mond, on this text. After obferving, that fometimes denotes "the quantity, or ftature, of the body;" he adds: "So alfo doth it ordinarily fignify, age (and fo doth p, which the Syriac here ules); and may poffibly do fo here: 1. Because the dehortation, which this [queftion of Chrift's] is brought to enforce, was particularly that concerning folicitude for the life: and to that, this will be very proper, of our not being able to add, by all our folicitude, the leaft proportion to our age, and to enlarge the period of life my ira, one cubit, i. e. one smallest measure or proportion, beyond what God hath fet us. 2. It will be obfervable, that one cubit being here fet down as a very fmall meafure, would yet be a very great proportion, being applied to the ftature of the body. Nay, fuch as are come to their fuli growth (as the far greatest part of Chrift's auditors were) could not thus hope to add one thoufandth part of a cubit to their flature. On the

other fide, a cubit will feem but a small part, to the many years of a long life. And he that is of the fulleft growth, may yet hope to enlarge the period of his life; and to that, generally, men's folicitude is applied; by diet, phyfic, &c. to acquire long life, not to increase their ftature. 3. The word US, cubit, is ordinarily a meafure of longitude of any fpace: and, particularly, of a race; to which man's life is compared. Job ix. 25. 2 Tim. iv. 7."

This truth may be farther argued, from another paffage, cited alfo in a preceding chapter, viz. Matt. x. 29, 30. For, if not a sparrow can die, without God's exprefs commiffion; much lefs can a man. And, if the very hairs of our heads are nun bered, much more our days.

God giveth, unto all, life, and breath, and all things: and hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times, before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.For in him we

live, and are moved, and have our being. Acts xvii. 25, 26, 28.-Obferve: 1. God is the giver of animal life, as well as every thing elfe.-2. He has multiplied us all, from one ftock: viz. Adam.3: The times, i. e. the proper feafons, of our birth and death, and of all that we fhall do or fuffer between the starting-poft and the goal, are determined, or marked out with certainty and exactnefs, by him himfelf.-4. This determination, or adjustment, of our times, is not a modern act of God, arifing è re natá, or from any prefent emergency of circumftances and fituation of affairs: but a determination, inconceivably ancient. The times were fore-appointed, even from everlasting for no new determination can take place in God, without a change, i. e. without the deftruction, of his effence. Quevis mutatio mors eft.-5. The very places, which people inhabit, are here pofitively averred to be determined and fore-appointed of God. And it is very right it fhould be fo. Elfe, fome places might be over-ftocked with inhabitants, and others totally deferted: which would neceffarily draw after it the moft pernicious confequences; as ftagnation of agriculture, famine, peftilence, and general ruin to the human fpecies. Whereas, by virtue of God's having fore-appointed and determined the bounds of our habitations, we are properly fifted over the face of the earth, fo as to anfwer all the focial and higher purpofes of providential wifdom.-6. If Deity has condefcended to determine, in what particular places our bodies fhall dwell; why should it appear ftrange, that he should alfo determine how long our fouls fhall dwell in their bodies? Adverbs of time are no lefs important, than adverbs of place. Nor, indeed, could omnipotence itfelf determine the ibi, without likewife determining the quando, and the diu.-Efpecially, when we confider, 7. That in him we, every moment, live, and are moved, and do exist.

Moreover, if Christ's own teftimony will have any weight with felf-determinationifts, the following text,

exclufively

exclufively of all others, will fet the point above difpute: where our Lord roundly affirms, that he himfelf keeps the keys of hell and of death. Rev. i. 18. Which declaration holds true, in every fenfe the words are capable of. He openeth, and no man can fhut and flutteth, and no man can open. Rev. iii. 7.

Nor is Divine Providence the diftributor of death to man alone. The very beafts themfelves, which are, by many, fuppofed to perifh utterly, are immortal, until God cut their thread. Thou hideft thy face they are troubled. Thou take away their breath: they die; and return to their duft, Pfalm civ. 29.-It fhould be remembered, that this is more directly fpoken, concerning thofe fmall and great beafts, and creeping things innumerable, which inhabit the fea. So that fithes themfelves, from a whale to a periwinkle, have the Creator himself for the difpofer of their lives, and the determiner of their deaths!

From the evidence alledged, concife and fuperficial as my allegations have been, we may fairly (and, I think, unanswerably) conclude: that contingency has nothing to do with births, or burials; and, confequently, that chance never yet added, nor ever will add*, “a fingle "a fingle unit to the bills of mortality."

