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Firmin:

One block more lies in the way sinner, there is no union with Christ without faith, and if no union, then no communion; do you then understand what this faith is? I must tell you, “It is a wonderful grace of God, by which a man does apprehend and apply Christ and all his benefits unto himself” [Mr. Perkins Catechise. 4^th princip.]. I tell thee, “This applying is done by assurance, when a a man is verily persuaded by the Holy Spirit, of God’s favor towards himself particularly, and of the forgiveness of his own sins.” Thus also Mr John Rogers of Dedham, who describes faith, “It is a particular persuasion of my heart, that Christ Jesus is mine, and that I shall have life and salvation by his means: that whatsoever Christ did for the redemption of mankind, he did it for me, &c,” Treatis. of Faith, p. 12.]

Giles Firmin, The Real Christian, or a Treatise of Effectual Calling (London: Printed for Dorman Newman, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Churgurgions Arms in Little-Brattain, 1670), The Introduction, [5]. [Some spelling modernized; marginal references cited inline; and underlining mine.

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Finch:

CHAP. IX.

Of knowledge.

And so much of calling and gather of the Churches.

The common graces are Gifts or a taste of the sweetness¹ of Christ

Gifts are knowledge or faculties.

Knowledge is the understanding of the word of God [1. Tim. 3:15.] necessary in some measure for every professor [John 1:18.].

[Henry Finch], The Sacred Doctrine of Divinitie, Gathered out of the Word of God, and Comprehended in two volumes (London: Imprinted at London by Felix Kynston, 1613), book 2, page 16. [Some spelling modernized; marginal reference cited inline; underlining mine; and footnote mine.]

[Bibliographic notation from Worldcat: By Sir Henry Finch./ Sometimes erroneously attributed to Dudley Fenner, who the preface of the first edition (STC 10872.5), dated 1 Jan. 1589, mentions as having died three years previously./ Another edition of the Doctrine only of STC 10872.5 revised and enlarged./ The second volume spoken of in the title is STC 7148–STC./ Most copies are anonymous; British Library copy retains [par.]2, conjugate with with [par.]3, with dedication by Finch to Thomas [Egerton] Lord Ellsmere.]

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¹The text here is heavily obscured and so this is my best estimation of the correct word.

Todd:

The doctrine of UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION is the constant theme of the Church of England. Calvin himself shall here corroborate this testimony of her rejoicing; and Cranmer shall be shown to have been pleased with, and even to have almost literally adopted, the corroboration. Prefixed to the New Testament in French,¹ published in 1535, is a preface by Calvin; in which he thus speaks of the coming and office of the Messiah:

Ille, tot retro saeculis exoptatissimus; atque idem ilia orania cumulate praestitit, quse erant ad OMNIUM redemptionem necessaria. Neque vero intra unum Israelem tantum illud beneficium stetit, cum potius ad UNIVERSUM HUMANUM GENUS usque porrigendum esset: Quia per unum Christum UNIVERSUM HUMA.NUM GENUS reconciliandum erat Deo, uti his Novi Foederis tabuhs continetur et amplissime demonstratur.

Again:

Ad istam haereditatem (regni paterni scilicet) vocamur OMNES SINE PERSONARUM ACCEPTATIONE, Masculi, Famines, Summi, Infimi, Heri, Servi, Magistri, Discipuli, Doctores, Idiotce, Judcei, Graeci, Galli, Romani. NEMO HINC EXCLUDITUR, qui modo Christum., qualis offertur a Patre in salutem omnium, admittat, et admissum complectatur.

These opinions of Calvin in 1535, Dr. Winchester² has judiciously observed, might, upon reflection, have taught him more moderation towards those, who differed from his later system. Let us now hear Cranmer fifteen years after him.³

Almighty God, without respect of person, accepteth the oblation and sacrifice of priest and lay person, of kyng and subject, of maister and servaunt) of man and woman, of yonge and olde, yea of English, French, Scot, Greek, Latine, Jewe, and Gentile; of every man according to his faithful and obedient heart unto him, and that through the sacrifice propitiatory of Jesu Christ.”

Henry John Todd, Original Sin, Free-Will, Grace, Regeneration, Justification, Faith, Good Works, and Universal Redemption as Maintained in Certain Declarations of our Reformers (London: Printed for F.C and J. Rivington, 1818), xlvi-xlviii. [Spelling original; some reformatting; footnote values modernise; and footnote content original.] [Note: Todd appears to be a somewhat hostile non-Calvinist.]

[Credit to Tony for the find.]

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¹The whole Bible was also published in French, in the translation of which Calvin is said to have had a considerable share. It is known by the names of the Olivetan and of the Protestants Bible.

²Dissert, on the 17th Art. p. 16.

³Defence of the True and Catholike Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, &c. made by the most revereude father in God, Thomas, archbyshop of Canterbury, &c. 1550. fol. 1 14,

Ralph Wardlaw

1) 3. The hypothesis [a limitation of sin to Christ] renders the salvation of any besides the elect a natural impossibility. We are accustomed to say, and we say truly and scripturally, to sinners of mankind, that if they are not saved, the fault is entirely their own, lying solely in their own unwillingness to have the salvation offered them, or to accept it on the terms on which it is presented. But on the supposition of limitation in the atonement, this is not the case. There is, indeed, indisposition on their part; and it is their sin. But if the atonement be limited in its sufficiency, it is, in the nature of the thing, absurd and contradictory so much as to imagine any, beyond the number to the amount of whose sins it is restricted, deriving any benefit from it. To call on any others to believe in Christ for salvation, is to call them, in as far as they are concerned, to believe in a non-entity. There would be nothing in the Savior for them. They are excluded by the limitation of the remedy. For them to seek salvation would be to seek an impossibility. Were they ever so desirous of it, they could not obtain it; for the impossibility would, in this case, arise, not from their own impotence,–(their moral impotence, which is the same thing as their proud and unholy aversion, and constitutes their guilt,)–but from the very nature and constitution of the plan of redemption. If the atonement made has been equivalent to only a limited amount of sin, and if atonement be necessary to forgiveness,–then beyond the limited amount, no sin can possibly be forgiven. There is no provision for it.

4. This being the case, it will be difficult, on such a hypothesis, to vindicate, in any way, the sincerity of those divine addresses by which sinners universally are called upon to believe and be saved. If there do not exist, in the atonement or propitiation made, what has appropriately been termed an objective sufficiency for all–there really exists no ground on which sinners in general can be invited to trust. Such invitation becomes no better than a tantalizing of perishing creatures, with the offer of what has no existence. There is nothing which it is, in the nature of the thing, possible for them to receive, unless a new atonement were to be made. There is no fund from which their debts can be paid. They are invited to a feast; but there is no provision made for them. They are called to the wells of salvation; but to them they are "wells without water." An all-sufficient Saviour, becomes, in addressing sinners indiscriminately, a designation destitute of truth, a mere "great swelling word of vanity.” Ralph Wardlaw, Two Essays: On Assurance and On the Extent of the Atonement (Glasgow, 1830), p. 193-194.¹ [Some spelling modernized; some reformatting; underlining mine.]

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