4 * 
 
PRINCETON, N. J. *^ 
 
 Presented by W<2/\i )jOYr\ ,Jr6 .^C^AV^DOT-oV^dln 
 
 Divisio)! 
 Section ■■ 
 
 SOS 
 
u 
 
A DEFENCE 
 
 OF SOME 
 
 IMPORTANT 
 
 DOCTRINES or THE GOSPEL, 
 
 IN TWENTY-SIX SERMONS: 
 
 PREACHED AT THE 
 
 LIME STREET LECTURE, 
 
 By several eminent Ministtus. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 PAUL T, JONES, PUBLISHING AGENT. 
 
 1844. 
 
F'riiited by 
 
 WM. S. UTART-H' 
 
 Sterentvped bv s. douglas wveth, 
 Xo. 7 Pear "St., Pliilaiielpliia. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The occasion of composing these discourses, arose from a num- 
 ber of gentlemen in London, firmly attached to the interest of 
 our divine Redeemer, and filled with a fervent zeal for the 
 purity of the doctrines of revelation, taking into their consider- 
 ation, that many evangelical truths, of the last importance, were 
 not only secretly undermined, but violently opposed in their 
 day, by subtle adversaries to the Gospel scheme , and, accord- 
 ingly, they judged it proper to set up a public Lecture, that a 
 course of Sermons might be preached in defence of sundry 
 cardinal doctrines, then so openly impugned. 
 
 This laudable proposal met with the most hearty approba- 
 tion, from the lovers of the truth as it is in Jesus. According- 
 ly, nine* ministers, of eminent abilities, who had distinguished 
 themselves in the world, by their elaborate writings, and who 
 were made choice of for this undertaking, cheerfully engaged 
 in it. Each of the ministers, by mutual consent, had the res- 
 pective point of doctrine he was to establish and defend assigned 
 him : all of them agreed, that the different subjects should be 
 studied with the greatest accuracy and precision; the several 
 divine truths set in the clearest point of view, from the sacred 
 records; the whole discourses composed on a certain plan, and 
 arranged in a regular and connected order. These prelimina- 
 ries being settled, the Lecture was begun on the 12th of No- 
 vember, 1730, and continued weekly till April the 8th, 1731. 
 
 The capital and interesting doctrines handled at that time, 
 and now contained in this volume, after an introductory dis- 
 course, entitled. The SpiriVs Standard lifted up, and display- 
 ed against Error, are the following, viz. — The insufficiency 
 of natural religion evinced; — the doctrine of particular election, 
 stated and defended; — the doctrine of original sin, asserted and 
 defended; — the Scripture doctrine of particular redemption, 
 stated and vindicated; — the doctrine of Christ's sufferings open- 
 ed ; — a plain Scripture account of a sinner's justification before 
 God; — the doctrine of efficacious grace, asserted and vindicated; 
 — the doctrine of perseverance in grace, stated and defended ; — 
 ^he doctrine of the resurrection, opened and defended; — a vin- 
 
 * Viz. — the Rev. Messrs. Bragge, Taylor, Sladen, Goodwin, Hurrion, Brad- 
 bury, Wilson, Hall, and Dr. Gill. 
 
 3 
 
4 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 dication of man's salvation by the free grace of God, from the 
 charge of promoting heentiousness; — an humble and impartial 
 inquiry into the causes of the decay of practical religion; or into 
 the true grounds of the declensions, as to the life and power of 
 godliness, visible in such as profess it in the present day. ]\Iost 
 of these important subjects consist of several sermons. 
 
 When this course was finished, it was the unanimous desire 
 of the gentlemen who set the Lecture on foot, and also the 
 earnest "request of the hearers, that the ministers would print 
 their sermons: this being signified to them, they all readily 
 complied with the repeated solicitations. 
 
 If the publication of these discourses was, at that time, judged 
 a seasonable present to the church, their republication now can- 
 not but be highly expedient, when such erroneous tenets, as sap 
 the foundation of revealed truth, are now propagated, and have 
 made such an universal spread in this country; and when the 
 pure doctrines of the Gospel are so visibly corrupted by men of 
 depraved minds, who impiously arraign, reproach, and pervert 
 the dictates of inspiration. 
 
 The discourses themselves contain a rich mine of gospel- 
 doctrine; — a great variety of judicious sentiments; — a clear 
 explication of" divine truths; — and a strenuous defence of a 
 number of the essential articles of our received principles: — as 
 such, they have been deservedly esteemed by all who have 
 perused them. 
 
 The justly celebrated, and singularly pious Mr. Hervey, 
 touching on one of the important articles, treated at great length 
 in these volumes, viz. the final perseverance of the saints, 
 speaks of them in a very warm manner; his words are:* " The 
 final perseverance of the saints is as much the doctrine of the 
 Bible, as justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ: 
 the latest and fullest view of the point, which I ever remember 
 to have met with, in any of our English writers, is in the Lime- 
 street Lectures; which are a defence of several most impor- 
 tant doctrines of the Gospel, and contained in one octavo vol- 
 ume; the united labours of nine modern divines, most of whom 
 are well known to the world by their other evangelical and 
 useful writings. In these lectures, among many other capital 
 doctrines, the final perseverance of the saints is very particular- 
 ly stated, and, to my apprehension at least, most satisfactorily 
 proved. The arguments usually urged against it, are impartial- 
 ly considered; and I cannot but think, (with all due deference 
 to the judgment of others,) unanswerably confuted." 
 
 London. 
 
 * Hervey'B Works in folio, p. 94, in octavo, vol. i. p. 375, 376. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 When doctrines of pure revelation are opposed, it is the duty 
 of all who believe them, to appear in their defence; and this is 
 really engaging in a noble cause; it is standing up for the hon- 
 our of the great God, against those who set their imperfect rea- 
 son and proud conceits above infinite wisdom; to strive for the 
 faith once delivered to the saints, is most necessary, when it 
 meets with the contradiction of sinners. As error never raged 
 with greater violence than it does in our unhappy times, and as 
 lukewarmness never discovered itself more than in the present 
 day of darkness, it never could be more expedient than now, to 
 plead for the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The suffi- 
 ciency of the light of nature is warmly contended for by some 
 who do not profess to reject revelation ; and most of the doctrines 
 of Scripture have been given up, one after another, by some who 
 yet declare that the Bible is their religion. It is therefore now 
 time, if ever, for those who see no reason to renounce the old 
 Protestant doctrines, the glory of the Reformation, to bear their 
 testimony against the errors of the day, and to stand up for the 
 great truths which have been handed to them by their fathers, 
 and which they have embraced, not merely because they have 
 received them from the worthies who have gone before them, 
 but because, after strict and impartial examination, they find 
 that these, and no other, are the doctrines revealed in Scripture. 
 
 Near two years since, some gentlemen, who, it is to be hoped, 
 have a true zeal and a hearty concern for the interest of Christ, 
 judged it proper to set up a Lecture,* for one winter and spring 
 season, that a course of sermons might be preached in defence 
 of several truths, which they reckoned to be of the last import- 
 ance, and which are, in our time, violently opposed. Nine min- 
 isters, who were chosen for this work, cheerfully undertook it. 
 When this course was finished, it was the unanimous desire of 
 the gentlemen that they would print their sermons; with which 
 request they have complied, hoping to do some service, if it is 
 only by establishing wavering minds in the great doctrines 
 which are now matter of contest. 
 
 These discourses we now submit to the candid perusal of 
 serious and judicious persons. We have not entered upon the 
 
 * This Lecture was begun at the Meeting in Lime-Street, where the Rev. Mr. 
 Bragge statedly preaches, on November 12th, 1730, and was continued weekly, 
 till April 8th, 1731 ^ 
 
b PREFACE. 
 
 direct proof of the truth of our holy religion, because it was not 
 our design to engage with proper deists, but with erroneous 
 professors of Christianity. The great doctrines of the blessed 
 Trinity and of the person of Christ we have not meddled with ; 
 seeing several of us have treated largely upon them before, and 
 our labours are in many hands. Some thoughts which we had 
 not time to deliver from the pulpit, we have taken the liberty 
 to add. The bodily indispositions of some of our number, which 
 ended in death, as to one* who was a real credit to the cause, 
 have occasioned a much greater delay in publishing this work 
 than was apprehended when it was first put to the press, which 
 is near a year since. 
 
 We can each of us say, as to ourselves, that we have advanced 
 nothing but what we believe to be true, and agreeable to Scrip- 
 ture. If any, with meekness, gravity, and impartiality, shall 
 think fit to object against what we have laid down, we hope we 
 shall be enabled by the Holy Spirit to plead for the things of 
 God; being desirous of nothing more than to establish the truth, 
 as it is in Jesus. But if any should pursue us with rancour and 
 reviling, with banter and grimace, we shall pass by such treat- 
 ment with pity and silence. Or, should they, who shall be 
 disposed to animadvert upon what we have delivered in the 
 following sermons, charge upon us the sentiments of particular 
 persons, we shall leave those concerned to vindicate their own 
 tenets. 
 
 We recommend the whole of what we have done to the bless- 
 ing of that good Master for whose glory we plead, and whose 
 battles we fight; and we would humbly hope that our great 
 God and Saviour Jesus Christ, the word of whose patience we 
 desire to keep, and in defence of which we now appear, will 
 make our endeavours to be of real service, to establish pious 
 persons in the belief of the doctrines in dispute, and to furnish 
 them with some weapons to repel the attacks of gainsayers. 
 
 London, 
 June 13th, 1732. 
 
 * The Rev. Jolin Hurrion. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Holy Spirit's Standard lifted up, and displayed against Error ; in a Sermon 
 
 by Mr. Bragge, on 
 Isaiah lix. 19. — When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord 
 
 shall lift up a Standard against him, Page 9 
 
 11. 
 
 Of the Insufficiency of Natural Religion, in two Sermons, by Mr. Taylor. 
 The First Sermon on 
 
 1 Corinthians ii. 14. — The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
 God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they 
 are spiritually discerned, 24 
 
 The Second Sermon on 
 
 Romans i. 22. — Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, - 44 
 
 III. 
 
 The doctrine of Particular Election, stated and defended; in two Sermons, by 
 Mr. Sladen, on 
 
 2 Thessalonians ii. 13. — We are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, 
 brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you 
 to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, 66, 86 
 
 IV. 
 
 The doctrine of Original Sin, stated and defended; in two Sermons, by Mr. 
 
 Goodwin. 
 Tlie First Sermon, of the Imputation of Adam's Sin, on 
 
 Romans v. 19. — By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, - 110 
 The Second Sermon, of Original Corruption, on 
 Psalji Ii. 5. — Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive 
 
 me, 125 
 
 V. 
 
 The Scripture doctrine of Particular Redemption, stated and vindicated ; in four 
 
 Sermons, by Mr. Hurrion, on 
 Titus ii. 14. — Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
 
 iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, 141 
 
 159, 177, 195 
 
 VI. 
 
 The doctrine of Christ's Sufferings opened ; in three Sermons, by Mr. Brad- 
 
 bury, on 
 Romans viii. 32. — He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 217, 
 
 228, 238 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 VII. 
 
 A plain Scriptural account of a Sinner's Justification before God ; in four Ser- 
 mens, by Mr. Bragge, on 
 
 Galatians ii. 16. — Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but by the faith of Jesus Christ ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we 
 mio-ht be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law ; for 
 by "the works of the law shall no flesh be justified, 252, 264, 275, 289 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The doctrine of Efficacious Grace, asserted and vindicated ; in two Sermons, by 
 
 Mr. Wilson, on 
 Philippians ii. 13. — It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of his 
 
 good pleasure, 302, 312 
 
 IX. 
 
 The doctrine of Perseverance in Grace, stated and defended ; in two Sermons 
 
 by Mr. Hall, on 
 Philippians i. 6. — Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a 
 
 good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, - 327, 344 
 
 X. 
 
 The doctrine of the Resurrection, stated and defended ; in Two Sermons, by Dr. 
 
 Gill, on 
 Acts xxvi. 8. — Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God 
 
 should raise the dead ? 369, 384 
 
 XI. 
 
 A Vindication of the evangelical doctrine of Man's Salvation by the Free Grace 
 of God, from the charge of promoting Licentiousness ; in a Sermon, by Mr. 
 Taylor, on 
 
 Romans v. 20, 21. vi. 1, 2. — Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound ; 
 that as sin hath reigned to death, even so might grace reign, through righteous- 
 ness, to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, &c 413 
 
 XII. 
 
 A humble and impartial Inquiry into the Causes of the Decay of Practical 
 Religion ; or, into the true grounds of the declensions, as to the life and power 
 of godliness, visible in such as profess it in the present day; in a Sermon, by 
 Mr. Taylor, on 
 
 Revelation iii. 1 — 3. — To the angel of the church in Sardis write. These things 
 saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars ; I know thy 
 works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead : be watchful, and 
 strengthen the things which remain, and are ready to die ; for I have not found 
 thy works perfect before God, &c 447 
 
THE 
 
 SPIRIT'S STANDARD 
 
 LIFTED UP AND DISPLAYED AGAINST ERROR: 
 A SERMON, / 
 
 BY MR. ROBERT BRAGGE, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Isaiah lix. 19. — When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord 
 shall lift up a standard against him. 
 
 It is a glorious truth, which reflects light on the whole gospel, 
 and adds lustre to all the works of God, that whatever God 
 does, or suffers to be done, be it in the church, or in the world, 
 is for the manifestation of his own glory. To this great end, 
 that his glory may shine forth the brighter, his works of nature 
 are made to subserve his designs of love and grace: the first 
 Adam, at the head of this lower creation, was but the figure of 
 him that was to come. Dark and dismal as the veil is which sin 
 has spread over all nations, and great as the confusion is which 
 it has hurled quite round the globe, all in the end will be so 
 overruled, as to be an eternal illustration of the glory of God, 
 as it shines forth in the face of Jesus Christ. The scattering 
 caused by sin would not have been suffered, but to make way 
 for the gathering together of the whole election of the Father's 
 grace, in a far more glorious Head ; of which you read, Eph. i. 
 10. " That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might 
 gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in 
 heaven, and which are on earth, even in him." Full as hell is 
 of darkness, the glory of God's vindictive justice shhies brightly 
 therein: and full as the enemies are of wrath, be they men or 
 devils, all their wrath shall be made to praise God. 
 
 I shall not consider these words in their connexion; so to do, 
 would take up too much of your time : but, in speaking to them^ 
 I shall observe the following method: 
 
 I. Who the enemy is whom the text speaks of, shall be my 
 first inquiry. 
 
 II. Why the enemy is at any time suffered to come in like a 
 flood, shall be my next. 
 
 III. I shall let you see how remarkably the Spirit of the Lord 
 has all along lifted up a standard against them. 
 
 2 9 
 
10 THE spirit's standard 
 
 IV. I shall produce the standard which we, who are set for 
 the defence of the gospel, should, as enabled by the Spirit, be 
 now lifting up. 
 
 V. Who the present enemy is, which threatens to come in 
 like a flood, shall be my last inquiry: And so I shall acquaint 
 you with the design of this Lecture; and conclude with the joint 
 request of the Lecturers. 
 
 I. I shall begin with the first of these ; which is to tell yon, 
 who the enemy is, my text speaks of 
 
 The truly gracious, of any denomination, are not to be num- 
 bered among the enemy. These may difl'er among themselves, 
 and labour under mistakes about less matters; but "being one 
 spirit with the Lord, they are enabled, whereunto they have 
 attained, to walk by the same rule." Being taught of God, 
 they are brought to acknowledge every good thing in Christ, 
 that is to be found in one another; according to that golden 
 rule, which regulates the communion of saints, Philem. 6. 
 " That the communication of thy faith may become effectual, 
 by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in 
 Christ Jesus." Was this rule of Christian fellowship more 
 observed, we should differ without falling out. The unity of 
 the Spirit would be preserved, at another rate than it is, in 
 the bond of peace ; neither would the people of God kindle fire 
 on earth, or call for fire from heaven to devour one another. 
 Neither babes, nor men, nor fathers in Christ, are the enemies 
 my text speaks of; but the seed of the serpent are; who, in 
 numberless instances, have discovered and are still discovering 
 their bitter enmity against the seed of the woman. The people 
 of God, whose New Testament name is that of the saints, and 
 faithful in Christ Jesus, have all along had their enemies. 
 Righteous Abel had a cruel enemy — bloody Cain. Thus the 
 patriarch Jacob had a fierce enemy — profane Esau. Jacob, to 
 be sure, took a wrong step to obtain the blessing; who was 
 suffered thus to come at it, that it might appear he deserved it 
 no more than did profane Esau, who discovered the plague 
 and enmity of his heart, by resolving on the death of his brother. 
 Thus Israel, under the Old Testament, had many and fierce 
 enemies; there was Pharaoh, king of Egypt, with his cruel 
 counsellors: there was Goliath of Gath, with his Philistines; 
 there was Sennacherib, king of Assyria, with his railing Rab- 
 shakeh; there was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, with 
 many more. Their own idolatrous kings were some of Israel's 
 worst enemies; who were so outrageously wicked, as not only 
 to lay aside the worship of the true God, but to place their idols 
 in his temple: the calves at Dan and Bethel were very provo- 
 king, but idols in the temple itself were more so. 
 
 The top instance of the enmity which lives and reigns in the 
 
DISPLAYED AGAINST ERROR. II 
 
 seed of the serpent, is the treatment which Christ and his apos- 
 tles met with, in tlie fulness of time, among the Jews, and 
 wherewith his gospel and witnesses are still treated. One 
 would have thought, that considering who Christ was, and on 
 what kind errand he came, he should have had no enemy, 
 especially among his own : the prophecies relating to the suf- 
 ferings of the INIessiah, were as unlikely to have had their ac- 
 complishment, as that of the kings of Europe consenting to 
 give away their power to the heast : hut accomplished they 
 were, which is a wonderful proof of the truth of the Christian 
 religion. Never had any more enemies, nor fiercer, than Christ 
 had. They who waited for the consolation of Israel, were his 
 friends; but how few were they? The rest, from them that 
 sat in the gate, to them that deserved the stocks, were his ene- 
 mies: he was the song of drunkards, as well as the envy of the 
 Sanhedrim. His brethren did not believe in him, which was a 
 plain proof he was no cheat; for had he been so, to be sure his 
 brethren would have been let into the secret; and his near kins- 
 folks went forth to take him: he passed for an enemy to Ceesar 
 among the rulers, and for a madman among his relations. 
 
 Thus his apostles, during the course of their ministry, had 
 their enemies; few died a natural, but most a violent death; 
 sealing the testimony they bore to the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 with their blood. How was persecuting Saul persecuted, when 
 he came to be a Christian! Hell soon turned the tables upon 
 him, and was in an uproar against him. Thus the primitive 
 saints had their enemies, both at Rome and at Jerusalem, and 
 every where else. Wherever the seed of the woman had any 
 footing, the seed of the serpent sent out a flood of persecution to 
 destroy them. Witness the ten bloody persecutions under Rome 
 Pagan; which have been outdone by Rome Antichristian: the 
 dragon filled himself with the blood of the saints ; but the scarlet 
 whore has often made herself drunk therewith. In the massacre 
 at Paris, she drank the blood of a hundred thousand Protes- 
 tants; and of three hundred thousand in that of Ireland; and of 
 a million in that great persecution of the Waldenses, and of the 
 Albigenses. How did she begin to glut herself with English 
 blood during the short reign of bloody queen Mary ! Our civil 
 rights, as Englishmen, have all along had their enemies: how 
 forward were many during the reigns of king Charles and of 
 king James, to have introduced slavery, as well as popery? 
 And are there not still among us some who would be glad, 
 were the prince absolute, and the clergy independent? Has 
 the Reformation no enemies among us? Are all dead and gone, 
 who hate to be reformed? 
 
 Thus the doctrines of the gospel have all along had, and still 
 have their enemies. The doctrine of the resurrection had so ; 
 of which number were Hymeneus and Philetus, who said it 
 
12 THE spirit's standard 
 
 was past already, 1 Tim. i. 20. And so had the doctrine of 
 Christ's true and proper divinity, of his incarnation, of his satis- 
 faction, of his imputed righteousness, and of his efficacious 
 grace. — Thus much may suffice, by way of answer to the first 
 inquir5^ 
 
 II. My next inquiry is this: why is the enemy suffered at 
 any time, thus to come in like a flood? To which I answer, 
 in six things. 
 
 1. It is for the manifestation of His glory, who works all 
 things after the counsel of his own will, thus to suffer it; who 
 can awd will bring glory to himself, even praise, which is the 
 top of glory, out of all the instances and attacks of the enemies' 
 wrath, Psal. Ixxvi. 10. "The wrath of man shall praise thee;" 
 which holds as true of the wrath of devils. Had not Christ, 
 the seed of the woman, been an overmatch for Satan, one abun- 
 dantly able to bruise his head, the old serpent had not been 
 suffered to enter paradise, nor to tempt our first parents, and 
 last of all to prevail : but super-creating grace would have inter- 
 posed; for to be sure, that grace, whence is our recovery by 
 Christ the second Adam/ could have prevented our fall in the 
 first. Were not the King of saints able to cast the man of sin, 
 as a millstone, into the sea of God's judicial wrath, to rise up 
 no more for ever. Antichrist had not been suffered to show him- 
 self, and much less to wear a triple crown at Rome; the doing 
 of which will outshine Israel's deliverance out of Egypt, and 
 Pharaoh's being drowned in the Red Sea. By this Christ will 
 get unto himself a glorious name of praise, and be eternally 
 exalted ; whose glory, as man and mediator, will be but the 
 greater, in God's salvation, for all the opposition it meets with 
 from the enemy. It is with Christ, the Sun of righteousness, 
 as it is with the natural sun ; we may darken our houses, and 
 shut out the light, but cannot darken the sun: should all eyes 
 be put out, the sun would remain as full of light as ever; the 
 seeing eye adds nothing to the shining sun, that is the same 
 whether the horizon be full of clouds, or without them; its light 
 and heat are but the more manifested and recommended, by 
 our winter seasons and long nights. 
 
 2. It is also for the trial and exercise of all his people's graces 
 that this is suffered. As the cash of the nation should not be 
 locked up, nor hoarded, but traded with; so the graces of the 
 Spirit are talents of such worth and usefulness, that God will 
 not have them hid in napkins. Untried faith is uncertain faith, 
 which holds true of the rest of our graces. Had not Abraham's 
 faith been tried, he had not been called in the word of God, the 
 father of the faithful, a higher title than his being the father 
 of many nations, or Adam's being the father of all mankind. 
 The trials and temptations of the people of God cannot be set in 
 a sweeter light than they are, by the apostle Peter, 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. 
 
DISPLAYED AGAINST ERROR. 13 
 
 "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need 
 be, ye are in heaviness, through manifold temptations: that 
 the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold 
 that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto 
 praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." 
 Faith alone, because of its usefulness, is here mentioned; but 
 all other graces are, doubtless, included. How shall the fol- 
 lowers of the Lamb be brought off more than conquerors in the 
 end, if they meet with no enemies in the way? Faith's victo- 
 ries suppose a field of battle; a flesh lusting against the Spirit, 
 a tempting world, and a raging devil. Mean and contemptible 
 as the followers of the Lamb are, in the eye of the world, they 
 will outshine all its Cassars in the day of Christ's appearance. 
 " Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory," will be their 
 tribute of praise above in glory; for none in heaven sacrifice to 
 their own net, nor burn incense to their own drag; but shout 
 grace, grace, and will do so for ever. 
 
 3. It is to rouse and awaken the wise virgins that this is suf- 
 fered; who, in slumbering and sleeping with the foolish, act 
 below their character, as they are God's witnesses, and God's 
 remembrancers; who are to buy the truth as it is in Jesus, at 
 any rate, but to part with it for no price: they are also to give 
 the JNIost High no rest, until he so establish Jerusalem, as to 
 make it the praise of the whole earth. Now, a sleepy, drowsy, 
 lukewarm, indifierent frame ill becomes persons who are placed 
 by God in so high a post, on whose diligence and watchfulness 
 so much depends. 
 
 4. Tills is suffered, that the followers of the Lamb may take 
 unto themselves the whole armour of God; no piece of which 
 can well be spared; neither the girdle of truth, than which no- 
 thing is more dreaded by the father of lies ; nor the breast-plate 
 of righteousness, that is, of Christ's imputed suretiship righteous- 
 ness, which defends and screens the heart from the thunders 
 of the law, as a broken covenant, and from the lashes of con- 
 science for the breach thereof: neither can the saint's shoe be 
 anymore missed, than the saint's breast-plate; for the gospel 
 of peace, received in the love of it, promotes practical godliness 
 more than all the thunders of Sinai. And as for the shield of 
 faith, we all need to be further taught how to manage it: it is 
 among our graces like the sun among the planets; neither can 
 we, who are as brands plucked out of the burning, be without 
 the helmet of salvation, or lay aside the sword of the Spirit, 
 which is the word of God; because 'we wrestle not with flesh 
 and blood, but with principalities and powers, and with spiritual 
 wickednesses in high places;' with the rulers of the darkness 
 of this world, who sit at the helm at Rome, at Constantinople, 
 in the East and West Indies. 
 
 5. This is sufl'ered to put those who are one spirit with the 
 
14 THE spirit's standard 
 
 Lord, upon looking up for a fresh anointing. Your having had 
 him as the former rain, in your regeneration, should encourage 
 you to ask, and to expect him as the latter rain, to the end of life : 
 who, as certainly as he has laid the first, will bring forth the 
 top-stone with shouting, not the Arminian shout of free will, but 
 that of free grace unto it. To war as well as to worship in the 
 Spirit, is what all the followers of the Lamb are called to : Satan 
 is sure of victory whenever you go forth against him in your own 
 spirits; a look unto Christ, your Head, for a fresh anointing, is 
 of the utmost consequence, when we are called forth to battle. 
 
 6. I may add, this is sutfered, to baffle and confound the ene- 
 my, who have missed the mark, as oft as they have bent their 
 bow, and shot their arrows. Thus they missed it, in putting 
 Pharaoh upon destroying the males in Israel, as soon as born ; 
 for then was Moses, Israel's deliverer, born, who had not been 
 taken up by Pharaoh's daughter, and educated in all the learning 
 of the Egyptians, had not his parents been forced to expose him. 
 Never was Satan more desirous to accomplish any thing than 
 the death of Christ; who, by dying, destroyed him that hath the 
 power of death, that is the devil: where the enemy hoped to 
 have triumplied over him, he spoiled them ; whose cross proved 
 their overthrow, and his resurrection their entire defeat. Thus 
 in the pit which they dug for Christ, were their own feet taken. 
 
 III. I shall now give you some mcmorahh instances of the 
 enemy's coming in like a flood ; and let you see how victori- 
 ously the Spirit of the Lord hath, all along, lifted up a standard 
 against him. 
 
 1. How like a flood did the gates of hell come in upon all 
 mankind, when the old serpent had artfully drawn our first 
 parents into sin ! Then, if ever, was there joy in hell ; but hell's 
 joy was but like a flash of lightning; for in "the evening of that 
 dark and gloomy day, did the glorious light of the gospel first 
 break forth. That the old serpent was by when the threatening 
 was pronounced, is very manifest, he being the first that was 
 sentenced: to whom the first promise, if it was understood by 
 him, must have been like a clap of thunder, before which he 
 fell ; who, as he had gained his point, so he was to receive his 
 death's wound by the instrumentality of a woman ; for it was 
 her seed, and not the man's, that was to bruise his head. The 
 standard of the first promise virtually contained in it all after- 
 promises; for the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ, 
 are all three plainly hinted at, and foretold thereby; his incar- 
 nation, in his being called the seed of the woman, who was to 
 be born of a virgin; his death and sufterings, by which his heel 
 is most aptly and elegantly said to be bruised; his resun-ection 
 and victory, by wliich he etTectually bruised the serpent's head. 
 
 2. How like a flood did the enemy come in, first in oppress- 
 ing, and then in pursuing Israel ! That Israel's name might 
 
DISPLAYED AGAINST ERROR. 15 
 
 be extinguished, Israel's males were ordered to be drowned, 
 as soon as born; and though God had, by an high hand of 
 power delivered his people out of Egypt, Pharaoh resolved to 
 pursue, with a prospect of overtaking and dividing the spoil: 
 but how awful, as well as remarkable, was the standard which 
 the Spirit of the Lord lifted up against Pharaoh and his host, 
 by drowning them in the Red Sea; who were first infatuated, 
 and so destroyed. 
 
 3. How like a flood did the Assyrians come in against Judah ! 
 Their defenced cities were taken, and Jerusalem besieged by 
 an army of an hundred and fourscore and five thousand men, 
 all full of rage and rancour against Israel, if any judgment 
 may be formed of them by Rabshakeh's railing letter. But 
 good Hezekiah, instead of returning railing for railing, gave 
 himself to prayer; in answer to which, the Spirit of the Lord 
 lifted such a standard, as eiFectually brought about Israel's 
 deliverance ; for the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote, 
 in one night, an hundred and fourscore and five thousand of the 
 Assyrians. 
 
 4. How like a flood did the enemy come in, in the reign of 
 king Ahasuerus ; when wicked Haman resolved by way of 
 revenge, on the destruction of all the Jews! Not only they in 
 Shushan were to be killed, both young and old, little children 
 and women, in one day; but they from India to Ethiopia, even 
 all that were to be found residing in any part of the king's 
 dominions, who reigned over an hundred and seven and twenty 
 provinces. But how remarkable was the standard which the 
 Spirit lifted up against him ! Wicked Haman was hanged on 
 the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai; and the Jews every 
 where were victorious over their blood-thirsty enemies, of whom 
 they slew seventy-five thousand. 
 
 5. How like a flood did the enemy come in, in that hour of 
 darkness, of which Christ speaks, Luke xxii. 53, "But this is 
 your hour, and the power of darkness." In it the enemy got 
 Christ betrayed, denied, and crucified ; and to make all sure, 
 requested Pilate that the grave might be secured; accordingly, 
 they set a watch, and sealed the stone. But how glorious was 
 the standard which the Spirit lifted up in the early resurrection 
 of Christ! Mat. xxviii. 2, 3, 4: "Behold there was a great 
 earthquake ; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, 
 and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon 
 it; his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white 
 as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became 
 as dead men." 
 
 6. In the ten bloody persecutions raised by Rome Pagan, 
 Satan came in like a flood, hoping to crush the church in its 
 infancy; but such and so glorious was the standard which the 
 Spirit, in those early days, lifted up against him, that the blood 
 
16 THE spirit's standard 
 
 of the martyrs became the seed of the church. As in Egypt, 
 the more the Israehtes were oppressed, the more they multi- 
 phed; so the primitive Christians propagated the gospel, by 
 their suflerings for it ; the patience tliey acted, and their pray- 
 ing for their persecutors, overcame many of them; and the 
 sealing of their testimony with their blood made their testimony 
 but the more regaixled. 
 
 7. How like a flood did the enemy come in, in the rise and 
 progress of Antichrist, who is drawn and described to the life 
 in the prophecies of the New Testament ! Hardly a circum- 
 stance of any consequence is there omitted, from the word mys- 
 tery, writ on his forehead, to his making merchandize of the 
 souls of men. But how glorious and successful was the stand- 
 ard which the Spirit lifted up in the Reformation ! though the 
 man of sin was then in his height of power, saying, in his heart, 
 he should never be moved; the first Reformers were in Christ's 
 hand an overmatch for him, by whose ministry he received such 
 a wound, as will never be healed. 
 
 8. To conclude this head. A little before Satan's binding, 
 and immediately after his being loosed, he is to come in like a 
 flood. A little before his binding, he is to come in like a flood 
 in latter-day darkness; of which you have a very humbling 
 account: 2 Tim. ii. 1, &c. "This know, that in the last days 
 perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own 
 selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to 
 parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trace- 
 breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those 
 that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure 
 more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but deny- 
 ing the power thereof:" and likewise in getting the witnesses 
 slain, who are the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus; such 
 as bear their testimony against error to the truth, as it is 
 in Jesus, who are to prophesy in sackcloth, during the long 
 reign of Antichrist ; towards the close of which, the beast out 
 of the bottomless pit is to make war with them, and to over- 
 come and kill them ; and the dead bodies are to lie in the street 
 of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, 
 where also our Lord was crucified: which great street seems 
 to me to be Europe, which is the most trading, populous, and 
 improved part of the first Adam's world, which is the great 
 city that is deservedly called Sodom and Egypt, into which 
 Christ was born, and in which he was crucified. But how 
 glorious is the standard which the Spirit, in those last days 
 will raise up against the enemy ! of which you read. Rev. xi. 
 11:" After three days and a half, the spirit of life from God 
 entered into them; and they stood upon their feet, and great 
 fear fell upon them that saw them ; and the same hour there 
 was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell." 
 
DISPLAYED AGA.INST ERROR. 17 
 
 Rome's downfall seems to be the immediate consequence of 
 their resurrection ; which is followed by latter-day glory, chap, 
 xi. 15, " And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great 
 voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are be- 
 come the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ." 
 
 After Satan is loosed, he will be suflered to come in like a 
 flood, which will be his last effort, and, of consequence, his 
 boldest and fiercest onset, of which you read, chap. xx. 7, &c. 
 " When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed 
 out of his prison, and shall go to deceive the nations, which are 
 in the four quarters of the earth, (where America, which is the 
 fourth quarter of the earth, is plainly pointed at,) Gog and 
 Magog, to gather them together to battle ; the number of whom 
 is as the sand of the sea : and they went up on the breadth of 
 the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the 
 beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and 
 devoured them." By which fire, it is highly probable, the first 
 Adam's world will be burnt up ; of which the apostle Peter 
 speaks, 1 Peter iii. 7, for, in tlie close of this chapter, you have 
 an account of judgment, and of the perdition of ungodly men; 
 and at the beginning of the following chapter, of a new heaven 
 and of a new earth. 
 
 IV. I shall next observe what the standard is, which we, 
 who preach the gospel, should now be lifting up. 
 
 1. Negatively. Not ihe standard of a Plato, nor of a Seneca, 
 which is that of carnal reason, supported by philosophy, and 
 varnished over with a show of morality; which can no more 
 supply the place of the gospel, than the dim light and shine of 
 the moon and the stars can supply the place, or make up for 
 the want of the light and warm beams of the sun. Though 
 the mind of man was originally the candle of the Lord, it is 
 blown out by sin into a stinking snuflT: witness the stench of 
 idolatry and superstition the world has for so many ages past 
 been filled with. Neither is the standard, we should lift up, 
 that of Antichrist ; which is fire and fagot, with all the instru- 
 ments of cruelty, which a raging devil could invent, or a bloody 
 inquisition make use of; who, in making converts, prove them- 
 selves to be none of Christ's disciples, who came not to destroy 
 men's lives, but to save them. Rome's cruelties are the reverse 
 of Christ's bowels. Neither is the standard we are to lift up, 
 that of Mahomet, whose weapons were carnal, and not spiritual: 
 such as flattery, and the force of arms, polygamy, and a carnal 
 paradise ; who, instead of foretelling sufferings, promised vic- 
 tory; and instead of working miracles, was full of debaucheries. 
 Neither is the standard we are to lift up, that of the Jews ; 
 which is that of fables, and romantic traditions, of which their 
 Talmud, and the other writings, are full ; who, though they 
 have the Old Testament entire, and the free use thereof, yet it 
 
 3 
 
18 THE spirit's standard 
 
 is to them as a sealed book, the veil of their hearts not being 
 taken away. This they kept for ns, as we do the New Testa- 
 ment for them. In a word, the standard we are to lift up, is 
 not that of any party, in opposition to Christ, whose written 
 word is the touch-stone of all we preach, and of all we print 
 To this one and only standard of truth, and warrant of the re- 
 formation, we are ready to bring all our sermons, confessions, 
 catechisms, and bodies of divinity: by this we endeavour both 
 to preach and to pray, to walk and to worship. 
 
 2. Having thus returned a negative, I shall return a positive 
 answer to this great inquiry; what is the standard which such 
 as preach the gospel should lift up ? To which I answer; the 
 same, for substance, which Moses and all the prophets lifted up, 
 under the Old Testament; which was Christ, in type or figure, 
 and which the apostles and evangelists lifted up, under the New, 
 which was Christ without a veil. Christ, as he is God's salva- 
 tion, or the truth, as it is in Jesus, is the standard we should be 
 lifting up. This, like the canopy of heaven, is of a vast extent, 
 and would employ the mind of a Solomon, to the years of a 
 Methuselah, in the study thereof; as it has done, for a longer 
 space of time, the minds of angels ; and yet we are told, for 
 their comfort and encouragement, who are babes in Christ, that 
 " whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." 
 1 John V. 1. Now, where this new birth is, there will be a 
 following on to know the Lord; to which end such a book as 
 the Bible is put into every believer's hand, and the Spirit pro- 
 mised, to teach us the right use thereof. Now, in lifting up this 
 standard, against the impenitent and unbelieving world, we 
 should preach, as the apostle Paul did, "repentance towards 
 God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." Acts xx. 21. " Testi- 
 fying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance to- 
 ward God, and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ." It is not 
 sufficient for us, who preach the gospel, to teach the duty of 
 repentance, unless we tell our hearers where, and from whom 
 the grace of repentance is to be had ; " That Christ is exalted a 
 Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and re- 
 mission of sins." Acts V. 31. 
 
 In lifting up this standard against the Arians and Socinians, 
 we should enlarge on the true and proper divinity of Christ ; 
 and let our hearers know, that there is not that name in scrip- 
 ture, by which the living and true God is known and distin- 
 guished from dumb idols, but is given to the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 neither is there that divine perfection mentioned in scripture, 
 by which the living and true God is distinguished from lifeless 
 idols, but is ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is there 
 any act of divine worship mentioned or commanded, in scrip- 
 ture, to be paid to the living and true God, and forbidden to be 
 given to idols, but is commanded to be given to the Lord Jesus 
 
DISPLAYED AGAINST ERROK. 19 
 
 Christ. Neither are there any works, either of nature, or of 
 grace, be it creation-work, or that of preservation, or the dis- 
 posals of providence; or redemption-work, be it renovation of 
 the soul, or the resurrection of the body, or the judging of the 
 world, or the making of all things new, but they are ascribed 
 in scripture, to the Lord Jesus Christ ; which is full and abun- 
 dant proof, that, according to his divine nature, he is one in 
 essence with the Father; not a mere creature, though the first 
 of all creatures, but the most high God, manifested in the flesh. 
 To say, that in the Bible such things as these are ascribed unto 
 a mere creature, would be to place that book of God below the 
 Koran, 
 
 We should also, in lifting up this glorious standard against 
 the Pelagians and Arminians, enlarge on the love and grace, 
 on the satisfaction and righteousness of Christ; and let our 
 hearers know, how able he is to save, to the utmost of God's 
 mercy, and of the sinner's misery, all that come to God by him; 
 in making elect sinners first a wise and a willing, and so a par- 
 doned, justified, reconciled, adopted, sanctified, and at last, a 
 glorified people. 
 
 We should also, in lifting up this standard, enlarge on the 
 incarnation of Christ, and on those royalties which belong to 
 him, as he is God's essential Word made flesh : of which roy- 
 alties you have a short, but a most incomparable account given 
 by Paul to the Colossians, Col. i. 15, &c. That Christ is there 
 spoken of, as incarnate, is evident, because, thus considered, he 
 hath blood; of which you read, chap. i. 14. "In whom we 
 have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." 
 Then follows, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the 
 first-born of every creature ; for by him were all things created 
 that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, 
 whether they are thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
 powers ; all things were created by him, and for him ; and he is 
 before all things, and by him all things consist." As more of 
 God is to be seen in one man, especially in the first Adam, 
 than in all the beasts of the field, or birds of the air ; so more 
 of the glory of God is to be seen in the face or person of Jesus 
 Christ, than in the whole world of angels, as well as of men ; 
 or in never so many worlds of mere creatures, never so varied 
 or diversified. Mathematicians can easily tell how many ways 
 the letters of the alphabet may be disposed, or how many mil- 
 lions of words may be made out of four and twenty letters ; but 
 who can say how many worlds may, by the power of God, be 
 formed out of so much matter as this earth and the visible 
 heaven contain ? But let their possible numbers be what they 
 will, it may be said for the glory of our Emmanuel, that his 
 face will outshine them all ; for, God manifested in the flesh, 
 must be, and is the top manifestation God ever did, or will 
 
20 THE spirit's standard 
 
 make of himself, either to men or to angels. Accordingly we 
 are told, Psal. 1. 3. that " out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, 
 God Jiath sinned ;" so shined, as to outshine all other discove- 
 ries ; just as the natural sun outshines the moon and all the 
 stars ; and in the gift of Christ to be the Head of the church, 
 and Saviour of the body, he hath abounded towards us, in all 
 wisdom and prudence, Eph. i. 8. " Wherein he hath abounded 
 towards us, in all wisdom and prudence ;" a like place with 
 this, Col. ii. 3. " In whom, or wherein, are hid all the treasures 
 of wisdom and knowledge." There seems to me to be a like 
 difference between God manifested in the flesh, and all other 
 manifestations, which there is between the print of a man's 
 foot, and his personal presence. How little of the man is to 
 be known by the print of his foot, if compared with what may 
 be known by personal converse ! One " in whom dwells all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily," must vastly outshine all 
 the inhabitants of heaven, how glorious soever they may be. 
 Thus is our Emmanuel " the brightness of the Father's glory, 
 and the express image of his Person," and he is God-man Me- 
 diator ; for thus considered the apostle speaks of him, Heb. 
 i. 3, &c. For the purging of our siris there mentioned, was 
 made by the shedding of his blood, who, as incarnate, had 
 blood to shed; blood, so his own as no other blood was or could 
 be. By his Word to be made flesh, God made the worlds; by 
 him, as incarnate, he upholds and governs them: thus consi- 
 dered he is a Head of confirmation to elect angels, and a Head 
 of redemption to the elect among the children of men. The 
 royalties belonging to Christ, as he is the Word made flesh, 
 should no more be passed over in silence by us, in lifting up 
 this standard, than the temple at Jerusalem should be left out 
 in the history or map of that city. We may safely say it, that 
 had not our Emmanuel, thus considered, been laid in the pur- 
 poses of God as the foundation of the whole creation, this world 
 would have been like a house built upon the sand; in which sense 
 he may well be called, and is, "the first-born of every creature." 
 
 V. I shall nov/ give you some account of the design of this 
 Lecture; which is truly great, and such as becomes us Pro- 
 testant dissenters to engage in ; for it is no other than in Christ's 
 name, and under the influences of his Spirit, to lift up a stand- 
 ard against error. 
 
 There are great evils, which not barely threaten, but are ac- 
 tually coming in like a flood upon us. 
 
 1. There is the horrible evil of Atheism introduced by a 
 number of free-thinkers, whom the word of God calls fools; 
 Psal. xiv. 1. who out-sin the devil, in going about to persuade 
 themselves, and others, that there is no God. Of these I am 
 credibly informed there are several clubs in this great city; and 
 yet it is no less certain, that there must be an eternal, unorigin 
 
DISPLAYED AGAINST ERROR. 21 
 
 ated Being, than it is that there is any Being at all; for as cer- 
 tainly as something now is, something has always been; which 
 eternal unoriginated Being is God. It is also as certain, that 
 the several species, or kinds of beasts, of birds, of fishes, and 
 of insects, as well as the children of men, could not at first 
 come into this world, as they now do ; the first man, for instance, 
 could have no father, but must, by some superior power, be 
 immediately formed, and brought forth, not in a state of help- 
 less infancy, but able to help himself Thus the first of beasts 
 must not need the dug; nor the first of birds be from an egg, 
 or need the nest, or the wing. As lumps of paint never so well 
 mixed, though they may be said virtually to contain all the pic- 
 tures which the ablest hand can draw with them, yet without a 
 skilful hand can express nothing, so dull inactive matter cannot 
 form itself into the meanest plant, or insect, without a superior 
 power; which superior Being, who formed all things, is God. 
 
 2. Another desolating evil, like to the former, is that of Deism, 
 introduced by a set of men, who, taking no notice of the damage 
 done by sin, assert the sufficiency of natural religion, to make 
 men happy in both worlds, and so pour the utmost contempt 
 on all divine and supernatural revelation, how well soever it is 
 attested, though by a cloud of witnesses, many of whom sealed 
 their testimony with their blood; by a great number of miracles 
 wrought in the presence of inquisitive, as well as of implacable 
 enemies ; and by a set of most remarkable prophecies, which 
 have all along had their accomplishment, and are still accom- 
 plishing. The light of nature when at best is but like the 
 shine of the moon, if compared with the sunshine of the gos- 
 pel; and, since the fall, is like the moon in an eclipse: now, if 
 the moon, at full, be not able, much less is it, when in an eclipse, 
 able, either to make or to rule the day. Deism, about an hun- 
 dred years ago, was, in a manner, confined to France and Italy; 
 but of late it has passed the Alps, and crossed the seas, and 
 spreads like a mighty contagion far and near here in England. 
 
 3. Another desolating evil, which not only threatens, but is 
 come in like a flood upon us, is that of eri-or in the things of 
 God ; particularly in the doctrines of the gospel, from that of 
 the Arian, to that of the Galatian error ; or from those who 
 deny the true and proper divinity of Christ, to such as say he 
 is not *' the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that 
 believes;" which is no new nor unforetold enemy; for the apos- 
 tle, so many years ago has told us, that " there must be heresies, 
 that they who are approved may be made manifest." But, 
 blessed be God, though the foundations may be attacked and 
 undermined, they cannot be removed ; for if they could, what 
 should the righteous do ? 
 
 4. Another desolating evil, which threatens to carry all before 
 it, is that of jn'ofaneness. This is supported by such as regard 
 
22 THE spirit's standard 
 
 not the sabbath; but cry down all public worship; make a jest 
 of closet and family prayer; banter and burlesque Scripture, and 
 pour the utmost contempt on a standing ministry; though it 
 has been hitherto, and will to the end of time be supported by 
 Christ, who said, " Lo, I am with you alway, unto the end of 
 the world." 
 
 5. Another desolating evil, is that of immorality. This is 
 nearly allied to, but not the same with the former, and is propa- 
 gated and spread, not barely by private conversation, but in 
 print, by such as deny that there is any intrinsic real difference 
 between moral good and moral evil ; who say, to tell a lie, is, in 
 the nature of the thing, as commendable as to speak the truth ; 
 and to be a thief, as to be an honest man. But they may as 
 soon persuade us, that there is no real difference between light 
 and darkness, pain and pleasure, life and death. The mind in man 
 is under a like necessity to own, that a dutiful son, or subject, 
 excels one that hath murdered his father, or shot his prince ; as 
 the palate is to give the preference to wholesome pleasant food, 
 before stinking carrion ; or, as the eye is, to prefer a pleasant 
 agreeable prospect, before a dark cave, or a dreadful precipice. 
 It is not more evident to the mathematician, that the three angles 
 of every triangle are equal to two right angles, than it is to all 
 mankind, that justice and mercy excel tyranny and oppression. 
 
 6. Another desolating evil, which threatens to overflow like 
 a flood, is that of lihertinism, or turning the grace of God into 
 wantonness. It is not unlikely but Cain might presume, upon 
 the grace of the first promise, in his murder of Abel : to be sure 
 those libertines did on that of the gospel, of whom Jude speaks, 
 Jude, ver. 4. and thus do multitudes in our dark day; for though 
 a work of grace cannot be abused, all the doctrines of grace 
 may. The outward court is full of libertines, who are not under 
 the law to Christ; of whom the apostle speaks, Phil. iii. IS, 19: 
 " For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell 
 you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of tiie cross of 
 Christ ; whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and 
 whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." 
 
 These are the evils of our times ; some of which we, who 
 preach this lecture, shall, in Christ's name, and under the in- 
 fluences of his Spirit, lift up the standard of the Word against, 
 even the truth, as it is in Jesus; who, as God manifested in the 
 flesh, was a full, unanswerable, visible, and most satisfying 
 proof of the being of a God; of the truth of the Old Testament, 
 and consequently a matchless recommendation of the Christian 
 religion, as it is contained in the New. Nothing could be ex- 
 pected from the Word made flesh, and in that flesh sustaining 
 the character of a Redeemer, that was not to be met with in 
 the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ : his 
 divinity, sonship, and mediation, were written in characters full 
 
DISPLAYED AGAINST ERROR. 23 
 
 of greatness and glory upon all these ; so written as to put angels 
 to school again : those vast proficients in the book of nature, 
 are represented as learning of the church, the manifold luisdom 
 of God, as it shines forth in the face of our Emmanuel, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Eph. iii. 10. 
 
 The design of this Lecture therefore is not to oppose any other 
 orthodox Lecture, nor to put a slight upon any of our brethren 
 in the ministry; but to bear an extraordinary united testimony 
 against growing infidelity, and spreading errors. 
 
 Now, we your Lecturers, though we neither expect nor de- 
 sire the encouragement of the purse, want your prayers ; that 
 in a spirit of meekness, and not of wrath and bitterness, we may 
 instruct those who shall oppose themselves, and defend, with a 
 right gospel spirit, the great truths thereof; for between true 
 Christian zeal and rage, there is a like difference, which there 
 is between the warm beams of the sun, and the desolating 
 flames of ^Etna. 
 
 Brethren, pray for us, that we may neither study nor preach, 
 nor pray in our own spirits, but do all in Christ's Spirit ; the 
 promise of whom, as he is Christ's glorifier, is, in a way of emi- 
 nency, the promise of the Father under the New Testament ; as 
 the promise of the Messiah was his promise under the Old. 
 
 For your encouragement who shall attend, as well as for ours 
 who are to preach, take the following Scripture, and with it I 
 will conclude, Psal. xcih. 3, 4: "The floods have lifted up, 
 Lord ; the floods have lifted up their voice ; the floods lift up their 
 waves:" Understand it of ungodly men, in all ages and places; 
 especially of such as persecute the saints and faithful in Christ 
 Jesus, though, for want of power, it be only with the lip and 
 pen : " The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many 
 waters; yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." 
 
THE 
 
 INSUFFICIENCY OF NATURAL RELIGION. 
 
 TWO SERMONS. 
 
 y 
 
 By ABRAHAM TAYLOR, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON L 
 
 1 Corinthians xi. 14. — The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of 
 God, for they are foolishness to hira ; neither can he know them, because they 
 are spiritually discerned. 
 
 God created man upright, but he soon fell and stripped himself 
 of the robes of innocence and integrity, with which he was clad, 
 as he came pure out of his Maker's hands. It lay entirely in 
 the disposing will of God, whether he would save man at all 
 after his revolt; and seeing he thought fit to rescue part of 
 Adam's posterity from the ruin which the fall brought upon 
 them, he certainly had a right to pitch upon what method he 
 thought fittest, to bring about their recovery. 
 
 Whether God could have accomplished the salvation of men 
 as well any other way, as in the method he has taken of choos- 
 ing them in Christ, entering into a covenant with him, as the 
 Surety, and with all the elect in him as his seed; and, in the 
 fulness of time, sending him in the flesh, that he might suffer 
 death, to purchase the redemption of such as he had given him, 
 is a question too high for us to determine, and therefore is vain 
 and unprofitable. It is insolently intruding into things not seen, 
 for us to take upon us to determine absolutely what a God of 
 infinite wisdom and power may do, or might have done. How- 
 ever, this we must tenaciously adhere to, that it is inconsistent 
 with the nature of God, for him to injure any of his perfections, 
 to save such as deserved not his favour; we are not to doubt 
 but that God will glorify one attribute as well as another, in 
 rescuing ruined criminals: so that, though we suppose him ever 
 so unlimited in his sovereignty, or ever so rich in his mercy, we 
 must still aver, that he never would, in order to show his sove- 
 reignty, or make known his mercy, suffer his justice to remain 
 unsatisfied, and consequently not glorified, or his holiness and 
 truth to be tarnished; but he is as much concerned to glorify 
 his justice, and to show forth his holiness and truth, as he can 
 be to manifest his sovereignty, or to magnify his mercy, 
 
 God therefore showed the greatness of his wisdom in con- 
 triving the method of man's salvation, that it might be by 
 
 24 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 20 
 
 Christ's satisfying for sin : in this way all his perfections are set 
 in the most amiable light; justice is glorified to the utmost, and 
 has vindicated its rights, in that a satisfaction oit infinite value 
 has been yielded by an almighty Redeemer; holiness sparkles 
 with the brightest lustre, seeing he, who is purity itself, has 
 showed his hatred of sin to be so great, that he spared not his 
 own Son, when he only knew sin by imputation; the truth of 
 him who is invariable in faithfulness, is fully established, in that 
 he has exacted the punishment threatened; goodness appears 
 in its full beauty, as a Redeemer is provided for such as have 
 destroyed themselves, and the greatest blessings are bestowed 
 freely upon the unworthy; mercy is displayed to the utmost, 
 because provision is made for bringing sinners to partake of the 
 happiness they had forfeited ; wisdom and power are greatly 
 magnified, since a way is laid out and finished, in which justice 
 and holiness might not be injured, and yet grace and mercy 
 might be eminently exalted. 
 
 This is the method of man's salvation, which the Scriptures 
 teach; and as it is the only way of thinking which man can fall 
 into, in order to glorify all God's perfections, it must be con- 
 cluded to be the most rational scheme in the world. The design 
 of God was to glorify his own perfections, to exalt Christ, to 
 stain the pride of man's glory, and to show the necessity of 
 holiness; therefore, as the Holy Scripture declares and reveals 
 this wonderful plan, it is no marvel that it should be ridiculed, 
 as a huddle of fooUsh opinions, by the vain and proud preten-f 
 ders to reason, who make what surpasses their shallow capaci- 
 ties the subject of their scorn, and treat with contempt all that 
 is above their contracted apprehensions. As the design of reve- 
 lation is to thwart the pride of fallen man, it is no wonder that 
 insolent creatures, who would be independent on God, and who 
 imagine that they are wise enough to find out their duty, and 
 able enough to pursue their own happiness, should rise up with 
 rancour and malice, against what crosses their corrupt reason, 
 and has a tendency to throw down the lofty bulwarks of their 
 vain imaginations. The contempt which is cast on revelation 
 is not new; for the great apostle Paul, after he had told us that 
 he spake or declared the things that are freely given us of God, 
 not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the 
 Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, 
 has presently subjoined these words: " The natural man receives 
 not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to 
 him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
 discerned." By the natural man, is not to be understood one 
 wallowing in lust, and sunk in the mire of sensuality, but the 
 man of bare reason; he who will use no other helps than what 
 he can procure by mere rational attainments, such a man, though 
 possessed of a good share of natural light, yet if he is without 
 
 4 
 
26 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 a spiritual discerning, or without wisdom afforded him from 
 above, brands the doctrines and mysteries of pure revelation 
 with folly, because he cannot fully comprehend them; not con- 
 sidering that the mysteries of reason, such as the being and per- 
 fections of God, can no more be fully comprehended by him, 
 than those of revelation. If we consider man as renewed, and 
 as such having his mind enlightened, it must be owned, that the 
 mysteries of reason and pure revelation have such great depths 
 in them, that they are not to be sounded by the line, even of 
 a sanctified understanding: nay, it may be justly said, that the 
 perfections of God are not to be fully grasped by any created 
 mind. It is no wonder, then, that such as are left to bare rea- 
 son in a corrupt state, should as brute beasts contemn the sacred 
 verities which are not suited to their depraved lust. 
 
 The Scriptures have never been treated with more irrever- 
 ence than they have been of late ; but yet the enemies of reve- 
 lation choose rather to attack them by sap and stratagem, than 
 in an open and honourable way. Our modern Deists are shy 
 in saying, in their pubUc writings, that the Christian religion is 
 forgery, and the founder of it an impostor; but they choose to 
 magnify the perfection of reason, and to set up what they call 
 natural religion, as a complete body of doctrine; they can talk 
 with a grave sneer, of the Holy Scriptures, of the religion of our 
 Saviour, and will pretend they esteem it; but, at the same time, 
 they plead that natural religion is perfect, and needs no addition 
 to be made to it, only they allow it may be explained: hence 
 they draw this consequence, that the gospel is as old as the law 
 of nature, and neither can nor ought to be any other than a 
 republication of it. Their sly drift herein is to bring people to 
 conclude, that since natural religion is perfect, if revelation con- 
 tains any thing more than reason could of itself have found out, 
 it must be discarded as imposture: now, every one must grant, 
 that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament really con- 
 tain a great number of facts and doctrines, which bare reason 
 could never have found out ; if, then, reason is a perfect rule, 
 revelation, which contains more than this could find out, must 
 be given up as fraud and forgery; for nothing can be added to 
 what is perfect. This is the substance of all the solemn banter 
 and grave grimace, with which the world has of late been enter- 
 tained; so that it cannot be amiss to inquire, whether reason in 
 men is really so perfect, as the pretended masters of it give out; 
 and whether natural religion is so complete, as is affirmed. 
 
 It must be owned, that the labour of the Deists in assaulting 
 the Christian scheme, has been made very easy, and their work 
 has been in a great measure done for them, by many treacher- 
 ous professors of the religion of Jesus. Many betrayers of the 
 cause of revelation have forged weapons for the enemies of it, 
 in preventing them the pains of attacking particular doctrines. 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 27 
 
 Men who would lose all patience, if we questioned their own 
 ing the sufficiency of Scripture, and who have very much in 
 their mouths a noisy outcry, that the Bible, the Bible, is the 
 religion of Protestants, have brought the charge of nonsense 
 and contradiction against the Protestant doctrines of the ever- 
 blessed Trinity in Unity, absolute election, original sin, the 
 necessity of an infinite satisfaction, the fulness and particularity 
 of redemption, justification by the imputed righteousness of 
 Christ, the inability of man .to convert himself, the efficacy of 
 divine grace, the perseverance of the saints, the resurrection of 
 the same numerical body, and the eternity of hell torments: all 
 these doctrines have been misrepresented, exploded, derided, 
 and burlesqued by such as profess themselves Christians, nay, 
 by such as would appear zealous to promote practical religion: 
 so that the Deists have had little to do, but to stand still and 
 smile, whilst others were doing their work for them, perhaps 
 without knowing it; though it is to be feared, that some of these 
 would not keep out of their tents, if they could retain their pre- 
 ferments, salaries, or subscriptions. 
 
 It would be well, if all who have gone into this way, who 
 are alarmed at the growth of Deism, would consider what they 
 have been doing. Many have been immoderately pleased with 
 being applauded, by the adversaries of revelation, for being ra- 
 tional divines, and men of free thought; but though the enemies 
 of Christianity compliment them, to induce them to go on to do 
 their work for them, yet it is known to many that they secretly 
 contemn them. The more thinking Deists know that the doc- 
 trines which these disputers arraign, as unscriptural and irra- 
 tional, are the things which are really contained in Scripture, 
 which, for that reason chiefly, they neglect; and they look upon 
 these removers of the ancient land-marks, however they may 
 flatter them, either to be fools or cheats. The opposers of the 
 ancient faith are very forward to ascribe the growth of infide- 
 lity to men's being led to pay a regard to what they call irra- 
 tional doctrines; but the case really is, a denial of revelation has 
 always followed upon attempts made to subvert the old protes- 
 tant doctrines, and as these have succeeded with giddy unsettled 
 persons, in proportion have the ravages of Deism been extended. 
 
 Another thing which has greatly contributed to weaken the 
 cause of Christianity, has been the zeal of some to recommend 
 systems of morality, under the whimsical title of natural reli- 
 gion. There is no question to be made, but that some persons, 
 who engaged this way, had no design to weaken the regard 
 men should have to revealed religion, but by these means the 
 peculiar doctrines of Christianity have been jumbled out. It 
 has been said, that during the times of our civil commotions, 
 there was little preached up but faith in Christ, and that the 
 duties of morality were little insisted on: it is certain, that some 
 
28 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 ignorant enthusiastic preachers insisted then much on eternal 
 union witli Christ, and that sin could do a behever no harm, 
 but all wise and thoughtful men abhorred such immoral con- 
 ceits; however, the charge was laid against all who maintained 
 the doctrine of grace; and accordingly when a state-alteration 
 ensued, as it is natural for men who take a partial view of 
 things, when they endeavour to avoid one extreme, to run into 
 the other, neglecting the middle way, all strove to show them- 
 selves as opposite to those who went before, as might be. 
 Tiierefore the Christian doctrines, if not opposed, were wholly 
 neglected, and little was insisted upon but moral duties, under 
 the odd title of natural religion: then books could be written on 
 the Christian plan, called The Whole Duty of Man, without 
 stating the doctrine of faith in Christ, the prime duty of a Chris- 
 tian. It must be observed, that at the same time that natural 
 religion was talked of, to the neglect of the doctrines of revela- 
 tion, a deluge of Atheism, irreligion, and immorality, flowed in 
 upon those of the national establishment ; and whether, since 
 Ave of the separation have heard so much noise about it, there 
 has not been a declension as to justice and common honesty, a 
 contempt of the Sabbath, and a neglect of public worship, is 
 what every one is able to judge of, who has looked a little into 
 the world. 
 
 I. I shall inquire what we ought to understand by natural 
 relxs;ion; or in what sense tlie light of nature is to be taken. 
 
 Since so many fine things have been said of natural religion, 
 it may be well worth while to consider what the thing is, which 
 is dressed up in such fair colours, and which every one is so 
 much at a loss to find out. In one sense it may be taken for 
 the light with which Adam and Eve, our first parents, were 
 blessed, whilst they were clad with innocence. If it is taken 
 in this sense, it must be granted, that reason was much more 
 perfect than it is now. Our great progenitor, and our general 
 mother, as long as they ranged the fragrant bowers of paradise, 
 and strayed about the pleasant mazes of that wilderness of 
 sweets, in which the kind hand of their Creator had placed them, 
 were very happy creatures. Their understandings were clear 
 and strong, their judgment was unbiassed, and no disorderly 
 passions raged in their unrufRed breasts; they were created in 
 the image of God, and the likeness of their mighty JNIaker shone 
 forth in wisdom, truth, and severe and pure sanctity; their obe- 
 dience to the law of their God was not forced, neither was it 
 from fear; but they fulfilled the command of him who placed 
 them in happiness, with delight and alacrity : they knew all that 
 was necessary for them to be acquainted with, and they yielded 
 universal obedience to the various commands of the heavenly 
 Potentate, who created them out of the dust. 
 
 Though it is to be allowed that reason was much more com- 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 29 
 
 plete and perfect, in onr first parents, before the fall, than it is 
 in us their miserable posterity, since we have been plunged into 
 ruin and misery by their apostasy; yet it is not to be granted that 
 the light of nature was every way a complete and perfect rule, 
 even in the state of innocence and integrity. Though man was 
 free from sinful imperfections, yet he was not an absolutely per- 
 fect being, for no creature is such; and as he was not absolutely 
 perfect, so his natural light was not an absolutely complete rule 
 to go by. If it had been so, he would not have needed any 
 directions, as to what he was to do, but would, without any 
 supernatural assistance, have known his duty in every part and 
 circumstance of it: but this was far from being the case; he 
 needed to be instructed by God, Gen. i. 29. ii. 16, 17. as to his 
 circumstances of life, and as to some parts of his duty. It was 
 by supernatural light, or by revelation from God, that he came 
 to know that he had dominion over all the creatures in the lower 
 world ; it was by divine direction that he was to take fruits and 
 herbs for his food ; it was by a command from above that he was 
 to refrain from eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil, 
 upon pain of death; and it was by instruction from his Creator 
 that he performed instituted worship, or kept the seventh day 
 as a day of sacred rest. These revelations would never have 
 been made to our first father, whilst he continued peacefully to 
 enjoy the spicy groves of paradise, if natural light had been to 
 him a perfect rule. If he had not needed supernatural light, 
 God would not have afforded it, for the all-wise Creator does 
 nothing in vain, whatever foolish men may think; therefore as 
 he had hght by revelation, it is plain he needed it; and if so, 
 reason was not every way a perfect rule. If any urge, in answer 
 to this, that the account Moses gives of the primitive state of 
 man is an allegory, they are to be pitied for their profaneness 
 and pride; and they are not to be envied for not having rever- 
 ence for Scripture, and humility sufficient to make them submit 
 their wisdom to revelation, and to induce them, when they are 
 gravelled with an insurmountable difficulty, frankly to own it. 
 
 Plowever, if we were to suppose reason in man, in a state of 
 innocence, to be a perfect rule, of what avail is all this to us, 
 who may find, by sad experience, that it is not with us as it 
 was with man when he reposed himself in the peaceful shades 
 of Eden and roved about the verdant walks of paradise? Our 
 understandings are now darkened, so that we are often at a loss 
 about the nature of our duty ; and when we cannot say we are 
 entirely ignorant of our duty, and are, in judgment convinced 
 that we ought to comply with it, how are our understandings 
 blinded, and our judgments corrupted by our unruly passions, 
 and our irregular appetites! If reason were our only rule, we 
 should bribe it to silence, by the pleasure of following our own 
 inclinations, and then we should be swayed by unruly lusts, 
 
30 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 without the least opportunity of knowing that the things in 
 which we dehght, if pursued throughout, would entail endless 
 disquietments upon us. 
 
 The common notion persons now seem to have of natural 
 religion, is, that it is a body of principles and duties, which men 
 gather from reason and Scripture, receiving into their systems 
 whatsoever they like in revelation, and leaving out all such 
 doctrines as they do not approve of. That there is one God, 
 and that he is invested with infinite perfections, is the voice of 
 reason and revelation ; this therefore must needs be put down 
 as the prime doctrine of natural religion; that this one God 
 rules and guides the universe, by his wise providence, is what 
 reason and observation may assure us of; this therefore is not 
 left out of the systems of the religion of nature ; that the soul 
 is immortal, and that there is a final state of happiness and 
 misery, is what few are hardy enough to deny ; that men, as 
 creatures, are obliged to worship and serve the God, to whom 
 they owe their being; and that, as creatures fitted for society, 
 they are obliged to consult the good and happiness of others, is 
 what all have not the front to call in question. 
 
 These principles which have met with the general assent of 
 mankind, are the great principles of reason and Scripture : any 
 one who will not admit any of these, if he will take the pains 
 to see what dress could be made up for them, out of the writings 
 of mere pagans, will soon be convinced, that they must wear 
 no other than a mean and contemptible garb, such as would not 
 set them off, or recommend them to the high esteem of men: 
 they might be compared to a picture not coloured, where the 
 lines may be drawn with art and regularity, but have not a 
 striking force upon the eye : but if these principles of reason are 
 set off with the strong, hvely, and glowing colours, in which 
 they are painted in the Scriptures, they command admiration. 
 What account can be gathered from the writings of pagans, of 
 the being and perfections of God? Though they owned one 
 Supreme, yet they introduced a rabble of inferior gods, and so 
 worshipped creatures besides the Creator. How low and lame 
 were their notions of the spiritual nature, and the immortality 
 of the soul ! And what mean figments did they take up with 
 about a future state ! How uncertain were they about God's 
 governing the world ! And though they had among them some 
 who were great proficients in several social duties, what can 
 we gather from them of love to God, resignation to his wise 
 disposal, as to the concerns of life, self-denial, and universal 
 charity and benevolence? These are duties which are agreea- 
 ble to right reason; but let any one say where they are well 
 stated, by such as were entire strangers to revelation. There- 
 fore in our day, natural religion is decked in plumes borrowed 
 from Scripture, and then is set up in opposition to it, as a perfect 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 31 
 
 rule, and as such not needing the assistance of a revelation. 
 This is scandalously base and unfair. For instance: no one 
 mere rational writer ever gave a tolerable account of a future 
 state; and none of the delineators of the reUgion of nature, since 
 the promulgation of Christianity, ever did it, without leaving 
 the plainest traces of his having aid from Scripture; and yet 
 these sketches, which are drawn by the help of Scripture, must 
 be palmed upon the world, as the doctrines of mere reason 
 unassisted by the light of revelation. 
 
 Thus Scripture is pillaged, in order to its being represented 
 as a needless useless thing; for if a man can be so silly, as to 
 be brought to think, that those points which artful men pick 
 out from Scripture, which has nothing inconsistent with reason, 
 though it contains much above mere human reason, are things 
 to be known without the help of it, they will easily give it up 
 as unnecessary ; and the more, because it reveals matters too 
 high for their low understanding, and so thwarts their pride. 
 It is not fair then to call that natural religion, the defects of 
 which are supplied by truths taken from the oracles of God ; 
 neither is it just to recommend it as a perfect scheme, when it 
 cannot be put in any tolerable dress, without the necessary help 
 of that very thing, to make which seem unnecessary, so much 
 pains are taken to deck it. All this must be understood of 
 natural religion, when it is set oft' in the best manner; but it 
 must be owned, that some of its recommenders are so infatuated, 
 as not to borrow that help they might, in order to make it agree- 
 able, and are so ignorant, as to show its imperfection, by making 
 it resemble Atheism. We are told, that the distinction of right 
 and wrong, virtue and vice, is entirely independent of the will 
 of God, and that it arises from the nature of things, by which 
 senseless jargon may be meant fate, chance, the animating soul 
 of the world, or any other unmeaning thing, or hard word, with- 
 out an idea annexed to it. It is pretended, that men are not 
 made by God for himself, and that he has no motive, on his own 
 account, to give them laws, or to punish the breach of them, 
 and that consequently they are not accountable to him; but that 
 such fully answer the end of their creation, as contribute all they 
 can to their own and others' happiness. This is to suppose, that 
 God has power to create rational creatures, and it is a favour 
 that this is allowed, but that he has no authority to prescribe 
 for them laws, seeing the rules of justice rise from the nature 
 of things, and he is confined to act by them, as much as those 
 he has created; that he has no justice to glorify when he is pro- 
 voked, but is obliged to be kind to all his creatures, whether 
 they obey him, or rebel against him : in short, that he is an 
 indolent Being, such as was the God of the Epicureans ; that 
 man is independent of him who created him, and preserves 
 him; that he is to be his own judge, whether he answers the end 
 
32 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 of his creation, by promoting his own happiness, and that of 
 others. 
 
 Thus the irrational stuff, which was hissed off the stage, with 
 just contempt, when it was introduced by Epicurus, is afresh 
 brought on, to show the sufficiency of human reason, in our 
 enhghtened age of search and inquiry. It would be doing too 
 much honour to such monstrous absurdity, to go about gravely 
 to confute them; and it would be labour and time as ill spent, 
 as it would be to argue with a man who stiffly denies that two 
 and three make five, or to wrangle with one who will have it, 
 that it is as light at midnight as at noon. The assurance with 
 which such irrational fancies are vented, does not prove that 
 their asserters have more brains, or brighter parts than others, 
 but only that they have harder foreheads and thicker skulls than 
 the generality of men. These bold champions of infidelity deny 
 that man's reason is impaired by the fall; but they give the 
 fullest demonstration that it is greatly sunk, even almost to a 
 degree of brutality, in themselves, and by this afford us, though 
 stupidly, and against their wills, a sensible proof of the fall of 
 man, wiiich they banter and insipidly ridicule. Were not the 
 rational faculties greatly decayed, no persons could ever dream 
 of a God of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, having no 
 motive, on his own account, to give his creatures laws, or to 
 punish the breach of them, and that men are not accountable to 
 him that made them. It is not worth while to talk with crea- 
 tures who have so much laid aside the use of reason; it is 
 throwing pearls to swine : we can only refer the decision to the 
 hour, which a few years will introduce, and then these rebels 
 against heaven will find whether they are accountable to their 
 Maker or not. 
 
 All that has been said of late, by way of panegyric upon 
 reason and the light of nature, is founded on a mere fallacy. 
 The adversaries of revelation do not speak of reason, as it is in 
 this or the other man, as it may be less clear in one than in an- 
 other, but they speak of reason in the abstract, and in that sense 
 it may be allowed to be of a very large extent. No one will be 
 so silly as to say, that reason, in the abstract idea of it, is insuf- 
 ficient and imperfect, for nothing is to be regarded which is 
 contrary to reason. The question is not then, whether reason 
 abstractedly considered is imperfect, for that would be question- 
 ing whether truth is truth, or whether right reason is right rea- 
 son; which would be only trifling, and spending words to no 
 purpose. True reason is right; and what is right, cannot, as 
 such, be said to be imperfect: however, this poor and mean 
 quibble is all that the pleaders for the sufficiency of reason have 
 to talk upon. It would be ridiculous for any one to say, that 
 the light of the sun is not sufficient to enable a man to keep his 
 path; but it signifies very little, when a man is involved in the 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. ^ 
 
 shade of the evening, to tell him he must not question that the 
 sun's Hght is sufficient for him to see by. The question really 
 is, whether reason, as it is now in men, whether the light of 
 nature, as it is in men in their present state, which none can 
 venture to say, in fact, is not a state of degeneracy, is a suffi- 
 cient rule to inform men what they ought to believe and receive, 
 to show them how they may find out what is true and right, 
 and to direct them in the more private walks of life, as well as 
 when they appear on the public stage of the world, where they 
 may have the advantage of seeing the examples of others; it is, 
 whether natural religion, of itself, discovers all that a man is to 
 believe concerning God, all the methods necessary for him to 
 take in order to be reconciled to him, and regain his favour, and 
 all that is required of man in his private, relative, and social 
 character. 
 
 When we inquire whether reason is now a sufficient rule, the 
 only sense in which we can take the light of nature, or natural 
 religion, is, as the remains of natural light in men of superior 
 reason, who have been left entirely without the help of revela- 
 tion of any kind; and if it is tried carefully, or viewed in this 
 light, it will appear to be very imperfect and deficient. It is 
 easy to tell us, that reason is reason, truth is truth, and virtue is 
 virtue; bnt what are we the wiser by being told such fine 
 things, if we find ourselves and others deficient in reason, puz- 
 zled about truth, and apt to take vice for virtue? No one will 
 say cruelty is good, but how many think that persecution, an 
 enormous vice, is lawful, because it is designed for good ends, 
 to set men right, and to keep them from leading others wrong! 
 It is easy for men to pick things out of Scripture, and to prove 
 them agreeable to reason, since there is nothing in the oracles 
 of God, but what is consonant to the highest reason ; by this 
 means a very beautiful system of morality may be put together; 
 but can this be a delineation of the religion of nature? The 
 only way to judge of the sufficiency, on the one hand, and of 
 the defects on the other, of the light of nature, is to examine 
 whether it brightly shined, or was greatly shaded, in such as 
 had nothing else to illuminate them, and who yet had as clear 
 intellects, and as great knowledge of the world, as any now; 
 and who, in learning and politeness, exceeded many of our new 
 luminaries, or rather comets, who, instead of increasing our 
 light, disturb the world, and spread error and irreligion. If it is 
 thus tried, the light of nature will not be found to resemble the 
 sun, when, crowned with surpassing glory, it illuminates the 
 earth, but rather to be like it, when in dim eclipse, it sheds 
 gloom and twilight over some parts of the world, and so puz- 
 zles and perplexes such as are not acquainted with the natural 
 causes of its being darkened, and throws them into a state of 
 doubt and uncertainty. 
 
 5 
 
34 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 II. I shall show that reason is not a perfect rule in matters 
 of religion; and shall answer some pleas that are oifered in 
 behalf of the monstrous and extravagant supposition, that it is 
 a sufficient guide in sacred matters. 
 
 I would not be thought to have respect only or principally to 
 professed Deists, but chiefly to regard those treacherous advo- 
 cates for Christianity, who, under pretence of writing in its vin- 
 dication, basely and vilely betray the noblest of causes to avowed 
 infidels. It is only to have the good word of the enemies of 
 revelation, who happen, through the degeneracy of our unhappy 
 times, to gain a great vogue, that these base, ignoble, and 
 ungenerous souls prove false to the interest of Him, whom they 
 call their master, and traitorously give it up to his open enemies. 
 That they give up the cause of Christianity to the adversaries 
 of revelation, is most certain, for if reason is of itself a sufficient 
 rule, any addition to what is of itself sufficient, is impertinent 
 and needless; this is evident to the dullest capacity: and all that 
 can be said in favour of revelation, by such as make this con- 
 cession, is only showing, that they can contradict themselves; 
 for if reason is of itself sufficient, in matters of religion, what 
 need can there be of the Christian revelation? Was there any 
 necessity to make known any thing new, and to require it to be 
 believed, when what was known before was sufficient without 
 it? This is granting to the Deists, that though there may be 
 some good things in Christianity, yet there was no absolute 
 necessity for it, which is what they desire to have yielded to 
 them, and then it is easy for them to show the absurdity of add- 
 ing any thing to what was good enough of itself, without any 
 such addition. It is very well known, that the Deists are not 
 wanting to make use of this extravagant concession ; and any 
 one, who consults their writings, may easily see that they, in 
 reality, say very little, but what is put into their mouths, by 
 such as would appear to stand up in the defence of revelation 
 against them, but either through ignorance, or treachery betray 
 the cause to them: whether it is through folly or knavery that 
 this is done, it is certain, they who are guilty of doing it, have 
 much to answer for, seeing they have done a great deal more 
 hurt to the interest of Christ, than all the avowed enemies of it, 
 of themselves, ever did or could do. 
 
 It is a very poor way of arguing, for any* to tell us, " That 
 
 * See the Plea for Human Reason, p. 47, 48. This is said, how truly I know 
 not, to be written by Mr. Jackson, tlie noted Arian, the amanuensis to Dr. Clarke 
 in the memorable dispute with Dr. Waterland, about the supreme divinity of our 
 blessed Lord, which is called, by the ignorant blasphemer who wrote this Plea, a 
 wretched Antichristian hypothesis. If Mr. Jackson is the author of the Plea, we 
 may judge what was the design of Dr. Clarke and him, in advancing Arianism, 
 viz. to open the way for Deism. Several things have been written on both sides, 
 on the question I am upon, since these sermons were preached, which was in No« 
 vember, 1730, but I have chosen to let them appear as they were first composed. 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 35 
 
 the true preference of Christianity is (not that reason, in any 
 state of men, is insufficient in itself to virtue and happiness, but) 
 that Christianity is a clearer and more powerful guide, having 
 improved the light of reason by the supernatural evidence and 
 declaration of God's will, and final intention of saving sinners, 
 by the free pardon of them for the sake and merits of the death 
 of Christ, which mere reason was not able to discover or deter- 
 mine, and which plain declaration of the means of man's re- 
 demption is a more powerful motive and obligation to univer- 
 sal obedience, than reason could ever with certainty propose." 
 This is a mere heap of confusion and inconsistency. It is very 
 likely there is a juggle in using that odd expression, " Reason 
 in any state of men;" but if it means any thing, it must have 
 respect to reason in man's present corrupt state : Now, if reason, 
 of itself, is a sufficient guide to virtue and happiness, can man 
 need any thing more sufficient than a sufficient guide ? can he 
 need to be guided to any thing better than to virtue and happi- 
 ness ? certainly not. If so, then there is no necessity for a clearer 
 and more powerful guide, or for its being improved by the su- 
 pernatural declaration of God's will, relating to things which 
 it could not discover, or for more powerful motives to obedi- 
 ence, than it could ever with certainty propose. On the other 
 hand, if there was need of the Christian revelation to be a more 
 sure light, and a more powerful guide than reason ; if there was 
 room for the defects of the light of nature to be supplied, by the 
 declaring the wonderful plan of the salvation of sinners, on the 
 account of the merits of the death of Christ, which was a mys- 
 tery that was out of the ken of bare reason ; and if there was 
 cause to make use of a more powerful motive to universal obe- 
 dience to the will of their great Creator, than natural religion 
 could ever with certainty propose ; if these things are true, as 
 they certainly are, and are allowed to be by the advocates for 
 reason, it will inevitably and invincibly follow, that reason in 
 men, in their present state, is not a sufficient rule to guide them 
 to virtue and happiness ; and it may justly be asserted, that the 
 pleaders for its sufficiency are stupid enough to contradict them- 
 selves, in saying, in the same breath, that it is sufficient, and 
 yet there is need for its being still made more sufficient. 
 
 It is very odd, in the pleaders* for the sufficiency of reason 
 to say, that " Reason (if men would have attended to it) would 
 always have given them sufficient hopes and security of their 
 acceptance with God, upon their repentance, and sincere best 
 endeavours to do what was right and good, and agreeable to 
 reason." If by reason is meant reason in the abstract, what is 
 said is entirely impertinent ; for then by reason we must under- 
 stand whatever is truth, and the whole of what is truth must be 
 owned to be sufficient, to instruct men, if Ave suppose it made 
 
 * Plea for Human Reason, p. 45. 
 
36 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 known to them. If reason is taken for what share of hght men, 
 in their present state, possess, it inevitably follows, from what 
 the advocates for its sufficiency allow, that it is really insuffi- 
 cient: for how can that which is in man, be his sufficient guide, 
 if he has a propensity not to attend to it, but has such a mixture 
 of darkness with his light, that he is at a loss what to think is 
 best for him? Men's not attending to the dictates of right rea- 
 son, but embracing tilings as truths, which are inconsistent 
 with it, and contrary to it, shows that the light of nature, as it is 
 noAV in them, is far from being a sufficient guide to them in 
 matters of religion. 
 
 It is not agreeable to truth to say, that the reason of any finite 
 being is perfect or sufficient, in an absolute sense; but if this 
 could be allowed, it does not alter the case as to us, who are 
 the descendants of apostate Adam: our nature, as we are fallen, 
 sinful creatures, is corrupt, and consequently our reason is no 
 sure light to guide us, because there is in our understandings 
 much darkness, mingled with a httle light. We need not de- 
 sire a more plain proof of the imperfection of reason, in our cor- 
 rupt state, than what we may gather from the consideration of 
 the errors men have run into, who have set up their reason in 
 opposition to the mysteries of nature and revelation. Many 
 who have done this, liave fully come to what the apostle Paul 
 said of the Gentiles, Rom, i. 22. Professing themselves to be 
 wise, they became fools. When their pride has been so great, 
 that they would not be content with owning the great mys- 
 teries of natural religion, without explaining the manner how 
 they are, and when their insolence has risen so high, as that 
 they have set up their reason in opposition to the mysteries of 
 revelation, they have showed what short-sighted creatures they 
 are, in venting opinions as most rational, which are entirely 
 inconsistent with right reason. Some have not been able to 
 bring themselves to own, that the distinction of right and wrong 
 is dependent on the will of God, they therefore have laid down 
 this nonsensical paradox, that there are moral fitnesses in the 
 reason and nature of things, which must be conceived as prior 
 to the will of God; and hence it is argued, that God is as much 
 bound by the rules of justice as any of his creatures. That 
 there is an essential diflerence between right and wrong, is 
 most certain; for if we conceive of God as an infinitely good, 
 just, and perfect Being, all which is agreeable to his will must 
 be right, and all which is contrary to him must be wrong: but 
 it is perfect nonsense and self-contradiction to conceive of any 
 thing prior, in order of nature, to the first cause; it is most 
 shocking to imagine, that the independent Being should be 
 circumscribed by moral fitnesses; and it is monstrous to affirm, 
 that the sovereign Lawgiver, because he can do nothing incon- 
 sistent with his own perfections, is bound by the laws he gives. 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 37 
 
 as the rule of his rational creatures' acting. Moral fitnesses 
 rising from the nature of things, are only the old Pagan notion 
 of fate revived; and such as are fond of this unintelligible jargon, 
 make very large advances towards the worst sort of Atheism. 
 It is a dictate of right reason, which, in this case, is abundantly 
 confirmed by revelation, that there is only one supreme, living, 
 and true God, who is the sole Creator of all things: the Scrip- 
 ture confirms the voice of natural light, that there is but one 
 God: but it most clearly reveals, that in the Unity of this God- 
 head, there are three divine Persons of the same substance and 
 perfections, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: how these 
 can be three Persons, and yet can be one God, is a thing that is 
 not revealed, and consequently not necessary for us to know; 
 it is above the grasp of our narrow, corrupt reason: and, in all 
 probability, as it relates to the substance of the infinite God, it 
 surpasses the understanding of the most perfect creatures, for 
 that is only finite. Against this great and adorable mystery, 
 the proud pretenders to reason rise with rage and rancour; they 
 charge it with nonsense and contradiction: but what have these 
 masters in buffoonery, as well as proficients in blasphemy, offer- 
 ed to us in the room of the true Scripture doctrine of a Trinity 
 in Unity.? In reality, nothing which will stand the test of good 
 sense, or is agreeable to right reason. Such as have supposed 
 the Son and the Spirit to be different names, or to be two facul- 
 ties, attributes, properties, or powers of the Father, have run 
 into a scheme, which, if it was true, the Scriptures might be said 
 not to be written with good sense; seeing it would be strange, 
 in narrations of facts, and in the course of reasoning and debate, 
 to speak of the Son and Spirit in the strongest language of per- 
 sonality that can be invented, if they were only personalised 
 by bold metaphors, high allegories, or strong figures of speech. 
 But the abettors of this scheme are not those whom I principally 
 have regard to ; I chiefly refer to the patrons of the Arian heresy, 
 who make the Son and the Spirit two creatures. These sons 
 of darkness contradict, in the most daring manner, the funda- 
 mental doctrine of natural and revealed religion, that there is 
 but one infinitely blessed God; for they suppose two creatures 
 to be true and proper Gods, or to have all the characters of 
 divinity, except supremacy, independence, and necessary exist- 
 ence, and so endeavour to graft upon Christianity the heathen- 
 ish jargon, which it was designed to militate against, that though 
 there is but one supreme God, there may be subordinate divini- 
 ties. They most irrationally allow, that creatures may be em- 
 ployed with the supreme God, in creating the world, or in 
 bringing all things besides themselves into being out of nothing, 
 and so run into the greatest of absurdities, in supposing created 
 creators. They likewise follow the Gentiles, who were vain in. 
 their imaginations, and whose foolish hearts were so darkened 
 
38 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 as to worship the creature besides the Creator, who is God 
 blessed for ever; for though they degrade the Son and Spirit 
 into the rank of dependent beings, yet they oifer up to them 
 subordinate worship. It is certain, from reason and Scripture, 
 that man could never create himself, but that he is the product 
 of the Supreme Being, who by his providence sustains him, and 
 by his bounty supplies his wants, and consequently that he is 
 obliged to live to the glory of the Author of his being, and is 
 accountable to him for the actions of his life : in this there is 
 nothing but what is agreeable to the highest reason, yet such 
 is the infatuation of the asserters of the sufficiency of the light 
 of nature, that they reject this natural doctrine, and pretend that 
 God did not make man for himself, is not concerned about his 
 breaking his laws, and that he is not accountable to the Most 
 High: so that the living God must be supposed to be an indo- 
 lent being, not mindful what those who are the product of his 
 hands do, in contempt of his authority. 
 
 If these things are duly considered, it is as insolent as it is 
 erroneous, in the patrons of reason, to stand up for the suffi- 
 ciency of it in matters of religion. However it may be in 
 others, it is apparent that it is greatly debased in these muddy 
 creatures, who will not make use of the common helps that are 
 thrown in their way, to guard them against the most gross 
 absurdities. They come under the judgment which Moses, by 
 commission from God, threatened should come upon Israel, in 
 case of disobedience, when he said, Deut. xxviii. 28, 29: "The 
 Lord shall strike thee with madness, and blindness, and aston- 
 ishment of heart; and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the 
 blind gropes in darkness, and shalt not prosper in thy ways." 
 Though reason improved by revelation proclaims, that the 
 supreme God is our Judge and Lawgiver, that there is but one 
 living God, who is our Creator, and who is to be worshipped 
 by us, and that in him we live, move, and have our being, and 
 to him must give an account of our actions; yet they shut their 
 eyes against what light they might have, in their state of frailty 
 and imperfection, and go about to palm upon the ignorant such 
 irrational stuff as this,* that there is a cause prior to the first 
 cause ; that the independent Sovereign is himself dependent : 
 that creatures may be subordinate deities, dependent creators, 
 to be worshipped with inferior divine worship; that He who 
 sits at the liead of the empire of providence, has brought into 
 being rational creatures, which he made not for himself, and 
 which are not accountable to him. Let the pleaders for the 
 sufficiency of reason of itself, without a revelation to be a guide 
 in religion, blush, when they show it to be so insufficient in 
 
 * I am not concerned whether all these paradoxes have been started by any one 
 advocate for the sufficiency of reason; it is enough, if each has been maintained by 
 any one of the anti-scriptural faction, who yet call themselves Christians. 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 39 
 
 themselves, in bolting out such glaring absurdities; and let them 
 no longer assume to themselves the title of men of reason, when 
 reason is sunk so low in them. When we think on the irra- 
 tional things they amuse themselves with, we cannot but see 
 how God is secretly pleading his own cause, even by their 
 folly; they receive not the truth in the love of it, and he in 
 judgment gives them over to strong delusions, so that they are 
 fond of the most senseless figments which appear in the garb 
 of novelty. When they, through pride, cry up their own reason, 
 to the disparagement of Scripture, they are left to dote upon 
 irrational vanities, which are a disgrace to that very reason, 
 which they labour, by undue methods, to advance to a height 
 to which it can never justly be raised. 
 
 The treacherous betrayers of revelation, who stand up for the 
 sufficiency of natural religion, would not appear to renounce the 
 Christian doctrine, which they really give up into the hands of 
 the Deists, its implacable enemies, and therefore they pretend to 
 give full proof of the sufficiency of human reason in matters of 
 religion, from Scripture itself Had there been such proof, it 
 must have been owned to have been strange; for then Scrip- 
 ture would have declared itself not to have been absolutely ne- 
 cessary for the uses of men ; but the case is far from being what 
 these inaccurate blunderers would give out. They appear only 
 to have cast their eyes on some passages of sacred writ, and to 
 have laid hold of them, as in sound, seeming to countenance 
 their cause, but not to have considered the texts they bring in 
 connexion with the context. In their manner of quoting Scrip- 
 ture, they imitate exactly the father of lies, who when he tempt- 
 ed the God of truth manifested in the flesh, cited Scripture only 
 to curtail it, and to wrest it from its genuine sense. Their ar- 
 guings are so mean, that a person almost needs pardon who goes 
 about to answer them; however, let us see what they have to 
 say to keep their wretched cause in countenance, and to fence 
 off conviction from themselves. 
 
 It is insolently said,* that the doctrine of the sufficiency of 
 human reason is the doctrine of the apostle Peter, who said 
 thus. Acts X. 34, 35, with respect to Cornelius, " Of a truth I 
 perceive that God is no respecter of persons ; but, in every na- 
 tion, he that fears him, and works righteousness, is accepted of 
 him." From hence this strange inference is drawn, that it ap- 
 pears, that, in every heathen nation, they who followed the light 
 of their natural reason and conscience, feared God; whence it 
 follows, that in the judgment of the apostle, every heathen, by 
 the light of natural reason, had a sufficient guide to lead him to 
 the religious fear of God. Now, nothing can be more contrary 
 to the apostle's sense than this : he did not speak of heathen, 
 who were left to the bare light of nature, being able, by the help 
 * Plea for Human Reason, p. 49, 50. 
 
40 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 of that, to fear God; bathe owned his conviction, that salvation 
 by Christ was not to be confined to the Jewish nation, but was 
 to be made known to the Gentile world. Cornelius was one of 
 good report among the Jews, or one who was a proselyte to the 
 Jewish religion, but was not circumcised, being one of those 
 who were called proselytes of the gate, and so he had the Scrip- 
 tures of tiie Old Testament to instruct him, and was not left to 
 the bare light of nature. Besides, when he, under some doubt, 
 prayed for illumination, he was directed, by an angel appearing 
 to him to apply himself to the apostle Peter for instruction, 
 which is a certain evidence, that his natural light was not a suf- 
 ficient guide: in all probability the thing he desired to be in- 
 formed in, was the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus of Naza- 
 reth; because, when Peter came to instruct him. Acts x. 36, 41, 
 42, he declared Christ's supreme Deity, or that he is Lord of all; ' 
 he asserted the truth of his resurrection, of which he had been 
 an eye-witness, having ate, drunk, and freely conversed with 
 his risen Master; and he showed him, that this Jesus who died, 
 rose and revived, was ordained to be Judge of the quick and 
 dead. These were things which the light of nature never 
 taught; yet they were matters in which the great apostle thought 
 it was necessary to instruct Cornelius and his friends. A man 
 must then have a very odd turn of head, who can bring him- 
 self to fancy, that Peter judged the light of nature was sufficient 
 to guide those whom he instructed in things above it, into the 
 religious fear of God. Had the case been so, Cornelius would 
 not have needed to have been directed by an angel to send for 
 Peter, in order to show him what it was that God would have 
 him to do. 
 
 We are told,* that seeing the apostle Paul, Rom. ii. 10, has 
 declared, that "glory, honour, and peace, would be to every 
 one that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile," 
 it follows, that the law of reason, by which they were to be 
 finally judged, was a sufficient guide in matters of religion and 
 salvation, to those who knew not the gospel : but it is amazing, 
 that such masters of reason could not see, that the apostle here 
 spake of such Jews and Gentiles as had received the Christian 
 faith ; for he intimated as plainly as words could do it, that the 
 persons he had mentioned, Jews as well as Gentiles, were to be 
 judged, as to their sincerity, or " the secrets of their hearts, ac- 
 cording to the gospel which he had preached." Rom. ii. 16. 
 Whether it was from the stupidity of these perverse disputers, 
 that they could not see this, or whether it was from their kna- 
 very, that they would not see it, is not easy to be determined ; 
 they may choose which they please. The apostle had not re- 
 spect to such as knew not the gospel, but to such as had received 
 it, and made a profession of it ; and it is mere ignorance to take 
 
 *PIea for Human Reason, p. 50, 51. 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 4| 
 
 him as owning the light of nature to be a sufficient guide, as 
 well as great conceit, to put off such blundering stuff for argu- 
 ment. 
 
 It is further pleaded,* that the same apostle Paul has said, 
 Hebrews xi. 6, " He that comes to God must believe that he is, 
 and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." 
 From hence a conclusion is drawn, that if reason, or the law 
 of nature, has the sanction of rewards and punishments annex- 
 ed to it, it must follow, that it is a sufficient guide in matters 
 of religion. These deceivers, when they urged this text, took 
 care to suppress the words immediatelj'- preceding those they 
 have alleged, " Without faith it is impossible to please God ;" 
 in which it is most certain, the apostle meant faith in God, 
 as reconciled in and through Christ; and faith in Christ as a 
 Mediator, which is a thing not known by the light of nature. 
 Without faith in Christ, it is not possible for any to be accept- 
 able to God ; for whoever comes to him, so as to meet with a 
 kind reception, must believe that he is a just and a holy God, 
 and as such can only reward his fallen creatures, who diligently 
 seek him, in and through a Mediator, on the account of his 
 merit, and not on the account of any fancied desert in them; 
 seeing they are so far from laying him under any obligation by 
 what their hands can find to do, that they would not be able to 
 answer for the sins that cleave to their best performances, if he 
 was to deal with them as an absolute God. 
 
 To take notice but of one thing more, the sufficiency of reason 
 to be man's guide, is urged,! from the wise king Solomon's 
 declaring, Ecclesiastes vii. 29, that " God made man upright:" 
 but this truly great master of reason knew better ; for he 
 declared it to be the result of his long and diligent search after 
 wisdom, that reason is not a sufficient guide, by reason of man's 
 apostasy from God, by which it is corrupted : his words are, 
 " This only have I found, that God made man upright, but 
 they have sought out many inventions." The latter part of the 
 words the antiscriptural tribe have suppressed, as if they could 
 not quote Scripture in a way different from the author of evil. 
 " God made man upright ;" his understandhig was without sinful 
 defects, but in his primeval state his reason was not a sufficient 
 rule, for he needed instruction from God; the case of his poste- 
 rity is worse, their reason is depraved and corrupted ; they not 
 only are ignorant of many things, but they are prone to follow 
 errors, to run into dangerous mistakes, and to please themselves 
 with many idle inventions ; among which this is not the least 
 pernicious, that sinful creatures should have the impudence to 
 assert, that reason or the light of nature, in their present state 
 is a sufficient guide to them in religious matters. 
 
 * Plea, p. 51, 52. t Plea, p. 53. 
 
42 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 Seeing pride is at the bottom of all the opposition which is 
 made to the revelation afforded us by God, and seeing it is this 
 makes vain and conceited men cry up reason as a perfect rule, 
 to the disparagement of revelation, it cannot be an unseasonable 
 admonition to professed Christians, nay, to all who pretend to 
 be searching after truth, to be careful how they give way to a 
 proud conceit of their own understandings. The high thoughts 
 which creatures have entertained of their own intellectual abi- 
 lities, have been the source and spring of all the apostasy and 
 rebellion against the Most High, which we have been acquaint- 
 ed with. Whatever was the particular sin, which occasioned 
 the thrusting of Satan, and all the legions of the heavenly hosts, 
 which banded under his ensigns against the Highest, down from 
 Heaven, it is pretty certain that it took its rise from pride. This 
 we may easily gather from a passage of the apostle Paul, wherein 
 he prescribes it as a standing rule, that a bishop, or pastor of a 
 gospel church, must not be a novice, which is not so much meant 
 of one young in years, as of one who had newly taken up a pro- 
 fession of the Christian faith, and was but raw in the knowledge 
 of the doctrines of revelation. The reason why a pastor ought 
 not to be a novice is, 1 Tim. iii. 6, " Lest being lifted up, or 
 blown up, with pride, he should fall into the condemnation of 
 the devil." If pride was the cause of the devil's condemnation, 
 it must be twisted with his first sin. It was a proud imagina- 
 tion, that they could make their condition better than that in 
 which the wisdom of a beneficent Creator had placed them, 
 which drew a great number of the potentates of heaven to rise 
 in rebellious arms against the God from whom they received 
 their being; and it was a vain desire of being higher than they 
 were made by the sovereign Lord of nature, that engaged thou- 
 sands of angels in impious league against their King, for which 
 they were cast out of heaven, and are doomed to spend eternal 
 ages in wo and pain; they are now suffered to range about the 
 world, but still they are, as it were, in chains: but, at the last 
 and the great day, they will receive fulness of torment ; and, 
 being shut up in hell, they will groan for ever under the weight 
 of almighty vengeance, which will glorify itself in punishing 
 them for their pride and rebellion. It was also pride which 
 was the source of the wo we feel, by reason of the fall of our 
 first parents. It does not appear, from the Scripture account 
 of the first apostasy of man, that the devil could plant any 
 temptation on our progenitors, till he had blown them up to a 
 proud conceit, that they could make their condition happier 
 than it was, by transgressing the law of their Creator. When 
 the tempter attacked our general mother. Gen. iii. 56, as he 
 endeavoured to work her up to an imagination, that it was 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 43 
 
 through envy that God had debarred her husband and her from 
 eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, lest they should be like 
 him in knowledge, he laboured to raise pride in her by assuring 
 her, that if she once tasted of the fruit which she feared to touch, 
 she should tower to divinity, or be like God in knowledge. 
 What he urged was this : " God knows that in the day you eat 
 of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, 
 knowing good and evil." It was this sly suggestion that 
 made the first of women look with eager longing eyes on the 
 goodly fruit, which hung on the forbidden tree ; and it was a 
 persuasion that she should rise in knowledge, which induced 
 her, in an evil hour, to reach forth her rash hand, to pluck and 
 eat what plunged her into ruin. And it is very likely, by urging 
 the arguments which the devil had used to induce her to undo 
 herself, that she prevailed on our common father to follow her 
 example, out of a vain conceit of having a part with her in her 
 imagined happiness, and so to complete the first transgression. 
 
 It must be owned, that our first parents did gain knowledge 
 by eating the forbidden fruit, but it was knowledge they had 
 better have been without ; it was an experimental knowledge 
 of what was evil. They soon found their eyes opened ; but 
 what was this to discover? It was to show them, that their 
 minds were darkened ; that innocence, which, as a veil, had 
 shaded them from knowing ill, was gone; that they had lost the 
 image of their mighty Maker, which before shone in them in 
 wisdom, and severe and pure sanctity; that they were stripped 
 of their just confidence, primitive integrity, original righteous- 
 ness, and native honour; and that they were left naked to guilty 
 shame. This was the unhappy prospect which presented itself 
 to them, when they first opened their eyes to behold evil ; and 
 this knowledge may be said to be dearly bought, by the loss of 
 pleasures and joys which were sufficient to satiate their craving 
 desires, and would, if they had continued in honour, have lasted 
 for ever. 
 
 Thus we find from Scripture, that pride and self-sufficiency 
 have been the causes of all the evils which have infested the 
 intellectual world ; of the apostasy of many thousands of the 
 princes of light, and of the defection of our first parents, by 
 which sin and wo have been entailed on us their unhappy 
 posterity; and when we see such direful eftects following pride, 
 if we regard our true interest, we shall stand at a distance from 
 a sin that is so afi"ronting to God. When men cry up the suffi- 
 ciency of reason; when they refuse to assent to the mysteries 
 of revelation, because they cannot comprehend the manner of 
 them; and when they will not be content without being wise 
 above what is written; they only follow the example of the 
 angels that sinned, and of the first man, who, when he was in 
 honour, continued not, but made himself and his posterity more 
 
44 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 miserable than the brutes that perish : they show they are under 
 the influence of that impure apostate spirit, who seduced their 
 first parents to break the covenant with their God, and that they 
 are tiie true descendants of the unhappy pair, who lost their 
 primeval glory, out of a foolish desire of being independent of 
 God, and knowing more than he thought fit to reveal. 
 
 Considering these things, let us not be lifted up with pride, 
 on the account of our rational attainments, but let us be hum- 
 bled from a sense of the imperfection of our reason, and let a 
 sense of this imperfection put us upon thinking on our fall and 
 apostasy from God : let us be thankful that we are not left to 
 the dim light of nature, but that we have a more sure direc- 
 tory, in the written law of God, than could be obtained by us, 
 if we were left to the guidance of our own reason: let us prize 
 and value the Scriptures, which give us an account of our sal- 
 vation by Christ ; let us search into them, and, with reverence, 
 receive the mysteries which are revealed in them, which may 
 be above our full comprehension ; but let us never attempt to 
 be wise above what is written, by affecting to know the mode 
 of these mysteries which is not revealed; and let us, at all times, 
 be much in prayer to the Holy Spirit, that he would give us 
 light into those great things of God, which the natural man 
 receives not, but accounts foolishness, and which the man of 
 mere rational attainments will never know, because they are 
 spiritually discerned. 
 
 Now to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three divine 
 Persons, but one King eternal, immortal, invisible, and the 
 )nly wise God, be honour and glory ascribed, henceforth 
 iud for evermore. Amen. 
 
 SERMON n. 
 
 Rom. i. 22. — Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. 
 
 If we take for true the Scripture account of the fall of our first 
 parents, we shall find, that the desire of knowing more than 
 God had revealed, was the spring of that apostasy from the 
 Author of blessedness, the sad effects of which defection we 
 now feel, and shall feel as long as we continue our journey 
 through this tiresome wilderness; where we meet with very 
 little that is truly comfortable, but are forced, after climbing up 
 rocks of perils, to descend and stray through vales of tears. 
 Had our common parents been content with their happy lot, 
 sin, and its concomitant, death, had never entered the world; 
 we should have had no trouble to grieve us, nor atflictions to 
 harass and distress us, but we should have spent our easy hours 
 in blessing and praising the beneficent Creator, and our time 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 45 
 
 would have pleasantly glided away in the service of our mighty 
 Potentate, that gave us our being; who would have made every 
 thing about us to have tended to our comfort. When man was 
 clad in honour, and was a happy creature, he was not content 
 with his desirable station, but aspired after an independence on 
 his Maker; he was ambitious to be as God, knowing good and 
 evil; he vainly thought, by gratifying his own will, to tower to 
 divinity, and by transgressing the law of his supreme Lord, to 
 be like him in knowledge : but, alas ! he was greatly mistaken ; 
 he lost the knowledge of what is good, and to his cost, found 
 that he had acquired the experimental knowledge of what was 
 evil. As we partake of the curse which he entailed upon us, 
 so the temper which prevailed in him, when he first imagined 
 that it was out of envy, lest he should become his equal, that 
 God had debarred him the fruit of one tree, has the predomi- 
 nance in all his miserable posterity, if they are left to them- 
 selves, and are given up to the guidance of their imperfect 
 reason. Pride so much possesses the heart of men, in their 
 degenerate state, that though they can never bring themselves 
 to believe they are stronger than God, and able to cast him 
 from his throne, yet they evidence that they grieve to see his 
 glory, and earnestly desire to be independent on him. Were 
 not the disputers of this world swayed by obdurate pride, and 
 were not their hearts filled with envy, hatred, and rancour 
 against God, then would they ever suggest that they are not 
 accountable to that Supreme Being who created them, who 
 preserves them from outward harms and dangers, and whose 
 goodness keeps them every moment from death and destruction? 
 What detestable arrogance is it for the contemptible reptiles of 
 the earth to say, that he who formed out of nothing, has not 
 any thing to do with those on whom he has bestowed an exist- 
 ence ! Yet to such a height is daring infidelity come, that rea- 
 son must be set up as a perfect rule, though men are granted 
 to be more swayed by their passions than by reason, and the 
 distinctions of right and wrong are given out to be independent 
 on the will of God, and to be founded on we know not what 
 nature of things. 
 
 What has been of late advanced in favour of reason, amounts 
 to no more than this: Reason ought to be a perfect rule, there- 
 fore it is a perfect rule; and a perfect rule needs no addition; 
 therefore all which God has revealed, which reason could not 
 have found out, is impertinent and needless. If this matter is 
 brought to a fair trial, the religion of nature must not be con- 
 sidered as men have pieced it up, by the help of Scripture, but 
 in the state in which it has been among able, thinking, and 
 polished men, who had no other helps than such as reason fur- 
 nished them with, and had no correspondence with such as iiad 
 their reason enlarged by the help of the oracles of God. And 
 
46 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 if it is thus weighed, which is weighing it in the balance of tmth 
 and justice, it will be found wanting. They who have made 
 the greatest improvements in natural religion, were quite con- 
 founded as to many points, which must be owned to be of the 
 utmost consequence, and the last concern to men in their de- 
 praved state. 
 
 If we were fairly to examine the matter of fact, or consider 
 how sufficient or insufficient the light of nature has appeared to 
 be, we should confine ourselves strictly to such as we have the 
 firmest evidence to conclude were left without any assistance 
 gained by intercourse with those who had the benefit of reve- 
 lation, or even by commerce with them that had an opportu- 
 nity to borrow a little light from them. If we were to take the 
 standard of the light of nature from such nations as the Chinese, 
 and the inhabitants of Japan, though we must allow them to 
 be as well bred people, as nice and curious in the manual arts, 
 and as completely skilled in trade, as any of the polished nations 
 of the West, yet we should find they have run into the most 
 gross and irrational errors about the worship of God; and 
 though some good moral precepts have been delivered by Zanfu, 
 or Confucius, yet many vile notions, as to practical duties, are 
 received among them. We know not what intercourse there 
 might be formerly between them and the eastern nations, that 
 lay nearer to the places which were the seats of true know- 
 ledge; so that it cannot be said, that what good things they 
 receive, they found out without help. The easiest way to judge, 
 whether reason, in the present state of mankind, is- a sufficient 
 rule in matters of religion, is to examine how far it is a guide 
 to the aborigines of North America, who had no commerce 
 with any other nations before the Europeans settled there, and 
 had no helps further than what nature dictated. If reason is 
 viewed as it exerts itself in them, who yet are a quick, and not 
 a stupid sort of people, it will appear to be far from being a 
 sufficient guide. 
 
 When we consent to try the merits of the cause by the 
 writings of such pagans as lived in Greece and at Rome, before 
 Christ, it is allowing more than the pleaders for the sufficiency 
 of reason can demand of us. After Cyrus, king of Persia, had 
 conquered Croesus, king of Lydia, and made Asia the Less a 
 province of his great dominions, there was more intercourse 
 between the eastern nations and the Greeks, than was before. 
 We have only two pagan writers before this period. Homer 
 and Hesiod, who embraced the system of theology invented by 
 Orpheus; and as he had borrowed some things from the Egyp- 
 tians, which they had from the Israelites, so, in the writings of 
 these two poets, there are some traces of Eastern knowledge. 
 After Cyrus's time, the Greeks knew more of the eastern affairs 
 than before, and some of their most eminent philosophers, and 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 47 
 
 most ancient writers, travelled into Syria and Egypt; so that it 
 is no wonder if we find some things in them, consonant to what 
 we meet with in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Joseph, 
 in his apology for the Jewish religion, Justin, Tatian, Theophilus, 
 TertuUian, Minutius Felix, and Origen, in their defences of 
 Christianity, charged the pagans with borrowing their best 
 notions from the Old Testament, and arraigned them for ingrati- 
 tude, for not owning from whence they had assistance ; the same 
 matter was more distinctly pursued by the learned Clement of 
 Alexandria, by Lactantius, and the great Eusebius: but none 
 among the ancients have handled this point with more judgment 
 than that rational and polite divine, Theodoret ; he has left us 
 an admirable treatise,* wherein he, with a great deal of strength 
 of argument, with an agreeable variety of learning, and in most 
 elegant and nervous diction, has proved that the most celebrated 
 philosophers among the Greeks had borrowed their most ele- 
 vated speculations concerning the true God, from the Jews.t 
 The Romans had all their philosophy from the Greeks, so that 
 they only have copied out such as were but copies themselves. 
 It is, therefore, making further concessions than we are obliged 
 to do, for us to take the ancient Greek and Roman letters for 
 the standard by which we judge of the insufliciency of rea- 
 son. 
 
 However, if we find, that, notwithstanding the helps the an- 
 cient pagans had, natural religion was far from being a suffi- 
 cient guide, in sacred matters, our cause will not lose, but gain, 
 by thus trying reason. I shall wave considering what improve- 
 ments were made by such writers as Seneca, Epictetus, Arrian, 
 the emperor Antoninus, or the later Platonists, because they 
 lived after Christianity was spread over the world; and, as the 
 modern delineators of natural religion have since done, took 
 from thence what they liked. I shall confine myself principally, 
 though not wholly, to what Socrates's scholars have preserved 
 from him, and to the writings of Plato. It must be owned, 
 these two men had far better notions, as to some things, than 
 any of the other heathen; but yet they, and all other pagans, 
 had very dark and obscure conceptions about the unity and 
 worship of God, the creation of the world, the corruption of 
 mankind, the way to be reconciled to an offended God, the 
 nature of virtue, and a future state. These are points which are 
 of the utmost concern to all persons, at all times; as to these, 
 the wisest among the Gentiles were puzzled and perplexed, 
 which would not have been the case, if natural religion had 
 been a sufficient guide. That they were actually at a loss 
 
 * His Therapeutics in twelve books, in the fourth volume of liis works. 
 
 t This matter lias, since my engaging in this subject, been well stated by my 
 worthy and learned friend, Dr. Waterland, in his charge to the clergy of Middle- 
 sex, p. 10, &c. 
 
48 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 about these momentous things, will clearly appear, if we take 
 an impartial survey. 
 
 I. The light of nature convinces men that there is one supreme 
 Beitig, who brought all other beings into existence, and that he 
 is to be worshipped; but when men have been left to bare rea- 
 son, without supernatural aids, they have had very obscure 
 notions of this one supreme God, and have run into things really 
 inconsistent with the belief of the one Supreme, though at the 
 same time they were forced to own there was such an one. 
 
 It is certain, from the light of nature, that there is a God, pos- 
 sessed of infinite perfections. The works of creation proclaim 
 their great original. If we look to the sun, that fountain of 
 light and heat, we must own that it was One of infinite power, 
 who prepared a tabernacle for it, that its influence might be 
 conveyed to the heavenly bodies which move round it; if we 
 consider the planets, which with regular motions, revolve about 
 it, we cannot but confess the wisdom of Him v/ho made them, 
 who nicely adjusted their distances, that they might not disturb 
 one another in their motions, and who enables them to perform 
 their several revolutions. It was an almighty arm that first 
 slung forth those great bodies, which have been kept from fol- 
 lowing the propensity of gravity, to fall to their centre, by the 
 projectile force impressed upon them by an all-powerful hand. 
 If we take a survey of the earth on whicli we tread, we see in 
 it such footsteps of skill, power and contrivance, that we can- 
 not but say, the hand which made it is divine; it must be one 
 of skill who has enriched it with the beautiful and useful variety 
 of land and sea, plains and rivers, hills and vales, trees and 
 flowers, corn and fruit, shady groves and crystal springs, painted 
 meadows and purling streams: every part of the inanimate 
 creation, which raises pleasure in our imagination, may prove 
 the being of God to us; whether it be the beautiful and varie- 
 gated profusion of flowers that adorn the delightful gardens, 
 the gay enamel that paints the agreeable meadows, or the curi- 
 ous drapery that vests the shady groves. If we consider the 
 tribes of brute creatures, they manifest to us the greatness of 
 their Maker: if we regard ourselves, we cannot but say we are 
 fearfully and wonderfully made; therefore when we ruminate 
 on the exquisite art, and consummate workmanship, which is 
 laid out in the formation of our bodies, and on the nobler part 
 of us, that thinking, intelligent substance, that distinguishes us 
 from brutes, we cannot but conclude that we have a Creator of 
 infinite power. 
 
 When we think on the works of nature, with any exactness, 
 we cannot but conclude that there is a supreme Potentate, who 
 made and upholds the heavens, Acts xiv. 15 — 17, and xvii. 
 25 — 28, the earth, the seas, and all things therein, who gives to 
 all life and breath, in whom we live, move, and have our being, 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 49 
 
 and who has not left himself without witness to the consciences 
 of any, seeing, by his bounty, he sustains the sons of men, and 
 fills their hearts with food and gladness. This has been the 
 belief of all refined nations; and it has not been proved,* that 
 any people have been yet discovered, who arc so over-run with 
 ignorance and barbarism, as to have no notion of a power above 
 them. David has, indeed, told us, Psalm xiv. 1, that, "The 
 fool has said in his heart there is no God;" but this may be 
 understood of his secret wishing that there was no God, and 
 being ready sometimes to flatter himself with the hopes that 
 things are as he wishes: or rather, this fool of nature may be 
 reckoned a person who has denied his reason so far, as to bring 
 himself to believe, that he was not made by God for himself, 
 and that he has no motive, on his own account, to give him 
 laws, and to punish the breach of them, and that consequently 
 he is not accountable to him. 
 
 We have a very pregnant and melancholy proof of the im- 
 perfection of the light of nature, since the fall, in the unworthy 
 representations some of the heathen world gave of God, and the 
 hideous and blemishing fictions they invented concerning him. 
 Though they knew him in part from his works, they glorified 
 him not as God, but grew vain in their imaginations, and intro- 
 duced a rabble of inferior deities, whom they represented as not 
 free from vicious passions, and they acted so much beneath the 
 dignity of human nature, as to bow down before stones and 
 logs. They worshipped the creature, besides the Creator, that 
 is, with subordinate worship, and so invented the irrational 
 scheme of subordinate gods, and inferior worship, which has 
 been so much applauded for refined reason, by many of their 
 foolish disciples, who call themselves Christians. The picture 
 of the ancient heathens is most admirably drawn by the apostle 
 Paul, that great demolisher of paganism, in the following words, 
 Rom. i. 19 — 23. 25; "What may be known of God is manifest 
 in them, for God has showed it them; for the invisible things 
 of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being 
 understood by the things which are made, even his eternal 
 power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because 
 when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither 
 were they thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and 
 their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be 
 wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incor- 
 ruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and 
 
 * The Atlieists have boasted of tlicir having' found out a people who have no 
 notion of a superior power, the Hottentots about the Cape of Good Hope. We 
 need not much grudge them the honour of having their opinions patronized by 
 those who are, as far as we know, the most beastly and lazy of the human race; 
 but, however, they are not so far brutified, as to have no belief of any tiling above 
 them : as any one may find, who consults M. Kolben's account of the Cape of 
 Good Hope. 
 
 7 
 
60 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 (o birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. They 
 changed the truth of God into a he, and worshipped and served 
 the creature besides the Creator, who is God blessed for ever." 
 What can show more the insufiiciency of the hght of nature, to 
 be a rule to men in matters of religion, than this, that such as 
 were convinced from the works of God that there was a supreme 
 God, of eternal power, should venture to worship with him, and 
 besides him, idols, and that not only images of men, the noblest 
 creatures of the lower world, but besides these, logs of wood, 
 and blocks of marble cut into the shapes of the most contempti- 
 ble creatures, such as serpents, nay, of monsters, such as are 
 only the creatures of fancy, and have no existence in nature. 
 And this was done not only by the rude vulgar, but by the 
 politest men among the pagans. 
 
 It must be owned, that some of the pagans have spoken admi- 
 rably well concerning the supreme God,* and have described 
 him in a worthier manner, than many who might have used 
 the advantage of a better light, who suppose that we are to 
 have no further notion of God, than of one invested with 
 dominion. This shows, that though the light of nature, by which 
 men have a notion of God is much eclipsed, by the darkness 
 introduced by the fall, yet it is not quite extinguished. But 
 though the pagans have said a great many good things about 
 the Supreme, yet they never had any notion how affronting it 
 was to the universal and sole Potentate, to have any part of his 
 glory given to others. We have many noble passages remain- 
 ing, both of the poets and philosophers, which show that the 
 knowledge of a God of infinite perfections, was not quite oblite- 
 rated, which it would be endless to produce; but we do not find 
 that this rational light, which, on some accounts, shined in them 
 with great clearness, was sufficient to keep them from running 
 into most gross absurdities. We may be contented, on this 
 head, and on others, to take a view of the sentiments of Soc- 
 rates, who has been styled a martyr for the unity of God; 
 and has been, by a late writer,t whose pretended religion was 
 
 * I might liave given here testimonies from the ancients, especially from the 
 poets, wlierein they have spoken exceedingly well of the supreme God; but I have 
 formerly collected many of the most remarkable passages, and thrown them into 
 the margin of my Treatise of Faitii, p. 12 — 17, thither therefore I shall beg leave 
 to refer the reader. 
 
 + The late Dr. Samuel Clarke, whose mean low words are these following : 
 " There have been in almost every age, in the heathen world, some wise, and 
 brave, and good men, wlio have made it their business to study and practise the 
 duties of natural religion themselves, and to teach and exiiort others to do the 
 like. An eminent instance wliereof, in the eastern nations, the Scripture affords 
 us in the history of Job. — Among the Greeks, Socrates seems to be an extraor- 
 dinary example of this kind." — Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, 
 Prop. VI. It will appear that there was no room for this betrayer of revelation 
 to depress Job so far, as to make him an instance of the same kind with Socrates, 
 if we consider that the heathen philosopher died as a fool dieth, using this mean 
 expression; 'Crito, weare indebted a cock to aEsculapius; offer it, and do not 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 51 
 
 only the Bible, very profanely set in the same rank with Job. 
 This man, it must be owned, was a judicious observer of men's 
 actions ; and, as he studied human nature exactly, so he did not 
 set himself to frame schemes in private, which was the ruin of 
 most of the other old philosophers : in this he took as good a 
 method, as could be expected from one in his circumstances, and 
 did not run into such great absurdities, as most other heathens. 
 In a conversation with an atheist, he argued for the being of a 
 God, from the wisdom and skill which are to be seen in the 
 works of nature, especially in the formation of man's body; and, 
 when he came to a closer reasoning with him, he used this warm 
 manner: "Have you any degree of knowledge? Do you think 
 there is no superior knowledge elsewhere? Can you think that 
 the great and innumerable wonders of your frame were put into 
 such a beautiful order, merely by blind chance?" When the infi- 
 del objected that he could not see the author of nature, the phi- 
 losopher answered, that the objector could not see his own soul, 
 which animated and governed his body; so that he might as 
 well say that it was merely by chance, and not by design, that 
 he performed all rational, as well as animal functions. This dis- 
 puter was not able to maintain that there was no God, but only 
 would have insinuated that God had not made man for himself, 
 or designed him to be accountable to him ; he did not despise a 
 God, but he thought he was too glorious a being to need his 
 worship : he had a good answer to this, that the greater and 
 more glorious the Being was which deigned to take care of him, 
 the more he ought to honour him. When he replied, that he 
 did not think that God took care of human affairs, he was well 
 confuted by what might be seen of God's care, concerning man, 
 in ordering the members of his body in such a manner, as 
 showed him to be more the favourite of providence than any 
 of the brute creatures, in giving him an upright posture, and the 
 use of speech ; and, above this, by what might be observed of 
 the divine kindness, in giving man a rational soul, of a noble 
 nature, capable of discerning the works of providence, and the 
 divine proceedings, as to worldly matters, and fitted to conduct 
 the body, as to the common affairs of life ; that man may guard 
 against hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and sickness, that he may ac- 
 quire knowledge, and keep in memory what he has attained. 
 When it was objected, that it was not likely that God should 
 see and know all things, it was well replied in these words; 
 "Your soul, whilst in the body, governs it at its will, therefore 
 it may be concluded that the wisdom which resides in the uni- 
 verse, governs all things at pleasure ; your eye can take in the 
 
 forget." Whereas the Scripture hero had the light to make the following noble 
 declaration ; " If I had beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon walking in 
 brightness, and my heart had been secretly enticed, or my moutli had kissed my 
 hand, this had been an iniquity to have been punished by the magistrate, for I 
 should have denied the God that is above." Job xxxi. 26 — 28, 
 
52 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 compass of some furlongs, and cannot the eye of God view all 
 things at once ? Your mind can think of the state of affairs in 
 different parts of the world, and cannot the wisdom of God take 
 care of all things? If you will wait for divine direction to guide 
 you into things which carry an obscure face, you will know that 
 the Deity is so great as to be able to see and hear all things, to 
 be present every where, and to take the care of all things." 
 Reason dictated to this man more than it does to some of our 
 modern pleaders for its perfection, yet in him it was wofuUy de- 
 ficient; for he joined in the worship of false gods, and pleaded 
 for omens, divinations by sacrifices, and birds; and, when he 
 came to die, for his having a little better notion of the divine 
 Being than his contemporaries, he dishonourably finished his 
 course, with desiring his friends to fulfil a vow for him, which 
 was to offer a cock to the feigned power of health. 
 
 Some of the wiser pagans owned, that God was the Creator 
 of all things; and whencesoever they had their light, whether by 
 tradition, or conversation in the east, some of them allowed 
 that the world was formed out of a confused chaos, but they 
 were frank to confess, that they knew not which of the gods it 
 was, that condescended to take the trouble to raise the beautiful 
 fabric of the world, out of a rude indigested heap, and to bring 
 order out of confusion. This was only the notion of some; for 
 otliers held, with a noted modern, that the world was God ; 
 others, with one of our country, imagined that all things were 
 by fatal necessity, and that, by the nature of things, every thing 
 is which is ; others fancied, that the world was co-eternal with 
 God, a necessary emanation from him, or that matter was from 
 eternity ; others framed a notion of God, as a happy, lazy, in- 
 dolent Being, who was not concerned in the creation, or gov- 
 ernment of the world, but enjoyed himself in supine ease ; they 
 supposed, that the world was framed by the casual hitting or 
 jumbling of atoms, and that men had nothing to do, but to con- 
 sult their own ease, to which some added, how to be inoffensive 
 to others. It may be easily guessed, from this short sketch, 
 that none of the absurd opinions, which the later times have 
 been pestered with, are the growth of the more recent ages, but 
 that they have been advanced and baffled long before this; and 
 we need not question, but they may be often introduced afresh, 
 and as often hissed off the stage, before the end of the world. 
 It might be a help to some giddy persons to know, that there is 
 nothing in error which is really new; if they could be brought 
 to believe this, they would not receive every absurdity that car- 
 ries a new face. 
 
 The providence of God was acknowledged by many, nay, by 
 most of the heathen, but they knew little of God's designs in 
 afflicting a virtuous man, and suffering a vicious person to pros- 
 per ; therefore some, being puzzled how to account for these 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 53 
 
 things, framed a notion of two contrary principles,* one good, 
 and another evil; to the latter they ascribed the troubles of the 
 virtuous. These two principles were supposed to act in continual 
 opposition one to another, and so to occasion all the confusion 
 which is in the world. This irrational notion is inconsistent 
 with the owning one infinitely supreme Being, yet it met with 
 a reception among some who were much civilized ; and the re- 
 mains of it are to be found among some ruder nations at this 
 day. 
 
 If matters were always thus, it is a monstrous insult on com- 
 mon sense for our modern betrayers of the Christian cause,t 
 into the hands of infidels, to tell us, that by the religion of na- 
 ture men know what God is, and how he is to be worshipped. 
 That God is to be worshipped, is the dictate of reason, and it has 
 so striking a force upon the generality of men, that they will in- 
 vent the most monstrous forms of worship, rather than not 
 worship at all. A blockish idolater will have a log to crouch 
 to, rather than be without a God ; and some have been read);* 
 to sacrifice their fellow creatiu-es, nay, their children, to avoid 
 being reckoned despisers of their false deities. They must be 
 stupid to an amazing degree, and must only scribble for idiots, 
 who can imagine, that any will believe them, who have exa- 
 mined the world, when they say, natural religion teaches them 
 how to worship God. If we look into all the pagan nations, 
 we shall find, that conviction of the necessity of worshipping 
 what they reckoned to be divine, and an entire ignorance how 
 God is to be worshipped, was the cause of all those absurd, 
 ridiculous, cruel, and sanguinary ways of worship which they 
 fell into, and so showed that they were without excuse, in that 
 when they knew God, from his works, they glorified him not 
 as God. 
 
 11. If men consult their own hearts, they must needs find in 
 themselves too strong a bias towards what is evil, and so must 
 conclude from experience, that man is in a state of corrup- 
 tion; seeing it cannot be thought, that he came at first out of 
 his Maker's hands, with principles of rebellion infused into 
 him, by the power that bestowed on him his being. Though, 
 by the light of nature, men have been convinced of their cor- 
 ruption, yet such as were left to it alone, had only confused 
 notions about it, and so knew not how to reconcile the purity 
 of God to the corruption of man. The pagans, no doubt, had 
 some traditionary hints about the apostasy of the angels, and 
 the primitive pure state of man, which gave birth to the fables 
 of the giants' war against heaven, and the golden age ; but 
 
 * This notion was adopted by no less a person than Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, who, 
 by the help of the prophetical writings, reformed, in some degree, the ancient Per- 
 sian religion. — Vide Hyde de Relig. Vet. Pers. c. 9. 
 
 t See the defence of the Answer to Dr. Waterland's Remarks on Clark's Expo- 
 sition of the Catechism, said to be written by Sykes, p. 96. 
 
M 
 
 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 their notions were so confused, that every one reckoned him- 
 self at Hberty to clothe them with what dress he pleased. Their 
 fancy, that the golden age was ended, by the God that then 
 ruled, as supreme, being driven from the reins of empire, by his 
 son, shows how poor a light that of nature alone is. That we 
 may not seem to charge those things as a defect in natural reU- 
 gion, which may be called dreams of the poets, let us examine 
 the sentiments of Plato, the wisest and most penetrating philo- 
 sopher among the heathens, on this head. He has told us, that 
 in the primitive state, God governed the whole world imme- 
 diately himself, and not as it is now, by inferior deities ; that 
 demons, or inferior spirits, as shepherds, had the care of the 
 living creatures, which they ranged in due order ; that there 
 was then no ravaging or violence, war or commotion in the 
 earth ; that God was the common guardian of men, and took 
 care of their sustenance; that there was no need of civil society 
 in those happy days; that men sprung out of the earth as 
 trees; that the fields yielded fruit without tillage ; and that the 
 air was so temperate, that there was no need of clothes. He 
 has then acquainted us, that, after a time, the supreme God 
 laid aside the reins of his empire, and retired, and with him all 
 the inferior deities, who governed under him ; that upon this 
 the world was convulsed, and lost its beauty, and right and 
 wrong were confounded ; that these things will grow worse, 
 till he who first governed the world, shall reduce it to a better 
 state. This low and contemptible stuff is the utmost we can 
 get, from such as were left to the light of nature, who yet had 
 the help of eastern tradition. The same writer, in order to give 
 an account of the origin of moral evil, has told us, that some of 
 the inferior divinities, who fly after the chariot of the Supreme, 
 taking up with sensual enjoyments, instead of contemplating 
 truth, lose their wings, grow sluggish, and fall down to earth, 
 in order to animate some human body; those who are least 
 depraved, animate the bodies of philosophers, and those most 
 depraved, the bodies of tyrants and oppressors; that after ten 
 thousand years, the worst souls are restored, and recover their 
 wings. Any one may perceive how unworthy these poor and 
 mean fictions are of reason, when the least improved by the 
 help of Scripture : yet these dreams, shocking as they are, were 
 the amusement of men of the clearest heads in the pagan world. 
 They show, however, that they were convinced that the present 
 state of man was a state of corruption, and that it was not so 
 with him in his first state, from which he fell, but they knew 
 not how. It is from Scripture alone that we gain the know- 
 ledge that God made man upright, and entered into a covenant 
 with him, to preserve him in happiness, in case of constant and 
 perpetual obedience ; but he, being left to the freedom of his 
 own will, and desiring to be equal to, and independent of his 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 55 
 
 kind and bountiful Creator, broke the law of his God, and, with 
 the loss of all that was good, gained the experience of all evil, 
 exposed himself to death, and procured to hinriself the desert of 
 everlasting misery. If men are left without this knowledge, 
 they are puzzled and confounded, when they compare them- 
 selves with God: if they believe that God is pure and holy, they 
 may be apt to question, whether such impure beings, as they 
 are, have their being immediately from God; if they are satis- 
 fied that they came from God, and yet see in themselves so 
 much ill, they may be ready to suppose, with the gross of the 
 ancient heathen, that the nature of God is not pure ; in short, 
 the more they inquire, the more ttiey will be lost and bewildered 
 in the fruitless search. 
 
 III. If men are once convinced that they are in a state of 
 corruption, and obnoxious to the anger of God, the light of 
 nature might make them sensible, that they ought to use all 
 means and methods to be restored to his favour. Accordingly 
 all who had no other religion than that of nature, showed that 
 they would have rejoiced in any w^ay, that might have been 
 sufficient to reconcile them to the supreme Being, whose anger 
 they feared, and whose favour they desired. Could men think 
 that their worldly substance, or their giving up what is dearest 
 to them, would restore them to happiness, we may imagine 
 them ready enough to sacrifice all : accordingly, in all nations, 
 we find persons who have not stuck at endeavouring to appease 
 God, by thousands of oxen, and ten thousands of rams ; they 
 have, as it were, poured forth oil and Avine in rivers, that, if 
 possible, their transgressions might be carried away. A desire 
 of appeasing God gave rise to some most detestable supersti- 
 tions ; in order to avert his anger, they stuck not to offer their 
 enemies as sacrifices; nay, many have yielded themselves up 
 to the stroke of death, that they might give their flesh for their 
 transgression. They could willingly give a firstborn, an only 
 child, all the fruit of their bodies, for the sin of their souls; and 
 they could, without sorrow, see their infants burnt alive, in 
 hopes of appeasing an angry superior power. This shows how 
 imperfect reason is in men, that they should think such things 
 might render them pleasing to God, as should make them hate- 
 ful to all who have any bowels of compassion. 
 
 It has been surmised by some, that the pagans had an obscure 
 notion of God's appearing in the world to restore it, because 
 several nations have represented their supreme God as having 
 a son, who, under various names, is represented as a deliverer 
 of men. This might take its rise from some remains of tradi- 
 tion ; but it does not seem that much can be made of this, for 
 the gods and heroes, the sons of the Supreme, who were called 
 deliverers, were represented to have done their work in past 
 ages, which was only to kill monsters, and to dethrone tyrants. 
 
56 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 Here are no evident traces of the way of salvation by the Son 
 of God. As this is the glory of the Scripture scheme, so it is 
 revelation alone that could inform us of it. It is, therefore, 
 extremely surprising that any,* who profess themselves Chris- 
 tians, can venture to say that natural religion will show how' 
 men, being placed in the circumstances they are, full of passion, 
 full of infirmities, and surrounded with variety of temptations 
 of all sorts, may be reconciled to, and accepted by God. This 
 is odd language to come out of the mouths of any who call 
 themselves Christians. Were the case so, it might well be said, 
 any divine revelation would be needless; but, alas! it is only 
 insulting common sense to tell us so. It is only revelation can 
 make known to us the way of our recovery from ruin ; without 
 this, endless doubts would infest our minds, and terrors would 
 fill our thoughts. We may a little amuse ourselves with the 
 notion of God's being a God of infinite mercy and benevolence ; 
 or, as some take the insolent freedom to speak of their Maker, 
 that he is a good-natured being : but this will yield little comfort 
 to a guilty mind; for as his justice is provoked, right reason, 
 if we attend to it, will convince us that must be satisfied, in a 
 way worthy of a God of infinite perfection, before goodness is 
 extended to us. The justice of God is as dear to him as his 
 mercy; and can we think he will injure it, or make it clash with 
 his mercy, merely to save such as have rendered themselves 
 obnoxious to his displeasure, and unworthy of his favour? 
 Scripture has declared to us that God has effected the salvation 
 of men by sending his Son in our nature, that, by the obedience 
 of his life and death, he might atone for our sins, and procure 
 for us a right and title to the favour of our Judge. In this 
 method, he has caused all his perfections to act in harmony ; his 
 justice is satisfied by the death of the Surety of men; his holi- 
 ness is showed in his hating sin, so as not to remit it, without 
 punishment ; his truth is established, in that his threatening is 
 fulfilled ; and at the same time, his mercy, love, and goodness, 
 appear in the fairest colours, in that apostate man is restored to 
 greater happiness than was lost by the fall. These were things 
 unknown to such as enjoyed no more than the bare light of 
 nature, who could be in no other than a desponding state, as to 
 pardon of sin, and the favour of God. Their condition must be 
 unhappy, because they were convinced of their need of pardon, 
 but knew not where to apply in order to obtain it. 
 
 Some have thought that the pagans were not entirely with- 
 out a notion of a Saviour coming into the world, to instruct 
 mankind about their duty, from a remarkable passage in one 
 of Plato's dialogues: he has introduced Socrates warning one 
 against falUng in with the gross absurdities which some run into 
 in their prayers. To which he added: " It is necessary to wait 
 * See the defence of the Answer to Dr. Waterland, p. 96. 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 57 
 
 till some one teach how to behave ourselves towards God and 
 towards men." On his being thus asked, " When will this time 
 come, and who will be this teacher? It will be very deUghtful 
 to see such a one, whoever he is." He answered : " It is he 
 that takes care of you: but the mist ought to be removed from 
 your mind, which now overspreads it, and those means afforded 
 which are necessary for your knowing good and evil, of which 
 you do not now seem capable." To this the reply was, " Let 
 him remove the mist if he pleases, and do any other thing; I 
 am prepared to neglect nothing commanded by him, whoever 
 he is, provided I may grow better." The rejoinder was, " He 
 takes care of you in a wonderful manner." This has been 
 produced with great pomp, as if it was a decisive proof that the 
 heathen, by bare natural light, found out how good men were 
 to be reconciled to God. It is certain that the author of this 
 passage travelled into the east, where, it is very probable, he 
 picked up this notion, which he refers to in many other pas- 
 sages of his works, by saying positive determinations of some 
 matters must be left till some one come and instruct us. The 
 utmost that can be made of this is, the ignorance of mankind 
 was so great, that this man was satisfied of the need there was 
 for some instructer to come into tlie world, to teach men their 
 duty; but it does not appear that he had a distinct knowledge 
 of the person who was to do it, or of the method he was to take, 
 in order to accomplish man's happiness. The information men 
 have of the way of salvation by the Son of God, is not what is 
 to be obtained from the light of nature; we could never have 
 known that God would be reconciled to us, if he had not so told 
 us; much less could we have thought on the method which one 
 of infinite wisdom would take, in order to accomplish so ardu- 
 ous a work, and to bring about so stupendous a design, if it had 
 not been unfolded to us in the Scriptures of truth. 
 
 IV. The light of nature convinces men of the necessity they 
 are under to perform many social and relative duties: but it 
 never afforded a distinct or consistent scheme of practical reli- 
 gion. 
 
 It must be owned that a great many excellent things have 
 been said in commendation of virtue by the pagans : some of 
 them, as, in particular, the Stoics, professed themselves the 
 greatest admirers of it, and have aflbrded us some sublime mo- 
 rality, especially the later Stoics, Seneca, Epictetus, Arrian, and 
 the emperor Antoninus, who lived after Christianity had over- 
 spread the world; and who, it is more than probable, borrowed 
 their best strokes from thence; yet these ascribed more than 
 was fit to nature, or to the will of man, when they made virtue 
 to lie in his power; and they attributed too much to virtue, 
 when they affirmed it to be the sole good, and made happiness 
 to lie entirely in it. More than this, they run into the most 
 
 8 
 
58 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 profane rant; they made a virtuous man, on some accounts, 
 superior to God himself. One of the best heads among them, 
 Seneca, has told us, " That the wise man looks upon and con- 
 temns the enjoyments with which other men please themselves, 
 with as calm a mind as the supreme God; but regards himself 
 more than God on this account; God cannot make use of them, 
 but the wise man will not." Nay, he has ventured to say: 
 " There is one thing in which the wise man exceeds God, be- 
 cause God is wise by the kindness of nature, and not by his 
 own attainment." Nothing can be more extravagant than such 
 bold assertions; they are, indeed, worthy of a sect who showed 
 that they could go as far in nonsense as in blasphemy ; when, 
 on other occasions, they affirmed that pain was no evil. It is 
 a conceit unworthy of wise men, for any to say, as the Stoics 
 did in effect, that a man is as happy when his joints are distort- 
 ed by a rack, as when he is lying on a bed of down; or that he 
 is possessed of as much temporal blessedness when he is tor- 
 mented by the stone or gout, as when he enjoys bodily health, 
 accompanied with ease of mind. This is senseless, unnatural 
 stuff, and shows how poorly men judge of virtue and happiness, 
 when they are left to the bare light of nature. 
 
 It might have been thought, if men would have consulted 
 their own experience, and would have looked into their own 
 hearts, that they might have been satisfied that virtue was out 
 of their own power. It must be granted that some who studied 
 mankind with exactness, had a right conception as to this, and 
 showed they had a larger share of natural light than the modern 
 advocates for reason. Socrates, in one of his disputations, had 
 showed that virtue came not by nature, or by teaching, and was 
 asked how it was then that men became good : he answered, 
 in this remarkable manner: " I do not think this can easily be 
 made evident ; but I am apt to conjecture it is a divine gift, and 
 that men become good, as men become prophets; these are not 
 so by nature, or art, but by divine inspiration. Good men 
 declare to those who are members of the same civil society with 
 themselves, things which are to be, by divine inspiration, more 
 clearly than such as deliver oracles. It seems to me that virtue 
 is neither taught, nor comes by nature, but is a divine gift to 
 such as possess it." The same conclusion was made, after a 
 long dispute, by Plato, in Socrates's name, in the following 
 words: "Virtue is neither by nature, nor by teaching; but it 
 comes by divine distribution, to those who have it, without the 
 help of human search and industry." These sagacious observers 
 of human nature wei'e convinced that goodness came neither 
 by nature or by instruction, without a supernatural aid, but 
 they had only some faint glimmerings of light as to this matter; 
 they had no clear conceptions about it, and they only propose 
 it as a matter of conjecture, or, at most, as a problem. There 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 69 
 
 is hardly to be found in the heathen writers any thing more 
 noble, and more agreeable to truth than this notion; yet some 
 of those who might have improved it, if natural light had been 
 a good guide, took care to slight it. Hence we have this absurd 
 rant in Cicero: "No one ever reckoned himself indebted to God 
 for virtue, and justly; for we are on good grounds commended 
 for virtue, and glory in it, which could not be, if it was a gift 
 of God, and we had it not from ourselves. Who ever gave 
 thanks to the gods on account of his being a good man?" It 
 must be granted that it thwarts the pride of fallen men to 
 acknowledge themselves indebted to God for a power to do 
 good; therefore it is no wonder that the generality of them have 
 no notion of this matter. 
 
 The temperance, moderation, and contempt of riches, of some 
 heathens, are things for which they have been immoderately 
 cried up by those who would call themselves Christians. It 
 must be owned, many of the pagans showed a less selfish spirit, 
 than some modern dignified infidels, who, like hungry wolves, 
 greedily gape after the fattest benefices in a Christian church, 
 the doctrine of which they deride. Not to take from any their 
 due praise, it must yet be confessed, that such as were most 
 eminent in some of the before-mentioned virtues, gave way to 
 great vices. Thus as to Socrates and Plato ; what the apostle 
 Paul has said of the heathens in general, held true of them, 
 Rom. i. 24, 25, " that God gave such up to uncleanness, through 
 the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between 
 themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and wor- 
 shipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is 
 God blessed for ever." There have apologies been made for 
 the persons mentioned, that they were not guilty of unnatural 
 wickedness, but had a sort of sublime exalted affection for a 
 beautiful body, which was the seat of a refined mind: but any 
 one who has observed in what an odious luscious way they 
 always spoke, when they were upon this head, must have less 
 sense than charity, if he can bring himself to believe that no- 
 thing of worse than brutish lust was involved in what they talk- 
 ed of, in a rapturous manner, under the name of love. Plato, 
 besides, in his imaginary commonwealth, allowed the commu- 
 nity of wives, though he has expressed himself so ambiguously, 
 that this has been questioned. 
 
 There was, on occasion, much of a public spirit, and a love 
 to their country showed by many of the pagans; but this was 
 allayed by an immoderate degree of pride, vain-glory, and ob- 
 stinacy. The most admired patriots made themselves their end, 
 in all which they did for their country's service; and their whole 
 aim was to have the empty applause of being heroes after their 
 death. Their sullenness of spirit appeared, in their so often 
 murdering themselves; and the imperfection of their natural 
 
60 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 light was showed in their committing the greatest of all sins, 
 under the notion of practising exalted virtue. It is surprising, 
 that so many fooHsh encomiums have been made, by such as 
 should know better, on some heathens, for things which sliould 
 render them the scorn of all wise men. Thus, for instance, how 
 many times has Cato been set forth, as an instance of greatness 
 of soul, in that he would not out-live the liberty of his country; 
 when the truth is, he had too little a soul, and too envious a 
 temper, to see Caesar, a person against whom he had a rooted 
 prejudice, Iiave it in his power, as he had it in his nature, to 
 forgive what he had done against him. Thus likewise Brutus 
 has been cried up, as an instance of exalted virtue, only because 
 he, like a vile assassin, murdered the man with whom he culti- 
 vated a seeming friendship, and who had loaded him with 
 favours, and afterwards, meanly and ignominiously stabbed 
 himself with the same dagger with which he murdered his 
 friend, as soon as he found there was a likelihood that some 
 othei*s would make a greater figure in the world than himself. 
 It is easy to call darkness light; but when the matter is coolly 
 weighed, it will be fomid, that some who have been most cried 
 up, among the heathen, acted the part of madmen and despera- 
 does, rather than of heroes and patriots. 
 
 It is the Scripture only which gives us a right notion of true 
 morality and exalted virtue. It is from thence only that we 
 are clearly and distinctly informed, that it is not sufficient for 
 us to do what is materially good, unless we act out of a princi- 
 ple of love to that God to whom we are indebted for all the 
 blessings we enjoy, unless we make his will our rule, and un- 
 less, in all our civil, moral, and religious actions, we aim at the 
 advancement of his glory, " in whom we live, move, and have 
 our being." It is in the lively oracles that we are taught, that 
 we must not act from a selfish spirit, that we must not make 
 our will and our humour the guide of our actions, and that we 
 must not make vain-glory our end. It is from thence we learn, 
 that we must repent of what we have done amiss, be filled 
 with holy sorrow for our evil actions, watch our hearts, as well 
 as our lives, and keep a guard upon our thoughts as well as 
 upon our actions. It is only from the sacred volume that we 
 are instructed to resign ourselves to the will of God, to practise 
 self-denial, to mortify the lusts of the mind, as well as the lusts 
 of the flesh, to be patient under afflictions, not through stout- 
 ness or suUenness, but out of expectation that all our troubles 
 will turn to our good, and wfllingly to take up our cross, and 
 follow Christ our Master, through much tribulation. These 
 sublime virtues are not taught in nature's school, and were 
 never practised by any who were left to bare natural light. We 
 have sure instruction as to these heads given us in the Scripture, 
 which is the word of the ever-living God; and by that we are 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 61 
 
 informed, that it is not in our power, who are fallen creatures, 
 to render ourselves good and virtuous, but that we are enabled, 
 by God, to will and to do according to his good pleasure, and 
 are by his grace, assisted to choose what is for our profit, and 
 to do what is well-pleasing in his sight. It is by supernatural 
 light that we are enabled to conclude, that we are not our own, 
 being called of God, and redeemed by Christ ; that we should 
 show forth the praises of him who calls us to honour, glory, and 
 immortality, and of him who rescues us from wrath and con- 
 demnation, by his own blood ; that when we have done all, we 
 are unprofitable servants, having done no more than our duty,- 
 and that we are indebted for the power to do what we really 
 perform, to the aids of the blessed Spirit, who makes us meet 
 to see and enjoy God, in the happy realms of rest which are 
 above. 
 
 V. It is agreeable to the light of nature to allow the imtnor- 
 tality of the soul, and ^. future state of happiness and misery; 
 but such as have had no better light have ever been uncertain 
 as to the after existence of their spirits, and took up with absurd 
 notions about a future world. 
 
 Some of the refined heathen, nay, some who might have 
 known better, if they had not, through a conceit of the suffi- 
 ciency of their reason, scorned Christianity, have owned that the 
 soul was mortal. Of this herd was the demure Stoic, the em- 
 peror Marcus Antoninus, whose senseless jargon is as follows: 
 " If souls remain for ever, how has the air contained them from 
 eternity? Souls, when they are translated into the air, after 
 continuing there a while, are changed, poured out, and united 
 with, and received into the spermatic principle of things, and 
 so give room for other souls." Some had better apprehensions, 
 as to the soul's noble nature, than this poor bigot; and as they 
 looked on its immortality to be a thing probable, they have said 
 some excellent things on this subject; but yet if their sentiments 
 are nicely examined, it does not appear that they had got en- 
 tirely above uncertainty, and it will not be found that they were 
 willing to trust to their own arguments. Hence Socrates is made 
 by Plato to conclude his defence of himself in this mean manner; 
 " Now it is time for me to go hence, to meet my death, and for 
 you to depart, with a prospect of enjoying life: whichof us will 
 have the advantage, is unknown to any one, except it is to God." 
 Indeed, some have ventured to say that this expression showed 
 the great humility of him who uttered it, but not his doubt 
 about the happiness of a good man in a future state. But surely 
 they imagine we must not use our senses; for since it is said, 
 none knows whether it will be better with such as go out of 
 the world, than with such as stay behind, it cannot be otherwise 
 than that he who spoke this must be ignorant, which is more 
 than being in doubt about the matter. If the several pagan 
 
/ 
 
 62 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 writers who speak about the soul's immortaUty, are carefully 
 considered, it will appear, that as they use poor arguments to 
 prove the probabiUty of this point, so they speak doubtfully 
 about it ; and no wonder, since they were strangers to the gos- 
 pel, by which " life and immortaUty are brought to light." 
 
