to all, that fulfil this condition of 
not refusing or not resisting the means of grace. If not, then 
why is that produced ? If so, then must all be saved, that 
have not, or do not, resist the means of grace ; that is, all 
Pagans, infidels, and those infants, to whom the gospel was 
never preached. Fourthly, This whole assertion tends to 
make Christ, but a half mediator, that should procure the 
end, but not the means conducing thereunto. So that not- 
withstanding this exception and new distinction, our asser- 

Y 2 



324 THE PROPER END, &C. 

tion stands firm, that the fruits of the death of Christ in re- 
spect of impetration of good, and application to us, ought 
not to be divided, and our arguments to confirm it are un- 
shaken. For a close of all, that which in this cause we af- 
firm may be summed up in this. Christ did not die for any 
upon condition if they do believe, but he died for all God's 
elect, that they should believe, and believing have eternal 
life ; faith itself is among the principal effects and fruits of 
the death of Christ, as shall be declared. It is no where 
said in Scripture, nor can it reasonably be affirmed, that if 
we believe, Christ died for us, as though our believing 
should make that to be, which otherwise was not, the act 
create the object, but Christ died for us, that we might be- 
lieve; salvation indeed is bestowed conditionally, but faith 
which is the condition is absolutely procured. The ques- 
tion being thus stated, the difference laid open, and the 
thing in controversy made known, we proceed in the next 
place to draw forth some of those arguments, demonstra- 
tions, testimonies, and proofs, whereby the truth we main- 
tain is established, in which it is contained, and upon which 
it is firmly founded, only desiring the reader to retain some 
notions, in his mind, of those fundamentals which in gene- 
ral we laid down before, they standing in such relation to 
the arguments which we shall use, that I am confident not 
one of them can be thoroughly answered before they be 
everted. 



BOOK III. 
CHAP. I. 

Argianents against the nniversality of redemption. The two first f rota 
the nature of the new covenant, and the dispensation thereof, 

1 HE first argument may be taken from the nature of the co- 
venant of grace, which was established, ratified, and con- 
firmed, in and by the death of Christ, that was the testament 
whereof he was the testator, which was ratified in his death, 
and whence his blood is called ' the blood of the New Tes- 
ment ;' Matt. xxvi. 28. Neither can any effects thereof be 
extended beyond the compass of this covenant ; but now 
this covenant was not made universally with all, but parti- 
cularly only with some, and therefore those alone were in- 
tended in the benefits of the death of Christ. The assump- 
tion appears from the nature of the covenant itself, described 
clearly Jer. xxxi. 31, 32. ' I will make a new covenant with 
the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah ; not ac- 
cording to the covenant that I made with their fathers in 
the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of 
the land of Egypt ; (which my covenant they brake, though 
I was an husband to them, saith the Lord).' And Heb. viii. 
9 — 11. ' Not according to the covenant that I made with 
their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead 
them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not 
in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of 
Israel after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my laws 
in their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be 
to them a God, and they shall be to me a people ; and they 
shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his 
brother, saying, Know the Lord ; for all shall know me from 
the least to the greatest.' Wherein, first, the condition of 
the covenant is not said to be required, but it is absolutely 
promised ; * I will put my fear in their hearts.' And this is 
the main difference between the old covenant of works, and 
the new one of grace, that in that the Lord did only 



326 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

require the fulfilling of the condition prescribed, but in this 
he promiseth to effect it in them himself, with whom the cove- 
nant is made. And without this spiritual efficacy, the truth 
is, the new covenant, would be as weak and unprofitable for the 
end of a covenant (the bringing of us and binding of us to God) 
as the old. For in what consisted the weakness and unpro- 
fitableness of the old covenant, for which God in his mercy 
abolished it? Was it not in this, because by reason of sin 
we were no way able to fulfil the condition thereof, ' Do this 
and live !' Otherwise the connexion is still true, that ' he that 
doth these things shall live ;' and are we of ourselves any 
way more able to fulfil the condition of the new covenant ? 
Is it not as easy for a man by his own strength to fulfil the 
whole law, as to repent and savingly believe the promise of 
the gospel ? This then is one main diflference of these two 
covenants, that the Lord did in the old only require the con- 
dition ; now in the new he will also effect it in all the fede- 
rates, to whom this covenant is extended. And if the Lord 
should only exact obedience required in the covenant of us, 
and not work and effect it also in us, the new covenant would 
be a show to increase our misery, and not a serious impart- 
ing and communicating of grace and mercy. If then, this be 
the nature of the New Testament, as appears from the very 
words of it, and might abundantly be proved, that the condition 
of the covenant, should certainly by free grace be wrought 
and accomplished in all that are taken into covenant, then no 
more are in this covenant, than in whom those conditions of 
it are effected. But thus, as is apparent, it is not with all ; 
for ' all men have not faith,' it is of the elect of God. There- 
fore, it is not made with all, nor is the compass thereof to be 
extended beyond the remnant that are according to election. 
Yea every blessing of the new covenant being certainly com- 
mon, and to be communicated to all the covenantees; either 
faith is none of them, or all must have it if the covenant it- 
self be general. But some may say, that it is true God pro- 
miseth to write his law in our hearts, and put his fear in our 
inward parts ; but it is upon condition : give me that condition 
and I will yield the cause. Is it if they do believe? Nothing 
else can be imagined ; that is, if they have the law written 
in their hearts (as every one that believes hath), then God 
promiseth to write his law in their hearts. Is this probable. 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 327 

friends ? is it likely ? I cannot then be persuaded, that God 
hath made a covenant of grace with all, especially those who 
never heard a word of covenant, grace, or condition of it ; much 
less received grace for the fulfilling of the condition, without 
which the whole would be altogether unprofitable and use- 
less. The covenant is made with Adam, and he is acquaint- 
ed with it; Gen. iii. 15. renewed with Noah, and not hid- 
den from him. Again established with Abraham, accom- 
panied with a full and rich declaration of the chief promises 
of it; Gen. xii. which is most certain not to be effected to- 
vi^ards all, as afterward will appear. Yea, that first distinc- 
tion between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the 
serpent, is enough to overthrow the pretended universality 
of the covenant of grace ; for who dares aflarm that God en- 
tered into a covenant of grace with the seed of the serpent? 
Most apparent then it is that the new covenant of grace, and 
the promises thereof, are all of them of distinguishing mercy, 
restrained to the people whom God did foreknow, and so not 
extended universally to all. Now the blood of Jesus Christ 
beincr the blood of this covenant, and his oblation intended 
only for the procurement of the good things intended and 
promised thereby, for he was the surety thereof, Heb. vii. 
22. and of that only ; it cannot be conceived to have respect 
unto all, or any, but only those that are intended in this co- 
venant. 

If the Lord intended that he should, and by his death 
did, procure pardon of sin, and reconciliation with God, for 
all and every one to be actually enjoyed, upon condition that 
they do believe, then ought this good will and intention of 
God, with this purchase in their behalf by Jesus Christ, to 
be made known to them by the word, that they might be- 
lieve; 'for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word 
of God;' Rom. x. 4. 15. For if these things be not made 
known and revealed to all, and every one that is concerned 
in them, viz. to whom the Lord intends, and for whom he 
hath procured so great a good, then one of these things will 
follow ; either, first. That they may be saved without faith 
in, and the knowledge of, Christ (which they cannot have 
unless he be revealed to them), which is false and proved so; 
or else, secondly. That this good will of God, and this pur- 
chase made by Jesus Christ, is plainly in vain, and frustrate 



328 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

in respect of them ; yea, a plain mocking of them, that will 
neither do them any good to help them out of misery, nor 
serve the justice of God to leave them inexcusable, for what 
blame can redound to them, for not embracing and well using 
a benefit, which they, never heard of in their lives ? Doth it 
become the wisdom of God to send Christ to die for men, 
that they might be saved, and never cause these men to hear 
of any such thing, and yet to purpose and declare that un- 
less they do hear of it and believe it, they shall never be 
saved ? What wise man would pay a ransom for the delivery 
of those captives, which he is sure shall never come to the 
knowledge of any such payment made, and so never be the- 
better for it? Is it answerable to the goodness of God to 
deal thus with his poor creatures ? To hold out towards them 
all in pretence, the most intense love imaginable, beyond all 
compare and illustration, as his love in sending his Son is 
set forth to be, and yet never let them know of any such 
thing, but in the end to damn them for not believing it? Is 
it answerable to the love and kindness of Christ to us, to as- 
sign unto him at his death such a resolution as this ; I will 
now by the oblation of myself, obtain for all and every one, 
peace and reconciliation with God, redemption and everlast- 
ing salvation, eternal glory in the high heavens, even for all 
these poor miserable wretched worms, condemned caitiffs, 
that every hour ought to expect the sentence of condemna- 
tion ; and all these shall truly and really be communicated to 
them, if they will believe ; but yet withal I will so order things, 
that innumerable souls shall never hear one word of all this 
that I have done for them, never be persuaded to believe, 
nor have the object of faith that is to be believed proposed 
to them, whereby they might indeed possibly partake of 
these things ? Was this the mind and will, this the design 
and purpose of our merciful high priest? God forbid. It is 
all one as if a prince should say and proclaim, that whereas 
there be a number of captives held in sore bondage in such 
a place, and he hath a full treasure, he is resolved to redeem 
them every one ; so that every one of them shall come out 
of prison that will thank him for his good will ; and in the 
mean time, never take care to let these poor captives know 
his mind and pleasure ; and yet be fully assured, that unless 
he effect it himself it will never be done ; would not this be 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 329 

conceived a vain and ostentatious flourish, without any good 
intent indeed towards the poor captives ? Or as if a physi- 
cian should say, that he hath a medicine that will cure all 
diseases, and he intends to cure the diseases of all, but lets 
but very few know his mind, or any thing of his medicine ; 
and yet is assured that without his relation, and particular 
information, it will be known to very few, and shall he be 
supposed to desire, intend, or aim at the recovery of all ? 
Now it is most clear, from the Scripture and experience of 
all ages, both under the old dispensation of the covenant, 
and the new, that innumerable men, whole nations, for a long 
season are passed by in the declaration of this mystery ; the 
Lord doth not procure that it shall by any means in the least 
measure be made out to all ; they hear not so much as a ru- 
mour or report of any such thing. Under the Old Testa- 
ment * in Judah was God known, and his name was great in 
Israel, at Salem was his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place 
at Sion;' Psal. Ixxvi. 'He shewed his word unto Jacob, and 
his judgments unto Israel; he hath not dealt so with any 
nation, and as for his judgments they have not known them ;* 
Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. Whence those appellations of the Hea- 
then, and imprecations also, as Jer. x. 25. ' Pour out thy fury 
upon the Heathen that know thee not, and upon the families 
that call not upon thy name.' Of whom you have a full de- 
scription, Eph. ii. 12. 'Without Christ, aliens from the com- 
monwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of 
promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.' 
And under the New Testament, though the church have 
confirmed her cords, and strengthened her stakes, and many 
nations are come in to the mountain of the Lord ; so many 
as to be called all people, all nations, yea the world, the 
whole world, in comparison of the small precinct of the 
church of the Jews, yet now also Scripture and experience 
do make it clear, that many are passed by, yea millions of 
souls, that never hear word of Christ, nor reconciliation by 
him, of which we can give no other reason ; but, ' yea, O 
Father, because it seemed good to thee;' Matt. xi. 25, 26. 
For the Scripture, Acts xvi. Ye have the Holy Ghost ex- 
pressly forbidding the apostles to go to sundry places with 
the word, but sending them another way, answerable to the 
former dispensation in some particulars, wherein 'he suffered 



330 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

all men to walk in their own ways ;' Acts xiv. 16. And for 
experience, not to multiply particulars, do but ask any of our 
brethren who have been at any time in the Indies, and they 
will easily resolve ye in the truth thereof. 

The exceptions against this argument are poor and frivo- 
lous, which we reserve for a reply. In brief, how is it revealed 
to those thousands of the offspring of infidels, whom the 
Lord cuts off in their infancy, that they may not pester the 
world, persecute his church, nor disturb human society? How 
to their parents, of whom Paul affirms, that by the work of 
God they might be led to the knowledge of his eternal power 
and G odhead, but that they should know any thing of redemp- 
tion or a Redeemer, was utterly impossible. 



CHAP. II. 

Containing three other arguments. 



If Jesus Christ died for all men, that is, purchased and pro- 
cured for them, according to the mind and Vv'ill of God, all 
those things which we recounted, and the Scripture setteth 
forth, to be the effects and fruits of his death, which may be 
summed up in this one phrase, eternal redemption ; ihen he did 
this, and that according to the purpose of God, either obso- 
liitely or upon some condition by them to be fulfilled. If ah- 
solutehj, then ought all and every one, absolutely and infalli- 
bly to be made actual partakers of that eternal redemption so 
purchased : for what I pray, should hinder the enjoyment of 
that to any, which God absolutely intended, and Christ ab- 
solutely purchased for them. If upon condition, then he did 
either procure this condition for them, or he did not ? If he 
did procure this condition for them, that is, that it should 
be bestowed on them, and wrought within them, then he did 
it either absolutely again or upon a condition. If absolutely, 
then are we as we were before ; for to procure any thing for 
another, to be conferred on him, upon such a condition, and 
withal, to procure that condition absolutely to be bestowed on 
them, is equivalent to the absolute procuring of the thing it- 
self. For so we affirm in this very business, Christ procured 
salvation for us, to be bestowed conditionally if we do be- 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 331 

lieve, but faith itself, that he hath 'absolutely procured without 
prescribing of any condition. Whence we affirm that the 
purchasing of salvation for us, is equivalent to what it would 
have been, if it had been so purchased as to have been ab- 
solutely bestowed, in respect of the event and issue. So that 
thus also must all be absolutely saved. But if this condition, 
be procured upon condition, let that be assigned, and we will 
renew our cjuccre concerning the procuring of that, whether it 
were absolute or conditional ; and so never rest until they 
come to fix somewhere, or still run into a circle. But on the 
other side, is not this condition procured by him, on whose 
performance all the good things purchased by him, are to be 
actually enjoyed? Then, first, this condition must be made 
known to all, as arg. 2. Secondly, All men are able of them- 
selves to perform this condition, or they are not ? If they are, 
then seeing that condition is faith in the promises, as is on 
all sides confessed, then are all men of themselves by the 
power of their own free-will able to believe : which is con- 
trary to the Scriptures, as by the Lord's assistance shall be 
declared. If they cannot, but that this faith must be be- 
stowed on them and wrought within them, by the free grace 
of God ; then when God gave his Son to die for them, to pro- 
cure eternal redemption for them all upon condition that they 
did believe, he either purposed to work faith in them all by 
his grace, that they might believe, or he did not ? li he did, 
why doth not he actually perform it, seeing he is of one mind, 
and who can turn him? why do not all believe? why have 
not all men faith? Or doth he fail of his purpose? If he did 
not purpose to bestow faith on them all, or (which is all one) 
if he purposed not to bestow faith on all (for the will of God 
doth not consist in a pure negation of any thing, what he 
doth not will that it should be, he wills, that it should not 
be), then the sum of it comes to this: that God gave Christ 
to die for all men, but upon this condition, that they perform 
that which of themselves, without him they cannot perform, 
and purposed, that for his part, he would not accomplish it 
in them. Now if this be not extreme madness, to assign a 
will unto God of doing that which himself knows, and orders 
that it shall never be done, of granting a thing upon a con- 
dition, which without his help cannot be fulfilled, and which 
help he purposed not to grant, let all judge. Is this any 



332 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

thing but to delude poor creatures ? Is it possible that any 
good at all should arise to any by such a purpose as this, 
such a giving of a Redeemer ? Is it agreeable to the goodness 
of God, to intend so great a good as is the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ, and to pretend that he would have it pro- 
fitable for them, when he knows that they can no more fulfil 
the condition, which he requires, that it may be by them en- 
joyed, than Lazarus could of himself come out of the grave ? 
Doth it beseem the wisdom of God to purpose that which he 
knows shall never be fulfilled ? If a man should promise to 
give a thousand pounds to a blind man upon condition that he 
will open his eyes and see, which he knows well enough he 
cannot do ; were that promise, to be supposed to come from 
a heart pitying of his poverty, and not rather from a mind to 
elude and mock at his misery ? If the king should promise to 
pay a ransom for the captives at Algiers, upon condition that 
they would conquer their tyrants and come away, which he 
knows full well they cannot do, were this a kingly act? or 
as if a man should pay a price to redeem captives, but not 
that their chains may be taken away, without which they 
cannot come out of prison ? To promise dead men great re- 
wards upon condition they live again of themselves ? Are not 
these to as much end, as the obtaining of salvation : for men 
upon condition that they do believe, without obtaining that 
condition for them? Were not this the assio-nino- such a will 
and purpose as this to Jesus Christ ? ' I will obtain eternal life 
to be bestowed on men, and become theirs by the application 
of the benefits of my death, but upon this condition that they 
do believe; but as I will not reveal my mind and will in this 
business, nor this condition itself to innumerable of them, so 
concerning the rest I know they are no ways able of them- 
selves, no more than Lazarus was to rise, or a blind man is to 
see, to perform the condition that I do require, and without 
which none of the Pood thino;s intended for them can ever 
become theirs : neither will I procure that condition ever to 
be fulfilled in them ; that is, I do will that, that shall be done, 
which I do not only know shall never be done, but that it 
cannot be done, because I will not do that, without which it 
can never be accomplished.' Now whether such a will and 
purpose as this, beseem the wisdom and goodness of our 
Saviour, let the reader judge. In brief, an intention of doing 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 333 

good, unto any one, upon the performance of such a condi- 
tion as the intended knows is absolutely above the strengtli 
of him, of whom it is required (especially if he know that it 
can no way be done, but by his concurrence, and he is re- 
solved not to yield that assistance, which is necessary to the 
actual accomplishment of it, is a vain fruitless flourish, that 
Christ then should obtain of his Father eternal redemption, 
and the Lord should through his Son intend it for them, who 
shall never be made partakers of it), because they cannot 
perform, and God and Christ have purposed not to bestow 
the condition, on which alone it is to be made actually theirs, 
is unworthy of Christ, and unprofitable to them for whom it 
is obtained ; Avhich that any thing that Christ obtained for 
the sons of men should be so unto them, is a hard saying in- 
deed. Again, if God through Christ purpose to save all if 
they do believe, because he died for all, and this faith be not 
purchased by Christ, nor are men able of themselves to be- 
lieve, how comes it to pass that any are saved ? 

God bestows faith on some, not on others. I reply, is this 
distinguishing grace purchased for those some comparatively, 
in respect of those that are passed by without it? Kit be, 
then did not Christ die equally for all; for he died that some 
might have faith, not others ; yea in comparison, he cannot 
be said to die for those other some at all, not dying that they 
might have faith, without which he knew that all the rest 
would be unprofitable and fruitless ; but is it not purchased 
for them by Christ, then have those that he saved no more 
to thank Christ for, than those that are damned, which were 
strange and contrary to Rev. i. 5. ' To him that hath loved us, 
and washed us with his own blood, and hath made us kings and 
priests unto God and his Father,' &c. For my part,! do con- 
ceive that Christ hath obtained salvation for men not upon con- 
dition if they would receive it, but so fully and perfectly that 
certainly they should receive it; he purchased salvation, to be 
bestowed on them that do believe, but ^N\i\\?i\ faith that they 
might believe. Neither can it be objected, that according 
to our doctrine, God requires any thing of men that they 
cannot do, yea faith to believe in Christ : for, first, commands 
do not signify what is God's intention should be done, but 
what is our duty to do, which may be made known to us, 
whether we be able to perform it or not : it signifieth no 



334 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

intention or purpose of God. Secondly, For, first, the promises 
which are proposed together with the command to believe ; 
they do not hold out the intent and purpose of God, that 
Christ should die for us if we do believe, which is absurd ; 
that the act should be the constitutor of its own object, 
which must be before it, and is presupposed to be before we 
are desired to believe it: nor, secondly, the purpose of God 
that the death of Christ should be profitable to us if we do 
believe, which we before confuted ; but, thirdly, only that 
faith is the way to salvation, which God hath appointed : so 
that all that do believe shall undoubtedly be saved, these 
two things, faith and salvation, being inseparably linked to- 
gether, as shall be declared. 

If all mankind, be in and by the eternal purpose of God, 
distinguished into two sorts and conditions ; severally and 
distinctly described and set forth in the Scripture, and Christ 
be peculiarly affirmed, to die for one of these sorts, and no 
where for them of the other, then did he not die for all ; for 
of the one sort he dies for all and every one, and of the other 
for no one at all. But, first, there is such a discriminating 
distinguishment among men by the eternal purpose of God, 
as those whom he loves and those whom he hates. Rom. ix. 
11, 12. Whom he knoweth, and whom heknoweth not. John 
X. 14. ' I knowmy sheep.' 2 Tim.ii.19. * God knoweth who are 
his.' Rom. viii.29. 'Whom he did foreknow.' Rom.xi.2. 'The 
people whom he foreknew :' ' I know you not ;' Matt. vii. 33. 
so John xiii. 18. ' I speak not of you all; I know whom I 
have chosen ;' those that are appointed to life and glory ; 
and those that are appointed to, and fitted for, destruction, 
elect and reprobate, those that were ordained to eternal life, 
and those who before were of old ordained to condemnation; 
as Eph. i. 4. ' He hath chosen us in him.' Acts xiii. 48. ' Or- 
dained toeternallife.' Rom.viii.30. 'Whom he predestinated, 
them he also called ; whom he called them he also justified; 
and whom he justified them he also glorified:' so on the 
other side, 1 Thes. v. 9. God hath not appointed us to wrath 
but to obtain salvation : ' Appointed to wrath.' Rom.ix. 18 — 
21. ' He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom 
he will he hardeneth : thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth 
he then find fault ? for who hath resisted his will ? Nay but, 
O man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the 



UNIVERSAL RKDEMPTION. 335 

thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made 
me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the 
same lump to make one vessel to honour and another to dis- 
honour?' Jude 4. ' Ordained to this condemnation.' 2 Pet. ii. 
12. 'Made to be taken and destroyed:' ' Sheep and goats;' 
Matt. XXV. 32. John x. passim. Those on whom he hath mercy 
and those whom he hardeneth ; Rom. ix. Those that are his 
peculiar people and children according to promise ; that are 
^ot of the world, his church, and those that in opposition to 
them are the world, not prayed for, not his people ; as Tit. ii. 
14. John xvii. 9, 10. passim. John xi. 51. Heb. ii. 10 — 13. 
Which distinction of men is every where ascribed to the pur- 
pose, will, and good pleasure of God. Prov. xvi. 4. 'The 
Lord hath made all things for himself, even the wicked for 
the day of wrath.' Matt. xi. 25, 26. ' Father, I thank thee that 
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 
hast revealed them unto babes ; even so, O Father, for so it 
seemed good in thy sight.' Rom. ix. 11, 12. 'The children being 
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the 
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of 
works, but of him that calleth ; it was said unto her. The 
elder shall serve the younger.' Ver. 16, 17. ' So then it is not 
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that 
sheweth mercy ; for the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even 
for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might 
shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared 
throughout all the earth.' Rom. viii. 28 — 30. 'Who are called 
according to his purpose ; for whom he did foreknow, he did 
also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, 
that he might be the first-born among many brethren : more- 
over, whom he did predestinate them he also called ; and 
whom he called them he also justified ; and whom he justified 
them he also glorified.' So that the first part of the propo- 
sition is clear from the Scripture ; now Christ is said ex- 
pressly and punctually to die for them on the one side, 
for his people; Matt. i. 21. His sheep; John x. 11- — 14. His 
church; Acts xx. 28. Eph. v. 25. As distinguished from the 
world; Rom. v. 8,9. John xi. 51, 52. His elect; Rom. viii. 32. 
34. His children ; Heb. ii. 12, 13. As before more at large ; 
whence we may surely conclude, that Christ died not for all 
and every one ; to wit, not for those he never knew, whom 



336 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

he hateth, whom he hardeneth, on whom he will not shew 
mercy, who were before of old ordained to condemnation, in 
a word for a reprobate, for the world, for which he would 
not pray. That which some except, that though Christ be 
said to die for his sheep, for his elect, his chosen, yet he is not 
said to die for them only ; that term is no where expressed, 
is of no value ; for is it not without any forced interpreta- 
tion in common sense, and according to the usual course of 
speaking, to distinguish men into two such opposite condi- 
tions, as elect and reprobate, sheep and goats ; and then 
affirming that he died for his elect, equivalent to this, he died 
for his elect only? Is not the sense as clearly restrained as 
if that restrictive term had been added ? or is that term 
always added in the Scripture in every indefinite asser- 
tion, which yet must of necessity be limited and restrained, 
as if it were expressly added ; as where our Saviour saith, 
I am the way, and the life, and the resurrection ; John xiv. 
He doth not say that he only is so, and yet of necessity it 
must be so understood, as also in that. Col. i. 19. * It pleased 
the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.' He doth not 
express the limitation only, and yet it were no less than blas- 
phemy to suppose a possibility of extending the affirmation 
to any other : so that this exception, notwithstanding this 
argument, is, as far as I can see, unanswerable : which also 
might be farther urged by a more large explication of God's 
purpose of election and reprobation, shewing how the death 
of Christ was a means set apart and appointed for the saving 
of his elect, and not at all undergone and suffered for those, 
which in his eternal counsel he did determine should perish 
for their sins, and so never be made partakers of the benefits 
thereof. But of this more must be spoken, if the Lord pre- 
serve us and give assistance for the other part of this con- 
troversy, concerning the cause of sending Christ. 

That is not to be asserted and affirmed, which the Scrip- 
ture doth not any where go before us in : but the Scripture 
no where saith, Christ died for all men, much less for all and 
every man (between which two, there is a wide difference, as 
shall be declared) : therefore this is not to be asserted. It is 
true, Christ is said to give his life a ransom for all, but no 
where for all men ; and because it is affirmed expressly in 
other places, that he died for iiiany^ for his church, for them 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 337 

that believe, for the children that God gave him for tis, some 
of all sorts, though not expressly, yet clearly in terms equi- 
valent; Rev. V. 9, 10. It must be clearly proved that where 
all is mentioned, that it cannot be taken for all believers, all 
his elect, his whole church, all the children that God gave 
him, some of all sorts, before a universal affirmative can be 
thence concluded : and if men will but consider the parti- 
cular places, and contain themselves, until they have done 
what is required, we shall be at quiet I am persuaded, in 
this business. 



CHAP. III. 

Containing two other arguments from the person Christ sustained 
in this business. 

For whom Christ died, he died as a sponsor in their stead, 
as is apparent, Rom. v. 6 — 8. ' For when we were yet with- 
out strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For 
scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet peradventure 
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God com- 
mendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sin- 
ners, Christ died for us.' Gal. v. 13. ' He was made a curse 
for us.' 2 Cor. v. 21. * He hath made him to be sin for us.' 
All which places do plainly signify and hold out a change 
or commutation of persons; one being accepted in the room 
of the other. Now if he died as the sponsor or surety of 
them for whom he died in their stead, then these two things 
at least will follow : First, That he freed them from that an- 
ger and wrath, and guilt of death, which he underwent for 
them, that they should in and for him be all reconciled, and 
be freed from the bondage wherein they are by reason of 
death : for no other reason in the world can be assigned, 
why Christ should undergo any thing in another's stead, 
but that that other might be freed from undergoing that 
which he underwent for him : and all justice requires, 
that so it should be, which also is expressly intimated, when 
our Saviour is said to be tjyvog, ' a surety of a better testa- 
ment;' Heb. vii. 22. that is, by being our priest, under- 
going the chastisement of our peace, and the burden of our 
iniquities ; Isa. liii.5 — 7. ' He was made sin for us, that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in him ;' 2 Cor. v, 

VOL. V. Z 



338 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

21. But now all are not freed from wrath and the guilt of 
death, and actually reconciled to God, which is to be justi- 
fied through an imputation of righteousness, and a non-im- 
putation of iniquities ; for until men come to Christ, ' the 
wrath of God abideth on them ;' John iii. 36. Which argueth 
and intimateth a not removal of wrath by reason of not be- 
lieving. He doth not say, it comes on them as though by 
Christ's death they were freed from being under a state and 
condition of wrath, which we are all in by nature; Eph. ii. 3. 
but jUiva ^it remaineth' or abideth : it was never removed: and 
to them the gospel is a savour of death to death, bringing a 
new death and a sore condemnation by its being despised, 
unto that death the guilt whereof they before lay under. 
Some have indeed affirmed that all and every one are redeem- 
ed, restored, justified, and made righteous in Christ, and by 
his death : but truly this is so wretched, 1 will not say per- 
verting of the Scripture, which gives no colour to any such 
assertion, but so direct an opposition to them, as I judge it 
fruitless, and lost labour to go about to remove such excep- 
tions. (More, p. 45.) Secondly, It follows that Christ made 
satisfaction for the sins of all and every man, if he died for 
them; for the reason why he underwent death for us as a 
surety, was to make satisfaction to God's justice for our sins, 
so to redeem us to himself; neither can any other be assigned : 
but Christ hath not satisfied the justice of God for all the 
sins of all and every man, which may be made evident by 
divers reasons. For, 

First, For whose sins he made satisfaction to the justice 
of God, for their sins the justice is satisfied, or else his satis- 
faction was rejected as insufficient: for no other reason can 
be assigned of such a fruitless attempt ; which to aver is 
blasphemy in the highest degree. But now the justice of 
God is not satisfied for all the sins of all and every man, 
which also is no less apparent than the former : for they that 
must undergo eternal punishment themselves for their sins, 
that the justice of God may be satisfied for their sins, the 
justice of God was not satisfied without their own punish- 
ment, by the punishment of Christ; for they are not healed 
by his stripes, but that innumerable souls shall to eternity 
undergo the punishment due to their own sins, I hope needs 
with Christians no proving. Now how can the justice of God 



UNIVKKSAL REDEMPTION. 339 

require satisfaction of them for their sins, if it were before 
satisfied for them in Christ. To be satisfied, and to require 
satisfaction that it may be satisfied, are contradictory, and 
cannot be afiirmed of the same in respect of the same ; but 
that the Lord will require of some the utmost farthing is 
most clear; Matt. v. 26. 

