a thousand, i. e. one Gentile a thousand If raelites; and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had fold them, and the Lord bad shut them up? ver. 30. They would also have confider'd their own end, or what must befal them in length of time; that as God had, cut off and destroy'd his people Ifrael for their fins, so they might expect the same destruction for iniquities of a like kind. Now since this is the plain and obvious sense of the words, they cannot be used with any propriety in the controversy about the doctrines of diftinguishing grace. NUMB. VII. Pfal. lxxxi. 13, 14. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Ifrael had walked in my ways: I should foon have fubdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. HIS passage is produced by the Reprove the resistibility of the grace of God in converfion *, in favour of the defectibility of the faints, and by a late writer, as irreconcileable with God's decrees of election and reprobation, and the doctrine of particular redemption, Ed. Bert. * In Coll. Hag. Art. iii, iv. p. 216, 219. Art. v. p. 15. Whitby, p. 77, 181,222. and and as proving that men have a fufficiency of ability to do what God wishes they would do. But let it be consider'd, I. That admitting the words contain a admitting wish and defire of God for the spiritual welfare and conversion of men, such a wish can only be ascribed to him in a figurative fense, as has been observed under the preceding number. Wishing cannot be attributed to God in such sense as it is to man, who often wishes for that which is not in his power to perform, and therefore defires it to be done by another; which cannot be faid of God, without impeaching his omnipotence. When God is faid to wish for and defire, as we will suppose here, the converfion and obedience of men, it only imples, that these would be grateful and well fing to him; and not that either in it in power of man to convert t obey the commands of God, or determining will of Cod dual of mankind Go obey his comman him; for ther verted and aber fuppofe it as 21 please, does guishing grace ing, and wish only declares what God approves of, and not what he determines shall be. II. The wish for the spiritual welfare of the persons here mention'd, supposing it to be one, is only for the people of Ifrael, God's profeffing people, and whom he calls my people, and not all mankind, or every individual fon of Adam; as it ought to have been, could it be thought to militate against the election, redemption, and effectual vocation of some particular persons only; and befides, it will be difficult to prove that these persons spoken of, notwithstanding all their perverseness, rebellion and misconduct, were not chofen of God, redeemed by Christ, and savingly wrought upon by the power of divine grace, and finally saved. III. The words, if duly examined, will appear not to contain any wish at all, but an hypothesis or supposition, being to be read thus; If my people had hearken'd unto me, and Ifrael had walked in my ways, I should, &c. R. Sol. Farchi interprets אם, and R. Aben Ezra by אילו, and the Septuagint by ; all which signify if; fo the Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Vulgar Latin, Vatablus, Junius and Tremellius, read the words; therefore, as the Contra Remon by * In Coll. Hag. Art. iii, iv. p. 232. ftrants ftrants have rightly observed, it does not follow from hence, that there people could obey the commands of God, or that the pers formance of obedience depended on their will, no more than it would follow from fuch a propofition; If a man keeps the law of God perfectly, he shall be justified by it therefore it is in the power of man to keep the law of God perfectly; or from this, If a man believes, he shall be faved; therefore faith depends on man's will, or is in man's power. Befides, IV. The words are not to be understood of the internal work of grace and coverfion, and of fpiritual and evangelical ence springing from it, which wote been attended with fpirimal and blessings; but of an external God's commands; which followed with tempora fubduing their ener them with the f fying them w the fame words in company w are al : : The Tremellius; and neither the one nor 1 NUMB. VIII. Pfal. cxxv. 3. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest up the lot of the righteous, left the righteo put forth their hands unto iniquity. te HESE words are made use of a prove, that " faints, or true believers, or men once truly good, may cease to be fo; for 'tis faid, that they feem plainly to infinuate, that great and long oppreffions might have this effect upon them, and furely that which God is thus careful to prevent, might possibly befal the righteous; a Whitby, F. 436. there |