e Christ not only died for him, and for the saints and thens in This might also be proved from many more scripture-testimonies, if it were at this season needful. All the fathers, so called, and doctors of the church, for the first four centuries, preached this doctrine; according to which they boldly held forth the gospel of Christ, and efficacy of his death; inviting and entreating the heathens to come and be The hea partakers of the benefits of it, showing them how vited to there was a door open for them all to be saved salvation; through Jesus Christ; not telling them that God destinated had predestinated any of them to damnation, or tion had made salvation impossible to them, by withholding power and grace, necessary to believe, from them. But of many of their sayings, which might be alleged, I shall only instance a few. Augustine, on the xcvth Psalm, saith, "The blood "of Christ is of so great worth, that it is of no less value than the whole world." none pre to damna Proof 4. monies of The testi the doctors and fathers of church, all. Prosper ad Gall. c. 9. "The redeemer of the world gave his blood for the world, and the the first world would not be redeemed, because the dark- that Christ ness did not receive the light. He that saith, died for "the Saviour was not crucified for the redemption "of the whole world, looks not to the virtue of the sacrament, but to the part of infidels; since the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the price of the whole world; from which redemption "they are strangers, who either delighting in their "captivity would not be redeemed, or after they were redeemed returned to the same servitude." The same Prosper, in his answer to Vicentius' first objection: "Seeing therefore because of one -common nature and cause in truth, undertaken The cause they remain in darkness. "by our Lord, all are rightly said to be redeem"ed, and nevertheless all are not brought out of "captivity; the property of redemption without "doubt belongeth to those from whom the prince "of this world is shut out, and now are not ves"sels of the devil, but members of Christ; whose "death was so bestowed upon mankind, that it belonged to the redemption of such who were "not to be regenerated. But so, that that which "was done by the example of one for all, might, "by a singular mystery, be celebrated in every "one. For the cup of immortality, which is made 66 up of our infirmity and the divine power, hath "indeed that in it which may profit all: but if it "be not drank, it doth not heal." 66 The author de vocat. gentium, lib. 11. cap. 6. "There is no cause to doubt but that our Lord "Jesus Christ died for sinners and wicked men. "And if there can be any found, who may be "said not to be of this number, Christ hath not "died for all; he made himself a redeemer for "the whole world." Chrysostom on John i. "If he enlightens every "man coming into the world, how comes it that "so many men remain without light? For all "do not so much as acknowledge Christ. How "then doth he enlighten every man? He illumi"nates indeed so far as in him is; but if any of "their own accord, closing the eyes of their mind, "will not direct their eyes unto the beams of this light, the cause that they remain in darkness is "not from the nature of the light, but through their "own malignity, who willingly have rendered them"selves unworthy of so great a gift. But why be"lieved they not? Because they would not: "Christ did his part." 99 The Arelatensian synod, held about the year 490, "Pronounced him accursed, who should say that "Christ hath not died for all, or that he would "not have all men to be saved." "The mystical Ambr. on Psalm cxviii. Serm. 8. "Sun of Righteousness is arisen to all; he came "to all; he suffered for all; and rose again for all : "and therefore he suffered, that he might take "away the sin of the world. But if any one be"lieve not in Christ, he robs himself of this general "benefit, even as if one by closing the windows "should hold out the sun-beams. The sun is not The sun"therefore not risen to all, because such an one out, heat "hath so robbed himself of its heat: but the sun "keeps its prerogative; it is such an one's im"prudence that he shuts himself out from the "common benefit of the light.' The same man, in his 11th book of Cain and Abel, cap. 13. saith, "Therefore he brought unto "all the means of health, that whosoever should perish, may ascribe to himself the causes of his "death, who would not be cured when he had "the remedy by which he might have escaped." beams shut not. §. IX. Seeing then that this doctrine of the universality of Christ's death is so certain and agreeable to the scripture-testimony, and to the sense of the purest antiquity, it may be wondered how so many, some whereof have been esteemed not only learned, but also pious, have been capable to fall into so and strange an error. But the gross cause of this doth evidently appear, in that the way and method by which the virtue and efficacy of his death is communicated to all men, hath not been rightly understood, or indeed hath been erroneously taught. The Pelagians, ascribing all to Pelagian man's will and nature, denied man to have any seed of sin conveyed to him from Adam. And the Semi-Pelagians, making grace as a gift following upon man's merit, or right improving of his nature, according to the known principle, Facienti quod in se est, Deus non denegat gratiam. errors. Extremes fallen into by some, God the author of making sin. This gave Augustine, Prosper, and some others occasion, labouring in opposition to these opinions, to magnify the grace of God, and paint out the corruptions of man's nature (as the proverb is of those that seek to make straight a crooked stick) to incline to the other extreme. So also the reformers, Luther and others, finding among other errors the strange expressions used by some of the Popish scholastics concerning free-will, and how much the tendency of their principles is to exalt man's nature and lessen God's grace, having all those sayings of Augustine and others for a pattern, through the like mistake run upon the same extreme: though afterwards the Lutherans, seeing how far Calvin and his followers drove this matter, (who, as a man of subtle and profound judgment, foreseeing where it would land, resolved above-board to assert that God had decreed the means as well as the end, and therefore had ordained men to sin, and excites them thereto, which he labours earnestly to defend,) and that there was no avoiding the making of God the author of sin, thereby received occasion to discern the falsity of this doctrine, and disclaimed it, as appears by the latter writings of Melancthon, and the Mompelgartensian conference, where LuEpit. Hist cas Osiander, one of the collocutors, terms it imEccl. Lu- pious; calls it a making God the author of sin, and an horrid and horrible blasphemy. Yet because none of those who have asserted this universal redemption since the reformation have given a clear, distinct, and satisfactory testimony how it is communicated to all, and so have fallen short of fully declaring the perfection of the gospel dispensation, others have been thereby the more strengthened in their errors; which I shall illustrate by one singular example. cæ Osiand. Cent. 16. 1. 4. cap 32. The Arminians, and other asserters of universal grace, use this as a chief argument. That which every man is bound to believe, is true: strants' ens the reproba Of this argument the other party deny the assumption, saying, That they who never heard of Christ, are not obliged to believe in him; and seeing Remonthe Remonstrants (as they are commonly called) opinion do generally themselves acknowledge, that without the strengthoutward knowledge of Christ there is no salvation, that precise degives the other party yet a stronger argument for cree of their precise decree of reprobation. For, say tion. they, seeing we all see really, and in effect, that God hath withheld from many generations, and yet from many nations, that knowledge which is absolutely needful to salvation, and so hath rendered it simply impossible unto them; why may he not as well withhold the grace necessary to make a saving application of that knowledge, where it is preached? For there is no ground to say, That this were injustice in God, or partiality, more than his leaving those others in utter ignorance; the one being but a withholding grace to apprehend the object of faith, the other a withdrawing the object itself. For answer to this, they are forced to draw a conclusion from their former hypothesis of Christ's dying for all, and God's mercy and justice, saying, That if these heathens, who live in these remote places, where the outward knowledge of Christ is not, did improve that common knowledge they have, to whom the outward creation is for an object of faith, by which they may gather that there is a God, then the Lord would, by some providence, either send an angel to tell them of Christ, or convey the scriptures to them, or bring them some way to an opportunity to meet with such as might inform them. Which, as it gives always too much to the power and strength of man's will and nature, and savours a little of Socinianism and Pelagianism, or at least |