are the essential qualities of men, as moral responsible beings; but to foresee how every individual of the human race will, upon every occasion, determine and act, is the incomprehensible attribute of the Deity. That such an attribute does belong to God, is placed beyond all doubt by the accurate accomplishment of numerous prophecies; and the free-agency of man is proclaimed in every page of Scripture, and confirmed by the experi ence that which God foreknows is future. God knows what shall be, the watchman only knows what is. I answer, that this makes no difference at all in the case, by reason of that disparity which is between God's knowledge and ours: as that coming is present to the watchman which is future to them who are below, so all those things which are future to us, are present to God, because his infinite and eternal knowledge doth reach to the future being of all agents and events. Thus much is plainly acknowledged by Thomas Hobbes, No. 11, that fore-knowledge is knowledge, and knowledge depends on the existence of the things known, and not they on it. To conclude, the prescience of Goth doth not make things more necessary, than the production of the things themselves. But if the agents were free-agents, the production of the things doth not make the events to be absolutely necessary, but only upon supposition that the causes were so determined, God's prescience proveth a necessity of infallibility, but not of antecedent extrinsecal determination to one. If any event should not come to pass, God did never foreknow that it would come to pass, for any knowledge necessarily presupposeth its object." Abp. Bramhall, p. 727. ence of every moment (k). These sublime and important truths are to be treated as fundamental and incontrovertible principles; and no interpretation of Scripture is to be admitted in contradiction to them. The Jews" could not believe" because of (k) God even knows how men would act, and what events would happen, under circumstances, which in reality never take place, and has on some occasions communicated these contingencies by special Revelations, without any control or restraint upon the Free agency of those to whom he revealed them. God, in answer to the inquiries of David, informed him, that if he remained at Keilah, Saul would come down against him, and that the men of the City would deliver him into the hands of his enraged enemy. If we believe the Truth and Omniscience of God, we cannot doubt but that David might have continued at Keilah, and that in that case he would have been delivered up to Saul; but David, by the exercise of his Free-will, in consequence of the divine communication," departed out of Keilah;" and Saul, when he heard that David had escaped from thence, went not thither, I Sam. c. 23. v. 9—13. In like manner God foresaw, and declared by his Prophet Elisha, that Benhadad King of Syria might recover from his sickness, but still that he would "surely die" from another cause; and on the following day, before his sickness left him, he was murdered by Hazael: here again we must believe that the disease of Benhadad would not have been fatal, although his recovery was prevented by the voluntary act of Hazael. 2 Kings, c. 8. v. 7-15. Vide Dr. Eveleigh's Sermon upon Deut. c. 30. v. 19. in which these two instances of David and Benhadad are urged with great force as conclusive against "absolute and universal predestination." of their own prejudices and lusts, and not because it was so decreed; for a decree of this kind would not only have been inconsistent with their freeagency, but irreconcileable also with many passages of Scripture, and particularly with our Sa-viour's exhortations recorded in the same chapter, "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you while ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light (k):” There was therefore no divine decree, which prevented the Jews from walking according to the doctrine of Christ, and embracing his religion, since we cannot suppose that our Saviour would call upon the Jews to do that which God had made impossible. That this is the right interpretation of St. John's quotation from Isaiah, is also evident from the terms in which the same passage is quoted by St. Matthew," And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive; for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed (1):" Here it is expressly said, that they closed their own eyes; and in other places we find their unbelief and rejection of the Gospel attributed to their own. obstinacy and wickedness: "How often would I have (k) John, c. 12. v. 35 & 36. (1) Matt. c. 13. v. 14 & 15. have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not 'm)!" "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead (n) :" "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles (o):" "They loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (p)" The wickedness and perverseness of the Jews blinded their understandings, and indisposed them to receive the truth, though delivered in the plainest terms, and attested by the fullest evidence. "Those places of Scripture, says Dr. Jortin, are easily reconciled, in which the wicked are represented usually as hardening themselves, and sometimes as being hardened of God. They harden themselves, because it is by their own choice, by their own obstinacy and perverseness that they become obdurate; and they are hardened of God, not by any proper and immediate act of God, depriving them of reason and liberty, or compelling them to do evil; but quite on the contrary, by his continuing to give them both motives and opportunities to do well; which gifts being (m) Luke, c. 13. v. 34. rejected (n) Luke, c. 16. v. 31. (p) John, c. 3. v. 19. rejected and abused are the innocent cause, or the occasion of their greater wickedness, and in this sense they are hardened by the very goodness of God. Besides, in the style of Scripture, God is often said to do what he only permits to be done; and in all other languages also, the occasion is put for the cause, both as to persons, and as to things. 'I came not to send peace upon earth, but a sword (q),' says our Lord; that is, my Gospel, though it ought to produce peace and love, will prove the occasion of strife and enmity (r).” "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed (s) :" This text does not mean, that there was an ordinance of God appointing that certain persons of those who were present should believe and (q) Matt. c. 10. V. 34. (r) Diss. 1st. (s) Acts, c. 13. v. 48. The words oa haav TelayMév might have as well been rendered, ' as many as were set in order, or made ready,' and then the context had plainly illustrated the text. For in the same verse we find that this was spoken of the Gentiles, who were glad and glorified God, that the words of Salvation and Everlasting Life belonged to them also. (v. 46, 47.) But who these Gentiles were, we learn more particularly from verse 43, namely, that they were some σɛCoμévwv @poonλúTWV, of the devout or worshipping Proselytes, those who believed a life to come, and sought for the happiness thereof, and who therefore were in a fit posture to lay hold of that great promise of the Gospel, being both prepared |