Chapter 4

Another argument may be taken from the effect and fruit of the death of Christ for sanctification: if the blood of Jesus Christ washes, purges, cleanses, and sanctifies those for whom it was shed, or for whom he was a sacrifice, then certainly he died, shed his blood, or was a sacrifice only for those who in the outcome are washed, purged, cleansed, and sanctified. That not all are so, is most apparent — faith being the first principle of the heart's purification (Acts 15:9), and all people do not have faith (2 Thessalonians 3:2); it belongs to the elect of God (Titus 1:1). The consequence is undeniable and not to be evaded with any distinctions. This will now be made evident from the types of Christ's blood, and then by plain expressions concerning the thing itself. First, for the type: the sacrifice of expiation, which the apostle expressly compares with the sacrifice and oblation of Christ, is said in Hebrews 9:13 to legally sanctify those for whom it was a sacrifice — 'the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh.' Now what was done carnally and legally in the type must be spiritually effected in the antitype, the sacrifice of Christ, typified by those bloody sacrifices of beasts. The apostle asserts this in the following verse: 'How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?' The answer of Arminius and others — that the sacrifice sanctified not as offered but as sprinkled, and that the blood of Christ answers it not in respect of the oblation but of its application — is weak and unsatisfactory, for it only asserts the very division between oblation and application which we are now disproving, and proposes that same division to weaken our argument. We grant that the blood of Christ sanctifies in respect of the application of the good things procured by it, but we also prove that it is so applied to all for whom it was an oblation. Second, it is expressly affirmed in various places that the blood-shedding and death of our Savior does effect these things and was intended for that purpose. Romans 6:5-6: 'For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.' 2 Corinthians 1:20: all the promises of God are in him, yes, and in him Amen — confirmed, ratified, unchangeably established, and irrevocably made over to us, confirmed by the death of him the testator (Hebrews 9:16), who was the surety of this better testament (Hebrews 7:22). The summary of these promises is in Jeremiah 31:33, repeated by the apostle in Hebrews 8:10-12, setting out the nature of that covenant ratified in the blood of Jesus — which contains the summary description of all free grace toward us, both in sanctification (verses 10-11) and in justification (verse 12). Among these promises is that most famous one of circumcising our hearts and giving new hearts and spirits to us (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:26). So our whole sanctification, holiness, justification, and reconciliation to God are procured by and established to us with unchangeable promises in the death and blood-shedding of Christ. We have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14); by death he destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil, that he might free those who through fear of death were in bondage all their lives (Hebrews 2:14-15). Note especially Titus 2:14 and Ephesians 5:25-26, in both of which our cleansing and sanctification are assigned as the end and intention of Christ the worker, and therefore as the certain effect of his death and oblation. And adding only 1 Corinthians 1:30 — 'who of God is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption' — our sanctification, with all other effects of free grace, are the immediate procurement of the death of Christ. The sum of all that has been said: sanctification and holiness are the certain fruit and effect of the death of Christ in all those for whom he died; but not all and every person are partakers of this sanctification, purging, cleansing, and working of holiness; therefore Christ did not die for all and every person. It is altogether in vain to object that the death of Christ is not the sole cause of these things, since they are not actually wrought in any without the Spirit's working in them and faith apprehending the death of Christ. For while many total causes of the same kind cannot concur to produce the same effect, several causes of several kinds may concur to one effect and each be the sole cause in its own kind. The Spirit of God is the efficient cause of sanctification; faith is the instrumental cause, apprehending the righteousness of Christ; and these do not hinder the blood of Christ from being the sole moral and meritorious cause of these things — rather they presuppose it, for it is the sole foundation of the Spirit's operation and the sole cause of faith's existence. To illustrate: a captive is held by an enemy and someone pays a ransom for his deliverance, whereupon the captor grants a warrant to the jailer to unshackle the prisoner and clothe him — shall we say the ransom was not the cause, indeed the sole cause, of the prisoner's deliverance, merely because the jailer unlocked the shackles and the judge's warrant was brought? None of the latter would have occurred had not the ransom been paid; they are no less the effect of that ransom than the prisoner's own delivery. Similarly in our deliverance from the bondage of sin, the operation of the Spirit and the grace of God are causes in their own kinds, but these are no less the fruit and effect of the death of Christ than the deliverance wrought by them, so that the death of Christ is manifestly the one chief cause of the whole. Second, to remove this exception entirely along with all of its kind: faith itself is a proper and immediate fruit and procurement of the death of Christ for all those for whom he died. If this is true it utterly overthrows the general ransom and universal redemption; and if it is not true, this whole controversy may gladly be laid down, for whichever way it falls, free will must be established. This will be proved in the next argument.

