Part 3: All Men

I will draw all men. The parties drawn to Christ is the third article in the doctrine of Christ's drawing; and they are here called [〈in non-Latin alphabet〉], all men. It is a great question between us, and such as are for universal atonement, and universal grace, as many Anabaptists in England now are; what is meant by all men, in which these are to be observed.

- 1. The state of the question. - 2. The mind of the adversaries. - 3. Our mind. - 4. The clearing of places alleged by the adversaries. - 5. The answering of that principal doubt, what faith is required of all within the visible Church. - 6. The uses of the doctrine.

Of all these shortly.

The state of the question.

The question touches, 1. God's intention and purpose to save man. 2. In choosing some to salvation, not others. 3. God's purpose in sending Christ to die for some, not for others.

The first article is called universal grace, the second conditional; or which to me is all one, universal election to glory, and so no election. The third is, the question touching the universality of Christ's death, or a fancied universal atonement made by Christ for all — I cannot particularly handle all the three.

For the first: God engages all men as Christ's debtors thus far; that it is mercy that they live or have any opportunity of seeking God, whatever be the means natural or supernatural; whereas for the sin of Adam God might by a like justice have destroyed the world and all mankind, vanity is penally inflicted on all the servants, for treason of the master against the King of Heaven and earth, but in Christ there be two mitigations. 1. One is, that the servants are not destroyed for the sin of the master. 2. That as the [reconstructed: forfeited] Lord is restored, so the sick servants groaning under vanity shall be delivered from that bondage they come under for the sin of man (Romans 8:20-22). Hence it is, though we be outlaws by nature, that now by a privilege of grace from the mediator, the tenants receive and lodge the master, because Christ has taken off the statute and act of forfeiture. 2. No man living on earth, but he is beholden to Christ (though many know him not) for common helps of providence, and experiences do teach him some more of God by nature. 3. The sound of Christ, God revealed in the Gospel, in the Apostles' ministry is declared, and is gone to the ends of the earth, and to the nations (Psalm 19:4; Romans 10:18). But some say these words, Have they not heard, have relation to verse 14, the hearing of the Gospel, or the publishing of the glad tidings of the Gospel to all and every one of mankind, and must be meant of that same hearing.

It relates to hearing of God revealing himself in the means of salvation, say the Adversaries. But then the question is, whether these means be the preaching of the Gospel, or of the same God revealed as Creator, by the Sun, Moon, and Stars, who is revealed in the Gospel, and salvation by him. Now the Sun, and Stars, and heaven declare the glory of God, and sound forth his praises and salvation through Christ, by this sense, to all and every nation, and to every single person without exception; not only when Paul wrote this to the Romans, but when David penned the 19th Psalm, what difference then between the Jews to whom God revealed his Testimonies, and the Gentiles to whom God made no such revelation? (Psalm 147:19-20; Deuteronomy 4:33-34, etc.; Deuteronomy 5:25-26; Psalm 78:1-2, etc.; Psalm 81:4-5). And this sound, if it be the Gospel preached to as many as see the Sun, and ever when they see the Sun; then at that time, and to this day, the Sun and Moon, must be sent Apostles and Preachers, by whose words and ministry all, and every man, that sees the Sun, then and now, and to Christ's second coming are obliged to pray to God in Christ, and to believe, and faith comes by hearing; the Sun, Stars, night and day preach Christ, for surely the same hearing of the Gospel, verse 18, must be understood which is spoken, verses 14-15. For if the one be a hearing of the Gospel, by the Apostles, which produces faith and salvation, and the other a hearing of Sun and Stars in the book of the Creation — this produces not faith and salvation, by the confession of the Adversaries. 2. The Apostle shall not answer his own objection. Verse 18: If all both Jew and Gentile have not heard the Gospel, it's impossible they can believe, for faith comes by hearing the Gospel from their mouth who are sent of God; and if they hear not, they must be excused, because they believe not in Christ, of whom they never heard. The Apostle must answer, indeed, but they have heard the Gospel. Why? — they heard the Sun, and the Stars preach Christ, and salvation by him, to the farthest ends of the earth, for surely David in the literal and native sense of that 19th Psalm speaks of such dumb Preachers. Now this is no answer at all, for Sun and Stars are not sent of God to preach salvation by Christ. 2. Faith comes not by hearing the creatures preach Christ. 3. The Prophets and Apostles, not the dumb and lifeless creatures have pleasant feet on the Mountains to preach peace, as it is verses 14-16, cited from Isaiah 52:7 and Nahum 1:15. But the native sense of the words, verse 18, is but a mere allusion in Scripture phrase, to David's words in Psalm 19. It is neither citation nor exposition of them, but a use of Scripture language in comparing the Gospel to the Sun, the sound of the Gospel preached to the sound of the glory of the Creator in the works of heaven and earth, to show how ample the preaching of the Gospel under the New Testament is; to wit, that it is not preached to one nation of the Jews only, as of old; but to all nations, to the Jews, and to the foolish people, by whom the Lord provokes the Jews to jealousy, as is clear, verses 19-20. And that voice [illegible]; their voice is gone to the ends of the earth, is the voice of the twelve Apostles, of the Lamb, who preached the Gospel to nations of all kinds, to Jews and Gentiles; it's not the voice of the creatures, the heaven and earth, but a mere allusion to that voice, Psalm 19. For the words have no sense otherwise, for the Apostle avouches the Gospel is preached, the promise of salvation published to all that call on the Lord's name, verse 12. Be they Jews or Grecians, that is, Gentiles, and believe they must, or else they cannot pray, and needs they must hear, or then they cannot believe, and hear they cannot except God send Preachers. But God has sent Preachers with pleasant feet to both Jews and Gentiles, as the Prophets Isaiah and Nahum foretold, verses 13-15. And they have not all obeyed, verses 16-18. But it may be said, they have not all heard the Gospel preached — this must certainly excuse the Gentiles if they believe not, having never heard of Christ, how can they believe, as it is verse 14. It's a rational excuse, I cannot sin in not believing the Gospel, says the Gentile; indeed, and Christ frees them from the sin of unbelief also (John 15:22): If I had not come, and spoken to them (and so if they had not had a Lord Speaker from heaven) they had not had sin. That is, they should have been free of the Gospel-sin of unbelief; but now they have no cloak for their sin. Now they cannot say, Lord, we cannot believe a Gospel, never spoken to us by any, nor heard of, by us. But surely the Jews heard these creatures and works of God that preached his glory (Psalm 19:6). And if they preach Christ objectively, as Amyrald, and other Arminians fancy; then the not hearing, and not obeying the Gospel thus preached, had been their sin, though Christ, or his Apostles had never spoken the Gospel, which is contrary to Christ's word (John 15:22). And contrary to Paul, how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard, by the preaching of a sent minister, who subjectively, and vocally must preach the Gospel.

But to return to the state of the question. 4. So much of God is revealed to all, even to those who never heard of Christ, as serves to make all unexcusable for that knowing willingly, and knowingly, they glorify not God as God (Romans 1:19-21). 5. All within the visible Church, have means sufficient in their kind, in genere mediorum externorum, to save them.

6. As none can be saved by the light of nature, nor ever any used, or could use it so far forth, as to improve it for their sufficient preparation, to receive the tidings of the Gospel, either from men, or angels sent to preach to them; or by any inspiration, bringing the sense, or things signified in the Gospel: so saved they cannot be, by any name under heaven, but by the name of Christ; that is, Christ named, preached, and revealed in the Gospel (Acts 4:10-12; John 14:6; Hebrews 11:6; John 5:40; 1 John 5:12). He that has the Son, has life, and he that has not the Son, has not life.

The question is, whether or not God so far forth wills, desires, intends, that all and every one, within, and without the visible Church, Tartarians, and Indians (who never by any rumor heard of Christ) not excepted, that he gives them sufficient means and helps of a common and universal grace; which if they would use well, the Lord should so reward, promote, or increase, whether out of decency, or a congruous disposition of goodness, or of equity, or of free promise, or any obligation? So far as to send the Gospel to them, and bestow on them a larger measure of saving and internal grace; by which they should, if they so would, be converted to the faith of Christ, and saved? We deny; Arminians affirm.

Whether the Lord from eternity (late Arminians are for time-election) has absolutely, without any provision in, or prescience, or foreknowledge of good works; faith, perseverance in both, or of condition, reason, cause, merit, qualification in some certain and definite persons; rather than others predestinated, and chosen them to glory and eternal life. And all the means conducing to this end, and that of mere free grace; because he so wills, or if the Lord passes no definite, complete, peremptory, and irrevocable decree, to save some certain persons while he foresees them expiring, and dying, in faith and holy conversation? Arminians hold, that the Lord's decree of election of men to glory is general, conditional, incomplete, changeable, while he foresees they have ended their course in the faith, and then peremptorily, and irrevocably, he passes a fixed decree to save such, and not others. We deny any such loose decrees in the Almighty, and believe that of free grace; he chooses some absolutely without conditions in them, or respect to any good foreseen to be in them, rather than in others, because he has mercy on whom he will, and hardens whom he will (Romans 9:17-18).

Upon this general, indefinite, revocable, and conditional good will and intention of God, to save all, and every one, whether or not did the Father give his Son, and the Son die for all, and every one; intending absolutely to impetrate and obtain to all, and every one of mankind, remission of sins, and especially, expiation of original sin, and all sins against the covenant of works; and salvation to them all, both within, and without the visible Church, and the opening of the gates of heaven; so as God has laid aside his anger for all these sins, has made all savable, reconcilable, that notwithstanding of divine justice's plea against men, all and every one, may according to the intention of God be saved in his blood, so they would, as they may, and can, believe in Christ. We deny; Arminians here affirm.

The mind of Arminians: Arminians run upon six universalities.

They say God bears to all, and every man, of what kind whatever, an equal, universal, and catholic good will; indeed, to Esau, Pharaoh, Judas, as to Jacob, Moses, and Peter, to save them all, so as this love is not limited to any certain persons, precisely, and absolutely; loved and chosen, to salvation.

That there is a catholic price, a universal ransom, given by Christ, dying on the Cross, for all and every one, an atonement made, and a redemption purchased in Christ's blood; by which, all and every one, Pharaoh, Judas, Cain, all the heathens, Tartarians, Americans, Virginians, that never heard of Christ, are made savable, and reconcilable, and God made placable and exorable to them, so as though they be lost in the first Adam, yet have they a new venture of heaven; and in Christ's death, the Lord has a general antecedent, and primary intention to save all without exception; yet no more to save Moses and Peter, than Judas and Pharaoh. Indeed, that the fruit of Christ's death, and the effect of it may stand, though all and every one of mankind, were eternally lost, and not one person saved.

As there was a catholic forfeiture of all, so there is a second covenant of free grace made with all, and every one of Adam's sons, with promises of free grace, a new heart, righteousness, and eternal life to all and every one, upon fair conditions, if their free will play the game of salvation and damnation handsomely; as if Christ were not free will's choicest tutor.

All and every man are received in this covenant, in the new state of reconciliation, grace, and favor; and justification from any breach of the law, or the first covenant; all are once fairly delivered, both young and old from damnation and wrath, all the heathen are reconciled and justified by Christ, in his blood; and all sins now, are against the covenant of grace. Christ and all mankind now begin to reckon on a new score. Though the ship be broken, and all mankind sent to sea to die there, yet so are they cast overboard, as Christ the surety of a better covenant, is made the great vessel, that ship-broken men, may, if it seem good to Lord free will, swim to, and so come safe, the second time, to land. So as there be two redemptions in Christ, two justifications by grace. Yet neither the tidings of this new covenant made with all men, nor this state of reconciliation, or justification, are ever revealed to the thousandth part of mankind; and though all and every one be under this law of faith, and covenant of grace; yet is this obliging and supernatural law never promulgated to millions of mankind, whom it obliges to obedience, so far forth as by the good industry and improving of common gifts of nature, or rather the hire and merit of men out of Christ, to make a conquest of the preached Gospel and Christ, free will doing its best.

All and every mother's son, and children of Adam, are called and invited; indeed, and Christ by our text draws all and every man, though they will not be drawn. They say the sole cause of election, reprobation, of salvation, damnation, lies in man's free will.

6. All and every one are furnished with all external means of salvation, with sufficient grace, and absolute indifference and power of free will to say ay, or no, to the drawing of Christ, and purchase, by industrious improvement, and careful husbanding of the common gifts, or relics of nature, and their new sufficient grace, (if they could give it a name to us) a farther degree of grace, while they conquer the Preaching of the Gospel, and the grace of conversion. Yet so are they, (let Christ do his best) as all may be converted, or not any one at all, but all lost, and all may persevere in grace and be saved, as not one man shall be damned, and all may so totally and finally fall away from grace, as not one man may persevere, but all be eternally lost, if free will use his own liberty, notwithstanding of the Lord's eternal decrees of Election or Reprobation, or of Christ's death, the strength of free grace, the intercession of Christ, at the right hand of God, the unchangeable love of God; for all these can do nothing to mar the absolute, and independent free will of men, to work as it pleases, for either ways.

Proposition 1. Election is the decree of free grace, setting apart certain definite, individual, and particular men to glory.

1. The men chosen and drawn, are by head designed. Jacob, not Esau, before the children had done good or evil; though Esau be elder, Isaac must be the Son of the promise: father and mother were free grace, rather [illegible] of Abraham and Sarah, now [reconstructed: past] natures [illegible] Ishmael: Peter and John, not Judas the Son of [illegible] Abraham; and his house, worshipping Idols beyond the [illegible] is singled out, not any other; the Lord sets his love on [illegible] Jews, because he loved them (Deuteronomy 7:7). When their Father [illegible] Amorite, and their mother a Hittite, and they [reconstructed: dying in their own] blood (Ezekiel 16:3-7) not any one of the rest of the Canaanites; the Tribes of Judah is the King by Tribe, not any of the rest of the Families. Low Jephthah's Family, not any of the rest of the sons of that Family. None of the seven sons, but the despised shepherd, the ruddy Boy singing after the ewes, David forgotten by all, as none of the number.

2. They are pointed out with the finger, with pronouns. Psalm 87:5, and of Sion it is said, this man — Hebrew, [in non-Latin alphabet] man and man shall be born in Sion. Isaiah 49:1: The Lord has called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name. You are (head, or member, or of which the Prophet spoke, it is all one) in the mouth of God, by name from eternity, John, Anna, etc. Isaiah 43:1: O Israel fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are mine. So the Lord points them out with the finger, Isaiah 49:12: [in non-Latin alphabet] Behold these shall come from far, and behold these from the North (North-land men) and from the Sea (Islanders) or from the West (West-land men) so it may be read, and these from the land of Shimin. Ezekiel 36:20: These are the people of the Lord. Hebrews 11:13: All these [in non-Latin alphabet], died in the Faith, they are named and told by the head. Revelation 14:4: [in non-Latin alphabet], these are three times in one verse — these are they that are not defiled with women, — these are they that follow the Lamb, wherever he goes, these were redeemed from among men.

3. They are defined by their country. Isaiah 19:18: Five Cities of the land of Egypt shall speak the Language of Canaan. Verse 24: In that day Israel shall be the third part with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the Land. Verse 25: Whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hand. Zephaniah 3:10: From beyond the river of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughters of my dispersed shall come.

4. Their names are particularly enrolled in the Lamb's book of life (Luke 10:20; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 20:15). As citizens of some famous incorporation, or senators that govern a city are written in the book of records of the King or city; so these that are to follow the Lamb, clothed in white, are booked in the public register of heaven, in the mind of God, to be members of the heavenly society.

5. It was no blind bargain that Christ made; he knew what he gave, he knew what he got. Christ told down a definite and certain ransom, as a told sum of money, every penny reckoned and laid, and he knew who was his own, and whom, and how many, by the head and name, he bought; there is no hazard that one come in, in the lieu and room of another. John 10:14: I am the good Shepherd, how is that made good? He has particular care of all the flock, by the head he knows how many, and who are his; if any be not his, if any be sick, or lost, or wandered away, that proves a good Shepherd, I know my sheep, and am known of mine. I know them, and they know me. Sure it is relative to that: 2 Timothy 2:19: Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knows them that are his. Sure, the sheep that Christ dies for (John 10) are the sheep that he gives his life for (verse 11) and dies for; and these: 1. verse 10, that have life in abundance; 2. the sheep known in the Lord's eternal predestination, and known by Christ in time; 3. such as he minds to call in, that there may be one Shepherd, and one sheepfold (verse 16); (4) such as are his own sheep, as he goes before, and they follow him, and know his voice (verse 4) and will not follow a stranger (verse 5); (5) such as hear not a stranger (verse 5) but verse 27 hear and know the voice of Christ, are known of him, and follow Christ; (6) such sheep as are gifted with life eternal, and shall never perish; and cannot fall away, no more than there can be a greater than the Father, that can pluck them out of the hands of Christ; for verses 28-29, the standing of these that shall not be plucked out of the Father's hand, depends on the greatness and power of Christ's Father. None can pluck them out of my hand, (says Christ) — why? The Father, that gave them me, is greater than all. Then he must be greater than Christ's Father, who plucks one of the Sheep of Christ out of his hand; and where does he dwell who is greater than the Father? Neither in heaven, nor hell. And for such Christ died.

6. He died for such sheep, as infallibly believes, because he says, verse 26. You believe not. Why? Because you are not of my sheep; then certainly they should believe, if they were of such sheep, as Christ died for. I shall never believe that this Reply can stand. David says, and Job says, You, Lord, formed me in the womb; and the Church, Isaiah 64. You are the Potter, and we the clay; but it will never follow; therefore God has created none but David, Job, and his chosen Church, so it follows not here. Christ died for his sheep, therefore he died for no other, but his sheep.

1. Because dying of sinners is a work of mere grace, bestowed only on some, as all the texts that ever Papists, Jesuits, Arminians, allege, restrict ever these that Christ died for, to some certain persons, to believers, the sheep of Christ, these for whom Christ is an Advocate at the right hand of God, etc. And there is not a text in Scripture, in Old or New Testament, in which, we may not limit the persons, on whom grace universal, and redemption in Christ's blood, are pretended to be bestowed, to the elect and believers only; these places I except, in which some are said to be redeemed in profession only, as may be demonstrated; and therefore this answer of [illegible] is petitio principii, and a begging of what they cannot prove. And verse 2. upon the same reason, because God created man on the earth, and died for men, and for the world (as the Scripture says) they might infer; as God created not men only, but Angels, beasts, birds, fishes, trees, Sun, Moon, so Christ died not for men only, but for Angels, Devils, beasts, birds, fishes, trees; indeed, for worms, creeping things, and all, and every creature: for if we regard the free decree of God, Devils are as capable of Redemption by Christ, as men; if so God had purposed from eternity; and in regard of the same decree, the Reprobate can no more be saved, and believe of their own strength, than stones of themselves can be sons of Abraham, except God elevate them above their nature and Omnipotence effectuate the same.

2. There be some certain men oppignotated, and laid in pledge in Christ's hand (2 Timothy 2:13). Now all are not so, but certain definite [illegible] is only.

3. These [illegible] the Lord has chosen to life, are given of the Father in Christ (John 10:26; John 6:37; John 17:2, 6, 8, 9, 12, 24). And all such are raised up at the last day and saved (John 6:37, 39). And Christ cannot lose one of them (John 17:9). Indeed he can [illegible] of them, neither soul nor body, neither a [illegible] nor a piece of an ear of his sheep, as he speaks (Amos 3). So Christ speaks (John 6:39); indeed, (1 Corinthians 15:23) every man shall be raised in his own order; verse 24. Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father: he presents his conquered ones, not one lad, or the most despised girl, fall by, or are miscounted in the telling. We have often groundless jealousies touching Christ, O he has forgotten me; but that is to say, Christ is not faithful in his charge, and the Father gave so many thousands to his keeping; but he lost the largest half of them. Now to be given of the Father to Christ, must note Christ's accepting of the receipt of them, by dying for those so given of the Father to him, for another way of giving, but either in election from eternity, or of fitting them in time for actual believing, no man knows; but either ways all given, are raised up at the last day (John 6:39). And so all redeemed must either be chosen from eternity, or then in time believe, and so be raised at the last day; then there can be none redeemed, but such as are chosen and saved. Master Moore's universal atonement pages 4-5 tells us of a twofold reconciliation or redemption, on which Christ effected in his own body with God for men. This is perfect and accomplished fully, so as the Father is well pleased with his Son (Matthew 3:17). And this is done by shedding of blood. There is a Reconciliation, Redemption, and Salvation which Christ effectuates, by the Spirit, in men to God, and this is by washing and blood-sprinkling; his proofs after shall be heard. Thus the Belgic Arminians explain the matter (Script. Sinodal. article 2). They say the former redemption and reconciliation, is the pacifying of the offended party; or such an action, or passion, by which satisfaction, so far forth is made to the offended party, that he is willing to return in favor, and grace, with the offender; and the effect of this reconciliation is the obtaining of the favor of God, that is the restoring of men to such a state, in which God without impeachment of revenging justice, according to the tender affection of his mercy, of new, may, and will bestow his benefits; and transact with man touching his salvation, and the conditions thereof, after the way, and manner, seems good to God, whether by a covenant of works, or of grace, or of commanding faith in God, or faith in an Angel, if so it seem good to him. And by his law, the affection of saving man, which is in God from a natural instinct of mercy, does break forth, as it were, in a full and complete purpose of God's will to save: now when the impediment is removed, by satisfaction given to justice. And when Christ has completely performed the former redemption, and by his death has obtained this redemption; yet it may fall out, that not one man be saved. But as we deny not this distinction of salvation purchased, or the purchased redemption, and the applied redemption, as our divines acknowledge Christ to be a Savior by merit, and efficacy; so that the members of the distinction are different, but that they are separated, we deny: indeed, the distinction, in the Arminian sense, we deny.

1. Because Christ Redeemer is a relative person, there is a full redemption in Christ, but not for Christ, but that he might make over that redemption to his poor brethren; there is a purchased salvation in Christ, not to lie by him like a treasure of silver rusted through not using; but they were so many heavens and salvations, and so much grace and gracious redemptions to be made away, as now purchased, and all these Christ disbursed; he was not a Treasurer who kept from sinners the pensions of grace and glory, that the Father and King of the Church allowed on his people. What Christ bought with his blood, that he gave out, and so much the places alleged by Mr. Moor the Arminian proves just contrary to himself (John 4:42): he is the Savior, not of himself to save God, and justice, and the Law; but the Savior of the world, of poor sinners, not of the Jews only, but of the Samaritans and Gentiles, as (Isaiah 49:6): I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the ends of the earth. This is the mystery hidden from the beginning of the world, that Christ should be preached among the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:8-9). Now [reconstructed: it] is not a magazine and treasure of redemption to remain within the corners of Christ's heart and his bowels, but it is the mystery of the New Covenant to be made out to the world of Gentiles, heirs of the same promise. This heritage Christ never purchased to keep to himself, and whereas Mr. Moor will have Christ to be (1 John 2) a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, by obtaining of reconciliation of God to men; he is far off, for that place clearly speaks of reconciliation of this whole world, the New Testament world, if I may so speak; or Christ's new conquest of the world of Gentiles; so is Christ the Savior and Redeemer of the world of Gentiles in opposition to Moses, the Judges who were saviors and redeemers of the people of Israel, who were but a spot and a poor fragment of the world in comparison of Christ's large world. God redeemed Israel by the hand of Moses, but never the world; so is Christ a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, in opposition to the propitiatory sacrifices of Aaron and the Levitical Priests (for to these he alludes) which were propitiations only for the sins of a bit of the world; but sure as the Levitical sacrifices were offered only in faith for the true Israel of God, otherwise they were no better than the cutting off of a dog's neck, in a sacrifice which was abomination, so were they types of that sacrifice which was to be offered for the elect world, which is a whole world of Jews and Gentiles, in comparison of little Judea. And by what Scripture is a propitiation for the sins of the world, which is only an acquiring of a new power to Christ to transact with men on what terms he thinks best to pardon sins; this or that way, for faith or good works, a redemption of men? Or how is it a taking away the sins of the world, an everlasting redemption, a suffering all that men should have suffered, a bearing of our sins on the Tree; an answering as Surety for the debts of broken men?

Object. But if Christ purchased no salvation for me, how can I sin in not resting on Christ for a shadow, for a salvation not purchased to me, is no salvation at all, but a very nothing.

Ans. If you were to believe first a salvation purchased to you by name, this objection were strong, but you are at first and immediately to believe no such thing, but only that Christ is able to save to the utmost all that come, that is, that believes, and you, if you believe. 2. A salvation purchased by Christ without an efficacious intention in God to apply it to all, and every one is no less a shadow and a very nothing, than the salvation purchased to all and every one, and this makes as much against Arminians, as against us. Now sure salvation is purchased with an efficacious intention in God to apply it to those only who shall be saved, and the smallest part of mankind. 3. This way sends me at first to believe God's secret and efficacious good-will to save me by name, before ever I believe the Gospel, that Jesus Christ came to save all believers, which is no Gospel-order of believing; and raises in my mind jealousies against Christ, that he out of his love died for me, but puts me on a ground of doubting, if he will apply his death to me, except I begin first to love him and with free-will apply Christ, so Christ first extends raw wishes to save me, but I must extend to him real deeds of applying, by faith, his wishing and half-love to me, and the most real kindness begins at me, not at Christ.

But say I by what Scripture is a naked power to justify, pardon, wash, sprinkle sinners, and such a power which may consist with the eternal perishing of all men (says Moor p. 5. with the Arminians) an eternal perfect redemption, a perfect satisfaction of justice and the Law of God? Are not so the sins of the world taken away, and yet they remain? Does not Christ bear the sins of all the world; yet it may fall out, that all the world bear their own sins, and not one man be saved; indeed, as it is, the greatest part of mankind bear their own iniquities, die in these same sins that were imputed to Christ, suffer the curses of the Law which Christ suffered for them.

Indeed, Mr. Moor says, God's reconciling of the world, and his not imputing their sins to them, is the reconciling of all Adam's sons in Christ's body before God; yet Paul and David both say, Blessed are they to whom the Lord imputes no sin. Moor says, a whole world to whom the Lord imputes no sin, may be under the curse of the second death. 2. To put reconciling of the world to God, as Paul does in (2 Corinthians 5), for the reconciling of Christ in his own body with God, as Mr. Moor does, is strange divinity; for it is reconciling of God to man, instead of a reconciling of man to God (Hebrews 9:14), and cannot be meant of only reconciling of God in Christ's body, or of obtaining only of redemption without application. 1. Because the blood of Christ is compared with the blood of bulls and goats, which was offered for the reconciling of men to God, not of God to men. 2. Because that blood is said to sanctify and purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God, which cannot be said of God, but clearly holds forth, that Christ having offered himself without spot to God, through the eternal Spirit, those for whom he offers himself, cannot eternally perish, as Mr. Moor says p. 5, but that their consciences, by this blood are purged from dead works to serve the living God.

And the place (1 Peter 2:24) does not prove that Christ bore the sins of many, on the tree, who are not actually saved by his death. 1. The place says the contrary, and no such thing, as that the Lord laid on Christ the iniquities of all, and every one of mankind. 1 Peter restrains it to believers, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit — begotten again to a lively hope — who are kept through the power of God by faith, to salvation (1 Peter 1:2-5). And there is no reason that Peter speaks of all Adam's sons, of all the heathen, because he says, Christ bore our sins. Who are these? The sins of these that are called to patient suffering, for well doing, who are to follow Christ, who left us an example of patient suffering; who when he was, verse 23, reviled, reviled not again. Now what? Is this the Indians and Tartarians patient suffering, after Christ's example; to whose ears the name of Christ, and his suffering never came by a dream, or imagination? 2. The sins of these, which Christ bore on his own body, on the tree, are these that are healed with Christ's stripes, and these that are returned to the Shepherd, and Bishop of their souls; and are to live to righteousness, being dead to sin by the death of Christ, who bore their sins (verse 24-25). Now these are the all that Isaiah speaks of, chapter 53, when he says (53:6), The Lord laid on him [reconstructed: the] iniquities of us all. That is, (if we believe Arminians) of all Moab, Ammon, Egypt, Philistines, Chaldeans, Ethiopians, and all Adam's children, who never heard of Christ; for the thousand part of Adam's sons never heard of Christ, then are they not obliged to believe in him of whom they never heard, nor is it their sin, that they believe not (Romans 10:14; John 15:22). Therefore, they are not obliged to live to righteousness, being dead to sin through Christ's death; because they never heard of Christ's death. Far less are all Adam's sons healed with Christ's stripes, and returned to the shepherd, and Bishop of souls: nor was the chastisement of all the heathens, peace upon Christ. And Isaiah expounds who are these all whose iniquities were laid upon Christ, verse 8: for the transgressions of my people was he stricken, and verse 12: he bore the sins of many, as (Matthew 20:28) and (Matthew 26:28): the blood which is shed for many, and he made intercession for sinners. What? Does he bear stripes for all the heathen? And is he entered as High Priest for all Adam's sons into the Holy of Holies, to plead and advocate for such, as Cicero, Regulus, Scipio, Cato, such as Pharaoh, Cain, Judas, Julian? If he bore their iniquities, he must bear their apostasy, and final infidelity: or does he intercede, for all and every one of mankind? (1 John 2:1-2) compared with (1 John 1:6-10) and (Hebrews 9): He appears for us, verse 24, for those that are sprinkled, verses 13-17, and look for him the second time, verse 28. He makes intercession for them that come to God through him (Hebrews 7:25). Who have a High Priest over the house of God (Hebrews 10:20-22). All these and many other places show the contrary. And the redemption that is in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24) is not a redemption which might have been confined within Christ to reconcile God to himself, and which might consist with the final, total and utter perishing of all mankind. 1. We are justified through this redemption, and not by the works of the law. 2. Verse 25: God set forth Christ this redeemer to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood. 3. That Christ might appear the justifier of the ungodly, verse 26, and exclude boasting, by the law of faith, verse 27, and be the God of Jews and Gentiles, verse 30-31. So that it was never God's mind to imprison a reconciliation, within the Father and the Son: and leave our heaven at such a dead and cold venture, as the discretion of indifferent free will; so as it might fall out, if men pleased, that the surety Christ should die, and all his poor broken friends die eternally, and suffer the second death also. Arminians turn the Gospel into the saddest, and bloodiest bargain that ever was, and yet the new English Arminians worse than their fathers: say they preach not the Gospel of grace, nor Christ who preach not their universal atonement, in a grosser way than ever Arminians did. For 1. Arminians durst not say Christ died vice, and loco omnium and singulorum, sed tantum in bonum eorum; he died not in the person, place, and room of all mankind, but only for their good, as Socinus taught them: but Master Moore says this right down, page 3. 2. Arminians durst not say, Christ died and rose again, and pleads as High Priest and Advocate for all, but only for believers; Mr. Moore says, that for all he rose, and acquits us of all our sins, page 4.

The place, (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) does not prove a reconciliation of all, within God, as Mr. Moore dreams.

1. The all that Christ died for, (if one died for all, then were all dead) by no reason must be in number equivalent to all that died in the first Adam. Nor is there any reason, in the text to make all those that are actually made alive in Christ, and live not to themselves; but to Christ, equal in number, to all that died in Adam. 1. God gave not Christ to die for heathen, who were never to hear of Christ, that they might live to Christ. 2. These words, henceforth know we no man, not Christ after the flesh, nor for the outward privilege of Jewish dignity, circumcision, or a temporal kingdom, which fleshly dignity the Apostles sometime knew Christ for, and expected in him; but now this is taken away, and Christ has died for all: that is, for Jews and Gentiles, without respect of any such difference, for Christ gave his life for the Gentiles, as well as for the Jews. 3. [in non-Latin alphabet] for "All" is a word of efficacy, and holds forth the Lord's effectual intention; but if Mr. Moore's gloss stands, there is no effectual intention in Christ to save all and every one.

Nor does the place, (1 Timothy 2:4-6) signify any reconciliation, not applied to persons, for his being given a ransom for all, notes clearly an interest and propriety in these, for whom he gave himself a ransom, as (Luke 22:20) for many, (Matthew 20:28; Matthew 26:28) so [in non-Latin alphabet], does in all Greek authors insinuate, (John 6:51; John 10:11; Romans 5:6) such an interest.

Object 1. But the reason were frivolous; we are to pray for all, except we know that God wills salvation to all, how can we with the certainty of faith pray for all? It must be a doubting faith, and so no faith at all.

Answ. But seeing God will not have Nero, Persecutors, Apostates, rebellious unbelievers, men obstinate against the Gospel, such as Paul was before his conversion, to be excluded out of our prayers. What certainty of faith have Arminians to pray for all? Or for the twenty, or hundredth part of all mankind? This therefore is denied. Christ gave himself for as many, as we are to pray for, but we are to pray for all without exception. The proposition and the assumption both are false, nor do our prayers for men, depend on the certitude of God's decree of election of men to glory, which is God's secret will not known to us, to whom the Lamb's book of life is not opened, but on the revealed will of God, commanding us to pray for all, that sin not to death, but conditionally, and with a special reserve of the Lord's decrees of Election and Reprobation; and this in effect, is to pray for the Elect only; nor am I warranted, by the Word of God, the rule of my prayers, to pray for any others. Nor is there promise, precept, or practice in Scripture to pray for all, and every one of mankind; therefore I retort the argument thus: we are to think God wills so many to be saved, and his Son to give himself a ransom for so many, as we are warranted to pray for, that they may be saved, but we are not warranted to pray for all, and every one that they may be saved, but only for the Elect. Ergo, God will have them only to be saved and his Son to give himself a ransom for them only.

Object 2. Judgment of charity is no ground of our prayers. We have no charity to believe all, and every one shall be saved, nor have we any faith or certainty in these prayers.

Answ. I may have judgment of charity touching this or that man, to pray for him; but this judgment is a motive to my affection, not a foundation to my faith. My faith is grounded on a word of precept, to pray for the salvation of all, conditionally, but not for the salvation of any, but for my own only, absolutely.

Object 3. God will have as many to be saved, as he will have to come to the knowledge of the truth; but he will have all to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Answ. The argument is strong for us; the Apostle speaks of the Gospel-truth; but he will not have the Gospel preached to Samaritans (Matthew 10), to Bithinians, and thousands others. 2. He will not open the hearts of thousands that hear the Gospel, because he will (Matthew 11:28; Romans 9:17) and many he blinds, and judicially hardens (Matthew 13:14; [reconstructed: John 12]:37-38; Isaiah 6:9-10; Acts 28:24-27).

Object 4. It is uncertain whether you pray for Magistrates as such, or for common men as such, and uncertain, whether you pray for this or that rank.

Answ. It is certain we are to pray for Kings, Subjects, Men, Women, Jews, Gentiles, reserving the Lord's decrees to his own sovereign liberty.

Object. If we are to pray but for some, because God wills the salvation of some, he should have said, we are to pray for no man, for the far largest part of the world are lost.

Answer: This is to censure the Holy Ghost's speaking, not us. Upon the same ground, a physician in a city cannot be called the healer of all diseased; nor a professor, a teacher of philosophy to all in the city, because many in the city die of the plague, and the twentieth person remain ignorant of philosophy; if God will have all to be saved, that he predestines to life, he is rightly said to will all men to be saved, and in that sense, we are to pray that all may be saved. 2. God, by his consequent will, desires the far greatest part of the world to be damned. Therefore, by the Arminian way, he should say, God wills not any man to be saved, nor any to come to the knowledge of the truth, but that all may be damned: and because they say, there is in the Almighty an antecedent natural affection and desire, that justice may be satisfied in men and angels, which affection is in order of nature prior, and before God's full, peremptory, and deliberate will of damning all, that are finally obstinate; as there is a natural antecedent will in God, to call, invite to repentance, offer Christ to all, and will the salvation of all and every one, which is before and preceding his peremptory, complete, and irrevocable decree of electing to glory, all that God foresees shall die in the faith of Christ. Upon the same ground, it may well be said, God wills the damnation of all, and every one of mankind, and the salvation and repentance of none at all, and that Christ died upon no intention natural to redeem, or save any, but upon a conditional and natural desire, that justice might be declared in the just destruction of all; for sure all God's natural affections and desires of justice, are as natural and essential to him, and so as universally extended toward the creature, as his desires and antecedent natural affections of mercy.

Object 5. The sense of the word "all" appears to be of Adam, and all that come by propagation of him. 1. The word "men" is used for Adam, and all his sons (Hebrews 9:27). (2.) Often in the fullest sense, not regenerated, nor wholly reprobated, are called men (Job 11:11, 12; Psalm 12:1; and 4:2; and 53:2). (3) Believers are called men (Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 3:21, 22). In regard of passions (Acts 14:15). Of carnal walking (1 Corinthians 3:3). Yet they are called something more, sons of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1). Saints (1 Corinthians 1:1). Brethren, faithful (Ephesians 1:1). Christians (Acts 11:26). Some who have hardened their heart, are called men, but something more, reprobate (Jeremiah 6:28, 30). Seed of the Serpent (Genesis 3:15). Children of Belial (Deuteronomy 1:3). Of the Devil (John 8:44). And with an emphasis, the wicked (Psalm 9:17).

Answer: In these grammatical arguments Mr. Moor shows how weak his cause is, and how dubious from the word "men" and "all"; for Hebrews 9:27, it is said, it is appointed for all men to die, and the Holy Ghost insinuates clearly, that Christ died for all men that die, in the very next words, verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; he says not "all men": observe the change of words. 2. We deny not but all men in Scripture signifies all descended of the first Adam by propagation. Therefore, it signifies so here? This is to be proved. 3. What Mr. Moor means by some not wholly reprobated, I know not, except he make in God answerable to that a whole and complete decree of reprobation, and so of election, and a half, and incomplete decree of both, as Arminians do. Which Scripture knows not, and removes all certainty of salvation, of perseverance, joy, comfort, earnest of the Spirit, seal of Spirit. 4. We contend not that by all men here must be meant believers and regenerated persons only, and so he fights with his own shadow. 5. He grants believers are called men, and I hope to prove that the elect and believers, are called "all," and "all flesh," and "us all," etc. though it be true, believers are called men, because of their human passions and carnal walking, and some more, to wit, sons of God, saints, faithful Christians; it follows not, that here they should be called sons of God, saints, because Christ dies not for them as saints, but as men, and sinners chosen to life. Else Paul should not say (Ephesians 2:1), "God has quickened you who were dead in sins," etc., for those whom God quickens are something more than dead in sin; sure they are chosen saints, new creatures, etc. after they are converted.

Object 6. "All men" here in 1 Timothy 2:6 intentionally, expressly, principally and especially is meant of the first sort, for natural men, sons of Adam, sinners, unbelievers. 1. Because this sense includes all, at first all men, having some in which they are such, and neither better nor worse than such before they are born of God (Ephesians 2:1, 2, 3; Titus 3:3; Romans 3:9, 20).

Answer: We deny not but all men includes unregenerate men, but Master Moor proves the same thing by the same thing. All men must be meant of all Adam's sons, why? Because all includes all, at first, all men; that is, all includes all, but not all men distributively, all and every one without exception. 2. It is denied that all men includes all as unregenerate, or under that reduplication, it is meant of all men unregenerate as fallen under the good will of God's election of grace, and as stated in his eye as objects of special favor and grace. Nor does the Lord quicken men as dead in sins (Ephesians 2:1), as foolish and disobedient (Titus 3:3), as under sin (Romans 3:9), for then he should quicken all dead in sin, all foolish and disobedient, all under sin, and this will prove the conversion and salvation of all and every son of Adam, the Lord quickens dead sinners, as they lie under his free choice of election to glory.

Object 7. Because Christ died to make a propitiation for them, as they are sinners.

Answer: That is denied, he died for them as they were sinners, but as within the pale and under the covering of the fair and sweet shadow of eternally choosing love, otherwise, if Christ died for sinners as sinners; he died for all sinners; and for those that are finally obstinate, for these with the first come under the reduplication of sinners as sinners.

Object 8. It is nowhere said Christ died for good men, for righteous, for believers, neither when they were such, nor as they were such; but for the unjust, ungodly, his enemies (Romans 5; 6; 8; 1 Peter 3:18; Galatians 1:14).

Answer: Christ neither died for sinners as sinners, nor for sinners as righteous, as Jacob neither served for his wife as a wife, nor for his wife as a sinful woman, datur tertium. This is an imperfect enumeration, Christ died for the ungodly, the unjust, his enemies; as freely chosen to be made righteous, and the friends of Christ; as Jacob served for a wife, that is, for Rachel, whom he freely chosen before Leah, that he might make her his wife; neither when she was his wife, nor as she was his wife; and as the Scripture says, Christ died for the ungodly, the unjust, his enemies so also for his friends (John 15:13), his sheep (John 10:11), his beloved church and spouse (Ephesians 5:25-26). And the places cited, Romans 5, Galatians 1:4, 1 Peter 3:18, are all restrictive of these for whom Christ died, as Romans 5: he died for us who are justified by faith, have peace with God, access by faith, who glory in tribulation, rejoice in hope, Galatians 1:4, he gave himself for us. The churches of Galatia, to whom Paul prays, grace and peace. 1 Peter 3:18: for those that he was to bring to God, and in no place of Scripture, nor yet 1 Timothy 1:15, is it said, Christ died for sinners as sinners, but only for those that were sinners, which can never prove the Arminian conclusion, that he died for all sinners.

Objection 8: He says not, pray for some of all sorts, but for all men, and names but one sort.

Answer: His naming one sort infers we should exclude no sort out of our prayers; seeing this one sort were persecutors, that may seem farthest from our prayers.

Moor: We are not to pray for such as are known to sin against the Holy Ghost, because they cast aside the sacrifice and ransom of Christ's blood, and there is no more sacrifice for them, and so they are blotted out of the hopeful book of life, and separated from all men of which they were once, being now reprobated of God (Jeremiah 16:5; 1 John 5:16).

Answer: But either Christ did bear on his body on the tree, that sin of casting aside the sacrifice of Christ, or not; if the first be said, Christ died for them, and we are to pray for them, and further such as sin against the Holy Ghost, as such must come under the reduplication of God's enemies, the ungodly sinners, disobedient, dead in sins and trespasses, in the highest degree, and so Christ must have died for them under that sin; or then there is a sin of some of the sons of Adam, that Christ did no more bear on his body on the tree, than the sin of devils which should render that sin intrinsically unpardonable, even in relation to Christ's blood, which Arminians cannot bear. 2. A blotting out of the book of life, and time-reprobation here asserted by Mr. Moor, is the highest indignity done to the unchangeable love and grace of God, and gross Arminianism.

Objection 9: Praying for their brethren could not be doubted of, but the doubt was to pray for opposers and persecutors; the Apostle says, this to pray for all men was good according to (Matthew 5:44-48).

Answer: To pray for all ranks of men, Nero and others was the doubt; but Matthew 5, which says, we must pray for, and bless our enemies, with submission to God's decree, and in imitation of God, who causes the sun to shine on the unjust, cannot infer that we are to pray for all and every one, absolutely, as Arminians dream, that Christ died for all absolutely.

Objection 10: The motives to pray for all men are from only God's good will to man, and what Christ has done to ransom us, like (Matthew 5:44-45). Motives to pray for believers are sweeter, as their uprightness with God, faith in Christ, love in the saints, fellowship to the Gospel.

Answer: The thing in question is not concluded; we say not we are to pray for the salvation of none but believers only, and that Christ died for none but those that already believed: we are to pray for all ranks, believers or unbelievers, as Christ died for thousands of both, but ever in order to faith, and election to glory. 2. It's a blasphemous comparison to say the gracious good will of God to choose men to glory, and the highest and most matchless love of Christ (John 3:16; John 15:13; Ephesians 5:25-27; Acts 20:28; Titus 3:3-4) is but a common motive to induce us to pray for all men, and such belly-blessings as a shining sun, and raining clouds, which God bestows on blasphemers, apostates, and crucifiers of the Lord Jesus (Psalm 73:1-2, etc.; Jeremiah 12:1-2; Job 21:1-6). Indeed, the giving of Christ to die for sinners, is an argument to prove that far more Christ will give us all other things (Romans 8:32), even righteousness, faith, love, and all graces, and therefore there can be no sweeter motive to move us to pray for all men conditionally, than because for anything our charity is to judge on the contrary; they may even though persecutors, be within the circumference and sweet bounds of God's free love, and greatest good will, and affection of election and redemption (Romans 9:11-13; Ephesians 1:9; John 15:13; John 3:16; Galatians 2:20), and we are to pray for them under this reduplication and notion, as freely loved of God, and redeemed of his rich grace, and in no other consideration, which is the far sweeter motive than any inherent uprightness, faith, or love that can be in us.

Objection 11: We are to pray without wrath, verse 8, which is incident, when we pray for those that cross and persecute us, not when we pray for believers.

Answer: Non concluditur negatum; therefore, we are to pray for all, and every man, because we can hardly pray without wrath and grudging for such as Nero. 2. If believers injure us (as they often do nowadays) he knows not his own heart, who is not tempted to wrath in praying for them. 3. Verse 8: all prayers in general must be without wrath, and with pure hands, and not prayers only for persecutors.

Objection 12: The thing prayed for, is that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, that so the Gospel might run and be glorified (2 Thessalonians 2:1; John 17:22-23). But things to be prayed for to the believers are higher, as increase of love, sincerity, filling with the fruits of righteousness (Philippians 1:9, etc.).

Answer: All these prove this place will prove only, we are to pray for magistrates under whom we have peace, and the Gospel, not for believers, and so not for all Adam's sons; as the next words, page 59, prove.

Object 13. Here is a ground to preach the Gospel to all men, to every creature (Matthew 28:20; Mark 16:15), and how far to all men (John 16:12; 1 Corinthians 3:12; Hebrews 5:12), even though they hate and persecute us.

Answer. If "every creature" is not a synecdoche, it must warrant us to preach to devils. Second, it is evident by the story of the Acts that the Apostles obeyed not this command in the letter, as Master Moore presses it; there are many nations, and thousands of people, to whom the Apostles never preached the Gospel, neither to fathers, nor sons. Third, God's decree is no warrant for them to preach the Gospel, except God confers miraculously the gift of tongues, and this strongly proves the contrary; the Lord never yet sent the means of the knowledge of the truth to all and every son of Adam, then he cannot will all and every son of Adam to be saved, and Christ died not for all and every creature, then he commanded not to preach the Gospel to all and every creature, but only to every creature, that is, to all nations, Jews and Gentiles, now when the partition wall is broken down.

Object 14. He shows the will of God touching the Mediator: to save and ransom all. Second, to bring all to the knowledge of the truth. Third, by this knowledge sin is removed, death abolished, enmity slain, peace obtained, so far for all men, that God has given all over to the dispose of Christ, and made him Lord and Judge of all. Fourth, the other part of God's will, Jesus Christ performs, namely to preach the Gospel to all, and will perform it in due time. Fifth, the Gospel may be preached to all (verse 7). Sixth, prayers made for all (verses 1, 2, 3, 4), and here is no more than Christ does to all men.

Answer. Here are fair positions, but not a word to prove that this is God's will concerning all and every son of Adam. He supposes all this as granted, because he says it, not because the text says it, and therefore we deny what he proves not.

Master Moore alleges that (John 1:29), "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world."

Answer. The word "world" refers to the nations and Gentiles, and believers are elect of both Jews and Gentiles (John 3:16), "God so loved the world." (Romans 11:12), "If the fall of them be the riches of the world; if the casting away of them be the reconciliation of the world" — of the Gentiles, and especially of Jews and Gentiles. (Matthew 24:14), "And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations" — that is, Jews and Gentiles. A personal witness to every single man it cannot be, except every single man heard it (Romans 10:14), "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" (John 15:22; Romans 2:12). So is the world — all nations — taken (Mark 14:9-10), and the word "world" (Mark 16:15). Second, taking away of sin is the actual, free, complete pardoning of sin, so that Judas's sin is sought and not found (Jeremiah 50:20), as (2 Samuel 24:10), David having numbered the people, prays, "O Lord take away the iniquity of your servant" — let any Arminian in conscience answer: Did David pray for no more than is due to Judas, Cain, and all mankind, of whom many never, in faith, can pray, as David here does? Or does he not seek the effectual pardon of his numbering the people? (Job 7:21), "And why do you not pardon my iniquity, and take away my transgression?" (Isaiah 27:9), "This is all the fruit, to take away his sin" — this cannot be the potential and ineffectual removing of sin, common to all the world, but proper to the Church, and brought to pass by particular afflictions on the Church. (Romans 11:27), "This is my covenant with them, when I shall take away their sins." These words are not fulfilled till all Israel be saved, both elect Jews and Gentiles, and the Jews converted. But Arminians say, though the Jews were never converted, and not a man of Israel saved, yet the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. So (Isaiah 6:7), "Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged" — this is no half pardon, such as Isaiah had before the Lord touched his lips. (1 John 3:5), "And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins." John speaks of the taking away of the sins of us — John and the saints, who were loved (verse 1) with a wonderful love, to be called the sons of God, us whom the world knows not (verse 2), us who shall be like Christ when he appears. Arminians are obliged to give us parallel places where the redemption of all and every man, and Christ's naked power and desire to be friends with all men, and to make any covenant of grace or works as he pleases, is called the taking away the sins of the world — and yet the whole world may possibly die in their sins, and not a man be saved. The taking away of the world's sins to us is the complete pardoning of them. Remission of sins in his blood (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14); blotting out of transgressions ([reconstructed: Isaiah 43:25]) as a thick cloud (Isaiah 44:23); a not remembering of sins (Isaiah 43:25; [reconstructed: Jeremiah 31:34]). Such a taking away of sins as is promised in the covenant of grace to the house of Judah, to the Church under the Messiah, that hears the Gospel (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:8, 9, 10, 11, 12; Romans 11:26-27; Isaiah 59:20) — this is the taking away of the sins of the world, a new world, in whose inner parts the Lord writes his law, and with whom the Lord makes an everlasting covenant, never to turn away from them (Jeremiah 31:33, 34, 35, 36, 37), in whom the Lord puts his Spirit, and in whose mouth he puts his word, and in the mouth of their seed and their seed's seed (Isaiah 59:20-21). The Arminian taking away of sins is of all and every one of Adam's seed, of such as never heard of a covenant, of a word, of a Spirit, of a seed, a holy seed, of a new heart. Finally, the taking away of the sins of the world is the removing of them as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), bestowed on those that fear the Lord (verse 11), and are pitied of the Lord as the father pities the son, and the subduing of our iniquities, and the casting of our sins into the depths of the sea ([reconstructed: Micah 7:19-20]), a mercy bestowed only on the remnant of the Lord's inheritance. The Arminian taking away of sins is a broad pardon of sins to all the world — let them show Scripture for theirs, as we do for ours, and carry it with them.

Objection 15. Though reconciliation be purchased to all and every one, yet it is not necessary that it be preached to all and every one: but only it is required that God be willing that it be preached to all. Now it is free to God before he is willing to make offer of the purchased reconciliation to all, to require beforehand such acts of obedience and duties, which being performed, he may publish the Gospel to them; or being not performed, he may be unwilling to publish the Gospel to them. Indeed, though reconciliation be purchased to all, yet it is free to God to communicate the benefits of his death upon what terms he thinks good. And Christ died (says Master Moore) to obtain a lordship over all, and a power to save believers, and destroy such as will not have him to reign over them, as we heard before.

Answer 1. We have in this doctrine that argument yielded: God commanded to preach to all and every one; therefore, Christ died for all and every one. For, first, the consequence is true absolutely, by the Arminians' doctrine — Christ absolutely died for all and every one, without prescribing any condition to those for whom he dies. He says not, 'My son dies to purchase reconciliation to all, upon condition all believe, or perform some other duty;' but believe they, or believe they not, the [reconstructed: ransom] is paid, and salvation purchased for all, without exception. But the antecedent is not true, but upon condition. God is not willing the Gospel be preached to all, but to such as perform such conditions.

2. If they perform not the condition, Christ should have said, 'Preach not the Gospel to all nations, nor to every creature; but only to such as you find fit hearers of the Gospel, and have performed such acts of obedience as I require.' For conditional threatenings are set down in the Gospel, as well as conditional promises: he that believes shall be saved, he that believes not shall be damned. But in Old or New Testament, Arminians never show us where the preaching of the word of grace is referred to our free will: 'Do this, O Ammonites, O Indians, and the glad tidings shall come to you; if you do not this, you shall never hear the Gospel.' Arminians say, God sends his grace and Gospel both genti minus dignae, and indigniori negat, to the unworthy nation, and denies both to the worthier.

3. Arminians say, in Script. Synod. Dordr. page 6: Lex non lata, aut non intellecta, cum intelligi non possit, non obligat — a law not made, or not understood, when it cannot be understood, does not oblige. Then God cannot deny salvation, and the benefit of a preached Gospel to Indians, though both were purchased in Christ, if they never heard (as hundreds of nations could by no rumor hear or dream of Christ and the Gospel) of Christ.

4. How can God with the same natural, and half-will, equally will that all be saved, when he absolutely, without merit or condition, wills the means of salvation to some, and denies the means of salvation to the far largest part of mankind, for want of a condition impossible — because it neither was, nor could be, known to them?

5. By the Arminian way, original sin is no sin; it brings wrath and condemnation on no man. God begins upon a new score, and the reckoning of the covenant of grace, to count with all men. And God is so reconciled to all mortal men, and transacts with them in such a way of free grace, that he will punish no man for any new breach, except committed actually by such as are come to age, as have the use of reason, and are obliged to believe in Christ (page 285, 286, 287, Dordr. scrip. Synod). Yet has God decreed never to reveal any such gracious transactions to millions of men, that better deserve to hear these secrets of grace than thousands to whom they are proclaimed in their ears, before they can discern the right hand by the left. This Arminians say was God's dispensation (Matthew 11) with Capernaum, and Tyrus, and Sidon. But it will be found that Arminians deny the prescience and foreknowledge of God.

6. Most abominable and comfortless must the doctrine of the death of our Lord Jesus be, if Christ died only to be a Lord — and such a Lord as he might have power, without impeachment of revenging justice, to save men upon a new transaction, either of grace or works, and to destroy his enemies that would not accept of that new transaction. Yet so, that when Christ has died, and taken away the sins of all, and is made Lord and King of dead and living, all mankind may freely reject all covenants Christ makes or can make, and be eternally lost and perish.

For, first, Christ's dominion and authority that he has acquired by death is not a free-will-power or possibility, by which he may, upon such and such conditions, kill or save, though all may eternally perish. But Christ is made Lord of living and dead by dying (Romans 14:9), that he might be judge of all; but so, that we should not live and die to ourselves, but that whether we live or die we should be Christ's. Though we change conditions, yet not masters — in both, we should be the Lord's (v. 7-8). As Christ lived again after death, that he might be the husband of his own wife, the Church, that he died of love for.

2. Upon what terms Christ was by death made a Lord, and acquired a Princedom, upon these terms he was made a Prince over his Church; for Lord, and Prince, and King, are all one. But the Lord makes David, that is Jesus the Son of David, Prince over his people, not with power to save or destroy his redeemed flock, and so as all the flock may eternally perish. Ezekiel 34:22: "Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey." — Verse 23: "And I will set one Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, and my servant David he shall feed them, and he shall be their Shepherd." Verse 24: "And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a Prince among them, I the Lord have spoken it." Verse 25: "And I will make with them a covenant of peace." Now was Christ by the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the death, and made a Shepherd of souls, to the end he might have power to destroy all the flock? Ezekiel says, to feed them; the Apostle, to make the saints perfect in every good work, working in them (actually and efficaciously) that which is well-pleasing in his sight (Hebrews 13:20-21). It is true, Christ obtains by his death a mediatory power to crush as a Potter's clay vessel, with a rod of iron, all his rebellious enemies. But 1. this is not a power to crush any enemies, but such as have heard of the Gospel, and will not have Christ to reign over them, in his Gospel-government; but not to crush all his enemies, that never heard of the Gospel, and so are not Evangelically guilty in sinning against the Lord Jesus, as Mediator, for they cannot be guilty of any such sin (Romans 10:14; John 15:22). He had, and has power as God, equal with the Father, to judge and punish all such as have sinned without the Law. 2. It is not merit, or acquired by way of merit of Christ's death, that a Crown is given to Jesus Christ, for this end, to destroy such enemies as are not capable of sinning against his Mediatory Crown, especially, when as God, he had power to destroy them, as his enemies, though he had never been Mediator.

Indeed, Acts 5:31, it is said, him (whom you slew, and hanged on a tree) has God exalted, with his right hand, to be a Prince and Savior, (not to destroy all his subjects, upon foreseen condition of rebellion, to which they were, through corruption of nature, inclinable) but that he might by his Spirit, subdue corruption of nature, and give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

3. By what title Christ is made a King and Lord, by the same he is made head of the body the Church. For (Ephesians 1:20-23) by raising him from the dead, God conferred a headship upon him. Now he was not made head of the body, that he might destroy all the members, or most of them, as Arminians must say; but his headship is for this end, that the whole body, by his spirit fitly joined together might grow up in love (Ephesians 4:16), and that the members might receive life and Spirit from him.

4. By the same title he is made Lord, by which he is made King, Governor, and Leader of the people; for power of Dominion and Lordship is nothing but Royal power. Now he was made King, not on such terms, as he might destroy all his subjects, (for all mankind are his subjects to Arminians.) But he is made King (Psalm 72:11) that all nations may serve him; that he should deliver the poor, needy, and helpless; and redeem their souls from violence, and esteem their death precious, and he reigns and prospers as a King, that in his days Judah may be saved, and Israel dwell safely (Jeremiah 23:7-8), and God raises the horn of David (Luke 1), and so sets Christ on the throne to perform his mercy promised to our Fathers, and remember his holy covenant (Luke 1:69, 77), that we might serve him in holiness and righteousness. Now by the Arminian way, he is set upon the throne of David to execute vengeance on all his subjects, and that he may utterly destroy all, if all rebel, and not to save one of Judah and Israel; for he may be a King without any subject; suppose all his subjects were cast in hell. Indeed, he grows out of the root of Jesse, a Royal branch of King David's house; not that these wars may be perpetuated between God and all the children of men: but that the wolf should dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion together, and a little child should lead them, and the earth should be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:1-2; 6:7-9). And Christ is given for a guide and leader of the people; surely, for the good of the flock, and that he may carry the lambs in his bosom (Isaiah 40:11), that they should not hunger nor thirst, that neither the heat nor the sun should smite them: because he that has mercy on them, does lead them, and by the springs of water does he guide them (Isaiah 49:10). Salvation is engraved on the crown of Christ: by office, Christ must be a destroyer, and a Lord crusher of his people, as a Jesus, and a Savior, by this notion.

5. And what more contrary to the intrinsic end of Christ's death, than that he should obtain no other end, by dying, but a placability, a possible salvation, a softening only of God's mind, whereby justice should only stand by, and a door be opened, by which God might be willing, if he pleased, to confer salvation, by this or that law, a covenant of grace, or of works, or a mixed way, or by exacting faith in an angel, or a holy man, and this possible salvation, this virtual, or half reconciliation does consist with the eternal damnation of all the world. Whereas the genuine connatural end of Christ's death is (John 10:10) that his sheep may have life, and have it more abundantly; he suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18), and in the very act of suffering (to speak so) or in that he was stripped and died. The chastisement of our peace was on him (Isaiah 53:5). This cannot be such a possible heaven, a fowl fleeing in the air, a "may be" as far off as a "never may be," which may consist with an inevitable hell. So as Christ died not, but on a poor hopeless venture, and a forlorn contingency, that might as soon fill Hell, with the damned souls of all the world, as grace Paradise with redeemed ones.

6. His coming in the world has no such Arminian end, that we read of, as a possible saving, or an obtained salvation, that thousands, indeed not one in the world may ever enjoy; but he came to seek, and actually, and intentionally, to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10), to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), and Paul the first of sinners; and not for wrath, but that we might obtain salvation, by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

7. Nor did he so die, that we should not live to ourselves, but to righteousness, but that we might be redeemed from this present evil world (1 Peter 2:24; Galatians 1:4), from our vain conversation (1 Peter 1:18), that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14), that we should glorify God in our bodies and spirits, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6:20), that he might present to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). Now Christ may obtain the native and intrinsic end of his death; though all the redeemed ones (say the Arminians) live to themselves, and never be redeemed from the present evil world, nor from their vain conversation, and live and die to themselves, and walking in their lusts.

8. And upon what ground Christ is made Lord, he is made also a husband to the church; for the husband as a husband is made head of the wife. Now the intrinsic end, and so the specific acts of this husband, who is joined to us, by the marriage-covenant of free grace, must be free love to his spouse; as Paul expounds it (Ephesians 5:25), and the native fruit, and end of marriage, is that the spouse might have interest in the righteousness, glory, spirit, wisdom, and sanctification, the kingdom and throne of the Husband and Lord, not that he might condemn and destroy his spouse.

9. It is a reasonless conceit, that after Christ died, he has a freedom to transact for our actual saving and glorifying in what terms he will, Law, or Gospel, Grace or Works; because he died the surety of the covenant of grace (Hebrews 7:2), and made his Testament, and last will, and confirmed it by his death as our friend, and bequeathed to his poor friends the promise of an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15), and so he died as the mediator of the New Testament, and sealed the covenant with his blood, which is therefore called the blood of the eternal covenant (Hebrews 13:20; Zechariah 9:11). And therefore neither the first Testament was dedicated without blood (Hebrews 9:18-21), and Christ by his blood entered into heaven, as a priest to intercede for us (verses 23-24). And this Arminian way overturns the whole Gospel, which is a bargain of blood, between the Father and the Son Christ, and Christ dying and justifying, pardoning the iniquities of his people, making them heirs of the same covenant and kingdom with himself, is in this indenture of free grace, the chief man: Now it is impossible that this can be an effect of Christ's death, that he may set up a covenant of grace, and a Gospel-way to heaven, or set up another way; when as by the Gospel-covenant only God gave Christ a body, indented with him to do the work, to make his soul an offering for sin; and God promised to him if he would die, a seed; and that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand, that his soul should be satisfied, that he should justify many, intercede for many (Isaiah 53:10-13). Now if all might eternally perish, notwithstanding that Christ died for them, and it were free to Christ to make such a covenant after his death, in which not one man possibly may be saved, Christ then should do his work, and yet not have his wages, nor have a seed, nor justify his people, nor have a willing people to serve him; indeed, then should Christ offer the sacrifice of his body, as our priest on earth, in shedding his blood, and yet not enter into heaven, and the [reconstructed: Holy of Holies] to intercede for us, as our high priest there also.