Secondly, Christ, by undergoing death for us, as our 
surety, satisfied for no more than he intended so to do. So 
great a thing as satisfaction for the sins of men could not 
accidentally happen besides his intention, will, and pur- 
pose; especially considering that his intention and good 
will, sanctifying himself to be an oblation, was of abso- 
lute necessity to make his death an acceptable offering. 
But now Christ did not intend to satisfy for the sins of all 
and every man ; for innumerable souls were in hell under the 
punishment and weight of their own sins, from whence there 
is no redemjjtion before, and actually then, when our Sa- 
viour made himself an oblation for sin. Now shall we sup- 
pose that Christ would make himself an offering for their 
sins, whom he knew to be past recovery, and that it was ut- 
terly impossible that ever they should have any fruit or be- 
nefit by his offering ? Shall we think that the blood of the 
covenant was cast away upon them, for whom our Saviour 
intended no good at all ? To intend good to them he could 
not, without a direct opposition to the eternal decree of his 
Father, and therein of his own eternal Deity. Did God send 
his Son, did Christ come to die for Cain and Pharaoh, 
damned so many ages before his suffering ? ' Credat Apella?' 
The exception, that Christ died for them, and his death would 
have been available to them, if they had believed and ful- 
filled the condition required, is in my judgment of no force 
at all. For, first. For the most part they never heard of any 
such condition. Secondly, Christ at his death knew full 
well, that they had not fulfilled the condition, and were ac- 
tually cut off from any possibility ever so to do ; so that any 
intention to do them good by his death, must needs be vain 
and frustrate, which must not be assigned to the Son of God. 
Thirdly, This redemption, conditionate if they believe, we 
shall reject anon. Neither is that other exception, that Christ 
might as w^ell satisfy for them, that were eternally damned 
at the time of his suffering (for whom it could not be useful). 

z 2 



340 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

as for Ihem that were then actually saved (for whom it was 
not needful), of any more value. For, first, Those that were 
saved, were saved upon this ground, that Christ should cer- 
tainly suffer for them in due time, which suffering of his was 
as effectual in the purpose and promise, as in the execution 
and accomplishment. It was in the mind of God accounted 
for them as accomplished : the compact and covenant with 
Christ about it being surely ratified upon mutual unchange- 
able promises (according to our conception); and so our Sa- 
viour was to perform it, and so it was needful for them that 
were actually saved : but for those that were actually damned, 
there was no such inducement to it, or ground for it, or issue 
to be expected out of it. Secondly, A simile will clear the 
whole : if a man should send word to a place where captives 
were in prison, that he would pay the price and ransom that 
was due for their delivery, and to desire the prisoners to 
come forth, for he that detains them accepts of his word and 
engagement; when he comes to make payment, according 
to his promise, if he finds some to have gone forth according 
as was proposed, and others continued obstinate in their 
dungeon; some hearing of what he had done, others not, 
and that according to his own appointment, and were now 
long since dead ; doth he in the payment of his promised 
ransom intend it for them that died stubbornly and obsti- 
nately in the prison? or only for them who went forth? 
Doubtless only for these last : no more can the passion of 
Christ be supposed to be a price paid for them that died in 
the prison of sin and corruption before the payment of his 
ransom; though it might full well be for them that were 
delivered by virtue of his engagement for the payment of 
such a ransom. Thirdly, If Christ died in the stead of all 
men, and made satisfaction for their sins, then he did it for 
all their sins, or only for some of their sins. If for some only, 
who then can be saved? If for all, why then are not all saved? 
They say it is because of their unbelief they will not believe, 
and therefore are not saved. That unbelief, is it a sin or is it 
not? If it be not, how can it be a cause of damnation ? If it 
be, Christ died for it, or he did not. If he did not, then he 
died not for all the sins of all men. If he did, why is this an 
obstacle to their salvation? Is there any new shift to be in- 
vented for this? or must we be contented with the old ? viz. 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 341 

Because they do not believe : that is, Christ did not die for 
their unbelief, or rather, did not by his death remove their 
unbelief, because they would not believe, or because they 
would not themselves remove their unbelief; or he died for 
their unbelief conditionally, that they were not unbelievers. 
These do not seem to me to be sober assertions. 

For whom Christ died, for them he is a mediator, which 
is apparent ; for the oblation or offering of Christ, which 
he made of himself unto God, in the shedding of his blood, 
was one of the chiefest acts of his mediation. But he is 
not a mediator for all, and every one, which also is no less 
evident, because as mediator he is the priest for them, for 
whom he is a mediator : now to a priest it belongs as was 
declared before, to sacrifice and intercede, to procure good 
things and to apply them, to those for whom they are pro- 
cured, as is evident; Heb.ix.and was proved before at large ; 
which confessedly Christ doth not for all. Yea, that Christ 
is not a mediator for every one, needs no proof: experience 
sufficiently evinceth it, besides innumerable places of Scrip- 
ture. It is, I confess, replied by some, that Christ is a me- 
diator for some, in respect of some acts, and not in respect 
of others ; but truly this, if I am able to judge, is a disho- 
nest subterfuge that hath no ground in Scripture, and would 
make our Saviour a half mediator in respect of some, which 
is an unsavoury expression. But this argument was vindi- 
cated before. 



CHAP. IV. 

Of sanctificalion, and of the cause of faith, and the procurement thereof 
by the death of Christ, 

Another argument may be taken from the effect 2indjruit 
of the death of Christ unto sanctijication, which we thus pro- 
pose. If the blood of Jesus Christ, doth wash, purge, cleanse, 
and sanctify, them for whom it was shed, or for whom he was 
a sacrifice ; then certainly he died, shed his blood, or was 
a sacrifice, only for them that in the event are washed, purged, 
cleansed, and sanctified ; which that all or eveiy one are not, 
is most apparent, faith being the first principle of the heart's 
purification ; Acts xv. 9. and all men have not faith ; 1 Thes. 



342 ARGUMENTS ACxAINST 

iii. 2. it is of the elect of God ; Tit. i. 1. The consequence, 
I conceive, is undeniable, and not to be avoided with any 
distinctions. But now we shall make it evident that the 
blood of Christ, is effectual for all those ends of washing, 
purging, and sanctifying, which we before recounted ; and 
this we shall do, first. From the types of it ; and, secondly, By 
plain expressions, concerning the thing itself. First, For the 
type; that which we shall now consider in the sacrifice of 
expiation, which the apostle so expressly compareth with 
the sacrifice and oblation of Christ : of this he affirmeth, 
Heb. ix. 13. that it legally sanctified them, for whom it was 
a sacrifice; for, saith he, 'The blood of bulls and goats, and 
the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to 
the purifying of the flesh.' Now that which was done carnally, 
and legally in the type, must be spiritually effected in the 
antitype, the sacrifice of Christ, typified by that bloody sa- 
crifice of beasts. This the apostle asserteth in the verse fol- 
lowing ; ' How much more/ saith he, ' shall the blood of 
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself with- 
out spot unto God, purge the conscience from dead works 
to serve the living God?' If 1 know any thing, that answer 
of Arminius, and some others to this, viz. that the sacrifice 
did sanctify not as offered, but as sprinkled ; and the blood 
of Christ, not in respect of the oblation, but of its applica- 
tion, answereth it, is weak and unsatisfactory ; for it only 
asserts a division between the oblation and application of the 
blood of Christ, which though we allow to be distinguished, 
yet such a division we are now disproving, and to weaken 
our argument, the same division which we disprove is pro- 
posed. Which, if any, is an easy facile way of answering. 
We grant, that the blood of Christ sanctifieth in respect of 
the application of the good things procured by it, but withal 
prove, that it is so applied to all, for whom it was an obla- 
tion, and that because it is said to sanctify and purge, and 
must answer the type which did sanctify to the purifying of 
the flesh. Secondly, It is expressly, in divers places, affirmed 
of the bloodshedding and death of our Saviour, that it doth 
effect these things, and that it was intended for that pur- 
pose ; many places for the clearing of this were before re- 
counted. I shall now repeat so many of them, as shall be 
suflficient to give strength to the argument in hand ; omit- 
ting those which before were produced, only desiring that 



univp:rsal redemptioiv. 343 

all those places which point out the end of the death of 
Christ, may be considered as of force to establish the truth 
of this argument. Rom. vi. 5, 6. 'For if we have been planted 
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the 
likeness of his resurrection; knowing this that our old man 
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, 
that henceforth we should not serve sin.' The words of the 
latter verse yield a reason of the former assertion in verse 5. 
viz. That a participation in the death of Christ, shall cer- 
tainly be Accompanied with conformity to him in his resur- 
rection. That is both to life spiritual, as also to eternal ; 
* Because our old man is crucified with him, that the body 
of sin might be destroyed ;' that is, our sinful corruption and 
depravation of nature, are by his death and crucifying, ef- 
fectually and meritoriously slain, and disabled from such a 
rule and dominion over us, as that we should be servants 
any longer unto them : which is apparently the sense of the 
place, being it is laid a foundation, to press forward unto all 
degrees of sanctification, and freedom from the power of sin. 
The same apostle also tells us, 2 Cor. i. 20. that, ' all the 
promises of God are in him yea, and in him Amen, unto the 
glory of God by us:' yea and Amen, confirmed, ratified, 
uncharjgeably established, and irrevocably made over to us; 
now this was done in him, that is, in his death and blood- 
shedding, for the confirmation of the testament, whereof 
these promises, are the conveyance of the legacies to us, are 
confirmed by the 'death of him the testator;' Heb. ix. 16. 
For he was ' the surety of this better testament ;' Heb. vii. 22. 
which testament or * covenant, he confirmed with many,' by 
his being cut off for them ; Dan. ix. 26, 27. Now what are 
the promises that are thus confirmed unto us, and established 
by the blood of Christ? The sum of them you have, Jer. 
xxxi. 33. whence they are repeated by the apostle, Heb. 
viii. 10 — 12. To set out the nature of that covenant, which 
was ratified in the blood of Jesus ; in which you have the 
summary description of all that free grace towards us, both 
in sanctification, ver. 10, 11. and in justification, ver. 12. 
Amongst also these promises, is that most famous, of cir- 
cumcising our hearts, and of giving new hearts and spirits 
unto us ; as Deut. xxx. 6. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. So that our whole 
sanctification, holiness, with justification and reconciliation 



344 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

unto God, is procured by, and established unto us, with un- 
changeable promises in the death and bloodshedding of 
Christ; ' The heavenly or spiritual things being purified with 
that sacrifice of his \ Heb. ix. 23. * For we have redemption 
by his blood, even the forgiveness of sins ;' Col. i. 13. ' By 
death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is 
the devil ; that he might free those who by reason of death, 
were obnoxious to bondage all their lives ;' Heb. ii. 14, 15. 
Do but take notice, of those two most clear places, Tit. 
ii. 14. Eph. V. 25, 26. In both which, our cleansing and 
sanctification is assigned, to be the end and intendment of 
Christ the worker, and therefore, the certain effect of his 
death and oblation, which was the work, as was before 
proved ; and 1 shall add but one place more, to prove that, 
which 1 am sorry that I need produce any one to do; to wit, 
that the blood of Christ purgeth us from all our sin ; and it 
is, 1 Cor. i. 30. 'Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' Of which 
because it is clear enough, I need not spend time to prove, 
that he was thus made unto us of God, inasmuch as he set 
him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood; as 
Rom. iii. 25. So that our sanctification, with all other effects 
of free grace, are the immediate procurement of the death of 
Christ. And of the things that have been spoken, this is 
the sum, sanctification and holiness, is the certain fruit and 
effect of the death of Christ, in all them for whom he died, 
but all and every one are not partakers of this sanctification, 
this purging, cleansing, and working of holiness ; therefore, 
Christ died not for all and every one, quod erat demonsti^an- 
dum. It is altogether in vain to except, as some do, that 
the death of Christ is not the sole cause of these things; for 
they are not actually wrought in any, without the interven- 
tion of the Spirit's working in them, and faith apprehending 
the death of Christ. For, first. Though many total causes of 
the same kind, cannot concur to the producing of the same 
effect; yet several causes of several kinds, may concur to 
one effect, and be the sole causes in that kind wherein they 
are causes. The Spirit of God is the cause of sanctification 
and holiness ; but what kind of cause I pray ? Even such a 
one as is immediately, really efficient of the effect. Faith is 
the cause of pardon of sin ; but what cause ? in what kind ? 



UXIVEUSAL KEDEMPTIOy. 345 

Why merely as an instrument, apprehending the righteous- 
ness of Christ. Now do these causes, whereof one is efficient 
the other instrumental, both natural and real, hinder that 
the blood of Christ, may not only concur, but also be the 
sole cause, moral and meritorious, of these things? Doubt- 
less they do not; nay they do suppose it so to be; or else 
they would in this work be neither instrumental nor efficient; 
that being the sole foundation of the Spirit's operation and 
efficience, and the sole cause of faith's being and exist- 
ence. A man is detained captive by his enemy, and one 
goes to him that detains him, and pays a ransom for his de- 
livery, who thereupon grants a warrant to the keepers of 
the prison, that they shall knock off his shackles, take away 
his rags, let him have new clothes, according to the agree- 
ment, saying, Deliver him, for 1 have found a ransom ; be- 
cause the jailer knocks off his shackles, and the warrant of 
the judge, is brought for his discharge, shall he or we say, 
that the price and ransom which was paid, was not the cause, 
yea the sole cause, of his delivery ? Considering that none of 
these latter had been, had not the ransom been paid; they 
are no less the effect of that ransom, than his own delivery. 
In our delivery from the bondage of sin, it is true there are 
other things, in other kinds, do concur besides the death of 
Christ, as the operation of the Spirit and the grace of God, 
but these being in one kind, and that in another, these also 
being no less the fruit and effect of the death of Christ, 
than our deliverance wrought by them, it is most apparent 
that that is the only main cause of the whole. Secondly, To 
take off utterly this exception, with all of the like kind, we 
affirm that faith itself is a proper immediate fruit and pro- 
curement of the death of Christ, in all them for whom he 
died; which because if it be true, it utterly overthrows the 
general ransom, or universal redemption ; and if it be not 
true, I will very willingly lay down this whole controversy, 
and be very indifferent which way it be determined, for go 
it which way it will, free-will must be established, 1 will 
prove a part by itself, in the next argument. 

Before I come to press the argument intended, I must 
premise some few things ; as, 

1. Whatever is freely bestowed upon us, in and through 
Christ, that is all wholly the procurement and merit of the 



346 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

death of Christ : nothing is bestowed through him, on those 
that are his, which he hath not purchased, the price whereby 
he made his purchase being his own blood; 1 Cor. vi. For the 
covenant between his Father and him, of making out all spi- 
ritual blessings to them that were given unto him, was ex- 
pressly founded on this condition, ' that he should make his 
soul an offering for sin ;' Isa. liii. 

2. That confessedly on all sides, faith is in men of un- 
derstanding, of such absolute indispensable necessity unto 
salvation, there being no sacrifice to be admitted for the want 
of it, under the new covenant, that whatever God hath done, 
in his love sending his Son ; and whatever Christ hath done 
or doth, in his oblation and intercession for all or some, with- 
out this in us, is, in regard of the event, of no value, worth, 
or profit unto us ; but serveth only to increase and aggravate 
condemnation : for whatsoever is accomplished besides, that 
is most certainly true, ' He that believeth not shall be damned ;' 
Mark xvi. 16. (So that if there is in ourselves a power of 
believing, and the act of it do proceed from that power, and 
is our own also, then certainly and undeniably, it is in our 
power to make the love of God, and death of Christ, effec- 
tual towards us or not; and that by believing we actually do 
the one, by an act of our own : which is so evident that the 
most ingenious and perspicacious of our adversaries have in 
terms confessed it, as I have declared elsewhere.)"^ This being 
then the absolute necessity of faith, it seems to me that the 
cause of that, must needs be the prime and principal cause 
of salvation : as being the cause of that without which the 
whole would not be, and by which the whole is, and is ef- 
fectual. 

3. I shall give those, that to us in this are contrary 
minded, their choice and option, so that they will answer di- 
rectly categorically, and without uncouth insignificantcloudy 
distinctions, whether our Saviour by his death and interces- 
sion (which we proved to be conjoined), did merit or procure 
faith for us, or no ? or which is all one, whether faith be a 
fruit and effect of the death of Christ or no ? And according 
to their answer I will proceed. If they answer afiirmatively, 
that it is, or that Christ did procure it by his death (provided 
always that they do not wilfully equivocate); and when I speak 

» Display of Arminianisra. 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 347 

of faith, as it is a grace in a particular person, taking it sub- 
jectively, understand faith as it is the doctrine of faith, or the 
way of salvation declared in the gospel, taking it objectively, 
which is another thing and beside the present question ; 
although by the way, I must tell them, that we deny the 
granting of that new way of salvation in bringing life and 
immortality to light by the gospel in Christ, to be procured 
for us by Christ, himself being the chiefest part of this way, 
yea the way itself; and that he should himself be procured 
by his own death and oblation, is a very strange contradic- 
tory assertion, beseeming them who have used it. (More, 
p. 35.) It is true, indeed, a full and plenary carrying of 
his elect to life and glory by that way, we ascribe to him, 
and maintain it against all ; but the granting of that way was 
of the same free grace and unprocured love, which was also 
the cause of granting himself unto us ; Gen. iii. 15. If I say 
they answer thus affirmatively ; then I demand, whether 
Christ procured faith for all for whom he died, absolutely, 
or upon some condition on their part to be fulfilled ? If ab- 
solutely, then surely if he died for all, they must all abso- 
lutely believe; for that which is absolutely procured for any, 
is absolutely his no doubt ; he that hath absolutely procured 
an inheritance, by what means soever, who can hinder that 
it should not be his ? But this is contrary to that of the apo- 
stle, * all men have not faith,' and * faith is of the elect of God ;' 
Tit. i. 1. If they say that he procured it for them, that is, 
to be bestowed on them, conditionally : I desire that they 
would answer, bona fide, and roundly in terms — without equi- 
vocation, or blind distinctions, assign that condition, that 
we may know what it is, being it is a thing of so infinite 
concernment to all our souls : let me know this condition 
which ye will maintain, and en herham amici, the cause is 
yours. Is it, as some say, if they do not resist the grace of 
God ? Now what is it not to resist the grace of God ? Is it not 
to obey it? And what is it to obey the grace of God ? Is it 
not to believe? So the condition of faith is faith itself. Christ 
procured that they should believe upon condition that they do be- 
lieve: are these things so? But they can assign a condition 
on our part required of faith, that is not faith itself: can they 
do it? Let us hear it then, and we will renew our inquiry 
concerning that condition, whether it be procured by Christ 



348 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

or no. If not, then is the cause of faith still resolved into 
ourselves, Christ is not the author and finisher of it. If it be, 
then are we just where we were before, and must follow with 
our queries whether that condition was procured absolutely, 
or upon condition : depinge uhi sistam. 

But, secondly, if they will answer negatively, as agreeably 
to their own principles they ought to do, and deny that faith 
is procured by the death of Christ ; then, 

1 . They must maintain that it is an act of their own wills, 
so our own, as not to be wrought in us by grace, and that it 
is wholly sited in our power to perform that spiritual act; 
nothing being bestowed upon us by free grace, in and through 
Christ (as was before declared), but what by him in his death 
and oblation was procured : which, first, is contrary to ex- 
press Scripture in exceeding many places, which I shall not 
recount. 

2. To the very nature of the being of the new covenant, 
which doth not prescribe and require the condition of it, but 
effectually work it in all the covenanters ; Jer. xxxi. 32, 33. 
Ezek. xxxvi. 26. Heb. iii. 8. 

3. To the advancement of the free grace of God, in setting 
up the power of free-will, in the state of corrupted nature, to 
the slighting and undervaluing thereof. 

4. To the received doctrine of our natural depravedness 
and disability to any thing that is good : yea by evident un- 
strained consequence overthrowing that fundamental article 
of original sin. 

Yea, fifthly, to right reason, which will never grant that 
natural faculty is able of itself without some spiritual eleva- 
tion, to produce an act purely spiritual; as 1 Cor. ii. 14. 

Secondly, They must resolve almost the sole cause of our 
salvation into ourselves ultimately ; it being in our own power 
to make all, that God and Christ do unto that end, effectual ; 
or to frustrate their utmost endeavours for that purpose ; for 
all that is done, whether in the Father's loving us and send- 
ing his Son to die for us, or in the Son's offering himself for 
an oblation in our stead, or for us (in our behalf), is confess- 
edly as before, of no value nor worth in respect of any pro- 
fitable issue, unless we believe, which that we shall do, Christ 
hath not effected, nor procured by his death, neither can the 
Lord so work it in us but that the sole casting voice (if I may 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 349 

SO say) — whether we will believe or no, is left to ourselves. 
Now whether this be not to assign unto ourselves, the cause 
of our own happiness, and to make us the chief builders of 
our own glory, let all judge. These things being thus pre- 
mised, I shall briefly prove that, which is denied, viz. that 
faith is procured for us by the death of Christ, and so con- 
sequently he died not for all and every one, for all men 
have not faith : and this we may do by these following 
reasons. 

1. The death of Jesus Christ purchased holiness and 
sanctification for us, as was at large proved, Arg. the eighth. 
But faith as it is a grace of the Spirit inherent in us, is for- 
mally a part of our sanctification and holiness, therefore he 
procured faith for us. The assumption is most certain and 
not denied ; the proposition was sufficiently confirmed in the 
foregoing argument, and I see not what may be excepted 
against the truth ot the whole. If any shall except and say 
that Christ might procure for us some part of holiness (for 
we speak of parts and not of degrees and measure), but not 
all, as the sanctification of hope, love, meekness, and the like, 
I ask, first, What warrant have we for any such distinction, 
between the graces of the Spirit, that some of them should be 
of the purchasing of Christ, others of our own store? Se- 
condly, Whether we are more prone of ourselves to believe, 
and more able, than to love, and hope ? And where may we 
have a ground for that ? 

2. All the fruits of election, are purchased for us by Jesus 
Christ; for 'we are chosen in him;' Eph. i. 4. as the only 
cause and fountain of all those good things, which the Lord 
chooseth us to, for the praise of his glorious grace, that in 
all things he might have the pre-eminence. 1 hope I need 
not be solicitous about the proving of this, that the Lord 
Jesus is the only way and means by, and for whom, the Lord 
will certainly and actually collate upon his elect, all the fruits 
and effects or intendments of that love, whereby he chose 
them : but now faith is a fruit, a principal fruit, of our elec- 
tion, for, saith the apostle, ' we are chosen n\ him before the 
foundation of the world, that we shotild be holy;" Eph. i. 4. 
Of which holiness, faith, purifying the heart, is a principal 
share. 'Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them also he 
called ;' Rom. viii, 29. That is, with that calling which is 



350 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

according to his purpose effectually working faith in them, 
by the mighty operation of his Spirit, ' according to the ex- 
ceeding greatness of his power ;' Eph. i. 19. And so they 
believe (God making them differ from others, 1 Cor. iv. 7. 
in the enjoyment of the means) 'who are ordained to eternal 
life ;' Acts xiii. 43. They being ordained to eternal life, was 
the fountain from whence their faith did flow ; and so the 
election obtained when the rest are hardened ; Rom. xi. 

Thirdly, All the blessings of the new covenant are pro- 
cured and purchased by him, in v/hom the promises thereof 
are ratified, and to whom they are made ; for all the good 
things thereof are contained in, and exhibited by, those pro- 
mises, through the working of the Spirit of God. Now con- 
cerning the promises of the covenant, and their being con- 
firmed in Christ, and made unto his, as Gal. iii. 16. with 
what is to be understood in those expressions, was before 
declared. Therefore all the good things of the covenant are 
the effects, fruits, and purchase of the death of Christ. He 
and all things for him, being the substance and whole of it. 
Farther, that faith is of the good things of the new cove- 
nant, is apparent from the description thereof: Jer. xxxi. 33. 
Heb. viii. 10 — 12. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. with divers other places, 
as might clearly be manifested, if we affected copiousness 
in causa facili. 

Fourthly, That without which it is utterly impossible 
that we should be saved, must of necessity be procured by 
him, by whom we are fully and effectually saved ; let them 
that can, declare how he can be said to procure salvation 
fully and effectually for us, and not be the author and pur- 
chaser of that (for he is the author of our salvation by the 
way of purchase), without which it is utterly impossible we 
should attain salvation ; now without faith it is utterly im- 
possible that ever any should attain salvation. Heb. xi. 6. 
Mark xvi. 16. But Jesus Christ (according to his name) cloth 
perfectly save us; Matt. i. 21. procuring for us eternal re- 
demption; Heb. ix. 14. being able to save to the uttermost, 
them that come unto God by him ; Heb. vii. 25. And there- 
fore must faith also be within the compass of those things 
that are procured by him. 

Fifthly, The Scripture is clear in express terms, and such 
as are so equivalent that they are not liable to any evasion; 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 351 

as Phil. i. 29. It is given unto us, vinp xi^'^^^" ^^ ^^^^ behalf 
of Christ, for Christ's sake to believe on him. Faith or be- 
lief is the gift, and Christ the procurer of it; ' God hath 
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him in heavenly 
places;' Eph. i. 3. If faith be a spiritual blessing, it is be- 
stowed on us in him and so also for his sake ; it it be not, 
it is not worth contending about in this sense and way; so 
that let others look which way they will, I desire to look to 
Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith; Heb. xii. 2. 
Divers other reasons, arguments, and places of Scripture, 
might be added for the confirmation of this truth, but I hope 
I have said enough, and do not desire to say all ; the sum of 
the whole reason may be reduced to this head. 

If the fruit and effect procured and wrought by the death 
of Christ, absolutely not depending on any condition in man 
to be fulfilled, be not common to all, then did not Christ die 
for all ; but the supposal is true, as is evident in the grace 
of faith, which being procured by the death of Christ, to be 
absolutely bestowed on them for whom he died, is not com- 
mon to all, therefore our Saviour did not die for all. 

We argue from the type to the antitype, or the thing sig- 
nified by it, which will evidently restrain the oblation of 
Christ to God's elect. The people of Israel were certainly, 
in all remarkable things that happened unto them, typical 
of the church of God ; as the apostle at large ; 1 Cor. x. 11. 
Especially their institutions and ordinances, were all repre- 
sentative of the spiritual things of the gospel, their priests, 
altar, sacrifices, were but all shadows of the good things to 
come in Jesus Christ ; their Canaan was a type of heaven ; 
Heb. iv. 3. 9. as also Jerusalem or Sion ; Gal. iv. 26. 
Heb. xii. 22. The whole people itself was a type of God's 
church, his elect, his chosen, and called people ; whence as 
they were called a holy people, a royal priesthood, so also 
in allusion to them are believers ; 1 Pet. ii. 5. 9. Yea God's 
people are in innumerable places called his Israel, as it is 
farther expounded ; Heb. viii. 8. A true Israelite is as much 
as a true believer ; John i. 47. And he is a Jew who is so in 
the hidden man of the heart. I hope it need not be proved, 
that that people as delivered from bondage, preserved, taken 
nigh unto God, brought into Canaan, was typical of God's 
spiritual church, of elect believers. Whence we thus argue. 



