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receive the grace of God in vain; that is, the doctrine of the grace of God; they may first receive it with feeming pleasure and satisfaction, and afterwards reject it; they may fail of the grace of God in this fenfe, and fall from it partially or totally; so such that feek for and hold juftification by the law, are fallen from grace'; from the doctrine of grace, and particularly from the doctrine of justification by the grace of God through the righteousness of Chrift: and as private profeffors may drop and depart from the doctrines of the gofpel formerly received and held by them, fo may minifters of the word drop and depart from found words and doctrines they have formerly profeffed and preached. And it is opposed to wavering about the form of found words, and instability in it; and fuggefts, that fuch who have it fhould not be like children, toffed about with every wind of doctrine, nor be carried about, like meteors in the air, with divers and strange doctrines, doctrines various in themfelves and fo.. reign to the word of God; but fhould affirm conftantly with boldness, confidence and courage, the truths of the gofpel; for this alfo ftands opposed to timidity, cowardice and pufillanimity; when they fhould be valiant for the truth, stand fast in the faith, quit themselves like men, and be strong; and not give way, no not for an hour, that the truth of the gofpel might continue with the faints.

Moreover this exhortation, confidered in this light, fuppofes that Timothy, and fo other gospel-ministers, may at times be under temptations to let go the form of found words, or drop the truths of the gofpel, through fear of men, and because of the obloquy, reproaches and perfecutions of men, fee v. 7, 8, 12. they may be tempted hereunto, as on the one hand to efcape being cenfured as bigots, enthufiafts, narrow-fpirited men, and void of common-fenfe and reafon; and on the other hand to obtain the characters of men of fenfe, of moderate principles, of candor and ingenuity, and of being polite and rational preachers.. And it also fuggests that there might be fuch perfons who fought every opportunity to wring this form of found words out of the hands of Timothy, and fo of any other minister of the word, as well as of thofe under their miniftry; men that lie in wait to deceive, to beguile and corrupt the minds of men from the fimplicity in Christ, and therefore to be guarded against.

III. The manner in which the form of found words is to be held faft; in faith and love, which is in Chrift Jefus : which words may be connected with the phrase which thou haft beard of me. Timothy had heard the apoftle preach thofe found doctrines with great faithfulness; for he was a faithful minifter of the gospel, who kept back nothing that was profitable, and Jhunned not to declare the whole counfel of God; he had heard him fpeak the truth in love, with great warmth of affection,

2 Cor, vi. 1. Heb. xii. 15. Gal. v. 4

affection, with much vehemence and fervency of spirit; and he himself had heard and received the word preached in faith, and had mixed it with faith, and digested it by it, and was nourished with it; he had received the love of the truth, and the truth in the love of it: and the phrafe, viewed in this light, contains a reason why therefore he should hold fast the form of found words he had received in fuch a manner or they may be confidered as connected with the form of found words; as if faith and love were the fubjects of it; that it lay in things to be believed, as the gospel does; and therefore called the word of faith, the faith of the gospel, and the faith once delivered to the faints; and in duties and ordinances to be observed from love to God and Chrift; and fo is a reafon as before, why it should be held fast: or elfe it is to be connected with the exhortation bold faft; and fo directs to the manner in which it is to be held; the faithful word, the word to be believed, is to be held, held forth, and held faft in faithfulness; be that bath my word, this form of found words in his head, and in his mouth and heart, let him speak my word faithfully; what is the chaff to the wheat? faith the Lord'; and this word of truth is to be held fast and spoken in love; in love to God, to Chrift, to the word, and to the fouls of men. It follows, which is in Christ Jefus, either the form of found words is in him; all truth is in him, he is full of that as well as of grace; all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, of the mysteries of grace, are bid in him', and they come from him; the words or doctrines of wisdom and knowledge are given from one fhepherd", Chrift, to his under shepherds, to feed his churches with knowledge and underbanding: or elfe this is to be understood of the graces of faith and love, in the exercise of which the word is to be preached, heard and held fast; these are originally in Chrift, and come from him; the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus"; as well as they are exercised on him as the object of them.

