set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.' When I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.' And, Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it.' They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear; yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit.' Which passages, with many others of the like importance that occur, do imply the large extent of God's merciful intentions, and the competency of the means which God affords for the salvation of men; that he wants no affection or inclination to save them; that he neglects no means proper for effecting it; that he draws them into the way leading thither by serious and earnest invitation, directs them by needful light and instruction, excites them by powerful arguments and persuasions; and as St. Ambrose speaketh, Quod in Deo fuit, ostendit omnibus, quod omnes voluit liberare: God showed to all, that what was in him, he did will to deliver (or save) all men.' Whence he may truly and properly be called the Benefactor and Saviour, even of those who by their wilful malice or neglect do not obtain salvation. For in respect to the same favors which are exhibited and tendered to them, he is the Saviour of those, who by hearkening to God's call, and complying with God's design; by well using the means vouchsafed, and performing the conditions required, do finally attain salvation.

If it be said that these transactions do refer only to God's own people, or to those only, unto whom God pleased to dispense especial revelations of truth and overtures of mercy; that we therefore cannot thence infer any thing concerning the general extent of God's design, or the virtue of Christ's performances in respect to all mankind; we may to this suggestion rejoin, that by observing the manner of God's proceedings toward them, unto whom he openly declareth his mind and will, we may reasonably collect how he standeth affected toward others, and by what rules, or on what accounts, he

dealeth with them; taking in the analogy of reason, and parity or disparity of the case. As to God's affection, it is the same every where, agreeable to that nature, which inclineth him to be "good to all,' and 'merciful over all his creatures,' as the psalmist tells us; unto which disposition his providence yields attestation ; for οὐκ ἀμάρτυρον ἀφῆκεν ἑαυτὸν, ἀγαθοποιῶν, “ he did not leave himself without testimony, doing good to all,' as St. Paul tells us; although he doth not dispense his favors in the same method, or discover his meaning by the same light, or call all men to him with the same voice and language.

Neither was mankind ever left destitute of that divine grace, which, as the good writer de Vocatione Gentium saith, never denied itself to any ages, with the same virtue, in different measure, with an unchangeable counsel, and multiform operation.' So in one place; and in another, There was always,' saith he, dispensed to all men a certain measure of instruction from above, which, although it came from a more occult and sparing grace, did yet suffice to some for remedy, to all for testimony.'

Comparing the different states of men, we may substitute with St. Paul, for the law of revelation engraved on tables, the law of nature written in men's hearts; for prophetical instructions, the dictates of reason; for audible admonitions and reproofs, secret whispers of grace, and checks of conscience; for extraordinary instances of divine power, the ordinary works of the creation, (by which God's eternal divinity and power are discernible;') for the special and occasional influences of providence, the common and continual expressions of divine beneficence; then allowing for the disparity (as to measure of evidence and efficacy) in these things; and as to the rest, the case is the same. If one part hath means more clear and forcible, yet those which are granted to the other are not void of use or virtue; by them all men in all places 'may, seek God, if haply they may feel him and find him;' yea may, as St. Paul implieth, be able to know God, and induced to serve him; to thank him, and to glorify him in some measure; in a measure answerable to such light and strength; no more doth God require, for no more will he reckon with them

BAR.

VOL. IV.

H

If

'their helps be deemed more low and scanty, their duty in proportion is less high, and their account will be more easy. Enough certainly they have to excuse God from misprision of not having provided competently for them, to render them, if they do not well use and improve it, inexcusable; and what they have is an effect of God's mercy procured and purchased by their Saviour. But of this point we may have occasion afterward to say more; I shall now only add, that this suggestion, well considered, may afford another argument to con-firm our doctrine; which is this.