352 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

those only are really and spiritually redeemed by Jesus Christ, 
who were designed, signified, typified by the people of Israel, 
in their carnal typical redemption (for no reason in the world 
can be rendered, why some should be typed out in the same 
condition, partakers of the same good, and not others), but 
by the people of the Jews, in their deliverance from Egypt, 
bringing into Canaan, with all their ordinances and institu- 
tions, only the elect, the church of God, was typed out as 
was before proved. And in truth it is the most senseless 
thing in the world, to imagine that the Jews were under a 
type to all the whole world, or indeed to any but God's cho- 
sen ones, as is proved at large ; Heb. ix. 10. Were the Jews 
and their ordinances types to the seven nations, whom they 
destroyed and supplanted in Canaan ; were they so to Egyp- 
tians, infidels, and haters of God and his Christ ; we con- 
clude then assuredly from that just proportion, that ought 
to be observed between the types, and the things typified, 
that only the elect of God, his church and chosen ones, are 
redeemed by Jesus Christ. 



CHAP. V. 

Seing a continuance of ar()nnientsfrom the nature and description of the 
t/iiiig- in hand: and first of redemption. 

That doctrine which will not by any means suit with, nor 
be made conformable to, the thing signified by it, and the 
expression literal and deductive, whereby in Scripture it is 
held out unto us, but implies evident contradictions unto 
them, cannot possibly be sound and sincere as is the milk of 
the word ; but now such is this persuasion of universal re- 
demption, it can never be suited nor fitted to the thing it- 
self or redemption, nor to those expressions whereby in the 
Scripture it is held out unto us ; universal redemption and yet 
many to die in captivity, is a contradiction irreconcilable 
in itself. To manifest this let us consider some of the chief- 
est words and phrases, whereby the matter concerning which 
we treat, is delivered in the Scripture. Such as are redemp- 
tion, reconciliation, satisfaction, merit, dying for us, bear- 
ing our sins, suretiship, his being God, a common person, a 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION'. 353 

Jesus, saving to the utmost, a sacrifice putting away sin, and 
the like ; to which we may add the importance of some pre- 
positions, and other words used in the original, about this 
business; and doubt not but we shall easily find, that the ge- 
neral ransom, or rather universal redemption, will hardly suit 
to any of them, but it is too long for the bed, and must be 
cropped at the head or heels. 

Begin we with the word redemption itself, which we will 
consider, name and thing. Redemption, which in the Scrip- 
ture is \vTp(i)aig sometimes, but most frequently airoXvTpwmg, 
is the delivery of any one from captivity and misery by the 
intervention \vt/jov of a price or ransom ; that this ransom 
or price of our deliverance was the blood of Christ is evi- 
dent, he calls it XvTpov, Matt. XX. 28. and avr/Aurpov ; 1 Tim. 
ii. 6. That is, the price of such a redemption, that which 
was received as a valuable consideration for our dismission. 
Now that which is aimed at in the payment of this price, is 
the deliverance of those from the evil wherewith they were 
oppressed, for whom the price is paid ; it being in this spi- 
ritual redemption, as it is in corporal and civil, only with the 
alteration of some circumstances, as the nature of the thino- 
enforceth. This the Holy Spirit manifesteth, by comparing 
the blood of Christ in this work of redemption, with silver 
and gold, and such other things as are the intervening ran- 
som in civil redemption ; 1 Pet. i. 18. The evil wherewith 
we were oppressed, was the punishment which we had de- 
served ; that is, the satisfaction required when the debt is 
sin ; which also we are by the payment of this price deli- 
vered from. So Gal. iii. 13. ' For we are justified freely by 
his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ;' 
Rom. iii. 24. * In him we have redemption through his blood, 
even the forgiveness of sins ;' Eph. i. 7. Col. i. 14. Freejusti- 
fication from the guilt and pardon of sin, in the deliverance 
from the punishment due unto it, is the effect of the redemp- 
tion procured by the payment of the price we before men- 
tioned. As if a man should have his friend in bondag:e, and 
he should go and lay out his estate, to pay the price of his 
freedom that is set upon his head, by him that detains him, 
and so set him at liberty ; only as was before intimated, this 
spiritual redemption hath some supereminent things in it, 
that are not to be found in other deliverances; as, 
VOL. V. 2 a 



354 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

First, He that receives the ransom cloth also give it, 
Christ is a propitiation to appease and atone the Lord; but 
the Lord himself set him forth so to be ; E.om. iii. 24, 25. 
Whence he himself is often said to redeem us ; his love is the 
cause of the price in respect of its procurement, and his jus- 
tice accepts of the price in respect of its merit ; for Christ 
came down from heaven to do the will of him that sent him; 
John vi. 38. Heb. x. 9, 10. It is otherwise in the redemp- 
tion amongst men, where he that receives that ransom, hath 
no hand in the providing of it. 

Secondly, The captive or prisoner, is not so much freed 
from his power, who detains him, as brought into his favour : 
when a captive amongst men is redeemed by the payment 
of a ransom, he is instantly to be set free from the power 
and authority of him that did detain him; but in this spiri- 
tual redemption, upon the payment of the ransom for us, 
which is the blood of Jesus, we are not removed from God, 
but are brought nigh unto him ; Eph. ii, 13. Not delivered 
from his power, but restored to his favour : our misery being a 
punishment by the way of banishment, as well as thraldom. 

Thirdly, That as the judge was to be satisfied, so the 
jailer was to be conquered. God the Judge, giving him leave 
to fight for his dominion, which was wrongfully usurped, 
though that whereby he had it, was by the Lord justly in- 
flicted, and his thraldom by us rightly deserved ; Heb. ii. 14. 
Col. ii. and he lost his power, as strong as he was, for striv- 
ing to grasp more than he could hold. For the foundation 
of his kingdom being sin, assaulting Christ who did no sin, 
he lost his power over them that Christ came to redeem, 
having no part in him, so was the strong man bound, and 
his house spoiled. 

In these and some other few circumstances is our spiri- 
tual redemption diversified from civil, but for the main, it 
answers the word in the propriety thereof, according to the 
use that it hath amongst men. Now there is a twofold way, 
whereby this is in the Scripture expressed ; for sometimes 
our Saviour is said to die for our redemption, and sometimes 
for the redemption of our transgressions, both tending to 
the same purpose ; yea both expressions as I conceive, sig- 
nify the same thing. Of the latter you have an example, 
Heb. ix. l5. He died slg awoXvTpioatv Trapafdaaewv ' which 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 355 

say some is a metanomy, transgressions being put for trans- 
gressors ; others, that it is a proper expression for the paying 
of a price, whereby we may be delivered from the evil of our 
transgressions. The other expressions you have Eph. i. 7. 
and in divers other places, where the words Xvrpov and a-no- 
\vTpov do concur ; as also Matt. xx. 28. and Mark x. 45. 
Now these words, especially that of avriXvTpov, 1 Tim. ii. 6. 
do always denote by the not-to-be-wrested, genuine significa- 
tion of them, the payment of a price, or an equal compensa- 
tion in lieu of something to be done, or grant made for him 
to whom that price is paid. Having given these few notions 
concerning redemption in general, let us now see how appli- 
cable it is unto general redemption. 

Redemption is the freeing of a man from misery by the 
intervention of a ransom, as appeareth. Now when a ransom 
is paid for the liberty of a prisoner, is it not all the justice 
in the world, that he should have, and enjoy the liberty so 
purchased for him by a valuable consideration ? If I should 
pay a thousand pounds for a man's delivemnce from bondage 
to him that detains him, who hath power to set him free, 
and is contented with the price I give ; were it not injurious 
to me, and the poor prisoner, that his deliverance be not ac- 
complished ? Can it possibly be conceived, that there should 
be a redemption of men, and those men not redeemed ? that 
a price should be paid, and the purchase not consummated ? 
Yet all this must be made true, and innumerable other absur- 
dities, if universal redemption be asserted. A price is paid 
for all, yet few delivered ; the redemption of all consummated, 
yet few of them redeemed. The judge satisfied, the jailer 
conquered, and yet the prisoner enthralled : doubtless uni- 
versal and redemption, where the greatest part of men perish, 
are as irreconcilable as Roman and Catholic ; if there be 
a universal redemption of all, then all men are redeemed ; 
if they are redeemed, then are they delivered from all misery, 
virtually or actually, whereunto they were enthralled, and that 
by the intervention of a ransom ; why then are not all saved ? 
In a word, the redemption wrought by Christ, being the full 
deliverance of the persons redeemed from all misery, wherein 
they were inwrapped, by the price of his blood, it cannot pos- 
sibly be conceived to be universal, unless all be saved : so that 
the opinion of the universalists, is unsuitable to redemption. 

2 A 2 



356 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 



CHAP. VI. 

Of the nature of reconciliation, and the argument taken from thence. 

Another thing ascribed to the death of Christ, and by the 
consent of all extending itself unto all for whom he died, is 
reconciliation. This in the Scripture is clearly proposed 
under a double notion : First, Of God to us. Secondly, Of us 
to God : both usually ascribed to the death and bloodshed- 
ding of Jesus Christ; for those who were enemies, he recon- 
ciled in the body of his flesh through death; Col. i. 21, 22. 
And doubtless these things do exactly answer one another ; 
all those to whom he hath reconciled God, he doth also re- 
concile unto God, for unless both be effected, it cannot be 
said to be a perfect reconciliation. For how can it be if 
peace be made only on the one side ? Yea it is utterly impos- 
sible that a division of these two can be rationally appre- 
hended : for if God be reconciled, not man, why doth not 
he reconcile him, seeing it is confessedly in his power, and 
if man should be reconciled, not God, how can he be ready 
to receive all that come unto him ? Now that God, and all, 
and every one in the world are actually reconciled, and made 
at peace in Jesus Christ, I hope will not be affirmed. But to 
clear this we must a little consider the nature of reconciliation 
as it is proposed to us in the gospel, unto which also some 
light may be given, from the nature of the thing itself, and 
the use of the word in civil things. 

Reconciliation is the renewing of friendship between par- 
ties before at variance; both parties being properly said to 
be reconciled, even both he that offendeth, and he that was 
offended. God and man were set at distance, at enmity and 
variance by sin ; man was the party offending, God of- 
fended, and the alienation was mutual on either side ; but 
yet with this difference, that man was alienated in respect 
of affections, the ground and cause of anger and enmity ; 
God in respect of the effects and issue of anger and enmity. 
The word in the New Testament, is icaraXXay//, and the verb 
KUToWaaaoj reconciliation, to reconcile, both from aXXaTTUj 
to change, or to turn from one thing, one mind, to another ; 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 357 

whence the first native signification of those words, is per- 
mutatio and permutare, so Arist. Eth. 3. t6v (iiov Trpog fxiKpa 
Kcp^Tj — KaToXXaTTovai, because most commonly those that are 
reconciled are changed, in respect of their affections, al- 
ways in respect of the distance and variance, and in respect 
of the effects, thence it signifieth reconciliation, and to re- 
concile ; and the word may not be affirmed of any business, 
or of any men, until both parties are actually reconciled, 
and all differences removed in respect of any former grudge 
and ill will. If one be well pleased with the other, and that 
other continue aKaToWaKTog inappeased and implacable, 
there is no reconciliation. When our Saviour gives that 
command, that he that brought his gift to the altar, and 
there remembered that his brother had ought against him, 
was offended with him, for any cause, he should go and be 
reconciled to him, fully intendeth a mutual returning of 
minds one to another, especially respecting the appeasing 
and atoning of him that was offended. Neither are these 
words used among men in any other sense ; but always de- 
note even in common speech, a full redintegration of friend- 
ship between dissenting parties, with reference most times 
to some compensation made to the offended party. The re- 
conciling of one party and the other may be distinguished, 
but both are required to make up an entire reconciliation. 
As then the folly of Socinus and his sectaries is remarkable, 
who would have the reconciliation mentioned in the Scrip- 
ture, to be nothing but our conversion to God, without the 
appeasing of his anger and turning away his wrath from us, 
which is a reconciliation hopping on one leg ; so that dis- 
tinction of some between the reconciliation of God to man, 
making that to be universal towards all ; and the reconci- 
liation of man to God, making that to be only of a small 
number of those to whom God is reconciled, is a no less 
monstrous figment. Mutual alienation, must have mutual 
reconciliation being they are correlata. The state between 
God and man, before the reconciliation made by Christ, was 
a state of enmity, man was at enmity with God, ' we were 
his enemies;' Col. i. 20, 21. Rom. v, 10. hating him, and 
opposing ourselves to him in the highest rebellions to the 
utmost of our power. God also was thus far an enemy to 



358 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

US, that his wrath was on us ; Eph. ii. 3. which remaineth 
on us until we do believe ; John iii. 36. To make perfect re- 
conciliation (which Christ is said in many places to do), it 
is required first, that the wrath of God be turned away, his 
anger removed, and all the effects of enmity on his part to- 
wards us. Secondly, That we be turned away from our op- 
position to him, and brought into voluntary obedience. Un- 
til both these be effected, reconciliation is not perfected. 
Now both these are in the Scripture assigned to our Saviour, 
as the effects of his death and sacrifice. 1. He turned away 
the wrath of God from us, and so appeased him towards 
us, that was the reconciling of God by his death ; ' for when 
we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death 
of his Son ;' Rom. v. 10. That here is meant the reconciling 
of God, as that part of reconciliation, which consisteth in 
turning away his wrath from us, is most apparent ; it being 
that whereby God chiefly commendeth his love to us, which 
certainly is in the forgiveness of sin, by the aversion of his 
anger due to it ; as also opposed to our being saved from 
the wrath to come, in the latter end of the verse, which com- 
priseth our conversion and whole reconciliation to God. 
Besides, ver. 11. we are said to receive rriv KaraXXayriv this 
reconciliation (which, I know not by what means, we have 
translated atonement), which cannot be meant of our recon- 
ciliation to God, or conversion, which we cannot properly 
be said to accept or receive ; but of him to us, which we 
receive when it is apprehended by faith. Secondly, He 
turneth us away from our enmity towards God, redeeming 
and reconciling us to God, by the blood of his cross ; Col. 
i. 21. To wit, then, meritoriously, satisfactorily, by the way 
of acquisition and purpose, accomplishing it in due time, 
actually and efficiently by his Spirit; both these ye have 
jointly mentioned, 2 Cor. v. 18—20. Where we may see, 
first, God being reconciled to us in Christ, which consisteth 
in a not-imputation of iniquities, and is the subject matter 
of the ministry; ver. 18, 19. Secondly, The reconciling of 
us to God by accepting the pardon of our sins, which is the 
end of the ministry ; ver. 20. As the same is also at large 
declared, Eph. ii. 13 — 15. The actual, then, and effectual 
accomplishment of both these, * simul et semel,' in respect 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 359 

of procurement by continuance, and in process of time, in 
the ordinances of the gospel, in respect of final accomplish- 
ment, on the part of men, do make up that reconciliation, 
which is the effect of the death of Christ ; for so it is in 
many places assigned to be : ' We are reconciled to God by 
the death of his Son ;' Rom. v. 10. ' And ye, that were some- 
time alienated, hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh 
through death;' Col. i. 21, 22. Which is in sundry places 
so evident in the Scripture, that none can possibly deny re- 
conciliation to be the immediate effect and product of the 
death of Christ. Now, how this reconciliation can possibly 
be reconciled with universal redemption, I am no way able 
to discern ; for if reconciliation be the proper effect of the 
death of Christ, as is confessed by all, then if he died for all, 
I ask ; First, How cometh it to pass, that God is not recon- 
ciled to all ? As he is not, for his wrath abideth on some ; 
John iii. 36. and reconciliation is the aversion of. wrath. Se- 
condly, That all are not reconciled to God ? As they are not ; 
'for by nature all are the children of wrath;' Eph. ii. 3. 
And some all their lives do nothing but 'treasure up wrath 
against the day of wrath ;' Rom. ii. 5. Thirdly, How then 
can it be that reconciliation should be wrought between God 
and all men, and yet neither God reconciled to all, nor all 
reconciled to God ? Fourthly, If God be reconciled to all, 
when doth he begin to be unreconciled towards them that 
perish? By what alteration is it? In his will or nature? 
Fifthly, If all be reconciled by the death of Christ, when 
do they begin to be unreconciled who perish ; being born 
children of wrath ? Sixthly, Seeing that reconciliation on 
the part of God consists in the turning away of his wrath 
and not imputing of iniquity; 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. which is 
justification rendering us blessed ; Rom. iv. 6 — 8. why, if 
God be reconciled to all, are not all justified, and made 
blessed through a non-imputation of their sin ? They who 
have found out a redemption where none are redeemed, 
and a reconciliation where none are reconciled, can easily 
answer these and such other questions : which to do 1 leave 
them to their leisure, and in the mean time conclude this 
part of our argument, that reconciliation which is the re- 
newing of lost friendship, the slaying of enmity, the making 
up of peace, the appeasing of God, and turning away of his 



360 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

wrath, attended with a non-imputation of iniquities ; and 
on our part, conversion to God by faith and repentance ; 
this I say, being that reconciliation which is the effect of 
the death and blood of Christ, it cannot be asserted in refer- 
ence to any, nor Christ said to die for any other, but only 
those concerning whom all the properties of it, and acts 
wherein it doth consist, may be truly affirmed ; which whe- 
ther they may be of all men, or not, let all men judge. 



CHAP. VII. 

Of the nature of the satisfaction of Christ, with arguments from thence. 

A THIRD way whereby the death of Christ for sinners is ex- 
pressed, is satisfaction, viz. that by his death he made sa- 
tisfaction to the justice of God for their sins, for whom he 
died, that so they might go free. It is true, the word satis- 
faction is not found in the Latin or English Bibles, applied 
to the death of Christ. In the New Testament it is not at 
all, and in the Old but twice; Numb. xxxv. 31, 32. But 
the thing itself intended by that word, is every where as- 
cribed to the death of our Saviour; there being also other 
words, in the original languages, equivalent to that, whereby 
we express the thing in hand. Now that Christ did thus 
make satisfaction for all them, or rather for their sins for 
whom he died, is (as far as I know) confessed by all that are 
but outwardly called after his name, the wretched Socinians 
excepted, with whom at this time we have not to do. Let 
us then first see, what this satisfaction is, then how incon- 
sistent it is with universal redemption. 

Satisfaction is a term borrowed from the law, applied pro- 
perly to things, thence translated and accommodated unto 
persons ; and it is a full compensation of the creditor from the 
debtor. To whom any thing is due, from any man, he is in that 
regard that man's creditor, and the other is his debtor, upon 
whom there is an obligation to pay, or restore what is so due 
from him, until he be freed by a lawful breaking of that ob- 
ligation, by making it null and void ; which must be done, 
by yielding satisfaction to what his creditor can require by 
virtue of that obligation : as, if I owe a man a hundred pounds. 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 361 

I am his debtor, by virtue of the bond wherein I am bound, 
until some such thing be done as recompenseth him, and 
moveth him to cancel the bond ; which is called satisfaction. 
Hence, from things real, it was and is translated to things 
personal; personal debts are injuries and faults ; which when 
a man hath committed, he is liable to punishment. He that 
is to inflict that punishment, or upon whom it lieth to see 
that it be done, is or may be the creditor, which he must do 
unless satisfaction be made. Now there may be a twofold sa- 
tisfaction: First, By a solution, or paying the. very thing that 
is in the obligation, either by the party himself that is bound, 
or by some other in his stead : as, if I owe a man twenty 
pounds, and my friend goeth and payeth it, my creditor is 
fully satisfied. Secondly, By a solution, or paying of so 
much, although in another kind, not the^same that is in the 
obligation, which by the creditor's acceptation stands in the 
lieu of it; upon which also, freedom from the obligation fol- 
loweth, not necessarily, but by virtue of an act of favour. 

In the business in hand, first, the debtor is man, he oweth 
the ten thousand talents ; Matt, xviii. 24. 

Secondly, The debt is sin; 'forgive us our debts;' Matt, 
vi. 12. 

Thirdly, That which is required in lieu thereof, to make sa- 
tisfaction; for it is death, 'in the day that thou eatest thereof ;' 
Gen. iii. 'The wages of sin is death;' Rom. vi. 23. 

Fourthly, The obligation whereby the debtor is tied and 
bound, is the law; ' cursed is every one,' &.c. Deut. ii. 7. The 
justice, Rom. i. 32. and the truth of God ; Gen. iii. 

Fifthly, The creditor that requireth this of us is God, con- 
sidered as the party offended ; severe Judge, and supreme 
Lord of all things. 

Sixthly, That which interveneth to the destruction of 
the obligation is the ransom paid by Christ ; Rom. iii. 24, 25. 
God set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his 
blood. 

I shall not enter upon any long discourse of the satisfac- 
tion made by Christ, but only so far clear it, as is necessary 
to give light to the matter in hand. To this end two things 
must be cleared : First, That Christ did make such satisfaction, 
as whereof we treat, as also wherein it doth consist. Se- 
condly, What is that act of God towards man, the debtor, 



362 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

which doth and ought to follow the satisfaction made. For 
the first, I told you the word itself doth not occur in this bu- 
siness in the Scripture, the thing signified by it (being a com- 
pensation made to God by Christ for our debts), most fre- 
quently for to make satisfaction to God for our sins, it is 
required only; that he undergo the punishment due to them : 
for that is the satisfaction required, where sin is the debt. 
Now this Christ hath certainly effected, for * his own self bare 
our sins in his own body on the tree;' 1 Pet. ii. 24. *By his 
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he 
shall bear their iniquities ;' Isa. liii. 11. The word Nii'i nasa 
also, ver. 12. arguing a taking of the punishment of sin from 
us, and translating it to himself, signifieth as much, yea all, 
that we do by the word satisfaction ; so also doth that of 
avy]viyKEv used by Peter in the room thereof: for to bear ini- 
quity in the Scripture language is to undergo the punishment 
due to it ; Lev. v. 1. Which we call to make satisfaction for 
it, which is farther illustrated by a declaration how he bare 
our sins, even by being 'wounded for our transgressions, and 
bruised for our iniquities ;' Isa. liii. 5. Whereunto is added in 
the close, that the chastisement of our peace was upon him, 
every chastisement is either vovBeTiKrj for instruction, or ira- 
padHjuariKri for example, punishment and correction. The 
first can have no place in our Saviour ; the Son of God had 
no need to be taught with such thorns and briers : it must 
therefore be for punishment and correction, and that for our 
sins then upon him, whereby our peace or freedom from pu- 
nishment was procured. 

Moreover, in the New Testament there be divers words and 
expressions concerning the death of our Saviour, holding out 
that thing which by satisfaction we do intend; as when, first, 
it is termed irpo(T(j>opa, Eph. v. 2. irapidbOKev tavTov Trpoa^opav 
KOI Ovaiav an oblation or sacrifice of expiation, as appeareth 
by that type of it, with which it is compared ; Heb. ix. 14, 15. 
Of the same force also is the word ascham DWH Isa. liii. 10. 
Lev. vii. 2. ' He made his soul an offering for sin,' a piacular 
sacrifice for the removing of it away, which the apostle abun- 
dantly cleareth, in saying that he was made afiapria ' sin it- 
self ;' 2 Cor. V. 21. Sin being there put for the adjunct of it, 
or the punishment due unto it : so also is he termed iXaa^ioq, 
1 John ii. 2. Whereunto answers the Hebrew chitta, used 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 363 

Gen. xxxi. 39. niiorm 'D3S 'ego illud expiabam.' Which is 
to undergo the debt, and to make compensation for it, which 
was the office of him, who was to be Job's Goel ; Job xix. 25. 
All which and divers other words, which in part shall be 
afterward considered, do declare the very same thing which 
we intend by satisfaction ; even a taking upon him the whole 
punishment due to sin, and in the offering of himself, doing 
that which God, who was offended, was more delighted and 
pleased withal, than he was displeased and offended with all 
the sins of all those that he suffered and offered himself for : 
and there can be no more complete satisfaction made to any, 
than by doing that which he is more contented with, than 
discontented and troubled with that for which he must be 
satisfied. God was more pleased with the obedience, offering, 
and sacrifice of his Son, than displeased with the sins and 
rebellions of all the elect. As if a good king should have a 
company of his subjects stand out in rebellion against him, 
and he were thereby moved to destroy them, because they 
would not have him reign over them ; and the only son of 
that king, should put in for their pardon, making a tender to 
his father of some excellent conquest, by him lately achieved, 
beseeching him to accept of it, and be pleased with his poor 
subjects so as to receive them into favour again : or, which is 
nearer, should offer himself toundergo that punishment, which 
his justice had allotted for the rebels, and should accordingly 
do it, he should properly make satisfaction for their offence, 
and in strict justice they ought to be pardoned. This was 
Christ, as that one hircus aTroirofxTraiog, sent-away goat, that 
bare and carried away all the sins of the people of God, to 
fall himself under them, though with assurance to break all 
the bonds of death, and to live for ever. Now, whereas I 
said that there is a twofold satisfaction, whereby the debtor 
is freed from the obligation that is upon him ; the one being 
solutio ejiisdem, payment of the same thing that was in the 
obligation ; the other solutio tantidem, of that which is not the 
same, nor equivalent unto it, but only in the gracious accep- 
tation of the creditor ; it is worth our inquiry, which of these 
it was that our Saviour did perform. 

