DR. WHITBY
ON THE
FIVE POINTS,
,
DISCOURSE
CONCERNING
I. THE TRUE IMPORT OF THE WORDS
lection anli
AND THE THINGS SIGNIFIED BY THEM IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURE.
//. TJie Extent of Christ's Redemption.
III. THE GRACE OF GOD;
WHERE IT IS ENQUIRED, WHETHER IT BE VOUCHSAFED SUFFICIENTLY TO
THOSE WHO IMPROVE IT NOT, AND IRRESISTIBLY TO THOSE WHO DO
IMPROVE IT; AND WHETHER MEN BE WHOLLY PASSIVE IN THE
WORK OF THEIR REGENERATION.
IN A STATE OF TRIAL AND PROBATION.
V. The Perseverance or Defectibility of the Saints,
WITH SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE STATE OF HEATHENS, THE
PROVIDENCE AND PRESCIENCE OF GOD.
AND LASTLY,
AN ANSWER TO THREE OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE DOCTRINES ASSERTED.
To which is added,
IN ANSWER TO SOME OF DOCTOR EDWARDS'S REMARKS.
BY DANIEL WHITBY, D. D.
And late Chantor of the Cathedral Church of Sarum.
FOURTH EDITION, CORRECTED.
LONDON:
VUBLISHED BY F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON ; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME
AND BROWN; JOSIAH WILSON; JOHN CCMMING, IH'BLIN ;
AND JAMES NICHOLS, LEEDS.
1817.
James Nichols, Printer, Leeds.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THIS EDITION.
THE present is generally designated "a wise and thinking age;**
and of this, perhaps one of the best proofs that could be adduced, is
the encouragement which it affords to the republication of the excel-
lent literary productionsfof former ages. It is a circumstance highly
reputable to the character of the times, that the labours of our learned
predecessors are thought deserving, not only of preservation, but of
publicity: And yet more honourable is the inference implied, that
the attempt in modern writers to equal them, in their several walks
of excellence, would be one of extreme difficulty. On this principle
it is, and with hopes of such countenance, that the present edition of
Doctor Whitby's masterly DISCOURSE ON THE FIVE POINTS has
been undertaken.
It must likewise be remembered that Doctor Gill's book, which
professes to be an answer to this, has recently been republished; and
it seems requisite that the readers of that work should have an
opportunity of hearing both sides of the dispute.
It is no inconsiderable honour to the Established Church, and
must prove a high gratification to every true member of her, to know,
that the best defenders of the truths of God against the assumptions
of Calvinism, have been clergymen in communion with her. While
her general constitution has been drawn up on the broad basis of
indulgence to weak consciences in particular opinions respecting the
non-essentials of religion, her services contain repeated and unequi-
vocal avowals of the willingness of God, that all men should be
saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. See the following
^Preface, page viii.
Whole pages might be occupied in recording the names of her
illustrious men, who have declared their belief that Jesus Christ died
for all mankind. Of this class were Overall, Thompson, Hales, Butler,
Taylor, Goad, Womack, Heylin, Pierce, Barrow, Cudworth, Tillotson,
Still ingfleet, Pearson, Plaifere, Patrick, Burnet, Waterland nil,
Sellon, Horsley, Fletcher, and Wesley;* men, whose talents,
One of his friends, the Rev. Doctor Adam Clarke, has now hi course of publication an extensive
and learned work on the Holy Scriptures, which reflects the highest credit on himself, for the execution
of it, and on the enterprising character of the body of Christians with whom, lie is united, for their
liberal encouragement of it- On all the passages which relate to tuis controversy, the autjior speaks
** one having authority:" his language is remarkably decide
**
2066934
6 ADVERTISEMENT.
learning, and piety, will be had in everlasting remembrance. Nor
will posterity be unmindful of the literary merit and moral worth
ofTomline, Ryder, Whitaker, Gisborne, Cunningham, Eyton, Dau-
beny, Sim oh, Faber, and several other excellent clergymen of the pre-
sent clay, whose attachment to the doctrine of General Redemption is
no secret. Long may that church flourish in which such renowned
individuals have been patronized! And long may their labours in
defence of " the illimitable mercy of Heaven," and in behalf of
the best interests of men, be reckoned a part of her choicest adorning!
It is also greatly to the credit of our national establishment, that
she has of late years produced no writers of eminence in favour of
pure Calvinism. Toplady, Hervey, and Scott, (to omit the mention
of a few others of inferior note,; are the only clergymen who have,
in modern times, distinguished themselves by their attempts in
its defence. They have in consequence been much admired by
men of the same views, and have collected around them a great
number of retainers. The FIRST evinced himself to be deficient in
learning and genius: his main talent lay in the exercise of the low
arts of calumny, impudence, falsification, and buffoonery. His
works, as might have been expected, are now in little repute,
and seldom quoted, except for the purpose of shewing to what
lengths, in support of his opinions, a violent Calvinist may be driven.
The style of the SECOND is a turgid outrage of all that is natu-
ral and lively. Not content with placing Calvinism on stilts,
and decking out her decayed carcase in gorgeous apparel, a zealot
in her service, he spoiled all his semblance of humility and preten-
sions to superior sanctity, by penning, almost in the article of death,
those scandalous "Eleven Letters to Wesley,"* in defence of his
darling Aspasio, which are a disgrace to his memory, and of which
his greatest admirers are ashamed. The THIRD, who is still living,
professes to be of a somewhat more moderate cast in his Calvinism ;
but his exquisite knowledge of any other doctrines than those of his
favourite, may be discovered by perusing one of the notes t in his
" Force of Truth," in which he relates his conversion from Armi-
nianism. One thing is evident from the tenor of the whole note
that Mr. Scott was at no period of his life an Arminian, and that he
never ascertained by actual inspection even the outlines of the sen-
timents espoused and propagated by the celebrated Arminius, t
See a more particular account of this affa'rin Volumeseeond, page 165, of the Rev. Walter Sellon's
Works, of which a new edition, in two volumes octavo, has lately been published.
( Ninth Edition, 12mo, page 7, &c.
$ What the genuine sentiments of this amiable and greatly-injured man were, the British public will
soon have an opportunity of learning; as an English translation of all his works has been some time in a
course of preparation for the press A life of Arminius, by a clergyman in every respect qualified to
4 justise co his subject, is also in a state of forwardness.
ADVERTISEMENT.
Among those of her sons of whom the Church of England has
just reason to boast, is Doctor DANIEL WHITE v, who, in his admi-
rable Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament, has done
more than any single preceding writer in defending the doctrines
of Christianity, and in clearing up the difficulties which occur in
that portion of Holy Writ, but especially in the Apostolical epistles.
His authority on biblical subjects is very highly respected; and his
decisions have many times been quoted, with every mark of appro-
val, by Commentators and Divines of different views and persuasions.
Uncommonly valuable as his labours on the New Testament have
been deemed, his " Discourse on the Five Points" has not been held
in any inferior estimation. It has been recommended, by some of
the highest dignitaries of our Church, and by other profound divines,
as a work in which may successfully be sought an able elucidation
of the doctrines of Arminianism, and the arguments by which they
are supported. And, certainly, it must be admitted, by all impar-
tial judges of the controversy, that the Doctor's is, in every respect,
an astonishing production; and it will remain in the church of Christ
a lasting monument of his vast erudition, his masculine genius, and
his unwearied industry. The testimonies of the Ancient Fathers in
favour of Universal Redemption, have, in his hands, and by his mode
of applying them, been most decisive in the award of victory to the
cause which he espoused. Every Arminian will cordially unite with
him in his general arguments, except in a few places where his opi--
nions respecting original sin, and the operations of the Holy Spirit,
are not very clearly expressed, but have in some instances the ap-
pearance of leaning too much towards Semi-Pelagianism. He seems
also, in cutting off some of the enemy's resources, to have been too
confined in his descants on particular texts, which by no canon of
criticism are to be restricted to the Apostolic age, but which relate
to every subsequent period of the Christian Church.
When the publication of a standard work similar to this, is an-
nounced, the Calvinists generally assure us, that " the arguments
which it attempts to refute, have been long since abandoned." This
objection is partly founded in fact; for no other system of religious
doctrines has so changed its scenery as Calvinism has done. In the
last age, this old hag was remarkable for her unblushing effrontery
in preaching up absolute reprobation, infant-damnation, and the
other horrible consequences of her unscriptural dogmas. In the pre-
sent age, conforming herself to the advancement made in knowledge,
she has by various expedients tried to cast a veil over her ugly fea-
tures: and by means of certain modern refinements, she has par-
tially succeeded.* But into whatever 'differing forms it may be
t To smooth down the unsightly asperities of Calvinism, appears now to be the order of the day.
This system of refinement is carried into every department of liicrature into which a Cajvinist is c ipa-
8 ADVERTISEMENT.
moulded, and however specious and imposing its present garb may
be, Calvinism is alike an insult to the expressions of God's universal
compassion to man, and a prolific principle of vanity to the indivi-
dual who entertains it. It is true, that its premises, when untena-
ble, are periodically changed; but whether openly avowed by a
Crisp, or wrapped up in mysterious terms by a Williams, it, in both
instances, when examined, bears the same revolting character as a
perversion of Christianity, and is derogatory to the government of a
merciful God. And the arguments which formerly sufficed to coun-
teract its evil influence, and overturn its superficial reasoning, will
not experience any additional difficulty in penetrating through its
present thin disguises, and shewing it in all its native deformity.
It has also been objected, that "works like this enter into learn-
" ed disputes about the antiquity of either set ot doctrines, and the
" opinion of the Christian Fathers on these matters, for which no-.
" body chooses now to contend" Very true; because this question
has long since been set at rest, by its being determined in favour of
Arminianism. The combatants on Calvin's side are not now the
Puritan divines, who in learning and abilities were at least equal to
their opponents. In the hands of such men, the close examination
of this point, so far from being accounted of trifling consequence,
at that period excited much interest. But those mighty ones have
passed away; and, with them, the qualifications requisite for con-
ducting with any probability of success that part of the controversy.
Their places are occupied by men, the primary object in whose tui-
tion has apparently been to qualify them for quibbling on the oracles
of God, and for controverting his plainest and most gracious decla-
rations. Ashamed of speaking out as distinctly as Father Calvin
had done, they invent a new vocabulary of terms in which to shroud
their meaning; and, instructed in the art of display, they utter with
an air of plausibility this jargon, which they nick -name Metaptiysics.
But on the minds of men who study things as well as words, and
ble of conveying it- Calvin's Institutes are said to have been lately translated again from the Original
Latin, by one Mr. John Allen; that is, he being a literary jobber, has been employed to amend and
modernise the language and sentiments of the former translator, who, in his version, is too sternly
faithful for the delicate feelings of the present generation. In performing this piece of service, Mr. A.
has adopted the modish contrivance of his party. It is known to every scholar, that the virulent Calvin,
in this work of piety, as well as in his others, occasionally indulged the malignity of his natural dispo-
sition in pouring forth a torrent of abuse on all that dared to contradict his doctrines or statements. To
keep his " unpolished" epithets out of sight, mark the artifice of this his notable translator; He says in
the preface, " Almost all the writers of that age, writing chiefly in a dead language, were accustomed
to speak of their'adversaries in terms which the polished .manners of the modem times have discarded,
and which would now be deemed illiberal and scurrilous. Where these cases occur, the Translator
has not thought himself bound to a literal rendering of every word, or at liberty to refine them en-
tirely away, but has adopted such expressions as he apprehends will give a faithful representation of
the spirit of the author to modem readers." By this ingenious process of filtration, the works of
Rabelais himself might be cleansed and made unexceptionable. To a translation, in which such liberties
are taken with the Original, Mi. A. should have^preflxed the more characteristic tiUe of CaMn Travesty.
ADVERTISEMENT. 9
who wish to attach a correct idea to every expression which they
hear or read, the labours of these modern retailers of Calvinism will
have no baneful effect. They can only operate and impose on the
unthinking, or those who have been educated under strong prejudi-
ces, or on those who have their own special reasons for wishing that
Calvinism in any of its modifications may in the end prove to be a
true system.
The latest scion grafted on Calvinism, and that which is in most
fashionable repute, is the scheme invented by the late Doctor Wil-
liams. In the construction and completion of it, which was the
work of several years, this pious man thought that he was doing
God service. The allusion which has already been made to it, is a
proper indication of its tendency. His name, rather than those of
Doctor Whitby's admirers, is introduced here, for the purpose of
evincing how far prejudice can actuate the mind even of a good man,
and cause him to misrepresent what he does not like and is unable
to refute. In the direction for the choice of books, at the close of
his " Christian Preacher," which is dedicated to his students, he
has given his opinion of this work, among others. And when it is
viewed as announcing the fears of an enemy, it must be construed
into negative praise of no mean consideration. His words are,
" Whiiby'a Discourse on the Five Points, Election, Redemption, Origi-
" nal Sin, Efficacious Grace, and Perseverance, is a bold effort to over-
" turn the leading doctrines of the Protestant Reformers, by learned
" obscurity, artful sophistry, and disgusting tautology." It would
seem, from this abridged and false title, in connexion with what
follows it, that Whitby had written against the doctrines enumera-
ted: Whereas, in truth, this great man did not write against the
scriptural doctrine of Election, but against the doctrine of the abso-
lute and unconditional election of some men to life eternal, and, what
Calvin considered to be its inseparable attendant, the eternal and
unconditional reprobation of all the residue of mankind. * He did
not oppose the doctrine of the Redemption of men by the sacrificial
death of Christ; his object was to vindicate this glorious doctrine
in its scriptural extent, against the encroachments which have been
made upon it, in comparatively modern times, by Calvin and his
disciples. The term " efficacious grace" is ambiguous, and does not
occur in Whitby'S title-page. He undertakes to prove, that the grace
"Many indeed, as if they wished to avert odium from God, admit ELECTION in such a way
as to deny that any one is REPROBATED. I3ut this is put-rile and absurd, because ELECTION
itself could not EXIST withoutbeing opposed to REPROBATION. Whom God PASSES BY,
therefore, he REPROBATES,' and from NO OTHER CAUSE than his,DETERMINATION to
fciclude them from the inheritance which ho predestines for his cliildren."
Calvin's Institutes, by AJJen, Lib. iii, Cap. 23, Sec. 1.
10 ADVERTISEMENT.
of God is so far " efficacious" as to produce, in the minds of all who
hear the gospel, during their probationary state, moral power to
comply with its requirements; and to refute that doctrine which re-
presents " the elect" as necessitated to repent and believe the gos-
pel, while the immense multitude of the non-elect are required on
pain of -everlasting damnation to do that, which God in his word
declares to be impossible, to come to Jesus Christ without being
"drawn" by a divine influence. (John vi, 44.) The like may be
said of the "Perseverance of the Saints:" Whitby's object is to re-
fute the Genevan doctrine which secures eternal salvation to those
who hate once been sanctified, though they should afterward?, like
David, fall into the most" horrid crimes.
With regard to Original Sin, it is well known that it is not one
of "the Five Points" in dispute between Calvinistsand Arminians;
and, consequently, there is no discourse on it in Doctor Whitby's
book, nor is it once mentioned in his title-page. Why Doctor Wil-
liams, in giving the title of it, neglected to mention the discourse on
the Freedom of the Will, and inserted Original Sin in its place, his
friends must explain. Whether done by mistake or design, it is
equally disreputable to his accuracy and candour. How correct
his report of its contents is, may be inferred from the following
observations:
He charges Doctor Whitby with making " a bold effort to over-
" turn the leading doctrines of the Protestant Reformers." He
might with greater truth have accused him of an effort to overturn
" the leading doctrines" of the Popish Jansenists and Dominicans
and of the Mahometan Fatalists. Some of the Reformers did not re-
ceive any of the peculiarities of Calvinism as the truths of God; and of
many more of them it could not with propriety be said, that Cal-
vin's dogmas were their "leading doctrines." t If it be a sin to
disbelieve and endeavour to overturn a doctrine patronized by a Re-
former, then Dr. Williams himself must plead guilty. For, to the
grief of many of his Calvinistic Friends, to whom the preterition of
the greater portion of men was a familiar and comfortable idea, he
has attempted (with what degree of success, is another question,) to
separate the doctrine of unconditional election from that of unconditi-
f When the Protestant religion began first to be published, there was a variety of opinions among
the Reformers upon the subject of predestination; for Luther, Calvin, and Beza maintained one sys-
tem, while Erasmus, Melancthon, Bullinger, Sareerms, Latimer, and many other eminent Divines,
were of contrary sentiments ; and they were followed in the University of Heidelberg by George
Sohnius, at Cambridge by Peter Baro, in the United Provinces by John Holman, Anastatius, Velu-
aiius, Hubert Duifhusius, Snecanus, and other considerable men- But notwithstanding these diffe-
rences, a brotherly charity and harmony was preserved among them. Sec Brandt's Life of Arminius.
Heylin's Historia Quinqu-Articularis. General Dictionary, Article, Arminius, Note [A].
ADVERTISEMENT.
anal reprobation, an attempt, of which the Reformer Calvin most
heartily disapproved. See a preceding note, page 9-
Mark here the force of this Rhetoric : we are told that the book
is designed to "overturn," not opinions of comparatively small
moment, but "the LEADING DOCTRINES of the Protestant Reformers,"
and that the execution is as bad as the design, being replete with
" learned obscurity, artful sophistry, and disgusting tautology."
Who, after reading this account, will venture to exattine such a
wretched "effort?" It is manifest that Doctor Williams .understood
what he was doing, when he thus affected to despise the learned
and judicious Whitby.
He commences his remarks by paying a kind of tribute of ap-
probation to Whitby 's learning. But he intimates that this learning
is of such an obscure sort as to be unintelligible to him, It is related
of Dr. Samuel Johnson, that when he was once engaged in a dis-
pute, his opponent said to him, " I do not understand you, Sir."
" Perhaps not," replied the stern combatant, " I can give you argu-
ments, but I cannot give you an understanding to comprehend them."
This keen remark might be applied to the complaint here preferred
against Whitby 's " learned obscurity," were it not obvious that the
defect lies rather in the wills than in the understandings of the Calvi-
nistic brotherhood. They do not find it conveniert to retain an
attachment to their favourite principles, and at the same time to
understand Whitby 's arguments. Here is the true origin of the
alleged " obscurity,"
The charge of " artful sophistry" is then introduced; and thus,
in a manner most singularly offensive, it is intimated, that this ve-
nerable author did not write from conviction, but vith a fixed de-
sign to delude his readers, an allegation which is utterly groundless,
and not proper to be made by any man that has the least pretensions
to the manners of a Christian and the courtesy of a scholar.
The Doctor also complains of Whitby's " disgusting tautology."
Whitby's cogent and powerful reasoning seems to have hurt the
Doctor's feelings. And who would not have been as highly pro-
voked as the Doctor, on finding, into whatever sinuous path a
Calvinist turned, he was sure to meet with the same sturdy warrior
dealing his blows around him with terrible effect? But, it should
be observed, that if such a thing as " tautology" is to be discovered
in this book, (of which some proof is needed,) the blame falls, not
so much on Whitby, as on the patrons of that cause which he thought
it his duty to oppose. They have produced the same wrang-
lings, under a great variety of forms ; and, on this account, Whitby
was compelled on some occasions, when he met the same objection^
12 ADVERTISEMENT.
to repeat the substance of his former arguments: And when their
tremendous bearing on the Doctor's favourite system is considered,
it is no wonder that the repetition of them proved highly " disgust-
ing." Ungenerous Whitby! to "disgust" your opponents, as
Achilles " disgusted" the Trojans, when he dragged the dead body
of Hector round the walls of Troy.
It is natural to enquire, What could induce the late pious Doc-
tor to give such a character of Whitby's writings? It must have
been a desire to prevent them from being allowed a place in the'
" Christian Preacher's Library;" and this desire has originated in a
conviction that Whitby is a formidable adversary to the Calvinistic
cause.
Having thus briefly vindicated the author and this his work,
little more is left than to state that the present edition is printed
Verbatim from the improved second edition of 1 735. So minutely has
it been followed, that, in all places where seeming grammatical inac-
curacies occur ; they have been suffered to remain as the author left
them. Some paragraphs, in the former editions, extended through
several pages; the sentences of Avhich they were composed having
rio other mark of separation than the Colon. Without the least in-
jury to the sense, they are here broken into shorter periods, according
to the present more approved mode of punctuation. The literary
execution of the work is in the usual style of that age; and to have
attempted any alteration of it, would have been to despoil it of its
distinguishing beauties, and to divest it of the character appropriate
to the period ir. which it was written.
Doctor Wkitby was particular in translating, in a very able and
intelligent manner, all the quotations which he made, in the text and
notes, from the learned languages. The small number of passages
which were lef: by him without a translation, will be found render-
ed into English in the notes, and distinguished as the work of the
Editor, by inverted commas, and his signature subjoined to them.
THE EDITOR.
Leeds, Mk January, 1817.
THE
TO THE READER.
'
1 HEY who have known my education may remember, that I was
bred up seven years in the University under men of the Calvinistical
persuasion, and so could hear no other doctrine, or receive no other
instructions, from the men of those times, and therefore had once
firmly entertained, all their doctrines. Now that which first moved
me to search into the foundation of these doctrines, viz. . The Impu-
tation of Adam's sin to all his posterity, was the strange consequences of
it; this made me search the more exactly into that matter, and by
reading Joshua Placae'us, with the answer to him, and others on that
subject, I soon found cause to judge that there was no truth in it.
I. After some years' study I met with one who seemed to be a
Deist, and telling him that there were arguments sufficient to prove
the truth of Christian faith, and of the holy scriptures, he scornfully
replied, Yes; and you will prove your doctrine of the imputation of
original sin from the same scripture; intimating that he thought that
doctrine, if contained in it, sufficient to invalidate the truth and the au-
thority of the scripture. And by a little reflection I found the strength
of his argument ran thus: " That the truth of holy scripture could
no otherwise be proved to any man that doubted of it, but by re-
.ducing him to some absurdity, or the denial of some avowed prin-
ciple of reason." Now this imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity,
so as to render them obnoxious to God's 'wrath, and to eternal dam-
nation, only because they, were born of the race of Adam, seemed
to him as contradictory to the common reason of mankind, as any
thing could be, and so contained as strong an argument against the
truth of scripture, if that doctrine was contained in it, as any
11 PREFACE.
could be offered for it. And upon this account I again searched
into the places usually alleged to confirm that doctrine, and found
them fairly capable of other interpretations. One doubt remained
still, whether antiquity did not give suffrage for this doctrine; and
here I found the woi-ds of Vossius very positive, that Eccksia Ca-
tholica sic semper judicavit, 'the catholick church always so judged;'
which he endeavours to prove by testimonies from Ignatius to St.
Austin. This set me on the laborious task of perusing the writings
of antiquity till that time; and, upon an impartial search, I found
that all the passages he had collected were impertinent, or at least
insufficient to prove the point; yea, I found evidence sufficient of the
truth of that which Peter du Moulin plainly owns, " that, from the
time of the apostles to St. Austin's time, all the ecclesiastical writers
seem to write incautiously of this matter, and to incline to what he
calls Pelagianism." And of this having made a collection, I finished
" A Treatise of Original Sin," in Latin, which hath been composed
about twenty years, though I have not thought it advisable to pub-
lish ft.
Another time I discoursed with a physician, who said, There was
some cause to doubt the truth of scripture; " For," saith he, " it
" seems plainly to hold forth the doctrine of absolute election and
(c reprobation, in the ninth chapter to the Romans, which is attend-
" ed with more evident absurdities than can be charged on them
" who question the truth of scripture; and also seemeth as repug-
" nant to the common notion which mankind have received of di-
" vine justice, goodness, and sincerity, as even the saying that God,
" considering man, in massd perditd, ' as lost in Adam,' may delude
" him with false miracles, seemeth repugnant to his truth." And
reading, in Mr. Dodwell, a that bold stroke, that "StJPaul, being bred
a Pharisee, spake there, and is to be interpreted, ex mcnte Pharisee-
orum, ' according to the doctrine of the Pharisees concerning fate,
which they had borrowed from the Stoicks';" I set myself to make
the best and the exactest search I could into the sense of the apostle
in that chapter, and the best help I had to attain to the sense of
that chapter which I have given in my paraphrase, I received
from a manuscript of Dr. Patrick, the late worthy bishop of Ely, on
that subject. Thence I went on to examine all that was urged in fa-
vour of these doctrines from the holy scripture, and this produced
a Proleg. ad J. Steam dceWtin. Sec. 41. p. 117-
PREFACE. W
one considerable part of these discourses. And it was no small con-
firmation of the sense both of the places here produced against,
and rescued from, the false interpretations of the adversaries of this
doctrine,
First. That I found I still sailed with the stream of antiquity,
seeing only one, St. Austin, with his two boatswains, Prosper and
Fulgentius, tugging hard against it, and often driven back into it
by the strong current of scripture, reason, and of common sense.
II. Secondly. I also found that the heretics of old used many of the
same texts of scripture, to the same purposes, as the patrons of these
doctrines do at present; as hath been oft observed in these discourses.
Thirdly. That the Valentinians, Marcionites, Basilidians, Mani-
chees, Priscillianists, and other heretics, were condemned, by the
ancient champions of the church, upon the same accounts, and from
the same scriptures and reasons, which we now use against these
Decretalists; and the principles on which they founded all they:
consultations of them were these,
(1.) That it is not our nature, but our will and choice of that
from which we might abstain, which was the root and fountain of
all our wickedness; " For otherwise," say they, rS TrowvavTOs r,v
syxXr.pa, " that ' God who is the author of our nature, must be the
" author of our sin';" this doctrine they unanimously teach, from
Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, to St. Austin, who declares, naturd
malas animas nullo modo esse posse? ' that it is impossible, according
to the definitions he had given of sin, that. souls should be evil by
nature.'
(2.) That we do not become sinners by our birth, and that they
who say we are ' by nature children of wrath,' in the most dreadful
sense, make God the author of our sin; it being God who hath
established the order, in the generation of mankind, which neither
he that begets, nor he that is begotten, can correct, and by whose be-
nediction maakind increase and multiply. " An infant therefore
cannot," say they, "be a sinner by his father's fault;" W)c>V achxSfffV CTm&&H. (Thcophylact. ibid.) Similia habet Cyrillus in
locum.
' The Heretics are in the habit of calumniating us, by asserting that it cannot be the word of a good
God which says, " one man must be punished for the offences of another ;" but even according to the rea-
soning of those persons, who, while they allow the terms of the law to be just, will not call them good,
they cannot discover how, in their notion, it is in accordance with God's justice that 'one man sinning,
another should be punished for it." (Horn, 8. on Exodus.) ' Neither is it to be suffered that, on account of
one man's sin, another be punished.' (Chrt/sostom on the same text.) ' Nor is it just for the sins of the
fathers to be imposed on their children who had not committed any offence.' (Thcophylact on the same.)
Cyril, on this pa=?,age, expresses himself in a similar manner.' KD.
/ Injustum \ideturutaliuspeccct, et alius puniatur, sed illucl quod sequitur ' His qui meoderunf,'
scandalum solvit, non enim ideo puniuntur quia deliquerunt patres corum sed quia patrum extiterunt
jcmulatores, et oderunt Deum hercditario malo, et impietate ad ramos quoque de radice crescente.
(tlicron.tnEzek.f. 194. lit.i.) i
' It appears unjust that when one man sins, another should be punished for it. But ('cm them Uint
halt me,') the expression which immediately follows, solves the objection : for they are not punished for the
delinquency of their fathers, but because they have stood forth as the rivals of their fathers' evil actions,
and have hated God with a hereditary viciousness, ami an impiety which has increased from the root to
ttie branches.' .oi, ' evil by nature,' " or that
" matrimony was evil, because it produceth seed polluted, jx ywrr,s t
'from the birth,'" we have produced the testimonies of ^Irenaeus,
* Estqueloci istius is sensus quomodo si quis velit dicere ' Patres mam acerbam comcderunt, ft
tlenttsJUiorum obstupucrunt, ridiculum e?set, et ntillam habens consequentiam, sic iniquum est et
perverse, " peccare patres, et filios nepotesquc crucian." (Hieron. in Kzek. f. 191.)
1 'Qi> roivuv o^yr t s ^ TtfA&jfix aXX' otKQWi^ix. fjOtyizs /u-syiVrr,*:
(j.i>rr) Tr,v a ( aa;gTav rwv avS'gwEwv TO yiws us xtrixv SXVZTH vsyEv
fAzlec. T'W irafdSaiffn rri$ wroXr,;, faritytpu T Sfa.vz.~vt rr/v \}/-/;cpov o ~ av-
ffO&OS. (Theodoret. in Gen. qu. 57.)
' It was not then a punishment dictated by anger, but an appointment of the most profound wudom.
He who is all-wise, subjected the race of men to thescnttiic? of death, that they might hate sin, wlu'eh,
through breach of the commandment, was the cause of death.' ( Theodoret on Genesis.) ED.
k Ejecit eum de Paradko, et a ligno vitae longe transtulit, n6n invidcns ei lignum vita?, qtierrmdmo-
dum quidam dicunt, sed miserans e;as, ut non perseveraret scmjKr transgressor netiue immortale esset
quod esset circa eum peccatum, ef malum interminabile, et insanabile, prohibuit auti-m ejus transgrcs-
sionem, interixDnens mortem, ct cessare faeieng peccatum. (Iron. I. Z. c. 37-) 'O
xi AI/TOV ts rw
yi PREFACE.
Clemens of Alexandria, and others. To which add, that the doc-
trine which taught that men were sinners from the birth, is expressly
condemned by *Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theophylact,
in their commentaries on the 9th chapter of St. John's gospel; where
thev teach, (1st.) That "the question of the disciples, 'whether he
that was born 'blind had sinned,' was, eps!>Tn
' God found out death in our behalf, for the abolishing of sin, that when sin sprung up in us who
are endued with immortality, it also might not continue immortal.' (Methodius.)
' That this evil might not be immortal.' (Gregory Nazianzeii-) ' That God might not be the au-
thor of sin.' (Basil.} ED.
yxp an
XZ.KSWO o"70//,V, OT1
o/i wre 57oj rJ/xaTv TM/O hiyzi oil EVJ >c
?&;<, EJtTwv 8r. QJ yovsj^ayrS rSro EJTTEV oil svi Sia yovEar xoXa-
ffQilvaj. (Chrysost. ibid.)
' Neither is it proper, tliat on account of one man's sin another should be punished ; since if we allow
Ciis, we must admit the following, that he sinned before his birth. As therefore by saying " Neither
hath this man sinned," he does not assert that it is lawful to sin after the birth; so by saying, " Nor have
his parents sinned," he does not acknowledge that it is right for a man to be punished en account of
/through) his paremts.* (Chryostom.) ED.
PREFACE* Vll
or how it would be worse with those who lie under their absolute
decree of reprobation, if it indeed were with them, according to the
doctrine of those heretics. For,
(i.; Are they not as certainly wicked by the fall of Adam, and as
certainly damned after God's decree, de non dando attxilium necessarium
ad vitandum peccatum, 'of not affording to them the help necessary to
avoid that sin to which he hath threatened damnation,' as they would
be by being left under the power of the heathen Arimanius, or of
the anti-god of Manes, which by the fathers are pronounced blas-
phemous doctrines ?
(ii.) Are they not as certainly wicked, and de massd pcrditd, by
being born of Adam, and being left remedilessly in that state of per-
dition, as they would be according to the doctrine of the Stoics and
Origenists, the Marcionites and Valentinians, by being compounded
of that flesh or matter which did necessitate them to sin? Or is
there any great difference betwixt being Imprimis veto videbunt nequid unquam doceant pro condone quod a populo religiose teneri et credi
velint, nisi quod oonsentaneum sit doctrime Veteris aut Novi Testament!, quodque ex ilia ipsa doctrina
Catholic! Patres et veteres Episcopi collegerintf (Sparrow's Collection, page 2J6-)
CONTENT;
PREFACE.
THIS Preface shea's, I. Plow the Author, who had his
education under men of the Calvi nistical persuasion, came to doubt
of, and afterwards to reject, those doctrines, II. The affinity they
bear to many doctrines of the heretics condemned by the church of
God front the same principles and arguments here used against them,
viz. the heresies of the f'a/entinians, the Marcionites, Basilidians,
the ('erdonians, the Manichees, and the Priscillians; and the lit-
tle difference there is betwixt their sentiments. 11 [. That these
opinions mere derived, not from the scriptures, or from the doctrine
of antiquity, zchich is plainly contrary to them in every point, but
from St. Austin and the schools. IV. That they may be rejected
without any contradiction to the doctrine of the church of England.
DISCOURSE I.
CONCERNING ELECTION AND REPROBATION.
CHAP, I.
/. THAT the zcord aSoxi/xor hath no relation to any decree
ef reprobation, but only to God's disapproving of the corruption of
men's faith or manners. II. This pretended decree of reproba-
tion is not proved (I.) from those words of Solomon, that " God
made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of wrath."
Prov. xvi. 4. II I. 'Nor (Q.}from those zcords of St. John xii.
38. " Therefore they could not believe because Esaias said, He
hath blinded their eyes, #c." IV. Nor (3.) From those zcords,
Xli CONTENTS.
" Theij stumble at the zcord, being disobedient, whereunto also they
zcere appointed." 1 Pet. ii. 7- 8. V. Nor (4. \from those words,
" Men of old ordained to this condemnation." Jude 4. VI. An
answer to some other texts produced by Dr. Tzciss in favour of
this doctrine.
CHAP. II.
This doctrine is contrary to the perfections oj the divine
nature, viz. I. to his natural desire, that all men should love,
fear, and obey him. II. To the sincerity and zcisdom of God.
CHAP. III.
J. What absolute election doth import; and that the election
mentioned in scripture (1.) is not of particular persons, but of
whole churches and nations. (2.) That it imports rather an elec-
tion to enjoy the means of grace tendered in t/te gospel, than to a
certainty of salvation by those means. (5.) That it is a condi-
tional election to be made sure by good works. II. This is pro-
ved (1.) from the import of the word throughout the whole Old
Testament. III. (2.) From the places where the word is used in
the New Testament. IP. The import of the words txpoyvcoffif, tspo-
$7tj, wgow^iu/x-oy, and that they do not prove an absolute election.
V. An answer to all the other places produced to prove it, as (v.
g. 1.) " All that the Father giveth me shall come to me." John vi.
37. 3Q. VI. (2.) " .4s many as were ordained to eternal life be-
lieved." Acts xiii. 48. / 11. (3.) " That all that love God are
called according to his purpose, justified and glorified." Rom. viii.
28, 29, 30. VIII. (4.) " That God knoweth who are his"
2 Tim. ii. 19.
CHAP. IV.
The doctrine of absolute election confuted, I. From God's
will, thai all to zchom the gospel is revealed should repent and be-
lieve to the salvation of the soul, and yield sincere obedience to the
w'ill of God. II. The answer to this argument is confuted, (2.)
From the falsehood of the foundation of it, viz. the imputation of
the sin of Adam by God's arbitrary will to his posterity. III. This
imputation is not proved from those zcords, " In whom all hate
CONTENTS. X1U
sinned," and " By the disobedience of one many zcere made sin-
ners.'" (3.) From the falsehood of this decree, as to the parts of it,
absolute election and reprobation ; and as to the end of it, the
manifestation of God's glory in his acts of ' gi ace, mercy, and
of justice. II . The immanent acts of God's trill may have respect
unto the actions of men by Kay of motive or condition.
CHAP. V.
/. That the doctrine of absolute election and reprobation is con-
trary to the sentiments of the fathers, is proved, from their
unanimous declarations, that " God hath left it in our poicer to be
good or bad, vessels of honour or dishonour, zcrath or mercy, $c."
II. From the exposition they all gave, before St. Austin, of the
8th andQth chapters of the Romans. III. From their decla-
rations that God predestinates men to life or death from a presci-
ence of what they zcould be. If'. From the confession of
Prosper, that " all the ancient fathers zcere against the doctrine
of St. .Justin."
DISCOURSE II.
CONCERNING THE EXTENT OF CHRIST'S REDEMPTION.
CHAP 1.
/. THE scripture frequently and expressly saith " Christ died
for all," and never saith any thing to the contrary, not zchen it saith,
" He gave himself a ransom for many, and he laid dozen his life
for his sheep, $c." II. This is proved ( I .) From those zcords, " As
by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to jus-
tification of life," Rom. v. 18. lit. (Q.) From these words, " He
died for all, that they zcho live might not henceforth live to them-
selves." 2 Cor. v. lo^ IF.(3.) "God zvould have all men to be
saved; Christ gave himself a ransom for all." 1 Tim. ii. 4. 6.
r. (4.) From those zcords, " T/te saving grace of God hath ap-
x i r CONTENTS.
peared to all men" Tit. ii. 11,12. VI. (5.) From those words, " Christ
was made a little lower than the angels, that by the grace of God fie might
taste death for every man." Heb. ii. 9- VII. (6.) From these words,
" God is long-tuffering to its-ward, not being willing that any should pe-
rish, 4-c." 2 Pet. iii. 9- Where the usual answers to all those places
are considered and confuted.
CHAP. II.
The second general argument for this extent of Christ's salutary
passion its taken from all the plates where Christ is represented as the Sa-
viour of the world. I. to V. The absurdity of the restrictions commonly
put upon those texts.
CHAP. III.
I. This doctrine is farther proved, because he died for them that pe-
rish. II. For them who being sanctified by the blood of the New Cove-
nant, did after count it as an unholy thing, and did despite to the spirit
of grace. III. Because he bought them who denied him.
CHAP IV.
I. This doctrine is confirmed, from the obligation of all to whom the
gospel was preached, to [believe in Christ. II. All the places produced*by
the Synod of Dort against this doctrine, are plain confirmations of it.
CHAP. V.
1. This chapter contains an answer to the arguments produced from
scripture to prove Christ died not for all. (1 .) Because they for whom
Christ died may say, " Who shall condemn us?" Rom. viii. 34. which
yet all men cannot do. II. Because to all for whom God " delivered up
his Son, he will freely give all things;" Rom. viii. 32. which, yet he
will not give to all. III. Because they who by Christ's death are recon-
ciled to God, "shall be saved by his life;" Rom. v. 10. which yet all
men shall not be. IV. Because those for whom Christ died, " he loved
with the greatest love;" John. xv. 13. but so he loved not all men.
CHAP. VI.
/. This section offers arguments from reason for the universality of
Christ's redemption. (1.) Because otherwise he never intended salva-
tion to any by the gospel dispensation but the elect, the absurdities of
which assertion are discovered. II. Hence it follows that Christ never died
with an intention to do any good to the soiils of others, which contradicts
CONTENTS. XV
his own frequent words. III. That none but the elect are obliged to be-
lieve in Christ. IV. And that none can be at last condemned for unbe-
lief and impenitency. V. That neither the elect nor non-elect can be
ejthorted to believe. VI. " That many who live under the preaching of
the gospel, have not means sufficient to obtain salvation," the manifold
absurdities of that assertion shewed. VII. The absurdity of that eva-
sion, " That we had strength sufficient given us in Adam to believe and
repent," largely shewed. VIII. And is farther evident from our Lord's
words and actions. IX. The unworthy reflections which this doctrine
makes upon our gracious God and merciful Redeemer, is demonstrated
in jive particulars. X. It also is obstructive of Christian piety and vir-
tue. XI. Objections answered. XII. Two corollaries hence, (1.) God
cannot have made a peremptory decree of any absolute election of some
few to salvation; and (2.) cannot be wanting to afford grace sufficient
to salvation to any ; for then Christ, as to them, must be dead in vain.
XIII. The doctrine of universal redemption hath the suffrage of all
antiquity.
CHAP. VII.
/. This section contains an answer to six objections from reason against
the doctrine of universal redemption. (1.) That it is not reasonable to
conceive that Christ should die in vain with respect to any. II. That s work, as a resur-
rection, a creation, a new birth. III. (2.) From those scriptures which
represent the unregenerate as dead in sins, and wiable to discern the
things of God, to think any thing as of themselves, to do any ihin f >ll
they be in Christ, to come to him till they be drawn, to bring forth usw, l in the improvement of the
least talent' shall have a suitable reward, and that ' to him that so
hath shall more be given;' it is reasonable to conceive, he will
deal with the heathens according to this rule. VIII. That we
mat) reasonably conclude, God will deal with them both in respect to
the acceptation and reward of their good, and his displeasure
mgainst, and punishment of, their evil actions, according to the
measures of their ignorance and knowledge, the abilities, motives,
and inducements afforded to them to do or to avoid them. And there-
fore (i.) That their good actions done upon less motives and con-
victions, may be more acceptable to God than the like actions done
by christians, upon much greater evidence and higher motives and
more powerful assistances, (ii.) That they may expect a reward
itponperjormance of less duty, because less will be required of them.
(iii.) That God should be more ready to pardon and pass by their
offences, as having in them more of ignorance and less of contempt.
(iv.) That he should be more patient, and long-suffering toward
them, before he punish, because the less the light is they enjoy, the less
is their offence against it. IX. That God may be more gentle in
punishing their iniquities, and lay the fewtr stripes upon them,
because they did not know their Master s will.
CHAP III.
A brief addition of some testimonies, respecting Gods general
goodness, by the Primitive Fathers, from the first to the fifth cen-
tury after Christ.
POSTSCRIPT.
An answer to some of Dr. Edzvards's Remarks, in which are
considered his weak attempts to free the doctrines he has espoused
from the imputation of novelty; and it is demonstrated that not one
of those doctrines was, in his sense, maintained before St. Austin's
time.
CONCERNING ELECTION AND REPROBATION.
The state of the question concerning God's absolute decrees of
election and reprobation.
1. l^ET it be observed from Bishop Davenant, that " no me^
dium can be assigned, either on God's part, betwixt the decrees
of predestinating some men, and not predestinating some others ;
or on men's part, betwixt men absolutely predestinated to the at-
tainment of life eternal, and absolutely pretermitted, and left in-
fallibly to fail of the obtainment of eternal life; which we call
Absolute Reprobation. As for example: Let us suppose the
number of mankind to be two millions of men; if out of these,
one million only, by the decree of election, be infallibly appoint-
ed to eternal life, and these certainly and absolutely distinguished
from others, not only as to their number, but their persons also;
who can deny but that one million also, and those certain as to
their persons, are as absolutely comprised under the decree of
non-election or reprobation, as the others were under the decree of
election or predestination?'" 1 So that there is no possibility of
asserting one of these decrees without owning the other also; and
so whatsoever argument holds good against an absolute decree of
Reprobation, must certainly destroy the opposite decree of Abso-
lute Election.
Now, is there any need of arguments to confute such a suppo-
sed decree as this ? ' 1 behold, through the fall of Adam, (by
1 my mere pleasure imputed to his whole posterity yet unborn, as
Aninud. on Hord. p. 205.
E
20 ELECTION AND (D1S. I.
' if it were their action, and they had personally consented to it)
' the whole race of mankind obnoxious to my eternal wrath, and
* utterly unable to recover from it. And though they be all ' the
f souls that I have made,' all equally wanting, and equally capable
' of, my favour; nor have I any reason to extend it to any of them,
' rather than to all; yet do 1 absolutely decree to vouchsafe this
' favour only to some few of them, leaving the far greatest part of
' them under a sad necessity of perishing everlastingly, for the of-
' fence of their forefather Adam, committed long before they had
' a being: So that they shall be as sure to be damned eternally as
' they are to be born in time, and yet I will proclaim myself unto
' them, * a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abun-
* dant in goodness,' on purpose that they may not perish, but be
' ( led by it to repentance;' and declare to them that my 'delight
{ is in shewing mercy' I will intreat them with the greatest ear-
' nestness, and even ' beseech them to be reconciled' to me, as be-
* ing so far reconciled to them in Christ Jesus as not to impute to
' them their transgressions and sins. I will send to them ' all
* my messengers and prophets] declaring that I do it, ' because I
* have compassion on them' I will allure them to repentance with
* the promise that ' all their sins shall then be blotted out,' and
* not one of them remembered against them. I will tell them, that
' ' / would have purged them, but they would not be purged; I
* would have gathered them, I ut they would not be gathered.' I
* will ask them, * Why will you dief and inquire of them, what
* ' I could have done more" to prevent it t which I have not done?
* Yea r I will seriously and solemnly protest and swear unto them
' by the greatest oath, even that of my own life, that ( I would not
' the death of him that dies, but rather that he should return and
* live.' But after all, I will be true and constant to that absolute
* decree of reprobation, which must render their damnation un-
' frustrable, and to the negative decree of withholding from them
* that grace which can alone enable them to escape it, or to re-
1 ceive any advantage from all these declarations.'
And hence we learn the falsehood of that assertion of the same
good Bishop, that 6 "Reprobation is not a denial of sufficient grace,
but a denial of such special grace which God knows would infal-
INTRO.) KEPROBATION. 27
libly bring them them to glory ; and that we cannot thence con-
clude, c that being not elected they are left without all remedy or
sufficient means of salvation;" or that being reprobated they are
" without sufficient" remedies " or means to escape damnation,
were not their own wicked will the only hindrance." For can
men be left " infallibly to fail of eternal life," and yet " not be
left wkhout all remedy or sufficient means of salvation r" If, as
he says, " God leaving them under the want of that special grace
and effectual guidance proceeding from divine predestination, they
never fail of running themselves wittingly and willingly upon their
own damnation ;" d have they, notwithstanding, sufficient reme-
dies or means to escape damnation ? Sure it is, there can be no
salvation, and no escaping of damnation, without conversion of
the will from sin to God, and a continuance in this estate unto
the end. If then these reprobates have no sufficient means to
turn their wicked and pei verted wills from sin to God, they can
have no sufficient means either to obtain salvation or escape dam-
nation. If they have sufficient means to convert their wicked
wills from the love of sin to a prevailing love to God, the pravity
of those wills can never be the cause why they are left infallibly
to fail of life eternal, or why they never fail of running on w ilfully
to their own damnation; seeing they have means sufficient to
rectify the pravity of their wills. Again, either these means are
sufficient to render them truly willing to believe and repent, or
they are not; either they are sufficient to remove the defectivenessf
and disability of will they have contracted by the fall of Adam to
these saving actions, 'or they are not. If they are not, how are
they means sufficient for the attainment of the salvation which be-
longs only to the believer and the penitent, or the escaping that
damnation which necessarily follows upon the disability and de-
fect for which no sufficient remedy is by grace provided? And
then, how have they grace sufficient for these ends? If they are
thus sufficient, then may they truly be willing to believe and re-
pent; and then this sufficient grace being vouchsafed to them,
there can be no obstruction in their will which necessarily hinders
their believing and repenting; and then they on whom God hath,
passed this act of reprobation, or of preterition, may believe and
c P. K. tt P. 28,
E 2
28 ELECTION AND (DIS. I,
repent, and therefore may be saved, as well, though not as cer-
tainly, as they who are elected to obtain salvation ; and so all to
whom the gospel is vouchsafed may be saved. Suppose a man
hath broken his leg by a fall, hath he therefore sufficient means
to walk, because he might have done so had not his leg been bro-
ken by that fall? If then the will of man by his fall be as much
disabled to walk in the ways of God, as this man's body is to
walk at all, can it be truly said he hath sufficient means to walk
in those ways, because he would have had them, had not his will
been thus disabled? "Adam indeed," as the Bishop saith,
" though not predestinated to stand in the state of innocency, had
yet sufficient means of standing," ' because he had no defective-
ness or disability in his will to do so. But what is this to the
case of those who are supposed to be so disabled, that, if they be
left to their own wills as Adam was, are so disabled that they
cannot stand?
When therefore this good Bishop proceeds to say, " that they
who are passed by in the eternal decree of God, are not by any
force of that decree left without the benefit which the scripture
promises upon condition of repentance, but the evangelical de-
crees stand in full force ; if Judas believe and repent, he shall be
saved; if Peter do not believe and repent, he shall not be saved." *
And by this thin piece of sophistry the good man attempts to
shew, that God is serious and in good earnest in all the offers he
makes to reprobates of mercy and salvation upon their repentance;
and all the threats he hath recorded in the holy scripture against
all, ( and therefore against the elect,) if they do not repent and
persevere to the end; and all the other motives and inducements
to engage both of them to do so. How unsuccessfully he hath
performed this, will in the sequel be demonstrated. At present
therefore 1 shall only put these two decrees one under the other,
that they may blush at one another :
1. Absolute election contains "an eternal, absolute, infallible
decree, that Peter shall believe, repent, persevere unto the end,
and be saved."
The evangelical conditional decree is this, that "if Peter do
not believe, repent, and persevere unto the end, he shall not be
e P. 30. f Corol. 2. p. 29, 50.
I'NTRO.) REPROBATION. 29
saved, but shall infallibly be damned;" and therefore God in' it
speaks to Peter thus, ' Except thou repent, thou shall perish ; pass
* therefore the time of thy sojourning here in fear; work out thy
' salvation with fear and trembling; continue in the faith, for if
* thou drawest back, my soul shall have no pleasure in thee; yea,
1 give all diligence to make thy calling and election sure.'
2. Absolute re probation is " an absolute, infallible decree, that
(for instance) Judas shall unavoidably fail of obtaining life eternal;"
that this event shall be so certain, that " he shall never fail to run
himself wilfully upon his damnation."
The evangelical conditional decree is this, that "if Judas will
repent, believe, and persevere, he shall be saved ;" and in pur-
suance of this decree, God lovingly invites and calls upon him
to believe and repent, exhorts, and even iutreats him by his am-
bassadors, ' to be reconciled to him, to turn from hit, evil ways, and
live-,' alluring him to do so by the hopes of pardon and salvation, if
he will hearken to God's calls; and persuading him by the miseries
which he will then incur, ' not to neglect so great salvation;' ex-
postulating the case with him, why after all these methods to
prevent his ruin, * he will die find not live? why 'he will not be
purged and made clean^ and how long it will be ere he zvill hearken
to his invitations ;' declaring that he cloth all this, 'because he
hath compassion on him,' and is ' long-suffering to him,' because
he l is not willing he should perish, but should come unto repen-
tance;' though 'his decree of reprobation hath rendered his damna-
tion a " certain and infallible event.''
II. Observe, that though the greatest part of them who assert
an absolute election and reprobation, or preterition, make the
object of them not man as man, but as fallen and therefore sinful
man; yet is the difference betwixt them and those who are called
Supralapsarians, very little; for the Stiblapsarians say, 'God de-
' creed that Adam should be the head of alt mankind, and there-
' fore to impute his first sin, and that only, to his posterity, and
* not to impute to therfi his repentance for it, though there was
* equal reason to do both, or neither; and foreseeing that he would
' fall, and render his posterity obnoxious to his eternal displeasure,
* he designed to glorify his free grace and mercy in saving some
* of them, and so in bestowing on them infallibly that grace which
30 ELECTION AND (D1S. J.
' shall unfrustrably bring them to salvation: others he absolutely
* decrees to pass by, and not bestow that grace upon them with-
' out which they cannot obtain salvation, or avoid eternal misery.'
JS T ow
First. Seeing it is certain from the event, that God absolutely
decreed to bring all men out of the loins or Adam, and that they
therefore become the posterity of fallen Adam, and so are bom
sinners and children of wrath, purely by being born, and so by
absolute necessity proceeding* from this decree of God, who could
have made them otherwise, and brought them into the world from
another head : Again,
Secondly. Seeing nothing makes the connexion betwixt the per-
sonal sin of Adam and the fall of all men in him, or their guiit by
reason of his fall, but God's arbitrary imputation of it to them;
(their being then in his loins, or his posterity, making them no more
guilty of his first, than of all the other sins committed by him be-
fore they had a being, and of which, it is confessed, they are not
guilty :) nothing: can make this connexion betwixt their being born
C* ^ * / O
men and sinners, childien of Adam and ' children of wrath,' but
these arbitrary and inevitable decrees. And
Thirdly. Adam being as much in nature our common head and
root, and we being as much in his loins when he repented to sal-
vation, as when he sinned to condemnation, there is no other
reason, besides God's arbitrary will, can be assigned, why God
should impute his sin to us to condemnation, and not impute
unto us his repentance to salvation, or for the pardon of it. For
if his person was our person, his will our will in sinning, why were
they not so also in repenting? If then, according to this hypo-
thesis, there is no possible difference betwixt being a man and a
sinner, and God's decrees alone have made this necessary con-
nexion, why might he not as equitably have passed these decrees
upon men as men, as upon men made sinners by his mere arbi-
trary decrees? Especially if we consider that the sins of all men,
besides Adam, are as inevitable, and as much decreed, by this
hypothesis, as by the other.
CHAr. I.|l.) REPROBATION. 31
CHAP. I
Concerning the decree of reprobation.
I SHALL endeavour to make it appear,
FIRST. That it hath no foundation in the holy scriptures.
SECONDLY. That it is contrary to the plain declarations of
the scripiure.
I. And, First, I observe that the word aSoxj///)?, \vhich we ren-
der ' Reprobate,' but might have as well been rendered disappro-
ved, hath no relation in scripture to any decree, either absolute
concerning the damnation of men as the end, (and consequently
denying or withholding from them the means by which alone
they can escape that damnation,) or of doing this on the account
of the sin of Adam; but only doth denote such actions of men
corrupted, as to faith and manners, which, being done, will cer-
tainly be disapproved by God and man. Thus those Jews, who,
through the prejudices and corruption of their minds, were indis-
posed to receive, and therefore did resist, the truth of the gospel,
(as Janues and Jambres did of old God's message by his servant
Moses,) are styled aSoxt/xot TCZQ. rra//,o<, f reprobate, ' c that is, void not
only of judgment to discern what was good, but also of affection
to approve of it. And that earth is styled aojcj//,or ' reprobate'
or rejected, which after all the showers which fall upon it, ' brings
forth only thorns and briars;" 1 and that silver,
: 2 Tim. iu. 8. b Rom. i. 20, 28. . c XiU k J6. 4 Heb. vi. 8.
S2 ELECTION AND (f)IS. 1.
' reprobate silver,'" which being falsely stamped or coined, will
not be received, but rejected. And in this sense, St Paul saith,
^he ' kept under his body, lest, whilst he preached to others, he
himself should be,' aSoxiptoy, 'disowned' and 'rejected' by God.
Now all these reprobates being either so styled, not because God
was unwilling to have any favour for them or had any antecedent
purpose to reject them, but because their prejudices and corrup-
tions caused them to reject him by disapproving of his truth and
ways, or because the actions they in time did, in opposition to
his truth revealed to them and his holy word which he had given
them to direct their actions, were rebellious; they cannot possibly
relate to a decree of reprobation or preterition, in God, respect-
ing them before all time.
II. As the word a6x*/%oy, translated ' reprobate,' cannot at all
concern this pretended decree of reprobation, which the school*-
divines have invented, and others from them have embraced ; so,
Secondly, is there nothing relating to it, or from which it can
reasonably be inferred, in the scriptures either of the Old or the
New Testament.
From the Old Testament they urge these words, viz. that ' God
made all things for himself; even the zcickedfor the day of evil'
(Prov. xvi. 4.) Now what is it that they would infer from these
words? Is it that God made men wicked? This doubtless is
blasphemy; much more to say, " He made them wicked for his
" glory," as if he had < needofthe sinful man e for that end. Or is
it, with h Dr. Twiss, that " all, besides the elect, God hath or-
dained to bring forth into the world in their corrupt mass, and to
permit them to themselves to go on in their own ways, and so
finally to persevere in sin ; and lastly to damn them for their sin,
for the manifestation of his justice on them?" This, for my life,
I am not able to distinguish from making them wicked; for to
bring them forth into the zcorld, and to make them, is the same
thing ; and by the same act by which they are made, they are made
of the corrupt mass; that only, signifying that they are made of
the race of Adam : and therefore by the very same act by which
God made them, he must make them sinners. Moreover, what
God ordained to do before all time, he in time did ; therefore in
e Prov. xxv. 4- Isa. j. 22. / 1 Cor. ix. 27. g Ecclesiasticus xv. 12. ft Against Hord, p. 5.
CHAP. I. 3.) REPROBATION. 33
time he brought these men forth into the world, in the corrupt
mass, that is, He brought them into the world sinners, that
is, hateful to himself; ' for the Most High hateth sinners:' 1
whereas that of the Book of Wisdom is as true as gospel, ' Thou
(O Lord) lovest all things that are t and abhorrest nothing that
thou hast made; for neither zvouldest thou have made any thing,
if thou hadst hated it' 1 ' See what hath been further said against
this hypothesis, in the state of the question, and in the notes on
Rom. v. 13, 19. Eph. ii. 2. Or, Lastly, they only mean, that
"God, for the glory of his justice, had appointed that wicked
men perishing impenitently in sin should be obnoxious to his
wrath;" and then they assert a great truth. But then it is a truth
which gives not the least advantage to their doctrine, nor is found-
ed on this text. For,
(2.) The text saith < God made all things,' llTlJ/d? (lamaanehu)
from IH^jt/, (anahii) * to answer to themselves,' or * aptly to refer
one to another.' ' He hath made the wicked for the evil day,'
that is, to be the executioner of evil to others; on which account
they are in scripture called God's t Rod,' l and said to be a ' sword
of his.'
III. A SECOND text cited to prove this decree of reprobation,
or preterition, runneth thus; 'Therefore they could not believe
because that Isaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes and
hardened tlieir hearts, that they should not see with their eyes, or
understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should heal
them." 1 Like to which are those words of St. Mark and St. Luke,
' To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,
but to others (who are without the kingdom,) 1 speak in parables;
that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they mat/
/tear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted,
and their sins should be forgiven them.' " From which words the in-
ference they make, contains this strange and uncomfortable doc-
trine, viz. " That the infidelity even of God's own people is to be
resolved, not into the perverseness of their wills or the evil dis-
positions of their hearts, but into the divine predictions, or into
i Ecclesiasticus xii. 6. * xi. 24. I Isa. x. 5. Psalm xvii. 13. m John xii. 39, 10.
n Mark iv. 11, 12. Luke yiii. 9, 10. ,
34 ELECTION AND (DIS. I.
a judicial blindness and obduration wrought by God upon them,
which renders it, though not naturally, yet morally, impossible for
them to believe:" Therefore for explication of them, and to
demonstrate the falsehood and absurdity of this inference, let it
be noted,
First. That our blessed Lord, in the immediate precedent
verses, doth passionately exhort these very persons to * believe
and walk according to the light, that they might be children of
the light,-' which is a certain evidence that he well knew his
Father had not, by any of his actions, predictions, or decrees,
made it thus impossible for them to believe on him, or walk ac-
cording to his doctrine. For if God had so blinded their eyes
thut they could not see the light, or so hardened their hearts that
they could not embrace it, Christ would not, or rather could not,
have exhorted them to believe, or seriously require them, thus
disabled, to walk according to the light, much less to do it so ef-
fectually that l they might become the children of the light.' For
every exhortation to do a thin> we know meu cannot do, must
be vain ; and he who by it seems to be desirous we should do that
which he knows we cannot, must delude us; and if he knows
that God hath, by some antecedent purpose, will, or decree, re-
solved to withhold that aid by which alone we can be in a capa-
city to do it, it must also be aij exhortation repugnant to the will
of God; it being in event, and in effect, the same, to will that
any person should not do the thing which he requires, and to will
he should not have the means by which alone he can perform it.
Now it is blasphemy to say ' The exhortations of the Son of God
' were vain, delusory, and contrary to his Father's will.' More-
over (ii.) our Saviour knew these Jews were capable of mercy
and salvation by him,- for he expressly says, ' God sent him
into the world that the world by him might be saved:' p He
makes this declaration to them, ' These things I say unto you that
you might be saved ,-' 2 and this enquiry, 'How often would I
have gathered you as a hen doth her chickens -under her wings,
and you would not be gathered !' r And pathetically saith to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, ' O that thou hadst known, in this
thy day, the things that belong to thy peace! But NOW they are
# Verse 55, 36. p John iii. 17- g John v. 54. 1- Luke xiii. 54-
CHAP. 1.^3.) REPROBATION. 35
hid from thine eyes:'* Now, therefore, they were not ALWAYS
so. Christ then here taketh it for 'granted, that the people of
Jerusalem, in the day of their visitation by the Messiah, might
savingly have known the things belonging to their peace. Now
either this asserti on, ' That they might savingly have known
' these things,' was according to the truth; or his wish, 'That
' they had thus known the things belonging to their peace,' was
contrary to his Father's will and decree, which is palpably absurd.
And seeing'the will of Christ was always, the same with that of his
Father, it follows also that God the Father had the same charitable
affection to them, and so had laid no bar against their happiness
by his decrees, nor withheld from them any thing^on his part ne-
cessary to their everlasting welfare, (iii.) God himself would not
have his words so understood as if he were unwilling that the
Jews should believe, or had, by any of his purposes or actions,
rendered it not possible for them to do so; for* this zvas his com-
mandment, that tliey should beliete on him whom he had sent.' i
And why sent He his Son l to seek and save that which zcas lost,
even the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' had he not been truly
desirous that they should believe ? Or how could either Christ or
Moses accuse them to the Father for their unbelief, had the
Father himself resolved from all eternity to withhold from them
that assistance without which they could not believe? And lastly,
the Evangelist, and that Good Spirit by which he did indite these
words, did not thus understand them; for he, in the immediate
foregoing verse, objects this to the Jews as their great crime, that
1 though Christ had done so many miracles among them, yet they
believed not on him;' u whereas it can be no man's sin not to do what
he cannot do purely by reason of the act of God. These words
can therefore never bear that sense on which this inference is
grounded.
Secondly. Observe, that God's foreknowledge, sayings, and
predictions, have no such influence on the will of man as to lay
on him a necessity t. do what H e foreknows, and hath foretold,
he will do : For, were it otherwise,
(i.) All human actions must be necessary; for to that God
who is omniscient, all things past, present, and to come, are
t Lufce six- 42. I John vj. 29. u Versa 37-
36 ELECTION AND (DIS. I.
known. If then this knowledge of men's actions, which the
scripture doth ascribe to God, did make them necessary, all hu-
man actions must be necessary; and so the freedom of them must
be overthrown, (ii.) Then vice and virtue must be empty names,
we being capable of doing nothing which is blameworthy, or de-
serveth praise; (which yet the scripture plainly and frequently as-
serts we may;) for who can blame a person for doing only what he
could not help, or judge that he deserveth praise only for doing
what he could not avoid? And (iii.) then must all future recom-
pences be discarded, it being sensibly unjust to punish any man
for doing that which it was never in his power to avoid, and as
unreasonable Vo reward him for that action which cannot be praise-
worthy.
When then it is here said, ' Therefore they could not believe be-
cause Isaiassaid, &c.' these words must bear this sense, "There-
fore they could not believe because (that was fulfilled upon them
which) Isaias said," or " It had happened to them as he had fore-
told." Examples of such an Ellipsis we find frequently in this
gospel: So chap. ix. 3, ' Neither hath this man sinned, nor his
parents; aXX' Iva, BUT (this blindness hath happened to him)
THAT the works of God might be made manifest in him,' Chap,
xiii. 18, * / know whom I have chosen, aXX' 7va, BUT (this hath
happened to Judas) THAT the scripture might be fill filled, which
saith, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against
me.' Chap. xiv. 31, aXX' Vva yva), * BUT (ibis I do) THAT the
icoildmay know that I love the Father' -Chap, xv, 25, aXX' Vva
nl.vpuQri, ' BUT (this hath happened) THAT the word written in their
law might be fulfilled.' 1 John ii. 19, aXX* "vac. QxvspuQr), ' BUT
(they went out from us) THAT it might appear they were not all
of its.' And this exposition is confirmed by the Holy Ghost, who
(Mat. xiii. 13, J4.) saith from the mouth of Christ, * Therefore
1 speak to them in parables, because they seeing see not, &c.' And
when it is said, (verse 40,) ' He hath blinded their eyes, Sac.' ob-
serve, that the word He is not in the original, which only saith
tluis, TTi}t,8s-, and may be rendered,
' Malice or wickedness hath blinded their eyes,'as we read, Wisdom
xxii. 21 . Or, (ii,) the personal verb is put for the impersonal, the
active for the passive, that is, ' He hath blinded their eyes, and
CHAP. I. S.) REPROBATION. 37
hardened their hearts, for, " Their eyes are blinded and their
hearts hardened." To give you a plain instance of this nature,'
Isaiah xliv. 18, in our translation we read thus, ' lie hath shut
their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot
understand; 1 and yet both the Greek and Chaldee Paraphrast
read them thus d'nrt^y.vpu^av, ' their eyes they have shut and
darkened, lest they should see:' And that this is the true import of
the prophet's words, not that God, but that satan and their own
evil dispositions had done this, is evident from this consideration,
that this is spoken to the shame of them who made and worship-
ped senseless images, (verse 9 H>) and to convince them of
their want of consideration, verse 1Q. And that this must also be
the sense here, we learn, not only from the Septuagint, the Syriac,
and the Arabic, which render these words of Isaiah thus, ' The
heart of the people is waxed gross, and their ears have they
closed, lest they should see with their eyes ,' but also from our
Blessed Saviour, and St. Paul assisted by the Holy Ghost, who
both exactly follow this translation of the words, the one Matthew
xiii. 13, 15, the other Acts xx viii. 27.
OBJECTION. " But in St. Luke this is plainly given as the rea-
son why Christ spake to them without in parables, ' that seeing
they may not see, and hearing they may not understand'."
ANSWER. To take off this pretension, it is sufficient to ob-
serve that the words in St. Mark and^St. Luke are only an abbrevi-
ation of what St. Matthew saith was spoken by our Lord more
fully. For Christ might say what St. Mark and St. Luke relate, and
yet say more than they relate, as St. Matthew doth assure us he did.
But then St. Matthew could not have given us his discourse more
fully, unless our Lord had spoken it more fully than it is related
by St. Mark and St. 'Luke: Whence it must follow, that the
relation of St. Mark and St, Luke must be deficient; that is, that they
do not contain all that our Saviour said on this occasion, and
therefore must be filled up, or rendered entire, by the addition of
the words recorded^, St. Matthew. Since then St. Matthew doth
expressly tell us from the mouth of Christ, ' He therefore spake
to them in parables; because they seeing zcould not, or did not, see,
and hearing did not understand;' and that they therefore did not
see, hear, and understand, because ' their heart u'as waxed gross,
38 ELECTION AND (DIS. f,
and their ears heavy, and they had dosed their eyes lest they should
see. 1 Itseemeth evident that the words of St. Mark and St. Luke
must be filled up, or made entire thus; ' To others (of the Jews,
who will not own my doctrine, or believe in me, as you my dis-
ciples Jo) speak 1 in parables; because they seeing see not, and hear-
ing do not understand, for their hearts are zcaxed gross, and their
ears heavy, and their eyes have they closed, that seeing they may
see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not under-
stand.' These words are therefore nothing to the purpose for
uhieh^hey are produced ; they say nothing of God's decree or
purpose, antecedently to their being, to deny them grace suffi-
cient to see or understand their duty taught them, by our Lord,
in plain words as well as parables. For why then doth Christ ask,
with such seeming indignation, ' Why is it that you do not under-
stand my saying? (it only is) because ye cannot (endure to) hear
my Kordf* that is, because your prejudices and lusts^will not per-
mit yoii to receive it: This, doubtless, \Vasthegreat sin of the
Jews, and so they wanted not either natural power or aid suffici-
ent on God's part so to do, but only a moral power or a mind
well disposed to obey his word ; it being only of the wickedness
and perverseness of the Jews, who would not see, f come unto
the light, lest their deeds should be reproved, that they loved dark-
ness more than light;' that they were even unwilling to be healed,
or converted from their evil ways. And this will still appear more
evident, if it be further noted,
That these words, ' They seeing see not, and hearing do not
hear or understand,' are a proverbial expression concerning men
so wicked and so slothful, that either they attend not to, or will
not follow, the clearest intimations and convictions of their duty.
Thus to a revolting and rebellious people which had cast off the
fear of God, the prophet Jeremy saith, ' Hear now this, O foolish
people, and icithout understanding, which have eyes and see not,
which have ears and hear not:'" And God speaks to Ezekiel thus,
' Son of man, thou dzcelhst in the midst of a rebellious house, which
have eyes to see and see not, they have ears to hear and hear not, for
they are a rebellious house! ~ This is a frequent form of speech in
* John Tiii. . y v. 2B * cfcap. xii. 2.
CHAP. 1. 4.) REPROBATlbV. 39
Philo, who saith of men addicted to wine and sensual pleasures,
ofuvns x opwai, xxi axovrcf sx x8Tj, a that ' they seeing see not,
and hearing do not hear/ and Demosthenes mentions this as a
proverb. These words do manifestly therefore shew, that it
was the wickedness and perverseness of the Jews that indisposed
them to receive profit by Christ's plain discourses, which caused
him thus to speak to them in parables.
Lastly. Observe that they thus shut their eyes, and made their
hearts gross, saith God and Christ, ' lest they should be converted,
and I should heal them:' So that the design of God in sending of
his Son, was their conversion and the remission of their sins;
and hence St. Peter saith to them, ' Repent ye therefore and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out,' c for God having
* raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning EVERY
ONE OF YOU from your iniquities;' expressly teaching, that
God sent his Son to procure mercy and salvation to every one of
them ; and that they, by their wickedness and perverseness, ob-
structed these his gracious designs upon them, lest they should
be converted from their evil ways, and God should heal them.
For albeit this sad effect was not intended by them, yet since it
was the natural result of their shutting their eyes against the light,
it fitly is ascribed to them, as when the prophet Hosea saith, ' Of
their silver and gold have they made them idols, that they might
be cut off; d and the prophet Micah, ' The statutes of Omri are
kept, and all the zcorks of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in
their' counsels, that I should make thee a desolation.' e These
words are therefore so far from establishing, that they do evident-
ly destroy, the doctrine they were produced to ccmfirm. In fine,
let it be noted, that these were the very texts produced by the
heretics of old to destroy human liberty, and to prove that there
were some natures that could not be saved, and others which could
not perish; as you may see in Origen's Philocal. C. 21. p. 60.
and TIspl A^- L. 3. C. 1. F. 140.
IV. A THIRD text used to this purpose are the words of St.
Peter, ' To you that believe he is precious: but to them which be
disobedient, the stone which the builders refused is made the head
Afleg.' L. 2, p. 72. L. 3, p. 850. oguvlxs fj,r) ogoiv KO.I axov7a* (AYI axc'5, C Acts in. 19, 25, rf Chap. viii. 4i t Chap, vi. IS.
40 ELECTION AND (IS. I.
of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even
to them who stumble at the word, being disobedient, zchereunto also
they zcere appointed; f from which last words they argue, that
some of the Jews, even all that believed not in Christ this corner-
stone, zcere appointed by God to be disobedient.
ANSWER. " The meaning of these words," saith Dr. Ham-
mond, " is this, That they who disobey the gospel, standing
out obstinately against it, were appointed by God to stumble and
fall at that stone; that is, to be bruised by it, and by that means
to be destroyed among the crucifiers of the Messiah, and con-
demned with them hereafter; it being just with God that they
who will not reform and amend at the preaching of the gospel,
and so receive benefit by it, should by their obstinacy be condemn-
ed, and so the worse for it, Christ being set 'for the falling^ 5 as
well as ' the rising of many in Israel? and the gospel being ' a sa-
vour of death to them that perish,' and they being those whom
' God hath appointedfor zcrath* And to be sure it cannot signify,
that God absolutely ordained the unbelieving Jews, sir aVa'Qejav,
'Jo disobedience,' when as yet they were not, and therefore were
not disobedient : For then their future disobedience was purely
a compliance with the divine ordinance or will, and so could not
deserve the name of disobedience ; because it could not be both
a compliance with, and disobedience to, the will of God. Nor
could this disobedience be objected to them as their crime, unless
compliance with the will of God be so, and it be a fault to be
such as God by his immutable counsel and decree hath ordained
\ve should be, or it should render men criminal and obnoxious to
punishment that they have not made void God's absolute decree,
or have done what that made it necessary for them to do. Where-
fore this passage cannot signify, that the unbelieving Jews were
appointed to disobedience; but only, that being disobedient to
the gospel so clearly revealed, and by so many miracles and dis-
tributions of the Holy Ghost confirmed to them, they were ap-
pointed, as the punishment of that disobedience, to fall and
perish; for so the Hebrew word 7^2 or 7J>n, (Chasal,) and
the Greek Trpo^xo/x/^a and ar>cav5a>iov import, viz, the ruin and
/I Pet. ii. 7, 8. e Luke ii. . fi 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. i 1 Thess. v.
HAP. I. | 5.) REPROBATION. 41
the fall of them who stumble at this stone. (See the note on
Rom. xiv. 13.) Or,
Secondly. The words \vill fairly bear this sense, ' To you that
believe belongs w rt^r, 'the honour' (of being built upon this
corner-stone into a spiritual house;) ' but to them that are diso-
bedient (belongs that of Psalm cxviii. 22.) the stone which the
builders refused, Sic. and (also to them he is) a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of ojfence, even to them that stumble at the word, be-
ing disobedient)' sis o x.a.1 trsQwazv, 'for zchich also these stones were
laid' or put, the corner-stone for the building up of believers,
the stone of stumbling for the disobedient to stumble at. For to
both these stones belongs this preface, ' Behold I lay in Sion a
stone,' to the corner-stone, elect and precious here, and to the
'stone of stumbling,' Rom. ix. 33. And so this agrees with the
words of Simeon, ' Behold this child is placed for the fall and ris-
ing of many in Israel-' (Luke ii, 34.) In either of these senses
the words afford no countenance to this doctrine of reprobation.
Note,
Thirdly. That, as CEcumenius plainly shews, this was the old
ecclesiastical interpretation of these words; so doth he as appa-
rently reject the sense this argument puts upon them, in these
words, Elf o Kcx.1 E T e 9 oj \v
this by the light of nature, or by consideration of the elivr.u per-
fections, would lie under no obligations to love, fear, or serve
him; whereas among the Heathen sages, ezrerdtt/ and TTSJ^ST^J TO/
eo/, ' to obey God and follow his directions,' is rtprcst-niH as
the perfection and the chief end of man. -A^n, l.is moral and imi-
table perfections, viz. his holiness, justice, truth, goodness, n.er-
cy, being essential perfections flowing from his natuvo, rau?t also
be the rule of the exercise of his will and power; and as Gcd,
whilst he is what he is, cannot but be the proper object or our
love, fear, and our obedience, even so by the complacency i e hath
in those moral perfections, he cannot but be desirous that all men
should imitate them, and resemble him in them as much as they
are able, and therefore hath required his people to be ' holt/, be-
cause the Lord their God is holy, to be merciful as their heavenly
Father is merciful, to be J:ind to the unthankful and the wicked
that they may be his children, to be righteous as he is righteous, and
to put on the new man which is created after God in righteousness
and true holiness' Hence the philosophers have, by the light of
nature, conspired in this truth, that man then walks most suitably
to his nature and his dignity, when he walks after the exam-
CHAP. 1. 1.) REPROBATION. 47
pie of God; that the very end of all philosophy KX\ ri\vs TOO
xi/QpanrH, ( and the perfection of human nature,' consists in being
like to God; and that \ve then best glorify him, when we resem-
ble him in these perfections; that it ought to be his chief care
av^v, ' to live the life of God,' iju^T:^irivi'j^'-M. l ' to converse still
with him,' 'j/x,oi
SxXEXTOV, TO GIVE DRINK TO MY CHOSEN GENERATION,
my people whom 1 have chosen to set forth my praise."" There
we read of " Jacob my servant, and Israel mine elect;" and of
a " mountain which his elect shall inherit, and in which his ser-
vants shall dwell." p
In the prophet Jeremy, we find God is displeased with them who
said, " The two families ")Jl|l *"l&^ (Wisher bachar) WHOM the
Lord HATH CHOSEN he hath even cast them off."' The prophet
Ezekiel speaks of the day " when the Lord chose Israel, and
lifted up his hand to the seed of the house o'f Jacob,'" or engaged
f Verse 2. fil Kings iii. 8. i Psalm cv. 6, 43. k Psalm cxxxv. 4- I Psalm cvi. 5.
m !. xii. 8, 9> n xii. 11, 20, 21. o xiv. 4. p Uv. 9. q Jer.xxxiii. 24.
r Eztk. xx. 5.
56 ELECTION AN (DI3. t.
himself by covenant to be their God. The prophet Zechariah styles
God, " The Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem/' and speaketh of
a time when he shall yet " comfort Zion, and shall yet chuse
Jerusalem:"* and Daniel, of a time when 01 ExXsxroi dvrov, " HIS
ELECT shall not be able to stand before their enemies."'
And to carry on this phrase through the times of the Old Tes-
tament, in the book of Esther we are told of a time in which TO
ye'voy exXcXTov, "'THE CHOSEN GENERATION' should have pe-
rished, that is, in which the wicked Haman designed to cut off
the Jews. And in the book of Ecclesiasticus we are informed
that *" Joshua was made great, STTI curr^a. exXex/rav dvrov, FOR
SAVING THE ELECT or GOD, that he miglll set Israel in their
inheritance."
Thus have I traced this phrase through the Old Testament,
and shewed that it belongs not to particular persons but to the
whole Jewish nation; to the bad, as well as to the good, among
them ; to them to whom he threateneth the worst of evils, as
wt-11 as them to whom he promises the greatest blessings.
III. SECONDLY. When in the New Testament it is applied
to Christians, it plainly doth include as many as were converted
to the Christian faith. For,
(1.) When it is applied to the Jewish converts it plainly signi-
fies all that had been converted to the Christian faith ; thus when
St. Peter writes to those of the dispersion (who had obtained like
precious faith with them) living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia (Minorj, and Bithynia, he saith to them all, "Ye are yaW
IxXexrov, AN ELECT GENERATION, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people, that ye might shew forth the praises
of him that hath called you from darkness into his marvellous
light;' >y all which are the very titles given to the whole Jewish
nation in the Old Testament. Now since St. Peter could not
affirm of all these christians, without a revelation, that they were
elect, according to that sense of the word which makes it to im-
port " men absolutely designed for eternal happiness," he only
must affirm this of the'm all, because they all professed Christia-
nity and so were visible members of the church of Christ ; as will
be farther evident if we consider these particulars :
s Chap. Hi. t, t Dan. xi- 15. u Esth. xvi. 21. at Chap. xlvi. 1. y 1 Pet. ii. 9>
CHAP. 111. 3.) REPROBATION. 0?
(i.) That he exhorteth these elect, " not to fashion themselves
according to the lusts of their former ignorance; to lay aside all
wickedness, deceit, envy, hypocrisy, and evil speaking ; as stran-
gers and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against
the soul;* not to spend the rest of their time according to the lusts
of men; to be careful that none of them did suffer as a murderer
or thief;"** which are offences not incident to men elected to sal-
vation, whilst they continue so to be.
(ii.) That the apostle affirmeth the same thing of the whole
church of Babylon, saying " the church which is at Babylon,
ffi/vexXexT?) ELECTED TOGETHER with you, salutcth you."' Now
that all the members of that great church at Babylon, be it
eastern or western, were chosen out of the world to the profes-
sion of Christianity, and in that sense elected, he who was with
them could not be ignorant ; but that they all were absolutely
elected to salvation, was more than he could know.
(iii.) That whereas this epistle is inscribed ' to the elect,' the
second epistle, sent to the same persons, beginneth thus, ' To
them who have obtained like precious faith with us ;'? and it not only
speaks of some who had " forsaken the right way," and had
" gone astray, turning with the dog to the vomit;" but also pro-
phesies that " those false teachers who brought in damnable doc-
trines, even denying the Lord that bought them, should make
merchandize of some of them. '
(Lastly,) These words are plainly taken from Isaiah xliii. 20,
21; where we read thus, "I gave waters in the wilderness to
water TO yg'vos- /Ait/ TO EX^SXTOV MY CHOSEN GENERATION, my
peculiar people," purchased to shew forth rds dgsTaf, ' MY
PRAISE,' which are the very words mentioned 1 Pet. ii. Q. Now
though it be unquestionable that the whole Jewish nation are
styled God's * chosen gemration, and his peculiar people,' it is
as sure they were not all elected to salvation. We then may rea-
sonably conclude, that the same words applied by St. Peter to all
these several Christian churches, do not imply that all their par-
ticular members were elected to salvation, but only that they
were all members of the church of Christ.
1 Pet. i. H. Chap. ii. 1, 11. c Chap.iv. 2, 3. 4 Vene 15. < Chap. v. 15,
/Chap. i. 1. ii. 1, 15, -22.
G
5S ELECTION AN (DI8. I.
And thus we read of " the elect lady" in St. John, (ep. ii. verse
l,)and "the elect sister," verse 13, that is, the chr'ukian lady and
sister; and when St. James saith l^sXti-aTo b so* l GOD HATH
CHOSEN 7 thepoor of the zcorld, rich in faith, and heirs of the king-
dom,' his meaning is, that they were called out of ihe world to
the profession of the faith, which, if they lived according to it,
would make them heirs of his heavenly kingdom. For the apos-
tles, in these epistles, writing to tho^e nations which had been
still accustomed to this notion of the word, and were all styled
"the elect," must be supposed, when they wrote to them, to use
the words of die Old Testament in the sense in which they always
understood them.
And in like manner when Christ saith, ' many are called, but
few are chosen,'* these parables plainly relate to the Jews, as
Theophylact well notes, and the import of those words is this,
That though many of them were called by Christ and his apostles
to faith in him, both in Judea and in the dispersions, yet few of
them did or would accept of him as their Saviour, or embrace
the faith of Christ, as hath been fully proved, note on Mat. xx.
16. xxii. 14. So that here " the elect/' and " the believers of
the Christian faith," are the same persons. When he saith, (Mat.
xxiv. 22.) that * for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened,"
He styles TOI/J irisus rovs cV /xtuots 1 aflroXE^a/ApLEvus a^roir, ' THE
FAITHFUL LEFT IN THE MIDST OF THE UNBELIEVING
JEWS,' "THE ELECT," saith Chrysostom ; " for the elect's sake
these days shall be shortened" that is, saith Jerom, " ne temporum
mora fides concutiatur credentium, 'lest by the length of these
tribulations the faith of believers should be shaken'." See the note
on the same words, Mark xiii. 20. When he adds, (Mat. xxiv.
verse 2,) that ' the false Christs and false prophets should do as
much as in them lay, by signs and wonders, to deceive the elect/
there also are we to understand the persevering Christians. See
the note there. And when he saith, verse 31, that then " God
should send his angels to gather his elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other," the meaning may be, either that
He would send his angels, as Eusebius and Epiphanius say He
Matt, xx, 16. x*i. H.
