An Apology for the True Christian Divinity. Robert Barclay

and intreating the Heathens to come and be Partakers of the Benefits of it, shewing them how there was a Door open for them all to be saved through Jesus Christ; not telling them that God had predestinated any of them to Damnation, or had made Salvation impossible to them, by with-holding Power and Grace, necessary to believe, from them. But of many of their Sayings, which might be alleged, I shall only instance a few.

      Proof 4. The Testimonies of the Doctors and Fathers of the first Church, that Christ died for all.Augustine on the xcvth Psalm saith, “The Blood of Christ is of so great Worth, that it is of no less Value than the whole World.” Prosper ad Gall. c. 9. “The Redeemer of the World gave his Blood for the World, and the World would not be Redeemed, because the Darkness did not receive the Light. He that saith, the Saviour was not crucified for the Redemption of the whole World, looks not to the Virtue of the Sacrament, but to the Part of Infidels; since the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Price of the whole World; from which Redemption they are Strangers, who either delighting in their Captivity would not be Redeemed, or after they were Redeemed returned to the same Servitude.”

      The same Prosper, in his Answer to Vincentius’s first Objection: “Seeing therefore because of one common Nature and Cause in Truth, undertaken by our Lord, all are rightly said to be Redeemed, and nevertheless all are not brought out of Captivity; the Property of Redemption without doubt belongeth to those from whom the Prince of this World is shut out, and now are not Vessels of the Devil, but Members of Christ; whole Death was so bestowed upon Mankind, that it belonged to the Redemption of such who were not to be regenerated. But so, that that which was done by the Example of one for all, might, by a singular Mystery, be celebrated in every one. For the Cup of Immortality, which is made up of our Infirmity and the Divine Power, hath indeed that in it which may Profit all; but if it be not drank, it doth not heal.”

      The Author de Vocat. Gentium, Lib. 11. Cap. 6. “There is no Cause to doubt but that our Lord Jesus Christ died for Sinners and wicked Men. And if there can be any found, who may be said not to be of this Number, Christ hath not died for all; he made himself a Redeemer for the whole World.”

      Chrysostom on John i. “If he enlightens every Man coming into the World, how comes it that so many Men remain without Light? For all do not so much as acknowledge Christ. How then doth he enlighten every Man? He illuminates indeed so far as in him is; but if any of their own accord, closing the Eyes of their Mind, will not direct their Eyes unto the Beams of this Light,The Cause they remain in Darkness. the Cause that they remain in Darkness is not from the Nature of the Light, but through their own Malignity, who willingly have rendered themselves unworthy of so great a Gift. But why believed they not? Because they would not: Christ did his Part.”

      The Arelatensian Synod, held about the Year 490, “Pronounced him accursed, who should say that Christ hath not died for all, or that he would not have all Men to be saved.”

      Ambr. on Psalm cxviii. Serm. 8. “The mystical Sun of Righteousness is arisen to all; he came to all; he suffered for all; and rose again for all: And therefore he suffered, that he might take away the Sin of the World. But if any one believe not in Christ, he robs himself of this general Benefit,The Sun-Beams shut out, heat not. even as if one by closing the Windows should hold out the Sun-Beams. The Sun is not therefore not arisen to all, because such an one hath so robbed himself of its Heat: But the Sun keeps its Prerogative; it is such an one’s Imprudence that he shuts himself out from the common Benefit of the Light.”

      

      The same Man, in his 11th Book of Cain and Abel, Cap. 13. saith, “Therefore he brought unto all the Means of Health, that whosoever should perish, may ascribe to himself the Causes of his Death, who would not be cured when he had the Remedy by which he might have escaped.”

      §. IX.

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      Seeing then that this Doctrine of the Universality of Christ’s Death is so certain and agreeable to the Scripture-Testimony, and to the Sense of the purest Antiquity, it may be wondered how so many, some whereof have been esteemed not only Learned, but also Pious, have been capable to fall into so gross and strange an Error. But the Cause of this doth evidently appear, in that the Way and Method by which the Virtue and Efficacy of his Death is communicated to all Men, hath not been rightly understood, or indeed hath been erroneously taught. Pelagian Errors.The Pelagians, ascribing all to Man’s Will and Nature, denied Man to have any Seed of Sin conveyed to him from Adam. And the Semi-Pelagians, making Grace as a Gift following upon Man’s Merit, or right improving of his Nature, according to the known Principle, Facienti quod in se est, Deus non denegat gratiam.

      Extremes fallen into by some, making God the Author of Sin.This gave Augustine, Prosper, and some others Occasion, labouring, in Opposition to these Opinions, to magnify the Grace of God, and paint out the Corruptions of Man’s Nature (as the Proverb is of those that seek to make straight a crooked Stick) to incline to the other Extreme. So also the Reformers, Luther and others, finding among other Errors the strange Expressions used by some of the Popish Scholasticks concerning Free-Will, and how much the Tendency of their Principles is to exalt Man’s Nature and lessen God’s Grace, having all those Sayings of Augustine and others for a Pattern, through the like Mistake run upon the same Extreme: Though afterwards the Lutherans, seeing how far Calvin and his Followers drove this Matter, (who, as a Man of subtle and profound judgment, foreseeing where it would land, resolved above-board to assert that God had decreed the Means as well as the End, and therefore had ordained Men to sin, and excites them thereto, which he labours earnestly to defend) and that there was no avoiding the making of God the Author of Sin, thereby received Occasion to discern the Falsity of this Doctrine, and disclaimed it, as appears by the latter Writings of Melancthon, and the Mompelgartensian Conference, [65]where Lucas Osiander, one of the Collocutors, terms it Impious; calls it a making God the Author of Sin, and an horrid and horrible Blasphemy. Yet because none of those who have asserted this universal Redemption since the Reformation have given a clear, distinct, and satisfactory Testimony how it is communicated to all, and so have fallen short of fully declaring the Perfection of the Gospel Dispensation, others have been thereby the more strengthened in their Errors; which I shall illustrate by one singular Example.