by their own wickedness, completed by their infidelity or want of Faith, which made Christ preached to them a stone of stumbling?' (verses 32, 33.)—To proceed to those places which may seem to require a more particular notice:

First. The phrase of being written in the book of life,' is Jewish; and doth not signify the absolute election of any person to eternal life, but only the present right of the just person to life, and therefore it is called "the book of life written for the just;” (Targum on Ezek. xiii. 9.) “ the book of the just;" (Targ. Jon. on Exod. xxxiii. 32,) "in which," say the Apostolical Institutions, « we come to be written τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ἐυνοίᾳ, καὶ σπεδῇ, by our good affection and industry'," and from which, men, as they may be written in it when they are converted from vice to virtue,

h

so may they be blotted out when they backslide," says St. Basil, "from virtue to iniquity," according to that saying of the Psalmist, 'let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not written with the righteous: that is, says Ainsworth, "Let them be cut off from being any longer counted thy people, or registered in the writing of the house of Israel:" and saith 'St. Jerom, "They were written in the book of God, who in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, legem fortissimè defenderant, firmly continued in the law;' and they were blotted out of it, qui legis prævaricatores extiterant, 'who were deserters of it'." Accordingly Christ threateneth to some, that He would 'blot their names out of the book of life;" (Rev. xxii. 19,) and promiseth to him that overcometh that He would not blot his name out of that book.' (Rev. iii. 5.) And God himself saith to Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of the book of life which I have written.' This book is said to be written from the foundation of the world, God having, from the beginning, Adam and others who are styled the sons of God; and not to have a name written in it, is not to be owned as God's sons and faithful servants. When therefore St. John saith, that they whose names were not in this book of life, written from the foundation of the world, worshipped the beast,' he means they, and they only, did so, who never were by God esteemed or registered in the number of good christians.

7 L. 8, c. 1.

i In Isa.

k Psalm lxix. 28.

In Dan. xii. 2.

Secondly. The passage cited from the Thessalonians concerns only the Jews, who having rejected the gospel of our Lord, and their Messiah, confirmed by the strongest evidence of innumerable miracles done truly before their eyes, and so believed not the truth at all, or else revolted from it, after they had embraced it, by an almost general apostasy; and so received it not in the love of it, that they might be saved,' declaring that they were by God's just judgment permitted by the false miracles of their impostors, assisted by the power of satan, to believe a lie, and so to perish for their infidelity or apostasy, as has been fully proved. And should this be enlarged to all who refuse to believe the truth preached and confirmed to them, or else bore no sincere affection to it when they had embraced it, what is this to an eternal decree of reprobation supposed to be made concerning the greater part of mankind before the world was made?

Lastly. As for the passages cited from Romans ix, they can be nothing to the purpose, that chapter being not at all designed to determine any thing concerning God's absolute decrees of dealing with mankind in general, or any particular person thus or thus, as to their final and eternal state; but only to justify his dealings, as in his providence he actually had done, with the unbelieving Jews and the believing Gentiles, in rejecting the Jews upon their stubborn infidelity and the hardness of their hearts, and admitting the believing Gentiles to be his church and the spiritual seed of Abraham, upon their faith and submission to the terms God had proposed for their justification and acceptance with him; as

appears,

1. From his recapitulation of his whole discourse in these words, (verse 30,) Ti v peμev, What do we say then? that is, What is the substance of what I have intended in this whole discourse? It is even this, That the Gentiles which (before the preaching of the gospel,) followed not after righteousness, have yet (through faith) attained unto righteousness; but the Jews following after the law of righteousness (or after righteousness by the law) have not attained unto righteousness, because they sought it not by faith' (in Christ.)

2. This is apparent from the Apostle's prayer and ' vehement desire that all Israel might be saved. (Chap. x. 1.) For upon

supposition of such a decree of reprobation concerning them, this must not only have been a vain prayer, but even an opposing of his will, and Eudoxía, the good pleasure of God' revealed to him; since it is evident he prays here for the salvation of all Israel,' of them whose zeal to God was not according to knowledge, and who were ignorant of God's righteousness;' (verse 2, 3,) and not for those only who were predestinated to salvation.

CHAP. II.

Containing arguments against this absolute decree of reprobation or preterition of fallen man.

I COME now to shew that this doctrine is plainly contrary both to the NATURE and the WILL of GOD.