Before coming to press the argument intended, a few things must first be premised.

Whatever is freely bestowed on us in and through Christ is entirely the procurement and merit of the death of Christ. Nothing is bestowed through him on those who are his which he has not purchased — the price of his purchase being his own blood (1 Corinthians 6). For the covenant between his Father and him, of making out all spiritual blessings to those given to him, was expressly founded on this condition: that he should make his soul an offering for sin (Isaiah 53).

It is conceded on all sides that faith is of such absolute and indispensable necessity to salvation — there being no substitute accepted for lack of it under the new covenant — that whatever God has done in his love by sending his Son, and whatever Christ has done or does in his offering and intercession for all or some, without faith in us is, in regard of the outcome, of no value, worth, or profit to us, but serves only to increase and aggravate condemnation. For whatever else may be accomplished, this is most certainly true: 'He that believes not shall be damned' (Mark 16:16). So if there is in ourselves a power of believing, and the act of it proceeds from that power and is our own, then certainly and undeniably it is in our power to make the love of God and the death of Christ effectual toward us or not, by believing. This is so evident that the most sharp-sighted of our adversaries have expressly confessed it, as I have declared elsewhere. This being then the absolute necessity of faith, it seems to me that the cause of faith must needs be the prime and principal cause of salvation — as being the cause of that without which the whole would not exist, and by which the whole exists and is effectual.

I shall give those who are of a contrary mind their choice and option, provided they will answer directly, categorically, and without strange and obscure distinctions: whether our Savior by his death and intercession (which we proved to be conjoined) did merit or procure faith for us, or not? Or, what amounts to the same thing: whether faith is a fruit and effect of the death of Christ or not? And according to their answer I will proceed. If they answer affirmatively — that it is, or that Christ did procure it by his death (provided they do not deliberately equivocate, speaking of faith as a doctrine rather than as a grace inhering in a particular person) — then I demand: whether Christ procured faith for all for whom he died, absolutely or upon some condition on their part to be fulfilled? If absolutely, then surely if he died for all, all must absolutely believe. For that which is absolutely procured for any person is absolutely his without doubt. But this is contrary to the apostle: 'All people do not have faith' and 'faith is of the elect of God' (Titus 1:1). If they say he procured faith for them to be bestowed conditionally, I ask that they state that condition plainly — without equivocation — so we may know what it is. Is it, as some say, 'if they do not resist the grace of God'? But what is it not to resist the grace of God? Is it not to obey it? And what is it to obey the grace of God? Is it not to believe? So the condition of faith is faith itself. Christ procured that they should believe upon condition that they believe. Can they assign a condition on our part required for faith that is not faith itself? If they can, let us hear it, and we will inquire whether that condition was procured by Christ or not. If not, then the cause of faith is still resolved into ourselves and Christ is not the author and finisher of it. If it was, then we are back where we were before and must ask whether that condition was procured absolutely or conditionally, and so on without end.

But second, if they will answer negatively — as, consistently with their own principles, they ought to do — and deny that faith is procured by the death of Christ, then:

First, they must maintain that it is an act of their own wills, so entirely their own as not to be worked in them by grace, and that it is wholly in their power to perform that spiritual act. Nothing being bestowed on us by free grace in and through Christ but what was procured by him in his death and oblation, as was declared before. This is, first, contrary to express scripture in very many places, which need not be recounted.

Second, it is contrary to the very nature of the new covenant, which does not merely prescribe and require its condition but effectually works it in all the covenant members (Jeremiah 31:32-33; Ezekiel 36:26; Hebrews 3:8).

Third, it is contrary to the advancement of the free grace of God — setting up the power of free will in the state of corrupted nature to the slighting and undervaluing of that grace.

Fourth, this doctrine is contrary to the received teaching of our natural depravity and inability toward anything good, and by inevitable consequence it overthrows that foundational article of original sin.