He, who is esteemed by many, to have handled this ar- 
gument with most exactness, denieth that the payment made 
by Christ for us (by the payment of the debt of sin under- 



364 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

stand, by analogy, the undergoing of the punishment due 
unto it) was solutio ejusdem, or of the same thing directly 
which was in the obligation; for which he giveth some rea- 
sons; as. First, Because such a solution, satisfaction, or pay- 
ment is attended with actual freedom from the obligation. 
Secondly, Because where such a solution is made, there is 
no room for remission or pardon. It is true, saith he, de- 
liverance followeth upon it, but this deliverance cannot be 
by way of gracious pardon ; for there needeth not the inter- 
ceding of any such act of grace. But now, saith he, that 
satisfaction whereby some other thing is offered, than that 
which was in the obligation, may be admitted or refused ac- 
cording as the creditor pleaseth ; and being admitted for any, 
it is by an act of grace; and such was the satisfaction made 
by Christ. Now, truly, none of these reasons, seem of so 
much weight to me, as to draw me into that persuasion. For 
the first reason rests upon that for the confirmation of it, 
which cannot be granted, viz, that actual freedom from the 
obligation, doth not follow the satisfaction made by Christ; 
for by death he did deliver us from death, and that actually, 
so far as that the elect are said to die and rise with him, he 
did actually, or ipso facto, deliver us from the curse, by being 
made a curse for us ; and the hand-writing that was against 
us, even the whole obligation, was taken out of the way and 
nailed to his cross : it is true, all for whom he did this, do 
not instantly actually apprehend and perceive it, which is 
impossible ; but yet that hinders not, but that they have all 
the fruits of his death in actual right, though not in actual 
possession, which last they cannot have, until at least it be 
made known to them. As, if a man pay a ransom for a pri- 
soner detained in a foreign country, the very day of the pay- 
ment and acceptation of it, the prisoner hath right to his 
liberty, although he cannot enjoy it, until such time as tid- 
ings of it is brought unto him, and a warrant produced for 
his delivery; so that that reason is nothing but a begging 
Tov tv apxr). Secondly, The satisfaction of Christ, by the pay- 
ment of the same thing that was required in the obligation, 
is no way prejudicial to that free gracious condonation of 
sin, so often mentioned. God's gracious pardoning of sin, 
compriseth the whole dispensation of grace towards us in 
Christ, whereof there are two parts : First, The laying of our 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 365 

sin on Christ, or making him to be sin for us, which was 
merely and purely an act of free grace, which he did for his 
own sake. Secondly, The gracious imputation of the righte- 
ousness of Christ to us, or making us the righteousness of 
God in him : which is no less of grace and mercy ; and that 
because the very merit of Christ himself hath its foundation 
in a free compact and covenant : however, that remission, 
grace, and pardon, which is in God for sinners, is not opposed 
to Christ's merits, but ours ; he pardoneth all to us, but he 
spared not his only Son, he bated him not one farthing. The 
freedom then of pardon hath not its foundation in any de- 
fect of the merit or satisfaction of Christ, but in three other 
things. First, The will of God, freely appointing this satis- 
faction of Christ; John iii. 16. Rom. v. 8. IJohn iv. 9. Se- 
condly, In a gracious acceptation of that decreed satisfaction 
in our steads, so many, no more. Thirdly, In a free applica- 
tion of the death of Christ unto us. Remission then ex- 
cludes not a full satisfaction by the solution of the very 
thing in the obligation, but only the solution or satisfaction 
of him, to whom pardon and remission are granted : so that 
notwithstanding any thing said to the contrary, the death of 
Christ made satisfaction in the very thing that was required 
in the obligation : he took away the curse by ' being made 
a curse ;' Gal. iii. 13. He delivered us from sin, ' being 
made sin ;' 2 Cor. v. 21. He underwent death, that we might 
be delivered from death, all our debt was in the curse of the 
law, which he wholly underwent. Neither do we read of 
any relaxation of the punishment in the Scripture, but only 
a commutation of the person"; which being done, ' God con- 
demned sin in the flesh of his Son;' Rom. viii. 3. Christ 
standing in our stead, and so reparation was made unto God, 
and satisfaction given, for all the detriment that mio-ht ac- 
crue to him, by the sin and rebellion of them for whom this 
satisfaction was made. His justice was violated, and he 'sets 
forth Christ to be a propitiation for our sins, that he might 
be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus;' 
Rom. iii, 24, 25. And never indeed was his justice more 
clearly demonstrated, than 'in causing the iniquity of us all 
to meet upon him.' His law was broken, therefore Christ 
comes ' to be the end of the law for righteousness ;' Rom. x. 
3. Our offence and disobedience was to him distasteful; in 



366 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

the obedience of Christ he took full pleasure; Rom. v. 17. 
Matt. iii. 16. Now from all this, thus much, to clear up the 
nature of the satisfaction made by Christ, appeareth, viz. it 
was a full valuable compensation, made to the justice of 
God, for all the sins of all those for whom he made satisfac- 
tion, by undergoing that punishment, which, by reason of 
the obligation that was upon them, they themselves were 
bound to undergo : when I say the same, I mean essentially 
the same in weight and pressure, though not in all accidents 
of duration and the like, for it was impossible that he should 
be detained by death. Now, whether this will stand in the 
justice of God, that any of these should perish eternally, for 
whom Jesus Christ made so full, perfect, and complete satis- 
faction, we shall presently inquire, and this is the first thing 
that we are to consider in this business. Secondly, We must 
look what act of God it is, that is exercised either towards 
us, or our Saviour, in this business. That God in the whole 
is the party offended by our sins, is by all confessed ; it is 
his law that is broken, his glory that is impaired, his honour 
that is abased by our sin ; * If I be a Father,' saith he, * where 
is my honour ?' Mai. i. 6, Now the law of nature and uni- 
versal right requireth, that the party offended be recom- 
pensed in whatsoever he is injured by the fault of another: 
being thus offended, the Lord is to be considered under a 
twofold notion. First, In respect of us, he is as a creditor, 
and all we miserable debtors, to him w^e owe the ten thousand 
talents ; Matt, xviii. 24. And our Saviour hath taught us 
to call our sins our debts ; Matt. vi. 12. And the payment of 
this debt the Lord requireth and exacteth of us. Secondly, 
In respect of Christ, on whom he was pleased * to lay the 
punishment of us all, to make our iniquity to meet upon 
him, not sparing him,' but requiring the debt at his hands 
to the utmost farthing ; God is considered as the supreme 
Lord and Governor of all, the only Lawgiver, who alone had 
power so far to relax his own law, as to have the name of a 
surety put into the obligation, which before was not there, 
and then to require the whole debt of that surety : for he 
alone hath power of life and death ; James iv. 12. Now 
these two acts are eminent in God in this business. First, 
An act of severe justice, as a creditor exacting the payment 
of the debt at the hand of the debtor ; which, where sin is 



UNIVEHSAL REDEMPTION. 367 

the debt, is punishment, as was before declared ; the justice 
of God being repaired thereby in whatsover it was before 
violated. Secondly, An act of sovereignty or supreme do- 
minion, in translating the punishment from the principal 
debtor, to the surety, which of his free grace he himself had 
given and bestowed on the debtor ; * He spared not his own 
Son, but delivered him up to death for us all.' Hence let these 
two things be observed. First, That God accepteth of the 
punishment of Christ, as a creditor accepteth of his due 
debt, when he spares not the debtor, but requires the utter- 
most farthing. It is true of punishment, as punishment, 
there is no creditor properly ; for, * Delicta puniri publico 
interest :' but this punishment being considered also as a 
price, as it is, 1 Cor. vi. it must be paid to the hands 
of some creditor, as this was into the hands of God: 
whence Christ is said to come to do God's will, Heb. x. 
9. and to satisfy him, as John vi. 38. Neither indeed do 
the arguments, that some have used to prove that God 
as a creditor cannot inflict punishment, nor yet by virtue 
of supreme dominion, seem to me of any great weight. Di- 
vers I find urged by him, whose great skill in the law, and 
such terms as these, might well give him sanctuary from 
such weak examiners as myself; but he that hath so foully 
betrayed the truth of God in other things, and corrupted his 
word, deserves not our assent in any thing, but what by 
evidence of reason is extorted. Let us then see what there is 
of that, in this which we have now in hand. First, then. He 
tells us, that * the right of punishing in the rector or law- 
giver, can neither be a right of absolute dominion, nor a right 
of a creditor, because these things belong to him, and are 
exercised for his own sake, who hath them, but the right of 
punishing is for the good of community,' 

Ans. Refer this reason unto God, which is the aim of it, 
and it will appear to be of no value ; for we deny that there 
is any thing in him, or done by him primarily for the good 
of any, but himself: his avragKua or self-sufficiency will not 
allow, that he should do any thing with an ultimate respect 
to any thing but himself: and whereas he saith, that the 
right of punishing is for the good of community, we answer 
that ho)fium universi, the good of community is the glory of 
God, and that only ; so that these things in him cannot be 
distinguished. 



368 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

Secondly, He addeth, ' Punishment is not in and for it- 
self desirable, but only for community's sake ; now the right 
of dominion, and the right of a creditor, are things in them- 
selves expetible and desirable, without the consideration of 
any public aim.' 

Atis. First, That the comparison ought not to be between 
punishment and the right of dominion, but between the right 
of punishment, and the right of dominion ; the fact of one, 
is not to be compared with the right of the other. 

Secondly, God desireth nothing, neither is there any 
thing desirable to him, but only for himself: to suppose a 
good desirable to God for its own sake, is intolerable. 

Thirdly, There be some acts of supreme dominion in 
themselves, and for their own sake, as little desirable as any 
act of punishment : as the annihilation of an innocent crea- 
ture, which Grotius will not deny but that God may do. 

Thirdly, He proceedeth, ' Any one may without any 
wrong, go off from the right of supreme dominion or credi- 
torship, but the Lord cannot omit the act of punishment to 
some sins, as of the impenitent.' 

Ans. God may by virtue of his supreme dominion omit 
punishment without any wrong or prejudice to his justice ; 
it is as great a thing, to impute sin where it is not, and to 
inflict punishment upon that imputation, as not to impute 
sin where it is, and to remove, or not to inflict punishment 
upon that non-imputation : now the first of these God did 
towards Christ ; and therefore he may do the latter. 

Secondly, The wrong or injustice of not punishing any 
sin or sins, doth not arise from any natural obligation, but 
the consideration of an affirmative positive act of God's will, 
whereby he hath purposed that he will do it. 

Fourthly, He adds, ' None can be called just, for using 
his own right or lordship ; but God is called just for punish- 
ing or not remitting sin ;' Rev. xvi. 5. 

Ans. However it be in other causes, yet in this God may 
certainly be said to be just in exacting his debt, or using 
his dominion, because his own will is the only rule of jus- 
tice. 

Secondly, We do not say punishing is an act of domi- 
nion, but an act of exacting a due debt, the requiring this 
of Christ in our stead, supposing the intervention of an act 
of supreme dominion. 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 369 

Fifthly, His last reason is, ' Because that virtue whereby 
one goeth off from his dominion, or remitteth his debt, is li- 
berality ; but that virtue whereby a man abstaineth from 
punishing is clemency ; so that punishment can be no act 
of exacting a debt or acting a dominion.' 

Arts. The virtue whereby a man goeth off from the ex- 
acting of that which is due, universally considered, is not al- 
ways liberality ; for as Grotius himself confesseth, a debt 
may arise and accrue to any by the injury of his fame, cre- 
dit, or name, by a lie, slander, or otherwise. Now that vir- 
tue whereby a man is moved not to exact payment by way 
of reparation, is not in this case liberality, but either cle- 
mency, or that grace of the gospel for which moralists have 
no name ; and so it is with every party offended, so often 
as he hath a right of requiring punishment from his offender, 
which yet he doth not. So that notwithstanding these ex- 
ceptions; this is eminently seen in this business of satisfac- 
tion, that God as a creditor doth exactly require the pay- 
ment of the debt by the way of punishment. 

The second thing eminent in it is, an act of supreme so- 
vereignty and dominion, requiring the punishment of Christ, 
for the full complete answering of the oblation, and fulfilling 
of the law; Rom. viii. 3. x. 4. 

Now these things being thus at large unfolded, we may 
see, in brief, some natural consequences, following and at- 
tending them as they are laid down. As, first. That the full 
and due debt of all those for whom Jesus Christ was respon- 
sible, was fully paid in to God, according to the utmost ex- 
tent of the obligation. Secondly, That the Lord who is a 
just creditor, ought in all equity to conceal the bond, to sur- 
cease all suits, actions, and molestations against the debtor, 
full payment being made unto him for the debt. Thirdly, 
That the debt thus paid, was not this or that sin, but all the 
sins of all those for whom, and in whose name, this payment 
was made ; 1 John i. 7. as was before demonstrated. Fourtli- 
ly. That a second payment of a debt once paid, or a requiring 
of it, is not answerable to the justice which God demonstrat- 
ed in setting forth Christ to be a propitiation for our sins; 
Rom. iii. 25. 

Fifthly, That whereas to receive a discharge from farther 
trouble, is equitably due to a debtor, who hath been in ob- 
VOL. v. 2 B 



370 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

ligation, his debt being paid; the Lord, having accepted of 
the payment from Christ, in the stead of all them for whom 
he died, ought in justice, according to that obligation which 
in free grace he hath put upon himself, grant them a dis- 
charge. Sixthly, That considering that relaxation of the 
law, which by the supreme power of the lawgiver was ef- 
fected, as to the persons suffering the punishment required, 
such actual satisfaction is made thereto, that it can lay no 
more to their charge for whom Christ died, than if they had 
really fulfilled in the way of obedience whatsoever it did re- 
quire; Rom. viii.32 — 34. Now how consistent these things 
(in themselves evident and clearly following the doctrine of 
Christ's satisfaction before declared) are with universal re- 
demption is easily discernible. For, first. If the full debt 
of all be paid to the utmost extent of the obligation, how 
comes it to pass that so many are shut up in prison to eter- 
nity, never freed from their debts ? Secondly, If the Lord as 
a just creditor ought to cancel all obligations, and surcease 
all suits against such as have their debts so paid ; whence 
is it that his wrath smokes against some to all eternity? Let 
none tell me that it is because they walk not worthy of the 
benefit bestowed, for that not walking worthy is part of the 
debt which is fully paid, for (as it is in the third inference) 
the debt so paid is all our sins. Thirdly, Is it probable that 
God calls any to a second payment, and requires satisfac- 
tion of them, for whom, by his own acknowledgment, Christ 
hath made that which is full and sufficient ? Hath he an after 
reckoning that he thought not of? For, for what was before 
him he spared him not; Rom. viii.32. Fourthly, How comes it 
that God never gives a discharge to innumerable souls, though 
their debts be paid ? Fifthly, Whence is it that any one soul 
lives and dies under the condemning power of the law, never 
released if that be fully satisfied in his behalf; so as it had 
been all one, as if they had done whatsoever it could require? 
Let them that can, reconcile these things. I am no QEdipus 
for them, the poor beggarly distinctions, whereby it is at- 
tempted, I have already discussed. And so much for satis- 
faction. 



UNIV^EKSAL REDEMPTION. 371 



CHAP. VIII. 

A digression containijjff the substance of an occasional confer enct 
concerning the satisfaction of Christ. 

Much about the time that I was composing that part of the 
last argument, which is taken from the satisfaction of Christ, 
there came one (whose name and all things else concerning 
him, for the respect I bear to his parts and modesty, shall be 
concealed) to the place where I live, and in a private exer- 
cise about the sufferings of Christ, seemed to those that 
heard him to enervate, yea overthrow, the satisfaction of 
Christ ; which I apprehending to be of dangerous conse- 
quence, to prevent a farther inconvenience, set myself brief- 
ly and plainly to oppose : and also a little after willingly en- 
tertained a conference and debate (desired by the gentle- 
man) about the point in question ; which being carried along 
with that quietness and sobriety of spirit, which beseemed 
lovers of and searchers after truth ; I easily perceived not 
only what was his persuasion in the thing in hand, but also 
what was the ground and sole cause of his misapprehension : 
and it was briefly this, that the eternal unchangeable love of 
God to his elect, did actually instate them in such a condition, 
as wherein they were in an incapacity of having any satis- 
faction made for them ; the end of that being to remove the 
wrath due unto them, and to make an atonement for their 
sins ; which by reason of the former love of God, they stood 
in no need of, but only wanted a clear manifestation of that 
love unto their souls, whereby he might be delivered from 
all that dread, darkness, guilt, and fear, which was in and 
upon their consciences, by reason of a not understanding of 
this love, which came upon them through the fall of Adam. 
Now to remove this, Jesus Christ was sent to manifest this 
love, and declare this eternal good will of God towards them, 
so bearing and taking away their sins, by removing from 
their consciences that misapprehension of God and their 
own condition, which by reason of sin they had before ; and 
not to make any satisfaction to the justice of God for their 
sins, he being eternally well pleased with them. The sum 
is, election is asserted, to the overthrow of redemption. What 

2 B 2 



372 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

followed in our conference, with what success by God'a 
blessing it did obtain, shall for my part rest in the minds 
and judgments of those that heard it, for whose sake alone 
it was intended. The things themselves being, first, of great 
weight and importance, of singular concernment to all Chris- 
tians. Secondly, Containing in them a mixture of undoubt- 
ed truth, and no less undoubted errors, true propositions, and 
false inferences, assertions of necessary verities, to the ex- 
clusion of others no less necessary. And, thirdly. Directly 
belonging to the business in hand, I shall briefly declare and 
confirm the whole truth in this business, so far as occasion 
was given, by the exercise and debate before mentioned ; be- 
ginning with the first part of it concerning the eternal love 
of God to his elect, with the state and condition they are 
placed in thereby ; concerning which you may observe. 

First, That which is now by some made to be a new doc- 
trine of free grace, is indeed an old objection against it : that 
a non-necessity of satisfaction by Christ, was a consequent 
of eternal election, was more than once, for the substance of 
it, objected to Austin by the old Pelagian heretics, upon his 
clearing and vindicating that doctrine, is most apparent. The 
same objection renewed by others is also answered by Cal- 
vin, Institut, lib. 2. cap. 16. As also divers schoolmen had 
before in their way proposed it to themselves, as Thom. 3. 
g. 49. a. 4. Yet notwithstanding the apparent senselessness 
of the thing itself, together with the many solid answers, 
whereby it was long before removed, the Arminians at the 
Synod of Dort greedily snatched it up again, and placed it 
in the very front of their arguments, against the effectual 
redemption of the elect by Jesus Christ. Now that which 
was in them only an objection, is taken up by some amongst 
us as a truth, the absurd inconsequent consequence of it 
owned as just and good, and the conclusion deemed neces- 
sary, from the grantaig of election to the denial of satis- 
faction. 

Secondly, Observe that there is the same reason of elec- 
tion and reprobation (in things so opposed, so it must be); 
'Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated;' Rom. ix. 13. 
By the one, men are ' ordained to eternal life ;' Acts xiii. By 
the other, before of old ' ordained unto condemnation ;' Jude 
4- Now if the elect are justified, and sanctified, and saved. 



tXlVEUSAL REDF.MPTfOX. 373 

because of God's decree that so they shall be, whereby they 
need nothing but the manifestation thereof; then likewise 
are the reprobates, as soon as they are finally impenitent, 
damned, burned, and want nothing but a manifestation there- 
of; which whether it be true or no, consult the whole dis- 
pensation of God towards them. 

Thirdly, Consider what is the eternal love of God. Is it 
an affection in his eternal nature as love is in ours ? It were 
no less than blasphemy once so to conceive ; his pure and 
holy nature, wherein there is neither change nor shadow of 
turning, is not subject to any such passion ; it must be then 
an eternal act of his will, and that alone; in the Scripture it 
is called, ' his good pleasure ;' Matt. xi. 26. ' His purpose 
according to election ;' Rom. . ix. 12. ' The foundation of 
God;' 2 Tim ii. 19. Now every eternal act of God's will, 
is immanent in himself, not really distinguished from him- 
self; whatever is so in God, is God : hence it puts nothing 
into the creature, concerning whom it is, nor alteration of 
its condition at all, producing indeed no effect until some 
external act of God's power do make it out. For instance, 
God decreed from eternity that he would make the world, 
yet we know the world was not made until about five thou- 
sand five hundred years ago. But ye will say, it was made 
in God's purpose ; that is, say I, he purposed to make it, 
so he purposeth there shall be a day of judgment, is there 
therefore actually a universal day of judgment already? 
God purposeth that he will, in and through Christ, justify 
and save such and such certain persons ; are they therefore 
justified, because God purposeth it ? It is true they shall be 
so, because he hath purposed it, but that they are so is de- 
nied. The consequence is good from the divine purpose to 
the futurition of any thing, and the certainty of its event, 
not to its actual existence : as when the Lord in the be- 
ginning went actually to make the world there was no 
world, so when he comes to bestow faith and actually to 
justify a man, until he hath so done he is not justified. The 
sum is. 

First, The eternal love of God towards his elect, is no- 
thing but his purpose, good pleasure, a pure act of his will, 
whereby he determines to do such and such things for them 
in his own time and way. 



374 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

Secondly, No purpose of God, no immanent eternal act 
of his will, doth produce any outward effect, or change any 
thing, in nature and condition of that thing, concerning 
which his purpose is, but only make the event and success 
necessary in respect of that purpose. 

Thirdly, The wrath and anger of God, that sinners lie 
under, is not any passion in God, but only the outward 
effects of anger, as guilt, bondage, &c. 

Fourthly, An act of God's eternal love which is immanent 
in himself, doth not exempt the creature from the condition 
wherein he is under anger and wrath, until some temporal 
act of free grace do really change its state and condition. 
For example, God beholding the lump of mankind in his own 
power, as the clay in the hand of the potter, determining to 
make some vessels unto honour, for the praise of his glo- 
rious grace, and others to dishonour, for the manifestation 
of his revenging justice, and to this end suffer them all to_ 
fall into sin, and the guilt of condemnation, whereby they 
became all liable to his wrath and curse; his purpose to save 
some of these, doth not at all exempt or free them from the 
common condition of the rest, in respect of themselves and 
the truth of their estate, until some actual thing be accom- 
plished, for the bringing of them nigh unto himself; so that 
notwithstanding his eternal purpose, his wrath in respect of 
the effects abideth on them, until that eternal purpose do 
make out itself, in some distinguishing act of free grace, 
which may receive farther manifestation by these ensuing 
arguments. 

First, If the sinner want nothing to acceptation and peace, 
but a manifestation of God's eternal love, then evangelical 
justification is nothing but an apprehension of God's eter- 
nal decree and purpose : but this cannot be made out from 
the Scripture, viz. that God's justifying of a person, is his 
making known unto him his decree of election, or man's 
justification; an apprehension of that decree, purpose, or 
love. Where is any such thing in the book of God ? It is 
true there is a discovery thereof made to justified believers, 
and therefore it is attainable by the saints, * God shedding 
abroad his love in their hearts, by the Holy Ghost that is 
jj-ivenunto them;' Rom. v. 5. But it is after they are 'justified 
by faith,' and have peace with God ; ver. 1 . Believers are to 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 375 

give ' all diligence to make their calling and election sure :' 
but that justification should consist herein, is a strange no- 
tion. Justification, in the Scripture, is an act of God, pro- 
nouncing an ungodly person, upon his believing, to be ab- 
solved from the guilt of sin, and interested in the all-suffi- 
cient righteousness of Christ; so' God justifies the ungodly,' 
Rom. iv. 5. by the righteousness of God, which is by the 
faith of Christ unto them, Rom. iii. 22. making Christ to 
become righteousness to them, who were in themselves sin ; 
but of this manifestation of eternal love, there is not the 
least foundation, as to be the form of justification, which 
yet is not without sense and perception of the love of God, 
in the improvement thereof. 

Secondly, The Scripture is exceeding clear in making all 
men, before actual reconciliation, to be in the like state and 
condition, without any real difference at all \ the Lord re- 
serving to himself his distinguishing purpose of the altera- 
tion he will afterward by his free grace effect. ' There is 
none that doeth good no not one ;' Rom. iii. For ' we have 
proved that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin;' ver. 9, 10. 
All mankind is in the same condition in respect of them- 
selves and their own real state, which truth is not at all pre- 
judiced by the relation they are in to the eternal decrees. 
For every ' mouth is stopped, and all the world is become 
guilty before God;' Rom. iii. 19. vwo'^ikoq, obnoxious to his 
judgment. ' Who makes thee differ from another, or what 
hast thou that thou hast not received;' 1 Cor. iv. 7. All dis- 
tinguishment in respect of state and condition, is by God's 
actual grace ; for even believers, are by ' nature children of 
wrath as well as others ;' Eph. ii. 3. The condition then of 
ail men, during their unregeneracy, is one and the same ; 
the purpose of God concerning the difference that shall be, 
being referred to himself. Now I ask, whether reprobates in 
that condition lie under the effects of God's wrath or no ? If 
ye say no, who will believe you ? If so, why not the elect 
also ? The same condition hath the same qualifications ; 
an actual distinguishment we have proved there is not : 
produce some difference, that hath a real existence, or the 
cause is lost. 

Thirdly, Consider what it is to lie under the effects of 
God's wrath, according to the declaration of the Scripture, 
and then see how the elect are delivered therefrom, before 



376 ARGUMENTS AGAlNST 

their actual calling. Now this consists in clivers things; as, 

1. To be in such a state of alienation from God, as that 
none of their services are acceptable to him ; ' the prayer of 
the wicked is an abomination to the Lord;' Prov. xxviii.9. 

2. To have no outward enjoyment sanctified, but to have all 
things unclean unto them; Tit. i. 15. Thirdly, To be under 
the power of Satan, who rules at hie pleasure in the chil- 
dren of disobedience ; Eph. ii. 2. Fourthly, To be in bond- 
age unto death ; Heb. ii. 14. Fifthly, To be under the curse 
and condemning power of the law ; Gal. iii. 13. Sixthly, To 
be obnoxious to the judgment of God, and to be guilty of 
eternal death and damnation ; Rom. iii. 19. Seventhly, To be 
under the power and damnation of sin, reigning in them ; 
Rom. vi. 17. These and such like are those which we call 
the effects of God's anger. Let now any one tell me what the 
reprobates in this life lie under more? And do not all the 
elect, until their actual reconciliation in and by Christ, lie 
under the very same ? For, first. Are not their prayers an 
abomination to the Lord ? Can they without faith please 
God ? Heb. xi. 6. And faith we suppose them not to have; 
for if they have they are actually reconciled. Secondly, 
Are they not under the power of Satan ? If not, how comes 
Christ in and for them to destroy the works of the devil ? 
Did not he come to deliver his, from him that had the power 
of death, that is, the devil? Heb. ii. 14. Eph. ii. 2. Thirdly, 
Are their enjoyments sanctified unto them ? Hath any thing 
a sanctified relation without faith ? See 1 Cor. vii. 14. 
Fourthly, Are they not under bondage unto death ? The 
apostle affirms plainly that they are so all their lives, until 
they are actually freed by Jesus Christ ; Heb. ii. 14. Fifth- 
ly, Are they not obnoxious unto judgment, and guilty of 
eternal death ? How is it then that Paul says, that there 
is no difference, but that all are subject to the judgment of 
God, and are guilty before him? Rom. iii. 9. And that 
Christ saves them from this wrath which (in respect of 
merit) was to come upon them? Rom. v. 9. 1 Thess. i. 
Sixthly, Are they not under the curse of the law ? How are 
they freed from it ? By Christ being made a curse for them ; 
Gal. iii. 13. Are they not under the dominion of sin ? God 
be thanked, says Paul, ye were the servants of sin, but have 
obeyed, &c. Rom. vi. 17. In brief, the Scripture is in no- 
j^hing more plentiful, than in laying and charging all the 



UNIVEKSAL Rfc:DE.MPTIOX. 377 

misery and wrath of and due to an unreconciled condition, 
upon the elect of God, until they actually partake in the 
deliverance by Christ. 

But now, some men think to wipe away all that hath 
been said, in a word ; and tell us, that all this is so, but only 
in their own apprehension; not that those things are so in- 
deed and in themselves : but, if these things be so to them, 
only in their apprehensions, why are they otherwise to the 
rest of the whole world? The Scripture gives us no differ- 
ence nor distinction between them: and if it be so with all, 
then let all get this apprehension as fast as they can, and all 
shall be well with the whole world, now miserably captived 
under a misapprehension of their own condition; that is, let 
them say the Scripture is a fable, and the terror of the Al- 
mighty a scarecrow to fright children; that sin is only in 
conceit ; and so square their conversation to their blasphe- 
mous fancies: some men's words eat as a canker. 

Fourthly, Of particular places of Scripture, which might 
abundantly be produced to our purpose, I shall content my- 
self to name only one ; John iii. 36. ' He that believeth not 
the Son the wrath of God abideth on him :' it abideth, there 
it was, and therfe it shall remain, if unbelief be continued : 
but upon believing is removed. But is not God's love un- 
changeable, by which we shall be freed from his wrath? Who 
denies it? But is an apprentice free, because he shall be so 
at the end of seven years ? Because God hath proposed to 
free his, in his own time, and will do it : are they therefore 
free before he doth it ? But are we not in Christ from all eter- 
nity ? Yes, chosen in him we are, therefore in some sense in 
him. But how ? Even as we are ? Actually a man cannot be 
in Christ until he be. Now how are we from eternity? Are 
we eternal ? No : only God from eternity hath purposed that 
we shall be. Doth this give us an eternal being? Alas, we are 
of yesterday, our being in Christ, respecteth only the like 
purpose, and therefore from thence can be made only the 
like inference. 

This being then cleared, it is, I hope, apparent to all, how 
miserable a strained consequence it is, to argue from God*s 
decree of election to the overthrow of Christ's merit and sa- 
tisfaction ; the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, being 
indeed the chief means of carrying along that purpose unto 



378 AKGUiMF.NTS AGAINST 

execution, the pleasure of the Lord prospering in his hand ; 
yea, the argument may be retorted KaTa.Toj'^iaiov, and will hold 
undeniable on the other side ; the consequence being evident 
from the purpose of God to save sinners, to the satisfaction 
of Christ for those sinners ; the same act of God's will, which 
sets us apart from eternity for the enjoyment of all spiritual 
blessings in heavenly places, sets also apart Jesus Christ to 
be the purchaser and procurer of all those spiritual blessings, 
as also to make satisfaction for all their sins : which that he 
did (being the main thing opposed) we prove by these ensu- 
ing arguments. 



CHAP. IX. 

Being a second part of the former digression. Argumeiils to prove 
the satisfaction of Christ. 

If Christ so took our sins, and had them by God so laid and 
imposed on him, as that he underwent the punishment due 
unto them in our stead, then he made satisfaction to the jus- 
tice of God for them, that the sinners might go free : but 
Christ so tookandbare our sins, and them so laid upon him, 
as that he underwent the punishment due unto them, and 
that in our stead : therefore he made satisfaction to the jus- 
tice of God for them. The consequent of the proposition is 
apparent, and was before proved ; of the assumption there be 
three parts severally to be confirmed. First, That Christ 
took and bare our sins, God laying them on him. Secondly, 
That he so took them, as to undergo the punishment due 
unto them. Thirdly, That he did this in our stead. 

For the first, that he took and bare our sins, ye have it, 
1 John i. 29. o a'/pwv,'' &c. 'who taketh away the sins of the 
world ;' 1 Pet. ii. 24. 6c avtvrjyicev, 'who his own self bare our 
sins in his own body;' Isa. liii. 11. '?nD' i<in ' their iniquities 
he shall bear,' and ver. 12. \i:m ' he bare the sin of many.' 
That God also laid or imposed our sins on him is no less ap- 
parent ; Isa. liii. 6. 'the Lord j?>JDn made to meet on him the 
iniquity of us all ;' 2 Cor. v. 21. ojuaprmv £7rot7jo-f, ' he made him 
to be sin for us.' 

a Aufert. susttilit. tulit. 