To the perfections of his NATURE; for

I. God doth immutably, unchangeably, and from the necessary perfection of his own nature, require that we should love, fear, and. obey him. Were it not so, the Heathens who can only know this by the light of nature, or by consideration of the divine perfections, would lie under no obligations to love, fear, or serve him; whereas among the Heathen sages, ἕπεσθαί and πείθεσθαι τῶ

Ew, to obey God and follow his directions,' is represented as the perfection and the chief end of man. Again, his moral and imitable perfections, viz. his holiness, justice, truth, goodness, mercy, being essential perfections flowing from his nature, must also be the rule of the exercise of his will and power; and as God, whilst he is what he is, cannot but be the proper object of our love, fear, and our obedience, even so by the complacency he hath in those moral perfections, he cannot but be desirous that all men should imitate them, and resemble him in them as much as they are able, and therefore hath required his people to be 'holy, be-, cause the Lord their God is holy, to be merciful as their heavenly. Father is merciful, to be kind to the unthankful and the wicked, that they may be his children, to be righteous as he is righteous, and to put on the new man which is created after God in righteousness, and true holiness.' Hence the philosophers have, by the light of nature, conspired in this truth, that man then walks most suitably to his nature and his dignity, when he walks after the exam

ple of God; that the very end of all philosophy xai vélos Top Ape, and the perfection of human nature,' consists in being like to God; and that we then best glorify him, when we resemble him in these perfections; that it ought to be his chief care u, 'to live the life of God,' ovμTONITÉVEσd] 'to converse still with him, ὁμοιωθῆναι, ' to be like him, and ομογνωμονῆσαι “ to be of the same mind, will, and affections to him,' and lastly, to be Dopo possessed and acted by him.' He therefore cannot have decreed, that is, have willed, that the greatest part of men should be for ever left under an incapacity of loving, fearing, and obeying him. And seeing he must earnestly desire that all men should be holy, righteous, kind, and merciful, he cannot have ordained they should be otherwise for want of any thing on his part requisite to make them so much less can he cominand them under the penalty of his severe displeasure so to be, and yet leave them under an incapacity of being so. And does he think worthily of God, who knowing that all the lapsed sons of Adam were equally the objects of his pity and cominiseration, equally capable of his mercy, and equally his offspring, and so no more unworthy of it than the rest, believes that his decrees of governing and disposing of them are wholly founded on such an absolute will as no rational or wise man acts by; so that he determines of the everlasting fate of the souls he daily doth create after the fall of Adam, without respect to any good or evil done by them, and so without respect to any reason why he puts this difference, or any condition on their parts; and yet afterwards in all his revelations made in order to the regulating of their lives, suspends that everlasting state upon conditions; or that he hath placed the far greatest part of them under an absolute decree of reprobation, which leaves them uncapable of salvation, and then not only bids them save themselves, invites, encourages, and sends messengers to intreat them to be reconciled, knowing he doth all this in vain, when he does no more; and then eternally torments them for neg lecting that salvation, though he knows they never can do otherwise without that grace which he hath absolutely purposed for ever to deny to or withhold from them? Surely he thinks more worthily of the God of love and mercy, who looks upon him as an Universal Lover of the souls of men, who therefore would

have all men to be saved, and gives them all things necessary unto life and godliness;' draws them to him with the cords of a man, the cords of love,' and by the most alluring promises, and by the strivings of his Holy Spirit; swears to them that he would not they should perish; warns them of, and conjures them to avoid, the things which tend to their eternal ruin; directs them to the means by which they may most certainly escape it; rejoiceth more at the conversion of one sinner, than at the righteousness of ninety nine persons who need no repentance; and when all the methods of his grace are lost upon them, breaks forth into compassionate and melting wishes,—that they had known the things which do belong to their eternal peace. Again, consider whether he conceives more truly and honourably of God,-who thinks he chuses his favourites without reason, and rewards them without any qualifications but those he irresistibly works in them,-or he who looks upon him as One who dealeth with all men not according to his but their own works, as they are willing and obedient, as they render themselves fit objects of his love, and rewards them as they use duly, or receive his grace in vain, as they improve the talents he hath given them, or hide them in a napkin. Whether, lastly, he represents God honourably, who believes that God by his revealed. will hath declared he would have all men to be saved, and yet by an antecedent secret will would have the greatest part of them to perish; that he hath imposed a law upon them which he requires them to obey on penalty of his eternal displeasure, though he knows they cannot do it without his irresistible grace, and yet is absolutely resolved to withhold this grace from them, and then to punish them eternally for what they could not do without it; and after all inquires, 'Why will you die? How long will it be ere this people obey me? When wilt thou be made clean? What could I have done more for their welfare which I have not done? Or he who believes it more agreeable to the truth and the sincerity of the divine nature, to deal plainly with his creatures, and mean what he says; and therefore not to seem very desirous they should do or avoid, what he knows they never could do or avoid, and he will not enable them to do or avoid, and then complains that they have not done it, and inquires what was wanting on his part to enable them to do it.