 The conscience of all men is under an impression that they 
 must give an account of themselves to God, and must be either 
 happy or miserable in a future state, according as they are 
 absolved or condemned by him. Many of the heathen were 
 persuaded of the soul's immortality from thinking on its noble 
 nature ; but they did not care to be positive, neither were they 
 willing entirely to trust to their own arguments. As the result 
 of this imperfect assent to the soul's immortality, almost all 
 nations have entertained a notion of a state of happiness and 
 misery after death ; but the ideas the heathen took up with of 
 it were exceedingly low. Some thought that the soul passed, 
 by way of transmigration, either into the body of another man, 
 if virtuous, or to animate a beast, if otherwise ; than which no- 
 thing can be more ridiculous. The best account that they gave 
 of a state of misery was, that it was confinement in a dark pri- 
 son, where guilty men were enclosed with rocks, bound in 
 chains, and lashed by furies, with whips of serpents ; and they 
 represented the state of happiness as a place where just men 
 enjoyed rest, in treading pleasant fields, and reposing them- 
 selves in fragrant bovvers; and they made them to wear away 
 their hours with innocent, though unprofitable amusements: 
 but they had no conceptions of their being happy in the pre- 
 sence of God, or enjoying communion with him. We may 
 from reason render extremely probable, if not demonstrate, the 
 immortality of the soul ; but the light of nature affords us very 
 little help, as to the knowledge of a future state. It is the 
 Scripture that informs us, that " the wicked shall go into ever- 
 lasting punishment," where conscience will always torment 
 them; and that the "righteous shall go into life eternal," where 
 they will not be employed in low and mean services, but will 
 be for ever taken up in the delightful work of praising their 
 God, without any sin to disturb them, and without any grief to 
 rack them. There they will enjoy ease and rest, but will not 
 be inactive; there they will have the delightful society of angels 
 and archangels ; and there they will behold the face of their 
 Redeemer in righteousness, and will have this assurance to add 
 to the pleasure of their state, that their happiness will never 
 cease, and their joys will never end. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 When we who enjoy the light of revelation, reflect on the im- 
 perfect notions, which the most refined among the pagans had 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 63 
 
 of the most momentous points; such as the unity of God, the 
 corruption of man, the way to be reconciled to an offended Cre- 
 ator, the nature of virtue and a future state, things in which all 
 mankind are equally concerned, we should reckon it a great pri- 
 vilege that we are not left to the dim light of nature, but have 
 a more sure guide afforded us than bare reason, in religious mat- 
 ters. When we look into the writings of the ancient Greeks 
 and Romans, we find that they have left us as complete models 
 of history, as beautiful pieces of poetry, and as fine specimens of 
 oratory, as any which have been composed by moderns, who 
 yet enjoy the advantage of having them to copy after : nay, it 
 may be said,* that, as to works of genius, the writers of a later 
 date have very seldom equalled, and never have exceeded the 
 ancients, only in things composed in a sacred strain, they have 
 vastly outdone them in true sublimity. The reason of remark- 
 ing this is, that none may go away with a conceit, that the an- 
 cients had less sense and reason than the moderns. In things 
 which depend merely on intellectual abilities, they showed 
 themselves such great masters, that it is justly reputed the great- 
 est perfection, in a piece written now, to come any ways up to 
 them. However, these great masters of reason, these wonderful 
 proficients in polite attainments, ran into the most childish ab- 
 surdities when they meddled with the important matters of re- 
 ligion, which yet are of universal concern. As this shows how 
 unfit reason, as it now is in men, is to be a guide in sacred mat- 
 ters, so we should take occasion, from hence, to be very thank- 
 ful, that we enjoy the light of the gospel. 
 
 When a celestial herald was sent to proclaim to some shep- 
 herds, near Bethlehem, the birth of the Lord of life, he called 
 the message which he was to deliver, glad tidings of great joy, 
 when he thus spake to them, Luke ii. 10, 11 ; "Fear not, 1 
 bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all peo- 
 ple ; for to you is born, this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, 
 which is Christ the Lord." As the harmless Shepherds were 
 tending their fleecy care they were frightened at the sudden 
 sight of an angel coming in a glorious majestic form; but the 
 messenger of peace took care to inform them, that he came 
 not as an executioner of divine vengeance, that therefore they 
 
 * I do not know any modern history that can compare with those written by 
 Thucydides, Dionysius, Sallust, and Livy. As to the higher sort of poetry, we 
 have some pieces in the didactic kind, written by Fracastorius, Vida, AngeHus 
 Bargeus, Palearius, D. Heinsius, which exceed much any thing left of the ancients 
 except Virgil's Georgics. In the epic kind, we have nothing comparable to Ho- 
 mer and Virgil, which is without a mixture of the Christian religion ; by the help 
 of this, Vida, in his Christias, Mr. Spencer, and Mr. Phineas Fletcher, in tlieir 
 allegorical writings, and, above all, Mr. Milton, in his Paradise Lost, have exceeded 
 all the Pagan writers in true sublimity. In the more raised parts of oratory, De- 
 mosthenes and Cicero have never been equalled by any moderns, except l)y the 
 Christian preachers, whose plainness has something in it more grand than all their 
 flourishes. 
 
64 OF THE INSUFFICIENCY OF 
 
 should not be discouraged, since he was to proclaim in their 
 ears the best news that ever mortals heard; which glad tidings 
 were, that a Saviour was actually born into the world. These 
 tidings occasioned great joy in the inhabitants of heaven ; Luke 
 V. 13, 14, " for suddenly there was with the angel a multitude 
 of the heavenly host praising God, and saying. Glory to God 
 in the highest, and on earth peace, and good-will to men." The 
 gospel was called glad tidings of great joy, eminently, as it 
 made known the actual birth of the Saviour of the world to 
 the shepherds; and, indeed, the divine revelation, in the gospel, 
 of the whole method of man's salvation, makes it a message 
 of joy and peace, to all who have a value for their own interest. 
 It is from the Scriptures of truth that we are informed that the 
 divine Persons consulted about our welfare, and laid the plan 
 of our happiness before the heavens were stretched over the 
 empty space, and the earth was hung upon nothing. God the 
 Father chose to salvation a number of the posterity of man, 
 and entered into a covenant with God the Son, as the Head of 
 the elect, and with all the elect in him, as his seed. The oracles 
 of truth declare to us, that, according to the covenant of grace, 
 the Son of God appeared as the Saviour of man, who had 
 destroyed himself, and, that he might accomplish the great 
 work he had undertaken, assumed the human nature into union 
 with his divine person, lived a life of ignominy and disgrace, 
 and died a shameful and a painful death on the cross : they 
 assure us, in the most positive manner, that he who was born 
 a child, who appeared as a mean man, and who died as a male- 
 factor, was no less than the mighty God, one invested with 
 infinite power; who consequently was able to bear the divine 
 wrath, to offer up to infinite justice a proper satisfaction, and to 
 make way for mercy to be glorified, without any other divine 
 perfection being injured. The gospel reveals the perfect right- 
 eousness of this great Saviour, as the righteousness which, being 
 imputed to the guilty, can justify them before God, or give them 
 a right to forgiveness of sins, to the favour of the supreme Po- 
 tentate, whom they have provoked, and to everlasting happi- 
 ness. It is in this that the Holy Spirit is promised, to quicken, 
 renew, and sanctify those for whom Christ died; to enable them 
 to follow holiness, or to practise virtue, out of love to God, and 
 with an aim to advance his glory ; to strengthen them, and sup- 
 port them, that they may grow in grace, and persevere in true 
 godliness; to comfort them by working in them peace, joy, and 
 hope; and to bring them, at last, to the land of uprightness; in 
 fine, it is the Scripture which declares to us, that the departed 
 spirits of such as trust in Christ, are conveyed into the presence 
 of God, to partake of the most substantial joys, and that their 
 bodies shall be raised in glory, when Christ, who is their life, 
 and the God of their salvation, shall appear. These glorious 
 
NATURAL RELIGION. 65 
 
 things we, who have the Scriptures, know from thence; and 
 seeing, through the tender mercies of our God, this gospel Hght 
 has visited us, we ought to abound in thankfuhiess, and should 
 rightly improve the knowledge with which we are blessed. 
 And as we should be sensible of our own mercies, so we should 
 greatly pity such muddy souls as are enamoured with the dark- 
 ness of paganism, and choose obscurity rather than light, because 
 their pride is great, their apprehensions are confused, and their 
 deeds are evil. 
 
 When we receive the Scripture account of the Father, the 
 Son and the Spirit, concerning themselves in our salvation, we 
 may with rapture cry out, the depth of the love of these 
 divine Persons, which, in the full extent of it, passes know- 
 ledge! But can we be enough affected with a sense of it? 
 Alas! no; not as long as we sojourn in these curtains of dis- 
 tance. We cannot sing their praises in so exalted and so rap- 
 turous a strain as we ought; how do hosannahs languish on 
 our tongues, and how does our devotion die? This will be our 
 case, as long as we have our abode in a country of separation, 
 and are strangers in a strange land. We cannot then but be 
 wishing that the hour may come, and the day may hasten, 
 when we shall put off the rags of our mortality, and be clothed 
 with the white attire of innocence, and shall take up our abode 
 in the amiable tabernacles which are spread on the mountains 
 of spices. There, there, and no where else, in the company of 
 angels and archangels, and of all who have washed their robes 
 in the blood of the Lamb, and have trod the path to glory be- 
 fore us, we shall strike the strings of the heavenly lyres, with 
 skilful hands, and shall raise our. voices to a due pitch, to sound 
 forth, to all eternity, the high praises of the Father, who chose 
 us to salvation; of the Son, who redeemed us from wrath; and 
 of the Spirit, who made us meet for, and conducted us to the 
 peaceful provinces of joy and rest. 
 
 To the three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Spirit, the one living and true God, whom we adore, 
 be supreme honour and glory, now, henceforth, and for 
 evermore. Amen. 
 
THE 
 
 DOCTRINE OF PARTICULAR ELECTION 
 
 STATED AND DEFENDED^ 
 
 \ 
 
 IN TWO SERMONS, 
 
 y 
 
 By MR. JOHN SLADEN, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON L 
 
 2 Thessalonians ii. 13. — We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, 
 bretliren, beloved of the Lord; because God hath, from the beg-inning, chosen 
 you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. 
 
 As pride was the great sin, and proved the sad fall of our first 
 parents, so it is the prevailing vice and damning evil of their 
 posterity. They, in affecting to be as God, knowing good and 
 evil, ruined themselves; and we, in following their pernicious 
 example, bring swift destruction upon ourselves: "Vain man 
 would be wise, though he is born as the wild ass's colt," a poor 
 unthinking ignorant creature. We either aspire after the know- 
 ledge of what God has not revealed, and pretend to dive into 
 the secrets of his counsel, or we reject and quarrel with what 
 he has declared, because it sets us low, and advances the riches 
 of divine grace and wisdom, and ascribes all glory to God, and 
 will not allow us to boast of any thing of our own. From hence 
 it is, that men speak evil of the things they know not, and swell 
 into an opposition to those truths that they cannot fathom, and 
 which tend to lower their exalted pride. What was said of the 
 man of sin, in particular, is too justly applicable to all men by 
 nature; " He opposes and exalts himself above all that is called 
 God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sits in the tem- 
 ple of God, showing himself that he is God," 2 Thess. ii. 4. 
 
 The grand controversy, between corrupt nature and the al- 
 mighty God, is not whether any or all of the human race shall 
 be saved; but who shall have the glory of salvation ascribed to 
 him, God or the creature. The pride of man prompts him to 
 say, the glory of salvation is due to me, for I save myself; but 
 the great Jehovah justly challenges the glory of salvation to 
 himself, and says, I will have all the glory thereof, for it is by 
 my sovereign and efficacious grace that men are saved. Thus 
 pride is the unhappy parent of unbelief, and a principal cause 
 of the enmity there is in the carnal mind against God; yea, this 
 
 66 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 67 
 
 is at the bottom of all the rude opposition made to those doc- 
 trines of Scripture, which iUustrate and advance the almighty- 
 power and free grace of God in the salvation of sinners. 
 
 Whence is it that the doctrines of special election, of effica- 
 cious grace in regeneration and conversion, of justification by 
 the imputed righteousness of Christ, and of the infallible perse- 
 verance of the saints, though so clearly revealed, and strongly 
 proved in the word of God, are, notwithstanding, so generally 
 denied, opposed, and ridiculed, but because they give all the 
 glory of salvation to God, and will not allow man so much as 
 to boast a little? This I apprehend to be the main reason of 
 the furious assaults that, in all ages, have been made against 
 these glorious truths; "but let God be true, and every man a 
 liar." Rom. iii. 4. " To God belongeth mercy, but to us shame 
 and confusion of face." Dan. ix, 7 — 9. " the depth of the 
 riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How un- 
 searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 
 Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his 
 counsellor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be 
 recompensed to him again? for of him, and through him, and 
 to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever, Amen." 
 Rom. xi. 33 — 36. 
 
 The words of our text give us an account of the ground of 
 the difference between the believing Thessalonians, and those 
 reprobates that the apostle is speaking of, in the context ; 
 "They," says he, "shall be damned, but you shall be saved; 
 they believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness; 
 you have believed, and are sanctified ; they received not the 
 love of the truth, that they might be saved; you have been 
 eftectually called, through the gospel, to the obtaining of the 
 glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." A wide and awful difference ! 
 But whence arises this discrimination? What is the cause and 
 reason of it ? How comes it about that these Thessalonians 
 shall be saved, and the others shall not be saved ? That these 
 receive the truth in the love of it, and the others do not thus 
 receive it ? The apostle tells us, that it is the distinguishing 
 grace of God in election; they had the gospel preached to them, 
 as well as these Thessalonians, but they refused it, and chose 
 darkness rather than this light ; these received it with pleasure, 
 and walked with comfort in the light of it ; and the reason is, 
 because God had, from the beginning, chosen them to salvation : 
 " We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, 
 beloved of the Lord ; because God hath, from the beginning, 
 chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and 
 belief of the truth." 
 
 Some, by the word begijining here, understand the beginning 
 of the apostles' preaching the gospel to these Thessalonians, and 
 would have the words to be read thus: Because God has, from 
 
68 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 the beginning (of our preaching to 3^^011, showed that he had) 
 chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, 
 which gives the earnest of it, and makes us meet for it, and 
 beUef of the truth, which promises it. I am glad to find such 
 a paraphrase as this upon the text, given by one who was a 
 known opposer of our doctrine; for though his sense of the 
 words, " From the beginning," is certainly wrong, as I may 
 show hereafter ; yet the expositiou in general, is so far from 
 being repugnant to the doctrine of particular election, that it 
 abundantly confirms it. 
 
 Another commentator gives this as his sense of the text: 
 " We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, 
 beloved of the Lord; because he has, from the beginning, 
 chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and 
 belief of the truth;" that is, says he, "because he has been so 
 favourable to you above others, as to appoint the gospel to be 
 preached to you, and you to be called to the faith of Christ so 
 early, and to be taken out of that wicked generation by the 
 preaching of the gospel, and that grace which is annexed to it, 
 and by your receiving the truth." But this interpretation of 
 the words is so very low and jejune in itself, and so contrary 
 to the plain meaning of the text, that the common reader may 
 easily discern the weakness and falseness of it. I shall there- 
 fore give what I apprehend to be a just paraphrase upon the 
 words: "We are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, 
 beloved of the Lord; because God has, from the beginning, or, 
 from eternity, chosen you to salvation, even eternal life, through 
 sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, as the neces- 
 sary means, whereby you are to enjoy this salvation." 
 
 In the words we may observe these several parts: 
 
 1. The affectionate compellation: Brethren, beloved of the 
 Lord. Brethren, a title denoting nearness of relation, and 
 carrying in it strong atfection. Beloved, not only of us apostles, 
 but of the Lord. Blessed are they who are beloved of the 
 Lord; therefore persons are drawn to God in time, because he 
 loved them from everlasting. Jer. xxxi. 3. " We love him, 
 because he first loved us," 1 John iv. 19; he redeemed and 
 pardons us, because he loved us. Rev. i. 5. 
 
 2. We have the apostle's acknowledgment of praise due to 
 God on the account of these Thessalonians; We are bound, or 
 we ought, to give thanks always to God for you. We do give 
 thanks, and we look upon ourselves as obliged to do so. We 
 give thanks to God on your behalf, and that not occasionally, or 
 for a time only, but incessantly, always. This shows the high 
 opinion the apostle had of the blessing bestowed on these per- 
 sons, and was a testimony of the great respect he had for them. 
 
 3. We have the ground and cause of the apostle's acknow- 
 ledgment of praise due to God for these Thessalonians; and 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. €9 
 
 that is, their election of God: because God hath chosen you to 
 salvation. Tliis is an evidence that they were beloved of the 
 Lord, and this is the foundation of praise to God for them. 
 
 Here we may observe, the act, chosen; hath chosen, or 
 elected. It is such a choice as discriminates them from others, 
 and it is a choice that will secure the end. The agent, God; 
 God hath chosen. God who made you, God whom you had 
 rejected and affronted, God who has power and authority to 
 choose whom he pleases, he hath chosen: and the object or 
 persons chosen, you Thessalonians, once unbelieving and un- 
 holy, but now faithful and sanctified. God has chosen you, 
 who might justly have rejected you; he has chosen you, when 
 he refused others: he chose you, before you chose him. This 
 appears, 
 
 4. From the antiquity of the choice, from the begimiing; 
 not from the beginning of your effectual calling, nor of our 
 preaching to you, nor of the gospel, nor of time, but from eter- 
 nity: for though the phrase, from the beginning, seems to 
 have respect to time, yet by it eternity is generally to be under- 
 stood, in the sacred writings; as where God is called the an- 
 cient of days, to signify his eternity, Dan. vii. 9, and where 
 wisdom, speaking in the person of Christ, says, " I was set up 
 from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was,'* 
 Prov. viii. 23. And that this must be the sense of the words 
 in our text, is evident, from that place where God is said to 
 choose us in Clirist, "before the foundation of the world," 
 Eph, i. 4. 
 
 5. We have the end of the choice, or the blessing that they 
 were chosen to, even salvation. Not to external privileges, 
 not to the enjoyment of the gospel, not to the means of salva- 
 tion only, but to salvation itself; complete and final salvation, 
 even to eternal life. This was what God had chosen them to; 
 and this was to be the consequence of their faith and sanctifica- 
 tion. That this must be the meaning of salvation here, is indis- 
 putable ; not only from the following words in the text, which 
 tell us, that they were chosen to salvation, " through sanctifica- 
 tion of the Spirit, and belief of the truth," but also from the sub- 
 sequent verse ; " Whereunto he called you, by our gospel, to the 
 obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ;" i. e. to which 
 sanctification and faith he called you, by the preaching of our 
 gospel to you, that you might by these obtain the glory of Christ, 
 which is your salvation. Here is salvation mentioned, not only 
 distinct from sanctification and faith, but from the gospel, the 
 means of salvation; and therefore by it must be meant eternal 
 salvation, consisting in our obtaining the glory of Christ, or 
 beholding his glory, John xvii, 24. 
 
 6. We have the means in the use of which they were to 
 enjoy the salvation, to which they were chosen; and these are 
 
70 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 sanctification and faith, " He has chosen you to salvation, 
 through sanctification of the Spirit, and behef of the truth." 
 God did not choose them to salvation, without hoUness and 
 faith; he did not, by one decree, choose them to salvation, and, 
 by an after-act, determine the means; he did not choose them 
 to salvation, because they were holy and faithful; he did not 
 choose them to a possible or probable salvation, that is, pro- 
 vided they performed the conditions of salvation, and did believe 
 they were holy, which he left entirely to their own choice; but 
 he chose them, by one determinate decree, to a certain salva- 
 tion, which they should infallibly obtain, through faith and 
 sanctification : and these two, even sanctification and faith, the 
 apostle here joins together, to let us see that they are insepara- 
 ble ; and to assure us, that they shall both be found in all those 
 whom God will save. 
 
 From the words thus divided and explained, we may ob- 
 serve, 
 
 (1.) That there is a certain number of fallen .^darn's race, 
 lohom God has chosen to salvation. The Thessalonians in the 
 text were, as elect, plainly distinguished from those of whom 
 the apostle had been speaking, in the foregoing context; not as 
 chosen to the external means of salvation, for, in this sense, the 
 others were chosen as well as they, but as chosen to eternal 
 Hfe. Election cannot properly be universal; the very nature 
 of the act supposes a refusal of some. There being some elect, 
 certainly infers some non-elect: There is a refnnant, sscys the 
 apostle, according to the election of grace; and a remnant can 
 never be all. 
 
 (2.) When God chooses persons to an end, he also deter- 
 mines the means to that end. The same decree that designs 
 any persons to salvation, ascertains the means for the obtaining 
 of that salvation : and these are declared to be faith and holi- 
 ness ; for " he who believes not, shall not see life ; but the wrath 
 of God abides on him," John iii. 36; "and without holiness, no 
 man shall see the Lord," Heb. xii. 14. " God has chosen you 
 to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of 
 the truth." God has chosen you to salvation, and therefore he 
 has sanctified your spirits, or rather has given you his Spirit, to 
 sanctify you, and make you to believe the truth of his gospel. 
 Faith and holiness are not the causes of election, but are the 
 necessary means by which the elect enjoy that salvation, to 
 which God chooses them, and may properly be said to be a part 
 of the salvation decreed, if there is any justice in the distinction 
 of salvation into initial and final. 
 
 If faith and holiness were the causes of election, then it 
 would not be of grace, according to the apostle Paul's way of 
 reasoning; " If by grace, then is it no more of works, other- 
 wise grace is no more grace; but if it be of works, then is it no 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 71 
 
 more grace, otherwise work is no more work;" but the elec- 
 tion is of grace, Rom. xi. 5, 6. If faith and hohness were the 
 causes of election, God could not be said to choose us that we 
 might be holy; for holiness cannot in the same respect be both 
 cause and end: we cannot be chosen to it and for it both, but 
 God chose men that they might be holy, Eph. i. 4. If faith and 
 holiness were the causes of election, then God could not be 
 said to choose us first, but we rather to choose him first; 
 whereas our Saviour tells his disciples, " Ye have not chosen 
 me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should 
 go and bring forth fruit," John xv. 16. If faith and holiness 
 were the causes of election, then there would be no room for 
 that objection of the non-elect; "Why does he yet find fault? 
 for who has resisted his will?" Rom. ix. 19. Nor would the 
 answer the apostle gives to the objection be pertinent; "Nay, 
 but, man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the 
 thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made 
 me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the 
 same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dis- 
 honour? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make 
 his power known, endured, with much long-suffering, the ves- 
 sels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that he might make 
 known the riches of his glory, on the vessels of mercy, which 
 he hath before prepared to glory ; even us whom he has called, 
 not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles," Rom. ix. 20 — 24. 
 " So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of 
 God that shows mercy," chap. ix. 16. 
 
 (3.) Election is an eternal purpose of God to save. The 
 Socinians and Remonstrants assert it to be only a temporal act, 
 and so confound election with effectual calling; whereas the 
 Scriptures speak of them as distinct things, asserting our voca- 
 tion to be a temporary act, and our election to be an eternal 
 purpose of God. Thus, when our Saviour says, " Many are 
 called, but few are chosen;" Matt. xx. 16; and when the apos- 
 tle Paul says, " Whom he predestinated, them he also called," 
 and speaks of persons as " called according to the purpose of 
 God;" here is a plain distinction between being called, and 
 being chosen and predestinated. So when the apostle, in the 
 text and context, talks of being " chosen in the beginning to 
 salvation, and of being called by the gospel;" and in another 
 place, of God's " purpose and grace, which was given us in 
 Christ Jesus, before the world began," 2 Tim. i. 9, he plainly 
 declares to us, that, though our vocation is temporary, our elec- 
 tion is an eternal act of God. This is demonstrable from the 
 pre-ordination of Christ to be a sacrifice ; " who verily was 
 foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was mani- 
 fested in these last times for believers;" 1 Pet. i. 20; and who 
 was " a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Rev. 
 
72 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 xiii. 8. I might add to these that text, where Christ's people 
 are said to " inherit a kingdom prepared for them, from the 
 foundation of the world," Matt. xxv. 54, All which Scriptures 
 do abundantly prove to us, that election is an eternal purpose 
 of God to save, and so to be distinguished from our actual sal- 
 vation, both in whole and in part. 
 
 (4.) To be chosen of God to salvation, is matter of great 
 thankfulness. This is a greater blessing than to be chosen as 
 Israel of old was to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and 
 honey; or as David, to be chosen a king ; or as Jeremiah, to be 
 a prophet; or as John, to be a forerunner of Christ ; or as Paul, 
 to be an apostle of Christ. It is a greater blessing than to be 
 chosen universal monarch of the world: this is the very foun- 
 tain and foundation of all blessedness. 
 
 Before I enter upon what I particularly design, from these 
 words of the text, I would beg leave to lay down a few prem- 
 ises, which may serve to direct us in judging of and censuring 
 the doctrine of election. As, 
 
 1. The doctrine of an election is so fully and clearly revealed 
 in the word of God, that Christians of all persuasions profess to 
 believe it, though they differ widely in their sentiments about 
 the nature and extent of it ; wherefore the doctrine ought not 
 to be condemned in the gross, and it betrays great weakness 
 and egregious folly to take oftence at the very word. 
 
 2. There is no doctrine, though never so plainly laid down 
 in the sacred Scriptures, but what subtle and selfish men have 
 formed some objections against. 
 
 3. We ought not to deny, or to be staggered in our minds 
 about a doctrine we have received, because of some objections 
 raised against it, which, it may be, we cannot, at present, answer; 
 for, if so, there is no doctrine but what we should be tempted 
 to deny, at one time or another. 
 
 4. In order to a settled belief of any controverted doctrine of 
 faith, we ought carefully to weigh and consider the several ar- 
 guments and objections for and against it, and to be determined 
 on that side of the question where the chief strength lies. 
 
 5. In our inquiries after revealed truths, we should have an 
 immediate dependence on the Divine Spirit, to enlighten our 
 minds, and to lead us into knowledge of saving doctrines ; other- 
 wise we can never be sincere inquirers after truth. 
 
 6. Persons should not censure a doctrine as damnable, unless 
 they are to prove that it is false, and then the belief of it is 
 hazardous to salvation. This I particularly mention, because 
 many persons have been very lavish in throwing the black epi- 
 thets of unmerciful, destructive, and damnable, upon this doc- 
 trine of special determinate election. 
 
 Having laid down these rules, by^ way of premise, I proceed 
 now to the main thing I intend, from the words of our text, and 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 73 
 
 that is, according to the province assigned me in this lecture, to 
 open and vindicate the great and important doctrine of special 
 election. And the method which I propose, through divine as- 
 sistance, to pursue in this affair, will be this: 
 
 I. I shall state the case in hand, and explain what I take to 
 
 be meant by this doctrine. 
 
 II. I shall produce positive proof to confirm it. 
 
 III. I shall consider the arguments and objections brought 
 against it. And, 
 
 IV. I shall make some application. 
 
 It cannot be expected that I should discuss this doctrine in all 
 its parts ai^d properties, in the narrow compass to which I am 
 confined : I shall therefore chiefly apply myself to what I take 
 to be the main controversy of the present day, as to the article 
 of election ; and that is, whether there is such a thing as a per- 
 sonal absolute election to salvation, in contradistinction to a 
 general national election to church privileges, or to the means 
 of salvation, and to a conditional indeterminate election to sal- 
 vation. 
 
 I. I am to explain the doctrine. And here I would give the 
 various senses of the word election, especially in the book of 
 God : and then lay down the different opinions of persons about 
 the doctrine. 
 
 1st. As to the different acceptations of the word. Sometimes 
 it has respect to excellency; and thus it is referred both to per- 
 sons and things: \o persons, ^wch. as have any uncommon or pecu- 
 liar excellence, are said to be chosen, or choice persons; and 
 that whether it refers to superior stature, and external appear- 
 ance, as in the case of Saul, who was called " a choice young 
 man, because, from his shoulders and upwards, he was higher 
 than any of the people," 1 Sam. ix. 2, or to any excellency of 
 art, as the seven hundred left-handed men are called chosen 
 men, " because every one could sling stones to an hair's breadth, 
 and not miss," Judges xx. 16; or to uncommon courage and 
 might, as where it is said, 2 Chron. xiii. 3, " Abijah set the battle 
 in array, with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred 
 thousand chosen men : Jeroboam also set the battle in array 
 against him, with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being 
 mighty men of valour." Thus the word is applied to persons. 
 We find it also applied to things that are excellent: Thus we 
 read of chosen chariots, Exod. xiv. 7, and of choice sheep, 
 Neh. V. 18. Whatever is excellent, is said to be elect or cho- 
 sen, in the style of the Hebrews, because when persons choose. 
 they generally pick out the best, and most valuable from among 
 the rest. — Sometimes the word election signifies a choosing to 
 a particular office and employ, whether civil or sacred: Thus 
 Saul is said to be chosen to be a king, 1 Sam. x. 24; and Judas 
 IS said to be chosen to the apostleship, Jolm vi, 70. Sometimes 
 
 10 
 
74 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 it signifies a choosing to external privileges, and this not of 
 private and single persons, but of whole bodies and commu- 
 nities. Thus the people of Israel are said to be an elect and 
 chosen people, in many places of the Old Testament, because 
 God had distinguished them from all other nations, by confer- 
 ring peculiar blessings upon them. — Sometimes it may refer to 
 those who, under the gospel, have been proselyted to the Chris- 
 tian faith, and enjoy the means of salvation; whence the con- 
 verted Jews are said to be a chosen generation, I Pet. ii. 9. 
 But more usually by this term is meant an election to eternal 
 life and salvation. And here sometimes we find the word taken 
 objectively, for the persons chosen, the election hath obtained^ 
 Rom. xi. 7, i. e,, the elect, or persons elected. — Sometimes it is 
 taken formally, for the act of God in choosing, which is called 
 the election of grace, Rom. xi. 5, and the purpose of God ac- 
 cording to election, chap. ix. 11. 
 
 2dly. I proceed now to state the different opinions of persons, 
 as to the doctrine of election. 
 
 (1.) Some by election understand no more than a general 
 tiational election, an election to the external means of salva- 
 tion; as the Jews were said to be an elect people, because 
 they had the statutes and ordinances of God; and ours may be 
 called an elect nation, as being favoured with the enjoyment 
 of the gospel, while other nations have not the means of grace. 
 But, though we allow that there is an election, thus general 
 and external, yet this cannot be all that is meant by election, 
 because we often meet with a particular and personal election, 
 and an election to salvation, in the sacred Scriptures. 
 
 (2.) Some, by election, suppose no more to be intended, than 
 a conditional decree, or purpose of God, to save all that believe 
 in Christ, repent of their sins, and yield sincere obedience to him. 
 But we ought to distinguish between a promise and a purpose, 
 a declaration and a determination. God does, indeed, by his 
 revealed will, declare, that all who believe and repent, shall be 
 saved ; but we are no where told that he has decreed to save 
 men upon these precarious conditions. God cannot properly be 
 said to decree men to salvation, provided they believe and 
 repent, or to decree to save those who believe and repent. Be- 
 cause, 
 
 Faith and repentance are not the conditions of God's de- 
 creeing salvation to any, but the qualifications of the persons, 
 whom God has absolutely decreed to save. God has not decreed 
 to save men upon the conditions of faith and repentance, but he 
 has determined to give faith and repentance to all whom he has 
 decreed to save; and accordingly he has declared these to be 
 necessary qualifications in all saved ones. 
 
 If God decreed men to salvation upon these conditions, elec- 
 tion would not be of grace; for if any work performed, or to 
 
OF PARTICtJLAR ELECTION. 7$ 
 
 be performed by lis, is the cause of God's choosing us, God can- 
 not be said to choose us freely; nor can it be an act of grace, 
 according to the , apostle Paul's way of arguing, Rom. xi. 5, 6, 
 which we observed before. 
 
 Election, according to the Scripture notion of it, is effectual 
 to salvation. God will give faith and eternal life to all his 
 chosen ; wherefore it cannot be a mere conditional decree, to 
 save those that believe and repent, without securing the faith 
 and repentance of any: but more of this hereafter. 
 
 If God was to decree salvation to men upon the uncertain 
 conditions of faith and repentance, the will of God must, in a 
 most important affair, depend on the will of man; nor could 
 God absolutely determine the salvation of any one soul, till he 
 was to see how the will of man would turn; nay, not till his 
 perseverance to the end, and that will not be till death. 
 
 According to this notion, no one may be saved; for if God 
 has only determined to save those who believe and repent, and 
 not decreed to give faith and repentance to any, it may so hap- 
 pen, that not one person shall eventually be saved, notwith- 
 standing this decree of God ; for, if it is left to every man's free 
 will, to believe and repent, whatever boasts we may make of 
 its power, we have from hence no positive assurance that any 
 one shall believe and repent. 
 
 (3.) Some, by election, understand no more than a temporary 
 separation, calling, wad conversion; but this is the ejfect of 
 election, and not election itself. We are called according to 
 Go(Vs purpose; and whom he predestinated them he also 
 called. Rom. viii. 28. 30. Now predestination and the purpose 
 of God must be very different from calling, which proceeds 
 from it, unless the cause and the effect are the same thing. 
 Election is frequently spoken of as an act of God, in eternity ; 
 and therefore it cannot be a mere temporary act: the evidence 
 of our election is in time, the decree itself is from eternity. 
 
 (4.) Some, by election, understand the eternal purpose of 
 God, to save certain and particular persons. Now, under this 
 general notion of it, we shall find the sentiments of men to be 
 very different. Some tell us, that it is for faith and good works 
 foreseen; but if we are chosen to faith and good works, we 
 cannot be chosen for them. God does not foresee that men 
 will believe and be holy, and from hence choose them to salva- 
 tion ; but he foresees that men will believe and be holy, because 
 he has chosen them to salvation, through faith and holiness. 
 God cannot be said to foresee that any will believe and be holy, 
 to whom he has not determined to give these saving principles; 
 and he has determined to give them only to those whom he 
 has chosen to salvation. Some assert, that God, in electing 
 certain persons to salvation, had no regard to the fall; that 
 election respects men only as creatures of his making, and not 
 
76 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 as creatures that had fallen from him; but though the sove- 
 reignty of God may herein seem to have a Avonderful display, 
 yet I cannot think that his other divine perfections are glorified 
 by this opinion. Some allow of a particular election, but deny 
 any such thing as a non-election or preterition; they grant, that 
 a certain number shall infallibly be saved, but, at the same time, 
 affirm, that all may be saved if they will. This is an opinion 
 that is absurd in its very nature, as well as it is evidently con- 
 trary to the word of God. Some tell us, that they believe both 
 an election and a reprobation: but further suppose, that there 
 is a middle sort of persons, who are neither elect nor reprobate, 
 and who may yet be saved: but this is a notion of which we 
 have no footsteps in the word of God, and which is altogether 
 indefensible. 
 
 Thus have I given you the various sentiments of persons 
 about the doctrine of election; if I may be permitted now to 
 give my sense of it, it is this: It is the eternal and immutable 
 purpose and design of God to save a determinate number of 
 fallen Adam's children, by Jesus Christ. It is not a national 
 election, or an election to church privileges only ; it is not a 
 determination to save those who believe, and which leaves it 
 uncertain whether any will believe; it is not a temporary call 
 of men to salvation; but, as I have observed, an CA'-erlasting 
 and invariable purpose and design of God, to save certain par- 
 ticular persons of Adam's fallen race. God foresaw in his 
 eternal foreknowledge, the whole posterity of Adam lost and 
 undone, and he determines, in his sovereign good will, to raise 
 to his mercy a trophy of honour, by erecting to himself a glori- 
 ous church, out of the rubbish of this apostasy ; and that his 
 purpose according to election might stand, without any injury 
 offered to his other perfections, he entered into a covenant with 
 Christ, as the second Adam, and Head of this chosen people, 
 according to which covenant Jesus Christ was to fulfil the law, 
 suffer, and die, in the room and stead of his chosen people, and 
 thereby purchase for them, and secure to them faith, sanctifica- 
 tion, and eternal life; so that all the elect of God shall infallibly 
 be saved. When God chose a people to salvation, he laid his 
 scheme in such infinite wisdom, that not one of his chosen peo- 
 ple should miss of the end. 
 
 II. I am now to prove, that there is such an election, or that 
 God has immutably designed the salvation of a certain number 
 of fallen Adam's children. This is a doctrine that is too gene- 
 rally denied and exploded, in the present day. Persons make 
 a jest of particular personal election; and, in the room of it, 
 set up a general national one : but whatever insults and con- 
 tempt are thrown upon this truth, I hope, by divine assistance, 
 to make it appear, that it is an article founded on the sacred 
 Scriptures, and a doctrine according to godliness. 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 77 
 
 1st. We may argue the truth of the doctrine from the divine 
 perfections. Whatever doctrines are deduced from Scripture, 
 and are agreeable to tlie divine perfections, must be true ; and 
 that this is so, I will endeavour to prove, by the following 
 method of reasoning. 
 
 (1.) It must be granted that there is one ever-living and. true 
 God, who is possessed of all possible perfection. To deny that 
 there is a God, is to break in upon the first principle of reason; 
 to suppose an imperfect God, is a contradiction to common 
 sense, and contrary to all the ideas we have of Deity, both from 
 natural and revealed religion. If there is a God, he must be a 
 Being of absolute perfection. 
 
 (2.) It must be allowed, that whatever perfection or excel- 
 lency is to be found in any creature, the same must be essential 
 to the Most High God, and that in the most eminent and 
 transcendent degree. If every creature derives its being from 
 God, as its first cause, then no creature can possibly be pos- 
 sessed of any excellency, but what must, in the highest and 
 most absolute sense, belong to God. Since, therefore, God 
 made all things, he must be before and above all things; before 
 them in existence, and above them in perfection. »' He that 
 planted the ear, shall he not hear.^ He that formed the eye, 
 shall he not see? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not 
 he know?" Psal. xciv. 9, 10. 
 
 (3.) No one can deny that it is an excellency in any creature 
 to be tvise and powerful; wise to lay a scheme of what he 
 intends to do, and powerful to perform and accomplish what he 
 designs. For a rational being to sei about a work, without first 
 forming a model in his mind of what he intends to pursue, is to 
 discover a defect of wisdom; and not to be able to accomplish 
 the plan he has laid down, betrays a want of power. 
 
 These premises being granted, which cannot, I apprehend, be 
 reasonably denied, it must follow from hence, that whatever the 
 great God does, as the effect of power, he designed to do it: and 
 whatever he designed to do, he does. These are propositions 
 self-evident, which ought not to be disputed; for to suppose God 
 to perform any work which he did not first design to perform, 
 is to charge him with a degree of folly, and with acting below 
 an intelligent agent; to suppose him to design to do a thing, 
 which he does not effect, is to tax him with impotence. If it is 
 an instance of the wisdom and power of man, first to design a 
 work, and then to perfect it, the great God, who is infinite in 
 both these perfections, must design what he effects, and effect 
 wliat he has designed. 
 
 Either God actually saves all men, or he does not; if he does, 
 he must have designed it; if he does not, it is plain he never 
 designed it. To assert that God designed to save all men, and 
 yet that, in fact, he only saves some, is, in effect, to affirm, either 
 
78 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 that he changes his purpose as to a great many, or that he wants 
 power to execute his intentions towards them; the very suppo- 
 sition of either of which is false and blasphemous: for reason 
 must tell us, that it is impossible, for an infinitely wise God, to 
 change iiis mind, or to alter his purpose ; and that it is equally 
 impossible that a Being of almighty power should not be able 
 to biing his purposes to effect. To this decision of reason, the 
 sacred Scriptures bear their testimony, in the plainest and 
 strongest assertions; when it is said, that " God is not man, that 
 he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent; 
 has he said, and shall he not do it; or has he spoken, and shall 
 he not make it good?" Numb, xxiii. 19. God may seem to 
 repent, or to do those things in his providence, which would 
 argue repentance in man; but whatever contrariety there may 
 be in his providence, there can be no alteration in his pur- 
 poses; therefore Job, under the different dispensations of God 
 towards him, readily acknowledged this of him: "He is of one 
 mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desires, even 
 that he does; for he performs the thing that is appointed for 
 me." Job xxiii. 13, 14. With how much majesty does the 
 great Jehovah deliver himself in these words: " I am God, and 
 there is none else ; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring 
 the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things 
 that are not yet done, saying. My counsel shall stand, and I will 
 do all my pleasure." Isa. xlvi. 9, 10. To this the church bears 
 witness, when she says, "Our God is in the heavens; he hath 
 done whatsoever he pleased." Psal. cxv. 3. So Solomon tells 
 us that there " are many devices in a man's heart ; nevertheless 
 the counsel of the Lord that shall stand." Pro v. xix. 21. God 
 works without control or resistance ; " he does according to his 
 will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the 
 earth ; and none can stay his hand, or say to him. What doest 
 thou?" Dan. iv. 35. "In whom also (says the apostle, speak- 
 ing of himself, and the believing Ephesians) we have obtained 
 an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of 
 him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," 
 Eph. i. 11. Thus our doctrine stands firm upon the infinite 
 wisdom and almighty power of God. All that God designed 
 to save, he saves; but he actually saves some only, therefore 
 he designed to save only some of fallen Adam's children ; for, 
 if we consider God as infinite in wisdom, and of almighty 
 power, there cannot be a more rational way of arguing than 
 from his acts to his designs. 
 
 I might further argue the doctrine from ihe foreknowledge of 
 God. God foreknows from eternity whatsoever shall come to 
 pass in time, and particularly he foreknows all that will be 
 saved. Now, either all men will be saved, or not; if they will 
 not in fact all be saved, then God does not foreknow that all 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 79 
 
 will be saved, but he only foreknows the salvation of those 
 who shall eventually be saved; and therefore he foreknows 
 their salvation, because he designed to save them. If God did, 
 from eternity, foreknow that only some of the fallen race of 
 Adam would be saved, then he, from eternity, designed to save 
 some of them only: but God, did from eternity, foreknow that 
 some only would be saved, because, in fact, all will not be 
 saved. 
 
 Nor can this be any impeachment of the justice or mercy of 
 God, because he had been just had he determined to destroy all 
 Adam's sinful offspring; and it is the effect of infinite mercy if 
 he saves any of them. Should it be said that God designed the 
 salvation of all men upon certain conditions; to this it may be 
 replied, either God did design that tiiese conditions should be 
 performed by all, or he did not; if he did, then all would be 
 saved; and that all will be saved, those who oppose our doc- 
 trine do not pretend to affirm ; if he did not, then it must carry 
 in it a high reflection on the wisdom of God, to suppose him to 
 design an end, upon precarious conditions, or to decree the 
 salvation of all men, upon the performance of conditions, which 
 he must foreknow many of them would not perform, because 
 it is evident in fact, that many do not perform them. 
 
 To conclude this head of argument : If it cannot be proved 
 that all men will actually be saved, it is weak in us, and it sup- 
 poses a manifest defect in God, to affirm that he designed the 
 salvation of all men upon certain conditions; and especially it 
 is the more so, because, notwithstanding this universal condi- 
 tional decree, it is uncertain whether any one will be saved; 
 for by the same reason that we cannot affirm the actual salva- 
 tion of all men, from this decree, we cannot ascertain the cer- 
 tain salvation of one man. That decree which make the salva- 
 tion of all men only possible, does not assure the salvation of 
 one man, but renders the salvation of each individual person a 
 bare possibility. 
 
 2dly. I come now to examine what proof we have of this 
 doctrine in the word of God. 
 
 I shall not attempt to produce any arguments which might 
 be collected from the sacred writings, by comparing several 
 Scriptures together, but shall vindicate those particular texts 
 which I apprehend to confirm the doctrine under consideration; 
 and these, for the sake of variety and method, I shall digest 
 into this order. I shall, first, produce those that prove a per- 
 sonal election, in contradistinction from a national one; then 
 I shall ofter such as assert an election to salvation, in opposi- 
 tion to those who affirm that election refers only to the means 
 of salvation, or to church privileges; and afterwards I shall 
 mention those that assure the certain salvation of a chosen peo- 
 ple, to refute the notion of an universal conditional election. 
 
80 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 (1.) I would produce some of those scriptures that prove a 
 personal election, in contradistinction to a national one. That 
 the election mentioned in the Holy Scriptures has a frequent 
 respect to general bodies, or communities, I will readily allow; 
 but to affirm that it is only of such, is a bold and groundless 
 assertion. It is very evident, that our Saviour speaks of a par- 
 ticular, and not general; a personal, and not national election; 
 when he says, " Many are called, but few are chosen," Mat. 
 xxii. 14. This, say some, is only a proverbial speech; but if 
 it was, the proverb must carry some meaning in it. These 
 words, says one, refer to the Jews, of whom, though many 
 were called by Christ and his apostles to faith in him, yet few 
 of them did or would accept of him as their Saviour, or em- 
 brace the faith of Christ. But though these words have a priipe 
 reference to the Jews, yet it will not follow that the doctrine 
 contained in them is not of more large and general extent, and 
 may refer to those who, in all after ages, are under the gospel 
 call. Admitting that by the chosen is meant those who believe, 
 which, however, is against the grammatical sense of the words, 
 it is a strong proof of their election, their faith being the 
 evidence thereof. Faith is of the elect of God, and therefore 
 few believe, because few are elected, according to that of our 
 Saviour: "Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep," 
 John X. 26. The sense of the place I take to be this: Many are 
 called, but few are chosen, i. e. many are called, externally by 
 the gospel, to outward privileges, but few are externally chosen 
 to salvation, or appear to be chosen to salvation, because few 
 believe in Christ : but, let the meaning of the place be what it 
 will, it is very evident that the few who are said to be chosen, 
 must be understood of particular persons, and not of nations or 
 societies. 
 
 When it is said, " For the elect's sake these days shall be 
 shortened, and, if it were possible, they should deceive the very 
 elect; and he shall send his angels, and they shall gather together 
 his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the 
 other," Mat. xxiv. 22, 24, 31; these passages speak of par- 
 ticular persons, and not of nations; as the redeemed are said to 
 be out of" every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," 
 Rev. v. 9. When it is said, " If it be possible, they shall deceive 
 the elect;" by the elect some would have to be understood the 
 persevering Christians: but this is a very absurd interpretation 
 of the word, because, in the nature of things, these cannot be 
 deceived; whereas our Saviour founds the impossibility of their 
 being deceived upon the immutable decree of God, securing 
 them as his elect from being deceived by false christs and false 
 prophets. If it is said by the elect here are meant the faith- 
 ful or believers, this will not at all enervate the argument; for 
 men are believers because they are elected, and not elected 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 81 
 
 because they are believers; and because they are elected, there- 
 fore ihey shall not be finally deceived. 
 
 When the apostle says, " Whom he did foreknow, he also did 
 predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son," Rom. 
 viii. 29, this place cannot be understood of nations, but of par- 
 ticular persons. So in that famous controverted chapter, Rom. 
 ix., though we allow that the election of the Jews, as a nation, 
 is to be considered as a part of the election there spoken of, yet 
 it is beyond all doubt that a personal election is also intended. 
 This is evident, not only from the instances of Jacob and Esau, 
 but of Pharaoh, and the many declarations, objections, and 
 answers, thrown about in that same chapter. 
 
 The " remnant according to the election of grace," of which 
 tlie apostle speaks, Rom. xi. 5, must be meant of particular per- 
 sons, and informs us of an election out of an election; "All are 
 not Israel that are of Israel," says the apostle, chap. ix. 6. All 
 Israel were a chosen people, as a body and nation ; but the apos- 
 tle speaks of a remnant chosen out of this elect body, and this 
 must refer to individuals. This is further confirmed from the 
 former part of the chapter: "Hath God (says the apostle) cast 
 away his people? God forbid;" as if he should say, He has not 
 done so, far be it from him to do so; " for I also am an Israel- 
 ite," and if he had cast ofi' all Israel, he had cast me off; " God 
 hath not cast away his people which he foreknew;" Rom. xi. 1, 
 though God has rejected the Jews, as an elect body, yet he has 
 not cast away his people, those whom he foreknew, and chose 
 to be his peculiar people among this body. God had always a 
 chosen people among Israel, a people whom he designed to save 
 with an everlasting salvation, Isa. xlv. 17, and them he never 
 rejected. In Elias's time, he had a chosen number among Israel; 
 and, says the apostle, " even at this present time there is a rem- 
 nant, according to the election of grace," Rom, xi. 4, 5. 
 
 Wlien the apostle says, " I endure all things for the elect's 
 sake," 2 Tim. ii. 10, it must be understood of particular per- 
 sons, and not of general bodies; because it is added, " that they 
 also, together with him, may obtain the salvation which is in 
 Christ Jesus, with eternal glory," viz. the salvation which is to 
 be had in Christ, or which is laid up in Christ, their Head, for 
 them, to eternal glory; to the eternal glory of God, who had 
 chosen them to this salvation, and laid it up in Christ for them; 
 or to their eternal glory, when they obtain this salvation. A 
 learned author tells us, that for the elect's sake, is no more than 
 for the sake of Christians, who are a chosen generation ; but if, 
 by Christians, he means no more than nominal ones, the context 
 refutes this interpretation. If, by Christians, he intends real 
 believers, such as shall obtain salvation, these are properly the 
 elect of God; who therefore shall believe and obtain salvation, 
 because they are elect. 
 
 11 
 
8*2 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 Thus have I mentioned several places of Scripture wherein 
 a personal election is to be unc^erstood, in contradistinction to a 
 national one, or an election of communities. I might further 
 produce those texts which speak of an election to the internal 
 7;iea;2.s of salvation, such as faith, sanctification, and holiness; 
 which, as they prove that election is not for faith and good 
 works foreseen, do also demonstrate a particular election; as, for 
 instance, where it is said, that those who love God are " called 
 according to his purpose," Rom. viii. 28, even that purpose 
 which he purposed in himself before all ages; and when it is 
 said, " Whom he foreknew, he predestinated to be conformed 
 to the image of his Son;" not merely in a way of suffering, but 
 of sanctity and holiness, as both the preceding and following 
 context plainly proves; so God is said to choose us, in Christ, 
 before the foundation of the world, that we should be " holy 
 and without blame before him in love:" Eph. i. 4. The apos- 
 tle in another place, says, " We are God's workmanship, created 
 in Christ Jesus to good works, which God hath before ordained, 
 that we should walk in them," chap. ii. 10. Paul calls himself 
 an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect; 
 where, by faith, we are not to understand the doctrine of faith, 
 which all who enjoy the gospel have, but that faith which is 
 peculiar to the elect; so we read of persons who are elect to 
 obedience. Now, in all these places, election must be under- 
 stood as special; for faith and holiness are not of nations, but 
 of particular persons properly. 
 
 Before I leave this head, it will not be amiss for me to ob- 
 serve, that the Scriptures not only speak frequently of a parti- 
 cular personal election, in contradistinction to a general election 
 of nations or communities; but they often speak of an election 
 o{ persons, as determinate and certain, in opposition to an inde- 
 terminate and uncertain number: as when our Saviour bids his 
 disciples rejoice, because their " names are written in heaven," 
 Luke X. 20; not as the disciples chosen to an office, but as Chris- 
 tians chosen to salvation. So Christ is said to " call his sheep 
 by name," John x. 3, and " to know his sheep," verse 14; and 
 he says, " Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them 
 also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice," verse 16; and 
 in another place, " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast 
 given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my 
 glory," John xvii. 24^ We read also of " the general assem- 
 bly and church of the first born, whose names are written, or 
 enrolled, in heaven," Heb, xii. 23; and, in many places of the 
 Revelation, we are told of persons whose names are, and are 
 not '•' written in the Lamb's book of life," to show that the 
 number of the elect and reprobate is determinate. Thus much 
 may serve to prove a personal election. 
 
 (2.) I shall now produce some of those scriptures which assert 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 83 
 
 an election to salvation, in opposition to those who tell us that 
 election refers only to the external means of salvation. 
 
 I do not remember that when salvation is mentioned in Scnp- 
 tnre, unless it has some other words accompanying it, which 
 determine its meaning to be so, it does ever denote only the 
 external means of salvation ; except it be in two passages, 
 where "salvation is said to be of the Jews," John iv. 22; and, 
 by the fall of the Jews, " salvation is said to come to the Gen- 
 tiles," Rom. xi. 11. However, that there is an election to sal- 
 vation, distinct from an election to outward means and privi- 
 leges, may be argued, 
 
 [1.] From those forecited places which speak of election to 
 faith, and sanctification, and good works, and obedience, and a 
 conformity to the image of Christ; for if salvation, even eternal 
 life, is in the Scripture declciration, annexed to, and connected 
 with faith and holiness, then when persons are said to be chosen 
 to these, it must be presumed that these are chosen to salvation 
 by these. 
 
 [2.] This may also be proved from those scriptures which 
 make mention of a kingdom, and a glory " prepared, for certain 
 persons, from the foundation of the world." As where our 
 Saviour answers the mother of Zebedee's children, who request- 
 ed of him, that he would grant that her two sons might sit, the 
 one on his right hand, and the other on his left, in his kingdom; 
 saying, "To sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine 
 to give ; but (it shall be given) to them for whom it is prepared 
 of my Father," Mat. xxv. 23. " It is not mine to give;" that 
 is, to every one, but to those only, or except to those for whom 
 it is prepared of my Father; namely, by an eternal appointment 
 and predestination: thus the kingdom is said to be "prepared 
 from the foundation of the world," Mat. xxv. 34. If therefore 
 there is a kingdom and glory prepared for some persons, from 
 the foundation of the world, God must be supposed to choose 
 or design some persons, from the foundation of the world, to 
 possess and enjoy this kingdom and glory; and this is, no doubt, 
 what John intends, when he says, that those who are with God 
 are chosen, Rev. xvii. 14. 
 
 [3.] No man can fairly deny that an election to salvation is 
 intended by our Saviour, when he says to his disciples, " I 
 speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen." In an- 
 other place he says, " Have I not chosen you twelve, and one 
 of you hath a devil!" In one place Christ says, he had chosen 
 them twelve ; in another he plainly shows, that he had not 
 chosen them all, but asserts, I know whom I have chosen. 
 No one will have the front to affirm, that our Saviour in these 
 declarations contradicts himself, and therefore there must be a 
 sense in which both the propositions are true ; therefore the 
 usual distinction I take to be just, when Christ says, he had 
 
84 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 chosen them twelve, it must refer to external privileges, to 
 discipleship ; and when he says, of the same twelve, I speak 
 not of you all, I know whom I have chosen, his choosing here 
 must reter to salvation, even to eternal life. Judas was chosen 
 to the honour of discipleship, but he was not chosen to salva- 
 tion, because he betrayed his Lord, and went to his place with- 
 out repentance. If we were to suppose our Saviour to para- 
 phrase on his own words, he would give the sense of them in 
 language to this purpose: "Though one of you, my disciples, 
 is a devil, a traitor, and shall fall away to destruction, yet I 
 have chosen the rest of you to eternal life, which you shall 
 infallibly obtain." 
 
 [4.] This may be further argued, from what the apostle 
 says to the Thessalonians, about their election ; " Knowing, 
 brethren beloved, your election of God," 1 Thess. i. 4. In 
 which words, by their election, nothing less can be intended, 
 than an election to salvation, as is apparent both from the fore- 
 going and following context : " Remembering without ceasing 
 your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope, 
 in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father," 
 I Thess. i. 3. " For our gospel came not to you in word only, 
 but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and ill much assurance; 
 and ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having re- 
 ceived the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost; 
 so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia 
 and Achaia," ver. 5, 6, 7. Now, when the apostle brings in 
 these evidences, as the foundation of his knowing their election 
 of God, he cannot hereby intend their election to the enjoy- 
 ment of the gospel only, for this he knew without these evi- 
 dences; he must therefore mean their election to eternal life, 
 which he knew by their faith, love, patience, holiness, and by 
 the power of the gospel upon their hearts ; for " our gospel 
 came not to you in word only, but also in power." Had it 
 come in word only, it would have been a sufficient proof of 
 their election to the enjoyment of it; but when it is said to come 
 with power, this is an evidence of a further election, even to 
 salvation. 
 
 [5.] We might also argue an election of particular persons 
 to salvation, from that exhortation of Peter to the believing 
 strangers: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to 
 make your calling and election sure." 2 Pet. i. 10. Here, by 
 calling and election, the apostle cannot mean their calling and 
 election to the gospel, for of this they were sure before; nor 
 would their assurance of this prevent their fall, nor procure 
 that an " entrance should be ministered to them abundantly, 
 into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ," which he tells them their making their calling and 
 election sure would do. It may be said, if, by election, be 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 85 
 
 meant the eternal purpose of God to save them, why does he 
 exhort them to make their election sure, when it was sure 
 already? for the "purpose of God according to election shall 
 stand." To this it may be replied: It was sure, indeed, in the 
 immutable decree of God, but it might not be sure to them; 
 they might not have an assurance in their own souls of their 
 election; and therefore the apostle, in order to their establish- 
 ment and comfort, advises them to make their calling and elec- 
 tion sure to themselves, or to make their election certain by 
 their vocation. 
 
 [6.] We have scriptures which positively assert an election 
 to salvation. Besides our text, which holds forth this truth, 
 in direct terms, we read of the vessels of mercy, which God 
 had before prepared to glory, Rom. ix. 23, before prepared, 
 even in his eternal purpose : for if they had prepared them- 
 selves, by their faith, for glory, they Avould improperly be called 
 vessels of mercy; nor would this preparing of themselves be 
 at all agreeable to the meaning of the text, which expressly 
 says, that God had before prepared them to glory. Again, we 
 are said to be predestinated to an inheritance ; in whom we 
 have obtained an inheritance, or a right to an inheritance, 
 " being predestinated thereto, according to the purpose of him, 
 who works all things after the counsel of his own will." Eph. 
 i. 11, Now, what is the inheritance that the apostle says they 
 were predestinated to ? No other than the inheritance among 
 the saints in light; the " inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and 
 that fades not away, which is reserved in heaven for them," 
 1 Peter i. 4, the inheritance of the children of God, and of 
 which the Holy Spirit is the earnest. Now, this inheritance, to 
 which they were predestinated, they are said to obtain, because 
 they were " sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is 
 the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the pur- 
 chased possession." Eph. i. 13, 14. Again, the apostle tells the 
 Thessalonians, that God had not " appointed them to wrath, but 
 to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thess. v. 9, 
 which appointment is no other than God's election of them to 
 obtain salvation, according to the explication of it in our text, 
 where it is said of these same Thessalonians, that God had, 
 " from the beginning, chosen them to salvation." Besides these 
 several texts, we read of many that were ordained to eternal 
 life. Acts xiii. 48. This, I know, is a text very much contro- 
 verted; but, as I have not room to enter into the litigations upon 
 it, I will take it for granted that the translation is just, and refer 
 those who desire further satisfaction to compare the criticisms 
 and explications of others. 
 
 •Thus have I laid before you those scriptures which prove a 
 particular election to salvation, in refutation of their opinion, 
 who tell us, that election is only of nations and societies, and 
 
86 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 not of particular persons, and only to the enjoyment of the 
 gospel, church privileges, and the external means of salvation, 
 and not to salvation itself. 
 
 To sum up this argument. Whereas it is suggested, that it 
 is not easy to imagine how the apostle Paul should know who 
 were elected to salvation in any church, without a special reve- 
 lation; nay, that he did not know this, because he speaks of 
 some who would fall away, and cautions all against it ; to 
 this I would beg leave to reply, by observing, that it is very 
 evident that the apostle did speak of particular persons, as elect 
 to salvation, which certainly he would not have done, had he 
 not known them to be such; that we are not able to prove that 
 he did not certainly know whom God had chosen to salvation; 
 that he had a spirit of discerning, and why might he not know 
 the elect from this spirit ? that God did give him a special 
 revelation, as to this matter, is not easy to disprove ; that he had 
 many peculiar marks given him of their election, from whence 
 he knew it ; that though he sometimes wrote to the churches, 
 as professing societies of Christians, yet, at other times, we find 
 him addressing himself to them as persons elected to salvation ; 
 that he might write to the churches in general, as elect, though 
 some few of them, by falling away, should appear to be other- 
 wise. Though we were to allow that some, in the churches, 
 to whom the apostle wrote, did fall away, yet it will be hard 
 to prove that they were of the number that he styled elect to 
 salvation ; seeing, after his time, many might be added to the 
 churches, who might prove reprobates. But, however, the 
 cautions and exhortations that the apostle gave to the churches, 
 are no way inconsistent with his knowing them to be elect to 
 salvation; for though, as elect, they could not miss of salvation, 
 yet they were to obtain it in the use of means, such as cautions 
 and directions, which made these highly necessary; nay, had 
 the apostle known any particular church to be non-elect, he 
 would never have cautioned and advised it at all. 
 
 SERMON 11. 
 
 2 Thessalonians ii. 13. — We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, 
 brethren, beloved of the Lord; because God hath, from the beginning, chosen 
 you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. 
 
 In order to treat of the doctrine o( particular election, from this 
 text, I proposed to explain it, and I gave the various senses of 
 the word election, especially in the book of God; and laid down 
 the ditierent opinions of persons concerning it. ]My second 
 head was to prove, that God has immutably designed the sal- 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 87 
 
 ration of a certain number of Adam's children. The truth 
 of this doctrine I argued from tlie divine perfections, and then 
 came to examine what proof we have of tiiis doctrine from the 
 word of God: I produced sucli texts as prove a personal elec- 
 tion, in contradistinction to a national one; and then offered 
 such as assert an election to salvation, in opposition to those 
 who affirm, that election refers only to the ineans of salvation, 
 or to church privileges. There is another thing I propose under 
 this head, and to that I shall proceed: 
 
 (3.) I am now to prove the certain salvation of a chosen 
 people; or that all those whom God elected to salvation shall be 
 saved; and to refute the notion of a conditional mutable election. 
 
 God did not determine to save all men, upon uncertain con- 
 ditions, nor has he altered his purpose as to any that he deter- 
 mined to save; but all those whom he elected, with a design to 
 save them, shall believe, be holy, and obtain eternal life. We 
 may as well suppose, that any of God's elect should be with- 
 out the necessary means of salvation, as imagine that any of 
 them should miss of it at last. If any of God's chosen should 
 fall short of eternal life, there would be no ditference between 
 them and the reprobate; especially if, as some affirm, the re- 
 probate may be saved, as well as the elect fall away; but this 
 is to confound both reason and Scripture. The elect shall be 
 saved; this I might prove, from the wisdom and power of God; 
 for if God has designed to save any persons, then they must 
 be saved ; otherwise God must repent, and change his mind 
 concerning them, or be overpowered by some superior agency 
 of theirs; to suppose either of which, is not only to degrade, 
 but to deny the divine perfections. This might be proved from 
 the decrees in general. If the decrees of God, in general, are 
 absolute and immutable, then this of election must be so; but 
 the former proposition we have before confirmed, and the latter 
 is an undeniable conclusion from it. If election is an absolute 
 purpose of God to save any, independent of any conditions to 
 be performed by them, which may render this purpose effectual 
 to their salvation, then it must be unchangeable; and if it is an 
 unchangeable purpose of God to save, then all those whom he 
 thus purposed to save, must necessarily and infallibly be saved: 
 nothing can hinder, prevent, or disannul their salvation. This 
 may also be argued from the intercession and declaration of 
 Christ; who thus said, while on earth, " Father, I will, that they 
 also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that 
 they may behold my glory which thou hast given me," John 
 xvii. 24. " I give my sheep eternal life, and they shall never 
 perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand," chap. x. 
 28. Now, both these places refer not only to Christ's disciples, 
 that then were, in particular, but to all the elect of God, to all 
 who shall afterwards believe through their word. This may 
 
S3 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 also be proved from what our Saviour said of the elect, that it 
 is impossible they should be deceived, Mat. xxiv. 24, i. e. so 
 far deceived and carried away, by false Christs, as to miscarry 
 of salvation. This might also be strongly argued, from that 
 passage of the apostle, where, having spoken of the wicked 
 apostasy of some, he said, " Nevertheless, the foundation of 
 God stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that 
 are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19. This truth stands with unshaken firm- 
 ness on that text, where God, who cannot lie, is said to prom- 
 ise eternal life to his elect, before the world began. Tit. i. 1, 2. 
 Those places also would yield no small proof in the case, where 
 it is said, that Christ's people shall be willing, in the day of 
 his power; and that all that the Father gave to him, shall 
 come to him: for that by Christ's people, and those who were 
 given to him,, the elect, and not actual believers, must be in- 
 tended, is plain, because they are called Christ's people, and are 
 said to be given to him, before they are willing, and before they 
 come to him ; but they shall be willing, and they shall come to 
 him. If to what has been offered, were added all those texts 
 of Scripture where mention is made of the names of the elect 
 being n-ritten in heaven, and in the book of life; they would 
 help abundantly to confirm the truth under consideration, viz. 
 that all the elect shall be saved. But I pass these by, though 
 they might have been more largely insisted on, to good advan- 
 tage; and I proceed to take notice of those texts, where both 
 the means and end are expressly attached to, and connected 
 with the decree. 
 
 (1.) I would mention some scriptures where the means are 
 connected with the decree. Here I would only offer three; 
 each of which assures us, that there is an indissoluble conjunc- 
 tion between the means of salvation, and election to salvation 
 by those means. While Paul was preaching at Antioch, some 
 contradicted and blasphemed ; others received his word with 
 gladness. Now the reason of this, as assigned by the historian, 
 is the election of God ; " As many as were ordained to eternal 
 life, believed," Acts xiii. 48, whereby we are told, that all those 
 who then believed, were ordained of God to eternal life ; and 
 therefore they believed, because they were so ordained. Some, 
 indeed, for the word ordained, would have disposed to be set 
 down; but I see no reason to vary from our translation, be- 
 cause the original word generally conveys to us the same idea 
 that we have by the word ordained, viz. some purpose of an- 
 other concerning us, and not any inward disposition of our own: 
 or if we translate it disposed, it will not follow that it was a 
 disposition of their own; but they were disposed, i. e. by the 
 decree and providence of God, or set apart for eternal life, and 
 so God gave them faith, as the necessary means of their salva- 
 tion. I cannot take the word to intend any internal disposition 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. SO 
 
 of our own, because, whatever inclination men may have to 
 happiness, abstractly considered, I cannot see how persons, who 
 are represented in Scripture as " enmity against God," Rom. 
 viii. 7, and as saying to the Almiglity, " Depart from us, we de- 
 sire not the knowledge of thy ways," Job. xxi. 15, can be sup- 
 posed of themselves to have any inward inclination to eternal 
 life, as it consists in the enjoyment of God, and can no other- 
 wise be obtained, than by faith and holiness. Besides, if this 
 was the sense of the word, then either their faith, which follow- 
 ed this their disposition, was of their own effecting, or of the 
 operation of God; if it was of their own effecting, then in vain, 
 do the Scriptures tell us, that " faith is the gift of God," Eph. 
 ii. 8, and the " fruit of the Spirit," Gal. v, 22: if it was of the 
 operation of God, that is, if it was given of God to them to be- 
 lieve, then this was either the consequence of his ordination, or 
 the result of their disposition ; if the former, this militates 
 against the sense of the word, as before given from some; if the 
 latter, then the operations of God must depend on our previous 
 dispositions, and God would be obliged to give faith to all who 
 find in themselves a disposition to eternal life, and so he would 
 be despoiled of the freeness of his gifts. In fine, I do not appre- 
 hend how the word can denote a present disposition, because, 
 if so, it might equally be said of all that heard the apostle, as 
 well as of those that believed, for all men are disposed to hap- 
 piness; and then the original word should have been in the 
 present, whereas it is in the j^reter perfect tense, and signifies 
 something done before, and not a present disposition. 
 
 Another scripture to our purpose is this : " Blessed be the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us 
 with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ: accord- 
 ing as he has chosen us in him, before the foundation of the 
 world, that we should be holy and without blame before him, 
 in love," Eph. i. 3, 4. God chose them that they might be 
 holy; and, that his purpose might not be frustrated, he blessed 
 them with all spiritual blessings, even those blessings which 
 were necessary to make them holy, and without blame before 
 him in love. A little after, the apostle, speaking of himself, 
 and the believing Ephesians, says, " We are God's workman- 
 ship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has 
 before ordained, that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 10. 
 From these words it is evident that their new creation or regen- 
 eration was the result of a divine decree; they were created to 
 good works, because God had before ordained them to walk in 
 them. Thus we see how the means of salvation are connected 
 with and confined to election. 
 
 [2.] I would now take notice of those scriptures that speak 
 of the elect's obtaining both the e;?.r/andthe means. And the 
 first I would mention is that where the apostle gives us the 
 
 12 
 
90 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 golden and indissoluble chain of grace : " Moreover, whom he 
 did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, 
 them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also 
 glorified." Let us take these words which way we will, read 
 them backwards or forwards, they tell us that election and sal- 
 vation, both initial and final, are undivided and inseparably 
 united together. Should we ask. Who are they that are pre- 
 destinated ? The text tells us, those, and only those, who are 
 eff'ectually called, justified, and glorified. Should it be further 
 asked. Who are they that are glorified? The answer must be, 
 Those who are justified and called. And who are those? 
 Those whom God did predestinate. Moreover, tvhom he did 
 predestinate. Add to this what the apostle says of Israel: 
 " Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for ; but the 
 election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded," Rom. xi. 7. 
 What was it that Israel sought after? Nothing less than 
 righteousness and life, justification and salvation. Now, though 
 Israel, as a body or nation, did not obtain this which he sought 
 after, yet the election, or the elected among Israel, did, I would 
 only further mention that of the apostle: "Who hath saved us, 
 and called us with an holy calling;" and this, "not according 
 to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 
 which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began," 
 2 Tim. i. 9. If this text stands in need of any explication, you 
 have it in these words: "After that the kindness and love of 
 God our Saviour toward man appeared; not by works of 
 righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy 
 he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly, through 
 Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his grace, we 
 should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life," 
 Tit. iii. 4—7. 
 
 Thus have I endeavoured, in the plainest, fullest, and briefest 
 way I could, to vindicate and maintain the immutable purpose 
 of God to save a determinate number of fallen Adam's poste- 
 rity. The arguments from the divine perfections will appear, 
 I hope, to be founded on the highest reason; and the scriptures, 
 ranged in their order, are, I think, pertinent and strong; each 
 one defensible in its reference to the particular topic it is brought 
 under: and, all taken together, contain an invincible argument 
 to prove the doctrine of absolute particular election. I have 
 endeavoured to avoid, as much as I could, the repeating of the 
 same text over again; but, according to the diff"erent turn of the 
 argument it was sometimes unavoidable. 
 
 I could produce many authorities to confirm this doctrine, but 
 I choose to have it rest on Scripture, and not on human testi- 
 monies ; though it were to be wished that many of those who 
 have ex animo, and in open court, subscribed to the seventeenth 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 91 
 
 Article* of tlie Church of England, did pay a more decent and 
 becoming regard to the doctrine evidently contained in it, and 
 not deny, misrepresent, ridicule, and revile it, as they do. 
 
 III. I am now to consider the arguments and objections 
 brought against the doctrine of particular election, as it has 
 been stated and proved. 
 
 Having, as I hope, so abundantly confirmed the truth of the 
 doctrine, there is less need for me to take up much room in 
 answering the objections brought against it. When a truth is 
 once well established, the objections brought against it are the 
 less to be regarded; but where the positive proof is weak, ob- 
 jections become strong arguments. Therefore, though what 
 has already been offered may be thought sufficient to drive all 
 cavils before it ; yet, to prevent any staggerings in our minds, 
 and to establish our faith more firmly in this great article, it 
 cannot be amiss for me to lay down, and to canvass particularly, 
 some of the objections that are brought by our opponents 
 against it. And here I might take notice of those objections 
 that are brought against our doctrine, which are founded upon 
 the universality of Christ's death, the nature and sufficiency of 
 free-will to salvation, and the supposed defectibility of the 
 saints. But as the opinions from which such objections are 
 drawn, are themselves false and unsound, which it is the pro- 
 vince of some of my brethren to prove, I shall not attempt to 
 interfere with those who are to come after me, but shall leave 
 the objections to fall to the ground, as they necessarily will, 
 when the doctrines of particular redemption, of efficacious and 
 invincible grace, and of the infallible perseverance of the saints 
 are established in their order. I might also take notice of the 
 objection made against our doctrine, that it has a tendency to 
 drive persons into despair ; but as the same objection will come 
 Avith equal force against the doctrine taught by our opponents, 
 I shall not spend time particularly to refute it; but whether an 
 opinion that does not secure the salvation of one single person, 
 nay, which makes the salvation of each man barely possible, 
 as depending on the feeble and fickle will of man, has not a 
 greater tendency to drive persons into despair, than a doctrine 
 that ascertains the salvation of millions, upon the immutable 
 decree of God, the impartial reasoner will easily determine. 
 
 * Of Predestination and Election, vvliicli runs tlius : — " Predestination to life 
 is the eternal purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of tlie tvorld were 
 laid, he hath constantly decreed, by his counsel secret to us, to deliver, from curse 
 and damnation, those whom he hath cliosen in Christ out of mankind, to bring 
 tliem, by Christ, to everlasting salvation. Wherefore they wliich be endued with 
 so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit 
 working in due season, they, through grace, obey the calling, they be justified 
 freely, they be made sons of God by adoption, they be made lilie tlie image of his 
 only begotten Son Jesus Christ, they walk religiously in good works, and, at 
 length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity." 
 
92 
 
 ON PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 The main objections that are brought against our doctrine, and 
 which I shall apply myself to answer, are such as are formed 
 from the general love and good-will of God to mankind ; from 
 the general commands, exhortations, wishes, and expostulations 
 of God with men; from its making ordinances useless ; and the 
 pretences, that it weakens men's regard to good works, and en- 
 courages licentiousness; that it has a natural tendency to pre- 
 vent endeavours after salvation; and that it is contrary to the 
 justice and mercy of God. 
 
 1. It is objected to the doctrine of absolute and particular 
 election, that it militates against the general love and good-will 
 of God to mankind, so frequently expressed in the sacred 
 Scriptures ; " God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not 
 perish, but have everlasting hfe." John iii. 16, "God will 
 have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the 
 truth," 1 Tim. ii. 4. Now, how can it, will some say, consist 
 with these general declarations of the love and good-will of 
 God to men, to assert that he has chosen only some of this 
 world, and these all to salvation? To this objection, I would 
 thus reply. If, in fact, God has chosen some only of mankind 
 to salvation, as has been proved, it is weak and vain to object 
 that this is contrary to his general declarations of love and 
 good-will to men; for we are sure, as the Scriptures are uniform, 
 that there must be a harmony and consistency between the 
 doctrine and these declarations, though we, it may be, are not 
 able fully to discern it. It is beyond all contradiction, that the 
 terms world and all, are frequently, in Scripture, taken in a 
 limited sense, and cannot admit of an universal meaning; and, 
 whenever they are connected with salvation, they are always, 
 I think, taken in a restrained sense. The term ivorld, in the 
 forecited place, cannot be taken in an universal sense, because 
 God did not so love the angels; nor did he so love every indi- 
 vidual man and woman, as to give his only begotten Son for 
 them : if God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
 for all mankind, how comes it about that he does not freely 
 bestow salvation on all mankind ? for the apostle Paul says, 
 " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us 
 all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things," 
 whereby he plainly declared, that God will certainly bestow 
 all saving blessings on those for whom he gave his Son. So 
 when God says, " he will have all men to be saved, and to 
 come to the knowledge of the truth," the term all cannot be 
 taken in an universal latitude, because all men are not actually 
 saved ; and many do not come to that knowledge of the truth 
 whereby they may be saved, being destitute of the gospel, the 
 means of salvation. If God will have men to be saved, how 
 comes it about that all are not saved, since God does whatever 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 93 
 
 he will? To say that God wills all men universally to come 
 to the knowledge of the truth, and be saved, when he does not 
 send the means of knowledge and salvation to millions, is to 
 suppose that God wills an impossibility: "I am," says Christ, 
 " the way, and the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the 
 Father but by me," John xiv. 6. " Neither is there salvation 
 in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given 
 among men, whereby we must be saved," Acts iv. 12, besides 
 Jesus Christ. If the terms world and all, are to be taken in 
 an universal meaning, then God would be said to love all the 
 world, so as to give his Son for them, and, at the same time, 
 not so to love them, as to give them salvation by him, which to 
 me appears absurd; nay, according to this, God would love and 
 will the salvation of unbelievers, as well as of believers, which 
 would be to love and hate the same persons, and to will both 
 their damnation and salvation at the same time. 
 
 When therefore it is said, that God so loved the world, &c. 
 by the term world we must either understand the human race, 
 in opposition to the fallen angels, whom God did not so love 
 as to give his Son for them, or the Gentile world, in contradis- 
 tinction from the Jews; in which sense, the evangelist John 
 frequently makes use of the term, both in his gospel and epis- 
 tles; or by it we may understand the world of the elect who 
 shall believe in him, and be saved by him. And thus the 
 phrase, Whosoever believes in him, may be considered as exe- 
 getical of the means whereby those whom God loved, and for 
 whom he gave his Son, shall have everlasting life, even by 
 faith in Christ. When it is said, God will have all men to be 
 saved, we must either understand the term ivill, not of his 
 decreeing, but approving will, signifying how agreeable the 
 conversion and salvation of sinners is to him and that he is 
 well pleased with all that are saved ; or if we understand it of 
 the effective will and purpose of God, by all men, we must 
 either mean men of all nations, people, and languages, who are 
 said to be " redeemed to God by Christ's blood," Rev. v. 9, or 
 men of all relations, ranks, and conditions, which is the plain 
 meaning that the context leads to ; or otherwise we are neces- 
 sarily driven into this scandalous absurdity, that God is disap- 
 pointed of his will, as to the salvation of a great many: for 
 nothing is more certain than this, that all men, in fact, are not 
 saved. 
 
 2. I come now to consider the objection against particular 
 election, which is taken from the general commands, exhorta- 
 tions, ivishes, and expostulations of God. It may be said, if 
 God has designed to save some only, and has determined not 
 to give his grace to many, whereby they may believe, repent, 
 and be obedient, how comes it about that he should, in his 
 word, command all men to believe, repent, and be obedient to 
 
94 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 his laws, with promises of life to them who conform, and 
 threatenings of death to those who continue disobedient ; that 
 he should exhort all men to repent and turn to him, to come 
 to him, to believe, and to be converted; that he should wish as 
 he does, " that there were such a heart in them, that they 
 would fear me, and keep all my commandments always! 
 that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked 
 in my ways!" that he should expostulate as he does; "Why 
 will ye die, house of Israel? Jerusalem, wilt thou not be 
 made clean? When shall it once be? How long shall thy 
 vain thoughts lodge within thee? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
 how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a 
 hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would 
 not: Ye will not come to me that ye may have life," 1 John 
 iii. 23. We have the same language in almost innumerable 
 other places of Scripture. Now, to what end, may it be said, 
 are all these commands, exhortations, wishes, expostulations ? 
 Is not this for God to delude his creatures? Is it not incon- 
 sistent with the divine sincerity, for God to make these gene- 
 ral and solemn declarations, and, at the same time, to deter- 
 mine, from eternity, that many of those to whom these decla- 
 rations are made, shall not believe, repent, be obedient, and be 
 saved ? 
 
 To this objection, which I have endeavoured to set in the 
 clearest and the strongest light, that the objectors themselves 
 can desire, I would reply in general : That these, and such like 
 passages of Scripture, do not at all tell us what God designs to 
 do for us, and with us, but only inform us what is our duty, 
 what God requires of his reasonable creatures, what is agreea- 
 ble to his revealed will ; that faith, repentance, and obedience, 
 are things which he approves of, and is delighted with; that 
 salvation is consequent upon, and connected with faith and 
 holiness, and that the effect and consequence of unbelief, im- 
 penitence, and disobedience, will be everlasting destruction. 
 But to be more particular. 
 
 (1.) As to the general coTumands and exhortations, I would 
 reply : That many of the commands of Scripture refer only to 
 external acts of reformation, which reasonable creatures may 
 perform, even though God denies them that grace, which is 
 necessary to salvation. Men's being non-elect, does not pre- 
 vent their acting as men, and performing many external duties, 
 which God requires; besides, many commands are directed to 
 those to whom God had already given his grace; and, in many 
 places of Scripture, the promises and threatenings refer only to 
 temporal rewards and punishments; but we will allow that 
 God does command all men to believe, repent, and be obedient 
 to him. It must also, on the other hand, be granted, that no 
 man has power in himself savingly to believe, repent, and 
 
OF PARTTCULAU ELECTION. 95 
 
 obey; for if these things are of our own operation, they could 
 not be called the gifts of God, nor would God be said to work 
 in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure, nor should 
 we have the several promises in the Scriptures, that God will 
 renew and convert us; nor need we pray to God for his grace, 
 that we may believe and be converted; nor are we obliged to 
 render thanks to God, that we believe and are obedient , nor 
 have we any just reason to ascribe the glory of our faith and 
 repentance to God. No one will presume to assert that all men 
 believe, repent, and are obedient, notwithstanding the general 
 commands and exhortations of God, backed with the promises 
 of life, and threatenings of death. If therefore God does design 
 that all those to whom his commands and exhortations are 
 made known, should comply with them, how comes it about 
 that so many, in fact, do not do it? Should it be said, this is 
 owing to the perverse will of man; to this we would reply, 
 that the perverseness of will is the same in the elect, as in the 
 reprobate; and if the perverseness of man's will could hinder 
 the purpose of God from taking effect, then none of God's elect 
 might believe and be saved; but all the elect shall believe, 
 repent, be holy, and be saved, as we have before proved. But 
 further, this is to suppose that God has made a creature that 
 he cannot manage and govern, and that his determinations and 
 designs are to be subjected to the will of man ; so that if man 
 will, they shall be accomplished; but if man opposes them, 
 almighty power itself cannot bring them to effect. Wherefore, 
 upon the whole, it is very plain and evident, that the general 
 commands and exhortations to believe and repent, do not 
 oppose the doctrine of particular election, or the purpose of 
 God to give faith, &c. to some only ; nor can we from them 
 form an argument, or draw a just conclusion, that God does 
 design that all men universally should believe and repent, be- 
 cause, in fact, all do not. But though God does not determine 
 to give saving grace to all those to whom his commands and 
 exhortations are made known, yet they are not, as some may 
 suggest, vain and useless, which will appear from the following 
 considerations. 
 
 God's commands do not tell us what God will do for us, but 
 they inform us what we ought to do for him. As they are not 
 the measure of our power, so neither are they the rule of God's 
 decrees; for if so, God's commands would not be a directory 
 to us, to show us what we ought to do; but they would rather 
 be a law to God himself, telling him what he must do: he 
 eould not be said to command us, but rather to command him- 
 self God is not obliged to bestow his saving grace on any, or 
 to restore to any man the power of obeying his precepts, which 
 he once had, but lost; herein he acts according to his own 
 sovereign will, and communicates his saving grace to whom he 
 
96 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 pleases; and these are only his elect, or those to whom from 
 eternity he designed to give it. God, in giving his grace, and 
 making his elect obedient to his calls and commands, does gene- 
 rally make use of the promises and threatenings of his word, 
 as suited to work upon their hopes and fears. Though God 
 determines to make only some obedient to his commands, and 
 to leave others in their natural enmity and rebellion; yet it is 
 highly proper and convenient, that even the wicked should 
 know their duty, that their mouths may be stopped, and that 
 they may have no reason to complain that God did not inform 
 them what it was he required of them. When God commands 
 all men to believe and repent, &c., it is in order to convince 
 men of their weakness and inability, to excite his chosen peo- 
 ple to pray to him for his grace and Spirit, and to lead them 
 to Christ, who alone can give them faith and repentance, and 
 thoroughly furnish them for every good work. No man can 
 prove, and therefore no man ought to assert, that he is a non- 
 elect person, and shall not be saved; or that God has determined 
 not to give him grace to be obedient to his commands; to pre- 
 vent therefore any such rash and despairing assertions, the 
 command is promiscuous to believe; and we are told, he that 
 believes shall be saved. God, in commanding men, does not 
 consider them under the distinctive characters of elect or repro- 
 bate; he does not declare what his secret will towards them is, 
 but considers them as his reasonable creatures, bound in duty 
 to be obedient to him. Though God has, in his eternal decrees, 
 made a manifest difference between some and others; yet in his 
 commands he has made no distinction. 
 
 Thus much may serve in answer to the objection against our 
 doctrine, taken from the general commands and exhortations of 
 God to believe, repent, and be obedient, with the promises and 
 threatenings annexed thereunto. 
 
 (2.) I come now to consider the objection drawn from the 
 wishes and expostnlations of God, as before laid down. To 
 which I would reply, that many of those things which God 
 expostulates with men about, are what they had in their power 
 to do, or avoid ; as when he refers to external acts of reforma- 
 tion, and to temporary judgments. God's expostulations are 
 generally with his own people, and do not refer to all men uni- 
 versally. God cannot, properly speaking, be said to wish any 
 thing, because this would argue great weakness and imperfec- 
 tion in him. To suppose God to wish any thing to be done, 
 which it was in his own power to eflect, is to charge him with 
 egregious folly. When God therefore, speaking after the man- 
 ner of men, is said, any where in his word, to wish that men 
 would convert themselves, turn to him, and be obedient, we must 
 consider such modes of speaking as only pathetic speeches, de- 
 signed to convince God's elect of the evil of their ways, and to 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 97 
 
 press on them the observance of their duty to him. It is to 
 show them their wickedness and ingratitude, the justice and 
 equity of God's expectations and demands, and to excite them, 
 by the most moving expressions, to repentance and reforma- 
 tion. God makes use of expostulations and wishes, as well as 
 exhortations and commands, as the means whereby he will 
 convey his saving grace to the hearts of all his chosen ones. 
 If by the wishes of God we are to understand his purposes and 
 designs, that all men believe and repent, and be obedient, 
 whence is it, that he who hath the hearts of all men in his hands, 
 *■' and turns them as the rivers of water, whhhersoever he will," 
 Prov. xxi. 1, does not actually make all men obedient, and that 
 there are such vast numbers who are unbelieving and impe- 
 nitent ? 
 
 If it is said, that it is for God to delude men, and to act incon- 
 sistently with sincerity, to exhort and command all men to re- 
 pent, and to expostulate, as he does with them, about their im- 
 penitence and disobedience, when he has from eternity deter- 
 mined to deny his grace to a great many, without which they 
 cannot believe, repent, or yield obedience to him ; to this I 
 would reply, that it is very evident that these things are fact, 
 viz. that God does thus command, and has thus determined. 
 
 It must be owned to be a very difficult thing to reconcile 
 general declarations, and particular determinations to one an- 
 other. It is vile for poor short-sighted creatures, because they 
 cannot account for all God's words and works, to charge him 
 with a want of sincerity, and with a design to mock and delude 
 his creatures: but if there is anything in the suggestion it will 
 be as strong an objection against the foreknowledge of God, as 
 against his decrees. Our opponents allow that God foresees the 
 final impenitence, and obstinate disobedience of miUions ; and 
 yet, at the same time, he enjoins that the gospel and the means of 
 salvation be published to them, as if they were all to be saved. 
 Now, why does God exhort and expostulate with those who 
 were foreknown to be refusers and despisers of them? Accord- 
 ing to their way of charging others, is this to act sincerely ? Is 
 it not rather feigning and dissembling? So that this objection, 
 if it has any weight in it, carries the matter further than the 
 objectors will care to allow, and recoils, v/ith a strong force, 
 upon their own assertions. 
 
 3. It is objected against our doctrine, that it makes ordi- 
 nances vain and tiseless ; for if God has absolutely, from eter 
 nity, determined the salvation of a particular number of mankind 
 only, to what purpose are ordinances instituted? The elect 
 may be saved without them, and the reprobate cannot be saved 
 by them. To this I reply, 
 
 (1.) Ordinances are not essential Xo salvation: if they were, 
 then all who attend them would be saved} and such as had not 
 
 13 
 
98 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 the opportunity of so doing, would infallibly be lost: but no one 
 will assert that a bare attendance on ordinances will insure sal- 
 vation; and we dare not affirm that all who have not the oppor- 
 tunity of attending ordinances will be damned. Faith in Jesus 
 Christ is essential to salvation, because the Scriptures tell us, 
 that " he who believes shall be saved ; but he who believes not, 
 shall be damned." Mark xvi. 16. But the Scriptures have no 
 where, as I remember, asserted, that he who attends ordinances 
 shall be saved, but he who does not attend them shall be con- 
 demned. Ordinances are the usual means of salvation, but not 
 essential to it. God has obliged us, in a way of duty, to attend 
 them; and has, for our encouragement, promised to own them 
 for good to his people: but he has not obliged himself by them, 
 or confined the communications of his grace to them. This is 
 evident from various instances of conversion, where ordinances 
 have not been made use of. 
 
 (2.) Because the gospel is preached to all men where its 
 sound has reached, it will not from hence follow that all may or 
 will be converted by it. In the apostle's time some believed 
 it, and some gainsaid and blasphemed. Just so it is in our 
 day; many are called, but few appear to be chosen, because 
 few believe: the gospel is proclaimed to all, not that all, but 
 that some may be saved. 
 
 (3.) The gospel is preached to all, because some of all ranka 
 and characters are to be brought home to Christ by it; and 
 because ministers are to hope well, and to show their charity to 
 all. All that we preach to may be elect, for any thing we know 
 to the contrary; however, in every congregation, where the 
 faithful word is preached, there are some who belong to the 
 election of grace : and though the same overtures are made to 
 all who hear the gospel, yet none will believe and be saved, but 
 the elect, whom God makes willing in the day of his power. 
 
 (4.) The preaching of the gospel is promiscuous to all, because 
 ministers cannot distinguish between the elect and reprobate : 
 God does not see fit to tell preachers what number he has chosen 
 to salvation, of those they minister to, and what number he has 
 refused : nor has he set any particular mark upon the persons 
 of the one denomination or the other : wherefore they are com- 
 manded and obliged to declare the way of salvation by Jesus 
 Christ, to all who come under their ministrations. 
 
 (5.) Ordinances, properly speaking, were primarily and chiefly 
 designed for the elect only, as the usual and ordinary means, 
 whereby the purpose of God, in their salvation, shall be accom- 
 plished. God could save his elect without the use of ordi- 
 nances; but he has been pleased to appoint them, as the com- 
 mon means of conveying his saving grace into their hearts, in 
 order to their enjoying that everlasting life, to which he from 
 eternity designed them. Therefore he directed his apostles to go 
 
OF PARTICULAK ELECTION. 99 
 
 and preach in some places, and not in others, because he had a 
 chosen people in those places, to which he sent them, Luke i. 
 17, Acts XV. 14, and xviii. 9, 10, and the Lord, by their minis- 
 try, " added to the church such as should be saved," or such as 
 he had determined to save, Acts ii. 47. 
 
 (6.) If God, by the general dispensation of the means of 
 grace, designed to save all that come under them, how comes it 
 to pass that all who attend them are not saved? God can as 
 easily save all, as some, if he has designed; for ivho has resisted 
 /iis will? If it is given to persons, under ordinances, to believe, 
 God can as easily give faith to all as to some: if faith is of our 
 own operation, then the purpose of God is limited to, and deter- 
 mined by the will of man. 
 
 (7.) In administering ordinances, especially in the preaching 
 of the gospel, ministers are not to regard persons as elect or re- 
 probate, but as sinners or saints. It is true, did they not hope, 
 that among the unconverted there might be a chosen people, 
 who should be called in due time, they would have no encour- 
 agement to preach to sinners, but would separate the saints, and 
 preach only to them. In our ministry, we cannot be said to 
 preach to persons under the unknown character of elect or re- 
 probate: no; we preach the gospel to all without distinction; 
 we tell sinners of their lost and miserable state, by reason of 
 sin; set Christ before them, as the only Saviour of sinners; ex- 
 hort tiiem to fly to him for help ; to repent of their sins, and to 
 yield obedience to the divine precepts, not knowing who will 
 believe, or gainsay, or what the success of our labour will be. 
 And, while we are thus preaching to all, God lays hold of the 
 heart of one and another, calls them by his ethcacious grace, 
 makes them penitent and obedient; and "as many as are or- 
 dained to eternal life believe." 
 
 (8.) Though the reprobate cannot be saved by the preaching 
 of the gospel, unless we suppose that God reverses his decrees 
 towards them; yet it is necessary that it should be preached to 
 them, and on several accounts, viz. that they may know their 
 duty, what it is God requires of them; that they may, under 
 the ministry of the word, be restrained from some gross enor- 
 mous vices; have their manners somewhat cultivated, and so 
 be made useful to society, less injurious to the pious, and pre- 
 vent a severer punishment. In fine, it is necessary that the 
 gospel should be preached even to the reprobate, that their 
 moutlis may be stopped, and they may be left without excuse ; 
 " If I had not come," says Christ of the Jews, " and spoken to 
 them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak (or 
 excuse) for their sin." John xv. 22. The primary design of 
 God, in sending his gospel and ordinances to any people, is, 
 that the elect thereby may be brought home to himself, and his 
 purpose in their salvation be accomplished; that the reprobate 
 
100 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 are hereby left without excuse, is a secondary and more remote 
 consideration. 
 
 Tluis we see that the promiscuous preaching of the gospel to 
 all, does not infer that all will or may be saved ; but that it is 
 the usual means whereby the chosen people of God are con- 
 verted, edified, and comforted ; and necessary to the reprobate, 
 even though they cannot be saved by it. But if the geheral 
 preaching of the gospel is supposed, after all, to carry any argu- 
 ment in it against the doctrine of special election, it stands with 
 equal force as an argument against the divine foreknowledge. 
 
 4. I come now to consider the objection against our doctrine, 
 '' that it weakens men's regard to good works, and tends to 
 encourage licentiousness ;''' to which I would beg leave to 
 reply. Though some, who pretend to believe the doctrine of 
 determinate election, are unmindful of their duty, and immoral 
 in their conversation, it will not, from hence, follow, that the 
 doctrine itself gives countenance to any such misconduct. If 
 God had, indeed, chosen men to salvation, without regard 
 to good works as a part of it, there would be some ground for 
 the objection; but when good works are a very constituent 
 part of that salvation to which God has designed the elect, and 
 when they are the principal ground and evidence from whence 
 persons can or may conclude that they are elected; seeing no 
 man has any right to believe that he is elected of God to sal- 
 vation till he is brought to hate sin, and delightfully to perform 
 good works; when these things are so, I cannot conceive how 
 this doctrine can be an enemy to good works, or why persons 
 should deem it so. Those persons who are so bold and foolish 
 as to say, if we are elected we shall be saved, though we live 
 as we list, do not only reason quite contrary to the design of 
 the decree, but give very plain and strong proof that they have 
 no lot nor portion in this matter. No doctrine in the world 
 has a greater tendency to discourage sin, and promote good 
 works, than this of particular election; for if our election to 
 salvation is of the free grace, goodness and love of God, what 
 can be a greater argument to repentance than such goodness ? 
 What can incite us more to obedience than such love? What 
 can more effectually teach us to live soberly, righteously, and 
 godly, than such grace ? Besides, when good works are, even 
 by the purpose of God, affixed, as the very means whereby 
 the elect are to attain their final salvation, and so are made 
 necessary to, and inseparable from it, what can be a more 
 powerful motive to the performance of them than this consi- 
 deration? Further, the purpose of God, concerning the salva- 
 tion or destruction of any, cannot annul the relation that we 
 stand in to God, as his creatures, nor our obligation to perform 
 good works. That I am a creature of God, and ought, as such, 
 to be obedient to him, I know; but I cannot, it may be, know 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 101 
 
 whether I am elect, or reprobate ; wherefore what is to me a 
 secret, should never be a bar or discouragement to the perform- 
 ance of those things which I am bound to do, upon the most 
 manifest evidence. Besides, though good works are not the 
 cause of God's choosing any to salvation, yet they are abso- 
 lutely necessary and useful, and that not only as an evidence 
 of our election, but to testify our love to God; to promote the 
 glory of God in the world, to convince gainsayers, to be an 
 example to others, and that we may be more fitted for commu- 
 nion with God here, and the enjoyment of him in glory here- 
 after. In fine, that our doctrine is no encourager of sin, or 
 enemy to holiness and good works, is evident, through grace, 
 in some good measure, by the lives and conversations of those 
 who profess to believe it. It must be granted, as a melancholy 
 truth, that there are too many orthodox heads, who have sad 
 unsound hearts, and lead very wicked lives; but if practical 
 religion shines forth with greater lustre among any party of 
 Christians more than among others, it is, generally speaking, I 
 say generally speaking, most conspicuous among the avowers 
 of the Calvinistic doctrines. I do not say this to fix a charge 
 of wickedness upon others, far be it from me to be guilty of so 
 much malice and uncharitableness; nor do I affirm this out of 
 a vain ostentation, for who is it that makes men to differ? But 
 when a doctrine is charged, as encouraging licentiousness, if the 
 professors of it appear to be no more wicked than others, nay, 
 to practise and maintain good works as much, if not more than 
 those who would fix such an unjust consequence upon their 
 doctrine, the objection is so far from weakening, that it has a 
 tendency to establish and confirm our faith in the doctrine, as 
 according to godliness. 
 
 5. It is objected, to the doctrine of particular election, " that 
 it has a tendency to prevent endeavours after salvation, and to 
 encourage indolence and presumption." If God has, from eter- 
 nity, chosen a determinate number of persons to salvation, and 
 if these, and no others, shall infallibly obtain it, then does not 
 such a doctrine discourage endeavours, and lead on to sloth and 
 presumption? For if I am not elected, may a person say, to 
 what purpose are all my endeavours for salvation? I can never 
 attain to it by them; and, if I am elected, why should I strive 
 and labour, when my salvation is made sure, by the immutable 
 decree of God? To this I would reply: That the abuse of a 
 doctrine, by some weak or wicked persons, can never prove a 
 doctrine to be false ; there is no truth but what is liable to be 
 abused. It is absurd and irrational, in its own nature, for any 
 persons to argue at this rate, because this is to draw certain 
 conclusions from uncertain premises. Though God has chosen 
 some, and refused others, yet he has not told us who are the 
 particular persons. The certainty of the end, upon the decree 
 
109 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 of God, is no hinderance or discouragement to the use of suit- 
 able means, in order to attain tlie end, because God has, by his 
 decree, connected the means and the end together; and we are 
 said to be " chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the 
 Spirit, and belief of the truth." Our Saviour knew very well 
 what was the prefixed term of his life on earth ; yet he studi- 
 ously avoided dangers, and escaped the hands of the Jews more 
 than once. God had revealed it to Paul, that none of the pas- 
 sengers, who were in the ship with him, should be lost ; yet he 
 exhorted the seamen to be active, and would suffer none of 
 them to go out of the ship, when they attempted to have saved 
 themselves in the boat. 
 
 The apostle Peter exhorts believers to " give diligence to 
 make their calling and election sure," I Pet. i. 10, though he 
 knew their election and salvation was sure, by the decree of God : 
 and our Saviour bids all his followers " to strive to enter in at 
 the strait gate," at the same time that he tells them, "many 
 shall strive to enter in, and shall not be able," Luke xiii. 24. 
 Moreover, the apostle Paul informs us, that " they who run in 
 a race run all, but one only receives the prize," I Cor. ix. 24. 
 No one can win who does not run ; all will not win who do 
 run ; yet all run. We see then, from hence, that the certainty 
 of the salvation of some, ought to be no hinderance to the en- 
 deavours of all to attain it. 
 
 Suppose I could assure you of this assembly, that God had 
 determined the certain salvation of one in three, or five, or more 
 or less of you ; would not this be a greater encouragement to 
 you all to be found in the use of means, than to be told that 
 God had decreed the possible salvation of you all, but has not 
 secured the salvation of any one of you? For who will strive 
 so much after that, the attainment whereof is merely possible 
 to every one, as for that which is certain to some, who strive 
 for it ? Nay, who will use endeavours at all, that considers his 
 inequality to the work, and that it is next to an impossibility 
 that he should obtain what he is to take pains for? But, on 
 the contrary, if the salvation but of a few is certain, this will be 
 an encouragement to all who seek after it, because each one 
 will be ready to argue, who knows but I may be one of those 
 happy ones, whose salvation God has infallibly determined ? 
 Those who oppose our doctrine, are free to allow that all men 
 eventually will not be saved ; now, whether their doctrine does 
 not as much discourage endeavours as ours, is no difficult thing 
 to determine; for what more encouragement is given to all to 
 strive, from this declaration, that all will not eventually be 
 saved, than from this, that God does not design the salvation 
 of all men? Our doctrine cannot encourage indolence and pre- 
 sumption, because the means are connected with the end by 
 the purpose of God ; because no man has a right to conclude 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 103 
 
 himself an elect person, till he is called and converted, and 
 because presumption, in an allowed course of sin, is absolutely 
 inconsistent with a state of grace, and a strong argument that a 
 person is not an elect of God, whatever his pretences may be. 
 
 6. It is objected to our doctrine, « that it is contrary to the 
 justice of God, that it narrows his goodness, and limits his 
 mercy ; in short, that it is unjust, unkind, and unmerciful in 
 God, to decree the certain salvation of some few, and to leave 
 the rest to perish everlastingly." — " How is it," say our oppo- 
 nents, "consistent with the notions that we have of God, as a 
 just, gracious and merciful being, that he should, from eternity, 
 determine to give his grace to some few, whereby they shall 
 infallibly be saved; and to deny it to a great many, from 
 whence they must inevitably perish, when all mankind are 
 equally the objects of his justice, goodness and mercy?" 
 
 To this we might answer, as the apostle does : •' Nay but, 
 man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing 
 formed, say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me 
 thus?" Rom. ix. 20. " Shall not the judge of the whole world 
 do right ?" Gen. xviii. 25. God says, " Jacob have I loved, 
 but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then ? Is there 
 unrighteousness with God ? God forbid : For he says to Moses, 
 I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have 
 compassion on whom I will have compassion ; so then it is not 
 of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that 
 showeth mercy," Rom. ix. 13 — 16. "Is God unrighteous who 
 taketh vengeance ? God forbid," Rom. hi. 5, 6. It is an easy 
 thing to charge a scripture truth with being inconsistent with 
 the perfections of God ; but it is impossible to prove the alle- 
 gation. It is a wicked thing to charge God with being unjust, 
 unkind, or unmerciful, for doing what he will with his own; 
 nor can the objection be made good against our doctrine, that 
 it argues injustice, unkindness, and unmerciful ness in God: the 
 Scriptures give no encouragement for any such charges. It is 
 represented as no derogation to the grace of God, that he called 
 Abraham alone, leaving great numbers to perish ; that he saved 
 only Noah and his family, when all the rest of the world were 
 drowned; that Lot and his house were preserved, and all Sodom 
 and Gomorrah left to be consumed: Moses never speaks of it 
 as a lessening or disparagement to the goodness of God, that he 
 chose Israel alone for his peculiar people, who were the fewest 
 of the nations; nor do I find that our opponents charge God 
 with a want of justice, goodness, or mercy, that he sends the 
 gospel to some nations, when the far greater part of the world 
 are left in darkness and ignorance; so that we ought to be very 
 tender in charging the proceedings of divine sovereignty with 
 being opposite to all or any of God's moral perfections. 
 
 But further: If it could be proved, that God owed all men 
 
104 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 saving grace, it must be owned to be an unjust thing in him to 
 deny it to any; but God is not obliged to give any man saving 
 grace. The number of the elect is not so few as some would 
 represent it to be ; they are " ten thousand times ten thousand, 
 and thousands of thousands," Dan. vii. 10, compared with Rev. 
 V. 11. The reprobate, strictly speaking, are not condemned for 
 not doing that which it was impossible for them to do, because 
 God had refused to give them his saving grace; but for not do- 
 ing what was in their power, and which they themselves made 
 impossible to be done, by a long course of indulged wickedness. 
 We have as much reason to charge God with injustice, cruelty, 
 and unmercifulness, in condemning and destroying all the fallen 
 angels, as in determining to leave some of fallen mankind to 
 perish : and will any attempt to say it is unjust in God to deter- 
 mine to save only some of mankind, when he would have been 
 just if he had destroyed them all ? Or shall we presume to 
 affirm that God is unmerciful, "because he has mercy on whom 
 he will have mercy?" 
 
 The same objection will lie against the divine perfections, 
 fi'om God's not eventually saving all, as from his determination 
 not to save all ; for he could save every man if he would ; and 
 yet our opponents will not attempt to affirm, that all men are 
 saved in the event. God could have created all men perfect, 
 as well as the first man; he could have preserved Adam and 
 all his seed in innocence; or, after man had fallen, and made 
 himself vile and miserable, God could change the hearts of all 
 men, and convert and save them all, if he so pleased. Why 
 then do our opponents charge our doctrine with unmerciful- 
 ness, when the same charge equally lies against their own 
 opinion? 
 
 To proceed a little further, as to the supposed unmercifulness 
 of our doctrine. For my own part, I confess, that one great 
 reason why I believe and espouse the doctrine of special deter- 
 minate election, is, because of the mercy of it. I hope, I am 
 not mistaken; for, to me, our doctrine appears most to illustrate 
 the mercy of God, and to be most friendly to mankind ; nay, 
 there is, in my opinion, no friendship nor mercy in any other 
 doctrine but this. To make this good, be pleased to observe, 
 that all, in fact, are not eventually saved ; that no more shall 
 be saved than what are saved ; and that all who are saved, are 
 elect to salvation. Our opponents never attempted to affirm 
 that all men are actually saved ; no one will pretend to assert 
 that more shall be saved than what are saved; all that are 
 saved, v/e say, are elected to salvation. Where is the unmer- 
 cifulness of this doctrine? We do not narrow or confine salva- 
 tion, but make it, in fact, as extensive in its subjects, as those 
 who oppose themselves to us. The difference between them 
 and us, is not about the number who are saved; we both agree 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 105 
 
 in that; but what we differ about is, the manner of their ob- 
 taining salvation. We say, they are saved by virtue of the 
 electing love of God ; they say, they are saved because they 
 rightly improve their own free will. We affirm them to be 
 saved in such a way, as ascribes all the glory to God ; the way 
 of salvation which they hold is such, as leaves great room for 
 man to glory. Thus far our doctrine appears to be as merciful 
 as theirs. But further. 
 
 Our opponents' scheme makes the salvation of each man but 
 barely possible; our doctrine makes the salvation of millions of 
 men absolutely certain ; so that hence ours appears to be more 
 merciful than theirs: for I would ask any unprejudiced person, 
 whether a doctrine that secures the salvation of some, whether 
 one in ten, or nine in ten, God only knows, does not better 
 deserve the epithets of friendly and merciful, than a notion that 
 puts the salvation of every one upon a bare possibility, whence 
 it may happen that, even according to their tenets, no one may 
 be saved at last ? Let none call what I am going to say cant, 
 or a declamatory harangue, to captivate the passions. Suppose 
 God was to summon all mankind before him, and to demand a 
 choice of them which of the two schemes they would give into; 
 would they not prefer that which infallibly secures the salvation 
 of a chosen number, to that which puts the salvation of each 
 one upon a dangerous uncertainty ? From what has been said, 
 it appears that our doctrine is more merciful than that of our 
 opponents. 
 
 I shall venture to go one step higher, and that is, to prove 
 that the doctrine of our opponents is an unmerciful doctrine, 
 because it is so far from ascertaining the salvation of any, that 
 it renders the salvation of each man a moral impossibility. The 
 opinion of those who differ from us, as to the doctrine of elec- 
 tion, so far as it relates to salvation, I take to be this: That it 
 is a conditional choice, upon our perseverance in a life of holi- 
 ness; i. e, if I may give you the sense more fully, in other words, 
 it is God's choosing persons to salvation, upon the conditions 
 of faith, repentance, and perseverance in holiness. Upon this, 
 now let me observe, that they will not allow that God has de- 
 termined to give to any man this faith, repentance, and perse- 
 verance; nay, absolutely deny that God has ordained one single 
 person to faith, repentance, and perseverance to the end ; so that 
 the performance of these conditions depends entirely upon the 
 will of man. But if this is the case, the question, which was 
 once put to our Lord, may very properly be asked here, Who 
 then can be saved? For, 
 
 (1,) If the Scriptures have represented men, as, by nature, in 
 a state of death ; to every good work reprobate ; not sufficient 
 of themselves to speak a good word, or think a good thought ; 
 as not able to do any thing without Christ, and by many such 
 
 14 
 
106 OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 
 
 the like declarations; then how is it possible that they should, 
 by their own innate power, ever perform these weighty and 
 extensive conditions? 
 
 (2.) If faith, repentance, and perseverance in holiness, are the 
 gifts of God, and God has not designed or determined to give 
 them to any one single person; is it not impossible that any one 
 should believe, repent, and persevere? God does not give good 
 gifts at random, or by accident, without determining both the 
 quality of the gift, and the number of the objects; but "every 
 good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down 
 from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither 
 shadow of turning." James i, 17. It immediately follows, " Of 
 his own will begat he us with the word of truth," James i. 18. 
 God is of one mind, and who can turn him? His purposes, like 
 his nature, are invariable; and, because they are so, his gifts 
 are without repentance, and he quickens and saves whom he 
 will. What are God's actings, but the accomplishment of his 
 purposes? Purposes are actions decreed, actions are purposes 
 executed. As the promises of God are the revelation of his 
 purposes of good will, so the actings of God upon his creatures 
 are the execution of his purposes, and the fulfilment of his 
 promises. Well now, if faith, repentance, and perseverance in 
 holiness, are the gifts of God, and he has not purposed to give 
 them to any; and where there is neither purpose in God, nor 
 promise from him, there can be no saving gifts; if so, how is it 
 possible that any man can be saved? 
 
 (3.) If Adam, in innocence, vho was created perfect, and 
 with a plenitude of power to do what God required, if, I say, 
 he did not fulfil the law of nature, how is it possible that we, 
 who are fallen imperfect creatures, should obey the law that 
 we are imder? A perfect creature must be much more able to 
 yield a perfect obedience, than an imperfect creature is to yield 
 imperfect; because, when the nature is once vitiated, it is more 
 difficult to perform one good action, than it is for a perfect na- 
 ture to yield perfect obedience. Should any say, this is begging 
 the question, to assert that we are imperfect creatures, we have 
 as much power for obedience, as Adam ever had; supposing it, 
 but not granting it, then, 
 
 (4.) If Adam did not perform the condition of his covenant, 
 which was to refrain only from eating of the forbidden fruit ; 
 but, upon a temptation of the serpent, did, contrary to his alle- 
 giance to God, and the high obligations he was under to comply 
 with the divine command, eat of the fruit of the tree, of which 
 God had said, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely 
 die," Gen. ii. 17; if he could not suspend a single act, even 
 though he, it is not improbable, knew this was to be the test 
 of his obedience, and that his own and the fate of his posterity 
 depended upon it : I say, if he, in these circumstances, without 
 
OF TARTICULAR ELECTION. 107 
 
 supernatural aids, could not refrain a single act, how is it pos- 
 sible for us, who are surrounded with innumerable temptations, 
 to perform the conditions of our covenant, to believe, repent, 
 and persevere in hoUness, which require the exertions of mil- 
 lions of positive acts ? To suspend acting, is much easier than 
 to put forth an act ; but what comparison is there between a 
 perfect man's refraining one act, and an imperfect man's put- 
 ting forth innumerable acts? When Adam then could not do 
 the former, will any one now presume to say he is able to do 
 the latter? So that, upon the whole, the doctrine of an uni- 
 versal conditional election appears to be unmerciful, while the 
 mercy of God shines with a bright lustre in the doctrine of 
 absolute particular election. 
 
 Thus I have finished what I design doctrinally from the 
 words. Let the arguments and objections be taken together, 
 compared, and weighed, and I doubt not but the balance will 
 be found to be in favour of our doctrine ; and it will appear 
 evident that God has decreed, before all worlds, the certain 
 salvation of a determinate number of mankind, and left the rest 
 to themselves. I have designedly studied great plainness of 
 speech, as best suited to the solemnity and importance of the 
 subject, that I might the more readily be understood of all, and 
 that your faith might not stand in the wisdom of man, but 
 in the power of God. I have endeavoured to set the whole 
 matter in the clearest and most obvious light I could, to digest 
 my proofs in a natural order, and to represent the objections in 
 the fairest and strongest manner. I hope no one will have rea- 
 son to say that I have been combating with a man of straw of 
 my own making, or fighting with my own shadow ; and, should 
 it appear that I have given an invidious, harsh, or false turn to 
 any argument or objection of our opponents, I should be hear- 
 tily sorry for it, and most readily acknowledge my fault. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 1. If there be such a doctrine as particular election in Scrip- 
 ture, then it ought to be preached. Some absolutely deny the 
 doctrine ; others think it improper to be taught, because they 
 apprehend that many persons may draw ill consequences from 
 it. But since Christ and his apostles preached it, and since the 
 adversaries are not so unwearied in their endeavours to oppose 
 and condemn it, it must well become us, who believe it, to 
 assert and vindicate it, to the best of our power: for, if this 
 doctrine is not to be preached, because some do or may abuse 
 it, for the same reason all the special truths of the gospel must 
 be laid aside, as useless or hurtful ; and so a Christian must 
 starve, for fear a profane sinner should grow wanton in a 
 plenty of provision. Who are they, generally speaking, that 
 
108 OF PARTICULAP. ELECTION. 
 
 revile and abuse this doctrine, but the unthinking, giddy, and 
 profane part of the world, who, when they boast of a power to 
 save themselves, make use of it only to their own destruction ; 
 and, when they assert good works to be the only way to hea- 
 ven, are very backward to perform any ? Besides this, that 
 there are no real disadvantages that can arise from the prudent 
 preaching of this doctrine, there are several positive advan- 
 tages that attend the preaching of it. For instance : the gospel 
 cannot be preached entire without it; it is the foundation of all 
 those great and precious promises that are contained in the 
 Bible: the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ would be little 
 better than a nullity without it: it tends to display the divine 
 sovereignty, and to give us a lively representation of the love 
 and grace of God to sinful men : it is a great comfort and sup- 
 port to Christians, in a time of common defection and tempta- 
 tion: it is an effectual antidote against the swelling pride of 
 man, and is, as I have before observed, one of the most power- 
 ful arguments to holiness and good works. 
 
 2. Is there an election of particular persons to salvation? 
 then we ought to inquire whether we are of the happy num- 
 ber. HoAV many God has chosen who can tell ? But was the 
 number never so few, every one should be putting the question, 
 Lord, is it I? Who knows but I may be a chosen vessel, and 
 the lot may fall upon me? However, I will, by the grace of 
 God, be found in the way of means; I will wait at the pool; I 
 will do the best I can to promote my own salvation. We can 
 lose nothing by endeavouring; nay, when God inclines and 
 enables us to put forth endeavours after salvation, we have good 
 ground to hope that he has a design to save us. 
 
 3. Is it through faith and holiness that God chooses persons 
 to salvation? then let us not separate the means from the end, 
 or ever think of getting to heaven without faith and holiness. 
 Let every one be persuaded to mind his duty, being fully 
 assured that duty and privileges, the means and end, are in- 
 separably connected together by the decree of God. 
 
 4. Let those be very thankful to God, who have ground to 
 hope that they are chosen of him to salvation. Praise is comely 
 for such as you: consider the greatness and freeness of the 
 blessing; to be chosen to an eternal crown of glory; to be cho- 
 sen out of a corrupt mass; to be chosen when so many learned, 
 rich, and honourable are rejected; to be chosen before you had 
 done any good, and without regard to foreseen merit : how 
 great is the mercy! how rich the grace! Let your souls con- 
 tinually magnify the Lord, and let your hearts rejoice in the 
 God of your salvation. This will be the glorious employment 
 of an eternity in heaven, and it ought to be the delightful prac- 
 tice of all the saints on earth. 
 
 5. Let believers give diligence to make their calling and 
 
OF PARTICULAR ELECTION. 109 
 
 election sure. You begin at the wrong end when you put the 
 question thus; Am I elected? The question should be, Am I 
 called? You are to make your election sure by your vocation: 
 If you are called, j''ou must be elected; for, "whom God pre- 
 destinated, them he also called," Rom. viii. 30. He calls them, 
 not only externally and ministerially, by his word; for, in this 
 respect, many are called, though few are chosen; but inter- 
 nally and efficaciously, by his Spirit, making them to listen, 
 and be obedient to his call. Have you then ever been made to 
 see your lost and miserable state by reason of sin? Have you 
 been deeply and inwardly affected at your wretched condition ? 
 Have you been enabled to receive and rest upon Jesus Christ, 
 as your only Saviour? Is Christ, in all his offices, precious to 
 you? Do you prize the ordinances of God, and communion 
 with him therein? Is it your desire to recommend the grace 
 of God, and adorn the gospel of Christ, by a virtuous and holy 
 conversation? You may then conclude that you are called and 
 elected ; and you have a right to take the comfort of it. Be 
 diligent then in this necessary work of examination ; converse 
 much with the sacred oracles of God ; look narrowly into your 
 own hearts, and pray earnestly to God for the sealing of his 
 Spirit ; and if the Spirit of God, by attesting to your vocation, 
 witnesses with your spirits that you are children of God, you 
 may be assured that you were predestinated to this adoption ; 
 and if a man is a child, then an heir, an heir of God, and a 
 joint-heir with Jesus Christ : " Give diligence then to make 
 your calling and election sure ; for if you do these things, you 
 shall never fall ; for so an entrance shall be ministered to you, 
 abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Sa- 
 viour Jesus Christ;" 
 
 To whom, with the eternal Father and Holy Spirit be glory 
 and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. 
 Amen. 
 
THE 
 DOCTRINE OF 
 
 ORIGINAL SIN, STATED AND DEFENDED, 
 
 IN TWO SERMOJVS, 
 
 By MR. PETER GOODWIN, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Romans v. 19. — By one man's disobedience many were made sinners. 
 
 The part allotted to me in these exercises, is to endeavour to 
 open and vindicate the doctrine of original sin; a doctrine of 
 very great importance, and wherein we are all highly concerned : 
 it is one of the fundamental truths of our Christian profession. 
 It lies (says the excellent Dr. Owen*) in the very foundation 
 of all wherein we have to do with God, with respect to our 
 pleasing him here, or obtaining the enjoyment of him hereafter. 
 It has a very great influence upon the important trutiis con- 
 cerning the person of Christ, his mediation, the fruits and 
 effects of it, and all the benefits we are made partakers of 
 thereby. Without a supposition of this, none of them can be 
 truly known, or savingly believed. Accordingly it is a doctrine 
 that the church of God was in full possession of, and was gene- 
 rally held and acknowledged for the first four centuries, till 
 Pelagius, and his followers denied it and disputed against it. 
 But, notwithstanding this was an undoubted article of primitive 
 Christianity, notwithstanding the great importance of it, and 
 the great concernment we all have in it, it is a doctrine that is 
 greatly opposed, and treated with contempt, and profane banter 
 and ridicule, by many in the age in which we live. And as it 
 cannot therefore be deemed unseasonable, so it is highly be- 
 coming those who have the real interests of religion at heart, 
 and a just zeal for the pure and uncorrupted doctrines of the 
 gospel, to stand up in the defence of it: nor can any justly be 
 offended at it, so long as we make use of no unwarrantable 
 aiethods, but only endeavour, in the pleading for what we 
 apprehend to be the faith once delivered to the saints, to 
 speak the truth in love. 
 
 This, therefore, I shall now attempt: and as original sin con- 
 sists of two parts, that which is imputed to us, and that which 
 
 * Preface to his Treatise on Indwelling Sin. 
 110 
 
OF ADAM's STN. Ill 
 
 is inherent in us, and it is necessary we should be acquainted 
 with both, that we may look after that two-fold righteousness 
 we have in Christ, his righteousness imputed to us in justifica- 
 tion, and an inherent work of righteousness wrought in us, in 
 sanctification, I shall consider each of these a little distinctly. 
 
 The former of these is a matter of pure revelation, and there- 
 fore we must regulate all our conceptions about it by, and look 
 for the confirmation of it only in, the Scriptures. It was very 
 agreeable to reason to suppose, that the great and holy God 
 made man pure and upright, and placed him under a wise and 
 equitable law for his conduct; but whence sin took its rise, and 
 what was the origin of all that moral evil that is in the world, 
 and that long train of miseries that attend it, was a question too 
 puzzling for mere natural light to resolve. This we are wholly 
 indebted to the Scriptures for; and it is, I think, very clearly 
 expressed in the words of my text. 
 
 The apostle having fully proved the doctrine of justification, 
 by faith, proceeds, in this excellent chapter, in the explication, 
 illustration, and application of that truth. He shows us the 
 precious benefits and privileges that flow from justification: he 
 acquaints us with tlie ground and foundation of it, the death of 
 Christ ; and that he might affect his own heart and ours with 
 that unspeakable love of God, which provided a Saviour, and 
 sent his only begotten Son into the world, for that purpose, he 
 considers the character and circumstances of the persons for 
 whom he appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh, and laid down 
 his life : they were not friends, and such as were able to oblige 
 him; but "God herein commended his love, that when we were 
 sinners," ungodly enemies, and without strength, either to help 
 ourselves, or be serviceable to him, " Christ died for us," ver. 
 6 — S. He illustrates it also from the consideration of the pre- 
 cious fruits of his death, ver. 9 — 11. And then further, to show 
 our obligations to him, he runs a parallel between the commu- 
 nication of sin and death by the first, and of righteousness and 
 life by the second Adam. This not only illustrates the great 
 truth he is discoursing of, but tends very much to the commend- 
 ing the love of God, and the comforting the hearts of true be- 
 lievers, in showing a correspondence between our fall and our 
 recovery; and not only alike, but a greater power in the second 
 Adam to make us happy, than there was in the first to make 
 us miserable. He compares them together as two public heads 
 and representatives of men, and copiously enlarges upon and 
 explains the parallel, ver. 12 — 21, and comprises the sum and 
 substance of the whole in the verse which is my text: "As by 
 one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the 
 obedience of one shall many be made righteous." 
 
 Our present concernment lies in the former clause, which ac- 
 quaints us how mankind came to be involved in sin and misery; 
 
112 OF THE IMPUTATION 
 
 I say mankind: for that by many here, we are to understand 
 all Adam's posterity, that descend from him by ordinary gene- 
 ration, is universally acknowledged; but it does by no means 
 follow from thence, that the many in the latter clause is of an 
 equal extent and latitude; for the design of the apostle here, 
 is not to treat of the extent of Christ's benefits, but to show 
 the manner of their conveyance to those who are happily ad- 
 mitted to share in them, whatever their numbers be ; that Christ 
 communicates grace and righteousness to all whom he repre- 
 sents, i. e. the elect, as Adam transferred sin and death on those 
 whom he represented, which are all men. So that the great 
 truth contained in the text, which I am to consider and improve, 
 is this: By one man's disobedience all mankind are made 
 sinners. 
 
 In speaking to which proposition, I shall, by divine assistance, 
 observe the following method: 
 
 I. I shall inquire what the one man's disobedience here in- 
 tended is. 
 
 II. I shall show in what sense all mankind are said to be 
 made sinners, by that one man's disobedience. 
 
 III. I shall consider the ground of this dispensation. 
 
 IV. I shall endeavour to vindicate the justice and equity 
 of it. 
 
 I. Let us inquire what the ojie man's disobedience here in- 
 tended is. 
 
 There is no doubt, but by the one m,an, is meant the first 
 man Adam, the father of us all : and it is, I think, plain, from 
 the scope and diction of the apostle, in the context, that by this 
 one man's disobedience, is meant the first sin only; that first 
 act of disobedience, in eating the forbidden fruit, by which man 
 first cast off the allegiance that was due to his Creator. It is 
 the sin of that one man, as he was a common person, the federal 
 head and representative of mankind, and while he continued 
 such, but he ceasing to be such, upon his breach of the cove- 
 nant; hence it is only that first sin, and not the sins he after- 
 wards committed, by which the many are said to be made sin- 
 ners. The ii Ttapaxot;, the disobedience, here is the same with 
 the 4 afiaptia, the si7i: that is, the Jirst sin, which, entering into 
 the world, rendered not only Adam himself, but all mankind 
 liable and obnoxious to death, verse 12. It is the same like- 
 wise with the to naparctujixa, the offcnce, or the fall, as the first 
 sin of Adam is generally called, by which many are dead, by 
 which death has obtained dominion over us, and by which 
 "judgment is come upon all men to condemnation," verse 15, 
 17, 18. The word is all along used in the singular number, 
 implying, says a judicious writer,* that judgment does not come 
 
 * Mr. Ridgely on Original Sin. 
 
OF adam's sin. 113 
 
 upon all men to condemnation for all the sins that Adam com- 
 mitted, but for that o?ie offence which was the first instance of 
 sin in this lower world. And as this seems plain, from the 
 scope and reasoning of the apostle, so some think it is expressly- 
 asserted by him: for what we read, Bi/ the offence of one, may 
 be read, Bi/ one offence, 81 tvo^ rtapartrw;uaf 05, judgment came, 
 upon all men to condemnation, verse IS, and so om- margin 
 reads it. And there is a various lection in one place; for while 
 most copies read, i-w rs J^os rta^arttu-juari., Bij one vian's offence, 
 death reigned by one; which our translators follow in the text, 
 there are some that read n>i hv ftapantoifiati, by one offence; 
 which Beza follows, and our translation in the margin. Now, 
 the disobedience, in my text, being the same with that one 
 offence, or fall, mentioned before, it must be meant of that first 
 act of disobedience, by which Adam fell from his original state 
 of righteousness and of happiness. 
 
 II. I shall inquire in what sense all mankind are said to be 
 made simiers, by that one man's disobedience ; and this, I 
 humbly conceive, is by imputation. I grant that we may be 
 said to be made sinners by the first man, as we derive from him 
 natures universally corrupted and depraved; of which, God 
 willing, I shall speak afterwards; but I cannot help thinking, 
 that the proper and direct intendment of the apostle here is, that 
 we are made sinners by the imputation of the guilt of the first 
 sin to us. 
 
 This, I am very sensible, is denied by many. The Pelagians 
 and Socinians agree in saying, that Adam's sin was merely 
 personal ; that by it, indeed, as being the first sin, it is said, that 
 sin entered into the world, but that his posterity were not con- 
 cerned in it ; nor are they liable to any punishment for it. And 
 with these do fully agree, not only our modern infidels, one of 
 whom professes, that original sin was ever a difficult pill with 
 him to swallow, his reason stopping it in his throat, and not 
 having faith enough to wash it down;* but also many that 
 would be accounted good Christians, and staunch churchmen : 
 " What am I concerned, says one,t in Adam's sin, which had 
 never my will, or consent, more than in the sin of Mahomet, or 
 Julius Cassar; nay, [horresco referens) than in the sins of Beel- 
 zebub and Lucifer." They allow, indeed, we may be said to 
 be made sinners by Adam, by imitation ; as Jeroboam is said 
 by way of example, to have caused Israel to sin ; but as we 
 can no more, in this sense, be said to be made sinners, by the 
 disobedience of the first man, than we can by the disobedience 
 of our immediate parents, or of any other person ; so this can- 
 not, by any considerate mind, be imagined to answer the strong 
 expressions made use of in our context. We are told, that by 
 
 * Blount's Oracles of Reason, p. 10. 
 t Glanvil of the Pre-existence of Souls, c. 2. 
 15 
 
114 OF THE IMPUTATION 
 
 one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and 
 therefore death hath passed upon all men, because all sinned 
 in him : Death reigned by one, by this one man's offence, and 
 that over those who were incapable of imitating him; and by 
 this one offence, judgment is come upon all men to condem- 
 nation. These expressions are very strong, and do more than 
 intimate, that death was not only the consequence of Adam's 
 sin, with respect to himself, but is a misery and punishment 
 entailed upon all his posterity, for that first sin of his.* 
 
 This is so manifest, that our more sober and thoughtful Ar- 
 minians see a necessity of abandoning the foregoing pretence, of 
 our being made sinners only by imitation. They plead, that we 
 are said to have sinned in Adam, and to be made shmers by his 
 disobedience ; not, indeed, by the imputation of his sin and dis- 
 obedience to us, but only by becoming obnoxious to that death, 
 which was the punishment of his sin. Thus a late annotator,t 
 of no small fame, says, " This is the only sense in which we are 
 said, by the disobedience of the first man, to be made sinners, 
 namely, by being subject to the death, and temporal calamities 
 and miseries, which came upon all mankind for Adam's sin; so 
 that we sinned in him, and, by his disobedience, became sin- 
 ners, by a metonymy of the effect, by suffering the punishment 
 which God had threatened to him for it." Herein he follows 
 Grotius, and produces several scripture testimonies to prove, 
 that the Hebrew word signifies both sin and punishment ; 
 which pains might well have been spared, because as no body 
 denies it, so it is nothing to the purpose. This we are told, is 
 the interpretation given of these passages by the Greek expo- 
 sitors, Chrysostom, Theodoret, (Ecumenius, and Theophylact ; 
 and it is generally adopted by the gentlemen on the other side 
 of the question, Biit besides, that it is difficult to conceive how 
 we should become liable to the punishment, and how it is re- 
 concilable with the justice and righteousness of God to inflict 
 that punishment upon us, if we were no way chargeable with 
 the guilt of that sin, since punishment always supposes guilt. 
 I say, besides this, such an interpretation seems to reflect ab- 
 surdity upon the apostle and his reasoning; in the twelfth 
 verse, death is said to have " passed upon all, because all sin- 
 ned" in Adam, which is allowed, by the annotator, to be paral- 
 lel with my text. Now, there the apostle plainly gives a rea- 
 son why the sentence of death passed upon all men; and if this 
 be the only meaning of our being said to sin in Adam, it makes 
 him guilty of the absurdity of proving ide7n per idem. The 
 sense, according to this interpretation, must be, death has 
 
 * In me all 
 
 Posterity stands cursed I Fair patrimony, 
 That I must leave ye, sons I — Milton. 
 
 t Whitby in Rom. v. 12. 
 
OF adam's sin. 115 
 
 passed upon all men, because all men are subject to death, or 
 death has passed upon all men, because death passes upon all 
 men. An absurdity which so great a reasoner as the apostle 
 Paul, abstracting the consideration of his being inspired, could 
 never have been guilty of. 
 
 There is therefore certainly something more than this intend- 
 ed in the expression, and that is, that we are made sinners by 
 having that one man's disobedience imputed to us. Not that 
 we actually and personallj'' committed that act of disobedience ; 
 that is impossible, since we did not then exist ; and the very 
 notion of imputation clears us from the ridiculous charge of 
 such an absurdity; for the judicial accounting that to us, which 
 is not inherent in us, and was not personally done by us, is 
 what is meant by imputation , and that we are thus made sin- 
 ners by Adam's disobedience, appears both from the significa- 
 tion of the word here made use of, and from the scope of the 
 apostle in this context. When we are said to be made sinners, 
 the word Karsja^jjcfar, properly signifies the making us such by 
 a judicial act. We are constituted sinners, i. e. in the divine 
 economy and administration accounted as criminals. That act 
 of disobedience is reckoned to and charged upon us; and we are 
 dealt with as if we had actually sinned. This signification the 
 word will very well bear; and that it is the meaning of it here, 
 seems very plain to me, from this whole discourse of the apos- 
 tle. We are so made sinners, as to be made liable to death, 
 the punishment of sin : this has passed upon all men, because 
 all are reckoned to have sinned in Adam. It has reigned, from 
 Adam, successively, in all the various generations of the world, 
 and that even over them who had not sinned, after the simili- 
 tude of Adam's transgression, or infants who die before they 
 come under the guilt of any actual sin : how could they be made 
 liable to death, the punishment of sin, if they had not been 
 judged or reckoned to have sinned ? Does not the supposition 
 reflect upon the justice of God, in punishing men for an act 
 they were no way concerned in ? Nay, does it not imply a con- 
 tradiction, since punishment always supposes guilt? Whether 
 God, by his sovereign power, might not have inflicted death on 
 an innocent creature, I do not dispute; but that an innocent 
 creature should be guilty of death, seems, to me, a contradic- 
 tion ; for death being the wages of sin, to be guilty of death, is 
 some way or other to have sinned. We could not sin in our 
 own persons before we existed; and therefore if, by the first 
 man's disobedience, we are made guilty of death, it must be by 
 the imputation of the guilt of that sin to us. This also seems 
 plain, from the verse immediately preceding my text, where, by 
 the one man's offence, judgment is said to have come upon all 
 men to condemnation. — Judgment is not in the original ; but 
 it Ls not material, whether we supply sin, according to some ; 
 
116 OF THE IIMPUTATION 
 
 ov judgment, according to others; for, which ever of them is 
 meant, it is expressly said to be to condemnation; "which 
 word," says a learned writer,? "cannot, with any manner of 
 consistency, be taken in any other than a forensic sense ; and, 
 perhaps, it is never used in any other sense in the New Testa- 
 ment." Now, we are thus brought under condemnation by the 
 offence of one, even Adam ; and for one person to be condemned 
 for the offence of another, must necessarily argue the imputa- 
 tion of that offence to him, otherwise the condemnation would 
 not be just. If, therefore, all mankind are liable to judgment 
 or condemnation by this one offence, although not actually 
 committed by them, it must necessarily be placed to their ac- 
 count, i. e. imputed to them. 
 
 This further appears from the manifest scope of the apostle 
 in this context, which is to illustrate the doctrine of justification, 
 of which I have treated before, and to represent the way in 
 which we are made partakers of the righteousness of Christ. 
 This is the professed design of the comparison he here makes 
 between Adam and Christ : it is as if he had said, as Adam 
 transmits sin and death to all his natural posterity, so Christ 
 conveys righteousness and justification of life to all his spiritual 
 seed. This he illustrates in the preceding verses, and gives us 
 the sum of the whole in my text, that " as by one man's dis- 
 obedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One 
 are many made righteous." The way of conveyance in both 
 is the same. Now, how are we made righteous by the obe- 
 dience of Christ, but by the imputation of that obedience to us ? 
 And if so, when we are said to be made sinners by the disobe- 
 dience of the first man, the antithesis requires that it should be 
 meant of our being made sinners, by the imputation of his dis- 
 obedience to us. This is so necessary a consequence from the 
 apostle's reasoning, that the deniers of the imputation of Adam's 
 sin, of course deny the doctrine of justification by imputed 
 righteousness: and, perhaps, it is from the pride of men, in 
 refusing to submit to the righteousness of Christ, and going 
 about to establish a righteousness of their own, that they have 
 set themselves so much to oppose the imputation of Adam's 
 sin. This, in particular, seems to have been the case of Socinus, 
 who confesses that this discourse of the apostle gives great 
 countenance to the doctrine of justification by the imputation of 
 the righteousness of Christ.t But not relishing that, he sets 
 himself, with all his cunning and artifice, to oppose the impu- 
 tation of the sin of Adam to his natural posterity, being very 
 sensible that if that is admitted, the imputationof the righteous- 
 ness of Christ to his spiritual seed will unavoidably follow, from 
 the reasoning of the apostle in this context. But it is time to 
 proceed. 
 
 * Mr. Rijigely on Original Sin. t Socinus de Servatore, Par. 4, cap. 6. 
 
OF adam's sin. 117 
 
 III. I shall consider the o-ror/n^ of this dispensation; and this 
 is, that Adam, in his first act of disobedience, was not only the 
 natural root, but the federal head of all his posterity. I take 
 it for granted that those words, containing God's prohibition, 
 " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the 
 tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat ; for 
 in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," Gen. ii. 
 16, 17, are to be considered not only as expressive of a law, 
 strictly speaking, or a mere declaration of the will of God, as a 
 Sovereign, but as containing in them a covenant transaction 
 between God and Adam: it is not, indeed, styled there a cove- 
 nant ; but it is usually called so by divines, and it really was 
 so : for in the threatening of death annexed, in case of disobe- 
 dience, there was included a promise, in case of obedience, of 
 the continuance of his then happy circumstances, and his con- 
 firmation therein, if not of a superadded happiness : this was 
 proposed to Adam, and he agreed and consented to it, which is 
 the formal nature of a covenant. The sum was this ; that if he 
 persevered in his innocency, the grace and strength he had 
 should be continued to him, and he should live and be happy; 
 but if he disobeyed God, he should lose the advantages he was 
 then possessed of, and be subject to death and misery, both in 
 this and in another state. This, I think, is sufficiently proved 
 by a reverend and learned writer,* whose praise is in the 
 churches, so that I need not enlarge upon it. 
 
 Now, in this covenant, Adam was considered not as a pri- 
 vate, but a public person, sustaining the persons of all man- 
 kind : he was constituted the head and representative of all 
 his posterity, and we were in him, not only seminally, but 
 federally also : we were in him as our natural root and com- 
 mon parent, from whom we descend by natural generation: 
 we were in his loins, and a part of him, when he fell, and, 
 upon this account, his disobedience may be reckoned ours ; as 
 Levi, not born till many years after, is said to have paid tithes 
 to Melchisedec, because he was in the loins of Abraham, Heb. 
 vii. 9, 10. But the principal gromid of the imputation of his 
 sin to us is, that we were in him as our federal head and re- 
 presentative. If this can be proved, the doctrine we are con- 
 firming will be established upon a firm and unshaken founda- 
 tion. And we need, I think, look no further for the proof of 
 it than our context: for why is the emphasis all along laid upon 
 this one man, as him, by whom, and this one man's sin, as 
 that, by which we are made sinners, and subject to death and 
 condemnation ? Why were we not made sinners by Eve, who 
 was first in the transgression, and was a root of propagation as 
 
 * Mr. Ridgely on Original Sin. See also Bishop Bull's Ser. Vol. III. Disc. 5. 
 
1X8 OF THE IMPUTATION 
 
 well as Adam? Why not by the sins he committed after his 
 fall, when he still continued to be the natural root of mankind, 
 and we were all still seminally in him? Nay, why not by the 
 sins of our intermediate parents ? It is very difficult, if not im- 
 possible to assign any other reason for this, but because Adam 
 was considered as our public covenant-head and representa- 
 tive, and that he himself ceased to be so, upon his breach of 
 the covenant by his first act of disobedience. And this seems 
 the direct intendment of the apostle, verse 14, where he calls 
 Adam, the figure or type of him that ivas to come. Some by 
 him that was to come, understand mankind; and give us this 
 as the sense that all are, by Adam's disobedience, subject to 
 death, even infants that never sinned after the similitude of 
 Adam's transgression, because, when he committed that act, 
 he was the type of all men that were to come, and were to 
 succeed him, and they were all represented in his person; and 
 so is an express assertion of the truth we are pleading for. 
 But it will unavoidably follow, from the common interpreta- 
 tion, if by him that was to come, we do, as I think we ought 
 to, understand Christ. For in what was Adam a type of 
 Christ? Not as he was a man certainly, consisting of soul and 
 body, since, in that respect, all who lived before Christ might 
 as justly be called types of him as Adam; but it was in some 
 peculiar circumstance in which he was distinguished from all 
 others, and that is, he was the federal head and representative 
 of his posterity. It was in this regard, that in the covenant 
 transactions between God and him, and in the consequent 
 event of those transactions, he was a public person; so Christ 
 the antitype certainly was. He is the Head of the new cove- 
 nant, and acted as a public Person and the Representative of 
 all that the Father had given him: he dealt with God for 
 them, as their Head and Representative, died for them, rose 
 for them, entered within the veil for them, and did all that he 
 did for them; and in this regard was Adam his type; God 
 dealt with him, and he acted as the federal head and represen- 
 tative of his posterity; so that what he did in that station, and 
 under that character, we may be said to have done in him; 
 and what was done in him, may be said to have been done to 
 us in him. And this appears from the subsequent reasoning 
 of the apostle, where he considers the influence of these two 
 heads, what is conveyed by them, and the manner of convey- 
 ing it to those that are respectively in them; that as Adam, the 
 type and head of the first covenant, conveys sin and death 
 to all that were in him naturally, so Christ, the antitype and 
 the head of the new covenant, conveys righteousness and life 
 to all that are in him spiritually; so that we need not look any 
 further than to this discourse of the apostle, to prove that Adam 
 
OF adam's sin. 119 
 
 was the federal head and representative of all his posterity. 
 « But this," says a right reverend expositor,* who represents it 
 as a harsh and inconceivable opinion, "is only a single proof; 
 and, when we have not a variety of places, proving any point in 
 which one gives light to another, we cannot be so sure of the 
 meaning of any one place, as to raise a theory, or found a doc- 
 trine upon it." To which I answer: that if this was the case, 
 and we had no other proof, this is not a just exception, be- 
 cause a single proof, if it is valid, is and ought to be esteemed 
 a sutficient proof But this really is not the case, for we have 
 other scriptures that give light to, and tend to confirm this 
 truth; and particularly where the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 45, com- 
 pares Adam and Christ together, under the notions of the first 
 and second man, and the first and last Adam. In what respect 
 is Christ called the second man? It cannot be meant in order 
 of time and number, for so Cain, and not Christ, was the second 
 man : it must therefore be in some respect, in which there were 
 but two men, in which there was one, and but one, before him; 
 and it is very difficult to conceive in what respect this could 
 be, unless as he was a public person, and head of all his spirit- 
 ual seed. As, if Christ was a second public person, there must 
 have been a first public person, and that must be Adam, since 
 no man, if not Adam, was ever the public head of all man- 
 kind : thus he is also called the last Jidam, because typified 
 by the first, and bearing some resemblance to him. But in 
 what does this resemblance consist, if not in this, that as Adam 
 was a public person, and head of the first covenant, and as 
 such conveyed sin and death to his natural posterity, so Christ 
 is a public person, and head of the new covenant, and the 
 meritorious as well as effective principal of the resurrection, by 
 which his spiritual seed shall have a full and complete deliver- 
 ance from all the effects of Adam's sin? " For as in Adam all 
 die, so in Christ shall all be made alive," 1 Cor. xv. 22. From 
 all which it appears, that Adam was not only the natural root, 
 but the federal head and representative of his natural posterity, 
 and this is the ground and reason of the imputation of the guilt 
 of the first sin to us, or of our being made sinners by his disobe- 
 dience. 
 
 IV. It remains, that I endeavour to vindicate the justice and 
 equity of this dispensation. And here there is a mighty outcry 
 raised, as if we represented God dealing with mankind in a way 
 that would be accounted very unjust and severe, in all methods 
 of human government. A certain writer, who thinks himself 
 qualified to be an advocate for reason, as a sufficient guide in 
 matters of religion, and insolently presumes to direct his Maker 
 what was fit, or unfit for him to do, has boldly pronounced such 
 
 * Bishop Burnet's Exposition of the Ninth Article of the Church of England. 
 
120 OF THE IMPUTATION 
 
 a constitution of things to be wrong, that mankind is not only 
 unkindly, but harshly and unequally dealt with, and insinuates 
 that we have not fair play for our lives, for our souls. But 
 where lies the injustice and inequality of this constitution of 
 things? Is it that one should be punished for the sin of an- 
 other? This is far from being unjust in all cases. The great 
 God himself, who can do no wrong, but is righteous in all his 
 tvays, and holy in all his works, has threatened in the second 
 commandment, to visit the iniquities of fathers upon their chil- 
 dren; and we have many instances of it recorded in Scripture. 
 Nor did the Pagans think this inconsistent with the divine per- 
 fections, as might be proved, by various testimonies, both from 
 their philosophers and poets. Nor is it reckoned unjust in hu- 
 man governments, as in the case of forfeitures by high treason. 
 
 If it is objected, that it is delivered as a standing rule of divine 
 justice, that none should be punished but for his own sins, 
 Ezek. xviii. 20: it is answered, that supposing this should be 
 granted to be the standing rule of divine justice, in ordinary 
 cases, (for that it does not hold universally, appears from what 
 has but now been delivered) yet it does not come up to the case 
 before us, because no man is now the federal head and repre- 
 sentative of his posterity, as Adam was. That rule holds good 
 only in punishments inflicted for another man's crime, on those 
 who have no manner of concern hi it. But that is not the pre- 
 sent case, since it has been proved, that by Adam's offence we 
 are all made sinners, and that upon this ground, that we were 
 all considered in him, and as sinning in him, as our head and 
 representative. 
 
 But it will be said, that this ground is, indeed, the ground 
 and foundation of the charge of injustice and inequality in this 
 procedure; for where is the justice of Adam's being considered 
 as our representative, and of our being concluded by what he 
 did, when we never chose him, nor had he our consent to be 
 our representative? To this it is answered, that to make Adam 
 our public representative, there was no necessity that such a 
 relation should be conferred upon him, by our explicit consent. 
 It is sufficient that it was done by the righteous appointment of 
 God, who had a sovereign authority to constitute Adam the 
 head of all mankind. God chose him, and there is the highest 
 reason we should acquiesce in the choice, if we consider, that 
 God made as good a choice, as men could possibly have made 
 for themselves. Adam was not only the first man, and common 
 father of mankind, and therefore entitled to that privilege and 
 honour, by the law of nature, as we find the first heads of tribes 
 frequently appearing as public persons, instead of the rest, but 
 he was as perfect as ever any after could have been. He had 
 a perfection of strength to fulfil the conditions of the covenant; 
 and, being the common father of all, had not only the law of 
 
OF adaim's stn. 121 
 
 nature, but tlmt of love and conscience, which parents generally 
 have to their children's good, as much as to their own, to oblige 
 and engage him to be faithful. 
 
 But, admitting him to be ever so well qualified for this trust, 
 it may be said, we never consented to his transacting for us; 
 and therefore it is hard we should be concluded by what he did. 
 But is there any thing peculiar in this regard to this first 
 covenant transaction with Adam? Have we not frequent in- 
 stances of it in after-covenant transactions? When God entered 
 into covenant with Abraham and his seed, and appointed cir- 
 cumcision to be the seal of it, were not the seed obliged by it, 
 although incapable of giving an actual consent to it? How else 
 could every child that was uncircumcised be said to break that 
 covenant ? So in that covenant agreement between God and 
 the people of Israel, it is said, " Neither with you only do I 
 make this covenant, and this oath, but with him that standeth 
 here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with 
 him that is not here with us this day," Deut. xxix. 14, 15; that 
 is, says Bishop Kidder, with your posterity; not only with those 
 that are now in being, but are absent, but with those that are 
 afterwards to proceed from you, and are not yet born, and 
 therefore are not capable of consenting to this agreement; and 
 so it is with covenants and contracts made between man and 
 man, at this day. Plow often do men oblige their children and 
 heirs, even those that are unborn, to keep the conditions of 
 those contracts? And do any complain of the injustice of this 
 procedure? That our first father therefore should transact for 
 us, without our consent, is so far from being unjust and unequal, 
 that it is justified by the common sentiments and practice of 
 mankind. 
 
