adly. The text faith God made all things, lamaanby, from , to answer to themfelves, or aptly to refer one to another. (1) He hath made the wicked for the evil day, i. e. to be the executioner of evil to others; on which account they are in fcripture called God's rod, and faid to be a fword of his. SECTION III-A fecond text cited to prove this Decree of Reprobation, or Preterition, runneth thus ; (m) Therefore they could not believe becaufe that Ifaias faid, again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, that they should not fee with their eyes, or underftand with their hearts, and be converted, and Thould heal them. Like to which are those words of St. Mark and St. Luke, (n) To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others (who are without the kingdom) I Speak 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. From which words the inference they make contains this range and uncomfortable doftrine, viz. That the infidelity even of God's own people is to be refolved, not into the perverfenefs of their wills, or the evil difpofitions of their hearts, but into the divine predictions, or into a judicial blindness and obduration wrought by God upon them, which renders it, though not naturally, yet morally, impoffible for them to believe; therefore for explication of them, and to demonftrate the falfehood and abfurdity of this inference, let it be noted, 1ft. That our bleffed Lord, in the immediate precedent verfes, doth paffionately exhort these very perfons to (0) believe and walk according to the light, that they might be children of the light; which is a certain evidence that he well knew his Father had not by any of his actions; predictions or Decrees, made it thus impoffible for them to believe on him, or walk according to his doctrine: For if God had fo blinded their eyes that they could not fee the light, or fo hardened their hearts that they could not embrace it, Chrift would not, or rather could not have exhorted them to believe, or feriously require them, thus difabled, to walk according to the light, much lefs to do it fo effectually, that they might become the children of the light; for every exhortation to do a thing we know men cannot do, must be vain; and he who by it feems to be defirous we thould do that which he knows we cannot, muft delude us; and if he knows (1) Ifa. x. 5. Mark iv. 11, 12. Pfalm xvii. 3.(m) John xii. 39, 40.——(n) D that God hath by fome antecedent purpose, will or Decree, re folved to withhold that aid by which alone we can be in a ca. pacity to do it, it must also be an exhortation repugnant to the will of God; it being in event, and in effect the fame, to will that any perfon fhould not do the thing which he requires, and to will he fhould not have the means by which alone he can perform it. Now it is blafphemy to fay the exhortations of the Son of God were vain, delufory, and contrary to his Father's will, Moreover, our Savior knew thefe Jews were capable of mercy and falvation by him; for he expressly fays, (p) God fent him into the world that the world by him might be faved: He makes this declaration to them, (q) Thefe things I fay unto you that you might be faved; and this inquiry, r) How often would I have gathered you as a hen doth her chickens under her wings, and you would not be gathered; and pathetically faith to the inhabitants of Jerufalem, (f) O that thou hadst known in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes: Now, therefore they were not always fo. Chrift then here taketh it for granted, that the people of Jerufalem, in the day of their visitation by the Meffiah, might favingly have known the things belonging to their peace. Now either this affertion, That they might favingly have known these things, was according to the truth; or his with, That they had thus known the things belonging to their peace, was contrary to his Father's will and Decree, which is palpably abfurd. And seeing the will of Chrift was always the fame with that of his Father, it follows alfo that God the Father had the fame charitable affection to them, and fo had laid no bar againft their happinefs by his decrees, nor withheld from them any thing on his part neceffary to their everlasting welfare. 3dly. God himfelt would not have his words fo understood, as it he were unwilling that the Jews fhould believe, or had by any of his purpofes or actions rendered it not poffible for them to do so ; for (t) this was his commandment, that they fhould believe on him whom he had fent: And why fent he his fon to feek, and fave that which was loft, even the loft fheep of the houfe of Ifrael, had he not been truly defirous that they fhould believe? or how could either Chrift or Mofes accufe them to the Father for their unbelief, had the Father himself refolved from all eternity to withhold from them that affiftance without which they could not believe. And lastly, the Evangelift, and that good spirit (b) John iii. 17.(f) Luke xix. 426 -(9) John v. 34- -(r) Luke xiii, 34.-(t) John vi. 29. by which he did indite these words, did not thus understand them; for he in the immediate foregoing verfe objects this to the Jews as their great crime, that (u) though Chrift had done fo many miracles among them, yet they believed not on him; whereas it can be no man's fin not to do what he cannot do purely by reafon of the aft of God; thefe words can therefore never bear that fenfe on which this inference is grounded. 2dly. Obferve, That God's forekowledge, fayings and predic tions have no fuch influence on the will of man, as to lay on him a neceflity to do what he foreknows, and hath foretold he will do; for were it otherwife, ift. All human actions must be neceffary; for to that God who is omnifcient, all things paft, prefent and to come, are known; if then this knowledge of men's: actions, which the fcripture doth afcribe to God, did make them neceflary, all hu man actions must be neceffary, and fo the freedom of them must be overthrown. 