our wickedness. This last error is that of Zelotes, to whom I recommend the following arguments. I. All rationals (as such) are necessarily endued with Free-will, otherwise reason and conscience would be powers as absurdly be stowed upon them as persuasiveness upon a carp, and a taste for music upon an oyster. What are reason and conscience but powers, by which we distinguish right from wrong, that we may choose the one and refuse the other? And how do they reflect upon God's wisdom, who suppose, that he gave and restored to man these powers, without giving him capacity to use them? And what can this capacity be, if it is not Free. will? As surely then as wings and legs prove that eagles have a power to fly, and hares to run; whether they y, or run, towards the sportman's destructive weapon, or from it: So surely do Reason and Conscience demonstrate, that men are endued with liberty, i. e. have a power to choose whether they make a right or a wrong choice. Again, 2. What is a human soul? You justly answer, It is a thinking, willing, accountable thing And I reply, from the very nature of our soul then, it is evident, that we are, and ever shall be Free-willing creatures. For the moment souls have lost their power of thinking and willing freely, they are no longer accountable: moral laws are as improper for them as for raging billows. None but fools would attempt to rule delirious persons and madmen by penal laws. The reason is plain: People stark-mad, thinking freely no longer, are no longer free-willers; and being no more free-willers, they are no more considered as moral agents. So certain then, as man is a reasonable, accountable crea ture, he is endued with Free-will; for all Irationals under God are accountable, and all accountable beings have more or less power over themselves and their actions. He (the Lord) himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel: If thou wilt, to keep the commandments, and to perform acceptable faithfulness. "He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death, and whether him liketh, shall be given him," Eccl. xv. 14. &c. The tempter therefore may alJure, but cannot force us to do evil; and God himself so wisely invites, and so gently draws us to obedience, as not to turn the scale for us in an irresistible manner. 3. O the absurdity of supposing, that"God has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness," if the world is not capable of making a right and a wrong choice; und if Christ, Adam, or the Devil, absolutely turn the scale of our morals for us! O the blot fixed upon God's wisdom, when he is represented as rewarding men with heavenly thrones, for having done the good, which they could no more avoid doing, than rivers can prevent their flowing! O the dishonour done to his justice, when he is represented as sentencing men to everlasting burnings, for committing sin as necessarily as a leaden ball tends to the centre ! 4. If Free-grace does all in believers without Free-will, why does David say, "The Lord is my helper ?" Why does our church pray after the Psalmist, "Make haste to help me?" Why does St. Paul declare, that "The Spirit itself helpeth* our infirmities ? ” Why did he not say, I can do absolutely nothing, instead of saying, "I can do all things through the Lord who strengtheneth me?" And when Christ had said," Without me ye can do nothing," why did he not correct himself, and declare, that we can do nothing with him, and that he alone must do all? Nay why does St. Paul apply to himself and others, when they work with God, the very same word that St. Mark applies to God, when he works with men? "We are ovvɛpλoi workers together with God." 1 Cor.iii. 9.-"The Lord, ovvεpyovurd, working together with them," Mark xvi. 20. 5. Do not all the Promises, the performance of which is suspended upon some term to be performed by us through divine assistance, prove the concurrence of Free-grace with Free-will? When God says, "Seek, and you shall find.-Forgive, and you shall be forgiven.-Come unto me, and I will give you rest. Return to me, and I will return to you." &c. When God, I say, speaks this language, who does not see Free-grace courting and alluring Free-will? Free-grace says, "Seek ye my face," and Free-will an. swers," Thy face, Lord, will I seek." On the other hand, unbelievers know, that so long as their Free-will refuses to submit to the terms fixed by Free-grace, the promise miscarries, and God himself declares, "Ye shall know my breach of promise," Num. xiv. 34. 6. As the promises, which Free-grace makes to submissive Free-will, prove the doctrine of the gospel-axioms; so do the threatenings, which anxious Free-grace denounces, lest it should be rejected by Free-will: Take also two or three examples :-"I will cast them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. He that believeth not shall be damned.——— If we sin wilfully, [i. e. obstinately, and to the last moment of our day of grace,] after we have received the knowledge of the truth, The word in the original has a peculiar force. ] ovvavridaμßavera,] It expresses at once how God's Spirit does his part [ovv] with us, and, [avri] over against us like two persons that take up a burother at the other end; or, like a minister and a conden together and carry it, the one at one end, and the gregation. who join in prayer by alternately taking up the responses of the Church, Ren, viii. 26. there remaineth [for us,] &c. a fiery indigna tion, which shall devour the adversaries," &c. Who does not see here, that free-grace provoked by inflexible free-will, can, and will act the part of inflexible justice ? 