VIII.Rest for none but the people of God, proved
Prop. 3. It is not a thing which one cannot be saved without, to believe every particular book to be canonical; if we believe all that were generally received, yea, or but one book which containeth the substance of christian doctrine, though we doubt of those, that some formerly doubted of, it would not exclude from salvation. The books are received for the doctrine's sake. It is vain cavilling, therefore, for the papists, when they put us to prove the canon, they stick only on the questioned books; especially when those were but few and short.
Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John, and Paul's writings, which are full, and contain the main body of christian doctrine, do, withal, contain the characters of their own canonical verity, which, seconded by the conveyance of universal, rational, infallible tradition, (not Romish authoritative tradition, or the judgment of the pope, or the present church,) may certainly be discerned; even with a saving certainty, by those that are specially illuminated by God's Spirit; and with an ordinary rational certainty, by those that have God's common help.
I conclude this as I began, with an earnest request to ministers that they would preach, and to people that they would study this subject more thoroughly; that while they firmly believe the truth of that word which promiseth them rest, and prescribes them the means thereto, they may believe, and hope, and love, and long, and obey, and labour, with the more seriousness, and liveliness, and patient constancy.
CHAP. VIII
Rest for none but the People of God, proved.
SECT. I. It may here be expected, that as I have proved, that this rest remaineth for the people of God; so I should now prove, that it remaineth only for them; and that the rest of the world shall have no part in it. But the Scripture is so full and plain in this, that I suppose it needless to those who believe Scripture. Christ hath resolved, that
those who make light of him, and the offers of his grace, shall never taste of his supper: "and that without holiness, none shall see God: and that, except a man be regenerate, and born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That he that believes not, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him: that no unclean person, nor covetous, nor railer, nor drunkard, &c., shall enter into the kingdom of Christ, and of God." (Eph. 5:4, 5.) "That the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all they that forget God: that all they shall be damned that obey not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. 2:12.) "That Christ will come in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." And Christ himself hath opened the very manner of their process in judgment, and the sentence of their condemnation to eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt. 25.) So that here is no rest for any but the people of God, except you will call the intolerable everlasting flames of hell a rest.
And it were easy to manifest this also by reason. For, First, God's justice requires an inequality of men's state hereafter, as there was of their lives here. And, Secondly, They that walk not in the way of rest, and use not the means, are never likely to obtain the end: they would not follow Christ in the regeneration, nor accept of rest upon his conditions; they thought him to be too hard a master, and his way too narrow, and his laws too strict: they chose the pleasures of sin for a season, rather than to suffer affliction with the people of God: they would not suffer with Christ, that so they might reign with him. What they made choice of, that they did enjoy; they had their good things in this life; and what they did refuse, it is but reason they should want: how oft would Christ have gathered them to him, and they would not; and he useth to make men willing before he saves them, and not to save them against their wills.
Therefore will the mouth of the wicked be stopped for ever, and all the world shall acknowledge the justice of God. Had the ungodly but
returned before their life was expired, and been heartily willing to accept of Christ for their Saviour and their King, and to be saved by him in his way, and upon his most reasonable terms, they might have been saved.
Object. But may not God be better than his word, and save those that he doth not promise to save?
Answ. But not false of his word, in saving those whom he hath said he will not save. Men's souls are in a doleful case when they have no hope of happiness, except the word of God prove false. To venture a man's eternal salvation, upon hope that God will be better than his word, that is, in plain English, that the God of truth will prove a liar, is somewhat beyond stark madness, which hath no name bad enough to express it.
Yet do I believe, that the description of God's people in England, and in America, must not be the same; because, as God's revelations are not the same, so neither is the actual faith which is required in both the same; and as the written and positive laws in the church were never given them, so obedience to those mere positives is not required of them. Whether, then, the threats against unbelievers be meant of unbelief privative and positive only, and not negative (such as is all non-believing that which was never revealed); or, whether their believing that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him, will serve the turn there; or, whether God hath no people there? I acknowledge again is yet past my understanding.
So that in what is said, you may discern not only the truth, but also the reason and equity, that none but God's people shall enter into his rest. Though God's will is the first cause of all things, yet all the fault lies in sinners themselves. Their consciences shall one day tell them that they might have been saved, if they would; and that it was their own wilful refusal, which shut them out. God freely offered them life, and they would not accept it on his own easy and reasonable conditions. They perish, because they would not be saved in God's