p -5' - t?- ■ Ji ^ -fkrrr^ Z' • ^ t DISSERTATION UPON THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 7 . - i Jl-’ *• KOI rtaaic. 3 lit MOt'J ^ /.P > . ' /lOiToavia ao .iviiaTOWi, •"v* hi ^ » r' r C^.* '.' <■ fc' /. r-* .< f ' fT ■» ' ' •«• t ' V ^^a T.. •« A DISSERTATION, INTENDED TO EXPLAIN, ESTABLISH, AND VINDICATE 33i3(tnnc at By W. HAMILTON, D. D. MINISTER OF STRATHEEANE. ilontjou, HAMILTON & ADAMS, 33, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCXXIV. ANDREW YOUNG, ERINTER, 15U, Trongate, Glasgow. TO THE REV. THOMAS DAVIDSON, D. D. Of Muirhovse, Oh'E or THE MINISTEIIS OF EDINBURGH; IHE FOLLOWING ©igscrtattoiT, AS A MARK OF ESTEEM AND VENERATION, FOR THE ABILITY, FAITHFULNESS, AND AFFECTION, WITH WHICH, THROUGH A LONG LIFE, HE HAS DISCHARGED THE DUTIES OF THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE, IS INSCRIBED, BV HIS OBLIGED AND GRATEFUL SBRFANT, THE AUTHOR. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/dissertationinteOOhami < I PREFACE. No subject is more unpopular than the doctrine of Election. The great mass of men instinctively recoil from the necessity of renouncing all dependence upon their own religious observances, and virtuous attainments. Fallen and depraved as they are, they stoutly resist the call to accept salvation as the free gift of God, and to count all things but loss for the excellency of the know¬ ledge of Christ Jesus; and madly imagine that their eter¬ nal interests will be much more secure by following the devices of their own hearts, than by complying with the course pointed out by the only wise and ever blessed God. By many, the publication of the present volume will be regarded as extremely injudicious. They have long regarded the subject of which it treats as so radically and incurably dangerous; that, though handled with the greatest delicacy, and guarded with the utmost care, they suppose that it will either lead men to presumption and profligacy, or drive them to despair and apathy; and therefore they conceive that the wisest and safest measure is to let it alone. 8 This is a subject, however, which the friends of evangelical truth are not allowed to let alone. Year after year, the press is teeming with attacks upon it; some in the form of interesting and manly argument, and others in the style of irritating invective, or of profane and disgusting buffoonery. As long, therefore, as its opponents persist in their attempts to overthrow it, its advocates are obliged to persevere in its defence. If it has been abused, it should also be remembered that there is not a single article of revelation, but what has again and again been prostituted to the most mis¬ chievous purposes, by the perverse ingenuity of worldly and wicked men. The abuse, therefore, of the doctrine, instead of being a reason for either denying or conceal¬ ing it, is only a louder call upon those who are convinced of its Divine authority, and of its beneficial practical influence, to be more frequent and earnest in their en¬ deavours to elucidate it in its native loveliness, and in its sanctifying and comforting tendency. The force of truth is great; and in spite of every effort to bear it down, will ultimately triumph. The oftener, therefore, and the more carefully that this subject is discussed, the sooner will it be understood, and the more rapidly will the Christian world be united in their ideas respecting its certainty and importance. It is a subject so closely connected with the funda¬ mental principles of religion, that few pious and reflect¬ ing men can exclude it altogether from their contempla¬ tions : and since men must continue to meditate on it, it is much better that they should be taught to think of it correctly, than left to entertain extravagant and per¬ nicious notions of its nature. i 9 In the following pages, after explaining the import of Election, and stating the evidence for its truth, I have endeavoured to prevent the perversion of the doctrine to foster presumption and impiety, or to nourish melancholy and despondence. And, if I have at all succeeded according to my wish, this little work will shew, that Election, absolute, unconditional Election, originates in love, that it is perfectly consistent with the most un¬ limited invitations of the Gospel, and with the most un¬ qualified responsibility of man. It will prove that the destruction of them who perish is entirely of themselves; and demonstrate, that, while salvation is of grace, every individual who is sincerely asking what he must do to be saved, has the most ample and unbounded encourage¬ ment to go to Christ, and embrace the provisions of his mercy. The objections against the doctrine, which are ex¬ amined in the second Chapter, are almost all urged by living writers. But dearly as I love the truth, I detest all the asperity and rancour of controversy: and in order to preclude, as far as possible, all occasion of irritation and pain, whilst I have generally transcribed their lan¬ guage, and have always endeavoured faithfully to retain their sentiments, I have suppressed the names of the authors. I would gladly have subjoined a Chapter upon Reprobation. Considered as God’s determination to connect an eternity of misery with a life of carelessness and impenitence, it is a subject of the deepest interest, and capable of the most valuable practical illustrations. But this work has insensibly swelled to a length too great to admit any remarks upon that topic. 10 Remote as some may deem the present Treatise from the business of life, I consider it as possessed of a very intimate relation to the cause of Christian morals. The doctrines of the Gospel are all so closely connected, and all so practical, that it is impossible to surrender any one of them, without endangering the rest, and inflicting a dreadful blow upon both the holiness and the happiness of man. Since there is salvation in no other than in the Lord Jesus Christ; and since the Spirit is received, and the law established, only by the hearing of faith; zeal for the advancement of righteousness, as well as compas¬ sion for our perishing fellow-immortals, ought to compel all who know the truth, to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. When with the un¬ bending integrity, the unwearied benevolence, and the elevated and ardent piety, which the doctrines of grace never fail to inspire wherever they are fully known and affectionately received ; we contrast that frivolity and levity, that want of devotional feeling and of active beneficence, that heartless indifference to the present wants and the eternal wretchedness of men, that gross debauchery and heaven-daring profanity, which abound wherever Anti-evangelical principles predominate; it is high time for all the friends of God and of man to com¬ bine to illustrate and enforce the truth as it is in Jesus; and to wage firm and determined war upon that anti- nomian hydra of legality, which under a thousand forms and names of Anti-trinitarianism, Anti-calvinism, and Anti-evangelicism, has subverted the Gospel of Christ, trampled under foot the interests of religion and morality, and left such a large proportion of the nominally Christ¬ ian world under the dreary and desolating reign of the 11 prince of darkness. Enough certainly has been done to demonstrate the utter inefficacy of the barren and frigid tenets of legality, either to reform or save our race. By one of the most expensive and awful experiments that ever was made, men of observation surely may now be convinced that nothing less will ever bend the wild and wayward heart of man to his duty, or establish the universal ascendancy of piety and of holiness, than the universal prevalence of that religon, which, by teaching that in salvation Christ is all in all, constrains those that possess it to know nothing but him, and to devote to him and to his service, all that the}^ have, and all that they are. This casts down every high thing that exalt- eth itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Ev¬ ery writer, therefore, who pleads the cause of evangelical truth, takes the most effectual measure within his reach to restore the authority of God over his apostate crea¬ tures, and to fill the earth with his glory. W. H. Stbathblane Manse, ^ October 5, 1824. ^ CONTENTS. Page. CHAP. I.—Of the Nature of Election,.. 13 CHAP. II.—Proof of the Doctrine of Election,. 22 Sect. I.—The love of order, the desire of enjoying their own will, and the habits of inquiry and consideration, observable in rational agents, . 22 Sect. II.—The Attributes of God, . 42 Sect. III.—The evidences of design apparent in the works of God, . 71 Sect. IV.—Prophecies and Promises,. 89 Sect. V.—Salvation by Grace,.109 Sect. VI.—The Testimonies of Scripture,.122 CHAP. III.—Vindication of Election, .170 Sect. I.—Defence of Election, from the charge that it is dishonourable to the character of God,. 171 Sect. II.—Defence of Election, from the charge that it is inconsistent ^vith the freedom of the human will, and the responsibility of man, .196 Sect. III.—Defence of Election, from its supposed incon¬ sistency with the universal calls and free offers of the Gospel,.245 CHAP. 1. OF THE NATURE OF ELECTION. Nothing is more common than for men, from ignorance or prejudice, to entertain the most deep-rooted aversion to those objects, which, if they more clearly understood them, they would, or at least ought to embrace with alacrity, and contemplate with delight. Misled by their prepos¬ sessions, the votaries of the Chureh of Rome view, with alarm, the doctrines of the Reformation; and deluded by the bewildering and intoxicating pleasures of the world, the slaves of Satan dread a life of religion, and regard the ennobling and exhilirating service of the Son of God as an irk¬ some and intolerable bondage. A similar fate has befallen the decree of elec- ‘ tion. Though in itself one of the most amiable and endearing of the counsels of God, and fraught with the richest and most inexhaustible blessings to man; from the most gross and fatal misappre¬ hension of its nature, multitudes have exploded it with scorn, and held it up to the detestation and horror of the human race. The learned and the illiterate have long joined in the loud and invidi- B 14 ous clamour that the doctrine of Election repre¬ sents the Deity as the author of sin, and as an arbitrary and capricious Being, who makes some men in order to damn them, and without any provision for their faith and holiness, selects oth¬ ers, and irreversibly destines them to boundless and never-ending bliss. And whilst in this man¬ ner they denounce it as a disgrace to his charac¬ ter, they maintain that it plunges a large propor¬ tion of men into despair, and opens the floodgates of vice and licentiousness to all. Were this description of the doctrine correct, it would justly deserve the keenest and most un¬ measured reprobation of its most determined and inveterate foes. But though there is no repre¬ sentation of the subject, which is more frequently and confidently advanced by its assailants, there is none which, by any possibility, can be more remote from the truth. For though we see that there is much evil in the world, and though we know that the end of incorrigible wickedness and impiety shall be everlasting misery; we are also certain, that in the guilt and punishment of care¬ less and hardened men. Election has no influence at all. For on taking the Scriptures for our guide in forming our ideas of its nature, what do we find ? Do we find that it foreordains men to condemnation? surrounds them with temptation? instigates them to evil ? or even inflicts on them the penalty which their transgressions merit? We find that Election is the generous and god- 15 like purpose, by which the ever-blessed Jehovah, out of the depths of his beneficence and mercy, determined, through the Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver a certain number of the fallen and ruined posterity of Adam from the sin and wretchedness in which they were involved, to restore them to holiness and happiness here, and at last to put them in possession of the perfect purity and boundless felicity of heaven. This is the only inference which we can draw fi'om the lan¬ guage which the Bible uniformly employs when speaking of the subject. “ As many as were or¬ dained to eternal life believed. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Accord¬ ing as he hath chosen us in him before the foun¬ dation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predes¬ tinated us unto 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, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Belov¬ ed. Whom he did foreknow, he also did predes¬ tinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. 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.” From these and similar passages, we see that it B 2 16 is neither the cause nor the occasion, directly nor indirectly, of the sin and misery of a single hu¬ man creature. We see that it is the origin and source of the holiness and happiness of all who are sanctified and saved; and that, without con¬ signing one individual to hell, it has brought im¬ mense multitudes to heaven. Though the decree of electing-love had never been heard of within the limits of our globe, the silence of revelation on such a subject could not have effaced one ar¬ ticle of moral evil, could not have subtracted one degree from ,the intensity of future misery, nor preserved one additional soul from the pains of perdition. If no such decree had existed, Adam 'and his posterity would have been for ever un¬ done. The fact is, that Election and Redemption are so closely allied, that, though not identically the same, they are inseparably united. Election is the cause; Redemption is the effect: and the two must stand or fall together. They proceed from the same principle, the love of God; and their object is the same, the manifestation of the riches of his grace in the salvation of man. Without Election we never would have heard the sound of reconciliation and peace: the Saviour never would have planted a foot in mercy upon our globe: wrath unknown and unutterable would have for ever rested on all its criminal inhabitants. A large company of angels rose in foul revolt against their Maker. Towards them no designs of elect- 17 Inff-love were formed. And has their condition O proved more enviable than our own? Has any Redeemer been despatched to visit and to bless their dark and dreary dwellings ? Have any of their number burst the everlasting barriers that enclose the prison of despair? recovered the im¬ age and friendship of their Creator ? or retraced their steps across the great and tremendous gulph that separates the regions of darkness from the realms of peace and never-ending day ? And if no purpose of electing-love had been formed in behalf of fallen man, in what respects could our situation have surpassed their own ? Our world would have been left in the unbroken possession of the Prince of darkness; and the whole human race, without one exception, would have been abandoned to all the wretchedness of everlasting ruin. It was to accomplish the pur¬ poses of electing-love that the mighty and aston¬ ishing machinery of redemption was put in mo¬ tion, and that the ever-blessed Jesus assumed our degraded nature, and submitted to all the myste¬ rious agonies of the cross. “ He came to seek and to save that which was lost; to gather into one the dispersed of Israel; and to lay down his life for the sheep.” And shall redemption, the most stupendous and endearing of all the works of God; which has thrown around his character a matchless blaze of loveliness and grandeur, and called forth from the voices of the blessed the loudest and B 3 18 most enraptured strains of grateful adoration, be loaded with the charges of rigour and injus¬ tice ? And shall that beneficent and generous decree, which flows from the heart of the God of love, and which has laid the foundation of this merciful and magnificent scheme, and of all the vast and ineffable blessings which it brings, be accused of the guilt and perdition of the impen¬ itent and hardened ? reprobated as a stain upon the perfect and all-attractive character of the Most High ? and denounced as an object of the dread and the detestation of the sons of men ? Is it fair to charge it with the very mischief which it was intended to counteract and cure? While labouring painfully and strenuously for their re¬ lief, would it have been fair to have accused Howard of the tears and sighs of the broken¬ hearted victims of the bloody and barbarous in his day? Is it fair to ascribe to the legislative enactment prohibiting the traffic in human flesh, all the disgusting enormities of West Indian sla¬ very? And when the object of Election is the salvation of man; and when it is to it that every individual, who reaches the kingdom of heaven, is indebted for his admission there; is it more reasonable or just to burden it with the crimes and calamities of those who harden themselves against God, and, in spite of all the invitations of his mercy and terrors of his justice, set his authority and goodness at defiance, and madly persevere in treasuring up for themselves wrath 19 against the day of wrath ? Dreadful as the pre¬ sent state of Christendom must have been, if the light of the Reformation, which has introduced such a brilliant train of blessings amongst its na- tionsj had been extinguished at its rising; and disastrous as it would prove to the planetary sys¬ tem, were the sun at this moment to be annihilat¬ ed; these calamities can convey but a faint idea of the horrors which must have for ever over¬ whelmed our world, if God had dismissed from his thoughts the purpose of electing-love; or if, after having once formed the beneficent design, he had afterwards erased it from the records of his counsels. Instead, therefore, of trembling at the contem¬ plation of this decree, we have unspeakable in¬ finite reason to regard it with esteem and venera¬ tion, and to rejoice in that holy sovereignty in which it originated. This sovereignty has been just as completely misapprehended as the purpose of Election. It has been supposed to be similar to caprice, self-will, and arbitrariness. But it, in reality, is that prerogative by which God can exercise mercy upon the guilty in consistency with the claims of justice. Justice is that attribute which leads him to give to every creature his due. It is the bulwark of the safety and confidence of the upright and holy: but it is the terror and ruin of the criminal and disobedient. The sover¬ eignty of God is the only hope and stay of the guilty. Deprive him of his sovereignty, and in- 20 evitable and everlasting misery must be the por¬ tion of the fallen. He could then no more acquit the guilty, than the judge, who is bound by oath faithfully to administer the laws, can absolve the professed traitor, or the convicted felon. But like the king, who possesses a right of exercising a clemency, which the judge does not enjoy; by his sovereignty God, in complete consistency with all the perfections of his nature, can extend to the guilty that mercy and grace, which justice, if it had been his only attribute, w^ould have for ever precluded. The worst that a sinner can receive is justice; for the Judge of all the earth will do right: and whatever less he suffers, or whatever more he enjoys, than what he deserves, is the effect of sovereignty. To talk of sovereign judg¬ ments and sovereign punishments, is just as ab¬ surd as to talk of the rigours of mercy, or the terrors of grace. Under the administration of a holy and righteous God, sovereignty is never em¬ ployed but for the benefit of its objects. What¬ ever misery exists, is the appointment of justice: but sovereign misery, or sovereign punishments, are things utterly unknown.* Thus much, then, we have gained. We have seen that Sovereignty is the prerogative of God to * For a full and masterly discussion of the difference betwixt Justice and Sovereignty, see Dr. Williams’ Essay on the Equity of Divine Government, and the Sovereignty of Divine Grace throughout, especially Chap. ii. Sect. 2. 21 shew mercy to the guilty and miserable, in con¬ sistency with the honour of his character, and the demands of his justice; and that Election is his purpose to bestow grace and glory upon a certain number of our fallen and ruined race. Election has no share whatever in the guilt or misery of them that perish. Their punishment, in time and through eternity, is the work of justice, and of justice alone. Election is occupied wholly with the deliverance of men from sin and wretch¬ edness. And by thus stripping the subject of all extraneous and irrelevant matter, it is to be hoped that our succeeding labours will be greatly simplified, and that this interesting branch of the Divine arrangements will be'restored to that lofty and lovely eminence, which it ought at all times to hold in the minds of the children of men, who are so deeply, so inexpressibly, indebted to its generous provisions. In pleading for the doc¬ trine of Election, we are just pleading for the mercy and grace of God, and for the interests of vital religion and genuine morality. CHAP. 11. PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. SECT. 1. The love of order, the desire of enjoying their o^vn will, and the habits of inquiry and consideration, observable in rational agents. On looking abroad upon society, we every where perceive the most striking diversities amongst our brethren. Some are born to associate with prin¬ ces, to wield the energies of empires, and draw around them the eyes and admiration of half the world; whilst others are placed in the lowest stations, live unnoticed and unknown beyond the bounds of their native hamlet, and are compelled, through the midst of obscurity and indigence, to take their humble and laborious journey to a ne¬ glected and forgotten grave. In many cases, their intellectual faculties correspond with the meanness of their rank, and the privations of their lot. Their capacities are few and feeble; and whilst they enjoy little opportunity, they pos¬ sess less inclination, to exercise and improve their powers. 23 But whilst some labour under a mental apathy which no application can stimulate, a mental im¬ becility which no culture can strengthen, and a mental gloom through which no ray of science can find its way; others are endowed with the most lofty and commanding talents. Possessed of a penetration which nothing can baffle, of an imagination which no limits can restrain, and a memory from the tenacity of whose grasp no ob¬ ject can escape, they cast on the works of crea¬ tion a piercing and comprehensive eye, and re¬ duce to their personal enjoyment and use the learning and researches of ages. Whilst some exhibit a pattern of all that is low and odious in vice, and, with a fiend-like activity, prostitute their superior powers to the perversion of the principles, and destruction of the peace and prosperity of millions; others, from their love to God, and their benevolence to man, are ornaments to their country, and benefactors to their race. Knowing nothing but Christ, and glorying in nothing save in his cross; with their heart in heaven, and their conversation there; their only occupation here is to mitigate or re¬ move the mischief which sin has wrought, to hold forth the light and loveliness of the word of life, and apply the healing influence of the Gospel to the sorrows and sufferings of our wretched and ruined world. “ When the ear hears them, it blesses them; when the eye sees them, it gives witness to them j for they are eyes to the blind, 24 and feet to the lame, fathers to the poor, and the cause which they know not they search out.” They live enthroned in the hearts of thousands; and when they go down to the grave, they draw after them the tears and regrets of nations. Now, to what are we to ascribe this striking contrast in the conduct and character of men ? Descending originally from the same pair; pos¬ sessed of the same nature; involved in the effects of the same apostacy; with feelings and affections naturally alienated from God, and a mind that is enmity against him ; how comes it to pass, that, whilst some retain their hostility to the last, and their resistance to his authority gathers strength and audacity just in proportion as they approach his tribunal; others renounce their rebellion, sub¬ mit to his wise and gracious direction, and prefer Him and his service above their chief joy ? In the same family, where the outward means are not only similar, but the same, why is one taken, and another left ? In the same congregation, under the same sermon, why does the preacher find, that while one is hearing for eternity, an¬ other is fast asleep, a third is staring about with the most stupid indifference, and a fourth betray¬ ing unequivocal symptoms of the most sensitive impatience, or of the strongest disgust ? In the synagogue at Antioch, why did the Jews contra¬ dict and blaspheme, while the Gentiles w’ere glad, and glorified the word of the Lord ? In Paul’s lodgings at Rome, why did some believe 25 the things which were spoken, and some believed not ? What was the reason why, in these cases, the effects were so widely different ? Were the one less deeply interested than the other in the truths that were uttered ? Was sin less dangerous, hell less dreadful, or heaven less desirable, to the one than to the other ? When all were alike com¬ manded to repent, and believe the Gospel; could the one maintain, that, whilst the others were bound to reform and return to God, they were laid under an interdict to amend their lives, and embrace the blessings of the great salvation ? Did the voice of the speaker reach the ears of the one, and not of the other; or convey to the two a message of opposite import? The message was the same; its importance was alike to all; and yet, whilst it filled the one with rage and mad¬ ness, it melted the other into the tenderness of contrition, and subdued them to the obedience of the faith. Since, therefore, no effect can take place with¬ out a cause ; and since these different effects evi¬ dently were not produced by the external means, for these means were identically the same; from the opposite results which followed the use of the very same arguments and exhortations, what other inference can we draw, than that which the Apostle has drawn before us ? “ So, then, nei¬ ther is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.” C 26 Amidst all his fidelity and zeal, the preacher finds that his success does not depend upon his own diligence and address, but upon the Spirit of the Lord. When He is pleased to stretch forth his hand, and to prosper the efforts of his servant, great multitudes believe, and turn unto the Lord. But if He withhold his blessing, though the preacher should possess the tongue of men and of angels, though he should be instant in season and out of season, he will labour in vain, and spend his strength for nought. After his most arduous and unremitting efforts, he must then return with the melancholy complaint, “ Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath thine arm been revealed ?” But whilst in this manner we are compelled to admit that salvation, in all its parts, is of grace; that conversion is the work of God; and that every individual who is born again, is not only rendered spiritually-minded, but is actually born of the Spirit; another question instantly and in¬ evitably meets us: When did God resolve on this gracious result ? Did he or did he not think of it till the moment when the Spirit commenced his saving operations ? If he entertained the pur¬ pose before that interesting period, when was it first formed ? Was this from everlasting ? or at the birth of the man ? or merely a day, or an hour, or a moment, before he called him by his grace ? These questions lye at the foundation of all the 21 discussion respecting the decrees of God ; and the issue of the whole controversy turns upon the answer which they ought to receive. The oppon¬ ents of Election imagine that the effect is altoge¬ ther extemporary; and that, whatever may be the agency of God in conversion, and the extent of his foreknowledge, up to the moment of exe¬ cution, he has no will nor purpose upon the sub¬ ject; and that he is not more determined effectu¬ ally to apply the blessings of the Gospel to one than to another; to John than to Judas, to Paul than to Caiaphas. However much the advocates of this hypothesis may be delighted with its simplicity, and confi¬ dent in its strength, if we are to judge of the perfections of God, by what we observe in the best and most enlightened of men, we must at once declare it utterly untenable. The wisest and worthiest of our race are most accustomed to habits of order and reflection. Whilst the light and trifling live at random ; act from the impulse of the moment, and the dictates of whim and caprice; rescind to-day the mandates which yesterday they had pronounced irrevoca¬ ble; and, with the same short-lived immutability, establish to-day laws which in their turn must give place to others to-morrow; the man of piety and of principle has his rule and his method for all connected with his personal occupations and social intercourse. In the economy of his house¬ hold, in the management of his estate, in the C 2 28 distribution of his time, and disposal of his for¬ tune, regularity and order invariably reign. Every thing bespeaks the presence and the power of an enlarged and comprehensive mind, and proves that the whole proceeds from wisdom and design. The steadiness and prudence of the pre¬ siding intellect are felt wherever his influence ex¬ tends. They produce in his subordinate agents, confidence and punctuality; and his will is obeyed with the calmness and precision with which nature fulfils her laws. But why all this rigid adherence to form and rule ? This is not only for the ease and comfort of his dependents, but also for his own honour and advantage. He has, in common with every human creature, a liking of his own; and, as far as it is consistent with the will of God, he is de¬ sirous to obtain the accomplishment of his own will. For unless this is the case, why is he at such pains to improve his mind, in order that his choice may be regulated aright ? Why is he so impatient of any encroachment upon his liberty or property, lest by such an infringement he may be restrained from the free and unfettered exer¬ cise of his own judgment and discretion ? Why is he so careful in the selection of his domestics and associates; and so ready to express his opin¬ ions and wishes respecting the management of civil and religious affairs ? And why, time after time, does he apply to the throne of grace with such urgency, for the removal from himself and 29 others of the evils which he dreads, and the com¬ munication of the blessings which he covets? To what has been already stated, it may also be added, that a principle of curiosity seems to be deeply inherent in our nature. Whether rude or refined, learned or illiterate, a desire to pry into the future appears to be strongly implanted in all. The agitated attention which the vulgar O o pay to omens, the encouragement which in every age has been given to the pretenders to the art of divination, and the solicitude which many men of the most eminent attainments have shown to ascertain the incidents of coming years, prove that, wherever it is practicable, it is exceedingly desirable to lift the veil from futurity, and to dis¬ cover the events with which it is teeming. Could we burst the barriers which at present irresistibly confine our observation, and secure the means of fully gratifying our wishes, we would never stir a step, nor embark in a single enterprise, without a distinct and comprehensive view both of the manner in which it would terminate, and also of all the consequences which it would occasion. Conscious, however, as we are, of the narrow range of our vision, and the feeble nature of our powers, we make the most strenuous and perse¬ vering efforts to surmount the obstacles in our path, and to protect ourselves against the effects of any unforeseen and untoward occurrence. We arrange and digest our plans; we watch every event; and examine the tendency and bear- C 3 30 ing of every circumstance and appearance, in order to gain a probable conjecture of the result of our proceedings, and ensure the utmost possi¬ ble certainty and stability to our measures. Whatever may be his talents and resources, no man in his sober senses will commit himself to extemporary shifts and expedients, when it is in his power, by previous care and preparation, to provide for the simple and effectual accomplish¬ ment of his purposes. Now here another most important question meets us. Is this love of order; is this desire, in submission to the will of God, to obtain the ac¬ complishment of our own will; and this habit of forethought and reflection, innocent, or criminal? Are these principles right, or are they wrong ? Wrong ? Indeed? Can it be wrong in any man, who is invested with a responsible charge, to en¬ deavour to the best of his ability, to govern those who are placed beneath him according to the maxims of wisdom and justice ? Can it be wrong for the parent, the teacher, the commander by sea or land, to retain the reins of authority in their own hands, and refuse to yield them up to those who are bound by duty and by interest to obey ? Can such conduct be wrong, when we hear Abraham commended, because he would command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; and find that one of the qualifications of a minister is that he “ rule well his own house, 31 having his children in subjection with all gravity; for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” can it be wrong, in submission to the will of God and in obedience to his law, to have a will and choice of our own, when we know that every man is enjoined to be fully persuaded in his own mind ; when we are commanded to pray without ceasing, in every thing by prayer and supplication to let our requests be made known unto God; and are assured that every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth ? Can it be wrong to ex¬ ercise caution and reflection when God orders us to “ walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise;” to “ prove all things, and hold fast that which is good;” when he enjoins us “ whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do all to his glory;” and when we hear our blessed Lord in¬ quiring, “ Which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it; lest haply after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying. This man began to build, and was not able to finish?” So far are a love of order, and the exercise of prudence and reflection from being either sinful or wrong, that they seem to be inseparable from the possession of an intelligent and holy nature, and absolutely essential to right and rational con¬ duct. It is the delight of every holy creature to 32 regulate his actions by the dictates of equity and goodness. Amidst all the purity and bliss of Eden, it was the duty of Adam to have weighed the motives of his conduct, and considered the nature of his proceedings. To the neglect of this invaluable branch of practical wisdom, we may in a great degree ascribe his fall; and to the same fatal cause, we may safely assign the greater proportion of the evils sustained in this world and endured in that which is to come. Now, can that conduct, which is right in the creature, be wrong in the ever-blessed and all- glorious Creator? Is it right for the sons of men to establish rules for the regulation of their own conduct and that of the individuals beneath them; but wrong in the Most High to do in the uni¬ verse which he has made, that which every parent and every teacher thinks himself entitled to do in the family or seminary over which he presides ? Is it right in the architect and artist to form an idea of the works which they project; but wrong for the God of wisdom to sit in judgment upon his own operations, or devise any scheme or de¬ sign for the exercise of his power? Shall every child of Adam be allowed to do what he will with his own? and shall the Maker and Possessor of all be divested of the prerogative of shewing any will of his own, and debarred from all title to dis¬ pose of the world which he has framed, according to the dictates of his unerring wisdom and infinite goodness ? 33 To prevent the conclusion to which this natur¬ ally leads us, some tell us, that “ the descriptions which we frame to ourselves of God, or of the Divine attributes, are not taken from any direct and immediate perceptions that we have of him or them, but from observations we have made of his works; and from the consideration of those qualities which we conceive would enable us to perform the like. In this way, we ascribe to him wisdom and foresight, purpose and contrivance, counsel and design, love and hatred, justice and mercy, not because they are in him as we con¬ ceive them ; but because things appear to be done or directed by him, which among men proceed from such causes, and to teach us how we are to behave ourselves towards him, and what treatment we are to expect at his hands. The moral and in¬ tellectual attributes ascribed to God, have no form or existence of their own, as their whole essence consists in their relation to something else. It is therefore impossible, that there can, in any case, be any resemblance between them, except the re¬ semblance of ratios or relations. And though whatever is really valuable or excellent in our¬ selves, exists in an infinite degree of excellence in God; and it is only, in so far as we have any thing good in us, that we venture to transfer and appropriate to his nature the language proper to our own; the intellectual and moral qualities in man, from which we borrow the words to express the attributes of God, are only similitudes and 34 representations of them; and there is as little re¬ semblance between the one and the other, as there is between a country and the map which repre¬ sents it, or our right hand and strength.” We cannot maintain with too great frequency and earnestness, that the qualities in God, which the terms in question are employed to express, are widely different from what they are in man; and that in every thing in which we excel, he is incon¬ ceivably, infinitely above us. At the same time, however, we must remark, that unless he possess something corresponding to the qualities which these words denote, then there is an end at once to all our reasonino; about his being and his attri- butes. On such a supposition men can neither extol him by their praises, nor insult him by their revilings. The infidel and blasphemer may vend their impieties at their pleasure. They may con¬ tend, and contend with truth, that the most degra¬ ding representations which they can circulate can do no injury to his character. They may charge him with being the author of sin and of every evil. And when we manifest indignation at the foul and detestable reproach, they may turn round and tell us; That since human language cannot express what God is in himself; that since the best and most amiable qualities in man have no more resemblance to the perfections of God, than the paper and ink of a map to the country which it represents; that since power, when applied to him, does not denote might; nor wisdom, design; 35 nor justice, equity; nor goodness, beneficence; then the words author and origin, when employed in reference to him, must also undergo a similar change; and the most outrageous reviler of the Most High is guilty of no crime in attempting to fasten on the ever-blessed God the charges of weakness, folly, and injustice, and of being the cause of all the evil that exists. He has only to take refuge behind the ambiguity of language; to plead that no words can convey an idea of what God is in himself, and to insist that there can be no qualities in him as we conceive them, but that things merely appear to be done or directed by him, which among men proceed from such causes. But is this opinion of our opponents true? Though the science of mathematics itself can fur- nish us with no axioms more certain, than that things equal to the same are equal to one another; that things similar to the same are similar to one another; that where the effects are alike the causes are alike; is it really true that “ the utmost dissimilarity in the causes is no impediment to the most exact correspondence in the effects?” Though the effects produced by the wisdom, power, justice and goodness of God, are similar to the effects produced by the wisdom, power, justice and goodness of man; is it really true that wisdom, power, justice and goodness in us have no more resemblance to these attributes in him, than our right arm has to strength, or the paper and ink of a map to the country which it represents ? 36 Though the effects produced by the law of gravi¬ tation are precisely the same upon the planets that they are upon the earth; is it really true, that, in the region of the planets, the law itself is totally different from what it is in the orbit of the earth ? And though the effects produced by human wis¬ dom, power, justice and goodness, are similar to those produced by the corresponding attributes in God; and, if our powers were enlarged to infinity, the effects would not only be similar but the same; is it really true, that the principles or causes from which these effects proceed have not the smallest resemblance, and that from the moral and intellectual qualities of men we can form no con¬ ception of those of God ? Though an infinite right line is just a finite right line indefinitely extended; and though the wisdom, power, justice and goodness of God, are no more than infinite wisdom, power, justice and goodness; is it really true, that from the finite specimens of these which we witness in the creature, we can form no idea of those infinite attributes in the Almighty Creator ? Though the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy works; though the invisible things of him from the crea¬ tion of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; according to this hypothe¬ sis, we can know nothing of God whatever. Though the Bible not only informs us that he is. 37 but also tells us what he is ; though it assures us hat h e is almighty, eternal, and unchangeable; that he is wise, that he is just, that he is good, that he is light, and that he is love, still we can know nothing of him at all. Though the Bible avers, that this is life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; though it affirms that no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him; according to this theory, God remains utterly undiscoverable, and there is none to whom even the Son himself can reveal him. Though Jesus was the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person; and every one that saw him, saw the Father; still, notwithstanding all the godlike prin¬ ciples which he displayed, and which bore the closest resemblance to the graces which his Spirit implants in the hearts of his people; and notwith¬ standing all the works of wonder and of mercy which he wrought, no man can frame a conception of the Deity; and after all the endearing efforts he has employed to manifest himself to the sons of men, every attempt has failed; and over the whole extent of Christendom he continues to the present hour, as much the unknown God as he was at Athens before Paul preached him there. And though the same Bible declares that God sent his Son into the world; that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso¬ ever believeth in him should not perish; that he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for D 38 us all; we must take care and not imagine that God actually loved the world, or sent, or gave, or delivered up his Son; or that the Son actually came into the world, or delivered up himself. For these gentlemen have found out that all the lan¬ guage which we employ respecting God is only analogical. It cannot express what he is in him¬ self, but merely what we conceive would enable us to do what he performs. His perfections and works have no resemblance to ours. His gifts and actions, his power, justice, love and mercy are not real, but merely analogical. It is surely needless to spend another word in exposing the absurdity of such a theory; which, notwithstanding the pure and honourable intentions of its authors and supporters, goes far to sap the foundations of reason and revelation, and introduce universal scepticism. Enough surely has been said to justify the conclusion, that, though in all our discourses relative to God we are bound to preserve the utmost modesty and reverence, we never can be prohibited from reasoning from what we know of the intellectual and moral excellencies of his creatures, to what we may justly and honourably believe concerning himself. And accoi'dingly the same Bible, which every where represents him as utterly incomprehensible, and reprobates in the severest terms the idea that he is such a one as ourselves; most distinctly intimates that many of the principles in the nature of man bear a real, though a faint resemblance to some of 39 the matchless and infinite perfections of his own. For unless this is the case what meaning can we attach to the questions, “ He that planted the ear shall he not hear ? he that formed the eye, shall he not see ?” What sense can we assign to the assertion, that “ he made man in his own image?” Or what import are we to affix to the injunctions, to “be followers of God, to be holy as he is holy, and to forgive one another, even as he, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven us ?” And if thus we are entitled to affirm that, how¬ ever faint, there is a real resemblance betwixt the moral and intellectual excellencies of man, and some of the perfections of God; and when thus we find that it is not only the desire of enlighten¬ ed men, but the duty of ail, to guide their affairs with discretion, to rule well their own houses; and to employ forethought, judgment and prudence in all their ways; we are naturally and necessari¬ ly constrained to conclude, that in all his conduct, the Lord Jehovah acts with consummate and un¬ erring judgment; that whilst he works all in all, he works all according to the counsel of his own will; that he has created all things for himself, that his counsel shall stand, and that he will do all his pleasure. When he has made considera¬ tion imperative upon us, is it credible, that he himself will work without design? When it is not only the duty but the perfection of man to imitate God; and he has commanded us to employ judg- D 2 40 • ment and reflection; how is it possible for us to resemble him, if he himself acts without a plan ? But though it is at all times our duty to reflect and calculate, it is not at all times within our power to discover beforehand the actual issue of our proceedings. We stand merely on a cor¬ ner of creation, and our age is as nothing before him. Whatever little knowledge we may acquire by observation of the past, the events of futurity are utterly unknown. They are all under his al¬ mighty and unerring control; and in his holy providence, he frequently conducts them to a ter¬ mination which we never contemplated. The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Some unforeseen occurrence may defeat our wisest schemes. Some primary agent in their accomplishment may die or desert us; and by his death or desertion may disappoint our fondest hopes, and upset our best concerted projects. But no suspense nor uncertainty, no disap¬ pointment nor defeat can possibly befall him, whose understanding is infinite, and whose power is unbounded. He can do whatsoever seems good in his sight, neither is there any thing that can resist his operation. Accordingly, through the mighty expanse of the material creation, we can discern no want of design, nor any trace of irre¬ gularity and disorder. The whole is bright with the marks of the most absolute skill, and demon¬ strates that in wisdom he has made them all. And if Creation, which has no glory by reason of 41 a glory that excelleth;—if Creation, which with all its real grandeur and apparent stability, enjoys only a subordinate magnificence and transitory duration, possesses so many brilliant proofs of its Author’s unsearchable, inexhaustible wisdom; is it credible, is it possible, that Redemption, on which he has lavished all the riches of a munificence which is immense, and the resources of a power that is unlimited ;—that Redemption, which con¬ tains the most brilliant display of his excellencies, and which is destined to remain to a grateful adoring universe, an eternal monument of the majesty and loveliness of all his attributes, was undertaken without a plan ? That he drew mere¬ ly a loose and general outline of the stupendous scheme, and left the filling up and finishing to the leisure of future consideration, or the emergencies of revolving years? That the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge, entered on the arduous undertaking, without a distinct and specific object in view; that he underwent all the sulFerings of mortality, and all the agonies of the cross, without knowing for whom he died, or whether any would ultimately accept the blessings which he purchased with his blood? Strong as this argument is, it is only presump¬ tive. It is now time to proceed to another, which, though still stronger, we shall denominate by no higher name, than that which we have just now applied to the preceding reasoning. D 3 42 SECT. II. The Attributes of God. Though all the perfections of God bear strong¬ ly upon the truth of the subject under considera¬ tion; yet, as it is impossible within the compass of moderate limits to take a survey of the whole, we must merely select a few as a specimen of the proof which the Divine attributes afford of the re¬ ality of the doctrine of Election. We may affirm this doctrine, 1. From the eternity and ubiquity of God. I remember when the body of a young woman was, one morning, found in most suspicious cir¬ cumstances. Inquiry was instantly roused, and a thousand conjectures were formed respecting the cause of her death. But though the spot where she was lying had been frequented by many on the preceding, and was traversed by still more on the following, day; yet, as she had died in the dark, and died when no human creature was near, none could tell how she met her fate. But had she died in broad day, and in the presence of another whose organs were in a sound and healthy state; no mystery whatever could have hung around the event. By detailing the facts which he had witnessed, the spectator could instantly have removed every difficulty and solved every doubt. 