10. All the offices and relations of Christ and comfortable promises of the Gospel shall be overturned, for it is in the free will of man, that Christ be King, or no King; Head, or no Head of the Church; a Husband or no Husband. Clear it is, Christ is a Gospel King; now if his death might stand and attain its intrinsical end and effect, which is a mere possible reconciliation, and a salvation to his people standing only in a 'may be' or a 'may never be'; then Christ is a Gospel-King, without a kingdom of grace, the fruits whereof are righteousness, joy of the Holy Ghost, and peace (Romans 14:17). He is a King, but Judah shall never be saved in his days; there shall be no righteousness, no peace, no joy in his kingdom. He is a Redeemer and a Saviour; but his people all are eternally lost, and die in bondage and misery, and in their sins. He is a Saviour, but saves not his people from their sins. He is the chief cornerstone, but no other living stones are built on him. He is a head, but has not a living body quickened by his Spirit; nor a body that is the fullness of Christ. He is a Husband, but the essence of his marital and husbandly power stands in that he has power to destroy his Spouse eternally, that he hates his own flesh. He is a Shepherd, and a good Shepherd, and lays down his life for his sheep; but the roaring lion devours all his flock, he carries not the lambs in his bosom, he feeds them not in the strength of the Lord, he causes them not lie down safely, he leads them not to the living waters, they hunger and starve eternally. He is the vine-tree, but no man brings forth fruit in him. He is an eternal Priest, but the sins of all he offers for remain in heaven before the Lord forever. He is the promised seed, and by death, triumphs over devils and principalities and powers; but the serpent's head is not bruised, Satan is not cast out, Satan reigns and rules in all mankind. He has much in Christ, all the world of elect and reprobate; all Adam's sons live and die in sin, and are tormented with the Devil and his angels eternally, such a thing as eternal life and the kingdom of heaven is for no use offered or purchased to the redeemed, who stand before the throne, and sing praises to the Lamb. He is the Lord and builder of his house, the Church; but he has no Church, but that which cannot be called a Church. I know no article of the Gospel, that this new and wicked religion of universal atonement does not contradict.

11. To believe in Christ is to believe that omnipotency can save Judas, Pharaoh and all, every mortal man, so they believe in Christ; but Christ has purchased sufficient grace to no mortal man, because in the obtaining of eternal life to all the world, as Arminians say, neither faith, repentance or grace to believe and repent has any place. God might after Christ's death have required nothing for our actual salvation, but abstain from eating the fruit of such a tree, and you have eternal life in Christ.

12. How can Christ's satisfaction be imputed to any man, seeing it is a mere possible salvation, or a power to save, that may, and does stand, with the damnation of millions that Christ died for?

13. Christ's dying had in his eye the sanctification, the giving of the Spirit, the raising to life, the eternal glory of not one man more than another, not of Peter, of Moses, more than of Cain, or Judas. Though he said (John 17:19), "For their sakes I sanctify myself." And verse 24, "Father I will that those whom you have given me, should be where I am, that they may behold the glory that you have given me." Verse 9, "I pray not for the world, but for them that you have given me."

14. Christ has died, yet he must by the Arminian way, make no testament, appoint no certain heirs, but win the dead man's legacy by free will, and have it who will.

15. Christ obtained by his death that the Gospel should no more be preached than the law, or faith in an angel, that men may be saved.

Use: All the doctrine contrary to universal atonement does highly advance Christ, for by it the Lord Jesus as Mediator, and our High Priest must be essentially grace, and essentially an Ambassador of Grace. It is natural to Christ to save, salvation belongs to Christ as Christ; enjoy him as a Saviour, and you cannot perish; be joined to him as a Husband, and he cannot but love and save his Spouse; submit to him as a King, and you must share with him in his throne. His king's royal crown was never ordained for another end, but that the luster of the precious stones in that crown, should shine on the face and souls of his redeemed ones. Christ came not to destroy but to seek and to save the lost. Get in union with Christ by faith and the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and he will save you (to speak so) whether you will or no. You complain of corruption, he is a King over the body of sin, he is a Priest to sacrifice lusts. To preach Christ a dying Redeemer of all and every one of mankind, when millions redeemed do eternally perish, is to steal away Christ from the people, as thieves in Jeremiah's days did steal the word of the Lord. It is to make the Lord Jesus as weak and powerless a Priest, as ever any son of Aaron, for his blood no more can take away their sins, than the blood of bullocks or goats could do it. It is to enthrone free will, and dethrone the grace of Christ, and to put shame on the Lord Jesus and his blood. And though these enemies of the cross of Christ, now crowd in, in England, under the name of the Godly party; yet it was a good observation of that learned and gracious servant of Christ, Doctor Ames, who conversed with Arminians, that he could never see a proof of the grace of Christ, in the conversation of such men, as in doctrine, were declared enemies of the grace of Christ.

Now for the world, all, and the world, and all nations, it may be demonstrated from Christ's will in the Scriptures, that if universal atonement and redemption of all and every one can be proved from these [reconstructed: grammatical constructions], then with the like strength I can prove: 1. The conversion of all and every mortal man to saving faith. 2. The eternal salvation of all and every man. 3. The eternal perishing of all and every one, which must be infinitely absurd and blasphemous: and if the good will of God cannot be extended to the end, and the efficacious and only saving means tending to this end, which are salvation and saving faith; with no color of reason can it be extended to one means of redeeming all and every one, rather than to another.

1. There is a universal conversion and saving illumination, which is called in the text, a drawing of all. And I, when I am lifted up on the cross, will draw all men to me. Here is a drawing of all men, and so an effectual conversion, but not of all and every man, as Mr. Den says: 1. Because verse 33, this drawing is by the power of Christ, lifted up on the cross, and by the Holy Spirit given by Christ (John 7:39 and 14:16-17 and 15:26-27 and 16:7, 11, 14). Now it can be no gospel truth that Christ draws by the lifting of himself on the cross, and by his death, all and every man to himself, even thousands and millions of the sons of Adam, that never heard one letter or the least sound of the gospel, or of his lifting up on the cross; for sure, Christ's death-drawing must be by proposing the beauty and loveliness of Christ crucified, which thousands never heard of. 2. This drawing must be all one with the drawing which effectually produces running (Song of Solomon 1:4) after Christ. And which is John 6:44. Now when Christ says, No man can come, except he be drawn: he clearly shows that the drawing of the Father is a peculiar privilege of some, and not common to all, as the other two expressions beside of being taught of God, and hearing and learning of the Father. 3. Because all the drawn are raised up, by Christ their life and head at the last day, verse 44. 4. The adversary cannot show any drawing of Christ, or to Christ, that is common to all and every one of mankind.

So, all Israel shall know the Lord, as it is Hebrews 8:10, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel (says the Lord) I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Verse 11. And they shall not teach every one his neighbor, and every man his brother, [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩]. They shall all know me from the least of them, even to the greatest: when was this covenant made? Under the Messiah, when both the Jews to whom this Apostle wrote, and the Gentiles came in. After those days, Arminians cannot deny, but the putting of the law in the mind, and writing it in their hearts; and this knowing of the Lord, not by the ministry of man; but by the inward teaching of the Spirit, must be saving conversion and there is no more reason to expound Israel, all Israel, both Jews and Gentiles, of all of every kind, and some few (except they flee to our universality of the elect) in the matter of conversion, than in the matter of redemption by Christ, when it is said, Christ gave himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2). Because it is their constant doctrine to make all and every one of Adam's sons, as many as Christ died for, to be the parties with whom the covenant is made: so in the same covenant, it is said (John 6:45), [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩]. They shall be all taught of God as Jeremiah says (Jeremiah 31:34) [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] etc., because they shall all know me, for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more: except they admit a universality of the redeemed of God, then as they contend for a universal redemption, and all and every one of mankind, in Christ to be taken in, within the covenant of grace (for they expound all those of the visible Church) there is as good reason, that we prove from the grammar of [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] and [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] all. A universal regeneration, and a universal justification of all, as they can prove a universal redemption: so is the same promise (Isaiah 54:11) and clearly (Romans 11:26), all Israel shall be saved. He means Jews and Gentiles, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, here is universal salvation of all.

So by John Baptist's ministry, all and every one of his hearers must be converted, why? As Arminians expound many that Christ died for (Matthew 20:28) to be all and every man without exception (1 Timothy 2:6, Hebrews 2:9, 1 John 2:1) so they are debtors to us for the same liberty. Malachi 4: he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children (Luke 1:16), many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God: these we must expound by the Arminian grammar of the conversion of all and every one that heard John preach, contrary to Luke 7:29-30, for Pharisees and Lawyers were not converted. Indeed, it is said (Isaiah 40), every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Matthew 3 expounds it of the preaching of repentance, and the coming of the kingdom of God, by the ministry of John: so does Mark 2-3 and John 1:2. And the filling of valleys, and making straight crooked things; is sure the humbling of the proud, and the exalting of the humble, and the conversion of the disobedient: but who can say that all and every mountain was made low? And by John's ministry, or Christ either: was the gospel preached to all and every man? Or the heart of every son, converted to the father, or did all flesh see, or enjoy the salvation of God? Then they must flee to our exposition: indeed, the seeing of the salvation of God is no less the saving of all, which Arminians cannot say. Mr. Den says, that the seeing of God, is in that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God (Romans 1:21), and they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, as that is, they have both seen and hated both me and my Father (Matthew 13:13), and seeing, they see not, but (says he) it is not to be understood of saving knowledge.

Answer 1. This is contrary to the scope of the Prophet Isaiah and of the Evangelists, who aim at holding forth the fruits of the Gospel in John Baptist's ministry, which was the conversion of souls, as Malachi says, and the bringing down the proud and turning many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God; and in going before Christ in the Spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:16-17). Which is a clear exposition of laying every proud mountain level to Christ, and of fitting souls for the Messiah. Which no man can say, by teaching such a knowledge of Christ, as idolatrous heathens had of God as Creator, or blind and obstinate Pharisees had of Christ and his Father, whom they both saw and hated (John 15; Romans 1:21). That seeing of the salvation of God, is neither conversion, nor preparation of a people for Christ. 2. The phrase of seeing God, and the salvation of God, being set down as a powerful fruit of the Gospel, has never in Scripture so low a meaning as is not wanting to natural men, and atheists, and Pharisees: but is meant of an effectual knowledge of God, and the enjoying of God, as (Job 19:25) I shall see God; (Psalm 106:5) That I may see, that is enjoy, the good of your chosen; (Isaiah 33:17) Your eyes shall see the King in his beauty; (Isaiah 52:10) The ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God; (Matthew 5:8) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; (John 3:3) Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God; (Acts 22:14) Then Ananias said to Saul the God of our Fathers has chosen you, that you should know his will, and see that just one; (Hebrews 12:14) Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. But if Mr. Den and others will contend that this seeing of the salvation of God, is the revelation of the literal knowledge of Christ, that saving thing which is bestowed on the nations by the ministry of John and the coming of the Messiah, they must with us confess a large synecdoche and figure in this, when it is said, All flesh shall see the salvation of God, because there are thousands that live and die in the region and shadow of death, to whom the least taste of literal knowledge of Christ, or of his name never came. (Psalm 29:9) In his temple shall every one speak of his glory — not every one, but converts only can utter the glory of God savingly, in the temple of the Lord, otherwise many speak and do in his temple, to his dishonor (Jeremiah 7:4, 10-11; Ezekiel 23:38-39). (Acts 2:4) They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. 17. And it shall come to pass in the last days (says God) I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Now it is clear, this is a prophesying of all flesh within the Church: Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall dream dreams, etc. Now all flesh did never prophesy, nor was the Holy Ghost on Ananias and Sapphira. (Romans 4) Abraham is called the father of us all — a spiritual father by faith, he is to those that are of the faith of Abraham: now Arminians will not allow us to expound "us all" in the matter of redemption of us all, the elect of God, and believers; but of all and every one within the visible church. (John 1:16) And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. There is as good ground for saving grace given to all in Christ, as for universal redemption, except the words be restricted. For Arminians have ground from the words to allege, all we among whom Christ dwelt have received grace, all we who saw his glory, as the only begotten Son of God (verse 14), which sight is the sight of saving faith, not given to all and every son of Adam. 14. And he dwelt personally in the flesh and nature of all Adam's sons. So is it said (1 Corinthians 12:13), For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit [illegible]. How can Arminians depart from a spiritual communion, in both sacraments, all Jews and Gentiles in the visible body of Christ, externally called; now this is most absurd, that all and every one should be saved, to whom Apostles, and Pastors were sent to preach the Gospel — then need force, all must be restricted to the chosen flock only. And (2 Corinthians 3:18) But we all with open face [illegible], beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now Paul speaks of all under the Gospel, and under the glorious ministration of the Spirit, opposite to the condition of the children of Israel, who were under the Law, which was the ministration of death (verses 6, 7, 8), whose minds are blinded, through the veil that was, and yet is over the hearts of that stiffnecked people in reading of the Old Testament, whereas this veil is taken away in Christ, and we all under the Gospel have the Spirit and are free, and see the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same glory, being in the suburbs of heaven; all of us having our faces shining with the rays and beams of the glory of the Gospel, in the face of God, in a more glorious manner than the face of Moses did shine when he came down from the mount, with a glory that was to be done away, whereas this is eternal (verses 9, 10, 11, 12 compared with verses 17, 18). Now let Arminians speak, if they think all, and every one that hears the Gospel are partakers of this vision of God in the kingdom of grace? And (Ephesians 4) Christ ascending on high gifted his Church with a ministry (verse 13), till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. When we, to decline the absolute universality of the redemption of all and every one, do say, we all, and he tasted death for all men, and Christ gave himself a ransom for all — all must be restricted according to the scope, the antecedent and consequent of the text — we cannot be heard. Master Moore says, we make the Holy Ghost to speak untruth, because we expound "all men" to be few men; yet must they either use the same restriction, and acknowledge a universality of converted and saved men, and so expound "all" to be few, as we do, or they can no more decline the universal salvation of all, and every one, than we can decline the catholic redemption of all, and every one. So they must say, that the number of the perfected saints, that attain to the fullness of grace and glory, and to a perfect man in Christ, is equal to that visible body, the Church, gifted with Apostles, Evangelists, Prophets, and Pastors, and Teachers. For all the like places Arminians expound of the body, of the whole body of the visible Church, externally called; now this is most absurd, that all and every one should be saved, to whom Apostles, and Pastors were sent to preach the Gospel, then all must be restricted to the chosen flock only. So (Luke 16:16) The kingdom of God is preached [illegible], and every man presses violently to it. The meaning is not, as Master Denne says, that every one is pressed by command, and gospel-exhortation to repent. For 1. from John Baptist's time, all and every one hears not the Gospel (Matthew 10:5). (2) Matthew 11:2 is clearly expounded by an active verb, these that take heaven violently [illegible], take it by force; but do all, and every son of Adam, take heaven by force? No, then there must be an all, and a catholic company of converted and saved persons, by this conceit. And (1 Thessalonians 5:5) Yes, are all [illegible] the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of the darkness; these all that are called the children of the day, are opposed in the foregoing verses, to the children of darkness, on whom the last day comes suddenly, as childbirth pains on a woman. 2. All these are the children of light, who are exhorted to be sober, not to sleep (verses 6, 7, 8), and whom God has not appointed for wrath, but for salvation, by the means of our Lord Jesus. But these be all the visible church of Thessalonica; therefore, there were no children of darkness among them, which is absurd; and will be denied by Arminians. When Christ speaks to the multitude, he says (Matthew 23:8) All you are brothers — they must be brothers, by the new birth. Verse 9. Call no man your father on earth, etc. (Philippians 1:7) You are all partakers of my grace. Now he speaks of these in whom Christ had begun the good work, and would perfect it into the day of Christ (verse 6). Such the Arminians do say, were all the visible saints at Philippi. Then by this, all and every one of them were converted. (1 Corinthians 11:3) The head [illegible], of every man is Christ — of every man without exception? No, these of whom Christ is head, these are his body, the Church, that have life from him, and are knit to him by the Spirit, and among themselves by spiritual ligatures (Ephesians 1:22-23) and Christ's fullness (Ephesians 4:16; Colossians 1:18). (Genesis 21:6) All that hear shall laugh with me — Sarah means the laughter of faith; then must all that hear of Sarah's bearing of Isaac in her old age, believe in Christ, as Sarah did? (Psalm 65:2) O you that hears prayer, to you shall all flesh come — a figure there must be in the word flesh; and if there be no figure in the particle [illegible], then must all flesh, and all Adam's sons put up prayers to God, contrary to experience, and to Scripture (Psalm 14:4; Psalm 53:4; Jeremiah 10:25). So (Psalm 72:12) All nations [illegible] shall serve him — it is meant of Christ, and in the letter cannot be true, if many refuse him to be their King (Psalm 2:9; Psalm 2:3; Luke 19:14; Psalm 110:1). So is it said (Psalm 22:27) All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn to the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before you. Now that he means of spiritual turning to God, and of repentance is clear. Verse 28. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. Verse 30. A seed shall serve him, it shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. Except there be a restriction of this "all," how will Arminians avoid this, that all, and every man of the heathen, shall repent, and be a holy seed devoted to the Lord, as his righteous ones? For sure the same expression of all nations (Isaiah 40:16) are taken for all and every one of mankind. (Psalm 86:9) All nations, whom you have made, shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. (Isaiah 66:23) And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the Lord. Let Arminians speak, if all flesh, that comes before God, from Sabbath to Sabbath, under the New Testament to worship, be as large and comprehensive as the same expression (Isaiah 40:6) All flesh is grass. Sure the latter comprehends all Adam's sons, without exception, even including infants; the former cannot bear so wide a sense. So (Genesis 12:3) In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 22:18) If the meaning be that, without any figure or exception, all and every family be blessed in Christ, then shall I infer that, all the families of the earth, without exception, are justified by faith in Christ (Galatians 3:10-14), and that the nations of the earth, without exception, are heirs of the promise, have right to strong consolation, are fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope laid before them, and have anchored their hope up within the veil, where the forerunner Christ has entered; for of these nations the Apostle expounds the promise (Hebrews 6:13-20). So (Isaiah 27:6) Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit; then shall there be none on earth, but the blossoming Israel of God? (Romans 11:26) And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion a deliverer, etc. These that Paul calls all Israel, Isaiah 59:20-21 calls Jacob and the seed, and the seed's seed. (Isaiah 59:19) So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. (Malachi 1:11) For from the rising of the sun, even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place, incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, says the Lord of Hosts. If from the east to the west, and in all places of the Gentiles, men fear the name of the Lord; then sure, the whole inhabitants of the earth, between the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, must be converted to Christ, and offer prayers, praises, spiritual service to Christ, except some restriction be made — the most part from the east to the west are enemies to the Gospel; and how would Arminians triumph, if so much were said for universal redemption, as here is said for universal regeneration and conversion of all, except we say there must be a figure, a synecdoche, of "all" for many? Or Christ's all, and universality of converted ones must be here meant? (John 1:9) That was the true light that enlightens every one that comes into the world. What? Even infants who come into the world? and all, and every one of Adam's sons; it cannot be true, in any sense; except it be meant of the light of the Gospel, that yet never came to the half part of the world; for (verse 10) The world knew him not, and (verse 6) There was a man sent from God, whose name was John; (verse 7) the same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. Can any divinity teach that God intended, that all and every mortal man should believe by him, that is, by the ministry of John; the morning star which was to fall, and disappear, and shine no more at the rising of Christ, the Sun of righteousness? (1 John 2:27) You need not that any teach you, but the anointing that you have received teaches you all things. Why should then fewer have the Spirit of holy unction in them, than the world for whom Christ is a propitiation, and all the visible saints that John writes to? (1 John 1-2; 1 John 2:1-2; 1 John 4:9) God sent his only begotten Son to the world, that we through him might live. Nor need we flee to that exposition ever and anon, that Christ died for all, that is, all ranks of men. For "all" is put in Scripture ordinarily for many; as (Deuteronomy 1:21; Psalm 71:18; Jeremiah 15:10; Jeremiah 19:9; Jeremiah 20:7; Jeremiah 23:30; Jeremiah 49:17; Ezekiel 16:27; Exodus 33:10; Colossians 1:28; Isaiah 61:9; Genesis 41:57; Mark 14:4; John 3:26; Acts 17:31; Acts 10:38; Mark 1:37; 2 Corinthians 3:2; Luke 24:47; Luke 4:15; Isaiah 2:2-3). Otherwise I could say Christ died for no man, because the Scripture ascribes a universality to the wicked (Jeremiah 6:28; Jeremiah 9:2; Micah 1:7; 1 John 2:15-16; 1 John 5:19).

And surely that election and redemption move both in the same sphere, and are of the free love of God, is clear to me; from that place (John 3:16), on which Arminians confide much, for God's love to save mankind, by the death of Christ is the very love of election to glory, of such certain persons, as the Lord therefore gives grace to believe; because they are ordained to life eternal: so that the [illegible] as many, and the number of believers, and of the chosen to life are equal (Acts 13:48; John 10:26; Romans 8:29-30).

1. That love cannot be a general, confused, antecedent, conditional love, offered to all the world, on condition they believe; for that the Scripture frees thousands of the sin of unbelief of that love, if Christ does not come to them, and does not speak (John 15:22), and Paul says (Romans 1:14), How shall they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? Now the loved world (John 3:16) is obliged to believe.

2. That love that is the cause of Christ's death, is (John 15:13) the greatest love that is; it is such a giving love, whereby Christ gives his Son, that with him he cannot but give his Holy Spirit, faith and salvation, yes, and all things (Romans 8:32). But the conditional general love is not the greatest love, for the Lord bears not the greatest love to all and every man, nor gives he faith and salvation to all and every man; yes, the known and believed love of God in sending his Son to die for us is proper to the believer (1 John 4:16, 9-10). We have known and believed the love God has to us, God is love, and he that dwells in love, (it's a noble princely palace to lodge in) dwells in God, and God in him. This cannot be said of the love that God bears to the reprobate, yes, and to the fallen angels; for Arminians say that God loved them with such a love; but that love to devils, is now dried up long ago, and so that to Pharaoh, Judas, Cain, now in hell, but this love is gone; so dream they, that love in God is like summer brooks that go dry in time of drought; but the truth is, God's general love to Arminians, is a faint desire, and a wish that all and every one, men and angels be saved, and a bestowing on them means, 1. Which the Lord knows shall plunge them deeper in hell, and make their everlasting chains heavier and more fiery; better he love them not. 2. Such means as can be demonstrated free will without God, or any determination or bowing to one hand, rather than to another, can, and may absolutely master and over-master equally to conversion, or obstinacy, or to final rebellion, to salvation, or damnation, to make themselves free princes and lords of the book of life, and the writing pen of eternal election, and artists, causes, and masters of the decrees of election, or reprobation. For, 1. Let God do what he can, or omnipotence, or sweetness of free grace, all that is possible, free will has the free and absolute casting of the balance to will, receive Christ, open to the King of glory, and be converted, or to the contrary. 2. In election and reprobation from eternity, (as Arminians in their last Apology go no higher than time, coepta est in temporo electio, contra quam creditum est, &c.) God does no more in his general decree for choosing of Jacob or Peter, than of Pharaoh, Esau or Judas; but chooses all indefinitely who shall believe. But for the assumption that Peter, John, Pharaoh, Judas, Esau, believe, or not believe, the eternal decree of God does nothing, his means, Gospel, his inward grace (such grace as they can grant) do no more, nor can do any more to determine the will to either side, to believing, or not believing; than he can work contradictions, or make free will, and free obedience to be no free will, and no obedience, for it's repugnant (say they) to the nature of free will that it should be determined by God; and [illegible], such as is required of us now who are under commandments, threatenings, promises, were no obedience at all, for if the Lord should determine the will (say they) and therefore God's last decree of choosing those to life, whom he foresees shall expire in faith, and persevere to the end, and of rejecting such, as he foresees shall go on, in final obstinacy against the Gospel, is not any Scriptural decree of election or reprobation, nor has God any liberty in this, to choose this man, not this man, but all men choose God, and are foreseen finally to believe, or not believe, before, and without any free decree of God; so that the number of chosen angels or men is in the power of the creature's free will; not in the liberty of the former of all things; so as we choose God, but God chooses not us. But 2. So none are within the compass of election or reprobation, but such as hear the Gospel; and so all the heathen are saved or damned by chance, or without any will or decree of God, or they must be neither capable of salvation, nor damnation, contrary to Scripture and experience, for terrible judgments temporal, and great external favors befall Indians, Americans, and such as never heard of Christ, and not without the counsel of God's will, if there be a providence that rules the world. 2. God does nothing in the election of Peter, more than of Judas; nor can grace and mercy have place in the choosing of the one, rather than the other; but as free will is foreseen to play the game ill, or well, so go the eternal decrees of election and reprobation, and there can be no such thing as that grace and the free pleasure of God, who has mercy on whom he will, or because he will, and hardens whom he will, can have any place here.

4. The Scripture nowhere speaks of any love of God in Christ to man, but such as is efficacious in saving; any other love is lip-love, not real; and so to allege this one place, without authority of the Word, is petitio principii, a begging of the question; for the love (Ezekiel 16:8), called the time of loves, was such as saved all that were to be saved, among the people of God; and cannot be understood of such a love as God did bear to the Heathen, and the Canaanites, for it separates them from all the world: so (Deuteronomy 7:7), (Psalm 146:19-20), (Isaiah 51:1-3), (Isaiah 52:3-4), (Psalm 132:1[illegible]), (Psalm 1[illegible]:4), (Zechariah 3:2), (1 Kings 1:13), (2 Chronicles 6:6), (Isaiah 4[illegible]:8-9), (Deuteronomy 14:2), (Isaiah 43:20), (Daniel 1[illegible]:15), (1 Chronicles 16:13), (Ezekiel 20:5), (Acts 13:17). You shall not find that the love of God in Christ can consist with Reprobation, or Damnation, in all the Scripture; but by the contrary, it is a love that Christ has to his wife, in giving himself for her; sanctifying, washing and presenting her, without spot or wrinkle before [illegible] — a husband-love (Ephesians 5:25-26); a love saving, by the washing of Regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:4-6); a great love, quickening us together with Christ, saving us by grace, raising us up, and making us sit together with Jesus Christ, in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-5); a love causing washing of us, and advancing us to be Kings and Priests to God (Revelation 1:5-6); a love to Paul in particular, and working life in Paul (Galatians 2:20): I live no more, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. It is the love of God our Father, who has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace (2 Thessalonians 2:16); an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3); a love before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-4), before we do good or evil (Romans 9:11). Not a love that falls to nothing by a consequent act of hatred, nor a love to which the hatred of reprobation may succeed every hour, and out of which we may be decourted; a love that puts the honor of sons on us (1 John 3:1). It is a saving and a pitying love (Isaiah 63:9); a love which the Lord rests in (Zephaniah 3:17); a love continuing to the end (John 13:1); a love that makes us more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). It is a separating love that differences the loved of God from all others (Psalm 87:2), (Psalm 1:6, 8); otherwise all the world, should in regard of this general, and antecedent, and conditional love of God, be so the beloved of God, as Christ in the Song of Solomon esteems the Spouse his love, his well-beloved: it is a love better than life (Psalm 63:3) and the dowry Christ bestows on his spouse (Hosea 2:19); now the Scripture nowhere speaks of that conditional love, which the Lord bears to Heathens, Reprobates, and to all Men and Angels.

5. Such as the Lord so loved, as he has redeemed them from perishing, he has redeemed them from sin and Gentilism; to wit, from this present evil world (Galatians 1:4); indeed, the blood of the Lamb, unspotted, and undefiled, has bought them from their vain conversation, received by tradition, from their fathers (1 Peter 1:18); indeed, from fornication, that they should be members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:20); indeed, Christ bore their sins in his own body on the tree, that they should live to righteousness. Now all and every one of mankind, Heathen and Turks, are not thus bought with a price, and delivered from idolatry, blasphemy, killing of children to their god, from the world of Gentilism. 1. They live in these sins, as serving God in them; the Gospel never forbade them any such sins, in that they never heard the Gospel. 2. They cannot sin on a new score, or a new reckoning; these being to them, no sins against the Gospel; but against the law written in their heart. 3. There is a price then given for all the reprobate vice reproborum, it is [illegible] as they had paid the price to redeem them from sin, and unbelief; indeed, from final impenitency against the Gospel: if this be a sin, as it is the sin of sins, Christ must bear it on the tree (1 Peter 1:24); the Lamb of God must take it away (John 1:29); except it were possible final unbelief were pardonable without shedding of blood (Hebrews 10). Now here the ransom paid, but the captive is never delivered, for the reprobate die in their sins (John 8:21). There are some who say, there is a ransom given for these Gospel-sins of the reprobate, conditionally, so they believe.

Answer. That is, they are freed from final impenitency, so they be freed from final impenitency: is this a wise bargain? 2. Where is there in all the Word, a warrant that Christ laid down his life for his sheep conditionally; so he foresaw they would be his sheep; so they would believe and repent? Now this he could not do: for Christ out of deliberation, and his Father's eternal counsel, absolutely, gratis, freely died for these; he died not for those, that he foresaw would never fulfill the condition, nunquam positâ conditione, nunquam ponitur conditionatum.

6. Christ bought by his blood of the eternal Covenant, all the jewels of the Covenant, all things that belong to life and godliness, and all spiritual blessings (2 Peter 1:3), (Ephesians 1:3); a new heart and a new Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26), (Jeremiah 31:33-36), (Ezekiel 11:19-20). He bought all that God gives to us, then he must have purchased faith (Philippians 1:29), (John 6:29); and if he was made a Prince to give repentance and remission, then to give faith, for it is a grace above nature, and out of this fountain, we have grace for grace (John 1:14). Now this is not given to all men.

7. All these graces are particular. 1. Election to glory is particular: few are chosen (Matthew 22:14; John 10:26, 29; Ephesians 1:4; Romans 9:11). The promise is particular to the sons of the promise (Romans 9:8-9), made to Christ and his seed only (Galatians 3:16-18; Galatians 4:22-23, etc.). The calling particular (Isaiah 55:1-2; Matthew 11:27-28; Acts 2:39). The Covenant particular, and takes in only the house of Judah, the elect and such as cannot fall away (Jeremiah 31:34-35, etc.; Jeremiah 32:39-40; Isaiah 54:10; Isaiah 59:19-20). The surety of the Covenant, Christ (Hebrews 7:22), promised to be king over the house of David, over his people only. The intention of God particular to a foreknown people only (Romans 11:1). The circumference and extent of grace then cannot be so wide as to take in all, nor can redemption be universal, because conditional. For 1. Arminians make election conditional, but they deny it in words to be universal. Further, glorification is conditional, justification conditional, upon condition of faith; but because the condition never is met by all, all men have not faith; therefore glorification and justification is particular, and redemption on the same ground must be particular. None are actually redeemed but the believers, so as actual glorification (the decree of glorifying is another thing, and absolute) and election to glory are commensurable, the one not larger than the other (Romans 8:29-30). How can redemption, which is a mid-link between both, be of a wider sphere to take in all? For 1 Thessalonians 5:9, God's counsel set us on Christ as Redeemer, and gives us to Christ.

8. These two — "Christ redeems all" and "Christ intends to redeem all" — are most different. Now God's intention to redeem all if they believe suspends either redemption, or the intention of God to redeem. If the former be said, redemption of all is no redemption, except all believe; but all do not believe. If the latter, God must waver and hang by his intention in millions of souls, and cannot fix his foot to be peremptory in his intentions except they believe, and he sees they shall never believe, for he knows what is in man, and beholds the thoughts afar off.

Indeed, as I said elsewhere, if we speak properly in reference to God, the very promises of the Gospel are not conditional; because both the condition and the thing that falls under the condition depend on his own absolute will and free gift. If a father promises to his child an inheritance upon condition the child pay him ten thousand crowns, and the father only does give and can give the child these ten thousand crowns, we cannot say this is a bargain between the father and the son that leans upon conditions — especially if we suppose, as the case is between God and the creature, that this father can and does indeclinably determine the will of his son to consent, and to give back again to his father this sum of money, and to consent to the bargain. There is here no condition relating to the father, but he does all freely. Believing is a condition, and life eternal is the conditioned thing — a thing that falls under promise — but both depend upon the absolute, free, and irresistible will of the Lord. As there is no condition here properly so called, either laid upon the will or limiting the external action of God.

9. Hence the promises of the Gospel are indefinite, not universal, and in the Lord's purpose and intention made with the elect only, not with the reprobate at all. For when God says, "if Judas, Cain, Pharaoh believe, they shall be saved," the Lord's purpose being to deny to them the grace of believing — without which it is impossible they can believe — the promise in God's purpose is not made with them. He that so wills what he promises upon a condition, which he that so wills only can do and work, and yet will not do or work the condition — he does indeed not will to the party what is so promised. If John sends Peter to work in his garden upon condition that if he works, he shall give him a talent a day, and in the meantime John only can give to Peter strength of legs, and arms, and body to work, can determine his consent to the work, and yet refuses to give strength and to win his consent to the work — surely he never willed either to give him a talent for his work, nor intended he should work at all. Hence I argue: it is against the wisdom of God to intend and will that the reprobate be redeemed, pardoned, and saved, upon a condition which he himself only can work by his grace, and absolutely and irresistibly will not work. Now in Scripture such a thing is argued not to be done, because the Scripture must be fulfilled, and the decree of God and his will fulfilled — as Christ's bones upon this ground could not be broken, and such a thing is done that the Scripture, and so the will and decree of God might be fulfilled. So that which is never done is simply God's will it shall never be done; that which is done is simply God's will it must be — I mean either his permissive or approving will. And the will of God revealing what is the duty of reprobates, though it never be done, argues it was not simply the will of God. Hence that voluntas signi, in which God reveals what is our duty, and what we ought to do — not what is his decree, or what he either will or ought to do — is not God's will properly, but by a figure only. For commands, and promises, and threatenings revealed argue not the will and purpose, decree or intention of God, which are properly his will.

10. It is against the wisdom of God to intend the actual redemption and salvation of all and every one, and not to will nor work such conditions which only he himself can work and are in his power only, and without which the creature cannot be redeemed and saved. But he neither will nor does work faith in all; then he never intended the actual redemption and salvation of all and every one.

Hence whatever wanton and lascivious reason can object against absolute reprobation, the absolute redemption of some few — a particular atonement of some few — equally fights with the opinion of adversaries as against ours. They say:

1. God intends the eternal destruction of the innocent, sinless, and greatest part of mankind.

2. Mercy, bowels of compassion, by your particular, absolute redemption is extended to few; and all the rest of the lost world, left to sink eternally, notwithstanding of the infinite and boundless love and man-kindness of God. It is answered, these fall with equal strength of wanton reason, upon conditional and universal redemption, or God's conditional and universal will to save all, and every one; for say that a father did foresee, if he beget twenty sons, that eighteen of them shall be cast in a river of fire, to be burnt quick, where they shall be tormented ten thousand years, ever dying, and not able to find death, to end their miseries, and that they may be kings in great riches and honor, upon a condition of such and such a carriage of them in their education, and young years, which this father can easily work with one word; yet he willingly begets these children, he can work such a condition in them, as they may all be kings, yet deliberately this he will not do, but acts so upon the will of these children, as he knows indeclinably the greatest part of them all shall be tormented for ten thousand years in this extreme fire. Who can say, 1. that this father, quantum in se, as far as he can, has redeemed all, and every one of his children from ten thousand years pain? Who can say, this father intended and willed the life and honor of these eighteen children, when as he might with no pain to himself, most easily have worked the condition in them, which he worked in others, and would not? Hence, if there must be a mystery in the gospel, and the Lord's ways and thoughts must be above ours, as far as the heaven is above the earth, if the Lord did foresee the greatest part of mankind, and many legions of angels should be cast in chains of darkness, and in a lake of fire and brimstone for ever and ever. 1. Vain reason would say, why did he create them? if he foresaw their misery would be so deplorable; and how can he earnestly and ardently, with prayers, obtestations, wishes, threats, precepts, promises, desire their eternal salvation? 2. If he could have hindered them to sin (as no question he could) without hurting Adam's free will, and without strangling the nature of free obedience, in reference to threatening of ill, and promising of good, and life, as we see all angels, being equally under one law, he kept some from sin, of free grace, and permitted others to fall in eternal misery; if he could have hindered them to sin, how created he them, and gave them a law, which he saw, they would violate, and make themselves eternally miserable? 3. When the same gospel was preached to some, indeed, and to a huge multitude within the visible church, if the Lord willed all and every one to be saved, and gave his Son to redeem all and every one; was there not an eternal and absolute will most unlike and disparate to some, beside others, when as he took a way of working with the gospel, preached on some, which he saw would eternally, indeclinably, and inevitably save them, and a contrary way of working with others, which he foresaw would be fruitless, ineffectual, and null, and tend to their sadder condemnation; now can he will both the redemption and salvation of these that he moves ineffectually to obey, and also efficaciously to obey? Corvinus says in this, He wills all, ex aequo, equally to be saved, in regard of his affection, and will to all; but he wills not all equally to be saved, ex parte boni voliti, in regard of the thing willed; for he wills the gospel to be preached to some, and of these that hear the gospel he gives more grace; indeed more grace actu secundo, efficaciously effectual, and denies both to other nations and people, and with this distinction, he wills, and wills not; equally, ex aequo, the salvation of all. But this is Petitio principii, the disparity of favors bestowed on persons and nations, do argue in Scripture disparity of good-wills in the Lord; as because God sent his law and testimonies to Israel and Jacob, and dealt not so with every nation (Psalm 147:19-20). Every page almost in the Old Testament, and the Lord's Spirit, and all divines argue, that the Lord chose Israel, and loved them and saved them, and with a higher and more peculiar love, as his chosen people, than he loved all the nations (Deuteronomy 7:7), (Psalm 132:12-14), (Psalm 135:3-4). Because he bestowed on them the means of salvation; his law and his testimonies which he denied to the nations, then the nations were not his beloved and chosen ones.

10. That will of God, called voluntas signi, the revealed will of God, that precepts, promises, and threats hold forth, do not express to us the decree, intention and purpose of God, that he wills the thing commanded to be, but only that he approves of the thing commanded, as just and good, whether it be, or be not, whatever the event be: then God's revealed will is no more formally, but his approbation of the moral goodness and obedience, of elect and reprobate, whether they obey, or not.

11. These that Christ offered his body for, as a Priest, for these as a Priest he intercedes and prays; for these two cannot be separated; but he prays not for all, not for the world (John 17:9): "I pray for them, I pray not for the world."

12. These for whom Christ is a Priest to offer his body, for them, he is a King to make them kings, and to save them, and a Prophet to teach them; but he is not King and Prophet to any but to his people, kingdom, conquest, disciples, seed, children, subjects.

13. These that Christ died for cannot be condemned (Romans 8:33-34), but are chosen, and cannot be impeached; but the reprobate can be condemned and impeached.

14. Those whom God wills to save, and whom he redeemed, to these he willed the means of salvation; but he wills not the means, nor that the gospel be preached to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5), nor to Asia, nor Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7).

15. All that Christ died for, are justified and reconciled by his death, and shall much more be saved by his life (Romans 5:9, 1 John 1:7). And God requires not one debt twice; if Christ sustained the person of all the [reconstructed: elected], as he died for his friends (John 15:13), for his sheep (John 10:11), for his church (Ephesians 5:25), for many (Matthew 20:28), for his enemies (Romans 5:10), for the ungodly, and unjust (1 Peter 3:18), for his brethren (Hebrews 2, 1 John 3:16), and not for their good only, so as they might all and every one have perished eternally, that Christ died for; then cannot they die eternally, for then Christ should first have paid their debt, and they must pay for that debt over again, eternally in hell. Then might Christ be a Redeemer, a King, a Priest, a Husband, a Savior, and head, and have no ransomed ones, no subjects, no Israel that he intercedes for, and offers his soul, no Spouse, no saved people, no members, no Church.

Article 4. Places of Scripture seeming to favor universal atonement, vindicated.

For the fourth particular, and the clearing of places alleged; we are 1. to consider if the place John 3:16 proves anything against us. 2. If all men, and all the world that are said to be redeemed, be conclusive against us. 3. There be some particular places to be considered.

1. The word [in non-Latin alphabet], World, must be a figurative speech, the whole for the part, otherwise in its latitude it comprehends the Angels (Acts 17:24, Romans 3:6, 1 Corinthians 6:2, Romans 1:20, John 17:5). Now it is certain, God has not so loved Angels, good and bad, that he has given his only begotten Son for them (Hebrews 2:16), therefore it must sometime signify a great part of the world; as John 12:19, 'The world goes after him.' 1 John 5:19, '[reconstructed: The] whole world lies in evil'; the adversary yields, that the (world) here, is not all, and every one of mankind, without exception. I deny not but it signifies so, Romans 3:13, 'That all the world may become guilty before God.' But the Arminians take on them a hard task, duram proviciam; to prove that it is so taken here. For 1. the word [in non-Latin alphabet], God so loved the world, is the highest love that ever was, above God's love to the Angels (Hebrews 2:16). So God must carry the most superlative love; that is, than which there is none greater (John 15:13). Such a love as is manifested to us, to the beloved John the Apostle, and all the saints (1 John 4:9), to Cain, Judas, and all the heathen; and God's love giving his Son differentiates men from Angels, but not one man from another; the contrary of which Paul says (Galatians 2:20). And must Paul say no more — who loved me, and gave himself for me — than Judas, Pharaoh, all the lost heathen, who never heard of Christ, can, and may say? Believe it who will, it sounds not like Christ's love.

2. They have two sorts of love in Christ's dying for men, to make out two Redemptions, one general, one potential, or half a Redemption; where life is purchased, never applied, standing with the eternal destruction of the greatest part of mankind; another special, in which men are redeemed from sin, preached to few, applied to far fewer.

3. Two reconciliations; two non-imputations of sin; one 2 Corinthians 5, another Romans 4, and so two justifications; one Romans 5, and two blessednesses, and two salvations, or deliveries from wrath, and the curse of the Law.

4. This giving love, with which God must give all other things, faith, the Gospel (Romans 8:32), must be bestowed on heathen that never heard such a thing.

5. God by this must intend life eternal, as an end to all the heathen; faith as a means, which are clearly intended to this loved world; and yet God forbids Paul and his Apostles to preach the word of faith to them (Acts 16:6-7, Matthew 10:5), and contrives circumstances so, that the hearing of the word of faith, and of this highest love, and rarest gift, and given Redeemer, shall be simply impossible to them.

6. Therefore better by the (World) understand the elect of Jews and Gentiles, opposed everywhere in the New Testament, to the narrow church of Judea; the Gospel-world, the Messiah's-world, larger than the little world of Moses; indeed, all nations (Matthew 28:19), every creature, that is most of all the nations (Mark 16:15), all the world, the hearing world, almost all the nations (Colossians 1:6), surely not every individual person; as they would have this loved world to include.

Objection. But [in non-Latin alphabet] that every one that believes, etc., these words, limit, and draw narrow the world, and so divides it in believers, and not believers, and by your exposition, some of the elect world believes, and are saved; some believes not, and perishes, which is absurd; therefore the (world) must be comprehensive of all, elect, and reprobate.

Answer 1. I shall deny that [Greek text] whoever, is here a distributive or dividing particle: if he had said [Greek text] or [Greek text] as (Galatians 5:4; 1 Corinthians 11:27), there had been some color for this; but I deny that [Greek text] or [Greek text] all must be restrictive here, more than (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12): God gave them over to the efficacy of error to believe a lie, that [Greek text] that all those might be damned, that believe not the truth; but have pleasure in unrighteousness. It follows not that [Greek text] here, that all or whoever believe not the truth, should be fewer in number than those that are given over to the efficacy of error: indeed, the number of the one and the other is equal, so (John 5:22): The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son. Verse 23: [Greek text] that all men should honor the Son, as they honor the Father who sent him. I see no ground to say, that some may honor the Father, and be raised from the dead and quickened, as verse 21, who do not honor the Son. And therefore it ought not to be translated, God so loved the world, etc., that whoever believes should not perish; but far more agreeably to the original, God so loved the world, that every one believing should not perish: as in multitude of places it is translated, unusquisque, non quicunque; and therefore faith is not set down here so much ad modum conditionis, as ad modum [reconstructed: medii], as a condition, as a means to bring this loved world to glory: as if you would say, he so loves letters, as all learned are dear to him; so God so loved his chosen world, that he gave his Son to die for them, (now this love is eternal) that all these believing in their own time, might never be lost, but have eternal life. Nor can Arminians take the world (world) for all and every one of mankind, for they exclude all infants dying so, as incapable of faith; and they say these words contain God's special decree of election, and reprobation; to wit, (John 3:16): God decreed to save all that believe, and God decreed all that believe not should perish. Now from Election, and Reprobation, they exclude all the Heathen, and all their infants, and all infants whatever, and such as never heard the Gospel: so I fear they make as narrow a world here; as we do, let them see to it: whereas Arminians say that the word world, never signifies in Scripture the elect only; what then? Let me answer. 1. Their world of elect and reprobate, excluding the best part of mankind, all infants, all that never heard the Gospel; sure is not in the Scripture, nor does it speak of such a world. 2. This is a begging of the question, for (John 1:29): The world whose sins the Lamb of God takes away; the reconciled world to whom the Lord imputes no sin [Greek text], it is the same word that is ascribed to Abraham's believing (Romans 4:3), verse 4-5, and that David speaks of (Psalm 32:2; Romans 4:6): the imputing of righteousness, and of faith to righteousness; that in which blessedness coming through Christ consists (Romans 4:8-11). This world is the only believing elect world, the loved world (John 3:16), the world saved, verse 17, the world of which Christ is Savior (John 4:42), the world that Christ gives his life to (John 6:33), and for whose life, he gives his life, verse 55, the world of which Abraham; but much more, Christ is heir (Romans 4:13), the reconciled world, occasioned by the Jews falling off Christ (Romans 11:15), all these are the elect believing, and redeemed world, this they can never disprove.

The other ground of our answer to all the places on the contrary, is that the word [Greek text], and [Greek text]; Christ died for all: does never signify all and every one of mankind, by neither Scripture, nor the doctrine of adversaries: but is as all Divines say, to be expounded according to the subject in hand, secundum materiam substratam.

Hence our first rule: "All" often signifies the most part, (Mark 1:64) — they all condemned him to be guilty of death — the whole council (Matthew 26:59), yet Joseph of Arimathea consented not to his death (Luke 23:51), and the flood destroyed them all (Luke 17:27), yet eight persons were saved; so all Judah (Jeremiah 13:19) was carried into captivity. "All" is often the same with "many" — "all the sheep of Kedar shall be gathered to you," that is, many — and (Genesis 41) "all the land came to Egypt." When the matter bears a clear exception, and other Scriptures expound it, then surely Christ's dying for all must be expounded as his giving himself a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28, compared with 1 Timothy 2:6). So the law says all do that which the most part do; men's will does not limit what God speaks, but let the text itself be diligently considered: (Exodus 9:6) "All the cattle of Egypt died, that was in the field." Christ gave himself a ransom for all capable of a ransom; Arminians say that the finally obdurate, those that sin against the Holy Ghost, and infants of heathens, or any dying infants, cannot be ransomed by Christ. (Exodus 32:26) "All the sons of Levi came to Moses" — not all without exception; many adhered to Aaron in his idolatry (verse 29; Deuteronomy 33:9). So (Matthew 3:5) "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the country near to Jordan." Now this signification being applied to our use: Christ giving himself a ransom for all men, his dying for all, can be no larger than the saving of all, the believing of all flesh, and the blessing of all nations in Christ. But (Genesis 18:18) all in him — "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" — (Genesis 22:18) "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" — the whole world that John says Christ is a propitiation for (1 John 2:1) cannot be larger than this. Now this cannot carry any tolerable sense, that all and every man of the nations are actually blessed in Christ, any more than all and every one are redeemed, reconciled, received in favor, within the Covenant of Grace. And therefore Arminians have as good reason from "all" — that all said to be ransomed are all actually saved, and hell shall be empty and to no purpose — as to contend for a universal redemption. As a wicked pamphlet printed of late says, all the creation of God, men and angels are redeemed, and shall at length be saved in Christ. Now we can undeniably prove that all and every nation, and all and every man descended of Abraham, are not blessed in Christ. First, (Romans 9:7) because they that are the seed of Abraham are not all children, but "in Isaac shall your seed be called" (verse 8) — "They which are the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Now Christ has a spiritual seed of a more narrow compass than all the nations of the earth: (Isaiah 53:10) "He shall see his seed." Christ marries not with the cursed seed, and many nations such as for many generations never heard of Christ are under the law and under a curse. But the nations are blessed, and all nations (say they) quantum ad Deum, in God's intention, in the Covenant of Grace that God made with all the nations, if they would embrace and receive Christ — but that they are not actually blessed, fully redeemed, and saved in Christ is their fault.

Answer: The Scripture expounds Scripture better than Arminians, and the Apostle (Hebrews 6) resolves us that all the nations of the earth (verse 17) are the heirs of promise — those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them, who have anchored their souls by hope within the veil, and have Jesus for their forerunner (verses 17, 18, 19, 20). Second, he expounds the blessing of Abraham and of his seed, not of any conditional and far-off intention of God, but of God's actual blessing of Abraham and his spiritual seed whom the Lord multiplied (verse 14). Nor was it ever fulfilled in all the nations of the earth — they were never heirs of the promise; our exposition is made good, and by it the promise and oath of God fulfilled, and his Covenant accomplished — not by the Arminian gloss. Third, Paul expounds Abraham's seed (Galatians 3:16) to be Christ and his seed (Romans 11:26): "So all Israel shall be saved." This was the Israel to whom the Covenant by oath and promise was made: "For the Redeemer shall come out of Zion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob" (verse 27) — "For this is my covenant to them, when I shall take away their sins." (Acts 4:33) "Great grace was on them all" — yet not on Ananias and Sapphira who were of that visible number. (Isaiah 40:5) "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it." (Psalm 86:9) "All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, and shall glorify your name, O Lord" — that is expounded (Isaiah 2:1): "All nations shall flow to the mountain of the Lord's house." What — all nations without exception? No; (verse 2) "Many people shall say, Come, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord's house." (Haggai 2:7) "And the desire of all nations shall come" — did all nations, quantum in se, so far as lay in them, desire Christ? No such thing.

Second: All skilled in the original languages, and all divines say that the particle "all" is taken pro singulis generum, vel pro generibus singulorum — all and every one of kinds, and for the kinds of all, though not absolutely excluding any kind.

First, the word "all" is, in materiâ necessariâ, in a necessary matter, taken for all and every one: "God made all nations of one blood" (Acts 17:26); "He knows the hearts of all men" (Acts 1:24); "All have sinned" (Romans 3:12; Romans 5:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Timothy 4:10; James 1:5; Philippians 2:10-11).

Second: "All" without exclusion of particular men, in a contingent matter, is sometimes so taken (Matthew 26:33): "Though all be offended" (Luke 6:26; Revelation 4:26).

3. When all is spoken of God's works for men, or in men, especially works of mere grace opposite to men's works: All men, then, is not taken in the largest sense, as Mr. Moor imagines. So our text: "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me" cannot be meant of all men without exception. 1. Because it is a clear restriction of calling of multitudes, under the Messiah's kingdom after his death, and cannot but speak against a universal drawing in the times of the Old Testament. 2. Christ draws not all to himself by the Gospel, because thousands hear not of him; not virtually, for we read of no calling or drawing of Christ, lifted up on the cross, and crucified by the works of nature. So God blesses all nations, not all and every one; God saves all Israel, and turns away iniquity from Jacob, and forgives the sins of Israel; and God only saves, and only pardons believers. But will Mr. Moor say, God saves and pardons all, and every man in Israel?

Rule 3. There is hence a third rule, that many is placed for all the elect, as (Matthew 10:28): "He gave himself a ransom for many." (Mark 14:14): "This is my blood of the New Testament, that is shed for many," as (Romans 5:15): "Through the offence of one, many were dead" — that is, all were dead. So the sheep of Christ (John 10:11), the scattered sons of God (John 11:52), his people (Matthew 1:21), his brethren (Hebrews 2) — that he died for must be exclusive of those that are not his sheep, not his brethren, not his people, not the sons of God. When there is mention of a singular privilege bestowed on friends, whom Christ is to make friends (John 15:13), though it be bestowed on them in regard of their present ill deserving, when they are enemies (Romans 5:10), sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), unjust (1 Peter 3:18), lost (Luke 19:10) — as the necessity of the prerogative of redemption and ransom of free grace makes clear. As: "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Paul expounds it exclusively — "in your seed only" (Galatians 3:16). So (Deuteronomy 10:20): "You shall fear the Lord your God, and serve him." Christ expounds it (Luke 4:8) exclusively: "You shall serve only the Lord," because it is the prerogative of God to be worshipped, as it is a prerogative of grace to be the ransomed and redeemed of God (Deuteronomy 21:8; Deuteronomy 7:8; Exodus 15:15; Luke 1:68; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 1:18; Revelation 5:9; Revelation 14:4; Isaiah 1:24; Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 51:10; [reconstructed: Jeremiah 31:11]). And the manner of Christ's dying in regard of application is exclusive by confession of party, and as is clear (Luke 2:11; Luke 1:68-70; Luke 2:30-31; Hebrews 2:17; Romans 8:34; Revelation 5:9).

Rule 4. In the matter of our redemption, especially in the New Testament, and prophecies of the Old of the same subject, Christ died for all pro generibus singulorum — for men of all nations, some of all kinds. 1. Because God speaks so of our salvation, as (Joel 3:28), which was fulfilled (Acts 2:17): "And it shall come to pass in the last days (says God), I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh" — that is, people of all nations, as verse 9: Parthians, and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and Judea, Cappadocia, etc. And of all sexes, verse 17: sons and daughters. Of all ages, young and old. All conditions, servants and handmaids. Verse 5: "And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven" — nor will this include all and every nation without exception. Erasmus would ask of those that will not admit a hyperbole in Scripture, if there were English and Scots there. "You tithe every herb" — that is, herbs of all kinds (Luke 11:42). Christ cured every disease (Matthew 4:23). "You shall eat of every tree of the garden" (Genesis 2:16). [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] all his master's goods are in his hand [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] (Genesis 24:10). Now thus God will have all to be saved, and Christ is the Mediator of all men (1 Timothy 2), which is not to be understood of all and every man, but of kings and low men, and all conditions of men; the word [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] is used three times in the text. 1. We are nowhere, but in this place only, commanded to pray for all men; but if for the eternal salvation of all and every one without exception, is the doubt. You shall not find a warrant in the Word to pray that all mankind may be saved absolutely, for God has revealed in his Word that he has decrees of election and reprobation of men. 2. And has expressly forbidden to pray for their salvation, that sin to death (1 John 5:16). And what faith have we to pray for such; for the salvation of magistrates in that notion only we may pray; for the peace of Babylon, and for peace of heathen princes, the Church being under them. 3. God will have all men to be saved, no other ways than he will have all to come to the knowledge of the truth — that is, of the Gospel. Now how he will have all men without exception to come to the knowledge of the Gospel, since this natural antecedent and conditional will to save all was in God toward the fallen angels and the Gentiles in the time of the Old Testament, when the law of God and his will touching salvation through the Messiah to come was only revealed to the Jews (Deuteronomy 7:7; Psalm 147:19-20) — let Arminians see, for sure the Gospel is not, and has never been preached to all and every rational creature, and to all men, yet he wills all men (by Arminians' grounds) to come to the knowledge of the Gospel. Now we know not how God, who has this natural will eternally in him as they say, wills the heathens to come to the knowledge of the Gospel, except he send apostles with the miraculous gift of tongues to them to preach in their language. 4. He instances in a species of the all he spoke of verse 1, in magistrates though heathen. Thanksgiving here for all and every man must also be commanded as well as prayer, even for Julian and the greatest scourges and bloody scorpions, that lay heaviest stripes on the back of the Church; sure we have no faith to believe this in reference to their salvation.

5. Paul must here speak of the Lord's effectual will, whom he saves, and will have to be saved, and to hear the Gospel, they must be saved. So the Apostle, (2 Peter 3:9): The Lord is long-suffering, [illegible], to us, willing none (of us to whom he is long-suffering) to perish, but will have all us, to whom he extends this long-suffering, to come to repentance. For he gives a reason why the day of judgment comes not so quickly, but is so delayed, that lustful men scoffs at it; because God waits till all the elect be gathered in; they should perish, and should not come to the knowledge of the truth, if the Lord should hasten that day, as (Matthew 24). For the elect's sake, the ill days are shortened, not for the reprobate. So to this ransom, Paul, in verse 7, is appointed a Preacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth; this must be the Gentiles that believe and come to the knowledge of the truth; nor did Paul bear this testimony to all, and every one of the Gentiles, yet Arminians say, God will have all and every one of Jews and Gentiles saved and ransomed; as also he restricts the peaceable and godly life to the Church, taking in himself, [illegible], etc., that we may lead, etc.

6. His reason: There is one God; so much as of all orders in the Christian Church, there is one God: the King and Magistrate, as touching his office, has not one God, and the poor another God, the Jews have not one God, and these I preach to, the Gentiles, verse 7, another; the husband has not one God, and the wife another: for these three orders — Magistrates, and these that are under them, Jews, Gentiles, Husband, Wives, are in the text; and if that poor argument of Master Moore's had blood or nerves, because there is one God; and because he names [illegible], Men, therefore God will save all, and the ransom must be as wide and spacious as the reason, God is God to all, and every one, and all and every man is a man; it may prove that these that blaspheme and sin to death; these of Bithynia, and Samaria, and all the Gentiles, that the Lord winked at, and did not invite to repentance (Acts 14:17), left off to be men; and God was not a God in relation to them, as to the work of his hands; for sure God is not in covenant with all and every one of mankind, for thousands that are men, are without the covenant. I demand of this universal will of God, to save all and every one, and the ransom for all and every one, was it ever heard of, in one letter in the Old Testament, except, by prophesying what was to be under the New? Never. Now was there not one God, and one Mediator, in the Old, as in the New? And natural and universal desires and wills in God, to save men as men, and that God should save men as one God, do not rise and fall in God; but sure his will called his command, and revealed in the Gospel is larger under the Gospel, nor it was before the Messiah's time; otherwise God no otherwise willed all men to be saved, among the Jews, as their God, in covenant with them, than he willed all the Gentiles, and every man of the heathen to be saved, which contradicts Old and New Testament broadly; for in the time of the Old Testament, God willed not, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, Philistines, Egyptians, to come to the knowledge of the truth, and Gospel (2 Samuel 7:23; Deuteronomy 4:34; Psalm 147:19).

7. God no more wills all, and every man to be saved, and come to believe; so they will all, and every one believe; than he wills all and every one to be damned; so they believe not and refuse the Gospel: the one will is as universal as the other.

8. It is no justice, that the ransom should be paid for all, and every one, and the captives remain in prison eternally; it is against the law ([reconstructed: Exodus 21:30]; Exodus 30:12, 15). You the Lord's Ransomed (Isaiah 35:9-10) must obtain everlasting joy in Zion. (Isaiah 51:10-11) They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall fly away; and (Hosea 13:14; 1 Corinthians 15:54) they are ransomed from the grave. Let them find in all the Old or New Testament, any ransomed of the Lord, and ransomed from the grave, cast in outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; they are redeemed from all iniquity, purified as a peculiar people (Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 2:24).

9. This ransom is to be testified in due time, or as (1 Peter 1:20-21) was manifest in these [reconstructed: last] times, [illegible]; for you (the elect of God) that believe by him.

Rule 5. [illegible], or [illegible], is undeniably expounded of all that are saved only, and is restrictive; such a Physician cured all the city; that is, no man is cured but by him. Exodus 28:4 Jethro says to Moses, What is this that you do? you sit alone. [illegible] and all the people stand by you, from morning till evening, (for judgment:) the scope of Jethro is to condemn Moses, in wearing out his spirit, and taking the burden of judging all the people himself alone (Numbers 11:13), and his words bear not, that all the people without exception came for judgment, that had been impossible; but because there was then no other judge, but Moses; the sense is clear, all that were to be judged, they were to be judged by no other, but by Moses only. Revelation 13:8. And all that dwell in the earth worshiped the beast, that is, all seduced to Popish idolatry, were seduced by the beastly Vicar of Christ, and his limbs. John 11:48. If we let him alone, all will believe in him; that is, none will believe in us, nor follow us; and all seduced men, shall be seduced by him. John 3:26. John's disciples a little emulous, that Christ drew all the water from their master's mill; say, Behold he baptizes, and [illegible], all men come to him; that is, there are now no comers, nor followers of men, but such as follow this Jesus. That Christ in this sense should be the Savior of all men, that he should have a negative voice in the salvation of all, that all the ransomed ones should come through his hands, is no other thing than Peter says, Acts 4:11. That there is no other name under heaven, by which men may be saved, and none comes to the Father, but by him (John 14:6), then all that come to God, come by him only. Christ is the heir of blessings, and in him all the families of the earth are blessed (Acts 3:25), but it follows as well all, and every mortal man, are glorified, as redeemed, by this logic; Out of his fullness, we all, [illegible], all that receive, do receive from him (John 1:16).

Upon this is grounded the common nature of all that Christ assumed, that no man should be saved, but by a man. Hence (say Arminians) Look how far the nature of man extends the ransom extends as far: But (says Master Moore) the nature is common to Adam's sons, all, and every one, as men contra-distinguished from Angels ([reconstructed: Hebrews 2:9, 16]). But there is a wide difference between the fitness and aptitude that man should die for man, not an Angel for a man, and the intention and good will of God, that Christ should either take on him the nature of man to die for mankind, rather than for Angel-kind (Hebrews 2:16). And why he should die for this man, Peter, or John, not that man Pharaoh or Judas; the reason of the former was the infinite wisdom of God, seeing a congruity of justice in it, that the nature that sins should suffer for sin. Whether Christ having a soul of a spiritual nature as Angels, might have fittingly been a suffering Savior for them, (which may be thought possible) is another question. But the reason of the other is only the grace of God, who could give a hire, or a price to Christ, to move him to die for you, and effectually, and savingly, by gifting you with faith, and not for another? All the Jesuits, Arminians, Papists, Socinians, for their selves if provoked, shall not answer, except there be a Fountain-will, that solves all, touching men and Angels, He has mercy on whom he will, and hardens whom he will: and who has given to him first, and it shall be recompensed? And with as good reason; Because Christ is glorified at the right hand of God, in man's nature, common to all Adam's sons, may they infer, that all, and every man, is risen again from the dead with Christ. As Colossians 3:1-2. and all, and every man, is set with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), and so all and every man must be glorified with Christ. For as Christ died, in a nature common to all men; so in a nature common to all, he rose again, ascended to heaven, is glorified at the right hand of God. But the truth is, Christ assumed that nature that is common to all men, but not as common to all men, but as the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16), as the flesh and blood of the children, verse 14. of his brethren, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, that are, or were to be born again.