CHAP. III. 3.) REPROBATION. 59
did, to warn the Christians in ail quarters of Judea to gather them-
selves together, departing from ilie unbelieving Jews, that they
might be preserved from their ruin; or that he would send his
messengers with the sound of the gospel to gather together as
many as did or would believe the gospel from amoug the nations
of the earth.
THE ELECT (Luke xviii. ?) are also the whole body of true
believers; for otherwise God's readiness to 'hear the prayers of
his elect,' could be no argument to Christians in the general to pray
always and not faint, verse 1. Moreover, that enquiry, "When
the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth r " verse 8,
shews that even the faith of many of these elect would fail.
1 The election according to grace,' mentioned Romans xi, 5,
doth in like manner signify the whole body of the Jewish con-
verts, even all that did embrace the Christian faith, and were not
hardened in or blinded by their prejudices and infidelity; as is
apparent from the following words, verse 7, r n s exXoyy, sTrlru-^sv
* THE ELECTION HATH OBTAINED, but the rest were blinded'
And as it is not easy to conceive how the Apostle should
know how all the Jewish converts should be absolutely elected to
salvation, so is it evident from the epistles that he and others of the
aposties knew the contrary; for they contain plain intimations and
frequent declarations that a great number of these Jewish converts
turned afterwards apostates and renounced the Christian faith.
That St. Paul was afraid that some of these elect would afterwards
' draw back unto perdition,' and never doubted but they might do
so, is evident from all those exhortations he directeth to them in his
epistle to the Hebrews, not to do so, and from the direful judg-
ments he threateneth to as many of them as should apostatize.
For thus he speaks, " See to it, brethren, lest there be in any of
you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
but exhort one another day by day that none of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin; for we are made partakers of
Christ," only on this condition, that " we hold the beginning of
our confidence stedfast to the end."" Again, " Seeing there re-
mains a rest for the people of God, let us labour to enter into
that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief;"*
Hub. iii, 12, 15, H. b Heb. iv. 9, 11,
G 2
60 ELECTION AND (DIS. I,
for " it is impossible to renew them to repentance who have been
once enlightened, and have tasted of the spiritual gift, and have
been partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word
of God, and the powers of the world to come, and yet fall
a\vay;" c " look therefore diligently, lest any man fall from the
grace of God, lest there be any root of bitterness springing up
among you whereby many be defiled ;" d "cast not therefore away
your confidence which hath great recompence of reward; for the
just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul," saith
God, " shall have no pleasure in him."' Moreover, that many
of them would do so, our Saviour prophesied, sajing, " Be-
cause iniquity shall abound, the love of many will wax cold;"-^
even that love which was once fervent, and in which, " enduring
to the end, they would be saved:" and that many of them did thus
apostatize, or fall away to perdition, hath been fully proved, note
on 2 Thess. ii. 3. From all which things it is extremely evident
that the apostle neither did nor could speak of this ' remnant ac-
cording to the election of grace,' as persons absolutely elected to
salvation.
' The purpose of God according to election, mentioned Romans
ix. 11, respectelh not the persons of Jacob and Esau, but their
whole nation and posterity, according to the note of Irenaeus, Par-
turn Rebecca prophet iamfuisse duorum populorum. e * This is
plain,
(i.) From the words of God to Rebecca, ' Two nations are in
thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from tliif
loins, and the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the
elder shall serve the younger.'
(ii.) From this observation, that, as to the persons of Esau and
Jacob, this was never true, (that ' the elder did serve the younger,')
but only as to their posterity, when the Edomites became tributaries
to David. (2 Sam. viii. 14.) And,
(hi.) Because what is here offered as a proof or confirmation of
this, is cited from the prophet Malachi, who prophesied long
after Jacob and Esau were dead personally, and speaks expressly
f the nation of the Edomites.
C Heb. TJ. 4, 5, 6. d Heb. xii. 15. t Heb. x. 35, 58. / Mat. xxiv. 12, 13. g L. 4. c. 31.
* ' The offspring of Rebecca was a prophecy concerning two nations.' ED.
C-HAP. III. 3.) REPROBATION. l
Now hence it clearly follows that the apostle cannot here dis-
course of any personal election of them to eternal life, or any ab-
solute love or hatred of them with respect to their eternal inte-
rests; for if so, seeing he manifestly speaks of the whole nation
of Israel, they must, according to this opinion, be all elected to
eternal life; whereas the apostle informs us, that God was "not
well pleased with many of them;" and the whole Jewish history
shews the contrary. Again, then must the whole posterity of
JEsau be the objects of God's hatred and his reprobation,- which
is so far from being true, that holy Job and all his friends appear
to have been of the posterity of Esau. It is therefore certain, that
the apostle here only speaks of the election of one seed and na-
tion before another, to be accounted and treated by him as the seed
of Abraham, orouned for his peculiar people.
A\ > ii'-reas the apostle also speaks of "vessels of mercy
pre;> p -. d fur glory;" as they were thus prepared by their faith, so
M'HV \ s , is of mercy, even both Jews and Gentiles, bybe-
in?j caVc'rt, vtr '2.3.
When then the same apostle saith, " Who shall lay any thing
to the chaise of God's electr" here again 'the elect' and "true
believers" are the same: and God having justified them through
faith in him that died for them, who can charge them with guilt in
order to their condemnation?
And suitable to this notion of the word "election," where it
respects the Jewish nation, or the Jewish converts, is tie import
of it in those epistles; where whole nations, communities, or
churches are styled " the elect."
Thus, v. g. all the faithful brethren in Colosse, are styled " the
elect of God;" A aud yet to these elect he promiseth the blessings
of Christianity, only if they continued t rooted and grounded in
the faith, and were not moved away from the hope oj the gospel;' 1
And he expresseth both his care and fear, lest they should be de-
ceived and robbed of their reward; 4 ' and calls upon them to mor-
tify their fleshly lusts, as being things which would pull down the
wrath of God upon them.*
* Chap, iii 12. i Col. i. 33' <* Chap. U. \, 8, 38. I Chap. iii. 5i.
g2 ELECTION AND (DIS. I.
The same apostle saith to the whole church of Thessalonica,
styled the " Church in God the Father, and in our Lord Jesus
Christ, I know your election of God." m Now he knew well that
God designed them to be his church and people ; and therefore
gives this reason of his knowledge, " for our gospel came not to
you in word only, but in power." But it is not easy to imagine how
he should know, that all the members of that church should be
absolutely elected to salvation, without a special revelation; and
that he did not know this, he sufficiently declares by expressing
afterwards his fears " lest satan should have tempted them, and
his labour should have been in vain."" In his second epistle he
saiih, " We ought to give thanks for you, that God hath elected
you from the beginning to salvation, by sanctificatiou of the Spirit,
and belief of the truth;" and yet he there calls upon them "to
depart from every brother who walked disorderly, and not accord-
ing to the tradition he had received;"^ and not to 'mix themselves
-with them who would not obey the words of the apostle.
In his second epistle to Timothy he saith, " He suffers all
things for the elect's sake;" r but then if you compare this with
the parallel place of the same apostle, in his epistle to the Co-
lossiaiis, * you will find the elect to be no other than the whole
church of Christ, of which he was a minister.
In his epistle to Titus he styles himself ' an apostle according
to the faith of God' s elect:'* but having proved that all Christians
are styled " the elect," we may well interpret this of the faith of
Christians in the general, he being an apostle in reference to them
all, even to them to whom his gospel was ' a snvour of death,'*
as well as to them to whom it was ' a savour of life.'
Lastly. Whereas the strength of their doctrine seems to be pla-
ced in those words of the apostle, " He hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, according as he hath chosen
us in him from the foundation of the world;" 1 " these words are
plainly spoken of and to all the saints in Ephesus, and ' to the
faithful in Christ Jesus,' who were all chosen out of the world
to be God's church and people; but doubtless were not all infalli-
n 1 Thess. iii. 5. 2 Thess. ii. 13. p 2 Thess. iii. 6, 11.
2 Tim. ii. 10. , Col. i. 24, 25. < Tit i. 1. 2 Cor. ii. 16.
w Eph. i. 3, 1.
CHAP, III. 4.) REPROBATION. 6S
bly predestinated to salvation, but only to the adoption of chil-
dren, verse 5, which is the immediate fruit of faith, " we being
all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus." This is
exceeding evident,
(1.) From this very epistle, in which he exhorts diein 'that
they henceforth walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of their
mind;'* and cautions them that no man deceive them into the
commission of those things 'for zcirich the wrath of God comet h
upon the children of disobedience ; y and bids them "take to them-
selves the whole armour of God, that they may be able to stand
in the evil day; and, having done all, to stand."*
(2.) From his prediction, that u alter his departure grievous
wolves should enter in, not sparing the tiock; and that among
themselves men .should arise speaking perverse things to draw
away disciples after them." (Acts xx. 2y, 30.) And
(3.) From his advertisement to Timothy, that " all in Asia had
turned away from him; that Hyinenauis and Philetus had over-
thrown the laith of some ; a that the time would come when they
would not endure sound doctrine, bat would turn their ears from
the truth; that some, having put away a good conscience, con-
cerning faith had made shipwreck; that some were turned aside
after satan, and had erred from the faith;" 6 all which are incon-
sistent with the character of the elect, that is, of persons infalli-
bly predestinated to salvation.
IV. The other words by which it is conceived such an election
may be taught and signified in the New Testament are these three,
xgoywais l the fore-knowledge,' irpoQzatf ' the purpose,' 9rooi<7-
pcof ' the fore-appointment' of God; of all which let it be noted,
First. That none of them relate to particular or individual per-
sons, (save only when they are used of our Blessed Lord and his
sufferings for us,) but only to churches and nations in the general:
To the whole church of believing Jews and Gentiles, whom God
had chosen, Trgoopiaoif, 'fore-appointing them to adoption by Jesus
Christ. 7 (Eph. i. 5.) In whom also, saith he, exX.?jga;8jjw,ev 'we
were made his portion' or peculiar people, TreoogujQtvTss xara vp6
' being fore-appointed so to be according to his purpose.'
Chap. iv. 17- y Chap. T. 6. = Chap. vi. 13. a 2 Tiru. i. 15. u. 17, IS. iii. !,
* 1 Tim. i. 18. T. 15. t 21.
6 4 ELECTION AND (DIS. J-
(verse 11.) God having purposed and fore-appointed that this
should be the portion of believers, and the consequence of faith
in Christ, by which we become the sons of God : To all the
converted Jews throughout their dispersion, they being elected
xra wgo0ev, ' according to the purpose of God the father' (I
Pet. i. 2.) And, lastly, to the posterity of Jacob and Esau; of
whom, that r, XO.TK sxXoyw TH &&ou -
whereas what better excuse could be made for them than this,
that they could not come to him, as being not by God elected
unto that life he offered to induce them so to do? (2.) Hence
it must follow, that Christ could not reasonably have invited them
to come to him, or called them to believe in him, who were not
given him of the Father. For this was to invite them to come to
him that they might live, whom, he well knew, could never come,
as being never chosen to obtain that life ; much less could he have
told them ' this mis the work zchich God required them to do; or
that the Father had given them this bread from heaven:'* this being
to require them, according to this supposition, to believe a lie, viz.
that Christ was sent to be ' the bread of life and a. Saviour' to
them, for whom the Father never did intend salvation by him :
And yet Christ manifestly says to them, who seeing him did not be-
lieve, and therefore were not given to him by the Father, ' Labour
for that meat which nourisheth to life eternal, zchich the Son of
man shall give to you.' (verse 2?th.) And that 'thisis the work
(that is, command) 'of God, that ye believe in him that he hath
sent; and my Father giveth you the true bread, that comethdown
from heaven and giveth life to the world,' (verses 32, 33.) and there-
fore not only to the elect. I therefore here enquire thus, Was
our Lord truly willing that they to whom he spake should have
life? If not, why doth he say ' These things I speak to you that
ye might be saved? 1 If so, why did he say that he would do no-
thing but what he saw his Father doing; that ' he did always
those things zchich pleased him "" seeing it was not the Father's
will that they should be saved, or come unto him that they might
tf John v. 38, 40. A John xvi. 9. j Chap. xv. 22, 24. k John vi. 27, 29, 32.
I John v. 54. m John viii. 29.
CHAP. III. 5.) REPROBATION. 6/
have life, whom he had not given to him, that is, had not elect-
ed to salvation? And, (3.) were this so, the Jews must have had
just occasion to complain of Christ, and of his doctrine, as being
that which revealed to them their eternal and inevitable reprobation,
and made it be not only necessary, but even equitable, to reject
him, because the blessings which he tendered belonged not to them
in general, but only to some few who by the Father should be
given to him. (4.) Observe that Christ here gives a reason why
they believed not, viz, * Ye have seen and believe not, because ye
arz not given to me of my Father;' now it is reasonable to con-
ceive this reason should agree with all the other reasons assigned
of their infidelity, which yet are manifestly founded, not on any
thing wanting on the part of God, but on something wanting in
themselves, th-it they might do so, viz.
(i.) That they came not to the light, 'because their zcorks rcere
evi/;' a and being so, 'they hated the light, and would not
come to it; that they believed not in him ' because he spake that
trutii which was distasteful to them. (John viii. 45.)
(ii.) Because 'they had not the word of God abiding in them,' 1 '
nor believed God berring witness to him, nor Moses speaking of
him; und so, being taught of God, they would not learn.
(iii.) Because they were not of God. ' Ye therefore do not hear
the word because ye. are not ofGod;' c and because 'they had not
the hve of God in them. (John v. 40, 42.)
(iv.) Because they preferred the praise of men before the praise
of God, not 'seeking the glory which comet/t of God only.' (John
v. 44.)
(v.") Because they i:'ere net of his sheep, not docile, or disposed
to hear his voice : ' ye therefore believe not, because ye ate not of
my shee>>.' (John x. 26.)
(vi.) Because, through the perverseness of their hearts, they could
no, hear his word, ' Why do ye not know my speech? Eien be-
cause ye cannot hear my word:" 1 and this they could not do because
' they were of flieir father the devil, and his works they would do'
To assign therefore the true import of this phrase,
Observe, that to be given of the Father, doth not signify their
actual faith who were thus given, but only that they were prepared
John iii. 19, 20. i John v. 38, 46. John viii. *" 4 John viii. 43.
gfc ELECTION AND (D1S. I.
and qualified to believe ; for of them it is said, they shall come to
him, that is, they shall believe. First they are given, and after-
wards they do believe; as being by that act prepared so to do.
And therefore to be given of the Father, is,
First. To be convinced by the miracles which God had wrought
by him to testify the truth of his mission, and thereby to set his
seal to him, that he was the Messias, and the Son of God, and
to be willing upon these testimonies to own him as such; laying
aside all those prejudices and carnal affections which obstructed
their coining to him. This appears,
(1.) From the description which Christ gives of the persons the
Father had given to him, viz. ' They were thine, and thou gavest
them to me, and they know that I came from the Father, and they
have believed that thou hast sent me: e For this is spoken of Christ's
disciples, of whom it is so often said, 'they saio his miracles and
believed on him.'-? By them they therefore knew that he came
forth from God, and so they are said to be given of God, be-
cause he wrought those miracles which convinced them of the
truth, and made them to believe in him. (2.) This we may learn
from a like expression in the book of Deuteronomy, ' Ye have
seen all the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, the
great temptations, signs, and miracles which there he zcroaght,
K7} (velo) AND the Lord hath NOT given (or " hath NOT the
Lord given I") you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears
to hear unto this day' For here it is manifest, that the way of
God's giving them an heart to perceive, was by working those
signs and miracles before their eyes, which might induce them so
to do; and yet for want of improvement of them to this end, it is
admired that the Lord hath not given them this heart, or is im-
puted as their great fault, that he had not given it; that is, that
after all he had done to produce it in them, they had it not. So
^7.^ K71, (valo jelek) ' shall NOT Amnon GO with usr' (2 Sam.
xiii. 26.) J"IJi>j; *in^ K7}(velo echad asah) 'AND HATH HE
NOT MADE ONE?' (Mai. ii. 15.) ^N Vjfj N7, (lo libbi halak;
'WENT NOT MY HEART withthee?' (2 Kings v. 26.)
(lo nekabbel) ' Shall we not receive evilr' (Job ii. 10.)
e John xvii. 8. / John ii. 11.
CHAP. III. 5.) REPROBATION. 69
Secondly. Christ being sent by God the Father, that " the
world through him might be saved;" and to propound to them that
' eternal life which was with the Father, and by him was manifested
to us,' and to shew them the terms on which this life might be at-
tained, as he doth throughout this chapter; that is said to be
God's record, ' that he hath given us eternal life, and that life is
in his Son.' (I John v. 11.) And here it is said, that ' the Father
had given them the true bread from heaven, that giveth life to the
zcorid:' And they who were so convinced of the truth of this pro-
mise by our Saviour's miracles, as to expect to receive it by faith
in him, and obedience to his doctrine, and were so affected with
it as to esteem it above all other things, and so were willing to
apply themselves to the performance of those duties by which
this life might be acquired, and to reject and quit those things
which might obstruct them in the prosecution of it, are said to
be given to him of the Father, because he wrought those mira-
cles which gave them this conviction, (thus is the Father said to
have revealed to St. Peter that f Jesus was the Christ,' be-
cause he revealed the doctrine which he taught, and confirmed it
by the miracles he wrought, as hath been proved, note on Mat.
xvi. 1?;) and because he gave this promise of eternal life, and
sent his Son to reveal it to the world ; and therefore when he saith
to his apostles whom the Father had given him, " Will ye also go
away?" St Peter answers, " Lord, to whom should we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life; and we believe, and know that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Now it is evi-
dent that they who have this strong conviction that our Saviour
came from God, and this concernment for that eternal life he
promised as their encouragement to come to him, will believe on
him, because such persons can neither want assurance that they
ought to do so, nor the most prevalent motives so to do, as hav-
ing that eternal life before their eyes, which they more value than
all worldly things, and for which they are willing and prepared
to quit all their lower interests. For a conclusion of this answer,
let it be noted from Chrysostom^ on the place, THTOIS Ev, az-xys, ' not taking
away our free-will; far be it from us so to think!' for Christ in-
tends no more by the giving of the Father, but his revelation
from above, x ^v/jri'v suyc,vos-,ybr so he was disposed*
the sou of k Sirach says, that the conduct or government of a wise
man is TE-nrypc-Evos-, not ordained by God, but l well ordered or dispo-
rt Verse 5811. i Acts xx- 13. If Ecclesiasticus x. 1,
72 ELECTION AND (DIS. IV
sed by himself .' Thus ' Philo saith to Cain, "Thou needest not
fear being killed by them who are,iv
TtrayiAtwi rz%si, 'placed in a better rank;' and speaking of Esau
and Jacob, he represents Esau as fierce, subject to anger and
other passions, and governed by his brutish part, but Jacob as a
lover of virtue and truth, and so Iv jS&rtoyt rsray/xe'vov TO^SI,
' placed in a better rank,' or of a better temper and disposition ;
and adds, that Samuel was tirxy^ws raj Bsu, ' well disposed
towards God.' So f Simplicius interprets this word,- for when
Epictetus had said, "If thou desirest to be a philosopher, so retain
the things that seem best to thee, us Cmo SM Teray/xg'vor tls TXI/TW
TYIV rx%iv, 'as being by God placed in that rank,' that is," saith he,
9 us VTTO Q TrporptTrofAtvos 9ri rxvrx, " 'as being by God incited to
these things'." And to this sense the context leads, the persons
opposite to those ' disposed for eternal life,' being those who,
through their indisposition to embrace the offer of it, were ' un-
worthy of eternal life'
(2.) The second sense of which these words are capable is
this, That as many as were ' well disposed, believed to eternal life.'
Accordingly we are said to believe in Christ ' to eternal life,' r and
' to the saving of the soul; 3 because we, by believing, do obtain
a full right to that life of which we cannot fail, but by departing
from the faith, or suffering it to become unfruitful in those works
of righteousness which make us meet to be partakers of eternal
life.
VII. ARGUMENT THIRD. "If all that love God are called ac-
cording to his purpose, then hath he no purpose of calling them
that do not love him. If they who are 'foreknown are predesti-
nated to be conformed to this image of his Son,' they who are not
conformed to it are not foreknown. If they who are called (ef-
fectually) are 'justified and glorified,' then all that are not justified,
and will not be glorified, are not called according to his purpose,
or effectually."
i L. quad deter, p. 144. m De Nobilit. p. 702. C. n De praemiis et pcenis. p. 712. B.
De Temul. p. 203. C. p Enchir. C. 29. q Simp. p. 139. r 1 Tim. i- 16.
CHAP. III. 7.) REPROBATION. 73
ANSWER FIRST. This text expressly speaks of those \vho
actually love God, not of those whom God hath loved with this
supposed discriminating love. And to love God, and to be called
according to his purpose, are words put by way of apposition, to
shew they ate both of the same import; that which God purposed
in calling us by Christ, being ( that zee might be holy, and un-
blamable before him in love.' (Eph. i. 4, [).) So that the whole
of this argument may be granted; they who by God are perma-
nently justified, and who will be glorified, being such only who
do love God, and are conformed to the image of his -Son, and
who are called according to his purpose of making them ' holy
before him in love,' and called effectually, that is, so as that
God's calling hath its designed effect upon them. And let it
farther be observed, that when the apostle saith, cm as Ttplyvea,
( jor whom hejoreknew,' the particle cm is connective; and this
verse giving the reason or confirmation of what was spoken in the
former, it seems necessary to interpret these words thus, " Whom
he foreknew to be persons called according to his purpose, and
therefore qualified for this adoption, (Rom. viii. verse 23.) them
he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son." And
it deserves to be considered, that all antiquity, till the time of
St. Austin, do with one consent concur in the interpretation of
the Pseud. Ambrosius on the place, quos prtescivit sibi fore
devotos, ipsos elegit ad promissa pramia, ' those whom he fore-
knew would be devoted to his service, he chose to the reward
promised to them;' " thosa whom he foreknew to be THS o>%if
rr,s yCk-wtcas, l worthy to be called,' " so Theodoret and Theophy-
lact. Some of them in their descants on these words, roTs xara
vpoQemv xXTiToTV ' called according to purpose,' expound them of the
purpose or frtfe-will of man, declaring that a man is called by
God, xara 7va//xnv ^TOJ xXyais /xovov, aXXa xa! -n vpodsfflt ruv xxXufAtvuv
90JTYipia.v ipyy.vo<.To, u ' for it is not the calling only, but the pur-
pose of those that are called, which works salvation.' " For who,"
saith Origen,* " should be called to justification, but those God
loves ? And that rr>v r ty' r,[Aiv am'av itac^irnd ?%* TtgoOsaecus xa/ rr,s
s ) y the apostle shews, ' that the free-will of man was the
' (Ecumeciuit w Chrysostom. * In Ep- ad Rom* Ed. Huet. Tura. 2. p> 12i. y In Locum*
H
74 ELECTION AND (D1S. J,
cause of God's purpose and foreknowledge,' by saying ' We know
that all things zcork together for good to them that tote God,' cm
ioj (TyvjpyTJiTca/r, ' because they that love God are worthy of his
co-operation'." And in his Latin Commentary, he saith, he " uses
the word "fore-knew," to shew they were fore-known by God, in
quibus sciens quales essent amorem suum Deus affect mnqm po-
sidssct, l on whom God placed his affection, as knowing what
they would be'." But,
(2.) Saith he, " If you will refer this purpose to God, we
are then called according to the purpose of him, qui sciens in eis
reiigiosam mentem et salutis inesse desiderium, ' who knowing
they had a religious mind, and a desire of salvation,' called them;
and in this sense neither the cause of our perdition or salvation
will be placed in God's foreknowledge, nor our justification only
in our calling: neque glorificari de nostra penitus potestate subla-
twn est, ' nor will our glorification be exempted from our own
power'." Moreover he adds, that "by embracing this ABSURD
OPINION," as he calls it, " which saith, A man therefore is not
justified, and so not glorified, because he is not predestinated, and
that he is not predestinated because not foreknown ; Ingentem
fenestram aperiemus Us qui Jiegant in hominis potestate esse ut
sahusjiat, ' we shall give great ground to them who deny that it
is in the power of a man to be saved;' whence they infer, that they
are guilty of no fault who are not justified, because they are not
called, are not predestinated, are not foreknown." And CEcu-
menius saith, " the apostle mentions being called ACCORDING TO
PURPOSE, 'ivtx. [w aTOTrov afl'avTa sJ o Seos TivaJ sv eflroiyxTE, TIVO.S <$ a,
xa Trpauwftsfr^ia.* atfaX^aTTsj TOV 05ov, ' that he might not fall into
an absurdity, which vvoald follow if God should do good to some
persons and not to others, and that he might free him from being an
accepter of persons';" wherefore, according to the received inter-
pretation of the ancient Fathers, the import of these words is this,
First. Those whom God foresaw would be true lovers of him,
ECS* els TW a 10, 11.) And Christ saith of the apostles to
whom he gave the Spirit, ' I have given them the glory which
thou patent me:' See the note on John xvii. 22. So when a mi-
O
racle was wrought in Christ's name, S&O^E, ' God GLORIFIED
him.' (Acts iii. 13.) And when God wrought signs by Moses,
Eooao-v durov, ' He glorified him.' (Ecclesiasticus xlv. 3.) See
Luke iv. 15. John viii. 54. xi. 4. xiii. 3 1,32. xvi. 14. 1 Cor. xii.
26. And, in favour of these interpretations, let it be noted, that
when the apostle speaks of our final glorification in this chapter,
he still speaks of it as a thing future, saying ' We shall be glorified
x De glor(ficatione possitrmts in prasenti scculo illud inteUigere quod dicit Apostolus, omnes not aper-
ta facie gloriam Domini speculantes, eadem imagine iransformamur a gloria in gloriam, S^c.
' It is possible for us in the present life to understand what is here said by the Apostle concerning glo-
rification, ' We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass llm glory of the Lord, are changed in tlie
same image from glory into glory, &c.' ED.
a 'EcioiaTc Sia TUV ^a^WjLcarwv, ia rr,s yjo^ea/ar, Six. ruv
TO/V TJ l5i00eff/ar ; swChrysostomandCEcum.
xai 7rvWfJ,zl3' xy'iH Sa;r,T/X,v@^ J^a^iv; so Theotloret and Theophylact.
He hath GLORIFIED them by his gifts, by the adoption, by the gifts of adoption; so Chrysos-
tom and (Ecumenius. He GLORIFIED them Iby giving them the name of sons, and by endowing
them with the Gift of live Holy Spirit ; *> Theodoret and Theophylact.' ED.
Ho
w
^(J ELECTION AND (D1S, \.
Kith him,' (verses 17, 18, 2 1,) whereas here he speaks of it as a thing
past, saying, ' Whom he hath justified, them he hath also glorified.'
ANSWER SECOND. Another very probable interpretation of
these words is this, "Those whom God foreknew," that is,
approved of as persons fit to be received into his favour, (which
sense of vqotyw, hath been established by Origen, and in my note
on the place,) " he fore-appointed to be conformed to the image
of his Son," that is, to be like him in sufferings, (verse 17. 2 Tim.
ii. 11.) who * first suffered, and then entered into his glory,' and
so was the first-born among many brethren; he first suffering, and
" leaving them an example that they should follow his steps,'*
(\ Pet. ii. 21.) looking up to this Captain and Finisher of our
faith, " who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross,
and is sat down at the right-hand of the throne of God." fHeb.
xii. 2.) "And whom he thus predestinated, he in due time CALLED
to suffer;" for 'hereunto,' saith St. Peter, "are we Christians
called;" (\ Pet. ii. 21.J and to this they are ' appointed,' ( I Thess.
iii. 3.) " And whom he thus called, upon their patience under
these sufferings, tSixatWsv, ' he approved as sincere';" this is as
proper an import of this word, opposed to 'CONDEMNED/ as
any other. For as when it is opposed to CONDEMNATION BY
LAW, the opposite is TO BE ABSOLVED; so- when it respects
the person, it also signifies to APPROVE or PRONOUNCE INNO-
CENT AND RIGHTEOUS; God justifying and ABSOLVING us be-
cause heAPFROVEsofour faith and repentance, and pli o N o u N c-
ING us SINCERE, because he APPROVES of our heart and actions.
In which sense Abraham, sSiKsawS?), ' was justified' by works, when
he offered up his son Isaac; and Rahab when she received the
spies. ( James ii. 21,45.) So'srzsJomeotJcawSn, is APPROVED OP
by her children' (Matt. xi. 19.) So, ' by thy zeords SjxaiwSy/f,
thou shalt be justified,' that is, approved of, or condemned. (Matt,
xii. 37.) "And whom he thus justified, he afterwards glorified,"
that is, he gave them a glorious reward of all their sufferings, or made
them glorious under sufferings: according to those words of St.
Peter, 'If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you;
for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.' ( I Pet. iv. 14.)
Now to copfirm this interpretation, let it be observed that the
whole purpose of this chapter is to comfort christians against the
sufferings they were exposed to in this world. This the apostle
doth (1.) from this consideration, that < the Spirit which they had
CHAP. HI. 8.) REPROBATION. 77
veceivtd z&as not that of fear (of death, they being delivered from
the bondage of that fear by the death of Christ, Heb. ii. 15.) but
the Spirit of adoption,' which declared them ' heirs of God,' and
such as were to be glorified with Christ after their sufferings,
(Rom. viii. 15, 17.) who would raise their mortal bodies, (verse
1 1.) (2.) That this future glory was sufficient ground of patience
under all their sufferings; it being that which would entirely de-
liver their bodies from corruption, and translate them ' into the
glorious liberty of the sons of God.' On which account, saith the
apostle, ' / reckon that the sufferings of this present life are not
worthy to be compared to the glory zvhich is to be revealed.' (verse
18.) (3.) That whilst they continued in this afflicted state, pa-
tiently waiting for this glory, they had the Spirit of God, to help
their infirmities, and to enable them to intercede for it with silent
groans, according to the will of God ; and knew that all these
sufferings should ' zcork together for good to them zcho love Got/,
and were called according to his purpose' of making them like to
their head, Christ Jesus, who was made 'perfect by sufferings.''
And so it was with his own beloved people, styled * the people
ev Tr^iyvof WHICH HE FOREKNEW.' (Rom. xi. 2. Amos iii. 2.)
He determined that they should first be afflicted four hundred years.
(Gen. xv. 1 3.) He humbled these ' his sons and hisfirst-bornj before
he called them out of Egypt, and after he had called them thence
* he, humbled and chastised them as a man chasteneth his son.' (Deut.
viii. 5.) But all this he did for their profit, ' that he might do
them good in their latter end.' (verse 16.) After these sufferings
he justified them, that is, he approved and owned them upon all
occasions as his peculiar people, and defended them, and plead-
ed their cause against all their enemies, and at the last he ren-
dered them a glorious people in the eyes of all nations, 5o^ariads of souls, which otherwise would have contracted no such
guilt, and therefore would have been obnoxious to no such misery,
had not this compact and decree been made? What therefore
did he, by making this decree, but subject so many precious souls
to an inevitable ruin? How therefore could he contrive and make
such a decree and compact, without being willing that so many-
men and infants should be for ever miserable by it ? Since he
who wills the cause, wills also the effect, which, certainly and
inevitably, without their action, follows from it.
If in favour of these imaginations it be said, that " the scrip-
ture expressly teacheth, that ' in Adam all have sinned; and by
the disobedience of one many- were made sinners' ;" to this I have
given a sufficient answer in the note upon those words, shewing
( 1 .) that these words may and must have a metonymical sense, be-
cause of the absurdities which follow from the formal acceptation
of them. And, (2.) because the comparison made betwixt the
first Adam and the effects of his disobedience, and the second
Adam, and the effects of his obedience to the death, require it;
the Holy Ghost still speaking of his suffering for our sins in this
metonymical sense; as it is (i.) when he is said to ' bear our sins,'
only because he bore the punishment' due to them, (ii.) When
he is said ' to be made sin for us;' he being made sin for us, not
by contracting the guilt of it, but only suffering punishment for
it in our stead. (i\\.) When he is said ' to appear a second time
yju^is &jt,xprhxs, without sin,' a that is, without another sacrifice, in
which he was to suffer for it; and ' that by sin (that is, by what he
suffered when he made himself a sacrifice for it,^ he condemned
sin in thejiesh." 1 And (iv.) when he is said to be ( made a curse
jorus; d he being only so by suffering that death which the law
styled " accursed," and not as being so in the sight of God. And
(3.) because the opposite phrase, S/xaioj xaTas-aSoxrovrat,* required
that the words //.TO>XOH x.a.TBsoc.Qnya.vrf should be used in this
sense: For when the apostle saith, * by the obedience of one shall
02 Cor. T. 20 Heb. ix. 28. ft Rom. viii. 3. d Gal. iii.
' SfcOlbe made righteous.' ED. } ' Were made Sinners.' ED.
CHAP. IT. 3.) REPROBATION. 93
many be made righteous,' it is evident in itself, and proved by
three arguments, that he speaks not of Christ's active, but of his
passive obedience or suffering death for us. Now by this passive
obedience we cannot be made formally righteous, but only meto-
nymically, by being made partakers of that freedom from con-
demnation and the guilt ot sin, and the reconciliation which Christ
purchased by his meritorious death and passion.
111. ARGUMENT THIRD. This decree is false, both in the
parts and the end of it. The parts of it are these two :
(1.) That "God hath from eternity elected a certain number
of persons to salvation, leaving the rest under an absolute decree
of reprobation or preterilion; and that of this election or repro-
bation there can be no other cause but God's o\vu free-will. For
predestination," say they, " being an immanent act of the divine
understanding cannot be conceived as dependent upon any fore-
seen acts of man's will, and therefore his foreseen faith, repen-
tance, and perseverance cannot, in any good sense, be imagined
antecedent causes, conditions, or motives to the divine predesti-
nation;" and that is metaphysicks, and the jargon of the school-
men entirely ignorant of the true sense of scriptuie, made to coun-
tenance a decree reflecting so unworthily upon the honour of
our gracious God, that it is not easy to conceive what could more
visibly tend to the dishonour of his glorious name and attributes.
(2.) That "in order to the accomplishing the salvation of his
elect, he hath decreed to afford them that grace which shall infal-
libly and infrustrably bring them to salvation; whereas they who
are comprised under the decree of reprobation, are left," say they,
"infallibly to fail of eternal life," and so are left to fail of means
which may bring them to eternal life, or to escape everlasting
death. For they can only infallibly fail of the end, by failing of the
means which may produce it: For since he that hath means by
which he may be saved, may be saved; and he that hath means
by which he may escape damnation, may escape damnation; he
who by God's decree of reprobation, is left infallibly to fail of
salvation, and consequently to be damned, must as infallibly be
left without the means by which he may obtain salvation or escape
damnation.
(3.) "In the absolute election of those whom God hath thus
appointed to salvation, he decreed," say they, "to glorify his mercy;
Q4 ELECTION AND (l)lS. I.
and in the reprobation and the preterition of the rest, he decreed
to glorify his sovereignty and justice in their damnation;" 6 the
manifestation, therefore, of his grace and mercy in the salvation
of the one, and of his justice and sovereignty in the damnation
of the other, must IK; th two great ends of God in these decrees.
First. Now the falsehood of these t\vo decrees, (i.) touching
the absolute election of some persons to salvation, is sufficiently
argued in the fifth Discourse, (I.) From God's command to all
Christians to make their calling and election sure. (3.) From his
frequent exhortations directed to them, 'to continue stedfcst in
the faith, and to keep themselves in the love of God, and to work
out their salvation with fear and trembling' (S.) From the cau-
tions directed to good christiant,, ' not to jail from grace or from
their own stcdfastiiess.' (4.) From threats denounced against the
righteous man who limieth away from his righteousness, and the
just man who, living by faith, draweth back.
fii.) As they respect those that are supposed to lie under an ab-
solute decree of reprobation, the falsehood of them hath been fully
proved in the second Discourse, (1.) From God's serious and
earnest invitations of them to repentance. (2.) From his vehe-
ment desires of their reformation and obedience. (3.) From his
declarations, that he had done for them what was sufficient to
produce it. (4.) From his promises to excite them to it; hin
long- suffering designed for that very end; and from his dreadful
threats intended to deter them from persisting in their evil ways.
And (lastly,) from the manifold demonstrations he hath afforded
us in holy scripture, that he doth not look upon wicked men as
under an utter disability of being reformed by his judgments or
his mercies, or of hearkening to his calls and invitations to return
and live.
And, (Secondly,) such a decree as this being a secret of God's
counsel, no man can know that God hath made it but from the
express and the clear revelation of the holy scripture; and so no
person can have any reason to assert it on any other account.
Now as I have shewn already, that the scripture Iwth said nothino-
of these decrees; so will this be more evident by a reflection on
every part of them.
c Bihop Davcnaut, p. 27, 25.
tHAP. IV. ^ 3.) REPROBATION. 95
(1.) "The decree of election," say they, "is absolute, and
without respect to man's faith, repentance, or perseverance."
Now the scripture sailh expressly, ' he that believeth shall be
saved ^ he that endureth to the end shall be saved; 8 repent, and be
converted, and your sins shall be blotted out; h to them who by
patient continuance in well-doing, look for glory, God will give
eternal life' * So that they who speak thus, speak the constant
language of the holy scriptures ; whereas they who affirm that
" He hath absolutely decreed eternal life to any, without respt-ct
to any act of man's will, or any condition to be performed on Ins
part," speak that which hath not the least foundation in the word
of God. Christ saith indeed, that " it is his Father's good plea-
sure to give the kingdom to his little flock ;"* but then this iiock
consisteth only oi believers, who have already * heard Christ's
voice and followed him,' and of ' tlios-c whom the Father had given
to him; 1 but then he informs us, that ' Judas, a son of perdition,
was one of them."" He saith again, ' alt ii hat the 1'ather giveth
me shall come unto me,' n but speaks not one word of their being
given to him by an absolute eternal decree of election to salva-
tion, without respect to any thing to be in time .performed by
them.
(2.) The scripture hath not one syllable to prove that " the
object of this election is a certain number of singular persons."
Those words, ' the Lord knoweth who are his,' do no more prove
this, than those words of Chrut, ( / know my sheep,' and those
of the Psalmist, ' the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, 1
prove that there is a certain number of singular persons who are
Christ's sheep, and who only can be righteous. The scripture
often speaketh, as hath been fully shewed, of churches and na-
tions elected to be his church and people, but nothing of any sin-
gle person elected from eternity to salvation, much less of any
certain number of them.
(3.) That " God hath absolutely ordained one single person
to faith, repentance, and perseverance to the end," is no where
written. And hence it clearly follows, that there can be no such
absolute reprobation revealed in the scriptures, as these decrees
-vf Mark xvi. 16r g Matt. xxiv. ]p. h Acts iii. 1R. i Rom. ii. 7- I* -Tviijfp \\\, y2.
I John xvii. 6. Yerje 12, n JoJjij vi. 57-
QQ ELECTION AND (ms. I.
hold forth; for as ekctio non est sine reprobatione, 'there is no
election without a reprobation of the non-elected/ so can there
be no reprobation where there is no previous election.
IV. Jvain, to say, that " election or predestination being an
immanent, eternal act of God's understanding, (or rather of HIS
w ILL, for that alone decrees,) can have no dependance on, or
respect to, any act of man's will by way of motive or condition,"
is to say things contrary to scripture and to common sense; For,
First. Did not God decree from all eternity, to pardon the
penitent, to justify 'him that be/ level h in Jesus,' to save the obe-
dient, and that they who suffer for and with Christ, shall be glo-
rified together with him? And must not these immanent, eternal
acts have respect to the temporal faith, repentance, obedience,
and patient sufferings of men ?
Secondly. Did not God, from all eternity, decree to judge all
men according to their works, and that all men should receive re-
wards and punishments according as their works shall be? And
is not this decree an immanent/eternal act of God, respecting the
acts of men's will as the condition of or motive to it? Yea, did
he not decree, from all eternity, to offer to man a new covenant
of grace, promising pardon and salvation to him upon condition
of his faith, repentance, and sincere obedience? And do not
these decrees render the pretended decrees of absolute election
and reprobation needless? Yea, are not these things inconsistent
with each other, viz. the absolute election of man to sal-cation, and
the decree, to offer and suspend the same salvation upon these condi-
tions? For in all conditional promises betwixt man and man,
the thing promised is suspended on the performance of the con-
dition, and the enjoyment of it is uncertain till the condition be
performed : And if it be not so also in respect to the conditions
of the covenant of grace, what mean the exhortations directed to
men in general, to 'jear lest a promise being made of entering
into rest, any of them should fall short of it;'" the cautions to
them that stand by faith, to take heed lest they fall under the se-
verity of God for not ( continuing in his good ness;' b and the threats
of perdition to him that ' liveth by faith, provided-he draK backf c
Hebl iv " * > Ron,, si. 20, -2. t jj e b. x. 38.
CHAP. IV. ^ 4.) REPROBATION. 97
v.
Thirdly. Did not God decree from eternity, that ' lie that be-
lie-ceth in his Son should have eternal life, and he that believed
not his Son should not see HfeT And had these decrees no respect
to the temporal acts of man? It were easy to multiply instances
of this nature, to shew the vanity of the foundation of these abso-
lute decrees. And therefore,
Fourthly. When it is said, that "an immanent act of the di-
vine mind (or iciil} cannot depend on any foreseen acts of man's
will," I grant that it cannot depend on them as the cause produ-
cing such an act, but purely on his o\vn attributes and perfections,
v. g. he must decree to elect man as falltn, or a sinner, because
he is gracious and merciful, and to reprobate him, because he is
just. But then the motive or inducement to both these decrees,
is the foreseen action of man, rendering him an object of his mer-
cy, or \vorthy of his vindictive justice. Again, these immanent
actions of the Deity either respect himself only, as the love and
knowledge of himself, and 'hen it is certain that they can have
no cause, motive, condition, or respect to any thing but
himself; or else they respect, or have for their object the fu-
ture state or condition of man; and then it is as certain, that
though they flow from the divine perfections, the inducement to
them is always man, and his foreseen actions, v. s. 'ie from the
/ * / o
divine goodness, grace, and mercy, decrees to save man, or to offer
to him terms on which he may obtain salvation; the inducement
to it is the sin of man, which hath made this grace and mercy
necessary to his salvation. He from his justice hath decreed from
ail eternity, to cast some men out of his favour; the inducement
to it is that sin which hath rendered them unworthy of it, and
rendered it inconsistent with his holiness and justice to admit them
to it. He, from that goodness and love to holiness which is
essential to him, hath decreed to reward some of them with eter-
nal life, or the enjoyment of himself; the inducement to it is those
actions wrought by the assistance of his grace in them, which
have made them like unto him, and therefore ' meet to be parta-
kers of the inheritance of tlte saints in light.' And all this is de-
monstrably certain from the perfection of the divine nature; for
God being infinitely perfect, he must be infinitely happy within
himself, and so can design no self-end without himself, and con-
sequently the end for which he requires any thing from us, or de-
gg ELECTION AND (DIS. I.
crees any thing concerning us, is not, and cannot be, any advan-
tage or good he expects to reap from it, he being, from all eter-
nity past, as completely happy as he can be to eternity to come;
and therefore what other end can he be supposed to aim at in these
things but our good? If it be said, that " God may act to mani-
fest his glory, viz. the glory of his mercy, justice, holiness and
truth;" true; but then he manifests it either for no good, or for
his own good, or for our good. To say "he doth it for no good,"
is to impeach his wisdom; to say " he doth it for his own good,"
reflects on the perfection of his nature; it remains then that he
must do this also for our good, which is the tiling contended for.
It therefore is a vain imagination, that the great design of any of
God's actions, his glorious works and dispensations, should be
thus to be admired, or applauded by his worthless creatures, that
lie may gain esteem, or a good word from such vile creatures as
we are. We take too much upon us, if we imagine that the all-
wise God can be concerned whether such blind creatures as we
are, approve or disapprove of IMS proceedings; or that he really
can suffer any diminution of his glory by our dislike, or is advan-
ced in honour by our approbation, of his dispensations. We
think too meanly of, and detract from, his great majesty, if we
conceive he can be tickled with applause, and aim at reputation
from us in his glorious design. That therefore such as we should
think well of him, or have due apprehensions of those attributes
by the acknowledgment of which we are said to glorify him, can
be no farther his concern than as it serves the noble ends of his
great goodness, viz. that these conceptions may engage us to
that affection, to that imitation of him, and that obedience to him,
which tends to the promotion of our happiness.
God therefore acteth for his glory, when he discovers to the
world those excellences and perfections of his nature which are
just motives to the performance of that duty which we owe unto
him, or when he doth display before us his imitable perfections,
that we may be like him; designing still the benefit ami happiness
of man in these discoveries. For when he discovers ail those
Attributes which represent him good and merciful, kind and oblig-
ing to the sous of men, he doth it with design, and in a manner
very proper, to lay the highest obligations on us to returns of love
and gratitude, and to engage us to that imitation of his goodness
CKAP. IV. 4.) REPROBATION. 99
and mercy lo our fellow-creatures which renders us partakers of
the divine nature, and helpful to others in all their exigencies.
When he gives signal demonstrations of his Almighty power, and
of i. > great wisdom, he designs by this to leach us that he is able
to foresee and to divert those evils which may at any time befal us,
to rescue us from all our miseries, and to confer the greatest bles-
sings on his servants, that so he may encourage us to place our trust
ill him at all tunes, to repair by humble supplications to the throne
of grace, and to serve him faithfully, in expectation of his favour
and protection. When he manifests himself to be a God of
truth and faithfulness, one who will punctually perform his pro-
mises to, and execute his threats upon, us, he doth this chieHy to
affright us from those sins which make it necessary for his justice
tp be severe upon us, and to provoke us to the performance of
those duties to which he hath annexed the greatest blessings.
When he informs us that his holiness and jusljce cannot permit
the wicked to escape his vengeance, or any upright soul to want
the tokens of his love or the reward of his sincere obedience;
las great design in all this is, that sin, which is the rise of all our
miseries, may be avoided; and holiness which is the true Advance-
ment and best accomplishment of human nature, may be more
earnestly pursued by us. So that God's acting for his glory, is in-
deed his acting for the good of his most noble creatures, and only
recommending of himself to their good-liking and affection, that
sq he may the more effectually promote their happiness.
It is iiideed in our translation said ' God hath made all things
for ////.:. .//, eten the wicked fur the den/ ofzcrath.' ( Prov. xyi. 4.)
But in the Hebrew the word is IH^Qy (lamaaiiehu) from Jl^i?
aid so the words may be thus rendered, ' the Lord hath
made all tilings,' ' to answer to themselves, or aptly to refer to
one another/ ' even the wicked for the day of wrath;' according
to these words of Grotius, singu/a Deus ordinal ad id quod sin-
gulis cotnpetit, ordinal impium ad diem calamitosum.* The Bisa'^puv eV'v ri VUKTOS % ^i-
pa,s VIMS 7/vffSai, ' to be children of the night or of the day;' TJ $E
rs'xva S' a^sr^y, 57 T avTJxsijM-s'vw &a xax/ar, ' by virtue to be^God's,
er by wickedness the devil's children';'' so Cyril of Jerusalem/ St.
Basil, 9 Chrysostom/ and Gregory Nissen. (L. 2. contra Eunon.
p. Qo.) "That unusquisque ex seipso causas et occasiones prtestitit
eonditori, 'that every one gives occasion to his Maker to render
a Institut. 1. 3- c. 23. Beza in Rom. ix. b Ap. 2. p. 46. c L. 4. c. 72-
a Stro. 1. p. 314. 7- p. 71". e Ep. ad Cast. c. 2. / Test, ad Quir. 1. 3. c. 52.
' Wheat or Straw." ED. g L. 4. c. 9. h Stro . 3. p. 453. i Contra Gent. p. 5
k Hter. 16. p. 4. I Ho. 27. p. 166. n To. 6. p. 868.
n Adv. Graec. Scran. 5. To. 4. p. 543. o Contra Jul. 1. 3. p. 79. p Catcch. 4. p. 31-
9 In siv. Es. T. 2- p. 269. r Ta. 2. H. 14. in I Cor. p. 8.
102 ELECTION AND (D!3. I.
him' a vessel of honour or dishonour: et pro mentis suis itHttsfjais-
que a Deo vel honoris vas ejficitur vel contumelia:, ' God having
given man power to make himself a vessel of election or of wrath;*
that we are vessels of wrath, or of mercy, (Hiro tigaufyitetas ox;'ar,
*fiom our own choice/ every one xaTaTXEva/j.f i i rovro TTOIEIV roX/xo/vras-, ' as
daring wittingly to do thus;' and his philanthropy confers mercy,
receiving veptyeum wa' r//x<5v, ' an occasion from us to do so'."
Lastly. I have shewed, that in their notes on verses 22, 23,
they say, that " man is made a vessel of wrath or mercy, from
his ozcn choice."
III. Vossius declares, that " all the Fathers before St. Austin's
time, think that God predestinated men to life from a prescience
that they would live piously, or would believe and persevere to
the end;"" and this, from what hath been discoursed, appeareth
^ __ .^ ___ __ ___.
a Hist. L. 5. Th. 8.
CHAP. IV. 1.) REPROBATION. 105
to have been the doctrine of all the commentators upon the eighth
and ninth Chapters to the Romans, till St. Austin's time, and of
the Greek L >nmentators after his time ; to whom you may add
from him the stimony of Ireiueus, that " some coming to the
light, and othi.r;- ;-ef using so to do, Dcus omnia prasciens ut risque
aptas prieparavit habitationes* ' God who foreseeth all things,
prepared fit habitations for them both'." Of Chrysostom 'in-
troducing Christ saving, " ' I nlitnt the kingdom prepared for you
before you zcere born,' iwsiS^ wav TOIHTUS v^ois ICTO/XEVH?, ' because
I knew you would be such':" c Of Hilary saying, * many are
called but tew are chosen, quid in invitatis dejudicii merito pro-
bitatis electio est, ' because among those that are called, God of
his just judgment chuseth those that are honest' :" d Of St. Ambrose,
saying, " God who is no respecter of persons, gives not to our
petitions but our merits, according to that of the apostle, Whom
he foreknew, he also did predestinate, non enim ante prccdestina-
ret quam prasciret, sed quorum merita prtcscivit eorum pramia
pradestifiavit, * for God did not predestinate first, and then fore-
know, but predestinated them to rewards whom he foreknew to
be worthy of them':"* Of St. Jerom, saying, " non gentes eli-
guntur, sed hominum voluiitates, ( men are not chosen for their
nations, but for their wills,'^ he purposing to save by faith alone,
quos prfcscivit credituros, 'those whom he foreknew would be-
lieve':" e And lastly of Theoplvylact, saying, " many are called,
but few are saved, because few are O.ZIQI rS 6JtXoyr/vi, * worthy to
be chosen by God;' eV'/^e'v 6s5 TO xaXeiv, TO $s ExXsxrot/s- yivsffQou %
IAW TiiAzTzpov Ifi, ' for it is of God that we are called, but of our-
selves that we are chosen, or not'." And
IV. Prosper confesses, that even they who condemned Pela-
gius, rejected St. Austin's doctrine of an absolute decree of salva-
tion, as a mere novelty; " for," saith he, " many of the servants
of Christ in the city of Marseilles,' contrarium putantpatrum opi-
nioni, et ecclesiastic!) sensui quicqnid de vocatione etectorum secim-
dum propositum disputasti, 'judge that which you dispute of the
calling of the elect according to purpose, to be contrary to the
opinion .of the fathers, and the sens* of the church.' They defend
* L- <. C. 76. c Horn. 80. in Matt. To. 2. d In Matt. xxii. e L. 5. De Fide. C. *.
/ In Hfib. g In Rem. viii. 28. A In Matt. i Ep. ad August- p. 879.
K
THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
their obstinacy," saith he, " vetustate, ' by antiquity ;' affirming,
that the things you gather from St. Paul's epistle to the Romans,
a nullo unquam ecclesiasticontm ita esse intellecta, ' were never so
understood by any of the ecclesiastical men'." And he prays him
to instruct him, how he may anszcer this objection. k tie adds, that,
" retractatis priorum de hac opinionib us, pene omnium par inve-
nitur et una seittentia, qua proposltum et pr&destinalionem Dei
secundum prascientiam receperunt, ut ob hoc Dens alios vasa
honoris, alios contumelies fecerit, quiajinem uniuscujusque provi-
dent; 1 ' having revised the opinions of those that writ before of this
matter, he found almost all of them to be of one and the same
judgment ; that the purpose and predestination of God was ac-
cording to his prescience, and that he therefore made some vessels
of honour, others of dishonour, because he foresaw the end of every
one, and what would be their will and actions under the divine
assistance'." So truly did Melancthon say, " Scriptores veteres
omnes, preeter unum Augustinum,ponunt aliquam causam electionis
in nobis esse, 1 * ' all the ancients, except St. Austin, asserted, that
there was some cause of our election in ourselves'."
Bttcotntfe
CONCERNING THE EXTENT OF CHRIST S REDEMPTION.
The state of the question.
TO state this matter aright, I shall endeavour to shew,
First. What limitations or restrictions of our Lord's general
redemption I cannot admit of.
Secondly. In what sense they who maintain that doctrine do
assert it. And,
Fit st. I reject that distinction as absurd, which saith " Christ
died SUFFICIENTLY for all, but INTENTIONALLY only for the
elect;" this being to delude men with vain words, and in effect
to say " he died no more for those who are not the elect, that is,
fcP.-m. JP.886. 7InHom.,
INTRO.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 107
who will not actually he saved by him, than for the very devils,"
seeing he died for then- sufficiently, that is, his death, had it been
designed for that end, would have been of sufficient virtue to pro-
cure the pardon of their sins. (C.) It leaves all men, the elect
OH'V excepted, under an impossibility of pardon and salvation;
that purdon and salvation being to be obtained only by them to
whom the betlefit'of Christ's death belongs. It therefore leaves
all other men under an impossibility of believing, repenting, and
obeying the gospel; for these being the conditions of the new
covenant, established in his blood, they who are in a capacity of
performing these conditions, must be in a capacity of enjoying
the benefits of that covenant, nnd so of having an interest in his
death; and therefore they who can have no interest in his death,
can be in no capacity of performing the conditions of that cove-
nant. (3.) It follows hence that it cannot be the duty of any,
besides the elect, to believe HI Christ, or in his blood shed for the
remission of sins, or to bless God for sending his Son into the
world; for this no man can reasonably do, because Christ's blood
was sufficient to procure his pardon, had it been intended for that
end; but because it actually was designed for that end. Remove
this supposition, and to say " Christ's death was sufficient for
their pardon and salvation," is only to say " Christ could have
procured their salvation if he would ; but he would not, or God
was not willing that he should :" And who can bless him upon that
account ? (4.) Hence it is evident that all who are not elected
cannot believe in a Saviour that died for them, but only in one
whose death would have been sufficient to procure their pardon,
had it been intended for that end, as it was not: And what com-
fort can this administer to any ? Surely no more comfort than it
would yield to a condemned malefactor to know his prince could
have pardoned him, but he would not. Nor,
Secondly. Can 1 approve of their doctrine who say, " Christ
died so far for all as to procure for them pardon and salvation if
they will believe and repent ; but that he died moreover to pro-
cure for the elect faith and repentance." For (1.) there is no
ground at all in scripture for this distinction ; for that sailh often
that Christ died 'for the world; for all; for every man;' but
never saith " he died for one part of mankind more than for an-
J08 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. If,
other." (2.) They who make this distinction positively assert,
" that none can repent and believe for whom Christ died not to
procure faith and repentance." Seeing then the effect of our
Lord's salutary passion is already past, and what he died not to
procure for any, can never be obtained; if Christ died only to
procure faith and repentance for the elect, the rest can never have
them ; and so this is as much as to say " Christ never died for
them at all." Wherefore to force these men to come over to us,
or to lay aside these vain pretences, and mere disguises of their
real sentiments, I demand, (3.) When they say " Christ died for
all, so far as to procure pardon and salvation for them if they will
believe and repent," whether he died to procure pardon and sal-
vation on a condition, which it was possible, upon that assistance
which he would vouchsafe them, to perform; or only upon a con-
dition which to them was impossible, for want of grace sufficient
for them, to perform. If the latter only, it is certain that he died
not at all for them; for what is only done on an impossible sup-
position, is not done at all. It being the same thing not to die
at all for their benefit, as to do it only on a condition they cannot
possibly perform. If he died to procure pardon and salvation for
them on a condition which, by that grace which he was ready to
vouchsafe to them as well as to the elect, they might be able to
perform, he died intentionally, and, on his part, effectually, to
procure pardon and salvation to them as well as to the elect, and
so all mankind may be saved ; and then Christ must have died for
the salvation of them all. These are the limitations and restric-
tions of the extent of our Lord's death, which I reject. I add
positively,
First. When I say " Christ died for all," I mean that he died
equally for all. This will be evident if we consider, (i.) that he
offered the same sacrifice; suffered one and the same death; shed
the same blood for all for whom he died. This sacrifice must
therefore be offered equally for all, if indeed it were offered for all;
because it is the same oblation, the same body crucified, and the
same blood shed for all. And hence that scripture, which saith
expressly, that Christ died for all,' affords not the least intima-
tion that he suffered more or shed more of his blood for one than
for another. Moreover, (ii.)it is certain that the sufferings of Christ
and his blood shed, cannot be distributed into parts, so that one
INTRO.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 109
should have one share of it, another a second, and another a third;
but whosoever hath an interest in them, hath a title to the whole
benefit procured by them, and he who hath no title to the whole,
hath no share at ail in the benefit of his sufferings, (iii.) His
blood was shed to establish the new covenant; now that is equally
established to all who perform the conditions of it, faith, repen-
tance, and sincere obedience, and belongs to none who never do
perform them.
It hath been represented as a great absurdity to think that Christ
died equally for Judas and for Peter; but without any shew of
reason that I can discern. For did not the soul of Judas as much
proceed from the ' Father of spirits,' as the soul of Peter? Was
it not equally made after God's image? Did it come out of
his hands more unworthy of mercy than the soul of Peter? Were
not both born in equal circumstances as to God's favour, in equal
need of a Saviour, and equally capable of redemption? Why
therefore, antecedently to any good or evil they had done, should
this Saviour die more or rather for the one, than for the other?
Secondly. When we say " Christ died for all," we do not mean
that he died for all, or any, absolutely, or without any conditions
to be performed on their part to interest them in the blessings of
his passion ; but only that he died for all conditionally, or so as
that they should be made partakers of the blessings of his salutary
passion upon condition of their faith, repentance, and sincere obe-
dience to the laws of the new covenant; to all such he hath pro-
mised l they shall never perish' These are the means he hath
appointed to prevent their ruin, and render them partakers of that
pardon and salvation which he hath purchased by his precious
blood: and he that wills that they should use the means by him
appointed for these ends, can never be unwilling they should ob-
tain these ends. And as he died for all conditionally, so is it
certain that he died for none otherwise, that is, he died not with
intention to confer the blessings of his salutary passion on any but
true believeis, true penitents, and such as would obey the laws of
his new 7 covenant: it being impossible in the nature of the thing,
that he should die to save the unbeliever, (that is, the person who
will not own him as his Saviour,) or to reconcile God to the
impenitent and the unbeliever, (that is, to them who still continue
in their sins and their rebellions against God ;) to deny this is to say,
HO THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
" he died to confer the blessings of his salutary passion on the un-
believer, the impenitent, and disobedient," when of the first he
saith, ' He shall not see life, but is condemned already;'" of the
impenitent, that'/J shall surely, perish,;' b and ' he will come in
famlngjireto take vengeance of all that obey not his gospel' c And
therefore,
Thirdly. When we say " Christ died for all," we do not mean
that he hath purchased actual pardon, or reconciliation, or life
for all; this being in effect to say, " that he procured an actual
remission of sins to unbelievers, and actually reconciled God to
the impenitent and disobedient;" which is impossible. For what
Christ hath actually puiehased for all, all may justly claim, and
God cannot equitably deny them; whereas he both can and will
deny pardon to the unbeliever, and never will or can be reconci-
led to the impenitent and disobedient, whilst they continue so to
be. He only by his death hath put all men m a capacity of be-
ing justuied and pardoned, and so of being reconciled to, and
having peace with, God, upon their turning to God, and having
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; the death of Christ having ren-
dered it consistent with the justice and the \visdom of God, with
the honour of his majesty, and with the ends of his governtm nt,
to pardon the penitent believer. Hence the apos-ics were sent
both to Jew and Gentile, ' to preach repentance io&ards God:, i'nd
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ;* I hat they i;ugh( vecehe remis-
sion of sins, and an inheritance among lftos# that are sanctified
through faith in him. 16 To illustrate; thjsbjH ; iuuiiuuk-: -
Suppose a prince, whose subjects had re 1w ' ;: d him ar,d
so lay under the sentence of conderruiai.* .<:;, !i
the intercession of his beloved on, lou^c as
many of them as would profess a sorrow for th- ; . par-
don in his son's name, and promise to be obedl- .' u the
future. Would this procure an actual pardon to any of thi :u, till
they had performed these conditions? Or would it ever do it for
them who wilfully refused, or even neglected, to perform them?
So here Christ, by his death, obtained of his Father a new cove-
nant, in which he promises to pardon and be reconciled to all,
upon their faith and repentance; and salvation, upon their perse-
e Johniii. 18. 56. b Luke xiii. o. 5. c 2 Thcss. i. 8. d Acts xx. 21. < Acts xni- 18.
INTRO. 1 ) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. ill
'
verance in well-doing. But he hath not, by his death, procured
an actual pardon, reconciliation, or salvation to any who have not
performed these conditions; nor can they lay any just claim unto
them by virtue of Christ's dying for them. And yet upon this
gross mistake are founded many of the arguments produced by
the SYNOD OF DORT, against this general extent of our Lord's
death, and so i!n-y need no farther answer.
And, lastly, they who say that " Christ, by offering up himself
to the death, procured, to the elect at least, not only remission,
but -also faith and repentance," seem to me to talk as men igno-
rant of the nature of Christ, of the nature of a covenant, of the
proper effect of sacrifices, and also of the nature of faith and
repentance.
( 1 ) An men ignorant of the nature of Christ. For what need
had Christ 10 purchase the faith and repentance of his elect of his
Fi-.Jjer, .seeing he could not \vant power sufficient over the hearts
of ur.ti to \\urk taitn and repentance in them? Nor could he,
who had the greatest love to them, want will to doit.
(2.) OJ the nature of a covenant, which is a mutual stipulation,
requiring something to be done by one party that he may receive
something from another. And therefore to make Christ procure
both the promise and the condition, by the same act and passion,
is to turn the conditional covenant into one that is absolute. For
what is procured already for me, God is in equity bound to give
me without my doing any thing to procure it: since otherwise it can
be only procured upon condition that I do something to obtain it;
and so is not procured for me, if I neglect to perform that condition.
(3.) As persons ignorant of the nature oj a piacular victim, or
a sacrifice of expiation and atonement, whose proper effect is to
make atonement for, and so remove, the punishment, by procuring
forgiveness of the sin committed ; it being not intended to pro-
cure any other benefit otherwise than by removal of that guilt
\vhich might obstruct the collation of it. It therefore ought to
be observed, that no sacrifice for sin, as such, no not that of our
Lord Jesus Christ, can sanctify a soul, or endow it with that di-
vine nature, that inward purity and likeness to God, and all those
other Christian virtues which alone make us capable of the enjoy-
ment of an holy God, and ' meet to be partakers oj the inheritance
of the saints oj light' A pardon will make a man rectus in curia,
' free from the condemnation of the law/ but it cannot make him
112 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
' of a clean heart, or renew in him a right spirit.' It \vill justify
him from past sins, but cannot sanctify him, or make him holy,
and therefore cannot make him happy; that cleanseth only from
the guilt, not from the habits and dominion, of sin: And hence
sanctification is only to be ascribed to the blood of Christ by way
of motive and engagement, but to the Spirit of Christ as the effi-
cient cause; and all those Christian virtues which are comprised
in it are styled, 'the fruits of the good Spirit.' Christ therefore,
by his death alone, cannot be said to have procured that faith
which 'purifies the heart,' or that repentance which renews the
mind, the will, and the affections, but only to remove that guilt
which doth obstruct God's favour to us in giving of his Holy Spirit
to sanctify us, and give us strong encouragements and powerful
motives to faith and repentance. What Christ doth further for
us is not performed purely by his death for us on the cross, but
by his intercession in the heavens for true penitent believers.
Lastly. This notion seems repugnant to the nature of faith,
which is an assent to a divine testimony, and of repentance, zchich
is a conversion of the will from sin to God. Now if Christ hath
absolutely procured this faith and repentance for the elect, they
cannot be conditions to be performed on their part, but to be given
on God's part; for what Christ hath absolutely purchased for
them by his death, God is obliged in equity to confer on them ab-
solutely : and so again, the new covenant, in respect of them, is
not conditional but absolute. Moreover, either God gives this
supposed purchase of faith and repentance to the elect by a pecu-
liar, divine, and irresistible assistance, or only by such aid and
grace as is common to them with others who are not elected. If
by the latter only, then is there nothing purchased more for them
than for others with them, because nothing more is given to them
than what is common to them with others. If by an assistance
which is peculiar to them and cannot be resisted by them, then
are not any others to be charged with guilt for not repenting and
believing, because it is impossible that they should do so with-
out that special and irresistible assistance which God will not
vouchsafe unto them : and so they do not believe and repent, not
because they will not do what they could do, but because they
cannot do it were they never so willing. Since then, upon this
supposition, it is impossible they should believe and repent for
CHAP. i. 1.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 113
whom Christ never purchased faith and repentance, it cannot be
their crime that they did not what it was impossible for them to
do. In a word, faith being an assent to a divine testimony upon
sufficient evidence, without which evidence we cannot assent to
it; and when we have it, we cannot but assent; to say " this
faith requires on God's part a special, divine, and irresistible as-
sistance proper to the elect," is to excuse all others from believ-
ing, as having no sufficient evidence to do so, although the gos-
pel is as well revealed to them as it is to the elect.
CHAP. I.
I. NOW this assertion, thus explained, hath this great advan-
tage above the contrary doctrine wHich restrains the intended be-
nefit of our Saviour's passion to the elect, that whereas there is
not one word in the scripture declaring that our Lord died only
for a few, or intimating that he died for the elect only, the scrip-
tures are very many, clear, and express, which teach, that ' God
icould hate all men to be saved ; f and that he is the Saviour of all
men; 8 being long-suffering towards lhem; h because he is not
willing any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance,
and by repentance to salvation ; that the saving grace of God
hath appeared to all men ; teaching them, denying all ungodliness
and zcorldly lusts, to live righteously, soberly, and godly in this pre-
sent zcorld; expecting the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the
great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, rc7?o gave himself for
its; 1 that os by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
oilmen to justification of life ; k that if he died for all, then zcere
all dead; and that he died for all, that they tcho lived might not
live to themselves, but to him that died for them; 1 that he gave
himself a ransom for alt, m and by the grace of God tits' ed death
for even/ mcm; n in all which words this doctrine is contained in
express terms. Now it is the doctrine of all Protestants, that the
f 1 Tim. ii. 4. g 1 Tim. iv. 10. A 2 Pet. iij. 9. i Tit. ii. 12 H. i- Rom. v. 16, 17.
I 2 Oor. v- 15. m 1 Tim. ii. 6. n Hcb. ii. 9.
514 THE EXTENT OF (D1S. II.
scriptures are clear and easy to be understood in all things neces-
sary to be believed: And yet if all these places do not confirm
this doctrine, there is no reason so to say or think ; there being
not many articles of Christian faith, that are more clearly or ex-
pressly taught in sciipture.
Moreover, according to that limitation which some men put
upon these words, viz. " God will have all men to be saved;
Christ du.d for all, because Christ died for some of all ranks and
nations; and God is willing some of all kindred and people should
be saved ;" it may more truly and properly be said, ( 1 .) that " God
would have all men to be damned;" because, according to their
doctrine, he hath already passed an act of pieterition on the great-
est part of men, which rendereth their damnation unavoidable.
And, (2.) that " Christ died for none," since they for whom he
died, according to their doctrine, are none, comparatively to that
greater number for whom they say he died not. At least it might
be reasonably expected that it should have been somewhere said
by way of caution, or once affirmed to prevent mistakes in matters
of this moment, that "Christ died not for all; whereas the Holy
Ghost neither in terms nor substance hath ever used any expres-
sion of this import in the holy scripture ; and therefore we may
rationally presume, that he approved not the doctrine which
makes them proper and almost necessary to be used.
OBJECTION FIRST. "It is said indeed that Christ f gate Ins life
a rausqm for many; that he shed his blood for many, for the remis-
sion of sin ; a that as by the disobedience of one man, many were made
sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous;*
and that Christ was once offered to take away the sins of many'. " c
ANSWER FIRST. But that there is no inconsistence betwixt
dying for many and for all, is evident from this consideration, that,
even in the same chapter, the apostle saith, that by one sin of
Adam ' many died, (Rom. v. ]5.) and all died, (verse 12.) many
were made sinners, (verse 19.) and all sinned, (verse 12.) and that,
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous, SixotuQviawTai,
' shall be justified,' (verse 190 and that by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came apon all men to justification of life' (verse 18.)
That in the same epistle in which it is said, ' Christ bore the sins
n Matt. xx. 28. xxvi. 28. l> Rom. v. 13. c . Hb. ix. 28;
CHAP. i. 1.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 115
of many;* it is expressly said, 'he tasted death for every man'
That the same scripture which saith, ' Christ gave his life a ran-
.^mn for many e says abo, that ' He gave himself a ransom for
all.'-? And lastly, that he who said, ' This is my blood shed for
many, for the remission of sins,' f said also, for that very reason,
' Drink ye all of it; h for it was shedjor you for the remission of
sins.' 1 Since therefore all men certainly are many, though many
are not necessarily all, since what is in some few places said of
many, is not only in more but in the same places said of all; it is
certain that Christ cannot be said to die for many exclusively of
all, which only is to say he died for many in opposition to our
assertion, but only that he died for many in a sense consistent
with liis dying for all men, and therefore in a sense agreeable to
our assertion. And as the words of the prophet Daniel, that
'MANY shall arise from the dead,' do not contradict the truth
of those manifold assertions of the New Testament, that all men
shall arise; and the words of the apostle, that 'in Adam MANY
died, and M A N Y v\ ere made sinners,' do not thwart the words of
the same apostle, saying, in the same place, that ' in At[am ALL
men died and z^ere made sinners;' so neither can those words,
' Christ diedfor MANY,' contradict the truth of those more nume-
rous expressions, that ' he died for ALL.'
I AN SWER (2.) that, as when the kindness designed, by Christ's
death, to all, upon the conditions of the gospel, is expressed, it
is said, ' Christ diedfor ALL;' so when the effect and benefit of
it is expressed, the word MANY is most proper: For his blood
shed procures remission of si'.is only to penitent believers, and in
this sense Christ gave ' his life a ransom only for M AKY,' even fqr
as many as would believe and obey his gospel.
OBJECTION SECONP. " Christ is said to lay down his life l for
his sheep, (John x. lo.yifor his friends, who do his commandments,
(John xv. 13. 14.)_/or his chinch: (Eph. v. 25. 96.) But ail
are not his sheep, all are not of his church, all do not shew them-
selves his friends by their obedience; therefore he died not for all."
ANSWER FIKST. In none of these places is it said that " Christ
died ONLY for his sheep, for his friends, or for his church;" and
d Heb. \\< 28- " 2. e Matt. xx. 28. f 1 Tim. ii. 6. ff Matt. xXvi. 27- 28.
h Mark iv. 25, 24. i Luke xxti. i'O. 1 Cot. xi. '.'5.
l\Q THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
therefore none of them say any thing in contradiction to our as-
sertion. I therefore thus retort the argument, He that died for
his friends and for his enemies, died for all; but Christ died for
his friends, and for his enemies, 'for zvhen we were enemies, Christ
died for us:' 1 Ergo, he died for all. Again, he that died for
the church of God, and for the unrighteous that he might bring
them to the church of God, died for all ; but Christ died for the
church of God, and^br the unrighteous that he might bring them
to the church; 'for the just died for the unjust that he might bring
ti to God:' m Ergo, he died for all. Lastly, He that died for his
sheep that heard his voice, and for the lost sheep that did not
hearken to his voice, died for all; but Christ died for his sheep
that heard his voice, and for his lost sheep ; for he came ' to seek
and to save that which was lost,' n even the sheep straying fiom
him : Ergo, he died for all.
ANSWER SECOND. Though it be certain that Christ died in-
tentionally for all, that is, designing the benefits of his salutary
passion for them, upon their performance of the conditions of the
new covenant, established in his blood; yet is it also true that he
eventually is the Saviour of his body, and died only for his sheep
and friends, because they only do perform the conditions of the
new covenant; and therefore to them only can this righteous J udge
at last assign the blessings promised in that covenant.
II. But to omit the farther prosecution of this general consi-
deration, by viewing all these texts apart it will be easy to discern
in them many circumstances which plainly shew, that they cannot
truly be interpreted in that restrained sense which others put upon
them. For,
FIRST. When St. Paul declares, ' that as by the offence of one,
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, so by the righteous-
ness of one, the free-gift came upon all men to justification,' it
seems apparent that the apostle is comparing the condemnation
which was procured by the sin of Adam, with the free-gift of jus-
tification procured by the second Adam, as to the extent of per-
sons concerned in both. For as 'by the one saith he, MANY
died, and MANY were made sinners; so, by the other, MANY
/ Rom. v. 8. i Pct . a. 18 . n > .
IJNTRO.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 117
were made righteous, and grace abounded unto MANY. As by
the one, condemnation came upon alt; so by the other justification
of life' was procured for, and offered, Trdvraf ras wfyuTruf, l to all
men,' and so God was in and through ' Christ reconciling thewhole
world to himself' Now to assert that " MANY in the first clause,
respecting the fruit of Adam's sin, signifies truly MANY; and in
the second, respecting the fruit of Christ's righteousness, but A
FEW; that ALL MEN in the first clause is to be taken in the ut-
most latitude, as of necessity it must be, ALL MEN WHATSO-
EVER lying under condemnation by reason of the sin of Adam;
but the same word in the latter clause of the same verse, doth only
signify ALL THE ELECT, which are comparatively but a few,"
seems neither agreeable to reason, nor to the scope of the apostle;
who before had said, ' That ALL MEN had sinned, and fallen short
of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the
redemption that is in Jesus Christ' 11 and hence ariseth a second
observation, for confirmation of the sense we plead for, viz. that the
apostle is here comparing the effects of sin as to condemnation,
with the effect of the grace of God as to our justification, or to our
freedom from condemnation, saying, That as by sin the judgment
came upon alt men to condemnation; so by the righteousness of one,
the grace of God came upon all men to justification of life; that as
sin reigned unto death, so grace might reign by justification to eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord' q Now the grace of this com-
parison is wholly lost, if sin reigned over all men without exception
to death and condemnation, but grace reigned only over a few to
procure for them the means of justification to life through Jesus
Christ. But if the comparison be of things equal as to extent,
Christ must have died for the justification of all men.
111. SECONDLY. When the apostle farther adds rt The love of
Christ constrains us (thus to persuade men to believe in Christ, and
live to him) because we thus judge, that if * (or since) one died
for all, then zeere ALL dead; the words, ' ALL were dead,' must
certainly be taken in their greatest latitude; wherefore the words
pRom.U. 23. 24. 3 Rom. v. 18. 21. r 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. s This Hebrew QJ^
ft translated "since, Jer. xxiii. 58. Ezek. XXXT. 6. And the Greek, si, probably so signifies, Acts
Iv. 9. Rom. viii. 3k and here : for from a supposition of that which is not, no such inference can
IK- made.
THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
preceding, 'if or since Christ died for all,' from which they
are an inference, ought also to be taken in the same extent.
When he oes on to say, ' He died for all, that they u'ho lite might,
toot henceforth live to themselves, but to him that died for them;'
this sure irtust be the duty of all Christians in particular, (unless
there be any Christians not obliged to live to Christ, but rather at
liberty to live to themselves,) and so that death which is the mo-
tive to it, must be intended for them all. To say here, that
"'Christ died for some only of all nations, Jews and Gentles," is
to exempt all others of those nations from living to Christ upon
this account; and to say " He died for all the elect, that they of
them who live might not live to themselves," is to suppose that
some of the elect might live not to Christ but to themselves;
which cannot truly be imagined of the elect of God. Moreover,
he declares that the sense of this love of Christ prevailed upon them
to persuade men to believe in him; now this persuasion they used
to every man to whom they preached, and therefore they persuad-
ed all men to believe that Christ died for them; for ' we, 1 saith he,
'preach this Christ who is to you Gentiles the hope of glory; ad-
monishing, vzvra. avfyuvov, every man, and teaching every man in
all Wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus' 1
See another false interpretation of these words confuted, note on
2 Cor. v. 15.
IV. THIRDLY. When the apostle saith, ( I exhort therefore (in
pursuance of the design of Christ's coming to save sinners, Chap.
i. 15.) First, that supplications, and prayers, and intercessions,
and giving of thanks be made for all men (particularly) for kings,
and all that are in authority, 8cc. u he must exhort them, not
only to pray for some men, some kings, and some in authority in
all nations ; for then we could not know how to observe this pre-
cept, because We could not know what men or rulers we were to
pray for, and what not: When then he adds, by way of reason,
'for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, who will have
alt men to be saved;' this reason why we are to pray for all men in
general, and for all rulers in particular, must either be a false and
unconcluciing reason, or must import thus much He would
have all men and rulers to be saved, whom he would have us
* Col. i. 27. 28. i* 1 Tim. ii. 1.
INTRO.,) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 1T9
pray for. Now the doctrine and practice of the whole Christian
world att< sts, that they were ALL men, and rulers in particulars we
learn from the express testimonies of Prosper, 1 " and of the author
De Vocatione Gentium. * Moreover, that God would have all
men to be saved, the apostle proves,
(I.) Because he is the ''God of all' the common Father and
Creator of ail men, verst- 4. Eph. iv. 6. Now thus he is the God
of aU men in particular, and so this argument must shew he would
have all men in particular to be saved. .And as the apostle argues
for God's readiness to justify the Gentiles by faith as freely as
the Jews, by asking, " Is He the God of the Jews only? Is he not
also of the Gentiles?"* And by answering that " there is, as to
this, no difference betwixt them; the same God being rich unto all
that call upon him: for whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved;" so may we argue in this case by a like en-
quiry, " Is he the God of a small remnant of the Jews and 'Gen-
tiles only? Is he not 'the Saviour of them all'?" 1 Tim. iv. 10.
(2.) ' He zcould have all men to be saved,' saith the apostle,
" for there is one Mediator betwixt God ana mini, the man Christ
Jesus, who gcive himself a ransom for all." Nov. if the argument
from one God was designed to prove he was the God of all men
in particular, as hath been shewed already, the argument from one
Mediator must also prove Christ the Mediator of all men in par-
w Sinccrissime credendum, tttgue prqfitendum est, Deum velle, ut omnes homines saliijiant, sl/juidem
epostolus, cujus ista senlcntia est, sottcitiisime prcecipit, quod in omnibus Eccle'siis piissime custoditur,
ut Deo pro omnibus hominibus supplicetur. Prosp. Resp. ad Object. 2. Vincent. ProscepU apostoius,
immo per apostolum,
' It is deserving of the most sincere belief and profession, that God is wishful for the salvation ofaR
men; because the apostle whose declaration it is, with the utmost solicitude commands, that it be a pious
observance, in all the churches, to supplicate God in behalf of all men. " Prospers Answer." The
apostle enforced this, even by an apostle.' ED.
x Dorninus mdtjieri obsecrationes, et postulationes, et gratiarum actiones pro omnibus hominUnts,
pro Regibus, et pro his qut in sublimitate sunt: Quam legem supplications, ita omnium sacerdotum, et
omniumjidelium devotio concorditcr tenet ut nulla pars mundi sit in qua hujusmodi orafiones non cele-
brentur apopulis christianis. Supplicat ergoubique Ecclesia. Deononsolum pro sanctis, et Christo
jam regeneratii, sed etiam pro omnibus infidettbus, et inimicis cruets Christi, #e. De Vocat. Gent. 1.
I.e. 4.
The Lord's will is, that there be intreaties, requests, and giving of tha'nks for all men, for lings anil
for those who are in exalted stations: Which law of supplication so cordially obtains in the devotions of
every minister and of all the faithful, that there is no part of the world in which prayers according to
this direction are not offered up by Christian people. The church universal therefore makes supplication
to God, not only for the saints and those who in Christ are regenerate, but also for all unbelievers and
enemies of the cross of Christ dec. W On the calling of the Gentiles." ED. y Rom. iii. 29-
jog THE EXTENT OP (D1S. II.
ticular, and consequently that he gave himself a ransom for all
men in particular. Hence is he so emphatically styled, ' the man
Christ Jesus,' to intimate to us, that, having taking upon himself the
nature common to us all to lit him for this office, he must design it
for the good of all who are partakers of that nature. For as he was
a man, he surely was endued with the best of human affections,
UNIVERSAL CHARITY, which would excite him to promote the
welfare of all; as he was a man, he was subject to the common
Jaw of humanity, which obliges us to endeavour the common be-
nefit of men; and that good- will which he requires us to bear to
all men indifferently, good and bad, friends and enemies, he ques-
tionless did bear himself in the highest degree, and to the utmost
extent; and therefore doubtless, in his sufferings for men, which
are acknowledged to be sufficient for all, he had regard to the
good of all.
