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it: for he that determined the safety of their lives, determined also, that it should be effected by their abiding in the ship; and that this caution, or threatening of danger, in case they went out, should be a means to prevail with them for that abiding; and so it did. In like manner, that saying of the apostle, that "if they lived after the flesh they should die, Rom. 8: 13. was very consistent with what he had said before, namely, "that sin should not have dominion over them," Rom: 16: 14. and that "nothing should separate them from the love of God," chap. 8: 39. For as the Lord deals with reasonable creatures, so he makes use of rational arguments, motives, and cautions to work upon them: both end and means, and inducements to the use of those means, were all determined together.

Object. We judge it a very senseless part in a father, to give his child complete assurance, under hand and seal, that he will make him his heir, against all possible interveniencies; and yet presently threaten him, if he be not dutiful, to disinherit him.

Answ. Undutiful children may dare to judge thus of their father's actions; and children, that otherwise are dutiful and good, yet, while children, may have childish conceptions of what their elders do: but men grown up, and acquainted with their father's prudence and goodness, will lay their hands upon their mouths. The promise and purpose of God, to give Canaan to Abraham's seed, was so absolute, that, by the objector's own confession, all their unworthiness could not deprive them of it: it is also evident by their demeanor, and the event at last: yet how often does the Lord threaten to disinherit them? and to "blot out their name from under heaven," Exod. 32: 10. Numb. 14: 12. Deut. 9: 14. Did Moses now go and "charge God foolishly?" did he tell him, It is a senseless part thus to threaten, after so absolute an engagement to the contrary? No; he puts the Lord in mind of his promise to their fathers; of his mercy in pardoning them afore-time; what reflection it would have on his honor among the Egyptians, if he should now destroy them, &c. Not a word of complaint, that first to promise, and then to threaten, is a senseless thing: it had been senseless in Moses thus to do, and in no wise consistent with his duty. But more directly; it were no senseless part in a father, to purchase an office for his son, and so to settle it on him, that it shall not

be in his own power to reverse it; and yet, keeping to himself the knowledge of that settlement, propose the enjoy. ment thereof conditional, namely, upon terms of obedience to his father's command: the tendency of all which is but to prove himself the son of such a father, and to prepare him for his place: and, the more to oblige his son to a studious preparing himself for it, to lay before him the evil and danger of a negligent course; by which, if persisted in, he might render himself incapable. But, surely, supposing this father to have the same power over his son, as God hath over the heart and spirit of his people; he will so order him by instruction, discipline, and good principles, that he shall not run into a forfeiture. Besides, threatenings of damnation are not properly applicable to believers, who know themselves so to be: for "he that believeth, is passed from death to life, and shall not come into condemnation, John 5: 24. however, at times, for want of a thorough knowing their state, unthankfulness for it, or some other miscarriage, they bring themselves under doubtings of it: but for such as have complete assurance under God's hand and seal (as the objection speaks,) they are "sealed up to the day of redemption," Eph. 4: 30. Rom. 8: 15. with a seal that never shall be loosed.

Object. In case any person were so adjudged to eternal life from eternity, that there is no possibility of miscarry. ing, then there was no necessity of Christ's dying for him.

Answ. The asserters of absolute election do hold, with the scriptures, that election is "in and through Christ:" the same decree that ordained to salvation, ordained also the mediation of Christ in order thereto: that God might be "just in justifying, he hath appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ," 2 Thess. 5: 9. Ye might, with as much shew of reason, infer, that if such an end be appointed to be wrought by such a means, then that means is unnecessary to that end: that if God had chosen men to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, then holiness and faith are needless things. These are absurd reasonings, which the truth neither owns nor needs.

Object. We judge such an election to be an open enemy to godliness: for who will strain and toil himself for that which he knows he shall obtain by an easy pace?

Answ. The doctrine of conditional election can be no

friend to godliness, whatever it may pretend to; since all that a man doeth on that account terminates in self. God. liness is to aim at God as our chief end in all that we do: now one that holds the elect sure of salvation, and believes himself to be one of them, and yet goes on to fear God, and obey him, glorifies God more than he that performs the same duties for kind (and perhaps greater in bulk,) in expectation of life thereby. The Pharisees fasted oftener than Christ's disciples; but were not such real friends to godliness as they. Long prayers, fastings, and alms-deeds, are all nothing without love: and who, do you think, will love God more, he that believes himself sure of God's love unchangeably, or one that holds that, after all his toiling and straining, he may possibly run in vain, and lose all at last? If ye speak thus, ye cross the experience of God's children; yea, and of nature too; for who counts it a toil to eat his meat when nature requires it, especially when it is most agreeable both to his palate and constitution?" All the ways of God are pleasantness to them that walk in them:" and these would not leave them again, although their future happiness were not concerned in it: if they be grievous to any, it is from their unacquaintedness with his love, 1 John 5: 3:

Object. It must needs make men very remiss and loose in the service of God.