And it is true, Jesus (Hebrews 2:9) is made a little lower than the angels. I hope the comparison is not with all and every one of the angels: he was never made a little lower than all angels, even evil angels. Nor has he tasted of death for every man; that is, for all and every son of Adam. 1. We know no grace as common to all and every one of Adam's sons, as nature. 2. Because the Scripture makes nature, wrath, sin, death, common to all (Romans 5:14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21; Romans 3:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15; Job 14:4; Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 2:1, 2, 3; Hebrews 9:27). But for grace, the word of the covenant, a covenant of grace, reconciliation into grace and favor with God; justification, we know no such things common to all, and every one of Adam's sons; for then all must be born, the covenanted, justified, reconciled, beloved with the greatest love that is (John 15:13), ransomed, redeemed, in Christ's blood, a people, near in the beloved, chosen as peculiar to God, as well as heirs of wrath. (2) That some sins against the first covenant are taken away in Christ, and not all, as (1 John 1:8), or some half-redeemed in Christ's blood, not wholly, we know not. (3) That Christ should taste death for all, it being as good, as if all in person had not only sipped, but drunk death out to the bottom, and yet that the greatest part must drink death to the bottom again, is no gospel truth. (4) Nor is the Apostle's argument of weight, to exalt Christ, as he intends (Hebrews 2), to say, Christ so tasted death for all; as all and every one, notwithstanding many never have, either saving faith, or fruit of his death, but eternally perish: whereas clear it is, that these [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], all that he died for are the many sons he actually brings to glory (verse 10), these who are one with him, as the Sanctifier Christ, and the Sanctified (verse 11), his brethren, whom he is not ashamed to own (verse 11), the Church (verse 12), the children that God has given him, that are for signs and wonders (Isaiah 8:18; Hebrews 2:13), a seed in covenant with God, David's spiritual seed, who shall never fall away (Psalm 89:28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37). Then as all the first Adam's sons, and heirs were through his offense dead; so all Christ's spiritual seed, and heirs, have grace communicated to them (verse 15). The children partakers of flesh and blood (verse 14), these for whom he through death, which he tasted for all, and for whom he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; if the devil reigns in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), if they be born of the devil (John 8:44), taken captives at his will (2 Timothy 2:26). Let Arminians see how Christ by tasting death for them, as they fancy (Hebrews 2:9), has for them by death destroyed the devil (verse 14), loosed his works (1 John 3:8), triumphed over devils (Colossians 2:15), judged and cast out the devil (John 12:31; John 14:30). Yes, these all, these are delivered from bondage of death (Hebrews 2:15), the seed of Abraham (verse 16), his brethren that he is made like to in all things, except sin (Hebrews 2:17), his people (verse 17), the tempted that Christ succors (verse 18). I defy any divine to make sense of that chapter, as Arminians expound, tasting of death for all men.

And the second Adam must come short of the first Adam (Romans 5) by the Arminian exposition; and the comparison must be as the legs of a cripple, both here, and (1 Corinthians 15), for by the first Adam many be dead. What be these many? All and every one of mankind, that are the natural heirs coming forth of the loins of the first Adam: then who be the [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], many to whom the grace of God has abounded (verse 15)? Surely the second Adam is no dry tree, no Eunuch; the Scripture says, he has a seed (Isaiah 53:10), many sons (Hebrews 2:10), children that God has given him, that are for signs and wonders (Isaiah 8:18; Hebrews 2:13), a seed in covenant with God, David's spiritual seed, who shall never fall away (Psalm 89:28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37). Then as all the first Adam's sons, and heirs were through his offense dead; so all Christ's spiritual seed, and heirs, have grace communicated to them (verse 15), this is far from grace, abounding to all and every one of the heirs of the first Adam. Then as the first Adam killed none but heirs naturally descended of him: so the second Adam derives grace, and the gift of life to none, but to his spiritual heirs; make a union by birth, between the first Adam and all his, and between the second Adam and all his; and stretch the comparison no farther than Paul, and let Arminians enjoy their gain by this argument.

2. Verse 16. Sin and judgment to condemnation not intended only; but real and efficacious came on all by the first Adam, for all that live, incur sin, and actual condemnation by the first Adam; but the free gift is of many to justification: then justification not intended only, which may never fall out, but real, not virtual, or potential, or conditional, if their forefathers have not rejected the covenant; but efficacious and actual, came upon all the heirs, and seed, of the second Adam.

3. Paul compares (verse 15) the offense [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩] of one, the first sin of Adam that came on all, with the justification [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], from many offenses. The justification spoken of here, which we have in the second Adam, is not a pardon of sin original, and of a breach of the first covenant; so as we begin to sin, and God reckons with us on a new score, but the justification here is from many offenses, and the blood of Jesus purges us from all sins (1 John 1:8). This justification runs not up from the womb, as the offense of Adam does. For, 1. Where are there two justifications in Christ's blood? 2. Where is there in Scripture a righteousness of all and every one, a justification in Christ's blood, by nature or from the belly, and that of Turks, Indians, Americans, and their seed, and of all infants, in all the Scripture?

4. Verse 17. By one man's offence there was a cruel king, Death the king of terrors, who has a black scepter, set over all and every man without exception. Here we grant a universal king the first and second death; as when a Conqueror subdues a land, he sets over them a little king, a Lieutenant in his place: now the other part of the similitude, and the antitype is so much more, they that receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness shall reign, shall be kings in life (eternal) through one Jesus Christ (verse 17). See the heirs and sons of the second Adam, are not all and every one of the mortal stock of Adam, redeemed, reconciled, saved; but [illegible], these that receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness; only I appeal to the conscience of Arminians, if Turks, Jews, Tartarians, Americans, Indians, all heathen, and all infants come in as [illegible], and as these that for the present, are under the fat drops of the second Adam, and receive abundance of grace and righteousness. For their universal righteousness is poor and thin, and may be augmented. 2. If they receive it conditionally, so they believe, then it is not universal. 3. Then they are not [illegible], all are not believers by nature, all are not by this, within the new covenant actually: they have but a far-off venture, and a cast-off abundance of grace. Further, Paul by this makes glory as well as grace universal, and all and every one must be born heirs of heaven; for Paul says of the heirs of the second Adam [illegible]: here be kings for a king; there was one Catholic tyrant Death, set over all men; but there be here heirs of the second Adam, made kings of life and glory through Jesus Christ. Verse 18. If it be said, it is life conditionally, if they believe; consider then, if the second Adam be not weaker than the first; the first indeclinably, really, without a miss transmitted death to all his; the second Adam cannot transmit life to the thousandth part of his; but as he misses in the far greatest part of his heirs (if all mortal men be his heirs) he may miss in all, if free will so think good. Arminius says, constare potuit integer fructus mortis, &c. The fruit of the second Adam's death might stand entire, though all and every one of mankind were damned; if this be a potential justification: it is good, it is not Paul's justification, (Romans 8), whom he justified, them he also glorified, nor does the Scripture speak of any such justification, but of such as makes the party justified, blessed (Romans 4:6, 7), as has faith joined with it (Romans 3:26; Romans 5:1), as cleanses us from all our sins (1 John 1:8). (5.) The reconciled shall much more be saved (Romans 5:10), they are friends, not enemies, (enemies and reconciled are opposed in the text) and then they cannot be strangers, nor far off; but built upon the foundation of the Prophets, and Apostles, who of enemies are reconciled (Ephesians 2; Colossians 1:19-20), and so shall far more be saved, by the life of Christ; but all and every one of mankind, shall not much more be saved by the life of Christ. 6. There is an (all men) under condemnation, and an (all men) justified: let any of common sense judge, if you ought not in equity, to compare the heirs, sons, seed, of the first and second Adam together, and then let the two alls run on equal wheels, and see what Arminians gain by this; for if you compare all in the loins of the first Adam on the one side, with all in the loins of the second, and yet never in the second Adam; but as great strangers to Christ, as those that are out of Christ, enemies, sons of the bondwoman, strangers to Christ, without God and Christ in the world; on the other side, the sides are unequal, and beside the Holy Ghost's mind; except you show us a second birth, a supernatural communion of justification, of free grace, of sonship, of redemption of mercy, between Jesus Christ, and all and every one of mankind, heathens, Jews, Gentiles; this I fear must send all the Arminians in Europe to their book, to seek what cannot be found.

And it is as easy to answer, 1 Corinthians 15, for as many in number as die in Adam, are not by that text, made alive in the second Adam; for [illegible] all notes not equality of number. But as the heirs of the first Adam have death in heritage by him, so the heirs of the second Adam have life by him, and all in each, notes all of each quality, not of each number, for the all quickened by Christ, 1. Are the fallen asleep in Christ, that are not perished (verse 18). 2. The all, whose faith is not in vain, and are not in their sins (verse 17). 3. The all that have not hope in this life only, but in the life to come (verse 19). 4. Such as are the first fruits, of the same kind of dead with Christ; for Christ and all his, are as one cornfield of wheat gathered into one barn (verse 23). 5. They are quickened with the same Spirit, that Christ was quickened with, but in their own order, life comes to the head first; and if Paul's mind be that Christ as Head and Redeemer raises all the elect and reprobate by this text, then surely the reprobate must be a part of the field whereof Christ is the first sheaf, else the text shall not run; but for Paul's purpose it was enough to prove the resurrection of believers principally.

The place 1 John 2:1, the world and the whole world, is the world that has an Advocate established in heaven, for if we sin, we have an advocate, who is a propitiation not for us Jews only to whom I write, but for the sins of the whole world both of Jews and Gentiles, for the propitiation and the Advocation are of the same circumference and sphere; else the argument should be null; but the [reconstructed: Advocation] of our High Priest in the Holy of Holies at the right hand of God is for the people of God only (Hebrews 9:24), for us, as the High Priest carried only the iniquity of the people of Israel, and their names engraved on his breast, for those for whom he has purchased an eternal redemption, with the sprinkling of blood to purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God (verses 12, 13, 14). For those to whom he left peace in his testament, and the promise of eternal inheritance (verses 15, 16, 17), and for those that look for Christ's second appearing to salvation, and for those for whose faith he prays (Luke 22:31-33), and for whom he prays the Father, that he may send the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17, and John 16:7). For all these Christ does as our High Priest (Hebrews 9:10) intercede.

2. It is clear the persons cannot be so changed, if we sin we have a propitiation; if we confess, the blood of Jesus shall cleanse us from all sins: and by the sins of the whole world, he understands all that did, or should believe, of Jew or Gentile (Romans 11:15; 2 Corinthians 5:19; John 1:29; and [reconstructed: John 3:16]), the whole world, loved, pardoned, reconciled, to whom sins are not imputed, and so blessed and justified (Psalm 32:1-4). And [reconstructed: whereas] the Apostle ascends, and not for our sins only, etc., it is not to extend propitiation further than advocation, confession, knowing that we know him; that is, petitio principii, for John does not conclude a comfort of Christ's advocation, which is undeniably peculiar and proper only to those that have fellowship with the Father and Son, and have believed in the Word of life, are purged from all their sins, from a general propitiation common to those that are eternally damned, and which may have its full and entire fruit, though all the world were eternally damned. It were a poor comfort to weak ones, who sin daily, and are liars, if they should say they have no sin, that there is no better salve in heaven for their sin than such a one, as they may no less perish eternally having it than Pharaoh, Cain, Judas; it were better for them to want it, as have it.

2 Peter 2:1: Some false teachers deny the Lord that bought them, which is not so to be taken, as if Christ had redeemed those from their vain conversation (1 Peter 1:18) and from the present evil world (Galatians 1:4), for then he should have redeemed them from apostasy, and the power of damnable heresies, which he did not, but in their profession they were bought, and so the Apostle more sharply convinces them, for they were teachers in profession, but really wolves that devoured the flock, but professed themselves to be shepherds sent to seek the lost. 2. They were heretical teachers, and brought in damnable heresies, and therefore Christians and professed Christ to be their Lord; for if they had been without and open enemies, they could not bring in heresies. 3. They did it covertly and privily, teaching and doing one thing, and professing another; they professed the Lord to be their Redeemer who bought them, but that they were hypocrites is clear, verse 1: [in non-Latin alphabet] they shall bring in heresies in the by, at a side, privily. 2. By reason of them the way of truth shall be blasphemed; enemies shall speak ill of the Gospel, because these men profess the Redeemer who bought them, but yet they are covetous men, verse 3. (3.) They buy and sell you [in non-Latin alphabet] with decked up and well kammed fair words. O our Redeemer that bought us, our Saviour! O free grace! O free redemption! as Libertines now do, and yet they that deny sanctification, deny Christ who in their profession bought them; and it is ordinary for Scripture to affirm things of men as they speak and profess; as the Scripture calls wolves, Prophets (Jeremiah 23), because they so profess themselves; Christ called Judas friend, but he was but a face friend, and a real enemy, so Pharisees are styled by the Holy Ghost as whole and righteous, just persons that need no repentance (Luke 15:7), such as need not the Physician (Mark 2:17; Matthew 9:12-13), because they are such only in their own conceit and vain opinion, not really. If any man say Christ bought these, in regard that by his death, he purchases a dominion over elect and reprobate, that all knees should bow to him, men and Angels (Romans 14:8-9, etc.; Isaiah 45:[reconstructed: 23]; Philippians 2:9-11; John 5:27; Acts 17:31), so that there is a difference between buying as conquerors, and buying from our vain conversation; I think it has truth in it, Christ by his death has acquired a dominion; but I much doubt, if in that sense Scripture says, Christ has bought the reprobate by his blood; for so by his blood he has bought Angels, Devils, all things, and all knees in heaven and earth, and under the earth, for by his death and resurrection he has acquired this dominion (Romans 14). God is the Saviour of all men (1 Timothy 4:10); it is not spoken of Christ as Mediator, but of the living God the Saviour of all men (Psalm 106:8, 10; Matthew 8:25; Nehemiah 9:27; Psalm 36:6); [in non-Latin alphabet] is here, and the living God is given indefinitely to God as one with all the three, but God in Christ is specially the Saviour of believers. Other places for universal grace, and the apostasy of the saints, I pass here.

Article 5.

The fifth particular is touching the faith required of the elect, and of the reprobate, within the visible church: which before I enter in, let this one necessary doctrine clearing that point much, be observed; that if Christ draw all men to him.

Doctrine: He must have a singular and special good will and liking to save sinners, in that strongly and seriously, he draws all sorts of men to himself.

1. The promises and goodwill of Christ are not concluded or locked up, as touching the revealed damnation of any sort of persons; Christ is no monopolizer, and never loved to make a monopoly of grace; he sets down his will in positive comfortable positions (John 6:39): This is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. John 5:24: Verily, verily, I say to you, he that hears my word and believes in him that has sent me, has everlasting life, and shall never come to condemnation.

2. Christ had so good a mind to save, that: 1. He did not send only, but the King came in person (1 Timothy 1:15; Luke 19:10): The Son of man came to seek and to save, etc. 2. He cried not afar off, but came near at hand to draw; he came so near as within the reach of his arm to save us. 3. When a rope is cast down to prisoners in a pit, if it come not within the compass of their reach, and if it be too far for a short arm, it can do no good for the help of the prisoner; therefore he came below us, and under all our infirmities, to put his shoulders under the lost sheep (Luke 15:5). [reconstructed: Love must be sweet, and stoop low to save.]

3. Christ's goodwill is held forth in as large terms, saving the Lord's liberty of election and reprobation, as can be; and that in six wide expressions, that no man should complain, 'Oh, I am a dry tree,' because we are inclined to forge forced quarrels against the Lamb of God, as if he loved not us; and it is an answer to those that naturally complain of absolute election. As 1. The weakest are readiest to move doubts.

Object 1. I am sinful, and sinfully sick, and I have suspicions of the Physician.

Ans. The Physician came to press himself on the sick (Matthew 9:12-13); sick of body are often sick of mind, and passions of the soul rise with humors of the body; the sick are soon angry and suspicious. Christ says he has a tender soul for a sick sinner.

Object 2. But I have little grace or goodness?

Ans. Indeed, can you have less (says Christ) than a reed? It is far below a tree and a cedar; and I will not break a reed, but a broken reed is out of hope, it cannot do any more good — a reed is weak, but a broken reed, surely, can never grow. Yet he cannot break the bruised reed, but pours in oil at the root of the broken reed, and makes it green and causes it to blossom. So the fire or light in flax must be less than the fire in timber or wood; but he will not throw water on flax that has fire — no, nor on smoking flax that seems to have fire, and has but smoke.

Object 3. A broken bone in a living man may be splinted and cured; but the heart is, ultimum moriens, the last thing of life; if it be broken, the man is gone; he dies, when the last seat of life — the heart — is broken. Yet says Christ, I can bind up the broken in heart (Isaiah 61:1; Psalm 147:3).

Object 4. If the man be dead and buried, then farewell he, there is an end, no more of him. Yet Christ (2 Corinthians 1:9; John 5:25) raises the dead, and gives life to dry bones (Ezekiel 37).

2. Some fear they have nothing but an empty profession.

Ans. Then the Scripture holds forth the promises to visible saints (2 Corinthians 7:1). Can you come in among the crowd of visible saints? This is preached to all within the wide Gospel net, and Christ's visible court: Whoever believes shall be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9; John 5:24).

3. Say you cannot come so near as visible professors, but you are nothing but a publican and a sinner, and that may be thought to be without Christ's line of mercy. Yet (1 Timothy 1:15): This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Be what you will — as unbelief estranges a sinner far enough from Christ — you may claim blood and kin to a sinner; then Christ came to call sinners, and to save sinners; can you deny yourself to be a sinner?

4. Can you crowd in among the 'we' that are the godly party? There is here room for you, not to cast off Christ, but that you may let out a warm look, and half a hope you may be one of his; the Gospel grammar is fair and sweet; are you not among an 'us' that there may be hope? 1 John 4:9: In this was the love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

5. The Scripture casts out a longer rope yet, that you may reach to Christ; are you not a man? If you be not a sinner, nor a visible saint, nor a bruised reed, you are one of mankind; see, the Gospel will not have you to despair, or to foster and harbor strange and far-off thoughts of Christ (Titus 3:4): But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior, to man appeared — he saved us. 1 Timothy 2:3: God our Savior will have all men to be saved.

6. The farthest from Christ must be creatures that are nothing but bits of the world; now the name 'World' is a farther and more distant word than the name of 'Man' or 'Sinners' — it is the farthest off-word; for fallen angels are members and citizens of the world, therefore the Gospel is preached to the world. Christ is presented in the Gospel as a world-lover, as if he were a whole world-Savior; he takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29); he so loves the world (John 3:16); he gives his flesh for the life of the world (John 6:51).

In this Grammar of the Holy Ghost, observe we, by the way, for resolution, the wisdom of God, in framing the words of the Gospel. It cannot be said that God loved all the world in Christ, his beloved, and all, and every sinner, and all the race of mankind. Yet laying down this ground, that God keeps up in his mind the secrets of Election and Reprobation, till he, in his own time, be pleased to reveal them, the Lord has framed the Gospel-offer of Christ in such indefinite words, and so general (yet without all double dealing, lying, or equivocating, for his own good pleasure is a rule both of his doings and speeches,) as: 1. Seldom does the Lord open Election and Reprobation to men, till they, by grace, or in the order of his justice, open both the one and the other, in their own ways; and therefore he holds out the offer of Christ, so as none may cavil at the Gospel, or begin a plea with Christ. 2. Seldom does the Gospel speak who they be that are elect, who reprobate; yet does the Gospel offer no ground of presuming on the one hand, or of despairing on the other. For if you be not a believer, nor a weak reed, nor a saint, yet you are a sinner, if not that, you are a man, if not that, you are one of the world; and though the affirmative concludes not — I am a sinner, I am a man, I am one of the world — but it follows not, therefore I am elected to glory, or, therefore, I am ransomed of the Lord. Yet the negative, touching Reprobation, holds. I am a sinner, I am of the world, I am a man; hence it follows not, therefore I am a reprobate, and therefore I have warrant to refuse the promise, and Christ offered in the Gospel. It follows well therefore, I must be humbled for sin, and believe in Christ, there is room left for all the Elect, that they have no ground of standing aloof from Christ, (and the rest never come, and most willingly refuse to come) nor have the Reprobate ground to quarrel at the decrees of God, though they be not chosen, yet they are called, as if they were chosen, and they have no cause to quarrel at conjectures, they have as fair a revealed warrant to believe, as the Elect have; they are men, sinners of the world, to whom Christ is offered, why do they refuse him upon an unrevealed warrant?

4. The fourth ground of Christ's good will to draw all men, is that Christ goes as far in the dispensation of free grace, as sinners, as the chief of sinners; Grace journeys all along, and can go no further than Hell and Damnation (Luke 19:10). The Son of man came to seek, and to save that which is lost; as if Christ would say, is any man a sinner (and who are not) and a lost sinner; see and behold, I am a Savior for that man. Christ went as low down to Hell, in the freedom of grace, to save, as Zacchaeus, in evil doing, to destroy: Mary Magdalen went as far on toward Hell, as seven devils. Grace in Christ went as far on, as to redeem from seven devils. Manasseh, as if he had intended to make sure work of Hell, runs on to pawn soul and salvation, and gives himself to witchcraft; observing of times; to cause the streets of Jerusalem to run with blood, to all abominable idolatry: mercy in the Lord went as near hell to save him. Paul goes so far on the mouth of the furnace, as to waste the Church of God, and [illegible] (Acts 8:3), to make heaps of dead men in the Church; and there came nothing out of his nostrils for breathing and respiration (Acts 9:1), but threats, that is ripe purposes of blood; indeed, murdering of the Saints came out of his mouth with every word he spoke, but Christ's free-grace pursues him hard, and outruns him. Christ's grace came as it were a step below Paul and saved him (1 Timothy 1:14). And the grace of our Lord (says he) was more, or over-abundant in me through faith and love. (Jeremiah 3:1) And you have played the harlot with many companions, or lovers, yet return to me, says the Lord. It is here, as if Christ's rich grace and our extreme wickedness should strive, who should descend to the lowest room in Hell, the latter to destroy, the former to save; and here Christ defies the sinner, to be more wicked than he can be gracious.

5. Christ in the Gospel, as a great conqueror, sends out writs signed under his Excellence's hand, come and meet me, who will, and be saved, as far as graced will can go, as far goes the good will of the conquering prince (Revelation 22:17). It is much worthy of observation, how that sweet Evangelical invitation is conceived (Isaiah 55:1): Ho, every one that thirsts, [non-Latin alphabet] is alas, or ah, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no silver, come buy, and eat: as if the Lord were grieved, and said, woe is me, alas that thirsty souls should die in their thirst, and will not come to the water of life, Christ, and drink freely, and live. For the interjection, [non-Latin alphabet] Ho, is a mark of sorrowing; as Ah, or woe; every one that thirsts (Isaiah 1:4): Ah sinful nation, or woe, [non-Latin alphabet] to the sinful nation. Verse 24. Ah, I will ease me, or alas, [non-Latin alphabet] I will ease me of my adversaries (Jeremiah 22:18): They shall not say of Jehoiakim, ho, or alas, or woe to my brother, ah, Sister; it expresses two things. 1. A vehemence, and a serious and [reconstructed: unfeigned] ardency of desire, that we do what is our duty, and the concatenation of these two, extremely desired of God, our coming to Christ, and our salvation: this moral connection between faith and salvation, is desired of God with his will of approbation, complacency, and moral liking, without all dissimulation, most unfeignedly; and whereas Arminians say, we make counterfeit, feigned, and hypocritical desires in God, they slander and cavil egregiously, as their custom is. 2. The other thing expressed in these invitations, is a sort of dislike, grief, or sorrow; (it is a speech borrowed from man, for there is no disappointing of the Lord's will, nor sorrow in him for the not fulfilling of it) or an earnest unwilling and hating dislike, that these two should not go along, as approved efficaciously by us, to wit, the creature's obedience of faith, and life eternal. God loves, approves the believing of Jerusalem, and of her children, as a moral duty, as the hen does love to warm and nourish her chickens; and he hates, with an exceeding and unfeigned dislike of improbation and hatred, their rebellious disobedience, and refusing to be gathered: but there is no purpose, intention, or decree of God held forth in these invitations called his revealed will, by which he says, he intends and wills that all he makes the offer to, shall obey and be saved. But it is to be observed, that the revealed will of God, held forth to all, called voluntas signi, does not hold forth formally, that God intends, decrees, or purposes in his eternal counsel, that any man shall actually obey, either elect or reprobate; it formally is the expression only of the good liking of that moral and duty-conjunction between the obedience of the creature, and the reward, but holds forth not any intention or decree of God, that any shall obey, or that all shall obey, or that none at all shall obey; and what Arminians say of Christ's intention to die for all, and every one; and of the Lord's intention and Catholic good will, to save all and every one; to wit, that these desires may be in God, though not any be saved at all, but all eternally perish, which makes the Lord's desires irrational, unwise, and futile, that we say with good reason of God's good will, called voluntas signi, it might have its complete and entire end and effect, though not any one of men or angels obey, if there were not going along with this will of God, another will, and eternal decree and purpose in God, of working by free grace in some chosen ones, what the Lord wills in his approving will; and another decree in which the Lord purposes to deny his saving grace, upon his absolute liberty to others, that being left to the hardness of their own hearts, they may freely disobey, and be the sole authors of their own damnation. Now because Arminians deny any such two decrees in God, but assert only such as depend wholly in their fulfilling, on the free will of men and angels, and all the decrees of God may be frustrated and disappointed by men and angels; as if the poor short-sighted creature, not the Sovereign Creator were carver, and Lord of the decrees, and master of work in fulfilling of these counsels. We reject their Catholic intentions and decrees, to save and redeem all and every one, which they vainly fancy to be in God, as repugnant to his will, which is irresistible, and cannot miss its end. 2. To his immutability, which cannot be compelled to take a second port, whereas he cannot sail the first. 3. To his Omnipotence, who cannot be resisted. 4. To his happiness, who cannot come short of what his soul desires. 5. To his wisdom, who cannot aim at an end, and desire it with his soul, and go about it, by such means, as he sees shall be utterly ineffectual, and never produce his end, and not use these means, which he knows may, and infallibly does, produce the same end in others. Now this desire of approbation is an abundantly sufficient closing of the mouth, of such as stumble at the Gospel, being appointed to that end, and an expression of Christ's good liking to save sinners. Expressed in his borrowed wishes (Deuteronomy 5:29): O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep my commandments. (Psalm 81:13): O that my people had listened to me, and Israel walked in my ways. Which wish, as relating to disobeying Israel, is a figure, or metaphor borrowed from men, but otherwise shows how acceptable the duty is to God, how obligatory to the creature. 2. By the Lord's expostulations (Ezekiel 18:31): Why will you die, O house of Israel? Verse 32: For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies. 3. In the Lord's crying to sinners (Proverbs 1:20): Wisdom cries, she utters her voice in the streets. The word is to cry with strong shouting, either for joy (Psalm 81:2), or sorrow (Lamentations 2:19), which expresses Christ's desire to save sinners.

6. For the ground and warrant of Christ's willingness to save and draw sinners, do but consider. 1. The words of the text, I will draw all men to me; It is as if he would say, I will balk no nation, nor any man, upon a national respect; the first covenant to the Jews, suffered a mighty exception. What is God, the God of the Jews only? Have all the nations of the earth done with their part of Heaven, and salvation; but only the narrow trinket, and bit of the earth, in [reconstructed: provincial] Judea? This made the Gospel despised, and liable, to sad and heavy calumnies. Christ must have narrow bowels, and must be shallow, short, and thin, in free grace; if the matter be so. In fact, Christ has mercy for all men; I will draw all men, that is, multitudes of Jews and Gentiles: for that Christ draws all and every one without exception, and that by his death, is against Scripture, and experience; but he has an all that he draws (Titus 2:11). The grace of God has appeared to all men [illegible] — what grace? The teaching grace of God, that teaches us to wait for the blessed hope, and the appearance of the glory, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ: sure, this must be the preached Gospel; now the Gospel by Scripture experience, consent of Arminians never appeared, in the least sound, to all and every son of Adam; then Christ must have another all, a fair and numerous multitude, whom he saves and draws, and this says he, had a good will to save all, and that his elect ones believe (Revelation 5:11). And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne, and the beasts, and the Elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands (Revelation 5:12), saying worthy is the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9) After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands. It is true in civil assemblies, and judicatures, Christ has a few number; yet he has a fair and numerous offspring of children, and when they are gathered together, they are a fair beloved world: In the Hebrew many and great, are often one and the same. As one Ruby is worth ten hundred, one Sapphire worth thousands of common stones; so one Saint, is more than ten thousand wicked men; then all together they must be an All, a world, a whole world of ransomed ones, hidden ones (Psalm 83:4), of the Lord's jewels (Malachi 3:17), and of Christ's precious ones (Isaiah 43:4), they are the flower, and the choice of mankind.

2. Christ is willing to take away all heart-exceptions of unbelief from men. As. 1. Can God be born of a woman to save men, not Angels? Believe it, says the Lord's Spirit, with a sort of oath (Hebrews 2:16): Verily he took on him the seed of Abraham, not the nature of Angels. Halt not at Christ's man-kindness, and not Angel-love, to the more excellent child by nature, the Angel when he fell: and it's to remove our doubts, that God is brought in promising, and swearing the covenant; Christ is a sworn covenanter (Hebrews 6:12). When God made promise to Abraham; because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. Ezekiel 33: The people slandered the Lord, he delighted so to have the people pine away in their iniquities, that he would punish them for no fault; but the children's teeth should be set on edge, for the sins of the father, and the grapes that they ate not themselves. The Lord answers that calumny (Ezekiel 18): And here, as I live, I delight not so (so as you slanderously, and blasphemously say) in the death of a sinner, by my life, I desire you may repent and live, nor have I pleasure to punish innocent men, for no sin at all.

And the second exception is, But Christ's heart is not engaged with a heart-burning purpose, or desire to save man; the purpose of saving came upon him but yesterday; indeed, but (says Christ) it was not a yesterday's business, but was contrived from eternity (Proverbs 8), before the Lord made sea, or land. Verse 30: I was by him as one brought up (as a son nourished with him) I was daily (when there was neither night nor day) his delights rejoicing in the habitable earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. Two words express Christ's old, and eternal love to men, his delights was with the sons of men, as Christ was his Father's delight, from eternity; so was Christ feasting himself on the thoughts of love, delight, and free grace to men; sure not to Pharaoh, Judas, and all the race of the wicked, and with such a love as (if free will please) should never enjoy one son of Adam. 2. I was (says Christ) playing, and sporting, in the habitable earth, the word [illegible] is to play in a dance, it is (2 Samuel 6:21) spoken of David's dancing before the Ark, and (1 Samuel 18:7) the women in Israel playing, answered one another in their songs. It holds forth this, that it resolves the question, that Augustine loosed to a curious head, asking what the Lord was doing before the world was, he was delighting in his son Christ, and the thoughts of the Lord Jesus, in that long and endless age, were solacing him; and they were skipping, and passing time, in loving and longing for the fellowship of lost men, and since God was God (O boundless duration) the Lord Jesus, in a manner, was loving, and longing, for the dawning of the day of Creation, and his second coming again to judgment; the marriage day of union with sinners. Christ was (as it were) from eternity with child of infinite love to man, and in time in the fullness of time, it blossomed forth, and the birth came out, in a high expression of love; the man-child, the love of Christ was born, and saw the light (Galatians 4:4; Titus 3:4) when Christ was ripe of love, to bring forth free salvation; glory, glory to the womb and the birth.

And a third exception is, But sinners disobliged Christ, and provoked him as his enemies, can it be that in time, seeing how undeserving we were, he could heartily and seriously die for man, offer himself to all? God may have mercy on the work of his hand, but he cannot have mercy on sinners?

Answer 1. It is true the Gospel is contrary to nature, and not one article more thwarts and crosses carnal wisdom, than that of imputed righteousness; that crosses moral philosophy so much, as we can more easily believe the rising of the dead, or any the greatest miracle, the drying up of the Red Sea, than believe the Gospel; for we believe the Gospel for miracles as motives, not as causes of faith, not miracles for the Gospel, and if at the first we believe the Gospel for miracles; then we naturally rather believe miracles, and the dividing of the Red Sea, and the raising of the dead, than we can believe that Christ came to die for sinners.

2. Consider with what a strong good will Christ died (Luke 9:51). And it came to pass when his time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. He hardened his face, he emboldened himself to go to Jerusalem to suffer, he mended his pace, and went more swiftly with a strong fire of love to expend his blood. Luke 12:50. I have a baptism to be baptized with [illegible] how am I fettered or besieged (as the word is used in Luke 19:43) till it be perfected?

3. What could move Christ to lie and fancy? Were his weeping and tears counterfeit? Were his dying, bleeding, sweating, pain, sorrow, shame, but all shows for the market, and to take the people (Isaiah 53:4)? Surely, really, he bore our sorrows.

4. His offer must be real (John 7:37), for with vehemency he speaks [illegible] — he stood and shouted in the Temple, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Here is a dear fountain to all thirsty souls and most free: Christ thirsts and longs to have thirsty sinners come gratis and drink.

But I doubt he bears not me in particular at good will, are the promises made for me? Did he love me before the world was? Did Christ dying intend salvation for me?

This doubt draws us to the fifth particular, (that so I may hasten to the uses) which is what sort of faith it is that God requires of all within the visible church, for the want of which reprobates are condemned.

Assertion 1. Saving faith required of all within the visible church, is not as Antinomians conceive, the apprehension of God's everlasting love of election to glory of all and every one that are charged to believe. Saltmarsh in an ignorant, and confused treatise tells us, To believe now is the only work of the Gospel — that is, that you be persuaded of such a thing that Christ was crucified for sins, and for your sins — so as salvation is not a business of our working and doing, it was done by Christ with the Father — all our work is no work of salvation, but in salvation we receive all, not doing anything, that we may receive more; but doing because we receive so much, and because we are saved, and yet we are to work as much, as if we were to be saved by what we do, because we should do as much by what is done already for us, and to our hands, as if we were to receive it, for what we did ourselves: So here is short work (says the man) Believe and be saved — there are yet these grounds why salvation is so soon done. 1. Because it was done before by Christ, but not believed on before, by you till now. 2. Because it is the Gospel-way of dispensation, to assure [reconstructed: and] pass over salvation in Christ, to any that will believe it. 3. There needs no more on our sides to work or warrant salvation to us, but to be persuaded that Jesus Christ died for us, because Christ has suffered, and God is satisfied, now suffering and satisfaction is that great work of salvation. And the man taking on him to determine controversies of Arminians touching the extent of free grace, whether Christ died for all, (in which questions I dare make apology for his innocency, that he is not guilty of wading too deep in them) he would father on the Reformed Churches of Protestant divines, that we make this a rational way of justice, that God will merely and arbitrarily damn men, because he will, so as God has put every one under a state of redemption and power of salvation; and they are damned not from their own will, but from God's. The opinion by Arminians is fathered upon that apostolic light of the church of Christ, eminent and divine Calvin, and Saltmarsh will but second them, that he may appear a star in the firmament, with others of some great magnitude.

But (says he) the other way is, Christ died only for his, but is offered to all, that his who are among this all might believe, and though he died not for all, yet none are excepted (that is as he says, all and every one to whom Christ is preached, elect or reprobate, are to be persuaded that Christ died for them in particular) and yet none are accepted but they that believe, and none believe, but they to whom it is given: And having shown some dreams of his own touching these controversies, he concludes with a truth I believe easily. Thus have I opened, though weakly the mystery: Weakly, but willfully and daringly.

But faith is formally no such persuasion, as to be persuaded, every man is loved with an everlasting love, chosen and redeemed in Christ; for it changes the whole Gospel into a lie, Christ obliges no man to believe an untruth: Now all are charged to believe in the Son of God, and elect and reprobate (as there be of both sorts within the net of the kingdom) are not loved with an everlasting love, nor did Christ die for them all.

2. It is mere presumption, not faith, that all hypocrites, fleshly men, slaves to their lusts, idolaters, covetous men, remaining such, never broken with any law-work; should immediately believe Christ is their Savior, died for them, and the Father loved them to salvation, before the world was. True it is, before a sinner believe, he is an unpardoned, an ungodly and guilty sinner; but that he is unbroken, yes, or unconverted before he believes; (I speak of order of nature) it is as impossible, as that a thistle can bring forth figs, for then he should believe having no new heart in him, which is the only principle of faith.

3. It is a more ingenuous opinion that Christ died for all and every one, though it have no truth in itself, than to hold that he died for the elect only, and yet oblige men (as Antinomians do) against their conscience to believe he died for all and every one that are engaged in the practice of believing.

4. He that believes not, makes God a liar, then that which is to be believed must be an evangelical truth.

5. Faith lays bands on all within the visible Church, to be knit together in love, to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ (Colossians 2:1-2), to be persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:37-39), to full assurance (Hebrews 10), without wavering or declining, or bowing like a tottering wall. Now surely all and every one within the visible Church, to whom the command of believing comes, reprobate or elect, are not obliged to have a full assurance that they are chosen in Christ to salvation, and redeemed in his blood.

Assertion 2. The object of saving faith, required of all within the visible Church is, first, Christ's faithfulness to save believers (Hebrews 10:23). Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; and the Apostle backs it with an argument, that saving faith must lean upon (for he is faithful that has promised). And Paul (1 Corinthians 1:9) presses the same: God is faithful, by whom you were called, to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

2. We do not read in the Old or New Testament, that the decree, purpose, or intention of God to save, and redeem persons in particular is the object of that saving faith required in the Gospel. For the second object of this faith is the truth and goodness of that mother promise of the Gospel (John 3:16 and 5:25), that Gospel-record (1 John 5:10-12): He that believes has life eternal, and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). That he came to save me in particular is apprehended by sense, not by faith; for the election of me by name to glory, and the Lord's intention to die for me, is neither promise, nor precept, nor threatening; if it be a history that I must believe, it is good — show me histories of particular men now to be believed, except of the Antichrist, the second coming of Jesus Christ to judge the world. Election to glory is not held forth as a promise: If you do this, you shall be elected to glory — nor is the contrary held forth as a threatening: If you believe not, you shall be reprobated — nor does the Lord command me to be chosen in Christ to salvation, before the foundation of the world, nor does he command all men within the visible Church to believe they are chosen to salvation, or that any one elect person should believe a thing as revealed, which is not revealed. When he is pleased to give to any elect person the white stone, and the new name, and to give him faith, by which he chooses Christ for his portion, he is then, and never till then, to believe — or rather by spiritual sense to apprehend that he is chosen to salvation from eternity. So election is neither precept, nor promise, but a truth of God's gracious good will and pleasure hid in God's mind, till he be pleased to reveal it, by the fruits thereof.

There can be no such imaginable double dealing in the world, as Arminians lay upon God: for they make the Lord to say thus — imagine a king should speak to twenty thousand captives: I have a good will, purpose, hearty intention, and earnest desire to make you all and every one free princes; and pray, wish, beseech you subscribe such a writ of grace for that end, but I only can lead your hand at the pen, and give you eyes to see, and a willing heart to consent to your own happiness, and if you refuse to sign the bill of grace, you shall be tormented for ever and ever in a river of fire and brimstone. Again, I have a like good will to my own justice, and purpose so to carry on the design as that sixteen thousand of you shall not have the benefit of my hand, or of one finger to lead your hand at the pen, nor any efficacious motion to act upon your will, to obtain your consent to subscribe the writ. Yes, by the contrary, though I of exceeding great free love, will, intend, decree, and purpose you be all princes of glory; yet I purpose that these sixteen thousand whose salvation and happiness I extremely desire shall, for their former rebellion, which I with the like desire of spirit could, and I only might have removed, never be moved to consent to this bill of grace. Now were not this the outside of a good will, and should not this prince be said rather to will and desire the destruction of these sixteen thousand, and not their honor and happiness?

Assertion 3. This is the mystery of the Gospel, in which I must profess ignorance, and that the Lord's thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways: he has by the preaching of the gospel engaged thousand thousands within the visible Church, to the duty of their fiducial adherence and heart-resting on Christ, as they would be saved; and yet has the Lord never purposed to work their hearts (and he only can do it) to this heart-resting on Christ by faith, nor has he purchased either remission of sins, or pardon for them. If any object, how can Christ in equity judge and condemn them for not believing pardon and salvation in his blood, when neither pardon nor salvation are purchased in this blood to them, nor does he purpose to give them faith? Yet we may plead for the Lord: we conceive of the decree of God as of a deep policy and a stratagem and snare laid for us — whereas the Lord lies not in wait for our ruin, nor carries he on a secret design in the gospel to destroy men. If Christ should say in the Gospel-precepts, promises, or threatenings: I decree, purpose, and intend to redeem all and every man, but I purpose to carry on the designs so, as the far greatest part of mankind inevitably shall be lost — it should be a stratagem; but the gospel as the gospel reveals not any decree or intention of God, touching the salvation or damnation of men intended from eternity. Indeed the gospel as obeyed or disobeyed reveals God's intentions and decrees; the gospel reveals nothing but the Lord's complacency, approbation, and good-liking of the sweet connection between faith and salvation; the just concatenation between unbelief, disobedience, and eternal damnation. So the gospel reveals duties, but not the persons saved or damned; the Lord's working with the gospel, or the efficacy of the gospel (which is a far other thing) reveals the persons.

Now the difficulty is, how the Lord can command the reprobate to believe life and salvation in Christ, when there is no life and salvation either intended to them, or purchased for them.

To which I answer, 1. God gave a law to all the angels created in the truth, If you abide in the truth, you shall be eternally happy: you cannot say that the devils in that instant were to believe that God intended and decreed them for eternal happiness, and to give them efficacious grace, by which they should abide in the truth, as their fellow angels did: God's command and promise did reveal no such intention of God. So the Lord said to Adam and to all his seed, If you keep the law perfectly, you shall have life eternal; according to that, Do this and live: yet was not Adam then, far less these that are now under the Law, to believe that God ordained them from eternity to eternal life, legally purchased; or that any flesh should be justified by the works of the Law.

Arminians tell us that there be numbers judicially blinded and hardened within the visible Church, who cannot believe, and whom the Lord has destined for destruction, yet the word is preached to them, they hear and read the promises of the gospel, and the precepts; Whether are they to believe that God intended from eternity to them salvation and grace to believe? I think not, for they teach that Christ neither prays for, nor intends to die for the unbelieving and obstinate world as such, nor decreed their salvation, and except men may fancy senses on the words of God's Spirit: where learned they to expound the word World, (when it makes for them) for all and every one of mankind; and when it makes against them, for the least part of mankind, and that either within the visible Church only, or yet without the visible Church? For in both, Satan's world of disobedient ones is the far greatest part, seeing the whole world lies in sin, as John says. Let it be also remembered when Arminians say, the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world, that is of all and every mortal man, they mean Christ takes not away, nor sheds he his blood for the sins of the rebellious world; so the world's rebellion, contumacy and infidelity against Christ must be pardoned without shedding of blood, and if Christ did bear all the sins of the world on the cross conditionally, and none of them absolutely: then our act of believing must be the only nearest cause of satisfaction for sins: but why then, if Christ satisfied on the cross for the final impenitency and unbelief of the rebellious world conditionally, so they believe and be not rebellious; but Arminians should say right down Christ died for the rebellious and contumacious world, and he prays for the contumacious world as such, but conditionally; for he prays and dies for the not rebellious world of all mortal men, not absolutely, but conditionally, so they believe in Christ; if they believe not, neither the prayers of Christ nor his death, are more effectual for them, than for devils.

To all these we may add, that the Lord in commanding reprobates to rest on Christ for salvation, though no salvation be purchased for them, deals sincerely and candidly with them: for first he commands them to believe no intention in God to save them by the death of his Son, nor does he say any such thing to them, but only commands them to rely on Christ as an all-sufficient Savior. Secondly, God commands all the reprobate, even by their way, to believe that Christ in his death intended their salvation, justification, conversion, and yet whereas God takes ways effectual, and such as he foresees shall be effectual for the efficacious working of justification and conversion, and actual glorification of some few, yet he takes ways which he knows shall be utterly ineffectual for the salvation, justification, and conversion of all these reprobates, and yet commands them to believe that he decrees and intends their salvation and conversion with no less ardency and vehemency of serious affection than he does intend the salvation and conversion of all that shall be glorified. Sure this we would call double dealing in men, and the Scripture says he is a God of truth (Deuteronomy 32) and the Lord who cannot lie.

Objection. If a rich innkeeper should dig a fountain in his field for all passengers, thirsty and diseased, which were able to cure them, and quench their thirst; and invite them all to come and drink and be cured, upon condition they come and believe the virtue of the water to be such; and yet should intend and decree absolutely and irresistibly the tenth man invited, should never be cured — this innkeeper should not deal sincerely with them. So you make God to deal with sinners in the Gospel. He does all, in inviting sick sinners to come and drink life and salvation at Christ the Fountain of life, which expresses with men who speak as they think, their sincere intention, but he intends no such thing.

Answer. Make the comparison run as it should do, and it makes more against Arminians; say that this innkeeper had dominion over the heart and will, as the Lord has (Proverbs 21:1; Psalm 119:36-37; Hebrews 13:20-21; Matthew 6:13) and that he could and does without straining of the heart, work in all the passengers, a sense of their disease, grace actually to come and drink, and yet he takes a dealing with the souls of some few, and causes them come to the waters and drink, and heals them, and he uses such means and so acts upon the will of the far most part that they shall never come, never be sensible of their disease, and yet he invites them to come to the waters and drink; it is clear this innkeeper never intended the health of all and every one of the passengers, but only of these few that come and drink; nor do invitations with men upon condition, which the party invited is obliged to perform, but does never perform, and which the inviter only of grace can work in the invited, but does not work them, as being not obliged to do so, speak any such intention.

Again, let it be considered, that here 1 God lies in wait for no man's destruction. 2 God is not obliged to reveal his eternal purpose and intentions touching men's salvation and damnation, but in the way and manner that seems best to him. 3 God never says in all the Gospel, that from eternity he has passed a resolve to save all mankind, if they will, and to yield them the bridle on their own necks, that they may be indifferent and absolute lords of Heaven and Hell. 4 Nor should the Gospel be framed in such wisdom, if the Lord had set down particularly the names of all the Elect and Reprobate in the world, and proposed salvation upon condition of obedience and faith to some few, it should evidently have raised a hard opinion in the minds of thousands touching Christ.

Assertion 4. The third object of faith is the sufficiency and power of Christ to save. 1 The Scripture makes the object of coming which is believing (John 5:40, John 6:35, Matthew 11:27) to be Christ's ability and power (Hebrews 7:25) to save them to the uttermost, that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. What the Scripture presses us to believe savingly, that we must be inclined to disbelieve, and for the disbelieving thereof, the reprobates are condemned, and not because they believe not the Lord's intention to save all, or his decrees of election and reprobation. But the Scripture presses faith in the power of mercy (Romans 4:21): Abraham staggered not, but was strong in the faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Now Abraham is commended for that he savingly and for his justification, believed the power of God in the Gospel promise that God was able of his mercy to give him the son of promise in his old age; otherwise to believe simply the power of God to give a child to a mother who is past the natural date of bearing children, is but the faith of miracles, which of itself is not saving, and may be in workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:21-22); so this power then is the power of saving conjoined with the mercy and good will of Christ. 2 The Scripture holds forth to our faith the power of God to graft in the Jews again in Christ (Romans 11:23), to make a weak believer stand (Romans 14:4), to keep the saints from falling, and to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy (Jude 1:24). 3 The good land was a type of the heavenly rest (Hebrews 4:1), and (Hebrews 3:19) some entered not in through unbelief: why, what unbelief? The story shows us (Psalm 93:7; Numbers 14:9; Numbers 13:28) they doubted of the power of God, and believed the report of the unbelieving spies, who said, The people be strong that dwell in the land, the cities are walled, and very great, and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:9) said they should not be bread for them, and their strength was gone; then the question was, whether God was able to give them that good land. So then men enter not into the heavenly rest because they believe not that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those that come through him to God (Hebrews 7:23). 4 The Scripture is as much in proving the all-sufficiency, power, and perfection of Christ our Savior, to save, as in demonstrating his tenderness of mercy and good will to save; as in the Epistle to the Hebrews the apostle labors much to prove the Godhead of Christ, his excellency above angels, and that the angels were to adore him, his dignity and greatness above Moses and all the mortal and dying priests, the virtue of his blood above all the bloods of bulls and goats, to purge the conscience from dead works, to expiate sin, to sanctify his people, to open a way, a new and living way to the holy of holiest, by his blood, that we with full assurance may draw near to God, that he with one sacrifice, never to be repeated, did that which all the thousands of reiterated sacrifices were never able to do; that he is no dying priest, but lives forever to intercede for us at the right hand of God. And for what is all this, but that we should believe the all-sufficiency of Christ to save? And because we have too low thoughts of Christ, as conceiving him to be but a man, or less than an angel, or a common priest that can do no more by his blood as touching remission of sins, than dying priests could do with the blood of beasts, and that he is dead, and now when we sin, he cannot advocate for us at the right hand of God, that his redemption he brings in is not eternal, yea all this says that saving faith rests upon Christ as God, as able and completely perfect and sufficient to save, though sinners do not in the formal act of faith believe his good will, decree, and intention to redeem and save them by name. 5 I should think that these who have high and precious thoughts of the grace, tender mercy, perfection and sufficiency of Christ to save all that believe, and fiducially rely on Christ as a Savior sealed for the work of redemption, though they know not God's mind touching their own salvation in particular, have such a faith as the Gospel speaks of, and do savingly believe that Christ came to seek, and to save that which is lost, to save sinners, that Christ is the Son of the living God, the Savior of mankind; and this no devil, no temporary believer, no hypocrite can attain to.

Objection 1. But I believe not then that I am in particular redeemed, and without that I am a stranger to Christ; for devils and reprobates may believe all the general promises of the Gospel.

Answer 1. It's true, in that act formally you believe not you are redeemed in particular; yet virtually and by good consequence you believe your own redemption in particular, and so you are not a stranger to Christ. 2. It's true, devils and reprobates may yield an assent of mind to the general promises, as true, but it's denied that they can rest on them as good, as worthy by all means to be embraced; or that in heart and affections they can intrust the weight and burden of their soul on these general promises, or that there is any taste of the honey and sweetness of Christ in these promises to their soul, as it is with the souls that fiducially rest upon Christ in these promises.

Object 2. Suppose I know of a ship offering to carry all to a land of life, where people are never sick, never die, have summer and daylight, and peace and plenty forever, upon condition, I should believe the good will of the ship-master to carry me to that land; if I know nothing of his good will to me in particular, I have no ground to believe I shall ever enjoy that good land; so here if I know nothing of Christ's good will to me, how can I believe he shall carry me to the heavenly Canaan?

Answer. Indeed suppose, what is in question, that to be persuaded of the good will of Christ the owner of the ship to carry you in particular is the condition upon which he must carry you, but that is to be proved; there is no other condition, but that you rest on his good will to carry all who so rest on him, and that is all.

Object 3. But I cannot believe.

Answer. You are to believe you cannot believe of yourself, and of your own strength; but you are not farther from Christ than you are far from yourself.

Objection 4. It's comfortable that Christ the Physician came to heal the sick; but what is that to me, who am not sick, nor of the number of these sick, that Christ came to heal for anything I know?

Answer. It's true, it's nothing to you that Christ came to heal the sick, cure the distemper of sin is on you; you want nothing but that the Spirit working with the Law, let you see your lost condition, and the Gospel offer be considered, and compared with your estate. But whether you be of the number of these sick that Christ came to heal, is no lawful doubt and comes not from God; for what that number is, or whether you be one of that number or no, is a secret of the hidden counsel of election to glory, a negative certainty, that for anything you know you are not of the contrary number, nor are you excluded out of that number, is enough for you to father kindness upon Christ, though he should say, from heaven, you are not a Son.

Objection 5. I shall never have ground of assurance to believe Christ's good will, nor either hope or comfort in the Gospel, covenant or promises, if Christ died for a few elected and chosen absolutely to glory, for all must be resolved on doubtful, hopeless, sad and comfortless grounds by your way thus.

These for whom Christ laid down his life, and have ground of assurance of hope, and comfort in Christ's death and in the Gospel promises, are not all men and all sinners, but only some few handful of chosen ones, by name, such as Abraham, David, Peter, Mary, Hannah, etc., and not one more, not any other.

But I am one of these few handful of chosen ones by name, I am, Abraham, David, Peter, Mary, Hannah, etc., and of no other number; therefore I have ground of assurance of hope, and comfort in Christ's death and in the Gospel promises.

Now the Proposition is poor, comfortless, and a very hopeless field to all within the visible Church; and the assumption to the greatest part of mankind evidently false, because many are called but few are chosen, and so the syllogism shall suggest a field of comfortless, and hopeless unbelief and doubting, indeed, of despairing to the far largest part of mankind, whereas the doctrine of the Lord's good will to save all and every one of mankind, and of redeeming all, and covenanting in Christ with all, removes all ground of unbelief and doubting, from any; offers grounds of faith, hope, and comfort in the Gospel, of peace to all.

Answer 1. We shall consider what certainty and assurance of faith Arminians furnish to all and every one from the Gospel.

2. What the Scripture speaks of the assurance, hope and comfort of all and every one; and

3. The argument shortly shall be answered: as for the first, that Arminians may make their syllogism of assurance, hope, and comfort in Christ's death as large as Christ's death, they must extend the Gospel comfort and hope to the heathen, who never heard of these comforts; now how this can be, let us judge; a very learned and eminent Divine, shows from the matter itself, and confession of Amayrald an Arminian, that twelve Apostles could not in so short a time have gone through the whole world, indeed, they must have passed many particular Nations who never by any sound heard of the Gospel; and Arminians yield to us that this was done arcana Dei dispensatione, by the secret and unsearchable providence of God; they would say, if they would speak truth, by the Lord's absolute, highest, independent and unsearchable good pleasure in his decrees of absolute election and reprobation. 2. Again, they are made unexcusable and freed from all guiltiness of unbelief, and hopelessness of comfort or ground of comfort in the Gospel promises, who never heard of the Gospel: indeed, even these who heard the Gospel as the Athenians (Acts 17), who judged Paul to be a babbler, and Festus who thought him mad, and the Grecians who esteemed the preaching of the Gospel foolishness (1 Corinthians 1), and so must have heard the Gospel, yet are not condemned so much for doubting of the sufficiency of Christ's death, seeing they believed Christ to be a false Prophet, as for their not hearing men sent of God, Christ and the Apostles, speaking with the power of God, and endued with the power of working Miracles. 3. But what assurance, hope and comfort of salvation do Arminians give? One Thomas Moore has written a book entitled, The Universality of God's free grace in Christ to mankind; that all might be comforted, encouraged, every one confirmed and assured of the propitiation and death of Christ for the whole race of mankind, and so for himself in particular: Hear then what Arminius, and Mr. Moore says, Comfort you, comfort you my people says the Lord comfort and encourage with the joy of the holy Ghost, with the lively hope of eternal life, with the comforts of the Scripture, Scipio, Aristotle, Cato, Regulus, Seneca, all the Turks, Americans, Indians, Virginians, such as worship the Devils, the Sun and Moon; such as have no hope, and are without God, and without Christ in the world; bid them be assured Christ died for them, prays and intercedes for them, intends and will their salvation upon good condition, no less than the salvation of his chosen people.

But 1. The object of this faith, hope, and comfort, may stand and consist, though all and every one of the race of mankind should believe it, with no less certainty of eternal damnation than Indians, all the reprobate and condemned Devils are under; now saving faith removes all hazard of damnation (John 3:16; John 5:25; John 11:26; 1 Timothy 1:15-16; Galatians 2:10). But thousands believe, indeed, the damned Devils who assent to the letter of the Gospel, and gave testimony that Jesus is the Son of the living God, by the judgment of the Arminians believe that Christ died for all and every one of the race of mankind. Therefore, all the reprobates may have this faith, assurance, comfort and hope. 2. Saving faith bringing peace, justification, rejoicing in tribulation, purifies the heart: But I am not a whit nearer peace that I believe that Christ intends to redeem, save, justify all and every one of mankind, upon condition they believe; for this remains ever a hole in the heart; God either efficaciously intends to save all, or inefficaciously committing the event to the good guiding of free-will which once lost all mankind; now the former neither can be known to any living; its a doubt to Arminians, if it be known to God himself: Arminians say, Deum posse excide[•]e fine suo, quia non semper intendit finem secundum praescientiam; God may sail and come short of his end, because he does not, especially in events that fall out freely, and may not fall out, intend the end according to fore-knowledge. See then here the Arminian courage, hope and comfort; God intends to redeem and save me in Christ; but ah it is as the blind man casts his club, or shoots his arrow, he winks and draws the string, it may come up to the white, but it runs a hazard to fall short and wide. Again, its false that God intends efficaciously to save all; therefore Bellarmine and Arminius say, the Lord does here as politicians, who have two strings in their bow; for God (say they) lies at the wait between two ends, and intends either the obedience, conversion and salvation of all, or if he miss, he has another string in his bow, and intends the declaration of the glory of his justice; if free-will shall thwart and cross the former intention of God, and this is the latter intention, all and every man is to believe that God intends his conversion and salvation ineffectually. But ah this is cold comfort and dubious, hazardous and far off hope; the poor man is here between hope to be saved, (if the fortune or loose contingency of free-will be lucky) and fear to be eternally three times more miserable than if God had never born him any good will (if free-will miscarry as it does in the far greatest part of mankind) for Arminians do not say, one man is more saved by their pendulous and venturous good wishes and doubtsome intentions to save all and every one, than we do by the Lord's most wise, [reconstructed: steady], poised, fixed, and absolute decrees; so it is but [reconstructed: empty] and an empty spoon, they thrust in the mouths of the whole race of mankind, when they will them thus to hope for salvation.

2. By this means God intending two ends, either the salvation or damnation of all and every one, he puts all mankind upon as great fear and despair, as upon comfort and hope, and he intends and wills the destruction of all mankind more efficaciously and with far greater success, than he wills their salvation. Only here is a comfort men may take to Hell with them, and an East-wind hope they may feed on; God primarily, antecedently, and first wills my salvation, but secondarily and with better certainty of the black event, he wills in justice, my damnation and the eternal destruction of the far greatest part of mankind; and this is the Arminian comfort, and white hopes that the tenet of Arminian universal grace, liberally bestows on all, much good may it do them.

3. They stand not to make God fluctuate between two ends; either this or this, justice or mercy; mercy is the port God desires to sail to, and to carry all to heaven; but because he cannot be master of tide and wind, and free-will blows out of the East, when God expects a fair West wind, the Lord is compelled to arrive with a second wind as a crossed seaman must do, and to land his vessel in the sad port of revenging justice, and make such a sea-voyage, as against the heart of God (what will you say of the destiny of free-will's ill luck?) must cast the far greatest part of mankind, as shipwrecked men into eternal damnation, and except God would have strangled free-will and destroyed the nature of that obedience which is subject to threatenings and rewards, he could not for his soul mend the matter; and here good reader, you have the Arminian hope and consolations, if you list to listen to the Arminians of England now risen to comfort all mankind in these sad times. 3. Saving faith lays hold on salvation, righteousness and everlasting redemption as proper heritage, faith being a supernatural instinct, that lays a peculiar claim to Christ, as the natural instinct in the lamb claims the mother; its property that faith pursues; let experience speak, if there be not a peculiar warmness of heart in a believer at the sight of Christ; now to believe a common salvation hanging in the air, the heaven of Turks and Armenians, and the righteousness and redemption of Indians, of Seneca, and Catiline, Clodius, and Camillus, I confess must be far from such a property.