7. There is not one reproof, encomium, or exhortation in the Old and New Testament, that does not support the capital doctrines of Free-grace, or Free-will. When Christ says with a frown, "How is it that you have no faith? O perverse generation, how long shall I suffer you? O generation of vipers, bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Have ye your hearts yet hardened?"-When he smiles and says, "Well done, good and faithful servant:' When he marvels, and cries out, "Great is thy faith:" Or, when he gives such gracious exhortations, "Be not faithless, but heljev ing: Come to the marriage-Be faithful unto death :~Only believe." When Christ, I say, speaks in this manner, is it not as if he expressed himself in such words as these? My free-grace tries every rational means to win your free-will. I reprove you for your sins, I commend you for your faith, I exhort you to repentance, I shame you into obedience: I leave no stone unturned, to show my self the rational Saviour of my rational free creatures. 8. I may proceed one step farther, and say: There is not one commandment in the law, nor one direction in the gospel, that does not demonstrate the truth of this doctrine. For all God's precepts and directions are for our good, therefore Free-grace gave them, Now if God is wise as well as gracious, it follows, that he gave his precepts and directions to free-agents, that is, to free willing crea tures. Let a king who has lost his reason, make a code of moral laws for trees, or horses: Let him send preachers into every mill in the kingdom, to give proper directions to cog-wheels, and to assure them, that if they turn fast and right, they shall grind for the royal family, and if they stop or turn wrong, they shall be cut to pieces and ground to saw-dust: But let not the absurdity of a similar conduct be charged upon God. 9. Every humble confession of sin shews the various workings of free-grace and free will. "I have sinned. I have done wicked ly," &c. is the language of Free-will softened by Free grace. To suppose that these acknowledgments are the language of free-grace alone, is to suppose that free-grace sins and does wickedly. And when we heartily join in such petitions as these; "Turn us, and we shall be turned :-Draw me, and I will run after thee:-Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name-Save, or I perish," &c. do we not feel our free-will endeavouring to apprehend free-grace? Is this heresy? Did not St. Paul maintain this doc trine in the face of the Church, and seal it with the account of his own experience, when 1 he said, "I follow after, if that I may appre hend that for which also I am apprehended of God?" I 10. To conclude: There is not a damned spirit in hell, that may not be produced, as a living witness of the double doctrine which I defend. Why is Lucifer loaded with chains of darkness? Is it because there was never any free-grace for him? and because freewrath marked him out for destruction before he had personally deserved it? No; but because his free will kept not the first es. tate of holiness, into which God's free-grace had placed him. Why is Judas come to his own place? Is it because the Holy Ghost spake an untruth when he said that (till the day of tribulation comes,) "God's mercy is over all his works?" No, but because Judas's free-will was so obstinately bent upon gaining the world, that, according to our Lord's declaration, he lost his own soul, became a son of perdition, and, by denying in works, the Lord that bought him, brought upon himself swift destruction. Now, if Judas himself cannot say, "God's free-wrath sent me to hell, and not my free-will; I am here in Adam's place, and not in my own; I never rejected against myself the counsel of a gracious God; for, with respect to me, the Father of mercies was always unmerciful.-The God of all grace had never any saving grace;"-If Judas, I say, cannot justly utter these blasphemies, surely none can; and if none can, then every sinner in hell demonstrates the truth of the gospel-axioms, and is a tremendous monument of the vengeance justly taken upon free-will, for doing obsti nately despite to the Spirit of free-grace, 11. But leaving Judas to experience the truth of this awful scripture," The backsli der in heart shall be filled with his own ways," let your soul soar upon the wings of faith and reason to the happy regions, where the spirits of just men made perfect, shine like stars or suns in their Father's kingdom. Ask them, To whom, and to what, do you ascribe your salvation? and you hear them all reply, "Salvation is of the Lord.-Not unto us, but to his Name we ascribe glory.