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 Arminian novel doctrine, extenuating 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 mortuum,' it is disproved by all evangelical promises, made from the beginning of the world, 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 surely 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. lxiii. 2, 3. Dan. ix. 26. but what need we reckon any more? our Saviour taught his disciples, that all the prophets 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 prophets required faith in his death and passion.

Thirdly, By the explicit faith of many Jews, as of old Simeon; 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 worship of God; John iv. 25.

Fourthly, By the express testimony of Christ himself; 'Abraham,' saith he, 'rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad;' John viii. 56. his day, his hour, in the Scripture 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 multum sudant nonnulli, quomodo Platonem faciant Christianum, se probant esse ethnicos. Bern. Epist.

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 sanie yesterday, to-day, and for ever; Heb. xiii. 8. under 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, communication 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 martyr 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 instructions, 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

· Παραδοθεὶς γε, τῶν διὰ Χριστὸν ἀναιρουμένων, ἀπὸ τοῦ Αβηλ τοῦ δικαίου. Ignat. Epist ad Ephes.

κι Πάντες οὖν ἅγιοι ἐν Χριστῷ ἐσώθησαν, ἐλπίσαντες εἰς αὐτὸν καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναμείναντες, δι ̓ αυτοῦ σωτηρίας ἔτυχον. Epist. ad Phil.

Non alia fide quemquam hominum sive ante legem, sive legis tempore, justificatum esse credendum est, quam hac eadem qua Dominus Jesu, &c. Prosp. ad ob. 8. Gallorum.

• Omnes ergo illos qui ab Abraham sursum versus, ad primum hominem, generationis ordine conscribuntur, etsi non nomine, rebus tamen, et religione Christianos fuisse, si quis dicat, non mihi videtur errare. Eus. Histor. eccles. lib. 1. cap. 1.

Nero and Caligula; or negative in the life to come, by a diminution 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 believeth 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 compare 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 instrumentally 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 indignation, 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 themselves.

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 hugeness 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 populus 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, inutile lignum;' a fig-tree log, 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

b

a Hieron. ad Ruff.

b Pelagius: Dogma quod-pestifero vomuit coluber sermone Britannus. Prosper. de ingrat. cap. 1.

c Adfuit, exhortante Deo provisa per orbem, sanctorum pia cura patrum. 1. Pestem subeuntem prima recidit, sedes Roma Petri. 2. Non segnior inde, orientis rectorum cura emicuit. Synod. Palest. 3. Hieronymus libris valde excellentibus hostem dissecuit. 4. Atticus Constantinop. 5. Duæ Synodi Aricanæ. Prosper. de ingrat.

d Concilium cui dux Aurelius ingeniumque Augustinus erat. Quem Christi gratia cornu uberiore rigans, nostro lumen dedit ævo. Prosp. ibid.