4 Saving faith is the first dawning, the morning sky and the first daylight of the appearance of election to glory (Acts 13:48). The man never has a fair venture of heaven, nor comes into close grips with eternal love revealed till he believe, because the poor man's believing is his act of choosing God for his portion, and so cannot be an assent to a common good, general to all men, Heathens, Pagans, Jews, Turks, and believers; faith makes him say, I have now found a ransom, I have found a pearl of great price, I make no other choice, my lot is well fallen upon Christ; whether Christ cast his love or his lot on me from eternity, I cannot dispute; but sure, I have chosen him in time. Now for the second, the Scripture shows us of a hope of righteousness by faith, this we wait for through the Spirit (Galatians 5:5), and of the hope laid up for the saints in heaven (Colossians 1:15), and Christ in the saints the hope of glory (verse 27), and of the hope of the appearing of our life Christ (Titus 2:13), which hope makes a man to purge himself and to be holy (1 John 3:3), and of a rejoicing in hope in the glory of God (Romans 5:2; Romans 12:12), the hope to come, for which the Twelve Tribes of Israel serve God earnestly (Acts 26:7), and that lively hope to which we are regenerated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:5), and the hope that we have through patience and comfort of the Scripture (Romans 15:4), and the hope which is not confined within the narrow sphere and region of time and this corruptible life (1 Corinthians 15:19), the hope which experience brings forth (Hebrews 5:4). Now whether we take hope for the object of hope, the thing hoped for, or the supernatural or gracious faculty of hoping, in neither respect have Seneca, Scipio, Regulus, Jews, Turks, Americans, and such as never by any rumor heard of Christ any hope from Scripture; Paul says of them, and of the Ephesians in their condition (Ephesians 2:12): At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world; and for the grace of hope the Scripture says, it is an anchor cast in heaven by these who upon life and death make Jesus their city of refuge (Hebrews 6:19-20), it is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:5), wherever it is, it makes a man purify himself (1 John 3:2), it is a lively hope and a fruit of predestination and of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:3-5). Now such a hope as Arminians allow to Heathen and Indians, to Reprobates, who believe that Christ died for all and every one, and such as perish eternally, we gladly leave to themselves; and if our doctrine of particular redemption furnishes ground of despair as opposed to this hope, we profess it. But let Arminians answer this of their own way; so God must speak to the most part of the Christian world: Be of good courage, hope for salvation in Christ, be comforted in this that Christ died for you all without exception, and be fully assured and believe there is a perfect ransom given for you, and salvation and righteousness purchased to you in Christ's blood; but I have decreed so to act upon the wills of the far greatest part of you, that you shall have no more share in that redemption and purchased salvation than the damned devils, whereas if I had so drawn you as I have done others, as sinful by nature as you are, you should certainly have been eternally saved in Christ's blood; and the like, and far more I could say, of the dream of the middle science and knowledge of God; for Arminians spoil the Almighty of all grace, compassion, mercy, or power to save; for this is the Gospel and no other, that God must utter by their doctrine: I have chosen out of grace and mercy all to salvation, who shall believe, and have given my Son, to give his life and blood a ransom for all and every one; and I will desire and wish, that all mankind were with me in eternal glory, and that my revenging justice had never been experimentally known to men or angel, and that death, hell, sin, had never had being in the world; but the far greatest part of mankind were to sin, and finally and obstinately to resist, both my general universal grace given to all, and my special and Evangelical calling, and that they were to do before any act of my knowledge, free decree, strong grace, or tender mercy; and I cannot bow their wills irresistibly to final obedience, nor could I so powerfully by moral persuasion, draw them to constant faith and perseverance, except I would act against that which is decent and convenient for a lawgiver to do, and destroy the nature of that free obedience that lies under the sweet droppings of free reward, which must be earned by sweating, and under the lash and hazard of eternal punishments to be inflicted, (which I will not do) indeed, though in all things even done by free agents, as translations of kingdoms from one prince to another, and bringing enemies against a land, which are done by free agents, I do whatever I will, and my decree stands and cannot be recalled (Daniel 4:35; Isaiah 14:24-27; Isaiah 46:10-11; Psalm 115:3; Psalm 135:6), yet in matters of salvation or damnation, or of turning the hearts and free actions of men and angels that most highly concern my glory above all; I cannot but bring all the arrows of my decrees, to the bow of that slippery contingent indifferency of the up and down free will of men and angels; and here am fast fettered, that I can but dance as free will pipes and say amen to created will in all things good or bad. I cannot cut off the abundance of my rich grace and free mercy (though earnestly and vehemently I desire it) save one person more than are saved, or damn one more than are damned, or write one man more in the book of life, and bestow on them the fruits of my dear Son's death, than such as in order of nature, were finally to believe before any act of my middle science, or my conditional free decree, or drawing grace; therefore am I compelled as a merchant who against his will casts his goods in the sea, to save his own life, because the winds and storms over-master his desire, to take a second course, contrary to my natural desire, and gracious and mild inclination to mercy, to decree and ordain that all who before the acts also of my middle science, free decree, and just will were finally to resist my calling shall eternally perish, and to will that Pharaoh should not at the first or second command obey my will, and let my people go: and therefore with a consequent or constrained will to suffer sin to be, to appoint death and hell, and the eternal destruction of the greatest part of mankind, to be in the world, for the declaration of my revenging justice, because I could not hinder the entrance of sin into the world, nor master free will as free, if my dispensation of the first covenant made with Adam in Paradise should stand. Therefore I was compelled to take a second tack, and a second wind, like a seaman, who is with a stronger cross wind, driven from his first wished port; and to send my Son Jesus Christ into the world, to die for sinners, for that I could not better do, and out of love to save all, offer him to all, one way or other, though I did foresee my desire and natural kindness to save all, should be far more thwarted and crossed by this way; because of necessity my consequent will must needs prepare a far hotter furnace in hell, for the greatest part of mankind, since thousands of them, must reject Christ, in resisting the light of nature, and the universal sufficient grace, given to all; which if free will should use well, would have procured to them more grace, and the benefit of the preached Gospel. But a heavier plague of hardness of heart, and far greater torments of fire, than these, I foresee must be the doom of such, within the visible church as resist my calling, or having once obeyed, may according to the liberty of independent free will persevere if they will; and notwithstanding of the power of God, by which they are kept to salvation, the promises of the eternal covenant, the efficacy of Christ's perpetual intercession, of the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit, that everlasting fountain of life, etc. may fully and finally fall away, and turn apostates; and therefore all their hope of eternal life, their assurance of glory, their joy, their consolation and comforts in any claim to life eternal, and the state of adoption is not bottomed on my power to keep them, my eternal covenant, my Son's intercession. I can do no more than I can, but upon their own free will, if they please (and it is too pleasant to many) they may all fall away, and perish eternally, and leave my Son a widow, without a wife, a head without members, a king without subjects.

And if Arminians will be so liberal or lavish of the comforts of God proper to the Lord's people (Isaiah 40:1; Isaiah 49:13), the proper work of the Holy Spirit the comforter (John 14:16; John 15:26; John 16:7), the consolations of Christ (Philippians 2:1), the everlasting, the strong consolations (2 Thessalonians 2:16; Hebrews 6:18), the heart comforts (Colossians 2:2), with which the Apostles and Saints are comforted (2 Corinthians 1:4, 6-7), coming from the God of all comfort, the Lord that comforts Zion (Isaiah 51:3; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Isaiah 51:12), blessing promised to the mourners (Matthew 5:4), we desire Mr. Moore, and other Arminians to enjoy them; but for us, we allow neither assurance, courage, hope, nor comforts in Christ or his death, but on the regenerate and believers; and this makes the doctrine of universal redemption more suspicious to us as not coming from God, that they allow to all, (even dogs and swine) the Holy Spirit and the precious privilege of the Saints. Therefore, thirdly, we answer, that the assumption is not ours, but theirs, let the assumption be; But I believe, and the proposition be corrected thus. These for whom Christ laid down his life, are some few chosen believers. But I am chosen and a believer: therefore, etc., and we grant all, so the assumption be made sure.

But I have no assurance, hope, nor comfort to rest on a general good will that God bears to all, to Judas, Pharaoh, Cain, and to all mankind, no less than to me. For I am of the same very metal, and by nature am heir of wrath, as well as they.

2. That far-off good will, that all be saved, and that all obey: the Lord from eternity did bear it to the fallen devils, as well as to me. O cold comfort! and it works nothing in order to my actual salvation, more than to the actual salvation of Judas the Traitor: it [illegible] on moving no wheels, no causes, no effectual means to procure the powerful application of the purchased redemption to me, more than to all that are now spitting out blasphemy against eternal justice, and are in fire chains of wrath, cursing this Lord, and his general good will to save them.

But the fountain good will of God, to save the elect, runs in another channel of free grace, that separates person from person, Jacob from Esau, and sets the heart of God from eternity, and the tender bowels of Christ, both from everlasting: and as touching the execution of this good will, and in time, upon this man, not this man, without hire, money or price. First, because angels or men can never answer that of Romans 9:13-15: as it is written, I have loved Jacob, and have hated Esau, and that before the one, or the other had done good or evil. Then the natural Arminian objects, what our Arminian does this day, that it must be unrighteousness to hate men absolutely, and cast them off when they are not born, and have neither done good nor evil. Paul answers, it follows in no sort that there is unrighteousness with God, because verse 15 all is resolved on the will of God, because it is his will; for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion: and upon this he infers the business of separating Jacob from Esau runs not upon such wheels as running and willing, sweating and hunting by good endeavors; Jacob did here less, and Esau more; but all goes on this, on God's free goodness and mercy; all the difference between person and person is, God has mercy, because he will, not because men will. Now because Arminians say, this is not meant of election and reprobation, but of temporary favors bestowed on Jacob, not on Esau, he alleges the example of Pharaoh, a cruel atheist and a tyrant, who never sought justification by the works of the law; the reason why Pharaoh obtained not the mercy that others obtained: I, says the Lord, verse 17, told Pharaoh to his face, for this purpose I raised you up, that I might make an example of the glory of my power, and name, that is, the glory of justice in you, to all the world who hears of you: and then verse 18, he returns to the Lord's free will, and unhired and absolute liberty, in differencing person from person. Why has he mercy upon this man, and not on this man, if there had been such a conceit as a general catholic good will in God, to Pharaoh, to Esau, the Apostle should now have denied any absolute will in God, to separate one person from another. Arminians can instruct the Spirit of the Lord, and the Apostle to say, he has an equal general goodwill and desire to save all and every one; Esau as well as Jacob; Ishmael as Isaac, the son of promise, Pharaoh as Moses, or any other man; but then two great doubts should remain: How then did he hate Esau, when he was not yet born, and had not done good or evil? All the Arminians on earth, answer that. Second, but the doubt is not removed: How is it, that God loves Jacob, blesses, and has mercy on him, and hates Esau, and yet Esau has neither done good nor ill? Arminians answer, in an antecedent general good will, God indeed loved Esau, as well as Jacob, Pharaoh as well as another man: but here is the thing that makes the separation, Jacob runs, and wills, Esau is a wicked man; Pharaoh and others like him, bloody tyrants; and God shows mercy with another posterior, and consequent will on Jacob's, because he runs, and wills, and has mercy on him, because he pays well for mercy; and has not mercy on Esau, because he neither runs, nor wills. Now this is to contradict God; therefore we must bear with it, that men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, rising up to plead for universal atonement, contradict us. But Paul resolves all the mercy bestowed on this man, not on this man, verse 18, on this saying [illegible], he will, Therefore has he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and hardens whom he will. Second, it is impossible that conversion should be grace and matter of the praise of the glory of the Lord's grace, to Peter rather than to Judas, except the grace of God separate Peter from Judas, by moving effectually the one to believe, and not moving the other. All the wit of men cannot say, but I may glory in my own free will, that I am efficaciously redeemed and saved, rather than another; except grace efficaciously moves me in a way of separating me from another, if he had alike good will to save me, and Judas and all the world; but he committed the casting of the balance in differencing the one from the other, to free will, so as the creature's free will made the consequent will of God different toward the one, and toward the other.

Third, the God who is willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, in enduring with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared to glory (Romans 9:22-23), is also willing, because he is willing to declare these two ends equally; in some because he will; the glory of power, justice and long suffering; in others the glory of grace and mercy, because he will; nor did I ever see a reason why God should carry on the two great state designs of justice and mercy, in such an order as he should incline more to declare and bring to pass the design of mercy than the design of justice; for out of the freedom of high and deep sovereignty he most freely intended both these glorious ends. Now as the attaining of his freely intended end of manifested mercy in some, both angels and men, makes visible in an eminent manner the glory of justice in other some, so the attaining of his freely intended end of pure grace in the elect, does highly endear Jesus Christ that we should prize the blood of the Covenant, the riches of free grace to us whom he has freely chosen, leaving others as good as we to perish everlastingly. And as Arminians cannot deny, but that the Lord might so have contrived the business, as all that are saved, and to praise the Lord that sits on the throne in heaven, might have been damned and should blaspheme eternally in hell the holy just judge of the world: as he can make a revolution of all things in heaven and in earth, to a providence contrary to that which is now; so they cannot deny an eminent sovereignty, deliberate and fixed free will in God before any of the elect and reprobate were placed in such a condition of providence in which he foresaw all that are saved or damned, should be saved or damned, and that this will was the prime fountain cause of election and reprobation.

Paul showing, Romans 11, that God concludes all in unbelief that he might have mercy on all, and showing a reason why the Lord was pleased to cast off his ancient people for a time, and to engraft the Gentiles, the wild Olive, in their place, says O the depth; and another reason he cannot find, but bottomless and unsearchable freedom of grace and free dispensation to some people and persons, and not to others. I confess it had been no such depth, if the Lord from eternity had equally loved all to salvation, but through the running and willing, or not running and not willing of the creature had been put upon later, wiser and riper thoughts and a consequent will to save or not save, as men and angels in the high and indifferent court of their free will shall think good; there had been no other depth than is in earthly [reconstructed: Judges], who reward well doers, and punish ill doers, or in a lord of a vineyard, who gives wages to him that labors, and no wages to him that stands idle and does nothing; this is the law of nature, of nations, and no depth, it's but God rewarding men according to their works, and God showing mercy in such as co-operate with, and improve well the benefit of God's antecedent will, and not showing mercy on such as do not co-operate therewith, but out of the absoluteness of indifferent free will are wanting in that. But the great and unsearchable depth is, how God should so carry on the great designs of the declaration of the glory of pardoning mercy and punishing justice, as there should be some persons and nations, the Jews first and not the Gentiles, as of old, and now the Gentiles taken into Christ, and the Jews cast off; and again, the Jews with the riches of the world of Elect both Jews and Gentiles who are chosen and must obey the Gospel, and be called without any respect to works, but of grace (Romans 11:5-7), and when the children had neither done good nor evil and were not born (Romans 9:11), and these who were nearest to Christ, and did work more for the attaining righteousness and life, than other strangers to Christ and Gentiles (Romans 9:30-33; Romans 10:1-4; Romans 11:1-8, etc.) rejected, and there should be others as good as these by nature, that the Lord should have mercy on; now in both these: first, God is free in his grace; secondly, just in his judgments, though he neither calls, nor chooses according to works; thirdly, the damned creature most guilty; and fourthly, the Lord both justly severe, and graciously merciful; fifthly, none have cause to complain or quarrel with God; and yet God might have carried the matter a far other way; sixthly, the head cause of this various administration, with nations and persons, is the deep, high, sovereign, innocent, holy, independent will of the great Potter and Former of all things who has mercy on whom he will, and hardens whom he will, and this is the depth without a bottom; no creature angel or men can so behave themselves to their fellow creatures, and yet be free, just, holy, wise, etc.; but surely one creature can deal with his fellow creature according to the rules and road-way of an antecedent and consequent will; so may the king deal with his people, the governor with those he governs, the father with his children, the commander with his soldiers, the lord of a vineyard with his hired servants, all these may order their goodness, mercy, rewards, punishments in a way level with the use, industry improvement of free will, or the rebellion, injustice, wickedness and slothfulness of their underlings; but no master nor lord can call laborers to his vineyard, and exhort, obtest, beseech them all to labor and promise them hire, and yet keep from the greatest part of them the power of [reconstructed: stirring] arms or legs, of free consenting to labor, and suspend his so acting on the greatest part of them, as they shall willingly be carried on to willful disobedience, and to be the passive objects of his revenging justice according to the determinate counsel of the Lord of this vineyard, because so he willed out of his absolute sovereignty to deal with some, and deal a just contrary way with the least part of the laborers, because he proposed to declare the glory of his grace on them; either there is here an unsearchable depth, or Paul knew nothing, and this calms my mind and answers all that reason can say for universal atonement: and the

1. Use. I aim at, is, that no doctrine so endears Christ to a soul, as this of particular redemption and free grace separating one from another (Psalm 147:19). Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; and among many grounds here is one, verse 19: he shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his judgments to Israel. Verse 20: he has not dealt so with any nation; and he speaks not of the measure, as if God had revealed the same grace in nature, but in an inferior degree to other nations; for he says, as for his judgments they have not known them; and then being full of God, for this separating mercy, he adds, praise the Lord. Christ esteems this the flower of grace, the grace of grace and blesses his Father for it (Matthew 11:25). I bless you, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes. Now because Arminians say, the pride of the self-wise, and the humility of babes, are the causes separating the one from the other, and so free will is to share with the Father in the praise of the revealed glory of the Gospel, and the discovered excellency of Christ to babes, rather than to wise men; a literal revelation no doubt was common to all babes and prudent, the swelled Pharisees, and humbled sinners. Christ praises the eminency, the blossom of grace, the bloom of free love in that the free will of the humble and the proud made not the separation, but the good pleasure of God, verse 27. No man knows the Son but the Father, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.

That which is common to all, shall never leave an impression of wonder and thankful admiration. (I) and (we) are swelled, lofty and proud things, and the Spirit of God commends grace highly in that it falls upon pronouns and persons, and not on others (1 Corinthians 15:9). I am the least of the Apostles — by the grace of God, I am that I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, but not I, but the grace of God in me (Titus 3:3). For we ourselves also were sometimes out of our wits, disobedient, etc. — but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us (1 Timothy 1:15). I am the chief of sinners — but for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering (Galatians 2:20). I am crucified with Christ, but I live — yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me, and given himself for me. And you who were dead in sins and trespasses, has he quickened (Ephesians 2:1) — for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he has quickened us together with Christ. But now in Jesus Christ, you who sometimes were far off, are made near by the blood of Christ; the passing by my father and mother, and brother and sister, neighbor and friend, and taking me, is a most endearing favor.

Of all in Scotland and England, all in Europe, all Adam's seed, that ever were masters of a living soul in the womb or out of it — the Lord passed by so many thousands and millions, and the lot of free grace fell upon me precisely by name, and upon us, and not upon thousands, besides no less eligible than I was. What thoughts will you have of the [reconstructed: free] lot of love that fell upon you ever since God was God, when Christ shall lay such a load of love, such a high weight and mass of love on you? You shall then think, O how came I here to sit in heavenly places with Christ! That body that is trimmed, clothed, and doubly embroidered with pure and unmixed glory, is just made of the same lump of earth, with the body of Judas or Cain, that are now flaming and sinking to the bottom of the black and sad river of brimstone. The Lord says (Ezekiel 18:4), behold all souls are mine. And when your soul shall be laden with glory and thousands of souls blowing and spitting out blasphemies on the Majesty of God, out of the sense of the torment of the gnawing worm that never dies — and you consider the soul of Judas might have been in my soul's stead, and my soul in the same place of torment that his is now in — what wonder then that John cry out, behold what love!

How much love for extension, and intention: for one man, and every one in covenant (Psalm 106:45), multitudes of mercies, and (Psalm 130:7) plentiful redemption. One David must have multitude of tender mercies (Psalm 51:1), (Psalm 69:13, 16). It's not one love, but loves, many loves (Ezekiel 16:8), (Song of Solomon 1:2). He gives many salvations to one, as if one heaven, and one crown of glory, were not enough. (Ephesians 2:4) He is rich in mercy: and he quickened us when we were dead in sins — for his multiplied love. Every man has a particular act of love, a particular act of atonement bestowed on him: can you multiply figures with a pen, and write from the east to the west, and then begin again, and make the heaven of heavens, all circular lines, of figures; it should weary the arm of Angels to write the multiplied loves of Christ. Christ's love desires to engage many; how many millions are there of elect Angels and men? Every one of them, for his own part, must have a heaven of love; and Christ thinks it little enough that the firstborn's love be on them all, and that they all be firstborn. (Colossians 1:20) It pleased the Father by Christ to reconcile all things in heaven, and in earth, to himself. All the Angels are Christ's vassals, and he is their head (Colossians 2:10); then Christ must have two eyes; you seven eyes, to see for every one, and two legs for every Angel to walk with; Christ must have a huge host, and numerous troops in his family. Who then can number the sums of all the debts of free grace, that [reconstructed: Angels and men now in Christ], and when they shall be paid? Though sins shall be acquitted, yet debts of undeserved love shall stand for ever and ever. O how unsearchable is the riches of Christ's grace! Know you, O Angels, O glorified Spirits, where is the brim, or where is the bottom of free grace? Yet not one sinner can have less grace than he has; he has need of all, he has no oil to spare, to lend to his neighbor (Matthew 25). Our deep diseases, and festered wounds could have no less to cure them, than infinite love, and free grace, passing all knowledge. It was a broad wound, that required a plaster as long and broad, as infinite Jesus Christ.

Paul bows his knee to the Master of the families of heaven and earth, for this act of grace, to weigh the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18). I pray (says he) that you may comprehend, or overtake the love of God.

2. How many are set on work to compass that love? As if one man could not be able to do it: yet I pray, that you with all the saints may comprehend what is the breadth; it is broader than the sea, or the earth: and what is the length of it? It is longer than between east and west; though you could measure between the extremity of the highest circle of the heaven of heavens, and then it has depth and height more than from the center of the earth to the circle of the moon and up through all the orbs of the seven planets, and to the orb of Saturn, and highest heavens: who can comprehend either the diameter or circumference of so great a love? Love is an element that all the elect, men and angels, swim in; the banks of the river swell above the circle of the sun, to the highest of the highest heavens.

Christ's love in the gospel takes all alive, as a mighty conqueror; his seed for multitude is like the drops of dew that come out of the womb of the morning (Psalm 110), and they are the dew of the youth of Christ; for Christ as a strong and vigorous young man full of strength, who never fails through old age, brings in the forces of the Gentiles like the flocks of Kedar (Isaiah 60:5-6).

5. Christ's love outworks hell and devils. Can you seal up the sun that it cannot rise? Or can you hinder the flowing of the sea? Or lay a law upon the winds that they blow not? Far less can you hinder Christ's wilderness to blossom as a rose, or his grace to blow, to flow over banks, or to flee with eagles' wings. O how strong an agent is Christ's love, that bears the sins of the world! (John 1:29). It works as fire does by nature, rather than by will, and none can bind up Christ's heart or restrain his bowels, but he must work all to heaven that he has loved.

Use 2. We are hence taught to acknowledge no love to be in God, which is not effectual in doing good to the creature; there is no lip-love, no raw well-wishing to the creature which God does not make good: we know but three sorts of love, that God has to the creature, all the three are like the fruitful womb; there is no miscarrying, no barrenness in the womb of divine love; he loves all that he has made; so far as to give them a being, to conserve them in being as long as he pleases: he had a desire to have sun, moon, stars, earth, heaven, sea, clouds, air; he created them out of the womb of love and out of goodness, and keeps them in being; he can hate nothing that he made, now according to Arminians, he wished a being to many things in their seed and causes, as he wished the earth to be more fruitful before the fall than now it is, so that against God's will, and his good will to the creatures, he comes short of that natural antecedent love, that he bears to creatures; he could have wished death never to be, nor sickness, nor old age, (say Arminians) nor barrenness of the earth, nor corruption. Nay, but though these have causes by rule of justice, in the sins of men, yet we have no cause to say God falls short of his love, and wished and desired such and such a good to the creature; but things miscarried in his hand; his love was like a mother that conceives with many children, but they die in the womb; so God willed and loved the being of many things; but they could not be, the love of God was like the miscarrying womb that parts with the dead child, we cannot acknowledge any such love in God.

2. There is a second love and mercy in God, by which he loves all men and angels; yes, even his enemies, makes the sun to shine on the unjust man, as well as the just, and causes dew and rain to fall on the orchard and fields of the bloody and deceitful man, whom the Lord abhors; as Christ teaches us (Matthew 5:43-48). Nor does God miscarry in this love, he desires the eternal being of damned angels and men; he sends the gospel to many reprobates, and invites them to repentance and with longanimity and forbearance, suffers pieces of froward dust to fill the measure of their iniquity, yet does not the Lord's general love fall short of what he wills to them.

3. There is a love of special election to glory; far less can God come short in the end of this love: For 1. the work of redemption prospers in the hands of Christ, even to the satisfaction of his soul; saving of sinners, (all glory to the Lamb) is a thriving work and successful in Christ's hands (Isaiah 53:10-11). He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. 2. Christ cannot shoot at the rovers and miss his mark: I should desire no more, but to be once in Christ's chariot paved with love (Song of Solomon 3). Were I once assured I am within the circle and compass of that love of election; I should not be afraid that the chariot can be broken or turned off its wheels; Christ's chariot can go through the Red Sea, though not dried up: he shoots arrows of love and cannot miss, he rides through hell and the grave, and makes the dead his living captives and prisoners. 3. This love is natively of itself active; Hezekiah says in his song (Isaiah 38:17), Behold for peace I had bitterness, but you have in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption, but in Hebrew it is, you have loved my soul out of the pit of corruption, because you have cast all my sins behind your back: he speaks of God's love, as if it were a living man with flesh and bones, arms, hands, and feet, went down to the pit, and lifted up Hezekiah's soul out of the pit; so has the love of Christ loved us out of hell, or loved hell away to hell, and loved death down to the grave, and loved sin away, and loved us out of the arms of the Devil; Christ's love is a pursuing and a conquering thing; I shall never believe that this love of redemption stands so many hundred miles aloof on the shore; and the bank of the river, and lake of fire and brimstone, and eyes afar off and wishes all mankind may come to land and shore, and casts to them, being so many hundred miles from them, words of milk, wine and honey, out of the Gospel, and cries that Christ loves all and every one to salvation; and if wishes could make men happy, Christ earnestly wishes and desires, if all men were alike well minded to their own salvation, that all and every one might be saved, that there were not a Hell; but he will not put the top of his little finger in their [reconstructed: hearts] to bow and incline their will, and Christ cries to the whole world perishing in sin, I have shed my blood for you all, and wish you much happiness; but if you will not come to me to believe: I purpose not to pass over the line of Arminian decency or Jesuitical congruity, nor can I come to you to draw your hearts, by way of efficacious determination, if you will do for yourselves and your own salvation, the greatest part of the work, which is to apply redemption, by your own free-will (though I know you cannot be masters of yourselves, of one good thought, and are dead in sins as I have done the other lesser part, purchased salvation for you, or made you all reconcilable and savable, its well; otherwise I love the salvations of you and every one; but I will not procure it, but leave that to your free-will; choose fire or water, heaven or hell as the counsels of your own heart shall lead you; and I have done with you; Oh such a love as this could never save me! If the young heir had wisdom, he should pray that the wise tutor lay not the falling or the standing of the house on his green head and raw glassy and weather-cock free will; we shall cast down our crowns at the feet of him that sits on the throne, because he has redeemed us out of all nations, tongues and languages and left these nations to perish in their own wicked way: sure in heaven I shall have no Arminian thoughts as now I have, through corruption of nature. I shall not then divide the song of free redemption between the Lamb and free-will: and give the largest share to free-will; my soul, enter not into their counsels or secrets, who thus blacken Christ, and shame that fair spotless and excellent grace of God.

Use 3. Here is excellent ground of encouragements to the elect to believe; for the fear of reprobation from eternity is no ground that you should not believe.

Objection 1. I fear that I am a reprobate.

Answer. If you will know the need that a reprobate man has of that saving Savior Jesus Christ, you would upon any terms, cast your soul upon Christ; which if you do, now you have answered the question and removed the fear that you are a reprobate; for a reprobate cannot believe.

Objection 2. But sin and unworthiness inclines more to reprobation, than to be loved eternally of God.

Answer. Not a bit, except the Lord had revealed reprobation to you; sinful clay, nothing but the great Potter may wash the clay, and frame you a vessel of honor.

Objection 3. But sin continued in, such as my sin is, is the first morning dawning of reprobation, as faith and sorrow for sin is the first opening of election to glory.

Answer. Sin finally and obstinately continued in is a sign of reprobation; but say you had obstinately gone on in sin (as I love not to cure spiritual wounds by smoothing and lessening them) yet your duty lies on you in a sense of your need of Christ, to come to Christ; the event is Christ's, you may say; It is fitting, Lord, I be a reprobate, but many thousands of bad deserving as I am, are singing the praises of free grace before the throne.

Objection 4. But if my sin evidences to me reprobation, it is a cold comfort to go to Christ and believe; for sure I have obstinately gone on against Christ, and resisted his call.

Answer. Though we are not to lessen the sins of any, yet a physician may say, it is not so desperate a disease as you say it is; so may we say, it is a strong disease that overcomes the art of Christ; though it falls seldom out never to my observing, that any finally obstinate can attain to wide, broad and anxious wishes to enjoy Christ, with some seen and acknowledged need of Christ.

Objection 5. But what encouraging comfort have I to believe, since I have gone farther on in obstinacy than any?

Answer. There cannot be such an encouraging comfort in a non-convert as is satisfactory; no work can be in a non-convert of that strain with such as are in converts; you are not to look for so much in yourself as in others; but he is far behind, who may not follow.

Object 6. In fact, I find nothing in me that may qualify me for Christ.

Answer. Fit and sufficient qualifications for Christ is the hire of merit, that we naturally seek in ourselves. Antinomians do not a little injure us, because we teach that obstinate sinners as obstinate and proud are not immediately to believe; not that it is not their duty to believe, but because believing is physically incompatible with these persons that are to believe; since believing is the going of the sinner out of himself to Christ; and a proud obstinate and rebellious sinner never broken, nor in any sort humbled under that reduplication, stays in himself. But we are far from exhorting any to stand aloof and far off from Christ, because they cannot be prepared sufficiently for him, or because they have not a present to bring the King. Indeed come, as you are bidden, kiss the son, but tremble and stoop — faith is a lowly thing; merit or hire sufficient, in half or in whole, penny, or pennyworth, to give to Christ, before a sinner comes to Christ, or after, we utterly disclaim.

Object 7. But I have low thoughts of Christ, and am afraid he will cast me away; how then can I have low thoughts of myself, and be humbled, before I believe?

Answer. There are not any of us who teach that saving humility goes before faith. It is one thing to be broken, and plowed, another to be humble and harrowed: the law must break the rocky ground, before you believe. But Christ must break the clods, and harrow, and soften the soul; true humiliation follows faith.

Object 8. But base thoughts of Christ, which I find in myself, are most contrary to faith: I think Christ not so meek a lamb, as to put a wolf, a tiger, or a leopard in his bosom.

Answer. Not any, but they have too low thoughts of Christ, before they can come to him; for the gospel in whole and in part, is medicine. Christ has a healing tongue; medicine is relative to sickness: Christ would never have said to unbelievers (John 6:39), "him that comes, I will in no wise cast away," if men had not naturally had such thoughts of Christ, as he is rough, and strange, and lordly, and so far from meekness that he casts thousands of poor sinners out that come to him. So Christ's tongue in speaking these words, is good physic: all of us have jealous and strange thoughts of Christ; you may know the disease by the physic: contraria contrarijs curantur. The weary and laden sinners take Christ to be rough, and not meek — therefore says Christ, come to me, all you that are weary, and laden; and I will ease you. If he be a shepherd, we naturally think — if we cannot go on our own feet, he has a club to beat us; therefore (Isaiah 40:11) the Lord says, "Not so, he will not beat those that lack legs of their own to follow him: but he shall carry the lambs in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young." Indeed, if converts and weak ones had not jealousies — Ah, Christ is above us, and so lordly, so just, that if we be not as strong as others, he will break us — it had not been prophesied of him (Isaiah 43): "a bruised reed shall he not break, a smoking flax shall he not quench." Now precious thoughts of Christ you cannot have till you come to Christ, and buy from him a new mind, and new thoughts, without money.

Object 9. But believing is fruitless, and impossible, if I be excluded from the number of those that Christ died for; for then I am to believe remission of sins without shedding of blood; and Christ shed no blood for me.

Answer. You are neither to lay such a supposition down, that either you are excluded from the number of those that Christ died for, or included in that number: neither of the two are revealed to you, and secret things belong to the Lord. It is enough to you, that (1.) you are not excluded, for anything that is revealed to you. 2. That you have need of Christ, and are a guilty sinner. 3. That you are commanded to believe: as for Christ's not shedding of his blood for you; say it were so: it is no more absurd that you are obliged to believe on Christ, as an all-sufficient Redeemer for remission of sins, (though remission be not purchased to you in Christ's blood) than that you are obliged to believe that God will infallibly save you, when God has peremptorily reprobated you, upon foreseen final impenitence; and has decreed not to work in you to believe, and has not purchased by his blood, the grace of believing; without which, he sees believing is impossible. Let Arminians answer the one doubt, and we can answer the other; only, their way makes God say he wills the salvation of reprobates; which in very truth, he wills not; for it is protestatio facto contraria: a will contrary to his dispensation toward them — and so no will; whereas we acknowledge God in his promises, commands, charges to be most sincere, and that the promises belong only to the children of the promise, not to the reprobate.

Object 10. But it is impossible I can be fitted with sorrow for sin or repentance, before I believe in Christ. Answer. We teach not that you must first repent, then believe; or first believe, then repent; but that some legal acts of sorrow, and bruisings of spirit, and self-despair go before faith, then acts of believing, and then evangelical repentance, in seeing by faith, him whom you have pierced with your sins, and the mourning for piercing of him (Zechariah 12:10). But your need, beggarliness, sinfulness may well be a spur to chase you to Christ: seeing Christ heightens his fair grace by occasion of your black sins (Romans 3:5, 20; Romans 3:24-25).

If Christ has such a good will to draw all men; ah! shall he draw all men and such a fair number of all ranks, and not draw me? Lord Jesus, what ails you at me? When offices of estate are distributed, and livings and pensions given to men, there be some malcontents; this man is preferred, not I: it were good there were spiritual malcontentedness, with self-discontent, at our own rebellion and no envying of others: O that Christ who draws all men, would draw me, and he that has love for so many, would out of his love cause me say, Where has your beloved gone, O you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you? Say there were a free gold mine in India, that loads with gold all ships, and enriches multitudes that go there, and it has never drawn you to make a journey there, blame yourself, if you be poor, when many are enriched. 1. Has not Christ knocked at the door of your soul, with a rainy head, and frozen locks, and you had rather he should fall into a swoon, in the streets, than open to him, and lodge him; and has had open back doors for harlot lovers: O be ashamed of slighting free love. 2. Despised love turns into a flame of Gospel-vengeance: a Gospel-hell is a hotter furnace, than a law-hell.

No man spins hell to himself, out of the wool of unbelieving despair; if Christ be so willing to redeem and draw his own all, and can go as near hell as seven devils: have noble and broad thoughts of the sufficiency of Jesus to save. 1. Consider and say with feeling and warmness of heart to Christ, all the redeemed family that are standing up before the throne, now in white, and are fair and clean and without spot, were once as Black Moors on earth, as I am now: some of them were stables of uncleanness to Satan; now they are chaste virgins, who defiled not themselves with women, before the Lamb; the mouths that sometimes blasphemed, are now singing the new song of the Lamb, of Moses the servant of the Lord. 2. What love is that, that there is a hole in the rock, for ravens of hell to fly into as doves of heaven; and a chamber of love in the heart of Christ, for pieces of sinful clay? 3. Fair Jesus Christ can love the black daughter of Pharaoh; he has found in his heart to melt in love and tender compassion, toward a forlorn Amorite, a polluted Hittite; it breaks his heart to see the naked foundling cast out into the open fields, dying in gored blood: Christ can love, where all do loathe; it is much he can love a sinner, you are but a sinner; he has not blotted your name out of the New Testament; imagine you heard him say, sinner come to me: lost man, suffer me to love you, and to cast my skirt of love over you: do but give him a hearty (say Lord) consent, and take him at his word; never rest, till you be at such a nick of the way to heaven, as no backslider can attain to: we are too soon satisfied with our own Godliness, and go not one step beyond these that has cast out of themselves, one devil, and the next day take in seven new fresh devils, and the end of these men is worse than their beginning; they are redeemed, and bought and washed in profession, and righteous in themselves; those that have no more, must fall away: a sheep in the eyes of men, and a sow at the heart, must to the mire again, sit not down, till you come (1.) to be willing to sell all, and buy the pearl: 2. till you attain to some real and personal mortification; that is a subduing of lusts, a bringing under the body of sin, a heart-deadness to the world, (from this) because your Lord died for you, and has crucified the old man; I mean not a moral mortification of Antinomians, to believe Christ has crucified your lusts for you, as if you were obliged by command of the letter of law and Gospel, to no personal mortification, that you may be saved: never think you are redeemed, till you be redeemed from the walking in the ways of the present evil world, from all iniquity, from your vain conversation: draw not breath, rest not, till you come to this, as you would not turn back sliders in heart.

Redemption believed, makes men crown Christ as their King; and such to whom Christ is made redemption, must assert and confess Christ a perfect Redeemer, the King of his Church: those that are impatient of his yoke of government, would set another king over Christ, a magistrate who by office rules, not by the word, but by civil laws, testify they are unwilling to have Christ their Lord, in their life, who will not have him their Lord in the Church, and his ordinances: the great controversy that God has with England, is slighting of religion, the not building the temple, the increase of blasphemies and heresies; fear that Christ reign over them, 33. If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to me.

The fourth considerable article in the drawing is the terminus ad quem, the person to whom all men are drawn. It is (says Christ) 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉, to me: this is not a word which might have been spared, as there is no redundancy, nothing more than enough in the Gospel, so Christ is no person who may be spared; but whoever be one, Christ must be the first person; take away Christ out of the Gospel, and there remains nothing but words, and remove him from the work of redemption, it is but an empty shadow; indeed, remove Christ out of heaven, I should not seek to be there; this is a noble and divine (to me) I will draw all men to me. 1. It concerns us much what we leave. If we leave the earth, it is but a clay footstool, and a mortal perishing stage, and the house of sorrow and my dying fellow-creature: if we leave sin we leave hell, the worm that never dies; vengeance and eternal vengeance is in the womb of sin; to leave father and mother, and all the idols of a fancied happiness is nothing; but to whom we go; to Christ, or not, to such a one as God, the substantial and eternal delight of God, O that is of high concern.

2. This (to me) coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ, is all and all — it's heaven, it's glory, it's salvation, it's the new paradise, it's the new city, it's the new life, it's the new precious elect stone laid on Zion, the new glory, the new kingdom: There is a greater emphasis, an edge and marrow of words and things, in this (to me) than in all the scripture, in all earth and heaven and all possible and imaginable heavens. 1. Why is Israel loosed? Hear the cause (Psalm 81:11): Israel would none of me. Why do they drink rotten waters, and cisterns of hell? Oh, here is the cause (Jeremiah 2:13): Be astonished, O heavens, why? For my people have committed two evils: (Ah, these two are hundreds, and millions) they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. Is not Christ crying in all the Gospel, who will have me? Who will receive me? Is not this the Gospel-quarrel (John 5:40)? You will not come to me, that you might have life — it's no sport to die in sin — it's a sad fall to fall into hell (John 8:21): Then said Jesus again to them, I go my way, and you shall seek me, and shall die in your sins — where I go you cannot come.

3. If you look to any other, it cannot save you, but one look on him would make you eternally happy, and you have it (Isaiah 45:22): Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else; come and have heaven for one look, for one turning of your eye. And when destruction comes, that the Church shall be like two or three olive berries left, and all the rest destroyed; what shall save the remnant (Isaiah 17:7)? At that day shall a man look to his maker. And when Jerusalem is saved, and the Spirit of grace and supplication is poured on the house of David (Zechariah 12:10): And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son.

4. You are poor and naked; then says Christ, lean and hungry — and you that want bread, and you that sweat, and give out money (Isaiah 55:3): Hearken diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Verse 3: Incline your ear to me, and hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Then a soul dies a soul's death — he is lean, he eats dirt, he has no bread — while he comes to Christ (Revelation 3:18): I counsel you to buy of me. O this noble me! This brave, celebrated, this glorious me — I counsel you to buy of me (and not of others who are but cheating hucksters) gold tried in the fire — gold buys all things, and is not bought; but this is not a common merchant — and buy of me white clothing that you may be clothed. But you may have a burden on you heavier than your back or bones can stand under; then hear him (Matthew 11:28): Come to me, all you that labor and are laden, and I will give you rest. And because all are thirsty for some happiness, the desires are gaping for some heaven, Christ cries at Jerusalem with a loud voice, with a good will to save (John 7:37): If any man thirst let him come to me, and drink. (John 11:26): He that lives and believes in me, shall never die.

5. What greater reason than to hear this (Song of Solomon 5:2): Open to me, my sister, my dove, my love, my undefiled. And wisdom's voice is sweet (Proverbs 7:14): Hearken to me therefore, O you children, and attend to the words of my mouth. (Isaiah 49:1): Listen, O Isles, to me. So he speaks to his redeemed (Isaiah 48:16): Come you near to me: and

6. There is nothing more fitting than that his oath stand, that the knee that will not bow to him shall break. (Isaiah 45:23): I have sworn by myself. (Romans 14:11): For it is written, as I live (says the Lord) every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

7. What greater honor can be than such alliance? Than that Christ speak so to his bride (Hosea 3:3): And I said to her, you shall abide for me many days, you shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man, so will I be for you. And (Hosea 2:19): And I will betroth you to me forever — indeed I will betroth you to me. Verse 20: I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness.

8. To him is that which may be ground of faith and confidence (Luke 10:22): All things are delivered to me of my Father. (Matthew 28:19): All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. There is a great trust put upon Christ (John 17:6): Yours they were, and you gave them me. (Hebrews 2:13): Behold I and the children that God has given me. (Luke 22:29): The Father has appointed a kingdom to me.

This, to me, has yet a greater edge and fullness of Christ's soul-taking and drawing expressions. 1. To Christ, we are drawn as to a friend; approaching to Christ is expressed by coming to him. 1. We come to him as to our home, the man that comes to Christ is in a friend's house; Christ will not cast him out (John 6:39). The man may throw down his loads and burdens, and cast himself and his burden on him, and find rest for his soul; he does not stand, nor run any more, but sit down under the shadow of the tree of life (Song of Solomon 2:3). I sat down under his shadow with great delight; in Hebrew, I desired him, and sat down and his fruit was sweet in my mouth. And how did Christ take with the soul? O most kindly! verse 4: He led me into a house of wine. What do you think of a house of joy? Every stone, every rafter, every piece of covering, wall, and floor is the cheering consolation of the Holy Spirit, and what further? His banner over me is love, the colors and ensign of this chieftain, is the love of Christ. 6. And what love-rest is here? His left hand is under my head, and his right hand does embrace me. What a bed of love must that be, to lie in a corner, in a circle enfolded in the two everlasting arms? The left arm is near the heart, such a soul must lie with heart and head upon the breast and heart of Jesus Christ; and above, and underneath for pillow, for covering, for curtains, arms of everlasting love: a house all made, within and without, of eternal joy and consolations, is incomparable: such a chamber of a king, such colors and hangings as love, such a bed as the embracings of Christ, you never heard of.

2. Life is the sweetest flower of any being, it's a taking thing now (1 John 5:12). He that has the Son has life; all out of Christ are dead men; so we come to Christ as our life (1 Peter 2:4). To whom coming as to a living stone, disallowed indeed of men; but that's no matter; chosen of God, and precious: [reconstructed: who could we come to], but here, on a stone with life, and so noble a life as an intellectual life, and then the life of God? O death, come to your life, that is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Here a breathing living stone, and then a chosen one, of great price; should all the crowned kings, since Adam to the dissolving of this world sell themselves, their globe of the earth, and all their precious stones, they should not buy a day's glory in heaven; but say that they should sell the earth and the heavens, and pledge Sun and Moon and Stars, if they were their moveable inheritance, and sell them all millions of times, they should be far from any comparable buying of the elect precious stone that is dug out of Mount Zion (Job 28:13). Man does not know the price of wisdom, of this wisdom, verse 18: no mention shall be made of corals, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies, verse 19. The Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold; there's no talking, no bidding in this market so precious is the stone, but it's the stone living, and breathing out heaven, and God, infinitely more excellent than heaven.

3. To me (says Christ) because no excellency can be comparable to him, who only can give God to the sinner (John 14:6). No man comes to the Father but by me; it must be an incomparable privilege to come by Jesus Christ, to God; God, God is all in all. I cannot savingly be drawn to any but to him, who can reveal God to me. Christ is the bosom, the heart, the only new and living way and door to God — all creatures, angels, men, saints are strangers to God. The substantial, the essential, the living intellectual image, and being God must reveal God; Christ says to Philip (John 14:9): He that has seen me, has seen the Father: open Christ and you open God; enjoy Christ, and you enjoy God; come into Christ and you come to a new world, to a new all, to a new infinite ocean, and you fall in the bosom of a Godhead.

4. To me] as to all perfection and completeness of fullness; they are but all streams and shadows, and emptiness while you come to Christ, poor nothing is an empty bottom to a sinner (John 1:16). Out of his fullness have all we received even grace for grace; this is fountain fullness, God's fullness (Colossians 2:9). For in Christ is fullness itself. 2. Not fullness going and coming; there is a fullness in the sea, but it is ebbing and flowing; a fullness in the moon, but decreasing and growing; a fullness in the creature, but going and coming up and down; but in Christ there dwells a fullness; it is with Christ new moon and full moon, and dawning and noon-day all at once. 3. All fullness dwells in Christ, there is fullness of beauty in Absalom, but not of truth and sincerity; fullness of wisdom in Solomon, but not fullness of constancy; he gave his heart to pleasure and folly; fullness of policy in Ahithophel, but not fullness of holiness and faithfulness to his prince; yes, it was fullness of folly to hang himself; fullness of strength in Samson, but not fullness of faith and soundness and courage of mind, he was strong in body, but soft and impotent in mind and was overcome by a woman; there is a hiatus, a hole, and some emptiness in every creature: an angel's fullness sits neighbor to pure nothing, the angel may be turned into nothing, and is by nature capable of folly. But in Christ there is all fullness. 4. But as every fullness is not all fullness, so every fullness is not the fullness of the Godhead; therefore, to me it's as much as the elect are drawn to Christ as the choicest, the rarest among all.

2. So among all choice things and all relations, he is the first and most eminent and glorious among kings (Revelation 1:5), the Prince of the kings of the earth (Revelation 10:16), the King of kings, the Lord of lords; among prophets, the Prophet, raised out of the inward part of the brethren (Deuteronomy 18:18); among priests, the highest and great, the eternal Priest, after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:1; Hebrews 7:17); among gods, he stands, he is alone the only wise God (1 Timothy 1:17); among angels, the Angel of the Lord's substantial presence, the Archangel, the head of angels (Isaiah 63:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Colossians 2:10); among beautiful things, the flower of Jesse, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys, fairer than the children of men (Isaiah 11:1; Song of Solomon 2:1; Psalm 45:2); there is such grace created in no lips, indeed uncreated grace is in no face, but in his only; among shepherds, the chief shepherd (1 Peter 5:4); among armies the standard-bearer, and chief among ten thousand (Song of Solomon 5:10); among creatures, the first-born of every creature (Colossians 1:15); among heirs, the Heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2); among those that were dead, and is alive again, and the fruit that grows out of death, Christ is the first-born from the dead (Colossians 1:18), and the first fruits of them that sleep (1 Corinthians 15:20); among sons he is God's first begotten son (Hebrews 1:6), his only begotten son (1 John 4:9); among saviors none to be named a savior under heaven but he only (Acts 4:12), neither is there salvation in any other; the first among brethren (Romans 8:29), the first born among many brethren. In a word, he is the choice and the first of the flock, the flower, the first glory, the standard-bearer of heaven, the heart, the rose, the prime delight of heaven, the choicest of heaven and earth, the nonesuch, the chief of all beloveds. Some have one single excellency, some another; Abraham was excellent in faith, Moses in his choice of Christ above all the treasures of Egypt; David in his sincerity, having a heart like God's heart. But Christ has all eminency of grace in one. Some are gods that shall die as men. Christ the Prince of life was dead, but can die no more. Some are wise, but he is wisdom itself; some are fair, but Christ is the beauty and brightness of the Father's glory. We are apt to have low and creeping thoughts of Jesus Christ, and to undervalue Christ.

3. There is need of an angel-engine framed in heaven, of a tongue immediately created by God, and by the infinite art of omnipotency, above other tongues to speak of the praises of Christ; and that pen must be molded of God, and the ink made of the river of the water of life, and the paper fairer than the body of the Sun, and the heart as pure, as innocent and sinless angels, who should write a book of the virtue and supereminent excellency of Jesus Christ: all words even uttered by prophets and apostles come short of Christ. Imagine that angels and men, and millions of created heavens of more than now are, should build a temple and a high seat or throne of glory, raised from the earth to the highest circumference of the heaven of heavens, and millions of miles above that highest of heavens, and let the timber not be cedar or almug trees, nor the inside gold of Ophir seven times refined, but such trees as should grow out of the banks of the pure river of water of life, that runs through the street of the New Jerusalem, and overlaid with a new sort of gold that was found above the Sun and stars, many degrees above the gold of Ophir; and let the stones not be marble, nor sapphires, nor rubies, nor dug out of the excellentest earth imaginable, but more refined than elementary nature can furnish; let every stone be a star, or a piece of the body of the Sun, and let the whole fabric of the house exceed the glory of Solomon's Temple as far as all precious stones exceed the mire in the streets, and let Jesus Christ sit above in the highest seat of glory in this temple, as he dwelt in Solomon's Temple, the chair should be but a created shadow, too low and too base for him. This is not yet like the Lord's expression by the Apostle, showing how eminent and high Christ is (Philippians 2:9): Therefore God also has more than exalted him; he says not [in non-Latin alphabet], God has heightened or exalted Christ; but God has [in non-Latin alphabet] over-heightened and super-exalted him, and has gifted to him [in non-Latin alphabet], a name above all names that is real honor, above all expression, above all thoughts; if such a temple and seat of majesty might be named, it should not be above every name, nor a glory above every glory that can be named either in this world, or in the world to come.

To me] Conversion is the drawing of a sinner to Christ; it is a supernatural journey, it is not a common way; to come to this eternal wisdom of God, as says Job (Job 28:7), a path which no fowl knows and the vulture's eye has not seen; where is the place of understanding (verse 21), seeing it is hid from all living, and kept close from the birds of the air; destruction and death say we have heard the fame thereof with our ears (verse 23); where is it then? Nature's dark candle cannot show it (verse 23). God understands the way thereof, and he knows the place thereof (Proverbs 15:24). The way of life is on high; the way of the life of all excellent lives is a high and an exalted way, every man knows it not.

2. Christ says, by way of exclusion, that he gets not one soul to him, but by strong hand and violence; never a man comes to Christ on his own clay legs, and with the strength of his own goodwill (John 6:44): No man can come to me, except the Father, which has sent me, draw him.

3. There are other acts of God, of a high reach, in these that come to Christ, as there must be a resigning over, a making over of the Father to the Son (verse 39): All that the Father gives me shall come; the Father's making over of any soul, or his giving one to Christ, is not by way of alienation, as if the man belonged no more to the Father, or were no more under the tutelage and guidance of the Father, but under the Son. Familists teach us that there are distinct seasons of the working of the several persons of the Trinity, so as the soul may be said to be so long under the Father's work, and not the Son's, and so long under the Son's work, and not the Spirit's.

We know no such distinct posts to heaven, nor such shifting from hand to hand; the saints have many bouts in their way to glory, but all the three jointly at the same season help at the lifting of the dead out of the graves (John 6:39, 44, 45; John 5:24, 25). All the three in one deed of life open blind eyes and convert lost sinners (Matthew 11:25, 26, 27; Ephesians 1:17, 18; Matthew 16:17; John 12:32; 2 Corinthians 3:14, 15, 16, 17; John 14:23; John 16:7, 8, 9, 10; John 14:16; Ephesians 2:1, 2, 3, 4; 1 John 2:27; 1 John 5:6, 7). Grace, mercy, and peace come at the same season to the seven Churches from all the three: from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven Spirits that are before the throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, etc. (2 Corinthians 13:14; Revelation 1:4, 5). Then the Father so gives the elect to the Son, as I should not desire to be out from under the care and [reconstructed: tutelage] of the Father; the Father makes them over, and keeps them in his own bowels, and in the truth (John 17:2, 10, 11). So there is the Father's teaching, and the hearing and learning from the Father (John 6:15). It is written in the Prophets, and they shall all be taught of God; every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to me.

In the uses of the doctrine, I have three things to speak of: 1. What a sin they be under, who resist the right arm of the Father. 2. What free will and moral honesty can do, or how nothing they are to work a communion with God. 3. These are to be refuted, who think we are neither to pray, nor to do, nor to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, but when the Lord by saving grace acts in us, and draws irresistibly. Now to the end that this common Gospel-sin may be the better seen in all its spots, consider: 1. What is in Christ the drawer. 2. What is in grace, by which sinners are drawn.

1. In Christ the drawer: there are many drawers suiting us — the world is the tail of the great red Dragon, and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them down to the earth (Revelation 12:4). Glorious professors, like glistering stars up in heaven, are drawn away after the dirty world — should there be more power in Satan's tail to draw down stars from heaven than there is beauty and sweetness in Christ's face to ravish hearts? And (Deuteronomy 30:17), some turn away their hearts, and are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them; yet they are but bastard gods — Christ has a true, real Godhead in himself. Why will you not be drawn after the smell of his precious ointments? And (Acts 5:37), Judas of Galilee arose, and drew away much people after him, and they were destroyed. And (James 1:14), every tempted man — and who is not tempted? — is drawn away of his own lust; and this is a mother with child of death and hell. Supposed goodness is an angle, a vast net, that draws millions of souls to eternal perdition; every man has a soul-drawer about him — devils and false teachers are pulling at, and hauling souls. O, be drawn by Christ; he is the rose without a thorn, the sun without a cloud, the beauty of the Godhead without a spot; he draws his Father's heart to love him, and delight in him. Christ's love and the art of free grace are good at drawing of souls; there is not a soul-drawer comparable to him. Ah, our hearts are as heavy as hell; suppose that hell were of the bigness of ten worlds, all of sand, iron, or the heaviest stones in the world — nay, all fancies that pretend loveliness are but lies, and Christ true; every piece of fair clay is hell, and Christ heaven; every beauty blackness, and he all loves (Song of Solomon 5:16).

2. For alluring souls in a moral way, nothing is like Christ in the Gospel; David is called by the Holy Spirit the sweet singer of Israel; when Christ speaks to hearts, he sings like heaven, and like the glory of a new unseen world. Joseph was blessed of the Lord (Deuteronomy 33:16) for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush; it is most alluring in Christ that he is the bird in the bush, the bird of paradise, the turtle-dove in our land (Song of Solomon 2:12), that sings the sweet Gospel-hymns and Psalms of good tidings from Zion — peace, peace from heaven to the broken-hearted mourners in Zion. All the Gospel is a love song of Christ dying for love to enjoy sinners of clay, and to have them with him in heaven — are not these love songs of the bird whose nest was in the bush? If any man thirsts — says Christ — let him come to me and drink; and whoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. If this cannot draw to Christ, the law, curses, and rewards cannot draw; Christ pipes a spring of joyful news, but few dance (Matthew 11:16).

The lower that high love descends, the sweeter and the more drawing, and the greatest guiltiness not to be drawn. Christ came down from a Godhead, and emptied himself for us to be a worm, and no man (Psalm 22:6). The last of men (Isaiah 53:3), it was a question whether he were in the number of men, so the word imports; and he dwelt in the bush; he made not his nest among cedars, but in the bush — a bush, from where comes Sinah, or a desert and wilderness, such as was in Arabia. Christ takes it hard, and weeps for it (Matthew 23:37; Luke 19:42), that he came down as a hen in the bush — (O but Christ has broad wings, far above the eagle) — and would have made sinners in Jerusalem his young ones, to nourish them with heat from his own bosom and heart; but they would not be drawn. And when he appears in a time of captivity (Zechariah 1), to save his people out of captivity, many would not be saved; he is seen in verse 8, among the myrtle trees in the bottom. It is true, the myrtle tree is far above the briar and the thorn (Isaiah 55:13), yet it is as much as Christ dwells among the bushes, and came down to the lowest plants, for the myrtle is a bush rather than a tree, and grows in valleys, deserts, on the seashore. Christ is a young low plant, and a root out of a dry ground; it is a matter of challenge that none believed his report, and few were drawn by the Lord Jesus, who is God's arm, all the strength of God and the drawing power of grace being in Christ, and in Christ who came down so low in his love to us. Low-stooping love refused is a great deal of guiltiness; salvation itself cannot save, when love submitting itself to hell, to death, to shame, to the grave, cannot save. You think little to let a love song of the Gospel four times a week pass by you; but you know not what a guiltiness it is.

The greater the happiness you are drawn to, the higher is the sin. Should Christ draw you to the mount burning with fire, to the law-curses, to the terrible sight of the fiery indignation of God, men would say it were less sin to refuse him; but he draws you (Hebrews 12:22) to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling. And he adds, despise not this; he is a speaker from heaven. It is but one house, one family, which is in earth and heaven; they differ but as elder and younger brothers. Paul (Romans 16:7) puts a note of respect on Andronicus and Junia, who (says he) also were in Christ before me. There is more honor put on them that are in glory before us, than on us, as the firstborn of nature and grace; so the firstborn of glory are honored before us (we should not weep for our friends' crown and honor when they die), yet they be all one house. Then to be drawn to Christ is to be drawn to heaven; he should deservedly weep forever, and gnash his teeth in hell, who in right down terms refuses to be drawn to heaven.

There is another ground of showing what a high provocation it is to resist the Gospel-drawings of Christ's arm, and it is the way of resisting the operation of grace. Interpreters say on the text that Christ's drawing, when he is lifted upon the cross, is a clear allusion to the manner of Christ's crucifying, for he with his two arms stretched out, holds out his breast, opens his bosom and heart, and cries who will come and lodge in Christ's heart. And again, favors offered by a great friend in his death ought not to be refused; and the sour tree of the cross was Christ's deathbed; here he made his last will, and which no dying friend does, Christ dying left his heart, and bowels of tender love to his dear friends; he died drawing and pulling in sinners to his heart. What a sin must it be to meet his love with hatred and disdain? Second, grace moves in a circle of life, the spring and fountain is the heart of Christ, and it reflects back to Christ's heart; he rests not with stretched-out arms to pull, until he has his friends and church in at his heart. Third, the motion of free grace is a subduing and a conquering thing, and strong to captivate our love; when you see Christ dying and leaping for joy to die for you, and when you see him set to his head a cup of thick wrath, of death and hell, and see him smile and sing, and sigh and drink hell and death for you, it lays bands of love on the heart. What iron bowels must he have who would break the cup on his face, and despise his love? Grace applied to the heart makes it ingenuous, free, thankful; how can the sinner withhold his love without the greatest guiltiness that ever devils committed? For they cannot resist Christ's drawing love. O what sweetness of strongest and captivating love to see Christ and the tear in his eye, and his face foul with weeping, and his visage more marred than any of the sons of men (Isaiah 52:14), and a flood of blood on his body (Luke 22:44), and yet good will, and joy, and delight to do and suffer God's will for us, sitting on his brows (Psalm 40:6-8; Hebrews 10:5-7). Now when Christ is burnt up with love, and sick of tender kindness, to cast water on this love by resisting it is the highest Gospel-sin that can be, except despising of the Holy Ghost. And a third ground of aggravating to the full this sin of resisting Christ's drawing — I take from the judgment and the plague and Gospel-vengeance on such as Christ draws, and they will not be drawn, and is the sin of the times; I refer these to two heads.

1. This gospel despising of Christ now reigning in the age and kingdoms that we live in, comes near to the borders of the sin against the Holy Ghost, for the more men be convinced and enlightened, if they are not drawn to Christ, they are the nearer to this sin (Hebrews 6:4-5; Hebrews 10:26-27). Now may we not think hardly of these who are convinced of many gospel truths, and yet oppose them? Does not Christ's love come near them, and they fly from it? Now but to neighbor or border on the coasts of a sin, like to the sin against the Holy Ghost, may cost men as dear as the loss of their soul and the next furnace for torment and pain, to these that sin against the Holy Ghost.

2. The temporal plague that comes nearest to eternal, is the judgment of God on the Jews that refused and resisted Christ; see what expression is put on the last judgment, that same is on the judgment of Jerusalem's destruction for resisting Christ. For 1. It is hell-like, when mothers shall wish their children had never been born; and when they shall as damned in the day of judgment, pray, mountains fall on us, and hills cover us (Luke 23:29-30).

Use 2. If Christ draws all men to him, then they are far wide who think that free will and moral honesty can bring men to heaven; there are no moralists in heaven who were pure moralists on earth, and had nothing of the gospel-drawing and of supernatural work in them; civil saints can never be glorified saints; thousands are deceived with this; they think their lamp can show them light to know the bridegroom's chamber-door; but take these for marks of deluded men.

1. Such men will shoot and cry at adultery, as he that took Abraham's wife from him; and a Cain may be maddened with murdering his brother; but was Cain touched for gospel sins? Is Judas wakened in conscience for that which is the special condemning gospel-sin, the cause of condemnation and dying in sin (John 3:36; John 16:9; John 8:24)? No, but for murdering his master; it is the light of the Spirit that sees spiritual sins spiritually.

2. Profession looks like paradise and the rainbow; it is big in its own eyes, and the fairest for variety of colors; but it is a self-plague and does carry millions of souls to hell without din and noise of feet, it is Christ acting judicially on the hypocrite within pistol shot of a besieged soul, making fire-works under the earth; and when all within are sleeping, Christ springs a powder-mine, and burns up all forward: gospel fire-works make more than ordinary fury in the soul; open, open to Christ; multiplied fastings, and taking Christ's crown from him are dreadful.

3. They had never a sick-night for the want of Christ; gospel profession is a light to let men see to sin, a candle to let men see to go to hell, and lie down in sorrow with art. Ah what comfort is it that I go to hell, no man seeing me, and by stealth, and my back to the pit? What a poor comfort to go to eternal perdition, fasting and praying monthly, multiplying days of thanksgiving, and withal plundering Christ of his royal crown, following the sins of prelates whom God cast out before us, exercising rapine, and injustice, giving new laws to Christ, and planting plants, which God will root out? The manner of perishing is a poor accident of death. O but heart-boiling of love, a faint pulse, a pale and a lean sinner dying for the absence of Christ, no man but the Spirit and physician knowing what ails him, are sweet diseases; let the love of Christ absent be in the man's soul a deep river: how sweet were it to be drowned in that river, and to die a hundred deaths in one day, because he whom the soul loves, is gone away? O watchmen know you not where he is? O daughters of Jerusalem, can you tell him that I am sick of love? O shepherds, where is Christ's tent? Where does he dwell? What is profession to this? A shadow, a straw, nothing, vanity.

4. What a deceitful thing is it to make free will the great idol, and to hire a house in heaven, for the income and rent of merit? Can it be imagined that the love of Christ can be hired? So much as it should have of hire, so much it should want of free-love; how can the heart of God be taken with the merit of man? Grace is the flower, and the freeness of grace like the beautiful bloom of the flower; and this freeness is so taking that it lays bands and chains on the heart; were there a good deserving in the man to buy grace, the cord should be as a single and untwisted thread.

Use 3. Christ so draws all men to him, that drawn man's will is not forced, as we have seen; and therefore Libertines err foully, who make the drawn party, blocks, and stones, and mere patients; hence these positions of Familists and Libertines.

1. In the saving and gracious conversion of a sinner the faculties of the soul and working thereof, in things pertaining to God, are destroyed, and made to cease.

2. And instead of these the Holy Ghost does come and take place, and does all the works of these natural faculties, as the faculties of the human nature of Christ do.

3. The new creature, or the new man mentioned in Scripture, is not meant of grace, but of Christ.

4. Christ works in the regenerate, as in those that are dead, and not as in those that are alive; or, the regenerate after conversion, are altogether dead to spiritual acts.

5. There is no inherent righteousness in the saints, or graces are not in the souls of believers, but grace is Christ himself working in us; who are mere patients in all supernatural works.

6. Faith, repentance, new obedience, are gifts, not graces — all the elect are saved, and receive the kingdom as little children do their father's inheritance passively. Mr. Towne says in sanctification as well as in justification, we are mere patients, and can do nothing at all. Assertion of grace, pages 11 and 68.

7. The Spirit does not work in hypocrites by gifts and graces, but in God's children immediately.

8. We may not pray for gifts and graces, but only for Christ.

9. The efficacy of Christ's death is to kill all activity of graces in his members, that he might act all in all.

10. All the activity of a believer is to act sin.

11. We are not bound to keep a constant course of prayer in our families, or privately, unless the Spirit stirs us to do so.