 If, therefore, there is any injustice, it must be in the matter 
 of the covenant he was placed under: but this cannot be, since 
 God therein required nothing of him, but what he was obliged 
 to, by the law of his creation, as well as what he was able to 
 perform. The most perfect and exact obedience was due from 
 man to God, the author of his being, by the law of nature; and 
 the transgression of this law of nature deserved wrath, and 
 punishment was due to it from the justice of God. In requir- 
 ing such an obedience, therefore, and that under the penalty of 
 death, there could be no injustice. But then if it is considered, 
 that God likewise promised to reward this obedience, that was 
 due by the law of his creation, not only with the continuance 
 of his present happy circumstances, but a superadded felicity, 
 which man could have no claim to, but from the free promise 
 of God, it is so far from being an instance of severity, that it 
 is an instance of infinite grace and condescending goodness in 
 God. This, some will say, is true, with respect to Adam him- 
 self; but if Adam is considered in all this as a public person 
 
 16 
 
122 OF THE IMPUTATION 
 
 and representative, it is equally true with respect to us, since, 
 if lie had stood, we had as certainly received the benefit, as, by 
 his fall, we are involved in his guilt and ruin. Would it have 
 been just with God to have judged us innocent in innocent 
 Adam? And is it unjust in God to judge us guilty in guilty 
 Adam? I shall take leave here to produce the sentiments of 
 two very great men. The one an eminent divine :* " It is an 
 equal rule," says he, " that by the same law, by virtue of which 
 one may come to receive good freely, he should, upon the same 
 terms, receive the contrary evil deservedly, upon offending. As 
 Job said, ' Shall we receive good from God, and not evil ?' so 
 may we say here, should we have received the happy fruits of 
 Adam's obedience if he had stood ? And should we not re- 
 ceive the contrary, if he fell, through the guilt of his sin? If 
 God had made the law only to have received evil upon his 
 offending, who could have found fault ? much less when he put 
 him into an estate, which would have proved so happy for us, 
 if he had not offended." And he goes on to vindicate the jus- 
 tice of God, in constituting Adam our federal head and repre- 
 sentative, by the following similitude : " Suppose," says he, " a 
 king should raise up a man, out of nothing, to a great and noble 
 condition, which he also gave him, not for his own person only, 
 but for his seed for ever, might he not make this covenant with 
 him, that if he turned traitor, he should forfeit all for himself, 
 and his posterity likewise be made slaves? And would not 
 this law justly take hold of them, though they were not then 
 born? Yes, God will justify his proceedings by this course in 
 the v/orld, generally in all kingdoms; which shows, that it is 
 the law of nature, and that there is a justice in it ; for the law 
 makes the blood of a nobleman, guilty of treason, tainted till 
 restored." The other is an eminent lawyer,! who was well 
 skilled in the nature of laws and penalties, and the reasons of 
 them: '^God made man righteous at first," says he, "and gave 
 him a righteous law; and, inasmuch as man owed an infinite 
 subjection to the Author of his being, he owed an exact obe- 
 dience to this lav/ of his Maker: yet God was pleased to give 
 him this law, not only as the rule of his obedience, but as a 
 covenant of life and death, wherein the first man made a stipu- 
 lation for himself and his posterity; and this was just, for he 
 had in himself the race of all mankind. All succeeding genera- 
 tions are but pieces of Adam, who had not, or could have, their 
 being but from him, and so it was but reasonable and just for 
 him to contract for all his posterity; and as it was just, in re- 
 spect of the person contracting, so it was in respect of the man- 
 ner of the contract. The law, which was his covenant, was a 
 
 * Dr. Goodwin, Vol. III. p. 18. 
 
 t Lord Chief Justice Hale's Meditation upon the Lord's prayer. 
 
OF adam's sin. 123 
 
 just and righteous law; a law suitable to the endowments and 
 power of his nature. Again, the blessedness which, by his 
 obedience he was to hold, was not of his own creating or ob- 
 taining; it was the free gift of God; and it is but reasonable that 
 the Lord of this gift might give it in what manner he pleased ; 
 and it could not be unjust, that the Lord who gave him this 
 blessedness, should give it him under what conditions he pleased ; 
 but he gave it him under most reasonable and just conditions, 
 viz. an obedience to a most just and reasonable law, which suited 
 with the ability and perfection of his nature. Therefore when, 
 upon the breach of the covenant by man, he withdrew that 
 blessedness from him and his posterity, he did no more than 
 what was most just for him to do. Thus we stand guilty of 
 that sin which our first father committed, and are deprived of 
 that blessedness and life which our first father had, and the pri- 
 vation of that blessedness and immortality is death." Thus ad- 
 mirably does that very great man clear the justice of God in this 
 affair, and let us see that it is exactly conformable to the laws 
 of reason and equity. I will only add, that if this course yet 
 seems severe, let it be considered, that God has been pleased, 
 out of his abundant goodness, to establish the same rule and 
 method for our salvation and recovery. My text tells us, that 
 " as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; so by 
 the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." God has 
 ordained Christ in our nature to be a second Adam; he is all 
 along, in this discourse, considered by the apostle as a public 
 person, and federal head and representative, as the first Adam 
 was ; he sustains the persons of all that were given to him by 
 the Father; and God is graciously pleased to reckon what was 
 done by him as done by them, as he looks upon what was done 
 by Adam as done by us ; and life and righteousness are con- 
 veyed from the one to all true believers, his spiritual seed, as 
 sin and death are conveyed from the other, to all his natural 
 posterity. So that here is no just ground of complaint, since 
 there is sufficient compensation made by Christ for what we lost 
 in Adam, and the mighty benefit redounds to us, in the same 
 way too, that Adam's sin does ; for as this is imputed to us 
 to condemnation, so is the righteousness of Christ to justifica- 
 tion of life. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 From the whole we may observe, that the doctrine of the im- 
 putation of Adam's sin is no novel doctrine, but a part of pri- 
 mitive Christianity. It was, indeed, acknowledged by the Jews, 
 as the learned Buxtorf has proved, by several testimonies out of 
 their writers, and as bishop Burnet, in his exposition of the 
 ninth article, allows there is good reason to believe, although he 
 reckons it one of the odd things found amongst the Cabbalists. 
 
124 OF THE IMPUTATION 
 
 But it is plain, from this discourse of the apostle, that it was an 
 article of primitive Christianity; and that it was the sentiment of 
 the primitive chm'ch, may be proved, not only by citations* from 
 particular fathers, but the concurrent testimony of an African 
 Synod, held in the year 254, and in which were present three- 
 score and six bishops, A question was proposed to them con- 
 cernmg the time of the baptism of infants. Whether it might be 
 done before the eighth day after their birth, according to the 
 law of circumcision? The Synod agreed that it might; and, 
 amongst their reasons, they have these words to our purpose : 
 " An infant is not to be prohibited from this grace, who, being 
 but just born, is guilty of no sin, but of original, which he con- 
 tracted from Adam, who ought the more readily to be received 
 to the remission of sins, because not his own but another's sins 
 are remitted to him." And this, to be sure, is the good old Pro- 
 testant doctrine, which, at the Reformation, was rescued from 
 that darkness and corruption under which it lay obscured in the 
 times of Popery. And this, many think, is what the Church of 
 England means, when, in her ninth Article, she asserts original 
 sin to deserve God's wrath and damnation. Let us therefore 
 endeavour to confirm our faith in, and hold fast this doctrine, 
 and not suffer ourselves to be moved from it, by the slight and 
 cunning craftiness of any who lie in wait to deceive. Let us 
 learn, from hence, to be deeply humbled before God, for that 
 first act of disobedience, which has involved us all in guilt and 
 ruin. Since we are all by that act made sinners, we must all 
 necessarily be children of wrath by nature ; and therefore let us 
 not dare to murmur and repine against God, but acknowledge 
 the righteousness of that sentence, which has passed upon us, 
 and justify God under all the evils and afilictions we are ex- 
 posed to, or exercised with. Abstracting the consideration of 
 the corruption of our natures, and our m.anifold actual transgres- 
 sions, there is enough in that first sin, and our concernment in it, 
 to vindicate the equity of the divine proceedings, in the greatest 
 afflictive evils that befal us here. Hereby all the world is justly 
 become guilty before God, and that is reason sufficient why every 
 mouth should be stopped. Let this then fill our souls with an 
 holy admiration of and thankfulness for the wisdom and grace 
 of God, in providing a second Adam, by whose obedience we 
 may be made righteous, as by Adam's disobedience we were 
 made sinners. And as what has been said shows us our need 
 
 * I shall only give a remarkable testimony of Chrysostom : The reason of the 
 apostle's saying so often [by One] is, that when a Jew shall ask, How should the 
 world be saved by the well-doing of One (the righteousness of Christ /) thou 
 niightest be able to say to him, How should the world be condemned by one 
 Adam's sinning. By which words (says Dr. Hammond, on Psal. li. 5,) it appears 
 that this doctrine of the wliole world's being under condemnation for the sin of 
 Adam, was such as he thought no Jew would doubt of, for else it could be no fit 
 a\eans to silence his objection against the redemption of the whole world by Christ. 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 125 
 
 of Christ, so it should make us fervent in praying to God, for 
 the blessed Spirit, to reveal Christ to us, and work in us that 
 faith, by which we may be united to him, that, being found in 
 him, we may not only be acquitted from the guilt of the first 
 man's disobedience, but may be brought, through the abun- 
 dance of his grace, and the gift of righteousness, to reign in life, 
 by one, Jesus Christ our Lord ; 
 
 To whom be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Psalm li. 5. — Behold I was sliapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother con- 
 
 ceive me. 
 
 The knowledge of our fall in Adam, and of the dreadful conse- 
 quences of it, and our recovery by Christ, are the two great 
 hinges, whereon the whole structure of the Christian religion 
 moves, and which go linked together, as it were, hand in hand. 
 As the former cannot be thoroughly understood without taking 
 a survey of the latter, so the latter cannot be laid hold on 
 without a sound knowledge of the former. It is therefore of 
 very great importance and concern to us, both to be established 
 in the belief of the doctrine, and to acquaint ourselves with the 
 nature of original sin: and as the province assigned me is to 
 be assisting herein, I proposed to consider the two parts of 
 original sin, that which is imputed to us, and that which is in- 
 herent in us, a little distinctly. The former of these was the 
 subject of my preceding discourse, where I endeavoured to 
 prove, that the first man's disobedience is imputed to us, and 
 to vindicate the justice and equity of it. And I am now to 
 consider the other part of original sin, namely, the corruption 
 of nature which is derived to us from him. And, that I may 
 render the words that have been read subservient to this pur- 
 pose, I shall, through divine assistance, inquire into the true 
 meaning of them; and then endeavour to open and vindicate 
 the great truth contained in them. 
 
 This is one of David's penitential psalms, and the occasion 
 of it was his sin with Bathsheba, as we may see in the title, 
 " To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the 
 prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." 
 The story we have at large recorded in his history. 2 Sam. 
 xi. 12. It was a very heinous and complicated wickedness, of 
 which he had been guilty, adultery and murder, and yet he is 
 
126 OF ORIGINAL CORKUPTION. 
 
 supposed to have continued in it for a considerable time, with- 
 out any expressions of remorse or sorrow for it, till God sent 
 Nathan to convince him of, and reprove him for it: but his 
 conscience being, by this means awakened, he became truly 
 humbled, and, as a testimony of his unfeigned repentance and 
 sorrow for what he had done, composed this penitential hymn, 
 wherein he is very earnest in praying to God for pardon and 
 mercy, and justifies God, and takes shame to himself, by a free 
 and open confession of his sin. He not only penitently ac- 
 knowledges the particular crime he had committed, with the 
 aggravations of it, and thereby justifies God in the sentence 
 passed upon him, verse 3, 4 : but he follows the streams up to 
 the spring head, and laments his original sin, and natural cor- 
 ruption, in the words of my text; "Behold, I was shapen in 
 iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." It is as if he 
 had said, " This is not the only sin which I have reason to ac- 
 knowledge and bewail before thee ; for this filthy stream leads 
 me to a corrupt fountain: this heinous crime, although drawn 
 out by external temptation, was, indeed, the proper fruit of my 
 own vile nature, which, without the restraints of thy provi- 
 dence or grace, will incline and dispose me to commit these 
 and ten thousand other sins, as occasions offer themselves : not 
 that I mention this in excuse of what I have done ; no, this 
 innate proneness to evil ought, and, if I had duly considered it, 
 would have made me more watchful against the temptation, 
 and more diligent to suppress those bad inclinations, which I 
 knew to be so natural, that I brought them into the world with 
 me. I confess it therefore as an aggravation of my sin and 
 folly in dallying with the temptation, and venturing amongst 
 the sparks with such tinder in my heart, and desire to humble 
 myself before thee for it, and implore thy pardon and mercy." 
 So that it is his natural corruption, which is commonly called 
 original sin, because it is as ancient as our original, and because 
 it is the original of all our actual transgressions, that he here 
 confesses and bewails. This is excepted against by some. The 
 learned Grotius thinks there is an hyperbole in the words, and 
 gives us this as the sense: Non nimc tantum not now only, 
 but I have often sinned, a pueritia mea, from my childhood; 
 as if he only took occasion, from this great crime to confess 
 his other former actual transgressions. But the expressions are 
 too strong to admit this gloss; nor should we relinquish the 
 literal sense of words in Scripture, and have recourse to figures, 
 without a plain necessity, whereas none can be pretended here, 
 unless it be to serve an hypothesis. The Pelagians and Soci- 
 nians endeavour to avoid the force of this text, and the argu- 
 ment contained in it, for the proof of the corruption of nature, 
 by pretending that David here only confessed his parents' sin- 
 fulness, in begetting and conceiving him, and not his own 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 127 
 
 natural sinfulness, as begotten and conceived: but this is a 
 very forced interpretation; for the word, which we render, / 
 ivas shapen, and which respects not his parents' acts in beget- 
 ting, but, if we carry it so far, his formation in the womb, 
 wherein they, as well as himself, were passive and not actors, 
 will not bear this meaning. This sense is also inconsistent 
 with his design, which is not to accuse others, but to confess 
 his own sin, and implore pardon and mercy for it; and what 
 an odd plea would this put into the mouth of such a penitent ? 
 Although I did not derive sin from my parents, yet they sinned 
 in begetting me, therefore pardon my sin. Besides all this, 
 there is, in truth, no foundation for this interpretation in the 
 nature of things. The Scriptures give us no hint of any sin 
 of this kind that David's parents were chargeable with. On 
 the other hand, we find him mentioning the piety of his mother, 
 that she was God's handmaid, and pleading his relation to her 
 as such. Psalms Ixxxvi. 16. cxvi. 16. It is therefore his own 
 sin, and not the sin of his parents, that he here confesses, and 
 it is the sin of his nature, and that which was derived to him 
 by natural generation ; I was shapen in iniquity, and conceived 
 in sin, i. e. from my birth, from my formation in the womb, 
 when my nature was first conveyed to me, and I was consti- 
 tuted a man : as soon as my soul and body were united in the 
 womb (for in that latitude we may understand these phrases 
 of his being shaped and conceived) I was a sinner, having not 
 only the guilt of Adam's first sin imputed to me, but having 
 from him a defiled, polluted, corrupted nature derived to me. 
 And thus the general current of interpreters, both Jewish and 
 Christian, both ancient and modern, understand and expound 
 it : and this being the true meaning of the words, I might ob- 
 serve from them several things useful for instruction ; as, that 
 the corruption of our nature is a sin; that it is the corrupt foun- 
 tain from whence all actual transgressions flow ; that in the con- 
 fession of our actual sins, we should be led by these streams to 
 acknowledge and bewail this corrupt fountain of them, and the 
 like. 
 
 What I shall at present attempt, is only to illustrate and vin- 
 dicate this general truth: "That all mankind, descending from 
 Adam, by ordinary generation, are born in sin, and original 
 corruption." 
 
 I say, descending from Adam by ordinary generation, to 
 except our blessed Saviour, who was born by a supernatural 
 and miraculous conception. But he being excepted, what Da- 
 vid here acknowledges concerning himself is true of all man- 
 kind besides. 
 
 I. I shall briefly show what we mean by this original cor- 
 ruption^ 
 
128 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 II. I shall prove that we are all tainted with it, and that from 
 
 our birth and formation. 
 
 III. I shall inquire whence it is that we are so, and what is 
 the reason and cause of it. 
 
 I. I am briefly to show what we mean by this original cor- 
 ruption; and, in general, it is an universal depravation of 
 every part in man since the fall. The Scripture assures us, 
 that God made man upright, Eccl. vii. 29, and after his own 
 image, Gen. i. 26, 27. There was an habitual conformity of 
 all his natural powers to the whole will of God; his under- 
 standing saw divine things clearly and truly, without error or 
 mistake; his will complied readily and universally with the 
 will of God, without reluctance or resistance; his aff"ections 
 were all orderly; he had no unruly appetites or passions, nor 
 was there any vanity or ungovernableness in his thoughts ; 
 all the inferior powers were subject to the dictates and direc- 
 tions of the superior without any mutiny or rebellion. Thus was 
 man made upright, after the image of God, in knowledge, 
 righteousness, and true holiness. But this uprightness and in- 
 tegrity is now lost, the whole soul and body corrupted, and the 
 whole harmony of man dissolved. The image of God is razed 
 out or obliterated, and the image of the devil himself engraved 
 upon the soul ; all men, and all in man, being quite out of or- 
 der. The soul is corrupted with all its faculties ; the mind 
 with darkness and ignorance, (Eph. v. 3,) being subject to the 
 sensitive part, and strongly prejudiced against the things of 
 God, 1 Cor. iv. 24 ; the conscience with stupidity and insensi- 
 bleness, Tit. i. 15; the will with stubbornness and rebellion, 
 Rom. viii. 7 ; the affections are become carnal, and placed 
 either upon unlawful objects, or upon lawful in an unlawful 
 manner or degree. Col. iii. 2 ; the thoughts and imaginations 
 are full of pride, and vanity, and disorder. Gen. vi. 5. And as 
 for the body, that is become a clog, instead of being serviceable 
 to the soul, and all its members and senses instruments of un- 
 righteousness to sin; Rom. vii. 19. It is, I say, in general, an 
 universal depravation of every part in man since the fall ; and 
 more particularly it consists in a privation of all good, in an 
 enmity to God and the things of God, and in a propensity to 
 all evil. 
 
 It consists in a privation of all that is good. By the first act 
 of sin there was a loss of original purity and righteousness; the 
 image of God, wherein man was created, was defaced, and 
 blotted out, and, wherever this corruption is predominant, 
 there is a total absence of all that is holy and good. The apos- 
 tle is very express to this purpose; I know that, in ?ne, that is, 
 in mi/Jlesh, (or in my nature, as corrupted, which is frequently 
 signified by the term^^e^A in Scripture) there dwel/eth no good 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 129 
 
 thing; Rom. vii. 18, no grace, no holiness, nothing that is truly 
 and spiritually good. We may as soon expect to find good 
 corn growing upon a rock, or on the sand by the sea-side, as 
 expect any good from corrupt nature as such. The new na- 
 ture cannot commit sin; but the flesh, the old corrupt nature, 
 can do nothing but sin, for it serves and is entirely under the 
 conduct and government of the law of sin; ver. 25; nor is 
 there a bare absence of what is good, but an enmity against it. 
 In fallen man there is not only a weakness and impotence to 
 what is good, whence we are said to be without strength, and 
 not sufficient of ourselves to do a good action, to speak a good 
 word, or so much as to think a good thought; but there is be- 
 sides an averseness to, and enmity against it. We are there- 
 fore said to be enemies in oirr minds, nay, to be enmity, in the 
 abstract; " The carnal mind (the mind as overspread with natu- 
 ral corruption) is enmity against God," Rom. viii. 7. It is an 
 enmity that is deeply rooted: the mind, the will, and all the 
 powers of the soul are possessed by it. The best of the flesh, 
 even the wisdom of the flesh, is enmity against God; and it 
 extends itself to all of God, his nature, his properties, his image, 
 his will, his law, his gospel. There is in it a perfect contrariety 
 to the nature, and it does always cross and resist the will of 
 God; so that it is not, and carmot be subject to his laws. This 
 is the unhappy, the wretched temper of thy soul, sinner, of 
 every soul by nature, until it is renewed by grace; it is full of 
 hatred and enmity against him who is the Author of our being, 
 and the Fountain of our happiness; and herein it evidences 
 itself so to be, that it is not subject to his law, neither, indeed, 
 can be. 
 
 Further, it consists in a propensity to all that is evil ; not that 
 there is an equal propensity in all to every sin, for some are 
 more inclined to some sins, and some to others; but there is a 
 propensity, more or less, in every one to all sin. All sin what- 
 ever is wrapt up in this natural corruption, as one expresses it; 
 and actual sins are but the unfoldings of it, they all proceeding 
 from this corrupt root and fountain, Mat. xv. 29. It is for this 
 reason, as some conceive, that the Septuagint renders sin and 
 iniquity in the text in the plural number; because there is a 
 plurality of sins in our natural corruption. It is all sin, virtu- 
 ally, because it disposes and inclines to all; and consequently 
 if there is any particular sin we have not fallen into, it is not 
 for want of corrupt principles and dispositions in our nature; 
 but it is owing to the restraints of the providence or grace of 
 God, without which we should break out into as great abomi- 
 nations as were ever committed by the vilest of the sons of men. 
 This being what we mean by original corruption, 
 
 II. I shall prove that we are all tainted with it, and that from 
 our very birth and formation. That this corruption is general, 
 
 17 
 
130 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 and has overspread our whole race, the history and experience, 
 of all ages teach us but too evidently. The immediate son of 
 the first transgressor proceeded to such a degree of envy and 
 malice that he murdered his own brother, more righteous than 
 himself. And from thence impiety spread and prevailed m the 
 old world, till Divine patience, no longer able to bear, gave way 
 to justice, which brought in the deluge, and swept mankind, 
 one family only excepted, from off the face of the earth. But, 
 notwithstanding so vast and so astonishing a desolation, this 
 corruption soon showed itself again, in the new world, and that 
 in a religious family too; they had seen a wonderful train of 
 mercies, leading them through a sea of judgments, but nothing 
 of that was able to extirpate an evil so deeply rooted in human 
 nature ; and sin still grew with the increase of mankind, till it 
 brought down the fiery vengeance of the Almighty on Sodom, 
 and the neighbouring cities. Notwithstanding those signal and 
 fearful judgments, that in all ages have pursued sin, we find the 
 " hearts of men set in them to do evil." This disease is epi- 
 demical. Every man feels in himself a natural antipathy to 
 good, and proneness to evil; and cannot but observe the effects 
 of it in others. Even the wiser pagans, who wanted the light of 
 divine revelation, were sensible of it, and complained, although 
 they were ignorant of the true cause and spring of it; and there- 
 fore prescribed various ways and methods for the purifying of 
 souls, and raising them to that purity and perfection to which 
 they supposed they were designed. 
 
 It is certain, that in Scripture this general corruption is often 
 mentioned ; " God made man upright, but he sought out many 
 inventions: The heart is deceitful above all things, and des- 
 perately wicked," Jer. xvii. 9. It tells us, that " the imagina- 
 tions of men's thoughts are only evil continually," Gen. vi. 5. 
 And lest we should think this description only belonged to the 
 antediluvian sinners, who had filled the earth with violence, the 
 Lord repeats it again after the flood, " The imagination of man's 
 heart is evil from his youth," Gen, viii. 21. It informs us that 
 there is " no man that lives and sins not;" that "there is none 
 good, no, not one; that in us, that is, in our flesh, there dwells 
 no good thing; and that they who are in the fiesh cannot please 
 God:" where, by flesh, is meant the natural state of mankind, 
 according to those words of our Saviour; " That which is born 
 of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6. This, some think, is particu- 
 larly meant by the sin of the world, which Christ, the Lamb of 
 God, came to take away, it having overspread the whole world; 
 but to be sure it is what is intended by " the sin that dwells in 
 us; by the law in our members, which wars against the law of 
 our minds; by the flesh that lusts against the spirit; and by the 
 old man which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts." 
 These, with many other places of Scripture, to the same pur- 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. I3l 
 
 pose, when they are joined to the universai experience of all 
 mankind, are sufficient to settle this point, that, in fact, this cor- 
 ruption is derived to our whole race, and the contagion is spread 
 over all. And, indeed, if it was not thus, what need had there 
 been of a Saviour, and what necessity of regeneration ? When 
 we are told, that " Christ is made to us wisdom and righteous- 
 ness, and sanctification and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30, may we 
 not justly infer that we have no wisdom, no righteousness, no 
 sanctification of our own, and that we are not in a capacity to 
 redeem ourselves from the slavery of sin? And when our Sa- 
 viour says, " Except a man is born again, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God;" and adds this as the reason of it, that " what 
 is born of the flesh, is flesh: and what is born of the spirit, is 
 spirit;" as it shows the absolute necessity of our being born 
 again, so it is an undeniable proof of original corruption; for 
 unless we were corrupted in our first, there would be no need 
 of a second, a new birth. 
 
 But this is not all; for we are not only all infected with this 
 sin, but my text informs us, that we are tainted with it from 
 our birth and formation; " I was shapen in iniquity, and con- 
 ceived in sin." I was a sinner as soon as I was a creature, as 
 soon as I was formed ; not only from my birth, and being 
 brought forth, as the first word is rendered in other places, 
 Job XV. 7, and xxxix, 1, Pro v. viii. 24, 25, but from my being 
 warmed, as the other word signifies, and is rendered in the 
 margin ; as soon as I was enhvened in the womb, and my soul 
 was united to my body. This corruption is not contracted only 
 by imitation, nor does it become habitual by custom, or repeti- 
 tion of acts, but it is rooted in the soul, and diffused through 
 it, as soon as the soul is united to the body, and it discovers 
 itself as soon as it is capable either of imitation or acting. God 
 himself testifies not only that the imagination of man's heart 
 is evil from his youth. Gen. viii. 21, but that every imagination 
 of the thoughts of his heart, the first that arises in him is evil, 
 only evil, and continually evil, chap. vi. 5. Thus we are told, 
 that man is born not only a vain empty creature, that has no- 
 thing in him, but a foolish, stupid, wilful, ungovernable crea- 
 ture, a wild ass's colt, as averse to all that is good and holy, as 
 he is ignorant of all spiritual things. Job ix. 12. To the same 
 purpose the Psalmist informs us, that " the wicked are estranged 
 from the womb ; they go astray as soon as they are born, speak- 
 ing lies," Psal. Iviii. 3. They brought with them into the world 
 natures estranged from God, alienated from the divine life and 
 all goodness ; and no wonder then they go astray from God and 
 their duty as soon as they are capable of acting. The foolish- 
 ness bound up in their hearts presently appears, with the first 
 operations of reason; and they speak lies as soon as they are 
 able to speak at all. And thus what the prophet upbraids 
 
]32 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 Israel with, is applicable to particular persons; "They were 
 called transgressors from the womb," Isa. xlviii. 8. The words 
 are spoken of them politically considered; they were prone to 
 idolatry from their first formation into a people, and brought 
 with them out of Egypt a strange addictedness to that sin; but 
 they hold true of every one of us. We may all be called trans- 
 gressors from the womb, being born children of disobedience; 
 yea, not only from the time of our coming out of the womb, but 
 of our being formed in it. When we first have the nature of 
 men communicated to us, then we may be called trajisgressors ; 
 that which conveys our nature, and constitutes us men, convey- 
 ing sin, and constituting us sinners. And this may be in part 
 the meaning of the apostle, when he tells us that "we are by 
 nature children of wrath," Eph. ii. 2. " We (says he, we Jews 
 as well as you Gentiles, which terms then comprehended all 
 mankind) are children of wrath;" and this not by custom and 
 imitation, but by nature ; and one man is as much so by nature 
 as another. We are not only really and truly so, which those 
 who deny original corruption pretend is all that is meant by 
 oiature, but we are born so. As soon as we began to exist, 
 we were children of wrath, and liable to the displeasure of the 
 Most High, having not only the guilt of the first sin rigliteously 
 impirted to us, but being naturally inclined to what is sinful and 
 vicious, and polluted and defiled with it, even from our birth. 
 So plentiful an evidence does the Scripture give of this truth, 
 that all mankind are tainted with original corruption, and that 
 from their birth and formation. But, 
 
 III. I shall inquire whence this is, and what is the reason 
 and cause of it. The general answer to this inquiry is, that 
 Adam having, by his rebellion, lost his primitive rectitude, and 
 contracted an universal corruption, it is from him derived to all 
 his natural posterity. That this was really the case with Adam 
 himself, I might take for granted, as generally acknowledged, 
 was it not for a bold stroke of a certain writer, in favour of in- 
 fidelity; who, pleading for reason, as a sufficient guide in mat- 
 ters of religion, asserts, that Adam's discerning faculty was so 
 far from being weakened and impaired, that it is represented as 
 being rather improved by his transgression; and this because it 
 is said, " The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew 
 that they were naked; and the Lord God said, Behold the man 
 is become as one of us, to know good and evil," Gen. iii. 7, 22. 
 But that this is not meant of any advances in true knowledge, 
 is agreed by the general current of interpreters. " Their eyes 
 were opened," or their consciences were awakened and con- 
 vinced, and " they knew that they were naked," or stripped, 
 deprived of all the honours and joys of their innocent state, and 
 exposed to all the miseries that might justly be expected from 
 an angry God. Or if, by their being naked, is meant their being 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 133 
 
 without clothes, as indeed seems by their making themselves 
 coverings, their knowing this must intend, not that they were 
 ignorant of it before, but that they found themselves under a 
 necessity of being clothed, which they did not discover till now, 
 as a learned man* explains it, who makes it an evidence and 
 effect of the corruption of their natures: and it is plain, from the 
 sacred history, that it was such a knowledge of their nakedness, 
 as filled them with shame and fearful apprehensions of the 
 anger of God ; " I was afraid," said the man, " because I was 
 naked, and I hid myself," Gen. iii. 10; and hereby they came 
 to know experimentally the good they had lost, and the evil 
 they had done and subjected themselves to. They found such 
 an alteration in themselves; they saw such uncomely motions 
 and disorders in their bodies, and felt such disorder in their 
 spirits, " a law in their members warring against the law of 
 their minds," as they had never been conscious of before, and 
 such as filled them with shame and fear; and consequently this 
 was a proof that their natures were corrupted and depraved. 
 
 This being certain, and we being in him, both as our natural 
 and moral principle, we, by propagation from him, derive a 
 corrupted depraved nature, full of impotency, rebellion, and 
 disorder, and this as soon as we are become children of Adam, 
 as soon as our souls are united to our bodies; for it is this union 
 which constitutes us the children of Adam. In him the foun- 
 tain was poisoned, and all the streams partake of the infection. 
 Hence it is said, that "Adam begat a son, in his own likeness, 
 after his image," Gen. v. 3. Adam was made in the image of 
 God, but having, by his sin, lost the divine image, he begat a 
 son, not in that, but in his own likeness, sinful and defiled like 
 himself; not only a man like himself, consisting of soul and 
 body, but a sinner like himself, guilty and obnoxious, degener- 
 ate and corrupt. He propagated, and conveyed to his descend- 
 ants, that guilt and corruption he had himself contracted.! This 
 Job was not unacquainted with, as appears from that question 
 of his. Job XV. 14: "What is man, that he should be clean? 
 and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?" 
 Or if any suppose that uncleanness is here charged upon man 
 comparatively only, and with respect to the transcendent purity 
 of God, which is a very ditferent thing from the uncleanness de- 
 rived from the fall, there is another passage that will not admit 
 of this construction, Job xiv. 1, &c., where, having presented 
 the miserable condition of man, " Man that is born of a woman 
 is of few days, and full of trouble," &c., he expostulates the case 
 
 * Dr. Tliomas Burnet's Demonstration of True Religion, Vol. II. p. 52, 53. 
 
 t It is remarkable that the text does here not speak of Abel, who died without 
 issue; nor of Cain, all whose progeny was drowned in tlie flood; but of Seth, by 
 whom all mankind has hitherto been continued in the world; which shows that 
 none are exempted from it. — Polhill's Speculum Theologiae in Christo, p. 2i7, 218. 
 
134 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 with God, " Dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and 
 bringest thou me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a 
 clean thing out of an unclean?" As if he should say, Wilt 
 thou be extreme to mark all my errors? Is purity to be ex- 
 pected in a man born of a woman, who is, by the very consti- 
 tution of his birth, unclean ? This is an evidence, says an inge- 
 nious author, that this ancient writer was sensible of the evil 
 consequences of the fall, upon the whole race of man, and that 
 we are all corrupt by descent and inheritance. All this is, I 
 think, plain from Scripture; and this being certain, if we can- 
 not account for the modun, or manner of conveying original 
 corruption, this should by no means weaken our belief of the 
 thing itself. How it is conveyed, is one of the most difficult 
 questions in the whole scheme of divinity; but no man has 
 reason to deny matter of fact, merely because he cannot con- 
 ceive how it is. There is an infinity of things in the world of 
 nature which are obvious to our senses, that we can no more 
 account for the modus of, than we can of this. Having there- 
 fore proved the thing itself, we need not be over solicitous 
 about, nor over nice in inquiring into the manner of it. Thus 
 much is certain, that it is the universal and unchan2;eable law 
 of nature, that every thing produces its like, not only in regard 
 of the same nature, that is propagated from one individual to 
 another, without a change of the species, but in respect of the 
 qualities with which that nature is eminently affected. This is 
 visible in the several kinds of creatures in the world : they all 
 preserve the natur©.of the principle from whence they are deriv- 
 ed, and retain the vein of their original, and the quality of their 
 extraction;* "Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh." 
 
 It may be said. True, Adam being defiled, all emanations 
 from him must partake of that vitiated state to which he had 
 brought himself But the great difliculty is how the souls of 
 his posterity, which are created immediately by God, come to 
 be defiled. If they were, as well as their bodies, by traduction 
 or generation from their parents, it might be less difficult to 
 account for it; for which reason TertuUian, and divers of the 
 western fathers, fell in with that notion: but it is now generally 
 exploded, and it is most agreeable, both to Scripture and reason, 
 to assert them to be immediately created by God. But how 
 then come they to be defiled ? To be sure God does not inspire 
 or infuse any impurity into them: this would make God the 
 
 * Do we not every day see a great resemblance between children and their 
 parents, not only in the lineaments of their face, the motions and gestures of their 
 body, but in the most signal and reigning qualities of their minds ? The pride 
 and frowardness, immility and meekness, covetousness and ambition; and even 
 tlie nicer particularities of men's very humours, are oftentimes seen in those chil- 
 dren who lost tlieir parents before they were capable of imitation : and therefore 
 were derived down from them bv an unseen means as their original corruption. 
 Dr. Delaune's Sermons on Original Sin, p. 22. 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 135 
 
 author of sin, a thought so impious and so dishonourable to 
 God, that a pious mind cannot but reject it with the utmost ab- 
 horrence and detestation. This therefore cannot be admitted: 
 but does it follow from thence that they are created morally- 
 pure ? Where is the inconvenience? Is there any thing incon- 
 sistent with the divine perfections, to suppose them to receive 
 neither purity nor impurity from him, but only their naked 
 essence, and the natural powers and properties flowing there- 
 from? As a holy God, he cannot infuse into them an impurity; 
 but, as a just and righteous God, he may withhold, and create 
 them void of that original rectitude, holiness, and righteousness, 
 which was the happiness and glory of Adam, in his primitive 
 state, but which by his sin he lost. Nor is there any injustice 
 in it, since Adam was considered as our covenant, as well as 
 natural head and representative, and consequently forfeited this 
 for us, as well as for himself 
 
 A reverend brother, on this argument, says, " God might cre- 
 ate a soul guilty, without any impeachment of his perfections, 
 or giving the least ground to suppose him the author of sin ; for 
 this is a punishment due to us, for the sin of our first parents. I 
 can also conceive, says he, how God can create a soul impotent 
 to what is good, without any impeachment of his perfections, if 
 we consider the privilege now denied, as having been once 
 given, and then forfeited."* But then the question still recurs, 
 How comes it then to be defiled? Some think it is the neces- 
 sary consequence of its being created guilty, and deprived of 
 original rectitude ; for whatsoever wants original rectitude, say 
 they, naturally inclines to that which is evil. But this want of 
 original righteousness being supposed, the generality of divines 
 reckon it results from the union of the soul with the body. 
 They say, original sin does not follow either part singly; it 
 comes in neither by the soul alone, nor by the body alone, apart 
 from the soul, but upon the union and conjunction of these. It 
 is the union of these two which constitutes a child of Adam, 
 and as such only we are capable of being infected with his 
 sin.t 
 
 But here it is objected, How can this be, since the body being 
 matter, cannot act upon a spirit? But this, as one observes, is 
 grafis dictum, more easily said than proved. Cannot the body 
 act upon or influence the soul? How then comes it to pass that 
 so many souls become foolish, forgetful and injudicious, by their 
 union with ill-disposed bodies? Nothing is more sensibly plain 
 and evident than that there is a reciprocal communication be- 
 twixt the soul and body, and that the body does as really, 
 
 * Mr. Ridgley's Doctrine of Original Sin, p. 
 t Mr. Flavel's Treatise of the Soul of Man, 
 
136 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 though we know not how, affect the soul with its dispositions, 
 as the soul influences it with life and motion. There are there- 
 fore these things to be considered here, that the soul is created 
 guilty; and as the punishment of the first sin, destitute of origi- 
 nal righteousness, and having thereby lost its guard and strength 
 to resist, it is easily overcome by that corrupt and disordered 
 matter to which it is united. But does not this seem an unjust 
 cruelty, to condemn souls, not impure, to such an union to a de- 
 filed body as should certainly corrupt them? To which it is an- 
 swered. That God has settled it as a law in the creation, that a 
 soul should inform a body according to the texture of it, and 
 either conquer it, or be mastered by it, according as it should 
 be diff'erently made ; that when all things were duly prepared 
 for the propagation of the species of mankind, a soul should be 
 always ready to enter into, and imitate those first threads and 
 beginnings of life. These laws being laid down, Adam, by cor- 
 rupting his own frame, corrupted the frame of his whole pos- 
 terity, by the general course of things, and the great law of his 
 creation ; so that the suffering this to run through all the race, 
 is no more (only different in degrees and extent) than the suffer- 
 ing the folly or madness of a man to infect his posterity. In 
 these things God acts as the Creator and governor of the world, 
 by general rules, and these must not be altered by the sins and 
 disorders of men; but they are rather to have their course, that 
 so sin may be its own punishment. — Thus have I endeavoured 
 to open and vindicate this general truth, That all mankind, de- 
 scending from Adam by ordinary generation, are born in sin 
 and original corruption. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 1. From what has been said, the doctrine of original sin and 
 corruption appears to be no new doctrine. It was not invented 
 by St. Augustine ; no, it is much older than he, even as ancient 
 as the fall, and has been acknowledged and lamented by the 
 wisest and best of men in all ages. It is a doctrine attested not 
 only by Scripture, but universal experience ; and therefore let 
 us not be ashamed to profess it, nor shy of owning it. Let us 
 hold fast the belief of it, and not suffer ourselves to be moved 
 from it, by the sophistry and cavils, and cunning arts of crafty 
 seducers, or by any objections that may be raised against it, from 
 the difficulties attending the modus of its conveyance. Nothing 
 more offends carnal reason, and it is therefore no wonder that 
 it meets with the most virulent opposition from the admirers 
 and adorers of that idol. What though we cannot solve all the 
 difficulties attending it, must we not therefore believe the thing 
 itself, when it is so fully asserted in Scripture, and wiien we 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 137 
 
 both feel it in ourselves, and see the effects of it in others?* 
 Certainly we ought. And when we consider it not only as true, 
 but as a doctrine of very great importance, and wherein we 
 are all greatly concerned; the more it is opposed, the more 
 should we endeavour to confirm our belief of it, and to appear 
 in its defence. 
 
 2. Let us not only hold fast the belief, but endeavour and 
 pray that we may be suitably affected with this truth. We 
 may, from what has been said, take an affecting view of our 
 state and condition by nature: and as it is useful for us all, 
 even those that are by grace delivered from it, to be looking to 
 it; so it is necessary for them that are under it to be fully ac- 
 quainted with it. It is, at once, a state full of guilt, and a state 
 full of corruption and defilement : We are all of us guilty be- 
 fore God, having the guilt of the first sin righteously imputed 
 to us; and this renders us obnoxious to the divine displeasure; 
 and we are all polluted and unclean, having corrupted and de- 
 filed natures derived to us. A spiritual leprosy has overspread 
 all our powers and faculties, and this renders us loathsome to 
 God, and puts us in a state of separation from him. What a 
 fearful change has sin made in us! The soul, that was made 
 in the image of God, is stripped of its native righteousness and 
 holiness, and invested with contrary qualities: "There is as 
 great a difference, says one, between the corruption of the soul 
 in its degenerate state, and its primitive purity, as between the 
 loathsomeness of a dead carcase, and the beauty of a living 
 body." Sad change, indeed, and to be lamented with tears of 
 confusion. How should this humble us before God, and hide 
 pride for ever from our eyes! How should it fill us with self- 
 loathing and self-abhorrence, affect our souls with shame and 
 sorrow, and cause us to repent in dust and ashes ! Especially 
 when we repent of and confess our actual transgressions, we 
 should, in the first place, confess and bewail this corrupt foun- 
 tain of them; so does David in my text. This psalm is re- 
 corded as a public testimony to the church, and the world, of 
 his repentance of a great sin ; and, we see, he does, in a par- 
 ticular manner, bewail and acknowledge this. And so did the 
 church in Isaiah's prophecy, Isa. Ixiv. 6. When they humbled 
 themselves, they not only acknowledged that their righteous- 
 ness ivas a filthy rag, but they chiefly complained of the un- 
 
 * Such objections spring out of equal ignorance and pride, and borrow all their 
 force from no wiser or modester a supposition than that of man's omniscience. 
 Yet, as wild and extravagant a principle as it is, the extent of it reaches very far; 
 and it serves the depraved sons of Adam against all the doctrines wiiich they are 
 not willing should be true. It is the sole basis on which infidelity is built, and a 
 most proper foundation indeed for such a superstructure. Thus these men, before 
 they are aware, confirm the truth in question, by so unreasonably opposing it; by 
 this means discovering themselves to be very apparent monuments of the ruins 
 of human nature. — Dr. Delaune's Sermon of Original Sin, before Sir Richard 
 Hoare, Lord Mayor, p. 21. 
 
 18 
 
138 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 cleanness of their persons, and that with respect to their natures; 
 We are all as an unclean thing. 
 
 I am sensible some have made it a question, Whether we 
 ought to repent of and be humbled for our original sin? But as 
 the practice of the church, and the penitent psalmist, in my text, 
 shows they made no question of it, so we might evince, from 
 many considerations, that this is a just ground of our repentance 
 and humiliation. I will only mention one, and that is, that this 
 is not only a sin in itself, but the fruitful parent of all other sins. 
 That it is a misery, all grant, who acknowledge the thing itself; 
 but that it is also properly a sin, appears, I think sufficiently 
 from the apostle John's definition, who makes the formality of 
 sin to consist in its opposition to the law, I John iii. 4, " Sin is 
 a transgression of the law." Whatever is contrary to the law 
 of God, and forbidden in it, is a sin ; but the corruption of our 
 nature is forbidden in the law, and contrary to what God re- 
 quireth therein : God requires "truth in the inward part;" but 
 original corruption is the want, or rather the reverse of this. 
 We are commanded to be holy, and that not only in our actions, 
 but in our natures, for we are commanded to be " holy as God 
 is holy;" and so the want of holiness, which is the privative 
 part of this sin, is forbidden. We are moreover commanded to 
 " love the Lord our God, with all our heart;" and so the heart's 
 inclination to hate God, which is the positive part of this sin, is 
 forbidden. In a word, there is in it a nonconformity to the 
 whole law of God ; and a nonconformity to, is a transgression 
 of the whole law. If therefore the apostle's definition is just, 
 the corruption of our nature is a sin ; and accordingly it is fre- 
 quently called so in Scripture, and acknowledged and confessed 
 as such, by the saints, both in the Old and New Testament. 
 So it is by David in our text; and so it is by the apostle Paul, 
 who bewailed and aggravated it exceedingly, Rom. vii. He 
 not only complains of it, as a misery, but he confesses and be- 
 wails it as a sin; and lest we should think it a small peccadillo, 
 a sin of an ordinary size, he calls it a sin exceedingly, hyper- 
 bolically, sinful. 
 
 Against this it is frequently objected ; it is not a sin, because 
 it is not voluntary. But should we admit this rule, that what- 
 ever is not voluntary is not a sin, to be just, which will not 
 hold true universally, and without limitation, even when ap- 
 plied to actual sins ; yet natural corruption is voluntary in some 
 respects ; it is voluntary in its principle and cause. As it was 
 voluntarily contracted by Adam, so he therein being our fede- 
 ral head and representative, his will was the will of us all. 
 But this is not all, for this corruption is inherent in the will, as 
 its subject. If Adam had derived a bodily disease only to his 
 posterity, it might have been an involuntary evil, because the 
 dis'^aces of the body may be foreign to the soul. But wb-"" '' 
 
OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION". 139 
 
 corruption invades the internal faculties, it is denominated from 
 the subject wherein it is seated. What though it does not pro- 
 ceed originally from any act of the will in us, yet tlie consent 
 of the will accompanies it, or rather it is itself the natural bias 
 or inclination of the will to evil, and therefore to say that it is 
 altogether involuntary, is no less than a contradiction. How- 
 ever, it is, to be sure, voluntary in us, with respect to an after- 
 consent, and in the etfects of it. Who amongst us can say, We 
 never consented to our natural corruption, were never well- 
 pleased with it, never cherished it by occasions of sin, never 
 strengthened it by acts of sin, and never resisted the means 
 whereby it should be mortified and subdued? All which are 
 evidences of an actual consent. Now, if it is a sin, we ought 
 to repent of it, and be humbled for it; for, that we ought to be 
 thus affected to, and by, every sin, no one will deny. And this 
 would further appear, if I could show that this is not only a 
 sin in itself, but the fruitful parent of all other sins. But, hav- 
 ing hinted at this before, I must not enlarge upon it now. 
 
 3. What has been said discovers to us our need and necessity 
 of Christ. We have not only the guilt of the first sin imputed, 
 but we have natures universally defiled derived to us; and as 
 we cannot expiate our guilt, so neither can we, of ourselves, 
 renew and cleanse our natures. This shows us our need of 
 Christ, as he is made of God to the believer, both righteousness 
 and sanctification: we need him as made of God righteousness, 
 to cover our guilt; and as made of God sanctification, to renew 
 and cleanse our natures: his blood is the blood of atonement, 
 and it is the blood of sanctification, and we need it in both 
 regards; and our necessity, in these respects, is indispensable. 
 If we come not to him for pardon and cleansing, for righteous- 
 ness and sanctification, that guilt and pollution we brought with 
 us into the world will prove our ruin. How slight thoughts 
 soever some may entertain of it, even this exposes us to the 
 wrath and curse of God. As God hates sin, wherever he sees 
 it, so he has denounced a curse against it, and consequently 
 being shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, this curse 
 belongs to us, and we are children of wrath by nature: and 
 there is no way to be delivered from it but by Christ, by the 
 blood and righteousness, the spirit and grace of Christ. If, 
 therefore, we desire to be freed from it, let us pray for the gift 
 of the Divine Spirit, to show us our disease, to discover to us 
 our remedy, and to unite us to Christ, by a living and lively 
 faith, that we may be found in him, washed in his blood, 
 clothed with his righteousness, and renewed by his Spirit and 
 grace, that as in Jidam ive all died, died with respect to the 
 guilt, and died with respect to the power of sin; so in Christ 
 zoe mar/, in both respects, be made alive. 
 
 4. If any of us are, by the blood and righteousness of Christ, 
 
140 OF ORIGINAL CORRUPTION. 
 
 freed from the guilt of original sin, and have the corruption of 
 our natures, in any measure, cured, by the washing of regene- 
 ration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, let us always main- 
 tain in our minds a lively sense of our obligations, how much 
 we are indebted to the love of the Father, and to the grace of 
 the Son and Holy Spirit, and be for ever thankful for the same. 
 Let us, in the remembrance of it, and of the wretched circum- 
 stances of guilt and pollution, from which we are by grace 
 delivered, walk humbly with and before the Lord all our days. 
 And as, by the corruption of our natures, we have so strong a 
 bias to sin, let us not only watch and pray continually, that we 
 fall not into, and that we fall not in and by temptation ; but be 
 diligent, in the use of all appointed means, with a dependence 
 upon the grace of the Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body, 
 to stop up this corrupt fountain of actual transgressions, and to 
 waste sin in its root and principle. 
 
 Now to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons, 
 but one God, be all glory and honour, henceforth and for 
 evermore. Amen. 
 
THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE 
 
 PARTICULAR REDEMPTION, 
 
 STATED AND VINDICATED: 
 
 IN FOUR SERMONS. 
 By MR. JOHN HURRION, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. 
 
 The two first of the following excellent sermons of the late 
 learned and judicious Mr. Hurrion, were preached at the same 
 lecture, in which those of others, which precede them in this 
 volume, were delivered. As he had not time to go through this 
 subject, he designed, before that exercise was closed, to have 
 preached two more, but was hindered by illness. When this 
 work came to be printed, he was desired to add the sermons he 
 purposed to have preached. Being a little revived, he tran- 
 scribed the two first sermons towards the end of November, 
 1731. After that, he grew much worse than he had been: but 
 his desire to finish this subject, carried him beyond what his 
 strength might have been thought to have admitted. He pur- 
 posed to insert in the remaining discourses some materials 
 which he had by him: with great difficulty he transcribed the 
 third discourse, which he sent me, with a letter, dated the 14th 
 of December, which was as follows: " I have just finished, and 
 now send you, my third sermon: I shall go on with the fourth, 
 as fast as I can; if possible, I would finish it next week, but I 
 fear I shall not be able, I have been so much worse, since I 
 wrote to you last. I would desire you to take care of my poor 
 copy, and use freedom in correcting what mistakes I may have 
 been guilty of It is no wonder to find such in my performances 
 at any time, and especially now, so ill am I, and so often taken 
 
 141 
 
142 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 off from my work by great pains. Pray for me, that I may 
 have grace sufficient for me; and that whether I live or die, I 
 may be the Lord's, and to the praise of his glorious grace." 
 When I came to look over the discourse, I was amazed, that 
 when unwieldiness of body had increased so much upon, and 
 when he was under such a faint distemper as the dropsy, he 
 should have vigour of mind to draw up such a performance ; 
 which, for vivacity and closeness of thought, strength of argu- 
 ment, and clearness of style, is not in the least inferior to any of 
 his other works. It was very little above a fortnight after, that 
 he rested from his labours; for on the thirty-first day of the 
 above mentioned month, he sweetly slept in Jesus: so that it 
 may be said, that he composed the sermon while he struggled 
 with death, and that it contains some of the last thoughts of an 
 eminent saint, who, in a few days after it was finished, began 
 to ascribe, in the upper world, salvation, and power, and glory, 
 to the Redeemer, the certain efficacy of Avhose death he so well 
 defended. To him may be applied the following verses of Mr. 
 Waller: 
 
 Wrestling with death, these lines he could indite ; 
 No other theme could give his soul delight. 
 The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, 
 Lets in new light, thro' chinks that time has made : 
 Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, 
 As they draw near to their eternal home : 
 Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, 
 Who stand upon the threshold of the new. 
 
 He had begun to transcribe his fourth sermon ; but illness 
 increasing, he was soon forced to give over. He proposed, in 
 the beginning of it, to consider the allegations of the friends of 
 universal redemption, from a set of scriptures, which speak of 
 Christ's dying for those that perish; but he only set down the 
 following paragraphs, which were I believe, the last lines that 
 came from his pen. 
 
 " Our opponents shrewdly argue, that if Christ died for them 
 that perish, and for them that did not perish, then he died for 
 all : but this is illogical and fallacious ; for Christ might die for 
 some that perish, and for all who are saved, and yet not die for 
 all men. From a particular to an universal, the argument will 
 not hold, by the rules of reason : if the premises are not univer- 
 sal, the conclusion cannot justly be so; but let us attend to the 
 particular scriptures. 
 
 " The apostle Paul says, ' Through thy knowledge, shall thy 
 weak brother perish, for whom Christ died ?' 1 Cor. viii. 11. Our 
 blessed Saviour affirmed, John x. 28, that ' his sheep hear his 
 voice, and follow him, and that he gives them eternal life, and 
 they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out 
 of his hand.' If this is true, (and who will dare to be guilty of 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 143 
 
 such blasphemy, as to say it is not?) then either by the weak 
 brother, in the former text, must be meant not one of Christ's 
 real sheep, or else his perishing cannot be understood of eternal 
 damnation : both the context, and the scripture forms of speech 
 elsewhere, seem to favour this last sense; and therefore the 
 apostle, 1 Cor. viii. 7, 12, explained this causing him to perish, 
 by defiling and wounding his weak conscience, and making 
 him offend." 
 
 I was unwilling this work should be imperfect ; therefore, as 
 I knew what papers he intended to transcribe, I have added 
 his answers to some objections which he had not meddled with 
 before: he gave me some directions about this several months 
 ago, when he did not think he should be able to do any thing 
 himself. I have not made any alterations, as indeed there was 
 no need to make any, only I have ranged the heads in such a 
 method as may answer the preceding part. I am not certain 
 whether he would have added so large an application, but as it 
 is not foreign to the subject, and is very well worth perusal, I 
 have given it as I found it. Had these papers received the 
 author's last hand, it is not to be questioned but that he would 
 have made many useful additions to them; but, taking them in 
 the condition in which they are, there is no manner of need to 
 make any excuse for publishing them. 
 
 The worthy person, who is now entered into his Master's joy, 
 used to call this head of divinity, which relates to the extent 
 of Christ's redemption, one of his favourite subjects. He had 
 well studied it, and he took pleasure to be upon it. When he 
 was brought very low, and had the sentence of death within 
 himself, he began the latter part of his undertaking with these 
 remarkable words: "The death of Christ being the fountain 
 of our life, there is nothing more necessary, pleasant, or useful 
 to the Christian, than a right apprehension and remembrance 
 of it." The delight which he took in the subject, carried him 
 above his great pain and weakness. This was one of the great 
 doctrines which he had preached, in the firm belief of which he 
 died, and in which he found more sweetness, in his last sickness, 
 than he had ever done. I confess, I have had a great deal of 
 pleasure in perusing and revising these discourses for the press ; 
 and I heartily wish that they may be, by the divine blessing, 
 made useful and beneficial to such as may read them, and may 
 be of service to guard Christians against the absurd notion of 
 universal redemption, the evident tendency of which is to repre- 
 sent Christ as dying in vain. 
 
 A. TAYLOR. 
 
 March Isf, 1731-'32. 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Titus ii. 14. — Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 
 
 This chapter begins with Paul's instructions to Titus, to speak 
 the things which become sound doctrine, or to press on several 
 ranks of persons such duties, as would adorn the doctrine of 
 God their Saviour, which doctrine is next specified in several 
 important branches of it ; such as the doctrine of salvation by 
 grace, and of the celestial glory called the blessed hope; the 
 doctrine of Christ's Deity, and second glorious coming to judg- 
 ment; and the doctrine of our redemption by the death of 
 Christ, with the end and design of it, ver. 11, 13, 14. 
 
 This last mentioned is the subject which falls to my share in 
 this Lecture; which I shall the more cheerfully insist upon, be- 
 cause I find it to be one of those important points, with respect 
 to which the apostle gave Titus a charge to " speak, and exhort, 
 and rebuke, with all authority," ver. 15; as if he had said, Do 
 thou declare these doctrines, and exhort the hearers to receive 
 them ; and rebuke, with all authority, or powerfully convince 
 and reprove gainsayers, in such a manner, that none may despise 
 thee. 
 
 The doctrine of our redemption by Christ, I take to be fully 
 contained in the words of my text, " Christ gave himself for us, 
 that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself 
 a peculiar people, zealous of good works." 
 
 Before I come to discourse directly on this doctrine, I shall 
 premise two things. 
 
 1. I shall consider the extent of Christ's redemption, or the 
 persons to whom it belongs, as represented in my text. 
 
 2. I shall show the weight and importance of this doctrine. 
 1st, I am to consider the extent of this redemption, or the 
 
 persons to whom it belongs, as represented in my text. 
 
 To state this right, we are to observe that the question is not 
 whether there is an infinite merit and worth in Christ's redeem- 
 ing blood: this both parties readily allow. Nor is it a matter 
 in debate whether many, or only a few persons are redeemed 
 by Christ, seeing they are said in Scripture, Rev. v. 9, to be " a 
 great multitude that no man could number, of all nations, and 
 
 144 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 145 
 
 kindreds, and people, and tongues," But the true state of the 
 question is this: Wliether according to the will of the Father, 
 and the intention of the Son, Christ died to reconcile and save 
 all men, or a select chosen number only; the latter is what we 
 affirm, and our opponents deny. 
 
 Let us now see how this matter is represented in my text, 
 and which sentiment is approved and confirmed thereby. Christ 
 "gave himself to redeem us," or, by an expiatory sacrifice, to 
 deliver us from sin and misery, and make us eternally happy. 
 " He redeemed us from the curse, being made a curse for us," 
 Gal. iii. 13, "He redeemed those that were under the law, 
 that they might receive the adoption of sons," The persons 
 redeemed are more generally specified by the word us, which 
 is a word often used, in Scripture, to signify the elect and be- 
 lievers; as where it is said, "God has not appointed us to wrath, 
 but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ, who died for us 
 that we might live together with him," I Thess. v. 9, 10. The 
 redeemed people are also represented, in my text, as those who, 
 in due time, are redeemed from all iniquity, or from the guilt 
 and power, and the very being of all sin; and also as purified 
 to Christ, or really sanctified, and made holy, changed into his 
 image, and fitted for fellowship and communion with himself. 
 The redeemed are said to be a peculiar people; they are Christ's 
 jewels, his treasure, distinguished from others in his intention, 
 purchase, esteem, and care; they are a chosen generation, and 
 therefore d^. peculiar or purchased people, 1 Pet. ii. 9; they are 
 the travail of Christ's soul, the dear offspring of his blood, whom 
 he loved, and therefore gave himself for theyn. The redeemed 
 are also represented as persons zealous of good ivorks, works 
 of failh and love, and of repentance and new obedience; such 
 works as have a divine life for the principle of them, a divine 
 direction for their rule, even the revealed will of God, and a 
 divine attainment for the end, that is, the glory of God, To be 
 zealous of these good works, is to love them fervently, to per- 
 form them diligently, and to promote them with industry and 
 vigour. 
 
 According to this account of the redeemed people, let us see 
 whether we are to believe that Christ gave himself to redeem 
 all men, or a select and peculiar number only. In my text, 
 Christ is said to give himself for us, in our room and stead, to 
 satisfy offended justice for all those whose iniquities were laid 
 upon him, and for whom he died. Now, did Christ stand in 
 the stead of all men? Did he satisfy divine justice for the sins 
 of millions, who yet suffer the vengeance of eternal fire for the 
 same sins themselves? Or did Christ make satisfaction for a 
 peculiar number only, who shall never come into condemna- 
 tion, but enjoy eternal life, as the purchase and fruit of his 
 death? 
 
 19 
 
146 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 When it is said that Christ gave himself, that he misht re- 
 deem to himself a peculiar people, can the meaning be, that he 
 died to render the salvation of all men possible? Or, is it not 
 rather meant, that he died to render the salvation of a select 
 number certain and perfect ? Can we suppose that Christ died 
 to render the salvation of all men possible, when multitudes 
 were actually in hell, and so beyond any possibility of salva- 
 tion, at the very time when Christ suffered ? The reply made 
 to this will be considered and confuted hereafter. Does not the 
 Scripture speak of the effects and fruits of Christ's death, not as 
 mere possibilities, but as things real and certain ? " He shall 
 see his seed, the travail of his soul," Isa. liii. 10, 11. Does not 
 Christ say, that he laid down his life far his sheep, that they 
 should never perish, but he would give them eternal life? 
 John X. 28. 
 
 If Christ died to purchase to himself such as should be a 
 purifed people, zealous of good ivorks, then surely he did not 
 give himself to redeem all men, those who are never purified, 
 as well as those that are: if he gave himself for a peculiar 
 people, then not for all people; if for those who, in time, are 
 made zealous of good works, then surely not for those who live 
 and die enemies to good works, and zealous against them. 
 
 If Christ gave himself for a peculiar people, whom he valued 
 as hxsjetvels and treasure, and ivho shall be his when he makes 
 up his Jewels, then he did not give himself for all men; for all 
 men are not his jewels and treasure, or peculiar people, Mai. 
 iii. 16, seeing that in the day when he makes up his jewels, 
 there shall be a manifest difference between his jewels and 
 others, between the righteous and the wicked, those that fear 
 God, and those that fear him not. 
 
 If these things are calmly and carefully considered, one would 
 think that any impartial and understanding person may be able 
 to determine whether Christ, in giving himself, did intend to 
 redeem all men, or a chosen and peculiar number only : if the 
 latter is the true sense of the text, as it appears to me, we might 
 rest here, and seek no further evidence ; for the Scriptures do 
 not contradict themselves; the Spirit of truth cannot err or de- 
 ceive us. 
 
 But it may here be objected, that the redemption by Christ 
 is as extensive as the grace of the Father; but the grace of the 
 Father appeared to all men. Tit. ii. 11, therefore the redemption 
 of the Son extends to all men. Here we shall readily allow, 
 that Christ redeemed all men, in as extensive a sense as the 
 grace of God is said to have appeared to all men: for multi- 
 tudes in the world, before the writing this epistle, at that time, 
 and since, neither had, nor even now have, any discovery of 
 this grace to them. The all men, then, to whom it appeared, 
 must mean only some of all sorts j and so makes nothing for 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 147 
 
 the doctrine of universal grace, or universal redemption. In the 
 context, the apostle had been speaking of the duties of aged men 
 and women, of young men and young women, and of servants 
 to their masters; to which he excited them, by the considera- 
 tion of that grace which has appeared to all men, or to persons 
 of all ranks and stations, and obliges them to adorn the doctrine 
 of God their Saviour: but what argument can be drawn from 
 thence for universal redemption? 
 
 It may be said, the several parts of the text have been urged 
 in favour of particular redemption; and it must be owned, that 
 as to the event and effect, the redemption is not, cannot be uni- 
 versal, seeing all are not saved from sin, and purified; yet the 
 purpose, design, and intention of Christ in giving himself, might 
 extend to all men, though all men are not actually saved. To 
 which I reply, that my text declares the purpose, design, and 
 intention of Christ in giving himself, even to redeem from all 
 iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people : Can this mean 
 all men? Did Christ intend, in laying down his life, to sanctify 
 and save all men ? If so, then Christ is frustrated and disap- 
 pointed of his end: how then does the pleasure of the Lord 
 prosper in his hands? How does he see his seed, the travail 
 of his soul? or how does he give eternal life to as many as 
 the Father gave him? If Christ's intention in giving himself 
 was to redeem and save all men, and only some men are saved, 
 how could it be said, he shall be satisfied? Isa. liii. 11. Could 
 Christ be satisfied to have his intention disappointed, and his 
 promise fail, when he said, " If I be lifted up, I will draw all 
 men to me?" John xii. 32. Or what satisfaction could he take 
 in seeing the Scripture broken, which says, " He shall not fail 
 nor be discouraged ?" Isa. xlii. 4, or in seeing the will of the Fa- 
 ther, that " he should lose nothing of all that were given him," 
 frustrated and made void? Where does the Scripture speak of 
 Christ's death, and the ends of it in terms of uncertainty, or re- 
 present him as coming short of his aim and intention, in dying 
 for sinners ? This does not appear to me to be a scripture doc- 
 trine, but an invention of men, framed to support an hypothe- 
 sis, which they are fond of: but till some scripture evidence is 
 brought to support it, we may justly reject it. — But I proceed 
 to the next thing proposed. 
 
 2dly. I shall show the weight and importance of this doc- 
 trine relating to the extent of Christ's redemption. 
 
 It must be obvious, to every diligent inquirer into these 
 things, how prone men generally are to run into extremes, in 
 this, as well as in other things. Some look upon all inquiries 
 of this nature as vain and useless ; and others are so much 
 taken up with them, as to neglect other weighty doctrines, or 
 duties of the Christian religion. The conduct of each sort is 
 blamable and carefully to be avoided. With what vievv and 
 
148 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 design Christ laid down his precious Ufe, is, whatever some 
 think, a point of very great moment, with regard to the sense 
 of many scriptures, the glory of Christ, and of the divine per- 
 fections, the encouragement of faith, and the comfort and esta- 
 blishment of believers, as may more fully appear hereafter. A 
 clear decisiori of the controversy upon this head, must be allow- 
 ed to be of very great service towards the removal of the heavy 
 imputations with which the contending parties load each other's 
 scheme, and to allay our heats, and remove our divisions, that 
 we might " stand fast in one spirit, striving together for the faith 
 of the gospel," against the common enemy, who is sapping and 
 subverting the very foundations of it. 
 
 A late writer,* has had the confidence to tell the world, in 
 print, that the training up his apostles was the work, or the 
 main work that God had given Christ to do, and that it was his 
 principal design, in giving up himself a sacrifice, that he might 
 enable them by his death, and what would follow it, his resur- 
 rection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Ghost, to preach 
 with success, and spread his kingdom in the world: "What 
 words," says our author, " can well raise our idea of the office 
 of the apostles higher, than that Jesus lived and died, to prepare 
 them for the due discharge of that trust?" We may add, what 
 words can sink our idea of Christ's office lower, or cover the 
 design of his death with more disgrace? If Christ's principal 
 design in giving up himself a sacrifice, was to prepare the apos- 
 tles for the true discharge of their work, we need not trouble 
 ourselves about the general or special ends of his death, whe- 
 ther he gave himself to redeem all men or some only; nor much 
 concern ourselves with what the apostle meant, by Christ's giv- 
 ing himself to redeem from all iniquity, and purify to himself a 
 peculiar people, zealous of good works; seeing, according to our 
 author, this was not Christ's principal end and intention, in dy- 
 ing to save men ; but to set up the apostles above himself, and 
 obtain a kingdom by their means. It is very strange that the 
 apostle should forget all this dignity, to which Christ, by his 
 death, had advanced him, and not say one word of it, in the 
 account which he gives us of the end and design of Christ's 
 death. Further, to what purpose are we told that Christ gave 
 himself for us, to reconcile and bring us to God, that he pur- 
 chased the church with his own blood, and obtained eternal re- 
 demption for us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
 blood? How little reason had the church to adore and praise 
 him for this, if the chief business of his life and death was to 
 procure apostles, to preach the gospel, and advance his king- 
 dom in the world ? 
 
 Forasmuch then as things are come to this pass among us, 
 
 * Lord Barrington, in his Miscellanea Sacra, Vol. II. p. 76, 77. 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 149 
 
 and the intention and design of Christ's death is not only mis- 
 taken by some, as to the number of the redeemed, but wliich is 
 infinitely worse, seeing it is so openly and impiously perverted 
 and denied by others, it is high time to make a strict inquiry 
 into this matter, and, if possible, to find out and establish the 
 true end and design of Christ's death, according to the scripture 
 account thereof; and especially, seeing the sacred writings speak 
 so much of it, and lay such a stress upon it, with regard to the 
 glory of God, and the salvation of men. And it ought to be 
 considered, whether the rendering the end of Christ's death so 
 precarious to all, and the allowing, as some must do, the disap- 
 pointment of his intention therein to so many, has not tempted 
 many to run the desperate length of denying all its atoning vir- 
 tue and salutary effects. If this is found to be true, of what im- 
 portance must it be to understand and hold fast the true design 
 and intention of Christ, in giving himself to redeem sinners ? 
 More, I think, need not be added, as to the importance of the 
 point in hand; I shall therefore throw what I have to say upon 
 it under two heads. 
 
 I. I shall endeavour to establish and confirm the doctrine of 
 particular redemption, in several distinct propositions; and 
 shall make plain deductions from them. 
 
 II. I shall answer the principal arguments, and vindicate the 
 chief passages of Scripture produced in opposition thereto. 
 
 I. I shall confirm and establish the doctrine of particular 
 redemption ; or prove that Christ did not give himself to redeem 
 all men, but to redeem and actually save, a chosen and peculiar 
 number; this, which I take to be the truth, I shall endeavour to 
 prove, under several distinct propositions. 
 
 1. The Fat/ier\s election, and the Son^s redemption, are of 
 the same extent, or relate to the same individual persons, to all 
 such, and to none else ; all the chosen people are redeemed, and 
 all the redeemed are chosen to salvation, " through the sprink- 
 ling of the blood of Jesus," 1 Pet. i. 2. 
 
 The life which Christ procured by his death, and which he 
 applies by his Spirit, is by him bestowed on those very persons 
 whom the Father had given him; he said of himself thus; 
 " That he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given 
 him," John xvii. 2, \vhich words are restrictive and plainly 
 limited to the elect, whom the Father gave to Christ to redeem 
 by his death; and thus election and redemption answer each 
 other. Christ being made perfect, through sufferings, brings 
 the many sons to glory, and presents them to the Father, say- 
 ing, " Behold I, and the children which God hath given me," 
 Heb. ii. 10, 13. Those given to Christ, and brought to glory 
 by him, are those for whom he was made perfect through suf- 
 
150 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 ferings, so exact an agreement is there between the Father' 
 choice, and the Son's purchase; they both pursue the same 
 intention, and each person does his part to make the same indi- 
 vidual persons happy. Hence it is said, " Who shall lay any 
 thing to the charge of God's elect? it is God that justifies; who 
 is he that condemns? it is Christ that died," Rom. viii. 33, 34. 
 Seeing Christ died for the elect, and God the Father justifies 
 those for whom Christ died, who shall condemn them whom 
 the Father has chosen, and the Son has redeemed, by his most 
 precious blood ? 
 
 Christ has told us in express terms, that "he came down 
 from heaven to do the will of him that sent him," which will he 
 declared to be, " that of all which he had given him, he should 
 lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day," John vi. 38, 
 39. The resurrection here spoken of shows, that they are per- 
 sons which the Father gave the Son to redeem, and preserve to 
 eternal life; none of which given and redeemed persons can be 
 lost, because it is the Father's will that they should not; and the 
 Son came to fulfil that will, and has assured us, that all that 
 the Father gives him shall come to him, and that he will cast 
 out none of them, but raise up every believer at the last day, 
 John vi. 37, 40. So exactly do the Father's election and the 
 Son's redemption agree, with respect to the persons chosen and 
 redeemed. 
 
 This also plainly appears, from those scripture passages, 
 " According as he hath chosen us in him ; in whom we have re- 
 demption through his blood," Eph. i. 4, 7. They are evidently 
 the same persons who are first said to be chosen, and then to 
 be redeemed by the blood of Christ ; so exactly commensurate 
 is the latter to the former. And we may observe, that there is 
 not, here or elsewhere, the least intimation that Christ's re- 
 demption either exceeds or falls short of the Father's election, 
 in one single instance, or individual person. All who were 
 chosen are redeemed, and all who are redeemed in time were 
 chosen from eternity. 
 
 The same truth is signified in that scripture, " That Jesus 
 should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but also 
 that he should gather together in one the children of God that 
 were scattered abroad," John xi. 51, 52; even the elect people, 
 dispersed throughout the world. These Christ was to draw to 
 himself, by the virtue of his death, according to his own words; 
 " I, if I am lifted up (crucified) will draw all men to me," John 
 xii. 32 ; all those who are the sons of God by election, or, to 
 use the apostle's phrase, who are predestinated to the adop- 
 tion of children, Eph. i. 5. 
 
 The truth of the proposition that the Father's election and 
 the Son's redemption are of the same extent, or that jChrist died 
 for all chosen, and those only who were given to him by the 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 151 
 
 Father, I think, is fully proved by the scriptures alleged ; the 
 plain deduction and inference from which is, that Christ did 
 not give himself to redeem all men, but a select number only. 
 
 2. Clirist's redemption is absolute, certain, and perfect. 
 
 By its being absolute and certain, I mean, that Christ's 
 redemption did not depend upon any previous desert in man; 
 nor is the efficacy of it suspended upon the free will of man, 
 so as it should be in his power to make it effectual, or ineffec- 
 tual, as he pleases. This redemption is said to be perfect, with 
 respect to the end or effect of it, that is, the perfect happiness 
 of all the redeemed, who are freed from all sin, and all the 
 penal consequences of it. 
 
 We have been often told, that Christ died conditionally for 
 all men, but absolutely for no man; that he procured recon- 
 ciliation and remission of sins for all men, and yet it might 
 have so happened, as that not one person should have enjoyed 
 either pardon or peace with God, seeing, as some say, Christ 
 left it to men, to embrace or refuse the atonement, as they 
 pleased. But Christ himself asserts, that all that the Father 
 gave him shall come to him, John vi. 37. How low and 
 mean a notion of redemption is it to say, that Christ made only 
 a conditional purchase, and left it in the power of man to 
 render it effectual, by believing, or to make it null and void by 
 •imbelief, as he would? How much this opinion tends to exalt 
 the power and pride of the sinner, and to depreciate the love 
 and redemption of Christ, one would think must be evident to 
 every intelligent person at the first view. That without faith 
 no man can enjoy eternal redemption is certain ; but that Christ 
 has left it to men to make void the ends of his death, and the 
 intention of his redeeming love, as they please, is contrary to 
 Scripture, and all good sense. Faith is not of a man's self, it 
 is the gift of God, Eph. ii. 8; but it is also the purchase of 
 Christ's blood, and is certainly wrought in the hearts of the 
 redeemed^ by the Holy Spirit, on the account of the Father's 
 election and Christ's redemption, Titus i. 1; therefore it is styled 
 "the faith of God's elect, obtained through the righteousness 
 of God our Saviour," 2 Peter i. 1. Hence Christ said, that 
 his sheep shall hear his voice, iohw x. 16. Christ spoke not 
 doubtfully, but with certainty and resolution; he did not say, 
 they shall hear my voice, if they will ; if not, I submit my will 
 and my work to their will and pleasure. As Christ died for 
 men, without asking their previous consent, so he makes them 
 willing in the day of his poiver, Psalm ex. 3; and renders his 
 redemption certainly effectual to all those persons, and for all 
 those ends, for which he gave himself. When it is said, that 
 " Christ is entered into heaven for us, having obtained eternal 
 redemption for us, by his blood," Heb. ix. 12, 24; can any 
 thing less be meant, than that Christ, having made a perfect 
 
152 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 and absolute purchase of salvation, by his death, ascended to 
 heaven, to appear in the presence of God for the redeemed, and 
 to secure their actual and eternal enjoyment of that salvation? 
 If it be said, that Christ obtained redemption for all such as 
 will have it, it must be granted; but then none will have it, but 
 such as God makes willing, as he certainly does all his elect, 
 and none else. 
 
 The Scriptures speak of the intention and effect of Christ's 
 death, in tiie most absolute and certain terms : " When enemies, 
 we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, and shall 
 much more be saved by his life," Romans v. 10. " He died 
 for us, that we should live together with him," 1 Thess. v. 10. 
 " God hath appointed us to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ," 
 verse 9; or actually to enjoy it. Whatever obstacles lay in the 
 way, Christ undertook to remove; whatever is necessary to fit the 
 redeemed for glory, he will see accomplished, and never leave 
 his sheep, for wboni he laid down his life, John x. 2S; nor 
 part witli them out of his hand, but will bring them all safe to 
 heaven; he has given us his word for it, that they shall never 
 perish, but he will give them eternal life. Christ gave himself 
 for us, to redeem us from all iniquity, absolutely, not condition- 
 ally, if we would; but he gave himself, with resolution to carry 
 the work through, and make it effectual; this, I think, is plainly 
 the sense of my text. 
 
 I cannot forbear digressing so far, as to observe what a glo- 
 rious redemption this is, worthy of him that contrived it, and 
 of him that procured it, and infinitely superior to that condi- 
 tional redemption, which subjects the will and merits of Christ 
 to the caprice and humour of sinners, and represents him as a 
 well meaning, but weak Redeemer, who intended to save all 
 men, but could not accomplish his design, by reason of men's 
 not doing their part. According to our opponents, Christ's pur- 
 chase respected his Father rather than men; it, as they say, pro- 
 cured God a right and power to save men on what conditions 
 he pleased ; so that when it is said, that God was reconciled, 
 it is only meant that he was reconcilable, and Christ did not 
 procure salvation, but only a salvability; he was but a titular 
 Saviour, a Saviour without salvation, and a Redeemer without 
 redemption: Christ is only the remote cause, but man the imme- 
 diate cause; Christ the potential, but man the actual cause of 
 his own redemption. Is this honourable to Christ ? 
 
 If Christ died conditionally for all men, to save them, pro- 
 vided they would believe and repent, the question is. Whether 
 he procured these conditions, repentance and faith, for all men; 
 if not, how shall they come by them? If he did, why do not 
 all receive them? seeing "Christ is exalted to be a Prince and 
 a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins." If he 
 does not give them, is it either for want of power, or for want 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEIMPTION. 153 
 
 of will ? How can he want power, who is " God over all, 
 blessed for ever;" and, as Mediator, "has all power in heaven 
 and earth committed to him?" And if it proceeds from a want 
 of will in Christ, that they do not receive them, how then did 
 he intentionally redeem all men, if he withholds the conditions 
 upon which it is suspended ? If it is said, it was not agreed 
 between the Father and the Son that these conditions should 
 be bestowed on all men, then it was because it was not the 
 intention of the Father and die Son, that they should receive 
 them, and so be saved ; and if it is so, then neither Father nor 
 Son really intended that all men should be redeemed and 
 saved; for who has resisted their will? Whatever they intend- 
 ed to do shall be done. The matter is not left at uncertainties; 
 Christ's redemption is absolute, certain, and perfect ; and hence 
 it follows, that Christ did not die to redeem all men, seeing 
 all men do not enjoy an absolute, certain, and perfect redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 3. Christ's suretiship and sufferings B.xe of the same extent; 
 Christ died to redeem all, and only those, whose debt he, as 
 their surety, undertook to pay. 
 
 Christ is expressly said to be the Surety of a better testa- 
 ment, or covenant, Heb. vii. 22. But the question is, whether 
 Christ is only a Surety on God's part to us, as some affirm, or 
 a surety on our part to God, as others assert ? When God said, 
 "sacrifice and otfering he would not;" or when he declared, 
 that he would not accept the legal sacrifices, as an atonement 
 for the sins of men, then Christ said, " Lo, I come, to do thy 
 will, God," Psal. xl. 8: i. e. I put myself in the place of thy 
 chosen people; and, according to thy will, I will suffer in their 
 stead, be a sacrifice for their sins, pay their debt, and redeem 
 them from death. For this end, " God laid upon him the ini- 
 quity of us all ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, 
 and by his stripes we are healed," Isa. liii. 6. What other 
 reason can be given why our sins should be laid and punished 
 upon Christ ? or, why we should be healed by his stripes, but 
 his suretiship, or standing in our place, room, and stead, and so 
 suflering the just for the unjust, or giving his life a ransom for 
 many? On this account, we find God the Father restipulating 
 to Christ that he should " see his seed, the travail of his soul, 
 and should be satisfied," verse 11. There was an exact agree- 
 ment between Christ's payment and purchase, between the 
 price he paid, and the persons he redeemed ; he paid the full 
 debt of all, for whom he was Surety, and he secures the eter- 
 nal redemption of every one, for whom he made the payment. 
 We could neither pay the debt which we had contracted, nor 
 purchase the inheritance which we had forfeited, nor claim the 
 promises which are yea and amen, only in Christ. It is 
 therefore by means of his death, in our room and stead, that 
 
 20 
 
154 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 we " receive the promise of the eternal inheritance," Heb. ix. 
 15. 
 
 The grand question here is, For whom was Christ surety, 
 whose debt did he pay, whose freedom did he procure ? Let 
 the event declare this; for certainly Christ did not die in vain, 
 or purchase deliverance, and yet lose the price he paid, nor any 
 part of the purchase he made; for that would be contrary to 
 all the rules of justice and righteousness. Who then are they 
 that are delivered from the wrath to come, and shall inherit 
 everlasting life? Is this the lot of all men, or of some only? 
 If of some only, as matter of fact proves, then Christ was not 
 the Surety of all men; he did not die to redeem all men, but 
 some only. If Christ had been Surety of the covenant for all 
 men, and had purchased grace and salvation for all men, then 
 all men should certainly enjoy them, Psal. Ixxxix. 33, 34; for 
 God could not break his covenant, nor suffer his faithfulness to 
 fail. 
 
 If it is said, that Christ died to procure and establish a cove- 
 nant of grace with all mankind, and that every man is born 
 under this covenant, and that the works of nature reveal this 
 covenant to all men, and call all men into it ; I answer, that the 
 Scriptures no where speak of such an universal covenant of 
 grace, procured by Christ, or made with men. If there was 
 such a covenant subsisting, surely it should have been revealed 
 and made known to all men; but multitudes of persons, yea 
 nations, never had the knowledge of this covenant. God, at 
 first, made a distinction between the seed of the woman, and 
 the seed of the serpent, which has been kept up ever since. 
 Gen. iii. 15. The covenant was established with Abel, and Cain 
 was rejected; Abel being slain, Seth was raised up, as the seed 
 of the covenant ; after him, Noah and his family were taken 
 into covenant with God, and the old world rejected and de- 
 stroyed: after that, God established his covenant with Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and Jacob, whilst Ishmael and Esau were excluded. 
 And the Jews were God's covenant people ; but the rest of the 
 nations were suffered to walk in their own ways. And, to this 
 day, there are great numbers, not only of persons, but of nations, 
 who never heard of Christ, or the covenant of grace, and are 
 they yet in or under this covenant? " How shall they believe 
 in him, of whom they have not heard?" Rom. x. 14. The 
 works of nature, indeed, teach men many things concerning 
 God, as a Creator, but not as a Redeemer: they discover his 
 being, power, wisdom, goodness, and providence; but not his 
 saving grace and good pleasure in Christ, nor Christ's merit, 
 intercession or government; nor can they instruct men in the 
 nature of the covenant established upon those better promises, 
 in the hands of a Mediator, Heb. viii. 6, or discover to them 
 the perpetuity of those promises, which are yea and amen in 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 155 
 
 Christ Jesus, or that eternal Ufe comprised in the covenant, but 
 given only in and through the Son of God. These things were 
 hid from ages and generations, who cannot therefore be sup- 
 posed, by the works of nature, to be called into the covenant 
 of grace. Moreover, if all men are brought under a covenant 
 of grace, how could the apostle speak of some " still under the 
 law, and under the curse," Gal. iii. 10, " children of wrath, and 
 strangers to the covenant of promise, without Christ, without 
 hope, and without God in the world," Eph. ii. 3, 12, especially 
 if Christ was the surety of an universal covenant? 
 
 If Christ is the surety of a covenant, which, though it in- 
 cludes an innumerable company, yet not all men, then he is 
 not the surety of all men, and consequently did not die to re- 
 deem all men; for on what grounds can it be said that he died 
 for any more, or others, than those for whom he is surety? 
 How could he be required to die, and satisfy divine justice for 
 any men, otherwise than as he had voluntarily put himself in 
 their room, and had undertaken to satisfy the demands of the 
 law and justice of God on their behalf? If Christ was the 
 surety of an universal covenant, then he paid the debts of all 
 men, made satisfaction for the sins of all men, otherwise he 
 would not have fulfilled his trust, nor have been faithful either 
 to God or man. And if he did satisfy for the sins of all men, 
 then, in justice all men must be exempted from sufl'ering for 
 them, and so hell is dispeopled at once, or else a double satis- 
 faction would be required for the same sins, which is as con- 
 trary to God's justice, as to have none at all. Upon the whole, 
 seeing multitudes sutler the vengeance of eternal fire, for their 
 own sins, it is evident, that Christ was not the surety of an 
 universal covenant of grace, was not the surety of all men: 
 and hence the conclusion clearly and strongly follows, that he 
 did not give himself to redeem all men. 
 
 4. Christ's oblation and intercession relate to the same per- 
 sons. 
 
 " He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the 
 transgressors;" Isa. liii. 12. For what transgressors? for those 
 whose sins he bore. To offer for the sins of the people, and to 
 pray for them, were the two main parts of the priestly office, 
 under the law, and of Christ's priestly office, as it is represented 
 under the gospel. " It is Christ that died, who also makes in- 
 tercession for us;" Rom. viii. 34. And again, " We have an 
 advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who also 
 is the propitiation for our sins;" 1 John ii. 1, 2. The one an- 
 swers the other: the intercession is founded upon the propitia- 
 tion. There is no reason to think that Christ died for those for 
 whom he would not intercede, or that he mterceded for any for 
 whom he did not die; the Scriptures apply both to the same 
 persons, or speak of them as done both for the same persons. 
 
156 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 There are some for whom we are not to pray, 1 John v. 16; 
 and can we think that Christ prayed for them himself? What 
 is Christ's intercession, bnt a presenting to the Father that 
 sacrifice which he had otTered for the sins of men, with a desire 
 that they may enjoy the blessings pnrchased thereby? Christ 
 has told us, " That he did not pray for the world," John xvii. 9. 
 therefore he did not die for the world, as the word is taken, for 
 all men; for if he had offered the sacrifice for all, it would bear 
 a plea for all; and we cannot conceive that Christ should refuse 
 to intercede for any, whom he loved so well as to bleed and 
 die for them. If it is said, that Christ foresaw the unworfhi- 
 ness of the wicked world, and therefore resolved not to pray 
 for them, it may be also said, that he foresaw the unworthiness 
 of the wicked world, and therefore would not die for them ; for 
 what reason can be given why that wickedness and unworthi- 
 ness, which is supposed to hinder Christ's praying for them, 
 should not also hinder his dying for them? 
 
 But it may be said, Christ prayed for those that crucified 
 him: he prayed for Jerusalem, and therefore doth not limit his 
 intercession to the elect. I answer, that those for whom Christ 
 prayed on the cross, were afterwards converted, and so appear- 
 ed to be of the number of God's chosen; and it cannot thence 
 be proved that he prayed for the forgiveness of all men: if he 
 did or does, one of those two absurdities will follow, either that 
 the Father does not alicays hear Christ, John xi. 42, or that 
 all men shall be forgiven ; both which are contrary to Scripture. 
 As to Jerusalem, Christ's words relating thereto, are not pro- 
 perly a prayer, but rather an act of human compassion towards 
 the miserable. It is not to be thought that Christ would pray 
 for what he knew could not be granted,* and he expressly says, 
 " That the things of their peace were now hid from their eyes," 
 Luke ix. 42. Besides, it might be their civil, not their eternal 
 peace, which is spoken of; and then no argument can thence 
 be drawn for Christ praying for the eternal salvation of any be- 
 sides those given him of the Father. 
 
 If then it holds true that Christ intercedes only for those 
 given him out of the world, and if he intercedes for all for whom 
 he died, then he did not die for all men, seeing all men were not 
 given to him by the Father; and he does not intercede for all 
 men, not for the world, but for a peculiar number given him 
 out of the world. A part given him out of the world cannot 
 mean the whole world; neither can the words of Christ, " 1 pray 
 not for the world," John xvii. 9, 20, be restrained to the apos- 
 
 * Or, as some think, Christ refers to his prophetic office in these words, " O 
 that tliou liadst known at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy 
 peace, and how often would I have gathered thee," viz. the tendency of my 
 ministry was to show the way of life and peace, but ye refused instruction.— 
 Collat. Fiscal, cum Vorstio, pp. 2, 94. 
 
 I 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 157 
 
 lies, because in the same prayer he says, "Neither pray I for 
 these alone, but for those also who shall believe on me, through 
 their word." Christ's prayer then extends to all such, as in 
 time believe, and to none else: and therefore so does his death, 
 seeing, as has been proved, his oblation and intercession relate 
 to the same persons. 
 
 5. Christ did not die to procure the remission of their sins, 
 whose sins he knew beforehand were irremissible; for that 
 would have been, so far, to have died in vain. It would not 
 have been to have done his Father's will, but to have acted in 
 direct opposition to it, in purchasing remission for those whose 
 sins can never be forgiven. " The blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost shall never be forgiven to men," Mat. xii. 31. This 
 Christ declared with his own mouth; and did he, after such a 
 declaration, die to procure the pardon of their sins, who can 
 never be forgiven? Far be it from us to impute such a weak- 
 ness and absurdity to the only wise God our Saviour. Does 
 Christ forbid us to pray for the pardon of that sin, 1 John v. 1 6, 
 and yet did he shed his blood to procure the pardon of those 
 that were guilty of it? And if he did not die for them, then he 
 did not die for all men. 
 
 It will, I suppose, be generally allowed, that the sins of those 
 actually in hell, are irremissible, for " there the fire is never 
 quenched, and the worm dieth not," Mark ix. 43, 44, and out 
 of that place there is no redemption. At the very time when 
 Christ suffered, there were multitudes in that place of torment; 
 and how absurd is it to suppose that Christ paid the price of 
 redemption for millions, who at that very instant were suffering 
 the vengeance of eternal fire for their own sins? If it is said, 
 is it not as absurd for Christ to pay the price of their redemp- 
 tion, who were actually in heaven at the time of payment, and 
 so stood in no need of it? To this we may reply, that those 
 who were in heaven when Christ died, were admitted on the 
 credit of that purchase which he had undertaken to make for 
 them : but Christ could not die for the damned, upon any sup- 
 position of their deliverance and salvation, or by virtue of any 
 engagement, on his part, to deliver them. But it may be urged, 
 that Christ was to pay the price of the day and means of grace, 
 and a possibility of their salvation; and this was as much due 
 to God for those in hell, as for any out of it. To this I answer 
 distinctly, that it no where appears in Scripture, that Christ 
 stood engaged to purchase a day, and means of grace, and pos- 
 sibiUty of salvation for all men; and if so, the reason of his suf- 
 fering for those in hell ceaseth. Besides, it is plain that many 
 of the damned did never enjoy a day and means of grace; for 
 God neglected and overlooked them, and suffered them to 
 walk in their own ways, Acts xvii. 30. They lived without 
 God in the world. The gospel was hid from them, and by all 
 
158 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 their natural or acquired wisdom they knew not God, 1 Cor. i. 
 21. What price could Christ have to pay for such? was lie to pay 
 for what they never had? In short, Christ could not engage to 
 procure a possibility of salvation for such as could not possibly 
 be saved, as Cain and Judas, and such as committed the sin 
 against the Holy Ghost: and therefore he could not die to ren- 
 der salvation possible to all men. 
 
 The deduction from the whole is, that Christ did not intend, 
 by his death, to reconcile and save all men, or to render the 
 salvation of all men possible; seeing he well knew, that the sal- 
 vation of some men was, when he died, impossible ; and that 
 they never had enjoyed a day or means of grace or salvation, 
 nor had he undertaken to purchase it for them. 
 
 6. Those for whom Christ died, are exempted from con- 
 demnation, and shall at last be presented to God with exceed- 
 ing joy. 
 
 The apostle Paul puts this question, " Who is he that con- 
 demneth? it is Christ that died," Rom. viii. 34. This is spoken 
 indefinitely, and belongs to all for whom Christ died; for the 
 apostle puts no guard or limitation upon it. Through Christ's 
 blood " there is redemption, the forgiveness of sins, according to 
 the riches of God's grace," Eph. i. 7. But if multitudes, for 
 whom Christ's blood was shed, never enjoy that forgiveness, 
 then it is not according to the riches of grace, nor indeed accord- 
 ing to the strict rules of justice. If any, and especially if the 
 greater part of those for whom Christ died, are, notwithstand- 
 ing, eternally condemned, how weak must the apostle's reason- 
 ing be, and how groundless and vain his challenge? " Who is 
 he that condemneth? it is Christ that died," Rom. viii. 34. On 
 the other hand, if Christ's death exempts all men from condem- 
 nation, for whom he died, then his reasoning is just and strong, 
 but then it will thence follow that he did not die for all men; 
 seeing so many are eternally condemned. 
 
 Christ shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied, and 
 shall hereafter present the redeemed to the Father, with exceed- 
 ing joy: saying, "Behold I, and the children which God hath 
 given me," Heb. ii. 13. Now, if Christ gave himself for all, 
 and only a remnant are saved, what satisfaction, what joy, can 
 he have, in presenting them to his Father? Instead of saying, 
 " Here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me, the 
 whole world redeemed by my blood;" may we not rather ap- 
 prehend him saying, " Behold, here is a handful, a small part of 
 those whom I died to redeem; the rest are lost, though it was, 
 Father, thy will and my intention to save them all, yet their 
 will prevailed against thine and mine, and my blood was shed for 
 the greater number in vain." Could this be agreeable to Christ? 
 would this be his " seeing the travail of his soul, and being 
 satisfied?" what joy could attend the presenting a small part of 
 
OF PAUTICULAR REDEMPTION. 159 
 
 the redeemed to the Father? But if all for whom Christ died 
 safely arrive in glory, then Christ may be abundantly satisfied, 
 and joy may run through the whole celestial court. It will be 
 a joy to the Father who chose them, to the Son who redeemed 
 them, to the Holy Spirit who fitted them for heaven, to the holy 
 angels who ministered to them, and to the saved themselves, 
 that they are all there ; not one lost or missing : and this ac- 
 cording to the Scriptures, will be the real event and true state 
 of the case. 
 
 The plain deduction or inference from these premises, is this; 
 that Christ did not intend, by his death, to redeem all men; for 
 then he could not with so much joy present to the Father only 
 a part of them, as the travail of his soul, or purchase of his 
 blood. 
 
 The rest of the propositions to be laid down and confirmed, 
 I must refer to my next discourse; and I shall now conclude 
 with this one short reflection upon the whole: that the doctrine 
 which tends most to debase man and exalt Christ, to take away 
 boasting from us, and to set forth the glory of God, that is the 
 true doctrine of Christ's redemption : for to this end is he made 
 redemption to us, " That he that glories, may glory in the 
 Lord," 1 Cor. i. 31. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 TiTDS ii. 14. — Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 
 
 The gospel doctrine of our redemption by Christ, tends much 
 to the glory of God, and the happiness of man ; it is the admira- 
 tion of angels, and the envy of devils. Satan, provoked to the 
 last degree, to see man delivered out of his kingdom of darkness 
 and misery, has left no means unattempted, to render that re- 
 demption ineffectual, as to the application of it, the purchase of 
 which he could not prevent : for this end he has raised up some 
 to deny the deity of the Redeemer, and to place him in the rank 
 of mere creatures, that so they might make void his merit and 
 satisfaction; and so, at one blow, destroy all real redemption by 
 Christ, pluck the crown from his head, and lay our hopes of 
 happiness expiring with the merit and honour of the Saviour. 
 Others, who do not deny Christ's merit and satisfaction, pre- 
 clude themselves from the benefit thereof, by setting up a de- 
 praved and false medium of application instead of the true one; 
 and here Satan has put men upon running into two dangerous 
 extremes ; some place faith in a persuasion of the love of Christ, 
 
160 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 and of their interest in redemption by him: others rest in that 
 faith, wliich only receives Christ as the true Messiah, or the Sa- 
 viour that was to come into the world: and thus the devils be- 
 lieve, and yet tremble at the thoughts of their future doom. 
 There is a third sort, with whom is my present concern, who, in 
 extending Christ's redemption to all men, represent it as preca- 
 rious and uncertain to all, and certainly ineffectual to the greater 
 part of mankind, seeing such multitudes fall short of personal 
 redemption and salvation. I might mention a fourth sort, who 
 ^>from the doctrine of universal redemption, draw a confident, 
 though groundless conclusion, that they shall be saved what- 
 ever their faith or practice be, forgetting or denying my text, 
 which asserts, that " Christ gave himself to redeem from all ini- 
 quity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
 works;" and that therefore such as allow themselves in evil 
 works, indulge iniquity, and are not purified, have no claim to 
 redemption by Christ. By what has been said it appears, how 
 Satan has been endeavouring to subvert our redemption, by his 
 attempts upon the author of it, Christ ; the instrument of its ap- 
 plication, faith ; and by misleading us, as to the object or extent 
 of it. It concerns us therefore to be sober and vigilant, lest our 
 great adversary prevail against us, in any of the forementioned 
 methods, to be injurious to the Redeemer and to our own souls. 
 To establish, what I take to be, the true doctrine of redemp- 
 tion, That Christ gave himself to redeem and save a chosen 
 and peculiar number only, several arguments were formerly 
 offered; it was proved, that election and redemption are of the 
 same extent, or do relate to the same individual persons ; and 
 that therefore, seeing all are not chosen, all are not redeemed. 
 Christ's redemption is absolute and certain; he cannot fail nor 
 miss of the end and design of his death ; and therefore the end 
 and design of it was not to redeem and save all men, seeing all 
 men are not redeemed and saved. Christ's suretiship and suf- 
 ferings are of the same extent; the former being the ground of 
 the latter; but Christ is not the surety of all men; and therefore 
 he did not suffer and die for all men. The oblation and inter- 
 cession of Christ relate to the same persons; seeing that he does 
 not intercede for all men, he did not die for all men. Nor is it 
 to be supposed that Christ died to procure the remission of their 
 sins, whose sins were irremissible ; such as the sins of the dam- 
 ned, and the sin against the Holy Ghost; therefore he did not 
 die for all men : he did not die to procure remission for those ac- 
 tually in hell at the time of his death, or for those on earth con- 
 cerning whom his own lips had declared that they should never 
 be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. I 
 further argued, that the redeemed are exempted from condem- 
 nation; and shall be presented to God with exceeding joy; but 
 all men are not exempted from condemnation ; nor shall all men 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 161 
 
 be presented to God with exceeding joy: therefore Christ did 
 not give himself to redeem all men, but a select and chosen 
 number only. These things were more largely insisted on in 
 my preceding discourse, under six distinct propositions : I now 
 proceed to a seventh. 
 
 7. There is a strict and inviolable connexion between Christ s 
 siifferhigs and his saving hcnefits. All those for whom Christ 
 died, shall be saved by his death; every person shall enjoy eter- 
 nal redemption, for whom Christ obtained it. 
 
 As God gives, so Christ purchased grace and glory, for all 
 the redeemed; therefore, '-if when we were enemies, we were 
 reconciled to God, by the death of his Son ; much more being 
 reconciled, we shall be saved by his life,"' Rom. v. 10. Christ 
 will perfect his work ; and the same persons who were recon- 
 ciled by his death, shall be brought to eternal salvation by his 
 life. His intercession in heaven secures the eternal salvation 
 of all those for whom he gave himself an atoning sacrifice, to 
 reconcile them to God. The purchase and application of re- 
 demption are of the same extent. 
 
 Our opponents, directly contrary to the cited scripture, teach, 
 that multitudes of those who were reconciled to God by Christ's 
 death, yet shall not, or will not be saved by his life. What then 
 becomes of the apostle's argument for the certainty of men's 
 salvation, drawn from Christ's dying for them, if many for 
 whom he died may, and must come short of salvation? if when 
 Christ had reconciled them by his death, they shall not certainly 
 be saved by his life ? *' If when we were enemies, we were 
 reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more (says 
 the apostle, much less, say our opponents) shall we be saved 
 by his life." If Christ paid the price of redemption when we 
 were enemies, and propitiated God, much more God being 
 propitiated, and a sufficient price of our redemption being paid, 
 shall our eternal salvation be secured by Christ's life in heaven, 
 where he appears, in the presence of God for us, and pleads the 
 merits of his death for their salvation, whom he reconciled to 
 God thereby. He is too wise, and too kind to those who were 
 the travail of his soul, to lose any of them. Hence he said, 
 « Father, I will (I claim it as my due) that those whom thou 
 hast given me may be with me where I am ; that they may 
 behold my glory," John xvii. 24. 
 
 Would any wise man pay down a vahiable consideration 
 for that which he had no assurance he should enjoy, or rather, 
 which he knew beforehand he should never enjoy ? But so it 
 seems Ciinsr, me wisdom of the Father, must be supposed to 
 do, rather than infringe upon free will, and man's sovereign 
 power in his own salvation. However, according to the Scrip- 
 tures, Christ did not die in vain ; there is a certain connexion 
 between reconciliation and salvation; Christ's cliastisement, 
 
 21 
 
1d2 of particular redemption. 
 
 and their peace for whom he suffered; his stripes, and their 
 heaUng for whom he was wounded, are inseparably joined to- 
 gether, " The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
 by his stripes we are healed," Isa. liii. 5, said the prophet. But 
 according to our opponents, our peace and healing do not cer- 
 tainly follow Christ's chastisements and stripes. Now, whether 
 God or man is to be believed, let every one who is impartial 
 judge. It is further written, "By his knowledge shall my 
 righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniqui- 
 ties," ver. 1 1. Such are justified by Christ, whose iniquities he 
 bore ; that is, suffered and satisfied for in his death : to this agree 
 those words of the apostle, " He was delivered for our offences, 
 and raised again for our justification," Rom. iv. 25. What a 
 strict connexion is there all along, between Christ's sufferings, 
 and his saving benefits ; and how are the same persons pointed 
 out, as enjoying the salutary effects of Christ's death, for whom 
 he suffered it! 
 
 The apostle argues, that " he who spared not his own Son, 
 but gave him up for us all, shall with him freely give us all 
 things," Rom. viii. 32. That is, all such for whom Christ died, 
 shall enjoy all the saving benefits and fruits of his death, such 
 as effectual calling, justification, and eternal glory, before-men- 
 tioned. God having given up his Son to die for us, will with 
 him give us freely the means of grace, grace itself, and the 
 heavenly glory, ver. 30. For that love to our persons which 
 inclined God to give his own Son, the Son of himself, of his 
 own nature, will also dispose him to give all inferior blessings 
 for a double reason ; partly because this Son was too great 
 and precious a gift to be lost or given for nothing, to be given 
 to such sufferings as he endured, and yet lose millions of souls 
 redeemed by his blood; and also because justice required, that 
 when the Son had paid the price of redemption, he should 
 enjoy the purchase, or things purchased, even those for whom 
 God gave him up : and in order thereto, God will give them 
 all things necessary to their salvation.* The argument from 
 the cited scripture lies thus ; If God, having given up his Son 
 to die for us, will with him freely give us grace and glory, 
 then there is an inseparable connexion between Christ's suffer- 
 ings, and his saving benefits: but God freely, and without any 
 condition gave us Christ, and with him all things; therefore 
 there is an inseparable connexion between Christ's sufferings, 
 
 * One of the ancients upon these words thus expresses himself. " He excepts 
 notliing who is the author of all ; art thou afraid of thy Judge ? consider who he 
 is, namely, Christ, to whom the Father has committed all judgment. Can he 
 damn thee, who redeemed thee by his death, for whom he offered himself, and 
 whose life he knows to be the reward of his death ? will he not say. What profit 
 \» tJiere in my blood, if I condemn him whom I have died to save ?" — Ambrose, 
 lib. 1. de Jacob et vita beata. cap. 6. 
 
OP PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 163 
 
 and his saving benefits, between his being given up for ns, and 
 the giving of all things (grace and glory purchased by Christ) 
 to all those for whom he died. 
 
 All the parts of the argument Christ himself has given us in 
 one discourse, leaving it to us to put them together. Christ first 
 described the persons for whom he died, in these words: " I lay 
 down my life for the sheep." John x. 15. He next declared 
 the certain effect of his laying down his life for them; "they 
 hear his voice and follow him," verse 27. And then he draws 
 the conclusion, " I give to them eternal life, and they shall never 
 perish." Those for whom Christ laid down his life, in time 
 hear his voice, and follow him, and shall enjoy eternal life, as 
 the fruit and purchase of his death for them. And thus from 
 Christ's own words, the truth of our proposition appears; that 
 there is an inviolable connexion between Christ's sufferings and 
 his saving benefits, and that all those for whom Christ died, 
 shall certainly be saved. 
 
 This truth may be confirmed by other Scripture testimonies; 
 as for instance, from what is said of Christ, that "he died for 
 us, that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with 
 him." This was Christ's intention and design, that all those 
 for whom he died should live with him in glory: either then 
 Christ must be disappointed, or else they must for ever live 
 with him for whom he died. Christ gave his " flesh for the life 
 of the world," John vi. 51, and he giveth life to the same world, 
 verse 33, The purchase, and the application of salvation are 
 spoken of, with the same certainty, and in the same extent : 
 there is not the least intimation that he purchased salvation for 
 all, but applies it only to some; the same world for whom he 
 died, to that world he gives life ; but he does not give life to all 
 men; therefore by the loorld, Christ did not mean all men, but 
 all those throughout the world who believe on him, for whom 
 he gave his flesh, to purchase their hfe. 
 
 We are assured, that " God was in Christ reconciling the 
 world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; for 
 he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we 
 might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor. v. 19, 
 21. Here we may observe, that those whom God reconciles 
 to himself, are those to whom God does not impute trespasses; 
 those to whom God does not impute their trespasses, are those 
 for whom Christ was made sin, are those who are made the 
 righteousness of God in him: therefore, the non-imputation of 
 sin, and the imputation of righteousness, belong to all those, and 
 only those for whom Christ was made sin, and whom God was 
 in him reconciling to himself 
 
 We are told that Christ, " by his own blood, entered in once 
 into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us," 
 Heb. ix. 12. 14, 15; that his blood purges our consciences from 
 
164 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 dead works; and that by means of his death, they which are 
 called receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. If Christ's 
 death obtained redemption, if it purges the conscience, and 
 secures the eternal inheritance, then there is a strict connexion 
 between Christ's sulferings and his saving benefits; but the 
 former is true, and therefore so is the latter. Christ's death is 
 not as a medicine laid up in a box, for such as may happen to 
 make use of it ; but it is effectually and certainly applied to all 
 for whom it was prepared : " By his stripes we are healed," 
 Isa. liii. 5; "all that the Father hath given me shall come," 
 saith Christ, John vi. 7. If he obtained eternal redemption for 
 us, then all those for whom he obtained it, do and shall enjoy 
 that redemption; otherwise it is so far from being eternal re- 
 demption, that it is no redemption at all. 
 
 If it be said, that Christ obtained eternal redemption for all, 
 conditionally but not absolutely; the question is, whether Christ 
 purchased this condition for them or not ; if he did, then they 
 must certainly enjoy it ; if he did not purchase this condition, 
 how did he obtain eternal redemption for them? Or how shall 
 they come by this condition; as for instance, faith, seeing that 
 is not of a man's self, Eph. ii. 8; nor is this way of enjoying 
 this redemption, or the redemption itself, so much as revealed, 
 and made known to multitudes of men; "and how shall they 
 believe in him of whom they have not heard ?" Rom. x. 14. 
 Remission of sins is so great a part of redemption, that it is put 
 for the whole of it, when it is said, " In whom we have redemp- 
 tion, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Eph. i. 7. The 
 latter, forgiveness of sins through Christ's blood, is here meant, 
 by our being redeemed by his blood. If then we have the 
 forgiveness of sins included in, or flowing from redemption by 
 Christ's blood, then all those who were redeemed by his blood, 
 have also forgiveness of sins, and consequently either all are 
 pardoned, or all were not redeemed, seeing redemption neces- 
 sarily inckides forgiveness, or there is an inviolable connexion 
 between them; which is the assertion I am proving. If this is 
 disallowed, how shall we secure the honour of God's wisdom, 
 the sincerity of his love, or maintain the value of Christ's death, 
 or God's equity and righteousness? Was Christ's blood shed 
 for all men, and yet are only some saved? Could Christ die at 
 uncertainty, whether he should have a seed or no, or how great 
 or small it should be, or whether the divine love should enjoy 
 all, or half, or a fourth part of its objects, as it must be, if it 
 \depends on the free and uncertain will of man, whether the 
 redeemed shall be actually saved or not ? " God sent forth his 
 Son, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the 
 law, that we might receive the adoption of sons:" this, in the 
 purchase of it, we received in Christ's death, and therefore we 
 are said to be sons, Before conversion ; " Because ye are sons, 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 165 
 
 God has sent forth the Spirit into your hearts, crying, Abba, 
 Father," Gal. iv. 4 — 6. The application answers the purchase, 
 and actually follows upon it. Christ redeemed those for whom 
 he died from bondage, and procured for them the glorious pri- 
 vilege of being the sons of God; and being thus made sons, as 
 the price paid for it, the Father grants the thing purchased, and 
 bestows the Spirit of adoption on the redeemed people. Now, 
 do all enjoy this Spirit of adoption? Can all men cry, Abba, 
 Father, or go to God with a filial frame, under the gracious in- 
 fluences of the Holy Spirit? If not, as is most true, then Christ 
 did not die for all men, to redeem them from the curse, and 
 make them sons, seeing there is such an inseparable union be- 
 tween redemption and adoption. 
 
 Because this argument is so conclusive and decisive, let us 
 enter a little deeper into it, and more firmly establish it, by 
 showing the grounds and reasons of this strict connexion be- 
 tween Christ's sufferings and his saving benefits. 
 
 (1.) Christ's death had in it the nature of a price of redemp- 
 tion. We are told, in Scripture, that " we are bought with a 
 price," 1 Cor. vi. 20; and what that price was, we elsewhere 
 read, when mention is made of the church of God, which he 
 "purchased with his own blood," Acts xx. 28, and when it is 
 declared that we were not " redeemed with corruptible things, 
 as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ," 1 Pet. 
 i. IS, 19. It is the blood of Christ, which in this business has 
 that use, which silver and gold has in the redeeming of captives, 
 as one* has observed. It is called, in Scripture, a price of 
 redemption for the delivery of another. Now, if Christ paid a 
 price of redemption for all, then, according to the rules of jus- 
 tice, all must be delivered, otherwise Christ had not his due: 
 if, then, all are not delivered, Christ did not pay this price of 
 redemption for all men, seeing all for whom he paid the price 
 do and must enjoy the thing purchased. He who is righteous 
 in all his ways, cannot be unrighteous to his own Son, in with- 
 holding what he had bought with his precious blood. 
 
 (2.) That love which caused God to give his Son, and which 
 caused Christ to give himself to redeem simiers, cannot lose or 
 be deprived of vast numbers of persons, on whom it had fixed, 
 and for whom it gave a ransom, and therefore all the redeemed 
 must be saved ; and if all were redeemed, then all must be 
 saved, for God will not lose the objects of his love. 
 
 But it may be objected, the consequence drawn from the 
 divine love doth not follow, seeing God and Christ loved all 
 men, and intended their salvation only conditionally, provided 
 they would believe, but left that to them.selves, as being in their 
 own power. I answer: then God and Christ left it in the power 
 * Dr. Owen against Biddle, p. 464. 
 
166 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 of their enemies, whether they should have any objects of their 
 love or not ; for as many never do or will believe, so the rest 
 might not have done it, and then both Father and Son had 
 loved in vain, and Christ had died in vain; and, according to 
 the objectors, God is brought down to a mean dependence upon 
 his creatures, unworthy of his sovereign power and grace; and 
 God's satisfaction and honour are put into the power or sub- 
 jected to the pleasure of foolish and disobedient men, Titus iii. 
 3, But if God had such a love to all men, why did he not keep 
 their salvation in his own hands, and secure it to them all? 
 Could not the same love which gave Christ for all, have secured 
 the happiness of all men, if indeed it did give him for all, and 
 would act like itself, or according to this large extent of its 
 objects? But, moreover, where does the Scripture represent 
 the love of God as conditional? Is it not said to be free, and 
 from everlasting, and the spring of all the good that is wrought 
 in or done to men? They are " saved and called, not according 
 to their own works, as previous conditions, but according to 
 God's purpose and grace given them in Christ Jesus, before the 
 world began," 2 Tim. i. 9, Avhich is very contrary to that con- 
 ditional love, mentioned in the objection. 
 
 (3.) The Father^s love to Christ renders it necessary that all 
 such should enjoy salvation, for whom Christ, by his death, 
 procured it. Would not a kind father, among men, certainly 
 give to his child what he had lawfully and fully purchased ? 
 and shall not the great God give to his Son all the travail of his 
 soul, all the purchase of his blood ? Did Christ so love multi- 
 tudes as to satisfy the justice of God for their sins, and obtain 
 eternal glory for them? and shall his Father, who loves his 
 Son, and gives all things into his hands, John iii. 35, permit his 
 loss of a great part of the travail of his soul, and the purchase 
 of his blood, as it actually comes to pass, if Christ loved and 
 died for all men, and yet so great a number of them perish? 
 How can this be consistent with the Father's love to Christ, any 
 more than it is with Christ's love towards those for whom he 
 died? Such a failure and loss seems to argue a great defect 
 in the love of God to his Son, as well as a want of it to men; 
 and carries in it an appearance of feebleness, dependence, and 
 changeableness, no ways becoming the perfections of the great 
 God, particularly his sovereignty, power, and infinite love, so 
 much celebrated in Scripture, and admired by the saints in all 
 ages. 
 
 Upon the aforesaid grounds, with others that might have 
 been mentioned, it appears that there is a strict connexion 
 between Christ's sufferings and his saving benefits; or that it 
 is reasonable to believe that all those who were reconciled to 
 Godj by the death of his Son, shall certainly be saved by his 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. IG7 
 
 life. And from this proposition, thus estabUshed, the inference 
 is very plain and strong, that Christ did not sufter and die to re- 
 deem all men, but a peculiar number only, who shall certainly 
 be saved. 
 
 S. Christ died only for them for whom he purchased all the 
 ■means necessary to their enjoyment of salvation; particularly 
 faith and repentance, and the Holy Spirit, the Author of each 
 of them. 
 
 Some may wonder to hear of the purchase of the Spirit, who 
 is a free Spirit, and works all things according to his own will; 
 and it may be thought that he is not therefore to be bought any 
 more than Christ was. But whatever some may think, the 
 mission, and the work of the Holy Spirit are, in Scripture, spoken 
 of as the fruit and effects of Christ's death; as when he said, 
 " Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, if I go not away, the Com- 
 forter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him to you; 
 and, when he is come he will reprove the world of sin, of 
 righteousness, and judgment," John xvi. 7, 8. By ^oz/jo- aioay, 
 and departing, Christ meant his death, with what followed it: 
 this death was necessary to the coming of the Spirit, to con- 
 vince and convert sinners, and to comfort believers. The case 
 stood thus: all men by nature were under the law, and under 
 the curse, in a state of sin and misery, by reason of sin : the first 
 covenant had in it no promise, either of repentance or pardon, 
 or of the Holy Spirit, to work the one, or apply the other, being 
 made with a perfect man, who needed none of them; and fallen 
 man could not receive these fruits of divine love, but by virtue 
 of the new covenant, which was to be confirmed by the blood 
 of Christ, which blood also purchased all the saving blessings 
 of it, satisfied justice, removed the curse, and procured eternal 
 life for the redeemed, and all that was previously necessary to 
 the enjoyment of it. The church was purchased by the blood 
 of Christ, and is made a church by the Holy Spirit, Acts xx. 28, 
 who, according to the order and method of salvation, is engaged 
 to renew and fit for heaven all, and only those, whom Christ, 
 by his blood, redeemed from misery, and entitled to glory. 
 Accordingly we read that Christ redeemed them that were 
 under the law, by being made under the law for them, or by 
 enduring its curse and penalty, in his death: which also pro- 
 cured the adoption of children for us, and the Holy Spirit to 
 work a filial disposition in us. God sent his Son to redeem us ; 
 and, by virtue of that redemption, his Spirit, to renew us. Gal. 
 iv. 6. We receive the promise of the Spirit through faith, chap, 
 iii. 14. The ministration of the Spirit belonged not to the law, 
 but to the gospel, which is called faith. Christ, by his accursed 
 death, redeemed his people from the curse, and procured the 
 promised Spirit, the attendant of the gospel dispensation, verse 
 
168 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 13. On this account the apostle asks, "Received ye the Spirit 
 by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Gal. iii. 2. 
 It is by virtue of the gospel covenant, ratified by the blood of 
 Christ, that the promise of the Spirit, or the promised Spirit, is 
 received. " If," as one observes, " the blood of Christ had not 
 been shed on the cross, the Spirit had not been poured out from 
 heaven; the effusion of the one was the cause of the effusion of 
 the other." And as we obtain the Spirit, so we obtain faith 
 through Christ, for his sake, or on account of his purchase of it. 
 Faith is obtained through the righteousness of God our Saviour, 
 1 Pet. i. 1 : it is on the behalf, or for the sake of Christ, that it 
 is given to men to believe, Phil. i. 29. This gift was procured 
 by the blood of Christ, who therefore is called the " author and 
 finisher of our faith," Heb. xiii. 2. If Christ is the author of 
 our faith, he must be the purchaser of it; for he gives nothing 
 to us but what, by his merits, he purchased for us. Christ, by 
 his death, having procured all spiritual blessings for his people, 
 and repentance among the rest, is exalted to give it; he is a 
 " Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins," Acts v. 31. 
 These both flow from him as a Saviour, and therefore as a 
 sufferer, as one that purchased them by his precious blood ; and 
 we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus, 
 Heb. X. 11. 
 
 It is on all hands agreed, that without faith and repentance 
 men cannot be saved: but whence do these flow, and how do 
 they come by them? Either men have a natural power to re- 
 pent and believe, or else faith and repentance are, as the scrip- 
 tures speak, the purchase and the gifts of Christ ; if they are the 
 purchase and gifts of Christ, then Christ, by his death, did not 
 purchase salvation conditionally, if men of themselves, or by 
 their own power, would repent and believe. He purchased 
 salvation absolutely and perfectly, and all the necessary means 
 of it, so that men shall repent and shall believe: and if this is 
 true, then the conditional salvation, which some assert, is a mere 
 fallacy, and the redemption of all men by the death of Christ is 
 not true, seeing all men do not receive from Christ the gifts of 
 faith and repentance, as they should do, if he had purchased 
 them for all men. 
 
 Our opponents,* indeed, deny that Christ, by his death, pro- 
 cured faith and repentance ; in maintenance of which opinion 
 they allege the following reasons. 
 
 (1.) They urge, that Christ wanted neither power nor Avill 
 to work them in the hearts of men; to which I answer, that it 
 might as well have been said, that Christ did not obtain eternal 
 redemption for us, seeing he wanted neither power nor will to 
 
 •Dr. Whitby on the Five Points. 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 169 
 
 redeem ns. The power and will of Christ, in this matter, are 
 to be considered as acting according to the economy,* and the 
 method of salvation agreed upon between the divine Persons. 
 Christ says, that he could do nothing of himself, chap. v. 30; 
 that is, beside, or beyond, or contrary to the will of the Father: 
 now it evidently was the will of the Father, that in " bringing 
 many sons to glory, the Captain of our salvation should be made 
 perfect through sufferings," and that by the effusion of his 
 blood, he should obtain for us eternal redemption, and therefore, 
 all things included in it. 
 
 (2.) It is alleged, that to make Christ procure both the pro- 
 mise and condition, by the same act and passion, is to turn the 
 conditional covenant into one that is absolute; I answer, if that 
 turn makes it conformable to God's covenant, it is so much the 
 better. God says, " This is the covenant that I will make ; I 
 will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; 
 and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 
 all shall know me, from the least to the greatest; for I will be 
 merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their ini- 
 quities will I remember no more," Heb. viii. 10, 12. Let our 
 opponents tell us, where we shall, in this account, find the con- 
 dition of the covenant, on man's part. Supposing some things 
 are required, in order to the enjoyment of other things, where 
 is the absurdity for Christ to render the promised blessing cer- 
 tain, and to secure what is called the condition of enjoying it ? 
 " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord," Heb. xii. 14; 
 « and blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," 
 Mat. V. 8. Did Christ then change the nature of the covenant, 
 by giving himself to redeem his people from all iniquity, and to 
 purify them unto himself? 
 
 (3.) It is said, that Christ's sacrifice was not intended to 
 procure any other benefit, but the removal of guilt. I wonder 
 then how Paul could say, that by means of Christ's death, they 
 who are called receive the promise of eternal inheritance, Heb. 
 ix. 15: is that no more than the removal of guilt? How did 
 Christ's blood purchase the church? did it only pay their old 
 debt, and turn them loose to get to heaven, as well as they could 
 of themselves? 
 
 (4.) It is said, that Christ's purchase of faith and repentance 
 is repugnant to the nature of these graces. It might as well 
 have been said, that Christ's purchase of forgiveness is repug- 
 nant to the nature of forgiveness. If Christ has purchased the 
 forementioned graces, then God is obliged to confer them, says 
 the objector: and where is the harm of that? Has not God 
 obliged himself to give Christ a seed, and that " he shall see 
 
 * " Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to 
 as many as thou hast given him," John xvii, 2. 
 
 22 
 
170 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; and that he will 
 divide him a portion with the great, and that he shall divide 
 the spoil with the strong?" Isa. liii. II, 12. 
 
 How weak are these objections against our position, that 
 Christ purchased grace, as well as eternal life, by his death ! 
 Wherein is it contrary to the nature of faith or repentance, that 
 Christ should purchase them, seeing faith is not of a man^s 
 self Eph. ii, S, and repentance is the gift of Christ? Why 
 may he not purchase them, as well as give them? Is there any 
 thing in them too great or too small for Christ to purchase ? But 
 so dark and senseless an objection, as the last above-mentioned 
 deserves no further notice, nor indeed that regard which has 
 been had to it. 
 
 The objections of our opponents being thus fairly answered, 
 our proposition stands firm and true, that Christ purchased all 
 the necessary means of salvation, for all those for whom he died; 
 from whence this conclusion may be drawn, that Christ did not 
 die for all men, seeing that he did not purchase the necessary 
 means of salvation for all men. 
 
 9. The attainment of the e7id and design of Christ's redemp- 
 tion, is highly pleasing both to Christ and to his Father. 
 
 The prophet Isaiah represents God saying, " Behold my elect 
 in whom my soul delights," Isa. xlii. I ; and, by a voice from 
 heaven, when Christ was entered upon his work, he said, 
 " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Mat. 
 hi. 17, and when Christ actually offered up himself a sacrifice 
 to God, it is said to be of a " sweet smelling savour," Eph. v. 
 2. God was so well pleased with Christ's performance, that 
 "he raised him from the dead," Heb. xhi. 20; received his 
 human nature into heaven, 1 Tim. iii. 16; "crowned it with 
 glory and honour," Heb. ii. 2 ; " and placed him at his own 
 right hand," chap. xii. 2, "and gave him a name that is above 
 every name," Phil. ii. 9; "appointed him a kingdom," Luke 
 xxii. 29, "and made him Lord and Judge of all," Acts ii. 36; 
 " sent the Spirit to glorify him in the world," Acts x. 42 ; 
 "required all the angels of God to worship him," John xvi. 
 14, " and all men to honour the Son even as himself," chap. 
 V. 23. All which things show how satisfactory and pleasing 
 Christ's work of redemption was to God the Father. But this 
 satisfaction could not arise from Christ's sufferings absolutely 
 considered ; for he who does not willingly grieve the children 
 of men. Lam. iii. 33, could not take pleasure in the sufferings 
 of his own Son, purely on the account of the sufferings them- 
 selves; but it was with a view to the end, and the fruit of them, 
 that they were so pleasing to him. And this naturally leads 
 us to inquire what was the end and design of Christ's giving 
 himself, in which God took such satisfaction. What could it be 
 less than doing the Father's will, and finishing his work, his 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 171 
 
 redeeming and saving all given him by the Father, and losing 
 none of them; in a word, his glorifying the Father, and his 
 "bringing many sons to glory?" John vi. 39. Christ also is 
 represented as "set np from everlasting, having his delights 
 with the sons of men," Pro v. viii. 31 ; " we perceive the love of 
 God, in that he laid down his life for us," 1 John iii. 16; "he 
 delighted to do this will of God," Psal, xl. S, and rejoiced in 
 the prospect of having a body prepared for liim, in which he 
 should suffer and satisfy for the sins of men, and by dying 
 redeem them from eternal death. This was the travail of his 
 soul, which he was to see, and with which he was satisfied, 
 Isa. liii. 11. This was the "joy set before him," for which he 
 " endured the cross," Heb. xii. 2: the glory he should bring 
 to God, and the happiness which he should procure and secure 
 to men. 
 
 Now, if Christ redeemed men so imperfectly, and so uncer- 
 tainly, as that though he died for all men, yet all men might have 
 died eternally notwithstanding, and the most of them actually 
 do so, what becomes of the Father's glory and man's happi- 
 ness, of God's love to sinners, and Christ's strong affection to 
 them? How could the Father be pleased in such a loose and 
 uncertain purchase, and in so small a part of mankind, when he 
 gave his Son to redeem all men ? Could it be pleasing to him, 
 that when he designed the redemption of all men, such a mul- 
 titude should be lost, and the salvation of those who obtain it 
 should be left so precarious, depending more on the will of man, 
 than upon the love and care of the Father, or the redemption 
 of the Son ? With what pleasure could the all-wise God look 
 upon such a kind of redemption as this? Or what satisfaction 
 could Christ take in seeing the end and design of his death so 
 greatly disappointed, if he really intended to save all men by 
 his death, and only a remnant are saved? Or how could he be 
 satisfied, not certainly to intend the salvation of any of those, 
 whom he and his Father so dearly loved, and for whom he 
 suffered such a bitter death? Could Christ be so profuse of his 
 blood, and was his conflict with God's wrath and vengeance 
 such a light matter, as that he could, with satisfaction, throw 
 away the one, and endure the other, without securing the sal- 
 vation of so much as one soul, instead of redeeming all men? 
 
 Upon the whole; seeing both Father and Son are so well 
 pleased in Christ's work of redemption, and the fruit and end 
 of it, we may conclude that Christ did not die to redeem all men 
 conditionally and uncertainly, but that he died for a peculiar 
 number, who shall certainly be presented to God, with exceed- 
 ing glory and joy, Jude, verse 24, both on the part of God and 
 Christ, and the redeemed peculiar people. 
 
 10. The redeemed are represented in Scripture, under dis- 
 tinct discriminating characters, or as a select peculiar peopie. 
 
172 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 Thus they are spoken of in my text, and a multitude of other 
 places; where they are called Christ's people, Mat. i. 21, his 
 body, Eph. v. 23, his sheep, John x. 16, the church, Eph. v. 25, 
 the children of God, John xi. 16. Christ, when he said that he 
 laid down his life for his sheep, included in that expression the 
 elect Gentiles, those other sheep, chap. x. 16, which he says he 
 must bring, implying, that all the chosen shall, by him, be 
 brought to God. And he told some of the Jews, that they did 
 not believe, because they were not of his sheep, verse 23, im- 
 plying that all his sheep, for whom he laid down his life, are 
 brought to believe in him. How could Christ be said to be the 
 Redeemer of his people, of his body, of the church, in distinc- 
 tion from others, if he is the Redeemer of the whole world, of 
 all men? The church cannot mean the world, his people can- 
 not mean all people ; those redeemed from among men, Rev, 
 xiv. 4, cannot mean all men, those from among whom they 
 were redeemed; nor can those redeemed out of every people and 
 nation, chap. v. 9, signify all people, and all nations, or all men. 
 
 Upon this head, our opponents observe, that though Christ is 
 said to die for his sheep, his people, and the like, yet it is not 
 said that he died for them only, and none besides; but it is said 
 that he died for the world, the lahole world, or all men. To 
 which I reply, that though the restrictive term, only, is not 
 exptressed, yet it is necessarily implied, and understood, in the 
 Scriptures, where Christ is said to die for his sheep, and for 
 his people; for if all men were intended by these expressions, 
 what need is there of any terms of peculiarity? If all men are 
 redeemed, then there is not a select number redeemed; forte 
 redeem a select number out of all men, and to redeem all men, 
 are contradictory one to the other; so that the exclusive word, 
 only, is implied in those scriptures, where Christ is said to die 
 for his sheep, and his people. It is said, " there is one God, 
 and one Mediator," but the word only is not added; shall we 
 then say, that there are more gods than one, and more me- 
 diators than one, between God and man? When a legacy is 
 bequeathed to one man, is it given to others, because the word 
 only is not added? If when it is said, that Christ loved his 
 church, and gave himself for it, Eph. v. 25, all men are included, 
 because the word only is not added, then when men are com- 
 manded to love their wives, as Christ loved the church, they are 
 allowed to extend their conjugal affection to all women, besides 
 their wives, because it is not said. Love your ivives only. This 
 may suffice to remove the objection, and establish the proposi- 
 tion, that the redeemed are represented under discriminating 
 restrictive terms; and from hence the deduction is plain, that 
 the redeemed are a peculiar people, and not all men. 
 
 11. The necessary means of salvation are aflbrded to all 
 those for whom Christ died, to render their salvation possible. 
 
OF PARTICrLAR REDEMPTION. 173 
 
 To deny this proposition, is to affirm that Christ died to render 
 that possible, wliich, in the nature of the thing, is impossible. 
 It is eternal life " to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ," 
 John xvii. 1. On the other hand, not to know them is eternal 
 death. If Christ, by his death, rendered the salvation of all 
 men possible, on the conditions of faith and repentance, it is but 
 reasonable to suppose that they all shall enjoy the necessary 
 means of that faith and repentance, otherwise Christ purchased 
 a possibility of salvation, on an impossible condition, or without 
 the necessary conditions of that possibility, or the necessary 
 means of attaining those necessary conditions. 
 
 The dispute, at present, is not whether any man can be saved 
 by Christ, without faith in him, but whether any man can 
 believe in Christ, who never knows Christ, nor has heard of 
 him; " How shall they believe in him of whom they have not 
 heard?" Rom. x. 14, 15. The apostle's argument lies thus: 
 They who do not hear the word, cannot believe; they cannot 
 hear the word, to whom it is not preached ; they cannot preach 
 it whom God doth not send: therefore they cannot be saved to 
 whom God does not send the preaching of the word. Thus the 
 apostle proved the necessity of the means of grace, in order to 
 faith, and of faith, in order to salvation. If then Christ died 
 equally for all men, why is he not equally revealed to all men? 
 If the greatness of men's sins did not hinder him from giving 
 himself a ransom for all men, why should it prevent his reveal- 
 ing himself to all men? If infinite love moved Christ to die for 
 all men, why did not the same love engage him to make him- 
 self known to all men? especially seeing without this know- 
 ledge they could have no faith in him, or salvation by him. Is 
 it credible that Christ should shed his precious blood to redeem 
 all men, and yet never discover this gracious design to them, to 
 win their hearts, and engage them to believe in him, and adhere 
 to him, to the saving of their souls? Did Christ die to render 
 the salvation of all men possible, and then destroy that possi- 
 bility, by withholding from thousands the necessary means of 
 that faith, without which they could not be sav-sd? Would this 
 be acting like the only wise God our Savioui ? 
 
 But it may be said, that the reason of God's withholding the 
 means of grace from some, may be their obstinacy and un- 
 worthiness ; the abuse of the light they had, and a foresight that 
 they would abuse clearer light, if they had it. To this I answer, 
 all men are naturally obstinate and unworthy; and if God deals 
 with men according to their obstinacy and unworthiness, not 
 only some men, but even all men should be excluded from the 
 means of grace. If it is said, there are degrees of unworthi- 
 ness, and some are better disposed than others, to improve the 
 means, which may be a reason why they are granted to some, 
 and withheld from others: to this it may be replied, that Christ 
 
174 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 has told us, that Tyre and Sidon, and the land of Sodom, Mat. 
 xi. 21 — 23, would have made a better use of his preaching than 
 the towns of Galilee had done, yet the former never enjoyed 
 this light, but the latter did ; which plainly shows, that the 
 means of grace are not always granted to those who God 
 foresaw would make a good use of them, nor are withheld from 
 such as it was foreseen would make a bad use of them. It is 
 best therefore to rest in that reason of this procedure assigned 
 by Christ, God's sovereign will and pleasure: "Thou hast hid 
 these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
 to babes; even so, Father, because it seemed good in thy sight," 
 verse 25, 26. 
 
 The general and universal terms used, concerning " the 
 preaching the gospel to every creature, and to all the world," 
 Mark xvi. 15, "'and to the ends of the earth," Rom. x. IS, are 
 not to be understood in the utmost extent ; for so it is evident 
 they never were, nor can be fulfilled ; seeing multitudes are 
 dead, who never heard any thing of Christ or the gospel. Col. 
 i. 23, or so much as any part of God's revealed will: "As for 
 his judgments, they have not known them," Psal. cxlvii. 20. 
 For how long a time did God suffer the nations to walk in their 
 own ways, and winked at the times of their ignorance ? nay, in 
 the days of gospel light, some places were expressly excluded 
 from the preaching of the word : Paul and his companions be- 
 ing forbid by the Holy Ghost, attempted to go into Bithynia, but 
 the Spirit suffered them not ; so that the commission to " teach 
 all nations, and preach the word to every creature," must be 
 explained in a general sense, and not according to the utmost 
 extent of the words, including strictly every individual person. 
 Not only the Jews, but the other nations were to have the light 
 shine upon them, wherever God pleased to send his messen- 
 gers; but how many are there, at this day, who know nothing 
 of Christ, and the way of salvation by him ; and is it credible 
 that God should give his Son to be a ransom for all, and not 
 give him to be a light to all men? Did Christ die to put all 
 men into a salvable condition, as it is called ; and then, as if 
 he repented, leave the greatest part destitute of the necessary 
 means of faith and salvation? 
 
 Our opponents are in the utmost distress upon this head, and 
 know not how to reconcile an universal ransom, with a re- 
 strained and partial revelation of Christ to men. How is it 
 consistent with the divine wisdom for Christ to die, to render 
 the salvation of all men possible, and yet leave many of them 
 destitute of those means, without which it is not possible, ac- 
 cording to the Scriptures, that they should be saved ? " Where 
 there is no vision, the people perish," Prov. xxix. 18; "they 
 are lost to whom the gospel is hid," 2 Cor. iv. 3; "such as have 
 not the Son, have not hfe," 1 John v. 12; "without faith it is 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 175 
 
 impossible to please God," Heb xi. 6 ; "he that believeth not 
 shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him," John 
 iii. 3G ; " and how shall men believe in him of whom they have 
 not heard?" Rom. x. 14. So then v/ithout faith, there is no 
 salvation; without hearing of Christ, there can be no faith in 
 him, or salvation by him; and by withholding the revelation 
 of Christ from vast numbers, God renders their salvation im- 
 possible, which it is said Christ, by his death, had rendered 
 possible: and thus the purchase of the Son is made void, by 
 the providence of the Father, according to the scheme of our 
 opponents. But God forbid it should be so, in reality! For 
 what kind of wisdom or prudence could there be, either in the 
 Father^ or the Son, for Christ to shed his precious blood, to 
 redeem myriads, to whom, after all, they did not think fit to 
 give any notice of it, or any means of enjoying the redemption 
 obtained for them? Or, how is it consistent with the justice or 
 goodness of God, for him to withhold the knowledge of the 
 way of salvation from multitudes, for whom Christ purchased 
 a possibility of salvation? Had not men better quit their notion 
 of universal redemption, than be so injurious to the wisdom, 
 justice, and goodness of God, as, according to their doctrine, 
 they must unavoidably be ? The difficulty is not removed by 
 saying, that those who never enjoy the revelation of Christ, are 
 shut out from it, by their negligence and disobedience, seeing 
 " Christ is found of them who sought him not, and is made 
 manifest to them that asked not after him; and all the day long 
 stretches out his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people," 
 Rom. X. 20, 21. There must then be some other reason of God's 
 leaving so many destitute of the revelation of Christ ; for this 
 no good reason can be given, upon a supposition that Christ 
 redeemed all men: but if it is allowed that he redeemed only 
 a select number, good reasons may be assigned why the gospel 
 is sent to some places, and not to others ; and why it continues 
 longer in one place than in another, because Christ has much 
 people there, Acts xviii. 10; and in many places it never comes, 
 because the elect, the redeemed, obtain, but the rest are blinded, 
 Rom. X. 7. 
 
 Upon the whole, our position holds true, that the necessary 
 means of salvation are aiforded to all those for whom Christ 
 died, to render their salvation possible; and hence the conclu- 
 sion follows, that Christ did not die to render the salvation of 
 all men possible, seeing all men have not the necessary means 
 of salvation. 
 
 12. The intention and design of Christ's redemption, is agree- 
 able to Scripture and reason, and stands clear of all absurdities 
 and inconsistencies. 
 
 To deny this proposition, would be to cast the most injurious 
 reflections on the Redeemer, and his work, directly contrary to 
 
176 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 God the Father; who, on the account of Christ's becoming 
 obedient to the death of the cross, has highly exalted him, and 
 given him a name above every name. 
 
 Christ's intention in giving himself, was, according to the 
 Scriptures, " to redeem men from all iniquity, and purify to 
 himself a peculiar people;" and it appears to be reasonable, 
 that his intention should be accomplished, and that he should 
 not shed his precious blood in vain, or be disappointed of his 
 end, with respect to the greatest part of those for whom he 
 died. But thus it must be, if he died to render the salvation 
 of all men possible, on condition they believe in him, and yet 
 leaves so great a part of them under an impossibility of per- 
 forming that condition, or enjoying the salvation, by not re- 
 vealing or making himself known to them, as was observed 
 before. 
 
 The Scriptures no where speak of a conditional, uncertain 
 redemption of men, depending on the will of the fallen creature, 
 as to all its salutary effects. It is contrary to reason for Christ 
 to leave salvation depending upon the will of man, which had 
 ruined him in his best estate, and was not at all likely to save 
 him in his worst. How could Christ expect that the intention 
 of his death should be accomplished in such a way? Will the 
 fallen creature take more care to secure the good effects of his 
 death, than the sufferer and Saviour himself did? How incon- 
 sistent and absurd must it be for Christ to exercise the greatest 
 love towards, and inflict the greatest wrath upon the same per- 
 sons, at the same time? As it must be, if he, in infinite love, 
 died to redeem all men; and yet multitudes in hell were suffer- 
 ing his vengeance, at the same time he loved them, and gave 
 himself for them. Does it not sound very harsh and shocking 
 to say, that the saved are no more beholden to the Redeemer, 
 than the damned? And yet this is true if Christ loved and 
 died equally for all men. How contrary, both to Scripture and 
 reason, is it to charge God with taking a double satisfaction for 
 the same sins, one from Christ, and another from the damned 
 themselves? Which yet is fact, if Christ died for all men, and 
 satisfied the justice of God for all men. Could Christ, in infinite 
 love, die for all men, without any fixed intention and resolution 
 to save any one man? Could Christ come to do the will of 
 God, and yet subject all to the will of men, and leave it to them 
 whether the Father should have the pleasure, and Christ the 
 satisfaction, in redemption, foretold and promised, Isa. liii, 10, 
 11, whether the Father should enjoy one object of his love, or 
 Christ the travail of his soul, in one single instance or not? 
 And yet so it was, according to their scheme, who say, that 
 Christ died to purchase salvation conditionally for all men, but 
 absolutely and certainly for no man, leaving to men, either to 
 make it effectual by believing, or of no effect by their unbelief 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 177 
 
 How shall men be convinced, that Christ crucified is the wisdom 
 of God to salvation, if not so much as one soul had its salvation 
 certainly secured, by Christ's sufferings, and that too when, as 
 it is said, he died to save all men ? 
 
 How contrary this notion of redemption is to Christ's inten- 
 tion, to Scripture and reason, and with how many difficulties 
 and inconsistencies it is attended, may, in part, appear by what 
 goes before, wherein I have not, to my knowledge, strained 
 or misrepresented any thing. But, on the other hand, if God 
 loved, and Christ died for a select number only, and effectually 
 secured to them grace and glory, this is agreeable to Scripture 
 and reason, advances the glory of the divine perfections, and 
 provides most for the comfort and happiness of man, as I hope 
 to make appear, in answer to our opponents' allegations to the 
 contrary, when I come to that part of my work. 
 
 Upon the whole, let the propositions which have been ad- 
 vanced, explained, and confirmed by Scripture, with the plain 
 deductions from them, be seriously and impartially considered; 
 and then let all judge whether Christ intended to redeem all 
 men, or some only, " when he gave himself for us, to redeem us 
 from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zea- 
 lous of good works." 
 
 SERMON HI. 
 
 Titus ii. 14. — Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 
 
 The death of Christ being the fountain of our life, there is no- 
 thing more necessary, pleasant, or useful to the Christian, than 
 a right apprehension and remembrance of it : and therefore there 
 is no doctrine of the Christian religion that has been more op- 
 posed and depraved than this; some denying that Christ, strictly 
 speaking, died for any man, and others as confidently affirming 
 that he died for all men, with an intention to redeem and save 
 all men; whereas my text represents him as dying for a pecu- 
 liar people. Several arguments, establishing the truth, have 
 been insisted on, in some former discourses on this text; I now 
 proceed to the second thing I proposed. 
 
 II. I shall answer the principal arguments, and vindicate the 
 chief passages of Scripture, produced in opposition to the truth 
 which I have been defending. 
 
 1. Our opponents endeavour to prove, from the general and 
 universal scripture terms, that Christ did not die to redeem a 
 select number only, but all men. And here they produce many 
 texts, wherein it is said that Christ died for the world, the 
 
 23 
 
17S OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 whole world, for all men, and every man, and the like: and it 
 must be owned that these w^ords sound well on their side ; and 
 if they take them separately from the texts, and contexts, where 
 they are used, and just in what sense they please, they may 
 serve to make a flourish with, and may be a sufficient proof of 
 the point, to such as look only to the surface, but not to the 
 bottom of things, who more regard, the sound, than the sense of 
 the words, as used in the respective places; but such as under- 
 stand an argument, must know, that no certain conclusion can 
 be drawn from doubtful premises; nor can the general or uni- 
 versal terms prove universal redemption, till it is first proved 
 that these terms are used in an universal sense, in the texts 
 alleged: we deny that they are so used; and I hope to make it 
 appear, that a restriction and limitation is annexed to them in 
 the texts, or contexts, where they are used with reference to our 
 redemption by Christ. 
 
 Before we examine particular passages, let it be observed, 
 that they ought all to be taken in such a sense as agrees with 
 the express end and design of Christ's death, and never in a 
 sense contradictory thereto. Now, the intention and design of 
 Christ, in dying for men, is plainly expressed in the following 
 scriptures: " That he might sanctify and cleanse it, (the church,) 
 that he might present it to himself a glorious church," Eph. 
 v. 25; "that he might purify to himself a peculiar people," 
 Titus ii. 14; "that he might deliver us from this present evil 
 world," Gal. i. 4; " that we might receive the adoption of sons," 
 chap. iv. 4, 5; "that we might be made the righteousness of 
 God in him," 2 Cor. v. 21; "that he might bring us to God," 
 1 Pet. iii. 18. It could not be the intention and design of Christ 
 to extend redemption to such as are never purified, nor delivered 
 from this evil world, nor receive the adoption of sons, nor are 
 made the righteousness of God in him, nor are ever brought to 
 God ; for that would be either to have his intention disappointed, 
 or to have intentions thwarting and contradicting one another: 
 to suppose either of which, would be highly injurious to Christ. 
 From hence it follows, that the largest expressions used in 
 Scripture, with relation to the extent of Christ's death, cannot 
 be meant of all and every man, seeing Christ did not intend to 
 sanctify every man, and bring every man to God: for if he had, 
 he would certainly have done it; for he cannot fail in his work, 
 nor be disappointed of his end. 
 
 (1.) A great noise is made about those scriptures which speak 
 of Christ's dying for the ivorld, or the luhole world. Accord- 
 ingly a late celebrated writer, laying great stress upon the words 
 the ivorld, and the ivhole world, tells us, that the word world 
 is used almost an hundred times in St. John's writings; and 
 that the sense which the word bears therein, must be esteemed, 
 in reason, the proper import of the word. But how, if the 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 179 
 
 word is used in a great variety of senses by St. John ? How- 
 shall we ever know the proper import of it, unless we find 
 something in the text, or context, to determine the meaning 
 of the word, in that particular place? If the word is used 
 almost a hundred times in St, John's writings, yet I can find 
 no more than nine places in all his writings, in which tlie word 
 world is applied to our redemption or salvation by Christ; and 
 of these nine, there is not one text in which the word world 
 can be proved to signify every person that has been, now is, or 
 hereafter shall be, in this world; which is yet absolutely neces- 
 sary, in order to prove, by such a text, that Christ gave himself 
 to redeem all men, and every man. If then it can be proved, 
 from any one verse in St. John's writings, or from any other 
 text in Scripture, that the word world, or whole tvorld, must 
 necessarily, when applied to the work of our redemption, signify 
 every individual man, let our opponents enjoy their conclusion, 
 that Christ died to redeem every man: but if this cannot be 
 done, as I am confident it cannot, why should they, from gene- 
 ral and doubtful terms, draw an universal and certain conclu- 
 sion? 
 
 I do not deny that the word ivorld, is by St. John, used in 
 its utmost extent, and includes in it not only all created persons, 
 but also all created things ; as in that passage, " The world was 
 made by him," John i. 10. But then it does not there relate 
 to Christ's work of redemption, but to his work of creation : 
 and so can be no proof that Christ died to redeem all men. 
 There are a great many places in St. John's writings, and in 
 the other parts of the New Testament, in which the word world 
 is evidently used in a restrictive, limited sense. It is said of 
 Christ, that the world knew lain not, John i. 10. By the world 
 here, as Chrysostom observes, is meant the multitude of sinners, 
 addicted to worldly things: for the friends of God, those vene- 
 rable men, knev/ Christ even before his incarnation; the patri- 
 arch Abraham, as Christ testifies, foresaw his coming: David, 
 in Spirit, called him Lord: Moses spoke of him, and all the 
 prophets from Samuel. I may add, when he came in the flesh, 
 some believed in him, and his " disciples beheld his glory," and 
 yet "the world knew him not," John i. 12, 14. By luorld here 
 every individual person cannot be meant, seeing there were 
 many that did know Christ : but why may not these words, 
 The world knew him not, as certainly prove, that no one man 
 in the world knew Christ, as those words, " Behold the Lamb 
 of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," chap. i. 29, 
 signify, that Christ died for all men; especially considering that 
 the sin of multitudes of men is never taken away from them? 
 The world then, from whom sin is taken, cannot mean all man- 
 kind; for by taking away of sin, is meant the taking it wholly 
 away, as Chrysostom observes upon the place. When it is 
 
180 OP PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 proved that sin is thus taken from all men, we will allow that 
 Christ died to redeem all men. 
 
