• false Witnesses of God, and should make him a • believe or obey (if they please) but also actually do De correp. will, believe, obey and perfevere, according to the grat. • Sentence of St. Austin; So God ordained the Life of all Angels and Men, that therein he might first manifest Pag. 799 how far Free-will could go ; And then what the Benefit of • his Grace, and the Judgment of Righteousness could do. cap. 1o. Octav. : ARTICLE II. Of Christ's Death. In like manner of the Death of Christ for all, < there are three Opinions. • The first, that Christ dyed for all Men, and by • his Death did redeem all mankind in God's ge• neral and conditional purpose of giving Salvation • for Christ's fake that dy'd, to all, upon condition • of Faith, depending on the free Cooperation of Men under Grace. • The second contrary to the first, that Christ did not Die for all, &c. nor did redeem all Mankind, &c. nor that God by any manner of means, or < upon any condition, did will or intend to give Salvation or Grace for Christ's fake, to any other, , save only the Elect, c. The • The third, supposing Christ's Death for all Men, ' and God's purpose conditioned with the general Grace of the Gospel-promises, adds the special • intention of Faith, touching the applying the benefit ' of Chrift's Death, by Grace more abounding, and * effectual, absolutely, certainly, and infallibly, only ' to the Elect; without any Prejudice, or any Dimi nution of the Will, and Grace common and fuf، ficient. : ARTICLE III. Of Free-will and Grace. • All agree that Free-will is not able to do any thing that is Good, without Grace preventing, • present and subsequent; so that it holds the be' ginning, middle and end in Conversion, and Faith, • and every good Work: but they disagree in this, that. • The first Opinion makes exciting Grace so to • be joined with the word Heard, and Understood, • and Meditated upon, that in some degree it is com' mon to all, who are willing to obey it. • The second strives to make Grace proper and • peculiar only to the Elect, and will not con• fess it to be in any manner of way common to all. • The third conjoins both fides, acknowledging Grace so to be common, and sufficient, being joined • with the Word, as withall to profess, 'tis special • and effectual to produce certainly Salvation, being proper to those, whom God out of his good • Pleasure hath Graciously elected in Chrift. : ARTICLE IV. Of the Manner of the Working of God's Grace. • The first Opinion makes Grace so to work in • Man, that it takes not away the Liberty of his Will • but preferves it; so that a Man may by Grace fo • so believe and obey, as that he may also by his • Free-will resist Grace. • The fecond makes the Works of Grace to be ir• resistable, so as wherever it comes, it doth immu• tably incline and draw the Mind to affent and obey. The third Opinion teacheth, Men may be so stirred • up and moved by Grace, that they may both ' obey that Grace calling and moving, if they attend ' thereto, and also may through their Free-wills, reMSS. Trin. fift God's Call and Motion, and that they too freColl. Cant. quently do resist it: but it adds further, that God, • when he will, and to whom he will, doth give • Grace so Abundant, or Powerful, or Congruent, • or fome other way effectual, that altho' the Will • in respect of its Liberty may refift, yet it doth • not refift, but certainly and infallibly obey: and • that God thus deals with those whom he hath • Elected in Christ, so far forth as is necessary to their Salvation. ARTICLE V. Of the Perseverance of Believers. • The first Opinion maketh all Believers, to be so • furnished with God's Grace, that they are able to persevere, if they will be as carefull as they • should be; that the fame Men also may possibly • fall away from Faith and Grace, through Negligence and Security. • The second denies Believers, to be able so to • fall away from Faith and God's Grace, as to • become in the State of Damnation, or Perish; • but such as shall once truly believe, shall always • so persevere in Faith and Grace, that at length ⚫ they may all attain Salvation. • The third with St. Augustine, makes believers, • through the infirmities of the Flesh, and Tempta⚫tions, to be able to depart from Faith and Grace, or likewise to fall away; but it adds, those be• lievers : lievers who are call'd according to purpose, and who are firmly rooted in a lively Faith, cannot • either Totally or Finally fall away, or perish; but by special and effectual Grace, so persevere in a true lively Faith, that at length they may be brought to Eternal Life. By this we may understand, what Dr. Overal's H. С. С. mind was in the Conference at Hampton Court: Pag. 41. And with him agrees Richard Thompson, for after 42. having spoken of Chrift, given to redeem and reconcile all unto God, and of Aids and Means given whereby Men may be actually reconciled, he adds, Octav. But Miserable had been Mankind, if even so they had DeIntercisi been left of God, for great is the Wickedness of Man, Fustitia. • and every imagination of his Heart is Evil continually. Pag 19. Therefore it must needs come to pass that either all • of themselves should despise those Riches of God's Goodness, or if any should make use of them, yet a ' while after, they would loath them again, except the fuperabundant Mercy of God had separated some to Himself, ' to whom he bad decreed from all Eternity, to afford • an effectual Calling, and final Perseverance in Grace ' received according to his purpose; others being passed • by, and left to the Aids of common Providence, whom ' in the End he would condemn for their Impenitence • and Unbelief... You now know this Opinion; and the Author is to be commended for his Integrity in opening the State of these Questions, and for coming on thus far nearer to the Truth, than the former did; in acknowledging, جو 1. That Christ Died for the Sins of the whole World. 2. That the Promise of the Gospel is Universal. 3. That Grace sufficient is given, common to all that hear the Gospel, to Believe and Obey it. 4. That God's Foreknowledge is extended not only to the fall of the first Man, but the infirmity of Thef. 3. 4. 5. of all Men in particular; whereupon for fome Men there was prepared by God, a more superabundant and effectual Grace than for others. His design is also Laudable, in that He endeavoureth to accord the first part of our seventeenth Article, concerning an absolute Predestination, with the latter part concerning the universal Promises : and the like good defire appears in our Divines that were at Dort, in their joint fuffrage concerning the second Article. But how Congruous and Happy this Conjunction can be, of two extremes, into a third, or how possible it is to accord those two parts of the Article without fome other supposition than hath yet been mentioned here, I cannot hope ever to see demonstrated. Nay I am perfuaded that these manifest Truths founding in every part of the New Testament; that Christ is given a Redeemer Universal; that the Promises of the Gospel are General; that the Spirit of Truth and Power goes with them, in the Preaching of them; are able being rightly weighed, utterly to overthrow all manner of frames whatsoever may be imagined, of the order of the Divine Predestination, which shall exclude the Divine Prescience, Proper, Prime and Univerfal, such as the fifth Opinion will difcover. For fince the Gofpel presupposeth, and acknowledgeth the fall of Mankind, and all to be Sinners, and taketh its occafion there-from; since it calleth all Men to re conciliation with God; commands Repentance and Mark. 16. Faith to all; promises Forgiveness and Life to all 15, 16. that believe in the Redeemer; threatneth Wrath and Acts. 17. Death, to abide upon all that believe not; and de31. John, 12. clareth that God will Judge the World by Jesus Christ, and by the Word of the Gospel: And fince God will Judge in Righteousness, Man as a reasonable Creature of having a Free-will; the Gospel, (I fay) cannot admit a Decree of Predestination to Life or Death, that shall be made upon contemplation of the 48. |