bave mercy, and whom he will be hardneth. But then it is intimated, that this is to

believe, that God's decrees of governing and difpofing of men (by which, I fuppofe is meant, his decrees of fhewing mercy to fome, and withholding it from others) are wholly founded on fuch an abfolute will, as no rational or wife man acts by." But it should be observ'd, that neither the mercy, nor the will of God, are to be compared with the mercy and will of man. The mercy of God is not to be confider'd, quoad affectum, as an affection moved by the mifery of a creature as it is in man; but quoad effectum, as an effect guided by the fovereign will of God, to whatfoever object he thinks fit; nor is the will of God to be judged of by the will of man, fince he does according to bis will in heaven and in earth, and is accountable to none of his creatures; there's a 20, a depth in the riches of his wisdom and knowledge, that is unfathomable, his judgments are unfearchable, and bis ways paft finding out". Befides, wife and rational men, whose wills are the most abfolute, as kings and princes, when their fubjects have rebelled against them, and have fallen into their hands, have thought it most advifeable to fhew both their clemency and justice, by pardoning some and

» Dan. iv. 35. Job xxxiii. 13. Rom. xi. 33.

not

not others, who were equally their subjects, equally objects of their pity and compaffion, equally capable of mercy, and no more unworthy of it than the reft; fo that such a method is juftified by the conduct of the wifeft and moft rational men. But the moft cruel part feems to be thought to lie in "determining the everlasting fate of the fouls he daily doth create after the fall of Adam, without refpect to any good or evil done by them." By determining the everlafting fate of fouls, I apprehend, is meant, God's appointing them either to falvation or damnation. Now God's appointment of men to falvation, that is, to eternal glory, is not without refpect to any good thing done by them, but with refpect to their faith, repentance and perfeverance; for God chooses to falvation through fanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth; though nor with refpect to thefe, as caufes of his decree, but as means unto the end, or as graces which he prepares, determines to beftow, and does beftow upon them, in order to bring them to glory: fo that their everlasting fate is not determined without respect to any good done by them, nor without any reafon on the part of God, though without conditions on their parts. So the determining the everlasting fate of fouls, or the appointing of them to damnation, is not without refpect to evil done

by

by them; though this is to be confider'd not as the caufe of God's decree, which is his own fovereign pleasure, but as the cause or reason of the thing decreed: fo that this is not without reafon on the part of God, nor without caufe on their parts. And hence the entrance of each of these perfons upon their everlasting state, so determined, tho' not the determination of it, is fufpended until these feveral things take place. And where's the injustice or unmercifulness of fuch a procedure? But, perhaps, the cruelty lies here, that God determines of the everlasting fate of the fouls he daily doth create after the fall of Adam; the meaning of which is, either that God has determined the everlasting fate of fouls, and appointed them to damnation after the fall of Adam, which is what we deny; fince no decree or determination of God is temporal, but eternal; or that God has appointed men to damnation for the fin of Adam, in confideration of his fall, and their concern in it, a doctrine by no means to be rejected; fince death bath paffed upon all men; for that, or in him, i. e. Adam, all have finned "; and, by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation: it can never be unworthy of God, or contrary either to his justice or mercy, to determine the everlaft

Róm. v. 12, 18.

ing fate of men, confider'd as fallen in Adam, by refolving to punish fome and fpare others. Though none, as I know of, affirm, that God has appointed fuch who live to riper years, to damnation purely for the fin of Adam, but for their own actu→ al tranfgreffions; and as for fuch who die in infancy, God's determinations about them are a fecret to us; and if they perish, it is for, and in the corruption of nature in which they are born: or the meaning is, that it must be a piece of cruelty in God, daily to create fouls, after the fall of Adam, whofe everlasting fate was before determined, without any refpect to good or evil done by them. Now, though God's de cree, or determination, concerning the fi nal state of man, was before they had done either good or evil, nor was good or evil the cause of his decree; yet neither falvation, nor damnation, were decreed without refpect to good or evil, as has been shewn, and therefore it could not be unworthy of God to bring creatures into being, whose everlasting fate he had before determined, no, not after the fall of Adam; fince the fouls he has fince created, and daily does create, are not made finful by him, nor are they created by him for misery, but for his own glory.

3. This

3. This decree is reprefented as unworthy of the God of love and mercy, fince it "leaves men uncapable of salvation; and then God not only bids them save themfelves, invites, incourages, fends messengers to entreat them to be reconciled, knowing he doth all this in vain, when he does no more; and then eternally torments them for neglecting that falvation; though he knows they never can do otherwife without that grace which he hath abfolutely purposed for ever to deny to, or withhold from them." I answer; Negative reprobation, or the act of preterition, in the Supralapfarian way, neither finds nor leaves. men uncapable of falvation; but as it finds fo it leaves them, in the pure, unfallen, and uncorrupted mafs. The decree of damnation finds and leaves men finners; yet not the decree, but final impenitence and infidelity, leave them uncapable of. falvation; for the gospel declaration is indefinitely made; Whofoever believeth shall be faved: but though the gofpel is preached or published to all men, yet God no where bids all men to fave themselves; nor does he any where invite, encourage, or, by his meffengers, entreat all men to be reconciled to him. Peter, indeed, ex

P Whitby, p. 29.

Mark xvi. 16.

• Acts ii. 40.

horted