should have one share of it, another a second, and another a third; but whosoever hath an interest in them, hath a title to the whole benefit procured by them, and he who hath no title to the whole, hath no share at all in the benefit of his sufferings. (iii.) His blood was shed to establish the new covenant; now that is equally established to all who perform the conditions of it,--faith, repentance, and sincere obedience,-and belongs to none who never do perform them.

It hath been represented as a great absurdity to think that Christ died equally for Judas and for Peter; but without any shew of reason that I can discern. For did not the soul of Judas as much proceed from the Father of spirits,' as the soul of Peter? Was it not equally made after God's image? Did it come out of his hands more unworthy of mercy than the soul of Peter? Were not both born in equal circumstances as to God's favour, in equal need of a Saviour, and equally capable of redemption? Why therefore, antecedently to any good or evil they had done, should this Saviour die more or rather for the one, than for the other?

Secondly. When we say "Christ died for all," we do not mean that he died for all, or any, absolutely, or without any conditions to be performed on their part to interest them in the blessings of his passion; but only that he died for all conditionally, or so as that they should be made partakers of the blessings of his salutary passion upon condition of their faith, repentance, and sincere obedience to the laws of the new covenant; to all such he hath promised 'they shall never perish. These are the means he hath appointed to prevent their ruin, and render them partakers of that pardon and salvation which he hath purchased by his precious blood: and he that wills that they should use the means by him appointed for these ends, can never be unwilling they should obtain these ends. And as he died for all conditionally, so is it certain that he died for none otherwise, that is, he died not with intention to confer the blessings of his salutary passion on any but true believers, true penitents, and such as would obey the laws of his new covenant: it being impossible in the nature of the thing, that he should die to save the unbeliever, (that is, the person who will not own him as his Saviour,) or to reconcile God to the impenitent and the unbeliever, (that is, to them who still continue in their sins and their rebellions against God ;) to deny this is to say,

"he died to confer the blessings of his salutary passion on the unbeliever, the impenitent, and disobedient," when of the first he saith, He shall not see life, but is condemned already;'" of the impenitent, that he shall surely perish; and he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance of all that obey not his gospel.” And therefore,

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Thirdly. When we say "Christ died for all," we do not mean that he hath purchased actual pardon, or reconciliation, or life for all; this being in effect to say, "that he procured an actual remission of sins to unbelievers, and actually reconciled God to the impenitent and disobedient;" which is impossible. For what Christ hath actually purchased for all, all may justly claim, and God cannot equitably deny them; whereas he both can and will deny pardon to the unbeliever, and never will or can be reconciled to the impenitent and disobedient, whilst they contiuue so to be. He only by his death hath put all men in a capacity of being justified and pardoned, and so of being reconciled to, and having peace with, God, upon their turning to God, and having faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; the death of Christ having rendered it consistent with the justice and the wisdom of God, with the honour of his majesty, and with the ends of his government, to pardon the penitent believer. Hence the apostles were sent both to Jew and Gentile, 'to preach repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; that they might receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among those that are sanctified through faith in him." To illustrate this by a plain similitude:Suppose a prince, whose subjects had rebelled against him and so lay under the sentence of condemnation, should, through the intercession of his beloved son, promise pardon to as many of them as would profess a sorrow for their guilt, ask párdon in his son's name, and promise to be obedient subjects for the future. Would this procure an actual pardon to any of them, till they had performed these conditions? Or would it ever do it for them who wilfully refused, or even neglected, to perform them? So here Christ, by his death, obtained of his Father a new covenant, in which he promises to pardon and be reconciled to all, upon their faith and repentance; and salvation, upon their perse

a John iii. 18..36.

b Luke xiii, 3. 5. c 2 Thess. i. 8. d Acts xx. 21.

e Acts xxvi. 18.

verance in well-doing. But he hath not, by his death, procured an actual pardon, reconciliation, or salvation to any who have not performed these conditions; nor can they lay any just claim unto them by virtue of Christ's dying for them. And yet upon this gross mistake are founded many of the arguments produced by the SYNOD OF DORT, against this general extent of our Lord's death, and so they need no farther answer.

And, lastly, they who say that "Christ, by offering up himself to the death, procured, to the elect at least, not only remission, but also faith and repentance," seem to me to talk as men ignorant of the nature of Christ, of the nature of a covenant, of the proper effect of sacrifices, and also of the nature of faith and repentance.