Thus have I confidered this charge of the apoftle to Timothy, in the method proposed; and you, my Brother, should receive it as if it had been delivered to you, it being what concerns and is obligatory upon every minifter of the gospel: I fhall clofe with fome other branches of the apoftle's charge, to Timothy, which you would do well alfo to advert unto; Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in fpirit, in faith, in purity.-Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine-neglect not the gift that is in thee-meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to allTake beed unto thyfelf, and unto the do&rine, continue in them; for in doing this, thou fbalt both fave thyself and them that hear thee. I have done; God give fuccefs to your miniftrations.

TRUTH

• Jer. xxiii. 28.

Colofs. ii, 3.

Eccles. xii. 11.

I Tim, i. 14.

x Tim. iv. 12-16.

TRUTH DEFENDED:

Being an ANSWER to an ANONYMOUS PAMPHLET, intitled, Some Doctrines in the Supralapfarian Scheme impartially examined by the Word of God.

if

ATELY came to my hands an anonymous pamphlet, intitled, Some Doc

trines in the Supralapfarian Scheme impartially examined by the Word of God. The author of it is right, in making the word of God the rule and ftandard by which doctrines and fchemes are to be tried and examined. To the law and to the testimony; if men speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. He fets out with large declarations of his regard to the facred writings, which to fwell the performance are too often repeated, even ad naufeam; and yet, in his very first paragraph, drops a sentence not very agreeable to them, any fenfe can be made of it: "All opinions and maxims, he fays, that correfpond not with this divine rule, we fhould either entirely reject, or at least "refufe to admit as articles of our faith "." But why not entirely reject them, without any hefitation why this disjunctive propofition? why this foftening clause added? If it can be thought to be fo, or to convey a different idea from the former, as it is defigned it fhould; though I fhould think, to refufe to admit doctrines and maxims as articles of faith, that do not correfpond with the divine rule, is the fame thing as to reject them as articles of faith. The man feems to write in the midft of hurry and furprife. Since he has met with schemes and opinions fo exceedingly fhocking and ftunning, it would have been advifeable for him to have fat down and waited until he was better come to, and more compofed, before he put pen to paper, and committed his frightful apprehenfions to writing. And indeed one would have thought he has had time enough to have recovered himself from the furprise he has met with, feeing it is near four years ago, fince the more modern pieces he has taken notice of were published to the world.

I. The examination begins with the foundation-principle of the Supralapfarians, as he calls it, that "God chofe his people without confidering them as "fallen creatures ." He does well to begin with their foundation-doctrine; for if he can demolish the foundation, the fuperftructure must fall; if he can pluck up what he fuppofes to be the root of many falfe opinions, the branches VOL. II. which

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a Ifai. viii. 20.

Supralapfarian Scheme, p. 1.

• Id. Ibid. p. 3.

