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a judicial blindness and obduration wrought by God upon them, which renders it, though not naturally, yet morally, impossible for them to believe:"-Therefore for explication of them, and to demonstrate the falsehood and absurdity of this inference, let it be noted,

First. That our blessed Lord, in the immediate precedent verses, doth passionately exhort these very persons to believe and walk according to the light, that they might be children of the light;'" which is a certain evidence that he well knew his Father had not, by any of his actions, predictions, or decrees, made it thus impossible for them to believe on him, or walk according to his doctrine. For if God had so blinded their eyes that they could not see the light, or so hardened their hearts that they could not embrace it, Christ would not, or rather could not, have exhorted them to believe, or seriously require them, thus disabled, to walk according to the light, much less to do it so effectually that they might become the children of the light. For every exhortation to do a thing we know men cannot do, must be vain; and he who by it seems to be desirous we should do that which he knows we cannot, must delude us; and if he knows that God hath, by some antecedent purpose, will, or decree, resolved to withhold that aid by which alone we can be in a capacity to do it, it must also be an exhortation repugnant to the will of God; it being in event, and in effect, the same, to will that any person should not do the thing which he requires, and to will he should not have the means by which alone he can perform it. Now it is blasphemy to say 'The exhortations of the Son of God 'were vain, delusory, and contrary to his Father's will.' Moreover (ii.) our Saviour knew these Jews were capable of mercy and salvation by him; for he expressly says, 'God sent him into the world that the world by him might be saved:'" He makes this declaration to them, 'These things I say unto you that you might be saved;' and this enquiry, How often would I have gathered you as a hen doth her chickens under her wings, and you would not be gathered! And pathetically saith to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, O that thou hadst known, in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace! But Now they are

• Verse 35, 36.

p John iii. 17.

g John v. 34.

r Luke xiii. 34.

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hid from thine eyes:' Now, therefore, they were not ALWAYS Christ then here taketh it for granted, that the people of Jerusalem, in the day of their visitation by the Messiah, might savingly have known the things belonging to their peace. Now either this asserti on, That they might savingly have known these things,' was according to the truth; or his wish, "That 'they had thus known the things belonging to their peace,' was contrary to his Father's will and decree,-which is palpably absurd. And seeing the will of Christ was always the same with that of his Father, it follows also that God the Father had the same charitable affection to them, and so had laid no bar against their happiness by his decrees, nor withheld from them any thing on his part necessary to their everlasting welfare. (iii.) God himself would not have his words so understood as if he were unwilling that the Jews should believe, or had, by any of his purposes or actions, rendered it not possible for them to do so; for this was his commandment, that they should believe on him whom he had sent." And why sent He his Son 'to seek and save that which was lost, even the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' had he not been truly desirous that they should believe? Or how could either Christ or Moses accuse them to the Father for their unbelief, had the Father himself resolved from all eternity to withhold from them that assistance without which they could not believe? And lastly, the Evangelist, and that Good Spirit by which he did indite these words, did not thus understand them; for he, in the immediate foregoing verse, objects this to the Jews as their great crime, that "though Christ had done so many miracles among them, yet they believed not on him," whereas it can be no man's sin not to do what he cannot do purely by reason of the act of God. These words can therefore never bear that sense on which this inference is grounded.

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Secondly. Observe, that God's foreknowledge, sayings, and predictions, have no such influence on the will of man as to lay on him a necessity to do what He foreknows, and hath foretold, he will do: For, were it otherwise,

(i.) All human actions must be necessary; for to that God who is omniscient, all things past, present, and to come, are

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known. If then this knowledge of men's actions, which the scripture doth ascribe to God, did make them necessary, all human actions must be necessary; and so the freedom of them must be overthrown. (ii.) Then vice and virtue must be empty names, we being capable of doing nothing which is blameworthy, or deserveth praise; (which yet the scripture plainly and frequently asserts we may ;) for who can blame a person for doing only what he could not help, or judge that he deserveth praise only for doing what he could not avoid? And (iii.) then must all future recompences be discarded, it being sensibly unjust to punish any man for doing that which it was never in his power to avoid, and as unreasonable to reward him for that action which cannot be praiseworthy.

