2 Preachers are to be accounted true witnesses for God, and to fay neither more nor less than God himself would fay, if he would preach to

Men.

с

3. The commandment to believe, which is joined with the Promife, bindeth all that hear it, and maketh them guilty that do not obey. I therefore applaud our Divines at Dort for their fuffrage; Pag. 18. Evangelio nihil falfum, aut simulatum fubeft, fed quicquid in eo per Miniftros offertur, aut promittitur hominibus, id eodem modo ab authore Evangelii offertur, & promittitur iifdem. And again; Quod fi Pag. 43. · non omnes, quos hoc verbi fpiritufque fui dono dignatur Deus, ad converfionem feriam feriò invitaret; • certè & Deus nonnullos, quos ipfe Filii fui nomine vocat, falleret, & promissionum Evangelicarum nuncii à vocatis falso perhibiti teftimonii accufari poffunt, & qui ad converfionem vocati parere negligunt, redderentur excufabiliores. It is nothing therefore which is faid of the mixture of the Reprobate with the Elect, as to the truth of the Generality of the Promife, altho' it be fomething as to the Foreknowledge and Omnifcience of God, who cannot be ignorant of the fuccefs and event of his general Promifes. But the generality of the Promife teftifyeth against them who fay, God hath Decreed before to whom to give Faith, and to whom to deny it, out of the multitude of Mankind fallen, out of his own pleasure; that they, as much as in them lyeth, make God a lyar and a diffembler.

The laft caveat or direction is not much diffe. rent from the former: that in our doings, that will of God is to be followed, which we have exprefly de clared unto us in the word. This is levelled against the abuse of that true and neceffary diftinction of the will of God into fecret and revealed, Deut. 29. which is made by Mofes; and that of the School- 29. men into Signi & Beneplaciti; which fome pervert

ing

ing do think that God may have another Will fecret and different, about the fame thing whereof he hath a de lared and revealed Will: or that that which is fignifyed, is lefs pleafing than that which is fecret, called Beneplaciti; and therefore forfake or neglect his will revealed, to fulfil his Will fecret, which they count to be his only Will.

As in this prefent matter, when the divine word revealeth it to be the will of God, that every hearer of the Gofpel do repent, believe and be faved; fome Man granting this to be God's revealed, and fignified will, may notwithstanding imagine that God hath another fecret Will, and that of his good Pleasure, which fhall ftand, not to have him repent, nor to believe, nor to be faved. And this imagination is commonly founded upon that Doctrine of Predeftination which excludeth prescience, and maketh God to procede immediately to his Election, upon the confideration of the fall of Mankind. But against this, our Article advifeth to follow in our doings the Will of God declared in his word; and this it doth not only by way of advice, as if it were at our liberty, and only the beft and fafeft way, but even out of neceffary grounds; for,

First, that which is fecret and hidden can be to us no certain ground to build upon; for who knows God will not give him leave to repent, believe, or be faved?

Secondly, there can be no fecret will of God, contrary to his revealed and declared Will; for this were to make God a lyar: nor ought his Will to be diftinguifhed into fecret and revealed, but only when it refpe&teth different objects, or the fame object placed in different times. As for Example; that there shall be a day of Judgment, is the revealed will of God, but when that day fhall be, is fecret to us, tho' determined and known to God:

thefe

these are two objects, that a day fall be, and when that day shall be.

Again, the Gospel of our Salvation, before the Creation of the World, was a fecret counsel and will of God; but fince the World was, it hath been revealed and opened to the Prophets and Apoftles, and is no more hidden, but manifefted; the fame thing in both, but in two times, in the one hidden, in the other revealed: being well-pleafing unto God while it was fecret, and not ceafing to be fo, when fignified and declared to the Sons of Men.

29.

To conclude; this expreffed Will of God, where- John. 6. by he commands all Men, that hear the Gospel, to. John. 3believe it, and whereby the disobedience of them 23. that believe not is aggravated, ftrongly perfuadeth Joh. 3.19. me that the way to Life is yet open, and that Salvation is to be had, until the commandment come, nay, until it be contemned and defpifed: And that the God of truth who ufeth fimplicity and fincerity in all his fayings, and who will overcome when he is judged, hath not made fo much as any fecret Decree, not to give a Man faith, nor Salvation, whom he commandeth to believe the Gofpel, before the confideration of this commandment given, and the difobedience thereunto obferved in his all-knowing mind: And therefore that all opinions and imaginations of Predeftination, determined before the confideration of obedience or difobedience to the Gospel, in the Church where the Gofpel is preached, are utterly to be excluded: which if I obtain in this difcourfe, I have what I defigned; and for this I appeal to the Gafpel, and to this Article of the Church of England.

THE END.

A N

APPENDIX,

CONCERNING THE

SALVABILITY OF THE HEATHEN.

THO

HO' any other Univerfality of Redemption and Grace, than what is extended to all and only to the vifible Church, hath been altogether difclaimed in this Treatife; it may not be improper or unacceptable, to add an Explication of their Opinion who contend for it in a larger Sense; and to mention fome of the Grounds and Reasons for their doing fo. Their Hypothefis may be conceiv'd in the following Propofitions ;

i. The most high, before the Worlds, forefeeing the fall of Mankind, was willing, for the Sake and thro' the Mediation of his Son, to admit of a Method for their Reconciliation with himself.

2. In order to this, out of his Sovereign Pleasure he allotted the condition or manner of a State of Probation to every individual Mortal; leaving fome much in the Dark; granting to others greater degrees of Understanding and reason, and happier Occafions of cultivating them; fuperadding to fome the help of a lefs perfect, to others the Light of a clearer Revelation; to most or all of them fome, tho' different, measures of his divine Grace and Affiftance.

3. From each of them he expected only an Improvement proportionable to the Talent diftributed to him; refolving to require nothing of him to whom he had granted nothing; Little of him on whom he had conferred Little: much of him to whom he had given much.

AH

4. He decreed therefore, the future eternal State of Men not capable of rational Deductions, unconditionally, according to his Mercy and good Pleasure; that of those who had reafon and abilities, as they acted Juitably to the degree of them, or fell short. of it; that of his Church before Chrift, according as they held faft an implicit Faith in and Expectation of a Promifed Redeemer, and honestly endeavour'd the obfervance of fo much of his Will as he had vouchsafed to reveal to them, or failed in doing fo; that of those under the Gospel, according to their Faith and Obedience, or Infi delity and Difobedience to his Son Christ Jesus.

It is not neceffary to enter into a diffuse and particular proof of thefe Propofitions: the fubftance of what is moft difputable in them viz. that God, for the merit of Christ, will accept of the fincere endeavours of all Men who live according to their best Abilities, tho' he was not pleased to bless all with the light of Revelation; may be argued for in the following manner.

If we make a refearch into what all Religion is founded upon, it will appear principally the belief of the divine Goodnefs; without this, Men cou'd not think the Supreme Being, to be of fuch Condefcenfion as to take notice of them and their actions; much less without a full perfuafion of it, would any be induced to credit his having revealed himself to Men, or reconciled himself to us by the Incarnation and Sufferings of his Son. Whatfoever therefore weakens the belief of this, muft leffen the Reafonablenefs and Credibility of Religi

on.

But that God fhould not only have given greater Light, and better means of attaining Blef fednefs, to the vifible Church, but alfo have wholly excluded the bulk of Mankind, who never had opportunity of coming within the Pale of it, from a poffibility of Salvation, feems no way reconcilea-ble with it. For if to have raised out of the Womb