deny in his conversion or regeneration; and yet in the mean time violate the bond of peace and charity by their uncivil rude behaviour, and scurrilous manner of speech and writing. But it is no marvel if they sow discord amongst Christian men, who bend the strength of their wits and pens to (nurse or) course a faction betwixt God's grace to his elect, and his goodness towards all; especially to whom he vouchsafeth the 174 use of his sacraments. Now to deny God's infinite How some goodness, or to cut the wings of his mercy so short as Christ. some men do, is to deny the Lord God, and that in a worse manner (for matter of opinion) than these men here in St. Jude can be convinced to have done. But do they likewise deny the Lord Christ? Surely they deny him to be the Lord Redeemer of mankind, by denying that he paid the ransom for ALL; especially for ALL that are baptized in his name. For if Christ did not pay the ransom for ALL that are baptized in his name, then is he not their Lord by right of redemption, as well as by right of creation; that is, then he is no otherwise Lord of them than he is of devils, for even of them he is Lord by right of creation; and if Christ be no otherwise Lord of such as are baptized in his name than he is of devils, then we are false witnesses of Christ, when we teach such as are baptized, such as shall be admitted unto baptism to believe in Christ as their Redeemer. Again, were it true that Christ did die for the elect only, then no man could be more sure that Christ did pay the ransom for his sins, and that he hath purchased the remission of his sins, than he is that he is in the number of the elect. Now no man is bound to believe, no man may safely believe, at his first admission into the church, that he is in the number of the elect; that is, in the number of such as shall not finally perish. If then we should teach men or children that Christ died only for the elect, we shall leave no possible mean between infidelity and presumption; for if we teach them that Christ died only for the elect, they must remain in the estate of infidels and unbelievers, until they believe that they are of the number of the elect. And if we teach them to begin their belief in Christ at this point, that they are of the number of the elect, then both they and we fall into the very dregs of their heresy whom St. Jude here saith were foreordained to condemnation. This was the very root of their ungodliness: and for this reason St. Jude, in the very next verse unto the text, puts the church (to whom he wrote his epistle) in remembrance of that which had been before delivered unto them; to wit, that albeit God had delivered all the people out of Egypt, yet afterwards he destroyed such as believed not, that is, such as continued not in their first belief. This then was the sum of the faith once delivered unto the saints; that they were all delivered by Christ's death from the slavery of Satan, and that this deliverance was as truly sealed unto them by the blood of Christ, as the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt was by the blood of the paschal lamb. Yet for all this they must not presume that they could not or should not finally perish, seeing God destroyed many in the wilderness which he had delivered out of Egypt. Our apostle then, if we follow his directions, puts us into the middle or safe way, between the contrary extremes of reprobation or election; and the mean or middle way is, that a great part of men, which have been baptized, are neither in the one state nor in the other, but as hath been before declared in the last foregoing chapters. Notes by the Editor of the folio edition, 1673. THE first note, relating to this 38th chapter, pag. 333, to those words of paragraph 2, "There is an English note upon this place, a very strange one."] This note is to be found in the impression of a quarto Bible, of a black English letter, printed at London, anno Domini 1598, by the deputies of Christopher Barker; and it runs thus-the text: Of old ordained to this condemnation. The note (e): "He con-175 firmeth their heart against the contemners of religion and apostates, shewing, that such men trouble not the church at all adventures, but are appointed thereunto by the determinate counsel of God." Thus it is in that edition; though in some Bibles with notes, since printed, some words or part of that note is omitted. The second note, to pag. 341, to those words in the seventh paragraph of this 38th chapter: "The party thus offending doth expel himself—"] The heathens had a notion very remarkable, that the gods were desirous to shew mercy, at least to be quiet, and not to have their justice provoked by the sins of men. Cœlum ipsum petimus stultitia, neque Per nostrum patimur scelus Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina, says Horace, Carm. I. iii. 38. It is a complaint usual with Salvian, in his books De Gubern. Dei, that though God were loath to punish, yet men did exigere