43 But did that obscurity, which kept the neigh¬ bourhood in trembling suspense, veil the nature of the deed from Him who fills the throne of heaven? Before ever she approached the fatal spot, he saw all that would befall her. Before ever her spirit could reach his tribunal, he beheld the manner in which it had parted from its tene¬ ment of clay. For his eyes are in every place: and nothing can come to pass in any quarter of creation, but what he sees and knows alto¬ gether. For if there were any province in space, or any period in duration from which he is excluded; then he could have no more knowledge than our¬ selves, of what that province contains, and of what that period produces. But if he is every where present, and present at all times; if he exists not in time, but in eternity, and compre¬ hends equally the past, the present, and the fu¬ ture; then, since the powers of his mind are infinite, and his watchful eye neither slumbers nor sleeps, it is utterly impossible that any thing, whether a deed of violence and blood, or an act of beneficence and piety, in any place, or at any time, can ever escape him. Now God is eternal and omnipresent. For if he is not eternal, he must have had a beginning. In that case he must either have made himself; that is, he must have acted before he existed, which is impossible j or else he must be indebted to another for his being, which would render him 44 both created and dependent, or, in other words, would absolutely undeify him. He is not only eternal, but likewise omnipresent. For if there were any place to which his presence could be confined, or from which it could be shut out; then there might be provinces in space utterly beyond the reach of his arm, and complete¬ ly independent on his throne, which he could not plant with worlds, nor beautify with the produc¬ tions of his wisdom and his power. But is this an idea which we can reconcile with the nature of Him whose power is omnipotent; whose kingdom ruleth over all; who speaks and it is done; who commands, and all things stand fast, who is in all, and through all, and over all; and who fills heaven and earth ? But if he inhabits eternity and occupies immen¬ sity; then mark the consequences which inevitably follow. Time and space cannot affect his know¬ ledge and his operations. Years can add nothing to the amount of his information : nearness cannot increase, nor distance diminish the clearness and completeness of his perceptions. Laying his essence on immensity, he at once pervades space and fills duration. Nothing can overtake him by surprise, nor any thing elude his penetration. He at all times sees and distinctly knows every inci¬ dent and occurrence which ever has, or ever shall take place. Throughout the wide expanse of his works no device of darkness can be perpetrated, and through the mighty roll of endless ages a 45 single note cannot be sounded in his praise, but what his eye has seen and his ear has heard from everlasting. For were we to suppose that he does not as really inhabit, or comprehend eternity, as that he occupies space; we must necessarily bring him within the limits of time, and render him the subject of change. In such a case, we must believe that years multiply upon him; that he gathers knowledge by observation; that he is older and wiser now than at the formation of all things, and that he will be still older and wiser at their consummation, than at the present moment. But how can an absolutely perfect and infinite Being admit the smallest addition or increase, any more than an immutable and eternal truth can undergo the slighest alteration or change ? Granting therefore, as we unquestionably must, the eternity and immensity of God, the doctrine of Election will unavoidably ensue. For when in eternity he dwelt alone, it depended entirely upon the good pleasure of his goodness what creatures to form: and since he is in all, and through all, before ever he gave them a being, he must have in¬ fallibly foreseen the conduct and state of every creature that he made. And if^ with this infallible foreknowledge, he was pleased to give them a being; we may safely say that the vessels of mercy, which are afore prepared unto glory, are called and chosen according to his eternal purpose and grace. 46 We are led to draw the same inference, 2. From his omniscience and immutability. By omniscience we understand a distinct and perfect knowledge of every thing past, present, and future. For an omniscience which does not know all things, seems just as inconceivable and absurd, as an omnipotence which cannot accom¬ plish all things, or an omnipresence which does not extend to every place. If therefore we ascribe omniscience to God at all, it must be a full, absolute, and infallible knowledge of every thing that has existed, that now exists, or that ever shall exist. This is an attribute which appears to be just as essential to the perfection of his nature as ubiquity or omnipotence. If without omnipresence he could not see the state of his wide dominions ; and if without omnipotence he could not fulfil his pleasure, and do whatsoever seemed good in his sight; without infinite knowledge how could he select the best possible objects, and exercise his power and goodness in the most wise and perfect form ? To suppose that there is any one thing at this moment unknown to God, we must believe that it has been concealed from his sight from everlasting: and if it be possible to conceive that any one thing has thus been secluded from his view, why not another, and another, without num¬ ber and without end? And if thus either few or more events could take place without his know¬ ledge; they would also take place without, if not 47 contrary to his will. For how could his will be concerned in the existence of events, of which he has no knowledge ? And if they are produced without his will; then they must also be produced without his power. And in such a case, how could he be said to be the Creator and Preserver of all? In obedience then to the dictates of reason as well as the declarations of Scripture, we are obliged to maintain that his understanding is in¬ finite, and that he sees the end from the begin¬ ning. But if his understanding is infinite ; then we must inevitably admit the doctrine of Election, and that there shall not a single soul be ultimately brought to heaven, but what he ordained from everlasting to eternal life. For let men talk as they please about the difference betwixt knowledge and causation ; betwixt certainty in the observer and certainty in the event; and ask “since our anticipation of another man’s conduct lays no re¬ straint upon his conduct, why should we regard the foreknowledge of God as dragging the event along with it, when in our own case we acknow¬ ledge the two things to have no connection ?” still, from the moment that they admit the foreknow¬ ledge and omniscience of God, they grant us all that is necessary to establish the Divine decrees. After one of the best of men, and ablest of rea- soners, when treating of Metaphysical or Philo¬ sophical Necessity, had declared that it is nothing 48 different from the “certainty” of things; and had added, “ I speak not now of the certainty of knowledge, but of the certainty that is in things themselves, which is the foundation of the cer¬ tainty of knowledge;”* any elaborate discussion, respecting the difference betwixt certainty in the eventj and certainty in the observer, seemed to have been superseded. Unless, therefore, this distinction had been gravely urged of latei we could no more have imagined, that, in speaking of the certainty of things, we should have been suspected of imputing to them intelligence and expectation, than we could have apprehended that we should have been seriously charged with ascrib¬ ing sensation to ice, when we speak of its cold¬ ness, or feeling to the fire, when we talk of its heat. By the certainty of things, we merely mean, that which ensures their existence, and which be¬ comes the ground or foundation of knowing that they will actually come to pass. And we frankly and fully confess, that our knowledge of our neighbour’s conduct does not drag his conduct. And, if you please, we shall also allow, that nei¬ ther the knowledge of God nor of man controls the conduct of a single creature, nor gives exis¬ tence to a single thing. It is from another quar- * President Edwards on the Freedom of the Will. Works, 8vo. London, 1817. Vol. i. p. 141, 49 ter altogether that existence is derived ; and where control is exercised at all, it is from a widely different source than knowledge that it flows. Our knowledge that twice two is four, does not make it four. Our knowledge that the Jews will be converted to Christianity, and that the dead will be raised and brought to judgment, will neither convert the Jews, nor raise the dead, nor place them before the bar of justice. And our anticipa¬ tion of another’s conduct does not affect his ac¬ tions. But the question is. Unless such were the fact, could we know that twice two is four? Un¬ less there were a cause for these events, could we ever have known that the Jews shall be converted, and the dead raised and brought to judgment ? And without an infallible connection betwixt the man’s past and future life, how could we ever, from what he has already done, acquire a certain knowledge of what he will hereafter do ? With¬ out an infallible ground of knowledge, arising from the word of God, and the laws which he has assigned to his works, whatever wishes or conjectures we may entertain, it is utterly impos¬ sible for us to possess a certain knowledge of any future thing whatever. And, to speak with reverence, unless there is a cause for his knowledge, how can God himself know the future existence of things ? What shall exist, he may, he must know. What is within the range of our vision, we may see. And He who knows all things, must foresee whatsoever E 50 shall come to pass. But as we cannot see what is beyond the bounds of our horizon; Omniscient as he is, since his knowledge, as well as his judg¬ ment, is according to truth, how is it conceivable that he can foresee or foreknow a single thing but what shall actually take place? And if he fore¬ sees the existence of those things only that shall actually take place, must not there be a reason for the arrival of them rather than of others ? And if there is a reason for their existence, in what is this reason founded, but either in his own positive appointment, or in the nature of the things which he has made ? His positive appointment, or decree, compre¬ hends the creation and preservation of all things, and the communication of holiness and happiness to his intelligent creatures. In order, however, to obviate the supposition, that by affirming that the knowledge of futurity arises from the fact that there is a cause for every thing that takes place, this must make God the Author of evil, it is pro¬ per to observe, that the reason for the existence of many events is founded, not in his determination, but in the nature of the things which he has made. For though he himself does nothing without his own purpose or will, it does not follow that every thing exists in consequence of his decree. The dependence of creatures upon himself, and the re¬ lations betwixt figures and numbers, are not the effects of positive appointment. If he make a creature at all, that creature must be dependent 51 and limited; and things that are equal to the same thing, must, without any decree upon the subject, be equal to one another. And without his decree or agency, though certainly not without his infallible foreknowledge, evil originated in the voluntary choice of the limited, and therefore falli¬ ble, creatures whom he had made.* From the absolute foreknowledge of God, how¬ ever, we are justified in maintaining that there is a cause for every thing that exists; and that there is not a single soul that ever shall be brought to the world of glory, but in consequence of his own purpose and grace. To prevent this conclusion, it has been asked, Cannot an Omniscient Being foresee absolute con¬ tingencies? By an absolute contingence is meant an event which depends on the free will of man. And as the will is supposed by some, to possess a self-determining power; by which, in precisely the same circumstances, it makes opposite choices; a contingence is an event which may either be or not be; which has no connexion with any thing that precedes it; or, in other words, for which there is no cause. Unaccountable things, indeed, are perpetually • This doctrine, which pervades the Writings of the late Dr. Williams, is ably stated and illustrated in his Notes upon Edwards’ Treatise on the Freedom of the Will. Edwards’ Works, vol. i. E 2 52 occurring; and we are every where surrounded with the most singular and surprising phenomena, in both the material and moral world. But though the reason of their occurrence may elude our researches, it does not follow that they have no cause. The flowing of the tide, and the eclipses of the sun and moon, appear to savages as fortuitous and inscrutable as the changes of the wind, and the variations of the weather. But though we find it more difficult to explain the oc¬ casion of the latter, we are certain that they have just as real a cause as the former. And there cannot be a doubt, that, could we ascertain all the laws of nature, and arrangements of Providence, we should be able to resolve the most intricate and inexplicable events, as readily as the most simple and obvious, into previous circumstances. What we call chance and accident, are words employed to conceal our ignorance of the imme¬ diate cause of the events to which they are ap¬ plied. But notwithstanding our ignorance of the fact, they have a cause just as fixed and certain, as those events whose approach we have foreseen for years, and whose occurrence is obviously in¬ evitable. The fracture of a limb by a fall from a horse, and the loss of life by the explosion of fire¬ damp, are called accidents. But though unex¬ pected and disastrous, they are not more fortui¬ tous, or without a cause, than the loss of a limb by the operations of the surgeon, or the death of an enemy by the deliberate discharge of a cannon 53 which has been pointed at his head. In the throwing of dice, there is just as sufficient a I'ea- ^n, though unspeakably less momentous, for the sides which come uppermost, as there is for the motion of the planets. The death of Benhadad by the hands of Hazael, and the escape of David from Keilah, accidental as some may deem them, were not more contingent than the martyrdom of Stephen, or the translation of Elijah. Throughout the wide creation, from the day on which Jehovah said, “ Let there be light,” down throughout all the successions of time, till the blast of the last trumpet, one event has not taken place, and one event will not take place, without a cause. The most mighty, and the most insig¬ nificant revolutions in nature, from the appearance of a new star, down to the direction taken by a falling feather; the most dreadful convulsions in the moral world, from the rise and fall of states and empires, down to the motions and most trifling volitions of the humblest and most help¬ less individual, have all had their cause. And till the hand of the Eternal shall stop the majestic movements of this stupendous system, and time shall be no more, no incident, however trivial, ever shall occur without a cause. To affirm that any effect, whether great or small, can take place without a cause, is subversive of every principle of philosophy and religion. In such a case, the world might exist without a cause; and the uni- E 3 54 verse itself might exist without a cause; and then our evidence for the existence of the Deity is gone. At any rate, even granting that such events could take place, it is utterly impossible that they ever could be foreknown. For, “ How can an effect be foreseen, if it has no necessary connec¬ tion with its cause ? If the Deity knows, that in a certain situation, I shall prefer one action to another, he must also foresee from what cause this preference will arise; for to suppose that he fore¬ sees it as arising from no cause, no predominant affections or propensities, is absurd in the extreme. But could my state of mind produce an opposite preference, then his foreknowledge could not be infallible; and it would be to him a matter of un¬ certainty which I should prefer. The event being supposed contingent, and from the same previous circumstances two contrary or different effects being possible, he could not foreknow which of the two would indubitably follow, if I see a bal¬ ance with four pounds in one scale, and eight in the other, I can easily and certainly anticipate the descent of the eight pounds. But did I not dis¬ cover a necessary connection betwixt greater weight, and the preponderance of that weight; or were it possible that the declension might be pro¬ duced indifferently, either by the greater or less w'eight; it would be then, I presume, beyond the power of my understanding to foretel the effect. If a cause can produce a hundred effects indis- 55 criminately, it must be merely a matter of con¬ jecture, which it will produce.” * Is it said, that God, by his superior knowledge, may foresee contingencies, which no creature, however elevated, can comprehend? Granted. But can Omniscience see or discover that which is no object of knowledge ? Almighty as he is, God cannot work contradictions. He cannot make a thing exist and not exist at one and the same time. He cannot reverse the laws of nature at the same time that he retains them. And, om¬ niscient as he is, can he foresee that event to be precarious and contingent, which he sees and knows is absolutely fixed and certain ? If the thing will really happen, how can superior or in¬ finite knowledge discover that it may never hap¬ pen ? Knowledge is like vision. The more that the strength of sight is increased, just the more clearly must the spectator see that no opposite event is there. And therefore God, whose powers of penetration are possessed of infinite intensity, must just have an infinite assurance that nothing different from what he foresees ever can or will take place. Is it said, that God may have ways of knowing contingent events, which we cannot conceive ? This is as much as to say, “ that God may know contradictions to be true, for ought we know; or Crombie on Philosophical Necessity. 8vo. London, 1793. 56 that he may know a thing to be certain, and at the same time know it not to be certain, though we cannot conceive how;” that he may see the sun in the west, when it is really in the east; and that he may see that man to be alive, and in health, whom he at the same time sees to be dead and in the grave; “ because he has ways of know¬ ing which we cannot comprehend.” * In this manner it appears that prescience and contingence are utterly incompatible. From the moment that an event is foreseen, from that mo¬ ment its futurity is fixed. It is taken out of the class of possible things, and placed in that of fu¬ ture realities; and we may depend on its arrival with absolute certainty. But in whatever manner he acquires his knowledge; whether it arises from the nature of things, or from his own decree; it is unquestionable that the foreknowledge of God extends to every thing. Of all the uncertain things which can be conceived, none can be more contingent and undiscoverable than the volitions of free agents. From the various prophecies of Scripture, however, we find that these are all dis¬ tinctly foreknown to God. And since he is thor¬ oughly acquainted with the future thoughts and volitions of men and devils, we may rest assured that there is nothing which escapes the reach of his all-penetrating eye; and that there never has • President Edwards’ Works, vol. i. p. 239 . 57 been, and never will be, such a thing as a contin- gence; and that such a thing is an absolute impos¬ sibility. And if thus all things are infallibly foreseen, the everlasting salvation of all the redeemed is no matter of doubt and uncertainty. Whether we suppose any decree upon the subject or not, the result is exactly the same. For since the foreknow¬ ledge of God is infallible, no decree that he can form can give the slightest additional certainty to what he infallibly foresees.* This conclusion, which has just now been stat¬ ed, and which necessarily arises from the omnisci¬ ence of God, is confirmed by a consideration of his immutability. The very first idea that we can frame of his character is, that he is perfect. That is, that nothing can heighten the excellencies of his na- ture; that eternity cannot enlarge the range of his knowledge; nor creation, with all that it contains, • The whole of this argument is treated with uncommon force and clearness, by President Edwards, on the Fi’eedom of the Will; Part II. Sections xi. and xii. On this question, we have reason to hope that the public will soon be more closely united. One of the latest writers, in opposition to the truth asserted in this volume, is obliged to con¬ fess, that contingency merely implies ignorance of the event; and as he at the same time admits that every event is known to God, he virtually abandons the strong-hold of his friends, and yields the whole ground in dispute. 58 add to the amount of his glory and blessedness. And that this belief is founded in truth, is a fact that can admit of no doubt. Betwixt perfection and imperfection, betwixt that which is infinite, and that which is finite, there can be no medium. The being who is not perfect and infinite, must be finite and imperfect. But a finite or imper¬ fect being cannot be self-existent and eternal. He must be created and dependent. But God, as we have already seen, is uncreated, independent, and eternal, the source of life and happiness to all, but indebted to none for his being and his bliss. And if self-existent, independent, and eternal; if without any thing to limit or restrain his essence; then in all his attributes and excellencies, he must be perfect and infinite. But if he is perfect; then the possibility of any change upon his nature or his counsels is utterly excluded. For every change, let it be what it will, is connected with weakness, and implies imperfec¬ tion. If it be for the better; then God was not previously perfect: and if it be for the worse; then from that moment he ceases to be the infinitely perfect being which he had formerly been. Thus a perfect being must be absolutely immutable. And since God is perfect, any alteration upon his mind or his administration is evidently impossible. His dispensations may seem to vary. Amidst the complicated interests under his care, and from the small and detached portions of his plans, which in the brief period of our pilgrimage we are permitted f / 59 to behold; we may sometimes imagine that there is a confusion or irregularity, or even a disagree¬ ment amongst his works. His purposes may sometimes appear as if they were rapidly advancing to their accomplishment: and at other times they may look as if they would entirely fail. But to a spectator seated where Jehovah sits, and capable of contemplating them in the light in which he sur¬ veys them, all this apparent intricacy, disorder, and discrepancy would vanish : and, like the paths of the planets, which though to us they seem so involved and mazy, when viewed from the Sun are seen to be simple and uniform; the most myste¬ rious and perplexing events in providence and grace, would be found to be wise and just, and, under his Almighty and unerring guidance, day after day travelling steadily and triumphantly on to one grand and glorious consummation. Amidst the ever shifting aspect of his operations, nature lifts up her voice, and by her constancy in all her works, proclaims the unbroken unity of his de¬ signs : and revelation, by the unfaltering testi¬ mony which it bears to his unbending faithfulness to his promises and purposes, demonstrates that with him there is no variableness, neither any shadow of turning. With the eye of omniscience, from everlasting, he just as clearly and com¬ pletely saw all that he was to do and all that by his creatures was to be done, as he can see them when the whole have finished their career, and the heavens and earth have passed away. And with \ \ V 60 a heart as beneficent and wise, before he called this vast creation into being, as when it is in the high noon of its activity and enjoyment; his plans from their first formation possessed all the perfec¬ tion which infinite wisdom could give them, and neither time nor eternity can increase their equity or excellence. A consideration, therefore, of his omniscience and immutability seems to demonstrate, in the simplest and most convincing form, the truth for which we contend. If omniscient he must from everlasting have known whom he has chosen. And if with him there is no variableness, neither any shadow of turning; then we may be assured that he will rest in his love, that his counsel stand- eth for ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations. We are entitled to draw a similar inference, 3. From his power and will. A stranger to mechanics may form a very erro¬ neous notion of the performances of a machine, which has never been subjected to his examination. And we may feel surprised and alarmed at the uncouth and terrific appearance of the unknown banditti, who unexpectedly invade our habitations at midnight. But the artist betrays no astonish¬ ment at the operations of that machine whose mo¬ tions were projected by his ingenuity, and all the parts of which were fashioned by his hands. And we 61 neither feel, nor discover alarm at the arrival of our family or friends, who come by invitation and at the hour previously appointed. If we could suppose that a single creature ever did, or ever shall exist, contrary to the will of God, and in the formation of which he had no influence; then we might also believe that things might exist without his knowledge, and in the disposal of which he had no agency. But knowing that crea¬ tion, with all that it contains, is his workmanship, and that there never has been, and never will be, a single creature, but what has been or shall be made by his power, and live and move and have its being in him, we may rely on the fact, that there never has been nor will be a single creature, but what, with all its actions and all its state, is most thoroughly known to God. But whilst we remember that creation is the work of his hands, we ought not to forget that the exercise of his power is inseparable from the exercise of his will. A power, either in God or the creature, without a will to use it, neither under¬ takes nor accomplishes any thing; and for every practical useful purpose is no better than a non¬ entity. A power in man to read, to write, to act rationally and live religiously, without a will to use it, leaves him exactly in the same state of ignorance and irreligion in which it found him. And according to every conception that we can form of God, without a will to exert it, his power remains at rest and produces nothing. 62 He is Almighty: and, if such were his pleasure, he could nightly illumine each of our dwellings by a pillar of fire ; and, without our labour, richly supply our bodily wants by a daily emission of manna. But omnipotent as he is, since he does not choose thus to exert his power, w^e must have recourse to other measures, if we would wish to enjoy those comforts which in this form he is pleased to withhold. And if thus we are entitled to maintain, that no voluntary agent puts forth his power without his own choice ; can we believe that the Lord Jehovah employed his omnipotence in the formation of the universe, without a distinct and deliberate act of his will ? The creatures may abuse his goodness, pervert their powers, and render themselves obnoxious to the severest effects of his displeasure. But where is there one whom he did not endow with existenee, and provide for its preservation ? And if no man, w hen he has the power to pre¬ vent it, will submit to any thing contrary to his will; where is the omnipotence of God if any thing, whether great or small, exists in direct op¬ position to his fixed and immutable will ? Who made it ? who upholds it in being ? To say that it is self-produced is absurd : for that is to ascribe to it acts before it possessed an existence. And to say that it is self-sustained, is little less ridiculous : for excepting Him who has life in himself, and who gives life and being to all that live, the existence of any thing at one moment is not the cause of its 63 existence at another. “ Our existence in life yes¬ terday, is no foundation for our living to-day; nor can our life to-day ensure it to-morrow. The existence of a shadow one moment, is no ground of its existence in the next: let the sun cease to shine, or the intervening substance be removed, it instantly vanishes, nor leaves the smallest trace behind.” Even supposing that any thing obtains a being contrary to his will; since he is in all and through all, where can it hide from his eye till the fortu¬ nate moment when it can safely plant its feet upon his territories ? And when it enters his domi¬ nions, how is it to be disposed of ? It must come either as a welcome guest, or as an ungracious intruder. If it appear in the latter character : is he, as soon as it meets his observation, to let loose against it the energies of his power, and instantly hunt it from the face of being ? or if he allow it a residence within his domains, is he to detach from their previous services a portion of his hosts, to watch its motions and counteract its designs ? or is he, by a fresh act of creating might, to form new classes of creatures to neutralize its malignity, and restore that equilibrium amongst his works, which its unlooked for and loathsome presence had disturbed or destroyed ? Does it come as a friendly ally, to tender its faithful services to the King of kings? So far it is well. But if, day after day, the vessel, as she passes, is to take on board every hand that presses F 2 64 for admission, will no crow^ding ensue ? Will no alteration become requisite upon the stores and the stowage, the duties and the arrangements of the crew ? And though the resources of God are inexhaustible, and with him all things are possi • ble; so that he can easily make new volunteers fall into the ranks of his veterans, and bend every incident to the accomplishment of his purposes; must not the arrival of unknown, though friendly events, just as really as the presence of unexpect¬ ed and hostile occurrences, incessantly call for a change and modification of his plans ? The one as well as the other is calculated to derange his proceedings, and unsettle the order of his govern¬ ment ; to interrupt the calm and tranquil course of his affairs, and oblige him to maintain a con¬ stant guard, lest his administration should be thrown into confusion, or upset by such novel and unforeseen contingencies. And is this any thing at all like what we might expect under the sovereignty of Him whose king¬ dom ruleth over all ? who speaks, and it is done? who commands, and all things stand fast ? who is ever in one mind, and whom none can turn ? Against him no counsel nor might can prevail. “ Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandelh it not ?” When, therefore, every artist knows the nature of his work, and the purpose for which it is fram¬ ed ; when the whole universe, with all that it contains, is the work of God, and without him 65 was not any thing made that is made; when his understanding is infinite, and just as great as his power; can we believe that a single creature was made without his will; or that a single incident, in any quarter of creation, or in any era of eter¬ nity, can occur without his knowledge ? Grant¬ ing that no decree had ever been passed upon the subject of human salvation; from the fact, that his power is exercised only in consequence of his will, we are compelled to maintain, that all things connected with the work of redemption take place in the same fixed and regular order, as if they had been absolutely and immutably ordained from ev¬ erlasting. However unexpected and inscrutable events may appear, we may rest assured that nothing comes to pass under the reign of the Messiah, but what his own hand and counsel de¬ termined before should be done; and that, age after age, the ranks of the redeemed on earth, and the many mansions in heaven, are filling up with those, whom before the foundation of the world he had chosen to eternal glory. We are induced to draw a similar inference, 4. From his Wisdom and Goodness. Every idea that we can form of his nature, com¬ pels us to regard him as perfect. But if any addition could be made to either his wisdom or goodness, he could not be absolutely or infinitely perfect. From the perfection, therefore, of his F 3 66 nature, we are necessarily led to infer the perfec¬ tion of his wisdom and goodness. And if perfect in wisdom and goodness, then observe the consequences which inevitably follow. Though a fool will act rashly, and without reflec¬ tion ; no man of wisdom and worth will imitate his example, by giving free license to his powers, ut¬ terly reckless of what may ensue. Love to God and man, a regard to his present happiness and eternal welfare, constrain him to inquire by what means he may make the best use of the gifts which his Creator has bestowed, and most suc¬ cessfully accomplish the great objects for which he was formed. And if no man of principle will heedlessly embark in any undertaking; can we believe, that the only wise and ever-blessed God would give full scope to the energies of omnipo¬ tence, without knowing whether the result would be to his glory or dishonour, and prove a blessing or a curse to the creatures that he was about to frame ? The wisdom, however, of the wisest, and the goodness of the best, of the human race, are im¬ perfect. They are, therefore, ever learning, and obliged repeatedly to alter and modify their ar¬ rangements. They are under the necessity of try¬ ing various schemes and expedients to gain their purposes ; and after all, their plans are often very partially and imperfectly executed. But did they possess powers proportioned to their wishes, no - feebleness nor defect would ever accompany and clog their proceedings. They would uniformly seize at once on the best and noblest objects; and advance directly to their attainment, by the sim¬ plest and most effectual measures. Now, the very thing which with man is impos¬ sible, with God is obvious and easy. Perfect in wisdom, he never can feel a moment’s suspense about the object most becoming him to pursue; and with a will in complete and perpetual harmo¬ ny with the principles of absolute and unchanging rectitude; nothing can tempt or betray him for one instant to forego what is best. Though he had revolved on the subject to all eternity, he never could have found a better and a nobler sub¬ ject for the employment of his powers, than the display of his own glory, or the manifestation of his supreme and infinite excellencies; and, with¬ out renouncing his essential attributes, which is impossible, never could his holy and perfect na¬ ture have submitted to any less or lower end. Accordingly, reason and revelation teach us to anticipate, that at the consummation of all, every thing, without one exception, will issue in the discovery of his glory. And if this is the issue of the whole, when the mystery of God is finish¬ ed ; under the superintendence and agency of Him who is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever; is it credible, that from the beginning he could contemplate any other object than this sub¬ lime and delightful termination, in which they all so harmoniously and triumphantly close ? 68 And if thus all things are directed to one ob¬ ject, and terminate in one result; what else is this than just saying that all things are formed by de¬ sign, and regulated by a plan ? But to ascribe a design or a plan to the proceedings of the Al¬ mighty, is the same as to assert them to be the subjects of his purpose or decree; for, however different in sound, these words agree in conveying the same sentiment. And that God actually has a plan, is a fact that cannot admit a moment’s doubt. For, without a plan, power, however strong, is mere brute force, and may astonish or confound, but never can produce any thing that is useful, or that indicates intelligence in its au¬ thor. Without a plan, there can be no combina¬ tion of efforts, nor any subserviency of one object to another. Without a plan, the artist might ply his strength till his dying hour, without framing one thing that deserved the name of a machine; and the poet might pour out his verses by thou¬ sands in the hour, without producing a single ar¬ ticle which was entitled to the name of a compo¬ sition. And power, without a plan, though exerted with unremitting and vigorous activity, through eternity, never could have accomplished any rational or useful purpose. All its acts would have been loose and unconnected ; and no two of its effects would have possessed the slightest de¬ pendence on each other. And if power, without design, could produce nothing that is wise or useful; when we contem- 69 plate the grandeur, the beauty, and utility, of the works of God, what clear and incontestable evi¬ dence have we, that “ in wisdom he has made them all !” So that, from a consideration of his Wisdom and Goodness, we arrive at the same conclusion with the Apostle, when he said that “ he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” And this counsel must have been formed at once. Without experiment, without deliberation or de¬ lay, it must have been instantly seen and adopted by his infinite mind. Thus, then, on a survey of the attributes of God, what do we find? We find that from ever¬ lasting to everlasting he is God; that he is in all and through all; that with him there is no past nor future; but that he at all times sees and knows whatever has existed or shall exist. While distance in time and place hides events from our view, and our knowledge is confined to the few objects that pass in succession before us; Jehovah, who inhabits eternity, and fills immensity, at once sees and comprehends the whole. We find that his understanding is infinite, and his nature un¬ changeable ; and therefore, that he must fully know the nature and properties of every creature which he has made, and that what he has once purposed, he will infallibly bring to pass. We find that his power is almighty, and that the exer¬ cise of this perpetually depends upon his will; 70 and therefore, that every thing that exists has been made by his pleasure, and is upheld in being by his own watchfulness and care. We find that his wisdom and goodness are infinite; but that wisdom and goodness can accomplish nothing that is rational or useful without a plan. Amidst the brilliant proofs therefore which creation contains of the wisdom and goodness of its Author, we have the most complete and irresistible evidence that all things have been formed with design, and that every thing which occurs, takes place according to the appointment or permission of the Creator and Preserver of all. We are not entitled, indeed, to confer on this species of argument any higher name than that of presumptive proof. But never was there any proof of this description more complete and sat¬ isfactory: still, however, it is short of absolute demonstration. For some may imagine that God may suspend or supersede what we are taught to regard as the natural exercise of his attributes. It therefore becomes necessary to consider that direct evidence which expressly and conclusively establishes the fact, that he acts upon a plan, and that the subjects of saving mercy are called and chosen according to his purpose and grace. 