fend and take all the Families of the North, faith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar my Servant, and will bring them against this Land, and against all the Nations round about; and will utterly deftroy them, and make them an Aftonishment, and an Hiffing, and perpetual Defolations. Chap. xliii. 10, 11. I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon, my Servant: and I will fet his Throne upon these ftones that I have bid, and he shall spread his royal Pavilion over them. And when he cometh, he fhall fmite the Land of Egypt, and deliver fuch as are for Death to Death, and fuch as are for Captivity to Captivity, and fuch as are for the Sword to the Sword. Thus God reprefents himself as fending for Nebuchadnezzar, and taking of him and his Armies, and bringing him against the Nations which were to be deftroyed by him, to that very End, that he might utterly deftroy them, and make them defolate; and as appointing the Work that he thould do, fo particularly, that the very Perfons were defigned, that he fhould kill with the Sword; and those that should be kill'd with Famine and Peftilence, and thofe that fhould be carried into Captivity; and that in doing all thefe Things, he should act as his Servant: By which, lefs can't be intended, than that he should ferve his Purposes and Defigns. And in Jer. xxvii. 4, 5, 6. God declares how he would caufe him thus to ferve his De

figns, viz. by bringing this to pafs in his fovereign Difpofals, as the great Poffeffor and Governour of the Univerfe, that difpofes all Things just as pleases him. Thus faith the Lord of Hofts, the God of Ifrael; I have made the Earth, the Man and the Beast that are upon the Ground, by my great Power, and my stretched out Arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me: And now I have given all thefe Lands into the Hands of Nebuchadnezzar MY SERVANT, and the Beasts of the

Field have I given alfo to ferve him. And Nebuchadnezzar is spoken of as doing thefe Things, by having his Arms ftrengthened by God, and having God's Sword put into his Hands, for this End. Ezek. XXX. 24, 25, 26. Yea, God fpeaks of his terribly ravaging and wafting the Nations, and cruelly deftroying all Sorts, without Diftinction of Sex or Age, as the Weapon in God's Hand, and the Inftrument of his Indignation, which God makes use of to fulfil his own Purposes, and execute his own Vengeance. Jer. li. 20, &c. Thou art my Battle-Axe, and Weapons of War. For with thee will I break in Pieces the Nations, and with thee I will deftroy Kingdoms, and with thee I will break in Pieces the Horfe and his Rider, and with thee I will break in Pieces the Chariot and his Rider; with thee alfo will I break in Pieces Man and Woman; and with thee will I break in Pieces Old and Young; and with thee will I break in Pieces the young Man and the Maid, &c. 'Tis reprefented, that the Defigns of Nebuchadnezzar, and those that destroyed Jerufalem, never could have been accomplished, had not God determined them, as well as they; Lam. iii. 37. Who is be that faith, and it cometh to pafs, and the Lord commandeth it not? And yet the King of Babylon's thus deftroying the Nations, and especially the Jews, is fpoken of as his great Wickednefs, for which God finally destroyed him. Ifa. xiv. 4, 5, 6, 12. Hab. ii. 5,-12. and Jer. Chap. 1. and li. 'Tis most manifeft, that God, to ferve his own Defigns, providentially ordered Shimei's curfing David. 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11. The Lord bath faid unto him, Curfe David.--Let him curfe, for the Lord hath bidden him.

'Tis certain, that God thus, for excellent, holy, gracious and glorious Ends, ordered the Fact which they committed, who were concerned in

Chrift's

Chrift's Death; and that therein they did but fulfil God's Defigns. As, I truft, no Christian will deny, it was the Defign of God, that Chrift fhould be crucified, and that for this End, he came into the World. 'Tis very manifeft by many Scriptures, that the whole Affair of Chrift's Crucifixion, with its Circumstances, and the Treachery of Judas, that made Way for it, was ordered in God's Providence, in Purfuance of his Purpose ;. notwithstanding the Violence that is ufed with thofe plain Scriptures, to obfcure and pervert the Senfe of 'em. Acts ii. 23. Him being delivered, by the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God, ye bave taken, and with wicked Hands, have crucifed and flain. Luke xxii. 21, 22. † But behold the Hand of him that betrayeth me, is with me on the Table: And truly the Son of Man goeth, as it was determined. Acts iv. 27, 28. For of a Truth, against thy holy Child Jefus, whom thou haft anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the People of Ifrael, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy Hand and thy Counsel determined before to be done. Acts iii. 17, 18. And now Brethren, I wot that through Ignorance ye did it, as did

