• Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come untothe marriage.' There is a crucified Saviour, with all faving benefits, for them to come to, feed upon, and partake of freely. See alfo Luke ii. 30, 31, Prov. ix. 2, 3, 4. Ifa. xxv. 6. To confirm this to be the true and defigned fenfe of the phrafe in queftion, compare the followingthree paffages of the fame treatife, giving the import of the fame text, Mark xvi. "Chrift hath provided a righteoufnefs and falvation, that is his workthat he hath done already. Now if ye will believe, and take him upon thefe terms that he is offered, you fhall be faved. This, fay, belongs to all men. This youhave thus expreffed in the gofpel in many places: If you believe, you fhall be faved; as it is Mark xvi. Go and preach the gofpel to every creature under heaven: he that will believe fhall be faved." Prefton of faith, p. 32. "You must firft have Chrift himfelf,before you can partake of those benefits by him and that I take to be themeaning of that in Mark xvi. Go preach the gofpel to every creature under heaven; he that believeth, and is baptized, thall be faved; that is, he that will believe, that Jefus Chrift is come in the flesh, and that he is offered to mankind for a Saviour, and will be baptized; that will give up himself to him,th will take his mark upon hir shall be faved." lbid. p 46. "Go and preach th gofpel to every creature go and tell every man unde heaven, that Chrift is of fered to him, he is freely given to him by God the Father; and there is no thing required of you bu that you marry him, nothing but to accept of him." Ibid. p. 75. Thus it appears that univerfal atonement or redemption is not taught here, neither by our author. But that the candid reader may be fatisfied as to his fentiments touching the queftion, for whomChrift died? let him weigh thefe two things. I. Our author puts a man's being perfuaded that Chrift died for him in particular in the definition of faving faith, and that as the laft and highest step of it. But Arminians, and other Univerfalifts, might as good put there a man's being perfuaded that he was created, or is preferved by Jefus Chrift; fince, in being perfuaded that Chrift died for him, he applies no more to himself than what, according to their principles, is common to all mankind, as in the cafe of creation and prefervation. Hear Grotius upon this head "Some, faith he, have here interpreted faith to be a perfuafion, whereby a man believes that Jefus died for him in particular, and to purchafe falvation all manner ways for him, or (what ith them is thefame thing) at he is elected; when, on e contrary, Paul in many laces teacheth, that Chrift ed for all men: and fuch faith as they talk of has ot in it any thing true or rofitable.' "Grotius apud Pol. fynop. crit. proleg. in pift. ad Rom. Thefe,whom his learned adversary here taxeth, are Proteftant AntiArminian divines. These were they who defined faith by fach a perfuafion, and not the Univerfalifts On the contrary, he argues againft that definition of faith from the doctrine of univerfal atonement or redemption. He rejects that definition of it, as, in his opinion, having nothing in it true, namely, according to the principles of thofe who gave ity to wit, that Chrift died, net for all and every man in particular, but for the elect only and as having nothing in it profitable; that being, according to his principles, the common privilege of all mankind. 2. He teacheth plainly throughout the book, that they were the elect, the chofen, or believers, whom Chrift reprefented, and o-. beyed and fuffered for. See among others, pages 34, 37, 85, 136, 137, 215. I fhall repeat only two paffages: the one, page 128. "Ac"cording to that eternal "and mutual agreement, "that was betwixt God "the Father and him, he put himself in the room and place of all the faith 46 "ful." The other in the firft fentence of his own preface, viz. "Jefus Chrift, "the fecond Adam, did, as 66 a common perfon, enter "into covenant with God "his Father for all the e"lect, (that is to fay, all "thofe that have or fhall "believe on his name) and " for them kept it." What can be more plain than that in the judgment of our au thor, they were the elect whom Jefus Chrift thefecond Adam entered into covenant with God for; that it was in the elect's room he put himself when he came actually to obey and fuffer; and that it was for the elect he kept that covenant, by doing and fuffering what was required of him as our redeemer? As for the defcription, or character, he gives of the elect, viz. that by the elect he understands all that have or shall believe in it he follows our Lord himself, John xvii. 20. Neither pray I for thefe ' alone, but for them alfo 'which fhallbelieveon me :" and fo doing he' is accompanied with orthodox divines. "Thus did the fins of all God's elect, or all true believers, (for of fuch, and only fuch, he there [viz. Ifa. liii. 6. fpeaks)----meet together upon the head of their common furety, the Lord Chrift." Brinfly's Mefites, p. 64. "The Father is well fatisfied with the undertakings of the Son, entered redeemer and furety, to pay the ranfom of believers." Pract.ufe of fa godly writert, Forafmuch as the holy fcripture speak eth to all in general, none of us ought to diftra: nimfelf, but believe that it doth belong particularly to himself (b). And to the end, that this point wherein In a little book called, The benefit of Chrift's death. ving knowledge tit. Warant to believe. "The invifible church is the whole numberof the elect that have been, are, or fhall be gathered intoone,under Chrift the head." Larg, cat. q. 64." Chrift's church where in tandeth only remiffion of fins, purchased by Chrift's blood to all them that believe." The conf. of faith ufed in Geneva, approved by the church of Scotland. Sect. 4. ult. But Arminians neither will nor can, in confiftency with their principles touching election and the falling away of believers, admit that defcription or character of the elect elfe they are widely miftaken by one of their own, who tells