71 SECT. III. The evidences of design apparent in the works of God. If, in theorising upon the character of a man, we found, upon more intimate acquaintance, that his conduct was completely at variance with our pre¬ conceived notions, we would be obliged to renounce them as totally groundless and visionary. But if, upon a closer inspection, we ascertained that the opinion which we had formed from occasional hints and casual information, was fully borne out by his life, we would be entitled to affirm that it was found¬ ed in truth, and afforded a correct explanation of the principles on which he acted. From what reason teaches us of the natural attributes of God, we have affirmed that his gov¬ ernment is conducted upon a plan j and that, whether they are decreed or not, every exercise of his power, and every communication of his goodness, is the effect of his own deliberate and determinate will. We are now to submit the issue of this matter to the decision of facts. What is the answer which they return ? Tell me first what you would regard as proofs of a plan ? Most undoubtedly you would con¬ sider as the evidences of a plan the manifest and uniform indications of design; the interference of the author from time to time to regulate and ad¬ just the movements of the machinery which he had at first put in motion; the intimation before- 72 hand of what we afterwards see produced; and his own express declaration that what he does, he does on purpose, and for the accomplishment of a preconcerted scheme. Would you deem these facts sufficient to evince the existence of a plan ? And if they are not suf¬ ficient to establish such an object, pray what is there within the range of demonstration which you would pronounce to be sufficient proof? We have all this evidence, however,, and more, that the ever-blessed God acts upon a plan, and that all his proceedings are regulated by rule. This will appear by attending to the evidences of design visible in his works. When we see an ingenious and useful machine, such as a watch or a telescope, we instantly and confidently infer that it had a maker, and that in its formation he acted intentionally. Whatever indicates no skill and accomplishes no end, we regard as the effect of accident, and made with- out contrivance. Wherever we observe an object steadily and invariably pursued, especially amidst complex and conflicting obstacles, we are imme¬ diately and necessarily compelled to ascribe the effect to the presence of a plan and a purpose. Whatever moves at random, and tends to no de¬ terminate point, we reckon devoid of intellect, and consider merely as the passive subject of some unintelligent cause. It is thus that we judge of the thistle-down, that floats wherever the varying breeze may waft it; and of the log that is unre- 73 sistingly carried along by the course of the cur¬ rent, But the fowl, which cautiously avoids the approach of some birds, and eagerly wings her flight in chace of others; and the vessel that re¬ solutely and gallantly stems wind and tide, that dexterously shuns the rocks and quicksands in her path, and promptly avails herself of every circumstance to advance her progress; we con¬ clude, and conclude truly, are guided by design, and have a distinct and definite object in view. If in the creation of the universe God had act¬ ed without a plan, the whole, as we have already seen, would have been in a state of entire and un¬ controllable anarchy. There would have been no subordination nor subserviency of one thing to another. No appearance would have existed of settled laws nor of established order. There would have been no connection betwixt cause and effect. Past experience could have given no intimation of future occurrences. Every thing would have been in absolute confusion, and the mind of man perpetually harassed with the dread¬ ful apprehension of fresh and unparalleled disas¬ ters. Amidst the magnitude and variety of the works of God, it would have been utterly impos¬ sible to have discovered any marks of his concern for his creatures, or any trace of an ultimate ob¬ ject in his operations. But look at the heavens above, and take a sur¬ vey of the earth below; and say if this is any thing at all like the appearances which they present? G 74 Do you find any symptoms of inattention and ne¬ glect? or any vestige of the want of connection, harmony, and order, amongst his works ? The universe is wide. But as far as our obser¬ vation and researches, aided by the best instru¬ ments, can carry us, the whole is bright with the traces of a beneficence which knows no bounds, and as replete with the marks of a wisdom that cannot err, as of a might which no power can withstand. Worlds on worlds innumerable are perpetually revolving around us. Some possess a bulk, and others a velocity, unspeakably superior to those of the planet which we occupy. But amidst all the magnitude which they possess, and all the swiftness with which they move, they never wander from their spheres, nor interfere with each other’s motions. Vast as the spaces are which they traverse, they never lose their way, nor fall back a single second from their allotted times; but, with a punctuality which leaves all human precision immeasurably behind, age after age, return upon their silent and trackless course, without the de¬ parture of an inch, or the variation of a moment, from the path and the period in which they first finished their mighty revolutions. This earth is not now the lovely and happy spot which it was, when it came fresh from the hand of its Creator; when, on his full survey of all that it contained, his benevolent heart poured blessings on it, and his faithful lips pronounced the whole production good. But still, amidst / 75 all the disorganization and havoc which sin has wrought, enough of the kind, the useful, and the stable remains, to proclaim the generosity of its Author, and to intimate the rich provision he had made for the accommodation and felicity of the human race. The artist never can succeed better in his pursuits, than by just imitating the devices and expedients which nature has employ¬ ed in similar circumstances. The physician and legislator can never more effectually promote the welfare of those whose benefit they consult, than by just undoing the forced and artificial habits which have been contracted; and allowing na¬ ture, by her own simple and gentle processes, to accomplish her own friendly and parental pur¬ poses. The nice adaptation of the organs in the animal frame to their different functions; the fit¬ ness of the various productions of land and water for the sustenance and comfort of their respective inhabitants; the striking similarity, amidst features of obvious diversity, which in every succeeding generation prevails amongst the individuals of the same species, whether plants or animals; the beauty of structure, the regularity of form, and the manifest utility, observable in all, of every part of their frame to the great ends of their ex¬ istence; the subserviency of the inanimate to the animate creation, and the large contributions which each is continually pouring in to the use and enjoyment of man; if we know what a plan and a purpose mean, bespeak a plan the most G 2 76 wise and comprehensive, and a purpose the most firm and inflexible. Can we look at all this, and say that there is no trace nor indication of an object and end ? Can we really suppose that this skillful accommo¬ dation of the organs in the living body to the purposes which they were intended to serve; that this harmony and order visible in all the opera¬ tions of nature within the limits of our globe; and this regularity in the motions of the plane¬ tary bodies, by which, for ages, without a mo¬ ment’s pause or an inch’s variation, they have pursued their passage through the sky, have been all produced without design ? Is it by chance that a telescope assists our vision ? Does a clock move by accident ? Is it by a lucky, but unin¬ tentional, concurrence, that men fall into military rank, and execute all the complicated and pro¬ tracted undertakings of a campaign ? But is the formation of a telescope more difficult than the formation of an eye or an ear ? Are the motions of a clock more complex than those of the animal frame ? Are greater skill and power requisite for the organization and management of military bodies, than for marshalling the hosts of heaven, and preserving in beauty and in order the various parts of this vast universe? It is impossible to contemplate the sublime ap¬ pearances with which we are surrounded, without believing that the whole are the result of a wisdom that cannot err, and of a goodness that rejoices in 77 the comfort of its creatures. From the moment however that we admit, that all things were pro¬ duced and are sustained with design, we necessa¬ rily introduce the Divine decrees; for it is impos¬ sible to act from design without acting from a plan and a purpose, and keeping some definite object steadily in view. Did we say that if in the creation of the universe God had acted without a plan, there would have been no appearance of settled laws and established order; that all things would have been loose and de¬ sultory, and involved in the most inextricable con¬ fusion ? Look again how triumphantly this opinion is repelled by an appeal to facts. Nothing can be more regular, uniform and fixed than the laws of nature. Whatever has once taken place, on the recurrence of the same circumstances, will invaria¬ bly return. Every human creature has a convic¬ tion of her constancy. “ The very child knows and proceeds upon it. He is aware of an abiding character and property in the elements around him; and has already learned as much of the fire, and the water, and the food that he eats, and the firm ground that he treads upon, and even of the gravitation, by which he must regulate his postures and his movements, as to prove, that, infant though he be, he is fully initiated in the doctrine, that nature hath her laws and her ordi¬ nances, and that she continueth therein. And the proofs of this are ever multiplying along the jour¬ ney of human observation: insomuch, that when G 3 78 we come to manhood, we read of nature’s con¬ stancy through every department of the visible world. It meets us wherever we turn our eyes. Both the day and the night bear witness to it. The silent revolutions of the firmanent give it their pure testimony. Even those appearances in the heavens, at which superstition stood aghast, and imagined that nature was on the eve of giving way, are the proudest trophies of that stability which reigns throughout her processes; of that unswerving consistency wherewith she prosecutes all her movements. And the lesson that is thus held forth to us from the heavens above, is res¬ ponded to by the earth below; just as the tides of ocean wait the footsteps of the moon, and, by an attendance kept up without change or intermission for thousands of years, would seem to connect the regularity of earth with the regularity of heaven. But apart from these greater and simpler energies, we see a course and a uniformity every where. We recognise it in the mysteries of vegetation. We follow it through the successive stages of growth, and maturity, and decay, both in plants and animals. We discern it still more palpably in that beautiful circulation of the element of wa¬ ter, as it rolls its way by many thousand channels to the ocean; and, from the surface of this ex¬ panded reservoir, is again uplifted to the higher regions of the atmosphere; and is there dispersed in light and fleecy magazines over the four quarters of the globe; and at length accomplishes its orbit. 79 by falling in showers upon a world that waits to be refreshed by it. And all this goes to impress us with the regularity of nature, which in fact teems, throughout all its varieties, with power, and prin¬ ciple, and uniform laws of operation; and is view¬ ed by us as a vast laboratory, all the progressions of which have a rigid and unfailing necessity stamped upon them.” * But what else is nature than the course which God has chosen for conducting his operations? Who has assigned her laws, and established her ordinances.^ Where is the link that connects the cause with the effect? What is the principle which ensures this unbroken uniformity, and this unshaken stability amongst all the operations in ceaseless activity around us ? What gives food its nourishing properties ? poison its destructive • See the First of the Sermons preached in St. John’s Church, Glasgow, by Dr. Chalmers: where this subject is dis¬ cussed with a power and a splendour, seldom equalled and never surpassed even in the compositions of this most enlightened and useful writer of this or any other age. The value of his Theolo¬ gical Works has long been acknowledged: and though the worth of his Publications on Pauperism is less known, it is, if possible, of a still higher order. By the habits of industry, economy, so¬ briety and intelligence, which they are fitted to create, and which are the best handmaids to religion ; the obvious and easy plans which he has there unfolded, are calculated to accomplish, in every country where they are adopted, a revolution for the temporal and eternal welfare of men, inferior only, if inferior at all, to the Reformation. 80 powers? or medicine its healing virtues? What is it that imparts vegetation to grain; and, as the seasons roll round, brings on “ the smiling har¬ vest hours?” Why seed-corn should have been originally endowed with the capacity of growing and yielding a crop; unless such was the will of God, the husbandman with all his skill and expe¬ rience cannot tell. Why opium should possess an intoxicating, and digitalis a sedative quality; unless such was the will of the Most High, the physician with all his study and observation can¬ not tell. And why the planets move at all, or move with their present velocity; unless such was the good pleasure of the Almighty, the astronomer with all his science and penetration cannot tell. They possess no more inherent independent ener¬ gy to compass these effects, than stones to pile themselves into palaces, or flint to transform itself into chrystal. The first effect which they respec¬ tively produced, was acccomplished by the will or agency of God. And the repetition of these ef¬ fects has not invested them with a power which they did not primarily enjoy. In themselves, they are just as incompetent for the production of the last as of the first effect which they wrought: and apart from the will or appointment of God, we can give no reason at all for the constitution which they possess, nor why in any case one consequence rather than another follows from a cause. But though God has not transferred to the ob¬ jects themselves, the power by which they produce 81 their results; still he acts with such constancy, and maintains such a uniform connection betwixt cause and effect, that from the effect we can readi¬ ly trace the cause; and when we know the nature and properties of the cause, nothing is easier than to anticipate the effect. But unless his will is fix¬ ed, or, in other words, he is acting upon a plan, what reason can we assign for this long-continued and unbroken connection betwixt cause and effect? Does steady and unchanging conduct proceed from a fickle and shifting principle? Does this uniformity amongst the works of the Most High, arise from no settled and determined purpose? If he had kept no object firmly in view, he would ages ago have slipped the chain which binds the effect to the cause, and allowed all the operations of nature to have run into an inextricable disor¬ der. When therefore all things continue as they were since the beginning of the creation ; on the same ground on which we infer, from the repeat¬ ed and persevering efforts of the statuary or pain¬ ter, that they have an object in view; from the undeviating regularity observed age after age by the laws of nature; from the unchanging connec¬ tion which has subsisted so long betwixt cause and effect, a connection which depends entirely upon the will of God, we are obliged to conclude that he also has his plans and his purposes, and that heaven and earth shall sooner pass away, than any of his counsels and determinations shall be defeated. 82 This reasoning acquires still greater force from the fact, that, though the natural cause pos¬ sesses no power but what it derives from God, the union betwixt cause and effect is so close, that it has been justly observed, “ that all events, from the beginning to the end, are one continued series of causes and effects. All things, their places, circumstances, and time, are events or ef¬ fects which necessarily follow their causes. There cannot be an effect without a cause, nor a cause without an effect.—Every event is the effect of something prior to itself, which is its cause, or the reason why it exists. This cause is the effect or effects of something or things antecedent to it or to them. This cause or causes, also, is the ef¬ fect or effects of something, or things, prior to it* self or themselves; and so on to the beginning of the series. Or we may invert the order and say, causes produce effects; these effects become causes, and produce other effects; these effects also be¬ come causes, and produce effects in their turn.— As every cause, except the first, is an effect which necessarily follows its cause; every event is, and must, be a fixed thing: so that if the first link in the chain be put in motion, all the rest will follow. There will not be an event through the whole compass of time, in the whole creation, but is the effect of some cause which is the reason and ground of its existence. And whatever the cause, which is the reason or ground of an event, may 83 be, it also must be the effect of a prior cause; and 60 on to the first cause of all.” * But whilst thus there is an indissoluble connec¬ tion betwixt cause and effect, it is impossible to overlook the conclusion to which this fact inevi¬ tably conducts us. By the immediate agency of God, the natural course of affairs has frequently been set aside, and a new succession established. This was the case with the deluge, the confusion of tongues at Babel, the destruction of Sodom and the cities of the plain, the calling of Abra¬ ham, the many miracles wrought before Pharaoh, the destruction of the Egyptians, the deliverance of the Israelites, their preservation in the wilder¬ ness and settlement in Canaan, the mercies and the judgments shewn to them there, the sack of their capital, the overthrow of their polity, their dispersion amongst the nations, and the call of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the Gospel. In these, and in ten thousand cases, the fate of in¬ dividuals and nations, both in ancient and modern times, has been most deeply affected. The ordi¬ nary course of affairs has been interrupted and carried into a new direction. Millions of events have been prevented, which otherwise would have received existence; and birth given to as many more which else would never have had a being. • Tucker’s Predestination calmly considered, pp. 5 & 8, 3d Edition: An ingenious and well-argued performance. 84 It is impossible to deny that these extraordi¬ nary events, some of which have been sent in wrath upon a guilty, and others in mercy upon an obedient, people, have been productive of the most important consequences. By some, the face of nature has been permanently altered, and by others the destinies of nations have been totally changed. From some, the light of revelation has been removed, and the devoted kingdoms aban¬ doned to darkness and delusion. To others the light of celestial truth has been imparted, and the favoured states blessed with the clear shining of the Sun of righteousness. But by whose agency have these revolutions been wrought ? The waters did not of them¬ selves combine to deluge the primitive world. The fire did not of itself discharge its concentrat¬ ed fury upon the cities of the plain. The locusts, frogs, and flies, did not intentionally conspire to plague the Egyptians. The rivers did not turn themselves into a wilderness, nor the water-springs into dry ground. The Gospel and its ordinances did not voluntarily march from the lands where they had been neglected and abused, and instinc¬ tively discover, and designedly bend their steps to the countries where they were sure to find a more welcome reception. In all these mighty convul¬ sions of nature, and interesting changes in the state of the moral world, whatever were the instruments and means employed, the agency of Jehovah was exerted, and he himself claims the result as his 85 own work. The elements of nature are the engines which he has reserved in his treasures against the day of battle and of war; and the passions and the virtues of men are the principles which he presses into his service for executing his purposes of mer¬ cy or of judgment. It is he that turns the fruit¬ ful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. It is he that removeth kings, and setteth up kings. It is he who calls them his people, who were not his people; and her beloved, who was not beloved. And it is through him that it comes to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them. Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.* Now, with the full knowledge of the close con¬ nection betwixt cause and effect; unless the Deity expressly intends to accomplish some purposes of his own, why does he, time after time, interfere, by his own immediate agency, to divert events from their natural channel, and turn them into a new and another course ? And when he possesses the power to suspend or alter the whole, accor¬ ding to his pleasure; unless they are taking the very direction, and fulfilling the very objects which he meditated, why, instead of disturbing the currency of the rest, does he allow them to • The substance of these three preceding paragraphs is taken from Tucker on Predestination, pp. 19—22; where the subject is most eloquently illustrated. H 86 hold on in their ordinary career ? All this seems the result of design ; and if any thing can demon¬ strate the reality of a resolution and a scheme, from the maintenance, as much as from the sus¬ pension of the laws of nature, we are warranted to affirm the existence of a plan and a determina¬ tion in the Eternal Mind. And if thus the purposes of God are loudly proclaimed by nature, through all her works; are we to believe, that in religion, where they are most needed, and most to be expected, they were overlooked and forgotten; and that its high and momentous affairs were placed beyond the range of his provisions, and left to the whim and ca¬ price of his creatures ? If we are to form our judgment on this subject from the testimony of Scripture, we can be at no loss to come to a de¬ cision. For, on looking into the sacred volume, we find the certainty of the fact, for which we plead, placed beyond the possibility of a doubt. For, unless he has his plan and his purpose, why does he enjoin us to glorify him in our bodies, and in our spirits, which are his; and command us, whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do all to his glory ? Why has he given us his law for the regulation of our conduct; and, in order that its precepts may be observed by the subjects of his saving mercy, why does he put this law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ? Why does he put his Spirit within them. 87 and cause them to walk in his statutes, and keep his judgments, and do them ? If he has no spe¬ cific object in view, to him all times and seasons would be alike. Unless, then, he has his plans and his purposes, why do we read of times and seasons which he has put in his own power; of a fulness of time for the mission of his own Son; and for the correction or ruin of ungodly nations ? A work that has no plan, never can be completed; and that which serves no purpose, cannot, in strict propriety, be said to have an end. Unless, therefore, he has his plan and purpose, why are we told of measures preparatory to the end of all things, and of the finishing of the mystery of God ? With¬ out a plan and a purpose, all results must be alike, and no object can be distinctly and steadily pur¬ sued. Unless, then, he has his plan and his pur¬ pose, why are we informed that all things work to¬ gether for good to them that love him; and that all things are for their sakes ? that he hath made all things for himself? that for his pleasure, they are, and were created ? that his glory shall endure for ever, and that he shall rejoice in all his works ? that the wrath of man shall praise him, and that the remainder of his wrath he will restrain ? Why are we assured that Christ is Head over all things to the Church; and that he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet ? and that of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; and that his is the glory for ever ? H 2 88 If, therefore, it be true, that regularity and steadiness, that the pursuit of one grand object, and the attainment of one ultimate end, prove the presence of a scheme and a purpose; and if it be also true, that without a plan and a purpose, we could discover no traces of wisdom and design amongst the works of God; that the whole would have been in a state of disorder and confusion, without any fitness to promote any useful mea¬ sure, or any tendency to secure any final aim;— then, if ever there was a conclusion, fairly and honourably drawn, from the clear and over¬ whelming evidences written on the face of crea¬ tion, and legible in all the dispensations of provi¬ dence, of a constancy, which, when once estab¬ lished, no hand but his own can vary, and of a beneficence, which nothing but infinite wisdom, and boundless generosity, could display; and from the concurrence of all events to advance the welfare of the redeemed; and the uninterrupted and ma¬ jestic march of all things, from the birth of time, down to the day when the world shall deposit its burden at his feet, and God shall be all in all, to manifest his glory; we may most fairly and hon¬ ourably conclude, that all things were arranged and determined by Him who is wonderful in coun¬ sel, and excellent in working; and that the ordi¬ nances of day and of night may depart, but one of his counsels shall not fail, nor any of his pur¬ poses be broken. 89 SECT. IV. Prophecies and Promises. A PLAN and a purpose are inseparably connected with design ; and nothing can afford a more con¬ vincing proof of a plan, than the author’s intima¬ tion before-hand of what he means to accomplish, and of the time and manner in which he intends to produce it. When we see such an annuncia¬ tion verified by the result, we have the most satis¬ fying and incontestable evidence, that what he does is done from fixed and deliberate determina¬ tion, and is not the work of chance or accident. Such is the testimony which Prophecy bears to the Divine decrees. The Scriptures abound with predictions. From the opening to the close of the sacred canon, we find one unbroken series of prophecies, relating to the appearing and king¬ dom of the Messiah, to the state and progress of the Gospel in the world, and to the fate of those people and nations who have most actively and zealously either supported or opposed the interests of genuine religion. Many of these predictions have already been most remarkably accomplished; and many of them, connected with future times, remain yet to be fulfilled. But, without admitting the existence of the Di¬ vine decrees, how could these events have been foretold ? Without being foreknown, they might have been the objects of desire or of hope; but H3 90 they could not possibly have been the subjects of prophecy. And unless their existence was fixed, they could not have been foreknown. For where is there a power of infallibly foreseeing, and of faithfully foretelling, an event, for which there is no cause, ground, nor reason for its coming to pass ? And unless the universe is formed and administered upon a plan, how can the existence of events be previously fixed, and their arrival rendered necessary ? To get rid of the conclusion naturally drawn from these facts, various schemes have been pro¬ posed. We have been told that foreknowledge has no influence* upon the existence of events; and that, without determining their existence, God, who, by his boundless omniscience, which, without af¬ fecting the course of affairs, perceives the most fortuitous incidents, can easily foresee, and con¬ sequently as easily foretel them. A man standing upon the top of a steeple, may be a prophet to them below; and, though he has no influence up¬ on the movements of an army, can foretel its ad¬ vance, many hours before the latter can discover its approach. But though prescience has no more influence than vision upon the existence of events, it must be remembered, that unless there were some cause which rendered their occurrence necessary, they could not become the objects of foreknowledge, either to God, or to man. A man on the top of 91 a steeplej may be a prophet to his neighbours at its base; and if, within his horizon, there is an army on its march, he may foretel its approach, while leagues beyond the view of the latter. But, if there is no army on its march, if there is no army in existence, though he were elevated to the skies, and endowed with all the penetration of omniscience, how could he with truth foretel its advance ? And God, too, who knows all things, can easily foretel whatever comes to pass. But, omniscient as he is, how can he announce before¬ hand, those events, if such things are conceiv¬ able, which never shall take place ? Unless, for example, the Jews were to be restored to their own land, and the whole earth to be filled with the glory of the Lord, how could these events have been absolutely foreseen, and positively fore¬ told ? If these events were never to take place, however practicable or important they might be, it is utterly impossible that they ever could have been foreseen or foretold. We have also been told that the certainty of fu¬ ture events does not depend upon their being pre¬ determined, but upon the interposition of the Almighty, who overrules the affairs of men to ful¬ fil his own designs. There are some objects which he is resolved to attain: from a delicacy, however, to infringe upon the free agency of his creatures, he makes no previous arrangement for their ac¬ complishment, but only interferes from time to 92 time, as the nature of the case may require, to produce them. Without contributing any more than its prede¬ cessor to lessen the difficulty, this hypothesis has the misfortune of being at once at open war with the repeated and express declarations of Scripture, and fatal to the very cause which it is intended to serve. It is fatal to the cause which it is intended to serve. For it is founded upon the admission of the very fact which it was designed to exclude, the existence of purposes in the Divine Mind. And if we once grant that God has designs at all, it is very immaterial at what period we suppose that these purposes were formed. For if there be any inconsistency, which in reality there is not, be¬ twixt his purposes and the free agency of man, this incompatibility is just as great in the case of an extemporary interference, as of a preconcerted plan or an eternal decree. If I lose my liberty at all, I lose it just as completely by the man with whom I am in friendly and unsuspecting con¬ versation rising up, from the impulse of the mo¬ ment, and binding me, as if he had premeditated the attack for years, and travelled over half the globe to carry it into effect. And if the purposes of God infringe upon the free agency of man in any degree whatever, this infringement must be the same at whatever era they are formed. A second, a century, or ten thousand ages, make not the slightest difference. If the creature sus- 93 tains any encroachment on his freedom at all, this encroachment must be just as great, even allow¬ ing that it were the result of an unpremeditated intervention, as if it had been the effect of an everlasting determination. It is impossible to overlook a strange inconsis¬ tency in the conduct of our opponents. The greater part of them are just as hostile to the doc¬ trines of a particular providence and of special grace, as to the Divine decrees. But the very men, who in one part of their writings declaim so loudly against a particular providence and special grace, and argue so sturdily for the sovereignty of the human will, and maintain that in conversion its choice is all in all; have no hesitation to abandon this reasoning, and to betake themselves to the immediate agency of God, whenever they imagine that his direct interference will militate against the existence of his decrees. To get entirely rid of this difficulty, no resource remains but to deny the existence of purposes in the Divine Mind. Deny these, and then we may bid farewell to the doctrine of final causes, and to the elevating study of those brilliant and impressive signatures, which the Deity has every where im¬ pressed upon his works, of his wisdom, power and love. Deny these, and you place the universe beyond the care and control of its Creator, and introduce the reign of unbounded anarchy and misrule. But if our opponents can believe that God has any ultimate designs at all, and that his 94 overruling of events to their accomplishment, shall at last be perfectly just, is it possible that the equity or goodness of his proceedings can be di¬ minished or destroyed by their being predetermin¬ ed? If his extemporary interpositions to accom¬ plish his plans be completely consistent with the dictates of justice; how can the previous appoint¬ ment of these events, even supposing that this ap¬ pointment were from everlasting, in the smallest degree detract from their equity ? Is it proper to do what is right, but wrong to entertain ^ resolu¬ tion to do it? Was it commendable in David, when he received the congregation, to judge up¬ rightly ? but wrong for him to purpose, before his elevation to the throne, to administer the laws with impartiality and firmness ? When at the close of all things, the whole ways of God will be acknowledged to be true and righteous; grant¬ ing that the last moment of time, were the very first in which the existence of the Divine decrees were to be communicated to the adoring throng around him; when the angels were uttering their joy, and heaven ringing with jubilee, is it credi¬ ble that it would abate the free flow of their un¬ mingled gladness, or damp the ecstacy of one in all the ransomed hosts, to find that the vast and the extended detail of this mighty scheme, which had just then been conducted to such a glorious consummation, had been planned and projected from eternity? But whilst the theory in question secures no 95 advantage to the cause which it was intended to serve; it must also be remarked, that it is repug¬ nant to the repeated and the most explicit declar¬ ations of Scripture. Nothing is more common than for the Bible to speak of the events which are there predicted, as ordained by God, and as taking place, not in consequence of the power or will of second causes, but in consequence of his own immediate agency and express appointment. To evade the force of this fact, it has been boldly asserted, that “ so far is it from being the rule of interpreting Scripture to infer design, whenever an event is related or foretold, that it has even long been recognised as an establish¬ ed principle among biblical critics to invert this rule, where the context or subject-matter seemed to require it; that is, to interpret many passages in which a form of speech, usually ex¬ pressive of design, is employed, as if the purpose merely was to set forth the actual event. For ex¬ ample, ‘ I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword.’ Does the Calvinist himself under¬ stand these words as equally expressive of our Lord’s design, with that benevolent declaration, ‘ The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them ?’ Or again, in those nu¬ merous passages which point out the fulfilment of prophecy under the customary form, ‘ That it might be^ fulfilled which was spoken by the pro¬ phet,* does he object to the obvious and ordinary interpretation, ‘ Then was fulfilled ?’ The things 96 did not happen because they were foretold, but they were for the wisest purposes foretold, because it was foreseen that they would happen. From the existence of the prophecy, we may be certain that the thing will happen; but in reality, the thing remains as it was before, no efficient causes being set in action but those which would have acted, had no such prophecy been delivered.” Very few Calvinists will invert the ordinary rules of interpreting the Scriptures, simply be¬ cause the context or subject-matter seem to re¬ quire it. There must be a strong and imperious reason before they will treat a form of speech us¬ ually expressive of design, as if the purpose mere¬ ly was to set forth the actual event. And so far from not objecting to the interpretation, “ Then was fulfilled,” in those numerous passages which point out the fulfilment of prophecy under the the customary form, “ That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,” they believe that the number of cases is very small indeed where such an inverted mode of interpretation is requisite. But even admitting all the premises of our opponents, what does their arguing reprove ? Granting, which none will deny, that the event did not take place intentionally to verify the pre¬ diction; granting also that neither the prophet nor his prophecy, by their own agency, brought the event to pass; and granting, moreover, that many of the agents, in accomplishing the pro- 97 phecy, have been ignorant of its existence, and that some, like Julian the Apostate in his abortive attempt to rebuild Jerusalem, have studiously and maliciously laboured to defeat it; still, unless there is a correspondence betwixt the event and the prediction, how can the one be the accomplish¬ ment of the other? For example, after Isaiah had declared, Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman¬ uel after Hosea had said, “ I called my Son out of Egypt;” after Isaiah had said, “ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor¬ rows;” after he had been commanded to go and tell his people, “ Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and sec ye indeed, but perceive not; make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and under¬ stand with their heart, and convert, and be heal¬ ed ;” after the Psalmist had intimated the treacii- , ery of Judas, by saying, “ Mine own familiar friend, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up the heel against me;” and by adding, “Let his days be few, and let another take his office;” after he had foretold the combination of the rulers and people of the Jews against the Lord Jesus Christ; how could these prophecies have been fulfilled, if Jesus had not been born of a virgin ? if Joseph, instead of carrying him into Egypt, had carried him into Italy or Chaldea? if Jesus, instead of I 98 healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people, had either inflicted fresh disorders, or treated their maladies with contempt ? if Judas had proved just as faithful and affectionate as John? and if the Jews, wdth their rulers, in a bo¬ dy, had seen with their eyes, had heard with their ears, had understood with their heart, had been converted to the faith and the obedience of the Gospel; and had become the devoted servants and follow'ers of the Son of man? Instead of fulfill¬ ing, these events would actually have falsified the predictions of Scripture. The language of pro¬ phecy is not possessed of a distant and precarious application, like the vague and ambiguous re¬ sponses of the Delphic oracle. It is the faithful expression of the deliberate and unalterable pur¬ poses of the Most High: and whatever may be the motives which influence the agent, in what other way can these declarations be verified, but by the exact agreement of the event wdth the pre¬ diction ? There is scarcely any action for which different ends may not be assigned; one supreme and ulti¬ mate, and others inferior and subordinate. And in the accomplishment of prophecy, God also has various objects in view. In some cases, as in au¬ thenticating the mission of the prophet, the event was brought to pass, in order to prove the truth of the prediction. In other cases, to demonstrate the omniscience of Jehovah. But the grand and 99 ultimate reason of all undoubtedly is, the fulfil¬ ment of his own infinitely wise and righteous de¬ signs. For, unless the event was foreknown, how could it be foretold ? And, unless there was a cause for its occurrence, or a certainty that it would actually happen, how could it be fore¬ known ? And, after we have exhausted our strength in the labyrinths of metaphysics, what must we at last confess to be the original cause of future events, but the will of God, or their sub¬ serviency to accomplish his absolutely perfect and holy plans and purposes ? Accordingly, on looking into the sacred vol¬ ume, instead of finding that the subjects of pro¬ phecy are the consequences of second causes, events in which God has little or no influence, and which are foretold, not because they are de¬ termined, but merely because they are foreseen; it is impossible to conceive more strong and va¬ ried forms of speech, to denote purpose and effi¬ ciency, than what are actually employed, to ex- j press the determination and agency of God in i their accomplishment. The prophets introduce their predictions, by ! calling them, not only the word, the burden, and the vision, of the Lord ; but his “ counsel,” his i “purpose,” his “determination,” and his “de- t' cree.” And they represent the accomplishment t; of prophecy, not as the result of the course of I nature; but as his own work and deed, as his ful- I 2 100 filling and performing his word, and doing what he himself bad devised.* Jehovah himself speaks of the subjects of pro¬ phecy, as events which he himself has decreed; and uniformly asserts his own agency in their ful¬ filment. Language more calculated than the fol¬ lowing to convey the notion of firm and inflexible resolution, can no where be found; and yet it is the language which he employs, to announce the events which he foretels. “ The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying. Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass j and as I have purposed, so shall it stand; that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him un¬ der foot:—this is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall dis¬ annul it ? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back ?” My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” f And when, in speaking of the accomplishment of prophecy, his usual style is to say that he himself will do what he has uttered; declaring, for example, “ 1 will perform against • Jer. xl. 3. li. 12. Lament, ii. 17. Isa. xliv. 26. Dan. ix. 12. f Isa. xiv. 24—27. xlvi. 10, 11. 101 Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house; when I begin, I will also make an end; for I have told him that I will judge his house for ever;” “ I will send him (Sennacherib) against a hypocritical nation; and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge “ I will go be¬ fore thee (Cyrus) and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron “ Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you 1 will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers*—If in these, and in ten thousand other instances, where he expressly speaks of what he himself will do, he does not assert his own effici¬ ency in fulfdling the prophecies which he has de¬ livered, there are no terms within the compass of human speech capable of expressing the idea of agency. His saints implore his agency to accomplish the prophecies which he has delivered. When Daniel understood by books that the seventy years mentioned by Jeremiah, during which Jerusalem was to be desolate, were on the point of expiring; instead of expecting, that in the natural course of things, his people w'ould be released from their captivity, without either his solicitude or the in- 1 Sam. iii, 12 , 13 . Isa. x. 6. Jer. xviii. 11. xxx. 3. I 3 102 terference of the Most High; he set himself by prayer and supplications, with fasting, to entreat the Lord to restore them. Though in the word of truth God tells us, that the enemies of his Son and people, shall be broken with a rod of iron, and dashed in pieces as a potter’s vessel; and that they who have shed the blood of saints and pro¬ phets, shall have blood to drink; instead of silently waiting till in the course of years, or in the revo¬ lutions of society, their wrongs shall be visited upon the heads of their persecutors; from under the altar of heaven, from the souls of them who have been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, we hear the ear¬ nest cry, “ How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?” In the writings of his holy prophets, we are assured that Jesus shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth, and that the whole world shall be filled with his glory. Instead however of supinely relying on the inherent effica¬ cy and vigour of reason and religion to work their way through all the cupidity, cruelty, and indolence of men to the sovereignty of the globe; it is the duty and the delight of all who know the worth of prayer, daily to address the throne of grace in the solemn intercession, “ Thy kingdom come; do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion’; build thou the walls of Jerusalem.” He has set watchmen upon her walls, who shall never hold 103 their peace day nor night. He has even command¬ ed them that make mention of the Lord, not to keep silence; and to give him no rest, till he esta¬ blish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And when these predictions are fulfilled, his saints acknowledge his hand and work, and give him the undivided praise of having performed the words of his prophets. The father of the Baptist thus expresses his gratitude. “ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and re¬ deemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began.” Speaking of the resurrection of Christ, Peter thus addresses the Jews: “ Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not pos¬ sible that he should be holden of itwhy ? “ for David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face; moreover also, my flesh shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” In similar strains the saints celebrate the agency of God in the pre¬ dicted fall of Babylon, the deliverance of the Jews from their captivity in Chaldea, the overthrow of Antichrist, and the establishment of the Gospel through the world.* The uniform tendency of • Jer. 1. li. Isa. xiv. 3,— 23 . xliv. 23. Rev. xix. 1—9. 104 their language is to demonstrate their belief, that it is “he who confirnieth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers.” And in the language which they employ, they must cither be right or wrong. To suppose that they are wrong, would be to charge the Spirit of inspi¬ ration with having misled them, by inducing them to imagine that events arose from a cause which had no influence upon their production: a blasphemy which must be repelled with abhor¬ rence. But if they are right; then prophecy is something more than the mere exercise of Omni¬ science foretelling what was simply foreseen, with¬ out any determination or purpose to bring the event to pass. It is impossible to desire or conceive more com¬ plete and irresistible proof, that the events foretold are the effects of Divine appointment, and brought about by the immediate power of God, than to hear the prophets calling their predictions the counsels and purposes of the Lord, than to find himself representing them as the consequence of his own determination and decree, than to see his people applying to him in prayer, for the fulfilment of what the prophets foretold, and in devout and grateful strains, acknowledging and adoring his hand and agency in the accomplishment of the prophecies which had been delivered. Yet all this evidence we find concurring to ascribe the events of prophecy to the council and work of God. If there be therefore either meaning in language, or the least reliance to be placed on the 105 principles of logical demonstration, no maxim can be more directly contrary to the truth than the far-famed assertion of our opponents, that “ what the prophets had predicted did not happen because they were foretold, but they were, for the wisest purpose, foretold, because it was foreseen that they would happen.” Enough has been already said to shew that the very reverse of this was the case; that events were foretold because they were ordained, and God had irreversibly determined to bring them to pass. Strong however and irresistible as this conclu¬ sion must already seem, this is far from being all. In order to do justice to the truth for which we contend, and sweep away every trace and vestige of a foundation from the baseless fabric to which it is opposed, the Promises have been classed in this article along with the Prophecies. The promises and threatenings of God differ very little from the prophecies of good and evil, except that in their performance, whatever instru¬ ments he may use, he still more clearly and in¬ contestably claims the exclusive honour of fulfil¬ ling them. In the early intimation of the Mes¬ siah ; in the assurance that the earth shall no more be subjected to a general deluge; that till time be no more, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease; that Abraham should have a son in his old age; that his posterity should be planted in Canaan ; that Jesus shall have the heathen for his inheritance, and the ul- 106 termost parts of the earth for his possession; in the promises of converting, sanctifying, strength¬ ening grace; of spiritual liberty, teaching, and peacej of the Divine presence and protection; of times of reviving and refreshing from the Lord; and of the Holy Ghost, as the teacher, guide, and comforter, of his people:—In these, and in innu¬ merable instances of a similar nature, the objection which is vainly urged against prophecy, that it is merely a declaration before-hand, arising from the infinite knowledge of God, of what would happen at any rate, cannot possess the shadow of an ap¬ plication. After we find Jehovah speaking of these bles¬ sings, as his own work and gift, as the fruits of his own unsearchable ineffable love and grace, as what he has planned by his wisdom, devised for his own glory, and accomplishes by his own Al¬ mighty power; is it consistent with fact or decen¬ cy, to say or insinuate, that he has no hand in their communication? When we hear him pledg¬ ing his veracity and faithfulness, his immutability and omnipotence, for their fulfilment; swearing by his life to perform them; declaring that the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, that the ordinances of day and night shall cease, and the heavens and the earth pass away, sooner than the covenant of his peace shall be removed, or any of his w’ords shall pass away; in downright defiance to all the overwhelming attestations which o he has given of his eternal truth and incorruptible sincerity, are we to suppose that all this solemn and expressive language is employed to create a trust and reliance in himself, to which he in real¬ ity is destitute of every title ? Are we to believe that the ever-blessed God, reckless of his own character, is capable of sporting with the cause¬ less hopes and fears of his creatures ? Like some light-minded travellers amongst barbarous tribes, who, forgetful of the sacred and unchanging obli¬ gations of truth, to gratify their own vanity, or amuse themselves with the dread and veneration which the imposition inspired amongst the savages, have availed themselves of their little skill in astronomy, to affect to produce the tides, the eclipses, and the other natural phenomena, which they merely foresaw; are we to imagine that the true and eternal God takes occasion from his su¬ perior, his infinite knowledge, to assume a credit for a kindness and generosity which he does not possess; and founds on our ignorance a claim for that esteem and gratitude, which, if we were only better informed, we would instantly withdraw; by his pretending to be the author of those mercies, which he merely sees are already on the way, and which he knows will inevitably reach us without his aid or interference ? The promised benefits are not the result of the ordinary course of nature, which he might have discovered by his omniscience, but events depend¬ ing upon his own will; gifts which none but him¬ self could bestow; and which he is pleased to ira- 108 part, entirely for the manifestation of the riches of his glorious grace. And we may safely chal¬ lenge the advocates of the system which we op¬ pose, to adduce, from the whole of the sacred volume, a single instance in which the certainty of a promise is ascribed to the correctness of his calculations, or the infallibility of his knowledge. The only cause which the Bible seems to recog¬ nize, as the ground of their certain and unfailing accomplishment, instead of being the clearness of his perceptions, and the extent of his understand¬ ing, is the immutability of his nature, the faith¬ fulness of his character, and the amount of his power. The only security which it holds out to our faith in the fulfilment of the promises, is his fidelity to his word, because he is able to perform what he hath promised, because he has sworn in his holiness, and, while nothing is too hard for him, it is impossible for him to lie.