DISCOURSE IV.

JOHN iii. 16, 17.

God fo loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in him fhould not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God fent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be faved.

I

CONCLUDED my laft Difcourfe after remarking, that the doctrine of Calvinistic predestination appears to me irreconcileable with the notions, which the Holy Spirit gives us in the Scriptures, of God's attributes and of his moral government of the universe; with the general conditions of the Gospel covenant; and with the promises of God, as they are generally fet forth to us in holy Scripture.

Amongst an innumerable multitude of paffages, which contribute to give a confiftency and a harmony to the facred volume, the declaration of our bleffed Redeemer in the text, concerning the motive, which caufed him to

be sent from God, and the purpose, for which he was fent, holds a confpicuous place. It was from the able application of this paffage by Epifcopius, that the ever-memorable Hales, who had been educated in the Calviniftic opinions, and went a Calvinist to the Synod at Dort, was there perfuaded, as he was himself used to declare, to renounce the doctrines of Calvin a; nor does the fact deferve our aftonishment, when we confider, how incompatible those doctrines appear with the univerfal love of God to man, and with the universal tender of falvation and everlasting life, which this paffage evidently propofes. It is not, however, fo much upon this, or upon any other individual paffage of Scripture, (unanfwerable as many of them are,) that I would reft our defence, as upon the general scope and tenour of the whole: and that, not only because I confider fuch an appeal, as the mode, whereby we may be beft defended; but also because I confider it, as the most equitable

a "I am very glad to hear you have gained those let"ters into your hands, written from the Synod of Dort. "You may please to take notice, that in his younger "days he was a Calvinift, and even then when he was "employed at that Synod; and at the well preffing St. "John iii. 16. by Epifcopius-There I bid John Calvin "good night, as he has often told me." Farindon's Letter prefixed to Hales's Golden Remains.

method of investigating, and the fafeft and moft certain way of arriving at, the truth. This is the kind of appeal, which, with the good bleffing of God, I propose to make in the following discourse: wherein if I fail of fatisfying our accufers of the goodness of our caufe, I trust that I fhall at least be able to convince any impartial obferver, that in declining the doctrine of abfolute predeftination we do not act under the influence of fome rash and groundless prepoffeffion; but that, if our opinions are erroneous, they appear to be fo well established on the declarations of Scripture, as that we may reasonably believe them to be fcriptural truth; and that we are therefore far from deferving that afperity of reprehenfion and thofe opprobrious appellations, wherewith we are branded for entertaining them.

I. My first object will be to show, that the Calvinistic doctrines are incompatible with the notions, which the Holy Spirit gives us in Scripture, of the attributes and moral government of God.

But here, before I proceed, I wish to obviate an objection to our opinions, which our accufers attempt to establish on the fame bafis, on which we propose to establish our opinions themselves. We are told, that "to imagine

b Hawker's Zion's Pilgrim, p. 158, 159.

our acceptance or refufal of grace to be the result of our own pleasure, is to take from "God his omnipotence :" "to fancy that our "improvement or mifimprovement of grace "will render it effectual or the contrary, is to "take from God both his wifdom and his glory;" and "to believe after what God "the Father hath given, and God the Son "hath accomplished, for the falvation of his

people in a covenant way, that fouls, re"newed by God the Holy Ghost and called "with an holy calling, may yet finally perish; "this is bringing down redemption-work to

..

t

fo precarious and uncertain an issue, as muft

leave it altogether undetermined whether a fingle believer shall be faved or not. And "this throws to the ground the distinguishing "character of God's immutability." But how do we infringe God's omnipotence, by suppofing, that it is of our own will either to reject or accept his grace, when we believe that the exercise of our will is folely the confequence of his permiffion, and of his not choosing to overrule it, and to diveft us of the refponfibility of moral agents? How do we impeach his wisdom, abridge his glory, or shake his immutability, by fuppofing,, that our falvation, instead of being fixed by an abfolute irrespective decree, is fufpended on our voluntary fulfilment of certain conditions; when at the fame

time we humbly confefs, that with that infallibility, wherewith he forefees events that are contingent to man, he certainly foreknew, that fome would, and who they were that would, obferve the conditions: that with that immutability, wherewith he delights to reward virtue, he predeftinated to life thofe of whom he foreknew that they would be faithful: and that the whole glory of the victory of those, who perfevere, is to be afcribed to the free mercy of the Father, to the meritorious facrifice of the Son, and to the preventing and affifting grace of the Holy Spirit?

In fact, the fuppofition of conditional and respective election is, in this view of the fubject, as innocent of infringing these attributes of God, as is that of unconditional and irrespective election. When therefore it is demanded of us by the advocate of moderate Calvinism," Had not the glorious Being, who "created the world, a right to create it for "what purposes he pleased? And has he not "the fame right to govern his own world according to his pleasure? And if his perfec"tions are infinite, must he not act in conformity to these perfections; and must not his

66

purposes be affuredly accomplished; and "must not all his creatures, in one way or "another, be the means of their accomplish