§. XVIII.
All have Grace sufficient for Salvation given them of God.Lastly, As we truly affirm that God willeth no Man to perish, and therefore hath given to all Grace sufficient for Salvation; so we do not deny, but that in a special Manner he worketh in some, in whom Grace so prevaileth, that they necessarily obtain Salvation; neither doth God suffer them to resist. For it were absurd to say, that God had not far otherwise extended himself towards the Virgin Mary and the Apostle Paul, than towards many others: Neither can we affirm, that God equally loved the beloved Disciple John and Judas the Traitor; yet so far, nevertheless, as none wanted such a Measure of Grace by which they might have been saved, all are justly inexcusable. And also God working in those to whom this Prevalency of Grace is given, doth so hide himself, to shut out all Security and Presumption, that such may be humbled, and the free Grace of God magnified, and all reputed to be of the free Gift; and nothing from the Strength of Self. Those also who perish, when they remember those Times of God’s Visitation towards them, wherein he wrestled with them by his Light and Spirit, are forced to confess, that there was a Time wherein the Door of Mercy was open unto them, and that they are justly condemned, because they rejected their own Salvation.
Thus both the Mercy and Justice of God are established, and the Will and Strength of Man are brought down and rejected; his Condemnation is made to be of himself, and his Salvation only to depend upon God. Also, by these Positions, two great Objections, which often are brought against this Doctrine, are well solved.
Object.The first is deduced from those Places of Scripture, wherein God seems precisely to have decreed and predestinated some to Salvation; and for that End, to have ordained certain Means, which fall not out to others; as in the Calling of Abraham, David, and others, and in the Conversion of Paul; for these being numbered among such to whom this Prevalency is given, the Objection is easily loosed.
Predestination to Salvation, and Pre-ordination to Destruction, answered.The second is drawn from those Places, wherein God seems to have ordained some wicked Persons to Destruction; and therefore to have obdured their Hearts to force them unto great Sins, and to have raised them up, that he might shew in them his Power, who, if they be numbered amongst those Men whose Day of Visitation is passed over, that Objection is also solved; as will more evidently appear to any One that will make a particular Application of those Things, which I at this Time, for Brevity’s Sake, thought meet to pass over.