Thus both the Mercy and Justice of God are established, and the Will and Strength of Man are brought down and rejected; his Condemnation is made to be of himself, and his Salvation only to depend upon God. Also, by these Positions, two great Objections, which often are brought against this Doctrine, are well solved.
Object.The first is deduced from those Places of Scripture, wherein God seems precisely to have decreed and predestinated some to Salvation; and for that End, to have ordained certain Means, which fall not out to others; as in the Calling of Abraham, David, and others, and in the Conversion of Paul; for these being numbered among such to whom this Prevalency is given, the Objection is easily loosed.
Predestination to Salvation, and Pre-ordination to Destruction, answered.The second is drawn from those Places, wherein God seems to have ordained some wicked Persons to Destruction; and therefore to have obdured their Hearts to force them unto great Sins, and to have raised them up, that he might shew in them his Power, who, if they be numbered amongst those Men whose Day of Visitation is passed over, that Objection is also solved; as will more evidently appear to any One that will make a particular Application of those Things, which I at this Time, for Brevity’s Sake, thought meet to pass over.
§. 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.
§. XX.
Proof 3.Lastly, That there is a Day of Visitation given to the Wicked, wherein they might have been saved, and which being expired, they are shut out from Salvation, Christ’s Lamentation over Jerusalem.appears evidently by Christ’s Lamentation over Jerusalem, expressed in three sundry Places, Matth. xxiii. 37. Luke xiii. 34. and xix. 41, 42. And when he was come near, he beheld the City, and wept over it, saying; If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy Day, the Things that belong to thy Peace; but now they are hid from thine Eyes! Than which nothing can be said more evident to prove our Doctrine. For, First, he insinuates that there was a Day wherein the Inhabitants of Jerusalem might have known those Things that belonged to their Peace. Secondly, That during that Day he was willing to have gathered them, even as an Hen gathereth her Chickens. A familiar Example, yet very significative in this Case; which shews that the Offer of Salvation made unto them was not in vain on his Part, but as really, and with as great Chearfulness and Willingness, as an Hen gathereth her Chickens. Such as is the Love and Care of the Hen toward her Brood, such is the Care of Christ to gather lost Men and Women, to redeem them out of their corrupt and degenerate State. Thirdly, That because they refused, the Things belonging to their Peace were hid from their Eyes. Why were they hid? Because ye would not suffer me to gather you; ye would not see those Things that were good for you, in the Season of God’s Love towards you; and therefore now, that Day being expired, ye cannot see them: And, for a farther judgment, God suffers you to be hardened in Unbelief.
God hardens, when.So it is, after real Offers of Mercy and Salvation rejected, that Men’s Hearts are hardened, and not before. Thus that Saying is verified, To him that hath, shall be given; and from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath. This may seem a Riddle, yet it is according to this Doctrine easily solved. He hath not, because he hath lost the Season of using it, and so to him it is now as nothing; for Christ uses this Expression, Matth. xxv. 26. The one Talent was sufficient.upon the Occasion of the taking the one Talent from the slothful Servant, and giving it to him that was diligent; which Talent was no ways insufficient of itself, but of the same Nature with those given to the others; and therefore the Lord had Reason to exact the Profit of it proportionably, as well as from the rest: So, I say, it is after the rejecting of the Day of Visitation, that the Judgment of Obduration is inflicted upon Men and Women, as Christ pronounceth it upon the Jews out of Isa. vi. 9. which all the four Evangelists make Mention of, Matth. xiii. 14. Mark iv. 12. Luke viii. 10. John xii. 40. and last of all the Apostle Paul, after he had made Offer of the Gospel of Salvation to the Jews at Rome, pronounceth the same, Acts xxviii. 26. after that some believed not; Well spake the Holy Ghost, by Isaiah the Prophet, unto our Fathers, saying, Go unto this People, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the Heart of this People is waxed gross, and their Ears are dull of hearing, and their Eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their Eyes, and hear with their Ears, and understand with their Hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them. So it appears, that God would have them to see, but they closed their Eyes; and therefore they are justly hardened. Cyril. Alex.Of this Matter Cyrillus Alexandrinus upon John, Lib. 6. Cap. 21. speaks well, answering to this Objection. But some may say, If Christ be come into the World, that those that see may be blinded, their Blindness is not imputed unto them; but it rather seems that Christ is the Cause of their Blindness, who saith, He is come into the World, that those that see may be blinded. But, saith he, they speak not rationally, who object these Things unto God, and are not afraid to call him the Author of Evil. For, as the sensible Sun is carried upon our Horizon, that it may communicate the Gift of its Clearness unto all, and make its Light shine upon all; The Cause of Man’s remaining in Darkness, the closing of his Eyes.yet if any one close his Eye-lids, or willingly turn himself from the Sun, refusing the Benefit of its Light, he wants its Illumination, and remains in Darkness, not through the Defect of the Sun, but through his own Fault. So that the true Sun, who came to enlighten those that sat in Darkness, and in the Region of the Shadow of Death, visited the Earth for this Cause, that he might communicate unto all the Gift of Knowledge and Grace, and illuminate the inward Eyes of all by a spiritual Splendor: But many reject the Gift of this heavenly Light freely given to them, and have closed the Eyes of their Minds, lest so excellent an Illumination or Irradiation of the eternal Light should shine unto them. It is not then through Defect of the true Sun that they are blinded, but only through their own Iniquity and Hardness; for, as the wise Man saith, Wisdom ii. Their Wickedness hath blinded them.