For your other allegation; Matt. xx. 15. “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own?" It can conclude nothing, but that God may distribute equal portions of reward to those whose labours in his vineyard have been unequal; for when he that hath done moft, receives the utmost they did contract for, why should he repine at the Lord's bounty, which is no injury to him, though a benefit to others? But what is all this to the vindication of God's juftice? when he invites men to a new covenant, wherein he promiseth to proceed with them upon a gentler account, and ties them to new conditions; and yet denies abilities fufficient to perform those conditions; though he binds them to that performance under the commination and peril of a forer penalty. And I asked you further, in what fenfe this covenant with mankind could properly be called a covenant of grace? Which demand (and I conceive it a material one) you were pleased to take no notice of in your last reply. Dio. You must know, Sir, that your natural reason, without a fupernatural illumination, is no competent judge of the holy Scripture, which contains the mind of God; yet I shall not now reply to your interpretations, but addrefs myself to give you fatisfaction to your last demand; which is, in what fense the covenant, which God hath fealed to us in the blood of Chrift, is filed a covenant of grace? To this end, you muft understand, that there are a certain number of persons predeftinated unto life and glory, and thefe are called the elect; thefe elect, "God Almighty, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpofe, and the fecret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chofen in Chrift unto everlafting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any forefight of faith, or good works, or perfeverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions or causes moving him thereunto at all to the praife of his glorious grace." (And)" as God hath appointed thefe ele&t unto glory, fo hath he, he, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto: wherefore, they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Chrift, by his fpirit working in due feafon; are justified, adopted, fanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto falvation." All thefe benefits are infallibly and irrefiftibly conveyed to thofe elect, by virtue of the faid covenant: and upon this account, I hope, you will allow it to be very fitly entitled a covenant of grace. * PAG. I do readily allow of the title, in refpect to those elect you speak of. But I pray fatisfy me in this particular.What interest have the rest of mankind in Chrift, and this covenant? Do not the benefits you have now mentioned, belong to them? Dio. For your fatisfaction, you may affure yourfelf it is the determination, and public faith of the new congregational churches in England, † agreed upon, and confented to by their elders and meffengers, that "not any other are redeemed by Chrift, or effectually called, juftified, adopted, fanctified and saved, but these elect only.” PAG. I pray, to what end did God create the reft, and what acts hath he paffed against them? and what providence doth he exercife towards them? Dio. There is a text of holy Scripture that faith thus: "Before the children were born, and when they had neither done good nor evil, that the purpose of God according to election might fland, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was faid, The elder fhall ferve the younger; as it is written, I have loved Jacob, and have hated Efau." + Out of which words a renowned divine doth conclude, that, " God's ordaining men unto falvation, proceeds merely according to the good pleafure of God, and not upon confideration either of works or faith." * The declaration of the congregational churches at the Savoy, And And he adds, " As touching reprobation, that it is no more. of evil works, than election is of good works: forafmuch as before they were born, they were equally incapable of the one, as well as of the other; and the doing of evil is exprefsly excluded, as well as the doing of good. Whence it followeth manifeftly, that God's ordaining men unto damnation, proceeds as much of the mere pleasure of God, and with as little confideration of fin; as God's ordaining men unto falvation, proceeds of the mere pleasure of God, and without confideration of any righteousness in man."- Dr. Twifs, ubi fupra, page 38. PAG. To defign men to deftruction or torments, though but temporal, without fault, for one's mere pleasure, is such a feverity as we ufually brand with the title of tyranny, when we find it in any man, though he were the greatest emperor in the world; and truly I dare not entertain fuch thoughts of God. Dio. "We muft diftinguish in this decree, the act of God decrecing, and the things decreed by him (faith the fame great Doctor.*) The things decreed by reprobation, are, I. "The denial of grace: by grace I mean faith and repentance, whereby that infidelity and hardness of heart, which is natural to all, is cured." II. "The denial of glory, together with the inflicting of damnation." "As touching the firft of thefe, Look what is the cause of reprobation, as touching the act of God reprobating; that, and that alone is the caufe of the denial of grace, to wit, the mere pleafure of God." But as touching the denial of glory, and inflicting damnation, God doth not proceed according to the mere pleasure of his will, but according to a law, which is this, "Whosoever believeth not, fhall be damned." And albeit God made that law according to the mere pleasure of his will; yet no wife * Ubi fupra, pag. 41. man t man will fay, that God denies glory, and inflicts damnation on men according to the mere pleafure of his will; the cafe being clear, that God denies the one, and inflicts the other merely for their fins, who are thus dealt withal." And to this Doctor's opinion agrees, not only the confeffion of the congregational churches, but that alfo of the affembly of divines at Westminster, who (chap. iii. n. 7.) do declare concerning the reprobates, "whom they file the reft of mankind, that God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth, or with-hokleth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his fovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to difhonour and wrath for their fin, to the praife of his glorious juftice." PAG. Truly, Sir, as far as I am able to understand, by the process of your discourse, the whole matter of reprobation, as well touching the things decreed, as touching the act of God decreeing, is finally refolved into God's mere pleasure, to fhew his fovereign power: for you fay he makes a law to bind men to repent and believe, under pain of damnation; and this law he makes for his mere pleasure. You affirm also, that he decrees to deny fufficient and neceffary grace to enable men to repent and believe; and this of his mere pleasure too: and from hence it doth undeniably follow, that he doth ordain fin, and the introduction of it, as the means of damnation ; and that of his mere pleasure too. * DIO. "That he who intends an end, doth alfo intend the means, the very light of nature fuggefteth unto us," faith Dr. Twifs; "but i confefs there is a little difference amongst divines in this article. Pifcator + faith roundly, Reprobi prius ad pœnam deflinati funt, tanquam ad finem, deinde etiam ad peccata, tanquam ad media; that is, the reprobates are first deftinated unto punishment, as the end; afterwards to fin, as the means;" but Dr. Twifs faith, "We know God hath Ibid. page 73. + In Axiom. de prædeft. &c. cap. v. Ibid. page 56. given given us means of grace; as for means of damnation we know none: fins can neither be called man's means, nor God's means," faith he. "Not man's means, or intended by him as means, forafmuch as the intention of means arifeth from the intention of the end: but no man or devil intends to bring upon himself damnation, as the end whereunto he intends to fin. Not God's means, forafmuch as means are intended but by him who is the author of them; which God (faith he) cannot be." This acute Doctor therefore doth determine the point thus: "The end that God aims at, is his own glory; for he made all things for himself. And if he means to manifeft his glory on any, in the way of vindictive juftice, it stands him upon both to create them, and to permit them to fin, and finally to persevere therein, and to damn them for their fins. Here (faith he) we have the end and the means intended by God." [To be continued.] SERMON 9. MAY HEBREWs xi. 1. [Concluded from page 349.] LXIV. AY not fome of these evil fpirits be likewise em ployed in conjunction with evil angels, in tempting wicked men to fin, and in procuring occafion for them? Yea, and in tempting good men to fin, even after they had escaped the corruption that is in the world. Herein doubtless they forth all their strength, and greatly glory, if they conquer. put A paffage in an antient Anthem, may greatly illustrate this: (although I apprehend, he did not intend, though we should *Though he does not intend this directly, yet indirectly and interpretively he may; and fo a man may be faid to love death. Prov. viii. 36. and xv. 32. Ibid. page 73. take |