12. If Christ will let me sin, let him look to it, upon his honor be it.

13. The new heart and the walking in God's commandments are no conditions of the Covenant of Grace; where is there one word, that God says to man you shall do this? If God had put man upon these things, then they were conditions indeed: but when God takes all upon himself, where are then the conditions on man's part? If there be a condition, he that undertakes all things in the covenant must needs be in the fault; if the Lord work not in us a clean heart, and cause us not walk in his commandments, it is then the Lord's fault (absit blasphemia) if we sin against the covenant.

14. The blessedness of a man, is only passive, not active in his holy, and unblameable walking.

To the end that these errors may the more fully be discovered, we are to inquire in these Assertions, what activity we have in works of grace.

Assertion 1. In the first moment of our conversion, called actus primus conversionis, we are mere patients.

1. Because the infusion of the new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), the pouring of the Spirit of Grace and supplication on the family of David (Zechariah 12:10), and of the Spirit on the thirsty ground (Isaiah 44:3), is a work of creation (Ephesians 2:10; Psalm 51:10), a quickening of the dead (Ephesians 2:1-4; John 5:25; 2 Corinthians 4:6), and the wilderness is not here a co-agent for the causing roses to blossom out of the earth.

2. The effect is not wholly denied of the collateral cause, and ascribed wholly to another. If Peter and John draw a ship between them, with joint strength, you cannot say, the one drew the ship, not the other: But Christ said flesh and blood makes no revelations of Christ, but his father only (Matthew 16:17; Matthew 11:25-27; James 1:18; John 1:18). Then neither blood, nor the will of man contribute any active influence to the first framing of the new birth; nor can clay divide the glory of regeneration, with the God of grace, who makes all things new.

Assertion 2. The soul or its faculties are not destroyed in conversion: Peter's will which he had when he was young, was the same when converted, but renewed (John 21:18). The saints that Peter writes to, are not to run to the same excess of riot as of old they worked the will of the Gentiles (1 Peter 4:3-4). Paul and Titus were the same men, when disobedient and serving diverse lusts, and when converted, and now washed, regenerated, and justified heirs (Titus 3:1-4). Paul the same man, a persecutor and an Apostle, but Grace made a change (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). The same mind and spirit remains in nature; but they are renewed in the spirit of the mind (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23). It is the same heart, but turned to the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:15-16). Christ but removes the scum, and the dross, and the false metal, and frames the man a new vessel of mercy.

Assertion 3. The person of the Holy Spirit is not united to the soul of a believer, nor are there two persons here united or made one Spirit by union of person with person; but the person is said to come to the saints, and to dwell with them, and to be in them (John 14:16-17), and God has sent the Spirit of his son in our hearts, crying, Abba Father. Not that the Holy Spirit, in proper person, does in us formally, and immediately believe, pray, love, repent, etc., we being mere patients in understanding, will, affections, memory, as Libertines teach. But the Holy Spirit comes to the saints and dwells in them, in the spiritual gifts, and saving graces, and supernatural qualities created in us, by the Holy Spirit, and acted, excited, and moved, as supernatural and heavenly habits, to act with the vital influence of our understanding, will, and affections.

I prove the former part: 1. Because such a union of the person of the Holy Spirit in us, believing, loving, rejoicing, praying, and immediately in us, were that blasphemous deifying and Godding of the saints, so as believing, loving, praying, were not our works, but the immediate acts of the Holy Spirit. And either the faint manner of believing, or the cold slackened loving, and praying of saints, or their not believing, and sinful omission of the acts of faith, love, praying, rejoicing, could not be more imputed to saints, as their sinful defects, and transgressions, (but must be laid on the Holy Spirit's score) than we can impute the splitting of a ship, to the ship itself and not to the negligent and willful pilot who of purpose dashed the vessel on a rock. But we must not in reason blame the ship, but the pilot; for the loss of the ship, is the only and proper fault of the man that steered the ship, and the ship is innocent and harmless timber. Now what sin can be in the saints in these supernatural acts, if the Holy Spirit immediately in his own person, stirs the helm, and only, without us, acts these in us? We might with as good reason say, the shop that a man works in does make the portrait, which is a great untruth, since the artificer in the shop does it — as say that the saints do pray, believe, rejoice, if the Holy Spirit immediately does all these in them, as in a shop.

2. Upon the same ground the Lord's coming down and filling John the Baptist from his mother's womb, and the Apostles and Stephen full of the Holy Spirit, should be the Holy Spirit's personal filling of them, and his immediate acting in them, without any action of them, in preaching, praying, and their heavenly bold confessing of Christ before men. And there should be no difference between the Ark and Temple of Jerusalem, filled with the immediate presence of God, in the Lord's manifestation of his glory there, and these saints filled with God, in these works of free grace. I shall not believe that the person of God, can be said to be united to either Ark, Temple, Apostle, or Martyr; all the union is in the effects and manifestations of graces, or tokens of Divine presence, which are creatures rising and falling with time.

3. That excellent and living [reconstructed: work], the most glorious and admirable thing that heaven has, the Lord Jesus, is God and man, two natures united in one person. But both the word of God making that He — that same Holy thing, born of the virgin Mary, the Son of God (Luke 1:5) — and that same He, and person who came of the Jews, according to the flesh, to be God blessed for ever (Romans 9:5; Hebrews 7:3; Matthew 16:13, 16), and the third general Council, called that of Ephesus, and after the council of Chalcedon, verses 4 and 5, do evidence to us that Christ cannot be two persons as Nestorius dreamed, and one person. Paul spread the Gospel from Jerusalem to Iliricum, about ten hundred miles. I know not he, but the grace of God that was with him (1 Corinthians 15:9-10): not he, but the Lord. True, but the question now is whether Paul and the holy Ghost in all these works of grace, were two persons become one Spirit by union, as some dreamers affirm; because both did the work; I believe not. God and clouds rained down Manna to Israel; but Christ's father (John 6) gave the Manna, but the question is if the person of God were united with the clouds or any second causes producing Manna. So the Lord makes rich and poor, kills, and makes alive, makes snow, frost, fair weather, drought, and rain, the Sun to rise, and go down, and that in his own person, Father, Son, and Spirit. He, he only made Heaven, Earth, Sea, and all creatures, and the world; [illegible] (Acts 17:25) and [illegible] (Psalms 33:9) do prove him to be a person who does all these. But we cannot say that the person of God must be united with clouds, ship, sea, Sun, heavens, men fighting, and men saving, and killing; and that God personally fills all creatures — only God in the immensity of his nature is all these and every where, and is in them by his operation. So the holy Ghost is with the saints, and dwells in [illegible], not by union of his person to them or the immensity of his essence, which is, as David says, every where (Psalms 139:7): "Where shall I go from your Spirit?" — but so he is in heaven, in hell, in the sea. 2. But he dwells in the saints, in regard of the works, operations, gifts, and graces of the holy Ghost.

1. Because the holy Spirit is in them, in that they have in them the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), such as love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. Now these are not the holy Ghost, who is eternal, and God uncreated, but are created in time, out of mere nothing, not out of the potency of the subject. But before God produces grace, so knotty and so rocky are we, and so contrary to grace, that he must fall upon a new and second creation (Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 2:10; Psalms 51:10). The same word that is used for creating heaven and earth (Genesis 1:[illegible]) is here used. It is not like the repairing of a fallen house, where the same timber and stones may do the work, or the repairing of decayed nature, when a healthy body recovers out of a fever. Grace is a rare and curious workmanship.

2. We are said to grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18), and by grace to increase to the edifying of the body in love (Ephesians 4:16), and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (verse 13), and to add grace to grace (2 Peter 1:5-7), and to go on to perfection (Hebrews 6:1; Philippians 3:12). But the person of the holy Ghost is not capable of growing, or addition, nor like the morning light, or the new Moon, that can grow and advance in perfection, being God blessed for ever.

3. If there be a union of the person of the Holy Ghost with the soul, and not an in-dwelling by graces, the believer as a believer must live by the uncreated and eternal life of the Holy Ghost, or a created life. Creatum vel increatum dividunt omne ens immediatè, sicut finitum & infinitum: not the former; neither any man, nor the man Christ can in any capacity be elevated so above himself, as to partake of the infinite life of God. How the manhood of Christ partakes of the personal subsistence of the Godhead is incomprehensible to me, except that it is not by such a union as my singular nature stands under personality created, and is by assumption rather than union. However, if there be a union of the person of the Holy Ghost to our souls, it cannot be conceived, nor does Scripture speak of it. If the saints live the life of God, it must be by created graces, and this is that we conceive.

4. The person of the Holy Ghost immediately acting in the saints, without them or any active and vital influence of the natural faculties, cannot be guilty of sin, because David and Christ are absolved of sin in this: "They laid to my charge things that I knew not" — that is, things I never acted, crimes in which I had no action or hand. But we are blamed in the word for all the omissions of holy duties, and the Holy Ghost cannot be blamed, for he blows when, and where he wills, and is under no law in his motions of free grace. Then he who cannot be blamed in not acting cannot be united as one spirit, person with person, with him who is justly to be blamed in not acting.

Assertion 4. It must evidently follow that there is in the saints a grace created that is neither Christ, nor the Holy Ghost in person; for what reason any has to fancy a union of the person of Christ or the Holy Ghost in the saints, the same reason have they to say that all the three are united to the person of the believer in all supernatural actions, for the Father is said to draw men to the Son (John 6:44), and Christ to reveal the Father, and to draw men (John 1:18; John 12:32), and the Holy Ghost to reveal the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). Now all the three in person do these, but all the three persons are not united to believers in person. This were a mystery greater than God [reconstructed: manifested] in the flesh, and unknown to Scripture.

2. If Christ be all the grace of believers, faith in Christ, and the love of Christ, should be Christ.

Then should a believer having a new heart, and a new Spirit, be Christed, or Godded; and God should be [reconstructed: incarnate] in every believer, and how many Christs should there be? And the new heart in one Saint, and the grace given to Paul, should be the new heart given to Peter, whereas God has given grace to every man, according to his measure, and there are diversity of gifts, but one Spirit (2 Peter 3:15; Philippians 1:9; Ephesians 3:3-5; 1 Corinthians 12:3, 5-6; Ephesians 4:16).

Assertion 5. The grace of God and our free will in a four-fold sense may be said to concur in the same works of grace.

1. When free-will receives no more from grace and the Lord's drawing, but only literal instruction, and if by our industry a habit of the knowledge of the letter of the word be acquired, it is necessary only to the easier believing, as Pelagius said, I may believe without preaching the Gospel, by reading, but more easily by fair and powerful preaching, and by grace helping and assisting preaching, but yet without grace, but with greater difficulty, as I may go a journey on foot, but more easily on horseback; then a horse is not simply necessary for the journey; and a ship may sail more easily and expeditiously with sails, yet also without sails with the help of oars though with more difficulty; thus Christ and his grace may be spared, we may sail to heaven by nature's sweating and free-will's industry, though the sails of grace could more expeditiously promote our journey. Now we think not that Christ draws when men speak, but the bare letter of the Gospel; and softly requests the dead with only sound of words and syllables to live, and orators with golden words do pray and persuade the blind to see, and the cripples to walk; but it is long before words fetch a soul to dry bones that they may live, or tie the broken eye-strings, or add vital power and life to eyes and ankle-bones.

2. Grace and free-will (as Bellarmine and the rest of the Jesuits with Arminians teach) may be thought to be two joint causes, the one not depending on the other, as two carrying one stone or burden, neither he helps him, nor he him, but both join their independent strength to one common effect. Bellarmine and Grevinchovius with the like comparisons do prove that we may storm heaven, by the strength of free-will, without dependence on Christ; for three untruths are here taught: 1. That grace determines not free-will; a saying destructive to providence; if God determine not all second causes, he is not Master of all events, nor has he a dominion of providence in all things that fall out, good and evil: 2. Grace does not begin in all things that concern salvation, nor does the Lord work in us to will and to do; if we will not do without any prior dependence on the influence of the grace of God, we as much work in ourselves willing and doing, as the Lord does, and the Lord in his grace shall follow, and not lead our will. 3. Grace does not confer any help on the will to actuate it, and to strengthen it in doing good, in believing, repenting, loving God, hoping, (as Grevinchovius says) but will and grace do both jointly meet in one and the same effect, in which 4 Free-will divides the spoil with Christ; and what need we say, worthy is the Lamb who has redeemed us, if free-will in the application of redemption share equally with the grace of Christ?

3. The third way is that free-will is said to believe, repent, love God, by a mere extrinsic denomination, because it carries that grace which formally and only does perform all these supernatural actions; so grace does all, and free-will is a mere patient that confers no vital subordinate and active influence in these acts; as we say, the apothecary's glass heals the wound, because the oil in the glass works the cure; when the glass does actively contribute nothing to the cure; or the ass makes rich, when it carries the gold that enriches only; this sense Antinomians hold forth, and make us mere patients, and blocks in the way to heaven, and this sense Jesuits, especially Martinez de Ripalda, falsely charges upon Luther and Calvin; and the Council of Trent, inspired with the same lying Spirit, says the same.

4. The fourth sense is that grace and free-will does work so as grace is the principal, first inspiring and fountain cause: 1. It being a new supernatural disposition and habit in the soul (John 14:23; 1 John 2:27; 1 John 3:9; John 4:14; Isaiah 44:3-4; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Deuteronomy 30:6). A good treasure or stock of grace (Matthew 12:35; Luke 6:45), and also actually it determines, sweetly inclines and stirs the will to these acts; yet so as free-will moves actively, freely, and confers a radical, vital, and subordinate influence and is not a mere patient in all these, as Antinomians dream (Psalm 119:32). I will run the way of your commandments, when you shall enlarge my heart (John 14:12). He that believes in me, the works that I do, he shall do, and greater than these (Matthew 12:50). He that does the will of my heavenly Father, the same is my brother, etc. (1 Corinthians 9:24). So run, that you may obtain (Revelation 2:2). I know your works and your labor (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope: 1. We are not dead in supernatural works, and mere blocks (Romans 6:11). We are alive to God in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1). He has quickened us (Revelation 2:3). For my name's sake you have labored, and have not fainted (1 Corinthians 15:58). Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abundant in the work of the Lord — there is activity in the Spirit to lust against the flesh (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:15). Nor is the blessedness of the Saints only passive in receiving: though to be justified and receive Christ's righteousness, be the fountain blessedness (Psalm 32:1; Romans 4:6-7; Galatians 3:13). But the Scripture speaks of a true and solid blessedness in action (Psalm 119:1). Blessed are the undefiled in the way (Isaiah 56:2). Blessed is the man that does this (James 1:12). Blessed is the man that endures temptation (Psalm 119:2). Blessed are they that keep his testimonies (Psalm 106:3). Blessed are they that keep judgment (Revelation 22:14). Blessed are they that do his commandments (Matthew 5). Blessed are they that mourn, that hunger and thirst; then there must be a part of blessedness in sanctification, as in justification; though the one be the cause, the other the effect.

Assertion 6. The Lord's working in us the condition of the Covenant of Grace, such as faith is, by his efficacious grace, does not free us from sin, when we believe not, nor involve God in the fault, when he works not in us to believe, as Crispe imagines; here let me by the way remove the arguments of Doctor Crispe by which he imagines, that there is no condition at all in the covenant of grace.

Argument 1. The Covenant should not be everlasting, if it depended on a condition of faith to be performed by us; for we fail in our performances daily, and the Covenant is annulled and broken as soon as the condition is broken.

Answer. We speak not so, that the Covenant of grace depends on a condition in us; dependency includes a causality in that of which the thing has dependency, we know nothing in us, either faith, or any other thing that is the cause of the covenant of grace, or of the fulfilling of it: a cause is one thing, a condition caused by grace is another thing; for the perpetuity of the covenant there is not required a condition always in act. 1. If at the eleventh or at the twelfth hour, you come to Christ, the nature of this covenant promises you welcome. 2. Particular failings and acts of unbelief, do well consist with the habit and stock of faith that remains in him that is born [reconstructed: of] God, nor is the act so tied to a time. But 3. There is, by tenure of the Covenant, a privilege twofold here. 1. If by the Law a man step a hair's-breadth wide off the way, the door of Paradise is bolted on him, and in again can he never enter, he must seek another entry, the man has done with heaven that way, the law knows not such a thing as repentance; but the Covenant of grace being made with a sinner, a slip, an act of unbelief does not forfeit the mercy of this covenant. But Christ says, if you fall, there is place to rise again; if you sin, there is an Advocate, there is a blood of an eternal covenant; the covenant stands still to make up room for repeated grace, for a thread, and continued tract of free grace and mercy all along that your foot never go out of the traces of renewed pardon, while you be in heaven: though the child of God ought not to sin, yet can he not out-sin the eternity of the new covenant, nor can he sin an eternal priest out of heaven. 2. The Law requires a set measure of obedience, even to the superlative, with all the soul, and the whole strength; any less is the forfeiting of salvation. But the covenant of grace sets no limit for any weak soul, Christ racks not, nor does he (as it were) play the extortioner, and say, either the strongest faith, or none at all; he makes not Abraham's foot a measure to every poor sinner; many smoking flaxes, and broken reeds on earth are now up before the throne; mighty Cedars, high, tall, green, planted on the banks of the river of life; if Adam be the first in Heaven, what though I be the last that enter in, though I close the door in the lowest room, so I see the throne, and him that sits on it, it is enough to me.

2. Argument. All the tie of the covenant lies on God, not any on man, as bond or obligation for the fulfilling of the covenant, or partaking of the benefits thereof (Hebrews 8:10; Ezekiel 36:25-26; Jeremiah 1), the Lord promises to do all and the new heart is but a consequent of the covenant; where is there in all this covenant, one word that God says to man, 'You must do this?' If God had put man on these conditions, then they were conditions indeed: but when God takes all upon himself, where are then the conditions on man's part? Give me leave; suppose there should be a fault of performing in this covenant: whose were the fault? Must not the fault or failing be in him who is tied and bound to every thing in the covenant, and says, he will do it? If there be a condition, and there should be a failing in the condition, he that undertakes all things in the covenant must needs be in the fault — God says not, make yourselves clean; get you the Law of God in your mind, get you power to walk in my statutes, and when you do this, then I will be your God, and enter in covenant with you.

Answer 1. We never teach that the making to ourselves a new heart is an antecedent condition required before the Lord can make the New Covenant with us, as this man would charge Protestant Divines, but that it is a condition required in the party covenanting; which is conditio federatorum, non federis, and such a condition without which it is impossible they can fulfill the other condition which is to believe and so lay hold on the Covenant. But it is clear, Antinomians think the new heart no inherent grace in us, but that Christ is grace working immediately in us as in stones, and the new heart is justification, without us in Christ only. Let Crispe show where the making of a new heart is commanded to us as a consequent and an effect of the Covenant. Surely the new heart, the washing of us with clean water, be it an antecedent, or be it a consequent of the Covenant of Grace, it is a promise that God does freely and of mere grace undertake to perform in us (Ezekiel 36:26). "A new heart will I give you," so (Jeremiah 32:39-40), (Jeremiah 31:33), (Ezekiel 11:19-20), (Isaiah 54:13), (John 6:45). (Ezekiel 36:32) "Not for your sakes, do I this," says the Lord God, "be it known to you; be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel," verse 22. "I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen, wherever you went." And Crispe says the Covenant in the Old Testament had annexed to it diverse conditions, of legal washing and sacrifices, whereas the New Covenant under the New Testament is every way of free grace. He is far wide; conditions wrought in us by grace, such as we assert, take not one jot or tittle of the freedom of Grace away, and though there be major gratia — a larger measure of grace under the New Testament — yet there is not magis gratia; there is no more of the essence of free grace in the one, than in the other; for all was free grace to them, as to us. Why did the Lord enter in Covenant with the Jews more than with other nations? (Deuteronomy 7:7) "The Lord loved you because he loved you." Was Jerusalem (Ezekiel 16) holier than the Ephesians (Ephesians 2)? No, their nativity was of the land of Canaan, their Father an Amorite, their Mother a Hittite (Ezekiel 16:5). "You were cast out in the open field, to the loathing of your person, in the day that you were born," verse 6. "And when I passed by you, and saw you polluted in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, live." And to cause grace have a deeper impression and sinking down into the heart's bottom, he repeats it again: "I said to you in your blood, live." And will Crispe say, that this is not a history of free grace, as far from bribe or hire of merits as in the world? Or, will he say, it was God's meaning: First, wash you with holy water, and sacrifice to me, and perform all these legal conditions to me while you are Amorites and Hittites by kind, and that being done, He will enter in Covenant with you, when you have done your work, He will pay your wages, and be your God.

2. This argument militates strongly against every Gospel duty, and the whole course of sanctification. God must so be the cause and only cause of all our sinful omissions and sins under the Covenant of grace, in that he promises to work in us to will and to do, and to give us grace to abstain from sin, but does not stand to his word as Antinomians teach, which is an argument unanswerable to me, that it is the mind of Antinomians that no justified person can sin, but that they omit good, or commit ill — God is in the fault, not they. And that the justified are mere blocks in all the course of their sanctification; in all the sins they do, they are patients; God should more carefully see to his own honor, and not suffer them to sin. So they and the old Libertines go on together. For say, that the new heart, that to will and to do, to persevere steadfastly in the Grace of God, were no conditions of the Covenant (surely believing in the Lord Jesus is clearly a condition of the righteousness of faith, as doing is of the righteousness which is of the Law (Romans 10:3-8), (Galatians 4:22-28)). Say that to repent, pray, love God, and serve him, were not from God through the bond of the New Covenant, yet God's promise, his single word when he says he will do such and such things, is as strong a bond as his Covenant and oath, when he knows it is impossible these things that he says he will do, can be done, except he, of his mere grace, work them in us. Now the Lord clearly promises, that he will give repentance (Acts 5:31); sorrow for sin, the Spirit of grace and supplication (Zechariah 12:10); a circumcised heart to love and serve the Lord (Deuteronomy 30:6), (Ezekiel 36:26); perseverance in Grace (Jeremiah 32:40-41), (Isaiah 54:10), (Isaiah 59:20-21), (Psalm 1:3), (John 4:14), (John 10:28), (Philippians 1:6), (Ephesians 5:26-27), (1 John 2:1). Then let Doctor Crispe or any Libertine say, when the saints sin, in not praying, in not sorrowing for sin, in not willing, and doing, in their sins and falls in their Christian race to heaven — let me speak in the words of Crisp — whose fault is it, or failing not to perform the word, or promise of God? God undertakes by promise, yes by his simple word, to fulfill what he promises, and says he will work all these in us, yes to will and to do; therefore, if it be not done, the fault cannot be man's, but it must be — which I abhor to write or speak — the Lord's.

3. God takes all upon himself, in genere causae gratiosae, Liberrimae, independentis, primae, non obligatae ad agendum ex ullae lege; in the kind of a cause that works by mere grace, freely, independently, without any Law above him to oblige him to do otherwise with his own, than he freely wills, decrees, promises; for men carnally divide God's decree, which is most free, from his promise which is as free as his decree, but it follows in no sort, as Arminians and Jesuits object to us; therefore men who do not believe, pray, walk holily, are not in the fault, being under a Law to obey; for sinful inability to obey can ransom no man from the obligation of obedience; and most blasphemous it is, that because God undertakes in the Covenant, that we shall walk in his commandments, as he does promise (Ezekiel 36:27), and that we shall fear him (Jeremiah 32:39-40), that God should therefore be in the fault, and we free of all fault, when in many particulars we offend all (James 3:2), and we fear not God, in this or this sin; as is possible and may be gathered from Joseph's speech to his brethren; who says he would not wrong them, for he feared God; and Job's word, that he dared not despise the cause of his servant, because he was afraid of God. Yet God promises, that he will keep Joseph, Job and all the elect in the way of God's Commandments, that they shall not fully fall away from him: God never by promise, covenant, oath, or word, undertakes to keep his elect from this or this particular breach and act of unbelief, against the Covenant of grace.

4. The fault against the Gospel or any sin in a believer must justly be imputed to him, because he is tied by the Evangelical Law not to sin in any thing, the Gospel grants pardons, but not dispensations in any sins; and it can in no sort be imputed to God, because if any believer fall in a particular sin or act of unbelief against the covenant of grace, the Lord neither decreed, nor did ever undertake by Covenant or promise to keep him, by his effectual grace from falling in that sin; for the Lord would then certainly have kept him, as he did Peter, and does all the Elect that are effectually called, that in mighty temptations their faith fail them not. Nor is the act of believing, that is wanting in that particular fall, such a condition of the Covenant as Christ either promised to work, or the necessary condition of the Covenant of Grace, or such a condition the want of which does annul and make void the eternal Covenant of grace.

5. I here smell in Antinomians, that God must be in fault, as the author of our unbelief, our stony hearts, our walking in our fleshly ways, because God has promised to give us faith, and a heart of flesh, to walk in his ways, as the old Libertines said God was the principal and chief cause of sin, and that God did all things, both good and ill, the creatures did nothing. So Calvin in his Institutes, against Libertines, chapter 14, in opus. page 446. Mr. Archer downright says, God is the author of sin. What end is there of erring, if God leave us? It is true, the tie, and all the tie of giving a new heart, and the Spirit of grace and supplication lies on the Lord who promised so to do (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:33-36). But yet so that we are under the obligation of divine precepts to do our part (Ezekiel 18:31): make you a new heart and a new Spirit for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Jeremiah 4:4): Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskin of your heart. (Ephesians 4:23): be renewed in the Spirit of your mind. (Romans 12:2; Romans 13:14; and 1 Thessalonians 5:17): pray without ceasing. (Psalm 50:15): Call upon me. (Matthew 26:41): Watch and pray. Therefore all the tie and obligation of whatever kind cannot so free us from sinful omissions, nor can the tie lie on God; evangelical commandments are accompanied with grace to obey and grace lays a tie on us also to yield obedience.

6. It is a foul and ignorant mistake in Crisp to make the Covenant nothing but that love of God to man, which he cast on man before the children had done good or evil (Romans 9:1). That love is eternal and has no respect to faith as to a condition, but it is not the covenant itself, because it is the cause of the covenant. 2. To the love of election, there is no love, no work, no act of believing required on our part; indeed, no mediator, no shedding of blood; we are loved with an everlasting love, before all these; but the covenant though as decreed of God, it be everlasting, (as all the works of creation and divine providence which fall out in time, and have beginning and end are so everlasting, for God decreed from eternity that they should be) yet it is not in being formally while it be preached to Adam after his fall, and there is required faith on all the saints' part, to lay hold on the Covenant (Isaiah 56:4), and to make it a covenant of peace to the saints in particular. 2. Faith is the condition of the covenant. 3. Christ the mediator of it. 4. Christ's blood the seal of it. 5. The Spirit must write it in our heart: but the love of election is a complete free, full love, before our faith, or shedding of blood, or a mediator be at all.

Objection. We are not saved, nor justified, nor taken in Covenant by faith, as a work, (says Crisp, for then we should not be saved by grace; and grace should not be grace); but we are justified by faith, that is, by that Christ which faith knows, according to that, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; therefore faith is no condition of this covenant.

Answer. The contrary rather follows: 1. Seeing Crisp does say, none under heaven can be saved till they have believed; We are not taken in covenant by faith; neither we nor scripture speak so; taking us in covenant is before we can believe, but we lay hold on Christ, and righteousness by faith, not as a work, but a necessary condition required of us. 2. I leave it to the consideration of the godly; if believing in him who justifies the ungodly be no condition; (a work justifying, I do not think it) but only I believe and know that Christ justified me before I believed, from eternity, as some say; when I was conceived in the womb, as Crisp says; and that the threatening, he that believes not, is condemned already, carries this sense, he that believes not that he is not condemned, he is already condemned: Who can believe such trifles?

2. Believing is a receiving of Christ (John [illegible]); Christ's dwelling in the heart (Ephesians 3:17). Then to [illegible], must be to know that Christ was in me, before I believed, and that I received him from eternity, or from my conception.

3. To believe makes me a son born, not of flesh and blood (John 1:12-13, and Galatians 3:26), and by faith we receive the Spirit. This then must be nothing else but: I know by the light of faith, I was a son before, and had received the Spirit, before I believed. What more absurd?

4. And by faith I live not, Christ lives in me, and I am crucified and mortified; that is, by faith I know that I did live the life of God, and was crucified to the world; whereas I was dead in sins, before I believed.

5. And because believing is somewhat more than a naked act of the mind, it being a fiducial adherence to, and an affiance, acquiescence, and heart-reliance, and staying on Christ, or a rolling of ourselves on God for salvation, as is clear in the original holy languages of Scripture (Psalm 18:18; Isaiah 26:3; Psalm 112:8; Isaiah 10:21; Micah 3:11; Psalm 22:8; Psalm 55:22; 1 Peter 5:7; Song of Solomon 8:5; John 1:12) — it is too hungry a notion of faith, to make it nothing but a knowing of that which really was before; for heart-adherence is not an act of the mind, and so not an act of knowledge, but of the will and affection, in which there is no act of knowledge formally, though it presupposes an act of knowledge.

6. Then wicked men must be in their sins, not justified in his blood, because they will not know that Christ died for them in particular, and that Christ bore their sins on the cross, and justified and pardoned them long ago, all which to believe is to hold a lie in the right hand. But to return.

Assertion 7. How the Lord works in us to will and to do, the power and the act, and yet we are guilty in our omissions of good, or in our sinful and remiss manner of working with the grace of God, is a point more mysterious than I dare undertake to explain. If these may give light, I offer them to the Reader.

Position 1. Grace, free grace, is the great and master wheel, that carries about heart, senses, foot, and hand, and not that only, but seed and tree and fruit, the flower — the principle depends necessarily on free grace; and for a third, the state and condition is higher than either principle or seed, or fruit; to be an heir of glory, is more than a supernatural principle of gift, and more than one single action above nature. Grace must make the principle gracious, and grace must enact and quicken the principle to bring forth, and grace's policy makes natural men, citizens of heaven, sons of God, heirs of life (John 1:12-13; Galatians 4:4-5).

Position 2. This must stand as a ground, that there is not any gracious act performed by the members, but the head Christ, is so interested in it, that as even the finger and toe, in the natural body, cannot stir without the motion taking its beginning from life, and head, so neither can the mystical body or any joint or member of it, act or move in its supernatural or being of grace, but every individual act of grace must pay the rent of glory, to the mystical head, whose predeterminating influence does act and stir the ship. For Christ is not only the compass, and day-star, according to which spiritual motions are directed, and hand and finger, foot, and all see with the visual power seated in the head (for they have no faculty of seeing in themselves) and the saints in these actions stir with the light, in the two eyes, or seven eyes and lamps that are in the head Christ, but also the real motions of grace in their physical, as well as in their moral sphere are shaped and acted by Christ. It is not much (though it be a wonder) that a huge great ship made up of so many pieces of dry and dead timber can move regularly through so many circles, compasses, turnings of many coasts, countries, change of winds, ten thousand miles, to a certain [reconstructed: harbor], when timber is acted and moved with the borrowed art and reason of a man stirring the helm. So there is a [illegible], a reason, a wisdom in him, who is made our wisdom, to act the saints in their heavenward motion, that are carried through so many sea-circles, turnings, contrary winds of temptations, afflictions, various soul-dispensations of sweet and sour, absence, presence, going and coming again, of Christ, to such a determinate home as heaven. For the Father must thank the steersman Christ, his son, that the broken bark and all his poor friends are landed, with the borrowed art of Christ, and no more thanks and praise to us, than to dead timber. That we should be [illegible] to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:12), as if our passive being (it is a borrowed expression, for we are co-agents with, and under Christ, in the work) were destined to the praise of the glory of his grace. But we are so drawn as Christ is great Lord, moderator, and author, and God in the second and new world of grace, as God creator is in all actions of nature (John 15:5): without me (as your vine tree, in whom you grow, and a stock in whom you bring forth fruit, every blossom of life, every apple) you can do nothing (Philippians 2:13). For it is God that works in you to will and to do, according to his good pleasure (2 Corinthians 13:3). Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you is not weak, but is mighty in you; then every word that Paul spoke, Christ in him spoke it not formally, as if Paul had been a mere patient, but efficaciously (Romans 15:18). For I will not dare to speak of any of these things which Christ has not [reconstructed: wrought by] me, to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed (Isaiah 27:3). I the Lord do keep (the church, the garden of red wine) I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Keeping and watering every moment, is grace actual every moment to make his tender vines grow, and preserving his own from succumbing under every temptation.

2. There were no ground for Adam's thankfulness and praise, that he stood one moment, or that he gave names to every thing according to their nature, or ever heard with patience the command of God, you shall not eat, if in every act of obedience, he had not need of the actual predeterminating influence of God, nor were there ground for this prayer in faith, and in patient submission to God, as to one to whom we owe the praises of the not failing of our faith, Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil, nor were there any glory due to Christ's advocation and intercession, that we fall not fully and finally off Christ and from Christ; and the state of grace, when we are tempted, if free-will, not the actual influence of predeterminating grace did keep the saints, and stir them to every act.

3. Who is the Author and finisher of our faith? Christ; and who perfects the good work once begun, but Christ? And who but he brings many children to glory? Not we, when the soul is troubled under desertion; the soul is so tender and excellent a piece, love so curious and rare a work of Christ, that let all the angels in heaven — Seraphim, and Dominions, and Thrones — set their shoulders and strength together, they cannot with angel tongues (let them speak heaven, and Christ, and glory) calm a soul-fever, and words of silk, and oil dropped from the clouds, cannot command the lovesickness of a sad soul. Will you look to heaven, while your sight fails, and weep out two eyes while Christ's time comes, you cannot find ease for a broken spirit; when Christ breaks, can angels make whole? The conscience is a hell-fever, the comforter is gone; can you with a nod bring the physician back again? Can golden words charm and calm a fever of hell? Can you with all the love-waters on earth quench a coal of fire that came from heaven? Send up to heaven a mandate against the decree and dispensation of God, if you can; if the gates of death can open to you; or if you have seen the doors of the shadow of death; or can do such great works of creation, as to lay the corner-stone of the earth, or hang the world on nothing, which Job could not do (Job 37; Job 38). But who can command soul-furies? Only, only Christ.

The soul is down among the dead, wandering from one grave to another. Can you make a dead spirit, a Gospel-harp to play on, of the springs of Zion, the songs of the Holy Ghost? Christ can do it. Can you cry, and find obedience to your call, O North, O South wind blow upon the garden? Christ has his own wind at command; he is master of his own mercies. Can you prophesy to the wind to come, and breathe on dead bones? Christ only can. Can you breathe life, soul, and five senses on a coffin? Could you make way for breathing in the narrow and deep grave, when clods of clay close the passage of the nostrils? Christ can (Isaiah 26:19): Your dead men shall live, together with my body they shall arise, awake and sing, you that dwell in dust, for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Can you draw the virgins after the strong and delicious smell of the ointments of Christ? But if he draws, the virgins run after his love (Song of Solomon 1:3). Christ indicts war, are you a creator to make peace? He cries hell, and wrath; can you speak joy, and consolation? Are you an anti-creator, to undo what Christ does? Christ commands fury against a people, or person; can men, can angels, can heaven countermand?

Position 3. The Lord's suspending of his grace comes under a twofold consideration. 1. As the Lord denies it to his own children. 2. As to wicked men also. As he withholds grace, especially actual and predeterminating: it falls under a threefold respect; 1. As it is a work of the free and good pleasure and sovereignty of God.

2. As it is a punishment of former sins.

3. As from it results our sin, even as the night has its being from the absence of the sun; death from the removal of life.

4. The Lord's denial of grace is seen most eminently in two cases: 1. In the parting asunder of the two decrees of election and reprobation.

2. In God's withdrawing of himself and his assistance, in the case of [reconstructed: trying] the saints.

In the former the Lord has put forth his sovereignty in his two most excellent creatures: angels and men; if we make any cause in the free-will of angels — I speak of a separating and discriminating cause, why some angels did stand, and never sin, some fall, and become devils — we must deny freedom of God's grace in the predestination of angels. Now the Scripture calls them Elect Angels; how then came it that they fell not? From free-will? No; angels are made of God, and for God, and to God; then by the Apostle's reason, they could not give first to God, to engage the Almighty to a recompense, they could not first set their free-will to work their own standing in court, before God did with his grace separate them from angels that fell (Romans 11:36; Isaiah 40:13). 2. Make an election of angels, as the Scripture does, when some are called Elect Angels, and some not, then it must be an election of grace; an election of works it cannot be; because angels must glory in the Lord that they stand, when others fell (Romans 4:2), as men do (Proverbs 16:4; Jeremiah 9:23-24; 2 Corinthians 10:17; Romans 11:36), for no creature, angels or men, can glory in his sight; for angels are for him, and of him, as their last end, and first Author (Romans 11:36), then they gave not first to God, to engage the Lord in their debt (verse 35), for if so, then glory should be to the angels: but now upon this ground, that none can engage the Lord in their debt, Paul, verse 36, says to him be glory for ever; because none can give to him first, and all are for him, and of him; then so are angels.

Angels are associated in the element and sphere of free grace to move as men, with grace's wings, to fly over the lake prepared for the devil and his angels, whereas others fell in; otherwise Christ the Lord Treasurer of free grace cannot be the head of angels (Colossians 2:9) as of men (Colossians 1:8; Ephesians 1:20-23). For as art, not nature, can prevent a dangerous fever by drawing blood or some other way, even as the same art can recover a sick man out of a fever, whereas another sick of that same disease, yet lacking the help of art, dies — so the same free grace in nature, species, and kind, not free will, [reconstructed: hindered] the elected angels from falling, whereas by constitution of nature and mutability, being descended of that first common [reconstructed: powerhouse], the first spring of all the creation of God, mere and simple Nothing, the mother of change and of all defects natural and moral in every the most excellent creature, they were as a humorous gross body in which the vessels are full and in a nearest propensity to the same fever that devils fell into, even to the ill of the second death, if the grace of God had not prevented them.

In men, God has declared the deep sovereignty and dominion of free grace in calling effectually one man, Jacob, not Esau, Peter, not Judas, in having mercy in time on whom he will, and hardening whom he will. I humbly provoke all Arminians, all Libertines who dash themselves the contrary way against the same stone, to show a reason why one obeys and actively joins with the draught and pull of the right arm of Jesus Christ (John 12:32) and his Father (John 6:44) and another refuses, and actively and willfully withdraws from the call of God, if the omnipotence of never-enough-praised grace be not the cause, the adequate, highest, and principal cause. I deny not but corrupt and rebellious will is the inferior, culpable, and only culpable and moral cause why Judas denies obedience to the holy call of Christ.

It is a sweet contemplation that angels and men sing the same song and psalm of free grace in heaven, to the Lamb, to him that sits on the throne. And a question it is, if a more engaging and obliging way to free grace could be devised, than that as many as are in the glorified troops and triumphing armies in heaven clothed in white should be also the sworn subjects and the eternal debtors of the freest grace of him who is the high Lord Redeemer and head of angels and men.

But in the engagement itself of the wind of the Spirit for the trial of the saints there is great ground of admiration. First, the blowing of the soft and pleasant breathings of the south wind of free grace, lying under the only work of sovereignty when and where and in the measure the Lord pleases, is a high and deep expression of the freedom of grace. For in one and the same prayer (the like by proportion may be said of the acts of faith, love, patience, hope) we often begin to pray with sad and fleshly complaints of unbelief, as is evident in many psalms and prayers of the saints in Scripture, Jeremiah in Lamentations 3, of Job, of David; yet going on, the breathings of the Holy Ghost will fill the sails, and he returns. Therefore this is a ground, indeed a demonstration to me: then when I find no motion of the Holy Ghost, no spiritual disposition, but mere deadness, I am not to abstain from praying because I find the Spirit not acting nor stirring in me, as Antinomians say. But first, I am to act and do, though the principle of motion be natural — as if the first stroke on flint makes not fire, we are to strike again and again; and if the first blowing of the bellows kindles not the sticks, let us be doing, and the Lord will be with us. A kindling and a flame may come from heaven. Say that the Lord were wanting to me in a dead and low ebb — he will not once roll about the sight of his eye, nor let out one blast or stirring of air and wind of the Spirit toward me; yet my deadness is my sin, and frees not me from an obligation to pray and to seek God. The door is fast bolted — shall I not therefore knock? Access is denied, and the Lord in anger shuts out my prayer (Lamentations 3:8) — may I not look and sigh and groan toward his holy temple? Deadness is not the Lord's revealed will forbidding me to pray because I am dead and indisposed.

Deadness and indisposition is a sin — then must we confess to God, and tell the Lord when we are indisposed to pray that we cannot pray. And let the dead and the blind but bow his knee and lay a dead spirit and naked, wretched soul, a pair of blind eyes before God. For we are commanded to confess this to God, as may be gathered from Revelation 3:17, 1 John 1:9, Proverbs 28:13, Psalm 32:5.

We are expressly commanded in the day of trouble and of our temptation to pray and seek help from God under our temptations (Psalm 50:15; Matthew 6:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:17), as the saints have done (Psalm 18:6; Psalm 34:6; Psalm 61:2; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9). If then we judge the non-breathing of the Holy Ghost a temptation and a cause of humiliation, as it is, and the saints do judge it, then we are to pray though most indisposed. Why does David complain that he was as a bottle in the smoke, and pray so often that God would quicken him, if under a dead disposition we were not to pray?

4. If often the saints beginning to pray do speak words of unbelief and from a principle of nature, and if words flowing from the deadness and misgivings and rovings of the flesh interwoven in with the spiritual and heavenly ravishments of the Spirit of grace and supplication in one and the same complaint and prayer to God, as (Psalm 38, Psalm 102, Psalm 77, Psalm 88, Lamentations 3, Jeremiah 20, Job 8, Job 16, Job 19) and in many other passages, where the Spirit and the flesh have dialogues and speeches by turns, and by course, then may and ought the saints to pray under deadness, and do as much as their present indisposition can permit them, and the Spirit is seen to come and blow, not by obligation of covenant or promise, on God's part, as Jesuits and Arminians with Pelagians have taught, but in his ordinary free practices of grace — as Philip was commanded to come and preach Christ to the Eunuch while he was reading the book of the Prophet Isaiah, not because he was reading Scripture, or because such a promise is made to these who read Scripture; as the angels revealed the glad tidings of the birth of Christ, while the shepherds were attending their flocks in the field, not because they were so doing, as if a promise of the gospel belonged to men because they wait on their calling; and Ananias is sent to preach Christ to Saul and open his eyes, while he was praying, not because he was praying, but of mere free grace, which moves in this ordinary current and sphere of free love congruously to the Lord's freely intended end to save his people; even as the Lord joins his influence and blessing to give bread and a harvest to the sower (Isaiah 55), yet not that he has tied himself by promise to give a good harvest to every industrious husbandman; yet this ordinary practice of grace with the commandment of God is enough to set us on work to pray, to believe, to acts of love to Christ, in the saddest and deadest times.

5. It should be no sinful omission in us, not to pray when the Spirit stirs us not, if our deadness should free us from all sin, because we cannot run, when the Bridegroom does not draw. Christ's drawing goes along with the secret decree of election, but is not to us a signification of the Lord's revealed will, that we should not follow Christ, when he suspends the influence of his drawing power.

6. Now as in nature, men may so dare the Almighty in his face, that God in justice may deny his influence to natural causes: as when malice opposes the Spirit of God in the prophet of God, that the Lord refuses to concur with the oil in Jeroboam's withered arm, that he cannot pull it in again to him. 2. When the Lord is put to a contest with false gods to work a miracle, as in his refusing to concur with the fire in burning the three children; for in all causes natural, or moral, or whatever they be, God has a negative voice and more. 3. When the axe or the saw boasts itself against him that lifted it, the Lord may use his liberty. So (to come to the second consideration) when Peter proudly trusts in himself: I will die with you ere I deny you; the Lord to punish his pride, must deny his assisting grace, when Peter is tempted, that he may know that nature is a sorry undertaker; that the man rides to heaven on a withered reed, who aims to climb that uphill city on his own fleshy and clay strength; and God to show a black spot on a fair face in heaven, will have it said, there stands David before the throne, who once committed adultery and to cover the shame of it from men, killed most treacherously an innocent godly man: God here out of the ashes of our sin will have a rose of free grace, that fills the four corners of heaven with its smell, to grow green up in the higher paradise, for a summer of eternity; and will have no tenants in heaven but the freeholders of grace; it is a question whether there be more grace or more glory in heaven; for the crown of glory is a crown of grace — that vast sea of the redemption of grace issued from under our sinful falls.

7. Indeed, upon this reasonless and fleshly ground, if we may omit praying, and so believing, loving, repenting, mortifying our lusts, when the Spirit stirs us not to these acts, and say, if God will suffer me to sin, let him see to it, then upon the same ground all the justified saints (I should think them devils, not saints) might sin, murder, blaspheme, whore, oppress, commit sodomy, incest as Lot, deny Jesus Christ, as Peter did, and say as we are not to pray, nor obliged to a constant course in prayer, when Christ draws not, and when the Spirit moves us not (as Antinomians say (with Mr. Crispe and others) error, 49. page 9, 10. Rise, Reign) so neither are we to abstain from murder, denying of Christ, blasphemy, sodomy, when the Spirit of Christ draws us not, and moves and stirs not our soul to abstinence and a holy fear and circumspection that we commit not such abominations, and Peter might say, I am not obliged to a constant course of confessing Christ before men, unless the Spirit stir me to it, and David or any saint might say, If the Lord will suffer me to murder the innocent, let him see to it; for the Lord's drawing and the Spirit's stirring is as necessary in a holy eschewing of sins of commission, as in sins of omission; and by as great, and an every way equal necessity, if the Lord withdraw himself and the Spirit stir not, we must fall into such abominations, when tempted by Satan and the flesh, as in the sins of sinfully omitting of praying, praising, believing, when the Spirit stirs us not to it; but the truth is, this necessity can neither lay the blame on the holy and spotless dispensation of God, nor free us from guiltiness, because between God's withdrawing influence, and the sin, there does intervene an obliging law that forbids sin, and our free will and reason acting the sin freely. But we are commanded (2 Timothy 1:6) to stir up the grace of God in us — it is an allusion to the priests, who were to keep in the fire that came from heaven; grace is resembled to fire under ashes, which with blowing of bellows is made to revive and burn again; it is the prophet's complaint (Isaiah 64:7): There is none that calls upon your name, or stirs up himself to lay hold on you; the habit of grace may be warmed, blown upon, and kindled, that as fire makes fire, so grace may put forth itself in acts of grace; and the seed of God in the saints (1 John 2:9) may bring forth births like itself; motion here produces heat.

Objection. But the actual predetermination of grace is not in your hand; and without this, acts of praying and believing are impossible to me.

Answer. If this were a sufficient reason, then all works of nature, whatever the creature does, were impossible; for the plowman should not go to till, sow, and reap, because, without the blessing of the common and natural influence of the first cause he could do none of these things.

2. Because the saints know not the counsel and mind of God in his decree of joining of his supernatural influence, or his suspending of the same, to this or that act of praying, believing, hoping, loving of Christ, etc., therefore upon all occasions, the saints, whatever be their present deadness and indisposition, are to pray, believe, and to stir up themselves to lay hold on God. 1. Because as in natural and moral actions, men are not to neglect plowing, tilling, journeying, eating, drinking, sleeping, buying, and selling, upon this ground because they are ignorant, whether in the work, the Lord shall be pleased to join his influence, as the first cause without whom all inferior causes can do nothing: so are not the saints to neglect to pray, because they are dead and indisposed, upon the ground of their doubting and not knowing whether the Lord of grace will be pleased to add his actual assistance of grace, to work in them to will, and to do; for the Lord may be pleased to add his supernatural influence in a moment, his wind blows when it pleases him, his grace moves swiftly, when, and where he pleases: our good disposition is neither rule, condition, work, nor hire to move him to work.

2. It is all one, as if we willfully neglected to pray, and resisted the predeterminating grace of God, when we know not whether the Lord shall deny his influence or no; yet we disobey the Lord commanding and so obliging us to pray; for as if we had his influence at our elbow, attending us, so we are to pray, and set to work: indeed, our voluntary refusing to pray, we only conjecturing evil of God, and of his free grace, without ground, must come from sinful wickedness, not from impotency and weakness; for who told you that Christ would be wanting in his influence? You knew it not from any word of God; and shall you fancy a jealousy against Christ's love, without any warrant? Even as a servant commanded to lift a burden, upon a sluggishness should say, It came there in a cart and two horses when he would never move an arm to take a trial what he could do, though the burden were above his strength, when he will not do as much as he can, his disobedience is willful: therefore we may say, if we speak of a voluntary, willful and groundless forsaking of God, in order of time, we first forsake God before he deserts us; but in order of nature, God first forsakes us, that is, he withdraws his heavenly influence from us, but so as before and after the act of withdrawing, we are willing that God should withdraw, and be gone; for we love in all the acts of sinning to have a world of our own.

3. We are to believe in the general, we being within the covenant, the Lord will keep his promise, [reconstructed: Deuteronomy 30:6]. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul that you may live (Ezekiel 11:19). And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you — 20. that they may walk in my statutes (Ezekiel 36:27). Then are we so to set to these duties of walking in the Lord's way, as we are to believe he will not deny actual grace, necessary for our perseverance, because it is his express promise (Jeremiah 31:33-36; Jeremiah 32:39-40; Isaiah 59:19-21; Isaiah 54:10-11; Ezekiel 36:26-27; 1 John 2:1-2; Matthew 16:18; Luke 22:31-32). Though in acts not fundamental, and simply necessary for our being in the state of grace, the Lord has reserved a latitude of independent Sovereignty to act the soul in these and these particular acts, as seemed good to him, that every new breathing of the Spirit of Jesus, may be a new debt, and obligation of free grace to Christ.

We are absolutely to pray for the breathings of Christ's Spirit, to go along with us, in all the particular acts of a gracious and spiritual walking. But we know the Lord's absolute good pleasure is his rule he walks by: so here our desires may be absolute in seeking, where the Lord gives upon condition of his own good will. Nor are our desires in prayer to be conformable to God's decree, or free pleasure, but to his revealed will.

Grace is the colors of the inhabitants and citizens of the house of the lower and higher rooms of the new Jerusalem; all the way, and all the home the saints walk in this white. Christ keeps not his Spouse in a close chamber, it is not one great act of free grace only, when all were in one day redeemed on the cross. But daily Christ wears his Church as a bracelet about his neck, as a seal on his heart, as his Royal diadem, and a crown of glory on his head, as his love-ring on his hand. This day grace, tomorrow new and fresh supply of grace: the next hour grace. He has strewed all the way to heaven with new grace, every day new wine, new spikenard, new perfume, new ointments.

When will Christ grow old, and gray-haired? Never: Will his heart ever grow cold of love? No: Will he tire of love? Will he wear out of delight in the Spouse that lies for eternity between his breasts? No, no: The love of Christ is always green, as young-like, as fair, and white today, as from eternity; this rose is not altered a whit. Who knows how grace and love in Christ's breast solaced themselves in these infinite revolutions of ages, before the creation: how Christ's heart was cheering itself, and rejoicing to have the first day of the creation dawning, that he might enjoy the love of the sons of men, not then created (Proverbs 8:30-31). As if grace and love had thought long to find a channel with wide banks to flow in; as if Christ having infinite love within him, in that long, long age (to borrow that expression) should say, when shall time begin? And sinful men and my mystical body, and desired spouse my Church, have being in the world, that I may pour that grace on her? I have love within me, and lying beside me; I rejoice to have a lover: as if grace in Christ, had been in too narrow banks, in the infinite acts of the infinite mind of God and the heart of Christ, and longed to have Men and Angels to give a vent to his love.

And that long age, the ages that were before the world was, brought it green to us, that long, long endless and vast duration, when time shall be no more, cannot make Christ's love change the color, or grow less, or root one saint out of his heart. When God leaves off to be God, grace will leave off to be Grace: Make Christ repent of Grace, if you can. As Christ has washed his Spouse, and in regard of the guilt of sin, has made her all fair and spotless; so does he daily lick and purge, and cleanse her, in regard of the inherent blot, while she be fair as the Sun, and all a new heaven.

Assertion 7. In the third consideration, from this suspension of divine influence comes our sin, as a necessary consequent and result; yet so as the Lord's suspension, and our transgression fall both in the bosom of divine providence. The Lord knows why he withdraws his grace, that we might know how weighty a thing great heaven is laid upon our poor shoulders, and that we would make foul work out of all we have received, and the flock the second Adam has given us, if we had not Christ to steer the ship, to lead the minors to heaven, to keep the inheritance to the little heirs of Christ, should vanish to nothing.

[reconstructed: Position 9.] If we consider the Lord's denial of Christ, from wicked men; they cannot turn to God, but that impotency lay in the womb of will; it is not weakness only, but also willfulness (Matthew 23:37). I would have gathered you, (says Christ) you would not (John 5:6). Christ says to the sick man, will you be made whole? Then there was a stop in his will, as well as in his weakness (Jeremiah 44:16). As for the word that you have spoken to us, in the Name of the Lord, we will not hearken to you.

2. Love and delight to do ill, is from the strength and marrow of the will, not from weakness only; the servant that would not leave his master, because he loved him; is a slave forever, through love to slavery, rather than through impotency to be free? In those that delight to do evil, Will has a strong influence in the evil they do: every sinner esteems his prison of hell, a heaven; his fetters of sin on his legs, as a gold chain about his neck.

3. It is a journey of a hundred miles to Christ, it is impossible to the natural man to compass it, yet he may walk two of these hundred miles, though not as a part of the way; He will not so much as cast a sad look after Christ, he will not bestow one sigh after Christ, nor know his own weakness, nor despair of his own ability, nor lie at the water-side, and cry, Lord Jesus come carry me over; He positively hates Christ; Were it possible that the unrenewed man had the two eyes of a renewed man, to see the beauty and high excellency of Jesus, though he had still his own lame legs, he would weep out his eyes for a chariot to carry him to Christ, he would send sad love-challenges after Christ; Could those that are scorched in hell-fire and hear the howling of their fellow prisoners, and see the ugly devils, the bloody scorpions with which Satan lashes miserable souls, and the huge, deep, broad furnace of eternal vengeance, have but a window opened to see heaven, the throne, the tree of life, the glory of the troops clothed in white, and hear the music of those that praise him that sits on the throne, or say but one of the apples of the tree of life were sent down to hell, and that the damned had senses to taste and smell a grain weight of the glory that is in it, what thoughts would they have of Christ and heaven? It is likely they would hate themselves, and send up sad wishes at least, for the continuance of that sight. O could but natural men see Christ with his own light, it may be they would make out for him; But when all is said of this subject, the grace of God is a desirable thing, better have Christ's heart and love and soul toward you, than what else your thoughts could imagine above or below heaven.

If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to me.

Article 5. I come now to the fifth Article, the condition of Christ's drawing, [in non-Latin alphabet]; If I be lifted up from the earth; this particle [in non-Latin alphabet] (if) is not as in other places, a note of doubting or of a thing of a contingent and uncertain event; Indeed, it signifies here that Christ was not on any deliberation; Shall I die, or shall I not die, for lost man? Christ is not wavering, dubious and uncertain in his love; love in Christ is more fixed and resolved upon, than the covenant of night and day, and the standing of mountains and hills (Jeremiah 31:35; Isaiah 54:10). In other places of Scripture, it is not a matter of debate; as in John 14:3, If I go away [in non-Latin alphabet]. Christ made no question whether he would go to his Father. 1 John 2:[illegible], [in non-Latin alphabet], if any man sin, we have an Advocate; There is no doubt but the saints sin, and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).

To be lifted up from the earth is expounded to be crucified, verse 33; this is Christ's metaphrase of the kind of death which he suffered.

Crucifying was a cursed, shameful and base death (Deuteronomy 21:23), yet Christ expresses it by a word of exaltation (Philippians 2:9), lifting up from the earth: Christ's death is life, his shame glory; there are pearls and sapphires of heaven in Christ's hell; And Christ keeps warm breath of life and hot blood in the cold grave; When he is in an agony, which materially was hell, a glorious angel of heaven is in that hell with him to comfort him; When he is born a poor man on earth, and lies in a horse's manger, there is a new bonfire in heaven for joy that a great prince is born, a new star appears; The weakness of Christ is stronger than men. The blackness of Christ's marred visage is fair; In Christ's poverty, when he has not to pay tribute to the Emperor Caesar, the sea pays tribute to the King and Prince of kings, Jesus; A fish yields him a piece of money; The lowest and basest reproaches of Christ, his cross and sufferings, drop the honey — the sweet smell of heaven; Christ's thorn is a rose, his sadness joy; O what most immediate rays of glory come from his face? The very second table of heaven must be exceeding richness, the back parts of the glorious King that sits on the throne must be desirable; The fragments and the broken meat of the Lord's higher table must be incomparably dainty: all the earth to these are husks; The reproaches of Christ must be not so sour as they are reported. 2. He makes it the cause of Christ's drawing all men to him. 1. The Holy Ghost will express the cursed and shameful death of Christ, by a word of glory — to be lifted up.

1. The dying of Christ is a leaving of the earth.

2. It is a matter of exaltation that Christ was thus abased; Of these two only in this place in the New Testament, and John 3:15, is Christ's dying so expressed; It is considerable that in this manner of death, Christ will hold forth to us, that the dying of Christ is in a special manner a leaving of the earth; So Hezekiah (Isaiah 37:11), I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world, that is, I must leave the earth, and see the sun no more; And Christ (John 13:1), Jesus knew that his hour was come, and that he should depart out of this world to the Father; Hence his own word to the repenting thief (Luke 23:43), Today you shall be with me in paradise. John 8:21, I go my way, and you shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: where I go you cannot come.

Doctrine: Christ chose a kind of death which was a visible leaving of the earth, and a going to heaven ere he came down again off the cross; for that day his soul was in Paradise; as the Serpent was lifted up in the wilderness (John 3:15). Christ's motion in death is from the earth; Christ was tired of the earth, and had his fill of it, he desired no more of it. It is not a place much to be loved by you, saints — for your dear Savior had but few and sad days on the earth, he was served as a stranger here, and has now left the earth, and gone to the Father; consider but a few reasons to move you to leave the earth. 1. The earth was Christ's prison, he could not escape out of it, till he paid his sweet life for it; only two that we read of, Enoch and Elijah left the earth, and went to heaven and saw not death; those that shall be changed and shall not die, at Christ's coming have this privilege; but otherwise all have a bruise in the heel, ere they go out of earth. 2. When Christ was on his journey, he was not so much in love with the earth, as to repent and turn back again; as Christ's head and face was toward heaven, so his heart and soul followed, he went from the cross straight way to Paradise. 3. What does Christ leave? the earth. It is your fellow-creature of God.

But 1. the footstool for the soles of Christ's feet (Isaiah 66:1; Matthew 5:35).

2. A footstool of clay far from the throne of glory, the office house of sin (Isaiah 24:5). The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof (chapter 26:21). For the Lord comes out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; it is Satan's walk (Job 2:2). And the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come? and Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

3. It is the poor heritage of the sons of men, a clay patrimony (Psalm 115:16). The heavens, even the heavens are the Lord's; but the earth has he given to the children of men; and oppressors are the landlords of it (Psalm 10). God arises to judge (verse 18), that the man of the earth may no more oppress (Job 9:24). The earth is given to the hand of the wicked.

4. Indeed, it is not only the slaughterhouse and shambles where Christ was slain, but all the martyrs and witnesses of Jesus were butchered here; for it is said of Babylon (Revelation 18:24), And in her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all that were slain on the earth; then the earth is the scaffold of the lambs of Christ where their throats have been cut.

5. It is a common inn where bed and board is free to men, devils, sons, bastards, elect and reprobate; indeed, to beasts called from their country (Genesis 1:25), beasts of the earth; an earthly minded man is a fellow-citizen with beasts; it is a home to all but the saints, it is their Pilgrim Inn; it is a strange land and the house of their pilgrimage (Psalm 119:19). I am a stranger in the earth; so David; so Abraham and his; though they had the heritage of a pleasant spot of the earth by promise, even the land of Canaan; yet they sojourned in it as a strange country; and (Hebrews 11:13) confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. (2 Corinthians 5:6) While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

6. The first doomsday fell upon the earth, for man's sin (Genesis 3:17): Cursed shall the earth be for your sake, in sorrow shall you eat of it all your days. It is a cursed table to man: and the other doomsday is ripening for it (Revelation 14:15-16). Antichrist's seat, the earth of the false church, is a ripe harvest for the Lord's sickle of destruction. The last doomsday is approaching when this clay-stage shall be removed (2 Peter 3:10): the earth and the works therein, the house and all the furnishings shall be burnt with fire. It is no long time that we are here, if we believe (Job 7:1): Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days like the days of a hireling? (Job 14:2) He comes forth as a flower, and is cut down, he flees also as a shadow, and continues not. Many generations of hirelings have ended their day's task, and have now their wages, many shadows are gone down, many actors have closed their game, as it may be, and some have fulfilled their course with joy, and are now within the curtain, since the creation.

7. It is a poor narrow room; some (Isaiah 5:8) make house to touch house, and lay field to field, till there be want of place, that they only may be placed alone on the earth: if they report right of the earth, who make it one and twenty thousand miles in circuit, if newly found lands add to this some poor acres, and the Western Beast have much of this (Revelation 13:8), and the other Beast of the East, the Turk, the enemy of Jesus Christ, have eight thousand miles of the land, and other eight thousand miles of sea, making sixteen thousand miles of the two little globes, (I leave others to examine their geography) then it must be a base plea, and a poor lodging to contend for; it were a good use for us to argue, Was the earth my Savior's refuse, and his inn, not his home, and if Christ left the earth long ago, and was tired of it, then let us (Hebrews 13:13) go forth therefore to him, without the camp, bearing his reproach: for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come: We cannot lodge, far less can we dwell in a house that shall be burnt with fire; nor is there room for us here; there is a more excellent country above, where men have no winter, no night, no sighing, no sickness, no death, but they live for evermore: we are thronged here for want of room, and it's a narrow tent; O what a large land is that above, in which we shall not strive for acres, land, kingdoms? In my Father's house (says Christ) there are [illegible] many dwelling places, houses, great and fair, and numerous; all these are held forth to us; the earth is a creature near of kin and blood to the half of us, and our body. When a son of Adam dies, he returns [illegible] to his own earth; had he no free heritage on the world, though he were no landed man, yet when he goes to his grave, he returns to his own free heritage, to his own earth. 32. If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw, etc.

Here is a special condition of drawing sinners to Christ; the manner of Christ's death, his being lifted up from the earth, holds forth a drawing of sinners up after him from the earth to heaven; hence Christ's death is a special means of heavenly-mindedness and mortification. So (1 Peter 2:24) Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live to righteousness. (Colossians 3:2) Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. 3. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God, etc. 5. Mortify therefore your members, that are on earth, fornication, uncleanness, etc.