V. FOURTHLY. When the same apostle saith, 'the saving
grace of God hath appeared to all men, teaching them, denying un-
godliness and zeorldly lusts, to live righteously, and soberly, and
godly in this present zcorld, &.c.' a he plainly seemeth to strengthen
this assertion: For here it is observable, (i.) that the grace here
mentioned, is ' the grace of God,' even of that God who ' spared
not his Son, but freely gave him up for us.' b (ii.) That it is styled,
r, xp^is }) acuT7)%M, ' saving grace ;' as being apt in its nature, and
by the God of all grace designed, for the salvation of them for
whom it was vouchsafed, (lii.) "This grace," saith the apostle,
" hath appeared to all men;" and if the apostles did in their
preaching tender it to all without exception, they either tendered
it to them to whom by God's intention it did not belong, and so
exceeded their commission; or else it did belong to all men: And
since it only could belong to them by virtue of Christ's passion,
it follows that the benefit of his passion must belong to all. (iv.\
This grace appeared to all men to * teach them, denying all un-
godliness and worldly lusts, to live righteously, soberly, and godly
in this present world;' and therefore to teach them that which
will most certainly conduce to their salvation, since all who learn
this lesson will undoubtedly be saved, and that by virtue of our
CHAP. i. 1 7.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 121
Lord's salutary passion; since, as it follows, they may 'expect
the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himse/J for them' In a word, either all men are obliged,
on the account of this grace of God, and these sufferings of Christ
for them, to deny ungodliness, &c. and to live righteously, sober-
ly and godly in this present world; and then this grace, and these
sufferings must be intended for their salvation; or it must be said,
" that there are some, yea, the greatest part of Christians, who are
-not on the account of this grace appearing to them, or of these
sufferings, obliged to the performance of these duties."
VI. FIFTHLY. When the same apostle informs us, that Christ
was ' made a little lower than the angels, for ihe suffering of death,
that he, by the grace of God might taste death for every man;' c he
clearly doth express the same assertion; for here is no restraint at
all, nor any seeming limitation of that comprehensive phrase, ' he
tasted death TTE^J wavroy, ' for every man,' distributively taken; (for
" dictum de omni,"* say the logicians, " distributes the subject;")
but there is something which doth seem to strengthen the general
intendment of the phrase; for this i? said to magnify the grace of
God in sending his Son to die for man. Now, sure, the grace of
God will be more magnified by this general extent of our Saviour's
death, than by contracting the intendment of it to a few. For if
the grace of God be great, in sending his Son to die for A FEW
chosen persons, it must be greater in sending him to die for MANY,
and greater still in giving him up to die for us ALL. And this
would be more sensibly perceived by all men, were it their own
case; for were they in the number of condemned rebels by their
prince, who only should afford an act of grace and indemnity to
others, but leave them under condemnation, they would assuredly
conceive his grace and favour would be greater were it extended
to them also, and would not think his grace was magnified the
more for being so discriminating as to exclude them from any
share or portion in it.
VII. SIXTHLY. The apostle St. Peter saith, 'God is long-suf-
fering to US-ZVard, ^n /SaXo/xsvor r i v as s dwo'hiaQoti, aXXa 7r a v T r
sis /^ETavoiav -^upriaai, ' not being willing that ANY should perish,
but that ALL should come to repentance;'* Now r/verthus opposed
o Heb. it. 9v * ' What is said concerning every one, &c.' ED. tt 2 Pet. iii. 9.
J.
EXTENT OF (DIS. If.
to Travrey is a distributive of ALL, and therefore signifies God is not
willing that ANY ONE of the whole rank of men should perish.
Moreover, when it is said, ' God zvould have oilmen come to re-
pentance,' it is certain that this will refers to all to whom the
preaching of the gospel is vouchsafed, yea to all whom * in the
times of ignorance God winked at; for so the scripture speaketh,
saving, 'the times of ignorance God winked at, but now he com-
mandetli ail men every zchere to repent.'* When therefore it is
said, " He is not willing any one should perish, but come to re-
pentance," he must be supposed at least to mean, he would have
no man perish to whom the gospel is vouchsafed. To say, with
Estius, by way of answer to this argument,
ARGUMENT FIRST. "God would have none to perish, be-
cause he gives to all some general means of conversion to God,
though they be not sufficient to that end without those special
aids he will not give them;" is to delude u^ with vain words.
REPLY. For it is self-evident, that he who wills not the means
necessary to bring them to repentance, wills not that they should
come to repentance ; and that he who determines to withhold the
means, which being withheld they must perish, wills they should
perish.
ARGUMENT SECOND. Whenhesaith " These general words
are to be restrained to the elect, and only signify God would not
that any of them should perish, because the apostle in his first
epistle writes ' to the elect',"
REPLY FIRST, f answer, that the apostle by " THE ELECT''
doth not here mean men absolutely designed for eternal happiness,
but only men professing Christianity, or such as were visible mem-
bers of the church of Christ, as will be evident from these consi-
derations; (\.) that he calls upon them to 'make their calling
and election sure, that they may not fall from \t; for,' saith he, 'if
ye do these things, ye shall never fall:' f plainly declaring that the
making their election sure, depended on their ' adding to their
faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness,
charity;' z and so was only a conditional election upon their per-
severance in a life of holiness. (Q.) He exhorts them to ' be so-
ber and vigilant, because their adversary the devil goes about seek-
~ A. / 2 Pet. h M. ff verses 5, 6, 7.
CHAP. i. 70 CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 123
ing whom he may devour;' 1 and to beware lest being led away by
the error of the zcickcd, they should fall from their oz&n steadfast-
ness; i whereas it cannot be supposed of persons thus absolutely
elected to salvation, that they should be devoured by satan, or iall
from their stedfastness. Yea, (S.Jhe not only speaks of so ne of
them who had l forsaken the right way, and turned zcith the dog
to his vomit) k but also prophesies, that * those false teachers who
brought in damnable doctrines, even denying the Lord that bought
them, should make merchandise of some of them,' which they could
never do of persons absolutely elected to salvation. ( 4.)The apostle
affirmeth tl:e same thing of the whole church of Bab v Ion, saying,
' the church zeniJi is at Babylon, TyvexXexTri ' ELECTED TOGE-
THER zcithyou, saluteth you.' 1 Now that all the members, either
of the eastern or the western Babylon, were chosen out of the
world to the profession of Christianity, he who was with them
could not be ignorant; but that they all were absolutely elected to
salvation, was more than he could know, and therefore more than
he would say.
REPLY SECOND. Though both this and the former epistle
were written to them who were ' elected through sanctijication
to obedience, and to them zcho had obtained precious faith,' and
so to them who were already come unto repentance, these words
cannot respect the same persons, because they speak of persons
to whom God * exercised long-suffering, that they might come to
repentance,' and might not perish under their present want of it:
and so they are directed to the unconverted Jews, to whom St.
Paul speaks thus, ' Despisest thou the riches of the goodness, pa-
tience, and long-suffering of God, not knowing that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance? And to whom this apostle
speaketh, verse 15, saying, 'count the long-suffering of our Lord
salvation' Now, sure, it is not reasonable to conceive those Jews,
who lay then under a spirit of slumber, were absolutely chosen to
salvation.
A 1 Pet. V. 8. Pet. iii. 17. * 2 Pet. ii. 3, 15, 22. M Pet r. 1Z.
m Rom. it- 4.
I
J24 THE EXTENT OF (DI&. H.
CHAP. II.
1. A SECOND general argument for this extent of our Lord's
salutary passion, arises from those scriptures which represent him
as the Saviour of the whole world; as when the Baptist styles him
' the Lamb of God thai takeih away the sins of the world;* when
the Samaritans say, ' nee have heard, and know this is the Christ, the
Saviour of the zcorld; b when he himself saith, ' he is the bread of
God which came dozen from heaven, andgiveth life to the world;
and that this bread is his flesh which he will give for the life of
the world; e when St. John saith, ' We have seen and do testifi/,
that God hath sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.'* If
all these general expressions seem not so fully to confirm this*
truth, it is done beyond exception by those texts which say, *(Mv AND
PLACING IN Cor committing to) us the word of reconciliation."
Now did they make a declaration to the impenitent, unbelieving
world, that God was actually reconciled to them, and had for-
given their iniquities? No, they exhorted them "to repent and
be baptized, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of
sins;^ to repent and be converted that their sins might be blotted
out; ft to believe in Christ that they might be justified, < that is, ab-
solved from the guilt of sin; to repent and turn to the Lord that
they might receive remission of sins."* (ii.) Because they, in
pursuance of this commission, intreated all to whom they preached
to be reconciled to God ; which being only to be done through
faith in Christ, they must intreat them to believe in him that they
might be justified, that is, obtain reconciliation through his blood
shed for the remission of sins; and this the apostle's reason shews
viz. " We pray you be you reconciled to God, VTIS.Q X^IJ-H BY
CHRIST; for he hath made him (a sacrifice for) sin for us, that
we might be made the righteousness of God (that is, might by God
be accounted righteous through faith) in him."' This being so,
they who were sent to " preach the gospel to every human crea-
ture,"" 1 and in pursuance of this commission "warned every man,
f 2 Cor. v. 19. g Acts ii. 38. ft Acts iii. 19. / Acts xiii. 38, 39. k Acts xxvi. 18, 20.
/ See the note there. m Mark xvi. 15.
l$o THE EXTENT OF (D1S. II.
and taught every man, in all wisdom, that they might prtsent
every man perfect in Christ Jesus," n praying all men to be recon-
ciled to God through Christ, because he had made Christ a sacrifice
for their sins, ike. they, I say, who preached thus, and yet did not
exceed their commission, must believe that God was ready to be
reconciled to every man through Christ; and therefore that his
sacrifice was offered to procure reconciliation for all mankind.
As therefore Christ is styled ' the Lamb of God that taketh away
the tin* of the world,' and said to be 'the Propitiation for the
sins of tii e zchole world,' not by actually removing the guilt of all
men, or rendering God actually reconciled to them, but by dying
to procure these blessings for all that would believe in him; so
God is said to be 'in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
$c.' not because he actually did so, but because by these ambas-
sadors he offered reconciliation and remission of sins through
faith in Christ to all that would believe in him.
CHAP. III.
A THIRD head of arguments, to confirm the generality of
Christ's redemption, ariseth from those'places which either express-
ly say, or by plain consequence assert, Christ died for them that
perish; for hence the argument runs thus:
J. If Christ died for them that perish, and for them that do
not perish, he died for all; but Christ died for them that perish,
and for them that do not perish: Ergo; he died for all men.
That he died for them that do not perish, is confessed by all, and
it he died for any that may or shall perish, there is the same rea-
son to affirm he died for all that do so. Now that he died for
such, the scripture saith expressly in these words, ' And through
iky knowledge shall thy weak brother perish jor whom Christ
died?" and it doth intimate as much in this injunction, ' Destroy
not him with thy meat,jor zehom Christ died.' p In both which
places the apostle exhorts those to whom he writes, not to scan-
dalize their weak brethren, by an argument taken from the irrepa
/.' Col. i. S8-. 1 Cdt. VSu n-r p Rom. wv. gt
r offering himself as a piacular victim for us. Moreover, though
Christ is said to sanctify himself, ( John xvii. 190 yet is he never
said to be sanctified, and much less to be ' sanctified by his own
blood;' but only yiaeJV Toy Xzov 'TO SANCTIFY THE PEOPLE
by his own blood' (lleb. xiii. 12.)
Secondly. Observe, (i.) that " to sanctify," and " to be sanc-
tified," in this epistle, doth never signify " to be purified from the
power and dominion of sin by inward holiness," but always " to
be purged from ihe guilt of sin by the oblation of a sacrifice," as
appears from chap. ii. 11: (See the note there;) and from this very
chapter where it is said, verse 10, that 'we are, ^yiau/Ae'vot SANC-
TIFIED bif the oblation of the body (or, as it is in other copies, by
t/ie blood) of Christ.' See the note on verse 14, and on chap. ix.
13. (ii.) Because he is here said to have been 'sanctified by the
blood of the new covenant' which was shed for the remission of
sins, and in which God promises to be 'merciful to our iniquities,
and remember our sins no more.' (chap viii. 1 2. x. 1 7 ) In fine, this
argument begins thus, ' Having then boldness (or liberty )to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (verse }$.) lei us hold fast, our
profession without wavering; for if we apostatize from it, there
remfuns no more sacrifice' to expiate our sin. It is therefore evi-
dent, that even those persons who by their apostasy from the faith
became obnoxious to the sorest punishment, had once, by virtue
of their faith, obtained a remission of their sins, and lost it by
making shipwreck of faith, and drawing back, from that faith by
which they once lived, to perdition, verses 38, 39.
III. Moreover, St. Peter informs us of some false teachers
who should ' bring in damnable heresies, (that is, such as would
render those who abetted and embraced them, obnoxious to
damnation) even denying the Lord that bought them.' r Now
to these words the answers are so many, and so extrava-
gant, that it is as easy to confute as to recite them. One saith,
" Christ indeed bought these persons, but that he only bought
them to be slaves;" and then, for any thing 1 can see to the con-
trary, they might have reason to deny him. Another, " that he
died to rescue them from temporal, but not from eternal punish-
f 1 Pet. iJ. 1.
THE EXTENT OF (DIS. If,
ments :" Now where doth holy scripture intimate that Christ
died to rescue any one from temporal judgment whom he reserved
to eternal, especially if they were such as by denying of him ' did
bring upon themselves swift destruction^' A third tells us, " that
he died for them, because he gave a price sufficient for them ;" as
if the giving a price sufficient to redeem six captives, without the
least intention of redeeming any more than two, were the redemp-
tion of the six. A fourth saith, " that they denied that Lord whom
they professed to have bought them. And a fifth, " that they
denied him who in the judgment of other men had bought them:"
But where is the offence of this, if that profession was in their own
mistake, and so was that which they should rather have denied than
professed, and if that judgment of others was not according to the
truth? In fine, the plain intent of the apostle is to aggravate the
sin of these false teachers, that he whom they denied had bought
or died for them. Now if he did this really out of good-will to'
them, and with intent to free them from the misery to which they
were obnoxious by sin, upon the terms on which this favour is
propounded in the Gospel to any others, the words are of great
force to shew the horrible ingratitude and impiety of these false
teachers: But if it be supposed that he intended not to buy them,
or to do any thing to free them from their misery, but, in the co-
venant with his Father established in his blood, excluded them
from any interest in his death, and did that only which might occa-
sion others through mistake to think he died for them ; this mani-
festly tends to lessen, if not justify, their denial of him who had
before denied them any benefit from his redemption, and therefore
plainly is repugnant to the scope of the apostle.
CHAP. IV.
I. A FARTHER enforcement of this extent of the death of
Christ ariseth from the obligation which is, and always was, upon
all persons to whom the gospel is or was revealed, to believe in
Christ: For if it be the duty, not only of some few of every sort,
but even of all and singular to whom the gospel is revealed, to be-
lieve in Christ, that is, to own him Us their Saviour, or as that
CHAP. iv. .1) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 137
Jesus who came to save them from their sins; it must be true that
he came into the world to be the Saviour of all men, and to be
the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world, as holy scripture
doth expressly teach. Now that it is the duty of all to whom the
gospel is revealed, thus to believe is evident: for thus Christ speaks
to the unbelieving Jews, "This is the work (that is, the will) of God
that you should believe in him whom he hath sent; for "if you
believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins; for *he that
believeth not, is condemned already, because he believeth not in
the Son of man." c The business of the Baptist was to bear wit-
ness of light, ' that all men might believe in him ; d and therefore
he declares that ' he that believes not in him shall not see life, but
the zcrath of God abideth on him'' And the work of the Good
Spirit was to * convince the world of sin, because they believed not
in him'. f The commission to preach faith and repentance for the
remission of sins, is given to the apostles in these comprehensive
words, " Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature; he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; he that
believeth not shall be damned.' * All which things, and many
more of a like nature dispersed through the holy scriptures, are
most plainly inconsistent with the doctrine of a restrained redemp-
tion to some few chosen persons. For,
First. Whosoever is obliged to believe in Jesus Christ, is oblig-
ed to ' believe to the saving of the sou/,' h since they who preached
the gospel said, ' believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved,' 1
and promised that ' He that believed and zcas baptized should be
saved; and they who writ the gospels, writ them to this end that
we might believe ' that Jesus is the SonoJ God, and believing might
have eternal life through his Jiame.'* Now if it were the duty, even
of them who perish under the preaching of the gospel, to own
Christ as their Saviour, and to believe to the salvation of their
souls, it follows either that it is, and, in all generations since our
Saviour's coming, was, their duty to believe a lie, and to apply
that to them which belonged not to them; or that Christ's death
mi^ht truly have been applied to, and therefore was most cer-
tainly intended for, the salvalion of those souls that perish.
nJohnvi. 29. b Ibid. viii. 24. c Ibid. iii. 18. dJohn. i, 7. f John Hi. 36.
/John xvi. 9. f Mark xvi. 15. 16. h Heb. x. 59. i Acts xvi. 31. If John xx. 31.
J3S THE EXTENT OF (DIS. ft.
Secondly* To say " it was the will or the command of God, that
any person should believe a lie; that the Baptist's testimony was
designed to teach men lies; or that the Holy Ghost was sent to
convince any man of sin because he believed not what was false/'
is blasphemy : And yet this must be true, or else it must be God's
command that they of the Jews who believed not in Christ should
believe in him, and that all men who heard the Baptist's testimo-
ny ought to have believed in him, though few of them actually did
so; and that all who saw the miraculous operations of the Holy
Spirit in the apostles and primitive professors, and believed not
in Christ, were guilty of sin, because they believed not in him-
anrl if so, Christ must have died for their salvation, and shed hi
blood for the remission of their sins.
Thirdly. To promise generally, and without exception, salva-
tion to men upon believing, must be a promise made to most men
upon an impossible condition, or else all they to whom the gospel
is revealed may believe to salvation, and so Christ must have died
for their salvation. To say " God promiseth salvation to most
only on terms which he himself knows are impossible, because
they neither can do it without him, nor will he enable them to
perform them," is in effect to say, " 1 promise, you never shall be
saved :" And is not that a strange promise from a God rich in
goodness to the sons of men ? Surely a promise upon condition,
in the mouth of any good and honest man, is intended as a motive
and encouragement to him to perform the condition that he may
enjoy the good thing promised. Now where the condition annexed
to the promise is impossible, if I know it, it can give me no en-
couragement to set about it, if he who promises knows it so to be.
As he indeed promiseth nothing, because nothing that I can ob-
tain or be the better for; so he also deludes and puts a cheat upon
me, pretending kindness to me by making me the promise, and
intending none by making the obtainment of it to depend upon
that which he knows I never can or shall be able to perform. And
therefore, to represent God as promising salvation to the greatest
part of mankind only upon an impossible condition, is to represent
him as a deluder, and one that puts a cheat upon them, and acting
with them so as no good, wise, or honest man did or would act
towards his fellow-man.
CHAP. iv. 2.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 139
Fourthly, To say that " men shall die in their sins, shall be
condemned to abide under the wrath of God, and be excluded
from eternal life, because they believe not to salvation," that is,
because they do not apply Christ's merits to them, or believe He
died for them, is either to assert " Christ died for every unbeliev-
ing Christian," or to assert " they shall hereafter be excluded from
eternal life, and condemned to everlasting punishments, for not
believing what is false."
Fifthly, Were any Christian under such condemnatory decree
as that he could not believe, he would not be condemned because
he believed not, but he would not believe because he was condemn-
ed ; and whensoever punishment is duly threatened for the omission
or non-performance of an act, it must be supposed both that the
act might not have been omitted, and that the punishment would
not have followed, had it been performed. To conclude, it is
never said in scripture, that " the devils shall be condemned for not
believing in Christ," of which no reason can be given but this,
because he died not for them.
II. It therefore cannot be sufficiently admired, that the grave
Synod of Doi t should urge such texts as these against this doctrine,
viz. that " through his name, whosoever shall believe in him shall
receive remission of sins.' God hath set forth him to be a pro-
pitiation through faith in his blood; and Christ is the end of the
law for justification to every one thatbelieveth;" it being demon-
strable that either all men are not obliged to believe for the re-
mission of their sins, or for justification, or to have faith in Christ's
blood, although the gospel be revealed and preached to them,
and then they cannot be condemned for not believing in Christ; or
that being thus obliged to believe, it must be true, that all to whom
the gospel is revealed are enabled to believe that Christ died and
shed his blood for them for the remission of their sins, and for their
justification upon that condition which God requires them to
perform under the highest penalty imaginable. " Whilst you have
light,"" saith Christ,^' believe in the light, that ye may be the
children of the light, lest darkness come upon you." Where ob-
serve, (1 .) That ' to believe in the light,' is to believe in Christ;
for'/,' saith he, 'am the light of the world.'* (2.) Observe,
JAets x. i5- " Rom, iii.25. x> $ Johnxu. 35. 5G. o John ix, 5. p Ibid. via. 12.
M 2
J40 THE EXTENT OF (DI. II.
that he exhorts them to believe in him, that by this faith they might
become 'children of the light,' that is, might be justified and re-
conciled to God by the blood of his Son, as are all the children of
God or of the light: For " if we walk in the light we have com-
munion with God, and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all
sin, 9 we being all made the children of God through faith in
Christ Jesus." r (3.) Observe that Christ speaks this to those
Jews which then believed not in him, and the generality of that
nation, and so to those who, when he spake, continued unbeliev-
ers, and remained under that darkness which after came upon
them for their unbelief : Therefore our Lord exhorted them to
believe in him, (that they might be justified and saved with the
children of light,) who perished in their infidelity; which justifi-
cation they could not obtain, or rationally be exhorted to believe
that they might attain, unless Christ died for them. Moreover a
brief inspection into all these places will be sufficient to discover,
that they are so far from saying any thing that is not well consistent
with this extent of our Lord's salutary passion, that they do ma-
nifestly establish it. Thus when St. Peter saith, "To Christ
give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins:" Js not this a
testimony of a promise of remission of sins unto every one to whom
the gospel is preached on the condition of faith in Christ? Is then
tins a promise made upon a condition possible to all to whom the
gospel is revealed or not? If it be made on a condition possible
to them all, then all to whom the gospel is revealed may receive
remission of sins through faith in Christ; and so Christ must have
died for them all. If only upon an impossible condition, then is
it, in the mouth of all God's prophets, a pretence of the kindness
to the most he never intended they should have ; for then he would
not have suspended it on an impossible condition. Yea then, is
it a promise only in name and show, but in reality none at all:
For the Civilians tell us, with the highest reason, that " an impos-
sible condition is as none at all." And here observe, that it is the
same thing as to the future state of all men, whether the condi-
tion be naturally impossible, or through lapsed nature; whether
it be-simply impossible, or to corrupted nature : For, seeing God,
9 1 John i.7 rGal. iii. 26.
CHAP. IY. 2.) CHUIST'S REDEMPTION. i41
by whose benediction we all come into the world, hath given us
no other nature; seeing our parents, from whom our nature is
derived, have imparted to us no other nature, it is naturally im-
possible we should come into the world with any other nature
than what is lapsed and corrupted : And so it is evidently the same,
as to the future state of all men thus corrupted, to promise any good
thing to them upon a condition simply impossible, and to promise it
on a condition impossible to lapsed and corrupted nature. More-
over, we learn from St. Paul, that this "word of salvation was sent
to the whole nation of the Jews, to all them who were children of
those fathers to whom the promise of the Messiah was first made ;"*
that to all them this remission of sins, by him was proffered, and
therefore he must die for their sins of that whole nation, of which
those that obtained Justification by him were only a small rem-
nant, the rest continuing in their unbelief, and perishing, saith the
apostle, for their unbelief, verse 41. Now could they perish for not
believing that remission of sins which was preached by the apostles
to them through him, if he never died to procure it for them? Sure-
ly upon this supposition it must rather follow, that the apostles in
this declaration were false witnesses concerning him, and that they
\vho perish for not believing this, must perish for not believing an
untruth.
In the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle
saith, ' we have before proved, 'Ia/r rs xai 'Exx^jvas- icy.^ry.s, that
ALL THE JEWS AND GENTILES were under (the guilt of) sin'*
Now here I suppose it will not be denied that every single person
of them were sinners ; when therefore he proceeds to say that, w
SiKxiMuw 6e, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS, or justification, which is OF
GOD, through jaith in Jesus, is upon all, and to ail that believe,
yi ovTss,for if being before AT ENMITY tcith God, ice have
been reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more shall
we be sated by his life' ' By the death of his Son,' that is, by that
faith iu it by which we being justified have peace with God, and
so have access by faith in him to the grace and favour of God.
And this exposition is certain from this consideration, that God
never justifies any but through faith in Christ; nor is he ever re-
conciled to any whom he did not justify. It is therefore certain,
that he never sent his Son to purchase actual reconciliation for
any; but conditionally, if and when they believed, ' he that be-
lieveth not in him is condemned already, because he belieteth not
in the Son of God:' It is therefore certain he died for the unbe-
liever, and yet he is not actually reconciled to God or justified, be-
cause it is only by faith that we are justified, and being justified,
have peace with God.
IV. OBJECTION FOURTH. "Those for whom Christ died he
loved with the greatest love, this being a testimony of the greatest
love: But thus he loved not all, for he applies not the salutary
effects of his death to all: .Ergo, he died not for all."
ANSWER FIRST. Here again it is plainly supposed, that Christ
died for none who shall not actually enjoy the salutary fruits of
his death, that is, who shall not actually be saved; whence it must
follow, that only the elect are or can be guilty of sinning against
the love of God in Christ Jesus.
c John xv. 15.
:HAP. v. 4.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 147
ANSWER SECOND. There is no such assertion in the holy
scripture, that " those for whom Christ died he loved with the
greatest love;" Christ only saith that " one man shews no greater
love than this to another, than that of laying down his life for him;
and this, man never doth but for his friend:" But this he neither
did nor could say of the love of the Father, in sending his hron to
die for mankind, nor of himself in dying for them; d for 'God
commended his love to us in that when zee zccre sinners Christ died
for its; f he died for the ungodly, the just for the unjust.'? This
text is therefore nothing to the purpose, Add to this,
ANSWER THIRD. That God the Father, in sending of his
Son into the world that the world through faith in him might be
saved, shewed the greatest love of benevolence to all mankind,
as Christ expressly teacheth, John iii. 16, 17; and the apostle, in
these words, ' Herein is love, not that ice loved God, but that
he loved us first, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins ;' e and so did Christ in dying 'for us all when dead.' h So
that all unbelievers, all wicked and impenitent persons, continue
in their sins against the riches of God's love and mercy to them in
Christ Jesus. But then God's love of beneficence, and the salutary
effects of Christ's death, or God's love of friendship to us, de-
pends on our repentance or conversion to him, our faith in Christ
by whom alone we have access to God, and who is our peace,
and our obedience to the laws of Christ, we being then * his
friends when we do that winch he commands us;' 1 and so they only
can be the proper objects of this love of friendship, or enjoy the
blessings of the new covenant which Christ hath purchased by his
dealh, who perform the conditions of that covenant. It is there-
fore granted, that Christ shewed the greatest love of benevolence
to all for whom he died; but then it is added, that he shews his
love of friendship and beneficence only to those that bear a true
reciprocal affection to him; for ' as grace Kill be to all those who
love tke Lord Jesus in sincerity ; k so if any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, he will be Anathema Maranatha.'*
4 Ibid. e Rom. v. 6, 7. /"I Pet. iii. 18. g I Jolui iv. 9, 10, 19. ft 2 Cor. r. 14.
i John xv. H. t Eph. vi. 24. I 1 Cor. xvi. 22.
148 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
. CHAP. VI.
Containing arguments from reason for this universality of
Christ's redemption.
THE arguments which plainly offer themselves from the pre-
cedent sections to confirm this doctrine are these :
I. FIRST. If God intended not the death of Christ for the sav-
ing of any but the elect, then he never intended the salvation
of any to whom the gospel is revealed but the elect; and then he
never designed any salvation for the greatest part of men 'to whom
the gospel was or is revealed on any condition whatsoever : For
since ' there isiio other name under heaven given hi/ which ice can
be saved," 1 salvation could not be intended for them on any condi-
tion whatsoever, to whom the benefit of -Christ's death was not
intended. Now were this so, how comes that gospel, which
first brought to light this reprobating doctrine, to be styled ' the
time zehen the goodness and love of God our Saviour appeared to
mankind? Why doth Christ say, ' God so loved the world, that
he sent his beloved Son into the world, not to condemn them, but that
the world through him might be saved ;' c and the apostle, ' Herein
is love made manifest, that God sent his Son into the world to be
the propitiation for our sins, that zee might live through himV d
Why is he styled a God ' rich in mercy,' and plenteous in good-
ness to the sons of men, who is so sparing of mercies to the great-
est part of mankind, that seeing them in equal misery and want
with his elect, and as worthy of it as they were, he should shut
his bowels of compassion up against them, and even from all eter-
nity exclude them from his loving kindness and mercy ? Why is
it said, l that his tender mercies are over all his works," if they are
so restrained from his most noble creatures? 'Doth God take
care for oxen? f saith the apostle; yea, saith this doctrine, much
better than for man ; he making plentiful provisions for the pre-
servation of their life, but none at all for the spiritual and eternal
life of the far greatest portion of mankind, but having left them
under a necessity of perishing and being miserable for ever.
a. Acts iv. 12. b Tit. iii. 4. c John iii. 16, 17. d 1 John iv. 9, 10.
t Psahn ciu. 8. cxlv. 9. / 1 Cor. ix. 9.
HAP. vi.Sj 1.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 149
* Their heavenly Father feeds the fowls of heaven' saith our Lord,
' and are not you much belter than they,' 5 and so more sure of your
provisions from this loving Father? "True," saith this doctrine, "as
to the provisions for this mortal body which we have common with
the brutes that perish; but most of us are so neglected by him who
bears the name of Father, and is the ' Father of our spirits,' that
he hath peremptorily excluded these immortal beings from a ca-
pacity of obtaining that food which nourisheth to eternal life."
Again, why is he represented as one who ' waiteth to be gracious/ 1
and stretchelh out his hand all the day long to a rebellious people ,'*
when from eternity he hath excluded so great a number from his
grace, and left them inevitably to suffer what his hand and his
counsel had determined before that they should suffer? God,
saith the apostle, * loved usjirst before we loved him.' k " God,"
saith this doctrine, " hated the generality of us first, before we
hated him, and did prevent us, not with his blessings, but with
subjection to an eternal curse." How could the apostle truly say
to the hardened and impenitent Jew, ' Dcspisest thou the riches of
his goodness, patience, and hug-suffering, not knowing that the
goodness of God kadeth thee to repentance:'* 'Why,' saith the
Jew, 'dost not thou tell us 'God hardeneth whom he Kill,' and that
'we are or that number; that he hath given us up to a spiritual
* slumber, and so never intended any benefit to us, never provided
* any salvation for us by the death of his Son ? What therefore
' meanest thou by the riches of his goodness, to men lying under
' his decree of preterition ? Or how can his patience be designed
' to lead them to repentance, who were appointed for wrath, and
' not salvation, from eternity? We may indeed be treasuring up
' wrath against the day of wrath; but it is inevitable wrath which
' we had never any power to avoid, God having no intention to
' give us any interest in that Jesus who alone ' delivers from the
1 wrath to come' Talk then no more of the revelation of the
' righteous judgment of God; for we appeal to the reason of man-
' kind whether it be a righteous thing to condemn men to eternal
' misery for that which it was never in their power to avoid.'
In fine, why doth God say that ' he delighteth in mercy, b and
in the exercise of loving-kindness,' c and that to think thus of him
g Matt. vi. 26. h Isa. xxx. 18. i Isa. Ixv. 2. * I John iv. 19, * Rora. ii. 4
i> Micah vii. 18. c Jeremiah is. i'i.
1JO THE EXTENT OF (l>IS. II,
is truly to know him, since it is his good pleasure to leave us un-
der an absolute incapacity of his mercy, and his loving kindness?
Why doth he say, ' He would have cleansed us and zee would not
be cleansed,'* when he never intended us any interest in that
blood of Christ which alone cltanseth from all siu? Why doth
he say and swear, ' He hath no pleasure in the death of him that
dies,' but rather taketh pleasure in this, that they should * turn
and live,' when his mere arbitrary pleasure hath left them under
a necessity that they should die and not live, and put this unan-
swerable question into their mouths, ' //' our transgressions and
our sins be upon us, and no Saviour was by God intended to re-
deem us from them, how should zee then liveT d Why, lastly,
doth he say, ' O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is
thy help'? e For, be it, this respects their temporal condition in
this world and the concernments of the body, there is no thought
more dishonourable to the Father ol spirits and the lover of souls,
than that he should be helpful to men in temporals, but, when-
he sees their souls sinking into eternal misery, intend them no
help, and put them under no possibility of escaping it; or that
his providence should be still employed in making provisions for
the bodies even in the wicked and unthankful, but that, when, bj
the same power, and the same sufferings of his Son, he could
have made the same provision for the souls of others as he is
supposed to have done for his elect, he should, by a mere arbi-
trary act of preterition, eternally and inevitably exclude them
from it, and leave them under a necessity of being the everlast-
ing objects of his wrath.
II. SECONDLY. Hence it must follow, that Christ never died
with an intention to save them whom he doth not actually save,
and deliver from the wrath to come: and why then doth he say,
' that he came down from heaven to give life unto the world,' - f and
that his Father ' sent his Son into the world, that the world through
him might have life; and that he will give hisjieshfor the life of
the world: I am the bread of life; if any man eat of this bread he
shall live for ever: e f erilu, verily, he that believeth in me hath
everlasting life,'' 1 plainly encouraging all to do so? Why doth
be say to them 'who would not come unto (that is, believe in) him
C Ezefciel xxiv. 13. d Ezekiel xxx. 10. Hosea xiii. 9. / John Vi. 2J, fa
g John iii. 16. A Jolw vi. 17
CHAP. vi. 3.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 151
thai they might have life, These things I say unto you that ye might
be saved? 1 Yea, why doth he enquire ' how of t would I have
gathered ye an a hen doth her chickens under her wings, and you
would not be gathered;' and so pathetically wish that they, from
whose eyes those things were after hid, ' had known in their day
the things belonging to their peace f You may as well hope to
reconcile light and darkness, as these words of Christ with his in-
tention to die only for them who should actually be saved.
111. THIRDLY. Hence it must follow, that none of those to
whom God never intended salvation by Christ, or who shall not
be actually saved by him, are bound to believe in him. For had
not this Saviour come into the world, they could not have been
obliged to believe in him ; and is not it to them all one, to have
no Saviour come at all, and none come for them ? Moreover, if
he died not for them, they cannot believe in his death ; if there be
no salvation for them in Christ, they cannot believe he is their
Saviour. Should they believe, must not their faith be in vain,
seeing it cannot alter the intentions of God in delivering his Son
up to the death, or of Christ in dying for the elect only ? And
why then do the ministers of the gospel promise salvation to all
men, provided they believe, when no salvation is provided for all;
and so none can be tendered by them to all on any condition
whatsoever? Since God himself never intended salvation should
be obtainable by all, and therefore never could give them com-
mission to tender it to all on any condition whatsoever, why doth
Christ say to all the Jews that came to him, ' This is the command
of God, that ye believe in the name of the Son of God;' b since this
command must be a declaration of God's will that they should all
believe, and his intention that the generality of the Jews should
not have salvation by Christ, shews his contrary will ? And, last-
ly, why doth he promise salvation to all if they believe, by saying
' He that believeth shall be saved ;i whosoever believeth in him shall
have everlasting life;' and then enquire thus, ' If I sat/ the truth,
why do you not believe me? seeing he died not with an intention
to purchase salvation to many of them whom he would not actu-
ally save?
i Joha y f 3*, 10. * John vi. 29. I Mk xvi, K. ro John vj. iO. viii. 16.
152 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
IV. FOURTHLY. Hence it clearly follows, that no man can
be condemned hereafter for final impenitency and unbelief, see-
ing he transgresseth no law of God by his unbelief. For surely
God commandeth no man to believe in Christ for salvation, for
whom he never intended salvation by Christ, or to repent for sal-
vation whom he intended not to save by Christ. Since therefore
where there is no transgression there can be no condemnation,
why doth Christ threaten to the Jews, ' that if they did not be-
lieve he was the Christ, that is, the Saviour of the world, they
should die in their sinsf n Why doth he declare them who be-
lieve not in him ' inexcusable and without alt cloak for their sins f
And why doth the apostle say, ' How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation?' Since that can be no salvation at all to them
for whom it never was intended, and it must be all one to them
to neglect and use the greatest diligence about it. In a word,
either it was possible for them who die in their impenitence and
unbelief to believe and repent to salvation, or it was not so; if it
were possible, then either Christ must have died for them, or it
must be possible for them to be saved without a Saviour; if it was
not, they either must not be obliged at all to believe and repent,
or they must be obliged to do what it was impossible for them to
do. Yea, seeing this impossibility ariseth only from God's deni-
al of that grace to them which he vouchsafes to his elect, (for had
they the same grace, it would or might have the same effect upon
them,) it follows that God must both will they should repent and
believe, because he commands and obliges them so to do, and
yet will they should neither repent nor believe, because he wills
the denial of that grace without which it is impossible they should
do so.
V. FIFTHLY. Hence it will follow, that neither the elect nor
non-elect can rationally be exhorted to believe : not they who are
not elected, because Christ died not for them : not the elect, for
he that knows himself to be one of that number, hath believ-
ed and repented already; if he do not know this, he cannot
know that Christ died for him, and so he cannot know it is
his duty to believe in him for salvation. Whereas if you as-
sert " Christ died for all," then may you rationally exhort all men
to believe, since every one must know that he who died for all,
n John viii. 2-t. o John xr. 22, 2*.
CHAP. vi. 6.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 153
died for him also, and therefore lhat it is his duty to believe in him
for salvation.
VI. SIXTHLY. Hence it must follow, that God hath not vouch-
safed sufficient means of salvation to all to whom the gospel is re-
vealed. For seeing there is no pardon, no justification, no peace
with God, no deliverance from the wrath to come, to be obtained
but through faith in him, ' no other name given by which zee can
be saved,' they \vho have no interest in his death can have no
means of obtaining pardon and salvation.' Now as ' allzcere not
Israel who were of Israel,' so al! are not of the number of the elect
to whom the gospel is revealed ; so lhat if salvation by Christ can
be obtained only by the elect, the residue of those to whom the
gospel is revealed can have no means sufficient for salvation. But
this is contrary
First. To the whole tenor of the gospel, which is, saith the
apostle, 'the power of God through faith to the salvation of every
one that believeth;? the word of grace zvhich is able to build us up
and give us an inheritance among those that are sanctified ; r the
saving grace of God which hath appeared to all men;* those scrip-
tures which are able to make us wise unto salvation; that gospel
which was written that we might beheve that Jesus is the C/nist,
and believing might have life through his name.' (John xx. 30.)
Secondly. If men have not sufficient means to be saved by the
covenant of grace, then have they only means given them to in-
crease their condemnation, yea, such means which they cannot
but use to their greater and more heavy punishment ; since ' he who
knows his master's will, (as all to whom the gospel is revealed may
do,) and doth it not, shall be beaten with more stripes.' f And so
it had been better for them not to have known the way of life, or
to have had no covenant of grace tendered to them. For if they
be not able by the assistance of that grace which God is willing
to vouchsafe them, to repent and believe the gospel, they must lie
under a necessity of being damned for ' not receiving the truth in
the love of it,' and of that neglect of this salvation which renders
it impossible they should escape the wrath of God, and under a
necessity of perishing; for ' 'if' we repent not, we must all perish.' u
p Acts iv. 12- 2 Rom ' ' 16< r Acts xx - 3e< * Titus " 11- ' Luke xii. 47.
u Luke xiii. 3.
154 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. If.
And this impenitency and unbelief must be more criminal for be-
ing committed under the gospel dispensation, than otherwise it
woald have been : so that the revelation of the gospel must be the
sorest judgment to them, seeing it must increase their damnation
\vithout a possibility, in them who wanted means sufficient, to
procure pardon and salvation, or of obtaining any blessings by it.
Whereas it is certain, that this ' Father of Spirits cannot be so
unnatural to his own immediate offspring as to design their greater
misery by his most gracious dispensations; since, as our Saviour
argues, ' If earthly parents being evil, will not be so unnatural to
their children, much less will our heavenly Father,' be so to his;
and that this lover of souls, who hath declared his ways cannot be
unequal to them, because ' all souls are his,'* can design nothing,
much less act any thing, on purpose to increase their condemna-
tion and their inevitable ruin.
Thirdly. If all men under the gospel have not means sufficient
to repent and believe, so as they may be saved, vouchsafed by
God, then must he still withhold something from them without
which they cannot repent and believe to salvation, viz. special
grace, so called, because it is peculiarly granted to the elect; an
irresistibleimpulse, with which the conversion of the sinner, faith,
and repentance will certainly be produced, and without which they
neither will nor can be wrought in us; a divine energy, or an
almighty power like that which God exerts in the creation, or the
raising oi the dead, we being by it made ' new creatures,' and rais-
ed from a death in Sin, to a life of righteousness. Now if the
\vautofalloranyofthesethings be the reason why so many,
who live under the gospel dispensation, do not believe and repent
to salvation; and upon this account it is that they continue in
their impenitence and unbelief, because they want this special
grace and divine energy to do so, these great absurdities will
follow,
1. That God condemns them to destruction for that which is no
sin; for sure it is no sin in the creature not to do that which can
alone be done by the almighty power of God, and which cannot
be done without that proper act of God he never would afford to
them; for then it must be the sin of man not to be God. If
tr Matthew vii. 11. K Ezekiel xviii. 4.
CHAP. vi. | 7.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 155
therefore God should punish inen for not doing that which there-
fore is not in their power to do, because it requires a divine ener-
gy which he will not exert on their behalf, he must punish them
for not being equal in power with God himself.
C Z. Then must every impenitent and unbelieving person have a
just excuse, and a sufficient plea why he should not be pu-
nished or condemned for his infidelity and unbelief; and they might
cry to God, as did the officers of the Jews to Pharaoh, '-Where-
f fore dealest thou thus with t/n/ servants? There is no straw given
1 to us, and thou t>ayest to us, Make bricks ;' y no special grace,
' no divine energy afforded us, and thou sayest to us, ' Do that,'
' which can no more be done without it than men can make bricks
' without straw, and 'thy servants are beaten, but the fault is in him'
' who denies us straw, and yet requires bricks; yea, who requires
' that faith and that repentance which he never would afford us
* means sufficient to perform.' For the plea of insufficiency, or
want of strength for the doing that which is commanded, is an ex-
cuse sufficient in the judgment of all mankind where it is truly
pleaded: ' I could not help, or I could not avoid it; 1 had no
* means, and no ability to do it,' is an apology sufficient in the
mouths of all men, nor scarcely can a man be found so barbarous
as to condemn and punish, when he is assured this is indeed the
case. And shall we then ascribe greater severity to a righteous
God? If not, it must be certain men cannot appear inexcusable
for their impenitence and unbelief, unless God had vouchsafed
them means sufficient to repent and believe.
VII. REPLY. Here it is said, " We all had strength sufficient
to believe in our first parent Adam, and therefore may be dealt
with as if we had it still." To this lamentable pretence, " so
weak," saith the judicious Dr. Claget, " that nothing but a des-
perate cause should force a man to take shelter in it," 1 ANSWER,
First . That it owns the truth of the objection, viz. that to re-
quire of men what was ever impossible for them to do under the
highest penalties, and to punish and condemn them for not doing
it, is evidently unjust and cruel.
Secondly, It is evidently false that Adam in the state of inno-
cency, that is, before he had sinned, had power to repent of his
y Exodus v. 15, 1C.
15(5 THE EXTENT OF ' (DIS. 'IIv
iniquity, and to believe in a Saviour not yet revealed, for the remis-
sion of sins. These are the powers of a lapsed sinner only, and
therefore could only agree to Adam in his lapsed state, or when
he was as impotent as we now are; so that if he then, who was
become as one of us, was able to repent and believe without spe-
cial grace, so were his posterity. If he had no ability, in case he
should fall, to rise again by faith and repentance, we could have
no such power in him. (2.) They who then were not, were not
in Adam, for non entis nnlla sunt pradicata ,-* and that which is
not, hath no power, that being always in a subject, and a conse-
quent of the essence, for potestates sequuntur essentiam:^ To say
" our nature was in Adam, and so our power and our will might
also be in him," is also false; for Adam was a particular man, an
individuum, and therefore could have only an individual and par-
ticular nature, and therefore only a particular will and power.
To say " he had a nature like to that of ours derived from him,"
is to say he had not the same numerical or individual nature, for
nullum simile est idem.^ Hence, whereas that which is said of
human nature in common, agrees to every human nature; many
things may be said of the human nature of Adam, which agree to
the human nature of none of his posterity, viz. that it was the first
human nature that was in the world; that it was entirely and im-
mediately created by God, and came not into the world by gene-
ration; that it was free from sin, and made upright; that it was
able to perform perfect obedience; that it dwelt in paradise, and
was cast out thence for eating the forbidden fruit ; and lastly, the
nature of Adam had a power to continue innocent, and without
sin, whereas it is certain our nature never had so; for we could
never hinder the sin of our nature, nor the influence which the sin
of Adam had upon it to make us sinners. In a word, the ques-
tion is not concerning the justice of condemning the nature of
Adam, but concerning the justice of condemning our persons to
eternal punishment for not doing that which it was always impos-
sible for them to do.
Thirdly. Admitting this absurd imagination, that we had this
power in our first parents, and that we lost it by the sin of our
*. ' Nought can be affirmed of a tiling which is not in existence.' ED.
i ' All powers follow their essence.' ED.
t ' Nothing, however similar to another, is identically the same as that other.' ED,
CHAP. vi. 7-) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 157
nature in them, what is this to the import of all those texts of
scripture which exhort all men to repent, and proffer life to them
that do so, and command all men to believe, and promise salva-
tion to them upon that condition, threatening at the same time
damnation to the impenitent and unbeliever; since all these things
are spoken to the fallen race of man, and so, if God be serious
in them, declare his great unwillingness that fallen man should
perish by his impenitence and unbelief, and his passionate desire
that he should believe and repent? And seeing he that wills the
end must also will the means absolutely necessary to the obtain-
ing of that end, he cannot be supposed wanting at the same
**ime in affording means sufficient to obtain the end, and so can-
not have left even lapsed man under an impossibility of obeying
his commands and exhortations to repent and believe. More-
over the law of repentance, and faith for the remission of sins,
was not, nor could it be, in force till we had lapsed ; and so it
was, by this hypothesis, impossible to be fulfilled before it was in
force. The exhortations to repent and believe, the promises of
pardon and salvation to the penitent believer, and the threats made
to the impenitent, and him that is not justified by faith in Christ,
must be all given to fallen man; and so, according to the same hy-
pothesis, must be promises on a condition impossible to be per-
formed, and threats upon a default impossible to be avoided.
They are declarations of the will of God, and so must be com-
mands and exhortations to perform it; and so, suppose God wil-
ling that he should perform what he cornmandeth and exhorts us
to perform, and yet by leaving him under an impossibility of do-
ing that which he commandeth and exhorts him to, and perempto-
rily denying that assistance, without which it must always be im-
possible, he shews he is not willing he should do what he com-
mandeth and exhorteth him to do. Again, to deter men from do-
ing such an action by the severest threats, is to pretend a great un-
willingness that action should be done; and yet to leave them
under an impossibility to avoid it without that assistance which he
will not yield, is to be both willing and resolved it shall be done.
To promise pardon to a lapsed person upon condition, is in effect
for God to say he will not impute to him his former fault, but
will deal with him according to his future carriage, to which a
conditional promise always hath relation; but if he requires what
158 THE EXTENT OF QD1S. II.
he knows that first fault hath rendered utterly impossible to be
done by him, he still imputes that fault, and punishes him at the
same time for it as he pretendeth to remit it. And sure!) it is no
small matter to render God so deceitful and delusory, so insin-
cere and hypocritical, as this opinion makes him.
Should a physician come to a patient, whose stomach was so
weakened through his intemperance or lust, that it could bear no
stron^ meat, and his feet so enfeebled that he could scarce walk
O '
from his couch to his bed-side, and profess an earnest desire to
cure his distempers, and promise him recovery, provided he would
follow his prescriptions, might it not reasonably be expected he
should prescribe such means for his recovery that it was possible for
him in this condition to make use of ? If then he should enjoin
him to eat, and to digest the strongest meats, and walk some hours in
the fields, because he formerly could do so before he fell into this
disability and feebleness, would not all men pronounce him a de-
luding cheat, and one that hypocritically and insincerely pretend-
ed his recovery, and promised it with equal vanity and folly, in-
tending only to insult over his present misery ? And yet this is
the representation of our gracious God in this affair which these
men offer to us. For the blessed Jesus is the physician which
God sent to heal our natures of the disability we luid contracted
by the fall, and to promise us a remedy, which, if we would use,
we should recover that, or a better life than that, from which we
fell, and to threaten the severest judgments if we neglected so
to do. But then, if only he doth promise this recovery on such a
condition as that very fall hath rendered us unable to perform,
and which he never will enable us to perform, must he not be
guilty of the like hypocrisy and insincerity in propounding to us
an impossible remedy, and insult only over the misery of his crea-
tures whilst he pretendeth kindness to them ? And how unrea-
sonable is it to impute such deceit, falsehood, insincerity, and
injustice to a good and righteous God, which we cannot but
abhor in man? For sure, most graciously to exhort, most
affectionately to invite, most earnestly by the greatest promises
and threats to move us, to repent aud believe, when he at the
same time is firmly purposed to withhold the means by which
alone we can do either, is to insult over his miserable creatures in
the highest manner. And to deal thus with myriads of myriads
CHAP. vi. ^8.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 159
for the sin of Adam, is, as it were, to meditate revenge upon the
greatest part of his posterity to the world's end, for what was only
done by the first man. Yea, it is to do this under pretence of
love and kind affection, and a vehement desire and concern that
they should escape the misery that very sin had brought upon
them, and recover the felicity they had lost by it, by those very
means he doth prescribe; and yet to leave them under an utter
incapacity to perform those means: Which to conceive and to
assert of our most gracious God, is highly to dishonour and blas-
phfiur Ins Sacred Majesty, and represent him so unto the world,
as even the worst of men would not endure to be represented.
VIII. We find our blessed Saviour marvelling at the unbelief
of his own people; for ' he marvelled at their unbelief'" Now,
can he who knows they could not believe by reason of the disabi-
lity s :5<:y had contracted by the sin of Adam, wonder that they did
not wii,t it was impossible for them to do? Again, when he heard
the answer of the centurion, ' He marvelled, saying, I'erily I
have not found so great faith, no not in Israel;"" but if this faith,
whenever it is wrought in any, is the effect of an Almighty power,
what reason could he have to marvel, that it was found where that
Almighty power was exerted, or that it was not found where the
same power was withheld? To clear this by some few instances
from scripture,
Pint. St. Matthew informs us that Christ upbraided the cities
in which most of his mighty works were done, because they re-
pented not, sa)ing, ' Wo unto ye, Chorazin and Belhsaida, and to
thee, Capernaum, who shall be brought dozen to hell: it shall be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, in the
day of judgment than for you; for if these might u works had been
done in them, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, and
have remained to this day. ' y Now, not to dispute whether the re-
pentance of Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, would have
been sincere, or only external and hypocritical, (though it is not
reasonable to conceive that such repentance would have caused
them to remain to that day, or that Christ would upbraid them for
want of a sincere repentance produced in them by those mighty-
works, which doubtless he required by saying to these very per-
sons, f repent you, for the kingdom of 'heaven is at hand,'*) by au
* Mark vi. 6. w M*ttliew viii. 10. y Matthew xi. 20, 21. * Mark 1. 14, 14.
160 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. 11.
example of an hypocritical repentance which only would have
bt-en produced in others by the same works, J say, not to insist
on this why should our Lord denounce these woes upon them,
and declare their future punishment more intolerable in the day
of judgment than that of those unnatural sinners and most vile
idolaters, for want of that repentance which, notwithstanding all
the mighty works which he had done among them, he knew it was
impossible for them to perform ? He might, according to the
vain hypothesis confuted, have said to them, <\Vo to you that
' the sin of Adam hath disabled you from repenting !' but could
not with any show of justice pronounce such dreadful woes and
judgments on them lor not doing that then, which they so long
ago were rendered wholly unable to perform, and that upon a
reason which did not in the least remove the disability.
Secondly. ' The men of Nineveh,' saith Christ, * shall rise up
in judgment zcith this generation, and shall condemn it, (for its im-
penitence, \/br they repented at the preaching of Jonas, (though he
did no miracle among them) and behold (though) a greater than
Jonas is here,'" (calling you to repentance, you do not repent.)
Now if the men of Nineveh only repented by virtue of that divine
assistance which God would not vouchsafe to the Jews; if not-
withstanding all Christ's exhortations to repentance, it was impos-
sible they should repent for want of like assistance ; why should
they be condemned at all, or why, for want of that repentance
which Nineveh only performed by that assistance which they could
not have ?
Thirdly. Our Lord upbraids the Scribes and Pharisees for not
repenting, and entering into the kingdom of God as the very Pub-
licans and harlots had done before their eyes, saying, ' Verily I
say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom
of God before you: for John came to you (to instruct you) in the
zcay of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans
and harlots believed him; and ye, zchen ye have seen (them do) it,
repented not afterwards that ye might believe him." Now is it
matter of reproach and shame to any person that they do not what
another doth, unless it be supposed that they have, or at least
might have, had the like power and abilities to do it? This passage
a Matthew xii. 41. * Matthew xxi. 51, 32.
CHAP. VI. 9-) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 161
therefore shews (i.) that the Scribes and Pharisees, and other Jews,
might and ought to have been moved by the admonitions of the
Baptist, and the example of the publicans, to repentance and
faith; for why else doth Christ here upbraid them that ' they af-
tencards repented not, that they might believe?' (ii.) That there-
fore an internal, irresistible force or power cannot be necessary
to produce this repentance and this faith; for if the publicans
and harlots were thus moved to repent, what wonder is it that
they went before the Scribes and Pharisees, who having no such
impulse, were left, under an impossibility of repenting that they
might believe? Why is it represented as their crime, that they
repented not at the preaching of John, or did not follow the exam-
ple of the Publicans, since the event shews that no such irresisti-
ble motive to repentance was contained either in the preaching
of the Baptist, or the example of the Publicans?
Fourth/i/. In the parable of persons invited to the wedding-supper,
we find, that he who came, not having on a wedding-garment was
speechless/ as being self-condemned, " rw ya.p //.r^sv s'xEtv avreiTr-
siv xzTs'fcgjvsv eavrov, ' for having nothing to say against the sentence
to be passed upon him, he condemned himself," saith Chrysos-
tom. But why should he be speechless, if he could have plead-
ed with truth and a good conscience, that he never had or could
have means to procure such a garment, and therefore ought not
not to be cast out into outer darkness, for that which he could
never help?
Fijlhli/. In the parable of the Talents, he who improved not
his single talent is declared to be ' a slothful and a wicked ser-
vant? 11 and that because he did not what he ought to have done.
Now there can be no obligation to impossibilities, no iniquity in
not doing what he could not do, and no punishment due on that
account, this being to punish him because he did not an impossi-
bility; and Christ by saying to all who had received talents, 'ne-
gotiate till I come,' e demonstrates he conceived they all had
power so to do.
IX. SEVENTHLY. That which doth render this doctrine most
worthy to be rejected by all who truly love their God and Saviour,
is this consideration, that it unworthily reflects upon our good
c Matthew xxii. 15. rf Matthew xxv, 26, 27. t Luke xix. 13.
1C2
THE EXTENT OP (DIS. II.
and gracious God, our blessed Lord, and merciful High Priest,
who is in scripture often said, but by this doctrine is denied, to be
the Saviour of the world.' For,
First. It in effectcieclares, that he who is in scripture styled Lo v E,
hath from eternity hated the greatest portion of mankind, so far as to
leave them under, and even condemn them to, a state of everlasting
and inevitable misery. For, if he himself saith, ' Jacob have I
loved, and Esau have 1 hated, only because he laid the mountains
and heritage of Esau waste,'? is there not greater reason to say,
he hated all those souls whom he hath utterly excluded from any
interest in that Jesus who alone delivers from the wrath to come ?
If he is said to ' hate his brother in his heart, '? who surfers him to
go on in his sin without reproof, must not he hate those souls
much more, who by his decree of preterition concerning them,
when he was designing the great work of man's redemption, hath
laid them under a sad necessity of sinning, so as to be obnoxious
to still greater misery? Our Lord makes it the particular case of
Judas, that ' it had been better for him if he had not been born;' 11
whereas this doctrine makes it the case of all, save only the elect.
Now can we imagine, that that God who will require the blood
of souls from every watchman who doth not warn the sinner to
turn from his iniquity that he die not, should himself leave them
inevitably to perish in it ? So that what he doth threaten to him
only, ' who being often reproved hardetieth his heart, n should be
the state and case of almost all men before they came into the
\voiid, viz. 'to be destroyed without remedy.'
Secondly. It represents that God, who is continually declared
in scripture to be a God ' rich in goodness, plenteous \n mercy,
and of great piti/ towards all his creatures, as having no bowels
of compassion, no drop of mercy, no inclination to do good to
the generality of his most noble creatures, obnoxious to death and
endless misery, and therefore as proper objects of his mercy and
compassion, as those whom ' in his love and pity he redeemed;'
but rather an unmoveable resolution before they had a being, to
withhold from them his loving-kindness and mercy, and to shut
his bowels of compassion up against them. And is not this to re-
present our God and Saviour more uncompassionate to the souls
* Malachi i. 2, 3. s Leviticus six. 17- ft Matthew xxvi. 24, i Proverbs xxix. 1.
CHAP. vi. 9.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 163
of men, than were that Priest and Levite to their brother's body,
who seeing him ready to perish by his wounds, passed unconcern-
ed by anodier way?* When this Great Lord saith to his servant
to whom he had forgiven the great debt, ' Oughtest not thou to
have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity upon
theeT 1 would not this doctrine teach him to answer, ' Lord, 1 have
' chosen to deal with him as thou dealest with the greatest part of
' mankind, to whom thou never iutendest to forgive the least mite,
' and on whom thou wilt never have the least compassion:' And
when the apostle enquires, ' If 'any man see his brother in need,
and shntteth up his botcels of compassion from him, how dzcelleth
the love of God in him?" would not this doctrine teach him to re-
ply, ' Even as it dwells in God himself towards the generality
* of mankind:' To make this more apparent, let us consider
these four things:
1. That God by sending his Son to be the Saviour of the
world, or in giving him up to the death, had no other primary end
than the glorifying himself in the salvation of men: ' He sent his
Son to be the propitiation for our sins, that zee might live through
him;* that the zcorld through him might be saved.' Had there-
fore he designed his death for the salvation of all men upon condi-
tions possible to be performed by them, he must have glorified
himself more, than by restraining the design of it only to the sal-
vation of a few.
2. That the death of Christ was a sufficient sacrifice for the
sins of the whole world, and so might have procured a conditional
pardon for all men as well as for the elect, had God been pleased
to give him up to the death for us all.
3. That it could be no ways more dishonourable to God, or
more inconsistent with his justice, wisdom, hatred of sin, or any
other of his attributes, to have designed Christ's death for the sal-
vation of all men, than to intend jt only for the salvation of those
few whom they style the elect.
4. That they who are supposed to be excluded by God from
any benefit by Christ's death, were as much the offspring of the
* Father of spirits,' and 'the souls that he had made,' as much
partakers of the same nature in which our Saviour suffered, and
Luke x. 31,52. I Matthew xviii. 53. m 1 John iu. 17- 1 John iv. 9, 10. o John iii. 17.
1(J4 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
every whit as miserable and as much wanting an interest in our
Lord's salutary passion, as they who are supposed to be the objects
of the pardon and salvation purchased by our Saviour's blood.
Can it be then consistent with the grace, goodness, and mercy of
the divine nature, and of the ' Lover oj souls,' and the relation which
this ' Father of spirits' bearetli to them, to consign the death of
Christ to procure pardon and salvation only to a few, and to suf-
fer the far greater part of souls (which were equally his offspring,
as capable of salvation by the very same means, as miserable, and
so in the same need of pardon and salvation with the rest,) to re-
main inevitably miserable only for want of God's designing the
same sacrifice for the procuring mercy to them as well as others?
If it be said " God doth this to declare his sovereignty or pre-
rogative over his creatures, in shewing and denying mercy to whom
he pleaseth:"
I ANSWER, God never exerciseth any sovereignty or preroga-
tive over his creatures, which is repugnant to his rich grace, good-
ness, love, mercy, and compassion to the souls which he hath
made ; and therefore never so as to leave the greatest part of them
obnoxious to eternal and inevitable ruin, when he hath a remedy
provided sufficient to prevent it, if he did not arbitrarily exclude
them from it. When under the Roman and the Grecian government
the Father had an absolute power over his children, and in the
Eastern nations the prince had absolute power over his subjects;
would this prerogative and sovereignty excuse them from a seve-
rity and rigour unworthy of a father or a sovereign, in leaving most
of their subjects and their children under the extremes! misery,
when by the very same means that a few of them have been res-
cued from it, they might all have been so? And shall we then
impute that rigour, want of natural affection and compassion, to
the Lover of souls and the benign government of our Heavenly
Father, which we could not but condemn and abhor in earthly
governors, and in the 'fathers of our flesh? And
Thirdly. This opinion renders the God of truth and of since-
rity, and who hath ' magnified his truth above all his name,' so full
of guile, deceit, and insincerity, dissimulation and hypocrisy, that
he who doth conceive God may address himself to his creatures
without distinction, as in the scripture he continually doth, and yet
hath left them destitute of a capacity of mercy, and of all ability
CHAP. vi. 9-) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 165
to help themselves, may doubt of his sincerity and truth in all the
declarations contained in his sacred word. For
1. It represents that God (who declares expressly and AF-
FIRMATIVELY, that ' he would have, ail men to be saved, all men
to come to repentance? and swears that the conversion of a sinner
from that iniquity in which he may die would be highly pleasing
to him, and NEGATIVELY, that he ' would not that am/ one should
perish,' thai he delighteth not in, would not the death of him that
dies,) denying to send his Son to die for their salvation, or to
vouchsafe them means sufficient to repent and turn to him; and
so rendering it impossible they should repent, or avoid perishing in
their iniquity.
2. It represents him who declares, ' He would have purged
them rcho icould not be purged, he would have gathered them zcho
would not be gathered;' and enquires what could he have done
more to enable them to bring forth good grapes, who only brought
forth sour grapes ; denying them any interest in the blood of
cleansing, or any sufficient means to enable them to bring forth
good grapes.
3. it introduceth that God, (who, according to the whole tenor
of the scripture, calls upon men without exception to repent and
be converted that their sins may be blotted, and they may not die
in them, sending all his prophets to reduce his people from their sin-
ful courses, ' because he had compassion on them, enquiring of them,
' Why will you die? Will you not be made clean? When shall it
once be? Yea, waiting that he might be gracious, and stretching
out his hand all the day long to a rebellious people,' and exercising
the riches of his goodness, patience, and long-suffering, ' to
bring them to repentance,'} denying, to the most of them to whom
he thus affectionately speaks, any possibility of being made clean,
of turning to him, or repenting, or escaping death.
4. It represents him (who saith with the greatest passion, ' Oh
that they rvere wise, that they zvould consider their latter end!" Oh
that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my
way! b Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments ! c Oh
that thou hadst knozcn in this thy day the things zchich belong to
thy peace?* and enquireth in the most affecting manner, ' How
n Deuteronomy v. 29. b Psalm Ixxxi. 13. c Isaiah xlyiii. 18. d Luke xix. 42.
lG6 THE EXTENT OF (D1S. II.
shall I give theeup, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel?
How shall I make thee.as Admaltt Hozo shall I set thee as Ze-
boim? My heart is turned in me, my repenting* are kindled,' e)
after all these seeming transports of affection and desire oi their
welfare, and yearning bowels of compassion, refusing to have the
least compassion for them, and decreeing to leave them without
a Saviour, without means of being spiritually wise, truly obedient,
or having any saving knowledge of the things belonging td their
peace.
5. It represents him as one encouraging the foolish and the
scorner ( to turn at his reproof, by a promise of pouring his Spi-
rit on him;- f the simple to forsake thejoolish and lii~e; e the wicked
man to forsake his zcay, and turn to the Lord that he may be abun-
dantly pardoned ; h to cease from evil, and learn to do K'ell, that
though his sins icere as crimson he might be as zvhite as zroo/,-'* yea,
more concerned to find the lost sheep, than for the ninety-nine
that went not astray, and rejoicing more at the return of his pro-
digal son, than in him who never wandered from him; yet leaving
the generality of men under an incapacity to return from their
simplicity and folly, or to cease to do evil; leaving the prodigal
to famish on his husks, and the lost sheep without ability to return
to the shepherd of his soul.
X. LASTLY. This doctrine is visibly destructive of almost all
the acts of piety and virtue.
And, First, all prayer and supplication is the duty of all chris-
tians; it is to be performed by them in every place,* and at all
times 'zcithout ceasing;' 1 it is to be offered up for all Christians
and all men, and this in faith, believing that we shall receive our
petitions; and all these prayers are to be put up 'in the name of
Christ,'" imploring all mercies and blessings for his sake and
through his meritorious passion, which how can we do seriously,
and in faith, if we may reasonably question whether Christ's merits
do respect us, or are available in our behalf? How can we do
this for all men, provided God himself hath taught us that his
Son never died for all, nor did he design his passion for the bene-
fit of all, but only for the benefit of his elect, for whom alone we
t Hosea 3d. 8. f Proverbs i. 23. g Proverbs ix. 6. A Isaiah v. 7- i Chapter i. 16, 1*.
t Ephesians vi. 18. 1 1 Thessaloniaus v. 17. m 1 Timothy ii. 1, g.
CHAP. VI. 10.) fiHKIST's REDEMPTION. 167
cannot pray, because we cannot know them ? Moreover, we have
no access to God the Father but by him, by whom ' we are brought
to God;' n it is through faith in ' him zve have this freedom of ac-
cess with confidence ; it is only through the blood of Jesus that we
can come to God with full assurance of faith; how therefore
can we have access to him in our prayers for pardon, or for any
other spiritual blessings for all men through him, or through the
blood of Christ, if he did not shed his blood for all ? ' / exhort /
saith the apostle, ' that prayers and intercessions for spiritual bles-
sings, deprecations for the averting of those judgments which our
sins deserve, and giving of thanks for the blessings which they
have received, be made for all men.' p Now if, as there we read,
' God would have all men to be saved,' and Christ hath given him-
self ' a ransom for all,' it is easy to discern how we may pray in
faith for all these blessings to all men. But if, according to the
doctrine maintained in express contradiction to these words, Christ
did not give himself a ransom FOR ALL, but for the elect only,
who are known to God alone; and if God intended not the sal-
vation of all men, but of his elect only, it is hard to conceive how
we should thus pray for all in faith, since it must then be certain
that we cannot put up our petitions for them in the name, and
through the merits, of that Jesus who never died for the most of
them, or have a freedom of access to the Father for them through
that blood which by him never was intended to be shed to procure
pardon, or any other spiritual blessing for them. ' / will,' saith
the same apostle, ' that men pray every zchere, lifting up pure hands
without doubting :"* which precept how can any man observe?
That is, how can he pray with confidence who is not assured that
Christ is his and their Saviour for whom he prays, or that God for
Christ's sake, is disposed to grant his request? It is a great en-
couragement to pray for pardon, and for the saving grace of God,
to believe that God is truly willing and desirous to afford them
to all that do thus ask and seek them, and are ready to use the
means prescribed by him to enjoy them; and that his Saviour
died to procure this pardon, and these blessings, to all men thus
desirous of them, thus willing to do all they can to have them.
Whereas the contrary apprehension must needs damp devotion,
Kphesians ii. 13, 18. o Hebrews x. 19, 20. p 1 Timothy ii. 1. q Verse I.
108 THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II.
and render us unable to come to God with that faith he so ex-
pressly doth require, and without that doubtfulness and double-
mindedness he as expressly doth forbid. For when a man must
thus conceive within himself, " Perhaps God hath loved me; per-
" haps he from eternity hath passed an act of preterition on me,
" and so can never have any regard to my welfare; perhaps Christ
" died to procure pardon and salvation for me upon possible and
" reasonable terms, if I be willing to perform them ; perhaps he
" never intended to procure any blessing for me by his death ;"
surely he can apply himself to God for any of these blessings but
faintly and distrustfully, who is thus taught to doubt whether he
hath any Redeemer or Mediator, or not.
Secondly. It is the duty of all Christians ' to give thanks always,
for all things, to God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ' to
offer the sacrifice of praise continually by him,* to give thanks to God
the Father by him. w In every thins, give thanks,' saith the apostle,
'for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you;'"> and
this we are to do for all men. That opinion therefore which ob-
structs this gratitude, which deprives God of his praise, and stops
our mouths from being opened in thanksgivings to him, must be
repugnant both to scripture and to reason. Now sure, most men
can never be obliged to thank God for sending his Son into the
world, if he was never sent with a design of doing good to them,
or Christ for their redemption, if they were not redeemed by him.
They cannot heartily resent* the kindness of their God and Sa-
viour, who know not that he is their Saviour, or that his kindness
ever was designed for them, or will be extended to them. They
cannot give thanks to God " for all men," who are obliged to be-
lieve he hath no kindness for the greatest part of men ; so that
either Christ is an universal Saviour, or the greatest part of Christians
are disobliged and incapacitated reasonably to thank or to praise
him for any thing that he hath done or suffered. If indeed God,
to redeem men from eternal misery, was so kindly affected towards
them as to provide, for all that were obnoxious to it, a Saviour
from wrath to come, all men may easily discern how much they
are obliged to praise and celebrate him for his favour and mercy.
Ephesiansr. 20. t Hebrews xiii. 15. u 1 Thessalonians v. 18. tu 1 Timothy ii. 1-
' An old acceptation of the word, signifying tu receive favourably.' ED.
CHAP. vi. 10.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. JG9
If our Lord Jesus " for us men and for our salvation came down
fro. n heaven, and was made man, and was crucified for us under
Pontius Pilate," tlien may we say with saints and angels, * Worthy
is tkt Lamb that teas stain, to receive honour, and glory, and bles-
sing, jor he hath redeemed us to God by his blood.'" 1 But then
supposing Christ is not the Redeemer of all, but of those only
who ' . finally saved, these grounds of thankfulness cannot
respect ah chrisUans, but rather those alone who are assured of
their salvation.
Thirdly. The great duty required both of Jew and Gentile, is,
' to love the Lord with all our hearts; this, ith our Lord, is the
great commandment' most certainly obliging all mankind. Now if
God hath been so kindly affected to alt men, so careful of their
welfare as, for procuring and promoting their salvation, to send
his own beloved Son to be their Saviour, and to give him up to the
death that they might live through him, that he doth heartily de-
sign their happiness, and hath put no bar on his part to the obtain-
ing of it; they must have then the highest obligations to love him
as then gracious friend and benefactor, and to say, with the royal
Psalmist, " Love the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his be-
nefits, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee
with mercy, and with loving-kindness." 3 ' But if he intended no
such kindness to the greatest part of mankind, what motive can
they have to love him who never had any love to their souls?
Surely they cannot be obliged to love him for that redemption
which never was intended for them, or for that grace which will
not be vouchsafed to them.
Fourthly. The doctrine of general redemption layeth the great-
est obligations on us to fear the Lord and his goodness, and to
perform our duty to him from the resentment* of his kindness to
us, and the assurance it affords us that our sincere endeavour to
perform it will find acceptance with him. For if God thus loved
us first, surely we all stand bound to shew our love to him again
by that obedience which is the only test of our sincere affection;
if Christ hath bought us with the price of his own precious blood,
we ought to ' glorify him with our souls and bodies which are his.'
But how can he be moved to serve God in consideration of these
RSV. r, 9, 12. y Psalm ciii. 1, 2, 3. * ' See the note iu the preceding page.' ED.
O
170 THE EXTENT OF (DTS. I!.
benefits, who is ignorant that they weje intended for him ? How
can any man apply himself cheerfully to serve that God, whose
favourable inclination towards him, whose readiness to accept his
service, he doubteth of? It is partly the benefits we have receiv-
ed, and partly the advantages we may receive, from a superior,
which are the prevailing motives to serve him. If then God never
intended any benefit to the greatest part of mankind, if they have
no beloved through whon> their persons and performances can
be accepted, if through the want of an interest in Christ they ne-
ver can have any advantage by him, or any spiritual blessing; must
they not be entirely deprived of these prevailing motives to the
service of their God and Saviour?
Fifthly. The doctrine of universal redemption tends highly to
the promotion of God's glory ; it gives him the glory of his free
love, rich goodness, great mercy and compassion to the sons of
men, far above the contrary doctrine. For if to redeem any doth
magnify his goodness, to redeem many doth increase it, to redeem
all doth advance it to the highest pitch; for the more are benefit-
ed, the greater is the glory of the benefactor. For should a king.,
finding five thousand of his subjects under miserable thraldom., re-
deem one hundred of them, leaving the rest, as worthy of his favour
and in equal need of it, to perish in their misery; would he magnify
his love, goodness, his pity, and compassion to them as much as if
he had extended his love and goodness to them all? Had they all
forfeited equally his favour, would his mercy be as much mag-
nified in pardoning one hundred of them, as in pardoning them
all? If the king should declare that now was the time ' his lone
unto his subjects should appear, that he would shew himself gra-
cious to them all, and that he delighted in exercising loving-kind-
ness to them all, and was unwilling any one of them should perish,
that he had tender bowels of compassion for them, and that
whosoever of them was not redeemed and saved, were despisers
of his rich goodness, and neglecters of his great salvation ;" would it
not highly tend to his dishonour, that, after all these declarations,
he intended not his favour to any more of them ? Would not all
men think he acted insincerely, and very unsuitably to these decla-
rations of his love and kindness to them all ? And shall we then
impute this to the great God of love, our Heavenly Father and
benign Governor, which, in an earthly prince, we should account
delusory and insincere, inhumane and unmerciful?
CHAP. vi. ^ 10.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. . 171
Sixthly. This doctrine of general redemption doth best instruct
us how to imitate the goodness, mercy, and compassion of our
God, even by being kind and merciful to all, and ready to procure,
as much as in us lies, the welfare of all men. \Ve are called " to
love our enemies, and to be kind to them that hate us, z and to do
good to them, that we may be the children of our Heavenly Father, 4
may be merciful as our Father is merciful, he being kind to the
unthankful and the evil ; and are thus taught of God to love one
another, and to abound in love one to another, and to all men, 6 to
be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us;" c and that no for-
giveness is to be expected from God's hands, " if we do not every
one from his heart forgive his brother's trespasses." d Now if God's
love to men be not as large as the affection and desire of doing
good must be in us, if he be not as ready to forgive every one that
repents their trespasses as we are bound to be, how can we be
obliged to this extensive charity and mercy by his example, and
bound to exercise it that we may be like him ? And not rather
bound to contract our love and mercy, lest we should exceed our
pattern, and should over-act him ? Should we imagine that the
bowels of God's love and mercy were confined to some few, and
all that Christ did and suffered was only designed for the good of
a small remnant of mankind, to imitate this God would be, for
any thing I can discern to the contrary, to pretend kindness to
mankind, in general, but only to intend it to some few: whereas
if God is truly willing to have mercy upon all, if he delivered up
his Son for us all, our love and mercy, would we be imitators of
him, must be truly general.
Nor is it a sufficient ANSWER to this argument to say that
" God is kind to all in temporals, by ' giving unto all men fruitful
seasons,' causing his sun to shine, and his rain to fall upon the evil
and the good'." f For
REPLY FIRST. If all these temporal enjoyments, without that
grace and interest in Christ which is denied them, can only be
abused to the aggravation of their guilt and punishment, what
kindness is it to enjoy them ?
Matthew y. 44, 48. a. Luke vi. 35, 36. b 1 Thessalonians iii. 12. ir. ix. cEphesian$ iy.
tt Matthew xviii. 35. e Acts xiv. 17. / Matthew v, 15.
THE EXTENT OP (BIS. 11,
SECONDLY. This is a farther confirmation of our doctrine; for
if God be so bountiful to all men in things temporal, if he pre-
serves their life from destruction, if he 'freely openeth Ids hand,
andjilleth all things living with plenteousness;' can we think that
he should altogether neglect their spiritual estate, and leave their
souls to starve and perish everlastingly without using any means
for their recovery? Doth ' God take care for oxen' more than
men, saith the apostle? Doth he, I say, who takes such care of
human bodies, make no provision for their souls? He that ' givetk
to a/I men life, breath, and all things,' will he withhold from any
the best of gifts, and most worthy of him to give, that grace by
which alone they are enabled to serve and glorify him, and do what
is well pleasing in his sight? "They think unworthily of God,"
saith the Pagan Philosopher, " who represent him liberal in giv-
ing lesser matters, TT/JOS- e -TO, Kpzirru diropw, ' but sparing in the
gifts of piety and virtue'," 4 ' especially seeing he hath declared that
he confers these temporal enjoyments on them on purpose to en-
sa<*e them to seek and serve him, and to be thankful to him, ex-
OS
pecting they should have these spiritual effects upon them, ' that
they should fear the Lord their God whogiveth them ram, the for-
mer and the latter in his season, and reseri'eth to them the appoint-
ed zeeeks of harvest ; A and to instruct them that they should seek
the Lord so as tv find him? where ' to seek the Lord' is, so to
seek after him that they might truly know and worship him as
God. ' Tojind him' is to obtain his grace and favour, and to find
him good and propitious to them, ' and a rewarder of them who
diligently seek him;' as hath been largely proved, note on Acts
xvii. 27. and on Acts xiv. 17.
Seventhly. This truth administers just ground of comfort to the
greatest sinner, when,, through the terror of God's threats, and the
convictions of his conscience, he is forced to cry out, ' O miser-
able man that I am!' It is indeed but little comfort that we can
administer to him upon this supposition, that Christ only died
for, and that God will only give sufficient grace to, a small rem-
nant of mankind ; since then it is great odds against him, that
he is not of that little number, and so his hope can be but
little. But if we can assure him that Christ ' tasted death
for every man,' and intercedeth now in heaven for every
g M. Tyrius, Dissert. 22. p. 216. ft Jer. v. 24. i Acts xvn. 25, 27.,
CHAP. vi. ^ 10.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. J73
penitent believer, and that God will graciously admit of the re-
turn of every prodigal to him, that he delights to see it, that he
exceedingly rejoiceth at the return of every lost sheep, that he lias
told us, as he lives, he takes the greatest pleasure in it, and that
he hath been thus long-suffering to him in particular, ' because he
is not zcilling he should perish, but rather should come unto repen-
tance? he can have no just reason to continue in a desponding
state, but thankfully admiring the greatness of his patience, to
resolve now to be ' led by it to repentance,' and to set cheerfully
upon the means prescribed for his reformation, as knowing that
' the Lord zvill be with him'
Lastly. This doctrine gives life and energy to all our exhorta-
tions to the sinner to return and live; whereas the contrary per-
suasion robs them of their strength and virtue. For were not
G od willing that ' all men should be sated and come to repentance,'
or had not Christ died for them, our exhortations to our whole
congregation to believe and repent would be vain and sinful; for
then we should exhort the greatest part of them to do that which
God was not willing they should do, and should inform them that
he wills what he doth not. We know not how to put the ques-
tion to them seriously, ' Why they will die,' if we know nothing
to the contrary but that it is the will and the decree of God that
they should die; or to enquire, * How they will escape, if they
neglect so great salvation,' if it might never be designed for them,
or if they had no power to help it. But we may briskly put the
question, ' How shall ice escape ifize neglect that great saltation'
which is freely tendered to, and was certainly designed for, us,
and which we cannot miss of but by our vile neglect of grace,
vouchsafed on purpose that we might obtain it? We may enquire
boldly, ' Why despisest thou the ridies of that goodness which w : as
* vouchsafed on purpose io lead thee to repentance,' and that long-
' suffering which was designed to prevent thy ruin? ' J1 hy Kill
' you die,' when God is so unwilling you should perish, and is so
' passionately desirous you should be for ever happy ? Why, after
' all his great compassions for you, will you have no pity on your-
' selves? Why will you chuse to be the objects of his wrath,
' when there is nothing wanting on. his part to make you objects
' of his everlasting love?' If so, must not our mouths eternally
be stopped when God shall plead in fury with ys ; or only opened
174 THE EXTENT OF (D19. 11.
to confess ( We have destroyed ourselves, when of him would have
been our safety'?'
XI. Now from these consideiations \vc shall discern an easy
answer to an
OBJECTION levelled against the force of them, viz. that " after
all our quarrelling about ihis affair, we seem both at last to say
the same thing; the one that Christ will sav? none but the elect;
the other that he Kill, only save these who perform the conditions
of the new covenant. Now these are the same men both for number
and quality. And the actual salvation of men being not enlarged
by this doctrine, it seems not to be much more worthy of God, or
to represent him more a lover of souls, or more concerned for
their welfare than the other." To this 1
ANSWER, That though the persons saved be eventually the
same, yet the doctrine is by no means the same; nor is the honour
of God as much consulted, or his love to souls as much demon-
strated, by the one as by the other. For,
First. Is it the same thing to say, " Salvation was by God's
gracious purpose intended even for them that perish, so that they
could not have missed of it but by fastidious contempt of God's
rich grace vouchsafed to prevent their ruin, and by acting in plain
contradiction to the reason, conscience, and natural desires of
mankind; and being deaf to all those powerful motives to repent
and live, the gospel offers?" And to say that "no salvation ever
was by God designed for them, nor any grace afforded which
could make it possible for them not to perish?"
