that they feeing fee not, and hearing do not hear, and (b) De mofthenes mentions this as a proverb; these words do manifeftly therefore fhew, That it was the wickedness and perverseness of the Jews that indisposed them to receive profit by Christ's plain difcourfes, which caufed him thus to fpeak to them in, parables.

Laftly. Obferve that they thus fhut their eyes, and made.. their hearts grofs, faith God and Chrift, left they should be converted and I should heal them; fo that the defign of God in fending of his Son was their converfion, and the remiffion of their fins; and hence St. Peter faith to them, (c) repent ye therefore and be converted, that your fins may be blotted out, for God having raifed up his Son Jefus, fent him to bless you in turning every one of you from your iniquities; exprefsly teaching. that God fent his Son to procure mercy and falvation to every one of them; and that they by their wickedness and perverfenefs obftructed thefe his gracious defigns upon them, left they should be converted from their evil ways, and God should heal them. For albeit this fad effect was not intended by them, yet fince it was the natural refult of their fhutting their eyes against the light, it fitly is afcribed to them, as when the prophet Ho fea faith (d) of their fiver and gold have they made them idols, that they might be cut off and the prophet Micah, (e) The flatutes of Qmri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counfels, that I should make thee a defolation. These words are therefore fo far from eftablishing, that they do evidently defroy the doctrine they were produced to con, firm: In fine, let it be noted, That these were the very texts produced by the Heretics of old to deftroy human liberty, and to prove that there were fome natures that could not be faved, and others which could not perish; as you may fee in Origen's Philocal. C. 21. p. 60, and wigi dgx. L. 3. C. 1. F. 140.

SECTION IV.-A third text ufed to this purpose are the words of St. Peter, (f) To you that believe he is precious ; but tọ them which be difobedient, the ftone which the builders refused is made the head of the corner, and ftone of ftumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them who ftumble at the word, being difobedient, whereunto alfo they were appointed; from which laft words they argue, that fome of the Jews, even all that believed not in Chrift, this corner ftone, were appointed by God to be difor bedient.

(b) öçürlas un ögar. njanborlas μù ánées. Orat, in Ariftog. §. 123. (c) A&ts iii. 1.19, 26.- (d) Chap. viii. 4.(e) Chap. vi.16. (f) 1 Pet. ii. 7, 8.

Anfwer. The meaning of thefe words, faith Dr. Hammond is this, that they who difobey the gofpel, ftanding out obftinately against it, were apppointed by God to ftumble and fall at that ftone; that is, to be bruifed by it, and by that means to be deftroyed among the crucifiers of the Meffiah, and condemned with them hereafter; it being just with God that they who will not reform and amend at the preaching of the gospel, and fo receive benefit by it, should by their obstinacy be condemned, and fo the worfe for it, Chrift being let (g) for the falling, as well as the rifing of many in Ifrael; and the gospel being a (h) favor of death to them that perish, and they being those whom (i) God hath appointed for wrath and to be fure it cannot fignify that God abfolutely ordained the unbelieving Jews is amidar, to difobedience, when as yet they were not, and therefore were not difobedients for then their future difobedience was purely a compliance with the Divine ordinance, or will, and fo could not deserve the name of disobedience, because it could not be both a compliance with, and disobedience to the will of God; nor could this disobedience be objected to them as their crime, unless compliance with the will of God be fo, and it be a fault to be fuch as God by his immutable council and decree hath ordained we should be, or it should render men criminal and obnoxious to punishment that they have not made void God's abfolute dceree, or have done what that made it neceffary for them to do; wherefore this paffage cannot fignify that the unbelieving Jews were appointed to disobedience, but only that being disobedient to the gospel fo clearly revealed, and by so many miracles and diftributions of the Holy Ghoft confirmed to them, they were appointed, as the punishment of that disobedience, to fall and perifh; for fo the Hebrew word Chafal, and the Greek #gównoμpics and exá import, viz. the ruin and the fall of them who ftumble at this ftone. See the note on Rom. xiv. 13. Or,

"