Beza, Piscator, and others think it probable that Christ uttered this prayer to his Father, in the Syriac tongue, because the Evangelist uses the word [illegible], to be lifted up from the earth, and the word [illegible] signifies both to cut off, as [illegible] does, as (Daniel 8:11) by him the daily sacrifice [illegible] was taken away; and to exalt and lift on high (1 Samuel 2:1) my horn is exalted, (Psalm 99:2) the Lord is high, [illegible] above all the people, (Psalm 18:47) Let the Lord be exalted (Numbers 24:7; Psalm 46:11; Isaiah 49:11; Genesis 14:22) so he holds forth such an exalting of Christ, as is to cut off, and to slay; this does come home to drawing of man from sin, and the earth, by that Spirit purchased to us by Christ's death: Now Christ's dying, thus being a taking of him away from the earth, and from sinners, and that in a shameful manner, he being lifted up on the cross, and he in this posture drawing us after him, it's a clear working in us the death of sin, and our deadness to the pleasures and glory of the world. 1. Christ died pulling his brethren out of hell and sin, he died, and his spouse in his arms; and this shows how desirous Christ is to have a union with us; it's a posture of love and grace, his head bowed down to kiss sinners, his arms stretched out to embrace them, his bosom open to receive them, his sides pierced that the doves may fly into the holes of the rock, and lodge there; Christ on the cross, broached and pierced, as a full vessel, out of whom issues blood and water, justification and redemption from the guilt of sin, and sanctification, is a drawing lover. 2. Here is fullness of power, to reconcile to himself all things, whether they be things in heaven, or things on earth, by the blood of his cross; here we are made Christ's friends, to do whatever he commands us (Colossians 1:20; John 15:15).

3. Nor is there a stronger band or cord to draw men from sin, than the faith of Christ's death (Galatians 2:20): I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 6:14). But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world; here is reciprocation of deaths: Paul is crucified to the world, as a dead man, not in the world, nor one of the world's number. A mortified saint drawn up to heaven from the earth, is an odd person, not under tale, he may be spared well enough; the world and the town he lives in may be well without him; as Joseph was the odd lad — separated from his brethren, and David none of the seven, miscounted in the telling among the ewes at the sheepfolds, and forgotten as a bastard, or as a dead man out of thought. And again the world is crucified to Paul, for it looks like a hanged man, it smells like a dead corpse to a saint's senses. Now thus they have not eyes more affected with the world, nor ears more taken with their music, nor a heart more overcome with the lusts of the world, nor a dead man set to a rich table is affected with all the dainties there, or with the harping of the sweetest musician; the man has escaped [illegible] the pollutions of the world, to him the world has sooty fingers, and dirty and picky hands, it defiles washed souls. But to the unmortified man the world smells like the garden of God: lust casts in, and comes to eye and heart and fancy, grenades and fire-balls of uncleanness; sinful pleasure has a rosy face, profit has golden fingers, court and honor has a sweet breath, the world is not to him an ill-smelled stinking corpse, fit for nothing but for a hole under the earth. In fact, god-Mammon looks like heaven; the world a poor thing, indeed the world of itself is but a bag of empty wind, a fancy: (1.) It has no weight, as touching the part of it we count most of, the earth, but so many pounds of clay, the dregs, the earthy bottom of the creation: (2.) the stage that pieces of brittle clay comes upon, and weeps, and laughs, and lives, speaks and dies: (3.) The flowers of it, that we are most in love with, the lusts of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, are not of God (1 John 3:16): (4.) It is a house of glass, or of ice that stands for the fourth part of the year, for winter, but is removed in the spring, and is never to be seen again, for it passes away like a figure written on the sea-shore, when the sea flows (1 Corinthians 7:31): (5.) the [reconstructed: fringes], or ornaments of its pleasure, profit, honor, are all sick of vanity and change. To the saints that are crucified, and buried with Christ, in whom lust is nailed to the cross of Christ, the world is a dead bag of despised dust, and though a toe or a finger of a crucified saint will make a motion and a stir, and break a wedge of the cross, because of the indwelling of a body of death, yet hear his arguing. O vain clay-god, dirty earth, I owe you no love, because my Lord was lifted up from the earth, and has drawn me after him. I care not for this bubble of a vain life, this transient shadow, seeing Christ could not endure it: what is the fancy of a plastered and [reconstructed: adorned] worldly glory to me, if Jesus his face was spitted on? What is this painted globe of an empty, perishing, and death-condemned world to my happiness, seeing my Savior was a borrowed body, a stranger and slaughtered in the world, and had all against him, and always the wind on his face?

Now let us consider what Antinomians say of mortification; what is mortification (says (a) Mr. Den) but the apprehension of sin slain by the body of Christ? What is vivification but our new life? The just shall live by faith, I may know (says the Antinomian) I am Christ's, not because I do crucify the lusts of the flesh but because I do not crucify them, but believe in Christ that crucified my lusts for me. Much of this lawless and carnal mortification is to be found in Saltmarsh his unexperienced treatise of free grace, in which he labors to make Protestant divines Anti-Christian legalists in the doctrine of mortification; for his way is that we are to believe our repentance true in Christ, who has repented for us; our mortifying sin true in him through whom we are more than conquerors; our new obedience true in him who has obeyed the law for us, and is the end of the law to everyone that believes; our change of the whole man is true in him, who is righteousness and true holiness. And thus without faith it is possible to please God, for there is (says he) great deceitfulness in mortification of sin, as it is commonly taken — he must point at Calvin, and other Protestant divines, for as Papists and Arminians commonly speak and teach, we are justified by works of penance and mortification — for the not acting of sin, or conceivings of lust is not pure mortification; for then children, and civilly moral men were mortified persons, etc. It is not in the mere absence of the body of sin, for then dead or sick men were mortified persons.

Eaton's Honeycomb of Justification, chapter 8, pages 164–165: We mortify ourselves only declaratively, to the sight of men — whereby the Holy Ghost sees not us properly mortifying our sins out of the sight of God; for then he should see us robbing Christ of that glory which his blood has freely done before we begin. In fact, when the wedding garment has freely purified us in the sight of God then the Spirit enters in us to dwell, which otherwise he would not do, and enables us to walk holily and righteously, to avoid and purify out of our own sight, sense, and feeling, and out of the sight of other men that sin which the wedding garment has purified and abolished before out of the sight of God.

But this in name, and thing, is the doctrine of the old Libertines in Calvin's time, as we may read, Calvin opuscul. instructio adversus Libertinos chap. 18. pag. 450-451. The Libertines (says Calvin) seem to be of the same mind with us, and extol mortification and regeneration, and say we cannot be the sons of God, except we be born again, and if we belong to God, the old man must in us be crucified, the old Adam must perish, and our flesh must be mortified; but they destroy all holiness, and transform themselves into beasts, when they explain to us their regeneration and mortification; they say, regeneration is the restitution of man to that innocence in which Adam was created.

And they expound it thus: This state of innocence was to know nothing, neither good nor ill, black nor white, not to know or feel sin; because this was Adam's sin to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; so by the mind of Libertines, to crucify old Adam is no other thing than to discern nothing, not to feel sin in ourselves, as Mr. Eaton says, but all knowledge of sin being removed, it is, according to the custom of children, to follow sense and natural inclination; hence they drew into their mortification all the places of Scripture in which the simplicity of children is commended. Eaton just so, Honey-Comb, p. 165. to natural reason (or sense) objecting, if we be perfectly holy in the sight of God, then we may live freely, as we please in sin; Paul answers, No, that is impossible; for (says he) how can we that are dead to sin live yet in it? That is, as if a man be by justification restored to the case of the first Adam, or perfectly freed from all sin in the sight of God, as he is freed from the traffic and business of this life that is dead, which must needs be, if we be made perfectly holy in the sight of God from all spot of sin? No, he cannot but show and declare the same by holy and righteous living, to the sight of men, and mortify them to himself and to his own feeling and sense, as he is by justification dead to them in the sight of God. Consider if Antinomians and Libertines do not both join in this; that though sin in our conversation and before men, as to walk after our lusts, we being once justified, is truly contrary to the Law of God, yet to mortify sin to our sense is to attain to a sense and feeling that it is no sin to us and before men, as it is no sin in the sight of God, and in the Court of Justice, because it is freely pardoned; this is the current doctrine of Antinomians.

Parallel 2.

When Libertines saw any man troubled in conscience with sin, they said to him, O Adam, do you know something yet? Is not the old man yet crucified in you? If they saw any stricken with the fear of the judgment of God; have you yet (said they) a taste of the apple? Beware that that morsel strangle you not; sin yet reigns in you. So Mr. Town the Antinomian said, pag. 103. David confessed his sin, not according to the truth and confession of faith, but from want and weakness of faith and effectual apprehension of forgiveness, pag. 97. I can look on myself, my actions, indeed, into my conscience, and my sins remain (this is the sense of the old Adam, the unmortified flesh) but look into the records of Heaven, and God's justice, and since the bloodshed of Christ (why were not the fathers pardoned before Christ shed his blood?) I can find there nothing against me, but the bond by my surety is satisfied and cancelled, and even these present sins, which so fearfully stare in my face, are there blotted out, and become a nullity with the Lord. I need not cite Mr. Denne, Eaton, Crispe, Saltmarsh; for Town and all the Antinomian race teach that it is unbelief, a work of the flesh of the old Adam, and our weak sense, and want of mortification, that the justified person feels sin; sorrows for sin, complains of the body of sin, as Paul does, Romans 7. For in that Chapter (says Crispe) he does not act the person of a regenerate person, but of a scrupulous and doubting unbeliever. But for the justified person, it is more than he ought to do, if he confess sin, crave pardon, mourn, fast, walk in sack cloth; he has peace (says Towne, pag. 34) security, consolation, joy, contentment and happiness, except his flesh rob him of these. It is legal and betrays the man to be under a Covenant of works, if upon the committing of incest, or the greatest sins, he doubt whether God be his dear Father, Rise, Reign, error 20. And after the revelation of the Spirit, neither the Devil nor sin can make the soul to doubt. Error 32.

Parallel 3.

Libertines said, sin, the world, the flesh, the old man was nothing but an opinion or an imagination, and these were new creatures, that were free of that opinion that sin was anything, or such as believed sin to be nothing, and the benefit of Christ's death they place in taking away that opinion, by which the first sin of Adam entered into the world, and under this opinion they comprehended all scruple of conscience, sense of judgment or remorse or sorrow for sin; and when this opinion is taken away then there is no more sin, nor the world, nor the Devil, nor the flesh.

Antinomians come well-near fully up to Libertines in this, for in their writings they tell us, that what sins justified persons fall in, being once justified, are sins (says H. Denne) of our conversation, and before men, not sins in the conscience and in the Court of Divine justice, or as Eaton says, Honey-Combe, page 165-166. Before God they are no sins, and in his sight they are perfectly abolished; indeed, and become nullities, says Mr. Town, Assertion of grace, page 97. But to our carnal sense and feeling, says Eaton, they are sins, till our sense be mortified, and when we look on ourselves, our own actions, indeed on our own conscience. Now the adulteries, murders, denying of the Lord Jesus, that David and Peter and other Saints fall in after their justification, cannot be sins in themselves; but only in the opinion and sense and feeling of such as commit these sins, and in such a sense as is contrary to faith and the light of faith that believes [illegible] justification in Christ's death, and must be abolished and removed by perfect mortification, then all the justified are to believe whatever sins they commit in their conversation, and before men, are no sins in themselves, or the court of Divine Justice, or in relation to a Divine Law; but they are sins in their sense or erroneous opinion. If Joseph be only dead in the opinion and in his father's mistaking judgment, then he is not really dead, but lives. 2. Under this head Libertines said mortification was not in abstaining from fleshly lusts that war against the soul; but in removing the opinion and sense of apprehending sin to be sin; and so Saltmarsh forbids: 1. any man to doubt whether his faith be true faith or no, and it is true faith, and wills all within the visible Church to believe God loved them with an everlasting love, and it is true they are all chosen to salvation and that Christ died for all, and that opinion makes it true, that Christ died for them all, and they are all justified in Christ's blood; there is here strong power in opinions. 3. Saltmarsh, Denne, Town, say mortification is not in personal abstinence from worldly lusts, but in faith apprehending that Christ dying on the Cross satisfied for the body of sin; then if they abstain from adultery, murder, perjury, being once justified, it is of mere courtesy, and of no obligation to either Law or Gospel command, and if they commit such fleshly sins, they are only sins to their weak flesh and opinion, not in themselves; and if they lay aside that opinion and carnal sense, by which they believe these to be sins, and believe that Christ has abolished them, then these sins are no sins, but perfectly mortified and abolished; that I do them no wrong, I repeat Mr. Eaton's words; Honey-Combe, chapter 8, page 165. The Holy Ghost sees us not properly mortifying, cleansing and purifying our sins out of the sight of God ourselves, for then he should see us robbing Christ of that glory which his blood has freely done, before we begin; but when the wedding garment wrought by his blood, has freely purified them out of God's sight, then the Spirit (we being thus first clean in his sight) enters into us to dwell in us, which otherwise he would not do; but being entered and dwelling in us, he enables us by walking holily and righteously to avoid and purify out of our own sight, and out of the sight of other men, that sin which the wedding garment has purified and abolished before out of the sight of God and so we merely declare before the Spirit, that he himself and Christ's righteousness have originally and properly cleansed and purified away and utterly abolished them out of God's sight freely. But this holy walking, they talk of is not opposed to sinning or walking after the flesh, it is but a removing of the sinful sense and feeling or knowledge of unbelief, by which we apprehended sin pardoned to be sin, when it was no such thing; but our erroneous sense or opinion as the taste of the forbidden apple remaining, could not rightly judge of these sins, because our life of justification is hid with Christ in God, and we apprehended ourselves to be under a Law, and our lying, adulteries, swearing, etc. to be sins before God and contrary to his holy Law, when they were no such thing; for we being justified, are under no Law, and so as clean from sin as Christ himself, but our dreaming sense judged so, but erroneously and falsely; for abolished sins are no sins.

Parallel 4.

Libertines taught that regeneration was a clean, Angelic state in which they were void of sin, and when they were rebuked for sin, they answered, non ego sum qui pecco, sed asinus meus, It is not I, but my ass or sin dwelling in me does the sin; and they cited the same text that Antinomians do now (1 John 3): He that is born of God, sins not. So Antinomians: Mr. Eaton frequently, especially Honey-Comb, chapter 6, chapter 7, says, being justified we are made perfectly holy and righteous from all spot of sin in the sight of God. Saltmarsh Flowings, part 2, chapter 29, p. 140: The Spirit of Christ sets a believer as free from hell, the Law and bondage here on earth, as if he were in heaven, nor wants he anything to make him so, but to make him believe he is so; for Satan, sinful flesh, and the Law are all so near, and about him in this life, that he cannot so walk by sight or in the clear apprehension of it, but the just do live by faith. So Saltmarsh abets nothing of what Libertines say; he will not have sin dwelling in the saints, but will have the justified as clean from sin — both the guilt and obligation to eternal wrath (which we yield) and from the bondage and in-dwelling of sin, of which Paul complains so sadly (Romans 7) — as the glorified in heaven. 2. If the justified sin only, he does not really sin, but only in the dreamings and lying imaginations of his sinful flesh; because sin, Satan and the Law are near him; so that it is the Devil and the living flesh, the ass — not Paul — that makes him (Romans 7) complain he was sold under sin. Crisp says Paul lied when he says so; if Peter walks by faith, then Peter shall see his denial of Christ, and David his adultery and murder to be no sins, for they want nothing to make them as free from sin and death as those that are now in heaven, but to believe it is so — believe adultery and murder in these justified persons to be no sin, and they are no sinners. This looks as like the devilish mortification of David Georgius and Libertines, and the casting off of their sense of discerning good and ill, and the banishing of common honesty, and the principles of a natural conscience, as milk is like milk. Indeed, Mr. Town contends for a complete perfection, not only of persons justified in Christ, but also of performances, so that (says he, p. 73) I believe there is no sin, no malediction, no death in the Church of God, for they that believe in Christ are no sinners; and he will have a perfection not of parts, but also of degrees, p. 77. This he proves from Luther's words perverted.

Parallel 5.

Libertines, (says Calvin) because the Scripture says we are freed from the curse of the Law, and made free in Christ, without all distinction, will have the whole Law abolished, and that we are to have no regard of the Law at all.

Now I need not cite Mr. Town and other Antinomians, who will have believers freed not only from the curse and rigor of the Law, but from the Law as a rule of righteousness — it is obvious to all that read their writings. To which Calvin answers well: There is not (says he) any Epistle of Paul in which he does not send believers to the Law, as to a rule of holy living, to which they all must conform their life. Yet Antinomians are not ashamed to pretend Calvin's name and authority for their opinion, when Calvin in a learned Treatise refuting the Libertines of his time does clearly condemn the Antinomians of our time, and proves from the necessity of sanctification that we are not freed from the Law.

Some a little legally biased (says Saltmarsh) are carried to mortify sin by vows, promises, shunning occasions, removing temptations, strictness and severity in duties (what ails him at walking [illegible], strictly, (Ephesians 5:15; Psalms 16:4; Jude v. 23?)) fear of hell and judgment — watchfulness, scarce rising so high for their mortification as Christ — but pure, spiritual, mystical mortification is being planted together in Christ's death, in our union with Christ. So as a believer is to consider himself dead to sin only in the fellowship of Christ's death mystically, and to consider himself only dying to sin in his own nature spiritually, so as in Christ he is only complete; and in himself imperfect at the best. I find (says Saltmarsh) no promise made against the never committing such a particular act or sin which a man lived in, in his unregenerated condition; there are differences made, but it puzzles both Divines and the godliest to find a difference between sins committed before, and after regeneration; for take a man in the strength of natural or common light, living under a powerful word or preacher, by which his candle is better lighted than it was, such a man shall sin against as seemingly strong conviction, as the other, if not more. This to me is that which the Libertines of New-England say, that there is no difference between the graces of hypocrites and believers in their kind; and now in the Covenant of works, a legalist may attain the same righteousness for truth which Adam had in innocence, before the fall; and a living faith, that has living fruits may grow from the living law. I see not but all these must follow, if a regenerate David or Peter may commit the same act of relapse and falling in the same sin of adultery and murder after conversion, which he committed before conversion: then he must commit the same sin with the like intensity and height of bent of will after as before conversion, and he must now after he is converted, fall again in the same act of murder, denial of Christ, being now converted, which he committed before conversion, that is as the unconverted man with the rankest and highest strength of lust, and unrenewed will in its fervor of strength and rebellion did murder and deny Christ, without any reluctancy and protestation on the contrary from the renewed will or the Spirit, he may, being converted, fall in the same sin; yea, with a higher hand, and without any reluctancy from the regenerate part. This to me must infer necessarily the Apostasy of the Saints, as that believers may fall again in these same sins with as high and up-lifted hand against God, with as strong, full and high bent acts of the will after, as before conversion, so as the battle of the Spirit against the flesh in this wicked relapse does utterly cease: for Perkins who denies a man can fall in the same sin, of which he once sincerely repented, and whom Saltmarsh judges a Legalist and Anti-Christian in this point, denies that a Convert may fall in the same sin that he committed in his unregenerated state, or that a Convert can fall in the same sin, every way the same with the like strength of corruption that this Convert before acted in his unregenerated condition, yea, or regenerate, he having a further growth of habitual renovation in the second fall, and so a higher habitual reluctancy of the renewed part, than when he formerly fell in the same sin, and so it cannot be the same sin but a lesser, otherwise he never sincerely repented of the former sin, if this be more grievous and committed with a higher hand. Now Saltmarsh his ground is different from all Protestant Divines, to wit, that the wound, pricking or sorrow for sin in an enlightened soul leaves no such habitual impression of remorse as the man dare never adventure to commit the like again; for (says he) the gales and breathings of the Spirit of sorrow for sin are like the wind that makes a thing move or tremble while the power of the air is upon it, but as that slackens or breathes, so does it.

But this is to say right down that the Spirit of Grace, that causes sorrow according to God, and repentance which is never to be repented of, is but a vanishing and transient act like the blowing of the wind on a tree; the Scripture makes the spirit that produces mourning and remorse for sin, when the sinner sees him whom he has pierced, a habitual indwelling Spirit, and calls him (Zechariah 12:10) the Spirit of grace and supplication; if then the Spirit of adoption be no transient, but a habitual and indwelling grace, as is evident (Romans 8:23-26), it is a received spirit, abiding in us helping our infirmities, teaching us what to pray; it is (Isaiah 44:3-6) water poured on the thirsty, making us confess and subscribe the Covenant, and if it be, as it is the new heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27), the Law in the inner parts (Jeremiah 31:33), the seed of God (1 John 3:9), the anointing abiding in us (1 John 3:27), a well of water of an everlasting spring within us (John 4:14), I see not how a Spirit groaning in us when we pray (Romans 8:26), sighing, sorrowing for the indwelling body of sin (Romans 7:14, 23, 27), can be but a passing away motion like a flash of fire in the air; but this is the mystery of Libertines that there is no inherent grace indwelling in the Saints, no spring of sanctification; all grace is in Christ and his imputed righteousness, and so they destroy sanctification. 2. The aim of Saltmarsh is here, that if we sorrow once, and scarce that, at the beginning of conversion, we are never more to confess or sorrow for sin, when that transient motion, like a flash of fire in the air, is gone. But for mortification against all contrary blasphemies we say.

Assertion 1. Mortification is not, as Mr. Denne says, an apprehension of sin slain by the body of Christ: 1. Because this apprehension is an act of faith, in the understanding faculty, believing that Christ has mortified sin for me, and so Mr. Denne says, vivification is to live by faith, that is to believe that I am justified and have life and righteousness freely in Christ. Now mortification is not formally any such apprehension, it does flow from faith as the effect from the cause; but mortification denominates the man mortified not in his apprehending and knowing that Christ was mortified and died for him; but in that he really himself is dead, when it is said (Colossians 3:3), for you are dead, (Galatians 6:14), by Christ I am crucified to the world and the world crucified to me: by this fancy, the world and the sinful pleasures crucified must be the faith and apprehension that is in the fleshly pleasures and lawless lusts by which these lusts apprehend and know that Christ died for them; for Paul says, as well that the world is crucified to him, as he to the world.

2. Mortification is a deadness in will and affections, and the abating, half death, the languor and dying of the power of our lusts to sin; as a believer is dead to vainglory, when contentedly he can be despised, have his name trampled on, be called a Deceiver, a Samaritan, and when the Apostles went out from the Council (Acts 5:41) rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame; and the saints are persecuted, reviled, and men speak all manner of evil against them falsely, for the name of Christ (Matthew 5:11-12), and yet are so far from the boiling and rising of sinful lusts in them — that as if [reconstructed: their] lusts were dead, they rejoice under the hope of glory, then are they mortified to these lusts and the like, I say, of fleshly pleasures, of unlawful gain. 2. Mortification is when the heart runs not out wantonly and whorishly upon the pleasures of the creature, we are too ready to take the creature in our bosom; but mortification is when the heart stands at a distance from creatures; as Job says of himself (Job 31:24-25), If I have made gold my hope, or said to the fine gold, you are my confidence, if I rejoiced because my wealth was great. 3. It is to be from under the power or bondage to the creature or the world, the believer is above the creature, and the world is under his feet as a drudge or servant; they have no dominion over the heart; he has a wife as if he had no wife; the man buys and possesses not; because when he has bought houses, gardens, lands, they are no more in the center and heart of his love, then if they were the houses and lands of another man; mortification is a lord over the creature. But there is nothing more contrary to the Gospel and the grace of Christ, than that the Apostles' rejoicing, when they were scourged and shamed for Christ, had nothing of reality of scourging of shame, nor of real joy and deadness to the world in their persons; only they believed and apprehended that Christ was scourged, shamed, crucified for their sins; this is but opinionative, not real mortification; the Scripture knows nothing of imputed mortification, as contra-distinguished from real personal and inherent mortification.

3. When Paul says (Colossians 3:5), Mortify therefore your members which are upon earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence — for which things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience; his sense must be, believe and apprehend that fornication, uncleanness, are mortified to your hand, and that Christ has slain the body of sin on the cross, and there is an end; now this is to annihilate sanctification, and to make justification all; whereas justification, it alone is no justification being separated from sanctification, as Libertines do, and the Popish sanctification, or the moral acquiring of a new habit of holiness, and the infusion of supernatural habits is not justification at all, yea, nor true sanctification, for they separate it from the free imputation of Christ's righteousness, to a believing sinner: the Libertine takes away sanctification and makes justification all; the Papist takes away justification by faith and the free grace of God, and in the place thereof substitutes a supposed moral, or civil sanctification; which to him is all in all. Further if this (Mortify your members and the body of sin) be nothing but believe that Christ has mortified the body of sin already, then as we are justified from eternity, as some Libertines say, or as all say, before we believe remission of sins in Christ's blood: so to be mortified to our lusts, [reconstructed: must be] to believe we are mortified to our lusts long before we believe. Paul thinks not so of the Colossians, yet he says (Colossians 3:7-8), In which also you walked some time, when you lived in them, but now also put off all these, wrath, malice, etc. Then before they were converted, and did believe, they were not mortified nor freed from uncleanness, fornication, because then they walked in these; except Libertines say that they were mortified and did not walk in uncleanness, before they believed, but were delivered in themselves from walking in these lusts, only they were not in their own sense delivered, but in their own sense, though not really, they did walk in fornication and uncleanness; this is not sober divinity; for they say, before we believe we are justified, though not to, or in our own sense and feeling till we believe; and why are we not also sanctified and effectually called before we believe? For whom he called and predestined, them also he justified (Romans 8:30). And the Scripture never shows us of a man in time justified, before he be sanctified, and mortified in some measure.

4. When Paul says (Colossians 2:6), "As you have therefore received Christ, so walk in him," he means so mortify your lusts; then he must intend this: walk in Christ, that is, believe that Christ walked in Christ for you; and put on love and brotherly kindness, and pray continually, in all things give thanks, abstain from worldly lusts, love one another, keep yourselves from idols, seek the things that are above, etc., must have no other meaning but believe that Christ has put on love for you, that he abstains from fornication for you, gives thanks, abstains from worldly lusts for you, keeps himself from idols, seeks the things that are above, mortifies his members that are on earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, for you; all which are blasphemies; or they can have this sense at the best, love one another; that is, believe that Christ has satisfied for your hating one another, and then you love one another; and keep yourselves from idols, that is, apprehend and believe that Christ has died for your idolatry. Now this is a mocking of sanctification, not a commanding of it.

Then to do all these and abstain from fornication, must be commanded and forbidden in [reconstructed: some] other Gospel, otherwise we perform will-worship, and will-obedience to God, without warrant of his word, and the grace of God in the Gospel does not teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, in our own person, but only to believe that Jesus Christ has [reconstructed: and] does deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and perform active and personal obedience for us, and to our hand; for Libertines cannot expound one Gospel charge one way, and another Gospel command another way, and that we are obliged to personal active obedience in one precept, and to imputed active or fidei jussory, or mediatory obedience in Christ, in another; indeed when we are in the Gospel to believe with a promise of [reconstructed: life] and righteousness, and that damnation is threatened, if we believe not, so are we commanded to mortify our lusts, and seek the things that are above with promises, and forbidden to walk after our lusts, because for these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience, then I may with equal strength of reason say that the sense of these passages, "Believe in Jesus Christ who justifies the ungodly," and "Believe the immediate testimony of the Holy Spirit witnessing to your hearts that you are the sons of God," must be not to believe in your own persons, but believe that Jesus Christ believes for you, on Christ that justifies sinners and believe that the Spirit witnesses to Christ's Spirit, that you are the sons of God. Now if the commands of the Gospel urge us not to personal obedience, but to believe that Christ (as S. says) has obeyed for us, and that in the Gospel way, they cannot oblige us in a law-way, as they teach, so by law and Gospel we shall be freed from all personal obedience and mortification, Saltmarsh and Libertines bid us be merry, and believe that Christ has done all these for us.

5. A [reconstructed: fleshly] presumer walking after his lusts may believe that Christ mortified sin for him, obeyed the Law, and repented for him: so if a hypocrite as a hypocrite, a presumer vainly puffed up, void of all down-casting and conscience of sin, believes that Christ has repented and mortified sin, and believed for him, though he live as the devil believing and trembling, he is not to doubt his faith.

If they say, that men believing savingly and sincerely, cannot go on in a constant walking after their lusts, never humbled for sin, never despairing in themselves, never out of love constraining them to please God and strive to walk in Christ, as they have learned him; for if they be such, their faith is but wild oats, and empty presumption: then they say, 1. Men know their faith to be sound, by holy walking: 2. Men may call in question their faith, if their works belie their faith: 3. They deny that a fleshly man, as such, and never humbled, can believe, (this is our doctrine.)

Assertion 2. Never any of our divines said that pure mortification is the not acting of sin, or the not conceiving of lusts; nor that it is the mere absence of the body of sin; this is a foul slander; which if willful, Antinomians, though in their own eyes perfectly holy, in the sight of God must answer to God for: nor is that any argument of weight to prove that mortification is not the absence of the body of sin, because then (says he) dead and sick men were mortified persons, except we admit such new vain divinity that a bodily ague or sickness does extirpate the body of sin out of the soul, which mad or frantic men would not say. And if it be truth that the body of sin dwells in us, in this life, this body of sin is either sin, or no sin; if it be no sin, let libertines speak plain truth, we deceive ourselves, if we have no sin; if it be sin, then let libertines resolve us, how Crisp and Eaton and Denne say we are all as holy and clean from sin, being once justified, as our surety Christ is, and as spotless on earth as the angels and glorified that are in heaven that stand before the throne. Now certain, neither in Christ, nor in angels, is there any spot of sin, or any indwelling body of lust: and Crisp gives this reason why sin dwelling in the saints, is no sin: it cannot sink (says he) into the head of any reasonable person, that sin should be taken away (by the Lamb of God, John 1:29) and yet be left behind; it is a flat contradiction; if a man be to receive money at such a place, and he does take this money away with him, is the money left in that place, when he has taken it away? Mr. Denne has a fine [illegible] for this; he says, there is sin in the conscience, and sin in the conversation: Christ has taken away sin out of the conscience of his called people (1 Peter 3:21; Hebrews 10:22). The white raiment with which the saints are clothed signifies not only cleanness before God, but also purity and cleanness of conscience consisting in the apprehension of that glorious estate and condition in Christ's death; so there is no sin at all in the saints (1 John 1:8), and the blood of Jesus Christ shall purge you from all sin: in the conscience does joy and gladness dwell, and there is no more place for sorrow and sighing. And there is sin in the conversation or hands: now a man may be strict in conversation, and yet not pure and clean in conscience: so it is possible a man has been an exceeding sinner, and yet is not wholly cleansed from all wickedness in conversation. If this seem a mystery to you that sin in the flesh (in the body, outward man or conversation) should stand with purity of conscience, take these reasons: if purity of conscience could not be found, but where there is purity in the flesh, a pure conscience could not at all be found on earth, for there is none that does good, no not one (Romans 3:12). (2.) Purity of conscience arises not from purity of conversation; but the original of purity of conversation is from the conscience's apprehension that all our impurities and sins were laid on Christ. And in regard of sin in the conversation, if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves (1 John 1), and (1 John 3:9) he that is born of God does not commit sin.

Answer 1. Sin in the conversation, and outward man is essentially sin; to kill my neighbor with my hands, to speak with an unbridled tongue, to the Apostle James, argues a vain religion, and must be pardoned, else such sins condemn; for he that offends in one, is guilty of the breach of the whole law. Therefore, sin in the conversation must be sin in the conscience, and the distinction must be vain; for the one member is essentially affirmed of the other.

Now when John says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves; he must mean of sin in the conscience, and of sin before God, and not in the flesh and conversation only, because if sin in the conversation be no sin, then when we commit sin in the conversation, we fail against no law of God, and do nothing that can bring us under eternal condemnation. And if in committing sin in the conversation, we do nothing contrary to God's law, we may well say we sin not, and yet not lie in saying so.

2. John must understand sin in the conscience, and in the sight of God, when he says, if we say we have no sin, we lie, because that of that same sin of conversation of which Mr. Denne supposes John to speak, he adds in the next words (1 John 2:1), if we sin, we have an advocate; but the sin which has need of an advocate, has need also of a pardon, and is a sin against the law, and in the sight of God, and in the conscience.

3. By this we may be pardoned, pure in conscience, justified in Christ's blood, and yet before men, in the flesh, outward man, and conversation under sin, and yet not be guilty before God; so drunkenness, murder, Sodomy, incest, denying of the Lord Jesus Christ before men, shall be no sins before God; for that which is pardoned is no more sin than if it never had been committed, as Libertines say, and is no more sin than anything that ever our Savior Christ did, or the elect angels; now the sins which they call sins of conversation, and the Apostle Peter's denial of Christ, and all the sins of the justified saints, their murders, adulteries, parricides, etc. are pardoned, before they have the being or essence of sin, before they are committed; therefore, when they are committed they are no more sins before God, and in the court of conscience, and no more capable of pardon, than they were before they had any being, and were not as yet committed at all: the murder that David is to commit some twenty years before ever he be King of Israel, and shall commit, it is no more his sin to be charged on him in the sight of God, than original sin can be charged on David before David or his father [reconstructed: Jesse] be born; what may be charged as a sin on David, in regard he is not yet born, is no more his guiltiness, as yet, than the guiltiness of any other man: Now David's murder, Peter's denial, they being justified from these sins, and pardoned before the sins have any being in the world, cannot be sins at all, nor such as are charged on mankind (Romans 3; Psalm 14). There is none that does good, no not one; for this sin stops the mouth of all the world, makes them silent, guilty and under condemnation before God (verses 19-20). and how Mr. Den can cite this to prove that there be some sins of conversation distinct from sins in the conscience, let the Reader judge; Indeed, to my best understanding by these reasons until I be resolved otherwise, Libertines must hold that neither the elect before or after justification can sin at all.

4. It is most false that a man strict and upright in conversation can have a foul and polluted conscience, if you speak of true sincere strictness and uprightness of conversation, as the scripture speaks (Psalm 50:23). To him that orders his conversation aright, I will show the salvation of God (Psalm 37:14). The wicked draws his bow to slay such as be of upright conversation; the principle of a sound conversation is the grace of God (2 Corinthians 1:12); the sound conversation is heavenly mindedness (Philippians 3:20), and is in heaven, and must be, as becomes the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27); a good conversation (James 3:13); we are to be holy in all manner of conversation (1 Peter 1:15), and so even before men; God beholds the sins that we do to men, no less than our secret sins we commit against God, and the scripture requires in our conversation that it be holy (1 Peter 1:15), honest (1 Peter 2:12), chaste (1 Peter 3:2), without covetousness ([reconstructed: Hebrews 13:5]), not vain (1 Peter 3:16), not as in times past in the lusts of the flesh (Ephesians 2:3), but the putting off of the old man (Ephesians 4:22), in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity (1 Timothy 4:12). Now every conversation contrary to this argues an unjustified and unpardoned man, and must be an unpardoned and sinful conversation, so as there is neither strictness nor uprightness, nor anything but sin and an unpardoned estate, where this conversation is not, whatever Antinomians say on the contrary, being in this, as in other points, declared enemies to the grace of sanctification. But if we speak of a strict and upright conversation in a hypocritical outside, it is true, many are as Paul was, strict Pharisees, precise civilians, painted tombs without, but within full of rottenness and dead men's bones: but this way Satan only says Job is a strict walker, and serves God for hire, and the enemies of Christ join with Antinomians in this, to say, that the justified in Christ have but sin in their conversation, but wide consciences, because they study strictness of walking with God; but purity of conversation (as the places cited prove) must be inseparably conjoined with purity of conscience; separate them who will, Christ has joined them.

Mr. Eaton and Mr. Town call the sins of justified persons sins according to their sense or the flesh, but in regard of faith they are clean of all sin, and without spot in the sight of God. So Eaton, Honeycomb, chapter 5, page 87: God frees us not of sins to our sense and feeling, till death, for the exercise of our faith, yet in his own sight he has perfectly healed us. Chapter 5, page 95. So Saltmarsh, Free Grace, page 57, chapter 3, article 3, calls it the lust of sin; the just (says he) shall live by faith, which is not a life of sense and sanctification merely, but by believing of life in another.

I should gladly know, if sin in the justified be sin really and indeed, or against any law? I believe not. 1. Eaton says, sin has lost its being in the justified: Saltmarsh, part 2, chapter 32: if a believer live only by sense, reason, experience of himself as he lives to men, he lives both under the power and feeling of sin and the law: now he should not live so; this is the use of unbelief; therefore, he ought to believe that he has no sin; and so he has no sin, nor does he sin, only the blind flesh falsely thinks that is sin which is no sin:

But faith is not to believe a lie; then a believer may say, he has no sin; John says, that is a lie.

Assertion 3. Mortification essential is in abstaining from worldly lusts, and in remiss and slackened acts of sinning, and in begun walking with God, and acts of holy living, yet so as all these do flow from faith in Christ; another mystical or Gospel-mortification is unknown to the Gospel. Romans 6 — Therefore we are buried with him by baptism to death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, so we also (consider the formal acts of mortification) should walk in newness of life, verse 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death: we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, verse 6. 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; Then as it is one thing to sin, and another thing to serve sin; so acts of mortification must be in abstaining from greedy sin, as hired servants make it their life and work to sin; and in remiss and weakened acts of sin, as a dying man's operations are less intended and heightened than of a strong man in vigor and health; as for the plenary mortification, expiring, and death of the body of sin, we think it cannot be, so long as we are in the body. Colossians 3:3 — You are dead, verse 5 — mortify therefore your members that are upon earth, fornication, uncleanness, etc. To mortify fornication, must be the non-acting of fornication: 1. Because it is an abominable sense to imagine that we mortify fornication, when we believe that Christ abstained from fornication for us. 2. Or to believe that Christ died for our fornication and uncleanness; for both these may hold forth mortification of fornication and committing of fornication. 2. Because for not mortifying of fornication, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience, verse 6. Now wrath comes not on wicked men because they believe not that Christ abstained from fornication for them; many walk in uncleanness, covetousness, who are therefore under wrath, who are not obliged to believe that, because they never heard the Gospel. 3. Such an abstinence from fornication is here commanded, as the Colossians and other Gentiles walked in, verse 7, and which they had now put off with the old man, verse 8. But the Colossians, while they were Gentiles, and heard not of the Gospel, did not walk in this as in a sin, that they believed not that Christ abstained from fornication for them and satisfied divine justice for their fornication; but their sin was, that in person, they committed these sins. 1 Peter 2:11 — Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul, verse 24. Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live to righteousness. Romans 8:11 — And if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies, verse 12. Therefore brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, verse 13, for if you live after the flesh you shall die: But if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live, verse 10. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. Galatians 5:24 — They that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. Galatians 2:19 — For I, through the Law, am dead to the Law, that I might live to God; all Gospel-commands to subdue the lusts of flesh, not to serve the flesh as debtors paying rent thereto: to mortify the deeds of the body, not to live to ourselves etc., were mere precepts for justification, not for sanctification and mortification of lusts, and should turn the saints into mere Solifidians, Gnostics, empty professors and fruitless trees, if our mortification were not in the weakening of lusts, abstinence from sin-service, and living to him who is our ransomer. There is nothing more false than that ever our divines taught to mortify sins by vows, promises, strictness and severity of duties, watchfulness, scarce rising so high for mortification as Christ: For it is Christ and faith in his death that is the spring and fountain of mortification; yet is mortification formally in holy walking, and not formally in believing, for then should we be justified by mortification, for sure we are justified by faith. 2. Faith is a duty of the first Table respecting God in Christ as its object: mortification to uncleanness, vainglory, or the like, is a duty of the second Table respecting men.

Assertion 4. The living of the just by faith, is as well the life of sanctification, as of justification; it is true the life of justification is the cause, more complete and perfect, and the other the effect and imperfect; but our spiritual condition is not only in sanctification, but also in justification. And only enemies of free grace, separate the one from the other; and heighten the one to feed men on the east wind, and lessen the other, as if sanctification were an accident, and some indifferent ceremony, that men walk after the flesh and believe, that Christ for them walked after the Spirit, and that is enough: nor do we teach men to weigh their state of grace in the scales of mortification or simple not acting of sin, as mortification comes from moral and natural principles, but as it flows from faith apprehending Christ crucified, and from the Spirit of the Father and the Son drawing the sinner to Christ, and our blessedness is no less in that corruption is subdued, and the dominion removed, than in that the curse is taken away. Saltmarsh, when he wills the sinner as a sinner, a parricide, a man-slayer, a slave to his lusts, to believe and apply Christ as his Redeemer without any sense of sin or humiliation at all, and then says the man's blessedness is more to have the curse of sin, than the corruption of sin removed, clearly concludes that a man that walks after his lusts in actual lusting against the Lord Jesus and the Gospel; proud, vain, self-righteous, is as such a man to believe, and so blessed and may promise to himself peace, though he walk after the imaginations of his own heart.

Nor is arguing against the temptation with spiritual reason from the word as Joseph did (Genesis 39:8-9), and Job (Job 2:9-10), and David (2 Samuel 16:7-14), our own power or contrary to the fighting by the shield of faith, the Word of God; as Saltmarsh imagines.

Assertion 5. It is to be reputed as a most blasphemous assertion, that we know we are Christ's, not because we crucify the lusts of the flesh, but because we do not crucify them (1 Peter 1). Crucifying of our lusts is a mark of our being in Christ (Galatians 5:24; Romans 8:13). This makes walking after the Spirit, and a parting from iniquity and being pure in Spirit and dying to [illegible] of no interest in Christ, contrary to (Romans 8:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:19; Matthew 5:8; 1 Peter 2:4; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18), and contrary to the whole Gospel: which was that blasphemy of David George who taught mortification was to act all uncleanness without shame or sense of sin; and the more men are void of the common passion that follows sin, the more mortified and spiritual they are; and this is very like the Libertines' way, who teach that to take delight in the holy service of God is to go a whoring from God; and that they are legally biased, that would mortify the flesh by watchfulness and strictness of walking; whereas to put our duties on the Throne with Christ, and to put Christ's crown on our mortification, as if we were thereby justified is the idolatry. But the delighting in the law of the Lord, and taking of the Lord's testimonies for our heritage, a serving the Lord with cheerfulness and fervor of Spirit (Psalm 1:2; Psalm 119:111, 162; Isaiah 58:13; Psalm 112:1; Romans 7:22; Romans 12:8; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Philippians 4:4; Acts 20:24; James 1:2) are marks of a blessed condition. If any teach that we mortify the flesh by watchfulness and strictness of walking, as if these did merit mortification, we judge it cursed doctrine; but if Libertines deny, as they do, that acts of mortification do formally consist in watchful, strict and accurate walking with God, in being not taken, nor madly drunken with the lusts of sin, but dead to pleasures, as these acts flow from the Spirit of Christ, we curse their fleshly doctrine also.

It is no consequent to say, because Regeneration is not a work of nature, but of the Spirit of God, and the way of the Spirit is not so gross and carnal as the divinity of former times, it being hard to trace and find the impressions of the Spirit, therefore we are not to take experience so low, and carnally, by the feelings of flesh and blood, and signs not infallible, as to write of Regeneration as Philosophers do of moral virtues.

Answer 1. Regeneration is above nature every way, but in this it is most suitable to nature. That as a man come to age does not at all times, even when he is sick, in a swoon, in a deep sleep know that he lives; yet ordinarily life has reflect acts on itself, so as a living man may know that he lives by many signs of life; so a regenerate man, except he be deserted may know that he lives the life of God.

2. If Antinomians find out new divinity less carnal, more spiritual, than in former times, how is it that Christians are to live from under all rule of life? And not to pray, forgive us our sins, when they pray for daily bread? And that none justified are to confess their sins and to sorrow for them: that new obedience, mortification, repentance, is to believe that Christ has done these for us; that we are not to pray continually but only when the Spirit stirs us? A hundred of these false ways may be shown; is this more spiritual divinity than in former ages? Is it not the most carnal divinity that we read of? For when Doctor Taylor objects to Antinomians, as a limb of their fleshly divinity, No action of the believer after justification is sin, Mr. Town answers nothing at all but of the way, no action is sin, the disorder and disorder of the action is the sin. But Doctor Taylor meant that there is no disorder in the actions of a justified man by their way; to this Mr. Town replies not one word, but says to faith there is no sin, because there is not one spot in a justified person; and he cites (Revelation 1:5; Ephesians 5:26; Song of Solomon 4:7 and 6:9; 1 Corinthians 6:11) because Christ has washed (Revelation 1:5), purged (Hebrews 1:3), abolished (Hebrews 9:26), all our sins, and has made us holy and blameless and unrebukable in the sight of God; we are like Christ void of sin; which is not the removal of sin, but of the guilt, that is, of the obligation to eternal wrath and the curse of the law; for if we say we (even though justified as John the Apostle was) have no sin, we are liars; can this be any but a divinity of the flesh that Antinomians teach?

3. Sanctification is a far other thing than moral virtues. First, a moralist that is temperate, chaste, is never so over-clouded in his faith, as to doubt whether he be a temperate man or not; a sanctified soul will often doubt if he have any sanctification at all. Second, a sanctified man must have the use of the light of the Spirit to know his state, and these things that are freely given him of God (1 Corinthians 2:12). A moralist knows with the light of his own sparks, what he is; does Saltmarsh know of any desertions or over-cloudings of the Spirit, in a moral Seneca, Aristides, Plato? Third, the moralist dreams of justification by his virtues. Fourth, he needs only natural reason, not the breathings and stirring of the Spirit to act according to his moral habits. Fifth, nor are his habits infused from heaven, but his own conquest. Sixth, nor does he know an absence or a presence of the Spirit, all which are peculiar to sanctified and justified persons.

We are not completely (says Saltmarsh) or perfectly mortified to sin, by our being planted into Christ, and the fellowship of his death.

Answer. But if mortification be the faith and apprehension that Christ mortified sin for us, then as we are perfectly justified, so are we perfectly mortified; now Antinomians teach the former.

Let not (says he) mortification of sin in Christ, tempt any to a neglect of mortification of sin in the body, no more than the free grace of God in forgiveness of sin ought to tempt any to take liberty to sin.

Answer 1. Surely as to add anything to justification, so to advance in mortification must be as wicked and blasphemous, according to the way of Antinomians, for if mortification be the believing that Christ has slain the body of sin, as Mr. Den says (and Saltmarsh seconds him as a brother), then our neglecting of mortification is no sin, for we are to believe that Christ has removed all neglects of mortification, if mortification be faith and belief that Christ mortified sin for us.

2. I cannot neglect justification or apprehension that Christ mortified sin for me, any otherwise but by a remiss act of believing, or neglect of a higher measure, and a more intense and strong act of faith, and not by an abstinence from fleshly lusts; such an abstinence is no faith or apprehension that Christ has slain and mortified the body of sin for me; for non-sinning cannot formally be believing; that were non-sense.

3. If the meaning be that we are not to abstain from fleshly lusts, that is from sins that the flesh or the body of sin acts in us, this is neither mortification nor any part thereof, to Antinomians. But I desire and provoke Antinomians to satisfy us in these; if Salmarsh one of their patrons can.

1. Whether or not sins of the body, or in the body, as Saltmarsh calls them here, or sins of conversation, as Mr. Den says, or sins, as Mr. Town speaks, arising out of these earthly members of our flesh, he sins against the Law of God; if so, they involve the justified under a curse, and so they are sins formally, and the justified either cannot sin at all, which I fear is the fleshly way of Libertines, a way that my soul abhors, if I be not deceived, or then, the sins, the adultery of a justified man, the murder, the denial of Christ in Peter, is no less a breach of the Law of God, than the denial of Christ in Judas (it may be the one with a greater bensill of will denies Christ, than the other; sed magis & minus non variant [reconstructed: speciem]) and so the justified do as truly and essentially sin against the Law, as the unregenerate does; then they are not as clean from sin as Christ the surety is.

2. If murders, adulteries committed by the justified be sins of their flesh and body, that is, such sins as they are not by any Prophet or Nathan to be rebuked for; because the Spirit that is not in their power, in his actions and motions did assist not them to abstain, and they are under no other Law, but the only irresistible action of the Spirit to hinder them physically in all sins, to abstain from any sin, this must be Antinomians' spiritual divinity; to make no rule, no law of ordering the life and conversation of a justified man; but only the motions of a Spirit separated from the world.

3. Whether or not when Paul said, Romans 7:17, 'Now it is no more I (that sin) but sin that dwells in me,' verse 18, 'I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing,' his meaning be according to the Antinomians' divinity, that no regenerate man sins, but his flesh and sensitive part which is not capable of any Law, sins: but he who acts the sin being above or from under Law, Rule, or direction, sins not against God, or any Law?

4. Whether or not the Enthusiasts' rule, which is the immediate and irresistible inspiration of a Spirit, which does press a brother to kill a brother, and has done it, as Bullinger says of the practice of various Anabaptists, and some of New England said, though they resisted the Christian Magistrate, and fired the Churches of Christ there, yet they should be miraculously delivered from the Court, as Daniel was from the den of Lions; whether or not this rule of the Spirit's immediate acting without Law and Gospel be the only Law and Rule that the justified are under and led by?

5. Whether from this spring does not flow the rejecting of all the Scriptures or written Law or Gospel, as if they were but a covenant of works, and the walking by the Spirit separated from the word, and the denying any marks as love to the brothers, sincerity, keeping of the commandments of God recommended in the word (John 14:15; 1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 3:14)? and if this be the spiritual divinity spoken of here?

6. Whether or not sins of the body and of the flesh or conversation (as Antinomians call them) be not sins against the Law of God, and make the justified truly guilty, if the Lord should enter in judgment with them, and though they that commit them be justified, and so absolved from obligation to eternal wrath, are not formally and inherently blotted, and sinful in those sinful acts?

7. If they are not to be sad for them as offensive to the authority of the Law-Giver, and the love of Christ, though they be not to fear the eternal punishment of them? for sorrow for sin, and fear for sin, are most different to us.

8. Whether the free grace of God does not tempt men to sin, most kindly and from the nature of free grace, according to the Antinomian way, if the free grace of justification does free the justified so from sinning; as their indulgence to the flesh and sinful pleasure, can be no sin in God's court, no more than there can be sin in Christ; and if they be as free, notwithstanding of all the sin they do, being once justified, as if they never had sinned, or as the sinless Angels; and if the essence of sin and all they do against the Law of God, be as clean removed as money taken away out of a place, which sure cannot be said without a contradiction, to remain in that place, as Doctor Crispe speaks, and that before the sin be committed? Whether a thing in its essence can be wholly removed, as if it never had been, before it have any being at all; can a rose be said to be withered and destroyed as if it had never been, before ever that same rose spring out of the earth? Sure faith cannot fancy lies and contradictions.

However it be, Christ's death teaches us mortification of our lusts, it is a mortified like death, for he dies on a visible journey leaving the earth; his back was towards life, pleasure, profit, he is not dead to his lusts, whatever be his boasting who is not dead in, or with Christ to sin.

For 1. Christ's death and his contempt of the world teaches that we should follow him. 1. He looked even straight before him, neither to the right, nor left hand, nor behind him; the meadows, buildings, fair flowers and roses in the way of this passenger, did never allure him to stay in the way and fall in love with any thing on this side of heaven (Hebrews 12:2), as our [illegible] the captain of our faith [illegible] for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross; his heart was so upon the crown, and that which was his garland, his conquered Spouse, that he did run his race with all his breath and wearied not; his heart was much upon the prize that he did run for.

He was nothing beholding to the world; he came to the house of his friends, they refused him house room and lodging (John 1:11). His own received him not, and therefore he was fain to lie with the birds of heaven, and the foxes of the earth. Christ was no landed man on earth; he had never a free house of his own above his head. He had a purse, but no fixed rent, no income by year (Matthew 8:20). He had not on which to buy a grave when he died (John 19:41). The earth was his Father's land; but he lodged in a borrowed grave. His coat was all his legacy, yet it could not buy a winding sheet for him; the soldiers thought it too little fee for their pains in crucifying him, and it was not of much worth, when they put it to the hazard of lots — take it that wins it. His heart was never on the world; he refused a king's crown when it was offered to him without stroke of sword (John 6:15). He had neither heart nor leisure to enjoy the world. In John 4, when he wanted his dinner, he begged a drink of water from a stranger, and was weary with walking on foot, yet he was the one great Bishop, the head of the body of the Church, and had neither horse nor coach — and he could have made the clouds his chariot. He became poor that we might be made rich. Was sweet Jesus your Savior a poor man in the world? Learn to be a stranger and to want, and to be content to borrow, and to lie in the fields, and to have a dead heart to the world. First: O glory worldly, O all crowns, and gold, and stately palaces, blush, be ashamed, take not such a wide lodging in the hearts of saints, go not with so broad and fair peacock-wings; you are too big in men's eyes — Christ our dear Savior refused you. Second: Rich saints, drink at leisure, use the world at the by, as if you used it not. Look with half an eye, the least half of your desire upon this borrowed shadow. Let not your heart water, nor itch after white and yellow clay. Third: Gold, you are not God; saints look over crowns and court — see, see what a kingdom is above your hand. Pilgrims, drink, but lay not down your burden and your staff; let it be a standing drink, and be gone. Fourth: You are longed for in heaven. Fifth: Your King lodged with poverty and abasement, and shame; love the lodging the better that he was there before you. Christ's love is languishing to have you soon cut off this passing transitory world and to be at your best home.

Christ did never laugh on earth that we read of, but he wept. O what a sad world! In Psalm 69:11, 'I made sackcloth my garment.' O precious Redeemer, cloth of gold is too coarse for you. Verse 20: 'Reproach has broken my heart, I am full of heaviness.' He was a man made of sorrow (Isaiah 53:3), and had experience and familiar acquaintance with grief. There be a multitude that goes laughing, harping, piping and dancing to heaven as whole and unbroken-hearted Christians. Mystical mortification (say they) is only faith, and joy; we have nothing to do with weeping, confessing, sorrow for sin — that is a dish of the law's vinegar and gall, it belongs not to us. We are not under the law, but under grace; that sour sauce is the due of carnal men under the bondage of the law. But will Christ wipe away tears from the eyes of laughing men, when they come to heaven? Believe it, there goes no unbroken and whole professors to heaven; that is far from mortification. Heaven will not lodge whole souls, with their iron sinew in the neck never cracked by the death of Christ.

Objection: But godliness is not melancholy, but joy of the Holy Ghost.

Answer 1: True; but whom does Christ, with the bowels and hand of a Savior, bind up, but the broken-hearted mourners in Zion, and such as lie in ashes (Isaiah 61:1-3)? Sorrow and joy may lodge in one soul.

Christ feasts some in the way to heaven, and diets them daintily. Some feed ordinarily on the fat and marrow of the Lord's house (Psalm 63:5). And there is a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined (Isaiah 25:6). And has not the King a banqueting house, a wine cellar (Song of Solomon 2:4) for some? And do they not feed upon the honeycomb, and the wine, the spiced wine and the milk (Song of Solomon 5:1; Song of Solomon 8:2)? But these that drink wine at some time, must at another time be glad of a drink of water.

And if there be varieties of temperature of saints, some rough and stiff, some mild, some old men, and some babes (1 John 2:13), and as there be some lambs, some fainting weak and swooning tender things that Christ feeds like kings' sons, with wine of heaven — so there be others that are under the care of the steward Christ, who are heifers and young bullocks, like Ephraim not well broken yet (Jeremiah 31:18-19). And there be hoping and waiting saints, that must bear the yoke in their youth (Lamentations 3:26-27), and sundry kinds and sizes of children. Every one must have their own portion and diet (2 Timothy 2:15; Matthew 24:45). One man's meat is another's poison, and yet they are both the sons of one Father.

Can every head that shall wear a crown in heaven bear this wine on the earth, being clothed with such a nature? And must every one be taken into the king's house of wine, and sit between the Father's knees, at the high table, and eat marrow, and drink spiced wine? Are there not some set at the side-board, that must be content with brown bread and small drink or water?

Though the word should be silent, it is easy to prove that saints have not the like fare of Christ's dainties at all times. For the Church (Song of Solomon 2:4) is taken into the banqueting house, and feasts on fatness of free love. And yet again, in Song of Solomon 3, she cries hunger, and seeks and finds not. And in Song of Solomon 5:1, she feasts with Christ on wine and honey and milk. But in verse 5:5-6, there is a dinner of gall, hunger, and swooning — 'my soul,' says the Spouse, 'went out of me.'

5. How many saints go to heaven, and you never heard another word from them but complaints, want of access, straitening of spirit, deadness, absence, withdrawings of the beloved, at every slip, scourged, chastised every morning? Their complainings cannot be praised; indeed till they land, they are ever sea-sick, till they be at shore, never see a fair day, nor one joyful hour, (Psalm 88:15) I am afflicted and ready to die [illegible] from my youth I suffer your terrors, and am distracted sore, for the Lord's dispensation, we may say, who has been upon his counsels and who has instructed him? Antinomians allow daily feasts and the strongest of the Gospel wine for daily food to all that are sinners; this we dare not do; but as we judge it a sin to stand aloof from free grace, because we have no money nor hire: so to fill out the wine of the Gospel more largely and profusely than the King of the feast allows, even to sinners as sinners, and all unhumbled and high-minded Pharisees, is to be stewards to men's lusts, and to turn the Gospel into the doctrine of license to the flesh, and not to extol free grace.

4. Christ in his way had no reason to glory in friends. 1. How was he despised of them? (Isaiah 53:3) We did hide our faces from him; all his friends thought shame of him, and fled the way for him, they refuse to give him one look of their eye. 2. (Psalm 31:11) I was a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to my acquaintance, they that see me without, fled from me; this is more to be a reproach and a fear to neighbor and friend. 3. Nature and blood went against itself, (Psalm 69:8) I am become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother's children.

All the saints' idols are broken, to the end God may be one for all; this is a good ground of mortification; men shall be cruel brothers, and redeemed ones shall have the iron bowels of an ostrich, a lion to kill you and to consent to make war against you, that Christ's meekness may appear; friends must be sour, that Christ may be sweet; and you may be deadened in love to brothers and friends, indeed to a forsaking father and mother, (Psalm 27:10). 5. No lust had any life or stirring in Christ, this cannot be in us; the old man that has lived five thousand years and above, is not so gray-haired as to die, in any saint while he dies, his deceitful lusts at best come to a staff and trembling, and gray hairs in the holiest and most mortified, but expire not till dust return to dust.

If I be lifted up, I will draw. When Christ is weakest and bleeding to death on the cross, he is strongest, (Colossians 2:15) he triumphed over principalities and powers; there is more of strength and omnipotency in Christ's weakness, than in all the power and might of men and angels; the weakness of God is stronger than men, (1 Corinthians 1:25). There is more of life in Christ's death, than in all the world; he was a grain of wheat cast in the earth, and sown in the grave, and there sprung out of dead Christ a numerous offspring of children, all the redeemed ones grew out of the womb of his grave, his Catholic Church was formed out of the side of the second Adam, when he was fast asleep on the cross.

2. This makes the way of redemption so much the more admirable, that out of a way of weakness, of death and shame, the Lord should out-work sin and the Devil, and rear up to himself out of dust and hell and death, glory heaven and eternal life: infinite glory made a chariot of shame, and from it highly honored Christ: omnipotency did ride upon death, and triumph over hell and devils, (1 Corinthians 1:27). God has chosen the weak things of the world, to confound things that are mighty, (verse 28) and [illegible] the base, the kinless things that are of no noble blood, and [illegible], things that are despised, the nothings of the world he has chosen, and things that are not, [illegible] that he may make idle and fruitless, or bring to nothing, things that are.

Use: If the Lord Jesus at the lowest and weakest, his dying and shamed condition be so strong as to pull his bride from under the water, and out of the bottom of hell, up to heaven, what power has he now, when he is exalted at the right hand of the Majesty of God, and has obtained a name above all names, and is crowned King in Zion? It is better to be weak, and sick, and weep and sigh with Christ than to be strong, and live, dance, sing, laugh, and ride upon the skies with men in the world; sure his enemies will be now less than bread to him, and shall be his footstool.

2. Christ had cause to mind himself, and forget us, being now lifted up to the cross under extreme pain and shame; but love has a sharp memory, even in death.

Two things help our memory, and they were both in Christ: 1. Extreme love; the mother's memory cannot fail in minding her child, because the child is in her heart, and deep in her love: the wretch cannot forget his treasure, his gold is in his heart; Christ loved his Church, both by will, and nature, and cannot forget her, she is Christ's gold, and his treasure (Isaiah 49:14-15). Christ could not cast off nature, the husband cannot forget the wife of his youth; and the deeper love is rooted, the memory of the thing loved is the stronger. O but it is many years since Christ loved his redeemed ones: 2. Sense helps memory; a man cannot go abroad in cold weather and forget to put on his clothes; sense will teach him to do that; a paining boil will keep a man in mind of pain; the Church is a fragment and a piece of mystical Christ; he cannot forget his own body; the Church is bone of his bone; the head forgets not a wound in the hand. Love did sweat up a high and mighty mountain with thousands on his back: 1. O what sweating for us even in death, and sweating of blood: 2. O what praying, and praying more earnestly; Lord help me up the mountain with this burden; and all this time, he is drawing and carrying on his shoulders hell up to heaven. 3. What a sight was it to behold Christ dying, bleeding, pained, shamed, tormented in soul, wrestling in an agony with divine justice and wrath, receiving strokes and lashes from an angry God, and yet he kept fast in his bosom his redeemed ones, and said, death and hell, pain and wrath shall not part us. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, to afflict his soul, not to spare him, to smite the shepherd, but it pleased him in that condition out of deep love to draw his redeemed ones from the earth up after him to heaven. Christ was a good servant, he always minded his work, even to his dying day.

Use: If he in his weakest condition draw all men.

1. How easily can he with one look, blast the beauty and strength of his enemies being a God of such majesty and glory? How weak is hell and all the iron gates of it? When Christ at the weakest, plucks his Church out of the jaws of death; and triumphs over death and hell.

2. It shall be nothing to him with a pull of his finger, when he appears the second time in power and great glory, to break the pillars that bear up heaven and earth, and to dissolve with the heat and sparkles of fire that comes from his angry face, the great globe of the whole world, as a hot hand can melt a little snowball of some few ounces weight, and to loosen with one shake of his arm all the stars in heaven, especially since the world is now but an old threadbare worn case, and the best jewel in the case is man, who is old and failed, and passes away like a figure; and it shall be but a case of dead bones, and of old broken earthen shards at Christ's coming, and Christ with no labor or pain, can crush down the potter's house, mar all the clay vessels, and burn with fire all the work of the house, the houses, castles, towers, cities, acres, lands, woods, gold, silver, silks, and whatever is in it. Glory not in the creatures, but glory in Christ.

