Part 11

§. I. [Sidenote: _This Doctrine a Novelty._] First, We may safely call this Doctrine a Novelty, seeing in the first four hundred Years after Christ there is no Mention made of it: For as it is contrary to the Scriptures Testimony, and to the Tenor of the Gospel, so all the ancient Writers, Teachers, and Doctors of the Church pass it over with a profound Silence. [Sidenote: _The Rise of it._] The first Foundations of it were laid in the later Writings of _Augustine_, who, in his Heat against _Pelagius_, let fall some Expressions which some have unhappily gleaned up, to the establishing of this Error; thereby contradicting the Truth, and sufficiently gainsaying many others, and many more and frequent Expressions of the same _Augustine_. Afterwards was this Doctrine fomented by _Dominicus_ a Friar, and the Monks of his Order; and at last unhappily taken up by _John Calvin_ (otherwise a Man in divers Respects to be commended) to the great staining of his Reputation, and Defamation both of the _Protestant_ and Christian Religion; which though it received the Decrees of the Synod of _Dort_ for its Confirmation, hath since lost Ground, and begins to be exploded by most Men of Learning and Piety in all _Protestant_ Churches. However, we should not oppugn it for the Silence of the Ancients, Paucity of its Assertors, or for the Learnedness of its Opposers, if we did observe it to have any real Bottom in the Writings or Sayings of Christ and the Apostles, and that it were not _highly injurious to God himself, to Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer, and to the Power, Virtue, Nobility, and Excellency if his blessed Gospel, and lastly unto all Mankind_.

§. II. [Sidenote: _Highly injurious to God, in making him the Author of Sin._] First, _It is highly injurious to God_, because it makes him the Author of Sin, which of all Things is most contrary to his Nature. I confess the Assertors of this Principle deny this Consequence; but that is but a mere Illusion, seeing it so naturally follows from this Doctrine, and is equally ridiculous, as if a Man should pertinaciously deny that _one_ and _two_ make _three_. For if God has decreed that the reprobated Ones shall perish, without all Respect to their evil Deeds, but only of his own Pleasure, and if he hath also decreed long before they were in Being, or in a Capacity to do Good or Evil, that they should walk in those wicked Ways, by which, as by a secondary Means, they are led to that End, who, I pray, is the first Author and Cause thereof but God, who so willed and decreed? This is as natural a Consequence as can be: And therefore, although many of the Preachers of this Doctrine have sought out various, strange, strained and intricate Distinctions to defend their Opinion, and avoid this horrid Consequence; yet some, and that of the most eminent of them, have been so plain in the Matter, as they have put it beyond all Doubt; of which I shall instance a few among many Passages. [57]_I say, That by the Ordination and Will of God _Adam_ fell. God would have Man to fall. Man is blinded by the Will and Commandment of God. We refer the Causes of hardening us to God. The highest or remote Cause of hardening is the Will of God. It followeth that the hidden Counsel of God is the Cause of hardening._ These are _Calvin_’s Expressions. [58]_God_ (saith _Beza_) _hath predestinated not only unto Damnation, but also unto the Causes of it, whomsoever he saw meet_. [59]_The Decree of God cannot be excluded from the Causes of Corruption._ [60]_It is certain_ (saith _Zanchius_) _that God is the first Cause of Obduration_. _Reprobates are held so fast under God’s Almighty Decree, that they cannot but sin and perish._ [61]_It is the Opinion_ (saith _Paræus_) _of our Doctors, That God did inevitably decree the Temptation and Fall of Man_. _The Creature sinneth indeed necessarily, by the most just Judgment of God. Our Men do most rightly affirm, That the Fall of Man was necessary and inevitable, by Accident, because of God’s Decree._ [62]_God_ (saith _Martyr_) _doth incline and force the Wills of wicked Men into great Sins_. [63]_God_ (saith _Zuinglius_) _moveth the Robber to kill_. _He killeth, God forcing him thereunto. But thou wilt say, He is forced to sin; I permit truly that he is forced._ [64]_Reprobate Persons_ (saith _Piscator_) _are absolutely ordained to this twofold End; to undergo everlasting Punishment, and necessarily to sin, and therefore to sin, that they may be justly punished_.

[57] _Calvin_ in cap. 3. _Gen. Id._ 1. Inst. _c. 18, S. 1. Id._ lib. de Præd. _Idem_ lib. de Provid. _Id._ Inst. c. 23. S. 1.

[58] _Beza_ lib. de Præd.

[59] _Id._ de Præd. ad Art. 1.

[60] _Zanch._ de Excæcat. q. 5. _Id._ lib. 5. de Nat. Dei cap. 2. de Præd.

[61] _Paræus_ lib. 3. de Amis. gratiæ c. 2. _ibid._ c. 1.