UNIVERSAL HLDE.MPTION. 379 

The second branch is, that in thus doing, our Saviour un- 
derwent the punishment due to the sins which he bare, which 
were laid upon him ; which may be thus made manifest : Death, 
and the curse of the law, contain the whole of the punishment 
due to sin ; Gen. ii. 17. mon DIO * dying thou shalt die,' is 
that which w^as threatened. Death was that 'which entered 
by sin ;' Rom. v. 12. Which word in those places is compre- 
hensive of all misery due to our transgression : \vhich also is 
held out in the curse of the law, Deut. xxvii. 26. ' Cursed be 
he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them :' 
that all evils of punishment whatsoever are comprised in 
these, is unquestionably evident. Now Jesus Christ, in bear- 
ing our sins, underwent both these, for ' by the grace of God 
he tasted of death ;' Heb. ii. 9. By death delivering from 
death ; ver. 14. he was not 'spared, but given up to death for 
ns all;' Rom. viii. 32. So also the curse of the law. Gal. 
iii. 13. 7£vojUEvoc Karapa, he 'was made a curse for us,' and 
tTTiKaTctpaTog, 'cursed.' And this by the way of undergoing 
the punishment that was in death and curse : for by these it 
pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief; Isa. 
liii. 10. yea ouk E^aVaro, ' he spared him not;' Rom. viii. 32. 
but 'condemned sin in his flesh;' Rom, viii. 3. It remaineth 
only to shew that he did this in our steads, and the whole 
argument is confirmed. 

Now this also our Saviour himself maketh apparent; Matt. 
XX. 28. He came Sovvai rrjvi/zu^rjv avrov Xvrpov uvt\ ttoaXwv, 
' to give himself a ransom for many ;' the word avri always sup- 
poseth a commutation, and change of one person or thing 
instead of another, as shall be afterward declared ; so Matt, 
ii. 22. so 1 Tim. ii. 6. 1 Pet. iii. 18. 'He died for us, the just 
for the unjust.' And Psal. Ixix. 4. ' I restored or paid that 
which I did not take,' viz. our debt so far as that thereby we 
are discharged ; as Rom. viii. 34. where it is asserted upon 
this very ground, that he died in our stead ; and so the several 
parts of this first argument are confirmed. 

If Jesus Christ paid into his Father's hands, a valuable 
price and ransom for our sins, as our surety, so discharging 
the debt that we lay under, that we might go free ; then did 
he bear the punishment due to our sins, and make satis- 
faction to the justice of God for them (for to pay such a 
ransom, is to make such satisfaction), but Jesus Christ paid 



380 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

such a price and ransom as our surety into liis Father's 
hands, &,c. Ergo, 

There be four things to be proved in the assumption, or 
second proposition : First, That Christ paid such a price and 
ransom. Secondly, That he paid it into the hands of his Fa- 
ther. Thirdly, That he did it as our surety. Fourthly, That 
we might go free. All which we shall prove in order. 

First, For the first, our Saviour himself affirms it ; Matt. 
XX. 1 . 28. * He came to give his life Xvrpov a ransom or price 
of redemption for many;' Matt. x. 45. which the apostle 
terms avriXyrpov, 2 Tim. ii. 6. a ransom to be accepted in the 
stead of others, whence we are said to have deliverance dia 
TriQ airoXvTpwaewQ, ' hy the ransom paying of Christ;' Rom. 
iii. 24. 'He bought us with a price;' 1 Cor. vi. 20. which 
price was 'his own blood;' Acts xx. 28. compared to, and 
exalted above, silver and gold in this work of redemption ; 
1 Pet. i. 18. So that this first part is most clear and evident. 

Secondly, He paid this price into the hands of his Father; 
a price must be paid to somebody, in the case of deliverance 
from captivity by it, it must be paid to the judge or jailer; 
that is to God, or the devil : to say the latter, were the highest 
blasphemy: Satan was to be conquered, not satisfied. For 
the former, the Scripture is clear: it was his wrath that was 
on us; John iii. 36. It was he that had shut us up all under 
sin ; Rom. iii. 3. He is the ' great King to whom the debt is 
owing ;' Matt, xviii. 23. 34. He is the only ' lawgiver that 
can kill and make alive ;' James iv. 12. Nay, the ways whereby 
this ransom-paying is in the Scripture expressed, abundantly 
enforce the payment of it into the hands of his Father. For 
his death and bloodshedding is said to be vpoa^oga and 
^vaia, 'an oblation and sacrifice ;' Eph. v. 2. and his soul to 
be nDlz;i< a sacrifice or offering for sin; Isa. liii. 10. Now 
certainly offerings and sacrifices are to be directed unto God 
alone. 

Thirdly, That he did this as surety, we are assured Heb. 
vii. 22. He was made 't'-yyuocj a surety of a better testa- 
ment : and in performance of the duty which lay upon him 
as such, * He paid that which he never took ;' Psal. Ixix. 4. 
All which could not possibly have any other end, but that 
we might go free. 

To make an atonement for sin, and to reconcile God unto 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 381 

the sinners, i-s in effect to make satisfaction unto the justice 
of God for sin, and all that we understand thereby. But Jesus 
Christ by his death and oblation did make an atonement for 
sin, and reconcile God unto sinners ; Ergo, 

The first proposition is in itself evident ; the assumption 
is confirmed, Rom. iii. 24, 25. We are justified freely by the 
ransom-paying that is in Christ, whom God hath set forth to 
be iXacTTripiov, a propitiation, an atonement, a mercy-seat, a 
covering of iniquity; and that ug tvdei^iv rrig diKaioavvri^, for 
the manifestation of his justice, declared in the going forth 
and accomplishment thereof. So likewise Heb. ii. 17. He 
is said to be a merciful liigh priest, dg to iXaaKia^ai Tag afiap- 
TiaQTox) \aov, ' to make reconciliation for the sins of the people,' 
to reconcile God unto the people ; the meaning of the words 
being tXacrKEffS'aj tov S'eov Trtpt twv a/napTKov tov \aov, to recon- 
cile God who was offended with the sins of his people ; which 
reconciliation we are said to receive ; Rom. v. 1 1. (the word 
KaTaXXayr] there, in our common translation rendered atone- 
ment, is in other places in the same rendered reconciliation : 
being indeed the only word used for it in the New Testament.) 
And all this is said to be accomplished St kvog S/icatw^aroc, 
by one righteousness or satisfaction that is of Christ; (the 
words will not bear that sense wherein they are usually ren- 
dered by the righteousness of one, for then must it have been 
Sm StKattujuaroc tov hog.) And hereby were we delivered from 
that, from which it was impossible we should be otherwise 
delivered; Rom. viii. 3. 

That wherein the exercise of the priestly office of Jesus 
Christ whilst he was on earth doth consist, cannot be rejected 
nor denied without damnable error: but the exercise of the 
priestly office of Jesus Christ whilst he was upon the earth, 
consisted in this, to bear the punishment due to our sins, to 
make atonement with God, by undergoing his wrath, and re- 
conciling him to sinners upon the satisfaction made to his 
justice. Therefore cannot these things be denied without 
damnable error. That in the things before recounted, the 
exercise of Christ's priestly office did consist, is most appa- 
rent; first, From all the types and sacrifices whereby it was 
prefigured ; their chief end being propitiation and atonement. 
Secondly, From the very nature of the sacerdotal office ap- 



382 AUGUMENTS AGAINST 

pointed for sacrificing ; Christ having nothing to offer but his 
own blood, through the eternal Spirit. And, thirdly. From 
divers, yea innumerable, texts of Scripture, affirming th€ same. 
It would be too long a work to prosecute those things seve- 
rally and at large, and therefore 1 will content myself with 
one or two places, wherein all those testimonies are com- 
prised, as Heb. ix. 13, 14. ' If the blood of bulls and goats, 
&c. how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through 
the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God?' &c. 
Here the death of Christ is compared to, exalted above, and 
in the antitype answereth, the sacrifices of expiation, which 
were made by the blood of bulls and goats : and so must, at 
least spiritually, effect what they did carnally accomplish, 
and typically prefigure, viz. deliverance from the guilt of sin 
by expiation and atonement. For as in them the life and 
blood of the sacrifice, was accepted in the stead of the offerer, 
who was to die, for the breach of the law according to the 
rigour of it; so in this of Christ was his blood accepted as 
an atonement and propitiation for us, himself being priest, 
altar, and sacrifice. So Heb. x. 10. 12. he is said expressly, 
in the room of all old insufficient carnal sacrifices which 
could not make the comers thereunto perfect, to offer up his 
own body a sacrifice for sins, for the remission and pardon 
of sins, throuoh that offering of himself, as it is ver. 19. And 
in the performance also do we affirm, that our Saviour under- 
went the wrath of God, which was due unto us. This, be- 
cause it is by some questioned, I shall briefly confirm, and 
that with these following reasons. 

First, The punishment due to sin, is the wrath of God ; 
Rom. i. 18. 'The wrath of God is revealed against all un- 
godliness;' chap. ii. 5. 'The day of wrath and revelation of 
the righteous judgment of God;' Eph. ii. 3. 'Children of 
wrath;' John iii. 36. Jesus Christ underwent the punish- 
ment due to sin ; 2 Cor. v. 21. ' Made sin for us ;' Isa. liii. 6. 
* Iniquity was laid upon him;' 1 Pet. ii. 24. ' He bare our 
sins in his own body on the tree.' Therefore he underwent 
the wrath of God. 

Secondly, The curse of the law, is the wrath of God taken 
passively; Deut. xxix. 20, 21. But Jesus Christ underwent 
the curse of the law ; Gal. iii. 13. ' Made a curse for us; ' the 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 383 

curse that they lie under which are out of Christ, *\vho are 
of the works of the law ;' ver. 10. Therefore he underwent the 
wrath of God. 

Thirdly, The death tliat sinners are to undergo, is the 
wrath of God : Jesus Christ did 'taste of that death,' which 
sinners for themselves were to undergo ; for he died as 'our 
surety;' Ileb. vii. 22. and 'in our stead ;' Matt. xx. 28. Hence 
his fear, Heb. v. 7. agony, Luke xxii. 44. astonishment, and 
amazement. Matt. xiv. 33. dereliction, Matt, xxvii. 46. sor- 
row, heaviness, and iiiexpressible pressures. 

That doctrine cannot be true nor agreeable to the gos- 
pel, which strikes at the root of gospel faith, and plucks 
away the foundation of all that strong consolation which 
God is so abundantly willing we should receive : but such 
is that of denying the satisfaction made by Christ, his an- 
swering the justice, and undergoing the wrath of his Father. 
It makes the poor soul to be like Noah's dove in its distress, 
not knowing where to rest the sole of her feet; when a soul 
is turned out of its self-riohteousness, and beoins to look 
abroad, and view the heaven and earth for a resting-place, 
and perceives an ocean, a flood, an inundation of wrath to 
cover all the world ; the wrath of God revealing itself from 
heaven against all ungodliness, so that it can obtain no rest 
nor abiding, heaven it cannot reach by its own flight, and to 
hell it is unwilling to fall; if now the Lord Jesus Christ do 
not appear as an ark in the midst of the waters (upon whom 
the floods have fallen, and yet is got above them all), for a 
refuge, alas what shall it do ? When the flood fell there were 
many mountains, glorious in the eye, far higher than the ark, 
but yet those mountains were all drowned, whilst the ark 
still kept on the top of the waters. Many appearing hills 
•and mountains of self-righteousness, and general mercy, at 
the first view seem to the soul much higher than Jesus 
Christ ; but when the flood of wrath once comes and spreads 
itself, all those mountains are quickly covered ; only the 
ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, though the flood fall on him also, 
yet he gets above it quite, and gives safety to them that rest 
upon him. Let me now ask any of those poor souls, who 
ever have been wandering; and tossed with the fear of the 
wrath to come, whether ever they found a resting-place un- 
till they came to this. God spared not his only Son, but 



384 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

gave him up to death for us all ; that he made him to be sin 
for us ; that he put all the sins of all the elect into that cup 
which he was to drink of; that the wrath and flood which 
they feared did fall upon Jesus Christ (though now as the 
ark he be above it, so that if they could get into hira they 
should be safe); the storm hath been his, and the safety shall 
be theirs ; as all the waters which would have fallen upon 
them that were in the ark, fell upon the ark, they being dry 
and safe ; so all the wrath that should have fallen upon them 
fell on Christ, which alone causeth their souls to dwell in 
safety ? Hath not, I say, this been your bottom ? Your foun- 
dation ? Your resting-place? If not (for the substance of 
it), I fear you have but rotten bottoms. Now what would 
you say, if a man should come and pull this ark from under 
you, and give you an old rotten post to swim upon in the 
flood of wrath. It is too late to tell you no wrath is due 
unto you ; the word of truth, and your own consciences 
have given you other information ; you know ' the wages of 
sin is death,' in whomsoever it be ; he must die on whomso- 
ever it is found ; so that truly the soul may well say, Bereave 
me of the satisfaction of Christ, and I am bereaved. If he 
fulfilled not justice, I must; if he underwent not wrath, I 
must to eternity. O rob me not of my only pearl. Deny- 
in*'- the satisfaction of Christ, destroys the foundation of 
faith and comfort. 

Another argument we may take from some few particu- 
lar places of Scripture, which instead of many I shall pro- 
duce ; as first, 2 Cor. v. 21. 'He made him to be sin for us. 
who knew no sin.' He made him to be sin for us ; how 
could that be ? Are not the next words, he knew no sin ? 
Was he not a lamb without spot, and without blemish? 
Doubtless he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. 
What then is this, ' God made him to be sin?' It cannot be 
that God made him sinful, or a sinner by any inherent sin ; 
that will not stand with the justice of God, nor with the 
holiness of the person of our Redeemer. What is it then? 
' He made him to be sin who knew no sin?' Why clearly, by 
dispensation and consent he laid that to his charge, whereof 
he was not guilty. He charged upon him and imputed unto 
him all the sins of all the elect, and proceeded against him 
accordingly. He stood as our surety ; really charged with 



UJSriVERSAL REDEMPTION. 385: 

the whole debt, and was to pay the utmost farthing, as a_ 
surety is to do if it be required of him; though he borrow 
not the money, nor have one penny of that which is in the ob- 
ligation, yet if he be sued to an execution he must pay all. 
The Lord Christ (if I may so say) was sued by his Father's 
justice unto an execution ; in answer whereunto he under- 
went all that was due to sin, which we proved before to be 
death, wrath, and curse. If it be excepted (as it is) that God 
was always well-pleased with his Son, he testified it again 
and again from heaven, how then could he lay his wrath 
upon him ? 

Ans. It is true he was always well-pleased with him, yet it 
* pleased him to bruise him and put him to grief.' He was al- 
ways well-pleased with the holiness of his person, the excel- 
lency and perfectness of his righteousness, and the sweetness 
of his obedience ; but he was displeased with the sins that 
were charged on him, and therefore it pleased him to bruise 
and put him to grief, with whom he was always well-pleased. 
Nor is that other exception of any more value, that Christ 
underwent no more than the elect lay under ; but they lay 
not under wrath and the punishment due to sin. 

Ans. The proposition is most false ; neither is there any 
more truth in the assumption. For, first, Christ underwent 
not only that wrath (taking it passively) which the elect 
were under, but that also which they should have undergone, 
had not he borne it for them ; he delivered them ' from the 
wrath to come.' Secondly, The elect do in their several 
generations, lie under all the wrath of God in respect of 
merit and procurement, though not in respect of actual en- 
durance ; in respect of guilt not present punishment ; so that 
notwithstanding these exceptions it stands firm, ' that he 
was made sin for us, who knew no sin.' 

Isa. liii. 5. * He was wounded for our transgressions, hes 
was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him, and with his stripes he was healed.' Of this 
place something was said before, I shall add some small en-, 
largements that conduce to discover the meaning of the 
words. ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him ;' that 
is, he was chastised or punished that we might have peace, 
that we might go free ; our sins being the cause of his wound- 
ing, and our iniquities of his being bruised; all our sins meet- 
voL. v. 2 c 



386 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

ing upon him ; as ver. 6. That is, he bare our sins, in Peter's 
interpretation ; he bare our sins (not as some think by de- 
claring that we were never truly sinful, but) by being wound- 
ed for them, bruised for them, undergoing the chastisement 
due unto them, consisting in death, wrath, and curse ; so 
making his soul an offering for sin. He bare our sins ; that 
is, say some, he declared that we have an eternal righteous- 
ness in God, because of his eternal purpose to do us good ; 
but is this to interpret Scripture? or to corrupt the word 
of God ? Ask the word what it means by Christ's bearing of 
sin, it will tell you, his being smitten for our transgressions; 
Isa. liii. 8. His being cut off for our sins ; Dan. ix. 26. Nei- 
ther hath the expression of bearing sins any other significa- 
tion in the word ; Lev. v. 1. ' He that heareth swearing and 
doth not reveal it, shall bear his iniquity.' What is that, he 
shall declare himself or others to be free from sin? No doubt- 
less, but he shall undergo the punishment due to sin, as our 
Saviour did in bearing our iniquities. He must be a cun- 
ning gamester indeed that shall cheat a believer of this foun- 
dation. 

More arguments or texts on this subject, I shall not 
urge or produce, though the cause itself will enforce the 
most unskilful to abound. 1 have proceeded as far as the 
nature of a digression will well bear. Neither shall 1 under- 
take at this time the answering of objections to the contrary; 
a full discussion of the whole business of the satisfaction of 
Christ, which should cause me to search for, draw forth, and 
confute all objections to the contrary, being not by me in- 
tended; and for those which were made at that debate, which 
gave occasion to this discourse, I dare not produce them, lest 
happily I should not be able to restrain the conjectures of 
men, that I purposely framed such weak objections, that 1 
might obtain an easy conquest over a man of straw of mine 
own erection ; so weak were they and of so little force to 
the shaking of so fundamental a truth, as that is which we 
do maintain so of this argument hitherto. 



LNlVKRSAL REDEMPTION. 387 



CHAP. X. 

Of the merit of Christ ; with arguments from thence. 

A FOURTH thing ascribed to the death of Christ is merit, or 
that worth and value of his death, whereby he purchased and 
procured unto us and for us, all those good things which we 
find in the Scripture for his death to be bestowed upon us ; 
of this, much I shall not speak, having considered the thing 
itself under the notion of impetration already ; only I shall 
add some few observations proper to that particular, of the 
controversy which we have in hand. The word merit is not 
at all to be found in the New Testament, in no translation 
out of the original that I have seen ; the vulgar Latin once 
X edidiS. promeretur ; Heb. xiii. 16. And the Rhemists to preserve 
the sound, have rendered it pronierited. But these words 
in both languages are uncouth and barbarous, besides that 
they no way answer EvapeaTsirai, the word in the original, 
which gives no colour to merit, name or thing; nay, I 
suppose it will prove a difficult thing to find out any one 
word in either of the languages, wherein the holy Scripture 
was written, that doth properly and immediately in its first 
native importance signify merit; so that about the name we 
shall not trouble ourselves; if the thing itself intended there- 
by be made apparent, which it is both in the Old and New 
Testament. As Isa. liii. 5. 'The chastisement of our peace 
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed ;' the pro- 
curement of our peace and healing was the merit of his chas- 
tisement and stripes ; so Heb. ix. 12. Sta tov iSiov alfiaTog 
alojviav Xvrpwaiv tvpafievog, ' obtaining by his blood eternal re- 
demption,' is as much as we intend to signify by the merit of 
Christ. The word which comes nearest it in signification, 
wehave Acts XX. 28. irspitTtoiriaaTo, 'purchased with his own 
blood ;' purchase and impetration, merit and acquisition, 
being in this business terms equivalent; which latter word 
is used in divers other places; as 1 Thess. v. 9. Eph. i. 14, 
1 Pet. ii. 9. Now that which by this name we understand 
is, the performance of such an action as whereby the thing 
aimed at by the agent,is due unto him according to the equity 
and equality required in j ustice ; as, ' to him that worketh, the 

2 c 2 



388 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

reward is reckoned not of grace but of debt;' Rora. iv. 4. 
That there is such a merit attending the death of Christ, is 
apparent from what was said before ; neither is the weight 
of any operous proving it imposed on us, by our adversa- 
ries seeming to acknowledge it no less themselves. So that 
we may take it for granted (until our adversaries close with 
the Socinians in this also). Christ then by his death did 
merit and purchase for all those for whom he died, all those 
things which in the Scripture are assigned to be the fruits 
and effects of his death. These are the things purchased and 
merited by his bloodshedding and death ; which may be re- 
ferred unto two heads. First, Such as are privative; as, 1. De- 
liverance from the hands of our enemies ; Luke i. 74. From 
the wrath to come; 1 Thess. i. ult. Secondly, The destruc- 
tion and abolition of death in his power; Heb. ii. 14. Thirdly, 
Of the works of the devil ; 1 John iii. 8. Fourthly, Deliver- 
ance from the curse of the law ; Gal. iii. 13. Fifthly, From 
our vain conversation ; 1 Pet. i. 18. Sixthly, From the pre- 
sent evil world; Gal.i.4. Seventhly, From the earth and from 
among men; Rev. xiv. 3, 4. Eighthly, Purging of our sins ; 
Heb. i. 3. Secondly, Positive ; as, first. Reconciliation with 
God ; Rom. v. 10. Eph. ii. 16. Col. i. 20. Secondly, Ap- 
peasing or atoning of God by propitiation ; Rom. v. 25. 
1 John ii,2. Thirdly, Peace-making ; Eph. ii. 14. Fourthly, 
Salvation; Matt. i. 21. All these hath our Saviour by his 
death, merited and purchased for all them for whom he died ; 
that is, so procured them of his Father, that they ought in 
respect of that merit, according to the equity of justice, to 
be bestowed on them for whom they were so purchased and 
procured; it was absolutely of free grace in God,- that he 
would send Jesus Christ to die for any ; it was of free grace 
for whom he would send him to die ; it is of free grace that 
the good things procured by his death, be bestowed on any 
person, in respect of those persons on whom they are be- 
stowed. But considering his own appointment and consti- 
tution, that Jesus Christ by his death should merit and pro- 
cure grace and glory for those for whom he died, it is of debt 
in respect of Christ that they be communicated to them. 
Now that which is thus merited, which is of debt to be be- 
stowed, we do not say that it may be bestowed, but it ought 
so to be; and it is injustice if it be not. Having said this 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 38^ 

little of the nature of merit, and of the merit of Christ, the 
procurement of his death for them in whose stead he died, 
it will quickly be apparent how unreconcilable the general 
ransom is therewith. For the demonstration whereof we 
need no more but the proposing of this one question, viz. if 
Christ hath merited grace and glory for all those for whom 
he died ; if he died for all, how comes it to pass that these 
things are not communicated to, and bestowed upon all? Is 
the defect in the merit of Christ, or in the justice of God? 
How vain is it to except that these things are not bestowed 
absolutely upon us, but upon condition ; and therefore was 
so procured, seeing that the very condition itself is also me- 
rited and procured; as Eph. i. 3, 4. Phil. i. 29. hath been 
already declared. 

Fifthly, The very phrases of* dying for us,' ' bearing our 
sins,' ' being our surety,' and the like, whereby the death of 
Christ for us is expressed, will not stand with the payment 
of a ransom for all. To die for another, is in Scripture to 
die in that other's stead that he might go free; as Judah be- 
sought his brother Joseph to accept of him for a bondman 
instead of Benjamin, that he might be set at liberty; Gen. 
xliv. 33. And that to make good the engagement wherein he 
stood bound to his father, to be a surety for him. He that is 
surety for another (as Christ was for us, Heb. vii. 22.) is to 
undergo the danger that the other may be delivered. So 
David wishing that he had died for his son Absalom, 2 Sam. 
xviii. 33. intended doubtless a commutation with him, and a 
substitution of his life for his, so that he might have lived. 
Paul also, Rom. v. 7. intimates the same, supposing that 
such a thing might be found among men, that one should 
die for another; no doubt alluding to the Decii, Menecaeus, 
Euriolus, and such others, whom we find mentioned in the 
stories of the heathen, who voluntarily cast themselves into 
death, for the deliverance of their country or friends : con- 
tinuing their liberty and freedom from death, who were to 
undergo it, by taking it upon themselves, to whom it was 
not directly due : and this plainly is the meaning of that 
phrase, 'Christ died for us;' that is, in the undergoing of 
death there was a subrogation of his person in the room and 
stead of ours. Some, indeed, except that where the word 
inrtp is used in this phrase, a& Heb. ii. 9. ' That he by the 



390 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

grace of God should taste death for every man ;' there only 
the good and profit of them for whom he died is intended, 
not enforcing the necessity of any commutation. But why 
this exception should prevail, I see no reason, for the same 
preposition being used in the like kind in other causes doth 
confessedly intimate a commutation; as Rom. ix. 3. Where 
Paul affirms that he could wish himself accursed from Christ 
virlp Twv adeX(l)UJv/ for his brethren,' that is, in their stead, that 
they might be united to him ; so also, 2 Cor. v. 20. v-rrsp 
Xpiarov TTpialitvofxtv 'we are ambassadors in Christ's stead;' 
so the same apostle, 1 Cor. i. 13. Asking, and strongly deny- 
ing, by way of interrogation, fir) IlauXoc larav^M^r] vwlp vfiiov, 
'was Paul crucified for you?' plainly sheweth that the word 
vTrep, used about the crucifying of Christ for his church, doth 
argue a commutation or change, and not only designs the 
good of them, for whom he died : for plainly, he might him- 
self have been crucified for the good of the church, but in 
the stead thereof he abhorreth the least thought of it. But 
concerning the word clvtI which also is used, there is no 
doubt, nor can any exception be made, it always signifieth 
a commutation and change, whether it be applied to things 
or persons; so Luke xi. 11. o^tc avrX Ixdvog, ' o. serpent in- 
stead of a fish ;' so Matt. v. 38. ocpOaXfxhg avrl ocpOaXfiov, ' an 
eye for an eye;' so Heb. xii. 16. and for persons, Archelaus 
is said to reign avri HpwSou rov TruTpog, Matt. ii. 22. ' in- 
stead of his father.' Now this word is used of the death of 
our Saviour; Matt. xx. 28. 'The Son of man came' Souvai 
Trjvxpvxnv avTov Xvrpov avrl ttoWwv, which words are repeated 
again; Mark x. 45. That is, to give his life a ransom in the 
stead of the lives of many ; so that plainly, Christ dying for 
us as a surety, Heb. vii.22. and thereby and therein bearing 
our sins in his own body, 1 Pet. ii. 24. being made a curse 
for us, was an undergoing of death, punishment, curse, wrath, 
not only for our good, but dii-ectly in our stead : a commu- 
tation and subrogation of his person in the room and place 
of ours, being allowed and of God accepted. This being 
cleared, I demand, first, whether Christ died thus for all ? 
That is, whether he died in the room and stead of all, so that 
his person was substituted in the room of theirs? As, whe- 
ther he died in the stead of Cain and Pharaoh, and the rest, 
who long before his death were under the power of the se- 



UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 391 

cond death never to be delivered? Secondly, Wh ether it be 
justice that those, or any oftheixi, in w^hose stead Christ died* 
bearing their iniquities, should themselves also die and bear 
their own sins to eternity? Thirdly, What rule of equity is 
there or example for it, that when the surety hath answered 
and made satisfaction to the utmost of what was required in 
Ihe obligation, wherein he was a surety, that they, for whom 
he was a surety, should afterward be proceeded against? 
Fourthly, Whether Christ hung upon the cross in the room 
or stead of reprobates ? Fifthly, Whether he underwent all 
that which was due unto them, for whom he died ? If not, 
how could he be said to die in their stead? If so, why are 
they not all delivered ? I shall add no more but this, that, to 
affirm Christ to die for all men is the readiest way to prove 
that he died for no man, in the sense Christians have hitherto 
believed, and to hurry poor souls into the bottom of Socinian 
blasphemies. 



CHAP. XI. 

The last general argument. 



Our next argument is taken from some particular places of 
Scripture, clearly and distinctly in themselves holding out 
the truth of what we do affirm : out of the great number of 
them I shall take a few to insist upon, and therewith to close 
our arguments. 