us, that,," Upon the confideration of his (viz. Chrift's) blood, as thed, he (to wit, God) decreed, that all thefe who fhouldbelieve in that redeemer, and perfevere in that faith, fhould through mercy and grace by him be made partakers of falvation.' Exam. of Tilen. p. 131. "Brought unto faith, and perfevere therein; this being the condition required in every one that is to be elected unto eternal life.' Ibid. p. 139. Behold the Arminians election; " They do utterly deny, that God did deftine, by an abfolute decree, to give Chrift a mediator only to the elect, and to give faith to them A LONE." Ibid. p. 149. As for Univerfalifts, not Arminians, "they contend, that the decree of the death of Chrift did go before the decree of election: and that God in fending of Chrift, had no refpect unto fome more than to others, but deftined Chrift for a faviour to all men alike." This account of their principles is given us by Turretine loc. 14. q. 14. th. 6. I leave it to the impartial reader to judge of the evident contrariety betwixt this and our author's words above-repeated. (b) Namely, the deed of gift and grant, or the offer of Chrift in the word, of which our author is all long fpeaking. And if there be any man to whom it doth not belong particularly, that man hath no warrant to believe on Jefus Chrift: and whofoever pretends to believe on him, without be lieving that the grant or offer belongs to himself particulary, does but act prefumptuously, as feeing no warrant he has to believe on Chrift, whatever others may have. wherein lyeth and confifteth the whole mystery of Our holy faith, may be understood the better; let as put the cafe, that fome good and holy king should aufe a proclamation to be made through his whole kingdom, by the found of a trumpet, that all rebels and banished men fhall fafely return home to their houfes; because that, at the fuit and desert of fome dear friend of theirs, it hath pleafed the king to pardon them: certainly, none of thefe rebels ought to doubt, but that he shall obtain true pardon for his rebellion; and fo return home, and live under the shadow of that gracious king. Even fo our good King, and Lord of heaven and earth, hath for the obedience and defert of our good brother Jesus Christ pardoned all our fins (i); and made a proclamation through But pardon of fin cannot be preached or proclaimed,unlefs, in the firft place, it be granted: even as the king's pardon muft be, before one can proclaim it to the rebels. (i) So far as he hath made the deed of gift and grant, or authentic gofpel-offer of the pardon of all our fins, as of all other faving benefits, in Chrift. Such a thing among men, is called the king's pardon; though, in That this is all that is the mean time, none have meant by pardon here, and the benefit of it, but fuch as not a formal perfonal parcome in,upon its being pro- don, is evident from the claimed, and accept of it! whole ftrain of the author's and why may not it be cal difcourfe upon it. In the led the king of heaven's par- propofalof thefimile, wheredon; The holy fcripture of this paffage is the appliwarrants this manner of ex- cation, he tells us, that afpreffion; And this is the ter it hath pleafed the king record, that God hath gi- (thus) to pardon the rebels, ven to us eternal life.' (they ought not to doubt but John v. 11.) in which life without queftion, the pardon of all our fins is included: Through this man is preacheduntoyou forgive nefs of fins,' Acts xii. 38. The preaching of the gofpel isthe proclaiming of pardon to condemned finners. they fhall obtain pardon: and in the following paragraph he brings in Neophy tus objecting, that in fuch a cafe an earthly king doth indeed intend to pardon all, but the king of heaven doth not fo; the which Evangelifta in his anfwer grants. M So Chap. II throughout the whole world (k), that every one of us may fafely return to God in Jefus Chrift: wher fore, I befeech you, make no doubt of it, but draw "near with a true heart, in full affurance of faith, Heb. x. 22. (1). Neo. O! But, Sir, in this fimilitude the cafe is not alike. For when the earthly king fendeth forth fuch a proclamation, it may be thought, that he doth indeed intend to pardon all; but it cannot be thought So that, for all this general pardon, the formal perfonal pardon remains to be obtained by the finner, namely, by his accepting of the pardon offered. And in the forefaid anfwer he expounds the pardon in queftion, of the Lord's of fering pardon generally to all. This, one would think may well be admitted as a fruit of Chrift's obedience and defert, without fuppofing an univerfal atonement or redemption. And to reftrain it to any fet of men whatfoever under heaven, is to reftrain the authentic gofpel-offer; of which before. (*) Col. i. 23. The gofpel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.' (1) Make no doubt of the pardon offered, or of the proclamation, bearing, that every one of us may fafely return to God in Chrift; but thereupon draw near to him in full affurance of faith. That there can be no faving faith, no acceptance with God, where there is any doubting,is what can hardly enter into the head of any fober Christian, if he is no under a grievous temptation in his own foul's cafe; nor is it in the leaft infinuate here. Nevertheless, doub ing mixt with faith is fi and difhonoureth God; an believers have ground to be humbled for it, and afham ed of it, before the Lord: and therefore the full affurance of faith is duty. The Papifts indeed contend ear. neftly for doubting and they know very well wherefore they fo do: for doubting being removed, and the affurance of faith in the promife of the gofpel brought into its room, their market is marred, their gain by indulgences, maffes, pilgrimages, &c. is gone and the fire of purgatoryextinguifhed. But, as Proteftant divines prove against them, the holyfcripture condemns it, Mat. xiv. 31. "O thou of little faith, wherefore didft thou doubt?' Luke xii. 29. Neither be ye of doubtful mind.' 1 Tim. i 8. Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.' 6 |