this imaginary pact, he could not with the least pretence of justice do. Moreover, did not God know, before this compact, it would only tend by the fall of Adam to the unavoidable ruin of myriads of souls, which otherwise would have contracted no such guilt, and therefore would have been obnoxious to no such misery, had not this compact and decree been made? What therefore did he, by making this decree, but subject so many precious souls to an inevitable ruin? How therefore could he contrive and make such a decree and compact, without being willing that so many men and infants should be for ever miserable by it? Since he who wills the cause, wills also the effect, which, certainly and inevitably, without their action, follows from it.

If in favour of these imaginations it be said, that "the scripture expressly teacheth, that in Adam all have sinned; and by the disobedience of one many were made sinners';" to this I have given a sufficient answer in the note upon those words, shewing (1.) that these words may and must have a metonymical sense, because of the absurdities which follow from the formal acceptation of them. And, (2.) because the comparison made betwixt the first Adam and the effects of his disobedience, and the second Adam, and the effects of his obedience to the death, require it; the Holy Ghost still speaking of his suffering for our sins in this metonymical sense; as it is (i.) when he is said to bear our sins,' only because he bore the punishment due to them. (ii.) When he is said to be made sin for us;' he being made sin for us, not by contracting the guilt of it, but only suffering punishment for 'it in our stead. (in.) When he is said to appear a second time xwgis auxprías, without sin,'" that is, without another sacrifice, in which he was to suffer for it; and that by sin (that is, by what he suffered when he made himself a sacrifice for it,) he condemned sin in the flesh. And (iv.) when he is said to be made a curse for us;'d he being only so by suffering that death which the law styled "accursed," and not as being so in the sight of God. And (3.) because the opposite phrase, dinaını naтasalnσovtal,* required that the words ἁμαρτωλοὶ κατεςάθησαν,† should be used in this sense: For when the apostle saith, by the obedience of one shall

a 2 Cor. v. 20.-Heb. ix. 28.

* Shall be made righteous.' ED.

d Gal. iii. 13.

Rom. viii. 3.

·

Were made Sinners.' ED.

many be made righteous,' it is evident in itself, and proved by three arguments, that he speaks not of Christ's active, but of his passive obedience or suffering death for us. Now by this passive. obedience we cannot be made formally righteous, but only metonymically, by being made partakers of that freedom from condemnation and the guilt of sin, and the reconciliation which Christ purchased by his meritorious death and passion.

III. ARGUMENT THIRD. This decree is false, both in the parts and the end of it. The parts of it are these two:—

(1.) That "God hath from eternity elected a certain number of persons to salvation, leaving the rest under an absolute decree of reprobation or preterition; and that of this election or repro-, bation there can be no other cause but God's own free-will. For predestination," say they, "being an immanent act of the divine understanding cannot be conceived as dependent upon any foreseen acts of man's will, and therefore his foreseen faith, repentance, and perseverance cannot, in any good sense, be imagined antecedent causes, conditions, or motives to the divine predestination;" and that is metaphysicks, and the jargon of the schoolmen entirely ignorant of the true sense of scripture, made to countenance a decree reflecting so unworthily upon the honour of our gracious God, that it is not easy to conceive what could more visibly tend to the dishonour of his glorious name and attributes.

(2.) That "in order to the accomplishing the salvation of his elect, he hath decreed to afford them that grace which shall infallibly and infrustrably bring them to salvation; whereas they who are comprised under the decree of reprobation, are left," say they, "infallibly to fail of eternal life," and so are left to fail of means which may bring them to eternal life, or to escape everlasting death. For they can only infallibly fail of the end, by failing of the means which may produce it: For since he that hath means by which he may be saved, may be saved; and he that hath means by which he may escape damnation, may escape damnation; he who by God's decree of reprobation, is left infallibly to fail of salvation, and consequently to be damned, must as infallibly be left without the means by which he may obtain salvation or escape. damnation.

1

(3.) "In the absolute election of those whom God hath thus appointed to salvation, he decreed," say they, "to glorify his mercy;

and in the reprobation and the preterition of the rest, he decreed to glorify his sovereignty and justice in their damnation;" the manifestation, therefore, of his grace and mercy in the salvation of the one, and of his justice and sovereignty in the damnation of the other, must be the two great ends of God in these decrees. First. Now the falsehood of these two decrees, (i.) touching the absolute election of some persons to salvation, is sufficiently argued in the fifth Discourse, (1.) From God's command to all christians to make their calling and election sure. (2.) From his frequent exhortations directed to them, 'to continue stedfast in the faith, and to keep themselves in the love of God, and to work out their salvation with fear and trembling? (S.) From the cautions directed to good christians, not to fall from grace or from their own stedfastness.' (4.) From threats denounced against the righteous man who turneth away from his righteousness, and the just man who, living by faith, draweth back.

