expressely noted. Thou shalt feare the Lord thy God, him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave:Deut. 10.20. here is no restriction or exclusion expressed, but in sense it is exclusive, Call upon me in the time of trouble, and I will heare thee:Psal. 50.15. only is not added, and yet for the sense the words are exclusive. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed;Gal. 3.16. though no exclusion be expressed, the Apostle is bold to interpret it, as if it had been said, In thy seed alone. Whom he foreknew, them he predestinated:Rom 8.29,30. this proposition is not expressely exclusive, is it not then exclusive in sense? When David saith, The Lord is my God, he excludes not the faithfull from the same preeminence: but when the Lord saith to his people, I am the Lord thy God, he excludes them that be not in Covenant. Abraham beleeved God, and it was accounted to him for righteousnesse:Gen. 15.6. here is not restriction added, but the proposition is exclusive. Whosoever beleeveth in Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life:Joh. 3.16. doth not this proposition exclude works from being a cause of Salvation, because only is not added? Some answer, that these passages be exclusive, because the Apostle expressely shuts forth works from the act of Justification, Rom. 3. 28. whereas they rather teach, that faith doth comprehend repentance, conversion and new obedience, and that works are not excluded from the act of Justification, but only works done by the power of nature: But leaving that, the proposition is for the matter exclusive, and that the Apostle shewes from the thing it self, proving hereby that Abraham, after he had followed the Lord a long time, and yeelded obedience to his commandements, was justified by faith without the works of the Law. The words therefore may be exclusive though only be not added: and that they be restrictive is plain by the thing signified: for what is it for Christ to lay down his life for his sheep, or to purchase his Church by his bloud, but to bruise the serpents head, to redeeme them from all iniquity, and purifie them to be a peculiar people to himselfe, to save his people from their sins, to deliver them from the feare of hell and death, and to blesse all Nations of the earth, according to the promise made to Abraham.
This needs no further confirmation then the next answer, which they make, that the words be exclusive not in respect of the thing it selfe, but of the modus: which others expresse thus, that Christ died for his sheep in respect of the application andevent.