2dly. The words will fairly bear this fenfe, To you that believe belongs in, the honor (of being built upon this corner ftone into a spiritual house ;) but to them that are difobedient (belongs that of P. cxviii. 22.) the tone which the builders refufed, &c. and (allo to them He is) a ftone of ftumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them that stumble at the word, being difobedient,èıç ò xal érébnoan, for which also these ftones were laid laid or put the corner Stone for the building up of believers; the stone of fumbling for the difobedient to ftumble at ; for to both these

(8) Luke ii. 34-(h) 2 Cor. ii, 15, 16. (i) 1 Thell, v. 6.

flones belongs this preface, Behold I lay in Sion a flone; to the corner stone elect and precious here, and to the ftone of ftumbling, Rom. ix. 33, and so this agrees with the words of Simeon, Behold this child is placed for the fall and rifing of many in Ifrael, Luke ii. 34. In either of these fenfes the words afford no countenance to this doctrine of Reprobation. Note,

3dly. That, as Oecumenius plainly fhews, this was the old Ecclefiaftical interpretation of thefe words; fo doth he as apparently reject the fenfe this argument puts upon them, in these words, εἰς ὃ καὶ ἐτέθησαν. ἐκ ὡς ἀπὸ τῷ θεῦ εἰς τῦτο ἀφωρισμένοις εἴρεται, ἐδεμία γὰρ αἰτία ἀπωλείας παρὰ τὸ πάντας ἀνθρώπως θέλοντος σωθῆναι βραβε εύεται, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἑαυτὸς σκεύη ὀργῆς κατηρτικόσι καὶ ἡ ἀπείθεια ἐπηκολέθησε, καὶ ἐις ἣν παρασκεύασαν ἑαυτός τάξιν ἐτέθησαν. Vide reliqua.

SECTION V. A fourth feripture fpeaks of men (k) before ordained to this condemnation; here therefore feems to be an appointment of men to damnation, of old plainly afferted, of which God only can be deemed the author.

Answer. The verfe in the Greek runs thus, Some ungodly men turning the grace of God into lafcivioufnefs have entered into (the church) οἱ πάλαι προγεγραμμένοι ἐἰς τοῦτο τὸ κρῖμα, i. e. of whom it was before written that this should be their fentence or punish. ment; or as it is in the parallel place of St. Peter, diç rò ngîpa inwádas én ágyeî, (1) to whom the sentence of old pronounced doth not linger. Now that this cannot be meant of any divine ordination or appointment of them to eternal damnation before they had a being, is evident, 1ft, because it cannot be thought without horror that He, who is the lover of fouls, fhould appoint any, much lefs the greater part of them, to inevitable perdition before they had a being. 2dly, The word giμ relates not to fin but punishment, the fruit of fin; fo Mark xii. 40. they fhall receive mepiσcóτapov giμa, forer punishment; Rom. ii. 3. thinkeft thou this, O man, who doeft the fame thing, that thou Shall escape, rò ngipa, the judgment of God; now God ordaineth none to punishment but finners and ungodly men, and such, by the text, thefe perfons are here ftiled: And 3dly,Thele were men of whom it was before written or prophefied, that they fhould be condemned for their ungodlinefs; for Enoch prophefied before to, or of, these ungodly men, faying, the Lord cometh with thousands of his faints, moñoa ngow, to do judgment upon all that are ungodly (doebiîs, ver. 4.) and to convince them of all the hard fpeeches which ungodly finners have spoken against him; (which answers to the deniers of the Lord that bought them, ver.

(k) Jude iv. (1) 2 Fet, ii.

before written of in respect to this thing the punishment.

E. D.

4.) and in the parallel place of St. Peter their punifhment is filed, (m) the punishment long ago denounced against them, viz. that they should be referved to the day of judgment to be punished, ver. 9. that they thould perish in their corruption, ver. 18. they being men for whom the blackness of darkness was reserved for ever, ver. 13. and this is the very thing that St. Peter, from verfe the 4th to the 13th, and St. Fade from this to the 16th verse, set themfelves to prove; and this alfo is the import of the word yú, viz. forewritten of: So Rom. xv. 4. va węɔsygaon, whatfoever things were before written, were written for our inftruction Gal. iii. 1. before their eyes, meygan. Jefus Chrift crucified was written of or fet forth in the Old Tellanient as crucified. See this fenfe given by Oecumenius on the place.