 Christ said, " I pray not for the world, but for those whom 
 thou hast given me out of the world ; they are not of the world, 
 as I am not of the world," Johnxvii. 9, 16. If there is a world, 
 which Christ does not pray for, and yet a number is given him 
 out of the world, for whom he prays, then the word world can- 
 not mean all men, both those he did pray for, and those for 
 whom he did not pray, those who are not of the world, and 
 those that are. If then we must judge of the import of the 
 word world, by St. John's writings; and if in those writings 
 it is so often used in a restrictive sense, and never means all 
 men, when applied to redemption, then no certain, no apparent 
 argument can be drawn from his use of the word, for the re- 
 demption of all men, or which prove that Christ gave himself 
 to redeem and save all men. 
 
 Christ declared, that he would give " his flesh for the life of 
 the world," John vi. 51, "and that he gives life to the world," 
 verse 33. Seeing then Christ does not give life to all men, the 
 world to which he giveth life, does not mean all men; therefore 
 no good argument can be drawn from this text for universal 
 redemption. 
 
 Christ himself has told us, " that God so loved the world, that 
 he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life; for God sent not his 
 Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, 
 through him, might be saved : he that believes not is condemned 
 already: he that believes on the Son, has everlasting life ; and 
 he that believes not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of 
 God abides upon him," John iii. 16, 17, 18, 36. Those words, 
 " That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life," explain and limit God's love and intention, in 
 giving his Son to save the world, and likewise serve, as a key, 
 to let us into the meaning of the word world, and of all that is 
 here spoken of it; that God, out of infinite love, gave his only 
 begotten Son to redeem and save all men, all the world over, 
 who, in time, believe on him; but such as never believe on 
 him, they are condemned already, they shall not see life: but the 
 wrath of God abides upon them: and hence it follows, that they 
 are no part of that world which God loved, which he sent his 
 Son to save; and consequently that world does not, cannot in- 
 clude in it every individual person, that ever has been, now is, 
 or hereafter shall be in the world; for so taken, it must include 
 those who are condemned already, those who shall not see life, 
 those who have the wrath of God abiding upon them. This 
 would be to charge God with pursuing two contrary ends and 
 designs, at the same time, his condemning many, whom yet he 
 sent his Son not to condemn, but to save; and his intention of 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 181 
 
 giving life to many, concerning whom he has declared, that they 
 shall not see life; and his loving many, upon whom his wrath 
 always abides, who by nature, were children of wrath, and 
 were never delivered from that wratii. This would be to make 
 God act as absurdly as these men argue. Not only in the verse 
 cited, but in those that go before, Christ took care to explain the 
 Fatlier's intention, in sending the Son to redeem and save men, 
 when he said; "As JNIoses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
 ness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever 
 believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," 
 John iii. 14, 15. Here is not one word of God's love to every 
 man, or of his intention, that his Son should redeem and save 
 every man. 
 
 All that our opponents have to plead here, is contained in 
 one single word, and that of a very doubtful and different sig- 
 nification, even the word icorld; which, in the first chapter of 
 John, 10 verse, is evidently meant of but a part of mankind; 
 and, for the reasons given, is so to be taken in the verses under 
 present consideration. If our opponents deny this, and affirm, 
 that the word world is, and must be, here meant of every man, 
 it is incumbent on them to prove their assertion and confute 
 our reasons to the contrary; otherwise our assertion, that it 
 means only some men, not all. men, is as good a proof of our 
 doctrine of particular redemption, as their bare assertion that 
 the word world means all men, can be that Christ died to redeem 
 all men. But we will be so generous as to give up the cause 
 to them, if they can fairly, not from this chapter only, but from 
 any other scripture, make it appear that the word icorld, 
 applied to our redemption and salvation by Christ, does, and 
 must, evidently mean all mankind, without exception. And if 
 they cannot, how vain are all their flourishes, and how impotent 
 is all their declamation upon this word? Till this is done, they 
 ought not to give themselves, or others, so much trouble about 
 an ambiguous word, which is used in so many different senses 
 in Scripture. 
 
 It may be said, if the word world cannot be proved to signify 
 all men, in any place relating to redemption, yet in all such 
 places it includes the wicked and ungodly, as well as the good, 
 and therefore it is equivalent to an universal; for if Christ died 
 for the evil and for the good, he died for all men, seeing the 
 whole species, or kind, is comprehended in this subdivision. To 
 this I answer in general, God justifies the ungodly, and he jus- 
 tifies the godly; and therefore according to this way of arguing, 
 he justifies all men, which is both false and absurd to suppose; 
 but to be more particular, it is not true, that the word world. 
 in all those places relathig to redemption, includes the finally 
 wicked and ungodly. 
 
 It is indeed, boldly asserted, that the word world nQ^ei signi- 
 
182 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 fies the elect only, in opposition to the wicked of the world: but 
 still the wicked of the world, in opposition to the faithful Chris- 
 tians. We do not deny that Christ " died for the ungodly; that 
 when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death 
 of his Son;" nor can it be denied that Christ died for his sheep, 
 for his church, for believers ; but then we are to know that the 
 ungodly man, and the enemy, for whom Christ died, is the same 
 with the good man, the reconciled, the sheep, the believer; these 
 diiferent or contrary denominations point out not two different 
 sorts of men, those who are saved, and those that perish ; but 
 two different states of the same persons, what they are by na- 
 ture, and what they are by grace ; what they were before con- 
 version, enemies, wicked, and ungodly; and what they are at 
 and after conversion, reconciled, believers, faithful, the church, 
 and Christ's sheep. 
 
 There are several places, relating to our redemption by Christ, 
 where the word world is to be understood of the elect, or be- 
 lievers only; as " God sent his Son into the world, that through 
 him, the v/orld might be saved," John iii. 17; but only believers 
 are saved through Christ; believers therefore are that world 
 which Christ Avas sent to save. "Christ gives life to the world," 
 John vi. 33, but Christ gives life only to believers; and there- 
 fore believers only are that world, to which Christ gives life. 
 " God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not impu- 
 ting their trespasses unto them," 2 Cor, v. 19. But the world, 
 to whom God does not impute their trespasses, are only be- 
 lievers; therefore only believers are meant by that world, which 
 God was in Christ reconciling to himself. This last cited text 
 does not barely exhibit to us the form of doctrine, which the 
 ministers of reconciliation were to preach, but the matter of fact 
 already done ; God had been propitiated, by the sacrifice offered 
 by his Son, for that world, to whom he does not impute their 
 trespasses, but who are made the righteousness of God in him: 
 hence it is said, " he was, not he will be, reconciling the world 
 to himself." And the apostle first asserts, that the reconcilia- 
 tion was made by Christ, and then tells us, that the ministry of 
 this reconciliation was committed to him and his brethren. 
 
 Augustine, in his dispute with the Donatists, explains the 
 last cited scripture, as we have done: "They, (the Donatists) 
 will not consent (says he) that the church can be signified by 
 the word loorld, contrary to the words of the apostle, " God 
 was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself;" and contrary 
 to the words of our Lord himself, who saith, '.' The Son of man 
 came not to judge the world, but that the world might be 
 saved by him;" for the world could neither be reconciled to 
 God, nor saved by him, unless by the word world the church 
 be understood, which only being reconciled to God, shall be 
 saved by him. 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 183 
 
 The apostle tells the Colossians, that "the gospel was come 
 into all the world, and brought forth fruit," Col. i. 6. What 
 can here be meant by all the world, but believers? For in 
 others the gospel does not bring forth fruit, as it did in the 
 Colossians. Other places might be produced, in which the 
 word world is to be understood of the elect or believers only; 
 but I cannot find one place in which the word world, when 
 used with relation to redemption, signifies those that perish, 
 and much less such only. In answer to the objection, let it be 
 observed farther, that supposing the whole world always meant 
 the wicked and ungodly, yet it cannot be proved that it means 
 all the wicked, and all the ungodly, those who perish, as well 
 as those who are saved; and consequently this mighty word 
 world affords no solid argument for universal redemption. It 
 is very remarkable, that though God is said to love the world, 
 yet it is no where said, in Scripture, that he loves all men: and 
 though Christ is said to give his flesh for the life of the world, 
 yet it is no where said that he gave his flesh for the life of all 
 men, or of all mankind. 
 
 If the word world will not make out the point, our oppo- 
 nents think that universal redemption is fully proved by these 
 words; "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours 
 only, but for the sins of the whole world," 1 John i. 2. It is 
 not said, he is the propitiation for our sins, and for the sins of 
 every man, or of all mankind besides : that would have made 
 the proof clear and decisive. But, before I come to the pai- 
 ticular answer to this allegation, let it be observed in general, 
 that those words in the text, the whole world, are evidently 
 used in a limited restrictive sense: as the antithesis shows, 
 " and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world;" 
 so that there is a whole world besides those meant by the apos 
 tie, when he says, " He is the propitiation for our sins," his 
 own, and those to whom he wrote. Our opponents therefore 
 stumble at the threshold, and produce a text, which, at first 
 sight, shows, that those big sounding words, the whole world, 
 do not, even in that place, signify all and every man in the 
 world, but a part of it, distinguished from the rest, as has been 
 already noted. 
 
 It is said, that the words, the whole world, never, in Scrip- 
 ture, signify the elect only, in opposition to the wicked, in the 
 whole world: to which I reply, that the words, all the world 
 which are equivalent to the whole world, are evidently used 
 concerning the elect. " The gospel was come into all the world, 
 and brought forth fruit," Col. i. 6. All the world in whom the 
 gospel brought forth fruit, must here mean the elect, believers; 
 for in others it did not bring forth fruit. The apostle John said, 
 ^' We are of God, and the whole world heth in wickedness," 
 i John V. 19. The whole world here evidently signifies the 
 
184 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 worse and wicked part of the world; and when it is said, " Ho 
 is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world," why may 
 not the words denote the better part of the world, the elect, the 
 church of God? We have as good a right, and greater reason, 
 to affirm it, than others have to deny it. 
 
 [1.] The word propitiation seems to limit the expression to 
 believers: "God has set forth his Son to be a propitiation, 
 through faith in his blood." The word propitiation, in Scrip- 
 ture, never extends to any but believers, or refers to any others; 
 so vain is the attempt to apply it to all mankind, and thereby 
 prove universal redemption. 
 
 [2.] The persons for whom Christ is said to be a propitiation, 
 are those for whom he is an Advocate, or Intercessor; but he 
 is not an Intercessor for all men, and therefore he was not a 
 propitiation for the sins of all men; and consequently the apos- 
 tle could not mean every individual man when he said, that 
 " Christ was a propitiation for the sins of the whole world." 
 There is an inseparable connexion between the propitiation 
 and the intercession : " We have an advocate with the Father, 
 Jesus Christ the righteous, who also is the propitiation for our 
 sins, yea for the sins of the whole world ;" for the sins of all 
 for whom he is an Advocate with the Father ; for his interces- 
 sion is founded upon his sacrifice: he suffered and satisfied for 
 those for whom he intercedes; and therefore his intercession is 
 effectual, or prevalent with God. This seems to be the sum 
 and scope of the apostle's reasoning; and it very clearly points 
 out whom he intends by the whole world, for whose sins Christ 
 is said to be a propitiation. 
 
 [3.] The scope of the apostle is to comfort weak believers, 
 under an over-bearing sense of their sinful infirmities. The 
 argument he uses is, Christ's pleading in heaven the virtue of 
 that atoning sacrifice, which he had offered on earth, not only 
 for their particular sins, but for the sins of all his people 
 throughout the world: and a sacrifice of such virtue and ex- 
 tent, he intimates, would bear a sufficient plea for the remission 
 of their sins. According to our doctrine, the apostle's reason- 
 ing is just, and the consolation strong : but what comfort can it 
 be to a poor dejected Christian, oppressed with his guilty fears, 
 to tell him, that Christ loved and died for all men alike; for 
 Cain and Judas, as well as for any others; that there was a 
 possibility of pardon and life procured for all, if they would 
 believe and repent; this they must do of themselves, and when 
 they have done it, they may fall from their faith into eternal 
 perdition; and that this universal propitiation has neither pur- 
 chased grace for unbelievers, nor perseverance for true be- 
 lievers, but left it to themselves, to believe and repent, and 
 mortify sin, and secure eternal life by their own power? Is 
 this the doctrine of the gospel? Is this strong consolation? 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 185 
 
 May not the poor distressed soul say, Miserable comforters are 
 ye all? " But God has, by two immutable things, in which it 
 is impossible for him to lie, given strong, and much better con- 
 solation to the heirs of promise, who have fled for refuge to 
 Christ, and have laid hold on the hope set'before them." Heb. 
 vi. 18. 
 
 [4.] The words, the tvhole world, are in Scripture generally, 
 if not always, used in a restrictive sense, A decree was made, 
 that the whole world should he taxed, which whole world was 
 no more than the whole Roman empire; Luke ii. 1. The devil 
 is said to deceive the whole world, Rev. xii. 9, and yet it was 
 impossible that he should deceive the elect: Christ said to the 
 church in Philadelphia, " I will keep thee from the hour of 
 temptation, which shall come upon the whole world;" chap, 
 iii. 10. The apostle Paul said to the believers at Rome, " Your 
 faith is spoken of throughout the whole world," Rom. i. 8, and 
 yet a great part of the world were dead before they believed. 
 If then the whole world generally signifies but part of mankind, 
 we demand a reason why it must mean every man, in the text 
 under consideration. 
 
 [5.] The apostle John was a minister of the circumcision: 
 at first he preached only to the Jews: they would allow the 
 Gentiles, whom they called the world, no part with them in the 
 great salvation: and it appears to have been a distinction much 
 in use, at first, between Jew and Gentile; the former were 
 called God's people ; the latter the world. Hence the falling of 
 the Jews is said to be the riches of the world, or the Gentiles; 
 Rom. xi. 12. Accordingly St. John might, by the world, signify 
 the Gentiles; and teach us, that all believers, among all nations, 
 and not only among the Jews, had the benefit and comfort of 
 Christ's sacrifice and intercession. 
 
 [6.] It being agreed between us, that the apostle's scope and 
 design is to comfort believers, dejected with a sense of their 
 sins, the question is, which tends most to comfort them, the 
 asserting that Christ procured a possible or conditional recon- 
 ciliation for all men, or a certain and eternal redemption for a 
 select and chosen number? To bring this debate to a short 
 issue ; when our opponents have spent their whole strength in 
 asserting, and as they think, proving, that Christ was the pro- 
 pitiation for the sins of all mankind, without exception, yet, at 
 last, they are forced to own, that none but final believers shall 
 obtain eternal life ; and we constantly affirm, with the Scrip- 
 ture, that all who believe in Christ shall be saved. Wherein, 
 then, is their doctrine more comfortable than ours, or indeed so 
 much? The comfort belongs only to believers, and to all such, 
 whether Christ died to redeem all men, or some only: but those 
 who hold the latter say, not only that such may, but that they 
 shall believe. All that the Father has given Christ shall come, 
 
 24 
 
186 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 and such as come, shall not be rejected, or fall from their faith 
 and happiness, John vi. 37, for " Christ's sheep hear his voice, 
 and follow him, and he gives them eternal life, and they shall 
 never perish," chap. x. 28. — On these accounts, and on others, 
 that might have been added, we maintain, that there was no 
 need to assert, that Christ is the propitiation for the sins of 
 every man conditionally, in order to believers' comfort, seeing 
 without that assertion their comfort is more effectually and suf- 
 ficiently provided for: and from all the fore-mentioned rea- 
 sons put together, we conclude, that God's chosen throughout 
 the world, are the persons for whose sins Christ was a propi- 
 tiation. 
 
 Upon the whole, the Scripture, when it speaks of the world 
 of the redeemed, represents them by universal terms, but yet so 
 as to mean the elect only. Which Prosper elegantly expresses: 
 " In the elect and foreknown, and from all generality severed, a 
 certain, special universality is supposed ; so as the whole world 
 is freed out of the whole world, and all men seem to be redeem- 
 ed from among all men." "Now also Christ was subject to the 
 Father, yet not for all, but for believers in him only, for whom 
 he otiered himself to the Father, as the immaculate Lamb, that 
 he might present us to his Father, freed from all sin;" as Cyril 
 of Alexandria expresses it. This was the sense of leading men 
 m the church of God, after this point had been more attentively 
 looked into and examined. Concerning which some of the an- 
 cients had expressed themselves with less care, before it came 
 to be the subject of more close debate. 
 
 (2.) Our opponents insist much on several other general or 
 miiversal terms used in Scripture, which, as they think, prove 
 universal redemption; or that Christ gave himself to redeem all 
 and every individual man. Here they urge the words all, all 
 men, every man, with as much vehemence, and to as little pur- 
 pose, as they had pleaded the words world, and whole world,m 
 favour of their opinion. That they may not think themselves 
 neglected, I shall cite the principal texts produced, with some 
 short remarks upon them. 
 
 Before I enter upon the particular instances, let it be observed 
 that the word all, in many places, some say near five hundred, 
 is used with limitation, and does not signify every individual 
 person, or thing. Thus it is said, that " Christ healed all that 
 were sick," Mat. vih. 16, not all men who lived and died before 
 he came in the tlesh, or who lived at that time, but all that came 
 or were brought to him. So Paul said, that " he pleased all 
 men in all things," 1 Cor. x. 33, whereas he knew but a part of 
 the world, and pleased but some of those he did know, and of 
 them but few, if any, in all things. He also said, "All things 
 are lawful to me," verse 23. What a horrid assertion would 
 this be, strictly taken ? God promised to "pour out his Spirit on 
 
OF PARTICrLAR REDEMPTION. 187 
 
 all flesh," Acts ii. 17, not every individual person, but upon 
 some of all sorts, ages, and degrees. Prayers are to be made for 
 all men, but not for all the dead and damned, 1 Tim. ii. 16, or 
 those that have sinned to death, 1 John v. 6. So with relation 
 to the resurrection it is said, " In Christ shall all be made alive," 
 1 Cor. XV. 22, but not strictly every man, for a great number 
 shall not die, and therefore cannot rise again, verse 51. It shows 
 a strong bias to an opinion for our adversaries to bring this 
 text to prove universal redemption, which when they have tor- 
 tured it all they can, will never so much as prove an universal 
 resurrection. Tlie same may be said as to other texts they pro- 
 duce; however, let their allegations from Scripture have a fair 
 hearing. 
 
 [1.] Our Lord Jesus Christ said; "I, if I am lifted up from the 
 earth, will draw all men to me," John xii. 32. Now, say some, 
 he who, by his death, draws all men to him, undoubtedly died 
 for all men. But this text is ill chosen as a witness for univer- 
 sal redemption, seeing Christ could not mean all men, and every 
 man, by the all that he would draw to him ; for he told the un- 
 believing Jews that they would not come to him, chap. v. 40, 
 and at the very time when Christ spoke these words, there were 
 multitudes in the prison of hell, who could never be drawn to 
 him in any sense. A noted writer on the other side, interprets 
 the cited text of Christ's engaging many, throughout all the parts 
 of the world, to believe in him; but how is that a proof of uni- 
 versal redemption? Chrysosiom by a//, understands the Gen- 
 tiles; and by Christ's drawing, understands his bringing men 
 to believe. Now, if it can be proved that Christ brings all men 
 to believe on him, we shall readily allow, that he died, or was 
 lifted up to redeem all men. 
 
 [2.] It is said, by the apostle Paul, that " God has concluded 
 them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all," Rom. 
 xi. 32. By all, Jews and Gentiles are here meant; not as a strict 
 universality; for so taken, God has not mercy, saving mercy on 
 all, but upon some of them only. There is severity exercised 
 towards the unbelieving Jews, verse 22, and the apostle's high- 
 est aim was to save some of them, verse 14, which makes it 
 very plain, that not all the Jews, much less all men, strictly 
 taken, are meant by the all, which the Scripture says God would 
 have mercy upon. 
 
 [3.] Our opponents urge that scripture, " As by the offence 
 of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; so by 
 the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to jus- 
 tification of life," Rom. v. 18. It is observed, "that the apos- 
 tle is comparing the condemnation, which was procured by the 
 sin of the first Adam, with the free gift of justification, procured 
 by the second Adam, as to the extent of persons concerned in 
 
188 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 both." Be it so; Adam brought condemnation and death upon 
 all his seed; so Christ brought justification and eternal life upon 
 all his seed; all men, in the ordinary course of generation, are 
 the seed of the first Adam; but all men, so taken, are not the 
 seed of the second Adam ; for the redeemed are a " peculiar 
 people, selected out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
 and nation," Rev. v. 9. And yet they may be said to be all 
 men, in a federal sense, or all men given him by the Father, or 
 all who, in time, believe on him. Thus the apostle himself 
 states the comparison, in these words ; " As in Adam all die, so 
 in Christ shall all be made alive; but every man in his own or- 
 der; Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at 
 his coming," 1 Cor. xv. 22,23. It appears, from hence, that 
 death by the first Adam, and life by the second Adam, follow 
 union with either of them ; all in the first Adam sinned, and die 
 in and with him ; all in Christ the second Adam, who are said 
 to be his, in distinction from others who are not his, shall 
 be made alive, shall rise, and live with him for ever. There is, 
 then, an all, which is restrained to them that are Christ's ; but 
 such a distinction, or limitation, had been not only impertinent, 
 but false, if all men were in him, or if justification of life was 
 procured for, and olfered to all men by Christ, as our adversa- 
 ries explain it. In a few words, we readily allow that Christ 
 died to redeem all those men upon whom the free gift comes to 
 justification of life, in the same sense, as by Adam's oftence 
 judgment came upon all men to condemnation; that is, if all men 
 are actually justified by Christ, and have the sentence of eternal 
 life to pass upon them, then we must allow that Christ died to 
 redeem and save all men; and till that be proved, the scripture 
 in debate between us will be of little service to the cause of uni- 
 versal redemption. To say that the same all that died, and 
 were condemned, in and with the first Adam, are justified, and 
 live in and with the second Adam, is to beg the question, and 
 to leave the devils no company in hell. 
 
 [4.] Another text pleaded in favour of universal redemption 
 is this; "if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he 
 died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live to 
 themselves, but to him that died for them, and rose again," 2 
 Cor. V. 14, 15. Our opponents argue, from this text, that those 
 words, all ivere dead, must certainly be taken in their greatest 
 latitude; wherefore the words preceding, Christ died for all, 
 from which they are an inference, ought also to be taken in the 
 same extent. Now, to clear the sense of the text, let us con- 
 sider, 
 
 1. The apostle's scope and design is to show how we are con- 
 strained and obliged to live to Christ, and not to ourselves; and 
 therefore every passage is to be interpreted so as may best agree 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 189 
 
 with his design. Now, if we understand these words, all ivere 
 dead, of a being dead in sin ; what argument do they afford for 
 our living to Christ? All were dead in sin, therefore we are 
 bound to live to Christ ; where is the force of the reasoning ? 
 But if we interpret the words not of a being dead in sin, but of 
 our being dead to sin, as it is elsewhere explained,* then the 
 reason is strong; but the argument for universal redemption is 
 lost: for all men are not dead to sin; and if those who are, or 
 shall be so dead, are the all for whom Christ died; then by that 
 oil, all mankind cannot be intended. Even some of the other 
 side themselves, by " the all that were dead," understand not 
 all who were dead in sin, but all who are dead to sin, by virtue 
 of Christ's death: all ought to die, namely, to sin. The sense 
 is the same with that in the beginning of the sixth chapter of the 
 epistle to the Romans, though more briefly expressed. Accord- 
 ing to the apostle he understands all Christians, in whom the 
 efficacy of the death of Christ exerts itself; so far as they, by the 
 example of Christ, are " dead to sin and the flesh," says another 
 upon those words, Then were all dead. 
 
 2. The extent of the all who were dead, is to be taken from 
 the all Christ died for. The apostle affirms so many to be dead 
 as Christ died for; not that Christ died for so many as were 
 dead. If one died for all, for all whom he loved, and for whom 
 he rose again, then all those persons were dead, they died with 
 Christ; the old man was crucified with him: they, by Christ's 
 cross, became dead to sin, that they might- no longer live therein. 
 But is this the effect of the death of Christ upon all men, or 
 upon some only? Let this determine who the all men are, for 
 whom Christ died. 
 
 It may be objected, that there seems to be a manifest distinc- 
 tion between the all whom Christ died for and who were dead, 
 and those who, by virtue of Christ's death, live; whereas if 
 being dead to sin was the thing intended, then if it is not the 
 same thing, yet it would belong to all the same persons, and at 
 the same time, to be dead and to live ; for the death of sin, and 
 the life of grace, are of the same date, or commence at the same 
 time, and extend to all the same persons; the words in the text 
 lie thus: "And that he died for all, that henceforth they that 
 live," implying that all those do not live for whom Christ died, 
 but that such of them as do live, are bound to live to Christ, 
 and not to themselves. I must say, that the objection is set in 
 a strong light, and, at first sight, carries in it something very 
 plausible and engaging; but yet I hope to make it appear not 
 to be the sense of the text. The apostle here, as he often does 
 
 * " Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, 
 that henceforth we should not serve sin," Rom. vi. 6, " Who his own self bore 
 our sins in his own body upon the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto 
 righteousness," 1 Pet. ii. 24. 
 
190 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 elsewhere,* and as we commonly do, uses an elliptical sort of 
 speech, as appears from that passage, And that he died for all. 
 To make which clear and full, we must add those words, " We 
 thus judge, that he died for all, that henceforth they that live 
 should not live to themselves;" where is understood that the 
 all who were dead to sin, by the cross of Christ, at the same 
 time received a principle of spiritual life, which was to be im- 
 proved in living to Christ; so that by all that icere dead, and 
 those that live, the apostle means the same persons, though he 
 does not take up time to say, we thus judge, that all died to sin 
 in Christ; and all, at the same time, live in him by faith; and, 
 from that very moment, are bound to live to Christ in newness 
 of life. It was taken for granted, by the apostle, that men 
 could not be dead to sin, but, at the same time, they must live 
 in Chf'ist ; " for without him we can do nothing," John xv. 5, 
 and therefore, without explaining all this, he describes the same 
 persons, who were, in one sense, dead, to be, in another sense, 
 alive, and bound to use that life in obeying and glorifying 
 Christ. The word henceforth favours this sense: "Then were 
 all dead, that henceforth they who live, should not live to them- 
 selves, but to Christ." What kind of reasoning would it be to 
 say, that Christ died for all that were dead in sins, that hence- 
 forth among all that were dead in sins, those who live, should 
 not live to themselves: but to say all were dead in sin, by the 
 death of Christ, that henceforth, or from that very time, they 
 should not live to themselves, but to Christ, who died for them, 
 and rose again, is good and strong reasoning, and of a gospel 
 strain. I think the argument runs clear and strong, if we 
 apprehend the apostle thus speaking : " In persuading men to 
 fly from the wrath to come, and receive Christ, we feel the 
 constraining influences of his love, in dying for his people, and 
 engaging them all to die to sin, and live to himself" If this is 
 the genuine sense of the text, as I take it to be, the force of the 
 objection is taken off" at once ; and, I hope, more need not be 
 said in answer to it. 
 
 3. The all for whom Christ is said to die, Rom. iv. 25, are 
 those very persons for whose justification he rose again. I ask 
 then, did Christ rise again for the justification of all men? If 
 not, then all mankind are not meant by the all for whom Christ 
 died. 
 
 4. The all for whom Christ died, are neiv creatures, ver. 17; 
 their sins are not imputed to them, and they are actually recon' 
 oiled to God, ver. 19; "and they are made the righteousness of 
 God in Christ," ver. 21. But this is not the case of all men in 
 
 * Wliat the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God send- 
 ing his own Son in tiie likeness of sinful flesh (he did) that the righteousness, ifcc. 
 Rom. viii. 3. So chap. v. 18. "As b}' tlie otrence of one (we supply judgment 
 came) upon all men to condemnation." 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 191 
 
 the world, but of all the elect, all believers; and hence it fol- 
 lows, that the all for whom Christ died, are not all men that 
 ever were, are, or shall be; and consequently that from this text 
 it cannot be proved that Christ died for all mankind. 
 
 [5.] Another text alleged in favour of universal redemption, 
 is this which follows: " Who will have all men to be saved, and 
 come to the knowledge of the truth; who gave himself a ran- 
 som for all, to be testified in due time," 1 Tim. ii. 4, 6. Our 
 opponents think the cited words to be a clear declaration of the 
 intention both of the Father and of the Son, relating to man's 
 redemption ; of the Father it is said, that he would have " all 
 men to be saved;" and concerning the Son, that he "gave him- 
 self a ransom for all ;" and hence they conclude, that Christ 
 died for all and every man. In vindication of this scripture, 
 and in answer to the argument drawn from it, let it be 
 observed, 
 
 1. That the whole force of the argument depends upon the 
 sense of the word all, which, in the very context, is used in a 
 limited and restrained sense, and can never be proved to be 
 used in its largest sense, in the text under consideration. A 
 little before it is said, that " supplications and prayers are to be 
 made for all men, for kings, and for all in authority," verse 1 ; 
 now, are we here, by all men, to understand every man? Are 
 Christians to pray for the dead, as well as the living? for the 
 damned in hell, or the glorified in heaven? for those unborn and 
 unknown? In the same place it is said, that thanks are to be 
 made to God for all men ; what ! for Judas, Cain, and Antichrist, 
 and all who are suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ? If all 
 men to be prayed for, and for whom thanks are to be given, 
 mean only some men of all ranks and nations, especially 
 those who have it in their power to do more good or harm than 
 others, as public magistrates, and the like; then by the all men, 
 whom God would have to be saved, and for whom Christ is a 
 ransom, may be meant only some men, some of all sorts, ranks, 
 and conditions, which are to be prayed for, seeing God has now 
 enlarged the pale of the church, the Gentiles flowing into it. 
 The will of God that w^e?^ should come to the knowledge of the 
 truth, and that they should be saved, is equally extensive; for 
 they are joined together, without any the least distinction, or 
 sign of difference between them. " God will have all men to 
 be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth;" all then to 
 whom God does not grant the means of coming to the know- 
 ledge of the truth, are excluded from the all, whom God will 
 have to be saved, and for whom Christ gave himself a ransom. 
 
 2. The ivill of God here must mean either God's signification 
 of what he requires men to do, or a declaration of what he 
 himself will certainly do. Wherever God's word comes, he 
 requires all men to repent ; but the event shows that he does 
 
192 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 not give repentance to all men, or work it in them.* He com- 
 manded Pharaoh to let Israel go, and yet foretold that he would 
 harden Pharaoli's heart, so as he should not hearken, Exod. 
 vii. 2, 3, 4, where there is a very plain distinction between God's 
 secret and his revealed will, between what he calls man to do, 
 and what he will do himself. The same appears in the case 
 of Abraham's offering up his son Isaac, and in many others. 
 When, in the text under consideration, it is said, that God ivill 
 have all men to be saved, the meaning may be, that he requires 
 all men, to whom he sends his word, to seek salvation. Some 
 observe, that it is not said that God ivill save all men, as ex- 
 pressing the certainty of what he will do; but he will have all 
 men to be saved, as expressing the duty of all men to seek 
 salvation. If by the tvill of God is meant in the text the 
 good pleasure of his will, or the good pleasure which he hath 
 purposed in hitnse/f, Eph. i. 5, 9, then all mankind cannot be 
 meant, by the all whom God will have to be saved, and come 
 to the knowledge of the truth; seeing God "works all things 
 according to the counsel of his own will," verse 11, but God 
 does not actually save all men; yet "his counsel shall stand," 
 Isa. xlvi. 10, " and he will do all his pleasure, in the host of 
 heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth," Dan. iv. 35; 
 "who has resisted his will," or who can do it? Rom. ix. 19. 
 Now, this is the will of God, " that of all whom he gave to 
 Christ, he should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last 
 day," John vi. 39. If, then, it was the will of God that all 
 mankind should be saved, all mankind would actually be saved ; 
 and if all are not actually saved from sin and wrath, then the 
 text in debate cannot mean that God will have every individual 
 person to be saved, and consequently that Christ's giving him- 
 self a ransom for all, cannot mean all mankind, but the all given 
 him by the Father; for, as he said, " he came down from heaven 
 to do the will of him that sent him," ver. 38, 39. 
 
 It may be said, God willed the salvation of all men condi- 
 tionally, or if they will be saved. To this I answer: for God 
 to will the salvation of all men, if they will, is not to will it at 
 all; for all men might have rejected. Nothing can be affirmed 
 certainly of such a will of God, as depends upon the uncertain 
 will of the creature. If all men will be saved, then God wills the 
 salvation of all men; if no man will be saved, then God wills 
 the salvation of no man; he has no will of his own who must 
 be determined by the will of another, and that other is not de- 
 termined by his will. This notion represents God as saying, I 
 
 * " As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 
 but that the wicked turn from his way and live," Ezek. xxxiii. 11. It does not 
 hence follow, that God would have all men, even the wicked saved, but only that 
 he takes pleasure in the conversion and salvation of the wicked, as the last clause 
 explains it ; but that " the wicked turn from his way and live." 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 193 
 
 will that every individual person should be saved; nevertheless 
 not as I will, but as they will. Is not this to make the will of 
 God, mutable and uncertain? And, on this supposition, what 
 becomes of the immutability of his counsel, Heb. vi. 17, or how 
 " does he work all things according to the counsel of his own 
 will?" Eph. i. 11. Is not this evidently to dethrone God, and 
 set up man in his room? 
 
 3. The will of God, that all men should be saved, is commen- 
 surate to his will, that " all men should come to the knowledge 
 of the truth:" but it is not his will that all men should come 
 to the knowledge of the truth; for to some he does not give a 
 capacity to know it, as idiots and madmen, and to others he 
 does not give, yea, he actually withholds, the means " of coming 
 to the knowledge of the truth," Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20, Acts xvi. 
 6, 7, xvii. 30, and some he " gives over to strong delusions, 
 to believe a lie, that they may be damned," 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12; 
 therefore he does not will that all men should come to the 
 knowledge of the truth, or that all mankind should be saved. 
 
 It gives us a very ill representation of God to say, that he 
 willed the salvation of all men if they will, when he well knew 
 that multitudes never would choose or desire salvation from sin 
 and wrath, and that he never would make them willing, by his 
 own gracious power; for this is trifling with men, in a matter 
 of the highest importance, and a pretending that love towards 
 them, which had no reality in it, and could be no more than a 
 delusive show and appearance of it. From what has been said, 
 I think it may clearly appear, that the scripture which has been 
 so largely considered, does not prove that Christ died to redeem 
 and save all men. 
 
 [6.] It is urged, that Christ " tasted death for every man," 
 Heb. ii. 9; and our opponents make a mighty flourish with this 
 text, and would have us believe that it concludes clearly and 
 strongly on their side. In answer to this, let it be considered, 
 that the word man is not in the Greek text, though if it had, it 
 would have given little or no strength to their argument ; for, 
 in reason, it must have been explained agreeably to the con- 
 text, "Christ tasted death for all men," Heb. ii. 10, "or every 
 man, who is one of the many sons to be brought to glory," and 
 of whose salvation he is the Captain: every man that is his 
 brother, and is sanctified by him, ver. 11, every man who is 
 one of the children whom God had given him, ver. 13, every 
 man who, by his death, is delivered from eternal death, ver, 17, 
 every man that is reconciled by his death. But this is not the 
 lot of all men in the world ; and therefore when it is said, that 
 " Christ tasted death for every man," the apostle does not mean 
 that he died to redeem and save all mankind. 
 
 It may be said, though the words ivorld, whole world, and 
 all, may admit of a restriction, and not always signify all man- 
 
 25 
 
194 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 kind, yet the words every man, seem so very full and express, 
 that there is no room to evade the force of this testimony for 
 universal redemption. To which I reply, that these very words, 
 every man, are elsewhere used in a restrictive and limited 
 sense; and therefore may be so in the cited scripture. The 
 apostle says, "Warning every man, and teaching every man," 
 Col. i. 28. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every 
 man, to profit with," 1 Cor. xii. 7. Nay, Christ said, " Go 
 preach the gospel to every creature," Mark xvi. 15: not to 
 birds or beasts, or every man that has been, then was, or should 
 be, upon the face of the earth; but generally and without dis- 
 tinction, as to nation or rank, to as many as they could, where- 
 ever they came. No argument, therefore, can be drawn, for 
 the uncertain meaning of the words, every man, as signifying 
 every man that ever was, now is, or hereafter shall be, seeing 
 they are so often taken in a limited sense; and, according to the 
 context, are so to be understood in the scripture alleged. 
 
 [7.] Another text produced in favour of universal redemp- 
 tion, is the following: " He is the Saviour of all men, especially 
 of those who believe," 1 Tim. iv. 10. According to our oppo- 
 nents, Christ is the Saviour of all men, as to impetration or pur- 
 chase; and the Saviour of believers, as to their actual possession 
 and enjoyment of salvation. But here are several things to be 
 proved before this text will establish the doctrine of universal 
 redemption, which, I believe, will never be done. 
 
 1. It should be demonstrated, that the Saviour here spoken 
 of is Jesus Christ : there is not a syllable in the text to cause us 
 to think so. The Saviour here spoken of is said to be the living 
 God, a title not appropriated to Christ, though he is not excluded 
 from it, but is, on other occasions, so called: and it may be used 
 of God indefinitely, who is " the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour 
 thereof in times of trouble," Jer. xiv. 8. 
 
 2. It should be proved, that the salvation here signified is 
 spiri/iialdiud eternal salvation; whereas, to an impartial judge, 
 it must rather appear to be meant of a temporal &.nd provide?i- 
 iial salvation: the context, I think, carries it evidently this way, 
 if we read the words in their connexion: "Therefore we both 
 labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, 
 who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe:" 
 or we trust in the living God for support and preservation, in 
 the labours, and under the reproaches, which our preaching the 
 gospel occasions; and we have this trust in God, because he is 
 the Preserver of all men, and especially of his own people; for 
 godliness has the promise of this life, and also of that to come; 
 and therefore he will preserve us here, so far as he sees fit: and 
 it is to be remembered, that Paul had a particular intimation of 
 this, when he first received his commission from Christ, who 
 said, " I will appear to thee, delivering thee from the people 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 195 
 
 and the Gentiles, to whom now 1 send thee," Acts xvii. 16. 
 Now, what relation has this to universal redemption ? I have 
 often wondered, how men of ingenuity and learning could lay 
 such a stress upon this text, which is nothing to their purpose, 
 even allowing, though I will only suppose, the opinion of some 
 of the ancient writers to be true, that the word Saviour means 
 Prese7'ver, as it refers to all men ; and eternal salvation, as it 
 refers to believers; for even in that way it makes nothing for 
 universal redemption. It is said, that Chrysostom, CEcumenius, 
 Primasius, and Ambrose, came into this last interpretation ; so 
 did Thomas Aquinas, and others; but I must freely own, that 
 the former explanation of the text seems more solid, pertinent, 
 and evidently just and true. 
 
 3. Before this text can establish universal redemption, it 
 must be proved, that there is an actual universal salvation : for 
 the text does not say that God may be, by virtue of certain 
 remote conditions and possibilities, the Saviour of all men ; but, 
 in that sense in which he is the Saviour of all men, he actually 
 is so at present. Nov/, if it can be proved, that all mankind 
 are actually saved from sin, death, and hell, the dispute is at 
 an end at once. 
 
 4. I cannot see how they will be able to draw a possible 
 conditional salvation out of those words, especially of those 
 that believe; and as to the other part of the verse, there is 
 nothing that looks like it. Upon the whole I conclude, that 
 the text yields no support to the doctrine of universal redemp- 
 tion. Our opponents have other arguments, from reason, to 
 offer, and some objections against our doctrine to make; the 
 consideration of which will be the subject of my next and last 
 discourse. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 Titus ii. 14.— Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that lie might redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 
 
 Having, in some former discourses, offered several arguments 
 in defence of the doctrine of particular redemption, in my last 
 on this subject I made an entrance upon the consideration of 
 the arguments produced by our opponents, in favour of the 
 notion of Christ's dying for all men; and I went through the 
 objection against our doctrine, which is built on the general 
 terms used in Scripture; such as the world, the whole ivorld, 
 all men, and every man. I shall now examine some other 
 objections, which are made to our opinion. Therefore, 
 
196 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 2. I shall proceed to another set of objections, which are 
 brought against the doctrine of particular redemption, and 
 which the enemies of it have always in their mouths, and make 
 a great noise with. They pretend that the opinion of Christ's 
 dying for a certain determinate number, is inconsistent with the 
 general calls which are given in Scripture, to all men, to believe 
 and repent; that it detracts from the goodness and grace of God, 
 and from the merit of Christ; that it represents God as partial 
 or unjust to his creatures, and that it takes away all comfort 
 from poor sirmers. These things sound plausibly; but if the 
 objections are severally and distinctly examined they will appear 
 to be of no weight. 
 
 (1.) The patrons of universal redemption often tell us, that 
 all men are, in Scripture, called to repent and believe; therefore 
 Christ died to redeem all men. It is pleaded, John i. 7, that 
 John the Baptist came to bear witness to Christ, that all men 
 through him might believe; that the apostles, Mark xvi. 15, 16, 
 were to " go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
 creature;" and every individual that would believe, and be 
 baptized, was to be saved ; that " the Holy Spirit was to come 
 and convince the world of sin, because they believed not in 
 Christ," John xvi. 8, and that the apostle Paul, Acts xvii. 30, 
 in his speech to the Athenians, declared that " God commanded 
 all men every where to repent." 
 
 These allegations may be thought to have a great deal in 
 them by such as are taken by the bare sound of words, without 
 considering their meaning; but it is a sufficient answer if we 
 say, that seeing multitudes in the world have not enjoyed the 
 Scriptures, nor the preaching of the gospel, it is evident that all 
 men, strictly and absolutely speaking, have not been called to 
 believe and repent. All the men to v/hom the ministry of John 
 the Baptist extended, were far from being all men in the world; 
 for there were multitudes dead before he was born, multitudes 
 in his time who never heard him, and multitudes since who 
 never knew any thing of his witness or testimony: therefore 
 all the men that might or should be influenced by his ministry 
 to believe, could not be meant of all the individual men in the 
 world. The apostles " going into all the world, and preaching 
 the gospel to every creature," must not be interpreted of all the 
 individuals of mankind, in their day, much less of all the sons 
 and daughters of Adanl; for then they neither did nor could 
 fulfil their commission: and the next branch of the cited scrip- 
 ture, " He that believes shall be saved," is rather an epitome 
 of the gospel, which they were to preach, wherever they came, 
 than a command to all men to believe: besides, we may under- 
 stand the words, as declaring the certain connexion between 
 faith and salvation, which makes nothing against the doctrine 
 of particular redemption. Christ said, that the Holy Ghost 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 197 
 
 should, when he came, " reprove the world of sin, because 
 they believed not on him ;" l3Ut the world he was to convince 
 cannot be understood of all men, or -every individual man, 
 seeing millions were dead long before that time. The apostle 
 declared, that " God now commands all men every where to 
 repent;" but the words imply that he did not always do it; 
 " The times of ignorance God winked at;" but now by diffu- 
 sing the light of his word among the heathen world, he more 
 generally called men off from their idolatries, to the knowledge 
 and worship of the true God. Every individual man in the 
 world cannot therefore be comprehended in the apostle's ex- 
 pressions. If we suppose all men, strictly speaking, were call- 
 ed to believe, we must inquire what it is that they are called 
 to believe: to say it is that Christ died for them, is to take for 
 granted the thing in question, whether he died for all men: to 
 believe that Christ is the true and only Saviour and to receive 
 him, and depend upon him for salvation, as revealed in the 
 gospel, is that faith which men are called to by the preaching 
 of the gospel, and which has the promise of eternal life annexed 
 to it; but this does not necessarily suppose that Christ died for 
 all men. 
 
 There is a sufhcient ground to preach the gospel to all, and 
 for any person, who hears it to hearken to the call of the gospel, 
 seeing there are many that shall be saved. It would not be 
 thought unreasonable to urge all husbanduien to plough and sow 
 their lands, or all merchants to send their effects abroad, because 
 all of the one sort shall not have good crops, nor will all of the 
 other sort have good returns ; it is sufficient to put them upon 
 action, that some, nay, many have. Ministers are compared to 
 sowers, Mat. xiii. 2, and they, as well as husbandmen, are in 
 *' the morning to sow their seed, and in the evening not to with- 
 hold their hand, not knowing whether shall prosper, this or that," 
 Eccl. xi. 6. There are three things which lay a sufficient f^3un- 
 dation for ministers to call all their hearers to believe, and for any 
 of them to hearken to the call. One thing is, Christ's ability 
 to save, to the uttermost, all who come to God by him, Heb. 
 vii. 25. Another thing is, God's com.mand, 1 John iii, 23, that 
 men believe in Christ ; this is the xoork of God, John vi. 29, 
 that which he requires, and that which he is pleased with. Be- 
 sides these, there is the gracious declaration and assurance, 
 " That w"hosoever believes shall not perish ; and that Christ will 
 in no wise cast out him that comes to him," John iii, 16, vi. 37. 
 Upon these grounds the apostle pressed men to "believe in 
 Christ," Acts xiii. 38, and preached to them forgiveness of sins, 
 through faith in his blood ; for so God has set him forth to be a 
 propitiation, Rom. iii. 25. 
 
 The gospel declares Christ's ability to save all that come to 
 him ; that all shall be saved who do believe in him ; that it is 
 
19S OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 the command of God that men do beheve; and that such as dc 
 not, must perish. Here is warrant enough for ministers to 
 preach Christ to all, and encourage all their hearers to believe 
 on him. If they could truly tell men that Christ died for all 
 men, yet they could not tell them that any more should be 
 saved, than actually believe ; and it is certain, that all who be- 
 lieve shall be saved. It is not my knowledge that Christ died 
 for me, that is the ground of my believing in him; but the 
 command of God requiring it, and the declaration, that who- 
 soever does so, shall have eternal life. Upon this, I have not 
 only a liberty and encouragement to believe, when the gospel 
 is preached to me, but it is my duty so to do. In the Olympic 
 games, 1 Cor. ix. 24, " there were many run, though but one 
 received the prize;" but in the case before ns, not barely one, 
 but all who believe shall be saved: and therefore when the 
 man put the question to Christ, " Whether there are few that 
 be saved?" he bid him "strive to enter in at the strait gate, 
 because many would seek to enter in, and should not be able," 
 Luke xih. 23, 24. 
 
 The gospel is " the power of God to salvation to every one 
 that believes;" and seeing no man, who enjoys the gospel, can 
 know that he is excluded, but by final impenitence and unbe- 
 lief, all men to whom the gospel is preached, have the same 
 outward call, and encouragements to believe, as all the saved 
 have had. It was not personally made known to them before- 
 hand, that God had chosen, or that Christ died for them in par- 
 ticular; but the general declarations and promises of the gospel 
 were set before them, Christ's ability and willingness to save 
 lost sinners, were represented to them; and the Holy Spirit 
 enabling them to believe these things, and to embrace Christ, 
 as he is declared in the gospel, the promise of the Redeemer, 
 the salvation became theirs : and any person now treading in 
 the steps of their faith, shall be a fellow-heir with them of the 
 same happiness. 
 
 If these things be duly considered, it will appear that there 
 is suflicient ground to call all men to believe, and for every 
 hearer of the gospel to seek faith, without the person's knowing 
 beforehand that Christ died for him in particular. Nor can I 
 see how the knowledge of that, if it could be had, by an unbe- 
 hever, would help him; seeing those who say Christ died for 
 all, yet allow, that many, even of those to whom he is preached, 
 perish; yea, many who have truly believed. And it is granted 
 on all hands, that without true faith and repentance, there is no 
 salvation. They who affirm that Christ died for all men, gene- 
 rally say, that he did not procure them faith, nor undertake 
 that they should certainly exert their own natural pov/er to 
 believe, which they are supposed to have. Wherein then are 
 they better than otherSj or so well as those who are waiting at 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 199 
 
 the pool side, till the Spirit moves upon the waters of the sanc- 
 tuary? which he will do, and make it not only possible, but 
 certain, that some, yea, many, shall be saved; and every one 
 is to wait and hope, upon these reasons and grounds, that he 
 stands as fair for salvation as others; and should be sensible, 
 that whether Christ died for all, or only some, yet it is certain, 
 that without faith he cannot be saved; that it is folly and 
 wickedness to make his misery certain, because his happiness 
 is to him at present imcertain; and, upon the whole, that " it is 
 good for a man both to hope, and quietly to wait for the salva- 
 tion of the Lord." 
 
 I might further answer, to the objection, that the calling all 
 who hear the gospel to believe, is the way to manifest the 
 wickedness of men, and make it appear, that their destruction 
 is of themselves, if they neglect or refuse this salvation ; seeing 
 whether Christ died for all, or for some only, yet they can no 
 otherwise know that they have no part in it; seeing it is very 
 plain, and what all who understand and preach the gospel, 
 must, and do tell the people, that " whosoever helieves shall not 
 perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 If it should be said, if all men who hear the gospel are bound 
 to believe that they shall or may be saved by Christ; then mul- 
 titudes are bound to believe a lie, if Christ did not die for all 
 men, seeing then all men cannot be saved by Christ. To this 
 I would answer, that to believe that all men, who have faith in 
 Christ, shall be saved, is no lie, but a plain certain truth; and 
 it is as evidently false, that any man is bound to believe that he 
 shall or can be saved without faith in Christ; therefore, though 
 Christ died for some only, no man who, under the gospel is 
 called to believe, is required to believe a lie; for all who do 
 believe on Christ shall be saved. Besides, the first thing which 
 a man under the gospel is called to believe, is not that he shall 
 be saved by Christ, but that "there is salvation in no other;" 
 and that if he truly receives Christ by faith, he shall be saved, 
 but not otherwise. 
 
 (2.) It is pretended, " that the doctrine of particular redemp- 
 tion detracts from the goodness and grace of God, and the 
 merits of Christ; and therefore it cannot be true." To this I 
 answer, that the goodness and grace of God, and the merits of 
 Christ, are more magnitied and advantaged by the doctrine of 
 particular redemption, than by the doctrine of universal redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 It does not honour the divine goodness and grace for God to 
 leave all men open, not only to a possibility, but even a great 
 probability of perishing, notwithstanding all that he has done 
 to save them; and yet so it is, according to them who say, he 
 ^ave Christ to die for all men, but only to render their salvation 
 
200 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 possible. That love and goodness which secure salvation to 
 some, though a smaller number, must be greater than that love 
 and goodness, which provides only a remote possibility for all. 
 It seems to show a great coldness and indifference, to leave it a 
 second time to the mutable will of man, to secure his salvation, 
 when man's will in its best condition, had ruined Adam, and 
 all his posterity. Might it not well have been thought, that if 
 infinite love and goodness was showed to all men, as it gave 
 Christ to die for them, so it should give the Holy Spirit to apply 
 salvation to them, to make them willing to embrace it, and fix 
 their adherence to it? 
 
 The scriptures. Tit. iii. 4, 5, set forth the kindness and love 
 of God in " the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost." The apostle said, " God who is rich in mercy, 
 for the great love wherewith he loved us, has quickened us 
 together with Christ," Eph. ii. 4, 5. But how does this great 
 love and mercy towards man appear, in giving Christ for all 
 men, only to make it possible that they may be saved, and then 
 leave the far greater part of them for ever ignorant of the way 
 of salvation, and multitudes who do know it, yea, all of them, 
 to perish in their sins, if they do not, of their own free wills, 
 without any preventing grace, procured by Christ, or secured 
 to them by the Father, make sure of this salvation ? Is this the 
 way to exalt the grace of God, and the merits of Christ; not to 
 procure a certainty, but only a remote possibility of salvation 
 for men? 
 
 If Christ died for all men, and yet leaves many of them, to 
 aggravate their guilt, in rejecting such a Saviour, when it was 
 known to God, before he gave Christ for them, what they would 
 do, surely it would have been more favour to them, not to have 
 given Christ to die for them, than after that, to leave them to 
 sink deeper into misery, under the guilt of " denying the Lord, 
 who bought them," as some affirm. It must surely torment the 
 poor creatures abundantly the more, to think that when Christ 
 had opened a door of salvation for them, no kind hand would 
 be so merciful as to lay hold on them and draw them in. 
 
 Is it not an unworthy representation of the God of love, to 
 say, that though he seemed to love all men, so as to send Christ 
 to die for them, yet he loved them so little, as to leave them all 
 to perish, if they would, notwithstanding? I may here argue 
 as the apostle did in a lower case, when he said, " Whoso hath 
 this world's goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts 
 up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of 
 God in him?" 1 John iii. 7. In like manner I may say, if God 
 showed such infinite goodness and love to all men, in giving 
 Christ to die for them, how was it, that when he saw their need 
 of his Spirit and grace, and the means of grace, he should shut 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 201 
 
 up his bowels of compassion from them, leave them to them- 
 selves, and never so much as send the gospel to thousands of 
 them ? 
 
 In a few words, it does not appear to discover more, or so 
 much grace and goodness in God, to take a distant and remote 
 step towards the salvation of all, in giving Christ to make it 
 possible, as in giving Christ, grace, and glory, certainly to some, 
 yea, to a number, that no man can number; and to say, that 
 Christ died for all men, not to purchase grace and glory for 
 them, but only to render their salvation possible, is to depreciate, 
 not to exalt the merits of Christ, for this is to say, that he so me- 
 rited salvation, as that salvation is secured to no man; for what 
 is only possible may never be. And if Christ by his death pro- 
 cured a possibility of salvation, he only removed the insupera- 
 ble obstruction, that so man might become his own saviour, 
 which is to exalt the goodness and power of the creature, and 
 not the merit and grace of Christ. On the other hand, that 
 grace must be infinite which gave Christ to procure, and secure 
 eternal life, for a vast multitude of poor, perishing sinners. And 
 that merit must be infinite, which not only paid their vast debt 
 to justice, but also purchased for them an inconceivable and 
 eternal weight of glory. 
 
 Thus, I think, it appears that the doctrine of particular re- 
 demption does not detract from the goodness and grace of God, 
 or the merits of Christ, but that the charge falls justly and very 
 heavy upon the contrary opinion. 
 
 (3.) It is confidently objected, " that it represents God as par- 
 tial, if not Knjnsf, towards his creatures, if when they were all 
 in the same condition, he provided a remedy, a Redeemer and 
 Saviour for some, and not for others : and the same may be said 
 of Christ; for why should not all, in a like condition, be alike 
 dealt withal?" I answer, that if God may make no difference 
 between his creatures in the same condition, then he must 
 either prove a Saviour for all sinful creatures, or for none ; and 
 then why was there no Saviour provided for devils as well as 
 for men? Are they not God's creatures, yea, creatures of a 
 more noble kind than man? Are they not sinful and miserable 
 creatures, who needed a Saviour as well as man: why then are 
 they passed by ? Why did not Christ take their nature, and 
 die for them, as well as for mankind? And if there was no 
 blame or partiality in redeeming men, and not devils, why 
 should it be thought a reflection upon God, to send his Son to 
 redeem some men and not others? Where many have a just 
 and equal claim to any benefit, there the giving it to one, and 
 withholding it from others of them, is unjust and dishonour- 
 able; but when none of them have any just claim to it, but all 
 have deserved the contrary, there the case is far otherwise. 
 Where many have deserved punishment, and some are ex- 
 
 26 
 
202 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 empted from it, without any satisfaction to the law, whilst 
 others are made to suffer the law, there lies a charge of unjust 
 partiality; but this is not the case before us: though God exempts 
 that particular number from condemnation, for whom Christ 
 died, yet it is upon satisfaction made by their Surety and Sa- 
 viour, and in punishing the rest he does them no wrong, for he 
 inflicts upon them nothing but what is the proper desert, and 
 the due wages of sin. 
 
 God in his word has vindicated this right of sovereignty to 
 himself, to bestow his favours upon whom he will; as in this 
 passage, "Who art thou, man! that repliest against God? 
 Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to 
 make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour?-' Rom, ix. 
 20, 21. The objection of partiality proceeds from the pride and 
 envy of man, as Clnist informed us, when he said, " Is it not 
 lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye 
 evil because I am good?" Mat. xx. 15. We see in the daily 
 distributions of providence a great inequality; some are rich, 
 others poor; some healthy, others very sickly; some born de- 
 formed, others well shaped: some wonderfully preserved, others 
 exposed to many perils; some have the clear light of the gospel, 
 and millions know nothing of Christ; and, shall not God, be just, 
 because he is thus partial? 
 
 (4.) It is objected, "that the doctrine of particular redemp- 
 tion takes away all comfort from poor sinners; therefore it is 
 not true," To this I answer, that the word of God aflbrds no 
 comfort to sinners, whilst they remain in impenitency and unbe- 
 lief. "There is no peace, saith the Lord, to the wicked," Isa. 
 xlviii. 22. " He that believeth not shall not see life, but the 
 wrath of God abides upon him," John iii. 36. " Except ye 
 repent ye shall all likewise perish," Luke xiii. 5. Supposing 
 Christ did die for all men, yet that can yield no comfort to a 
 man that lies under the wrath and curse of God. 
 
 Those who say that Christ died for all men, do not say that 
 all men shall be saved, or that it is so much as probable that 
 they should. They do not suppose that Christ is engaged, by 
 any special love, or covenant, to save any man, who enjoys 
 the gospel, any more than those who never enjoy it, or those 
 who are in hell. Nor do they pretend to say that all, or the 
 greater part of such as enjoy the gospel, will believe and be 
 saved ; and if they do not, what comfort can it afford men to 
 think that Christ died for all men, when if it is so, that will but 
 aggravate their condemnation and misery, as rejecters of Christ 
 and his salvation? 
 
 All who believe and repent have the greatest grounds of joy 
 and comfort, though Christ died to redeem and save some men 
 only: this is " strong consolation for all the heirs of promise, 
 who have fled for refuge, to lay hold on Christ the hope set 
 
OF PARTICrLAR REDEMPTION. 203 
 
 before them." But, what comfort can that doctrine afford, 
 which leaves all men at uncertainties, whether ever they shall 
 be saved, though Christ died for them, and they believe in him? 
 Because by his death, as the friends of it say, he established no 
 certainty of their perseverance and salvation, ratified no abso- 
 lute promises, did not procure them persevering grace, or that 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit, which shall end in eternal life. 
 
 Hov/ is the covenant ordered in all things and sure? What 
 consolation can he draw from it, who, though he may plead 
 the gracious promises of it to-day, may be excluded from all 
 interest in them to-morrow, and have no promise to plead for 
 his recovery, nor any reason to hope that that blood, which he 
 says was shed for him, shall do any thing else, but plead against 
 him, as one trampling it under foot? Whereas upon the foot 
 of particular redemption there is room to expect, that where the 
 gospel comes, some, it may be many, will be brought home to 
 Christ by it; for all that the Father hath given him shall come; 
 and if they fall, they shall rise agaiii. The promises are sealed 
 and sure; etlectual grace and eternal glory are purchased for 
 them: Christ loves their persons, and \\r\\\ not permit any of 
 them to perish; he pleads his death for them, undertakes to pro- 
 tect and guide them by his Spirit, till he has brought them safe 
 to glory. Though they see no worthiness in themselves, yet 
 they may plead his special love to them, and his giving himself 
 for them, not only to make their salvation possible, but certain; 
 and thus he has given them everlasting consolation, and good 
 hope through grace. 
 
 If we tell a man in distress and anguish of spirit, for his 
 reigning impenitency and unbehef, that Christ died for him, 
 seeing he died for all men, and therefore he may be of good 
 comfort, how easily may he reply. Be it so, that Christ died for 
 all men, and so for me; yet I may perish as well as Cain and 
 Judas: if Christ made my salvation possible by his death, yet I 
 may make my damnation certain by my unbelief What will it 
 profit me, that Christ died for me, if my own treacherous unbe- 
 lieving heart shuts me out from salvation? I do not perceive, 
 that he purchased either grace or glory for me, but I am left to 
 my own free will, which I find set against divine things, and 
 bent upon what is evil; I have no absolute promises to plead, 
 no assurance that Christ procured the Holy Spirit to help such 
 as I am, or that Christ loved any man living better than thou- 
 sands, whom he left to perish in their sins; of what advantage 
 then is it to tell me, that Christ died for me and all men? If 
 Christ had been a propitiation for my unbelief, as well as my 
 other sins, I might have entertained some hope, that I should 
 have been delivered from it ; but now, though Christ died for 
 all men, I may perish in my unbelief, as inevitably as if he had 
 died for no man. 
 
204 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 This I take to be a just representation of the case; and surely 
 it is not hard to infer from what has been said, that the doctrine 
 of Christ dying for soine men, to secure them grace and glory, 
 affords more solid comfort than the pretence that he died ahke 
 for (ill, to render their salvation barely possible, but purchased 
 for them by his death neither grace nor glory, but left them to 
 shift for themselves, to get faith and preserve it, if they could, 
 or else to perish, as millions have done before them. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 1. If Christ has rendered the salvation of his people certain, 
 he must needs be a mighty and powerful Redeemer. The 
 Scripture has assured us, that " God laid help upon One who 
 is mighty," Psal. Ixxxix. 19, and the Most High is introduced 
 speaking thus, Isa. xlii. 1. 4: "Behold my servant, whom I 
 uphold; he shall not fail, nor be discouraged." It would be 
 unbecoming the wisdom and faithfulness of God, to give the 
 character of a Saviour to an insufficient person. Redemption 
 is the glory of all his works, but it would have been the dis- 
 grace of them, if he had appointed a person to redeem us, who 
 was unable to do it, and who had failed in the performance; 
 for then the chosen seed had been lost, the design of his love 
 had been disappointed, the Sun of righteousness had set in an 
 everlasting cloud of darkness, and the wisdom and truth of God 
 had sufiered an eclipse. Seeing then God has chosen Christ to 
 save men, and has proposed him as a sufficient Redeemer, we 
 may conclude he is such an one; for the infinitely wise and 
 good God would never have made choice of one, who was not 
 equal to an undertaking, upon which his honour and man's 
 happiness so much depended. 
 
 We cannot doubt of Christ's ability to save, if we consider 
 his person and qualifications. In his person he is God-man, 
 God manifested in the flesh; all the perfections of God, and 
 all the capacities of man meet in him. Hence he was capable 
 of obedience and sufferings as man, and of bearing the weight 
 of vengeance, as his divine power supported the human nature. 
 As man he could be humbled, crucified, and buried; as God he 
 could raise himself from the dead, fill all things, convert the 
 elect, confound the wicked, triumph over Satan, and bring many 
 sons to glory. The church is taught to place her confidence in 
 this, that her Saviour is God; not a made God, but the Lord 
 Jehovah: hence she could say, Isa. xii. 2, " I will trust and not 
 be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is become my strength, and my 
 song." If the eternal God cannot be a refuge, and if his ever- 
 lasting arms cannot uphold us, who shall ? where is salvation to 
 be had, if not in him " in whom dwells all the fulness of the 
 Godhead bodily, and who has all power in heaven and earth? 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 205 
 
 When Christ's human nature was formed in the womb of the 
 virgin, " the power of the Highest overshadowed her," not only 
 so as to produce that nature in an extraordinary manner, but 
 also, so as that the Son was for ever closely united to it, from 
 the first moment wherein the humanity did exist. Viewing the 
 Redeemer in this light, we may well conclude that he is mighty 
 to save. It is therefore very good advice which is given us, 
 to " trust in the Lord for ever," Isa. xxvi. 4, " for in the Lord 
 Jehovah there is everlasting strength." We may say of our 
 Saviour, as Job once said. Job xlii. 2, " I know that thou canst 
 do every thing:" he can do every thing consistent with the glory 
 of God, and the counsels of his will. 
 
 Christ fulfilled the law, suffered its curse, proved his divine 
 mission by miracles, and manifested his Deity in his resurrec- 
 tion : " he made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting 
 righteousness," enlightened many dark minds, bowed many 
 stubborn wills, sanctified many impure minds, gave them first 
 grace, and then glory. Christ even when he was suffering in 
 weakriess, seemed to yield to the malice of his enemies, and 
 was dying under his Father's vengeance; yet to make it evi- 
 dent, that he was able to save, put forth an act of his almighty 
 power upon the heart of one who was dying with him, and first 
 made him " willing in the day of his power," and then carried 
 him up to his celestial palace. " This day," said he to the con- 
 verted thief, " shalt thou be with me in paradise," Luke xxiii. 
 43. The consideration of the time, place, and circumstances of 
 this conversion, tends much to illustrate Christ's saving power. 
 Satan was now gaping upon the prey, just ready to devour the 
 poor thief, who was dying in all his guilt and wickedness: one 
 Evangelist tells us, " That they that were crucified with Christ 
 reviled him," Mark xv. 32, though another says, "that one of 
 the malefactors railed on him, but the other rebuked him," 
 Luke xxiii. 39, 40. These two accounts may be thus reconciled: 
 when the malefactors were first nailed to the cross, they both 
 of them spit out the venom of their wicked hearts against Christ; 
 but in a little time, one of them began to relent: he felt a divine 
 power from the dying Jesus coming upon him, which opened 
 his eyes, changed his heart, caused him to rebuke his fellow- 
 sufferer, to pray to his dying Saviour, and to believe and own 
 his sovereignty and kingdom; and that when both the Saviour 
 and the saved were in the agonies of death; this was a wonder- 
 ful instance and evidence of Christ's saving power. Whilst 
 Christ was in this world, the winds and the seas obeyed him; 
 his enemies fell at his feet, and licked the dust when he pleased; 
 the devils fled before him; many believed in him, to the saving 
 of their souls: all which makes it very plain and evident, that 
 Clirist was mighty to save, a sufficient Saviour. 
 
 Christ invites all the weary and heavy laden to come to him 
 
206 or PARTICULAU REDEaiPTION. 
 
 for rest ; which shows his ability to save all such as come to 
 God by him. Was there any guilt which a redeemed soul could 
 contract, any power of sin in such an one, which Christ could 
 not expiate and subdue, his invitation would be all delusion. 
 It is necessarily implied, and supposed in the invitation, that 
 Christ is able to save every soul that is enabled to comply with 
 it. Christ's ability to save is abundantly declared in the Scrip- 
 tures : " Is my hand," says Christ, " shortened at all, that it 
 cannot redeem; or have I no power to deliver?" Isa. 1. 4; " who 
 will contend with me ? let us stand together," ver. 8, 9. There 
 is no opposing the Redeemer; "he takes away the captives of 
 the mighty, and the prey of the terrible, for the Saviour is the 
 mighty One of Jacob," Isa. xlix. 24, 25. Satan, the prince of 
 this world is spoiled, judged, and cast out. Col. ii. 15, John xvi. 
 11, xii. 31. "The handwriting that was against us, which was 
 contrary to us," Col. ii. 14, Gal. iii. 13, "is taken away, Christ 
 hath nailed it to his cross; he redeemed his people from the 
 curse of the law, being made a curse for them : he has abolished 
 death, and swallowed it up in victory, and brought life and im- 
 mortality to hght," 2 Tim. i. 10; "he is the life, the eternal hfe; 
 his people reign in life by him," 1 Cor. xv. 54; hence dealh and 
 hell are said to be cast into the lake of fire. Rev. xx. 14. Christ 
 saves all the redeemed from death and misery. The Scriptures 
 declare, "that there is salvation in no other," Acts iv. 12; "he 
 is God's salvation to the end of the earth," Isa. xlix. 6 ; which 
 shows Christ to be a powerful Redeemer indeed. The promises 
 are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus; they are all confirmed by 
 him: the promised grace and glory are purchased, and shall be 
 applied by him ; and therefore he is a mighty Saviour. 
 
 It is easy to cite a great number of particular promises rela- 
 ting to the several parts of our salvation; but I shall content 
 myself with one or two, wherein the Holy Ghost has summed 
 up all the rest : " This is the promise that he hath promised us, 
 even eternal life : this is the record that God has given us eter- 
 nal life; and this life is in his Son," 1 John ii. 25, v. 11. But 
 in vain were such comprehensive promises made, if Christ was 
 not able to fulfil and make them good. God has promised that 
 " Israel shall be saved in the Lord, with an everlasting salva- 
 tion, Isa. xlv. 17. Christ, then, is not only able to repulse the 
 enemy once for a little time, but to secure his redeemed for ever; 
 so as " the enemy shall no more exact upon him," Psal. Ixxxix. 
 22, or pluck them out of his hand. 
 
 Christ's sufliciency for the work of redemption, appears from 
 the dignity to which he is raised in the celestial world. There 
 he is a prevailing intercessor with God. Some might be apt to 
 think this to be an argument of weakness, but in Scripture it is 
 produced as a proof of Christ's ability to save: " Wherefore he 
 is able to save them, to the uttermost, that come to God by him, 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 207 
 
 seeing he ever lives (in heaven) to make intercession for them," 
 Heb, vii. 25. Christ's intercession shows him to be an able 
 Saviour; for the Father would never have admitted him to plead 
 his merits in heaven, if he had not paid a full price of redemp- 
 tion on earth: his plea is not as a supplicant for mercy, but he 
 pleads law and justice : and therefore says peremptorily, " Fa- 
 ther, / loill, that those whom thou hast given me, should be 
 with me, to behold my glory," John xvii. 20. He well knew 
 that his sacrifice would support his claim ; and his life in hea- 
 ven is a glorious evidence of his saving power: so that every 
 Christian may, with Job, rejoice in this, " that his Redeemer 
 hveth," Job xix. 25. This shows that he has satisfied justice, 
 conquered death, and is able to save us by his life : the same 
 power by which he rose from the dead, and ascended up into 
 glory, is suflicient to " raise us up together with him, and make 
 us sit together with him in the heavenly mansions, which he is 
 gone to prepare for his people," John xiv. 2. Christ taught 
 his people to build a certain expectation of their eternal life 
 upon his, when he said, "Because I live, ye shall live also," 
 John xiv. 19. He who is our advocate perfectly understands 
 every case, which he undertakes to plead : he is always heard, 
 because he pleads a merit which is always acceptable to his 
 Father ; and he pleads for a happiness which is entirely agree- 
 able to the Father's purpose and promise : they therefore can- 
 not miss of salvation, who have such an advocate before the 
 throne. He n«ver intercedes in vain; God gives him his heart's 
 desire, and withholds not the request of his lips: he prayed for 
 Peter, that his faith might not fail, and the effect followed: 
 he was recovered from his sad fall, and enabled to strengthen 
 his brethren. Thus the life of Jesus is made manifest in our 
 mortal bodies; we are as dying, and yet behold we live, because 
 Christ ever hves in heaven, to make intercession for us, and so 
 is able to save us to the uttermost from all sin and misery, and 
 that for ever. In the gospel-glass, we may see " Jesus crowned 
 with glory and honour," Heb. ii. 9, which is a convincing evi- 
 dence, that he has procured eternal salvation for us. It is not 
 once to be thought that God would have given such honours 
 to an imperfect insufficient Saviour: to what purpose should 
 God have set him over the works of his hands, who was not 
 able to govern and over-rule them all to his own ends? or why 
 should the redeemed ascribe to him " glory and honour," Rev. 
 V. 9, as redeeming them to God by his blood, if he had failed 
 in that work, and had not procured for them " a crown of glory 
 that fades not away?" Why was the gospel proclaimed, and 
 the converting or comforting Spirit sent down from heaven? 
 why were all the angels of God required to "worship the 
 Saviour, and minister to the heirs of salvation," if the Saviour 
 was impotent, and the salvation of the redeemed either imper- 
 
208 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 feet or uncertain ? If Christ failed in the purchase, why was 
 "he exalted to give repentance and remission of sins?" Acts 
 V. 31, for surely, he that is able to do this must be able to save 
 to the uttermost. 
 
 In the great day, Christ will raise up all given him by the 
 Father, without letting any be lost or wanting, John vi. 39. 
 Jude ver. 24, saying to his Father, " Here am I, and the chil- 
 dren whom thou hast given me ; a glorious church, having nei- 
 ther spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing," Heb. ii. 13, Eph. v. 
 27; this will be done with exceeding joy, both on the part of the 
 Father who chose them, the Son who redeemed them, the Holy 
 Spirit who sanctified them, ministers who espoused them to 
 Christ, and on the part of the redeemed, who enjoy this glorious 
 salvation. Christ's ability to save, will appear in the clearest 
 light in that day, when " he shall come to be glorified in the 
 saints, and admired in all them that believe," 1 Thess. i. 20. 
 If we believe the scripture account of these things, there will be 
 no room to question Christ's power to "save. Even such as 
 make light of it now, the last day will reveal it, " when Christ 
 shall appear the second time, without sin unto salvation," 
 Heb. ix. 28, all sin being expelled out of the redeemed, and all 
 sorrows removed from them, their bodies being the glorious 
 mansions of more glorious souls, all the saints being joined to 
 Christ, that infinitely more glorious head, good angels adoring 
 the Saviour, and admiring the salvation, and evil angels and 
 men lying under the feet of his vengeance, filled with shame, 
 horror, and eternal confusion. Now, we see through a glass 
 but darkly, but then the Saviour will appear in all the glory of 
 his saving power. 
 
 2. Such as are redeemed, may with admiration think on an 
 all-aufficient Redeemer, being appointed to undertake their 
 cause ; for herein regard was had to man's impotency and mise- 
 ry. God had tried the strength of man: when Adam was in the 
 state of innocence the head of mankind, and the trustee of their 
 felicity, he soon fell, and ruined himself and his posterity: there- 
 fore it was not fit to intrust our happiness in such a hand again, 
 much less in the hand of a sinful creature. God saw it needful 
 to appoint his own Son to be our Saviour; he well knew his 
 wisdom, power, faithfulness and immutability, his love to his 
 glory, and to the happiness of man : he laid him as a sure foun- 
 dation, a tried corner-stone, able to bear the weight of the whole 
 building. No less a person could either satisfy for sin, or turn 
 a soul from it, raise a body from the grave, or conduct a soul 
 to glory: "no man can redeem his brother, or give to God a 
 ransom for his soul;" nor was it in the power of the chosen 
 seed to deliver themselves from the tyranny of Satan, or the 
 miseries of the present state. Such a Saviour as Christ was 
 therefore necessary for us: God suited the remedy to the dis- 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 209 
 
 ease; the strength of the Saviour to the weakness and misery of 
 the sinner: Such an High-pi-iest became us,\vn.s fit and suita- 
 ble for us ; impotent and miserable sinners stood in need of a 
 strong and merciful Saviour. 
 
 God would have his chosen not barely redeemed from hell, 
 and brought to heaven; but he would have it done in such a 
 way, as should be most to his own and his Son's honour. The 
 apostle speaks of salvation in Chi^ist, with eternal glory^ 
 2 Tim. ii. 10, not barely salvation, but a glorious salvation: a 
 salvation which shall be to the honour of him that contrived it, 
 of him that purchased it, of him that applied it, and of them 
 who enjoy it. Concerning our Saviour, it is said, " his glory is 
 great in thy salvation; honour and majesty hast thou laid upon 
 him," Psal. xxi. 5. When Christ was going to sutler, he there- 
 fore put up such a prayer as this : " Father, the hour is come, 
 glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee," John xvii. 
 1. God provided a mighty Saviour, who was able to retrieve 
 the honour which the first Adam had lost ; he came short of the 
 glory of God, but Christ in all things acted to his own and his 
 Father's glory, both before he died, and since. He was ushered 
 into the world with the songs of angels, resounding, " Glory to 
 God in the highest," Luke ii. 14; and he went out of the world 
 into a state of heavenly glory, where the Father and Son are 
 continually praised for this wonderful salvation : for which rea- 
 son, among others, heaven may be spoken of as a state of eter- 
 nal glory. 
 
 God resolved in saving men, to destroy sin, and to vanquish 
 Satan. This was a work too great to have been accomplished 
 by any other than one who is almighty. It required the wisdom 
 and power of a God to make an end of sin, and destroy Satan ; 
 to turn him out of his throne, and to cast his infection out of the 
 soul. Satan was strongly fortified, deeply entrenched in the 
 heart of man ; he was a vigilant and subtle ruler, and not easily 
 expelled ; he batiled Adam in his state of integrity, and gained 
 the throne when he had no friends in the soul beforehand ; how 
 then should a fallen creature be able to turn him out, when a 
 holy creature could not keep him out ? how could human power 
 destroy sin, when it could not prevent its entrance into the heart, 
 and its infecting our whole nature ? It was necessary therefore, 
 that this work should be undertaken by one who was infinite in 
 wisdom and power, and so able to accomplish it. Christ there- 
 fore comes forth, " walking in the greatness of his strength, 
 mighty to save." 
 
 God exercised his infinite love to his chosen, by committing 
 the care of their salvation to Christ. He well knew all the de- 
 signs of his love were secured by this. The kindness of God 
 appeared in this, that the Saviour whom he appointed, was no 
 weak one, but able to save to the uttermost : his power, grace, 
 
 27 
 
210 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 wisdom and merit were all infinite; and therefore poor timorous 
 Christians may safely commit tlieir souls to him, in a way of 
 reliance without being afraid. " In his love and in his pity, 
 God sav.ed his people, and carried them all the days of old;" 
 and thus he deals with them, at all times, and in the present 
 time. We have a wonderful instance of God's love to his 
 chosen, in his giving his only begotten Son for them. Salvation 
 is not straitened in him; the divine love dilates itself in unmea- 
 surable dimensions, in raising up for us such a horn of salvation 
 as Christ is; the mighty God is the prince of peace. A Chris- 
 tian can be in no distress, which the mighty Saviour is not able 
 to free him from. Every believer may say, in the highest sense, 
 as Hezekiah did in a lower case, " I had great bitterness, but 
 thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of cor- 
 ruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Isa. 
 xxxviii. 17. In Christ the mighty Saviour, all the kind inten- 
 tions of divine love are accomplished, and therefore God from 
 the beginning chose us in Christ, that we should be " without 
 blame before him, in love." Eph. i. 4. 
 
 3. How great is the folh/ and misery of all those, who seek 
 to any otiier but Christ to save them? All the herd of idolaters 
 " fly to a refuge of lies, and pray to a God that cannot save 
 them," Isa. xlv. 20. In what confusion will they be, who 
 have neglected the mighty Saviour, and his great salvation, 
 when God shall say to them, " Where are your gods which you 
 have made you? let them arise, if they can save you, in the 
 time of your trouble," Jer. ii. 28. Some say to the works of 
 their own hands, that they are their gods; and no wonder, if 
 when they have exalted a created thing into a god, they de- 
 grade God the Saviour into a creature: they see no need of 
 an infinite fund of power or merit in a Saviour, who are so 
 full in themselves; but to all the rout of pagan, Romish, and 
 Arian idolaters, those words of God may be appUed, " Behold 
 all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with 
 sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that 
 ye have kindled ; this shall ye have at my hand, ye shall lie 
 down in sorrow," Isa. 1. 11. They who slight the mighty 
 Saviour, spoken of in the former part of the chapter, and set 
 up gods and saviours of their own, will meet with eternal sorrow 
 and anguish in the end, when they lie down in the grave, and 
 make their bed in hell. How will it rend their hearts witli 
 a thousand agonies, when they shall be forced to say, "The 
 harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved," 
 Jer. viii. 19,20, the reason of which is premised; "they have 
 provoked me to anger with their graven images, with strange 
 vanities." Is not this the case of such as set up a saviour, 
 who is neither a god nor a creature, as well as of those who 
 worship images, or trust to their own good works to save them? 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 211 
 
 4. How acceptable should the Gospel be, both to them that 
 preach it, and to them that hear it: Every minister who loves 
 the glory of God, and the happiness of men, may be very glad 
 that he has such a message to bring to the people as the angel 
 had, when he said, " Fear not, for behold I bring you good 
 tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for to you is 
 born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord;" Luke ii. 
 10, 11; — a mighty Saviour, an all-sufficient Saviour, who is 
 able to deliver all who come to God by him, from sin and 
 Satan, death and hell. " How beautiful should the feet of 
 those be that publish salvation, and say to Zion, thy God 
 reigneth;" Isa. lii. 7. We have lived to see the message and 
 messengers treated with contempt. What Paul says, 1 Tim. 
 V. 15, is a faithful say ins;, and ivorthy of all acceptation, 
 some think is not worth their hearing. A Saviour who pursues 
 the designs of distinguishing unchangeable love, and effectually 
 saves all the redeemed, is despised and rejected, but without 
 reason, and at the peril of such as do it; for the despisers must 
 wonder and perish ; but the voice of rejoicing and salvation is 
 in the tabernacles of the righteous; because the right hand of 
 the Lord doth valiantly:" when ministers are clothed with 
 salvation, the saints should shout aloud for joy. 
 
 5. Has Christ rendered certain the salvation of his people; 
 what pleasure and delight may they take in him! Whatever 
 troubles they have in the world, Christ says to them, " Be of 
 good cheer, I have overcome the world," John xvi. 33. Have 
 we strong enemies to fight against us? we have a stronger Sa- 
 viour to fight for us; Satan and the world are conquered ene- 
 mies, and the weakest believer shall come off " more than a 
 conqueror, through him that loved him," Rom. viii. 37. Doth 
 our heinous guilt cry strongly against us for condemnation? 
 the Christian should comfort himself in this, that the blood of 
 Christ cries louder in the ears of God for pardon and forgive- 
 ness. A believer has abundant reason to rejoice in God his 
 Saviour, not only because there is no other, but also because 
 there is nothing wanting in him. In him there is wisdom for 
 the weak, righteousness for the soul that is ashamed of its own 
 nakedness, sanctificatlon for the polluted, and redemption for 
 those who are waiting for the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God. With what delight then may the believer sit under the 
 shadow, and how sweet may the fruits of this mighty Saviour 
 be unto him! 
 
 With what joy might we draw water out of the wells of sal- 
 vation ; what comfort might we receive from the mighty Sa- 
 viour, could we but live upon him by faith ! When the roaring 
 lion utters his voice, when the world rages, when within are 
 fears, and without are fightings, yet what rest and peace might 
 we have in Christ, could we but know whom we have believed, 
 
212 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 and be " persuaded that he is able to keep what we have com- 
 mitted to his trust, against the great day!" 2 Tim. i. 12, Ciirist 
 wants no power or will to secure the souls and the salvation of 
 such as by faith commit themselves to him; he is the consola- 
 tion of Israel, Luke ii. 25, and the Holy Spirit is the comforter 
 of the faithful: he takes of the things of Christ, and comforts 
 the Christian with them. 
 
 When the poor Christian is ready to sink under the burden 
 of the body of sin, he may take comfort in that deliverance 
 from it, which he shall shortly receive from the hand of Christ. 
 Wlien the weak believer is dismayed with fears, lest the ene- 
 mies of his salvation should overcome and ruin him; this may 
 quiet him, that all the powers of darkness shall never be able 
 to pluck one lamb out of Christ's bosom, nor the most feeble 
 sheep out of his almighty hand, John x. 28. 
 
 When fear and horror shall seize all the Christless world, at 
 Christ's second coming, the faithful shall lift up their heads 
 with joy, because their mighty Redeemer then comes to com- 
 plete their salvation. In the mean time, the Christian may take 
 comfort in this, that though there are many changes and disap- 
 pointments in the world, yet Christ is ever the same ; and may 
 say, blessed be God, for blessing me with all spiritual blessings 
 in Christ, that in him the heirs of promise might have strong 
 consolation. All things in this world will shortly fail us, or 
 we must leave them; but here is the comfort to the Christian, 
 that his Redeemer lives: though the heavens and earth shall 
 perish, yet Christ is the same ; the same in power, merit, wis- 
 dom, grace, and glory; and these shall have no end, no change. 
 We have no reason to call in question the compassion of 
 Christ's heart, or the power of his hands : that is a most com- 
 fortable promise concerning Christ, which is in Micah's pro- 
 phecy; " He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, 
 in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God: and they 
 shall abide; for now shall he be great to the ends of the earth," 
 Micah V. 4. In Christ there is infinite everlasting strength to 
 overcome all his people's enemies, to remove all their dilHcul- 
 ties, and supply all their wants; the redeemed people therefore 
 shall abide, the gates of hell shall not prevail against them ; for 
 their Saviour is great, and shall be so to the ends of the earth; 
 he shall have a growing and a lasting kingdom. 
 
 Let us then, v/hen dejections and fears prevail, fix our 
 thoughts upon such scriptures as set forth the power and 
 grace of Christ; of which this is one: " The Lord thy God in 
 the midst of thee is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over 
 thee with joy, he will rest in his love," Zeph. iii. 17. If there 
 be no loveliness in us, yet he will take satisfaction in showing 
 love to us, in saving his poor distressed people: his love is not 
 confined within such narrow limits as ours, nor does he want 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 213 
 
 wisdom or power to enable him to do whatever his love in- 
 clines him to do for our good. 
 
 6. What reason have believers to cast all their care upon 
 Christ, depending upon his ability to save them! Every true 
 Christian may say, if Christ's blood is not sufficient to cleanse 
 away my guilt, or his wisdom and power great enough to chase 
 away mine enemies, or his love strong enough to do both for 
 me, then I am content to perish; but I know he can, and he 
 will keep what I have committed to his trust: I have reason to 
 trust him; our fathers did it, and they were delivered: I am 
 directed to cast my burden upon him, and he has promised to 
 sustain me; "Trust in the Lord for ever," says the prophet, 
 Isa. xxvi. 4, and he gave a good reason for it; " for in the Lord 
 Jehovah there is everlasting strength." 
 
 In our passage through this world to the heavenly Canaan, 
 the church is represented " as going up, leaning upon her 
 beloved," Cant. viii. 5. Here is our rest, here is our safety; 
 our strength consists in our dependence upon the strong and 
 mighty Saviour; "we are strong in the Lord, and in the power 
 of his might." Let us then make this use of Christ's strength, 
 ability to save, even to trust in him, resigning ourselves to him, 
 and depending upon him; to do in us, with us, and for us what 
 ever may be for his glory and our salvation. Paul in his con- 
 flict fled to Christ, and found present help : he said to him, " My 
 grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weak- 
 ness," 2 Cor, xii. 9. The less strength the Christian has, the 
 more Christ will exert his power. 
 
 7. How inexcusable will unbelievers be another day ! Christ 
 is a most suitable engaging object of faith: what is there in him 
 to create a distrust? what is there not in him that may encourage 
 a dependence? He has all the qualifications necessary to enable 
 him to save his friends, and destroy their enemies; there is no 
 want of wisdom, grace, merit, or power in him; he is most 
 inviolably faithful in his engagements, and in all his declara- 
 tions. There is, therefore, good reason to believe the scripture 
 account of him, to rest and rely by faith upon him; and they 
 who refuse to do it, where the gospel comes, will aggravate 
 their condemnation thereby. It is true, they could not believe 
 of themselves; but it is as true, that they of themselves put forth 
 positive acts of distrust of Christ, think him to be false, and 
 reckon salvation a fiction. 
 
 8. How dear and precious should Christ be to all Christians ! 
 He has done great things for us, he is doing great things for us, 
 and he will yet do greater things for us. How should we 
 endeavour to exalt him, to magnify him, both in life and death. 
 The mighty Saviour can never be too highly esteemed, or too 
 highly extolled by us. God has said, he shall be exalted, and 
 be very high: let us then grow in our esteem of himj he is fairer 
 
214 OF PARTICrLAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 than the sons of men. The Saviour and his salvation Avill 
 appear glorious when all the glory of the world will be turned 
 into darkness and horror; and when Christ appears, the saints 
 shall appear with him in glory: this thought should raise our 
 affections, and inflame our love to Christ. Every redeemed 
 soul should say, " My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit 
 rejoices in God my Saviour: he is my Lord, and I will exalt 
 him; he is the chiefest often thousand, and altogether lovely:" 
 he fulfils the Father's decrees, glorifies all the divine perfec- 
 tions, destroys all God's implacable enemies, and brings all the 
 chosen seed to glory; not one shall be wanting, nor the least 
 spot or imperfection shall be found in any of them. How glo- 
 rious is Christ in this appearance; the object of the Father's 
 love, and therefore he deserves ours. Let us love the Lord 
 then, let him be very dear to our souls, who is thus " glorious in 
 his apparel, walking in the greatness of his strength, mighty to 
 save." 
 
 9. We may learn what a gloynous church the great Saviour 
 will have, when all the saints are gathered together in one. The 
 general assembly and church of the first-born will make no 
 mean appearance in the great day. If three thousand were 
 added to the church in one day, and multitudes soon after, what 
 a vast congregation will all the saved make, when they meet 
 together at Christ's right hand ! It will then be seen that he 
 did not labour in vain, and die for nought: the redeemed will 
 appear to be a " number, that no man can number, out of all 
 tongues, kindreds, and nations;" which will be a full evidence, 
 that our Redeemer has not left the salvation of his people 
 uncertain. 
 
 10. What reason have all the redeemed to admire and honour 
 the sovereign savmg grace of God and Christ! Peter said thus 
 to the Christians to whom he wrote, " Ye are a chosen nation, 
 a peculiar people, that ye should show forth his praise, who 
 hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light," 
 1 Pet. ii. 9. A Christian may say, How is it. Lord, that thou 
 shouldest love and redeem me, give thyself ibr me, and then 
 reveal thyself to me, pour out thy blood upon the cross, and 
 pour out thy Spirit into the heart of such a worthless worm as 
 I? Lord, why did not I as well as others, receive the just 
 wages of my sins? why did my Saviour pay my debt, when so 
 many others, fallen angels and men, must be paying theirs for 
 ever? glorious, sovereign, distinguishing grace! not to me, 
 not to me, but to thy name be all the glory: peculiar love calls 
 for special thankfulness. I thank thee, Father, Lord of 
 heaven and earth, that whilst this salvation is hid from others, 
 it is revealed to me; and that I have been enabled to receive 
 the atonement, and to joy in thee through Jesus Christ my 
 Lord. This is a thank- ottering which becomes all the redeemed. 
 
OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 215 
 
 but it will be done infinitely better, when the saints come to 
 sing the song of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem, according to 
 this model of it: "Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and 
 hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, 
 tongue, people, and nation," Rev. v. 9. Those who stand with 
 Christ upon " mount Sion, having his Father's name written 
 on their foreheads," Rev. xiv. 1. 5, who are redeemed from the 
 earth, should often sing that song, which none but they can 
 learn, '•' who are the redeemed from among men, and are the 
 first-fruits to God, and to the Lamb." But not only good 
 words and good affections are to be given to their God and 
 Saviour, but the redeemed peculiar people ought to be zealous 
 of good works. Those who are bought with such an invaluable 
 price as Christ's blood, ought to glorify him in their bodies and 
 spirits: his love, as well as his authority and right, should "con- 
 strain us not to live to ourselves, but to him that died for us, 
 and rose again," 
 
 11. What encouragement is there for us to wait for salvatio7i 
 by Christ, to lie at his feet, and hope in his mercy ? The saved 
 are a numberless number, sinners of all ages, sizes, and circum- 
 stances: the Saviour set forth in the gospel, is able to save to 
 the uttermost all luho come to God by him. Those who are 
 left to their own wills perish; God works a work which they 
 in no wise believe: they will not come to Christ that they may 
 have life; but those committed to the care of Christ shall come; 
 he makes them willing in the day of his power, by his word 
 and Spirit, and the pastoral rod of his strength. It is good then 
 to wait at wisdom's gates ; for such as Jind Christ, find life. 
 There is encouragement to hope for mercy, if we wait for it, in 
 the way which Christ has prescribed: he has said, " Seek, and 
 ye shall find; search the Scriptures, they testify of me; come 
 to me all ye that are weary, and I will give you rest." The 
 Psalmist uses an argument which is grown much stronger since 
 his time: "our fathers trusted in thee, and they were deliver- 
 ed," Psal. xxii. 4. We may say not only the patriarchs and 
 prophets, but the apostles, the primitive church, and multitudes 
 down to this present time, have trusted in Christ, and have been 
 saved by him; therefore " it is good for us to wait and hope for 
 the salvation of the Lord." It is our business to prove our 
 election and redemption by our effectual calling. If we believe, 
 we shall be saved; if we never do, then there is no salvation for 
 us. It is a great encouragement that there is a Saviour, infinite 
 in grace and merit, who will give the water of life freely, to 
 every one that thirsts; and we have as fair an opportunity as 
 thousands before us, who ventured their souls on Christ, and 
 were kindly received by him. 
 
 12. Let us not sink under the greatest discouragements 
 which we meet with in the course of providence. Valuable 
 
216 OF PARTICULAR REDEMPTION. 
 
 and useful instruments are taken away, or laid aside : faithful 
 and able ministers die; but Christ lives still; and blessed be the 
 Rock of our salvation. Christ is mighty to save; and with him 
 is the residue of the Spirit : it is he that made those who are 
 gone what they were; and he can give the same Spirit and 
 gifts to others, or work the same effects, by less able and likely 
 means. We should then cry to the Lord God of Elijah, to pour 
 out more of his Spirit on his ministers and people, that salva- 
 tion work may be carried on, not by human might and power, 
 but by the Spirit of the Lord. Christ has promised to be with 
 his ministers and people to the end of the world, if they teach 
 and do what he has commanded, Mat. xxviii. 20. Let us then, 
 in his own way, depend upon his promise, and wait for his 
 blessing, who " walks in the greatness of his strength, and is 
 mighty to save; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem 
 us from all iniquity, and purify us to himself a peculiar people, 
 zealous of good works." 
 
 Now to him that is able to keep us from falling, and to 
 present us faultless before the presence of his glory, to our 
 exceeding joy; to the only wise God, our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both 
 now and for ever. Amen. 
 
THE DOCTRINE 
 
 CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS OPENED: 
 
 IN THREE SERMONS. 
 
 By MR. THOMAS BRADBURY, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Romans viii. 32. — He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. 
 
 These words bear a full proportion to the design for which I 
 have taken them; that is, they show us the sufferings of 
 Christ, in their reality, and their imputation: that Messiah 
 the Prince is come, that he was cut off, but not for himself, 
 Dan. ix. 26; that he suffered, the just for the unjust, to bring 
 us to God, 1 Pet. iii. 18; he finished transgression, made an 
 end of sin; he put it aioay, by the offering of himself; he 
 made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in an everlast- 
 ing righteousness. Dan. ix. 24. 
 
 As the doctrine of the cross is the glory of our religion, it is 
 the foundation of all our hope: the apostle brings it in with a 
 connexion, for, saith he in the former verse, " If God be for 
 us, who can be against us?" The consequent is inseparable, 
 the argument invincible, and therefore his care is to let it be 
 seen that the antecedent is true; to which purpose he offers the 
 text in evidence : " He that spared not his own Son, but gave 
 him up for us all ; how shall he not with him freely give us all 
 things?" 
 
 He had before observed, " That all things shall work together 
 for our good," Rom. viii. 28, and now that all things shall be 
 given ill as our property. According to what he says in an- 
 other place, "All things are yours; whether Paul or Apollos, or 
 Cephas, life or death, things present, or things to come, all is 
 yours," 1 Cor. iii. 22. The promise takes a large compass; as 
 to the matter of our enjoyment, it reaches to all things; as to 
 the way of it, it is given freely; he does it liberally, and up- 
 hraideth not, James i. 5; so that we are not straitened in God, 
 either as to the work of his hand, or the design of his heart. 
 As he is a "sun and shield, as he gives grace and glory, so 
 
 28 217 
 
218 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 he withholds no good thing from those that walk uprightly," 
 Psal. Ixxxiv. 11. 
 
 And we are assured of what he ivill do, by what he has 
 done. If there is any thing that he would have grudged, or 
 held back, it must have been the very mercy that he has be- 
 stowed already: but it is doing as much as can be, to give us 
 his oum Son; and it is impossible that any future grant should 
 go higher; we may look upon what is past as a pledge of what 
 is to come. 
 
 The doctrine of the text is, " That God spared not his own 
 Son, but gave him up for us all ;" and the application we are 
 allowed to make of it is as great and happy, as the truth itself 
 dear and certain, that " he will with him freely give us all 
 things." 
 
 It is the former of these that I would now consider; and 
 cannot think upon any better way of doing it for expedition 
 and plainness, than by making the parts of the text to be the 
 plan of the sermon. 
 
 You find the apostle is speaking of the most high God, that 
 he is for us : as David says, " The Lord is on my side, I will 
 not fear what man can do unto me," Psal. cxviii. 6; it is the 
 argument that Christ himself has used, "The Lord God will 
 help me, therefore I shall not be confounded: he is near that 
 justifies me: who is he that will condemn me?" Isa. 1.. S, 9. 
 And thus the apostle concludes, that it signifies very little who 
 is against us, seeing God is for us. Now, this he proves, from 
 what he has done already. 
 
 1. He appointed his oivn So7i to be the trustee, the security, 
 the price and assurance of our salvation. 
 
 2. This he did to that extremity, as 7iof io spare him from 
 any torments that human nature was able to endure. 
 
 3. To all these sufferings there was a divine order: he deliV' 
 ered him up. 
 
 4. This was for us all, in our room and stead; he was pun- 
 ished, that we might have a way to escape; and therefore he 
 might say to divine justice, as he did to those that apprehended 
 him, " If ye seek me, let those go their way." John xviii. 8. 
 
 These are the plain and easy contents of the words, and they 
 amount to this proposition, that 
 
 "All the troubles that Christ endured were, by a divine 
 appointment, in the room of his people." 
 
 The blow which they deserved, fell upon him: it was thus 
 ordained, it was thus received. " He was wounded for our 
 transgressions: he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastise- 
 ment of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are 
 healed." Isa. liii. 5. What manner of love is this; to give us 
 so great a Person, as God's own Son? To do it in so dear a 
 way, as not to spare him; and that with so kind a view, that 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 219 
 
 it should not only be to us, but for us: these are things that 
 deserve to be taken apart. 
 
 I. I begin with the dignity of the gift, the thing, the Person 
 that God bestowed, and that was his own Son. He is so called, 
 1. By way of distinction from others. 2. By way of eminence 
 in himself. 
 
 \st. It is a distinguishing title; you vvill find the name scat- 
 tered abroad, as the whole family, both in heaven and earth, 
 are called after him. 
 
 (I.) By creation we are all the children of God: " He has 
 made us, and not we ourselves: we are the work of his hands, 
 and the sheep of his pasture," Psal. c. 3. There is " one God 
 our Father, of whom are all things, and we of him," 1 Cor. viii. 
 6. Tins is the doctrine of nature; the apostle spoke of it with 
 an approbation at Athens, " as one of your own poets have said, 
 We are his offspring," Acts xvii. 28. 
 
 (2.) Angels possess, the name with a dignity above us, as they 
 had an existence before us; for when he laid out the partition 
 between the earth and water, when he set a compass upon the 
 face of the deep, " the morning stars sang together, and all the 
 sons of God shouted for joy." Job xxxviii. 7. 
 
 (3.) He has sometimes bestowed the name upon magistratesy 
 principalities, and powers: "I have said ye are gods, and all 
 of you children of the Most High," Psal. Ixxxii. 6, but very 
 often we find, among the basest of men, Dan. iv. 17, those whom 
 he sets over the kingdoms of the earth, where it cannot signify 
 any thing that is either great or good. 
 
 (4.) He gave the title to the Jews, and did it by way of dis- 
 tinction : thus he directs Moses to tell Pharaoh ; " Israel is my 
 son, and my first-born ; let my son go that he may serve me :" 
 thus he upbraids them, when they proved a "foolish people, and 
 unwise, and very ill requited the Lord, who was their Father 
 that had bought them," Deut. xxxii. 6, that is, he had made and 
 established them. It is in these terms he proclaims their return; 
 *' I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born," Jer. 
 xxxi. 9. Nor was this a new thing in the earth; for ^efore the 
 flood he was pleased, in that very way, to separate one part 
 of the world from the other : as we are told, The sons of God, 
 the race that called upon the name of the Lord, saw the daugh- 
 ters of me)), by which they defied their separation, Gen. vi. 2. 
 
 (5.) He has children by sa;7c/i^c«Y/o«; "to them he gives 
 power or authority to become the sons of God; being born not 
 of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
 of God," John i. 12, 13. These are renewed in the i?nage of 
 him, who created them: he is a witness to the work of which he 
 is the author, that they are " children and lieirs of God," Rom. 
 viii. 16, 17. With this principle he tries them, and by that he 
 owns them, saying, " Touch no unclean thing, and I will be a 
 
220 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the 
 Lord God Almighty," 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. 
 
 (6) He bestows the title upon them by way of adoption. " In 
 the place where it was said to them, ye are not my people, there 
 they shall be called the children of the living God," Hos. i. 10. 
 Rom. ix. 25, 26. " We are predestinated to the adoption of sons 
 by Jesus Christ; and the spirit of adoption in our hearts is to 
 make us cry, Abba, Father," Eph, i. 5, Rom. viii. 15. 
 
 (7.) With this name they are carried up to heaven: He brings 
 "many sons to glory," Heb. ii. 10. Upon this head, " Christ 
 and the Father are one," John x. 30, they both speak the same 
 language. It is proclaimed upon the saints' arrival there, " he 
 that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be a God to 
 him, and he shall be my son," Rev. xxi. 7. Thus he speaks of 
 the whole number, " Behold, here am I, and the children whom 
 God has given me," Heb. ii. 13. 
 
 With this variety is the name diffused and distributed quite 
 through the Bible : but there is never any danger of misapply- 
 ing it; for the term, his own Son, is plainly distinguished from 
 every one of them; that belongs to none but Christ: He has, 
 indeed, a name above every name; and though the word may 
 be given about at large, yet there is a sense in it peculiar to 
 him; he has it all to himself. " Of his own will he begat us by 
 the word of truth," James i. IS, and yet he is "the only begot- 
 ten of the Father," John i. 18: though he brings many sons to 
 glory, yet, as we are told in the parable, he has only one Son, 
 and his well beloved. 
 
 2dly. When God calls him his oivn Son, it is by way of emi- 
 nence. This was the Father's decree, this was our Lord's de- 
 claration, that he said unto him, "Thou art my Son," Psal. ii. 7. 
 And the apostle looks upon it as a title that reaches above every 
 creature ; for " to which of the angels said he at any time, thou 
 art my Son; this day have I begotten thee?" Heb. i. 5. It sig- 
 nifies that in him, which it never did, and never can do, in any 
 other; and you may take it to be comprehensive of these four 
 things; 1. Equality of nature. 2. Perpetuity of delight. 3. Unity 
 of counsel. 4. Communion of glory. 
 
 1. The term, his own Son,Q,dA\ import no less than an equal- 
 ity in nature. It does so every where: "All nations of men 
 are of one blood," Acts xvii. 26. " Adam begat a son in his own 
 image, and his own likeness," Gen. v. 3, altogether such a one 
 as himself. Nature is the same in a child, as it is in the fulness 
 of stature; the measure of a perfect man in a beggar and a 
 prince, in a fool and a philosopher, in sickness or in health. It 
 is for this reason that Christ is so often called "the Son of man;" 
 he seems to use it with pleasure and frequency, that Ave may 
 understand by it, that he was really, as we are, " made of a wo- 
 iiian," Gal. iv. 4, and in all things "like unto his brethren: for- 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 221 
 
 asmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he him- 
 self likewise took part of the same," Heb. ii. 14, 17. 
 
 And if being called the Son of man does prove the human 
 nature, the Son of God must of necessity signify in him the di- 
 vine. The derivation of a son from a father, makes a precedence 
 and dependence, according to the train that God has laid before 
 us, but still it leaves the nature the same in both: but as all de- 
 rivation is to be thrown out when we speak of God, so the title 
 belongs to none but " him, who is before all things, and by 
 whom all things consist," Col. i. 17. Nor has Christ a claim 
 to it, but upon the same perfections with the Father ; that he is 
 " Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the 
 end," Rev. i. 8, and therefore though he is a Son, yet the name 
 whereby he shall be called, is "the mighty God, the everlasting 
 Father," Isa. ix. 6. The words are used in a promiscuous lan- 
 guage, as meaning the same thing: " We know that the Son of 
 God is come, and has given us an understandhig that we may 
 know him that is true ; and we are in him that is true, even in his 
 Son Jesus Christ ; this is the true God, and eternal life,'' 1 John 
 V. 20. 
 
 The Jews would never have been offended, had he taken the 
 title with those limitations, that several in our day have put 
 upon it: "But they sought to kill him, because he said that 
 God was his Father, making himself equal with God," John v. 
 18. He said that God loas his own Father; and he says not 
 one word to show them that they had mistaken him. He leaves 
 them possessed of their notion, as a very right one, that the 
 Son of God was equal with God: they knew his words import- 
 ed this much, "I and my Father are one-," upon which they 
 aver, " For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy ; 
 because that thou being a man, makest thyself God," John x. 
 30, 33, 37, 38, though he never said any more than that he was 
 the Son of God : and, as a proof of that, he appeals to the ivorks 
 of his Father. They are so called, not merely because the Fa- 
 ther had given him them to do, but as they were works which 
 none beside the Father could do, such as required an almighty 
 arm; "the Father that is in me, he does the works; and I do 
 them, that ye may believe that I am in the Father, and the Fa- 
 ther in me.'' 
 
 2. This title, his oiun Son, signifies a perpetuity of love: 
 thus he speaks in the name of wisdom, (as being the wisdom of 
 God, and the power of God, 1 Cor. i. 24.) " The Lord possessed 
 me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old : I was 
 set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth 
 was ; then was I by him, as one brought up with him, daily his 
 delight, and rejoicing always before him." Pro v. viii. 22, 23, 24, 
 &c. He speaks very often concerning an unity of nature, and 
 yet with a plain distinction of persons. 
 
222 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 He is called the only begotten, who lies in the bosom of the 
 leather, John i, 18. This was the witness given to him; he 
 had it at his baptism in a voice from heaven; "This is my be- 
 loved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Mat. iii. 17. It was 
 repeated in the " holy mount, when the voice came again from 
 the excellent glory," 2 Pet. i. 17, IS, as if when the Father 
 bare witness of him, it would be in no other language than he 
 had used before, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased." 
 
 This he knew quite through the course of life : " He that 
 sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone, because 
 I do always the things that please him," John viii. 29, and 
 therefore though there are many thousands beloved of God, his 
 elect in whom his soul delighted, Mat. xii. 18, yet not as he is: 
 so that when we are said to be accepted, it is in him, as the be- 
 loved, Eph. i. 6. He alone is the chosen of God and precious, 
 1 Pet. ii. 4, we are translated into the kingdom of this dear 
 Son, Col. i. 13. 
 
 These characters are included in the title, and ought to be re- 
 membered; when we come to consider that he gave him up 
 for us oil; not a servant, but a Son ; not a rebel, a son that 
 causeth shame, but one who was his delight ; "the brightness 
 of his glory, the express image of his own subsistence," Heb. 
 i. 3. 
 
 3. It signifies an unity of counsel. Now, as none has under- 
 stood '• the mind of the Lord," Rom. xi. 34; there is " none with 
 whom he took counsel," Isa. xl. 13; he "put no trust in his 
 saints, and charged his angels with folly," Job xi. 18 ; so how 
 great a name is that by which the child born to us is called, 
 Wonderful Counsellor? Isa. ix. 6. He maintains it, and re- 
 peats it, even after the Jews had resolved to batter him witli 
 stones, for making himself equal with God. He goes on to as- 
 sert this equality, that the Son can " do nothing of himself, but 
 what he sees the Father do," John v. 19, 20. The words, do- 
 ing nothing of himself, are not a diminution ; the meaning is, 
 that there is a perpetual and an equal concord between them : 
 and it might have been said as truly of the Father, that he can 
 do nothing of himself: for, "whatever things the Father does, 
 these does the Son likewise;" for the Father loves the Son, and 
 shows him all things that himself does; whereas, had there 
 been an inequality, it might have been said in that empire, that 
 the heart of the king is unsearchable ; but as the Spirit search- 
 eth all things, yea, the deep things of God," 1 Cor. ii. 10, so the 
 Son knoivs all that is in the Deity. That must be an infinite 
 mind that is equal to an infinite nature ; " No man knows who 
 the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son," 
 Mat. xi. 27. 
 
 And is it not a wonder that he should part with himj and 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 223 
 
 give him up for us all, with whom he took counsel? It is 
 plain, that the redemption that he came for, and the sufferings 
 that he came to, were agreed on in " the counsel of peace be- 
 tween them both," Zech. vi. 13. 
 
 4. The title, his oivn Son, signifies a communion of glory. 
 We may say to him, as we do to the Father, " thine is the 
 kingdom, and the power, and the glory." There is nothing 
 like an excepting clause in all his commission, such an one as- 
 Pharaoh gave Joseph; "according to thy word, shall all my 
 people be ruled, and be thou over the land of Egypt; only in 
 the throne will I be greater than thou," Gen. xii. 40. Instead 
 of that, he speaks of a " glory that he had with the Father 
 before the world was." This he promises, this he demands: 
 it was his will, that "they whom the Father had given him, 
 should be with him where he was, that they might behold the 
 glory which the Father had given liim; for, saith he, thou lov- 
 edst me before the foundation of the world," John xvii. 24, 25. 
 Though the highest insolence of Lucifer was, that he " set his 
 throne as the throne of God," Isa. xiv. 12, yet, without any in- 
 equaUty, we read that " the throne of God, and of the Lamb, is 
 in heaven, and his servants shall serve him," Rev. xxi. 1, 2, 3. 
 And as they upon mount Sion have their Father's name in 
 their foreheads, there is as much said of the Son that they shall 
 see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. 
 
 This is he whom God has given for us, the Lord of glory, 
 James ii. 1. It is brought in as a noble aggravation of what he 
 endured, that when " he was in the form of God, and thought 
 it no robbery to be equal with God; he made himself of no re- 
 putation, and being found in fashion as a man, took on him the 
 form of a servant, and became obedient to death, even the death 
 of the cross," Phil. ii. 6. 
 
 These are things that I believe to be included within the 
 glorious title of God's own Son: and we ought to keep them in 
 remembrance, on purpose to see the greatness of the love that 
 gave him for us, and say with the apostle, " Thanks be to God 
 for his unspeakable gift," 2 Cor. ix. 15. 
 
 II. We read of this wonderful person that God did not spare 
 him; which signifies the greatness, the extremity of his troubles. 
 The phrase is full and strong, and carries in it a vast meaning; 
 he submitted to the utmost anguish and bitterness. You will 
 understand the word, as you do when it is used in a case that 
 is opposite, " I will spare them in the day that I make up my 
 jewels, as a man spares his own son that serves him," Mai. iii. 
 17. God's sparing his people then, when he is putting them 
 among his jewels, when they are strung together in the glories 
 of a common salvation, means every thing that can enter into 
 their happiness. We may all know and feel the sense of the 
 comparison, that though a father's love to a son that serves him, 
 
224 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 is called no more than sparing him, yet who does not see what 
 a length it reaches; that it comprehends a fulness of delight, 
 a recompense of reward, a confidence, a satisfaction, an open 
 heart and treasure? 
 
 Well, in proportion to such an affection as you believe to be 
 contained in a man's sparing his own son, and God's sparing 
 his people when they go to heaven, are we to take these words, 
 in this other application, that he spared not his own Son, i. e. 
 he neither hid him from the punishment, nor excused him any 
 particular share in it; he made not the least abatement of what 
 was owing to the guilt of those that he suffered for; "he trod 
 the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God,'* 
 Rev. xix. 15. This you may apply to the six following par- 
 ticulars, viz. 
 
 1. His continual meanness. 2. His pains and bodily suffer- 
 ings. 3, The horror of darkness that came upon his soul. 4. 
 The weight of the law that he was subject to. 5. The scandal 
 of his death. 6, The particular energy that the Father himself 
 gave to all these troubles. There was no abatement in any of 
 them ; he drank the last dregs of the cup ; not a drop was left 
 or spilt upon the ground. 
 
 (1.) You see that God did not spare him from the perpetual 
 meanness of his life. As soon as he was " made of a woman, 
 he made himself of no reputation," Gal, iv. 4; he came empty 
 into the world, Phil, ii, 7, though in him dwelt all the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily, Col. ii. 9. He was to come of the race 
 of their kings, and was " raised up as an horn of salvation in 
 the house of his servant David," Luke i. 69; but this must be 
 at the time when " the tabernacle of David was fallen," Acts 
 XV. 16, as if God had cast off and abhorred, and been ivroth 
 ivith his anointed, Psal. Ixxxix. 38, 39, 40. He had made 
 void the covenant of his servant, and profaned his crown: he 
 had made his glory to cease, and cast his throne to the ground. 
 Bethlehem, the place of his birth, was become " little among 
 the princes of Judah," Micah v. 2, Mat. ii. 11, and so crowded 
 with the noble branches of the family, that when " she brought 
 forth her first-born child, she laid him in a manger, because 
 there was no room for him in the inn," Luke ii. 7. 
 
 What a glory was it that opened the tidings to the shepherds, 
 Luke ii. 9, when they themselves were within a circle of light 
 from heaven ! Here is a wall of fire round about them ; and no 
 wonder, when the great glory was come in the midst of them? 
 To hear the angels preaching the everlasting gospel, telling 
 them " tidings of great joy, that to them was born that day in 
 the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord;" every 
 word sounded the magnificence of this great thing that came 
 to pass. And in the same breath to be told, that instead of " see- 
 ing the Lord of glory, the Prince of the kings of the earth," 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 225 
 
 they should see a child wrapt in swaddling clothes, and laid 
 in a manger; this made the narration the most unequal and 
 disproportioned that ever was in the world. 
 
 In his youth after he had astonished the doctors of Jerusalem, 
 he goes down, and was subject to his parents at Nazareth; as 
 if he was determined to quench the light of Israel, Luke ii. 
 47, 51. 
 
 And as his fame increased, so did his reproach; as he com- 
 plains in prophecy, " reproach has broken my heart, I am full 
 of heaviness," Psal. Ixix. 20, upon which they " hid their faces 
 from him, they despised and esteemed him not," Isa. liii. 3. 
 Though he was " the branch of the Lord, beautiful and glori- 
 ous," Isa. iv. 2, yet he came as a "root out of a dry ground:" 
 all they who were looking for him "saw no comeliness in him; 
 he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and 
 acquainted with grief," Isa. lin. 4. 
 
 He who was to have " the government upon his shoulders," 
 Isa. vi. 7, had not " where to lay his head," Luke ix. 5; " though 
 he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor," 2 Cor. viii, 9. 
 He lived upon the voluntary contribution of his hearers ; " they 
 mmistered to him of their substance," Luke viii. 3. Though 
 the great men from the east " brought him presents, gold, frank- 
 incense, and myrrh," as the first fruits of a glorious empire. 
 Mat. ii. 11, yet the King of kings is a servant of rulers, Isa. 
 xlix. 7, and the desire of all 7iations is one whom his otvn 
 nation abhors, Hag. ii. 7. Though " the kings of Sheba and 
 Seba would offer gifts," Psal. Ixxii. 10, yet he cannot pay his 
 tribute-money till he sends for it out of a fish's mouth, Mat. 
 xvii. 27. 
 
 (2.) You may refer this to his bodily pains and sufferings. 
 He who was "fairer than the sons of men," Psal. xlv. 2, has 
 his " visage marred more than any man, and his form more 
 than the sons of men," Isa. hi. 14. " He whose countenance 
 is now as the sun, when it shines in all its strength," Rev. i. 16, 
 " hid not his face from shame and spitting," Isa. 1. 6 ; and though 
 the time will come that from " his countenance the heaven and 
 the earth shall flee away," Rev. xx. 11, yet they covered his 
 face and smote him, John iv. 6. 
 
 He knew the meaning of hunger and thirst, of cruel mock- 
 ings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments : he was 
 scourged as a malefactor, had a crown of thorns platted upon 
 his head : " greedy dogs came against him, they pierced his 
 hands and his feet : his bones were all out of joint ; his heart 
 like wax melted in the midst of his bowels: they gave him gall 
 for his meat, and in his thirst they gave him vinegar to drink," 
 Psal. xxii. 16. A body seems to be prepared for him, Heb. 
 X. 5, that he might " bear our sins in his body on the tree," 
 1 Pet. ii. 24, so tliat we see him racked and torn; no "sound- 
 
 29 
 
226 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 ness in his flesh, because of God's anger," Psal. xxxviii, 3, 
 This is he that "came by water and blood," 1 John v. 6, for 
 they " pierced his side, and forthwith there came out blood ana 
 water," John xix. 34. 
 
 (3.) He had a horror of great darkness upon his soul: which 
 shows it to be no supernatural spirit, but of the very same 
 nature with ours, capable of grief, and appointed to it. This 
 he desires his disciples to observe and attend ; " his soul was 
 exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," Mat. xxvi. 38, and 
 therefore he orders them to watch. Grief in them was able to 
 cheat itself, it sunk them to sleep: but it kept him awake, and 
 "his sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the earth," 
 Luke xxii. 44. 
 
 (4.) That which pressed him so much was the weight of the 
 law. He was made under the law, Gal. iv. 4, and as it is said 
 that such people are under the curse, Gal. iii. 10, it was the 
 curse that we are redeemed from; for no man could, by any 
 means, "redeem this our elder brother, or pay unto God a ran- 
 som for him," Psal. xlix. 7; no, "he paid himself a ransom for 
 us," 1 Tim. ii. 6. " The righteousness of the law speaks in this 
 wise, that the man who does these things shall live in them," 
 Rom. X. 5 ; he did these things with perfection and purity, and 
 yet nevertheless the law that was ordained to life, was to him 
 a sentence o{ death: for though obedience and punishment were 
 divided, so that no person could have both, yet in him they are 
 united: here is a righteous servant, Eccl. viii. 14, to whom it 
 happens, according to the work of the wicked; for upon him 
 was laid the iniquiti/ of us all, Isa. liii. 6. 
 
 (5.) The scandal of his death. God had said to the Jews, 
 " Cursed is every one that is hanged on a tree," Deut. xxi. 23, 
 Gal. iii. 10. The Romans had no such tradition; and therefore 
 he could never have suffered but in this due time, Rom, v. 6, 
 that the sceptre ivas departed from Judah, Gen. xlix. 10. The 
 Romans would never have found him guilty of such a crime; 
 the Jews would never have inflicted such a punishment ; but 
 he is to be delivered to the Gentiles. Pilate had a mind to be 
 clear of it, and therefore throws it all out of his hands : " Take 
 ye him, and judge him according to your law." The Jews 
 therefore said unto him, " It is not lawful for us to put any man 
 to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, signifying 
 what death he should die," John xviii. 31, 32. He told them 
 plainly after this, "Take ye him, and crucify him; I find no 
 fault in him;" upon which they reply, "We have a law, and 
 by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son 
 of God," John xix. 4. 
 
 Blasphemy is his sin, which none but the Jews would have 
 called so: crucifixion is his punishment, which none but the 
 Romans would have made so; and therefore it is thus ordered, 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 227 
 
 that the " heathen shall rage at the same time that the people 
 imagined a vain thing," Psal. ii. I : and that he might, in every 
 sense of the word, be a curse for us, he is to have it not only 
 from the moral law, but from the ceremonial. They took him, 
 and hanged him on a tree, Acts v. 30, and therefore it is said, 
 when he endured the cross, he despised the shame, Heb. xiii. 2. 
 
 (6.) That which is principally to be minded, is the particular 
 energy that the Father gave to all these troubles; even this was 
 the doing of the Lord. The Jews took him to be stricken, 
 smitten of God, and afflicted, Isa. liii, 4. They argued as 
 David foretold they would, " Let us persecute and take him, 
 because God has forsaken him." All the varieties of trouble that 
 seized him were under a divine appointment. He who settles 
 the bounds of our habitation, provided none for him, he chast- 
 ened him, and gave him over to death. The Lord God " waken- 
 ed and opened his ear, morning by morning, that he might give 
 his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off 
 the hair," Isa. 1. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 He begs of the Father, like one who had "learned obedience 
 by the things that he suffered," Heb. v. 8, " all things are pos- 
 sible to thee, let this cup pass from me ; and, if it may not pass 
 from me, except I drink it, thy will be done;" Mat. xxvi. 39. 
 Well, it was his will, the cup which the Father had given him 
 to drink. There was nothing that looked like sparing a Son 
 that serves him. The law was in his heart, and we may say 
 it went to his heart; he felt it there, which made his heart faint 
 within him. 
 
 Though he was offered as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling 
 savour, Eph. v. 2, yet who would have thought so, when he 
 pleads and groans, and cries, and argues under his burden, 
 " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mat. xxvii. 
 46. " Why art thou so far from the voice of my roaring?" 
 Psal. xxii. 1. 
 
 This was so evident, that they insult him upon it; " Let us 
 see, say they, whether Elias will come to take him down." 
 Mark xv. 36. Elias met him in the mount of transfiguration, 
 and there spake of his decease at Jerusalem, Mat. xvii. 6, but 
 he could do nothmg to prevent it, Luke ix. 31. He foretold 
 on mount Tabor, what happened on Calvary. It was still 
 more daring to say, " Let God deliver him, if he will have him; 
 for he said, I am the Son of God." 
 
 Upon the whole, you see the truth and propriety of those 
 astonishing words, that " it pleased the Father to bruise him, 
 and put him to grief;" Isa. liii. 10. I will not say it was 
 threatened, but it was designed, when God proclaimed, "Awake, 
 sword, against the man that is my fellow; smite the shep- 
 herd;" Zech. xiii. 7. There could never be a greater occasion 
 to plead, as the prophet does, Jer. xlvii. 6, 7; " thou sword 
 
228 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up 
 thyself into the scabbard, rest, and be still." But the answer 
 was ready, How can it be quiet, when the Lord hath given it 
 such a cJiarge, and has so appointed it? For, as he spared him 
 not, it was he who delivered him up. 
 
 SERIMON II. 
 
 Romans viii. 32. — He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. 
 
 The apostle takes care to let us know that there was a divine 
 appointment of all the sorrows and grief with which our Lord 
 became acquainted. " He gave himself for our sins, that he 
 might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the 
 will of God, and our Father," Gal. i. 4. 
 
 That second causes had their share and their guilt, is true : 
 the envy of the priests, the rage of the heathen, the jealousy of 
 the rulers, the superstition of the rabble, the influence of Satan, 
 the avarice of Judas, JNIat. xxvii. 18, these are placed as an 
 over-ruling providence ordained or permitted them. But still 
 there was a supreme guiding cause, that quickened the move- 
 ment, and turned the wheels. 
 
 What He did, was holy, just, and good. The malignity of 
 the several creatures obeyed his will, without polluting it: to 
 them it was a scene of wickedness, the lust of the flesh and of 
 the mind: malice, pride, and envy, were so many snares of the 
 devil, by which he led them captive, and in that view the cru- 
 cifying of the Lord of glory, was the greatest impiety that ever 
 human nature ran into: but take it as a model, laid by an all- 
 comprehending mind, an xinderstanding that is infinite, PsaJ. 
 cxlvii. 5, and we may say, here was a train of the best means, 
 in order to accomplish the greatest end. 
 
 Never did the divine goodness appear in a nobler design; 
 never did the divine ivisdom shine out in a better method; 
 never was any thing more becoming him, " of whom are all 
 things, and by whom are all things, than in bringing many sons 
 to glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect, through 
 his sufterings," Heb. ii. 10. 
 
 The Scripture has taken a great deal of care to keep this in 
 view, quite through the story of Jesus Christ, and him crucified; 
 that nothing happened to him, but in pursuance of a counsel 
 and purpose, that was moved and agreed to before the world 
 began; and therefore it is spoken of in my text, as the doing of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Had we been told of the priests, who drew up the charge, 
 and stirred up the people, that they spared him not; had this 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 229 
 
 been said of those that reviled him, that cut him with thorns, 
 or nails, or spears, we could easily have understood it: had the 
 apostle told us, that he was delivered up, Acts iii. 13, by his 
 countrymen, to Pilate, and by him back again to them, the 
 phrase would have stood without any mystery: but when we 
 read of his being humbled and grieved, neglected and wounded, 
 and all this said of the Father, that thus used his own Son, that 
 he did not spare him, that he delivered him np, it is a thing 
 that man's wisdom can neither give nor take; and therefore the 
 Holy Spirit has been very abundant to carry this quite through 
 the Bible, as you will see by a long train of particulars, 
 
 1. It was agreed on in the counsel between the Father and 
 the Son. 
 
 2. It was foretold in the very dawning of the love and kind- 
 ness that appeared towards men. 
 
 3. It was designed in the whole frame of devotion, which 
 God appointed among his people. 
 
 4. To this I may add, that these shadows were discharged and 
 abolished, as soon as ever the thing signified was accomplished. 
 
 5. It is what the prophets in their several ages gave a lineal 
 witness to. 
 
 6. It is a thing of which Christ himself was apprised, and to 
 which he consented. 
 
 7. It is what the human nature was prepared and disposed for. 
 
 8. This he kept off, till the time appointed for it came, to 
 show that it was always in his power to prevent it. 
 
 9. Then he went out to meet it, and received it not only with 
 submission, but obedience. 
 
 10. There is to be an eternal memorial of it in heaven; which 
 shows that the design was laid in the place where it is to be 
 admired. 
 
 I have thrown these things into the order and situation that 
 the word of God has given them; and I doubt not that they 
 will let us see that we ought to look a great deal higher than to 
 the powers of darkness in the sufferings of Christ. That it was 
 not merely the push of envy, the produce of malice, treachery, 
 deceit, and murder, but it is to be considered as his own obe- 
 dience to death, even the death of the cross. It was also the 
 Father's appointment, what he demanded in law, and what he 
 delighted in, as God only wise, who is blessed for ever; ac- 
 cording to the apostle's distinction, when he argues with the 
 Jews; " Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and 
 foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands 
 have crucified and slain," Acts ii. 23. 
 
 First, He observes their action in the whole gradation; they 
 took him, and crucified him, and slew him. Secondly, They did 
 it by wicked ha?ids, and wicked hearts: he could never afford 
 them any better name than betrayers and murderers, Acts vii. 
 
230 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 52, and yet, Thirdly, The person thus used was delivered, given 
 up, surrendered, and appointed to the self same lot. Fourthly, 
 This was by the foreknowledge of God; he could tell that so it 
 would be: Nay, Fifthly, It is by his determinate counsel, what 
 he had framed and fixed, and brought into a certain sphere, 
 that it should most surely come to pass. 
 
 1. We may say, with the scriptures of truth, that the suffer- 
 ings of Christ were agreed on between the Father and the Son. 
 Indeed, this is the secret of the Lord, and among his invisible 
 things, 1 Cor. ii, 9, 18, nor could we ever have known them, 
 had they not been revealed to us by his Spirit, as now they are. 
 
 We are expressly told, that Christ, as a branch, should grow 
 up out of liis place, Zech. vi. 12, and this we know to be out of 
 a dry ground, Isa. liii. 2; and though he was to build the tem- 
 ple of the Lord, yet the temple of his body is to be destroyed, 
 in order to it, John ii. 19. He should, indeed, bear the glory, 
 but before that he must bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows, 
 Isa. liii. 4, and though he should sit upon his throne, he is there 
 as a Priest, as one who has somewhat to offer; and all this 
 scheme of humiliation and trouble flows from the counsel of 
 peace that was between them both. 
 
 It was " the pleasure of the Lord that prospered in his hand," 
 Isa. liii. 10, not only what the Lord pleased to appoint, but the 
 very thing i}i which his soul delighted; the darling project, the 
 favourite article, the chief of the ways of God, which he mag- 
 nified above all his name, Psal. cxxxviii. 2. There was a 
 model of glory laid, that would both outshine the creation, and 
 outlast it: it will hold when " the first heaven and the first earth 
 are passed away," Rev. xxi. 1. When he has rubbed out all 
 the figures of Deity, that are engraven upon the universe, he 
 reserves a memorial that shall endure for ever, and that is in the 
 redemption that he has purchased. 
 
 Here are a people to be saved who are sold; and, therefore, 
 to make his love triumphant, they are bought with a price, 
 I Cor. vi. 19. The person who pays it is the Son of God; the 
 thing that he lays down for it is his precious blood, 1 Pet. i, 19, 
 20. To this he was verily foreordained before the foundation 
 of the word, though not manifest till these last times. This 
 does not only signify that the happiness we have in him, was 
 then contrived, but the means of bringing it about were then 
 appointed, and that was the precious blood of the Son of God, 
 as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot; so that it 
 may be said of all his troubles, they are the birth of an eternal 
 purpose, the decree brought forth. 
 
 The disciples knew how to consider the design of God, and 
 the malignity of men, without any jumble or confusion ; they 
 work together, and yet are greatly distinct; things are called by 
 their proper names. Here is " the rage of the heathen, the vain 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 231 
 
 imaginations of the people, the kings of the earth stood up, and 
 the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against 
 his Christ. Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, with the 
 people of Israel, of a truth, had gathered togetl"^-" against the 
 holy child Jesus; but it was to do what God's ov/r- hand and 
 counsel had determined before to be done." Acts iv. 25 — 28. 
 He was not the author of their sin, though they were the tools 
 of his pleasure. We read here, that the determination is attri- 
 buted both to his hand and his counsel: as if it was not a dead 
 scheme, a thing laid for a peradventure, what ynay happen, or 
 may not; but the decree was quiekened,full of life, and would cer- 
 tainly, after the leisure of many ages, produce what it contrived. 
 
 You will suppose that this includes the concurrence of both 
 parties ; and it lets us see, that whatever is done, is the eflect of 
 a plan that God has purposed i/i himself: for when the world 
 was framing, and the Redeemer, who was "daily his delight, 
 rejoiced always before him," even then he is said to rejoice in 
 " the habitable parts of the earth, and have his delights among 
 the sons of men," Prov. viii. 30, 31, and the argument we have 
 of his delight in them, is the way he took to show it; "The 
 good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep," John x. 11. 
 
 2. The suflerings of Christ were foretold in the very dawn 
 of the love and kindness of God our Saviour towards man; he 
 acted upon our recovery, as he did upon the creation. When 
 Adam and Eve had fallen, the human nature was " without 
 form and void, and darkness lay upon the face of the deep :" till 
 he broke silence with that great voice. Let there be lif^ht: he 
 was pleased to visit them, as they sat in the region and shadow 
 of death; there he brought life and immortality \Q its first 
 Hght, 2 Tim. i. 10, and that was the morning of our gospel. 
 They were then assured that the serpent should be bruised in 
 the head. Gen. iii. 15, crushed and mashed in pieces; that is, in 
 the gospel style, The prince of this luorld shall he judged, John 
 xvi. 11. But the way of doing it, is making the conqueror the 
 seed of the woman, and suffering the enemy to bruise his heel. 
 That these expressions denote the human nature of Christ, and 
 his troubles in it, is above all dispute; so that. 
 
 The first doctrine revealed to Adam was a redemption 
 through tlic blood of Jesus, Col. i. 14. That he should be made 
 of a woman, to be made under the law. Gal. iv. 4, and being 
 under the law, was under the curse, Gal. iii. 10. This is the 
 current article, the thing most in view quite through the Old 
 and New Testament; that he verily should be partaker of 
 flesh and blood, as all the children were, that " through 'leath, 
 he might subdue him that had the power of death, that is, the 
 devil," Heb. ii. 14. We may extend the apostle's observation, 
 and take it in a wider circumference ; as he says, " The Scrip- 
 ture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, 
 
232 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall 
 all the nations of the earth be blessed," Gal. iii. 8. The truth 
 is the same, after you have stretched it out as it was designed; 
 that as i\\e justification of sinners should be through ^ faith in 
 Jesus, even a faith in his blood, God preached before the gospel 
 to Adam and Eve, saying, " in her seed all the families of the 
 earth should be blessed." 
 
 It was by faith in this that ^bel offered to God a more excel- 
 lent sacrifice than Cain, Heb. xi. 4, something that was more 
 a sacrifice, that better agreed to the nature and design of it. As 
 it was managed in a way of slaughter, it had respect to him, 
 who is called, " The Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world." Bt/ this he obtained witness that he was righteous; 
 not by this faith, but by the sacrifice; for though the gramma- 
 tical construction agrees to either of them, yet I rather choose 
 this interpretation, iDecause there is particular notice taken, that 
 God testified of his gifits. 
 
 They all knew here was "a hope set before them," Heb. vi. 
 IS, that God was gracious in the remission of sins; and they 
 looked to the great atonement, as " the reason of the hope that 
 was in them." So early did God " set him forth, fore-ordained 
 him to be a propitiation for our sins, through faith in his blood," 
 Rom. iii. 25. The apostle says no other thing than Moses, in 
 the law, and the prophets did ivrite, Acts xxvi. 22, nay, the 
 very same that Adam, Abel, Enoch, and all they who walked 
 with God, believed and owned in their generations; that his 
 own Son should be delivered up for us all : it was a doctrine 
 that opened to them with the very eyelids of the morning. 
 This has its place among " the first principles of the oracles of 
 God," Heb. v. 12, and in this sense we may truly say, Chris- 
 tianity is as old as the creation. 
 
 3. These sufferings of Christ were figured out in the whole 
 frame of that devotion, which God appointed among his peo- 
 ple. Their religion before the flood had the light of revelation 
 to guide it. As they offered by fiaith, as they walked before 
 God,'\X, proved them to be reconciled: for "how should two 
 walk together except they are agreed?" Amos iii. 3. Their 
 sacrifices in so many forms were an argument how much they 
 believed that " without the shedding of blood, there could be 
 no remission;" and this must carry their thoughts to him, who 
 was to redeem us " in the body of his flesh through death," 
 Heb. ix. 22. 
 
 But these rules came to be more digested and multiplied: 
 when he took the seed of Abraham into covenant with him, he 
 gave them circumcision, as a seal of the righteousness of that 
 faith, Rom iv. 11, which they had. When they were uncir- 
 cumcised, they built their altars, as so many types of that altar 
 that sanctifies every gift, 1 Cor. v. 7. They had their Paschal 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 233 
 
 Lamb, as a pledge of " Christ our Passover, who is sacrificed 
 for us," Psal. li. nit. There was the blood of bulls and goats, 
 whole burnt-offerings, their incense and perfumes all thrown in- 
 to the same devotions, in hopes of him who has " given himself 
 for us, a sacrifice of sweet smelling savour," Eph. v. 2. They 
 instantly served God day and night. Acts xxvi. 7, they did it 
 with ^fervency, an intenseness, and a rest of thought upon the 
 great hope of Israel. 
 
 Now, to what purpose should God lead a pecuhar people to 
 devotions that required a large expense of time and cost, but 
 only to put them in mind of him, who is "a High-priest of 
 good things to come," Heb. ix. II, 12, and who, " by his own 
 blood should enter into the holiest of all, having obtained eternal 
 redemption for us :" so that Judaism was only Christianity in 
 figures, and shadows of good things to come. 
 
 4. I must add to this head, that which still gives more light 
 and force to the argument, that these shadows are discharged 
 and abolished upon the death of Christ. This proves, that as 
 we are never to have them at all, so the Jews had them, not for 
 the sake of the things themselves, but the Holy Ghost signified, 
 that the " way into the holiest of all was not yet made mani- 
 fest," Heb. ix. 8. For had there been any virtue in them, " they 
 would not have ceased to be offered," Heb. x. 2. But the New 
 Testament speaks of them with contempt, as the Old one did with 
 veneration. They are called " weak and beggarly elements, 
 carnal ordinances," Gal, iv. 9, and an obedience to them is " be- 
 ing in bondage," Heb, x, 10, 
 
 What is the reason that the service of God, which was once 
 a glory, should be now a shame? Rom. ix. 3. The apostle has 
 plainly told us, that " what was made glorious has no glory, 
 by reason of a glory that excels," 2 Cor. iii. 10. The whole 
 prediction of these typical duties is answered : they were but 
 patterns of things in the heavens; ours are the heavenly things 
 themselves, Heb. ix. 23. The body is Christ, Col. ii. 17. He 
 has done in one offering, Heb. x, 10 — 12, what they could 
 only give us so many draughts of in a thousand. This proves 
 there was a double end to be answered in the crucifixion of 
 our Lord; first to accomplish the service of the temple; and, 
 secondly to abolish it: and therefore, there is no more occasion 
 to bring oftentimes the same sacrifices; for " Christ has appeared 
 in the end of the world, to put away sin by the offering of him- 
 self," Heb. ix. 25, 26. You may plainly see the blood of their 
 slain beasts was shed without the gate, and carried ivithout 
 the camp, Heb. xiii. 11. This was afterwards brought within 
 the veil, and upon the garments of the high-priest presented be- 
 fore the holiest of all. And thus is Christ gone, not with the 
 blood of others, but his own; not into the holy places made with 
 hands, but into heaven itself. 
 
 30 
 
234 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 They had it as their distinction from all other people, that as 
 "of them Christ was to come," Rom, ix. 5, so among them he 
 was to be well known : but " the veil is rent, and the middle 
 wall of partition broken down," Mat. xxviii. 51, and he did 
 this by dying : " He abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the 
 law of commandments contained in ordinances, of twain making 
 one new man," Eph. ii. 13, 14. This could never be done with- 
 out his death : for all the ceremonial law was in full force, till 
 "the seed came to whom the promise was made," Gal, ii, 19, 
 and the thing was over to which those figures had their allusion. 
 
 This proves that his humiliation, from the birth to the grave, 
 from the manger to the cross, was all laid and contrived. " The 
 Son of man went, as it was written of him," Mat. xxvi. 24. It 
 was not a start of second causes, an event that bubbled out un- 
 awares; but foreseen, foretold, and fore-ordained. And though 
 what he died for was not the righteousness of the law, yet it is 
 a righteousness to which " both the law and the prophets gave 
 witness," Rom. iii. 22. All their devotion was a shadow of 
 good things to come, Heb. x. 1, and therefore could " make 
 nothing perfect, as the bringing in of a better hope did ; by 
 which we now draw nigh unto God," chap. vii. 18, 19. You 
 see by these two particulars, that God ever brought up his peo- 
 ple in the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sin, and in 
 the knowledge of that remission by the blood of the cross : be- 
 cause almost all things under the law are purged with blood, 
 Rom. ix. 22, and why did they so often meet with it, but to 
 keep their faith alive in this great article of a satisfaction to his 
 justice ? 
 
 It is what the projjhets, in their several ages, gave a lineal 
 ivitness to ; prophecy was nothing but revelation retailed and 
 dealt out in parcels : " holy men of God spake as they were 
 moved," 2 Pet. i. 20, 21, blown about and carried, directed and 
 appointed, borne and upheld by the Holy Ghost. What God at 
 first declared with his own mouth, afterwards he distributed 
 through earthen vessels, at " sundry times, and in divers man- 
 ners," Heb. i. 1. And as the first and greatest thing that ever 
 he had to tell mankind, was redeeming love, so the light he gave 
 to every prophet was kindled at tJiat. Whatever he said about 
 their duties, their sins, their captivity, and deliverance, were so 
 many lines stretching, pointing, and centring here. As the 
 apostle Peter tells us, that the prophets who inquired and search- 
 ed into "our salvation, spake of the grace that is come to us," 
 1 Pet. i. 10, 1 1. It was the Spirit of Christ in them that testified 
 the two main things, " the sufferings of Christ," and " the glory 
 that should follow;" and it was revealed to them, that not to 
 themselves but to us they did minister; they insisted upon 
 things that are now reported mnong us. 
 
 Peter declared this to the Jews, at the time that he set him- 
 
OP Christ's sufferings. 235 
 
 self to convince them of their sin: " They had dehvered up, and 
 denied the holy and just One, and killed the prince of life," 
 Acts iii. 13, 14, but he v/ould have them know, that God deliv- 
 ered him up too, Acts iii. 17, 18. " For," says he, brethren, 
 " through ignorance you did it; but those things that God before 
 had shown by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should 
 sutler, he has so fulfilled:" It is a large compass that he takes 
 in his affirmation, to make it tlie doctrine of all the prophets; 
 and yet you find he does not flinch from what he had said, but 
 tells them over again, " that all the prophets from Samuel, and 
 those that followed after, have foretold of these days," ver. 24. 
 
 David speaks concerning him, that " his soul was not left in 
 hell," Acts ii. 25, which intimates that it was laid there; that 
 his sufterings were of such a nature as to be thus expressed. 
 When our Lord opened the Scriptures to the disciples, who 
 were going to Emmaus, he did it out of the law of Moses and 
 the Prophets, and the book of Psalms, Luke xxiv. 45, 46, 
 proving from all of them, that Christ " must needs have suf- 
 fered," Acts xvii. 3, and entered into his glory; that it behoved 
 him, he could not do otherv/ise. 
 
 It is plain from the established songs of Zion, that our praises 
 are owing to "the Lamb that was slain," Rev. v. 9. He was 
 to be " poor and needy before the Lord set him up on high," 
 Psal. Ixix. 29. It was by the mouth of his servant David he 
 said " Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but mine ear 
 hast thou opened'' Psal. xl. 6, or, mine ear hast thou bored; 
 that is, 1 am set out and marked to be thy servant for ever: I 
 have got the perpetual badge. The equivalent to this phrase 
 in the New Testament is, " a body hast thou prepared me," 
 Heb. X. 5, 6. And by matching the one of these to the other, 
 we see that with " the fashion of a man" he took on him " the 
 form of a servant:" Phil. ii. 7, 8, preparing him a body, was 
 boring his ear; he had it on purpose to "learn obedience by the 
 things that he suffered," Heb. v. 7. 
 
 David also speaks of his " drinking of the brook in the way," 
 Psal. ex. 7. Our poetical translator makes no more of it, than 
 that he should stoop to mean refreshments; which is, I think, 
 a mean exposition, and carries but a mean refreshment in it to 
 the faith of God's people: it is plainly a local phrase; and re- 
 lates to the sorrows in which he passed over the brook Kidron; 
 the place that had been so bitter to David, when he fled from 
 Absalom, 2 Sam. xv. 23, and should be so to Christ, when he 
 was falling into the hands of Judas. 
 
 Isaiah did not only "see his glory," John xii. 11, but his 
 " sufferings, and spake of them;" that in his humiliation " he 
 was taken away; he was oppressed and afflicted, brought as a 
 lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before the shearers is 
 dumb, so he opened not his mouth: He was taken from prison 
 
236 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 and judgment ; cut off out of the land of the living: for the trans- 
 gressions of ra^ people was he stricken; my righteous servant 
 shall justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities: he poured 
 out his soul to death, he bare the sins of many, and made inter- 
 cession for the transgressors," Isa. liii. 3 — 8. 
 
 Daniel tells us plainly, that " the Messiah shall be cut ofi', but 
 not for himself; that in the midst of the week he shall die," 
 Dan. ix. 26. Zechariah speaks of the sword drawn against 
 " one who is God's fellow," Zech. xiii. 7, the same thing that 
 the apostle says; that "being in the form of God, he became 
 obedient to death," Phil. ii. 6, 7. He is express upon this head, 
 that " they shall look on him whom they have pierced," Zech. 
 xii. 10. And what shall I more say? the time would fail me, 
 to speak of all those who have been preachers of the righteous- 
 ness that is by faith. It was in accomplishment of this design 
 that one of the soldiers " run a spear into his side, and forthwith 
 came out blood and water," John xix. 34. 
 
 6. It is the thing that Christ himself was apprised of, and 
 consented to. " Lo, I come, saith he; in the volume of the book 
 it is written of me." The apostle has a great remark upon the 
 connexion of these words; "That above, when he had said, 
 Sacrifice and burnt-offering for sin, thou wouldest not; then 
 said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, God; he takes away the 
 first, that he may establish the second," Heb. x. 7 — 10, that is 
 the first appointment of sacrifice and burnt-offering, that he may 
 establish the second, his own designation to slaughter; and " by 
 this will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of 
 Jesus, once for all:" as if this was the main will of God, the 
 things that he insisted on, and to which our blessed Saviour paid 
 his homage at last; when he said, "Not my will, but thine be 
 done." He became incarnate that he might become obedient, 
 as will appear from the next head. 
 
 7. The human nature of Christ was prepared, and disposed 
 for these sufferings: his whole life was cast into such a mould 
 of providence, that from the beginning to the end, he was to be 
 " despised and rejected of men," Isa. liii. 2. As David knew, 
 that of the fruit of his loins, " God would raise up Christ to sit 
 on his throne," Acts ii. 30, so we should think the son of David 
 would array himself with glory and majesty, and cast abroad his 
 eyes upon every one that is proud, and abase him; but instead 
 of that, he seems to have no relation to David's throne, but 
 rather to " all his afflictions;" a " reproach to his acquaintance," 
 and a "shaking of the head to all the people," Psal. cxxxii. 1. 
 
 He conversed with places where they gave him no respect; 
 he chose to live as a prophet " without honour, in his own 
 country," Luke iv. 24. He came from Nazareth, out of which 
 no good thing was ever supposed to come, John i. 46. He 
 lived in Galilee, out of which there arose no jn-ophet, chapter 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 237 
 
 vii. 52. Both his town and his country were of no repute. 
 He asks water to drink of a Samaritan woman, John iv. 8, 
 which any Jew besides himself would have thought a dishonour. 
 He was so hungry, as to seek fruit on a fig-tree upon the road, 
 and to go empty away: as if he had laid out for shame and 
 grief, and determined, quite through his life, to make himself 
 of " no reputation," Phil. ii. 7. 
 
 He had our nature in all the tender sensations. Reproach 
 had broken his heart, by the contradiction of sinners against 
 himself, Psal. Ixix. 20. He was " sorrowful and sore vexed," 
 Heb, xii. 3; his body was too weak to bear the cross; he falls 
 under it, " fainting in the day of adversity, to show that his 
 strength was small," He had nature in all its feeling; every 
 power that was able to receive a torture, all the capacities of 
 misery. Crucifixion might deaden the other two by degrees; 
 the more they spent, the less they felt. But he died, as it were, 
 m full hfe ; and the moment he gave out a loud voice, he gave 
 lip his spirit too: so that, it is evident, he was made to be 
 " stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted," Isa. liii. 4. Not a 
 softening article in all the case, but the very dregs of wrath. 
 There was no sorrow like to his sorrow. 
 
 8. He kept off his troubles till the appointed time came. 
 Though I do not give you this as a full argument, yet you will 
 easily see it opens the way to it. He had it always in his power 
 to control or escape the whole wrath of man. When they took 
 him to the brow of the hill, Luke iv. 29, on which the city was 
 built, with a design to throw him down headlong, though he was 
 upon the brink of ruin, he comes quietly away. When the 
 officers went to take him, he tied their hands with what he said, 
 John vii. 45, 46, and they who were to be rulers of his person, 
 were captives to his speeches. When his enemies had worked 
 themselves and the people into a common rage, he did by that 
 storm as he did by others; he said Peace, he still, and it ceased 
 in a moment. When great multitudes went out to take him, 
 " no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet 
 come," John viii, 20. 
 
 The amount of the examples is what he tells us, that " no 
 man can take away my life from me: I have power to lay it 
 down, and power to take it again," chap. x. IS. And to this 
 you may add, his assurance of help from above, if ever he de- 
 sired it: but he gives it as the reason of his being so resigned, 
 because it was of a divine appointment. Thus he argues with 
 Peter ; " Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to the Father, and he 
 will presently give me more than twelve legions of angels ? But 
 how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be ?" 
 