* If, therefore, we conclude that the artist has his plan and his purpose, who, before he com¬ mences his operations, describes the nature, the form, and the use of the instrument, which in process of time we actually see him produce; when in the Bible we find an unbroken series of ‘ ^ ^ rfwr\rrv \rr ^rsv T rrj i * Rom. iv. 21. Heb. x, 23. xi. 11. Psalm Ixxxix. 2,3, 35. Jer, xxxii. 27. Heb. vi. 17, 18. Gen. xviii. 14. Zech. viii. 6. Luke i. 37. 109 prophecies and promises, delivered by the express authority of God, relating to the state and his¬ tory of his people, from the beginning to the end of time; and observe that the dispensations of his providence are in exact harmony with these interesting declarations, and, day after day, are illustrating and confirming their truth; what other inference can we draw from the fact, but that He also has his plans and purposes; that He is work¬ ing all according to the counsel of his own will; and that every incident and occurrence is subser¬ vient to the accomplishment of the comprehensive and unchangeable designs of his unsearchable wis¬ dom, and boundless beneficence ? SECT. V. Salvation by Grace. If in the whole compass of the sacred volume there is one truth more plainly stated, and more frequently repeated, than another, it is, that, in every sense of the terms, our salvation is wholly of Grace. Though all shall be judged according to their works, and God has most solemnly en¬ joined us to do good, no man can be justified by his own performances. In salvation, if we do not make Christ all in all, we actually make him no¬ thing. The attempt to mix up our duties with his righteousness, as the ground of our acceptance K 110 with God, so far from forwarding our object, in reality defeats it. “ Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. As many as are of the works of the law, are under a curse.” It was grace that devised the glorious plan of re¬ demption. It was not the wisdom, the worth, nor the importunities of man, that brought the Lord Jesus Christ down to earth; but “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per¬ ish, but have everlasting life.” And it is grace that brings this salvation home, and applies it ef¬ fectually to any heart, “ For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” If we had retained any portion of our original integrity, and spiritual discernment; then, without any illumination or influence from on high, we might of ourselves have been disposed to approve the things that are more excellent, and by our own independent exertions, we might have re¬ turned and found our way back to God. If our nature had even been in a state of neutrality be¬ twixt virtue and vice; then nothing more than the grand and affecting motives presented by the Gos¬ pel, would have been necessary to have dispelled all the hesitation and suspense of the soul, and led it to make a prompt and vigorous choice of what is sacred and divine. But if, as the Bible tells us, and experience proves, we are dead in trespasses Ill and sins; if in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing ; if the understanding is darkened, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our heart; if the natural man receiv- eth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; if the carnal, or natural mind, is not only alienated from God, but enmity against him; if the heart is not only deceitful above all things, but desperately wicked; how could outward means, of themselves, succeed in re¬ novating our natures, and in forming us to habits of faith and holiness ? If left to ourselves, when would we cease to do evil, and learn to do well ? Habits grow by indulgence. Though, therefore, it is the indispensable duty, and the infinite inte¬ rest of all, to repent, and believe the Gospel; if the Spirit of God were to do no more than set life and death before us, and leave us to make our own choice; instead of embracing the provisions of sovereign mercy, the longer that we live, we would just cling the more tenaciously to our care¬ less and sinful practices, and become more invet¬ erate in our antipathy to this holy salvation. Can the Ethiopian change his skin ? or the leopard his spots? Will they that are accustomed and in¬ clined to do evil, abandon their chosen and fa¬ vourite pursuits, for what they dislike and dread ? Let the highest admirer of the rectitude of hu¬ man nature, and who is most sanguine in his ideas of the efficacy of moral motives, make, at any time that he pleases, an experiment upon their force. K 2 112 In this wild and ungodly world, he never can be at a loss for a field abundantly large for the most strenuous and persevering exertions of his benev¬ olence. Multitudes are every where living without God, and in the most sottish and fatal insensibil¬ ity to the powers of the world to come. Let him try to reclaim them to reason and seriousness. Let him argue and remonstrate; let him counsel and entreat; let him enlist in the task, talent and authority, meekness and patience, kindness and generosity; and, after the most painful and long- continued efforts, what will be the result ? If the Lord does not reveal his arm ; if he withholds his sweet, persuasive, soul-subduing influences; our philanthropist will find, what thousands of the most active and devoted servants of the Lord have found before him, that he has laboured in vain, and spent his strength for nought. In spite of his most tender and overpowering expostulations, and in defiance of their own convictions of the empti¬ ness and utter worthlessness of a worldly and ir¬ religious life, they will hold fast their trespasses and sins, and plod industriously on in the crowd¬ ed course that leads to all the horrors of a dark and a ruined eternity. When, therefore, the mind of man by nature is so strongly alienated from God and all that is good, how comes it to pass that any are saved at all ? Why does not the whole human race in a mass reject the blessings of the Gospel, and per¬ ish together? For every effect, there must be a 113 cause. Since, therefore, all are originally alike, and the saints themselves were no better than oth¬ ers ; what is the reason why, while some are left to blindness of mind, and hardness of heart, oth¬ ers believe to the saving of the soul ? This astonishing contrast in the present character, and everlasting condition of men, cannot arise from any inherent difference in themselves. Had each been treated according to his deserts, since their sinfulness was the same, their future state must have been similar. The wide diversity, there¬ fore, which takes place, demonstrates that it is of the Lord, who adds to the church such as shall be saved, and, while he allows others to reap the fruit of their own ways, makes his people willing in the day of his power. But, unless there is an Election of grace, when all originally are equally dead in trespasses and sins, and alike in need of salvation, why are some taken, and others left? Unless there is an Election of grace, why are the blessings of salvation confined to only a part of the children of men, and not bestowed indiscri¬ minately upon all.^ Why do we find the Gospel, in all its purity and power, sent to one quarter of the globe; and regions more extensive and popu¬ lous abandoned to all the darkness of ignorance and all the abominations of idolatry? In the same country, blessed with the same advantages, and enjoying the same degree of pastoral and even of parental faithfulness and care; why does one believe, and another abide in unbelief ? When K 3 114 subjected to the agonies of the same crucifixion, and alike near to the same Almighty and compas¬ sionate Redeemer; why did one sufferer raise the voice of penitence and prayer, and the other expire with the language of insult and blasphemy on his tongue ? If the Gospel possessed any natural and inhe¬ rent force of its own, we might expect it to act with unvarying uniformity, and to accomplish similar results in similar circumstances. Physical causes operate with regularity and precision. And if the energy and progress of the Gospel were not superintended and regulated by the secret and in¬ visible agency of its blessed Author; then, wher¬ ever it is published with the same purity and earnestness, as the same cause always pi’oduces the same effect, Ave might reasonably expect that, if it had any success at all, its success would be inva¬ riably the same. When therefore we find, that even where the external means are not only similar, but the same, the consequences are utterly unlike; to what can we attribute these affecting differences, but to the same cause to which the scriptures have long ago referred them, the good pleasure of Him, who hath mercy on whom he Avill have mercy, and who calls by his grace as many as he has ordained to eternal life.^ When he is pleased to send down the Holy Ghost, the word is accompanied with power. Every obstacle is removed, and every difficulty vanishes. A people are then creat¬ ed at once, and a nation born in a day. But with- 115 out his blessed and soul-subduing agency, Paul may plant and Apollos water in vain. The Gos¬ pel may be preached with frequency, with clear¬ ness, and with fervour; but notwithstauding its incontestable truth and infinite importance; such is the brutish apathy and dreadful depravity of the natural mind, that unless he take of the things of Christ and show them to the soul, it will be preached to no purpose, and become only a savour of death unto death. The hearers may be roused, astonished, and alarmed: they may assent to what they hear, and even applaud the preacher for his fidelity and zeal: they may resolve and re- resolve to repent and reform: but notwithstanding all their apparent compliances and sturdy resolu¬ tions, theirgoodness will prove as the morning cloud and as the early dew, and they will die the same. But whilst thus we see the necessity of his in¬ fluence to give effect to the Gospel, it is at the same time clear, that this influence is not exerted with the same energy upon all. For though the Gospel is alike suited to all, and equally needed by the whole; who will affirm that all derive equal benefit from its provisions, and experience the same measure of the Spirit’s gracious operations ? In the days of their pilgrimage, did the saints now in glory enjoy no more of his sacred agency, than the spirits now in prison ? Were Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken, and the peo¬ ple, who were prepared of the Lord, no more 116 deeply indebted to his aid, than the men whom he gave up to their own hearts’ lust, and abandoned to blindness of mind, and insensibility of soul ? If the one were really blessed with no more of his aid than the other; then, what greater obli¬ gations do the spirits of the just made perfect owe to his grace, than those who have gone down to everlasting darkness ? When the latter are silent on the subject, why are the former so loud and ardent in its praise ? If each was favoured with the same amount of his assistance, how came the results to be so widely different? While it raised the one to the heights of heaven, why did it leave the other to sink into the depths of hell ? Can the same cause produce opposite effects ? Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter ? Since, therefore, as the event proves, they did not receive the same measure of his grace; to what cause are we to assign the different proportions in which it was communicated, but to the good pleasure of Him who distributeth to every man severally as he will, and giveth not account of any of his matters ? These striking facts insen¬ sibly, but necessarily, lead us to the pious and sublime conclusion of the Apostle: “ So, then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that run¬ neth, but of God that showeth mercy.” From the moment, however, that w'e grant this truth. Election, with all its consequences, is inevitably admitted; for all for which its advocates plead, is 117 God’s right to have mercy on whom he will have mercy. And, indeed, this is a fact which it seems impossible to reject, without instantly adopting the doctrine of universal salvation ; the indiscriminate salvation of the whole human race, whether right¬ eous or wicked, penitent or impenitent, friends or foes to God and their own souls. To evade the force of the preceding reasoning, various expedients have been tried. Some endeavour to persuade us that the written word is the only Holy Ghost which we are now warranted to expect; and, therefore, that there can be no such thing as Divine influence, or spe¬ cial grace, in the conversion of the soul. If this opinion were correct, then, not to speak of the absurdity of ascribing personal attributes, as the Scriptures do to the Holy Spirit, to the words and letters of a book; such as a power of discerning the heart, of assisting in supplication, of hearing prayer ; and of the idolatry of making this volume an object of prayer, of thanksgiving, and other religious worship, which we are taught in the Scriptures to address to the Holy Ghost; since many hypocrites and impostors are just as mighty in the Scriptures as the most humble, up¬ right, and holy; if the Bible is our Holy Spirit, we must ask. Why, while it elevates some to the world of bliss, does it allow so many of its pos¬ sessors to descend to everlasting misery ? It has been said that conversion is the conse- 118 quence of men acting rationally, and making a right use of their religious advantages. It is true that men can never act too rationally, nor make a too wise and diligent use of their spi¬ ritual mercies. For though God is sometimes found of them that seek him not, it is just as cer¬ tain, that to him that hath, or improves what he possesses, shall be given ; and from him that hath not, or neglects to improve what he enjoys, shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have. But then, when all men are alike bound by duty and by interest to improve their mercies, if this judicious and careful use of means be the effect of their own natural and unassisted choice, how comes it to pass, when others so wretchedly per¬ vert their mercies, that they make such a wise and noble use of their privileges ? If this notion is correct, why does God speak of faith as his own gift ? Why does he promise to bring tlie blind by a way which they have not known ? Why are we told that no man can come unto Christ, except it be given him of the Fa¬ ther?* If conversion depend upon our own un¬ assisted powers, why do we trifle with God, by imploring from him in prayer what we personally possess ? or, when the change is accomplished, in¬ sult him with the mockery of a gratitude which is • Ezek. xxxvi. 26. John vi. 45. Phil. i. 29. Isa. xlii. 16. John vi. 44, 65. 119 unfounded, and therefore never can be felt?* Why are some made the subjects of this saving transformation, before they are capable of the exercise of reason, or of the improvement of their external benefits; being, like Jeremiah and the Baptist, sanctified from the birth? If the sancti¬ fication of these individuals is not communicated, but natural; then, how comes it to pass, that all the members of the same race do not possess the same excellent and holy nature, and, at the same early period, give evidence of the same devout and amiable dispositions ? But, if it is not natu¬ ral, but communicated; then, since it is not im¬ parted to all, why is it bestowed on a favoured few, except by Divine special distinguishing kind¬ ness ? On this hypothesis, how are we to account for the conversion of some of the most profligate and abandoned of men, and the perdition of some of the most hopeful and promising? Why are the first sometimes last, and the last first? Why do publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God, before the decent scribes, and the grave and sober Pharisees ? Why have some of the most upright and honourable proved persecutors of the faith; and some of its persecutors become its most zealous preachers, and dauntless defenders?] Wha • Psalm li. 10. Jer. xxxi. 18. Rom. x. 1. Eph. i. 15, ess. i. 2—6. 120 is there in the one more than in the other, to at¬ tract the renovating influences of the Eternal Spirit ? Without having recourse to the sover¬ eignty, or discriminating purpose of God, what reason can we assign, why, while some of the more harmless of our race are left to slumber on in the arms of carnal security and sloth till ever¬ lasting death overtake them, some of the most vile and worthless are made the subjects of renewing grace, and the trophies of saving mercy ? It has been said that Election, and consequent¬ ly conversion, is founded upon foreseen good works. If this is the case, these works must either pre¬ cede, or follow, conversion. If it be asserted that they precede conversion; then we must ask what good works were possessed by Zaccheus, by the converts at Corinth, by Paul, and by millions more; who, till the day that they were effectually called by grace, were not only living without God and without hope in the world, but filled with iniquity, and working all unrighteousness with greediness ? If it be averred that these good works follow conversion, and are the fruits which it naturally produces; then we must put another question. If the same grace which has wrought so mightily in them that are converted, had wrought as mightily in others, was there any thing to prevent it from producing the same ef¬ fects ? If Archbishop Sharp, Claverhouse, or Nero, had been filled with the Holy Ghost from 121 their birth, could any thing have precluded them from shining as lights in the world? from boldly maintaining the Christian faith? and proving bles¬ sings and benefactors to their race ? And when almighty grace could produce the same effects in all, that it does in one; when so many are left without it, what reason can we assign for its being effectually exerted in behalf of those who enjoy it, but the good pleasure of God ? If conversion proceeds from the anticipation of the good works of the converts; why were the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon sent down to the grave, before they enjoyed those mighty works which would have brought them to repentance, but which were lavished in vain upon the more refractory men of Chorazin and Bethsaida ? * And why, we may also ask, in the salvation of men, is God said to manifest not only his free and sovereign compassion, but also the riches of his grace ? Why does Paul, in his own case, exult in the superabundant mercy of God, and proclaim to others its matchless and ineffable ful¬ ness and freeness ? f And why, in closing his review of the Divine dispensations to the church in general, does he break forth in these strains of the most devout and lofty adoration ? “ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his • Matth. xi. 21—24<. f Ephes. iii. 8. i. 7. 1 Tim. i. 15, 16. L 122 judgments, and his ways past finding out!”* But if the salvation of men were owing either to their own virtuous conduct, or prudent choice; what occasion could it give for the display of any grace at all, and far less of the unsearchable rich¬ es of grace ? There is nothing marvellous in a just and holy God justifying the righteous, and saving those who really deserve salvation. The wonder of wonders would be, if, in a single in¬ stance, he were to condemn the just, and to de¬ prive the righteous of the salvation which they had merited. The patrons, therefore, of the op¬ posite system, as St. Austin long ago observed, “ must be far more clear-sighted than the Apos¬ tle, who can see nothing admirable, where he stood lost in adoring wonder.” And with this clear and ample evidence, that conversion is the work of God, can we require any additional proof to demonstrate that it is the result of his own purpose and grace, and a bles¬ sing bestowed on whom he will ? . SECT. VI. The Testimonies of Scripture. If, in perusing a treatise on a disputed point, we found that the author wrote and reasoned exactly • Rom. xi. 33. 123 like one of the parties; and employed language and arguments either expressly condemnatory, or obviously inconsistent with the views of the other, no mind, unfettered by prejudice, could, for a moment, hesitate respecting the class in which he ought to be ranked. It is to the Scriptures that, in the present question, we must make our ulti¬ mate appeal; and, whether we are disposed to re¬ ceive or reject them, it is by its decisions that we must be bound at last. Now, it is a singular and important fact, that the doctrine of Election is taught in Scripture, as we teach it; that the sa¬ cred writers use the very same language, argu¬ ments, and illustrations, in its support, that Cal¬ vinists employ; and defend it against the very same objections and cavils by which it is assailed to the present hour. The Bible speaks familiarly of the subject, as one that was well known, and whose existence was recognised by all who believed in the author¬ ity of revelation. It tells us that God worketh all in all; that he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; that in his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind; that he counts the hairs of our head, determines our days, and that the number of our months is with him; that he has fixed the bounds of our habitation, and ap¬ pointed us limits which we cannot pass. And though the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment; when the soul is infinitely more L 2 124 than both; when it is our all; is it credible, is it possible, that he will take such a minute and live¬ ly interest in our temporal circumstances, and yet be regardless of the spiritual condition and eter¬ nal welfare of the objects of his saving mercy? When there is such a close connection betwixt life and salvation; when they who are cut down in the midst of their transgressions are for ever deprived of the means of eternal blessedness; and they who are spared till they are brought to re¬ pentance are placed completely beyond the reach of everlasting death; shall we acknowledge that he has prescribed them a time on earth which they cannot pass, but deny that he has made any arrangements for the never-ending happiness of them whom he resolved to preserve in life till they should embrace the Gospel ? We early and often read of ‘‘a book which God had written, and of being written amongst the living in Jerusalem.” * Granting, as some have contended, that these expressions merely denote an enrolment amongst those who should enter Canaan, or be allowed the enjoyment of natural life; still the use of such language implies a discrimination in God’s distri¬ bution of his gifts: for if only some were written in these books, the names of others must neces¬ sarily have been excluded. And if this sovereign- • Exod. xxxii. 32, 33. Psalm Ivi. 8. cxxxix. 16. Isa. iv. 3. 125 ty is admitted in the collation of temporal bene¬ fits, it is at least but natural to expect it in the communication of spiritual blessings. Such a limitation, however, of the terms, as has been proposed, seems utterly inadmissible. For if this were their meaning, then, since Moses, who, on the present occasion, retained his fidelity to the King of heaven, was at last prohibited from entering Canaan, he himself must have been just as really blotted out of this book, as the most daring and outrageous rebel in all the congrega¬ tion. And from the words, “ Let them be blot¬ ted out of the book of the living, and not be writ¬ ten with the righteous;” * we find, that to be written in the book of the living, and to be writ¬ ten with the righteous, are one and the same thing. But to p^ossess a place with the living, or an inheritance in Canaan, is certainly a very dif¬ ferent thing from enjoying a portion with the righteous. To be written in the “ book of the living,” and in the “ book of God,” seems to be of the same import with being recorded in “ the book of re¬ membrance, which was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought up¬ on his name.”f And these phrases, which so frequently occur in the Old, appear to correspond with the book of life, so often mentioned in the * Psalm Ixix. 28. L 3 f Mai. iii. 16. 126 New Testament. * And no man in his sober senses will affirm, that to be “ written in hea¬ ven,”! and written in “the book of life,” signify to be registered amongst the inhabitants of Ca¬ naan, or included in the number of the living. In such a case, this writing of their names could have afforded no greater ground of rejoicing to the eleven Apostles, and the other faithful follow¬ ers of the Lamb, than to the most worthless of the wicked who were then alive. And when thus we find the New Testament terms possessed of a higher meaning, we are necessarily led to affix a similar sense to the parallel expressions in the Old.! • Phil. iv. 3. Rev. hi. 5. xiii. 8. xvii. 8. xx. 12, 15. xxi. 27. xxii. 19. f Luke X. 20. Heb. xil. 23. t It is worthy of remark, that from Rev. xvii. 8. we learn that these names were written in the book of life “ from the foundation of the world.” And this fact is confirmed by Rev. xhi. 8. For, knowing from the event that the Lamb was not slain till upwards of four thousand years after the creation; and knowing also from Rev. xvii. 8. that the names of the redeemed were written in the book of life “ from the foundation of the world,” we are authorized from these facts, as well as from the nature of the original language, to connect the last clause of chap. xiii. 8. with the date of the writing, and not with the death of the Redeemer. The passage may therefore be read thus: “ And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names were not written, from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.” 127 We read of some who are “ Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father; who have been loved with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving-kindness he hath drawn them; whom God hath from the beginning chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth; who have been called according to his purpose, and chosen in Christ, before the founda¬ tion of the world.” * If words can convey a meaning, from this lan¬ guage we would naturally believe that there is an Election of Grace; and that, from the foundation of the world, God has selected the individuals on whom he confers the blessings of salvation. But how do the opponents of Election understand these and similar passages ? Some inform us that the terms “elect” and “chosen” are applied to collective bodies of men, who were converted to the Gospel, without any restriction to those who are obedient to its precepts, and who will here¬ after be saved ; that an infallible certainty of sal¬ vation, in consequence of a Divine decree, is not attributed to any number of Christians, nor to any single Christian, throughout the New Testa¬ ment; and that by Election and Predestination we are only to understand God’s eternal purpose to make known to us the mystery of his Gospel. • 1 Peter i, 3. Jer. xxxi. 3. 2 Thess. ii. 13. Rom. viii. 28. Ephes. i. 4. 128 And others gravely assure us, that in the forego¬ ing quotations the sacred writers refer entirely to the effect, without having any reference to the previous determining cause; that election and foreknowledge merely mean the precious, free, rich, love of God, by which he was induced to form the wonderful plan of salvation ; that calling and election are the same; and that “elect” and “ chosen” generally signify those who are called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ, and sometimes distinguished or excel¬ lent Christians. Since the essence of conversion consists in obe¬ dience to the Gospel, we must ask the first class of objectors, If men can be converted to the Gospel without obeying its precepts; then what is there to prevent men from being converted to honesty and loyalty, without becoming either honest or loyal ? And after we are told, that “ except we be converted, we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;” if a man may be converted without being saved; then granting that honesty and loyalty were the only preservatives from the gal¬ lows, what security,could any man’s honesty and loyalty give him that he would escape a gibbet? There has been, and there still is, a profession of religion without its reality: but genuine conver¬ sion can no more be separated from the life and power of godliness, and from eternal salvation; than conversion to honesty and loyalty, can be separated from the renunciation of rapine and 129 treason, and the enjoyment of the protection of law and justice. The decrees of God are secret things which belong to himself, and which we can discover only by their execution. An infallible certainty of salvation does not arise from any particular de¬ cree; but if assurance is not to be obtained from our being called according to the purpose of God, it is impossible to conceive how it can be acquired at all. And if the. election and predestination, spoken of in the New Testament, mean merely the determi¬ nation of God to make known to us the mystery of his will in the blessings of the Gospel: then a patent from the Sovereign to confer a title and an estate on a few whom he has selected, and an order to ensure a yearly pension to a certain num¬ ber whom he has named, are no more than a resolution to make known his generosity to his subjects at large, without conveying any special advantage to any single individual or body of men in the nation. Such a general proclamation of mercy could afford no greater ground of rejoicing to the regenerate than to the unregenerate. To the one, as well as to the other, the Gospel is preached: and if the publication is attended with no more Divine power in the case of the one than of the other, how can it be a greater source of joy and thanksgiving to the first than to the last ? In reply to those who tell us that calling and election denote the same thing, and that elect and 130 chosen generally signify those who are called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ; we must remark, that, though all who are elected are in due season called, calling and elec¬ tion are just as distinct as cause and effect. We read both of calling and election; of the purpose of God, as really as of being called according to that purpose; of being called by the Gospel into that salvation, to which God had from the beginning chosen us j and of God’s having chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, as well as of his having blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.* And the same gentlemen who have favoured us with the above information, that calling and election are the same, may also remember that they have like¬ wise told us, that election and foreknowledge merely mean, the precious, free, rich, love of God, by which he was induced to form the wonderful plan of redemption. So that, according to this hypothesis, our calling and the precious, free, rich, love of God are one and the same thing. Though the word “elect” may sometimes signi¬ fy precious, its primary import is, selected or chosen. Granting therefore that “ elect sister” means an excellent sister, and that “ Rufus chosen in the Lord” means Rufus an eminent Christian ; would these concessions deprive the terms of their • 2 Pet. i. 10. Rom viii. 28. 2 Thess. ii. 13. Eph. i. 3, 4. 131 ordinary acceptation in other places where they occur, or overturn the doctrine of Election ? Would it follow that “ elect angels” must mean excellent angels ? and that “ chosen in Christ be¬ fore the foundation of the world,” means excel¬ lent Christians before the world began ? If this interpretation be correct; whether by the “foun¬ dation of the world” we understand the creation of all things, or as some have fancied, the begin- of the Gospel dispensation, we must suppose that the believers at Ephesus were excellent Chris¬ tians, if not before the world was made, at least before the commencement of Christianity. Christ frequently speaks of some whom his Fa¬ ther had given him. He tells us, that he had power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as his Father had given him. Fie assures us that all these would come to him. He prayed for them, but not for the world. He affirms that to sit with him on his right hand, and on his left, was not his to give, but to whom it was prepared of his Father. To mark the discriminating purposes of God, we find repeated reference to an agency which is employed in behalf of some, and which is not exerted upon all. To the Apostles it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but to them that were without, Christ spake in parables. On one occasion, we find him giving thanks, that though the mysteries of the Gospel were hidden from the wise and pru¬ dent, they were revealed unto babes; and to prove 132 that this was the result of Divine sovereignty, he adds, “ Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” On one occasion, we read, that “ the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved and on another, that “ as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” In some cases, we hear of the hand of the Lord be¬ ing with the preachers, and of great numbers be¬ lieving and turning unto the Lord; and in other cases, we find them complaining, “ Who hath believed our report ? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed ?” Of some, W'e are informed, that the Lord had not given them eyes to see, nor ears to hear; and of others, that he opens their ears, and seals their instruction. At one time, Paul and Silas, contrary to their own desire, were prevented from preaching the word in Asia, and from entering Bithynia; but called, without their expectation, into Macedonia. In the same manner, Paul was commanded to depart from Jerusalem, because the Jews would not re¬ ceive his testimony; and on another occasion, he was encouraged to remain in Corinth, not because it was a great or populous city, but because the Lord had much people in it.* From such language and facts as these, what • John xvii. 6, 12, 24, 2. vi. 37. xvii. 9. Matth. xx. 23. Mark iv. 10. Matth. xi. 25, 26. Acts ii. 47. xiii. 48. xi. 21. Isa. liii. 1. xxvi. 18. Dent. xxix. 4. Rom. xi. 8. Job xxxiii. 16. Acts xvi. 14, 6—10. xxii. 18. xix. 9, 10. 133 other inference can we draw, than that God does not bestow the blessings of his grace indiscrimi¬ nately on all ; but that whilst in some cities and countries, there are many whom he has determin¬ ed to call into the fellowship of his Son, there are others, in which, for ages, there are none who be¬ long to the election of grace, and where he leaves the people to walk according to the desires of the flesh, and of the mind ? and that, whilst a heav¬ enly agency is employed to disclose to some the truths of revelation, there are others from whom this agency is withheld ? But what is the conclusion which the devotee of a system deduces from the preceding clear and strong facts and declarations ? That gainsayers may see, that notwithstanding all the opposition that they may maintain against the Gospel, its suc¬ cess is certain; that, let them do what they will to defeat it, multitudes shall believe and embrace it; and that, whilst they who reject it shall perish, all who embrace it shall be saved. This, however, is little better than trifling with the sacred volume. In other passages, we are told, in plain and direct terms, of the inevitable destruction of the impenitent and unbelieving, and of the certain salvation of all who believe and em¬ brace the Gospel. And are we to suppose that the Spirit of all wisdom would have employed lan¬ guage descriptive of the origin of faith, to repre¬ sent its final result ? Besides, when all by nature are alike sunk in depravity, and so many perse- 134 vere through life to reject and oppose the Gospel, how are any brought to accept its blessed and pre¬ cious provisions? Assign what meaning you will to the terms “ ordained to eternal life,” “ given to Christ,” and “ such as should be saved;” call them marshalled, disposed, bound, prepared, or fore-written to eternal life : still, since eternal life is of the same importance to all, and pressed with the same earnestness upon the reception of the whole; while the great mass of men give them¬ selves no concern about the matter, why do others display a better and a nobler spirit, and become bound or disposed for eternal life ? Who makes the one to differ so widely from the other ? The only answer, that either reason or revelation, when sifted to the last, can return to these ques¬ tions, is, that the difference arises from the grace of God; that they who come to Christ, were first given, and then drawn to him, by his Father. But from the moment that we have recourse to | such a solution of the difficulty, we cut up by j the roots the scheme that we oppose. For if the preparation of the heart in man is from the Lord, and he has the right to do what he will with his own; then there is an end to all the self- righteous pleas and pretentions of the creature, and the salvation of all who reach the kingdom of heaven must be acknowledged to be of grace. And if it be of grace ; then it must also be confes¬ sed, to be the effect of the sovereign oleasure and righteous appointment of the Most High. For if i 135 he chose to make one the subject of the same gra¬ cious influence which he exerts upon another; who will presume to say, that he is not just as able to sanctify and save the one, as the other ? The ninth and eleventh chapters of the Epistle to the Romans bear expressly and powerfully upon the subject. Aware of their importance in the present controversy, our opponents have employ¬ ed every effort, which ingenuity can invent, to give them a meaning suitable to their own views. Some tell us that “the greatobject of the Apostle in these two chapters, is to establish what he teaches in chap. iii. 22 —24. and x. 12, 13. that salvation is of pure grace, and that this grace is proclaimed indiscriminately to all men of whatever class or character.” There can be no doubt that the whole are in perfect harmony. The passages which assert the Trinity of persons in the God¬ head, are perfectly consistent with those which affirm the unity of the Deity. Their object how¬ ever is different. And those portions too, of the word of God, which teach salvation by grace, are perfectly consistent with those which, like Rom. ix. and xi., inform us of the cause, why this blessing is bestowed upon one rather than another. Their object however is widely different. The design of the one is to shew that salvation is of grace; the object of the other is to prove, that this salvation is the gift of God, and conferred according to the good pleasure of his goodness. But these two M 2 136 things are just as completely distinct, as the nature of a gift from the dispositions or motives of the giver. We have no doubt whatever that salvation is of grace. But the question is, when grace is Almighty, and able to reach every heart; unless it is dispensed according to the will of God, why is it communicated to some while it is with¬ held from the rest ? By others we are informed, that these two chap¬ ters refer to the present world only ; that they treat entirely of national election, the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles in their room. Granting however, that the election, mentioned in these two chapters, were a national and not a personal blessing; what advantage could such a concession give to the cause for which it is urged ? The possession of the Gospel and its ordinances, is either a blessing, or it is not. If it is not: then the sacred writers were completely mistaken, when they exulted in the benefits of Divine Reve¬ lation, and in the blessedness of hearing its joyful sound. The call to rejoice in its light is misplaced; and the shining of the Sun of righteousness, can be of no greater service to the sons of men than the gloom and the horrors of heathenism. But if it be a blessing, and such a blessing too as the world saw never, and never shall again behold ; a blessing by which we are made wise to eternal life, and without which we are left in all the dark- _ness and degradation of ignorance and vice, and exposed to all the wretchedness of everlasting co n- 137 demnation; then the communication of it to some nations, while it is withheld from others, is accom¬ panied with all the difficulties, and liable to all the objections, which are supposed to incumber the doctrine of personal election. For if without faith we cannot be saved; and if faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ; then the people in those countries where this word is unknown, are just as totally deprived of all the advantages which it brings, as if, w'hilst others had been chosen to eternal glory, they themselves, by a special and irreversible decree, had been ex¬ cluded from the hope of everlasting bliss. And if there be any iniquity at all in a measure, it does not diminish the amount of the evil, to transfer it from individuals to nations. It did not soften the rigours of the bondage of the Israelites to find, that, whilst the lordly Egyptians were exempted from their toils and their burdens, slavery was the common inheritance of their brethren, and that no son of Jacob was free. It did not lessen the enor¬ mity of Haman, because, thinking scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, he endeavoured to wreak his resentment on that obnoxious indivi¬ dual, by consigning the whole of his unhappy countrymen to one promiscuous destruction. And if there be any injustice in exercising favour towards a single individual, could it alter the un¬ fairness of the proceeding, by extending it to a nation, or a large mass of men ? Ms 138 Supposing, therefore, that we were to yield to our opponents the proposition for which they so stiffly contend; the fact is, that it could not add one iota to the strength of their cause. Without affording the slightest solution of the difficulty, it would merely shift it one step farther back. If God possesses and employs the right to elect whole nations; we must return with the question. Who has authority to attempt to preclude him from the title to elect individuals? Nations, and the greatest bodies of men, are composed of in¬ dividuals. And has he not just as complete a right to do what he will with his own in detail as in the mass ? Is it said, that the partiality in national election is not so great, because its ob¬ ject is merely to give men the external means of grace, without deciding on their eternal condi¬ tion ? This explanation will by no means reach the case: for though, as we have already seen, the outward means do not infallibly ensure sal¬ vation to all who possess them, any more than light can ensure vision to the blind; yet the want of these means will as certainly leave men without the knowledge of God, and of what belongs to their peace, as the absence of light will entail darkness on the most clear-sighted. Is it said, in vindication of national election, that those countries which are destitute of revelation, are so deeply sunk in guilt, that they have rendered themselves unworthy of any communication from heaven? May not we, in defence of personal 139 election, retort, with as much truth, that the care¬ less and hardened in Christian lands have no claim nor title to demand the blessings of special grace ? For if the nations who are left without the light of revelation, have disregarded the dic¬ tates of natural religion, and abused all the privi¬ leges which they actually enjoyed; and have thus, by their criminal conduct, justly incurred all the miseries which they endure; the profane and car¬ nal, in regions where the Gospel is known, who have neglected their invaluable advantages, and lived in the avowed and habitual resistance of all the obligations of reason and religion, have also forfeited all claim to the Divine favour, and ren¬ dered their condemnation just. And if it be equi¬ table to exclude whole nations, upon account of their wickedness, from the present and future bles¬ sings of the Gospel; can there be any injustice in debarring single individuals, upon account of their personal transgressions, from the possession of eternal life ? But, whilst thus we see that the concession can¬ not confer the slightest advantage upon the cause which we oppose; it is high time to observe, that, notwithstanding the confidence with which it has been asserted, and the frequency with which it has been reiterated, it is altogether gratuitous and groundless, and destitute of every vestige of a foundation. The great object of the Apostle, throughout the two chapters in question, is per¬ sonal election; and the only allusions which he 140 makes to national election, are in order to pro¬ mote his leading design; and the national election to which he refers, is totally different from any na¬ tional election recognised by our opponents, or suited to their purpose. For what is personal election? It is the purpose of God to give to individuals grace and glory. It issues in making those who are its objects the chil¬ dren of God, the brethren of Christ, and the heirs of his heavenly kingdom. They are deliver¬ ed from condemalion, led by the Spirit, conform¬ ed to the image of Christ, and made to walk even as he also walked. If we can regard these things as characteristic of personal election; then we must admit that this is the subject of the Apostle’s discourse. For though the patrons of national elec¬ tion cannot distinctly define what it is; though they are at a loss to tell whether it consists in tem¬ poral prosperity, or in the possession of the external means of grace, or in executing the great plans of Divine Providence; still they agree in acknow¬ ledging that it is a blessing, common to the whole people, and enjoyed by them at large. Converted or unconverted, every man who derives his de¬ scent from the founder of the state, is undoubtedly a partaker of the national benefit. In this sense of the terms, an unbelieving Hebrew is just as much an Israelite as a converted Jew. But is this the Election which the Apostle is here discus¬ sing? “ They are not all Israel, who are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are 141 they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called; that is, they who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”* From language such as this, what other inference can we draw than that, though the Jews in a body were a favoured people, and in many respects dis¬ tinguished above other nations, amongst them there was only a “ remnant according to the Elec¬ tion of grace?” Many were called, but few were chosen. Some were precious in the sight of the Lord; and others reprobate silver, because he had rejected them. According to what the Apostle elsewhere teaches, only those who were of faith, were blessed with faithful Abraham.f These were the “ Election” who obtained the righteousness of faith, while “ the rest were blinded.”