— Of his own mercy he saved us, to the praise of the glory of his grace." noble testimony is this to the doctrine of freegrace. What a 12. Nor does the Lord stand less for their free-will, than they do for his free-grace. Prostrate yourself before his everlasting throne, and with all becoming reverence ask the following question, that you may be able to vindicate God's righteous ways before un righteous man: "Let not the Lord be angry, and I will take upon me to speak unto the Lord: Didst thou admit those happy spirits into thy kingdom, entirely out of partiality to their persons? If they are raised to glorious thrones, while damned spirits are cast into yonder burning lake, is it merely because I rejoice over them," because when they absolute grace and absolute wrath made ori- heard my voice, they knew the day of their ginally all the difference? In a word, is visitation, and did not harden their hearts to their salvation so of thy free-grace, that their the last." free-will had absolutely no hand in the matter ?" Methinks that I hear the Judge of all the earth giving you the following answer, which appears to me perfectly agreeable to his Sacred Oracles. If Honestus and Zelotes candidly weigh the preceding arguments in the balance of the Sanctuary, they will, I hope, drop their prejudices against Free-grace, and Free-will, and consent to a speedy, lasting reconciliation. But Zelotes is ready to say, that there "O injudicious man, how canst thou be so can be no reconciliation between Honestus slow of heart to believe all that I and my and himself, because he cannot in prophets have said! Am nof 1 a Judge as be reconciled even to me, who c SECTION XIX. Our Zelotes produces his first objection to a recon- the well as a Saviour? Can I show myself a part of a Mediator; though I come nearer to righteous Judge, and yet be partial in judg- the "doctrines of grace" than Honestus ment? Nay, should I not be the most unjust of does. Consider we then the capital objecall judges, if from my righteous tribunal, I tions of Zelotes and if we can answer them distributed heavenly thrones and infernal to his satisfaction, we shall probably move racks ont of distinguishing grace, and distin- out of his way the strongest bars which the guishing wrath? Know that all souls are author of discord has fixed between him and mine, and that in point of judgment, there is Honestus. In the great no respect of persons with me. day I judge, that is, I condemn or justify, I punish or reward, every man according to his work, and consequently according to his free-will; for if a work is not the work of a man's free-will, it is not his work, but the work of him that uses him as a tool, and works by his instrumentality. So certain then as the office of a gracious Saviour is compatible with that of a righteous Judge, my capital doctrines of free-grace and free-i will are consistent with each other. If these, therefore, walk with me in white, know that it is because they are worthy : For the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.'-Like good and faithful servants, they occupied till I came ; and lo, "I come, and my reward is with me." They have kept the faith; and I have kept my proinise. They have not finally forsaken me: Y WHILST Honestus says, that he has no and I have not finally forsaken them. They great objection to the doctrine of Free-grace, have kept the word of my patience; and I when it is stated in a rational and scriptural have kept them from the great tribulation.' manner, Zelotes intimates that he is still They have made themselves ready (though averse to the doctrine of Free-will; and desome have only done it at the eleventh hour) clares, that capital objections are in his way, and I have admitted them to the heavenly and that, till they are answered, he thinks it feast. They have done my commandments, his duty equally to oppose Honestus and the and they are entered by the gates into the Reconciler. Hear ye then his objectións, New Jerusalem. My free-grace gave them and let us see if they are as unanswerable as their free-will: their free-will yielded to my he supposes them to be. 97 free-grace and now my free-grace crowns OBJ. 1. "You want to frighten me from their faithfulness. They were faithful the doctrines of grace, and to drive me into unto death, and I have given them the crown the heresy of the Free-willers, by perpetually of life.' Thus my free-grace and mercy, urging that the personal, unconditional, and which began the work of their salvation, eternal rejection of the non-elect is inconsisconcludes it in conjunction with my truth tent with divine mercy, goodness, and jus and justice and my free-willing people tice But you either deny, or grant God's shout Grace! Gruce! when they consider fore knowledge. If you deny it, you are an T the top-stone, as well as when they behold atheist it being evident than an ignorant the foundation of their salvation. My free- God is no God at all. If you allow it, you grace is all to them, and their free-will is so must allow that, when God made such men much to me, that I am not ashamed to call as Cain and Judas, he foreknew that they them brethren, and to acknowledge, that as would certainly deserve to be damned: and a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so that when he made them upon the fore-know do ledge, he made them that they might necessarily deserve to be damned. And is not this granting all that we contend for, namely, that God does make, and of consequence has an indisputable right of making vessels of wrath, without any respect to works and free-will? Is it not