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holy word, yea, every word in God's book, is, unto the reprobate, the favor of death unto death.” Hom. 2. on certain places of Scripture, p. 228. And, elsewhere, more roundly ftill: God "will have none in council with him, nor any to ask the reafon of his doing: for he may do what liketh him, and none can refift him. For he worketh all things, in his fecret judgment, to his own pleasure; yea, even the wicked to damnation, faith Solomon.' Rogation, 1 Hom. p. 289.

Intimately connected with (and, indeed, folely founded upon) predeftination, is the doctrine of abfolute Providence: concerning which latter, the Church thus fpeaks: "Epicures they be, that imagine, that he" (God) "walketh about the coafts of the heavens, and hath no refpect of these inferior things, but that all these things fhould proceed either by chance, or at adventure, or elfe by difpofition of fortune; and God to have no ftroke in them. What other thing is this to fay, than, as the fool fuppofeth in his heart, there is no God?" Rogation, 2 Hom. p. 293.

II. With regard to the extent of redemption, our Church exprefsly declares, that Chrift " Is the high and everlasting prieft, who hath offered himself once for all upon the altar of the crofs, and, with that one oblation, hath made perfect for evermore them that are fanctified." Hom. 1. of falvation, p. 10. More minutely ftill: "The end of his coming, was, to fave and deliver his people." Hom. on the nativity, p. 247. Again, "Chrift put himself between God's deferved wrath and our fin; and rent that obligation, wherein we were in danger to God, and paid our debt. Our debt was a great deal too great for us to have paid; and without payment, God the Father could never be at one with us. Neither was it poffible to be loofed from this debt, by our own ability. It pleafed him therefore, to be

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the payer thereof, and to difcharge us quite." Hom. 1. on the paffion, p. 249, 250. Hence it appears, that in the opinion of our Church, Chrift did not lay down his life, to put men into a falvable ftate, and render their falvation barely poffible; but, actually and abfolutely, fecured the difcharge of thofe he redeemed, and, indeed, it would have been no redemption, without this. Chrift is here faid to have pofitively paid our debt, and to have fo paid it, as to difcharge us quite. Seems it not, therefore, to flow from thefe premises, that the fpiritual debts of those who shall be condemned in the last day, were not paid by him? for, if they were, how can it come to pass, that fome of thofe very perfons fhall be thrown into prison, and there tormented, whose debts have been really paid to the uttermoft farthing? Will not the Judge of the whole earth do right? Is it confiftent with our ideas of juftice, that God the Father fhould demand double payment of the felf-fame debts, by charging fin first to the furety's account, and then to the finner's afterwards? Chrift, fays our homily, difcharged us quite: but can fuch perfons be faid to be quite difcharged, on whom divine Juftice hath ftill an unfatisfied claim, and against whom the debt-book is yet uncroffed, and for whom penal vengeance is laid up in ftore? Upon these two correlative fuppofitions, 1. That the death of Chrift was a vicarious punishment; and, 2. that it was a proper, real, adequate atonement for fin (both which are the avowed doctrines of our Church); either univerfal falvation, or a limited redemption, must neceffarily follow. But the Church does not hold univerfal falvation; therefore, you must either grant, that fhe contradicts her own fundamental principles, or, that fhe believes redemption to be only co-extenfive with election.There is, I apprehend, but one way, to elude the force of this argument; and that is, fairly and above

board,

*

board, to take refuge in Socinianifm (as the great Grotius at length unhappily did) by denying that Chrift died as our fubftitute, and in our room and ftead. But this refuge is attended with ten thousand times worse confequences, than either the doctrine of unlimited falvation, or that of partial redemption. The Arminian falvo, that "Chrift died for us, only to put us into a capacity of being faved if we are willing to clofe in with certain terms offered;" leaves the matter every jot as embarraffed as it found it. Since, it can never, with any colour of reafon, be fuppofed, that he would afcertain the end, without fecuring the means; for that would be doing just nothing at all. He cannot be faid to have purchased falvation for any, for whom he did not likewife obtain those influences of faving grace, without which, final falvation cannot be had; nor am I able to conceive, how a Being of infinite wifdom, would actually pay down a price of infinite value, and yet leave it quite uncertain, whether the purchased bleffing fhould be enjoyed by thofe for whom he bought them. This will ftill appear more unlikely (or rather impoffible), if we take his fore-knowledge into the account. Would he (with the deepest re- ' verence be it afked) fhed his ineftimably precious blood for thofe perfons, who, as himself knew at that very time he did it, would certainly reject the redemption wrought? If he did not foreknow this, what becomes of his deity? If he did foreknow it, and yet died for fuch, it was, in effect, redeeming them unto greater condemnation: and then, redemption (fo far as thefe perfons are concerned) can hardly be confidered as an act of mercy. For my own part, thefe and fimilar confiderations ftrike me fo ftrongly, that I find myfelf obliged, by dint both