[62] _Martyr_ in Rom.

[63] _Zuing._ lib. de Prov. c. 5.

[64] _Resp._ ad _Vorst._ part. 1. p. 120.

If these Sayings do not plainly and evidently import, that _God is the Author of Sin_, we must not then seek these Men’s Opinions from their Words, but some Way else. It seems as if they had assumed to themselves that monstrous and twofold Will they feigned of God; one by which they declare their Minds openly, and another more secret and hidden, which is quite contrary to the other. Nor doth it at all help them to say, That Man sins willingly, since that Willingness, Proclivity, and Propensity to Evil is, according to their Judgment, so necessarily imposed upon him, that he cannot but be willing, because God hath willed and decreed him to be so. Which shift is just as if I should take a Child uncapable to resist me, and throw it down from a great Precipice; the Weight of the Child’s Body indeed makes it go readily down, and the Violence of the Fall upon some Rock or Stone beats out its Brains and kills it. Now then, I pray, though the Body of the Child goes willingly down (for I suppose it as to its Mind uncapable of any Will) and the Weight of its Body, and not any immediate Stroke of my Hand, who perhaps am at a great Distance, makes it die, whether is the Child or I the proper Cause of its Death? Let any Man of Reason judge, if God’s Part be, with them, as great, yea, more immediate, in the Sins of Men, as by the Testimonies above brought doth appear, whether doth not this make him not only the Author of Sin, but more unjust than the unjustest of Men?

§. III. [Sidenote: _2. It makes God delight in the Death of a Sinner._] Secondly, _This Doctrine is injurious to God_, because it makes him delight in the Death of Sinners; yea, and to will many to die in their Sins, contrary to these Scriptures, _Ezek._ xxxiii. 11. 1 _Tim._ ii. 3. 2 _Pet._ iii. 9. For if he hath created Men only for this very End, that he might shew forth his Justice and Power in them, as these Men affirm, and for effecting thereof hath not only with-held from them the Means of doing Good, but also predestinated the Evil, that they might fall into it; and that he inclines and forces them into great Sins; certainly he must necessarily delight in their Death, and will them to Die; seeing against his own Will he neither doth, nor can do any Thing.

§. IV. [Sidenote: _3. It renders Christ’s Mediation Ineffectual._] Thirdly, _It is highly injurious to Christ our Mediator, and to the Efficacy and Excellency of his Gospel_; for it renders his Mediation ineffectual, as if he had not by his Sufferings throughly broken down the _middle Wall_, nor yet removed the _Wrath_ of God, or purchased the Love of God towards all Mankind, if it was afore-decreed that it should be of no Service to the far greater Part of Mankind. It is to no Purpose to allege, that the Death of Christ was of Efficacy enough to have saved all Mankind, if in effect its Virtue be not so far extended as to put all Mankind into a Capacity of Salvation.

[Sidenote: _4. It makes the Gospel a Mock._] Fourthly, _It makes the Preaching of the Gospel a mere Mock and Illusion_, if many of these, to whom it is preached, be by any irrevocable Decree excluded from being benefited by it; it wholly makes useless the Preaching of Faith and Repentance, and the whole Tenor of the Gospel-promises and Threatenings, as being all relative to a former Decree and Means before appointed to such; which, because they cannot fail, Man needs do nothing but wait for that irresistible Juncture, which will come, though it be but at the last Hour of his Life, if he be in the Decree of _Election_; and be his Diligence and Waiting what it can, he shall never attain it, if he belong to the Decree of _Reprobation_.

[Sidenote: _5. It makes the Coming of Christ an Act of Wrath._] Fifthly, _It makes the Coming of Christ, and his Propitiatory Sacrifice_, which the Scripture affirms to have been the Fruit of God’s Love to the World, and transacted for the Sins and Salvation of all Men, _to have been rather a Testimony of God’s Wrath to the World, and one of the greatest Judgments, and severest Acts of God’s Indignation towards Mankind_, it being only ordained to save a very few, and for the hardening, and augmenting the Condemnation of the far greater Number of Men, because they believe not truly in it; the Cause of which Unbelief again, as the Divines [so called] above assert, is the hidden Counsel of God: Certainly the Coming of Christ was never to them a Testimony of God’s Love, but rather of his implacable Wrath: And if the World may be taken for the far greater Number of such as live in it, God never loved the World, according to this Doctrine, but rather hated it greatly, in sending his Son to be crucified in it.