Fifth, it is contrary to right reason, which will never grant that a natural faculty can of itself, without some spiritual elevation, produce an act that is purely spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Second, the advocates of universal redemption must resolve almost the sole cause of our salvation ultimately into ourselves — placing it in our own power to make all that God and Christ do for that end effectual, or to frustrate their utmost endeavors toward it. For all that is done — whether in the Father's loving us and sending his Son to die for us, or in the Son's offering himself as an oblation in our place — is confessedly of no value or profitable issue unless we believe; and whether we will believe, Christ has neither effected nor procured by his death, nor can the Lord work it in us in such a way that the sole casting vote as to whether we will believe is not left to ourselves. Whether this is not to assign to ourselves the cause of our own happiness and to make us the chief builders of our own glory, let all judge. These things being premised, I will briefly prove what is denied — namely, that faith is procured for us by the death of Christ, and therefore consequently he did not die for all and every person, since not all people have faith; and this will be done by the following reasons.

The death of Jesus Christ purchased holiness and sanctification for us, as was proved at length in the eighth argument; but faith, as a grace of the Spirit dwelling in us, is formally a part of our sanctification and holiness; therefore he procured faith for us. The minor premise is most certain and not denied; the major was sufficiently confirmed in the foregoing argument, and I see no objection to the truth of the whole. If any should say that Christ may have procured some part of holiness for us — for we speak of parts, not degrees or measure — but not all, such as the sanctification of hope, love, meekness, and the like: first, what warrant is there for any such distinction between the graces of the Spirit, that some should be of Christ's purchasing and others of our own store? Second, are we more naturally inclined to believe and more naturally able than to love and hope? Where would such a claim be grounded?

All the fruits of election are purchased for us by Jesus Christ, for we are chosen in him (Ephesians 1:4) as the only cause and fountain of all those good things to which the Lord chooses us, for the praise of his glorious grace, that in all things he might have the preeminence. I need not be anxious about proving that the Lord Jesus is the only way and means by and through whom the Lord will certainly and actually bestow upon his elect all the fruits and effects and intentions of that love by which he chose them. But now faith is a fruit — a principal fruit — of our election, for the Apostle says we are chosen in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy (Ephesians 1:4), of which holiness, faith that purifies the heart is a principal share. Moreover, 'whom he predestinated, those he also called' (Romans 8:29) — that is, with that calling which is according to his purpose, effectually working faith in them by the mighty operation of his Spirit, according to the exceeding greatness of his power (Ephesians 1:19) — and so those who are ordained to eternal life believe (Acts 13:48), their ordination to eternal life being the fountain from which their faith flows; and so the election obtained it when the rest were hardened (Romans 11).

Third, all the blessings of the new covenant are procured and purchased by him in whom the promises thereof are ratified and to whom they are made, for all the good things of the covenant are contained in and exhibited by those promises, through the working of the Spirit of God. Concerning the promises of the covenant and their being confirmed in Christ and made to his own, as Galatians 3:16, what is to be understood in those expressions was declared before. Therefore all the good things of the covenant are the effects, fruits, and purchase of the death of Christ — he and all things for him being the substance and whole of it. That faith is among the good things of the new covenant is apparent from the description of it in Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10-12, and Ezekiel 36:26, with various other places.

Fourth, that without which it is utterly impossible that we should be saved must of necessity be procured by him by whom we are fully and effectually saved. Let those who can explain how he can be said to procure salvation fully and effectually for us while not being the author and purchaser of that without which it is utterly impossible to attain salvation. Now without faith it is utterly impossible that anyone should attain salvation (Hebrews 11:6; Mark 16:16). But Jesus Christ, according to his name, perfectly saves us (Matthew 1:21), procuring for us eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12), being able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him (Hebrews 7:25); and therefore faith also must fall within the compass of those things procured by him.

Fifth, Scripture is clear in express terms — and in terms so equivalent as to admit of no evasion. Philippians 1:29: 'It is given to us, on behalf of Christ, for Christ's sake, to believe on him.' Faith or belief is the gift, and Christ the procurer of it. 'God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him in heavenly places' (Ephesians 1:3). If faith is a spiritual blessing, it is bestowed on us in him and so also for his sake. If it is not a spiritual blessing, it is not worth contending about in this sense and way. So whatever direction others may look, I desire to look to Jesus 'as the author and finisher of our faith' (Hebrews 12:2). Various other reasons, arguments, and passages of Scripture could be added for the confirmation of this truth, but enough has been said; the sum of the whole reason may be reduced to this:

If the fruit and effect procured and worked by the death of Christ — absolutely, not depending on any condition in man to be fulfilled — is not common to all, then Christ did not die for all. But the premise is true, as is evident in the grace of faith: being procured by the death of Christ to be absolutely bestowed on those for whom he died, it is not common to all. Therefore our Savior did not die for all.

