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And, as for prayer, it is the duty of all, without exception. Every created being (whether elect or reprobate matters not, as to this point) is, as fuch, dependent on the Creator for all things: and, if dependent, ought to have recourfe to him, both in a way of fupplication and thanksgiving.

But, to come clofer ftill. That abfolute predeftination does not fet afide, nor render fuperfluous, the use of preaching, exhortation, &c. we prove from the examples of Chrift himself and his apoftles: who, all, taught and infifted upon the article of predeftination; and yet took every opportunity of preaching to finners, and enforced their miniftry with proper rebukes, invitations, and exhortations, as occafion required. Though they fhewed, unanfwerably, that falvation is the free gift of God, and lies entirely at his fovereign difpofal; that men can, of themselves, do nothing fpiritually good; and that it is God, who, of his own pleasure, works in them both to will and to do: yet, they did not neglect to addrefs their auditors, as beings poffeffed of reafon and confcience, nor omitted to remind them of their duties as fuch; but fhewed them their fin and danger by nature, and laid before them the appointed way and method of falvation, as exhibited in the gospel. Our Saviour himself expressly, and in terminis, affures us, that no man can come to him, except the Father draw him: and yet he fays, Come unto me, all ye that labour, &c. St. Peter, in the 2d of Acts, told the Jews, that they had fulfilled the determinate counfel and foreknowledge of God, in putting the Meffiah to death; and yet fharply rebukes them for it. St. Paul declares, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; and yet exhorts the Corinthians fo to run, as to obtain the prize. He affures us, Rom. viii. that we know not what to pray for, as we ought; and yet, 1 Theff. v. directs us to pray without ceafing. He avers, 1 Tim. ii. that the foundation, or decree, of

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the Lord ftandeth fure; and yet cautions him, who thinks he ftands, to take heed, left he fall. St. James, in like manner, fays, that every good and perfect gift cometh down from above; and yet exhorts thofe, who want wisdom, to ask it of God. So, then, all these being means, whereby the elect are frequently enlightened into the knowledge of Chrift, and by which they are, after they have believed through grace, built up in him; and are means of their perfeverance in grace to the end: these are fo far from being vain and infignificant, that they are highly useful and neceffary, and anfwer many valuable and important ends: without in the leaft fhaking the doctrine of predeftination in particular, or the analogy of faith in general. Thus St. Auftin *. "We must preach, we muft reprove, we must pray; because they, to whom grace is given, will hear, and act accordingly; though they, to whom grace is not given, will do neither."

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CHAP. V.

Shewing, that the Scripture-doctrine of Predeftination Should be openly preached and infifted on: and for what Reafons.

UPON the whole, it is evident, that the doc

trine of God's eternal and unchangeable predestination should neither be wholly fuppreffed and laid afide; nor yet be confined to the difquifition of the learned and fpeculative only; but, likewise, fhould be publicly taught from the pulpit and the prefs; that even the meaneft of the people may not be ignorant of a truth, which reflects such glory on

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God, and is the very foundation of happiness to man. Let it, however, be preached with judgment and discretion: i. e. delivered, by the preacher, as it is delivered in Scripture; and no otherwife. By which means, it can neither be abufed to licentioulnefs, nor misapprehended to defpair: but will eminently conduce to the knowledge, eftablishment, improvement and comfort of them that hear. That predeftination ought to be preached, I thus prove:

I. The gospel is to be preached: and that not partially, and by piece-meal, but the whole of it. The commiffion runs, Go forth and preach the gofpel; the gofpel itself, even all the gospel, without exception or limitation, for, fo far as the gofpel is maimed, or any branch of the evangelical fyftem is fuppreffed and paffed over in filence, fo far the gofpel is not preached. Befides, there is fcarce any other diftinguishing doctrine of the gofpel can be preached in its purity and confiftency, without this of predeftination. Election is the golden thread that runs through the whole Christian fyftem; it is the leaven, that pervades the whole lump. Cicero fays of the various parts of human learning, "Omnes artes, quæ ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum, & quafi cognatione quadam inter fe continentur: i. e. "The whole circle of arts have a kind of mutual bond and connection; and, by a fort of reciprocal relationship, are held together, and interwoven with each other." Much the fame may be faid, of this important doctrine it is the bond, which connects and keeps together the whole Chriftian fyftem: which, without this, is like a fyftem of fand, ever ready to fall to pieces. It is the cement, which holds the fabric together; nay, it is the very foul that animates the whole frame. It is fo blended and interwoven with the entire fcheme of gofpel doctrine, that, when the former is excluded, the latter bleeds to death. An ambaffador is to deliver the whole meffage with

which he is charged. He is to omit no part of it; but must declare the mind of the fovereign he reprefents, fully and without referve. He is to fay neither more nor lefs, than the inftructions of his court require. Elfe, he comes under difpleafure; perhaps, lofes his head. Let the minifters of Chrift weigh this well.

Nor is the gofpel to be preached only, but preached to every creature: i. e. to reafonable beings, promifcuoufly, and at large; to all, who frequent the Chriftian miniftry, of every ftate and condition of life; whether high or low, young or old, learned or illiterate. All, who attend on the ministrations of Chrift's ambaffadors, have a right to hear the gospel fully, clearly, and without mincing. Preach it, fays Chrift, Mark xvi. 15. wal, publish it abroad; be its criers and heralds; proclaim it aloud; tell it out; keep back no part of it; fpare not; lift up your voices like trumpets. Now, a very confiderable branch of this gofpel is, the doctrine of God's eternal, free, abfolute, and irreversible election of fome perfons, in Christ, to everlasting life. The faints were fingled out, in God's eternal purpofe and choice, ut crederent, to be endued with faith, and thereby fitted for their deftined falvation. By their intereft in the gratuitous, unalienable love of the bleffed Trinity, they come to be, fubjectively, faints and believers fo that their whole falvation, from the firft plan of it in the divine mind, to the confummation of it in glory, is, at once, a matter of mere grace, and of abfolute certainty. While they, who die without faith and holinefs, prove, thereby, that they are not included in this elect number, and were not written in the book of life. The juftice of God's procedure herein is unquestionable. Out

of a corrupt mafs, wherein not one was better than another, he might (as was obferved before) love and chufe whom and as many as he pleafed. It was, VOL. V. (26.) likewife,

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likewise, without any fhadow of injustice, at his option, whom, and how many, he would pafs by. His not chufing them was the fruit of his fovereign will; but his condemning them, after death, and in the last day, is the fruit (not of their non-election, which was no fault of theirs; but) of their own pofitive tranfgreffions. The elect, therefore, have the utmost reafon to love and glorify God, which any beings can poffibly have: and the fenfe, of what he has done for them, is the strongest motive to obedience. On the other hand, the reprobates have nothing to complain of; fince, whatever God does, is juft and right: and fo it will appear to be (however darkly matters may appear to us now), when we fee him as he is, and know him even as we are known.

And now, why fhould not this doctrine be preached and infifted upon in public? a doctrine which is of exprefs revelation; a doctrine that makes wholly for the glory of God; which conduces, in a moft peculiar manner, to the converfion, comfort, and fanctification of the elect; and leaves even the ungodly themselves without excufe!

But, perhaps, you may ftill be inclined to queftion, whether predeftination be indeed a Scripture doctrine. If fo, let me, by way of fample, beg you to confider the following declarations, 1. of Chrift, 2. of his apostles.

Mat. xi. If the mighty works, that have been done in thee, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented, &c. whence it is evident, that the Tyrians and Sidonians, at least the majority of them, died in a state of impenitency; but that, if God had given them the fame means of grace, afforded to Ifrael, they would not have died impenitent; yet thofe means were not granted them. How can this be accounted for? only on the fingle principle of peremptory predeftination, flowing

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