§. V. [Sidenote: 6. _It renders Mankind in a worse Condition than the Devils--_] Sixthly, _This Doctrine is highly injurious to Mankind_; for it renders them in a far worse Condition than the Devils in Hell. For these were sometime in a Capacity to have stood, and do suffer only for their own Guilt; whereas many Millions of Men are for ever tormented, according to them, for _Adam_’s Sin, which they neither knew of, nor ever were accessary to; it renders them worse than the Beasts of the Field, of whom the Master requires no more than they are able to perform; and if they be killed, Death to them is the End of Sorrow; whereas Man is for ever tormented for not doing that which he never was able to do. [Sidenote:--_Than the_ Israelites _under_ Pharaoh.] It puts him into a far worse Condition than _Pharaoh_ put the _Israelites_; for though he with-held Straw from them, yet by much Labour and Pains they could have gotten it: But from Men they make God to with-hold all Means of Salvation, so that they can by no Means attain it; [Sidenote: Tantalus’_s Condition_.] yea, they place Mankind in that Condition which the Poets feign of _Tantalus_, who, oppressed with Thirst, stands in Water up to the Chin, yet can by no Means reach it with his Tongue; and being tormented with Hunger, hath Fruits hanging at his very Lips, yet so as he can never lay hold on them with his Teeth; and these Things are so near him, not to nourish him, but to torment him. So do these Men: They make the outward Creation of the Works of Providence, the Smiting of Conscience, sufficient to convince the _Heathens_ of Sin, and so to condemn and judge them: But not at all to help them to Salvation. They make the Preaching of the Gospel, the Offer of Salvation by Christ, the Use of the Sacraments, of Prayer, and good Works, sufficient to condemn those they account _Reprobates_ within the Church, serving only to inform them, to beget a seeming Faith and vain Hope; yet because of a secret Impotency, which they had from their Infancy, all these are wholly ineffectual to bring them the least Step towards Salvation; and do only contribute to render their Condemnation the greater, and their Torments the more violent and intolerable.

Having thus briefly removed this false Doctrine which stood in my Way, because they that are desirous may see it both learnedly and piously refuted by many others, I come to the Matter of our Proposition, which is, That _God out of his infinite Love, who delighteth not in the Death of a Sinner, but that all should live and be saved, hath sent his only begotten Son into the World, that whosoever believeth in him might be saved_; which also is again affirmed in the sixth Proposition, in these Words, [Sidenote: Christ _tasted Death for every Man_.]_Christ then tasted Death for every Man, of all Kinds_. Such is the Evidence of this Truth, delivered almost wholly in the express Words of Scripture, that it will not need much Probation. Also, because our Assertion herein is common with many others, who have both earnestly and soundly, according to the Scripture, pleaded for this _universal Redemption_, I shall be the more brief in it, that I may come to that which may seem more singularly and peculiarly ours.

§. VI. [Sidenote: Christ’_s Redemption universal, contrary to the Doctrine of_ Absolute Reprobation.] This Doctrine of _universal Redemption_, or _Christ’s dying for all Men_, is of itself so evident from the Scripture-Testimony, that there is scarce found any other Article of the Christian Faith so frequently, so plainly, and so positively asserted. It is that which maketh the preaching of Christ to be truly termed the _Gospel_, or an _Annunciation of glad Tidings to all_. Thus the Angel declared the Birth and Coming of Christ to the Shepherds to be, _Luke_ ii. 10. _Behold, I bring you good Tidings of great Joy, which shall be to all People_: He saith not, to _a few_. Now if this coming of Christ had not brought a Possibility of Salvation _to all_, it should rather have been accounted bad Tidings of great Sorrow to most People; neither should the Angel have had Reason to have sung, _Peace on Earth, and good Will towards Men_, if the greatest Part of Mankind had been necessarily shut out from receiving any Benefit by it. How should Christ have sent out his Servants to _preach the Gospel to every Creature_, Mark xvi. 15. (a very comprehensive Commission) that is, _to every Son and Daughter of Mankind_, without all Exception? He commands them to preach _Salvation to all, Repentance and Remission of Sins to all; warning every one, and exhorting every one_, as _Paul_ did, _Col._ i. 28. Now how could they have preached the Gospel _to every Man_, as became the Ministers of Jesus Christ, in much Assurance, if Salvation by that Gospel had not been possible to all? What! if some of those had asked them, or should now ask any of these Doctors, who deny the Universality of Christ’s Death, and yet preach it to all promiscuously, _Hath Christ died for me?_ How can they, with Confidence, give a certain Answer to this Question? If they give a conditional Answer, as their Principle obligeth them to do, and say, _If thou repent, Christ hath died for thee_; doth not the same Question still recur? _Hath Christ died for me, so as to make Repentance possible to me?_ To this they can answer nothing, unless they run in a Circle; whereas the _Feet of those that bring the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace _are said to be_ beautiful_, for that they preach the _common Salvation_, Repentance unto all; offering a Door of Mercy and Hope to all, through _Jesus Christ, who gave himself a Ransom for all_. [Sidenote: _The Gospel is preached to every Man._] The Gospel invites all: And certainly, by the Gospel _Christ_ intended not to deceive and delude the greater Part of Mankind, when he invites, and crieth, saying; _Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you Rest_. If all then ought to seek after him, and to look for Salvation by him, he must needs have made _Salvation possible_ to _all_; for who is bound to seek after that which is impossible? Certainly it were a mocking of Men to bid them do so. And such as deny, that by the Death of Christ _Salvation_ is made _possible to all Men_, do most blasphemously make God mock the World, in giving his Servants a Commission to _preach the Gospel of Salvation unto all_, while he hath before decreed that it shall not be possible for them to receive it. Would not this make the Lord to send forth his Servants with a _Lie in their Mouth_, (which were blasphemous to think) commanding them to bid _all_ and _every one_ believe that Christ died for them, and had purchased Life and Salvation? [Sidenote: _The Absurdity of that Doctrine of_ Absolute Reprobation.] whereas it is no such Thing, according to the fore-mentioned Doctrine. But seeing Christ, after he arose and perfected the Work of our Redemption, gave a Commission to preach _Repentance_, _Remission of Sins_, and _Salvation_ to all, it is manifest that he _died for all_. For He that hath commissionated his Servants thus to preach, is a _God of Truth_, and no Mocker of poor Mankind; neither doth he require of any Man that which is simply impossible for him to do: For that _no Man is bound to do that which is impossible_, is a Principle of Truth engraven in every Man’s Mind. And seeing he is both a righteous and merciful God, it cannot at all stand, either with his Justice or Mercy, to bid such Men _repent_ or _believe_, to whom it is impossible.