 9. These sufferings are what he loent out to meet : he thouglit 
 it his duty to do so. When he speaks of his being betrayed, 
 forsaken, condemned and crucified ; he says, <•' that the world 
 
238 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 may know I love the Father; As the Father gave me com- 
 mandment, so I do; arise, and let us go hence," John xiv. 31. 
 It is under this control that lie prays and cries, " Father, let this 
 hour pass from me; nevertheless, for this cause came I to this 
 hour," chap. xii. 26, that is, " There is nothing in this hour 
 which I so dread, but what ought to be there. It is the enemies' 
 hour, and the power of darkness, a day of darkness and gloomi- 
 ness, of clouds and thick darkness." The sun shrunk in, as if 
 nature itself would do nothing to hinder the whole power of 
 darkness. Yet in all this he only went as it was written of 
 him; nor was there any thing that could be surprising to him, 
 either unseen or unchosen. He submitted to it all. His last 
 action was to bow the head, that he might die in the posture of 
 a willing servant. 
 
 10. There is to be an eternal memorial of these things in 
 heaven, which shows the design was laid in the place, where 
 it shall be ever admired. The offence of the cross is ceased to 
 them above: they are no more ashamed of it, than they are 
 enemies to it, but weave it into all their praises. When they 
 speak of Jesus, as the "faithful Witness, the Prince of the kings 
 of the earth," you may say, " Holy and reverend is his name:" 
 but they do not forget that he is the " first begotten from the 
 dead;" and from that title there gushes out an adoration; " To 
 him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
 blood, be glory and dominion for ever," Rev. i. 5, 6. 
 
 Thus the happy throng that are about him, from every part 
 of the grand circle, give in their praises; " Thou wast slain, and 
 hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, 
 and tongue, and people, and nation," Rev. v. 9. Nay, the 
 angels themselves, those morning stars, sing at our redemption, 
 as they did at our creation; "Worthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain, to receive honour, power, strength, salvation, glory, and 
 blessing," ver. 11, 12. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Romans viii. 32, — He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. 
 
 The last thing to be considered in these words, is the great end 
 upon which our Saviour became " obedient to death, even the 
 death of the cross," Pliil. ii. 6, and that by the appointment of 
 the Father. JVhy did not God spare his own Son, but deliver 
 him up ? What design had he in a scheme so full of wonder, 
 and so full of horror? What means the heat of this areat 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 239 
 
 anger? Now, the text I am upon abounds with hght as well 
 as comfort ; it was for us all. 
 
 There is no cloud upon the sentence: it is not to be num- 
 bered among the things that are hard to be understood, 2 Pet. 
 iii. 16, and therefore why should any endeavour to pervert the 
 words of peace and truth, which contain in them so much of 
 good will towards men? Luke ii. 14; because there is nothing 
 got by it. To deny the satisfaction that Christ has made, is a 
 robbery upon God, and a murder to his people: it is destroying 
 the "grace wherein we stand," Rom. v. 2. 
 
 That I am a sinner, is so true, that there is no pretence to 
 doubt it ; that by this God is angry, is a matter beyond all dis- 
 pute; that without his favour I can have no hope of escaping 
 the wrath to come, is very certain: now, it is not to be supposed 
 that he will be gracious to me with any injury to himself; but, 
 if I am saved, as it will be to the glory of his mercy, so there 
 must be no dishonour upon any other attribute: therefore some 
 way or other he must be "faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins," 1 John i. 9. He will be " well pleased for his righteous- 
 ness' sake: he will magnify the law, and make it honourable," 
 Isa. xhi. 21. It is not enough that there is "the forbearance 
 of God in the remission of sins that are past," Rom. iii. 25, but 
 " he declares his righteousness;" he declares, I say, at this time, 
 in tlie moment of pardon, his righteousness, " that he may be 
 just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus." 
 
 And if this is to be the case, there is but one of these two 
 ways for it, either by relaxing the punishment, and erasing what 
 is threatened, or by insisting upon it, and executing the fierce- 
 ness of his wrath. The former of these is so very inglorious to 
 God, that it cannot be admitted without a suspicion of weakness. 
 Men are oftentimes obliged to acts of grace, to reverse a sen- 
 tence, and dismiss a criminal; and it is not so much an argument 
 of their goodness, as of their imperfection. They could not in 
 the making of their laws foresee the necessity there would be 
 of dropping them; and in many cases, it is more their interest 
 to release an olTender, than it is to destroy him. They pardon 
 because they cannot help it, and drop the terrors that they dare 
 not execute: and so their laws are often repealed or dispensed 
 with, and the penalties they declare are no more than the " blast 
 of a terrible one," a mere " storm against a wall," Isa. xxv. 4. 
 
 But all these shuffling ways are dishonourable to him, who 
 '•'is the rock, and his work is perfect; a God of truth, and with- 
 out iniquity, just and right is he," Deut. xxxii. 4. If his law 
 is what he will not execute, to what purpose did he give it } 
 Either he foreknew the sentence would be discharged, or he did 
 not. To say he did not, but that several things happen in the 
 course of life that he could not foresee, is to deny that his un- 
 derstanding is infinite, Psal. cxlvii. 5; for, '\{ he is the Father 
 
240 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 of lights, he must be without any variableness or shadow of 
 turning, James i. 17. 
 
 And then if he really knew that here was a threatening added 
 that would never be accomplished, why should so rash a word 
 come out of his mouth? That be far from the Judge of all the 
 earth, Gen. xviii, 25, to trifle with his creatures; or to make the 
 terrible things that he says in righteousness, a great noise about 
 nothing. The Lord is righteous, Psal. Ixv. 5, both in giving 
 the command, and in taking vengeance: it is ever true of our 
 God, and ever glorious to him, that " he will by no means clear 
 the guilty," Exod. xxxiv. 17. 
 
 Now, if there is a satisfaction to be made, upon the ground 
 of which we are pardoned, it must be either by ourselves, or by 
 a surety; either ive or he are to find out a ransom. If ive can 
 do it, it must be only one of these two ways, either by our active 
 or passive obedience. Our active obedience, though we were 
 able to make it perfect, is no more than it ought to be : it may 
 reach to the demands of the law, but not to the breaches of it. 
 Doing a present work, is no discharge to a former debt : duty 
 can never be an atonement for sin. " He that offends in one 
 point, is guilty of all," James ii. 10. And if a person does not 
 "continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, 
 he is accursed," Gal. iii. 10. A single failure in a single article 
 lays him under a condemnation. 
 
 To say that he accepts of what we ought to do, as an equiva- 
 lent to what we ought to suffer, is to m,ake void the law, -Rom. 
 iii. 30, and God forbid that we should do so; for if my duty is 
 to answer all the ends of my punishment, it confounds the whole 
 nature of actions: nor can it be a rational scheme, without sup- 
 posing that the punishment is quite abolished; and that amounts 
 to no less than if we should sa^^, that God's justice is an attribute 
 to be totally neglected; that though all the rest of them should 
 sit upon a throne of glory, yet this is cast out like the king of 
 Babylon, " as an abominable branch," Isa. xiv. 19, as a perfec- 
 tion no longer to be regarded. But this will never pass in hea- 
 ven, where the method of praise is already settled : " Just and 
 true are all thy ways, thou King of saints," Rev. xv. 3. " The 
 heavens shall declare his righteousness," Psal. xcvii. 6 ; he will 
 always appear to be "the holy and the just One." And as 
 " the pleasure of the Lord," Isa, liii. 6, has prospered in the hand 
 of Christ, so one head of that pleasure is " for his righteousness' 
 sake," Isa. xlii. 21. 
 
 So that, I take it for granted, our salvation is, some way or 
 other, become a righteous thing with God, what he does with 
 a reputation to his equity. As tve have sinned, Rom. iii. 23, 
 and that sin is the transgression of the laiv, 1 John iii. 4, so the 
 law is to be magnified when the sin is pardoned: that can never 
 be by our obedience; for, whatever law it is that gives hfe, 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 241 
 
 <' verily righteousness is to be by that law," Gal. iii. 21. It must 
 ihen be by our punishment ; and there are but two ways of 
 allowing tiiis, which I believe will appear to be equally trifling. 
 
 If the punishment is complete, there is no pardon for us: if it 
 is not, there is no satisfaction to God. As duty consists in all 
 that the law commands, so vengeance comprehends all that the 
 law has threatened. 
 
 To talk of God's accepting our imperfect obedience, instead 
 of what he has required, is to make him guilty of breaking the 
 law, as well as us: we do it by a disobedieuce, and he by a dis- 
 pensation. And to say that he will receive an imperfect pun- 
 ishment, instead of what he has spoken of, makes the threaten- 
 ing no more than great swelling words of vanity, mere wind 
 and bluster, 
 
 I can, therefore, with all the use of my reason, see nothing 
 but a heap of briers and thorns, a long train of entanglement, 
 in denying the satisfaction of Christ ; I must suppose that God 
 made a law, which afterwards he thought fit to drop ; that he 
 published a threatening without any design of an execution ; 
 and that had he foreseen the difficulty, he would never have 
 done it; with all the knotty twisted perplexities that follow, that 
 he is changeable, undetermined, 7iot of one mmr/, Job xxhi. 13, 
 but that any may turn him. 
 
 Or I must thiiik, on the other hand, that he has treated the 
 law as an institution, and his justice as an attribute; and that 
 the reparation he has made to the one, and the honour he has 
 given to the other, is by "the obedience of that one Man, through 
 whom many are made righteous," Rom. v. 19. No "tittle of 
 the law is to fail," Matt. v. 18, not a grain of the threatening is 
 to be lost. Had the execution fallen upon us, there could be 
 no pardon, and therefore it must be upon another: and we are 
 "delivered from going down to the pit, because he has found a 
 ransom," Job xxxiii. 24. But I shall have room enough, with- 
 in the verge of this text, to clear up the doctrine contained in it. 
 
 I would observe, that it is all revelation from first to last. 
 The things that we meet with here, are not ivhat man's ivis- 
 dom teaches, 1 Cor. ii. 4. It is above the light of nature, and 
 either the invention or the capacity of reason; that can neither 
 contrive nor receive it. The day spring, by which we have the 
 discovery, came from on high, Luke i. 78. Every part of the 
 proposition is the pure mystery of God, Rev. xi., which comes 
 from the opening of the temple in heaven. 
 
 First, It is one of those things that we could never have 
 known, that there was such a person as God's oivn Son. Sup- 
 posing that nature and reason could have worked it out by a 
 laborious argument, that "there is an eternal power and God- 
 head," Rom. i. 20, that it is "he who gathers the wind in his 
 fist, and binds up the waters in a garment;" yet "' what is his 
 
 31 
 
242 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 name, and what is his Son's name? if thou canst tell," Prov. 
 XXX. 4. That there was "•one always with him, daily his 
 delight," Prov. viii. 30, " the brightness of his glory," Rom. xi. 
 33, "the only begotten of the Father," John i. 18; these are 
 titles that this world would never have heard of, if they were 
 not revealed from another. 
 
 Secondly, It is no less amazing, when we read of his own 
 Son, that instead of being told on earth what is always seen 
 in heaven, that he lies in the bosom of the Father, it should be 
 said. He did not spare him. The account given us of a Son, 
 is no other than what agrees to an enemy, a rebel, a son that 
 causeth shame: that he who is the Prince of life in nature, 
 Acts iii. 15, should be subject to death by Providence; '' the 
 depth of the riches of God! How unsearchable are his judg- 
 ments," Rom. xi. 33. 
 
 Thirdly, It is still further out of our depth, that one hated 
 by his nation, envied by his rivals, deserted by his friends, be- 
 trayed by men, and insulted by devils, should have this whole 
 calamity devolved upon him by a divine appointment: that the 
 Father of mercies, instead of protecting him from the wicked- 
 ness of the age, should deliver him up to it. Here are counsels 
 and decrees, predictions and figures, orders and resolutions, that 
 thus it must be: it is not possible that the cup should pass from 
 him, but the will of the Lord shall be done: and as we are en- 
 compassed on every side with his marvellous works, the last is 
 of a piece with all the rest ; that is. 
 
 Fourthly, That this should be for vs. His sufferings are 
 considered as ours; in order to which our guilt is regarded as 
 if it was his: "He made him to be sin for us, who knew no 
 sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 
 2 Cor. V. 21. If men object against this part of the doctrine, 
 they had as good to do it against all the other. And, indeed, 
 there are two things that may be observed in the whole scheme 
 of revelation. 
 
 1st. That quite through the projected way, there is a pure and 
 perpetual tribute of glory to God: he does it all that he alone 
 may have the praise. For this reason, the Son is the person, 
 his death is the price, a divine decree is the establishment, and 
 a divine imputation the effect. We have no share in finding the 
 surety, or bearing the burden, or fixing the appointment, or giv- 
 ing the pardon. " God is all and in all," 1 Cor. xv. 2S. And 
 as he did it in no other view than of his own glory, so it shall 
 have no other event. He did it by himself; he did it for him- 
 self. " We are to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he 
 has made us accepted in the Beloved," Eph. i. 6. 
 
 2dly. There is nothing can be more opposite to the nature of 
 man. His first iniquity was a falling off from God, and his pre- 
 sent corruption is only that apostasy continued; a sliding back 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 243 
 
 by a perpetual backsliding. They would be o.^ Gods, Gen. iii. 
 5, and nothing can be more against the grain, than to tell them, 
 that 11 ever they are saved, it must be as creatures; for whicli 
 reason you see all the powers of nature in an uproar, not only 
 against the law of God, but against his gospel. 
 
 The apostle has ranged the principles of infidelity in order: 
 they begin with an opposition to the person who comes to save 
 us: they "trample under foot the Son of God," Ileb. x. 29, de- 
 nying his Deity when they dare, and concealing it when they 
 dare not; sometimes making it a falsehood, sometimes a figure, 
 and sometimes an impertinence : and as they are in the way of 
 rebelling, they go on to count the blood of the covenaiit an 
 unholy, or common thing; as if it was not enough to take 
 away'his Deity, unless, at the same time, they profaned his sa- 
 crifice : and, lastly, that the notion may run into practice, ''They 
 do despite to the Spirit of grace." 
 
 In what I have already considered, the text gives us plain 
 matter of fact, 
 
 1. That he who came to save us is the Son of God; that is, 
 One equal to the Father in nature ; but, to wave all that, and 
 give a little scope to our argument, he was certainly equal in 
 holiness; " He did no sin, neither was guile in his mouth," 1 Pet. 
 ii. 22. He was harmless in his actions, undefilcd in his person, 
 Heb. vii. 26, and yet, 
 
 2. That he had all the miseries that were ever endured by 
 shame and trouble ; a terror of soul, and a torment of body, and 
 that without any allay; as if he must wring out the very dregs 
 of wrath, and have the last drop of the cup of trembling, Psal. 
 Ixxv. 8. There was no sorrow like to his sorroiu. Very often 
 in judgment " God remembers mercy," Hab. iii. 2, but here he 
 had " forgotten to be gracious," Psal. Ixxvii. 9, and to his own 
 Son had shut up his tender mercies. He was so far from spa- 
 ring him from his agonies, that he did not spare him in them; 
 his mercy was clean gone. 
 
 3. This was not a short and sudden thing; he does not use 
 him as we should have expected he would have done a dear 
 Son, a pleasant child, in speaking against him for a moment, 
 Jer. xxxi. 20, but he is delivered up in a decree that was slow, 
 and big, and pained to bring forth. 
 
 Now, if the best person is to have the worst lot, and that by 
 a righteous appointment, what was it for? The question brings 
 us into a narrow compass; we are inclosed; here is a wall on 
 either side, there is no turning to the right hand, or to the left, 
 Numb. xxii. 26. We cannot say any thing against the /ac/; 
 and therefore what can we say about the cause? If the answer 
 of the apostle will not be taken, I do not see but we must go 
 without one. If it is not /or us all, it is impossible to say what 
 it is for. Let us therefore oblige those whose notions make 
 
244 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 them enemies to the cross of Christ, and suppose there was no 
 salvation of a chosen people to be obtained this \vay. Let our 
 imaginations do as the dove did, when it flew out of Noah's ark, 
 Gen. viii. 9, rove, and soar, and wander about, and try if there 
 is any rest for the sole of the foot, besides what the Holy Spirit 
 has given us. 
 
 1. Will any say that God punishes in an arbitrary loay, that 
 Jie afflicts willingly and grieves the children ofinen? Lam. iii. 
 33; that when these miseries came rolling upon Christ, he had 
 uo regard to sin at all? that " he will destroy the perfect and the 
 wicked, and laugh at the trial of the innocent?" Job ix. 22, 23. 
 This I hope, v:e shall not dare to do, nor they with whom we 
 differ, because it is as contrary to their error, as it is to the truth 
 itself. They give out themselves to be the advocates of the di- 
 vine mercy, and put this compliment upon their scheme, that it 
 proclaims the Lord to be gracious. Well, if so, he can take no 
 pleasure in the misery of his creatures. 
 
 This is saying worse of the gospel, than we can say of death 
 and daynnation, Jude 7. They in hell do know that the ven- 
 geance of eternal fire is for the punishment of sin : and that any 
 one should endure what they do for nothing at all, that this 
 should be the lot of him, who "knew no sin," 2 Cor. v. 21, is 
 as much against the honour of his goodness, as it is of his jus- 
 tice: For, 
 
 2. There will be no pretence that he has any iniquity of his 
 own that made him liable to it. The prophet tells us, that when 
 the Messiah is cut off, it is not for himself, Dan. ix. 26, and I 
 am persuaded this is a point that nobody will dispute with him. 
 The Jews had really more excuse for themselves, than we can 
 have iox providence, if you do not comprehend in the death of 
 Christ the sin of his people. They say to Pilate, " if he were 
 not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him to thee," 
 Johfi xvin. 30. Thus they thought, thus they believed; through 
 ignorance they did it, Acts iii. 17. But such a word as this 
 could never come from the mouth of divine justice. God knew 
 his innocence, it was impossible for him to mistake it; and there- 
 fore though he is made an offering for sin, it cannot be for his 
 own. He declared him to be a righteous servant, even when 
 he appointed him to bear our iiiiquities, Isa. liii. 11. 
 
 3. Was it needful that he should be thus used to " teach him 
 obedience by the things that he suffered?" Heb. v. 7. Many of 
 the saints are destitute, afflicted, and tormented, Heb. xi. 37, 
 and God throws them into that lot, for the trial and the lustre of 
 their graces, that they may appear true, and may grow perfect. 
 Thus when we hear of the patience of Job, we see the end of 
 the Lord, James v. 11. That good man wanted to be made 
 better: and, upon the whole, the Lord was very pitiful, and 
 of tender mercy. He closed up the dispensation with a credit 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 245 
 
 to himself, and with an improvement to his servant. Till the 
 end of his troubles, he had only "heard of God, by the hearing 
 of the ear; but then his eye saw him, upon which he abhorred 
 himself, and repented in dust and ashes," Job xlii. 3, 6. 
 
 But was there any thing of this pity and tender mercy in 
 the death of Christ? Did the Lord turn again his captivity? 
 Did he save him from death? No: he not only left him to his 
 enemies' hands, but left him in them; he then forsook him. 
 And, 
 
 Was there any occasion for Christ to learn more of God, to 
 see him better than he had done? No surely. The Messiah 
 was not cut off either for the punishment of his sins, or the im- 
 provement of his graces; and therefore his being thus delivered 
 wa.s for Its all; as God says, " For the transgression of my peo- 
 ple was he stricken," Isa. liii. 8. There are two things that I 
 would observe here : 
 
 1. The substitution of his person; he was given tip for us^ to 
 suffer what we should. 
 
 2. The extent of his design, that it is for us all; " the house- 
 hold of faith," Gal. vi. 10, "the whole family in earth and hea- 
 ven," Eph. iii. 15. 
 
 1. The words are as plain as any exposition can make them; 
 he gave himself up for us all. There is no eastern figure, or 
 outlandish form of speech; no peculiarities or idioms, of which 
 we are to fetch the sense from afar. We may understand the 
 phrase without any vain knowledge, or "filling our belly with 
 the east wind," Job xv. 2. That he died is certain, that it was 
 not for himself, is evident. To deny the former is to lie against 
 all history; to affirm the latter is to blaspheme against all good- 
 ness. And therefore it is fur us; that is, for those who are his, 
 "whom the Father had given him," John vi. 37, his children, 
 his charge. It was either for our sins, that he bore the punish- 
 ment that was due to us, or only for our example, that we 
 might act as he did. They who are against the former, intrench 
 themselves within the latter: I shall therefore give up my 
 thoughts to these two things: 
 
 First, Show you the force and wickedness of the one inter- 
 pretation. And, 
 
 Secondly, The necessity, clearness, and comfort of the other. 
 
 1. Let us see how far we are able to go with this exposition, 
 that the death of Christ was for our example only; that w^e 
 may be taught of him to be so patient to men, so resigned to 
 God, so loose from this world, and so pressing to another. That 
 we are to learn of him, is true, and imitate his behaviour, who 
 " when he was reviled, reviled not again, and when he sullered, 
 threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth right- 
 eously," 1 Pet. ii. 23. The question is not, whether this is a part 
 of his design in dying, but whether it is all? Does it include the 
 
246 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 whole counsel of God in that article ? I conceive not ; be- 
 cause, 
 
 (1.) If no more was meant by it, there was no occasion that 
 the Son of God should have been the pattern, or so great an 
 extremity of death, the copy. A lower person, and more abated 
 agonies, would have sufficiently answered the end ; had he 
 never come into the world at all, we should have been " encom- 
 passed about with a cloud of witnesses," Heb. xii. 1, " My bre- 
 thren, we might have taken the prophets who have spoken to 
 us in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, 
 and of patience," James v. 10. God has given us these lessons 
 in abundance ; the Scripture is crowded with the trials of that 
 faith, by which the elders have obtained a good report, Heb. 
 xi. 2, and they that follow them may have a fair copy: so that 
 to what purpose was all this waste? Why should God do a 
 thing that might have been spared, without any damage or 
 scantiness to the Bible? 
 
 (2.) I cannot think that he was an example in the svfferini^s 
 themselves, whatever he is in his behaviour under them. I am 
 sure to call him so, is the most dreadful doctrine that ever was 
 preached to his poor afflicted followers. That they may be used 
 as he was, is true, and that they ought to act as he did, in many 
 cases, but not in all of them. There are several important ar- 
 ticles in his trouble, that never can be ours, and we may say 
 with comfort, they never shall be. As, 
 
 [1.] The necessity of a submission to the wrath of man. He, 
 indeed, could have delivered himself from the unrighteous sen- 
 tence, and he did not do it; but I deny that this is our duty. If 
 I can resist an unlawful execution, I ought: if I had the strength 
 of Samson, I am bound to use it against the oppression of the 
 enemy. Christ is the only instance of passive obedience that 
 ever was, or ever should be. He who made them fall back- 
 ivards by a. ivord, John xviii. 6, could have done the same with 
 the arm of his power, the right hand that is full of Majesty: 
 but thus it must be that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. The 
 only reason why the people of God did not wrest themselves 
 out of the jaws of death, was because they could not ; so that, 
 in this particular, he is no example, nor has he obliged us to be 
 the servants ofi^ulers, Isa. xlix. 7. 
 
 [2.] His bearing the wrath of God, is an article of dying pe- 
 culiar to himself. He is no example this way : it can never be 
 said of any martyr, that " he became a curse," Gal. iii. 1 3. God 
 does not apply to any of tbem what the sentence of the law has 
 said of him, " Cursed is the man that is hanged on a tree," 
 Deut. xxi. 23. It is not guilt that made them die; there is no 
 load of iniquity upon thetn, as there was upon him ; they satisfy 
 no law; they do not obtain by this execution any pardon for 
 themselves, much less for others; and therefore, 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 247 
 
 [3.] The horror that lay upon liis human soul at that time, 
 is a tiling in which he was so for from being our Example, that 
 he is our Deliverer, They shall none of them go out of the 
 world as he did, complaining that God had forsaken them, 
 Matt, xxvii. 46. Tiiey are usually full of joy with the light 
 of his countenance. 
 
 And, by the way, this may give me an occasion to consider 
 another end which the Socinians assign to the death of Christ, 
 that it was in testimony to his cause and doctrine. To which I 
 answer: 
 
 If you consider this abstracted from his resurrection, it is no 
 dishonour to say, that there is scarce a martyr from whose death 
 we may not see more reality in the Christian religion, than the 
 world could do from that of Christ; for if you look upon things 
 only by the outward appearance, his cross was enough to stum- 
 ble all mankind. Well might they call it " the offence of the 
 cross," Gal. v. 11. To see a person go out of the world, dis- 
 claimed by men, disowned by God, is amazing. 
 
 Had he gone off, as others do, in a "chariot of fire," 2 Kings 
 ii. 11, not '"loving their lives to the death," Rev. xii. 11; had 
 he cried out as Stephen did, " I see the heavens opened, and the 
 glory of God, and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God," Acts 
 vii. 5Q, it might have " stilled the enemy and the avenger," Psal. 
 viii. 2. But to hear him crying out after a departed God, must 
 rather affright those about him; excepting in that one instance 
 of his giving up the ghost with a full voice, by which he ap- 
 peared to be the Prince and Proprietor of life. God forbid we 
 should die as he did, either in darkness or in desolation; angels 
 standing off, the Father withdrawing himself; under every tor- 
 ment upon his body, and every anguish upon his soul. 
 
 [4.] Such an exposition as this quite defeats the whole end 
 of the apostle's argument in my text. He brings it in by way 
 of support to what he had said, " If God be for us, who can be 
 against us?" that is, nothing can hurt us, though all the world 
 should be against us. Now, how does this appear? because, 
 " having given up his own Son for us all, how shall he not with 
 him freely give us all things?" 
 
 If Christ was only our example in dying, I am so far from 
 concluding that God will give me all things, that I should rather 
 fear he would give me nothing ; for, if he uses me as he used 
 him in a dying hour, I shall have no comfort or evidence that 
 he \sfor me; and the case here mentioned, would rather be my 
 horror than my hope. I shall never pray with regard to the 
 manner of our Lord's sufferings: " Let me die the death of the 
 righteous, and let my latter end be like his," Num. xxiii. 10. 
 I never desire to " tread the wine-press of the wrath of God," 
 Rev. xix. 15; no, it is our privilege that " Christ did that alone, 
 
248 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 and that of the people there was none with him," Isa. Ixiii. 3, 
 and of liis people, there shall be jione after him. 
 
 I therefore conclude, that we are, indeed, to know "the fel- 
 lowship of his sufferings," Phil. iii. 10, and be "conformable to 
 his death," and thus to be "crucified with Christ," Gal, ii. 20, 
 to be " buried with him in baptism unto death," Col. ii. 12, but 
 yet when he was given up for us, it must be to another purpose ; 
 that is, 
 
 2. That he became a Substitute, in our room or stead. The 
 first covenant said, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt 
 surely die," Gen. ii. 16, 17. And accordingly there is an angel 
 with a flcnning sword, Gen. iii. 24, drawn out against Adam 
 in person, if he dared to return. But in the nev/ covenant " this 
 sword is awakened against another," Zech. xiii. 7, not the flock, 
 but the Shepherd: not the man who was God's enemy, but the 
 JMan that was his Felloiv, his Equal, and with whom he took 
 the sweetest counsel. " The chastisement of our peace was 
 upon him, and by his stripes we are healed," Isa. liii, 5. 
 
 (1.) This is the plain and easy, the unforced and natural sense 
 of the words: if they mean not this, they mean nothing. To 
 darken a visible text, is "talking in words without knowledge," 
 Job xxxviii. 2. He that stands for me, stands in my place ; he 
 that acts for me, acts in my stead: he is what I should have been : 
 he does what I should have done: he that is given or appointed 
 for me, is but ivhere I should be. To force a common sentence 
 .is persecution; it is drawing the gold of the sanctuary into little 
 threads and wires, and using a text as Saul did a disciple, co77i~ 
 2ielling it to blaspheme. Acts xxvi. 11. 
 
 (2.) The doctrine of Christ's satisfaction is no single, scatter- 
 ed, independent article, but agrees to the whole stream of the 
 Bible. We have not this truth as the small drop of a bucket, 
 but as the sound of many waters: I will just read them to you, 
 though in the whole discourse there has been a perpetual distri- 
 bution of scriptures upon the argument. 
 
 It is this that we have the Bible for: it lies at the heart of all 
 revelation; for as salvation was the only thing that God had to 
 tell us, so the bruising of Him, who is the seed of the woman, 
 was the only way, Gen. iii. 15. This is the righteousness of 
 God, that is ivitnessed by the laiu and the prophets, Rom, iii. 
 21. Ever since he made a path for the just, this is the light 
 that shone upon it, till it came to a perfect day. 
 
 Whatever I have said upon this subject, has been with many 
 quotations from the word of God: I will therefore only give you 
 some, that I do not remember to have mentioned already, and 
 that without any enlargement upon them; by which it must 
 appear, that he who denies this doctrine, will have work enough 
 upon his hands; he is to fight it out with all the Bible: though 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 249 
 
 they pretend to make a single text or two pass for no more than 
 water spilt upon the ground; yet, " What will they do in the 
 swelling of Jordan?" Jer. xii. 5. 
 
 Let any one judge what the death of Christ was for, who 
 does but consider what Isaiah says: "Surely, he has borne our 
 griefs, and carried our sorrows. All we like sheep have gone 
 astrajr, but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. It 
 pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief, and make 
 his soul an offering for sin. By his knowledge shall my right- 
 eous Servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 
 He poured out his soul to death, he was numbered with trans- 
 gressors, he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for 
 transgressors," Isa. liii. 4 — 12. 
 
 Thus Isaiah spake of him, and thus he spake of himself: 
 " The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many," 
 Mark x. 45, His apostles are witnesses of these things : " God 
 has commended his love towards us, in that whilst we were yet 
 sinners, Christ died for us," Rom. v. 8. " When we were with- 
 out strength, Christ died for the ungodly," Rom. viii. 3. " God 
 sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, by a sacrifice for 
 sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law 
 may be fulfilled in us. Christ has redeemed us from the curse 
 of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal. iii. 13. "Christ 
 has loved us, and given himself for us," Eph. v. 2. " There is 
 one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 
 who gave himself a ransom for all," 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. " By his 
 own blood he entered into the holy place, having obtained eter- 
 nal redemption for us," Heb. ix. 12. "The blood of Christ, 
 who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to 
 God, shall purge our conscience," Heb. ix. 14. "His own self 
 bare our sins, in his own body on the tree, by whose stripes we 
 are healed," 1 Pet. ii. 24. " He once suffered for our sins, the 
 just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God," 1 Pet. iii. 
 18. "God has loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation 
 for our sins," 1 John iv. 10. But the time would fail me to 
 give you all of them. 
 
 To this I may add, the whole course of the dispensation that 
 we are under. It is the voice of every ordinance. We are 
 baptized with the baptism of repentance for the remission of 
 sins: that is, "as many of us as are baptized into Christ, are 
 baplized into his death,'"' Rom. vi. 3. We hereby declare our 
 belief, that he was "delivered for our offences," Rom. iv. 25, 
 and rose again for our justification. 
 
 What is preaching the gospel, but preaching " the cross of 
 Christ?" It is not only to tell a melancholy story, but to "lift 
 up the Son of man," John iii. 14, as the "serpent was lifted up 
 in the wilderness," Num. xxi. 9, and say, " Behold the Lamb 
 of God, who taketh away the sins of the world," John i. 29. 
 
250 OF Christ's sufferings. 
 
 The Lord's Supper, in both its parts, is a frequent memorial 
 of the doctrine ; as often as we do it, it is " in remembrance of 
 him," 1 Cor. xi. 24. The bread shows his body that was " bro- 
 ken for lis," the cup is the New Testament " in his blood;" and 
 therefore laying aside the imputation of his righteousness, is a 
 sponge to the whole institution, and leaves us in all our worship 
 to be walking in a vain show. 
 
 Nor do I ever expect to see the Bible defended in the hands 
 of those by whom it is thus defeated. It is in vain to set out 
 Jesus, unless it be as " a propitiation for our sins through faith 
 in his blood," Rom. iii. 25; without this our preaching is in 
 vain, and your faith i)i vain. To say that he did not bear our 
 sins, is to make the "cross of Christ of none effect," Gal. v. 4. 
 
 (3.) This alone can answer the cries of an aivakened con- 
 science. " Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow 
 myself before the most high God ?" Micah vi. 6. Not with 
 "thousands of rams," but with " the precious blood of Christ," 
 1 Pet, i. 19, as of that one Lamb, who is without blemish and 
 without spot : not with " ten thousand rivers of oil," but in 
 and through him whose name is as " ointment poured forth," 
 Cant. i. 3, and who offered himself as a " sacrifice of a sweet 
 smelling savour," Eph. v. 2 ; and it may be said of heaven itself, 
 that the whole house is filled with the odour of the ointment, 
 John xii. 3. This speaks peace for us, and speaks peace to us. 
 It is the blood of Christ that sprinkles the mercy-seat above, 
 and the conscience here below, that it may serve the living and 
 true God. 
 
 It is not duties that will do it; for when a person is made to 
 abhor himself, which is alwaj'-s the case in a thorough convic- 
 tion, he will see there is no bringing a " clean thing out of an 
 unclean;" Job xiv. 4, that if ourselves are an unclean thing, 
 our righteousness is as filthy rags, Isa. Ixiv. 6. 
 
 To say that the doctrine of justification by Christ is an enemy 
 to holiness, is one falsehood; and to say that the opposite opinion 
 does promote it, I am afraid, is another, if we may judge of the 
 case by men's hves. But this we know to be true, that in all 
 the floatings, heavings, and tossings of uneasy conscience, the 
 blood of Christ is our only hope, our only anchor, sure and 
 steadfast, 
 
 (4.) The providence of God made this doctrine to be the glory 
 of our Reformation. It was in a gradual opposition to the 
 righteousness of Christ that Popery began to live; and in the 
 noble revival of the truth it began to die. When they set up 
 justification by works, their monks and masses, their penances 
 and pilgrimages, their fasts and fopperies, their confessions and 
 absolutions, their crosses and cringes, their tyranny and trum- 
 pery, were the generation of vipers that issued from this womb 
 And therefore when God poured out a spirit of reformation upon 
 
OF Christ's sufferings. 251 
 
 the land, it was not only in scouring the churches of imagery, 
 and rumbling among their idols, but the axe was laid to the 
 root of the tree; Christ alone was "exalted in that day," Isa. ii. 
 17, and the wicked one consumed away by the "brightness of 
 his coming," 2 Thess. ii. 8: then were " our priests clothed with 
 righteousness, and all the saints shouted for joy," Psal. cxxii. 16. 
 
 And when this doctrine is denied, the Protestant cause is a 
 going. There is the substance of Popery; such people have got 
 the stump of Dagon, they want only the palms of his hands to 
 be set on again. 
 
 Go into Poland, as the Jews were ordered to Shiloh, Jer, vii. 
 22, and see what an angry God has done there for the iniquity 
 of his people. Socinianism made a gap for Popery: their Ra- 
 covian vanities were the Roman vehicle. Wherever the right- 
 eousness of Christ goes out, the man of sin comes in. The 
 Arians, who denied his Deity, prepared the way for Mahomet; 
 and they who denied his satisfaction, made room for Antichrist. 
 Thus, as they went a whoring from their God, they fell to the 
 mother of harlots and abominations. 
 
 2. As he was delivered up for us, so remember it was for us 
 all. Not the whole human race, as has been thoroughly argued 
 in this lecture; but the word is to be taken in the same compass 
 that our Saviour gives it, when he says to the Father, " All mine 
 are thine," and "all thine are mine." Johnxvii. 10. The mean- 
 ing is, that, 
 
 (1.) The greatest believer will need it. The chiefest of all the 
 apostles desired to be " found in him, having on the righteous- 
 ness that is of God by faith," Phil. iii. 9. And, 
 
 (2.) The meanest shall have it. He gathers "the lambs in 
 his arms," Isa. xl. 11. From hence he has his praises above; 
 " To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
 blood, be glory and dominion." Rev. i. 5. When we come " to 
 see the King in his beauty, and behold the land that is afar off," 
 we shall find indeed, "the sword upon his thigh;" but, how- 
 ever, "his garment is dipt in blood," Rev. xix. 13. It is the 
 doctrine we now admire, and we shall hear it rung through the 
 palace of the King. There will be a confluence of persons and 
 praises from the whole compass of time, and the whole circle of 
 nature ; all of them together pouring in their eternal melody in 
 those words; 
 
 Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us 
 to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
 people, and nation. 
 
A PLAIN SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT 
 
 SINNER'S JUSTIFICATION BEFORE GOD. 
 
 IN FOUR SEK3I0iVS. 
 
 y 
 
 By MR. ROBERT BRAGGE, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Galatians ii. 16. — Knowing' that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but bj the faith of Jesus Christ ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that 
 we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; 
 for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 
 
 These words are like an alabaster box of precious ointment, 
 which, if rightly opened, and applied, will, under the influences 
 of the Spirit, fill every believer's soul with the perfume thereof. 
 In them the Spirit of truth, as he is Christ's glorifier, both lifts 
 up a standard against errors of all sorts, in the doctrine of a sin- 
 ner's justification before God; and holds out a lamp of gospel 
 light, to direct awakened souls into the true way of gospel jus- 
 tification: for they tell us how the apostles and primitive saints 
 were all of tliem justified, and that negatively; " Knowing that 
 a man is not justified by the works of the law." All taught of 
 God, in primitive times, learned this great lesson ; that man, in 
 his low and lost estate, is not justified by the works of the law: 
 what the law is, and Avhat the works are, of which the apostle 
 here speaks, is placed in the clearest light, by the twenty-first 
 verse of the following chapter; " For if there had been a law 
 given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should 
 have been by the law," Gal, iii, 21; which plainly intimates, 
 that no such law was given in the apostle's days; and may we 
 not be assured, that no such law has been given since? So that 
 these words bar a sinner's being justified before God, by the 
 works of any law whatever, whether old or new, moral or cere- 
 monial, perfect or remedial. 
 
 Then follows another lesson, which all who were in Christ's 
 
 252 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 253 
 
 school learned, in those early days; without which the former 
 would have driven awakened sinners to despair, " but by the 
 faith of Jesus Christ," that is, which has Christ for its object; 
 as is evident from what follows: "Even we have believed in 
 Jesus Christ." Awakened sinners, in that day, were not left to 
 sink under their load of guilt at mount Sinai, but were directed 
 to mount Zion, and brought to Christ, as he is revealed there- 
 on; for so it follows, "Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, 
 that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the 
 works of the law :" then is added a further confirmation of the 
 foregoing assertion ; " For by the works of the law shall no flesh 
 be justified." 
 
 In speaking therefore to this great scripture, so expressive of 
 the faith and actings of primitive saints, I shall observe the fol- 
 lowing easy method : 
 
 I. I shall show what it is for a guilty sinner to be justified be- 
 fore God, the Judge of all. 
 
 II. I shall inquire whence it is that any of Adam's fallen pos- 
 terity are justified. 
 
 III. I shall show how it is that sinners are justified. 
 
 IV. I shall endeavour to guard you against errors of all sorts, 
 relating to a sinner's justification before God. 
 
 I. I shall show what it is for a sinner to be justified \)eioxQ 
 God : where I shall briefly assign the difference between gospel 
 justification, and gospel sanctification; the blending of which 
 together is a Popish error, very pernicious, and of fatal conse- 
 quence, as it militates against the Protestant doctrine of imputed 
 righteousness, and casts a very dark veil on some of the bright- 
 est parts of the apostle Paul's epistles ; and which is worst of 
 all, tends to eclipse the glory of Christ, as he is the end of the 
 law for righteousness, to every one that believes ; who is first 
 made righteousness, and so sanctification to us: " Of him are ye 
 in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, righteous- 
 ness, and sanctification, and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30 : which 
 order of God relates to the application of salvation, and ought 
 not to be inverted, nor broken in upon, by such as preach the 
 gospel. 
 
 Gospel justification is a change of state and condition in the 
 eye of the law, and of the lawgiver; whereas gospel sanctifica- 
 tion is a blessed conformity of heart and life to the law, or will 
 of the lawgiver. The first is a relative change, from being 
 guilty to be righteous ; the other is a real change, from being 
 filthy to be holy: by the one we are made near to God; by the 
 other we are made like to him. By being justified, of aliens we 
 are made children ; by being sanctified, the enmity of the heart 
 is slain, and the sinner made not only a faithful loyal subject, 
 but a loving dutiful child. This may be set in the clearest light 
 by the following simile. Our children, the day they are born, 
 
254 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 are as much our children as they are ever after; but they are 
 many years growing up into a state of manhood; their hkeness 
 to us, as it respects the mind, as well as the body, is daily in- 
 creasing: thus a king's first-born son is heir apparent to the 
 crown, whilst lying in the cradle: after growth adds nothing to 
 his title ; but it does to his fitness to govern, and to succeed his 
 father. Our right to heaven comes not in at the door of our 
 sanctification, but at that of our justification; but our meetness 
 for heaven does. By Christ's righteousness, being upon us, we 
 have a right to the inheritance ; and by Christ's image being 
 drawn upon us, we have our meetness. 
 
 I shall next observe, that to be justified, is more than barely 
 to be forgiven; for to be enthled to, and brought to heaven, must 
 be more than to be saved from hell. A man may be brought in 
 not guilty at the king's bar, without being advanced in the 
 king's court: a prince may pardon a traitor without conferring 
 on him any further favours. God's justified ones, are not only 
 forgiven, according to the riches of the Father's grace, but they 
 are " blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places," 
 according to the largeness of the Father's heart. Christ, as the 
 Lord our righteousness, has brought in such a way of knowing 
 and of enjoying God, as the first Adam and his covenant were 
 utter strangers to; to wit, a seeing God face to face, in the pre- 
 sence chamber of heaven, and a being filled with God, even 
 with all his fulness. God's justified ones are not barely to live, 
 but to reign in hfe by Christ Jesus. 
 
 Now, to prevent mistakes, as well as to clear up several texts 
 of Scripture, I would observe that we read in Scripture of a 
 two-fold justification, neither of which is the justification I am 
 to speak to. We read of a comparative justification; " The Lord 
 said unto me, backsliding Israel hath justified herself, more than 
 treacherous Judah," Jer. iii. 11. Of this we also read; "I tell 
 you, this man," (that is the publican,) " went down to his house 
 justified, rather than the other," Luke xviii. 14. We also read, 
 in Scripture, of a declarative justification: " By thy words thou 
 shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned," 
 Mat. xii. 37. The saints all of them speak the language, not of 
 Ashdod, but of Canaan, and by so doing they evidence them- 
 selves to be of the number of God's justified ones; whereas 
 Christless sinners speak the language not of heaven, but of hell. 
 Of this declarative justification the apostle James speaks, in'the 
 second chapter of his epistle; who, in this view, may easily be 
 reconciled with the apostle Paul. The charge of sin brought 
 against us by the law of God, and that of being hypocrites, of 
 which the saints are falsely accused by the men of the world, 
 are two different charges. By good works the believer vindi- 
 cates himself from the latter, as the apostle James did; but it is 
 not by any v/orks of righteousness that the saint, though an 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 255 
 
 apostle, hath done, or can do, that he is freed from the former. 
 For a guilty sinner to be justified before God, the Judge of all, 
 is more than to be either comparatively or declaratively justi- 
 fied; which is the justification I am to treat of 
 
 In doing which, I shall not consider it as it is an immanent 
 act in God: God's immanent acts are surrounded with lig?it 
 inaccessible, and full of glory; and are as far, nay, infinitely 
 further, out of the reach of our minds, than the highest star in 
 heaven is beyond the reach of our arms. As he must be a man, 
 and not an inferior being, who knows what the immanent acts 
 in man are, or how things lie in his mind and will ; and he 
 must be an angel who knows what the immanent acts of an 
 angel are; so he must be God, who knows what the immanent 
 acts in God are, or how things lie in the divine mind and will. 
 Thus God himself speaks of them: " My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord; for 
 as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
 higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts," 
 Isa. Iv. 8, 9. It must therefore be safest in this, and in all 
 other gospel doctrines, to soar no higher than the wing of the 
 word will carry us. 
 
 In the word, we read of a court held by God, as a Judge, in 
 paradise; before whom our first parents were audibly cited, 
 tried according to truth, and condemned in righteousness. God 
 also held a court on mount Sinai; the sight whereof was so 
 terrible, that Moses, though a typical mediator, quaked and 
 trembled, as did the mount on which it was held. But he now 
 holds his court on mount Zion: where it is proclaimed, as on 
 the house top, " That by Christ all who believe are justified 
 from all things, from which there was no being justified by the 
 law of Moses," Acts xiii. 39; that we are freely justified by his 
 grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus; that Christ is 
 the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believes; 
 and that we are made the righteousness of God in him: " He has 
 made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be 
 made the righteousness of God in him," Rom. x. 4, which last 
 is the amazing account we have in Scripture of a sinner's justi- 
 fication before God; which, to be sure, is the wonder of angels, 
 that man fallen so low in the first Adam, should be raised so 
 high in Christ the second; that they who are hell-deserving dust 
 and ashes in themselves, should be made the righteousness of 
 God in another. 
 
 So that for a sinner to be justified before God, is not, properly 
 speaking, for him to have the effects and fruits of Christ's pur- 
 chase imparted; for so they are in a sinner's regeneration; but 
 to have that righteousness of his, which is made up of his 
 active and passive obedience to the law of God, as a covenant, 
 imputed; by which he not only fulfilled the law, but magnified 
 
256 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 it, so as to make it infinitely honourable, as well as repaired 
 the breaches thereof: this righteousness was wrought out for us, 
 long before we had a being, but it is not to, nor upon us, in the 
 sense of the Scripture, till we believe. To talk as some have 
 done, and still do, that the etiects of this righteousness are im- 
 puted, is to speak very improperly, as well as unscripturally; 
 these are imparted, but it is the righteousness itself that is im- 
 puted : how else could it be said, as it is in Scripture, that be- 
 lievers are " made the righteousness of God, in Christ;" and that 
 in " Christ we have all righteousness for our justification?" the 
 last of wiiich is the language of the Old Testament, as the first 
 is of the New. 
 
 In the ruin brought upon us by the first Adam, not only the 
 dismal eflfects and fruits of his fall are imparted, but the guilt 
 of his first sin is imputed; he being our federal head, by the 
 same divine appointment that he was our common parent; as 
 is evident beyond all contradiction, from that great text, Rom. 
 V. IS, " Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came 
 upon all men to condemnation ; even so, by the righteousness 
 of One, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life; 
 for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so 
 by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." Let 
 the apostle Paul, who was once a Pharisee, determine whether 
 Christ's righteousness be not imputed, as well as its purchased 
 grace imparted; " That I may be found in him, not having my 
 own righteousness, which is of the law; but that which is 
 through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness v/hich is of 
 God by faith," Phil. iii. 9. Thus much may suffice for the first 
 general head. 
 
 11. I shall very briefly show lohence it is that any of Adam's 
 fallen posterity are justified. Had our first parents continued 
 steadfast in God's covenant, their justification would have been 
 owing to a righteousness of their own, wrought out by their 
 own care and industry; but our justification, who are sinners, 
 and as such are fallen infinitely short of the glory of God, must 
 be owing to another spring; even the free, abounding, super- 
 abounding grace of God. Adam's justification would have 
 been according to the dues of creation ; whereas our justifica- 
 tion is every way considered above the dues thereof; being 
 wholly of grace, and not of works. This, and no other, is the 
 account which the Scriptures give of it; •' Being justified freely 
 by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus," Rom. 
 iii. 24. In which words are joined what the Arians and Ar- 
 minians say can never meet; even a being freely justified by 
 grace, and a full price laid down to obtain it : but the seeming 
 contradiction vanishes, by considering, that the price was nei- 
 ther sought, nor brought by us; but is only and wholly the 
 provision and gift of grace; which gift is so contrived, as to 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 257 
 
 manifest the grace of God to the uttermost: it is that grace 
 may shine forth the brighter, and not be echpsed, that this 
 way of justification was pitched upon; for Christ tlie Redeemer 
 was, throughout the whole of his suretiship, nndertaliings, and 
 performances, to the praise of the glory of the Father's grace. 
 Never did grace so triumph, as in the provision and gift of 
 Christ. Every step the Redeemer took in this great work, was 
 most expressive, as of the love of his heart, so of the grace of 
 the Father's; which hereby is so fully and gloriously manifest- 
 ed, as to be said to reign, through Christ's righteousness, to eter- 
 nal life. " Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might 
 abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; 
 that as sin has reigned to death, so grace might reign, through 
 righteousness, to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. 
 iii. 24, of the reign of which there shall be no end. Our shout- 
 ings will be grace, grace, not only when we first come to hea- 
 ven, but ever after; which will be enlarged rather than straiten- 
 ed, and strengthened rather than grow low and weak, through- 
 out the endless ages of eternity. As they about the throne rest 
 not, so they cease not thus to give glory; of which reign, how 
 small is the portion which the most knowing among us at 
 present know ? We write and preach, and think and talk about 
 it, but like so many children; which is the apostle's own com- 
 parison, though he had been wrapt up into the third heaven. 
 As no words could express to the queen of Sheba the glory of 
 Solomon's kingdom, so less able are words to express the glory 
 of the reign of grace; the superaboundings of which will fill an 
 eternity, as a spring-tide doth our rivers, and employ all heads, 
 hearts, and tongues about the throne; when our likeness to our 
 glorified head, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be complete. Thus 
 much may suffice for the second inquiry. 
 
 in. I shall show hoiu it is that sinners are justified. The 
 light of nature may know something relating to the justification 
 of a man, in a state of innocency, on the foot of a covenant of 
 works; but it knows nothing how it is that sinners are justified 
 on the foot of a covenant of grace; this is such a secret, as was 
 hid from men and from angels: to the Bible alone we owe the 
 discovery of this rich mine of gospel treasure; in digging into 
 which, I shall observe the following method: 
 
 1. 1 shall show, out of Scripture, what part in this weighty 
 affair is assigned to God the Father. 
 
 2. I shall show what part is assigned to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 3. I shall show what part is assigned to the ever blessed 
 Spirit. 
 
 4. I shall show what is the use of faith, in a sinner's justifi- 
 cation ; where I shall answer a threefold inquiry. 
 
 (1.) Whether faith be only a manifestation. 
 
 33 
 
258 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 (2.) Whether the believer may, in any sense, be said to be 
 justified before faith. 
 
 (3.) How it is that elect infants, dying in infancy, are justified. 
 
 5. I shall evince the sure connexion which there is between 
 faith and actual justification. 
 
 6. I shall assign to good works their proper place in this 
 weiglity affair. 
 
 7. I shall show of what use the law, the written word, and 
 the court of conscience, are therein. 
 
 1. I shall show what part in this great affair God the Father 
 takes to himself, according to the Scriptures, He there speaks 
 of himself as being the Judge of all; and of consequence he 
 must have a principal hand therein. Accordingly we read, that 
 it is God who justifies: " Who shall lay any thing to the charge 
 of God's elect? It is God that justifies," Rom. viii. 33; to 
 whom all who believe in Jesus come to be justified; "and to 
 God the Judge of all," Heb, xii. 23. He who passed sentence 
 upon sinning Adam, with all he represented, as a federal head, 
 and should ever spring from him, as a common parent, of whose 
 holy and perfect law all sin is the transgression; he it is that 
 justifies, or no flesh could be truly, or to any saving purpose, 
 justified. 
 
 That this great and solemn transaction may appear to be the 
 pleasure of the Lord, being effected not only with a salvo to 
 his truth and holiness, but in a way most expressive of all the 
 divine perfections, whereby the Father may get to himself, in 
 point of manifestation, a glorious name for ever, the wonderful 
 platform of a sinner's justification, with all that leads to it, or is 
 contained in it, or is consequential upon it, is spoken of, in 
 Scripture, as his contrivance, and there represented not only 
 as the birth, but as the master-piece of his adorable wisdom : 
 " Wherein he hath abounded towards us, in all wisdom and 
 prudence :" so that the sinner's justifying righteousness, is the 
 provision and gift of his love and grace ; and he who brought in 
 or wrought out this righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, is his 
 righteous servant : " Thou art my servant, Israel, in whom I 
 will be glorified," Isa. xlix. 3, saith the Father to Christ. The 
 Lord Jesus Christ finished transgression, and made an end of 
 sin, and reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting 
 righteousness, under a double character ; the one subordinate to 
 the other ; as God's righteous servant, and by God's appoint- 
 ment, his people's righteous surety : who came into this world, 
 as sent by the Father, and set about this great work, as one 
 completely fitted for it, and fully authorized to accomplish it by 
 the Father. Of both these you read at large in the sixty-first 
 chapter of Isaiah : " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, 
 because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings," 
 &c., Isa. Ivi. 1. "Christ glorified not himself to be made an 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 259 
 
 High-priest ; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, this 
 day liave I begotten thee," Heb. v. 5. Neither did he act in 
 his own name in the discharge of that office: "I am come in 
 my Father's name, and ye receive me not;" whose Father was 
 always with him as Man and Mediator. He both assisted and 
 accepted him, throughout the whole of his obedience, whether 
 active or passive, and was with him in his private life, as well 
 as in his public showing to Israel : he was not alone in the 
 cradle, nor in his reputed father's house, any more than at Jeru- 
 salem, or in the temple; who was raised from the dead by the 
 glory of the Father, whereby he was actually and publicly jus- 
 tified, not barely from the false accusations of his enemies^ but 
 as his people's surety and great representative, from all those 
 sins he had undertaken to satisfy for. He told his disciples, 
 that the " Spirit should convince the world of righteousness, 
 because he went to the Father;" for had he not fulfilled all 
 righteousness, instead of being received up into glorj^, he had 
 been sent back to finish the work which the Father had given 
 him to do. 
 
 The Father's part, therefore, in this weighty afi"air, is to pro- 
 vide for his people a justifying righteousness, in all respects 
 perfect and complete, such as his law, the great standard of all 
 righteousness, requires: and as to provide it for them, so to 
 impute it to them, which is done by him, as Judge of all, not 
 audibly by a voice from heaven, but by a more sure word of 
 prophecy, as out of the mouth of two matchless witnesses, the 
 Old and the New Testament. God's written word as really 
 answers to the records of heaven, as the counterpart doth to the 
 original deed; for as the law is a perfect copy of God's will, so 
 the gospel is as perfect a copy of God's heart : saints and sin- 
 ners may depend upon it, that what the word of God now says 
 they are, Christ, as Judge, will declare them to be. We are 
 not one thing in the eye of the word, and another thing in the 
 eye of Christ, who will own and honour his written word, as 
 all along, so at last. As certainly as that declares Christ's 
 righteousness to be upon us who believe, it is so, according to 
 eternal purposes, to all those ends of love and grace, for which 
 it was contrived and provided by the Father, 
 
 None, save God, the Judge of all, could make Christ to be 
 sin for us; and none, save God, the Judge of all, can make any 
 of us the righteousness of God in him; both which are ascribed 
 to him; "All things are of God; who has reconciled us to him- 
 self by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of recon- 
 ciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world 
 to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; for he has 
 made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the right- 
 eousness of God in him," 2 Cor. v. 18, which blessed exchange 
 
260 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 must be the wonder of angels, and will be for ever the wondei 
 of all the saints. 
 
 The provision, revelation, and imputation of this righteous- 
 ness, is wholly and solely of grace, in the superaboundings 
 thereof; therefore is it once and again called the gift of right- 
 eous ness, which, is its New Testament name; such a gift as has 
 an abundance of grace going along with it; "Much more they 
 who receive an abundance of grace, and of the gift of right- 
 eousness, shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ," Rom. v. 17. 
 To conceive of God, as of a just God, and not as of a Saviour, 
 borders upon despair; and to conceive of him as a Saviour, and 
 not as a just God, borders upon presumption; but to conceive 
 of him, as being a just God, and a Saviour, is to form right and 
 becoming thoughts of him, such as both Testaments furnish us 
 with; for thus God speaks of himself: "There is no God else 
 beside me, a just God, and a Saviour," Isa. xlv. 21. And 
 therefore thus should we think of him; his being a just God 
 should but the more endear him, as he is the provider of right- 
 eousness; and his being a Saviour, should but the more encour- 
 age us to plead this righteousness with, and before him, as 
 Judge of all. In a word, as the whole of our salvation, by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, is of grace, {By grace are ye saved,) so is 
 this main branch thereof, a sinner's justification before God. 
 
 I shall conclude this discourse by endeavouring to return an 
 answer to the following inquiry, which contains the greatest 
 difficulty that can be raised against the head of doctrine I am 
 upon ; which lies at the bottom of every sinner's heart, in ob- 
 jecting against the being of a God, and the truth of the gospel 
 in general, as well as this of a sinner's justification before God 
 in particular. The objection is this: Why was sin suffered to 
 enter this world, which hath hurled such confusion quite round 
 the globe; to finish which, in a way of satisfaction cost God so 
 dear, as the blood of his own and only begotten Son? To 
 which I answer: "God made man upright, but they have sought 
 out many inventions," Eccl. vii, 29. The first sin was, to be 
 sure, the genuine birth of free will. Now, to ask why God 
 made a free agent, and suffered him to act suitably to his na- 
 ture, that is, freely, would be a vain and a foolish inquiry. We 
 may safely conclude, that had not God known how to deal with 
 such an enemy as sin, so as to bring glory to himself, and good 
 to the chosen people, out of all the confusion with which sin 
 1ms filled this world, he would never have suffered it to have 
 entered; but the same super-creation grace which prevented 
 the fall of the elect angels, would have interposed, and pre- 
 vented the fall of the elect among the children of men ; so that 
 the gospel is a full answer to this bold inquiry: according to 
 which, God is commending his love in the gift of his Son; may 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 261 
 
 we not safely say, so as it could no other way be so sweetly 
 and fully, so surprisiugly and gloriously recommended? '• But 
 God commends his love towards us, in that while we were yet 
 sinners, Christ died for us," Rom. v. 8. He also, who is an in- 
 finitely wise and holy God, takes occasion from the aboundings 
 of sin, to manifest the superaboundings of his grace: " More- 
 over, the law entered that the oflence might abound; but where 
 sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin has 
 reigned to death, so might grace reign to eternal life, by Jesus 
 Christ our Lord," Rom v. 20. In the gospel we have a new 
 display of all the divine perfections; according to which, God, 
 who is love, is not content to manifest his love in a direct way, 
 as it was manifested towards the elect angels, and, without any 
 more to do, fix us in glory, but has pitched upon such ways of 
 manifesting his love, as contain in them fathomless depths, un- 
 measurable heights, and incomprehensible breadths and lengths; 
 for the love in God's heart being infinite, must be as great as 
 all transient acts can express for ever; not only such as are plain 
 and obvious, but such as are in the deep waters, and take the 
 most astonishing compass and turns. 
 
 To create such a free agent as man, has nothing in it unbe- 
 coming an infinitely perfect Being, who was made in the image 
 of God, and placed at the head of this lower creation, as lord 
 thereof. Whatever became a bountiful Creator to bestow on 
 man, was with a very liberal hand given to our first parents : 
 nothing that could be called a creation due was withheld from 
 them ; but, as creatures, they were mutable ; and, as rational, 
 they were free. To enter into covenant with our first parents, 
 who were made but a little lower than the angels, and crowned 
 with so much glory and honour, was but a further honour put 
 upon them; neither does this carry or contain in it any thing 
 unbecoming the majesty of God. To sufter them to act suitably 
 to the natural powers, and to the state of probation they were 
 placed in, that is, freely, though at this door sin might enter, and 
 did, yet tins contains in it nothing that is unbecoming: neither 
 does his restraining and over-ruling so great and deadly an evil 
 as sin, for the manifestation of his own glory, in bringing light 
 out of sin's horrible darkness, and order out of all the confusion 
 sin is big with, and hath, since the fall, brought into this world. 
 These things are expressive of power, and not of weakness, of 
 adorable wisdom, and not of folly. Thus the apostle speaks of 
 them, especially of the latter, God's concluding or shutting up 
 all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all; and thus 
 should we : " God has concluded all in unbelief, that he might 
 have mercy upon all: the depth of the riches, both of the 
 wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his 
 judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Rom. xi. 32. This 
 shutting up all in unbelief, must include every chosen vessel. 
 
262 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 both among the Jews and among the Gentiles; for the pronoun 
 them, is not in the original. 
 
 The following simile, which I owe to the great Dr. Goodwin, 
 may serve to illustrate what I have delivered on this head. 
 Suppose a curious artist, who hath made the finest and the best 
 vessel of glass that was ever made, should let it fall out of his 
 hand, and break all in pieces, with a design to show his greater 
 skill in so setting together the broken pieces thereof, as to make 
 it more beautiful, and useful, and stronger than ever, even so 
 strong as to be out of all danger of being ever broke ; would 
 an}?' censure his conduct, or say he had acted a weak unbe- 
 coming part, in letting the glass he had made, with so much 
 care and art, fall and break? Would not all commend the act, 
 and admire his skill? For though to make glass is confessed by 
 all to be a curious art ; yet to be able so to set together broken 
 glass, as to render it proof against all accidents, the hammer 
 itself not excepted, would be a far greater piece of skill. The 
 application is easy, and very instructing; though the simile falls 
 short in this, that man broke and destroyed himself: " Israel, 
 thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help," Hos. xiii. 9. 
 For God to make so noble a creature as man, endowed, as, to 
 be sure, he originally was, with such noble powers, and vast 
 capacities, was much ; but to new-form him, after sin had mar- 
 red and broken him, as he shall undoubtedly be formed by 
 Christ, as to body, as well as soul, in the morning of the resur- 
 rection, is much more. The saints will not then complain of 
 God, nor be tempted to charge him foolishly, for suffering sin 
 to enter : and as for the atheist and the deist, they will then be 
 struck dumb, and for ever silenced. The restitution of all things 
 by Christ, the second Adam, will set all that relates to, oris con- 
 sequential upon the sin and fall of the first Adam, in the clear- 
 est and most astonishing light. 
 
 There are two New Testament texts, as full of glory, as any 
 in the whole book of God, which I would turn to, and direct 
 how they may with safety be received, and feasted upon, and 
 should be so by the whole household of faith. The first of tliem 
 is this; "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he 
 might gather together in one all things in Christ; both which 
 are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him, Eph. i. 10. 
 The other is this, " And having made peace through the blood 
 of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, 
 I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven," 
 Col. i. 20. Now to carry these texts beyond the election of the 
 Father's grace, is to abuse them ; but to understand them of the 
 full birth of electing and redeeming love, is to make a right use 
 of them; and of that other Avhich is like to them, "Whom the 
 heaven must receive, till the times of the restitution of all 
 things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy pro- 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 263 
 
 phets, since the world began," Acts iii. 21. Neither man, the 
 inhabitant, nor this earth, on which he dwells, are what they 
 originally were, or as tliey at first came out of tiie hand of God; 
 but both are what they became through sin, like the sherds of 
 a broken vessel. Man is a child of darkness; a slave to sin' 
 and Satan; a wolf to his neighbour; a rebel to his God, and 
 the destroyer of himself: and as for the earth on which man 
 walks and dwells, sin has turned it into a howling wilderness: 
 its atmosphere is filled with irregular winds, hurricanes, and 
 storms; with noxious vapours, blasts, and lightnings; with ter- 
 rible thunder, and sometimes with prodigies and frightful sights: 
 the earth is so far from being alike fruitful, that in it are sandy 
 deserts, and barren heaths, hard rocks, and flaming mountains. 
 Its fields bring forth thorns, and briers, and weeds, in an abun- 
 dance ; there is the nettle, and the hemlock, with other poisonous 
 plants, and hurtful fruits; its insects are many of them armed 
 with stings, and some full of deadly poison : there is the viper and 
 the scorpion ; its birds and beasts are birds and beasts of prey: 
 and as for men, how many are the defective, as well as mon- 
 strous births among them? Thousands are blind, and deaf, and 
 crooked from the womb; and thousands are strangled in the 
 birth : all are born mortal ; and how many die soon after they 
 are born? They just salute the world, and so take leave of it. 
 All which things are the fruits of the curse, and undeniable 
 instances and proofs of God's hatred of sin, and of his holy dis- 
 pleasure against sinners. 
 
 But, after all that can be said on this head, to silence gain- 
 sayers, that wise and most comprehensive saying of Christ, 
 occasioned by the gospel's being hid from the wise and prudent 
 of the world, and revealed unto babes, should satisfy all true 
 believers: " Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight," 
 Luke X. 21. To his sovereign will and pleasure, who works 
 all things after the counsel of his own will, it seemed good, for 
 wise and holy ends, to sutler the fall of our first parents, and, 
 by them, sin to enter: and to his sovereign grace it seems good, 
 thus wonderfully to overrule it, as to the whole election of his 
 grace. All which lessens not the evil that is in sin ; no more than 
 the skill of the physician, in prescribing a sovereign antidote, 
 lessens the malignity that is in poison : nor is it any ways the 
 least excuse for sinners, who transgress the law with hearts full 
 of enmity against the gospel. Might natural men quite round 
 the globe have their wills, Christ would be in heaven alone. 
 To quarrel with electing love, as it is manifested in the gospel, 
 and with Him, that justifies such as believe in Jesus, is to quar- 
 rel with the best and the only effectual way of drawing us out 
 of the pit, and bringing us safe to glory. How empty would the 
 story of Joseph have been, had he not been envied, and sold by 
 his brethren, with all that was consequential thereupon ! Where- 
 
264 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 as it is now one of the most remarkable and surprising that was 
 ever written. How sweet did Israel's bondage in Egypt, make 
 Israel's rest in Canaan ! and how astonishing and full of God 
 was their deliverance ! God's sovereign will and pleasure is, in 
 "many instances, the ne plus- ultra of the believer's inquiries: no 
 other, nor better reason can be given, why the world is not as 
 many millions of years old as it is thousands ; and why the 
 globe of this earth is not as large as the body of the sun ; and 
 why the numbers of the elect are not double and triple to what 
 they are, who, considered in the first fruits and in the full vin- 
 tage, will be an innumerable multitude. He, who works all 
 things after the counsel of his own will, is in these things ac- 
 countable to none ; neither to man, nor to angels: none may say 
 to God, what doest thou? whose own glory, in the manifesta- 
 tion of it, must, beyond all dispute, be his highest end : a consi- 
 deration which should not only quiet, but rejoice all who be- 
 Heve unto righteousness : who cannot desire more than is en- 
 tailed on them, in that single, but great text: "Let none glory 
 in man, for all things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or 
 Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or 
 things to come : all are yours ; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
 God's," 1 Cor. iii. 21,22. Can the great soul of man, when en- 
 nobled and enlarged by regenerating grace, open its mouth 
 wider, or desire more ? Let us therefore, who are among God's 
 justified ones, join in giving thanks with those of whom the 
 apostle speaks ; " All things are for your sakes, that the abun- 
 dant grace might, through the thanksgivings of many, redound 
 to the glory of God,'^ 2 Cor. iv. 15. In so high and compre- 
 hensive a sense does praise wait for God in Zion; whose inha- 
 bitants are encouraged to praise God by being told, as from the 
 mouth of God, TVhoso offers praise, glorifies me. They there- 
 fore whom God justifies, should not, upon every slight occasion, 
 or new trouble, hang their harps upon the willows, but rather 
 look up to have them new tuned, by a fresh anointing. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Galatians ii. 16. — Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but by tlie faith of Jesus Clnist ; even we have believed in Jesus Ciirist, that 
 we mlglit be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law ; 
 for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 
 
 It is a sweet word, and full of encouragement to us Protest- 
 mts, to suffer for the truth, as well as to defend it: "Lift up 
 your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for 
 the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 265 
 
 wax old, like a garment; and they that dwell therein shall die 
 in like manner: but hiy salvation shall be for ever, and my 
 righteousness shall not be abolished," Isa. li. 6. Let the bat- 
 teries raised by hell, and by Rome, against the Protestant doc- 
 trine of a sinner's justification before God, be never so many, 
 and be never so artfully planted, and boldly discharged, they 
 shall not be able finally to prevail against it. He, who waved 
 his right of being in heaven as soon as he was incarnate, and, 
 in that sense, left heaven to fulfil all righteousness, will not 
 suffer such a jewel to be stolen out of his mediatorial crown, as 
 is his suretiship righteousness. 
 
 2. I shall proceed to show what jiart is, in Scripture, assigned 
 unto the Lord Jesus Christ, in the business of a sinner's justifi- 
 cation before God; where I beg leave to premise, for the pre- 
 venting of mistakes, which some are ready to run into, and for 
 the clearing of several texts of Scripture, which the Arians are 
 very fond of, that in many places of Scripture, especially in the 
 New Testament, where Christ speaks of himself, and is spoken 
 of, it is spoken of him either as the Son of man, or as sustaining 
 the character, and discharging the office of a Mediator. Thus 
 is that scripture to be understood, in which Christ tells his dis- 
 ciples, that "the Father is greater than he;" and that other, 
 with many more, where Christ assures us, that " the Son can 
 do nothing of himself;" and thus I shall all along consider him. 
 This lessens not the necessity, nor the truth of Christ's being 
 truly God, as well as man, but presupposes it; for, as in nature 
 a human body, suppose it had life and motion, without a human 
 soul, would be fit for no post of service, neither in church nor 
 in state; so Christ's human nature alone, though the first crea- 
 ture, and the noblest of .ill creatures, without his divine, would 
 no ways be fit to sustain the character, nor to discharge the 
 office of a Mediator. If we suppose a crystal globe to be never 
 so large and clear, would it, of itself, have in it any light or 
 heat : but if we could suppose it filled with the body of the sun, 
 how would it glow and shine? He, in whom dwells all the 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily, which is affirmed in Scripture 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ ; for it is said, " In him dwelleth all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily," Col. ii. 9, must outshine in 
 glory, and outdo in usefulness, all mere creatures, though there 
 were never so many worlds of them, and be infinitely fit and 
 capable to be Head of the church, and Saviour of the body; 
 nothing can be too difficult for him to effect, nor too great for 
 him to accomplish ; be it to finish transgression, in a way of 
 satisfaction, or to bring in everlasting righteousness. Let us 
 conceive, if we can, of any more fit to quicken the dead in sins, 
 and to raise the dead in nature ; to govern the world, and to 
 judge it ; to bring off more than conquerors and safe to glory, 
 such as belong to the whole election of the Father's grace, or to 
 
 34 
 
266 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 make all things new, than He is in whom dwells all the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily. This being premised, Cln-ist's part in 
 tlie business of a sinner's justification before God, according to 
 the Scripture, is to bring in a justifying righteousness for the 
 whole election of the Father's grace. He, as the Surety of a 
 better covenant, was called of God, and freely undertook to pay 
 his people's debts, both that of satisfaction to the law, as a 
 broken covenant, and that of service to the law, as a covenant 
 of works. He was accordingly made of a woman, and made 
 under the law: "When the fulness of time was come, God sent 
 forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law," Gal. 
 iv. 4, that is, under its preceptive part, as a covenant, as well 
 as its penalty, a broken covenant ; its preceptive part, as a 
 covenant, being its principal part; to enforce which, all penal- 
 ties, even among men, are added to their laws: as a covenant, 
 the first Adam transgressed it ; and therefore it became Christ, 
 the second Adam, thus to fulfil it, God's perfect law was, to 
 be sure, in the utmost perfection thereof, written on Christ's 
 heart and nature, and so expressed throughout the whole of his 
 life: "Thy law is within my heart," Psal, xl. 8, He did more 
 and better work for God, that is, work of greater worth and 
 consequence, in the short space of thirty odd years, than the 
 first Adam would, or could have done, had he continued stead- 
 fast in God's covenant to this day, Christ was fulfilling all 
 righteousness whilst lying in the cradle; which, doubtless, was 
 part of his humiliation: of whom, whilst an infant, it may be 
 said, that the first Adam, at the head of this lower creation, 
 was but as his menial servant, being the figure of him who was 
 to come, " who is the figure of him who was to come," Rom. 
 V. 14. Christ, the second Adam, was fulfilling all righteous- 
 ness throughout the whole of his private life; for this also was 
 part of his humiliation. Suppose the natural sun should be 
 taken out of the heavens, and be so lessened and darkened, as 
 to be hid for a time in one of the caverns of this earth, to bring 
 about any of his adorable purposes, who made it; would not 
 this surprise and fill with wonder all the inhabitants of this 
 globe? I may safely say, that the obscure and private life of 
 Christ, the Sun of righteousness, was fuller of wonder. He 
 went on fulfilling all righteousness, active as well as passive, at 
 Jerusalem, and every where else, till he bowed on the cross his 
 high and holy head, saying, " It is finished." Christ's sureti- 
 ship righteousness may be well called, for it really is, a robe of 
 super-creation righteousness, being, in all respects, beyond and 
 above the dues of creation; which no creature, neither men nor 
 angels, could so much as ever have thought of, and much less 
 have expected at his hand, who was their Creator, how liberal 
 soever in other respects he had been towards them. This robe 
 lay hid in the uppermost and most secret recesses of God's 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 267 
 
 wardrobe, or rather heart, being wholly super-creation grace: 
 though Adam had, in a sense, the moon under his feet, he could 
 not ttius challenge a being clothed with the sun, which was not 
 then risen in his horizon ; though the first Adam's world was 
 made by Christ, and he was Christ's figure, yet he knew it not. 
 This excellent and excelling piece of knowledge was reserved 
 for gospel times; which so ennobles the dispensation we are 
 under, that it is called the kingdom of God, and of heaven. 
 Christ's suretiship righteousness may be also called, for it really 
 is, a robe of super-angelic righteousness : which as far excels 
 and outshines the righteousness of all the elect angels, as the 
 shining of the sun, in its meridian strength, does that of the new 
 moon: for, would it not be blasphemy to call theirs, as Christ's 
 is called, "the righteousness of God;" or to say that they are 
 "made the righteousness of God," in their own, as we are said 
 to be made in Christ's righteousness? God no where calls their 
 righteousness, as he does Christ's, "my righteousness; I bring 
 near my righteousness," Isa. xlvi. 13. Christ's suretiship right- 
 eousness may be also called, for it really is, a super-paradisaical 
 righteousness. Had our first parents continued steadfast in 
 God's covenant, their robe of justifying righteousness had been 
 complete: but not of like worth with this, the merit, as well 
 as the atoning virtue of which is infinite. What is the richest 
 livery of a lackey, if compared with the royal robes of a king? 
 Nothing done by the figure of him that was to come, can be 
 compared with what was done by Christ, the substance, whose 
 suretiship righteousness has in it to an overflowing, all the en- 
 dearing, recommending properties, which that of a Saviour can 
 have, to recommend it to sinners. As, 
 
 (1.) It is a si)i-Ji HIS king righteousness; so it is called in the 
 Old Testament; fo finish trunsgression, Dan. ix. 24, and it is 
 abundantly declared so to be in the New. To finish the sins 
 but of one, even the least of sinners, in a way of satisfaction, 
 would have rendered bankrupt and beggared the archangel, not 
 to say all the angels in heaven; whereas Christ, as surety of a 
 better testament, has, in a way most expressive of all the divine 
 perfections, finished the numberless sins of the many thousands 
 of God's elect; who were chosen not only with Christ, as an 
 elder brother, but in him as an Head. The Scripture says, 
 "God has chosen us in him," Eph. i. 4, not to prevent our fall; 
 for that would have obviated his other character of being our 
 Saviour; for "he is Head of the church, and Saviour of the 
 body," Eph. v. 23; but to deliver us out of the pit, by bringing 
 us off more than conquerors, and fixing us in glory beyond 
 all danger, or so much as a possibility of losing the mansions 
 allotted us in his Father's house, where we are to be for ever 
 with the Lord; " So shall we be ever with the Lord," 1 Thess. 
 iv. 17. 
 
268 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 (2.) Being a sin-finishing, it must of consequence be a jus- 
 tice-satififying righteousness; for the demands of God's vindic- 
 tive justice upon us, and the whole of its controversy with us, 
 are founded on sin; this would have no more a controversy 
 with the elect, among the children of men, were they not sin- 
 ners, than it has with the elect angels. I might have added, it 
 is not barely a justice-satisfying, but a justice-declaring right- 
 eousness; " To declare his righteousness, that he might be just," 
 Rom. iii. 26. The flames of hell, or all the penal suflerings of 
 men, and of devils in the bottomless pit, are not so full a decla- 
 ration of God's vindictive justice, as were the suretiship suffer- 
 mgs of Christ, the Lamb slain. The awaking of God's sword 
 against the man that was his fellow, is a non-such instance of 
 God's vindictive justice. 
 
 (3.) It is a laiv-ansioering, or rather magnifijing righteous- 
 ness. Thus it is spoken of by the prophet : " The Lord is well 
 pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, 
 and make it honourable," Isa. xlii. 21. Sin being the trans- 
 gression of the law, pours the utmost contempt, both upon it, 
 and upon God, the Lawgiver; and were it as powerful, as it is 
 exceeding sinful, it would for ever cancel the one, and dethrone 
 the other: the sinner's wish would be every sinner's attempt, 
 that there might be no God. Now, the law on which our first 
 parents, in eating the forbidden fruit, poured such contempt, 
 and on which like contempt is poured by all their numerous 
 offspring, in their several generations; Christ, as the fulfiUer 
 of all righteousness, not only fulfilled, to every jot or tittle, but 
 by so doing, because of the dignity of his person, so magnified 
 it, as it could have been no other way, that we can conceive 
 of, magnified. This righteousness therefore of his, though it is 
 manifested without the law, from mount Zion, and not from 
 mount Sinai; yet it is witnessed to by the law, as well as by 
 the prophets; " Now the righteousness of God, without the law, 
 is manifested; being witnessed to by the law, and by the pro- 
 phets," Rom. iii. 21. From all which it follows, that, 
 
 (4.) Christ's suretiship righteousness is not only a God-ap- 
 peasing, but a God-delighting righteousness; for, is not the 
 whole of our salvation obtained thereby, expressly called the 
 pleasure of the Lord? "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper 
 in his hand," Isa. liii. 10. Never was the Father better pleased, 
 for never was he more glorified, by any righteousness, than he 
 was by Christ's; who was raised from the dead, as God's right- 
 eous servant, and his people's righteous surety; not by a single 
 attribute, such as the power of God, or by the goodness and 
 tender mercy of our God ; but by the glory of the Father. 
 " Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Fa- 
 ther," Rom. vi. 4; this is a full proof that he was an offering, 
 and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 269 
 
 Thus we see what part is allotted in Scripture to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, in the business of a sinner's justification before 
 God. His province was to finish transgression in a way not of 
 bribery, not of composition, but most expressive of the glory of 
 all the divine perfections; that is, in a way of real and full satis- 
 faction; and so to make an end of sin, as in the time and sea- 
 son thereof, to put an everlasting end to sinning: for, as the 
 chosen people shall sorrow no more, so they shall sin no more 
 for ever, when in glory; and such reconciliation for iniquity 
 that the once offended Majesty of heaven may not only settle 
 his abode with, and among the chosen people, as being his rest; 
 not desiring to be any further glorified than he is in them, and 
 by them, and will be so for ever: but may rejoice over them, 
 with singing, " The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; 
 he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in 
 his love, he will joy over thee with singing," Zeph.iii.J7: and 
 to bring in for them such an everlasting righteousness, as will 
 outlast the lasting hills, and the canopy of heaven itself; in 
 which the saints will outshine angels, and be brought to be next 
 to the throne : the merit of which is given forth in the blessings 
 of grace here, and in those of glory hereafter; and can no more 
 be lessened, than Christ's mediatory fulness can be exhausted ; 
 from which the gospel receives its name, being called the min- 
 istration of righteousness, " Much more does the ministration of 
 righteousness exceed in glory," 2 Cor. iii. 9, and in which all 
 who believe come up with an everlasting acceptance, with and 
 before God the Judge of all. 
 
 Christ, as the Lord our righteousness, fills both testaments 
 with his glory; for thus considered he is the sum of the Old Tes- 
 tament promises and prophecies, and the substance of Old Tes- 
 tament types and figures; and thus considered he is the treasure 
 hid in the field of the New. Paul's heart and life were not 
 fuller of his pharisaic performances, before conversion, than they 
 were of Christ, as the end of the law for righteousness, to every 
 one that believes, after conversion: his lip and pen, though once 
 the lip and pen of a blasphemer, sounded the trumpet of the 
 gospel louder and sweeter, and with greater success than any 
 before or since his day. This was a fuller confirmation of the 
 truth of the doctrines of the gospel, and of this of imputed right- 
 eousness, than it would be, should the Mufti turn Christian, or 
 the Pope become Protestant; and so both preachers of this right- 
 eousness which Christ wears as Head of the church, and surety 
 of the better covenant, upon the throne ; as well as all the saints, 
 shine in it about the throne. 
 
 3. My next undertaking is to say something concerning the 
 work of the ever blessed Spirit in this great and weighty afiair, 
 a sinner's justification before God. His office, according to the 
 Scriptures, is to apply purchased salvation; and of consequence, 
 
270 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 to bring near this righteousness; "I bring near my righteous 
 ness," Isa. xlvi. 13, saith God, speaking of this robe, and gift 
 of righteousness; which he doth not only doctrinally by his 
 word; but internally and powerfully by his own Spirit: who is 
 no more a created being, or the spirit of a creature, than the 
 power of God is a created power, or the power of a creature. 
 Thus in all probability it was brought near to our first parents; 
 we can hardly think that so great a preacher as God should beat 
 the air, and speak only to the ear, without speaking to the heart 
 of the first Adam; who was to hand down the gospel to, and to 
 teach his children the fear of the Lord. He also brought it near 
 to two of Adam's sons, to Abel and to Seth; and to how many 
 more of his children we know not. He also brought it near to 
 the antediluvian fathers ; particularly to Noah, who was a 
 preacher thereof. God by his Spirit called Abraham out of a 
 land of graven images; and gave him by an eye of faith to see 
 at such a distance of time Christ's day, as he was the finisher 
 of sin, and fulfiller of all righteousness. By the same searcher 
 of the deep things of God, it was brought near to Moses, and 
 to all the chosen people under the Old Testament; and to those 
 unlikely instruments, the first founders of the gospel dispensa- 
 tion, under the New; who, though illiterate fishermen, were so 
 taught of God to spread the net of the gospel, that one of them 
 caught, that is, converted, three thousands souls at once. Who, 
 save the Spirit of life and power, could of a persecuting blas- 
 pheming Pharisee, make such an unwearied zealous preacher 
 of Christ's righteousness, as the apostle Paul was? This right- 
 eousness is brought near, doctrinally, to all who hear the gospel, 
 or have the Bible; but powerfully, and savingly, only to such 
 as believe. 
 
 Now if any are so curious as to inquire, why such a right- 
 eousness has not all along been carried both doctrinally and sav- 
 ingly to all mankind, I answer. To every individual soul for 
 whom it was designed by the Father, and was wrought out by 
 the Son, it hath all along, and shall to the end of time, be sav- 
 ingly revealed: and as for others, they have all along, in every 
 place where the gospel has been preached, poured the utmost 
 contempt upon it; so that to send it doctrinally, where God has 
 not a chosen people, is to expose it. Now, how few soever 
 God's chosen people were before the flood, and were all along 
 under the Old Testament, and still are under the New; yet, un- 
 der the latter day glory, they will appear to be many as the 
 drops of dew, and as the sand upon the sea shore; especially if 
 the thousand years of Satan's binding, and of the church's re- 
 freshment, mentioned in the Revelations, be a thousand of pro- 
 phetical years; during which long space of time, elect sinners 
 shall fly as a cloud, and flock unto Christ as doves to their win- 
 dows. To be sure, the numbers of God's elect, when all of 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 271 
 
 tnem shall be Drought safe to happiness, will be such as shall be 
 most for the manifestation, of the glory of each divine person, 
 and of all the divine perfections: a congregation too great for 
 any man to number, even " ten thousand times ten thousand," 
 which is a hundred millions: "and thousands of thousands," 
 Rev. V. 11, that is, millions without number. In comparison 
 with whom they in hell are dropped, and no mention is made of 
 them, where we read of the winding up of dispensations; "Every 
 creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the 
 earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard. 
 I saying. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto 
 him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and 
 ever." So extensive, and so glorious will the reign of grace 
 be in superabounding, where sin in such numberless number 
 of instances hath abounded : for, if the persons pardoned can- 
 not be numbered, much less can their sins be so, that are for- 
 given 'them. 
 
 To distinguish aright between the letter of both Testaments, 
 and the Spirit of power, which accompanies the preaching of 
 the gospel, as it is revealed in both Testaments, and makes it 
 become effectual, is of the utmost consequence: for though the 
 letter of the gospel is suited to us, as we are rational creatures; 
 yet such is the blindness of the sinner's mind, through sin, and 
 the hardness of his heart, that instead of giving life, it kills; 
 whereas the promised Spirit, who is a Spirit of light, life, and 
 power, suits us, as we are dead in sins, and without strength. 
 The apostle thus distinguishes, and so should we: "Who also 
 hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the 
 letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit 
 giveth life," 2 Cor. iii. 6. By the letter of the word, God is 
 drawing us with the cords of a man, which is his own phrase, 
 " I drew him with the cords of a man," Hos. xi. 4. To which 
 cords I would refer all gospel calls and invitations, exhortations 
 and dehortations ; and those most solemn protestations, that he 
 delights not in the death of sinners. " Say to them, as I live, 
 saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live : Turn 
 ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, 
 house of Israel?" Ezek. xxxiii. 11. And the most conde- 
 scending of entreaties ; " As though God did beseech you by 
 us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God," 2 
 Cor. V. 20. And those strong arguings ; " Wherefore do ye 
 spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour lor 
 that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently to me, and eat 
 ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fat- 
 ness," Isa. Iv. 2. As in Scripture there is the language of 
 creation due, such as that to Cain, " If thou dost wellj'^shalt 
 thou not be accepted?" Gen. iv. 7; so there is the language of 
 
272 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 the law, as a rule of walk; which is the very best consideration 
 of the moral law, which was written as a rule of duty on the 
 hearts and consciences of our first parents before God entered 
 mto covenant with them, of which the apostle speaks; "Who 
 show the works of the law written upon their hearts," Rom. ii. 
 15. There is also the language of the law, as a covenant of 
 works; which is, Do this, and live; "Or, the man that does 
 these things shall live in them," Rom. x. 15. There is also a 
 language of the law, as a broken covenant, which includes the 
 thunders of Sinai, and tells us what sin is, and what it deserves, 
 and is, according to the righteous judgment of God, due to sin- 
 ners for their sins; how he might have appointed all to wrath, 
 instead of appointing any to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ. 
 Under this head is included the language due to free-will, 
 though fallen, of which the law takes no notice, to make any 
 abatements. The greatest part of Scripture language is that of 
 Sinai, which is adapted to show to sinners both their want of 
 Christ, and his worth. This takes in the doctrinal part of 
 Scripture, with all its calls and invitations, its motives and 
 encouragements, with all its absolute promises; such as that 
 great word of promise, which has all along been, and shall, to 
 the end of time, be made good to the whole election of the 
 Father's grace ; " I will be to them a God and they shall be to 
 me a people," Heb. viii. 10. The full birth of which fruitful 
 promise is reserved till the dawn of latter-day glory, when the 
 fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel be saved : 
 at present we see but the first fruits of electing love; the full 
 vintage will not be till the glory of the Lord, as it shines forth 
 in the face, and in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be 
 so revealed, that all flesh shall see it together. In the mean 
 while, we, who preach the gospel, are to publish it in general 
 terms, leaving it to the Spirit, to make special application thereof 
 to the chosen people. Thus Christ preached it; " God so loved 
 the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life," 
 John iii. 16. And so should we, of whose success in so doing 
 we read; "The election has obtained it," Rom. xi. 7. And of 
 their acceptance; " For we are to God a sweet savour of Christ, 
 in them that are saved, and in them that perish," 2 Cor. ii. 15. 
 We may safely conclude, that as the numbers of the elect are 
 such as shall, in the end, be found to be most for the manifes- 
 tation of his glory, who chose them, so is every circumstance 
 relating to them ; such as the time of their birth into this world, 
 as well as the time of their being born again, and brought safe 
 to glory. 
 
 The usual way of the Spirit, in bringing near Christ's right- 
 eousness to the hearts and consciences of God's elect, is to erect 
 such a tribunal in the court of conscience, as all the business 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 273 
 
 and pleasures of life cannot hush or bribe; before which the 
 most bold and daring of sinners, how careless and secure soever 
 they may for many years have been, are secretly cited, and 
 canno* help making their appearance; where their past lives 
 and actions are called over, and their very hearts and natures 
 looked into; and they are tried not only by the letter, but by 
 the sT^irituality of the law, and found to be rebels in heart and 
 life; and as such, to be worthy of death, not only temporal, but 
 eternal. Thus they, who once dreamed of nothing but ease 
 and impunity, become self-condemned, and continue terrified, 
 and in distress, till they are led by the word and Spirit to Christ, 
 as " the end of the law for righteousness, to every man who 
 believes; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the 
 forgiveness of sin, according to the richness of the Father's 
 grace;" by acting faith in whom, though it be but a faith of 
 reliance, the storms raised in their consciences, by a sight and 
 sense of sin, are stilled, and they are made thankful, as well as 
 easy, and so fitted to run in the ways of God's commands. 
 They, by the same Spirit that teaches them to lay aside the 
 temper of the Pharisee, and not to work for life, either by way 
 of merit or atonement, are enabled to work from life, and con- 
 sequently to do more and better work for God, than all the 
 children of men do besides: so that God's handful of corn, on 
 the top of the mourtains, is made to shake like Lebanon; and 
 they of the city, thai is, of Zion, are brought to flourish, like the 
 grass upon the earth. 
 
 Thus God, who was with Christ in bringing in this righteous- 
 ness, teaches, by his word and Spirit, all the chosen people sub- 
 mission to it; who thankfully receive it, and from the heart rest 
 upon and plead it, as their sole justifying righteousness with 
 and before God, the Judge of all: by being made light in the 
 Lord, they are brought to see both their want, and the worth 
 of this righteousness; and, by being made a willing people, they 
 are brought to cast anchor upon it. As the apostle did, so do 
 they, from the day of their conversion, " desire to be found in 
 Christ, not having their own righteousness, which is of the law, 
 but that which is through the faith of Jesus Christ; evon the 
 righteousness which is of God by faith." 
 
 I shall conclude this discourse, by putting God's justified 
 ones upon acting a kind becoming part towards all mankind, 
 that is, pleading the promise of the Spirit for all flesh. This, 
 in a way of eminency, is called the promise of the Fathei under 
 the New Testament: " But wait for the promise of the Father,'* 
 says Christ, Acts i. 4; as the promise of the Messiah was the 
 promise of the Father under the Old: and as Old Testament 
 saints pleaded day and night the one, so should New Testament 
 saints be as instant and constant in pleading the other; for it is 
 by making good this word of promise, that the man of sin is 
 
 35 
 
274 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 to be destroyed, "Whom the Lord shall destroy by the Spirit 
 of his mouth, and by the brightness of liis coming," 2 Thess 
 ii. 8, The fuhiess of the Gentiles is to be brought in, and ah 
 Israel is to be saved. They who are made the righteousness 
 of God in their justification, and, in that sense, are clothed with 
 the sun, should endeavour to be of as public use and service, 
 in a spiritual sense, as the sun is in a natural; whose light and 
 influences are not restrained to any place, nor part of the globe, 
 but reach and enlighten, at due seasons, as well as cherish the 
 whole earth. Thus should the prayers of New Testament 
 saints, for the pourings forth of the Spirit, as he is Christ's 
 glorifier, reach the pagan parts of the world, that they may be 
 brought to cast their idols to the moles, and to the bats: they 
 should also reach the Mahometan parts of the world, that they 
 may no longer be imposed upon by that false and filthy prophet, 
 Mahomet, but be brought thankfully to exchange the Koran 
 for the Bible: thus should they reach the Antichristian parts of 
 the world, that seventy millions of souls, which Papists are 
 computed to be, may no longer carry the mark of the beast in 
 their foreheads, but be brought to hate the whore, and make 
 her desolate: they should also reach God's ancient people the 
 Jews, who, concerning the gospel, are enemies, for our sakes, 
 because that was, by the express command of God, preached 
 to the Gentiles; but, as touching the election, they are beloved, 
 for the Father's sake ; or as they once were a chosen people, 
 and shall as certainly be called, as they are for a time rejected, 
 whose call will be like life from the dead. Thus for believers 
 to ply the throne, and to plead the promise of the Spirit, is to 
 become public blessings to mankind, greater blessings than most 
 imagine. A saint thus plying the throne, in a cottage, may 
 be, and is of greater consequence than many a prince on the 
 throne. 
 
 To encourage New Testament saints thus to plead this great 
 promise, Christ spoke those sweet words: " If ye then, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much 
 more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them 
 that ask him?" Mat. vii. 11. Were it as natural for man to 
 desire to be useful, as it is to be famous in his generation, we 
 who believe should give the God and Father of Christ no rest, 
 till the Spirit, from on high, is poured forth upon all flesh. Be- 
 lieving parents cannot pray to greater, nor to better purpose, for 
 those dear parts of themselves, their children, than to beg for 
 them the Spirit, as he is Christ's glorifier; nor believing children 
 for their respected parents. Thus should all the saints pray for 
 all in authority, and all godly magistrates pray for all they rule: 
 thus sliould all gospel ministers beg him, for the churches coni- 
 mitted to their care; and church members beg him for their 
 pastors : thus should godly relations and friends beg him for one 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 275 
 
 another; even masters for their servants, and servants for their 
 masters. Such prayers put up in faith, would not return to us 
 empty, but soon bring down such a blessing upon us and ours, 
 as should turn our declining autumn, in a spiritual sense, into a 
 promising spring. Would any gladly know the principal cause 
 of those many gray hairs, in a spiritual sense, which, in town 
 and country, are upon persons professing godliness, upon fami- 
 lies and churches? I should return this short answer: the pro- 
 mise of the Spirit is not pleaded as it ought to be by us of the 
 New Testament; neither do we desire and exrpect him, under 
 his New Testament character, which is that of Christ's glorifier; 
 " He shall glorify me," says Christ. Christ's glorifier, being 
 our Teacher, Sanctifier, and Comforter, should encourage all 
 the followers of the Lamb to wait and to watch for him, more 
 than they who watch for the morning; and to look up as duly 
 as the morning light appears, for a fresh anointing, to enable 
 them, becomingly, like God's pardoned and justified ones, to 
 perform the duties, to bear the burdens, and to resist the temp- 
 tations of every day. This is the way to be filled with his 
 comforts, and with his fruits; such as love, joy, peace, long-suf- 
 fering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, with 
 which the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, should 
 abound, that he may be glorified. 
 
 SERMON IIL 
 
 Galatians ii. 16. — Knowingf that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but by the faith of Jesus Christ ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ, tliat 
 we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; 
 for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 
 
 The gospel is deservedly called the glorious gospel of the bless- 
 ed God; "According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, 
 which is committed to my trust," 1 Tim. i. 11. For according 
 to it, such as believeare made partakers of a divine nature^ 
 in their regeneration, are made the righteousness of God, in 
 their justification, and bear the image of the heavenly Adam, 
 as to their sanctification; they are one spirit with the Lord 
 whilst on earth, and are to be for ever with him above in hea- 
 ven. These are some of the principal parts of that great salva- 
 tion, which is brought to light in the gospel: whence it is plain, 
 that Adam, at the head of a covenant of works, with this world 
 under his feet, was no more than the morning star: the shining 
 of which is very inconsiderable, if compared with Christ, the 
 sun of righteousness. The first Adam, bright as he might be, 
 in his first rising, soon set in dismal darkness, which has covered 
 the earth ever since; whereas Christ, the second Adam, is so 
 
276 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 risen in the first promise, as never to set, but has filled both 
 Testaments with his glory; and thus he rises, never to set in 
 the hearts of all his saints, whom he will bring off, more than 
 conquerors above in glory. Now, as of all the organs of the 
 body, the eye is best suited to take in the beauty of this lower 
 world; so is faith, of all the graces of the Spirit, best suited to 
 take in the glory of Christ. This leads me to the fourth thing 
 I proposed. 
 
 4. I shall say something concerning the use oi faith in the 
 business of a sinner's justification before God. That we are 
 justified by faith, is incontestibly a Scripture phrase; it is 
 twice used in the words of my text, and very often elsewhere; 
 especially in the New Testament, where we are told, that 
 "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for right- 
 eousness," Rom. iv. 5; that is, to the obtaining of righteousness, 
 as the preposition directs us to interpret it; and that " it shall 
 be thus imputed to all who believe," verse 24. The conclusion 
 drawn by the apostle, in that short, but excellent discourse, 
 concerning a sinner's justification before God, in the third chap- 
 ter of his epistle to the Romans, is very remarkable; "There- 
 fore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith, without the 
 deeds of the law," Rom. iii. 2S, which Scripture phrase is not 
 only repeated, but doubled, in the next verse, save one: " See- 
 ing it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith, 
 and the iincircumcision through faith," ver. 30, and is lifted up 
 like a standard in the beginning of the next chapter: "There- 
 fore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," Rom. v. 1, who is said to be "the end 
 of the law for righteousness, to every one that believes," Rom. 
 X. 4, whose righteousness, though it was wrought out, and is 
 laid up with Christ for us, before we believe, is no where spoken 
 of in Scripture, as being to and upon us, till such time as we 
 believe; " But now the righteousness of God, without the law, 
 is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 
 even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, 
 to all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no differ- 
 ence," Rom. iii. 21, 23. It is not here siid, that the comfort 
 flowing from this righteousness is ivithin such as believe, which 
 sometimes is, and at other times is not, but that the righteous- 
 ness itself is upon them. Thus often is this phrase used by the 
 apostle, in his epistle to the Romans. 
 
 It is also as often used by him, in his epistle to the erring 
 Galatians; twice, as has been observed, in the words of my 
 text, and oftener in the following chapter; "Even as Abraham 
 believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness," 
 Gal. iii. 6. "And the Scripture foreseeing that God would 
 justify the heathen through faith," verse 8, which is as good as 
 repeated: "So then they who be of faith," that is, who are 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. . 277 
 
 justified by faith, " are blessed with faithful Abraham," Gal. 
 iii. 9. As is that other phrase, " But that no man is justified 
 by the law, in the sight of God, is evident; for the just by faith 
 shall live," verse 11. He goes on to tell us, in the same chap- 
 ter, that " the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the 
 promise, by faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that 
 believe," verse 22, and that " the law was our schoolmaster to 
 bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith," verse 
 24. He unbosoms himself, and lays open the desires of his 
 own heart in this weighty aff'air, in his epistle to the Philippi- 
 ans; " And be found in him, not having mine own righteous- 
 ness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of 
 Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith," Phil. iii. 
 9. In which place he not only desires to have the peace and 
 comfort which flows from this righteousness, but the righteous- 
 ness itself, which is by faith; so that to be justified by faith, is a 
 Scripture phrase. 
 
 But vve no where read of being justified ^b/' our faith, nor of 
 our being justified before faith; neither of these are Scripture 
 phrases; they who should use them, would teach in words never 
 used by Christ and his apostles, in teaching doctrines which must 
 be expressed in new words, and not in those wholesome words 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, which fill both Testaments. How 
 empty, even of sense, would my text be, were its language thus 
 changed? "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works 
 of the law, but before the faith of Jesus Christ; we have be- 
 lieved in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified before we be- 
 lieve." And how empty of the gospel should we read them, 
 " Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but for the faith of Jesus Christ; even we have believed in 
 Christ, that we might be justified for our faith in Christ?" It 
 is, doubtless, safest, as in walk and worship, so in words and 
 phrases, to keep close to the rule of Scripture, and in the things 
 of God, to speak as do the oracles of God ; which no Ariau or 
 Arminian ever did, or can do. All new schemes call for a new 
 Bible, and errors of all sorts coin new words and phrases. What 
 the heart is in the body, which is first formed, and first moves, 
 that is faith in the new creation; it is first formed, as it were, 
 or at least is first actuated, and drawn forth towards Christ, as 
 he is God's salvation. Regeneration therefore is, for the com- 
 fort of babes in Christ, described by the lowest act of faith un- 
 feigned; "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born 
 of God," John v. 2, which new birth, small as it may appear at 
 the first to be, though but like the dawn of the morn, is " the 
 kingdom of God within us." 
 
 The use and ofiice of faith, in the business of a sinner's justi- 
 fication before God, is not to piece out the glorious robe of 
 Christ's suretiship imputed righteousness; but the faith of the 
 
278 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 operation of God points out the persons for whom this riglit- 
 eousness is designed by the Father, and was wrouglit out by the 
 Son; which may be said of a worlc of grace in general, and be- 
 longs to faith in common with otlier graces. Faith therefore 
 has a further office, or is of further use in our justication; for it 
 is as the eye of the new creature, by the realizing acts of which 
 the soul takes in the suitableness and worth of the wedding 
 garment, which appears to be rather a rag, or a cobweb, than a 
 robe, to the most knowing of the children of men, till faith is 
 wrouglit. It is also the new creature's hand, by which it receives 
 and puts on this garment of salvation, so perfumed with love, 
 the folds of which are so full of grace and truth. The gift of 
 righteousness, as it is called, Rom. v. 17, must have an hand to 
 receive it; and the robe of righteousness, which is the name 
 given it, Isa. Ixi. 10, must be put on, and worn before God : they 
 who, under a sense of sin, are summoned by the court of con- 
 science to appear before God, as a Judge, must have something 
 to plead with, and before his Majesty. Now, as Christ's right- 
 eousness is our alone eflectual plea for pardon and acceptance, 
 so faith is as the lip of the new creature, by which this right- 
 eousness is with all humility urged and pleaded : to do which we 
 are encouraged by Scripture declarations, calls, and commands, 
 as well as by examples, and are heard, though it is done by us, 
 as with stammering, as well as with trembling lips. Faith is 
 also as the ear of the new creature, by which the awakened, 
 quickened soul listens to the Lord Jesus Christ, calling upon the 
 very chief of sinners to forsake their sins, and all refuges of lies, 
 and hiding places of falsehood, and to look to him as the only 
 finisher of sin, and fulfiller of righteousness, for all righteous- 
 ness to bring them into, and to continue them in a pardoned, 
 justified, reconciled, adopted state for ever. It is also as the knee 
 of the new creature, by which it bows before Christ, as the Lord 
 our righteousness, and submits, though not without some reluc- 
 tance, especially at times, to this way of a sinner's justification 
 before God. It is also as the tongue of the new creature, which 
 shouts, Grace, grace, as to the whole of our salvation, so to this 
 branch of a sinner's justification, and sings the praises, as of its 
 provider, so of him that brought in our justifying righteousness. 
 It is also as the foot of the new creature, by which it walks 
 with, and follows after Christ, as the Lord its righteousness; and 
 by so doing adorns the gospel, as well as evidences itself to be 
 faith unfeigned. 
 
 So that the office of faith is to receive from, and not to bring 
 to Christ, unless it be wants and weakness, ill and hell deserv- 
 ings, sins without number, and obligations to punisliments with- 
 out end. Of all the graces of the Spirit, faith is the most empty- 
 ing, and accordingly goes empty, poor, and indigent to Christ. 
 Other graces bring something, as it were, along with them ; 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 279 
 
 wlifireas faith brings nothing to Christ but a naked back. As in 
 nature the hand and the month are both of them adapted to re- 
 ceive, the one a gift, tlie other food ; so is faith adapted to look 
 to, receive, and to close with the Lord Jesus Christ; and, having 
 received him, to reahze all those Scripture motives, hy which 
 we are persuaded to abide with him, and to follow him: so that 
 faith in the business of justification before God is not to be con- 
 sidered as a working, but as a receiving grace, though it is both, 
 and sows in tears of godly sorrow, and works hy love ; but its' 
 first and great business is with the person and righteousness of 
 Christ, particularly to receive the atonement. 
 
 To conclude this head. Faith may be said to justify us in a 
 like sense, as the eye is said to be the light of the body, or the 
 hand to feed and clothe us. Thus Esau is said to live by his 
 bow, by which he got what he lived upon : it is by faith, which 
 is " the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things 
 not seen," that we realize all that is said in both Testaments 
 concerning Christ and his righteousness. And as in nature the 
 eye directs the hand, so here the realizing acts of faith direct its 
 receiving acts; not but both are under the influences of the 
 Spirit, and the direction of the word ; by which faith is both 
 taught and encouraged to go to God in Christ's name, as the 
 finisher of sin, and fulfiller of all righteousness, and to plead iiis 
 righteousness to all those blessed ends for which it was pro- 
 vided by the Father, wrought out by the Son, and is revealed 
 by the Spirit; by doing which heartily and constantly, faith 
 takes in the comfort, and is thereby stirred up to give God the 
 glory of such provision of righteousness. It is also made care- 
 ful to adorn, and concerned both to vindicate and to propagate 
 the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, as the Lord our 
 righteousness. 
 
 Having thus shown tlie use of faith in a sinner's justification 
 before God, I shall next answer a three-fold inquiry. 
 
 (1.) One inquiry is, whether faith is only a manifestation of 
 what was actually done from everlasting, as is usually pleaded 
 by those who are for actual justification from everlasting. That 
 faith of the operation of God is a manifestation of the following 
 things, is readily granted: as that we were loved, and chosen, 
 not barely with Christ as an elder brother, but as a head from 
 everlasting, and given to and made his charge and care tc 
 bring us safe through the fall to glory: that in him, as in our 
 head, and great representative, we are blessed with all spiritua" 
 blessings in heavenly places: that he actually sustained our 
 persons, and represented them in the fulness of time; and that 
 he finished our sins, and brought in for us everlasting righteous- 
 ness : that for us he rose from the dead, ascended up into hea- 
 ven, and is set down on the Father's right hand, where he ever 
 fives to make intercession for us: of these things, faith is a ma- 
 
280 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 nifestation, and so is a work of grace in general, as well as the 
 grace of faith in particular; for, as in nature the eye laid to the 
 smallest chink, maj^, through that, see the sun shining in its me- 
 ridian strength, so in the case before us, an eye of faith may, by 
 reflecting on itself, or on any other of the graces of the Spirit, 
 though they spring up in the heart, but like a grain of mustard 
 seed, look both backwards and forwards; backwards, to a being 
 chosen in Christ from everlasting; and forwards to a living and 
 reigning with Christ to everlasting. But though faith is a mani- 
 festation of God's eternal purposes taken in Christ, and his cove- 
 nant transactions with him ; yet, in the business of a sinner's 
 justification, it must be more than a manifestation, for the fol- 
 lowing reasons : 
 
 [1.] Because the saints are said, in Scripture, to have access 
 hy faith into the grace wherein they stand: "Being justified 
 by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ; by whom we have access by faith into the grace 
 wherein we stand," Rom. v. 2, that is, we stand actually par- 
 doned, and actually justified before God, as well as actually 
 reconciled with God. These privileges, with all others of a like 
 nature, were designed for the elect from everlasting, and given 
 them in Christ, their Head, and great representative, before the 
 world began; but they have not, according to the Scriptures, 
 access to them, or a standing in them, as to their own persons, 
 such as is actual and applicatory, till such time as they are born 
 again, or believe. Thus the sun, moon, and stars, were lighted 
 and hung up in the firmament, long before any of us were born, 
 or had a bodily eye ; but their light was not actually let in, or 
 brought into us, no, not a single beam, till such time as the eye 
 was formed, and we were born into this world ; then, and not 
 before, were we filled with the light of the natural sun, and 
 were actually possessed of its rays to the several ends and uses 
 for which they are given us. Thus gifts, how freely soever 
 they may be designed for us, and given to us, are not ours 
 before we receive them: there must be the receiving, as well as 
 the giving hand, before the poor are actually possessed of the 
 rich man's alms. Thus it is in the affair before us: Christ's 
 righteousness is called a gift, which is received by faith: " How 
 much more shall they, who receive an abundance of grace, and 
 of the gifts of righteousness," Rom .v. 13, which sufficiently in- 
 timates, that though this gift of righteousness is destined for us, 
 yet it is not ours, for our personal and actual justification, till 
 we believe. It is not a pardon, in the king's design and pur- 
 pose; nor in the secretary's office; nor in the messenger's hand; 
 no, nor in the malefactor's pocket, that Avill set the criminal 
 free, in the eye of the law: it must be produced and pleaded in 
 open court. Now, both God's courts are still to be met with 
 m the holy Scriptures; in the law is that of Sinai, and in the 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 291 
 
 gospel is that of Zioii: faith of the operation of God appeals 
 from that of Sinai to that of Zion, where it pleads this right- 
 eousness; and so doing, the guilty, self-condemned sinner is, 
 according to the rule of the word, really and actually acquitted, 
 and declared righteous, with equal certainty, though not with 
 like solemnity, as it will be declared in the last and great day 
 of public judgment; and may, on sure Scripture grounds, take 
 in the comfort, and give God the glory of so great a blessing, 
 as a being freed from hell, and entitled to heaven, by being 
 made the righteousness of God, in a way of union with the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Federal representation and vital union, a 
 being represented by Christ, and a being united to the Lord, 
 Jesus Christ, must be ditferent things; though the former is the 
 foundation or ground-work of the latter. To be represented by 
 Christ, belongs to the whole election of the Father's grace, long 
 before they are either born, or born again; but united to Christ 
 they are not, till they are born again; for it is impossible to be 
 united to such a living, life-giving head as Christ is, and yet 
 remain dead in sins. Dead sinners may be represented by 
 Christ, and are so, even as many of them as belong to the 
 election of the Father's grace ; but not a soul that is united to 
 Christ can remain dead in sins: "To whom coming, as to a 
 living stone; ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual 
 house," 1 Pet. ii. 4, 
 
 To have access into the grace of justification, and a standing 
 therein, must be more than a manifestation: as the prodigal's 
 being clothed with the best robe, and entering into his father's 
 house, and sitting down at his father's table, was more than 
 his seeing these things far off, and at a distance. This is one 
 reason why faith, in the business of justification, must be more 
 than a bare manifestation, which is wholly scriptural; and so is 
 that which follows. 
 
 [2.] The double simile which the Spirit of God makes use 
 of, in speaking of faith's use and office in this weighty atfair, 
 discovers it to be more than a manifestation: he compares it to 
 a hand, as well as to an eye. How often are its receiving acts, 
 as well as those that are realizing, mentioned in Scripture! 
 " But as many as received him, to them gave he power to be- 
 come the sons of God; even to them that believe on his name," 
 John i. 12. " Much more shall they, who receive an abun- 
 dance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, reign in life by 
 one Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement," 
 Rom. V. 11. All which are Scripture phrases, as well as those 
 by which the realizing acts of faith are held forth. Now, was 
 faith only a manifestation, why should it be compared to a hand, 
 as well as to an eye? 
 
 [3.] Faith in the business of justification, must be more than 
 a manifestation, because were it no other, other graces would 
 
 36 
 
282 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 share with faith, in its use and office, as it respects onr justifi- 
 cation; for they all speak by way of manifestation, and evi- 
 dence our being loved, and chosen in Christ from everlasting; 
 " Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God : for our 
 gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power," &c. 
 1 Thess.- i, 4, 5. So that we might, with equal propriety of 
 language, be said to be justified by repentance, or by love, or 
 by humility, as by faith; which we are no where sa'id to be in 
 Scripture; such expressions would be unscriptural and unwar- 
 rantable: they would grate upon the ear, and grieve the heart 
 of a true believer. 
 
 [4.] Faith, in the business of justification, is more than a 
 manifestation, because were it no more, it would unavoidably 
 follow, that one believer might be more justified, in the Scrip- 
 ture sense and acceptation of that word, than another, as his 
 manifestation thereof may be clearer and fuller; and the same 
 person more justified at one time, than at another, as his mani- 
 festation or apprehension thereof lessens or increases; of which 
 we have not the least intimation in Scripture, but of the con- 
 trary. A believer's comfort may ebb and flow, but, in point 
 of justification, his state is the same. 
 
 To conclude this first head of inquiry: Did the gospel phrase 
 and notion of justification by faith, include no more than a 
 manifestation to our sense and apprehension, it would also 
 follow, that they who walk in darkness, and have lost the sight 
 and sense of their being justified, which is the case of many a 
 soul that is truly gracious, would, in the sense of the gospel, be 
 no longer in a justified state, but be fallen from the grace of 
 justification: a believer in the dark, would be no more justified, 
 than he was whilst shut up in unbelief; all which is unscriptu- 
 ral, and smells rank of the Arminians, who hold a falling from 
 grace. 
 
 (2.) I shall come to a second inquiry, Whether the believer 
 may, in any sense, be said to be justified before faith. To which 
 I would answer. Not actually, but virtually; in Christ, but not 
 together with Christ; in designation and purchase, but not in 
 application and fact. Christ's righteousness is designed and 
 wrought out for him, but is not to nor npon him, in the sense 
 of the gospel, before he believes: he is a son elect, but no 
 more; "As many as received him, to them gave he power to 
 become the sons of God, even to them who believed on his 
 name," John i. 12; this is a full proof they were not before 
 what they then became, or began to be. That God purposed, 
 from everlasting, thus to privilege and bless his people in time, 
 is not questioned; nor that all the elect were virtually justified, 
 when Christ, their great head and representative, was so actu- 
 ally. But as the Scripture carefully distinguishes between a 
 being blessed in Christ, and a being blessed together with 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 293 
 
 Christ, so should wc; " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who lias blessed us with all spiritual bless- 
 ings in heavenly places in Christ," Eph. i. 3; which all must 
 take in the blessings of glory, as well as those of grace: but 
 though now we are glorified in Christ, we, who believe, hope 
 one day to be glorified together with Christ; "When Christ, 
 who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him in 
 glory," Col. iii. 4. We readily own, that God had in purpose, 
 from everlasting, all the glory and blessedness to which he will 
 bring his people to everlasting; but to say, that the elect were, 
 from everlasting, actually possessed of any one of them, actu- 
 ally pardoned, or actually justified, is to make them, or at least 
 to speak of them, as if they were co-eternal beings with the 
 eternal God. 
 
 How expressly are we told, in Scripture, that, in point of 
 actual existence, "that is not first which is spiritual, but that 
 which is natural ; and afterwards that which is spiritual !" 
 1 Cor. XV. 46. And if so, the elect not only actually exist, but 
 are actually condemned, by the law of God, before they are 
 actually justified. As the imputation of Christ's righteousness 
 presupposes the being of Him, who imputes, and his actually 
 sustaining the character, both of a Judge and of a Saviour; so 
 it presupposes the existence of the creature, and that he is a 
 sinner to whom Christ's righteousness is imputed. As all the 
 existence men or angels have before time, is in purpose, so all 
 the imputation that is from everlasting, must be in purpose also. 
 To talk of God's actually imputing a thing of that worth, as is 
 Christ's righteousness, to nothing, or to that which has as yet 
 no actual being, that he should actually impute righteousness 
 to a non ens, or to one who as yet is not, is to talk not only 
 unscripturally, but unintelligibly. 
 
 Though God designed, from everlasting, to give us an actual 
 being, yet we did not actually exist, but in time: thus it is in 
 the case before us; though God actually purposed, and that from 
 everlasting, to justify the whole election of his grace, yet they 
 are not actually justified, but in time. Christ's righteousness 
 was both designed and wrought out for us, whilst lying in the 
 womb of God's decrees, but is not upon us till we believe. 
 
 Not only designation and possession are different things, the 
 one being a step to the other, but so are right and possession, 
 quite round the globe. An estate may be designed for a first- 
 born, whilst in the womb, and be bought for, and settled on him 
 as soon as born; so firmly settled, as to leave no room for its 
 being alienated, and yet the heir not be in actual possession 
 thereof. Actual possession, be it of a crown, takes place accord- 
 ing to the constitution of the kingdom, and the methods of gov- 
 ernment, which, in all wise administrations, are settled, and not 
 left uncertain and precarious. Now is the order of civil govern- 
 
284 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 ments great, and that of God's government of the world of 
 nature yet greater; and is there no such thing as order in the 
 gospel? Is tliat without beauty and method, which is the glory 
 of all kingdoms? There, and no where else, must we look for 
 the methods of wisdom, and the order of God, as they relate to 
 the application of salvation. This proclaims, as on the house 
 top, that though Christ's righteousness was wrought out for us, 
 long before we believe, it is not upon us till we believe, Paul 
 was a chosen vessel before he believed; but where is he said 
 to have been pardoned, or justified, or reconciled, or adopted, 
 whilst lying out from and persecuting the Lord Jesus Christ? 
 
 As the whole of our salvation by Christ, so this of a sinner's 
 justification before God, is represented in Scripture, and should 
 be considered by us, under different views; it is to be considered 
 as it lies in the gracious design and purpose of God, whose pur- 
 poses, without his power, bring nothing into being; for, if they 
 did, this world, with all the things of time, must have existed 
 from everlasting; to assert which, would include the greatest of 
 absurdities. It must be considered, as it lies in the covenant 
 transactions between the Father and the Son, who was set up 
 from everlasting, as the head and surety of a better covenant. 
 It must be considered, as it lies in the purchase of Christ, who, 
 in the fulness of time, " finished transgression, made an end of 
 sin, and reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting 
 righteousness," Dan, ix, 24. It must be considered, as it lies 
 in the gospel, where Christ's righteousness is revealed, in the 
 suitableness and glory thereof, and is expressly said to be to 
 all and upon all such as believe, without difference, where it 
 is brought near to sinners in the offer, A sinner's justification 
 may and should be considered, as it is the birth of time, and 
 so personal and actual, in the joyful and blessed application 
 thereof. 
 
 Now, as salvation, in the designation thereof, is not to be 
 blended with salvation in the impetration, nor with salvation 
 in the application thereof, so neither is justification; but a real 
 scriptural difference should carefully be kept up by us. The 
 distinction of virtual and actual, has its use and place in Scrip- 
 ture, as well as in nature: in nature the case is plain; for the 
 earth virtually contains all the fruit that will be brought forth 
 and ripened, not only the next summer, but an hundred years 
 hence; whence it follows not, that trees are now full of ripe 
 fruit. The sea also virtually contains all fountains and rivers 
 that can possibly flow from it, even as eternity contains all pos- 
 sible time. And no less plain is the case as to Scripture, where 
 Christ is said to be a Lamb .slain from the fuunddtion of the 
 world, which cannot be understood of his being actually cruci- 
 fied before he was born; but the slaying there mentioned, nnist 
 be virtual, and not actual. It is one thing for Christ's right- 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 285 
 
 eousness to be wrought out, and laid up, as it were, for us; and 
 a different thing to have this righteousness upon us, in the sense 
 of the gospel. The coronation robes of a king, and the wed- 
 ding garments of a bride or a bridegroom, are, or at least may be, 
 made and finished long before they are put on and worn. Our 
 wedding robe of justifying righteousness is with Christ our 
 head as a garment completely finished, with whom it is safe 
 and most secure; but it is far above and out of the sinner's 
 sight and reach, till such time as it is given him, for this right- 
 eousness's sake, to believe; for faith, with all the graces of the 
 Spirit, as well as glory, is the purchase of this righteousness; 
 which, being seated in the heart, brings the soul off from all its 
 refuges of lies, and hiding places of falsehood, to take shelter 
 under the shadow of Christ's wing, as he is " the end of the 
 law for righteousness to every one that believes." Thus, " With 
 the heart man believes to righteousness," Rom. x. 10, and is 
 no longer among those whom the word of God condemns, but 
 justifies, and is so declared to be, by the united voice of both 
 Testaments. 
 
 God himself distinguishes between his own counsels, and the 
 execution of them; " My counsel shall stand, and 1 will do all my 
 pleasure," Isa. xlvi. 10, which we have in other words; "The 
 Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so 
 shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand," 
 Isa, xiv. 24. Who is said to work all things after the counsel 
 of his own will; " In whom we also have obtained an inherit- 
 ance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who 
 works all things after the counsel of his own will," Eph. i. 11. 
 God's counsels, as they lie in the divine mind and will, without 
 the intervention of his power, bring nothing into being, as has 
 been observed. In these counsels Christ himself lay, as man 
 and Mediator, and was considered by God as the finisher of sin, 
 and as the fuifiller of all righteousness; but this gave not an 
 actual existence to the incarnation, death, or sufferings of Christ, 
 before the fulness of time. 
 
 All the purposes of God, as they are in him, are immanent 
 acts ; his whole counsel is so, as it takes in his works of nature, 
 grace, and glory. Now, if this, with the intervention of his 
 power, gives actual being to any thing, to our justification, for 
 instance, by a parity of reason, it should give actual being to 
 everything; to this world, and to all that is therein; to the 
 church militant, and to the church triumphant. Things of time 
 are otherwise considered by God, when actually existing, than 
 they were by him, before his power had brought them into 
 being: before they had a being they were considered by him as 
 things to be; but when actually existing, as things that are; 
 and yet, by reason of certainty, as to the execution of his de- 
 crees, he calls things which are not, as though they were. Pos- 
 
286 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 sibles are considered by him as they He in his almiglity power , 
 things future, as they he in his sovereign will and pleasure; and 
 things actually existing, as put forth and brought into being by 
 him. 
 
 To conclude this head. We cannot be justified in the sense 
 of the gospel before faith, because the word of God is express 
 that ive are justified by faith. Christ's righteousness is not 
 upon us, in the sense of the gospel, before faith; for the gospel 
 is express, that it is to and upon us, in a way of believing ; and 
 should men or angels tell us the contrary, we are not to regard 
 them. 
 
 (3.) I shall add a word to the third and last inquiry. How is 
 it thsit elect infants^ di/ing in their iyifanci/, are justified? I 
 answer, By faith in the habit, though not by faith in the act. 
 Faith of the operation of God is not confined to years; an elect 
 infant is as capable a subject thereof as grown persons. As all 
 are born shut up in unbelief, so omnipotent grace can open 
 those prison doors when and how it pleases. In the short 
 account which we have of salvation, in the application thereof, 
 as it respects the whole election of the Father's grace, they are 
 said to be first called, and so justified, and then glorified; 
 "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom 
 he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them 
 he also glorified," Rom. viii. 30. Now, an elect infant is as 
 capable of this as a grown person; of being effectually called, 
 or renewed by grace; of being freely justified, and for ever 
 glorified. 
 
 All the application I would make, shall be adding two words, 
 by way of inquiry. Where is it that you have lodged your 
 guilty souls? and what is it that you have done with your many 
 sins? 
 
 1. Where have you lodged your guilty souls? Hiding places 
 of falsehood are many; these are crowded; sinners flock to them 
 by thousands. God's hiding place is but one, but one under both 
 Testaments ; where Abraham took shelter, who saw Christ's 
 day, as the only sacrifice for sin ; and Moses, whose dispensa- 
 tion was full of him; and David, with all the prophets, who wrote 
 of him ; there did the apostle Paul also shelter himself. Old and 
 New Testament saints sought righteousness to justification and. 
 life, only in the Lord; " Surely shall one say, In the Lord have 
 I righteousness and strength: in the Lord shall all the seed of 
 Israel be justified, and shall glory. Christ's wing, as the finisher 
 of sin and the fulfiUer of all righteousness, which spreads itself 
 throughout the whole book of God, is the one and only shelter 
 for guilty sinners. Had a stung Israelite, instead of looking out 
 to the brazen serpent, gone to prayer, would he have been 
 cured? No, surely. Now, did God put such honour upon his 
 own ordinance, under the Old Testament, and will he not put 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 287 
 
 as great honour upon liis Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, under the 
 New, who is his salvation to the end of time, as well as to the 
 ends of the earth? Cornelius bade as fair for salvation, out of 
 Christ, as any man living; for the angel told him that "his 
 prayer was heard, and his alms had in remembrance in the 
 sight of God;" and yet he also told him, that Peter was to in- 
 form him how he and his house should be saved; "Who shall 
 tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved," 
 Acts xi. 14, which is a plain case, and a full proof, that out of 
 Christ there is no salvation. Cornelius's case is so far from de- 
 preciating Christ and his gospel, that both are thereby exalted; 
 and thus the light and law of nature cannot supply the want of 
 Christ. Were there such a man as Cornelius now alive, an an- 
 gel, or some one acquainted with the gospel, would be sent to 
 preach Christ to him, though he lived in the furthest and dark- 
 est corner of the earth. 
 
 2. What have you done with your many sins? The only care 
 of some is, to extenuate their sins, and of others to forget them; 
 but all who have faith unfeigned, wash in that fountain, which 
 God has opened for sin and for uncleanness: all other lavers are 
 so far from cleansing, that they pollute and defile the soul; it is 
 the blood of Jesus Christ, GoWs own and only begotten Son, 
 tfiat cleanses from all sin, I John i. 7, the conscience from the 
 guilt, and the heart from the love, and the life from the rule and 
 dominion of sin. 
 
 But you will say, it may be, that you would gladly thus take 
 shelter under the wing of Christ, and thus wash in the blood 
 of Christ; but you fear your faith is forced and feigned. To 
 which I answer; how is it that your faith sows; and how is it 
 that it works? Does it sow in tears of godly sorrow for sin; 
 and does it work by love? If it does both these, you may rest 
 assured it is faith of the right kind, and that you shall reap 
 in joy. 
 
 To conclude : with all your gettings, your first and chief care 
 should be to get faith, which has so many precious promises 
 made to it; not only of salvation and eternal life, in the general, 
 but of forgiveness of sin, of justification, of reconciliation, of 
 adoption, and of sanctification in particular; to work which the 
 Spirit is promised, and the Scriptures are written; to give which 
 Christ is exalted, and a throne of grace is erected. Remember, 
 faith conies by hearing, not the sayings of a Plato, or of a 
 Seneca, but the word of God, as it is contained in the Bible; 
 which is a book so prefaced, as no other book is, and so attested: 
 for the Old Testament is prefaced by Israel's deliverance out of 
 Egypt, and by all the miracles wrought by the hand of Moses, 
 in bringing it about, which was effected before the five books 
 of Moses were written ; and the New Testament, by all the mi- 
 racles wrought by Christ: who was born, crucified, raised from 
 
288 OF JUSTIFICATION 
 
 the dead, and ascended up into heaven, before any of that was 
 written : and as it is a book so prefaced as a book never was, so 
 never was book so well attested as the Bible is ; not only by a 
 cloud of witnesses, or by the experience of all the saints, both 
 dead and alive, who have found, and still find, in numberless in- 
 stances, these things to be facts and truths, which are there- 
 in related ; or by miracles of all sorts, and by a cloud of mar- 
 tyrs, who, by thousands, have sealed with their blood what they 
 knew of its being the book of God, or of the truths contained 
 therein ; but it is gloriously attested, by being undeniably writ- 
 ten on the palms of God's hands in his providential dispensa- 
 tions; who, to go no higher, in the rise, succession, riches, and 
 duration of the four universal monarchies, has been fulfilling 
 Scripture prophecy; and so he has in the rejection and present 
 state of the Jews, who many days have been without a king, a 
 sacrifice, and an idol, according to Scripture prophecy. How ex- 
 actly is the New Testament a fulfilling of the Old; and not only 
 the present state of Europe, as to its divisions into ten king- 
 doms; the kings of which have, according to Scripture prophecy, 
 given away their power to the beast; but the present state of 
 all the world is visibly a fulfilling of Scripture prophecy! Are 
 not the Jews, at this day, the scattered and the despised people 
 the Scriptures say they should be? Is not Antichrist the long- 
 lived man of sin, and the cruel man of blood, the Scriptures say 
 he should be? Are not the pagan parts of the world the dark 
 places, and the habitations of cruelty, the Scripture says they 
 should be ? Do not the seven Asiatic churches he desolate, as 
 they were threatened by Christ, unless they repented ? Is not 
 Mahomet the false prophet the Scriptures say he should be? 
 and are not his followers many, like the waters of a great river, 
 the river Euphrates, to which they are compared in Scripture ? 
 Does not the whole world lie in wickedness, as the Scriptures 
 say it does ? And is not every saint as a brand plucked out of 
 the burning, as the Scriptures say they are ? Are not the deists 
 the scofiers, walking after their own lusts, and ridiculing the 
 promise of Christ's coming, as the Scriptures say they should? 
 Are not the black marks of those perilous times, the last days, 
 upon us ? Are not the foolish virgins as many, nay more, than 
 the wise? And are not all slumbering and sleeping, as the Scrip- 
 tures say they would be? — Let us therefore prize the book of 
 God, as a king does his crown, and hold it fast as a king does 
 his sceptre : let us lay it up in the cabinet of the heart, and ex- 
 press it throughout the whole of our lives: let us view Christ 
 and ourselves, his wisdom and our own folly; his righteousness, 
 and our own guilt; his riches, and our own poverty; his fulness, 
 and our own emptiness; his strength, and our own weakness, 
 in the light thereof; in this the finite worth of Christ, and the 
 true value of grace, and use of faith, and of every thing else, is 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 289 
 
 faithfully set down; according to which, "All who believe are 
 justified, from ail things from which there was no being justi- 
 fied by the law of Moses," Acts xiii. 39. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 Galatians ii. 16. — Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but by the faith of Jesus Clirist ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that 
 we might be justified by the faith of Clirist, and not by the works of the law; 
 for by the works of the law sliall no flesh be justified. 
 
 By far the greatest of all sublunary transactions, with an eye 
 to which the foundations of the first Adam's world were laid, 
 was, as we learn from Scripture, the appearing of Christ, the 
 second Adam, to take away sin. His incarnation is spoken of 
 in both Testaments, as the foundation and chief corner-stone of 
 God's world of nature, as well as of his kingdom of grace and 
 glory. In the Old Testament, " I have put my words in thy 
 mouth, and covered thee in the shadow of my hand," said God 
 to the Mediator, " that I may plant the heavens, and lay the 
 foundations of the earth; and say to Zion, Thou art my peo- 
 ple," Isa. li. 16; that is, do it with the greatest certainty, so as 
 to receive from all a full revenue of glory. In the New Testa- 
 ment we are told, that " all things were created by Christ, and 
 that by him all things consist," Col. i. 16, 17. 
 
 As man was created the mouth of this lower creation, in 
 point of praise, and in point of service as the hand thereof; for 
 what would this world have signified, had no man been formed 
 to adore, and serve him that made it? so our Immanuel is as 
 the hand in point of service; therefore he is called the man of 
 ' God's right hand, Psal. Ixxx. 17, and in point of praise he is 
 as the mouth of the whole universe. By him God receives, 
 and will receive for ever, such a revenue of glory, as could no 
 other way have been paid to him. Mere creatures, whether 
 they are men or angels, being mutable by nature, may praise 
 God, and serve him one day, and be struck dumb to praise, 
 and grow lame to his service the next, as in the case of the 
 non-elect angels, and of our first parents; whereas our Imma- 
 nuel is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" and, as 
 such, is a fit basis to support the whole universe. Is it beneath 
 the wisdom of a king to order his palace to be built on a quick 
 sand, or his crown and sceptre to be made of glass? and will 
 God entrust reeds and rushes, that is, mere creatures, with the 
 manifestation of his glory? Firm and strong as the pillars of 
 heaven, and of this earth may be, they owe all their stability 
 and strength to Christ, and so do elect men and angels theirs, 
 
 37 
 
290 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 in answering the ends, the one of their creation, the other of 
 their redemption ; to the same Jesus, who is said, " to bear up 
 the pillars of the earth," Psal. Ixxv. 3, and " to uphold all 
 things by the word of his power," Heb. i. 3, which includes 
 heaven as well as earth; and is called, by God, " his righteous 
 servant, in whom he will be glorified," Isa. xlix. 3. That 
 Christ should be able, in the short space of thirty odd years, to 
 finish transgression, and to make an end of sin, and reconciUa- 
 tion for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, is a 
 like wonder, with God's creating such a world as this is, in the 
 space of six days. How will it astonish and delight us, when 
 we come to glor}'', to think, that the Lord of heaven and earth 
 should be the Lord our righteousness! that he, who there sits 
 on the Father's throne, should, to bring about our justification 
 and salvation, consent to hang in this lower world on a tree ! 
 Between his righteousness being upon us for our actual jus- 
 tification, and faith of the operation of God, there is, for the 
 comfort of all who believe, a close connexion, which is my next 
 head of discourse. 
 
 5. I shall evince the siu^e connexion there is between faith 
 and actual justification. 
 
 There is an eternal connexion in God's purposes and decrees, 
 who has said, " My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my 
 pleasure." Men and devils may sooner invert the beautiful 
 order of nature, and extinguish sun, moon, and stars, than dis- 
 annul what the purpose of God has thus connected: there is 
 also an eternal connexion by way of covenant, it being thus 
 agreed in the counsel of peace between the Father and the 
 Son: there is also a purchased connexion, obtained and sealed, 
 as it were, by the blood of Christ: there is an openly declared 
 connexion, published in the book of God, and by the mhiisters 
 of the gospel, to all the world: there is a promised connexion 
 confirmed by oath; for the oath of God, as it is recorded in 
 his word, reaches and confirms every truth contained therein, 
 whereby all gospel immunities, privileges, and blessings, are 
 abundantly secured to such as believe. It is also an experi- 
 enced connexion; all, in all ages and places, that ever believed, 
 whether saints of the Old, or of the New Testament, have, 
 without one exception, been justified; and so are all who now 
 believe justified, let their lot be cast where it will; babes, as 
 well as fathers in Christ; and so shall all who, in after ages, to 
 the very end of time, shall be brought to believe; for that great 
 text looks forward as well as backward: "By him all who 
 believe are justified, from all things," Acts iii. 39. Should such 
 of us as believe, be declared justified, by an audible voice from 
 heaven, or by an angel sent from thence, it would not be so sat- 
 isfying, nor so establishing, as the united testimony of Moses, 
 and of all the prophets; of Christ, and of all his apostles, as it 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 291 
 
 Stands recorded in both Testaments. We may safely say, that 
 the earth may sooner sink mider our feet, and the heavens over 
 cm' heads vanish, than a true behever be condemned; which 
 connexion is thus settled and secured, that we might have strong 
 consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold on the hope 
 set before us in the gospel. This connexion I take to be part 
 of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," which makes 
 every true believer "free from the law of sin and death," Rom. 
 viii. 2. 
 
 6. My next province is to assign to good loorks their proper 
 use in this weighty affair, according to the Scriptures, which 
 are most express, in excluding the best works performed by the 
 best of saints, from being either in whole, or in part, our justify- 
 ing righteousness before God. Thus Abraham's works, though 
 very excellent in themselves, are carefully excluded; "What 
 shall we say then, that Abraham our father, as pertaining to 
 the flesh, has found? for if Abraham was justified by works, 
 he has whereof to glory; but he was not so justified before 
 God," Rom, iv. 2. That this is the sense and meaning of this 
 verse, is plain from the next; "For what says the Scripture, 
 Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for right- 
 eousness," verse 3. His readiness to offer his son, by way of 
 sacrifice, at God's command, was a high instance of oljedience; 
 but this was not counted to him for righteousness, as to be sure 
 it would have been, and set as in the front of Abraham's good 
 works, had they been either in whole, or in part, his justifying 
 righteousness before God. David's resolution to make mention 
 of God's righteousness, and of that only, must be exclusive of 
 all those works of righteousness, which might be called his own. 
 Thus the apostle's desire to be found in Christ, not having his 
 own righteousness, excludes not only some, but all those works 
 of righteousness he had wrought, or should maintain, to the 
 very end of life, though he was a tree of righteousness, more 
 and more loaded therewith. His saying, " not of works, lest 
 any man shouki boast," bars them from being part of our jus- 
 tifying righteousness before God; and so does that other text, 
 "Now to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies 
 the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," Rom. iv. 5. 
 But we need go no further than my text for the full proof of 
 this: it was in primitive times, a known truth, which none dis- 
 puted, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but 
 by the faith of Jesus Christ. We may safely conclude, there- 
 fore, as the apostle does, that " we are justified by faith, without 
 the deeds of the law; for by the law is the knowledge of sin," 
 Rom. iii. 20. The dagger that gives the wound, may as soon 
 cure it, as the law justify any: such as thus seek to be justified, 
 are so far from attaining their end, that they are doctrinally 
 fallen from grace, Gal. v. 4, and do as much as in them lies, 
 
292 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 to make the death of Christ vain and ineffectual, Gal. ii. 21. 
 Good works, how spiritual soever they may be, are not a val- 
 uable consideration laid down by us, for the robe of Christ's 
 righteousness; which can no more be purchased by us, than the 
 power of giving the Holy Ghost could by Simon the sorcerer. 
 Such a purchase would aggrandize the saint, to the depreciating 
 of the Saviour, whose righteousness is called a gift, but not 
 once a sale, in Scripture; neither are good works our warrant 
 to look to Christ for righteousness, to justification and life. To 
 bar this, we are told, as has been observed, how it is, that, as 
 to ourselves, we are considered by God, when he justifies any, 
 not as saints, but as sinners: But to him that works not, but\ 
 believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted 
 for righteousness. Our warrant to receive Christ, as the Lord 
 our righteousness, is not human, but divine ; the call and pro- 
 mise of the gospel, and not any worth or worthiness in us; Not 
 by works of righteousness which ive have done, but according 
 to his mercy he saved ns. 
 
 But though the best of works are no part of our justifying 
 righteousness before God, all good works evidence our being 
 among the number of God's justified ones. This they do, as 
 they speak our faith to be unfeigned; a faith of the right kind, 
 which works by love: they also do it, as they speak our union 
 to Christ to be real, that we are truly one spirit with the Lord; 
 so that good works evidence our justification, as good fruit evi- 
 dences the goodness of the tree ; and as streams that are sweet, 
 speak the sweetness of the fountain. 
 
 7. I shall next consider, whether the laiv is of any use in the 
 business of a sinner's justification before God, and show of 
 what use it is. The moral law is the great standard of all right- 
 eousness: had not Christ's suretiship righteousness come up, in 
 every point, to this perfect rule, neither he himself, as Mediator, 
 nor any of his, could have been justified; the curse of which 
 law, as a broken covenant, reaches sinners of all ranks and 
 degrees, whilst lying out from Christ: it is therefore of no small 
 use, in the hand of the Spirit, to awaken those of God's elect, 
 where the gospel comes; by which they are not only struck 
 dumb and silenced, as to all pleas, by way of excuse, but dead, 
 as to all hopes of establishing a justifying righteousness of their 
 own. Thus the apostle Paul, who, whilst a dead Pharisee, was 
 alive in his own conceit, without the law; when that came in 
 its spirituality and extent, sin so revived, as to the sense of it, 
 that he died; and the commandment, which was originally or- 
 dained to life, and was so given to our first parents, he found to 
 be to death; for instead of justifying, by it is the knowledge of 
 sin, and consequently it must of necessity condemn the sinner: 
 this holds true of all laws, if transgressed; but more especially 
 of the moral. 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 293 
 
 I shall observe of what use the written word is in this weighty 
 affair, of which the law and light of nature knew nothing before 
 the fall, the whole thereof being matter of pure revelation: "If 
 thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted ?" Gen. iv. 7, is the 
 language of creation-due; but our being justified by faith, and 
 accepted to eternal life, in the Beloved, is all of grace, and the 
 peculiar language of the gospel. Both Testaments are full of 
 the glory of Christ, as the Lord our righteousness, and of en- 
 couragement to seek to him for all righteousness, to bring us into, 
 and to continue us in a pardoned, justified, reconciled, adopted 
 state for ever: both Testaments also testify, that " in the Lord 
 shall all the believing seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory," 
 Isa. xlv. 24, whose faith, in opposition to the popish notion of 
 believing as the church believes, is described by knowledge : 
 "By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many," 
 chap, xliii. 11, of v/hich we have a more full and particular ac- 
 count in the New Testament, especially in the epistle to the Ro- 
 mans, where this righteousness is called a gift; and is, in so 
 many words, said " to be to all, and upon all them that believe, 
 and that without difference; as really to all justifying intents 
 and purposes upon Abraham's believing seed, as upon Abraham 
 the father of the faithful; as really upon New Testament saints, 
 as upon those of the Old; as really upon us, at this distance of 
 time, as upon primitive saints, and the apostles themselves ; as 
 really upon babes, as upon fathers in Christ. Were Moses, and 
 all the prophets, upon earth ; was Paul, with all the apostles, 
 here ; and should the true behever ask them their thoughts con- 
 cerning his state, they would unanimously declare him a justi- 
 fied person : one freed from all condemnation on the one hand, 
 and entitled to heaven, on the other. God's written word is 
 full of the excelling worth of this righteousness, and of the gra- 
 cious designs of God in providing it ; how and to what ends it 
 is upon us who believe, and with what certainty and success. 
 There we have the Father's testimony concerning his Son, as 
 the Lord our righteousness, and his command to us to hear him ; 
 whose calls and counsels direct to Christ, as the end of the law for 
 righteousness, and whose charge is to go no where else. In a 
 word, we are taught the one and only way of a sinner's justifi- 
 cation before God ; and, by the same word, we are directed and 
 encouraged to get into it, and to abide therein. Here the pur- 
 poses of God are put into promises, that faith may go to a 
 throne of grace, and plead them. Grace in the heart and pur- 
 pose of God, is like gold in the mine ; but grace in the promise, 
 be it those promises which relate to our justification, or any 
 other gospel privilege, is like gold in the mint ; it is ours to 
 traffic with, in a spiritual sense. 
 
 I shall next consider the use of conscience, in this momentous 
 affair. In this court, the law keeps its register, as it relates to 
 
294 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 duty, and to sin; and the justice of God an account of the num- 
 bers, and aggravating circumstances of every sinner's sins, how 
 great sinners they are in the eye of the law, and what is due to 
 Ihem, according to the righteous judgment of God, for their 
 sins. Here God's testimony concerning his Son is received, 
 when this court is purged and renewed; and our beUeving with 
 the heart is noted or set down. All the witnesses to a believer's 
 justification are heard in this court, and all objections against it 
 are here canvassed and answered. In this court, the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil, lodge their accusations against the believer, 
 drawn from the strength of his corruptions, and from the weak- 
 ness of his faith; and here it is that they are removed: so that 
 this court, which was once full of bribes, and false reports, as 
 well as with false witnesses, being renewed by the Spirit of 
 Christ, and sprinkled with his blood, is, less or more, filled with 
 peace and with joy in believing. This matchless robe of right- 
 eousness has in the folds thereof peace with God ; and all clothed 
 therewith may and should rejoice in the hope of his glory: they 
 should also glory in tribulation, and call the world's frowns 
 theirs, as well as its smiles; adversity, as well as prosperity; and 
 death itself, as well as life. This they are enabled, in some good 
 measure, to do ; when he, who searches the deep things of God, 
 is pleased to shine in upon their graces, and to shed abroad the 
 love of God, in the provision and gift of this righteousness in 
 their hearts, and to witness with their spirits that therein they 
 are made the righteousness of God ; who, as he is Christ's glo- 
 rifier, never sets his seal to a blank for the world, the flesh, and 
 the devil, to fill up at pleasure, as some libertines would per- 
 suade themselves and others; but first renews and works faith, 
 and so witnesses to his own work : in the light of whose wit- 
 nessing presence tlie robe of Christ's righteousness appears to 
 be most glorious, and all clothed therewith to be most safe and 
 happy; by which their doubts are answered, and all their fears 
 are scattered, and they go on their way rejoicing. Instead of 
 sinning, they are brought to obey, with a high hand of filial 
 love and reverence ; and find, by blessed experience, that the 
 joy of the Lord is their strength, to bear, as well as to do his will. 
 As the least mote makes the eye water, so the least sin makes 
 the conscience, that is sprinkled with the blood of Christ, smite ; 
 other consciences may be scrupulous, but these only are truly 
 tender. 
 
 IV. My last work shall be to guard against crrot^s of all sorts 
 in the business of a sinner's justification before God. 
 
 The law, as a covenant of works, was our first husband ; to 
 it, as such, we were all espoused in the first Adam; the language 
 of which is. Do this, and live. Now, though the law is weak, 
 through the flesh, and cannot possibly justify any, but is strong 
 to condemn ; yet such is the pride of every natural man's heart. 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 295 
 
 that he had much rather, with the carnal Jews, go to Sinai, than 
 to Zion, for a justifying righteousness; and, with the Papists, 
 be at any costs and pains to establish a justifying righteousness 
 of his own, than to submit to Christ's. 
 
 I shall begin with the error of the Jews, particularly of the 
 proud conceited Pharisees, in the business of justification before 
 God. Of this we have the best account, both from the pen and 
 from the practice of the apostle Paul, whilst a Pharisee: from 
 his pen; "What shall we say then? that the Gentiles, who fol- 
 lowed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, 
 even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, who fol- 
 lowed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law 
 of righteousness : wherefore ? because they sought it not by 
 faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law," Rom. iv. 30. 
 They were for a Sinai covenant and righteousness, and not for 
 that of mount Zion. Though they were a generation of vipers, 
 and wliited sepulchres, especially the Pharisees; yet they were 
 foi establishing a justifying righteousness of their own, as is evi- 
 dent, beyond all contradiction; "For they being ignorant of 
 God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own 
 righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteous- 
 ness of God," chap. x. 3. We have also a full account of this 
 from the apostle's practice, whilst a Pharisee, of which he gives 
 a very particular account, in his third chapter to the Philippians : 
 he has told us what pains he took, and how great a proficient 
 he was, in the school of the law, as a covenant: "Touching the 
 righteousness which is of the law blameless," Phil. iii. 6. This 
 is last mentioned, because he verily thought, whilst he was a 
 blind Pharisee, that it added weight and worth to all these ex- 
 ternal privileges he there enumerated: but upon his being made 
 light in the Lord, he spoke in a quite different language; " That 
 I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which 
 is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the 
 righteousness which is of God by faith," Phil. iii. 9. From 
 Christ's parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, it appears 
 that the righteousness which the former trusted to, and pleaded 
 before God, was a comparative righteousness; " God, I thank 
 thee, that I am not as other men are," Luke xviii. 11. 
 
 I shall next consider the error which infected the churches 
 of Galatia, in the business of justification before God; which 
 was this; they joined together mount Sinai and mount Zion, 
 and blended the two dispensations, that of the law and that of 
 the gospel, and put the veil of Moses over the face, or gospel, 
 of Jesus Christ, in the business of justification before God. This 
 is the least that can be said of their mistake; though it is plain, 
 from the two following texts, that they took wider and worse 
 steps, in joining the works, both of the moral and of the cere- 
 monial law, with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteous- 
 
296 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 ness, who is the end of botli for righteousness, to every one 
 that believes. The one is, " If righteousness comes by the law, 
 then Christ is dead in vain," Gal. ii. 21 ; an awful word, which 
 should put all upon their guard, as to the important doctrine 
 of a sinner's justification before God; an error in which, is of 
 such fatal tendency. The other is, " Whosoever of you are jus- 
 tified by the law, ye are fallen from grace," Gal. v. 4, that is 
 doctrinally. It is observable with what sharpness he, who at 
 other times was gentle among the saints, "even as a nurse 
 cherishes her children," 1 Thess, ii. 7, reproved the erring Gala- 
 tians, whose error he calls, " a perverting the gospel of Christ," 
 Gal. i. 7. 
 