The eleventh argument is from the type to the antitype, or the thing typified, which will evidently restrict the offering of Christ to God's elect. The people of Israel were certainly, in all remarkable things that happened to them, typical of the church of God, as the Apostle shows at length in 1 Corinthians 10:11. Their institutions and ordinances were all representative of the spiritual things of the Gospel — their priests, altar, and sacrifices being nothing but shadows of the good things to come in Jesus Christ. Their Canaan was a type of heaven (Hebrews 4:3, 9), as also Jerusalem or Zion (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22). The whole people itself was a type of God's church — his elect, his chosen and called people — whence as they were called a holy people, a royal priesthood, so also in allusion to them are believers called the same (1 Peter 2:5, 9). Indeed, God's people are in innumerable places called his Israel, as is further expounded in Hebrews 8:8. A true Israelite is as much as a true believer (John 1:47), and 'he is a Jew who is so in the hidden man of the heart.' It need not be proved that the people of Israel — as delivered from bondage, preserved, brought near to God, and brought into Canaan — were typical of God's spiritual church, his elect and believers. Therefore we argue: those only are really and spiritually redeemed by Jesus Christ who were designated, signified, and typified by the people of Israel in their bodily and typical redemption, for no reason in the world can be rendered why some should be typified as participants in the same condition and benefits and not others. But by the people of the Jews — in their deliverance from Egypt, their bringing into Canaan, and all their ordinances and institutions — only the elect and church of God were typified, as was proved before. In truth it is the most senseless thing imaginable to suppose that the Jews were types for the entire world, or indeed for any but God's chosen ones, as is proved at length in Hebrews 9-10. Were the Jews and their ordinances types for the seven nations they destroyed and displaced in Canaan? Were they so to Egyptians, unbelievers, and haters of God and his Christ? We conclude therefore with certainty, from the proper proportion that ought to be observed between types and the things typified, that only the elect of God — his church and chosen ones — are redeemed by Jesus Christ.