^ But, ac¬ cording to our opponents, the “ Election” were the whole Jewish nation. Who then were “ the rest?” Were they the Gentiles ? No: these gentle¬ men tell us, that they were a part of the same elect nation. But if a part of the Election obtained sal¬ vation, and a part were blinded; when this Elec¬ tion was productive of such opposite effects, it is really difficult to discover what use it possessed. Without any detriment to the nation it might have been totally withheld. f Rom. iv. 16. Gal. iii. 9. \ Rom. sd. 7. * Rom. ix. 6—8. 142 So much then for this branch of the Apostle’s argument. Since national election is a blessing, common to the whole people of a country; if the Apostle had been treating of this subject, he would have represented it as a privilege possessed by them all. When therefore we find him speaking of it as a benefit, which, instead of being enjoyed by the whole, or even by the larger proportion of the Jews, was possessed only by a few; we are obliged to conclude that he is reasoning of person¬ al, and not of national election. As it is righteousness which exalteth a nation; their Election, or, which amounts to the same thing, their temporal prosperity and religious privileges must be conferred as a reward of their moral worth. And if they are conferred as a re¬ ward of their moral worth, this must justify the conduct of the Most High, and silence every com¬ plaint against his equity. But is this the nature of that Election at present under consideration.^ Let us again listen to the words of the Apostle; “ For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, (for the children be¬ ing not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to Elec¬ tion might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth,) it was said unto her. The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I 143 loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?” * * * § All this we have been told, relates to the posteri¬ ty of Jacob and Esau. But though it may relate to their posterity, it certainly does not exclude themselves. Can we say that Esau, who early de¬ spised his birthright, allied himself to heathen families, of whose piety we have not the smallest memorial on record, who was in heart a murderer, and is branded with the name of profane; can we say of him, that he was as much beloved of God as the meek, the humble, the devout, the thankful, and holy Jacob, to whom God appeared time after time, and honoured with the most signal and in¬ valuable tokens of his favour? And knowing also that the “ purpose of God” is used repeatedlyf in connection with his determination to bestow spirit¬ ual and eternal blessings, and never once in con¬ nection with his resolution to create temporal dis¬ tinctions amongst men; and knowing too that “ Election,” wherever it occurs, is used in a similar connection;:}; and knowing, moreover, that the phrases, “ not of works,” “ not of the works of the law,” § but “ of him that calleth,”if are com¬ monly employed in connection with the subject of • Rom. ix. 9—14. f Rom. viii. 28. Ephes. i. 11. iii. 11. 2 Tim. i. 9. f 1 Thes. i. 4. 2 Peter i. 10. § Rom. iii. 20, 27, 28. iv. 2, 6. Gal. ii. 16. iii. 2, 5, 10. \ Gal. i. 6. V. 8. 1 Thes. ii. 12. 144 justification and eternal life, and not in reference to the temporal differences which exist amongst na¬ tions; are we tamely to surrender the ordinary meaning of scriptural language to make way, right or wrong, for the favourite dogmas of any class of theologians ? To assert the right of God to dispense his fa¬ vours with as absolute and uncontrollable freedom in the kingdom of grace as of nature, the Apostle subjoins, “ For he saith to Moses, I w’ill 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 sheweth mercy.”* Never were stronger words employed to express the independent and unchallengeable sovereignty of God in the salvation of men. But before they can escape from the withering process of the theologi¬ cal laboratory, how completely is their substance shrivelled, and their spirit evaporated. No trace of salvation is left, and very little either of the inde¬ pendence or sovereignty of God remains. By the very men who maintain that the subject of this chapter is national election; and who tell us that the verses immediately preceding relate exclusive¬ ly to the posterity of Jacob and Esau, we are in¬ formed, that by “ him that willeth,” we are to understand Isaac; and by “ him that runneth,” Esau; and that the meaning of the passage is, that * Rom. ix. 15, 16. 145 the promise made to Abraham did not descend in the direction that Isaac wished, and that Esau ex¬ pected. But we must ask, Where is the proof of these assertions? Where are the names of Isaac and of Esau to be found as the antecedents to the respec¬ tive clauses assigned them in the 16th verse? If this interpretation is correct, why was this verse disjoined from the quotation from Malachi, with which it would have had some connection; and appended to the quotation from Moses, with which it has none ? If'we are at liberty to invent ante¬ cedents at pleasure, and to insert names without the authority of the sacred text; why should the will of Isaac and the running of Esau be introduc¬ ed, rather than the will of Rebecca, and the run¬ ning of Jacob? Was Isaac more solicitous to transmit the birth-right and the blessing to Esau, than Rebecca to entail them on Jacob? And if Esau started earlier and ran farther than Jacob; from his success, there can be no doubt that the latter ran a great deal faster. When therefore we find that the heart of Jacob was just as strong¬ ly set, as the heart of Esau, on the blessing, and that the younger brother actually outstripped the elder; the fact is, that instead of not being of him that willed and of him that ran, the prize was actu¬ ally carried off by him who had the strongest wish to obtain it, and who ran or exerted himself most to secure it. And instead of ascribing the result to the mercy of God, it would have been more rea- N 146 sonable to have traced it to the address of Rebecca, by which she defeated both the will of Isaac and the agility of Esau. Besides, “ to shew mercy,” in the ordinary scriptural acceptation of these terms, does not refer to the communication of temporal advan¬ tages, but to the remission of sins and the gift of salvation through the Redeemer. The publican could solicit no more for himself than mercy; and Paul could entreat for no more, in behalf of his benefactor Onesiphorus, than that the Lord would shew him mercy in the day of judgment. And what other sense can we affix to the words in the preceding verse, where God says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy?” Are we to suppose that any, and far less an inspi¬ red writer, would, without any intimation of the circumstance, change the meaning of his language so abruptly; employing the same word in one verse to express the forgiveness of sin, and in the next, the bestowment of the temporal superiority of one brother over another ? At all events, if the Apostle had been treating of national, and not of personal election, he would have closed the discussion at the 16th verse. He would have regarded what he had previously stated as perfectly sufficient to have es¬ tablished the supposed proposition, that the Israel¬ ites were selected, by the free favour of God, to be his peculiar people, in preference to the Edom¬ ites. What object could he expect to gain by 147 appealing to the case of Pharaoh ? There never had been any rivalship betwixt the Israelites and the ancestors of the king of Egypt, for the honour of being the depositaries'of Divine revelation, and the progenitors of the Messiah. There never was any danger that these privileges should be wrest¬ ed from the family of Shem, and transferred to the descendants of Ham. Unless therefore the Apostle had been deliberately and earnestly discussing the subject of personal election, why does he strip his argument of the nationality which it might have been believed that it possessed, when he was speak¬ ing of Isaac and Ishmael, of Jacob and Esau; and thus generalise it by extending it to Pharaoh, and through him to every i&idividual of the human race, of a similar character, and placed in similar cir¬ cumstances ? All writers, whether inspired or not, commonly advance from an enumeration of particular instan¬ ces, to general conclusions. From the preference of Isaac to Ishmael, of Jacob to Esau; from the forgiveness of the enormous crime of idolatry in the Israelites, while Pharoah was left to harden himself in guilt and perish in his sins; it is but natural to expect that these various cases of the Divine Sovereignty were intended to prepare the way for some broad .and unqualified assertion of this attribute in general. But if we are to adopt the critical principles of our opponents, we must invert the established rules of interpretation ; and when we meet with an enumeration of particu- N 2 148 lars, we must instantly anticipate that the whole is to end in some special conclusion. Thus, from the varied instances here given of Divine Sover¬ eignty, we must infer that God, of his own mere pleasure, conveyed the birth-right and blessing, contrary to the intention of Isaac and the exertions of Esau : but then we must, at the same time, re¬ member that this was a singular case, and such as never will again recur. In the same manner, when this Apostle takes occasion, from his own case, and that of Abraham, David, and the be¬ lievers to whom he wrote, to state the doctrine of justification, and to affirm that they were all justi¬ fied by faith without works; instead of laying down their example as a proof of the general doc¬ trine of salvation by grace, if we are to take lessons in criticism from these gentlemen, we must infer that the manner of their justification forms an exception to the general rule; and that, saving always those who have been expressly said to have been justified by faith, every other human creature, who ever obtains justification at all, must be justified by works. The reckoning up of so many instances of the Divine Sovereignty, seems to have been expressly designed to give universality to the principle, to cut off all occasion for the narrow construction which some have endeavoured to put on the Apos¬ tle’s words, and to expose the futility and absurdity of the attempt, when it should be made. 149 On stating the case of Pharaoh,* the Apostle substantially repeats, in the form of a general in¬ ference, the words which he had already quoted as addressed to Moses: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” f Are we to suppose that “whom he will he hardeneth,” refers to God’s dis¬ pensations towards nations ? Yet as these words are contrasted with “ he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy,” if the one relate to national election, the other must relate to national rejection. At any rate, whatever may be the subject of his discourse in the 18th verse, it must certainly be the same in the 19—21st; where he adds, “Thou wilt say then unto me. Why doth he yet find fault ? for who hath resisted his will ? Nay but, O 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 unto honour, and another unto dishonour ?” Are we to suppose that by the man who enters into dispute with the Apostle, he means nations, who rise in rebellion against the Most High on account of their temporal allotments ? Will either the terms themselves, or the general analogy of Divine revelation, warrant us to affirm, that by “ the thing formed” we are to understand nations. • Rom. ix. 17. f Rom. ix. 18. N 3 150 or large bodies of men ? The free sovereign distri¬ bution of spiritual blessings has, in every age, to the carnal mind, been a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence. It has given occasion for an out¬ cry against the God of glory, as if he were partial and unjust, and had no right to censure nor to punish those whom he ha?; not blessed with the communications of his special grace. The lan¬ guage of the proud unsanctified spirit of man has uniformly been, “ Why doth he yet find fault ? for who hath resisted his will But when were any such complaints heard against God, on account of any differences in the temporal circumstances of men Was it ever supposed, that moral duty or religious obligation are matters that vary with the longitude or latitude ? that the temporal pros¬ perity or the external privileges vouchsafed to one nation, and withheld from another, free the conscience from the authority of the eternal law, annihilate the distinctions betwixt right and wrong, or give occasion for the questions, “ Why doth he yet find fault ? for who hath resisted his will r To see more clearly the extravagance of the notion under consideration, we may ask. On whom hath,God mercy ? The Apostle says, “On whom ' he will.” But who are they ? Our opponents tell us, that the expression, “ on whom he will,” denotes “ those who are proper objects” of mercy, “ and qualified as he requires,” Indeed 1 Whether he be supposed to be treating of personal or na- 151 tional election, let us try the applicability of this construction of his language to the Apostle’s dis¬ course, and hear how it will sound ? When, at the intercession of Moses, God extended mercy, or forgiveness, to the idolatrous Israelites, were they “ proper objects, and qualified as he requir¬ ed ?” When the Gospel reached the Ephesians, who were walking according to the course of this world, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; were they “proper objects, and qualified as he required?” When, till this dispensation of grace came to visit and to bless them, every king¬ dom under the sun was sunk in vice and degraded by profligacy; could it be said of those nations which the Gospel entered, that they were “proper objects, and qualified as he required ?” When Abraham was serving strange gods ;* when Jacob “ was not yet born, neither had done any good or evil;” when Paul was persecuting the church of God, and wasting it; was that the time when each respec¬ tively was a “ proper object, and qualified as he required?” Since no creature owes more than God exacts; if his mercy is displayed only towards those who are “ proper objects, and quali¬ fied as he requires,” then it becomes merely an exercise of remunerative justice, and there is not the smallest pretext left for the objection, “ why doth he yet find fault ?” Instead of being obnox¬ ious to censure for showing mercy to those who are • Josh. xxiv. 2. 152 “proper objects, and qualified as he requires;' nothing could be more openly and palpably un¬ just, than to withhold it from men who, in every respect, are qualified exactly as he demands. How does the Apostle meet and remove this objection ? Does he, as on the theory of our op¬ ponents he ought, tell the objector that he mis¬ apprehended his meaning entirely ? that God bestows salvation on none but on those who have merited it by their personal worth ? or that he merely sends the external means of grace amongst the nations ; that there is no case in which he ac¬ companies them with a special and effectual in¬ fluence : so that it is a perfect mistake to imagine, that the Divine conduct can ever give rise to the questions, “ Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will ?” He advances no such assertion nor insinuation. Rising above all instruments and means, and disdaining to enter into any discussion of the subject, as a matter alike beyond our capacity and place; he looks directly to the holy and unsearchable pleasure of Him who w'orketh all in all: and in the tone and Spirit of our blessed Lord, when he said, “ Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight,” he adds, “ Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God.” The language which follows, is by no means calculated to diminish the difficulty, on the hypo¬ thesis of our opponents. “ What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known. 153 endured with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles ?” * We have been told, that “ the enduring with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, relates to God’s forbearance in spar¬ ing the Jews, and giving them time to repent, although, by .their heinous sins and numerous provocations, they had long deserved to be^de¬ stroyed : and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, relates to God’s gracious offer of the blessings of the Gos¬ pel to those who he knew would accept them.” And is th is all ? Are none but unbelieving Jews vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ? Is there no danger that careless and impenitent Gentiles will be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of God, and the glory of his power ? And has the glory, for which the God of all grace hath afore prepared his people; the glory into which he calls them by Christ Jesus; and in the hope of which, amidst all their toils and tribula¬ tions, they have age after age rejoiced; has this shrunk down at last to “ the acceptance of God’s gracious offer of the blessings of the Gospel ?” • Rom. ix. 22 —24, 154 Is the resurrection past already, and have we no other heaven, but that which we find in the faith and fellowship of the Son of God on earth ? According to the uniform doctrine of the Bible, every human creature, who neglects the great sal¬ vation, is a vessel of wrath:* and whilst he is allowed to live, and to continue by his careless¬ ness and crimes, to grieve the Spirit of grace, he experiences the long suffering of God.f And the preparing of the vessels of mercy afore unto glory, is language so similar to what w’e elsewhere find, of Christ being in believers “the hope of glory,” and of their being, “ made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,”:}: that we are necessarily led to regard them as referring to the same subject. And as the latter expressions undoubtedly relate to the hap¬ piness of heaven, the former may be safely con¬ sidered as applying to the same. And if by the glory, to which the vessels of mercy are formed, we are to understand the felicity of heaven; by the destruction to which the vessels of wrath are fitting themselves, surely nothing less can be meant than future and never-ending misery. “ To confine all that is said on these opposite subjects to the occurrences of time, is as prepos¬ terous, as to restrict the transactions of the great • John iii. 36. 1 Thess. v. 9, f Gen. vi. 3. Acts vii. 51. Rom. ii. 4, 5. J Col. i. 12, 27 . 155 day of decision,” and the realities of eternity, “ to the events of this perishing world.” To prevent the notion, that he was speaking of national election, the Apostle adds, “ Even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” * These words certainly must refer, either to national, or to personal election. But to national election they cannot refer. For where all are on a level, there can be no pre¬ eminence ; and where all are treated alike, there can be no selection or preference. Since, there¬ fore, bespeaks in the same terms of “ us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles,” nothing can be plainer, than, since the whole world is divided into Jews and Gentiles, if the Jewish and Gentile nations had been indiscri¬ minately called, that the election must have been universal, which is absurd ; and there could have been, properly speaking, no national election at all. It follows therefore, that he is reasoning concerning personal election. And that this is the case, is confirmed by what he adds, “ As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them. Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God. Isaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of • Rom. ix. 24. 156 Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” * To those familiar with the sacred writers, and who know that it was their practice to repeat, un¬ der different terms, in one clause of a sentence, the same idea which they had stated in another; it scarcely requires to be mentioned that the vari¬ ous expressions, “ my people,” “ beloved,” “ the children of the living God,” and “ saved,” all re¬ fer to the same subject, and denote the same thing. In the face of this, however, an author has had the hardihood to affirm, “ that it is evident from the original passage in Isaiah, and also from the con¬ text in this chapter, that the expression, ‘ a rem¬ nant shall be saved,’ relates to preservation in this world, ‘ upon the earth,’ so that the Israelites should not be utterly destroyed, as Sodom and Gomorrah were.” To be consistent, this writer is bound to maintain, that to be “ beloved” of God, to be “ his people,” and “ his children,” relate merely to preservation in this world; and that nothing more than this is meant by saved,” when it is employed by the Apostle in illustration of the same argument in the two following chap- ters.f According to this interpretation, too, we must believe, that the “ remnant according to the election of grace,refers to the Jews who escaped the destruction of Jerusalem. And thus, in direct Rom. ix. 23—27. f b 13. xi. 26. t xi. 3. 157 opposition to the whole scope of the Apostle’s rea¬ soning, every Jew, whatever may be his moral or religious character, is declared an elect vessel; and there would be no danger of his being cast away, or made a vessel of wrath. To preclude the possibility of supposing that the subject of which he is treating, relates to the temporal distinctions that exist among men, and not to their spiritual and everlasting condition; af¬ ter telling us that the riches of grace are made known alike unto the vessels of mercy, whether of the Gentile or of the Jewish race, the Apostle closes the chapter, not with a dissertation respec¬ ting the origin and policy and privileges of nations, but with a statement of the doctrine of justifica¬ tion. “ What shall we say then ? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteous¬ ness which is of faith: but Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, hath 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.” * Recollecting, therefore, the occasion on which the subject of Election was introduced in the eighth chapter, where the Apostle was discussing, not the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, but the hopes that animate the just • Rom. ix. 30— 32 . O 158 under the troubles of life, and the assistance which they receive from the Holy Spirit in prayer; re¬ membering the sti’ong and solemn testimony which again and again he bears to the utter and absolute worthlessness of a religious profession, w'hen sep¬ arated from the life and power of godliness; and looking at the manner in which the disquisition terminates in the ninth; every thing in sound and sober criticism compels us to maintain that he had something infinitely higher in view than the dis¬ tinctions visible among the nations; that the ener¬ gies of his mighty mind, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, were collected to proclaim the supreme and absolute freedom of the Most High in bestowing the riches of his grace, and to bring before us the origin of the wide and affecting dif¬ ference which exists in the present spiritual state, and in the everlasting condition of men; and that the appeals which he makes to individual cases and to temporal affairs, were designed to illustrate and establish the equity and sovereignty of God in the distribution of the blessings of salvation. To infer from these allusions, that he was treating entirely of the affairs of time, is just the same glaring mistake as it would be to imagine, that when our blessed Lord spoke of heavenly things under the emblem of earthly matters, his sole ob¬ ject was to instruct his hearers in the arts and business of life: and that what he said about liv¬ ing water, about his being the true bread, the true vine, and the good shepherd, is all to be taken in 159 the literal acceptation of the words, to the exclu¬ sion of every reference to spiritual and eternal realities. This conclusion is irrefragably strengthened by the tenth chapter. It connects the ninth and the eleventh, and contains a part of the argument which they illustrate. But this chapter clearly and unquestionably treats of spiritual blessings, and of eternal salvation. It bears a strong and decided testimony to the danger of self-righteous¬ ness: it holds forth Christ as the end of the law for righteousness: it asserts the necessity of the means of grace in order to obtain faith; and assures us, that whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed; and that he that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved. No inge¬ nuity seems capable of perverting its statements to the subject of national election: and it must appear exceedingly strange, if not altogether in¬ credible, that the Apostle, in the same discourse, without either any cause or Avarning, should travel backwards and forwards, betwixt spiritual bless¬ ings and temporal distinctions, betwixt national election and moral and religious conduct and character. An example is of unspeakable importance in any disputed case. The eleventh chapter has the advantage of furnishing us with a specimen of the election and rejection of which the Apostle is treating. It opens with the question, “ I say then. Hath God cast away his people?” If the Apos- O 2 160 tie had been discoursing exclusively of national election, the only answer which such a question could have admitted, must have been “yes.” For the national covenant with the Jews was now bro¬ ken ; the great mass of the people were given up to blindness of mind and hardness of heart, and were on the point of being scattered amongst all the kingdoms of the earth. But so far from re- turning such an answer, he replies, “ God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abra¬ ham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” In flat contra¬ diction to the commentary of our opponents, who tell us that he was speaking of national election alone; at the very time when the Jews, in a body, were rejected of God, the Apostle roundly affirms, that in the sense in which he employed the terms “ elect” and “election,” “ the people” and “the children of God,” there was not one individual affected by that awful event; and that the purpose of God according to election remains, at this moment, as firmly and fully ratified, as when the Jews were settled in Canaan, and enjoying all the bounties of indulgent Heaven. “ God hath not CAST AWAY HIS PEOPLE WHOM HE FOREKNEW.” * After referring to the secret, but devoted band, who, in the degenerate days of Elijah, had retain¬ ed their fidelity to their conscience and their God, he adds; “ Even so, then, at this present • Rom. xi. 2. 161 time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” * According to the doctrine of Anti-calvinists, election is not personal, but national; and there¬ fore the whole of Elijah’s contemporaries of Is¬ rael, in a body, were the elect of God. But ac¬ cording to the doctrine of the Apostle, the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal were, in the time of Elijah, the elect: and in his own day, the genuine disciples of Jesus were the people whom God had fore¬ known, and the remnant according to the election of grace. In a system from which grace, though nomi¬ nally retained, is really excluded, and where elec¬ tion is founded upon the moral worth of the elect¬ ed; any reference to grace is totally misplaced, and if any allusion is made at all to the cause and origin of election, it might be expected that it would be clearly and unequivocally attributed to works. But is this the source to which Paul ascribes it.? We have already heard him saying that there was “ a remnant according to the elec¬ tion of grace;” and instead of retracting, what our opponents must have regarded as a slip of the pen, he repeats the idea and expands it. “ And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be Rom. xi. 5. O 3 162 of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work. What then ? Israel hath not attained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blind¬ ed.” * The ultimate design of Election may be ascer¬ tained from the end which it actually gains. What then was it which Israel sought ? which the elect found ? and which the others forfeited ? Was it any form or species of national election? Was it the birth-right and blesssing which originally be¬ longed to Esau ? the offer of the blessings of the Gospel? the possession of the means of grace? or the profession of genuine religion? Not at all. The blessing coveted was righteousness, accep¬ tance before God, a right to eternal life.f This the unbelieving Jews lost, because they sought it by the works of the law; and this the Gentiles secured, because they sought it through faith. Unhappy Israel! It is upon account of works, as our opponents inform us, that individuals and na¬ tions are elected, called, and saved. And yet it was just by seeking salvation in this appointed and promised way that this people came short of everlasting bliss! In what follows, relative to the conversion of the Jews and the universal propagation of the Gospel; if it can be supposed to refer to any na- rrr r < ~rrrnr i *rr-- -r-rr ~~f*~frrr i r^r » ~fvi^j* i f<~ i A»rri»vvif i fyi~ i j* 41 Rom. xi. 6, 7. f Rom. ix. 31—33. x. 3, 4. 163 tional election at all, it is at least totally different from any national election for which our oppo¬ nents plead. For, whether they affirm that na¬ tional election consists in presenting men with the ordinances of religion, or in bringing them to a profession of Christianity without obedience to the precepts of the Gospel, can any man seriously maintain that these are the ideas conveyed by the Apostle’s desire to provoke the Jews to jealousy that he “might save some of them?” by his telling us “ that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved ?” and by his assuring us, that “ there shall come out of Sion the De¬ liverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Ja¬ cob ?” * Though the evidence for the truth in question, is far from being exhausted, it is now high time to bring the discussion to a close. Some of the passages which have just now passed under re¬ view, may have a more direct and powerful, and others a more remote and slender, bearing upon the subject. But there is one thing which they all concur to establish: that the doctrine was fa¬ miliar to the minds of the sacred writers; and that, whilst they themselves believed it firmly, they also inculcated it fully and strongly. In • Rom. xi. 14, 25 , 26. 164 their writings it is taught precisely as it is in ours. The arguments and illustrations which they em¬ ploy in its support, are the same which Calvinists still use in its defence. The objections and cavils which were urged against their statements, are exactly the same by which our sentiments on that point are, to this hour, assailed. And whilst their language forms the basis of all our reasoning on that truth, it coincides so completely with our own, that a reader, conversant with our works, but a stranger to theirs, would be ready to mis¬ take the divinity delivered in their writings, for that of some incurable enthusiast of the Calvinis- tic class. But is this the case with the produc¬ tions of our opponents ? Would any of Paul’s Epistles be in danger of being suspected of issu¬ ing from an author of their school ? From their aversion to cite the words of inspiration on that article; from their solicitude, when they are oblig¬ ed to introduce them, to prevent them from speak¬ ing for themselves; from the endless parentheses, and long paragraphs of explanation, which ac¬ company their sparing and reluctant quotations from the sacred volume, it is clear, that if they had been permitted to frame the Scriptures ac¬ cording to their ideas of the Divine character, they would have carefully excluded from the Bi¬ ble every form and trace of, what they consider, such dark, ambiguous, and dangerous, language. They would have dwelt at great length upon the value of personal righteousness, and the tendency 165 of virtue to attract and rivet the notice and the approbation of God. But we never should have heard one word of men being “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,” of its being said of children not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, “ that the purpose of God, ac¬ cording to election, might stand. The elder shall serve the younger;” of its being “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy;” nor, that “ he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” When, therefore, there is no other way of ascertaining the meaning of an author but from his words; and when, in this manner, we find the sacred writers, both when professedly treating of the subject, and when incidentally al¬ luding to it, expressing themselves freely in the most plain and decisive terms that a Calvinist can employ; what other inference can we draw from the fact, than that there is a harmony betwixt their principles and ours, and that the doctrines which they and we inculcate are the same ? At any rate, while we studiously endeavour not to push our Calvinism one hair-breadth farther than they have carried theirs, we are not ashamed to avow our firm determination never, knowingly, to relinquish a single syllable of the truth which they taught. Verbal criticism may carp and nibble at the attestations brought to prove the truth before us: and some of our adversaries may boast, that there 166 is not, within the whole compass of revelation, a single text relating to the subject, but what they will undertake to explain away. After the singu¬ lar specimens which they have exhibited of their prowess, it is utterly impossible to form too large a conception of their courage in attempting to explain away the most obvious and positive de¬ clarations of the oracles of God, and to contradict those which are too obstinate and refractory to yield to the explanatory process. From the men who can tell us, that they can find in the Bible no trace of any other regeneration than that of baptism, and no proof that any other works than ceremonial observances are excluded from justifi¬ cation; from the men who can affirm, that the language, “ He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy,” means “ who are proper objects, and qualified as he requires;” that the election men¬ tioned in the eighth of the Romans, denotes the conformity of Christians in patient suffering to Christ, and that the ninth refers entirely to na¬ tional election; from such men there is really nothing too hazardous and hardy for us to appre¬ hend. No language can bind them, and I know no argument which can reach them. The only wonder is, that instead of spending their strength in maintaining the Anti-calvinism of the Apos¬ tles, they have not gone a little farther, and per¬ formed the same charitable service for the Cal¬ vinists themselves. The task has been often tried with the Articles of the Church of England; and 167 I still preserve, as a theological rarity, the gift of a volume by an inoffeiisive old friend of mine own, who very seriously, and very harmlessly, at¬ tempted the same enterprise with the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of the Church of Scot¬ land. And since our publications are not more Calvinistic than those of the New Testament, and these Gentlemen imagine that they have succeed¬ ed so well in freeing the sacred writers from the charge of Calvinism; it would afford a consistent, beautiful, and benevolent, termination to their po¬ lemical labours, to undertake the same office for the works of Scott and Fuller, of Williams and Edwards, and to defend the position, that Calvin¬ ism has no existence in their volumes, nor even in the pages of Calvin himself. In the mean-time, on looking back upon the ground over which we have travelled, we are ne¬ cessarily led to ask. Is it true, as we have proved, that every man of wisdom and of worth, possesses a love of order, a desire to follow the dictates of his own will and judgment, and a habit of inquiry and consideration? and is it also true, that the powers of God’s understanding and the inherent unchangeable rectitude of his nature, just as far surpass all created intelligence and goodness, as the heavens are higher than the earth; and that in every thing in which ue excel, he is infinitely above us ? Is it true, that from everlasting to everlasting he is God, and that he is in all and and through all; and that whilst he inhabits eterni- 168 ty and fills immensity, he at once sees and com¬ prehends the past, the present, and the future? Is it true, that his understanding is infinite, and his nature unchangeable; and that, whilst he knows the properties of every creature that he has made, what he has once purposed, he will infalli¬ bly bring to pass? Is it true, that his power is omnipotent, and that its exercise perpetually de¬ pends upon his will; and that every thing that ex¬ ists, has been made by his pleasure, and is upheld by his own providence and care? Is it true, that his wisdom and goodness are inconceivable and absolutely] unbounded; and that it is an essential attribute of wisdom and of goodness to pursue the best and noblest ends by the simplest and most efficient measures? Is it true, that without a plan and a purpose, we could discover no trace of or¬ der and regularity amongst his works? and is it likewise true, that the universe is replete with the proofs of a constancy which never varies, and of a skill the most perfect and stupendous? Is it true, that the agent’s declaring before-hand, exactly what he afterwards produces, demonstrates deli¬ berate and fixed determination? and is it true, that the Bible contains an uninterrupted train of prophecies and promises, extending from the be¬ ginning to the end of time, and embracing an out¬ line of the whole of God’s conduct towards the children of men? Is it true, that the change of the human heart is wholly his work; and that while he is able to subdue even all things to him- 169 self, he leaves multitudes to live in security and sloth, to die in impenitence and sin, and descend to everlasting destruction? Is it true, that the scriptures again and again proclaim the right and the power of the Most High to do what he pleases in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places; that his counsel shall stand, and that he will do all his pleasure? Is all this true ? And who that confides in the evidence either of reason or revelation, can doubt or deny its truth? Then, with whatever difficul¬ ties it may be supposed to be attended, we may most securely and firmly rely on the fact, that the whole of the Divine government is planned and fixed; that whatever God does, is done from de¬ sign; that he worketh all according to the counsel of his will; that there is an election of grace; and that they who are saved, are saved and called with a holy calling, not according to their works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given them in Christ Jesus, before the world began. P CHAP. III. VINDICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION, If the attempt has been at all successful to prove the truth of Election, we might safely leave the credit of that doctrine to itself. For, however in¬ tricate and incomprehensible, with whatever hostili¬ ty it may be encountered, and with whatever preju¬ dices it may for a time be borne down; we ma}i rest assured that every article of revelation wih ultimately work its way to light and splendour, and by its own intrinsic power and excellence commend itself to the conscience of every man. It is a homage however, due to religion and to truth, not only to demonstrate the reality of the doctrines of inspiration; but likewise to free them from those cavils and objections with which, age after age, they have been most unjustly and un¬ sparingly assailed. When properly understood, when understood as delivered in the sacred scrip¬ tures, Election affords one of the most amiable and endearing views which w’e can conceive of the character and government of the Most High. The vindication therefore of this doctrine, is cal- 171 culated to place his administration in a peculiarly lovely and majestic attitude; to clear away the rubbish and impediments thrown in the path of duty; and to bring more distinctly and fully before us the number and strength of those ties by which we are bound to comply Avith every intimation of his will, and to devote ourselves actively and un¬ reservedly to his service. Election has been opposed from various causes, and from very different quarters. By some, it has been affirmed to be dishonourable to the character of God; by some, to be inconsistent with the freedom and responsibility of man; and by others, to be incompatible with the universal calls and free offers of the Gospel. In defending this doc¬ trine from the various charges which have been urged against it, it will appear, that, from what¬ ever cause they have been advanced, the objec¬ tions brought against it, either are founded in er¬ roneous ideas of its nature, or else proceed on principles totally subversive of the most clear and unquestionable truths of religion. SECT. I. Defence of Election from the charge that it is dishonourable to the character of God. It has again and again been asserted to be dis¬ honourable to the character of God; because it is P 2 172 supposed to make him the author of the sin and misery of them that perish, and to be contrary to his justice, and his goodness. 1. It is supposed to make him the author of the sin and misery of them that perish. Nothing is more common than to hear such language as the following:—“ If God selects a portion of mankind for the enjoyment of boundless and never-ending blessedness; and leaves the rest, who by nature are not more worthless than their favoured brethren, to inconceivable and never- ending woe, what else is this than to create men on purpose to damn themAnd if it w'ould be inconsistent with the feelings of a humane and af- fectionate parent to bring up his children for de¬ struction ; can we believe it possible that the Father of mercies and the God of love will make men, and place them in those circumstances that, from the dispositions which they possess, and the tempta¬ tions with which they are assaulted, he must in¬ fallibly foresee, will inevitably involve them in all the horrors of endless ruin A more gross misconception of a subject never was entertained. Every thing connected with the nature of Election concurs to demonstrate, that, instead of being a purpose to plunge any part of our race into guilt and misery; it is the gracious determination of God, to save a large proportion of our species from the sin and ruin which they had 173 voluntarily and criminally incurred. Since all were alike in the same condemnation, without Election all would have sunk into the same abyss of unutterable and eternal wretchedness. When, therefore, without being the cause of death to a single human creature, it has been the origin and source of salvation to immense multitudes; to im¬ pute the perdition of men to the decree of electing love, is as plainly and palpably absurd, as to ascribe cold and darkness to the sun. Whatever opinion may be entertained respecting the Divine decrees, it is undeniable that sin is in the world; and on the authority both of reason and revelation, we know that the wages of sin are death. The Bible unequivocally assures us that all must ultimately perish, who neglect the Gos¬ pel. For there is salvation in no other than in the Lord Jesus Christ; and while he that believes on him shall be saved, we are just as distinctly told, that he that believeth not shall be damned. So far therefore as the perdition of the ungodly is concerned; whether we admit or reject the doctrine of Election, the number of those who are undone at last, will be precisely the same. On examining therefore more narrowly the objection just now under consideration, it will be found, that, with whatever intention it is urged, it is levelled not so much against the decree of election, as against the creation of man. When stripped of every ambiguity and fairly stated, the question is not. Why did God elect some to everlasting life ? P 3 174 but why did he bring those men into existence, who, he infallibly foresaw, would become the vic¬ tims of everlasting misery ? There can be no doubt of the existence of sin; and that, in every case where it is not renounced and forgiven, it will be followed with endless punishment. These are facts, which are not confined to any particular system. The difficulties with which they are at¬ tended, press as much against the Anti-calvinistic, as the Calvinistic hypothesis; and, in a greater or less degree, are interwoven with every form of re¬ ligious belief, from that of Calvinism, down to the lowest species of Deism. To purge his creed from these difficulties, every man will find absolutely impossible while he remains within the limits, either of revealed, or natural religion. They will follow him at every step, till he take refuge in downright atheism. But whilst our system is not in the smallest de¬ gree burdened, above that of our opponents, with the difficulty of reconciling the origin of evil with the goodness of God; can any thing be more un¬ reasonable than to impose on us the whole task of removing it, or of making us solely responsible for the consequences.? When the citizens of every class and of every name, have had a share in con¬ tracting the national debt; could any thing be more glaringly and egregiously unjust, than to ex¬ act from the men of one class or of one name, the payment of the mighty sum which was alike due by all ? And when the origin of evil is a question 175 of natural religion, and therefore adheres as tena¬ ciously to the creed of the Anti-calvinist and Deist, as to that of the Calvinist; can any thing be more manifestly and shockingly unfair, than to load the latter singly with all the difficulties which ought to be equally borne by the rest? Let them give a satisfactory solution of the difficulty, before they disdainfully turn round and reproachfully tax our system with rigour and injustice. We can assure them thatVe believe, no less firmly than themselves, in the absolute, infinite goodness of God; and that, though nothing exists without his permission, he has not the least direct nor immediate influence in the production of evil. We can tell them that we believe, no less firmly than they, that the de¬ struction of sinners is of themselves, and that God tempteth no man to sin. And we can also tell them, that there is no explanation, which, on their principles, they can give of the mysterious fact, but what will be found to be perfectly com¬ patible with our own. Whether they suppose that evil originated in the abuse of free agency; in the defectibility of the creature; or in the permission or appointment of God, in order to introduce the plan of redemption, by which he might display the glory of his holiness in the punishment of sin, and the riches of his grace in extending pardon and salvation to sinners: whether they imagine that any of these reasons will reach the case, or believe that the fact is utterly inexplicable in the present state, the Calvinistic system is just as cap- 176 able as their own of embracing them. At any rate, it is not Calvinism, any more than Anti-cal- vinism, which has brought evil into the world. Sin exists independently of every religious scheme, and in defiance of them all. And though the name of Calvin and the truths which he espoused, had remained for ever unknown, and Arminianism had enjoyed the exclusive possession of the Christian Church; the reign and the ravages of sin would have been at least as dreadful, if not even more awful, than what they have actually proved, when so effectually met and resisted, in innumerable in¬ stances, by the counteracting- influence of electing love. When once our opponents have accounted for the creation of those whom Omniscience infallibly foresaw would live in wickedness, and become the victims of everlasting perdition ; nothing will be more easy than to shew, in return, the consistency betwixt the perfections of God, and the purpose or decree to permit their destruction. In the mean¬ time, we dismiss, as altogether irrevelant, the objec¬ tion that the decree to save immense multitudes of our race, has been the cause, or occasion, of sin and death to others: and since they, and every believer in natural religion, are just as fully respon¬ sible as ourselves, for the origin and existence of evil, w^e leave them to explain these facts at their leisure. 