The first that I shall begin withal, is, the first mentioning 
of Jesus Christ, and the first revelation of the mind of God 
concerning a discrimination between the people of Christ, 
and his enemies ; Gen. iii. 15. ' I will put enmity between 
thee (the serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and 
her seed.' By the seed of the woman is meant the whole body 
of the elect, Christ in the first place as the head, and all the 
rest as his members ; by the seed of the serpent, the devil, 
with all the whole multitude of reprobates making up the ma- 
lignant state in opposition to the kingdom and body of Jesus 
Christ. That by the first part, or the seed of the woman, is 
meant Christ with all the elect is most apparent : for they 
in whom all things, that are here foretold of the seed of 



392 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

ihe woman, do concur they are the seed of the woman (for 
the properties of any thing do prove the thing itself) : but 
now in the elect, believers, in and through Christ, are to be 
found all the properties of the seed of the woman; for, for 
them, in them, and by them, is the head of the serpent broken, 
and Satan trodden down under their feet, and the devil dis- 
appointed in his temptations, and the devil's agents frus- 
trated in their undertakings : principally and especially this 
is spoken of Christ himself, collectively of his whole body, 
which beareth a continual hatred to the serpent and his seed. 

Secondly, By the seed of the serpent is meant all the re- 
probate, men of the world, impenitent, unbelievers. 

For, first, The enmity of the serpent lives and exerciseth 
itself in them ; they hate and oppose the seed of the woman, 
they have a perpetual enmity with it, and every thing that 
is said of the seed of the serpent belongs properly to them. 

Secondly, They are often so called in the Scripture ; 
Matt. iii. 7. ' O generation of vipers,' or seed of the serpent; 
so also, Matt.xxiii.33. So Christ telleth the reprobate Phari- 
sees, 'ye are of your father the devil, and his works ye will 
do ;' John viii. 44. So again, the * child of the devil ;' Acts 
xiii. 10. That is, the seed of the serpent ; ' for he that com- 
mitteth sin, is of the devil ;' 1 John iii. 8. These things beina: 
undeniable we thus proceed. Christ died for no more than 
God promised him unto, that he should die for; but God 
did not promise him to all, as that he should die for them, 
for he did not promise the seed of the woman to the seed 
of the serpent, Christ to reprobates, but in the first word of 
him, he promiseth an enmity against them ; in sum, the seed 
of the woman died not for the seed of the serpent. 

Secondly, Matt. vii. 33. ' I profess unto you I never knew 
you ;'_Christ at the last day professeth to some he never knew 
them; Christ saith directly that 'he knows his own whom 
he layeth down his life for;' John x. 14. 17. And surely he 
knows whom and what he hath bought ; were it not strange 
that Christ should die for them, and buy them that he will 
not own, but profess he never knew them? If they are 
bought with a price, surely they are his own ? 1 Cor, vi. ult. 
If Christ did so buy them, and lay out the price of his pre- 
cious blood for them, and then at last deny that he ever 
knew them, might they not well reply, ' Ah Lord ! was not thy 



UNIVERSAL RKDEMPTION. 39$ 

soul heavy unto death for our sakes ? Didst thou not for u» 
undergo that wrath that made thee sweat drops of blood ? 
Didst thou not bathe thyself in thine own blood, that our 
bloods might be spared? Didst thou not sanctify thyself to be 
an offering for us as well as for any of thy apostles? Was not 
thy precious blood by stripes, by sweat, by nails, by thorns, 
by spear, poured out for us? Didst thou not remember us, 
when thou hungest upon the cross ? And now dost thou say, 
thou never knewest us ? Good Lord, though we be unworthy 
sinners, yet thine own blood hath not deserved to be de- 
spised. Why is it that none can lay any thing to the charge 
of God's elect? Is it not because thou died st for them? And 
didst thou not do the same for us? Why then are we thus 
charged, thus rejected? Could not thy blood satisfy thy Fa- 
ther, but we ourselves must be punished ? Could not justice 
content itself with that sacrifice, but we must now hear. 
Depart, I never knew you ?' What can be answered to this 
plea, upon the granting of the general ransom, I know not. 

Thirdly, Matt. xi. 25. ' I thank thee, O Father, Lord of 
heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from 
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes ; 
even so, O Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.' Those 
men, from whom God, in his sovereignty, as Lord of heaven 
and earth, of his own good pleasure, hideth the gospel; either 
in respect of the outward preaching of it, or the inward re- 
velation of the power of it in their hearts, those certainly 
Christ died not for. For to what end should the Father send 
his only Son, to die for the redemption of those, whom he 
for his own good pleasure had determined should be ever- 
lasting strangers from it, and never so much as hear of it, 
in the power thereof revealed to them. Now that such 
there are our Saviour here affirms, and thanks his Father 
for that dispensation, at which so many do at this day 
repine. 

Fourthly, John x. 11. 15, 16. 27,28. This clear place, 
which of itself is sufficient to evert the general ransom, hath 
been a little considered before, and therefore, I shall pass it 
over the more briefly. First, That all men are not the sheep 
of Christ is most apparent. For, first. He himself saith so, 
ver. 26. ' Ye are not of my sheep.' Secondly, The distinc- 
tion at the last day will make it evident, when the sheep 



394 ARGUMENTS AGAINST 

and the goats shall be separated. Thirdly, The properties 
of the sheep are, that they hear the voice of Christ, that 
they know him, and the like, are not in all. Secondly, That 
the sheep here mentioned are all his elect, as well those that 
were to be called, as those that were then already called ; 
ver. 1 6. * Some were not as yet of his fold,' of called ones, so 
that they are sheep by election and not believing. Thirdly, 
That Christ so says that he laid down his life for his sheep, 
that plainly he excludes all others. For, first, He lays down 
his life for them as sheep; now that which belongs to them 
as such, belongs only to such. If he lays down his life for 
sheep as sheep, certainly he doth it not for goats, and 
wolves, and dogs. Secondly, He lays down his life as a 
shepherd ; ver, 11. Therefore for them as the sheep : what 
hath the shepherd to do with the wolves, unless it be to 
destroy them ? Thirdly, Dividing all into sheep and others, 
ver. 26. he saith, ' He lays down his life for his sheep ;' which 
is all one as if he had said he did it for them only. Fourthly, 
He describes them for whom he died by this, his Father gave 
them to him ; ver. 29. as also chap. xvii. 6. ' Thine they were, 
and thou gavest them me :' which are not all, for whatsoever 
the Father giveth him cometh unto him, and he gives unto 
them eternal life, and they shall never perish ; ver. 28. Let 
but the sheep of Christ keep close to this evidence, and all 
the world shallnever deprive them of their inheritance. Far- 
ther to confirm this place add Matt. xx. 28. John xi. 52. 
Fifthly, Rom. viii. 32 — 34. The intention of the apostle 
in this place is to hold out consolation to believers in afflic- 
tion, or under any distress ; which he doth, ver. 31. in gene- 
ral, from the assurance of the presence of God with them, 
and his assistance at all times, enough to conquer all oppo- 
sitions, and to make all diflSculty indeed contemptible by 
the assurance of his loving-kindness, which is better than 
life itself; if God be with us, who shall be against us? To 
manifest this his presence and kindness, the apostle minds 
them of that most excellent, transcendent, and singular act 
of love towards them, in sending his Son to die for them, 
not sparing him, but requiring their debt at his hand ; where- 
upon he argues from the greater to the less, that if he have 
done that for us, surely he will do every thing else that shall 
be requisite. If he did the greater, will he not do the less ? 



.UNIVLRSAL REDEMPTION. 395 

If he give his Son to death, will he not also freely give us 
all things ? Whence we may observe ; First, That the greatest 
and most eximious expression of the love of God towards 
believers, is in sending his Son to die for them, not sparing 
him for their sake, this is made the chief of all. Now if 
God sent his Son to die for all, he had as great an act of 
love, and hath made as great a manifestation of it to them 
that perish as to those that are saved. Secondly, That for 
whomsoever he hath given, and not spared his Son, unto them 
he will assuredly freely give all things ; but now he doth not 
give all things that are good for them unto all, as faith, 
grace, and glory ; from whence we conclude, that Christ 
died not for all. Again, ver. 33. he gives us a description 
of those that have a share in the consolation here intended, 
for whom God gave his Son, to whom he freely gives all 
things, and that is, that they are his elect; not all, but only 
those whom he hath chosen before the foundation of the 
world, that they should be holy ; which gives another con- 
firmation of the restraint of the death of Christ to them alone, 
which he yet farther confirms, ver. 34. by declaring that 
those of whom he speaks, shall be freely justified and freed 
from condemnation ; whereof he gives two reasons : First, 
Because Christ died for them. Secondly, Because he is 
risen and makes intercession for them for whom he died, 
affording us two invincible arguments to the business in 
hand. The first, taken from the infallible effects of the 
death of Christ. Who ohtdl lay any thing to their charge ? 
Who shall condemn them ? Why? what reason is given? It 
is Christ that died. So that the death doth infallibly free 
all them from condemnation for whom he died. Secondly, 
From the connexion that the apostle here makes between 
the death and intercession of Jesus Christ ; for whom he died 
for them he makes intercession, but ' he saveth to the utmost 
them for whom he intercedeth ;' Heb. vii. 24. From all which 
it is undeniably apparent, that the death of Christ, with 
the fruits and benefits thereof, belongeth only to the elect 
of God. 

Sixthly, Eph. i. 7. * In whom we have redemption ;' if his 
blood was shed for all, then all must have a share in those 
things that are to be had in his blood ; now amongst these 
is that redemption that consists in the forgiveness of sins. 



396 ARGUMENTS AGAINST, &C. 

which certainly all have not, for they that have are blessed; 
Rom. iv. and shall be blessed for evermore; which blessing 
comes not upon all, but upon the seed of righteous Abraham. 

Seventhly, 2 Cor. v. 21. ' He made him to be sin for us, 
that we might become the righteousness of God in him.' It 
was in his death that Christ was made sin or an offerino; for 
it. Now for whomsoever he was made sin, they are made 
the righteousness of God in him ; ' by his stripes we are 
healed ;' Isa. liii. John xv. 13. ' Greater love hath none than 
this, that he lay down his life for his friend.' Then to in- 
tercede is not of greater love than to die, nor any thing else 
that he doth for his elect; if then he laid down his life for 
all, which is the greatest, why doth he not also the rest for 
them, and save them to the uttermost. 

Eighthly, John xvii. 9. 'I pray for them, I pray not 
for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for 
they are thine ;' and ver. 19. * For their sakes I sanctify 
myself.' 

Ninthly, Eph. v. 25. ' Husbands love your wives, even as 
Christ also loved his church, and gave himself for it;' as Acts 
XX. 28. The object of Christ's love and his death is here 
asserted to be his bride, his church, and that as properly as 
a man's own wife is the only allowed object of his conjugal 
affections. And if Christ had a love to others so as to die 
for them, then is there in the exhortation a latitude left 
unto men in conjugal affections for other women besides 
their wives. 

I thought to have added other arguments, as intending a 
clear discussing of the whole controversy, but upon a review 
of what hath been said, I do with confidence take up and 
conclude, that these which have been already urged will be 
enough to satisfy them who will be satisfied with any thing ; 
and those that are obstinate will not be satisfied with more. 
So of our arguments here shall be an end. 



BOOK IV. 
CHAP. I. 

Things previously to he considered to the solution of objections. 

1 HERE being sundry places in holy Scripture, wherein the 
ransom and propitiation made by the blood of Christ is set 
forth in general and indefinite expressions ; as also a fruit- 
lessness or want of success in respect of some through their 
own default, for whom he died, seemingly intimated ; with 
general proffers, promises, and exhortations, made for the em- 
bracing of the fruits of the death of Christ, even to them 
who do never actually perform it ; whence some have taken 
occasion to maintain a uruversality of redemption, equally re- 
specting all and every one ; and that with great confidence, 
affirming that the contrary opinion cannot possibly be re- 
conciled with those places of Scripture, wherein the former 
things are proposed. These three heads being the only foun- 
tains from whence are drawn (but with violence) all the ar- 
guments that are opposed to the peculiar effectual redemp- 
tion of the elect only ; I shall (before I come to the answer- 
ing of objections, arising from a wrested interpretation of 
particular places) lay down some such fundamental princi- 
ples, as are agreeable to the word, and largely held forth in 
it, and no way disagreeable to our judgment in this parti- 
cular, which do and have given occasion to those general 
and indefinite affirmations as they are laid down in the word, 
and upon which they are founded ; having their truth in 
them, and not in a universal ransom for all and every one ; 
with some distinctions conducing to the farther clearing of 
the thing in question, and waving of many false imputations 
of things and consequences erroneously or maliciously im- 
posed on us. 

The first thing that we shall lay down is concerning the 
dignity, worth, preciousness, and infinite value of the blood 
and death of Jesus Christ. The maintaining and declaring 
q{ this, is doubtless especially to be considered ; and every 



398 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

opinion that doth but seemingly clash against it, is exceed- 
ingly prejudiced, at least deservedly suspected; yea, pre- 
sently to be rejected by Christians, if upon search it be 
found to do so really and indeed, as that which is injurious 
and derogatory to the merit and honour of Jesus Christ. The 
Scripture also to this purpose is exceeding full and frequent 
in setting forth the excellency and dignity of his death and 
sacrifice, calling his blood, by reason of the unity of his per- 
son, 'God's own blood ;' Acts xx. 28. Exalting it infinitely 
above all other sacrifices, as having for its principle ' the eter- 
nal Spirit/ and being itself 'without spot;' Heb. ix.l4. Tran- 
scendently more precious than * silver or gold or corruptible 
things;' 1 Pet. i. 18. Able to give justification from all 
things, from which by the law^ men could not be justified ; 
Acts xiii. 28. Now such as was the sacrifice and offering of 
Christ in itself, such was it intended by his Father it should 
be. It was then the purpose and intention of God that his Son 
should offer a sacrifice of infinite worth, value, and dignity, 
sufl&cient in itself for the redeeming of all and every man, 
if it had pleased the Lord to employ it to that purpose; yea, 
and of other worlds also, if the Lord should freely make 
them, and would redeem them. Sufficient we say, then, was 
the sacrifice of Christ for the redemption of the whole world, 
and for the expiation of all the sins of all and every man in 
the world. This suflSciency of his sacrifice hath a twofold 
rise. First, The dignity of the person that did offer and 
was oftered. Secondly, The greatness of the pain he en- 
dured, by which he was able to bear, and did undergo, the 
whole curse of the law and wrath of God due to sin ; and 
this sets out the innate real true worth and value of the blood- 
shedding of Jesus Christ. This is its own true internal perfec- 
tion and sufficiency ; that it should be applied unto any, 
made a price for them, and become beneficial to them, ac- 
cording to the worth that is in it, is external to it, doth not 
arise from it, but merely depends upon the intention and 
will of God. It was in itself of infinite value and sufficiency 
to have been made a price, to have bought and purchased all 
and every man in the world. That it did formally become 
a price for any, is solely to be ascribed to the purpose of 
God intendino- their purchase and redemption by it. The 



AUGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEM PTION. 399 

intention of the offerer and accepter that it should be for 
such, some, or any, is that which gives the formality of a price 
unto it ; this is external; biit the value and fitness of it to 
be made a price, ariseth from its own internal sufficiency. 
Hence may appear what is to be thought of that old dis- 
tinction of the schoolmen, embraced and used by divers Pro- 
testant divines, though by others again rejected ; viz. that 
Christ died for all in respect of the sufficiency of the ransom 
he paid ; but not in respect of the efficacy of its application ; 
or, the blood of Christ was a sufficient price for the sins of 
all the world ; which last expression is corrected by some, 
and thus asserted. That the blood of Christ was sufficient to 
have been made a price for all, which is most true, as was 
before declared ; for its being a price for all, or some, doth 
not arise from its own sufficiency, worth, or dignity, but 
from the intention of God and Christ, using it to that pur- 
pose, as was declared; and therefore, it is denied, that the 
blood of Christ was a sufficient price and ransom for all, 
and every one, not because it was not sufficient, but because 
it was not a ransom. And so it easily appears what is to be 
owned in the distinction itself before expressed ; if it intend 
no more, but that the blood of our Savioiir was of sufficient 
value for the redemption of all and every one, and that 
Christ intended to lay down a price which should be suffi- 
cient for their redemption, it is acknowledged as most true, 
but the truth is, that expression (to die for them) holds out 
the intention of our Saviour in the laying down of the price 
to have been their redemption; which we deny, and affirm 
that then it could not be, but that they must be made ac- 
tual partakers of the eternal redemption purchased for them, 
unless God failed in his design, through the defect of the 
ransom paid by Christ, his justice refusing to give a dismis- 
sion upon the delivery of the ransom. 

Now the infinite value and worth which we assert to be 
in the death of Christ, we conceive to be exceedingly under- 
valued by the assertors of universal redemption, for that it 
should be extended to this or that object, fewer or more, we 
shewed before to be extrinsical to it; but its true worth con- 
sists in the immediate effects, products, and issues of it, with 
what in its own nature it is fit and able to do, vvhicb they 



400 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

openly and apparently undervalue, yea, almost annihilate. 
Hence those expressions concerning it. 

First, That by it a door of grace was opened for sinners, where 
(I suppose) they know not; but that any were effectually 
carried in at the door by it, that they deny. Secondly, That 
God might, if he would, and upon what condition he pleased, save 
those for whom Christ died: that a right of salvation was by 
him purchased for any, they deny ; hence they grant, that 
after the death of Christ, First, God might have dealt with 
man upon a legal condition again ; Secondly, That all and every 
man might have been damned, and yet the death of Christ have 
had its full effect: as also, moreover, that faith and sanctif cation 
are not purchased by his death ; yea, no more for any (as be- 
fore), than what he may go to hell withal: and divers other ways 
do they express their low thoughts and slight imaginations 
concerning the innate value and sufficiency of the death and 
bloodshedding of Jesus Christ. To the honour then of Jesua 
Christ our mediator, God and man, our all-sufficient Redeemer, 
we affirm such and so great was the dignity and worth of his 
death and bloodshedding, of so precious a value, of such an 
infinite fulness and sufficiency was this oblation of himself, 
that it was every way able, and perfectly sufficient, to redeem, 
justify, and reconcile, and save all the sinners in the world, 
and to satisfy the justice of God for all the sins of all man- 
kind, and to bring them every one to everlasting glory. Now 
this fulness and sufficiency of the merit of the death of Christ 
is a foundation unto two things. 

First, The general publishing of the gospel unto all na- 
tions, with the right that it hath to be preached to every crea- 
ture ; Matt, xxviii. 19. Mark xvi. 16. Because the way of 
salvation which it declares is wide enough for all to walk in : 
there is enough in the remedy it brings to light, to heal all 
their diseases, to deliver them from all their evils : if there 
were a thousand worlds, the gospel of Christ might, upon 
this ground, be preached to them all, there being enough in 
Christ for the salvation of them all, if so be they will derive 
virtue from him by touching him in faith, the only way to 
draw refreshment from this fountain of salvation. It is then 
altogether in vain which some object, that the preaching of 
the gospel to all, is altogether needless and useless, if Christ 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTIOX. 401 

died not for all : yea, that it is to make God call upon men 
to believe that which is not true, viz. That Christ died for 
them. For, first, besides that amongst those nations, whither 
the gospel is sent, there are some to be saved (* I have much 
people'), which they cannot be, in the way that God hath 
appointed to do it, unless the gospel be preached to others, 
as well as themselves. And, besides, secondly. That the eco- 
nomy and dispensation of the new covenant, by which all 
external differences and privileges of people, tongues, and 
nations being abolished, and taken away, the word of grace 
was to be preached without distinction, and all men called 
every where to repent. And, thirdly, That when God calleth 
upon men to believe, he doth not, in the first place, call upon 
them to believe that Christ died for them, but that there is 
no name under heaven given unto men, whereby they might 
be saved, but only of Jesus Christ; through whom salvation 
is preached. T say, besides those certain truths, fully taking 
off that objection, this one thing, of which we speak, is a 
sufficient basis and ground for all those general precepts of 
preaching the gospel unto all men, even that sufficiency which 
we have described. 

Secondly, That the preachers of the gospel in their par- 
ticular congregations, being utterly unacquainted with the 
purpose and secret counsel of God, being also forbidden to 
pry or search into it, Deut. xxix. may from hence justifi- 
ably call upon every man to believe, with assurance of salva- 
tion to every one in particular upon his so doing, knowing 
and being fully persuaded of this, that there is enough in the 
death of Christ, to save every one that shall so do ; leaving 
the purpose and counsel of God, on whom he will bestow 
faith, and for whom in particular Christ died (even as they 
are commanded), to himself. 

And this is one principal thing, which, being well ob- 
served, will crush many of the vain flourishes of our adversa- 
ries, as will in particular hereafter appear. 

A second thing to be considered, is the economy or admi- 
nistration of the new covenant, in the times of the gospel ; with 
the amplitude and enlargement of the kingdom and dominion 
of Christ, after his appearance in the flesh ; whereby all ex- 
ternal differences being taken away, the name of Gentiles re- 
moved, the partition wall broken down, the promise to Abra- 

VOL. V. 2d 



402 GENERAL ANSM'ERS TO 

ham, that he should be heir of the world, as he was father of 
the faithful, was now fully to be accomplished. Now this 
administration is so opposite to that dispensation, which was 
restrained to one people and family who were God's peculiar, 
and all the rest of the world excluded, that it gives occasion 
to many general expressions in the Scripture which are far 
enough from comprehending a universality of all individuals, 
but denote only a removal of all such restraining exceptions, 
as were before in force : so that a consideration of the end 
whereunto these general expressions are used, and at what is 
aimed by them, will clearly manifest their nature, and how 
they are to be understood, with who they are, that are in- 
tended by them, and comprehended in them. For it being 
only this enlargement of the visible kingdom of Christ to all 
nations in respect of right, and to many in respect of fact 
(God having elect in all those nations to be brought forth, in 
the several generations wherein the means of grace are in 
those places employed), that is intended, it is evident, that 
they import only a distribution of men through all differences 
whatsoever, and not a universal collection of all and every one, 
the thing intended by them requiring the one, and not the 
other. Hence those objections which are made against the 
particularity of the ransom of Christ, and the restraining of 
It only to the elect, from the terms of all, all men, all nations^ 
the world, the whole world, and the like, are all of them exceed- 
ing weak and invalid, as wresting the general expressions of 
the Scripture beyond their aim and intent, they being used 
by the Holy Ghost only to evidence the removal of all per- 
sonal and national distinction, the breaking up of all the 
narrow bounds of the Old Testament, the enlarging the king- 
dom of Christ beyond the bounds of Jewry and Salem, abo- 
lishing all old restrictions, and opening a way for the elect 
amongst all people, called the fulness of the Gentiles, to come 
in; there being now 'neither Greek, Jew, circumcision, nor 
uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ 
is all and in all ;' Col. iii. 11. Hence the Lord promiseth to 
' pour out his Spirit upon all flesh ;' Joel ii. 28. Which Peter 
interpreteth to be accomplished by the filling of the apostles 
with the gifts of the Spirit, that they might be enabled to 
preach to several nations; Acts ii. 17. 'Having received 
grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all 



ARGUMKNTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 403 

nations ;' Rom. i. 5. Not the Jews only, but some among 
all nations ; ' the gospel being the power of God unto salva- 
tion to every one that believeth, the Jew and also the Greek ;' 
ver. 16. Intending only as to salvation, the peculiar bought 
by Christ, which he redeemed out of every kindred, tongue, 
and people, and nation ; Rev. v. 9. Where ye have an evi- 
dent distribution of that, which in other places is generally 
set down ; the gospel being commanded to be preached to 
all these nations; Matt, xxviii. 19. That those bought and 
redeemed ones amonost them all mio;ht be brought home to 
God ; John xi. 52. And this is that which the apostle so 
largely sets forth; Eph. ii. 14 — 17. Now in this sense which 
we have explained and no other, are those many places to be 
taken, which are usually urged for universal grace and re- 
demption, as shall afterward be declared in particular. 

Thirdly, We must exactly distinguish between man's 
duty and God's purpose, there being no connexion between 
them. The purpose and decree of God is not the rule of our 
duty, neither is the performance of our duty in doing what 
we are commanded, any declaration of what is God's pur- 
pose to do, or his decree that it should be done. Especially 
is this to be seen and considered in the duty of the ministers 
of the gospel, in the dispensing of the word, in exhortations, 
invitations, precepts, and threatenings, committed unto 
them ; all which are perpetual declaratives of our duty, and 
do manifest the approbation of the thing exhorted and in- 
vited to, with the truth of the connexion between one thing 
and another, but not of the counsel and purpose of God in 
respect of individual persons in the ministry of the word. A 
minister is not to make inquiry after, nor to trouble himself 
about, those secrets of the eternal mind of God, viz. whom 
he purposeth to save, and whom he hath sent Christ to die 
for in particular : it is enough for them to search his reveal- 
ed will, and thence take their directions; from whence they 
have the.\x commissions. Wherefore there is no sequel between 
the universal precepts from the word concerning the things, 
unto God's purpose in himself concerning pei-sons. They 
command and invite all to repent and believe ; but they 
know not in particular on whom God will bestow repentance 
unto salvation, nor in whom he will effect the work of faith 
with power : and when they make proffers and tenders in 

2 D 2 



404 GENERAI, ANSWERS TO 

the name of God to all, they do not say to all, it is the pur- 
pose and intention of God, that ye should believe. Who 
gave them any such power? But that it is his comman,d, 
which makes it their duty, to do w^hat is required of them ; 
and do not declare his mind, what himself in particular 
will do : the external offer is such, as from which every man 
may conclude his own duty ; none, God's purpose, which 
yet may be known upon performance of his duty. Their ob- 
jection then is vain, who affirm that God hath given Christ 
for all to whom he offers Christ in the preaching of the gos- 
pel ; for his offer in the preaching of the gospel is not de- 
clarative to any in particular, neither of what God hath done, 
nor of what he will do in reference to him ; but of what he 
ought to do, if he would be approved of God, and obtain the 
good things promised. Whence it will follow. 

First, That God always intends to save some among them 
to whom he sends the gospel in its power : and the minis- 
ters of it being, first, unacquainted with his particular pur- 
pose ; secondly. Bound to seek the good of all and every 
one as much as in them lies ; thirdly. To hope and judge 
well of all, even as it is meet for them ; they may make a 
proffer of Jesus Christ, with life and salvation in him, not- 
withstanding that the Lord hath given his Son only to his 
elect. 

Secondly, That this offer is neither vain nor fruitless, 
being declarative of their duty, and of what is acceptable to 
God, if it be performed as it ought to be, even as it is re- 
quired : and if any ask, what it is of the mind and will of 
God that is declared and made known, when men are com- 
manded to believe for whom Christ did not die ? I answer, 
first. What they ought to do, if they will do that which is 
acceptable to God. Secondly, The sufficiency of salvation 
that is in Jesus Christ to all that believe on him. Thirdly, 
The certain, infallible, inviolable connexion that is between 
faith and salvation ; so that whosoever performs the one 
shall surely enjoy the other ; for whoever comes to Christ, he 
will in no wise cast out : of which more afterward. 

Fourthly, The engraffed erroneous persuasion of the Jews, 
which for a while had a strong influence upon the apostles 
themselves, restraining salvation and deliverance by the 
Messias, or promised seed, to themselves alone, who were 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION, 405 

the offspring of Abraham according to the flesh, must be 
considered as the ground of many general expressions and 
enlargements of the objects of redemption, which yet being 
so occasioned, give no colour of any unlimited universality. 
That the Jews were generally infected with this proud opi- 
nion, that all the promises belonged only to them, and theirs, 
towards whom they had a universality, exclusive of all others, 
whom they called dogs, uncircumcised, and poured out curses 
on them, is most apparent. Hence, when they saw the mul- 
titude of the Gentiles coming to the preaching of Paul, they 
were ' filled with envy, contradicting, blaspheming, and 
stirring up persecution against them ;' Acts xiii. 45. 50. 
Which the apostle again relates of them, 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16. 
' They please not God,' saith he, ' and are contrary to all 
men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might 
be saved :' being not with any thing more enraged in the 
preaching of our Saviour, than his prediction of letting out 
his vineyard to others. That the apostles themselves also 
had deeply drank in this opinion, learned by tradition from 
their fathers, appeareth, not only in their questioning about 
the restoration of the kingdom unto Israel; Acts i. 6. but 
also most evidently in this, that after they had received com- 
mission to teach and baptize all nations. Matt, xxviii. 19. or 
every creature, Mark xvi. 16. and were endued with power 
from above so to do, according to promise. Acts i. 8. yet they 
seem to have understood their commission to have extended 
only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ; for they went 
about and preached only to the Jews ; Acts xi. 19. And 
when the contrary was evidenced and demonstrated to them, 
they glorified God, saying, ' Then hath God also to the Gen- 
tiles granted repentance to life!' Acts xi. 18. Admiring at 
it as a thing which before they were not acquainted with r 
and no wonder that men were not easily, nor soon persuaded 
to this, it being the great mystery, that was made known 
in former ages, as it was then revealed to God's holy apo- 
stles and prophets by the Spirit, viz. * That the Gentiles 
should be fellow-heirs of the same body, and partakers of 
his promises in Christ by the gospel ;' Eph. iii. 5, 6. But 
now, this being so made known unto them by the Spirit, and 
that the time was come, wherein the little sister was to be 
considered, the prodigal brought home, and Japhet per- 



406 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

Buaded to dwell in the tents of Shem, they laboured by all 
means to root it out of the minds of their brethren, accord- 
ing to the flesh, of whom they had a special care, as also to 
leave no scruple in the mind of the eunuch, that he was a 
dry tree, or of the Gentile, that he was cut off from the peo- 
ple of God : to which end they use divers general expres- 
sions, carrying a direct opposition to that former error, 
which was absolutely destructive to the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ. Hence are those terms of the world, all men, all 
nations, every creature, and the like, used in the business 
of redemption, and preaching of the gospel ; these things 
being not restrained, according as they supposed, to one 
certain nation and family, but extended to the univer- 
sality of God's people scattered abroad in every region un- 
der heaven; especially are these expressions used by John : 
who living to see the first coming of the Lord, in that fear- 
ful judgment and vengeance which he executed upon the 
Jewish nation some forty years after his death, is very fre- 
quent in the asserting of the benefit of the world by Christ, 
in opposition, as I said before, to the Jewish nation : giving 
us a rule how to understand such phrases and locutions ; 
John xii. 51, 52. * He signified that Jesus should die for that 
nation ; and not for that nation only, but that also he should 
gather together in one the children of God, that were scat- 
tered abroad :' conformable whereunto he tells the believing 
Jews that Christ is not a propitiation for them only, 'but for 
the sins of the whole world ;' 1 John ii. 2, or the people of 
God scattered throughout the whole world, not tied to any 
one nation, as they sometime vainly imagined. And this 
may and doth give much light, into the sense and meaning 
of those places, where the words, world, and all, are used in 
the business of redemption ; they do not hold out a collec- 
tive universality, but a general distribution into men of 
all sorts, in opposition to the before recounted erroneous 
persuasion. 

