Contr. There is a great degree of pardon given to the world, before conversion, which shall yet justify and save none but Believers: Gods giving a Saviour to the world, and a New Covenant, and in that an universal conditional pardon; yea his giving them teaching, exhortations and offers of free grace; and his giving them life and time, and many mercies which the full execution of the Law would have deprived them of, is a very great degree of pardon. God pardoned to mankind much of the penalty which sin deserved, even presently after the first transgression, in the promise made to Adam, Gen. 3.15. Many texts of Scripture (which partial men for their opinions sake do pervert) do speak magnificently of a common pardon, which must be sued out, and made particular upon our believing. The world was before under so much impossibility of being saved by any thing that they could do, that they must have procured all to be done first which Christ hath done and suffered for them; which was utterly above their power. They that were actually obliged to bear the pains of death, both temporal, spiritual and eternal, are now so far redeemed, pardoned and delivered, that all the merit and satisfaction necessary to actual forgiveness, is made for them by another, and no one of them all shall perish for want of a Sacrifice made and accepted for them; and an universal conditional pardon is enacted, sealed, and recorded, and offered and urged on all to whom the Gospel cometh; and nothing but their obstinate, wilful refusal or neglect, can deprive them of it: And this is so great a degree of pardon, that it is called often by such absolute ⟨p. 336⟩names, as if all were done; because all is done which concerneth God as Legislator or Covenant maker, to do, before our own Acceptance of it.
Contr. There is a great degree of pardon given to the world, before conversion, which shall yet justifie and save none but Believers: Gods giving a Saviour to the world, and a New Covenant, and in that an universal conditional pardon; yea his giving them teaching, exhortations and offers of free grace; and his giving them life and time, and many mercies which the full execution of the Law would have deprived them of, is a very great degree of pardon. God pardoned to mankind much of the penalty which sin deserved, even presently after the first transgression, in the prom•se made to Adam, Gen. 3.15. Many texts of Scripture (which partial men for their opinions sake do pervert) do speak magnificently of a common pardon, which must be sued out, and made particular upon our believing. The world was before under so much impossibility of being saved by any thing that they could do, that they must have procured all to be done first which Christ hath done and suffered for them; which was utterly above their power. They that were actually obliged to bear the pains of death, both temporal, spiritual and eternal, are now so far redeemed, pardoned and delivered, that all the merit and satisfaction necessary to actual forgiveness, is made for them by another, and no one of them all shall perish for want of a Sacrifice made and accepted for them; and an universal conditional pardon is enacted, sealed, and recorded, and offered and urged on all to whom the Gospel cometh; and nothing but their obstinate, wilful refusal or neglect, can deprive them of it: And this is so great a degree of pardon, that it is called often by such absolute ⟨p. 336⟩names, as if all were done; because all is done which concerneth God as Legislator or Covenant maker, to do, before our own Acceptance of it.
