A30345:521
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel…A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel…
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightness, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.
London: printed by G. Miller for Edward Brewster, 1645
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In many places we read that Christ died for them that shall, or may perish, for reprobates and cast-aways, 2 Pet. 2. 1. There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, Rom. 14. 15. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died, 1 Cor. 8. 11. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died, Heb. 10. 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace. From which passages they argue thus, He that died for the elect and reprobate, for them that perish and perish not, he died for all men. But Christ died for the elect and reprobate, for them that perish and perish not. The Proposition they take for granted, but it is apparently captious. For he that died for all the elect, and all the reprobate, for all that shall be saved, and all that perish, died for all men: but to die for the elect and some reprobate, is not to die for all men, but for some only. And if they mean it in the first sense, the passages of Scripture will not prove what they affirm; if in the second, it falls short of the question. But suppose they argue thus, some denied the Lord that bought them, and thereby brought upon themselves swift destruction: therefore Christ did not buy the elect only, to save them: If they dispute thus, they conclude not the question in hand, they put more in the conclusion then is in the antecedent, and if they cannot show, that there is the same reason of all reprobates, they must confess it makes much against them: for the thing to be proved is, that Christ died equally for all and every man; and it is one thing to die for the reprobate in some sense, and to die for them with an intention and purpose to save them: and if Christ died for some and but some that perish in a manner not common ⟨p. 239⟩to all and every man, it is manifest, he died not equally for all men.