Secondly. Is it of the same import to say, " the greatest part
of the world cannot be saved, because that God, ' of whom cometh
salvation,' designed no salvation for them, and the Saviour of men
died not for them; and so if they are damned for unbelief, they
must be damned for what they neither could do, nor were by any
law of God obliged to do, that is, for no transgression r" And to
say " they cannot be saved because they would not come to that
Jesus who died for them that they might have life; they would
not obey the commands of that God, who, out of love to them,
' sent his Son into the world, that the worldly him might be saved;''
No, not when he condescended to beseech them to be reconciled
to him, and gave them all the necessary means of salvation, and
all the incitements that could be offered to reasonable creatures
to improve them to that endr"
CHAP. vi. 11.) "CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 17o
Thirdly. Is it all one to say- " men are not saved because they
want sufficient means on God's part to render their salvation pos-
sible f" And to say, "they only are not saved, because when
they have salvation freely tendered to them, and means sufficient
to obtain it, and the most powerful inducements to use them to
that end, they stubbornly refuse, they wilfully despise, and wick-
edly neglect this great salvation'*"
Fourtldy. Is it a thing as worthy of God to represent the God
of love as an hater of the greatest pas t of mankind, as to say " he
truly loves them, and passionately desires their salvation?" Or
that God, who is 'rich in goodness, plenteous in mercy, and of
great pity' to men, as one who hath determined, before he made
them, to withhold, from the greatest part of men, his saving good-
ness, mercy, and compassion; ar. it is to represent him extending
his rich goodness, mercy, and compassion to all the souls that he
hath made? Is it all oite to represent the God of truth and sin-
cerity, full of guile, deceit, dissimulation, and hypocrisy; and to
represent him truly declaring- ' he would hate all men to be saved)
and sincerely promising salvation to them upon terms possible
.and reasonable, and which can only be refused by men who wil-
fully despise and wickedly neglect that salvation which they might
obtain? And,
Lastly. Is it the same thing to advance a doctrine which is
visibly destructive of all the acts of piety and virtue, faith and re-
pentance; of all encouragements to pray to God, to praise him
for his mercies,' to love, to fear, to serve, to glorify him, and to
imitate his exemplary perfections; as to assert a doctrine which
plainly doth encourage and lay the highest obligations on men to
the performance of these duties ? If not, then, though the per-
sons eventually saved will be the same, the doctrine which is cloy-
ed with all these absurdities can never be the same with that
which is entirely free from them.
OBJECTION SECOND. And whereas it is further said, that
" God is no debtor to any man ; he was at perfect freedom whe-
ther he would shew mercy to any, or make provision for the sal-
vation of the smallest number; and so he could not be termed
unmerciful had he made no provision for the salvation of any,
much less in not making provision for the salvation of all." To
this I
176 THE EXTENT OF (nis. n.
ANSWER FIRST, That God Is no debtor to the righteous,
they being only ' unprofitable servants zchcn they have done their
best,'* and therefore not thank-worthy, saiih our Lord. But is it
therefore consistent with his love to righteousness, to call men to
the greatest self-denial and sufferings for his sake, and not reward
their constancy to him? Why then doth the apostle say, ' it is a
righteous thing with God to recompence, to you that are troubled,
rest with !W,' since otherwise they would be obliged to perseve-
rance to the end, and to be faithful to the death without the pros-
pect of a recompence, and so without sufficient motive so to do?
Or is it consistent with his truth to promise them a reward, and
not to perform it? Why then doth the apostle say, his promise
gives ' strong consolation, because it is impossibtefor God to lie'? 6
He doth not owe them that assistance he affords them under
these sufferings, and yet the apostle saith, ' God is faithful, who
will not sujferyou to be tempted above what you are able^c.'*
Again, God is no debtor to the sinner, though he is so to God;
but is he therefore not obliged by his hatred of sin, and by his
threats, and by that justice which inclines him to deal with all
men l according to their works,' to punish the offender? So in
like manner God is no debtor to any man; but yet he is most cer-
tainly obliged by the perfection of his own nature to act suitably
to his attributes: His justice therefore binds him not to command
on the severest penalties what he knows his servants were by him
made and sent into the world unable to perform; or to forbid,
on pain of his eternal wrath, what they were never able to avoid :
And his sincerity and truth oblige him not to encourage them to
do that which he knows they cannot do; and yet in all these cases
he is antecedently resolved not to enable them to do or to avoid.
"God's grace," t'.iey say, " is free, and he is not obliged to give
it." I answer, this is true, if he doth not require that which can-
not be performed without it; but to exact what I can never do
without it, under the most dreadful penalties, and yet deny that
grace, is to act like those Egyptian task-masters, who called for
brick, when they allowed no straw.
ANSWER SECOND. I verily believe, (1.) that if a good and
gracious God will give being to any man, he is obliged by his
a Luke xvii. 10. t 2 Thessalonians i. 6. See the note there. c Hebrews vi. 18.
d 1 Cor. x- 13.
CHAP. vi. 12.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 177
goodness to render that being capable of enjoying the natural de-
sires he hath implanted in it, or at least not to make it so as that
it should be better it had never been, or that it unavoidably should
be subject to such miseries as render its condition worse than not
being. .And (2.) that if he would make a creature under an obli-
gation to serve him, he must prescribe laws by which he will be
served, and annex rewards to his obedience, and penalties to his
ret'isal of obedience to them, according to those words of the
apostle, * he thai :<>/;, dA to God, must bet'wce that lie is, and that
he is a rezearder oj them that diligently seek hini.' e I-or what
engagement, what motive can he have to serve him, who neither
can expect advantage by his obedience, or disadvantage by neg-
lecting it? And certain it is, that God never made any man
otherwise; God therefore is so much n debtor to his own wisdom,
justice, and goodness, that we may be sure he never could make
anv 'nan to be inevitably miserable, or under a worse slate than
non-existence; and never made a man to serve him without abi-
lity, or a sufficient motive so to do. Now the
COROLLARIES or inferences, which follow necessarily from
this doctrine are TWO,
XII. FIRST. That God hath passed no absolute decree of
reprobation upon the greatest part of mankind ; that is, he hath
not absolutely decreed to exclude the greatest part of them from
saving mercy; and then, by an immediate consequence, it follows,
that there is no absolute decree of election of a certain number of
particular persons to salvation; for as Terlulliau truly saitli preela-
tio unius sine alterius contitmelid esse non potest, nee idla electio
non reprolatione componitur, J ' there can be no election of some,
without the preterition of the rest.'
SECOND. That he hath not made it absolutely necessary to
the salvation of all men to do those things which they, without the
assistance of his special grace, can never do, and yet hath peremp-
torily determined not to vouchsafe that grace to many of them:
this being in effect an absolute decree of reprobation, or that which
leaves these men under an absolute exclusion from salvation, and
so under a sad necessity of suffering the wrath to come. And
can any reasonable man imagine, that God should be unvulling
e Hebrews xi. 6. / Apol. c. 13, ad Nst. c. 10.
EXTENT OF (DIS.il-.
any man should perish ; yea, that he should send his Son into the
world, that ' tvhosoevtr leliev-eth in him should not perish;' and
yet himself decree, that they should perish, or be eternally
excluded from his saving mercy? That he should truly be desi-
rous that "all should come unto repentance," and not be willing
to vouchsafe that grace without which they cannot repent? After
those solemn declarations God hath made, that * he zcou/d not the.
death of him that dies, but would have all men to be sared;' after
his sacred oath by his own life, that he l Mights not in the death
of sinners, but would they should return and live; after all his
serious commands, his frequent calls and invitations of all men to
repentance that they may not perish; after his enquiries and ex-
postulations, " why will you die, will you not be made clean,
when shall it once be?"* and his complaints of the impenitent,
"that they would not turn and seek God; they would not come
to him that they might have life;" after such pathetical desires
as these, " Oh that there were such a heart in them that they
would fear me alwaysl Oh that they had known the things which
did belong to their peace !" after he hath declared to all his
readiness to pardon, his delight in shewing mercy, and that the
riches of his goodness and long suffering is designed to lead them
to repentance; after his frequent declarations that "he would
have gathered them who would not be gathered," he would have
purged them who were not purged, and that he had done all
that could be reasonably expected from him for that end; after
his express declaration, that " he sent not his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be
saved:" I say, after all these things, to dream of any absolute
decree of God excluding most of them he speaks of, or thus ad-
dresses himself to, from a possibility of repenting that they might
be saved, or doubt his willingness to afford them grace sufficient
to perform this duty, is to cast a horrible reproach upon the
truth and the sincerity of God, and in effect to say, " He only tenders
salvation to the most upon impossible conditions, and only doth
delude them with vain hopes."
XIII. I should now proceed to the confirmation of this doc-
trine from the suffrage of all antiquity; but this is sufficiently
g Jeremiah xiii. 27,
CHAP. vn. l.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 179
done, First, by Vossius, in his Historia Pelagiana,'' where he
asserts and proves,
1. That / eteris hue ecclesia seiitentiafuit, relle Deitm comer*
sionemet salutem omnium; ' the doctrine of the ancient church
\vas this, that God would have all men to be converted and saved.'
. That [eteris eccfesia judichimfuit, Christum pro cuipd it/ii-
versali huminibus providisse et remedio unii'ersa/i, soltendo hvrpov
infmiti pretii, ne ej us defect u periret quisquam;* ' this was the
judgment of the ancient church, that Christ had provided for the
fault of all men by an universal remedy, viz. by paying a price of
infinite value, lest any one should perish through the defect of it.'
Secondly. This is more copiously done by Mr. Dally,* by
producing the testimonies of the ancients from the first to the
twelfth century, and concluding thus, Certe qui Christum pro
solis eleciis mortuum absolute dixerit octo prioribus christianismi
secuii^ i '. jnio nemiiiem; ' Certainly I find not one man who, du-
ring the eight first ages of Christianity, ever said expressly, that
Christ died only for the elect/
CHAP. VII.
I PROCEED, LASTLY, to consider the objections made
from rational accounts against this doctrine, viz.
I. OBJECTION FIRST. " It is not reasonable to believe, that
Christ should die in vain with respect to any; whereas if he had
died for all, he must have died in vain with respect to the greatest
part of mankind."
ANSWER. To this the answer is apparent, it being evident that
all those acts of divine grace whose effect depends upon the will of
man, or which are offered to him upon conditions which he may
perform or not, are, through man's wickedness, too oft done and
offered in vain, as that imports their being done and offered with-
out any benefit man receiveth by them: for instance, how do both
Moses" and the Psalmist* magnify the divine goodness in giving
h Lib. 7- Thes. K. from p. 633 to p. 656. i L. 7- Th. 5. a p. G56 ad p. 670.
I- Apol. from p. 753 to 911. a Deuteronomy iv. 6, 7, 8- >> Psalm cxlvii. 19, 20.
ISO THE EXTENT OF (DIS. II,
his word, and making known his ' statutes and his ordinances to
Israel? And yet the prophet Jeremy introduceth God com-
plaining thus of them who knew not the judgments and the law of
the Lord, ' in vain hath he made it, the pen of the scribe is in vain.' c
Again, are not God's fatherly corrections designed for the good
of his children, to teach them ' wisdom by the rod," 1 and obedience
by the things they suffer, and make them say, " I have born cor-
rection, I will not offend any more ?" e And yet when they had
lost this good effect upon them, doth not God say ' in vain have
I smitten them, they have refused to receive correction'? Was
not the publication of the gospel to the gentiles the greatest bles-
sing that ever God vouchsafed to them? And yet doth not the
apostle of the Gentiles say to the Galatians thus, ' / am afraid
of yon, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vainf* Does
he not write to the Thessalonians thus, 1 1 sent to know your state,
lest the tempter should have tempted you, and our labour be in
vain'?* 1 Does he not exhort the Philippians ' to holdfast the
word of life, that he might rejoice that he had not run in vain,
nor laboured in vainf* What an infinite mercy was it that " the
grace of God which brings salvation had appeared to all men!"
And yet doth not the apostle earnestly beseech the Corin-
thians 'that they zcould not receive this grace of God in vain f
And doth not this signify his fears they might do so? And to
come to the instance of this objection, when the evangelical pro-
phet foretells of Christ's being sent to the stubborn Jews, doth he
not introduce him thus complaining, * I have laboured in vain, I
have spent my strength in vain? 1 Doth not St. Paul declare to
his Galatians, that if they yet sought to be justified by the law,
' Christ should profit them nothing; he was become of none effect to
them, and so, as to them, he was dead in vainf m To say indeed
" Christ died to no purpose, or to no good end," is a great absur-
dity ; but to say " he died in vain, eventually, for them who will
not repent or believe in him," is none at all.
II. OBJECTION SECOND. It is objected that "a general
will that all men should be saved, carries some marks of imper-
c Jeremiah viii. 8. d Proverbs xxvi. 19. Micah vi. 9. : Jobxxxiv. 31. f Jeremiah ii. 50.
g Galatians iv. 11. /, i Thsssalonians iii. o. i Philippians ii. 16. fr 2 Corinthians vi. 1.
I Isaiah xlix. 4. m Galatians v. 2. ".
CHAP. vii. 1 2.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 181
fection in it, as representing God wishing somewhat which he
would not accomplish; whereas infinite "perfection can wish no-
thing but what it can execute, and if it be fit for him to wish it, it
it must be fit for him to execute it."
ANSWER. This objection advances a metaphysical nicety
against the clearest revelations of the holy scripture; for if
God wills, or, in the scripture import, wisheth nothing but what
he also doth think fit to execute, what is the meaning of all these
passionate expressions ? ' Oh that my people had hearkened to
me, and Israel had zcalked in my zvays! even that Israel, whom,
for rejecting me, I have now given up to her own heart's lusts?
' O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments;? Oh that
they were zvise, that they zcould consider their latter end,'* saith
God to the same obstinate revolting people. And after such se-
rious wishes, can any one be tempted to believe, God did not
seriously desire it should be otherwise with them, and even do all
that it was fit for him to do, in order that it might be otherwise ?
Why else doth he enquire, l What could I have done more to make
my vinajardfruttfitlf' When our Saviour speaks thus to the
Jews, * How oft zcould I have gathered you as a hengat/iereth her
chickens under her wings!' and says, ' Oh that thou hadst knoicn
in this thy day the things that do belong to thy peace,' weeping at
her neglect to do so; can we reasonably doubt the truth or the
sincerity of his desire for their good, though through their infide-
lity and perverseness he did not procure it? Or will any body
say, " he did not all that on his part was fitting to be done to-
wards their reformation?"
L 2. Let us consider the dreadful consequences of this assertion,
that " God wills not what he sees not fit to execute," they be-
ing plainly these ; that God is not willing any should obey his will
who doth not obey it; that he is not unwilling any one should
sin, whom he restrains not from it; and that he is not willing any
one should repent, who doth not repent; that when they still con-
tinue, and even die in their impenitency, they do nothing contrary
to the will of God, because they do nothing he saw fit to hinder:
And can there be any force in an objection of which these are the
plain but dreadful consequences? Like to this,
a Psalm btxxi. 12, 13. p Isaiah xlviii. 18. q Deuteronomy xsxii. 29. r Isaiah v. 1.-
]82 THE EXTENT OF (DTS. II.
III. OBJECTION THIRD. Is that objection, that " if Christ
died for all men, and all are not saved, the wisdom of God must
be defective and imperfect; for to fall short of what a man intends,
argues a deficiency in point of wisdom."
ANSWER. If this be so, then every prince that cannot make his
subjects as good as he intends they should be, every parent that
cannot make his children so, every good master that cannot pre-
vail with his servants to be so, every man that cannot persuade
his friend or neighbour to be as good as he would have him to be,
and every schoolmaster who cannot make his scholar as learned as
he intends he should be, must be deficient in wisdom : which yet it is
ridiculous to affirm, seeing to make a person who hath a freedom
over his own will, to be what any good and wise man cloth intend he
should be, depends not wholly on his wisdom or persuasion, but
on the disposition and inclination of him with whom he hath to
do, to hearken to, and to comply with, his persuasions. The
supposition therefore of this objection mast be false: And,
2. If a God perfect in wisdom can intend nothing but what he
actually doth compass and perform, it plainly follows that he in-
tended not by his prohibition of sin that any person should avoid
or abstain from it, who doth not actually do so: or by his exhor-
tations to repentance, holiness, obedience, that any person should
repent, be holy, or obedient, who is not actually so. And why
then doth he blame, or punish them, for that iniquity he never did
intend they should avoid, or for the want of that repentance and
obedience he never did intend they should perform? Like to
this is a
IV. FOURTH OBJECTION, which saith, "if Christ died for
all men, and all men are not saved, then is not God omnipotent,
since he could not apply to them that benefit which he was wil-
ling should be procured for them."
ANSWER FIRST. When it is said in scripture that "God
could not do this or that," this doth not signify a want of power
in him to do it, but a want of will and a perverseness or evil dis-
position in others obstructing his kind influences on, or intentions
towards, them. As when God enquires, * What could I hate
done more for my vineyard which I have not done?* When he
s Isaiah v. '1.
CHAP. vii. 4.) CHBIST'S REDEMPTION. 133
saith, 'though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind could
not be towards this people;* and the prophet, that the Lord could
no longer forbear, because of their abominations;"' as then Christ
could do no mighty works?" in his own country, because of their
unbelief; so here the benefit which by the death of Christ is pro-
cured for all who do believe in him, cannot by God be applied to
men obstinately rejecting Christ, and refusing to own him as their
Saviour, because of their unbelief.
ANSWER SECOND. According to this way of arguing, it fol-
lows, that if all men do not actually enjoy \vhat God is willing
they should have, or be partakers of all the benefits conditionally
intended by him, or by his Son procured for them, he cannot be
omnipotent ; and why then doth he say, ' We would have healed
Habulon, and she zvould not be healed;* I would have purged Je-
rusalem, but she zcould not be purged f $ Why doth Christ say
unto the same Jerusalem, " How oft would 1 have gathered thy
children as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not?" In a word, do all men actually enjoy those blessings
temporal, spiritual, or eternal, which God conditionally hath promis-
ed, or did ever promise, to them ? Or is it for want of ability in
God that they do not enjoy them, or want of will in God that they
should have what he thus promiselh ? Or is it not wholly from the
unwillingness of men, to perform the conditions upon which only
they are promised? How oft doth God declare, that "he sent
to them all his servants the prophets, rising up early, and sending
them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and
amend your doings, and go not after other Gods, and yon shall
dwell in the land which I have given you, and I will do you no
hurt?"* This he did, (1.) ' Because he had compassion on his peo-
ple,'" and was very unwilling they should perish in their sins.
(2.) This he did with die greatest solicitude and care, to prevent
their ruin, as that phrase, " he sent his prophets rising up early,
and sending them," plainly imports. (3.) The reason why all
these exhortations of God by his prophets became ineffectual, and
had not the desired effect, was this ; because " they inclined not
the ear, and hearkened not to his word," but said, ' We will walk
t Jeremiah xv. 1. it Chapter xliv. 22. w Mark vi. 5, 6. x Jeremiah li. 9.
y Ezfckiet jusiv. 13. * Jeremiah xxxi. 15. Chapter xxvt5. 6. o 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 15, IS-
184 THE EXTENT OF (D1S. II.
after our orcn devices, and rce will every one do the imagination of
his evil heart, .'* (.4.) Observe that 'therefore t lie wrath of God
arose against his people, so (hat there teas no remedy ;' (HEBREW,
f no healing,') not, sure, because an omnipotent God was uot able to
heal them, or a good God, who out of compassion to them, and
solicitude for their welfare sent all his prophets to reclaim them,
would not heal them; but because they despised his word, and
would not be healed, but "would every one do the imagination of
his evil heart."
V. The FIFTH OBJECTION is but the FIRST mother words,
viz. That " if Christ died for all men, and all men come not to
be saved; then the great love of God in giving his Son to men is
useless and unprofitable. For to what purpose, or of what use,
is the love of God, and the gift of his Son to men, if he doth not
withal give them faith in his Son?"
ANSWER. As if all God's acts of grace and favour to men,
which are not effectual, through men's perverseness and the stub-
bornness of their wills, to obtain his gracious purposes, must be
vain and fruitless on his part, if he also giveth not that grace which
will make them effectual to his ends; and we might reasonably
enquire, To what purpose was that 4 riches of God's goodness,
patience, and long-suffering to the Jezcs, which did not lead them
to repentance'? Or of what use was it, if he did not give them
repentance unto lifer To what purpose was it that the " grace
of God, which brings salvation, hath appeared to all men," if all
men were not actually taught and engaged by it, denying " all un-
godliness and worldly lusts, to live righteously, soberly, and godly
in this present world?" To what purpose are all God's prohi-
bitions and revelations from heaven " against all unrighteousness
and ungodliness," if he doth not by his grace effectually restrain
them from these things ? Or of what use are his commands, if he
doth not by his grace constrain men to obey them ; or all his gra-
cious calls, if he doth not effectually engage men to answer them ?
VI. OBJECTION SIXTH. " No man wittingly pays a price of
redemption for a captive, which he certainly knows this miserable
man will never be the better for; Christ therefore paid no price of
redemption for any man who will never be the better for it."
b Jeremiah xviii. 12.
CHAP. vn. 6.) CHRIST'S REDEMPTION. 185
ANSWER FIRST. To shew the absurdity of this objection, let
it be considered, that it depends entirely on thisfoundatioi), that
(iod and Christ never did or could do that to a in/ persons K;H/I
they knew they would neter be the better for; which that ii i- x-
tremely false, all his dispensations from the beginning of the woi id
do testify. For,
Did he not send his Spirit to strive with the old world? Did
he not allow them the space of a hundred and twenty years to
repent in, though he knew they would not bo the better for it?
Did he not send to the Jews his 'prophets, rising up early,
and sending thcni to admonish them to turn from their evil \\ ay,
that they might not be carried away captive ? Did he not chas-
tise them when they refused to receive correction? Did he not
use the greatest diligence to make his vineyard bring forth good
grapes, when it brought forth only sour grapes? Did he not use
means to purge them when they would not be purged? Were
not all his promises made to encourage them to the performance
of their duty, that it migh. be well with them, and all his threats
to deter them from their iniquity ? And shall we deny, that God
did these things to these ends, because his wisdom knew they
would not have these salutary effects upon them?
Again, doth not God reveal his gospel, offer his grace, and send
his ambassadors to call them to faith and repentance, whom he
knew would never be the better Tor these things? Did not Christ
come to his own, who received him not? Did he not speak to
them that they might be saved, who would not come to him that
they might have life ? Did he not say to them who would not be
gathered, ' Hoio oft zcould I hate gathered you? fyc.' And did
he not know what would be the issue of his coming, his speak-
ing to, and his endeavours to do them good? Wherefore in all
exhortations and persuasions, and all moral means whose effect
depends upon the will of man, it is sufficient that they are pro-
per means for producing the designed end, and that God knows
they may be, and if they act according to that reason and discre-
tion he hath given them, they will be, better for them: otherwise
we may argue, as this objection doth, no good man would put
another into a state in which he knows he will be miser-
able, and therefore a good God would never make those men he
knows will finally be so. .No good prince would have any sub-
P
THE EXTENT OF &C. (D1S. II.
jects he should be forced to cut off; and therefore a good God
would not give being to those men of the old world, which his
vindictive justice forced him to destroy.
ANSWER SECOND. I answer, that this objection is built upon
a false supposition, viz. that Christ paid no such price for them
that perish, as for them that will be saved. The price for both was-
ene and the same, his sufferings on the cross, his blood shed for
the remission of sins: And thus he equally must have suffered for
the redemption of AN\ sinner from death, as for the redemp-
tion of ALL, as under the old law the same sacrifice was offered
to make atonement for a SINGLE PERSON, and for the WHOLE
NATION of the Jews. That any receive remission of sins by vir-
tue of hi* death, is, because they, through faith in his blood, are
justified, and so have peace with God : And that all do not so, is
not for want of an atonement made for them by the same blood,
but for want of that faith and those conditions of the new cove-
nant, which can alone give them an interest in that atonement.
OF SUFFICIENT AND EFFECTUAL, COMMON AND 5
SPECIAL GRACE.
The state of the question*
CHAP. I.
FOR the right stating of this question it will be requisite to
shew,
I. What is the scripture import of the word "grace."
II. What is the manner of the operation of this grace upon the
soul, to convert, or to dispose it to what is spiritually good.
III. What renders it efficacious in some, and not in others, to
produce faith, repentance, and conversion of the soul to God;
and what is the account the scripture and our blessed. Saviour
giveth of this mattr.
CHAP. I. 1.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 18?
I. To begin with the first particular, Grace in the scripture,
when it is styled ' the grace of God' imports his favour and his
kiud affection to us, as hath been largely proved in the note on.
2 Cor. vi 1. Accordingly,
1. The gospel preached to Jew and Gentile, is styled 'the
grace of God which brings 'saltation;* the zcord of his grace which
is able to build tfs up, xz Sva AND TO GIVE us an inheritance
among them that are sanctijied.' b This also must be the import
of the word, when it is said, ' that the laze came by Moses, but
grace and truth, by Jesus Christ;'* when the apostles exhort their
converts to ' continue in the grace of God ;' d when they say that
( God confirmed the zcord of his grace by doing signs and wonders;'
when the gospel is styled ' the word oj grace, and the gospel of
grace'* And this is probably the import of the word in many
other places cited by Doctor Hammond, note on Heb. xiii. Q.
where, saith he, they that believed 'through grace,' (Acts xiii. 27.)
are they that believed ' through the preaching of the gospel :' and
in this sense the grace of God is absolute; there being nothino-
either in Jew or Gentile which made them worthy of this revela-
tion, nor any condition required on their part that it might be
preached to them.
2. Tiiis grace which thus appeared to all men, being -h yjiys $
9urrif,ios, that is, in its design, and in its influence, (where it was
not obstructed by men's infidelity, and love of darkness more than
light,) ' saving grace;' the calling of men, by the preaching of it,
to the faith, is sometimes said to be 'the calling them by grace;'
and when they embrace that call, 'the having them by grace,' as
when it is said, ' we are saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ; by grace ye are saved, not of works. 'S For seeing this is
spoken to men yet alive, and so obliged ' to zcork out their sal-
vation with fear and trembling,' 8 it cannot mean that they were
actually'saved, but only that they were called to a state of salvation
enjoyed the means and were put in the way of salvation by grace
f which import of the word 'saved,' see the note on Eph. ii. 8.
Hence the apostle saith, ' he hath saved us, and (or that is) called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but the grace
Titus ii. 11. b Ats xx. 32. c John i. 17- d Acts xiii. 43 xiv. 3. e Acts xx. 32, 21.
11. g Ephesians ii. 8, 9.
P2
SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. IIT^
us in Christ Jesus.' fc And to be thus saved by grace, is to
be saved by the mercy and favour of God to us, according to these
words of the same apostle, ' when the kindness and lore of God
our Saviour to man appeared, not by works of righteousness 'd; and whatsoever it
refuseth, is something represented by the understanding, and so
appearing to the will as evil: whence all that God requires of us
is, and can be only this, ' to refuse the evil and to chuse the good.'
Wherefore to say that "evidence proposed, apprehended, and
considered, is not sufficient to make the understanding to aprove;"
or that "the greatest good proposed, the greatest evil threatened,
when equally believed and reflected on, is not sufficient to engage
the will to chuse the good and refuse the evil," is in effect to say
" that which alone doth move the will to chuse or to refuse, is
not sufficient to engage it so to do; that which alone is requisite
to make me understand and approve, is not sufficient to do so;"
which, being contradictory lo itself, must of necessity befalst.
f Philippians i, 9, 10. 9 Romans xii, 2.
1Q4 SUFFICIENT AND (D1S. III.
Be it then so, that we have naturally an aversation to the truths
proposed to us in the gospel; that only can make us indisposed
to attend to them, but cannot hinder our conviction when we do
apprehend them and attend to them; whence for removal of it
the apostle only prays, ' that the eyes of our understanding may
be enlightened thntwemay know them;* adding, that where 'the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God was revealed, if, after
this, their gospel teas hid from any, it was only so, because the god
of this world had blinded their eyes, or the conceptions of their
minds, that the light o/thegoipel might not shine into them' 3 Be
it, that there is in us also a renitency to the good we are to chuse ;
that only can indispose us to believe it is, and to approve it as
our chiefest good. Be it, that we are prone to the evil that we
should decline; that only can render it the more difficult for us to
believe it is the worst of evils; but yet what we do really believe
to be our chiefest good, will still be chosen, and what we appre-
hend to be the worst of evils, will, whilst we do continue under
that conviction, be refused by us. It therefore can be only requi-
site, in order to these ends, that the Good Spirit should so illumi-
nate our understandings, that we, attending to and considering
what lies before us, should apprehend, and be convinced of our
duty; and that the blessings of gospel should be so propounded
to us, as that we may discern them to be our chiefest good, and
the miseries it threateneth, so as we may be convinced they are the
worst of evils, that we may chuse the one, and refuse the other.
Now to consider in order to approbation and conviction, to chuse
in order to our good, and to refuse that we may avoid misery,
must be the actions, not of God but man, though the light that
doth convince, and the motives which engage him thus to chuse
and to refuse, are certainly from God.
IV. To illustrate this by a familiar instance taken from our-
selves, or our deportment towards others; when a man in words
plain and intelligible speaks to another, if he will hearken to what
he says, he must understand his mind: for by that very impres-
sion the words make upon his brain, he immediately perceives his
mind. And cannot the divine impression on the mind, which is
God's speaking inwardly to man, do the same thing ? This action
r Ephesiaus i, 18. * 2 Corinthians iv, 5, 4.
CHAP. I. 4.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 195
is indeed so necessary, that, as it is not virtuous or praiseworthy
in any man to understand the mind of him that speaks to him, so
neither seemeth it praiseworthy in us to understand the mind of
God thus speaking to us. Again, these words of man contain
sometimes an exhortation to another to do what he desires he
would do, taken from the proposal of some advantage, or the pro-
n.ise of some good he shall receive by complying with his exhor-
tation; or they contain some duiortation from doing what he
\\ould not have another do, because it will be hurtful to him, or
Mill be certainly attended with some evil consequences: is not
this the method used by all the world in dealing with one ano-
ther? And do they not all do this with hopes and expectation of
success? ^ind is it not a great disparagement to the word of
God to say or think, that all his persuasions, admonitions, exhor-
tations, promises, and threats, should be insufficient to prevail
with us to turn fium our sinful courses, and turn to him, when
men who use th^se methods towards their children, servants,
friends, pr relations, do it in hopes that they shall be successful by
thtse means? Moreover, if the person they address to, be slow of
understanding, do they not hope to overcome that difficulty by the
cieainess of dieir discourse, and by reiterating the same thing in
such variei) of expressions as he is best able to perceive? If he
be averse from doing that which is desired, do they not hope to
oveicome thar aveiseness by repeated exhortatious and vigorous
impressions of those encouragements they tender, to'prevail upon
him to comply with their desire? If he strongly be inclined to,
that from which they vehemently dehort him, do they not
endeavour to :urn the bent and current of his inclinations by
ihe like repeated exhortations and lively representations of the
evils he will be certainly exposed to by so doing? All men are
therefore of this opinion in their practice, that acting with
men by convincing reason, and by motives and persuasions, is
acting with them suitably to their faculties, and so as that they
may prevail. And is not God himself of the same mind? Hath
he not revealed his will on purpose that we may know it? Hath
he not directed his letters and epistles to us, that by reading we
may understand them, and 'knon'tlie things which do belong to our
peaceT Did not our Saviour utter all his discourses to the same
end? Why else doth he enquire, < Why is it you do not under-
196 SUFFICIENT AND (D1S. 11J.
stand my speech'?* Iloro is if (fiat you do not understand?'* Why
doth he preface them with this instruction, ' Hear and under-
stand?' Doth not God call upon us to ' consider of our ways,'?
and lay to heart his sayings and his dispensations? Doth he not
prescribe this as a remedy to prevent his judgments, when he says,
* Oh consider this, ye that forget God:' g and of being wise, by
saying, ' Oh that they zcere K-ise,that they K'ould consider their lat-
ter end'?' 1 Doth he not represent this as the source of all the
wickedness and idolatry of his own people, that * theyzcould not
consider in their heart?* Doth he not make conversion the effect
of t'his consideration, when he saith, ' because he consider cth and
turneth azcayfrom ail the transgressions that he hath committed,
he shall surely //re?'* Yea, doth he not represent this as a just
ground of hope, that even the most stubborn sinners may be re-
formed, when he saith to the prophet, ' Remove by day in their
sight; it may be they zeill consider though they be a rebellions peo-
ple? 1 Does not God require his people to f chuse life,' m pro-
nouncing a blessing upon them who ^ chuse the things that please
him,'* and threatening destruction to them who 'would not chuse
the fear oj the Lord, but chose the things in which he delighted
3iot? p Now doth he any thing more to prevail with them who
do not chuse the fear of the Lord, and do not do the things that
please him, to engage them so to do, or not to do the contrary,
but teach them his ways, and persuade them to walk in them?
Must it not then be certain that either he transacts with them as
men, who, notwithstanding any acts of preterition on his part, or
any disability or corruption of will on their part, might by these
things be induced to chuse to fear him, and do the things that
please him, and might abstain from the contrary; or threateneth
to destroy them for not chusing what they could not chuse, for
doing what they had not means sufficient to avoid, and for not
doing what it was not possible for men so vitiated and so deserted
to perform? Again, doth not God exhort the Jews to be * wil-
ling and obedient,' 9 promising a full pardon and a blessing to them
that do so ? Doth not Christ resolve the destruction of the Jews
o John riii, 45. d Mark viii, 21. e Matthew xv, 10. / Haggai i, 5, 7.
g Psalm 1, 22. h Deuteronomy xxxii, 29. Isaiah i, 3. xliv, 19. k Ezekiel xviii, '2S,
Psalm uxix, 59. I Ezekiel xii, 3. m Deuteronomy xxx, 19. n Isaiah hi, 4.
Proverbs i, 29. p Isaiah Ivi, i- g Isaiah i, 18, 19.
CHAP. I. 4.) EFFECTUAL GRACE, 197
into this, ' you will not come unto me that you might have h'fe?' r
Declaring this to be the reason why they were not gathered, be-
cause he often 'would have gathered them, but they would not be ga-
thered;" because being so graciously invited to the marriage, ' they
would not come.'* Now what did he to engage them to come to
him, to gather them, or prevail on them to come to the marriage-
feast, but shew them the way of life, exhort and invite them to
come to that feast ? Either then he transacted with them as one
who knew this was sufficient to these ends, and that these things
might have prevailed with them, notwithstanding any decrees of
God's preterition, or any disability through the corruption of their
wills, to be willing and obedient to his invitation ; or else he resol-
ved on their exclusion from the marriage-feast, and their \mt tast-
ing his supper, for not doing what, in that state, they could not
do; and condemned them for not coming to him when they
could not come, because the Father did not draw them, or give
them to him;" and for not being gathered, when he would not
do that for them without which they could not be gathered.
Doth not God earnestly exhort and persuade men to repent and
turn from the evil of their ways ? Doth he not say, ' Oh that my
people would have hearkened to me, that Israel would have walked
in my ways! 1 " O that they zverezcise, that they would understand
this!* O Jerusalem, wilt not thou be made clean? When shall
it once be'? y O that thou hadst known, in this thy day, the things
that belong to thy peace!* Now either in these exhortations and
persuasions made to men, vitiated not only by original but many
actual corruptions, God dealt with them suitably to their facul-
ties, that is, abilities, exhorting them to do, and pathetically wish-
ing they had done, what he saw they might have done, though
they, for want of due attention, consideration, and reflection, did it
not; or called them to repent that they had not done what they ne-
ver could do, or that they did not avoid what it was not possible
under their circumstances they should avoid ; and seriously and
passionately wished they themselves would have done what, if it
ever had been done, must have been done by himself, and there-
fore was not done because he did not unfrustrably work the
r John v, 40. * Lukcxiii, 51. < Matthew xxii, 3. u John vi, 37, 44.
a Psalm Ixxxi, 13- x Deutergowny axii, 3>. y Jeremiah xiii, 27. x Luke six, 42-
!9& SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. II!.
change in them ; that is, he passionately wished they had been of
the number of his elect, when he himself by an absolute decree
from all eternity had excluded them out of that number.
In line, doth not God encourage men to repent and believe, to
be willing and obedient, by great and precious promises of the
most excellent and lasting blessings? Hath he not threatened
eternal damnation to them that do not believe? Hath he riot
told us that ' Christ will come in flaming fire, taking ^e^^geance
on all that obey not his gospelT" And must not all these things
sufficiently convince us, that God acts with men as one who doth
indeed suppose that men may hearken to his exhortations, and
comply with his persuasions to believe and to obey his gospel,
may be prevailed on by his promises to the performance of their
duty, and terrified, by his judgment threatened, from their disobe-
dience? Why else is it said that God hath given us these "great
and precious promises, that by them we may be made partakers
of a divine nature ?" 6 Why are we exhorted, " having these pro-
mises to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God?' ?c Or why doth the apos-
tle say, "knowing then the terror of the Lord we persuade men?" 4 *
If, beyond all this, there be some physical and unfrustrable ope-
ration on God's part requisite to make men know, and, knowing,
choose the good and refuse the evil ; this beingiiot vouchsafed to,
or wrought in, them who are not born anew, why is the want of
this new birth and this spiritual regeneration so often imputed to
the voluntary want of their consideration, and their " not laying
to heart"' the things propounded to them, to their not "apply-
ing their heart to wisdom, not applying their minds to understand-
ing, and their not framing their doings to turn to the Lord?"^
Admit that desperate refuge which the assertors of the contrary
doctrine are here forced to fly to, viz. that these exhortations and
persuasions may be yet made to us, though we are utterly unable
to comply with them, and, by God's act of preterition are left
under that disability, because we once had grace and strength
sufficient to perform them, though we have lost it by the fall:
What is this to the import of all the exhortations, persuasions,
and motives contained in the gospel, which are all directed to
a Markxvi, 18. S Thessalonians i, 7. fc 2 Peter i, '4. c 2 Corinthians via, *
d 2 Corinthians v, 11. c Proverbs i, 1430. / Hosea v, i.
CHAP. I. 5.) EFFECTUAL GRACE.
fallen man ? And so, if God be serious in them, declare his great
unwillingness that fallen man should perish, and his passionate
desire that he should be saved; and if he speaketh in them suit-
ably to the capacities and faculties of fallen man, plainly sup-
poses him in a capacity, by the assistances which God is ready to
afford him, and by the consideration of the motives which he of-
fers to him, to understand his duty, and to chuse the good and
refuse the evil.
V. Wherefore, to give to outward means, and inward assistan-
ces, their due respective energy;
First. That honour must be due to God, and to his word, as
to assert that the motives there offered must be sufficient, in the
way of motives, to produce the ends for which they were designed.
Seeing then the motives contained in the scripture to engage
fallen man to turn from the evil of his ways, were certainly de-
signed for that end, either they must be sufficient to engage him
to turn from the evil of his ways, or else the highest motives that
can be offered must be insufficient for that end, all other motives to
deter us from any action as disadvantageous and pernicious to us,
being as nothing when compared to that, 'depart from me, ye
wicked, into ever lasting Jire;' all evils we can suffer from the hand
of man, being little in respect of that we must have cause to fear
from him who can ( destroy both soul and body in hell-fire' See-
ing, again, the promises of eternal happiness recorded in the same
scriptures, as the reward of our obedience, were certainly designed
to render us obedient, either they must be sufficient to engage us
to yield that obedience to the good and holy will of God, or no
inducements can be sufficient for that end; seeing this motive
eminently contains all other motives in it, there being in those few
words, the enj oyment of God and everlasting happiness, more than
kingdoms and treasures, and all that can express the good things
of this world, import ; and therefore a more vehement constrain-
ing power in them to the performance of our duty, than in the
united strength of worldly greatness, honours, pleasures; and that
which representeth, to our desires and hopes, what far exceedeth
all we can hope for or desire besides. But then,
Secondly. Because the blessings and miseries of another world
are things invisible, and are discerned only by the eye of faith, they
being moral and spiritual motives, which only work upon us as-
2 Deuteronomy v, 27, 28, 29. r More Ne>. Part. 3, cap. 2-
208 SUFFICIENT AND (oiS. III.
had walked in my Kays! Even that Israel whom, for rejecting me,
I have now given up to her orcn heart's fusts; Oh that tliou hadst
hearkened to my commandments, saith God to that obstinate peo-
ple, whose neck was an iron siney, an>t t/ieir brow brats.' d Now
can these expressions come from one who had from ail eternity
decreed their reprobation, and consequently the denial of means
sufficient to enable them to do what he thus wishes they had done?
Can there be any doubt of the sincerity or ardency of Christ's de-
eire of the welfare and salvation of the Jews when his eyes first
wept over Jerusalem, and then his mouth utters these words,
* Happy hadst thou been hadst thou kaoicn in this thy day the
things belonging to thy peace; but nozc they are hid from thine
eyes? they are so now, therefore they were not always so. For
Christ here plainly taketh it for granted that the people of Jeru-
salem in this day of their visitation by the Messiah, might have
savingly known the things belonging to their peace; since other-
wise, 1 know not how our Saviour's tears could be looked on as
tears of chanty and true compassion. And either his assertion,
that they might have been happy, would have been contrary to
truth; or his trouble, that they had not known the things belong-
ing to their peace, must have been trouble contrary to t'le decree
of his Father; both \\hich are palpably absurd. And seeing ihe
will of Chi ist was always the same with the will of the i atlier, it
follows also that God the Father had the same charitable affec-
tion to them, and so had laid no bar against their happiness by a
decree of preterition, or been wanting in any thing on his part re-
quisite towards their everlating welfare; and then it must be cer-
tain that an unfrustrable operation being not vouchsafed to convert
them, it was not necessary to that end.
IV. ARGUMENT THIRD. Jf conversion be wrought only by
the unfrustrable operation of God, and man is purely passive in it,
vain are,
First. All the commands and exhortations directed to wicked
men ' to turn from their evil zeays, to put azcay the evil of (heir
doings, to cease to do evil, and to learn to do zcell, to wash and
make themselves clean/ to circumcise their hearts, and be no more
stiff-necked, * to circumcise themselves to the Lord, and take azcay
Isaiah xlviii, 18. i, 2. 5. t Isaiah i, 16. ./ Deuteronomy x, 16.
AP. 11.^4.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 209
the foreskins of their hearts, to zcash their hearts from wickedness
that they may be saved,* to put off the old man and put on the
rieic,' 1 to laij aside alljilthinesi and superfluity of naughtiness, and
to receive it'ith meekness the ingrafted KWY/.'* For to suppose
that God commands the duty, or imposes that as our duty, under
the penalty of everlasting wrath, which he both knows, and, ac-
cording to this hypothesis, hath declared we never can do without
that mighty aid which he neither doth nor ever will vouchsafe to
the greatest part of those to whom these precepts are directed,
is to require them in vain to do these things, and in effi ct to de-
clare they are to look upon themselves as inevitably damned, and
that even for not doing that which it is no more in their power to
do, than to create a world.
To say here that " the end of these commands and exhortations
is to declare, not what we can do, or God would have us do, but
what we ought to do," is, (\.) to suppose we ought to do what
we cannot do, yea that we ought to do what God would not have
us do, which is a manifest contradiction, seeing we only ought to
do it, because his will requires it. (2.) It is in express terms con-
trary to the tenour of those numerous scriptures which say, he hath
commanded men to do his commandments, and given them such
precepts that they may keep and do them. And, (3.) it is repug-
nant to the plainest reason, for that one end of the precepts, pro-
hibitions, and exhortations contained in God's law is obedience,
is therefore evident because they are there enforced with promises
to the obedient, and threatenings to the disobedient; the only end
of which is to move us to obedience by the inducements of hope
and fear.
Now obedience is one thing, and knowledge another; therefore
knowledge is not the only end of God's precepts and exhortations,
and so the only end of them is not to declare tons what we ought
to do. Moreover that is to be deemed the principal end of the
law and of exhortations grounded on it, wilhout which all other
ends of the law, being attained, do not profit, but do rather hurt.
Now thus it is with respect to knowledge of what we do not;
'/or he that knoweth his master's rcili and doth it not, shall be beaten
with many stripes;^ and he that knoweth to do good, and dotli it
!f Jeremiah iv, 4, 11 A Ephcsian$ iv. 22, 21. i James i, 21. . k Luke xii, 1".
410 SUFFICIENT AN'D (DIS. 111.
not, to him it is sin;' 1 therefore obedience and not knowledge, is
the principal end of tlie.se things. Moreover, would not God
have all men to obey his commands? Are they not declarations of
his will concerning what he would have them do, or leave undone ?
Would "tie not have us to comply with his exhortations, and
hearken to the voice of his word? Is not obedience to them
styled " the doing of his will?" Do not all the world conclude
that they should do what he commands? Do they not look upon
1iis precepts as a sufficient indication of his will and pleasure?
Are not all men obliged to believe God would have ihem do
what he requires of them? And can they be obliged to believe
this if it be not true? Can any person rationally think that an
upright God in whom is no hypocrisy or guile, should seriously
command that which he is not willing men should do, especially
when his commands are so agreeable to his nature, and so benefi-
cial to the souls of men, as the commands of faith, repentance,
and obedience are?
The only instance produced to the contrary from God's com-
mand to Abraham, to offer up his only Son, is both impertinent
and inconclusive: It is not pertinent, because it is not parallel-
ed to the case in hand. Had indeed God after these precepts
given a contrary command to the sinner not to repent and obey
him, as in this case he did to Abraham; had he complained of
Abraham, as he doth of them, for not obeying his command; had
he threatened to and executed his judgments on him, on that ac-
count, as he doth on them, then, and then only, would the case
have been parallel. (2.) It is inconclusive; for as precepts of this
nature are never made but to private persons, so neither are they
made concerning things which have a real goodness and suitable-
ness to reason in them, as the fore -mentioned precepts have; for
then they would be no temptations. Add to this that Abraham
obeyed upon this very principle, that God would have him do
what he commanded, and ceased to continue in and to complete this
act, only by virtue of a contrary command; we therefore must,
even by this example so much urged, conclude we must repent
and obey his precepts till he is pleased to give us a command to
the contrary.
I James iv, 17.
CHAP. II. ^4.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 211
Now it being thus evident that obedience is the end of God's
precepts, laws, and exhortations, it is also evident that those pre-
ccpis which are Impossible to be performed, even as impossible
as for ihe dead to raise themselves, are vain and ludicrous, and
they are yet more so when they are backed with promises and
threats; for where the thing required is impossible, it is as vain to
hope 01 fear, as to think of doing it. But most of all are those ex-
hortations ludicrous which are gro-.uided on the law, if the matter
be utterly impossible; for exhortations carry the appearance of a
serious ai:m That of the
prophet in God's name, ' 1 Kill destroy my people sith they return
not from iheir ways:' n And again, ' Ketiold I frame evil against
you, anil devise a device against you; return ye. therefore from
your evil ways, and make your zccys and doings good;' and those
of Christ himself, ' if you icpeiit not, yon shall all likewise perish, f
If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.' q For
(1.) either those threats are proper to move the elect to faith, re-
pentance, and obedience: and then, (i.) they may move them so
to do, and then an unfrustrable action cannot be necessary to their
conversion. Then, (ii.) seeing threats only move by exciting-
fear of the evil threatened, they may be moved, and God must
design to move them, by the fears of perishing and dying in their
sins; that is, God must design to move them by a false and an
impossible supposition. Or, (2.) they are proper to move those
who are not elected; but this they cannot be, because then they
Psalm vii, 11, 12, 13. n Jeremiah xv, I. o Chapter xviii, 11. p Luke xiii, 3, 5.
7 John viii, i'4.
SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. 111.
must be moved to endeavour to believe, repent, and turn from the
evil of their ways by the hopes of avoiding this death and ruin
threatened by so doiug; whereas seeing it is the same thing to
have God's decree of preterition past upon them, and to be left
inevitably to perish, they must, by virtue of it, be left without hopes
that they may not perish. True it is, that these decrees are secret,
and so neither can the kct know certainly they are of that num-
ber, nor they who are not elected, that this act of preterition hath
been past upon them; but yet this alters not the rase, seeing upon
supposition of such eternal decrees, they must know disjunctively,
either that they cannot die in their sins because they are elected;
or that they cannot avoid it, because they are not elected.
Vain ( Thirdly) upon this supposition, are the promises of par-
don, life, and salvation made to them who do consider and turn
from their evil ways, and who repent of their iniquity, as, v. g.
* wash ye, make ye dean, put away the evil of your doings; then
though your sins be as crimson, you shall be u'hite as wool, though
iheif be red like scarlet, ye slntll be as snow. 11 Let the wicked for-
sake Ms way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our
God, for he will abundantly pardon. b O Jerusalem, wash thine
heart from zcickedness that thou mayst be saved. How long shall
vain thoughts lodge within thee ( t c Repent and turn yourselves
from all i/our transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin;
for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the
Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.' d For no pro-
mises can be means proper to make a dead man live, or to prevail
upon a man to act who must be purely passive. Nor can I serious-
ly design to induce him by them to do what I know he can never do
himself, and which, whenever it is done, must be done by me alone.
To promise therefore, and give no strength for the performance;
or to promise on an impossible condition, or on a condition which
I only can perform, and which I have determined never to enable
him to do, is indeed to promise nothing, because it is to promise no-
thing that I can obtain; and nothing of this nature being ever done
by any wise and upright governor, how absurd is it to impute such
actions to a God infinite in righteousness and wisdom, and who
Isaiah i, 18. b Chapter Iv, 7. t Jeremiah iv, 14. d Ezekiel xviii, 30, 31, 32.
CflAP. II. 5.) EFFECTUAL GRACE.
is doubtless serious, and not delusory, in all his dealings with the
sous of men! When therefore these men say, " God promises
pardon and life seriously even to those who are not elected, but
lie under an act of preterition, because he dotli it upon condition
that they believe, repent, and be converted, and will, if they per-
form them, give this pardon and salvation to them;" this is as if
I should say, " God threatened! damnation to his elect seri-
ously and in good earnest, because he threateneth it to all, and
therefore to them also, if they do not turn to him, if they conti-
nue ni impenitence and unbelief, or if they persevere not to the
end:" Whereas if, notwithstanding, he hath in his word of truth
declared concerning them that he hath from eternity prepared for
them that grace which w ill unfrustrably produce faith, repentance,
and conversion in them, and stands engaged by promise to make
them persevere unto the end, no man can rationally conceive he
threateneth damnation to them seriously, because then he must
only do it on a condition which he himself by his decree and
promise hath rendered it impossible for them to be subject to:
So, in like manner, if God doth only promise this pardon and
salvation to the non-elect, on a condition which his own act of
preteriiion , and leaving them under the disability they had con-
tracted by the fall of Adam, hath rendered impossible for them to
perform; this being in effect no promise, a promise only made
on an impossible condition being equivalent to none at all, how
can a God of truth and of sincerity be said to promise to them
pardon and salvation seriously and in good earnest, who are by
his own act of preterition infallibly and unfrustrably excluded
from it ?
V. ARGUMENT FOURTH. If men are purely passive in the
whole work of their conversion, and so are utterly void of all
power of believing, living to God, or performing any acceptable
obedience to his commands, is it righteous to consign them to
eternal misery for their disability to do that which God sees them
unable to do when he lays these commands upon them? Is not
this to require bnck where he affords no straw ? Yea, ' to require
much where nothing is given,' and then to punish eternally the
not-doing that which is so unreasonably required? Yea, is not
this equal to an absolute decree to damn them for nothing? It
being in effect, and in the necessary event and consequence the
214 SUTFICIEN? AND (l)IS. III.
same thing to damn them for nothing, and to damn them for not
doing what they never could doj or for not abstaining from v\hat
they never could avoid. If God makes laws which we cannot
without his assistance observe, and then denies that assistance, he
by so doing makes obedience to such men impossible, and what
sin is it not to obey beyond possibility ?
If it be said " this disability is their sin,"
I ANSWER, then by the definition of St. John, it must be a
transgression of some law of God, and then some law of his ii ust
be produced requiring fallen man to do, on pain of damnation,
without divine assistance, what he knows he can no more do than
he can create a world; that is, a law declaring it is his will that
they should do what it is his will they never should have power
to do, or that it is his will we should exert an act without the pow-
er of acting. (2.) Either this divine law is positive or moral: if
it be only positive, then all the heathen world must neces.sanly be
ignorant of it, and therefore not obliged by it, God having given
them no positive laws, aud so their state must be, as to this paiti-
cular, much better than that of Christians, they being under no
obligation to do any thing which they cannot do. If it be moral,
how comes it to pass that all the Heathen world should be not
only ignorant of it, but possessed with a contrary principle, im-
possib ilium nulla est obligalio, ( that there can be no obligation
to a thing impossible/ " which is," saith Bishop Saunderson, " a
thing self-evident, and needs no proof ;" e and that 'there can be
no fault in doing that which we cannot avoid, or not doing that
which we have no power to do; and that God could not produce
or nourish that, which, when it had done its utmost, must fall into
eternal misery;'/ and that quod omnibus necesse est id ne miser urn
esse uni potest. ' that which is necessary to all, can be the ground
of misery to none.' (3.) Either this sin is avoidable or it is not;
if it be not avoidable, must it not unreasonably be required under
this dreadful penalty that men should avoid it? If it be avoid-
able, then is there no such disability as is pretended in us, for
\ve are not disabled from avoiding that which we have power to
avoid.
e De Leg. Pralec. V. sec. 6.
/ Culpam nullam esse, dicit Cicero, cum id quod ab homine non potuerit non praxtari evenerit.
Tusc. Q. 3. N. 31. Nee id gigneret, aut aleret, quod, cum exautlavisset cranes labores, mtideret in
mortis sempiternummalum. Tugc, Q. 1. N. 107.
CHAP. II. 6.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 15
VI. If it still be said, that "it is just to condemn us for what
we are now disabled to perform, because this disability came up-
on us by a guilt which is truly our own, because it came upon us
by the sin of our first parents, in whose loins we then were ;" this
miserable refuge, and first-born of absurdities, hath been suf-
ficiently confuted in the state of this question, SECTION the
SIXTH. It hath been also baffled by many plain and cogent
arguments in the discourse concerning the extent of 'Christ's death,
And because it is the foundation of the doctrine of absolute elec-
tion and reprobation, and the whole system of these men must
fall together with it, I shall here shew farther the inconsistency of
this imagination, both with the tenor of the holy scripture, and
with the principles of reason. And,
First. This vain imagination seems plainly contrary to the
whole tenor of the scripture, and even to ridicule God's dealings
in them with the sons of men; for if, as 1 have largely proved in the
state of the question, God dealeth with lapsed man, suitably to the
faculties he still retains, endeavouring to excite him to the per-
formance of his duty by hopes and fears, by promises and threats,
by prospect of the advantages he will receive by his obedience, and
of the miseries to which he will be subject by his disobedience,
requiring him to consider and lay to heart these things, that he
may ' turn from the evil of his ways, and do that which is lawful
and right ,' by all these things he manifestly declares he is not
under such a disability by reason of the fall of Adam, as renders
it impossible for him to be moved by all or any of these induce-
ments to the performance of his duty; for then he might as well
have used them to persuade a blind man to see, or a cripple to
walk, or a new-born babe to speak, or a fool to understand ma-
thematicks, they both equally wanting or having lost the power
to do what is required of them; and though one man should have
lost his sight by whoring, another the use of his feet, a third the
use of his reason by drinking; though they may be punished for
whoring and drinking, they cannot afterwards be justly punished
for not seeing, not walking, or not making use of their reason;
this being to punish them for not using that which they have not
to use; so in like manner, though if the sin of .Adam were pro-
perly our own, we might be punished for that sin, yet could we
not be justly punished for not having the ability we had lost by it,
216 SUFFICIENT AND (DJS. TIT,
that being equally to punish for not using that ability which we
have not to use.
Secondly. God plainly seerneth, by his dispensations with the
sons of men in order to their reformation, to declare he doth not
look upon them as lying under this supposed disability to become
better; to hearken to his calls and invitations to return and live;
to be drawn to him by the cords of love; to learn wisdom by his
rod, or be convinced of their duty to believe, and to obey him, by
his miraculous operations. For,
1. God represents it as matter of great admiration and astonish-
ment, and an argument of brutish stupidity, that the Jews were
not restrained from their rebellions against him by the considera-
tion of his great goodness to them, speaking thus to them by his
prophet, ' Hear, Oh heavens, and give ear, Oh earth, for I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against
me. The ox knotes his owner, and the ass liis master's crib, but
Israel doth not knozc, mi/ people doth not consider:* enquiring
thus, ' Ah foolish people and unwise, do you thus requite the
Lord? Is he not the Lord that made you? Hath he not created
and established you'f 1 and saying, ' they remembered not the mul-
titude of thy mercies, but zcere disobedient at the sea, even at the Red
sea ;ithey forsook the Lord; when he led them in the icay, they walked
after vanity, neither said they, Where is the Lord that led us through
the wilderness , and brought us out of Egypt into a plentiful country,
to eat the fruits thereof 'V* Again, 'this people, saith he, hath a
revolting and rebellious heart, neither say they, Let us now fear
the Lord, who giveth us the former and the latter rain in its season,
and reserve! h tons the appointed Keeks of harvest' 1 And on the
other hand he promised), that in the latter days they shall ' fear
the Lord and his goodness.' m The apostle also represents it as the
effect of their hard and impenitent heart, that they ' despised the
riches of God's goodness, patience, and long-suffering, and zcerenot
led by them to repentance.' '" ISow if they lay under an utter ina-
bility to be restrained by all this goodness from their rebellions
and their disobedience, and from walking after vanity, what mat-
ter of admiration and astonishment, what indication of folly and
stupidity could it be in them, that they were not induced by it to
g Isaiah i, 2, i. h Deuteronomy xxxii, 6. i Psalm cvi, 7- * Jeremiah ii, 5, 6,
I Chapter Y, 23, 24. m Hosea iii, 5. n Romans ii, .
CHAP. II. Sj 6.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 21?
abstain from that which they were not able to avoid ? Or what
sign was it of a rebellious and revolting, hard and impenileui heart,
that being under this disability to be moved by this goodness to
repent aud fear him, they did not do it ? Sure he who designed
the.se means to their respective ends, and doth thus aggravate the
sin of them who do not improve them to those ends, did not con-
ceive these all were vain and insufficient inducements without
that supernatural aid he was not pleased to vouchsafe to move iuem
to those duties.
2. The scrij .i'o is more fiequent in representing God's pun-
ishments and chastisements as sufficient to engage men to fear
him, and to depart from their iniquity. ' Thou shall, saith Moses,
co/tsider in thy heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord
chasteneth thee; thost shalt there/ore keep the commandments of the
Lord thy God, to walk in his zcays, and to fear him.' o God him-
self declares, that ' by the Spirit of judgment, and of burning he
would wash azcay the Jilt li of the daughter of Zion, and pin ge out
tht blood nf Jerusalem ;'p and speaks of it as a thing certain, that
1 when his judgments are upon the earth, the inhabitants of it will
leant- righteousness? and that in their affliction they will seek him
early .'r And when they had not this effect upon them, he complains
grievously against them, saying, ' this people turneth not to him that
smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord.' In vain have I
smitten them, they hare received no correction ;' t and having men-
tioned a variety of judgments he had inflicted upon Israel, he still
concludeth thus, ' yet have ye not returned to me, saith the Lord;'"
and then adds, (verse 12,) 'therefore will [do thus unto you.'
His prophets also complain thus : ' O Lord, tliou hast stricken
them, but they have not grieved; thouhast consumed them, but they
refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder
than a rock, they refused to return. ' w And again, ' this is a nation
that obeyeth not the voice oft fie Lord nor receiveth correction.''" Yea,
when these judgments do not prevail upon them to return to him,
he looks upon them as incorrigible, saying to them ' Why should you
be smitten any more, you will revolt more and more'? y and are
only fit to be punished seven times more. Thus having threatened
Deut. viii. 5, 6. p Isa- iv, 4. 9 AM. xxvi 9. lix. 18,19. rHos.v. 15. slsa. ix 15.
Uer.ft.50. uAoKffir. 6, 9, 11. wJer. v. 3. * vii. 28. ?/Isa. i. 5.
R
21S SUFFICIENT AND (DlS. IK.
to 'set hisfacevgainst them, and give them up to be slain by their
enemies, who would not hearken to him to do all his command-
ments;' he adds, ' and if you zoill not yet for all this hearken to
me, I will punish, you seven times more far your sins. And if you
mil not be reformed by these things, but will walk contrary to me,
then will I also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet
seven times more for your sins. And if ye wilt not for all this
hearken to me, but zvill zcalk contrary to me, I will walk contrary
to yon in jury.'* Now seeing all these judgments and chastise-
ments were only moral motives, and all men through the fill! of
AxJamare utterly incapable of being moved by them without that
supernatural and unf rust ruble operation, which the event shews
God was not pleased to vouchsafe to these lapsed persons, why
doth God himself represent them as means proper and by him de-
signed, and sometimes efficacious, to produce these ends? Why
doth he speak as if they certainly would do it? Why doth he com-
plain so much against them, and denounce such dreadful judg-
ments on them who were not thus reformed by them, seeing these
things, without that aid he was not pleased to vouchsafe, were as
unable to produce these effects as to make a blind man see, or a
deaf man hear? Why is the one more punishable on this ac-
count than the other? Why, lastly, doth he represent them as in-
corrigible who were not thus reformed by them, since it was im-
possible they should be so without that supernatural aid he was-
not pleased to vouchsafe? Surely these things are demonstra-
tions of the falsehood of this vain opinion,
3. God doth continually represent his calls and invitations, and
his messages sent to them by his prophets, as sufficient induce-
ments to procure their reformation and repentance, and looks
upon them as incorrigible and past all remedy, and worthy of his
heaviest judgments, when these things could not engage them to
return to him; so we read, (2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16.) 'he sent
to them his messengers, rising up betimes and sending them, be-
cause he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place;
but they mocked his messengers, despised his word, and misused his
his piophets, till the wrath of the Lord came upon them, and there
was no remedy.' So Jer. xxv. 4, 5. ' the Lord sent to you 1m
z LevMJcro sxvi, 1417, 18, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28.
CHAP. 11.^6.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 219
prophets, rising up early and sending them, but you hate not
hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear, (when) they said, Turn
ye again evert/ one from his evil zcays.' Hence God speaks thus
of them, Jer. xxix. 18, 19, "I will persecute them with the
sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will deliver them to be
removed to all the families of the earth, because they hearkened
not to rny words, when I sent to them by my servants the pro-
phets, rising up early and sending them, but ye would not hear."
See also Jer. vii. 13. xxxv. 15. Again, " I will bring upon
Judah," saith God, "and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusa-
lem all the evil that I have threatened, because I have
spoken to them, but they have not heard, I have called unto
them, but they have not answered." (Jer. xxxv. 170 So also
Isaiah Ixv. 1 1, Ixvi. 4. Wisc'om is also introduced by the
preacher crjing " in the chief places of concourse, Turn ye at
my reproof, (and) 1 will pour out my Spirit upon you, I will
make known my words to you;"" and at last thus concluding,
" because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my
hand, and no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all my coun-
sel, and would none of my reproof; 1 also will laugh at your ca-
lamity, 1 will mock when your fear cometh. In a word, all these
things seem to be put together in those words of the prophet
Ezekiel, f because 1 have purged thee (that is, I have done what
was sufficient to have purge'd thee, by my mercies and judgments,
my culls, m\ threats, my promises, and by my prophets, and what
should have purged thee,) and thou wast not purged, thou shall
not be purged from thy jilthiness any more, till I have caused my
fury to rest upon thee'b Now could that God who sent these
messengers to his people, ' because he had compassion on them>
have decreed from eternity never to have compassion on them in
reference to their eternal interests? Could he see them under an
utter disability through the fall of Adam to comply with the re-
quests of his messengers and prophets, and not vouchsafe that aid
without which he well knew his messengers and prophets must
be sent in vain ? And when, after all that they had said, there
was no remedy of this fatal disability afforded, did the good God
threaten thus to persecute with sword and famine, and banish
Proverbs \, 2328. I Chapter xxiv, 15.
R 2
SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. III.
ment, his own beloved people, for not hearkening to his words,
and not turning from their evil ways, when they were no more
able so to do than to remove a mountain; 1 Might he not as well
have threatened thus the man who by intemperance had lost his
sight and limbs, because he did not see and walk? Especially if
we consider that he contracted this disability by his own personal
sin, they only had theirs by the transgression of another, long be-
fore they had a being, and so before they could be capable of any
personal transgression. To what purpose did wisdom say to
them who were thus disabled, " turn you at iny reproof?" Or
could she, without insulting over the misery of fallen man, thus
laugh at the calamity they never could prevent? Or lastly, could
God truly say 'heK'ould have purged them,' when he withheld
that aid, without which it was impossible they should be purged;
or threaten that " they should be purged no more/ who never
were in a capacity of being purged at all ?
4. God throughout the whole book of the law, and our blessed
Saviour in the gospel, still represent the mighty works done for,
and before the eyes of, the Jews, as strong and sufficient obliga-
tions to believe and obey him. " Ask now of the days of old,
did ever people hear the voice of God out of the midst of the
fire as you have heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go
and take him a nation out of the midst of another nation, by
temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by a mighty hand,
and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, as the Lord did
for you in Egypt before your eyes ? (Deut. iv. 32, 33, 34.) Thou
shall keep therefore his statutes and his commandments, which I
command ye this day. (Verse 40.) And chapter xi. 2, you have
seen the chastisements of the Lord, his greatness, his mighty hand,
and his stretched-out arm, and his miracles, and his acts which he
did in the midst of Egypt; your eyes have seen all the gre^t acts
of the Lord that he did, therefore shall ye keep all the command-
ments which I command you this day. (Verse 8.) And chapter
xxix. 2, 3, Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes
in the land of Egypt, the great temptations which thine eyes have
seen, the signs and the great miracles; keep therefore the words
of this covenant, and do them." (Verse 9.) So also our Lord
proves the obligation the Jews had to believe in him, because of
(he mighty works which he had done among them, saying " the
CHAP. II. 6.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 221
works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent
me; (John v. 36.) and ye have not his words abiding in you;
for whom he hath sent, ye believe not." (Verse 58.) See also
John viii. 18, 24. And when the Jews came to him saying, " If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly;" his answer is, (John x. 25,
26.) " The works that I do in my Father's name, bear witness of
me; but ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep; and,
verse 37, if I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; and
chapter xv. 24, if [ had not clone among them the works which none
other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen
and hated both me and my Father, and so they have no cloak
for their sin." (Verse 22.) Now if the consideration of this
mighty hand of God, and stretched-out arm, was not sufficient to
induce them to observe his statutes, why doth he so often say,
" therefore thou shall keep my statutes," that is, why doth he
use a reason which he knew was insufficient to produce that ef-
fect? If all Christ's miracles, without that supernatural and un-
frustrable act of God, which he would not vouchsafe to the Jews,
were insufficient to produce faith in them, why doth Christ tell
them, that " if they did not believe in him they should die in their
sins?" Why doth he represent their infidelity as an act of ha-
tred to him and his Father, and an evidence that they were not his
sheep, nor had the word of God abiding in them? Why, lastly,
doth he say, ' they had no cloak for their sin,' who had this re-
mediless disability to plead in their behalf?
5. This will be farther evident from God's supposition, that it
might be that the methods he and his prophets used would pre-
vail for the producing of the designed effects. Thus when God
bids Jeremiah ( take the roll of his intended judgments, and read it
in their ears; he adds, it may be that the house ofJudah will hear
all the evil that I purpose to do to them, ihat they may return every
man from his evil icau, and I mayjorgive their iniquity and their
sin; a and verse 7, it may be they will present their supplication
before me, and icill return every one from Ids evilzcau.' To his
prophet Ezekiel he speaks thus, " Prepare ye stuff for removing,
and remove by day in their sight; it may be they will consider,
though they be a rebellious house.' b So in the parable of thtf
^e Jeremiah xxxvi, 3, 7- i> Ezekiel xii, 5.
22 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. III.
vineyard, when God sends his Son to the Jews, he saith, "it may
be they wilt reveieno: my Sou-'" Now what room is there for
any of these suppositions, \vhere the eliect depends upon God's
immediate acting upon the heart, and not upon UHJ hearing, or
consideration of man without it, or any dispositions, or any means
that tiiey can use to move him to enable them to do it? if indeed
they lay under this disability by the fail of Adam, it might as rea-
sonably be expected they should move a mountain, as be induced
by these considerations to return every man from Ins evil ways.
6. God complains of his own people, that they were " a re-
bellious people, because they had eyes to see and saw not, they had
ears to hear and heard not; d my people, saith he, is foolish, they
have not known me, they are sottish children, and have not under-
standing; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no
knowledge."" And again. ' to zchom shall 1 speak and give ream-
ing? Behold their ear is uncircutnciscd, and they cannot hear: f
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, and the leopard his spots?
Then may ye also do good zcho are accustomed to do evil.** And
Christ speaks thus to the Scribes and Pharisees, ' Ye serpents, ye
generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell!'' 1
Now if this were the sad estate of all the lapsed sons of Adam,
that ' they had eyes and saw not, and ears and heard not, that to
do good they had no knowledge,' and no power, whatever motives
God should offer to engage them so to do, why is this represent-
ed as the peculiar state only of the worst of men? If none of
them could be induced by all the arguments the gospel offers to
do good, why is this made the effect of a long ' custom to do
evil,' and an evidence of 'sottish children f If this be the sad
state of all that are not of the number of the elect, that they can-
not escape eternal misery, why is it said, peculiarly of the Scribes
and Pharisees, that they could not 'escape the damnation of
hellf And more particularly concerning Judas, that ' it had been
better for him that he had not been bornT* In a word, all God's
commands and prohibitions, promises and threats, and all his ex-
hortations to lapsed men to consider and lay them to heart, in
c Luke xx, 13. d Ezekiel xii, 2. r Jeremiah iv, 22. / Jeremiah vi, 10.
S Chapter xii;, 23. ft Matthew xxiii, 33. Matthew x*vi, 21
t;HAP. 11. 1.) 'EFFECTUAL GRACE. 223
order to their reformation, are demonstrations of the falsehood oi'
this vain imagination.
VII. ARGUMENT PIFTH. If such a divine, unfrusti able ope-
ration is necessary to the conversion of a sinner, then the word
read or preached can be no instrument of their conversion with-
out this divine and unfrustrable impulse, because that only acts
by moral suasion. Whereas ' it pleased God,' sailh the apostle,
' by t lie foolishness of preaching to sate them that believe.' k And
St. James, by saying, ' tee are begotten anew by the word of
truth,' 1 plainly informs us, that this word of God is the ordinary
means of oar regeneration, it being the word preached, the word
we are to hear, (verse 19, 22,) and to 'receive with meekness, by
which God worketh this new birth in us, an,l ' zchich,' saith tine
apostle, ' is able to save our souls' (Verse 21.) And it is surely
a great disparagement to the word of God, to think that his :per-
suasions, admonitions, exhortations, attended with the highest
promises and threats, should be all insufficient to prevail with
men to turn from the known evil of their ways, and turn to him ;
when all men who do use these methods towards their children,
servants, friends, and relations, do it in hope that they shall be
successful by these means; only this is not so to be understood
as to exclude the co-operation of God with his word, or the as-
sistance of his Holy Spirit setting it home upon our aearts; pro-
vided this be not by way of physical but moral operation, by that
illumination of the understanding horn the word which produceth
that renovation in the spirit of the mind., by which we are enabled
to discern and to ' approve the good, and acceptable, and perfect
will of God,' (Rom. xii. 2. Eph. iv. 23.) to discern ' zchat is ac-
ceptable to the Lord, (Eph. v. 10,) to understand what the will of
the Lord is' ( Verse )7.) And if the word of God be a perfect,
rule, * able to make us inse unto sal-oat ion,. and furnish m to every
good work,' sure the good Spirit may, by his suggestion of the
truths delivered in it, by ' bringing them, to our remembrance,' and
opening our understanding to perceive the scriptures, remove that
darkness which is in our minds either by natural corruption, or
by the mists which satau casts upon them; whence the apostle
doth inform us, that < ifthegowel be hid from any to idiom it is
fc 1 Corinthians i, 21 ' James i, 13. m 2 Timothy Hi, 15, 16, IT,
224 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. III.
preached, it is because the God of this zcorld hath blinded the con-
ceptions of their minds, that the light of the "glorious gv,el should
not shine into them.' (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.) And, Secondly, by making
deep impressions on the mind or' the advantages am! rewards pro-
mised to our conversion and sincere obedience, and the tremen-
dous evils threatened to the disobedient, and bringing these things
oft to our remembrance, which, in the scripture-phrase, is 'putting
these lazes in our minds, and zcriling them in our hearts, that zee may
not depart from him.' (Heb. viii. 10. See the note there.) For
What reason can be given, why the Spirit of wisdom having thus
enlightened the eyes of our understanding 'to knozv zchat is the
hope of our calling, and the glorious riches of the inheritance of
the saints,' (Eph. i. 18,) and made these things, firmly believed,
thus present to our minds, they should not have greater preva-
lence on our wills to obedience than any temporal concernments
to induce us to yield obedience to the laws of fin? If, beyond
this, there be some physical and irresistible operation, on God's
part, necessary to make us know the things which do belong to
our peace, and, knowing them, to chuse the good and refuse the
evil, this being not wrought in them who are not bora anew, why
is the want of this new birth, and this spiritual renovation, so oft
imputed to men's want of consideration and laying to heart the
things propounded to them, to their not inclining their ear to wis-
dom and applying their heart to understanding, to their rejecting
the counsel of God and not chusing the fear or the Lordr(Prov.
i, 24, 25, 29, 30.) Why is it said, that they continue thus unre-
formed, because 'they would have none of God's counsels, but de-
spised all his reproof, or because they zcou/d not frame their doings
to return unto the Lord 1 ? This also St. Peter teachelh, by say-
ing, ' We are born again of incorruptible seed, by the zcord of God;' "
and St. Paul by letting us know, that 'faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God,' and by saying to his Corin-
thians, ' in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.'
For if conversion is only wrought by an irresistible operation of
the Holy Spirit, and cannot be wrought in us by the word with-
out it, then the word contributes no more to our conversion than
the throwing of a pebble doth to the fall of a strong wall blown
n 1 Peter i, 23. o Romans x, 17-
CHAP.11.8.) EFFECTUAL GRACE.
down by the fury of a tempest. Since then it can only be the ef-
fect of that unfrustrable power, and not at all of any refusable
motives and persuasions offered from the word; and why then is
it said 'to be quick and lively in its operation'? To say that "con-
version, at the same time, may be the work of that word which
sinners cannot but resist, till this infrustrable operation comes,"
and yet " of that operation and the word," is to speak things
plainly inconsistent with truth, and with the nature of a moral in-
strument, which if it doth not move, doth nothing; and if it doth,
as far as it doth so, is not resisted. Moreover, where an effect
doth so entirely depend upon two causes, that, without the con-
currence of them both, it will not be produced, he that hath it
always in his power to resist, that is, to hinder the operation of
the one upon him, must also frustrate the other, and consequently
hinder the effect: So that it being certain that the sinner may,
and too often doth resist the most powerful persuasions of the
word, he may resist the concurrence of the Spirit with it, and then
that operation cannot be unfrustrable or irresistible. Moreover,
if conversion be wrought irresistibly by the operation of the Spi-
rit, then the word which may be resisted is unnecessary thereun-
to, since an irresistible operation must do its work as well with-
out it; and if the word cannot but be resisted, till the effect is
wTought by another power which is irresistible, it is evident the
effect is owing only to that power, and then the whole ministry
of the word must be unnecessary: And what is this but in effect
to gay, what in express terms would be offensive to tell Christian
ears, viz. "the word of God is of no use towards the conversion
or reformation of a sinner?"
VIII. ARGUMENT SIXTH. Hence it must also follow that
no motive can be offered sufficient to induce the person who be-
lieves this doctrine, (as, if it be taught in scripture, all Christian s
are obliged to do,) to enter upon a change of life, or a religious
conversation, till he feel this irresistible impulse come upon him:
For as an assent to mere truth doth not move the will and affec-
tions, unless it be of concernment to us, propounding good to be
obtained, or evil to be avoided, so neither can this be sufficient
to excite endeavour, if I know as certainly that till this impulse
/> Hebrews iv, 12.
226 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. III.
comes upon me T cannot possibly by my best endeavours either
obtain that good, 01 avoiH ih.it evil; which being plain to common
sense, I shall not farther p'osecute.
IX. ARGUML V.T SEVENTH. If man be purely passive in the
whole work of his conversion, and it can only be wrought in
him by an irresistib. oct of God upon him, then can nothing be
required as a preparation, or a prerequisite to conversion; for
either that prerequisite is sum* -.thing to be done on our part in or-
der to God's mesitibie act, or it is not; it nothing is so to be done
on our part in order to the work, no preparation can be requisite
in ordt/r to it; if any thing is to be done on our part, it is certain
that we are not purely passive in the whole work of our regenera-
tion, since he that must prepare himself for his conversion, must
act 111 order to it. Now as all God's exhortations to men to con-
sider and turn unto the Lord, demonstrate, that this consideration
is a prerequisite to conversion, so the parable of the seed sown
shews (i.) Negatively, that the word becomes unfruitful, either
because men do not at all attend to it, or because they are diverted
from that attention by the intervening cares and pleasures of the
woild, which break off that attention, or are affrighted from it by the
fears of suffering; and (2) affirmatively, that it becometh fruitful
by being ' received into a good and honest heart.' And sure the
devil must be a fool, according to this doctrine, when he comes
to ' take away the word out of men s heart, lest they should believe
and be saved,' if that word could have no influence upon men to
salvation, when it was not attended with an unfrustrable assistance;
and where it was so, all his attempts to hinder the believing of it to
salvation, must be vain.
X. ARGUMENT EIGHTH. Were such an irresistible power
necessary to the conversion of a sinner, no man could be convert-
ed sooner than he is, because before this irresistible action came
upon him he could not be converted, and when it came upon him
he could not chuse but be converted ; and therefore no man could
reasonably be blamed that lie lived so long in his impenitent or
unconverted state. And men God must unreasonably make these
enquiries, ' hozo long refuse ye to keep mil commandments^ How
long will this people pro-coke me? How long zcill it be ere
7 Kxtvlo-, xvi, 2S.
CHAP. II. 11.) EFFECTUAL GRACE.
belie-ce me? r How long, ye simple ones, mil ye love simplicity, and
the scorners delight in scorning, and the fools hate knowledge? t O
Jerusalem, wash thyself from wickedness that thoumayest be saved!
How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee't* And again,
O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean, when shall it once beT*
Seeing none of these changes could be wrought within them, till
he was pleased to afford the irresistible impulse : And then it
Mould not be praise-worthy in them, or any other person, that
they were then converted, it being not in their power then to be
otherwise, since an unfrusti able operation is that which no man
can frustrate.
XI. ARGUMENT NINTH. The scripture charges men's wick-
edness not upon their impotency and disability, but upon their
wilfuluess, which therefore doubtless is the true account of the,
matter. It might have reasonably been expected, that if the disa-
bility we had contracted by the fall of Adam had been the true
source of all that impotency that is in the sinner to hearken to
all or any of the motives offered by God in the Old or the New
Testament, the holy scripture should somewhere or other have
given us some express declaration of it, and not have constantly-
ascribed this impotency to other causes acquired by, and not born
with, us; whereas I verily believe, that the whole scripture afford-
eth not one sentence, or expression, which in the true importance
of it bears this sense, or which, either in terms, or by just conse-
quence, avers, that " man is so disabled by the fall, as that he can-
not be reformed by any arguments or motives offered by God for
his recovery, or by the grace offered to all men in the gospel, but
that they must entirely be frustrated, offered and spent in vain
upon him, unless God add unto them an unfrustrable operation
of the Holy Ghost." The scripture is indeed very copious in
representing the ignorance and darkness of the Heathen world,
given up to gross idolatry, and lying under the dominion of the
prince of darkness; declaring, that ' their foolish hearts were dark-
ened, and that they were alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that was in them;' that through the evil habits they had
contracted, the whole Heathen world ' laij in wickedness, were
r Xiunbeaxiv, 11. * Proverbs i, 22. < Jeremiah iv, 14. n Chapter xiii. 27-
228 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. 111.
filled with it, and were even dead in trespasses and sins, and
through the c-<.- -mary practice of sin were become insensible of
their own vileness: But nothing of this nature do I find charged
on mankind in general, by reason of the fall of Adam. Whereas
there is not any thing more frequent or common throughout the
whole book of scripture, than the complaints of God and all his
prophets, of Christ and his apostles, of the perver^eness, obstinacy,
rebellion, the inconsidcration, folly, and stupidity of them with
whom they had to do, and only of their indisposition and disabili-
ty to hearken to their counsels, and do good, b\ reason of those
evil dispositions, customs, prejudices, hardness of heart, or blind-
ness, which they had wilfully contracted. Now it is reasonable
to conclude the fault lies chiefly there where the scripture chargeth
it, and not where it is wholly silent in the case. Now of all these
things I have already given instances sufficient; to which may be
added the words of Isaiah, ' thus saith the Lord, in returning and
rest shall ye be saved, and in quietness and confidence shall be
your strength, and ye zcould not. And again, they would not walk
in his zi'ays, neither zcere they obedient to his lazes.'* And of the
prophet Jeremiah, '" thus saith the Lord, ask tor the old paths,
where is the good way? and walk therein; and they said, We will
not walk therein; they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I
sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising up eaily and send-
ing them, but they would not hear, saith the Lord."^ And saith
the prophet Hosea, " they will not frame their doings to turn
unto the Lord." 2 Now, is it to be wondered, is it just matter of
complaint, that men who were disabled, by the fall of Adam,
from doing any of these things, did not perform them ? Were
they not rather objects of divine pity, than of wrath? And was
it not worthy of the divine goodness to help their unavoidable in-
firmity, rather than to punish them so severely for what they could
not help, and to impute that to the spirit of whoredom in them,
which was the natural result of the whoredom of their mother Eve?
Moreover Christ charges the impenitency and unbelief of the
Jews upon this account, saying, " Ye will not come unto me that
you may have life." Now if they could not have the will, their
condemnation would not be just; if indeed it had once been possi-
.* Isaiah xxx, 15. xj-i, i y JemjRiah \i, 5G. vii>, 5. *xix, 19. s Hn?ca v,
CHAP. II. 12.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 229
ble for them to be willing to come, or, supposing their will good, it
had been possible for them to come without being irresistibly made
to come, the fault might have been imputed to themselves; but
if it were impossible for them to be willing, how should they
come? Or if it were impossible for them to come if willing, to
what end should they be willing?