Fifthly, The extent, nature, and signification of those 
general terms which we have frequently used indefinitely in 
the Scripture, to set out the object of the redemption by 
Christ, must seriously be weighed ; upon these expressions 
hangs the whole weight of the opposite cause, the chief, if 
not only argument for the universality of redemption, being 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 407 

taken from words which seem to be of a latitude in their 
signification, equal to such an assertion ; as the ivorld, the 
whole world, all, and the like ; which terms when they have 
once flistened upon, they run with, * lo triumphe,' as though 
the victory were surely theirs. The world, the whole world, 
all, all men, who can oppose it ? Call them to the context, in 
the several places where the words are ; appeal to rules of in- 
terpretation ; mind them of the circumstances and scope of 
the place ; the sense of the same words in other places, with 
other fore-named helps and assistances, which the Lord hath 
acquainted us with, for the discovery of his mind and will 
in his word ; they presently cry out the bare word, the letter 
is theirs, away with the gloss and interpretation, give us 
leave to believe what the word expressly saith : little (as I 
hope) imagining being deluded with the love of their own 
darling, that if this assertion be general, and they will not 
allow us the gift of interpretation agreeable to the propor- 
tion of faith, that at one clap they confirm the cursed mad- 
ness of the anthropomorphites, assigning a human body, 
form, and shape unto God, who hath none; and the alike 
cursed figment of transubstantiation, overthrowing the body 
of Christ who hath one ; with divers other most pernicious 
errors; let them then, as long as they please, continue such 
empty clamours, fit to terrify and shake weak and unstable 
men, for the truth's sake we will not be silent, and I hope 
we shall very easily make it appear, that the general terms 
that are used in this business will indeed give no colour to 
any argument for universal redemption, whether absolute or 
conditionate. 

Two words there are that are mightily stuck upon or 
stumbled at ; first. The ivorld; secondly. All. The particular 
places wherein they are, and from which the arguments of 
our adversaries are urged, we shall afterward consider ; and 
for the present only shew that the words themselves, according 
to the Scripture use, do not necessarily hold out any collec- 
tive universality of those concerning whom they are affirmed ; 
but being words of various significations, must be interpret- 
ed according to the scope of the place where they are used, 
and the subject matter of which the Scripture treateth in 
those places. 

First, then, for the word ivorld, which in the New Testa- 



408 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

ment is called koo-/xoc (for there is another word sometime 
translated world, viz. alwv, that belongs not to this matter, not- 
ing rather the duration of time, than the thing in that space 
continuing), he that doth not acknowledge it to be TroXvo-rjjuov, 
need say no more to manifest his unacquaintedness in the 
book of God; I shall briefly give you so many various sig- 
nifications of it, as shall make it apparent, that from the bare 
tisage of a word, so exceedingly equivocal, no argument can 
be taken until it be distinguished, and the meaning thereof 
in that particular place evinced, from whence the argument 
is taken. 

The Scheme. 

1 Suhipctivp^ '^ -"^^'"^^ ^ Di-o ^ * ^*^'° aspectabili. 
P =>ubjective^ idquevel i P'° ^ 2 Terra habitabili. 

fi Collective seu Kara Travra?. 

f 1 Incola- 1 w -n- . -i »• SI Quibusvis. 

I X iin,u a. 2 Distributive pro I ^, ^^ w 
rumidque | '^ ( "2 Multis. 

<; i 1 Bonis seu electis. 

Adjunct!- I 1 3 Signanter, pro ^ ,^ jyialis seu reprobis. 

veratione ^ j 4 aopia-ra); seu Communiter. 

L5 Restrictive seu o-m'Ep(^SoxiKa; ? ^ 1 preecipuis. 
I pro I 2 Romanis. 

( 1 Corruptionis undeT 1 Ipsa corruptione 
I 2 Accidentium* sumitur pro < 2 Sede corruptionis 

^ f_ 3 Terrenaconditione 

V. 2 Maledictionis. 

All these distinctions of the use of the word are made 
out in the following observations. 

The word ivorld in the Scripture is in general taken four 
ways. First, Pro rmindo continent e ; and that, first, gene- 
rally, oXwc for the whole fabric of heaven and earth, with all 
things in them contained, which in the beginning were cre- 
ated of God ; so Job xxxiv. 13. Acts xvii. 24. Eph. i. 4. and 
in very many other places. Secondly, Distinctly, first, for 
the heavens, and all things belonging to them, distinguished 
from the earth ; Psal. xc. 2. Secondly, The habitable earth, 
and this very frequently, as Psal. xxiv. 1. xcviii. 7. Matt, 
xiii. 38. John i. 9. iii. 17. 19. vi. 16. xvii. 11. 1 Tim. i. 15. 
vi. 7. 

Secondly, For the tvorld contained, especially men in the 
world; and that either, first, universally for all and every 
one; Rom. iii. 6. 19. v. 12. Secondly, Indefinitely for 
men, without restriction or enlargements; John vii. 4. Isa. 
xiii. 11. Thirdly, Exegetically for many, which is the most 
usual acceptation of the word ; Matt, xviii. 7. John iv. 42. 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 409 

xii. 19. xvi. 8. xvii. 21. 1 Cor. iv. 9. Rev. xiii. 3. Fourthly, 
Comparatively, for a great part of the world; Rom. i. 8. 
Matt. xxiv. 14. xxvi. 13. Rom. x. 18. Fifthly, Restrictive- 
ly, for the inhabitants of the Roman empire; Luke ii. 1. 
Sixthly, For men distinguished in their several qualifications ; 
as, first, for the good, God's people, either in designation or 
possession; Psal. xxii. 27. John iii. 16. vi.36. 51. Rom. 
iv. 13. xi. 12. 15. 2 Cor. v. 19. Col. i. 6. 1 John ii. 2. Se- 
condly, For the evil, wicked, rejected men of the world; Isa. 
xiii. 11. John vii. 7. xiv. 17. 22. xv. 19. xvii. 25. 1 Cor. vi. 
2. xi. 32. Heb. ix. 11. xi. 38. 2 Pet. ii. 5. 1 John v. 19. 
Rev. xiii. 3. 

Thirdly, For the world corrupted, or that universal cor- 
ruption which is in all things in it; as Gal. i. 4. iv. 1. 4. 
vi. 14. Eph. ii. 2. James i. 27. iv. 4. 1 John ii. 15 — 17. 
1 Cor. vii. 31. 33. Col. ii. 8. 2 Tim. iv. 10. Rom. xii. 2. 1 Cor. 
i. 20, 21. iii. 18, 19. 

Fourthly, For a terrene worldly estate or condition of men or 
things ; Psal. Ixxiii. 12. Luke xvi. 8. John xviii. 36. 1 John 
iv. 5. and very many other places. 

Fifthly, For the world accursed, as under the power of Sa- 
tan; John vii. 7. xiv. 30. xvi. 11.33. 1 Cor. ii. 12. 2Cor. iv. 
4. Eph. vi. 12. And divers other significations hath this word 
in holy writ, which are needless to recount; these I have 
rehearsed to shew the vanity of that clamour, wherewith 
some men fill their mouths, and frighten unstable souls with 
the Scripture, mentioning world so often in the business of 
redemption, as though some strength might be taken thence 
for the upholding of the general ransom. * Parvus habetspes 
Troja, si tales habet;' if their greatest strength be but sophis- 
tical craft, taken from the ambiguity of an equivocal word, there 
whole endeavour is like to prove fruitless. Now as I have de- 
clared that it hath divers other acceptations in the Scrip- 
ture ; so when I come to a consideration of their objections, 
that use the word for this purpose, I hope by God's assist- 
ance to shew, that in no one place wherein it is used in this 
business of redemption, that it is or can be taken for all and 
every man in the world, as indeed it is in very few places 
besides ; so that forasmuch as concerning this word our way 
will be clear, if to what hath been said ye add these obser- 
vations. 



410 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

First, That as in other words so in these, this is in the 
Scripture usually an avravaKXamg, whereby the same word is 
ingeminated in a different sense and acceptation ; so Matt, 
viii. 22. Let the ' dead bury their dead ;' dead in the first 
place, denoting them that are spiritually dead in sin ; in the 
next, those that are naturally dead, by a dissolution of soul 
and body; so John i. 11. He cdnne aig ra'iSia, 'to his own,' even 
all things that he had made ; icai 6t iStot, ' his own,' that is the 
greatest part of the people received him not ; so again John 
iii. 6. ' That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' Spirit 
in the first place, is the Almighty Spirit of God, in the lat- 
ter, a spiritual life of grace received from him. Now in such 
places as these to argue that such is the signification of the 
word in one place, therefore in the other, were violently to 
pervert the mind of the Holy Ghost. Thus also is the word 
world usually changed in the meaning thereof; so John i, 
10. ' He was in the world, and the world was made by him, 
and the world knew him not;' he that should force the same 
signification upon the world in that triple mention of it, 
would bean egregious glosser; for in the first, it plainly sig- 
nifieth some part of the habitable earth, and is taken subjec- 
tive /uEjotKwc ; in the second, the whole frame of heaven and 
earth, and is taken subjective oXiKojg ; and in the third, for 
some men living in the earth, viz. unbelievers, who may be 
said to be the world adjunctive. So again, John iii. 17. 'God 
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but 
that the world through him might be saved ;' where by the 
world in the first, is necessarily to be understood that part 
of the habitable world, wherein our Saviour conversed, in 
the second, all men in the world as some suppose ; so also 
there is a truth in it, for our Saviour came not to condemn 
all men in the world ; for, first. Condemnation of any, was not 
the prime aim of his coming ; secondly, He came to save 
his own people, and so not to condemn all ; in the third, 
God's elect, or believers living in the world, in their several 
generations, who were they whom he intended to save, and 
none else, or he faileth of his purpose ; and the endeavour 
of Christ is insufficient for the accomplishment of that where- 
unto it is designed. 

Secondly, That no argument can be taken from a phrase 
of speech in the Scripture in any particular place, if in other 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 411 

places thereof, where it is used, the signification pressed 
from that place is evidently denied, unless the scope of the 
place, or subject matter do enforce it; for instance, God is 
said to love the world, and send his Son, to be in Christ re- 
conciling the icorld to himself, and Christ to be a propitia- 
tion for the sins of the whole world : if the scope of the 
places where these assertions are, or the subject matter of 
which they treat, will enforce a universality of all persons, 
to be meant by the word world, so let it be without control; 
but if not, if there be no enforcement of any such interpre- 
tation from the places themselves, why should the world 
there more signify all and every one, than in John i. 10. 
* The world knew him not ;' which if it be meant of all, with- 
out exception, then no one did believe in Christ, which is 
contrary to ver. 12. or in Luke ii. 1. 'That all the world 
should be taxed,' when none but the chief inhabitants of 
the Roman empire can be understood ; or in John viii. 26. 
' I speak to the world those things which I have heard of 
him,' understanding the Jews to whom he spake, who then 
lived in the world, and not every one to whom he was not 
sent ; or in Joiin xii. 19. ' Perceive ye not that the world is 
gone after him V Which world was nothing but a great mul- 
titude of one small nation; or in 1 John v. 19. 'The whole 
world lieth in wickedness;' from which, notwithstanding, all 
believers are to be understood as exempted ; or in Rev. 
xiii. 3. ' All the world wandered after the beast;' which whe- 
ther it be affirmed of the whole universality of individuals, 
in the world, let all judge. That all nations, an expression 
of equal extent with that of the world, is in like manner to 
be understood, is apparent ; Rom. i. 5. Rev. xviii. 3. 23. 
Psal. cxviii. 10. 1 Chron. xiv. 17. Jer. xxvii. 7. It being evi- 
dent that the words, world, all the world, the whole world, 
do, where taken adjunctively for men in the world, usually 
and almost always denote only some, or many men in the 
world, distinguished into good or bad, believers or unbe- 
lievers, elect or reprobate ; by what is immediately in the 
several places affirmed of them, I see no reason in the world 
why they should be wrested to any other meaning or sense 
in the places that are in controversy between us and our 
opponents. The particular places we shall afterward 
consider. 



412 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

Now as we have said of the word world, so we may of 
the word all, wherein much strength is placed, and many 
causeless boastings are raised from it. That it is no where 
affirmed in the Scripture that Christ died for all men, or 
gave himself a ransom for all men, much less for all and 
every man, we have before declared. That he gave himself a 
ransom for all is expressly affirmed; 2 Tim. ii. 6. But now, 
who this all should be, whether all believers, or all the elect, 
or some of all sorts, or all of every sort is in debate. Our 
adversaries affirm the last, and the main reason they bring 
to assert their interpretation is from the importance of the 
word itself; for, that the circumstances of the place, the 
analogy of faith, and other helps for exposition, do not at 
all favour their gloss, we shall shew when we come to the 
particular places urged. For the present let us look upon 
the word in its usual acceptation in the Scripture, and 
search whether it always necessarily requires such an in- 
terpretation. 

That the word all, being spoken of among all sorts of 
men, speaking, writing, any way expressing themselves, but 
especially in holy writ, is to be taken either collectiveli/ for 
all in general without exception, or distributively for some 
of all sorts, excluding none, is more apparent than that it 
can require any illustration. That it is sometimes taken in 
the first sense, for all collectively, is granted, and I need 
not prove it ; they whom we oppose affirming that this is 
the only sense of the word, though I dare boldly say it is 
not once in ten times so to be understood in the usage of it 
through the whole book of God ; but that it is commonly, 
and indeed properly, used in the latter sense, for some of all 
sorts, concerning whatsoever it is affirmed, a few instances, 
for many that might be urged, will make it clear; thus then 
ye have it, John xii. 32. ' And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all unto me ;' that we translate it all men, 
as in other places (for though I know the sense may be the 
same, yet the word men being not in the original but only 
Travrag), I cannot approve. But who, 1 pray, are these all? 
Are they all and every one ? Then are all and every one 
drawn to Christ, made believers, and truly converted, and 
shall be certainly saved ; for those that come unto him by 
his and his Father's drawing, ' he will in no wise cast out;' 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTIOX. 413 

John vi.37. All then, can here be no other than many, some 
of all sorts, no sort excluded, according as the word is in- 
terpreted in Rev. v. 9. ' Thou hast redeemed us out of every 
kindred, tongue, and people, and nation ;' these are the all 
he draws to him ; which exposition of this phrase is with me 
of more value and esteem, than a thousand glosses of the 
sons of men ; so also, Luke xi. 42. where our translators 
have made the word to signify immediately and properly (for 
translators are to keep close to the propriety and native sig- 
nification of every word), what we assert to be the right in- 
terpretation of it ; for they render -rrav Xa^avov, which pr]TO}g 
is 'every herb, all manner of herbs,' taking the word (as it 
must be) distributivelj/ for herbs of all sorts, and not for any 
individual herb, which the Pharisees did not, could not tithe; 
and in the very same sense is the word used again, Luke 
xviii. 12. ' I give tithes of all that I have ;' where it cannot 
signify every individual thing as is apparent. Most evident 
also is this restrained signification of the word. Acts ii. 17. 
' I will pour out of my Spirit,' etti Troo-av trapica, which whether 
it compriseth every man or no, let every man judge; and 
not rather men of several and sundry sorts. The same course 
of interpretation as formerly, is followed by our translators. 
Acts X. 12. rendering iravra tu rerjOOTroSo literally, 'all beasts 
or four-footed creatures,' all manner of beasts, or beasts of 
sundry several sorts ; in the same sense also must it be un- 
derstood, Rom. xiv. 2. 'One believeth that he may eat all 
things;' that is, what he pleaseth, of things to be eaten of; 
see moreover 1 Cor. i. 5. Yea, in that very chapter where 
men so eagerly contend that the w'ord all is to be taken for 
all and every one (though fruitlessly and falsely, as shall be 
demonstrated), viz. 1 Tim. ii. 4. where it is said, that God 
would have all men to be saved, in that very chapter con- 
fessedly the word is to be expounded according to the sense 
we give, viz. ver. 8. ' I will, therefore, that men pray,' Iv iravrl 
roTTw, which, that it cannot signify every individual place in 
heaven, earth, and hell, is of all confessed, and needeth no 
proof. No more than when our Saviour is said to cure 
TTodav v6(Tov, as Matt. viii. 35. there, is to prove that he did 
not cure every disease of every man, but only all sorts of 
diseases. Sundry other instances might be given, to ma- 
nifest tliat this is the most usual and frequent signification 



414 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

of the word «// in holy Scripture, and therefore, from the 
bare word nothing can be inferred to enforce an absolute un- 
limited universality of all individuals to be intimated there- 
by. The particular places insisted on, we shall afterward 
consider. I shall conclude all concerning these general ex- 
pressions, that are used in the Scripture about this business, 
in these observations. 

First, The word all, is certainly and unquestionably 
sometimes restrained, and to be restrained, to all of some 
sorts, although the qualification be not expressed, which is 
the bond of the limitation ; so for all believers, 1 Cor. xv. 
22. Eph. iv. 10. Rom. v. 18. 'The free gift came upon all 
men to the justification of life;' which all men, that are so 
actually justified, are no more nor less than those that are 
Christ's; that is, believers, for certainly justification is not 
without faith. 

Secondly, The word«// is sometimes used for some of all 
sorts ; Jer. xxxi. 34. The word cdVd is by Paul rendered irav- 
TEc,Heb. viii. 11. So John xii. 32. 1 Tim. ii. 1 — 3. Which is 
made apparent by the mention of kings, as one sort of people 
there intended : and I make no doubt but it will appear to 
all that the word must be taken in one of these senses in 
every place where it is used in the business of redemption ; as 
shall be proved. 

Thirdly, Let a diligent comparison be made between the 
general expressions of the New, with the predictions of the 
Old Testament, and they will be found to be answerable to, 
and expository of, one another. The Lord affirming in the 
New, that that was done, which in the Old he foretold 
should be done. Now in the predictions and prophecies of 
the Old Testament (that all nations, all flesh, all people, 
all the ends, families, or kindreds of the earth, the world, 
the whole earth, the isles, shall be converted, look up to 
Christ, come to the mountain of the Lord, and the like), none 
doubts but that the elect of God in all nations, are only sig- 
nified ; knowing that in them alone those predictions have 
the truth of their accomplishments : and why should the 
same expressions used in the gospel, and many of them 
aiming directly to declare the fulfilling of the other, be wire- 
drawn to a large extent, so contrary to the mind of the 
Holy Ghost? In fine, as when the Lord is said to wipe tears 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 415 

from all faces, it hinders not but the reprobates shall be 
cast out to eternity, where there is weeping and wailing, &,c. 
So when Christ is said to die for all, it hinders not, but 
those reprobates may perish to eternity for thefr sins, with- 
out any effectual remedy intended for them, though occa- 
sionally proposed to some of them. 

Sixthly, Observe that the Scripture often speaketh of 
things and persons according to the appearance they have, 
and the account that is of them amongst men, or that es- 
teem that they have of them, to whom it speaketh ; fre- 
quently speaking of men, and unto men as in the condition 
wherein they are, according to outward appearance, upon 
which human judgment must proceed, and not what they 
are indeed : thus, many are called, and said to be wise, just, 
and righteous^ according as they are so esteem.ed, though the 
Lord knows them to be foolish sinners : so Jerusalem is called 
the holy city. Matt, xxvii. 53. because it was so in esteem 
and appearance, when indeed it was a very den of thieves : 
and 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. it is said of Ahaz, that wicked king 
of Judah, that 'he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that 
smote him :' it was the Lord alone that smote him, and those 
idols to whom he sacrificed were but stocks and stones, the 
work of men's hands, which could no way help themselves, 
much less smite their enemies ; yet the Holy Ghost useth an 
expression answering his idolatrous persuasion, and saith, 
'they smote him:' nay, is it not said of Christ, John v. 18. 
that he had broken the Sabbath, which yet he only did in the 
corrupt opinion of the blinded Pharisees? Add, moreover, 
to what hath been said, that which is of no less an unde- 
niable truth, viz. that many things which are proper and pe- 
culiar to the children of God, are oft and frequently assigned 
to them, who live in the same outward communion with them, 
and are partakers of the same external privileges, though in- 
deed aliens in respect of the participation of the grace of 
the promise: put, I say, these two things, which are most 
evident, together, and it will easily appear that those places, 
which seem to express a possibility of perishing, and eternal 
destruction to them who are said to be redeemed by the 
blood of Christ, are no ways advantageous to the adver- 
saries of the effectual redemption of God's elect by the blood 
of Christ; bepause such may be said to be redeemed kutu 



416 genilRal answers to 

Triv do^av, not Kara rrjv aXriOeiav kcito. to (j)aive(T^ai, not Kara to 
tlvai, in respect of appearance, not reality, as is the use of 
the Scripture in divers other things. 

Seventhly, That which is spoken according to the judg- 
ment of charity, on our parts, must not always be exactly 
squared and made answerable to verity in respect of them, of 
whom any thing is affirmed; for the rectitude of our judgment 
itsufficeth, that we proceed according to the rules of judging 
that are given us: for what is outof our cognizance, whether 
that answers to our judgments or no, belongs not to us : thus 
oftentimes, the apostles in the Scriptures write unto men, and 
term them holy, saints, yea elected, but from thence positively 
to conclude that they were so all indeed, we have no warrant. 
So Peter, 1 Pet. i. 2. calls all the strangers to whom he wrote, 
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
and Bithyr.ia, elect, according to the 'foreknowledge of God 
the Father,' &c. and yet that I have any warrant to conclude 
dejide, thdit all were such, none dare affirm: so Paul tells the 
Thessalonians, the whole church to whom he wrote, that he 
knew their election of God ; 1 Thess. i. 4. 2 Thess. ii. 13. 
He blesseth God ' who had chosen them to salvation.' Now 
did not Paul make this judgment of them by the rule of 
charity ? According as he affirms in another place, ' It is 
meet for me to think so of you all ;' Phil. i. 7. And can it, 
ouo-ht it, hence to be infallibly concluded, that they were 
all elected ? If some of these should be found to fall away 
from the gospel and to have perished, would an argument 
from thence be valid, that the elect might perish? Would 
we not presently answer that they were said to be elected 
according to the judgment of charity, not that they were so 
indeed? And why is not this answer as sufficient and satis- 
fying, when it is given to the objection, taken from the pe- 
rishing of some, who were said to be redeemed merely in 
the judgment of charity, as they were said to be elected? 

Eighthly, The infallible connexion, according to God's pur- 
pose and will of faith and salvation, which is frequently the 
thing intended in gospel proposals, must be considered. The 
Lord hath in his counsel established it, and revealed in his 
word, that there is an indissoluble bond, between these two 
things, so that whosoever believeth shall be saved ; Mark xvi. 
16. Which indeed is the substance of the gospel in the out- 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 417 

ward promulgation thereof; this is the testimony of God 
that eternal life is in his Son, which whoso believeth,he sets 
to his seal that God is true; he who believes not, doing what 
in him lieth to make God a liar; 1 John v, 9 — 11. Now this 
connexion of the means and the end, faith and life, is the 
only thing which is signified and held out to innumerable, 
to whom the gospel is preached ; all the commands, proffers, 
and promises that are made to them, intimating no more 
than this will of God, that believers shall certainly be saved, 
which is an unquestionable divine verity, and a sufficient 
object for supernatural faith to rest upon ; and which being 
not closed with, is a sufficient cause of damnation ; John viii. 
24. ' If you believe not that I am he (that is, the way, the 
truth, and the life), ye shall die in your sins.' It is a vain 
imagination of some, that when the command and promise of 
believing are made out to any man, that though he be of the 
number of them that shall certainly perish, yet the Lord 
hath a conditional will of his salvation, and intends that he 
shall be saved, on condition that he will believe, when the 
condition lieth not at all in the will of God, which is always 
absolute ; but is only between the things to them proposed, 
as was before declared. And those poor deluded things, who 
will be standing upon their own legs, before they are well 
able to crawl, and might justly be persuaded to hold by men 
of more strength, do exceedingly betray their own conceited 
ignorance, when with great pomp they hold out the broken 
pieces of an old Arminian sophism, with acclamations of 
grace, to this new discovery (for so they think of all that is 
new to them), viz. that, as is God's proffer, so is his intention; 
but he calls to all to believe, and be saved, therefore he in- 
tends it to all. For, first, God doth not proffer life to all upon 
the condition of faith, passing by a great part of mankind 
without any such proffer made at them at all. Secondly, 
If by God's projfer, they understand his command and pro- 
mise ; who told them that these things were declarative of 
his will and purpose, or intention? He commands Pharaoh 
to let his people go, but did he intend he should so do ac- 
cording to his command? Had he not foretold, that he 
would so order things, that he should not let them go ? 
I thought always that God's commands and promises had 
revealed our duty, and not his purpose ; what God would 
VOL. V. 2 k 



418 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

have us to do, and not what he will do. His promises, 
indeed, as particularly applied, hold out his mind to the 
persons to whom they are applied ; but as indefinitely 
proposed, they reveal no other intentions of God, but 
what we before discovered, which concerns things not per- 
sons ; even his determinate purpose infallibly to connect 
faith and salvation. Thirdly, If the proffer be (as they say) 
universal, and the intention of God be answerable thereunto, 
that is, he intends the salvation of them, to whom the tender 
of it upon faith is made, or may be so ; then, first, what be- 
comes of election and reprobation ? Neither of them cer- 
tainly can consist with this universal purpose of saving of 
all. Secondly, If he intends it, why is it then not accom- 
plished ? doth he fail of his purpose? Dum vitant vitium stulti. 
Is not this certain Scylla worse than the other feared Charyh- 
dis'^ But they say, ' He intended it only upon condition, and 
the condition being not fulfilled, he fails not in his purpose, 
though the thing be not conferred.' But did the Lord fore- 
know whether the condition would be fulfilled by them, to 
whom the proposal was made or not. If not, where is his 
prescience, his omniscience? If he did, how can he be said 
to intend salvation to them, of whom he certainly knew, that 
they would never fulfil the condition, on^ which it was to be 
attained ; and moreover knew it with this circumstance, that 
the condition was not to be attained without his bestowing ; 
and that he had determined not to bestow it ; would they 
ascribe such a will and purpose to a wise man, as they do ig- 
norantly and presumptuously to the only wise God : viz. that 
he should intend to have a thing done, upon the performance 
of such a condition, as he knew full well, without him could 
never be performed, and he had fully resolved not to effect it; 
for instance, to give his daughter in marriage to such a one, 
upon condition he would give unto him such a jewel as he 
hath not, nor can have, unless he bestow it upon him, which 
he is resolved never to do? Oh whither will blindness and 
ignorance, esteemed light and knowledge, carry poor deluded 
souls ? This then is the main thing demonstrated and held 
out in the promulgation of the gospel, especially for what 
concerns unbelievers, even the first connexion between the 
duty of faith assigned, and the benefit of life promised, which 
hath a truth of universal extent, grounded upon the plenary 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 419 

sufficiency of the death of Christ towards all that shall be- 
lieve : and I see no reason why this should be termed part of 
the mystery of the universalists (though the lowest part) 
(as it is by M. S, page 202.); that the gospel could not be 
preached to all, unless Christ died for all ; which with what 
is mentioned before, concerning another and higher part of 
it, is an old, rotten, carnal, and long since confuted sophism, 
arising out of the ignorance of the word and right reason, 
which are no way contrary. 

