The universal love of God to mankind defended against the misapprehensions of some people about the doctrine of election and reprobation. Written for the sake of the simple-hearted, by John Everard. Everard, John, of Chatteris. 1697 Approx. 8 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 7 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-07 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A38826 Wing E3534 ESTC R219769 99831217 99831217 35680 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A38826) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 35680) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2048:31) The universal love of God to mankind defended against the misapprehensions of some people about the doctrine of election and reprobation. Written for the sake of the simple-hearted, by John Everard. Everard, John, of Chatteris. 12 p. printed and sold by T. Sowle, next door to the Meeting-house in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street; and at the Bible in Leaden-hall-street near the Market, London : 1697. Reproduction of the original in the Friends' Library, London. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Society of Friends -- England -- Early works to 1800. Quakers -- England -- London -- Early works to 1800. Election (Theology) -- Early works to 1800. 2003-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-04 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2003-04 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-06 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE UNIVERSAL Love of God TO MANKIND DEFENDED , Against the Misapprehensions of some People about the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation Written for the Sake of the Simple-hearted , by John Everard . London , Printed and Sold by T. Sowle , next Door to the Meeting-house in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street ; and at the Bible in Leaden-hall street near the Market , 1697. THE UNIVERSAL Love of God TO Mankind , &c. I Find many Well-inclined People much stumbled about the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation , as laid down by some , That God did , from Eternity before the World began , Ordain a small Number for Salvation ; and Reprobate the most part of Mankind , and so pass them by , not giving them Saving Grace . If it be so , that the Number be so fixed , that not one can be dimished nor added ; then the Prophets nor Apostles , by all their Labour , did not , nor could not , add one to God ; neither by Preaching can any now do it : But Election there is , and Reprobation , but it stands in the two Seeds : The LORD hath Sown his pure Seed in the Hearts of all Men , and as they joyn to it , it will Regenerate hem , and so make them Injoyers and Hairs of Endless Life ; but if Man joyn to the Reprobate Seed of the Serpent , then they bring Death over themselves . But some will say , I have chosen you ; I say , the Lord said , I Sanctified thee from the Womb , and Ordained thee a Prophet to the Nations ▪ I grant the Great God , in Dear Love , did Raise up some , but it will not therefore follow , that he over did cast away any , without affording them a Day of Mercy : For though the LORD may have Raised up some in all Ages , yet it was not only for their own Sakes , but to call to others , and to shew them the Mind of the LORD , that he did not desire the Death of a Sinner , but he had rather they should turn from their Sins and Live. And , to let the World know , that he sent his Dear Son into the World , that all might believe , and be Saved from Sin by him ; he tasted Death for every Man ; And said the Apostle , It was the Will of God that all Men should be Saved , and come to the knowledge of the Truth ; And it being so declared by Paul , we may conclude , that the LORD , who is the Fountain of Love and Mercy , did not decree the Death of Mankind against his own Will. But some will say , He Died only for the World of Believers of the Elect ? It is not proper to call the Elect the World ; for Christ saith , If you were of the World , the World would Love you ; but I have chosen you out of the World : Therefore 't is not proper to call Believers , or the Elect , the World. Now seeing it is so clearly laid down in the Holy Scripture , That Christ Died for the Sins of the whole World , and not of Believers only ; then we may conclude , that if Man believe in his pure Spirit , a Measure of it being given to every one to Profit withal , all that Dye not Saved , must not place their Destruction on the LORD , nor Blame him , but their own selves , for Rebellion against the Spirit of the LORD : And so I may say , as said the Prophet , Why will ye Dye ? O Friends ! Christ Died , he tasted Death for every Man , and gave himself a Ransom for all ; and he hath done much for us thereby : But he hath sent his Holy Spirit into our Hearts , to Sanctifie , Wash and Purifie our Hearts ; so that obeying the Spirit of Christ , you will have a Possession in the Kingdom of Glory , obtained for us by his Dear Son. Now , Reader , thy Teachers may tell thee , that if thou hast found thy Heart Pricked for Sin , and have been Sorrowful for Sin , and have felt the Incomes of Life to Warm thy Soul , then thou may'st conclude thy self in a Hopeful State ; I say so too . But where is that Man in the World , but the Lord , at one time or other , doth Prick to the Heart , and bring Sorrow over him ; and when he is brought low , he sees there is Mercy for him , and so Comfort and Hope springs up in his Soul. Thus is Man Visited ; by which he , upon his Death - Bed , clears the LORD ; and upon these Experiences thou art , it may be , Received a Member of the Church ; and so then say , all is well , Christ hath paid the Debt , and now the LORD looks upon thee in his Son : But pray , for thy poor Souls sake , Consider , If any Man be in Christ , the same is a New Creature , Old things are passed away , and all things are become New ; a new Heart , a tender Heart , a Heart which Fears to Offend him , in every thing to love him with thy whole Heart , and thy Neighbour as thy self ; a Heart , not only to part with Ishmael , but Offer up Isaac , if called for ; and not to Love thy own Life for Christ and his Gospel Sake . Oh! If thou can'st say so , then Happy art thou , if thou continue to the end thou shalt be Saved . And this Love of God will spring so up in thy Soul , that thou wilt say with the Prophet , O come to the Waters of Life freely : And when the Spirit of the LORD fills thy Heart with Gospel-tidings , which shall be a Message of Joy to all People ; then thou wilt say , The Arm of the Lord is not shortned , that cannot Save ; but wilt cry , The Salvation of the LORD is come , and all Flesh shall , or may see the Salvation of the LORD , and thou wilt not be as one that Mocketh , when thou holdest forth his Salvation ; but if all take thee at the Word , by Believing the Gospel Preached there is room enough in God's Mercy , for the whole Creation , Glory to the LORD in the Highest : But thou may'st yet say , Though all have some stirrings of GOD , they are so small and weak , that it cannot work that Holy Dread in them , not to Offend the Lord : Look into thy own Heart , and if thou find it so with thee , that it bring thee into a Holy Fear ; so that , having a Hope of Glory , thou Purifie thy Heart by thy Hope , then the same Seed which is sown in thy Heart , is of one Nature in all , and will work the same in all , according to the Measure of the Gift of Christ. But thou mayst yet say , Jacob have I Loved , and Esau have I Hated : So it was not said in Genesis , but in Malachi 1. 2. But the Elder shall serve the Younger ; which , if it had Related to their Eternal State , it would imply Esau is now in Heaven serving Jacob ; but it was said to Jacob , Thy Brethren shall serve thee . But Isaac Blessed Esau also , though Jacob had the Dominion for a time : But the People of Edom were called in Christ , as well as the Seed of Israel , as it is written , In thee , and in thy Seed , shall all the Families of the Earth be Blessed . These things I have wrote in the Love of Christ , that none may shut up the Kindness of Christ from Man. And now , my Dear Friends , whom the Lord hath called into his Blessed Work , let us go on still to Preach his Universal Gospel freely , and set forth the Glory of Christ in Love , in Life and sound Doctrine ; then , if the People will not take Warning , we shall be Clear ; and the LORD will be our Exceeding Great Reward . So Humbly Prayeth he , who desireth to walk in great Lowliness of Mind before the Lord , John Everard . FINIS .