4. Not, then, to insist on any other particular effects of the love of God, as sanctification, justification, glorification, this in general may be affirmed, that there is not any one good thing whatsoever that is proper and peculiar to the covenant of grace, but it proceeds from a distinguishing love and an intention of God towards some only therein.
5. It is true that God inviteth many to repentance, and earnestly inviteth them, by the means of the word which he affords them, to turn from their evil ways, of whom all the individuals are not con- verted, as he dealt with the house of Israel (not all the world, but) those who had his word and ordinances, Ezek. xviii. 81, 32, affirming that it is not for his pleasure but for their sins that they die ; but that this manifests a universal love in God in the way spoken of, or any thing more tha,n the connection of repentance and acceptation with God, with his legal approbation of turning from sin, there is no matter of proof to evince.
6. Also, " he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," 2 Pet. iii. 9, even all those towards whom he exercises patience and long-suffering for that end; which, as the apostle there informs us, is " to us-ward," — that is, to believers, of whom he is speaking. Of them, also, it is said that " he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men," Lara. iii. 33, even his church, of which the prophet is speaking; although this also may be extended to all, God never afflicting or grieving men but it is for some other reason and cause than merely his own will, their destruc- tion being of themselves. David, indeed, tells us that " the Lord is
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gracious, and full of compassion; slow to auger, and of great mercy;" that " the Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works," Ps. cxlv. 8, 9 : but he tells us withal whom he intends by the "all" in this place, even the "generations which praise his works and declare his mighty acts," verse 4; those who " abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness, and sing of his righteousness," verse 7; or his " saints," as he expressly calls them, verse 10. The work he there mentions is the work of the kingdom of Christ over all, wherein the tender mercies of God are spread abroad in reference to them that do enjoy them. Not but that Godjs good to all, even to his whole creation, in the many unspeakable blessings of his pro- vidence, wherein he abounds towards them in all goodness, but that is not here intended. So that Mr B. hath fruitlessly from, these texts of Scripture endeavoured to prove a universality of love in God, in- consistent with his peculiar love, purpose, and intention of doing good, in the sense declared, to some only.
And thus have I briefly gone through this chapter, and by the way taken into consideration all the texts of Scripture which he there wrests to confirm his figment. On the goodness of the nature of God ; of the goodness and love to all which he shows, in great variety and several degrees, in the dispensation of his providence throughout the world ; of this universal love, and what it is in the sense of Mr B. and his companions; of its inconsistency with the immutability, prescience, omnipotence, fidelity, love, mercy, and faithfulness of God, — this being not a controversy peculiar to them with whom in this treatise I have to do, I shall not farther insist.
As I have in the preface to this discourse given an account of the rise and present state of Socinianism, so I thought in this place to have given the reader an account of the present state of the contro- versy about grace and free-will, and the death of Christ, with especial reference to the late management thereof amongst the Romanists, be- tween the Molinists and Jesuits on the one side, and the Jansenians or Bayans on the other, with the late ecclesiastical and political trans- actions in Italy, France, and Flaaders, in reference thereunto, with an account of the books lately written on the one side aud the other, and my thoughts of them; but finding this treatise grown utterly beyond my intention, I shall defer the execution of that design to some other opportunity, if God think good to continue my portion any longer in the land of the living.
The fourteenth chapter of the catechist is about the resuri^ection of Christ. What are the proper fruits of the resurrection of Christ, and the benefits we receive thereby, and upon what account our justifica- tion is ascribed thereto, — whether as the great and eminent confirma- tion of the doctrine he taught, or as the issue, pledge, and evidence of the accomplishment of the work of our salvation by his death, it being
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impossible for him to be detained thereby, — is not here discussed. That which appears to be the great design of this chapter, is to dis- prove Christ's raising himself by his own power; concerning which this is the question : —