et extorquere ut perirent"; and that they did vim facere, manus inferre pietati divinæ, et omni peccatorum scelere quasi omni telorum genere misericordiam Dei expugnare and yet for all this complained of God's scverity whereas, nos nobis, nos accusandi sumuss. Nam cum ea quibus torqueamur admittimus, ipsi tormentorum nostrorum Unusquisque nostrum ipse se punit, et ideo illud propheticum ad nos dicitur: Ecce omnes vos ignem accenditis, et vires præbetis flammæ, ingredimini in lucem ignis vestri et flammæ quam accendistist. Totum namque humanum genus hoc ordine in pœnam aternam ruit, quo scriptura memoravit. Primum enim accendit, postea vires ignibus præbet, postremo flammam ingreditur quam paravit. Quando igitur primum sibi homo æternum accendit ignem? sc. Cum primum peccare incipit. Quando autem vires ignibus præbet? Cum utique peccatis pec autores sumus· cata cumularit. Quando vero ignem æternum introibit? Quando irremediabilem jam omnium malorum summam crescentium delictorum iniquitate compleverit. Sicut Salvator noster ad Judæos ait, Implete mensuram patrum vestrorum -ս. And in his seventh book, Quicquid actum est, peccatis, non Deo ascribendum: quia recte illi rei factum ascribitur, quæ ut ita fieret, exegit. Nam et homicida cum a judice occiditur suo scelere punitur: et latro aut sacrilegus cum flammis exuritur, suis criminibus concrematur. This agrees with the rules of civil law; Qui causam dat damni ipsum damnum dedisse videtur. Qui sceleratum consilium cepit, exinde quodammodo sua mente punitus est. So the emperors Severus and Antoninus, (in lib. 34. D. de Jure Fisci:) Rescripserunt Asclepiadi; Ipse te huic pane subdidisti. Ex quo notant DD.: Eum qui delinquit, hoc ipso præsumi voluisse obligare sese ad pœnam ei delicto præstitutam. (See Macarius, hom. 4, where he cites Rom. ii. 5: Thou ...... treasurest up to thyself wrath ...... and hom. 12. interrogat. 5.) Yea sure, most certain it is, that every one which commits any sin, together with, yea in the very commission of that sin, enters an obligation, and forfeits himself to the very same punishment which the divine justice hath inflicted or awarded unto that sin, in the examples recorded in holy scripture. Achan bound himself to appear in the valley of Achor or Trouble, by the very taking of the wedge and clothes, which were indeed no other than the earnest of those wages which were there paid unto him. Ahab and Jezebel, by seizing on Naboth and his vineyard, forfeited their bloods to the dogs. Gehazi brought back the Syrian leprosy wrapt up in the raiment, &c. Even so! Holy, and true, and righteous, are thy judgments, O Lord: who would not fear thee, O King of nations, which hast ordained that an inordinate mind should not only breed and bring forth, but be a punishment, an executioner, a witness, and a judge unto itself? This last observation is (partly) St. Austin's; that which follows is a heathen's: Exemplo quodcumque malo committitur, ipsi u Matt. xxiii. 32. * Salv. lib. 7. pag. 166. The third note (taken out of the author's writings) relates to page 349. Some deny all baptismal grace; others grant that some grace is given to infants in baptism, but restrain it only to infants elect. So they expound the Church Catechism, which teaches children to believe," that as Christ redeemed them and all mankind, so the Holy Ghost doth sanctify them and all the elect people of God." But who can think that our church meant to teach children, at the first profession of their faith, to believe they were elect, that is, such as cannot finally perish? This was to teach them their faith backwards, to seek heaven by descending from it. St. Paul, nay, the angels that have kept their first estate almost six thousand years, could not reach higher. Yet would our church have every one, at his first profession of faith, believe that he is one of the elect people of God. Those right reverend fathers that composed the Catechism, and our holy mother that did authorize it, did in charity presume, that every one which would take upon him to expound that Catechism, or other principles of faith, should first know the distinction between elect, that is, such as cannot perish, and the elect people of God; or, between election unto God's ordinary grace, or means of salvation, and election unto glory. Every nation or company of men, when first converted from Gentilism to Christianity, became an elect people, a chosen generation; that is, they and their seed were made capable of baptism, received an interest in God's promises, &c., which heathens, whilst heathens, could not have. All of us are in baptism thus far sanctified, that we are made true members of the visible church, qualified for hearing the word, receiving the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, and all other benefits of Christ's priestly function that are committed to the dispensation of his ministers here on earth. Out of this, the reader may easily pick what is pertinent to that place, page 349. |