ART. declared themselves highly for that, they were as much favoured XVII. at Court, as they were cenfured in the Parliament: which brought that doctrine under a very hard character over all the nation.

Twifle carried it high to the Supralapfarian hypothefis, which grew to be generally followed by thofe of that fide: but that founded harfhly; and Hobbes's grafting afterwards a fate and abfolute neceffity upon it, the other opinions were again revived; and no political interefts falling in with them, as all prejudices again ft them went off, fo they were more calmly debated, and became more generally acceptable than they were before. Men are now left to their liberty in them, and all anger upon thofe heads is now fo happily extinguifhed, that diverfity of opinions about them begets no alienation nor animofity.

So far have I profecuted a fhort view of the hiftory of this controverfy. I come now to open the chief grounds of the different parties: and firft, for the Supralapfarians

They lay this down for a foundation, that God is effentially perfect and independent in all his acts: fo that he can confider nothing but himself and his own glory: that therefore he defigned every thing in and for himfelf: that to make him ftay his decrees till he fees what free creatures will do, is to make him decree dependently upon them; which feems to fall fhort of infinite perfection: that he himfelf can be the only end of his counfels; and that therefore he could only confider the manifeftation of his own attributes and perfection; that infinite wifdom muft begin its defigns at that which is to come laft in the execution of them; and fince the conclufion of all things at the laft day will be the manifeftation of the wildom, goodness, and juftice of God, we ought to fuppofe, that God in the order of things defigned that firft, though in the order of time there is no first nor fecond in God, this being fuppofed to be from all eternity. After this great defign was laid, all the means in order to the end were next to be defigned. Creatures in the fight of God are as nothing, and by a ftrong figure are faid to be lefs than nothing, and vanity. Now if we in our defigns do not confider ants or infects, not to say straws, or grains of fand and dust, then what lofty thoughts foever our pride may fuggeft to us, we must be confefled to be very poor and inconfiderable creatures before God; therefore he himfelf and his own glory can only be his own end in all that he defigns or does.

This is the chief bafis of their doctrine, and fo ought to be well confidered. They add to this, that there can be no certain prefcience of future contingents. They fay it involves a contradiction, that things which are not certainly to be,

fhould

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fhould be certainly forefeen; for if they are certainly forefeen, AR t. they must certainly be: fo while they are supposed to be contingent, they are yet affirmed to be certain, by faying that they are certainly forefeen. When God decrees that any thing shall be, it has from that a certain futurition, and as fuch it is certainly foreseen by him: an uncertain forefight is an act of its nature imperfect, because it may be a mistake, and so is inconfiftent with the divine perfection. And it feems to imply a contradiction to say that a thing happens freely, that is, may be, or may not be, and yet that it is certainly forefeen by God. God cannot foresee things, but as he decrees them, and fo gives them a futurition, and therefore this prefcience antecedent to his decree, must be rejected as a thing impoffible.

They fay farther, that conditionate decrees are imperfect in their nature, and that they subject the will and acts of God to a creature: that a conditionate decree is an act in fufpenfe, whether it fhall be or not; which is inconfiftent with infinite perfection. A general will, or rather a willing that all men fhould be faved, has alfo plain characters of imperfection in it: as if God wifhed fomewhat that he could not accomplish, fo that his goodnefs fhould feem to be more extended than his power. Infinite perfection can wish nothing but what it can execute; and if it is fit to wish it, it is fit alfo to, execute it. Therefore all that ftyle, that afcribes paffions or affections to God, must be understood in a figure; so that when his providence exerts itself in fuch acts as among us men would be the effects of those paffions, then the paffions themselves are in the phrafe of the Scripture afcribed to God. They fay we ought not to measure the punishments of fin by our notions of juftice: God afflicts many good men very feverely, and for many years in this life, and this only for the manifeftation of his own glory, for making their faith and patience to fhine; and yet none think that this is unjuft. It is a method in which God will be glorified in them: fome fins are punished with other fins, and likewise with a course of severe miferies: if we transfer this from time to eternity, the whole will be then more conceivable; for if God may do for a little time that which is inconfiftent with our notions, and with our rules of juftice, he may do it for a longer duration; fince it is as impoffible that he can be unjust for a day, as for all eternity.

As God does every thing for himself and his own glory, fo the Scriptures teach us every where to offer up all praise and glory to God; to acknowledge that all is of him, and to humble ourselves as being nothing before him. Now if we were elected not by a free act of his, but by what he forefaw that we would be, fo that his grace is not efficacious by its own force,

04

ART. force, but by the good ufe that we make of it, then the glory XVII. and praife of all the good we do, and of God's purposes to us,

were due to ourselves: he defigns, according to the other doctrine, equally well to all men; and all the difference among them will arife neither from God's intentions to them, nor from his affiftances, but from the good ufe that he forefaw they would make of these favours that he was to give in common to all mankind man should have whereof to glory, and he might fay, that he himself made himself to differ from others. The whole ftrain of the Scriptures in afcribing all good things to God, and in charging us to offer up the honour of all to him, feems very exprefsly to favour this doctrine; fince if all our good is from God, and is particularly owing to his grace, then good men have fomewhat from God that bad men have not; for which they ought to praife him. The ftyle of all the prayers that are used or directed to be used in the Scripture, is for a grace that opens our eyes, that turns our hearts, that makes us to go, that leads us not into temptation, but delivers us from evil. All these phrases do plainly import that we defire more than a power or capacity to act, fuch as is given to all men, and fuch as, after we have received it, may be ftill ineffectual to us. For to pray for fuch affiftances as are always given to all men, and are fuch that the whole good of them fhall wholly depend upon ourselves, would found very oddly; whereas we pray for fomewhat that is fpecial, and that we hope fhall be effectual. We do not and cannot pray earneftly for that, which we know all men as well as we ourselves have at all times.