To stiy, as some do, that " God's exhortations to men thus un-
able to return and yield obedience to him, and his promises to
pardon and to save them if they will return, are very serious;
because he will pardon and save them ii" they do these things,
and only doth not do this because they will not turn unto
him," is as if I should say, " a man is serious, when he exhorts a
blind or a deaf man, (who had contracted these disabilities by
their own fault,) to see and hear, and promises them the highest
advantages if they would do so, because he will give them these
advantages if they do see and hear, and only doth not give them
because th,ey do not do so:" For if you say that "these men
cannot see and hear, and therefore will not," so is it with
every lapsed man according to this doctrine. Moreover it is
certain, that what 1 know 1 cannot do, if I would, 1 cannot ra-
tionally will to do, because I cannot rationally will in vain; if
therefore God hath taught the sinner that he cannot turn to him,
or hearken to his exhortations to repent and believe, were he
never so willing, he hath also taught him that he cannot rational-
ly will to do so, and therefore that he must be innocent in not
having such a will.
XII. ARGUMENT TENTH. And lastly, our opinion tendeth
much more to the glory of God, than doth the contrary opinion.
For seeing God is chiefly glorified by the acknowledgment and
discovery of his excellencies, and more particularly of those attri-
butes which do inform us of our duty, and are proposed for our
imitation, that doctrine which tends most to the acknowledgment
of those attributes, must most directly tend to the advancement
of God's glory. Now,
First. The wisdom of God is most glorified by that opinionwhich
supposeth he acts with man in all his precepts, exhortations, invi-
tations, promises and threats, suitably to those faculties that he
hath given us, and doth not attempt by them ' to engage us to im-
' possibilities. For is it not a foul imputation upon the divine wis-
280 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. 111.
'.dom to suppose that he uses and appointeth means for the rec'o-
' very of mankind, which he knows cannot in the least degree be
' serviceable to that end:' But such is the consequence of that
opinion which makes it as impossible for the sinner to be convert-
ed, as for the dea r l to be raised, by any of those arguments or
motives delivered by him in the scripture to engage us to repent
and turn unto him: For, according to this hypothesis, he might
as well send ministers to preach to stones, and persuade ttum to
be converted into men; for his ommpotency can, upon their
preaching, produce this change in those stones: and according to
this opinion, the conversion of a sinner cannot be effected with-
out a like act of the divine omnipotency.
Secondly. Whereas according to our doctrine, the truth and
faithfulness of God, and the sincerity of his dealings with men is
unquestionable; according to the other doctrine, God seems to
promise pardon and salvation to all men sincerely, and yet in truth
intends it only to some few persons whom he designed to convert
by an irresistible power; leaving the salvation of the rest impossi-
ble, because he never designed to afford them this unfrustrable
operation, enquiring why those men would die, why they would
not be made clean, whom he knew could not avoid that death, or
obtain that purgation without that divine impulse he would not
afford them; and saying he had purged them who were not purged,
and had done all things requisite to make his vineyard bring forth
good grapes, when he had withheld from them that unfrustrable
operation without which they neither could be purged, nor bring
forth good grapes.
Thirdly. Whereas thejustice of God shines evidently from our
doctrine, which asserts that God doth only punish men for wilful
sins, which it was in iheir power to avoid; it never can be glori-
fied by that doctrine which supposes that he punisheth men with
the extremest and most lasting torments, for not accepting those
offers of grace tendered by the gospel, which it was not possible
for them to comply with or embrace, without that farther grace
which he purposed absolutely to deny them. Now such is the
consequence of that opinion which resolves the conversion of sin-
ners into tViat unfrustrable operation which is vouchsafed only to
a few, but is withheld from ail the rest of mankind to whom grace
is offered by the -gospel.
GHAP. II. 12.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. ~3I
Fourthly. Is it not for God's glory that the praise of what
good we do should be ascnb< d to his g;ac* , uiul tie ot our
evil doings should rest upon ourselves, as our o.vn * nii!iission of
sin? But what reason can there be foi luis, unless >ve suppose
it possible for the vucked to have been converted, or to have
ceased to do evil? If indeed you .usaibe com rsion and obedi-
ence to a cause that transcends all the power or man under the
gospel dispensation to perform, his evil actions may be his misfor-
tunes, but how they should be his faults, it is I.KH t a sy to conceive.
I should now proceed to shew the coneuin iice of antiquity
with this doctrine; but this will be fully don* by me in the follow-
ing DISCOURSE, where it will evidently be proved that the Fa-
thers, in their confutation of the assei tors of fate, and of the here-
sies of the Valentinians, the Marcionites, the Basiiulians, the
ManichaBans, the doctrines ofOrigen, and upon many other occa-
sions, use the very same arguments in confutation of those heresies
and doctrines, which I have done in confutation of this doctrine.
To this I shall at present only add,
That the Fathers generally teach that God doth only persuade,
and by his Spirit assist those that are willing to be good; but leaves
them still under the power to neglect and resist his persuasions,
not laying them under a necessity to be good, because that would
destroy the virtue and reward of being so. "God," saith Irenaeus,
" redeems his from the apostate spirit, non vi, sed suade/a, ' not
by force, but by persuasion;' quemadmodum decebat Deum sua-
dentem, et non vim inferentem atcipere qua, vel/et, ' as it became
God to receive what he would by persuasion, and not by force'.""
" He sent his Son into the world," saith Justin Martyr, "us it*\.-
6o)y a /2tao/xvor, * as persuading but not compelling men to be
good."' "The wisdom of God," 6 saith Cyril of Alexandria,
" thought fit to convert men rather by persuasion, than by neces-
sity, that he might preserve the liberty of man's will; for because,"
saith he, " the Maker of all things xuroxpoe.^ rov avOpuKov tlvai /SaXe-
rai xai QsXrtiAxai !X'oy TrTi&aXiK^auOai Tfpos roc irpaiKreai, 'will have man
to have power over his- own self, and be governed by his own will,
in what he doth,' it seemed good to our Saviour,
*/ i> //-ix^v
Lib. 5. cup. 1. p. 393. Ed. OK. Col. 2. A Apol. 2. p. 58. Vid. p. 80, 8!.
<232 SUFFICIENT .AND (nis. 111.
ot //./J.ov Ta a/^c'ivw, ' that man should be withdrawn from what
is bad, and drawn to what is better, rather by persuasion than by
a necessity laid upon him;' for if, having invincible power, he had
commanded all men to believe, 7rX?)p:pop'aj *XSTJ x-ccpTi^s TO UJIVTSUSW
viv, avayxat'wv Ss /LtSXXov xat d^uxTav eTJTa'/^zTa/v, ' faith would not
have been the fruit of a full persuasion ; but rather of necessity
and unavoidable commands.' " c And again, " man," saiin he,
ct at/ToxcXsi/JTois- in 1 a/x(pa; Qeperau pTious, ( is carried both to good
and evil by free motions;' for a.ppriru TV dto7tpTCEsy.ru ^wx^n xai
svEfysip yy>ut*zws /XETEXO/XJ^S TOV lxz$- vv its a.ya.QHpyia.s, ' if God,
by using a divine energy and virtue, (that is, an unfrustrable oper-
ation,) should turn the mind of every man to good works, his
goodness would not be the fruit of counsel or praiseworthy,'
avayxw s /*2X?.ov, ' but rather of necessity.' And if God had dealt
thus with man at the beginning, and afterwards fthat is, after the
tall,) subjected him, TispiTpoTfOLis avayxa/atJ nal olov nai TrXeovs&aw
a^yxroif, ' to necessary turns (to vice or virtue,) and unavoidable
concupiscence or lusting,' how can lie be freed from blame r" rf
CHAP. III.
Answering the arguments produced to prove, First, that man is
purely passive in the work of conversion, and that it is done by
an irresistible or unjrnstrable act of God.
THESE arguments, for method-sake, may be reduced to four
heads,
First. Arguments
taken from the nature
of the work itself; as
. i i n. uieaiiun. :
v. g it being repre-^
contfiri hv siirn ai-ts
By a resurrection. Eph. i. JQ, 20.
A creation. 2 Cor. v. 17. Gal. vi. 15.
sented by such acts
A new birth. John iii. 5.
in which we are con-
fessedly passive.
Secondly. Argu- f
ments taken from the As, v. g. that he is dead, and so unable
state and disability of<^ to move towards a new life. Eph. ii.
the person to be con- i. Col. ii. 13.
verted.
c Lib. 6, contra Jul. p. 215. B. C. d Lib. 8. p- 235. P. C.
CHAP. III.5) 1.)
EFFECTUAL GRACE.
33
Acts xi.
1. To discern the things of God. 1 Cor.
ii. 14.
2. To think any thing, as of himself. 2
Cor. lii. 5.
3. To do any tiling till he be first in
-p -i- , J Christ. John xv. 5.
^' I 4. To come to Christ till he be drawn
by God. John vi. 44.
5. To bring forth good fruit, being an
evil tree. Mat. vii. 18.
6. To be subject to the law of God.
Rom. viii. 7.
Thirdly. Such as f Giving faith. Eph. ii. 8.
respect God himself, j Giving repentance to life,
he being represented j 18.
L Opening the heart. Acts xvi. 14.
f 1 . To circumcise the heart. Deut. xxx.
6.
2. To give a new heart and spirit. Ezek.
xi. 19- xxxvi. S6.
3. To write his law in our hearts. Jer.
xxxi. 33.
4. To give us one heart and one way, that
we may fear him for ever. Jer. xxxii.
- 39.
r 1 . W ho worketh in us both to will and
Or, (3,) as doing this j to do. Philip, ii. 13. Heb. xiii. 21.
workinus,itbeingGod, > 2. Who turns us to himself. Jtr. xxxi.
I 18.
, That one man makes himself to differ
from another, which is contrary to 1
Cor. iv. 7.
That man would have cause of boast-
ing; which is denied, 1 Cor. i. 29,
31. Eph. ii. 9-
this work, and is nofS 3. That the whole glory of our conver-
converted without the I sion would not be due to God.
free consent of his own I 4. Because, if grace be resistible by the
either, (1,) as
Or, (2 ; ) as promis-
Or, Fourthly, such
as prove the absurdity
of the contrary asser-
man co-
tion, that .
operates with God in J
will; for if so, it fol-
lows,
I
will of man, it must be uncertain
whether any man will be converted by
it, or not.
I. Now before 1 come to. a particular answer to these argu-
ments, 1 think it proper to premise three things :
First . That it seems unreasonable to apply all those sayings of
the scripture which concern heathen nations lying under the most
34 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. III.
gross idolatry, and under great darkness and confusion, into' which
the corrupt customs of the Heathens, and the subtilty of Satan
had reduced them, to prove what is the natural estate of all men,
even of those who have the knowledge of the true God, and the
light of the gospel. For to place them under the same disability
with persons sunk into the dregs of Heathenism, seems a very
great absurdity; it being in effect to say, that " men acquainted
with all the inducements, arguments, and motives which Christi-
anity affords to produce faith, repentance, and conversion in them,
have no more advantages towards repentance and conversion than
the worst of Heathens," who, to be sure, cannot do less than
nothing towards their conversion, and would as certainly be con-
verted by an irresistible act of God, and by unfi ustrable grace,
as they who have attained to the exactest knowledge of God, and
of the doctrine of Christianity ; and yet it is certain that some of
those arguments depend upon such passages as only represent the
state of Heathens lying in darkness and gross idolatry, and led by
' satan captive to his Kill.'
Secondly. It seemeth also certain, that those promises and
scriptures which respect whole nations, churches, and christians,
without distinction or respect of persons, can afford no just argu-
ments to prove such operations shall be wrought upon them which
are peculiar to the elect; the reason is, because all the members
of any church, nation, or public society, are not of the number of
the elect, but some few of them only, and therefore the promises
made to the whole body of them must either be conditional, and
so require something to be done by them in order to the enjoy-
ment of the blessings promised, and then they cannot be purely
passive, or if they be absolute, they cannot be promises peculiar
to the elect, as being made to many which are not of that number.
And yet that this is the nature of many of the promises produced
in this affair, will be evident. And,
Thirdly. It seems very impertinent to produce those places of
scripture which evidently speak of men who have already believed
and repented, and upon whom the work of regeneration hath been
wrought already, to prove that men are purely passive in the work
of faith, repentance, and regeneration : the reason is, because such
places cannot concern the work of faith, repentance, and regene-
ration yet to be wrought upon them. If it be said, " the argu-
CHAP. Ifl. 2.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 235
ment is good, a fortiori, viz. if after all these works have been
done upon them, men are still purely passive in all the good they
do, much more must they be so before these works are wrought
within them;" 1 ans\\er that the argument, were the case truly so,
would be very good; but the supposition that men are still as un-
able after such grace received, as before, to do any good, is intoler-
ably absurd ; since, were it so, men would not be one whit the
better for their conversion and the new nature wrought within
them, their faith could not be fruitful in good works, their mind
could be no more enabled to approve the things which are of God,
nor their wills to chuse them, nor their affections to desire them,
nor their executive faculties to perform them. Seeing then such
places cannot be understood of God's working in them without any
co-operation of their own, it is evident they cannot pertinently be
alledged to prove such operation upon other men. To come now
to a particular consideration of these arguments,
II. OBJECTIONS FIRST. When the apostle prays that his
Ephesians may know * what is the exceeding greatness of his pow-
er towards us who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power, which he hath already wrought in Christ, when he raised
him from the dead;' it must be absurd hence to infer, that the
power of God working faith in believers, is equal to that which
effected the resurrection of our Lord, and that we must be there-
fore purely passive in the whole work _of our conversion. For as
this power is not consistent with the persuasions and exhortations
used in scripture to move sinners to repent and turn themselves
from their iniquity, or with a rational choice, nor could it properly
be said that " they turned," but only that " they were turned to
the Lord;" so is not the exposition agreeable to the words: for
the apostle speaks not of the power exercised on us to render us
believers, but of the power which shall be exercised on us who
believe already ; not of the power to be exercised on our souls
to raise them from a death in sin to a life of righteousness, but of
the power to be exercised on our dead bodies to give them a glo-
rious resurrection to eternal life, as he had done already in the
body of our Head, Christ Jesus.
e Ephesians i, 19, 20.
s 2
36- SUFFICIENT AND (D1S. 111.
OBJECTION SECOND. When, Secondly, it is said that "this
work is compared to a creation, in which it is certain that which
is created must be purely passive, as when by it we are said to
become, w jeatvri nrlcis, ' a new creation,' or ' new matures,' (2
Cor. v. 17. Gal. vi. 1.5,) ' we being God's workmanship created in
Christ Jesus to good zcorks.' (Eph. ii. 10.)
ANSWER I/IRST. That this metaphor affords no certain proof
that, wheresoever it is used, the person it respecteth must be
purely passive, and have done nothing towards the act styled
CREATION, is evident from many instances to the contrary.
Thus God is said to have ' created Jacob and formed Israel,' when
he constituted them to be his church and people. (Isa.xlhi. 1.)
Whence the Septuagint saith, /x^aS^m TOI* xriaws nivrtts, 'RE-
MEMBER THIS CREATION;'* and yet they were not purely passive,
but entered into covenant ' to have him for their God.' When
God makes use of wicked men, or men of war, to punish others,
he saith, ' / create the waster to destroy ;' y and yet it is certain that
he is not purely passive in that work. And this is, in the case-
before us, certain from the nature of faith; for faith is man's act,
not God's; it is an assent, and so an action of the mind. Godly
sorrow, though it ariseth from the motives which God and his
good Spirit, and which his ministers suggest, yet is it the sorrow
of the convinced sinner, and it, saith the apostle, ' works repen-
tance unto life,' which sure it could not do if we were purely
passive in that work. As for the work of conversion, God's fre-
quent calls upon the wicked to ' turn themselves from all their
transgressions,' God's commission to his apostles, to declare unto
the ' Gentiles that they should repent, and turn to the Lord,'" are
certain indications that they are not wholly passive in that work.
ANSWER SECOJV D. But, Secondly, God is in scripture said TO
CREATE that which he brings into a new and better state; thus
David prays, ' create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in
me a right spirit '" Thus he is said to ' create new heavens and
new earth,' by making such a change and alteration for the better
in the face and state of things, that the frame of them seems not to be
the same as it was before. (Isaiah Ixv. 17.) And when he saith,
verse 18, '/ create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy,' the
* Psalm l*v, 18. Isaiah liv, 16- s Actexxvi, 20. a Psalm li, 10.
CHAP. III. | 2.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. "237
note of Gatakeristhis, that "restitution and renovation for the bet-
ter, is deemed as a creation." Seeing then the change wrought
in us by that faith which purifies the heart, and makes us fruitful
in good works, by a repentance from dead works to the service
of the living God, and by a conversion from a life of sin to a life
of righteousness, is such a renovation as changes the whole man
and all his faculties for the better; seeing this renovation is begun,
as creation is, by the power of God working upon the heart of man,
we being made ' a zcilling people in the day of his power,' here
is foundation sufficient for the metaphor of a new creature used
in these texts. To this sense the scripture plainly leads us when
it saith, " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; because
old things are past away, and ail things are become new in us;"
and saith in one place, ' zee put on (lie iiezv man zchic/i is created
after God in rig! it eons ness and holinesifof truth ; r b and in another,
which is * retiezced after the image of him that created him;' and
all the Greek Fathers confirm this exposition, by saying that "this
new creation only importeth /xsra^oXrjv el* TO x^sir-rov, 'a change
for the better'," as you may see in Suicerus/
OBJECTION THIRD. " Regeneration is styled A NEW BIRTH;
as therefore we are passive in our generation, so must we be also
in our regeneration."
ANSWER. The falsehood of this argument is evident from this
consideration, that this new birth is ascribed to the word of God,
which only works upon us by moral suasion; as when the scrip-
ture saith, " faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God; d that we are begotten by the word of the living God ;" yea,
that God himself hath "begotten us by the word of truth."/
(ii.) It is also ascribed to the ministers of God, as when St. Paul
tells the Corinthians he had " begotten them by the gospel. "* If
then this new birth, when it is ascribed to God's word or minis-
ters, cannot import that they produce it by an irresistible action,
in which we are purely passive, it will not follow that God, or
his Good Spirit, doth so convert men, because they are said to
be born of God, or of the Spirit.
Secondly. This regeneration being the phrase used by the Jews
concerning their Proselytes, they being said to be then recens nati,
-b Ephesians iv, 24. c To. 2. p. 177, 178, 179. d Romans x, 17. e 1 Peter i, 23.
/ James i, 18. f 1 Corinthians iv, 15.
258 SUFFICIENT AND (OIS. III.
* new-born babes,' and born in holiness. Ylxpx roiV
aofyois TO xarai^r/^at TC xal fyuTiycu anHPfKnUttaou faeysrou. (Strom.
1. 5. p.. 552.) Our Lord translates the metaphor from them to
his disciples renewed after the image of God in true holiness, and
sanctified thioughout in all their whole mau. Nowhere is such
an intrinsic k change in " the whole spirit, soul, and body," and
the whole tenour of this man's life for the better, that he mu) well
be said to be * born again,' who is thus changed into another
man; for if when the Spirit of prophecy came upon Saul he was
'turned into another man;' h much more may he be said to be so
who has the Spirit of sanctificat.on duelling in him. And seeing
it is by the operation of the Holy Spirit that ihis change is wrought
within us, it fitly is expressed by being " born of the Spirit."
Seeing, lastly, we are thus born ( not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, that is, the word of the living God, who oj his ozcn
will hu'li begotten us again bi/ the word of truth,' therefore we are as
fitly said to be ' born of God.'
III. OBJECTION FOURTH. "The unregenerate man is re-
presented as ( dead in trespasses and sins;' and he that is dead,
we know, hath no motion in him, and so cannot move towards a
new life." (Eph. ii 1. Col. ii. 13.;
ANSWER FIRST. That the metaphor of being ' dead in tres-
passes and sins' cannot warrant our saying any thing of unvegene-
rate persons which may properly be affirmed of the ck ad, is evi-
dent from scripture and experience: for a dead body is void of
all sense, whereas the unregenerate man is often under strong con-
victions, and a deep sense of his present misery. A dead man
cannot awake himself out of the sleep of death, but God saith to
the spiritually-dead man, " Awake, ihou that sleepest, arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee life." (Eph. v. 14.) A dead
. mJhi cannot hear, but to the spiritually-dead God saith, " Hear, and
your souls shall live." (Isa. Iv. 3.) And, lastly, it would be ab-
surd to exhort a dead body to turn about and live; whereas God
thinks it not incongruous to say to persons spiritually-dead, "turn
your>elv.s,andyeshalllive."(Ezek.xviii.32. xxxiii, 1 1.) Moreover
good chnstiaus are said to be dead to sin,' (Horn. vi. . B Chapter xv, 22, 24. a James i, H.
CHAP. III. 4.) EFFECTUAL GRACE." 243
ANSWER FIRST. Now the absurdity of these objections is
visible in this, that this exposition of them renders all God's ex-
hortations to the wicked to turn from the evil of their ways, all
his promises of pardon and salvation if they turn from them, all
his threats of death and destruction if they do not turn from Ihem,
all his complaints against them that they would not be converted,
they would not come to him, vain and absurd; as being exhorta-
tions and commands to do what he knew they could not, and he
only could cio without them ; promises of pardon and salvation,
if he himself would do what they could not; and threats of dam-
nation if he himself did it not, and in effect complaints against
him; for he that complains against me for not doing what he him-
self alone can make me do, lays the whole guilt of not doing it
upon himself.
ANSWER SECOND. It is said in the same place, that 'a good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; and elsewhere, that l he that is
lorn of God cannot sin.' Now if we cannot truly hence infer that
a good man, or a spiritual person, can never do an evil or a sinful
action, neither can we from the words cited infer, that an evil or
a carnal man can never do a good action; for if so, why doth
God say to him, ' cease to do evil, learn to do well'" but only that
they cannot do it till they will use the faculties which God hath
given them, to consider and lay to heart the inducements which
the gospel tenders to engage them to amend their ways. Hence
our Lord saith to these bad trees, ' make the tree good that the
fruit may be good;' which shews, he knew they couid and ought
to have done something towards that good effect. And the apos-
tle, by his frequent exhortations to carnal men, " to mortify the
deeds of the flesh, to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts,
to put off the old man with his deeds;" by his threats that "if
they live after the flesh they shall die," and by his promise, that
" if through the Spirit they do mortify the deeds of the flesh they
shall live," plainly demonstrates not only that they can, but that
they must be active, if ever this change be wrought upon them.
IV. To the ELEVENTH and TWELFTH OBJECTIONS the
same general answers may be given, they both depending on the
same phrase, and making thus one argument: " What God gives
we only receive, and so are only passive; but God gives faith and
repentance." (Acts xi. 18. Kph. ii. 8.)
*44 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. III.
ANSWER FIRST. To shew the vanity of such objections, I
shall confront them thus, what God commands we must do, and
therefore must be active in it; but God ( comma n (kill ail men
every where to repent,' (Acts xvii. 30,) and ' this is his command-
ment that ice believe in the name of the Son of God,' (1 John iii.
23, ) therefore \ve must be active in the works of faith, (John vi.
29,) and of repentance. Yea, by this way of arguing, all that
hardness of heart the Jews contracted must be ('>ux.zv 6 ew)
ascribed to God, and they must have been purely passive in it,
God having 'given them a spirit oj slumber:' (Rom. xi. 8.) Ahab's
false prophets must be purely passive; for, saith Micaiah, ' the
Lord hath given a tying spirit in the month oj ail tin/ prophets:' b
The enemies of God's church must be passive in all the evils they
do to her, God having 'given them to take peace from the earth,
and to slat/ some;' c and in the blasphemies they utter against him,
' God having given to the beast to speak blasphemies*' ("Rev. xiii. .)
ANSWER SECOND. In answer to all the sayings of like na-
ture to these, I lay down this as a general and certain rule, that
where God is said to give any tiling, the exercise of that faculty
is still supposed which he hath given us already, and God is only-
said to give it by giving us those faculties by which we are enabled
to obtain it, and the means and motives which are sufficient to
excite those faculties to the performance of their proper actions;
I say, the exercise of those faculties is always presupposed, when
God u said to give that which it is our duty to perform, and which
v.iil turn to our advantage and reward. And,
First. Thus is it always with respect to natural gifts; for thus
God "giveth riches," (Eccl. v. 1Q. vi. 2,) because he 'giveth
poicer to get. zcealth,' ( Deut. viii. 18,) but yet it is ' t he diligent hand,
and the blessing of God on our labours that makelh rich' (Prov.
x. 4, '22.) He 'giveth us our dai/i/ dread,' yea, he 'giveth food
to alljtesh,' d and yet we must eat it ' in the szceat of our brazes,'*
and with the labour of our hands procure it.-/" So ' he gives alt
things to ail men,'( Acts xvii. 25,) and ' to the beasts their food. 1
(Psalm cxlvii. y.) But then they must employ those faculties
which God hath given them to procure it: wherefore to argue
thus, " God giveth faith and repentance, therefore we do
b 1 Kings xxii, 25. e Revelations vi, 4, 8. d Psalm cxxxvi, ?.">. e Genesis iii, 13.
/ Psalm cxxviii., 2.
CHAP. III. 4.) EFFECTUAL GRACE.
nothing to obtain them, but God does all," is as if I should argue,
that, because God giveth us our daily bread, we were not to la-
bour for it, because he giveth food to all flesh, they \\ere not to
seek out after it. ,
Secondly, Thus is it also with respect to spirituals ; for ' God!
giveth wisdom,' (Eccl. ii. 26,) but it is only the ' nian of under-
standing' who hath it. (Prov. x, 23.) We must be at some pains
to get it; (Prov. iv. 5,) and must apply our hearts to seek her out.
(Eccl. vii. 2o.) So that, to argue as these men do in this case,
is plainly to contradict the mind of the Holy Ghost, who for this
very reason that God is the giver of it, requires us to ' incline our
ear to wisdom, and apply our hearts to understanding; to cry after
know/edge, and lift up our voice for mtder standing; to seek Jor
her as (men do) for silver, and to search for her as for hid trea-
sure,' suspending our enjoyment of her upon all this diligence,
by saying, ' then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and
jind the knowledge of God, for (to such persons) the Lord giveth
wisdom.' (Prov. ii. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) And thus hath God given us
an 'under standing to knozo the true God,' (\ Johnv. 20,) by send-
ing his Son to reveal him to the world. (John i. 18.) Thus the Jews
say, that God hath 'given repentance to the Gentiles,' when by
Peter preaching to them peace through Jesus Christ, and pro-
mising remission of sins upon their repentance, they repented
and believed in Christ. (Acts x. 36, 43.) So also though faith be
an assent to a divine revelation, and so an act of the understand-
ing, requiring only the evidence of the truth of that revelation to
produce it, yet is it said to be the ' gift of God,' because the ob-
jects of our faith are only by divine revelation made known to us,
and only are confirmed, and so made credible to us, by the testi-
mony which God hath given to them.
OBJECTION THIRTEENTH. " ' The Lord opened the heart of
Lydia;' therefore conversion is wrought by his immediate impulse
and powerful influence." (Acts xvi. 14.)
ANSWER FIRST. That God inclined her to do this, is not de-
nied. The question only is, whether he did this by an extraordi-
nary and irresistible influence. And this it seems reasonable to
deny ; for either she alone was, ata ' prepared,' disposed and fitted
to receive this influence, and then she had done something already
towards her conversion; or if it were absolutely necessary that
C46 SUFFICIENT AND (D1S. III.
she might believe, and yet she alone, though no more fitted or
prepared for it than the rest, received it; the other auditors, for
M ant of this extraordinary influence, must lie under a necessity
of not believing, and so it could not be blameworthy in them that
they did not believe.
ANSWER SECOND. ' To open the heart', and ' to open the ear, 1
are scripture-phrases of like import; for the effect of both is the
same, viz. the rendering the person willing and inclined to do
the thing. See 1 Chron. xvii. 15. Psalm xl. 6. Now this God
is sometimes said to do when he awakeneth men by his afflicting
hand ; for thus speaks Elihu, ' if they be bound in fetters, and
holden in cords of affliction, he opens their ear to discipline, he
openeth their ears in oppression;^ and yet these things can only
do it by awakening men to consider of their ways. And some-
timei he doth it by the preaching of the word : for as they who are
taught by the word, or the example of God, are said to be ' taught
of God;' so they w : ho have their hearts affected with it, and in-
clined by it to what is good, may be said properly enough to have
their hearts opened by it. Thus our Lord represents himself as
' knocking at the door of men's hearts' by the preachers of his word,
and the suggestions of his Spirit ; but entering only when men
open their hearts to receive him. In fine, God is here said ' to
open the heart of Lydia,' not to believe, but only, irgoal'xjciv, ' TO
ATTEND TO the things spoken' by St. Paul; that is, to weigh, and
seriously consider of the greatness of the blessings promised
to believers, viz. remission of sins, and eternal life; and that atten-
tion produced this faith in her.
V. OsJECTioNsFouRTEENTH and FIFTEENTH. "God pro-
miseth ' to circumcise the heart,' (Deut. xxx. 6,) and Ephraim
prays thus, ' turn thou vs, O Lord, and so shall we be turned;'
(Jer. xxxi. 18.) he therefore only doth these works in us, and we
are purely passive."
ANSWER. Now in answer to such texts as these in general, I
lay down this as a most certain rule, that when God doth require
us to do what he himself doth promise, and hath made it our duty
to perform, hispromise is only to perform what is requisite on his
part towards the work, he certainly expecting we ourselves should
g Job urn, s, 13, 15. See the notes on Job TJ, 45, 1 Thessalonians ir, 9.
CHAP. III. 5.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 247
do what he commands; and the tenor of those prayers is only to
affoid his assistance to help our infirmities when we are truly
willing and desirous to perform our duty by virtue ct'l'iose induce-
ments he hath already laid before us; for if in such cases die
whole was to be done by God immediately, not by way of p: r-
suasiou only, but by unfrustrable influence, his com maud to us to
do it, could only be to this effect, '' do you upon your utmost
" peril what 1 alone can do, or be you gods:" for a command to
men to do what divine power can alone effect, doth signify no
Jess; and we by praying he alone would do what he requires us
to do, pray in effect to be excused from obeying his commands,
and that he woulc 1 do himself what he expects from us.
First. Then seeing the same God who promiseth to ' circum-
cise the hearts'* of his people, requires them to ' circumcise their
own hearts," 1 and calls upon the men of Judah to 'circumcise
themselves, and take away the foreskins oj their hearts, lest his
jury break forth upon them,' and threateneth to punish all the
house of ' Israel because they were un circumcised in heart,' and
yet he cannot rationally be supposed to punish and break forth in
fury on them, because he had not performed his promise, it is
demonstrably certain that promise could not signify that he alone
would do that work without their concurrence, or their endeavour
to do something towards it; so that it is superfluous to add that
this promise was apparently conditional, viz. if they would call to
mind the blessings and the cursings which he had pronounced,
verse 1, and ' turn to the Lord their God;' (verse 2;) or that it is
a promise made to all that were brought back into the land from,
their captivity, and to all their seed, and so to many who were
not elected ; to nations, not to particular persons.
Secondly. Seeing God so frequently requires of the same per-
sons that they should turn themselves from their transgressions,
promising life to the penitent ' because he considereth and turneth
away from his iniquity,' and threatening that if they would not
turn, ' they should die in their sins;' seeing he complains so oft
of his own people, that * they would not turn to him that smote
them,' and of that very Ephraim which made this prayer, that
' they would not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord;' (Hos.
v. 4.) it must be absurd to urge this prayer to excuse men from
Deuteronomy up> 6, * Jeremiah iv, 1. ix, 86.
248 SUFFICIENT AND (D1S. m.
a duty required by God under such dreadful penalties. Add to
tiiis, that by comparing this prayer with the preceding chapter, in
which God promises so oft to turn their captivity, it appears this
is only a prayer that God would bring them out of that thraldom,
like that of the Psalmist, ' turn our captivity, O Lord.' (Psalm
cxxvi. 4.)
OBJECTIONS SIXTEENTH and SEVENTEENTH. " God pro-
miseth to ' write his lazv in the hearts of his people, and to put it
into their inward parts ;c that he will give them one heart and one
way, that they may fear him for ever, and zcill make an ever last-
ing covenant with than; that he will not turn azcay from them to
do them good, but will put his fear in their hearts that they shall
not depart jrom him'" (Jer xxxii. 39, 40.)
ANSWER. These promises are made expressly to the whole
house of Israel, and to ' all the children of Israel and Judah,' to
all with whom the old covenant was made, and whom God
' brought out of Egypt,' and would bring again l out of captivity ;'
it therefore, by the second general rule, can be no promise made
to, or covenant made with, the elect of the house of Israel and
Judah. (i.) Because then the whole nation of the Jews must
have been elected and converted, (ii.) Because it is made with
those who " kept not his former covenant, and therefore he re-
garded them not;" whereas the elect always persist, say these
men, in their covenant with God, and he doth always regard them ;
they always are his people, and he is still their God; this therefore
can be no new covenant with them. And therefore,
ANSWER SECOND. These words, " I will put my law or my
fear into their hearts, and write it in their inward parts," import
two things; First, that he would clearly make known his will to
them, so that they need not be at much pains to find it out, as iu
these words; "the commandment which 1 command thee this day
is not hidden from thee, neither is it far from thee, the word is near
unto thee in thy mouth, xai cv Ty xx.p<>ia. GM, and in thy heart, that
thou shouldst do it; see, I have set before thee life and death;"*
and so; saith the apostle, is it with the ' word of faith which zee
preach,' * it is nigh to the Christian in his mouth to confess, and
in his heart to believe it. And the law written " in the hearts of
e Jeremiah wxi, 33. , d Deuteronomy xxx, 11, 14, 15. Romans x, 8, 9.
CHAP. 111. |5.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 24Q
llie Heathens," (Rom. ii. 15,) is the law so plainly taught them,
that their own consciences do inwardly condemn them when
they do transgress it. Hence the effect of writing this law in
their hearts here, and Heb. viii. 1 1, is this, that " they should all
know him from the least to the greatest." So Jerom, Chrysostom,
Theodoret, and Cyril of Alexandria. See the note on Heb. viii. 13.
Secondly. An inculcating them on the soul by the Holy Spirit,
so as that they may be still fresh upon the memory. So Dent,
vi. 6', " these words that 1 command thee this day shall be in thy
heart:" 'that is,' saith B. Uriel, ' they shall be written, Djp37
lyh/V (al luach libbechern,) UPON THE TABLE OF YOUR
HEARTS :' So Prov. iii. 1, 3, "my son, forget not my law, but let
thy heart keep my commandments; write them upon the table of
thine heart." And again, chapter vii. 1, 3, "my son, keep my words,
and lay up my commandments with thee, bind them upon thy finger,
write them upon the table of thine heart." Thus the sin of Judah is
said to be writ ' upon the table of their hearts? f as if their memory
of, and affection to, it could scarce be obliterated. And Clemens
gives this commendation to the church of Corinth, that "the com-
mandments of the Lord, lirl ra. ft-Xaxj TV? xa5iar dLvruv syeygatirTO,
WERE WRITTEN UPON THE TABLES OF THEIR HEARTS.' '* And
seeing God so expressly required of his people that they should
' lay up his words in their hearts and souls,' (Deut xi. 18,) that
they should " write his commandments upon the table of their
hearts," and by this prophet Jeremy, that * his law should not de-
part from their hearts,' (2 Mace. ii. 3,) it follows by the rule laid
down in answer to the former objection, ( 1.) that these promises can-
not be so understood as if God by them engaged to do that whole work
which he hath engaged us so expressly to perform. And therefore,
2. The promise made, Jer. xxxii. 39, 40, is plainly conditional.
" I will gather them, &c. verse 3?. If they will diligently learn
the way of my people. Chap. xii. 16. I will give them one heart,
and one way that they may fear me," &c. chap, xxxii, 39, 40, that
is, when they shall return to me with their whole heart, chap,
xxiv. 7, and not feignedly, as chap. iii. 10. See Gataker there.
/Jeremiah xvii ; 1. g Ep. ad Cor. see.
SUFFICIENT AND (l)JS. lit.
' And then they shall be my people, and I zcill be their God. ibid.
And 1 will make an everlasting covenant with them that I zcill
not turn away from them to do them good, verse 40. If they mil
call him Father, and not turn azcau from him. Jer. iii. 19- Incline
your ear, and come unto me; hear and your soul shall live ; and I will
make an everlasting covenant zcithyou. Isa Iv. 3. 1 will put my
fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.' Jer. xxxii.
40. This doubtless was God's end, as it was also of his punish-
ments; "for," saith he, " they shall bear the punishment of their
iniquity, that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me."
Ezek. xiv. 10, 11. But this was not the event; for God saith in
this very' prophet " I have caused to cleave to me the whole
house of Israel', and the house of Judah; but they would not
hear."
3. This text only contains a promise that when the Jewish na-
tion shall be converted at the close of the world, they should never
fall off any more from being his people, as they had done before.
See Gataker, and the note on Heb. viii. 13.
OBJECTIONS EIGHTEENTH and NINETEENTH. " God
saith concerning his people, ' I zcill give you one heart, and I will
nut a nezo Spirit in you, and take the stony heart out of their flesh t
and give them an heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes
and keep my ordinances? 1 And again, ' / will sprinkle clean
water upon you, and you shall be clean from ally our Jilthiness, and
I will put up my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments to do them;' h where a new
heart and spirit are said not only to be given, but put into them by
God, and therefore they were to do nothing towards it."
ANSWER FIRST. The arguments taken from both these places
have two of the general faults which render all arguments of this
Mature null, v. g. ( 1 .) That they speak of all the whole house of
Israel, (chap. xi. 15. xxxvi. 21, 22,) to all that were "gathered
out of all countries, and brought to their own land.' Verse 24.
And then it is certain from the second general rule, that it be-
longs not to the elect only. It is also certain from the event, if
it respect their return from the Babylonish captivity, that it must
be conditional; the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and especially
Jewmiah xiu, 11. i Ezefciel *i, 19, 29. * Chapter xvi, 25, 27.
CHAP. III. 5.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 251
the complaints of the prophet Malachi, shewing, that they were
never fulfilled in many of them; and from Ezek. xi. 18, which
speaks of those " whose heart would still walk after their detest-
able things:" or else it relates to the conversion of the Jewish
nation yet to come; of the whole house of Israel; and then it can
relate to them alone, and all Christians may as well expect to be
exempted from famine, xxxvi. 30, and to have " increase of corn,"
verse 29, and their " waste places and fenced cities built," verses
33, 35, as the other blessings promised here. Moreover, accord-
ing to this exposition, it must follow that not one good man came
out of the captivity, not one of them with a new or a clean heart;
but all of them with a heart of stone, which was to be taken away.
ANSWER SECOND. This objection is contrary to the other
general rule laid down in answer to the fifteenth Objection; for
God expressly doth command them by the same prophet " to
make themselves a new heart, and a new Spirit," chap, xviii. 30,
31; and elsewhere saith unto them, " wash ye, make you clean,
put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Isa. i. 16.
O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness that tfiou mayest
be saved." Jer. iv. 14. And St. James speaks to the same peo-
ple thus, " wash your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts,
ye double-minded." Chap. iv. 8. All which things do assure us,
that something was required on their parts towards the comple-
tion of this promise. God therefore may be, and is, in scripture,
said to do these things, when by his providential dispensations,
his rich mercies, or his judgments, or his miraculous dealings, he
doth that which affords a powerful inducement to engage men to
cleanse themselves from their defilements, and turn to him with
a perfect heart; and doth design these actions for such ends,
though through the wickedness of men the event proves often
otherwise. Thus God declares that he would purge his people by
his judgments; as when he saith, "1 will turn my hand uponthee,
and (by the calamities I shall inflict upon thee) will purely purge
away thy dross." Isa. i. 25. And that he will " wash away the filth
of the daughter of Zion, and purge the blood of Jerusalem from the
midst thereof by the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burn-
ing "Isa. iv.4. By his mercies, as when he saith, "I drew them with
the cords of a man, the cords of love." Hos. xi.4. By his miracles,
T 2
2.52 SUFFICIENT AND (D1S. lite-
as when he upbraids the Jews, that having ' seen the great signs
and miracles he had done for them, yet, had they not hearts to per-
ceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.' Deut. xxix. 3, 4. Hence
when his vineyard brought forth still wild grapes, he enquires,
1 What could 1 have done more fin reason) to my vineyaid,' that
she might bring forth good grapes? Isaiah v. 4. And saith, he
had done, by these means, what through the obstinacy of his peo-
ple was not done: For thus he speaks, ' I have purged Jerusalem,
and she teas not purged, Ezek. xxiv. 13. / have caused the whole
house of Israel to cleave to me as a girdle cleaveth to a mans loins,
but they would not hear.' Jer. xiii. 11. Note also, that this is
one of those texts the hereticks, who destroyed free-will, and held
that men were necessarily good or evil by nature, used to confirm
that doctrine, as you may see in Origen, Tlspi Apx,. 1. 3. c. 1. F.
J38. and Philocal. c. 21. p. 53. and the objection following from
' Philip, ii. 13, is another, ibid.
VI. OBJECTIONS TWENTIETH and TWENTY-FIRST. "The
apostle informs us, Phil. ii. 13, that ' it is God that worketh in us
both to will and do;' and prays " he would work in us what is well-
pleasing in his sight." Heb. xiii. 21. Whatsoever therefore we
will, or do, that is good, God doth it in us."
ANSWER. That God doth this, is not denied ; the question is,
whether he doth it by a physical operation, unfrustrable by the
will of man, or by internal suasion or inducements to prevail up-
on us thus to will and do : And that he doth this only in this lat-
ter sense, is evident from these very words, " not only in my pre-
sence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salva-
tion with fear and trembling ; for it is God that worketh in you,
&c." For if, beyond his inward suggestions and persuasions,
some physical and irresistible operation were required on God's
part, which makes it necessary for us to will and do, why are we
then commanded to " work out our own salvation?" For can we
act where we are purely passive ? Or can that be a reason why
we ourselves should work, that another will effectually do that
very thing without our co-operation? Is it not rather a manifest
reason why we should neither will, nor work at all, since both is
and will be irresistibly performed without us? Why (ii.) are we bid
to work out our salvation with ( fear and trembling? For can
tkere be any cause of fear lest that salvation should not be wrought
CHAP. III. 7.) EFFECTUAL GRACE. 253
out, which God works in us irresistibly? Surely if God unfrustra-
foly works in us both to will and do, there can be no possibility
of our miscarrying, and so no ground for fear and trembling. Why,
(iii.) are the Philippians exhorted to do this, 'much more in St.
Paul's absence than in his presence? If w'hen he was present
"God wrought in them irresistibly to will and do, and could do 110
more in his absence, surely no reason can be given of these words
but this, that whereas he being present stirred them up by his
counsels and exhortations to do what was according to the mind
of God, they in his absence were immediately excited to those
things by the suggestions of the Holy Spirit.
Secondly. That the word svepyetv doth not require this sense is
evident, because in scripture it occurs very often, where it must
be understood not of a physical but only of a moral operation ; as
whensatan is said, evs^ysiv, f TO WORK IN the children of disobe-
dience^ and the mystery of iniquity ' to &ork.' a (ii.) When it is
attributed to those causes which produce not their effects by a
physical, but only by a moral operation, as when the word is said
to be, Evspyr,r POWERFUL;'* the word o IvEgygTrat, 'WHICH WORKS
EFFECTUALLY in them that believe ; e when it is said that 'faith
worketh by love;'* that ' charity is, evspyys, EFFECTU A L ;' * and of
concupiscence, that, evepystro, ' IT WORKETH IN our members.'
(iii.) When it is ascribed to God sending upon men, Ivlpysiatv rc-Xa'vr/r,
* the efficacy of deceit;' for surely God worketh no evil physically.
Thirdly. Both these places speak of men already believing and
converted, and therefore, by the third general rule, must be imper-
tinently alleged to prove men must be purely passive in the work
of conversion.
VII. OBJECTION TWENTY-SECOND. "If man doth any
thing towards his conversion, which another neglecting to do is
not converted, he makes himself to differ from that other, which yet
seems not consistent with St. Paul's enquiry, ' who made thee /o
differ from another? " (1 Cor. iv. 7.)
ANSWER. The apostle manifestly speaks here of those extra-
ordinary gifts of the Spirit, the gifts of tongues, and prophecy, &c.
on the account of which they were puffed up for one against ano-
ther, counting one a man of better gifts than another. Now these
a Ephesians ii, 2. 2 Thesalonians ii, 7- b Hebrews iv, 12. c 1 Thessalonians ii, n.
d Galatiaiis v, 6. > Philemon 6.
254 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. IU.
gifts being immediately infused without human industry, and con-
ferred upon Christians without any such co-operation of their
faculties, as is required to the exercise of any Christian duty or
moral virtue, it cannot, with like reason, be enquired of these
duties, as it may be of those gifts, * who made thee to differ from
another' in them? Nor can it from them be duly inferred, that
no man doth any thing to make himself differ from another in any
virtue, or pious dispositions. For to what purpose are men con-
tinually exhorted and stirred up by powerful motives to all chris-
tian duties, and particularly to excel in virtue, if these exhorta-
tions and motives be not proposed to engage them to exercise
these Christian virtues, to ' chuse the good and refuse the evil?'
And if one man, upon consideration of those motives, doth chuse
to live a pious life, whereas another will not be persuaded so to
do, doth he not differ from that other by virtue, of that choice ?
And though the grace of God by way of excitation worketh in us
thus to will, yet since our faculties do first deliberate upon, and
then comply, and chuse to do the thing to which this grace excites
us; if to consider be to differ from him that doth not consider, and
to comply with and to embrace the call of God be to differ from
him that disobeys the same call, it must be certain, that as God's
grace preventing and exciting, so my faculties co-operating,
tend to make me differ from another. And doth not God him-
self declare, that men do somewhat to make themselves differ
from others, by praising them who did what others neglected to
do; as in the case of the Beraeans,^ the elder and the younger
son; the publicans and harlots compared with the Scribes and
Pharisees, the penitent Publican and the proud Pharisee? To
the question then, when two are equally called, and one convert-
ed, who is it that puts the difference? The answer grounded upon
God's own righteous judgment will be this, "that man puts the
difference, and not God only; because God judgeth not his own
acts, but the acts of men, dealing with every many according to
his own works; and because every righteous judge rinds a diffe-
rence, and doth not make it, where the sentence is so vastly different."
VIII. OBJ ECTioNsTwENTY-TniRD and TWENTY-FOURTH.
" That by this doctrine we administer occasion of boasting to all
/ Acts xvu, 10, 11.
1
CHAP. HI. 8.) EFFECTUAL GRACE.
that are converted and saved, by attributing their conversion and
salvation partly to their works; whereas the apostle saith, ' by
grace are we saved, NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast:'
and moreover, according to the same doctrine, the whole glory of
conversion will not be due to God, because man co-operates with
him; whereas the divine \visdom hath so contrived the business
of our salvation, that 'no flesh should glory in his sight'." (1 Cor.
i. 29.)
ANSWER. To the first part of the objection taken from Eph.
ii. 8, 9, I have already given a full answer, by shewing that these
words, ' are zee saved by grace through faith,' bear this sense,
that through the saving grace of God appearing to us by the
preaching of the gospel, and believed by us, we are put into a
state of salvation; and that all this is done to any church or nation,
through the free grace and mercy of God, without any thing done
by them antecedently to this grace; and more especially by shew-
ing, that though our actual salvation depend upon good works, or
on sincere obedience to be performed after faith, jet is all boast-
ing utterly excluded upon several accounts; (i.) because that
revelation which contains the matters of our faith, and all the
powerful motives to embrace it, and all those miracles which ren-
dered that revelation highly credible, and so engaged us to believe
it, is the free gift of God. (ii.) Because the good works we do,
proceed not from ourselves, but are the fruits of that faith, which,
in the sense now mentioned, is the gift of God, and from that
word and Spirit of God which worketh in us both to will and to
do of his good pleasure. As therefore the apostle saith of the gift
of tongues and prophecy, ' what (gift) hast thoit which thou hast
not received; and if thou hast received it, wherefore dost thou boast
rts if thou hadst not received it e f so may we here; What faculty
of believing, or willing what is good, hast thou which thou hast
not received ? What motive thus to will, or to believe, which hath
not been vouchsafed by the free grace of God? What good work
dost thou when this grace hath made thee willing, but in the
strength of God, and by the aid of that good Spirit by whom we
are "strengthened with might in the inward man to do his will?"
And if thou hast received strength from God for the performance
' ot them, wherefore dost thou boast? this being the apostle's rule,
that we can boast of nothing but t*iat which zee have not received
0.56 SUFFICIENT AND (DIS. III.
Secondly. Though God is pleased to require of us to be wil-
ling, yea to ' cease to do evil, and to learn to do zvell,'* to qualify
us for his mercy in the pardon of our sins, to make our faith the
condition of justification, and our good works the condition of
salvation; yet is all boasting utterly excluded, because it is still of
grace lhat any of these things do find acceptance. It is of pre-
venting and exciting grace that \ve thus will, chuse and refuse;
of assisting grace, that we are enabled to perform that will, and
persist in this choice, or refusal ; and of true mercy, that the par-
don of all our crimson sins is annexed to so doing; it is of grace
that faith is imputed to justification, it being of faith, 'ivtx Ka.ro.
X,a'V> ' THAT IT MIGHT BE OF GRACE;' (Rom. iv. 16.) it also
is of grace that our imperfect works are accounted good, and are
at all rewarded by God. Now upon what account can any of
us boast of doing that which in itself deserves condemnation,
though through grace it finds acceptance ? Boasting, saith the
apostle, is not ' excluded by the law of works," (Rom. iii. 27.) be-
cause ' to him that worketh, the reward ts not reckoned oj grace
but. of debt;' (Rom. iv. 4.) Grace and works that deserve justi-
fication and salvation, being perfectly opposite one to another;
but it is, saith he, excluded " by the law of faith." Where there-
fore the acceptance of the act to such a purpose is of free grace;
where the reward is still of grace and not of debt; where it is
given on the account of works imperfect, and deserving nothing
from God, there boasting is excluded.
Thirdly. Observe, that the scripture plainly grants that there
is xavxniM, or ' MATTER OF GLORYING,' in things done by the
assistance of the grace God, and it is for the glory of a man to do
them. St. Paul saith, ' it were better for him to die, than that
any man should make void, TO y.a.v-^vx^y., HIS BOASTING,' in
preaching the gospel without charge. 1 Cor. ix. 15, 10. Yea,
he swears that ' no man should stop rr,v xa.v'xficnv KVTU, HIS BOAST-
ING inthat kind. 2 Cor. xi. 10. And in behalf of all his fellow-
workers, or apostles, he saith, 'thisis n Kxvy^f^is OUR BOASTING,
or rejoicing, in the testimony of our conscience. 1 2 Cor. i. 12. And
this advice he gives to all Christians, ' let every man approve his
work (to his own conscience) and then shall he have TO KO.V-
g Isaiah i, 16, 17, 18.
CHAP. III. 8.) . EFFECTUAL GRACE. 25?
BOASTING, or rejoicing, in himself, and not in another.'
(Gal. vi. 4.) The glorying therefore, or the TO xa^rj/xa, which
the apostle elsewhere doth reject and exclude, is only that of the
merit of our works, or their sufficiency to procure the justification
of a sinner, (Rom. iii. 27. iv. 2,) or that which doth exclude the
help and the assistance of the grace of God in Christ. 1 Cor. i.
29,31.
To proceed then to the second part of this objection, that " by
our doctrine the glory of our conversion will not be wholly due
to God, because man co-operates with him;" this will be suffici-
ently accounted for by observing that the principle by which man
co-operates with him in this work is derived from him, and all the
motives which excite this principle to act, arise purely from God's
preventing and exciting grace. Now where both the principle
of acting, and the sole motives to act, are from God alone, there
the whole glory of the action must be due to him alone. Thus
though wealth is the fruit of industry, and it is the 'diligent hand
that nuiketh rich; yet because God gives ( the power to get zvealth,'
and it is his blessing on our enterprizes which maketh rich, the
glory of it is clue to God alone; and we must say with David,
" riches and honour come of thee, and of thine own have we given
thee; all this store cometh of thy hand, and it is all thine own."*
After all our industry to find out wisdom, and to search for her as
for hid treasure, we must give the Aliwise God the glory of all
the wisdom we attain to, as knowing that " the Lord giveth wis-
dom, out of his mouth cometh understanding." Thus St. Paul
saith, ' 1 labour more abundantly than they all?* and yet ascribes
all to ' the grace of God that was in him:' and though ' Paul did
plant, and ^polios water, yet because God gave the increase; nei-
ther, saith he, is Paul or ^polios to be deemed any thing, but all
must be ascribed to God that giveth the increase."* So when the
apostle saith, " it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that run-
neth, but of God that sheweth mercy,"' most of the Fathers
descant thus upon those words, " 'it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth only, but of God that shezceth mercy, and
crowns the work by his assistance;' for otherwise," say they, " it
cannot be our duty either to will or run, provided we can neither
A 1 Chronicles xxix, 12, 14, 16. i 1 Corinthians xv, 10. k 1 Corinthians iii, 6, 7.
J Romans ix, 16.
258 SUFFICIENT AND >, that is, to goo4 and evil.' D.
CHAP. I. 3.) THE WILL OF MAN. 263
respect to any future recompence, or be induced to action out of
hope or fear, as in this state of trial all men are. Or, (hi.) That
the devils and the damned spirits lie under no capacity of doing
good, or under a necessity of doing evil, and yet do it voluntarily,
their state of trial being past, and they having no farther offers of
grace, and so no motive to do good; and as for any evil they are
now necessitated to do, or any good they do not, they are not
subject to any farther punishment, the damned spirits being only
to receive at the day of judgement, ' according to z&hat they have
done in the body, 1 or in their state of trial, and the damned angels
being reserved 'to the day of judgement to be punished' for \vhzt
they did in a like state of trial : and if they are to suffer any thing
on the account of their temptations of men to do evil, or to draw
them from their obedience to the will of God, they so far lie un-
der no necessity of doing this, but might abstain from those temp-
tations. Excellent to this purpose are these words of Mr.
Thorndike, z " we say not that indifference is requisite to all free-
dom, but to the freedom of man alone in this state of travail and
proficience, the ground of which is God's tender of a treaty, and
conditions of peace and reconcilement to fallen man, together
with those precepts and prohibitions, those promises and threats-,
those exhortations and dehortations it is enforced with. So that
it is utterly impertinent to alledge here the freedom of God and
angels, the freedom of saints in the world to come, the freedom
of Christ's human soul, to prove that this indifference is not requi-
site to the freedom of man, because it is not found in that free-
dom which they are arrived to, to whom no covenant is tendered,
no precept requisite, no exhortation useful."
And hence ariseth a necessity of saying,
III. First. That the freedom of the will, in this state ofirial
and temptation, cannot consist with a determination to one> vizi
on the one hand in a determination to good only by the efficacy
of divine grace, infallibly or unfrustrably inducing to that ope- *
ration, or engaging men, respectu divina ordinatioms cert 6 et
infallibiliter agere, ' in respect of the divine appointment infalli-
bly and certainly to act,' so that he cannot fail of acting; seeing
this determining operation puts him out of a state of trial, 'and
% Epil. part 2. p. 183.
264 THE FREEDOM OF (DIS. IV.
makes him equal, when this divine impulse comes upon him, to
the state of angels; since he who must certainly, and without fail,
do what the divine impulse doth incite him to do, is as much de-
termined to one as they are. And this is farther evident from the
general determination of the Schools, and of all that I have read
upon this subject, that the general will to be happy, and not to be
miserable, though it be voluntary, is not free ; because we cannot
chuse either not to be happy, or to be miserable; and on the same
account, say they, this will is not praise-worthy, or rewardable.
There also is no place for election and deliberation about this
action; because all election and deliberation is about the means
and not about the end. If therefore where 1 am by the divine
influx determined to one, there is equally no place for refusing
that one, or for not chusing it; that action, though it may be vo-
luntary upon the same account, it cannot be free, praise-worthy,
or rewardable.
Nor can this liberty consist with the contrary determination to
one, viz. with an incapacity in men, through the fall, to do good
but evil only; for then man, in this state of trial, must be reduced
to the condition of the devil, and of damned spirits, who, though
they are not determined to evil actions in particular, are yet de-
termined to do evil in the general, and not good. This, indeed,
some suppose he is, by being given up to hardness of heart, and
a judicial blindness, or by a customary habit of iniquity; but this
doth rather prove^ the contrary, as being not the natural, but the
acquired state of fallen man. It is the consequent of a course of
sin, to which he never w f as determined, and which he never can
lie under without abusing of that grace which was sufficient to
prevent it. For, as Bishop Bramhall ffl truly saith, "God never for-
sakes his creature, by with-holding his grace from him, until his crea-
ture hath first forsaken him ; hesnever forsakes his creature so far,
but that he may by prayer, and using good endeavours, obtain the
aid of God's grace either to prevent or remove hardness of heart."
Moreover, though these things do render it exceeding difficult for
such men to do good, they do not render it impossible for them
to do so; though they do give men a strong bent and powerful
inclination to what is evil, yet do they not determine him to do it,
aCastig.of MX. HoU, p-715.
CHAP. I. 3.) THE WILL OF MAN, 265
as is evident (i.) from God's applications to such men to reform
and hearken to his exhortations: as when he saith, (Jsa. xlii. 18,)
' Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye mat/ see; and to Jeru-
salem accustomed to do evil, (Jer. xiii. 23,) will ifiou not lie made
dean, w/ien shall it once be? (verse y?.) "VVhtn he sends his
prophet to the ' impudent and hard-hearted house of Israel ivhich
would not hearken to him, savins;, go and speak unto them, whether
they will hear or Kill forbear? (Ezek. iii. 7, 1 1 ) From the calls
of Christ to the obdurate Jews who had ' eyes to see, and saw not,'
fyc. Mat. xiii. 13. For unto them he saith, ' these things I say
unto you that ye might be saved; and again, while ye have the light,
believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light.' And,
lastly, from St. Paul's ' desire and prayer for Israel when blinded,
and lying under a spiritual slumber, that they might be saved,
(Rom. x. 1.) and his endeavour to save some of them' xi 14.
And if such persons are not by these things determined only to do
evil, or incapacited to do good, much less can this be the sad
state of fallen man in general, before he hath contracted these ad-
ditional indispositions to do good, and inclinations to do evil.
This will be farther evident, as to both parts, from this considera-
tion, that it is generally owned that the actions of the understand-
ing or the mind deserve neither praise nor dispraise, reward nor
punishment, as they proceed purely from the mind, but only as
they result, ab imperio vohintatis,* and come under the power of
the will; or that they deserve praise or dispraise, not as he under-
stands, but as he wills to understand ; of which the reason can be
only this, that as they proceed from the understanding they are
necessary; for when evidence is propounded and discerned, the
mind doth necessarily assent unto it. If therefore in like manner
when God unfrustrably moves the will it cannot but consent, why
should that action be more praiseworthy than the assent of the
mind to what is evident? And as it is not culpable in the mind not
to assent where it hath no evidence; nor can it properly be said to
do so, because it is only real or seeming evidence which causeth
that assent; so if it be only this unfrustrable operation on the will
which causeth it to repent and turn to God, and it cannot will to
do so without this powerful motion, but must refuse all invitations
' From the command of the will.' ED.
U
THE FREEDOM OF (DIS. IV.
or inducements so to do, which do not come attended with that
operation, when that is not vouchsafed; why should it not be as
unblamable in not chusing to repent and turn to God as the mind
is in not assenting without evidence, seeing this operation is as
necessary to that choice of the will, as evidence of truth' is to the
assent of the mind ? Why also is it not as unblamable in refusing
to repent without that operation, as the mind is in refusing to
assent without evidence? For if necessity in the mind, though it
be not extrinsical, or that of co-action, (of which both will and
mind are equally uncapable) takes away from its actions praise or
dispraise, and renders them uncapable of either of them, why
should not an extrinsical necessity laid upon the will do the same?
Add to this, that those School-men who assert that the will may
be free where the act is necessary, do yet confess that in that
case the will cannot be deliberans ;* whereas, it is certain, that
the liberty of man in this state of trial and temptation must be de-
liberative if it doth chuse, there being no election without delibe-
ration. And hence in order to the performance of his duty, God
requires him to ponder and consider, to bring again to mind, and
lay to heart his sayings, proposes motives and inducements to him
so to do, and promises and threats to excite him to it by his hopes
and fears; whereas no promises are made to the confirmed angels,
no motives offered to engage them to chuse the good, no evils are
threatened to the devils or the damned spirits to deter them from do-
ing evil. I conclude then with that of the judicious Bishop Bram-
hall, " God may, and doth sometimes, determine the will of man
to one; but when it is so determined, the act may be voluntary,
but not free."
IV. SECONDLY. This xuTefyaiw, or ' FREE-WILL' of man,
being neither an act, for that is the exercise of the will ; nor an
habit, for that only doth facilitate and incline to action; but a
faculty or power; and the object of that power being in moral ac-
tions something morally, in spiritual actions something spiritually,
good to be chosen, or spiritually evil to be avoided; that which
disables any man from chusing what is spiritually good or refusing
what is thus evil, and therefore is destructive to his soul and spi-
rit, must also take away his liberty to chuse what is spiritually
good, and to refuse what is spiritually evil.
* 'Deliberating.' ED.
CHAP. I. 4.) THE WILL OF MAN. 267
To say here "the man thus disnlled hath still a freedom in
reference to tht-sr trtions, hi rause he hath s'ill the power of doing
otherwise; that is, the faculty of willing othe: uise is not Uikui
from him, evt;n as a n.u \ :.cn he sjts is n u; lo wask, though he
cannot walk \vhiie he sits, because he hath v.ilj the pv)\vei or t;-
cuity of w -.ilking, : ;s a.-i if I should say, i.ha } "a man hiioded
by a raiaraet, or made ikaf by an impediment or stoppage in his
ear, had siiii ihe freedom of his .sight and hearm S.to se the
faculty of set ing and of ; ."i*g sini remained, though the exer-
cise of it was obstructed." For if the exercise of 'he uc.uity of
the will to what is spnitually good, be as much obstructed by this
disability as is the exercise of these faculties obstiucleti by the
disability of these organs to convey the motions of the objects i
sight or hearing to the brain, there is no more freedom in the oue
than in the other to the actions proper to each faculty. Nor is
the example of walking at ail pertinent; for therefore am 1 free
to walk hereafter, though I now sit, because no obstruction lies
upon my faculty of walking afterwards, because I do at present
sit. But were E fettered to my chair, or confined to it by an in-,
curable lameness, I could not be said to be free to walk v.
that force or lameness lasted. So neither can a man be said to
be free to do what is spiritually good because his faculty of wil-
ling still remains, provided he be equally lame and impotent as to
spiritual things, and therefore equally disabled from walking in
the ways of God. Thus Bishop Bramhall, "to say a man still
retains the faculty or power of willing, though I he exercise of it be
in this case determined, is in effect to say, a bird is free io Jii/
when I hold his wings, because Jie stilt, hath wings to fly; and a
man chained and fettered is still free to waik, because lie still re-
tains the faculty of walking." Now hence it follows,
First. That the doctrine which leacheth that "man is so utterly
disabled by the fall of Adam, that without the efficacious grace
which God vouchsafed! only to some few who are the objects of
his election to salvation, he hath no power to do what is spiritually
good, or to avoid what is spiritually evil," must be destructive of
the liberty belonging to man in a state of trial, probation, and
proficiency; and so must be sufficiently confuted by all those
scriptures in which God declares that he dealt thus and thus with
his people, to try whether they would walk in his statutes or not;
u 2
tBE FREEDOM QrV (DIS. IV.
of which nature are the passages cited already from Exod. xvi. 4.
xx. 20. and these following, Deut. viii. 2, 'he led thee these forty
years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, and prove thee,
and know (or discover) what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst
keep his commandments or not. And verse 16, he fed thee rvith
manna in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, and prove
thee, (whether thou wouldst be obedient to his laws) that (so) he
might do thee good in thy latter end' And xiii. 3, * the Lord thy
Godproveth thee (by the false prophet) to know whether ye love
the Lord your God with all your hearts, and zcith all your souls.'
And Judges ii. 21, ( the Lord drove not out the nations which
Joshua had left, that by them he might prove Israel, whether they
would keep the way of the Lord to zcalk in it, as their Fathers did
keep it, or not.' And hi. 4, ' they zcere left to prove Israel, to
know whether they would hearken to the commandments of the
Lord.' For to what end should God thus prove them who lay
under so great a disability that they could not obey his precepts',
or avoid the violation of them, without that efficacious grace he
was not pleased to vouchsafe to the most of them? Or why does
he attempt to move such persons to this obedience by the consi-
deration of his great goodness, and his tremendous majesty, and
by the remnant of the nations left among them, who were not to
be induced unto it by rational motives, or moral persuasions, but
only by an unfrustrable operation? Why, lastly, doth he try whe-
ther ' they would hearken to his commandments as their fore-
fathers did,' provided their forefathers did this only by virtue of that
efficacious and special grace he was not pleased to vouchsafe to
them? To try men whether they will do what he knows they are
disabled from doing, is as unsuitable to the divine wisdom, as to
make laws for lapsed man impossible to be performed by him,
and then to punish him for not doing what he could not do, or
performing what he could not avoid, is unsuitable to the divine
justice; and as to excite them to their duties by motives which he
knows cannot work upon them, is unsuitable to the sincerity of
God. For did ever any wise man go about to try whether he could
persuade a blind man to see, or a deaf man to hear, or an impo-
tent man to walk? Or did he ever think it sufficient to require
them to do so under the highest penalties; or fit to punish them
all their life long for not doing so, because they had contracted
CHAP. I. 5.) THE WILX OF MAN. 260
these disabilities by their own personal iniquity? If therefore by
the fall of Adam all men are as truly disabled from doing that
good which God requires of them afterwards, or from avoiding
what he by a following law forbids, can it be suitable either to
the divine wisdom or justice to make him to exact these impossi-
bilities under far more durable and heavy penalties from man dis-
abled thus by another's personal fault, before he had a being, or
any of these laws were made ?
And as this is plainly inconsistent with -a state of trial and pro-
bation, so is it also inconsistent with the new covenant of grace,
established in the blood of Jesus, and tendered to all to whom
the gospel is vouchsafed. For they who are excluded from the
benefits of that covenant, remission of sins and salvation, and
by a decree of preterition are left under a disability to perform the
conditions of that covenant, faith, repentance and obedience,
before it was made or ratified in the blood of Jesus, can never be
admitted to it, or be the better for it. For if you say, " it is ten-
dered to them as well as others on the conditions of faith and re-
pentance," yet if these conditions were rendered impossible to
them by the fall of Adam whilst he was under the first covenant,
this is indeed no tender; for what is only tendered on an impos-
sible condition is indeed not tendered, but in effect denied; ac-
cording to that rule of Logick, irnpossibile habet in se vim adverbii
universaliter negantis, ' an impossible condition hath in it the
force of an universal negative.' Nor is it easy to discern how
' God was in Christ reconciling the zcorld to himself, not imputing
to tliem their sins,' if first the sin of Adam was by God's arbitrary
imputation formally their sin, and then the supposed disability
contracted by it, wa^ by God so far imputed to the greatest part
of mankind, as that he not only decrees to leave them under it
without mercy, pity, or compassion, but also punisheth them for
ever for not doing what they were utterly disabled by this law to
do.
V. To say here that "men thus disabled may deserve punish-
ment for the evil they do, though they cannot do otherwise, be-
cause they disobey willingly, and chuse to do so," is to make the
devils and the damned spirits farther punishable, because they
also chuse to do evil; and the blessed angels rewardable, because
they chuse to do good, and do it willingly. If, indeed, man cloth
270 THE FREEDOM OF (D1S- IV.
chuse at all, he must chuse willingly; for that is only to say,
" he chuseth by his will." But, yet, if he lies under an utter dis-
ability of willing and of doing otherwise, and upon that account
doih oiily what is evil and not spiritually good, no inati can rea-
soi.ably judge he is r.tili left undei 3 (chi,)
though they have iron chariots, and ^3 (chi,) though they are
strong.' Joshua xvii. 18. So the word ) (chi) is used thrice in
one verse, ' Though thou clothest thyself with crimson.' (Jer. iv. 30.)
See Noldius de Partic. Heb. p. 39Q. Or else retaining the com-
mon sense of this particle, the words may bear this sense, " I will
not any more smite the earth for this, or upon this account, that
the imaginations of their hearts are evil ."
u Genesis vi, 5, w Ephesiaw ii, 2, 5.. * -When.' ED. x Ctenesis yi, 3, 11, 12, 1 Peter iii,
Jude 14, 13.
CHAP. 1. 7.) THE WILL OF MAN. 279
Secondly. The word THJJ/IP (Minneuraiv^ doth not signify
from their birth, but only from their youth; for he speaks of the
imaginations of their hearts, and so only of the time when they
are able to entertain and prosecute the thoughts of their evil hearts.
Nor doth the phrase signify an original, but only a long contracted
custom, or an habitual course of doing what is good, evil, or indiffe-
rent. Of doing what is evil : thus 'the enchantments with which
the Chaldeans laboured from their youth,' are the enchantments
which they had long practised. ' Our fathers have sinned from
their youth,'* saith Jeremy, 'unto this day;' that is, they have
continued in a long course of disobedience. And the ' whore-
doms of Israel from her youth,' fEzek. xxiii. 8,) is her long course
of idolatry begun in Egypt, and continued in the wilderness, and
in the land of Canaan. See also Jer. xxii.21. xxxii. 30. Accord-
ingly it signifies, when it hath a good or an indifferent sense ; as when
Obadiah saith, ' he had feared the Lord from his youth,' (1 Kings
xviii, 12,) that is, he had lived long in the fear of God; and Job,
that he had done offices of charity 'Jrom his youth,' (chap. xxxi.
18,) and David, that he had placed his hope and trust in God
'from his youth.' fPsalm Ixxi. 5.) Thus it is said of Joseph's
brethren, that they were ( shepherds from their youth,' (Gen. xlvi.
34,) and of the prophets in Zechary, that ' men taught them to
keep cattle from their youth.' fxiii. 5.)
OBJECTION FOURTH. They cite to this purpose those words
of Christ, ' that which is born of the Jiesh is flesh,' (John iii. 6,)
whence they infer, that "man in his natural estate can do nothing
but what is carnal, and therefore sinful, and only can begin to do-
what is good spiritually, when he is born again of the Spirit;'
whereas,
ANSWER. This exposition renders it impossible for a man to
do any thing towards his own conversion, and so renders all God's
commands and exhortations to the wicked to 'turn themselves
from their iniquity,' all his promises of pardon and reconciliation
to them that do so, and all his threats of death if they neglect to
do so, all his complaints against them that they would not do so,
vain and absurd ; and, as CyriF of Alexandria saith, ptz-^u^i^x
XEVOV, ' a tain trifle] they being then only commands and incite-
ments to perform what, if it ever be done, he must do himself.
w Isaiah xlrii, 12. x Jeremiah iii, 25. y Oral. 3. contr. Jul. p. 118.
280 THE FREEDOM OF (D1S. IV.
Secondly. This exposition makes the words flesh, and fleshly
birth, to signify one conupted by his fleshly appetite, and acted
by his carual wisdom, and so led and governed by the motions of
the fk oii; when-as Folet hath well observed, that " to he born of the
flesli here only signifies to have that natural generation by which
a man is born into the world of the. will oi the flesh,"* tins being
the only birth Nicodemus spake of as a thing incredible; because
then a man must ' enter twice into his mother's womb.' This there-
fore is the plain meaning of our Lord, that besides that natural
birth, by which we receive only our flesh and body from our pa-
rents, there is need of a spiritual birth to fit us for the kingdom of
God ; he therefore saith no one word of any necessity lying upon
us till we be thus born again to do only evil, or of our incapacity
to do any thing which may contribute towards this new birth.
OBJECTION FIFTH. They argue from the words of the apos-
tle, complaining in the person of the natural man thus, ' the good
that I would do that I do not, but the evil that I would not do,
that do I,' (Rom. vii. 17, 19,) and that by reason of that 'sin
that dwelleth in me, verse 20, for I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me in captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members.' Verse 23. Now he
that cannot do the good that he would, can do nothing that is truly
good; and he that through the power of sin dwelling in him, and
leading him captive to the law of sin, doth the evil that he would
not do, is a slave to sin.
ANSWER. It is observable from the Fathers, against these ob-
jectors, that they who held that there was in man a natural prin-
ciple of evil, and that the flesh and body of man laid a necessity
upon us of doing evil, founded their plea upon these words, as we
learn from Methodius. And hence Cyril" of Jerusalem adver-
2 Multum a veto sensu loci hujus aberrant qui carnem hoc loco exponunt de came peecati, cum nihil
hie de peccato agatur; et quamvis nullum esset peccatum, verurn est, " Quod natum est ex came
caro est." Comment in locum.
TO Ei oe o -JeTuw TTO s, to ' the
condemnation of our flesh,' or mortal bodies, we learn from Epipha-
nius c and St. Chrysostom upon the place; who therefore well ob-
serves, that " by flesh here we are not to understand the body, or
the substance of the body, aXXo. TOV aotpiuxvv Cs'ov x.a.1 V.OOT/,JXOV x.a.1
rgtXpTif, xa dicmriois yifjwvrm TOV oXov uapxa Tzoiavroc. TOV atvQpofjfov, ( but
a worldly carnal life, full of luxury and riotous living, and turning
the whole man into flesh'," as is evident from the phrase; 'the
wisdom of the flesh' engaging us to mind only the things which
belong to the flesh, and to be of the flesh, as the true Christian is
of the Spirit, being * le d by, and waiting in the Spirit.' And,
saith Methodius,^ " were this said of them that are in this body
of flesh, that they cannot please God, they who commit theft,
whoredom, or any other like sin, could not on that account be
subject to reprehension by a just Judge, it being impossible for
the flesh to be subject to the law of God; TIUS ya.p av /^E/ATTTE'OV
s^varo, TO ffufj^y. yiy.ro. TW TT^offSffav aura (py<7iv /?iSv Eivat;* ' For how
can it be blame-worthy in the body that it lives according to the
condition of its nature?' Nor could then the intemperate person
be reduced to chastity and virtue, the body lying under a natural
necessity, not to be subject to the law of God."
Secondly. The apostle doth indeed say, that they who thus mind
carnal things, while they continue so to do, ' cannot please God;'
c Haw. 61, n. 49, 51. < Apud Epiphan- ibid. n. 51. Note, that ejvaj seems dislocated.
CHAP. I. 8.) THE WILL OF MAN. 283
this being only in effect to say, in the words of St. Chfysostom,
ativvxTov tfotojjjbv //.s'vovra, that ' whilst men go on in /their sinful
courses they cannot please God,' or live in subjection to his laws;
but then," saith he, "as Christ only saith an evil tree, whilst it
continues such, cannot bring forth good fruit; but doth not say,
an evil tree cannot be made, good;" but on me contrary saith,
' Make the tree good that the fruit may be gc/od,' so is it here. For
this apostle (by his frequent exhortations to these carnal men to
'crucify thejiesh, and mortify thejiesh roith its lusts,' or the deeds
of it, and to 'put ojfthe old man rcith its deeds;' by his threats
that ' if t key live after the jiesh they shall die;' and by his promise,
that ( if through the Spirit, they do mortify the, deeds ofthejiesh,
they shall /ire;') plainly shews that men may cease to live according
to the flesh, and may obtain that assistance of the Spirit by which
they shall mortify the deeds of the flesh, and live after the Spirit.
" God," saith Chrysostom, "hath put this.Jv stevQz^ix Treozt^zsas,
' in our free choice,' so that, Iv sol XOJTTOV l?i KO.\ rZro y&ieff6ou
xrlxzivo, since the vouchsafement of the gospel, ' it is in thy own
power to be carnally minded or spiritually;' and now, voXX-si r,
l. Non
Mint igitur assensiones, nequc sctioncs in nostra potestate, ex quo cfficitur ut ncque laudationcs justsr-
Bint, neque vituperationes, nee honores,, nee supplioia. I'ie- ilv I-'iito, n. 30, vid. Sen. Ej). 70. SiirjiU-
um in Epiet. p 27, 29, 183.
284 THE FREEDOM OF (l>IS. IV.
lingly, necessity rendering things unblameable, that being only to
be blamed which is in our power:" and therefore that " fate or
necessity which leaves not our assent or actions in our power,
takes away pruise or dispraise, honour or reward."
3. That " that only is voluntary which we lie under no necessity
to do or to forbear; and what we do, being unwilling, we do out
of necessity, liberty being a power of acting from ourselves, or do-
ing what we will:" whence they infer that "vice and virtue must
be voluntary, and that there can be no necessity of doing evil, and
that on this account only is vice worthy of dispraise.' d
4. That " man can be guilty of no crime in doing that which
he could not avoid ; for what is evil is a fault,"* saitli Cicero,
" there can be no fault in not doiug that which we have no power
to do."
5. That " what is natural to all men, cannot be evil to any man;
for no man is angry," saith Seneca/ " uiti riliunt naturaaefendit,
' where nature defends the vice 1 ;" " ncr can that be evil" saith
Cicero, "quod d natura pareiite omnium constitution, 'which
owes its original to nature;' seeing that Being which consults the
good of mankind, would neither produce nor nourish that, quod
cum e.rantlavisset ornues labores -incideret in mortis malum sempi-
ternam, ' which, when it had done its utmost, must be subject to
eternal death'."
6. That "there can be no consultation-? or deliberation about
things which are not in our power, nor any rational persuasion to
c 'ExHtfiov o TTpdrlo^v [&r, a. va//xao//,vOi. Aristot. in Moral 1. 1, c. 13- Kai
oua /ATI ExovJcJ 7r^3JT/o//,av, a'va/xa^o/xevoi /x^ (p' au-
ra S' oit'/ai irga^aj, ri /x-^ Tr^y^i &,'$- TSro fj.lv (pavcpov or* avz.'xr, ro
9TfOXlC/av ritiM Iff' at/To/ Ti Sivxi. Aristot. Eudem. 1. 2, c. 10, and M. Moral. 1. 1, c. 18.
'H Ss TliiSu fiix xal a'vz.^r) avlfl&ilzi. Eud. l. , c. 8. 'H O'E irpzizms TO/V
TO T>v^. de Morib. 1. 2, o- 4.
CHAP. I. 8.) THE WILL OF MAN. 285
do them, because these actions can only be performed in order to
that end; and therefore when the end cannot be obtained, must
be done in vain." And hence it clearly follows, that if this be a
doctrine of Christianity, that men not yet converted, or in their
lapsed .state, can do nothing which is truly good, and also lie un-
der a necessity of doing evil, they ought not to think or deliberate
how they may do good, or may avoid the doing evil, or pray for
the divine assistance, or be sorry for their sins. Nor ought any
man to persuade them so to do; for if they ought not to do evil
that good may come, and whatsoever they do, whilst they conti-
nue in that state, though it may be inaterialiy good, is formally
sin, they ought not to do it to obtain the divine assistance, or any
other good.
To this may be added the arguments of the Heathen Philoso-
phers against fate, produced Chapter the Fourth, Section the
Third.
Nor ought these arguments to be slighted as being only the
sayings of Philosophers guided by the dim light of reason, when
they deliver only that in which the common notions of mankind
have long agreed; for that would be of dreadful consequence to
the whole Christian faith. Tor our belief of it must bottom upon
some rational inducements, and common principles of reason,
which if they may be false, Christianity may be a false religion; if
they be evident and certain truths, whatsoever contradicts them
must be false. If therefore any article of our faith should to the
best of otn judgments plainly contradict them, it must shock the
foundation of our faith by engaging men to believe that false which
alone engaged them to believe that faith was true. That this
would also render us unable to convert Jew, Heathen, or Maho-
metan, to confute the Tritheite or such like hereticks, or to reject
any interpretation of scripture as absurd and contrary to reason,
I have fully proved in the appendix to the Idolatry of Host
Worship, Chapter II, from Section First to the Sixth.
As for the THIRD PARTICULAR, that the Christian Fathers
for four whole centuries condemned these new notions as destruc-
tive of tint- liberty, of the nature of vice and virtue, of rewards
and punishments, of .he equity of the divine piecepts and of a fu-
ture judgment, and also as contrary to the plain declarations of
tru' holy scripiurcs, \viil be fully proved in the Sixth and lust
chapter of this discourse.
THE FREEDOM OF (DIS. IV.
CHAP. II.
Proposing arguments to prove the freedom of the zcill, as reel! from
necessity as from co-action.
THE question being thus fully stated, let it be observed that
the liberty or freedom of the will we -contend for, is,
FIRST. Plainly delivered in the holy scripture, and may abun-
dantly be confirmed by arguments grounded upon scripture.
SECONDLY. That it is demonstrable from reason, and hath
been constantly asserted both by Heathens and Christians in their
discourses against fate.
THIRDLY. That it hath the constant suffrage of all the ancient
writers of the church, by whom it is delivered, as a fundamental
article, or as a truth on which all good or evil, piety or virtue,
praise or dispraise, rewards or punishments depend. And,
I. FIRST. The scripture affords us express declarations, or
plain intimations, that the liberty of the will, even in Christian vir-
tues of the highest nature, is opposite not only to co-action, but
necessity. Thus in the case of chusing that high stale of virginity,
that 'they might serve the Lord without distraction,' the apostle
determines that ( he that hath no necessity, but, e'&aizv S^BI r $'
6eXr^arof, HATH- POWER OVER HIS OWN WILL, let him retain
his virginity:'* Where freedom is declared to be ' a power over
our otcn will,' to chuse or not to'chuse,and stands opposed to neces-
sity. See CEcumenius and Theophylact upon the place. Again,
in the case of his working with his own hands, and receiving no-
thing of the churches of Corinth, and throughout the regions of
Achaia, which he thought of so great importance to the promotion
of the gospel as to say, ' It teas belter Jor him to die than vary
from it;' he yet asserts his liberty by these. enquiries, * si^i
'XE^ ! .-CS?; 'AM I NOT FREE? Have I riot power to cat, audio
drink,' h (on the church's charge, without labouring thus?) clearly
ff 1 Corinthians vii,; 7,1, M '/) e%WV a'vayxy, V d'J~l TM OLVrslz.Hffl&toV. Theod.
