420 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK IV.
by all. Now, such assurance may all believers have tliat Christ died for them, with an intention and purpose to save their souls. For instance: all believers may draw out the tnith of the word and the faith created in their hearts into this conclusion: — [First,^ "Christ died for all believers," — that is, all who choose him and rest upon him as an all-sufficient Saviom-; not that he died for them as such, but that all such are of those for whom he died. He died not for believers as believers, though he died for all believers ; but for all the elect as elect, who, by the benefit of his death, do become believers, and so obtain assurance that he died for them. [As] for such of those that are elected who are not yet believers, though Christ died for them, yet we deny that they can have any assurance of it whilst they con- tinue such. You suppose it a foul contradiction, if a man should be said to have assurance that Christ died for him in particular, and yet continue an unbeliever. This first proposition, as in the beginning laid down, is true in the word, in innumerable places. Secondly, The heart of a believer, in the witness of the Spirit, assumes, " But I believe in Christ;" that is, "I choose him for my Saviour, cast and roll myself on him alone for salvation, and give up myself unto him, to be disposed of unto mercy in his own way."" Of the truth of this proposition in the heart of a believer, and the infallibility of it, there are also many testimonies in the word, as is known to all ; from whence the conclusion is, " Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ died for me in particular, with an intention and purpose to save me."
This is such a collection as all believers, and none but believers, can justly make, so that it is peculiar to them alone; and unto those only is this treasure of consolation to be imparted. The suf- ficiency of the death of Christ for the saving of every one, without exception, that comes unto him, is enough to fill all the invitations and entreaties of the gospel unto sinners, to induce them to believe; which when, by the grace of Christ, they do, closing with the pro- mise, the fore-mentioned infallible assurance of the intention and purpose of Christ to redeem them by his death, Matt. i. 21, is made known unto them. Now, whether this be not a better bottom and foundation for a man to assure his soul unto rest and peace upon, than that reasoning which our opposers in this business must, suitably to their own principles, lay as a common stone, — namely, " Christ died for all men ; I am a man : therefore Christ died for me," — let any man judge ; especially considering that indeed the first proposi- tion is absolutely false, and the conclusion, if it could be true, yet, according to their persuasion, can be no more ground of consolation than Adam's fall. All this is spoken not as though either one opi- nion or othir were able of itself to give consolation, M'hich God alone, in the sovereignty of his free grace, can and doth create ; but only to
OBJECTIONS AND TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 421
show what principles are suitable to the means whereby he worketh on and towards his elect.
4. The drawing of gospel consolation from the death of Christ, as held out to be effectual towards the elect only, for whom alone he died, should close up our discourse; but considering, first, how abundantly .this hath been done by divers eminent and faithful labourers in the vineyard of the Lord already ; secondly, how it is the daily task of the preachers of the gospel to make it out to the people of God ; thirdly, how it would caiTy me out, besides my pur- pose, to speak of things in a. jjractical, so atheological way, having de-, signed this discourse to be purely jiolemical; and, fourthly, that such things are no more expected nor welcome to wise and learned men, in controversies of this nature, than knotty, crabbed, scholastic ob- jections in popular sermons and doctrinal discourses, intended merely for edification, — I shall not proceed therein. Only, for a close, I desire the reader to peruse that one place, E,om. viii. 32-34; and I make no doubt but that he will, if not infected with the leaven of the error opposed, conclude with me, that if there be any comfort, any con- solation, any assurance, any rest, any peace, any joy, any refresh- ment, any exultation of spirit, to be obtained here below, it is all to be had in the blood of Jesus long since shed, and his intercession still continued ; as both are united and appropriated to the elect of God, by the precious effects and fruits of them both drawn to believe and preserved in believing, to the obtaining of an immortal crown of glory, that shall not fade away.
Mof^ 6o(pOj Qiui, Bjo, IriGoi) Xficrou jj d6t,a, i!g Toug a/Sjvag. 'A/j,^v.
SOME FEW TESTBIONIES OF THE ANCIENTS.
I. The confession of the holy Church of Smyrna, a little after the commenda- tion given it by the Holy Ghost, Rev. ii. 9, upon the martyrdom of Polycarpus: —