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the word of reconciliation being committed to men unacquainted 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 respect 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 whereof 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 indeed 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 of 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 exhorted to believe, were, that Christ died for him in particular; 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 commanded or invited to believe, but that he hath a sufficient object to fix the act of faith on, of truth enough for its foundation, and latitude enough for its utmost exercise, which is enjoined him.

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First, then, The first thing which the gospel enjoineth sinners, and which it persuades and commands them to believe, is, that salvation is not to be had in themselves, inasmuch as all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, nor by the works of the 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 prepare a way for justification by Christ. Now what numberless 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 unbelief. The question was not between Christ and them, whether 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 performed, in vain is the soul exhorted, farther to climb uppermost 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 redemption, 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

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 assuredly 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 effectually 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.

CHAP. II.

An entrance to the answer unto particular arguments.

Now we come to the consideration of the objections wherewith 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, before 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 objection, ye would not be carried away with the sound of words, nor suffer it to take impression upon your spirits, remembering 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

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. Thirdly, Those which affirm Christ bought, or died for them that perish. Hence they draw out three principal arguments 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 pretenders, 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. Synod. 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 proposition"; 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 consequent from the world, to all and every one: First, By reason and the sense of the word; Secondly, From the consideration 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 whole world contains all and every man in the world; Christ died for the whole world; therefore,

■ Remon. scripta synod

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