 I shall next consider that of the Pelagians. The error of Pe- 
 lagius was his exalting the free will of the creature above the 
 free grace of God, in all the articles of salvation, and consequent- 
 ly in this of justification: he laid aside the doctrine of Christ's 
 imputed, for that of our own inherent righteousness; that free 
 will might have of its own, wherein to trust, whereof to glory, 
 and wherewith to come before God. Thus unmindful was he, 
 and so are all his followers, of what Christ has told us; " As the 
 branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, 
 no more can ye, except ye abide in me; for without me ye 
 can do nothing," John xv. 4, 5. These pervert the order of 
 grace, as much as the order of nature would be perverted, should 
 any say, that the branch bears the root, and that without the 
 root the branch might blossom and bring forth fruit. That great 
 text, so expressive of the grace and order of the gospel, is a full 
 confutation of Pelagianism; "By grace are ye saved through 
 faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of 
 works, lest any man should boast; for we are his workmanship, 
 created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before or- 
 dained, that we should walk in them," Eph. h. 8, 9, 10. To be 
 sure, Pelagius was one of the greatest patrons of free will, and 
 as bitter an enemy to free grace, as the church ever was troubled 
 with ; his leaven has spread itself far and near, and is like to do 
 more and more, under latter day darkness. 
 
 In the same path Jirius before trod, with this dreadful addi- 
 tion, his affirming Christ to be no more than a creature, though 
 he made him to be the first and chief of mere creatures: thus 
 he robbed Christ, at once, of the divinity of his Person, and of 
 his crown, as Mediator : according to whom the great end of 
 all he either did or suffered, was partly to confirm his doctrine 
 and mission, and partly to set his people an example ; but he 
 utterly denied his being, in a true and proper sense, the Lord 
 our righteousness, or the end of the law for righteousness to 
 every one that believes. And so did Socinus, with this further 
 addition, that he made Christ to be a creature of a late date, 
 who had no existence save in type and promise, before the ful- 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 297 
 
 ness of time. Thus wilfully did he shut his eyes against that 
 great chapter, the first of John, which alone is a full confutation 
 of his soul ruining error; where Christ is not represented as 
 beginning with time, but as existing before all time: it is not, 
 in the beginning did the Word begin to be ; but " in the begin- 
 ning was^'the Word, and the Word was with God," eternal as 
 being God; for so it follows, "and the Word was God. The 
 same was in the beginning with God. All things were made 
 by him: and without him was not any thing made that was 
 made. He was in the world, and the world was made by him," 
 John i. 1 — 3, 10. The Arminians also are for being justified 
 by free will righteousness, and not from free grace: the glorious 
 gift of righteousness, which has so much grace in it, and accom- 
 panying of it, is by them despised; and a rag of their own, a 
 sorry web, which God has said shall never become a garment, 
 is preferred. They shamefully wrest and darken all those texts, 
 which shine in both Testaments, like stars of the first magni- 
 tude; and proclaim, as on the house top, that Christ is the Lord 
 our righteousness, in the business of justification before God. 
 
 Such would do well to consider the history of free will, as 
 it is recorded in the historical part of Scripture. The greatest 
 trial of free will, was the trial God made of it, in Lucifer, the 
 son of the morning, and in all the non-elect among the angels; 
 who, under his conduct, kept not their first estate, but soon left 
 their first habitation; and, of bright and shining angels, are be- 
 come infernal devils. Next to this was the trial God made 
 of free will, in our first parents; from whom nothing was with- 
 held, which became a bountiful Creator to bestow on so noble 
 a creature as man; but how soon did man, left to the conduct 
 of his own free will, lose all, and become bankrupt? Now, if 
 free will made no earnings of a covenant of works, got nothing 
 by it in a state of innocency, but lost all; is it likely to recover 
 all, on the foot of a covenant of works, in a state of sin and 
 apostasy? 
 
 We may here consider, how man's will has been tried since 
 the fall, and found to be no ways fit to be trusted. Was it not 
 tried before the flood, when length of life, and strength of con- 
 stitution, furnished mankind with the greatest opportunities, to 
 improve all the talents free will, as it is called, was intrusted 
 with? But, instead of retrieving what it had lost, or growing 
 better, mankind grew worse and worse; "And God saw that 
 the wickedness of man was great in the earth; and that every 
 imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continu- 
 ally," Gen. vi. 6. Free will so rebelled, and was so provoking, 
 as to bring down a deluge of water, in those early days, on 
 mankind; as it will, in the end, bring a deluge of fire, even the 
 general conflagration. It is very observable, and very hum- 
 bling to consider, how free will, instead of acting the grateful, 
 
 38 
 
298 OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 dutiful, obedient part, when Israel was so remarkably delivered 
 out of Egypt, and led by such a high arm of power, through 
 the Red sea, murmured against God; called his power in ques- 
 tion ; talked of stoning Moses, and of returning back into Egypt ; 
 made a calf in Horeb, just before the burning mount, and to it 
 ascribed all the praise of Israel's deliverance. How did free 
 will behave in Christ's day, and in Christ's family? In Christ's 
 day, in the persons of the Scribes and Pharisees, the priests 
 and rulers; who, instead of receiving the Messiah with hearts 
 enlarged in his praise, poured on him the utmost contempt; and 
 though they wondered at the miracles wrought by him, yet 
 they despised his person and character, and so they perished. 
 And as free will acted a strange and most unaccountable part, 
 in Christ's day, so it acted the basest part in Christ's family, in 
 the person of Judas; who, though he ate of his bread, saw all 
 the miracles which were wrought by Christ, and heard the gra- 
 cious words which proceeded out of his mouth, lifted up his 
 heel against him, sold him for thirty pieces of silver, and betray- 
 ed him with a kiss. This put the traitor upon being his own 
 executioner, prepared the halter he deserved, put it about his 
 neck, and so dispatched him. In a word, all the sins that were 
 ever acted on earth, are the birth of free will. 
 
 I shall next consider the Papists, who, the better to establish 
 a justifying righteousness of their own, blend justification and 
 sanctification together, and make a change of state to be one 
 and the same thing with a change of nature : as if a traitor's 
 becoming a loyal subject, and his being pardoned, were one 
 and the same ; whereas fact and experience prove them to be 
 divers. They also destroy the oneness and completeness of 
 Christ's satisfaction, making a dreadful mixture in the laver of 
 the sanctuary of their worthless tears with Christ's most pre- 
 cious blood; to which they add their unscriptural penances, pil- 
 grimages, vows, and abstinences, which they esteem and preach 
 up to be at least atoning, if not meritorious. Thus they place, 
 in the room of Christ's suretiship righteousness, a righteousness 
 of their own, made up of superstition and will-worship; the 
 worshipping of saints and angels ; the respect they pay to the 
 cross, and to all manner of relics, their vespers and paternosters; 
 their works of supererogation ; and the merits and intercession 
 of their many saints, with the Virgin at the head of them. They 
 tell us roundly, and without mincing the matter, that Christ has 
 merited, that we may merit; so that Christ and his righteous- 
 ness are but as the steps leading to the throne, on which carnal 
 self is by them exalted ; or as the scaffolds which they make use 
 of in building Babel; by which, sorry as they are, they hope 
 to mount the highest heaven. Thus doth Antichrist interfere 
 with Christ in all his offices, that of a priest, as well as those of 
 a king, and of a prophet. 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 299 
 
 I shall next consider the mistake of the Neonomians, who 
 turn the gospel into a new and remedial law, and make faith, 
 repentance, and sincere obedience, to be the sinner's justifying 
 righteousness before God. That God's saved ones are brought 
 to repent, and believe, and obey, is readily owned; but as it is 
 for the sake of Christ, and of his righteousness, that it is given 
 to any to repent, to believe, and to obey; so these things can no 
 more be their justifying righteousness before God, than Christ 
 can be divided against himself. So long as Christ is the Lord 
 our righteousness, and is revealed in the gospel, as " the end of 
 the law for righteousness, to every one that believes," nothing 
 that is ours can share with him therein : will he, who is to judge 
 us, suffer himself to be thus supplanted by us? Shall we receive, 
 at the hand of Christ, a heart to repent, and believe, and obey, 
 and then make a Christ of it ? The grace that gave Christ for 
 us, and gives Christ to us, cannot be so mistaken, as to teach 
 any to establish a justifying righteousness of their own. 
 
 I shall next consider the error of the Quakers, who igno- 
 rantly, to say no worse of them, make a Christ of the light of 
 nature, and a gospel of the law of nature; whose justifying 
 righteousness is made up of moral duties, such as are taught, 
 not by the word of God, but by the light within. Thus they 
 mistake the light of the moon for that of the sun, as if the moon 
 could make the day, or ripen the harvest. The light and law 
 of nature have their use, of which Cornelius is the top instance 
 that we meet with in Scripture ; and yet to Cornelius this mes- 
 sage is sent : " Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose 
 surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and 
 all thy house shall be saved," Acts xi. 13, 14. One would have 
 thought that Cornelius, whose prayer was heard, and whose 
 alms were had in remembrance in the sight of God, had been 
 in a pardoned, justified, reconciled state; especially upon that 
 saying of Peter's, " Of a truth, I perceive that God is no res- 
 pecter of persons; but, in every nation, he that fears him, and 
 works righteousness, is accepted of him." And yet the mes- 
 sage the apostle Peter was sent to him about, was to tell him 
 words whereby he and his house should be saved. From which 
 we safely gather, that how commendable soever morality and 
 natural religion are in themselves, and how much soever God 
 may approve of them, as beyond all doubt he does, they cannot 
 supply the place of Christ: if they could, Christ might have been 
 spared, and a Plato, or a Seneca, have supplied the room of a 
 Peter or an apostle Paul. 
 
 I shall, in the last place, mention the error of the Antinomi- 
 ans; where I shall show who and what the true Antinomians 
 are: for all are not so, who are so nick-named by the enemy. 
 The apostle Paul was so called in his day, and so was Christ; 
 and thus are many of Christ's faithful ministers called in our 
 
300 ' OF JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 dark day, for preaching no other doctrine than that contained 
 in mj^ text. The Antinomians are either speculative or practi 
 cal: speculative are such as endeavour to persuade themselves 
 and others, that sin can do them no harm. That it shall not 
 destroy nor damn the true believer, we readily own; but of the 
 hurt it does them, they have less or more the experience, when- 
 ever they fall into sin; as David had, under the Old Testament, 
 and the apostle Peter had, under the New. They likewise say, 
 that God sees no sin in his people: none for which to condemn 
 them, we readily grant; but that he sees sin in the best of them, 
 to purge it out by his word, and by his rod, is what we afiirm. 
 They say further, that believers are not to pray for the forgive- 
 ness of their daily sins; not distinguishing between that which 
 is virtual, in the purpose of God, and in the purchase of Christ, 
 and that which is actual, according to the word. It is not to 
 be forgiven in purpose, or in purchase, that the beUever prays; 
 but to have purposed and purchased forgiveness actually ap- 
 plied to him, according to the word. Their worst notion is, that 
 believers are not under the law, as a rule of duty to Christ; but 
 may live as they list, sin not being able to hurt them. I would 
 hope that of these there are very few, if any, among Protestant 
 Dissenters. Such would do well to remember, so as to copy 
 after the apostle Paul, who bewailed sin in its remains, Rom. 
 vii. 24, and desired to have it further mortified, Phil, iii, 20, and 
 was under the law to Christ, 1 Cor. ix. 21. Practical Antino- 
 mians are those the apostle speaks of; " For many walk, of 
 whom I have often told you, and now tell you, even weeping, 
 that they are enemies to the cross of Christ; whose end is de- 
 struction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their 
 shame, who mind earthly things," Phil. iii. 18. These, it is to 
 be feared, are many, and that their numbers are daily increas- 
 ing: they gather not honey and sweetness, with the bee, but 
 with the spider, poison from this flower of paradise, the doctrine 
 of a sinner's justification before God. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 All the application I shall make is, to put you upon the in- 
 quiry, how near this righteousness has been brought to you. 
 
 To the ear of all here present it has been brought, times with- 
 out number; that is, in the sound of it, and into the head and 
 memory, in the notion of it: but has it been brought into your 
 hearts in the love and liking of it? Do you, from and with the 
 heart, begin to like, and choose, and prefer this way of a sin- 
 ner's justification before God? His being made the righteous- 
 ness of God in Christ, and so freed in that righteousness from 
 all condemnation on the one hand, and his being entitled to 
 eternal glory on the other; of which it may be safely said, for 
 
OF JUSTIFICATION. 301 
 
 it may be abundantly proved from Scripture, that of all possi- 
 ble ways of a sinner's justification, this excels in glory; other- 
 wise it could not be said, that therein God has " abounded 
 towards us in all wisdom and prudence," Eph. i. 18, which 
 holds true as of the whole, so of every part of the salvation we 
 have in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Has this righteousness been brought into your consciences, 
 in the peace and comfort of it? Your spirits, it may be, are 
 easy; but how came they so to be? If never disturbed and dis- 
 tressed for sin, it is a sad sign that their ease is from carnal secu- 
 rity, and not from Christ. Or if the case be such as they at Rome 
 are full of, who think, by their good works, both to atone and 
 merit, it is so far from being Christ's peace, that it is Antichris- 
 tian. But if it is founded on Christ's righteousness, received by 
 faith, as your alone justifying righteousness ; if your hearts have 
 been with Christ, as the Lord your righteousness, the gospel in 
 both Testaments declares, that you are at peace with God, as 
 being justified by faith. 
 
 Do you evidence that you have thus been with Jesus, both 
 by your worship and by your walk ? Is the one spiritual, and 
 the other circumspect? Go astray you may like lost sheep; but 
 wallow in the mire of sin, like swine, you cannot. The same 
 grace that has changed your state, has renewed your hearts; so 
 that you are really "dead to sin, but alive to God, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." There is not a doctrine in the gospel but it 
 may be abused: but a work of grace on the heart cannot; that 
 is like a running spring, which breaks through all opposition, 
 and works out all filth. 
 
THE 
 
 DOCTRINE OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE, 
 
 ASSERTED AND VINDICATED: 
 
 IN TWO SERMONS. 
 By MR. SAMUEL WILSON. 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Philippians ii. 13. — It is God who worketh in yon, both to will and to do, of his 
 own good pleasure. 
 
 In the beginning of this chapter, the apostle recommends to the 
 saints, at PhiHppi, mutual forbearance, affection, humihty, and 
 condescension, as the great ornament of the Christian character. 
 To this end, he reminds them of their common fellowship of the 
 Spirit, and their joint relation to, and interest in, the blessed 
 Jesus; who, as he observes, in the days of his flesh, exemplified 
 these graces, in a very distinguishing manner: so entirely was 
 his heart set upon advancing his Father's honour, and so pre- 
 vailing the affection which he bore to his people, that, " Though 
 he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be 
 equal with God, yet he made himself of no reputation, and took 
 upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of 
 men; and, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, 
 and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." 
 Now, says the apostle, you profess to be the disciples of this 
 Jesus, you call him Lord; keep in view then his temper and 
 conduct, and copy after him : " Let the same mind be in you 
 that was in him;" and so much the rather give diligence herein, 
 as I, who when present with you, was serviceable, as an healer 
 of your breaches, and an helper of your faith and joy, am now 
 providentially removed from among you : " Wherefore, my be- 
 loved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, 
 but how much more in my absence, work out your own salva- 
 tion with fear and trembling." God is calling you to duty, dili- 
 gence, and circumspection; give no occasion for the reproach 
 that your zeal declined upon my leaving you; but remember 
 what is before you, a crown of immortal glory, and run with 
 patience and constancy the race that is appointed you; and, 
 in your way to the prize, let there be no other contention, but 
 who shall soonest reach the goal, and first lay hold of eternal 
 302 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 303 
 
 life. And lest they should, conscious of their own spiritual im- 
 potence, be discouraged, he adds, " For it is God that worketh 
 in you," &c. Your work, indeed, is great, your difficulties many; 
 but if God is with you, he will give you a will, and furnish you 
 with power to perform what is acceptable to him. 
 
 Perhaps it will be said, that the words under consideration, 
 relate to saints already renewed in the spirit of their mind, and 
 so cannot, with propriety, be produced as an argument for the 
 necessity of a divine agency, in the conversion of a sinner. To 
 this it might be answered, that it is no unusual thing, in theo- 
 logical inquiries, to borrow a passage of Scripture, as an illus- 
 tration, where it is not insisted on as a direct proof; but the in- 
 stance before us, admitting it primarily may belong to believers, 
 the consequence will be this, that either the sinner has more 
 will to, and power for, that which is good, than the saint, or the 
 same God, who works in the one, must also in the other, both 
 to will and to do of his good pleasure. If a good man, who 
 knows so much of his duty, who has been so long accustomed 
 to the discharge of it, and so often tasted the sweets of commu- 
 nion with God, whilst engaged in his service; if in the midst of 
 all his advantages, experience, and hope, he cannot of himself 
 will or perform anything that is spiritually good; much less the 
 sinner whose heart is carnal, who is a slave to his lusts, and un- 
 der the tyranny of the god of this world. 
 
 The word which we translate worketh, is expressive of power, 
 yea, of mighty power; it supposes a difficulty in the perform- 
 ance, and perfection of superior strength in the agent. It is not 
 barely our setting our hand to a work, but the doing of it tho- 
 roughly, or to purpose. Accordingly, when the arm of the Lord 
 is revealed, the sinner is born again, by the exceeding greatness 
 of that power, whereby he subdues all things to himself. There 
 is an energy on God's part, and a change on ours. 
 
 This working of the Almighty is further described to us as 
 internal : He worketh in us, and that both to will, as well as to 
 do. Ministers preach to us, but God worketh in us. The best of 
 means, applied with the utmost skill, will not of themselves 
 soften the hard, or cleanse the impure heart: God only has ac- 
 cess to the spirits of men, so as to secure this desirable event, 
 and he can do it on whom and when he pleases; For "he work- 
 eth in us, of his own good pleasure;" a phrase which has in it 
 the ideas of sovereignty and of kindness. God gives his grace 
 at pleasure, to whom, and in what degree, he thinks fit, dividing 
 to every man as he will: and as this grace is his own image, and 
 leads on to the glorious enjoyment of himself, it must needs be 
 a favour of inestimable value. 
 
 The words being explained, give us an occasion to observe, 
 
 " That when a sinner is born again, there is a change wrought 
 in his soul, by the mighty power of God." 
 
304 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 By this change I do not understand an alteration of profes- 
 sion or character barely; for as the apostle tells us, circumcision 
 avails no more than uncircumcision, where the new creature is 
 wanting. The change we intend is real, not nominal ; a change 
 of the subject not of the name only. A man may professedly 
 renounce idolatry, submit to baptism, as a badge of Christianity, 
 and attend the worship of God, in the assemblies of the saints; 
 call himself, and be deemed by others, a believer ; and yet be a 
 stranger to the change we are treating of. Again, we distin- 
 guish the grace of God in the renewing of a sinner, from reason, 
 or the improvements of it, when its dictates are supposed to be 
 duly attended to. Reason belongs to us as men, and is common 
 to our nature, as raised above the beasts that perish: but this is 
 not sufficient to make us wise unto salvation. Where is the per- 
 son of whom it may be said, that, after a course of sin and im- 
 piety, he brought himself by bare reasoning, to forsake the evil 
 of his way, to love the Lord his God with all his heart, to be- 
 lieve on the Lord Jesus, to worship God in the Spirit and to per- 
 severe in these things luito the end? Experience tells us, that 
 sin and Satan so entirely possess the sinner's heart, that there 
 must be something more than the care and improvement of our 
 reason to make room for Christ and holiness. Nor further, do 
 we mean by this change that which is merely the result of pre- 
 senting certain truths to the understanding, in a strong and en- 
 gaging light; so that whereas formerly they were either not at 
 all, or very little, attended to by us, now we are brought, with 
 proper application, to reflect and meditate on them, and so are 
 by deductions from them, engaged in the choice of virtue, and 
 the hatred of vice. This, indeed, we allow to follow upon this 
 change, as a fruit of it; but till the soul is spiritually enlighten- 
 ed, we suppose it to be incapable of judging aright of spiritual 
 truths, or of forming practical conclusions from them. 
 
 In contradistinction to these accounts of regeneration, we as- 
 sert that it is the implanting of a principle of spiritual life, or the 
 forming of the divine image in the soul, in which the soul itself, 
 as to the substance of it, remains the same, but the qualities of 
 it are altered ; the understanding, from being darkened, becomes 
 light in the Lord; the will, which before was rebellious against 
 God, is now brought into subjection to him ; and the affections, 
 which before were wholly carnal, and determined on sensual 
 objects are now purified and refined, and fixed on heavenly 
 things. In a word the change is real and universal, the power 
 which eflects it is divine, the fruits many and discernible, and 
 the great efficient Jehovah the Spirit. 
 
 A particular account of the exact way in which the Spirit 
 accomplishes this great work is not to be expected, after our 
 Lord has told us, that as "the wind bloweth where it listeth, 
 and we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 305 
 
 and whither it goeth, so is every one that is bom of the Spirit," 
 John iii. S, so that we are to attend only to the proof of the 
 fact: that what the Scripture calls the new creature, or a prin- 
 ciple of grace, is formed or wrought in the soul by the power of 
 God, in a way of efficacious grace. I choose to call it the neiv 
 creature, as distinguishing between regeneration and conver- 
 sion, the one being previous to, though necessarily connected 
 with the other. In regeneration, we are passive, and receive 
 from God; in conversion, we are active, and turn to him; we 
 repent, believe, and obey: but this supposes we have been his 
 workmanship; and, by his power, have been renewed in the 
 spirit of our mind. 
 
 Here I shall in some measure, pursue the very same method 
 which a late celebrated writer, on the other side of the question, 
 admits to be just, and which he therefore keeps in view, in all 
 his reasoning on the subject; and so begin, 
 
 1. With those arguments which may be taken from the 
 Scripture account of the work itself, which is represented to us 
 in such terms, as lead us necessarily to conclude, that the soul 
 is passive in it, and that it is brought about by the arm of the 
 Almighty. Thus, 
 
 1. The apostle tells us, " If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature," 2 Cor. v. 17. And again, " Neither circumcision 
 availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature," 
 Gal. vi. 15. And so we are said to be God's workmanship 
 created: and yet more expressly, the new man is said to be 
 " created after God in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 
 24. I do not find it disputed whether these passages refer to the 
 subject before us; and if they do, it must be allowed that either 
 the metaphor is ill chosen, and wrongly applied, or it must be 
 expressive of the same power in the new birth, with that which 
 was exerted in creation, or the making of something out of no- 
 thing. 
 
 To this it is objected, that the term, create, does not always 
 suppose the persons or things said to be created, to be wholly 
 passive, or the power to be so great as we pretend; for God is 
 said to create and form the church of the Jews, Isa. xliii. 1, 
 which must be understood of their stipulating with God, as well 
 as of his engagements to them; in which their covenanting 
 with him they were active. To this we answer, It is certain, 
 whether the phrase is to be understood in a natural or political 
 sense, it stands connected with two other instances of God's 
 goodness, {viz. redeeming them, and calling them by their name) 
 in which they had no concern but what was purely passive : and, 
 if we consider how often God upbraids that people with their 
 breach of covenant, it will not so well agree with the design of 
 the place, which is evidently their encouragement, that this cir- 
 cumstance should be introduced, which must necessarily affect 
 
 39 
 
306 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 them with shame and fear. I cannot but think there was sc 
 much sovereignty in God's choosing Abraham, and so much 
 power in his raising his family, from so small a beginning, to be 
 so great a people, as might abundantly justify the prophet in the 
 use of the terms create and ybr7?z, without having any regard to 
 their promissory or covenant engagements. 
 
 It is further objected, against this argument, that God is said 
 to create that which he brings into a new and better state : thus 
 David prays, Create in me a clean heart, Psal. li. 10, and God 
 is said to create neiv heavens, and a new earth, and to create 
 Jerusalem a rejoicing, Isa. Ixv. 17, 1 9. — As to the case of David, 
 it is plain, his fall had so far convinced him of the plague of his 
 own heart, that he despairs of healing it himself, and therefore 
 cries to God, Create in me a clean heart. It might be a doubt 
 with him, very probably, after so dreadful a backsliding, whe- 
 ther he had ever been truly converted; and if so much power, 
 as would justify the expression, was necessary for his recovery, 
 we may easily conclude what is needful for the renewing of a 
 sinner, wholly dead in trespasses and sins. — As for the other 
 passage mentioned, what difficulty soever may attend settling 
 the exact meaning of it, the following expressions in the chap- 
 ter, abundantly warrant the use of the metaphor; for, according 
 to the prophet, " There is then to be no more an infant of days, 
 nor an old man that hath not filled his days, for the child shall 
 die an hundred years old; the wolf and the lamb are to feed to- 
 gether, and the lion to eat straw like a bullock;" events alto- 
 gether supernatural and miraculous. As to the Greek fathers 
 speaking of the new creature as a change for the better only, if 
 it should be allowed that this is their sentiment, I do not see 
 how it affects the argument; for the question is not, whether the 
 change is for the better, but what power is necessary to it, and 
 TO whom it is to be referred, to God or the creature. 
 
 2. Another Scripture representation of regeneration, is that 
 of our being quickened by the great God, when dead in si7is, 
 Eph. ii. 1 — 5. And what the power is, whereby we are quick- 
 ened, the apostle tells us, chap, i, 18, 19, "That ye may Icnow 
 what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who 
 believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which 
 he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." 
 Whatever may be the fact the apostle had in view, the terms 
 are as strong and expressive, as language will admit. Great 
 pains are taken by our opponents, in expounding this place of 
 the resurrection of the body, in the last day, which they allow 
 to be a work of almighty power; but it is impossible to prove 
 this to be the meaning of it, because there is not a word of the 
 resurrection of the saints in the text. The natural meaning of 
 the place is evidently this: the apostle prays that God would en- 
 lighten them into that mystery of mercy, the work of faith in 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 307 
 
 their sonls, begun and carried on by the same power, which 
 raised his Son from the dead; and whereas he speaks of those 
 who did beUeve, it is to acquaint them, that faith, in the exer- 
 cise and increase, is from the divine power, as well as in the 
 first principle. 
 
 How far this power is consistent with Scripture exhortations 
 and persuasions, will be considered in its place. 
 
 3. We are said, in Scripture, to be born from above, to be 
 born of God, and not of blood, nor of the. ivill of the flesh, iior 
 of the will of man, but of God. In regeneration, the agency is 
 removed from the creature, and ascribed to the great Creator. 
 
 To this it is objected, that we are said to be " begotten by 
 the word of the living God, and that faith comes by hearing," 
 and the apostle tells the Corinthians, " he begot them by his 
 gospel;" which must, say our opponents, be understood in a 
 way of moral suasion, and not in that supernatural, all-power- 
 ful way we contend for. To this we reply, that though " faith 
 comes by hearing, yet it is not of ourselves; it is the gift of 
 God." Ministers preach, and whilst they preach, and with their 
 preaching, God works, and so it is that men are turned unto 
 him; otherwise even a Paul may plant, and an Apollos water, 
 but there will be no increase; for, as the apostle observes, they 
 are only ministers, by whom we believe : " Neither is he that 
 planteth any thing, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth 
 the increase." So that we conclude, the metaphors, which the 
 Scripture makes use of, in representing the renewing of a sin- 
 ner, carry in them plain marks of a divine interposure, and that 
 in a way of infinite and almighty power. And to understand 
 them otherwise, is to charge the Holy Spirit with what is allow- 
 ed to be a blemish in all writers, the using of words without 
 meaning, or of figures widely distant from, and disproportionate 
 to the subject. 
 
 H. If we consider the Scripture account of the siyiner before 
 this change passes upon him, it will serve as a further proof of 
 the necessity of efficacious grace, in our being born again. 
 
 1. We are said to be " dead in trespasses and sins," Eph. ii. 1, 
 Col. ii. 13; that is, by reason of sin, to be altogether impotent to 
 that which is good. As the organs of the body at death cease 
 to perform their usual functions, so the unrenewed sinner is 
 without God and ivithout Christ iti the world; he is lost to his 
 duty, and estranged from every thing that is spiritually good. 
 
 To this it is objected, that common convictions, especially 
 where they are strong, prove that the sinner, even before con- 
 version, is not void of all sense, as a dead body is; so that the 
 argument, according to us, if it proves any thing, proves, say 
 they, too much. To this we answer, that all convictions are 
 originally from God, and the sinner, under the greatest fear of 
 punishment, may have no apprehension of the excellency of his 
 
308 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 duty, nor any spiritual desire after communion with God; wit- 
 ness Judas, who, though he had a hell in his conscience, was 
 utterly a stranger to the grace of God. 
 
 It is furtiier objected, that the places cited concern only the 
 Gentile world, held under the government of Satan, but have 
 no relation to the proselytes of justice, much less to the Jew, 
 and least of all to the baptized Christian. To this it is sufficient 
 to reply, that the apostle was quite of another mind, or he would 
 not have said, "Among whom we all had our conversation in 
 times past;" and, in another epistle, where he is professedly 
 considering the difference between Jew and Gentile, he says: 
 "What then, are Ave better than they? no, in no wise; for we 
 have before proved both Jew and Gentile, that they are all 
 under sin," Rom. iii. 9; and therefore he uses that phrase to the 
 church of Corinth, after an enumeration of the greatest sinners, 
 " Such were some of you," 1 Cor. vi. 20. And he puts himself 
 into the number, in what he says to Titus: "For we ourselves 
 also were some time foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers 
 lusts." Now, it will easily be granted, that the apostle, before 
 his conversion, was restrained from grosser sins; none suppose 
 that he ran into all excess of riot, but had escaped the pollu- 
 tions which were in the world through lust; and if that is allow- 
 ed, it will be difficult to assign a reason why he should thus put 
 himself into the number of the chief of sinners, if there had not 
 been something common to them all; I mean, an impotence to 
 good, and a propensity to evil. 
 
 2. A further account, which the Scripture gives us, of our 
 condition before conversion, is, that our understanding is dark- 
 ened; that we are alienated from the life o/ Goo', through the 
 ignorance that is in us, because of the blind)iess of our hearts, 
 Eph. iv. 18; yea, we are said to be darkiiess, ver. 8. And the 
 apostle tells us: "The natural man receiveth not the things of 
 the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can 
 he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," 1 Cor. 
 ii. 14; so that if we are made wise unto salvation, " God, who 
 commanded light to shine out of darkness," must, in the saixie 
 way, and by the same power, " enlighten our understandings, 
 to give us the knowledge of his glory, as it shines in the Person 
 of his Son," 2 Cor. iv. 6. Till this is the case, the gospel, though 
 in itself the wisdom of God, will be accounted foolishness, 
 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. 
 
 As to what is objected, that these passages only describe the 
 case of the wilfully blind, who love darkness rather than light, 
 we answer, they are evidently delivered in too general terms 
 to admit of such an interpretation ; yea, we are expressly told, 
 " There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that under- 
 stands; there is none that seeks after God," Rom. iii. 10, 11. 
 3. Another argument may be taken from our Lord's words: 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 309 
 
 " No man can come unto me, except the Father, who hath sent 
 me, draw Iiim," John vi. 44. By coming to Christ, we under- 
 stand receiving him, or beUeving in him: by the Father's draw- 
 i7}ff, his work of power upon tiie heart of a sinner, when he is 
 brought to Christ. Now, without this, says our Lord, no man 
 can come unto me; not the wise and prudent, the learned or 
 ingenious, any more than the ignorant and iUiterate, the obsti- 
 nate and rebellious: the event is alike impossible to them all; 
 " no man can come except the Father draw him." 
 
 To this it is objected, that, if this is the case, there is nothing 
 praiseworthy in our faith, or blameworthy in our unbelief; 
 since when God draws, there is no resisting; and where he is 
 not pleased to do it, we cannot move, in a spiritual sense. To 
 this we answer: it is as true, that before conversion, we will 
 not, as that we cannot come to Christ: though we may not be 
 condemned for a mere impossibility of believing, yet we may 
 very justly, for strengthening ourselves in our prejudices against 
 Christ, and the way of salvation by him. That the Scripture 
 expressly tells us, faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; 
 and yet we are required to believe. Nor do I see any such 
 contradiction in some men's being judicially, as a punishment 
 for their sins, shut up in unbelief, and their condemnation for 
 loving darkness, rather than light. 
 
 Again, it is objected, that this drawing of the Father is to be 
 understood only or principally of God's persuading, and prevail- 
 ing upon us to come to Christ, by the consideration of the mira- 
 cles, or mighty works, which were done by him, as an evidence 
 of his being the Messiah, and by the promise of eternal life 
 upon our coming. To this we answer, that supposing (though 
 we can by no means allow it) this were the genuine sense of 
 the place, we might urge it as an argument in the case before 
 us; for if we cannot, but as taught of God, consider the nature 
 and evidence of Christ's miracles, which are barely facts, sup- 
 posed to be done by him, in confirmation of his mission, much 
 less can we, without a divine interposure, renounce our darling 
 corruptions, quit our most beloved iniquities, and heartily em- 
 brace Jesus, as our Saviour and our King. In short, the tree 
 must first be made good, before it can produce any good fruit; 
 for " the carnal mind," whilst it continues so, " is not subject to 
 the law of God, neither indeed can be," Rom. viii. 7. 
 
 III. Our next general head of argument is taken from God's 
 challenging this ivork as his own, speaking of it as performed 
 by him, and in such terms, as manifestly exclude the creature's 
 agency: thus we read, " The Lord thy God will circumcise thine 
 heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, with 
 all thine heart, and with all thy soul," Deut. xxx. 6. This is 
 thus explained by the prophet Ezekiel: " I will give them one 
 heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you, and I will take 
 
310 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 
 that they may walk in my statutes," Ezek. xi. 19, 20, A Uke 
 promise we have in these words: "Then will I sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean. From all your idols 
 will I cleanse you; a new heart also will I give you, and a new 
 spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony 
 heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh ; and 
 I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my 
 statutes," Ezek, xxxvi, 26 — 28, And so the prophet Jeremiah, 
 giving an account of the new covenant, does it in these terms: 
 "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house 
 of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in 
 their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be 
 their God, and they shall be my people," Jer. xxxi. 33. And 
 more fully in the following words: " I will give them one heart, 
 and one way, that they may fear for ever," Jer. xxxii, 39. 
 Now, can it be thought that, by all these expressions, God in- 
 tends no more than that he will assist and succeed our endea- 
 vours to renew and convert ourselves? Is this the meaning of 
 his putting his Spirit within us? of his taking the stone out of 
 the heart, and giving a heart of flesh? Why does he promise 
 so often, I will do this for you, if the work were divided between 
 him and us? So that, according to the language of the Old 
 Testament, we are to expect renewing grace from God, as his 
 own proper work. 
 
 To this it is objected, that the passages mentioned out of Je- 
 remiah and Ezekiel, refer to the Jews in the end of the world, 
 and therefore are wrongly produced in the question before us. 
 To this we answer, that if that be the case, it proves, however, 
 their conversion will be of God. Besides, these promises con- 
 tain blessings, which are inseparable from salvation, and what 
 every saint is in the experience of. 
 
 The apostle, in his epistle to the Hebrews, chap. viii. 8, &c., 
 quotes them, and applies them to Christ, as the surety of this 
 covenant, and so uses this as an argument of the superior excel- 
 lency of the gospel, above the Jewish dispensation. That the 
 covenant is better, established upon better promises, would 
 have been foreign to this design, if it relates only to the reco- 
 very of the Jews, in the end of the world. 
 
 In the New Testament we read, that God opened the heart 
 of Lydia, Acts xvi, 14; that faith is not of ourselves, it is his 
 gift, Eph, ii, 8, He gives it to some to believe; he must draiu, 
 or there will be no corninff to Christ, John vi, 44. Paul preaches 
 and prays, but God opened Lydia's heart. He must prepare the 
 heart for the seed, and cause the seed to take root, and to bring 
 forth fruit to his glory: and therefore the apostle distinguishes 
 between the gospel, and the power that renders it successful; 
 " Our gospel came to you, not in word only, but also in power, 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 311 
 
 1 Thess. i. 5. Life and immortality are, indeed, brought to light 
 by the gospel; but God only can make it unto us a savour of 
 life unto life; and this he does, when he makes it his power 
 unto salvation. But to proceed, 
 
 IV. Another argument for the efficacy of the grace of God in 
 regeneration, may be taken from this consideration : that sup- 
 posing infants are polluted and defiled^ in consequence of what 
 we call original sin, as many of these as die before the actual 
 exercise of reason, must either be renewed by the immediate 
 hand of God, or be excluded from salvation, since our Lord has 
 told us, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
 dom of God," John iii. 3; nor will it be disputed, that without 
 habitual holiness, at least, no man can see the Lord. As for 
 infants, we take it for granted, in the present argument, that they 
 are conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity ; that which is 
 horn of the flesh, is flesh ; that they are, by reason of the disobe- 
 dience of the first man, sinners, and so unworthy of and unmeet 
 for the heavenly glory, and must be excluded from it, unless 
 washed in the blood of Jesus, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 
 To suppose them all, or indeed any of them, to perish, is to be 
 cruelly wise above what is written; and to imagine they are so 
 holy, as to need no cleansing, or that any thing defiled can enter 
 into heaven, is directly flying in the face of Scripture; so that 
 though we are not told positively what is their portion, yet we 
 may safely determine that they are made meet, if in heaven, for 
 that inheritance, which is incorruptible and undefiled. And, if 
 this is the case, we cannot suppose they contribute any thing to 
 it themselves; it must be from the abundant mercy and power- 
 ful grace of a compassionate God. Now, can it be thought that 
 persons grown to years of maturity, who have for a great while 
 accustomed themselves to do evil, and whose vicious habits are 
 hereby confirmed and enlarged, will be more easily wrought 
 upon? It is true, they have some degrees of reason and con- 
 science; but as these are in the service of sin, the bias will be 
 ever to evil, till it is altered by the grace of God. If it should 
 be said. Secret things belong to God ; and, as he has not ex- 
 pressly told us what will be the final state of infants, no argu- 
 ment can be fairly drawn from premises, which are in them- 
 selves uncertain: we answer, no more is intended by it, than 
 what will be easily granted by those who allow the doctrine of 
 original sin : and where this is denied, we agree it is of no force. 
 
 We might now produce some eminent instances of the grace 
 of God, in the renewing of sinners, as they stand recorded in 
 Scripture; from which we may conclude, that in their case, 
 however, the happy change was from God, and the immediate 
 effect of his almighty power. Thus, in the story of Zaccheus, 
 it does not appear that our Lord said any more to him than this, 
 "Make haste and come down; to-day I must abide at thine 
 
312 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 house," Luke xix. Yet presently a change was wrought in his 
 soul, and the fruits of it appeared in an ingenuous confession of 
 his former iniquities, and, in an humble resolution to pursue the 
 contrary paths of justice and mercy. Now, what can this, so 
 great and sudden an alteration, be attributed to, but the power- 
 ful influence which the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ had upon 
 his mind? We cannot suppose there was an opportunity for a 
 great deal of discourse or reasoning with him; but if there was, 
 we may easily judge how far words alone are sufficient to en- 
 gage a rigorous oppressor in acts of righteousness and mercy; 
 so that, from the effects, ^ye may judge of the cause, and con- 
 clude, that so great a change could not have been made at once 
 upon such a heart, but by the same power whereby God is able 
 to subdue all things to himself. Another instance, which might 
 be mentioned, is that of Saul, who was not proselyted to Chris- 
 tianity under a sermon, or at a religious conference. Acts ix., 
 but when his mind was under the strongest and most settled, 
 prejudice against it; when his zeal in persecuting the church was 
 heightened into a kind of fury or madness : under these unprom- 
 ising circumstances, he is made to hear the voice of the Son of 
 God, and live: and, in the humble language of a disciple, to say, 
 " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" instead of going on, as 
 he had designed, in making havoc of the church. We might 
 add the case of the thief on the cross, who either went to heaven 
 without holiness, or received it immediately from that Jesus, 
 who said to him, " This day thou shalt be with me in paradise," 
 Luke xxii, 39, &c. If it is said. These are extraordinary cases; 
 we answer, Whatever difference there may be in the circum- 
 stances of sinners, the power is the same in the renewing of 
 them all; for the enmity, which is in every sinner's heart against 
 Christ and holiness, can only be removed by an act of omnipo- 
 tence. 
 
 SERMON n. 
 
 Philtppians, ii. 13. — It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his 
 own good pleasure. 
 
 The doctrine which we endeavoured to state and establish, in 
 the preceding discourse, was to this effect: that when a sinner 
 is born again, there is a mighty change wrought in his soul, by 
 the efficacious working of the Holy Ghost. His being quick- 
 ened, and made spiritually alive, is the effect of God's power, 
 which works in him, as well to will as to do, of his own good 
 pleasure. This we attempted to prove from the Scripture re- 
 presentations of the work itself, in which it is called a new crea- 
 tion, a resurrection, and a being born again; terms expressive 
 of power; in the exertion of which the Almighty is, and cannot 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 31^ 
 
 but be alone, and the creature manifestly passive. Again, we 
 observed, from the said infallible oracles, that the state of man 
 before this change passes upon him, is such, as will by no means 
 admit of the supposition of an ability to renew himself, since he 
 is described as " dead in trespasses and sins, having his under- 
 standing darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through 
 the ignorance that is in him, because of the blindness of his 
 heart;" inasmuch as he is said to be darkness itself; and it is 
 affirmed of him, that he "receives not the things of the Spirit 
 of God, but accounts them foolishness." On these accounts, 
 our Lord might well say, " That no man can come unto me, 
 except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him." Further, 
 we observed, that God challenges this work as his own, and 
 speaks of it in the Old and New Testament, as brought about 
 by his power; and the promises which he has made concerning 
 it, conclude him to be equal to the work, as well as gracious to 
 his chosen; and are as entirely silent, as to the agency, as they 
 exclude and set aside the merit, of the creature. Moreover, 
 we hinted that this must be the case with infants dying before 
 the exercise of reason, supposing them to be under the pollution 
 of original sin, unless we exclude them all from salvation. If 
 they are regenerated, it cannot be in the way of moral suasion, 
 but of internal and almighty efficacy. 
 
 We now proceed to another consideration, to prove the neces- 
 sity of efficacious grace, in the renewing of a sinner; and that 
 may be taken, 
 
 V. From the difficulty of the work, as it consists in conquer- 
 ing the strongest prejudices, mortifying the most corrupt habits, 
 and in the implanting of a principle of grace and holiness to 
 which the sinner is entirely averse; and, in opposition to which, 
 Satan, who maintains the throne in his heart, uses his utmost en- 
 deavours. There is a greater distance between the terms, sin 
 and holiness, corruplion and,^r«ce, than betwixt those of some- 
 thing and nothing. In creation, something is formed out of no- 
 thing; but in regeneration, (as one strongly expresses it,) hell is 
 changed into heaven. In creation there is no assistance, but then 
 there is no opposition ; but regeneration is like the stemming of 
 a rapid stream, and turning it into a contrary course; in which, 
 as there is nothing to help, so there is every thing to hinder. 
 The sinner is not barely destitute of the divine image, and with- 
 out strength for the performance of what is good, but " every 
 imagination of the thoughts of his heart, is evil continually," 
 Gen, vi, 5. He is so far from the fear of the Lord, and any 
 concern about communion with him, that the language of his 
 heart unto God is, " Depart from me, I desire not the knowledge 
 of thy ways. What is the Almighty that I should serve him? 
 and what profit should I have if I pray unto him?" Job. xxi. 14. 
 And, whilst he is wilfully pursuing a course of rebellion, and 
 
 40 
 
314 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 Strengthening and enlarging his vicious habits, we may well 
 ask, with the prophet, " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or 
 the leopard his spots?" Then, and not till then, may the sin- 
 ner, "who has been accustomed to do evil, learn to do well," 
 Jer. xiii. 23. Can any created finite power, at once, in a mo- 
 ment, change the fierceness of a devouring lion into the meek- 
 ness of a lamb? If this calls for omnipotence, how much more 
 to reduce the stout-hearted sinner, who is far from righteousness, 
 to the obedience of faith, and a delight in the law of the Lord, 
 after the inward man. Go and try the experiment, treat with 
 the rebel, who, for a course of years, has had pleasure in un- 
 righteousness, whose heart is in league with Satan, and strongly 
 attached to sin ; use the most moving and persuasive arguments 
 to convince him of the folly of his way: see whether he will be 
 brought by all your reasoning, to quit his darling lusts, and walk 
 in the ways of the Lord; no, after all your advice, though min- 
 gled with tears, he loves his idols, and after them will he go. 
 Satan has such an interest in the hearts of the children of diso- 
 bedience ; he leads them captive to that degree, that none but the 
 Almighty can dispossess him, and break the chain: and there- 
 fore, when the apostle is speaking of this mercy, he uses a word 
 strongly expressive of power; " Giving thanks unto the Father, 
 who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the 
 saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of dark- 
 ness," hath snatched us out of the power or hand of the devil, 
 "and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son," Col. 1. 
 12, 13. 
 
 An excellent and most judicious divine has a passage pertinent 
 to our purpose, in his discourse on Regeneration : " The new 
 birth," says he, " is a change of nature ; of a nature, where there 
 was as little of spiritual good, as there was of being in nothing 
 before the creation. It is the change of a stone into flesh, of a 
 heart, that, like a stone, has hardness and settledness of sinful 
 parts, a strong resistance against any instrument, an incorpora- 
 tion of sin and lust with its very nature; where the heart and 
 sin, self and sin, are cordially one and the same. None can 
 change such a nature but the God of all grace. No man can 
 change the nature of the meanest creature in the world : Now, 
 to see a lump of vice become the model of virtue; him that drank 
 in iniquity like water, to thirst after righteousness, to crucify his 
 darling flesh, to be weary of the poison he loved, for the purity 
 he hated, speaks a supernatural grace, transcendently attractive, 
 and powerfully operative." So that as he somewhere else ob- 
 serves, " We have no reason to wonder that creation is only 
 ascribed to the hand of God, when, in regeneration, his arm is 
 supposed to be revealed." But to proceed, 
 
 VI. If we consider the difl'erent success of the gospel, as dis- 
 pensed by several persons, or by the same person, at diflerent 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 315 
 
 times, it will be evident that there must be the power of God 
 attending it, or it will not be successful to salvation, or prove a 
 savour of life unto life. Peter's hearers, and those to whom 
 Stephen ministered, appear to be equally ignorant of and alike 
 prejudiced against the gospel; the apostles deliver themselves 
 with the same plainness and faithfulness, upon the subject of 
 the guilt contracted, by shedding the innocent blood of the Son 
 of God : three thousand are converted, baptized, and added to 
 the church, from a single sermon, delivered by Peter; whereas 
 Stephen's hearers blaspheme and stone him. Paul again finds 
 hearts and houses open to him, in one city, and is obliged to 
 escape for his life in another. 
 
 Now, how can this be accounted for, but upon the apostle's 
 principle, " Neither is he that planteth any thing, nor he that 
 watereth, but God that gives the increase?" Nay, how common 
 is it for the same person, who has, perhaps, for years, sat un- 
 moved under the ministry of a learned, faithful and affectionate 
 preacher, at length in the day of God's power, under means far 
 less likely to answer the end, to be awakened, convinced, and 
 renewed ? And are there not many instances of persons, of the 
 same family, education, and advantages, attending the same 
 means, and one is taken, and he perhaps the most profane or 
 obstinate, and the rest left to a bare outside profession, or an 
 hypocritical formality? Why should the same gospel in one 
 hand, thus run and be glorified; and, in another, no less valua- 
 ble, be a savour of death unto death? Why should the same 
 preacher, at one time, see of the travail of his soul to his satis- 
 faction: at another time have occasion to complain, Who has 
 believed our report 7 If the weapons of our warfare were mighty 
 in themselves, why not equally, and at all times successful ? But 
 the event makes it evident, they are only so through God; and 
 when his power is put forth, he can easily, and he only can, bring 
 down every high thought and imagination, and reduce the stub- 
 born hearts of rebellious sinners to a subjection to himself. 
 
 VII. Another argument for the efficiency of the grace of God 
 in regeneration, may be taken from the consideration of the 
 concern which God has in the whole world. If we reflect on the 
 various parts of the creation, we shall find, that, in the vegetable, 
 animal, rational, and intellectual world, all first or natural princi- 
 ples are derived from God ; and the actual exercise of those prin- 
 ciples, whatever concurrent circumstances may attend, is con- 
 stantly under his providential influence. And is this the case in 
 universal nature? And can we suppose that in regeneration, one 
 of the noblest works of God, he is left out as having little or no 
 concern? How strange, how unaccountable, would this be? 
 
 Our natural philosophers readily allow, that every thing that 
 is necessary for the growth and improvement of vegetables, is 
 from God; that he, as the great Author of nature, has given 
 
316 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 it to the seed, to receive the fattening influence of the earth, tlie 
 moisture of the rain, and the enlivening genial rays of the sun: 
 nor will they dispute the sun itself had i^ever been what it now 
 is, the great fountain of light and heat to the universe, but by 
 the will and power of the Creator. They will tell you the rain 
 descends at his appointment, and that he orders and determines 
 its extent and usefulness; that there is an equal display of his 
 power, wisdom, and goodness, in the growth of the grass, in the 
 flourishing of plants, and the increase of corn: all is from him, 
 and under the immediate influence of his providence. Moreover, 
 in the animal world, or among the beasts of the field, the fowls 
 of the air, or the fish in the sea, they will allow a principle of 
 life and motion is from God, and the actual exercise of it in a de- 
 pendence upon him. What we call sometimes instinct, or nature 
 in them, is confessedly not of themselves, but from him, who 
 hath appointed their situation in the order of creatures, and fur- 
 nished them with all their powers, sensations, and appetites ; 
 whence they are directed to collect their proper food, and reject 
 what would be hurtful and destructive to them. And none but 
 an atheistic sceptic will deny, but that, in the rational world, we 
 have our souls, with all their capacities of reasoning, reflection, 
 judgment, and memory, from God; that he made us by his 
 power, and continues us by his providence, wiser than the beasts 
 of the field, and of more understanding than the fowls of the air: 
 and who will not allow, that the angels, creatures of the highest 
 order, have all their intellectual powers from God? Now, shall 
 we admit that every creature has its being from, and lives, and 
 moves, and acts in a dependence upon the glorious Creator; and 
 suppose that the saint receives a principle of grace from him- 
 self, and continues a believer, by the strength of his own reason- 
 ing, and the vigour and constancy of his own resolution ? Is it 
 from God that I am a reasonable thinking creature? and from 
 myself that I am a Christian, holy and spiritual ? Am I not in- 
 sufficient for the least action in common life, but as upheld by his 
 power, and under the influence of his providence? And will it 
 be said, I can renew myself, and cleave to the Lord, with full 
 purpose of heart, by my own strength ? What is this but to allow 
 a dependence in the less, and to deny it in the greater? What 
 Adam possessed in paradise, as to the perfection of his nature, 
 the felicity he enjoyed, and his power to serve, worship, and 
 adore the Creator, he had confessedly from Him who made him, 
 after his own image. Now, if the first impress of the divine 
 likeness on his soul, was the produce of God's wisdom and 
 power, certainly the restoring that image, when lost or impaired, 
 can be no less the work of tlie Almighty. If the care and skill 
 of an artificer is requisite to the first making of a machine, or 
 any curious piece of work, it must be equally necessary to the 
 repair of it, when its principal springs are broken, and every thing 
 out of order. But we go oir, 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 317 
 
 VTIT. To consider the s^ross absurdities which manifestly 
 attend the denying tlie efficacy of the grace of God in regene- 
 ration; as, 
 
 1, This would be to furnish Christians with an easy and 
 ready answer to that question of the apostle; "Who made thee 
 to differ from another? What hast thou, that thou didst not 
 receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as 
 if thou hadst not received it?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. Such a one might 
 boldly relpy, upon the scheme of our opponents, My own reflec- 
 tion and judgment; my reason and choice made me to ditfer: 
 the means were, indeed, the same, what I enjoyed in common 
 with others; but the success was the effect of my own care, 
 diligence, and attention, whilst they missed of it through their 
 own heedlessness and carnality. It is objected to this, that the 
 apostle is here speaking of gifts only, and of such as were mira- 
 culously and immediately infused, without human industry, and 
 conferred on the primitive Christians, without any co-operation 
 of their own faculties: so that as this kind of ministration of the 
 Spirit has, for a while ceased in the church, an argument can- 
 not fairly be drawn from it, in our inquiries about the more 
 standing and ordinary dispensations of it. To this we answer, 
 that, admitting the apostle is speaking of gifts, renewing grace 
 is undoubtedly one of those gifts, and not the least valuable of 
 them, which came down from the Father of lights; for when 
 we are born again, it is not of "the will of the flesh, nor of the 
 will of man, but of God;" and we are no more to ascribe to 
 our own agency the difference between us and others in the 
 gifts of grace, than the apostles or primitive Christians could in 
 the miraculous endowments which were bestowed upon them. 
 Moreover, is it not evident that the difference between a sinner 
 and a saint is a great deal more, both in the nature and conse- 
 quence of it, than between a person possessed of gifts, and one 
 who is destitute of them? Gifts are useful to others, but grace 
 prepares for heaven; gifts may obtain and enlarge a reputation 
 among men, but grace only disposes for an intimacy with God 
 here, and the enjoyment of him hereafter. Is it God who makes 
 the difference in the one, and man in the other ? The apostle 
 determines how it was in his own case; "And last of all," says 
 he, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, " he was seen of me, as 
 one born out of due time; for I am the least of the apostles, and 
 am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the 
 church of God; but by the grace of God I am what I am." 
 1 Cor. XV. 8 — 10. The alteration is marvellous, the change sur- 
 prising, from an enemy to a friend, from a persecutor to a 
 preacher: but I ascribe it not to myself, but to the grace of 
 God; and this grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not 
 in vain: so far from it, that under its influence, "I laboured 
 more abundantly than they all." And so fearful was he, lest 
 
318 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 God should not have all the glory, that he adds, "Yet not I, but 
 the grace of God, which was with me." 
 
 2. Another absurdity which attends the denying of the grace 
 of God in regeneration, is its contradicting and opposing the 
 general design of God in salvation, which is, that no flesh should 
 glory in his sight, but that he who glorieth, should glory in the 
 Lord. That doctrine which gives the creature room to boast, 
 that his own arm, either in the whole or in part, brought him 
 salvation, cannot be of God. If our will is to give the turning 
 point, and the balance is placed in our own hands; and, after 
 all the provision which God hath made, and the pains he is 
 supposed to be at, the creature is himself to determine the mat- 
 ter by his own choice or refusal ; to be sure, the honour ought 
 to go with the agency. And of this our opponents seem to be 
 so sensible, that some of them allow, that it is of preventing 
 grace that we will and choose what is good, and refuse what is 
 evil ; of assisting grace, that we are enabled to perform that 
 will, and persist in that choice ; and of mercy, when we have 
 done all, that we are accepted; a way of expressing themselves, 
 not a little contradictory to their scheme, and which, at other 
 times, they are far from being fond of. It is objected, that 
 glorying, or boasting, in some instances, is not unlawful: that 
 the apostle was found in the practice himself, and declares, with 
 a good deal of vehemency, that, "It were better he should die, 
 than any man make void his glorying;" and that elsewhere he 
 speaks of rejoicing or boasting in the testimony of a good con- 
 science. To this we answer; it must be proved, before the 
 objection will be of any force, that the apostle is speaking in 
 those places of the grace of God in regeneration; whereas, in 
 the one, he is speaking of the high opinion he had of the gos- 
 pel, in opposition to the contempt it met with from an ungodly 
 world; and in the other, of the fruits, not of the principle of 
 grace ; which fruits he ascribes to a divine influence, when he 
 says, "Not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God," he 
 and the rest of the saints had their conversation in the world: 
 and where is the inconsistency of this with that general direc- 
 tion ; "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor let the 
 mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in 
 his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he under- 
 standeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise 
 loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth; for 
 in these things I delight, saith the Lord?" Jer. ix. 23, 24. 
 
 3. Another absurdity arising from the supposition of the crea- 
 ture's agency, in his own regeneration, is, that it would then be 
 uncertain whether any would be renewed at all; very possible 
 that none might, and, all circumstances considered, absolutely 
 impossible that any should. Suppose the best external evidence 
 were produced, and the most weighty arguments made use of, 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 319 
 
 if the issue depends upon the will of man, and that will be as 
 hable to refuse as to choose, the event must needs be uncertain 
 till the creature has determined; nor could it be certainly known, 
 were this the case, wliether any one would determine right: but, 
 if the Scripture account of man, before conversion, may be de- 
 pended upon, if he is dead in trespasses, darkness, and enmity 
 against God; his will, being averse to good, and prone to evil, 
 would necessarily determine in favour of sin, and in a rejection 
 of holiness. One would have thought, that when the apostle 
 Paul came to Athens, the seat of learning, the wise men of that 
 place would have patiently heard what he had to offer, and duly 
 weighed and considered the nature and importance of his doc- 
 trine, and that at least the major part of them would have em- 
 braced the gospel evidence, which attended it. But, instead of 
 this, we find that he met with more success in Corinth, a city 
 remarkably dissolute and wicked, than he did among the learn- 
 ed philosophers of Athens; and, upon his attempt to reclaim 
 the Athenians from their gross superstition and idolatry, they 
 mocked and derided him, as a base fellow, and rejected the doc- 
 trine of salvation as foolish and irrational. So true is it what 
 our Lord said, that " these things are hid from the wise and 
 prudent, and revealed unto babes; neither can flesh or blood 
 reveal them to us, but our Father who is in heaven." 
 
 We shall now inquire whether the grace of God, in the renew- 
 ing of a sinner, may be frustrated, or set aside, by the opposition 
 of the creature. And here we are to remember it is God's work, 
 and therefore must be perfect, since he can and will do all his 
 pleasure. To say that he cannot, though he would, change the 
 sinner's heart, by an immediate act of his own power, is to 
 challenge his omnipotence : so that the question is not whether 
 God can do this, or no ; but whether it is worthy of him, and 
 how far it is really the case. And this may be determined, 
 
 (I.) From the inviolable and inseparable connexion of the 
 several parts of that golden chain mentioned by the apostle: 
 " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be 
 conformed to the image of his Son. Moreover, whom he did 
 predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he 
 also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," 
 Rom. viii. 29, 30; that is, as many as are ordained unto eternal 
 life, either are, or shall be called and sanctified by the grace of 
 God, as their meetness for it, and be justified by the righteous- 
 ness of Christ, as their title to it, as well as, at length, be glori- 
 fied in the enjoyment of it: accordingly we are expressly said 
 " to be chosen unto holiness," Eph. i. 4. Now, if the purpose 
 of God, in election, is supposed to stand, then those whom he 
 thus loved, with an everlasting love, shall be effectually drawn 
 by the cords of it, agreeably to what our Lord says: "All that 
 
320 OF EFFICACIOTTS GRACE. 
 
 the Father giveth me, shall come unto me ; and him that cometh, 
 I will in no wise cast out." 
 
 (2.) Tliis may be further argued, from the purchase which 
 our Lord, by the merit of his obedience and death, has made of 
 his people, with respect to their present safety and future felicity. 
 The Scripture represents him not only as redeeming them from 
 wrath, when he died for their offences, but as purchasing them 
 to himself, as having a fulness of grace for their supply in this 
 world, and as having obtained a glorious inheritance for them 
 in the other. Accordingly, in the prospect of his approaching 
 death, he prays, first, that " they might be sanctified through the 
 truth, and be kept from the evil one;" and then adds, "Father, 
 I will that they also whom thou hast given me may be with me 
 where I am, that they may behold the glory which thou hast 
 given me," John xvii. 17, IS. Grace and glory are, indeed, 
 blessings altogether unmerited by the saint; but they are due 
 to his surety, upon an engagement on the Father's part in the 
 counsel of peace to the Son, that if he would make his soul an 
 offering for sin, he should have a seed to serve him, and see of 
 the travail of his soul to his satisfaction. Now, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ having done his part to the abundant satisfaction of the 
 Father, which was declared in his resurrection and session at 
 his right hand; it would be unfaithful in the Father, and con- 
 trary to mutual stipulations, if any for whom he died should fall 
 short of eternal life. And this must be the case, if any of these 
 are supposed fully and finally to resist the grace of God. But, 
 
 (3.) We may consider God's chosen people, as committed to 
 Christ, as his charge and trust, for which he is accountable to 
 the Father; and accordingly he speaks of that part of them who 
 were as yet uncalled, as his other sheep, whom he must bring 
 in, and who should hear his voice, John x. 16. Other sheep I 
 have, that is, I have their names in the book of life, their per- 
 sons within the view of mine omniscience; these I must bring 
 in; there is a necessity laid upon me; not on their part, but as 
 I would approve myself to Him, who appointed me. It would 
 be greatly inglorious to the Mediator, should he, when giving 
 up his accounts to the Father, say, here are some only of the 
 children whom thou hast given me; or, some of these, after all 
 the pains I have been at, are yet unrenewed, and so unfit for 
 eternal life. Besides, 
 
 (4.) If the soul is passive in the implanting the principle of 
 grace, as we have endeavoured to prove, then there can be no 
 resistance in regeneration. Whatever opposition may be made 
 by the soul to common convictions before regeneration, or what 
 conflict soever between flesh and spirit afterwards, yet we may, 
 with the apostle, be confident, that where the work is begun, it 
 shall be carried on ; where the arm of the Lord is revealed, the 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 321 
 
 success will be answerable : so that we conclude, that God, in 
 the renewing of a sinner, works so as none can hinder: otherwise 
 he might be disappointed of his purpose, fail in his promise to 
 his Son, or be overcome by the creature, in the exertion of the 
 exceeding greatness of his power ; either of which is unwor- 
 thy of him, who is a God of truth, and whose arm is almighty. 
 
 Having thus established the doctrine proposed, we shall now 
 attend to some of the principal objections which are advanced 
 against it; such as, 
 
 1. It is said, by the opponents of efficacious grace, that God 
 hath given sufficient grace to all men, upon the due improve- 
 ment of which they may be saved, if it is not their own fault; 
 and to assert the contrary, say they, is to wrong the fountain of 
 goodness, and to represent him as a cruel, severe, and harsh 
 Being, and so to make him the object of our dread and hatred, 
 rather than of our love and reverence : and if all men have 
 sufficient grace, what necessity for this mighty power of God, 
 in the conversion of a sinner ? And, to prove this, they quote 
 these words : " What could have been done more to my vine- 
 yard, that I have not done in it ; wherefore, when I looked it 
 should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" Isa. 
 V. 4. To this we answer in the three following particulars : 
 
 (1.) If it can be proved that God originally furnished man 
 with sufficient knowledge of, and ability for the discharge of 
 his duty, and that man, by his chosen rebellion, forfeited this, 
 in common with all other mercies, and exposed himself to the 
 deserved vengeance of God: then there can be no more un- 
 righteousness in God to deny the creature, thus fallen, what 
 they call sufficient grace, than to reserve fallen angels in chains, 
 under darkness, to the coming of the great day. There would 
 be some appearance of reason in the objection, if man was now 
 to be considered as innocent, and in the uprightness in which 
 God originally made him; but the ScriptuVe concludes him un- 
 der guilt; a very material circumstance, which the objection 
 takes no manner of notice of. 
 
 (2.) If by sufficient grace is intended that which is absolutely 
 so in itself, without the industry and care of the creature, or 
 some superadded aids from heaven, we deny that there is such 
 grace given to all men; for if there was, the effect must be the 
 same in all, and so none could miscarry. If it is said, the suc- 
 cess depends on the will of the creature, then this grace is so 
 far insufficient in itself, and the phrase improper : if on a divine 
 interposure, the objection comes to nothing; since it is then 
 agreed, with us, that let the supposed grace be never so suffi- 
 cient, the event is determined by a divine agency. Besides, is 
 it not evident, from the Spirit's striving with the ungodly world, 
 in Noah's time, for a hundred years together, without success, 
 and from the conduct of the Jews, who, for so many ages, en- 
 
 41 
 
322 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 joyed the ministry of the prophets, and at length of the Son of 
 God himself, that common convictions, attended with the best 
 of external advantages, are insufficient to effect the great work 
 of regeneration? But, 
 
 (3.) As to the place quoted from the prophet Isaiah, in which 
 God is represented, as asking, " What could he have done more 
 that was not done?" we are not to suppose that he speaks as 
 having exerted himself, ad ultimum sui posse, or as if he could 
 not have given grace; for, to be sure, he who made the vine, 
 could make it as fruitful as he pleased. The phrase is evidently 
 more hum.ano, in which the Almighty stoops to expostulate 
 with the creature, for the abuse of his mercies, and upbraids 
 him with his ingratitude; but is far from giving the least coun- 
 tenance to his pride, in a false opinion of his own sufficiency. 
 We might add, as a further proof, that what the objection calls 
 sufficient grace, is not given to all; that the very means of grace 
 are denied to many. The gospel revelation is entirely unknown 
 to a great part of the world now, as it was to the greatest part 
 of it, under the Jewish dispensation; and the declaration is 
 express, that " there is salvation in no other but our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, nor any other name given under heaven, whereby we 
 can be saved; that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the 
 word of God;" so that we may ask, with the apostle, "How 
 shall they believe on him, of whom they have not heard?" Such 
 undoubtedly, have not the sufficient grace which our opponents 
 contend for; and I need only add, with respect to others, who 
 are favoured with the gospel, why do saints after conversion, 
 beg so earnestly of God, that he would enlighten, assist, sup- 
 port, and sanctify them, if the means which they enjoyed were 
 sufficient in themselves for this purpose, or might be rendered 
 so, by their own care and industry? If we may judge of their 
 sentiments by their petitions, they apprehended grace from God, 
 as well as, and together with, the means, to be absolutely ne- 
 cessary to their spiritual improvement, and proficiency in holi- 
 ness. But, 
 
 2. It is further objected, that if God has not given sufficient 
 grace to all, why does he judge or condemn any for the want 
 of it? To this we answer, with the apostle Paul, there will be 
 two rules, by which the Judge will proceed in the great day; 
 " As many as have sinned without the law, shall also perish 
 without the law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall 
 be judged by the law," Rom. ii. 12. I am far from believing 
 that God will condemn the heathen, who never heard of Christ, 
 for not believing in him, but conclude that they will be judged 
 by that law which is written upon their hearts, which either 
 excuses or accuses, according to the good or evil of their actions. 
 And as for those who live under the sound of the gospel, and 
 finally perish in unbelief, they will not, I humbly conceive, be 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 323 
 
 condemned so much for their spiritual impotence, as for their 
 hardening tiieir hearts, and positively shutting their ears against 
 Christ: and, if this is the case, " is God unrighteous, who taketh 
 vengeance?" God forbid it. But, 
 
 3. It is objected, that God commands us to make ourselves 
 new hearts; that he says, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" 
 that we are exhorted to " cleanse our own hearts," and the like. 
 Now, say they, if this is impracticable by the creature, how does 
 this reflect upon the wisdom and goodness of the Lawgiver ! 
 Upon his wisdom in requiring that of us, which he knows is only 
 in his own power to bestow: and upon his goodness in deriding 
 and mocking his creatures with their misery? What should we 
 think of a prince, who should command his subjects, on pain of 
 his displeasure, to measure out the ocean, or number the sands 
 on the sea shore? Or should he require of them any thing else 
 equally impossible, how unworthy would this be of him, and 
 how injurious to them! And shall we impute this to him, who 
 is infinite goodness, and immense wisdom? God forbid. To 
 this we answer, 
 
 (1.) That if a command on God's part necessarily infers a. full 
 power on our part to comply with it, or fulfil it, then we must 
 be supposed to have the same power to serve him, as the saints 
 in glory have : and, in this respect, the difference between a state 
 of imperfection and absolute perfection, would be lost ; for God 
 requires we should " love him with all our hearts, and with all 
 our souls;" and the law admits of no abatement, and rigorously 
 requires perfection, and threatens eternal death to him who con- 
 tinues not in all things written therein to do them: so that if 
 this were a fair way of reasoning, we must conclude, that be- 
 cause God commands we should be holy, as he is holy, walk as 
 Christ walked, therefore we might, by our own power, cleanse 
 ourselves from every degree of filthiness, both of flesh and spi- 
 rit, and perfect holiness in his fear. But, 
 
 (2.) The most that can be judged of commands and exhorta- 
 tions, in Scripture, is this: they are representations of our dicty, 
 not of our strength; declarative of God's authority/; and right 
 of dominion, and not of our power or ability. A command re- 
 spects us as creatures, whether upright or fallen; it is equally 
 obligatory on us : God hath the same claim to worship from us, 
 and the same dominion over us, since, as before the fall. To 
 which we add, 
 
 (3.) The design of God, in these commands, is to acquaint 
 us with the necessity and importance of these things which he 
 requires; particularly in the instances referred to, "That with- 
 out holiness we cannot see his face; that except a man have a 
 new heart, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven:" and 
 so they are intended, upon a conviction of our weakness and 
 insufficiency, to lead us to him, who hath not only required 
 
324 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 them of us, but hath promised to bestow them upon us; so that 
 the awakened sinner, comparing the command and the promise 
 together, in the one, is led to contemplate the majesty, autho- 
 rity, and holiness of God; in the other, his grace and faithful- 
 ness: the one is the rule of his duty; the other, the ground of his 
 faith. From the one, he learns what he ought to be, and do, 
 whilst he is led on, and encouraged by the other, to pray for 
 that grace which is sufficient for him. 
 
 The same may be said with respect to the expostulations 
 which we meet with in Scripture : they are designed to work 
 upon the minds of those to whom they are addressed, and are 
 made use of by the Spirit of God in convincing of sin ; and is 
 there any impropriety in charging it upon a rebellious ungrate- 
 f nl generation, that whereas " the ox knows his owner, and the 
 ass his master's crib," they, by a neglect of duty to their daily 
 benefactor, discover more stupidity and disingenuity, than the 
 very beasts who perish? May not the only wise God make use 
 of the most moving and affecting language, in upbraiding his 
 reasonable creatures with a contempt of his goodness, without 
 supposing the sinner to be self-sufficient, and to stand in no need 
 of his assistance ? 
 
 4. It is further objected, that whereas we say the sinner is 
 passive in regeneration, this is to destroy the freedom of the 
 will, to subvert human liberty, and to reduce the reasonable 
 creature to a mere machine, and so to take away the merit of 
 virtue, by making it necessary, and not the result of choice. 
 To this we answer ; We are to distinguish between the nature 
 of the will, and the qualities of it: the soul is the same, in all 
 Its faculties, after regeneration, as it was before ; but the quali- 
 ties of it are altered. The grace of God changes the corrupt, 
 without invading the created nature of the will. Man's will, 
 before the fall, was holy, as well as free, and so necessarily 
 under a rational bias to every thing that was consonant to the 
 divine Mind, and which was made known to him as such: but 
 the will of man, as fallen, is impaired, not so much in its nature, 
 or essence, as in its tendency; it is now most unhappily turned 
 off, from spiritual to carnal and sensual objects ; the will is the 
 same in itself, or in its nature, now, as it was then ; but the bias 
 is very different: so that if we would judge aright of the free- 
 dom of man's will, we must consider the objects about which it 
 is supposed to be conversant. If the worship, service, or love 
 of God, are taken into the question, we assert, these were origi- 
 nally chosen objects of the delight of the innocent creature, but 
 are now the matters of his aversion, whilst he continues in a 
 state of unregeneracy; and, when he is renewed, and every 
 high thought and imagination is reduced to a subjection to 
 Christ, we never meet with a complaint from him of violence 
 offered to his will, of being forced and compelled to the choice 
 
OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 325 
 
 of holiness. True, he is sensible of the hand of God upon his 
 soul ; he feels, acknowledges, and adores the arm of the Lord in 
 his conversion; but he is so far from thinking it any hardship, 
 that he rejoices abundantly in the mercy: and whereas, now 
 his soul is thirsting after God, and his delight is in the law of 
 the Lord, he is sensible this wonderful change, in this case, was 
 effected by his power, who "works in his people both to will 
 and to do, of his own good pleasure:" he is far from desiring 
 such a liberty, as would leave him as liable to apostatize and 
 miscarry, as to persevere and be saved : no ; he rather longs to 
 be in heaven, among the spirits of just men made perfect, under 
 a glorious necessity (if that may be deemed so, which is the 
 matter of their constant choice and delight) of serving God, 
 without weariness or interruption: if he might express the 
 utmost of his ambition, it is to' be with Jesus, in a world where 
 to sin or to offend is impossible. 
 
 We may observe, that at the same time we assert, that God 
 works immediately in implanting the principle of grace, we 
 allow, that the renewed sinner is a proper subject of moral 
 suasion; and that God deals with him, in promoting a work of 
 grace in his heart, in an argumentative way, and enables him 
 to compare and judge of things which are proposed to him, as 
 proper to be pursued or avoided, and to choose, or refuse, as 
 they appear desirable, or the contrary ; though we conclude, in 
 all this, the saint gladly esteems God's word as his only rule, 
 and his Spirit, as his only guide. As to what is said concerning 
 virtue, and the rewards which are supposed to be due to it, I 
 apprehend, man, in his best estate, is vanity ; his obedience, in 
 its utmost spirituality and perfection, is a debt which he owes to 
 his great Creator; nor can he be profitable unto God, so as to 
 enter a claim, or challenge a reward from the Almighty ; so that 
 as we utterly disclaim the doctrine of merit on the creature's 
 part, we need not inquire how far the grace of God, in the 
 renewing of a sinner, destroys this idol, which the pride of man 
 is so willing to set up and worship. 
 
 5. It is objected, if God works in us both to will and to do, 
 and without his special grace we can do nothing, then we may 
 even sit still, and do nothing, only wait carelessly till he shall 
 excite us to, or assist us in our duty; and so this doctrine, say 
 they, destroys all diligence and industry, and renders the sin- 
 ner's endeavours, how sincere and serious soever, foolish and 
 unnecessary. To this we answer, that the great God may 
 certainly fix upon what order he pleases, in his conferring of 
 favours, and bestowing undeserved blessings. Now, the order 
 he has settled is this ; that though he gives all freely, and not 
 for our sakes, yet he will be sought to, and inquired of, by us 
 for those spiritual mercies, which we want at his hand; the 
 direction is, "Ask, seek, and knock;" the encouragement .ies 
 
326 OF EFFICACIOUS GRACE. 
 
 in the promise, "Ye shall receive, ye shall find, and it shall be 
 opened unto you. They who seek me early," says God, 
 "shall find me;" and such as wait on him, "shall renew their 
 strength;" so that it is in a way of duty that we are to expect 
 his presence. God is not, indeed, tied up to means, he may be 
 "found of them who seek him not;" but he has obliged us to 
 a constant and diligent attendance upon them ; and I would 
 ask, is not his promise of meeting and blessing us, of his being 
 in the midst of us, to assist and comfort us, a more rational and 
 powerful motive to a close adherence to our duty, than a false 
 imagination of a power, which we are not really possessed of, 
 and so must necessarily disappoint us in all our ungrounded 
 expectations from it? 
 
 Thus we have gone through the principal objections ad- 
 vanced against the doctrine of efficacious grace, and conclude, 
 upon the whole, that we have Scripture and experience on our 
 side, whilst we assert, that regeneration "is not of the will of 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." What remains, 
 but a serious inquiry, whether we have tasted that the Lord is 
 gracious; how far we have been quickened by the mighty 
 power of God, who were dead in trespasses and sins? Without 
 the new birth there is no entering into heaven, our Lord has 
 expressly assured us. What can we then say of God's gracious 
 dealings with us? Has he put his Spirit within us, written his 
 law in our hearts, taken the stone out of our hearts, and given 
 us hearts of flesh ? Have we been made to loathe and abhor 
 ourselves ; to prize, above every thing, the person, righteous- 
 ness, and fulness of Christ ? Have we fled for refuge to him, 
 as ready to perish ? and do we find a spirit of grace and suppli- 
 cation poured out upon us? Do we thirst after communion 
 with, and aim at a resemblance to Jesus ? Is this, or such like, 
 the genuine experience of our souls? then let us call upon them, 
 and all that is within us, to bless his name, whose workman- 
 ship we are. Let him have all the glory; and let it be our 
 great concern, as well as prayer to God continually, that we 
 may, in all things, walk worthy of his holy vocation, adorning 
 the doctrine of God our Saviour, till we get safe to that world, 
 where Father, Son, and Spirit, will be all in all, as the ever- 
 lasting source of pure and perfect happiness; and where, as 
 the great Jehovah, one God over all, they will, to endless ageS; 
 inhabit the praises of those who shall stand before the throne, 
 perfectly cleansed from all filthiness, both of flesh and Spirit, 
 and whose robes shall be washed and made while in the blood 
 of the Lamb. 
 
THE 
 
 DOCTRINE OF 
 
 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE, 
 
 STATED AND DEFENDED; 
 
 IN TWO SERMONS. 
 
 By MR. THOMAS HALL, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Philippians i. 6. — Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun 
 a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Whatever be the immunities and privileges a people at present 
 enjoy, it is a vast addition to have a good security for the lasting 
 possession of them. Glorious things, indeed, are spoken of 
 Zion, the city of God : the inhabitants thereof are, of all people 
 upon earth, the most happy; their peculiar privileges are all 
 spiritual, and, on that account, transcendently great and excel- 
 lent. As they are elected of God, they are the objects of his 
 distinguishing and everlasting love ; being redeemed and clothed 
 with the righteousness of Christ, they are blessed with the for- 
 giveness of their sins; being called effectually by the Spirit of 
 God, they are made partakers of a divine nature, and delivered 
 from the bond of iniquity; by being adopted and renewed, they 
 become the children of God, are fitted for communion with their 
 heavenly Father, admitted into his gracious presence, and actu- 
 ally constituted the heirs of glory. But that, which adds to all, 
 is an assurance, that they who have once had an access into 
 this grace, shall perpetually stand therein. 
 
 Without an assurance of this, the holy pleasure excited in 
 the mind by the glorious truths of the Gospel, insisted upon ir 
 the preceding sermons, would soon languish and die. It would 
 certainly damp the joys of a believer, who knows the treachery 
 of his own heart, and is convinced of the power and craft of 
 his hellish foes, if, after all he hears of these invaluable grants, 
 he must be told they may every one be revoked, and, through 
 a possibility of falling from grace, the persons, who have been 
 so highly favoured, may fall into disgrace, be abandoned, and 
 suffered to perish at last. 
 
 327 
 
328 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 That all fears of this kind may be prevented, He, who cannot 
 lie, has declared, in his word, that " The holy people, the 
 redeemed of the Lord, who are sought out, shall be a city not 
 forsaken," Isa. Ixii. 12; that "the place of their defence shall 
 be the munition of rocks ; their bread shall be given them, and 
 their waters shall be sure," Isa. xxxiii. 16; that "God will 
 create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her 
 assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a 
 flaming fire by night ; for upon all the glory shall be a defence," 
 Isa. iv. 5. From these, and many other declarations of hea- 
 ven, the apostle might well be confident that He, who had begun 
 a good work in the Philippians, would perform it until the day 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The important article of the saints' estahlishment and per- 
 severance in grace, being alloted to my consideration in this 
 Lecture, I have turned you to this verse ; because it will soon 
 appear, from a just explication of the words, that this doctrine 
 is really founded upon divine authority. 
 
 To guide us into the meaning of the text, and to direct us in 
 its application, it will be proper to take notice of these four 
 things: 1. The work itself, which is here spoken of. 2. The 
 perfection that was to crown it. 3. The apostle's confidence 
 with respect to that perfection. 4. The common concern and 
 interest of the saints in the whole matter. 
 
 (1.) I shall consider the laork itself, which was begun in the 
 Philippians. 
 
 This is termed a good work, by which we are to understand 
 the work of grace, or the internal, supernatural, and effectual 
 work of the Spirit of God upon their souls, whereby they were 
 made partakers of his heavenly grace ; in consequence whereof, 
 they were renewed, sanctified, or made holy, and thus became 
 new creatures. 
 
 That this work was begun in them, may easily be collected 
 from several passages in this epistle ; particularly from the 
 seventh verse of this chapter, where the apostle says, they ivere 
 partakers of his grace; i. e. of the like grace with himself: and 
 this is agreeable to his declaration in the twenty-ninth verse, 
 that unto them it was given, as well as to him, "both to believe 
 on Christ, and to suffer for his sake." Further, when he prays, 
 in the ninth verse, that " their love might abound yet more and 
 more in knowledge, and in all judgment," it is supposed that 
 they were already favoured with some knowledge and some 
 judgment in spiritual things ; and that their knowledge did not 
 rest in mere speculation, but it warmed the heart, and kindled a 
 holy flame within : yea, that as their knowledge was not a dead 
 notion, so neither was their love a blind affection ; but its mo- 
 tions and actings were under the guidance of an enlightened 
 mind : and, upon the whole of what the apostle had observed, 
 
> OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE 329 
 
 while among them, and heard of them, when absent he conclu- 
 ded that they were the seals of his apostleship and ministry; 
 and, as such, he calls them " his joy and crown," Phil. iv. 1. 
 Hence it appears that the good work of grace was begun in 
 them. 
 
 And since no other work whatever, in which they were espe- 
 cially concerned, either had, or was intended to have, the like 
 abiding duration with the work of grace; and since nothing 
 short of this could have given the like superlative occasion for 
 that abundant thankfulness and joy, which, in the preceding 
 verse, he declares he had, upon every remembrance of them, 
 and their fellowship in the gospel, we must therefore conclude, 
 that the work of true grace, and not the preaching of the gospel, 
 was that good work which the text referred to : and thus I shall 
 constantly understand it. Let us next consider, 
 
 (2.) The perfection with which this work was to be crowned. 
 
 This is expressed by its being performed until the day of 
 Jesus Christ. By the day of Christ, is here meant the day of 
 his second appearance, when he shall come to judge the quick 
 and the dead. This interpretation agrees with the phrase used 
 by the apostle, in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. v. 
 23, when he prays, that " they might be preserved blameless 
 unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The expression in 
 the text running in such terms, must imply a complete protec- 
 tion through all the temptations and dangers, not of life only, 
 but of death itself; and the saints may warrantably expect a 
 final perseverance in grace, till they are brought safe to glory. 
 
 By the force of the word in the original, the perfection of the 
 work is likewise signified. The Greek verb which we render 
 perform, might well be translated finish; and when the last 
 conflict with death is over, then shall the saints be immediately 
 made perfect in holiness, and be preserved blameless till the 
 day of Jesus Christ. Nor is it a determinate period, with an 
 exclusion of succeeding duration, that is here intended; but the 
 meaning is, that the good work shall be finished, and, being 
 finished, it shall remain for ever perfect; for, in the day of judg- 
 ment, the saints shall be openly acknowledged, and pronounced 
 blessed : yea, by some solemn action, they shall then be publicly 
 confirmed in a state of perfect purity and endless bliss. I shall 
 therefore consider, 
 
 (3.) The apostle's confidence, v^'iih. respect to this perfection. 
 
 In this expression, " Being confident of this very thing," we 
 may take notice there are two pronouns, the emphasis whereof 
 is well observed in our translation, the words being rendered, 
 " this very thing." The phrase, as it stands here, points out 
 three things. 
 
 1. The certainty of the saints' final perseverance in grace. 
 This privilege is here spoken of as a matter, the accomplish- 
 
 42 
 
330 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 merit whereof may be depended upon. The expression will 
 not admit of the least doubt or suspicion; for it does not leave 
 the case to rest upon a probability, though of the highest degree, 
 but it carries it to the greatest certainty. It is as though he had 
 said, if I can be confident of any thing, I can be confident of 
 this, that where God has begun the good work, he will perform 
 it until the day of Christ. 
 
 The grounds upon which his assurance was built, shall be 
 considered hereafter; I shall go on to observe that this phrase 
 points out, 
 
 2. The importance of this privilege. The distinctness, ear- 
 nestness, and fervour, with which the apostle mentions it, are 
 plain indications that it is a matter of importance. Our atten- 
 tion would not have been quickened by this remarkable intro- 
 duction, had not what follows carried in it an answerable weight 
 and moment. 
 
 And there is good reason for the utmost stress to be laid upon 
 the saints' perseverance in grace ; for, of all the privileges which 
 belong to a believer's state, there is not a greater or one more 
 valuable. It is so important and necessary, that without it all 
 the blessings which could be included in the fellowship of the 
 gospel, would quickly lose their glory; yea, and become as 
 things of nought, in regard of the comfort and complete salva- 
 tion of the soul. We may likewise take notice that the phrase 
 points out, 
 
 3. The importance of the belief of this doctrine, as well as 
 the moment of the doctrine itself. This we may infer, from its 
 connexion with the third and fourth verses, where we read of 
 the apostle's thankfulness to God upon every remembrance of 
 the Phihppians, and of his making request for them with joy. 
 Now, his confidence, that " the good work would be performed 
 to the day of Christ," stands as one reason, both of his thank- 
 fulness and of his joy. 
 
 Hence we may learn, that unless he had been confident of 
 this very thing, he could not have presented his request and 
 prayer for them with the joy that he here did; nor could there 
 have been that life and cheerfulness in his praise that are here 
 expressed: so that his confidence in this matter, or, in other 
 terms, his firm behef of the doctrine of the saints' final perse- 
 verance, had a special influence, not only upon his comfort and 
 joy, but likewise upon the praise and worship of God. 
 
 And the more direct, or the greater the influence which the 
 belief of any doctrine has upon these things, the greater is the 
 importance of such a belief, as must be allowed by all that 
 have any due regard to either. 
 
 Having shown the justness of these remarks, I shall proceed 
 to the last thing proposed for the opening the words; and that 
 is, to consider, 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 331 
 
 (4.) The common concern and interest of the saints in the 
 whole affair, or their common part or lot in the state supposed, 
 and in the privilege asserted in the text. Under this head, wq 
 may observe two things: 
 
 1. That all the saints have the same good luork begun in 
 them, which was begun in the believers of the apostle's day. 
 This will be evident, if we briefly take a comparative view of 
 the spiritual and gracious attainments of those believers, with 
 the near and just resemblance of the corresponding graces 
 which are wrought in all the saints; e. g. were the believers of 
 old renewed in the spirit of their mind, and blessed with the 
 knowledge of the Redeemer? so are all the saints. Were the 
 principles of the doctrine of Christ in them the foundation of 
 repentance from dead works, and faith towards God? so they 
 are in all his people. Did the Lord open their hearts to believe 
 unto righteousness? this is done for every child of God. Did 
 their faith work by love? Did it purify the heart, raise their 
 affections, and set them on things above? Did it give them 
 victory over the world, and dispose them to follow Christ at all 
 hazards? The same effects do universally attend the faith of 
 all that are truly sanctified. And we may warrantably declare, 
 that the root of the matter is in all them with whom these fruits 
 are found; that they have the faith, which is the fruit of the 
 Spirit, the faith which is of the operation of God. And, upon 
 this foundation, we need not be afraid to assert, that they are 
 partakers, with the Philippians, of the grace of God, as, upon 
 the like foundation, the apostle acknowledges concerning them, 
 that they were partakers of the same grace with him. Again, 
 we may observe, 
 
 2. That the apostle had no special ground for his confidence 
 in the case of the Philippians, beyond what he had with respect 
 to all believers. If an attempt should be made to set aside this 
 remark, one of these two things must be advanced, viz. either 
 that the apostle's confidence was grounded on some particular 
 revelation from God, promising the safety of the Philippians, 
 in which other saints had no concern, like that which had a 
 singular regard to the safety of Paul's mariners; or else it must 
 be pretended, that his confidence arose from some testimony 
 given of the truth of their graces, which testimony was peculiar 
 to them, and not given of the graces of others. But neither of 
 these suppositions will suit with the language which immedi- 
 ately follows in the next verse, where the apostle says, " Even 
 as it is meet for me to think this of you all." By this passage 
 we are let into the apostle's method of reasoning in the case, 
 and the force of his argument may be shown after this manner. 
 
 He first lays it down as a Scripture principle, or point of 
 divine revelation, that where God has begun the good work, 
 he will carry it on to the day of Christ. He then introduces 
 
332 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 his good opinion of the Philippians, with the grounds and rea- 
 sons of it, declaring he accounted them partakers of the grace 
 of God, and esteemed them to be persons in whom the good 
 work was begun ; and, from hence, the conchision was easy and 
 jiatural, that as God had begun the good work in them, he 
 would surely perform it to the day of Christ; for it shall cer- 
 tainly be thus carried on in all upon whom it is once begun. 
 
 Beza observes, that the word, in the original, should here be 
 taken to signify not his affection to them, but his judgment 
 concerning them, and the state they were in. And, in our trans- 
 lation, it is thus rendered. Now, since the tree is known by its 
 fruit, he could not but judge, from the fruits they brought forth, 
 some of which are here specified, that they really were what 
 they professed to be: and, since he had no disorder or irregu- 
 larity to charge upon any in that church, that was inconsistent 
 with a state of grace, it was but proper and meet for him to 
 think this, or to entertain this good opinion of them all, i. e. to 
 esteem them all as gracious persons. And if, in truth, they 
 were all partakers of the grace of God, he was then confident 
 and sure they should all be preserved unto the coming of Christ; 
 for this shall undoubtedly be the privilege of all that are truly 
 sanctified. 
 
 Thus we see that the apostle's confidence, expressed in the 
 text, was not built on any special revelation, or peculiar testi- 
 mony, in which none, besides the Philippians, had any concern; 
 but upon the new covenant, with its settlements and promises, 
 as they are published in the everlasting gospel, the benefits 
 whereof are common to the saints in all ages; and upon such 
 evidences of the Philippians' interest in that covenant, as will 
 universally prove an interest therein, with respect to all in whom 
 the like characteristics are found. 
 
 As the text, therefore, was suited to encourage the Philip- 
 pians, in an holy, humble, and joyful expectation of their being 
 preserved until the day of Christ; so it is equally adapted to 
 promote the like expectation and hope in all true believers, to 
 the end of time. 
 
 To sum up the whole : our asserting, from this passage, the 
 doctrine of the saints' perseverance in grace, is sufficiently jus- 
 tified by a careful attention to the apostle's method of reasoning; 
 for hereby it is manifest that this was not a privilege peculiar 
 to the Philippians, or that there was nothing particular in their 
 case to be the ground of his confidence concerning their safety. 
 But his arguing upon this principle, in the manner we have 
 shown, proves that he took this to be the doctrine of the Scrip- 
 tures, applicable to the case of all in whom the good work is 
 begun: and, since he was under the immediate direction of the 
 Spirit of God, in his reasoning, the use that is here made of 
 this point, gives it a fresh confirmation ; and the stress he lays 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 333 
 
 upon it, ought to be esteemed as an infallible testimony, that 
 this doctrhie is of divine original. 
 
 Thus I have given a large exposition of the text, to let you 
 see, that in its most easy, natural, and necessary construction, it 
 lies clear, as a sure foundation of the doctrinal observation, 
 which I shall now raise from it, viz. 
 
 That the good work of grace shall be invincibly carried on 
 to perfection in all the saints. 
 
 I am aware that my method in opening the words has taken 
 up a pretty deal of your time, but some of it may now be 
 redeemed; for I need not give any further description of the 
 work of grace, nor add any thing more to show that this work 
 is truly begun in all the saints, or that there is the same reason 
 for us to conclude that the good work shall be carried on in all 
 believers, as there was for the apostle's expectation, that it 
 should be performed in the Philippians. What I have hinted 
 already, in the exphcation of the text, is, I think, as much as 
 my present business requires me to say upon these heads. And 
 thus my work is contracted, and will lie chiefly in these three 
 things : 
 
 I. I shall endeavour to state the point. 
 
 II. I shall produce some arguments for the proof of this doc- 
 trine. 
 
 III. I shall make some reply to the principal objections that 
 are urged against it ; and conclude with some directions and 
 practical improvement. 
 
 I. I shall endeavour to state the point distinctly and fully. 
 
 This is necessary, for the better clearing of this doctrine. 
 What I design here, shall be reduced to three general remarks : 
 I shall not confine myself to a bare naming the heads, but 
 enlarge upon each of them ; and hereby I would hope things may 
 be so distinguished and settled, as sufficiently to guard against 
 several of the objections brought by those who oppose this doc-, 
 trine. And if I should be enabled to do this with some degree 
 of exactness and care; I apprehend it would very much facili- 
 tate my work in the remaining part of the design. For the 
 clearer the distinction shall be made to appear, and the stronger 
 the proof shall be of what is now to be laid down, with the 
 more justice and freedom, I may venture to recur to these 
 remarks, as occasion shall hereafter require; especially when I 
 come to discharge the doctrine of the seeming difficulties with 
 which some would endeavour unjustly to load it. I shall there- 
 fore observe, 
 
 1. That the establishment or perseverance which the Scrip- 
 tures assert, respects the work of true grace, and that only. 
 
 2. It respects the state of believers, but not their frames; or 
 it respects the principle of grace, but not its present exercise. 
 
 3. That all means necessary for the establishment of this 
 
334 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 good work, are under the direction of God ; and all obstacles 
 which would threaten a disappointment, are subject tc his 
 control. 
 
 1, The establishment and perfection which is here asserted, 
 respects the work of true grace, and that only. 
 
 There are works of another kind, and of a different nature 
 which may decay and come to nothing; but the failure of these 
 can never affect the truth of our doctrine: and the reason is 
 plain, because, though these do generally, more or less, attend 
 the work of grace, yet true grace does not always accompany 
 them. I shall instance particularly in two things: 
 
 (1.) In the gifts of the Spirit. By the gifts of the Spirit, I 
 here mean his common operations upon the minds and affec- 
 tions of persons who hear the gospel; which operations, how 
 strong or powerful soever they be, do yet never bring the reci- 
 pient, or subject thereof, into a truly gracious or holy state. 
 That there is really a distinction to be made between the com- 
 mon gifts and saving graces of the Spirit; or that many of the 
 gifts of the Spirit may be conferred separately from his graces, 
 may be easily shown, from several places of Scripture; particu- 
 larly from that Mat. vii. 21, where our Lord speaks of some 
 who were endued with the gift of prophecy, with the faith of 
 miracles, and the power of casting out devils, but were never 
 blessed with that grace, which is the fruit of special love, which 
 effectually turns the heart from iniquity, and whose exercise 
 ever meets with our Saviour's approbation: they had gifts suffi- 
 cient for the healing the bodily diseases of others, but wanted 
 the grace that was necessary for the curing the spiritual mala- 
 dies of their own souls. 
 
 This distinction may be further supported, from the apostle's 
 argument, 1 Cor. xiii. 1 — 4, where he supposes that men might 
 have the highest measures of the gifts of the Spirit, and yet be 
 nothing in point of true grace : they might have such gifts, as 
 to be capable of understanding all mysteries, and all knowledge : 
 they might have such faith, as to be able to remove mountains, 
 and a zeal that would incline them to make the most liberal dis- 
 tributions among the poor, and to die, at last, as martyrs in the 
 cause of religion, and yet be destitute of that charity and love 
 to Christ, and his people, which is one of the essential proper- 
 ties of true grace. 
 
 And as this distinction is supposed, in this argument, so it is 
 confirmed by another passage, 2 Cor. xi. 13, where the apostle 
 plainly shows, that there was, in fact, a distribution of gifts 
 wholly separate from works of grace upon the hearts of those 
 that received them : and this to such a degree, that men who 
 were inwardly full of all wickedness, were yet in a capacity of 
 imposing upon churches, upon the saints and people of God 
 themselves : yea, by reason of the abundant furniture they had, 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 335 
 
 as to the gifts of the Spirit, they could pass for the apostles of 
 Christ. 
 
 And if such an horrid deceit could be practised, in that pure 
 and enlightened age, no marvel that in these times of degene- 
 racy and darkness, many can transform themselves so far, as 
 to have a name to live, though they are dead. But the apostle 
 tells us, 2 Cor, xi. 15, that their end shall be according to their 
 work. As their works are hypocritical and deceitful, so their 
 end shall be destruction. 
 
 Whatever gifts are received without grace, will fail. Their 
 nature is not abiding, neither has God engaged for their contin- 
 uance : and as these gifts will fail, so the works, which were 
 wrought in the exercise thereof, will fail likewise. And, gene- 
 rally speaking, by one trying dispensation or another, the Lord 
 turns such professors as these upside down; and shows that 
 while they said they were Jews, called themselves his people, 
 and were accounted so by others, still all their profession was a 
 lie ; during its whole space, they held the truth in unrighteous- 
 ness. They were always hypocrites, and no wonder that at 
 last they proved apostates. 
 
 Such professors as these our times have brought forth in great 
 abundance. Many, too many, have there been, who through 
 the brightness of their gifts, and the splendour of their conver- 
 sation, have appeared as stars of the first magnitude ; but a little 
 time has discovered them to be no more than falling meteors. 
 However, such dreadful instances as these, frequently as they 
 happen, should never be objected against the truth of our doc- 
 trine, which never engages for the continuance of the gifts, or 
 of the common operations of the Spirit, but only maintains the 
 final establishment of true grace. As another work that may 
 fail, I shall instance, 
 
 (2.) In the outward 2iwdi visible state oi particular churches. 
 By this, I mean that outward fellowship which professors have 
 one with another, in all the ordinances of the gospel, with the 
 external privileges and advantages belonging thereunto, ap- 
 pointed and ordained of God, for the mutual edification of his 
 people. This may properly be termed a work of God, not only 
 as it is stamped with his authority, but as every thing which 
 relates to the state itself, together with its happy and flourishing 
 condition, depends upon his providence and care. And this is 
 a good work, ever erected with a gracious design. 
 
 But here observe, that when the great end for which a 
 church state was founded, in any particular place, is answered 
 in the conversion and salvation of those whose spiritual and 
 eternal advantage was to be promoted thereby, it may then be 
 suftered to fall into decay; yea, by degrees, as the number of 
 the godly decreases, and in proportion as they who, through 
 grace, were enabled to be faithful, are taken away, others, of 
 
336 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 the like gracious spirit and temper, not rising up in their room, 
 the glory of that state will certainly decline ; and many, who 
 were never effectually called, creeping in unawares, the church, 
 at length, having lost its upright members, becomes destitute of 
 its first love, and leaves its first works. Thus, instead of truth, 
 springs up error in doctrine ; and, in this sense, there will be a 
 notorious falling from grace, that is, from the doctrines of grace ; 
 and, in consequence of this, all purity in worship is gradually 
 destroyed, by increasing corruption, till, at length, loose and 
 Hcentious practices wholly exterminate that holiness and strict- 
 ness in conversation, which formerly prevailed. 
 
 Hereby God is provoked; and, when his testimonies, admoni- 
 tions, and warnings have been neglected, slighted, and despised, 
 he comes and removes their candlestick out of its place. Thus 
 a work that was begun in mercy to some, is finally ruined in 
 judgment to others. 
 
 But yet, if the case be rightly considered, no argument can 
 justly be taken from hence, with which to oppose the doctrine 
 of the saints' perseverance : for he that holdeth the seven stars 
 in his right hand, will never suffer the shadow of death to 
 stretch itself over the regions, where the people dwell, till pro- 
 vision is made for their safety. The righteous therefore shall 
 either be taken away from the evil to come, and be lodged in 
 the silent grave; or, by some unexpected turn in providence, 
 they shall be brought nearer the line, where the gospel shines 
 with greater strength and beauty; or if, after all, any true 
 believer be still left behind, he shall be preserved by the special 
 care of heaven, though he should be as a mourning dove, hid 
 in the clifts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs: so 
 that however the gifts of the Spirit, or the visible state of par- 
 ticular churches may cease, yet the work of true grace, with 
 which alone our doctrine is concerned, shall never fail. The 
 next remark is, 
 
 2. That the continuance, or establishment in grace, which 
 the Scriptures assert, respects the state of believers, but not 
 their frames; or it respects the principle of grace, but not its 
 present exercise. 
 
 It is true, a perfection in grace is designed hereafter: the 
 saints shall then be as the " wings of a dove, covered with 
 silver, and her feathers with yellow gold ;" their actings shall 
 then be constantly pure and holy, free from all sinful mixture 
 and alloy; no blemish shall spoil the glory, no defect shall mar 
 the beauty of their heavenly worship. But, while they are in 
 this world, they lie among the pots; and, as the word of God 
 does not promise, so neither it does so much as allow the 
 expectation of a total escape from all defilements here. Nay, 
 their own hearts are a constant seat of war, for they have two 
 contending powers within; " They have a law in their mem- 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 337 
 
 bers, warring against the law of their minds," and they are 
 sometimes " brought into captivity to the law of sin, which is 
 in their members." They are too often foiled in particular 
 conflicts, and sin too frequently gains a temporary ascendant 
 over grace. Hence arise the daily miscarriages which stain 
 the character of the brightest saints. Hence spring the more 
 gross enormities and open transgressions of some believers, by 
 reason whereof their profession is slurred, their peace broken, 
 their conscience wounded, the paths of religion are reproached, 
 and a stumbling-block thrown in the way of others. Under the 
 remembrance and sense of these things, some go mom'ning all 
 their days. 
 
 Thus Christ, the Leader of his people, and the Captain of 
 their salvation, does sometimes suffer the enemy to take an 
 advantage, that He may have the opportunity of displaying his 
 glory, in recovering it again at his own pleasure, to the greater 
 confusion and overthrow of his and his people's adversaries. 
 But still, in the midst of all the changes, to which the present 
 condition of the saints is liable, there are two things belonging 
 to their state, which shall never fail. 
 
 (1.) The saints' relation to God shall never cease. 
 
 The peculiar relation they stand in to God, is that of children 
 to a Father ; and such are the glories of this relation, that it is 
 founded upon the new covenant, and the Mediator's perfect 
 atonement. From thence results the security of their standing 
 in his grace, as well as their first access into it ; for though 
 their iniquities, which are daily repeated, highly deserve that 
 this relation should be dissolved, yet this judgment shall be 
 continually prevented, through the atoning virtue of the Re- 
 deemer's blood. Thus much is intimated, when the apostle 
 shows, that God's resolution to take his people into a new and 
 peculiar relation to himself, is executed through the exercise of 
 his pardoning mercy, Heb. viii. 10, 12, for this being settled as 
 the constant method of his dispensing the grace of adoption, it 
 teaches us that justification and adoption are both founded in 
 the blood of Christ, and inseparably connected one with the 
 other. And, shice these blessings are inseparable, it follows, 
 that the same promises which assure ns that the justification 
 of the saints shall be complete and perpetual, do likewise assure 
 us, that their adoption shall be uninterrupted and eternal. And 
 when God says, "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, 
 and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more," Heb. 
 viii. 10, 12, it is constructively the same as if he had said, I will 
 always be their God, and they shall always be my people ; 
 i. e. the relation shall continue, they shall be my sons and my 
 daughters, and that for ever. 
 
 It must be allowed, indeed, that the children of God, by their 
 frowardness and remissness in their walk, may provoke him to 
 
 43 
 
338 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 deny them tlie light of his countenance. He may hide his face 
 for a time, or he may frown and make them sensible of his 
 fatherly displeasure, yet the relation shall never be extinct. 
 God may chastise and correct his children ; his compassion and 
 love will engage him to do so ; but he will never discard, or 
 cast them out of his family. The passage we meet with in 
 our Saviour's conference with the Jews, if taken as a standing 
 maxim, is a sufficient proof of this. The Son ahideth ever. 
 The antithesis in the verse directs us in the explication, and 
 shows that the words are applicable to the case before us, as 
 well as to the purpose for which our Lord produced them, John 
 viii. 35. " The servant abideth not in the house for ever ;" no: 
 upon any great otfence, or for repeated misdemeanours, he is 
 dismissed, turned out of doors, and the relation dissolved ; but 
 there is one sort of treatment for servants, and another for 
 children. Wise and tender parents will wait long, and try all 
 methods, to gain upon their children, and win them over unto 
 that subjection and obedience which is their duty: and will not 
 the Lord, who is infinite in his grace and love, exercise the 
 greatest forbearance with his children ? Since it is in his power, 
 may it not be expected that he will melt them down, turn them 
 from their evil ways, and effectually draw them with his love ? 
 Does not his promise to heal their hackslidings suppose that 
 he will take away their iniquity, through the blood of the cove- 
 nant, and receive them graciously? Hos. xiv. 2, 4. Does not 
 his promise of "putting his laws into their mind, and of writing 
 them in their hearts," Heb. viii. 10, engage that he will make 
 them to know wisdom in the hidden part, and teach them to 
 walk humbly with their God ? And is not their adoption con- 
 stantly accompanied v/ith regeneration, that, by virtue of their 
 new nature, they may be fitted for holy walking ? Besides, the 
 design of their adoption is, that it should be " to the praise of 
 the glory of his grace," Eph. i. 5, 6, which it cannot be, unless 
 it be perpetual. It can never be pretended therefore, without 
 a flat contradiction to Scripture, that any who have been once 
 adopted into the number of the children of God, may afterward 
 fail, so as to become the children of the devil. 
 
 (2.) The vital principle oi grace in the saints shall never 
 fail. 
 
 This principle which is infused at the instant of their regene- 
 ration, shall continue and abide in them for ever. The spiritual 
 life is, in some respects, like the natural, both are liable to many 
 indispositions, sicknesses and faintings: and, as in a swooning 
 fit, for a time, all natural sense and motion may be gone, and 
 yet the life remain, so the operations of grace may be inter- 
 rupted, and, through the violence of temptation, the strength of 
 corruption, or some spiritual decay, the actings of grace may be 
 suspended, yet the principle of spiritual life does still continue. 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 339 
 
 Under all witherings of true believers, the seed of God rettialns 
 in them; and his anointing does still abide, otherwise the pro- 
 mise would fail, Prov. xii. 3, in which it is engaged that the 
 root of the righteous shall not be moved. Their bloom may be 
 sometimes blighted, or their fruit blown off, and their branches 
 may be tossed with tempests, but their root shall not be moved; 
 no, not through any means, not upon any occasion,, nor by any 
 adversary whatever; and this because it is the Lord who says, 
 " I will keep it, I will water it every moment," Isa. xxvii. 3. 
 And, from the authority of such declarations of the word, we 
 may venture positively to assert, that none who have had the 
 principle did ever lose it. Peter's faith, though it failed as to 
 its exercise, did yet continue as to its principle, which imme- 
 diately revived, through the assistance that came with his 
 Saviour's look. It would be wholly inconsistent with the suc- 
 cess and prevalency of the Redeemer's intercession, to imagine 
 that the apostle's grace was totally lost, after his Lord had 
 prayed that his faith should not fail ; and Christ's intercession, 
 which is still carried on in heaven, is a firm security for the 
 preservation of the spiritual life of all believers. For wise and 
 holy ends, indeed, he may sutfer them to fall, to the breaking 
 of their bones, that they may learn to be humble and watchful; 
 but the vital principle of grace shall never be extinguished ; for 
 their life, in the fountain and original of it, " is hid with Christ 
 in God," Col. iii. 3, where it is kept safe, out of the reach of the 
 venomous darts of all its deadly enemies. This leads us to the 
 last remark, which is, 
 
 3. That all means necessary for the accomplishing this good 
 work, are under the direction of God, and all possible inter- 
 vening events, which would threaten a disappointment, are 
 subject to his control. The means necessary for the perfecting 
 this work are either external or internal. 
 
 (1.) External. Among these are included the ordinances of 
 the gospel ; such as the word, sacraments, and prayer, which, 
 with all the circumstances that relate both to their administra- 
 tion, and the saints' attendance upon them, are under the divine 
 direction. And as the Shepherd of Israel knows where "he 
 feedeth, where he maketh his flock to rest at noon," so he will 
 take care that none of his " shall turn aside by the flocks of his 
 companions." Again, he knows what stated and frequent 
 attendances on the means of grace are necessary for his peo- 
 ple's growth; and he can save them from all confinement, that 
 would bar their approach to his sanctuary, and deliver them 
 from those allurements and snares that would detain them from 
 duty, or divert them from the paths of holiness: and he will 
 watch that nothing of this khid shall prejudice their establish- 
 ment, or hinder their final perseverance in grace. Further, he 
 knows how long a standing in the school of Christ, on earth, is 
 
340 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 necessary to fit and prepare for his immediate and glorious pre- 
 sence in heaven; and he will give his children a due time, that 
 they may have a proportional space to go through that course 
 of instruction and new obedience, that variety of temptation 
 and experience, which is proper for their greater proficiency 
 and edification now, and their complete perfection in knowledge 
 and grace at last. 
 
 But, besides these, there are means of another nature, abso- 
 lutely necessary for the carrying on the work ; and these are, 
 
 (2.) Internal and spiritual; such as the repeated actings of 
 faith and repentance, of hope and love, fresh hungering and 
 thirsting after righteousness, a renewed delighting in God, with 
 a resolved adherence to him, and a fixed dependence upon him. 
 These likewise, with the various inducements, incitements, and 
 helps needful thereunto, are all under the care of Him, who has 
 begun the good work, and is determined to bring it to perfec- 
 tion. Accordingly he blesses his people with further anointings 
 of the Holy One ; " He giveth power to the faint ; and to them 
 that have no might, he increaseth strength," Isa. xl. 29. A 
 bountiful "God will supply all their need," Phil. iv. 19, and 
 give them all things pertaining to a life of godliness, and with- 
 hold no good thing, whether it be food, correction, or healing, 
 from those, who, being once brought into a state of grace, are 
 thus enabled to walk uprightly, Psal. Ixxxiv. 11. When their 
 souls cleave to dust, he will quicken them ; and, after all their 
 languishing in grace, he will " make them revive as the corn, 
 and grow as the vine, till their scent shall be as the wine of 
 Lebanon," Hos. xiv. 7. 
 
 And as all means are under his direction, so all obstacles are 
 subject to his control. 
 
 Nothing of this kind can possibly occur, but it must arise 
 either from the devil, world, or flesh. These are, indeed, potent 
 and subtle enemies ; yet, however they may combine and unite 
 their force, they shall never be able to compass the ruin of the 
 saints, or hinder their complete salvation. As to the devil, he 
 is an enemy in chains, Jude ver. 6, his power is limited ; and 
 "the God of peace shall bruise him under their feet," Rom. 
 xvi. 20. As to the world, when Christ gave himself for the sins 
 of his people, it was with a design that they might be "deliv- 
 ered from this present evil world," Gal. i. 4; and, though they 
 are not taken out of the world immediately after their conver- 
 sion, yet our Lord has prayed, that they may be " kept from 
 the evil," John xvii. 15, As to their corruptions, the most 
 dangerous of all their enemies, these shall be subdued, and no 
 sin suffered to have "the dominion over them," Rom. vi. 14. 
 But they shall, at last, be called "the holy people, the redeemed 
 of the Lord, sought out, a city not forsaken," Isa. Ixii. 12. He 
 that is their sun to direct, will be their shield to defend them, 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 341 
 
 Psal. Ixxxiv. 12. He will " keep them night and day, lest any 
 hurt them," Isa. xxvii. 3. "No weapon formed against them 
 shall ever prosper," Isa. liv. 17, for God will fulfil in them "all 
 the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with 
 power, that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified 
 in them, and they in him," 2 Thess. i. 11, 12, and this notwith- 
 standing their unworthiness, and hell-deservings, according to 
 the grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus Christ; for though he 
 may lake vengeance of their inventions, yet a covenant God 
 will forgive their sins, Psal. xcix. 8. 
 
 Now, from this state of the case, we may learn what is con- 
 tained in this doctrine, and what is not. Let us take a sum- 
 mary view of the foregoing remarks, and we may clearly see 
 these two things: 
 
 1. This doctrine does not assert that men, who were never 
 truly sanctified, may not lose the gifts, the convictions, and illu- 
 minations wrought in them by the common operations of the 
 Spirit of God. It never asserts, that the seeming goodness of 
 men void of grace, may not be like the morning cloud, or the 
 early dew, which soon passeth away; or that the shows of reli- 
 gion, by which the splendid profession of hypocrites is supported 
 for a time, may not fail, after all, and come to nothing: nor does 
 it assert, that persons, who have only a speculative and notional 
 knowledge of the truths of the gospel, may not change their 
 opinion, and fall from the doctrines of grace; nor that visible 
 churches, as such considered, may not lose their first love, and 
 depart from their first works; nor that the children of God them- 
 selves may not possibly fall into some open acts of sin, and be 
 guilty of such partial backsliding, as call for the deepest humi- 
 liation, and the most bitter lamentation. But then, 
 
 2, This doctrine does maintain, that such as really have a 
 good work begun in them, shall never fall from their spiritual 
 and peculiar relation to God; they shall never lose the vhal 
 principle of grace, nor sink again into a state of corruption and 
 condemnation: but these shall be carried on in the paths of 
 holiness; they shall either be wholly preserved from remark- 
 able and scandalous falls, or be recovered, and set upon their 
 feet again. They shall be restored, healed, revived, and finally 
 kept, through faith, unto salvation; and this shall be accom- 
 phshed by the mighty power of that God, who has all succour, 
 relief, and assistance, at his command, and all possible circum- 
 stances under his control. 
 
 This is the light in which, I apprehend, this doctrine is set in 
 the word of God, wherein it is fully revealed and confirmed by 
 passages almost innumerable. I shall now proceed to the next 
 general head of discourse ; under which, 
 
 II. I shall produce some arguments for the proof of this 
 doctrine. 
 
342 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 I have hinted already that the apostle's method of reasoning 
 shows this to be the doctrine of the Scriptures. I shall here add, 
 as a General Proof, that in them it is taught with such clear- 
 ness and plainness, that he may run that reads. And it is worth 
 our observing how much the Scriptures abound with it, how 
 frequently it is introduced, upon how many, and what different 
 occasions it is used, and with what a variety of expression it is 
 there set forth. Sometimes it is asserted in a way of positive 
 affirmation, and in a style divested of all metaphor: as where 
 Christ says, "He that believeth shall be saved," Mark xvi. 16, 
 and "whosoever believeth in me shall never die," John xi, 26. 
 Sometimes it is expressed in a figurative symbolical manner: 
 thus, "the path of the just shall be as the shining light, which 
 shineth more and more unto the perfect day," Pro v. iv. 18. 
 " The righteous shall hold on his way; and he that hath clean 
 hands shall wax stronger and stronger," Job xvii. 9. Some- 
 times it is signified by the guard that is set over the righteous: 
 thus we read, that " upon all the glory shall be a defence," Isa. 
 iv. 5, and " there shall no evil happen to the just," Prov. xii. 
 21. Surely, then, they shall not be left to a final apostasy, the 
 worst and sorest evil that could befall them. At other times, 
 this doctrine is referred to, as the ground of the holy and hum- 
 ble confidence of the saints, and plainly supposed as the foun- 
 dation of their comfortable hope, their raised expectation, and 
 earnest prayers. Hence arose such conclusions and consequent 
 petitions as these : " The Lord will perfect that which concern- 
 eth me: thy mercy, Lord, endureth for ever; forsake not the 
 works of thine own hand," Psal. cxxxviii, 8. "Thou shalt 
 guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory," 
 Psal, Ixxiii. 24. 
 
 Here I might quote many passages out of the New Testa- 
 ment, in which prayers are offered up for the establishment of 
 the saints; and these prayers of the inspired writers, which are 
 recorded and delivered down as matter of instruction to others, 
 were indited and directed by that infinitely blessed and glorious 
 Spirit, who " searcheth all things, even the deep things of God :" 
 they must certainly therefore be framed and formed in an entire 
 correspondence to the purpose and decrees of God, and in an 
 exact consonancy with what he has promised in the covenant 
 of grace. 
 
 These petitions, then, are so far from being an objection 
 against this doctrine, as some would imagine, that they are really 
 a strong argument for it; for since the apostles, while under the 
 immediate guidance of the Spirit, could pray for nothing but 
 what was agreeable to the purpose of God; and yet they did, 
 even at that time, as appears from their epistles, pray for the 
 establishment of the saints; it follows, that their establishment 
 is a thing agreeable to the divine counsel. And since these 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 343 
 
 petitions stand clear of those expressions of submission which 
 attended their prayers, when events were to them uncertain, 
 the holy fervour and confidence with which they are presented, 
 afford a good proof that the apostles knew what they prayed 
 for herein to be really agreeable to the purpose of God, and 
 consequently dmt God had declared and promised this blessing 
 in the covenant of grace. 
 
 As to the pretence, that such an assurance of the saints' esta- 
 blishment would have rendered their prayers needless, or that it 
 would have been impertinent in them to have prayed for that 
 which God had promised and assured them he would give ; this 
 can no more alfect the prayers of the apostles, than it would 
 affect the prayer of David, who was a more proper judge of the 
 fitness of a request to be offered to God, than any among us can 
 pretend to be; and yet we find he pleaded for the very thing 
 which God had assured him should come to pass : " Now, Lord 
 God, the word which thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, 
 and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou 
 hast said," 2 Sam. vii. 25. 
 
 In his example, then, we have an instance to prove that the 
 saints' assurance of God's intention to confer a blessing upon 
 them, did not make them think their prayers were needless, and 
 would be impertinent-, and that this assurance, instead of making 
 them remiss and negligent in their duty, as some have suggested, 
 will be one of the most powerful means of giving vigour and life 
 to their supplications. This is also evident from that expression 
 of David, where he says, " For thou, Lord of Hosts, God of 
 Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an 
 house, therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray 
 this prayer unto thee," 2 Sam. vii. 27, and so he goes on in the 
 following verses, still pointing to the promise upon which his 
 hope was raised, as the special reason and motive, by which his 
 importunity in prayer was quickened. 
 
 And since the way of the Lord with his servants is one, in 
 teaching them to regulate their prayers by his declarations of 
 mercy, why may we not conclude, that the inspired prayers of 
 the apostles were founded on a divine revelation and promise, 
 as well as these prayers of David? We may be sure at least 
 that no impropriety in presenting requests upon such a founda- 
 tion, can ever be any just objection against it. 
 
 And should this be admitted, yet it will not follow, as some 
 would suggest, that then, from the saints' prayers for daily pro- 
 tection and preservation from sin, it might be inferred, that 
 God had promised them an absolute security from all trans- 
 gression. 
 
 This is not a parallel case; for there is a vast difference 
 between the inspired prayers of the apostles, and the weak sup- 
 plications of those who have received the gifts and graces of 
 
344 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 the Spirit, in a much lower degree, and who, at best, share in 
 his assistance, in a very imperfect measure, even such as leaves 
 them subject to many failures in their prayers, as well as in 
 any other part of their conduct. 
 
 We may also observe, that the daily petitions of the saints 
 for protection from sin, are grounded upon general promises 
 and declarations in the word, that " sin shall not have dominion 
 over them," Rom. vi. 14, that "the Lord knows how to deliver 
 the godly out of temptation," 2 Pet. ii. 9, and that " God, who 
 is faithful, will not suffer them to be tempted above that they 
 are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to 
 escape, that they may be able to bear it," 1 Cor. x. 13. And 
 all these prayers of the saints, put up in faith and hope, shall 
 be answered, either in kind, or in value; either they shall have, 
 in particular instances, the protection they ask, and be pre- 
 served from committing the transgression, against which they 
 pray, or the sin shall be pardoned through the Redeemer's 
 blood, and they recovered from it with greater advantage, their 
 strength being renewed, and their experience of his grace 
 enlarged. 
 
 But if a final perseverance should not be granted, then all 
 their prayers would be lost; and not theirs only, but the prayers 
 of the inspired writers on their behalf; for, should they miss of 
 this favour, no after blessing could be found to countervail the 
 loss, which, by a final apostasy, they must sustain. But this 
 shall never be the case of any of the saints; for the way of the 
 Lord, which has been kindness and mercy in promising salva- 
 tion, shall likewise be faithfulness and truth, Psal. xxv. 10, in 
 the performance of it. 
 
 SERMON IL 
 
 PmupriANS i. 6. — Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun 
 a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. 
 
 After I had explained the words of the text, in the former dis- 
 course, I raised this doctrinal observation. 
 
 That the good tvork of grace shall be invincibly carried on 
 to perfection in all the saints. 
 
 I then stated the point, and gave a general proof of it, by 
 observing how frequently this doctrine is mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture. I shall proceed now to consider some particular argu- 
 ments to support it. The chief I shall insist upon shall be 
 drawn from the following heads. 1. The immutability of the 
 purpose and promise of God. 2. The Redeemer's care over 
 his people, with his peculiar relation unto, and union with them. 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 345 
 
 3. The constant residence and inhabitation of the Holy Ghost in 
 the souls of believers. 
 
 Isi. I shall consider the imrniit ability of the purpose and 
 promise of God, as one argument for the proof of this doctrine. 
 
 The harmonious agreement which there is between these 
 two, makes it needless here to speak to them apart; for as the 
 promise is a declaration of the counsel of God, so a declaration 
 of his counsel in this matter is equivalent to a promise. And if, 
 for brevity sake, I should, under this head, wave the distinction, 
 and consider them together; or if I should promiscuously call 
 one by the name of the other, it will not, I think, in the least 
 affect the argument. 
 
 That I may still contract the more, I shall presume upon some 
 things which lie as the foundation of our reasoning; but shall 
 be careful herein not to exceed what, I apprehend, would be 
 allowed by those of the contrary scheme. The things then 
 which I take for granted are these ; namely, that the declarations 
 of grace, made in the word of God, are to be the only rule of 
 our faith, and the just and adequate foundation of our hope in 
 all matters that respect the welfare of the saints in time, and to 
 eternity. Further, 
 
 I presume it will be allowed, that there are many promises in 
 the word of God which relate to the saints' perseverance in grace, 
 and that these promises shall be made good, according to the 
 meaning and design of Him that gave them. As to the present 
 argument, therefore, the proof of our doctrine depends upon a 
 right interpretation, and due application of the promises ; and 
 this shows it to be my proper business, under this head, to make 
 out these two propositions: 1. That final perseverance is pro- 
 mised in the word of God. 2. That the promises wherein this 
 is contained, are applicable to all believers. 
 
 1. Final perseverance is ^romz'tset/ in the word of God. If we 
 look into the promises, we shall quickly find, that among other 
 articles of spiritual blessings, this privilege of the saints' perse- 
 verance is one really comprehended and ascertained. For an 
 instance hereof, I shall name the text where the apostle declares, 
 that " The Lord hath said, I shall never leave thee, nor forsake 
 thee," Heb. xiii. 5. That we may interpret these words in a 
 consistence with their context, and with other parts of divine re- 
 velation, as well as with the special design for which they are 
 quoted and used by the apostle, it will be proper to observe, in 
 some instances, what is not included in them, and then declare 
 more directly what their meaning must be. 
 
 We may he confident, these words could never mean, that, 
 through the presence of God with his people, they should have 
 an exemption from all straits and ditiict.ilties in the world, or 
 from inward temptations, any more than outward ; nor that they 
 should be absolutely preserved from sinning, any more than 
 
 44 
 
346 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 from being tempted to sin. Such a construction is peremptorily 
 forbidden, by several expressions in the context, which shows, 
 that, among those who had an interest in the promise, some 
 " were in bonds, and did suffer adversity," while others who 
 enjoyed an outward prosperity, were tempted to " covetousness 
 in their conversation ;" and it would be a weakness to imagine, 
 that in the midst of these many temptations, they did wholly 
 escape all inward defilement. The words therefore could never 
 be intended to engage for a present exemption from such evils 
 as these. 
 
 Their meaning then must be, that the saints should never be 
 wholly deserted, nor utterly abandoned by the Lord. His pro- 
 mise " never to forsake them," must be supposed to signify, 
 that he would be ever with them as their covenanted God and 
 Father, through his Son; that he would ever appear in his 
 own way, on their behalf, and exert himself in his all-suffi- 
 ciency, according to his infinite wisdom, power, and love, to 
 support and comfort them in their afflictions, to relieve them 
 under their temptations, or to revive and restore them after 
 they had fallen. It means, that though they might not always 
 have him in their sight, yet he would be ever with them, by his 
 gracious and his holy presence, to prevent their total apostasy, 
 and to secure their final perseverance in grace, till they are 
 brought safe to glory. 
 
 And this explication is entirely agreeable to many other pas- 
 sages in Scripture ; particularly to those words of the apostle, 
 where he expressly asserts, " that the Lord shall establish his 
 people, and keep them from evil," 2 Thess. hi. 3. And again, 
 to what he says in another place, where, after he prays for the 
 Thessalonians, that " their whole spirit, soul, and body, be pre- 
 served blameless unto the coming of Christ," he presently adds, 
 " faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it," 1 Thess. 
 V. 23, 24. And this infallible declaration being immediately 
 subjoined, the apostle's petition is thereby advanced beyond 
 all contradiction, into the full significancy of an heavenly pro- 
 mise. 
 
 Thus you see a final perseverance in grace is fully compre- 
 hended and ascertained in the promise and purpose of God; 
 and it is needless here to produce any further proof of this 
 kind; only, before I quit this head, I am obliged to observe, as 
 to the passages last quoted from the epistles to the Thessalo- 
 nians, that though they come up fully to our present purpose, 
 yet they will not bear such a construction as would make them 
 prove too much. This, indeed, has been the pretence of some, 
 who tell us, that either they must promise an absolute freedom 
 from all evil in this present state, or they cannot be taken abso- 
 lutely to promise an escape from any evil at all. Thus some, 
 by stretching the meaning of these texts too far, have attempted 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 347 
 
 to weaken their force, that they might not stand in such a fit 
 condition for the defence of our doctrine, as their just exphca- 
 tion would fairly leave them. But the guard with which the 
 words are surrounded in their respective contexts, is abun- 
 dantly sufficient to overrule the extravagance of such a wild 
 construction; and our argument remains after all, m its full 
 strength, to answer the purpose for which it is produced: for, 
 in one of the places, the apostle desires the prayers of the Thes- 
 salonians for his own deliverance from outward troubles; and 
 in the other he presents his prayers for them, that they may be 
 wholly sanctified. These passages are a good clue to lead us 
 into the true meaning of these promises, and do unanswerably 
 determine their sense to be this, viz. That though the Lord 
 may suffer his children to be in trouble, as the apostle himself 
 then was; or though he may leave them to fall into sin, as will 
 be frequently the case, while they are sanctified but in part, 
 yet he will infallibly keep them safe from all such evils, as 
 would prevent their progress to a final perfection in holiness, 
 or bar their appearing at last without blame before him in 
 love. I come now to the second proposition advanced, which 
 is that, 
 
 2. These promises are applicable to all believers. This will 
 be evident, if we consider that every true believer answers the 
 characters by which the word describes the persons to whom 
 these promises do belong, and for whose salvation the promises 
 do engage. For instance : are they described by their trusting 
 in God, as where the Psalmist says, "They that trust in the 
 Lord shall be as moimt Zion, which cannot be removed, but 
 abideth for ever?" Psal. cxxv. 1. This part of the character is 
 ever found with true believers: it is an essential property of 
 faith, to be trusting in the Lord. Faith teaches, directs, and, so 
 far as it prevails, it enables the soul of a believer to trust God 
 in the way of his covenant. He trusts God with all his con- 
 cerns, whether relating to soul or body: he trusts in him for 
 all the blessings and benefits which he has promised to give, 
 through his Son, that his people may be safe, easy, and com- 
 fortable here, as well as happy, blessed, and glorious hereafter: 
 and where there is no trusting in God, there is no faith. 
 
 Again, are the heirs of the promise described by their humi- 
 lity, as where it is said, " the Lord giveth grace unto the hum- 
 ble?" James iv. 6. As to this, there can be no more certain 
 evidence of true humility, than a man's quitting his own right- 
 eousness, his renouncing all confidence in the fiesh, and truly 
 submitting himself to be saved entirely and only by the right- 
 eousness of Christ, and the strength of his Redeemer. Nor can 
 there be a more manifest proof of true humility, than a believ- 
 er's deliberate, resolved, and cheerful resignation of himself to 
 
348 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 the command, conduct, and disposal of his heavenly Lord and 
 Master. 
 
 Once more ; are the heirs of the promise described by their 
 affection and love to Christ; as where the apostle says, " Grace 
 be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity?" 
 Eph. vi. 24. What clearer proof can there be of an hearty 
 afiection to the dear Redeemer, than a person's sacrificing his 
 most beloved lust and corruption, and his suffering the loss of 
 those things, which are dearest to the flesh, that he may win 
 Christ, and be found faithful in his adherence to him? 
 
 And are not all these things wrought by the Spirit in the 
 heart of every believer? Do they not, in fact, enter the character 
 of all the saints? We may therefore justly infer, that the saints 
 are all interested in the promises which engage for a final per- 
 severance, and consequently they shall be as mount Sion, which 
 cannot be removed. 
 
 And, since this must be understood of a continuance in a state 
 of grace, we may learn, from hence, that all the cautions and 
 threatenings, all the commands and exhortations in Scripture, 
 which have any reference to persons "continuing in the faith, 
 or their holding the beginning of their confidence steadfast to 
 the end," should never be so interpreted, as to clash with these, 
 and the like clear and full declarations of the word. But this is 
 evidently done, when those cautions and exhortations are pre- 
 tended to be so many pregnant evidences, that a true believer 
 may fall from a state of grace; or when they are reckoned 
 plain indications, that God hath made no absolute decree, or 
 promise, that he shall not do so. 
 
 However, it may be a happy means of preserving us from 
 the bad influence of such a mistaken interpretation, if we care- 
 fully observe how much the Scriptures abound with promises 
 of this kind, as I have shown in my former discourse, under the 
 general proof of the point. But, for the further confirmation of 
 the argument, which has now been insisted upon, I shall here 
 add a few remarks concerning the promises of salvation made 
 to believers, 
 
 (1.) The salvation which is promised, must be meant of an 
 eternal salvation. Accordingly when Christ says, " He that 
 believeth in me, shall never die," John xi, 26, and " he that 
 believeth, shall be saved," Mark xvi, 16, the meaning is, such 
 shall be blessed with eternal life, with eternal salvation. 
 
 (2.) These promises are made to believers as such. They 
 respect not the strength or the high degree of faith, but the 
 truth of it ; and are therefore applicable to persons upon their 
 first entrance into a state of grace. The denomination of the 
 persons to whom they belong, is founded on that change of 
 state, and on those vital actings of the new creature, which are 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 349 
 
 common to all who are born again. He that has been quick 
 ened and enabled to perform those essential actings of faith, 
 which relate to the receiving Christ as the Lord his righteous- 
 ness and strength, is truly a believer, and, in this sense, as much 
 a believer, as he who has had a further growth in grace ; and 
 consequently they that are weak in faith, have the same interest 
 in the promise, as they that are strong. 
 
 (3.) These promises comprehend an inseparable connexion 
 between trxie faith and eternal salvation. This must be 
 granted ; or the absolute truth of the proposition, in which the 
 promise is contained, must be denied. If the possibility of a 
 believer's missing of salvation must be allowed, the absolute- 
 ness of the truth of the promise will be destroyed ; for it might 
 then be said. He that believeth may not be saved. And were 
 it certain that any believers would, in fact, fall from grace, and 
 perish at last, it might be indifferently affirmed, with equal 
 truth, some believers shall be saved, and some shall not. The 
 construction that might then be put upon the proclamation of 
 grace, and grant of salvation made to believers in the promise, 
 would amount to little more than this: He that believeth may 
 be saved. The matter would thus rest on probability only; 
 and what does so, may never come to pass. Thus, according 
 to the scheme which pleads for a possibility of falling from 
 grace, the salvation of believers is reduced to an uncertainty 
 at least. But this is what the style of several of the promises 
 will by no means admit of; which runs thus : " He that believeth 
 shall not come into condemnation," John v. 24. " He shall 
 not be confounded." 1 Pet. ii. 6. " He shall not be ashamed." 
 Rom. ix. 33. No such interpretation of the promises as that 
 scheme requires, can suit with the language of Scripture in 
 this affair, or support the certainty of those glorious declara- 
 tions, which tell us, that they who believe are " passed from 
 death unto life," John v. 24, that " he that hath the Son hath 
 life," 1 John v. 12, yea, "he that believeth on the Son, hath 
 everlasting life," John iii. 36, " and these things have I written 
 unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye 
 may know that ye have eternal life." 1 John v. 13. It follows, 
 that, 
 
 (4.) These promises of salvation must be understood to give 
 an assurance of the believer's final perseverance. 
 
 Just as when God promised Abraham, Gen. xvii, 8, that his 
 seed should inherit the land of Canaan, he did thereby engage 
 to give Abraham a seed, to raise up his posterity, and protect 
 them through all surrounding dangers, till they were put into 
 the possession of the promised land. In like manner, by God's 
 promising salvation to believers, he engages for every thing 
 necessary to its being obtained; and a final perseverance in 
 grace, being, as all allow, indispensably necessary thereunto, 
 
350 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 his promise of salvation must be construed to carry in it an 
 inviolable engagement for that in particular. 
 
 Let these considerations be duly weighed, and it will appear 
 to be wrong in any to make the believer's continuing in faith, 
 such a condition of his salvation, as shall render this a matter 
 of suspense, or his falling from grace, a thing that is possible : 
 the solemn engagements of the Lord himself being an infal- 
 lible security for the one, and an immovable guard against the 
 other. 
 
 Hence it appears, that believers have good reason to remain 
 unshaken in their holy confidence; that when God has once put 
 his covenant fear into the hearts of any, such shall not be suf- 
 fered to depart from him, Jer. xxxii. 40, no, but he who has 
 infused the principle of grace, will preserve it, cause it to spring, 
 and make it thrive; for he has promised " to be as the dew unto 
 Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as 
 Lebanon," Hos. xiv. 5. 
 
 Nor should we suffer these, or the like promises, to be wrested 
 out of our hands, nor our souls to be deprived of the comfort of 
 them, though it should be suggested that those words did respect 
 a national blessing, since their particular and special application 
 to the case of every believer is warranted by our Lord himself, 
 where he says, "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, 
 and he shall have more abundance," Mat. xiii. 12; as like- 
 wise by the professed declaration of the design of his coming, 
 which was not only that his people " might have life, but that 
 they might have it more abundantly," John x. 10. 
 
 And, through a becoming faith in the immutability and cer- 
 tainty of these and many other promises and declarations of the 
 Avord, we may be assured, that no true believer ever did, or 
 ever shall, fall from a state of grace ; but, in what happy soul 
 soever the good work is once begun, it shall be carried on and 
 completed. 
 
 As a further proof of this, let us proceed to another head of 
 argument, proposed to be insisted upon: namely, 
 
 2dly. The Redeemer's care over his people, together with 
 his peculiar relation unto, and union with them. I shall con- 
 sider this head distinctly under two branches; and shall take 
 notice, 
 
 1. Of Christ's care over his people. We may observe, that 
 several of the titles given to the Mediator, are such as denote a 
 charge or trust committed to him ; as where he is termed " God's 
 servant," Isa. xlii. 1, "the messenger of the covenant," Mai. 
 iii. 1, "the apostle and high-priest of our profession," Heb. iii. 
 1, &c. When our Lord was upon earth, he constantly acknow- 
 ledged that he acted as Mediator, by commission from his 
 Father; that he "came down from heaven, not to do his own 
 will, but the will of him that sent him," John vi. 38. Now, the 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 351 
 
 purport of his commission is summed up by himself, when he 
 says, " This is the Father's will, which hath sent me; that of 
 all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should 
 raise it up again at the last day," John vi. 39. That his people 
 might have the comfort of knowing that their salvation was 
 included in his charge, when he repeats the declaration in the 
 next verse, he varies his terms, saying, " This is the will of him 
 that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son and believeth 
 on him, may have everlasting life," ver. 40, i. e. may certainly 
 have it. This was the design of the trust committed to him. 
 
 But for this, even for the whole of it, did he engage, when he 
 said, " I will raise him up at the last day," ver. 40. And his 
 positive engagement for that event must imply an engagement 
 for his people's final perseverance in grace ; this being of such 
 absolute necessity, that without it they could not be raised to 
 life everlasting. Now, we may strongly argue, from our Sa- 
 viour's faithfulness, that as he will never suffer any to pluck his 
 people out of his hand, so neither will he suffer them to fall out 
 of it, through any folly or madness of their own. He has ex- 
 pressly said, concerning his sheep, "■' I give unto them eternal 
 life, and they shall never perish ; neither shall any pluck them 
 out of my hand," John x. 28. After this, should it ever happen 
 that any of his flock did perish, it would equally slur the glory 
 of his word, whether their destruction was effected by an open 
 enemy, or by something in themselves. Besides, it was their 
 proneness to wander from God, that was one special reason of 
 the Father's appointing, and of Christ's undertaking the office 
 of a shepherd to watch over them. And if, after all his special 
 and his solemn engagements for their safety, they should any 
 of them perish at last, then the honour of his office, and the 
 glory of his faithfulness must fall to the ground. But this, we 
 are sure, can never be. 
 
 This text, then, does strongly conclude for the doctrine of the 
 saints' perseverance; and this will appear more fully still, if we 
 observe, that the words must be understood to respect the safety 
 of Christ's sheep, in their passage through this wilderness; for 
 it would by no means suit with the perfection and glory of 
 heaven to apply the declaration in the latter part of the verse, 
 " Neither shall any pluck them out of my hand," to the saints 
 in that state, as some would have it. Since no unclean thing 
 can so much as enter into the New Jerusalem, we may be con- 
 fident no daring adversary can ever appear there to make so 
 bold an attempt. This shows that all propriety of interpretation 
 would be lost, should Christ's promise to blast all attempts for 
 his people's ruin, be understood to relate to those upper regions, 
 in which no such attempts can possibly be made. 
 
 We may further observe, that though, in the beginning of the 
 verse, Christ speaks of his giving his sheep eternal life ; yet even 
 
352 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 this expression will be of no service to determine, as the same 
 persons will have it, that the security there promised must be 
 deferred till the saints shall come to the uninterrupted felicity 
 of the world above. For this passage may be understood of 
 Christ's effectually calling his people into a state of grace, and 
 of his bringing them into the real enjoyment of communion with 
 God; and thus of his giving them the beginning of eternal life, 
 even in this world. Such an explication would be very agree- 
 able to matters of fact, and consonant to other places, where it 
 is said, "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life;" 
 and then all pretence for understanding the safety promised in 
 the text, to relate principally to the heavenly state, would be 
 wholly precluded. But granting the phrase should here be 
 understood of the future blessedness, it will then show us what 
 shall certainly be the result and issue of our Saviour's present 
 care over his flock, but will still be far from suggesting that his 
 sheep must first be received into glory, before they shall share 
 in his protection. 
 
 Thus you see, that notwithstanding all the endeavours of 
 some to bear down the testimony of this scripture, yet, upon a 
 fair construction and due consideration of it, we might venture 
 the proof of our doctrine to rest upon its single evidence. 
 
 2. I shall next take notice of Christ's relation to the saints, 
 and his n7iioii with them. 
 
 Each of these particulars would bear a distinct consideration; 
 but, since the blessings themselves are inseparable, I shall blend 
 them together under this head, and briefly show in what light 
 these things are set in the word of God, and what deductions 
 pertinent to our present subject may be drawn from them. 
 
 There are many images made use of in Scripture, by which 
 the nearness of this relation, and the strictness of this union are 
 represented. The places in which they are contained, are 
 abundantly known: such, for instance, as these, where it is 
 said, for the comfort and encouragement of the church, that 
 "her Maker is her Husband," Isa. liv. 5; "her Saviour is her 
 Head," Eph. v. 23. And this not in a political sense, merely 
 as a prince is the head of his subjects, but in allusion to the 
 natural sense of the word. Accordingly believers are expressly 
 termed the " members of Christ's body, of his flesh, and of his 
 bones," verse 30. Again, he is said to be " the vine, they the 
 branches," John xv. 5. 
 
 From such passages and comparisons as these, I apprehend, 
 we may justly infer that there cannot be a stricter union be- 
 tween any two things in the world, than there is between Christ 
 and his people: further, that this union respects every par- 
 ticular believer. And in consequence hereof, he has such a 
 communion with Christ, as will infallibly secure his standing 
 in grace. All the saints having communion with Christ in his 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 353 
 
 death, their iniquities, by which the presence of God, and the 
 renewed suppUes and succours of his grace are forfeited, shall 
 be pardoned. He being wounded for their transgressions, and 
 the chastisement of their peace being laid upon him, by his 
 stripes they are and shall be healed. Through the virtue of his 
 death, then, all the blessings of the covenant are properly con- 
 stituted and confirmed to be the sure mercies of David. Again, 
 having communion with him in his life, he, who is their Head 
 of righteousness, is also their Head of vital influence, from 
 whom strength is derived, according to his effectual working in 
 every part of his mystical body; and this communication shall 
 be according to the measure that is best suited to answer every 
 design intended by their present establishment and final salva- 
 tion. 
 
 Nothing short of the believer's expectation and assured hope 
 of this salvation at last, can be a proper return for some of 
 Christ's last breathings; when he said to his disciples, for the 
 encouragement and comfort of all his people, "Because I live, 
 ye shall live also," John xiv. 19. Which words are a just 
 foundation, whereupon to build an assurance that believers can 
 no more fall from their relation to Christ, and that state of grace 
 into which he has called them, than Christ himself can be 
 plucked out of his throne, or fall from his glory. 
 
 Some, indeed, would insinuate, that though his people shall 
 never perish, through any defect on his part, for he will be 
 faithful to them while they abide faithful to him; yet believers, 
 being not natural, but mystical members, may therefore cut off 
 themselves, and so perish. But to this, and all suggestions of 
 the like kind, I think a just and full reply may be given from 
 the truths we have now advanced ; for Christ's headship is not 
 an empty title ; nor are his relations mere insignificant names, 
 but these are eminently filled up with that divine affection, 
 tenderness, and compassion, which infinitely transcends the 
 highest degree of love and pity that can be found with the 
 nearest and dearest relations in the world. We may therefore 
 conclude, that a woman, yea, that the most tender and affec- 
 tionate among women, may sooner forget her sucking child, 
 and, through want of compassion to the fruit of her body, ne- 
 glect either the food or medicines necessary for its nourishment 
 and preservation, than Christ can forget or forsake any of his 
 members, Isa. xlix. 15. There can be no room to doubt but 
 he will be ever mindful of them, to uphold and establish them, 
 "forgiving all their iniquities, and healing all their diseases," 
 Psal. ciii. 3. 
 
 Were we to consider Christ as a Shepherd only, we might, 
 from thence, infer the perpetual security and eternal safety of 
 all his people; for, should his sheep fall as the prey of wolves^ 
 or as the spoil of robbers, or should thev perish through a 
 
 45 
 
C.54 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 spreading scab, or their own wanderings, the damage and loss 
 would be still the same. We may be confident, therefore, not 
 a sheep of his shall perish by one of these means, more than by 
 another. 
 
 But, when we consider the nearness of believers to Christ, as 
 they are his mystical body, and thus the beloved parts of him- 
 self, we have then the strongest assurance possible that they 
 shall ever be preserved; for what man, in his right mind, did 
 ever yet hate his own flesh, or sufl'er the meanest part of him- 
 self to mortify and perish, when it v/as in his power to prevent 
 it? We may be sure then, Christ will never suffer any of the 
 saints to fall finally or totally, while their union with him does 
 remain. And that this shall continue ever, is plain from the 
 resemblance which it bears to the eternal union between his 
 Father and himself; which resemblance is supposed and refer- 
 red to by Christ, when praying for his people, he says, " That 
 they all may be one, as thou. Father, art in me, and I in thee;" 
 and again, "that they may be one, even as we are; I in them, 
 and thou in me," John xvii. 21, 22. And this resemblance lies 
 particularly in the perpetual and endless duration of the union. 
 This everlasting union between Christ and his people, stands 
 then as a firm and constant support of the invincible perseve- 
 rance of all the saints. 
 
 There is one argument more, which remains to be considered; 
 and that is taken from, 
 
 3dly, The inhabitation and constant residence of the Spirit 
 of God in the souls of believers. 
 
 That the Spirit of God is given to every believer, may be 
 proved from those words of the apostle, " If any man have not 
 the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," Rom. viii. 9. All true 
 disciples of Christ partake not only of the gifts, but of the 
 graces of the Spirit. This is evident, in that he "quickens 
 them," John vi. 63; "they are born of the Spirit," John iii. 5, 
 "and led by the Spirit," Rom. viii. 14, and do share in those 
 graces of faith, love, meekness, &c., which are the fruits of the 
 Spirit, Gal. v. 22. I need not stay to insist upon this, nor to 
 show that where he does constantly reside in any, these shall 
 be enabled to endure to the end. AH this, I presume, will be 
 allowed. 
 
 That which my argument does more immediately oblige me 
 to prove, is the constancy of his abode in the hearts of his 
 people. And for this, I think, we have a strong proof in our 
 Saviour's request, which is equivalent to a promise ; " I will 
 pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that 
 he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth, 
 whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
 neither knoweth him ; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with 
 you, and shall be in you," John xiv. 16, 17. That the benefit 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 355 
 
 of this request belongs to all the saints, appears from hencO; 
 because the discriminating mark here applied to the disciples, 
 did not distinguish them from the other believers, but only 
 from the men of the world. I may add, the very mark by 
 which they are described, is found upon every true believer, 
 distinguishing him from the world, as really as it did the disci- 
 ples themselves: for all believers have a saving knowledge of 
 the Spirit, and an experimental acquaintance with liim in his 
 gracious dealings, and sanctifying operations. We may there- 
 fore be assured he dwells in them, and abides with them for 
 ever. 
 
 Bat, in opposition to this, we are told, that they who have 
 been the temple of God, by virtue of his Spirit's dwelling in 
 them, may so corrupt this temple, as to be destroyed; that they 
 may provoke the Spirit wholly to depart to their utter ruin: 
 for the proof of which, these words of the apostle are quoted; 
 " If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy," 
 1 Cor. iii. 17. 
 
 To set this matter in a true light, we are to remember, that 
 the temple of God, even in its metaphorical sense, when applied 
 to the saints, falls under a two-fold consideration. Sometimes 
 it is to be understood of the saints, collectively; at other times, 
 it is meant of them as distributively considered. In the former 
 sense, by the temple of God is meant a gospel church; in the 
 latter, a particular believer. 
 
 Now, in the place that is quoted, the apostle speaks of the 
 saints collectively, as " builded together for an habitation of 
 God through the Spirit ;" this we may learn from his own ex- 
 pressions, where he says, " Know ye not that ye are the temple 
 of God?" again, "which temple ye are," ver. 16, 17, where it 
 is plain he speaks of them collectively, because the word tem- 
 ple, in the singular number, is joined with a pronoun personal 
 in the plural. This must be allowed then, that by the temple, 
 is there meant a church of Christ. 
 