Another argument comes from the effect of Christ's death in bringing about sanctification: if the blood of Jesus Christ washes, purges, cleanses, and sanctifies those for whom it was shed — those for whom He was a sacrifice — then He certainly died, shed His blood, and was a sacrifice only for those who are in the end actually washed, purged, cleansed, and sanctified. That not all people are so is plainly evident — faith being the first means by which the heart is purified (Acts 15:9), and not all people have faith (2 Thessalonians 3:2); it belongs to God's elect (Titus 1:1). This conclusion is undeniable and cannot be evaded by any distinctions. This will be shown first from the types of Christ's blood, and then from plain statements about the thing itself. First, the type: the sacrifice of atonement, which the apostle explicitly compares with Christ's sacrifice and offering, is said in Hebrews 9:13 to ceremonially sanctify those for whom it was a sacrifice — 'the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh.' What was done outwardly and ceremonially in the type must be accomplished spiritually in the reality — in Christ's sacrifice, which those animal sacrifices foreshadowed. The apostle asserts this in the following verse: 'How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?' The reply of Arminius and others — that the sacrifice sanctified not as it was offered but as it was applied, and that Christ's blood corresponds to the type not in the offering but in the application — is weak and unsatisfying. It merely asserts the very division between oblation and application that we are disproving, and uses that same division to weaken our argument. We grant that the blood of Christ sanctifies through the application of the good things it obtained, but we also demonstrate that it is applied to all for whom it was an offering. Second, it is explicitly stated in various places that the death and blood-shedding of our Savior does accomplish these things and was intended for that purpose. Romans 6:5-6: 'For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.' 2 Corinthians 1:20: all God's promises are 'Yes' in Christ, and through Him 'Amen' — confirmed, ratified, unchangeably established, and irrevocably granted to us, confirmed by the death of the testator (Hebrews 9:16), who was the guarantor of this better covenant (Hebrews 7:22). The sum of these promises is in Jeremiah 31:33, repeated by the apostle in Hebrews 8:10-12, setting out the nature of that covenant ratified in the blood of Jesus — which contains the full description of all free grace toward us, both in sanctification (verses 10-11) and in justification (verse 12). Among these promises is the most significant one of circumcising our hearts and giving new hearts and spirits to us (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:26). So our entire sanctification, holiness, justification, and reconciliation to God are obtained by and secured to us with unbreakable promises in the death and blood-shedding of Christ. We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14); through death He destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, so that He might free those who through fear of death were in bondage all their lives (Hebrews 2:14-15). Note especially Titus 2:14 and Ephesians 5:25-26, in both of which our cleansing and sanctification are stated as the goal and intention of Christ Himself, and therefore as the certain effect of His death and offering. Adding only 1 Corinthians 1:30 — 'who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption' — our sanctification, along with all other effects of free grace, is the direct result of Christ's death. To summarize everything said so far: sanctification and holiness are the certain fruit and effect of Christ's death in all those for whom He died; but not all and every person share in this sanctification, purging, cleansing, and working of holiness; therefore Christ did not die for all and every person. It is entirely pointless to object that Christ's death is not the sole cause of these things, since they are not actually worked in anyone without the Spirit's working and faith apprehending Christ's death. For while multiple total causes of the same kind cannot all produce the same effect together, several causes of different kinds may all contribute to one effect, each being the sole cause in its own category. The Spirit of God is the efficient cause of sanctification; faith is the instrumental cause, grasping the righteousness of Christ; and these do not prevent Christ's blood from being the sole moral and meritorious cause of these things — rather they presuppose it, since it is the sole foundation for the Spirit's operation and the sole cause of faith's existence. To illustrate: a captive is held by an enemy and someone pays a ransom for his release, whereupon the captor orders the jailer to unlock the prisoner and clothe him. Shall we say the ransom was not the cause — indeed the sole cause — of the prisoner's deliverance, simply because the jailer unlocked the chains and the judge's warrant was delivered? None of those things would have happened if the ransom had not been paid; they are no less the effect of that ransom than the prisoner's actual release. Similarly in our deliverance from the bondage of sin, the Spirit's working and the grace of God are causes in their own categories, but they are no less the fruit and effect of Christ's death than the deliverance they bring about — so Christ's death is clearly the chief cause of the whole. Second, to entirely remove this objection and all like it: faith itself is a proper and direct fruit obtained by Christ's death for all those for whom He died. If this is true, it completely overthrows the general ransom and universal redemption; and if it is not true, this entire controversy may gladly be set aside — for either way, free will must be established. This will be proved in the next argument.

Before pressing the intended argument, a few things must first be established.

Whatever is freely given to us in and through Christ is entirely the result of Christ's death. Nothing is given through Him to those who are His that He has not purchased — the price of His purchase being His own blood (1 Corinthians 6). For the covenant between His Father and Him, to make out all spiritual blessings to those given to Him, was expressly founded on this condition: that He would make His soul an offering for sin (Isaiah 53).

It is agreed on all sides that faith is so absolutely necessary for salvation — with no substitute accepted for the lack of it under the new covenant — that whatever God has done in His love by sending His Son, and whatever Christ has done or does in His offering and intercession for all or some, is without faith in us of no value, worth, or benefit to us, but only increases and intensifies condemnation. For whatever else may be said, this is certain: 'He who has not believed will be condemned' (Mark 16:16). So if there is in us a natural power to believe, and the act of believing comes from that power and is our own, then it is certainly and undeniably in our power to make God's love and Christ's death effective toward us or not, simply by believing. This is so obvious that even the sharpest of our opponents have explicitly admitted it, as I have noted elsewhere. Given this absolute necessity of faith, the cause of faith must be the chief and primary cause of salvation — since it is the cause of that without which the whole would not exist, and by which the whole exists and becomes effective.