which grow from it will die in courfe. But though this received opinion of theirs, as our author ftiles it, is a denomination one, or that from which they are called Supralapfarians; yet it is far from being a foundation-principle, or a fundamental article of faith with them; nor do they confider this point, in which they differ from others, as the principal one in the doctrine of election: They and the Sublapfarians are agreed in the main points refpecting that doctrine; as, that it is an eternal act of God; that it is of certain particular perfons; that it is unconditional, irrefpective of faith, holinefs, and good works, as caufes and conditions of it; and that it entirely fprings from the good-will and pleasure of God. The Contra-Remonftrants were not all of a mind concerning the object of predeftination, but did not think it worth their while to divide upon that account. Nay, fome of them were of opinion that it was not neceffary to be determined, whether God, in choofing men, confidered them as fallen, or as not yet fallen; provided it was but allowed that God in choofing confidered men in an equal ftate, fo as that he that is chofen was not confidered by God either of himself, or by his own merit, or by any gracious estimation, more worthy than he who is not chofen. That famous Supralapfarian, DrTwiss ©, declares, that "as for the ordering of God's decrees, upon which only arife" the "different opinions touching the object of predeftination, it is merely apex logicus, "a point of logic." The decrees of God may be diftinguifhed into the decree of the end, and the decree of the means, that they may the better be conceived of by our finite understandings; which are not able to confider all things at once, and together, as they lie in the divine mind, but of one thing after another; and that without dividing and feparating of God's decrees, or fuppofing any priority or pofteriority in him. Now the decree of the end must be confidered before the decree of the means; and that what is firft in intention, is laft in execution, and fo vice versa. Let then eternal life and glory, or a state of everlasting communion with God, be the end of election, as it is with respect to man, then the creation, permiffion of Adam's fall, and the recovery out of it, are the means in order to that end. It follows, that, in the decree of the end, man could not be confidered as a fallen creature, but as yet not created; because the creation and the permiffion of the fall belong to the decree of the means, which is in order of nature after the decree of the end. For if God first decreed to create man, and to permit him to fall, and then decreed to bring him to a state of eternal life and happiness; according to this known rule, that what is firft in intention is laft in execution, this ftrange abfurdity will follow, that man will be first brought into a state of eternal life and happiness, and then created and permitted to fall. Let the end be the manifeftation of God's glory, which cer

Vid. Act. Synod. Dordr. par. 2. p. 48.

e Riches of God's Love, against Hord, par. 1. p. 35.

tainly

tainly is the fupreme end of election, then the means are creation, permiffion of fin, redemption, fanctification, and, in a word, compleat falvation; which, though they are materially many, yet make up but one formal decree, called the decree of the means. Now according to the former rule, the intention of the end must be firft, and then the intention of the means; and, confequently, man cannot be confidered in the decree of the end, the manifeftation of God's glory, as yet created and fallen; because the creation and permiffion of fin belong to the decree of the means, which in order of nature is after the decree of the end. But if, on the contrary, God first decreed to create man and permit him to fall, and then decreed to manifeft the glory of his grace and mercy, in his eternal falvation; according to the above rule, that what is first in intention is laft in execution, and fo vice verfa, it will follow, that the glory of God's grace and and mercy are first manifefted in the eternal falvation of man, and then he is created and fuffered to fall. Likewife it is to be observed, that the feveral things mentioned in the decree of the means, creation, permiffion of sin, and falvation, are not to be confidered as fubordinate, but as co-ordinate means, or as making up an entire, compleat medium. We are not to fuppofe that God decreed to create man that he might permit him to fall, or that he decreed to permit him to fall, that he might fave him; but that he decreed to create him, permit him to fall, and to fave him notwithstanding his fall, that he might glorify his grace and mercy. Nor are we to conceive of them after this manner, that God first decreed to create man, and then decreed to permit him. to fall; for it would follow that man, in the execution of thefe decrees, is first permitted to fall, and then he is created: Nor thus, that God first decreed to create man, and permit him to fall, and then decreed to fave him; for, according to the former rule, man would first be saved, and then created and permitted to fall. Thefe are fome of the reafonings of the Supralapfarians; particularly of Dr Twifs, as may be feen in his Vindicia, and in his Riches of God's love, against Hord. This poor man, that takes upon him to write against the Supralapfarians, would do well to try his fkill in unravelling and deftroying this kind of reafoning: But alas! his capacity will never reach it. I am afraid the very mention of these things will increafe his furprife and fright. However, fince he has taken upon him to object to this opinion of the Supralapfarians, it will be proper to hear what he has to fay. And,

1. He proposes to fhew, that this doctrine is deftitute of fupport from the fcripture, and tells us, he has often wondered what part of facred writ can be produced to fupport it; and that he has been fearching and trying to know the language of the divine word concerning election; and fhall therefore mention, and, in a few words, comment upon thofe fcriptures, which, fays he, I judge,

f Supralapfarian Scheme, p. 4.

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are

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