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lowing verfesi; For the days fhall come upon thee, that thine enemies fhall caft a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every fide, and fhall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they fhall not leave in thee one ftone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy vifitation. Add to this, this one obfervation more; that Chrift here speaks as a man, expreffing his human affection for the prefent temporal good of this city, as is evident from his weeping over it on his near approach to it. Hence,

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II. There is no foundation in this text for fuch an argument as this; "Christ here taketh it for granted, that the people of Jerufalem, in the day of their vifitation by the Meffiab, might favingly have known the things belonging to their peace. Now either this affertion, that they might favingly have known these things, was according to truth; or his with, that they had thus known the things belonging to their peace, was contrary to his father's will and decree; which is palpably abfurd. And feeing the will of Chrift was always the fame with that of his Father, it follows alfo, that God the Father had the fame charitable affection to them; and fo had laid no bar against their happi

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" Whitby, p. 13, 14, 236, 237.

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nefs by his decrees; nor withheld from them any thing on his part, neceffary their everlafting welfare". But it was not their everlasting welfare, or that they might favingly know the things which belong to eternal peace, but their outward profperity which he, as a man, and one of their own nation, was concerned for; and fuch an hu man compaffionare regard for them he might have and hew, notwithstanding anv decree of his Father's, refpecting the eternal ftate of fame, or all of thefe people, or any other part of mankind. It does not follow, that becaufe Chriit, as man, had a charitable affection for the inhabitants of eliz lem, that God the Father bore an evertaiting love to them; or becaute he thewed i good will to their temporal welfare, har the Father had at heart their eternal 2: 2tion Chrift's human affections and v were not always the fame with is

he beheld the young man mentiones evangelist, *and se lecet iim se mat does act follow from sence that Futter loved him, and

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and fo he might wish, as man, for the temporal happiness of this city; though he knew that the defolations determined, would be poured upon the defolate, both in a temporal and spiritual fense; and yet his tears over them are tears of charity, and true compaffion; and not crocodile's tears, as they are impiously called, on a fuppofition of God's decree of reprobation, or act of preterition. Hence,

III. We fhall not meet with fo much difficulty to reconcile thefe words to the do&trine of particular redemption, as is fuggested '; when it is faid, "You may as well hope to reconcile light and darkness as thefe words of Chrift, with his intention to die only for them who should actually be saved"; unless it can be thought irreconcileable, and what implies a contradiction, that Chrift, as man, fhould, with temporal good to the inhabitants of Jerufalem, and yet not intentionally die for all mankind: Should he intentionally die for them who are not actually faved, his intentions would be fo far fruftrated, and his death be in vain.

IV. It does not follow from hence, that because these people might have known the

P Dan. ix. 26, 27.

Curcell. Relig. Chrift. Inftit. 1. 6. c. 6. §. 7. p. 470. &

c. 13. §. 5. p. 402.

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Whitby, p. 162.

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which was a day of vengeance, and not of grace, that was haftening on, and near at hand, though hid from them, and was the occafion of Chrift's compaffionate tears and wishes.

NUM B. XXVIII. John i. 7.

The fame came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through bim might believe.

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Confiderable argument in favour of the extent of Chrift's death to all men, is thought to arife from the obligation which is, and always was, upon all perfons to whom the gospel is, or was revealed, to believe in Chrift, that he came to fave them, and died for them; for if he died not for them, they are bound to believe a lye; and if condemned for not believing, they are condemned for not believing an untruth *. I obferve,

I. That the argument is most miserably lame and deficient. The thing to be proved is, that Chrift died for every individual man and woman, that have been, are, or fhall be in the world. The medium by which

Whitby, p. 143, 144, 146.

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