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[i. e. who were not within the pale of election], all these things are done in parables; that, feeing, they may fee, and not perceive, and, hearing, they may hear, and not understand: left at any time they fhould be converted, and their fins fhould be forgiven them. Mark iv. 11, 12. St. Matthew, if poffible, expreffes it ftill more ftrongly: It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but to them it is not given. Matth. xi. 13.

Why do ye not understand my fpeech? even becaufe ye cannot hear my word. John viii. 43.

Jefus faid, for judgment I am come into this world; that they, who fee not, might fee; and that they who fee, might be made blind. John ix. 39.

Ye believe not, because ye are not of my fheep, as I faid unto you. John x. 26.

Once more. Though he had done fo many iniracles before them, yet they believed not on him: That the faying of Efaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he fpake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Efaias faid again, he hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they fhould not fee with their eyes, nor underftand with their heart, and be converted that I fhould heal them. John xii. 37-40.

Now, I leave to the decifion of any unprejudiced, capable man upon earth, whether it be not evident, from thefe paffages (among a multitude of others), that God hath determined to leave fome men to perifh in their fins, and to be justly punished for them? In affirming which, I only gave the Scripture, as I found it. Nay, I never expreffed my fentiments concerning reprobation, half fo ftrongly as the word of God does. It follows, that I had,

4. Very ample ground for afferting, that there is a predeftination of fome particular perfons to death (2 Cor. iv. 3. 1 Pet. ii. 8. 2 Pet. ii. 12. Jude iv. Rev. xvii. 8.), which death they fhall inevit

ably

ably undergo, jufly, and on account of their fins*. "That is," fays my Pelagian expofitor, "They fhall be damned do what they can.' I totally deny the explication: unlefs, by their doing what they can, he means, their committing all the evil they can. For, as it follows in the very page from whence part of the above extract was taken, fin is the meritorious and immediate caufe of any man's damnation: God condemns and punishes the non-elect, not merely as men, but as finners. To which I even ventured to add, that, had it pleased the great Governor of the univerfe to have entirely prevented fin from having any entrance into the world; it fhould feem as if God could not, confiftently with his own attributes, have condemned any man at all. So infinitely remote am I from either thinking or afferting, directly or implicitly, that " the reprobate fhall be damned, do what they can!" The Pelagian should rather have declared this to be his refolution, I am determined to contradict and blafpheme, fay what you will.'

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5. He reprefents me as affirming, in fo many words, that "the non-elect were predeftinated to eternal death" for which words, he refers, by an afterifm, to my fecond chapter. I call upon him to tell me, in what part of that chapter, I make ufe of thofe words. Be they ever fo expreffive of my real belief, the words themfelves are his. They occur not even in the fourth chapter, which treats profeffedly of reprobation. Will no length of years, nor infamy of detection, reftrain this man from forgery?

If Mr. Wefley, inftead of acknowledging his guilt, and promifing reformation for the future; fhould be hardened and mean enough to fay, "Oh, but though you have not made ufe of the words, either in thofe chapters, or in the whole book, yet the

* Doctrine of Abfol. Predeft. vol. v. p. 240.

fenfe

fenfe of those words is inferrible from many paffages incurring from both." I answer, be it fo: yet this confequence ftands, that the affailant, who coins words for his adverfaries, which they never spoke, is not an honeft man. When propofitions are attacked, it is not enough to give the fuppofed fenfe of thofe propofitions. The very phrafeology, in which they are expreffed, fhould be cited, without variation, juft as they came from the pen of the defendant. Words are the drefs of thought. And an alteration of drefs may fo far difguife the wearer, as to make him appear quite a different perfon.

But, fuppofing I had even fyllabically expreffed my opinion in thofe very terms; fill, the confequence alledged would have lagged far behind the premifes. For the old question would again have recurred, viz. Can Mr. Wefley produce a single inftance of any one man, who did all he could to be faved, and yet was loft? If he can, let him tell us who that man was, where he lived, when he died, what he did, and how it came to pafs he laboured in vain. If he cannot, let him either retract his confequences, or continue to be pofted for a thamelefs traducer.

