: 4. The affirmation, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, which is sometimes introduced with an oath, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, does not in the least militate against an act of preterition; whereby any are left by God justly to perish in and for their iniquities; or the decree of reprobation, whereby any, on the score of their transgressions, are appointed, or fore-ordained to condemnation and death; and therefore all the reasonings made use of to disprove these things, founded on this passage of Scripture, are vain and impertinent; for a death of afflictions is here intended, as has been already observed, which the house of Israel was groaning under, and complaining of; though it was wholly owing to themselves, and which was not grateful to God, and in which he took no pleasure which is to be understood, not simply and absolutely, and with respect to all persons afflicted by him; for he delights in the exercise of judgment and righteousness, as well as in showing mercy, and laughs at the calamity of wicked men, and mocks when their fear cometh‡; but it is to be taken comparatively; as when he says§, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; that is, I take delight in mercy rather than in sacrifice; so here, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth : in his afflictions, distresses, calamities, captivity, and the like; but rather, that he would return from his ways, repent and reform, and live in his own land; which shows the mercy and compassion of God |, who does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Wherefore he renews his exhortation, Turn yourselves, and live ye. The sum of all this is, you have no reason to say, as in ver. 2, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge; or as in ver. 25, that the way of the Lord is not equal; seeing it is not for the sins of your parents, but your own, that the present calamities you are complaining of lie upon you; for my part, I take no delight in your death, in your captivity; it would be more agreeable to me, would you turn from your evil ways, to the Lord your God, and behave according to the laws I have given you to walk by, and so live in your own land, in the quiet possession of all your goods and estates. But what has this to do with the affairs of eternal life, or eternal death? SECTION XXII. Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.-Ezek. xxiv. 13. THESE words are represented as irreconcilable with God's decrees of election and reprobation, as inconsistent with the doctrine of particular redemption, and in favour of sufficient grace given to all men ¶. But, 1. The words are not spoken to all men, nor do they declare what God hath done for or what he would have done by all men; but are +See Whitby, pp. 3, 33, 160, 196, 197; ed. 2. 3, 32, 156, 192, 193. § Hos. v. 6. Lam. iii. 33. * Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Jer. ix. 24; Prov. i. 26. directed only to Jerusalem, or the house of Israel, whose destruction is here represented under the parable of a boiling pot; and do not discover any design of God, or steps that he has taken towards the purgation of all mankind, and therefore no ways militate against the decrees of election and reprobation. 2. This purgation of Jerusalem, and the inhabitants thereof, is to be understood either of ceremonial purifications, or of an external reformation of life and manners, and not of an internal cleansing of them, much less of all men, from sin, by the blood of Jesus; and so is no ways inconsistent with the doctrine of particular redemption. 3. These words do not express what God had done, and was not done; which is a contradiction in terms; nor what he had done sufficient for their purgation, but was obstructed by their obstinacy; or that he would have purged them, and they would not be purged; for our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased, but what he commanded to be done, and was not done; for so the words should be rendered; as they are by Pagnine, Jussi ut mundares te, et non mundasti te, Icommanded that thou shouldest purge thyself, and thou hast not purged thyself; to which agrees the note of Junius on the text, Verbo præcepi te mundari et toties et tamdiu per prophetas imperavi, I have in my word, and by my prophets, so often and so long commanded thee to be purged. The sense of them is, that God had commanded either ceremonial ablutions and purifications, or a moral, external reformation, and they had not obeyed; and therefore threatens to leave them in their filthiness, and pour out all his fury on them; and so are no proof of God's giving sufficient grace, or sufficient means of grace to all men. The text in Jer. ii. 9, We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed, is very improperly joined with this, since they are not the words of God, expressing any kind intentions, or sufficient means of healing, which were obstructed, as, through mistake, they are represented by a learned writer +; but of the Israelites, or others, who were concerned for the temporal welfare of Babylon, though in vain, and to no purpose. SECTION XXIII. Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.— -MATT. v. 13. THIS is one of the places which, it is said, "do plainly suppose that saints, or true believers, or men once truly good, may cease to be so; for sure, good salt must signify good men; nor can this salt lose its savour, and become good for nothing, but by ceasing to be good salt." To which I reply, 1. That the text speaks not of men as saints or true believers, comparable to salt, for the truth and savour of the grace of God in them: but as ministers and preachers of the gospel, who, by their savoury Whitby, pp. 204, 477; ed. 2. 199, 456. Ibid. p. 435; ed. 2. 424. *Psal. cxv. 3. doctrines and conversations are the salt of the earth, the means of purifying and preserving the world from corruption. Now some men may be good preachers, and so good salt, and yet not be good men, or true believers; and therefore, when any of these drop the savoury truths of the word, and fall off from the seeming savoury conversation they have maintained, they are no proofs nor instances of the final and total apostacy of real saints. If it should be said, that those who are here called the salt of the earth, were the disciples of Christ, and therefore good men, as well as good preachers; it may be replied, that there were many who were called the disciples of Christ, besides the apostles; and some there were who, in process of time, drew back from him*, and walked no more with him. But allowing the twelve apostles are particularly designed, there was a Judas among them, whom Christ might have a special eye to; for he knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him† ; that one of those whom he had chosen was a devil; that he would lose his usefulness and his place; that he would be an unprofitable wretch; and, at last, be rejected and despised of men. Admitting further, that the true and sincere apostles of Christ are here intended; yet this of losing their savour is only a supposition, which nil ponit in esse, puts nothing in being, proves no matter of fact, and may be only designed as a caution to them, to take heed to themselves, their doctrines, and ministry, to which they are advised in many other places; see Matt. xvi. 6, 12, and xxiv. 4, 5; Luke xxi. 34-36; though there was no possibility of their final and total falling away. 2. The savour here supposed, that it may be lost, cannot mean the savour of true grace, or true grace itself, which cannot be lost, being an incorruptible seed; but either gifts, qualifying men to be good and useful preachers, which gifts may cease; or the savoury doctrines of the gospel men may depart from; or their seeming savoury conversations they may put away; or that seeming savour, zeal, and affection, with which they have preached, and which may be dropped; or their whole usefulness, which they may lose; for all these things men may have and lose, who never really and truly tasted that the Lord is gracious and, generally speaking, when such men lose their usefulness, it is never more retrieved; they become and remain unprofitable, are despised and trodden under foot of men: but these instances are no proofs that saints, or true believers, or men once truly good, may cease to be so. The similitude in which our Lord saith, that a piece of new cloth is not to be put to an old garment, lest the rent be made worse; nor new wine into old bottles, lest the bottles burst; no more plainly supposes this, than the former metaphor of salt: for be it that the design of this to show §, that Christ's "young disciples must not presently be put upon severe duties, lest they should be discouraged and fall off from him." It shows indeed their weakness and danger of falling, and yet, at the same time, the care and concern of Christ in the preservation of them; and therefore ought not to be improved into an argument against § Whitby, p. 435; ed. 2. 426. *John vi. 66. † John vi. 64, 70. Matt. ix. 16, 17. their final perseverance: though the plain design of the similitude seems, from the context, to be this, that it would be equally as absurd for the disciples to fast and be sad, whilst Christ, the bridegroom, was with them, as it would be to put new cloth into an old garment, or new wine into old bottles. Nor does the commination against them, who shall offend one of Christ's little ones believing in him*, viz. that it were better for him that a mill-stone was hanged about his neck, and he cast into the midst of the sea, plainly suppose that saints, or true believers, may cease to be so; for the word σkavdaλíšew, here used, does not signify an offending of them, so as to be the occasion of their falling off from the faith to their eternal ruin, but stands opposed to receiving them, in ver. 5, and is explained by despising them, in ver. 10, and at most, can only mean the laying of an offence, scandal, or stumbling-block in their way; which might be of bad