Answ. A strange assertion! that the assurance of God's love should make men careless in serving him: they that so judge, can never be over diligent to make their calling and election sure. Christ knew that the "angels had charge ,over him," and that "he should not dash his foot against a stone;" yet was nevertheless careful of his own preservation. Paul was sure of the crown of righteousness; and yet as diligent in beating down his body, and strained as hard in running his race, as any of those who lay the stress of salvation upon their works.

Object. Such a notion of election lays the honor and necessity of that great ordinance of preaching the gospel in the dust: for if the elect (so called) shall as certainly be saved by a weak, simple, or corrupt ministry, and this, it may be, enjoyed but a day or two in all a man's life, or loosely attended upon, wherein is the ministry of the gospel to be esteemed?

Answ. That peremptory decree, that " summer and

winter, day and night, shall not cease," takes not away the necessity of the sun's being in the world, nor of its daily rising, setting, and various revolutions; for by these, as the necessary means thereof, must the decree be made good. So the absoluteness of that other part of the promise, that "seed-time and harvest shall not cease," doth not a whit discharge the husbandman either of his usefulness or duty; but evinceth the one, and enforceth the other; giving also encouragement to him in his work. The force of this answer will not be evaded, by alleging, that God affords them means proper and sufficient for seed-time and harvest, (that is, they have fitting seasons, with seed corn, horses, ploughs, and other utensils of husbandry;) and that is all the promise intends; and if they improve them not, the fault is their own. True, it is so, and they shall smart for their neglect: but what will become of the promise, and sureness of the covenant? Therefore this is not all that God doeth for men in this point. He that decreed how long the earth shall endure, and what number of men he will raise upon it, did also decree his own upholding thereof during that time, and by what means those men should be propagated, and kept alive; and did accordingly put into them the principles of self-preservation; by which they are naturally prompted to use them, as they are to eat, drink, and sleep: "He hath set the world in their hearts," Eccl. 3. 11. As the elect shall certainly be saved, and also prepared for that salvation; so hath the Lord appointed them such a ministry, and for so long a time, and their attendance thereon in such a manner, as best agrees with his own intention, and which he will bless and make effectual for that end; as is seen by his sending Paul to certain places where he must preach, and not hold his peace: Why? Because God had much people there, (that is, of his elect ones,) who must be brought in by Paul's ministry. Bythinia, and other places, he is not suffered to go into, though he would; God had not yet any work for him there. Those that are to be taken, the Lord will bring them under the means, as he did that shoal of fishes under Peter's net, John 21: 6. Witness the eunuch, Cornelius, the jailer, and others. And this means, whether powerful or simple in man's esteem, it is all one to God; his word shall ac complish that he sends it for; and the weaker the means are, the more is the power of God magnified. See Acts,

chapter 2, how by illiterate men's ministry, he took them by thousands, and "added to his church daily such as should be saved," Acts 2. 9, 10, 11. 47. So, then, the ministry of the gospel is in no wise made useless or disestimable by the doctrine of absolute election, but is rather heightened thereby, as being the "power of God to that salvation he hath chosen us to."

Object. Of what great consequence to the world are the richest gifts of wisdom, knowledge, utterance, &c. if all those who are in any possibility of being saved by them, may and shall as certainly be saved without them?

Answ. That the richest gifts of wisdom, knowledge, utterance, are of no great consequence to the world, is no consequent of the doctrine of absolute clection; for they are given" for the perfecting of the saints, and edifying the body of Christ," that is, the elect: and all the diversities of gifts, manifestations, and operations, do concur to the same end, since it is the same God who worketh all in all: That is, he appointeth men to salvation, these gifts, as a means to prepare them for it, and makes them effectual thereto. But that those richest gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and utterance, are of no great use or consequence to the world, is a very natural consequent of that doctrine, which tells the world that the sun, moon, and stars, do preach the gospel sufficiently for salvation: which if they do, wherein, indeed, are those richest gifts to be esteemed, and to what end is this waste? Why should the best of men suffer stripes, imprisonments, and death, for doing that which might be done by those above the reach of danger? And, withal, it is too well known and obvious, that men of greatest knowledge, utterance, and depth of reason, such as are styled the princes of this world, are not always, nay, are very rarely, the fastest friends of truth and godliness; and those few that are, are not always most successful in their work, Eccl. 9: 11. while some others, meanly furnished in comparison, have turned the world upside down, 2 Cor. 12: 10. Acts 17:6. 2 Cor. 10: 10. The Lord oft-times rejects the wise and prudent, and reveals himself by babes, to take from men occasion of boasting, and to make it appear, that the faith of his people does not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, 1 Cor. 2: 5. "Whose weakness is stronger than men, and his foolishness wiser," chap. 1: 25.

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