If, therefore, the initial point, from whence we ftart; and the ultimate goal, which terminates our race; be thus divinely and unchangeably fixed: is it reasonable to fuppofe, that chance, or any freewill but the free-will of Deity alone, may fabricate the intermediate links of a chain, whofe two extremes are held immovably faft in the hands of Gcd himfelf-Impoffible.

For this phrafe, a fingle unit to the bill of mortality, fee Lord Chesterfield's Letters: Lett. 336.

CHAP.

CHAP. VII.

The fuppofed Gloominefs of Neceffity, confidered.-The Origin of Neceflity.-Concife View of Manichaifm.-The Nature of Evil enquired into.-Curious ConverfationPieces of three Modern Philofophifers.-Several Affemblies of Divines vindicated.-Arminians themselves ultimately forced to make Neceffity their Refuge.-Conclufion of the prefent Effay.

I.

G REAT declamatory pains have been taken,

to fet the fyftem of neceffity in a very gloomy" point of view: and to mifrepresent it, as made up of nothing but clouds, and fhades, and thick darkness. The fame has been faid of religion at large, and of virtue itself. But are virtue and religion therefore deformed and black, because their beauty and luftre do not ftrike a libertine eye? No more is the scheme of neceffity tinged with real gloom, on account of a proud or prejudiced freewiller's being pleased to affert it.

"I have fometimes beheld," fays an elegant writer, "a fhip of war, feveral leagues off at fea. It feemed to me to be a dim, cloudy fomething, hovering on the skirts of the horizon: contemptibly mean, and not worthy of a moment's regard.-But, as the floating citadel approached, the mafts arofe. The fails fwelled out. Its fately form, and curious properties, ftruck the fight. It was no longer a fhapelefs mafs, or a blot in the profpect: but the mafterpiece of human contrivance, and the nobleft fpectacle in the world of art." Hervey's Theron and Afpafio, Dialogue 5.

Arminianifm, if you please, is a region of darknefs: but neceflity, a land of light. For I fhould

*

be

The pretended gloominefs of neceflity is urged, with most appearance (andlit is but appearance) of plaufibility, against that branch of Scripture-metaphyfics, which relates to the decree of reprobation.

Let

be glad to be informed, wherein confifts the chearfulness of believing, that the greater part, if not the whole of fublunary events, even thofe of endless concern not excepted, are delivered over to the management of an imaginary goddefs, called chance; the mere creature of poetic fiction, and the most unmeaning found that was ever admitted into language?

Let me, for a moment, weigh the pretended horror of this principle; a principle, which occurs fo pofitively and repeatedly, again and again, in almoft every page of the Bible; that the existence of God does not admit of more ftrong and explicit proof, from the infpired volume, than does the awful reality of non-election. What I here mean to obferve on this fubject, I shall give, in the words of part of a letter, which I lately fent to a very eminent Anti-Calvinian philofopher, Dr. Priestley. "Why are Calvin's doctrines reprefented as gloomy? Is it gloomy, to believe, that the far greater part of the human race are made for endless happiness? There can, I think, be no reasonable doubt entertained, concerning the falvation of very young perfons. If (as fome, who have verfed themselves in this kind of fpeculation, affirm,) about one half of mankind die in infancy;-And if, as indubitable obfervation proves, a very confiderable number of the remaining half die in early childhood; -And if, as there is the ftrongest reafon to think, many millions of thofe, who live to maturer years, in every fucceffive generation, have their names in the Book of Life: then, what a very fmall portion, comparatively, of the human fpecies, falls under the decree of preterition and non-redemption!

"This view of things, I am perfuaded, will, to an eye fo philofophic as your's, at least open a very chearful vifta through the gloom; if not entirely turn the imaginary darkness into funfhine. For, with refpect to the few reprobate, we may, and we ought to, refign the difpofal of them, implicitly, to the will of that only king who can do no wrong: inftead of fummoning the Almighty to take his trial at the tribunal of our fpeculations, and of fetting up ourselves as judges of Deity."

I might have added, that the purpofe of God according to election is not reftrained to men, either of any particular country, or age of time, or religious denomination. Undoubtedly, there are elect Jews, elect Mahometans, and elect Pagans. In a word, countlefs millions of perfons, whom Christ hath redeemed unto God, by his blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Rev. v. 9.

Only take a fair and difpaffionate furvey of the matter, as it is; and the Atminian outcries will be found a vox, et prætereà nihil. For, who can count the dust of Jacob, or the number of the fourth part of God's elect Ifrael?

VOL. VI. (30.)

G

"Oh,