trust; which, indeed, he cannot do; for, he is faithful in all his house, Heb. 3: 5, 6, and that as a Son; and joint interest, you know, is a natural and prevalent obligation to faithfulness. If any should offer to dispossess him, he would answer as Naboth did-Ahab; “God forbid that I should part with the inheritance of my fathers," 1 Kings 21:3. And this faithfulness further appears, in that he makes it a main part of his business, now in heaven, to have this work perfected; "he ever liveth to make intercession for them,' Heb. 7:25. There is great weight put upon this, in Rom. 8: 34. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that is risen again—who also maketh intercession for us;" and the sum of his prayer is, that those given to him might be kept from evil; that they might be one in the Father and himself; and that they may be where he is, to behold his glory," John 17:24. 21. 15. Now, then, if the salvation of those he died for was the end of his death: and the price that he paid well worthy the purchase: if it be the Father's will that they should be saved: if also this salvation be the thing for which he prays, and whatsoever he asketh of God, he will give it, John 11: 22. It needs must follow, "that the intent of his death cannot be frustrated."

Yet does not this truth go unopposed; not for any fault of its own, but that it will not give place to another, which unduly affects the pre-eminence. Denied in terms it is not; none will say directly, that Christ's intent in dying may be frustrated: but, that intent of his is so narrowed by some, and clogged with conditions, as would bring it to nothing. The rise whereof, or its use, I understand not; but suppose that necessity drove to it, for want of a better, to shore up the general point. I thought, at first, of no objection here; but, having since found this in the way, I would put it in the sacred balance, and try its weight. The sum alleged is this,

Object. That the intent of Christ's death was only to bring men into a salvable state; with such means and helps as will bring them to salvation, if they will use them; and that any are not saved, is from their unbelief.

Answ. 1. That unbelief is the condemning sin, needs no proof; but men's not believing in Christ is not the only, or first procuring cause of their condemnation; but their apostacy and rebellion against God: although the condemnation of those who believe not, is greatly aggravated by

rejecting the remedy; as one condemned for treason, refusing his pardon, that refusal is, indeed, the next and 'immediate cause of his execution, and perhaps shall heighten the rigor of it; but his treasonable practice was the first procuring cause of his death; which also he should have suffered for, if no such pardon had been offered. There will need no accusation from Christ to justify the condemnation of sinners. Moses, whose law they bave broken, shall witness against the Jews; and the law of nature against the Gentiles. That faith is the one thing necessary on our part, in order to being saved, is a foundation truth, and most necessary to be known; and as true it is, that faith adds nothing of merit or virtue to the cross of Christ. Where men are said to be justified or saved by faith, it is meant of the object of faith, and not of the act, though not without it. For as bread must be eaten, and taken in, before it can nourish; so must the righteousness of Christ be apprehended by faith, before we can be justi. fied by it. But as the action of eating or chewing is not the matter or substance of our nourishment, but the bread we eat; so neither is our act of believing, but the righte ousness of Christ alone, apprehended by faith, the matter of our justification. But,

2. Why should redemption depend on a sovereign power to bring about its end? Why should so great a thing be left in the hands of a human arbitrement, to succeed, or be defeated, at the pleasure of a perverse will? That Christ should die, ought rather to have been conditional, and not the salvation of those he should die for; and so, in prudence, should have been deferred until the end of the world, to see if any fruit would come of it; and if not, then not to die at all; for why should he die in vain? But that Christ should die, and that at the very time when he did, was fore-determined of God, and confirmed with an oath; whereby it was made necessary, and impossible to be reversed. It could not, then, stand with the wisdom or truth of God, that the end of his death should possibly miscarry, or be frustrable: which it must be obnoxious to, if dependant on the human will; a thing so fickle and uncertain, that it knows not this moment what it will do, or pitch upon the next; besides a natural antipathy to the thing itself: but evident it is, that the end has the same insurance as the means, namely, decree, promises, and

oath. And now, shall so great solemnity, and expectation upon it evaporate into contingency? Christ was promised seed to serve him, and such a sight of the travail of his soul, as should satisfy him: That he "should divide the spoil with the strong," Isa. 53: 10, 11. "That the heathen should be his inheritance, Psal. 2: 8. "That kings should see and arise; princes also should worship," Psal. 49: 7. "and his enemies become his footstool," &c. Psal. 110: 1. And this, as a reward of his sufferings; and he sits in heaven, expecting until it be done, Heb. 10:13. And now, shall lapsed creatures usurp a negative vote to their sovereign's will? Shall it be at their pleasure, whether he who is heir of all things, shall possess his patrimony? Shall sinful dust so arrogate to itself as to say, My Creator's will shall be done, so mine may be the standard of it? Shall those statutes of heaven, in favor of the conditional doctrine, run thus? The strong man armed shall be spoiled and cast out, if he will: The heathen, whose god is the devil, shall renounce him, and turn tenants to Christ, if he will consent to it, and they also think it their interest: Kings and princes shall arise and worship him, if their own grandeur will bear it; and enemies become his footstool, in case they be free to submit to it, &c. Who would not tremble to hear such indignities put upon Christ?

