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poffibility of afferting one of these decrees without owning the other alfo: and fo whatfoever argument holds good against an abfolute decree of Reprobation, muft certainly destroy the oppofite decree of abfolute Election.

Now is there any need of arguments to confute fuch a supposed decree as this? I behold, through the fall of Adam, (by my mere pleasure imputed to his whole pofterity yet unborn, as if it were their action, and they had perfonally confented to it) the whole race of mankind obnoxious to my eternal wrath, and utterly unable to recover from it; and though they be all, fouls that I have made, equally wanting, and equally capable of my favour (nor have I any reason to extend it to any of them, rather than to all) yet do I abfolutely decree to vouchfafe this favour only to fome few of them; leaving the far greater part under a fad neceffity of perishing everlastingly, for the offence of their fore-father Adam, committed long before they had a being: fo that they fhall be as fure to be damned eternally as they are to be born in time; and yet I will proclaim myself unto them, a God merciful, and gracious, long-fuffering, and abundant in goodnefs, on purpose that they may not perifh, but be lead by it to repentance; and declare to them that my delight is in fhewing mercy. I will intreat them with the greatest earnestness, and even befeech them to be reconciled to me, as being fo far recon. ciled to them in Christ Jefus, as not to impute to them their tranfgreffions and fins. I will fend them all my messengers and prophets, declaring that I do it, because I have compaffion on them. I will allure them to repentance with the promise that all their fins fhall then be blotted out, and not one of them remembered against them. I will tell them that I would have purged them, but they would not be purged, I would have ga thered them, but they would not be gathered. I will ask them, Why will you die? and enquire of them what I could have done more to prevent it which I have not done? Yea, I will ferioufly, and folemnly proteft and fwear unto them by the

greatest

greatest oath, even that of my own Life, that I would not the death of him that dies, but rather that he should return and live, But after all, I will be true, and conftant to that abfolute decree of Reprobation which must render their damnation unfruftrable, and to the negative decree of with-holding from them that grace which can alone enable them to escape it, or to receive any advantage from all these declarations.

Hence we learn the falfehood of that affertion of the fame good Bishop, "That Reprobation is not a denial of fufficient grace, but a denial of fuch special grace, as God knows would infallibly bring them to glory; and that we cannot thence conclude, that being not elected, they are left without all remedy or fufficient means of falvation, or that being reprobated they are without fufficient remedies or means to escape damnation, were not their own wicked will the only hinderance; for can men be left infallibly to fail of eternal life, and yet not be left without all remedy, or fufficient means of falvation? If, as he fays, God leaving them under the want of that fpecial grace, they never fail of running themselves upon their own damnation, have they then fufficient remedies, or means to escape damnation? Sure it is, there can be no falvation, and no efcaping of damnation without converfion of the will from fin to God; if then thefe Reprobates have no fufficient means to turn their perverted wills from fin to God, they can have no fufficient means to escape damnation. Again, either these means are fufficient to render them truly willing to believe and repent, or they are not: either they are fufficient to remove the difability of will contracted by the fall, or they are not: if they are not, how are they means fufficient for the attainment of the falvation which belongs only to the believer, or the escaping of that damnation which neceffarily follows upon the disability, for which no fufficient remedy is provided? If they are fufficient, then may they be lieve and repent, and so they on whom God hath paffed this act of Reprobation, may be faved, as well, though not as

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certainly, as they who are elected to obtain falvation. Suppose a man hath broken his leg by a fall, hath he therefore fufficient means to walk, because he might have done fo had not his leg been broken? If then the will of man by his fall be as much difabled to walk in the ways of God, as this man's body is to walk at all; can it truly be faid he hath fufficient means to walk in those ways, because he would have had them, had not his will been thus disabled? Adam indeed, as the Bishop faith, "Though not predeftinated to stand in the ftate of innocency, had yet fufficient means of standing." because he had no defectiveness or disability in his will to do fo; but what is this to the cafe of those who are supposed to be fo difabled, that if they be left to their own wills as Adam was, are so disabled that they cannot stand?

I will now put the two decrees one under the other, that they may blufh at one another.

1. Abfolute Election contains an eternal, absolute, infallible decree, that Peter fhall believe, repent, perfevere unto the end, and be faved.

The Evangelical conditional decree is, That if Peter do not believe, repent, and persevere unto the end, he shall infallibly be damned. And therefore God, in it, speaks to Peter thus, Except thou repent thou shalt perish; pafs therefore the time of thy fojourning here in fear; work out thy falvation with fear and trembling; continue in the faith, for if thou draweft back my foul fhall have no pleasure in thee; yea, give all diligence to make thy calling and election fure.

2. Abfolute Reprobation is an abfolute, infallible decree, That Judas fhall unavoidably fail of obtaining life eternal; that this event fhall be fo certain, that he fhall never fail to run himself wilfully upon his damnation.

The Evangelical conditional decree is this, That if Judas will repent, believe and perfevere, he fhall be faved, and in purfuance of this decree, God lovingly invites him to believe, and repent; exhorts, and even entreats him by his Ambaffadors,

to

to be reconciled to him; to turn from his evil ways and live, alluring him to do fo by the hopes of pardon and falvation, if he will hearken to God's calls, and perfuading him by the miseries which he will then incur, not to neglect fo great falvation, expoftulating the cafe with him, why after all these methods to prevent his ruin, he will die and not live? Why he will not be purged and made clean? and how long it will be ere he will hearken to his invitations? declaring that he doth all this, because he hath compaffion on him, and is long-suffering to him, because he is not willing he should perish, but should come to repentance, though his decree of Reprobation hath rendered his damnation a certain and infallible event.

2dly, Obferve, That though the greatest part of them who affert an abfolute Election and Reprobation, or Preterition, make the object of them, not man, as man, but as fallen, and therefore finful man; yet is the difference betwixt them, and those who are called Supralapfarians, very little; for the Supralapfarians fay, God decreed that Adam fhould be the head of all mankind, and therefore to impute his firft fin, and that only to his pofterity, and not to impute to them his repentance for it, though there was equal reafon to do both, or neither; and foreseeing that he would fall, and render his pofterity obnoxious to his eternal difpleasure, he designed to glorify his free grace and mercy in faving fome of them, and fo in bestowing on them infallibly that grace which fhall unfruftrably bring them to falvation. Others he abfolutely decrees to pass by, and not beftow that grace upon them without which they cannot obtain falvation, or avoid eternal mifery.

[To be continued]

ORIGINAL

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Though I Speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as founding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophefy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, fq as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I beflow all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

WE know, All feripture is given by infpiration of God,

and is therefore true and right concerning all things. But we know likewife, that there are fome fcriptures which more immediately commend themselves to every man's conscience. In this rank we may place the paffage before us: there are scarce any that object to it. On the contrary, the generality of men very readily appeal to it. Nothing is more common than to find even those who deny the authority of the holy fcriptures, yet affirming, "This is my religion: that which is described in the thirteenth chapter of the Corinthians." Nay, even a Jew, Dr. Nunes, a Spanish Phyfician

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