'Ilavlr.^no necessity \n-lns\.i\lm opposition : Iicodorct. EJJ
li 1 Coi-ii:thir.ns ix, 1, a, i.
CHAP. II. 1.) THE WILL OF MAN. 28?
proving his freedom in that action, from his power to abstain from
it, and to do the contrary. So also in the case of charity, that most
excellent grace, he saith, 'every man, as hepurposeth in hh heart, so
let him give^-n \z, dvzyxris, y OT OF N ECESSITY ;'* plainly opposing
necessity to the free purpose of the heart: " 'not of necessity " say
Chrysostom and Theophjlact, "TO yag eifaNafyK%SF vvorifuiet TOV
//.JT&OV ' for necessity cuts oft'the reward'." So he speaks to Phi-
lemon in the case of Ouesimus, ' zehom,' saith he, * / would have
to minister to me in the bonds of the gospel; hut without thij mind,
I tcould do nothing, that thy benefit should not be, us y.x,r olvzy-
xriv, olXXy. X.O.T' Ix.hffiov, AS OF N ECESSITY HUT WILLINGLY.'*
St. Peter also instructs bishops and elders 'to feed the flock of
Christ, (A-h cLyatryii&yvff XA' sx.MffiZs, NOT OF NECESSITY, BUT
WILLINGLY;'' so plain an opposition do these inspired writers
put betwixt doing a virtuous action freely and willingly, and doing
it out of necessity.
SECONDLY. God and his servants have sufficiently confirmed
the liberty we contend for in this state of trial, by setting life and
death, good and evil before our eyes, and putting it to our choice
which we will have; as in all the instances forementioned, and in
those words of Joshua to all Israel, f chuse yon this day whom ye
rcill serve) the God that brought you out of the Land of E THE FREEDOM OF (D1S. I*.
to this negative, Judas shall not be saved? " Seeing they" say
the elect, " by a special mercy of God are so guided and ruled, that
they, and they alone/perform the condition, and that the non-elect
are always permitted to fail in the performance of the condition ; c
teaching that God hath not prepared for them, and therefore ne-
ver gives, such grace as finally freeth them from sin;"^ and it is
certain, that what he never gives they can never have : Seeing
" they are of opinion that to have sufficient means of salvation ad-
ministered which shall prove no otherwise effectual than upon
this condition/ si homines sibi non desittt,* is an argument of non-
election;" that is, of reprobation, that is, an argument that they
cannot be saved; which one would think is also an argument of
an absurdity of the supposition that they had sufficient means of
salvation administered : Seeing, lastly, they say, " the decrees
of election and reprobation are, indeed, and in truth, decrees find-
ing all men in a miserable and damnable estate, and out of it de-
termining to bring some, and to fit them for eternal happiness,
and not to bring others out of it by fitting them thereunto, but to
permit them to the deficient rule of their own will:"* And see-
ing the reprobates " always fail in the performance of the condi-
tion," and must do so because " God hath not prepared for them,
and therefore never gives them, such grace as finally frees them
from sin," and without which they cannot be so: Since to have
means effectual to salvation tendered to them only on this condi-
tion, " if they be not wanting to themselves," is an argument that
they are reprobates; that is, men that cannot be saved: Since,
lastly, to be found in a miserable and damnable estate, and under a
determination not to be brought out of it, or fitted for eternal life,
but " permitted to the deficient rule of their own will," which
being so after all that they can do, will be defective and insuffi-
cient to attain salvation: Must it not clearly follow, from all and
every one of these assertions, that salvation can only be tendered
to them upon conditions impossible to be performed by them,
and so by such a seeming and hypocritical tender must be effec-
tually denied them ?
111. THIRDLY. This plainly follows from all those scriptures
which have been offered in the STATE OF THE QUESTION, Secti-
t P. 257. . f P. 258. g P. 262. * if m n be not wanting to themselves.' ED.
h F, 263.
CHAP. II. 3.) THE WILL OF MAN.
ons first and fourth, to prove that men at present are in a state of trial
and probation; it being evidently absurd to make a trial or expe-
riment whether men viili repent, believe, or persevere, who are
determined by him who makes the trial so to do; or whether they
will come out of their miserable estate, and fit themselves for sal-
vation whom God hath determined from all eternity, by his de-
cree of election, " to bring out of that state, and render fit for that
happiness;*' or whether they will do this whom by his decree of
reprobation he hath determined "not to bring out of it;" and this
being only in effect to try whether they will null his absolute de-
crees; whether they will do, or neglect what these decrees have
rendered it impossible for them to do or neglect.
Secondly. From all that hath been offered there, Section third,
to shew that God calls, and makes his applications even to habi-
tual sinners, to reform and hearken to his exhortations, to turn to
him from their evil ways; it being evidently vain and absurd to
make these exhortations to men determined to the contrary, and
left by God's decree of reprobation " to the deficient rule of their
own wills," and so under a necessity of being deficient in the per-
formance of what is necessary to their reformation.
Thirdly. From all those scriptures produced there, Sectiou
Fifth, to shew that God hath ' set before men good and evil, life
and death,' and left it to their choice, upon the motives and
powerful incitements offered to them in the word, to embrace the
one or the other; this being in effect a declaration on God's part,
that he hath not, by any action or decree of his, determined some
to be good, or to obtain salvation, or left others under a necessity
of failing of salvation, or chusing evil, and not good.
Fourthly. From all that hath been said from scripture of God's
serious invitations of all men to repent, believe, and be converted^
and his pathetical desires of their reformation and obedience, pro-
duced, DISCOURSE THIRD, Argument Second, they being cer-
tain demonstrations that he did not conceive they lay under an
incapacity of repenting, believing, and turning to him.
Fifthly. From all his commands and exhortations to
wicked men ' to turn from the evil of their ways, that iniquity may
not be their ruin; and all his threats of the most dreadful judg-
ments to them who still continue in them; and all the promises
of pardon, life, and salvation made to those who do sincerely tura
? 2
THE FREEDOM OF (niS. IV.
to him; of which I have discoursed, ARGUMENT THIRD, Sec-
tion Third.. For as these things plainly shew that what God re-
quires may be done; what he exhorts to, is possible for them to
perform, by the assistance of that grace which he is ready to af-
ford them ; that the evils which he threaloneth uiay be avoided,
and what he promises may be obtained by them; so are all these
arguments strongly confirmed by the concurrent suffrage, and
the express and frequent declarations of the ancient Fathers,
saying,
IV. First. In the general, that the scriptures every where assert)
and give plain testimonies of the liberty of the will of man to
chuse the good and refuse the evil. Thus Justin Martyr having
toldjiis, that " man would not be worthy of praise or recompence,
a'fp 1 SO.UTK \o(j,vos TOV ayaQov, ' did he not chuse good of him-
self,' ncr worthy of punishment for .doing evil, if he did not this
<>' fc-ayrS, ' of himself';" saith, " this the Holy and Prophe-
tick Spirit hath taught us by Moses in these words, ' See, I have
set before thee good and evil, chuse the good fyc.' and also by Esaias
the prophet, speaking thus in the name of God, ' If you be wil-
ling and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the earth; but if you
will not hear, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of
the Lord hath spoken it'." "The prophecy of Isaiah," saith
Clemens of Alexandria, " saith, ' If you be willing, fyc, et>'
wtJAv xe//Ava JiaXe'yjG 80 '* xa ' T ^ v '/><>> xa ^ T W EXT^O^V, 'demon-
strating that both the choice and the refusal,' (viz. of faith and obe-
dience, ot which he there speaketh)'are in our power'." Tertullian
pronounces them "unsound in faith, and corrupters of the Christian
discipline, and excusers of all sin, who so refer all things to the will of
God, diccndonihiljierisineejus nutu, ut non intelligamus aliquid
esse in nobis ipsis, ' by saying, nothing is done without his appoint-
ment, as that we cannot understand that any thing is left to our-
selves to do:' whereas though we learn from his precepts both
what he would, and would not have done, tamen nobis est volun-
tas, et arbitrium elegendi alterum, sicut scriptum est, ecce posui
ante te bonum et malum, ' yet is there in us a liberty of chusing
either, according as it is written,' ' behold I have set before thee
good and eviC." 1 St. Cyprian proves " credendi, vel non
i Ajwl. 2, p. Si), B. t. D. Strom. 1, f>. 314, B. I Exhort, ad Cgstit cap. 2.
CHAP. II. 4.) THE WILL OF MAN. 2Q3
credendi Uhertatem in arbitrio positam, ( that to believe or not
was left to our own free choice'."" 1 From the. same texts, (Deut.
xxx, 19. Isaiah i. 19,) Epiphanius, against the Pharisaical fate,
cites those word of Isaiah, ' if ye be willing and obedient;
" whence," saith he, " it is plainly manifest and indubitable, that
God hath granted to man free-will, &ss ic^\ TOV avfywrrov sTvat
TO ayaSoa^ysn/, v> ruv V ATTO^Q^UV
e^XnvTa vzfyus r-hs TUV ztQ^uKuv $uazus TO duQaigETw, 'ten thousand
things of this nature may be found both in the gospels and other
writings of the apostles, clearly manifesting the iiberty or self-
election of the nature of man'. " St. Chrysostom speaics thus,
"God saith, I/you zcill and ij ''you will not, Hvft^sr^ais Troj^vTyjs-
dpsTYis xa! xaxj'izs-, xai ETfl r7i yvu[j,y ry yiiAzripx r^iis, < giving us
power, and putting it in our own option to be virtuous, or vicious.'
The devil saith, Thou canst not avoid thy fate; God saith/ 1 have
put bejore theejire and water, life and death., stretch forth thy
hand to whether thou wiit' The devil saith, it is not in theeto
stretch forth thy hand to them." p And St. Cyril 2 establisheth this
doctrine from the same texts of scripture. And St. Austin proves
from those words of Christ, ' either make the tree good and the
fruit icill be good, or make the tree evil and the fruit zcill be evil,'
" in nostra potestate situm esse mutare vo/untatem, ' that it is put
in our own power to change the will'." r It would be endless to
transcribe all that the Fathers say upon this head.*
Secondly. To the same effect they speak, when they say the
scripture testifies that God hath left man in a capacity of doing
good or evil. Thus Irenaeus* having laid down this as a rule,
" tl;at it is in the power of man to work and retain what is good;
and a^ain, not to do, or to lose the good he hath done: for this
n Test, ad Quirin. 1. 5, c. 52. n Htcr. 16, adv. Pharis. sec. 4. o Adv. Or, Scrm. 5, To. 4,p. 543.
*p To. 6, Horn- 2, De Fato- p. 868. g L. 1, in Es. p. 21. r Contra Adiman. c. 26.
* See in Esa. 1, 19. St. Jerom. and St. Basil. Cyril. Alex. ibid. Clemen. Alex. Strom. 1, p. 313, fl,
Ex verbis Mosis, Deut. xxx, 19. Tertullian de Monog. c. 14. Basil. Horn, in Psal. Ixi.
ExEcclus. xv, 15, 16, 17. August de Gratia et Lib. Arb. c. 2.
* L. 4, c. 72.
294 THE FREEDOM OF (DIS. IV.
cause," saith he, " do the prophets exhort men to work righte-
ousness, and to do good, us e(p 7///,i> ovroy TH TOO- TV, ( as having
it 1.1 iheir power so to do,' as we have shewed by many Uhimio-
nus, and vmr Lord doth thesanu ill in n places, uz. Mint. v. 16.
XXlv. 48 51. Luke vr. 40. xii. 'Jo, :iO, 47. xxi. 34. r^vrae. yxp
?vra TO avre^BfftQy 8W*Ofit'jcvy( rS on/d^di'Trn, ( all which words de-
monstrate thv free-will of man.' And the apostle exhorts men in
many places to do good woiks, \\liu li he could have no reason to
do, ui noins non esset faccre /W, uut nonjacere, ' it it \vere not
in our power to do, or not to do whal our Lord and his apostles
do exhort us to do'." Then he goes on to prove that " God hath
preserved to man, non tantum in operihns, sed etiam in Jide titte-
rurn esse et sute potestatis arbitrium, ' that man hath free-will, or
bath it in his power not only to do, but also to behe\e'," from
Mat. viii. 13. Matt. ix. 29. Maik ix. 23. And he concludes, that
" all these texts shew man to be sua polecat is secundum Jidem,
' free as to his faith';" for as Clemens Alexandrinus saiih, TO 7rts"^*v
re^xal Tra'SedQat E'i.yj.vM ^ia TO euTreTr^ysvai, ' for therefore is one punished
for his sins, and another praised for his good works, because he
hath it in his power to sin or not'." " For how," saith Theodo-
ret, " can he justly punish a nature, dyxQov rl Spaaou /AW ^vvx/j.ivr^,
aXXa To^ rr,f HOIK'UIS 7ra7reo"y)/a,vo)v Js^/xoTj, ' which had no power to
do good, but was bound in the bonds of wickedness'?" 1 ' And
again, " God having made the rational nature auT%zaiw, ' with
power over its own actions,' s averts men from evil things, and
provokes them to do what is good, by laws and exhortations, *.
.zt'si <$s (J^'n /?Xo//.'v)v Tolv aVavovwv //.ETaXa^tlv, j'va [ATI TTa^a-
J opus rris tyvftojs, ' but he doth not necessitate the un-
m Strom. 1, p- 311, A.
cTt 'suXoyov AX' a3 - 6> oi/xaj -n TOJV Qvvsuv xuroTf
ius.iay.5T ot.i 3ia.vofj.ri TOV
Strom. 2, p. 263, D. o In Num. Hem- 20, Fol. 135, H.
p In Ep. ad Rom. Edit. Huet. Tom. 2, p. 4G5, 422. q Her. 16, p. 55
r Tom. 4, 269. * Adv. Gent. Scrm. 5, p. 5-12.
98 THE FREEDOM OF (fllS. IV.
witiing to embrace what is better, that he may not overturn the
bounds of nature'." Innumerable are the passages of this nature
\vhich might be cited from the Fathers; but these at present shall
suffice, because some of them may be mentioned hereafter.
CHAP. III.
Propounding arguments from reason to evince this freedom oj tic
will from necessity.
TO proceed, SECONDLY, to the rational inducements to evince
this freedom of the will from necessity, or a determination to one,
that is, either to good or evil only, 1 argue,
I. ARGUMENT FIRST. From what I have insisted on more
largely in the preface to the THIRD DISCOURSE, to shew that
God acts suitably to our faculties; to wit, by the illumination of
our understanding, and by persuading of the will. For if God
work only on the will by moral causes, then lays he no necessity
upon it, since moral causes' have no necessary influence on the
effect, but move only by such persuasions as the will may resist ;
as when St. Paul persuaded the Corinthians to give alms. And
whereas too many divines take this for granted, that though God
hath laid no necessity on man to do evil by his own decrees, yet
fallen man lies under a necessity of doing evil since the fall, by
reason of that disability he hath contracted by it to do any thing
which is truly good: 1 have demonstrated the falsehood of that
supposition, in the second part of that discourse, Section Fifth,
and shewed in Section Third of the S/TATE OF THE QUESTION
in this discourse, that though the evil habits added to our natural
corruption do render it exceeding difficult, they do not render it
impossible for them to do what is good and acceptable in the
sight of God.
II. ARGUMENT SECOND. I argue from the received notion
of the word; for as Le Blanc/' observes, according to the com-
mon sense of mankind, and the received use of speaking, that
only is said to be free for us to do, (1.) Which it is in our
power to do; (2.) vdiich may bo done otherwise than it is done;
Be Lil). Ar'it. part. 2, jj 20-
CHAP. HI. ^ 2.) THE WILL OF MAN. 299
and (3.) about which there is ground for consultation and delibe-
ration. Seeing then, (i.) necessarium est quod nonpotesl aliter se
habere, ' that only is necessary to be done one way which cannot
be done otherwise;' and that which is thus necessary cannot be
free, because that only is so which may be done otherwise, (ii.)
Seeing that is not in our power to omit which we are determined
to do, nor is it in our power to do that which we are determined
to omit; if that be only free which it is in our power to do, or not
to do; that evil which through the fall we are determined to do,
or that omission of good we are necessitated to; and that good
which by the divine influx we are necessitated or determined
to perform, cannot be free; and so can neither be blame- worthy
nor rcwardable. And (iii.) Seeing there can be no rational con-
sultation or dt liberation about those things which antecedently are
either necessary or impossible; and so when persons are infrus-
trably determined to one, that one thing becomes necessary, and
any other thing is thereby made to them impossible; they who
are only free in matters about which they can reasonably consult
and deliberate, cannot act freely in those things which they are
thus determined to do, or not do. Moreover all consultation and
deliberation is in order to choice and election: Now choice, or
election, in the very nature of it, is of more than one; but there
can be no choice of more than one in him who is determined to
one, and so a consequent election cannot consist with an antece-
dent determination to one. If therefore the divine grace in man's
conversion unfrustrably determines him to one; or if the disability-
contracted by the fall determines men to chuse that which is evil
only, and to omit that which is truly good; both these determina-
tions must take away the freedom of men's actions, at least as far
as tin y are worthy of praise or dispraise, of reward or punish-
ment. For,
First. Either the divine influx leaves men room to chuse to
turn to God, or it doth not: if it doth not, they do not chuse to
turn to God when they are thus converted: if it doth, it cannot
unfrustrably determine them to turn to him, because it leaves it
to their choice whether they will turn or not. Again, either this
disability determines lapsed man to what is evil only, and so
to the omission of what is truly good, or it cloth not so: if it
doth not so, it leaves him an ability to do good: if it doth not, he
300 THE FREEDOM OF {OIS. IV.
cannot properly be said to c/iuse not to do good. In a word,
when God calls, invites, and exhorts him to chuse the thing that
is good, and to learn to do zee/I; when he attempts by threaten-
ings to affright him from continuance in his evil ways, and by his
promises to allure and to mcite him to return unto him; are not
these things designed to engage him to consider of, and attend
to, God's exhortations; to consult and deliberate how he may
avoid the evils threatened, and obtain the blessings promised?
But if they lie under an utter disability of doing what is spiritually
good, and so of obtaining the blessings promised, to what purpose
should they deliberate about it? To what purpose should
they consider how they may avoid the evil that they do? I con-
clude therefore this argument with that which Gennadius" delivers
as the doctrine of the church of God, that " though man by the fall
hath lost, vigorem arbit.rH, ' the vigour of his free-will,' non tamen
electionem, ne non esset suutn quad evitaret peccatum, nee merito
iiidulgeretitr quod non arbitrio di/uisset; ' yet hath he not lost his
choice, lest it should not be of his choice that he avoided sin,
nor should that be accounted to him for reward which he did not
freely put away :' manet ergo ad qu&rendam salutem arbitrii libe-
tas, sed admonente prins Deo et invitante; ' there remains therefore
yet to fallen man a freedom of will to seek after his salvation,
though God must first admonish and invite him so to do'."
S
III. ARGUMENT THIRD. Le Blanc adds, (ibid.) that all the
actions which proceed fre-ely from us maybe subject to a command,
and by the law of God or man may be enjoined or forbidden; but
this cannot agree to those acts, circa quos vohinlas immutabiliter
se habet, ' in which the will is so immutably determined that it
never can or could do otherwise.' So that if this be the case of
lapsed man, his sin cannot proceed freely from him, and so can-
not be reasonably forbidden; for as St. Austin* sailh, peccati
teneri reum quempiam quia non fecit id quod facere ncn potuil,
sumrtKC iniquitatis et insanite est, ' it is the height of madness and
injustice to hold any person guilty because he did not that which
he could not do;' as will be farther evident even from the essential
condition of a law, viz. that it be just; those laws being certainly
unjust which prohibit that under a penalty which a man cannot
a De Dognii Eccl. cap. 21. b L. de Duabus Anim. c. 12.
CHAP. III. 4.) THE WILL OF MAN. 301
possibly shun, or require that which cannot possibly be done by
him of whom it is required. And the greater is the penalty, the
greater still is the injustice. For, (1.) just laws are the ordinances
of wisdom and right reason; whereas that which commands im-
possibilities can never be required reasonably or wisely. Quis
et/irn non clamet stultum esse, prtecepta ei dare cui liberum non est
quod pr(Ecipiturfacere c t c Tor who/ saiih St. Austin, 'will not
pronounce it folly, to command him who is not free to do what is
commanded r' (2.) Just laws are instituted for the publick good,
and God hath made this declaration concerning his own precepts,
that he commands them for our good ; but that law which prescribes
impossibilities under a penalty upon non-peribrmance, cannot be
instituted for the publick good, but rather for the greatest evil to
the generality of mankind, who are said to be left to the defect
and disability of their own wills. (3.) Good laws do shew to a
man what is to be done by him, and what is to be shunned; but
those laws which prescribe what cannot be done or avoided, can-
not direct a man to what he is to do, or what he is to shun. And,
indeed, who feels not the truth of those words of St. Austin,*
iniquum esse eum damnare cui non fuit potestas jussa comp/ere,
' that it is unjust to condemn him as disobedient, who hath no
power to obey,' or to punish men for doing evil, though they lie
under a necessity of doing it, only because they do it willingly,
seeing they must do it willingly, ii' they do it at all; because they
must first will to do it, and so it is as necessary for them to be
willing, as it is to do it ?
IV. ARGUMENT FOURTH. If wicked men be not necessi-
tated to do the evil that they do, or to neglect the good they do
neglect, then have they freedom from necessity in both these cases;
and if they be thus necessitated, then neither their sins of omission
or commission could deserve that name; it being essential to the
nature of sin, according to St. Austin's definition of it, that it be
an action, a quo liberum est abstinere,' 'from which the sinner
might abstain.' Three things seem plainly necessary to make an
action or omission culpable, (1,) that it be in our power to per-
form or to forbear it; for as Origen, and all the Fathers, say,
s^eir acWvaTov ^ Troirjaas \|/XTOS sfi, ' no man is blame-worthy for
e !. de Fide route. Man. c. 10. <* Ibid, c Aqud Euseb. Trap. Er. L, 6. ft 11. p. 287.
30<2 THE FREEDOM OF (D1S. IV.
not doing what he could not do.' (2.) That we be obliged to
perform, or to forbear it; for where there is no obligation, there
can be no transgression. (3.) That we omit that which we
ought to have done, or do that which \ve ought not to have done;
now seeing nemo tenetur ad impossibile, ' no man can be obliged
to what is to him impossible,' it cannot truly be affirmed that any
man ought to do what he never had the power to do, or to leave
undone that which he could not shun, for then there would be no
place for expostulation, for chiding or reprehending men on these
accounts, seeing they could not help it. ' O Jerusalem, zcilt thou
not be made clean'?-*' When shall it once be?' saith God, to what
purpose, if by the fall they were disabled even from being willing
so to be? ' / will destroy' saith he, ' my people, sith thei) return
not from their evil zcays? e " why," might they answer, " O thou
" righteous God, was it ever in our power to turn from them, or
" convert ourselves? When, Lord? Was it in our father Adam
" before his fall? Then, sure, we did not need to be converted.
" Or was it after this fall? Alas! then were we utterly disabled
" from doing this without that special grace thou hast not yet
" been pleased to vouchsafe." 'O Jerusalem, how oft,' saith Christ,
' zeould I have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not !' And again, you will not
come unto me that ye might have life' 1 " How could we help it?"
might they truly answer, provided they were disabled both from
coming, and from being willing so to do.
CHAP. IV.
Shewing the affinity oj the opinions of our adversaries concerning
liberty, zcith that of Mr. Hobbes; and with the fate of the
philosophers, condemned by the Christian Fathers.
THE peculiar notions of Mr. Hobbes, and of those who
concur with him in these opinions, Cthat " our liberty is well
consistent with necessity, as being only a power to do what
we will, though we lie under a necessity to have that will ; and
that it is sufficient that we chuse to do what we do, though we
lie under a necessity, if we chuse at all, to chuse as we do,")
f Jeremiah xiii, 27. g Jeremiah xv, 7. h Luke xiii, 34. i John v, 19.
CHAP. IV. 1.) THE WILL OF MAN. 303
lie under this considerable disadvantage, that they were univer-
sally condemned by all Christians for the first four centuries, who
asserted, that a liberty from necessity was a Fundamental Prin-
plc, without which there was no place for vice or virtue, praise or
dispraise, rewards or punishments, heaven or hell, but an intro-
duction of Stoical fate; confuting that and Manicheism, and other
heresies, or. this very account, that they destroyed the liberty of
man's will, and left them under a necessity and a determination to
one. I therefore shall endeavour to shew,
FIRST. That there is a plain agreement betwixt the doctrine
of Mr. Hobbes, and of these men, concerning this matter, as
to the great concernments of religion.
SECON DLY. That their opinion differs very little, and in things
only of little moment, from the Stoical fate, and lies obnoxious
to the same absurdities which the philosophers and Christians did
object against it.
THIRDLY. That their doctrine hath been condemned by all
the primitive Christians for the first four centuries. And
FOURTHLY. That St. Austin, who first introduced the con-
trary doctrine, is forced by it to contradict his former self, to re*
nounce what he had said in confutation of the Manichees; is
unable to answer his own arguments ; and falleth into manifest
absurdities. And,
1. FIRST. That there is a manifest agreement betwixt their opi-
nion and that of Mr. Hobbes will be evident from an exact com-
parison of their words together. Mr. Hobbes then asserts,
First. That " though the will be necessitated, yet the doing
what we will is liberty;" which is perfectly the same with their as-
sertion, that " the liberty of the will consists not in a freedom from
necessity, but only in a freedom from co-action or compulsion.''*
Secondly. That " he who takes away the liberty of doing accord-
ing to our will, taketh away the nature of sin; but he that denies
the liberty to will, doth not do so."' And do not they say this,
who teach that " though fallen man is become so far a slave to sin,
that whatever he does he cannot but sin ; yet that necessity of
. quod et liberum potest consistcrc cum ava/xaw ; sed non cum axa'o>. Ursi
I Bramh. Cast. p. SO*.
304 THE FREEDOM OF (UIS. IV.
of doing evil takes not away his natural liberty, and therefore not
his sin?'""
Thirdly. That " if liberty cannot stand with necessity, it can-
not stand with the decrees of God; of which decrees necessity is
a consequent."" And what do they say less who teach that
"them whom God calls according to his purpose, he so moves
to believe in God, and to love God and his brother, that faith
and love infallibly thence follow; and when that motion comes,
it is impossible for man not to believe and love God :"
Fourthly. That " a man's will is something; but the liberty
of his will is nothing." " And most Protestants," saith Le Blanc,
" deny that after man's fall there remained any liberty in him to
do what is morally good." 1 *
Fifthly. That " he is free to do a thing, who may do it if he
have the will to do it, and may forbear if he have the will to forbear;'
and yet if it be necessary that he should have the will to do, the
action is necessarily to follow ; and if there be a necessity that he
shall have the will to forbear, the forbearing also will be necessa-
ry." r So that, according to him, he that hath a will to dt>, lies
under a necessity to have that will; and he that hath a will to for-
bear, lies under a necessity to have the will to forbear; his choice
being determined to what he shall chuse by precedent necessary
causes. Now is he not under a necessity to have the will to
forbear what is morally good, who hath lost his liberty to what
is so? And is not he under a like necessity of willing only what
is evil, who, whatsoever he doth, and therefore whatsoever he
wills to do, can only do evil ?
TO Quamvis enim, absente Gratia, homo sit peccati servus, et quicquid agat non possit nisi peccare,
ista tamen male agendi necessitas naturalem ejus libertatem non tollit. Le Blanc de Lib. Horn. Arb.
circa bonum Morale, Part. 2, 59. n Br. p. 828.
o Deus hominem quern secundum proposition vocat, sic movet ad credendum Deo et ad ililigendum
Deura et proximum, ut infallibiliter inde sequatur fides et dilectio, et posita tali motione impossibile
est hominem non credere atque diligere. Le Blanc, de Lib. Horn. Arb. Par. 3. 17 & 21-
Utrique in eo conveniunt, necesse esse ut agat ille quern ad agendum movet atque impellit Divinse
Gratiae, vel providentiae vis et efficacia, quoniam ab ilia actione Dei actio hominis separari non potest.
' Both of them agree in this, that it is necessary for him to act whom the force and efficacy of divine
grace and providence compel to act, because the action of man cannot be separated from that action of
God. ED.
p Negant Protertantium plurimi post peccatum in homine mansisse liberum arbitrium respectu borii
moralis. L Blanc, de Lib. Horn. Arb. tirca bonum Morale, Par. 2, .
; Bramh, p. 651. r Brsunh. p. 654, 660, 666.
CHAP. IV. .1) THE WILL OF MAN. 305
Sixthly. He adds, that " the necessity of an action doth not
make ihe law that prohibits it unjust; for it is not the necessity, but
the will lo break the law that makes the action unjust; and what
necessary cause soever precedes an action, yet if that action be
furbui.u n, he that doeth it willingly may justly be punished ."a And.
do not they say the same, who make it necessary for a m;:u in a
lapsed state to sin, that is, transgress the law of God; and yet
add, that this hinders not that, quo minus iiberb in peccatUfiiJera-
tur, et bonu.ni (ege pr&ceptum adversetur et o nut tat ' his sinning and
omitting the good required by the law is done freely r' 6
Seventhly. And lastly, he asserts, " things ma} be necessary and
yet pi aise worthy, and also nttessary and yet dispraised; c
which plainly is the same with the doctrine of those men who say
thai, inecitatnle non tollit rationem meriti aut demerit i, ' the inevi-
table necessity of an action hinders not the merit or demerit, re-
ward or punishment of that action.' And fuiiher, to complete
the parallel, observe,
1. That sin having no efficient, but only a deficient cause, to
lie under an unfrustrabie defect of doing that which is after that
defect commanded, and under a like disability of avoiding that
which is afterwards forbidden, is to be determined to and lie un-
der a necessity of sinning, that is, of transgressing these laws, be-
cause it is to lie under a necessity of being thus deficient.
2. That though it seemeth certain, that this necessary defect is
ab extriutefjpf ' from an external cause,' it being, saith St. Austin,
pa:ita peccali, ' the punishment of sin,' and so the action of the
ju.ige; "it being/' (li.) saith Bishop Davenant, "the result of God's
arbitrary imputation when he was free, if he had pleased, to do
otherwise; it being, (m.) a defect immediately resulting from the
action of others, the transgression of Adam, that is, of one per-
son, and the birth of all men from him, and without any other
requisite than that of being born; yet were it ab itir.rinseco, 'from
an internal cause/ as blindness, deafness, disability to speak, is m
them who are born blind, deaf, or dumb, it must be still as inevita-
ble as the defect is in these instances; and lapsed man thus born
must be as much disabled by it as he could be from any extrinsick
cause whatsoever : And therefore seeing by it he lies under as great
necessity of being thus defective as he is determined by an ex-
a Bramh. p. 678. >< Ie Blanc ib. 56, c Br. p. 79.
2
306 THE FREEDOM OF (DIS. IV.
trinsick cause to be so; and that extrinsick necessity is allowed to
render the action of him who lieth under it unculpable, it must
be likewise thus with him who lies under the like necessity from
an intrinsick cause immediately resulting from his birth.
3. Observe, that it is the same thing as to my obedience or dis-
obedience to have a disability by nature, as to have il from the
substance or matter of which I am composed; because b\ having
it from the sin of my nature before I had a being, I come into
the world as much disabled as I could be by the other, from the
performing due obedience, or the avoiding disobedience, to the
laws of God.
4. Observe, that it is the same thing as to my eternal interest
to have no free-will at all, as to have none in reference to the
conditions on which that interest depends; and therefore it is no
great difference betwixt the opinion of these men and that of
Mr. Hobbs, that the one destroys the liberty of all our actions, and
theirs only destroys our liberty in spiritual and moral actions;
seeing both equally destroy our liberty of chusing life eternal,
and of avoiding everlasting death.
II. SECONDLY. Withthesewemaycomparethefateasserted
by the Stoicks, and by many others. For though they talk more
than others of the TO !5ovTaj Trzvrvs ih TO Tr^Tfpu^vov
elffsXSetv. 'And this also is the case of men, for if they will not follow
fate, they shall by all means be necessitated to come under the
law's of fate.' " Their wise man," saith Seneca/ "doth nothing
unwilingly ; necessitatem effugit quia vult quod ipsa coactura est,
4 LilNr ineditvusapudMenaqueillud Stoicoram apud Laert. K9' eifAapfASVnv & (pac
i. I. 7. p. 450. e Ep. 54.
CHAP. IV. 2.) THE WILL OF MAN. 3O?
' he avoids necessity by doing willingly what otherwise she would
compel him to do';" and this is the plain import of the prayer of
Epictetus out of C/eanthes, " lead me, O fate, to that to which
thou hast ordained, that t may follow willingly; for if I do not
follow s >, I shall be compelled tp do it.''^
Secondly. This necessity, say they, proceedeth from exter-
nal and antecedent causes : as either, (i.) the eternal decree of
God disposing all things to happen as they Ho. " Omnia certa et
in (Eternum dicta tege decwrunt, ' all things,' saith Seneca, ' follow
by a certain law established from eternity ; v Olim const itutum
est quid gaudeas quidjfeas, ( It is of old ordained at what we shall
rejoice or weep/yctfa nosdiicunt, ' we are led by fate,' A and the
first law of fate is this, stare decreto, 'that God will stand to his
decree, ' and not be moved from it by prayers or sacrifices. If
any man doth profitably use them, id ipsum quoque iu jalo\est,
'it is also his fate to use them'/' " Accordingly the concourse
of causes," saith Mr. Hobbs, " whereof every one is determined
to be such, may well be called the decree of God in ihis respect,
that they were all set and ordered by the eternal cause of all
things, God Almighty.' z Or, (ii.) being an eternal series, of cau-
ses upon which all effects depend, " Ordinem rerumfati &tersia
series rotat, causa ex causa pendet, ' the eternal course of fate
turns about all things,'* saith Seneca, ' one cause depends upon
another.' " It is," say all, " an immutable series of causes, by
virtue of which thus knit to one another, all things are produced;
or a fatal necessity, by vittue of which whatsoever happens flows
from a continuation of causes.''' Nowhere observe with Bishop
Bramhail,
i. That "it is not much material whether they ascribe this ne-
cessity to God's decrees, or to the stars, or to a connection of
causes, so as they establish necessity; for necessity, upon what
ground soever it be established Jrenders the doom of ail the same.'" 8
ys //,
Mf E\{/o/x.at 75 aoxvoj r t v XE ys ^rt S&cu Wev r/r7ov :--4/opt,ai. Er.chirid. p. 37.
g Deprovid. c. 5. fi Natural. Qu. c. 36, 7,1. i Br. p. 665. k Utosubpra.
I Immutabilis causamm cohKrentium series, Sen. ad Helvid. c- 8. Fatalis quawlam necessitas qua,
TE^8(T. 260. B. b Ibid. D. c August. liar. 15.
d 'Oi /!AV OSTTO MagXi'wv- (pt/crjv xaxrjv EX TE wXojy xax^y. Strom. 3, p .
431, 15. flag' uv (^(Xoffo^wv) Tajy r /c've' IatiT roiSror v, aXX' *$V Syvaptai/or f!vat
erspov ira-p* o cyayova, ' as being not such of himself, and being not
able to be otherwise than as he was born'."^ " God made us so
that we should be; good not by nature, but by our own free-will
and purpose; niiul enim laudis esl id esse a quo le mutari 'natures
necessitas nun sinaf, ' for it is not praise-worthy to be such as the
necessity of nature forceth thee to be.' A So Pseudo Clemens.
(ii.) That a luoessuy of sinning would free men from all fault,
as doing nothing ot their own juxoid, nor iieing so much the cause
of their actions, as he v ' o iaid this necessity upon them. Thus
Justin Mart) r argues, " If all tluugs flow from fate, are TO e(p'
rifjiTv ES"V 'I/MS, ' and we have no freedom of will,' &' STOJ aroctac-
TOJ, *X ixsrvoj ^E/XTTTEOS-, neither is one to be approved, nor ano-
ther blamed.' Again, " if mankind hath not power by his free
choice to avoid evii, and to chuse the good avam'ov Jft ruv OTTUS
S'/JTZ-OTE <7r/3aT/6pe,Evwv, * he is unbkaneable whatsoever he doth'.""
Origen, in his dissertation against rate, 6 declares that " theasser-
tors of it do, aVoXikiv aravToy iyxX^^aros-, 'free men from all fault,' 6
and cast the blame of all the evil that is done upon God ; and that
this is a doctrine, a'va^Sv TO eip' r^Tv, ' which subverts our liberty/
xai Sia TSTo, ' and by that' ail vice and virtue, all praise and dis-
praise'." Eusebius declares that " this opinion,
XSvTaJ aVoXuJ, us /xriSsv TO/V drvnav % olxsias yvu^-ns
' absolves sinners, as doing nothing on their own accords which
was evil,' and would cast all the blame of all the wickedness com-
mitted in the world upon God, and upon his providence; if that
were admitted by the assertors of this fate, whether he himself did
f Apol. 1, p. 45. g Apol. 2, p. 81. B. h Recogn. I. 9, 4. a Apol. 2, p. 80.
* Apud Euseb. Prep. Ev. 1. 6, c. 11, p. 282. B. c P. 287- A.
312
THE FREEDOM OF (Q1S. IV.
necessitate them to do these things, or ordered matters so that they
should be constrained to do it by some other cause'." 1 * See the
like arguments in Epiphanius's H evil zvay, fyc.' e and this
is said, not that God understood not whether they would do this
or not, a'XX'otovei TO lao^datovruv owdfAsuv yi'vsffS'at ctaxvyy; ( but to
demonstrate the almost equal balance of their power so to do,'
and that they might not despond or remit of their endeavours by
an imagination that God's fore-knowledge laid a necessity upon
them; ajysxov?' EW' dVTOif ra g-msyjlxj/aj, xai aurri diria. yiv/fiai ruv
a/xapToijaaTwv, ' as not leaving it in their power to turn to him, and
so was the cause of their sin'."
(iv.) They argue from the deportment of men towards them
who offend out of necessity, allowing this as a sufficient excuse
that they could not do otherwise. " You would not," saith
Athenagoras to the Roman Emperors, " honour the good, or
punish bad men, el ^ sir' avrdif y,v xai f t xax/a xai y apsTri, ' if vice
and virtue were not in their power'.'"' " And if men," saith Chry-
sostom, " do thus pardon their fellow men when they are necessi-
tated to do a thing ru Ss VTIQ e!pc,ap/x.V7)S TroXXo/ /xaXXov av
d Proep. Ev. 1. 6, c. 6, p. 251, per Tot et p. 252. e Euseb. ibid. p. 24
f A|d Euseb. ibid. c. 11, p. 289. B. C. g Chapter xxyi, 3. xxxvi, 3.
h Legal, piv Christ, p. 27.
CHAP. V. 1.) THE WILL OF MAN. 313
' much more should this he done to men compelled by fate
to do what theydn;' for if it be absurd to punish them who by
the force of Barbarians are compelled to any action, it must be
more so. TOV u;ro ^wotrorrioas ^vva.!J.-us xaTava'ia^o/xsvov oixrv SjScvau,
' to punish him who is compelled by a stronger power'."'
V. They add, that " if fate obtain, then the divine judgment
mutt be overthrown,- for thev," saith Origen, " who take away,
TO ;p' r,(Mv t 'this liberty,' take away with it praise and dispraise,
and good and evil actions, with them a future judgment, and all
threats against and punishment of offenders, and all the promises
made, and the ie\\;nd-i annexed to a life of holiness; >$tv ya.% en
THTcav 'evXryus e?xi 7ivoju,vov, ' for upon this supposition, none of
these tilings \viil rationally be done'.''* " If fate be established,"
saith Eustbius, " olx.rnilzi (piXoTo^/a, oixtnyslsn xai 'EvA " V\ 'hence alsi t
clearly follows, that lapsed men cannot be wonhy of di^^i.i - i
punishment, for not doing that good they cannot do.
4. His fourth rule is this, ex eo qnod non acccpit nut tan sens
est, 'no man is guilty for not having that which he huth not re-
ceived;'' and his inference this, "that no man can duly blame
another for being deficient, quiu non ultia ease accept! , ' s\hre he
hath no power to go farther;' since he owes only what he hath re-
ceived, and cannot exceed the bounds set him." If then man by
the fall hath lost all power of doing good, and hath not since re-
ceived strength to do it, this deficiency cannot be his guilt.
Now in these rules the ancient Fathers exactly accord with him;
for we have heard already from Justin Martyr, P->tudo Clemens,
Origen, Eusebius, and Epiphamus, that a necessity of sinning frees
men from all fault, for that which he cannot avoid, or for being
' O
that which he could not cease to be. Origen lays it do\\n as a
most certain rule, " that no man can be blame-worthy for not do-
ing what he cannot do; and that as for Judas himself, xx. av e 4/of-
dura -zspoariTrTtTo EJ s*vteJ)MS zffooTy]j %v ' he could not have been
blamed had he been a traitor out of necessity,' and could not have
been like the rest of the apostles/'* Methodius, in answer to
Origen, saying that the flesh makes the soul to sin, replies, " it
avrviV T'iiV az.px.oi cKsye //.ri oyva-r-Jaj v73QToitjffGXou ra v6//.w TH cS,
'jthat if he said this flesh could not be subject to the law of God/
no man could be blamed for theft or adultery, &c. by a just judge,
U<)UVXTWS yj*ai}s r-ns a&tytos vixoTx.arsza^au TOJ vo/xo; TH sw, ' the flesh
not being able to be subject to the law of God'.'" And Pseudo
Justin to that question, ' How God requiring us to fulfil the law,
and not sin, which is beyond our strength, could punish men for
transgressing it; it being manifest, that 6 to. VTHQ Wva/juv //.^ 9roj^. 51. D, Horn. 15, p. 9S. B. G> D-
CHAP. V. | 2.) THE WILL OF MAN. 319
of the will, hath been largely proved; and to the passages already
cited from them, may be added a large discourse of Origen, in
his Philocalia, where he confirms this from variety of demonstra-
tive arguments from the holy scriptures. St. Basil saith, " there
is a manifest demonstration of the free-will of man in those words
of Isaiah, ' if tfou mil, and if you ivilt not , fyc.' whence it is mani-
fest lhat all his happiness and punishment, ex. r l(f>' y//x,7v %prri1ou,
' depends on our free-will.' p " Hearken not to them," saith
Cyril of Jerusalem, " who falsely interpret that of the apostle,
* If what I zcould not that I do;' but remember him who said,
' If ye be zci'lhig find obedient, and if you will not, #c.' There
is not an order of souls, xa'/a: tyvaiv a/Aa^avM^v, ' who sin (or do
good) by nature/ a'XX' i*. xi%is Qvatus, ' of a nature bound/* \ve should neither be capable
Tom. 2, p. 259. Catech. 4,> 311, A. B. r Catech. 2, p. 5. B. C. w Apol. 2, p. 46, A.
x Horn. 27, p- 166.
320 THE FREEDOM OF (DIS. IV.
of honour and glory, nor of hell and punishment, both the^e b.in^
prepared, TYI T^Tclri tyuvti rr\ ^yva/xevv; a^otpi/yav TO xaxov xai Tgc'\J/sa
sir TO ayx^ovjxai XE^QV /^s'f o$, ' for a mutable nature which can rlytiom
evil, and turn to what is good and right'." Athanasius proves
that " man hath free-will, Suvzrzi yap us irpos TO. x.zX-1 vavav HTU xtzt
rot xaXa aTros-^e'^sT^ai, ' because he can incline to what is good, or
decline from it.' " y And this is so agreeable to the light of nature,
that Cyril of Alexandria introduceth Porpliuy, piecing the free-
dom of man in this, that he hath sis d^tlw e\V&f>ion>*t r t xax/ar
Tr/v x*o-ov aigsuiv, ' the freedom to chuse vice or virtue;' this
being,' z saith he, " necessary, that he may be capable of praise or
reprehension, honour or dishonour, rewards or punishments."
(ii.) They add, that "by reason of this free-will which God
hath given him, he hath it in his power to believe, or not," as we
have heard from Irenaeus, and Clemens of Alexandria " to be,
or make himself a vessel of election, or of wrath," saith Macarius;
and, ipse sibi causa est, ' he of himself is the cause'," saith Irenaeus,
" why he becomes good corn or chari.'' a 'Exasx rt^Siv eai/Tov JtxaiSv-
TOS-, ^ l/x.9raXiv iauTov olTrs&w zaTaffzeya^ovToy, ' every one render-
ing himself righteous or disobedient,'" saith Clemens of Alexandria.*
St. Basil saith, that " every man may, ex. rr,s *VTH ^pQanqi^us %
oitip^x iyiov sfvat, w TO IvavTi'ov, { of his own free-will be either a
holy seed, or be the contrary'.'* " God," saith Pseudo-Justin,
"is not the cause that we are good, or wicked, aXX' -h -zspozi^ais,
' but our own choice,' by which, xaTfc'srxJsv r,fj,as xf^iy, xa THS
ayafiay r>pt,ay sTvat ^ xaxwj, ' he hath put it into our own power to
be good or bad'." d And in his answer to the Ninth Question,
" we have received," saith he, " from God the power of acting,
or not acting; mpdritiv /xev ry. Si'xaia K BfaaAtft (Mtv TO. aoixa,
1 to do things righteous, and to forbear what is unrighteous \ e
when therefore we act thus, $ixaius /XEV s-Etpavw/xs&a, ' we are
duly crowned;' but when we transfer this power to what is
evil, or neglect to do what is good, Sizauus roXa^o/xg^a, ' we
are duly punished:' we are therefore justly crowned or pun-
ished, Sia TO E(p' wfMv, ' for what we freely chuse'." " Christ,"
saith Chrysostom, " spake many things of the kingdom, and of
hell, XJH TTiv e(
y Orat contra. Gent. p. 5. x Contra Jul. 1. 5, p. 79. a L. 4, C. 9. b Strom. 3, p. 155.
c In U, Esai. To. 2, p. 259. d Resp. ad Qu. 8. e P. 997.
CHAP. V. 2.) THE WILL OF MAN. 321
$-, xa tv TO) TJ/X!^ THv, flySv T o-
luntate, ut virtus haberet locum, ' that every man might act from
freedom, not from necessity, that so there might be place for
virtue'."
7. (Fifthly.) St. Austin argues against the doctrine of the Ma-
nichees from the duty of repentance; " for," saith he, " it is ma-
nifest to all that it is profitable to repent of our sins: now I desire
t L. De Fid. cont, Man. c. 8, L. Contr. Fortun. Man. p. 167. Vide eundem de Lib. Arb. 1. 1, c. 1,
1. 2, c. 1, 19, 1. 3, c. 17, 1- De V8 Rel. c. 14. I Tertul. contr. Mareioo. 1. 2, c. .
ra e*ntra Gent. p. 14S. G. n L. 4, e. 29. T*. 2, L t 2, Ad Jovin. F. 26, 1.
CHAP. V. 2.) THE WILL OF MAN.
to know what persons must repent, seeing I know it can be the
duty, neque Hints quimn/ejacere,nequeiltius qui benefacere non
P'licsl, ' neither of him who cannot do evil, nor of him who can-
not do good;' for that repentance which profits, male Jecisse
pcrniteiitem, el benefacere potuisse testatur, ' testifies that the peni-
tent hath done ill, when he might have done well'." p And with
this argument Alexander A phrodisicnsis accords, and Clemens
of Alexandria adds, that " if the re be no free-will, rS wort djri?u
(A&TX.VQIX ch' ^v a' vi,uuv yap xal TO
nftoprov, XXa w -^vy^ri, ' I
sinned not, but the soul,' for since that was separated from me, I
have done no evil;" and he concludes that "both these pleas were
made, euXo-yus ' rationally','' and yet it is manifest ihat all souls
united to bodies since the fall of Adam, might plead thus,
Secondly. Their second argument against this doctrine of Oii-
gen, is tiiis, that " whereas God blessed man, created male and
female, and said unto them, increase and multiply t &jc. this doc-
trine tin us God's blessing into a curse:" Jam enirnnonerit bene-
dictio sed mafedictio secuudum Origenem ; ' for according to Ori-
gen's doctrine, it will not be a blessing, but a curse,'* saith Epi-
phanius. " For how,'' saMi Theophilus of Alexandria, "is the
marriage-bed undefined, si an i ma ritiis circundatur, 'if by it the
soul is surrounded with vice?' Then Moses sinned in praying
that God would multiply the seed of Israel, and make them a
thousand times more ; seeing this was to pray, ut animarum ca-
tena: in c&lo peccantes hraelitici populi gentem conderent, ' that
the nation of the Jews should be made up of souls that had sin-
ned in heaven/ and that they might increase, animarum ruinis,
' by the ruin of souls;' whereas he ought rather to have prayed, ne
propter vitia melioris substantial, vilior natura conderetur, ' out
of regard to the corruption ensuing to the better part that the viler
body might not be produced.' Yea why," saith he, " doth Da-
vid pray thus, ' The Lord bless thee out ofZion, that tkou mayst
see thy children's children,' si animarum jactnrujusti ~ciri augetur
genus, ( if the offspring of the just were to be increased by the loss
of souls?' Or why doth God say by his prophet, ' Ifthou hadst
hearkened to my precepts, thy 'seed should have been as the sand,
and as the dust of the earth? For they who observe God's pre-
cepts, non debent accipere premium animarum ruinas de calo
qua, alligata corporibus sobolis eoni/it increineiditm multipliccnt,
Apud Hieron. To. 2, Ep. ad Job. Hieros. Ft 5". Lit. F.
326 THE FREEDOM OF (D1S. IV.
' ought not to receive, as their reward, the ruin of souls to increase
their offspring'." And again, " were this so, ' Increase and mul-
tiply' would be no blessing to Adam and Eve, cum cama peccati
maledictionem potius mereretur, ' since that which is the cause of
siu ought rather to be deemed a curse.' And if these things be
so, why doth St. Paul say, ' / will that the young women marry
and breed children?' For then they must do this, not for the or-
der of generation, sed propter pcenas animarum, ' but for the pu-
nishment of souls;' which far be it from us to believe. Sienim
propter peccata in calls prtzcedentia, ad terras missee sunt aninite,
lit corporibus ligarenlur, ' for if souls were sent from heaven to
be united to bodies for their preceding sins,' Paul lied when he
said ' Marriage is honourable, and ihe bed undejiled;' nor can the
same thing be a benediction and a punishment." vow the sin of
Adam being the cause of all the sins of his posterity, and they
having all souls sent pure from heaven into those bodies, by the
sole union to which they instantly become sinful and corrupted,
and mostly lie under a necessity of doing evil to their inevitable
ruin, it may with much more truth and certainty be said, that
"such a generation turns God's blessing into a curse, endangers
souls, and increaseth posterity by the loss and ruin of them."
Cyril, the successor of Theophilus, in his see, and also in his at-
tempts against this doctrine of Origen, declares, in his commen-
tary on those words of St. John, ' this in the trite light,'*
1. That according to his opinion, it would be unjust in God to
require of the soul thus united to the body, that it should not sin,
it being thereby placed, EV QoXuati a//,agTi'jtr, ' in the defilement
of sin;' which is more sadly the case of the posterity of Adam,
lying under a necessity to do evil.
2. That "then God promising to Abraham that his seed should
be multiplied as the stars of heaven, promised him only an igno-
ble rout of damned persons, and alien from all virtue (as by these
men the generality oj the seed of Adam are supposed to be) *al yji
jxzXAov Lt/Xoy/as- /xs'ro^ov airif^x, ' and not rather a seed partaking
of a blessing'.'" 1
3. That "according to St. Paul, we are only to be punished
r rewai i;;d for what we have done, & TM vw [AUTOS, ' by the
* p. 79-
CHAP. V.5) 3.) THE WILL OF MAN. 32?
body,' aXX* s vzpsafturcpov rr t s ysv^zas eyxXn/xa QnTriQ-nGsra.1, ' nor
will any fault antecedent to the body, be charged upon it;' and
thereiore not the sin of Adam."''
4. I hat "St. Paul teacheth that { death reigned over them who
had not si/nied after the similitude of Adam's transgression;'
winch," saith he, " cannot be according to the opinion of Origen
(much leas according to i.'^/u icho say that "we all personally
sinned in Adam;") for then where will they be found who have
not thus sinned ?" c
o. That " Christ by saying concerning the blind man, ' Nei-
ther haih this man tinned, not his fathers? said what is to be in-
terpreted of the time preceding their nativity, xafi' ov * vcra Rel. c- 14. I De Lih. Arb. L. i.', c. 19.
in li. .", c. 13, 14.
330 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
Because nemo debet quod non accepit, ex eo igitur quod tion accepit
tienio leus esl, l no inau owes what he hath not received, and so
no person can be guilty for the want of that original righteousness
he never did or could receive'." (n.) Because, si honioilajacius
esl, ut necessario peccet, hoc debet lit peccet, ' it man be so made
that he necessarily sins, he owes sin as a debt to nature;' and then
when he sins, quod debet facit, ' he does only what he ought to
do,' which yet it is wickedness to say.' * in a word he saith,
" sinct no man is compelled to sin by his o\\n nature, or by the
nature of another, rest at ut proprid voluntate peccetur, ' it remains
that every one sins by his own proper v\nT," owsg g'da Sel^ai.*
CONCERNING THE PERSEVERANCE OF SAINTS.
The State of the Question.
CHAP. J.
FOR the better stating of this question, it will be useful to
premise that which is granted on both sides; for by that it will be
easy to discern,
1. That many of those scriptures, which are produced to prove
the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, do not reach the point;
they proving only that they who do thus persevere are preserved
by divine assistance, and not that God hath absolutely engaged to
afford them that assistance which will unfrttstrably preserve them.
2. That many of the arguments produced to confirm this doc-
trine, are inconsistent with the foundations on which alone they
ground that doctrine.
I. First. Then we own that they who are preserved to salva-
tion, are so preserved ' Inj the porcer of God through faith ;' a and
n Ibid. d. 16. * Which it w* necessary to demonstrate.' ED. a 1 Peti, 5.
CHAP. I. 1.) OF SAINTS. 331
that they who are thus kept are ' kept by Christ,' 11 he alone
being able ' to keep them unblameable; e but then we deny that
God hath absolutely promisee! to keep them by his power from
making shipwreck of thi< faith; or that ' the just man who lives
by faith, shall never draw back to perdition'*
Secondly. We own tiiat God hath engaged his faithfulness, that
all who do not wickedly depart from him, shall never be forced
from him by the power of any adversaiies; for ' none shall ever
be able to pluck them out oj his hands," not death itself; for ' the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against them? f not persecutions,
or the most fiery trials. He who requires us to be faithful to the
death, being obliged in equity and honour to enable us with chris-
tian patience to bear them; for ' he is so faithful that he wilt not
suffer us to be tempted above that we (in this fallen state) are able,
but will with the temptation (so far) make a way to escape that we
may be able to bear it:* So that we may triumphantly cry out,
IV ho shall separate us from the love of God zchich is (shewed to us)
in, that is, through Christ Jesuit Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay
in all these things zee (who continue in his love) are more than con-
querors, through (the assistance vouchsafed by) him that loved us.' h
And after such happy experience of the divine assistance, * / am
persuaded,' saith the apostle, ' that neither (fear of) death, nor
(hope of) lij'e, nor fevilj angels, nor principalities, nor powers
(persecuting us for Christ's sake,) nor the things (we endure at)
present, nor (the) things (we may .-ufter for the time) to come, nor
height (of honour,) nor depth (of ignominy,) nor any other creature
(or thing) shall be able to separate us from the love of God zch)c/i
is (vouchsafed to us) in and through Christ Jesus our Lord.' But
then the same God requiring them \\ho were come to ' the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the general as-
sembly, and church of the first-born who are written in heaven, to
look diligently, ^ -nV, LEST ANY of them fall from the grace of
God, and to hold fait (hat grace by zchich atone they can serve God
acceptably, because our God is (to them who do fall from it) a
consuming fire, (H eb. xii. 15, 29-) and to take heed lest there should
i.Tud. i. 24. c i Tim. 1, 19. d Hsb. x. 38, 39. e John, x. 58, 29.
/Matt, xvi, 18. B 1 Cor. x, 12. h Rom. viii. .w. 33.
332 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the
living God;' and that for this reason that they could be made
partakers of the blessings of Christ only on this condition, that
they ' held fast the beginning of their confidence (or expectation)
stedjast fo the end; (Heb. hi. 12, 14 ) that they continue rooted and
grounded in the faith, and be not removed awtfy from the hope of
the gospel; (Col. i. 23.) seeing he bids them \vho were already
in grace, and had "received like precious faith* with them, to be-
ware lest being led away by the error of the vucktd, they fall
from their own stedfastness." 2 Pet. iii. 17. Hence we conceive
we have just reason to deny that God hath from eternity decreed,
or absolutely promised to preserve them from falling into those
sins which he thus cautions them to avoid, or to perform himself
what he requires, as their duty.
Thirdly. We grant that God hath promised perseverance in the
ways of righteousness to the end, to those who constantly and
conscientiously use the means by him prescribed for that end ; he
will " present us holy and unbiameable, and unreprovable in his
sight, if we continue in 'the faith rooted and settled, and be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel." Coloss. i. 22, 23.
He hath assured us, that " if we cast not away our confidence,
but patiently continue to do the will of God, we shall inherit the
promises; (Heb. x. 35, 36.) That if we give all diligence to add
to our faith virtue, knowledge, godliness, patk nee, temperance,
brotherly kindness and charity, we shall never fall; (2 Pet. i.
5, 10.) That jf we build ourselves np in our holy faith, and pray
fervent!) in the Holy Ghost, we shall keep ourselves in the love of
God; ^Jude 20. 21.) That if we hold fast till he come, and keep
his works to the end, we shall reign with Christ." Rev. ii. 25
26, 27- But then we deny that God hadi absolutely promised
to interpose his power infi usirably to engage all true believers to
use these means, and judge these very lex' s to be so many evi-
dences to the contrary. The assertors of this doctrine hold,
II. First. That the foundation of this perseverance is the ab-
solute election of those that persevere unto salvation, and conse-
quently to the means which shall unfrustrably conclude in their
salvation. And this shews the inconsistency of two of their argu-
CHAP.I.2.) OF SAINTS. 333
ments for perseverance, taken from the prayers of the saints that
they may persevere, and from the supposed intercession of Christ
to the same effect. For, as it cannot be proved, that either Christ
intercedes or the saints pray more for perseverance to the end, than
for their preservation from those sins to which experience and
scripture shews they are obnoxious; so is it as absurd lo pray or
intercede for that which God hath absolutely decreed from all
eternity shall come to pass, as to pray and intercede that the
work! may not be drowned again; or that Christ may come to
judgment, or be the Judge of the quick and dead; or that the
bodies of the saints may arise; or for any other thing which shall
infallibly come to pass by virtue of God's absolute decree from
all eternity : it being, upon this supposition, as certain that this
absolute decree concerning their perseverance shall come to pass,
though Christ did never intercede, or the saints pray it might do
so; as that the other decrees now mentioned shall certainly have
their effect, with his or our intercession that it may be so.
Secondly. They also grant that it is not from the strength of
the new nature in them, from the steadiness of the renewed mind,
the immutability of the renewed will or affections, that true be-
lievers cannot fall away; but purely from the promise of God
that, though they are obnoxious in themselves to fall away, he
will keep them by his power from falling finally. And hence it
is obvious to discern that all the arguments produced in this
cause from the nature of true faith, conversion, or the new birth,
are insufficient to prove this doctrine: because it is granted that
it is not from the nature of this faith, the strength of this conver-
sion, or the immutability of this new birth that they thus perse-
vere; but from the power of God, by virtue of his promise, pre-
serving them from that fall to which they in themselves are still
obnoxious.
When therefore they argue for the perseverance of the saints
to the end, from the words of the Psalmist, ' he whose delight is in
the law of the Lord, and who meditates in it day and night, his
leaf shall not wither. k That he who hears Chrht's sayings and doth
them, shall be like lo a wise man who built his houseupona rock; and
so, when the wind and the floods came, it fell not. From the good
i, 2, 5. I Matt. vii. 24, 25.
34 THE PERSEVERANCE (OIS. V.
ground which brought forth fruit with patience. m From St. Paul's
question, how shall zee that are dead to sin live any longer there-
in l l n And from the words of St. John, this is the victory over
the world, even our faith.' As all these places are manifestly
impertinent, because they only shew the effect of good disposi-
tions remaining with us, or how it will be with the man who al-
ways delights in the law of God, who still doth Christ's command-
ments, hears the word and keepeth it, as the good ground did;
is still dead to sin, and still lives by faith; but not that these good
dispositions must be always in us.
Third/I/. They grant that though true believers cannot fall to-
tally and finally, yet may they fall into drunkenness and incest, as
Noah; so into murder and adultery, as David; into gross idolatry,
as Solomon; into denials of our Lord, with oaths and imprecation^,
as St. Peter did; and into such horrid sins as render them at pre-
sent unfit to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and which require
a renewal of their faith and their repentance; and that by the
guilt of those sins they stand condemned, till they are renewed by
faith and repentance. And this demonstratively shows the false-
hood of their arguments from such texts as these; " He that is
born of God sinneth not, neither can sin; he keepeth himself so
that the wicked one toucheth him not. p The Lord is faithful,
who shall establish you, and keep you from evil." ?
CHAP. II.
Containing arguments from scripture against the doctrine of the
perseverance cj saints to the end.
THE scriptures which do expressly assert the possibility that
true believers, true penitents, men truly just and righteous, may
fall away from their righteousness, and die in their iniquity, are,
among many others, these following.
I. " When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness
and committeth iniquity, and doth according to all the abomina-
n Luke vlii. 8, 15. n Rom. vi. 2. o 1 John v. 4. pi John iii. 9< r, IS*
1 2 Thess. iii. 5.
CHAP. II. I.) OF SAINTS. 335
tions which the wicked man doth, shall he live? All his righte-
ousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in the trespass
that he hath trespassed, and in the sin that he hath sinned, in
them shall he die. Whvn a righteous man turneth away from his
righteousness, and committed iniquity and dietli in them, for his
iniquity that he hath done shall he die. a When I shall say to the
righteous he shall surely live, if he trust to his righteousness, and
commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered,
but for his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die.* Vs .-u
the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and comrnit-
teth iniquity, he shall die thereby."* Where,
Observe (First} that God is here asserting the righteousness of
his ways against the munmnings and the repinings of the Jews,
that they died for their fathers' sins. For that this v, a? the import
of their proverb, " the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the chil-
dren's teeth are set on edge," is evident from God's answer to this
proverb, ' that evert/ one should die for his ozcn iniquity, (Jer.
xxxi. 29,) and to these murmurers that * the soul that &inneth it
shall die.' (Ezek. xviii. 3.) This sense of these murmurers the
prophet represents more plainly in these word*, ' if our iniquities
cuid our sins be upon us, and we pine atcay in t/tem, how shall KC
then Ihe? (Chap, xxxiii. 10.) And this shews the vanity of that
answer, which some return to this argument, that " the prophet
here speaks of afflictions and not death;" to which may be added,
a Ezek. xviii ?4, 26. b Chap, xxxiii. 13, 18.
c Sicut justura antca pcocatorem non praegravant antiqua delicta, sic peccatorem qui prius Justus fuerit
non juvant veteres justitia. Hieron. in Ezek. 18, F. 196. L- Quibus omnibus demonstrate nee pec-
atorem salutcra desperare debere si agat poenitentiam, nee justum in sua justitia confidere si perdiderit
negligenter quod magno labore quasierat. In C. 35, F. 221, K. T TOV Jj'xaiOV 6v)iJ.wuv a,ioa. Theodotet-ia
hKum.
As his former iniquities do not oppress the just man who had before been a sinner, so neither does
ki* former righteousness prefit the sinner who has till now been a just person.' Jerom on Ezek. xviii.
By which it is demonstrated, that a sinner ought not to despair of salvation if he truly repent,
and that a just person ought not to trust in his righteousness if he have negligently lost that which he
kad acquired by great labour.' Jerom on Ezek. xxxiii.
' Neither shall my promise of good things profit the righteous man, unless he continue in the practice
tl that which is good ; but shall rather inflict on him the punishment due to those who have beat
wioe *Ure. Theodoret on the passage. ED.
336 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
that this answer contradicts the express words of the prophet
about twenty times.
Secondly. Observe, that the righteous man here spoken of is
one truly righteous; for he is one who " smneth not, commiueth
not iniquity, and turneth not away from his righteousness;"**! one
who walketh in God's statutes and keeps his judgments; yea,
" who walketh in the statutes of life without committing iniquity;"'
and therefore assuredly is one who is truly and inwardly righte-
ous, and not in outward profession only. " For," saith Dr. Pri-
deaux, " should he only turn away from his counterfeit and hypo-
critical righteousness; should he not rathei live than die, inasmuch
as he would put off the wolf to put on the lamb?" " To affirm,"
saith Mr. Thorndyke, " that the prophet of God, speaking in
God's name, and of the esteem and reward which God hath for
the righteous and unrighteous, speaks only of that which seemeth
righteousness and unrighteousness to the world, or which a hypo-
crite himself thinks such, is such an open scorn to God's word, as
cannot be maintained but by taking righteousness to signify un-
righteousness, and turning for not turning but continuing in the
wickedness which was at the heart when he piofessed otherwise."
Thirdly. The man who is here said to die, is said to die not
only for, but ' in his iniquity, and to be taken away in his ini-
quity;'* and so must die not only temporally but eternally. The
way which God directs him to, that he may escape this death, is
' t o walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity ; h to
repent and turn himselffrotn all his iniquity, and make him a new
heart, and a new spirit, and then the promise is, that ail ini> trans-
gressions shall not be mentioned,' i that is, imputed to him; and there-
fore the life promised to him that doth so, must be life eternal ; and
consequently the death following on the neglect to do so, must
be death eternal. And lastly, the righteous man who turneth
away from his righteousness is one who " committeth iniquity,
and doth according to all the abominations which the wicked man
doth;"* and therefore must be one to whom belongs the portion
of the wicked, which is death eternal : that therefore must be the
punishment here threatened to him for ' turning away from his
righteousness.'
, rf Ezekiel xxxiii, 12, 13. e Chapter xviii, 9, 17, 19. / Epilog. Part 2, c. 31, p. 272.
C Ezekiel xxxiii, 8, 9. A Verse 15. i Chapter xviii, 30, 31. * Chapter xviii, 21.
CHAP. II. 2.) OF SAINTS. 337
And (Fourthly} whereas some take refuge in the supposed
Conditional proposal of the words, " which," say they, " assert
nothing," (i.) they fly for refuge to a mere mistake, the words in
the original being not if, but 31 $5 (beshub) EV y v wip? Imspi^^
*!N THE DAY THAT HE TURNS AWAY/row his righteousness'
And again, when ' I say to the righteous he shall live, NIPP (vehu,)
AND HE trust in his righteousness.' (ii. ) The same form of words
is used concerning the wicked turning away from his wickedness;
and yet "none doubts but the prophet then speaks of what is
very possible. And (in.) even Dr. Prideaux confutes this an-
swer thus, " though such hypothetical^, as are only made Use of
for the amplification or the aggravation of matters, (us ' if 1 climb
up into heaven, thnu art there,' ) infer not the possibility of the thing;
yet such conditional sayings, upon which admonitions, promises,
and threatenings are built, do at least suppose something in pos-
sibility, though by their tenor and form they suppose nothing in
being; besides, in the case in hand, he that had a mind to deride
the prophet, might readily come upon him thus, ' But a righteous
'man according to the truth, cannot turn away from his rigbteous-
' ness, therefore your threatening is in vain." 1 Nor can it rea-
sonably be supposed that an All-wise God should go about td
justify the equity of his ways only by supposing things impossible
by virtue of his own decree and promise.
II. ARGUMENT SECOND. This doctrine of the possibility of
the final departure of true believers and penitents from the faith,
is as fully contained in these words, " it is impossible for them
who were once enlightened, (N.B.) and have tasted of the hea-
venly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have
tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come xat sriigi6ffovTf, AND YET FALL AWAY, to renew them
again to repentance, &c." (Heb. vi. 4, 5, Q.) For,
First. That this is spoken of them who were once true believers,
is evident, (i.) from the word raJv
tzQifffjiuv wXavv/,6y the deceit of men, practising these unnatural lusts,
ye jail front your ozcn stecffastness;" 1 plainly supposing that even
stedfast chris/ians might thus fall. Now they who had thus
escaped, were not any longer in bondage to sin, or overcome by
it, verse 19, which yet, saith St. Paul, Rom. vii. ]y, 23, is the
state of every unregenerate person. See the note there.
Thirdly. The aposlle adds, that ' tliey had escaped the pollu-
tions which are in the world through lust, ev emyvwasi, by the ac-
knowledgment of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ f c that is,
by the acknowledgment of ' that truth which is after godliness,' f
which they who are laden with sins cannot attain to; which is the
consequence of true repentance, and \\hich recovers them, ' from
the snare of Satan, who zce~e led captive by him at his zci/l;' e and
so by such an acknowledgment of Christ, as only true christians
have, and which is joined with ' the faith of the elect.' Tit. i. 1 .
Moreover, by virtue of this acknowledgement, they had so far
escaped the pollutions of the world through lust as to be disen-
tangled from them, not overcome by them; as is plain from those
words, " if after they have thus escaped, they be again entangled
and overcome:" they also had turned to, that is, obeyed "the
holy commandment delivered to them;" for otheiwise they could
not afterwards have turned from it. Now evident it is, that nei-
ther all, nor any of these things can truly be affirmed of hypo-
critical professors, who only are in outward show, but never in
sincerity of heart, turned from the service of sin, or obedient to
the holy commandment.
Secondly. That these men after fell away totally and finally,
we learn from these words, " that they were again ailured to
d Chapter iii, 17- e Titus i, 1. / 2 Timothy iii, 7. e % Timothy ii, 25, 26.
CHAP. II. 6.) OF SAINTS. 343
wantonness ; ag?.in entangled and overcome by their polluting
lusts: and so again in bondage to them, verse 19; that they turn-
ed from the hoK commandment delivered to them to their former
vomit and wallowing in the mire; and that so fatally, that it had
been better for them not to have knovui the way of righteousness."
VI. AuGDMi.NT SIXTH. All the fore-mentioned texts seein
directly to assert this may be done. I proceed secondly to those
scriptures \vhich seem as plainly to assert it hath been done, and
therefore may be done again. Now of this we have an instance
First. lu Hymenasus and Alexander, and their associates;
which St. Paul introduceth with a charge to Timothy, * to hold
(that is, retain) faith and. a good conscience, zchich some having
put aiCfii/ concerning faith have made shipwreck; ofzi'hom is Hy-
meiiaus and Philetus.' Now ' to put atcay a good conscience,'
belongs to them alone who once had and ought to have retained
it, and ' to ni'ike sJjij-K'reck vj i!ie faith,' so as to blaspheme that
doctrine which tlu-y once professed, is surely to fall off from the
profession of it. Last It/, the faith and that good conscience he
charges Timothy lo retain, is doubtless a sincere faith, and a good
conscience, that unfeigned faith 11 and that good conscience he
then had. By saving therefore that others had laid aside both
these, he, in eft'ecl, declares that they were totally fallen away,
which is sufficient confutation of all their arguments produced
from scripture for the doctrine of perseverance; which if they
prove any thing, they prove that true saints cannot full totally,
nor can it reasonably be thought that when so many do thus fall
away, all of them should return by a sincere repentance.
A second instance is that of Hymenaeus and Philetus, who,
sailh the apostle, 'have ei red from the truth (T:^ ~r,v
XTiVXV, HAVE FALLEN OFF FROM THE TRUTH,) Ulid
the faith of some:' 1 So, irspl ^V*v d^yr^.-j, (1 Tim. vi. 21,) is TO
FALL AWAY FROM THE FAITH,* and is another instance of this
nature: for seeing christians believe to the saltation of their
souls, (Heb. x. 39,) and the end of tl;cir faith is the salvation of
their souls, ( 1 JPeter i. 9,) they who do overthrow their faith, must
h 2 Timothy i, 5. 2 Timothy ii, 18.
If So, //,r) afO^cl yyvoMxaj ao$r,f X! &ytto%ft ' depart not from a wise and good
wife,' and afOj^SiV sXTTt'5' Z T VQQ6$J&W'f is 'to fall from our hopes and
expectations.' CEcunv in locum.
344 THE PERSEVERANCE (D1S. V.
overthrow that in them which, had it continued, would have eudr
ed in their salvation.
Thirdly. We have reason to suspect this of many Judaizers in
the church of Galatia; for as the apostle declares, that they had
*' received the Spirit through the hearing of faith;" that they
were all made "the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus,'"" and
by baptism had " put on Christ," and f hat " because they were
sons, God had sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying,
Abba, Father;'"* that they once ' ran rcell: so doth he marvel
that they were so soon removed from him that called them in the
grace of Christ to another gospel,' p by which Christ's gospel was
perverted. He enquires, " who had bewitched them that they
should not obey the truth: 2 And how it was that after they had
known, or rather were known of God, they returned again to the
beggarly elements of the world to which they desired to be in bon-
dage ; r declaring that he was afraid of them lest he had bestowed
upon them labour in vain;* and that he travailed in birth with
them to renew in them that faith from which they were fallen,
and to form Christ" in them ; that they now did not obey the truth."
And seeing they now desired to be circumcised, and to be under
the law, he plainly tells them that "if they were circumcised Christ
should profit them nothing; that he was become of none effect to
as many of them as sought for justification by the works of the
law, they being fallen from grace," 1 " and therefore must have been
formerly in a state of grace. It is therefore evident that the apos-
tle believed that they who had ' begun in the Spirit might end in
thejtesh; that they who were made the sons of God by faith in
Christ Jesus, might be so changed that Christ should projit them
nothing, and be of none effect to them, and that they who were once
known of God, might fall from his grace and favour'
To this head also are to be referred the predictions of the scrip-
ture concerning persons who should fall away; for being divine
predictions they must come to pass, and being predictions of
things which were to happen long before our times, they must be
also instances of what hath come to pass. Now such are,
2 Chapter iii, 2, 5. Verses 26, 27. n Chapter iv. 6. o Chapter v, 7.
f_ Chapter i, 6, 7. 5 Chapter iii, 1. r Chapter iv, 9. s Verse 11. t Verse IS.
o Chapter T, 7. u> Verse 2.
CHAP. n. ^ 6.) OF SAINTS, 345
First . Christ's declaration that by reason of the extreme afflio
tion of the time*, in which Jerusalem was to be destroyed, many
should be offended, that is, should fall off from the faith: and that
"because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; but
he that endures to the end shall be saved." Matt. xxiv. 12, 13.
Where that Christ speaks not of a hypocritical, outward profes-
sion of affection to him, may be gathered from his styling it not
pretence, but love; his supposition that it was fervent love; (for
what was never hot cannot wax cold;) yea such love in which had
they continued they would certainly have been saved; and yet he
doth not only intimate that some would not continue in that love
to the end, but plainly doth foretel that it in many would wax
cold.
Secondly. As our Lord here foretold that there should be then
an apostasy of the believers of the Jewish nation, so also did St.
Paul speak of the same apostasy, as a thing that was to happen be-
fore the coming of the ' man of sin, (2 Thess. ii. 3,) adding, that
the Spirit said expressly that in the latter times, (the times then
instant, verse 6 ; ) some should depart from the faith.' Now to prevent
this apostasy of the believing Jews, the epistle to the Hebrews
was manifestly written. And as the excellent Dr. Barrow used
to say, " that it was written against the docirine of perseverance;"
so is it certain that it containeth many cogent arguments against
that doctrine, besides those three produced already from it. As
will be evident,
1. From the manifold exhortations, <{ to hold fast their hope,,
which gave them ground of rejoicing. Chap. iii. 16. To hold fast
their confidence stedfast the end. Verse 14. To hold fast their
profession. Chap. iv. 14. To hold fast the profession of their,
faith without wavering. Chap. x. 93. To retam grace whereby
to serve God acceptably. Chap. xii. 28. To labour to enter into
the rest prepared for the people of God, lest any of them (who*
believing had a present right to it, chap iv. 3, as the Jews had to
enter into the land of Canaan, whilst they believed in God, and
believed his servant Moses, Exod. xiv. 31,) should fall from it
after the same example of unbelief," chap. iv. 11, they being ex-,
eluded from entering into that land by tlu;ir following unbelief.
Num. xiv. 11. Chap. iii. 19- "To shew the same diligence tc*
343 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
the full assurance of hope to the end, and to be followers of them
who through iaith and patiettce did inherit the promises,. Chap,
vi. 11, 12. To consider him who endured such contradiction of
sinners, lost tticv t;c wearied, and faint in their minds; to lift up
the hands that hung down, and the feeble knees, and to make
Straight path 9 for their feet, lest that which is lame be turned out
of the way.'' Verges 12, 13. Where we have four .Agonisiical
terms, all importing fainting in our Christian warfare or race, and
giving over the fight as being able to hold out no longer; for
xa/xveiv is ' to give over the light as being weary;' ex^av is ' to faint
and be dispirited, so t!:at we can run or fight no longer;' to have
Tr Trac^i/xsvaj %igx<, } ' hands hanging down/ is ' to give over the
combat, ihey stretching out their hands;' and to have, yovxra rx.
vgpaXeXifAE'vtx, ( knees languishing,' or paralytic knees, imports
the same thing; they fighting in the Olympic games, d^doyaJnv,
' standing upright/ and ' to make straight paths,' is ' not to turn
out oi tiu \vav of Christianity for fear of persecution, and by our
example to teach the infirm Christian so to do.' See the notes
there.
2. From his frequent cautions to them who believed, to be-
ware, " lest there should be in them an evil heart of unbelief in
departing from the living God; or lest any of them should be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Chap, iii, 12, 13. To
look diligently to it lest any of them should fall from the grace of
God; lest any root of bitterness should spring up among them by
\\o:,'i many should be denied; lest there shbuld be among them
any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one mess of
pottage sold his birth-right; and, to see to it, that they did not,
aVos-ciipriy, TURN AWAY from him that spake from heaven."
3. From his promises to them that persevered, as in these words,
" cast not away y,i>r confidence which hath great recompence of
reward, for you h;.ve need of patience, that having done the will
of God, you may inherit the promises." Chap. x. 35, 36.
4. From his declarations that they only belonged to the house-
hold of Christ, " If they hold fast their confidence and rejoicing
of hope firm to the end," chap. iii. 6, and could be only made
partakers of the blessings Christ had purchased for them, by
" holding the beginning of tru'ir confidence stcdfast to the end."
Verse 14.
CHAP. II. ^7-) OF SAINTS. 347
5. From the dreadful threats lie pronounces against those who
fell away, and drew back to perdition, after they had "repented,
lived by faith, and been justified through faitli in the blood of the
new covenant," viz. that it was " impossible to renew them to repen-
tance ;" that there remained " no more sacrifice for their sin," and
that God would have no farther pleasure in them. Now, for
confirmation of this argument, observe,
(j.) That the apostle here speaks of true believers, even of such
who had a present right to ' -enter into rest? fiv. 3,) who at pre-
sent ' rejoiced in hope,' (iii: 6,) and had such an expectation of
future blessings, which if they held fast they would be 'partakers
of Christ' Verse 14. That they had 'freedom of access into the
holt/ of holies through the blood of Jesus, (x. 19,) had their hearts
sprinkled from an etil conscience, and their bodies washed zcith
pure zcater, (verse s 22, 23,) and a Christian hope, ( verse 24,) and
knew they had in heaven a better, and a more enduring substance
than that which they had lost on earth, (verse 34,) and would
receive the promise, and a great recompence of reward, if they did
not cast arc ay their confidence, but patiently continued in well-do-
ing.' Verses 35, 3(J. That they were 'come to that Jerusalem which
is above, and to the assembly of the first- born, whose names zcere
written in heaven,' (xii. 22, 23,) and so undoubtedly were once
true converts and sound believers. And yet,
(ii.) It is also evident that the apostle supposes that they might
not retain this hope, or hold this expectation 'stedjast to the end, (iii.
6, 14,) that they nnghtfail of the rest prepared for the people of
God, as the Jews did through unbelief, (iv. 1 1,) that they might
depart from the living God, (iii. 12,) that they might decline from
their hope, (x. 23,) and cast azcay their confidence, (verse 35,) that
they might faint under and give over the chrislian combat, (xii. 3,)
might Id their hands hang down, and their knees be feeble, (verse
11,) that they might be defiled, and jail from grace; that they might
become fornicators, and profane persons, as Esau was, and so might
lose their spiritual birth-right..' (Verses 16, 17-) And, lastly,
that they might ' t urn uicay from him who spake from heaven to
them,' (verse 25,) and so unquestionably might fall away both
totally and finally.
VII. A THIRD head of ARGUMENTS against this doctrine
is to this effect, that all the commands and exhortations directed
S4 THE PERSEVERANCE (BIS. V.
by God to the faithful to persevere in well-doing, and to conti-
nue faithful to the end, and to fear lest they should fall away; all
cautions directed to them to take heed they do not do so; all
places which contain a supposition that they may do so, and
which suspend our future happiness on this condition that ' we
continue sted/ast to the end,' and promise salvation upon so do-
ing, and which pronounce the most dreadful and abiding threats
to them who do not so, are so many pregnant evidences of the
possibility of doing so, and are plain indications that God hath
made no absolute decree, or promise, that good men shall not do
so. For, as when these motives are used to induce men to em-
brace Christianity, or perform any other Christian duty, they con-
tain an evidence that it is possible for men to do otherwise; so
lso when they are ustd to induce men to persevere in that pro-
fession which they have undertaken, they must necessarily, for the
same reason, contain an evidence that it is possible for any man
who is induced by them to persevere in the course of a Christian,
not to persevere. For whereas some think fit to answer that
" these commands, and exhortations, these cautions, promises and
threats, directed to true believers, are well consistent with God's
absolute decree and promise of their perseverance, as being the
means appointed for the accomplishment of that which he hath
made necessary by his decree and promise;" the falsehood of
this answer shall be fully detected under all these heads. At
present let it only be observed,
First. That this is the sentiment of all mankind; for how much
soever they vary in other things, they all agree in this, not to ex-
hort men to what they know they never can refuse to do ; not to
fear they should neglect such things; not to terrify them by threats
from neglecting, or allure them by promises to perform them.