consequence, considering their weakness and the wickedness of men, were it not for the care, power, and grace of God, which are concerned for them: and since the angels, who are their guardians on earth, always behold the face of Christ's Father in heaven, ver. 10; and seeing the Son of man, who also is the Son of God, is come to save such lost ones, ver. 11, and especially since it is not the will of our Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish, ver. 14. It is not false but true, that they who do truly believe in Christ, are of the number of those whom God would not have to perish, cannot be so offended as to fall off from the faith to their ruin: nor do the pathetic discourses, and dreadful woes and punishments denounced, imply the contrary; seeing they are used to show the care of God over his people, and the natural tendency to ruin such offences might have, was it not prevented by his power; and consequently their attempts that way are not less sinful and criminal. As for Rom. xiv. 20; 1 Cor. viii. 9, 11; Psal. cxxv. 3; which are urged to the same purpose; see in sections VIII., XXXVI., and xxxvii. SECTION XXIV. Wo unto thee, Chorazin! wo unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.—MATT. xi. 21, 23. THESE words are frequently insisted on † as proving man's ability to repent, believe, and convert himself; and that unfrustrable and irresistible grace is not necessary to these things; and that faith, repentance, and conversion, are not produced by it. But, 1. Here is no mention made of faith and conversion, only of repent *Matt. xviii. 6. Remonstr. in Coll. Hag. art. iii. iv. p. 218; Act. Synod. p. 120, &c.; Limborch. 1. 4, c. 13, sect. 6, p. 370; Whitby, p. 173; ed. 2. 169. ance; and that not spiritual and evangelical, but external and legal; such as was performed in sackcloth and ashes, and by virtue of which Sodom might have remained unto this day; for though a repentance is not unto eternal salvation, yet it is often attended with temporal blessings, and is the means of averting temporal judgments, as in the case of the Ninevites, and may be where the true grace of God is not; with the want of this Christ might, as he justly does, upbraid the cities where his mighty works had been done, and the Jews, in Matt. xii. 41, and xxi. 31, 32*, which might have been performed by them, though they had no power to repent in a spiritual and evangelical sense, to which more is required than the bare performance of miracles. See Luke xvi. 31. 2. These words are to be understood, as Grotius † observes, in a popular sense, and express what was probable, according to a human judgment of things; and the meaning is, that if the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, had had the advantages of Christ's ministry, and of seeing his miracles, as the inhabitants of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum had, it looks very likely, or one would be ready to conclude, they would have repented of their flagitious crimes, which brought down the judgments of God upon them in such a remarkable manner; as these ought to have done, particularly of their sin of rejecting the Messiah, notwithstanding all the evidence of miracles, and convictions of their own consciences, and so probably sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost. And therefore, 3. The words are an hyperbolical exaggeration of their wickedness, such as those in Ezek. iii. 5-7, showing that they were worse than the Tyrians and Sidonians, who lived most profligate and dissolute lives; than the inhabitants of Sodom, so infamous for their unnatural lusts; yea, than any others, if there were any worse than these under the heavens; and therefore would be punished with the worst of punishments, ver. 22, 24. In much the same way are we to understand Matt. xii. 41, and xxi. 31, 32, where Christ upbraids the Jews with the want even of an external repentance for their sin of rejecting him, though they had such a full proof and demonstration of his being the Messiah; and therefore were worse than the men of Nineveh, who repented externally at the preaching of Jonah; yea, worse, notwithstanding all their pretended sanctity and righteousness, than the publicans and harlots, who went into the kingdom of God, attended on the outward ministry of the word, believed John the Baptist, and gave at least an assent to what he said concerning the Messiah as true. 4. These words can be no proof of God's giving sufficient grace equally to all men, which is in some effectual to conversion, and in others not; seeing the men of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, had not the same advantages and means, or the same grace, as the inhabitants of these cities had, if the mighty works done among them are to be called so. Besides, where persons have the same external means of grace, and the same outward advantages, and one truly repents, believes, and is converted, and another not; this is owing not to the will of man, * Whitby, p. 174; ed. 2. 170. In loc. |