(ii.) As they respect those that are supposed to lie under an absolute decree of reprobation, the falsehood of them hath been fully proved in the second Discourse, (1.) From God's serious and earnest invitations of them to repentance. (2.) From his vehement desires of their reformation and obedience. (3.) From his declarations, that he had done for them what was sufficient to produce it. (4.) From his promises to excite them to it; his long-suffering designed for that very end; and from his dreadful threats intended to deter them from persisting in their evil ways. And (lastly,) from the manifold demonstrations he hath afforded us in holy scripture, that he doth not look upon wicked men as under an utter disability of being reformed by his judgments or his mercies, or of hearkening to his calls and invitations to return and live.

And, (Secondly,) such a decree as this being a secret of God's counsel, no man can know that God hath made it but from the express and the clear revelation of the holy scripture; and so no person can have any reason to assert it on any other account. Now as I have shewn already, that the scripture hath said nothing of these decrees; so will this be more evident by a reflection on every part of them.

e Bishop Davenant, p. 27, 28.

(1.) "The decree of election," say they, "is absolute, and without respect to man's faith, repentance, or perseverance." Now the scripture saith expressly, he that believeth shall be saved, he that endureth to the end shall be saved; repent, and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out; to them who by patient continuance in well-doing, look for glory, God will give eternal life.' So that they who speak thus, speak the constant language of the holy scriptures; whereas they who affirm that "He hath absolutely decreed eternal life to any, without respect to any act of man's will, or any condition to be performed on his part," speak that which hath not the least foundation in the word of God. Christ saith indeed, that "it is his Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom to his little flock;"* but then this flock consisteth only of believers, who have already heard Christ's voice and followed him,' and of those whom the Father had given to him;" but then he informs us, that Judas, a son of perdition, was one of them." He saith again, all that the Father giveth me shall come unto me," but speaks not one word of their being given to him by an absolute eternal decree of election to salvation, without respect to any thing to be in time performed by them.

(2.) The scripture hath not one syllable to prove that "the object of this election is a certain number of singular persons." Those words, the Lord knoweth who are his,' do no more prove this, than those words of Christ, I know my sheep,' and those of the Psalmist, the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous,' prove that there is a certain number of singular persons who are Christ's sheep, and who only can be righteous. The scripture often speaketh, as hath been fully shewed, of churches and nations elected to be his church and people, but nothing of any single person elected from eternity to salvation, much less of any certain number of them.

(3.) That "God hath absolutely ordained one single person to faith, repentance, and perseverance to the end," is no where written. And hence it clearly follows, that there can be no such absolute reprobation revealed in the scriptures, as these decrees

ƒ Mark xvi. 16.

g Matt. xxiv. 13.

7 John xvii. 6.

m Verse 12,

h Acts iii. 19.

i Rom. ii. 7. k Luke xii. 32. n John vi, 37.

hold forth; for as electio non est sine reprobatione, there is no election without a reprobation of the non-elected,' so can there be no reprobation where there is no previous election.

IV. Again, to say, that "election or predestination being an immanent, eternal act of God's understanding, (or rather of HIS WILL, for that alone decrees,) can have no dependance on, or respect to, any act of man's will by way of motive or condition," is to say things contrary to scripture and to common sense. For, First. Did not God decree from all eternity, to pardon the penitent, to justify him that believeth in Jesus,' to save the obedient, and that they who suffer for and with Christ, shall be glorified together with him? And must not these immanent, eternal acts have respect to the temporal faith, repentance, obedience, and patient sufferings of men?

Secondly. Did not God, from all eternity, decree to judge all men according to their works, and that all men should receive rewards and punishments according as their works shall be? And is not this decree an immanent, eternal act of God, respecting the acts of men's will as the condition of or motive to it? Yea, did he not decree, from all eternity, to offer to man a new covenant of grace, promising pardon and salvation to him upon condition of his faith, repentance, and sincere obedience? And do not these decrees render the pretended decrees of absolute election and reprobation needless? Yea, are not these things inconsistent with each other, viz. the absolute election of man to salvation, and the decree to offer and suspend the same salvation upon these conditions? For in all conditional promises betwixt man and man, the thing promised is suspended on the performance of the condition, and the enjoyment of it is uncertain till the condition be performed: And if it be not so also in respect to the conditions of the covenant of grace, what mean the exhortations directed to men in general, to fear lest a promise being made of entering into rest, any of them should fall short of it;'" the cautions to them that stand by faith, to take heed lest they fall under the severity of God for not 'continuing in his goodness; and the threats of perdition to him that liveth by faith, provided he draw back?e

Heb. iv. 1.

b Rom. xi. 20, 22.

e Heb. x. 58.