far better to say, that we bave no Free-will, than to rob God of his Prescience?". ANS. We need neither rob God of his prescience, nor man of his free will. Igrant God made angels and men, that if they would not be eternally saved, they might be damned. But what has this doctrine to do with yours, which supposes that he made some angels and men that they might absolutely and necessarily be damned? Is not our doctrine highly consistent with God's goodness and justice; while yours is the reverse of these divine perfections? Again, 1 Your argument, though ingenious, is in conclusive, because it is founded upon the common mistake of shifting the words upon which it chiefly turns. The flaw of it consists in substituting the clause necessarily deserved to be damned; instead of the clause certainly deserve to be damned; just as if there was no difference between certainty and necessity. But a little attention will convince you of your error. It is certain that I write this moment, but I am not necessitated to it. May I not drop my pen, and meditate, read, or walk? The chasm, which, in many cases, separates absolute certainty from absolute ne cessity, is as immense as that which stands between a point and infinity. Take notice of the little insect that buzzes about your ears : Does it not exist as certainly as God himself? but would it not be a kind of blasphemy to say that it exists as necessarily? Would it not at least be paying to a fly, an honour which is due to none but God, the only supreme and absolutely necessary Being? And when you support the doctrines of grace by confounding certainty with necessity, do you not support them by confounding two things, which in a thousand cases, and especially in the present one, have no more connexion, than the two poles? Have not judicious Calvinists granted, that although the prescience of God' concerning Judas's destruction could not stand (cum eventu contrario) with his salvation; yet it stood perfectly well (cum possibilitate ad eventum centrarium) with the possibility of his salvation? And is not this granting, that although God clearly saw that Judas would not repent, he clearly saw also that Judas might have repented in the ac cepted time, which is all that I contend for, See Davenant's Animad. Cambridge Edition. 1641, page 38. *.. To be a little more explicit: Let me again intreat you to fall with me before the throne of grace, where the Redeemer teaches mortals to be meek, lowly, and wise in heart. Spread your doubts before him in such humble language as this, "Thou light of the world, let not thy creature remain in darkness with respect to the most important question in the world. Am I appointed necessarily to sin on and be damned? Is my damnation finished! Hast thou absolutely ordained me to be a vessel of wrath, and irrevocably appointed my eternal rejection, without any respect to my personal free will? Does thy fore-knowledge necessitate my actions, or may I choose life or death, and through thy mercy, or justice, have either the one or the other, according to my free, unnecessitated choice my choice equally opposed to unwillingness and to necessity? Speak, gracious Lord, that if I am a necessary agent, I may without any further perplexity yield myself to be carried by the irresistible stream of thy free-grace, or of thy free-wrath, to the throne in heaven or to the dungeon in hell, which thou hast appointed for me from all eternity, according to the doctrine of the heathen poet : "Solvite mortales animos, curisque levate: If Christ is the Logos,—if he is Reason and the Word;-the eternal Wisdom, and the uncreated Word of the Father; may we not get a satisfactory answer to the preceding question, by considering with humble prayer, his unerring word, and by diligently listening to the reason which he has given us? And shall I take an unbecoming liberty if I suppose, that he himself expostulates with "Zelotes in such words as these? 1 Son of man, if thou chargest the reprobation of the damned, or their predestination to eternal death, upon my free-wrath, my sovereignty, or Adam's sin, thou insultest my goodness and justice. That reprobation has no properly-original cause, but their own personal free-will. I would a thousand times have crushed thy primitive parents into atoms, when they forfeited my favour, rather than I would have spared them to propagate a race of creatures, most of whom, according to thy doctrines of grace, are under an absolute necessity to sin on, and be damned. Thou hast a wrong idea of my word and attributes. With the wisdom and equity of a tenderhearted Judge, I condemn the victims of my justice, and I do it merely for their personal and obstinate contempt of my free-grace. then no longer mistaken: My decree of reprobation is nothing but a fixed resolution of giving sinners over to the perverseness of their Free-will, if they resist the drawings of my Free-grace to the end of their day of initial salvation. And what can be more equitable than such a resolution? Is it not right that free-agents, who to the last despise Oye mortals. dismiss your cares, and unbend things happen according to a fixed decree. Manilius, your minds. Predestination rules the Ве world: All my goodness, should become monuments of objections by proposing some plain questions my despised goodness, which is but another to thee, as I once did to my servant Job. name for my vindictive justice." 