3. Death and the cross are the weakest things in the world, but being on Christ's back they are the strongest things in the world (2 Corinthians 13:4). Though he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives by the power of God: 1. The cross was Christ's triumphing chariot; there is power and strength in Christ's tears, in his sighs, in the holes that the thorns made in his head, in the stone laid above him, when he is buried: 2. His shame, death, and burial, made the greatest turning of wheels in the earth and heaven that ever the ears of man heard; the more providence does concern God, his highness, his glory, the more special it is and accurate, not that infinite wisdom is not infinite in the care over a worm, as over an angel; but because there is more art of seen and external visible providence in whole kingdoms, in kings, in the Church, than toward one man or one saint; so providence must have more of the art, wisdom, special care of God toward his Catholic Church, and his own only begotten Son in redeeming the whole Catholic Church, than in caring for the lilies of the field, and the worms of the earth, or some one particular saint: What wonder then there be an eminent providence observed in the disposing of Christ's coat when he died, and in the borrowing of an ass for him to ride on, and in casting a garment on the ass for a saddle, or a foot-mantle when he rode into Jerusalem? So in Christ's suffering there is much of God; there was a more noble work in his dying on the cross, than the creating of the world; and there were four things of the greatest baseness imaginable upon Christ, in this providence; for there were upon Christ. 1. The weakness of death. 2. Extreme pain. 3. The openest shame, Christ dying poor, despised, forsaken of all friend and unfriend. 4. The curse of the law in the manner of his death; yet in all these he acted the part of a triumphing redeemer (Colossians 1:19). For it pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell (verse 20), and (having made peace through the blood of his cross) by him, to reconcile all things to himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Use. Indeed, we see Christ has never lost anything by the cross, but has gained much (Romans 8:37): in all these we are more than conquerors; in death we die not; a dead man is more than a conqueror, and if he should not live and triumph, he could not be capable of conquering, far less could he be more than a conqueror (Revelation 12:11). The saints overcome, but it is a bloody victory; they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. Then if the word be an overcoming and prevailing thing, the cause overcame; but what if the persons be killed, then they are overcome? No; for the victory is personal; the followers of the Lamb overcame by dying, because they loved not their lives to death. Triumphing in the grave is admirable. Things work in a threefold consideration: 1. According to the excellence of their being — modus operandi sequitur modum essendi — men's operations flowing from reason are more excellent than actions of beasts. And angels excel men in their actions. It is a noble and excellent being that is in Christ, being the only begotten Son of God; what excellence of working is this, that not only the dead, but death should live? And shame should shine in glory? The dumb may speak, and the deaf hear; but that dumbness should speak, and deafness hear, is more than a miracle; here Christ causes death, shame, and cursing to be immediate organs and instruments of life, glory, immortality, and honor. 2. Christ was never weaker and lower than now, and never more glorious in his working (Isaiah 63:2): "Why are you red in your apparel, and your garments like one that treads in the wine-press?" (Revelation 19:15): he himself was trodden on in the wine-press, and the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. But (Isaiah 63:1) he is glorious in his apparel and travels in the greatness of his strength; so in his lowest condition, when he is shamed, he is glorious; when he is weak and lying on his back, he walks and walks in the greatness of his strength. From the baseness of the instruments in excellent works, we collect that there must be a high, noble, and excellent cause who acts on these instruments. 3. Agents work according to the distance they are to what they work upon; a shot afar off is weaker. Now on the cross: 1. Christ is nearer to us, and so gets a heartier lift of us; death and blood are near of kindred to us. 2. Christ coming so near death has a fairer shot and aim at death, and the grave, and hell, and all our enemies (Hebrews 2:14-15). He died that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death.

1. Drawing when he is on the cross does most extol Christ's love: death parts company among men, and often parts loves; but Christ dying draws his church into his bosom and heart, as not willing that the grave should part them and him (John 14:1). Christ having loved his own that were in the world, to the end he loved them: Christ died loving, and died drawing.

2. The cords of love with which he draws sinners were woven and spun, in all their threads and twistings, out of the bowels and heart of Christ, out of his blood, death, and pain; though it be sweet to Christ to draw, yet it is laborious and painful to Christ. It cost Christ a pained back, and pierced sides, and pierced hands and feet, a head harrowed with thorns and a bleeding body, and a bruised soul to draw sinners; he drew while he did bleed again, he died under the work.

3. All the bones of all mankind that have been, are, or shall be, all the strength of angels in one arm could not have drawn one sinner out of hell. But oh, the strength of the merits of his lifting upon the cross! One sinner is as heavy as hell, as a mountain of iron; what burden must it be to Christ to have millions of souls and all their sins hanging on him? He carried on his body on the tree so many millions of sinners, and drew up after him so many thousand redeemed ones as would have made the world to crack, the whole earth to groan and cry for pain like a sick woman in childbirth pain.

4. The white and red in a flower or rose commingled together make up a beautiful color and pleasant to the eye. 1. Love in Christ; 2. Lowliness; 3. And singular care to save — made up a sweet mixture in Jesus, that flower of Jesse, to draw strongly sinners to him. See a father carrying seven or eight children on his back through a deep river; he binds them all in his garment that none of them fall in the water, he leans on his staff; how does he with advised choice and election order every step, that he does not seem to them to slip or fall? And he cries comfort over his shoulder to them, "Fear not, be not dismayed, I will present you safe on dry land." So Christ with all his children — great Jesus Christ had his offspring lapped up in his merits — and did wade through the floods of death and hell and the curse of the Law with redeemed ones in his arms crying, "Fear not, worm Jacob, be not dismayed; I will help you, the floods shall not drown you." And for his own condition, his faith was that he should safely swim through the sea, and the mighty waters of all his deepest sufferings, and that he and his mystical body (for Christ was a public surety, not one private man in this case) should shore on the land of praise. And this is above all doubting, when he says (Isaiah 50:7), "For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." And then Christ had a most watchful and prudent care (Isaiah 52) that not one pin, not one wheel in the work of our salvation should miscarry, but all should go right, nothing neglected — in doing, comforting, preaching, praying, suffering, sweating, weeping, believing, hoping in patience, in being shamed, spitted on, scourged, accused, railed on, traduced, condemned, belied, pained, crucified between two thieves, buried in a sinner's grave. There was not one hole, one want, one stumble, one slip in all or any thing, but the work was whole, entire, and perfectly finished to God's satisfaction (Isaiah 53:11; Luke 22:37; John 19:30).

That drawing of sinners to Christ was his last work in his death-bed and departure out of this life, cries that he was desirous to lie in one grave with his Spouse the Lamb's wife, and died enclosed in a union with Saints; it says also, O how admirable was his love! And that love was Christ's last work in this life, he died of no other sickness but love, love, love was Christ's death-work, Christ's Testament, Christ's winding sheet, Christ's grave, he took his Bride lapped in his love and heart to Paradise with him, his last breath was love. The myrrh, when it is withered has the same smell (and a sweeter) that it had while it was green. Christ that bundle of myrrh that lies all the night between the Church's breasts, when withered and dead, smelled of love, for he opened the graves and raised the dead, and took a repenting sinner to Paradise with him, which are acts of great love; it is considerable that he is at one time a dying, a drawing and a loving Saviour; and ask what was Christ's last act on earth, it is answered, he died in the very act of loving, and drawing sinners to his heart.

Use: We are engaged to love him, and if so, to keep his commandments, and to draw him after us; his own image, holiness in the Saints takes Christ, and causes him to fall in love with us (Song of Solomon 4:9). "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my Spouse, you have ravished my heart, with one of your eyes, with a chain of your neck." It is much love that ravishes Christ; indeed it so overcomes him, that he professes it is above him, he must desire his Spouse to look away (Song of Solomon 6:5). "Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me" (Song of Solomon 7:5). "The king is held in his galleries"; holiness makes our king, the Lord Jesus a captive, for eternity he will delight to see the Lamb's wife his bride, when she shall be decked up with endless glory; be holy, and the king shall desire your beauty; engage Christ more to love you, deck yourselves with chains, with bracelets, be attired in raiment of needlework, the braver in this apparel you are, you are the lovelier to Christ, the wedding garment makes you fair to the king; put on the crown of grace on your head, and be highly beloved of this Prince.

Verse 33: Now this he spoke signifying what death he should die.

The last article in Christ's drawing of sinners, is the exposition of the Evangelist John, who opens to us the sense of Christ's words, to wit, what was meant by Christ's lifting up from the earth; for it is not an ordinary phrase to express dying on the cross; therefore says John he meant by his lifting up from the earth, the kind and manner of his death, to wit, that he should be crucified, and die the shameful and ignominious death of the cross; it would seem that the exposition of John may be referred to the whole verse, 32. What is the sense of this? If Christ be lifted up he will draw all men up to him, that is, if he be crucified, by that shameful and painful death and the merit thereof he will draw all men to him, and translate them from the kingdom of darkness to the state of saving grace, which is true in itself, but seems not to be the sense of the words.

1. Because the Evangelists use to expound what may appear ambiguous to the hearers, as (John 7:8, 39). "But this he spoke of the Spirit" (John 20:23). "Then went this saying abroad among the Brethren, that that disciple (John) should not die: yet Jesus said not to him, he shall not die" — so (Matthew 2:16-18). But that Christ draws sinners by his death, was not so much controverted; for to come to Christ, to believe in Christ, to be drawn to Christ, were phrases obvious enough, and known to all.

2. It is most pertinent to the text, that lifting up from the earth, which is ambiguous, and may seem to allude to Elijah's being carried up to heaven, should be expounded by Christ's manner of death, to wit, by crucifying.

3. Because the Holy Spirit expounds not the connection of the conditional proposition, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men after me, which he must do, if the sense goes thus; but only speaks of the kind and nature of Christ's death, which was known to the Jews to be both shameful and cursed; but in his exposition he speaks nothing of the fruit of Christ's death, but of the kind and manner of death.

Now that the Evangelist expounds the sense of Christ's words, what he meant, by being lifted up from the earth, it holds forth to us a necessity that the Lord speak plain language to us in Scripture, and that one Scripture expound another.

In finding the meaning of Scripture, these considerations may give light.

1. The Scripture in the plainest expressions is dark, that is, high and deep in regard of the matter which is deep; high, above the reach of reason, and yet the language plain, obvious, easy. That a virgin shall be a mother, the ancient of days a young sucking infant; that through one man, death dug a hole in the world, and sin passed on all; through a second Man life and heaven entered again; are high and deep mysteries, yet is not the Gospel obscure, as Papists say.

2. In mere historical narrations and prophecies foretelling the wars of the Lamb, the Dragon and the Beast, the Antichrist, their pursuing the woman in travailing in birth, to bring forth a man child, the matter subject is not profound, nor deep, yet the expressions are dark and covered, while the works of the Lord are a key to open his word. Here is the wisdom of God, that in deep and high mysteries necessary for salvation, the Lord is plain, and lower and easier stories are foretold more darkly; articles of faith are not set down in dark and enigmatical prophecies, but plainly, whereas histories of things to come are more mysteriously proposed.

3. The Scripture in no place is in the popish sense dark, that is, that we are not to take any sense for the word of life, and the object of our faith, but that which the Church gives as the sense, in regard the Scripture is a nose of wax, with equal propensity to contradictory senses, except the mistress of our faith, the witch of Babel expounds it, and then it is for such formally the word of God, as she expounds it.

4. The Holy Spirit the Author of Scripture has concreated with the words, the true native sense, which all the powers on earth cannot alter.

Then when we swear a covenant with the Lord in plain, easy, country language, not devised on purpose to be ambiguous or to hold forth that all sects, Antinomians, Socinians, Arminians, Prelatical halters, Anabaptists, Seekers, etc. may salve every one his own way, and his [illegible], what he thinks good; to obtrude any authoritative interpretation on this covenant, which it holds not forth in its own simple words, to the reader, is the greatest tyranny and equivocating juggling in the world, and we may easily distinguish and dispute ourselves out of a good conscience, or rather confess we had never any intent to keep it, or acknowledge it was our sin we did swear it, and because unlawful, it obliges us not.

When we accuse the Scripture of darkness, we would but snuff the Sun, and blow at it with a pair of bellows, to cause it shine more brightly. But the mischief is, that we either charge our souls beyond their stint, thinking to compass that world of the deep wisdom of God with our short fingers, or we stumble at the wisdom of the Scripture, because it is eccentric to, and complies not with our lusts; and here's a depth not seen: God intends to carry Pharaoh and blinded reprobates to hell, through the wood of his mysterious works and word, they being blinded and hardened, and they intend the same, but in another notion; God aims at the same end materially with them, but God levels at the glory of his own unviolable justice; they level at the word, the works of God to flatter their lusts, and take up a plea with both from the womb.

What death he should die.

Two things offer themselves to our consideration.

- 1. Christ's dying, - 2. The kind of his death, what death he should die.

Christ came into the world with as strong intention to die as to live, and to be a pained, an afflicted man, as to be a man. In Christ's dying these considerations have place.

1. The love of man can go no farther than death, greater love than this has no man, that a man should give his life for his friends (John 15:13). For this love can go no farther than the living lover; now he cannot go one step beyond death; Christ went on to the first and second death, so far as to satisfy justice: love is like lawful necessity, neither of them can live, when God is dishonored. Christ's love burnt and consumed him, till he died; love followed and pursued his lost Spouse through the land of death, through Hell, the grave, the curses of an angry God, though Christ's love was both more ancient than his manhood, and survived his death; love was of longer life in Christ, than his life as man, this Sun of love burns hard down from heaven to this day.

2. It was a hard law that Christ subjected himself to; that die he must; Heaven, Angels, the World could not save his life; this fair rose had life and greenness in abundance, and yet it must wither; this fountain of heaven had seas of waters, yet dried up it must be; this beauty of highest glory was full and vigorous, yet it must fade; the Lily of the most excellent Paradise that cast rays of glory and Majesty over the four corners of the Heaven of Heavens, and out-shadowed Angels, Men, and the large circuit of the whole creation, must find its death-month, and must cast its fair and timely bloom: the love of loves must become pale and droop, that fire of love, that warms Angels and men, must become cold; and there was strong and invincible necessity; thus it must be [illegible] (Matthew 26:54). Christ must die (Mark 8:31), the Son of man must suffer many things (Luke 22:27). For I say to you (says Christ) that that which is written must have an end in me. The Son of man must be lifted upon the cross (John 3:14). Christ could not pass to heaven another way; death was that one inevitable pass that he had to go through; there was no passable ford in the river but one; there was but one straight pass and fort between Christ and his Father, his glory and a saved Church, and justice kept this pass. Christ must lay out himself, his life, blood, estate and glory for his Church to gain this fort, and save his people from their sins. The Law laid it on him; 2. Love laid it on him: 3. Our necessities and everlasting perishing burdened him.

3. Might not the dead all wonder? There was never before nor after, nor never shall be such a Christ among the dead as the Lord of life; all those in the dust could say, O life, what do you do here among the dead! The worms and clay might say, O Creator can you lie near to us! Would not the fountains be offended, that they could not have leave to furnish a draught of cold water to their Creator, who made the seas and the rivers, and divided Jordan with his Word? Would not life itself grieve at such a dispensation, that it could stay and lodge no longer in the body of the Lord of life, but had to be gone and leave the Prince of life, to fall, that he could not stand on his own feet? Was not bodily strength discontented, that sweet Jesus complained (Psalm 22:15), My strength is dried up like a potsherd, (verse 17) I may tell all my bones. Would not joy and beauty take it ill that sweet Jesus was a sad Savior, and his face foul with weeping, and his fair countenance that was like Lebanon, all marred, and our lovely Redeemer was put to his knees to pray with strong cries and tears? (Isaiah 52:14, Hebrews 7:5). If there had been sense and reason in all the purples, silks, fleeces, wool, fine linens that ever the earth had, they would think themselves unhappy, that they could not cover the holy body of the Redeemer of men and their Creator, when he complained (Psalm 22:18), They part my garments among them, and cast lots on my vesture.

4. It was too much in regard of our deservings, that the Lord of life should descend to a natural life, to be under the lowly condition of base clay; but that this tent of clay, that the Lord was to dwell in, should be of the finest and most precious earth that can be, would seem reason; it might be said, it were fitting for the glory of the Godhead united in a personal union with the Man Christ, that the body of the Son of God should be above pain, weakness or the law of death, that it should be more glorious than all the peerless and precious stones of the earth; indeed, than the Sun in the firmament; indeed, but (Isaiah 53:2) he has no form, nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. But this was incomparable condescension of love that the Lord would take his own death upon him, and assume the manhood of sick, weak, pained, sad, sighing and dying clay, (Isaiah 53:4) Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows.

5. If there be any that ever tasted the sweet of life, it being the most noble and desirable of created beings, if it were from a glorious Angel to a poor gnat or a base worm, they keep possession of life with all their desire; they will part with all things, men even with teeth and skin, before they quit their life, (Job 2:4). The more excellent life is, they struggle the more to keep it; a young man will do more than an old man for it; and the old man who has but a chip of life, the dregs of it, or the hundredth part of a handbreadth, the twentieth part of an inch, yet holds it so long as there is so much as the fourth part of a dram of natural vigor in him. Now Christ had cause to love his life, as any man else. It was about the flower of his age, the thirty-third year of this life; and it must be a noble life, that dwelt personally with the Godhead; yet when he was called to a treaty for rendering his life, he gave it not up, but upon princely and honorable quarters, even that he should see his seed, have a noble prize, and a ransomed spouse, a fair crown, a rich kingdom to mystical Christ, but he parted with his noble and glorious life deliberately, intentionally, most willingly, (John 10:18) there was more will, more love in Christ dying, than in the dying of all men from the creation to the last judgment. O how he thirsted and longed to pay that ransom, he had it by him, to give it out on demand; he did not first die, and bow his head, but he first bowed his head, and beckoned with his hand, and called upon death, and then rendered his Spirit.

6. O what a wonder, this rose of life on the Cross withers in his full beauty, the Sun of life would shine no more on it. The prime delight of the sons of men, the second Adam from Heaven fades, and life can breathe no more, and beauty shine no more, and greenness blossom no more; and when most lowly and low, clothed with a curse, most lovely, most lordly and princely, because in the act of redeeming.

7. Christ's death must come under a three-fold notion: 1. As a torment inflicted by God's enemies: 2. As a punishment inflicted of God for sin, as a ransom paid to justice: 3. As the crown and end of Christ's journey.

In the first notion, Christ's death as coming from wicked men, lacked three ingredients, that all the wicked world and Hell could not give it: 1. All the world cannot add a curse to the death of any man, God only is the Master and Lord of cursing and blessing: God cast this in from heaven of his own, for (2 Corinthians 5:21) God made him sin, (Isaiah 53:6) Jehovah, the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all. Who said that, Cursed be everyone that abides not in all that is written in the law to do it, (Galatians 3:10, 13; Deuteronomy 21:23; Deuteronomy 27:26)? The only law-giver who can dispense curses, he made Christ's death a curse: one death has not a curse more than another, and Christ's death of the cross had not a ceremonial curse only in it, for that was common to the deaths of all that hang on a tree, (Deuteronomy 21:23). But the curse of the moral law which is upon the sinner, (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10, 13) was laid upon Christ; and this is heavier than ten millions of deaths of the cross. O how many thousands and what millions of talents weight of gall, and vengeance did the Lord from heaven add to the cup of Christ? 2. Because Christ was made sin, he was required to be made the sinner, and from Christ's person his death had the sweet perfume of infinite merit and a sweet smell of a savor of rest to God, above all sacrifices and offerings that ever were offered to God, infiniteness of merit, this Christ gave to his own death. 3. The Lord gave it a third ingredient, that it had acceptation even in point of law and justice, which no man could give; to feel a smell of everlasting love, peace, reconciliation in blood, is the sure mercies of David; O but it was white blood to God, crying blood, or rather singing blood that sings the sweet gospel-song. Abel's blood cried a song of vengeance; you have come to the blood of sprinkling [illegible], that sounds better things than the blood of Abel, (Hebrews 12:24).

In the second notion that Christ came under the law of dying (for it is appointed for all men to die) speaks much love. To come to sleep which is death's brother, to come under pain, weakness, bleeding, that are the near blood-friends of death, is great love expression. But to die, the lowest, and the saddest and sourest of bodily infirmities, and then for other men's faults, it sets out the love of God.

In this respect Christ dying was a ransom for justice; there be four of the saddest things in a ransom that are here.

1. To give person for person is the hardest bargain; by the law of nations they are milder wars where moneys and gold may buy a captive. God in this bargain could send captives away for neither silver, nor gold, nor any corruptible thing, (1 Peter 1:18). A gift, a reward will not bow justice; rubies, sapphires, let ten earths be turned into gold of Ophir, they cannot buy the offended law of God; therefore it must be man for man, person for person or nothing, a man is more precious than gold.

2. If you must have man for man, then let proportion of common justice be kept; a soldier for a soldier, a servant for a servant, a free man for a free man, a master for a master; you cannot demand a king to ransom a servant. Indeed, (says justice) but I will; they are but men and slaves, and servants of sin; their father Adam was indeed a king, but by law, he is fallen from the crown and all his children are traitors and born servants; therefore justice would have no less ransom than one of the king's line, one of the royal blood; and more, the only heir of the crown of heaven and earth, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords; he is more than an over-ransom and over-sum; this is hard; but infinite wisdom cannot be against justice, but it was the strictest justice that ever was, the king's Son for the traitor's son, the prince for the slave, the Lord of Lords for the poor clay-subject.

3. But the ransom king must have honorable conditions, like himself; if he must be a captive, let him have some freedom befitting his birth and condition; now because this bargain was to be stretched out to the utmost line and border of strict justice (as also it wanted not deepest mercy shining in glorious rays through justice) therefore the king standing a ransom was as far below his place as a servant is below a king (Philippians 2:6-7). You have the lowest and the highest steps, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant: a king and God made a servant (Matthew 20:28). For even the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many: see here the Son of God a ransom in his own person, and the lowest of ransoms, a servant, far below a king.

4. It is not universal in these persons that are given to ransom others, but poor souls, if they be turned into servants, their life should be spared; but Christ was such a ransom as must lay down his life for the captives (Matthew 20:28). No ransom can come lower than a man, and an innocent man's death: if the captive be wounded and sickly, the man that goes a ransom for him, by no law, should be sickly and wounded also. 1. It is not ordinary that he that stands as a ransom for captives, should take their natural infirmities, their body, sighs, sadness, sorrow, wants, and be like them in all things, but Christ was like us in all things except sin. 2. And what greater hardship can you put on a ransom captive than death? — all these Christ did undergo for us.

The third and last consideration of Christ's death, is as it was the end of Christ's journey, and all his labors in the flesh, and this I desire to be considered in these respects.

- 1. As death is Christ's last enemy. - 2. In the concomitants of it. 1. As in his triumph of victory. 2. His welcome to his Father.

1. As death was Christ's last enemy, dying was to him as to man the last day and moment of his week, when he entered into his Sabbath and rest, and died never to die again; the world, and devils chased him into the grave, and when he was there, he was in his own land, in Paradise, in a kingdom: death was the wearied wayfaring man's home, the end of his race, and at this place was the forerunner's gold, his garland, and prize, even the glory set before him, for which he endured the cross and despised shame, he then sat down; it was Christ's landing port after his stormy sailing. 2. He had no more to do: in the merit of redemption, in the way of satisfying justice; for Christ's burial or lying in the grave was but his mora, his lodging all night with death or a continuation of his death; when he died, all was finished, the law of God for satisfaction could crave no more: as the last enemy of the body is death (1 Corinthians 15:26), so it was the head Christ's last enemy on earth. 3. Heaven was Christ's place of refuge, his sanctuary and his asylum; when Christ was in the other side of death and of time, he was in his castle, in his strong fort; enemies can neither besiege him nor take him, he cares not now for the world's feud, or for death or the grave (Revelation 1:18). There was no more law against Christ after his soul was in Paradise; the believer has a perfect acquittance of all crosses, when he is once in the land of glory.

2. There be two considerable concomitants in Christ's death: 1. His victory: 2. His welcome: His victory was in his very act of dying, that death and the justice of a divine law had their will of Christ, and could demand no more of him for all engagements, and to answer the bill, but death and such a death it was a sort of over-plus and abundance of ransom to God, that death was put to the worse, and could in justice never arrest any believer or saint after Christ. O death, what would you have more! Or, what can you demand in law? 2. Christ and all his, legally were crucified, and died, and Christ and all his were not destroyed under death, but Christ lived and all his with him (John 14:19). When two strong enemies do conflict, and put out their strength one against another to the full, and the one lives in his full strength, the other must be foiled. Christ after death lived and can die no more, and is strong and omnipotent; now death did all it could against Christ in that he died; then he must be the Victor, and death the vanquished party; death was Christ's land-port, his shore after sad sea-sailing, his last stage in which he posted to glory; and he came into Paradise and his Father's Kingdom, in a sweat of blood (and the Cross accompanied him in over the threshold of the gates of heaven) so he was welcomed, he, and all his seed (who then were legally in him) as one who had acquitted himself bravely and honorably in the business that most highly concerned the Lord, and the glory of all his blessed attributes, mercy, justice, grace, wisdom, power, sovereignty, etc. There was a most joyful acclamation in heaven, a welcome and embracing, and a hand-shaking (as we say:) 1. Between the Father and the Son, and this is a sweet meditation (Daniel 7:13). I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him, verse 14. And there was given him dominion and glory, and a Kingdom, that all people and nations and languages should serve him: Now who be these that brought Christ to the Father when he ascended? Who but the holy Angels his ministering spirits or servants; they attend his ascension to heaven, as the estates of a king wait on, and convey the prince and heir of a crown, in his coronation day (Hebrews 1:6, 14). The disciples (Acts 1:10) see two men in white apparel, at his ascension; going up to heaven; sure there must have been a host of them, as there were at his birth, and shall be at his second coming, and it is little enough that the peers of heaven, such a glorious parliament of the high house, bear the tail of his royal robe and attend to welcome to heaven their Lord Creator, and their head Christ by whom they stand in court, they are the servants of the bridegroom; it was much joy to them, when Christ returned a triumphing Lord to heaven, having done all gloriously and completely. The Father after his death made him a great prince, and gave him a name above all names, and set him at the right hand of the Majesty of God: 2. And if the Lord shall say to sinful men, Well done, good servant, enter into the joy of your Lord; far more, being infinitely satisfied with the travels and service of his Son, he must say, Well done, well suffered, O Son of my love, enter into the joy of your Father's soul: For the Father's soul ever delighted in him (Isaiah 42:1). 3. And to see the Father embrace his Son in his arms after the battles, and put the Crown on his Head, and set him down at his right hand and exalt him as an eternal Prince for evermore, and accept all his labors, and his faithful and most successful acquitting of himself, in all his offices, as Redeemer, King, Priest, and Prophet, must be a joyful sight.

Use 1. No believer take it ill to die; death sips at every blood, noble or low, and would but drink the blood of this celebrated and eminent Prince of the Kings of the earth: 1. For besides, that God has stinted our months, and the ship cannot pass farther than the length of the cable; here is the matter, Christ for imputed sin, behooved to bleed to death: 2. Only Enoch and Elias were reprieved, by the prerogative of free grace; we are by birth and sin, but some ounces or pieces and fragments of death and it is appointed for all men to die; there is more reason we should die than the Lord of life; for life was essential to the Prince of life, but life is a stranger to us; man is but man, but a handful of hot dust, a clay vessel sealed up with the breathing of warm wind that smokes in and out at his nostrils, for an inch of fleeting away time. And sin adds wings to the wheels of his life, and lays a law of death on man, and if Christ had not come into this clay city, he had been under no law of death; he dies for us; then we should [reconstructed: far] rather have died, propter quod unumquodque tale, etc. Now because your Redeemer laid his skin to death, and was willing to kiss death, believers are to esteem of death as the cross that Christ went through, love the winding sheet and the coffin the better, that they were the sleep-bed and night-clothes that your Saviour slept in. 3. And Christ had the more cause to be willing to die, that he was little beholden to this life; it looked ever with a frowning face on Christ: 1. The first morning salutation of this life when Christ was new born, it boasted and threatened Christ with the cutting of his throat in the cradle, and banishment out of his own land to Egypt: 2. He had good hap all his life to sufferings, he had ever the wind on his fair face, and the smoke blowing on his eyes, as if his whole day had been a feast of tears and sorrow; indeed, life and the sad and glowing cross parted both together with Christ, as if the world had sworn never to lend the Son of God one smile, or one glimpse of a glad hour. 3. Christ thought himself well away and out of the gate (as he foretells, when the people mourned for his death (Luke 23:28-31)) before the destruction that came on the city of Jerusalem, that killed many of the Lord of the vineyard's servants, and at last killed the righteous heir. 4. You may remember Christ's message that he sent to Herod (Luke 13:32): I do [reconstructed: cures] today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected (Hebrews 2:12). It became him from whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings: Death made Christ perfect for the Lord put the fair crown of Redemption on Christ's head with a very black hand; it was a black boatman that carried our Prince Jesus over the water to Paradise, but sweet Jesus would have it his perfection, his crown, his glory to be swallowed up in death's womb for us. It is considerable that death perfects the head: 1. As a Priest; he had been an imperfect sacrifice, if he had not died; and being offered dead to God, Christ's dead body had an infinitely sweet smell in the nostrils of a just God; never sacrifice, never burnt offering like this which perfected all: 2. He had not been a perfect King and Conqueror, had he not pursued the enemy to his own land, and made the enemy's land the seat of war, and triumphed dead upon the cross. 3. He had not been a perfect Redeemer, had he not died, and paid life for life: no satisfaction without death, no remission of sins without blood (Hebrews 10), but it was the heart-blood, and blood with the life that was shed to God. Now these same things befall the dying saints: 1. While the saints are here they are from home, and not at their Father's fireside, and this world their stepmother looks ever askance on them (John 16:33). And the cross gets a charge from God concerning a saint, wait on him, as his keeper while he dies, leave him not; the cross follows the house of Christ and all the children of the house, it is kindly to all the second Adam's seed, it is an income by year that follows the stock: every child may in his suffering say my father the Prince of ages even the head of the house, my brother Jesus, and all our kin were sufferers: the sad cross runs in a blood to us (Psalm 34:19; Matthew 19:24). This is not our home, I would I were ashore, and at home, in my Father's house.

2. The Lord takes the righteous away from the ill to come (Isaiah 57). When Christ was taken away, vengeance came to the full on the Jews, when he was in heaven. Christ's followers, that die, outrun many crosses, as we see a man upon his life chased by his enemies, gets into a strong house and with speed of foot wins his life; sad days pursue the saints and they escape to their castle, before the affliction can reach or overtake; there be some cruces posthumae, late-born crosses, calamities and ill days that come on the posterity of the godly, the Lord closes their eyes that they never see them. The grave is a house the Devil and the world and afflictions cannot besiege; sure when a saint is in heaven, he is beyond Doomsday, death, and tears, he defies the malignants of this world then, and the wars and blood that his own brethren can raise against him.

What shall we say, that as Christ thought himself maimed, and he wanted a piece, or an arm or leg of a Savior and a perfect Redeemer till he died, and then when he died he was perfected; indeed our redemption had been lame and unperfect, had not Christ died; and his escape through death and the land of darkness the grave to his Father's old crown that he had with him before the world was, was a perfecting of Christ. 1. So dying to a Saint is the Sun rising, the morning birth-day of eternity, the opening of the prisoner's door, the Coronation-day, the marriage-night. 2. He is ever a lame man, he wants incomparably his best half, so long as he wants Christ in a fruition of glory; all the traveling and wayfaring men in their journey toward heaven are but sick men, for sickness is but a lameness of life, a want of so many degrees as make up a perfect life (because good health is but the flower and perfection of life) and the only perfect life (Colossians 3:3-4) is the life of glory; then all the Saints yet wanting the life of heaven, must be crazy, weak, groaning men, not healthy in a spiritual consideration, while they be in heaven. 3. When a Saint dies, he but takes an essay of the garment and robe of glory (though death make it seem straight and pinching) and enters in the joy of his Lord (Revelation 14:13). There is both Word and Writ, and from a land where there can be no lies, from heaven, blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labors, [illegible] that the travelers may over-rest, or exceedingly breathe, and refresh or comfort themselves after much toil and sweating in the way. Therefore is death (2 Timothy 4:6) [illegible] an unfolding of the net, or of the tent, that the man may go out, or a taking up the burden and laying it down in another Inn, or a loosing the cables of ships to sail, or an untying of cords of a tabernacle to go to a choicer place.

Use 2. From Christ's dying we learn to die to sin, and live to him that died for us (1 Peter 2:24; Romans 6:2, 6; 2 Corinthians 5:15). Mortification to this goodly and God-like Idol the World, is a special lesson of the death of Christ (Galatians 6:14). It is a great distance and many miles about and off the roadway to heaven to go through such a thorny, thick, and bushy-wood of honors, riches, pleasures worldly; it is a shorter and easier way to stand at a distance from the silken and golden creature, and despise the fairest created excellencies that fill both sides of the Sun. Antinomians would have us rest satisfied with a moral mortification, in the brim of the imagination, to believe that Christ dying mortified sin and the body thereof on the cross, and there is an end, and that we are obliged by no command, no precept, no law to a personal mortifying of our lusts, to walk in new obedience, and that all that we do is arbitrary and free to us, coming on us by the immediate Spirit's impulsion; for Christ works in the Regenerate as in these that are dead, not as in these that are alive, and that after conversion we are altogether dead to spiritual acts, say they; contrary to (1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 2:13; Romans 6:11; Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:5, 24). And that it is the efficacy of Christ's death to kill all activity in his members, that he might act all in all; indeed, and that there is not any command in the Gospel, all is but promises, Christ is obliged to do all in us, and if he suffer us to sin, let him see to his own honor; indeed, to act by virtue of, or in obedience to a command, is a Law-way, and we have nothing to do with the Law. But the Gospel teaches us a real and personal mortification, and that we are to be holy as he is holy, perfect as he is perfect; that is, a new-covenant command (Genesis 17:1). That we should walk before him and be perfect, that we should walk after the Lord (Deuteronomy 13:4), walk in all his ways (Deuteronomy 5:33), take diligent heed to walk in his way (Joshua 22:5; Psalm 119:93; Proverbs 2:7, 20; Isaiah 2:3), walk in the steps of that faith of our Father Abraham (Romans 4:12), according to this rule of the Gospel (Galatians 6:16), and worthy of the vocation (Ephesians 4:1), worthy of the Lord (Colossians 1:10), in light (1 John 1:7), even as he walked (1 John 2:6), after his commandments (2 John 6), honestly, as in the day (Romans 13:13), in love (Ephesians 5:2), as children of the light (verse 8), as we have received Christ (Colossians 2:6), in wisdom (Colossians 4:5), as wise men (Ephesians 5:15). And the Gospel forbids and condemns walking as the Gentiles do in the vanity of the mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God. But observe by Antinomians' fleshly doctrine, no Gospel command under pain of eternal death, be it a command of believing in him, that justifies the sinner, or of holy walking as a fruit and witness of our faith and justification obligates these that are in Christ, as if, in regard of any Scriptural command of law or Gospel, we might live as we list, and follow the inspiration and leading of a lawless spirit separated from all word either Law or Gospel, either commanding or conditionally promising or threatening. We are not so to live after the flesh in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings and abominable idolatries (1 Peter 4:3), not after the flesh (2 Peter 2:10; Romans 8:13). If you live after the flesh, you shall die: there is a Gospel threatening as a promise of life. Indeed, the arms, colors, the badge of Gospel grace is to deny ungodliness (Titus 2:11). Not to walk in darkness, nor hate our brother (1 John 2:8, 9), for this is the new commandment. And that the Gospel has commandments is clear (Matthew 15:3; John 15:12; Romans 16:6; Ephesians 6:2; 1 Timothy 1:1; the holy commandment, 2 Peter 2:21; 1 John 3:23; Revelation 22:14; Proverbs 2:1; John 14:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:2; 1 John 2:4, 3, 24). And he that keeps his commandments, dwells in him, and he in him (John 14:15). If you love me, keep my commandments (Matthew 5:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20, 21, 22, 24; Matthew 7:1, 2, 3, etc.).

Use 3. We have rich consolation, from the article of Christ's dying; the sinner's debts are paid, his bond and the handwriting of blood, and eternal vengeance is cancelled, and taken out of the way; the gates of the prison broken, and the prisoners brought out, by the blood of the everlasting Covenant (1 Peter 2:24). With his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). The chastisement of our peace, or treaties of peace, as the word bears, were upon him, and with his stripes we are healed; the word of stripe in either language is a mark of a wound where blood and humors are neighbored together, it leads us to this: that the only medicine of sick and dead sinners, was that which is sickness, pain, swellings from nails in hands and feet to Jesus Christ. Christ the Physician's pain was our case, his wounds the healing and covering of our wounds with his skin, and his death the life of sinners; to visit the sick and help him at his bedside with counsel and art is favor, but it is medicine of grace, not of nature, that the Physician should be the sick man, the pained, the groaning and dying patient, and lie down in his bed, and make his life and blood, and medicine to cure our diseases and wounds. In a law-challenge the believer is so freed from eternal wrath, that if Satan and conscience say, 'You are a sinner and under the curse of the Law,' he can say, 'It is true, I am a sinner, but I was hanged on a tree and died, and was made a curse in my head and law-surety Christ, and his payment and suffering is my payment and suffering.'

Use 4. Sin is a sad debt, the Law is a severe craver: 1. It is pastime to a fool to sin: it is no pastime nor sport to Christ to satisfy for sin. 2. There is as much justice and vengeance in the Gospel, as in the Law; the Gospel-suffering for our sin was as salt and sour to Christ as the Law vengeance would have been to us. The Lord never intended that any should bear sin, either by acting or suffering freely, and at an easy rate. 3. Will you not read bloody justice pursuing sin on the blue stripes and scarlet wounds, on innocent Jesus' back and sides, his head and hands and feet? Will you, young men (Ecclesiastes 11:9), laugh and sin, and must Christ weep and shout and cry for pain, when he suffers for sin? Sinners, you have merry days in your lusts, O but it was a doleful and a wearisome time to Christ to pay for sin. The drunkard sings and drinks, when Christ answers his bill he sighs. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 2, in the days of his vanity sought to give himself to wine (verse 3), to lay hold on folly; and (verse 10) whatever his eyes desired he withheld not from them, he kept no joy from his heart. But Christ had a sad night in the garden, O but he had a heavy soul, when with tears and strong cries, he prayed, when justice squeezed a sweat of blood out of Christ's body, and he looks like sorrow and sadness itself dying, and bleeding, and crying 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.' Never after this should any mother's son make a sport of sin, or sin with good will and delight.

What death — [illegible] — what quality or kind of death, he was to die.

The quality and kind of Christ's death is most remarkable; for three characters were printed and engraved on the death of the Cross which Christ died.

1. Pain. 2. Reproach and shame. 3. The curse of God and man.

The pain in Christ's death comes under a twofold consideration: 1. Naturally: 2. Legally; the nature of the death was painful, for death of itself is painful; no man pays that debt with ease and nature smiling and sporting: die who will, it will cost you of your flesh; when Asa dies, he cries, 'Ah, my feet'; when David dies, he complains, 'O my cold body'; the Shunammite's child, 'Ah my pained head'; Uzzah, 'Oh my leprous skin'; do not pamper nor idolize your body; if wicked men have not one band or cord in their death, but steal down to the grave in a moment beside death's knowledge, yet they pay dearly for it (Job 24:20). The worms shall feed sweetly on them; life is a great pearl. But there are three things besides, that made the death of Christ painful. 1. Violence. 2. Slowness of dying. 3. Many degrees of life taken from him.

Violence: it is one thing to die of any disease or of pain; but when five or six deaths do all start equally at one landing-point, and at one race, and strive which of them shall dispatch the poor man soonest, the pain is the more; you know the complaint of our blessed Savior (Psalm 22:16): 'They pierced my hands and my feet,' and (John 19:34) one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. Here, by Scripture, are five deaths that invade a living man, death on every hand, and death on every leg, and death on his side; though this last came a little too late; the soldiers had no law to pierce his side, but to make sure work he should be dead, by a sort of chance to men, which yet was sweetly subservient to the decree of God and the prophecies; Christ was thus served. 2. Now a violent death it must be when strong and great nails did pierce the most nervous parts of his body, his hands and his feet; one iron wedge thrust in at his left breast, to pierce his heart, or to pierce through the temples of the head would quickly have dispatched him. 2. As for the slowness of his death, four leisurely and slow violent deaths to cause him to bleed to death were hard: the word says the blood is the life of the living creature; then look how long his blood was coming out, his life was dropping out as long. They say, the death of the Cross will keep a man alive with his life on the Cross, above three or four hours, the man dying and yet cannot die; these languishing deaths procuring a cruel favor, such as is death's slow pace, and yet quick torment, are images of hell, where men seek death, but cannot find it, because death flees from them.

2. The slowness of death is much when death is divided into four quarters; death at every hand, and at every foot makes the pain greater; when the weight and trunk of Christ's living body lifted up from the earth, hangs upon four painful and tormenting pillars, the Lord's pierced hands and feet; as if death had delighted to hold Christ long at sea, and denied him the last sad service. 3. And Christ had been before dying a terrible death in the garden, when he had been scorched and boiled in a blood of sweat, and two circumstances evidence that the two thieves' death was nothing in slowness of torment comparable to Christ's death. 1. The sad and direful prefaces and preparatories to Christ's death, as he was in the night before in a soul-death in the garden and in a sweat of blood there trickled out of his body down upon the ground as it were drops of great hailstones of blood frozen or hardened together as Stephanus thinks, through extreme terror; he was scourged against all law and crowned with thorns. 2. And so was he weakened in body as he was not able to bear his own cross; it was his own complaint (Psalm 22:17), "I may tell all my bones." Whatever the story of passion says, how Christ could have been so lean in twenty and four hours, it is evident he complains his [reconstructed: strength] was dried up like a potsherd, and that death was more painful to Christ than to those that died the same death. Indeed, Christ began to die the night before; he was then under violent death of soul and body above the hours that he was on the cross, when others are long tormented with pain, that pain is rather the forerunner of death, than death; for death stays but a moment in doing that sad service in bringing the soul out, but death all this time twenty-four hours was acting upon Christ, both the second death, the Lord's anger and curse being on him, and then bodily pain with the curse of the law all this time wrought upon him. Some say gall and vinegar were given to men to be crucified to make them less sensible of that extreme pain. And consider his death legally: may we not say, as Christ in bearing the pains of the second death did suffer that which all the elect should have sustained in their souls forever, so Christ did bear many millions of bodily deaths? It may be a question, if Christ's suffering for Peter be Christ's suffering for David; for sure Peter's sins and David's sins together, are more than David's sins alone, and if on Christ the Lord laid the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6), it must be a greater punishment, than if the Lord had laid the iniquity of some few, one or two upon Christ. Say that the elect were three millions of redeemed ones, as we cannot determine the number, sure this must be a sadder death, than if Christ had died but for ten men; it is true, it was an infinite pain in regard of the one infinite person that did bear our iniquities, indeed, and so subjectively it was an infinite love with which in election and free redemption Christ followed all the elect of God, but terminatively as his love is bounded on sundry persons, Paul speaks of it as if there had been not one man loved but himself (Galatians 3:20), "Christ loved me, and gave himself for me." Though the Lord Jesus passed in one bill the election and redemption of all the family of the firstborn, yet every soul has a white stone, and a new name, that no other elect man knows, but he himself; as every flower, every rose, every meadow and several garden has its several rays, beams, and comfort, and vigor of heat from the Sun, yet all these rays and beams are but one in the Sun's body; so though Christ died but one death for all the elect, yet in the height of pain it was many deaths to him.

3. Again, consider how much of life Christ had, the removing of it by violence must be so much the more painful; natural life had in Christ a sweet and peaceable dwelling, the possession of life was with excellent delights, like a tree growing on the bank of a sweet river of oil, wine and honey; it was planted beside the glorious Godhead personally, and had sweet company, and that made it pleasant; the more beautiful, pleasant, and green the flower of life was, the more violence and pain it was to hew down this delicious tree of life, and to cut him out of the land of the living. It had not been so much to cut down a thistle or a thorn tree, or to take away the life of a common man, whose life is not privileged with grace and the grace of a personal union with God; indeed, the destroying of the life of an angel, could never have been such violence. And then it is considerable that Christ was not suffered to go to the grave without blood, and that his skin, his winding sheet, were bespotted with blood. Christ paid not this sum quickly, as many die; it is true, there was more will and love infinitely in his blood, than violence and pain, every stream of blood flowing in a channel of love; and it is also sure the soul and the Godhead were not separated, but the precious life of Christ was expelled, and that by a bloody death, out of a sweet Paradise, and death was a rough, sad and thorny journey to Christ; weapons of iron on hands and feet came against the Lord to fetch the soul out of the body.

2. Shame.

The second character engraved on Christ's death was shame and reproach, in which consider: 1. How shame could be on Christ dying. 2. What shame was on him. 3. How it stood with his honor as King.

1. Shame is taken either fundamentally in the cause, or formally; sin and sin acted by men against the law of God is the only foundation of shame. When the people fell in idolatry (Exodus 32:25), Aaron made the people naked to their shame. So when Tamar dissuades her brother from incest (2 Samuel 13:13), she says, "And I, where shall I cause my shame to go? and as for you, you shall be as one of the fools of Israel." Shame and sin are of one blood; for sinning is a shameful reproaching of the creature. And thus, Christ was no more capable of shame than of sin; for he had done no violence, neither was there any guile in his mouth. Christ-man came out of the womb clothed with a precious white robe of innocency and abundance of grace; he never contracted one black spot on that fair robe of the highest image of God, from the womb to the grave. And so there was no shame, but fundamentally glory in Christ all his life. But there is shame formally in sin; and that: 1. Which we call thinking of shame or being ashamed actively; 2. In bearing of shame passively. In the former consideration; because sin is a shameful thing in itself (Jeremiah 11:13): "You set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal" — there is an internal blushing and shame rising from sin, when the sinner, if the conscience through a habit of sin be not turned brazen and hard, thinks ill of sin and esteems itself base in doing ill. (Romans 6:21) "What fruit had you then of those things of which you are now ashamed?" Adam and Eve were not ashamed before they sinned. Now Christ-man had this ingenuity which heathens called half a virtue: shamefastness, or a power to think ill of sin. Christ of himself (though he could not sin, as Adam had a power before the fall to pity and commiserate the sick and miserable, though there was no formal object for that power before men sinned) could think ill of sin. Christ (I say) thought ill of sin, and esteemed the creature base in sinning; heathens said virtue was of a red blushing color. And the Scripture condemns the shamelessness of sinners that are not abased themselves for sin and cannot be ashamed. So the Lord burdens his people with this (Jeremiah 3:3): "And you had a whore's forehead, you refused to blush." (Isaiah 3:9) "The show of their countenance (that cannot blush at sin) does witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom — they hid it not." (Zephaniah 3:5) "But the unjust knows no shame." In this, Christ our Lord — to come to the second point — being our surety, though he could not be ashamed of any sin he did himself (for he never sinned), yet being made sin for us, he did bear the shame of our sin. And so Christ was not free of shame passively, as it is a punishment of sin; for it is a penal evil of the creature. (Daniel 12:2) "Many that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Ezekiel 32:24) "Elam and all her multitude are slain — they have borne their shame, with them that go down to the pit." That which is penal in shame, the Lord Jesus did bear; he says of himself (Isaiah 50:6): "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, I hid not my face from shame and spitting." (Hebrews 12:2) "He endured the cross, despising the shame." In these respects he did bear our shame: 1. That he, being the Lord of glory, and thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father, he abased himself to come so low as to be a man, and the lowest of men, a servant (Philippians 2:6-8; Matthew 20:28; Isaiah 49:7). Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his holy One, to him whom man despises — to one despised in soul, a contemned soul abhorred by the nation, to a servant of lords. 2. All the tokens of reproach and shame were on his suffering. As 1. In gestures: the putting of a crown of thorns on his head, and a reed for a scepter in his hand, to scorn his kingly power, saluting him with mocking and bowing the knee to him. 2. In words, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews" — scorning his prophetical dignity, in blindfolding him and covering his face and saying, "Prophesy, who is he that struck you?" And to deride his priesthood, they put a robe on him, and when he is on the cross and offering himself as our priest in a sacrifice to God, all that passed by wagged their head and shot out the lip, saying, "He trusted in God, let God save him." Then the spitting on his face — in the law this was great shame (Deuteronomy 25:9): the wife of the brother that would not build his brother's house did spit on his face. So Job complains (chapter 30:10) that the children of fools and base men abhorred him, and spared not to spit on his face. O, but there is now much glory and beauty of glory on that face — it is more glorious than the sun. 3. His death had a special note of shame, the death of a robber and an evildoer. So it is called Christ's reproach (Hebrews 13:13): "Let us go forth therefore to him, without the camp, bearing his reproach" — or bearing his cross, which was a reproachful thing. For it is a clear allusion to the manner of Christ's going out of the city of Jerusalem to Mount Calvary, bearing his own cross. It was a reproachful thing to see the Lord of glory bear shame on his back, and to behold Jesus going through the city, out at the ports of Jerusalem, with a shameful cross between his shoulders, and all the children and boys and base ones of the city wondering at him and crying after him. O, woe to Jerusalem when they shut Christ out at their ports and would lodge him no longer! And woe to them that put that shame on him, as to lay the reproachful and cursed cross on his back, and no man would bear it for him. And the suffering of Christ (Hebrews 11:26) is called the reproach and the shame of Christ. (Psalm 22:7) "But I am a worm [in non-Latin alphabet] — no man of note, the reproach, the manifest or published shame or reproach of Adam, of frail men, the contempt of the people, the public disgrace or neglect of the people." Now the third particular is: how could it consist with the glory of Christ as king to be shamed? It is — I must confess — a strange expression, the Son of God shamed; yet it is a Scripture expression (Hebrews 12:2; Isaiah 50:7). But such a shame as they could put on Christ may well stand with the personal union.

For 1. Shame as arising from the ill conscience of sin, they could not put on Christ (Jeremiah 2:26): As the thief is ashamed, when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed. They could not catch Christ in any sin, and so though they shamed him, he was not shamed, nor could he hide his face for confusion.

2. Shame is a breaking of the hope and confidence of these who look for great things, as 2 Chronicles 32:21: The Lord sent an Angel which cut off all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and captains in the camp of the King of Assyria: So he returned, with shame of face, to his own land. And Isaiah 30: You trust (says the Lord) in the shadow of Egypt (verse 3). Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame (verse 5). They are all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach. Now thus the confidence that Christ had in God could not be broken. God could not fail Christ; his hope was ever green before the Sun. He said it, and it was true (Isaiah 50:7) — (Christ's faith and boldness in his father was as hard as flint) — for the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my face as flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

3. But it is clear, in pulling off his garments and scourging him, so they shamed him, as Jeremiah 13:26: Therefore will I discover your skirts on your face, that your shame may appear. They brought Jesus bound, as if he had been a common thief, to Pilate (Matthew 26:2). And in regard of this, Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 53:3): He was despised and rejected of men — (the text will bear) Christ was no body — and we hid as it were our faces from him. They put so much disgrace and shame on blessed Jesus, he was so basely handled, that we blushed and were ashamed to look upon him, all his friends thought shame of him. 1. But this was but the lying estimation of unbelieving men, who could not see his glory; but the repenting thief, when they render him most shameful and abased by faith, saw him a King who had the keys of Paradise at his girdle, when he prayed, Lord remember me when you come to your Kingdom. And he was most un-King-like at that time; and he had as much shame on him, as he was able to bear. He was branded as the greatest thief of the three, dying a thief's death, going out at the ports of life, bleeding, pained, cursed, shamed, forsaken, despised, mocked. All his glory was now under the ashes, and covered with shame. The Sun seemed to be ashamed to see the Creator of the Sun in so painful and so shameful a condition, and therefore the Sun runs away and hides itself, and is not able to behold the Lord of glory hanged on a tree. The rocks and mountains, the stones and fair Temple, as if they would burst for sorrow, cannot endure so base a condition as the Creator was in now. And as if death and the graves were grieved and malcontent to serve the justice of God, for the sin of man, they will lodge their prisoners the dead no longer; but the graves are opened. 2. Shame is but an opinion, and men can bestow their opinion amiss, and so did the world on Christ. There was glory and fullness, indeed, infinite glory in Christ, but they saw it not. Few see the worth, fewer can weigh the weight of Christ's excellency. Men's glory is but [illegible], a mere opinion, and often but a lie; and it took nothing of real glory from Christ, whatever they esteemed him. Say that the sense of a man would judge the Sun no better than a two penny candle, this takes nothing from the excellency of the Sun. 3. The Sun is the Sun when it hides its beams and rays of light and heat. Christ was the Lord of glory, when he drew in all his majesty and caused the rays of glory and honor to retire and hide themselves under all the shame, baseness and disgrace that men could lay on him. A voluntary condescension of Christ was all here.

3. A Curse.

The third character engraved on Christ's death, is the curse of God, in which consider 1. What a curse was on Christ dying. 2. How he was a curse, and the causes of it.

To curse in both languages, is to pray evil, to devote to destruction either in word or deed. Now the curse that Christ was made: 1. Was the Lord's pronouncing him a curse. 2. The setting of him apart, as appointed for wrath and judgment. 3. The dishonor done to him, the nothinging or despising of Christ, was a part of his curse. Now in the first of these three, we know (Deuteronomy 21:23) the Lord pronounces him accursed that hangs on a tree. Paul in Galatians 3:10-13 applies it to Christ. It was a ceremonial curse, I grant (Deuteronomy 21), but had a special relation to Christ, who was under a real and moral curse. For such a curse is upon the sinner for idolatry, and the highest breaches of the moral law (Deuteronomy 27), as to set light by father and mother, to remove the neighbor's land-mark, and by fraud or rapine, to take his lands from him. Such a curse was laid on Christ — a higher curse than to be hanged on a tree. To be hanged was a note of a temporal curse, but except the man died in sin, no mark of the eternal displeasure of God — but as typical and relative to Christ, for whose sake only this curse was put on the death of the Cross — it was in equivalency an eternal vengeance, and that wrath which all the elect were forever to suffer in hell. The Apostle says (Galatians 3:10-13): Such a curse as is due to these that abide not in all that is written in the law of God to do it, was upon Christ. Now this was a real and moral curse; because first, due to the Gentiles who were not obliged to the law of ceremonies; and was, secondly, due to thousands that died not on the tree.

2. Christ was devoted and set apart, in the eternal counsel of God for suffering the punishment of sin; when God first purposed (if there be order of first and second in the eternal decrees of God) the Lord devoted and set apart this Lamb, before the foundation of the world was laid, to be a bloody sacrifice for sin; He was separated from the flock to be killed, and for our sakes he devoted, vowed, and sanctified himself for that work; Christ was of all mankind separated to be an atonement and an expiation for sin; he was dieted for the race to run, through death and hell, he was fitted; to suffer, no man so furnished to undergo the wrath of God, as he.

3. As to be accursed comes under the third notion, to wit, to be dishonored, so was Christ under a curse (Psalm 22:7), no man (Isaiah 53:3), the last of men; the contempt and the refuse of men (Acts 4:11), the stone rejected by you builders (says Peter) — that Nothinged stone, not so much esteemed as an errand murderer Barabbas; and this death of the Cross, now especially in the Christian world, is become most base; as the burial of an Ass (Jeremiah 22) was a sign of God's displeasure, so is hanging, nations having not without God's providence cast their consent together, that it should be the death of the poor and basest of men; so Peter, as if it had been only of men's choosing (Acts 5:30), The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom you slew, and hanged on a tree; And (Acts 2:23) whom by wicked hands you have crucified and slain; hanging on a tree is more than slaying; to kill a man is all you can do, but to put him to a base death — that is cursed both of God and man, is far worse, it is more than the worst; and that a King lineally descended of Kings and of the blood Royal, the Kingly Tribe of Judah, the man on earth that only by birth, and law, had Title to the Crown of Judea, should be put to so base a death, is the worst that wicked men and devils could do.

I may add yet a fourth consideration (Genesis 3:17): all the creatures are put under the curse of man's sins: Christ died such a death as took the creatures off the curse, and (Colossians 1:20) Christ having made peace through the blood of his cross reconciled all things to himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 2. Now how Christ could be a curse is harder; there is a thing intrinsically and fundamentally cursed; and there is a thing extrinsically and effectively cursed; none, but he that sins, is intrinsically and fundamentally cursed; for in this regard it is a personal evil. Christ was not intrinsically abominable, hateful and an execrable thing to God.

Objection. But if Christ suffered all that we were to suffer for our sins, then as God must in justice abhor and hate with a hatred of abomination the sinner, and the sinner is such a one as God must let out his displeasure against him, so must God hate and abhor his person, therefore God's displeasure not only pursued Christ by way of punishment, that extrinsically he was cursed, but also the Lord in justice was obliged to hate and abhor the person of the Son of God with the hatred of abomination, that he intrinsically should be a curse, as well as the sinner, in whose person he stands.

Answer. Christ the surety was obliged to suffer all and every punishment due to the Elect, either in the same kind and coin, as death, or in the equivalency and in as good; for there were some punishments that may be well changed the one in the other: as death natural, or by violence was changed in the death of the cross; we have no ground to think, if Christ had never come to die for us, that the death of all mankind must have been the death of the cross; so God's hating and abominating the sinner must be and was changed in God's forsaking of Christ, when he complained, My God, my God, etc., in regard this was all as penal and sad to Christ, as the other, to wit, to be abominated and hated in our persons as cursed of God, not to say that it was not congruous to the condition of him who is the Son of the eternal God by nature, and by an unspeakable generation, to be in his person abominated and abhorred of God, as a man intrinsically cursed, as the sinner who sins in person is, and not to add also (which may be said) the kind of punishment; this, not this is arbitrary to the Law-giver, now the Apostle says not Christ was cursed, but (Galatians 3:10) he was made a curse for us, extrinsically a curse, as (2 Corinthians 5:21) God made him sin for us, that is, what was penal in the curse and sin, and whatever was congruous and suitable to his holy person, that the Lord Jesus came under; sure as Christ took on him our nature, so he changed persons and names with us legally; he was made the sinner, and the sinner made the Son; there was reciprocation of imputation here. Christ was you legally and by law, and you are Sons in him. The Law was a bloody bond and our names and souls were inked with the blood of the eternal curse; but blot out (says Christ) my brethren's names out of the bloody bond, and write in my name, for blood and the curse of God, and there was a white Gospel-bond drawn up and the Elect's names therein. Then the two writs run this in the new covenant; Christ was made a curse and liable to pay all our debts and law-penalties to the blood and death, and the poor sinner eternally blessed in Jesus Christ even to perfect imputed righteousness and everlasting life. Christ changed your bleeding even to the second death, and made it blessings for evermore to new and everlasting life.

Use 1. If Christ died such a violent and painful death; then death violent or natural is not much up or down.

Sweet Jesus had it to his choice; he would choose the sourest of deaths, to go to the grave in blood; Christ's winding-sheet was blooded; a good prince, a reformer of the house of God, Josiah died in blood. Many of the worthiest that died in faith did not die in their beds; they were (Hebrews 11:35-37) tortured, had trial of bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. The first witness in the Christian Church after the Lord's ascension, Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, was stoned to death. (Psalm 79:2) The bodies of your servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. Many thousand martyrs have been burnt alive, extremely tormented with new devised most exquisite torments, as to be roasted on a gridiron, to be devoured with lions and wild beasts.

Violence more or less is an accident of death, as it is the same hand folded in, or the fingers stretched out; violent death is but death on horseback, and with wings, or a stroke with the fist, as the other death is a blow with the palms of the hand. Natural death is death going on foot, and creeping with a slower pace; violent death unites all its forces at once, and takes the city by storm, and comes with a sourer and blacker visage. Natural death divides itself in many several bits of deaths; old age being a long spun-out death, and nature seems to render the city more willingly, and death comes with a whiter and a milder visage. The one has a saltier bite, and teeth of steel and iron; the other has softer fingers, and takes asunder the boards of the clay-tabernacle more leisurely, softly, tenderly and with less din, as not willing that death should appear death, but a sleep. The violent death is as when apples green and raw are plucked off the tree, or when flowers in the bud, and young, are plucked up by the roots; the other way of dying is as when apples are ripened and are filled with well-boiled summer sap, and fall off the tree of their own accord in the eater's mouth, or when flowers wither on the stalk. Some dying full of days have, like banqueters, a surfeit of time; others are suddenly plucked away when they are green. But which of the ways you die, not to die in the Lord is terrible; you may know you shall die by the fields you grow on, while you live. A believer on Christ breathes in Christ, speaks, walks, prays, believes, eats, drinks, sickens, dies in Christ; Christ is the soil he is planted in, he grows on the banks of the paradise of God. When he falls, he cannot fall wrong; some are trees growing on the banks of the river of fire and brimstone; when God hews down the tree, and death fells them, the tree can fall no otherwise than in hell. O how sweet to be in Christ, and to grow as a tree planted on the banks of the river of life — when such die they fall in Christ's lap and in his bosom. Be the death violent or natural, it is all one whether a strong gale and a rough stormy shore the child of God on the new Jerusalem's dry land, or if a small calm blast even with rowing of oars bring the passenger to heaven, if once he be in that goodly land.

To die in faith — the righteous has hope in his death — is the essential qualification to be most regarded; that is the all and sum of well dying. Make sure work of heaven, and let the way or manner, violent or natural, be as God will; it is among the indifferents of death. Saints have died either way; to die in Christ, in the hope of the resurrection, is the fair and good death. To die in sin (John 8:21) — that is the ill death, and the black death.

To die ripened for eternity is all and some; it is said of some, they died full of days.

How is a man full and ripe for death?

In these respects: first, when the man is mortified to time, and is satisfied with days, he desires no more life; he lies at the water side, near by death, waiting for wind and tide, like a passenger who would gladly be over the water. So dying Jacob, in the midst of his testament (Genesis 49:18), said, Lord, I have waited for your salvation — Lord, when shall I have fair passage? Job says (Job 14:14), All the time I am on the sentinel, or the time of my warfare, I will wait till my last change come. So Paul says (Philippians 1:23), having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is far better; the man desires not to stay here any longer.