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alfa

"Grotius, as well as Beza, obferves, that forwars must here fignify Decree; and Elfner has fhewn that it has that Signification, in approved Greek Writers. And it is certain sudor fignifies one given up into the Hands of an Enemy." Doddridge in Loc.

tAs this Paffage is not liable to the Ambiguities, which "fome have apprehended in As ii. 23. and iv, 28. (which "yet feem on the whole to be parallel to it, in their most na"tural Conftruction) I look upon it as an evident Proof, that

thefe Things are, in the Language of Scripture, faid to be "determined or decreed (or exactly bounded and mark'd out "by God, as the Word wg moft naturally fignifies) which

he fees in Fact will happen, in Confequence of his Volitions, without any neceffitating Agency; as well as thofe "Events; of which he is properly the Author." Dodd. in Lac.

alfo your Rulers: But thefe Things, which God before bad fhewed by the Mouth of all his Prophets, that Chrift fhould fuffer, he hath jo fulfilled. So that what thefe Murderers of Chrift did, is fpoken of as what God brought to pass or ordered, and that by which he fulfilled his own Word.

In Rev. xvii. 17. The agreeing of the Kings of the Earth to give their Kingdom to the Beast, tho' it was a very wicked Thing in them, is spoken of as a fulfilling God's Will, and what God had put into their Hearts to do. 'Tis manifeft, that God fometimes permits Sin to be committed, and at the fame Time orders Things fo, that if he permits the Fact, it will come to pafs, because on fome Ac counts he fees it needful and of Importance that it fhould come to pafs. Matt. xviii. 7. It must needs be, that Offences come; but Wo`to that Man by whom the Offence cometh. With 1 Cor. xi. 19. For there must also be Herefies among you, that they which are approved, may be made manifeft among you.

Thus it is certain and demonftrable, from the holy Scriptures, as well as the Nature of Things, and the Principles of Arminians, that God permits Sin; and at the fame Time, fo orders Things, in his Providence, that it certainly and infallibly will come to pass, in Confequence of his Permiffion.

I proceed to obferve in the next Place.

III. That there is a great Difference between God's being concerned thus, by his Permiffion, in an Event and Act, which in the inherent Subject and Agent of it, is Sin, (tho' the Event will certainly follow on his Permiffion,) and his being concerned in it by producing it and exerting the Act of Sin; or between his being the Orderer of its certain Existence, by not hindering it, under certain

certain Circumftances, and his being the proper Actor or Author of it, by a pofitive Agency or Efficiency. And this, notwithstanding what Dr. Whitby offers about a Saying of Philofophers, that Caufa deficiens, in Rebus neceffariis, ad Caufam per fe efficientem reducenda eft. As there is a vast Difference between the Sun's being the Caufe of the Lightfomeness and Warmth of the Atmosphere, and Brightness of Gold and Diamonds, by its Prefence and positive Influence; and its being the Occafion of Darkness and Froft, in the Night, by its Motion, whereby it defcends below the Horizon. The Motion of the Sun is the Occafion of the latter Kind of Events; but it is not the proper Caufe, Efficient or Producer of them; tho' they are neceffarily confequent on that Motion, under fuch Circumftances: No more is any Action of the divine Being the Caufe of the Evil of Men's Wills. If the Sun were the proper Caufe of Cold and Darkness, it would be the Fountain of thefe Things, as it is the Fountain of Light and Heat: And then fomething might be argued from the Nature of Cold and Darkness, to a Likeness of Nature in the Sun; and it might be justly infer'd, that the Sun itself is dark and cold, and that his Beams are black and frofty. But from its being the Caufe no otherwife than by its Departure, no fuch Thing can be infer'd, but the contrary; it may juftly be argued, that the Sun is a bright and hot Body, if Cold and Darknefs are found to be the Confequence of its Withdrawment; and the more conftantly and neceffarily thefe Effects are connected with, and confined to its Abfence, the more ftrongly does it argue the Sun to be the Fountain of Light and Heat, So, inafiuch as Sin is not the Fruit of any pofitive Agency or Influence of the most High, but on the contrary, arifes from the withholding of his