Humility and earneftnefs in prayer feem to be among the chief means of working in us the image of Chrift, and of deriving to us all the bleflings of heaven. 'That doctrine

which blasts both, which fwells us up with an opinion that all comes from ourselves, and that we receive nothing from God but what is given in common with us to all the world, is certainly contrary both to the spirit and to the defign of the Gofpel.

The

To this they add obfervations from Providence. world was for many ages delivered up to idolatry; and fince the Chriftian religion has appeared, we fee vaft tracts of countries which have continued ever fince in idolatry: others are fallen under Mahometanifm; and the ftate of Christendom is in the Eaftern parts of it under fo much ignorance, and the greatest part of the Weft is under fo much corruption, that we must confefs the far greatest part of mankind has been in all ages left deftitute of the means of grace, fo that the promulgating the Gofpel to fome nations, and the denying it to others, must be afcribed to the unfearchable ways of God, that are paft

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finding out. If he thus leaves whole nations in fuch darkness ART. and corruption, and freely chooses others to communicate the knowledge of himself to them, then we need not wonder if he fhould hold the fame method with individuals, that he does with whole bodies: for the rejecting of whole nations by the lump for fo many ages, is much more unaccountable than the felecting of a few, and the leaving others in that state of ignorance and brutality. And whatever may be faid of his extending mercy to fome few of those who have made a good ufe of that dim light which they had; yet it cannot be denied but their condition is much more deplorable, and the condition of the others is much more hopeful; fo that great numbers of men are born in fuch circumstances, that it is morally impoffible that they should not perifh in them; whereas others are more happily fituated and enlightened.

This argument taken from common obfervation becomes much stronger, when we confider what the Apoftle fays, particularly in the Epiftles to the Romans and the Ephefians, even Rom.ix.11. according to the expofition of thofe of the other fide: for if God loved Jacob, fo as to choose his pofterity to be his people, and rejected or hated Efau and his pofterity, and if that was according to the purpose and defign of his election; if by the fame purpofe the Gentiles were to be grafted upon that ftock, from which the Jews were then to be cut off; and if the counfel or purpose of God had appeared in particular to those of Ephelus, though the moft corrupted both in magick, idolatry, and immorality of any in the Eaft; then it is plain, that the applying the means of grace, arifes merely from a great defign that was long hid in God, which did then break out. It is reasonable to believe, that there is a proportion between the application of the means, and the decree itfelf concerning the end. The one is refolved into the unfearchable riches of God's grace, and declared to be free and abfolute. God's choofing the nation of the Jews in fuch a diftinction beyond all other nations, is by Mofes and the Prophets frequently faid not to be on their own account, or on the account of any thing that God faw in them, but merely from the goodness of God to them. From all this, it seems; fay they, as reasonable to believe that the other is likewife free, according to thofe words of our Saviour's, I thank thee, O Matt. xi. Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast bid thefe 25, 26. things from the wife and prudent, and haft revealed them unto babes: the reafon of which is given in the following words, Even fo, Father, for it feemed good in thy fight. What goes be- Ibid. 21, fore, of Tyre and Sidon, and the land of Sodom, that would 22, 23. have made a better ufe of his preaching, than the towns of Galilee had done, among whom he lived, confirms this, that

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ART. the means of grace are not beftowed on thofe of whom it was foreseen that they would have made a good use of them; or denied to thofe who, as was foreseen, would have made an ill use of them the contrary of this being plainly afferted in those words of our Saviour's. It is farther obfervable, that he feems not to be speaking here of different nations, but of the different forts of men of the fame nation: the more learned of the Jews, the wife and prudent, rejected him, while the fimpler, but better fort, the babes, received him: fo that the difference between individual perfons feems here to be refolved into the good pleasure of God.

It is farther urged, that fince thofe of the other fide confefs, that God by his prefcience forefaw what circumstances might be happy, and what affiftances might prove efficacious to bad men; then his not putting them in thofe circumftances, but giving them fuch affiftances only, which, how effectual foever they might be to others, he faw would have no efficacy on them, and his putting them in circumftances, and giving them afliftances, which he forefaw they would abuse, if it may seem to clear the juftice of God, yet it cannot clear his infinite holiness and goodnefs: which must ever carry him, according to our notions of these perfections, to do all that may be done, and that in the most effectual way, to refcue others from mifery, to make them truly good, and to put them in a way to be happy. Since therefore this is not always done, according to the other opinion, it is plain that there is an unfearchable depth in the ways of God, which we are not able to fathom. Therefore it must be concluded, that fince all are not actually good, and fo put in a way to be faved, that God did not intend that it fhould be fo; for who hath refifted his will? The counsel of the Lord ftandeth faf, and the thoughts of his heart to all generaPf. xxxiii. tions. It is true, his laws are his will in one respect: he requires all to obey them: he approves them, and he obliges all men to keep them. All the expreflions of his defires that all men fhould be faved, are to be explained of the will of revelation, commonly called the fign of his will. When it is Ifa. v. 4. faid, What more could have been done that is to be understood of outward means and bleffings: but still God has a fecret will of his good pleafure, in which he defigns all things; and this can never be frustrated.

Rom. ix.

19.

II.

From this they do alfo conclude, that though Chrift's death was to be offered to all Chriftians; yet that intentionally and actually he only died for thofe whom the Father had cholen and given to him to be faved by him. They cannot think Gal. ii. 21. that Chrift could have died in vain, which St. Paul speaks of as a vaft abfurdity. Now fince, if he had died for all, he should have died in vain, with relation to the far greater part of

mankind,