7. That which is spoken according to the judgment of charity on our parts must not always be exactly squared and made answerable to verity in respect of them of whom any thing is affirmed. For the rectitude of our judgment, it sufficeth that we proceed according to the rules of judging that are given us; for what is out of our cogni- zance, Avhether that answer to our judgments or no, belongs not to us. Thus, oftentimes the apostles in the Scriptures write unto men, and term them "holy," "saints," yea, "elected ;" but from thence positively to conclude that they were all so indeed, we have no warrant. So Peter, 1 Epist. i. 1 , 2, calls all the strangers to whom he wrote, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, " elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father," etc.; and yet that I have any warrant to conclude, de fide, that all were such, none
ANSWERS TO ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 811
dare affirm. So Paul tells the Tliessalonians, the whole church to Avhom he -wrote, that he " knew their election of God/' 1 Thess. i. 4 ; 2 Thess. ii. 13, he blesseth God "who had chosen them to salva- tion." Now, did not Paul make this judgment of them by the rule of charity? according as he affirms in another place, "It is meet for me to think so of you all," Phil. i. 7 ; and can it, ought it, hence to be infallibly concluded that they w^ere all elected? If some of these should be found to fall away from the gospel and to have I^erished, would an argument from thence be valid that the elect might perish? would we not presently answer, that they were said to be elected according to the judgment of charity, not that they were so indeed? And why is not this answer as sufficient and satis- fying when it is given to the objection taken from the perishing of some who were said to be redeemed merely in the judgment of charity, as when they were said to be elected ?
8. The infallible connection, according to God's purpose and will, of faith and salvation, which is frequently the thing intended in gospel proposals, must be considered. The Lord hath in his counsel established it, and revealed in his word, that there is an indissoluble bond between these two things, so that " he that believeth shall be saved," Mark xvi. 16 ; which, indeed, is the substance of the gospel, in the outward promulgation thereof. This is the testimony of God, that eternal life is in his Son ; which whoso believeth, he sets to his seal that God is true; he who believes not doing Avhat in him lieth to make God a liar, 1 John v. 9-11. Now, this connection of the means and the end, faith and life, is the only thing which is signified and held out to innumerable to whom tlie gospel is preached, all the commands, proffers, and promises that are made unto them inti- mating no more than this Avill of God, that believers shall certainly be saved ; which is an unquestionable divine verity and a sufficient olject for supernatural faith to rest upon, and which being not closed with is a sufficient cause of damnation: John viii. 24, " If ye be- lieve not that I am he" (that is, " the way, the truth, and the life"), " ye shall die in your sins."
It is a vain imagination of some, that when the command and promise of believing are made out to any man, though he be of the number of them that shall certainly perish, yet the Lord hath a conditional will of his salvation, and intends that he shall be saved, on condition that he will believe; when the condition lieth not at all in the will of God, which is always absolute, but is only between the things to them proposed, as was before declared. And those poor deluded things, who will be standing upon their own legs before they are well able to crawl, and might justly be persuaded to hold by men of more strength, do exceedingly betray their own conceited ignorance, when, with great pomp, they hold out the broken pieces of
312 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK IV.
an old Aiininian sophism with acclamations of grace to this new discovery (for so they think of all that is new to them), — namely, " As is God's proffer, so is his intention ; but he calls to all to believe and be saved : therefore he intends it to all." For, —
First, God doth not proffer life to all upon the condition of faith, passing by a great part of mankind without any such proffer made to them at all.
Secondly, If by God's 2^'>'offer they understand his command and promise, who told them that these things were declarative of his will and purpose or intention? He commands Pharaoh to let his people go; but did he intend he should so do according to his com- mand? had he not foretold that he would so order things that he should not let them go? I thought always that God's commands and promises had revealed our duty, and not his purpose; what God would have us to do, and not what he will do. His promises, indeed, as particularly applied, hold out his mind to the j^ersons to whom they are applied; but as indefinitely proposed, they reveal no other intention of God but what we before discovered, which concerns things, not persons, even his determinate purpose infallibly to con- nect faith and salvation.