*The alliance between Socinianifin and Arianism, is evident from the confeffion of an Arminian divine; Tindal; Cont. of Rap. vol. 15. P. 237. note a. Alfo Biogr. Dict. vol. 10. p. 404.

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of rational and Scripture evidence, to believe, that Chrift actually and infallibly fecured the falvation of every individual for whom he died: that repentance, faith, and holiness are wrought in thofe he hath ranfomed; and that God giveth grace and glory to all them, for whom he gave his Son.-This train of reasoning is not a little countenanced, by the following paffage in another of our homilies. "Now it followeth to have, with this knowledge, a fure and conftant faith, not only that the death of Chrift is available for the redemption of all the world, for the remiffion of fins, and reconciliation with God the Father; but also that he hath made, upon the cross, a full and fufficient facrifice for thee, a perfect. cleanfing of thy fins: So that thou mayeft fay, with the apoftle, that he loved thee, and gave himfelf for thee." Hom. on the facrament, p. 272. But, if Chrift loved all men, and gave himfelf for every individual of mankind, he must of course have loved me, and gave himfelf for me: confequently, this affured faith, of his being my lover, my facrifice, and my Saviour in particular, could not, upon the principle of univerfal redemption, be fo high and diftinguishing a privilege, as the homily here reprefents it. Upon the whole, when the homilies appear to speak of redemption as general, it seems but fair to understand them, rather in an indefinite, than in a ftrictly unlimited fenfe. Such a declaration, as this that follows, fhould be looked upon as explanatory of the Church's meaning in other places, where the reftriction is not fo exprefsly laid down: Chrift" was obedient even to the very death, the death of the crofs. And this he did, for us all that believe." Firft homily on the paffion, p. 250.

That is, of fufficient value: which it moft certainly is. But availableness, or intrinfic fufficiency, is one thing; intentional and actual efficacy is another. The argument, à Potentia ad Actum, concludes nothing.

III. Man's

III. Man's exceeding depravation by nature, and total inability as to fpiritual good, are largely and ftrongly afferted in our homilies. "The Holy Ghoft, in writing the holy Scriptures, is in nothing more diligent, than to pull down man's vain glory and pride; which of all vices, is most univerfally grafted in all mankind, even from the firft infection of our firft father Adam." First homily on the mifery of man, p. 6.

"St. Paul, in many places, painteth us out in our colours, calling us the children of the wrath of God when we be born: faying alfo, that we cannot think a good thought, of ourselves; much less can we fay well, or do well, ourselves." Ibid. p. 8.

"We be, of ourselves, of fuch earth as can bring forth but weeds, nettles, brambles, briars, cockles, and darnel. Our fruits be declared in the 5th chapter to the Galatians. We have neither faith, charity, hope, patience, chastity, nor any thing elfe that good is, but of God; and therefore thefe virtues be called there, the fruits of the Holy Ghoft, and not the fruits of man." Second homily on ditto, p. 9.

"Of ourselves, and by ourselves, we have no goodness, help, nor falvation: but, contrariwise, fin, damnation, and death everlasting. Which, if we deeply weigh and confider, we shall the better understand the great mercy of God, and how our falvation cometh only by Chrift; for, in ourselves (as of ourselves), we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miferable captivity, into the which we were caft, through the envy of the Devil, by breaking of God's commandment in our first parent Adam. We are all become unclean, but we all are not able to cleanfe ourselves, nor to make one another of us clean. We are by nature the children of God's wrath, but we are not able to make ourfelves the children and inheritors of God's glory. We are sheep that run aftray, but we cannot of our

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