 Next, let us see what is meant by defiling this temple of 
 God. To this purpose, we must observe what the apostle had 
 been treating of in the preceding verses. From the tenth to 
 the sixteenth verse, he shows the different event of the minis- 
 try of different persons ; particularly in the fifteenth verse, he 
 signifies the unhappy consequence of the labours of some, who, 
 though they were right in the foundation, yet were very wrong 
 in the superstructure. After this, he immediately proceeds to 
 show the certain destruction of men of corrupt minds, who have 
 no regard, either that their preaching, or that their own souls, 
 might be built upon Christ, the sure foundation. And then de- 
 clares, that if any man defile, (or, as it is in the margin, if he 
 corrupt,) the temple, that is, the church of God, either by such 
 error in doctrine, such superstition or innovations in worship, or 
 
856 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 by any such vile practices, as deface the beauty of the church, 
 or threaten the destruction and overthrow of the church-state 
 itself, such a one ivould God destroy. 
 
 This I take to be a fair explication of the text, which, at once, 
 sets aside all that has been advanced from it, in opposition to 
 the argument that we are upon: for no colourable objection can 
 be raised from it, against the Spirit's constant and perpetual 
 residence in the souls of his people, but upon a supposition, that 
 the person who defiles the temple of God, is a true believer, 
 and thus himself a temple of the Holy Ghost : whereas no sup- 
 position of this kind is contained in the apostle's representation 
 of his case. On the contrary, he intimates, that the man who 
 is supposed to defile the temple, is in such a state of ignorance 
 and darkness, and such a stranger to any experimental ac- 
 quaintance with Christ, the foundation, as can never be allowed 
 concerning any true believer ; nay, further, that he is guilty of 
 that self-deceit, of that craftiness and carnal policy, and of those 
 vain thoughts which are altogether inconsistent with the Spi- 
 rit's dwelling in him, 1 Cor. iii. 18, 19. So that this text v/hen 
 rightly opened, gives not the least countenance to the notion, 
 '' that they who have been the temple of God, by virtue of his 
 Spirit's dwelling in them, may so corrupt themselves, as to be 
 destroyed." 
 
 As to any further pretended plea for the Spirit's total depar- 
 ture, taken from the defilements which they may possibly con- 
 tract, who are, indeed, his temple; I think, a sufficient reply 
 might be given, from what we have already proved out of the 
 sacred writings under the last head, concerning the abiding 
 union between Christ and his people. But I shall add, that if 
 all tiie rebelhons conniiitted by them, while they were in their 
 natural state, could not hinder the Spirit's approach, nor exclude 
 them from the benefit of his entrance at their regeneration, then 
 surely no miscarriage, committed after their etfectual calling, 
 shall cause him wholly to depart, and leave them, his continu- 
 ance being secured through the redemption of Christ and his 
 intercession ; " For if, when we were enemies, we were recon- 
 ciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being recon- 
 ciled we shall be saved by his lite," Rom. v. 10. 
 
 This point then of the Spirit's constant residence in the hearts 
 of his people, stands firm against all opposition; and, in conse- 
 quence thereof, the doctrine of the saints' final perseverance 
 remains unshaken: for how shall the Spirit abide, as the Para- 
 clete, Advocate, or Comforter of his people, unless he continues 
 to be their Sanctifier? And since his constant residence is pro- 
 mised, under all those characters, we may be confident his peo- 
 ple can never fall from grace. 
 
 Thus I have gone through all the arguments proposed for 
 the defence of this doctrine, though not all that might liave 
 
OF PERSEVEHANCE IN GRACE. 357 
 
 been brought; for I thought it better to give what I have pro- 
 duced, a full consideration, than by mentioning more, to have 
 prevented my setting these in so clear and strong a light, as I 
 was firmly persuaded their matter would bear. And I would 
 hope, that the great truths which I have thus collected from 
 Scripture, concerning the immutability of the purpose and pro- 
 mise of God, concerning the Redeemer's care over his people, 
 with his peculiar relation unto and union with them, and con- 
 cerning the constant abode and inhabitation of the Spirit in the 
 souls cf believers, will be of sufficient weight to settle the judg- 
 ment, and establish the faith of the saints in this important arti- 
 cle. And I would humbly trust, that, through the blessing of 
 God, they may be the happy means of promoting the comfort 
 and joy of believers, though they should fail of success, as to the 
 conviction of those who are otherwise minded, which yet is 
 what I heartily wish, and shall earnestly pray for. 
 
 But, that this may be eft'ected, there remains a further expe- 
 dient now to be used : and thus I pass on to the last general 
 head ; under which, 
 
 III. I shall make a reply to the principal objections, which, 
 some apprehend, forbid their assent to ihe doctrine of the saints' 
 perseverance, as it has been here stated and asserted. 
 
 At my entrance upon this part of my work I must observe, 
 that our doctrine being founded upon the most express and fall 
 declarations of Scripture, I shall not think myself obliged to 
 take much notice of any objections but what are grounded upon 
 some passage in the word of God, and thus seem in the judg- 
 ment of the objector, to be countenanced by divine authority. 
 Accordingly I shall wave a nice consideration of the metaphy- 
 sical and abstruse reasonings of those who are pressing this and 
 other points of divine revelation, with the difficulties which in 
 their sentiments attend the reconciling the predetermination and 
 absolute decree of God, with the liberty of man as a free agent. 
 Besides, this controversy, as I apprehend, more properly belongs 
 to another topic, and is usually handled by those that treat of 
 the decrees and foreknowledge of God. It cannot therefore 
 justly demand to be particularly considered here. 
 
 As to all objections then of this kind, which would insinuate, 
 that to ground the infallibility of the saints' perseverance in 
 grace upon the divine decree, is to give up the freedom of man's 
 will, I shall only answer in general, that though the counsel 
 and purpose of God, respecting the salvation of his people, be 
 peremptory and absolute, and shall be infallibly accomplished, 
 as it is declared in the promise; yet the decree of God does not 
 offer any violence to the will of man, nor take away the liberty 
 or contingency of second causes. For it is sufficient unto human 
 liberty, that a man acts without constraint, and out of choice. 
 And is it not thus with the saints as to their perseverance in 
 
358 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 grace? Is not the new nature in them an overflowing spring of 
 holy desires? Do not they act freely in the exercise of every 
 grace, whether of faith or repentance, of hope or love? Is not 
 the frame which disposes their souls for these spiritual actings, 
 the happy temper which they choose? Is it not what they daily 
 pray for? When obtained, is not the experience of it most 
 delightful? And do not they esteem it as matter of the greatest 
 thankfulness? Wherein then can there be an infringement of 
 the liberty of the will, or any force to be complained of? 
 
 And as to the most dithcult parts of their holy walk, even 
 those which require the severest acts of self-denial, such as the 
 mortification of sin, and the trying duties of humility, patience, 
 and the forgiveness of enemies, do not they enter upon these 
 with the most mature deliberation, and with the firmest resolu- 
 tion? Are not all performed with cheerfulness? Oris it not 
 their grief and burden, that they cannot engage herein with the 
 utmost vigour of soul, and the greatest readiness? How is there 
 any necessity then imposed upon them? Or what constraint are 
 they under ? None sure; unless it be that of love to a Saviour, 
 and desire to be conformed to his image: or that of gratitude to 
 their heavenly Father, with a holy breathing after the enjoy- 
 ment of his presence, both here and hereafter. And is it losing 
 their liberty to be under the powerful influence of such a bless- 
 ed constraint as this, if it must be called a constraint? As the 
 liberty of the will is entirely preserved in the things we have 
 now mentioned, so there are no further instances belonging to 
 the saints' perseverance in grace, that can be produced, by 
 which it is more likely the destruction or loss of their freedom 
 could be proved. 
 
 Upon the whole, then, it may as well be said, that there is 
 no liberty in the pure actings of the saints or angels in heaven, 
 who love, and cannot but love, admire, and adore our Saviour, 
 and our God, as to say that the holy actings of believers upon 
 earth are not free and voluntary. We conclude, therefore, that 
 though the decree which appoints the believer's salvation, in- 
 cludes these things as means necessary thereunto; and that 
 though this decree being eff'ectual, independent, and immutable, 
 does establish such a certainty of the event, with respect both 
 to the means and the ends, as renders it impossible that either 
 should fail; yet the saints' freedom in acting is not destroyed 
 thereby. No; no more than the liberty of human action in 
 eating or drinking is destroyed by the decree which fixes the 
 number of a man's days,* which appoints the necessary means 
 of his support, and which effectually secures the use thereof, 
 
 * If any shall question whether God has determined the hounds of the life of 
 man, they may find this matter clearly discussed, and the truth of the atfirmative 
 well established, and abundantly confirmed from Scripture, in Mr. Ridgeley's 
 Body of Divinity, Vol. I. p. 256—260. 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 359 
 
 till the determined period of his life approaches; or, in the lan- 
 guage of Job, " till he shall accomplish as an hireling his day," 
 Job. xiv. 5, 6. 
 
 I shall now consider the objections taken from Scripture. But 
 I do not think it necessary for me to speak distinctly to every 
 portion of Scripture, from which objections have been raised: I 
 shall select a few of those which are generally supposed to be 
 of the greatest moment; and, in my remarks upon these, I shall 
 endeavour to hint such things as may serve for an answer to the 
 like objections when taken from any other. And here let me 
 remind you, that I think it but just to make such an application 
 of the distinctions we have settled, when the point was stated, as 
 the course of our reasoning shall now require, without adding 
 any thing further for their confirmation. 
 
 I shall now propose the objections which are to be consider- 
 ed, and shall sum them up under these three heads. 1. Some 
 are taken from the instances of apostasy recorded in Scripture. 
 2. Other objections are taken from the threatenings of the word, 
 in case of apostasy. 3. Others again are taken from the com- 
 mands and exhortations, from the cautions and directions which 
 frequently occur in the inspired writings. 
 
 1. I shall consider the objections taken from the instances of 
 apostasy, recorded in Scripture. All objections of this kind do 
 constantly proceed from a mistake in one of these two things: 
 (1.) In taking a partial backsliding for a total apostasy: (2.) Or 
 else in taking a falling from the doctrines of the gospel, and a 
 profession of religion, for a falling from a state of grace. 
 
 (1.) In some of these objections ^. partial backsliding is mis- 
 taken for a total apostasy. This is the case when any of the 
 precious saints of the Lord, who were the excellent of the earth, 
 are thrust into the dead list of total apostates. The three that 
 are commonly pointed out upon this occasion are David, Solo- 
 mon, and Peter. As to Peter, we have already proved that his 
 faith did not totally fail, for he who was always heard, had 
 prayed it should not, Luke xxii. 32. 
 
 As to David likewise, we have sufficient reason to believe 
 that his grace did not fail totally, and that the Spirit of God did 
 never wholly depart from him; if we observe that upon his 
 recovery from his backsliding, when he was in the most peni- 
 tential frame, and must be supposed to have had the most just 
 sense of his condition, even then, though he pleaded that God 
 would "restore unto him the joy of his salvation," Psal. li. 12, 
 for this he had lost; yet we never read of his praying that God 
 would restore unto him his Spirit, a plain intimation, that his 
 presence and residence was never totally lost. David knew 
 indeed that he had incurred the forfeiture, and therefore he 
 pleads, "Take not thine holy Spirit from me," Psal. li. 11. But 
 his very language in this petition, supposes that the Spirit did 
 
360 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 Still continue with him. And here I would observe by the way, 
 that since the Spirit was not taken from David, under all the 
 provocations which attended the falls there confessed and 
 lamented, we have no reason to imagine that he is taken from 
 any other in whose heart he has once dwelt, as a Spirit of grace 
 and regeneration. 
 
 Finally, as to the instance of Solomon, though the account 
 we have of him be but short, yet there are some passages in his 
 story, which make his case look more like a partial backsliding, 
 than a total apostasy. For how strongly soever this be express- 
 ed, still by its being said, " His heart was not perfect with the 
 Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father," 1 Kings 
 xi. 4, and that he " went not fully after the Lord, as did David 
 his father," ver. 6, it seems as if the Scriptures intended that 
 his declension should be understood of an abatement of his 
 former zeal, and not of a total apostasy. This is confirmed by 
 what we meet with in another place, where the people that set 
 their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, and thus strength- 
 ened the kingdom of Judah, are said to have " walked in the 
 way of David and Solomon," 2 Chron. xi. 17. Whereby it is 
 at least intimated, that as to the general course of Solomon's 
 walk, his way was the same with that of David: and since the 
 way of both is there mentioned with a mark of divine approba- 
 tion, and that after their death, we may conclude, that they both 
 began and ended well, and that, notwithstanding their gross 
 backslidings, yet they were neither of them guilty either of a 
 final or total apostasy. 
 
 (2.) This objection drawn from the various instances of apos- 
 tasy, is sometimes founded upon a mistake in another thing, 
 vjz : the taking a falling from the doctrines of the gospel, and 
 ^profession of religion, for a falling from a state of grace. 
 
 That there have been instances of apostasy, with respect to 
 the doctrines of the gospel, is a sad truth, abundantly confirmed 
 by the testimony of former and later times. Thus some of the 
 Galatians, after they had received the knowledge of the way of 
 salvation by the righteousness of Christ alone, turned back to 
 their old notions: and seeking again to be justified by the law, 
 they are said to have " fallen from grace," Gal. v. 4, i. e. from 
 the doctrine of grace. 
 
 Thus we read of others, who concerning the truth have erred, 
 of whom was Hymeneus and Philetus, who by their influence 
 and example, "overthrew the faith of some," 2 Tim. ii. 18. 
 So that none ever pretend to deny but a doctrinal faith may be 
 and frequently is overthrown. But this is very far from proving 
 that the faith of true believers, which is the operation of God, 
 and which worketh by love, can ever be eradicated. Nay, 
 though it is allowed that some men, when they have fallen 
 from the doctrines of the Gospel, and changed their opinion, 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 361 
 
 did likewise desert the apostles, and even abandon the ways of 
 God ; yet such instances as these, how numerous soever, cannot 
 give the least strength to the objection. 
 
 Because it is declared by an inspired apostle, " they were not 
 of us, though they went out from us," 1 John ii. 19. Here is a 
 plain intimation that the persons who went out from the church, 
 were really different from true believers: and wherein did the 
 difference lie? not so much in any thing that was external, as 
 in the internal frame and disposition of their minds, or the in- 
 ward state and relation of their souls towards God. They were 
 of tbe society and visible fellowship of the saints, of the same 
 profession with them, they shared in many of the like gifts of 
 the Spirit, and engaged in the same worship with them. But 
 still they wanted the gracious anointing frotn the Holy One, 
 John ii. 20, which true believers had received, and which did 
 abide in them that received it. 
 
 But a late writer, to prove that true believers themselves 
 may fall from grace, has quoted the passage which follows the 
 apostle's charge to Timothy, " Holding faith and a good con- 
 science, which some having put away, concerning faith have 
 made shipwreck," 1 Tim. i. 19. In his arguing upon the place, 
 he tells us, that to " put away a good conscience," belongs to 
 them alone who once had it. 
 
 But the proper signification of the original word intimates no 
 such thing, but rather that they always refused it: as appears 
 from the use of the verb in several other places. Particularly, 
 where the Jews are said to "put away the gospel," which they 
 never received, but opposed with contradiction and blasphemy, 
 Acts xiii. 46. Tlie same word is used concerning the Israelites, 
 who put away Moses, or thrust him from them, and would 
 not obey. Acts vii. 39. In like manner, when God in his gos- 
 pel had set before these apostates the way of obtaining a good 
 conscience, they refused to hearken, and thus might properly 
 be said to put away a good conscience, though they never had 
 it; because they refused to accept that righteousness and grace 
 which only could have produced it. 
 
 All objections therefore against our doctrine, founded upon 
 such instances as these of Hymeneus and his associates, pro- 
 ceed upon a mistake, in imagining those to have had true grace 
 who had it not. 
 
 Nor will the passage in the epistle of Peter, 2 Pet. ii. 18 — 22, 
 which some have laid a mighty stress upon, prove that the 
 professors who fell away, were truly sanctified. The apostle, 
 indeed, speaks of some " who had escaped the pollutions of the 
 world;" yea, "were clean escaped from them who lived in 
 error;" and tells us, "these were again entangled therein," and 
 that "the latter end was worse with them than the beginning;" 
 for " after they iiad known the way of righteousness, they 
 
 46 
 
362 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 turned from the holy commandment deUvered unto them." 
 Several remarks might be made to show that all which is here 
 spoken of these persons, is far from amounting to a proof that 
 they were truly sanctified; but this will be determined at once, 
 if we observe how the apostle applies to them the proverb 
 which he uses in the last verse of the chapter; by Avhich it 
 plainly appears, that how much soever they were reformed, 
 as to their outward conversation, yet their hearts were never 
 changed. Under all their reformation, they still retained their 
 old bestial nature. They were always dogs, but were never 
 the children of God; they were always swine, and never the 
 true sheep of Christ. 
 
 Such instances as these, though frequently urged for this pur- 
 pose, are far from proving that true believers have apostatized. 
 I proceed, 
 
 2. Some objections are taken from the ihreatenings of the 
 word. Many, indeed, are the threats which God has denoun- 
 ced against those who shall fall away, and who shall not con- 
 tinue steadfast in their faith, and in their obedience to the end. 
 Hence some have argued, that it is possible for the saints them- 
 selves to fall from grace; for they think a threat of that which 
 cannot possibly befall us, is irrational; and that God himself 
 should threaten what his own decree and promise have ren- 
 dered impossible, they say, is very difficult to believe. 
 
 But the difficulty, I apprehend, may be removed, if we 
 consider that many events, which were possible in their own 
 nature, do, by reason of the infallible guard set by the divine 
 determination, become impossible, not in themselves, but with 
 regard to the immutabiUty of the decree and promise of God. 
 Now that God should threaten that which was possible in itself, 
 and that which, the circumstances, relation, and tendency of 
 things considered, was likely to happen; and that moreover, 
 which, the divine purpose and promise abstracted, would cer- 
 tainly come to pass, is neither irrational to suppose, nor difficult 
 to believe; especially when we remember that the truth of this 
 is confirmed by matter of fact, in the story of Paul and his 
 company; an instance as full to our purpose, as the argument 
 could require; for, in their case, we may observe, the decree 
 and promise of God had passed, that there should " be no loss 
 of any man's life among them, but of the ship only," Acts 
 xxvii. 22. 
 
 An angel was sent to inform Paul that God had "given him 
 all them that sailed with him," ver. 23. This promise then 
 ascertained the safety of the company, and rendered the loss of 
 their lives an event that was impossible; as must be allowed, if 
 we would not rob God of what he has always challenged and 
 assumed, as his peculiar glory, viz. that his decrees are immu- 
 table, and his promises infallible; and yet their destruction, or 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 363 
 
 the loss of their lives, the very thing which God had infallibly 
 promised should not befall them, was threatened, when Paul 
 said, " Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved," 
 ver. 31. Here then was a threat of that which God's own 
 decree and promise had rendered impossible. And it shows 
 threats of destruction, in case of apostasy, to be of no force to 
 prove, as some have pretended, that there is no decree or pro- 
 mise to render the saints' perseverance in grace so secure and 
 infallible, as to make their falling from grace a thing impos- 
 sible. 
 
 Some threatenings are likewise turned to a wrong use, in 
 being made to relate directly and immediately to true believers, 
 though it does not appear, from their context, that this was at 
 all intended. I shall name two places, which have been re- 
 markably misconstrued this way; one is that in the prophecy 
 of Ezekiel: "But when the righteous turneth away from his 
 righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doth according to 
 all the abominations that the wicked man doth, shall he live ? 
 All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned ; 
 in his trespass, that he hath trespassed, and in his sin, that he 
 hath sinned, in them shall he die," Ezek. xviii. 24. It is but 
 just, I apprehend, that our interpretation of this text should be 
 regulated by a distinction between a ceremonial or moral 
 righteousness, and that which is truly evangelical and spiritual. 
 A foundation for this distinction may be observed in Paul's 
 expression; where he declares of himself, that "touching the 
 righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless," Phil. iii. 
 6 ; and yet at that time, viz. before his conversion, he was a 
 blasphemer and a persecutor, one destitute of true grace. This 
 distinction may be further confirmed, from the words of our 
 Saviour, when he tells his disciples, "Except your righteous- 
 ness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Phari- 
 sees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven," 
 Mat. V. 20. And if according to this distinction, the threat be 
 applied, as it ought, to persons that had only a ceremonial or 
 moral righteousness, then it may be allowed that many such 
 righteous persons did turn from their righteousness, and die in 
 their sins ; which is no more than to say, that false professors 
 and mere formalists proved apostates ; and this is a case that 
 frequently happens. 
 
 But, with a design to overthrow such an explication of the 
 text as this, it has been said, "that if a man should only turn 
 away from his counterfeit and hypocritical righteousness, he 
 should rather live than die, in as much as he would put off the 
 wolf to put on the lamb." But certainly they were betrayed 
 into an unaccountable weakness who argued after this manner: 
 for persons wlio have kept up an hypocritical profession many 
 years together, may, at length, shake of the very form of reli- 
 
364 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 gion, and sink into the most vile and open abominations ; and 
 shall this be called a putting oft' the wolf to put on the lamb ? 
 No sure ; they only put off the sheep's clothing, and now 
 appear to be wolves, as they always were, though long dis- 
 guised. 
 
 Another passage in Scripture, which has been misconstrued 
 the same way as the former, is that in the epistle to the He- 
 brews ; where it is said, " For it is impossible for those who 
 were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, 
 and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted 
 the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if 
 they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." 
 Heb. vi. 4—6. 
 
 Some have pretended, that the persons here spoken of were 
 truly gracious. This ought to be proved, indeed, before the 
 passage can be reasonably urged as an objection against our 
 doctrine ; but since it is not asserted of them, in the text or 
 context, either expressly, or in terms equivalent, that they did 
 believe or perform any other act, which could only flow from 
 the vital principle of grace, the pretence that they were true 
 believers, can be no more than a bare presumption. 
 
 Here it may be asked, does not the sentence, which declares 
 it to be "impossible to renew them again unto repentance," 
 imply that they once had true repentance? I answer: if the 
 phrase be carefully observed, it will appear it does not ; for it is 
 not said, " it is impossible to renew them unto repentance 
 {again,) but "to renew them {again) unto repentance." There 
 is some difference, I apprehend, between these two modes of 
 expression. Though the former might have led us to think that 
 they had once been partakers of repentance ; yet the latter, 
 which is the expression in the text, intimates no more, but there 
 had been some sort of renovation or change, attended with a 
 profession of religion, and some alteration in their outward 
 conduct. Their illumination and convictions could hardly fail 
 of producing such effects as these ; but these may be, and are 
 frequently wrought where the heart is not changed, or where 
 men are not renewed in the spirit of their mind. Now, persons, 
 in those circumstances, may fall from the strictness of their 
 walk, and gradually sink into loose, immoral practices, till, at 
 length, they settle in a course openly wicked and profane. 
 When things are come to this pass, it is difficult, in all common 
 cases, for such men to be renewed again, even to that sobriety 
 and pureness which formerly adorned their conversation. 
 
 As to the persons to whom the apostle refers, it is said, 
 indeed, to be "impossible to renew them again unto repent- 
 ance ;" that is, to bring them to repent of their vile apostasy, 
 "seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and 
 put him to an open shame ;" acting herein the like part with 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 365 
 
 those who had the daring impudence to ascribe the divine 
 works of Christ to a diabolical power. Now, this being done 
 after their illumination, and in spite of all their convictions, they 
 are supposed to have committed the sin against the ?Ioly Ghost ; 
 and then it is no wonder their repentance was declared impos- 
 sible, though the Scriptures never speak of the impossibility of 
 repentance of any other sort of sinners under the gospel what- 
 ever. 
 
 From these considerations, we have reason to conclude, not- 
 withstanding all that is contained in this sentence, that these 
 apostates were never truly sanctified. This construction put 
 upon their character, is confirmed by what presently follows, 
 in the ninth verse : " But, beloved, we are persuaded better 
 things of you, and things that accompany salvation ;" which 
 expression must be understood to exclude the supposed apos- 
 tates from having had any share in the special and saving 
 blessings of the new covenant, and does by consequence declare 
 them to have been always void of grace ; so that there is not, 
 in all the passage, the least matter of objection against the per- 
 severance of true believers. 
 
 Having thus cleared up the two places which are generally 
 thought to militate against our doctrine, the most directly of all 
 the threatenings, I shall not enter upon a particular examina- 
 tion of any other, but only give a short reply to the objection 
 taken from the words of the apostle, which denounce the sorest 
 destruction against the man that shall " tread under foot the 
 Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant, wherewith 
 he was sanctified, an unholy thing," Heb. x. 25. Here the 
 objection supposes that the apostate was the person said to be 
 sanctified: but this supposition is built merely upon a gramma- 
 tical mistake; for it is more agreeable to the known rules of con- 
 struction to apply the relative to the Son of God, its inmiediate 
 proper antecedent, who was sanctified or consecrated by the 
 blood of the covenant. This connexion of the words being 
 observed, the objection vanishes at once. 
 
 Thus, if the threatenings, pointed against apostates, v/ere 
 carefully examined, many of the objections, taken from them 
 against the infallibility of the saints' perseverance, would be 
 wholly precluded, and the rest would quickly be given up; for 
 if the expressions by which they are thought to be supported 
 were rightly explained, they would appear to declare no more 
 than the Lord's utter abhorrence of apostasy, and righteous 
 displeasure and wrath against those who draw back ; but could 
 never be justly construed to signify either that God has not a 
 peculiar people, to whom he is resolved to be gracious, or that 
 they who are once received into the special protection and care 
 of heaven, may yet miss of salvation, and perish at last. 
 
 3. Some objections are taken from the commands and exhor- 
 
366 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 tatioiis, the cautions and directions, which frequentlj'' occur 
 in the sacred writings. 
 
 These passages are supposed to be pregnant evidences that 
 true beUevers may fall from grace, and reckoned to be so many 
 arguments to prove, that God has made no absokite decree, or 
 promise, that they shall not do so. It is said to be unreason- 
 able to conceive, that the same Spirit of wisdom should abso- 
 lutely declare that they shall not fall away, and yet be thus 
 concerned to guard and caution them against what he has told 
 them, was as impossible, as that God should fail of performing 
 his promise. 
 
 Let this objection be enlarged upon, and strengthened to the 
 utmost; yet, after all, it can have no more force against the pro- 
 mises which relate to the saints' perseverance, than it would 
 have against those absolute promises regarding other matters, 
 which are likewise attended with exhortations, instructions, 
 and cautions, respecting the doubtful conduct of the person 
 concerned, and given in the name and by authority of the 
 same God, who had before ascertained the event by his pro- 
 mise. Let us, then, transfer the objection to some particular 
 cases recorded in Scripture, and its weakness will soon be dis- 
 covered. For instance, did not the apostle Paul, when he gave 
 the centurion and soldiers the caution, saying, " Except these 
 abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved," Acts xxvii. 31, speak 
 by the same Spirit of wisdom, as when he told them before 
 there should be "no loss of any man's life, but of the ship 
 only?" verse 22. Can we imagine that the vigilance and cau- 
 tion required, were an evidence that God Iiad never promised 
 to give the apostle all them that sailed with him ? Must we 
 believe that the destruction of some of that company might 
 have happened, though a God of infinite faithfulness had 
 engaged there should be no loss of any man's life among them? 
 Did the apostle intend, by his caution, to weaken the credit of 
 the promise ? or did the assurance he had given of their safety, 
 render the caution ineifectual ? Neither he nor they did thus 
 understand things in that affair: why, then, should they be thus 
 interpreted in the case before us ? — Finally, would it not be a 
 vain, not to say a wild construction of the apostle's caution 
 about keeping the mariners in the vessel, to understand it as 
 telling the centurion and soldiers that it highly concerned them 
 to fear, lest the God of truth should be unfaithful to his pro- 
 mise ? Yet some have pretended, that if an absolute promise 
 for the safety of believers be granted, nothing short of this must 
 be the construction we are to put upon the cautions and exhor- 
 tations, whereby they are directed and quickened to their duty. 
 But sure, they that are influenced by the sentiments and con- 
 duct of the inspired writers, can never agree to the perverse 
 turn of such extravagant insinuations. 
 
OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 367 
 
 Again, in what stronger terms can the certainty of an event 
 be fixed, than was that of Solomon's bnilding the temple, and 
 yet with what a variety of cautions and commands, of exhor- 
 tations, instructions, and prayers, was the revelation of this abso- 
 lute decree followed by David, who had received the promise, 
 and did believe the certainty of its accomplishment? His ex- 
 pressions, upon that occasion, are very remarkable and direct to 
 our purpose; they appear in the strongest light m 1 Chron. xxii. 
 from verse 6, throughout. 
 
 There are other passages; as the angel's directions and cau- 
 tions to Lot in particular, which look with the same unfavour- 
 able aspect upon these objections, and might be produced to 
 show, that as exhortations, cautions, and commands, are not in 
 those cases, made unnecessary by the absolute promise and 
 unchangeable decree of God, so it is unreasonable in any to 
 attempt, by these exhortations, &c. to vacate the promise, or 
 annul the decree. 
 
 As to the perseverance of the saints, though the certainty 
 thereof be declared in the promise, yet the justness and pro- 
 priety of all the exhortations, &c. of the word relating there- 
 unto, might be made to appear, were we to consider the state 
 of visible churches, how many persons there are having a form 
 of godliness but denying the power thereof; and were we also 
 to observe the great imperfection of believers themselves, in this 
 militant state, who have to conflict with innumerable lusts and 
 passions within, as well as the most subtle and powerful ene- 
 mies without. These circumstances universally attending, can 
 it seem strange, that, after the strongest assurance of a believer's 
 safety, professors should be warned to " look diligently, lest any 
 man fail of the grace of God," Heb. xii. 15, and content himself 
 with a profession of religion without its principle? or that the 
 disciples should be exhorted " to put on the whole armour of 
 God, that they may be able to withstand in the evil day, and 
 having done all to stand?" Eph. vi, 13. Instead therefore of 
 turning such cautions and commands into objections against 
 this doctrine, it seems more agreeable to infer from them, that 
 the heart of the Redeemer is much set upon the salvation of his 
 people; and, considering how frequently they occur, and with 
 what strictness and solemnity they are constantly given, they 
 plainly show that he does really interest himself in the perse- 
 verance of his saints, and is resolved no means shall be neglected, 
 which would help to promote it. His diligence and care in 
 pursuing such methods as these, are but the fruit of the immuta- 
 bility of his purpose to accomplish the design, and of the wis- 
 dom of his counsel, to bring it about in a way entirely suited 
 to the nature of man, as a free agent. " Therefore, my beloved 
 brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the 
 
368 OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 
 
 work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is 
 not in vain in the Lord." Particularly, 
 
 1. Be diUgent in X\\q performance o\ religious duties. They 
 are most likely to grow as the lily, who are most careful to be 
 where the sun shines, the dew falls, and the Spirit blows; " As 
 new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye 
 may grow thereby. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into 
 temptation." Look out with care to observe the motion of your 
 enemies, look up with holy confidence for strength against them; 
 for Christ will bring forth judgment unto victory, but no means 
 or ordinances whatever can do it without him. 
 
 2. Endeavour to be much in the exercise of grace. Let your 
 faith be daily fetching in fuel to keep up the flame of love; let 
 this be so ardent, as to consume pride and every corruption, 
 that you may walk humbly with your God, and continue pa- 
 tiently looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eter- 
 nal life. 
 
 3. Cherish the motions of the i/es^ecf and Holy Spirit. Want 
 of attention to these is the main reason of our daily falls. 
 
 4. Shun the very appearance of evil. Observe when you 
 begin to fall ; let the smallest deviations from duty be heartily 
 lamented; and be speedy in pleading with God to restore your 
 souls, and establish your goings. 
 
 5. Lastly, Trust in God to perfect that which concerns you. 
 Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to manage your cause with God, 
 and to keep all aright between him and you by his constant in- 
 tercession. Trust in the Holy Ghost to manage the cause of God 
 on your heart, to overcome your obstinacy and unbelief, to van- 
 quish temptations, doubts, and fears, and to settle you in hope 
 and comfort; that you may fight the good fight of faith, finish 
 your course with joy, and, at length, receive the crown of right- 
 eousness and glory. 
 
DOCTRINE OF 
 THE RESURRECTION, 
 
 STATED AND DEFENDED; 
 
 IN TWO SERMONS, 
 
 v" 
 By JOHN GILL, D.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Acts xxvi. 8. — Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God 
 should raise the dead ? 
 
 The doctrine of the resurrection of the body from the dead, is 
 a doctrine of the utmost importance ; for " if there be no resur- 
 rection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be 
 not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also 
 vain," 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14. In this lecture, the doctrines of eter- 
 nal election, original sin, particular redemption, satisfaction by 
 Christ, efficacious grace in conversion, and final perseverance, 
 have been well explained and defended among you; and, I hope, 
 to your great comfort and establishment: but to what purpose 
 are these truths taught, and of what avail will they be, if there 
 is no resurrection of the dead? 
 
 The part assigned to me, in this lecture, being to explain 
 and defend this truth, I shall attempt to do it in the following 
 method : 
 
 I. I shall observe that the doctine of the resurrection of the 
 dead has not been credited by some ; it has been accounted 
 incredible. 
 
 II. Notwithstanding, I shall endeavour to evince both the 
 credibility and certainty of it. 
 
 III. I shall inquire who, and what that is which shall be 
 raised. 
 
 IV. I shall consider the author of this stupendous work, and 
 the particular concern which God the Father, Son, and 
 Spirit, have therein. 
 
 V. I shall show the importance and use of this doctrine. 
 
 I. It will not be improper to observe, that the doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the body from the dead has not been believed 
 
 47 369 
 
370 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 hy some, but has been accounted absurd and incredible, though 
 without any just reason, as will be shown hereafter, and as 
 may be concluded from the words of my text. 
 
 This doctrine is of pure revelation, what the mere light of na- 
 ture never taught men, and by which alone they being guided, 
 have declared against. It has been denied, as Tertullian ob- 
 serves, by every sect of the philosophers. That the body was 
 mortal, all agreed; that the soul was immortal, some of them 
 asserted, though they had but dark and confused conceptions 
 concerning its future separate existence; but that the body, when 
 dead, should be raised again to life, was a subject of ridicule and 
 contempt with them. Pliny calls it a childish fancy, vanity, and 
 downright madness; as does also Cajcilius, in Minucius Felix, 
 who likewise reckons it among old v/ives' fables. Celsus, in 
 Origen, represents it as exceedingly detestable and abominable; 
 and, of all the tenets of the Christians, this wa.s had in the great- 
 est contempt by Julian the emperor. The maintainers and abet- 
 tors of this doctjine were always accounted by the heathen vain, 
 trifling, and babbling fellows. Thus the Athenian philosophers 
 of the Epicurean and Stoic sects mocked at the apostle Paul, 
 when they heard him talk of the resurrection of the dead; "And 
 some said. What will this babbler say?" Acts xvii. 18, 32. 
 "Other some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods; 
 because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection." 
 They were so ignorant of this doctrine, that they took Jesus and 
 the word used by the apostle for the resurrection, to be the 
 names of some strange deities they had never heard of before ; 
 and therefore say, " He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange 
 gods." The heathen had no knowledge of this truth, no faith 
 in it, nor hope concerning it. Hence they are described by the 
 apostle Paul, as those who had no hope; when writing to the 
 Thessalonians, he says, " But I would not have you to be igno- 
 rant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sor- 
 row not, even as others, which have no hope," 1 Thess. iv. 13, 
 14. By whom the apostle means not Christians, who had no 
 hopes of the salvation of their departed friends and relations, 
 but Pagans, who had neither faith nor hope in the resurrection 
 of the dead, and a future state : and therefore had not that to 
 support them under the loss of relations, which Christians had: 
 wherefore the apostle adds, " For if we believe that Jesus died 
 and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God 
 bring with him." Much after the same manner the Ephesians, 
 whilst they were in their heathenish and unconverted estate, 
 are described, Eph. ii. 12, by the same apostle; "At that time, 
 says he, ye were without Christ:" that is, witiiout any know- 
 ledge, promise, or expectation of the Messiah; " being aliens 
 from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the cove- 
 nants of promise;" i. e. ye were not so much as proselytes to 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 871 
 
 the Jewish religion, nor members of the Jewish church, and 
 were entirely destitute of divine revelation; having no hope in 
 the resurrection and future state, and so lived ivithout God in 
 the world, or as atheists in it, as it is in the original. And we 
 may be the more induced to believe this to be, at least, part of 
 the apostle's sense in these passages; since he, in his defences 
 before Felix and Agrippa, represents the doctrine of the resur- 
 rection as the object of hope, as in Acts xxiv, 15: "And have 
 liope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there 
 shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." 
 And in Acts xxvi. 6, 7: "And now I stand and am judged, for 
 the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto 
 which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and 
 night, hope to come; for which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I 
 am accused of the Jews." And then follow the words of my 
 text, " Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, 
 that God should raise the dead?" 
 
 Some, indeed, have thought that the Gentiles had knowledge 
 of the resurrection; which they collect partly from some notions 
 and opinions of theirs, which seem to be a semblance with, and 
 to be the broken remains of some tradition concerning it; and 
 partly from express passages, wherein they think it is asserted. 
 The notion of the heathen, from whence it is concluded that 
 they had some hints of this doctrine, are these, viz. that the soul 
 after death has a perfect human shape, and all the same parts, 
 both external and internal, that the body has; that there is an 
 equal duration of the soul and body after death; that there is a 
 transmigration of souls into other bodies, especially human; that 
 men may be translated body and soul to heaven; of which they 
 give instances in Aristseus the Proconnesian, Alcmena, Her- 
 cules, Helena, Romulus, Cleomedes Astypalensis, and others; 
 and that after certain periods and revolutions, when the stars 
 and planets are in the same configuration and respect to one 
 another, which they formerly had, the same men shall appear 
 in the world, and the same things in succession shall be done in 
 it, which formerly have been. For instance: Socrates shall be 
 born at Athens of the same parents, be educated after the same 
 manner, eat the same food, wear the same clothes, teach the 
 same philosophy to the selfsame scholars, be accused by the 
 same accusers, condemned by the same council, and die by the 
 same poison. And so, my friends, according to this notion, we 
 are all to meet together again in this place, in the same position 
 and situation, you to hear, and I to preach; my subject is to be 
 the doctrine of the resurrection, and I am to give you an account 
 of the notions of the heathen with respect to it, as I nov/ do. 
 But this notion seems rather expressive of a regeneration, or a 
 new birth, or a re-production of men and things, than a resur- 
 rection of them: and, I must confess, I cannot see what likeness i^ 
 
372 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 there is between this, or any other of the above mentioned 
 notions, and the Christian doctrine of the resurrection from the 
 dead. 
 
 The passages cited out of heathen authors, to show their 
 knowledge of this doctrine, are such as the Greek verses of 
 Phocylides; in which he expresses his hopes, that,^ in a very 
 short time, the rehcs of the deceased should come forth out of 
 the earth into light. But this poem is thought, by learned men, 
 not to be the work of the heathen Phocylides, but either some 
 anonymous Christian, or of some ancient Jewish writer. Be- 
 sides, the verses referred to are not so expressed, but that it is 
 thought they may very well be explained, so as to design the 
 Pythagorean transmigration, and not the Christian doctrine of 
 the resurrection. Theopompus and Eudemus Rhodius, in Dio- 
 genes Laertius, tell us that it was the opinion of the Persian 
 Magi, that men should live again, and be immortal; this they 
 received from their master and the founder of their sect, Zoro- 
 aster; who foretold, "that there should be a time when there 
 would be a resurrection of all the dead." Nor need this be 
 wondered at, since, from the best accounts of him, it appears 
 that he was originally a Jew, both by birth and religion; was a 
 servant to one of the prophets of Israel, and was well versed in 
 the Holy Scriptures; out of which, without doubt, he took this 
 doctrine, as he did some others, and which he taught his Magi, 
 and adopted into his new religion. It may be more surprising 
 to hear that Democritus, a corporeal philosopher, should have 
 any notion of the resurrection of the dead; yet Pliny ascribes it 
 to him, and derides him for it; though it has been thought by 
 some, that he designs another Democritus, and not the philoso- 
 pher, since this opinion cannot be very easily reconciled to his 
 philosophy. But supposing that he, and not another, is meant, 
 it is easy to observe how he came by it, seeing he not only lived 
 in Egypt a while and conversed with the priests there, but trav- 
 elled also into Persia, and learned of the Magi, theology as well 
 as other things. The notions of several Pagan nations concern- 
 ing the resurrection, are such as are either ascribed to them by 
 authors not to be depended on, or plainly design transmigration, 
 or are what they have borrowed from the Jews, either by con- 
 versing with them, or by reading of their writings; or else are 
 the broken remains of some tradition, received from their ances- 
 tors, originally founded on divine revelation. 
 
 Some have argued from the Pagans' account of future pun- 
 ishments, to their belief of this doctrine; as when they represent 
 Aridasus and other tyrants in hell, bound neck and heels toge- 
 ther, their skin flayed, and they dragged through thorns and 
 briers; when they speak of Sisyphus rolling a stone up a hill, 
 which, when he has got it to the top, revolves upon his hands; 
 of Ixion, fastened to a wheel in continual motion; of Tityus 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 373 
 
 having vultures always feeding upon his liver; and of Tanta- 
 lus, in extreme thirst, standing in water up to his middle, with 
 apples hanging over his head and near his mouth, and yet 
 unable to extinguish his thirst with either. But, as a learned 
 author observes, the reason why the heathen described the pun- 
 ishments of the damned after this manner, was not because they 
 thought that their bodies were not left here on earth, but partly 
 because it is the vulgar opinion, that the soul had all the same 
 parts that the body lias, and partly because such descriptions do 
 more easily move and affect us; and it is not easy to describe 
 the torments of the soul after any other manner. Our Lord, in 
 the parable of Dives and Lazarus, adds the same author, speaks 
 of them in the same manner, as if they had bodies; though what 
 is related of them, is supposed to be before the resurrection, and 
 their bodies are supposed to be yet in their graves. 
 
 As for some particular instances of persons who have been 
 said to be raised from the dead to life, mentioned by heathen 
 writers; as Alcestis by Hercules, Hippolytus by iEsculapius, with 
 many others of the like kind ; Acilius Aviola, Lucius Lamia, 
 jSilius Tubero and others are said to revive on the funeral pile ; 
 Er Aramenius Pamphilius is reported to come to life, after he 
 had been dead twelve days; Hercules is said to live after he 
 had burnt himself ; and ^sculapius to be raised after he had 
 been struck with thunder, and who himself is said to restore one 
 to life that was carrying to the pile; and much such a story is 
 told of ApoUonius Tyaneus. As for these instances, I say, they 
 seem to be fabulous stories, and undeserving of credit. It is 
 true, indeed, they have been credited by some of the heathen, 
 and since they have, an argument from hence may be improved 
 against them with great force, and for the doctrine of the re- 
 surrection ; for if they can believe these things, " Why should 
 it be thought a thing incredible with them that God should 
 raise the dead ?" It may be, I have been too long on this sub- 
 ject ; I therefore proceed to observe, 
 
 That the Jews were peculiarly blessed by God with that reve- 
 lation which discovers the truth of this doctrine. In this they 
 had the advantage of the Gentiles, "because that unto them 
 were committed the oracles of God," Rom. iii. 1, 3; and yet 
 there were some among them, as the sect of the Sadducees, which 
 did not believe this truth; they said, "there was no resurrec- 
 tion," Mat. xxii. 23, Acts xxiii. 8, though in this, as our Lord 
 says, " they erred, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of 
 God," Mat. xxii. 29, In this the Hemero-baptists agreed with 
 them; nor did the Essenes acknowledge the doctrine of the re- 
 surrection ; yea, many of the Pharisees held the Pythagorean 
 notion of the transmigration of souls into our bodies, which is 
 asserted by Josephus, and, by learned men, collected from sev- 
 eral passages of Scripture ; which notion has been embraced by 
 
374 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 many of that people. Nor is it so atonishing, as that, whereas, 
 in the writings of the New Testament, tliere is a more clear dis- 
 covery made of this truth, yet it has been denied and opposed 
 by some who have had the advantage of them. It was the 
 error of Hymeneus and Philetus, " that the resurrection was 
 past already," 2 Tim. ii. 18. And some in the church at Co- 
 rinth held " that there is no resurrection of the dead," 1 Cor. xv. 
 12. These were followed by Simon Magus, Saturninus, Basil- 
 ides, Carpocrates, Valentinus, and others, too numerous to. re- 
 cite ; and, of late, the doctrine of the resurrection of the same 
 body is rejected by Socinians and Quakers. But to go on, 
 
 II. I shall now endeavour to evince both the credibility and 
 certainty of the resurrection of the dead, notwithstanding it 
 has been accounted by many absurd and incredible. 
 First, I shall show the credibility of it ; and that, 
 1. From its co7isistence with the nature and perfections of 
 God. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, as he certainly is, 
 or he would not be God, the resurrection of the dead is not in- 
 credible; it is what may be. — God is omnipotent, he can do all 
 things; what is impossible with men, is possible with him: he 
 cannot do any thing, indeed, which argues imperfection and 
 weakness, or implies a contradiction and falsehood: he cannot 
 lie, or deny himself. But the resurrection of the dead is not an 
 instance of either. It is no contradiction, that the dust, which 
 was formed out of nothing, being reduced to dust, should again 
 form the body which it once constituted ; nor does this argue 
 imperfection or weakness, but is a glorious instance of mighty 
 power. A heathen once said, that it was not in the power of 
 God to raise the dead; and to another, it seemed impossible for 
 any to restore life to one that is dead: but if God could make all 
 things out of nothing, as he did, and, from a dark and confused 
 chaos, raise up such a beautiful structure as this world, and, out 
 of the dust of the earth, form the body of man, and infuse into 
 it, and unite it with a living and reasonable soul; then much 
 more must he be able to raise up a dead body, the matter and 
 substance of which now is, though in different forms and shapes, 
 and reunite it to its soul, which still has a real existence : it is 
 much easier to restore that which is, to its former condition, 
 than to make to exist that which is not. God is also omniscie7it; 
 he knows all things : he knows all the particles of matter, of 
 which our bodies are composed; and, when they are dissolved 
 into several parts, blown about by the several winds, crumbled 
 into dust, reduced to ashes, evaporated into air, or digested into 
 the bodies of other creatures, and have been transmuted into ten 
 thousand forms and shapes; he knows where they are lodged, 
 and what are the several receptacles and repositories of them, 
 whether in the earth, air, or sea; and his all-discerning eye can 
 distinguish those particles of matter which belong to one body. 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 375 
 
 trom those which belong to another; and his almighty hand can 
 gather and unite them together in their own proper bodies, and 
 range them in their due place and order. If God then is omni- 
 potent and omniscient, the doctrine of the resurrection of the 
 dead ought not to be accounted incredible. 
 
 As considering the omnipotence and omniscience of God, the 
 resurrection of the dead may be, which also is no ways con- 
 trary to his goodness; so the justice of God makes it necessary 
 that it should be : " God is righteous in all his ways, and holy 
 in all his works:'' he is the Judge of all the earth, who will do 
 right: and it is but just with him that those bodies v/hich Christ 
 has purchased with his blood, and the Spirit has sanctified by 
 his grace, and which have suffered for his name's sake, should 
 be raised again, that they, together with their souls, may enjoy 
 that glory which is purchased for them, and which they are 
 made meet to be partakers of ; even as it is a righteous thing 
 with God, to render tribulation to them that trouble them ; and 
 so consequently it is no act of injustice in God to raise the 
 bodies, both of the righteous and the wicked, that they may 
 receive the things done in the body, whether they be good, or 
 whether they be evil. These things being considered, it may be 
 concluded, that the resurrection of the dead is not inconsistent 
 with the perfections of God, and so not incredible. To these 
 considerations I add, 
 
 2. The several instances of persons who have been raised from 
 the dead, recorded in Scripture ; such as the child of the widow 
 of Zarephath, which came to life upon Elijah's prayer; ?,nd the 
 child of the Shunamite, upon Elisha's; as also the man that was 
 cast into Elisha's sepulchre, who revived and stood upon his 
 feet, upon touching the prophet's bones, mentioned in the Old 
 Testament: likewise Jairus's daughter, the son of the widow 
 of Nain, and Lazarus, who were raised by Christ; and not to 
 forget to mention the saints, who came out of their graves, after 
 our Lord's resurrection: and also Dorcas, who was raised by 
 Peter : as was Euty chus by the apostle Paul : which instances 
 are recorded in the New Testament. My argument upon these 
 instances is this; that what has been, may be; and if these 
 instances of particular resurrections are to be credited, then the 
 doctrine of the resurrection of all the dead is not to be accounted 
 incredible. And, 
 
 3. It may net be improper if I should just mention some typi- 
 cal and figurative resurrections. The Scriptures give us an 
 account of Jonah's lying three days and three nights in the 
 whale's belly; and his deliverance from thence was a type of 
 the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The saving of 
 Isaac from being sacrificed, was like a resurrection from the 
 dead ; and, indeed, " from thence Abraham received him in a 
 figure," Heb. xi. 19. The redemption of the people of Israel 
 
376 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 out of the Babylonish captivity, was a metaphorical resurrection, 
 and signified by the reviving of dry bones; which was done by 
 laying sinews, and bringing flesh upon them, covering them 
 with skin, and putting breath into them. The budding and 
 blossoming of Aaron's dry rod, is thought, by some, to be a figure 
 of the resurrection of the dead. However, be that as it will, 
 this may be observed, that if God could deliver Jonah out of 
 the whale's belly, save Isaac from being sacrificed, when so near 
 it, make dry bones to live and stand upon their feet, and cause 
 a dry rod to bud, blossom, and bring forth almonds; then why 
 should it be thought a thing incredible with any, that God should 
 raise the dead? But, 
 
 Secondly, I now proceed to show, that the resurrection of the 
 dead is not only credible, hni certain; and this I shall do, partly 
 from Scripture testimonies, and partly from other Scripture 
 doctrines. 
 
 1st, From Scripture testimonies, which shall be taken both 
 out of the Old and New Testament. I shall begin with pro- 
 ducing testimonies out of the former ; and, 
 
 1. With the words of God to Moses: "I am the God of thy 
 father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
 Jacob," Exod. iii. 6. I choose to mention this scripture, and 
 to begin with it, because with this our Lord confronted the 
 Sadducees, who denied the resurrection of the dead, and put 
 them to silence ; insomuch, that, after that, no man durst ask 
 any question at all ; the account of which you have in Mat. 
 xxii. 23, and some following verses; and it stands thus: the 
 Sadducees came to him with an instance of a woman, who had 
 had seven husbands, who were brethren ; and their question 
 upon it is, whose wife she should be in the rerarrection ? To 
 which Christ replies, having observed to them their ignorance 
 of the Scriptures, and the power of God, that "in the resurrec- 
 tion they neither marry, nor are given in marriage ; but are as 
 the angels of God in heaven;" and then adds, "But as touching 
 the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was 
 spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, 
 the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; God is not the God 
 of the dead, but of the living." But now here lies a difficulty, 
 how this appears to be a proof of the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 Some have thought, that our Lord's design is to prove the 
 immortality of the soul, which the Sadducees denied, as well as 
 the resurrection of the dead ; for they that deny the former, deny 
 the latter ; and some of the same arguments which prove the 
 one, prove the other. Menasseh-ben-Israel, a learned Jew of 
 the last century, produces this same passage of Scripture, to 
 prove the immortality of the soul, and argues from it much in 
 the same manner as Christ does. But it is certain, that our 
 Lord produced this testimony as a proof of the resurrection. In 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 377 
 
 one of the evangelists, it is said, "As touching the resurrection 
 of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you 
 by God?" &c. Mat. xxii. 31. And in another, " Now, that the 
 dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he caUed 
 the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 
 of Jacob," &c. Luke xx. 37. Let it be observed, then, that it 
 is not said, I was, or I will he, but I am the God of Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob; which is expressive not only of a covenant 
 which had been made, but of one that abides and continues, 
 which must be either the covenant of grace made with them in 
 Christ, of which they had some glorious discoveries and mani- 
 festations, or some particular covenant respecting them and their 
 posterity. As for the covenant of grace, this respected not their 
 souls only, but their bodies also, even their whole persons; 
 therefore, as their souls now live with God in the enjoyment 
 of the promised good, it is necessary that their bodies should be 
 raised from the dead, that, with their souls, they may enjoy the 
 everlasting blessing of glory and happiness; otherwise, how 
 would God's covenant be " an everlasting one, ordered in all 
 things, and sure?" The learned Mr. Mede thinks, that Christ 
 has respect to the covenant which God made with Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, in which he promised that he would give the 
 land of Canaan to them, and to their posterity; not their poste- 
 rity only, but to them also ; therefore he observes, that it was 
 necessary that they should be raised from the dead, that they, 
 in their own persons, might enjoy the promised land. It must 
 be acknowledged, that this is a way of arguing the Jews were 
 used to, which may be the reason of the scribes being so well 
 pleased with it; and therefore said, "Master, thou hast well 
 said," Luke xx. 39. Such kind of arguments as these, to prove 
 the resurrection of the dead, are now extant in their Talmud: 
 for instance ; R. Simai said, " From whence is the resurrection of 
 the dead to be proved out of the law? from Exod. vi. 4, where 
 it is said, Jind I have also established my covenant with them, 
 to give them the land of Canaan; it is not said to you, but to 
 them." But, not to insist any longer on this proof, I proceed, 
 2, To another passage of Scripture, for the confirmation of 
 this doctrine, which is in Job xix. 25 — 27, " For I know that 
 my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day 
 upon the earth; and though, after my skin, worms destroy this 
 body, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for 
 myself; and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though 
 my reins be consumed within me." I shall not trouble you 
 with the difterent versions of these words, some favouring, and 
 some not, the doctrine of the resurrection: and it must be ownedj 
 that none of the Jewish writers understand the words of a real, 
 but of a figurative or metaphorical resurrection, and suppose 
 Job's meaning to be, that he should be delivered from the 
 
 48 
 
378 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 afflicted state, in which he then was, and be restored to his 
 former health, honour, and happiness; in which sense of the 
 words they have been followed by some learned Christian inter- 
 preters, at which the Socinians very greedily catch. Temporal 
 afflictions are, indeed, sometimes signified by death, and a deliv- 
 erance out of them must be as life from the dead; but that this 
 cannot be Job's sense and meaning here, may be concluded 
 from the following hints. Job was so far from having any faith 
 in, or assurance of his restoration to his former state of health, 
 honour, and riches, that he had no hope, no expectation of it; 
 nay, seems entirely to despair of it, though his friends endea- 
 voured to support him with views of it, on condition of his 
 repentance. He declares, Job vi. 11, and vii. 7, 8, and x. 20, 
 and xvi. 22, and xvii. 1, 14 — 16, that he had no reason to hope 
 for life, that he should quickly be gone, and therefore had made 
 death familiar to him ; that he did not expect to see any more 
 temporal good; yea, in this very chapter, at the tenth verse, he 
 says of God, " He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am 
 gone; and mine hope hath he removed like a tree," and con- 
 tinues his doleful moan to the very words under consideration; 
 so that it must seem unlikely, that, on a sudden, he should have 
 his expectations of outward prosperity raised. No ; the words 
 are rather expressive of what was his inward support and com- 
 fort under present afflictions, and in the views of approaching 
 death and the grave. They are an answer to what Bildad had 
 said, in the preceding chapter, ver. 12 — 14, concerning the 
 wicked man; where, though he may not directly mean Job, 
 yet he had his eye upon him, when he says, " His strength shall 
 be hunger-bitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side. It 
 shall devour the strength of his skin, even the first-born of death 
 shall devour his strength. His confidence shall be rooted out 
 of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.'* 
 Well now, as if Job should say, supposing all this, yet this is 
 my comfort, I know my interest in the living Redeemer, and 
 am comfortably persuaded, that when he appears at the latter 
 day, though this body of mine is now reduced to skin and bones, 
 and will shortly be the repast of worms, yet it shall be raised 
 again, and, in this very flesh of mine, shall I see God, and ever- 
 lastingly enjoy him. The preface to the words shows, that it 
 was something future, and at a great distance, which he had in 
 view, even after the consumption of his own body, and at the 
 appearance of his Redeemer in the latter day; and which was 
 very considerable, and of moment; and therefore he says, " 0! 
 that my words were now written ! ! that they were printed 
 in a book ! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead, in 
 the rock for ever !" — Besides, the vision of God with the eyes 
 of his body, which he expected, is not suited to any state and 
 condition in this life, but rather to the state of eternal glory and 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 379 
 
 happiness, when saints shall see him in the Mediator, as he 
 is; nor can Job's words have reference to the vision he had of 
 God, of which he speaks, chap. xlii. 6, "I have heard of thee 
 by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee." Since 
 that issued not barely in peace, joy, and comfort, but likewise, 
 in conviction of his folly and weakness, in self-abhorence, and 
 deep humiliation. — Add to all this, that Job, in the close of this 
 chapter, put his friends in mind of the awful judgment: " Be ye 
 afraid of the sword; for wrath bringeth the punishments of the 
 sword, that ye may know there is a judgment;" between which 
 and death, there must be a resurrection from the dead, of which 
 he had before spoken, that so every one may come forth to 
 judgment, and receive the things done in his body, whether 
 they be good or evil. — From the whole, we may conclude, that 
 Job here declares his faith, concerning the resurrection of the 
 dead at the last day, and not his own restoration, from outward 
 misery to outward happiness. An ancient writer once thought, 
 that nothing could be a plainer proof of this doctrine: "for," 
 says he, " no one, since Christ, speaks so plainly of the resurrec- 
 tion, as this man did before Christ." 
 
 3. Another testimony I shall produce for the proof of this 
 doctrine, shall be Isa. xxvi. 19. " Thy dead men shall live, to- 
 gether with my dead body shall they arise; awake and sing, ye 
 that dwell in the dust ; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and 
 the earth shall cast forth her dead." In ver. 14, the prophet 
 says, " They are dead, they shall not live ; they are deceased, 
 they shall not rise;" the meaning of which words is, either that 
 those tyrants, who formerly had dominion over the people of 
 Israel were dead, and should not live any more in this world, 
 or rise again, to tyrannize over them; or that many of the peo- 
 ple were dead, or should die by the sword, famine, &c. and not 
 live again ; which the prophet mentions by way of complaint, 
 and as the eifect of unbelief, to which these words are an an- 
 swer. The person speaking is the Messiah, to whom the cha- 
 racters given in ver. 4, 12, 13, belong ; who assures the prophet, 
 that though his men or people were dead, yet they should live 
 again; that they should be raised again, either at the time of 
 his resurrection or by virtue of it. The words are literally true 
 of Christ's resurrection, and of ours by him,* who, as he was to 
 be born, and die, and rise again, in order to be the Saviour of his 
 people, so many of them were to rise along with him ; therefore 
 he says, " With my dead body shall they arise;" which was ful- 
 filled at the time of Christ's resurrection,! when the gt^aves loere 
 opened^ and many bodies of the saints, ivhich slept, arose and 
 came out of the graves after his resurrection. Though these 
 
 * See my book of the Prophecies of the Old Testament, &c. literally fulfilled 
 in Jesus, p. 183. 
 t Mat. xxvii. 52, 53. 
 
380 OF THE EESTJRRECTION. 
 
 words may be rendered either thus, Jis my dead body shall 
 they arise, i. e. in the same way and manner. Christ's resur- 
 rection is the exemplar of ours,owr vile bodies shall be fashion- 
 ed like unto his; he is risen from the dead,* and become the 
 first-fruits of them that slept; or, as sure as my dead body 
 shall they arise. Christ's resurrection is the pledge of ours; 
 " because he lives, we shall live also."t " If we believe that 
 Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in 
 Jesus will God bring with him." The expressions here made 
 use of confirm this sense of the words, " Awake and sing, ye 
 that dwell in the dust ; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs." 
 To dwell in the dust, is expressive of the state of the dead; and 
 a resurrection from thence is aptly signified by an awaking, 
 since death is so frequently, in the sacred writings, compared to 
 sleep. ± The power of God, in raising the dead, is fitly expressed 
 by the dew; for as through the virtue and influence of the dew, 
 the grass and herbs of the field spring up and grow, so, through 
 the wonderful power of God, " our bones," to use the prophet's 
 phrase, II " shall flourish like an herb," in the resurrection morn; 
 and it is easy to observe a likeness between the last clause of 
 this verse, "and the earth shall cast forth her dead;" and those 
 expressions by which the resurrection is described in Rev. xx. 
 1 3, " And the sea gave up the dead which were in it : and 
 death and hell, (or the grave,) delivered up the dead which 
 were in them." The Jews refer this prophecy to the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead. But, 
 
 4. To add no more testimonies of this kind, I shall conclude 
 the evidence of this doctrine out of the Old Testament, from 
 the famous prophecy in Daniel xii. 2, "And many of them 
 that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ; some to ever- 
 lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 
 These words are generally understood of the resurrection of 
 the dead, as well by Jewish as Christian interpreters. Porphyry, 
 the acute Heathen, and sworn enemy of Christianity, would 
 have these words design the return of some of the people of 
 the Jews to their own cities and habitations after Antiochus's 
 generals were cut off", who before skulked about in holes and 
 corners, and in which sense of the text he is followed by 
 Grotius. But surely this deliverance, or the return of this 
 people, was not in any of them to shame and contempt, espe- 
 cially to everlasting shame and contempt; nor was it to ever- 
 lasting life in any of them, seeing they are all since dead. Nor 
 is it true that the doctors of the Jewish church, from that time, 
 shone as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars of 
 heaven; but, on the contrary, their knowledge decreased, their 
 
 » 1 Cor. XV. 20. t John xiv. 19. 1 Thess. iv. 14. 
 
 X See Job vii. 21, and xvii. 16, and xx. 11, and xx. 16. Dan. xii. 2. 
 II Isa. Ixvi. 14. 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 381 
 
 light grew dim, and they became vain in their imaginations. 
 On the other hand, the whole agrees with the resurrection of 
 the dead, when, as our Lord says, whose words are the best 
 comment on this text, "All that are in their graves shall hear 
 his voice, [i. e. the voice of Christ,] and shall come forth; they 
 that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they 
 that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation," John 
 V. 28, 29; and when the bodies of the saints shall be raised in 
 incorruption, power and glory, and " shall shine forth like the 
 sun in the kingdom of their Father." I might have produced 
 several other scriptures out of the Old Testament for the confir- 
 mation of this truth, such as Hosea vi. 2, and xiii. 14, &c. But 
 I forbear, and pass on 
 
 To the New Testament. And here, were I to take the whole 
 compass of proof which this will furnish out, I must transcribe 
 a considerable part of it. I shall only observe, that this is the 
 doctrine of Christ and his apostles; it is a doctrine which Christ 
 himself taught; he declared himself to be "the resurrection and 
 the life," or to be the author of the resurrection unto life; and 
 that not only those whom the Father liad given to him, should 
 be raised by him, but that all that are in their graves, whether 
 good or bad, should come forth from thence at his powerful 
 and all-commanding voice. The same doctrine was taught by 
 his apostles, who all jointly agree, that there will be a resurrec- 
 tion both of the just and unjust. The arguments of the apostle 
 Paul for the confirmation of this doctrine, are by him laid to- 
 gether, in the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corin- 
 thians. I do not take notice of particular passages in the New 
 Testament, partly because they are plain and obvious proofs of 
 this truth at first view, and partly because I shall have occasion 
 to make particular use of them in some other parts of these dis- 
 courses. I proceed, 
 
 2dly, To prove the certainty of the resurrection of the dead 
 from other Scripture truths and doctrines, which I shall little 
 more than name; and shall begin, 
 
 1. With the doctrine of election. That there is an eternal, 
 personal election of some to everlasting life and salvation, the 
 Scriptures do abundantly declare. Now, this act of election 
 regards not their souls only, but their bodies also, even their 
 whole persons: if then their persons, body and soul, are chosen 
 in Christ to everlasting salvation, then their bodies must be 
 raised from the dead, that they, united to their souls, may 
 together " inherit the kingdom, prepared for them from the 
 foundation of the world;" otherwise the "purpose of God, 
 according to election," will not stand; when, on the contrary, 
 it is certain, that " his counsel shall stand, and he will do ah 
 his pleasure." 
 
 2. It is the doctrine of the Scriptures, that the same persons 
 
382 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 who w^ere choseyi in Christ, before the foundation of the world, 
 were given to him by the Father, were put into his hands, and 
 made his care and charge. They were given to him not only 
 to be his portion and inheritance, but to be kept, preserved, and 
 saved by him, body and soul. This was the declared will of 
 his Father, when he gave them to him, as he himself assures 
 us: "And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of 
 all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, (no, not 
 even their dust,) but should raise it up again at the last day; 
 and this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which 
 seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life ; 
 and I will raise him up at the last day," John vi. 39, 40. Now, 
 if these bodies of the saints, which are given to Christ, should 
 not be raised from the dead, the Father's will would not be 
 fulfilled, nor Christ discharge the trust reposed in him. 
 
 3. This truth may be concluded from the redemption of our 
 bodies, as well as of our souls, by the blood of Christ. It is 
 true, this is sometimes called the redemption of the soul, and 
 the salvatio7i of the soul, but not to the exclusion of the body; 
 for that is bought with the same price the soul is. Hence the 
 apostle says to the saints after this manner: "Ye are bought 
 with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your 
 spirit, which are God's," 1 Cor. vi. 20. Now, if these bodies, 
 which Christ has bought, should not be raised from the dead, 
 he would lose part of his purchase: nor could he perfectly "see 
 the travail of his soul and be satisfied." 
 
 4. This doctrine may be inferred from the union of the saints 
 to Christ, body and soul. Their whole persons are united to 
 him; "Know ye not," says the apostle, "that your bodies are 
 the members of Christ?" ver. 15. They are part of his mystical 
 body, they are united to him, as well as their souls, and remain 
 in union with him after death; for, as the union of the two na- 
 tures in Christ was not dissolved, when his soul and body were 
 at death disunited, so neither is the union between Christ and 
 his people dissolved at death: and, by virtue of this union, their 
 bodies shall be raised from the dead; otherwise Christ must lose 
 a constituent part of those who are his mystical body, and so 
 the church not be " the fullness of him that filleth all in all," as 
 she is said to be, Eph. i. 23. 
 
 5. All those who are chosen in Christ, who are given to him, 
 who are redeemed by him, and are in union with him, are 
 sanctified by the Spirit of God, and that not in their souls 
 only, but in their bodies also ; for as the body, as well as the 
 soul, is defiled by sin, it also stands in need of the sanctifying 
 influences of divine grace. Accordingly the Spirit takes up his 
 dwelling in the bodies, as well as in the souls of men; "What! 
 know ye not," says the apostle, "that your body is the temple 
 jf the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" 1 Cor. vi. 19. He be- 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 383 
 
 gins and carries on the work of sanctification in the one, as well 
 as in the other, as is needful; and will, at last, completely finish 
 it; for which the apostle prays, saying, "And the very God of 
 peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, 
 soul and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Clirist," 1 Thess. v. 23. Now, if the bodies of 
 these sanctified ones are not raised, the Spirit of God will not 
 only lose that which he has taken possession of, as his dwell- 
 ing-place, but also a considerable part of his glory, as a Sanc- 
 tifier. 
 
 6. It will not be improper to take notice of the translations 
 of Enoch and Elias to heaven, who were taken up thither, soul 
 and body; nor of the saints, who came out of their graves, after 
 our Lord's resurrection, and went with him to glory, as is very 
 probable; nor of those who shall be alive at Christ's second 
 coming, who shall not die, but be changed, and be caught up 
 with the rest of the saints in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
 air. Now, whereas it is certain, that there are some saints 
 already in heaven with their bodies, and others that will be, it 
 is very improbable that the rest should be without, or that there 
 should be this diflerence among the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, that some should have their bodies united to them, and 
 others not. 
 
 7. Nothing is more certain than that there will be a general 
 judgment. "God has appointed the day in which," and or- 
 dained the Person by whom, " he will judge the world in right- 
 eousness," when all, both great and small, shall stand before 
 God, and the dead shall be judged according to their works. 
 Now, in order to this, the resurrection of them is absolutely ne- 
 cessary, that they may " receive the things don,e in their body, 
 whether good or bad." 
 
 8. Neither the happiness of the righteous will be complete, 
 nor the misery of the wicked be proportionate to their crimes, 
 until the resurrection. The happiness of the saints will not be 
 complete : hence they are " waiting for the adoption, to wit, the 
 redemption of their body," Rom. viii, 23, when that being re- 
 deemed from the grave, and united to the soul, shall, with it, 
 enter into the joy of the Lord. Nor will the misery of the 
 wicked be proportionate to their crimes till then, when they 
 shall be cast, body and soul, into hell ; and as the one deserves 
 it, as well as the other, it is proper that so it should be. 
 
 9. There will be need of, and uses for bodily organs, or for 
 some of the members of the body in heaven; as particularly the 
 eye, the ear, and tongue. There will be the glorified body of 
 Christ, or the glorious Mediator in human nature, for the saints 
 to look upon with miutterable pleasure : it will be a considera- 
 ble part of their happiness to " see him as he is." This is one 
 reason why Christ would have his people with him where he 
 
384 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 is, namely, that "they may behold his glory," even this, as 
 well as other branches of it ; and it was Job's support under 
 his afflictions, that in his "flesh he should see God;" that is, the 
 God-man and Mediator, or " God manifest in the flesh." There 
 will be songs of everlasting joy and praise sung in such melodi- 
 ous strains, as will delight the ear, and employ the tongue 
 throughout the endless ages of eternity. 
 
 10. And lastly, and which is the apostle Paul's grand and 
 principal argument for the resurrection of the dead, and which 
 he uses with so much strength, and improves to so good a pur- 
 pose, is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which you 
 have at large in 1 Cor. xv., where he thus argues : " If there be 
 no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if 
 Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is 
 also vain; yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, be- 
 cause we have testified of God, that he raised up Christ, whom 
 he raised not up, if the dead rise not : for if the dead rise not, 
 then is Christ not raised ; and if Christ be not raised, your faith 
 is vain, ye are yet in your sins; then they also which are fallen 
 asleep in Christ are perished." The saints may comfortably 
 conclude their resurrection from Christ's; for if the head be 
 raised, the members shall : " Every man in his own order, 
 Christ the first fruits; afterward, they that are Christ's, at his 
 coming." Job was satisfied that he should rise again, because 
 his Redeemer lived, and would appear at the latter day upon 
 the earth; and the saints may be assured, that because "Christ 
 lives, they shall live also," Other arguments might have been 
 made use of; but as they will also prove that the same body 
 shall be raised again, I shall therefore reserve them for their pro- 
 per place. 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Acts xxvi. 8. — Why should it be thought a tiling incredible with you, that God 
 should raise the dead ? 
 
 Having, in my former discourse, proved both the credibility 
 and certainty of the resurrection of the dead, I shall now pro- 
 xeed, 
 
 III. To inquire who they are, and what that is, which shall 
 be raised. This head of inquiry consists of two parts, and 
 regards both the persons who, and what of those persons it is, 
 which shall be the subject of the resurrection; and in this order 
 I shall consider it. 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 385 
 
 1st. I shall inquire who they are which shall be raised from 
 the dead. I shall not take notice of the Mahometan notion, 
 that angels and brutes shall rise, since the former die not, and 
 therefore cannot be said to be raised from the dead; and the 
 spirit of the latter goeth downward to the earth, never to return 
 more. Only men shall rise from the dead, but not all of them; 
 for though " it is appointed unto men once to die," yet not unto 
 all men: all men shall not die; some will be alive, and others 
 dead, at the appearing of Christ to judge the world; when they 
 that are alive shall, indeed, be changed from a state of mor- 
 tality, to a state of immortality, but cannot be said to rise from 
 the dead, because they die not. But then all the dead shall be 
 raised; all that are in their graves shall come forth, whether 
 these graves be in the earth or sea, and whether the persons 
 be righteous or wicked. This was the generally received opi- 
 nion of the Jews of old; but since, many of their greatest masters 
 have departed from it, as in Isa. xxvi. 14, 19, and xxxviii. 18, 
 and Dan. xii. 2, who not only exclude the Gentiles in general, 
 but all wicked and ungodly persons whatever from having any 
 part in the resurrection. In this they have been followed by 
 the Socinians, though they care not to speak out their minds 
 fully ; and the Remonstrants have shown a very good liking 
 of the same notion. I shall a little consider this, seeing the 
 greater part of the testimonies and arguments produced in my 
 former discourse, chiefly relate to the resurrection of the just. 
 That the wicked shall rise, as well as the righteous, may be 
 proved, 
 
 1. From express texts of Scripture. The prophet Daniel 
 says, " That some of them who sleep in the dust of the earth, 
 [i. e. who are dead,] shall awake, [i. e. rise again,] to shame 
 and everlasting contempt," Dan. xii. 2 ; who must be the 
 wicked, since it will never be the case of the righteous, who 
 will awake, or rise, to everlasting life. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
 assures us, that " they that have done evil, shall come forth to 
 the resurrection of damnation," John v. 29, in which words he 
 does, at once, describe the character of the wicked, asserts their 
 resurrection, and fixes the end of it. The apostle Paul gives a 
 full testimony to this truth, when he affirms, " that there shall 
 be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust," Acts 
 xxiv. 15. 
 
 2. This doctrine may be evinced from the justice of God, 
 which requires, that they who have sinned in the body, should 
 be also punished in the body. The body is the seat of sin, as 
 well as the soul, nor is any part free from it: if the tongue, 
 which is but " a little member, is a world of iniquity," James 
 iii. 5, 6, as the apostle James says it is, what a world of iniquity 
 must be in the whole body? And, indeed, there are but few 
 sins but what are committed in or by the body. It may be con- 
 
 49 
 
3S6 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 sidered not only as accessary to sin, but as a partner with the 
 soul in sinning, and as an instrument by which it is committed; 
 and, in either respect, is deserving of punishment. Now, it is 
 certain, that, in this life, the wicked do not receive in their bodies 
 the full reward of punishment, since they have not greater 
 afflictions than the righteous; nay, it is observed of them, that 
 " they are not in trouble, as othet men, neither are they plagued 
 like other men," Psal. Ixxiii. 5, wherefore it seems necessary, 
 from the justice of God, that the bodies of the wicked should be 
 raised, that they, with their souls, may receive the full and just 
 recompense of reward. 
 
 3. That the wicked shall rise from the dead, may be concluded 
 from the general judgment, when " the dead, small and great, 
 shall stand before God, and be judged according to their works," 
 Rev. XX. 12, 15, when " whosoever is not found written in the 
 book of life, shall be cast into the lake of fire ;" which can be 
 understood of no other than the wicked; and if all men must 
 " appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may 
 receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
 done, whether it be good or bad," 2 Cor. v. 10, then must the 
 wicked appear, that they may receive according to the bad 
 things which they have done in their bodies; in order to which 
 appearance before the judgment-seat, and to the reception of 
 their evil things, there must be a resurrection of them from the 
 dead. 
 
 4. The account which the Scriptures give of the punishment 
 and torments of the wicked, and also the effects thereof, mani- 
 festly supposes a resurrection of their bodies: how will every 
 eye see Christ when he appears, and all the kindreds of the 
 earth wail because of him? why is the place of torment signi- 
 fied by a furnace and lake of fire, and by outer darkness, where 
 will be weeping and gnashing of teeth? wherefore do the Scrip- 
 tures speak of being cast into hell fire, with two eyes, or two 
 hands, or two feet, if there will be no resurrection of the wicked ? 
 If it should be said, that these expressions are either metapho- 
 rical or proverbial, there must be something literally true, to 
 which they refer, and which is the foundation of them: besides, 
 our Lord expressly exhorts his disciples to " fear him, which is 
 able to destroy both soul and body in hell," Mat. x. 28. 
 
 5. This notion, that the wicked rise not, must have a ten- 
 dency to lice7itiousness, and open a door to all manner of sin, 
 and take off all restraints from wicked persons, and embolden 
 them in their vicious course of life ; for what the apostle says of 
 the resurrection in general, may be said of this, " If the dead 
 rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," 1 Cor. 
 XV. 32. But from these several hints, it may be strongly con- 
 cluded, that there will be a resurrection of the wicked, as well 
 as of the righteous. 
 
OP THE RESURRECTION. 387 
 
 Indeed, there will be a difference between the resurrection 
 of the just, and the resurrection of the unjust, in many respects: 
 there will be a difference in the time of the one and the other; 
 the dead in Christ shall rise first; "the upright shall have the 
 dominion over the wicked in the morning of the resurrection;" 
 wherefore "blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection; on such the second death hath no power." And 
 as they shall not rise at the same time, so neither altogether by 
 the same means: they shall, indeed, be both raised by Christ; 
 for "all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
 come forth," John v. 28, 29. The saints will be raised by vir- 
 tue of their union to Christ; "because he lives, they shall live 
 also;" but the wicked will be raised merely by the power of 
 Christ, in order to appear before him, and be judged by him, 
 who is Lord of all. Moreover, though the bodies of the wicked 
 will be raised immortal, and in such a state as to continue under 
 perpetual punishment, yet they will not be free from sin, nor 
 clothed with glory; whereas the bodies of the saints will not 
 only be raised immortal and incorruptible, but powerful, spirit- 
 ual, and glorious; yea, will be fashioned like to Christ's glorious 
 body. In fine, the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked 
 will differ in their end ; " the righteous will rise to everlasting 
 life, the wicked to everlasting shame and contempt." Hence 
 the resurrection of the one is called " the resurrection of life ;" 
 and the resurrection of the other, " the resurrection of damna- 
 tion." But now let us attend to the arguments and objections 
 advanced against the resurrection of the wicked, which are taken 
 partly from Scripture, and partly from reason. 
 
 (1.) From some passages of Scripture; and the first that is 
 objected is, Psal. i. 5: "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand 
 in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the right- 
 eous." From hence some Jewish writers have concluded, that 
 there will be no resurrection of the wicked, their souls perish- 
 ing with their bodies at death. This notion may seem to be 
 favoured by the versions of the Septuagint and Vulgate, with 
 some others, who read the words thus : " Therefore the ungodly 
 shall not rise again in judgment." But supposing, and not 
 granting, that these versions may be agreeable to the Hebrew 
 text, it will not follow, from hence, that the wicked shall not 
 rise again; for it is not said absolutely, that "they shall not rise 
 again," but that " they shall not rise again in Judgment ;" that 
 is, so as to appear in the congregation of the righteous at the 
 day of judgment, when the righteous and the wicked will be 
 separated, the one placed at Christ's right hand, and the other 
 at his left; they will not rise when the righteous do; for "the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first:" the wicked, though they will 
 rise again, yet not in the first resurrection, or in the resurrection 
 of life, but in the resurrection of damnation. Moreover, the 
 
388 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 word here used does not intend the resurrection of the ivicked, 
 but their standing before God in a. judicial sense when raised; 
 and the meaning is, that they will not be able to stand, when 
 the righteous Judge appears, with any degree of confidence, so 
 as not to be ashamed, as the righteous will ; but, being filled 
 with confusion and horror of mind, will not he able to lift up 
 their heads, or open their mouth to justify themselves, or vin- 
 dicate their cause, and so consequently must fall, and not stand, 
 in judgment. 
 
 Another scripture, which may seem to countenance this no- 
 tion, that the wicked shall not rise from the dead, is Isa. xxvi. 
 14: "They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, 
 they shall not rise." But these words, as I have observed in 
 mjr former discourse, are either to be understood of the people 
 of Israel, and are expressive of the prophet's complaint of their 
 present state, that they were dead, and of his distrust of their 
 future resurrection, to which he has an answer returned in ver. 
 19: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body 
 shall they arise;" or they are to be understood of those wicked 
 lords, who had formerly had the dominion over these people, 
 but were now dead, and should not live again on this earth, or 
 rise again to tyrannize over them : and, if we consider the words 
 in either sense, they cannot support an argument against the 
 resurrection of the wicked. 
 
 The words of the prophet Daniel, "And many of them who 
 sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ; some to everlasting 
 life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt," Dan. xii. 2, 
 though they are a plain and full proof of the resurrection of the 
 wicked, as well as of the righteous, yet are made use of by some 
 Jewish writers against it. It is observed, that the prophet does 
 not say that all of them, but many of them that sleep in the 
 dust of the earth shall awake; yea, it is said, that these many 
 design only a few, and these the righteous, among the children 
 of Israel. In answer to which, let it be observed, that the word 
 m,any may be understood universally of all that sleep in the 
 dust of the earth; in which sense the word is used in Psal. xcvii. 
 1: "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; let the multitudes 
 of isles be glad thereof;" in the Hebrew text it is, let many isles, 
 i. e. let all the isles be glad thereof. Or it may be consider- 
 ed in a comparative sense, thus: they that sleep in the dust of 
 the earth, and shall awake, are many in comparison of those 
 few who will be alive and remain, when the dead are to be 
 raised; for there will be some, though but a few, when com- 
 pared with others, who shall not die, but be changed : or rather 
 the words may be taken distributively after this manner; of 
 them that sleep in the dust of the earth, many shall awake to 
 everlasting life, and many to everlasting shame and contempt ; 
 which is just such a division of them, who are to be raised from 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 389 
 
 the dead, as is given by our Lord, when he says, "All that are 
 in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they 
 that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they 
 that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation," John 
 V. 29. Many can never design ?<.few only, as it must, if only 
 the Israelites, who were the fewest of all people, and the right- 
 eous among them, are the subjects of the resurrection: yea, if 
 the righteous only of all nations should be raised, they are but 
 a few in comparison of others. Besides, the prophet says, that 
 " some shall awake to everlasting shame," which cannot be 
 said of the righteous, but must design the wicked : therefore this 
 prophecy is so far from being an argument against it, that it 
 furnishes us with a very considerable one for the resurrection 
 of the wicked. 
 
 There are some other passages of Scripture, besides these, 
 which are made use of by another set of men against this truth; 
 as Eccl. vii. 10: "A good name is better than precious ointment, 
 and the day of death than the day of one's birth." Now, say 
 they, if the wicked rise again, the day of their death must be 
 worse than the day of their birth. To which it may be answer- 
 ed, that the wise man is not speaking of the wicked or repro- 
 bate, of whom it may be said, in some sense, that it would have 
 been better if they had never been born, or had died immedi- 
 ately, rather than have lived to aggravate their condemnation 
 by repeated iniquities, and with whom it certainly will be much 
 worse after death, than now it is. The words respect the right- 
 eous, who are blessed in their death ; for they die in the Lord, 
 and rest from their labours, are free from sin and sorrow of 
 every kind, and are with Christ, which is far better than to 
 come into and be in this troublesome world. 
 
 Likewise the words of the apostle Paul, in 1 Thess. iv. 16: 
 "And the dead in Christ shall rise first," are urged against the 
 resurrection of the wicked ; from whence it is observed, that 
 those who rise again, are such who are " dead in Christ," and 
 that these only are believers; and therefore the wicked shall 
 not rise. To which it may be replied, that the apostle is indeed 
 speaking of the resurrection of the saints, and not of the wicked, 
 tliough not to the exclusion of their resurrection. It is certain 
 that they are only believers who are dead in Christ ; but then 
 it is neither here, nor elsewhere said, that only believers, or that 
 only such who die in Christ, shall rise; yea, besides, the apostle 
 says, " that the dead in Christ shall rise first," which supposes 
 that the wicked shall rise afterwards; for it would be an impro- 
 priety to say, that the dead in Christ shall rise first, if those who 
 are not dead in Christ do not rise afterwards; a first resurrection 
 supposes a second. 
 
 I shall now proceed to consider the arguments and objections 
 formed against the resurrection of the wicked, which are taken, 
 
390 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 (2.) From reason. It is said that God is very merciful, and 
 therefore if he will not eternally save the wicked, yet it is not 
 reasonable to suppose that he will raise them from the dead 
 merely to torment them ; it will be sufficient that they do not 
 enjoy the happiness of the saints in heaven. To which I 
 answer: it is true, that God is very merciful, yet "he will have 
 mercy on whom he will have mercy." Though mercy is 
 natural and essential to him, yet the blessed fruits and efiects 
 of it, as enjoyed by his creatures, are limited by, and dependent 
 upon his sovereign will and pleasure; there are some of his 
 creatures, of whom it is said, " He that made them will not 
 have mercy on them; and he that formed them will show them 
 no favour," Isa. xxvii. 11. Besides, it ought to be observed, 
 that God is a righteous God, as well as merciful, and that one 
 perfection of his is not to be set against another; though he is 
 merciful, and delights in mercy, yet he is also " the Judge of all 
 the earth, who will do right." I have before proved, that it is 
 necessary, from the justice of God, that the bodies of the wicked 
 should be raised, not merely to be tormented, but that God may 
 glorify his righteousness in their just punishment. 
 
 It is also argued, that Christ is the meritorious cause of the 
 resurrection; and therefore the wicked, or reprobate, shall not 
 rise again, because " Christ has merited nothing for them." To 
 which I reply, the resurrection may be distinguished, as it is by 
 Christ, into a resurrection of life, and a resurrection of damna- 
 tion; that Christ is the meritorious cause of the former, but not 
 of the latter. Christ is not only the exemplar, but the efficient 
 and meritorious cause of the saints' resurrection; "he is the 
 first-fruits of them that sleep; every one rises in his own order; 
 Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his 
 coming." They that are Christ's, rise by virtue of their union 
 to him, and through the power of his resurrection; not so the 
 wicked; they shall, indeed, be raised by Christ, but not by virtue 
 of his death and resurrection, or through any merit of his, but 
 by his almighty power; their resurrection will not be the eifect 
 of his merit, as Mediator, but of his divine power, as Lord of 
 the dead and living. 
 
 It is further urged, that the Avicked die an eternal death, and 
 therefore do not rise from the dead ; for, say they, it implies a 
 contradiction to say that they die an eternal death, and yet are 
 raised from the dead. To which it may be answered, that there 
 is a twofold death, a temporal and an eternal one. Temporal 
 death is a separation of the soul from the body, and is what 
 may be called the first death. Eternal death is a separation 
 of body and soul from God, and a casting of both into hell, 
 which is what the Scripture calls the second death. Now, this 
 second or eternal death is consistent with the resurrection of the 
 body; nay, the resurrection of the body is requisite unto it. If 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 391 
 
 it should be said, as it is, that corporeal death is the punishment 
 of sin, that punishment is not taken away in the wicked, and 
 therefore corporeal death perpetually continues, and conse- 
 quently there is no resurrection of the wicked from the dead. I 
 answer, it is true that corporeal death is one part of the punish- 
 ment of sin, was at first threatened against it by God, and is in- 
 flicted on the wicked, as the just wages of it. It is true also that 
 the punishment of sin is perpetual, and is not removed, or taken 
 away from the wicked; nor is it by the resurrection of the 
 wicked, for their bodies will be raised by the power of God, in 
 such a state and condition, as to bear eternal punishment, which 
 shall be inflicted upon them, and which they shall endure both 
 in soul and body. 
 
 It is scarcely worthy of notice what is objected by some against 
 an universal resurrection, that the earth will not be sufficient to 
 contain all. This objection may be startling to such as sup- 
 pose that all men, righteous and wicked, when raised, will be 
 gathered together into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and be there 
 judged ; for if the whole earth cannot contain them, how should 
 that valley? If it could be thought that there is any difficulty 
 in the objection, it might be, in some measure, removed, by 
 observing, that whereas " the dead in Christ shall rise first, 
 they, with them that will be found alive, will be caught up 
 together in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and shall be 
 for ever with him;" so that the earth will be left to the wicked, 
 and, it is to be hoped, it may be allowed there will be room 
 enough for them. From the whole, notwithstanding all these 
 objections, it may be strongly concluded, that there will be a 
 general resurrection of all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, of 
 all the wicked, and of all the righteous, in all nations. I now 
 proceed, 
 
 'H.dly. To inquire what that is of man which shall be raised 
 from the dead. Man consists of soul and body; it is not the 
 soul, but the body, which is raised : not the soul, for the soul 
 dies not, and therefore cannot be said to be raised from the 
 dead ; nor does it sleep with the body in the grave, and there- 
 fore needs no awakening, nor will it be awakened when the 
 body is. 
 
 [1.] It dies not, and therefore cannot be said to rise from the 
 dead. There were some Christians in Arabia who held that 
 the soul died with the body, and, at the resurrection, revived 
 and returned to its own body; but it is an immaterial and im- 
 mortal substance, which never dies. I do not propose to give 
 you an elaborate discourse on this subject, and go through the 
 argument of the soul's immortality; this would require greater 
 abilities than I am master of, and a larger compass than is 
 allowed me for my subiect. I shall just mention two or three 
 
392 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 things upon this head, in proof of the soul's immortaUty; which 
 may be taken, 
 
 1. From the nature of the soul itself. It is of the same nature 
 with angels, who are immaterial and incorporeal spirits, and so 
 not subject to corruption and death; they die not : yea, the soul 
 of man has a likeness to God ; it bears a resemblance to the 
 divine nature. The image of God in man chiefly and princi- 
 pally consists in the soul; it is of God's immediate creation : it 
 comes from him and is the very breath of him. If we con- 
 sider its several powers and faculties, especially the understand- 
 ing and will, we may well conclude it to be an immortal and 
 never-dying substance. The mind or understanding not only 
 apprehends and perceives things corporeal, temporal, and cor- 
 ruptible, but also such things as are immaterial, incorporeal, 
 eternal, and incorruptible; such as angels, yea, God himself, 
 which it could not do, was it not itself an immaterial, incorpo- 
 real, and immortal substance. It is capable of considering an 
 endless eternity, though it is easy to observe the difference 
 there is in the mind or understanding of man, with respect to 
 that eternity, which preceded the creation of the world, and that 
 which is to come ; when it considers the former, it is quickly 
 overwhelmed, it flutters and hangs its wing, and is obliged to 
 descend : but when it fixes its thoughts upon the latter, how 
 readily does it apprehend how it shall proceed without end; and 
 with what pleasure does it roll over the millions of ages in it ! 
 The reason of this difference is, because it is not from eternity, 
 and has a beginning, but will continue to eternity, and have no 
 end. And, besides that large stock of knowledge of various 
 things, which men of the greatest understandings are furnished 
 with, there is a natural and continual desire of knowing more, 
 which will never be satisfied in this life; and this was one of 
 the chief arguments Socrates used when in prison, to prove to 
 his scholars the immortality of the soul, for this desire is not im- 
 planted in vain: the soul therefore must remain after death, 
 when it will arrive to a more perfect knowledge of things. The 
 will has for its object universal good, and especially God, who 
 is the chief good, which it desires to enjoy for ever: its actions 
 are free, and cannot be forced by any creature ; no creature has 
 a power over it, to force it or destroy it ; it acts independently 
 of the body, in willing and nilling, choosing and refusing ; it 
 uses no corporeal organ: yea, when the body is sick and infirm, 
 and ready to die, the will is then active and vigorous, and shows 
 itself to be so, either by a willingness or unwillingness to die ; 
 nay, generally speaking, the more severe affliction is, and the 
 nearer the approach of death, the more active is the will to be 
 freed from agonies and pains, either by a restoration to health, 
 or by a removal by death; which shows that the soul does not 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 393 
 
 sicken and grow languid, as the body does, nor dies with it. The 
 soul is a pure unmixed and simple substance: it is not com- 
 posed of matter and form; nor is it a material form, educed out 
 of the power of matter, as the souls of brutes, but is altogether 
 spiritual and immaterial ; it is not of a body made up of the four 
 elements, fire, water, earth, and air, which is capable of being 
 resolved into them again, as our bodies are; it has nothing con- 
 trary to itself, which can be destructive of it; it is neither hot 
 nor cold, moist or dry, hard or tender: it is not as an accident 
 in a subject, which, when the subject is destroyed, is destroyed 
 with it; if it has any subject on which it depends, it must be 
 the body; but it is so far from being dependent on the body, and 
 perishing with it, that, on the contrary, when the soul departs, 
 the body perishes. The soul has no other cause of its being but 
 God ; on him it depends, and by him it is preserved. He, indeed, 
 could, if he would, annihilate, or reduce it to nothing; but, since 
 it is evident he will not, we may conclude it is immortal, and 
 will never die. 
 
 2. The immortality of the soul may be proved from the laio 
 of nature, the religion of mankind, the consciousness of sinful 
 actions, and the fears and terrors of mind arising from thence, 
 and also from the justice of God. " The consent of all nations," 
 Cicero says, " is to be reckoned the law of nature ;" and accord- 
 ing to him, it is " the agreement of all nations, that the soul re- 
 mains after death, and is immortal," This, in general, may be 
 true, and deserves notice, and is no inconsiderable proof of the 
 soul's immortality; but it must be owned, that there are many 
 exceptions to it: some, even of the philosophers denied it, 
 and others of them, who gave into it, spoke very doubtfully 
 and confusedly of it, and delivered their sentiments about it, 
 to use the words of Minutius Felix, corrupta et dimidiata 
 fide, with a corrupt and divided faith, as though they did but 
 half believe it. 
 
 The immortality of the soul, is no doubt, discoverable by the 
 hght of nature, and was originally the belief of men ; but as this 
 light became dim by sin, and as men departed from the true 
 religion, and went further off from the professors of it, so they 
 became vainer in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was 
 darkened, and lost not only the knowledge of this, but many 
 other truths. Thales the Milesian is said to be the first who 
 taught it ; though others say, that Pherecydes the Scyrian was 
 the first who asserted it. Some ascribe it to the Chaldeans and 
 Indian Magi, and others to the Egyptians, as the first authors 
 of it, who, perhaps, received it from the posterity of Abraham 
 the Chaldean, who dwelt among them. However, it is certain, 
 that there is in man a natural desire after immortality, which 
 is not in any but immortal creatures; as it is also natural to 
 him to be religious, hence some have chosen rather to define 
 
 50 
 
394 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 man a religious than a rational animal: all nations profess 
 some religion, and keep up some kind of religious worship; the 
 most blind and ignorant, barbarous and savage, are not with- 
 out it. Now, to what purpose is their religion? and why do 
 they worship a deity, if there is no future state ? If the soul re- 
 mains not after death, but at death perishes with the body, they 
 need not be solicitous about the worship of God, and the per- 
 formance of religious exercises, but say, " Let us eat and drink, 
 for to-morrow we shall die;" nor be diligent in the exercise of 
 virtue, or be concerned at the commission of sin. But, on the 
 other hand, it is evident that there is a consciousness of sin in 
 men, or there is in men a " conscience bearing witness, and their 
 thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing, one an- 
 other." There are dreadful horrors, terrors, and stings of con- 
 science, which wicked men are, at times, attended with; they 
 are seized with such dread and trembling, with such panic fears, 
 they cannot get rid of 
 
 If these, as some say, were the effects of education, it is 
 strange that they should be so general and extensive as they are, 
 and more strange that none have been able to shake them off 
 entirely; and stranger still, that those who have run the greatest 
 lengths in infidelity and atheism, should not be able to free 
 themselves from them. Hobbes, that bold advocate for infidel- 
 ity, who endeavoured to harden himself and others, in the dis- 
 belief of a future state, would be very uneasy, if, at any time, 
 he was alone in the dark. These things not only show that 
 there is a divine Being, to whom men are accountable for their 
 actions, but that there is a future state after death, in which men 
 shall live, either in happiness or in misery. And, indeed, this is 
 necessary from the justice of God, who is the Judge of all the 
 earth, and will do right, in regarding the good, and punishing 
 the wicked. It is easy to observe, that in this life, good men 
 are afflicted, and the wicked prosper : there are innumerable in- 
 stances of this kind; the veracity, justice, and faithfulness of 
 God are not so manifestly seen in bestowing favours and blessings 
 upon good men, according to his promises, and in punishing 
 wicked men, according to his threatenings ; it seems reason- 
 able then to suppose, that the souls of men are immortal, that 
 their bodies shall be raised from the dead, and that there will 
 be a future state, in which good men shall be happy, and wicked 
 men miserable. 
 
 3. The soul's immortality maybe proved from the Scriptures, 
 which expressly declare that the body may be killed, the soul 
 cannot; Mat. x. 28, Eccl. xii. 7 ; and that when "the dust shall 
 return to the earth, as it was, the Spirit shall return to God that 
 gave it." It may be concluded, from all those scriptures, Isa. Iv. 
 3; JVIat. xxii. 32; John vi. 40, 47, which speak of an everlasting 
 covenant v/hich God has made with his people, "for God is not 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 395 
 
 the God of the dead, but of the living;" and from all the pro- 
 mises of everlasting life, which he has made unto them; as also 
 from the account it gives of the eager desires of the saints after 
 future happiness, Phil. i. 23. 2 Cor. v. 6, 8, and of their assur- 
 ance of enjoying it upon their dissolution, as well as from their 
 particular commendation of tlieir souls, Psal. xlix. 15, Acts vii. 
 59, Luke xxii. 46, or spirits, into the hands of God at death, 
 recorded in these writings. And, to add no more, we may be 
 fully satisfied, by the sacred oracles, Luke xvi. 22, 23. Rev. vi. 
 9. 1 Pet. iii. 19. that the souls of men, immediately upon the 
 dissolution of their bodies, enter upon a state either of happiness 
 or misery; all which proves the permanency of the soul after 
 death, its separate existence, its future state or condition, either 
 of pleasure or pain. From the whole it follows, that if the soul 
 dies not, it cannot be said to be raised from the dead, or be the 
 subject of the resurrection. 
 
 [2.] The soul sleeps not with the body until the resurrection, 
 and therefore needs no awakening, and cannot be said to be 
 raised or awakened when the body is. The Socinians, and 
 some of the Arminians say, that the soul, after death, is in a 
 deep sleep, is insensible of happiness or misery, and destitute 
 of all sense and operation. For the confutation of which sleepy 
 notion, let the following things be considered: 
 
 1. That sleep belongs to the body, and not to the soul. 
 
 2. When the body is asleep, the soul is aivake and active, as 
 is evident in abundance of instances from dreams and visions 
 of the night: when deep sleep falleth upon man, the soul under- 
 stands and perceives, devises and contrives, reasons and dis- 
 courses, chooses and refuses, grieves and rejoices, hopes and 
 fears, loves and hates, and the like. Of like nature are ecsta- 
 sies and raptures, when the body lies, as it were, dead, sense- 
 less, and void of motion : such was the apostle's case, when he 
 says, " He knew not whether he was in the body, or out of the 
 body," 2 Cor. xii. 4, 5, and yet his soul was capable of receiving 
 divine things, of seeing such sights, and hearing such words, 
 which was neither lawful nor possible for him to express. 
 
 3. The soul being freed from the body, must be more active 
 than when in it, especially as it is corrupted with sin, whereby 
 it becomes a clog and an incumbrance to it, and a weight about 
 it, so that it cannot, as it would, perform spiritual duties; " The 
 spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak:" but now, when it is 
 freed from the body, and joined to the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, it must be more capable of serving God with spiritual 
 joy and pleasure. 
 
 4. The soul separate from the body is most like to the angels^ 
 and its state, condition, and employment, much resemble theirs; 
 now, nothing is more foreign to angels than sleep and inactivity, 
 who always behold the face of God, stand ready to do his com- 
 
396 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 mandments, hearkening to the voice of his word; and no sooner 
 do they receive orders from him, but they do his pleasure; they 
 are continually before the throne of God, praising his name, 
 celebrating the divine perfections, and " rest not day and night, 
 saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and 
 is, and is to come." 
 
 5. If the souls of believers were, after death, to remain in a 
 state of insensibiUty and inactivity, then the case oi departed 
 saints would be much worse than that of the living; for though 
 the saints are now disturbed with a wicked and unbelieving 
 heart, afflicted with Satan's temptations, and exercised with a 
 variety of sorrows, yet at times they have communion with 
 God through Christ, the discoveries of his love to their souls, 
 the light of his countenance, and the comforts of his Spirit; they 
 have the word and ordinances to refresh and support them, and 
 are employed in the exercise of grace and discharge of duty; all 
 which is both edifying and delightful to them, and which saints 
 departed are deprived of, if this is their case, that their souls 
 sleep with their bodies until the resurrection. If this be true, 
 it would have been much better for the apostle Paul, and I am 
 sure, more to the advantage of the churches of Christ, if he had 
 continued upon earth to this day, than to be sleeping in his 
 grave, senseless and inactive. Certainly this great man knew 
 nothing of this when he said, " For to me to live is Christ, and 
 to die is gain: but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my 
 labour; yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait 
 between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, 
 which is far better: nevertheless, to abide in the flesh, is more 
 needful for you," Phil. i. 21 — 24. Had the apostle known that 
 he must have remained in a state of inactivity and uselessness, 
 deprived of the communion of Christ and his church, it would 
 have been no difliculty with him to determine which was most 
 eligible, to live or die ; nor can it be imagined, that the desires 
 of any of the saints would be so strong after a dissolution, as 
 they sometimes are, when they say, we are " willing rather to 
 be absent from the body," if they did not believe that they 
 should be immediately " present with the Lord," 2 Cor. v. 8. 
 This notion, then, makes the condition of saints departed worse 
 than that of the living, whereas the wise man says, " I praised 
 the dead, which are already dead, more than the living, which 
 are yet alive," Eccl. iv. 2: the reason is, because "blessed are 
 the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the 
 Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works 
 do follow them," Rev. xiv. 13. As soon as dead, they enter 
 upon a state of happiness and joy, and are employed in praising 
 God, and singing the Lamb's new song. 
 
 6. This notion is contrary to many places of Scripture, Eccl. 
 xii. 7; 2 Cor. v. 1, 8, which assure us, that the soul after death 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 397 
 
 returns to God that gave it, has a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens, into which it is received, when dislodged 
 from the earthly house of its tabernacle, where it is present with 
 the Lord, enjoying uninterrupted communion with him, " in 
 whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are 
 pleasures for evermore." This was what Christ promised the 
 thief upon the cross, when he said to him, " This day thou shalt 
 be with me in paradise," Luke xxiii. 43, which would not have 
 been true, if his soul slept with his body until the resurrection. 
 The apostle John says, that he " saw under the altar, the souls 
 of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testi- 
 mony which they held," Rev. vi. 9, 10, and we may be assured, 
 that these souls were not asleep ; for of them he says, " And 
 they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy 
 and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them 
 that dwell on the earth?" 
 
 The advocates for soul-sleeping, make use of several passages 
 of Scripture to support their opinion; particularly such as speak 
 of persons sleeping when they die, of which there are many 
 instances, as 2 Sam. vii. 12. 1 Kings i. 21. Job vii. 21. Dan. 
 xii. 2. 1 Cor. xv. 18. 1 Thess. iv. 14. John xi. 11, 12. 1 Cor. 
 XV. 51. This is a way of speaking which was much used in 
 the eastern countries, and is expressive of the death of the body 
 and its lying in the grave, because sleep is the image of death; 
 so to sleep with the fathers, is to die as they did, and be buried 
 where they were; and to sleep in the dust, or in the dust of the 
 earth, or in the grave, is to die, be buried, and lie there, which 
 can be understood of the body only, and not the soul. When 
 we read of any who fell asleep in Christ, or that sleep in Jesus, 
 the meaning is, that they died in the Lord. When Christ said, 
 " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth," he meant that he was dead; 
 and when the apostle Paul says, " We shall not all sleep," he 
 designs nothing else than that we shall not all die, for those who 
 are alive at Christ's coming, will be changed. If this mode of 
 expression, and the scriptural instances of it, prove any thing in 
 this controversy, they prove too much ; for if they prove that the 
 soul sleeps with the body, they prove that the soul dies with it, 
 since by sleep is meant no other than death. 
 
 Again, they urge all those scriptures in favour of their notion, 
 as Mat. xiii. 40, 41,49, 50, and xxv. 46. Luke xiv. 14. 2 Tim. 
 iv. 8, which represent the happiness of the saints, and the misery 
 of the wicked, as not taking place until the last day, the end of 
 the world, the resurrection of the just, and the day of judgment, 
 when the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, and the 
 righteous unto life eternal ; and therefore, during that time, their 
 souls must be asleep. To which it may be replied, that there is 
 a twofold state of the righteous and the wicked, after death, re- 
 
398 OF THE RESURHECTION. 
 
 specting their happiness and misery; the one is inchoate, or but 
 begun; the other is full, consummate and perfect. Now, it is 
 of the latter that these scriptures speak, but not of the former; 
 and it is allowed that the righteous will not be in the full posses- 
 sion of glory until the last day, when their bodies will be raised 
 and united to their souls, and both together enter into the full 
 joy of their Lord ; nor will the wicked receive the full measure 
 of their punishment until the judgment is over, when both soul 
 and body shall be cast into hell. But then immediately upon 
 death they both enter on a state of happiness or misery; the 
 righteous, as soon as they are absent from the body, are present 
 with the Lord; and the wicked are no sooner dead, but in hell 
 they lift up their eyes. 
 
 Again, they endeavour to improve all those scriptures to 
 their advantage, as Psal. xxx. 9, and Ixxxviii. 10 — 12, and cxv. 
 17, 18; Isa. xxxviii. 18, which describe men, after death, as 
 incapable of praising God; such as these, "What profit is there 
 in my blood, when I go down to the pit ? Shall the dust praise 
 thee ? Shall it declare thy truth ? Wilt thou show wonders to 
 the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall 
 thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithful- 
 ness in destruction ? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? 
 and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? The dead 
 praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence ; for 
 the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee. They 
 that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth." From 
 which it is inferred, that if the souls of the saints, after death, 
 are not employed in praising God, they must be asleep, or be 
 destitute of sense and operation ; for what work else can they 
 be employed in ? To this it may be answered, that though the 
 saints, whilst their bodies are in their graves, and before the 
 resurrection, do not, and cannot praise God in and with their 
 bodies, of which only these scriptures can be supposed to speak : 
 since nothing but the body goes down into the pit, or is laid in 
 the grave, yet their souls may and do praise God, in like man- 
 ner as the angels do; with whom, in the book of the Revelation, 
 they are sometimes joined and represented as with them, " glo- 
 rifying God, praising his name, singing hallelujahs, and ascribing 
 salvation to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for 
 ever and ever," Rev. v. 11 — 13, and vii. 9 — 12. Likewise, 
 though the saints, after death, do not praise God before men, 
 and in the midst of his church militant, as they did when in the 
 land of the living, to which these passages of Scripture refer; 
 yet they may, and do praise him before the angels, and in the 
 midst of the church triumphant; so that, from hence, there is 
 no reason to conclude that the souls of believers, after death, till 
 the resurrection, are in a state of inactivity, or sleep with their 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 399 
 
 bodies. Therefore, seeing the soul sleeps not, it is not what 
 will be awakened at the resurrection, or be the subject of it. I 
 go on, 
 
 To prove that it is the body, which dies, that shall be raised. 
 This is not annihilated, or reduced to nothing by death ; it is 
 not a new, airy, ethereal or celestial body, which shall be united 
 to the soul at the resurrection, but it will be the same numerical 
 body, which dies, that shall be raised again ; all which I hope 
 to make appear, in the following part of my discourse. 
 
 \st, The body is not annihilated, or reduced to nothing by 
 death. This is asserted by Socinus and his followers, but is 
 contrary both to reason and Scripture. The body is not made 
 out of nothing, nor will it be reduced to nothing; it consists 
 of the four elements, and will be resolved into the same ; and 
 though it may, after death, pass under many changes and alter- 
 ations, yet the matter and substance will always remain in 
 some form, and in some place or another. Death is a separa- 
 tion, or a disunion of soul and body, but not an annihilation of 
 either; by death the whole compound is dissolved, but neither 
 part of it is reduced to nothing; the dust, or the body, which 
 is of the dust, returns to the earth, as it was, and the soul or 
 spirit to God, that gave it. Death is sometimes expressed 
 by retitrning to the dust; but to return to the dust, and be 
 reduced to nothing, are two different things, unless it can be 
 thought that dust is nothing. It is sometimes signified by 
 seeing corruption ; but corruption is one thing, and annihila- 
 tion another; corruption supposes the thing in being, which is 
 corrupted, annihilation takes away the being of it; notwith- 
 standing corruption, the matter and substance may remain, 
 though the form and quality may be altered, but annihilation 
 leaves nothing. Death is sometimes figuratively expressed by 
 sowing seed in the earth and its rotting and corrupting there, 
 by pulling down a house, and putting off a tabernacle. Now, 
 though the seed sown in the earth dies, corrupts, and rots, yet 
 it is not reduced to nothing; it neither loses its being, nor its 
 nature, but in due time being quickened, buds and puts forth 
 its seminal virtue ; a house may be pulled down, and a taber- 
 nacle unpinned, and the several parts be separated one from 
 another, and yet the matter and substance of them all remain 
 and continue. If the body is annihilated by death, Christ will 
 lose that which is a part of his purchase, and what is united 
 to him, and the Spirit his dwelling place; for Christ has bought 
 the bodies of his people, as well as their souls, and which, with 
 their souls, are the members of him, and in which the Spirit of 
 God dwells, as in his temple. Besides, if the body was reduced 
 to nothing by death, the resurrection of the body would not 
 be properly a resurrection, but a creation of a new body; and, 
 indeed, this notion of annihilation is designed to make way for 
 
400 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 the introduction of that, the truth of which I shall presently 
 examine. 
 
 As for those scriptures which speak of the dead as though 
 they were not; as when Rachel is represented weeping for 
 her children, and refusing to be comforted, "because they were 
 not," Jer. xxxi. 15, the meaning is not, that they no where ex- 
 isted, had no being, or were reduced to nothing, but they were 
 not in the land of the living, existing among men, and conver- 
 sing with them; seeing it is said of Enoch, that "he was not, 
 for God took him," Gen. v. 24; though he was not on earth, 
 yet he was in heaven with God; his body was not annihilated, 
 but he was taken up, soul and body, to heaven. When the 
 apostle says: "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but 
 God shall destroy both it and them," 1 Cor, vi. 13; he does not 
 design a destruction of the substance of the body, or of any part 
 of it, but respects the use of it, which shall be no more employ- 
 ed in receiving meats, to supply the natural wants of the body, 
 though it will be necessary in the resurrection, as a constituent 
 part of the body, and for the beauty of it. 
 
 2(//y, It is not a new aerial, celestial body, or a spiritual 
 body, as to nature and substance, which shall be united to the 
 soul at the resurrection. It is allowed that the body will be 
 different from what it now is, as to the qualities of it, but not as 
 to its substance, when the apostle compares the body to seed 
 sown in the earth, 1 Cor, xv. 37, 38, which is not quickened, 
 except it die; and says of it, "And that which thou so west, 
 thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may 
 chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but God giveth it a 
 body, as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." 
 He does not design a substantial difference between the body, 
 which is laid in the grave, and that which is raised, but only a 
 difference of qualities, as is between the seed, which is sown 
 in the earth, and the plant, which springs from it ; which two 
 differ not in their specific nature, but in some circumstances and 
 accidents. That this is the apostle's meaning, is evident, when 
 he says: "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; 
 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in 
 weakness, it is raised in power, 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43. The body 
 of Christ is compared to a grain of wheat, " which is cast into 
 the earth, and dies, and then springs up, and brings forth fruit," 
 John xii. 24, and yet it was not a spiritual body, as to sub- 
 stance, but a body consisting of flesh and bones, even the same 
 he had before his death, and such will the bodies of the saints 
 be after the resurrection. The apostle, indeed, says, that the 
 body, which is " sown a natural body," will be " raised a spi- 
 ritual one," 1 Cor. xv, 44, but by a spiritual body he does not 
 mean that the body will be changed into a spirit and lose its 
 former nature and substance, but that it will now be subject and 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION 401 
 
 subservient to the spirit or sonl: it will be employed in spi- 
 ritual service, and be delighted wilh spiritual objects, and will 
 not be supported in a natural way, and by natural helps and 
 means; such as meat, drink, clothes, sleep, and the like, but will 
 live in a manner as angels do. Hence the children of the resur- 
 rection are said to be like unto the angels. — Again, when the 
 apostle says, "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom 
 of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption," 1 Cor. 
 XV. 50, he does not design the human body, simply considered, 
 but as attended with sin and corruption, or with frailty and 
 mortality; for flesh and blood, neither as sinful nor as mortal, 
 shall enjoy the heavenly state; therefore, in order to that, "this 
 corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put 
 on immortahty." If it should be a new aerial, celestial, or spi- 
 ritual body, different in substance from what the body now is, 
 which shall be united to the soul, it would not be a resurrec- 
 tion, but a creation; besides it is not consistent with the justice 
 of God, that new bodies should be created, and without hav- 
 ing ever sinned, as those must be supposed to be, which are 
 of God's immediate creation, be united to the souls of the 
 wicked, and be everlastingly punished with them. Nor can 
 they be said to be truly human bodies, which are without flesh, 
 blood, and bones; nor can they be said to be properly men, 
 who are incorporeal; and, indeed, the same persons that have 
 sinned, cannot be said to be punished, nor the same persons, 
 who are redeemed, to be glorified, unless the same body be 
 raised; which I shall, 
 
 odly. Endeavour to prove. Job fully expresses his faith in 
 this doctrine, when he expresses, " Though after my skin worms 
 destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I 
 shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not an- 
 other, though my reins be consumed within me," Job xix. 26, 
 27. He believed that the same body, which should be destroyed 
 by worms, should be raised again, in which he should see God, 
 and behold him with the self-same eyes of his body he then had, 
 and not with the eyes of another, or of a stranger; and this he 
 firmly believed, though his body would be destroyed by worms, 
 and his reins be consumed within him. The apostle Paul strongly 
 asserts this truth, 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54, when he says, " This mor- 
 tal, [this, and not another, pointing to his own mortal body,] 
 must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on in- 
 corruption: so when this corruption shall have put on incorrup- 
 tion, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall 
 be brought to pass the saying which is written, death is swal- 
 lowed up in victory;" which would not be true, if another, and 
 not the same body was raised from the dead. Again, in an- 
 other place, he says, Phil. iii. 21, that Christ will "change our 
 vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body;" 
 
 51 
 
402 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 but if the same body is not raised, it will not be our vile body, 
 but another, which will be changed, and fashioned like to 
 Christ's body. For the further confirmation of this truth, let the 
 following things be observed: 
 
 1. The signification of the word re.sr«rrec^2072. This properly 
 signifies a raising up of that which is fallen; the same body, 
 which fell by death, is raised by the power of God; this is the 
 proper sense of the word, and the just meaning of it in this arti- 
 cle, nor can it have any other; for if the same body is not raised, 
 which fell, but another is given, it will not be a resurrection, but 
 a creation. 
 
 2. The resurrection of the body is expressed by such JigurU' 
 tive and metaphorical phrases, which manifestly show that it 
 will be the same body which will be raised that dies ; as when 
 it is expressed by the quickenhig of seed, which is sown in the 
 earth, and by an awaking out of sleep. Now, as it is the same 
 seed that is sown in the earth, and dies, that springs up, and 
 shows itself in stalk, blade, and ear: the same, I say, as to the 
 nature and substance ; for wheat produces wheat, and not any 
 other grain, though with some additional beauty, verdure, and 
 greenness; it loses nothing that it had, though it grows up with 
 that it had not before: so the same body that dies, is quickened 
 and raised, though with additional glories and excellencies; the 
 very same it that is sown in corruption, is raised i)i incorrup- 
 tion: and the very same it that is soivn in dishoiiour, is raised 
 in glory; the very same it that is sown in weakness, is raised 
 in poiver ; and the very same it that is sown a natural body, 
 is raised a spiritiial body; or else there is no meaning in the 
 apostle's words. Likewise, as death is compared to a sleep, so 
 the resurrection is expressed by an awaking out of it. Now, as 
 it is the same body that sleeps that is awaked out of it, so it is 
 the same body that falls asleep by death, that will be awaked in 
 the resurrection. 
 
 3. The /;/ace5 from whence the dead will be raised, and which 
 will be summoned to deliver them up, and out of which they 
 will come, deserve our notice. Our Lord says, John v. 28, 29, 
 " All that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
 forth." Every one that reads those words, will easily conceive 
 that the meaning of our Lord is, that the same bodies which 
 are in the graves shall come forth out of them. If other bodies 
 should be produced by God from other matter, and united to 
 souls, they cannot, with truth, be said to come forth from the 
 graves; none but the same bodies, which are there laid, can be 
 supposed to come forth from thence at the resurrection. It is 
 a trifling objection to this doctrine, made by a late writer,* that 
 the word bodies is not used in the text. What of men is laid 
 
 * Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 403 
 
 in the graves bnt their bodies? And what can be expected to 
 come forth from thence but their bodies? And what but the 
 same bodies? It is a very silly question that is put by the same 
 writer,* when he asks, " Would a well-meaning searcher of the 
 Scriptures be apt to think, that if the thing here intended by 
 our Saviour, were to teach and propose it as an article of faitli, 
 necessary to be believed by every one, that the very same bodies 
 of the dead should be raised; would not, I say, any one be apt 
 to think, that if our Saviour meant so, the words should rather 
 have been ftavta ta ai^^a-fa a £v toi; .uvj/juf toij, i. e. all the bodies 
 that are in the graves, rather than all who are in the graves; 
 which must denote persons, and not precisely bodies?" To 
 which I reply, that supposing it our Lord's design, as I verily 
 believe it was, to express this article of our faith, that the same 
 bodies of the dead shall be raised, there was no need that the 
 word bodies should be expressed; it was enough to say, that 
 all that are in their graves shall come forth; and every well 
 meaning searcher of the Scriptures will be easily induced to 
 think, that our Lord designs that the same bodies of men that 
 are laid in the graves shall come forth; nor is any thing more 
 usual in common speech, than to denominate men sometimes 
 from, one parr, and sometimes from another; as when we say, 
 they are mortal, or wise, or foolish. Again, we are told, in the 
 sacred writings, that " the sea gave up the dead M'-hich were in 
 it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in 
 them." Now, if the grave and sea, at the awful summons, 
 shall deliver up the dead which are in them, they must deliver 
 the very same which are laid in them ; for what else can such 
 expressions design? 
 
 4. The subject of the resurrection is the body, and that such 
 as it is in this life, vile and mortal. Christ will '"'change our 
 vile body, and fashion it like unto his glorious body;" and "he 
 that raised up Christ his Son from the dead, shall quicken your 
 mortal bodies by his Spirit, that dwelleth in you," These 
 bodies must be the same we carry about with us now; for 
 what else can be called vile and mortal? Surely not bodies 
 a-new created, which are said to be spiritual and celestial, and 
 which never sinned, and so not subject to mortality. This also 
 destroys an observation of a writer of great note,t that the word 
 aiofxata, bodies, is not used through the New Testament, when 
 mention is made of the resurrection of the dead. His words are 
 these: " He who reads with attention this discourse of St. Paul's, 
 (meaning 1 Cor. xv.) where he discourses of the resurrection, 
 v/ill see, that he plainly distinguishes between the dead that 
 shall be raised, and the bodies of the dead; for it is, vtx^oi, 
 rtavtis, 01, are the nominative cases to iyn^ovtav, ^uoTtoir^^rjoovtat, 
 
 * Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. t Ibid. 
 
404 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 iyi^^rjsovfai., all aloiig, and not ffw^afa, bodies: which one may, 
 with reason, think, would some where or other be expressed, 
 if all this had been to propose it as an article of faith, that the 
 very same bodies shall be raised. The same manner of speak- 
 ing the Spirit of God observes, all through the New Testament, 
 where it is said, raise the dead, quicken or make alive the 
 dead, the resurrection of the deadP Now, not to take notice 
 of the dead bodies of the saints, who were raised after the 
 resurrection of Christ, of whom it is said, Mat, xxvii. 52, "And 
 many bodies of the saints which slept arose;" the observation 
 will appear to be wrong, if we consider the passages now men- 
 tioned, where Christ is said "to change our vile body," Phil, 
 iii. 21. Rom. viii. 11, or "the body of our humility," which be- 
 longs to, and is expressive of the resurrection of the dead; and 
 where God is said to " quicken your mortal bodies:" besides, in 
 the discourse of the apostle Paul, concerning the resurrection, 
 iu 1 Cor. XV., a question is asked, "How are the dead raised? 
 and with what body do they come?" And an answer is given, 
 " It is sown a natural body, and it is raised a spiritual body." 
 Besides, how can the apostle plainly distinguish, as this author 
 says he does in this discourse, between the dead that shall be 
 raised, and the bodies of the dead, if the bodies of the dead all 
 along are not mentioned? 
 
 5. The instances of resurrections that are already past, prove 
 that it will be the same body which will be raised at the gen- 
 eral resurrection. The saints which arose at the resurrection 
 of Christ, rose with the same bodies which were laid in the 
 graves; for it is said, that "the graves were opened, and many 
 bodies of the saints which slept arose." Our Lord Jesus Christ 
 arose from the dead with the same body which hung upon the 
 cross, and was laid in the grave, as is evident, from the print of 
 the nails in his hands and feet; nor was it an aerial or spiritual 
 body, as to its substance, for it consisted of flesh and bones, 
 which a spirit does not, and might be felt and handled. Now, 
 Christ's resurrection was an exemplar of the saints; their bodies 
 shall be changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body. 
 Enoch and EUjah were translated into heaven in the very same 
 bodies they had when here on earth ; and those which will be 
 alive at Christ's second coming, will be changed, and caught 
 up, in the very same bodies in which they will be found, to 
 meet the Lord in the air, and so shall be for ever v/ith him. 
 Now, it is not reasonable to suppose, that our Lord, who 
 partook of the same flesh and blood with the children of God, 
 should be raised and glorified in the same body, and not they 
 in their same bodies, for whose sake he assumed his; or that 
 some of the saints should have the same bodies they had whilst 
 here, and others not. 
 
 6. If the same body is not raised, how will the end of the 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 405 
 
 resurrection be answered, which is the glorifying of God's grace, 
 in the salvation of his people, and of his justice in the dam- 
 nation of the wicked? Hence the one is said to "come forth 
 to the resurrection of life," and "the other to the resurrec- 
 tion of damnation." How shall every one "receive the things 
 done in his body," according to that he hath done, " whe- 
 ther it be good or bad," if the same bodies are not raised, who 
 have done good or evil? Where would be the justice of God, 
 if other bodies, and not those which Christ has purchased with 
 his blood, the Spirit has sanctified by his grace, and which 
 have suffered for the name of Christ, should be glorified ? as 
 also if other bodies, and not those which have sinned against 
 God, blasphemed the name of Christ, and have persecuted his 
 saints, should suffer eternal vengeance, and be punished with 
 everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the 
 glory of his power? Where would be the veracity of God, 
 either in his promises or threatenings, if the good things he has 
 promised, are not bestowed upon the same persons to whom 
 he has promised them, and if the punishment he has threaten- 
 ed, is not inflicted on the same persons to whom he has threat- 
 ened it ? for how they can be the same persons, without having 
 the same bodies, I do not understand. Besides, what a disap- 
 pointment will it be to the saints, who are waiting for the 
 adoption, to wit, the redemption of their body, from all weak- 
 ness and corruption, if not that, but another body, shall be 
 given them, and be united to their souls, and be glorified with 
 them ! 
 
 In fine, if the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which 
 the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament hold forth, does 
 not intend the resurrection of the same body; it is no other, nor 
 better, than a transmigration of souls into other bodies, which 
 was the old Pythagorean notion. 
 
 It is a low and mean quibble, that a man has not the same 
 body at one time as at another, because he may be taller or 
 bigger, fatter or leaner at one time than at another. It is true, 
 that the body has not always the same fleeting particles, which 
 are continually changing and altering, but it has always the 
 same constituent parts; so that a man may be always said to 
 have the same body, and to be the same man; it is the same 
 body that is born that dies, and the same that dies that shall 
 rise again. The several alterations and changes it undergoes, 
 with respect to tallness or largeness, fatness or leanness, do 
 not destroy the identity of the body. If this quibble would 
 hold good in theological controversies, and in philosophical 
 disputes, it might also in political affairs; and so one that owes 
 another a sum of money, and has given his note or bond for it, 
 after a term of time, may deny that he owes the other any 
 thing, or that he ever borrowed any thing of him, and that it 
 
406 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 is not his hand writing, since he has not the same body he had 
 before. A murderer, taken up some years after the murder is 
 committed, may plead he is not the same man, and that it was 
 not done with tlie same hands he has now, and therefore, in 
 justice he ought not to suffer. And the same may be observed in 
 ten thousand other instances, whereby confusion must be intro- 
 duced into commonwealths, and justice and order subverted in 
 governments. This observation may be sufficient to stop the 
 mouths of such impertinent cavillers, who are ready to ask such 
 questions as these; whether the body, at the resurrection, will 
 have all the individual particles of matter it ever had? or whe- 
 ther it will be raised, as when it was at such an age, or in such 
 a plight? or as it was emaciated by distempers, or as laid in the 
 grave? It is enough that it will have the constituent parts it 
 ever had, which is sufficient to support the identity of it. I 
 shall now proceed, 
 
 IV. To consider the particular concern which God the 
 Father, Son and Spirit have in this stupendous work. It is a 
 work that a creature is unequal to, and incapable of. It is 
 always ascribed to God; it is God that raises and quickens the 
 dead. If it was ever referred to a creature, it might well be 
 judged incredible; but it need not be thought incredible that 
 God should raise the dead. Now, as all God's works, ad extra, 
 are common to all the three Persons, and this being such an 
 one, they are all three concerned in it. And, 
 
 1. God the Father is concerned herein. The resurrection of 
 Christ is frequently attributed to him, and so is the resurrection 
 of the saints, and they are sometimes mentioned together; the for- 
 mer as the pledge and earnest of the latter, as saith the apostle, 
 1 Cor. vi. 14, " And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will 
 also raise up us by his own power;" that is, God the Father 
 has raised up the Lord Jesus, and we may be assured that he 
 will also raise up us, since as he is able to raise the one, he is 
 able to raise the other, and that by his own absolute, original, 
 and underived power; which assurance of faith, in the doctrine 
 of the resurrection, the apostle expresses in another place, in 
 stronger terms, " We having the same Spirit. of faith, according 
 as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we 
 also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised 
 up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall 
 present us with you," 2 Cor. iv. 14, where also the resurrection 
 of the saints is ascribed to God the Father, who is manifestly 
 distinguished from the Lord Jesus, whom he raised up, and by 
 whom he will raise up the saints; not that Christ is the Father's 
 instrument, or medium of operation, by which he will raise the 
 dead; for, 
 
 2. Christ, as God, being equal with the Father, is a co-efficient 
 cause of the resurrection; "As tlie Father raiseth up the dead 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 407 
 
 and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth wliom he 
 will," John V. 22. He is "the resurrection and the hfe," i. e. 
 the Author of the resurrection unto hfe; he is the Prince of hfe, 
 has the keys of hell and death in his hands, and can open the 
 grave at his pleasure, and call forth the dead; at whose all- 
 powerful and commanding voice, all that are in the graves shall 
 come forth; which will be a further proof both of his onniipo- 
 tence and omniscience; this will show that he is the Almighty, 
 since he can " change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
 like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby 
 he is able even to subdue all things to himself;" and that he 
 knows all things, and is that living Word, before whom every 
 creature is made manifest, and all things are naked and open; 
 for if he was not omniscient, he could not know where every 
 particle of matter is lodged ; and, if he was not omnipotent, he 
 could not collect them, range them in their proper places, and 
 unite them together. That he is equal to this work, we may 
 conclude from the resurrection of his own body; he had power 
 to lay down his life, and take it up again; he raised up the 
 temple of his body, after it had been destroyed three days, and 
 so was " declared to be the Son of God with power, according 
 to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." As 
 he is the Mediator, he is the meritorious and procuring cause 
 of the resurrection; there is an influential virtue in his resurrec- 
 tion, not only on the justification and regeneration of his peo- 
 ple, but also upon their resurrection from the dead. He is the 
 ''■ first fruits of them that slept ;" the pledge and earnest of the 
 saints' resurrection; they are, in a sense, risen with him, and 
 shall certainly be raised by him, in virtue of their union to him, 
 as their risen Lord. As man, his resurrection is the pattern and 
 exemplar of the saints; their bodies shall be fashioned like to 
 his ; as his body was raised incorruptible and immortal, pow- 
 erful and glorious, so shall theirs, in such manner, as never to 
 die more, or see corruption, or be attended with distempers and 
 death. 
 
 3. God the Holy Ghost has a joint and equal concern with 
 the Father and the Son in this amazing work. The resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, is the act of all the three Persons : the Father 
 glorified his Son by raising him from the dead : he "raised him 
 from the dead, and gave him glory." Christ of himself took up 
 the life, which he had laid down; and though he was "put to 
 death in the flesh," yet he " was quickened by the Spirit." So the 
 resurrection of the saints from the dead, will be the act of all 
 the three Persons, not only of the Father and the Son, but also 
 of the Spirit; for " if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from 
 the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, 
 shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwell- 
 eth in you," Rom. viii. 11. The bodies, as well as the souls of 
 
408 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 the saints, are united to Christ, by virtue of which union the 
 Spirit of Christ dwells in them ; not in their souls only, but in 
 their bodies also ; " What! know ye not that your body is the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" 1 Cor. vi. 19. Now, 
 as the union between Christ and his people is not dissolved by 
 death, so neither does the Spirit of God forsake the dead bodies 
 of the saints, or neglect to take care of them; the dust of the 
 saints is under his peculiar care and guardianship; and, at the 
 last day, the Spirit of life from God, shall enter into them, and 
 they shall live and stand upon their feet. — Thus all the three 
 divine Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, will be concerned in the 
 resurrection of the just. 
 
 The means by which God will do this great work, and the 
 time when he will do it, the Scriptures are not altogether silent 
 about. As to the means, we are told, that " all that are in the 
 graves shall hear his (i. e. Christ's) voice, and shall come 
 forth," John V. 28,29, "that the Lord himself shall descend 
 from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and 
 with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise ;" and 
 that the " trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised 
 incorruptible;" but whether by the voice of Christ and the 
 archangel, the shout, and the trumpet of God, we are to un- 
 derstand so many several distinct things, or one and the same 
 thing, is not easy to determine. The voice of the archangel, 
 who shall descend with Christ, may be called the voice of 
 Christ, because formed at his command; the same may be sig- 
 nified by the trumpet of God, which shall be sounded, and that 
 may be signified by the shout which shall be made, either by 
 the archangel alone, or by all the angels with him, and this 
 shout no other than some violent claps of thunder, which are 
 the voice of God; like those which were heard when God 
 descended on Mount Sinai, and gave the law from thence, 
 which, perhaps, were formed by the ministry of angels; and 
 this the apostle Peter may design, when he says: "The hea- 
 vens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
 melt with fervent heat," 2 Pet. iii. 10. Or by the voice of Christ, 
 may be meant an audible and inarticulate voice of his, so power- 
 ful, as to reach all that are in their graves, such as that was 
 which was heard at the grave of Lazarus, where " he cried 
 with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth ;" or as that which 
 Saul heard from heaven, saying " Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
 thou me?" or as John heard, which he says, "was as the 
 voice of many waters." Or, perhaps, the voice of Christ may 
 design the power of Christ, which shall be exerted upon, and 
 shall be felt and perceived by all that are in their graves, when 
 the archangel shall sound the last trumpet, attended with the 
 shout of all the rest of the angelic host. 
 
 As for the time, when the dead shall be raised, it cannot be 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 409 
 
 exactly jfixecl, nor does it become us curiously to inquire into 
 it; " It is not for us to know the times and the seasons, which 
 the Father hath put in his own power," Acts i, 7. As no man 
 knows the day and hour of judgment, so no man knows the day 
 when the dead will be raised. In general, it is said, that " it 
 will be in the last day, and at the coming of Christ," John vi. 
 39,40. 44. 54, and xi. 24; 1 Cor. xv. 27, at which time the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first; that is, they shall rise before the 
 wicked, which will be the first resurrection. Not that the mar- 
 tyrs shall rise before the rest of the righteous, but all the right- 
 eous shall rise at Christ's coming; but whether their rising 
 will be successive, or be at once, in a moment, is not very ma- 
 terial. The change that will be made on the living, will be in 
 a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; but it is not so manifest, 
 that the resurrection of the dead will be so quick and sudden, 
 but rather that it will be successive; since it is said, " Every 
 man in his own order shall be raised," 1 Cor. xv. 23, which 
 may be understood either of order of time, so that they that died 
 first, shall be first raised; or of dignity, so that those who have 
 been the most eminent for gifts, grace, usefulness, &c. shall be 
 first called forth out of their graves, which, perhaps, may be the 
 differing glory that will be upon the saints at the resurrection, 
 of which the apostle speaks, saying, " There is one glory of the 
 sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the 
 stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory, so also 
 is the resurrection of the dead." 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42. 
 
 There are many curious and needless questions which are 
 asked concerning the resurrection, and the state of those who 
 are raised ; as, whether abortions, or untimely births, shall be 
 raised? at what age, and in what stature the dead shall rise? 
 whether with their present deformities or not? whether there 
 will be any distinction of sexes? and whether persons shall 
 know one another? But these I shall not give myself the trou- 
 ble to answer, but pass on to that which will be more useful ; 
 which is, 
 
 V. And lastly. To show the importance and use of this doc- 
 trine. 
 
 \st, I shall consider the importance of it. It is a fundamen- 
 tal article of the Christian faith; it is called "the foundation of 
 God, which stands sure," 2 Tim. ii. 19, though some deny it, 
 and others endeavour to sap it, but none can destroy it : it is 
 reckoned among the first principles of the doctrines of Christ, 
 Heb. vi. 1,2, and is joined with eternal judgment, which it pre- 
 cedes, and in order to which it is absolutely requisite. The 
 resurrection of Christ stands and falls with it; for, "if there be 
 no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen ; and if 
 Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith 
 is also vain," 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14. The whole gospel is connected 
 
 52 
 
410 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 with it; if there is no truth in this, there is none in that. As 
 the doctrine of the resurrection receives confirmation from the 
 doctrines of personal election, the gift of the persons of the elect 
 to Christ, the covenant of grace, redemption by Christ, union 
 with him, and the sanctification of the Spirit, so these can have 
 no subsistence without supposing that. If the dead rise not, 
 there can be no expectation of a future state ; " Then they also 
 which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished," 1 Cor. xv. 18. 
 And so there is no ditference between them and the brutes, as 
 the one dieik, so dieth the other ; and if this be the case, " if in 
 this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most 
 miserable," verse 19. Besides, as has been observed, the resur- 
 rection is absolutely necessary to eternal judgment : without it 
 the judgment cannot proceed ; for, how should " every one 
 receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
 done, whether it be good or bad," if his body is not raised ? To 
 say no more, practical religion much depends upon the truth of 
 this doctrine; the denial of it must open a door to all manner 
 of licentiousness. The opposers of this doctrine have been 
 observed, in all ages, to be very bad livers; and, indeed, it need 
 not be wondered at ; it is a natural consequence, " If the dead 
 rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," 1 Cor. 
 XV. 32, On the other hand, where this doctrine is firmly believed, 
 and strictly attended to, there will be a studious concern to 
 glorify God, by a becoming life and conversation. This may 
 be observed in the experience and practice of the apostle Paul, 
 which he delivers in these words, "And have hope towards 
 God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be 
 a resurrection of the just and unjust; and herein (says he,) 
 upon this account, do I exercise myself to have a conscience 
 void of offence toward God and toward men," Acts xxiv. 
 15, 16. 
 
 2f//y, I shall now consider the use of this doctrine; whatever 
 is important, and of moment, must be useful. This doctrine is 
 of use, 
 
 1. For instruction. It serves to enlarge our views of the 
 divine perfections; as the immutability of God in his purposes; 
 his faithfulness in his promises; his omniscience, which extends 
 to all creatures, and every thing that belongs to them; and his 
 omnipotence, which nothing can withstand. Those who deny 
 the resurrection, must not only be ignorant of the Scriptures 
 but of the power of God, as the Sadducees were. This doctrine 
 teaches us to think highly of Jesus Christ, as God over all, 
 blessed for ever, as possessed of all divine perfections; since he 
 is the resurrection and the life, the first-fruits of them that slept; 
 he is the efficient cause by whom, and the meritorious cause 
 through whom, and the exemplar according to whom the resur- 
 rection of the saints will be. Tiie concern which the Holy Spirit 
 
OF THE RESURRECTION. 411 
 
 has in our resurrection, may serve to endear him to us, and 
 teach us not to grieve him, by whom wc are "sealed unto the 
 day of redemption," i. e. of our bodies from corruption and 
 death; he not only sanctifies our bodies, and dwells in them, 
 but has the care of our dust, and will quicken it at the last day. 
 What an instruction is this doctrine to faith and trust in God, 
 Father, Son, and Spirit? If God can and will raise the dead, 
 what is it he cannot do? Faith should not stagger at any thing 
 which God has promised to perform, or be discouraged at any 
 difficulties in its way, or at any trials and alfiictions it meets 
 with. Tlie consideration of this, that God quickens the dead, 
 Rom. iv. 17 — 20, quickened Abraham's faith, so that he "stag- 
 gered not at the promise through unbelief," though there were 
 difficulties attending it insuperable to nature. And when the 
 apostles had the sentence of death in themselves, they were 
 directed not to trust in themselves, " but in God, which raiseth 
 the dead, who, (say they,) delivered us from so great a death, 
 and doth deliver; in whom we trust tliat he will yet deliver 
 us," 2 Cor. i. 9, 10. Moreover, this doctrine may teach us, that 
 all due and proper care ought to be taken of our bodies, both 
 whilst living, and when dead. All proper care ought to be 
 taken of them whilst living; though they are not to be pam- 
 pered, they are not to be starved: they are to be fed and clothed, 
 according to the blessings of life, which God bestows upon men, 
 provided the bounds of moderation and decency be observed; 
 for to transgress these by luxury and intemperance, is not to 
 use our bodies well, but to abuse them: and when the body is 
 dead, care ought to be taken that it be decently interred, which 
 may be confirmed by the examples of Abraham, Joseph of 
 Arimathea, and others. 
 
 2. This doctrine is of use for cotisolation. The day of the 
 resurrection will be a day of consolation to the saints. Hence 
 the Syriac version reads those words of Martha, " I know that 
 he shall rise again, in the resurrection at the last day," John 
 xi. 24, thus: "I know that he shall rise again, in the consola- 
 tion at the last day." Then will be the consummation of the 
 saints' joy and comfort, and a believing view of it now must 
 be very delightful to them; as they are waiting for the adop- 
 tion, to wit, the redemption of the body, so they may lift up 
 their heads with joy, because this their redemption draweth 
 near. The consideration of this doctrine must be a great sup- 
 port to saints under trials and afiiictions, under diseases and 
 distempers of body, in the views of death, and the several 
 changes the body shall undergo after death ; I say, it must be a 
 very comfortable consideration, that, in a little time, all these 
 trials will be ended; there will be no more diseases, nor death: 
 and though the body, for a while, shall be the food of worms, 
 and return to its original dust, yet it shall be raised immortal 
 
412 OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 and incorruptible, powerful and glorious: "This mortal must 
 put on immortality, and this corruption must put on incorrup- 
 tion;" and in our flesh shall we see God, and enjoy the com- 
 pany of angels and saints. To conclude: this doctrine must be 
 of great use to support persons under the loss of near relations; 
 when they consider, that though they are dead, they shall rise 
 again; though they have parted with them, it is but for a time; 
 and therefore they should not " sorrow, even as others, which 
 have no hope," 1 Thess. iv. 14, 17, 18, "for if we believe that 
 Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in 
 Jesus, will God bring with him; wherefore we may comfort 
 one another with these words, and so shall we be ever with 
 the Lord." 
 
A 
 
 VINDICATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 KVANGELICAL DOCTRINE OF MAN'S SALVATION 
 
 BT 
 
 THE FREE GRACE OF GOD, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 CHARGE OF PROi\IOTING LICENTIOUSNESS. 
 By MR. ABRAHAM TAYLOR, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Romans v. 20, 21 ; vi. 1, 2. — Where sin abounded, grace much more abounded ; 
 that as sin has reigned to death, so grace might reign, through righteousness, 
 to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then ? shall we 
 continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid : how shall we, who are 
 dead to sin, live any longer in it ? 
 
 When rational creatures rebel against their righteous and 
 mighty Maker, they cut themselves off from all right to claim 
 any benefit or blessing at his hands; they deserve nothing from 
 him, but wrath and indignation; and if they are recovered from 
 the ruin they have brought on themselves, and are made par- 
 takers of salvation, it is from the good pleasure of his will; and 
 it must be in a way that does not injure his perfections. God 
 foreknew the fall of creatures, endued with reason ; and it lay 
 entirely in his breast, whether he would provide for their rescue, 
 or for the deliverance of any number of them, or whether he 
 would leave them, to feel the bitter consequences of their apos- 
 tasy; if the last is supposed^ he acts no injustice, for he gives 
 them no more than their deserts. When a numerous company 
 of the mighty potentates of heaven conspired against the High- 
 est, under Satan's banner, proudly thinking to be more glorious 
 than God had made them, he, who brought them into being, 
 by the word of his power, cast them out of those thrones of 
 honour, in which they sat exalted, banished them his presence, 
 and doomed them to suffer eternal years of wo and pain. He 
 had not a thought of mercy towards the princes of light, when 
 rebelUon rose among them, but entirely cast them off, and has 
 reserved them in everlasting chains, under darkness, to the 
 
 413 
 
414 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 judgment of the great day, at which time fuhiess of torment 
 will be inflicted upon them, and they will not be suffered to 
 range about the world, as they do at present, but will be shut 
 up in that prison, where sorrow will take up its abode, and 
 where despair will for ever keep up the horrors of its gloomy 
 reign. 
 
 No one, who owns the Scriptures, ever had the face to charge 
 God with injustice, for condemning the morning stars to black- 
 ness and darkness. He might, without any stain to his honour, 
 have left the whole race of sinful men to destruction; for they, 
 after transgression, have no more claim to his favour, than the 
 devils; but he was pleased to choose a remnant of them, in 
 whose salvation he might make known the riches of his grace. 
 That this might be done without injury to his other perfections, 
 he appointed Christ to be the Redeemer, to satisfy his justice, 
 and so to procure for those for whom he died, a freedom from 
 all evil, and a title to all good. The salvation of sinners, 
 whether we regard it, in its platform from eternity, or in its 
 being actually brought about in time, or in its entire completion 
 at the great rising day, is all by the grace of God, and on ac- 
 count of what Christ has done and suffered, and is not in the 
 least ov/ing to any thing which is in man, or is done by him. 
 The revelation which gives an account of man's salvation by 
 grace, is what is properly styled the gospel of God; and when 
 men hear the evangelical doctrine opened and unfolded, unless 
 the Holy Spirit leads them to the knowledge of the truth, they 
 either rise up with rage against it, or they abuse it. Conceited 
 mortals, who are for working out their salvation by their own 
 strength, cannot bear that the glory of it should be given en- 
 tirely to the grace of God, and not partly to their feeble endea- 
 vours; therefore they are filled with hatred against the doctrine 
 of grace, and wickedly and maliciously charge it with opening 
 a door for licentiousness; and in drawing this spiteful indict- 
 ment against the glorious gospel of the blessed Jesus, it is to be 
 feared, they have been not a little strengthened by the odious 
 consequences, which are sometimes attempted to be deduced 
 from it, by such as wrest it, to countenance their immoralities. 
 These, because they do not care to leave their sins, or to prac- 
 tise the difficult duties of repentance, self-denial, and mortifica- 
 tion, have been ready to say, that if salvation is by grace, they 
 shall certainly be saved, seeing they are elected, however they 
 live ; but herein they discover their great ignorance of the de- 
 sign of God, in the Christian scheme of salvation, which was 
 not barely to debase man, and to exalt Christ, but to advance 
 holiness. 
 
 The great apostle of the Gentiles, in the words which have 
 been chosen to speak from, declared, that when sin had brought 
 men under the desert of eternal destruction, and so had abounded 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 415 
 
 and reigned to death, grace much more abounded, to bring 
 about the salvation of men, and so reigned to eternal lile; but 
 that it only reigned in a way of righteousness, because God 
 would not dishonour his perfections; and that therefore it could 
 reign to life no other way tlian by Christ, who could, by his 
 active and passive obedience, satisfy the offended justice of 
 God, and procure eternal life for sinners. He was sensible, 
 that when he had asserted, that the grace of God was glorified, 
 in the salvation of them who had transgressed, some perverse 
 creatures might plead, that the more men sin, the more the 
 grace of God is glorified in their salvation; and might hence 
 infer, that they may abound in sin, that more glory may be 
 brought to the grace of God; he therefore put the question, 
 whether men might continue in sin, that grace might abound, 
 which he answered in the negative, in a way that showed his 
 utmost abhorrence of the vile suggestion; and, to support his 
 answer, he added a very strong argument, in the form of a 
 question, to let us know, that it was morally impossible, that if 
 we are dead to sin, we can continue in the wilful commission 
 of iniquity. This accomplished minister of Christ, at the same 
 time that he advanced the grace of God, took care to guard his 
 doctrine against the pernicious consequences, which vain and 
 ignorant pretenders might draw from it : he, when he exalted 
 grace, recommended holiness, as necessary: he acted like a 
 wise master-builder, who does not bestow a great measure of 
 garniture on the front of the structure, which he rears, and 
 leave the other parts entirely without ornament, but takes care 
 that the whole edifice be well proportioned and compacted 
 together, and that all the parts of it be set off in the best man- 
 ner. 
 
 It has been common at all times, and never more than in our 
 day, for the opinionated sons of flesh to rail at the doctrine of 
 salvation by grace, and to charge it with encouraging licentious- 
 ness; therefore, to vindicate this glorious doctrine against so vile 
 and diabolical a calumny, cannot be unseasonable or improper: 
 and it may very easily be made to appear, that there is not the 
 least foundation for such an unrighteous accusation. In doing 
 of which, 
 
 I. I shall show what we understand by the Scripture doctrine 
 of man's salvation by the free grace of God, and shall give a 
 short summary of those evangelical points, which we take in 
 our notion of it ; in doing of which, I shall evince, in the gene- 
 ral, that it does not encourage licentiousness. 
 