He would go to sea when all his land-business is ended, the courts are closed, and if the sun be low and near his setting, the way ends with the day — see the lodging hard at hand. (2 Timothy 4:7) I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Sweet Jesus, before he died, said, It is finished; all is done; he is on the scaffold and nods to his executioner Death: Friend, come, do your office; I pray you, see your task be ended.

The man sees the crown; he is come to the stone wall or the hedge of paradise, and sees the apples of life hanging on the tree, and hears the music of heaven. Stephen (Acts 7:56) said, I saw heaven opened.

He goes not away pulled by the hair, but willingly, gladly (Hebrews 11:8, 15); they desire a better country. (Job 5:26) Like a shock of corn in his season; it would be the loss of the corn to be longer out of the barn. Death shall not come while it be welcome (Job 7:3); as the hired servant pants for the shadow, so he for death. All these four were in Jesus Christ.

Had Christ so much pain in his death, that his death and the cross were all one, so as he had five deaths on him at once — four on his body, death on every hand, death on every foot — and a death on his soul, ten thousand millions of pounds weightier and sadder? Then let us correct all our errors, and misjudgings touching the cross.

We love to go to paradise through a paradise of roses, and a land-way to heaven, and a dry fair white death; we would have Christ and the cross changed, which says, whoever would follow Christ, let him take up his cross daily and follow him (Luke 9:23).

2. We forget that heaven is fenced with a huge great wood of thorns, we must crowd through, though our skin be scratched even to blood and death; life eternal is like a fair pleasant, rich and glorious city in the midst of a waste wilderness, and there lies round about this city, at all the corners of it, a wood of briars and thorns, scorpions and serpents and lions abounding in it, and the wood is ten thousand miles of bounds on all hands, of a journey of threescore years at some parts, there no high road-way in the wood, no back entry about; wise professors seek away about the cross; God has given wings to none to fly over the wood; or its like a fair king's palace in an island of the sea; its a most pleasant isle for all kind of delights, but there is no way to it by dry land. Would you have valley ground, summer meadows, fields and gardens of flowers and roses all your way? And how is it that the Lord will not give peace to his Church? In fact, there is not a way to heaven on this side of the cross, or on that side of the cross, but directly, straight through we must go; when the apostles went through the churches confirming the brethren (Acts 14:22), they preached that the cross was gospel; and [illegible], through the midst of affliction, or under flailing and threshing we must go, there is not a way about to shift the cross, but we must enter into the kingdom of God, this very way and no other.

3. The blood was not dried off Christ's hands and feet, and his burial shroud, till he was in the flower of the higher palace of his Father's kingdom and within the walls, and so his Church must not think hard of it, if she go not a dry death to heaven.

Error 2. We tacitly condemn the wisdom of God in our murmuring under the cross; cannot Christ lead his people to heaven a better way, than through the swords, spears and teeth of malignants, and must new armies of Irish murderers land on us again? These would be considered: 1. Paul encouraging the Thessalonians, says (2 Thessalonians 3:3), no man should be moved by these afflictions; why, for your selves know we are appointed to that from eternity, the wise Lord did brew a cup of bloody sufferings for his Church, and did mold and shape every saint's cross in length and breadth for him; our afflictions are not of yesterday's date and standing; before the Lord set up the world, as it now is, he had all the wheels, pins, wedges, works and every material by him, in his eternal mind; all your tears, your blood, all the ounces and pounds of gall and wormwood you now drink, they were an eternal design and plot of God's wise decree before the world was, they were the lot God did appoint for your back, they are no sourer, no heavier this day, than they were in the Lord's purpose before time; your grave, O saints, is no deeper than of old the Lord dug it, your wound no nearer the bone than mercy made it; your death is no blacker, no more thorny and devouring than Christ's soft hands framed it; before God gave you flesh and skin and heat in your blood, Christ's doom and the Church's doom of the black cross was written in heaven: So Christ smiles and drinks with this word (John 18:11), shall I not drink the cup that my Father has given me? 2. (Romans 8) Predestination is the first act of free grace, and verse 29, in that act a communion with Christ in his cross is passed, this we consider not: will you not think good to set your shoulders and bones under the same burden that was on Christ's back? We fear the cross less at our heels and behind our back, than when its in our bosom; the Lord Jesus speaks of his suffering often beforehand and its wisdom to make it less, by antidated patience and submission, before we suffer; it were good, would we give our thoughts and lend some words to death, as Christ here does before it comes: opinion which is the pencil that draws the face, arms and legs of death and sufferings, might honey our gall; if a martyr judge a prison a palace, and his iron chains golden bracelets, sure his bonds are as good as liberty; if a saint count death Christ's master-usher to make way to him for heaven, then death cannot be a mill to grind the man's life to powder; faith can oil and sugar our wormwood; and if Christ come with the cross, it has no strength; the believer has two skins on his face against the [reconstructed: smitings] of storm and hail-stones; Christ can make a saint sing in hell, as impatient unbelief could cause a man sigh and weep in heaven. 3. We forget that the Church is the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, and that the owner of the farm must hire Satan and wicked men to be his vine-dressers and his reapers; but the crop is the Lord's, not theirs, they are plowers; but they neither know the soil, nor the husbandman (Psalm 129:2).

Error 3. When we see we must suffer, we tacitly are offended that Christ will not give us the first vote in our own jury, and that he would not seek our own advice in this kind of cross, not this; except to one man, David, God never referred the choice of a cross, but then grace made the choice; sure Scotland would have chosen famine or the pestilence, rather than the sword of a barbarous, unnatural enemy; but it must not be referred to the wisdom of the sick, what should be his physic; we often say any cross but this; especially if there be any letter of reproach on the cross, a shameful death, or distraction of mind; but the Lord sees nothing out of heaven, or hell so good for you as that; that, and no other. 2. We would have the pound weights of affliction weighed in our balance: oh this is too heavy, hence David's, and Job's over-complaining, Oh my calamity is heavier than the sand of the sea (Job 6:3), and am I a sea or a whale, that you set a watch over me? (Job 7:12). Should God deal with a man as with a fish, or a beast? 3. We desire to be creators of such and such circumstances of our own grief: so we storm often at the circumstances, as at the very poison of the cross, as if God had through forgetfulness, and a slip of wisdom, left that circumstance out of his decree, as the painter that draws the whole body exactly, but forgets to draw one of the five fingers, and in the meanwhile, that circumstance which we wrestle most against in our thoughts, was specially intended of God: how often does this fire our thoughts and burn them up with fretting? Had I done this, I might have avoided this heaviest and saddest calamity: Had I gone to sea when the wind and sailors called me, but the fourth part of an hour sooner, I had not been in dry land, where I am now butchered to death; so had I but spoken a word, I might have saved all this loss and labor; had not this man come in with an ill counsel and one unhappy word, many hundreds of thousands had not been killed in battle; and Martha (John 11:21) is upon this distemper, for she says to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died: she would say, it was an ill hap, Christ was unluckily in another place when my brother died; but the wise decree of God had carved these circumstances so; that Christ's absence was especially decreed in that affliction (verse 15). Jesus said plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes, that I was not there, (to the intent that you may believe,) etc. Look up in the affliction to the saddest and blackest circumstance in the cross, infinite wisdom was not sleeping, but from eternity with understanding and counsel; the Lord decreed and framed that saddest circumstance, even that Shimei a subject should curse David his prince; and that he should charge him with blood against Saul of which he was most free, and at that time, and no other time, when he was flying, for his life from his son Absalom; but all these sad circumstances, were molded and framed on the wheels of the decree of him who devises all, shapes our woes, according to the counsel of his will. We would have our Lord to remove the gall, the wormwood, and the fire-edge out of our cross, and we lust for some more honey and sugar of consolation to be mixed with it; it were good if we could by grace, desire three ills to be removed from our cross: 1. That of its nature, it be not sinful; such as hardness of heart; we may in our election and choice, pray that it be not both a sinful plague of God on the soul and a judgment to us: 2. We may pray that the affliction may be attended with, and sweetened by the consolations of Christ, and with faith and patience, and a spiritual use of the affliction: 3. We may pray, it may not be a burden above our back, and such as we are not able to bear; and this we may as lawfully choose and pray, as say, Lord lead us not into temptation.

Use 3. Was there shame and reproach on Christ's cross? Fie on all the glory of the world; let us not think 1. too much of this piece, airy, windy, vain opinion of men's esteem and the applause; it's but a short living, hungry Hosanna, when your name is carried through a spot or bit of this clay-stage, for a day or two, they'll wonder at you but nine nights. Christ's fame spread abroad through all the country, and now he is shamed and a reproached man; now the whole people cry out away with him, away with him, crucify him; the ground of man's glory is his goodliness or graciousness, his [in non-Latin alphabet], all his endowments and brave parts, and all this glory (Isaiah 40:6) is as the flower of the field, his glory has a month, and lives the poor twelfth part of a year, and Herod is gone to the worms, and his silks rotten and gone, and Shebna is tossed like a ball in a large place, and must hear this (Isaiah 22:18): You shall die (in a strange land) and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your Lord's house: it's an earthly thing (Philippians 3:19): Whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things (Hosea 4:7): I'll change their glory into shame; and when Ephraim glories in children, God sews wings to that glory, and it flies away (Hosea 9:11): As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away as a bird. The ten tribes boasted of their strength and multitude; but the Lord says (Isaiah 17:4): The glory of Jacob shall be made thin: 2. God in a special manner sets himself in person against this glory; (Isaiah 23:9): The Lord of Hosts has purposed to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth (Isaiah 10:12): I'll punish the glory of the high looks of the King of Assyria; (Habakkuk 2:16): The Lord lays a right curse on Chaldea's glory; the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned into you, and shameful [reconstructed: spewing] shall be on your glory: 3. It's the sweet fruit of Christ's death and abasement that we learn to lay down our credit under the Lord's feet (Philippians 2): Let the same mind be in you, that was in Christ Jesus: O that must be a high and an aspiring mind, for he was the high and lofty one; [reconstructed: nay], he teaches all his to be abased, verse 6: who being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God, verse 7: but he emptied himself; he was full of majesty and glory, but he made himself of no reputation, and an empty thing, and took upon him the form of servant, and was made in the likeness of men — and humbled himself: ah let never man go with high sails, nor count much of world's glory, after Jesus Christ: ah our reputation and name is as tender to us as paper, as our skin; a scratch in it, or a rub is a provocation cannot be expiated; as if we minded, in the airy cloud of men's fame, to fly up to heaven, and frothy fame were as good to lay hold on Christ as fervent faith; breach of our privileges of state is more now than blasphemy against God.

Use 4. Now if Christ was made a curse for us, that we might be delivered from the curse, we are comforted in Christ's being made a curse for us in regard of, 1. Extreme love. 2. Perfection of blessedness.

For this act of love; we are assured he that will be made the curse of God for us, will be anything; four great steps of love were here, every one of them greater than another: 1. To be a man. 2. To be a dying man. 3. To be as a sinning man. 4. To be a cursed man.

Consider these four as they grow out of the root of love; a Spirit sinless, and holy is a happy thing; the Son of God being God, is a Spirit, and so in another condition than man, he was above bones and clay, and the motion of hot air going in and out at the nostrils; it's a sort of burden to carry about a piece of dust of more than a hundred and fifty bits of clay organs, five senses, two hands, two legs, head, tongue, lips, throat, shoulders, breast, back, so many fingers, toes, joints, joints, veins, muscles, then belly, stomach, heart, liver, bowels, and a number of cumbersome vessels, let them be a hundred and fifty fragments of warm, red and bloody clay, they require more than a hundred and fifty servants of clay, of meat, clothing, medicine, to serve them, and the more needy a creature is, the more miserable; a Spirit is above all these, and needs not senses, nor servants to serve the senses and life; O but Christ was happy from eternity, and consider what a low [reconstructed: leap] of love was this, the Word made flesh? God manifested in the flesh, is the greatest mystery of love in the world: here God an infinite Spirit made man, has need of two eyes of clay, two ears, two legs, two hands, he must come under the necessities of all these hundred and fifty organs; can you tell what secrets of love are here? God looks out at two clay windows, the two eyes of a man; God walks with the two clay legs of a man, He dwelt among us (says John 1:14) he pitched his clay-tent with us, full of grace and glory; grace and glory dwelling in clay is one of the deep wonders of the world.

But 2. We would accept to be men; but if it were referred to our choice, we must die in pain and be tumbled in a cold hole of clay in the earth and see the Sun no more — it may be, we would take it to our advisement, before we chose life: Christ knew on such terms, if he should be made a creature of clay, and if the high and lofty God should be clothed with such rags, a coat of clay, so far below his beauty, he must die; yet he would be a man a dying man; and we know what sad and sour accidents were in his death.

But 3. You will kill an honest-hearted and ingenuous innocent man before you move him to acknowledge a fault, when he has done no fault: Job was called a hypocrite by his friends, but he would never acknowledge it, he would maintain his own righteousness, till he died; the Martyrs, before they would take sin on them by acting it, and deny Jesus Christ, they would rather choose the gallows, torture, the teeth of lions, burning alive, or anything: but Christ Jesus takes it patiently to stand as the thief, the bloody man, the false man, and as all the wicked men of the world; he could not act sin; but he said, Father, make me the sinner; I never stole, but let my face be blacked with theft, I never shed innocent blood, but let the stain and blot of the murderer be upon me; I never lied, but let me be as a liar and stand so before justice; and God made him sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). When a man willingly goes to prison for a broken man, it is a real acknowledgment that he takes on him the broken man's debts: it is as good as if he had said, charge me for him; a moral blot to be put on an honest, holy, harmless man, is a high measure of self-denial and love; Christ said, here am I, charge me, Lord.

But this is nothing, Christ was a [reconstructed: man]: 2. A dying man: 3. Made as a sinner, and as a wicked and dishonest man; but God blessed him, he was made a blessing of God, and that is comfort enough; No, it was not so, God made him a curse, an execrable thing, all the broad curses written in the book of the Law came on him; see Christ made clay, dying clay, as sinning clay, cursed clay; what would you have more; Christ is as if his Father abhorred him, and would not once give him one cast of his eye.

2. All perfection of blessedness comes to us by this: that Christ was made a curse for us (Galatians 3:14), that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, through faith. This is the true freedom from the Law, to be freed from the curse thereof, in believing Christ was made a curse for you, according to (Romans 6:14): For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law, but under grace, which doctrine is clear (Romans 7), where expressly we are said to be freed from the dominion of the Law, as the wife is freed from the Law of subjection to her husband, if the husband be dead, which is a comparison, and holds not in all, but only in so far as the two husbands, the Law and Christ, stand in opposition the one to the other; now the opposition is that the Law has dominion to justify the legal observers of it, and guide the wife to life eternal; but the conditions are hard, and now because of the flesh impossible; Christ again, the better husband, leads his bride to heaven in sweeter terms, by believing in him that justifies the ungodly, who has satisfied for our breach of the Law.

2. The Law has dominion over the wife that is in subjection to it, to condemn her, if she breaks with this spiritual husband, in thought, word, or deed; but the two husbands both agree in this, that both command holy walking; as the Apostle excellently shows (1 Corinthians 9:20): to them that are under the Law, I am as under the Law, that I might gain them that are under the Law, verse 21: to them that are without the Law, as without the Law (being not without Law to God, but under the Law to Christ) that I might gain them that are without the Law. Hence we teach that the believer married to the second and better husband Christ, is not freed from the rule and directing power of the Law to lead us in the ways of sanctification and holiness, but we are freed from the dominion of the Law so that it cannot justify us, nor condemn us, because in Christ we are justified by his imputed righteousness laid hold on by faith, and saved freely in him by his blood, hence give me leave to vindicate our doctrine in this, from the wicked aspersions cast on it, by Antinomians, especially by Mr. Town.

Mr. Towne's assertion of grace against Doctor Taylor, Page 3. When it is said, we are not under the Law, but under grace (Romans 6), by the word "Law" I understand the moral Law or decalogue, with all its authority, dominion, offices and effects; and by grace is understood the Gospel of Christ; if you were (says he) under the power and teaching of the Law, it is true, sin would then lord it over you, in that the Law is the strength of sin (1 Corinthians 15). But you are translated to another Kingdom, where the enemy you so fear is spoiled of all its armor and power on which it depends; and your King you now live under does freely communicate abundant and effectual grace of justification and sanctification, so to fortify you, that you shall be more than Conquerors; therefore fear not, only be strong in the faith thereof.

Answer. 1. Not to mention that Mr. Town elsewhere means by the Law we are not under, not the Moral Law only, but the Ceremonial also; if we be freed from all authority of the Law, then has the sixth commandment no authority from God to teach that murdering of our brother [illegible] sin, that idolatry is contrary to the second commandment [illegible] acts of holiness and worship performed by [illegible] will-service and will-worship; for if [illegible] and direct us, what is holy walking [illegible] by the Antinomian way, does not teach any such thing in the letter; then it is all unwritten will-walking that a believer does; this is license, not holiness we are called to.

2. Then is it not the Law's office to reveal sin to us? Paul says contrary (Romans 3:20): for by the Law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 7:7): I had not known lust, except the Law had said, you shall not covet; free a believer from all the offices of the Law; then the believer, when he lies and commits adultery and murders, is not obliged to know or open his eyes, and see from the light of the Law that these be sins; for Mr. Town frees him from all the offices of the Law. Paul misjudged himself, when in his believing condition, he says (Romans 7:14-15): for we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

3. From the Law's teaching of believers, to infer that the Law lords it over a believer, is a great fallacy.

4. If the enemy sin be spoiled of all power, even of indwelling and lusting against the Spirit, then the believer cannot fail against a law; then he may say, he has no sin, which John says is a lie.

5. If Christ communicates abundant effectual grace of sanctification, then is sanctification perfect; but the Scripture says the contrary, in many things we offend all; and we are not perfect in this life, nor are we more than conquerors in every act of sanctification, nor is that Paul's meaning, Romans 8, that we are never foiled, and that lusts in some particular acts have not the better of us too often, but that finally in the strength of Christ, the saints are so far forth more than conquerors, that nothing can work the apostasy and separation of the saints from the love of God in Christ.

Mr. Towne's assertion of Grace, Page 4-5. Mark three grounds of mistakes: 1. That justification and sanctification are separable, if not in the person, yet in regard of time and word of ministration, as if the Gospel revealed justification; the law were now become an effectual instrument of sanctification: 2. That to ease men of the law's yoke, is to suffer them to range after the course of the world, and [illegible] lusts, not considering that the righteousness of [illegible] to Christ their Lord, head and Governor, that they may be led by his free Spirit, and swayed by the scepter of his kingdom: 3. That all zealous and strict conformity to the law of works, though but in the letter, is right sanctification.

Answer 1. Not any of these are owned by Protestant divines; they are Mr. Towne's forged calumnies; to the first, I cannot see that sanctification is anything at all by Antinomian grounds but mere justification, and that he is an Antinomian saint that believes Christ satisfied, and performed the law for him, but no letter of law or Gospel lays any obligation on him to walk in holiness. But the Gospel only reveals engrafting of the branch, in Christ the vine tree and stock of life, and the bringing forth fruits, by the faith of Christ to be the only true sanctification; but if the apples be not of the right seed, and conform to the directing rule of all righteousness the law of God, they are but wild grapes, we never made the law the effectual instrument of sanctification; a help it is, being preached with the Gospel; but neither is the Gospel of itself the effectual instrument of sanctification, except the spirit of grace accompany it, nor the law of itself.

2. The second is a calumny also; But we would desire to know how Antinomians can free themselves of it, for the righteousness of faith does not so unite believers to Christ as to their Governor, so as Christ governs them by the Spirit and the Word, for the letter of the whole Word both law and Gospel (say they) holds forth nothing but a covenant of works, to search the Scripture either law or Gospel, is not a sure way of searching and finding of Christ; and Mr. Towne passes in silence all guidance of the saints, by commandments of either law or Gospel, and tells us of a leading by a free Spirit only. So that by Antinomians, we are no more under the Gospel as a directing and commanding rule, than we are under the law; what hinders then but Antinomian justification bids us live as we please; we think the Gospel commands every duty, and forbids every sin as the law does, under damnation; what is sin to the one, is to the other. But the Gospel forbids nothing to a justified believer under the pain of damnation, more than to Jesus Christ. 2. A dead letter forbids no sin, commands no duty; but the Gospel of itself without the Spirit, is a dead letter, as well as the law; the major is the Antinomian doctrine, the assumption is undeniable.

3. Pharisaical conformity to the law we disclaim, but if any could be strictly and perfectly conform to the law of works, as Christ was, we should think such a man perfectly sanctified; but, through the weakness of the flesh, that is impossible; I know not what Mr. Towne means by a conformity to the law though but in the letter; if he means that the literal meaning and sense of the law requires no spiritual, inward, and completely perfect obedience; he is no good doctor of the law; and if it be not such an obedience, it is not zealous and strict obedience; but it is ordinary to Antinomians now to term those whom the Prelatical party of late called Puritans and strict Precisians, because they strove to walk closely with God, Pharisees, and outside professors, who think to be justified and saved by their own righteousness, so far are they at odds with sanctification; if by conformity to the law in the letter Mr. Towne means external obedience without faith in Jesus Christ, or union with him; he knows Protestant divines acknowledge no sound sanctification, but that which is the natural issue and fruit of justification, and flows from faith which purifies the heart; and such strict conformity to the law as flows from saving faith, we hold to be true sanctification, though all enemies to holy walking cry out against it, such as mockers of all religion, the Prelatical and Antinomian party who mock strict walking, and long prayer, and humble confession of sins, and smiting of conscience for sin.

Towne, Page 5. Blind and sinister suspicion, and causeless fear inclined Doctor Taylor to this exposition, to say our Apostle loosens no Christian from obedience and rule of the law, but he dares not trust a believer to walk without his keeper, as if he judged no otherwise of him than of a [reconstructed: malefactor] of Newgate, who would run away, rob, kill, and play his former pranks, if the jailer, or his man be not with him, when he is abroad.

Answer 1. There is a twofold keeping in of sinners: one merely legal, such as that of wicked men (Psalm 32:9), who are like the horse or mule and have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near to you. The Law has not power over wicked men even with terrors of hell and the curse of God, because often they are given up to a hard heart — and what cared Pharaoh, who was under the Law, for this keeper? — and to a reprobate mind, and to any that commit sin with greediness, having the conscience burned with a hot iron, and being past feeling (Romans 1:28-29; Ephesians 4:17-19; 1 Timothy 4:2). The Law is no keeper; they care no more for Mr. Town's jail than a lion does for the crying of a shepherd; he will not abase himself for it. All the restraint that Law lays on a natural man is when the conscience is awakened or some great plague is on Pharaoh; then he dares not keep the people captive. But Antinomians have a good opinion of slaves of Satan, who judge them to be civil and externally honest devils, and make limbs of hell of a good sweet calm nature, who stand naturally in awe of God's Law. But (Romans 3:9-11) among the whole tribe and race of mankind, Jews and Gentiles, see what they care for the Antinomian jailer, the law — they believe not one word of what the Law says. Verse 11: there is none that understands, there is none that seeks God. Verse 12: they are all gone out of the way (where is the keeper now, and his sword and spear?); they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no not one. Verse 13: their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips, etc. The law does not naturally lay a bridle on the outer man; but observe that the conscience be restrained and awed by the Law, and under any natural remorse for sin committed or to be committed, is a sinful bondage that Christ must deliver us from. 1. Then stupefaction and deadness of conscience — not to care for the law of God, any more than a prisoner who has broken jail and now is in hedges and highways robbing and murdering cares for his old keeper — is to Antinomians mortification, and a crucifying of old Adam. 2. So Job's not daring to lift his arm against the fatherless (chapter 31) must be the power of old Adam in him; David's bones broken for his adultery and murder must be the power of old lusts in him. 3. Then the less tenderness of conscience and fear for sin as sin, the more mortification of lust. 4. Grace as grace stupefies and deadens conscience — so Antinomians must teach.

2. Men naturally do more good for the praise of men, and are more afraid to do ill for the axe and the gibbet of the magistrate, than for any fear of hell or judgment of the Law of God. Town cannot speak of this keeper. There is a second restraint that the Law mixed with the love of Christ lays on the godly and believer, and he has need of this keeper. So Joseph says (Genesis 42:18), "This do and live, for I fear God." There was a keeper over Job, that he durst not lift up his hand against the fatherless (chapter 31) — why, verse 27: "For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure." And this keeper in the conscience smites David's heart when he tears but the hem of Saul's garment, and keeps him so that he dares not kill him. This was not legal bondage, for Christ commands us (Matthew 10:28-29; Luke 12:5) to fear him that can cast both soul and body in hell, rather than deny him before men who can but kill the body; and (1 Peter 2:17; Colossians 3:22; Acts 9:31; Acts 13:16) it is commanded to us. I grant the object of this fear is not so much hell as the offending of God, but it is commanded in the Law of God. But Mr. Town will have the believer so free, so perfect, that the Law need not teach and direct him in one step; he does all without a keeper or one letter of a command, by the free impulse of a Spirit separated from Scripture. That is right down: a believer is neither under Law nor Gospel, but a Spirit separated from the Gospel and all letter of it, and from the Law, guides him.

Town, page 5-6. But I wonder why you omit to show what it is to be under grace, which is the member opposite to being under the Law. Paul treats of sanctification, and yet makes this contrariety of being under the Law and under grace. The Law must be taken comprehensively, with all its offices and authority, and the reason is firm that sin shall not have dominion over him who lives under the grace of the Gospel, because it has a sanctifying virtue and power in it to subdue sin.

Answer. Doctor Taylor did not omit to expound what it is to be under grace, if you had not omitted to read his words, he is clear to any impartial reader; but let your exposition stand: sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under the Law, as teaching, directing, regulating believers in the way of righteousness, but under grace, that is, under the Gospel which gives power to subdue sin, without any ruling, teaching or directing power of the Law: but what is the power of subduing sin to Antinomians, I pray you? Not sanctification, as in words they say, but justification, that is a power to believe Christ by doing and suffering has fulfilled and obeyed the Law for you, but you are under no command to walk according to the rule of righteousness in the Law; so that to be under the Law is just contrary to personal and real sanctification and walking in love and in Evangelical duties, even as to be under the Law, and to be under grace, are opposed by the Apostle; then as we are obliged, not to be under the Law, but under grace, so are we obliged to no personal sanctification or holy walking, but to objective and imputed sanctification only, that is, only to believe in Christ as made our righteousness and sanctification; now as we are not obliged to be inherently righteous, so are we not obliged to be inherently and personally sanctified and holy, for that is to be under the Law, as the rule of righteousness; now we are freed from the Law as our rule of righteousness and from the Law with all its offices and authority, says Mr. Towne; and to remain under the Law as a rule of righteousness and to walk holily as being obliged from the conscience of any command either of Law or Gospel, is legal bondage from which Christ has set us free; as to be circumcised is a part of the Law-yoke so they teach; then to be inherently holy is unlawful to Antinomians.

Mr. Town, Pag. 6. Yet I wish that I be not mistaken, for I never deny the Law to be an eternal and inviolable rule of righteousness: But yet affirm that it is the grace of the Gospel which effectually and truly conforms us to it.

Answer. 1. I wish Mr. Towne does not mistake, for he who teaches that believers are freed from the Law, as a rule teaching, directing, and from the Law with all its offices and authority; he denies the Law to believers to be an eternal and inviolable rule of righteousness, or then he must speak contradictions, to wit, that the believer is not under the Law as a rule of righteousness, for so (says Towne) he should not be under grace, which is contrary to the Apostle (Romans 6:14), and yet he is under the Law as an eternal and inviolable rule of righteousness; for I ask to whom is the Law an eternal and inviolable rule of justice? To the believer, or no? If to the believer, then he must be under it; but Antinomians say, that is Pharisaical and Popish; that is to put Christ's free-man (says Towne) under his old keeper the Law, as if he were a malefactor; if the Law be no eternal and inviolable rule of righteousness, why does Mr. Towne say so?

2. That rule to which the grace of the Gospel does conform us, that rule we must be under; but Mr. Towne says the grace of the Gospel truly conforms us to the eternal and inviolable rule of righteousness, therefore, etc.

3. An inviolable rule of justice cannot be violated and contravened by those to whom it is a rule without sin, else it is not an inviolable rule; then if believers cannot violate the Law, and murder, and commit adultery, but they must sin, by violating the rule, then as believers are obliged not to murder, not to commit adultery, so must they be under the inviolable rule of righteousness, contrary to which Antinomians teach. All that Mr. Towne can say against us in this argument is a calumny, that we make the Law, not the Gospel to give power to subdue sin; but the truth is neither Law nor Gospel gives grace, but the God of grace has promised in the Gospel grace and a new heart and a new spirit to the Elect, and grace does not go along with the Gospel, as a favor of equal extension with the preached Gospel, but millions hear the Gospel who remain void of grace, and have no right to any promise or grace; the Law does not cease to be the rule of righteousness, though it cannot effectually make its disciples holy and conform to the rule, no more than the Gospel should not be the Law and rule of faith, because without the influence of the Spirit of grace it can make no disciples conform to Jesus Christ and his image; for many Elect for a long time, hear the Gospel and have no grace to obey, while the time of conversion comes, and many are more blinded and hardened that the Gospel is preached to them, and it were better they had never heard nor known the way of truth.

Towne pag. 6, 7. Romans 7:6. The meaning is, through faith is bred assured confidence, lively hope, pure love toward God, invocation of his name, without all wavering or doubting or questioning his good-will, audience and acceptance, which could never be attained by all the zeal and conscience toward God according to the Law of works — and the knowledge of the glory of God, is given according to a covenant of mere grace, without addition or mixture of works — and the opposition is plain to be not so much between the gross hypocrite (who is only brought to outward subjection, and correspondence to the Law) as between him that in good earnest and in downright uprightness of heart, gives over himself wholly to the Law of God (Romans 10:2), (as the wife to the husband and guide of her youth) to be ordered in all things inwardly and outwardly after the mind of God therein, according to his legal conscience, which is never pacified with works, and the man who knows and worships God alone according to the Gospel of grace.

Answer. This is a close perverting of the word of truth. 1. The Antinomian faith may here be detected, that by faith is bred assured confidence, without all wavering, fear or doubting, etc. Then whoever once doubts or wavers, is yet under the Law of works; a doctrine of despair to broken reeds, who are not under the Law, but married to a new husband Christ, and yet cry, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief: Why fear you, O you of little faith, is there not doubting here and a broken faith which Christ softly binds up?

2. The Covenant of Grace and Gospel commands faith, and also good works as witnesses of our faith; but Towne will have good works in any notion of an evangelical command to stand at defiance with a covenant of mere grace: when grace is the fountain and cause of our walking in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:10), by the grace of God, we had our conversation in that world, in simplicity and godly sincerity (1 Corinthians 15:10). I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, that is in me. It's true, holy walking by the grace of God, and Christ's righteousness in justification, is a wicked mixture, which we detest.

3. The opposition in Romans 7 is between any unconverted man under the Law, be he hypocrite, or a civil devil, or be he any other man on the one part, and a believer married to Christ, and dead to the Law on the other; for that which is common not to gross hypocrites only, but to all natural men out of Christ, is ascribed to the man that is under the Law, by the Apostle: first, he is under the Law's dominion and condemnation (verse 1); second, the Law has power over him, as the living husband over the wife (verses 2-3); the poor man cannot look to Jesus as another lover and husband — the Law as a hard husband leads him, and cries, obey perfectly, or be eternally damned. (3) He is a man in the flesh, in whose members concupiscence and lust rages, as a young vigorous mother brings forth children, lusts of the flesh to death, as married to hell and the second death (verse 5). (4) He serves God according to the oldness of the letter, that is carnally, hypocritically, like an outside of a rotten Pharisee, and not according to the newness of the Spirit, that is in a spiritual manner.

Yet Mr. Towne extols him, as one that in good earnest and down-rightness of heart yields and gives over himself to the Law of God (as the wife to the husband) to be instructed and ordered in all things inwardly and outwardly after the mind of God; but no unconverted man can be said so to do, except Antinomians be gross Pelagians. But I think Antinomians, with Mr. Crispe, think the person under the Law in all this chapter to be the believer personating or acting the person of a scrupulous believer under a temptation of doubting: but clear it is, Paul speaks of a man under the Law, in the flesh, and in opposition to him, of one under grace, of one married to the Law, and of one married to Christ; in the first part of the chapter, of one in the flesh, and so unrenewed (verse 5); for when we were in the flesh, etc., and of one that is dead to the Law, married to Christ, and serves the Lord spiritually; and it's clear that the Apostle counts it a part of deliverance from the Law, and a fruit of our marriage to God, that (verse 4) we bring forth fruits to God, and walk holily. 2. That the motions of sins bring forth wicked works, as children to the second death (verse 5). (3) That we serve the Lord (verse 6) in newness of Spirit, and walk in Christ.

Now Mr. Towne, as setting himself to contradict Paul, says page 6: This is an addition and mixture of works and faith, and cannot stand with a covenant of mere grace.

Towne page 8. How can Christ redeem us from the Law, being under the Law for us, except believers be redeemed from the Law in that same very sense, and extent that Christ was under it as a mediator? But was not Christ under the rule and obedience also as well as under the reign to death, seeing he came to do the will of his father, and fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).

Answer 1. We cannot every way be said to be redeemed from the Law, in that same sense that Christ was under it: for Christ was under the Law of Ceremonies to free the Jews from observing that Law; I hope we Gentiles are not that way freed from the Law of Ceremonies; for that Law did never oblige the Gentiles except the Gentiles had adjoined themselves in some profession, to the then visible Church.

2. If Christ was under the Law as the rule, to free us from the Law as the rule, then why did Christ command us to imitate him in doing his father's will, and submitting to that same rule that he submitted to, as is clear (Matthew 11:29): learn of me that am meek (John 15:10); if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments, and abide in his love (John 14:15); if you love me, keep my commandments (John 13:15); for I have given you example, that you should do as I have done to you (Ephesians 5:1-2; Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 12:1; 1 Peter 2:21-22; John 15:23); but Antinomians say that those that be in Christ are not under the Law, or commands of the word (even of the letter of the Gospel) as the rule of life, and that Christians are not bound to conform themselves in their life to the directions of the word, contrary to (Psalms 119:9; Isaiah 8:20) and contrary to all the gospel-exhortations given in the New Testament by Christ and his apostles; and they say that the example of Christ's life (even in subjecting himself to the law as a rule of righteousness) is not a pattern according to which we are to act and live: in a word, they will have the Spirit separated from the word, and from the example of Christ, and all the cloud of witnesses to be no rule to us; to which I oppose that one precious word of the beloved disciple (1 John 2:26): he that says he abides in him, ought so to walk even as he has walked. But observe: 1. All means that do not efficaciously bow the will to obedience to God, and convert the soul, are rejected by them, as not obliging the conscience, such as are the Law, the letter of the Gospel, all the promises, exhortations and precepts of the Gospel, the example of the Lord, who commands us (1 Peter 1) to be holy as he is holy, the example of Christ, of all the prophets, apostles, martyrs and saints, because all these are some other thing than grace, and may prove ineffectual: hence

1. The Gospel as contradistinguished from the Law, is not the Gospel written or preached, but the grace that resides nowhere but in God and in Jesus Christ, is the Gospel; so say they — the faith that justifies us is in Jesus Christ, and never had any actual being out of Christ. 2. There is no habitual grace inherent in believers, all such must be a created thing, Grace is an uncreated favor only in God: for all that which is called habitual grace in us is ineffectual to act graciously, and cannot produce supernatural acts, except the Holy Spirit act and move it. Hence they say that the new creature or the man (or the new heart, or new spirit, the circumcised, the opened heart, the Law in the inward parts, the one heart, the renewed mind, the inner man, the Law of the mind, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith) mentioned in the Gospel, is not meant of grace, but of Christ, and therefore we must not pray for gifts and graces, but only for Christ: and so a man may have all graces and poverty of spirit, and yet want Christ.

2. We are patients in justification, sanctification, believing in Christ, and we are blocks all the way to heaven; mind, will, affection, memory, love, desires, joy, fear and all in us act nothing in supernatural acts; there is not such a thing as grace, in any of the saints, but Grace is nothing but Christ without us drawing us as blocks, as dead stones, in the way to heaven, having no activity, but to sin, even after we believe in Christ: and Christ works in the regenerate as in dead men.

3. Omissions of duties commanded in the Gospel are no sins, for none are to be exhorted to believe, but such whom we know to be the elect of God, or to have his Spirit in them effectually, and a man may not be exhorted to any duty, because he has no power to do it; then Law, Gospel, exhortations, commands, promises, threatenings, are to no purpose: those that want grace to obey, are not liable to obey, nor guilty, nor under wrath, because they believe not in the Son of God, and those that are under grace are under obligation to no commands at all, and farewell all Scripture from henceforth. Indeed, Mr. Town is frequent in this, we are not under the Law, as our rule; Why? Because (says he) it cannot effectually work obedience in us; but so all the word of God, the Gospel without the Spirit must be no rule of obedience at all, because the Scripture, the Gospel and all the promises without the Spirit are just alike and ineffectual to work us to obedience.

But not one word of old or new Testament frees us from the Law as our rule of righteousness, and all the scriptures that speak of our freedom from the Law, do directly speak of our freedom from the curse and condemnation of it, because we cannot be justified thereby, as (Galatians 3:10) For as many as are of the work of the Law, are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them: this must be to do them in a legal way. 1. He must do them all in thought, inclinations, motions of the heart, and all the strength of the soul, in all his actions, in all his words, and in a spiritual manner as the Law charges, otherwise he is cursed; then all mankind, both such as are in Christ, or out of Christ are cursed. Now if the simple doing of the things of the Law, as it is a rule of our life, did involve us in a curse, then to honor father and mother which Paul certainly commands as a Gospel duty (Ephesians 6:1-2), and the loving of our brother to which (1 John 2; 3; 4; 5) exhorts us to, should involve us in a curse; which is absurd.

2. He must continue to the end in doing all the Law; if ever he fail, he is under a curse. Now thus it is clear — Paul says we are freed in Christ, from a necessity of justification by the works of the Law: For Paul adds in the next words, verse 11, 'But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God, is evident, for the just shall live by faith.' If the living by faith did exclude works, and keeping of the Law in any respect at all, as the keeping of the Law is a witness of the life of faith: then to do the things of the Law, as it is an eternal rule of righteousness, should also involve us in the curse, and argue that we seek to be justified by the Law, and so that we are fallen from Christ, even as to be circumcised does involve a man to be a debtor to the whole Law, and argues a falling from Christ and the grace of the Gospel. For Antinomians contend that we are the same way freed from the moral Law, as it is a rule of righteousness, that we are freed from the Ceremonial Law; but we are freed, under the pain of a curse, and of falling from Christ, and the grace of the Gospel, from the literal observing of circumcision (Acts 15; Galatians 5:1-4), as the Ceremonial Law is a rule of righteousness. And if any should pretend the impulse and leading of the Spirit, not any letter of the Law, and thereupon be circumcised, and should renounce the Law of ceremonies as a rule of righteous walking as Antinomians profess they obey father and mother and love their brother, and abstain from idolatry, not because the Law is their rule, or the letter of the Law sways their conscience, but because the Spirit of Christ leads them; if (I say) any upon this Spirit would be circumcised, and eat the Passover, and sacrifice lambs and blood to God now, this Spirit is no Gospel Spirit, but the spirit of Satan leading such from Christ. If then we are not to obey the moral Law, as a rule of life and righteousness; but are freed from it the same way, that we are freed from the Ceremonial Law; then to love God and our brethren in any notion should be sin, as to be circumcised in any notion is to fall from Christ (Acts 15; Galatians 5).

Mr. Towne has a strange evasion for this, Page 138.

The Spirit is free, why will you control and rule it by the Law, whereas the nature of the Spirit is freely to conform the heart and life to the outward rule of the Law without the help of the Law, as a crooked thing is made straight according to the line and square, and not by them; and thus while a believer serves in newness of the Spirit, the Spirit freely and cheerfully moving him and inclining him to keep the Law which is merely passive, herein they do wickedly who hence take liberty to sin.

Answer 1. To do the will of God merely as commanded from the power of an outward commandment or precept in the word is but legal, and brings forth but mixed obedience or finer hypocrisy (says Saltmarsh) and Mr. Town says that it is to control the free Spirit, and to rule it by a Law; and Familists of new England (as the old Libertines) say all verbal covenants or covenants expressed in words are covenants of works and such as strike men off from Christ; and the whole letter of the Scripture holds forth a covenant of works; and it is dangerous to close with Christ in a promise of the Gospel; because the promise is an external created letter, and the Spirit is all; this is to make a battle and contrariety between the Word of God and the Gospel as written or preached, and the Spirit, whereas 1. that which the Scripture says, the Spirit of God says; the command and Gospel promise is the sense and mind of the holy Spirit; for the Scripture is quickened by the Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16), and the Word is the seed of God, and of the new birth (1 Peter 1:23), and mighty in operation, and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword (Hebrews 8:12), nor is it possible that any can believe the report of the Gospel, because it is the Gospel-report, but the arm of the Lord and the power of God in the Gospel must be revealed to them (Isaiah 53:1; John 12:37-39). For John says, the not receiving the report of the Gospel is judicial blindness and unbelief; when Joseph dares not oppress his brethren, and Job dares not lift his arm against the fatherless, because the sixth command says, you shall not murder; this is but finer hypocrisy in Joseph and Job, and a controlling of the free Spirit; better believe David (Psalm 119:6), Then shall I not be ashamed when I have a respect to all your commandments; no doubt the Lord concurred freely with Adam in the act of obeying God in abstaining from the fruit of the forbidden tree, if therefore Adam should obey God out of conscience to God's command (eat not) he should either control the free Lord in his working, which none in conscience can say, or then Adam must have been loosed from obedience to that command, if you eat, you shall die, as we are now loosed from the Law and the second death, though we break the Law, according to the Antinomian way; indeed, it is inconceivable how those that are under grace, do obey the Gospel enjoining faith, because the Lord Jesus commands them, but they must sin in so doing because they control the free Spirit of God, in not obeying for the free impulsion of the Spirit, but for the literal command of God; for sure to control the free Spirit is sin, and to obey for the letter of the command, to Antinomians, is to control the free Spirit; but it is blasphemy to say that there is a contrariety between the letter of the Lord's command either in Law or Gospel, and the free impulsion of the Spirit working in us by grace to will, do, and obey the command: for to obey the voice of the Lord in his Prophets and Apostles, and to obey the Lord himself are all one, in the word; but this is the error of old Anabaptists and Enthusiasts, to reject the word, and all teaching by men and the word, and to lean to the only immediate inspirations and free motions of the Holy Ghost; and to do or obey, for any other teaching is the way of legal and law-men led by the letter, not by the Spirit. If any obey or do God's will out of by-respects, or for fear of punishment or hope of reward, they do not God's will, nor do they obey from the power of an outward command, nor do they control the free Spirit, because the very letter and outward commandment enjoins inward, spiritual sincere obedience far from hypocrisy, and forbids in the sense of the letter of it, all servile respects and service of God for hire. Antinomians believe that the Law as the law does command men to obey for fear of hell, as a servant for beating obeys his master, or that it commands perfect obedience for hire of life eternal. I doubt not to say this is not far from blasphemy; for the Law is spiritual and holy, and good, and most just, it is a clean and undefiled Law (Psalm 119; Romans 7), is the express image of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2), then the Law as the Law can command no finer hypocrisy, no servile, no mercenary obedience for hire, for the Law cannot command sin; it is true Luther says, that the Law compels men to obey God, but he speaks of the accidental operation and fruit of the Law, because of our sinful disposition, and of the condemning Law as it works on our corruption, the holy Law commands no man to obey God wickedly.

2. The letter of the Gospel carries to us and holds forth free grace, opens the heart of Christ, calls on the weary and laden, to come to Christ, speaks heaven, glory, and the promise in the womb of it; though it be but the foolishness of preaching of men, yet it is the power of God to salvation, and there is such a majesty, so much of heaven, in the womb and heart of the word, that as I never read or heard the like of it, so I shall hate that religion that joins with popery, to call it Ink-divinity, and a letter, and a legal servile thing; so did the Libertines, in Calvin's time.

All tends to this, that we despise prophesying, neglect the word, commands, promises, covenant of grace and all these inferior means, and so praying, experience, conference, hearing, reading, sacraments, because without the Spirit these are lifeless and dead; for (says Towne) the means are passive, shall be also many restraints laid on the free Spirit of God. But so we should not sail nor traffic, we should not plow, nor till, we should not watch the city, nor build houses, because all these are fruitless without the influence of a blessing from heaven; if their meaning be that we are not to trust or rest on the means, the word, promises, covenant of grace, but to seek Christ himself in all these, it is good, but then to seek Christ in his own way, is not to control his Spirit, as Mr. Town fancies.

Now what Town does mean in saying that the Spirit freely conforms the heart and life to the outward rule of the law, without the help of the Law, is [reconstructed: hard] to conjecture; for if the meaning be that the Spirit needs the help of the Law to make us know our sins, to humble us and chase us to him who is the end of the Law: then surely the Spirit by the help of the Law works these in us, as God makes corn to grow by husbandry, rain, good soil and by nature his handmaid, no man can say God works here without the help of the Law; if the meaning be that the law of itself cannot convert a man to God, Antinomians father most falsely such a dream on us, in fact, the Gospel of itself cannot effectuate this without the Spirit: But if the Spirit conform us to the outward rule of the law; then must the law be yet a rule of our obedience: how are we then freed from the law as a rule of our obedience, if the Spirit led us back to this rule?

And Romans 3; Romans 7; Galatians 3; and 2 Corinthians 3, where the Apostle speaks of our freedom from the law, he ever speaks of our freedom from the law as it condemns, as it works wrath, as it involves us in a curse, as it can justify us, or give life; never as it does regulate, direct, teach, and lead us in the way of righteousness.

Mr. Towne, Page 9. What frees a believer from the curse, but because he is a new creature in Christ and is made personally, perfectly and everlastingly righteous? and the principal debt is obedience, the failing wherein binds ever to the curse and death. The new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) is sanctification.

That new creature is sanctification not justification (2 Corinthians 5:17). If any man be in Christ, that is, if he be justified, he is a new creature, that is, he is sanctified; else by the Antinomian gloss the meaning must be (if any man be justified in Christ, he is justified in Christ) Paul speaks not such nonsense.

It is true, we owe active obedience to the law as a debt, but that is the debt of absolutely perfect obedience; how shall it follow that Christ has loosed us from all debt of active obedience, because he has loosed us from a necessity of perfect active obedience under the pain of damnation; but the Law as in the hand of Jesus the Mediator, or the law [reconstructed: as] spiritualized and lustred with Gospel law and free grace, and drawn down to a covenant of free grace, requires not exact perfect obedience under pain of losing salvation; indeed, it requires obedience as the poor man is able to give it, by the grace of God that the man enter in the possession of life eternal; but that he may have ransom-right by merit and conquest to heaven, or to free justification in Christ, the law cannot crave either legal or Evangelical obedience: This then is no more a good consequence, than to say Christ has by his death freed us from death and suffering as they are caused by the Law, and satisfactory to justice, therefore Christ has freed us from death and sufferings in any respect. The Law requires perfect obedience as the Law; but the Law as evangelized requires not perfect obedience that we may be Evangelically justified.

Indeed, Paul shows what law it is that we are freed from (Romans 8:2): it is the law condemning and killing, called the law of sin and death, and he says expressly Christ died for this end (verse 4), that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Hence I argue, these that ought to fulfill the righteousness of the law, by walking after the Spirit, and mortifying the deeds of the flesh, are not freed from the law as a rule of righteousness, but are obliged by virtue of command, to this rule; for Paul proves that there is a commanding power enjoining righteous walking, above us, even when we are led by the Spirit. 1. Because we are obliged to mind the things of the Spirit, not of the flesh (verse 5). 2. To be spiritually minded is life, as to be carnally minded is death eternal (verse 6). 3. We are to be subject to the law; then we must be spiritually, not carnally minded; for the carnal mind cannot come under such subjection (verse 7). 4. We are to please God in our walking; then we cannot walk in the flesh (verse 8). 5. Because we are dead to sin (verses 9-10), we are not debtors, nor do we owe to the flesh any service (verse 10). But surely by a commandment, we owe service to Christ; again the Apostle (Galatians 5), treating of that common place of Christian liberty, especially moves the Antinomian doubt, and says (verse 13), Christian liberty is not licentiousness, nor an occasion to the flesh; and commands, that we serve one another in love (verse 13). Now here was a fit place, if Paul had been an Antinomian to say, but you are freed from the law as a rule of righteousness, and if I command you to love one another, I bring you back to bondage again, I clap you up in jail again and deliver you to your old keeper; no says he, But 1. this is liberty to serve one another in love; and it is an evangelical fulfilling of the law; for all the law (says he, verse 14) is fulfilled in this one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and (verse 16) there is an express command: walk in the Spirit. And (verse 18) it might be said then we may live as we like, we are free from all lords; it is true (says the Apostle, verse 18), you are not under the law to condemn you, but yet you are not lawless, you must be led by the Spirit, and (verse 19) flee the works of the flesh (verse 19), such as adultery, fornication, etc.; now the law expressly forbids the works of the flesh. And (Romans 7) the very Antinomian doctrine is anticipated, for (verse 6) But now we are delivered from the law; O then might some say, then we are free men; he answers not so; we are delivered from the law that we should serve God in a spiritual manner. But again (verse 7), Paul propounds the special objection of the carnal libertine: if we be freed from the law, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? This doubt arises both from verse 5 and verse 6. In verse 5 he said the motions of sin that were by the law, did work in our members sinful motions; he infers then it may appear to some that the law is a factor and agent for sin; is the law sin? By way of solicitation, (verse 6) we are not under the law: then it would appear that the removed law is not a dispensation to sin, and so the law is sin; if we be freed from it, we may sin. Paul says the law is not so removed and dead, but there is a good and holy use of the law; it remains as a rule of righteousness touching what we should flee, and what we should follow, thus the law is neither a factor for sin nor a dispensation to sin; because it discovers and forbids sin; for (says he) I had not known lust to be sin, but by the law. And this the Antinomian now moves; we are freed from the law being once justified; whatever we do, it is not against a law nor a rule, for we are under no law as a rule; and what we do, though to our sense and feeling it be adultery and a debt against the seventh commandment, yet truly in the sight of God, it is no more sin, than anything Christ does, is sin, we are as clean of it, before we commit it, as Christ or the glorified spirits in heaven, and therefore the law gives us a dispensation to do these things being justified, which the unjustified cannot do, but they must in doing it, sin, because the unjustified man is under the law as a rule of justice, which we are not under; and so we have a dispensation and an antedated one to sin, beforehand, but because we are under no rule of righteousness it is to us no sin. Take two servants, the master commands one of them, eat all fruit of the garden; but I forbid you, the fellow servant, under a penalty, eat not of this tree in the east end of the garden; to the other he gives no such charge or command; the former servant eating of the tree in the east transgresses not his master's command, because he is under no law forbidding, the other eating of that same tree is a transgressor, because he is under a forbidding command. So here, if the justified be not under the ten Commandments as a rule of life, though they swerve from all the ten, yet they sin not; for Saltmarsh says, where there is no law, there is no sin.

Mr. Towne says, Although the Spirit brings forth in the saints the fruits of holiness according to the law (Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9), yet without Christ we can do nothing, unless as the graft or branch we draw and derive life and sap from him which is the Spirit of faith; what if it be affirmed even in true sanctification the law of works is a mere passive thing, as the king's highway, which a Christian freely walks in, you have not a face to deny it (Psalm 119:31).

If the Spirit of Grace brings forth in the saints fruits of holiness according to the law, then is the law to the saints a rule of their walking, which the Antinomians deny. It is true, it may be the law to the Holy Spirit in his person acting immediately in the saints, is passive, for the law cannot work on the Holy Spirit; but that the saints are mere patients, and blocks in all their holy walking, is gross Libertinism, and makes God the author of sin, as before is said, and this way also the saints are freed from the Gospel, and the command of faith and all the promises no less than from the law; because neither law nor Gospel can be a rule to the person of the Holy Spirit, in his immediate actions. The Spirit is free in his operations, and subjects both law and Gospel to his gracious breathings, but is subject to none.

2. Mr. Towne and Antinomians would lay upon Protestant divines, that they teach the saints may walk in holiness without the grace of Christ, because they will have the saints under the law ruling and directing, and this law-ruling of itself gives no grace to obey; but this is a calumnious consequence. The promises of the Gospel in the letter give no grace to obey; the Spirit blows when and where he lists, and gives grace freely to the Gospel preached: yet we teach not that any can believe and obey the Gospel without the grace of Christ.

3. The law is so passive of itself to Christ, to Adam in the state of innocency, in this sense, that the law, as the law, commands obedience to both, but contains not any legal promise of giving grace to obey to either Adam or Christ, as the Gospel contains a promise of bestowing grace to believe in all the elect. Now if this be the cause why the justified are freed from the law as a rule of righteousness, because there is no legal promise made to them by which they are enabled to keep the law: then was Christ Jesus and Adam in his innocency freed from the law as a rule of righteousness, which is most absurd; for the law as the law commanded Christ to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), but so did it Adam. But show a legal promise made to Christ, by the law, that he should have grace to obey the law; indeed the Lord promised him the Spirit above measure, but this was no law-promise. So God created Adam according to his own image, with perfect innate strength and power to keep the law; but the law, as the law, made no promise to Adam, that he should be kept in obedience. But if this be called action, or activity in the law, to rule, guide, direct and command obedience as a rule, then the law is in no way passive; it is more than the king's highway. No way cries to the conscience of the traveler, this is the way, no king's road shows the traveler his error, as the law, in its directing, ruling and teaching power, breaks in upon the conscience, and declares to the justified man the way he should walk in, and convinces him of his unrighteousness, and daily faults.

Towne page 10. The law wraps every man in sin, for the least transgression; so that while a man remains a sinner, he necessarily abides under this fearful curse.

Still Antinomians betray their engine; if we say, even being justified we have no sin, we lie; and who can say I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from sin? And there is not a just man on earth, that sins not (1 John 1:10; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20). Then there cannot be a man on earth, but he is under the curse of God, but Antinomians say, and that truly, that the justified persons are freed from the curse, then they have no sin, or rather they cannot sin, by their arguing, for they will have the curse essentially and inseparably to follow sin, which is most false. Sin dwells in all the justified so long as they are here, but they are here delivered from the curse.

Our deliverance from misery and the bondage of the law is twofold, as our misery is twofold. 1. There is a guilt of sin, or our obligation to eternal wrath, and all the punishments of sin according to the order of justice by the law of God; the other misery is the blot of internal guilt of sin, by which sin dwells in us by nature, as a king and lord, tyrant, awing us by the law of sin.

In regard of the former Christ is our Saviour, by the merit of his death; in regard of the latter Christ is our Saviour, effectually, by giving us the Holy Spirit, and faith to lay hold on righteousness in Christ, and grace to walk holily before him.

In regard of the former, we are freely and perfectly justified and pardoned at once, from all sins, in our person and state, through the sense of this, and in regard of deliverance from temporal judgments and doubtings, and fears of eternal wrath, every day while we seek daily bread, we desire that our sins may be forgiven; nor is this prayer a temporary pattern that perished with Christ, as some perversely [claim]; for Peter after the Lord's ascension says to Simon Magus (Acts 8:22), pray God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

In regard [of the latter, we] are sanctified by degrees, [and] never [perfectly — the blot of] sin is removed in [this life, in regard] thereof, in justification; only sin dwells in us, while we are here.

In regard of the former misery, faith in Christ is the only way of grace, and way to get out of our bondage and misery; in regard of the latter, repentance and the whole trace of our new obedience, are the means to escape out of this misery; nor do we make acts of sanctification co-partners and joint causes or conditions in the work of justification; for this is from Christ alone, solely, immediately; as by looking on the brazen serpent only, the stung Israelites were cured. Nor does weeping or acts of men's obedience move the Lord to wash, justify and pardon our sins, but repentance and new obedience are means tending to our escaping out of the latter bondage; as the rising of the sun is a way to the full noon-light day; though we can attain to no meridian nor full noon day of sanctification, while the body of sin keeps lodging in us, in this life; but the Law of works is not so enwrapped and entwined together (as Mr. Towne dreams) that if a man lay hands on any, even the least link, he inevitably pulls the whole chain on himself, as he that is circumcised (Galatians 5) made himself debtor to the whole Law. For circumcision, not only in the matter of justification, but also of sanctification is now unlawful; so to repent and love the brethren, to obey our parents, as looking thereby for remission of sins, should be unlawful and a falling from Christ, but in the matter of sanctification, and of testifying our thankfulness to Christ for the work of our redemption, and as the way to the possession of the kingdom, they are not unlawful, but commanded as necessary duties, by which an entrance is ministered to us into the heavenly kingdom.

Indeed our holy walking, since it is no merit, but a fruit of grace, and a condition required in such as are saved, and have opportunity to honor Christ that way, takes not away the freedom of grace, for where the Scripture says, we are saved by grace, without works, as (Titus 3; Ephesians 2) salvation is spoken of there in regard of the title, right, claim the saints have to heaven excluding all merits of works; our obedience is not full, complete and perfect; only they are counted so, and accepted in Christ (Philippians 4:18; Hebrews 13:15-16; Colossians 3:17).

Mr. Towne answers with other Antinomians: The just and wise God who accepts every thing by due weight and measure as it is found to be, he does not, no, cannot account that which is but inchoate and partial for full and complete obedience; nor can it stand with justice to accept anything which is not first perfect, seeing that perfection and absoluteness is the ground of acceptance, both of our persons and performances; you must make both the tree and the fruit perfectly good before God.

2. What God (says he) has manifested to be detestable and accursed, that he cannot accept: but he has manifested by Scripture, that whatever is not absolutely perfect, is detestable and accursed (Galatians 3:10; Habakkuk 1:13; Romans 1:18). The proposition is grounded on the immutableness of God's nature, who cannot deny himself (James 1:18) and his exact justice, who will not suffer the loss of the least title of his righteousness (Matthew 5:18). God is no respecter of persons, his law inviolable, and can suffer no abatement.

God in justification accounts us righteous in Christ, and positively guiltless, as freed from obligation to eternal wrath, and clothed with Christ's righteousness; but he accounts us not non-sinners and free from indwelling sin, that should be an unjust account, for we are not so; but God accounts our works perfect only negatively, that is, such they are before God, as he will not enter in judgment with us for them, but graciously pardons the sins of those works, but God does not account these works positively worthy of life eternal, even in Christ, as he accounts our persons, far less does he judge them meritorious. Hence there is a twofold acceptance; one of good will to our persons in Christ; that is the good will of free election, by which he renders us accepted in his beloved: there is another acceptance of complacency, according to which God is said to love and reward our good works, even to a cup of cold water (John 14:21, 23; Matthew 10:42; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Hebrews 6:10) and that of free-grace, they are called perfect as perfection is opposed to hypocritical; but not perfect simply (Philippians 3:12) but the acceptance of our works in Christ is an acceptance inferior to the acceptance of our persons in justification. Hence God takes pleasure in those that fear him, because they fear him, not as though his love quoad affectum, in itself had a cause in the creature, or can grow or increase, or can admit of a change, but because he bestows the fruits of his love out of free-grace and a gracious promise, to our sincere walking, and this is rather the fruit of his love, amor quoad effectum, than God's love itself; all this proceeds from a gross mistake of the nature of justification.

I answer, 2. to that: That which is inchoate, sinfully defective, and incomplete, that the righteous and unchangeable God cannot account perfect and complete, or that which is sinfully defective, or that which is sinful, God cannot account not sinful; It is true, it were an erroneous and unjust account; now the proposition is true; but the assumption most false; the good works of the regenerate and justified are sinful. But God's accounting of them perfect puts no contradiction on them to account them not sinful: God accounts not David's adultery to be an act of chastity; This is the Papists' argument against the imputed righteousness of Christ, which Antinomians being utterly ignorant of the nature of justification, bring against us; the other part of the distinction is, That which is sinful and defective in itself, and inherently, or really and physically, that God cannot account perfect, that is, God cannot account it and the doer, legally free from obligation to eternal wrath, for the satisfaction of another, the surety of sinners, who has paid and suffered for it; that is most false, and should destroy the Protestant justification, when we say God accounts the good works of believers good and perfect, so as the imperfection and sin of them is removed; we mean not by removing of the sin of these works, the total annihilation of sin, in its essence root and branch, it dwells in us in its complete essence while we are here (Romans 7:17, 23; Proverbs 20:9; 1 John 1:8, 10) only the dominion, by sanctification, is abated, and the guilt or obligation to eternal wrath is removed in justification; and this argument may well be retorted: Whoever is a sinner, the righteous and immutable God whose judgment is according to truth, and cannot suffer the loss of the least title of his righteousness (Matthew 5:18), cannot esteem him just, and perfectly righteous: But all men even the regenerate, are sinners: No answer, no distinction can be accommodated to this argument, which may not be applied to their argument; for God is no less just, righteous, immutable, true, no respecter of persons, and his Law inviolable in his accounting of persons righteous and perfect, than in accounting of works righteous and perfect. Now that the fruits and the tree are both good, and simply perfect and all the works of the justified perfect in Christ, is a point of new theology very contrary, first to Scripture which says (James 3:2) in many things we offend all, (1 John 1:8) If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Antinomians say, John speaking of a mixed multitude, is to be meant to speak of the unregenerate mixed with the justified.

Answer. 1. John takes in himself. 2. He speaks of such as confess their sins and are pardoned, verse 9. (2) of such as have an Advocate in heaven, if they sin (chapter 2:1) and these are the justified, and regenerate, and (Proverbs 20:9) Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? He speaks not there of a mixed multitude, but sends a law-defiance to all mankind, justified, or not justified; indeed, (Ecclesiastes 7:20) There is not a just man on earth, that does good and sins, no; these words are so wisely framed, that they exclude not the justified in Christ, who undoubtedly do good, but they do not so good (says Solomon) but they sin; so Paul complains of sin dwelling in him (Romans 7). (2) Original sin after justification, to Antinomians must be no sin, as to Papists it is no sin, after baptism; (3) If our works be perfect in the sight of God, then we may be justified by our works; for Antinomians say if Christ esteems our works perfect, he may account us righteous for them and we may be said to be justified both by works and by grace, because it is free grace that the Lord accounts our works righteous; (4) We constantly deny that Christ by his death, has given to our good works a power of meriting heaven, but if God in Christ, counts them simply perfect, there is no reason to deny this, because our works are simply perfect by Antinomians' way; this is more Pharisaical than Popish justification.