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521 William Prynne God no imposter nor deluder 1629 (rev.ed.1630) It is a common demand which the patrons of universal grace and free will use to make, how God can be excused from hypocrisy, collusion, and deceit, if he hath not seriously purposed and determined to convert and call all such to whom the Gospel is preached, but only to {sic} the elect? To give a full, a clear and satisfactory answer unto this demand, which stumbles many, we must consider in the first place that the glad tidings and promises of the Gospel are proper and peculiar to the elect and chosen saints of God, and not common to the elect and reprobates as the Law is, which binds all men alike. Hence is it, that the elect only are said to be the children of the promise, the seed of Abraham; and the promise of faith by Jesus Christ is said to be given only to them which believe. The voice of Christ is proper only to the sheep of Christ, who are the elect—whence the faith of the Gospel is styled the faith of God’s elect, as being proper and peculiar unto them alone. Christ Jesus hath bequeathed his Gospel as a peculiar legacy to his saints and chosen ones, and delivered and committed it to them. Wherefore the apostles did always dedicate and direct their epistles to the elect, the chosen and faithful in Christ Jesus; to the saints, the sanctified, called and preserved in Christ Jesus, and to no others: to signify that the Gospel is proper and peculiar unto them. Secondly , you must observe that, though the ministers of the Gospel are to preach the Gospel to every creature, yet it is not with an intent to convert all those that hear it unto God, but only the elect. Paul did preach and endure all things not for all those to whom he preached, but only for the elect’s sake. . . . The preachers of the Gospel, who are styled angels, are sent out only to gather the elect (not all men) from the four winds. . . . Thirdly, you must take notice, that though the Gospel be to be preached unto every creature, yet it is not with an intent to convert & save all those that hear it preached, but only true believers: this is evident by that commission which Christ gave unto his apostles: Go ye (saith he) into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. By which conditional clause and limitation , it is most apparent that God did never intend that his Gospel should convert and Religion in Early Stuart England, 1603–1638 522 save all such as hear it preached . . . but only such as should believe and embrace it in their hearts. Now these are only the elect, and no others; for they only do believe. Therefore the Gospel is intended unto them alone. If this then be granted and yielded unto me, that the promises and glad tidings of the Gospel are proper and peculiar to the elect alone; that the ministers of the Gospel are sent out only to call and gather together the elect; and that the preaching of the Gospel unto every creature is not with an intent to convert and save all such as hear it but only such as do believe it, who are always the lesser number and only such as are elected; then it follows inevitably that there is no repugnancy nor contradiction between the secret and the revealed will of God; and that God deludes and cozens none to whom the Gospel is preached, though they are not converted, because he did never intend to convert all those that should be the hearers, but only such as are the true embracers and believers of his Gospel, who are only the elect, in whom alone he works this grace of faith. Yea, but you will now object that God doth seriously exhort and entreat even reprobates and wicked men to repent and believe, though he hath determined to give no faith nor yet repentance to them. Therefore, if they cannot repent and believe of themselves (as we affirm), God cannot but mock and dissemble with them, because he exhorts them unto that which they of themselves (without God’s aid) can never do and which himself hath decreed irrevocably that they shall...

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