I will give those of a contrary view their choice, provided they will answer directly, clearly, and without evasive distinctions: did our Savior by His death and intercession — which we proved are inseparably joined — merit or procure faith for us, or not? Or what amounts to the same thing: is faith a fruit and effect of Christ's death or not? I will proceed according to their answer. If they answer yes — that it is, or that Christ procured it by His death (provided they do not deliberately equivocate by speaking of faith as a doctrine rather than as a grace worked in a specific person) — then I ask: did Christ procure faith for all those for whom He died, absolutely or upon some condition they must fulfill? If absolutely, then if He died for all, all must absolutely believe. For what is absolutely obtained for any person is without question absolutely theirs. But this contradicts the apostle: 'Not all have faith' and faith 'belongs to the elect of God' (Titus 1:1). If they say He procured faith for them to be given conditionally, I ask that they state that condition plainly — without equivocation — so we may know what it is. Is it, as some say, 'if they do not resist the grace of God'? But what does it mean not to resist the grace of God? Is it not to obey it? And what is it to obey the grace of God? Is it not to believe? So the condition of faith is faith itself. Christ obtained that they would believe on condition that they believe. Can they name a condition on our part required for faith that is not faith itself? If they can, let us hear it, and we will ask whether that condition was procured by Christ or not. If not, then the cause of faith is still resolved into ourselves, and Christ is not the author and finisher of it. If it was, then we are back where we started and must ask whether that condition was procured absolutely or conditionally — and so on without end.

But second, if they answer no — as their own principles consistently require them to do — and deny that faith is procured by Christ's death, then:

First, they must maintain that faith is an act of our own wills, so entirely our own as not to be worked in us by grace, and that it is wholly in our power to perform this spiritual act. Nothing is given to us by free grace in and through Christ except what He procured by His death and offering, as was established earlier. This is, first, contrary to express Scripture in very many places, which need not be listed here.

Second, it is contrary to the very nature of the new covenant, which does not merely prescribe and require its condition but effectively works it in all covenant members (Jeremiah 31:32-33; Ezekiel 36:26; Hebrews 3:8).

Third, it is contrary to the promotion of God's free grace — elevating the power of free will in fallen human nature while diminishing and undervaluing that grace.

Fourth, this teaching contradicts the accepted doctrine of our natural depravity and inability toward anything good, and by inevitable consequence it undermines that foundational article of original sin.

Fifth, it is contrary to sound reason, which will never allow that a natural faculty can of itself, without some spiritual enabling, produce an act that is purely spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Second, the advocates of universal redemption must trace almost the entire cause of our salvation back to ourselves — placing in our own power the ability to make everything God and Christ do for that purpose effective, or to frustrate their greatest efforts toward it. For everything that is done — whether in the Father's loving us and sending His Son to die for us, or in the Son's offering Himself as a sacrifice in our place — is admittedly of no value and produces no good outcome unless we believe; and whether we will believe is something Christ has neither worked nor procured by His death, nor can the Lord work it in us in any way that does not leave the final deciding vote on whether we will believe entirely to ourselves. Whether this is not to assign to ourselves the cause of our own happiness and to make ourselves the chief architects of our own glory, let all judge. With these premises established, I will briefly prove what is denied — namely, that faith is procured for us by Christ's death, and therefore He did not die for all and every person, since not all people have faith — and this will be shown by the following reasons.

Christ's death purchased holiness and sanctification for us, as was proved at length in the eighth argument; but faith, as a grace of the Spirit dwelling within us, is formally a part of our sanctification and holiness; therefore He procured faith for us. The minor premise is entirely certain and not disputed; the major was sufficiently confirmed in the foregoing argument, and I see no valid objection to the conclusion. If someone should claim that Christ procured some parts of holiness for us — speaking of kinds, not degrees or measure — but not all, such as sanctification of hope, love, meekness, and the like: first, what basis exists for any such distinction among the graces of the Spirit, that some should be Christ's purchase and others our own natural endowment? Second, are we by nature more inclined and able to believe than to love and hope? On what ground could such a claim rest?

All the fruits of election are purchased for us by Jesus Christ, for we are chosen in Him (Ephesians 1:4) as the only cause and source of all those good things to which the Lord chooses us, for the praise of His glorious grace, so that in all things He might have first place. There is no need to prove that Jesus Christ is the only way and means by and through whom the Lord will certainly and actually bestow on His elect all the fruits, effects, and intentions of that love by which He chose them. Faith is a fruit — a principal fruit — of our election, for the apostle says we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy (Ephesians 1:4), and faith that purifies the heart is a principal part of that holiness. Moreover, 'those whom He predestined, He also called' (Romans 8:29) — that is, with a calling that is according to His purpose, effectively working faith in them by the mighty operation of His Spirit, according to the surpassing greatness of His power (Ephesians 1:19) — and so those who are ordained to eternal life believe (Acts 13:48), their ordination to eternal life being the source from which their faith flows; and the elect obtained it while the rest were hardened (Romans 11).