10. If our Lord be the Saviour of all those to whom God's truth is declared, and his mercy offered; or, if he be the Saviour of all the members of the visible church; particularly if he be the Saviour of those, who among these, rejecting the overtures and means of grace, or by disobedience abusing them, shall in the event fail of being saved, then is he the Saviour of all men. But our Lord is the Saviour of those persons; and therefore he is the Saviour of all men.' The assumption we assayed to show in the last argument; and many express testi-. monies of Scripture before mentioned establish it; the common style of Scripture doth imply it, when in the apostolical writings to all the visibly faithful indifferently the relation to Christ as their Saviour is assigned, an interest in all his saving performances is supposed, the title of σωζόμενοι and σεσωσμένοι (with others equivalent, of justified, sanctified, regenerated, quickened, &c.) are attributed. And in our text God is said to be the Saviour chiefly Tv OTV, of the faithful; which word in its common acception denotes all visible members of the Christian communion. And for its confirmation we adjoin ; the Apostles at first, and the church ever since after them (except some heterodox people of late) have professed readily to confer holy baptism, and therein to dispense remission of sins, together with other evangelical graces and privileges, to every man professing his faith in Christ, and resolution to observe Christ's law, on this supposition, that Christ is the Saviour of all such persons, and by his salutary passion hath purchased that remission for them; although the dispensers of these graces could not discern what decrees God in his secret

providence had passed on them, or what the event should be as to their final state; yea although according to the judgment of prudence they could not but conceive that all such should not be saved, but that many of them should be of those, who (as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaketh) would draw back unto perdition,' who (as St. Peter implies some might and would do) would orget the purgation which they had received of their sins. That in thus doing the church proceeds on a persuasion that Christ is truly the Saviour of all its visible members, duly admitted and incorporated thereinto, the thing itself plainly signifies; the tenor of its practice makes palpable; the forms of speech used in its holy administrations (of prayers, of sacraments, of exhortations) do suppose or express. For how can each member singly be asserted in holy baptism to be washed from his sins, and sanctified to God, and made regenerate or adopted into the number of God's children, and made partaker of Christ's death? How can thanksgiving in the common name, in most general terms, be offered up for Christ's saving performances? or the holy bread and cup be imparted to each communicant as symbols and pledges of Christ's charity and mercy toward him? How can every Christian be instigated to obedience in gratitude to Christ; and those who transgress Christ's laws, upbraided for their ingratitude toward him ; their rejecting, or renouncing, despising, or abusing him and his salvation? How can such things be said and done with any truth or consistency; yea without forgery and mockery, if every baptised Christian hath not an interest in our Lord's performances; if Christ be the Saviour only of an uncertain and unknown part in the church? This consideration of the church's practice hath made even the most vehement assertors of St. Austin's doctrine, (strained to the highest pitch,) in the more ancient and modest times, fully to acknowlege this position; that Christ is the Redeemer of every member of the visible church, as appears by this remarkable decree of the council of Valentia in France, [Anno 855.] (consisting of the bishops of three provinces, favorers of Godscalcus's opinions.) We also do believe it most firmly to be held, that all the multitude of the faithful, being regenerated by water and the Holy Spirit, and

hereby truly incorporated into the church, and according to the apostolical doctrine baptised into the death of Christ, is by his blood washed from their sins.' Because there could be no true regeneration, unless there were made also a true redemption; since in the sacraments of the church there is nothing empty, (or vain,) nothing ludifactory: but all thoroughly true, and supported by its own very truth and sincerity. Yet that out of the very company of believers and the redeemed, some are eternally saved, because by God's grace they faithfully abide in their redemption, bearing the Lord's speech in their hearts, 'He that perseveres to the end shall be saved;' and that others, because they would not abide in the salvation of the faith, which they at first received, and did rather choose to frustrate the grace of redemption by evil doctrine or life, than to keep it, do nowise arrive to the plenitude of salvation, and to the perception of eternal beatitude. It is then a catholic and true doctrine, that at least Christ is a Saviour of all appearing Christians; and supposing the truth thereof, I say that by consequence he is also the Saviour of all men. For it appeareth thence, that the design of our Saviour's performances did not flow from, or was not grounded on any special love, or any absolute decree concerning those persons who in event shall be saved; since according to that supposition it extendeth to many others; wherefore it proceeded from God's natural goodness, and common kind affection toward mankind; from the compassion of a gracious Creator toward his miserable creature, whence all men are concerned and interested therein. Why God's merciful intentions were not explicitly declared and propounded to Socrates and Epictetus, as they were to Judas Iscariot and Simon Magus, is another question, which we may afterward in some manner assoil; at present it suffices to say, that the overture of mercy made to such wretches doth argue God's kind disposition and good intention toward all men; so it did in St. Ambrose's opinion; who says that our Lord ought not to pass by the man who should betray him, that all men might take notice, that in the choice even of his traitor, he did hold forth a pledge or mark of all men's being to be saved.

But the truth of this doctrine will farther appear by the de