6. The condemnation of the reprobate is neceffary and inevitable. This I have both faid, and perfift to fay. It is a pofition, which unavoidably follows even from the foreknowledge of God, putting all decrees quite out of the queftion. Only allow, that fome finners actually will be condemned in the laft day; and that God always knew, and knows at this moment, who thofe perfons will be; and (not Mr. Wefley's, but) my confequence ftands unfhaken, that the condemnation of the reprobate is neceffary and inevitable. Should it be faid, that "the fore-knowledge of God has no effective influence on events," I answer, that, whether it has or not (which, however, would admit of fome debate), ftill every event muft and certainly will correfpond

to

to his foreknowledge of it: elfe, the divine foreknowledge would be mere guefs, and evaporate into empty, fallible, uncertain conjecture: i. e. the knowledge of God would be inferior to the knowledge which even man, in many cafes, is poffeffed of. It was the confideration of this, which induced the great Dr. South to renounce the Arminian novelties, and fall in with doctrinal Calvinifm. I with it may (for his own fake) have as good effect on little Mr. Wefley. I fay, for his own fake: fince himfelf would be the principal gainer by his fubmiffion to grace. We fhould acquire very little honour by the acquifition of fuch a profelyte.

"Surely," cries Mr. Wefley, "I need add no more on this head." You need not: unlefs, with all your diving, you could fetch up fomething to the purpose. "You fee," continues the repetitionist," that the reprobate fhall be damned, do what they can, is the whole burden of the fong." I have proved, and the reader has feen, that it makes no part of the fong. But this I fee, that, unless God give Mr. Wefley repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; the unparalleled perverfenefs, with which he labours to blacken fome doctrines of Christianity, will be the burden of his foul in the hour of death and in the day of judgment.

7. That the number of the elect, and alfo of the reprobate, is fo fixed and determinate, that neither can be augmented or diminished; is affirmed in Zanchius, and refts on clear, pofitive, repeated teftimonies of Holy Scripture. I would not fcruple to hinge the whole weight of this propofition, likewife, on the certain and immutable knowledge of God. I know, fays Chrift, whom I have chofen (John xiii. 18.); but, was the number fluctuating and precarious, fufceptible of addition and diminu tion, Chrift could not be faid to know them, but

Doctr, of Abf. Pred. vol. v. 246.

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only to guess at them. Abfolute certainty is the alone ground of pofitive knowledge. Whatever is unfixed and unfure, can at the very higheft, be the bafis of no more than probable fuppofition.

So again, I know my heep, John x. 14. But, if their number was indeterminate, they could not be known the sheep of to-day might degenerate i into goats to-morrow; and the goats of yesterday might become theep to day, and be goats again before night. Nay, it might fo happen, that all his fheep might ceafe to remain fuch; and the great fhepherd might, at the long run, not have a fingle sheep to know.-On the contrary, if Chrift actually knows his fheep, and whom [es, the very individual perfons] he hath chofen; it follows, that he muft alfo know who are not his fheep, and whom he hath not chofen. I affert, therefore, again, that, if omniscience itfelf knows any thing of the matter, the number of both is fo fixed and determinate, that neither can be augmented or diminished. The apostle himself makes ufe, among others, of this very argument: the foundation [or purpofe] of the Lord ftandeth fure, having this feal, the Lord knowetla them that are his. 2 Tim. ii. 19.

Let me recommend one or two paffages more to the reader's confideration. The election hath obtained, and the reft were blinded [near, were hardened]; according as it is written, God hath given them the fpirit of flumber, eyes that they fhould not fee, and ears that they fhould not hear, unto this day. Rom. xi. 7, 8.-Being difobedient, whereunto they were alfo appointed. Pet. ii. 8.-Whofe names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. Rev. xvii. 8.-There is no meaning in words, if it does not follow, even from thefe few ftubborn texts, as evidently as light flows from the fun, that the number of the elect and reprobate can neither be augmented nor diminished. The very nature whether of election, or of reprobation, makes this point manifeft as to both: fince, could the number of the

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