 In the oracles of truth, the salvation of men is attributed to 
 the free and the abundant grace of God. The apostle Paul 
 has declared, that the design of God in saving sinners, was to 
 display the riches of his grace, in the following remarkable pas- 
 sage: " God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith 
 
416 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 he loved ns, when we were dead in sins, has quickened ns;-- 
 that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his 
 kindness towards us through Christ; for by grace are ye saved, 
 through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, 
 not by works, least any one should boast," Eph. ii. 4 — 9. It 
 is not by the works of the law, but by free mercy, that we are 
 saved; for we are told, "that the kindness and love of God 
 our Saviour appeared in that, not by works of righteousness, 
 which we had done, but according to his mercy he saved us," 
 Tit. in. 4, 5. It is, to the comfort of all that are weary and 
 heavy laden with the burden of sin, declared, that " the grace 
 of God, and the gift by grace, which is through one, even Jesus 
 Christ, has abounded to many; and that they who receive abun- 
 dance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life 
 by one, even Jesus Christ," Rom. v. 15, 17. All saving bless- 
 ings are conveyed to us in and through Christ, because he pur- 
 chased them for us, by the infinite merit of his obedience and 
 death; yet salvation is ascribed to rich, free, and abundant grace, 
 because it was by grace that we were appointed to salvation, 
 and it was love v/hich provided a Redeemer for us, who might 
 satisfy infinite justice for us, when we were guilty; might recon- 
 cile us, when we were enemies, and might save us, when we 
 were lost; that so grace might reign, through righteousness, in 
 our recovery from ruin. 
 
 Salvation, taken in the general, is ascribed to the grace of 
 God, in the sacred volume; and further, all the principal parts 
 of it, such as election, justification, regeneration, and effectual 
 calling, and the consummating our happiness, are declared to 
 be from grace. If we consider the heirs of salvation as chosen 
 by God, and predestinated to eternal glory, it is from his sove- 
 reign grace ; it is expressly said, " God has chosen us in Christ, 
 before the foundation of the world; having predestinated us 
 to the adoption of children, through Jesus Christ, to himself, 
 according to the sovereign pleasure of his will, to the praise 
 of the glory of his grace," Eph. i. 4, 5, 6. If we regard those 
 who are redeemed from wrath, as having their sins forgiven, 
 and being justified, it must be granted, that it is because of the 
 active and passive obedience of Christ, imputed to them, and 
 is the reward of his merit; but if we bear in mind, that it was 
 grace which provided a righteousness of infinite value, and 
 which imputes it to us, we cannot wonder to find it declared 
 in Scripture, that " in Christ we have redemption through his 
 blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's 
 grace;" that "we are justified freely by grace, through the 
 redemption purchased by Christ, and, being so, are made heirs, 
 according to the hope of eternal life," Eph. v. 7. If we view 
 such as are delivered from the power of indwelling sin, as born 
 again, as turned from darkness to light, and as effectually called. 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 417 
 
 we must, if we believe the authority of God's word, own that 
 they are indebted for their regeneration, their conversion, and 
 their holy vocation to free and efficacious grace, and sovereign 
 distinguishing mercy. The Scriptures of truth have told us, 
 that it is " God the Father, who, according to his abundant 
 mercy, has begot us again to a lively hope, and to an inherit- 
 ance incorruptible, undefiled, and never fading ;" that it is 
 "according to his mercy that he saves, by the washing of regen- 
 eration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit-," that "it is through 
 the tender mercies of our God, that the day-spring from on high 
 has visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in 
 the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace ;" 
 that it is God " who has saved us, and called us with a holy 
 calling, not according to our works, but according to his own 
 purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before 
 the foundation of the world, but is since made manifest by the 
 appearing of Christ in the flesh," 1 Pet. i. 3. Tit. iii. 5. Luke 
 i. 7S, 79. 2 Tim. i. 9, 10. If we let our thoughts go on to the 
 consummating of the design of God and Christ, in perfect bless- 
 edness being conferred on those who are justified and sanctified, 
 we must still confess that they are indebted for the crowns of 
 glory, which they will wear in the country of light, to abundant 
 mercy and rich grace ; for we are assured, " that grace must 
 reign through righteousness to eternal life," Romans v. 21 ; 
 vi. 23, and that this, let it be ever so great a blessing, is the free 
 gift of God: so that whether we consider our salvation as it was 
 decreed by God before time, as it was purchased by Christ, in 
 the fulness of time, as it is begun in the day of God's power, or 
 as it is completed when we leave the body, we must own that 
 it is all of grace, and is the gift of grace. 
 
 As God, in saving sinners, designed to glorify his free grace, 
 and to make his undeserved goodness appear in its full beauty, 
 so one great end he had in view was to promote holiness. All 
 the several parts of salvation are mentioned in Scripture, as 
 what should stir us up to abound in holiness and good works. 
 If we are elected by God, it is that " we may be holy and blame- 
 less before him in love," Eph. i. 4, 5. 2 Thess. ii. 13. 1 Pet. 
 i. 2, and if we reap the benefits of electing love, it is " through 
 sanctification of the Spirit to obedience." If Christ " gave 
 himself for us," it was that "he might redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify us to himself a peculiar people zealous of 
 good works," Tit. ii. 13. If we are ransomed, not with cor- 
 riiptiblc things, but with the "precious blood of Christ," it is, 
 that " we may be delivered from a vain conversation, and may 
 pass the time of our sojourning here below in fear," 1 Pet. i. 
 17, IS, 19. If we are " bought with a price," it is that we may 
 " look upon ourselves to be no longer our own," but may be 
 sensible of the obligations we are under to "glorify God in our 
 
 53 
 
418 OF THE DOCTRINE OE GRACE, 
 
 bodies and spirits, which are his," 1 Cor. vi, 20. If we are 
 •'new formed by God," it is "for himself, that we may show 
 forth his praise," Isa. xliii. 21. If we are made partakers of a 
 spiritual vocation, it is, that as he, who has called us, is holy, 
 •' we may be holy in all manner of conversation," 2 Pet. i, 15. 
 If we receive the earnest of a kingdom that cannot be shaken, 
 we must " serve God acceptably, and with godly fear," Heb. xii. 
 28. If we are brought to " see God" in the light of glory, it is 
 not without " following after holiness," Heb. xii. 14. If we 
 enter within the " gates of the heavenly city," and "eat of the 
 tree of life," Rev. xxii. 14, 15, we must be such as do God's 
 commandments, and do not " give way to impurity, or love to 
 make a lie." 
 
 We find the Scripture is far from supposing, that man's being 
 indebted to free grace, for all the parts of his salvation, is any 
 encouragement to act licentiously; it asserts, that if man is 
 made partaker of the benefits, which are the fruits of unde- 
 served love, he is by this laid under obligations to be holy, and 
 to abound in good works ; that he may manifest, that he has 
 had imparted to him the gifts of mercy; that he may show his 
 gratitude to the author and giver of the things which relate to 
 his everlasting peace, by living to his praise; and that he may 
 have a meetness to inhabit the pure and incorruptible realms, 
 where he shall see his Redeemer as he is. When men think, 
 that ascribing the salvation of sinners to the free grace of God, 
 has a tendency to loose the bands of duty, it is because they 
 have no right knowledge of the doctrine of grace, and because 
 they talk of what they do not understand. We may take a 
 summary view of those evangelical truths, which are compre- 
 hended in what is commonly called the doctrine of man^s sal- 
 vation by grace, in the following six articles: 
 
 1. The very notion of salvation includes in it the need the 
 persons have to be saved, who are the subjects of it ; for if 
 there had been no transgression, there would have been no 
 need of a restoration ; so that if we suppose men are not happy, 
 without salvation, we must allow, that, in themselves, they are 
 in a miserable condition. God made man upright, and he 
 came pure out of his Maker's hands; who entered into a cove- 
 nant of works with him, and all his posterity in him, as a com- 
 mon head, promising life, on condition of perfect obedience: 
 this covenant our common father broke, by sinning against 
 God; by this apostasy, he, and we in him, fell from original 
 righteousness, lost communion with God, and so became dead 
 in sin ; the guilt of the first Adam's sin is imputed to all his 
 posterity, and a corrupt nature is derived to them, whereby 
 they are averse to all good, and prone to all evil. Having fallen 
 from God, it is not possible for us to restore ourselves ; for all 
 the good we can do, is previously owing to God, by the law of 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 419 
 
 creation, and so cannot make atonement for what we omit; but, 
 setting this aside, our minds are darkened, our wills are filled 
 with enmity against God, and our affections run astray from 
 him; so that when we do what is materially good, we do not act 
 from a principle of love to our supreme Lawgiver, we regard 
 not his will, neither do we make his glory our end. The conse- 
 quence of all this is, that the Most High will not manifest his 
 mercy to us, on account of any thing in us, or any thing done 
 by us: we are debtors to his justice, and must fall victims to his 
 anger, unless he is pleased, out of his sovereign free love, to re- 
 member us in our low estate, and provide for our recovery, in a 
 way not derogatory to his perfections, and not inconsistent with 
 his maintaining his own honour. 
 
 2. God foreknew the fall of man, and knew how to turn it 
 to his own glory; he, in his sovereign pleasure, thought fit not to 
 leave the whole of the human race to perish : a certain deter- 
 minate number he chose in Christ to salvation, without foresight 
 of good works, as causes moving him hereto, but according to 
 the good pleasure of his will: these he has predestinated, to be 
 conformed to the image of his Son, that in time they may be 
 holy and blameless before him; and that at the end of their days, 
 they may be happy with him. For the salvation of his elect 
 God the Father provided, before the world began, in entering 
 into a covenant witli God the Son, as their Head, and with them 
 in him: this covenant being made between two immutable Per- 
 sons, is invariable ; and the most ample provision is made for 
 the salvation of such as were represented by Christ, seeing 
 their welfare is not made to depend on uncertain conditions to 
 be performed by them, but all things are promised freely to be, 
 by grace, wrought in them, in due time, relating to holiness and 
 happiness. 
 
 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Surety and Redeemer, in the 
 fulness of time, appeared in the flesh, and, being God as well 
 as man, offered a satisfaction of infinite value to the offended 
 justice of his Father, by fulfilling the law, and suffering death, 
 for the sins of his people: and all that are justified before God, 
 are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption pur- 
 chased by Christ. The active and the passive obedience of the 
 Redeemer is imputed to them, as their sole justifying righteous- 
 ness; and for the sake of this only their sins are forgiven, and 
 their persons are accepted as righteous in the sight of their 
 Judge, and not for the sake of faith, repentance, or sincere obe- 
 dience. Faith is wrought in their hearts, to receive Christ, and 
 to rest upon him; and as it is employed in justification, it only 
 looks to him as a Priest, dying for sin, and atoning for trans- 
 gression: but, in the full compass of it, it receives him in all his 
 offices; it obeys him as a Prophet, and submits to him as a King; 
 though he delivers from the curse of the law, as a broken cove- 
 
420 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 nant of works, yet he never designed to abrogate it, as a rule of 
 life, and to substitute in its room a new remedial law of grace, 
 which, instead of perfect righteousness, requires sincere obedi- 
 ence, as a condition of God's favour. 
 
 4. Regeneration is not owing to man's power, will, or abili- 
 ties ; but he is renewed, or new-created, by the power of the Holy 
 Spirit, who enlightens his mind, renews his will, and purifies 
 his affections. This is a work of grace, and he is altogether pas- 
 sive in it : but the design of this work upon him is, that he may 
 be converted, or rendered active to every good work, and may 
 be sanctified, or live to the praise and glory of God. The Holy 
 Spirit, who is the eflicient cause to work all grace in such as are 
 born from above, enables them to repent of their sins, to resist 
 indwelling corruption, and Satan's temptations, to abound in 
 good works, and to practise the duties of mortification and self- 
 denial, with a view not of men's applause, but of advancing 
 God's glory in the world, and from a desire of showing their 
 gratitude to the Father, who chose them to holiness and salva- 
 tion; to the Son, who redeemed them from wrath and a vain con- 
 versation ; and to the Spirit, who new forms them for himself, 
 that they may show forth his praise. 
 
 5. Such as are sanctified, are not left to carry on, by their 
 own power, the work which they could not begin, but they are 
 enabled, by the Holy Spirit, to hold on their way in the paths 
 of duty: having continual supplies from him, as a Spirit of grace, 
 they advance from lower to higher degrees of holiness, they go 
 from strength to strength ; they fight the good fight of faith, and 
 finish the course of godliness laid out for them; when they de- 
 pend on the aids of divine grace, they move not with a heavy 
 pace, and v/ith slow steps, but they go on with freedom and 
 vigour; forgetting the things that are behind, they reach after 
 the things which are before, and they eagerly follow after holi- 
 ness, without which none can see God ; by the light of faith, here, 
 for their comfort; or in the light of glory, hereafter, for the con- 
 summating their eternal happiness, 
 
 6. When true believers have finished their work of faith, and 
 their labour of love, grace, which laid the foundation of their 
 happiness in the decree of election, and in the covenant between 
 the Father and the Son, lays on the top-stone of their salvation 
 in glory. The good Spirit conducts them to the land of upright- 
 ness, where no unruly motion will ever disturb the quiet of 
 their breasts, but where, in sinless innocence, they will spend a 
 happy eternity; and, with a perfectly holy frame, will, to ever- 
 lasting, engage in God's service, without the least inclination to 
 deviate from him. 
 
 If we respect our salvation, as ordered by God from eternity, 
 it was by grace, but that we might be holy; if we consider it as 
 coming to us freely, as the reward of Christ's purchase, it was 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 421 
 
 that we might be conformed to his image, and might act in 
 obedience to him, as his peciiUar people; if we view it as 
 it is appUed to us by the Spirit, it is that we may be holy here, 
 though not perfectly holy, and that we may be completely holy 
 hereafter in a better world. Though salvation is by grace, yet 
 holiness is a necessary and essential part of it ; and it was never 
 the design of God to manifest his grace, without bringing such 
 as are the subjects of it to bear some resemblance to himself in 
 purity. 
 
 Seeing matters stand thus, it is only ignorance of the doctrine 
 of grace, which makes some men charge it with opening a door 
 to licentiousness, or relaxing the obligations to duty; and which 
 makes others draw odious and false consequences from it to 
 encourage themselves in laziness and immoralities. Did God 
 the Father choose the heirs of glory to holiness, as well as hap- 
 piness? Did God the Son redeem them, by his precious blood, 
 that they might be zealous of good works ? And does God the 
 Holy Spirit renew them, in the whole frame of their minds, 
 that they may walk in the paths of purity, and in the ways of 
 uprightness ? And will any, who desire to be made partakers 
 of salvation, venture to run counter to the end the sacred Three 
 had ill view, as they took their different parts, in contriving, 
 procuring, and effecting the happiness of such as are rescued 
 from destruction? Are believers chosen, redeemed, and renew- 
 ed, that they may be holy, though not because they are holy? 
 And can any have the face to say, that holiness, which was 
 designed to be promoted in election, in redemption, and in 
 regeneration, is not absolutely necessary, if it must not be made 
 the cause or condition of salvation? It is only by reason of 
 men's pride and vanity, which put them upon desiring to be 
 their own saviours, that they are so forward to arraign the doc- 
 trine of grace, which leaves no room for boasting, as being an 
 unholy doctrine ; and it is from men's gross ignorance and 
 aggravated wickedness that they turn it into lasciviousness. God 
 has declared, that the great ends of showing the riches of free 
 grace, of exalting Christ, and of promoting holiness, may be car- 
 ried on together; and let him be true, though men, who run into 
 opposite schemes of error, be found liars. Nothing can be more 
 intolerable, than the arrogance of such as bespatter and reproach 
 the doctrine of grace, and nothing can be more detestable, than 
 the impiety of such as pervert and abuse it. 
 
 II. Having in the general, under the former head, vindicated 
 the doctrine of grace, from the charge of promoting licentious- 
 ness; I shall now more distinctly show, with respect to the 
 several parts of our salvation, that no encouragettient is given 
 to negligence or impurity, by their being ascribed to the free 
 grace of God. 
 
 It cannot be denied, but that the glorious doctrine of free 
 
422 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 grace has been abused, by men of wicked principles, and vile 
 practices. Some, before the apostles had finished their warfare 
 here on earth, endeavoured to " turn the grace of God into 
 wantonness," who are most severely condemned by Peter, in 
 his second epistle, and by Jude in his epistle, both which were 
 written on tlie same occasion: the former of these has the fol- 
 lowing expressions, 2 Pet. ii. 9, 10, 12 — 14, 17 — 19: "The Lord 
 knows how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment, to be 
 punished, chiefly them that walk after the flesh, in the lust of 
 uncleanness: they shall perish in their own corruption, and 
 shall receive the reward of unrighteousness: they count it plea- 
 sure to riot in the day time; having eyes full of the adulteress, 
 and which cannot cease from sin: to them the mist of darkness 
 is reserved for ever, for when they speak great swelling words 
 of vanity, they allure, through the lusts of the flesh, those who 
 for a while escaped from them who lived in error; whilst they 
 promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of sin." 
 The other inspired writer has given us the reason of his inditing 
 his epistle, Jude 3, 4, in the following words: " It was needful 
 for me to write to you, and to exhort you, to contend earnestly 
 for the faith once delivered to the saints ; for there are certain 
 men crept in unawares, who were before ordained to this con- 
 demnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lascivi- 
 ousness." Before the good apostles had sealed the truth with 
 their blood, the Gnostics and Nicolaitans had crept in among 
 Christians, before they were aware, who were ungodly pre- 
 tenders, that were forward to talk of the free grace of God, in 
 great swelling words of vanity; but abused it by making it a 
 handle for loose practices; for they held, that fornication and 
 adultery were things lawful, and that it was no sin to equivo- 
 cate, or to conform occasionally to the heathen ceremonies, and 
 they practised all manner of abominable wickedness. These 
 had their impiety from Simon Magus, the father of almost all 
 heresies. This impostor, who pretended he was the supreme 
 God, who appeared diff'erently, as the Father, as the Son, and 
 as the Spirit, in different dispensations, lived in avowed forni- 
 cation with one Helena, a common prostitute, whom he had 
 brought from the stews; and he gave out that she was the first 
 product of his mind; that by her he made the angels, who had 
 hitherto usurped the government of the world, and had not 
 behaved well: he asserted, that the authors of the Scriptures 
 were inspired by these angels, and consequently that they were 
 not worthy of regard: he therefore allowed such as believed in 
 him and Helena, to live as they pleased, persuading them not 
 to mind the threatenings of the law, and saying that salvation 
 was only by grace, and that good works were not necessary, 
 there being no essential difference between the things com- 
 manded in the Old Testament, and the matters there prohibited: 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 423 
 
 thus, by promising men liberty, he made them the servants of 
 sin; for his followers ran into all manner of impurity. We see, 
 that the abusing the doctrine of grace, was one of the abomi- 
 nations of the first heretic that infested the church, after the 
 appearance of our Saviour in the flesh; his corrupt tenets, as 
 to this, were embraced by all the several sects, which took the 
 proud, vainglorious title of Gnostics, or enlightened persons, 
 men of deep knowledge, and which prevailed very much in the 
 second century. This wicked abuse of a most holy doctrine, 
 is what was not confined to those early ages; the churches of 
 Christ have often been pestered with a generation of vipers, 
 who are for turning the grace of God into wantonness. When 
 the devil has not been able to run down this comfortable doc- 
 trine, by open opposition, he has employed his missionaries to 
 disgrace it, by drawing odious consequences from it. Some 
 impure persons can talk much of free grace; nay, they may 
 affect to be more zealous for the love of God in election, than 
 many who have felt the blessed effects of it, and may scarce be 
 able to bear to hear of any other truth : these, though they may 
 speak great swelling words, about free, rich, sovereign grace, 
 yet have no part or portion in it ; but are in the gall of bit- 
 terness, and under the bond of iniquity, as well as Simon, the 
 first founder of their impiety. They are really enemies to 
 Christ, and they wound him in the house of his friends; and, 
 unless they are brought to repentance, and to the acknowledg- 
 ment of the truth, their condemnation will be more severe than 
 that of ignorant creatures, who knew none of the truths of the 
 gospel. 
 
 There have been some who, by their life and conversation, 
 have showed that they were far from being enemies to holi- 
 ness, Avho have amused themselves with fancies about God's 
 loving and delighting in his elect, while they were in a state of 
 nature, of his seeing no sin in his people, and of good works 
 not being necessary to salvation, and who have been forward 
 to condemn pressing men to duty, as legal preaching, and to 
 speak of exhorting to repentance, mortification, and self-denial, 
 as low and mean stuff. Far be it from us to charge some who 
 have gone into this way of thinking and talking, with turning 
 the grace of God into wantonness; however, as we can state 
 the doctrine we vindicate from the charge of Antinomianism, 
 so as to keep it entirely clear of attributing too much to the will 
 of men, without admitting these positions, which have great 
 difficulties attending them, we certainly are at liberty to do it: 
 and as we would not take into our notion of it what we think 
 easy to be perverted, we desire not to have the opinions of 
 others, which are not embraced by the generality of the pleaders 
 for free grace, attributed to us. 
 
 If we allow the Scripture to be given by divine inspiration. 
 
424 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 we must own, matters are expressed there in the justest way; 
 and we shall find it safe to speak according to it, if we are not 
 guilty of the intolerable folly, which most erring men run into, 
 of setting one imperfect sentence in opposition to the whole 
 tenor of divine revelation, or the analogy of faith. As to the 
 case before us, we have a noble account given us, by the apos- 
 tle Paul, of the tendency of the doctrine of grace, to promote 
 piety, honesty, and temperance, in the following words. Tit. ii. 
 1 1 — 14, which are worthy of the Holy Spirit, who dictated them 
 to him: "The grace of God, which brings salvation, has ap- 
 peared to all men, teachhig us, that denying ungodliness and 
 worldly lusts, we live soberly, righteously, and piously in this 
 present world ; expecting the blessed hope, and the glorious 
 appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ ; who 
 gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, 
 and might purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
 works." This is an excellent account of the true doctrine, 
 which the ministers of the gospel are to preach; and therefore 
 it is no wonder, that the inspired instructer added to this decla- 
 ration, the following charge to Titus, his own son, after the 
 common faith: "These things speak, exhort, and rebuke with 
 all authority; let no man despise thee." We are to show men 
 their duty, to reprove them for their sins, and to exhort them 
 to follow after holiness,that they may adorn the gospel of God ; 
 and we must not be daunted, if we are called legal preachers, 
 and retailers of duties: we are likewise to stand up for the free- 
 ness, the riches, and the abundance of divine grace, and must 
 not be intimidated, in defending that doctrine which attributes 
 men's salvation to the mercy of God, and the purchase of Christ, 
 by the senseless clamour raised against us by a generation of 
 formal pharisees, as if we promoted licentiousness. 
 
 If men would think coolly, and argae rationally, there would 
 be little need of any thing more than fairly stating the doctrine 
 of grace, in order to vindicate it from the charge of Antino- 
 mianism, or to show that it has no tendency to promote licen- 
 tiousness; but as men, while they are in a state of unregeneracy, 
 are swelled with spiritual pride, and puffed up with high and 
 vain conceits of their own performances, they cannot bear the 
 thoughts of being wholly indebted to free grace for their salva- 
 tion, and therefore they hate the doctrine, because it supposes 
 them not to be so considerable in the eyes of God, as they 
 imagine they should be, and so stains the pride of their glory; 
 and as they hate it, it is no wonder that they oppose and malign 
 it, and set it off in the most odious colours, as if it did not inchide 
 the necessity of that holiness of heart and life, which they are 
 not really and sincerely affected to; though, to serve a turn, 
 and to throw a mist before the eyes of the unwary, they would 
 wSeem noisy advocates for it. No charge can be really more 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. • 425 
 
 unjust, than what furious Legalists bring against the evangeli- 
 cal doctrine of free grace, which will, in some measure, appear, 
 if the following particulars are carefully weighed. 
 
 I. The doctrine of free and absolute election no ways weak- 
 ens the obligations we lie under to follow after holiness, 
 because it is averred, by all who know any thing of the Scrip- 
 ture account of this glorious and comfortable doctrine, that 
 though election is free and sovereign,* absolute and uncondi- 
 tional, though men are not elected to happiness, because God 
 foresaw they would be holy, yet he chose them to holiness.t 
 Election does not dissolve the obligation men lie under to God, 
 as creatures; as they are formed by him out of nothing, as they 
 are supported by his providential care, and are supplied by his 
 bounty, and as in his hand are all their ways; they, by the law 
 of creation, are obliged to love him, to obey his will, and, in all 
 their natural, moral, and religious actions, to aim at the ad- 
 vancement of his glory, as their chief and ultimate end, A 
 person must have a head very oddly turned, that can bring 
 himself, on calm reflection, to think, that all these obligations, 
 which lie upon a man, as he is a creature, are either cancelled 
 or weakened, by God's having had thoughts of peace towards 
 him, before the foundation of the world. It is strange arguing, 
 that God's kind intentions to him, loose the bands of duty, or 
 break the relation wherein he stands to his Maker and Law- 
 giver, as his subject. Nay, if we could suppose that a man, in 
 a state of nature, could get any positive proof that he is the 
 elect of God, which by the way is impossible ; yet could it be 
 so, this would be so far from striking out his debt of obedience, 
 that it would add to it a debt of love and gratitude. Surely, 
 no one can say, that if a man could have the surest evidence 
 of his being elected by God, he has liberty to return to him 
 hatred for love, and contempt for kindness. Certainly, an all- 
 wise Being cannot be thought to throw away favours on men, 
 which would be the case, if they were more at liberty to cast 
 contempt on his law, and to repeat acts of rebellion against 
 him, by reason of his having pre-ordained their happiness. 
 
 If we consult the oracles of truth, we shall find, that the pur- 
 pose of God, in electing persons, and in predestinating them to 
 life, was, that they might be holy; and there will be no need to 
 multiply passages, tending to prove this, if we carefully con- 
 sider the following noble rapture, which the apostle Paul, 
 inspired with holy joy, uttered, in the begiiming of his epistle 
 to the saints at Ephesus; "Blessed be God, the Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual bless- 
 ings, in heavenly things in Christ, according as he has chosen 
 
 * See especially the learned Mr. Ridgley's body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 236. col, 
 2. 240. col. 1. 
 
 t See the same useful work; p. 277, col. 2. 231. col. 2. 
 
 54 
 
426 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 US in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should 
 be holy and without blame before him in love, having pre- 
 destinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to 
 himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise 
 of the glory of his grace; by which he has made us accepted 
 in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, 
 and the forgiveness of sins ; in whom also we have obtained 
 an inheritance, being predestinated, according to the purpose of 
 him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 
 that we should be to the praise of his glory, who have trusted 
 in Christ," Eph. i. 3 — 7. 11, 12. Nothing can be more express 
 than this admirable passage, to prove the absolute freeness of 
 election and predestination: it is expressly asserted, that we are 
 chosen by God in Christ, and predestinated to the adoption of 
 children, according to the good pleasure of his will ; nay, his 
 sovereign pleasure; for it is according to the counsel of him 
 that works all things, or certainly and infallibly brings all things 
 about, after the purpose of his will; we are chosen in Christ, 
 and are pre-ordained to the privilege of a change of state by 
 adoption, which is merited and purchased for us by Christ. 
 Now, the end of God, in choosing us, and predestinating us to 
 the grace of adoption, was, that we might be holy and without 
 blame before him in love ; and that we might be to the praise 
 and the glory of his grace. The end of God's choosing us was, 
 that we might be holy ; and does his act in electing us, give us 
 a liberty to frustrate, as far as in us lies, the end of his choice ? 
 Certainly every one, who would show himself to be the elect 
 of God, ought to comply with the end, which he had in view, 
 in choosing him to honour, glory, and immortality. What God 
 has joined together, let not vain man pretend to separate ; and, 
 indeed, it will never be separated, by those who are really the 
 subjects of electing love ; otherwise we must allow, that God 
 has purposed something in vain, which is a thought too shocking 
 and blasphemous to be admitted, concerning a Being of infinite 
 wisdom and power. Our obligation to holiness is not weakened, 
 but strengthened, by considering that those whom God, out of his 
 sovereign pleasure, chose and ordained to life, he also designed 
 should be holy. Accordingly it is matter of fact, that the gene- 
 rality of such as have embraced the doctrine of absolute elec- 
 tion, have been most exemplary in their walk, being sensible 
 that they ought to comply with the end of God, as well as enjoy 
 the privileges he has laid out for them ; whereas too many of 
 those, who would be for tying God's choice to their foreseen 
 faith and good works, as conditions movhig him thereto, take 
 care, by their want of faith, and neglect of good works, to show, 
 that they either are not of the number of God's elect, or have 
 not yet felt the blessed effects of it. A frothy temper of mind, 
 with respect to things sacred, and an unwary conversation, 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 427 
 
 have too commonly been the scandalous badges of such, as 
 must needs have it, that they are chosen by God, for foreseen 
 faith and holiness, and have been the most eager to prate 
 against the true Scripture doctrine of absolute election, with 
 lying and malicious words, by representing it as calculated to 
 promote looseness of life. 
 
 It must, indeed, be owned that some profane sinners have 
 abused this doctrine, and have broken in upon the connexion 
 that there is between the initial parts, and the sure marks of 
 salvation in this life, and the completion of it in the life of glory. 
 But, whatever unruly sinners may imagine, the end will never 
 be bestowed, where the means appointed to bring about that 
 end, nay, which are the beginning of what is to be brought to 
 an end, are entirely thrown aside. Therefore it is mere rant 
 for a hair-brained sinner to say, if I am elected to salvation, I 
 shall be saved, let me live as I list; if I am a chosen vessel, sin 
 shall not hinder my happiness. This is nothing but rumbling 
 talk; it is no better sense than if a man should say, if I am 
 elected, I shall be saved, though I should never be brought into 
 a state of salvation; or, I shall be saved, without salvation; 
 only in this last way of speaking, the nonsense is so apparent, 
 that it strikes even upon the most dull apprehension. Suppos- 
 ing a man was to break a limb, and should refuse to have it 
 set, and was gravely to argue, that his times are in God's 
 hand, and that if it is determined he shall live without being 
 lame, it shall certainly be so with him, though he uses no 
 means ; or supposing a man was to be ready to famish for 
 hunger, and was burnt up with thirst, if he should say, that if 
 he is to live strong, and in health, he assuredly will, whether 
 he takes sustenance or not; supposing such cases, should we 
 not reckon persons, who thus chatter, to be directly mad, or to 
 be mere idiots? Certainly we should, when yet they speak 
 only with reference to the comforts of this life. Surely then it 
 is worse than mad, because the matter is of vastly greater im- 
 portance than the case of this natural life, for any to pretend, 
 that as eternal life is the gift of electing love, it can be obtained 
 without the use of the means which God has determined should 
 be used, and without the grace he actually works in all that he 
 saves. Without holiness, there is no proof of election, therefore 
 absolute election does not lessen our regards to holiness. If 
 persons say they are elected, let them prove they are partakers 
 of the blessings which result from the grace of election by a 
 holy life; for all that are chosen by God to salvation, are sancti- 
 fied by the Holy Spirit. Whoever draws this absurd conse- 
 quence, that if he is elected, he shall be saved, though he does 
 as he will, gives the greatest ground to suspect that he never 
 experienced the love of God; and if he belongs to the election 
 of grace, when he is actually gathered in, he will have very 
 
428 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 different thoughts, and will be filled with shame and humili- 
 ation for having done any thing to disgrace such a holy 
 doctrine. 
 
 If we will not presumptuously deny what is laid down in the 
 oracles of truth, we must be as strenuous to maintain that God 
 chose his people to holiness, as we should be to stand up for 
 the notion of election being only from his sovereign grace; and 
 then, as we shall not make the purpose of the unchangeable 
 God depend on the mutable will of frail men, so we shall never 
 weaken the obligations we are under to be holy, by maintain- 
 ing absolute election. We are, in compliance to God's end, to 
 practise holiness; and so we have a further obligation added to 
 that which lies upon us as creatures, to do whatever is by any 
 means made known to us to be the will of our Maker and kind 
 Preserver. The far greater number of those who have declared 
 their faith, with relation to the great doctrine of particular and 
 absolute election, have sufliciently guarded against all abuse of 
 it; yet it has always been vilified by such as do not care to be 
 wholly indebted to God for salvation; nothing can be more un- 
 righteous than their charge against us; and their injustice is the 
 more highly aggravated, because they either know, or might 
 know, that it is entirely groundless. Whether they are so wicked, 
 as knowingly and maliciously to misrepresent our tenets, or whe- 
 ther they are so foolish as to speak evil of our principles, with- 
 out understanding them, is hard to determine. 
 
 2. The doctrine of free justification by the righteousness of 
 Christ, imputed and received by faith, does not tend to promote 
 licentiousness; because all who look to him as a Priest, dying 
 for sin, and trust in his merit for acceptance with God, receive 
 him in all his offices; and so obey him as a Projjhet, and sub- 
 mit to him as a King. 
 
 Sinners can never appease the anger of God, by what they 
 can perform; because all their duties are what they ov/e to 
 God, as they are his creatures; and so the being found in them, 
 is no more than paying a just debt, and cannot atone for the 
 omission of what they are obliged to do. It was great good- 
 ness in God, when sinners could not answer for themselves, to 
 appoint a Saviour to undertake for them, who, by fulfilling the 
 precept of the law, and suflering the penalty which it inflicted, 
 in case of disobedience, could atone for sin, or make propitia- 
 tion for guilt, satisfy justice, appease the divine anger, magnify 
 the law, and make it honourable, and bring in an everlasting 
 righteousness, of infinite value, which might not only free 
 from condemnation, but might give a right and title to the 
 glory of heaven: and it is rich grace in God, to impute the 
 righteousness of a Redeemer to us, that we may stand before 
 him without shame and blushing. There can nothing be just- 
 ly deduced from this, that can weaken the obligations men are 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 429 
 
 under to obey the law; certainly they are not exempted from 
 observing it, as a rule of life, because they are delivered from 
 the curse of it, as a broken covenant of works. 
 
 Justification, in the sight of God, is for the sake of Christ's 
 active and passive obedience, imputed to a sinner, and received 
 by faith; which is not from himself, but is the gift of God, and 
 is bestowed upon him, and wrought in his heart, whenever 
 the merit of the Redeemer is applied to him. Faith, which is 
 created in the soul of every one who is brought to live in 
 Christ, and to be under him, as a head of righteousness, as it is 
 made use of, by the Holy Spirit, in justification, is wholly and 
 only employed, in looking to Christ as a priest, dying for sin, 
 and in trusting in the merit of his sacrifice, and which he olfer- 
 ed up: it looks to Christ as satisfying justice, answering the 
 demands of the law, as a covenant of works, and suffering 
 death : it regards him as the only priest, deputed and appointed 
 by God to save sinners, and as the only one who can carry 
 away sin, and can appease God, by bearing the weight of 
 infinite wrath; it respects Christ as an infinite person, one of 
 almighty power, to go through what he undertook, and of 
 boundless merit, to procure everlasting happiness; it beholds 
 him in his bloody death, and in his exquisite sufferings, as 
 enduring the utmost shame, and the most acute pain, in his 
 body, and as suffering inexpressible torments in his soul; it flies 
 to him for refuge, from the tempest of divine indignation; it 
 receives him as the only Saviour; and it rests and relies upon 
 him, for the free and full forgiveness of sin, for deliverance 
 from condemnation, for justification before God and acceptance 
 in his sight, and for a right and title to the favour of the Most 
 High, and to eternal life. This is the work of faith, as it is 
 employed in justification; but the enemies of this doctrine know 
 well enough, that they who are advocates for the infinite merit 
 of Christ being the sole cause of a sinner's deliverance from 
 misery, and his being found by God in peace, maintain, that 
 though faith, as it is used in justification, is only employed in 
 looking to, and trusting in Christ as a priest, dying for sin, yet, 
 with different views, it receives Christ in his other offices: it 
 receives him as a prophet, for it assents to the truth of all the 
 glorious doctrines which he has revealed; and it relies on him 
 for spiritual illumination, to know more of God's will, about 
 the duties which are to be performed by all who profess him : it 
 likewise receives him as a king, for it submits to his authority, 
 and obeys his commands; it follows him as he is the Captain 
 of salvation, and it chooses him as a Sovereign, to rule in the 
 heart, to subdue lust, and to rout the armies of indwelling cor- 
 ruption. Faith relies on Christ as a Priest, for justification and 
 acceptance with God; but though this is one prime part of its 
 work, yet this does not take in the whole notion of that grace; 
 
430 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 it depends upon Christ as the great Prophet, who can make 
 wise to salvation, and can lead his people into the knowledge 
 of all truth, and can impress their hearts with a lively belief of 
 what he is pleased to discover; and it trusts in him, as an exalt- 
 ed Saviour and a King, for strength, to be steadfast in the belief 
 of the great truths revealed in Scripture, and to be zealous in 
 the defence of them, for power to practise holiness, to proceed 
 in the paths of piety, to renew repentance, and to engage in the 
 great duties of mortification and self-denial; and for might to 
 struggle against indwelling siri, to overcome the alluring temp- 
 tations and the evils of the world, and to maintain a continued 
 conflict against the powers of darkness. Though faith, as made 
 use of in justification, does not do all this, yet this is the faith 
 which is wrought in the hearts of all who are justified freely 
 by grace, through the redemption purchased by Christ; and 
 will any be so hardy, or so foolish, as to say, that this promotes 
 licentiousness? Far otherwise; it brings a man to submit to 
 Christ's institutions, and to rely on him for aid to perform them 
 better than he can by his own power. 
 
 It was the design of Christ to take away the curse of the law, 
 as it is a broken covenant of works, by becoming a curse for 
 us, and by bearing, in our stead, all that punishment which the 
 law denounced against us; but it never was his purpose to 
 abrogate the law, as it is a rule of life; but rather to bring us to 
 be more conformable to it, as it is a transcript of the holiness of 
 God. Seeing the case is thus, we may take up the words of 
 the apostle Paul, and may say after him: "Do we then make 
 void the law through faith? God forbid; we rather establish 
 the law," Rom. iii. 31. Though we ascribe justification to the 
 righteousness of Christ, yet we leave to the law all the honour 
 that belongs to it, as a rule of life: we own, that " we are not 
 without law to God, but that we are under the law to Christ," 
 1 Cor. ix. 21. When we trust in Christ as a Surety, we look 
 upon ourselves as under the highest obligation to obey him 
 as our Sovereign ; and when he reigns over us as a King, he 
 gives us strength for obedience, and sends us to the law, as the 
 rule of our conversation. We start at the thought of saying, as 
 some do, that the law is of no use to believers, for it is of use, 
 as a rule; and we dare not say, with others, that the moral law 
 is repealed, and that God has placed the gospel in its room, as 
 a new remedial law of grace, requiring faith, repentance, and 
 sincere obedience, in the room of perfect righteousness ; we 
 cannot be pleased with such hideous and blemishing fictions 
 concerning God, as represent him as abrogating a law that was 
 perfect, and framing another instead of it, that admits of imper- 
 fect, though sincere obedience, as a condition of justification. 
 Far, very far, be such thoughts from us, which reproach the 
 faithfulness, holiness, and wisdom of God: one end he had in 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 431 
 
 saving us by Christ was, "to magnify his law, and make it 
 honourable :" and if we are of those who are saved by Christ, 
 we shall desire to comply with God, in this, as well as in all his 
 other designs. 
 
 If any have been so silly as to attempt to advance faith, by 
 disparaging good works, they are to answer for their profane- 
 ness and folly: the gospel account of faith gives no encourage- 
 ment for any to do so. The Scripture supposes, that good 
 works are as necessary to justify and show the sincerity of our 
 faith before men, as faith in the righteousness of Christ is 
 necessary in our justification before God. Hence the apostle 
 James said, " Faith without works is dead, being alone; a man 
 may say. Thou hast faith, and I have works; show me thy 
 faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my 
 works: thou believest that there is one God, thou dost well, 
 the devils believe and tremble ; but wilt thou know, vain 
 man, that faith without works is dead?" James ii. 17 — 20. If 
 a man omits to perform those duties, which he owes to God and 
 his neighbour, under the pretence of being justified by faith 
 alone, he shows, that he has no more than a very imperfect 
 notion of faith in Christ, and that what he does know of it, he 
 perverts from its true design; unless a man evidences the sin- 
 cerity of his faith by his works, all his faith is no more than 
 that traditional historical faith, which is in the devils; and all 
 the great things he says of it, are no more, as to himself, than 
 mere sounds, and a bare noise. Though we are not justified 
 by the works of the law, we must show the sincerity of our 
 trust in the merit of that sacrifice, which Christ offered up for 
 us, as the great High-priest of our profession, by our submitting 
 to his righteous sceptre, as our King, and by our taking the law 
 for the rule of our lives and actions. If so, the doctrine of jus- 
 tification, by the imputed righteousness of Christ, without 
 works, does not suppose good works needless ; seeing they are 
 absolutely necessary, as evidences, though not as conditions of 
 justification. 
 
 3. The evangelical doctrines of believers being renewed by 
 the efficacious power and grace of the Holy Spirit, of their 
 being kept by Christ from failing, and enabled by him to per- 
 severe to the end, and of their being favoured sometimes with 
 the assurance of the love of God, do not lead to licentiousness; 
 because, in the very nature of the things, it is supposed they 
 are new created to holiness, that they are enabled, by strength 
 received by Christ, to go on in the paths of godliness, and that 
 without holiness they cannot see the Lord, either by the light of 
 faith here, for their comfort, or in the light of glory hereafter, 
 for their exceeding joy. 
 
 If we will believe Christ, the true and faithful Witness, sin- 
 ners must be born again before they can be admitted into the 
 
432 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 promise of God, in the world of peace and rest: he thus posi 
 lively declared to Nicodemiis, John iii. 3, 5. "I solemnly 
 assure thee, except a man is born again, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God; except a man is born of water and the Spirit, 
 he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Regeneration is a 
 real change, wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit, in all 
 the faculties of the soul, from sin to holiness, from practising 
 according to the dictates of corrupt nature, to act out of a prin- 
 ciple of faith and love to God, and from gratifying the will of 
 the flesh, to pursue after the advancement of God's glory. It 
 may be said to difler from conversion;* the new birth is a spir- 
 
 * I do not know any writer who has better stated this matter, than that great 
 and judicious divine, Mr. Cliarnock : him I have chosen to follow, taking a liberty 
 to use some of his expressions. His own words I shall here give, (see his Works, 
 vol. ii. p. 70—72, first edition.) 
 
 " Regeneration differs from conversion : regeneration is a spiritual change, con- 
 version is a spiritual motion : in regeneration there is a power conferred ; con- 
 version is the exercise of this power : in regeneration there is given us a principle 
 to turn, conversion is our actual turning; that is, the principle whereby we are 
 brouglit out of a state of nature, into a state of grace and conversion, the actual 
 fixing on God, as the terminus ad quern; one gives posse agere ; and the other, 
 actii agere, 
 
 1. Conversion is related to regeneration, as the effect to the cause: life pre- 
 cedes motion, and is the cause of motion. In the covenant, the new heart, the 
 new spirit, and God''s putting his Spirit into them, is distinguished from their 
 walking in his statutes, (Ezek. xxxvi. 27,) from the first step we take in tlie way 
 of God, and is set down as the cause of our motion ; I will cause you to walk in my 
 statutes. In renewing us, God gives us power ; in converting us, he excites that 
 power. Men are naturally dead, and have a stone upon them ; regeneration is a 
 rolling away the stone from the heart, and a raising to newness of life ; and then 
 conversion is as natural to a regenerate man, as motion is to a living body ; a 
 principle of activity will produce action. 
 
 2. In regeneration, man is wholly passive ; in conversion, he is active : as a 
 child, in its first formation in the womb, contributes nothing to the first infusion 
 of life, but after it has life, it is active, and its motion natural. The first reviving 
 of us is wholly the act of God, without any concurrence of the creature; but after 
 we are revived, we actively and voluntarily live in his sight : " He will revive us, 
 he will raise us up, and then we shall live in his sight ; then we shall walk before 
 him, and then we shall follow on to know the Lord," Hosea vi. 2. Regeneration 
 is the motion of God in the creature ; conversion is the motion of the creature to 
 God, by virtue of that first principle: from this principle, all the acts of believing, 
 repenting, mortifying, quickening, spring : in all these, a man is active : in the 
 other, he is utterly passive; all these are the acts of the will, by the assisting grace 
 of God, after the infusion of the first grace : conversion is a giving ourselves to the 
 Lord ; giving ourselves to the Lord, is a voluntary act, but the power whereby we 
 are enabled thus to give ourselves, is wholly and purely, in every part of it, from 
 the Lord himself. A renewed man is said to be led by the Spirit, Rom. viii. 14, 
 not dragged, not forced : the putting a bias and aptitude in the will, is the work 
 of the Spirit quickening it ; but the moving the will to God, by tlie strength of this 
 bias, is voluntary, and the act of the creature. — Tlie day of regeneration is solely 
 the day of God''s power, wlierein he makes ?nen willing to turn to him, Psal. ex. 3. 
 So that though, in actual conversion, the creature is active, it is not from the 
 power of man, though it is from a power in man ; not growing up from the impo- 
 tent root of nature, but settled there by the Spirit of God. 
 
 Regeneration differs from sanctification ; habitual sanctification, indeed, is the 
 same thing with this new creature, as habitual rectitude was the spiritual life of 
 Adam ; but actual sanctification, and the gradual progress of it, grows from tliis 
 principle as a root. Faith purifies the heart, (Acts xv. 9, purifying their hearts by 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 433 
 
 itual change; in it there is a power to act spiritually conferred, 
 and a principle to turn from sin infused : conversion is a spir- 
 itual motion, it is the exercise of, or putting into act the power 
 received, and it is our actual turning. Conversion is the effect 
 of the Spirit's new-creation work, for life precedes motion, and 
 is the cause of it. All men, by nature, lie buried in the grave 
 of sin; when they are regenerated, the stone is rolled away 
 from the grave's mouth, and they are by the almighty, and 
 consequently irresistible, power of the Spirit, raised to newness 
 of life ; and when they are made alive, conversion is natural to 
 them, as motion is to a living body. In regeneration, man is 
 entirely passive ; in conversion he is made active. The day 
 of the new birth, is the time of the Spirit's power being exerted 
 on men, to make them willing to turn from sin to holiness; and 
 therefore, though, in conversion, the renewed soul is active, 
 yet this is not from its natural power, but from a supernatural 
 power put forth in it, and upon it: this power of acting is not 
 a plant in nature's garden, neither does it spring from the impo- 
 tent root of the carnal will, but it is planted in the soul by the 
 Spirit's hand, and is settled in the will, by him whose office it 
 is, to renew the elect of God. Regeneration likewise differs 
 from sanctification ; not, indeed, from it, as it may be said to be 
 habitual, but as it may be styled actual sanctification; for that 
 considered as gradually progressive, grows from the new birth, 
 as its root. 
 
 If we duly weigh this account of the work of grace in the soul 
 of man, we shall see no reason to think that man is left at liberty 
 to fulfil the will of the flesh, because he is new-formed by the 
 irresistible power of the Holy Spirit. He must be said to be 
 passive in the new birth, but what does this great change pass 
 upon him for? That he may be active, and show that he is raised 
 from a death in sin, by his living a life of holiness. It would be 
 very irrational, and what would be hissed at, if any were to 
 suggest, that a child's not contributing to his living, but being 
 wholly indebted to God's creating power for it, is a hinderance 
 to his performing the functions of natural life; and it is full as 
 ridiculous to say, that a sinner's doing nothing towards new 
 forming himself, but owing his new birth to the Holy Spirit's 
 efficiency, is an impediment to his putting forth the subsequent 
 acts of the spiritual life. 
 
 faith) and is the cause of this gradual sanctification; but faith is part of this new 
 creature, and that which is a part, cannot be the cause of the whole, for tlien it 
 would be the cause of itself. We are not regenerated by faitJi, though we are 
 sanctified by faith ; but we are new-created by the Spirit of God, infusing faith 
 into us. Faith produces the acts of grace, but not the habit of grace, because it 
 is of itself a part of this habit; for all graces are but one in the habit or new crea- 
 ture ; charity, and likewise every other grace, is but the bubbling up of a pure 
 heart, and a good conscience. Regeneration seems to be the life of this gradual 
 sanctification, the health and liveliness of the soul." 
 
 55 
 
434 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 If any should be so weak as to say, that being new-created and 
 regenerated by the Spirit's efficacious operations, being turned 
 by his almighty power from darkness to hght, and from sin to 
 hoHness, and being sanctified by him, has a tendency to check 
 persons in making a progress in the Christian course, it must 
 be owned to be a mere folly to go about to argue with, and 
 answer such a person. If any make this doctrine a handle to 
 be lazy and indolent, in the performance of what is good, it is 
 a sign that they pretend to what they know nothing of. Our 
 spiritual life is from the quickening power of the Holy Ghost, 
 and is not from our own wills; but then we should consider, 
 that we are not raised from a death in sin, that we may remain 
 inactive, and we are not made alive to righteousness, that we 
 may indulge idleness. The Spirit enlightens our minds, renews 
 our wills, and purifies our affections; not that we may be sloth- 
 ful and negligent, but that we may " be fervent in spirit, serv- 
 ing the Lord." The apostle Paul's advice was this ; I be- 
 seech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present 
 your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, and be 
 not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renew- 
 ing of your mind, that you may know what is the good, the 
 acceptable, and the perfect will of God. Abhor what is evil, 
 cleave to what is good; be not slothful in your work, but be 
 fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, Rom. xii. 1, 2, 9, 10, IL 
 The grace of the Holy Spirit, by which we are regenerated, we 
 say is efficacious, irresistible, and not to be frustrated: now, 
 can it be thought that this grace is bestowed, that we may con- 
 tinue inactive, as to what is good? This would be to suppose 
 it efficacious, without accomplishing its design ; irresistible, and 
 yet defeated; not to be frustrated, and yet to be in vain. We 
 are, by nature, in the dark grave of corruption, and we can no 
 more raise ourselves, and bring ourselves into the light than a 
 carcass, which has lain long in the dormitories of the earth, 
 can throw off the clods which are heaped up over it, or unlock 
 the door of the vault that contains it; and we are dead in tres- 
 passes and sins, and can no more put forth the acts of a new 
 life, than the shattered parts of a body reduced to dust, can re- 
 imite and regain an union with the immortal soul. It is the 
 Spirit, who, when we lie buried in corruption, and are dead in 
 sins, quickens us, and effectually says, Arise, awake, come 
 forth, and shine, for Christ will give you life ; and his end in 
 doing this is, that we may walk as children of the light, and 
 may act wisely and circumspectly. The apostolic doctrine 
 was as follows; "You were sometimes darkness, but now are 
 you light in the Lord; walk as children of the light, for the 
 fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, 
 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." 
 It is said, " Wake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 435 
 
 and Christ shall give thee life." See then " that you walk cir- 
 cumspectly, not as fools, but as those who are wise, redeeming 
 the time, because the days are evil," Eph. v. 7 — 9, 11, 14 — 16. 
 It is the Spirit's design in giving us life, that we may show we 
 are alive, by acting with diligence, caution, wisdom, and cir- 
 cumspection, in avoiding all things which are of a sinful and 
 mean nature, and by pursuing after those things which are good 
 and commendable; so that the doctrine of our regeneration and 
 conversion being owing to his efficacious and irresistible grace, 
 can never countenance laziness or looseness. 
 
 We grow in grace, and persevere by virtue of strength de- 
 rived from Christ. He who was truth itself, declared, that 
 without his aid, we can never proceed, when he said to his 
 disciples: " You cannot bear fruit, unless you abide in me: I 
 am the vine, you are the branches; he that abides in me, and I 
 in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me you 
 can do nothing," John xv. 4, 5. We can do nothing which is 
 good, unless we derive strength from Christ, by virtue of our 
 union with him; but it would be odd, if it was to follow, that 
 we must do nothing, because we are in Christ, and are upheld 
 and nourished by him. We must wait on Christ, or trust in 
 him for persevering vigour; and, if we expect aid from him, we 
 must be in a watchful posture; then it will be with us, accord- 
 ing to what is promised to such as rely on Christ, in Isaiah's 
 prophecy: "The youths shall faint, and be weary; and the 
 vigorous young men shall utterly fail: but such as wait upon 
 the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with 
 the wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall 
 walk and not faint," Isa. xl. 30, 31. Such as depend on their 
 own strength, shall soon faint and tire, and die, if they are left 
 to themselves; but such as wait upon Christ, such as rely upon 
 his power, will renew their strength. When they do this, it is 
 not that they may lie down and sleep by the way, but that they 
 may be active and industrious in duty, that they may mount up 
 towards heaven, with a towering sprightly motion; such as is 
 that of the lively eagle when scorning the ground, she soars 
 aloft; that they may run in the paths of duty, which are truly 
 the paths of honour, without being weary, or being obliged to 
 drop for want of spirits; that they may refresh themselves with 
 continued walks within the sacred inclosures of pure religion, 
 where are the most refined pleasures, without being faint, or 
 being forced to sit down tired, without a prospect of being able 
 to recruit their vigour. If we are once ingrafted into Christ, 
 we shall go on in his strength, in the way of holiness, and we 
 shall be kept by his power, so that we shall never totally or 
 finally fall from grace; of this he himself assured us when he 
 said, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they 
 follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never 
 
436 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand," John x. 
 27, 28. This does not excuse us from keeping up a constant 
 watch against the motions of indwelling corruption, and the 
 temptations of the infernal powers ; for if we lay aside our 
 guard, we may fall into sin, and so provoke our beloved and 
 our friend, to withdraw himself and be gone, and then our feet 
 will stumble on the dark mountains of desponding thoughts and 
 distrusting fears. The sure encouragement we have to hope 
 that we shall be kept by the power of Christ, through faith to 
 complete salvation, is far from giving a license to carelessness 
 and indolence; we may, indeed, wickedly make it a handle for 
 these; but then, if we belong to God, we expose ourselves to 
 the smart of his fatherly rebukes. Trust in Christ's power, is 
 a grace of an active nature; and, if we go on in his strength, it 
 must be in a way of holiness: therefore a lively faith, instead 
 of making us lazy, will put us upon being " steadfast, immov- 
 able, always abounding in the work of the Lord;" and the 
 more, "because we know that our labour of love shall never 
 be in vain in the Lord," 1 Cor. xv. 58. 
 
 If they who trust in Christ for righteousness and life, are 
 favoured by the Holy Spirit, with an assurance of their having 
 a share in the love of the Redeemer, this has a tendency to 
 make them more fervent and active in true obedience, and so 
 does not promote licentiousness. Assurance of salvation is a 
 deep sense and a lively taste of the divine love, joined with a 
 firm persuasion of Christ's good will to us, whereby we are 
 enabled to look back on what we are by grace, and to see that 
 God is our Father, that Christ is our Redeemer, and that he 
 will save us with an everlasting salvation: this presupposes 
 faith, and cannot be without it ; but it is not essential to true 
 faith at all times, but it is bestowed in a way of sovereignty. 
 Assurance is from the Holy Spirit ; and in giving it to a Chris- 
 tian, he affords him a true insight into the treasures of the grace 
 of God, and the love of Christ; he enables a child of God to 
 plead his adoption, with a filial confidence; for we are told, 
 Gal. iv. 6, that because we are sons, God has sent the Spirit of 
 his Son into our hearts, enabling us to cry, Abba, Father:" 
 he witnesses with the spirit of a saint ; for we are informed, 
 Rom. viii. 16, that "the Spirit himself bears witness with our 
 spirits, that we are the children of God:" and he seals up, to a 
 believer, his interest in the love of God, and in the earnest of 
 the heavenly inheritance: for it is declared, 2 Cor. i. 13, 14, 22. 
 Eph. iv. 30. 2 Cor. v. 5, that " by the Holy Spirit, who is the 
 earnest of our inheritance, we are sealed to the day of redemp- 
 tion." The assurance of salvation, which is from the witness- 
 ing and sealing of the Spirit, makes ns more holy. It cannot 
 be thought, that he who is infinitely pure, will, or can encour- 
 age looseness; where he takes up his abode, there must be much 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 437 
 
 faith and love, humility and fear, self-denial and uprightness, 
 holiness and purity, circumspection and watchfulness. Sach 
 therefore, as boast of assurance, and yet can take their swing 
 in sin, are only vain and impudent pretenders. Assurance 
 sets the Christian's graces in a clear light, and checks every 
 thing contrary to God; and, as it is the earnest of heaven, it 
 will make all who are blessed with it more heavenly, and 
 consequently more holy. When it is thus with believers, fer- 
 vour and vehemence, zeal and courage, love and patience, will 
 fill their breasts; and, inspired with heavenly vigour, they will 
 pass on from strength to strength, till they set their feet on the 
 eternal hills, where they shall know faintness and weariness no 
 more. The Scripture has sufficiently guarded us against abus- 
 ing the gospel doctrine of assurance. The apostle Paul has 
 showed us, what improvement we ought to make of assurance 
 of God's love in the following passages, Rom. xiii. 11. 14. 
 Eph. iv. 29 — 32. 1 Cor. xv. 58. "Knowing the season, that 
 now it is high time for us to wake out of sleep ; for now is our 
 salvation nearer than when we believed: the night is far spent, 
 the day is at hand ; let us, therefore, cast off the works of dark- 
 ness, and let us put on the armour of light; let us walk decently 
 as in the day, not in revels and carousals, not in sleep and 
 wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put you on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and make no carnal provision for lusts : Let 
 no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but what is good, to 
 edify profitably, that it may minister grace to the hearers ; and 
 grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom ye are sealed to 
 the day of redemption : let all bitterness and wrath, and anger 
 and clamour, and evil-speaking, with all malice, be thrust from 
 you; and be you gentle one to another, tender-hearted, and 
 ready to do acts of kindness, as God in Christ has been gra- 
 cious to you. Be steadfast, immovable, and always abounding 
 in the work of the Lord, seeing you know that your labour is 
 not in vain in the Lord." The great apostle John, when he 
 had spoken of the hope and assurance which believers have, 
 that when they come to be for ever with the Lord, they shall 
 possess joys ineffably great, and pleasures which in this state 
 of imperfection they cannot fully know, inferred, that they 
 should purify themselves, as Christ is pure; or that they should 
 strive to be as like their glorified Head, as is possible, before 
 they put off the body of sin and death : his words are, " Beloved, 
 now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what 
 we shall be; but we know, that when He shall appear, we shall 
 be like him, for we shall see him as he is : and every man that 
 hath this hope in him, purifies himself, even as he is pure." 
 We must judge of the tendency of assurance of God's love by 
 what the apostles of our Lord have said concerning it, who 
 had large degrees of it ; they declared, that it is a motive to 
 
438 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GR4CE, 
 
 lioliness. If any then prate about their assurance, who are pre- 
 sumptuous sinners, we must look upon them to be either front- 
 less liars, or else wild giddy-headed creatures, who take the 
 freaks of enthusiasm to be the Holy Spirit's motions. 
 
 4. Eternal blessedness, or the heavenly glory, is the gift of 
 grace, and the reward of ChrisVs death, and is not owing to 
 our good works, either in the whole or in part : but this does 
 not tend to promote licentiousness, because " without holiness 
 we can never see the Lord/'* or have a meetness and fitness 
 for heaven. 
 
 The Scripture has required us to follow after holiness, and 
 has positively declared, that without it we can never see the 
 Lord. The apostle Paul's injunction is this, Heb. xiii. 14, 
 " Follow holiness, without which none can see the Lord.'^ In- 
 deed, all wicked men will see God in one sense ; but how will 
 it be ? They will see him in the glittering armour of his justice, 
 in the power of his anger, in the consuming fire of his indigna- 
 tion, exalted on a terrible judgment-seat, to pass sentence upon 
 them, clothed with thunder, and wielding a sword of vengeance, 
 to cut them in pieces : this will be a sad sight of him. All 
 unholy persons shall see God, but not so as to enjoy any good 
 by him; a cloud of thick darkness never to be removed, shall 
 for ever interpose between them, and all that is pleasing and 
 delightful in God ; and they shall see nothing of him, but what 
 will be matter of the greatest terror to them. 
 
 Without holiness, no one can have a well grounded hope of 
 heaven. Heaven is the inheritance of all believers, not by a 
 natural right in themselves, but by God's free gift, through 
 Christ ; but though it is a free gift through Christ, yet none can 
 conclude he has a title to it without holiness ; or say, it is his, 
 before he has something wrought in him to prove it so. A man 
 must have some ground for his faith, else it is presumption ; and 
 he must have some reason for his hope, otherwise it is ridicu- 
 lous, and a mere delusion. There is no taking of heaven by 
 force for sinners. In one sense, Mat. xi. 12, indeed, there is a 
 taking of heaven by violence ; holy souls, filled with zeal and 
 ardour, and inflamed with earnest desires, take heaven by 
 force ; but it is by weapons of God's providing: they win their 
 way, but it is by Christ's aid ; and they do marvellous things, 
 but it is by the Holy Spirit's help ; and they reap the spoils of 
 the victory, which the Redeemer has obtained for them. Un- 
 holy men can never scale the battlements of heaven, for they 
 have no strength of their own to do it; and not only the frown- 
 ing cherub, with the flaming sword, guards the avenues to it, 
 but an angry God stands their irreconcilable enemy, to keep 
 
 * The reader may see most of the topics, which are briefly mentioned under 
 this liead, largely insisted on, by the excellent Mr. Charnock, on the necessity of 
 Regeneration, p. 36 — 44, in the second volume of his works. 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 439 
 
 them out. Holiness is the indeUble character which Christ sets 
 upon all that are his; without this, we may have a delusive 
 irrational hope of heaven, but it will greatly injure us, and can 
 never help us. A false hope in a sinner renders all admonitions 
 unsuccessful; and, till his vain confidence is shaken, he will not 
 believe he needs conversion. An ill-grounded hope is the great 
 engine of the devil to destroy souls, and it is worse than no 
 expectation; for they will, of all men, be most miserable, who 
 expect to be saved, and yet, when the breath has left their 
 bodies, find themselves damned. When the wicked amuse 
 themselves with vain expectations, the arrow of death strikes 
 them to the heart, and makes an end of them before it is feared, 
 and their hope is disappointed by the king of terrors. They 
 who are strangers to holiness, have but few thoughts about 
 their eternal state, and seldom consider what will become of 
 them when they die; and, if they are forced to hear of their 
 mortality, they please themselves with slight apprehensions of 
 God, as a Being of all mercy: but, alas! when their souls go 
 out of their bodies, the devil, who is the harbinger of misery, 
 will drag them to the seats of darkness, where they will be pri- 
 soners without hope for ever. What will it profit men, if they 
 fancy they shall go to heaven, if they wake, after they have 
 slept the sleep of death, lying in the bowels of hell, with sights 
 of wo before their eyes, and inexpressible horror in their 
 minds? None should say they hope for heaven, if they are not 
 holy; for without holiness they can have no proof of their title 
 to it. 
 
 Except we are made holy, we have no meetness for the 
 inheritance which is undefiled and incorruptible. We shall 
 never be admitted to set one foot within the pure realms above, 
 if we are not adorned with real sanctity. The righteousness of 
 Christ is the clothing which covers our defects; and the gar- 
 ments of holiness, which are put upon all who are justified, are 
 the array which beautifies and adorns them : when this attire 
 is put on here, a blessed glorious immortality is the raiment laid 
 up for us, in the wardrobe of heaven. Death itself, as it is a 
 simple disunion of the soul from the body, is not extremely 
 terrible to some considerate believers; they see nothing in this 
 world to court their stay, or to monopolize and chain their 
 affections ; and they behold nothing in death, as it is merely the 
 pulling down, and shattering their old house, to deject and fill 
 them with terror: to go out of the body is no insuperable diffi- 
 culty to them, but all their concern is, lest, when their souls are 
 stripped of their clayey covering, they shall be found unclothed; 
 this, at times, sinks their spirits, and awakes their fears. The 
 language of a pious soul is this; " I am not unwilling to leave 
 this life, and to be absent from the body; but I am not without 
 concern, lest, when I am unclothed, my trembling soul should 
 
440 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 be found naked, and without a covering." We must be ciotned 
 with the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness; and we must 
 be adorned with the grace of sanctification, otherwise we can 
 never enter into the holy place, not made with hands: the oil of 
 gladness will not be poured into our souls, unless our hearts are 
 first seasoned with grace: and our spirits must be purified from 
 all sinful imperfections, before we can inherit the glory of that 
 blessed country, where there will be no place for what is imper- 
 fect and in part. 
 
 Without holiness, none can do the work of heaven, or perform 
 the duties required there. One part of the work of heaven is 
 to behold the glorious face of God, and to stand continually 
 before him. What are the morning stars, and the spirits of just 
 men made perfect, doing in heaven? Are they not taken up 
 in viewing the perfections and excellencies of God, and in 
 admiring his attributes; such as his wisdom, power, truth, good- 
 ness, and especially his love to sinners. But what could unholy 
 persons do there? They will not now give God any enter- 
 tainment in their thoughts: and, as they have no intellectual 
 eyes to behold his glory, so they are not fit to come into his pre- 
 sence; they are neither acquitted from their guilt, nor cleansed 
 from their pollution ; how then can they stand before the pure 
 unspotted Majesty of God, who cannot look upon sin without 
 the highest indignation, and the severest hatred? Praise is 
 a principal work to be performed in the happy world above; 
 this is what the saints offer to him that sits upon the throne, 
 and to the Lamb who redeemed sinners by his blood, with the 
 highest strains of holy rapture. It will be their constant work 
 to fall down before the throne, and to sing the praises of the 
 divine persons, with the most raised and pure affections; and 
 it will be the fulness of their joy to sound forth hallelujahs for 
 ever. Now, men void of holiness have no inclination to praise 
 the Most High; can they rejoice that God reigns, and has a 
 dominion of which there is no end, when they are only set 
 upon rebellion against him ? Can they shout for joy, that he 
 has a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and that he is exalted 
 above all things, when they are inclined stubbornly to spurn 
 at his authority ? Can they compass his royal seat with songs 
 of melody, when they would, if they were able, thrust him 
 from his throne? Can they follow him with cheerful accla- 
 mations, when they are for setting their mouths against him? 
 Can they extol his honour, when they delight to reproach his 
 sacred name ? It would be against all sense and reason to say, 
 that without holiness any could compass the throne of God, in 
 heaven, with anthems of praise. The putting forth of perfect 
 love, and unconfined affections to God, is a work of heaven. 
 The apostle Paul has told us thus, 1 Cor. xiii. 8 — 10, "Love 
 never fails; as to other things, whether they are prophecies, 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 441 
 
 they shall fail; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it 
 shall vanish away; for we know in part, and we prophesy in 
 part, but as soon as that which is perfect shall come, what is in 
 part shall be done away." Prophecies, or gifts of explaining 
 Scripture, shall fail ; tongues, or an ability of expressing the 
 inward conceptions of the mind, in different languages, shall 
 cease; and the knowledge of spiritual things, which we gather 
 up from tedious methods of reasoning, and by framing in our 
 minds such apprehensions of divine truths, as hold up some 
 analogy to sensible objects, shall vanish and pass away, and 
 give place to what is clear, easy, certain, and void of all mis- 
 takes; but love to God never fails, it will continue for ever. 
 What is this love in its perfection but the gratitude of heavenly 
 spirits to God, their benefactor, who is superlatively excellent, 
 predominantly sweet, infinitely blessed, and supremely amiable 
 in himself? This love of souls to God in heaven, is without all 
 weakness, mixtures, damps, and pull-backs; it twists and binds 
 them to God, all the selfishness of their wills is lost, and they 
 are entirely resigned to his will. Now, is not this incompatible 
 with an unholy disposition? Can they be united to God, who 
 hate him, and refuse subjection to his laws all the time they 
 are here? Can they clasp about him, as the chiefest good 
 hereafter, who prefer the very dust of the earth before him in 
 this life? Certainly not; none can act any grace, in its perfec- 
 tion, in heaven, which he has not, in its root and principle, on 
 earth; every grace will be perfected in heaven, but no new grace 
 is begun there. Can carnal sinners have ardent love to God, 
 and cleave to him when their affections are set against him? 
 Can they find a predominant delight in him, when their hatred 
 against him is blown up to the highest pitch? Can they have 
 pleasure in his holiness, when their souls are full of burning 
 lusts? We must not so far deny our reason, as to say that 
 men can both love and hate God, both obey and oppose him, 
 both find sweetness in him and invidiously rise up against him, 
 both take delight in his holiness, and feel pleasure in sin. If 
 men have no satisfaction in meditating on God, and in conver- 
 sing with him in their thoughts, now, when he is distant, and 
 removed out of their sight, they would take no delight in him, 
 if they were brought to stand before the presence of his glory, 
 and to behold the brightness of his face in the country of vision 
 above. 
 
 Without holiness, none can relish the enjoyments of heaven. 
 A corrupt man, with a sea of sin rolling and tossing in his breast, 
 would find no rest or pleasure in heaven, if we could suppose 
 he was carried thither. He would find no sweetness in com- 
 munion with God, who is the source of all the happiness enjoy- 
 ed in the other world. It is the presence of God that makes 
 heaven a place of delight; but he would be at everlasting vari- 
 
 56 
 
442 OF THE DOCTRINE OP GRACE, 
 
 ance with him. One who is not sanctified, could never suit 
 himself to the company of heaven; he would find no joy in the 
 society of saints and angels, against whom he has the greatest 
 antipathy. Were he admitted into heaven, where the saints sit 
 with their wedding garments on, as they would be a burden to 
 him, so he would disturb their joys, and damp that cheerful fire 
 of love, which flames in their innocent breasts. The impure 
 sinner cannot be regaled with the perfect pleasures of heaven, 
 because there is no agreement between them and his prevailing 
 frame; heaven is full of rational and sublime delights, but none 
 can enjoy them, till they are made meet for them by sanctifica- 
 tion. Therefore the old depraved nature must be done away, 
 or else men must be for ever separated from God himself; they 
 must, without possibility of admission, be shut out of the society 
 of saints and angels, and they must be deprived of joys substan- 
 tial and real. God will not leave heaven to take sinners into it; 
 he will not destroy the comfort of the princes of light, and the 
 spirits of just men made perfect, by bringing impure creatures 
 to interrupt their sweet fellowship ; and he will not convert the 
 holy recreations of the upper world into imperfection, to suit the 
 gust of sordid transgressors. If these things are duly weighed, 
 it will appear, that a man must be made holy before he can see 
 or enter into the kingdom of God; and if so, then there is no 
 encouragement given to licentiousness; though it is aifirmed, 
 that everlasting blessedness is from the grace of God, and is the 
 reward of Christ's obedience, and is not owing to the holiness 
 of men. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 We see that the glorious doctrine of man's salvation being 
 from the free grace of God, as manifested in and through Christ, 
 has not the least tendency in its own nature, to promote loose- 
 ness of life ; but, on the contrary, to enforce strictness and 
 holiness in the conversation: let us then, if we assent to it, be 
 careful not to abuse it, misrepresent it, or pervert it from its 
 true design and real drift; but let us earnestly endeavour to be 
 a credit to it, and to adorn the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, 
 by a regular and well ordered conversation. The generation 
 of blind, legal, formal professors, who are too significant in 
 their own esteem to acknowledge, that the whole of their 
 salvation is owing to free grace, and who will ever be looking 
 for something in themselves, to render them worthy of, or at 
 least qualified for the favour of God, will always be cavilling 
 against the true evangelical doctrine, as if it encouraged loose- 
 ness, and slandering it, as if it opened a door to Antinomian 
 errors. Let us, then, not only endeavour to be furnished with 
 arguments, to refute them, and to vindicate the glorious gospel 
 
AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 443 
 
 of the blessed God from their vile calumnies; but let us, in the 
 strength of Christ, live down their objections, and show, by the 
 whole tenor of our conversation, that the grace of God is not 
 an unoperating thing; that it does not indulge those who are the 
 subjects of it in laziness and indolence, much less in looseness 
 and impurity; but that it puts them upon bringing honour to it, 
 by a pious, pure, honest, and prudent walk. Let us shape our 
 course by those words of the apostle Paul, wherein he has set 
 this matter in a very beautiful light; which, as they are a noble 
 account of the genuine tendency of the doctrine of free grace, 
 so they contain a sure directory to all that have embraced the 
 gospel of peace : they have been produced above, but they can- 
 not be repeated too often : " The grace of God, which brings 
 salvation, has appeared to all men, teaching them that denying 
 imgodliness, and worldly lusts, they should live soberly, right- 
 eously, and piously, in this present world, looking for the blessed 
 hope, even the glorious appearance of our great God and Sa- 
 viour, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from 
 all iniquity, and to purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous 
 of good works," Tit. ii. 11 — 14. 
 
 If we would manifest, that we are partakers of divine grace, 
 and are in a state of salvation ; if we would with comfort look 
 for the second appearance of our great God and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, and expect that as matter of blessed hope, which will 
 be to the terror of the unbelievers and the ungodly; and if we 
 would comply with his design, in giving himself for us, and 
 answer his end in redeeming us to himself, then let us be afraid 
 of all iniquity , ^y \he least appearance of evil, and hate the 
 garments spotted with the flesh; let us deny all ungodliness, 
 renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, and forsake the lusts 
 of the flesh, and of the mind ; and let us be zealous for good 
 works, diligent to obey the law, and careful to behave piously 
 towards God, act honestly, and live temperately: unless we do 
 this, all our big words about the grace of God, are but swelling 
 words of vanity, our hope is but groundless, and we endeavour 
 to thwart Christ's design in redeeming men. Let us then evi- 
 dence that we are the elect of God, and predestinated by him to 
 salvation, that we are redeemed by Christ, and justified by his 
 righteousness, that we are converted by the Holy Spirit, and are 
 his workmanship, and that we have good hope of heaven through 
 grace, and are the expectants of a blessed immortality, by our 
 holy, righteous, pure, and prudent behaviour. 
 
 Let us stand at the greatest distance from all sin: what- 
 ever we are convinced is forbidden by God, in his holy law, let 
 us start from : let us forsake the lusts of the flesh, or avoid all 
 open and scandalous disorders; but let us not be content with 
 this, lest we should be only like whited tombs, which make a 
 fair show without, but within are full of rottenness and cor- 
 
444 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, 
 
 ruption ; let us, at the same time that we mortify the desires of 
 the flesh, crucify the imperious and dangerous hists of the 
 mind ; let us not give way to pride, malice, envy, hatred, and 
 self-seeking: when in many things we all offend, let us not 
 entertain light thoughts of sin, much less give way to trans- 
 gress presumptuously; let us be deeply humbled, that we so 
 often provoke the Most High, by sinning in thought, in word, 
 and in deed; let us hate and abhor sin, and look upon it to be 
 most abominable, because it is odious to a God of infinite good- 
 ness, occasioned the groans, agonies, and death of a kind Sa- 
 viour, and tends to bring ruin on our immortal souls ; let us con- 
 demn ourselves, that we have committed what is of so hurtful 
 a nature; let us be filled with godly sorrow for sin, and take a 
 holy revenge upon it; let us, by the help of the Spirit, turn from 
 it to God ; and, as we sin daily, let us delight to renew our 
 work of repentance every day we live: let us never comply 
 with any thing which is evil, which a corrupt age has made 
 customary, but let us take pleasure in that singularity, which 
 is commendable, which is to stand off" from every thing that 
 has a tendency to dishonour God, to wound the peace of our 
 own consciences, and to discredit that pure religion which we 
 profess. 
 
 Let us practice all moral duties, and Christian graces; let 
 us act justly, warily, and honestly in our dealings with men ; 
 let us make conscience to perform all our promises, to make 
 good all our engagements, and to be faithful to every trust com- 
 mitted to us: let us be temperate in our using the things which 
 are appointed for the support and comfort of life ; moderate in 
 our pursuit of the world, and wary and careful to provide things 
 honest in the sight of all men ; let us be humble in our carriage 
 and deportment, and be amiable in our behaviour ; let us be 
 even in our temper, if we are compassed about with prosperity, 
 patient in adversity, in bearing ill treatment, and enduring 
 insults, and ready to forgive all personal injuries; let us be 
 resigned to the will of God, whatever condition of life he may 
 involve us in, and desire, in whatsoever state we are, therewith 
 to be content ; let us love mercy, and be ready to show pity to 
 any in distress ; let us relieve the wants of others, as we are able, 
 and do good to all, especially to those who are of the household 
 of faith: let us show benevolence to all mankind, even to those 
 whose principles and practices we may most detest; and let us 
 not oppress any, if we have it in our power: let us show great 
 love to our Christian brethren, and manifest true affection to all 
 who are children of the same Father, professors of the same 
 faith, and travellers to the same land of rest. 
 
 Let us make conscience to act with sincere piety toivards 
 God; let us receive the important truths which he has revealed 
 in his word, and, with zeal regulated by knowledge, hold them 
 
V 
 
 AS IT ENCOURAGES HOLINESS. 445 
 
 fast, when they are denied and contested, by such as are stran- 
 gers to the wisdom which is from above; let us stand up for all 
 that tends to secure the honour of free grace, to exalt Christ, 
 and to promote holiness, and keep our loyalty, our faith, and 
 love to the King of Zion, the Captain of our salvation; let us 
 search the Scriptures, and inform ourselves about the mind and 
 will of our heavenly Father ; let us walk in all the ordinances 
 and institutions of the Most High, blameless; and be careful to 
 perform the duties we owe immediately to God, and pay the 
 worship which he requires ; let us be frequent in meditation, 
 and constant in prayer, and engage in the several parts of wor- 
 ship required of us, in due place and proper season; let us not 
 omit private religion, and let us keep ourselves from the view 
 of men, in secret duties, as much as possible ; let us take care 
 that the voice of prayer is heard in our families, and the morn- 
 ing and evening sacrifice of praise is oifered up in our houses ; 
 let us keep holy the day of the Son of man, and not forsake the 
 assembling of ourselves for the public worship of God upon it; 
 let us delight to ofler up social worship to our God and our 
 King, and to join with others in compassing his altar with our 
 suppHcations, and to attend on his word preached, and hear the 
 joyful sound ; let us, if we are in church-fellowship, keep our 
 solemn vows, honour them who have the rule over us, and 
 speak to us the word of life, watch over one another, and cele- 
 brate the supper of our Lord, remembering his death with faith, 
 love, thankfulness, godly sorrow, and holy joy; let us labour to 
 engage in that ordinance, and in all the parts of worship, with 
 life and vigour, with circumspection and fervour, and without 
 formality and deadness, without slightness and unconcernedness, 
 that so the words of our mouths, and the meditations of our 
 hearts, may be pleasing to that God whom we serve. 
 
 When we do the things mentioned, let us not give way to the 
 insolent vanity of thinking to make God our debtor, or io pur- 
 chase heaven; but, when we have done most, let us be ready 
 to own, that we are unprofitable servants, in having done no 
 more than our duty, and that we are, in part, unfaithful ser- 
 vants, as we omit many things, we are obliged to; let us, in all 
 we do, whether of a moral, civil, or religious nature, act from a 
 principle of love to God, with a regard to the rule which he has 
 given us, in his word, and with a sincere desire to advance his 
 glory, whose we are, and to whom we are indebted for all the 
 blessings pertaining to life and godliness; let us, under a sense 
 of our weakness and ignorance, be frequently applying our- 
 selves, by prayer, to the God of all grace, that he would bring 
 us to know our duty, and would enable us constantly to perform 
 it, that so we may credit religion, and maj'- adorn the profession 
 we make of his name, as well as expect salvation as the gift of 
 grace, and the reward of Christ's purchase. 
 
446 OF THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, ETC. 
 
 Let us, at the same time that we renounce all confidence in 
 the flesh, and cast aside all trust in our own performances, rely 
 on Christ for assistance to keep the faith, to run our race, and 
 to fight the good fight ; let us determine, that in Jesus, who is 
 the Lord Jehovah, our Saviour and our God, we will have 
 strength, as well as righteousness; let us comfort ourselves with 
 considering that he is unchangeable in his truth, to make good 
 his promises, that he is ever present with us, to guard us, that 
 he knows all our wants, and is infinite in wisdom, to order all 
 things for our good, that he is almighty in power, to defend us 
 against enemies, and to finish his own work in us, and that he 
 is boundless in goodness, mercy, and compassion, to bestow 
 upon us all things that tend to our happiness and well-being: 
 having such a glorious Captain of salvation, and such a power- 
 ful Leader, to the peaceful provinces of immortality, let us go 
 through the wilderness of this world, leaning upon him our 
 beloved and our friend; and we need not fear but that he will 
 enable us to act as becomes the gospel, and to bring credit to the 
 doctrine of grace, which we profess, by doing justly, loving 
 mercy, and walking humbly and piously with our God ; and 
 then " when Christ, who is onr life, shall appear, we shall appear 
 with him in glory:" and, as the sincere followers of the Lamb, 
 shall sit together with him in heavenly places ; where crowns 
 of glory will circle our brows, and palms of victory will grace 
 our hands; where the white attire of innocence will deck us, 
 and the glittering array of light will adorn us; and where plea- 
 sures, grown to full perfection, will always regale us, and joys, 
 substantial and sincere, will to eternity delight us. 
 
 To the Father of mercies, who, out of his sovereign pleasure, 
 chose us to salvation, before the foundation of the world, 
 that we might be holy and blameless before him in love; 
 to the Son, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem 
 us from iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, 
 zealous of good works; and to the Holy Spirit, who changes 
 the whole frame of our minds, that we may walk in new- 
 ness of life; to these three divine Persons, but the one 
 supreme God, whom we adore, be honour, praise, and 
 glory, in all the churches, now, henceforth, and for ever 
 more. Amen. 
 
AN 
 
 HUMBLE AND IMPARTIAL INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE CAUSES OF THE 
 
 DECAY OF PRACTICAL RELIGION; 
 
 OR INTO THE 
 
 TRUE GROUNDS OF THE DECLENSIONS AS TO THE LIFE AND 
 
 POWER OF GODLINESS, VISIBLE IN SUCH AS 
 
 PROFESS IT IN THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 y 
 
 By MR. ABRAHAM TAYLOR, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Revelation iii. 1 — 3. — To the angel of the church at Sardis write, These things 
 says he who has the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars ; I know thy 
 works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead : be watchful, and 
 strengthen the things which remain, and are ready to die; for I have not found 
 thy works upright before God : remember, therefore, how thou hast received 
 and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou wilt not watch, I will 
 come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon 
 thee. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ is the sole King in his church ; and no 
 single man, nor any collective bodies of men, should, on any 
 pretence, usurp his power. What doctrines he has seen fit to 
 reveal, are to be received on his authority, though they may 
 not come wholly within the grasp of our finite understandings: 
 the worship which he has judged proper to prescribe, must be 
 religiously kept to, though it may not, for want of pomp and 
 pageantry, be pleasing to the flesh; and the duties of practical 
 godliness, which he has declared are to be performed by all his 
 followers, must not be neglected, though they may be difficult 
 to be observed. When men inculcate doctrines, which Christ 
 never revealed, they offer him a high affront; when they pre- 
 scribe methods of worship, which he never commanded, they, 
 with daring insolence, encroach on his prerogative; and when 
 they enjoin austerities, which he never required, they set their 
 wisdom above his. On the other hand, when men take upon 
 them to bring persons off from regarding the great mysteries of 
 the gospel, which the true and faithful Witness has made known, 
 under the pretence that they are abstruse speculations, matters 
 of dispute, and things which tend to shut out charity, the great- 
 est of all graces, they break their allegiance to Christ, and go 
 
 447 
 
448 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 about sacrilegiously to rob his followers of the sacred treasure 
 of faith; when any refuse to be found engaged in the worship 
 which the King of Zion has appointed, they cast contempt on 
 him and declare they will not walk within the sacred inclosures 
 which he has placed about his church; and when any neglect 
 that internal and external purity, which the holy and the just 
 One has required, they show they have no part or interest in 
 him. If a professing people are zealous for the truths of the 
 gospel, if they are careful to regulate their worship by the 
 pattern given in the word, and if they abound in the works of 
 righteousness, and shine in the beauties of holiness, it may be 
 said that the glory of Christ resides among them, and that their 
 blessings will be crowned with a desirable increase ; but if they 
 are lukewarm and indifferent, as to the great truths of the gos- 
 pel, if they are negligent in attending on the worship appointed 
 by their great Prophet and King, and if they act dissolutely, 
 and, instead of denying themselves, symbolize with the profane 
 world, it may be said of them, that their beauty is tarnished, 
 that gray hairs, the tokens of spiritual decay, are upon them, 
 and the glory is upon the departure. When it is thus, they 
 provoke Christ, by their sordid ingratitude, to remove their 
 candlestick out of its place, unless they repent, they grieve the 
 Holy Spirit, and he withdraws himself, as to his comforting 
 presence, and as to his accompanying ordinances with his effi- 
 cacious power, so that they are given up to a lifeless formality; 
 and though by their continuing to make a profession, they have 
 a name to live, yet, in reality, there is a death upon their com- 
 forts, and they do not act with that vigour in serving Christ, 
 which becomes persons which are alive. 
 
 In the chapter from whence the words are taken, and in that 
 preceding, the beloved disciple John, the last survivor of the 
 apostles, has set down the letters which his exalted Master 
 directed him to write to seven famous churches of the provin- 
 cial Asia. His life was lengthened out far beyond any of the 
 other companions of the Lord; and when he was advancing 
 towards a hundred years, he was, in the second persecution 
 raised by Domitian, banished into Patmos, a lonely island in 
 the Archipelago ; where, being retired on a Lord's day for 
 meditation, his exalted Master, who had for many years been 
 out of the sight of his bodily eyes, was pleased to appear to 
 him, in a very magnificent and glorious form, and audibly to 
 proclaim himself the sole Head and King of the church, and 
 to dictate to him seven short epistles, to be sent to the seven 
 principal churches of the province of Asia, to rouse such as 
 were under declensions, and to encourage such as were true 
 to his cause and interest. When he returned from exile, under 
 Nerva, he committed this book to writing, for the use of all the 
 churches. 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 449 
 
 It has been matter of warm contest for some years, among 
 our brethren in the United Provinces, whether these epistles 
 are to be understood, as having only a literal reference to the 
 seven churches, which were in Asia, or whether they were a 
 prophetical representation of what was to fall out in the Chris- 
 tian churches, to the end of time, in seven periods; and it nmst 
 be owned, that this controversy has been carried on with so 
 much heat, especially by the followers of the learned Cocceius, 
 who are for the prophetical sense, that it has made great in- 
 roads on brotherly love, and has taken up many able and 
 excellent pens, which might have been employed in matters of 
 greater importance. I will not take upon me peremptorily to 
 determine which party have best hit the mind and will of the 
 Holy Spirit;* I must, however, just hint, that a great difficulty 
 sticks with me, with relation to the supposition, that these epis- 
 tles contain an account of the Christian church, under seven 
 periods, till the end of all things; and that is, the church is only 
 represented, either in a suffering, or in a declining condition; 
 but there is nothing said of that glorious state of it, which we, 
 from the Scriptures, believe, will be before the end of time: I 
 cannot but think, if this had been designed as a representation 
 of the state of the Christian church, in seven scenes, till the 
 consummation of all things, we should have had something 
 said of the glory of the latter days, which some of our brethren, 
 who are for the doctrine of seven periods, allow, as well as 
 others. 
 
 The words which I have chosen for the subject of present 
 meditation, are part of the letter written to the church at Sardis. 
 Christ began with setting forth his own prerogative; he has the 
 seven Spirits, or he distributes the various operations of his Spirit 
 as he pleases, and makes a more plentiful effusion at one time 
 than another; he has the seven stars, or he overrules and directs, 
 all the ministers in his church, and they are accountable to him. 
 He declared his omniscience when he said, I knoio thy ivorks; 
 he judged not by appearance, because he is the searcher of 
 hearts. He described the members of the church at Sardis, to 
 be in a very declining condition, to have a name to live, but, in 
 reality to have so little life left, that it might be said, they were 
 dead in spiritual declensions; and he has told us, that he found 
 not their works perfect or upright with God; or that he saw 
 too much formality and hypocrisy among them: he warned 
 them of their danger, commanded them to be watchful, to 
 strengthen what was left, which was commendable, which was 
 
 * The reader may see this matter discussed by two very learned men, M. Wit- 
 
 \ius, (Vid. Misc. Sac. Vol. 1. lib. 3.) and M. A. Marck, who, I hear, has newly 
 
 ntered into his Master's joy, (Pref. ad com. in Apoc:) See also the very learned 
 
 M. Vitringa's Commentary, who, though not a professed Cocceian, here falls in 
 
 with the prophetical sense. 
 
 57 
 
450 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 ready to expire ; to call to mind, and hold fast, the truths they 
 had received and heard, and to repent of their backslidings : and 
 he added a severe threat, in case they were regardless of his 
 admonitions, that he would visit them in a way of severity, and 
 that suddenly, when they might least fear his coming, he would 
 act as a swift witness against them. It has been observed, that 
 it does not appear, from what is here mentioned, that the faith 
 which they professed was chargeable with errors, or that their 
 worship was sullied with superstition; but as there does not 
 seem to be any advantage resulting from such an observa- 
 tion, it is rather probable, from their being commanded to hold 
 fast what they had heard, and learned, that they were de- 
 clining in zeal for the doctrines of the gospel, as well as that 
 practical religion was at a low ebb, and almost ready to expire 
 among them. 
 
 We may allow, as indeed it seems to be the justest account 
 of the matter, that these epistles had a literal reference to the 
 churches then in Asia, which were over-run with the Gnostics 
 and Nicolaitans, who denied the union of the divine and human 
 nature in Christ ; maintained that equivocation and occasional 
 conformity to the heathen ceremonies were lawful; and abused 
 the doctrine of grace, to the encouraging of loose practices. 
 However, seeing all that is written in Scripture is recorded for 
 our learning and use, we, in these after ages, may compare our- 
 selves with the more ancient churches, and may expect, that if 
 we are like them, the threatenings which were denounced against 
 them, may be understood to be in some measure levelled against 
 us. We may not have the same errors started now as were 
 disseminated in the Asiatic churches; neither may the same de- 
 viations from that holiness, which is required in all that embrace 
 the gospel, be found among us, as were to be met with in them. 
 However, if our errors in doctrine are as pernicious, though of 
 a different sort; and our deeds, though running in another chan- 
 nel, are as bad, we must own that we have a name to live, but 
 are dead; and we may suppose, that Christ commands us to be 
 watchful, to strengthen the things which remain, and are ready 
 to die ; and to remember, and hold fast, what we have learned, 
 and repent ; lest he visit us in the way of his judgments, when 
 we least expect it. 
 
 I. I shall briefly set forth what is the state of religion 
 among us. 
 
 I shall not concern myself with those who are of the Na- 
 tional establishment, nor with those who are pretty much of 
 our sentiments, in the countries under the same civil govern- 
 ment with us ; but I shall confine myself to such as take the 
 title of English Protestant Dissenters. And here no words 
 can be too full of emphasis to set forth our condition; nay, 
 words are wanting, to show how we have fallen from our 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 451 
 
 Jirst love. A zeal for the honour of Christ, an ardent concern 
 for exalting the glory of the free grace of God, hi contriving and 
 executing our salvation, a desire to have the fallen creature 
 depressed, and to have works of any sort excluded from contri- 
 buting to salvation, and a care to abound in holiness, and to pro- 
 mote practical religion in the closet, in the family, and in the 
 public, were formerly the glories of our cause, and were the 
 noble badges and amiable marks of the generality of them, who 
 deprived themselves of many worldly emoluments, that they 
 might not prostitute their consciences, by complying with what 
 they judged to be disagreeable to the Scripture rule. While 
 they thus held fast their integrity, they were greatly honoured 
 of God ; they were mighty in word, they were powerful in 
 prayer; the work of conversion was successfully carried on, and 
 many, who had a good disposition wrought in them, flocked 
 into churches; then were seen the evident signals of the Holy 
 Spirit's presence; and great strictness was kept up among those 
 who made a religious profession. These things we have heard 
 with our ears, and our fathers have told us ; and some survive, 
 who have a remembrance how matters formerly stood among 
 us, whilst we were under the disadvantages of penal laws, and 
 had the powers of the earth engaged against us, and had none 
 to protect us, in the enjoyment of the rights, which belonged to 
 us, as men and Christians, At last, it pleased God to loose our 
 bands, and to set our feet in a large place ; but, how are we 
 altered for the worse, since we enjoyed our liberties ? The 
 first abuse of our freedom was, to relinquish the ancient, as 
 well as genuine Christian doctrine of justification by the right- 
 eousness of Christ ; to deny the perfection of the moral law, 
 and to substitute a pretended law of grace, which required sin- 
 cere obedience, instead of perfect righteousness; this was accom- 
 panied with a decay of practical religion, and we have since 
 been gradually declining, till now; and it may be said of us, 
 that we have run the utmost length in error, and have taken 
 the greatest compass in sin. When we compare the present 
 state of religion among us, with what it was formerly, we may 
 say, how are we fallen from our first estate ! how are we cut 
 down to the ground ! how is our zeal turned into lukewarm- 
 ness,and our circumspection into dissoluteness! Slight thoughts 
 of the Christian revelation abound, so that infidelity is almost 
 ready to prevail; error was never more rampant than it now 
 is; private, family, and public worship, were never more ne- 
 glected ; and covetousness, pride, self-conceit, and licentious- 
 ness, never more abounded. 
 
 It may not seem likely, that the charge of Atheism can be 
 brought against such as profess religion; and it must be owned, 
 that none are so hardy as to deny the being of a God, who do 
 not cast off all restraints of profession ; but some have gone 
 
452 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 SO far as to assert, that there are moral fitnesses, with regard to 
 human actions, previous in nature to the will of God. This, 
 whatever they may think, or however they may endeavour to 
 fortify themselves whh plausible, though unintelligible sen- 
 tences, is to set up a system of morality without God at the 
 head of it. They pretend, that there is not any obligation pre- 
 vious to the will of God, but only in order of nature ; but yet 
 that the obligation to obedience necessarily results from the 
 nature of things, though some of the particular instances, and 
 trials of this obedience, may depend entirely on the will of 
 God; and that there are eternal and unchangeable fitnessess in 
 things from which only we can be certain of the unchangeable- 
 ness of God in his purposes, and promises, and government of 
 the world. If this has not a tendency to introduce the exploded 
 and unintelligible jargon of an eternal and unchangeable fate 
 by which the purposes of the supreme God are confined, which 
 was the hideous representation of this matter, among the hea- 
 then, it is hard to say when one thing is like another. These 
 are the unworthy representations which are given us of God, 
 and of the foundations of morality; this is setting some unin- 
 telligible principle, as moral fitness, the reason of things, or the 
 like, above God, which is a great advance towards Atheism, 
 and can have no other etiect than making men think there is 
 no need of a God to govern the world. Many, who call them- 
 selves Christians now, will scarce allow that we are account- 
 able to God ; and many, who say the Bible is their religion, 
 eagerly contend, that natural religion, or reason, is a sujfticient 
 rule for men to walk by. 
 
 As to the doctrines contained in Scripture, they are almost 
 all now struck out of the list of articles of faith ; error may 
 truly be said to come in like a flood, and to spread itself like a 
 raging torrent ; we may cry out, " The floods have lifted up 
 their voice, the floods have lifted up their waves." Most of 
 the pernicious errors which have formerly been brought into 
 the church, are eagerly embraced in our unhappy times ; the 
 enemies have, for some years, been endeavouring to rob Christ 
 and the Holy Spirit of the glory of their supreme divinity, and 
 to reduce them to the rank of creatures : and now men grow 
 bolder in error; they are forward to deny their personality, and 
 to make them only attributes, powers, and names of the Father. 
 God's election of his people to glory is arraigned as unreason- 
 able; and his sovereignty is, in the most saucy manner, opposed. 
 The fall of man is entirely forgotten, and his original corruption 
 is eagerly denied and exploded ; and his death is said to be what 
 must, according to the necessity of nature, have fallen out. 
 Justification by righteousness, is a point pursued with rancour 
 and malice; and sincerity, though in an error, is given out to 
 be a sufficient title to God's favour. Preaching Christ in his 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 453 
 
 person, offices, and in the merits of liis death, undergoes the 
 persecution of cruel mockings; and is spoken of, by brain-sick 
 novices, only with a sneer. The efficacious grace of tlie Holy 
 Spirit, and liis sanctifying and comforting influences, are rudely 
 blasphemed as enthusiasm; and the power of man, to convert 
 himself, and to answer the ends of his living in the world, is 
 eagerly contended for; though those who plead for this power, 
 show that if they have it, it may be in them, without being 
 put into act. The perseverance of the saints in holiness is 
 profanely bantered. The stupid and brutish notion of the soul's 
 sleeping after death, is, by some, hotly maintained ; and its 
 immateriality and immortality are exploded by others. The 
 resurrection of the same body is represented as impossible; and 
 a general judgment, nay, a particular time of men's appearing 
 before God to give an account of what they have done in the 
 body, is now a subject of ridicule; and the doctrine of the wick- 
 ed being reserved for eternal torments, is, by many, set aside. 
 This, without straining, nay, without amplifying the matter, is 
 an account how things stand with us, as to matters of belief. 
 What adds to our iinhappiness is, many who do not run the 
 aforesaid lengths, too much strengthen the party of the enemies 
 of the truth, and too much weaken the hands of the real friends 
 of the Christian cause, by representing these great and import- 
 ant doctrines as matters of mere abstruse speculation, and by 
 branding all concern for them, as taking the Spirit's work out 
 of his hand, or as breaking in upon Christian charity. Many 
 act as if thej'' valued more to be commended by an infidel, as 
 men of little larger thought, and freer inquiry than their neigh- 
 bours, than to have a testimony in the consciences of good 
 Christians, who cannot but think that they are more concerned 
 for their own things than they are for the things of God; and 
 while they gain the good word of the enemies of the Gospel, 
 they consider not how much grief they occasion to such as love 
 the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 As matters are on a very bad footing with us, with respect to 
 faith, if we impartially continue our survey we shall not find 
 they are better with respect to practice. A declension in faith, 
 is always attended with disaffection to the practical duties, 
 which are prescribed in the same divine oracles, that reveal the 
 mysteries we are to believe. I cannot help thinking that some 
 who would appear to be very eager advocates for the doctrine 
 of grace, have done much harm to religion, by pretending that 
 the law is of no use to such as are in Christ, and by discovering 
 much want of temper, if they, at any time, hear the duties of 
 practical godliness stated and pressed. Some have called dis- 
 coursing on the power of godliness, on repentance, self-denial, 
 and mortification, low stuff; and have been easy to hear of 
 nothing but electing love and free grace. Such do harm to the 
 
454 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 cause which they espouse and plead for, by going about to 
 separate wliat God has joined together; it is certain, tliat they 
 liave greatly strengthened legal professors in their dislike of the 
 doctrine of grace; not to mention the reh.1 disgrace they too 
 often bring upon it, for they are not always found to be so 
 circumspect in their dealings and behaviour, as they ought. 
 
 If we leave the before-mentioned persons, and look to others, 
 it must be said, that practical religion runs lower among no 
 sort of men, than those who hear little else pressed upon them. 
 There never was less regard paid to the Lord's day, than is 
 now; many, who do not run into all lengths of immorality, 
 scruple not to make it a day of pleasure and recreation ; and 
 the negligence of professors, in attending on God, in the public 
 worship of the sanctuary, is every day growing more flagrant: 
 they despise the sacred provisions of Sion; and, though they 
 are not arrived at such height of insolence, as to deny, in words, 
 the obligation they lie under, to attend on public ordinances, 
 yet, by their not countenancing the institutions of Christ with 
 their presence, they show how little they regard his authority. 
 Family religion is likewise greatly neglected ; we frequently 
 hear of many prayerless families, the heads of which should, 
 as we might think, considering their profession, be ashamed of 
 giving cause for such a complaint: and if men neglect public 
 worship, and will not keep up family duty, it is scarce to be 
 thought that they mind private religion; or that, if they perform 
 secret devotions at all, they do it in any other than in a cold, 
 formal, stifi' manner. In short, the power of godliness is very 
 much lost in the world. It must be owned, that great endea- 
 vours have been used, to bring professing Christians to a sense 
 of their duty; general and concerted efforts have been made to 
 impress their minds with a sense of the necessity they lie under, 
 to offer up the morning and evening sacrifice of prayer and 
 praise in their families, and to attend on the public ordinances 
 of the sanctuary; but we cannot say, that we see these attempts 
 have been so successful as we could wish, and have desired: on 
 the contrary, our desolation, with respect to practical religion, 
 spreads as a mighty torrent, notwithstanding all the mounds 
 which have been cast up to stop the course of it. 
 
 Since we have had so much talk of natural religion, and have 
 had our ears almost stunned with the noise, that moral duties 
 are of much greater importance than positive institutions, we 
 cannot say that morality flourishes in the least. That Christian 
 simplicity and godly sincerity in the conversation, for which 
 the generation that is now gone ofl"the stage were so remark- 
 able, are not seen among such as have sprung up in their room : 
 a new set of professors has started up, who, by their negligence, 
 as to private and social duties, almost tempt us to think, that 
 they know not the God of their fathers. Moral justice was 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 455 
 
 never at a lower ebb than it now is; and there were never such 
 numbers of cheating pretenders to rehgion, who distress others, 
 to maintain themselves in hixury, as are in our day. 
 
 We have had many tragical complaints of a narrow spirit 
 and the want of Christian love ; and it must be said, that the 
 great duties of love and forbearance are too much forgotten. It 
 has been an artifice by which some, who have not discovered 
 the concern that might have been wished, for the faith once 
 delivered to the saints, have made their way into the esteem of 
 such as have more of affection than judgment, to engross to 
 themselves the character of being men of charity; and many 
 sentences of Scripture, which speak of that love which Chris- 
 tians should keep up to their brethren, or those who are friends 
 to the truth, have been frequently used and inculcated, as if 
 they expressed the treatment, we should give such as we are 
 apprehensive are enemies to, and opposers of what we are per- 
 suaded is the true faith, revealed in the Holy Scriptures : we 
 cannot but think, that, in this, a wrong construction is put on 
 many texts. We are not to cast off pity; on the contrary, we 
 are to show benevolence to the most erroneous, but we must 
 not, we cannot believe that they, who oppose the doctrines 
 we have learned from Scripture, have a title to be as much 
 valued by us, as sincere searchers after truth, as they who 
 stand up for the honour of our dearest Lord. But, to let that 
 pass, we do not so much blame them who are loudest in their 
 cry for charity, for excess of it, as we do for their want of it: 
 we cannot see they act more charity, than such as they censure, 
 as being narrow spirited. Indeed, if any person starts the most 
 monstrous errors, we cannot but say, that they plead for all for- 
 bearance to be showed to him; but let a man once stand up in 
 defence of what these persons do not pretend to deny to be their 
 faith, we cannot see they will make the least allowance for what 
 they count his defects, and which, according to their own large 
 principles, they should pity arid overlook ; on the contrary, they 
 scarce know how to vent their displeasure enough against him. 
 
 This is an imperfect account of the state of religion among 
 us ; and if there is any defect in it, it does not lie in this, that 
 things are represented to be worse than they are, but rather in 
 not setting forth the state of our affairs, in such black colours, as 
 they really admit. When we see such increasing declensions, we 
 cannot but say, that though we have a name to live, yet we are in 
 a manner dead; and that though we keep up a profession of 
 Christianity, we have, as to faith and practice lost our first love. 
 Of these decays we ought to be sensible, otherwise we can never 
 remember from whence we have fallen, repent of our sins, be 
 watchful, or strengthen the things which remain, which are 
 ready to die; but shall go on further to provoke the King of the 
 church to come upon us, when we least expect it, in a way of 
 displeasure, and to remove our candlestick out of its place. 
 
456 OF THE CA.USES OF THE DECAY 
 
 II. I sliall inquire into the true causes of the decay of prac 
 tical religion in our time. 
 
 All who make a profession of religion, are not concerned, as, 
 we cannot but humbly apprehend, they ought to be, for the 
 ravages which are daily made on our most holy faith, or on the 
 doctrines of Christianity; but all who have any thing of a seri- 
 ous temper, seem to be alarmed at the great defection as to mat- 
 ters of practical religion. It is to be wished, it could be said, 
 that all who see these declensions, were as sensible of the true 
 causes of them; but, it is to be feared, many have not a right 
 notion of what really lies at the bottom of our prevailing back- 
 slid ings, and are for ascribing them to things which are so far 
 from having a tendency to promote them, that they are the only 
 things which are proper to prevent them. Some of the true 
 causes of our great decays, are these following, and it is matter 
 of sorrow that there is reason to mention them. 
 
 1. One great cause of the decay of practical religion, is the too 
 general contempt which is cast upon the important doctrines 
 of the Gospel, and on those who stand up in their defence against 
 seducers, who endeavour to rob Christians of them. I am sen- 
 sible, it has been often given out, that the people have heard so 
 much of what some call matters of speculation, and points of 
 dispute, that by this they have been taken off from minding the 
 more important things which refer to practice : and it has been 
 said, that whoever goes far into controversy, weakens practical 
 religion. It is very difficult to see any force in these arguings: 
 how engaging in controversy, in defence of points of belief, 
 which are founded on the same divine authority, as the duties 
 of practical religion, can weaken this, is hard to be conceived : 
 nay, there is as nuich ground to censure us, if we launch into 
 controversies, relating to the duties required of us; and then we 
 must give up every thing which men take it in their heads to 
 deny. Our obligations to keep the Sabbath, to worship God in 
 public, to keep up family religion, to submit to baptism, to come 
 to the table of the Lord, are controverted, and the maintaining 
 of them will run us into as large a field of debate, as any doc- 
 trinal article. These afibrd questions and occasion disputes; 
 yet such as are afraid of weakening practical religion by con- 
 troversy, would scarcely give up these ; so that we cannot think 
 that it is bare controversy which is disliked, but the doctrines 
 themselves, which are in controversy defended. 
 
 It has been a piece of advice given to us, who serve Christ 
 in the work of the ministry, by such as we, on many accounts, 
 value and regard; that sublime speculation, and abstruse con- 
 troversies should not ordinarily be introduced into our ser- 
 mons, for that these minister questions, rather than godly edify- 
 ing: and they observe, that it is an easy matter to engage our 
 warm hearers on subjects, which neither they nor we can fully 
 understand ; that this is the ready way to procure the regards 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 457 
 
 of those, who lay a mighty stress on their own opinions; but 
 that their esteem will be purchased at too dear a rate, since, 
 instead of promoting true religion,it will certainly destroy it; that 
 where this zeal and contention are, there is strife, and every evil 
 work: that though some may admire it for its shining lustre, yet 
 fatal experience proves it to be a raging flame; and, where it 
 breaks out, there is reason to fear that practical godliness will 
 soon be consumed. It is not easy to say against what sort of 
 men this counsel is leveled, it being couched in such general 
 terms. If by avoiding sublime questions and abstruse contro- 
 versies, nothing more is meant, than not introducing questions 
 about the unrevealed mode of Scripture mysteries, and not 
 bringing into sermons the whimsical attempts of vain and con- 
 ceited projectors, to give clear and bright ideas how things can 
 be, in matters that surpass our understanding, every wise man 
 will fall in with it; for he will not think it worth his while to trou- 
 ble himself to defend the dreams of bold intruders into things not 
 seen, and idle pretenders to science, falsely so called: but if by 
 abstruse controversies, and sublime speculations, are meant the 
 controverted doctrine; of the gospel, which have such a depth 
 of mystery in them, that they cannot be fully comprehended, 
 neither by preachers nor hearers, it sounds a little harsh to say, 
 that when zeal for these breaks out, practical religion will be 
 consumed ; because, in fact, it has been seen, that as people have 
 grown uneasy, at having these doctrines unfolded, their regard 
 to practical religion has lessened. In the times of our fathers, 
 when there were more pulpit skirmishes, as they are called, by 
 way of contempt, which made sport for unbelievers, who ban- 
 ter, ridicule, and speak evil of they know not what, there was 
 much more of real religion, than is now: nay, bad as the times 
 are, it is seen, that such as are against moving the ancient land- 
 marks, and pulling up the old barriers of truth, who love to 
 have their own opinions, on which they lay a mighty stress, 
 and that justly, because they have had a practical knowledge, 
 how much they are for a Christian's comfort, stated, maintained, 
 and defended, against the attempts of the enemy, are the per- 
 sons who have practical religion most at heart, and who are 
 most diligent in performing the duties of it. The far greater 
 number of the Sabbath-breakers, the despisers of public wor- 
 ship, and the neglecters of family religion, are not to be found 
 among those who hold fast the old doctrines, but among those 
 who prate against creeds, confessions, and systems, and who are 
 for paying no regard to points of doctrine. 
 
 Every one, who knows any thing of the present state of 
 affairs, must be sensible this is a truth: and, indeed, it can 
 hardly be otherwise; for if men are once connived at, in break- 
 ing their allegiance to Christ, in one respect, they will, on the 
 same principles, assume to themselves a liberty to do it in 
 
 58 
 
458 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 another, if it suits their fancies, and gratifies their corruptions' 
 The same Scriptures declare, that, in the unity of the Godhead, 
 there are three divine Persons; and that the Son is one with the 
 Father in nature, and equal with him in perfections, though dis- 
 tinct in Person, which tell us, that we must keep the Sabbath, not 
 forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and pray always. 
 When men hear, that the belief of a Trinity, which runs through 
 the Scripture, is a mere speculative felicity of hitting the divine 
 nature right, in some particular modes of tliinking, and it is of 
 no moment, whether they believe him who has tlieir concerns 
 in his hand, to be God, or a creature, a person, or a power, it is 
 natural for them to conclude, that it is of as little importance 
 whether they spend the Sabbath in public worship, and pray in 
 their families, or not; seeing it is the same Scripture, which 
 makes known points of doctrine, to avoid controversy they may 
 as well give up a Scripture duty, to prevent contest with such 
 as are of another mind, and to ward off the putting themselves 
 to trouble. They who give up any truth, which the Scripture 
 has revealed, are guilty of a breach of allegiance to Christ; and 
 they are not exempted from this charge, by their retaining many 
 things, which he has made known and commanded ; because a 
 man is as really, though not equally, a betrayer of Christ, who 
 gives up one thing, which he has ordered to be retained, as he 
 who throws up the whole of the Christian doctrine; just as a 
 man who joins with others to attack his prince's guards, in 
 order to destroy his person, who has opportunity to kill but one 
 of his attendants, is as really a traitor, as if he had been able to 
 have killed all about him, and to have murdered him at the 
 same time : and none would believe him, if he were to say, that 
 when he had killed one, he intended to do no more. When 
 men give up a part of Christianity to please their own humour, 
 or to keep in with its opposers, they will always be ready to 
 give up all other parts of it, if it suits their interest; for it is 
 impossible that a man, who shows no value for the Scripture 
 account of Christ's person, incarnation, and satisfaction, can 
 have any real regard to him, as the governor of his church, any 
 further than it maybe for his advantage to profess subjection to 
 him. If a temptation offers, he will as much slight his institu- 
 tions, as he is regardless what and who he is, and what he has 
 done for sinners. On the whole, the little concern which many 
 show for the great doctrines of the gospel, is a principal cause 
 of the decay of practical religion, which we may all see, and 
 ought greatly to lament. 
 
 2. One great cause of the decay of piety, is the neglect which 
 has been of late, in preachiyis; Christ. By preaching Christ, I 
 do not mean haranguing upon some duties of natural religion, 
 which are not contrary to his doctrines ; this is an odd conceit 
 about preaching Christ: thus the Pagans may be said to preach 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 459 
 
 Christ. Mahomet stufled his Koran with many things taken 
 from Scripture; at this rate, to preach up them, might enable a 
 Christian to say, if he was among the infidels, that he preached 
 up Mahomet, when he might not say a word about Mahomet's 
 being a true prophet, which is the fundamental of that religion. 
 Preaching of Christ does not lie in stating such duties of natural 
 religion as might be picked up out of Xenophon, Plato, Aristo- 
 tle, and Seneca, which are not entirely inconsistent with what 
 we meet with in Scripture; yet it must be said of too many, 
 who assume the title of Christian ministers, that if they preach 
 Christ at all, it is in this way, only they state moral duties in a 
 tedious dull manner, and without the smartness and nervousness 
 for which some Pagan writers are remarkable. 
 
 If we take to us justly the title of preachers of Christ, we must 
 instruct our hearers in the Scripture account of his person ; if 
 we are to make our great Master known to men, surely we 
 must tell them, from the oracles of truth, who he is, and what 
 he is. We must vindicate his real personality, or show him to 
 be distinct from the Father in person, though one God with him, 
 against such as make him only a name or power of God: we 
 must in opposition to such as would reduce him to the rank of 
 creatures, prove his supreme divinity, from his being called Je- 
 hovah and God, in an absolute sense; from his being declared 
 to be one with the Father, and equal to him ; from his having 
 applied to him the highest titles of supremacy; from his being 
 represented as necessarily existing, eternal, unchangeable, om- 
 niscient, immense, and almighty; from his being the Creator, 
 the Preserver, Upholder, and End of all things, and from his 
 receiving adoration: we must make known that he is God-man, 
 or that he took into union with his divine person the whole 
 human nature, consisting of a real body, and a rational soul, not 
 an angelic or a super-angelic spirit; and mast evince the neces- 
 sity there was, that he should be God and man, in one person, 
 that there might be infinite value in his merit, at the same time 
 that he had a capacity to suffer: we must defend the truth of 
 his miracles, by which he confirmed his doctrine, and the reality 
 and the efficacy of his sufferings and death, by which he made 
 full and proper satisfaction for the sins of the elect, and did not 
 procure an uncertain precarious happiness for the whole world; 
 and show the necessity there was for him to rise and revive, 
 that he might demonstrate, that he had accomplished his work; 
 and that he might ascend into heaven, and, having taken his 
 seat at the right hand of God, might intercede for his people, in 
 an authoritative way; and that he might make a more plentiful 
 eftYision of his Spirit upon them. When we thus show how he 
 executes his office as a Priest, we must make him known in all 
 his offices; or, as he is the great Prophet of the church, who has 
 given his followers a full revelation of the mind of God, and 
 
460 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 who savingly enlightens them, that they may receive the truth 
 in love; and as he is the King of saints, who renews, rules, and 
 governs them, who strengthens them for duty, and who assists 
 them against enemies : we must persuade and press men to look 
 to Christ, as dying for sin, to rely upon him alone for pardon of 
 guilt, and for righteousness to justify them, without adding their 
 imperfect duties to his infinite merit ; and to depend on him for 
 strength, to perform sincere obedience, to encounter enemies, to 
 grow in grace, and to persevere in holiness, till, at last, he shall 
 bestow eternal life : we must maintain that he is the Head of 
 the church, who alone has the right to prescribe rules for wor- 
 ship, so that none must impose their inventions on his subjects; 
 and that he is the person who is to judge the world in right- 
 eousness, so that he will appear a second time, in power and 
 great glory, to raise the dead, to take cognizance of the actions 
 of every creature that has sinned, to inflict fulness of torment on 
 the rebel angels, to fix impenitent sinners in ever-during wo, 
 and to place those, for whose sins he has satisfied, in everlasting 
 blessedness. 
 
 We are not, in the course of our ministry, confined wholly to 
 these subjects; we ought, at proper seasons, to insist upon the 
 perfections of God, on the displays of his wisdom, power, and 
 goodness, in the works of creation and providence; and on his 
 various dispensations, with regard to the aff'airs of his church: 
 we are to show the great depravity of men, by reason of the 
 fall, and the great vanity they are guilty of, in seeking satisfac- 
 tion in any thing short of the Most High; and as it was not the 
 design of our Redeemer, though he fulfilled and abolished the 
 law, as a covenant of works, to weaken the obligations his peo- 
 ple lie under, to conform to it as a rule of life, we must make 
 known to men the duties it requires, as they are incumbent upon 
 us, whether we are in a private, social, or public capacity. — 
 Though these things are not be wholly omitted, yet we must 
 reckon it a great part of our work, to state, maintain, and de- 
 fend the glorious doctrines of the blessed gospel, which relate to 
 Christ, and what he has done for us, and which contain the 
 foundation of our hope, as to a better world. Even when we 
 press the duties of the law, we must acquaint men, that it is in 
 Christ's strength only that they can perform them, and that it is 
 absolutely necessary to be found practising them, in order to 
 show that they are his disciples, and to express their gratitude 
 to him for all his benefits. 
 
 If we consider what is the true notion of preaching Christ, 
 and observe what has been the practice of many, we must say, 
 there is the greatest truth in an observation, which has lately 
 been made, that there are but few, in our days, who preach 
 Christ, and few that regard him; and that the greatest number 
 of preachers and hearers seem contented to lay him aside. It 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 461 
 
 is a great shame, and it should be matter of sorrow, that this is 
 the truth of the case; but since it is the real truth, it ought to 
 be spoken: and shice matters are so, can we wonder that prac- 
 tical religion is neglected, when Christ is so little preached? 
 Of what avail is it to tell a man, that he must be serious in his 
 behaviour, and circumspect in his walk, that he must beware 
 of the deceitfulness of sin, and that he must be constant in wor- 
 ship, if he is not informed in whose strength he must engage in 
 duty, and on whom he must rely for aid against sin, and is left 
 in the dark, as to the end he ought to have in view, in perform- 
 ing what religious service God requires? JNIen ought to be 
 acquainted, that their performances will never recommend them 
 to God as a Judge, but yet that it is necessary for them to obey 
 the will of their Creator, that they may evidence that they have 
 believed in Christ for righteousness; and, till they are convinced 
 of the truth of these things, they will never sincerely regard 
 practical religion : they will either abound in uncommanded 
 rigours and austerities, in order to make God their debtor; or 
 they will soon grow weary of the external part of religion, and 
 look upon it to be mere bodily labour. No duties can be per- 
 formed with true spiritual pleasure without faith in Christ; and 
 there is no obedience that can be styled evangelical holiness, 
 but what is performed in his strength. If then Christ is left out 
 in preaching, as declamations and harangues, which are made 
 about inward and outward piety, must needs be extremely low 
 and lame, so the practice of those whose unhappiness it is to sit 
 under such teaching, will be very short of coming up to what 
 the Scripture calls holiness. To tell a man of the noble natunj 
 of the Christian virtues, of the beauty of practical godliness, and 
 of the excellence of gospel morality, without informing him in 
 whose strength he must act, will have as little efficacy on him, 
 to make him regulate himself according to the admirable model 
 of duty, which is laid down in Scripture, as a long discourse 
 on the desirableness and benefits of health would be of advan- 
 tage to promote the recovery of a sick man, if he was not direct- 
 ed to use such means as might suit his case. 
 
 3. The ascribing too much to the power and the performances 
 o{ fallen man, and too little to the/ree grace of God, and to the 
 righteousness of Christ, has always been attended with loose- 
 ness, as to matters of practice, and is one principal cause of the 
 ravages made on piety among us. When God fixed upon the 
 method of man's recovery, we may be sure he would never 
 promote his salvation, in a way injurious to his divine perfec- 
 tions, neither would he set one attribute at variance with an- 
 other: he purposed to deliver sinners, in a way in which his' 
 absolute sovereignty, his free grace, his inexorable justice, his 
 unsearchable wisdom, his unchangeable truth, his unspotted 
 holiness, his almighty power, his immense goodness, and his 
 rich mercy, might ail be equally glorified; and this is by the 
 
462 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 salvation of his elect by Christ Jesus. The ends which he had 
 in view, in appointing his Son to be the Redeemer of men, and 
 consequently in publishing the glad tidings of great joy, v/hich 
 the everlasting gospel contains, were to depress man as fallen, 
 to exalt Christ, and to promote holiness: when persons then run 
 contrary to God's designs, and strive to exalt the power and the 
 worth of the fallen creature, and to depress the almighty and 
 all-sufficient Saviour, it is no wonder that they are not concern- 
 ed as they ought to be, to promote practical godliness, because 
 they endeavour to separate what God will have to be joined 
 together. When men are against exalting free grace, and hon- 
 ouring Christ, it is a jest for them to pretend to be for promoting 
 piety, because, if they really loved God, they would have an 
 equal regard to all the things he had in view, in saving sinners 
 by Christ: as they are not much concerned for one part of his 
 design, it cannot be thought that they act from a principle of 
 real love to him; and without this, though they may come under 
 a moral reformation, as to gross sins, it cannot be thought that 
 they will practise true holiness, which the holy Scriptures re- 
 quire in all such as hope to see the Lord. 
 
 It has been matter of fact, that whenever a run has been 
 made on the Gospel doctrine of justification, by the imputed 
 righteousness of Christ alone, under the idle pretence of its 
 having a tendency to discourage good works, there has been a 
 visible declension in holiness, among such as would appear most 
 concerned to promote, by this, the cause of piety. I know this 
 is a tender point, and a thing which some do not care to hear 
 of; therefore, that I may not give offence, by saying what might 
 be counted harsh, though it might not he so in reality, I shall 
 choose to give my sense of this matter, not in my own words, 
 but in those of a divine of great judgment, unbiassed integrity, 
 and eminent piety, who now rests from his labours, and whose 
 praise is in the churches; they are these:* "When the doctrine 
 of justification by faith prevails, the church prospers; but when 
 it falls, the church falls with it; when it is subverted and adul- 
 terated, the purity of the doctrine of the gospel, in other things, 
 cannot be preserved; when it is laid aside, and justification by 
 works is brought into its room, a flood of errors comes in with 
 it. This error is the inlet of licentiousness, and destroys the 
 vital part of holiness; instead of furthering good works, as the 
 favourers of it pretend, it is a barren soil wherein nothing grows 
 but the briers and thorns of evil works. The papacy is a sad 
 instance of this. The generality of the members of the church 
 of Rome are such as have banished from them the very sliadow 
 of sobriety, and wallow in the channel of unbounded lust; their 
 strictest devotees, who boast that they can merit not only for 
 
 * Mr. Richard Taylor, in his Scripture-Doctrine of Justification, p. 204 — 207, 
 in the second volume of his works. 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 463 
 
 themselves, but for others, are more like mad men, than men 
 actuated by grace or reason. What are their works, but heaps 
 of idolatry and superstitious fooleries? Christ will only be a 
 strength to them that trust in him for righteousness ; they that 
 will not have him for their righteousness, shall not have him for 
 their strength to enable them to resist temptations, to mortify sin 
 and corruption, and to bring forth the fruits of holiness. 
 
 " The error of justification by works, brings judgments from 
 God upon a people that give it any countenance, and forsake 
 the truth. This is verified in the French churches; they receded 
 from the first reformers in the doctrine of justification; this is 
 what the most guilty of them will deny, but it was so evident, 
 that the Papists took notice of it. The French Protestants did 
 not zealously stick to the doctrine of justification by faith in the 
 righteousness of Christ, as it was transmitted and conveyed down 
 to them, by our reformers; and what followed? A decay of 
 piety, and a corruption of manners which provoked God to scat- 
 ter and cast them off. I do not speak this to insult over them, 
 but to move us to fear; we have lost the truth in this nation, 
 and we every day more and more lose the Spirit of holiness. 
 What a sensible declension is there in the national English 
 church, since the doctrinal articles which have the spirit of our 
 first reformers in them have been cried down, instead of being 
 preached up by them who yet subscribe to the truth of them! 
 Are not they, who separate from the national church, grown 
 much worse since the new Methodists have found a grateful 
 welcome amongst them? When truth is lost, holiness will not 
 stay behind. 
 
 " We have a great noise made about works, and yet there 
 was never less working than there is now among us ; which 
 shows that men do not cry up works from a love to holiness, 
 but only to favour a faction, and to gain credit to their own cor- 
 rupt opinions. If God does not send forth his light and his truth 
 among us, and if he does not awaken us to remember from 
 whence we are fallen, that we may recover ourselves, we can 
 expect nothing, but that our sun will set in a cloud ; and then, 
 as we shall have our lot to be piuiished after others, so our 
 punishment will be sorer and severer than theirs. What is the 
 spring of a believer's comfort, is now become the ground of 
 contention among us. Much has been preached about justifi- 
 cation by faith in Christ, and many useful books have been 
 published concerning it; yet there is great darkness among pro- 
 fessors about it, and, as they are ignorant of this truth, so they 
 are barren in good works." 
 
 These remarks were the result of careful observation, near 
 forty years ago; and the time that has run out since, has only 
 afforded us more opportunity to see with how much skill and 
 judgment they were made. We have gone on to cast more 
 contempt, every day, both upon the glorious doctrine of man's 
 
464 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 salvation being entirely owing to the free grace of God, and on 
 the important point of justification by the righteousness of 
 Christ imputed ; and the great pretence has been, men should 
 not hear so much of the privileges, which belong to such as are 
 in Christ, as of the duties required of them, lest they abuse the 
 gospel, and run into Antinomianism. If we either neglect to 
 show the necessity for relying on Christ for a justifying right- 
 eousness, or to evince the need of practising holy duties, we go 
 out of God's way, and cannot expect his blessing : accordingly 
 we see, that crying up of sincere obedience, to the lessening a 
 regard to Christ's righteousness, has been followed with an 
 increase of formality and deadness in duty, and with a great 
 neglect of it ; so that the following advice of the author, whose 
 words have been quoted, is very proper for us to regard : " Let 
 us pray, that Christianity among us may return to its proper 
 channel, which is this; when men expect the whole of their 
 salvation from Christ, and yet strive to be as fruitful in their 
 lives, as if they expected to be justified by their good works. 
 The greater sense any one has of the free grace of God, the more 
 precise and exact he will be, in the duties of every relation." 
 
 4, It is to be feared, that the decay of piety is to be attributed, 
 in some measure, to the too general neglect of instimcthia; 
 young persons in the principles of true Christianity, and to 
 the contempt which has been, of late years, cast upon those 
 judicious and useful forms of sound words, which have been of 
 great advantage to furnish men with just notions of the doc- 
 trines which are revealed in Scripture. Instructing of youth in 
 a catechetical way, has been an ancient practice in the Chris- 
 tian churches ; there is sufficient ground for it to be gathered 
 I'rom the Scripture, and it has been a method which Christ has 
 owned, and greatly blessed. It is a duty incumbent on Chris- 
 tians to instruct their children, and all others who are under 
 their care, in the doctrinal knowledge of those truths, which 
 they have learned from the Scripture, which have been the food 
 of their souls, from the time they were renewed by divine grace, 
 and the comforts of which they have felt, in all their soul-exer- 
 cises. And, besides this, it is exceedingly profitable for young 
 persons to be taught the principles of religion,* in a public 
 manner, by the dispensers of the gospel, who can, with pru- 
 dence and caution, engage in this work. It must be owned, 
 that all the instruction we can give, will not bring persons to 
 receive the truth in the love of it, if they are left without the 
 saving illuminations of the Holy Spirit: it may enlighten the 
 head, but of itself it will not change the heart. However it is 
 of very great advantage, in many respects, for those Avho are 
 in their more tender years, to be instructed in the doctrines 
 taught, and in the duties required in Scripture. If they have 
 
 * See Mr. Hurrion's Sermon on the good of early instruction, p. 11 — 24. 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 4G5 
 
 any good thing in them towards the Lord God of Israel, or are 
 under religious' impressions, it must be very pleasing and profit- 
 able to them, to have the glorious mysteries of the gospel unfold- 
 ed, and proved from Scripture, and to have the duties required 
 of them, in every relation, to be laid before them, from the ora- 
 cles of the living God. If tliey are left to themselves, yet by 
 being taught practical duties, they may be the more civilized, 
 may be laid under a greater moral restraint, and may be made 
 more useful members of society. We cannot tell how soon the 
 Spirit of God may work upon such, as, at the present, are in a 
 state of nature ; and then they will always find it of vast advan- 
 tage, to have been instructed in the Christian doctrines; they will 
 feel the power of the truths, of which they only had a specula- 
 tive notion before, and will increase in knowledge, as well as 
 grow in grace. When a man receives the truth in the love of 
 it, he will rejoice, if his case is such, that he has not his faith to 
 seek, as to the system of it, and that he is not at a loss about his 
 duty, as to knowing the matter of it. Such as have been nour- 
 ished up, as the great evangelist Timothy was, 1 Tim. iv. 6, " in 
 the words of faith and good doctrine," have always proved the 
 wisest and the most useful Christians. They know their Mas- 
 ter's will, as to faith and practice; and they are most careful to 
 come to it. It has been an observation, and it is very just, and 
 confirmed by experience, that such as have been made partakers 
 of the grace of God, who never were instructed in the doctrines 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, have been often very warm, sincere, 
 and scrupulous professors of Christianity; but they have been 
 generally either hot and unsettled, or fond of advancing only 
 one truth, and uneasy to hear of any thing else ; or ready to ad- 
 mire all preaching, which is suited to move the lower passions, 
 or else prone to run into enthusiasm. On the other hand, when 
 such are converted, as have been brought by instruction to 
 have a good measure of knowledge of the peculiar and distin- 
 guishing doctrines of our holy religion, they have been more 
 steady in their adherence to right principles, and more regularly 
 uniform in their conduct. We cannot but say, that there has of 
 late been too great a neglect, as to the instructing of youth; and 
 we find the sad consequence of this, in the ignorance, profane- 
 ness, and conceit, which we may observe in the rising generation. 
 It has been a prevailing custom among us, who separate from 
 the national establishment, to make use of the Shorter Catechism 
 of the venerable Assembly of Divines, who met at Westminster, 
 in instructing youth. Of that noble composure it may very 
 justly be said, that for clearness of thought, for comprehending 
 a great deal in a small compass, for treating of the glorious doc- 
 trines of the gospel with accuracy, care, and caution, and for 
 speaking of them, in the most just and nervous way, there are 
 few human composures which can be said to exceed it. Tliey 
 
 59 
 
466 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 who have gone before us, thought themselves happy in having 
 such an excellent form of sound words to help them in instruct- 
 ing such as were under their inspection. But there is a gene- 
 ration now upon the stage, who defy their fathers as precedents, 
 because they will not come up with them in honesty, zeal, and 
 self-denial. To declaim directly against a composure, which 
 had a testimony in the consciences of all serious Christians, 
 would not have answered the etid of such as were weary of the 
 truths summed up in it; therefore few who have run into neu- 
 trality and hike warmness, have ventured to say that they looked 
 upon it to comprehend a heap of false opinions. They have 
 been more artful in their management, they have told such as 
 would listen to them, that the words of Scripture are certainly 
 the best; that catechisms should be drawn up in the expressions 
 of the inspired writers; that if we pay a regard to human forms, 
 to creeds, confessions, and systems of divinity, framed by men 
 subject to mistake, we deny the sufficiency of Scripture, and set 
 the performances of fallible creatures on a level with the words 
 of the infallible God. By these insinuations, they who have 
 used them have led many off from all regard to truth and practi- 
 cal religion. If they had cried out against any summary of prin- 
 ciples apprehended to be Christian, as containing points incon- 
 sistent with Scripture, none would have blamed them, for going 
 according to their light, though we might have taken the liberty 
 to have counted their light darkness; but for men to abstract from 
 the consideration, whether the creeds and catechisms, which 
 have been in use, are agreeable to Scripture or no, and gravely 
 and solemnly to talk against them, and to run them down, 
 merely because they are human composures, as incroachments 
 on the sufficiency of Scripture, is what contributes exceedingly 
 to the increase of infidelity. All things composed by men ought 
 to be tried by the Scripture standard; if they are not agreeable 
 to the oracles of the living God, let tliem be rejected with con- 
 tempt and disdain; but if they contain just accounts of what lies 
 scattered in diti'erent parts of the book of God, it can answer no 
 end to run them down as human forms, except it be to disparage 
 that religion, on the side of which the composers of them were. 
 It is said by some, who have borrowed the pretence from the 
 Socinians and the Jesuits, that it is sufficient for men to assent 
 to the words of Scripture; and perhaps it might be so, if there 
 were no knaves in the world, and no wolves in sheep's clothing 
 in the church. Christians do not use the caution they ought, if 
 tiiey only inquire, whether a man professes to own the Bible to 
 contain his religion; they are principally concerned to be satis- 
 fied how he, who would thrust himself into their esteem, under- 
 stands the words of that which they take for their rule of faith, 
 and for their directory in practice; that they may judge whether 
 he is a disciple of Christ or not 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 467 
 
 In former days, when the excellent summaries of Cliristian 
 faith and practice were valued and highly esteemed, because 
 it was concluded they were founded on Scripture, practical reli- 
 gion flourished. But what a disagreeable turn have matters 
 taken, since we have heard them run down, because they were 
 drawn up by men? Some, who have heard their guides rail at 
 them, and ridicule them, as human forms, and the impositions 
 of men, have been induced to think, that all the points laid 
 down and summed up in them, were human inventions, and 
 they have gone further than their leaders intended they should. 
 They have not only deserted the doctrines which their teachers 
 hated, but they have cast off all regard to practical duties, and 
 have manifested the utmost contempt of public worship, and of 
 the Sabbath. It is greatly to be wished, that some who have 
 been most violent in railing against standing up for controverted 
 points, in declaiming against creeds, confessions and catechisms, 
 in abusing all open declarations as to matters of faith, and in 
 recommending liceiUiousness and lukewarmness, under the false 
 names of liberty and charity, would think what they have been 
 doing. They have thrown down the banks, which were raised 
 to keep out infidelity and error; and, seeing they have let these 
 come in like a raging sea, it is not to be wondered at, if they 
 are not all able to keep the tide out, by opposing the palms of 
 their hands to it. 
 
 5. The great cause of all the present corruptions in practice, 
 is the contempt which has, for many years, been cast on the 
 Holy Spirit and his operations. It has been too common for 
 the Holy Spirit to be left out in preaching upon duty; and it 
 has been too general a thing to neglect putting such as are 
 pressed to regard the salvation of their souls, on keeping up in 
 their minds a continual sense of their being able to do nothing 
 aright, without his aid and assistance. Moral suasion has been 
 talked of, as being fit in itself to bring men to a sense of their 
 duty; and such as are for looking up for assistance, for aid, and 
 for consolation to the Holy One, are vilified, as persons fren- 
 sied and delirious. We have grieved and offended the Spirit 
 of grace; and he, in a great measure, is withdrawn and gone: 
 and, since he is absent, we find that ordinances are of little use 
 to them that, in a formal way, converse in them; consequently 
 it is no wonder that he does not regard the despisers of ordi- 
 nances, or them who cast open and avowed contempt on those 
 sacred provisions, which it is his office to bless. 
 
 It may, with too much justice, be said, that never was the 
 Holy Spirit more contemned, and consequently more provoked, 
 for a long series of time, by any that have kept up an external 
 profession of Christianity, than he has been among us of late 
 years. His Deity is by many denied, and endeavours are used 
 to reduce him to the rank of creatures, nay, to make him created 
 by a creature; and so opinionated persons, who would affect to 
 
468 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 be dictators, take upon them to prescribe it as proper, to wor ■ 
 ship him directly only occasionally, as prudence and expedience 
 may require, and not to bind it upon our own consciences, or 
 upon others, as a necessary tiling: his real personality is opposed 
 by some, and we are told, by projectors, that he is only a divine 
 power personified by some idioms of speech; and our Lord's 
 promise, which contained in it, what he designed for the com- 
 fort of all Christians, since the heavens have received him, as 
 to his bodily presence, that the Spirit of truth should come, or 
 that the person of his Spirit should make a more plentiful effu- 
 sion of his gifts upon them, is made nothing of, by this bold fig- 
 ment, that our Lord described a divine power by a strong pro- 
 sopopeia, and a noble allegory, as a messenger sent from God: 
 it is hard to say how the blessed Spirit, the Comforter of the 
 elect of God, could well be more affronted, than in being treated 
 thus: great provocations are offered him, by such as do not 
 profess to run the length of denying his personality and divine 
 glory; his work, as a quickening, renewing Spirit, is denied^ 
 and what can only be brought about in the soul of a sinner, by 
 his efficiency, in enlightening the understanding, bowing the 
 will, and purifying the affections, is, by many, ascribed either 
 entirely, or in part, to the free will of man. How has praying 
 by the Spirit been profanely ridiculed by one sort of men! 
 And what has been the effect? Fervent prayer has been, in a 
 manner, lost among them, and they are given up to a lifeless 
 formality: but these are not the persons with whom we are 
 more immediately concerned. To come nearer home: what 
 contempt is cast on the Spirit's motions, as a Convincer, an 
 Instructer, and a Comforter? How is his sealing up believers 
 to the day of redemption, or witnessing with their spirits, that 
 they are the children of God, treated with banter and grimace? 
 How are all that profess to depend on his conduct exposed, as 
 being under the power of enthusiasm, by many who profess 
 Christianity? What sneering folly do some demure formalists 
 show, when a word is said of his enabling us to will and to do, 
 of his good pleasure ? What is the melancholy consequence of 
 all this? The Comforter is much withdrawn. Hence it arises, 
 that the work of conversion is very much at a stand; few are 
 now seen inquiring the way to Zion, with their faces thither- 
 ward; and they who have long professed religion, have gray 
 hairs increasing upon them, and are under great decays and 
 declensions. There is no question to be made, but that, in these 
 times of sad degeneracy, the Spirit revives some serious, zealous 
 Christians, with his strong consolations; yet it must be said, that 
 he does not make the preaching of the gospel so effectual for 
 instruction, edification, and comfort, to great numbers, as he 
 formerly did. Sinners may now be alarmed with the thunders 
 of mount Sinai, and be allured with the still small voice from 
 the palaces of Zion, and yet they continue fearless and stupid, 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 469 
 
 senseless and unaffected. Professing Christians now often sit 
 before God as his people, and are found in external perform- 
 ance of ordinances, and yet go away as dull and heavy, as full 
 of formality and deadness, as if they had not been engaged in 
 them. The reason is, the Holy Spirit does not accompany the 
 word preached with his blessing, and does not clothe his ordi- 
 nances with power; he withdraws from us, whose presence 
 was the glory of our assemblies ; and he leaves us to feel the 
 effects of our mad ingratitude, in grieving him, in slighting his 
 motions, and in casting contempt on his person and operations: 
 and if the Spirit departs, as a Spirit of conviction and comfort, 
 it is no wonder that we have reason to complain of our leanness 
 and barrenness under the enjoyment of the best means. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 1. Since we are forced to say, if we will be impartial, that we 
 are under great decays, as to practical religion, let us endeavour 
 to have a deep sense of our declensions, and of the true causes 
 of them. We have often been told, that some reasons why reli- 
 gion is weakened, are these: the people are amused too much 
 with speculative doctrines, and with disputes, and are taught to 
 pay an unwarrantable regard to human forms and decisions; 
 and it is very likely that some have worked themselves up to a 
 belief of these insinuations; but there is matter of fact to be set 
 against such idle surmises. Wherever the truths of the gospel 
 have been most preached, in their purity, and where the pro- 
 fessors of Christianity have been most cautious, as to giving 
 them up, there has a regard to strict serious religion most pre- 
 vailed. It may be said, that decays prevail among all sorts 
 now; but it must be averred, that they who have the highest 
 notions about the importance of the controverted doctrines of 
 the gospel, and who express their value for those forms of sound 
 words, which state them safely, are the persons among whom 
 practical godliness flourishes most. We should strive tlien to 
 be sensible of the true causes of our spiritual decays; for unless 
 we know from what they proceed, we cannot remember from 
 whence we have fallen, we cannot rightly repent of our back- 
 sliding, and we cannot do our first works; and, unless we do 
 these things, we shall only grow worse and worse, and shall 
 every day offer new provocations to the great King of the 
 church; and, if we go on to stir up his displeasure afresh, his 
 patience may be tired out, and he may come upon us, to avenge 
 the quarrel of his covenant, more suddenly than we may expect, 
 and more severely than we may imagine. 
 
 Let us, when we are sensible of the declensions which prevail 
 among us, examine what we have done to offend God : let us 
 not be wholly taken up in accusing others, but let every man 
 
470 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY 
 
 among us smite upon his breast, and say, What have I done 
 towards promoting a general declension ? Let us search into all 
 the secret chambers of imagery in our hearts ; aud, if we find 
 any idol of jealousy erected, let u.s immediately cast it down, and 
 destroy it: if, upon trying our spirits, we find we have done any 
 thing to provoke God, let us abhor ourselves for it; let us be 
 deeply humbled, and really contrite for it, and let us forsake it, 
 Avith true repentance; let us show noble examples of defensible 
 singularity, in running counter to general corruption; let us 
 stand up for the truths of the gospel, when it is fashionable to 
 run them down; let us worship God according to the pattern 
 given in his word, when it is too common to offer strange fire on 
 his altar; let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, 
 when many teave the courts of Sion to follow their pleasures ; 
 let our houses resound with the voice of prayer, when those of 
 others are without having the morning and evening sacrifice 
 otfered up in them; let us be shining examples of holiness and 
 purity, and stand at a distance from insincerity, when others 
 abound in dissoluteness and acts of fraud: let us bewail the sins 
 of others, which we cannot reform : when the herd of ungodly 
 sinners go on, without fear, to make void the law, when atheism, 
 deism, and error, come in like floods, when iniquity abounds, 
 and profaneness rides in triumph, and when professors have lost 
 their first love, let us be among the number of them, who mourn 
 over the abominations which too much prevail ; let us wrestle 
 in prayer with God the Holy Spirit, that he would not depart 
 from us, but that he would still govern in our hearts, and fill 
 our assemblies : let us, with fervency, cry, Come, Holy Ghost, 
 eternal God, look down on the languishing state of the Chris- 
 tian interest among us ; when Atheism and Deism break in 
 upon us, as a raging sea, say thou, " Hitherto shall you come, 
 and no further, and here shall your proud waves be staid;'* 
 when errors and heresies rush in like a flood, lift thou up a 
 standard against them ; cause the light of truth to shine forth, 
 like the sun in its full strength, to scatter the fogs and mists of 
 error; kindle the love of professors that waxes cold; inflame 
 them with a pious zeal for the truth ; restore a spirit of peace 
 and true moderation ; check that profaneness that rolls in like 
 a mighty torrent ; cause holiness to run down our streets as a 
 river, and righteousness to glide through our land, like a peace- 
 ful stream: be to us a refreshing dew; cause our wilderness 
 and our solitary places to be glad, and our desert to rejoice, 
 and blossom as the rose; shed thy benign influences upon us; 
 that we may grow as the lily, that we may revive as the corn, 
 that we may be fruitful as the vine, that our beauty may be as 
 the olive tree, and that we may strike down our roots, spread 
 forth our branches, and rise in a graceful towering height, like 
 the cedar: be thou, Comforter, our glory, and our defence; 
 
OF PRACTICAL RELIGION. 471 
 
 abundantly bless the provision of Sion; endue the ministers of 
 the gospel with righteousness, and clothe the ordinances of the 
 sanctuary with power; be thou in the midst of us, and then we 
 shall not be called, Forsaken and Desolate, neither shall it be 
 said of us, that the glory is departed, but the name whereby we 
 shall be called, shall be Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there. 
 2. Since a defection from the faith of the gospel lies at the 
 root of all our abominations, let us be zealous for the truth, 
 and contend earnest ti/ for the faith once delivered to the saints. 
 In this day of blasphemy and rekuke, lukewarmness and indif- 
 ference, we may expect to have many to weaken our hands, 
 and occasion us sorrow of heart; but we know little of the state 
 of things among us, if we expect to have very many to atford 
 us help, when we are engaged in the cause of the Lord against 
 the mighty. However, this ought not to move us from our 
 duty; for Christ the Lord of Hosts is with us, when we pleads 
 for his honour and his truth, and, if our labours are not crowned 
 with success, we have done our duty, we have the testimony of 
 a good conscience, and we have delivered our souls. Our blessed 
 Lord declared, that in the declining church of Sardis he had a 
 few names, who had not defiled their garments, who should 
 walk with him in white, for they were worthy. Let us be 
 among the happy few, who are valiant for the truth in the earth, 
 that when we appear before our great Master, he may say to 
 us, " Well done, good and faithful servants, enter you into my 
 joy; you shall walk before me in the white attire of innocence; 
 you have been faithful to my cause, I will grace your brows 
 with the diadems of immortality." We should consider that it 
 is the noblest of causes in which we are engaged; to contend for 
 our civil liberties against tyrants, and to strive for our spiritual 
 privileges against impostors and persecutors is an honourable 
 contest; but this is not what we are called to at present; we are 
 concerned in matters of vastly greater importance to the well- 
 being of our souls, though perhaps not to the quiet of our lives, 
 or the securing our worldly interest : we contend for the su- 
 preme honour of God, as the Ruler of the world, and as the uni- 
 versal Lav/giver and Judge, against such as would set up moral 
 fitnesses independent of him, and would not be reckoned to be 
 made for him, or to be accountable ^o him. W>. strive for the 
 perfection of Scripture against such as would make natural 
 light, in our corrupt state, a perfect rule. We maintain, that 
 Christ and the Holy Spirit are proper persons, against such as 
 represent them to be powers, attributes, or mere names. We 
 plead for their divine glories against such as would reduce them 
 to the rank of creatures. We stand up for the absoluteness and 
 immutability of God's decrees, against such as would make him 
 dependent on the creature, and alterable in his purpose. We 
 appear in defence of the infinite value of Christ's satisfaction, 
 
472 OF THE CAUSES OF THE DECAY, ETC. 
 
 and the perfection of his righteousness, against such as would 
 put their obedience in his room, or tack the shreds of their crip- 
 pled duties to the robe of salvation he has provided. We stand 
 up for eflicacious grace, and the power of the Spirit, against 
 those who plead for man's free will; and for the final progress 
 of believers in holiness, against them that would insinuate that 
 such as Christ died for may be lost. We contend for holiness 
 against such as abuse the doctrine of grace and turn it into wan- 
 tonness; and for the perfection of the law against such as would 
 have it abrogated, or to be of no use. We argue for the ac- 
 tivity of the soul after death, for the resurrection of the body, 
 and for a general judgment, against such as would make man 
 cease to be, sleep in the grave, live always without his body, 
 and not be accountable for his actions. This is the honourable 
 service in which we are engaged; and can such poor unworthy 
 creatures as we are, have a post of greater dignity? Let us then 
 be never slothful or negligent, but let us contend earnestly for 
 the truth. We are commanded in Scripture to do so ; therefore, 
 if we are by some blamed for infringing on peace, let us not 
 regard so senseless a caUimny; and if others accuse us of taking 
 the Spirit's work out of his hand, let us pity them for putting so 
 daring an affront on Christ, who has commanded us to strive for 
 his truth, and forgive them for throwing out such a vile abuse 
 against us. Let us never be weary of well doing; but the more 
 opposition we meet with, as good soldiers of Christ, the more 
 let us contend for the honour of our exalted Master; let us always 
 fight under the banner of the great Captain of our salvation ; let 
 us use no weapons but what we fetch from the armoury of God, 
 and let us leave the issue to him whose cause we plead; and, 
 for our encouragement, let us consider, that he, under whose 
 conduct we strive, will support us in our difficult warfare, and 
 will, after we have sweat in the field of battle, as long as he has 
 determined, give us a quiet discharge, and will bring us to the 
 deathless realms of joy, where the noise of discord will cease, 
 where we shall see our Redeemer as he is, and where with 
 angels and archangels, we shall for ever praise and adore him. 
 
 To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, three divine 
 Persons, and the one God, be supreme honour, glory, and 
 power ascribed, in all the churches, now, henceforth, and 
 for evermore. Amen. 
 
 THE END.