2dly. Then vice and virtue must be empty names, we being capable of doing nothing which is blame worthy, or deferveth praife, (which yet the fcripture plainly, and frequently afferts we may) for who can blame a perfon for doing only what he could not help, or judge that he deferveth praise only for doing what he could not avoid? And 3dly. Then muft all future recompenees be difcarded, it being fenfibly unjust to punish any man for doing that which it was never in his power to avoid, and as unreasonable to reward him for that action which cannot be praife worthy. When then it is here faid, Therefore they could not believe becaufe Ifaias faid, &c. thefe words must bear this fenfe, Therefore they could not believe becaufe (that was fulfilled upon them which) Ifaias faid, or it had happened to them as he had foretold. Examples of fuch an elipfis we find frequently in this gofpel: So Chap. ix. 3. Neither hath this man finned nor his parents, anx iva, but (this blindness hath happened to him) that the works of God might be made manifeft in him. Chap. xiii. 18. I know whom I have chosen, anx ïva, but (this hath happened to Judas) that the fcripture might be fulfilled, which faith, He that eateth bread with me hath lift up his heel against me. Chap. xiv. 31. ånn’ ́ïm yvã, but (this I do) that the world may know that I love the Father. Chap. xv. 25. ana iva inçáñ, but (this hath hap. pened) that the word written in their law might be fulfilled. 1 John iii. 19. ara pare, but (they went out from us) that it might appear they were not all of us. And this expofition is (4) Ver. 37% confirmed by the Holy Ghoft, who Mat. xiii, 13, 14. faith from the mouth of Chrift, Therefore I Speak to them in parables, be caufe they feeing fee not, &c. and when it is faid, ver. 40. He hath blinded their eyes, &c. obferve that the word He, is not in the original, which only faith thus, τετύφλωκεν αυτῶν τὲς ὀφθαλμες, and may be rendered, malice, or wickedness hath blinded their eyes, as we read Wifd. ii. 21. Or, adly. the perfonal verb is put for the imperfonal, the active for the paffive, i. e. He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, for, their eyes are blinded and their hearts hardened. To give you a plain inftance of this nature, Ifa. xliv. 18. in our tranflation we read thus, He hath Jhut their eyes that they cannot fee, and their hearts that they cannot understand; and yet both the Greek and Chaldee Paraphraft read them thus, aquaveálnoar, their eyes they have fhut, and darkened left they should fee; and that this is the true import of the Prophet's words, not that God, but that Satan, and their own evil dispositions had done this, is evident from this confideration, That this is spoken to the fhame of them who made and worshipped fenfelefs images, ver. 9, 11. and to convince them of their want of confideration, ver. 19. And that this must also be the fenfe here, we learn not only from the Septuagint, the Syriae, and the Arabic, which render thefe words of Ifaial thus, the heart of the people is waxed grofs, and their cars have they clofed, left they should fee with their eyes: but also from our Bleffed Savor and St. Paul, affifted by the Holy Ghoft, who both exactly follow this tranflation of the words, the one Mat. xiii. 13, 15. the other Ads xxviii. 27. Objection. But in St. Lute this is plainly given as the reafon why Chrift fpake to them without in parables, that feeing they may not fee, and hearing they may not understand. Anfwer. To take off this pretenfion, it is fufficient to obferve that the words in St. Mark and St. Luke are only an abbrevia tion of what St. Matthew faith was fpoken by our Lord more fully; for Chrift might fay what St. Mark and St. Luke relate, and yet fay more than they relate, as St. Matthew doth affure us he did; but then St. Matthew counot have given us his difcourfe more fully, unless our Lordd fpoken it more fully than it is related by St. Mark and St. Luke, whence it muß follow, that the relation of St. Mark and St. Luke must be deficient; that is, that they do not contain all that our Savior faid on this occafion, and therefore must be filled up, or rendered entire by the addition of the words recorded in St. Matthew. Since then St. Matthew doth exprefsly tell us from the mouth of Chrift, He therefore Spake to them in parables, because they Leeing would not, or did not fee, and hearing did not understand; and that they therefore did not fee, hear and understand, be caufe their heart was waxed grofs, and their ears heavy, and they had closed their eyes left they should fee) it feemeth evident that the words of St. Mark and St. Luke muft be filled up, or -made intire thus; to others (of the Jews, who will not own my doctrine, or believe in me, as you my Difciples do) Speak I in parables because they seeing fee not, and hearing do not underStand, for their hearts are waxed grofs, and their ears heavy, and their eyes have they clofed that feeing they may fee and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand. Thefe words are therefore nothing to the purpose for which they are produced, they faying nothing of God's decree, or purpose, anticedently to their being, to deny them grace fufficient to fee, or understand their duty taught them by our Lord in plain words as well as parables; for why then doth Chrift afk with fuch feeming indignation, (x) Why is it that you do not understand my faying? (it only is) because yé cannot (endure to) hear my words i, e. becaufe your prejudices and lufts will not permit you to receive it; this, doubtlefs, was the great fin of the Jews, and fo they wanted not either natural power or aid fufficient on God's part fo to do, but only a moral power or a mind well difpofed to obey his word; it being only of the wickedness and perverlenefs of the Jews, who would not fee, or come unto the light left their deeds fhould be reproved; that they loved darkness more than light; that they were even unwilling to be healed, or converted from their evil ways; and this will still appear more evident, if it be further noted, That these words, They feeing fee not, and hearing do not hear, or understand, are a proverbial expreffion concerning men fo wicked and fo flothful, that either they attend not to, or will not follow the cleare intimations and convictions of their duty. Thus to a revolting and rebellious people which had caft off the fear of God, the prophet Jeremy faith, (y) Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which have eyes and fee not, which have ears and hear not; and God fpeaks to Eze-· kiel thus, (z) Son of man, thou dwelleft in the midst of à rebell. ious houfe, which have eyes to fee and fee not, they have ears to hear and hear not, for they are a rebellious houfe. This is a frequent form of fpeech in (a) Phile, who faith of men addicted to wine and fenfual pleafures, ὁρῶντες ἐκ ὁρῶσι, καὶ ακέοντες ἐκ ακέεσι (x) John viii. 43.--(y) Jer. v. 21. (a) Alleg. L. z. p. 72. L. 3. p. 850. -(z) Chap. xii. q." |