177 2. Election is asserted to be contrary to the justice of God. “ For when all men by nature are alike; when there is no difference in their moral character nor external state; can any thing be more partial and unreasonable, than to select a part, in order to elevate them to the highest honours, and invest them with the largest and most lasting felicity; and coolly to consign the rest to everlasting igno¬ miny, and unknown and unutterable woe ?” If we had retained all the integrity and inno¬ cence with which we were orginally endowed; if every action of our life, and every feeling of our heart, had been in perfect and unvarying agree¬ ment with the precepts of the eternal law ; if our nature had preserved all the moral beauty, and spiritual health, and vigour, which it possessed, when it came fresh from the hands of our Maker; if every man had been vying with his brother, for the accomplishment of the great ends for which we were created and made; then, nothing could be more manifestly and palpably contrary to the first principles of equity, than to raise some to the dignity and bliss of heaven, and banish others to the darkness and horrors of hell. That prince would be properly regarded as a tyrant, who, reign¬ ing over a nation of sound-hearted loyalists, should load a portion of them with wealth and titles, and recklessly doom the rest to annoyance, and dis¬ grace, or death. If, at this moment, while the ]78 celestial hosts are prostrate before the eternal throne, and each striving to outstrip his fellow in their returns of grateful and adoring homage to Him who fills it; the flames of wrath were to sweep along their ranks, and hurl them, with their hosannas upon their tongues, down to the dreadful abyss below, consternation would justly seize on all the subjects of the Almighty King, and spread dismay and terror to the remotest pro¬ vince of his wide dominions. And if, in a state of innocence, when all inflexibly held fast their love and loyalty to the great Supreme, a distinguishing decree had gone forth, and by its arbitrary enact¬ ments, had assigned some to celestial bliss, and sentenced the remainder to endless perdition; we should have had good reason to have complained of its iniquity and violence: for though the favoured parties would have received no more than what was fairly due, the others would have been subjected to a fate, which they neither de¬ served nor dreaded. But is this in substance, or in shadow, possessed of the smallest resemblance to the proceedings of the Most High ? When Jehovah formed the purpose of electing love, and determined to make a portion of mankind partakers of its provisions; when on its publication the shout of acclamation was heard in heaven, and its blessed inhabitants exulted to bear the message down to gladden the dwellings of men ; were we all innocent and holy ? able to lift up an unblushing front in the presence 179 of our Judge? and entitled to demand heaven and its glory as the righteous reward of our obedience and virtues ? No. We were then lying at his mercy for all our happiness and all our hopes. We had forfeited his favour; and risen in foul rebellion against his authority. Vice and impiety had pervaded every rank, and completely perverted the principles, and debased the practices of the whole. All were liable to the severest visitations of his displeasure. Hell itself had become our inheritance; and the most dreary abode, in all its gloomy domains, was not worse than what we equitably merited. In this criminal, offensive, wretched condition were we placed, when the Father of mercies and the God of love interposed for our rescue; and without appoint¬ ing one to condemnation, except for the transgres¬ sions which he had wilfully and deliberately committed, by an exercise of the most astonishing ineffable benevolence, provided for the deliverance of a large proportion of our guilty and ruined race. And thus when we had forfeited all claim to his favour, and it was entirely owing to his forbearance and mercy, that the whole posterity of Adam were not made the everlasting monu¬ ments of his indignation against sin; can we allege that there is unrighteousness with him, because, while only a part are left to the effects of their apostacy and crimes, he has selected an immense multitude to be the subjects of his saving n)ercy? Without overturning at once 180 every idea of government, we must admit his clear and inalienable right to punish obstinate and incorrigible transgressors. This, however, is the character of all who perish. And this was the state and character of all men by nature: so that he would have been perfectly justified in inflicting endless destruction upon every member of our species. And if the everlasting misery of the whole would have been completely equitable and right, can the extension of mercy to a part, aggra¬ vate the sufferings of the rest, or render their doom rigorous and unjust? Without mitigating the torments of one of these hardened spirits who actually descend to the regions of never- ending woe; the only result which could have followed from withholding this matchless mani¬ festation of Divine benignity, the decree of electing love, would have been to shut up the whole inhabitants of the earth, under the unknown horrors of the same tremendous, and everlasting condemnation. Instead, therefore, of regarding Election as in¬ consistent with the justice of Jehovah, and an object of aversion and dread ; the fact is, that it is the noblest display of his beneficence, and the source of the best and the richest benefits, that ever visited the habitation, or blessed the heart of man. 3. Election is said to be inconsistent with the goodness of God. 181 ‘‘ God is good. He is unspeakably, incon¬ ceivably, infinitely good. His name and his nature are love. But one of the characteristics of love is, that it is diffusive: and therefore he must delight in the communication of happiness, and can have no pleasure in the sorrows and sufferings of his creatures. Since then, by nature all the members of our race are precisely on a level, and one is not more depraved and worthless than another ; how can we reconcile, with his well-known attributes of beneficence and mercy, the purpose to save only a part of our species, when he infallibly fore-knew that this would be accompanied with the everlasting misery of all the rest ? No humane and kind-hearted man, if it were in his power to hinder it, would permit a fellow-mortal to fall into disgrace and wretched¬ ness. And when the compassion and tenderness of the Father of mercies, and the God of love, just as far transcend the highest exercise of human generosity, as the expanse of immensity exceeds the dimensions of the most spacious palace; is it credible, is it possible, that he should deal out his favours with that partiality and parsimony, that, while they convey boundless honour and blessedness to some, they are attended with the most mighty and unutterable woes to others ? By his own express statute, we are enjoined to love our neighbour as ourselves ; and so far from being at liberty to avoid the cry of distress, and with¬ hold relief from the wretched, we are bound to do Q 182 good unto all as we have opportunity, and to seek out the destitute and the afflicted, in order to mitigate or remove their troubles. And when the Almighty can so easily prevent the perdition of his creatures ; can we believe it to be consistent with the peerless ineffable benevolence of his nature, to allow such a large proportion of his subjects to sink into sin, and become the victims of never-ending pain This objection has no more connection, than its predecessors, with the doctrine of election. Like them it proceeds on the most grossly erroneous idea of its nature. And though, therefore, we are not required to lend it a moment’s attention; in order to promote the general interests of truth and religion, it may be proper shortly to expose its falsehood and irrelevancy. God is good; absolutely, infinitely good. Though we were possessed of the tongues of men and of angels, and were to spend our time, and to employ the ages of an endless existence, in the pleasing delightful effort, we could not fully comprehend the extent of his goodness, nor shew forth all its excellence and praise. It is resplen¬ dent in all his works and dispensations. Every ci’eature partakes of its riches. Every day and hour we largely experience its bland and ex- hilirating efficacy; and, unconfined by the narrow limits of earth, it throws its benign and elevating influence beyond the grave, to ennoble and to bless the whole of our eternity. 183 But amidst all the benignity and mercy, which for ever shine around his presence, and irradiate and adorn his throne; it is not to be forgotten, that he has also clothed himself in the attributes of majesty and purity; that he has proclaimed him¬ self a God of jealousy and of justice; and, again and again, shewn himself terrible in his doings to the children of men. Though he seeks the pros¬ perity of all his creatures, and hates nothing which he has made; he never separates their happiness from their holiness, nor pursues their welfare apart from their worth. The Governor of the universe, and the Father of the great family of creation, he never for one moment loses sight of what is due to the dignity of his own character, and essential to the great ends of his unlimited and eternal reign. To permit sinners to pass with impunity, would soon undermine every prin¬ ciple of his administration, deface the fair and beauteous order of his empire, and introduce uncontrollable anarchy and confusion amongst his works. To treat them with the same indul¬ gent kindness, as the obedient and loyal portion of his creatures, would be to establish iniquity by law, and to inflict positive and flagrant injustice upon his dutiful and faithful subjects. For though to upright and holy intelligences, obedience to his will is natural and easy, and accompanied with unknown and unutterable delight; to us, who are weak and depraved, and placed in a world so vicious and ensnaring, his service requires the most Q 2 184 unremitting vigilance and toil, and the exercise of the most painful self-denial. But from all these pains and privations, the idle and ignorant, the careless and carnal, who are devoted to their own ease and interests, and live without God in the world, are completely free. What then would be the consequence of raising the vicious and profane in the world to come, to the same level with the righteous, but to reward the criminal for their crimes, and actually to punish the humble and the holy for their fidelity and zeal, and to check and discourage the cultivation of piety and virtue ? And will the God of glory, ever lend the powerful weight of his sanction, to such a revolting and and demoralizing measure ? God is good; infinitely, inflexibly, eternally good. But has he not a hell as well as a heaven? and were not the creatures, who people the dark caverns of the one, as well as those who replenish the beatific mansions of the other, originally the work of his hands? Under his eye, and by his appointment, did not fire descend from heaven and devour the cities of the plain, with all their vile and abandoned inmates? And at his com¬ mand, did not the waters of the deluge sweep into one capacious grave, the inhabitants of the an¬ cient world? God is good: but under his eye, and by his appointment, was not Adam expelled from paradise; were not sorrow and suffering sent to prey upon his descendants; and death commis¬ sioned to drag, in detail, the successive genera- 185 lions of his sons, to the tomb? God is good: but under his eye, and by his express command, were not the angels, who left their own estate, hurled from the abodes of bliss, and enclosed amidst all the anguish of endless darkness and despair? The health and happiness of a rational crea¬ ture consist in its holiness; in its resemblance to the ever-blessed and all-perfect source of felicity and excellence. Whenever it loses its holiness, it inevitably forfeits its happiness. Misery just as naturally and necessarily follows in the train of vice, as darkness ensues on the departure of light, or lameness upon the loss of our limbs. Where there is no sin, there is no sorrow nor suffering. But the wages of sin are death: and wherever its odious presence is admitted, there wretchedness and ruin infallibly succeed. If, therefore, the misery of his creatures is as incompatible, as the objection affirms, with the goodness of God; when vice and suffering are so closely and insep¬ arably united, why are any permitted to fall into sin; and thus, by choosing the cause, allowed to entail on themselves all its direful consequences; by springing the mine, left to involve themselves in all the effects of the explosion ? We often talk with a lawless and audacious flippancy of what the Deity can do, and of what his power ought to prevent or accomplish. But a greater modesty, than what is generally employ¬ ed, would be highly expedient and becoming. Q 3 186 For on examining his works and dispensations, we soon discover that his proceedings are widely different from what many might suppose, and reg¬ ulated by another rule than the mere extent of his might. Were he to act according to the amount of his strength, since his power is omni¬ potent, he could easily have added indefinitely to the number and the magnitude of the worlds which he has made, and to the faculties and en¬ joyments of the various orders of creatures which they contain. But this he has not done. And if he has seen it proper to limit the exercise of his power; on what authority are we warranted to maintain, that he is bound to carry the exercise of his patience and forbearance, his mercy and beneficence, to the farthest verge of possibility ? Since he has not brought into being as many creatures as he was able to form; we have no right to expect that he shall make the whole, not¬ withstanding their rebellion and degeneracy, just as happy as his omnipotence can render them. Since he has restrained the energy of his power by considerations of wisdom and propriety, why should he not also control the manifestations of his compassion and generosity by a reference to what is suited to the infinite perfections of his nature, and the most extensive and permanent interests of the intelligent creation The God of nature is also the God of grace: and if he be bound in the one department of his works to consult the happiness of all alike, no- 187 thing could be more just and reasonable than to expect, that, in the other, we should find him studying the equal welfare of the whole. But will any man presume to say, that every individual of our race is placed on a level, and allowed the possession of the same measure of mental talents and of temporal enjoyments? Though none is treated with rigour or injustice, it is impossible to affirm that all are treated with the same liberality and tenderness. Throughout all the works of God, from the majestic orbs, ceaselessly pursuing their passage through the trackless fields of space, down to the grass and flowers that clothe the earth, and beautify the face of nature; amidst the traces of a general resemblance which prevails amongst the individuals of every class, the most marked and striking variety is uniformly to be found. But nowhere is this diversity more con¬ spicuous than amongst the members of the great family of man. Some nations are nursed on the lap of ease, and stretch their slender limbs under the warmth of a vertical sun, and amidst all the luxuriance of a tropical climate; whilst others shiver under the rigours of a frozen zone, and wring a scanty and precarious subsistence from a stubborn and a barren soil. Some are formidable in war, and flourish in all the arts and pursuits of literature and peace; whilst others are doomed to the horrors of a merciless despotism, and sunk in all the ignorance and wretchedness of the most brutish barbarism. Amongst the inhabitants of 188 the same country, and the subjects of the same government, the greatest contrasts are visible. One man wallows in wealth, and possesses as much of this world’s goods as his heart can crave; another is deprived of the fruit of his labour, and compelled to maintain a perpetual struggle with want and embarrassment. One reaches the sum¬ mit of society, has kingdoms at command, and fills the world with his fame; another lives unno¬ ticed, and creeps through the obscure and hum¬ ble walks of life to an unhonoured and unheeded grave. One carries, from youth to age, a firm and athletic frame, which never feels the effects of sickness, nor bends beneath the weight of acci¬ dents; another drags out a lingering and dreary existence, the victim of disease, and fear, and mel¬ ancholy. One is blessed with the most vigorous and commanding powers, and makes the most rapid progress in their improvement; whilst an¬ other, favoured with still superior advantages, la¬ bours through life under all the deadening influ¬ ence of mental imbecility, and dies without leaving even the wreck of a name. Now, who is it that creates all these striking diversities in the temporal lot, and in the intellec¬ tual powers of men? Undoubtedly it is that God who worketh all in all; who divides to the nations their inheritance; and separates the sons of Adam. And if there is no unrighteousness with him in these unequal distributions of his gifts; when all are destitute of every claim upon his justice; are 189 we to impeach his goodness, or call his equity in question, because he admits a similar inequality, in the communication of the blessings of religion? Has he a right to do what he will with his own in the regions of nature ? and is he precluded from such a prerogative in the kingdom of grace? Does he, in consistency with his justice, leave men in this life to pursue opposite courses ? and will it sully the lustre of his character to consign them, in the world to come, to different states, propor¬ tioned to the different directions which they have taken here, and the different purposes to which they have applied their powers and privileges? To talk of what the Deity should do, and of what he should not do, as if he were placed un¬ der the inspection of the same laws, and amen¬ able to the same tribunal with ourselves, is the effect of the grossest ignorance and most daring presumption. We are his creatures, and his sub¬ jects; and we are sinners. He is the Creator, the Sovereign, and the Judge. Deriving our life, our talents, and our comforts, from his kindness, we are bound to yield implicit obedience to every intimation of his pleasure; and, in compliance with his express command, to do good unto all as we have opportunity. Being ourselves trans¬ gressors, the vice and profligacy of our brethren can never release us from the obligation to pro¬ mote, to the utmost, the welfare and the worth of the whole human race; and to seek, by every means, to secure the present and eternal happi- 190 ness of the most vile and abandoned. But is this the case with the great and the ever-blessed God ? Is the Creator and Preserver of all, to sink all the functions of the governor and judge, in the exer¬ cise of an easy and indolent lenity towards the most hardened and audacious despisers of his au¬ thority, and violators of his law; and never to reprobate their crimes with his frown, nor visit their inventions with his indignation ? If we had the ability, we should be bound to leave no person to pine in indigence, to sink un¬ der sickness and sorrow, and to die of disappoint¬ ment and broken-heartedness. If we had the ability, we should be obliged to defeat all the schemes of the midnight depredator and ruthless robber, of the dark-minded assassin, and blood¬ stained murderer: we should be obliged to rescue, from fire and flood, all who are in danger of be¬ ing destroyed through their rage; and to spread the light of truth, and the benign influence of humanity, of piety, and prosperity, through all the dwellings of men. But though Jehovah sits in heaven, and has all nature at his command, and the wealth of ten thousand worlds in perpet¬ ual circulation around his throne; how many of the children of men does he leave to consume away in poverty, and perish through want? Though he sits in heaven, and has sickness, fever, and contagion, under his control, and can arrest disease in the midst of its ravages, and tear the prey from the jaws of death; how often does he 191 suffer pestilence to walk abroad amongst the na¬ tions, and desolate the fairest and most populous regions; and how long does he allow the best and noblest of our race to languish under wasting ill¬ ness, or groan beneath excruciating pain? Though he sits in heaven, and lays his essence on immen¬ sity, and in his mighty hand grasps every element of nature; what havoc and ruin are at times wrought among his works, and how many of his ! creatures are permitted to fall a sacrifice to the most dire and unexpected disasters? With all i power in heaven and in earth, could he not avert I the dreary blast, which drives its bewildering fury i across the traveller’s path, and leaves him far I from his happy home, a breathless prey to its resist- j less violence ? Could he not extinguish the over- I whelming conflagrations that burst suddenly out in our dwellings, and reduce whole cities to ashes? suppress the sweeping gale, which overturns the i frail cottage, that crushes, in its fall, its slumber¬ ing and unsuspecting inmates ? and bind up the storm, which descends on the ocean, and paves the deep with the fleets and men that navigate its surface? With an eye that never grows dim, and an arm that never becomes w^eary; has he, for . ages, been deaf to Afric’s sighs, or blind to the I enormous wrongs and outrages inflicted on her I gc^nerous, but injured sons ? Had his eyelids sunk in slumber, or his thunder lost its force; when, time after time, the fiends of war pounced upon their prey, and subjected to sack and pillage 192 the peaceful and rejoicing adjoining States; and when papal bigotry, in league with regal power, digested and matured its plans of wholesale slaughter, and, again and again, before its vic¬ tims could have the slightest suspicion of their fate, made the streets and provinces of Europe flow with the best and dearest blood of Christen¬ dom ? In these instances we have an irresistible de¬ monstration that the rule of his procedure is to¬ tally different from ours. But every one who reflects on the degenerate character of man, and the relation in which we stand to the Creator of all, must admit, that in the most dark and perplexing of these dispensations, the Judge of all the earth does right. And when this is the case; though, if we had the ability, we should be obliged to bring every human creature under the influence of religion, to expel vice and impiety from the globe, and fill the whole world with his glory; who will dare to impeach his goodness, or arraign the equity of his ways; because, though he is able even to subdue all things to himself, to change the hardest heart, to convey the light of saving truth to the most besotted mind, and to bend the most stubborn and refractory will to the meekness and obedience of the faith; he leaves many to live in the habitual violation of his law, to harden themselves in iniquity, and die under all the consequences of accumulated and unpar¬ doned guilt? When our iniquities have exposed 193 us to the severest of his judgments, is there any unrighteousness with him in inflicting the punish¬ ment which we have deserved? Must he cease to be good, because he continues to be just? Be¬ cause we are bound to do good unto all as we have opportunity, does this prohibit us to use rea¬ son and discretion in the exercise of our benefi- cerice? or require us to cultivate the same affec¬ tion for the base and froward, as for the good and gentle? If a prodigal squander his estate in vice and dissipation; are we obliged to relinquish our property to repair the effects of his extravagance, or enable him to pursue his career of debauchery? And when the whole human race have joined in mad rebellion against their God; when the laws, planned by his wisdom and dictated by his love, have been broken and insulted; when the amazing measures employed to reclaim them to obedience and restore them to their forfeited joys, instead of being thankfully embraced and eagerly applied to the benevolent purposes for which they were be¬ stowed, have been converted into the very means of still more outrageously insulting his authority, and still more bitterly grieving the Spirit of grace; is Jehovah, without manifesting his displeasure at these insufferable indignities, to follow them with fresh marks of his favour, and load them with still better and richer benefits ? If this argument needed any additional strength at all, it would derive it amply from the relation in which we stand to the Redeemer, and the fact R 194 that all the blessings of salvation are dispensed solely through his mediation. The Scriptures dwell frequently and fully upon the fact, that salvation, with all the ineffable benefits which it confers, is not given, as a re¬ ward due to the faith and holiness of the redeem¬ ed, but to the righteousness and grace of the Redeemer. It is not bestowed even as an exercise of the Divine mercy or sovereignty, in the manner in which a prince shews kindness, or sends a pardon to a condemned criminal, without any reparation to the injured party, or satisfaction to the violated laws of the land. The Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant, the surety of a better testament: and all our enjoy¬ ments and hopes are founded in his undertaking, and flow from the sacrifice which he offered for us on Calvary. If we have redemption, it is through his blood. If we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, it is in him. And when at last we shall take our departure from this w'orld of sin and care, and receive the end of our faith in the complete salvation of our souls ; it is into his joy that we shall enter, and the abodes which we shall occupy are the mansions which he himself has prepared. In short, as there is not one leaf, bud, nor branch upon a tree, but what depends for its nourishment and growth upon the root; nor a single individual of our race but what derives his descent from Adam; so amongst all the nations of the saved, and amidst all the im- 195 mense and ineffable blessings which they possess, there is not a single individual but what owes his salvation, with all the privileges which it brings in j time, and all the glory which it imparts through ! eternity, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to him i alone. In redemption he is the Alpha and Omega, 1 the beffinning: and the end: he is all in all. And if in religion he is all in all; is it not clear that we had no personal claim to the kingdom j of heaven, and that he had the right to become surety for whom he chose ? Self-existent, inde¬ pendent, and eternal, he was under no obligation to undertake the redemption of any. In conse¬ quence of their transgression, the everlasting per¬ dition of the whole human race, could have no more affected the lustre of his character and the essential felicity of his nature, than the waters of the deluge could extinguish the sun, or the re¬ moval of a molehill shake the stability of the planetary system. And when he was under no necessity to interfere in behalf of any, he surely had a right to interpose for whom he pleased. And when his interposition was the result entirely of his own generosity; can we charge him with severity or injustice, because he did not engage to bring others, or more, than what he actually has done, to eternal glory? If he might have righte- ouslv withheld his mediation altogether: on what principle are we warranted to affirm that he was bound to give salvation to all? If he would have been everlastingly glorified in the perdition of the R 2 196 whole; does he derive no revenue of honour and renown from the endless felicity of the countless hosts of the ransomed ? SECT. II. Defence of Election from the charge that it is inconsistent with the freedom of the human will, and the responsibility of man. In nothing have we a more affecting proof of the deep and awful depravity of the heart, than in the calmness and security with which men run on in courses of vice and profligacy, and the cool hardi¬ hood and unblushing effrontery with which they labour to transfer the whole blame of their worthlessness and crimes to the Father of mercies and the God of holiness. Humble and pious men instinctively charge themselves with all their own unprofitableness and sinfulness; and resolutely and zealously justify the ways of Jehovah. “ Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,” was the confession of David. “ O Lord,” said Daniel, ‘‘ righteousness belongeth unto thee: but unto us confusion of faces.” Paul complained that in him dwelt no good thing. And James, in lan¬ guage which goes at once to the bottom of the evil and applies to every case, declares, “ Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of 197 God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neith¬ er tempteth he any man: but every man is tempt¬ ed, wiien he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.” But look at men of carnal and of corrupt minds. Thouffh loaded with the richest bounties of his in- o dulgent providence; though favoured with the best and most enviable means for improving their powers and securing their eternal welfare; and though in the excess of their impiety, they not on¬ ly neglect all their advantages, but even prostitute their time and talents to the purposes of mischief and impiety; instead of being filled vdth contrition and covered with shame for their offences; they have the baseness to endeavour to vindicate their wickedness at the expense of the justice, the good¬ ness, and the honour of the Most High. “ If our trangressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live ?” was the form in which the contemporaries of Ezekiel vent¬ ed their murmurs. “ Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will ?” were the questions urged by objectors in the Apostle’s days. And to the present hour, the genuine successors of these ancient cavillers persist in the same style of presumptuous and audacious disputing against God. They tell us, that “ he is the cause and author of all. Sitting behind the elements which he has formed, he sends his all-pervading energy to the farthest verge of space, and by his own agency, R 3 198 gives being and continuance to every thing that exists. Every thing in heaven and in earth is the effect of his own appointment, and dependent upon his pleasure. He worketh all things every where, and all according to the counsel of his own will. He has made us what we are, and given us all the faculties and powers which we possess. Our passions and our principles were implanted by his hand; and there is not one of our tempers nor dispositions but wEat he himself has produced. For, till his almighty word gave the command¬ ment, w’e had no existence: and if his irresistible mandate had not called us into being, we should have for ever slumbered on in our harmless and unbroken repose; and by our persons and our crimes, we could no more have burdened creation for the eternity that is to come, than for the eter¬ nity that is past. “ And since he has brought us into existence without our knowledge or our choice; are we to blame for any use that we make of our enjoyments or powers For what end were our desires and passions lodged in our natures, but that we might follow their impulse, and freely feed on the feast which every where is spread so munificently around us? From everlasting he has fixed the destiny of the human race; selected the objects of saving mercy, and appointed the vessels of wrath to destruction. For are w'e not told, that salva¬ tion is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy ? and 199 that the Election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded ? Since therefore, all things have been created by his power, and are in complete subjection to his pleasure; since ages before we were born, he has irreversibly decided our ever¬ lasting condition; what room has he left us for the use of our freedom? what control can we exer¬ cise over our eternal fate ? or, with what justice can we be charged with our guilt and perdition? If we are to be for ever punished for indulging our natural tempers and dispositions; when he infalli¬ bly foresaw, that we would blindly submit to their guidance, why did he allow such dangerous and destructive principles to obtain a place within us? And after he has thus formed us by his own hands, and left us to harden ourselves in vice, with what equity can he censure our conduct, or visit our transgressions with his vengean-ce ! Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?” Election is occupied solely in securing the holi¬ ness and happiness of men, and therefore is in no degree answerable for the guilt and perdition of the impenitent and hardened. In case, however, that any reader is disposed to adopt the preceding mode of arguing, in pure compassion to you, and not from any necessity to defend the doctrine in question, which in reality needs no defence, I must entreat you to observe; that, however firmly you may imagine that you are fortified behind the 200 entrenchments of sophistry and impiety; however confidently you may declaim on the harmlessness of sin; and with whatever arrogance you may ar¬ raign the justice and goodness of the Almighty; it is certain that he finds fault with his creatures, and that there is an enormous criminality and turpi¬ tude in the iniquities of men. We cannot open the pages of inspiration, nor look into the records of conscience; we cannot cast our eyes abroad upon the face of nature, nor take a survey of the dis¬ pensations of providence, without seeing that the Deity is displeased with our offences, and that for our guilt, the frame and order of this fair and mag¬ nificent world are unhinged, and that the whole creation is travelling and groaning together under the dreadful burden of our transgressions. If all actions are alike, and God finds no fault at all; why are sinners so severe in their censures upon the delinquences of their brethren; and why is their own mind, after the commission of an un¬ godly deed, filled with remorse and pain, and not just as serene and cheerful as after the perform¬ ance of a duty? Why are they not just as much delighted in being made the victims of fraud, av¬ arice, and cruelty, as in being the objects of kind¬ ness and generosity ? And why are they more agitated and alarmed after an act of debauchery and villany, than after a work of beneficence, or an exercise of devotion ? Is there nothing, in all this, like a law written on the heart of the sinner, tel¬ ling him what he ought to pursue and what he 201 ought to shun, and assuring him that for all his unrighteous practices, God will soon bring him into judgment ? If all actions are alike, and God finds no fault w’ith the conduct of his creatures, why does he in his word pour out such awful denunciations against the workers of iniquity? Why does he tell us, that on the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest; and declare that they shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God? If he finds no fault at all; why was the first man no sooner contaminated with sin, than he was overtaken with suffering; expelled from the bow¬ ers of rest and bliss, and driven a forlorn and wretched w'anderer across the wide waste of an accursed and uncultivated world ? Look at the deluge of waters sweeping into one capacious grave the people of every land; or the flames of a fiery heaven descending on the cities of the plain, and in a few moments reducing them and their guilty inmates to ashes: and say if there is not a fault ? Go to the garden of Gethsemane, or the rugged summit of Calvary; and if there is not a fault, say. Why w'as the Holy One of God laid prostrate in an agony of sorrow, or suspended in torture and in blood upon the accursed tree ? If God finds no fault; why does he allow scenes of such overwhelming calamity and of such heart¬ rending horror to reign, and permit this extensive and lovely province of his dominions to reel and 202 stagger beneath such a load of wrath ? Why has he deluged the world with such a flood of suffer¬ ings and sorrows, and linked disease and pain, in such strong and indissoluble bands, to a life of in¬ dolence and folly, of profligacy and vice ? Why are sinful practices not just as conducive, as habits of piety and virtue, to health and happiness, to inward peace and external prosperity? When, therefore, a religious course naturally tends to honour and comfort, and a lawless career just as uniformly leads to disgrace and wretchedness; what else is this than the hand of the Eternal stamping holiness with his benediction; and fixing the brand of reprobation upon sin, and pointing it out to the avoidance and hatred of the human race ? It is true, indeed, because these events are per¬ petually occurring, and not marked by any signal or visible movement of Deity, you may imagine that justice has forsaken the earth, and that there is no judge amongst the sons of men. But the ways of God are not as our ways. In inflicting the awful penalties of his violated law, he has no oc¬ casion to summon a court of equity, to call wit¬ nesses, and commit the maintenance of his au¬ thority to the formalities of our judicial proceed¬ ings, Laying his essence on immensity, he sees every act of iniquity; and with all the elements of nature and resources of omnipotence at his command, he can easily, without our observation, render to the transgressor a due reward for his 203 crimes. The wicked work a deceitful work: for though they offend in secret, and cover their tres¬ passes with the most plausible disguises, their sin infallibly finds them out. Though wickedness be sweet in their mouth; though they hide it under their tongue; though they spare and forsake it not, but hide it still within their mouth: yet their meat in their bowels is turned: it is the eall of asps within them. When the body is wounded by a poisoned dart, or impregnated with the virus of a mortal malady; you may employ whatever antidotes and expedients you please: in succes¬ sion, you may adopt every regimen, or range through every clime: the contagion will attend you at every step; follow you to the farthest verge and skirt of the habitable earth; and, though for a time it may seem to be mitigated or subdued, will never suspend its ravages, till it consign you into the arms of dissolution. And from the moment that you venture upon that abominable and for¬ bidden thing which Jehovah hates, you become a son of death. You strip yourselves of the prin¬ ciple of immortal life and peace. You inhale that morbific matter which taints all your moral powers; and harmless and inert, as, for a season, it may appear, it will sooner or later burst out with irresistible violence, and w^ith unerring cer¬ tainty, transmit your soul to the depths of hell. You arm against yourselves the power and the vigilance of omniscient Omnipotence. And you may sooner get rid of existence, or escape from 204 the confines of immensity, than flee from the face of the Almighty, or elude the reach of his justice. He fills heaven and earth; and has a hand which can easily find out all his foes. As often, therefore, as we see the dishonest ser¬ vant suspected and dismissed; the growling and discontented mechanic prowling about in rags and wretchedness; a single night of unlawful rambling succeeded by weeks and months of pain and lan¬ guor; and the drunkard and profligate tottering beneath the wreck of a fair and manly frame, or descending to an early and ignominious grave : what are all these sad and affecting sights but so many monitors, lifting up their firm and faithful voice, and amidst all the noise and bustle of secu¬ lar affairs, proclaiming to the children of mortal¬ ity, “ That verily there is a reward to the wicked; that verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.” The truth may not be so striking as if we saw him sitting on the throne of judgment, and with his own lips pronouncing on each his doom. But the fact is not on that account the less clear and unquestionable. However they may meet their fate, it is not more certain, that amongst all the millions of mankind who die, there is not one but what expires in virtue of that sen¬ tence denounced on the first transgressor, “ Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” than if, with our eyes, we beheld the thread of life cut short by the arm of the Creator. And in what¬ ever form it is inflicted, the misery which follows 205 the commission of vice is as really the effect of that original appointment of Jehovah, “ The soul that sinneth it shall die,” as if we actually saw it proceeding immediately from the hands of the Al¬ mighty. But granting, as we must, that God finds fault with the sins of his creatures, a most momentous question still remains for consideration. Has he a right to do what he does ? Is it consistent with the principles of unbending and eternal jus¬ tice to find fault with those whom he has made by his power; whom he has placed by his providence in the situations which they occupy; and whose folly, perverseness, and impiety, he foresaw from everlasting ? Could it be shewn that the Lord Jehovah has made no provision for your holiness and happi¬ ness, or is utterly indifferent to your fate; that he has given you no warning of your danger, nor any opportunity of fleeing from the wrath to come; that he has placed salvation completely beyond your reach; and determined to reject your most earnest and persevering applications for his favour; that he has forced you to sin against your wills, or hardened you by his own secret and ir¬ resistible agency: then, but not till then, could you be freed from blame; and your destruction be ascribed to his secret but irresistible will. But is this, in substance or in shadow, possess¬ ed of the smallest resemblance to the conduct of the Father of mercies and the God of love ? S 206 In refutation of these foul and odious aspersions on his government, and in vindication of the ab¬ solute rectitude of his administration, and bound¬ less benevolence of his natu*re; we may confidently appeal to all that we see, or feel, or know, in the dispensations of his providence, and in the opera¬ tions of his grace. He has made the most ample and precious pro¬ vision for our everlasting happiness. But if he had been regardless of our welfare; above all, if he had taken any pleasure in our death; after we had risen in daring rebellion against his govern¬ ment, and burst through every restraint that au¬ thority or kindness could impose; instead of send¬ ing his mercy after us, and making us the objects of the most astonishing and amazing compassion and generosity, he would have left us to ourselves, and glorified his infinite perfections in our everlasting condemnation. No positive influence was requi¬ site to ensure our destruction. If he had merely let us alone, and withheld the marvellous inter¬ position of his mercy; every child of Adam would naturally, necessarily, and inevitably have found his way to everlasting misery; and no power in creation could have prevented his perdition. The whole universe must have acquiesced in the equity of our fate; and no voice would have muttered a single murmur against the non-interference of the Most High. In this manner he treated the an¬ gels that fell. And if their doom has brought no dishonour on his reign, nor excited any revolt 1 207 amongst his subjects; could our never-ending suf¬ ferings have created any blank amongst his works, tarnished the lustre of his character, or given any shock to the stability of his throne? But has he let us alone ? Has he coolly left us to perish ? No: He has sent his Son to seek and save us. He “ has so loved the world, that he hath given his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth ill him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’’ And after he has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, can you maintain that he has any pleasure in your death, or any indif¬ ference to your salvation? Has he a Son more dear or loved, that he could surrender in your room ? Can the mind conceive, or can infinite benignity bestow, a pledge of affection more cost¬ ly and glorious than the Lord Jesus Christ? And yet this last, this dearest gift has not been with¬ held. “ O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge then, I pray you, betwixt the Lord and his vineyard: what could have been done more to his vineyard, that he hath not done in it?” From a man, to whom you had proved a benefactor and a friend, could you have presumed to have asked his son to die in your room ? And after you have been enemies to God in your minds and by wicked works; after you have vio¬ lated the precepts of his law, and done despite to the riches of his goodness; could you have lifted up an unblushing front in his presence, and from S 2 208 your insulted God and Judge, have dared to have asked his Son; and from that Son, all the blood that flowed in his blessed veins? Yet all this, unsought, has been employed for your benefit. ’ All this, at the very time