dies, and how they become polluted with fin, and fo fit objects of God's wrath, and, indeed, whether they are, by immediate creation, or ex traduce, or both, cannot be fo eafily determined: however, that God created fouls to be inevitably damn'd, and put them into bodies, that they might be fit objects of his eternal wrath, are things we abhor and deteft, and are no confequences of, nor can they be fairly deduced from the decree of Reprobation; which, whether it confiders creatures fallen, or unfallen, leaves them as it finds them, and puts nothing in them; nor is creation the means of damnation, nor damnation the end of creation: God made no man to damn him; but he made him for himself, for his own glory.

To conclude; This author himself owns a decree of God from all eternity, to caft fome men out of his favour, induced to it by fin; and another decree, to reward fome of them with eternal life, or the enjoyment of himself, induced to it by thofe actions wrought in them by the affiftance of his grace; and, according to this fcheme, falvation and damnation are as inevitable as they are according to ours; fince God's foreknowledge of fin and damnation, of grace and falvation, is as infallible as his decree. to damn or fave; and the abfurdities which are supposed to follow upon our scheme,

muft

must follow upon this: for God foreknew that these men would fin and continue in it; whereby he would be induced, nay, on the account of which, he decreed, to caft them out of his favour; and yet he creates them, permits them to fin, when he could have hinder'd it, and, to many of them, he does not give the outward means of grace, and to none of them the affistance of his grace, by which thefe actions are performed, which induce him to reward others with eternal life, when it is equally in his power to affift them as others; and in a word, denies them that grace which would cure them of their impenitence and unbelief, as it does in others to whom it is given; but fuffers them to continue in fin, when he could have reftrained them from it, and deliver'd out of it; the confequence of which is, their everlasting ruin and deftruction.

i

CHAP.

Propose, in this Chapter, to con fider the arguments from reafon, for and against the univerfality, of Chrift's redemption; and fuch as are said plainly to offer themfelves to confirm this doctrine, are these:

I. "If God intended not the death of Christ for the faving of any but the elect, then he never intended the falvation of any to whom the gofpel is revealed, but the elect; and then he never defigned any falvation for the greateft part of men, to whom the gospel was, or is revealed, on any condition whatfoever; for fince there is no other name under heaven given by which we can be faved, falvation could not be intended for them, on any condition whatfoever, to whom the benefit of Chrift's death was not intended." To which I anfwer; That God never intended the death of Chrift for the faving of any but the elect,

y Whitby, p. 158. Ed. 2. 154.

is evident from this confideration, That none are faved but the elect; no one will fay, that any are faved who are not the elect of God. This author himself will allow, that fuch who repent and believe, and are perfevering Chriftians, are the elect; and fuch are all thofe that are faved. Now if God intended to fave any befides the elect, his intentions are fruftrated, and he disappointed, things which cannot be faid of, and afcribed to the divine Being. Befides, what is God's intending to fave any by the death of Chrift, but the very act of Election it felf? 'tis no other than an appointing to falvation by our Lord Jefus Chrift. Wherefore to talk of God's intending the death of Chrift for the faving of any, or intending to fave any by the death of Chrift, befides the elect, is a contradiction in terms. Nor is the gofpel revealed internally to any but the elect, even to thofe to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery, among the Gentiles; which is Chrift in you, the hope of glory. To thefe only is it given to know the mysteries of the kingdom; to others, they are hid in parables; for, if our gospel be bid, it is bid to them that are loft *. Hence it follows not, that God never defigned any falvation for the greatest part of

2 Col. i. 27. Matt. xiii. 11. 2 Cor. iv. 3. Part III.

F

men,

men, to whom the gofpel was, or is revealed; fince he has defigned falvation for all, and every one of thofe to whom the gofpel was, or is thus internally revealed, and they fhall all of them enjoy it. 'Tis true, that the gofpel is externally revealed, or the outward miniftry of it is vouchfafed to more than to the elect; but then the outward miniftration of it, in an indefinite manner, is only defigned, and bleffed for the effectual vocation of the elect: but what means this reftraining claufe, to whom the gospel was, or is revealed? for if God intended the death of Chrift for the faving of any befides the elect, he intended it either for the faving of all, and every one befides them, or only for the faving of fome if he intended it for the faving of all befides them, why is not the gofpel revealed unto all men? Strange! that God fhould intend the death of Chrift for the faving of all men, and yet not afford the knowledge, no, nor the means of the knowledge of falvation by his death, or of the faving benefits of it to all men! if he intended it only for the faving of fome befides the elect, even of those to whom the gofpel was, or is revealed, the weakness, and inconclufivenefs of this argument, for the univerfality of Redemption, are easily difcerned who does not fee that it must be exceeding weak, to argue from God's