On the contrary they generally agree, that as a promise, so a threat
of what I know to be impossible, is as none at all; that there is
no need of exhortations to incite men to what they certainly will
do. fl That a promise must be of something which at present is
uncertain, and suspended on a condition which may not be per-
formed; and that a command or law obliging ns to will and do,
must suppose in us a freedom not to will, or to consent to that
p. Supervacuaneum est enim, in quod imus, impelli ; nemo in amorem sui cohortandus cst, qiiani,
jdum paseitur, trahit. Sen. de Ben. L 4, 16, 17-
CHAP. JI. 7.) OF SAINTS. 349
which i required; for "he only wills," say the Civilians, "and
consents, who hath it in his power to be unwilling and dissent."*
Secondly. Observe that God himself approves of this deport-
ment; for though the elect angels are yet under the law of love
and obedience, yet are they not exhorted to that obedience, they
have no promises to move them to it, nor ape they threatened with
God's displeasure if they neglect to do it, because, being con-
firmed in their blessed state, they cannot fail of doing it. Again,
our Blessed Lord, as he was a prophet, spake 'as his Father
gave him commandment,' for so all legates must do; as he was a
priest, he became obedient to the death; but I know of no exhor-
tations directed to him to perform faithfully the office of a Priest
or Prophet; no threats, should he neglect to do so; no promises
to encourage him to do that duty of which he could not fail, but
only a declaration of that glory which would succeed his suffer-
ings. Lastly, we find no exhortations directed to the evil angels
not to tempt God's servants, not to be adversaries to Christ's
kingdom ; no threats denounced upon their doing so, but only a de-
claration of their present state, and of their future doom. Now
seeing the elect on earth, according to this doctrine, can no more
fail of perseverance to the end, than the elect angels, seeing they
can no more finally neglect, or be unfaithful in the use of the
means which will infrustrably produce that perseverance, than
Christ could fail of faithfully discharging his Prophetick and his
Priestly office, how is it the Divine Wisdom sees it meet to ply
us on earth continually with those exhortations, threats, and pro-
mises which he saw needless in the case, and inconsistent with
the state of the elect angels and our blessed Lord? Have we not
reason to conceive it is because we have a liberty ad ulrumque,*
which they had not, and are at present in a state of trial, whether
we will stand or fall, whereas they both were under no such pos-
sibility of failing in their duty? And
Thirdly. This is evident from the nature of these things ; for
whatsoever is a means for the producing an effect, or the bringing it
to pass, must contain in it nothing repugnant to, but only subordinate
to that end. But such exhortations as these, ' hold fast your pro-
fession z&ithout zvavering; c hold till I come, that no man take away
b Ejus est vellc qui potest nolle. Ulpian da Reg. Jur Leg. 3. Consentire non potcst cum nee dis-
entire possit* Tryphon. 1- > Bello S. Medio D. de Captivis.
* < To both.' ED. 9 Hebrews x, 23.
350 THE PERSEVERANCE (D1S. V.
away thy crown ; d look diligently that you fall not from the grace
oj God,' lest being led aicaij by (lie error of the zciched, you fall
from your orcn stedj'astness, &jc.'' f do in their proper nature and
tendency import a danger, and tend to raise a fear in men, k-st
what they are cautioned to beware of, should happen to them.
Whereas an infrustrable decree and absolute promise made kuowu
to all believers that they shall persevere to the end, tends to ex-
clude all dangers, and prevent all fear of falling from the grace
of God, and therefore must be contrary to the purpose of these
exhortations; and so these exhortations can be no means to beget
perseverance in them. And ?ince threats are more naturally de-
signed to beget in us a sense of the same danger, and an impres-
sion of the same fear, which these decrees and promises entirely
exclude, these decrees and promises must be repugnant to uiose
threats. Since, lastly, promises tend to excite hope, inflame en-
deavours, and render us solicitous, lest we should fail of the bles-
sing promised; and where we know such absolute decrees are
made, and promises engaged to confer the promised blessing,
there can be no ground for this solicitude, no need of hoping for
that which faith makes certain to us, or of quickening our endea-
vours after that in which it is impossible we should miscarry.
Hence also it must follow, that these absolute decrees and pro-
mises must be repugnant to these conditions of perseverance laid
down by way of promise in the holy scripture, ' zee shall reap if
we faint not: e if ye continue in the faith, and be not moved aicay
from the hope of the gospel, h ye are made partakers of Christ: if
ye hold fast your rejoicing in hope, and the beginning ofyourcon-
jidencejirm to the end;'* and so 1 come to a particular consideration
of these respective heads. And,
VIII. First. All commands to persevere and to ' stand fast in
the faith,' shew that they to whom they are directed may not
stand fast, or persevere unto the end; for, as Suarez well argues,
" all laws, that is, commands of our superiours, are made con-
cerning actions to be done, or left undone by man as a free agent,
who hath potestatem ad utrumlibet, ' a power to obey or not ;' but
in commands respecting what it is not possible to leave undone,
there can be no such liberty to leave undone what is commanded,
4 Revelation* ii, 25. e Hebrews xii, 15. / 2 Peter iii, 17- g Galfltiani i, 9.
h Colossians \, 23- t Hebrew! iii, H.
CHAP. II. ^9.) OF SAINTS. 351
and therefore in such things there can be no law properly com-
manding that, (ii.) Laws are attended with the sanctions of a
penalty to the transgressor of them, and a reward to the obedient;
but where there is no power of obeying, it cannot be our fault
that we do not obey, and so our disobedience can deserve no
punishment, nor can it be rewardable to do that which is snnply
necessary for us to do." Now such commands are these, 'rcci-ch
ye, praying at all times, that ye mat/ be worthy to escape ail these
things, and to stand bejore the Son of man. k Watch ijc. aim;;-! fast
in the faith, quit yourselves like men. 1 Put on I he (dote, 'i-.-'.'.onr
of God, that ye mat/ be able to stand against theKit.es of ti.e
Take to yourselves the zehole armour of God, that yc man Lt
to zeithstand in the evil day, and having done all to stanu. Cast
not aicay your confidence which hath great reccmpence of regard."
But ye, beloved, build ing up yourselves in your most holy fui'h,
praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God' 9
To the church of Thyatira, Christ speaks thus, ' what thou hast
attained to holdfast till I come: p to that of Philadelphia, l hold
fast till I come, that no man lake azcay thy crown.' Now do not
these things plainly seem to intimate that their salvation depended
on their watching, their using the whole armour of God, their
stedfastness in the faith, without casting away their confidence,
and that they might lose their crown by neglecting so to do, and
be unable to withstand temptations, or to stand before the Son of
man ?
IX. Secondly. All exhortations to perseverance, or to continue
in the faith, the knowledge, or the love of God, must be so many
evidences, that they to whom they are directed may not do so ;
and that he who tenders them to true believers hath not obliged
himself by promise absolute, to preserve them in the faith or in
the love of God. For either they need these exhortations, or
they do not. To say " they do not need tfoem," is in effect to say
that " they are needless exhortations, and therefore are unworthy
of the wisdom of the Holy Ghost." To say <( they need them in
order to their perseverance," is in effect to grant that they are in-
strumental to their perseverance, and that without them they
might fail of it: for that cannot be needful to that end, without
O ' '
* Luke xxi, 36. I 1 Corinthians xvi, 13. m Ephesians vi, 11, 15. n Hebrews x, 55.
o Jude 20. p Revelations ii, 25.
THE PERSEVERANCE (DlS. Vi
which they shall as assuredly persevere, as if no such exhortations
had been offered to them. And seeing exhortations are only
moral motives, which we may resist or frustrate, if they be means
toward the production ot perseverance, it must depend upon such
means as we may frustrate and resist, and so it is possible it may
not happen. If it be answered, that " these exhortations there-
fore become effectual, because God's Spirit infrustrably persuades
the oaints to obey them ;" this is a plain acknowledgment the ex-
hortation is no means of the saints' perseverance; because an ac-
tion which I can always resist and frustrate, can be no means of
an infrustrable or irresistible effect, and therefore it must be the
operation of the Holy Spirit, alone, which doth infrustrably per-
form it; and yet the scripture aboundeth with these exhortations.
To them whom he acknowledges to be the " temples of the living
God," by virtue of " his Spirit dwelling in them," St. Paul directs
this exhortation, "not to receive the grace of God in vain.' T-
ren, be diligent to make your calling and election sure; for if yoU
do these things you shall never fall." To them "whose sins
were forgiven, and who had overcome the wicked one," St. John
writes thus, "love not the world, neither the things of the world;
for he that loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him;
and the world passeth away, and the lusts thereof, but he that doth
the will of God abidelh for ever."** Now do not these exhorta-
tions plainly intimate, that christians may ' receive the grace of
God in vain; that they may render the labours of the ministers
of the gospel vain, by not ' holding fast the word of life; that
satan may devour them if they be not sober, vigilant, and stedfast
in the faith; and that their assurance of not falling, depends upon
their diligence in the performance of their duty?
X. And, Thirdly, this will be still more evident from all the
exhortations directed to churches and persons to fear lest they
should fall away, and finally miscarry. For fear is that passion
which raises in us an apprehension of some approaching evil,
which may possibly befal us, which is not easily resistible by our
strength, and which, when it befals us, will either be very burden-
some or destructive to us. Now it is impossible to fear that evil
should be irresistible by our strength, which God hath engaged
to support us under, or be conceived destructive to us, from
which he stands engaged to exempt us ; since it is impossible to
fear that his decree should be frustrated, or his promise fail..
Even the nature of a religious fear tends to engage us to use our
greatest diligence that we do nothing which may forfeit the divine
favour, or render us obnoxious to his just displeasure; and if we
are obliged to * serve God always in reverence and godly fearz
if happy is the man that jeareth always ;.f if it be our wis-
dom to be thus in the fear of the Lord all the day /ORg,'* then
z 1 Peter i, 2. a Chapter v, 8, 9. * 2 Peter i, 1. t; Venc .510.
d 1 John u, 12, 13, 15, 1C, 17- f See Dr. Reynolds of the Passions, fcj$Wr38.
J Hebrews xii, 28, c Proverbs xxiii, 37-
Dd
354 THE TERSEVERANCE (fjlS. V.
must there be just ground or reason for this fear; and the more
inconsistent are these fears with an absolute decree or promise of
exemption from the evil feared, the stronger evidences do these
exhortations thus to fear, administer against the pretensions of any
such decree or promise. Now exhortations and directions of this
nature are very frequent in the scripture : Thus, to those who
were 'grafted in and partook of the root and fatness of the olive-
tree, St. Paul speaks thus, be not high minded, but fear lent I/ton
a/so shouldst be broken off, as the unbelieving Jews now are.
For if thou dost not continue hi his goodness, thou also shall be
broken off; and if God spared not the natural branches, thou hast
cause to fear lest he also spare not thee' r To them who were at
present in a state of favour with God, and in whom God had
" begun the good work," the apostle directs this exhortation, to
" work out their salvation with fear and trembling."* Now what
ground of fear can there be, where God hath absolutely decreed
to confer this salvation, and stands obliged, by promise, to afford
these means which will infallibly produce it? Let us, "who
have believed, fear," saith the apostle, "lest a promise being made
us of entering into rest, any of us should fall short of it."' Now
seeing no man can fall short of it but by neglect of the means to
which God hath annexed this promise; if all true believers have
a sure promise from God both of the end, and of the means in-
fallibly conducing to it, and it is absurd to fear lest God should
be unfaithful to his promise, what ground can any such person
have to fear lest he should fall short of the promised rest ? To
them who had " sanctified their souls through the Spirit to obey
the truth," St. Peter saith, " if ye call on him who without respect
of persons judgeth every man, pass the time of your sojourning
herein fear; 1 '" (viz of condemnation from this righteous judge;)
which fear is surely inconsistent with a promise that they shall
never be condemned. Now is it not hence evident that these
apostles believed, or at the least knew nothing to the contrary,
but that they who at present stood by faith, might afterwards be
broken off and not continue in God's goodness? Or that believ-
ers who had a conditional promise of entering into rest might yet
fall short of it? And hence must it be also evident that they
r Roman* si, 30, 21, 22. \j Philippiaus i, 6. U. 12. t Hebrew? iv, I, 3.
z 1 Peter i, 17, 23.
CHAP. II. 11.) OF SAINTS. 355
believed and knew nothing of the doctrine of the saints' perseve-
rance to the end.
XI. But, Fourthly, the fears of the apostles assisted by the
Spin!: of God, lest pious persons should miscarry, add yet a far-
ther strengtii to this argument. For, if they, by the dictate of the
Holy Spirit, had declared that God had absolutely promised that
men once truly pious should persevere to the end, how could they
reasonably express their fears lest it should be otherwise; that is,
lest God should fail of the performance of his word of promise?
And yet the apostle speaks to his Corinthians thus, "I am jea-
lous of you with a godly jealousy; for 1 have espoused you to one
husband, Christ; but I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve by his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ." 4 In the epistle to the Galatians he declares,
that he was " afraid of them lest he should have bestowed among
them labour in vain." 4 He declares concerning the Thessalonians,
that they had " received the word with much affliction, and yet
with joy of the Holy Ghost, and much assurance, not in word
only, but in power; c that they had shewed the work of faith, and
labour of love, and patience of hope in Christ Jesus, and were the
elect of God in whom the word wrought effectually;** and yet he
doth express his fears, lest satan should have tempted them so far
as to render all his labours among them vain.' e He therefore
thought them not secure by the election mentioned (i. 4,) from
falling so as that his labour among them might have been spent
in vain.
Fifthly. All cautions directed to good Christians not to fall
away, hot to fall from grace, from their own stedfastness, so as to
lose their reward, are also evidences, and even suppositions that
they may do so; and it cannot reasonably be conceived that the
&ame Spirit of wisdom should absolutely declare they could not
fall away, and yet be thus concerned to caution them against what
he had told them was as impossible as that God should fail of per-
forming his promise. For what we have just reason to caution
any man against, must be something which may come to pass,
and, without his care and diligence to prevent it, will in likelihood
come to pass, and when it comes to pass will be very dangerous
2 Corinthians xi/l, 2, 3. 4 Chapter iv, II. c \ The*Ioain 1, J, 6. 4 Chapter ii, IjF.
t Chapter ill, 5.
Dd 2
3.50 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. Y.
and hurtful to us. ISow such caution Christ gives all his disciples
in these words, " take heed to yourselves lest at any time your
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the
cares of this life, and that clay (' of judgment,' say most interpre-
ters) come upon you unawares; watch and pray always, that ye
may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand
before the Son of maii."-^ Now sure this care, vigilance, and
constant prayer required for this end, shews that without it they
were not likely to escape these judgments, and also that they
might be subject to those miscarriages which would render them
unprovided for that day, and unable to stand before the Son of
man.
To the Corinthians, whom the apostle had represented as the
temple of God by virtue of his Spirit dwelling in them, St. Paul
speaks thus, ' our fathers were once as dear to God as you chris-
tians are, yet many of them fell under the displeasure of God,
and were overthrown in the wilderness}'* adding that these exam-
ples should make them careful that they ' lusted not offer evil
things' as they did. Then he proceeds to shew the judgments of
God upon them for their ' idolatry, Jornication, unbelief, and
murmuring; adding that 'these things were written for our admo-
nition,' that we be not guilty of the like sins, and so fall under the
like judgments; and then concludes, ( let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall.' Where it is observable, (i.) that
fornication, idolatry, and unbelief, are by the apostle pronounced
things inconsistent with a state of grace; for he that " doth these
things," saith he, " hath no inheritance in the kingdom of God, or
of Christ." And yet these are the sins he admonishes them to avoid,
and to be careful that they be not overtaken with them, (ii.) Ob-
serve, that ' he that thinketh he stands' must comprehend him that
truly thinketh so, as well as him w r ho mistakes in judging so; for
the apostle speaks to the whole church of Corinth, among whom
there were many truly pious. And therefore the apostle plainly
supposes that he who truly stood might fall, and would do so if
he used not great diligence to keep his standing. For had not
this taking heed been the condition of their standing, had they
been of the number of those who by God's decree or promise in-
/ Luke x&i, W, .> if I Corinthians x, 11, IS.
CHAP. II. 11.) OF SAINTS. 357
fallibly were assured of standing, this exhortation to take heed
must have been superfluous, since men can need no admonitions
to do that which God's decree and promise secures them they
cannot omit, much less to do it to prevent what cannot possibly
befal them.
To them who < holding the beginning of their confidence sted-
fast to the end' would have been made partakers of salvation by
Christ, St. Paul speaks thus, ' take heed, brethren, lest there be in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief, causing you to depart from
the living God, h and to fall from the rest promised to you; look
diligently to it lest any man fall from the grace of God.'' So
that according io St. Paul's doctrine, they who were in a con-
dition of salvation may apostatize from the living God, miss of
the rest prepared for them, and fall off from the grace and favour
of God.
The same apostle declares to his Colosskms, that they were
"" translated from the power of satan into the kingdom of the Son
of God;" and yet he bids them ' beware lest any man should be-
guile them (that is, seduce them from Christ) with enticing words;'*
and saith to them whose stedfastness in the faith he then beheld
with joy, " beware lest any man make a prey of you through phi-
losophy and vain deceit, seducing you to walk after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ:
let no man beguile you of your reward by seducing you to the
worshipping of angels,'" and so seducing you from Christ your
head. So that, in his apprehension, they were still liable to be
seduced from Christ, and so to fail of their reward.
To them who had " like precious faith" with the apostles, St.
Peter saith, " beware lest, being led away by the error of the
wicked, you fall from ycur own stedfaslness."" 1 He therefore
did not look upon this as a thing impossible.
Lastly. St. John saith to the children of the " elect lady
walking in the truth, and having the truth dwelling in them, look
to yourselves that we lose not the things that we have wrought;
iiut that we may receive a full reward."" Whence it cloth plainly
seem to follow that they who once walked " in the truth as they
<. Hebrews iii, 12, 13, M- . i Chapter xii, 15. i- Colossians ii, 4, C. I Vtrs* IS.
m '.' Peter in, 17. a. 2 Epistle verses 2, 8.
358 THE PESEVERANCE (DIS.V.
had received a commandment," verse 4, and had Christian charity
verse 5, might lose those things which they had wrought.
XII. Sixthly. It seems incongruous to imagine that God
should make an absolute promise, that true believers should per-
severe to the end, and be unfrustrably saved, and yet suspend their
happiness and reward on this condition that they do persevere
unto the end. For a conditional promise must have these two
requisites, that it hath in it a power of suspending the obligations,
^nd that the event expressed in it be yet dubious or uncertain till
the condition be performed. Moreover, this is to make his own
promise to be performed on his part, or by himself, the condition
to be performed on their part in order to the obtaining the same
end, and to suspend the end upon his own engagement. And
yet this, according to this hypothesis, must be done by Christ him-
self, when after he had said, that ( because tribulations do abound,
the love of many shall wax cold? 1 * he adds, " but he that endures
to the end shall be saved:" and when he said to the church of
Smyrna, " be thou faithful to the death, and I will give thee a
crown of life." 6
This also must be done by the Spirit of God, or by St. Paul,
assisted by him, when he saith to the Colossians, " Christ will
present you holy and unblameable before him, if you continue in
the faith rooted and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel:'"* and to the believing Jews, "you are Christ's
house, if ye hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of hope to
the end; e you are made partakers of Christ, if you continue the
beginning of your confidence stedfast to the end."-^ These words
were plainly directed to the Colossians and Jews to deter them
from wavering in, and departing from the Christian faith. And is
it credible that the apostle should use this argument to deter them
from those sins, and yet declare and require them to believe it was
impossible they should do these things, and thereby render his
own motive wholly ineffectual? Sure it is impossible to believe
that the same divine wisdom should say that God hath absolutely
engaged to preserve you from departing from him, or being moved
from the hope of the gospel; and yet it highly concerneth you
to fear, and to take heed lest you depart from him, or should be
Matthew HIV, 12, 13. c Revelations ii, 10. d Colossians i, 22, 25. e Hebrews iii, 6.
/Verse 14.
CHAP. H. ^ 13.) OF SAINTS, 359
moved from this hope : that is, it highly doth concern you to fear
lest the God of truth should be unfaithful to his promise.
Xlli. Lastly. This is apparent from those many threats God
hath denounced against those who shall fall away, and not conti-
nue stedfast in their faith, and their obedience to the end. For
as " a promise made on a condition impossible to be performed,"
say the Civilians, " is as none at all, so is a threat of that which
cannot possibly befal us, because it cannot rationally excite me
to dread, and therefore to decline the threatened evil." All ration-
al threats suppose the evil to which the punishment is threatened
may be done, and declare such punishments shall follow when it
is done. Now of lhes>e threatenings, the most dreadful are those
which we have already mentioned, that ' it is impossible to
renew them to repentance; that there remains no more sacrifice for
their sin ; that they draw back to perdition ; and that it had been
better for them not to hate known the waif of life, than aftencard
to depart from the holy commandment' Our Lord tells his dis-
ciples, that * if any one abide not in him, he is to be cast out as a
withered branch, gathered up and burnt ; a where it is observable,
that he speaks of that abiding in him, in which if they continued,
he would abide in them, verse 4, aud they would bring forth much
fruit.' Verse 5. He saith to the church of Ephesus, " remem-
ber whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works;
else I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick
out of its place, if thou repent not." 6 Now would Christ exhort
them to return to those works which were not the works of a true
Christian? Or could this punishment be inflicted, and no soul
perish by it that otherwise might have been saved ? To the church
of Pergamos he saith " repent, or I will come unto thee quickly,
and fight against thee with the sword of my mouth. " c To the
church of Sardis, " remember how thou hast received and heard ;
and hold fast and repent, or I will come unto thee as a thief."*
Now that he himself should threaten what his own decree and
promise had rendered impossible, is very difficult to believe.
To strengthen these arguments, let it be seriously considered
how unlikely it is that all these exhortations and commands, these
cautious, threats, and conditional provisions should proceed from
f . John xv, 6, 6 Revelations ii, 5. . c Verec 16. d Chapter iii, 2, 5.
3f3O THE PERSEVERANCE (niS. V.
the same God who had before made known to the same persons his
absolute decree and promise that they should certainly be preserved
to the end; and made it one article of that faith, which ' is the ex-
pictation of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,' that
they shall be infallibly thus preserved : seeing according to this
doctrine, God mut be supposed to speak thus to them,
* I lay upon you strict commands 'to hold Jast till 1 come, that
1 no man take your reicard from you, and to keep yourselves in the
* love of God.' But know that I have absolutely engaged for your
' stedfastness and perseverance in my love, and so have rendered
* it impossible that your reward should be taken from you.
' I frequently, and with some seeming earnestness, exhort you
c ' not to receive the grace of God in vain, to take to yourselves the
' zchole armour of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day;
' and having done all, to stand; to stability in the faith, and dih-
' gence in order " to the full assurance of hope," that you may
' "make your calling and election sure." But then know it is as
' sure, and hath been so from all eternity, as my decree can make
* it. You have of this stability and diligence as full assurance of
' hope, as the promise of that God, who cannot lie, can minister.
' I indeed require you to ' work out your salvation zcilh fear
f and trembling, and to pass the time of your sojourning here in
'fear:' and though you do at present stand by faith, and in my
' favour, to ' fear lest you should not continue in my goodness, and
' I should not spare you; yea, to fear lest you should fall short of
1 that rest which I have promised to believers.' But then know
^ that all this is fear where no fear is, and in effect to fear lest my
' absolute decrees should be made frustrate, or my promise fail.
1 My apostles indeed, out of their great affection to you, seem
' 'jealous lest you should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
' Christ, or that their labour should be in vain among you.' But
' since they write thus to you, * knowing your election of God,'
' you may be sure their fears proceeded not from their judgment,
' but affection only.
' I also give you many cautions, lest the tremendous day should
* ( come upon you nnaicares, to take heed lest you fall from my
( grace and favour, and fail of your reward.' But " who shall
l - separate you from the love of God, which hath chosen you to
* salvation from all eternity, and hath engaged infrusti ably to con-
( fer it on you, since he is faithful that hath promised :"
CHAP. II. $ 14.) OF SAINTS. S6l
' I do indeed, in words, suspend your salvation and your crown
( of life, ' on being faithful to the death, and enduring to the
' end, and on holding your confidence and hope of rejoicing sted-
'ffist to the end.' But be not troubled or concerned for that; for
' I require nothing of you but what I stand myself engaged to
' perform for, and work in you; and so you are as sure of this sal-
' vation, as if i had engaged for it without these conditions.
' I, Lastly, have threatened that if true penitents, and men who
' live by faith, and have obtained remission of their sins, * do fall
' away, there remains no more sacrifice for their sin, nor shall my soul
' have pleasure in them.' But then 1 stand engaged by my decree
''and promise that they shall not thus fall away, and so I have
' secured them from those fears.'
XIV. Last/i/. This follows from many places, which plainly
do suppose, that saints, or true believers, or men once truly good,
may cease to be so. And.
First. This is supposed in that metaphor in which our Lord
compareth his disciples to salt, saying, "ye are the salt of the
world; bat if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and
trodden under foot of men;'"' for sure good salt must signify good
men, the salt of the earth, such men as by the purity of their doc-
trine and by the savour of their good conversation, are to purify the
world from that corruption in which it lies. Nor can this salt
lose its savour, and become good for nothing, but by ceasing to
be good salt, and unfit for these uses any longer.
Secondly. Such also is the similitude in which our Lord saith,
that l as a piece of new cloth is not to be put to an old garment,
lest the rent be made zcorse; nor new wine into old bottles, lest the
bottles burst ;'- f so his young disciples most not presently be put
upon severe duties, lest they should be discouraged, and fall oft"
from him. Such,
Thirdly. Is that commination against them, who shall "offend
one of Christ's little ones believing in him, viz. that it were better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast
into the midst of the sea;"' 8 ' where that 'to offend one of those lit tie,
ones ' is to occasion his ruin and fa/ling off from the faith, by the
t Matthew v, 13. Mark ix, 50. Luke xiv, 51. f Matthew jx, 16, 17.
g Matthew xviii, 6.
363 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
scandal which we lay before him, hath been proved in the note
there, from the import of the word (Txav&zXa^gsQaj, and is also evi-
dent from the words " it is not the will of my Heavenly Father,
that one of these little ones should perish."* False therefore is
it, that they who truly do believe in Christ, and are of the number
of those whom God would not have to perish, cannot be so of-
fended as to fall off from the faith to their ruin; and were this so,
wherein lies the force of this pathetical dicourse? And why are
such dreadful woes and punishments denounced to deter men from
doing not only what is in itself impossible, but that which they
also who are thus threatened, must believe to be so?
Fourthly. Suitable to this are these expressions, 'for meats
destroy not the work of God,' Rom. xiv. 20, that is, the Christian
convert; 1 Cor. iii. 9; and 'so through thy knowledge shall thy
weak brother perish for whom Christ died.' 1 Cor. viii, 9, 11. For
if Christ died only for the elect, and God hath promised they shall
never perish, and if he that hath * begun a good work in christians
will always perfect it;' if the apostle knew and taught this doc-
trine to them, why doth he go about to fright them fron/ this de-
structive scandal, by telling them it might have that effect which
he before had told them was impossible? For he that saith "such
persons cannot actually perish," saith in effect, " there can be no
reason to abstain from scandalizing them, lest they should perish."
Fifthly. Such, Lastly, are those words of the Psalmist, ' the
rod of the wicked shall not alwai/s rest upon the back of the righte-
ous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity' 1 For
these words seem plainly to insinuate, that great and long oppres-
sions might have this effect upon them; and surely that which
God is thus careful to prevent, might possibly befal the righteous,
there being no need of care to prevent that which he absolutely
hath engaged to preserve them from.
A Verse 14. i Psalm cxxv, 5.
CHAP. III. 1. OF SAINTS.
CHAP. III.
Containing an answer to those texts of scripture which are pro-
duced to prove, that true saints cannot fall finally from grace,
but zvill assuredly persevere to the end,
HAVING thus proved the possibility, that persons truly re-
generate may fall from grace, and so eternally miscarry; 1 pro-
ceed to answer the objections offered to the contrary, from scrip-
ture, and from reason.
Some of the arguments produced from scripture need very little
answer, as being wholly alien from the purpose. As, v. g.
First. That passage of St. John, " Christliaving loved his own,
which were in the world, he loved them to the end."* For these
words only signify, that he loved them to the close of his life,
and shewed this affection to them by washing their feet when he
was to leave them. This passage therefore can afford no argu-
ment to prove that the regenerate cannot fall away, because
Christ speaks not of them whom he had chosen to eternal life,
but of them only whom he had chosen to be his apostles, xv. 19;
not of his love of them to the end of their lives, but of his own
life on earth.
Secondly. Of like impertinency is that other passage, 'those
whom thou hast given me have I kept, and none of them is lost, but
the son of perdition' 1 For (i.) that this was spoken only of the
twelve apostles, is evident from the whole context, and so there is
no reason to extend it to all true believers. (\\.) The very next
chapter shews that this was spoken of their preservation from
temporal death; Christ requesting that his disciples might be per-
mitted to go away when he was apprehended, " that this saying
of his might be fulfilled." John xviii. 8. And ( iii.) this passage
taken in the sense of the objectors, is rather an argument that
some of them who were given by God to Christ may perish, be-
cause it is affirmed that one of them who were thus given to Christ
did so. Such,
t John xui, 1. I John xvii, 12.
THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
I
Thirdly. Is that passage cited from Rom. xi, 29, that " the
gifts and callings of God are without repentance ;" this being evi-
dently spoken of those Jews who were then hardened, given up
to a spiritual slumber, "broken off from their own olive-tree,"
and in that state of infidelity in which they have continued almost
1700 years; aud only intimates that God will in his good time
receive them again into his favour.
The arguments which seem to have a greater force in them, are
taken either from those scriptures which seem plainly, or by just
consequence, to assert this doctrine, or else to promise this per-
severance of the saints.
I. ARGUMENT FIRST. And, First, "If the elect cannot be
seduced or deceived, they cannot fall away; but that they cannot
be thus deceived Christ plainly seems to intimate in these words,
" false christs and false prophets shall arise, who shall deceive, if
it were possible, the very elect"."" 1 But that this text proves not
that the elect can never fall away, is evident,
ANSWER FIRST. (First.) Because Christ so solemnly exhorts
them to use the greatest caution, that they be not seduced by these
men, saying, verses 4, 5, " Let no man deceive you; for many shall
come in my name, saying, I arn Christ, and shall deceive many ;
and verse 23, if they say, Here and there is Christ, believe them
not; for many false christs and false prophets shall arise to deceive
the elect; look ye therefore to it, behold I have foretold you all
things." Mark xiii, 22, 23. Now is it suitable to the wisdom of
our Lord to exhort his disciples to use so great diligence and cau-
tion, lest they should be deceived by those men, and at the same
time to assure them it was utterly impossible they should be de-
ceived ? Moreover, L ask, To whom cloth he direct this exhor-
tation? To the elect? Then must he do it to them who could
riot possibly be deceived, and so his words must bear this un-
couth sense, " be very careful, lest ye be deceived by these men;
for 1 assure you, it is absolutely impossible they should deceive
you." Or was lie thus concerned only for reprobates? And why
then did he decree they should be so from all eternity, and never
should have grace effectual, or sufficient to preserve them from
the wiles of satan?
m Matthew xxiv, 2-t.
CHAP. 111. I.) OF SAINtS.
Secondly. In the same chapter, our Lord exhorts them 'to see to
it, to zcatch and pray," lest the day of affliction, the hour of temp-
tation, coming suddenly upon them, should find them sleeping; and
test their hearts should be over-charged with surf citings and drunk-
enness, and that day should come upon them unazcares ; to zcatch and
pray that they may be counted zcorthy to escape all these things'
Now are these suppositions which can agree to men who cannot
possibly be found sleeping hi this spiritual sense, on whom the
day of Christ cannot come thus unprepared, and who never can
be unworthy to stand before the Son of man? Or were not his
apostles, to whom he speaks these things, of the number of the
elect ? Can there be any need of such vehement exhortations to
constant prayer and vigilance, heed and circumspection, to pre-
vent what could not possibly befal them? Or was our Lord thus
concerned only to exhort them who he well knew could never
possibly avoid these things?
Thirdly. Christ here declares, that by reason of the extreme
affliction of those times 'many should be offended? that is, should
fall off from the faith. See the note on Matthew xviii, 6: And
adds, that " because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall
wax cold; but he that endures to the end shall be saved." Matt,
xxiv. 12, 13. Where, that Christ speaks not only of a hypocritical
outward affection to him, may be gathered from his styling it not
pretence, but love; his supposition that it was fervent love, for what
was never hot, cannot wax cold; yea, such love in which had
they endured, they would certainly have been saved. And yet he
doth not only intimate, that some would not continue in this love
to the end, but plainly doth foietel, that it in many would wax
cold. To answer therefore directly to the argument urged from
this text, I say,
ANSWER SECOND. (First.} That the phrase E! S^va-rov, 'if it be
possible, if it may be,' doth not denote an absolute impossibility, but
only a great difficulty in the performance of an act possible. So
Acts xx, 16, "Paul hastened, si Si/varov O.VTU, IF IT WERE
POSSIBLE FOR HIM, to be at Jerusalem before Pentecost;"
and yet sure he made not all this haste to do what was impossi-
ble. The apostle commands us, si $I>VO.TOV. 'IF IT BE POSSIBLE,
as much as in us lieth, to have peace zcith all men,' Rom. xii, 18,
n Mark xiii, 33, 35, 36. Luke xsi, 34, 36.
THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
and yet he doth not exhort us to use our utmost endeavours to do
what was impossible. El $uva.rov, " If it be possible," saith Christ,
" let this cup pass from me," Mat. xxvi, 39, and yet he adds,
" all things are possible to thee, O Father." Mark xiv, 35, 36.
And hence the phrase is changed by St. Luke into gJ /3Xs, ' IF
THOU WILLEST.' Now that the deceiving of Christians in those
times of miraculous endowments was very difficult, is evident
from that speech of Galen concerning a thing hardly feasible,
Bsirrov rlf rxs X-TTO Xgj$"S pt,sTaai;is, ' sooner may a Christian be
turned from Christ.'
Secondly. This phrase imports not what the event would be
upon the elect, but the vehemency of the endeavours of seducers,
that they would do the utmost they could to seduce the Christian
from his stedfastness; and this is evident from the words of St.
Mark, " they will shew signs and wonders, (michol) BEr
FORE ALL the families of the earth.' Amos iii. 2. And those
words of Hosea, chap. xi. 12, ' Judali yet ruleth with the Lord,
and is faithful with his saints,' are by the Septuagiril thus render-
ed xai 'Iwa vvv syvu O.VT&S 6 QEOJ xai 6 Xaor ayios xXy/SriffeTai TO),
Osw, ' as for Judah, now God hath known them, and he shall be
called the holy people of God :' So that the people ' whom he
foreknew,' may be here only a periphrasis of the Jewish nation,
as will be evident (1.) from this consideration that these words,
vx Maxn o flew TOV Xaov dvra, ( the Lord hath not cast off' his
people,' are plainly cited from Psalm xciv. 14. xcv. 11; in both
places they are spoken of the whole Jewish nation, and
E e
370 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
therefore it is reasonable to conceive that the words added to
them by the apostle must relate to the same people, especially
if we consider that the whole argument of the apostle here con-
firms this interpretation; for(l.) he proves that ' God had not
cast off his people 1 utterly, and without exception, because he
was an Israelite. (2.) He confirms this from what the scripture
saith in the history of Elias, complaining of a revolt so general,
that he only seemed to be left among them who adhered to him;
and receiving this answer from God, that they were not all revolt-
ed from God, as he supposed, he having ' reserved 7,000 persons
who had not bowed the knee to Baal,' and thence concluding, that
so it was now with the same people, there being now ' a remnant
of them that believed according to that election of grace,' which
hath chosen them to be members of the church of Christ. And
(3.) ' the election,' saith he, * hath obtained, but the rest were
blinded,' verse 7- Who sees not now that all this is spoken of
God's people Israel, and consequently that the people whom he
foreknew must signify that very people?
IV. OBJECTION FOURTH. " ' Whom God justifies, them
he also glorifies.' Rom. viii. 29. And therefore they who are once
justified can never fall from grace, because they cannot fail of
glory ; and because l nothing can separate them from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus,' " verse 37-
ANSWER FIRST. To this argument I have returned one
satisfactory answer when I discoursed of this text under the
head of ELECTION," viz. that all the sufferings of those who
loved God, and were called according to his purpose of making
them Sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, shall work to-
gether for their good, cm J z-gosyvo;, poR WHOM HE thus FORE-
KNEW, he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son,'
that is, to be like him in sufferings, verse 17, 2 Tim. ii. 11, who
' suffered first, then entered into his glory, leaving them an exam-
ple that they should follozo his steps.' 1 Pet. ii. 21. And whom
he thus fore-appointed to sufferings, 1 Thess. iii. 3, he in due
time called to suffer; and whom he thus called, upon their faith
and patience under their sufferings, for his sake, he justified, that
is, he approved of them as faithful servants to their Lord, and
"iterward gave them a glorious reward of all their sufferings, they
Answer to Argument 3.
CHAP. III. 4.) OF SAINTS.
having ' through faith and patience, inherited the promises,
Heb. vi. 12; or he made them glorious under sufferings by the
Spirit of glory and of God resting on them, and rendering them
happy sufferers. 1 Pet. iv. 14. This interpretation 1 have there
confirmed; and if it stand good, it affords a double answer to this
argument, viz. that to be justified here, doth not import to have their
past sins pardoned, but to be approved of God as patient suffer-
ers. (2.) That upon their being 'faithful to the death, he hath
given them the crown of life'
ANSWER SECOND. The word sS6|a
to the called according to his purpose' of bringing sons to glory by
Christ Jesus, on j itpoiyvu, 'for zvhom he hath thus f 01 e known ,
that is, hath chosen for his church and people now, as he did
the Jews of old, them he predestinated or fore- appointed to be co/i-
formed to the image of his Son,' their elder brother, that is, to be
' sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ' And the method he
used to bring them to this adoption was this, (i.) To call them
to the faith of Christ; (ii.) To justify them upon their cordial
embracing of this faith from their past sins, so that there might
be f no condemnation to them being in Christ Jesus;' Rom. viii. 1$
and (iii.) To render them a glorious people by the Holy Spirit
given to them, because they are sons, as an earnest of their fu-
ture glory. To confirm this interpretation let it be noted,
First. That the connective particle, or*, verse 29, shews that
the words following are introduced as a proof of the preceding
words, ' all things shall work together for good to them that love
God, that are calkd according to his purpose; FOB, whom he
foreknew, fyc.' Note,
e 2
372 THE PERSEVERANCE (BIS. V.,
Secondly. That this whole proof refers not to any thing yet to
come relating to the persons ' called according to his purpose,"
but to the time paet> and what hath been done for them already;
for the words are, ' whom he hath fore-known he hath predesti-
nated, he hath called, he hath glorified.' Note,
Thirdly. That, y npoiyw, i whom he hath fore-known,' doth
not relate to God's knowledge of these persons from all eternity,
but to his affectionate knowledge of Christians as his church, ' his
chosen generation, his peculiar people,' 1 Peter ii, 9, as the Jews,
are styled, xi, 2. See the ANSWER to the foregoing objection.
These who are thus converted, and become his peculiar people
before and above other nations, are said to be known of God in a
peculiar manner, and with an affectionate knowledge; as in these
words, ' if any man love God, he is known of God. 1 Cor. viii, 3.
But nozo that ye know God,\or rather are known of God. Gal. iv, 9^
The Lord knoweth who are his.' 2 Tim. ii, 19. These things being
thus noted, I conceive the sense of the whole to be this, " all
these afflicting things shall work together for good to them that
are called according to his purpose;" for those whom he hath so
foreknown, as to make them, ysws exXsxrov, ' HIS ELECT, and
his peculiar people' before others, for them he hath designed the
choicest blessings, even the adoption of sons, and their being co-
heirs with Christ; and in order to this it is that he hath chosen them
out of the world to be his church, " a holy nation, and a peculiar
people to himself," and hath justified them, or given them a full
remission of their sins, and hath already made them glorious by
causing ' the Spirit of glory and of God to rest upon them;' he
hath made them all glorious within, by adorning them with the
fruits of the Holy Spirit; he hath made them glorious in the sight
of the world, by giving them those gifts and powers of the Holj
Ghost which cause men highly to esteem of them, and to glorify
God in their behalf; he hath thereby conformed them already in a
great measure to the image of his Son; for " they with open face
as in a glass, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image with him, from his glory to glory derived upon
them by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. iii, 18.
To proceed to answer the second part of the objection from
those words, ' who shall separate us from the love of Christ, or the
love of God in Christ Jesus'?
CHAP. 111. 4.) OF SAINTS. 373
Note (First,) that this enquiry is not " Who shall separate us
from the love with which we love God or Christ? but "Who
shall separate us who love God, and testify that love by keeping
his commandments, John xv, 14, from his affection towards us?"
The apostle therefore only intimates that such persons continuing
in the love of God, shall be preserved by him from the tempta-
tions here mentioned, and so supported by his grace and Spirit, as
to be able to bear them. But he doth not say "the love of no
Christian shall ' wax cold,'M.at. xxiv, 12; that none of them shall
' lose his first love 1 " Rev. ii, 4. Were there no cause to fear this,
why doth Christ exhort his disciples to ' abide in his love,' John
xv, 9, and his apostles exhort others ' to ke-p themselves in the love
of God, Jude 21, to look diligently to it that they fall not from
the grace and favour of God, Heb. xii, 15, and to continue in the
grace of God? Acts xiii, 43.
Secondly. I answer that the apostle doth not say that " nothing
can separate true believers from the love of God or Christ;" but
only declares his persuasion that nothing would do it, or that they
had no cause to fear these things, or to be shaken from their sted-
fastness in expectation of those inestimable blessings God had
promised to, and Christ had purchased for them, by any of these
tribulations, ' these light afflictions being not worthy to be com-
pared with the glory that shall be revealed.". Verse 18. And they
having good ground to hope that all the evils they shall bear shall
conduce to their good, that Christ will still be ready to support
them under them by his power, and to help their infirmities
by his Spirit, and at last give them the glory prepared for the sons
of God; he might well persuade himself they should not separate
them from the love of God. The apostle therefore doth not by
these words intend to teach believers that they could not be sha-
ken by any of these things; for that would have contradicted
the drift of all his epistles, in which he doth so oft express his
fears lest they should be shaken with them, and so far tempted by
them as to "be moved away from the hope of the gospel, and
render all his labour vain," and offers so many arguments and mo-
tives to prevent this effect of these temptations; but only doth
intend to say, that from these considerations, they had so great
inducements to persevere and continue stedfast in the love of God,
as gave him a strong ground of persuasion that they would do so.
3/4 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
V. OBJECTION FIFTH. " If true believers have that Spirit of
God who ' seals them up to the day of redemption? (Eph. iv, 30,)
and l is the earnest in their hearts of tlie inheritance oflife^'C2
Cor. i, 1,22. Eph. i, 13;) then all who are once the sons of
God, and therefore have the Spirit of God dwelling in thitn, must
be assured that they shall enjoy this inheritance; but true believers
have this Spirit of' God ; for ' because they are sons, God hath writ
the Spirit of his Son into their ficaila'." Gal. iv, 6.
ANSWER FIRST. That these metaphors neither do nor can
signify that they who have once the Spirit can never lose him, or
cause him to depart from them, is evident from these considera-
tions :
First. That they who have been ' the temples of God,' by vir-
tue of his Spirit dwelling in them, may so corrupt this temple as
to be themselves destroyed; as is demonstrable from these words
of St. Paul to the Corinthians, ' know ye not that ye are the tem-
ple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you c t Ij any
man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy; for the tem-
ple of the Lord is holy, which temple ye are.' a See the note there.
He adds, that they whose bodies are t the members of Christ, arid
who are one spirit with him,'' 1 ' may make these bodies " the mem-
bers of an harlot," and may defile that body with fornication, which
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and so may deprive themselves
of their interest in Christ's kingdom; for "no fornicator shall in-
herit the kingdom of God." c So certain is that of Hilary, that
membra adh&rentia meretrici, desinunt csse membra Christi, 'they
who are guilty of fornication, cease to be the members of Christ/
and so agreeable to all antiquity, d who generally teach that God
a. \ Corinthians iii, 16, 17- b Chapter vi, 15, 19. c Verses 9, 10.
d Cum omnes templum simus Dei, illato in nos et consecrate Spiritu Sancto, ejus templi seditua et
antistita pudicitia est, qua; nihil imraundum, nee profaiium inferri sinat, ne Deus ille qui inhabitat
iiKjuiimtam sedem offensus derelinquat. Tertul. de cultu foem. 1. 2, c. 1,
o) ayiS^ E$"JV 6 vaor a-yiov tyyov TOV evojxSvTa, Suvaraj eivai
vao? S'eS. (Ecum. in locum. Tor/a^Sv 6 rcogv- H Jj/va/ai livat
TO vao? tvai a^ws^sv sor/ni'' TU
J. Theoph. in locum.
Since we are the temple of God by his Holy Spirit brought into us and consecrating us, the keeper
jttjd priestess of his temple is that chastity which cannot suffer any thing unclean or profane to enter,
lest the Holy God, whose habitation it is, being displeased at the pollution of his abode, should en-
facly desert it.' TertuUian.
CHAP. III. 5j5.) OF SAINTS. 375
dwelling in us by his Spirit may be provoked to quit his habita-
tion; and that he \\hosebody is the temple of the Lord by virtue
of his Spirit dwelling in him, may defile that temple to his own
ruin, and cause the Holy Spirit to depart from it. And,
Secondly. This is farther evident from the apostle's fears that
satan might so far have tempted his Thessalonians as to render
" all his labour vain among them;"* for he acknowledges that
these Thessalonians had " received the word with much affliction,
and yet with the joy of the Holy Ghost; that they received it not
in word only, but in power, and iu the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance ; f that they had shewed the work of faith, and labour
of love, and patience of hope in Christ Jesus, and were the elect
of God in whom the word wrought effectually."^ They there-
fore had assuredly received the Spirit of God, and yet he fears
they might so fall away as to render his labour among them vain,
and therefore so as to cause his Holy Spirit to depart from them.
And, Thirdly, this is farther evident from the exhortations, iu
these epistles, directed to those men who are said to have this seal,
and earnest of the Holy Spirit; for to the Corinthians thus sealed,
the apostle sends this exhortation, ' / beseech ijou that you do not re-
ceive the grace of God in vain,' h plainly supposing that this might be
done : He adds, that lie was 'jealous over them, lest, having espoused
them to one husband, Christ, their minds should be corrupted from
the simplicity that is in Christ; 1 and doth express his fears lest he
should bezvail many tc/io had sinned already by uncleanness,forni-
calion and lasciviousness ; k that is, by sins which did corrupt the
temple of God, which made the members of Christ " the mem-
bers of an harlot," and excluded them from the kingdom of God,
' and had not repented of those sins.'
A wain, in that epistle to the Ephesians, in which the apostle saith
they were " sealed with the Spirit of promise, and made an habi-
tation of God through the Spirit;" he exhorts them to avoid " all
fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness, as knowing that no
' Because the temple is holy and has a holy inhabitant, a fomicator cannot be a temple of Cod.'
CEcuinenius on the passage.
A fomicator therefore cannot be holy, because he hath destroyed the very existence of a temple by
driving out the Spirit that sanctified it.' Theophylact. ED.
e 1 Thessalonians iii, 5-| / Chapter i, 4, 5, 6. g Chapter ii, 13. h. Chapter vj, 1.
i Chapter xi, 3. * Chapter xii, 20, 21.
; S?6 THE PERSEVERANCE (btS. V.
fornicator, unclean, or covetous person hath any inheritance in
the kingdom of Christ, and of God;" and therefore no such per-
son can have the Spirit of God abiding in him. ' Let no man,'
saith he, ' deceive 'you tvithvain words; for because of these things
"co/neth thereralh of God upon the children of disobedience.' 1 Now
if this sealing, this earnest of the Spirit, had absolutely secured
them from these sins, and from the wrath of God, due to as many
as are guilty of them, why is he so concerned to deter them from
them, and to exhort them not to be so deceived as to fall under
this wrath? Such cautions naturally tending to express the dan-
ger men lie under of the judgment threatened. Yea, why doth he
desire that ' they faint not at his tribulations, and exhort them to
-put on the K'hofe armour of (rod that they may be able to withstand
(the temptations which might befal them) in the evil day, and
having done all to stand,' n if he thought them absolutely secure
from fainting or falling in that day?
ANSWER SKCOND. These expressions therefore cannot be
designed to teach tis that they who have once received the Holy
Spirit cannot quench him, or grieve him so as to cause him to de-
.part from them, that being the natural consequence of grieving
him, as hath been shewed in the note there; but only to inform
us that the Holy Spirit vouchsafed to Christ's church and mem-
bers, gav'e them a just assurance of the truth of Christian faith, and
consequently of the farther blessings Christ had promised to his
faithful persevering servants in the world to come. To give a
true account of this, consider that Christianity, when it first came
into the world, required of all who should embrace it, the duties
of self-denial, taking up the cross, and being faithful to the death,
and the encouragements it gave them to perform all this was only
the promise of the Holy Spirit to be with them, and be their com-
forter at present, and the promise of eternal life hereafter. Now
that Christ made good to them this first promise, and that the
primitive Christians Were plentifully and wonderfully endowed
with the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, is fully evident from
the epistles and acts of the apostles, mid hath been fully proved in
the preface to them both; and by the vouchsafemcnt of this Spi-
rit they are said to have an earnest of their future inheritance, and
I Chapter v, 3, 6. m Chapter iii, 13. Chapter vi, H.
'CHAP. III. ^ 7.) OF SAINTS. 377
to be sealed up to the day of redemption, they through this Spirit
'groaning far the redemption of the body, and knowing that if
this earthly tabernacle were dissolved, they hud a building
made zeitlidut hands, eternal in the heavens'? Whence it is evi-
dent that they who had these first-fruits of the Spirit, had there-
upon an argument to satisfy them of the future blessings promised
to them ; and hence they by this Spirit are said to have the earnest
of their future inheritance, and to be sealed up to the day of
redemption.
VI. OBJKCTION SIXTH. Whereas some from these words,
' the foundation of God standeth sure, the Lord knoweth who are
his,' q argue thus, that " the foundation of God is his election;
and that though the faith of some be overthrown, yet the Lord
knowethhis elect; and will not suffer their faith to be so:" I
answer,
AN SWER. That this argument depends upon two suppositions
already proved to be false, viz. (1 .) That the foundation of God is
his " election;" whereas it is indeed the doctrine, and promise of a
blessed resurrection, denied by Hymenaeus and Philetus. (2.)
That God's knowledge of his, is his " knowledge of his elect;"
whereas in truth it only signifies that the Lord knoweth and ap-
proves of them who are commissionated to preach his doctrine
to the world, or that he loves his faithful servants. See this pro-
ved in the DISCOURSE of ELECTION in the answer to the
FOURTH OBJECTION.
VJ1. OBJECTION SEVENTH. "They 'who are kept by the
power of God through faith to salvation' cannot fall away; but ali
the faithful are so kept." 1 Peter i, 5.
ANSWER. To this I answer, (1.) that this place only proves
that all who are preserved to salvation are so kept by the power
of God; but not that all believers are so kept. (?.) It proves
only that they are kept ' through faith, that is, if they continue in
the faith rooted and grounded, and are not removed from the hope
of the gospel, Col. i, 23, if they hold the beginning of their confi-
dence stedfast to the end. 1 Heb. iii, 14. For this faith being the
stedfast 'expectation of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen,' will render us victorious over the world, 1 John v, 4, enablfe
Romans viii, 23. p 2 Corinthians v, 1,5. q 2 Timothy ii, 18, 19.
373 THE PERSEVERANCE Corinthians i, IS, n 2 Corinthians, xii, 20 21.
o Roraaiig viii, ?3.
590 THE PESEVERANCE (DIS. V.
Secondly. To those words, " God is faithful, who will not suf-
fer you to be tempted (by persecutions) above what you are able
(by his grace) to suffer; but will with the temptation make a way
(so far) to escape, that you may be able to bear it;" 1 Cor. x, 13;
and therefore if you will use the strength which he is ready to
afford, shall do so, I answer, (I.) that these words ought not to
be restrained to the elect; for the preceding words, " no tempta-
tion hath happened to you but such as is common to men," are
spoken to the whole church of Corinth. Moreover God hath
doubtless engaged to all that enter into covenant with him, to
enable them to perform the conditions of that covenant, since a
covenant upon an impossible condition cannot be performed, and
all are bound to pray in faith that they ' may not be tempted above
what they are able through his strength, to bear' (2.) This text
must be impertinently alledged, because it only contains a pro-
mise of ability sufficient to resist temptations if men will use it;
but doth not contain an engagement that this strength shall be
effectual, or certainly improved to that end. And (3.) I have
shewed, when I discoursed of the cautions given to believers, that
in the words immediately preceding, " wherefore let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall," and in the words fol-
lowing, " wherefore, beloved, flee from idolatry," there is a plain
indication that they who truly think they stand, may fall, as did
the Jews there mentioned; and might be guilty of idolatry, which
he himself declares to be a sin exclusive from the kingdom of
Christ. 1 Cor. vi, 9-
Thirdly. To the words cited from Phil, i, 6, viz. " being con-
fident of this, that he .who hath begun the good work in you,
will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ," I answer, that it is
evident the apostle speaks not out of any opinion of the election
of any, much less of all the Philippians to eternal life, or of the
certainty of their perseverance to the end ; for why then doth he
exhort them "to workout their salvation with fear and trembling, p
to stand fast in the Lord, and to retain the word of life, that he
might have joy in the day of Christ, that he had not run or labour-
ed in vain among them?' q He speaks this therefore from a judgr
ment of charity; " because," saith he, "it is just" or fit " for me
to conceive thus of you," by reason of that great affection you
f Chapter ii, 12. q Chapter iv, 1. ii, 16.
SHAP. IV. 4.) OF SAINTS. 3Q1
have for me, and your patience under the like sufferings. Now
he who only gives these reasons of his confidence, gives us just
reason to conceive he knew nothing of the necessity of their per-
severance by virtue of their election to salvation.
Fourthly. Those words, 1 1 pray God your Spirit, soul, and
body may be preserved blameless to the coining of the Lord Jesus:
fait/if ul is he z&ho hath called you, who also will do it;' 1 Thess. v,
23, 24; do only signify that he will not be wanting on his part to-
wards it: I say, his part; for if the fidelity of God required that
he should sanctify and preserve them blameless to the end without
their care and industry, or should work in them certainly and
absolutely that care, and the apostle believed this, how could he
fear lest these Thessalonians should be so overcome by satan's
temptations as that * his labour, with them might hate been m
vain? r This being in effect to fear that God might be unfaith-
ful to his promise. And, for the same reason, the words cited
from Thess. in, 3, must be thus interpreted, " the Lord is faith-
ful, who (therefore) will (do all that is requisite on his part to)
establish you, and preserve you from evil."
CHAP. V.
inquiring which of ike two opposite opinions tends most to ad-
minister true com fort, and to promote holiness of life.
THE only objection from reason against this doctrine that
saints may fall away from grace, is, that "it-is obstructive of the
peace and comfort of believers, it impairs their humble confidence
in God, and fills them with continual fear and dread of falling
from that happy state."
Whereas indeed our doctrine only teacheth, with the holy
scriptures, that a well grounded peace is ' the fruit oj righteous-
ness,'* and consequently that by going out of the way of righte-
ousness, we go out of the way of peace : that all true peace and
I Thessalonirjis iii, 5. * James iii, J6.
392 THE PERSEVERANCE (DIS. V.
comfort ariseth from the testimony of an upright conscience; ( this
being the foundation of our rejoicing, even the testimony of our
conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, zee haze had our
conversation in this world:' that then only have we ground of
confidence \vithGod, when ' our heart doth not condemn us' u of
wilfully departing from him: that we ought "to work out our
salvation with fear and trembling;""' and, seeing we serve that
God, " who without respect of persons judgeth every man ac-
cording to his works, to pass the time .f our sojourning here in
fear:" 1 that l happy is the man that Jeareth always alio xviii, 21, 25.
CHAP. V. S) 2.) OF SAINTS.
comfort when our own heart cannot afford it, because it cannot
at the same time thus condemn, and yet speak comfort to us.
(iii.) We would have that comfort which even the decline of per-
severance cannot yield, seeing the patrons of it do confess that
when men fall into wilful sins, though they lose not the title to
the divine favour, they lose the comfort of it till they have repent-
ed; that this at present cuts off their assurance of being God's
children, and consequently of their perseverance to the end.
So that the difference in this case seems only to be this, that
when men's hearts do thus condemn them, if they believe our
doctrine, they have reason to suspect their fall from grace, by vi-
olating the conditions of the covenant of grace; if they be of the
other persuasion, they have cause to suspect their sincerity, and
fear that they were never upjight chistians. And the advantage
on our side is this, that our opinion naturally tends to render men
more careful to avoid all wilful violations of the laws of God,
and more speedy in their repentance, and their return unto their
duties, than the other doth, this being a most certain rule that
thai motive is more forcible to engage us to an action, which
lenders the action to w/'ich I am engaged of absolute necessity
for the obtaining of the most important end, of which I am as-
sured by performance of it, than that which either renders this
end attainable without the performance of that action, or declares
that another stands absolutely engaged to cause me to perform it.
II. Let us now take a view of the contrary doctrine; and see-
ing it asserts that they who have once attained to the favour of
God can never fall from it, anrd also grants that Lot, David,
Solomon, and Peter were such persons; they must own that
drunkenness and incest, murder and adultery, do not put men out
of God's favour; that men's hearts may 'be tuniedfrom the Lord
to the most gross idolatry, even that of Ashtaroth, the goddess of
the Zidonians, and of Mi (cum the abomination of the Ammonites;'
that after the most solemn engagements to the contrary they may
deny Christ before men, and that with oaths and execrations, and
still continue high in favour with God: which as it seems the
plainest contradiction to those numerous places of scripture, which
Declare these .,are such sins which they who do ' hate no inhcri-
e 1 Kings xi, 5, 9.
396 THE PERSEVERANCE (D1S. V.
tance in the kingdom of God or of Christ,' and that they are sins
to which the law of Moses threatened death without admission
of any atonement by sacrifice, and the severest of God's judg-
ments, even ' the casting of them off" for ever;' so doth it give a great
encouragement, to those who have ouce gotten an opinion that
they are the children of God, to indulge themselves in the like
iniquities, as being never able ' to separate them from the love of
God:' This doctrine tending evidently to abate the force of all
the prohibitions of sin, of all the exhortations to avoid it, of all
the cautions to resist and flee from all temptations to commit it,
and of all the dreadful judgments denounced without exception
against all who do commit it; for when once persons begin to
think that they are out of the reach of the severest of these judg-
ments, and that they cannot possiblybelong to them, they cannot
rationally be moved by the fear of them to depart from that iniqui-
ty to which they- are denounced.
Secondly. It Kssens the force of all the motives offered in the
scripture to engage us to persevere in righteousness -and goodness,
and ' to have our fruit unto holiness, that l!;e t',,a mai/ be eternal
life.' For an absolute promise both of the repaid, and of all
means conducing toil, cannotsopowerfullyengage us to the pursuit
of the said means, as such a promise as suspendeth the reward
upon our own diligence in the use of the means, and so gives place
for hope and fear, the two great principles of action, both which
must be excluded by an absolute promise, since as we cannot ra-
tionally fear what cannot possibly befal us, so what we are alrea^
dy sure of, we do no longer hope for, but with the greatest
.confidence expect.
Thirdly. It seems not well consistent with the truth, righteous-
ness, and holiness of God to give an absolute assurance of his
favour, and the fruition of himself forever to any creature, though
he fall into the sins forementioned. For though it may be said
" he doth this only by assuring them that they shall repent of those
sins, and return to their obedience," yet doth not this seem suit-
able to his tin-eats of the severest of his judgments against all
persons whatsoever who shall thus oft'end, since they were certainly
designed to deter them from those sins by fear of falling under
those most dreadful judgments, whereas these promises are plain
assurances that though they do commit them, they shall riot be
CHAP. V, 3.) OF SAINTS. 397"
obnoxious to those judgments. They also seem contrary to the
divine purity, on the same account, as tending to diminish in others
the dread or' those iniquities which they are thus assured cannot
prove fatal to them. In a word, there is not even the shadow of
a promise in the holy scripture, that though such or such persons
fall into murder, adultery, heathenish Idolatry, He will not suffer
them to die in them, but will assuredly cause them to repent and
turn to their obedience; but there is an express declaration, that
" when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and
committeth iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations
that the wicked man doth, all the righteousness that he hath done
shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed,
and in the sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die."" The
promises of the Old Testament run in another strain; viz. " The
Lord will be with you while ye be with him, but if ye forsake
him he will forsake you;" yea u He will cast you off for ever; 1 "
but as for such as decline to their perverse ways, the Lord will
lead you forth with the workers of iniquity ;"* and the promises
of the New, that he will ' stabtish them, and keep them from evil,
and preserve them holy and unblameable.' But 1 find not one
promise in the Old or the New Testament, that when the righ-
teous wickedly depart from God, and do after the abominations
of the wicked, they' shall yet live, and not die in their iniquities.
HI. It were easy to confirm this doctrine from the concurrent
suffrage of the ancient fathers; but this seems to me unnecessary
after the confession of the learned Vossius, commnnem hancfuisse
nntiquitatis senteniiam, that ' this was the common sentence of
antiquity ;' and that antiquitas tota indeficibilitati adversotur, ' all
antiquity was contrary to this doctrine of the indefectibility of the
saints. 'y The words of the Greek and Latin Fathers, which he
cites to prove this, may be seen in John Goodwin's fifteenth
chapter on that subject, who also adds to them the consent of
many Protestants.*
w Ezekiel xviii, 24. w 1 Chronicles xxviii, 9. 2 Chronicles xv, 2. * Psalm cxxv, 5.
y Hist. Pelag. L. 6. Ch. 12. x Redemp. Redeemed, from 5. to the 14th.
AN ANSWER TO (DTS. VI.
CONTAINING AN ANSWER TO THREE OBJECTIONS AGAINST
THE DOCTRINES ASSERTED, AND THE ARGUMENTS BY
WHICH THEY ARE CONFIRMED.
CHAP. I.
OBJECTION FIRST. THE FIRST grand OBJECTION against
the force of many of the arguments used in these discourses is this,
that " they seem as strongly to conclude against God's foreknow-
ledge of future contingencies, as against his absolute decrees; for
that comprehending the knowledge of what all men will do, it
seems as unreasonable to command, exhort, or tender motives to
men to perform what God beforehand sees they will not do, as
in case of what he knows they cannot do; and as contradictory
to his goodness to bring them into the world, "whom he foreknows
will certainly be miserable through their own fault, as those whom
he reserveth to be miserable through the fault of Adam. It also
seems as vain, superfluous, and delusory, to seem passionately
concerned that they may be saved, or to use patience, long-suf-
fering, or any other means to prevent their ruin, or to lead them
to repentance whom he certainly foresaw would not be by these
means induced to repent, that they might be saved, and who in-
fallibly would perish; as to act thus towards them who lie under
a decree of reprobation." Now,
I. ANSWER FIRST. It is observable, that though this argu-
ment be offered in favour of the decrees of absolute election, and
that especial grace which is vouchsafed to the objects of it, which
makes it necessary for them to be ' vessels of mercy ,' and of that
absolute reprobation, which makes it necessary for all the objects
of it to be ' vessels of wrath,' and infallibly to fail of salvation, yet
doth it plainly overthrow them, or render them superfluous. For,
CHAP. I. I.) THREE OBJECTIONS.
be it that these decrees were made from eternity, yet seeing God's
fore-knowledge of the events of all men was also from eternity,
must he not know what would be the condilion of all men when
he made these decrees ? And what need then could there be of a
decree for that event which was infallible, by virtue of his fore-
knowledge without that decree? Either he foresaw these events
independently on, and in the same moment that he made these de-
crees; and then seeing the objects of both these decrees are the
same individual persons which he saw then would certainly be
saved, or perish independently upon them, what need could there
be of these decrees to ascertain that event which his own pre-
science had rendered certain and infallible ? Or else it must be said,
that " God only foresaw these future contingerices, by virtue of his
decrees, that they should come to pass;" and then his decrees
must be before his knowledge and the reason of it; and so, as
this argument doth not at all- lessen the horror of them, so is it
obnoxious to these dreadful consequences,
First. That it plainly renders God the author of sin; for to say
with Calvin, Dr. Twiss, and Rutherford, Deum non alia ratione
providere qua. futura sunt, quam quia ut jierent decrevit, ' God
only doth foresee things future, because he hath decreed they
should be so,' " is," saith Le Blanc, " to say God moves and pre-
determines the mils of men to those things which are evil. Now,
who can affirm/' saith he, " that God antecedently decrees and
determines the wills of men to hate and blaspheme him, and
therefore foresees that they will do so, and not make God the au-
thor of those sins?" Nor is this less evident from the way that
Alvarez and many other School-men take to salve this matter,
viz. that " God foresees the evil men will do, in decreto suo de
non dando ejficax auxilium ad vitandumpeccatum; quoniam Deo
deferente, aut non adjntante peccatorem ne cadat, infaltibiliter est
peccaturus, ' in his decree not to give them efficacious help to
avoid sin; for God thus deserting them, or not thus assisting the
sinner, that he may not fall, he infallibly will sin' :" for either God
did not foresee the sin of fallen angels, or of falling Adam; or
else, according to this doctrine, must render their sin necessary
by his decree not to afford them efficacious assistance to avoid it,
and so their sin will be no sin at all, according to St. Austin's de-
finition of it, that " it is the will to do that from which we have
400 AN ANSWER TO (D1S. \f.
freedom to abstain." (ii.) Prescience thus stated must be attend-
ed with a fatal necessity, though in this case it is not God's fore-
knowledge, but his decrees which creates that necessity; all things,
upon this supposition, being necessary, that is, such as cannot
otherwise be, not because God foreknows them, but because by
his immutable decrees he hath made them necessary, that is, he
foreknows them because they are necessary, but doth not make
them necessary by foreknowing them. Consider,
Secondly. That if there were any strength in this argument, it
would prove that we should not deny the liberty supposed in all
the arguments we have used against these decrees, but rather pre-
science itself; for if those two things were really inconsistent, and
one of them must be denied, the introducing an absolute necessity
of all our actions, which evidently destroys all religion and mora-
lity, would tend more of the tw6 to the dishonour of God 3 than
the denying him a fore-knowledge. t
Thirdly. Observe that if these Decretalists may take sanctuary
in the fore-knowledge God hath of things future, the Hobbists
and the Fatalists may do the same. For as I cannot know how
God's foreknowledge Is consistent with the freedom of the will of
man, so am I as little able to discern how it is consistent with any
freedom in his actions, or how God can foreknow them whilst
they are future, without foreknowing that there are such causes
as certainly and necessarily shall and must produce them. And
it is very worthy of their observation that the Hobbists having
knowledge of Christianity, found their doctrine of the necessity of
all things, and the no freedom of the will to will, upon the ninth
chapter to the Romans. Thus when Bishop Bramhall had ob-
jected against Hobbs, that from his doctrine of the necessity of all
events, it follows that ' praise and reprehension, rewards and pu-
' nishments are all vain and unjust, and that if God should openly
* forbid, and secretly necessitate the same action, punishing men
' for what they could not avoid, there would be no belief among
' them of heaven or hell;'" Mr. Hobbs replies thus, 'I must bor-
' rowan answer from St. Paul, Rom. ix, 11, to the 18th verse:
* for there is laid down the very same objection in the case of
* Esau and Jacob, &c. for the same case is put by St. Paul; and
* the same objection in these words following, ' thou wilt ask me
a P. 668, 669.
HAP. I. | 1.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 401
' then, II hy doth God complain, jcr zcho hath resisted his trill?
' To this therefore the apostle answers, not by denying it was God's
' will, or that the decree of God concerning Esau was not before
' he had sinned, or that Esau was not necessitated to do what he
' did ; but thus, ' zcho art thou, O man, that repliesl against God?
' Shall the zcork say unto the workman, Why hast thou made me
' thus? Hath not the potter pozcer over his day, to make one ves-
( set to honour, another to dishonour?' To say then that "God
' can so order the world that a sin may be necessarily caused in a
' man," 1 do not see how it is any dishonour to him; I hold no-
' thing in all this question between us, but what seems to me not
' obscurely, but most expressly said in this place by St. Paul.'
It also deserves to be observed by them, that the Fatalists of old
founded their doctrine upon the certainty of divine prescience
and predictions, which, they said, " could not be certain, nisi
omnia qu&fmnt, qu&quefutura sunt, ex omni aternitate defmita
essentfalaliter, ' if all things done, or to be done, had not been
certainly determined from all eternity',"* "It was the fear of this,"
saith Origeii, " which made the Greeks embrace this impious
doctrine, that God did not foreknow things future and contin-
gent, oiopcEvoi xarwayxaaSai ra. Tr^ay/^ara, xa TO gw he doth foreknow future con-
tingencies; thus also is it in other incommunicable attributes of
God; v. g. I know that the first Being must be, c;>s a ac, 'from
itself ' though I have no idea of being from himscii'; and also must
be from eternity, though 1 have no idea either of an eteinity nitn.c
Kuclcjiastici'.* iii, i'l. /' fyi). part. ? i i\200.
406* AN ANSWER TO (01S. VI.
stems,* or an eternal succession. I know that God is Omnipre-
sent, totusubique,"^ though I know not what Omnipresence is,
whether a multiplication or an extension of himself to every ubi,
or how a spirit can be extended ; the reason is, because I am igno-
rant what this Omnipresence is, or how God is or can be so; as
therefore in this case I am satisfied with my experience or know-
ledge of his actions in all places that he is so, so ought 1 to be
satisfied with the like experience that notwithstanding God's fore-
knowledge I have as much free-will as if there were no such fore-
knowledge, though 1 am not able to reconcile my free-will to
God's foreknowledge.
OBJECTION. " But then why may it not be said in like man-
ner that all that you have offered against these decrees from the
consideration of divine justice, holiness, truth and sincerity, good-
ness and mercy, may be consistent with those attributes though
vie know not how they can be so.'"
ANSWER. To this I anwer, (First,) that this is one signal dif-
ference between these two cases, that the divine prescience hath
been always owned by all Christians from the beginning, as a ne-
cessary part of Christianity, till Socinus began to question it;
whereas these absolute decrees were never known, much less as-
serted by any Christian, till St. Austin's time. Now against a
controverted point we have a right to argue from the evident ab-
surdities which follow from it, and the contradiction that it bears
to the communicable attributes of God ; whereas against a neces-
sary article of faith, viz. t/ie resurrection of our bodies, we can
plead no difficulties of apprehending how they can be raised; and
against an avowed attribute of God, viz. his Eternity or Omni-
presence, we can raise no objections from the TO TTUS, or an en-
quiry, 'how this can be. r> Because incomprehensibility is owned
as an attribute of the divine nature ; that is, we own his nature and
incommunicable attributes cannot be comprehended by a finite
mind, and so our arguments about the manner of their existence,
or their actions, only do betray our ignorance. But then,
Secondly. As to God's communicable attributes, the matter is
far otherwise, for we are called to imitate and to resemble him
in them; ' to be holy as God is holy, righteous as he is righteous,
' Now existing." ED- t ' Altogether every when.' ED. $ ' Plage.' E0.
CHAP. I. | 2.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 407
kind and merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful;' his truth
and faithfulness, and his sincerity, is the ground of our faith, hope,
and dependence on him, and our expectation of good things from
him, and therefore we must have just and true ideas of these
things, though these ideas in this state of imperfection will be still
imperfect. This I find very well illustrated and confirmed by
Dr. Sherlock, in his answer to that enquiry how far the unsearch-
ableness of God's judgments is an answer to the difficulties of
providence, v. g. " there is great reason for this enquiry that no
man may presume to attribute any thing to God which can never be
reconciled with the common notions of good and evil, just and
unjust, upon this pretence, that the Kays and judgments (add, and
the attributes) of God are unsearchable and unaccountable, and
that tee ought not to demand a reason of them.
" That there are such men in the world is sufficiently known
to those who understand any thing of some modern controversies
in religion; 1 need instance at present only in the doctrine of
eternal and absolute election and reprobation, on which a great
many other such like unaccountable doctrines depend, that God
created the far greatest part of mankind on purpose to make them
miserable, or at least, as others state it, that he ordered and de-
creed, or, which is the same thing, effectually permitted the sin
and fall of Adam, that he might glorify his mercy in chusing some
lew out of the corrupt mass of mankind to be vessels of glory,
and to glorify his justice in the eternal punishment of all others,
even of reprobated infants, as involved in the guilt of Adam's sin.
Now thus far I confess that they are in the right that these are
very unaccountable doctrines; for to make creatures OH purpose
to make them miserable, is contrary to all the notions we have of
just and good.
" But though we readily confess that the ways and judgments
of God are unsearchable, yet men must not think, upon this pre-
tence, to attribute what they please to God, how absurd, unrea-
sonable, and unjust soever it be, and then shelter themselves
against all objections by resolving all into the unaccountable will
and pleasure of God; for God hath no such unaccountable will
as this is, to do such things as manifestly contradict all the notions
which mankind have of good and evil.
" God himself declares his abhorrence of all such imputations
as these as infinitely injurious to him, and appeals to the com.
408 AN ANSWER TO (DIS. VI.
mou notions of what is just and equal, to justify the general rules
of his providence against the imputations of injustice in punishing
the Jews for their Fathers' sins, by saying first, 'alt souls are mine,
as zvell the soul uf'the son as oj the father;' 1 and therefore he could
not be thus partial to one of them above the other, and by declar-
ing that the general rule of his providence was this, ' to do good
to them that tcere good, and who continued in his goodness,' and to
punish thfm who continued in their wickedness without repentance,
or turned away from their righteousness; and then leaving it to
their own judgments, 'zchether his Kays zcere not equal; k and else-
where declaring what he had done to his vineyard to make her
fruitful, and yet how unfruitful she remained after all his care, and
leaving all men to 'judge betwixt him and his titttyord?
" Thus it is too certain, that much the greatest part of the world
will be finally miserable; and this is very reconcileabie to the jus-
tice of God, if the greatest part of mankind will be wicked, and
so deserve to be miserable: but to say that ' God created the
greatest part of mankind, or that he created any one man under
the absolute decree of reprobation, that he made them to make
them miserable/ can never be justified by the unaccountable will
and pleasure of God; because it is notoriously unjust, if mankind
are competent judges of what is just and unjust."
Jn fine, this is all the Atheist endeavours to prove, and all that
he desires should be granted him, to confute the belief of a God
and a providence. That God does such things as we can give
no satisfactory account of, does him little service, because the
unsearchable wisdom of Go.l answers such difficulties; but if we
will grant him that God acts by such rules as all men, who judge
impartially, according to the natural notions and the natural sense
which we have of justice, must think unjust, this is what he
would have; and he will give us leave to talk as much as we
please of the arbitrary and sovereign will of God, but he will be-
lieve no such God. For this is not the natural notion of a God,
to be arbitrary, but to be just and good; and to say that " God is
good and just," but not good and just as men understand good-
ness and justice, id to say that " we have no natural notion of the
goodness and justice of God," and then we can have no natural
i Ezckiel xviii, and Cliapter xxxiii. t Isaiah v, 5.
CHAP. I. 3.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 409
notion of a God. For if the natural notion of a God be this,
that he is just and good, it seems hard to ihink that we should
have the natural notion of a good and just God, without having
any natural notion what his goodness and justice is; but instead
of that, should have such natural notions of justice and goodness,
as (if we believe what some men say of God,) can never be re-
conciled with his beingjust and good. Add to this those excel-
lent words of Dr. Tillotson; ' However we may be at a loss in
' our conceptions of God's infinite knowledge and power, yet
' goodness, and justice, and truth, are notions easy and familiar,
' and if we could not understand these, the whole bible would be
' insignificant to us. For all revelation from God suppo.setb us
' to know what is meant by goodness, justice, and truth; I.IK!
' therefore no man can entertain any notion of God which plainly
' contradicts these, and it i* foolish lor any n-an to piet.'iul that he
' cannot know what goodness, and justice, and truth in Goo, ;tre.
' For it" \\c :>,> iioi know this, ii is a!i one to us whether God be
* good or noi, nor could we imitate his goodness; for in tiiatinil-
' tales, endeavours to make himself like something that he knows,
' and must of necessity have some idea of that to \\hicii lit aims
' to be like. So that if we had no certain and sou ltd notion of
' the goodness, justice, and tiutii of God, He \\oulu be altogether
* an uninteiligible being ; and religion, which consists m U.P imi-
' tation of him, would be utterly impossible.'" Aiui thos?^ words
of his in his sermon on God's foreknowledge, 4 If God's cxhorta-
* tions were not serious, he could not foresee the final itnpeuitcncy
' of men; for to foresee men's final impenitency is to furt,-.w '.heir
' wilful contempt of God's warnings and exhortations, i.t. i ! -.
' rejection of his grace; men's wilful contempt of his v, an.
'and exhortations cannot be foreseen, unless God foresee thai his
' exhortations are serious, and in good earnest.' 6
111. OBJECTION SECOND. It is objected, that " by rur doc-
trine we weaken the providence of God; for if he doth not order
and effectually move the wills of men, he cannot compass the
designs of providence."
ANSWER FIRST. This objection will receive the shorter an-
swer, because it falls into this great absurdity, that it makes God
a Sermon of the Perfection of GoJ, \>. !.">, 1C.
410 AN ANSWER TO (DIS. VI.
as much the author of all the evil as of all the good that is done
in the world. For as his providences have for their object evil
actions as well as good, so is it evident that it is as necessary for
accomplishing the ends of it, 'that he should as effectually move
the wills of men to the one as to the other; as in the case of Jo-
seph's brethren, Judas betraying his master, and the Jews clamour-
ing for his death. So that we may answer this argument with that
of the Son of Syrach, ' say not thou He hath caused me to err,
for he hath no need of the sinjul man.' c But,
ANSWER SECON D. To answer more particularly, these things
seem only necessary to accomplish all the designs of providence,
First. That God hath a perfect prospect of the events of all
actions, as well of those which proceed from the free-will of man,
as of those which issue from natural causes. For if he can dis-
cern as well what moral causes will produce such effects in free
agents, as what physical causes will produce their effects in na-
tural agents, it must be evidently the same thing, as to all the in-
terests and concerns of providence, to compass his designs by
moral, as by physical and natural causes.
Secondly. That he hath infinite wisdom to direct those actions
to their proper ends, and cause the good and evil done by men
to serve the ends of his providence, both towards themselves and
others.
Thirdly. That he hath power to restrain them from the execu-
tion of those purposes which would thwart the designs of his pro-
vidence, either by disabling them from bringing their designs to
pass, or by withdrawing the subject or the object of them, or by
such dispensations as he sees will turn the bents of their hearts
another way, or by iniinite other means his wisdom can discern
and order, and his power can effect without laying any force or
necessity upon the wills of men. For if there be no action of any
free agent which he cannot thus restrain, when it thwarts the de-
signs of his providence, if he permits no action which lie cannot
order so as to accomplish the designs of it, it is evident that no-
thinff is or can be further requisite to the due ordering of all events
according to his providence. But,
IV. ANSWKII THIRD. Though this argument from providence
doth not concern us in the least, yet it seems evidently to over-
c Ciiapt.-r xv, 12.
CHAP. I. 4.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 411
throw the contrary doctrine ; for what answer can they return to
these enquiries?
First. Is it consistent with the justice of providence to wrap
up all men's fate in that of Adam's r d So that had he continued
in his righteousness all the time before he begat a son, none of
his posterity should have been the better for it, provided that he
had sinned the day before; but if he once transgressed, all his
posterity, to the end of the world, should be on that account the
objects of God's wrath, and obnoxious to eternal damnation 1
Yea, that if he sinned but once, all men, even the new-born in-
fant, should be liable to ail these miseries on that account; but
though he repented of that sin a thousand times, not one of them
should be the better for it, though the same arbitrary will and
decree of God couid have made the penitent will of Adam,
before he had begotten any children, the penitent will of us all,
as well as the sinful will of Adam the sinful will of us all; and
could have made him to sustain the person of all mankind when he
repented, as well as when he sinned in eating the forbidden fruit;
or could have made a compact with him, that if he repented of
that sin, all men should be restored to his grace and favour by it,
as well as he is supposed to have made a compact, that if he sin-
ned, all his posterity should become the objects of his wrath upon
that sole account.
Secondly. Is it not one great part of providence to give men
laws for the direction of their actions, prescribing what he would
have meu do and leave undone; and that under a promise of re-
ward to the obedient, and a declaration that he will certainly and
severely punish the wilful and impenitent offender? Now do not
they destroy both the justice and wisdom of this providence, who
introduce God after the fall, (" v.luch," say they, "had made man
utterly unable to do any thing truly good, or avoid doing evil in any
thing he doth") giving laws positive and negative for the direction
of his actions, with threats of the severest and most lasting punish-
ments if he neglect to do what is required, and to avoid what is for-
bidden ; and that after his own decree, de lion dando e[]icax cuixHimn
ad vitandum peccattim, ' of withholding from him die assistance
absolutely necessary to his doing the good required, or avoiding the
forbidden evil.' From whence it necessarily follows, that he to
d (u-iircis v, 3.