3. There was no reason why Christ, the Son of God, should die for so small a purchase, as to make men but conditionally salvable: that the greatest thing in the world should be hung on so weak a pin as would not bear the weight of an apple. I call it a small purchase, because they had more than this in Adam: they had then a pure freedom of will, without bias to evil. But now, say you, they are helped by motives and arguments from the danger they are in, and the benefits attainable by changing their course: but what are these as the case stands? What motives will move, while insensible of that danger, and ignorant of the benefits proposed? Such motives also they had before, and more amply than now; inasmuch as the present sense of a happy condition was more attractive and prevalent to keep it, than the mere proposal of a distant and unknown privilege can be to attain it (for of things unknown, men are not desirous;) especially when things that are more suitable to present sense are theirs in possession; and to leave these for those they understood not, is contrary to their reason:

they see neither danger nor privilege, and therefore despise both. Or if they have skin-deep convictions at times, the present content they dream to have in their lusts, carries them headlong, as wind and tide.

4. If rational motives and argumentations were of that weight and efficacy for the working of faith, as some have pretended; then those of the largest endowments of nature should be the most capable subjects, and most likely to be wrought upon. But do any of the Pharisees believe on him? Do not the princes of worldly wisdom account the preaching of the cross foolishness? Do we see men of re nown for human sapience, highly pretending to moral sane tity, and the highest flown in their free-will principles, nevertheless to despise the ways of holiness; yea, despoil ing Christ himself of his deity, and the christian religion of its chiefest glory? Nothing more plain to common observance! Surely, then, it could not be reasonable, that this glorious redemption shall lie at the mercy of a perverse will; since that is the thing which hath hindered, and will hinder, until it be taken out of the way. Christ was but once delivered to the wills of men, and then they crucified him, Luke 23: 24. and ever since they crucify his cross. "Had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," 1 Cor. 2: 8. but so it is in the wisdom of God, that "the world by wisdom knew not God," chap. 1: 21. The wisdom of men never was the author of faith, either to them. selves or others, chap. 2:5. the preaching of the cross is to the Jewish legalists a stumbling-block, chapter 1: 23, and foolishness to the rational philosopher, and those at Athens, Acts 17:11.

5. Conditionality will not consort with the scope of Christ's redemption, nor yet with the nature of the bondage it refers unto: it is summarily termed, the bondage of corruption: in parcels, it bears the name of blindness, darkness, death, hardness, unbelief, enmity, &c. And that, deliver. ance from these was the very scope and end of redemption, might be made out particularly: I shall instance only two or three generals: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," 1 John 3:8. "Our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed," Rom. 6: 6. "God sent his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh," chapter 8: 3. Which text,

lest they might seem defective for want of universality, that also is supplied in Tit. 2:14. "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity," Ephes. 5:25, 26, 27. Christ gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it," and present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." But was it not a thing in design only, and liable to frustration? No, it was determined and fixed; for, "he . shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities," Psal. 130: 8. and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son "cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John 1: 7. it is spoken of in the present tense, as a thing still and always in doing. And this all here must be taken universally; because, if not saved from all, it would be, in the end, as if saved from none: one mite left on the score, binds over to wrath; especially unbelief, John 3: 18. Why then should they of all the rest be exempted or disputed? is it, that we think faith so easy a matter, that we need not trouble our master about it? Few believers have found it so: or do we think ourselves better able to deal with our own hearts, or truer to our interest than he? Is it our hearts' deceitfulness that makes us think so: or shall we impose upon Christ something of ours to increase his merits, or to make them effectual? He abhors it; for "if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing," Gal. 5: 2. or do we aspire to sit on his right hand in the glory of redemption; I know not what it is; but am sure, that something not right lies in the bottom, though unseen. For since the honor of redemption lies in saving from sin, he that saves from unbelief, which is the capital, shares deepest in that honor: unbelief is the lock of our chain and bondage; and till that be unshot, there is no getting loose. Christ's redemption is not like those laws of men, who hold the small, but let the great ones break through: no, redemption aims at the head, and it was so designed from the first, Gen. 3: 15. But how are men saved from unbelief? is it their own act, or another's? if their own, then it is of works: which will not consort with grace, Rom, 4: 4. and chap. 11: 6. if another's that other does it either absolutely, or conditionally: if absolutely, the objection ceases: if conditionally, what was the condition of it? It could be nothing in us before we believed; for "whatsoever is not of faith, is sin," Rom.14:23. It must then be for another cause, and without condition, and that