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When then it is here said, 'Therefore they could not believe because Isaias said, &c.' these words must bear this sense, "Therefore they could not believe because (that was fulfilled upon them which) Isaias said," or "It had happened to them as he had foretold." Examples of such an Ellipsis we find frequently in this gospel: So chap. ix. 3, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; àλλ' ¡va, BUT (this blindness hath happened to him) THAT the works of God might be made manifest in him.'--Chap. xiii. 18, I know whom I have chosen, aλλ'ïva, BUT (this hath happened to Judas) THAT the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.'-Chap. xiv. 31, dλ' va yvw, BUT (this I do) THAT the world may know that I love the Father.'-Chap. xv, 25, àλλ' ïvæ πληρωθή, #λnρwn, BUT (this hath happened) THAT the word written in their law might be fulfilled.'--1 John ii. 19, áλλ' iva Qavepwon, 'BUT (they went out from us) THAT it might appear they were not all of us.' And this exposition is confirmed by the Holy Ghost, who (Mat. xiii. 13, 14.) saith from the mouth of Christ, 'Therefore I speak to them in parables, because they seeing see not, &c.' And when it is said, (verse 40,) He hath blinded their eyes, &c.' observe, that the word He is not in the original, which only saith thus, τετύφλωκεν αυτῶν τὸς ὀφθαλμός, and may be rendered, 'Malice or wickedness hath blinded their eyes,'as we read, Wisdom xxii. 21. Or, (ii,) the personal verb is put for the impersonal, the active for the passive, that is, 'He hath blinded their eyes, and

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hardened their hearts, for, "Their eyes are blinded and their hearts hardened." To give you a plain instance of this nature,Isaiah xliv. 18, in our translation we read thus, 'He hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand;' and yet both the Greek and Chaldee Paraphrast read them thus ἀπημαυρώθησαν, “ their eyes they have shut and darkened, lest they should see:' And that this is the true import of the prophet's words, not that God, but that satan and their own evil dispositions had done this, is evident from this consideration,— that this is spoken to the shame of them who made and worshipped senseless images, (verse 9-11,) and to convince them of their want of consideration, verse 19. And that this must also be the sense here, we learn, not only from the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, which render these words of Isaiah thus, 'The heart of the people is waxed gross, and their ears have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes;' but also from our Blessed Saviour, and St., Paul assisted by the Holy Ghost, who both exactly follow this translation of the words, the one Matthew xiii. 13, 15, the other Acts xxviii. 27.

OBJECTION. "But in St. Luke this is plainly given as the reason why Christ spake to them without in parables,—' that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand."

ANSWER. To take off this pretension, it is sufficient to observe that the words in St. Mark and St. Luke are only an abbreviation of what St. Matthew saith was spoken by our Lord more fully. For Christ might say what St. Mark and St. Luke relate, and yet say more than they relate, as St. Matthew doth assure us he did. But then St. Matthew could not have given us his discourse more fully, unless our Lord had spoken it more fully than it is related by St. Mark and St. Luke: Whence it must follow, that the relation of St. Mark and St. Luke must be deficient; that is, that they do not contain all that our Saviour said on this occasion, and therefore must be filled up, or rendered entire, by the addition of the words recorded in St. Matthew. Since then St. Matthew doth expressly tell us from the mouth of Christ, He therefore spake to them in parables; because they seeing would not, or did not, see, and hearing did not understand;' and that they therefore did not see, hear, and understand, because their heart was waxed gross,

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and their ears heavy, and they had closed their eyes lest they should see.' It seemeth evident that the words of St. Mark and St. Luke must be filled up, or made entire thus; To others (of the Jews, who will not own my doctrine, or believe in me, as you my ciples do) speak 1 in parables; because they seeing see not, and hearing do not understand, for their hearts are waxed gross, and their ears heavy, and their eyes have they closed, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand.' These words are therefore nothing to the purpose for which they are produced; they say nothing of God's decree or purpose, antecedently to their being, to deny them grace sufficient to see or understand their duty taught them, by our Lord, in plain words as well as parables. For why then doth Christ ask, with such seeming indignation, 'Why is it that you do not understand my saying? (it only is) because ye cannot (endure to) hear my word; that is, because your prejudices and lusts will not permit you to receive it: This, doubtless, was the great sin of the Jews, and so they wanted not either natural power or aid sufficient on God's part so to do, but only a moral power or a mind well disposed to obey his word; it being only of the wickedness and perverseness of the Jews, who would not see, the light, lest their deeds should be reproved, that they loved darkness more than light; that they were even unwilling to be healed, or converted from their evil ways. And this will still appear more evident, if it be further noted,

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That these words,—' They seeing see not, and hearing do not hear or understand,'-are a proverbial expression concerning men so wicked and so slothful, that either they attend not to, or will not follow, the clearest intimations and convictions of their duty. Thus to a revolting and rebellious people which had cast off the fear of God, the prophet Jeremy saith, Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not:" And God speaks to Ezekiel thus, 'Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see and see not, they have ears to hear and hear not, for they are a rebellious house."'* This is a frequent form of speech in

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