(1.) As men ignorant of the nature of Christ. For what need had Christ to purchase the faith and repentance of his elect of his Father, seeing he could not want power sufficient over the hearts of men to work faith and repentance in them? Nor could he, who had the greatest love to them, want will to do it. + (2.) Of the nature of a covenant, which is a mutual stipulation, requiring something to be done by one party that he may receive something from another. And therefore to make Christ procure both the promise and the condition, by the same act and passion, is to turn the conditional covenant into one that is absolute. For what is procured already for me, God is in equity bound to give me without my doing any thing to procure it: since otherwise it can be only procured upon condition that I do something to obtain it; and so is not procured for me, if I neglect to perform that condition.

(3.) As persons ignorant of the nature of a piacular victim, or a sacrifice of expiation and atonement, whose proper effect is to 'make atonement for, and so remove, the punishment, by procuring forgiveness of the sin committed; it being not intended to procure any other benefit otherwise than by removal of that guilt which might obstruct the collation of it. It therefore ought to be observed, that no sacrifice for sin, as such, no not that of our Lord Jesus Christ, can sanctify a soul, or endow it with that divine nature, that inward purity and likeness to God, and all those other christian virtues which alone make us capable of the enjoyment of an holy God, and meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light. A pardon will make a man rectus in curiâ, free from the condemnation of the law,' but it cannot make him

of a clean heart, or renew in him a right spirit. It will justify him from past sins, but cannot sanctify him, or make him holy, and therefore cannot make him happy; that cleanseth only from the guilt, not from the habits and dominion, of sin: And hence sanctification is only to be ascribed to the blood of Christ by way of motive and engagement, but to the Spirit of Christ as the efficient cause; and all those christian virtues which are comprised in it are styled, 'the fruits of the good Spirit.' Christ therefore, by his death alone, cannot be said to have procured that faith which purifies the heart,' or that repentance which renews the mind, the will, and the affections, but only to remove that.guilt which doth obstruct God's favour to us in giving of his Holy Spirit to sanctify us, and give us strong encouragements and powerful motives to faith and repentance. What Christ doth further for us is not performed purely by his death for us on the cross, but by his intercession in the heavens for true penitent believers.

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Lastly. This notion seems repugnant to the nature of faith, which is an assent to a divine testimony, and of repentance, which is a conversion of the will from sin to God. Now if Christ hath absolutely procured this faith and repentance for the elect, they cannot be conditions to be performed on their part, but to be given on God's part; for what Christ hath absolutely purchased for them by his death, God is obliged in equity to confer on them absolutely and so again, the new covenant, in respect of them, is not conditional but absolute. Moreover, either God gives this supposed purchase of faith and repentance to the elect by a peculiar, divine, and irresistible assistance, or only by such aid and grace as is common to them with others who are not elected. If by the latter only, then is there nothing purchased more for them than for others with them, because nothing more is given to them than what is common to them with others. If by an assistance which is peculiar to them and cannot be resisted by them, then are not any others to be charged with guilt for not repenting and believing, because it is impossible that they should do so without that special and irresistible assistance which God will not vouchsafe unto them: and so they do not believe and repent, not because they will not do what they could do, but because they cannot do it were they never so willing. Since then, upon this supposition, it is impossible they should believe and repent for

whom Christ never purchased faith and repentance, it cannot be their crime that they did not what it was impossible for them to do. In a word, faith being an assent to a divine testimony upon sufficient evidence, without which evidence we cannot assent to it; and when we have it, we cannot but assent; to say "this faith requires on God's part a special, divine, and irresistible assistance proper to the elect," is to excuse all others from believing, as having no sufficient evidence to do so, although the gospel is as well revealed to them as it is to the elect.

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CHAP. I.

I. NOW this assertion, thus explained, hath this great advantage above the contrary doctrine which restrains the intended benefit of our Saviour's passion to the elect,—that whereas there is not one word in the scripture declaring that our Lord died only for a few, or intimating that he died for the elect only, the scriptures are very many, clear, and express, which teach, that God would have all men to be saved; and that he is the Saviour of all men; being long-suffering towards them; because he is not willing any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance, and by repentance to salvation; that the saving grace of God hath appeared to all men; teaching them, denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world; expecting the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us;* that as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life; that if he died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who lived might not live to themselves, but to him that died for them;' that he gave himself a ransom for all, and by the grace of God tasted death for every man'" in all which words this doctrine is contained in express terms. Now it is the doctrine of all Protestants, that the

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