"of Ifraelitifh parents, or were born males; and alfo has decreed to damn men "for not believing in a Chrift who never died for them, and for not being con"verted, when he has decreed not to convert them." To all which I reply, that God's act of election does no injuftice either to the elect or non-elect; not to the elect, to whom it fecures both grace and glory; nor to the non-elect, or to the reft who are left out of it: for as God condemns no man but for fin, fo he has decreed to condemn no man but for fin. And where is the unrighteoufness of such a decree? It would have been no unrighteousness in God to have condemned all mankind for fin, and would have been none in him, if he had decreed to condemn them all for fin. If therefore it would have been no injustice in him to have decreed to condemn all mankind for fin, it can be none in him to decree to condemn fome of them for fin, when he could have decreed to have. condemned them all. Herein he fhews both his clemency and his justice; his clemency to fome, his juftice to others. As to the things particularly inftanced in, I answer, that when this author points out any offers of help in a faving way God has made to all mankind, or to any to whom he has decreed no saving help, and then threatens them with a feverer damnation for non-acceptance of them, I fhall attend to the charge of unrighteousness. That all men finned in Adam, and that by his offence judgment came upon all men to condemnation, the fcriptures declare; and therefore to say that God condemns men, or has decreed to condemn them for the offence of Adam, or for their finning in him, and being fallen with him in his firft tranfgreffion, cannot be disagreeable to them; though we do not fay that any of the fons of Adam, who live to riper years, are condemned only for the fin of Adam, but for their numerous actual fins and tranfgreffions. And as for infants dying in infancy, their cafe is a secret to us; yet inasmuch as they come into the world children of wrath, should they go out as fuch, would there be any unrighteousness in God? Again; as God will not condemn the heathens, who never heard of Chrift, for not believing in him, but for their fins against the law and light of nature; nor fuch as have heard of him, for not believing that he died for them, nor for not being converted, but for their tranfgreffions of God's law; of which condemnation, their disbelief and contempt of Chrift and his gospel will be an aggravation, of which they had the opportunity of being informed: fo we do not fay that God has decreed to condemn or damn men for the things mentioned by this writer.

3. The doctrine of God's chufing fome, and leaving others, is charged with infincerity, and with representing God as "the moft deceitful and infincere Being; yea, as the greatest of all cheats, when he offers to finners a falvation never pur"chafed for them, and which he has abfolutely decreed never to give them; "and when he offers it upon conditions they cannot comply with, without irre"fiftible

« fiftible grace, and he has decreed never to give them that grace; and when "he threatens a heavier damnation if they do not believe and obey the gospel, "which he knows they cannot do." To which I answer, that falvation is not offered at all by God, upon any condition whatsoever, to any of the fons of men, no, not to the elect: they are chofen to it, Chrift has procured it for them, the gofpel publishes and reveals it, and the Spirit of God applies it to them; much lefs to the non-elect, or to all mankind; and consequently this doctrine, or God according to it, is not chargeable with delufion and infult. When this author goes about to prove any such offers, I shall attend to them; and if he can prove them, I own, I must be obliged to think again.

4. This doctrine is represented as "very uncomfortable, because it leaves "the rest of these children, and millions of his creatures, in helpless misery for 66 ever; and makes it a hundred to one to a man that he is not elected, but "must be for ever damned." But when it is confidered that those children are rebellious ones, and those creatures vile and wicked, who are thus left, it can give no unlovely and horrid image of God to fuch who know that he is righteous in all his ways, and boly in all his works. Should it be faid, that such are alfo the men that are chofen; it is very true, and therefore they admire and adore electing grace, and receive abundance of spiritual comfort from it: nor is it fuch a chance matter or uncertain thing to a man, as a hundred to one, whether he is elected or no, to whom the gospel is come not in word only, but also in power, and in the holy Ghoft; who from hence may truly know and be comfortably affured of his election of God. What true and folid comfort can arife from the univerfal fcheme, or from God's univerfal love? When notwithstanding that, and redemption by Christ, and the general offers of mercy, yea, grace itself bestowed, a man may be loft and damned.

