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Thirdly. Did not God decree from eternity, that he that believeth in his Son should have eternal life, and he that believed not his Son should not see life?" 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 absolute decrees. And therefore,

Fourthly. When it is said, that "an immanent act of the divine mind (or will) cannot depend on any foreseen acts of man's will," I grant that it cannot depend on them as the cause producing such an act, but purely on his own attributes and perfections, v. g. he must decree to elect man as fallen, 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 mercy, or worthy of his vindictive justice. Again, these immanent actions of the Deity either respect himself only, as the love and knowledge of himself, and then 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 future 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. g. e from the 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 all 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 eternal 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 partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And all this is demonstrably 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 consequently the end for which he requires any thing from us, or de

crees any thing concerning us, is not, and cannot be, any advantage or good he expects to reap from it, he being, from all eternity 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 manifest 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 thing 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 he 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 allwise God can be concerned whether such blind creatures as we are, approve or disapprove of his proceedings; or that he really can suffer any diminution of his glory by our dislike, or is advanced 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 and happiness of man in these discoveries. For when he discovers all those attributes which represent him good and merciful, kind and obliging to the sons 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

and mercy to 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 his great wisdom, he designs by this to teach 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 blessings on his servants, that so he may encourage us to place our trustin him at all times, 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 promises to, and execute his threats upon, us, he doth this chiefly to affright us from those sins which make it necessary for his justice to 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 justice 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; his 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 advancement and best accomplishment of human nature, may be more earnestly pursued by us. So that God's acting for his glory, is indeed his acting for the good of his most noble creatures, and only recommending of himself to their good-liking and affection, that so he may the more effectually promote their happiness.

It is indeed in our translation said 'God hath made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of wrath.' (Prov. xvi. 4.)

עָנָה lamaanehu) from) לָמַעֲנֵהוּ But in the Hebrew the word is

(anah), and so the words may be thus rendered, the Lord hath made all things,'' 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, singula Deus ordinat ad id quod singulis competit, ordinat impium ad diem calamitosum.* The Bishop of Ely renders them thus, The Lord disposeth all things according to his will, even the wicked for the day of wrath, that is, to be then the executioners of it.

And whereas these men tell us, that God elected a certain number to be saved for the manifestation of the glory of his grace,

*God appoints every thing to that whieh befits it,-he appoints the impious for the day of

calamity. ED.

(1.) according to this hypothesis, the glory of his grace must consist in electing so many to salvation and no more; for if the decree to save more would more have tended to the manifestation of his glory, the same motive must have induced him to save more. Now to affirm that "it is for the glory of his mercy to save the elect only, and no more," seems contrary to common sense; for the more are benefited, the greater is the glory of the benefactor. If it then tendeth to tl e glory of his mercy absolutely to decree to save some no more fitted to be the objects of his mercy than the rest, it must be more for the glory of his mercy to decree thus to save more, and most of all to decree to save all.

Again, (2.) if it be for the glory of his grace to prepare saving grace for any, and to give them that assistance which will unfrustrably procure their salvation, would it not be more for the glory of the same grace to prepare it for, and afford it to, more, and to leave none under a necessity of perishing for want of grace sufficient to work out their salvation? Is grace the more magnified for being restrained to some few, when all do equally need and all are equally capable of it? Nor is there any reason in the objects of it, why it should not equally be vouchsafed to them.

The other black part of this decree, which saith "God left the greatest part of mankind in a state in which they must infallibly fail of obtaining salvation, or the means of salvation,—faith and perseverance, they being the consequents and fruits of that election out of which they are excluded," is still more horrible in its immediate consequences: For, (i.) it makes God to create innumerable souls after the fall of Adam, to be inevitably damned without the least compassion for them, or will to afford them means sufficient to exempt them from that dreadful doom. For if "faith and perseverance be the consequents and fruits of God's election," then they who are not elected cannot have them; if "they must fail of obtaining salvation," they must inevitably incur damnation. (ii.) It makes him, in prosecution of this end, having created them pure and innocent as they came out of his hands, to put them into bodies, that so they may be made or deemed the offspring of Adam, and, by being so, may be fit objects of his eternal wrath; which they could never be by his creation of them, did he not thus unite them to the bodies generated by the posterity of Adam.

CHAP. V.

I SHOULD now, for a close, demonstrate the contradiction which this doctrine of absolute election and reprobation bears to the sentiments of the ancient fathers; but this is so evident, that Calvin, Beza," and many other patrons of the contrary doctrine, do partly confess it. I therefore shall content myself with three or four plain demonstrations of this truth, viz.

d

I. (1.) That they unanimously declare, that "God hath left in the power of man, in' dupóтepa тpérola, to turn to vice or virἐπ' ἀμφότερα τρέπεσθαι, “ tue'," saith Justin Martyr;" "to chuse or to refuse faith and obedience, to believe or not," say Irenæus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, and St. Cyprian: "That every one is himself the cause why he is made frumentum aut palea,"* saith Irenæus: “ Every one, ἑαυτὸν δικαιῶντος, ἤ ἔμπαλιν ἑαυτὸν ἀπειθῆ κατασκευάζε OVTOS, rendering himself either righteous or disobedient'," saith Clemens of Alexandria:" "That God hath left it in our own power, πρὸς τὰ καλὰ νεύειν, καὶ τὰ καλὰ ἀποςρέφεσθαι, “to turn to or from good: that he hath put it into our power, τὲς ἀγαθὸς ἡμᾶς εἶναι ἤ κακές, πράττειν μεν τὰ δίκαια, ἤ τὰ ἄδικα, “to be good or bad, to do what is righteous or unrighteous';" so Athanasius, Epiphanius,* Macarius,' St. Chrysostom," Theodoret," and Cyril of Alexandria. "That our happiness or punishment, ¿x t≈ èQ' Âμïv äρTNταI, .' depends on our own choice;' that it is in our own choice, oneμa äyıov ɛivai ʼn tò vavríov, to be an holy seed, or the contrary,' to fall into hell, or enjoy the kingdom; ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἐσιν ἤ νύκτος ἤ ἡμέ pas viès yíveolai, 'to be children of the night or of the day;' τέκνα δ ̓ ἀρετῆς, ἢ τὸ ἀντικειμένω διὰ κακίας, ‘by virtue to be God's, or by wickedness the devil's children';" so Cyril of Jerusalem," St. Basil, Chrysostom," and Gregory Nissen. (L. 2. contra Eunon. p. 95.)—“That unusquisque ex seipso causas et occasiones præstitit conditori, 'that every one gives occasion to his Maker to render

a Institut. 1. 3. c. 23. Beza in Rom. ix.

d Stro. 1. p. 314. 7. p. 717.

i

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e Ep. ad Cast. c. 2.

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h Stro.3, p. 153.

k Hær. 16. p. 4.

Ho. 27. p. 166.

? Adv. Græc. Serm. 5. To. 4. p. 543.

In xiv. Es. To. 2. p. 259.

o Contra Jul. 1. 3. p. 79.' p Catech. 4. p. 31. r To. 2. H. 14. in 1 Cor. p. 729.

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