Universal redemption of mankind, by the Lord Jesus Christ stated and cleared by the…

Answ. That's no excuse as long as they have so full encouragement, as is before expressed. Should a man in danger of Death do nothing for his own safety without a certainty of success? Should not the least hope of probability (much more so high a probability) be enough to excite men to seek the saving of their own lives? Suppose a King having past an Act of Oblivion (upon a ransom to that end) for a whole Nation of Traitors (as Ireland,) should send his Herald to proclaim it to all: But to some of them he sendeth before hand some inferior messenger, telling them in the Kings Name, that he is placable, and their case remediable, and he requires them to use certain means (as Submission, Petition, Laying down Arms, &c.) and ⟨p. 473⟩try what the King will do? If these men reject unthankfully this favour, and abuse the messenger, and persist in Rebellion, is it not just with the King to forbid the Herald, that he proclaim not to them the act of oblivion? And is it not long of themselves if they never hear it, nor have any benefit by it? so is it in the present case. By the abuse of sufficient Grace to have come nearer Christ, do the Pagans forfeit all other fruits of his blood. So that Christ may truly be said to have done his part even as Legislator; and to have promulgated his new Law among them, in that he did his part, and so it's promulgate moraliter vel Reputativè, though it was not actualiter & perfectè through their own fault. It is not long of Christ but of themselves that it was not done fully, in that they ungratefully rejected his Precursors or Harbingers that came before the Gospel. Seeing they would not make use of the Twilight or Daybreak, Christ justly denieth them the Sun-Rising.

Answ. That's no excuse as long as they have so full encouragement, as is before expressed. Should a man in danger of Death do nothing for his own safety without a certainty of success? Should not the least hope of probability (much more so high a probability) be enough to excite men to seek the saving of their own lives? Suppose a King having past an Act of Oblivion (upon a ransom to that end) for a whole Nation of Traytors (as Ireland,) should send his Herald to proclaim it to all: But to some of them he sendeth before hand some inferior messenger, telling them in the Kings Name, that he is placable, and their case remediable, and he requires them to use certain means (as Submission, Petition, Laying down Arms, &c.) and ⟨p. 473⟩