Third, all the blessings of the new covenant are procured and purchased by Him in whom its promises are ratified and to whom they are made, for all the good things of the covenant are contained in and communicated through those promises, by the working of God's Spirit. Regarding the promises of the covenant and their being confirmed in Christ and granted to His own, as in Galatians 3:16, what is meant by those expressions was explained earlier. Therefore all the good things of the covenant are the effects, fruits, and purchase of Christ's death — He Himself, with all things through Him, being the substance and whole of it. That faith is among the good things of the new covenant is clear from its description in Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10-12, and Ezekiel 36:26, along with various other passages.

Fourth, whatever is absolutely necessary for salvation must of necessity be procured by the One through whom we are fully and effectively saved. Let those who can explain how He can be said to procure salvation fully and effectively for us while not being the author and purchaser of that without which salvation cannot possibly be attained. Now without faith it is utterly impossible for anyone to attain salvation (Hebrews 11:6; Mark 16:16). But Jesus Christ, according to His name, perfectly saves us (Matthew 1:21), procuring for us eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12), and being able to save completely those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25); therefore faith also must be included among the things He procured.

Fifth, Scripture speaks in plain terms — and in terms so equivalent as to allow no escape. Philippians 1:29: 'For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.' Faith or belief is the gift, and Christ the one who procured it. 'God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ' (Ephesians 1:3). If faith is a spiritual blessing, it is given to us in Him and therefore for His sake. If it is not a spiritual blessing, then it is not worth debating in this sense. So whatever others may look to, I desire to look to Jesus 'as the author and perfecter of faith' (Hebrews 12:2). Various other reasons, arguments, and Scripture passages could be added to confirm this truth, but enough has been said; the whole argument may be summarized as follows:

If the fruit and effect procured and brought about by Christ's death — absolutely, without depending on any condition in man — is not shared by all, then Christ did not die for all. The premise is true, as is evident in the grace of faith: being procured by Christ's death to be absolutely given to those for whom He died, it is not common to all. Therefore our Savior did not die for all.

The eleventh argument comes from the type to the thing it represents, which clearly restricts the offering of Christ to God's elect. The people of Israel were certainly, in all the remarkable events that happened to them, a type of the church of God, as the apostle demonstrates at length in 1 Corinthians 10:11. Their institutions and ordinances all represented the spiritual realities of the Gospel — their priests, altar, and sacrifices being nothing but shadows of the good things to come in Jesus Christ. Their Canaan was a type of heaven (Hebrews 4:3, 9), as was Jerusalem or Zion (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22). The whole people itself was a type of God's church — His elect, His chosen and called people — from which parallel, just as they were called a holy people and a royal priesthood, so believers are likewise called the same (1 Peter 2:5, 9). Indeed, God's people are called His Israel in countless places, as further developed in Hebrews 8:8. A true Israelite is as much as a true believer (John 1:47), and 'he is a Jew who is one inwardly.' It hardly needs to be proved that the people of Israel — as delivered from bondage, preserved, brought near to God, and brought into Canaan — were types of God's spiritual church, His elect and believers. Therefore we argue: those only are truly and spiritually redeemed by Jesus Christ who were designated, signified, and typified by the people of Israel in their physical and typical redemption, for no reason can be given why some should be typified as sharing in the same condition and benefits and not others. But by the Jewish people — in their deliverance from Egypt, their entrance into Canaan, and all their ordinances and institutions — only the elect and church of God were typified, as was proved before. In truth, it is the most senseless thing imaginable to suppose that the Jews were types for the entire world, or for anyone other than God's chosen ones, as is proved at length in Hebrews 9-10. Were the Jews and their ordinances types for the seven nations they destroyed and displaced in Canaan? Were they types for Egyptians, unbelievers, and haters of God and His Christ? We therefore conclude with certainty, from the proper correspondence that ought to exist between types and the things they represent, that only the elect of God — His church and chosen ones — are redeemed by Jesus Christ.