nor to endue them with any of those graces which stand connected with eternal life. So, Rom. ix. "Esau have I hated, i. e. I did from all eternity, determine within myself, not to have mercy on him." The sole cause of which awful negation is not merely the unworthiness of the persons hated, but the sovereignty and freedom of the divine will. 2. It denotes displeasure and dislike: for sinners who are not interested in Christ, cannot but be infinitely displeasing to, and loathsome in the sight of eternal purity. 3. It signifies a positive will to punish and destroy the reprobate for their sins; of which will the infliction of misery upon them hereaf ter, is but the necessary effect, and actual execution.

III. The term election, that so very frequently occurs in scripture, is there taken in a fourfold sense; 1. and most commonly signifies, "That eternal, sovereign, unconditional, particular, and immutable act of God, where he selected some from among all mankind, and of every nation under heaven, to be redeemed and everlastingly saved by Christ." 2. It sometimes and more rarely signifies, "That gracious and almighty act of the divine Spirit, whereby God actually and visibly separates his elect from the world, by effectual calling." This is nothing but the manifestation and partial fulfilment of the former election; and by it, the objects of predestinating grace are sensibly led unto the communion of saints, and visibly added to the number of God's declared, professing people. Of this our Lord makes mention, John xv. 19. "Because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Where, it should seem, the choice spoken of, does not refer so much to God's eternal immanent act of election, as his

open, manifest one; whereby he powerfully and efficaciously called the disciples forth from the world of the unconverted, and quickened them. from above, in conversion. 3. By election is sometimes meant, "God's taking a whole nation, community, or body of men, into external covenant with himself, by giving them the advantage of revelation, or his written word, as the rule of their belief and practice, when other nations are without it." In this sense, the whole body of the Jewish nation was indiscriminately called elect, Deut. vii. 6. "because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Now, all that are thus elected are not therefore necessarily saved; but many of them may be, and are, reprobates: as those of whom our Lord says, Mat. xiii. 20. "that they hear the word and anon with joy receive it, &c." And the apostle John, 1 Epist. chap. ii. "They went out from us, i. e. being favoured with the same gospel revelation we were, they professed themselves true believers no less than we; but they were not of us, i. e. they were not with us chosen of God unto everlasting life, nor did they ever in reality, possess that faith of his operation, which he gave to us; for, if they had in this sense, been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; they would have manifested the sincerity of their professions, and the truth of their conversion by enduring to the end, and being saved." And even this external revelation, though it is not necessarily connected with eternal happiness, is nevertheless productive of very many and great advantages to the people and places where it is vouchsafed; and is made known to some nations, and kept back* from

⚫ See Psalm cxlvii. 19, 20.

others, according to the good pleasure of him, who worketh all thing after the counsel of his own will. 4. And lastly, election sometimes signifies, "The temporary designation of some person or persons, to the filling up some particular station in the visible church, or office in civil life." So Judas was chosen to the apostleship, John vi. 70. and Saul to be king of Israel, 1 Sam. x. 24. "This much for the use of the word election." On the contrary,

IV. Reprobation denotes either, 1. God's eternal preterition of some men, when he chose others to glory, and his predestination of them to fill up the measure of their iniquities, and then to receive the just punishment of their crimes, even destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. This is the primary, most obvious, and most frequent sense, in which the word is used. It may likewise signify, 2. God's forbearing to call by his grace, those whom he hath thus ordained to condemnation : but this is only a temporary preterition, and a consequence of that which was from eternity. 3. And lastly, the word may be taken in another sense, as denoting God's refusal to grant to some nations the light of the gospel revelation. This may be considered as a kind of national reprobation; which yet does not imply that every individual person, who lives in such a country, must therefore unavoidably perish for ever; any more than that every individual, who lives in a land called Christian, is therefore in a state of salvation. There are no doubt, elect persons among the former; as well as reprobate ones among the latter. By a very little attention to the context, any reader may easily discover in which of these several senses the words elect and reprobate are used, whenever they occur in scripture.

V. Mention is frequently made, in scripture, of the purpose* of God: which is no other than his gracious intention from eternity of making kis elect everlastingly happy in Christ.

VI. When foreknowledge is ascribed to God, the word imports, 1. that general prescience, whereby he knew from all eternity, both what he himself would do, and what his creatures, in consequence of his efficacious and permissive decree, should do likewise. The divine foreknowledge considered in this view, is absolutely universal; it extends to all beings that did, do, or ever shall exist; and to all actions that ever have been, that are, or shall be done, whether good or

*The purpose of God does not seem to differ at all from predestination: that being as well as this, an eternal, free, and unchangeable act of his will. Besides, the word purpose, when predicated of God in the New Testament, always denotes his design of saving his elect, and that only, Rom. viii. 28. & ix. 11. Eph. i. 11. & iii. 11. 2 Tim. i. 9 As does the term predestination; which, throughout the whole New Tes tament, never signifies the appointment of the non-elect to wrath; but singly and solely the fore-appointment of the elect to grace and glory: though, in common theological writings, predestination is spoken of as extending to whatever God does, both in a way of permission and efficiency; as in the utmost sense of the term it does. It is worthy of the reader's notice, that the original word goteris, which we render purpose, signifies not only an appointment, but a fore-appointment, and such a fore-appointment as is efficacious, and cannot be obstructed, but shall most assuredly issue in a full accomplishment: which gave occasion to the following judicious remark of a late learned writer; "goes a Paule sæpe usurpatur in electionis negotio, ad designandum, consilium hoc Dei non esse inanem quandam & inefficacem velleitatem; sed constans, determinatum, et immutabile Dei propositum. Vox enim est efficacia summæ, ut notant gram matici veteres ; et signate vocatur a Paulo. @godECIS TO TH πaλa every8V], consilium illius, qui efficaciter omnia operatur ex beneplacito suo." TURRETIN. Institut. Tom. 1. loc. 4. quæst. 7. s. 12.

evil, natural, civil, or moral. 2. The word often denotes that special prescience which has for its objects his own elect, and them alone; whom he is in a peculiar sense said to know and foreknow, Psal. i. 6. John x. 27. 2 Tim. ii. 19. Rom. viii. 29. 1 Pet. i. 2. and this knowledge is connected with, or rather the same with love, favour, and approbation.

VII. We come now to consider the meaning of the word predestination, and how it is taken in scripture. The verb predestinate is of Latin original, and signifies in that tongue, to deliberate beforehand with one's self, how one shall act: and in consequence of such deliberation, to constitute, foreordain, and predetermine, where, when, how, and by whom, any thing shall be done, and when it shall be done. So the Greek verb googa, which exactly answers to the English word predestinate, and is rendered by it, signifies, to resolve beforehand within one's self what to do, and before the thing resolved on is actually effected, to appoint it to some certain use, and direct it to some determinate end. The Hebrew verb habhdel, has likewise much the same signification.

Now, none but wise men are capable (especial-ly in matters of great importance) of rightly determining what to do, and how to accomplish a proper end, by just, suitable, and effectual means: and if this is confessedly a very material part of true wisdom, who so fit to dispose of men, and assign each individual his sphere of action in this world, and his place in the world to come, as the all-wise God? and yet, alas! how many are there who cavil at those eternal decrees, which, were we capable of fully and clearly understanding them, would appear to be as just as they are sovereign, and as wise as they are incomprehensi