to perform. VI. That God will only judge men, at the last, for sinning against the means he hath vouchsafed them to know and perform their duty; and so will only judge the Heathens for sins committed against that light of nature he had given them. VIF. That God having laid down this method in the dispensation of his gifts, that he who is faithful ev xaxisw, in the improvement of the least talent' shall have a suitable reward, and that 'to him that so hath shall more be given;' it is reasonable to conceive, he will deal with the heathens according to this rule. VIII. That we may reasonably conclude, God will deal with them both in respect to the acceptation and reward of their good, and his displeasure against, and punishment of, their evil actions, according to the measures of their ignorance and knowledge, the abilities, motives, and inducements afforded to them to do or to avoid them. And there- fore (i.) That their good actions done upon less motives and con- victions, may be more acceptable to God than the like actions done by christians, upon much greater evidence and higher motives and more powerful assistances. (ii.) That they may expect a reward upon performance of less duty, because less will be required of them. (iii.) That God should be more ready to pardon and pass by their offences, as having in them more of ignorance and less of contempt. A brief addition of some testimonies, respecting God's general UNIVERSITY Discourse L. CONCERNING ELECTION AND REPROBATION. The state of the question concerning God's absolute decrees of election and reprobation. 1. LET it be observed from Bishop Davenant, that "no medium can be assigned, either on God's part, betwixt the decrees of predestinating some men, and not predestinating some others; or on men's part, betwixt men absolutely predestinated to the attainment of life eternal, and absolutely pretermitted, and left infallibly to fail of the obtainment of eternal life; which we call Absolute Reprobation. As for example: Let us suppose the number of mankind to be two millions of men; if out of these, one million only, by the decree of election, be infallibly appointed to eternal life, and these certainly and absolutely distinguished from others, not only as to their number, but their persons also; who can deny but that one million also, and those certain as to their persons, are as absolutely comprised under the decree of non-election or reprobation, as the others were under the decree of election or predestination?""So that there is no possibility of asserting one of these decrees without owning the other also; and so whatsoever argument holds good against an absolute decree of Reprobation, must certainly destroy the opposite decree of Absolute Election. Now, is there any need of arguments to confute such a supposed decree as this?-1 behold, through the fall of Adam, (by 'my mere pleasure imputed to his whole posterity yet unborn, as ◄ Animad. on Hord, p. 205, E if it were their action, and they had personally consented to it) 'the whole race of mankind obnoxious to my eternal wrath, and * utterly unable to recover from it. And though they be all the ♦ souls that I have made,' all 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 1 absolutely decree to vouchsafe this 'favour only to some few of them, leaving the far greatest part of * them under a sad necessity of perishing everlastingly, for the of'fence of their forefather Adam, committed long before they had "a being: So that they shall be as sure 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-suffering and abun'dant in goodness,' on purpose that they may not perish, but be led by it to repentance;' and declare to them that my 'delight is in shewing mercy. I will intreat them with the greatest earnestness, and even beseech them to be reconciled' to me, as be❝ing so far reconciled to them in Christ Jesus as not to impute to them their transgressions and sins. I will send to them all my messengers and prophets,' declaring that I do it, 'because I have compassion on them. I will allure them to repentance with the promise that all their sins shall 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 gathered them, but they would not be gathered.' I will ask them, 'Why will you die? and inquire of them, what I could have done more' to prevent it which I have not done? Yea, I will seriously and solemnly protest and swear unto them by the 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 constant to that absolute decree of reprobation, which must render their damnation un"frustrable, and to the negative decree of withholding from them that grace which can alone enable them to escape it, or to re'ceive any advantage from all these declarations.' And hence we learn the falsehood of that assertion of the same good Bishop, that Reprobation is not a denial of sufficient grace, but a denial of such special grace which God knows would infal d Corol. p. 24. libly bring them them to glory; and that we cannot thence conclude, that being not elected they are left without all remedy or sufficient means of salvation;" or that being reprobated they are "without sufficient" remedies" or means to escape damnation, were not their own wicked will the only hindrance." For can men be left "infallibly to fail of eternal life," and yet "not be left without all remedy or sufficient means of salvation?" If, as he says, "God leaving them under the want of that special grace and effectual guidance proceeding from divine predestination, they never fail of running themselves wittingly and willingly upon their own damnation;"d have they, notwithstanding, sufficient remedies or means to escape damnation? Sure it is, there can be no salvation, and no escaping of damnation, without conversion of the will from sin to God, and a continuance in this estate unto the end. If then these reprobates have no sufficient means to turn their wicked and perverted wills from sin to God, they can have no sufficient means either to obtain salvation or escape damnation. If they have sufficient means to convert their wicked wills from the love of sin to a prevailing love to God, the pravity of those wills can never be the cause why they are left infallibly to fail of life eternal, or why they never fail of running on wilfully to their own damnation; seeing they have means sufficient to rectify the pravity of their wills. Again, either these means are sufficient to render them truly willing to believe and repent, or they are not; either they are sufficient to remove the defectiveness and disability of will they have contracted by the fall of Adam to these saving actions, or they are not. If they are not, how are they means sufficient for the attainment of the salvation which belongs only to the believer and the penitent, or the escaping that damnation which necessarily follows upon the disability and defect for which no sufficient remedy is by grace provided? And then, how have they grace sufficient for these ends? If they are thus sufficient, then may they truly be willing to believe and repent; and then this sufficient grace being vouchsafed to them, there can be no obstruction in their will which necessarily hinders their believing and repenting; and then they on whom God hath passed this act of reprobation, or of preterition, may believe and repent, and therefore may be saved, as well, though not as certainly, as they who are elected to obtain salvation; and so all to whom the gospel is vouchsafed may be saved. Suppose a man hath broken his leg by a fall, hath he therefore sufficient meansto walk, because he might have done so had not his leg been broken by that fall? If then the will of man by his fall be as much disabled to walk in the ways of God, as this man's body is to walk at all, can it be truly said he hath sufficient means to walk in those ways, because he would have had them, had not his will been thus disabled? "Adam indeed," as the Bishop saith, "though not predestinated to stand in the state of innocency, had yet sufficient means of standing,"because he had no defectiveness or disability in his will to do so. But what is this to the case of those who are supposed to be so disabled, that, if they be left to their own wills as Adam was, are so disabled that they cannot stand? - When therefore this good Bishop proceeds to say, "that they who are passed by in the eternal decree of God, are not by any force of that decree left without the benefit which the scripture promises upon condition of repentance, but the evangelical decrees stand in full force; if Judas believe and repent, he shall be saved; if Peter do not believe and repent, he shall not be saved." And by this thin piece of sophistry the good man attempts to shew, that God is serious and in good earnest in all the offers he makes to reprobates of mercy and salvation upon their repentance; and all the threats he hath recorded in the holy scripture against all, (and therefore against the elect,) if they do not repent and persevere to the end; and all the other motives and inducements to engage both of them to do so. How unsuccessfully he hath performed this, will in the sequel be demonstrated. At present therefore I shall only put these two decrees one under the other, that they may blush at one another: 1. Absolute election contains "an eternal, absolute, infallible decree, that Peter shall believe, repent, persevere unto the end, and be saved." The evangelical conditional decree is this, that "if Peter do not believe, repent, and persevere unto the end, he shall not be |