To evade the Force of these, an Hypothefis has been devised that promises Salvation to all, even to those who fet God and his Laws at Defiance, through the infinite Mercy of God, and the Merits of Jefus Chrift. Accordingly every Text that relates to the one, or exhibits to us the other, has been produced and displayed to all poffible Advantages, while the Menaces of Scripture to the ungodly, which are delivered in Terms as clear and emphatical as can be, are faid to be descriptive, or emblematical only of fo many temporal Punishments, or if of future, are supposed to import no more than the Exclufion of the Wicked from extraordinary Grace, or a Place in the highest and most exalted Manfions of Glory. For though this System peremptorily ascertains abfolute Happiness to all Men, it is módeft enough to allow good Men a greater Degree of it than others, and an Augmentation of Bliss proportionable to their Proficiency in Religion and Virtue.-The dangerous Tendency of fuch a System as this, which not only qualifies and softens, but even resolves away many of the plainest and most exprefs Paffages in Scripture, is too obvious to be enlarged upon; and therefore I shall content myself with briefly fhewing the at best unwarrantable Prefumption of applying the Mercy of God, and the Merits of Chrift, to the Cafe of impenitent, profligate, and aban • See a Treatise entitled, Heaven open to all Men. doned doned Sinners, either upon the Principles of Reason, or the Authority of the Holy Scripture.-A Being of infinite Mercy, fays this Theory, can never fuffer of his Creatures to be miferable. But any with what Foundation in Reason can we conclude that God is a Being of infinite Mercy in the Sense contended for? When we fpeak of any of the Divine Attributes, as the Power, the Justice, the Wisdom, or Goodness of God, we call them infinite with fufficient Propriety, because our finite Capacities cannot fix their Bounds, or afcertain the precise Measure and Degree of them. But that each has it's Measure, is manifest even from our inadequate Idea of abfolute Perfection. The above, and other Attributes and Perfections jointly make abfolute Perfection, or God: But no one of them, exclufive of the reft, does: God is neither Wisdom, or Power, or Juftice, or Mercy separately, but collectively: He is all these: For instance, God is a Being of infinite Power; but infinite Power, unless influenced and restrained by infinite Wisdom and Goodness, conveys to us the dreadful Notions of arbitrary and tyrannical Government. Again, God is a Being of infinite Justice; but infinite Justice, unless allayed and foftened by infinite Mercy, could not but proceed against Sinners with that Rigour and Severity which would end in univerfal Destruction. So laftly, Gcd is a Being of infinite Mercy; but infinite Mercy, unless infinite Justice Justice be fuppofed to interfere, would argue fuch Weakness, and falfe Compaffion in pardoning indiscriminately all Ranks and Degrees of Sins and Sinners, as we cannot, without Impiety, fuppofe God to be capable of. For, 2dly, All the divine Attributes have their correfponding Objects, and confequently God cannot be merciful any farther than Men are Objects of Mercy. Now there must be particular Circumstances of Extenuation alledged in Favour of the Sinner, fuch as Pleas of Ignorance, or Infirmity, (with regard to which, by the way, God's Mercies are undoubtedly infinite) together with an humble and penitent Heart, before he can, in any Propriety of Sense or Speech, be faid to be an Object of Mercy: But in the Cafe before us, the Sinner is fupposed to be hardened and impenitent, and profeffedly fetting God and his Laws at Defiance; and to maintain that fuch a Perfon is an Object of Mercy, is to deftroy every Notion of Equity whatever. No Man would be said to derogate from the Power of God by afferting that it cannot reconcile known Contradictions: Nor, by Parity of Argument, do we detract from his Mercy by alledging that it cannot extend to those who are not qualified for it: in neither of thefe Cafes is there any manner of Defect in the Divine Attri butes; but they are Cafes in which those Attributes cannot cannot poffibly, in the Nature of Things, be concerned. Nor, 3dly, Can the prefumptuous Sinner take any real Advantage of those Declarations in Scripture of God's hating nothing that he has made, and his Willingness that all should be faved. God is willing, 'tis true, that all should be faved, but he is not willing that the Sinner fhould be faved as fuch. To affert this, would be to fay, that God is willing to encourage Sin, his utmost Abhorrence of which the whole Tenor of the facred Writings must convince us of; there is a wide and obvious Difference between a conditional, and an abfolute Pardon of Sin; the former may be an Act of unfpeakable Mercy, but the latter is repugnant to the Notion even of natural Juftice: And if God has done all, and indeed infinitely more than Men deserved, on his part, to effect the great Work of Salvation, and it be purely a Man's voluntary Act that he forfeits his Title to it, God may then with the greatest Strictness be faid to be willing that all Men should be faved, though he does not forgive them in the grofs, or, in a manner, whether they will or no. And on the other hand, with respect to the Merits of Christ, it has been fuggested, that to affert they will not be interpofed for the Salvation of all Mankind, is to derogate from the Efficacy, and to limit the Sufficiency of them. That profeffed Chriftians fhould advance fuch a Notion as this, seems almost unaccountable. For if Chrift's Merits be all-fufficient in this Senfe, to what purpose was his Religion instituted at all? or why feemingly enforced with the most preffing Motives to Obedience, the Sanctions of future Rewards and Punishments? Why is our Saviour reprefented under the tremendous Character of a Judge, before whofe Tribunal all Men must one Day appear to give an Account of their Works? Were the Doctrines of Christ, and his Apostles, designed only to deceive the weak, or to amuse the doubtful? But how do we derogate from the Sufficiency of our Saviour's Merits by afserting that they do not extend to the Case of profligate and abandoned Sinners? Is the Nature of God, or of Sin, altered because Chrift Jefus came into the World? Did his Coming cancel at once all religious Obligations? No, it is faid, but after all, his Merit is of that ineftimable Value and Efficacy, that it must be capable of atoning indifcriminately for all Sin whatsoever. 'Tis true, we must not presume to dictate to infinite Wisdom, or instruct God Almighty how to punish, or how to reward; but neither are we to ascribe more to our Saviour's Merits than express Scripture will warrant us to do; the Limitations of them are his own Limitations, not ours for any Man to argue therefore that they |