Ninthly, The mixed distribution of the elect and repro- 
bates, believers and unbelievers, according to the purpose and 
mind of God, throughout the whole world, and in the several 
places thereof, in all or most of the single congregations, is 
another ground of holding out a tender of the blood of Jesus 
Christ, to them for whom it was never shed, as is apparent in 
the event, by the ineffectualness of its proposals. The minis- 
ters of the gospel, who are stewards of the mysteries of Christ, 
and to whom the word of reconciliation is committed, being 
acquainted only with revealed things (the Lord lodging his 
purposes and intentions towards particular persons in the 
secret ark of his own bosom, not to be pryed into), are bound 
to admonish all, and warn all men, to whom they are sent; 
giving the same commands, proposing the same promises, 
making tenders of Jesus Christ in the same manner, to all, 
that the elect, whom they know not but by the event, may 
obtain, whilst the rest are hardened. Now these things being 
thus ordered by him who hath the supreme disposal of all 
(viz. First, That there should be such a mixture of elect and 
reprobate, of tares and wheat, to the end of the world ; and, 
secondly. That Christ, and reconciliation through him, 
should be preached by men ignorant of his eternal discrimi- 
nating purposes), there is an absolute necessity of two othe^ 
things : First, That the promises must have a kind of unre- 
strained generality, to be suitable to this dispensation before 
recounted. Secondly, That they must be proposed to them, 
towards whom the Lord never intended the good things of 
the promises, they having a share in this proposal by their 
mixture in this world with the elect of God. So that from 
the general proposition of Christ in the promises, nothing 
can be concluded concerning his death for all, to whom it is 
proposed, as having another rise and occasion. The Sjijra is, 

2 E 2 



420 GENERAL ANSWERS TO 

the word of reconciliation being committed to men unac- 
quainted with God's distinguishing counsels, to be preached 
to men of a various mixed condition in respect of his purpose, 
and the way whereby he hath determined to bring his own 
home to himself, being by exhortations, entreaties, promises, 
and the like means accommodated to the reasonable nature, 
whereof all are partakers, to whom the word is sent; which 
are suited also to the accomplishment of other ends, towards 
the rest, as conviction, restraint, hardening, inexcusableness, 
it cannot be, but the proposal and offer must necessarily be 
made to some upon condition, who intentionally, and in re- 
spect of the purpose of God, have no right unto it, in the just 
aim and intendment thereof. Only for a close, observe these 
two things : First, That the proffer itself neither is, nor ever 
■was, absolutely universal to all, but only indefinite, without 
respect to outward differences. Secondly, That Christ being 
not to be received without faith, and God giving faith to 
whom he pleaseth, it is manifest that he never intendeth 
Christ to them, on whom he will not bestow faith. 

Tenthly, The faith which is enjoined and commanded in 
the gospel hath divers several acts, and different degrees ; in 
the exercise v\ hereof it proceedeth orderly, according to the 
natural method of the proposal of the objects to be believed : 
the consideration whereof is of much use in the business in 
hand, our adversaries pretending that if Christ died not for 
all, then in vain are they exhorted to believe; there being in- 
deed no proper object for the faith of innumerable, because 
Christ did not die for them : as though the gospel did hold 
^out this doctrine, in the very entrance \)f all, that Christ died 
for every one, elect and reprobate ; or as though that the first 
thing which any one living under the means of grace is ex- 
horted to believe, were, that Christ died for him in particu- 
lar ; both which are notoriously false ; as I hope in the close 
of our undertaking will be made manifest to all. For the 
present I shall only intimate something of what I said before, 
concerning the order of exercising the several acts of faith, 
whereby it will appear, that no one in the world is com- 
manded or invited to believe, but that he hath a sufficient 
object to fix the act of faith on, of truth enough for its foun- 
dation, and latitude enough for its utmost exercise, which is 
enjoined him. 



ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 421 

First, then. The first thing which the gospel enjoineth 
sinners, and which it persuades and commands them to be- 
lieve, is, that salvation is not to be had in themselves, inas- 
much as all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, 
nor by the works of tlie law, by which no flesh living can be 
justified. Here is a saving gospel truth for sinners to believe, 
which the apostle dwells upon wholly ; Rom. i. ii.iii. to pre- 
pare a way for justification by Christ. Now what number- 
less numbers are they to whom the gospel is preached, who 
never come so far as to believe so much as this? Amongst 
whom you may reckon almost the whole nation of the Jews, 
as is apparent, Rom. ix. x. 3, 4. Now not to go one step 
farther with any proposal, a contempt of this object of faith 
is the sin of infidelity. 

Secondly, The gospel requires faith to this, that there is 
salvation to be had in the promised seed, in him who was 
before ordained to be a captain of salvation to them that do 
believe. And here also at this trial, some millions of the great 
army of men outwardly called, drop off, and do never believe 
with true divine faith that God hath provided a way for the 
saving of sinners. 

Thirdly, That Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified by the 
Jews, was this Saviour, promised before; and that there is 
no name under heaven given whereby they may be saved, 
besides his. And this was the main point upon which the 
Jews broke off, refusing to accept of Christ as the Saviour of 
men, but rather prosecuted him as an enemy of God, and are 
thereupon so oft charged with infidelity and damnable un- 
belief. The question was not between Christ and them, whe- 
ther he died for them all or no ; but whether he was that 
Messias promised, which they denied, and perished in their 
unbelief. Now, before these three acts of faith be per- 
formed, in vain is the soul exhorted, farther to climb upper- 
most steps, and miss all the bottom foundation ones. 

Fourthly, The gospel requires a resting upon this Christ, 
so discovered and believed on to be the promised Redeemer, 
as an all-sufficient Saviour, with whom is plenteous redemp- 
tion, and who is able to save to the utmost them that come 
to God by him, and to bear the burden of all weary labouring 
souls, that come by faith to him : in which proposal, there 
is a certain infallible truth grounded upon the superabundant 



A22 GENERAL ANSWERS, &C. 

sufficiency of the oblation of Christ in itself for whomsoever 
(fewer or more) it be intended. Now much self-knowledge, 
much conviction, much sense of sin, God's justice, and free 
grace, is required to the exercise of this act of faith. Good 
Lord ! how many thousand poor souls within the pale of the 
church, can never be brought unto it? The truth is, without 
the help of God's Spirit none of those three before, much less 
this last, can be performed, which worketh freely, when, how, 
and in whom it pleaseth. 

Fifthly, These things being firmly seated in the soul (and 
not before), we are every one called in particular to believe 
the efficacy of the redemption, that is in the blood of Jesus, 
towards our own souls in particular, which every one may as- 
suredly do, in whom the free grace of God hath wrought the 
former acts of faith, and doth work this also, without either 
doubt, or fear of want of a right object to believe, if they 
should so do ; for certainly Christ died for every one, in 
whose hearts the Lord by his almighty power works effectu- 
ally faith, to lay hold on him, and assent unto him, according 
to that orderly proposal that is held forth in the gospel. Now 
according to this order (as by some it is observed), are the 
articles of our faith disposed in the apostle's creed (that 
ancient summary of Christian religion commonly so called); 
the remission of our sins and life eternal being in the last 
place proposed to be believed ; for before we attain so far, 
the rest must be firmly rooted : so that it is a senseless vanity 
to cry out of the nullity of the object to be believed, if Christ 
died not for all, there being an absolute truth in every thing 
which any is called to assent unto, according to the order of 
the gospel. 

And so I have proposed the general foundations of those 
answers, which we shall give to the ensuing objections; 
whereunto to make particular application of them will be 
an easy task, as I hope will be made apparent unto all. 



OBJECTIONS ANSM'ERED, &C. 423 



CHAP. II. 

An entrance to the answer unto particular arguments. 

Now we come to the consideration of the objections where- 
with the doctrine, we have from the word of God undeniably 
confirmed, is usually with great noise and clamour assaulted. 
Concerning which I must give you these three cautions, be- 
fore I come to lay them down : 

The first whereof is this, that for mine own part I had 
rather they were all buried, than once brought to light in 
opposition to the truth of God, which they seem to deface; 
and therefore were it left to my choice, I would not produce 
any one of them ; not that there is any difficulty or weight 
in them, that the removal should be operous or burdensome, 
but only that I am not willing to be any way instrumental 
to give breath or light to that which opposeth the truth of 
God ; but because in these times of liberty and error, I 
suppose the most of them have been objected to the reader 
already, by men lying in wait to deceive, or are likely to be, 
I shall therefore shew you the poison, and withal furnish ye 
with an antidote against the venom of such self-seekers as 
our days abound withal. 

Secondly, I must desire ye, that when ye hear an objec- 
tion, ye would not be carried away with the sound of words, 
nor suffer it to take impression upon your spirits, remem- 
bering with how many demonstrations, and innumerable 
places of Scripture, the truth opposed by them hath been 
confirmed, but rest yourselves until the places be well 
weighed, the arguments pondered, the answers set down, and 
then the Lord direct you to try all things, and hold fast that 
which is good. 

Thirdly, That you would diligently observe, what comes 
near the stress of the controversy, and the thing wherein 
the difference lieth, leaving all other flourishes and swelling 
words of vanity, as of no weight, of no importance. 

Now the objections laid against the truth maintained, 
are of two sorts : the first, taken from Scripture perverted, 
the other from reason abused. We begin with the first ; the 



424 OBJECTIONS PARTICULARLY ANSWERED, 

objections taken from Scripture, all the places whereof, that 
may any way seem to contradict our assertion, are by our* 
strongest adversaries, in their greatest strength, referred to 
three heads : First, Those places that affirm that Christ died 
for the world, or otherwise that make mention of the word 
world in the business of redemption. Secondly, Those that 
mention all and every man either in the work of Christ's 
dying for them, or where God is said to will their salvation. 
Tliirdly, Those which affirm Christ bought, or died for them 
that perish. Hence they draw out three principal argu- 
ments or sophisms, on which they much insist ; all which 
we shall, by the Lord's assistance, consider in their several 
order, with the places of Scripture brought to confirm and 
strengthen them. The first whereof is taken from the word 
world, and is thus proposed by them, to whom our poor pre- 
tenders, are indeed very children. 

He that is given out of the love, wherewith God loved 
the world; as John iii. 16. That 'gave himself for the life 
of the world ;' as John vi. 51. and was *a propitiation for 
the sins of the whole world ;' 1 John ii. 2. to which add, 
John i. 29. iv. 42. 2 Cor. v. 19. cited by Armin. pp. 530, 
531. and Corvin. ad Molin. p. 442. chap. 29. he was 
given and died for every man in the world ; but the first is 
true of Christ, as appears by the places before alleged ; 
therefore he died for all and every one. Remon. act. Sy- 
nod, p. 300. And to this they say their adversaries have not 
any colour of answer. 

But granting them the liberty of boasting, we flatly deny, 
without seeking for colours, the consequent of the first pro- 
position"; and will, by the Lord's help, at any time put it to 
the trial whether we have not just cause so to do. There 
be two ways whereby they go about to prove this conse- 
quent from the world, to all and every one : First, By rea- 
son and the sense of the word ; Secondly, From the consi- 
deration of the particular places of Scripture urged. We will 
try them in both. 

First, If they will make it out by the way of reasoning, 
I conceive they must argue thus : 

The ivhole world contains all and every man in the world; 
Christ died for the whole world ; therefore, 

» Remon. scripta s^rnod. 



AND PLACES OF SCRIPTURE OPENED. 425 

A71S. Here are manifestly four terms in this syllogism, 
arising from the ambiguity of the word world, and so no true 
medium on which the weight of the conclusion should hang: 
the world, in the first proposition, being taken for the world 
containing : in the second, for the world contained, or men 
in the world, as is too apparent to be made a thing to be 
proved; so that unless ye render the conclusion, ^/tere/bre 
Christ died for that which contaifis all the men in the world, 
and assert in the assumption, that Christ died for the tvorld 
containing, or the fabric of the habitable earth (which is a 
frenzy), this syllogism is most sophistically false. If then ye 
will take any proof from the word world, it must not be 
from the thing itself, but from the signification of the word 
in the Scripture, as thus : 

This tvord world in the Scripture signijieth all and every 
man in the xvorld; but Christ is said to die for the world; ergo, 

Ans. The first proposition concerning the signification 
and meaning of the word world, is either universal, compre- 
hending all places where it is used ; or particular, intending 
only some. If the first, the proposition is apparently false, 
as was manifested before. If in the second way, then the 
argument must be thus formed : 

In some places in Scripture the word tcorld signifieth all and 
every man in the ivorld, of all ages, times, and conditions; but 
Christ is said to die for the world ; ergo, 

Ans. That this syllogism is no better than the former is 
most evident ; a universa conclusion, being inferred from 
a particular proposition, but now the first proposition being 
rightly formed, I have one question to demand concerning 
the second, or the assumption, viz. whether in every place, 
where there is mention made of the death of Christ, it is 
said he died for the worli, or on'y in some ^ If ye say, in 
every place ; that is apparently false, as hath been already 
discovered, by those many texts of Scripture before pro- 
duced, restraining the death of Christ to his elect, his sheep, 
his church, in comparison whereof these are but few. If the 
second, then the argument must run thus : 

In some few places of Scripture the word world doth signify 
all and every man in the world; but in some few places Christ is 
said to die for the world (though not in express words, yet in 
terms equivalent); ergo. 



426 OBJECTIONS PARTICULARLY ANSWERED, 

Ans. This argument is so weak, ridiculous, and sophis- 
tically false, that it cannot but be evident to any one ; and 
yet clearly from the word world itself, it will not be made 
any better, and none need desire that it should be worse ; 
it concludes a universal, upon particular affirmatives ; and 
besides with four terms apparently in the syllogism, unless 
the some places in the ^fint, be proved to be the very some 
places in the assumption, which is the thing in question, so 
that if any strength be taken from this word it must be an 
argument in this form : 

If the word tvorld doth signify all and every man, that ever 
were or shall be in those places, where Christ is said to die for 
the world, then Christ died for all and every man ; but the word 
world in all those places where Christ is said to die for the world, 
doth signify all and every man in the world ; therefore Christ 
died for them. 

Ans. First, That it is but in one place said, that Christ gave 
his life for the world, or died for it, which holds out the in- 
tention of our Saviour; all the other places seem only to 
hold out the sufficiency of his oblation for all, which we 
also maintain. Secondly, We absolutely deny the assump- 
tion, and appeal for trial to a consideration of all those par- 
ticular places, wherein such mention is made. 

Thus have I called this argument to rule and measure, 
that it might be evident where the .great strength of it lieth 
(which is indeed very weakness) ; and that for their sakes 
who having caught hold of the word xoojld, run presently 
away with the bait, as though all were clear for universal 
redemption ; when yet if ye desire them to lay out, and ma- 
nifest the strength of their reason, they know not what to 
say, but the rvorld and the whole world ; understanding indeed 
neither what they say, nor whereof they do affirm ; and now, 
quid dignum tanto ? what cause of the great boast mentioned 
in the entrance ? A weaker argument I dare say was never 
by rational men produced in so weighty a cause ; which 
will farther be manifested by the consideration of the seve- 
ral particular places produced to give it countenance, which 
we shall do in order. 

The first place we pitch upon, is that which by our ad- 
versaries is first propounded, and not a little rested upon : and 
yet notwithstanding their clamorous claim, there are not a 



AND PLACES OF SCRIPTURE OPENED. 427 

few, who think that very text, as fit and ready to overthrow 
their whole opinion, as Goliah's sword to cut off his own 
head; many unanswerable arguments against the universality 
of redemption being easily deduced from the words of that 
text. The great peaceable King of his church, guide us to 
make good the interest of truth to the place in controversy, 
which through him we shall attempt; first, by opening the 
words; and, secondly, by balancing of reasonings and argu- 
ments from them; and this place is John iii. 16. 'God so 
loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.' 

This place, I say, the universalists exceedingly boast in, 
for which we are persuaded they have so little cause, that 
we doubt not but with the Lord's assistance to demonstrate 
that it is destructive to their whole defence, to which end I 
will give you in brief, a double paraphrase of the words ; the 
first containing; their sense, the latter ours. Thus then our 
adversaries explain these words ; ' God so loved' had such a 
natural inclination, velleity, and propensity to the good of 
'the world,^ Adam with all and every one of his posterity, of 
all ages, times, and conditions (whereof some were in hea- 
ven, some in hell long before); 'that he sent his only begotten 
Son,' causing him to be incarnate in the fulness of time, 'to 
die,' not with a purpose and resolution to save any, but that 
'whosoever,' what persons soever of those which he had pro- 
pensity unto, ' believeth on him, should not perish but have 
life everlasting,' should have this fruit and issue, that he 
should escape death and hell, and live eternally. In which 
explication of the sense of the place these things are to be 
observed. 

First, What is that love which was the cause of sending 
or giving of Christ, which they make to be a natural propen- 
sity to the good of all. 

Secondly, Who are the object of this love, all and every 
man of all generations. 

Thirdly, Wherein this giving consisteth : of which I can- 
not find, whether they mean by it, the appointment of Christ 
to be a recoverer, or his actual exhibition in the flesh, for 
the accomplishment of his ministration. 

Fourthly, Whosoever, they make distributive of the per- 



428 OBJECTIONS PARTICULARLY ANSWERED, 

sons in the world, and so not restrictive in the intention to 
some. 

Fifthly, That life eternal, is the fruit obtained by believers, 
but not the end intended by God. 

Now look a little, in the second place, what we conceive 
to be the mind of God in those words, whose aim we take to 
be the advancement and setting forth of the free love of God 
to lost sinners, in sending Christ to procure for them eternal 
redemption, as may appear in this following paraphrase. 

' God' the Father * so loved,' had such a peculiar tran- 
scendent love, being an unchangeable purpose and act of 
his will concerning their salvation, towards ' the world' mise- 
rable, sinful, lost men of all sorts, not only Jews but Gentiles 
also, which he peculiarly loved ' that,' intending their salva- 
tion, as in the last words, for the praise of his glorious grace 
* he gave,' he prepared a way to prevent their everlasting de- 
struction by appointing and sending ' his only begotten Son,' 
to be an all-sufficient Saviour to all that look up unto him, 
that ' whosoever believeth in him,' all believers whatsoever, 
and only they, ' should not perish, but have everlasting life;' and 
so effectually be brought to the obtaining of those glorious 
things through him, which the Lord in his free love had de- 
signed for them. In which enlargement of the words for the 
setting forth of what we conceive to be the mind of the Holy 
Ghost in them, these things are to be observed. 

First, What we understand by the love of God, even that 
act of his will which was the cause of sending his Son Jesus 
Christ, being the most eminent act of love and favour to the 
creature, for love is velle alicui bonurn, ' to will good to any ;' 
and never did God will greater good to the creature, than in 
appointing his Son for their redemption : notwithstanding, 
I would have it observed, that I do not make the purpose of 
sending or giving Christ, to be absolutely subordinate to 
God's love to his elect, as though that were the end of the 
other absolutely; but rather that they are both co-ordinate 
to the same supreme end, or the manifestation of God's glory 
by the way of mercy, tempered with justice : but in respect 
of our apprehension, that is, the relation wherein they stand 
one to another : now this love we say to be that, greater than 
which there is none. 

Secondly, By the 'world,' we understand the elect of God 



AND PLACES OF SCRIPTURE OPENED. 429 

only, though not considered in this place as such, but under 
such a notion as being true of them, serves for the farther 
exaltation of God's love towards them, which is the end here 
designed ; and this is as they are poor, miserable, lost crea- 
tures in the world, of the world, scattered abroad in all places 
of the world, not tied to Jews or Greeks, but dispersed in any 
nation, kindred, and lano-uaofe under heaven. 

Thirdly, tva iraq u iricrTtvow, is to us, ' that every believer,' 
and is declarative of the intention of God, in sending or 
giving his Son, containing no distribution of the world be- 
loved, but a directiom to the persons whose good was in- 
tended, that love being an unchangeable intention of the 
chiefest good. 

Fourthly, * Should not perish but have life everlasting;' con- 
tains an expression of the particular aim and intention of 
God in this business, which is the certain salvation of be- 
lievers by Christ. And this in general is the interpretation 
of the words, which we adhere unto, which will yield us 
sundry arguments, sufficient each of them, to evert the ge- 
neral ransom ; which that they may be the better bottomed, 
and the more clearly convincing, we will lay down and com- 
pare the several words and expressions of this place, about 
whose interpretation we differ, with the reason of our reject- 
ing the one sense and embracing the other. 

First, The first difference in the interpretation of this 
place is about the cause of sending Christ, called here 
love. Secondly, The second, about the object of this love, 
called here the world. Thirdly, Concerning the intention 
of God in sending his Son, said to be that believers mio-ht 
be saved. 

For the first. By love in this place all our adversaries 
agree, i\\dit a natural affection and propensity in God to the (rood 
of the creature, lost under sin in general, which moved him to take 
some way whereby it might possibly be remedied, is intended. 

We, on the contrary, that by love here, is not meant an 
inclination or propensity of his nature, but an act (f his ivill 
(where we conceive his love to be seated), o/?r7 eternal purpose 
to do good to 7nan, being the most transcendent and eminent act 
of God's love to the creature. 

That both these may be weighed, to see which is most 
agreeable to the mind of the Holy Ghost, I shall give you. 



430 OBJECTIONS PARTICULARLY ANSWERED, 

first, some of the reasons where we oppose the former inter- 
pretation ; and, secondly, those whereby we confirm our own. 

First, lino natural affection whereby he should necessarily 
be carried to any thing without himself, can or ought to be 
ascribed unto God, then no such thing is here intended in 
the word love : for that cannot be here intended, which is 
not in God at all ; but now that there neither is nor can be 
any such natural affection in God, is most apparent, and may 
be evidenced by many demonstrations. I shall briefly recount 
a few of them. 

First, Nothing that includes any imperfection is to be 
assigned to Almighty God ; he is God all-sufficient, he is our 
rock, and his work is perfect ; but a natural affection in God, 
to the good and salvation of all, being never completed nor 
perfected, carrieth along with it a great deal of imperfection 
and weakness, and not only so, but it must also needs be 
exceedingly prejudicial to the absolute blessedness and hap- 
piness of Almighty God. Look how much any thing wants, 
of the fulfilling of that whereunto it is carried out with any 
desire natural or voluntary, so much it wanteth of blessed- 
ness and happiness ; so that without impairing of the infinite 
blessedness of the ever blessed God, no natural affection 
unto any thing, never to be accomplished, can be ascribed 
unto him, such as this general love to all, is supposed to be. 

Secondly, If the Lord hath a natural affection to all, as 
to love them so far, as to send his Son to die for them ; 
whence is it that this affection of his doth not receive ac- 
complishment? Whence is it that it is hindered, and doth 
not produce its effects? Why doth not the Lord engage his 
power for the fulfilling of his desire ? It doth not seem good 
to his infinite wisdom, say they, so to do. Then is there an 
affection in God to that, which in his wisdom he cannot 
prosecute. This among the sons of men, the worms of the 
earth, would be called a brutish affection. 

Thirdly, No affection or natural propensity to good is to 
be ascribed to God, which the Scripture no where assigns to 
him, and is contrary to what the Scripture doth assign unto 
him. Now the Scripture doth no where assign unto God any 
natural affection, whereby he should be naturally inclined 
to the good of the creature : the place to prove it clearly, is 
yet to be produced : and that it is contrary to what the Scrip- 



AND PLACES OF SCRIPTURE OPENED. 431 

ture assigns him is apparent; for it describes him to be free 
in shewing mercy; every act of it, being by him performed 
freely, even as he pleaseth, for * he hath mercy on whom he 
will have mercy.' Now if every act of mercy, shewed unto 
any, do proceed from the free distinguishing will of God (as 
is apparent), certainly there can be in him no such natural 
affection. And the truth is, if the Lord should not shew 
mercy, and be carried out towards the creature, merely upon 
his own distinguishing will, but should naturally be moved 
to shew mercy to the miserable, he should, first, be no more 
merciful to men than to devils : nor, secondly, to those that are 
saved than to those that are damned ; for that which is natural 
must be equal in all its operations ; and that which is natu- 
ral to God must be eternal. Many more effectual reasons 
are produced by our divines for the denial of this natural 
affection in God ; in the resolution of the Arminian distinc- 
tion (I call it so, as now by them abused), of God's antecedent 
and consequent will, to whom the learned reader may repair 
for satisfaction : so that the love mentioned in this place, is 
not that natural affection to all in general, which is not : but. 
Secondly, It is the special love of God to his elect, as we 
affirm, and so consequently not any such thing as our adver- 
saries suppose to be intended by it, viz. a velleity or natural 
inclination to the good of all. For, first, the love here intimated, 
is absolutely the most eminent and transcendent love, that 
ever God shewed or bare towards any miserable creature ; 
yea the intention of our Saviour is so to set it forth, as is 
apparent by the emphatical expressions of it used in this 
place ; the particles 'so,' ' that,' declare no less, pointing out 
an eximiousness, peculiarly remarkable in the thing whereof 
the affirmation is, above any other thing in the same kind ; 
expositors usually lay weight upon almost every particular 
word of the verse, for the exaltation and demonstration of 
the love here mentioned. ' So,' that is, in such a degree, to 
such a remarkable astonishable height; 'God,' the glorious 
all-sufficient God, that could have manifested his justice to 
eternity in the condemnation of all sinners, and no way 
wanted them to be partakers of his blessedness ; 'loved,' 
with such an earnest intense affection, consisting in an eter- 
nal unchangeable act and purpose of his will, for the be- 
stowing of the chiefest good (the choicest effectual love); 



432 OBJECTIONS PARTICULARLY ANSWERED, 

'the worlds men in the world, of the world, subject to the 
iniquities and miseries of the world, lying in their blood, 
having nothing to render them commendable in his eyes, or 
before him; 'that he gax:e' did not, as he made all the world 
at first, speak the word and it was done, but proceeded higher 
to the performance of a great deal more and longer work, 
wherein he was to do more than exercise an act of his al- 
mighty power as before; and therefore gave 'his Son,' not 
any favourite or other well-pleasing creature, not sun, moon, 
or stars, not the rich treasure of his creation, all too mean 
and coming short of expressing this love, but his Son; 'be- 
gotten Son,' and that not so called by reason of some near 
approaches to him, ?LndJiUal obediential reverence of him, as 
the angels are called the sons of God; for it was not an angel 
that he gave, which yet had been an expression of most in- 
tense love, nor yet any son by adoption, as believers are the 
sons of God, but his beo;otten Son, besrotten of his own per- 
son from eternity ; and that 'his only begotten Son,' not any 
one of his sons, but whereas he had or hath but one only 
begotten Son, always in his bosom, his Isaac, he gave him; 
than which how could the infinite wisdom of God make or 
give any higher testimony of his love ? Especially if ye will 
add what is here evidently included ; though the time was 
notas yet come, that it should be openly expressed, viz. where- 
unto he gave his Son, his only one, not to be a king, and wor- 
shipped in the first place, but he spared him not, but 'gave 
him up to death for us all ;' Rom. viii. 32. Whereunto, for 
a close of all, cast your eyes upon his design and purpose 
in this whole business, and ye shall find, that it was that be- 
lievers, those whom he thus loved, might not perish, that is, 
undergo the utmost misery and wrath to eternity, which they 
had deserved, but have everlasting life, eternal glory with 
himself, which of themselves they could no way attain, and 
ye will easily grant that greater love hath no man than this. 
Now if the love here mentioned be the greatest, highest, and 
chiefest of all, certainly it cannot be that common affection 
towards all, that we discussed before ; for the love whereby 
men are actually and eternally saved, is greater than that 
which may consist with the perishing of men to eternity. 

Secondly, The Scripture positively asserts this very love 
as the chiefest act of the love of God, and that which he 



PLACES OF SCRIPTURE OPENED. 433 

would have us take notice of in the first place; Rom. v. 8. 
' God commended his love towards us in that while we were 
yet sinners Christ died for us ;' and fully, 1 John iv. 9 — 11. 
* In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because 
that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we 
mio-ht live throuo;h him. Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro- 
pitiation for our sins ;' in both which places the eminency of 
this love is set forth exceeding emphatically to believers, 
with such expressions as c