412 AN ANSWER TO (D1S. VI.
whom those precepts were given was then incapable, without that
assistance, of doing the good required, or avoiding the forbidden
vil, especially if we consider that, in the nature of the thing, and
in the opinion of philosophers, causa de/iciens in rebus necessariis,
adcausam per seefficienlw/i redvcenda est, 'in things necessary, the
deficient cause must be reduced to the efficient;' and in this case
the reason of it is evident, because the not doing what is required,
or not avoiding what is forbidden, being a defect, must follow
from the position of the necessary cause of that deficiency.
Thirdly. Is it consistent with the justice of providence, to ag-
gravate the sins of reprobates on this account, that they ' knew
their Lord's zcill and did it not,' provided that knowledge rendered
them no more able to do it tlmn the most ignorant of men, or to
make it such an aggravation of the sins of Christians, that they
are committed against greater light, and stronger motives to per-
form their duty than ever was vouchsafed to the Heathen world;
if, after this, they of them who lie under God's decree of preteri-
tion, are as unable to perform that duty as the worst of Heathens-?
Fourthly. Is it suitable to the holiness of providence, or to
that purity which is essential to the divine nature, and makes it
necessary for him to bear a strong affection to, and to be highly
pleased with, the holiness of all that are thus like unto him, and to
reward them for it with the enjoyment of himself, notwithstanding,
absolutely to decree not to afford, to the greatest part of them to
whom he hath given his holy commandments, that aid which he
sees absolutely necessary to enable them to be holy, and without
which they lie under an absolute incapacity of being holy?
I'iftlily. Is it reconcilable to the goodness of providence, or to
the kindness, philanthropy, the mercy and compassion of our
God in all his providential dispensations, so highly magnified in
holy scripture, to deal wilh men according to the tenor of these
doctrines ? Can we conceive he is ' a God full of compassion,
and one whose tender mercies are over all his zcorks,' who seeing
many millions of millions of precious souls which he had made
and sent into the world, equally wanting, and equally capable of
his favour, (he having also equal reason to afford it as well to
them as any other souls which were his offspring) passed :,n abso-
lute decree to vouchsafe his favour only to a little remnant of them,
leaving the far greatest \wt of tU-;n uuder a sad necessity of per-
CHAP. I. ^4.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 413
ishing everlastingly for the offence of their fore-father Adam, com-
mitted long before they had a being; so that they must be as sure
to be damned eternally, as they are to be born iu time? Can he
be truly styled 'a God of' great goodness, or oj rich mercy* to such
men? Or a true lover of their souls? Can he uprightly declare he
used all his dispensations to recover them from a perishing con-
dition, ' because lie had com-.m^ion on them; and yet have deter-
mined from all eternity to leave them in a remediless condition?
Can he ask in good earnest, 'zchat he could have done more to
make them fruit/ ul* in good works than he had done? Can he de-
clare he was ' fcng-Btffferijij* towards them, because he KOS not Kit-
ling theij s/iuuld perish but rather by his patience should be led
unto repentance;' and yet, from all eternity, decree to leave them
under a sad necessity of perishing, and to deny them that assis-
tance which could alone produce within them repentance unto life ?
Sixthly'. Doth it comport with the wisdom of providence, to
promise or to threaten upon impossible conditions; an impossible
condition being, in true construction, none at all? How much
less will it comport with the same wisdom to tender the covenant
of grace to all mankind to whom the gospel is vouchsafed upon
conditions which the most part of them, before that covenant was
established, were utterly unable to perform, and who by God's
decree of preterition were inevitably left under that disability; or
to declare he exercised such providences towards his people to
try them, thus disabled, whether they would obey his command-
ments or not, that is, whether they would exercise those faculties
which, under that disability, they could not exercise ? Is it agree-
able to this wisdom to be still soliciting, entreating, chastising,
punishing, alluring, and sending prophets, preachers, messengers
to engage them to do what his decree, de non dando auxilinm ne-
cessarium, ' of not affording the aid necessary for those ends,' had
rendered it impossible for them to do? Surely these dealings must
import this, that God saw they might have done what, through
want of due attention, consideration, and reflection, they did not;
or that he passionately desired that might be done, which only
was not done because he did not unfrustrably work the change in
them ? That is, he seriously desired and wished they had been of
the number of his elect, when he himself, by an absolute decree
from all eternity, had excluded them out of that number.
414 AN ANSWER TO (fJlS. VI.
Seventhly. On the other hand, can it accord with the same wis-
dom of providence to threaten the severest judgments to them, if
' they repented not, or if they turned away from their righteousness,
or Jell away from their own stedfastness, or endured not to the end,'
whom he had absolutely decreed to give repentance to, and 'by
continuance in well-doing' to preserve them to a blessed immorta-
lity; or to caution them not to do so, or to enquire whether temp-
tations had not prevailed upon them so to do, or bid them fear
lest they should do so ?
Eighthly. Is it suitable to the sincerity of his providential dis-
pensations, of which his dealings with men, by his revealed will
towards them, make so great a part, to move them to the per-
formance of their duty only by motives which he knows cannot
work upon them without that farther aid he from eternity hath de-
termined to deny them ; or to ' call heaven and earth to witness
that he had set before them life and death, good and evil, and
therefore required them to chuse the good, and refuse the evil,' when
he beforehand knew it was impossible for most of them to do either;
and after all to enquire ' what could he have done more to render
them obedient, to ask why they would not be made clean V Or when
this would once be? And to wonder at their unbelief, and upbraid
them for their'impenitence,' and to complain that, after such en-
gaging dispensations, and such judgments, ' they repented not,
they turned not to him,' or only did this feignedly? Or lastly, to
send his messengers to them with this encouragement, ' it may be
they will consider, it may be they will return from their evil ways, it
maybe they will reverence my Son? For what room can there be for
any of these suppositions, where the effect depends on God's
own immediate acting upon the heart, and not upon any hearing,
or consideration of man without it, or upon any dispositions in
them, or any means that they can use to move him to enable
them to do it?
Or, lastly, Is it suitable to the same wisdom and sincerity to
move such persons by promises to repent and believe, and to re-
quire them, l having such promises to cleanse themselves from all
Jilthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God?
For seeing to call men to faith and repentance, is to call men ' to
believe to the salvation of their souls,' and to repent that they may
live and not die, and therefore to be seriously willing they should
CHAP. II. 5} 1.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 415
be saved and not perish, and to pass antecedently a decree of pre-
terition on the same men, is seriously to will they shall not be
saved, but shall inevitably perish ; what wit of man can shew how
God can be serious in calling such men to faith arid repentance,
much less in his concern that they might do so, or in his trouble
that they have not done so, and yet be serious and in good earnest
in his antecedent decree to deny them that aid without which they
never can believe or repent?
CHAP. If.
THE third and last objection respecting the state of Heathens,
to whom the gospel either never hath been tendered, or who for
many ages have been deprived of the knowledge of it, being 'of
more importance, requires a more large consideration, and there-
fore in this chapter 1 shall offer what I can produce in the dis-
cussion of it.
OBJECTION. The difficulty, as it is abstracted from this con-
troversy, is propounded by Dr. Sherlock thus: e " that since all
men have immortal souls, and must be happy or miserable for
ever. God should for so many ages suffer the whole world, ex-
cepting the Jews, to live in ignorance, and in Pagan idolatry and
superstition; that Christ came so late into the world to reveal the
true God, and to publish the gospel to them; and that so great
a part of the world still are Pagans and Mahometans, and that
so little a part of the Christian world retain the true faith and
worship of Christ. This is ten thousand times a greater difficul-
ty than any present evils and calamities; because the consequen-
ces of it reach to eternity."
ANSWER. " But then the whole difficulty is no more than this,
that \ve know not what the condition of such men is in the other
world, who lived in invincible ignorance of the true God, and of
our Saviour Jesus Christ in this. This we confess we do not
know; but believe so well of God, that we are verily persuaded,
could we see what their state will be in another world, we should
e Disc, of Providence, p. 120, fee.
416 AN ANSWER TO (l>lS. VI.
see no reason to quarrel with God only because we know not how
he deals with the ignorant Heathens in the other world. If \ve
knew how God dealt with these men, and knew that he dealt
hardly by them, as far as we could judge, this would be a diffi-
culty: but what difficulty is there in knowing nothing of the mat-
ter r For if we know nothing of it, we can judge nothing of it.
Now seeing we cannot look into the world to come, and cannot
otherwise know any thing of the future state of ignorant Heathens
but by revelation, that scripture which containeth all our revela-
tions saying nothing of it; it follows that we can judge nothing
of it certainly.
" Some men, indeed, but without any authority from scriptnre,
confidently affirm that ignorant Heathens shall suffer the same
condemnation winch Christ has threatened against wilful infidels
and wicked christians; and then it may well be thought a great
difficulty that God should as severely punish men for not know-
ing Christ, when he was never preached to them, and they had
no other possible way of know ing him, as he will punish those
who have had the gospel of Christ preached to them, but refused
to believe in him, or have professed the faith of Christ, but lived
very wickedly. But this is a difficulty of their own making, and it
would be much more safe for themselves, and much more honour-
able for God, to confess their own ignorance of such matters, as
they have no possible way to know, and to refer all such unknown
cases to the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God, than to pre-
tend to know what they cannot know, and thence to raise such
objections as they cannot answer."
I. As this objection respects this controversy, it run thus:
" that God seems to have dealt as severely with the Heathens, to
whom the knowledge of his will and gospel hath never been re-
vealed, as we can imagine him to have dealt with men according
to the doctrine of absolute election and reprobation, and of spe-
cial grace vouchsafed only to some few christians, whilst others
are left to the defective rule of their own wills without sufficient
grace to enable them to turn to God and to do works meet for re-
pentance." For,
First. It may be said, that we are " forced to grant that the
grace of conveying the gospel to any persons, and calling them to
be his church and people, when other nations were left in darkness,
CHAP. II. 1.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 41?
was of free grace without consideration of any worth in them to
whom the gospel was vouchsafed above those who never had the
knowledge of it. Now the vouchsafement of the means of grace
being from such a free election, without consideration of any worth
in the persons, it seems reasonable also to believe that the decree
itself concerning the end, viz. the salvation tendered to us by the
gospel, is also free; and that it is not always applied to them whom
God foresaw would use it better than others, appears from these
words of Christ, that * if the mighty works which were done in
Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida, had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented.'*
" Moreover seeing it is in fact certain, that the greatest part of
mankind have beeu always left destitute of these means of grace
which were vouchsafed to the Jew first, and after to the Gentile,
we need not wonder why that God who freely communicates the
knowledge of himself by the gospel to some nations, denying it
to others, should hold the same methods with individuals that he
doth with whole bodies. For the rejecting of whole nations by the
lump for so many ages, is much more unaccountable than the se-
lecting of a few to be infallibly conducted to salvation, and leaving
others in that state of disability in which they shall inevitably fail
of it." Now to this I reply,
ANSWER FIRST. That this objection doth by no means an-
swer the chief arguments produced against these decrees ; it saith,
indeed, " that God may as well make such decrees, as leave the
greatest part of mankind void of the means of grace;" which will
be afterwards considered. But what is this to our chief aigu-
ments which are all taken from the inconsistency of these decrees
with the truth and sincerity of his following declarations made in
scripture, viz. with his commands to all to whom the gospel is
vouchsafed, to repent, with his exhortations and desires that they
would do so, with his threats of ruin to them if they do not, with
die sending his messengers to persuade them to it, with his de-
clarations that he used great patience and long-suffering to lead
them to repentance, and did this out of a sincere desire that they
might not perish, with all the promises, motives, and encourage-
ments he hath spread before them to induce them to it, with his
Ifcttbew TO, H. 2i.
Hh
418 AN ANSWER TO (D1S. VI,
enquiries why they would die, with his admiration at their conti-
nuance, after all his dealings, in their impenitence, and his up-
braiding them for not repenting, with his questions ' zchen they
would be made dean,' with his declarations that 'he rcould have
cleansed them, and I he i/ would not be cleansed; lie Kould have
gathered them and they zcouid not be gathered,' with his appeal to
them ' zchat he could have clone more' than he had done to effect
it, and innumerable tilings of the like nature, dispersed through the
whole body of the scripture? When those of the contrary per-
suasion can shew the like inconsistency betwixt God's declara-
tions touching the Heathen world and his dealings with them,
then, and then only, will they shew this dispensation is obnoxious
to the same difficulties which we object against these absolute
decrees.
Secondly. I confess there is, and ought to be allowed in reason,
a greater depth in the divine providence, and in his dispensations
towards the sons of men, than we can fathom by our shallow rea-
son; for ' he doth great things and unsearchable ;'* and such
whose footsteps we can never trace, * his judgments are a great
abyss, his greatness is unsearchable, his understanding is infinite.'
We therefore may put the question of Zophar the Naamathite
to the pretended wise and prudent, and most sagacious enquirers
into wisdom, ' Canst thou by wisdom Jind out GOD? Canst thou
searchout THE ALMIGHTY to perfection: >c Now from this very
topick the apostle doth conclude that we are, in such cases as
these are, even that of the rejection of his once beloved people,
after all that we can say to vindicate his justice, and his goodness,
to end in this divine apostrophe, ' Ok the depth of the wisdom,
and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are hisjudgements,
and his nays past finding out!' d But then as it would be in us an
intolerable piece of insolence to say, against the plainest declara-
tions of the scripture, that " God did not in wisdom make the
world," because we are not able to discern the wisdom of all
things framed in it; so must it be an equal insolence in us to say,
" God doth not act in the preserving it, and in the ordering of
affairs in it according to the measures of true goodness," because
we who are unacquainted with the inward dispositions of men,
\'
Psalm xxxyi, 6. exlv, 3. exvlii, 5. c job x i, 7, 8 , 9. < Romans ^ 33.
rilAP. II. |<2.) THREE OBJECTIONS. . 41Q
and see not the end, and cannot dive into the reasons of his dis-
pensations, cannot discern the footsteps of that goodness in all
his various transactions towards men. Now hence it clearly
follows,
II. That what God hath plainly and frequently revealed con-
cerning his goodness, ought firmly to be owned and believed,
although we are not able to discern how it comports with those
phenomena we have observed in the world: because from that of
which we have no clear or comprehensive notion, we can make
no clear and certain inferences, and so can have no certain evi-
dence that such and such things are not well consistent with the
love and goodness of God to mankind. But of things clearly
and frequently taught concerning the divine philanthropy, we
have a full and clear idea, which therefore we in reason stand
obliged to own, though we are still unable to discern how the
transactions of God in the world comport with our imperfect
knowledge and weak notions of immense and boundless goodness,
and perhaps false conceptions how it ought to act, " we need
not," saith an excellent writer, " trouble ourselves with that ques-
tion w hich is made concerning the conversion of all, or not of all
men, si ea quoe clara sunt non de his qu& occulta sunt obscuremus, e
* if we do not obscure those things which are clear by those which
are secret';" " that is," saith Dr. Barrow, "if we do not obscure
so clear a truth as that God is the Saviour of all men, by debating
how his grace is imparted to them, and by labouring overmuch in
reconciling of it with other dispensations of providence."
Seeing then God hath so often and so clearly taught us that
1 he is good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his works,
and that he carethfor all alike, and the zehole earth is full of his
goodness, that he is abundant in goodness, and kind even to the
unthankful and the wicked, that he would not the death of him that
dies, but rather that he should be converted and live;' and hath
confirmed this saying with an oath : seeing it is expressly said,
1 that he is the Saviour of all men, though especially of them that
believe; and that he would have all men to be saved, and to come
to the knowledge of the truth:' I say, seeing the revelations of
this nature are clear and copious, and are to them who do believe
e DC Vc- Cent. 1. 1, c. 8,
Hh 2
420 AN ANSWER TO (DIS.VI.
the scripture clear and certain demonstrations of divine goodness
to the whole race of mankind, and all the instances propounded
to the contrary in the objection depend upon our apprehensions
of what this goodness would be apt in our conceits to do, in which
we may be subject to great misapprehensions and mistakes; have
we not reason to believe these clear and copious revelations, not-
withstanding those little scruples which, from our fond ideas and
imperfect notions of divine goodness, \ve do make against them?
Now to apply these things to our subject,
First. We know from scripture how dreadful for quality, how
endless for duration, will be the punishment of every Christian
who fails of the salvation tendered; and that as death leaves them,
judgment will find them. But we know so little of the future
state of heathens, from that scripture which can alone acquaint us
with his dealings with them, that we are uncertain both as to the
measure and the duration of their punishments. Yea, we have no
assurance that providence may not put them into a better state, be-
fore their final doom, who have wanted any opportunity here to im-
prove themselves better. St. Paul informs the Athenians that ' God
overlooked the times of heathen ignorance, but now, by the promul-
gation of the gospel, he commands all men every where, to repent, be-
cause lie hath appointed a day in which he will judge the zcorld in
righteousness; and oj this, TnViv Kxpwftsv, HE GAVE THEM A
PROOF by raising our LordJesusJrom the dead,' e by which words
he seems to intimate, that where there hath never been any call by
prophet or apostle to repentance, or any assurance of a future
judgment, there is like reason for his overlooking still those times
of ignorance ; for, pariumpar ratio est.*
Secondly. We know that God hath made a tender of the cove-
nant of grace upon conditions of faith and repentance to all that
live under the gospel dispensation; and that these decrees of ab-
solute reprobation, and of denying the help necessary to the per-
forming these conditions, are inconsistent with that tender;
whereas we know of no such tender made to the Heathen world,
but rather that they are still ' strangers to the covenant oj promise.'
Ephesians ii, 12.
. Thirdly. We know not any promises God hath made to them y
nor what are the conditions he requires in order to his acceptance
s Acts xvii, 50, 31. * ' The reason is similar in regard to things which arc similar.' ED.
CHAP. II, 3.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 421
of them through Christ Jesus; but we know that according to
these decrees God tenders his promises to the reprobate part of
mankind only upon impossible conditions, and after he had pas-
sed upon them an act of pretei ition, and so had left them infallibly
to fail of ever obtaining the blessings promised.
Fourthly. Wo- know from scripture that the Heathens who ne-
ver heard of Christ, and never had Christ preached to them, are
not bound to believe in him; for l how shall they believe in him of
zshom they have not heard, or how shall they hear without a
preacher?' saith St. Paul, Rom. x, 14. But we know from the
same scripture, that 'this is the command of God to all that have
heard of Christ, that they believe in the Son of God;' a and yet we
know, according to the doctrine of our adversaries, that he died
not for them, and that they cannot, without that aid God hath de-
creed to withhold from them, believe unto salvation, and there-
fore must be damned for that unbelief, they, from the hour of
their birth to the close of their days, were never able to prevent.
Fifthly. We know that God sent his prophets and messengers,
apostles and evangelists, to move the Jews unto repentance, and
those Gentiles to whom the gospel was offered, to embrace it; and
that under both these dispensations he established an order of men
to call all men indifferently to repentance, and to ' zcalk worthy
of that vocation to which they zcere called; and we know this to
be inconsistent with those decrees which others c'o contend for,
unless God can seriously call them to repent and believe, whom
he hath left under an impossibility of doing so. But we know
not that any thing of this was done towards those Heathens to
whom the gospel never hath been preached, nor ever any messen-
r,aou, ' to do what is veil pleasing' to him; 'for Enoch,
saith St. Paul, ' received a testimony, ti/afsrmxsvaj, THAT HE
DID WHAT WAS WELL PLEASING to God ; but tcitfiout faith it is
impossible, svx.pzrtiM, TO DO WHAT is WELL PLEASING to him;
for he that comeih (thus) to God must believe that he is.' Now
this is the title given to God's most eminent servants before and
after the flood, that, Evxp&r.ffzv ru ficw, ' THEY PLEASED GOD.'
To Enoch, Gen. v. 22, 24. To Noah, Gen. vi. 9. To Abra-
ham, Gen. xxiv, 40. To Isaac, Gen. xlviii. 15. And all that God
requires of Abraham to lit him for the blessings promised is, |yaeg'$-r<-
ffov Ivuifiov pc-i?, ' rcalk be/ore me and be thou perfect.' Gen. xvii. 1.
Secondly. That all men may so seek God as to do what is \\ell
pleasing to him, if they diligently endeavour so to do; since other-
wise it cannot be their duty to seek to please him, it being no
man's duty to do that which he cannot do. He that denies tl.is
inference as to the Heathen world, exempts them from all obli-
gations to seek that God whom they cannot please.
Thirdly. That if they do so thv-yt-'nall be rewarded by him, and
so God must be willing that they -should seek him, and that they
should be rewarded for so doing. And,
Fourthly. That the Heathens may have grounds sufficient to
believe that they shall be rewarded for serving him diligently ac-
cording to the light which God had given them. Deny -these
two last inferences, and you deprive them of any motive to do
that which is well-pleashig to him; this bfcing that which Heathens
by the light of nature saw, that, " if piety and advantage, or
profit, did nokgo together, piety could be preserved in none." The
only inference 'which I think needful here to make is this,
CHAP. II. I 3.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 427
INFERENCE. That Heathens may have faith in God, even
that faith which is ' the expectation of things hoped for,' and may
encourage them to seek him diligently.
ARGUMENT FIFTH. This may be further evident from those
words, ' the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all un-
godliness, and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in un-
rightvouness;' b where observe,
First. That the apostle there is speaking of the Heathen world,
of the Gentiles, verse 16, of them who ' changed the image of the
incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,
verse 23, and worshipped the creature more than the Creator. 1
Verse 25.
Secondly. Observe that this wrath of God was revealed from
heaven, (i.) ' against their ungodliness,' that is, against their impiety
in robbing God of his honour, and giving it to them which by na-
ture were no gods, and in being ungrateful to him who was the
author of all their blessings, verse 21. (ii.) For, 'their unrighte-
ousness,' that is, the violation of the laws of justice, charity, and
mercy towards one another, of which the Apostle speaks fioui
verse 26 to the 30th.
Thirdly. Observe that they did this against sufficient evidence
and manifestation of the truth delivered to them, ' holding the
truth in unrighteousness? that is, by acting contrary to the notions
they had, or might have learned from the law of nature, and by sup-
pressing or corrupting the dictates of their own natural consciences.
And this is still more evident from the reason of this wrath of God
revealed against them, the apostle saymg,(i.)that they were thus un-
o-odly when God had shewed and made manifest to them, by his
works, ' that zchich might be knotcn of hint' by the light of nature, vers -
es 19, 20. (ii.)That when they had these sufficient mejms of know-
ing God, and many of them by these means did know him, ' they
did not glorify him as God, nor zee) e they thankful' to him for the
blessings he had conferred upon them, verse 21; and so t!;<.-y
robbed him of his glory, and the acknowledgement of his good-
ness, against that light which he had given them to discern tl;< sr:
things, and that because ' the tj liked not to retain God in their
hioideuge,' verse 23. (iii.) That upon this account 'they rare
b Romans i, )8.
428 AN ANSWER TO (DIS. VI.
'without excuse' For I think that interpretation of
those words which makes this manifestation of himself to be giv-
en with this intention only to render them inexcusable in their dam-
nation, unworthy of a confutation, it being to be rejected, as it is
by CEcumenius, with an a-Tfacys, or with 'the utmost detestation;'
this being the vilest imputation that can be cast upon our gra-
cious God, to say that " he vouchsafes the manifestation of
himself to men, only to aggravate their condemnation and give
himself a specious pretence to render them for ever miserable."
It is therefore certain from the reason following, ('they zcere in-
excusable, <>IOTI, BECAUSE knowing God, they did not glorify him
as God;') that the true import of these words is this, that God
had so far manifested himself unto them by the works of his crea-
tion and his providence, that they who were not by these means
induced to glorify him as God, and were not duly thankful to him
for the benefits he alone had conferred upon them, were without
any reasonable excuse for their neglect to do so. Now both the
reason and suffrage of mankind proclaim this an excuse sufficient
for not doing any thing, that they had never power or sufficient
means for the performance of it; and if they had this power, and
these means, it is certain that these Heathens might have thus
glorified God, and have been thankful, and that doing so they
would have been free from the neglect of that which by this
revelation God had made their duty.
Fourthly. Moreover, what is it ' to glorify him as God?' Is
it not to own him as the only God; to give him the worship due
from creatures to their great Creator; to obey his known com-
mands; to submit to his good pleasure; to repent of all their wil-
ful violations of his holy laws; and when they have deviated from
them, to return to tliat obedience which they owe to him; to con-
form to all his linkable perfections; or, in the language of the
Heathens, ffi/^v, rsv^noKiTcUcaQou, ofjt.oiuQr,v, ' to live the life of God, to converse still with him, to be like
to, and of the same mind with him ;' to call upon him who is the
giver of all good things, and to depend upon him for all the bles-
sings they did want? Is it not certain from the writings of the
wiser Heathens, that they knew all this to be their duty? Or
could they glorify him as God, if they neglected so to do?
CHAP. 11.^3.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 42f)
Again, could they be thankful to him for his blessings, unless
they acknowledged him the author of them, and owned their obli-
gations to improve them to his honour, to love him for his bounty,
and to live to him by whom they have lived ?
Fifthly. Observe that the great reason of ' the wrath of God
revealed against them' was this, that they thus sinned against the
knowledge and conscience of their duty, ' by holding the truth in
unrighteousness,' as is more clearly delivered in these words,
verse 32, that 'knowing r6 Sw&iuiAx, THE RIGHTEOUS SEN-
TENCE of God, that they who did such things were worthy of
death, (they themselves passing this sentence upon those who
denied the dignity or worship of their gods, and against many acts
of unrighteousness here mentioned,) they not only did the same,
but took pleasure in them that did them' Now hence the infe-
rence is this,
INFERENCE. That all the acts of ungodliness and unrighte-
ousness, here mentioned as things too commonly practised in the
Heathen world, were done against sufficient light and conviction;
that they did these things against the natural light of their own
consciences, and the knowledge of that duty which was due from
them both to God and man.
ARGUMENT SIXTH. This also seemeth evident from what
the apostle hath declared touching the Gentiles who had not the
law; to wit, that God would judge them according to their works.
Horn, ii, 6. For a righteous God will only judge and condemn
them for the neglect of that which they knew to be their duty, and
might have done, but did not; and for the doing that which they
knew to be evil, and might have avoided, but did not: And both
these things suppose they had sufficient grounds, even from the
light of nature, to know, and might have by their sincere endea-
vours obtained sufficient help for the performance of it. " For,"
as Origen well reasons, "if God condemned the Heathens for
holding the truth in unrighteousness, and because when ' they
knew God, they did not glorify him as God, neither were thankful?
it seems agreeable to reason to believe that had they done what
they culpably neglected, and therefore might have done, that is,
had they glorified him as God, and been thankful, they would
have done that which was acceptable to God, and fit to be rewarded
by his goodness."
430 AN ANSWER TO (DIS. VI.
Secondly. When the Apostle adds, that 'the Gentiles z&liich
knew not the law of Moses did by nature (that is, by virtue of the
law of nature written in their hearts,) the things contained in the
moral law,' he must insinuate that they had the natural principles
of good and evil discovered to them by their own reason and discre-
tion. Hence when they did that which was naturally evil, ' their
conscience, saith he, did accuse them J or it' verse 15. Whence it
follows that they must have both the knowledge of the principles
of natural religion, and an ability to perform them, and to avoid
those sins against the light of nature for which their conscience
did accuse them; for a conscience rightly informed will accuse no
man fordoing what he was not able to avoid. Again, when con-
science in them is said, a-TroXoyav, 'to apologize,' or plead for them,
since conscience plainly doth imply a knowledge of a rule by which
our actions are to be directed, and that our actions have been
done according to, or in repugnance to that rule, it cannot otherwise
plead for them than by an inward sense that they have acted suit-
ably to that rule, or to the knowledge of their duty towards God and
man, they from the light of nature or the convictions of their
reason had discovered. And so much for the testimonies of holy-
scripture.
IV. It seemethalso evident from reason, that if God would be
worshipped, served, and obeyed by his rational creatures, he must
have given them sufficient knowledge of that Being whom they are
to serve, worship, and obey, and of those laws which he requires
them to obey; and also must have given them abilities to do them as
far as he requires this to their acceptance, and motives sufficient to
induce them thus to serve and to obey him. For all men's rea-
son must convince them that a righteous God will not require any
person in order to his acceptance of him, to do that good, or to
avoid that evil which he hath given them no means to know, no
ability to do, and no motive to perform ; since what they cannot
know to be their duty, or knowing cannot do, they cannot be ob-
liwed to do; and what they can have no motive to do or to avoid
they can have no just ground or reason to do or to avoid. Now
hence arise these useful corollaries,
COROLLARY FIRST. That they who say "the Heathens want
sufficient means to know or to perform those natural duties which
they owe to God or man," so far destroy both natural religion and
CHAP. 11.^4.^ THREE OBJECTIONS. 431
morality, because they must absolve the Heathens from any obli-
gations to perform them ; and why then are they styled duties of
natural religion or morality ?
COROLLARY SECOND. That they who say "there are some
precepts which the Heathens cannot perform at all, viz. ' thou shalt
Hove the Lord thy God zcith all thy heart,' 8cc. and, ' thou shalt not
covet any thing which is thy neighbour's'," must either say " these
are no duties of natural religion or morality, and that God therefore
hath not required the Heathens to perform then;" or that " God
doth require them, to \vhom he only hoth vouchsafed the light of
nature, to do that which can never be performed by them, who only
have the guidance and direction of that light and of those secret
influences which he affords them."
COROLLARY THIRD. That they who say that "all those
actions of the Heathens which are for the matter good, yet are
formally sins, because they are not done out of love to God as
the principle, and to God's glory as the end," must either say
that " the He-tthens cannot, by the light of nature, know they are
to do them from such principles and to such ends," and then they
cannot be obliged so to do them; or else that "though they
know they ought to do them from this principle and to this end,
yet they want power so to do them;" and then they must affirm
that " they lie under an absolute necessity of doing all their actions
with these two essential defects, and so under an absolute neces-
sity of sinning,-" against the judgment of all antiquity, St. Austin
not excepted, that no man is to be judged or condemned as a
sinner for that which he lies under a sad necessity to do or to
omit. One would be tempted to conceive they who so confi-
dently aver these things, had never read those sayings of the Hea-
thens who place their confidence in this, "that it shall be well
with them both in life and death because they truly love Goc 1 ,
and do endeavour to be as like him as they can, and that this is the
best way of doing honour to him ;" fl declaring as fully against doing
those things out of vain glory, 6 and chiefly to obtain applause
a Socrat Apol. p. 31, Cicero Tusc. q. 1, n. 82, Jamblic. Protrep. c. 13, p. 81.
b jEquissimo animo ad honcstum consilium per medium infuraiam tandem, nemo mihi videtur
pluris astimare virtutem, nemo illi magis devotus quam qui boni viri famam perdidit, ne conscientium
perderet, Seneca Ep- 81, p. 704. Famam oceupare ct, TC) evcJo^OV TU 3>mixi&, prspponere, inane,
stolidum, iniquum multoties pronunciant. Vide Gataker, ill Anton, part. 1, p, 19, 1, 4, p. 135, 1. 43,
t 6, p. 2%9, 230, 1. 7, p. 292, in 73.
432 AN ANSWER TO (oiS. VI,
from men as Christians do, and saying that they are to " do them
out of respect to conscience, and ought even to lose their reputa-
tion to preserve it, and that c to live according to nature, and, TTSI-
QEvQai rtb Qsy, xat t-xsaQou TOV Qiov, ' to obey or follow the direction
and example of God' is the same thing; that in every thing,, be it
great or little, we are to have respect to God, and glorify him for
ever and ever, and can do nothing well towards man unless we
do it in respect to divine things :<* that God is to be revered above
all things, to be owned, thought upon, and respected in all things,
to be invoked that we may obtain them, and to be celebrated for
them;" to omit many things of a like nature.
SECONDLY. If God hath given to all men immortal souls, it
seemeth plainly hence to follow that he hath put them some way
in a capacity of being happy after death, and hath not left them
under an inevitable necessity of being always miserable. For
since, according to our Saviour's words, * it had been better for
such men that they had not been born,' and, according to right
reason, " it is better not to be, than to be miserable:" and since
all such men must be subject to a necessity of being miserable,
only by being born into the world, that is, only by God's own ac-
tion in giving them life, and infusing a spiritual soul into them,
and all their offspring must be miserable by that which God
himself hath called his benediction on our first parents, by which
they were enabled ' to increase and multiply? I say, seeing these
things are so, it follows that either we must deny the immortality of
the souls of these Heathens, and say that "they will die with their
bodies, and be liable to no account hereafter," or allow that they are
placed by divine providence in a capacity of avoiding the being
ever miserable in that future state. And that God hath vouchsafed
some means of grace and kindness even to the souls who by his
providence have wanted that light which he imparted to the Jew
and Christian, may be concluded from his goodness to them
c *ls yap (facriv ol IIwS'izyogEiOt n^wtis TOV QEOV apisa. eay ta
*) Stavwav ofJUUOTQS. Hierod. in Cann. Pythag. p. 25, 24. AeT /* "Bo* >W
&TU srotev TE yap av^warivo* TI xvev Ty wra 'fz ouja-
ffiopaS' f TTpat^ElJ. Antammis 1.3, sec. 13. llincThaletis manitnm fflud, gig TUS alas
yas TUV aluvwv So^a^Eff^aa ro 9toy. ApudCten. Afe* Stara. 5, i. 554. c.
4 VWe Gatak. voce Dws.
CHAP. II. | 4.) THREE OBJECTIONS.
in things temporal. For since he is that God, 'who doth good to
all, and whose lender mercies are orer all his works, who giveth to
all men liberalli/,Ji(/ing their hearts with food and gladness;' is it
likely that he should wholly neglect their spiritual concerns, leav-
ing their precious souls entirely destitute of help, and under a sad
necessity of pining away in their iniquities, and being miserable
forever, and to be fatally exposed to eternal death, without afford-
ing them any means of redress? This, even to a Heathen, seem-
ed a most unworthy apprehension, that God should be
TX (pxvXoc. KzX&is xxl JyTovws STo^flKntei/o/^svoj, -T.L'OS os r
axoposf ' liberal in bestowing mean things, and sparing in better
things;' why therefore should we Christians, who have clearer
discoveries of the divine goodness, think that he who ' gives to all
men life, breath, and all things,' 1 should utterly withhold from any
the means of serving him acceptably? They surely mighi infer
from his declarations that he ' is the Saviour of all rnen, and that
all souls are his, (^ \vhich is plainly said to answer the complaints
of those who thought he dealt hardly with them,) that he is the
God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews; the same God who is
rich unto all that call upon him; that he hath not. left himself with-
out a testimony of his goodness, that he made them to seek after
him,' in order to the finding him, and so far manifested himself to
them that they might know him so as to ' worship him as God
and to be thankful' to him for his benefits : that, Lastly, he hath
made them so as to c be a latc> unto themselves,' by virtue of that
light of reason he hath implanted in them, so that they have an
inward satisfaction in doing well, and an accusing conscience
when they do that which is naturally evil ; they, I say, may more
rationally conclude he is not utterly deficient in communicating
interior assistances, and promoting the good use and improvement
of these talents, since otherwise they are not only bestowed in
vain, and so as to produce no good effect, but are really unkind-
nesses, as being only apt to produce ill effects on those on whom
they are conferred, viz. the aggravation of their sin, and conse-
quently of their future punishment.
COROLLARY. Hence then it follows that no Heathen nations
are wholly left without some means of knowing and some ability
Max. Tyr. Diss. 22, p. 216.
434 AN ANSWER TO (CIS. VI.
of doing those things God hath made absolutely requisite to free
them from his future wrath, since otherwise they must be born
under an absolute necessity of being ever miserable.
V. Thirdly, 1 add that it cannot be consistent with divine
equity and goodness to make that a condition of any man's hap-
piness which he cannot know to be his duty, or, knowing, cannot
do; since this must certainly subject him to an impossibility of
being happy, and therefore to a certainty of being miserable;
which, by the former proposition, must be repugnant both to the
justice and the goodness of God.
COROLLARY. Hence it is evident that the knowledge of any
revelation made to Jew or Christian, cannot be necessary to the
happiness of the Heathens in general, and much less the practice
of any purely Christian duty; because it is morally impossible that
many of them should come to the knowledge of these things :
and therefore 'faith in Christ Jesus' cannot be necessary to the
salvation of as many of them as have never heard of him; 'for
how,' saith the apostle, ' shall they believe in him of whom they
hate not heard? f And to whom no preacher of Christ Jesus hath
been ever sent; for how shall they hear without a preacher*?
VI. Fourthly. This I think certain, that God will only judge
men at the last for sinning against the means he hath vouchsafed
them to know, and to perform their duty, and only by that law
which he hath given them ; for sin being only a ' transgression of
a law,' where God hath given no law forbidding any action, there
can be no imputable transgression of it; and where he hath given
no law commanding, there canoe no neglect of duty.
COROLLARY. Hence it must follow, that those Heathens to
whom the law of nature hath been only given, can be judged only
for the violations of that law; that is, for the neglect of that which
by that law they might discern to be their duty to perform, or their
sin to commit; God's ' wrath being only revealed from heaven
against them who held the truth in unrighteousness,' And therefore,
as almost all the theses laid down by Vossius, in his disputation
De Virtutibus Gentilium, are absurd, so the first thesis which
makes this a requisite of a good action, " that it be done accord-
ing to the law of God," if he understands this of a written law,
/"Romans x, M,
CHAP. II. ^6.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 435
of which the texts alledged by him only speak, is the first-born of
absurdities; as requiring the Heathens to know the revealed will
of God, (in order to their doing good,) without a revelation, and
saying that a righteous judge will judge the Heathens by a law he
never had revealed to them, and condemn them for not walking
by that rule he never gave them for the direction of their actions.
As absurd is his fifth thesis which requires this condition as ne-
cessary to render the actions of the Heathens profitable to them,
ut promi serif Deus remumrari se ea velle &terna vita, ' that God
should have promised to reward them with eternal life;' this be-
ing to make it necessary in order to any motive they can have,
that is, to any hope they should be better for any good they do,
that they should have a promise of eternal life, who are ' strangers
to the covenant of promise,' and are incapable of having it, no
such promise being ever made to any without a revelation. Sure
it is, from the words of the apostle, that if they have any motive
to serve God, they must have reason to believe that ' he is a re-
warder of them that diligently seek himj and so their service must
be done in faith ; but then what that reward will be, it being not
of debt but grace, it is impossible for them to know without a
promise. And this I think so far unnecessary to their good ac-
tions, that I rather incline to believe that they among them who
endeavoured to live holily and righteously with respect to a recom-
pence without a promise, on the account of divine goodness, and of
his love to virtue wherever it was found, will find a suitable reward
from God ; and that he highly did approve that noble resolution of
Socrates, that " being persuaded that good men living and dying
should be happy, and bad men punished ; I," saith he, " bid
adieu to the applauses of the world/ x.a.1 awna OTTUS aVo7
afforded to them to do or to avoid them ; and that in these par-
ticulars,
First. That their good actions done upon less convictions, aids,
and motives, may be more acceptable to God than the like actions
done by Christians upon much stronger evidence and heller aids,
and more powerful inducements to the same actions, because tins
shews a greater readiness to assent to the objects of ou; faith,
and better inclination to the performance of our duty. Hence
Christ speitks thus to Thomas, ' hast thou seen, and tfinefoie be-
lieved? Blessed are they zcho have not seen, and yet have believed.'"
From which words both interpreters and School-men gather that
faith upon lesser evidence is of greater merit, because it shews a
greater promptitude in the will to embrace, and a stronger ; ...
tion to the objects of faith. And the Centurion's" faith is com-
mended above that of Israel, because he believed in Christ upon
lesser evidence than they, who were acquainted with Moses and
the Prophets, had; and upon those words of Christ to the Syro-
phaenician woman, e O woman, great is thy faith,'? I have des-
canted thus, ' great is thy faith, that having no promise to rely
' upon, and suffering so many repulses, and such seeming con-
* tempt, thou still retainest so good hope of my kindness and
' mercy.' The faith of those who firmly rely [appn God's pro-
mise, and are not by great temptation* and afflictions moved from
their confidence, is praise-worthy. But highly excellent is their
faith who depending only upon his goodness, do place their hum-
ble confidence in God, embracing the iimh of Socrates as most cer-
tain truth, " that no evil could happen to a good man, living or
dead, necwiquam ejm res a diis imntortatibui negligent ur, 'because
the immortal gods could never neglect his ^h.insY' 4 ' Whence
* we may learn that the t;>ith of the Gentiles is not only pleasing
< to God, but sometimes more excellent than that of those to
' whom the promises belong, viz. when npon lesser motives it
1 brings forth equal fruits.' Thus v. g. it is praise-worthy in a
Christian to ' take no thought Jor to-morrotc,' but to depend on
the assurance Christ hath given -him that he shall want neither
food nor raiment; but it is more noble in a heathen, Epictetus,
n John xx, 29- o Luke vii, 9, p Matthew xv, 28.
q "Ev T\ HV TMTO ^tavosTT&aJ ^1" aXrjS'i'j. Jamb. Protrept. p. 84, Socrat. apud Cicer.
Tt'.sc. 2, q. J, n. 82, et Apol. p- 31.
AN ANSWER TO (DIS. VI.
to believe that " a servant of God should not be solicitous for the
morrow,"" and put the question thus, " (po/Ssirai r\s dvrip aya&W,
* Can any good man fear' he may want food? Doth God so
neglect his servants, and his witnesses of his care and providence ?"
It is a Christian virtue to be contented, and to acquiesce in all
God's providences, even under all the comforts, the assistances,
the promises, and hopes which Christianity affords; but for a poor
slave or servant, as Epictetus was, to be able thus to appeal to
God, l Did I ever, Lord, accuse thee, or complain of thy govern-
' ment? Was 1 not always willing to be sick when it was thy
* pleasure that I should be so? Did 1 ever desire to be what
' thou wouldst not have me to be? Was 1 ever the less pleased
' upon that account? Am 1 not always ready to do what thou
' commandest? Did I ever transgress thy precepts, or abuse the
' faculties that thou hast given me? Wilt thou have me to quit
' the plays? I go from them full of thanks that thou adtnittest
' me to see thy works, and understand the administrations of thy
' providence. Wilt thou have me to continue here ? I will freely do
' as thou wiliest. Wouldst thou have me to depart hence? I will
4 freely do it at thy command. 6 I have always had my will subject
' to that of God. c Would he have me to be feverish? I would be
' so. To desire or attempt any thing ? I will desire and attempt
'it. Would he not have me to enjoy it? I would not have it.
' Would he have me die? I am willing to die. d Deal with me
'according to thy pleasure; I am always of the same mind with
'thee: I refuse nothing which thou art pleased to lay upon me;
' lead me whither thou wiliest; cloath me as thou pleasest; J will
' be a magistrate, or private person; continue me in my country
' or in exile, I will not only submit to, but defend thy proceedings
' in all things.' Let me see in Christians a more entire submis-
sion to the will of God, that I may prefer their Christian virtues
before his splendid sins.
Secondly. The Heathens also may expect a reward upon per-
formance of less duty ; for as ' much zvill be required of them to
whom much is given, so to tehom less is given, of them less will be re-
quired,' f saith our Lord. We see it is thus in reference to all other
a Apud Arrian. 1. 1, e. 9, p. 108, 1. 3, c. 36, p. 348, 350. b Apud Arrian. 1. 3, c. 5, p. 273, 274.
C L. 3. C. 24, p. 312. d Ibid. c. 26, p. 361, 362, vide p. 388, 401. e L. 2, c, 16, p, 217.
/ Luke xii, 48.
CHAP. II. 8.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 439
things of a like nature, the less our substance is, the less charity
is required from us ; the less strength they have to perform it, the
less service will be expected from a child or servant; the less time
men can spare from their necessary labour, the less time will God
require to be employed in his immediate service; and the weaker
men's intellectual faculties are, the less measure of knowledge we
require from them. And what reason have we to believe God
will not deal with Heathens after the same gracious measures,
abating somewhat of that duty which he requires towards their
acceptance, because he hath afforded to them less means to know,
less aid and motives to perform it?
Thirdly. The Heathens may reasonably expect that God
should be more ready to pardon and pass by their transgressions,
because there must be in them the more of ignorance, and so the
less of contempt ; and so the more of that which renders them
excusable, and the less of that which aggravates transgression.
And, saith good Salvian, ignosci aliquatenus ignorantia potest,
contemptus veniam non meretur, ' ignorance may obtain pardon
where contempt will not.'* Hence our Lord prays thus for his
murderers, though most of them were guilty of affected ignorance,
" Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." /! St .Pe-
ter saith to them, " I know ye did it ignorantly, as did also your
rulers. Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may
be blotted out.'V St. Paul saith, that " being ignorant of him,
and of the words of the prophets, they fulfilled them in condemn-
ing him ;" whereas, " had they known him, they would nothave
crucified the Lord of glory."* And how much more may be said
to mitigate the ignorance of Heathens, of whom St. Paul dis-
courseth as of men left, \J/r/Xa iks
Christ did in those days, been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented in sackcloth and ashes." And this brings
me to the consideration of the inference made in the objection
from these words, viz.
" Hence it appears that the means of salvation are not always
applied to them .whom God foresaw would use them better."
ANSWER. Now to this inference I answer, that it is wonder-
ful to hear those very meu making this inference from these woids,
who when they are pressed with this plain inference from them,
that if the miracles Christ did in these cities to confirm that hea-
venly doctrine by which he called them to repentance had not
been sufficient for that end, without that unfrustrable impulse
which the event shews he was not pleased to afford them, he
must not only have upbraided, but pronounced the heaviest \\\>\<-
ments against those cities for not doing that uhich they had no
sufficient means afforded them to perform; they answer that
" these words do not shew that God foresaw these means would
have had actually this effect on Tyre and Sidon, but only that in
human probability they might have had this effect upon ihtm,
that men might have reasonably expected this fruit from th<
Or, (ii.) that " these words do contain such an hyperbolic; i
pression as Christ used in saying, ' if these should hold their /
the stones would immediately cry out.;'* or whicli we use by say-
ino-, ' this would make stones speak,' ' a blind man may see this/
or 'a child may understand it;' and so these words serve only to
shew the unreasonableness of the impenitency of those cities
(without the divine impulse absolutely necessary to that end) but
never were intended to intimate the sincerity of the repentance
v DeGubem. Dei, 1.5, j>. 154. | x I.ukcxix, JO.
442 AN ANSWER TO \ (DIS. \I.
these miracles would have wrought in Tyre and Sidon;" these
subterfuges 1 have confuted in the note upon these words. Matt,
xi, 24. To which I add these words of Mr. Thorndyke; 3 ' ' I find
' no good reason to infer positively, as our Lord doth, that Cho-
' razin and Bethsaida shall be tormented more than Tyre and Si-
' don, because, probably, Tyre and Sidon would have repented.
' The same 1 say to others who would have our Lord say
* only this, that had these miracles been done in Tyre and Sidon,
f they would have repented, but not from the heart,* because mira-
* cles are not able to convert any one to God from the heart; for
' in conscience is there any reason that Chorazin and Bethsaida
' should fare worse than Tyre and Sidon, because they would
' have repented as hypocrites, continuing no less sinners than if
' they had not repented? To say as others do, " that had God
* ordained those miracles to be done at Tyre and Sidon, he would
* have determined their wills by his immediate act to be convert-
* ed," is to say that " our Lord, by a mental reservation, says that
* whereof he expresseth not the reason, and so cozens them who
* satisfy themselves with the reason which he doth express'."
When (Secondly,') they do in favour of these false interpreta-
tions add, that " it would be an act of cruelty in God to have
denied them those means which he foresaw' would have produced
in them repentance to salvation," I reply three things,
1 . That they here say more than can be necessarily inferred
from Christ's words, who saith indeed that Tyre and Sidon would
have repented in sackcloth and ashes, that is, with repentance at
present true and sincere, and in which they persevering might have
remained to those days. But so did Nineveh repent, at the
preaching of Jonas, in sackcloth and ashes; and the text saith,
4 God saw their icorks that they returned from their evil zcays,'
but then they afterwards relapsed into them to their utter ruin.
Philip converted the people of Samaria by miracles, but they
were soon perverted again by the sorceries of Simon Magus; the
stony ground " believed for a season, but in time of persecution
fell away; and so did majiy of the Jews who had once truly own-
ed the faith of Christ, so that ' it had been better Jor them not to
haie known tlie way of righteousness, than, after they had kttOK'n it,
y Epil. Part 2, p. 193. z Camero, iu locura.
CHAP. II. ^9.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 443
to depart from the holy commandment;" and who can tell whether
God might not foresee that the repentance of Tyre and Sidon,
though for a season true, would not have ended in a like apostasy ?
2. I add that it is most absurd to say " that God is cruel to-
wards any person or nation, provided he apply not to them all
the means his wisdom can discern to be effectual to bring them
to repentance and salvation," this being to condemn our gracious
God of cruelty in the whole course of his providence. For,
doubtless, his infinite wisdom could have found out means, through-
out all ages, to have converted more than actually were converted,
yea to have turned the hearts of all mankind unto him. Even this
of miracles might have been as effectual to any other people as it
would have been to Tyre and Sidon, to the conversion of infidels
in any age, as in the first ages of Christianity. The appearunce
of Christ to them in the like miraculous manner as he did to Saul,
might have been as effectual to convert any other Jew ; and God
in his infinite wisdom might have foreseen they would be so; must
he be therefore cruel because in all ages, from the first degeneracy
of mankind to this day, he did not always use these means for
their conversion, and if he doth not still continue them whilst the
world lasts? Who then can free his providential dispensations
from this blasphemous charge? Surely, if means sufficient for
the performance of that duty which God requires from any per-
son or nation, and for neglect of which he will condemn them at
the last, be all that can be requisite to exempt God from this
charge of cruelty, even those of Tyre and Sidon had, or might
have had, them; God sending his messages to them by his pro-
phets, and they living in the land of Canaan, being not unac-
quainted with the miracles God wrought for his own people,
Christ also being sometimes in their coast, and they being usable
as others were to come from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon ' to
hear him, and to be healed of their diseases." 1 And if other Gen-
tiles had not such means, why was ' God's wrath revealed from
heaven against that ungodliness and unrighteousness'' which they
had not sufficient means to avoid? And why doth God complain
of the impenitent, the disobedient, and unbelievers, because they
obeyed not his precepts, and hearkened not to his calls and iiivi-
u 2 Peter ii, 21. * Luke vi, 17-
444 AN ANSWER TO (DIS. VI.
tations, and were not induced by his promises and threats, his
patience and long-suffering, and all the other methods of his pro-
vidence, to faith, repentance, and obedience?. Why doth he mar-
vel at, complain of, and upbraid them for, that which they had no
sufficient means to alter or amend ?
3. If means unfmstrably effectual be necessary on this account,
who lay this odious charge upon God so evidently as they do who
tell us he hath left the greatest part of all mankind under an ab-
solute decree, not to afford them those means which he sees abso-
lutely necessary for the performance of that duty without which
they cannot be happy, or for avoiding that sin by which they shali
inevitably be miserable to all eternity ?
CHAP. III.
I 7 OR a close I shall briefly add some testimonies of the Pri-
mitive Fathers concerning God's geiieral goodness to the world
throughout all ages, and more especially towards the Heathens.
I. FIRST CENTURY. Clemens Romauus, in his epistle to the
Corinthians, speaks to them thus, " let us diligently inspect all
ages, and we shali find that in all ages God gave place for re-
pentance to all that would turn to him. This Noah preached to
the old world, and Jonas to the Ninevites; and they repenting of
their sins, eiXafj/>/av xarl-
jfsp aXXorpot T SsS ovrer, ' appeased God by prayers, and obtain-
ed salvation, though they were aliens from God';" that is, not in
covenant with him, as the Jews were.
SECOND CENTURY. Justin Martyr highly approves of tbatsay-
iny of Plato, "that they who seek to appease God by vows and sa-
crifices, ought, TO Tca.uzQ&oc.i xctl (AiTaynwaxuv g^)' oir -%/.uz3Tov, ' to
repent of, and forsake their sins;' which, if they conceive God
inflexible, they will never do, EV o^eXoj ix rr ; r ^ceravo/ay E^HJV o!o-
i,Evo{, ' as expecting to receive no benefit from their repentance':""
he adds that " wicked demons did persecute, -nW airuSzHts, oTov
a Cohort, ad Gr. p. 23, B.
CHAP. III. ^l.) THREE OBJECTIONS. 44.3
2o>x*-7iv, xa! THS o/^o/5-, ' the good, as Socrates, and those that
were like him,'* Heraclitus and Musonius, *a! Tia.itra.s THS KO.V
OTTO'S or,T>orB Karat Xoyov /?tSv T7r^a^ovTas-, za.i xaxi'av siv, ' and
all who any way endeavoured to live according to reason, and
eschew wickedness.' That whatsoever the philosophers or law-
givers found out or spake well, they found out, Sta Xoya [Atpos or
ES-J X^or, 'by participation of the Logos, which is Christ.' that
God made all mankind with understanding and liberty of will,
a.ios'ivQix.i T' zXwQr) xotl si/jrgacTrav, 'to chuse the truth and do good;"*
so that they who neglect to do so are, avawoXoynroj zra^a ru Qsu,
' inexcusable before God.' And that, ol //.sra Xoy CiwaavrEj y^na-
rixvoi gi
Apol. 1, p. \5, D. 46, C. c Page 48, C. d Apol. 2, p. 71, C. C P. 85, C-
/ De Reswr. p. 53, B. B P- 54, C.
AN ANSWER TO (D1S. VI.
ruv Sa u, ' for he is the Saviour not of some only, and not of
others;' but as every one is fitted for it, TW layrS C?(E'VEI/AEV \vtgys-
mv xat "EXA^iri, KOU Bapfidpois, ( he distributes his goodness both
to the Greeks and the Barbarians'." h He adds, "that the law
from the beginning \v;is this, that whoever would, might chuse
virtue; and therefore the precepts in the law, xat TTO T vopc-w TOV
[Asv EXo/M-svov wrjv ai'^tov, xucl (Axxdpiw yeQas Xa/xj3avEiv sTa^av, * and
before the law, appointed every one that would to receive eternal
life, and the blessed reward;' 4 Traiai ydg vdvTa. fr
precepts or prohibitions, for rewards or punishments."'
The Doctor proceeds thus: " St. Basil in many places o.'his
writings doth clearly and plainly assert the absolute necessity of
g Quod autem electos nos ut essemus sancti, et immaculati coram ipso, hoc est Deo, ante fabricran
mundi testatus est; ad praescientiam Dei pertinet, cui omnia future facta sunt, et antoquam fiaiit, uni-
versa sunt uota. Sicut et Paulus ipsoprxdestinatur in utero matris SUJP. Com. Ephes. F. 90, C.
A F. 73, Lit. H. M. i Page 503. k Page 151, J5, 258.
I Libertasarbitrii, secundum veteres, non solum est libertas a coactione, sed etiam a necessitate.
Hist Pdag. L 7, Th. 1, p. 699. Absque hoe esset, rueret imperium patemum, herilc, civile, quando
ut homines sponte agant, tamen, si necessario agant, non ruandato aut prohibitioni, non praroi t aut
poems ullus sit relictus locus. Itaque "hoc argumento patres plerique oranes adstruerc solent aibitrii
iibertatem adveisus Manictueoe, qui et ipsi, sine dubio, sponte, nee coaue, hwuiiicui sgere fiucbuitur
sed neceisario omnia ageK credeUmt, p. 102-
Kk 2
452 POSTSCRIPT.
the grace of the Holy Spirit, in order to the prosecution of good
works acceptable to God, and he depresses the power of free-
will. Gregory Naziunzeu doth in some part imitate him in his
fifty-eighth poem; and as these were the only men of the Greek
fathers, so Cyprian is the first of all the Latin ones that speaks
out concerning the degeneracy and infirmity of man, and the ne-
cessity of divine and supernatural grace. Lactantius is the next
that plainly owns these."" 1 Now this is very artificially said upon
severai accounts:
1. Upon an account, too frequent with the Doctor, that it is
nothing to the purpose; for no Remonstrant or Arminian that I
know of*, denies the necessity of divine grace in order to the pro-
secution of good works; none of them denies the degeneracy
and the infirmity of man. The Doctor's assertions are, " that
men unconverted have a will only to evil; for the liberty of the will
to good was taken auay from all men by Adam's fall." All the
will and power he hath is to incline to evil, and to act it. Thus it is
with every man whilst he is in his unregenerate state." In which
assertions he was so convinced, that even his great patron St.
Austin had declared the sound Catholick faith was against him, that
in his citation from his forty-seventh epistle he fraudulently leaves
out the words that do evince it. For thus they run, ' in fide
sana Catholicaperseverent, qua neqite liberum arbitrium negat,
(these words the Doctor left oul 9 ^ she in vitam malam, sire in
bonum neque tantum ei tribuit ut sine gratia Dei aliquid valeat,
sive ut ex malo convertantur in bonum, sive ut in bono perseveran-
ier projiciat, sive ut ad bonum sernpiternumpervemat. 1 '* "The
s-nmd Catholick faith," saith St. Austin, " denies not the liberty
oi the will in order to a good life." (" The liberty of the will to
go6rl was taken away from all men by Adam's fall," saith the
Doctor. )
C 2. It is also very artificially done to cite the names of Basil,
St. Cyprian, and Lactantius, without citing either words or book,
for 1 am very confident that Lactantius hath not one word to his
purpose, and that jNazianzen saith only that human industry with-
n Pagp 503, 504. n Page 250. o Page 253. p Page 164. q Page 504.
' They may persevere in the sound Catholic faith, which neither denies the freedom of the will
to an evil life or a good one, nor attributes so much to it as that it can avail any thing without the
grace of Go* either to its conversion from sin to goodness, or to its continuance in good, or to its
attaiumemt of eternal blessedness-' ED.
4.53
out the assistance of God's grace and Holy Spirit, is not sufficient
to resist temptations, or to enable us to perform our duty/ St.
Cyprian, notwithstanding all he is pretended to say concerning
the Degeneracy of Man, proves that he still hath credendi, vel
tion ciedendi iibertatem in arbitrio positam, ' a liberty of will to
believe or not believe,' from Deut. xxx, 19. Isaiah i, 19; as also
generally the Fathers, St. Austin not excepted, do. And in h;s
epistle to Cornelius he adds,* that " Christ said to his apostles,
' Kill you go away? preserving the law by which man being left
to his liberty, and to his own will, chuses to himself either death
or salvation."
St. Basil doth not so far depress the power of free-will, but
that in his commentary on these words, ' if you be K'ilting and
obedient, #.' Isaiah i, 19, " he," saith he, "here established the
free-wiil of man, and t.at with reference to the preceding words,
' wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings,
cease to do evil, learn to do well';" 1 and then he truly reconciles
this with the grace of God by ascribing the fruits of holiness to
the Holy Ghost; but adding that " first we must will, and then
our will shall be established." On the fourteenth chapter of
Isaiah, verse 21, he saith " every man is able by his own choice,
either to be a holy seed, or the contrary."* Elsewhere he saith,
"it depends on our own choice either to abstain from iniquity, or
to be wicked."*
St. Jerom is introduced " as a great and hearty opposer of
free-will, as it imports a natural ability in ail men to chuse good,
without the assistance of supernatural grace;" 3 ' and what is that
to us who only do assert it sub ipso gratia adjutorio, ' by the as-
r Test ad Quirinum, I. ?
s Servans scilicet legem qua homo libertati SUEE relictus, et in arbitrio proprio oonstitutus, sibimet
ipsi el mortem appetit, vel salutem, Ed. 59, Ep. Oxon. p. 130, 131.
* To at/TE^tcnli* reliu
quantur. Lib. 1, contr. Pelag. F. 94, A.
/ F. K, A. S IbiO. A F *i i Ml -
456 POSTSCRIPT.
this was the difference betwixt him and them, that they"stood firm
to all that they delivered 011 this subject; but he retracts almost
all he hud delivered in these books, with an irresistible evidence
of reason and us the voice of all mankind, of which I have said
sufficient under this head.
ART. THIRD. As for the antiquity of the irresistibleness of
grace, he hath only one, St. Austin, to produce against a hundred
testimonies of the Fathers cited by Vossius, to prove that God
laid no necessity upon men's will to act, as he must do, if he act
irresistibly upon it, that being necessary quod non potent atitei\ se
habere, ' which cannot be otherwise.' The citations of Vossius
begin, Hist. Pelag. 1. 7, p. 712; and end p. 716, with these
words, "sed tandem al/egandi veteres finis esto, quando, non dico,
si omnia omnium indicare velimus (quod nc posse/nits quidetn) sed
vel sola qua possumus, null us sit jut urns finis.* Calvin' saith
that voluntatem movet Deus non qualiter multis seculis traditnm
est, ut nostra electionis sit motioni Dei obtentperare, vel refragari.^
And that this is true of the first four centuries I have fully proved."
ART. FOURTH. The fourth article concerning the extent of
Christ's redemption, being that which draws all the rest after it,
on which side soever the truth lies, the Doctor musters up all his
Strength to free his limited extent of it from the charge of novelty,
but all in vain; he begins thus, " what some of the Fathers taught,
concerning the limited extent of Christ's redemption is the same
that I have delivered in one of the foregoing discourses."* To
which words I oppose the contrary assertion of Vossius in these
words ; veteris ecctesia judiciumj'uit, Christum pro culpa univer-
sali hominibus providisse a remcdio universal?, soicendo Xurpov in-
jiniti pretiif ne ejus dej'ectu periret quispiam; 1 that is, 'it was the
judgment of the ancient church, that Christ provided an universal
remedy for the universal sin of man by paying a price of infinite
value, that no man might perish for want of it.' And this he
proves by plain testimonies from p. 6.58 to p. 670. The learned
* ' But at length let there be an end of quoting the ancients, since I do not say, that if we wish to
mark all the passages in all of them, (which indeed we can,) but if we were to point out even those
only which we are able to do, there would be no end to the labour.' ED.'
i Instit. 1. 2, c. 3, 11.
f ' God moves the will, not in the manner described in the several preceding ages, tliat is, that it
is in our own choice to obey or to resist the motion of God.' ED.
i PageSOt, I Hist, Pclag. 1. 7, Purt. 1, Th. , p. 756.
POSTSCRIPT. 457
Dally* proves from about a thousand testimonies of one hun-
dred and twenty Fathers the same doctrine, and concludes thus,
certe qui Christum pro solis elect is mortuum absolute, et ut vu/go
loquuntur, in terminis dixerit, octo primis Christianismi stecnlis
invenio neminem; ' throughout eight centuries of Christianity, I
find not one single person who directly, and in terms saith, that
Chdst died only for the elect.'
" This doctrine," saith Vossius, " the Fathers proved from all
those places of scripture, which say Christ died for all, and espe-
cially for the unbelievers, impenitent, and those that perish. Nor
did they think that those places which say Christ died for
the church, or that the benefits of his death belonged only to
believers, were repugnant to these testimonies; for these doctors
of the church not obscurely taught that the death of Christ is
considered two ways; Tel quod ad virtutem, et vim mortis, et turn
Christi morientis, turn Patris eum mil tent is voluntatem, quant an-
tecedeutem vacant, ' either as to the force and virtue of it, and as
to the antecedent will both of Christ dying, and the Father sending
him;' and in this sense Christ died for, and redeemed all and sin-
gular without exception: or Christ's death may be considered,
quod ad effectual, fructumque ex ea, promanantem, \et to/untatera
Christi, et Patris quam dicunt con&equentent, ( as to the effect
and fruit accruing to men from it, and as to the consequent will
of Christ, and of the Father;' and in this respect it is confessed,
that as the fruit of Christ's death belongs not to all, that depend-
ing on the will of man applying Christ's merits to himself, so nei-
ther can Christ be said to die for all;'' 1 * which words contain a
full answer to all the Doctor hath offered from the Fathers on
this head. And Dally doth particularly and copiously confute
him in every Father that he hath alledged.
Thus to his citation from the letter of the church of Smyrna,
which saith we can never forsake Christ, " who suffered for the
salvation of the whole world of those that are saved,'" Mr. Dally
saith, " this is impertinent, as saying only what we all confess,
but not denying that which is in controversy, viz. that Clnist died
also for them who are not actually saved, as almost all the awirnts
say he did: (and among them Polycaip himself, the person men-
tioned in this letter, who saith that God will require the blood *'
m Apol. Part. 4, p. 944, 945. n Ibid. p. 650. 657-
HD\ T7]y TB ffflhflw XOff/Ab TV ffwo//,EVV MOTiMtf< 1S -
458 POSTSCRIPT.
Christ/ asro TO/V 7ri9vTwv uch citations, let the learned judge. In his second
citation he sends us to Origen's commentary on St. John, which
contains four hundred and twenty-two pages ; but the place referred
to is in p. 147, 148, where he doth not positively say that John i, 29,
1 John ii, 2, are to be interpreted of the church only, but by way
of enquiry saith, r^sis Se ^nrSf^sv, EJ KZTO. TO I'OE o a&vos T SSK o
oupcav rr/v a^xprixv TH XO^/X-M, xo-7/xov vonrs'ov vyiws r%v ex*}.y/nam (et quamvis magnet pars ho-
mimtm sakantis gratiam ant repellat,ant negtigaf) in electis ta-
men et pr&scilis, et ab omnium generalitate disci el is, specialis qua-
darn censetur uni'versitas, ut de toto mundo tolus miindus liberatus,
et ab omnibus hominibus, omnes homines videantur assumpti.*
But tlit; Doctor cites them thus, habetpopuluspleniiuciinetn sitam,
in electis enim et pr&'scitis, $c., leaving out the words in the paren-
thesis, which plainly shew that "a great part of men resist and
neglect the grace of that God who would save them." Moreover,
he is stiii unhappy in making this citation from this author, who,
in the very next chapter, not only asserts Universal Redemption,
but declares it to be the doctrine of the universal church. For
having cited these words of the apostle, ' that God zconld hare
all men to be saved;' he adds, qnam particulam verbonim apos-
toti ita iniegre i.lenc.'jiie suscipimus, ut nihil ei de prffcedenlibus,
sive subject is, qua ad earn pertinent:, subtrahamusf that is, ' which
portion of the words of the apostle we so entirely and fully do
embrace, as to subtract nothing from it relating to the precedent
words (requiring us to make supplications for all men) or the
words following:' (relating to kings and all that arc in authority:)
then repeating all the apostle's words, which conclude thus,
' there is one Lord Jesus Christ zvho gate himself a ransom for
all,' he proceeds thus, " Of this rule of the apostolical doctrine,
qua ecclesia universalis imbnifnr, 'with which the universal
s Page 58. Lib - 1 . c ' 3 -
* The people of God therefore possess bis fulness: and although a great portion of men reject or
neglect the grace of Him who would save them, yet in the elect and those who an- fort known and di-
tfnguishcd from the generality of all men, a certain special universality is pcrmvcd, so that M the
world seem to be liberated from all the world, and all men taken away from all nun. 1 ED.
b Cap. V
460 POSTSCRIPT.
church is furnished,' let us enquire, quid in ipsa universalis eccle-
sia sentiat, ( what was the sense of the universal church about
it?' For we cannot doubt what was her sense of the precept,
when we know what was ihe obedience she paid to it. .Now the
apostle's precept," saith he, ''is this, that prayers, and supplications,
and giving of thanks should be made for all men; which law of
supplications the devotion of all the priests and faithful so uni-
formly receives, that there is no part of the world in which such
prayers are not celebrated by the Christians.
*' The church therefoie every where prays to God not only for
the saints, and the regenerate in Christ, but also for all infidels
and enemies of the cross of Christ; for all idolaters, all the perse-
cutors of Christ's members, for the unbelieving Jews, lor Here-
ticks, and Schismaticks; and what doth she desire for these but
that, ab erroribus suis convertantur ad Deum, accipiant jidem,
accipiant charitatem, et de ignorantite tenebris lU/eral? in ag)ntio-
neni veniant verilatis'? that is, ' that they might be converted from
their errors to God, might have faith and charity, and being de-
livered from the darkness of ignorance, might come to the ac-
knowledgment of the truth.' And thus," saith he, " our merci-
ful and just God requires that prayer should be made to him for
all men ?" Now could the whole church thus beg these blessings
peculiar to saints, and the redeemed of the Lord, for all infidels,
all enemies of the cross of Christ, and all persecutors of Clnist's
members, unless she believed that Christ died for the salvation
of them all, at least intentionally? Or could God require her
thus to pray for all men, if he were not willing they should be
saved?
As for the true St. Ambrose, let him consult the learned Dally/
and he will find no less than twenty-eight passages rited from him
to this effect, that "the Lord Jesus came, omnes salvos fa-
cere peccatores, ' to save all sinners,' and therefore was not to pass
by even the traitor Judas, that all men might take notice that in
the election of this traitor, salvaadorum omnium insigt/e pro;. tendit,
*he holds forth an indication that he would have all men to be
saved;' thatGod shews all men, lit quod in eojuit cmnes voluit libe-
rare, ' that, as far as in him lies, he would deliver all men from
perishing.' /uid that if any one perish he therefore dolh so, quia
c From page 799, to page 807,
POSTSCRIPT. 461
curari noluit cum remedium haberet quo posset evadere, ' because
he would not be cured when he had a remedy by which he could
escape ruin'."
Fourthly. He cites, as from St.. Jerom, a passage from a com-
mentary on Job xxxviii, which as it is wholly impertinent, as
proving nothing but that the actual benefit of Christ's death be-
longs only to the faithful; so all scholars know it to be a spurious
piece: and cites, from his commentary on St. Matthew xx, 28,
these words, " that when Christ took upon him the form of a
servant, that he might shed his blood for the world, he said not
that he gave his life a redemption for ALL, but for MANY, hoc
est pro Us qui credere voluerunt, that is for them who would be-
lieve'." Now this is said agreeable to that which Vossius observ-
ed, " that as to the will of Christ, and of the Father sending him,
that was general, that all meu should be saved; but as to the ef-
fect, that depending on the will of man, he died not for all, but
for many; because many refused the benefit offered to them by
Christ " That this is indeed the mind of St. Jerom, is evident
from his own words, *vult Deus salvari omnes, et in agnitionem
veritutis venire, sed quia nullus absque proprid voluntate satvatur,
liberi enim arbiiru suiniis, vult nos bonum velle, ut cum volueri-
mus, vefit in nobis et ipse suum complere consHium.* It therefore
was, according to St. Jerom, the will and counsel of God that all
should be saved; but so as that, having free-will, they should be
willing to be saved, because no man is saved without his own will.
In his commentary on Isaiah Ixiii/ having cited these words of St.
John, ' God so ioced the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
that even/ one that, believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life;' he adds, "if the prudent reader enquire why
all men are not saved, if our Saviour loved them and redeemed
them by bis blood, the cause plainly follows in these words, ipsi
autem noluerunt, ' but they would not.' God therefore would
have saved them who desired to be saved, and provoked them to
be saved that their will might be rewarded, sed illi credere nolue-
runt, ' but they would not believe'." In his epistle to Oceanus,
he saith, " John Baptist must lie, when he said, Behold the Lamb
d Com. in Ep. 91, L-
* ' God wills that aH men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth : But since no
ene is saved against his own consent, (for we are endowed with freedom of choice) he is desirous of our
so willing what is good that, after we have willed it, he also may himself fulfil his counsel in ufc' ED.
* F. 105, I.
462 POSTSCRIPT.
of God who taketh away the sins of the world, si sitnt adhuc in
seculo quorum Christus peccata non tulerit, ' if there be any yet
living for whose sins Christ did not suffer'."^ See ten other pas-
sages to the same effect in Dally, from p. 821, to S l 5.
Fifthly. Whereas he brings in St. Chrysostom expounding those
words of Christ, ' / lay dozon my life for my sheep,' by the people
of God, foreknown and predestinated by him, f as if he made the
predestinated only to be the same as Christ's sheep; here again
the Doctor imposes upon the reader; for Chrysostom there is not
interpreting the word sheep, but these words, verse 14, '/ know
and am known of mine;'' " and this," saith he, " is like to that of
St. Paul, God hath not cast off tiis people whom he foreknew, and
the Lord knoweth who are his." Both which places he interprets
of " God's foresight of their faith and h'tness to be the ob-
jects of his favour, or of their stability in truth and righteous-
ness;'"* and so the import of the words of Chrysostom is plainly
this, that our Lord foreknew who would be humble, meek, tract-
able, who would own him as the true Shepherd, and hear his voice,
and laid down his life for them, and for them only in the sense
explained by Vossius : of PREDESTINATION 1 find not one word.
Moreover both in that and the foregoing homily he plainly says,
" that Christ suffered for the salvation of the world, and that God
gave up his Son to the death for us all."' And indeed it is some-
what surprising to find Chrysostom produced for an opinion which
in twenty-two places cited by Daily/ he so plainly contradicts,
declaring, " that God made the creation, and all us, that he might
save us, and delivering us from error, might give us the fruition of
bis kingdom ; that God had prepared a kingdom even for them that
shall be damned ; that Christ died for all men to do his part to save
all men; that he offered his sacrifice, vxsp wo-avis rrt (pi/aBuf, 'for the
whole nature' of man;" with many other things of a like nature.
Sixthly. Whereas the Doctor introduceth St. Austin interpret-
ing these words, * God would have all men to be saved,' de generi-
bus singulorum, et non de singulis generum, that is, ' not of all
men in general, but of some of all kinds;' that is, as Vossius,' and
Dally/' in his c Etfixgiffiy, hath fully proved, against the plain
/ Ep. 85, torn. 2, f. 113, M. g Page 509.
* Tov Xaov ov TrposJvw rsrsfiv ov r$j v m Cap- 6,
POSTSCRIPT. 463
meaning of the text. This only can be hence inferred, that St.
Austin did not think this place a just proof of the doctrine of the
Universal Redemption of all mankind, as all the Greek Scholiasts
ciid. His second citation from St. Austin is verv artificially pro-
duced; for, whereas the words of St. Austin are, n universe ulique
hoc dicit ecclesia, qtiam plerumque ipsam mundi nomine appellat:*
he cites them thus, ecclesiam plerumque etiam ipsam mundi
nomine appellat. f
Moreover, that St. Austin held the doctrine of Universal Re-
demption is evident from his own words, that, onuies utique mor-
tuisunt inpeccatis, nemine prorsus excepto, et pro omnibus mortals
vivas wonuiis esi uuus, ' all men, none at all excepted, are dead in
sin; and tor all that were dead, one that liveth died.' And this he
largely proves from ihose words of the apostle, ( j'or if one died
for all, then were all dead; and he died for all, that they who live
might not life to themselves, but to him that died for them.' 2 Cor.
v, 14. In this argument he triumphs over the Pelagians, that all
without exception being dead, either inoriginal or actual sins, infants
must be so; and Christ dying for all that were dead, must die for
them. So De Civit. Dei, 1. 10, c. 6, p. 1202. Ed. Basil, contra
Julianum Pelagianum, 1. 6, c. 4, p. 1 10Q, c. 1,5, p. 1 121. P. C. c.
5. p. 1121, P. c. 13, p. 1142. B. See above forty places cited by
Dally from St. Austin, to the same effect, from p. 82Q, to p. 843.
Seventhly. As for Prosper Aquitanus, that he asserted copi-
ously the same doctrine, Dally proves by testimonies contained in
his works from p. 854, to p. 879: and in particular, whereas,
some Gallican Divines had objected as matter of reproach to St.
Austin, that he maintained, quod non omnes homines vttlt Deus
salvos fieri, sed cerium numerum pradestinatorum, et quod non
pro totius mundi redemptione Valuator sit crucijixus, item quod non
pro totius mundi salute, el redemptione Dominus noster Jesus Chris-
tus sit passns,* that is, that he hold the same doctrine which Dr.
Edwards does; as, by objecting these doctrines as reproaches to
him, these divines sufficiently shew that in their judgments the
doctrine of the church was contrary to these sentiments; so Pros-
n Tom. 9, tr. 67, in Johan. p. 157.
' He speaks this of the Universal ( hureh, which he most frequently calls by the name of the world' ED.
t ' He also generally calls the i-hurch itself by the name of lite world. ED.
' That God wilU that none should- be saved except a certain number of the predestinated, and
that the Saviour was not crucified for the redemption of the whole world, and also that OUT Lord Jwii*
Christ did not suffer for the salvation and redemption of the whole world,' ED.
464 POSTSCRIPT.
per, by declaring so expressly that these accusations were unjust
reproaches, invented to blast the memory of Austin, that " they
were prodigious and blasphemous lies," that they objected to him
" impious and profane opinions, not one of which ever came into
the heart of St. Austin," sufficiently shews that neither he nor St.
Austin ever held any of those doctrines, and that he looked upon
them as impious and profane opinions. See Dally, p. 856.
Lastly. As for the article of the Saints' final perseverance, the
Doctor had not the confidence to cite one Father for it, Vossius
having so expressly told him, " that all antiquity impugned the
indefectibility of the saints, and that they only could deny the con-
trary to be the common doctrine of antiquity, qid in antiquitale
plane sunt hospites, ' who are mere strangers to it.' (Hist. Pelag.
1. 6. p. 566.; Now from what hath been thus established, two
things do evidently follow, viz.
1. That all the members of the Church of England, are obliged,
by the express precept of the Church of England, not to teach or
propound to the people, as an article of faith, any of those doc-
trines which Dr. Edwards hath so zealously maintained in his late
book upon these Five Articles, they being such as the Catholic
Fathers and ancient Bishops did never gather from the holy scrip-
tures. For that the generality of the Fathers taught the contrary to
these doctrines from the holy scriptures, hath been fully proved.
2. Whereas it hath hitherto been thought, and by the divines of
the Church of England religiously maintained, and to have been
the glory of the Church of England, that both in her doctrine and
discipline she kept close to the sentiments of primitive antiquity:
ifthese doctrines, which I have shewed to have been the common
sentiments of the church of Christ, do contradict her avowed doc-
trines, it must be owned that in these doctrines she hath departed
from the common sentiments of the best antiquity.
o Imprimis vero videbunt (episcopi) nequid unquam doceant pro concione (concionatores) quod
i populo religiose teneri, et credi velint, nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrina veteris et novi testamenti ;
quodqueex ilia ipsa doctrina catholic! patres, ct vcteres episcopi collegerint.|Canones, Edit. A. D. 1571,
cap. Concionatores.
465
TABLE OF TEXTS
EXPLAINED.
GENESIS vi, 5, p. 278, 279
Psalm Ii, 5, p. 277
Proverbs xvi, 4, p. 32, 33, 99
Isaiah liv, 10, lix, 21, p. 381
382, 384
Jeremiah xxxii, 39, 40 p. 248
249,381384
Ezekiel xviii, 24, 26 )
xxxiii, 13, 18) p
xxxvi, 25, 27, ... p. 250, 251
Matthew vii, 18, p. 242, 243
xx, 28, p. 114, 115
xxiv, 12, 13, p. 345
xxiv, 24, p. 364 365
Mark iv, 11, 12,....
Luke viii, 9, 10, ....
x,20,
xviii, 7,
John iii, 3, 4,
6,
iv, 14,1
vi, 35, / '
vi, 33, p. 130, 131
vi, 37, P- 65, 70
39, 40, p. 366, 368
... 44, p. 241, 242
x, 15, p. 115, 116
28, p. 386,387
xii, 39, 40, p. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37
xv, 5, p. 240
xvii, 9, P- I 25 ' 126
Acts x, 34, 35, p. 422, 423
xi, 18, ^...p. 243, 245
xiii, 48, p. 70, 72
xiv, 16, 17, P- 423,424
xvi, 14, p. 245, 246
xvii, 24, 26, 27, P- 424, 425
Romans i, 18, p. 407, 439
"> 6 p. 429, 430
v, 18, p. 116, 117
19,
..vii, 17, 19,...
.p. 37, 39
p. 37, 89 \
p. 43, 46
p. 59
p. 237
....p. 279, 280
,...p. 384,385
.p. 114, 115
p. 280, 281
viii, 28, 29, ... p. 63 : 65, 72
-77, 370
32, p. 144, 145
34, p. 143. 14.4
viii, 35, p 3; - 1 , 373
ix, pertotum, p. 60, 61, 102
103, 104
xi, 2 p. 369, 370
xi, 5, p. 59, fi
29, p. 360
xiv, 15, p. 132, i.ji
1 Corinthians ii, 14, p. 239, 240
iv, 7, p. 253, 254
viii, 11, ...p. 132, 134
x, 11, 13, p. 356, 357
2 Corinthians iii, 5, p. 241
v v, 15, p. 117,118
17, p. 236, 237
19, p. 131
Galatians vi, 15, p. 236, 237
Ephesians i, 3, 4,..., p. 62, 63
19,20, p . 235
p. 239
8, p. 243, 245
iv, 30, p. 374,377
Philippians i, 6 p. 390
", 13, p. 252, 253
iv, 5, p. 44
1 Thessalonians v, 23, 24,. ...p. 391
2 Thessalonians iii, 3, ....p. 391
1 Timothy i, 19, p . 343
ii 16, p. 118, IHJ
466
A TABLE OF TEXTS'.
2 Timothy ii 19,.. ..
...D 77 7Q
1 Peter i 5,.. .
. D 37T
t ii, 18,
Titus ii, 11, 12,
p. 377
....p. 120
ii T Q
p. 39 40
...0 .
Hebrews ii, 9,
p. 121
2 Peter ii, 1,....
..'... p 135
yi, 4, 5, 6,...
ix, 28,
x 2fi
...p. 337, 338
...p. 114, 115
..p. 134, 135
18-
1 John ii, 2,..,.
-21, p. 341, 343
p. 121, 123
p. 128 129
38,
...p. 340, 341
...iii, Q...
p. 378, 379
..p. 37Q, 381
...xiii, 21,..
.. p. 252, 253
Jude ...4,...
...p. 41. 42
Discourse I. . Election and Reprobation, p. 25
II. Extent of Christ's Redemption, p. 106
III. Sufficient and Effectual Grace, &c p 186
IV. Freedom of the Will of Man, p. 260
V. Perseverance of the Saints, p. 330
VI. Answer to three Objections, p. 398
Postscript in Answer to Dr. Edwards, , p. 449
ERRATUM.
In the parenthesis of the first note in page 456, for " we can" read " we cannot."
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JAN 2 1978
lOm-7,'71 (P6348s8) Z-53
3 1158 00217 2053
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
A 000039230 8