An Apology for the True Christian Divinity / Being an explanation and vindication of the principles and doctrines of the people called Quakers

by Robert Barclay

§. XIX.

Prop. I.Proved. The first Thing to be proved is, That God hath given to every Man a Day or Time of Visitation, wherein it is possible for him to be saved. If we can prove that there is a Day and Time given, in which those might have been saved that actually perish, the Matter is done: For none deny but those that are saved have a Day of Visitation. Proof I.This then appears by the Regrets and Complaints which the Spirit of God throughout the whole Scriptures makes, even to those that did perish; Those that perish, had a Day of Mercy offered them.sharply reproving them, for that they did not accept of, nor close with God’s Visitation and Offer of Mercy to them. Thus the Lord expresses himself then first of all to Cain, Gen. iv. 6, 7. Instances. 1. Cain.And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy Countenance fallen? If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted? If thou dost not well, Sin lieth at the Door. This was said to Cain before he slew his Brother Abel, when the evil Seed began to tempt him, and work in his Heart; we see how God gave Warning to Cain in Season, and in the Day of his Visitation towards him, Acceptance and Remission if he did well: For this Interrogation, Shalt thou not be accepted? imports an Affirmative, Thou shalt be accepted, if thou dost well. So that if we may trust God Almighty, the Fountain of all Truth and Equity, it was possible in a Day, even for Cain to be accepted. Neither could God have proposed the doing of Good as a Condition, if he had not given Cain sufficient Strength, whereby he was capable to do Good. This the Lord himself also shews, even that he gave a Day of Visitation to the Old World, The Old World.Gen. vi. 3. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive in Man; for so it ought to be translated. This manifestly implies, that his Spirit did strive with Man, and doth strive with him for a Season, which Season expiring, God ceaseth to strive with him, in order to save him: For the Spirit of God cannot be said to strive with Man after the Day of his Visitation is expired; seeing it naturally, and without any Resistance, works its Effect then, to wit, continually to judge and condemn him. From this Day of Visitation, that God hath given to every One, is it, that he is said to wait to be gracious, Isa. xxx. 18. God is Long-suffering, and long waiting to be gracious unto all.—And to be Long-suffering, Exod. xxxiv. 6. Numb. xiv. 18. Psal. lxxxvi. 15. Jer. xv. 15. Here the Prophet Jeremy, in his Prayer, lays hold upon the Long-suffering of God; and in his expostulating with God, he shuts out the Objection of our Adversaries in the 18th Verse; Why is my Pain perpetual, and my Wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt thou altogether be unto me as a Liar, and as Waters that fail? Whereas, according to our Adversaries Opinion, the Pain of the most Part of Men is perpetual, and their Wound altogether incurable; yea, the Offer of the Gospel, and of Salvation unto them, is as a Lie, and as Waters that fail, being never intended to be of any Effect unto them. The Apostle Peter says expresly, that this Long-suffering of God waited in the Days of Noah for those of the Old World, 1 Pet. iii. 20. which, being compared with that of Gen. vi. 3. before-mentioned, doth sufficiently hold forth our Proposition. And that none may object that this Long-suffering or Striving of the Lord was not in order to save them, the same Apostle saith expresly, 2 Pet. iii. 15. In order to save them.That the Long-suffering of God is to be accounted Salvation; and with this Long-suffering, a little before in the 9th Verse, he couples, That God is not willing that any should perish. Where, taking him to be his own Interpreter (as he is most fit) he holdeth forth, That those to whom the Lord is Long-suffering, (which he declareth he was to the Wicked of the Old World, and is now to all, not willing that any should perish) they are to account this Long-suffering of God to them Salvation. Now, how or in what respect can they account it Salvation, if there be not so much as a Possibility of Salvation conveyed to them therein? For it were not Salvation to them, if they could not be saved by it. In this Matter Peter further refers to the Writings of Paul, holding forth this to have been the universal Doctrine. Where it is observable what he adds upon this Occasion, Some Things in Paul’s Epistles hard to be understood.how there are some Things in Paul’s Epistles hard to be understood, which the Unstable and Unlearned wrest to their own Destruction; insinuating plainly this of those Expressions in Paul’s Epistles, as Rom. ix. &c. which some, unlearned in spiritual Things, did make to contradict the Truth of God’s Long-suffering towards all, in which he willeth not any of them should perish, and in which they all may be saved. Would to God many had taken more Heed than they have done to this Advertisement! That Place of the Apostle Paul, which Peter seems here most particularly to hint at, doth much contribute also to clear the Matter, Rom. ii. 4. Despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness, and Forbearance, and Long-suffering, not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance? Paul speaketh here to the Unregenerate, and to the Wicked, who (in the following Verse he saith) Treasure up Wrath unto the Day of Wrath; and to such he commends the Riches of the Forbearance and Long-suffering of God; shewing that the Tendency of God’s Goodness leadeth to Repentance. How could it necessarily tend to lead them to Repentance, how could it be called Riches or Goodness to them, if there were not a Time wherein they might repent by it, and come to be Sharers of the Riches exhibited in it? From all which I thus argue.

Arg.God’s Spirit strives in the Wicked. If God plead with the Wicked, from the Possibility of their being accepted; if God’s Spirit strive in them for a Season, in order to save them, who afterwards perish; if he wait to be gracious unto them; if he be Long-suffering towards them; and if this Long-suffering be Salvation to them while it endureth, during which Time God willeth them not to perish, but exhibiteth to them the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance to lead them to Repentance; then there is a Day of Visitation wherein such might have been, or some such now may be saved, who have perished; and may perish, if they repent not:

But the first is true: Therefore also the last.