66

One would think, that since this writer takes upon him the name of a Churchman, he might have been more fparing of, and less fevere in, his reflections upon this doctrine, seeing it is fo expressly and in fuch ftrong terms afferted in the seventeenth Article of the Church of England, and there reprefented as a very comfortable doctrine. The Article runs thus: "Predeftination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world "were laid) he hath constantly decreed, by his counsel, fecret to us, to deliver "from curfe and damnation those whom he hath chofen in Chrift out of man“ kind, and to bring them by Chrift to everlasting falvation, as veffels made "to honour. Wherefore they which be endued with fo excellent a benefit of "God, be called according to God's purpose, by his Spirit working in due "feafon; they through grace obey the calling; they be juftified freely; they "be made fons of God by adoption; they be made like the image of his only "begotten Dialogue, p. 22, 23, d Pfalm cxlv. 17. e 1 Thefs. i. 4, 5.

begotten Son Jefus Chrift; they walk religiously in good works; and at "length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity." And then it is afterwards observed, that "the godly confideration of predeftination, and our "election in Chrift, is full of fweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly "perfons, and fuch as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing "C up their minds to high and heavenly things; as well because it doth greatly "establish and confirm their faith of eternal falvation to be enjoyed through "Chrift, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God."

5. Before I quit this fubject, I would just remark the fenfe this author gives of feveral texts, which plainly affert a predeftination and election, in the epiftles of Paul and Peter; by which, I fuppofe, are meant, Rom. viii. 29, 30. and ix. 11, 23. and xi. 5-7. Ephes. i. 4, 5. 2 Thess. ii. 13. 1 Pet. i. 2. The sense of them, according to his reading and judgment, and according to others, whom he esteems the best writers and preachers, is this; "Those texts, says he, "are to be understood of God's first electing and adopting the feed of Abra"ham; and then, upon their crucifying the Son of God, and rejecting his gofpel, God's choofing, electing or adopting all the fpiritual feed of Abraham, "though amongst the Gentiles; all virtuous and good men, all who believed "the gofpel; and this agreeable to his ancient defigns, before he laid the foun"dation of the Jewish ages." But these paffages of fcripture have not one word, one fyllable, one jot nor tittle in them of God's electing and adopting the feed of Abraham, the natural feed of Abraham, or the Jewish nation, as fuch; but of fome perfons only from among that nation, and from among the Gentiles; and that not upon the Jews' crucifying Chrift, and rejecting his gofpel, or before the foundation of the Jewish ages were laid; but before the foundation of the world, from the beginning, even from eternity: and though all the fpiritual feed of Abraham, whether among Jews or Gentiles, all good men, all who believe in Christ, are elected; yet they were not elected as fuch, or because they were fo, but that they might be fo; for fuch who are chosen in Christ, are chofen, not because they were, or are, but that they should be, boly, and without blame before God in love.

III. The doctrine of original fin, and the concern which the pofterity of Adam have in it, is greatly found fault with; it is not, indeed, separately and distinctly confidered, but dragged into the debate about Election and Reprobation. And,

1. The Baptift, in this Dialogue, is made to fay, that men loft their ability to repent, to believe and obey the gospel in Adam, and by and at the fall; upon which, 8 Ibid. p. 24.

f Dialogue, p. 26, 27.

h

which, this writer makes this wife fuppofition: "I fuppofe the women loft it "in Eve, and the men in Adam." This little piece of drollery Dr Whitby has fuggested to him, from whom he has borrowed, or rather stolen, a great many of his beautiful and mafterly strokes in this performance. Adam, in his ftate of innocence, had a power of doing what is truly good and righteous; but by finning, loft it. God made him upright, but he finned, and loft the uprightnefs, the rectitude of his nature; and this lofs is fuftained by all his pofterity: for there is none righteous, no not one; there is none that underftandeth, there is none that feeketh after God; they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one. This man owns that we fuffer lofs through Adam's fail, and have an hereditary difeafe con"veyed to us which worketh death;" which hereditary difeafe cannot be any one particular corporal difeafe, because no fuch difeafe is hereditary to all mankind, or conveyed to every individual of human nature. No difeafe but the disease of fin is hereditary, and conveyed to Adam's whole pofterity, and this worketh death; the wages of fin is death, not only corporal, but eternal; as the antithefis in the following words declares, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jefus Christ our Lord'.