§. VII. Moreover, if we regard the Testimony of the Scripture in this Matter, where there is not one Scripture, that I know of, which affirmeth, _Christ not to die for all_, there are divers that positively and expresly assert, _He did_; [Sidenote: _To pray for _all_; for Christ died for_ all--] as 1 _Tim._ ii. 1, 3, 4, 6. _I exhort therefore, that first of all, Supplications, Prayers, Intercessions, and giving of Thanks, be made for all Men_, &c. _For this is good and acceptable in the Sight of God our Saviour, who will have all Men to be saved, and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth; who gave himself a Ransom for all, to be testified in due Time._ Except we will have the Apostle here to assert quite another Thing than he intended, there can be nothing more plain to confirm what we have asserted. And this Scripture doth well answer to that Manner of arguing which we have hitherto used: For, first, the Apostle here recommends them to _pray for all Men_; and to obviate such an Objection, as if he had said with our Adversaries, _Christ prayed not for the World, neither willeth he us to pray for all; because he willeth not that all should be saved, but hath ordained many to be damned, that he might shew forth his Justice in them_; he obviates, I say, such an Objection, telling them, that _it is good and acceptable in the Sight of God, who will have all Men to be saved._ [Sidenote:--_And will have _all_ Men to be saved._] I desire to know what can be more expresly affirmed? or can any two Propositions be stated in Terms more contradictory than these two? _God willeth some not to be saved_; and _God willeth all Men to be saved_, or God _will have no Man perish_. If we believe the last, as the Apostle hath affirmed, the first must be destroyed; seeing of contradictory Propositions, the one being admitted, the other is destroyed. Whence, to conclude, he gives us a Reason of his Willingness that all Men should be saved, in these Words, _Who gave himself a Ransom for all_; as if he would have said, Since Christ died for all, since he gave himself a Ransom for all, therefore he will have all Men to be saved. This Christ himself gives as a Reason of God’s Love to the World, in these Words: _John_ iii. 16. _God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, that _whosoever_ believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting Life_; compared with 1 _John_ iv. 9. This [_whosoever_] is an indefinite Term, from which no Man is excluded. From all which then I thus argue:

[Sidenote: _Arg. 1._] For whomsoever it is lawful to pray, to them Salvation is possible:

But it is lawful to pray for every individual Man in the whole World:

Therefore Salvation is possible unto them.

I prove the _Major Proposition_ thus;

[Sidenote: _Arg. 2._] No Man is bound to pray for that which is impossible to be attained:

But every Man is bound and commanded to pray for all Men:

Therefore it is not impossible to be obtained.

I prove also this _Proposition_ further, thus;

[Sidenote: _Arg. 3._] No Man is bound to pray, but in Faith:

But he that prayeth for that, which he judges simply impossible to be obtained, cannot pray in Faith:

Therefore, _&c._

Again,

[Sidenote: _Arg. 4._] That which God willeth is not impossible:

But God willeth all Men to be saved:

Therefore it is not impossible.

And Lastly;

[Sidenote: _Arg. 5._] Those for whom our Saviour gave himself a Ransom, to such Salvation is possible:

But our Saviour gave himself a Ransom for all:

Therefore Salvation is possible.