his using the means he does: for God does not make his foreknowledge of events the rule of his conduct; but the rea son and fitness of things. You may as well inquire, "Why " did God raise up Noah to be a preacher of righteousness to "the old world, for the space of an hundred and twenty " years, when he knew they would never come to repentance? "And why did he send all his servants, the prophets, to the " children of Israel, rising early and sending; and, by them, " command and call; entreat and expostulate; promise and "threaten, and say, As I'live, saith the Lord God, I delight "not in the death of a sinner: turn ye, turn ye; why will ye "die! when he knew they would never come to repentance? "And why did he afterwards send his Son to the same obsti"nate people, when he knew they would be so far from "hearkening, as that they would rather put him to death?" Now, if you ask me why the great Governor of the world uses such means with the non-elect, and shows so much goodness, patience, forbearance, and long-suffering, instead of sending all immediately to deserved destruction? I answer, It is to try them; and to show that he is the Lord God, gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and abundant in goodness. It is fit that creatures in a state of probation should be tried, and he loves to act like himself; and he means, in and by his con duct, to do both at once: and after obstinate sinners have long abused that goodness and forbearance, which should have led them to repentance; and have, after their own hard and impenitent hearts, been treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, the righteousness of God's judgment, in their eternal destruction, will be more manifest. And what if God was determined not to reclaim rebels, voluntarily so obstinate, by his all-conquering grace, but let them take their course, seeing they were so set in their way? What then? Was he not at liberty? Was he bound to save them all by an exertion of his omnipotence? Might he not have mercy on whom he would? And, after such long-suffering, might he not show his wrath, and make his power known, in the eternal destruction of those who so justly deserved it? God's last end, no doubt, is to manifest his perfections: and in and by his whole conduct towards a fallen world, they will all be most illustriously displayed. Rom. xi. 36.

OBJ. 6. But considering that the non-elect are, after all, under an absolute impossibilit to believe and repent, convert and be saved: and considering that all common mercies, and means of grace, will onty render them the more inexcusable in the end, and so aggravate their guilt and damnation; there fore, all things considered, what seeming good they enjoy in this world, is not of the nature of a MERCY: it would be bet ter for them to be without it. Sodom and Gomorrah will be better of it in the day of judgment, than Chorazin and Bethsaida*: and therefore there is no need to suppose that any thing which the non-elect enjoy in this world, is the effect of Christ's merits, but only of divine sovereignty.

ANS. What do you mean by being under an absolute impossibility to believe and repent; convert and be saved? Using words without determinate ideas, is one principal thing which bewilders the world about matters of religion. Now, in plain Euglish, all things are ready; and they are invited to come; and there is nothing in the way of their being saved: but, they are not sorry for their apostacy from God, nor will be brought to it by all the means God uses with them. They have not a mind to return to God, nor will they be persuaded by all the most powerful arguments that can be used: they are voluntary enemies to God, and will not be reconciled, unless by an almighty power and all-conquering grace, which God is not obliged to give, and they are infinitely unworthy of; and without which they might return, were they but of such a temper as they ought to be they are under no in ability but what consists in and results from their want of a good temper of mind, and their voluntary obstinacy. Sin has no power over men, but as they are inclined to it; and the inclinations of the heart are always voluntary and unforced. Men love to be inclined as they are; for otherwise their

