Therefore faid I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it be given to him of my Father. Ver. 65.

They fought to take him; but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. Chap. vii. 30.-Until then, their hands were tied and bound with the invisible, but adamantine, chain of neceffity. And yet, I fuppofe, because they did. not fee nor feel the chain, they looked upon themfelves as felf-determining free-agents!

Whofoever committeth fin, is the fervant [de, the flave] of fin. Chap. viii. 34.-But according to the Arminian view of things, it is fuch a flavery as was never heard of before: the flave is at perfect liberty all the while! I cannot believe this. On the contrary, I believe what follows:

If the Son fhall make you free, ye fhall be free indeed. Ver. 36.-Obferve, until Chrift make us free from the guilt and dominion of fin, we are, neceffarily, in thraldom to both. If he deliver us, we are, neceffarily, emancipated from each.

Why do ye not understand my speech? even becaufe ye cannot hear my word. John viii. 43.A plain, pertinent, decifive reafon.

He that is of God, heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Ver. 47. Either not chofen; or, at least, not yet drawn and taught; of him.

-

I must work the works of him that fent me, while it is day. Chap. ix. 4. Chrift was under a neceffity of doing fo. He could not do any other. Jefus faid, for judgment I am come into this world: that they, who fee not, might fee; and may be made blind. Ver. 39. Can any thing be more ftrongly expreffed than this?

that they, who fee,

A ftranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of ftrangers. Chap. x. 5.-i. e. The converted elect difapprove of

falfe

falfe teachers, as neceffarily as fheep run away from a ftrange man they are afraid of.

Other fheep I have, which are not of this fold: them alfo I muft bring, and they fhall hear my voice. Ver. 16.—I muft: and they fhall. What is this but double neceffity?

Ye believe not, because ye are not of my fheep, as I faid unto you. Ver. 26.-Confequently, faith hangs, not upon man's felf-determination, but on God's own felf-determined election.

I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. John x. 28.-i. c. Their falvation is neceffary, and cannot be hindered.

Lazarus, come forth! Chap. xi. 43.-Was it in Lazarus's power, not to awake and rife up?

Though he had done fo many miracles before. them, yet they believed not on him; that the fay. ing of Efaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he fpake: Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because Efaias faid again, he hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they fhould not fee with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I thould heal them. Chap. xi. 37-40. If an Arminian can extract free-will and felf-determination. from these flowers, he poffeffes a very different alembic, from any which I am mafter of.

One of you shall betray me:-he it is, to whom I fhall give a fop when I have dipped it. And, when he had dipped the fop, he gave it to Judas Ifcariot, the fon of Simon. And, after the fop, Satan entered into him. Then faid Jefus unto him, That thou doft, do quickly. Chap. xiii. 21, 26, 27.-Awful procefs!

I will pray the Father, and he fhall give you another comforter,-whom the world cannot receive, because it feeth him not, neither knoweth him. John xiv. 16, 17.

Becaufe

Because I live, ye fhall live alfo. Ver. 19.Chrift lives and reigns in glory, neceffarily and fo muft his people.

Ye have not chofen me, but I have chofen you, and ordained you; that ye fhould go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit fhould remain. Chap.

XV. 16.

They have both feen and hated both me and my Father: but this cometh to pafs, that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law; they hated me without a caufe. Ver. 24, 25.

Father, the hour is come. Chap. xvii. 1.-The predeftined season of my crucifixion and death.

None of them [none of my apoftles] is loft, but the Son of Perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Ver. 12.

The cup which my Father hath given me, fhall I not drink it? Chap. xviii. 11.-A cup, all whofe ingredients were mixed in the Father's decree, and administered by Providence, though wicked men were the inftruments of accomplishing God's counfel. Qui vult finem, vult etiam media ad finem.

Pilate faid unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore faid unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. That the faying of Jefus might be fulfilled, which he fpake, fignifying, by what death he fhould die. John xviii. 31, 32.-God had decreed, and Chrift himself had foretold, that he should die by crucifixion. But had the Jews accepted of Pilate's overture, Chrift could not have been crucified, for that was no Jewish punishment: he must have been stoned. To fulfil both decree and prophecy, they were divinely over-ruled, to let the Romans be his executioners: in confequence of which, he was affixed to the crofs.Neceflitation throughout!

Pontius Pilate was a free-will man. He did not believe neceffity. He was a sturdy (not felf-deter

miner, for no man can be really and truly that; but a) felf-determinationift: i. e. he thought himself a felf-determining agent. Hence his fpeech to Chrift: Speakeft thou not unto me? Knoweft thou not, that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? To which the Lamb of God replied, Thou couldft have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore, he, that delivered me unto thee, hath the greater fin. John xix. 10.-Here, I prefume, Mr. Wefley will step in with his favourite univerfal demonftration, "Not fo."-" If the power both of the betrayer and of the crucifier was given them, and from above too, i. e. from God himself; Judas and Pilate could have no fin at all in acting as they did, fo far from having the greater fin by that means." The methodist muft excufe me, if I believe the teftimony of Chrift, in preference to any cavil that can originate in Moorfields.

tr

Again. I affert, that the Roman foldiers had it not in their power to break the Meffiah's legs. For that Scripture was neceffarily to be fulfilled, which had faid, A bone of him fhall not be broken. Chap. xix. 33, 36.

On the other hand, I affert, that the foldier, who penetrated the Meffiah's fide, did it neceffarily. Becaufe, another Scripture had faid, They fhall look on him whom they pierced; ver 37. So fure is that axiom, nihil ef in effectu, quod non fuit in caufa.

It was my intention, to have produced, at much greater length than I have done in the clofe of the foregoing chapter, the fuffrages of the apofties, alfo, on behalf of this doctrine; who offer their evidence, from every part of the infpired epiftles. But, at prefent, I waive this advantage: and, for brevity's fake, refer the reader, indifcriminately, to any portion whatever of thofe writings, which he may firft open, or on which he may firft caft his eye. Dip where you will, your own reafon (abstracted from VOL. VI. (29.)

F

all

all confideration of grace) muft inftantly perceive, that the illuminated penmen were as radicated neceffitarians, as their divine Mafter.

And now, what can a fair and capable examinant think of the Arminian felf-determination doctrine? A doctrine which would impioufly graft fuch a monfter as contingency, on the religion of Jefus Christ -a religion, which, from its Alpha to its Omega, prefents us with one grand, unbroken, and indiffoluble, fyftem of neceffity!

Is it any wonder, that men, who confider the incarnation, miracles, prophecies, perfeverance, fufferings, death, and falvation, of the Meffiah himself, as things of chance; fhould likewife maintain all other events to be equally fortuitous?

Hence, the alertness and rapidity, with which many of our modern Arminians (more confiftent, but at the fame time more atheistical, than the generality of their predeceffors), not content with trampling on God's decrees, are now verging toward a flat denial even of God's abfolute and unlimited knowledge. Juftly fenfible, that their whole fairy fcheme of chance, uncertainty, and contingency, is quite untenable, on the pofition of infallible prefcience; they make no fcruple to rob (if they were able) the Deity himself of a perfection effential to his very being, rather than not ftick the feather of free-will in the cap of man!

CHAP. VI.

An Argument for Neceffity, deduced from the Balance of Human Life and Death..

AS it not for that univerfal neceffitation, which refults from the effective and permiffive will of God; all things would be, in a moment,

unhinged,