k

2. This writer thinks", "God is not at all angry with us for what Adam did, "nor that it is juft to condemn his pofterity for what was done by him fo long "ago." To which I answer, that all men are by nature children of wrath", that is, deferving of the wrath and displeasure of God, because they bring a corrupt nature into the world with them, derived from Adam, and conveyed unto them by natural generation; they are hapen in iniquity and conceived in fin, and as fuch, must be difpleafing to God; whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh; that is, is carnal and corrupt; and whatsoever is fo, cannot be agreeable to God: and fince this is the confequence of Adam's tranfgreffion, why may not God be thought to be angry and difpleafed with men on that account, and even punish them for it, fince he threatens to vifit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children? It is true, indeed, that in general that rule holds good, that the fon fhall not bear the iniquity of the father; though this is not without exceptions to it, and only holds in fuch cafes in which children have no concern with their parents; whereas the pofterity of Adam were not only concerned with him as their natural, but as their federal and representative head; they ftood in him, and fell with him in his tranfgreffion. The apoftle exprefsly fays, that in him all have finned; and gives this as a reafon why death bath poffed upon all men.

VOL. II.

Befides,

* Dialogue, p. 24.

• Pfalm li. 5. Rom. v. 12.

Befides, he further obferves, that by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. The plain and obvious meaning of which is, that all men are condemned through the offence of the first man, being made finners by his fin which is exprefsly afferted by the apoftle, when he fays ", by the disobedience of one many were made finners. But, fays our author ", " that St Paul, by finners, "means fufferers, is plain, not only from reafon, for no other fenfe can be true, "but from his own explication, in Adam all die." This fenfe he has learned from Dr Whitby*; but does not pretend to give us one inftance in which this word is ever fo used. Author always fignifies perfons criminal, guilty of a fault, and frequently fuch who are notoriously so. The sense he gives is contrary to the apostle's design in the context, to the distinction he all along makes between fin and death, the one being the caufe, the other the effect; and is to be difproved by the following part of the text, by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous: where the obedience of Chrift is opposed to Adam's difobedience, righteous to finners; and a being made righteous by the one, to a being made finners by the other. Now, by the rule of oppofition, as to be made righteous by Chrift's obedience, is to be conftituted and accounted fo for the fake of his obedience; fo to be made finners by Adam's disobedience, is to be conftituted and reckoned fo on the account of it: and, after all, how is it reconcileable with the juftice of God, that men fhould die in Adam, fuffer for his disobedience, if they are in no fenfe guilty of it, or chargeable with it? But,

3. The imputation of Adam's fin, the ground of which is the covenant God made with him as a federal head, is reprefented as "an abfurd and unrighteous "fcheme of divinity; and what men muft quit their understandings, and give "up all the principles of reafon, truth and justice, to give into." But where is the abfurdity or injuftice of God's fetting up Adam as a federal head to all his posterity, to stand or fall together, who were all naturally in his loins, as Levi was in the loins of Abraham? Had we been in being, had we been admitted principals, given out our own orders, and made our own choice, could we have made a better choice than God did for us? And fince, had he stood, we should have enjoyed the advantages arifing from his standing, why should we think it any hardship or injuftice done us, that we fhare in the confequences of his fall? Was it never known, even among men, that posterity unborn have been obliged by covenants, which could not be made by their order, of which they could have no knowledge, and to which they gave no confent? Nay, have not children been involved in the crimes of parents, and been subject to penalties, and have endured them on the account of them, as in the cafe of treafon? And have fuch procedures been reckoned abfurd and unrighteous?

4. This

Rom. v. 18.

u Verfe 19.

* Difcourfe of Election, p. 85. Ed. 2. 84.

w Dialogue, p. 25.
Dialogue, p. 25.