290 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [bOOIv III.
death were under the power of the second death, never to be deli- vered? Secondly, Whether it Le justice that those, or any of them, in whose stead Christ died, hearing their iniquities, should tliem- selves also die and bear their ov/n sins to eternity? Thirdly, What rule of equity is there, or example for it, that when the surety hath answered and made satisfaction to the utmost of what was required in the obligation wherein he was a surety, they for whom he was a surety should afterwards be proceeded against? Fourthly, Whether Christ hung upon the cross in the room or stead of rejDro- bates? Fifthly, Whether he underwent all that which was due unto them for whom he died? If not, how could he be said to die in their stead? If so, why are they not all delivered? I shall add no more but this, that to affirm Christ to die for all men is the readiest way to prove that he died for no man, in the sense Christians have hitherto believed, and to huiry poor souls into the bottom of So- cinian blasphemies.
CHAPTER XL
The last genei-al argument.
Arg. XVI. Our next argument is taken from some particular places of Scripture, clearly and distinctly in themselves holding out the truth of what we do affirm. Out of the great number of them I shall take a few to insist upon, and therewith to close our arguments.
1. The first that I shall begin withal is the first mentioning of Jesus Christ, and the first revelation of the mind of God concerning a discrimination between the people of Christ and his enemies: Gen. iii. 15, "I will put enmity between thee" (the serpent) " and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." By the seed of the woman is meant the whole body of the elect, Christ in the first place as the head, and all the rest as his members; by the seed of the serpent, the devil, with all the whole multitude of reprobates, making up the malig- nant state, in opposition to the kingdom and body of Jesus Christ.
That by the first part, or the seed of the woman, is meant Christ with all the elect, is most apparent; for they in whom all the things that are here foretold of the seed of the woman do concur, are the seed of the woman (for the properties of any thing do pro\e the thing itself.) But now in the elect, believers in and through Christ, are to be found all the properties of the seed of the woman; for, for them, in them, and by them, is the head of the serpent broken, and Satan trodden down under their feet, and the devil dis- a}ipointcd in his temptations, and the devil's agents frustrated in their undertakings. Principally and especially, this is spoken of
ARGIBIENTS AGAINST UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 291
Christ himself, collectively of his whole body, which heareth a con- tinual hatred to the serpent and his seed.
Secondly, By the seed of the serpent is meant all the reprobate, men of the world, impenitent, unbelievers. For,
First, The enmity of the serpent lives and exerciseth itself in them. They hate and oppose the seed of the woman ; they have a per- petual enmity with it; and every thing that is said of the seed of the serpent belongs properly to them.
Secondly, They are often so called in the Scripture : Matt. iii. 7, " O generation of vipers," or seed of the serpent ; so also chap, xxiii. 33. So Christ telleth the reprobate Pharisees, " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do," John viii. 44. So again, "Child of the devil," Acts xiii. 10,— that is, the seed of the serpent; for " he that committeth sin is of the devil," 1 John iii. 8.
These things being undeniable, we thus proceed : — Christ died for no more than God promised unto him that he should die for. But God did not promise him to all, as that he should die for them; for he did not promise the seed of the woman to the seed of the serpent, Christ to rejDrobates, but in the first word of him he promiseth an enmity against them. In sum, the seed of the woman died not for the seed of the serpent.
2. Matt. vii. 23, "I will profess unto them, I never knew you." Christ at the last day professeth to some he never knew them. Christ saith directly that he knoweth his own, whom he layeth down his life for, John x. 1 4-1 7. And surely he knows whom and what he hath bought. Were it not strange that Christ should die for them, and buy them that he will not own, but profess he never knew them? If they are " bought with a price," surely they are his own? 1 Cor. vi. 20. If Christ did so buy them, and lay out the price of his precious blood for them, and then at last deny that he ever knew them, might they not well reply, " Ah, Lord ! was not thy soul heavy unto death for our sakes? Didst thou not for us undergo that wrath that made thee sweat drops of blood? Didst thou not bathe thyself in thine own blood, that our blood might be spared? Didst thou not sanctify thyself to be an offering for us as well as for any of thy apostles? Was not thy precious blood, by stripes, by sweat, by nails, by thorns, by spear, poured out for us? Didst thou not remember us when thou hungest upon the cross? And now dost thou say, thou never knewest us? Good Lord, though we be unworthy sinners, yet thine own blood hath not deserved to be despised. Why is it that none can lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Is it not because thou diedst for them? And didst thou not do the same for us? Why, then, are we thus charged, thus rejected? Could not thy blood satisfy thy Father, but we ourselves must be punished? Could not justice content itself with that sacrifice, but we must now hear, ' Depart, I