Quality of those who were not in Being, but in the abfolute Determination of him who gave it. Jacob have I loved, and Efau have I hated, is a Hebraism, fignifying no more than that I have preferred the one to the other: The Hebrews having no Degrees of Comparison in their Language, express a Preference by the oppofite Extremes. Thus, I will have Mercy, and not Sacrifice; fignifies no more than that I prefer Mercy to Sacri fice. I will not reprove thee for thy BurntOfferings, becaufe they were not always before me; i. e. I will not reprove thee so much for the Want of them, as of Mercy, Juftice, and the like. All they that HATE me LOVE Death, fays Wisdom in the Proverbs, that is, all that reject my Councils prefer Death before me. And this Preference was given, fays the Apostle, that the Purpose of God according to ELECTION might stand. What Election? To eternal Life or Mifery? No; but an Election of fuch a one as the Almighty thought fit to be the Perfon, in whofe Branch of the Family the Meffiah fhould be born, and the true Religion continued to the World. Bleffings which no Man can have a Right or Claim to; and therefore fays God, I will fhew Mercy and Compaffions of this Kind, on whom I will have Mercy and Compaffion; that is, on whomfoever I please. And as it was then, even fo it is now. Whoever confiders the prefent State of Mankind in ge

neral,

neral, those Regions where the pure Light of the Gospel fhines, and those which are buried in Darkness and Obfcurity, and but curforily examines the Lives of the Generality of Christians, will conclude with our Apostle, that their Ignorance and our Knowledge ought to be refolved merely into the Goodnefs and Justice of God; and that our Enjoyment of these ineftimable Benefits is not to be refolved into the Merit of him that will eth, or of him that runneth, but folely into the overflowing Streams of the Goodness of that God, who thus fheweth us Mercy.

And in like Manner the Inftances of Pharaoh and the Potter are both mentioned by St. Paul, in Allufion to God's providential Difpenfations in this World. For this Purpofe have I raised thee up, fays God of Pharaoh, that I might make my Power to be known, not by eternal Vengeance in the next World, but by an exemplary Punishment in this, and to answer the Purposes of my Providence, or, as the next Words clearly exprefs it, that my Name might be declared throughout all the Earth. So that all that can fairly be inferred from thence is, what every Man of any Religion will readily grant, that bad Princes are Inftruments in the Hands of God, whom he raises and throws down at Pleasure, as to his Wisdom appears most conducive to the Ends of his Government of the World. And the Reference to the Power of VOL. I.

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the Potter to make one Veffel to Honour and another to Dishonour, is exprefly applied by the Apostle to God's enduring with much Long-Suffering the Jews, called Veffels of Wrath fitted to Deftruction, on Account of their Obftinacy; and to his making known the Riches of his Glory to the Chriftians, called Veffels of Mercy whom God had afore prepared for Glory, because he had determined to offer them Redemption through his Son: Even us, fays our Apoftle, whom he bath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

Hath God then, fays the Objector, broken his Promises, and caft away his People? God forbid, replies the Apoftle. As there were in the Days of Elias, feven thousand Men who had not bowed the Knee to Baal, even fo at this present Time there is a Remnant of the Ifraelites, who obey the Call, according to the Election of Grace; that is, according to the Gofpel, which God of mere Grace and Mercy, and not in Regard to our Works, has offered to us. But with Refpect to the Jews in general the Truth is, That Ifrael bath not obtained that fuftification which he feeketh for; but the Election, that is, the Chriftians, (who are here called the Election, as the Jews are in other Places called the Circumcifion, and the Gentiles the Uncircumcifion) hath obtained it, and the reft were blinded. Because the Jews feek not this Juftification by Faith, as

the

the Believers do, but by the Works of the Law; and therefore they first stumbled at that Stumbling Block, the Belief in a crucified Saviour, and then God gave them up to be blinded by their own Obftinacy and Unbelief. And upon the Whole the Cafe of the Jews in general is in the Words of Saint Paul this, As concerning the Gospel, they are Enemies to it on your Account, (fpeaking to the Gentiles) whofe Admiffion into the Church caufed many of them to reject the Faith; but as touching the Election which God made of their Fathers to be his People, they are still beloved by him, for thofe Fathers Sakes: For the Gifts and Calling of God are without Repentance, or Change. As God chofe the Patriarchs to profefs his Name, and bleffed them with his Promises, their Pofterity are still dear to him, who cannot change, for Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob's Sakes; but they have now refused the Covenant of God, by their Unbelief, and God took Occafion from thence to extend his Mercy to you Gentiles, that as all, both Jew and Gentile, have now been included in Unbelief, he might have Mercy upon all.

These are the feveral Paffages in the Epiftle to the Romans, which relate to the Doctrines of Predeftination and Election; and this is, as I apprehend, the Meaning of St. Paul in them; which could not be explained without

thus taking into Confideration the Apostle's Design in those Parts of his Epiftle.

And agreeable to this is his Doctrine in the first Epistle to the Ephefians, where he fays of the Christians, That God chose them before the Foundation of the World, that they should be holy and without Blame before him in Love, having predeftinated them to the Adoption of Children by Jefus Chrift to himself, according to the Purpofe of him who worketh all Things after the Counsel of his own Will, that they fhould be to the Praife of his Glory. That is, that fuch was the eternal Goodnefs of God to Mankind, that he determined before the Foundations of the World, to offer them Redemption and Adoption in his Son when the Fulness of Time fhould come; and to magnify his Glory, in making good his Promifes to all those who fhould obey his Call, and ferve him in Love, by making them joint Heirs of Glory with the Lord Chrift Jefus.

So that the Apostle's Doctrine does primarily and immediately at leaft, relate to the prefent Call and State of Chriftians; and only ultimately, remotely, and confequentially to another Life. And the only Paffage in the New Teftament wherein we find the Word chofen or elected, not yet mentioned, is that of the twentieth Chapter of St. Matthew, relating to the Parable of the Vineyard, where it is also faid, that many are called, but few