that he might have magnified every attribute of his nature in your endless ruin, has been exhausted for your salva¬ tion. To yourselves then I appeal, if he has any pleasure at all in your death. If he had been careless of your welfare; if he had not betrayed you into evil, he certainly would at least have left you in total ignorance of your duty and your danger, and given you no intima¬ tion of the way of escape, nor any opportunity of fleeing from the wrath to come. But is this what he has done ? Has he covered the path of de¬ struction with a cloud; or hidden from any the guilt and the punishment attendant on a worldly and irreligious career ? Has he employed any measures to mislead you into temptation, or har¬ den you in sin ? Has he called good evil, and evil good ? Has he put darkness for light, and light for darkness? Has he, in every street and village, opened haunts for dissipation and crime ? given a charm and fascination to vice ? and then hung out the alluring decoy to beguile and ruin all ? Has he sent forth the cold-blooded emissar¬ ies of depravity to pollute the minds and pervert the morals of the young and inexperienced; and to ply early and late the fiend-like task of propa- 209 gating the contagion and extending the ravages of profligacy and impiety ? To yourselves I again refer it, if the very re¬ verse of all this is not the case ? He has not only given us his Son, and by his mediation secured satisfaction to the demands of law and of justice, and thus provided effectually for the justification of all who embrace the atonement; but he has likewise sent to us the word of salvation, and put us amply in possession of the means of grace. What more numerous and affecting methods could he have adopted, than what he has actually em¬ ployed, to rouse the careless to consideration, and to reclaim the vicious and abandoned from the wickedness and danger of their ways? He has given us the Bible, and the Sabbath, and sermons, and sacraments. He meets us in youth with the labours of religious teachers and instructors; and through all the years of life, and even from the retreat of our dying beds, withdraws not the ur¬ gent and winning services of the friends of piety and humanity. Fie reasons and remonstrates with the thoughtless and secure. He debates the mat¬ ter with the profane and the hardened. He re¬ iterates in the ears of the presumptuous and heaven-daring the certain and dreadful conse¬ quences of their crimes; and holds out the assur¬ ance of peace, reconciliation, and favour, to all who repent and return. Not satisfied with en¬ gaging his word and promise to give free and eternal salvation to every child of Adam, who S 3 210 embraces the Gospelj he has added his protesta¬ tion and his oath. It was by the word of his power that the worlds were made; and it is by the same almighty word that they are still upheld. This word then certainly ought to be sufficient to dissipate all apprehension of his sincerity, and to convince us of his readiness and delight to receive every soul that repairs to him for mercy. What then must we think of his oath ? Such, however, are his condescension and grace, that this has not been kept back. “ God, willing more abundant¬ ly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immuta¬ bility of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.” And what are the words of the oath ? “ As I live, saith the Lord God:” and what can be more sa¬ cred than the life of the Great and Eternal God ? and yet he swears by his life: “ 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?” Listen to language such as this falling from the lips of the God of truth; and say if he is not only sincere, but deeply and strongly in earnest? To listen to such language as this, and then coldly to say, that he is willing to fulfil his word, and to receive the sinner that returns; so far from doing honour to his faithfulness, and giving an adequate representation of the riches of his grace, is, in fact, to offer him an unsufferable indignity. For unless he were deeply and strongly in earnest; 211 when he has all power in heaven and in earth, when in a moment, and with ease, he could make clean riddance of his foes, and dash ten thousand worlds to atoms; why does he bless you with the or¬ dinances of religion, and surround your path with the means of grace ? why does he give you line upon line, and precept upon precept? ring such frequent and loud alarms in your guilty consciences, and throw so many obstacles and impediments in the road to ruin? why does he address your under¬ standings with arguments of such grandeur, and ply your hearts with topics of such tenderness and endearment? why does he follow you, from" day to day, with such melting entreaties, and urge you by such forcible and affecting calls? why, leaving the recesses of his throne, and bending from the firmament of his power, in all the ma¬ jesty and benignity of the Godhead, does he thus expostulate with the indolent and impenitent amongst the sons of mortality, “ How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scor- ners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? turn ye at my reproof: behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” After these impressive declarations of his pity for the impenitent, and his readiness to receive every soul that returns; is there one, in a Christi¬ an land, who, in the day of decision, will be able to plead, that he was willing to be saved, but that God was unwilling to impart salvation? that he 212 sought God early and late v;ith diligence and ar¬ dour, but that he withheld the blessings of his grace, and turned a deaf ear to his most ear¬ nest and persevering supplications? After he has given us the Scriptures, the Sabbath, and the services of the Sanctuary; after he has revealed his wrath from heaven against all unrighteousness, and assured us, that the end of it is death; after he has followed us through life with the loudest remonstrances against the baseness, folly and de¬ structiveness of a careless and irreligious career; and, by the most importunate calls and exhorta¬ tions, has been beseeching us to turn to him and live; is there a single individual, who, in the presence of the Holy and heart-searching God, will be able to maintain that he was ignorant of the criminality and danger of his habits of indo¬ lence, of vice, and impiety? that he was surpris¬ ed into sin; and undone by pursuing courses, which he had no means of discovering to be fatal, nor any opportunity of renouncing or avoiding ? So far from cutting men off in their sins, and giving them no opportunity of fleeing from the wrath to come; God bears with much long-suffer¬ ing: the vessels of wrath which are fitting them- selves for destruction. Instead of fencing himself round with an impenetrable barrier, and driving any to a hopeless inaccessible distance from his presence; he lays open a way of approach unto all, and by the most cogent and endearing addresses beseeches and conjures the most vile and worthless 213 to acquaint themselves with him and be at peace, to come to him and live. And so far from rejecting the solicitations of the humble and broken-hearted, he prevents them with the blessings of goodness, and makes every applicant most heartily and inex¬ pressibly welcome. Ransack all the annals of time, and search from the one side of heaven even unto the other; and produce, if you can, a single in¬ stance in which the cry of the contrite was disre¬ garded, or the petition of the penitent despised. Thousands, and tens of thousands, in every age, have sought his face; and so far from being disap¬ pointed or turned away with scorn, could we col¬ lect them into one, to the praise of the glory of his grace, they would instantly and unanimously declare, that he not only heard the voice of their supplication, and granted them the desires of their hearts, but did exceeding abundantly above all that they were able to ask or to think. Of you, then, who are hardening yourselves in security and impiety, under the pretext that you are irreversibly destined to perdition, I must seri¬ ously inquire, Have you put his truth and gener¬ osity to the test? Have you really complied with his calls and invitations; and after all, been frus¬ trated in your expectations, and put to shame? Have you waited on him in his ways; and after all, found no access into his presence? Have you sought him with your whole heart and soul; and after all, received no encouragement nor kind¬ ness? In the presence of an assembled universe, 214 and before the throne of the Most High, will you be able to advance the plea, and boldly to abide by it, that, in the days of your pilgrimage, you employed your utmost exertions to obtain salvation, but that your last efforts were made in vain? that you watched daily at the gates of wis¬ dom, and waited at the posts of her doors; that you called the sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord and honourable; that you lifted up your voice for wisdom, and cried aloud for under¬ standing; that you counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus; that you determined to know nothing but him; and that it was your labour to take the kingdom of heaven by violence? but that all your diligence and care, all your pains and prayers, were utterly unavailing? At the bar of eternal justice will you be able to tell your Judge, that you anxiously cultivated his friendship, but that he inexorably restrained his favour? that in childhood and early youth, you nobly resisted the temptations with which you were assailed, and faithfully consecrated to him and to his service the first and best of your faculties and affections? that in advancing years you strug¬ gled still more bravely against this strong tide of corruption swelling every where around you; that, uncontaminated by the seductions of sin, and unshaken by its force, you firmly stood by your post, and were resolved rather to perish than to renounce your allegiance to your conscience and his cause ? and that, when old age came on. 215 and death overtook you, you were found in the zealous discharge of your duties, and in active preparation for the realities of a rapidly approach¬ ing eternity? In that dread day, will you be able with a steady eye and unfaltering voice to make your appeal to Omniscience, that to the utmost of your power, yea, and beyond your power, you have endeavoured to glorify God in your body and in your spirit; and that with the talents with which you were entrusted, and in the sphere in which you were placed, no man could have undertaken nor accomplished more than you for the honour of God, the general benefit of man, and your own eternal welfare? The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods, he knoweth, and your own hearts and consciences know; that, though all this was your clear in¬ dispensable duty, your conduct was the very re¬ verse of this. God called, but ye refused. He stretched out his hand, but you regarded it not. You set at nought his counsel, and would have none of his reproof. You despised his mercies, and defied his judgments. And by whatever so¬ phistry you may now bewilder your reason, or lull your fears to rest; how will your hands be strong or your hearts endure, when from his shining throne the Judge of all shall thus accost you? “ In walking my ample rounds of beneficence and mercy, did I never lay the calls and invitations of the Gospel in your path, nor knock at the door of your undeistanding, nor present myself at the avenues of your heart ? Did I send the message of reconciliation and of peace to them who were afar off, and to them who were near, without ever bringing its sound within your hearing, or once telling you what you must do to be saved? Were you never informed of my right to all that you had and to all that you were? Did you never hear that to be carnally minded was death, and that they who were far from me should perish ? Did you never hear that I sent my Son to be the Saviour of the world? Did you never hear that there was redemption through his blood, the for¬ giveness of sins; that whosoever would, might come to him, and that him that came to him, he would in no wise cast out? Did you never hear that this was my commandment, that ye should believe on his name, and that by believing ye should have life through him?” With these facts before you; the patience, for¬ bearance, and goodness of God, on the one hand, and your carelessness, ingratitude, and criminality on the other; are you the men who have a right to complain of the inequality of his ways, and to assert, that you are hardened by his arbitrary and irresistible will ? Are you the men who are en¬ titled to affirm, that you perish from a lack of the means of salvation, and that, therefore, your Judge has no just ground to find fault with your con¬ duct, nor to execute punishment upon your offen¬ ces ? So far from being able to plead ignorance of your duty, or any deficiency in the means of 217 grace; you know that you have been annoyed and harassed with the clear shining of celestial light; and cloyed and disgusted with the multiplied va¬ riety, and the never-ceasing recurrence, of devo¬ tional exercises and religious instructions. To what measure then will you have recourse, or what excuse will you urge for your sins ? Since you cannot pretend that they are the effects of ignorance, will you attempt to justify your sloth and indolence on the plea of inability ? Will you maintain that religion and its duties, are far be¬ yond your strength ; and that you really cannot love God nor serve him? What is it that you mean by your inability ? It is evident that you can do many things. You can follow the labours, and enjoy the pleasures of life. Many can drink and swear; can overreach and defraud their brethren ; can quarrel and fight; amass wealth, and prosecute the pursuits of litera¬ ture and science. And when you can exert such activity and ardour in the service of sin, of the world, and of self; why cannot you discover at least as much resolution and vigour in the cause of God, and in the work of your own salvation ? Can you act with freedom and spirit in the pro¬ secution of every thing that is mean and secular; but find a restraint and embargo laid on your powers, whenever you give them a religious direc¬ tion, or employ them in any rational and useful exercise? Though your tongue can walk the T 218 earth, and propagate with fluency every tale of filth and detraction; does it falter and lose its tone, whenever you begin to pray, or converse upon the sublime discoveries of Christianity, and the overpowering realities of the world to come ? Though your limbs can carry you with regularity and steadiness through your walks of business, amusement, or vice; does a palsy seize them whenever you attempt to turn them towards the house of God, or bend them beneath you in prayer ? You talk with ease and confidence about your weakness and inability: but the amount of what a man can do when he is in earnest, is altogether astonishing. Look at the slaves of vice, the sons of science, the children of ambition, and the vo¬ taries of Mammon ; and mark the energy which they exert, and the perseverance which they dis¬ play. To gain the objects on which their hearts are respectively set, they rise early, take late rest, strain every nerve, put forth every power, sacrifice their ease, their time, and every social comfort and domestic endearment. Now, are they able to do all this for their secu¬ lar and selfish ends; and are you unable to stir a hand or a foot in the cause of God, and in the work of your eternal felicity ? Have they all this talent and vigour to lavish upon the world and folly; and are you unable to undertake or accom¬ plish the smallest office for the honour of our Redeemer, and the everlasting; benefit of vour 219 soul ? The same strength which enables a steed, from his own waywardness, to carry his rider across fields and ditches; if he chose, surely, could enable him to advance with as much speed upon the right road. And the very same faculties which enable you with such assiduity and zeal to prose¬ cute the business of life, or the pursuits of vanity and vice; if such were your choice, would certainly enable you, with as much ease and success, to give yourselves to godliness and good works. For is it not just as easy, and far more rational and honourable, to read the word of God and engage in the exercises of devotion, as to devour the vapid trash, or to take a share in the frivolous amuse¬ ments of the day? Could not the same feet, which carry you to a distant tavern to indulge, undis¬ turbed, in your sabbath-day’s debauch, transport you with as much ease to the sanctuary, and place you under the sound of the everlasting Gospel ? Is it not just as easy to spend a day or a night in meditation and in prayer, as in rioting and revel¬ ling ? and as pleasing and delightful to employ your talents and your fortune in the cause of re¬ ligion and beneficence, as in acts of profligacy and impiety ? Plead what you may, weakness you cannot pre¬ tend. All the restlessness, ingenuity, and decis¬ ion, which you exhibit in the toils of business, amusement, or profligacy; in that dread day, when Jehovah lays judgment to the line, and equity to the plummet, will be stern and inflexible witnesses T 2 220 against you. The sabbaths which you have saun¬ tered away in the fields, or profaned in the de¬ baucheries of the tavern, when you were within sight of the house of God, and within the sound of its bell; the long dark nights which you have wasted in unhallowed revelling, while your heart¬ broken partners were watering their couches with their tears, or exerting the last remnants of their strength to gain for themselves and your starving children a scanty subsistence, in room of those ample comforts of which your intemperance had deprived them; the schemes which you have form¬ ed, and the fatigues which you have undergone to secure your purposes of baseness or of crime, when others were devising plans and executing measures for the illumination, happiness, and sal¬ vation of an apostate and perishing world; all these will rise to your confusion in the day of re¬ tribution; and testify to your face that your ruin is of yourselves, and that you are undone, not from the want of power and of opportunities to do good, but from your unconquerable aversion to God and every thing divine, and your incorrigible attach¬ ment to a life of sloth, selfishness, and depravity. Do you still dwell on your inability to love God and serve him? Well then, again I must ask, What do you mean by your inability ? Look at the letter and spirit of its precepts, and say, What does his law demand? In that first and great commandment, which includes the substance and essence of all the rest, in what measure are we 22 ] enjoined to love him ? Are we required to give him more than we possess ? more than what he originally bestowed ? Does he exact from us the heart and soul which he has conferred on another, which has been carried into heaven by some of the spirits of the just made perfect, or is possessed by some of the shining ministers before his throne, and which must be sought for in vain within the confines of the world which we occupy? No: his kind and adorable language is, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” And what else do these words im¬ port, than that we are just to give him the time, and the talents which we have, and to love and serve him with the heart and soul, the strength and mind which we actually possess? And will you presume to maintain that you have no heart nor soul, or that you cannot surrender them to him and his service? Others possessed of powers not superior to your own, have loved and served him; they have brought forth the fruits of righteousness, and abounded in the work of the Lord. Such was the case with Caleb and Joshua, vvith David and Hezekiah, with John and Paul. They followed the Lord fully, and served him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. But were these, and the other w or¬ thies, who were the glory of their own time; and whose heavenly example has left such a luminous track upon the distance and darkness of interven- T 3 222 ing ages, were they by nature any better than you? Were they laid under obligations more numerous and strong than you, to love and serve the ever-blessed and all-glorious God ? Were they bought with the blood of a nobler sacrifice, or called to the hope of a heaven more splendid and blissful, than you ? Were their faculties more varied and,vigorous than yours ? or did they en¬ joy privileges more elevated and profitable than you? Was the Bible which they read, more clear and copious than your own ? Did their Sabbaths return more rapidly than yours, or last longer when they came ? Did they meet at ordinances under the promised presence and influence of an agent more gracious and powerful than that eter¬ nal Spirit, who presides in our sacred solemnities, who is able to perfect what concerns us, and to work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure? And if with talents and opportunities in no degree superior to your own, they mani¬ fested such activity in the service of God, and suf¬ fered so much for his sake; on what principle will you be able to justify your apathy and indolence, your unprofitableness and crimes? Will you tell us that they were endowed with power from on high; and that, by being made strong in the grace that is in Christ, they enjoyed a strength and an energy, which it is impossible for you to acquire, and presumptuous and vain to expect ? But pray. Who gave them these supernatural 223 assistances, and withholds them from you ? The same Lord who is over all, is rich unto all. With him there is no respect of persons; and whatever he bestows upon one, his own word of promise shews that he is M'illing to impart to another. After the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is not a greater gift that he can confer than the Holy Ghost. And yet in the Scriptures of truth, he has committed all the honour of his character to grant the Holy Spirit to all them that ask him. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone ? or if he ask a fish, will he, for a fish, give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion ? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” And after he has with this solemnity passed his word, can you fear that he will fail to fulfil it? 'Before therefore, you complain of your inabili¬ ty to perform the duties which the Divine law en¬ joins, I must seriously inquire. Have you ever asked from God the gift of the Floly Ghost? Have you sought him with deep humility, with melting tenderness, with fervent persevering prayer? Have you resorted to those walks, the ordinances of religion and the exercises of devo¬ tion, which he delights to frequent? Have you 224 cultivated those dispositions, love, meeTcness, and piety; and pursued those practices, temperance, godliness, and good works; which attract and re¬ tain his blessed and his gracious presence? Knowing that it is to these tempers and habits that the promise of his presence is restricted; if in your heart and soul you know that you have disliked or shunned them, with what justice can you complain of his absence, or suppose that the want of his influences will palliate or excuse your unprofitableness and sloth ? Is it possible that the want of better advantages, will ever sanction the waste or misimprovement of those which you have? Was the man, with one talent, vindicated for his remissness, because his trust was so limited, and he was not possessed of five, or ten talents ? And if you neglect or abuse the faculties and privil¬ eges which 3 'ou actually enjoy, will you escape, at the tribunal of God, because you were not en¬ dowed with still higher and nobler blessings, the grace and teaching of the Holy Spirit? The exercises of religion and the duties of mor¬ ality, are all unqnestionabl}" within your reach: and betwixt the sincere and conscientious use of these exercises and discharge of these duties, and a state of grace, 1 know of no tremendous chasm, no impassable gulf that is placed. No mighty bound is requisite to transport the traveller from the regions of the one to the territories of the oth¬ er. The path across them is continuous; and conducts the pilgrim by an eas}' and almost insen- 225 sible progress from the one to the other. Whilst the Christian is thoroughly and habitually consci¬ entious in all the duties of morality and exercises of religion; the man who is thoroughly and habitually conscientious in the whole of these, if not altogeth¬ er, is at least almost a Christian, and within one step of the safety and dignity of the sons of God. The faculties and powers with which the regener¬ ate and unregenerate act, are the same. On be¬ coming a believer, the Christian does not cease to be a man. He carries along with him into religion all his natural talents and all his literary attain¬ ments: and like the Israelites, who employed the spoils which they had taken from the heathen, to beautify the tabernacle and temple; he consecrates to the honour of his Saviour and the service of his God, all that he had formerly perverted to the purposes of worldliness and sin. The external deeds which the regenerate and unregenerate per¬ form, are frequently alike, and they often engage in the same acts of devotion. But the great dif¬ ference betwixt them, lies in this. The one acts naturally, and the other spiritually: the one from love to God and gratitude for redeeming mercy, the other from a desire to secure his own reputa¬ tion and interest: the one in obedience to the will of the Most High, and in reliance upon his grace, the other in dependence on his own wisdom and resolution, and from a regard to his own present or future welfare. The things which the hypo¬ crites and formalists do, are good in themselves. 226 From whatever principle they proceed, the read¬ ing of the Scriptures, temperance, integrity, char¬ ity, and the public and private worship of God, are all in themselves commendable and excellent. The alms of a Pharisee will go just as far to relieve the wants of the indigent, as the same sum given by the hands of an Apostle. The very materials of which the self-righteousness of a legalist is composed, consist of the same duties and perfor¬ mances which constitute the personal character of the Christian. And it is only from the low mo¬ tives from which his deeds are done, and the base purposes to which they are applied, that he him¬ self is deprived of all their value. Let him only change his motives; let him deny himself; let him do all in faith, and love, and heartily, and unto the Lord: and from that moment he crosses the line which separates a state of nature from a state of grace; and the very same works which are now rejected as an abomination, will be sustained as an acceptable sacrifice, and honoured with a rich and immense reward. Knowing then the close connection, established throughout the whole extent of the Divine do¬ minions, betwixt the means and the end; and know¬ ing that the enjoyment of the influences of the Holy Spirit, is ensured only to the humble and earnest use of the ordinances of religion and com¬ pliance with the will of God; how can you palli¬ ate your guilt, or expect to escape his righteous judgment, while you deliberately and persevering- 227 ly refuse to submit to what is so plain, obvious, and easy, and so evidently and incontestably with¬ in your reach ? If there is only one step betwixt you and the blessings of grace; and if it is unde¬ niable that the taking of that step is within your power; while you peremptorily refuse to take it, pray, who is to blame for your being deprived of the blessings lying beyond it ? While you care¬ lessly or disdainfully persist in neglecting the ordi¬ nances of religion and the duties of morality, who is to be accused for withholding from you those spiritual and eternal blessings which these exercises and duties were appointed to convey? If a man squanders his own pence, who will en¬ trust him with the management of ten thousand pounds? If he indolently declines to gather the fruit that grows spontaneously in his own garden, who is to be at the expense of rearing for him peaches and pine-apples? “ He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. If therefore ve have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches ?” If you will not make a dis¬ creet and rational use of your intellectual talents and external religious advantages; on what ground can you expect the still higher and nobler blessings of sanctifying and saving grace; and whose fault is it, but your own, if you perish without them ? The husbandman cannot raise the sun : he cannot se¬ cure rain: nor command the sweet influences of 228 air, and light, and heat. But if he omit the la¬ bours of the field, will the clouds shower down the fruits and grain that he needs ? If he wishes to have a crop, he must cultivate his lands; and he wall find, that while he is actively employed in using the means within his reach, Providence will amply furnish him with the influences beyond his own power. The earth will yield her increase, and God will send his blessing. And if you wish to get into the very heart of Christianity, to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, to be made alive unto God, and fruitful in every good work; what other course ought you to adopt than that which he himself has prescribed? You must lay hold upon the hope which the Gospel discloses. You must give your¬ selves to reading, meditation, and prayer; you must set the Lord always before you, live by faith, walk with God, and enter into the spirit and de¬ sign of every duty and service which he has incul¬ cated. “ Say not in thine heart. Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above; or, who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach.” Blessed so richly with religious instructions and religious ordinances, you never can have cause to assert any scarcity of the means by which salva¬ tion is to be obtained. And if you will only enter honestly and zealously into the intention for which 229 these advantages were bestowed, you will find, to your delightful surprise, that the grace which you are seeking is at hand; and that it is ministered to you in a measure far beyond all that you could have asked or thought. “ To him that hath,” or improves what he possesses, “ shall be given.” Difficulties will vanish as you advance; mountains will melt away: the light of heaven will settle round your path: and the power of Omnipotence invigorate your efforts. “ The path of the just is as the shining light. They go from strength to strength.” The grace of Christ is sufficient for us, and his strength is made perfect in our weakness. From him an energy is derived, which carries us in triumph over every opposition ; and which lands us at last in all the liberty of the sons of God, and in the honourable and successful performance of his will. With all these facts then before you, to what are we to ascribe your sloth, your indifference to religion, and your addictedness to a life of world¬ liness, folly and vice; but to your carnality and de¬ pravity; to your hatred of that holiness and self- denial which religion requires, and without which you know that you cannot see the Lord ? For, granting that from this moment and downwards, you were to be endowed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, what would be the practical effects which it would produce? It would just constrain you forthwith, and cordially to adopt those exercises and employments, which you now dislike and U 230 shun. It would lead you to watchfulness, to hu¬ mility and prayer; it would inspire you with love to God and man; it would fill you with a dread and detestation of all evil, and with devotedness to religion and righteousness; it would transfer your affections to the things that are above, and induce you to cultivate a life of faith and of fellow¬ ship with the Lord Jesus Christ. For what else are the fruits of the Spirit, but spiritual-minded- ness, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance? When therefore, at this very moment, you might enter into the very heart and substance of these various and invaluable graces, and yet you will not; on what ground are we to believe that you are sincere in your professions of regret for wanting them, or that you would esteem or venerate them; even supposing, that on a future day, you were to gain them by a miracle? The man who neglects the well-known means which are necessary to procure an object; let him affect for it whatever regard he pleases, by that neglect he gives evidence that he entertains no esteem for it at all. And when you deliberately refuse to employ the plain and indispensable measures requisite to secure the renovating and sanctifying influences of the Floly Spirit, which would immediately create a complete separation betwixt your soul and sin, and bind you firmly and indissolubly to the love and practice of godli¬ ness and every branch of goodness; above all, 231 when instead of yielding yourselves to God, you are living to yourselves, cleaving to your worth¬ less and wicked ways, and by your carelessness and crimes grieving the Spirit of grace, and labouring to make him cease from before you: what else does this prove, than that your guilt and misery are the effects, not of necessity, but of your own free and voluntary choice; that you are fond of your bondage; and that bad as your condition is, you love to have it so? What else does this de¬ monstrate, than that you are eternally undone, not because God has from everlasting doomed you to perdition, not because he has called you to ser¬ vices totally beyond your strength, not because he refused to regenerate you, or withheld from you the gift of the Holy Ghost; but because you were devoted to your sins, you would not come to Christ for life, and were determined to perish rather than repent and turn to God? Had you hearkened unto his voice and walked in his ways; he would have strengthened you, with all might in the inner man, to have known and done the whole of his blessed will. You would have experienced that as your day was, so also was your strength. You would have discovered that that God, who is found of them that seek him not, meets him that rejoiceth and worketh righte¬ ousness, and who remembers him in his ways. By therefore, despising his counsel, and resisting all the entreaties of his mercy, you bring your blood U 2 232 upon your own heads, and render your destruc¬ tion entirely of yourselves. And when you know all these facts; know your own voluntary and obstinate attachment to vice, and the various and affecting methods which the God of love is incessantly employing in his provi¬ dence and grace, to break you off from your fool¬ ish and ruinous career, to form you to habits of piety and holiness, and train you up for the enjoy¬ ment of never-ending glory j can you say that he forces you into sin, controls the freedom of your choice, or hardens you by his owm secret and irre¬ sistible will ? This is the last desperate I'esort of the careless and impenitent. But it is just as rotten and un¬ tenable as any of the preceding unavailing refuges to which you have had recourse. It may indeed be difficult or impossible to ex¬ plain the agreement betwixt the freedom of the hu¬ man will and the purposes or decrees of God. But is the difficulty or impossibility of compre¬ hending any established fact, any legitimate rea¬ son for its rejection? Are we to deny the union betwixt soul and body, because we are unable to describe its nature; or to shew how substances of such opposite qualities, which possess no proper¬ ties in common, and bring no points into contact, can exert any influence upon each other ? When mathematicians prove, by the most rigid prin¬ ciples of demonstration, that there are curves 233 perpetually approaching, which, though extended to infinity, could never meet; are we to set aside the evidence of geometry, because the result is contrary to what we would naturally have antici¬ pated, and seems to involve a contradiction ? When we find that heat adds to the bulk of water and diminishes its weight, and that cold produces precisely the same effect; for a glass vessel, filled with water, is just as readily shivered when im¬ mersed in a freezing mixture, as when plunged in¬ to a boiling liquid; are we to resist the testimony of our senses, because opposite causes, instead of producing opposite, produce precisely the same effects ? And when in these, and in a thousand similar cases, the apparent contradiction betwixt two facts, is no ground for disbelieving their exis¬ tence ; is the difficulty or even impossibility of comprehending the consistency betwixt the free¬ dom of the human will and the prescience or pur¬ poses of God, any authority for questioning the reality of either the one or the other, or for affirm¬ ing that the two are absolutely incompatible ? Ease and difficulty, are only relative terms. What escapes one man at one time, may be obvi¬ ous to another, and discovered by himself at a fu¬ ture period. We now know many a fact, which in infancy baffled all our feeble faculties. And, in the march of mental improvement, many truths have been brought to light, which, in preceding ages, eluded the inquiries of the most acute and penetrating. The philosophers of our day, are U 3 234 familiar with the circulation of the blood, the composition of the atmosphere, the figure of the earth, the motion of the planets, and a multitude of other natural phenomena, which were totally unknown to the sages of antiquity. But have we already travelled over the whole field of science, and subjected to our review all its wide and won¬ derful domains? Are we now entitled to dogma- tize on the ways of Providence and the dictates of revelation, and erase from our creed, and hold up to reprobation, every article, which does not ex¬ actly tally with our preconceived opinions, and come fully within the grasp of our puny powers ? Far as we have carried our researches, we are only on the confines of knowledge; and the amount of what we already have ascertained, shrinks into nothing, when compared with the in¬ finite range of those works and ways of God which remain yet unexplored. Truths innumera¬ ble exist, of which we have received no intimation: ^ and many facts, which to us, at present, seem | dark and inscrutable, possess no obscurity to the higher orders of creation, and will present no mystery even to our own minds, when we reach a ! better and a brighter world. And after all, many things, which may surpass the more enlarged and . commanding views of them and us, must be per- j fectly plain to the eye of Omniscience. Though ! therefore, we may be utterly unable to reconcile the freedom of the human will with the Divine decrees, can any thing be more rash and unwarran- 235 table than to affirm, that either of them is un¬ founded, or that the two are so repugnant, that the admission of the one must necessarily require the exclusion of the other? That God, who has united the soul and body, and from opposite causes elicited the same effects, was completely able to establish a connecting link betwixt them, and to preserve them in the most perfect harmony. At any rate, we cannot call in question their reality. We have already seen ample evidence for affirming the absolute infallibility of the Divine foreknowledge, and the certainty of the Divine decrees. And we can entertain just as little doubt of the liberty of man. You know that you have the power to act agreeably to your judgment, and to choose or refuse the objects presented to your acceptance. You never feel any resistance to the exercise of your own understanding, nor any compulsion employed to influence your choice. And, at all times and in every situation, you ex¬ perience such a perfect ability to use your own discretion, and such an unbounded freedom to obey the dictates of your own minds and the voli¬ tions of your own wills; that it is impossible to conceive any greater degree of liberty with which Omnipotence could have endowed you, than what you actually enjoy. And when you have an absolute and uncontroll¬ ed power to employ your faculties as you please, can you throw the blame of your voluntary, your deliberate transgressions upon the foreknowledge 236 or the decrees of Jehovah ? After all that he has done, and all that he is doing to manifest his ab¬ horrence of sin, and reclaim you from the evil and the ruin of your ways; after he has kept all the astonishing machinery in Providence and grace, in vigorous and constant exercise to rouse you to repentance, and lead you to lay hold on eternal life; and when, in return, your whole con¬ duct has been a contest with the Holy Spirit," one uninterrupted course of rebellion against the Most High, and an unbroken series of outrages against his justice and his goodness; are you the men who are entitled to complain that you are delivered by his determinate counsel to commit the abomina¬ tions which you perpetrate, and that you are hardened in iniquity by his secret and irresistible will ? After he has set his face against all unright¬ eousness, and declared that its wages are death; after he has enjoined you to love him with your whole heart, and to glorify him in your body and spirit, which are his; on what principle can you maintain that a reference to his unknown designs, will justify your obstinate and habitual violation of his most express and positive precepts? Is it exactly by setting at defiance his most solemn and earnest injunctions, that you can most effectually comply with his most genuine and favourite inten¬ tions ? Is it precisely by doing the very reverse of what he has commanded, that you can most successfully fulfil his pleasure, and accomplish the purposes of his fixed and immutable will? 237 The only rule of duty which we have received, is his revealed will. His secret counsels and de¬ signs are matters completely beyond our reach, and with which we have not the smallest concern. And while our great business is to regulate our lives by the dictates of his word; we must also re¬ member that it is the intention with which we act, and ©ot the effect of our deeds, that marks our character and decides our state. If a man utter what is actually true, while he himself really be¬ lieves it to be false; whatever important and val¬ uable consequences we may derive from his state¬ ment, still he is a liar. If I have a troublesome neighbour, and if it would contribute much to my interest and comfort if he were removed out of the way: so long as these facts are unknown to every human creature, that gives none a right to put him to death: and the man who, from secret dislike to the individual, should commit such a deed, would be a murderer; and, without involv¬ ing me in the atrocity of the act, would engross to himself the whole guilt of his blood. Now, in the evil that you do, you know well that you follow the practices of those who are around you, or the desires of your own hearts and minds: and you also know that in all that you do, you have not the most distant regard to God nor his will. And if the best saint can derive no ben¬ efit from his most useful services, unless they have been done simply and seriously in obedience to the word of God, and for the purpose of promot- 238 ing his honour; when, throughout the whole of your careless and irreligious career, you have not had the slightest respect to God, or his law, or his glory; can you imagine, that by afterwards having recourse to the subterfuge of his hidden and unsearchable will, you will extinguish the guilt, or escape the punishment of the offences which you have knowingly and stubbornly per¬ petrated in downright opposition to his most ex¬ plicit prohibitions, and in order to gratify your own passions and propensities ? How would you bear it from a son or a servant, whom you had laboured in vain to train up in habits of industry and honesty; who, when detected in an act of fraud or villany, should endeavour to avoid the penalty of the law, by pleading that the infamous deed which they had done, the deed which you hate, from which your very nature revolts, and against which you had most assiduously studied to guard them, was meditated, planned, and con¬ summated on purpose to comply with your inmost wishes, and to confer a peculiar obligation upon you? Would not you regard this as an aggra¬ vation of the fact, and the addition of insult to crime ? And are your character and honour en¬ titled to more justice than those of the Most High? Is it not enough for you to sin against his goodness and grace, and set his authority at defiance? Must you also attempt to fix on him the blame of your own depraved and vicious con¬ duct ? 