SECTION VI.-Anfwer to Hord, Part 1. page 4. Dr. Twiffe confeffeth, that the Scriptures fpeak fully of Election, fparingly of Reprobation in most places, yet fome paffages we have, faith he, which give light and evidence to both alike for like as it is Jaid Acts ii. the laft, that God added to the church fuch as fhould be faved, fo 2 Cor. iv. g. it is faid, If our g spel be hid, it is hid to them that be loft; and as it is fignified Matth. xxiv. 24. that it is impoffible feducer's fhould prevail over the Elect, fo 2 Theff. ii. both as much is fignified ver. 13. and alfo expreffed ver. 10, 11, that they shall prevail among them that perish and 1 Cor. i. 18. we are given to understand jointly that the gospel is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. and Rom. ix. 18. that as God hath mercy on whom he will have p. 86.87 mercy, so whom he will be hardeneth. And like as Ads xiii. 48. we read, that as many believed as were ordained to eternal life, p.57.58 which phrase of being ordained to eternal life, I conceive to be all one with writing our names in heaven, Luke i. 20. and wrieing us in heaven, Heb. xii, eg. and this phrafe I take to be all one with the writing of us in the Book of Life: fo on the other fide, (n) we read that they whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, fhould wonder when they beheld the beaft, and not so only, but worship him alfo.;

Anfwer. Now to all these citations, moft of which are palpably impertinent, I anfwer in the general, that they fignity no more than thole words of Chrift, (o) He that believeth shall be Javed, he that believeth not shall be damned; and (p) except ye repent, ye shall all perish (for that exceptive contains this propofition, He that repenteth fhall not perish) and thefe words of the

(m) 2 Pet. ii. 8. Rev. xiii, 8. xvii. 8.--(0) Mark xvi. 16. -(p) Luke xiii. 3, 5.

E

Baptift (4) He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life's he that believeth not the Son, fhall not fee life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. For thofe that are loft, 2 Cor. iv. 3. are ver. 4. thofe that believe not: And that not because of any antecedent Decree of God that they should be loft; but because the God of this world, i. e. the devil, had blinded their eyes, &c. and thofe who perish, 2 Theff. ii. 10. are those who believe not the truth, ver. 12. who received not the truth worthy to be beloved and embraced, ver. 10. See the note there. They who perish, 1 Cor. i. 18. are the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, ver. 21, 22, 23. they who are hardened, Rom. ix. 18. are the veffets of wrath fitted for deftruction by their own wickednefs, completed by their infidelity or want of faith, which made Chrift preached to them a ftone of tumbling, ver. 32, 33. To proceed to thofe places which may feem to require a more particular notice.

1. The phrafe of being written in the Book of Life is Jewish, and doth not fignify the Abfolute Election of any person to eternal life, but only the prefent right of the juft perfon to life, and therefore it is called the Book of Life written for the juft, Targum on Ezek. xiii. 9. the book of the juft, Targ. Jon. on Exod. xxxii. 32. in which fay the (r) apoftolical institutions we come to be written rustiga iurcia, nai oxudň, by our good affection and industry and from which men, as they may be written in it when they are converted from vice to virtue, fo may they be blotted out when they backflide, says (f) St. Bafil, from virtue to iniquity, according to that faying of the Pfalmist, (t) Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not written with the righteous; i, e. fays Ainfworth, let them be cut off from being any longer counted thy people, or registered in the writing of the houfe of Ifael: And faith ("St. Jerom, they were written in the book of God, who in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, legem fortiffimè defenderant, firmly continued in the law; and they were blotted out of it, qui legis prævaricatores extiterant, who were deferters of it; accordingly Christ threateneth to fome, that, He would blot their names out of the Book of Life,Rev. xxii. 19. and promifeth to him that overcometh that He would not blot his name out of that book, Rev. iii. 5. And God himself faith to Mofes, whefoever hath finned against me, him will I blot out of the book of life which I have written. This book is faid to be written from the foundation of the world, God having, from the beginning, Adam and others who are filed the fons of God;

(1) John ii. 36.(r) L. 8. c. 1.) In Ifa. (1) Palm Ixix. 28.) In Dan, xii. 2.