inclinations would be so far from having any power over them, that they would even cease to be. Now certainly the bringing up of the children of Israel out of Egypt was of the nature of a mercy, and a great mercy too indeed it was, notwithstanding that, through their unbelief and perverseness, they never got to Canaan. The thing, in itself, was as great a mercy to the body of that generation, as it was to Caleb and Joshua: and their bad temper and bad conduct, which prevented their ever coming to the promised land, did not alter the nature of the thing at all, nor lessen their obligations to gratitude to God, their mighty deliverer. And yet, all things considered, it had been better for them to have died in their Egyptian bondage, than to have had their carcasses fall in the wilderness, in such an awful manner. And besides, it is evident that the scriptures do look upon the common favours, and means of grace, which the non-elect enjov, under the notion of mercies; and, (which otherwise could not be,) on this very ground their guilt is aggravated, and they rendered inexcusable, and worthy of a more sore punishment in the world to come. John iii. 16-1y. xv. 22.24. Rom. ii. 4,5. Heb. ii. 2, 3. And if they are of the nature of mercies, then they are the effects of Christ's merits, as has been already proved. And hence, by the way, we may see the reason why the love and goodness of God, in bringing up the children of Israel out of Egypt, is so mightily set forth in the Old Testament, notwithstanding the body of that generation perished in the wilderness; and why the love and goodness of God, in giving his Son to die for the world, is so mightily set forth in the New Testament, notwithstanding multitudes of mankind perish for ever: viz. It was the Israelites' own fault that they perished in the wilderness, and so it is sinners' own fault that they perish for ever. John iii. 19. v. 40. And did they feel it at heart, it would effectually stop their mouths: for this is an undoubted maxim, that the kindnesses of God to a rebellious, perverse world, are not, in themselves, any the less mercies, because mankind abuse them to their greater ruin. The kindnesses are, in themselves, the same, whether we make a good improvement of them, or no. They are just the same, so just as great, let our conduct be what it will. It was

a great mercy to the Israelites to be delivered out of Egypt'; it was a wonderful expression of divine goodness: and hence it is said, in Hos. xi. 1. When Israel was a child, then I LOVED him, and called my Son out of Egypt. (And a like expression we have in Deut. x. 18. God LOVETH the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.) And on the same ground it is said, in John iii. 16. God so LOVED the world, &c. because the gift of Christ to die for the world was an infinite expression of divine goodness: and if mankind do generally abuse this goodness, as the Israelites generally did all God's kindnesses to them, yet still the goodness itself is just the same. A dreadful thing, therefore, it is for the non-elect; even as aggravated a piece of wickedness in them as it would be in any body else, to tread under foot the blood of the Son of God, and make light of all the offers of mercy, and neglect so great salvation. And this, above all other things, will be their condemnation in the coming world. John iii. 19. Never are the Jews at all excused, any where in the New Testament, in their slighting the offers of mercy by Christ, on this account, that they were not of the elect. And indeed the offers were sincere, and it was entirely their own fault that they did not accept, and they deserved to be treated accordingly. Mat. xxii. 1. 7.

OBJ. 7. But if God so loved the world, the WHOLE WORLD, as to give his only begotten Son to die for them, in the sense explained, why does he not go through, and perfect the work, and save the WHOLE WORLD, according to that in Rom. viii. 32.? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Ans. 1. And why did not the King, in Mat. xxii. who had made a marriage for his Son, and sent his servants to say to them that were bidden, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my futlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage: why did not the King, I say, when they refused, compet them to come in? Since he had done so much, why did he not go through, and finish the work? And this is directly to the point in hand, because this parable is designed to represent that full provision which is made for the salvation of sinners by the death of Christ; and it proves that the objection has no force in it. But further;

2. Take your Bible, and read from the 28th verse to the end of the 8th chapter of Romans, and you will see what the Apostle's design is, through his whole discourse. "We know," says he, " that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them who are called according to his purpose. But how do we know it? Why, because God is fully determined to bring them to glory at last. For, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate; and whom he did predes. tinate, them he also called, and them he justified, and them he glorified. And God was so fully determined to bring them to glory, and so much engaged in the thing, that he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; i. e. us, who love God, and are his elect people." (For it is of these, and these only, that he here is speaking.) " And since he was so much engaged as to do this, we may depend upon it that he will also freely give us all things; i. e. us, who love God, and are his elect people. So that never any thing shall hinder our being finally brought to glory, or separate us from the love of God; neither tribulation, nor persecution, nor distress, nor any thing else." So that this is the apostle's argument. Since God was so much engaged to bring them to glory who loved God, and were his elect people, as that he had given his own Son to die for that end, they therefore, might have the strongest assurance that he would do every thing else which would be needful effectually to bring it about *.

But God never designed to bring the non-elect to glory, when he gave his Son to die for the world. He designed to declare himself reconcileable to them through Christ; to of