alfo will add strength and light to all my former reasoning, for the extenfion of this extraordinary Providence to PARTICULARS, For now it is feen, that this difpenfation was not merely political and attendant on a Theocracy, where civil confiderations often overlook the care of individuals; but it was a general difpenfation of Religion, from the FALL to the time when idolatry overran the World: and was again administered when and where the knowledge and worfhip of the true God was reftored.

"It is true (may an objector reply), that this different administration of Providence, between the faithful followers of the true God, and the careless apoftates from his worship, did preferve the dignity due to God's Moral Government; yet ftill this difference appears to be fo great, that it looks like an impeachment of the divine Attributes, to confine this benefit to fuch only, who liked to retain God in their knowledge, while the reft of Mankind were left and abandoned to the evils confequent on an irregular and unequal adminiftration of Providence."

This objection would have weight, if those who were included under the Sentence paffed on Adam should be irremiffibly doomed to the fhort existence of this mortal life. But a fecret REPRIEVE (kept hid, indeed, from the early world) paffed along with the Sentence of Condemnation. So that they who never received their due in this World, would ftill be kept in existence till they had received it in the next: fuch being, in no other fenfe, fufferers by the administration of an unequal Providence, than in being ignorant of the reparation which attended them. For we learn, from facred Writ (what the principles of natural Reafon do not impeach) that the DEATH of Christ had a retrospect from the FALL of Adam; and that REDEMPTION was, from the first, amongst the principal Ingredients in God's Moral Government of Man.

Now, if the goodness of God thus provided for human redemption, that goodness, joined to his juftice, would make the redemption as extenfive as the forfeiture. But, in cafe a retrospect did not take place, it 'would not be thus extenfive. More words

would

would only obfcure a truth, which the facred text hath rendered fo plain and clear.

Ye were redeemed (fays St. Peter) with the precious blood of Chrift, FOREORDAINED from the foundation of the World, but was MANIFEST in thefe last times for you*. St. John explains, from the words of Jefus himself, what is to be understood by his being foreordained, viz. That it was receiving the glory which accompanies the entrance on an high office-And now, O Father, GLORIFY me, with the GLORY which I had with thee before the World was. I have MANIFESTED thy name unto the

gaveft me out of the World.

men which thou

St. Peter, in the words above, diftinguifheth between the advent of our Redeemer, and the efficacy of his death, in teaching us, that, though his MANIFESTATION was late, yet the virtue of his FOREORDAINED Redemption operated from the most early times. For it would be trifling to fpeak of a pre-ordination, which was not to be understood of a pre-operation; fince those to whom the Apoftle wrote well under-, + John xvii. 5, 6.

* 1 Peter i. 20.

ftood,

stood, from the Attributes of the Godhead, that all things that were, had been pre-ordained, in the fimple fenfe of the word. The other fenfe, of a pre-operation, St. John more forcibly expreffes, by the Lamb SLAIN from the foundation of the World*.

But if the courfe of God's various Difpenfations required, that this Act of grace, the REDEMPTION, fhould be kept bid for Ages, and never fully revealed till the Advent of his Son, it could not be otherwife, than that, in the intermediate Difpenfations, Mankind must be ftill reprefented as fuffering under the forfeiture of Adam; in Scripture language called, lying under the curse: Nor had fuch of Adam's Posterity any cause to complain that the REDEMPTION was kept hid from them, fince it was an Act of Grace, and not of Debt, of which they would finally, and in due time, have the benefit. In the interim, as hath been shewn above, the moral government of God, revealed to us in Scripture, was adminiftered to them in fuch a manner, as, fooner or later, to proclaim its perfect equity.

Rev. xiii. 8. See also note [E], at the end of thisBook.
CHAP.

CHA P. II.

IN manner

N this manner did the FREE GIFT OF IMMORTALITY become forfeit, by Man's violating the CONDITION on which it was bestowed. For a GIFT is not the less free by having a condition annexed unto it: the quality of a free gift not arising from its being without condition, but from its being without a claim of right.

It is true, that a Condition, annexed to a claim of right, is of a different nature from that which the Governor of the world hath feen fit to annex to a free gift: the first arifeth out of the fettled conftitution of things; the fecond depends on arbitrary will and pleasure. Thus MORAL VIRTUE was the condition of that favour and protection which the Creature, Man, claims from his Maker; but the OBSERVANCE OF A POSITIVE COMMAND was the condition of the free gift of immortality.