Man above another in point of Pretenfion to the Divine Favour, no Man living is abfolutely and perfonally juftified in God's Sight, the Scripture very properly represents the Divine Favour as the Effect not of Man's Righteousness, but of God's free Grace; fo that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that Sheweth Mercy. Here then is an Election of fome in Preference to others, not of Works, but of him that calleth; and yet fuch Election has Respect to perfonal Qualification, or Difqualification.

In this Senfe then, God has Mercy on whom he will have Mercy, and whom he will ke hardeneth. Thus in the Cafe of Pharaoh, (who is fometimes faid to have hardened himself, and fometimes to have been hardened by God) Sin was taking it's natural Courfe; and his Deftruction is to be ascribed not to any arbitrary Pre-appointment, but to a general Decree, of God, whereby wilful and obftinate Sin neceffarily incapacitates Men for divine Mercy. And if, in confequence of fuch general Decree, all Men fhall receive the juft Reward of their Deeds, where is the Injuftice, or the Unreasonableness of the Difpenfation? Shall we quarrel with the very Terms and Conditions of human Nature? Shall the Thing formed fay to him that formed it, Why haft thou made me thus? — Hath not the Potter Power over the Clay of the fame Lump to make one Vessel unto Honour, and another unto Difbonour?

bonour? Or, might not God confiftently with Justice, Wisdom, and Goodness, create Beings capable of Happiness or Mifery, and predestinate each to the feveral Deferts of fuch Beings? That this Predestination of fome to Mifery is not arbitrary and abfolute, is evident from that Unwillingness and Reluctance (if I may fo fpeak) with which God fees his own Purposes eventually take Effect to the Ruin of his Creatures; for though we are told he is willing in certain Cases to shew his Wrath, and make his Power known, he is likewife faid at the fame time to endure with much Long-fuffering even the Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction. But forafmuch as the Ruin confequent upon the prefumptuous and obftinate Commiffion of Sin doth really demonstrate the Power and Majesty of God, and he likewise foreknows who they are who shall wilfully render themselves proper Objects of his Wrath; for these Reasons the Scriptures may be supposed to apply a general Decree to a particular Inftance, and declare any remarkably wicked Man, as was Pharaoh, to be raised up even for this Same Purpofe that God may fhew forth his Power in bim, and that his Name may be declared throughout all the Earth; (Rom. ix. 17.)—In like manner it is as apparent from Scripture that the ordinary Affiftances of the Holy Spirit are fuch as cooperate indeed with the Endeavours of good Men, but with a Force at the fame time not absolutely irresistible. VOL. I. N

It

It is true, the Scriptures frequently speak of the Condition of good Men in very high Terms as full of comfortable Affurances of Salvation; and they as frequently represent Sinners as devoting themfelves to Destruction;-but they are to be underftood with Limitation in fuch Places, and must be fuppofed to imply great Probability indeed, but not Certainty, in either Cafe. It is impoffible, says the Apostle to the Hebrews, for those who were once enlightened, and have tafted of the heavenly Gift, and were made Partakers of the Holy Ghoft, and have tafted the good Word of God, and the Powers of the World to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto Repentance. These are very strong Expreffions, and import as plentiful an Effufion of ordinary Grace at least as can well be imagined; and yet it is poffible, we fee, even for these to fall away; and confequently no Degree of Grace can be faid to be abfolutely irresistible; and with Men it may be impoffible, i.e. morally and humanly fpeaking, for the fame to renew them again unto Repentance; but not with God, for with God all Things are poffible; as our Saviour expreffes himfelf upon another, but applicable Occasion. — In short, the Scripture Doctrine of Election and Reprobation feems plainly to be this:All Men, and all Chriftians, are equally left to the free Exercife of their natural Powers, and the Use of spiritual Affiftances the proper Application of these Pow

ers

ers and Affiftances is through Chrift fufficient for Salvation; the Abuse of these Powers and Affiftances will be attended with Dereliction cn God's Part, and confequently with their unavoidable Deftruction; thofe in the firft Cafe, who are either qualified for God's Favour by Perfeverance, or recover it by Repentance, are in Scripture Language the Elect, (to whofe Charge who fhall lay any thing?) their Names are written in the Book of Life; they are those whom God did foreknow, predeftinate, call, juftify, and glorify; thofe in the latter Cafe, whether Chriftians or not, who do not like to retain God in their Knowledge, or, in their Practice, are given over by him to a reprobate Mind, unto which they are faid to be appointed; but the Election of the firft, and the Reprobation of the latter, is ftrictly of a conditional Nature, and the Divine Decree relative to both, is not arbitrary, but confequent upon that Obedience or Difobedience, which is not lefs voluntary because it was foreknown.-And this Affertion further points to the Confideration of an Argument drawn from Reason itself against the Doctrine we have been endeavouring to establish. For how, fays the Decretalift, can there be a Foreknowledge of future Contingencies ?

A Question, it must be confeffed, much easier to be evaded than anfwered; a Queftion however, that contains no Difficulties to the Prejudice of the Doctrine here inculcated, unless it can be made

to appear that the predeftinarian Hypothefis is attended with no Difficulties at all, or with fewer than that we are maintaining. Without attempting therefore to discuss this Question, I fhall content myself here with observing, that two Propofitions may be equally true, and yet irreconcileable with human Reason at the fame time; thus for inftance, that God himself is a free Agent, is undeniably true, and yet it is as true that he neceffarily acts agreeably to the Rules of Wisdom, Goodness, and Justice:-the Application whereof to the Matter in hand is very obvious.-But a fecond ArgumentfromReason made use of by Predeftinarians is founded on the Suppofition that God, in all his Difpenfations, acts wholly and folely with a View to the Illustration of his own Power and Glory; and that confequently the abfolute Predeftination of fome to Life, and others to Death, does no more than tend to the Manifestation of the fame. Nor does fuch Predeftination of Chriftians, fay they, carry with it a greater Degree of Hardship or Severity, than the Divine Appointment or Allotment of many Nations and immenfe Countries, to fit in Darknefs and the Shadow of Death to this Day, while others are happily illuminated by the glorious Light of the Gospel of Christ.—Indeed, if all those on whom this Light never shined be therefore in a State of Damnation, there is a great deal of Force in the Argument; but if the Doctrine we have inculcated