1. Is it reasonable to suppose, that I "I foresaw indeed, that by such a final con- should pervert my nature, and act in a man tempt of my grace, many would bring des ner contrary to my perfections to prevent freetruction upon themselves; but, having wisely agents from perverting their nature, and decreed to make a world of probationers and acting contrary to their happiness? What free-agents, I could not necessarily incline wouldst thou have thought of my wisdom, if their will to obedience, without robbing them I had appointed Lucifer to hell, and Adam to of free-agency; nor could I rob them of free- the grave, from eternity; for fear they should agency without foolishly defeating the coun- deserve those punishments by wilfully falling sel of my own mind, and absurdly spoiling from heaven, and from paradise? Is it not the work of my own hands. Besides, from absurd to fancy that the Creator must bring the beginning, my intention was not only to himself in guilty of misconduct, lest his ra show my power and goodness in creating, but tional creatures should render themselves so?” also to display my wisdom and justice in 2. "If thou thinkest it right in me, to governing accountable creatures, to whom command that the gospel of my free-grace be without respect of persons, I should render preached to every creature; although thou according to their works-eternal life to them knowest that the neglectors of it will, like who by patient continuance in well-doing the people of Capernaum, fall into a deeper seek for glory; but tribulation and anguish to them that are contentious and disobe dient." "I abhor extorted, forced, necessary sub. mission in rationals: it suits the dastardly children of the devil, and not the free-born sons of God. I could not then in wisdom send upon this world such overpowering streams of light; or permit the tempter to spread such thick darkness upon it, as might invincibly, or necessarily turn the scale of man's will for loyalty or rebellion. So unadvised a step would immediately have taken them out of that probation in which I had placed them. "Again: Had I directly or indirectly thrown into the scale a weight sufficient to turn it irresistibly, I should have acted a most unreasonable and detestable part: 1. A most unreasonable part; for if I alone complete ly work out the salvation of believers, according to what thou callest finished salvation, nothing can be more absurd than to appoint a day of judgment and rewards, to be stow upon the elect an eternal life of glory according to their works: 2. A most detestable part; for if I earnestly invited all the wicked to choose life, after having absolutely chosen death for most of them, should I not show myself the most hypocritical of all tyrants?" "But thou stumblest at my fore-knowledge, and askest why I bestow the blessings of initial salvation upon those whose free-agency will certainly abuse my goodness, and do despite to the Spirit of my saving grace. Thou thinkest, "It is wrong in me to give them that will perish the cup of initial salvation, when I know they will not accept the cup of eternal salvation. Thou supposest it would be better to reprobate them at once, than to expose them to a greater damnation, by putting it in their power to reject the terms of initial salvation. But I shall silence thy hell, for their final contempt of that favour; why shouldest thou think it wrong in me to extend the virtue of my blood, and the strivings of my Spirit, to those who will finally reject my free-grace? When thou approvest the extensive tenor of my gospel commission, dost thou well to be angry, or to fret, like Jonah, at the extensiveness of my mercy. Dost thou not see, that if I were absolutely mercilesss towards some men, my commission to preach the gospel to every man, would be utterly inconsistent with my veracity? 3. "Have I not a right to create free-agents and to place them in a state of Probation, that I may wisely reward their obedience, or justly punish their rebellion? Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, 'Why hast thou made me a free-agent? a probationer for heavenly rewards, or infernal punishments? May not I appoint that free-willing unbelievers, who do final despite to the Spirit of my free-grace, shall be vessels of wrath, self-fitted for destruction; and that free-willing obedient believers shall be vessels of mercy, afore-prepared unto glory by my free-grace, with which their free-will has happily concurred?" 4. "In the nature of things, must not: Free-agents in a state of probation, be free to fall, as well as free to stand? When thou weighest gold, if thou hinderest one scale from turning, dost thou not effectually hinder the free motion of the other scale?" 5. "Does it not become me to show myself good and gracious, though my creatures prove wicked and ungrateful? Should I extinguish or restrain my light, because some people love darkness rather than light? If they will not do their duty to me, as obedient creatures, ought I not to behave to them as a gracious Creator, and to hold out the golden sceptre of my mercy, before I strike them with the iron rod of my vengeance ? And should not |