239 You may say that your conduct was foreknown. Very true. But when every transgression arises solely from the free consent, the deliberate choice of the criminal; it is in vain to suppose that the foreknowledge of God, of which we cannot enter¬ tain a doubt, or even his decree, which so far as sin is concerned we have every reason to deny, can, in the slightest degree, diminish our guilt. When once the foreknowledge of God is pro¬ mulgated, it may have some influence upon the actions of rational agents; but whilst it is confin¬ ed to his own breast, it can have none. Since this day twelvemonths another year has fled, and all its occurrences are closed. The whole of its events have become past realities; and none of them can be recalled from the eternity into which they have retired. During the whole of its revo¬ lution we acted freely, and according to our judg¬ ment and our choice; and are therefore evidently and unquestionably answerable for all the deeds which we have done. But now, would it alter the nature of these transactions; w'ould it reduce the demerit of our sins, or increase the value of our better services, were we this evening to discover that the whole of our conduct during its currency had been the subject of prophecy ? that all that we thought, and said, and did, had been foretold, and published years ago in Dutch or German ? When the year was finished before you heard of such a record, could you say that the predictions which it contains had possessed the smallest in- 240 fluence either upon your temper or your charac¬ ter ? Was it owing to them that you neglected the ordinances of religion and the duties of moral¬ ity? that you lived in habits of indolence and sloth, or of profanity and debauchery? When their very existence was unknown, and therefore could not once enter into your contemplation ; by what possibility could they produce any impres¬ sion upon your proceedings? And whilst last year, and every year of your lives, you were ab¬ solutely ignorant of what God has foreseen, can his foreknowledge in the slightest degree affect the nature of your actions ? Suppose that this day God should endow you with a portion of his omniscience; that he should lift the veil which he has laid upon the affairs of France or Holland, and permit you to perceive all that, for twelvemonths to come, shall be done within their territories; suppose that all the acts of knavery and avarice, all the instances of base¬ ness and impiety, the passions of the angry, the resentments of the revengeful, the brutalities of the sot and the barbarities of the cruel, the rav¬ ages of the depredators and the bloodshed of the murderers; in short, that every incident and oc¬ currence throughout the whole extent of their do¬ minions were fully subjected to your view: while you merely see what is to take place without tak¬ ing the smallest share in the transactions of the people; while you neither prompt them to vice, nor encourage them in crime; while you neither 241 put a hand to their persons* nor apply a single motive to their wills; while there is not one in the countries in question who has the least idea that you have an eye upon his ways, or possess the most distant notion of his state; would you con¬ sider it fair to be accused of all the mischief which they commit of their own accord? When you had no hand in what they did; when all was their own work; could any thing be more false and in¬ famous than to charge you with the blame of all the evil which they had done from their own free and deliberate choice ? But when God tempts no man to sin; when he employs innumerable meth¬ ods to detach us from vice and to form us to hab¬ its of faith and holiness; when his prescience has not the smallest influence upon our conduct; when in every instance we are left to the complete and unfettered exercise of our own judgment and dis¬ cretion; can it be more reasonable and just to at¬ tempt to fasten on his foreknowledge, or even on his supposed decree, the guilt of what you do from the full bent of your own hearts, and in downright defiance of his own most clear and positive pro¬ hibitions ? If the foreknowledge or decree of God infringes your freedom, it must produce the same effect up¬ on your brethren. If therefore his decree deprives your actions of their criminality; since you are not the subjects of a stronger necessity than others, it must divest their conduct likewise of every thing blameworthy; and you can have no title to resent X 242 or censure their most base and flagitious deeds. But if you think yourselves justified, notwithstand¬ ing the secret counsels of the Most High, to re¬ probate their malicious works, God and man must certainly possess the. same right to condemn and punish you for your wicked ways. It is only upon account of sin, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, and comes upon any of the sons of men. While we are free from sin, we are free from danger: and therefore, it is only by our own consent, by our own uninstigated and independent choice, that we can entail death and misery upon our own souls. Now, granting, for which in reality there is not the slightest evidence, that God had actually fore-ordained you to perdition; pray, is this any reason for you to rush into sin, and to live daily and habitually in the willing, and determined pur¬ suit of those practices, which will make your de¬ struction sure? Suppose that, from the well known pilfering propensities of a boy, I am certain that he will attempt to plunder my orchard; and sup¬ pose, at the same time, that I tell him beforehand, that if he do, by the machinery which I have planted around it, he will, to a certainty, have his brains blown out, the moment that he touches one of the apples. But the youth perseveres, and is shot in the act. I just ask. Who is to blame for his death? I, who placed the guns; or he himselt^ who did the deed, which drew the trigger ? He had nothing to do upon my grounds: and had he 243 kept his distance, he would have been just as safe as the thousands, and tens of thousands in the country, who were uninjured, because they remained away. And when God, so far from forcing you into evil, forewarns you of its dreadful consequences, most earnestly and ardently exhorts you to guard against it, promises blessings the most immense and lasting to them who shun it, and denounces judgments the most inevitable and tremendous, upon them who commit it: can you allege that his secret decrees, of which you have not the slightest intimation, will lessen the atrocity of your deliberate transgressions, against the most plain and positive precepts of his law, or mitigate the horrors of that ruin which you yourselves have wrought? No: Your blood is upon your own heads; and with your own hands, you twist the bands wherewith you yourselves are caught. Let your temptations to evil be ever so numerous and strong, your only business is to oppose them; and while your consent is withheld, your innocence is safe. The more powerful the temptation is, resistance is the more honourable and glorious. If the worst should come to the worst, you can die. The martyr can do no more than resist unto blood, striving against sin. And if you are so beset with temptation, that no other escape is left; like the martyr you can yield up your life. And surely it is infinitely better to die a martyr to X 2 244 the cause of truth and of goodness, than to fall a victim to vice and crime. But to profess, like you, to believe that God is regardless of your welfare, or that he has predes¬ tinated you to condemnation; and at the same time voluntarily and eagerly to rush into the very sins which you know must for ever undo you : what else is this, than the very height of wickedness and insanity combined ? If the employer dislikes his servant, tells him that he suspects his honesty, and is determined to try to have him disgraced, or sent to the gallows: what a complete madman must this domestic be, and how worthy of his doom; if after this, the first time that he has a part of his master’s property at his command, he purloins it, lays himself open to instant detection, and thus provides the means for having himself justly brought to an untimely, and shameful end ? And granting the very worst view that you can conceive of the Divine decrees; how can you reply against the justice of the Deity for consign¬ ing you to perdition, when, with your eyes open, and in spite of all his kind remonstrances and calls to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold upon eternal life, you steadily and pertinaciously persist in those courses, which you most assuredly know will entail everlasting death ? You may keenly push on in your lawless and ruinous courses. The conduct which you are pur¬ suing is lamentably, painfully, common. The world lies in wickedness; and the great mass of 245 men are taking the direct and patent road down to the chambers of everlasting despair. But after all that God has done, in providence and grace, to arrest your dreadful career; and after the zeal and assiduity with which, in defiance of all his merciful and astonishing measures to reclaim you, you fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and persevere in treasuring up to yourselves, wrath against the day of wrath, you must remem¬ ber that your destruction is of yourselves; and that your consciences themselves, amidst all the horrors of your never-ending wretchedness, will attest the justice of your fate, and proclaim that God is guiltless of your ruin. SECT III. Defence of Election from its supposed inconsistency with the universal calls and free offers of the Gospel. From the close connection betwixt our everlasting happiness and the purposes and plans of the Most High, Election has long been an occasion of un¬ common alarm and terror to many, whose hearts have been truly exercised unto godliness, and who have lived most completely under the powers of the world to come. On exhorting some of these to embrace the Gospel, and to apply to themselves the joys and consolations which it contains, they repel the most tender and forcible admonitions by which they can be addres- X 3 246 sed by the melancholy and affecting assertion that they are not elected, and therefore that their repen¬ tance must be unavailing, and mercy and pardon completely unattainable. “ Could you ascend,*’ say they, “ the heaven of heavens, and look with¬ in the volume of the Divine decrees; could you unfold the registers of everlasting love, and point out our names enrolled in the Lamb’s book of life; then most gladly would we flee to the Saviour, and most thankfully would we lay hold of his great salvation. But who can tell if we are the objects of God’s everlasting regard, and have been chosen in Christ before the world began ? Who can tell but that we are appointed unto wrath, and that the heart of the Omnipotent is steeled against our supplication and our cry ? We may call; but he will not hear : we may seek him early and earnestly, and not be able to find him. For have we not been informed that the election hath obtained salvation, and the rest were blinded ? Have we not heard of an Esau, who, when he would have inherited the blessing, was rejected, and found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears ? Have we not read of a Judas, who repented and went and hanged himself, that he might go to his own place? If therefore, Jehovah has passed us over in the arrangements of electing mercy, to what purpose is it to exhort us to repent and be¬ lieve the Gospel ? Are we to place ourselves in opposition to the Eternal; and wage a fruitless 247 and ruinous war against the Almighty ? Can our feeble voice drive back the tide of ocean; or our puny arm arrest the sun in his progress through the sky ? And can our tears, and prayers, or our labours, affect the proceedings of the Great Supreme, or revoke the decisions of his fixed and irresistible will ? Behold he is in one mind, and who can turn him ? Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord com- mandeth it not ?” If any reader is harassed with these perplexities and fears; granting, as we must, the reality of Election in all its extent and latitude, I must ask. What is it which a penitent, self-condemned, and perishing sinner, can possibly desire to encourage his application to the Saviour, and which he would regard as a valid and ample warrant, not¬ withstanding the imagined formidable barrier which the doctrine in question presents, to flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him, and to embrace the righteousness and grace of the Son of God ? Would you wish to have a free unqualified invitation to come to the Saviour, and an affectionate, unrestricted offer of the blessings of his salvation ? Would you like to have this invitation and offer given you by Him who formed the counsels of electing love, who knows their extent, and can with the most consummate ease and unfailing certainty, carry all the calls and pro¬ mises of his grace into complete and glorious effect? Would you delight to find, that the whole 248 were founded upon an all-sufficient atonement, which can render the gratuitous and eternal salva¬ tion of every one that believes, perfectly consistent with the most brilliant and illustrious display of all the attributes of Deity ? If this is any thing like the amount of the security which you demand for your encouragement and .hope: then I can assure you, that you possess all this, and more, in the pages of inspiration, the true and faithful word of the Lord. ’ 1. The Gospel contains a universal call to come to the Saviour, and a free offer of salvation. And what more than this is necessary to banish the fears created by Election; and to animate ev¬ ery penitent to come with boldness to the Saviour, and accept the grand and precious provisions of his matchless unsearchable grace ? A starving pauper could desire no more to warrant him to repair to a feast furnished by the munificence of a wealthy and generous friend of the indigent, than his own kind and unreserved invitation to all who were in want to come and partake of his hospital¬ ity. A band of reduced and broken rebels could desire no more to induce them to lay down their arms, and return to their duty and allegiance to their beneficent but injured Sovereign, than his own gracious proclamation, assuring all of pardon and of favour, who plead his published amnesty, and submit to his mild and righteous government. And are we wretched, and miserable, and poor. 249 and blind, and naked? What more then can we desire to embolden our approach to the Gospel feast, and participation in all its inexhaustible fulness, than the generous, unlimited invitation and call addressed, by its gracious and munificent Provider, to all who are willing to come and feed on the stores which he has prepared? Are we rebels against God, and enemies to him in our minds and by wicked works? And what more can we ask to persuade us to return to him, and accept the proffered reconciliation, than his own blessed and astonishing declaration, that whoso¬ ever will may come, and him that cometh, he will in no wise cast out ? The calls and invitations of the Gospel are free, unfettered, and unlimited. The blessings which they announce, are the most exalted and precious which can flow from the heart of the God of love, or fill and feast the soul of man: and whilst they provide for every quality and species of human wretchedness, they are addressed unreservedly and indiscriminately unto all. The language in which they uniformly run is, “ To you, O men, 1 call; and my voice is to the sons of men. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” To mark the philanthropy which he felt, and the 250 liberal principles by which he was actuated; the Lord Jesus Christ, immediately before his ascen¬ sion, gave his Apostles, and through them every minister of the word, a commission, setting aside all local distinctions, all petty and narrow peculi¬ arities: a commission reaching the utmost ends of the earth, and embracing within its kind and com¬ prehensive expanse all the forlorn and hopeless wanderers of our race. Some nations were wild and barbarous; and others were civilized and pol¬ ished: but all were alike sunk in profligacy and vice, and equally helpless and undone. But Jesus, who is Lord over all, is rich unto all. With him there is no respect of persons: and, accordingly, in his last authoritative intimation of the purposes of his grace, he made no limita¬ tion nor reserve. His own generous and memor¬ able charge was, “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” “Make no distinction betwixt the learned and the illiter¬ ate, the rude and refined, the profligate and the moral; but go ye unto all the earth; and where- ever you find a human being, however vile and abandoned, beneath whatever load of guilt and wretchedness he may be bending, preach my Gos¬ pel. Tell him of the faithful saying, that I have come into the world to save sinners. The best never can have redemption, except through my blood; for there is salvation in no other: and the most worthless and abominable need not despair ; for it cleanseth from all sin.” 251 What terms can be more free, extensive and reviving than these ? If there is not a creature on the surface of the globe, that carries within him a rational immortal nature, but what belongs to the great family of man; then there is not a man nor a woman excluded from hope: for to every son and daughter of Adam the word of this salvation is sent. For where is the man or woman, within the wide confines of the planet which we occupy, to whom I am prohibited from directing the same message of reconciliation and mercy, which I am now endeavouring to press on you? Could I wing my flight to other worlds, and range through oth¬ er systems lighted by other suns; to other orders of fallen and guilty creatures, I could bring no authority from the pages of inspiration to lead them down to Calvary, and bathe their wounded consciences in the crimson currents of the cross. But from this place all round to the world’s end, I am warranted, I am commanded, by all the weight of Divine obligation, to lift up the same generous and cheering invitation to each, to sum¬ mon all to the arms of the Saviour, and to entreat the whole to be reconciled to God. Let me travel through the bounds of your native parish, march on through the length and breadth of the British empire, and urge my unwearied way to the far¬ thest verge and skirts of the green earth: let me knock, as I pass, at the palace of every prince, the cottage of every peasant, the hut of every savage, and the hovel of every slave: at what point in all 252 this wide circuit of benevolence would I be com¬ pelled to change my tone, and drop the exhorta¬ tion, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ? At what stage in all this extensive pro¬ gress of mercy, would I be under the necessity "of concealing the delightful fact, that the Son of God has come, not to call the righteous, but sin¬ ners to repentance, and that we have redemption through his blood ? In what case would I be re¬ quired to repel the application of a single peti¬ tioner, bv telling him that his situation is too desperate, or that the fountain of redeeming love is closed; and that, even if he should draw nigh to the Lamb of God, he will find no sympathy nor relief? Could life and vigour last; from this spot all round to the world’s end, and from this moment down to the last beat of time, in faithful¬ ness to the God whom I serve, and in compassion to the souls where I should minister, I would be bound in tones the most loud and tender, and in the audience of all the children of men, to pro¬ claim that God has so loved the world, that he has given his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever¬ lasting life: and in every instance in which the question of the Jailor should be renewed, I would be obliged to return precisely the same reply which the Apostles gave; “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and let your former character and condition have been what they may, you also “ shall be saved.” 253 Are any disposed to say, “ These would be glad tidings of great joy if we could only rely on their truth. But how can we confide in their certainty, or embark our eternal all upon such security, when we know that the Lord seeth the end from the beginning, that he has chosen a people for himself, and that the elect shall obtain salvation, but that the rest are blinded? With these facts before us, how can we believe that there is no dissembling with the Lord Jehovah in the universal invitations and free offers which he gives in the Gospel?” In order to reach this stronghold of infidelity, and drive the bottom out of this master-delusion of Satan, I must beseech you to observe, that II. The Lord Jehovah is sincere and earnest in every call, and in every offer, which he has giv¬ en in his word. Within the wide range of imagination, within the boundless extent of possibility, what greater proof could you demand of the faithfulness of the Most High, and of the safety of every soul that embraces the promises of his love, than what he has actually employed to demonstrate his inflexible veracity, and confirm the faith of all who betake themselves to the hope which he has provided? From a man of integrity and worth, what more could you ask as a demonstration of his sincerity, than his promise, or his oath, or some strong and Y 254 costly pledge of his affection ? And has not all this, and more, been employed in the case before us ? In a manner, the most solemn and impressive, the Lord Jehovah has engaged his word and pro¬ mise to give free and eternal salvation to every child of Adam, who accepts the peace and the par¬ don proclaimed in the Gospeh He has again and again committed all the honour of his character to the kind and gracious assurances, that whosoever will may come to the Saviour, and that him that cometh to him he will in no wise cast out. And has he said it; and shall he not doit? Has he spoken it; and shall he not bring it to pass? Is there lightness with God ? Is his word yea, and nay ? To his word he has added his protestation and his oath. His word is much. It is by the word of his power that he upholds the worlds. His word therefore surely ought to be sufficient to sustain the mind under the darkest and heaviest trials, and preserve the soul in serenity and con¬ fidence amidst the pangs of dissolving nature, and the wreck of a falling universe. What then are we to think of his oath ? Such, however, are his condescension and compassion that this has not been withheld. “ God, willing more abun¬ dantly to shew unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.” And what else are the words of the oath, than those which you lately read? “As I live. 255 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 But as if all this had been too, too little to manifest his own generosity, and banish fear from your guilty troubled breasts; he has done more. He has given us his Son. “ For God has so lov¬ ed the world, that he has given his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Here, as on an impregnable bulwark, your faith may take her stand, and throw down the gauntlet of defiance to all the powers of earth and hell. Has Heaven a richer gift ? Has God a Son more dear or loved ? If, therefore, he has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? give us the very blessings which he died to purchase, and the with¬ holding of which would defeat the design of his death ? It may be difficult, or impossible, for us to ex¬ plain the means of reconciling these sublime and encouraging truths with the limited extent, and immutable nature of the Divine decrees. That, however, is a matter with which we have nothing to do. Our only business is to ascertain what is delivered in Scripture; and on consulting this in¬ fallible record, we find that the doctrine of Election is not more clearly and fully taught in the Bible, 256 than the power and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. You are just as distinctly told that he is the salvation of God to the end of the earth, and the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; as that there is a remnant accord¬ ing to the election of grace; and you may as safely rely on the one as on the other. For though we may be unable to illustrate the union of the two; we may depend upon it; that God, who fixed the arrangements of electing love, and proclaimed the riches and grace of the Gospel, sees the link that connects them, and preserves them in the most perfect and glorious agreement. In forming the plan of redemption, the universe was stretched out to his view, and all the revolutions of time and of eternity fully unfolded before him: and in estab¬ lishing the purposes of his infinite wisdom and mercy, he drew the outlines of the blessed scheme sufficiently large and ample to meet the wants of all who, in any age, would accept its treasures; and made the most abundant provision for their hope, safety, and comfort. On the foundation, therefore, of its published calls and promises; whatever your present state may be, or your former character may have been, if you are only willing to be reconciled unto God, and saved in the manner which he has appointed, you may take encouragement and come to the Sa¬ viour, and fearlessly commit into his hands the whole of your eternal interests. Within the wide 257 extent and compass of the Gospel, there is not one invitation nor promise, but what is given by the God of truth; by Him, who delights and rejoices to be known as the God that keepeth covenant and faithfulness: by Him who cannot lie; by Him who never has, and never will fall back a single inch from his word, nor alter the thing which has gone out of his mouth. Thousands have trusted in his grace, and put his sincerity to the test. But ask now of the days which are past, which were before you; and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, if in a solitary instance, he has broken his word, or suffered his faithfulness to fail ? Could you collect the redeemed of the Lord into one, they would loudly, unanimously affirm, that he has been true to his word, and done as he said. True to his word ? No: they would with one voice declare, that he has done exceeding abundantly above all that they could ask or think. Many have admired the sublimity and force of the sentiment expressed by one of our sacred poets: “ His very word of grace is strong As that which built the skies; The voice that rolls the stars along Speaks all the promises.” But though the frame-work of nature was joined together by the same power that formed the plan of redemption, and published the invitations of grace; creation has no such security and guard for its permanence and stability, as the purposes Y 3 258 of his mercy and the proclamations of his love. Infringements have been made upon the laws of nature. The sea has been divided: Jordan has been driven back: the mountains have skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs: the sun has been stayed in his course, and the moon in her going down. And what has been may be again. The universe is preserved by his will, and depends for its continuance entirely upon the good pleasure of his goodness. Whenever he issues the mandate, the fabric of creation, massy and solid as it seems, shall be broken up, rent into ten thousand fragments; and the place which now knows it shall know it no more. But all within and around the Gospel of peace is placed beyond the reach of change and destruction; possessed of the immutability of his own nature and the firm¬ ness of his throne; and secured in its permanence and glory by the power of Omnipotence, and the promise and oath of Him, who is faithful and true; and who is ever in one mind, and whom none can change. “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but his word shall not pass away.” Are you still perplexed and distressed about the subject? Are you still disposed to say, “ How' can these things be? Are we not told that Christ did not pray for the world, but for them whom his Father had given him; and that he laid down his life, not for all mankind, but only for his sheep? If therefore we are not of his sheep, if we are not of the number of those who were given 259 him; however large or free the invitations and promises of the Gospel, what saving benefit can we derive from the blessings of his death ?” In order to expose the utter groundlessness of this alarm, and to discover the security with which you may rely on the truth and certainty of all his calls and invitations, I must entreat you to re¬ member, that they are all founded upon III. His atonement, which is infinite, and per¬ fectly sufficient for the redemption of the whole human race. You are not to suppose that the exalted and be¬ nevolent plan of redemption was formed upon the narrow and contracted model of human transac¬ tions; and that, in dying, the Lord Jesus Christ sustained a quantity of suffering, so exactly pro¬ portioned to the number and demerit of those who are actually saved, that the amount of his sufferings must have differed, if there had been the slightest variation either in the number of the redeemed or in the magnitude of their offences. This gives a low and degrading idea of the glo¬ rious dignity and infinite worth of his humiliation and death. This places his mediation too much upon a level with the transactions of trade and of commerce; where, upon paying a certain sum you obtain a certain quantity of goods, but if you wish to enlarge your purchase, you must part with a greater amount of your property. This, however. 260 is a representation of the matter altogether desti¬ tute of support either from reason or revelation. In all the works and dispensations of the Deity there is a liberality and grandeur, which utterly surpass all our little proceedings, and completely transcend all the paltry notions and calculations of mortals. With all the exactness of debtor and creditor we adjust the means to the end, and firm¬ ly refuse to expend on the object more than the most rigid economy will warrant. But in all his actions the blessed and eternal God consults, not what his object may demand, nor what his crea¬ tures may deserve; but what is worthy of his own character, and suitable to the extent of his own boundless and inexhaustible resources. In the formation of the world, for example, the end which he had in view was a habitation for man. “ He created it to be inhabited; he made it not in vain.” But the very first sight of the riches with which it is stored, and of the magnificent wonders which every where crowd upon our view, is sufficient to convince us, that, in its construction, its all-bounteous Creator did not labour to hus¬ band his treasures, and studiously project a world which would barely afford subsistence and accom¬ modation to his creatures. Every thing combines to prove, that, with a munificence and generosity altogether divine, he called into existence a world corresponding to the generosity of his own nature and the majesty and gloiy of his kingdom. Redemption is the work of the same adorable 261 Author: and every part of this building of mercy bears the mark and stamp of the same ineffable wisdom and matchless beneficence. It not only reaches, with infallible accuracy, the ends for which it was designed; but accomplishes the whole in a manner calculated, at every step, to give an immense display of the innate benevo¬ lence of his nature and the unsearchable extent of his resources. Instead of bringing down the schemes of Deity to a level with our paltry pro¬ ceedings, and crowding within the limited and narrow dimensions of human policy the sublime and liberal objects of his Father’s love, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mediator betwixt God and man, has outdone all created expectation, and produced a work which shall fill heaven with its fruits and all eternity with its fame. He has not only fin¬ ished transgression and made an end of sin: but also brought in everlasting righteousness. He has not only fulfilled the demands of the law: but likewise magnified it and made it honourable. He has not only destroyed the works of the devil: but established his Father’s glory on a broader and firmer basis; and where sin abounded has made grace much more to abound. In accepting the substitution of the Saviour, Divine equity did not visit on his head the penal¬ ty due to our transgressions in kind nor in con¬ tinuance. It did not, in the spirit of the law of retaliation, demand eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, 262 wound for wound, stripe for stripe; nor subject him to a punishment precisely the same in quality and duration, as that which we must have person¬ ally endured. It exacted from him merely an atonement sufficient to meet all the requisitions of law and of justice: so that God might be just in justifying the ungodly who believe in Jesus; and Christ might be the end of the law for righteous¬ ness to every one that believeth, whether their number should be great or small, or their offences slight or heinous. Though the multitudes of the redeemed should have been infinite, more than perfect obedience the law could not have exacted: and though only one should have been saved by his death, less than perfect obedience, and a per¬ fect atonement, the law, from its absolute and im¬ mutable rectitude, could not have sustained. But his obedience was perfect. It fully met every claim of law and of justice, and is equal to the complete and everlasting salvation of all who will embrace it. His sufferings were severe. They stretched his blessed body on the cold ground, bathed it in a bloody sweat, filled his holy soul with unutterable anguish and sorrow, and brought him to the dust of death. But did his deep unutterable agony arise from the number of the persons to be redeem¬ ed? No: it arose from the inherent malignity, and the inexpressible enormity of the sins from which they were to be delivered. Now, for any thing that we know to the contrary, if God had deter- 263 mined to save any of the children of men, the very same display of the evil of sin, by the suffer¬ ings and death of the Redeemer, might have been equally necessary, though the number of the elect had been much smaller than what it will ac¬ tually prove, when all the ransomed of the Lord shall be assembled around the throne of glory. If the son of a king interpose in behalf of a rebel¬ lious province, and on condition that the insur¬ gents may be freely forgiven and restored to fa¬ vour, consent to undergo the punishment which they deserve: whether their number be great or small, the pardon of all is equally owing to his in¬ tervention; and their deliverance depends not so much upon the amount of his sufferings, as upon the honour done to his father’s government, by the substitution, in their room, of a person of his high dignity and endeared relation to the Sover¬ eign. For, if death was their doom, let their number be ever so large, at the very utmost, he can do no more than die: and, let their number be ever so small, since such was their sentence, he can undergo no less than death. In the same manner, since the wages of sin are death, and the soul that sinneth must die; according to every idea that we can form of the subject, if Jesus had undertaken our redemption, whether the number of the elect had been great or small, it would have been equally necessary for him to have given his life for the sheep, and made his soul an offering for sin. “ If God had formed this earth for the 264 residence of one man only; had it been his pleasure to afford him the same kind and degree of light that we enjoy; the same glorious sun which is now sufficient to enlighten and comfort the millions of mankind, would have been neces¬ sary for the accommodation of that one person. So, perhaps, had it been his pleasure to save but one sinner, in a way that should give the highest possible discovery of his justice and of his mercy, this could have been done by no other method than that which he has chosen for the salvation of the innumerable multitudes who will in the great day unite in the song of praise to the Lamb who loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood.”* As the sun however, has a ful¬ ness of light and heat sufficient not only for those who actually behold it, but for millions and millions more: so in the sufferings and sacrifice of the Son of God, there is a righteousness and virtue sufficient, not only for the free and ever¬ lasting salvation of all who apply for an interest in the blesings of his purchase, but for multi¬ tudes more without number. But to what are the infinite efficacy and all- sufficiency of his atonement owing? By what means has he been able by a single sacrifice to purchase the Church to himself, and present it without spot or wrinkle unto God ? Here I be- Newton’s Messiah: Ser. 16 th. 265 seech you to mark the answer well. The value of his atonement does not depend upon the quantity of blood which he shed, nor upon the duration of the sufferings which he sustained, but upon his infinite dignity and glorious greatness. A person of less dignity could not have secured the salvation of a single soul. Though men and angels had to all eternity undergone, what the Lord Jesus Christ in his humiliation and death endured; by their united labours they could no more have expiated the guilt of one sin, than the light and heat of the summer’s sun can give life to one ten¬ ant of the tomb. The sun is not the instrument to raise the dead. And the highest in creation want the authority and power to wash away the guilt of one transgression or reconcile a single sin¬ ner unto God. This is a task infinitely beyond their united strength; and for which the Lord Jesus Christ alone was competent. He was God, and became man. As man he was capable of obeying and suffering: and as God, the Divinity within him gave to his temporary obedience and sufferings an infinite value; so that by one offering of himself he has finished transgression, made an end of sin, and for ever perfected them that are sanctified. There is therefore now no condemna¬ tion to them who are in Christ Jesus. Who shall lay any thing to their charge.^ For if it is the digni¬ ty of his person which imparts efficacy to his sac¬ rifice ; if it is because it is the blood of Him who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without Z 266 spot unto God, that it possesses all its worth; then, since his dignity is Divine, the virtue of his death must be absolutely unbounded, and his blood must be able to cleanse from all sin. The Scriptures accordingly do not mention it as a price paid for a particular number of blessings, nor an atonement offered for a limited amount of demerit. They represent it as the antidote for human guilt, and as a complete cure for all our moral disorders. Wide as depravity has spread its baneful ravages, and notwithstanding all the in¬ tensity with which it operates, there is an energy and force in his salutary and life-giving sacrifice to encounter and overcome it in all the gradations of its malignant progress. There is no state, no stage in all the rounds of this destructive malady, where its power and efficacy can fail. The healing influence of the brazen serpent was not confined to a dozen, nor a score, to a few of a family, nor the remnant of a tribe. It was erected by the express appointment of God for the common bene¬ fit of the camp, and fitted by his appointment for a complete specific for the plague with which it was invaded. If all the congregation of Israel had needed its aid, and if all had looked to it for help, it was capable of curing the whole. And what limits can you possibly assign to the efficacy of the righteousness and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? They possess a virtue amply sufficient, if employed, to destroy the venom of sin and ex¬ tinguish its existence. He was manifested to take 267 away sin; his blood cleanseth from all sin; and he taketh away the sin of the world. Now are these things so? Does the blood of Christ cleanse from all sin ? Does the efficacy of his atonement depend, not upon the intensity or duration of his sufferings, but upon the dignity of his person? and since his person was Divine, is his atonement possessed of infinite value? Then, let the number of the elect be what it will, what cause have you for despair? In the everlasting Gospel all the blessings of the great salvation are freely and unreservedly proclaimed in the ears of every one who will only listen, and pressed on the acceptance of all who hear. By the authority of the eternal God you are commanded to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus; and by the word of Him who cannot lie, you are assured that upon your believing you shall have everlasting life. You are not then straitened in him. Why should you be straitened in your own bowels? Let your former character and condition have been what they will, take with you words, and turn unto the Lord. Your transgressions may be great: they may have mounted unto the heavens: but his righteousness is above both the earth and heavens. In the sea there are depths sufficient to bury mountains as well as mole-hills. In the re¬ gions of space there is room not only for clouds and meteors, but likewise for the sun, and moon, and stars. And in the ocean of redeeming love Z 2 268 there are depths capable of burying the most en¬ ormous crimes, as well as the most trifling trans¬ gressions. Within the wide expanse of Immanu¬ el’s benevolence and power, there is room enough and to spare for the chief of sinners, as well as for the smallest offenders. With him there is mer¬ cy, and with him there is plenteous redemp¬ tion, and he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Look then unto him, and you also shall be sav¬ ed. Whatever may be the nature of the Divine decrees, you see that there is a universal invita¬ tion to come to the Saviour, a free and an earnest offer of salvation unto all; and that this invitation and this offer are founded upon the efficacy of his atonement, which is infinite, and perfectly suf¬ ficient for the salvation of the whole human race, if they will only accept it. Believe then on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall not perish nor come into condemnation, but have life everlasting. In your application to the adorable Redeemer, you have no concern with the secret and unsearch¬ able counsels of the Most High. Your only busi¬ ness is to attend to what he has published in his word; to embrace the Gospel; to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and thus, by the acceptance of the provisions of his love and mercy, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure. Never did any case appear more totally, more absolutely desperate, than that of the woman of Canaan. On the disciples entreating 269 that our blessed Lord would grant her request, his reply was, “ I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She was a Gentile. From the language which he used, she might have concluded, that his ministry was confined entirely to the Jews, and that he neither could nor would deviate from the strict letter of his commission; and therefore, since she did not belong to that favoured nation, expectation was vain, and any farther importunity utterly useless. But instead of renouncing hope, or beginning to argue against the reasonableness of Election, the Evangelist tells us, that “ then came she and worshipped him, saying. Lord, help me.” Whether she was elected or not, whether she was one of his sheep or not, she could not tell. But she knew well that she was lost, and that, if he refused to interpose in her behalf, she must be for ever undone. She therefore would take no denial: but urged her application with redoubled fervour; till at last she obtained the desire of her heart.* And when you are harassed with fears about the subject of Election, have recourse directly to the mercy, the power, and the promises of God, Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children. Jesus has all power in heaven and in earth. He is able to save to the utmost, and to save for ever. His invitations are Matth. XV. 21—28. z s 270 universal, and his offers are most free, urgent, and affectionate. The command, “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth and the assurance, “ Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast outproceed from an authority just as high, and are as deeply founded in the principles of absolute and eternal truth, as the declarations, “ Known unto God are all his works from the beginning;” and “the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, and the thoughts of his heart unto all generations.” Cease then to perplex yourselves with any rea¬ sonings about his plans and his purposes. Let no speculations about the deep things of God, pre¬ vent you from the instant discharge of your clear and indispensable duty. He exhorts, he entreats, he commands you to come to Christ for life, and to believe on him for salvation. By rejecting the calls of the Gospel, under the pretext that he is not sincere and faithful in the free and unlimited invitations which he gives, you offer an insuffer¬ able insult to the Eternal, and charge the God of truth with falsehood. “ He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eter¬ nal life; and this life is in his Son.” The unqualified affirmations that “ whosoever will may come to Christ; that he that believeth shall be saved; and that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved;” admit only 271 one conclusion: and that is; that they who perish become the victims of perdition, not from the se¬ cret purpose of God, nor from the want of the means of salvation, nor from any defect of power and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ; but because they will not come to him, believe on him, nor call upon his name. With these facts, I must bring this treatise to a close. You have now seen the mild and benev¬ olent nature of this most unpopular and obnox¬ ious doctrine. You have seen the evidence for its truth; and how entirely it is free from the most common and plausible objections with which for ages it has been assailed. If you attend either to the perfections of God, or to the multiplied proofs which he has given in his works of a plan and a purpose, or to the plain and obvious meaning of the declarations in his word; you must admit that redemption is con¬ ducted upon fixed and unchanging principles, and that they who are saved, are saved and called not according to their works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world began. If you con¬ sider the rational faculties with which men are endowed, and the astonishing measures which God is perpetually employing in providence and in grace, to lead them to repentance and constrain them to lay hold upon eternal life; it is certain that the destruction of sinners is of themselves, 272 and that in Christian countries they perish under the aggravated guilt of having abused, not only the gifts of Divine bounty, but likewise the riches of redeeming mercy. And when you reflect upon the infinite value of the atonement, and the uni¬ versal indiscriminate earnest invitations of the Gospel; what greater encouragement can any de¬ sire, than what all actually possess, to go to the Saviour and embrace the ineffable blessings of his salvation ? Let me entreat you to remember that the sub¬ jects which have passed under review, are not mat¬ ters of speculation merely. They are deeply in¬ separably connected with our everlasting welfare. We are all on the road to eternity. In a few short years our connection with time will be con¬ clusively finished. But our condition in the world to come, will be decided by the reception which we now give to the Gospel of the Son of God. If you now secure the hope which it sets before you; you shall never perish, nor come into con¬ demnation. The eternal God will be your refuge, and underneath the everlasting arms. He will guide you by his counsel; make every thing work together for your good; and at last receive you to his glory, and make you heir of all things. But if ye now neglect the great salvation; there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna¬ tion, which shall devour the adversaries. The Gos¬ pel, which, when believed and applied, is a savour 273 of life unto life, when rejected, becomes a savour of death unto death. To-day then, while it is called to day, harden not your hearts. Give all dili¬ gence to make your calling and election sure. Fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life. FINIS. Andrew Young, Printer. I V * • ' ^ I : '( •■-> .'-'v :J ■ A\ . 11lo iuofm ft J ^l^iJ>99\rtiJr^ '. */ ioiil -O^i “f^*^ r|v sra? *V •vv •ii rf. • ,• S'- d: :i'>W', "f ^J# fl'^UKd-.iVBh V!/ r. wu 'f(h','j| rf ' y 'A yyr.'i-^ L ..uo i fj lN‘4fiai»L' ' ■■■■ ■' 'j'’’ '0d!«. '■■■ .’■•• •.’’♦^‘ I .■in.'ii ' I ,, . •*" .>.W ?' ', ’ •• ' ■ , . 4 '^v^'i*. ‘ ' '''^•■^ ' * ^ . • r ' fc--V. ' " Si£*' u 5 % -. !t •* '^,i; 'r' -if, 'V- 'i.' -' .. f .nU' r • vs •' J.v: J . ".s’li .»'■ vVi- Vfv, f'- •,♦■•* ' )' > 'w”* «' • , -. •'’■■' ■' ■■ -Y. . . '■ .• : -r In. 1^. 'irUr^s , .,:U' M'l ; Jk ^7 * • • ■ .V *. '*^ *^ * . ♦ ’’ '■ ^'^■' ‘•^■‘ '^-y ' ' ^, ■' ; •■" '*'j ft B « .■ ’ • • ' ' ' w ' '•' , •«% -J'?/- Ijv'v- '. * ‘:r ^ * V'- ' 'Ciu 'iw. '. ', 25 ? iP- if 3 ’ . 4 ’ ,. <^' 4 V ^f.r ' . » .* .' B ■ O * • ^ «l » , tjf ' " 1 ■ ■ ■ ^ , •;>. ‘ • : •^;;':;if:' /h, -.:'r; , . * » ' ^ ■' ■' - 4 ; ■ ■ 'mr. ■ ft ‘ ^ % ' ^ 1 t .• *. V* . ft • . ’ r'. ' 0 • ■ '. ^ A BY THE SAME AUTHOR, The Establishment of the Law by the Gospel.— Fine, 5s. —Com. 35. 6c?. The Young Communicant’s Remem¬ brancer.—3s. 6c?. Consolatory Address to Christians on the death of their believing Friends.—Is. Memoir of Miss Fanny Graham.—6c?. v'J , ; i V/* - • > ; } »■' #•••1 *» • ■;./ *' *• ■ • . "■ . , ,■. -I ; »t ‘ v''■. ", v];'^ ■_.'•> •'tf . V * " ', . « - • , ■•, .;| , ;i,' UIOH'fU^atMA^ anv' x,i , ; ', Jv ^ , • •: .. '■ 4 : , ‘ Sa y::iLilith ‘ ^ . ;xVa^ 5-■ ‘V?'.«C .rncO—/iC ^rf , - J V ' '‘Z ■' ‘ ►uO wyttmd VK :itr.-,hvu no^uA.ioi, - ■.iu,A .-’f—••fcf'W )jpi»jit?J ,.-,.,’ii''jQ ' ' .ntfltfi ‘1 •y ■j t .«.»# ;.v •z* ■r 0 M ' V »•' 4 • * i i % i' . I ' i, .p* S / V r < i \ 1