sacrifice of Christ' and since God has so plainly declared that predestination is the effect of his mercy, and love, and grace, and wisdom in Christ, it is to these qualities that we ought to attribute it, and not, as is generally done,2 to his absolute and secret will, even in those passages where mention is made of his will only. Exod. xxxiii. 19. “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious," that is, not to enter more largely into the causes of this graciousness at present, Rom. ix. 18. "he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy," by that method, namely, which he had appointed in Christ. It will appear, moreover, on examination of the particular texts that in passages of this kind God is generally speaking of some extraordinary manifestation of his grace and mercy. Thus Luke xii. 32. "it is your Father's good pleasure.' Eph. i. 5, 11. "by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.... after the counsel of his own will." James i. 18. "of his own will,”—that is, in Christ, who is the word and truth of God,- 'begat he us with the word of truth." THOSE WHO SHOULD BELIEVE, AND CONTINUE IN THE FAITH. This condition is immutably attached to the decree, nor does it attribute mutability either to God or to his decrees; 2 Tim. ii. 19. "the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his :' or according to the explanation in the same verse, all who name the name of Christ, and depart from iniquity;" that is, whoever believes the mutability is entirely on the side of them who renounce their faith, as it is said, 2 Tim. ii. 13. "if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself." It seems, then, that there is no particular predestination or election, but only general,—or in other words, that the privilege belongs to all who heartily believe and continue in their belief, that none are predestinated or elected irrespectively, e. g. that Peter is not elected as Peter, or John as John, but inasmuch as they are believers, and continue in their belief,and that thus the general decree of election becomes per 66 in thee As from a second root, shall be restor❜d As many as are restor'd, without thee none. So Toletus, Malvenda, Grotius. VOL. IV. sonally applicable to each particular believer, and is ratified to all who remain stedfast in the faith. This is most explicitly declared by the whole of Scripture, which offers salvation and eternal life equally to all, under the condition of obedience in the Old Testament, and of faith in the New. There can be no doubt that the tenor of the decree as promulged was in conformity with the decree itself,otherwise the integrity of God would be impugned, as expressing one intention, and concealing another within his breast. Such a charge is in effect made by the scholastic distinction which ascribes a twofold will to God; his revealed will, whereby he prescribes the way in which he desires us to act, and his hidden will, whereby he decrees that we shall never so act; which is much the same as to attribute to the Deity two distinct wills, whereof one is in direct contradiction to the other. It is, however, asserted that the Scriptures contain two opposite statements respecting the same thing;--it was the will of God that Pharaoh should let the people go, for such was the divine command,-but it was also not his will, for he hardened Pharaoh's heart. The truth however is, that it was God alone who willed their departure, and Pharaoh alone who was unwilling; and that he might be the more 3 2 'Voluntas Dei in varias species distingui solet, ut absolutam et conditionatam; antecedentem et consequentem; signi et beneplaciti, &c. Voluntas signi dicitur cum Deus verbo suo significat quid velit aut nolit ab hominibus fieri, et mandatis ejus continetur; beneplaciti vero, qua Deus apud se premit et occultat id quod vult facere.' Curcellæi Institutio, ii. 9. 6, 7. Thomas Aquinas and his disciples frame another distinction to elude the text in Timothy (1 Tim. ii. 4.) and tell us of a will revealed, and of another hidden, which is, many times at least, contrary to that revealed a distinction rejected by our 17th Article, which directs us to follow, not this supposed hidden will of God, but that which is expressly declared in his word.' Glocester Ridley's Sixth Sermon on the Divinity and Operations of the Holy Ghost. Compare Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium, Book i. chap. 2. 3 If it be affirmed, that God, as being Lord, may do as he will, yet we must know that God hath not two wills, but one will; much less two contrary.' Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, Prose Works, III. 222. And again; It is wondered how there can be in God a secret and revealed will; and yet what wonder, if there be in man two answerable causes? But here there must be two revealed wills grappling in a frate nal war with one another, without any reasonable cause apprehended.' Itd. 225 unwilling, God hardened his heart,' and himself deferred the execution of his own pleasure, which was in opposition to that of Pharaoh, that he might afflict him with heavier punishment on account of the reluctance of his will. Neither in his mode of dealing with our common father Adam, nor with those whom he calls and invites to accept of grace, can God be charged with commanding righteousness, while he decrees our disobedience to the command. What can be imagined more absurd than a necessity which does not necessitate, and a will without volition? The tenor of the decree as promulged (which was the other point to be proved) is uniformly conditional. Gen. ii. 17. "thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,"—which is the same as if God had said, I will that thou shalt not eat of it; I have not therefore decreed that thou shalt eat of it; for if thou eatest thou shalt die; if thou eatest not, thou shalt live. Thus the decree itself was conditional before the fall; which from numberless other passages appears to have been also conditional after the fall. Gen. iv. 7. "if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." "the punishment of sin watcheth for thee." Exod. xxxii. 32, 33. "blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.... whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book." Such was the love of Moses for his nation, that either he did not remember that believers, so long as they continued such, could not be blotted out, or the prayer must be understood in a modified sense, as in Rom. ix. 1, &c. This my long sufferance, and my day of grace They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste; But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more, That they may stumble on, and deeper fall; or, 4 And none but such from mercy I exclude. Par. Lost, III. 198. the will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs, 1. 211 "I could wrsh, if it were possible." The reply of God, how ever, although metaphorical, explains with sufficient clearness that the principle of predestination depends upon a condition,-"whosoever hath sinned, him will I blot out." This is announced more fully in the enforcement of the legal cove nant, Deut. vii. 6-8. where God pointedly declares his choice and love of his people to have been gratuitous; and in v. 9. where he desires to be known as 66 a faithful God which keepeth his covenant and mercy," yet he adds as a condition, "with them that love him and keep his commandments.” Again, it is said still more clearly, v. 12. " it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them, that Jehovah thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers." Though these and similar passages seem chiefly to refer either to the universal election of a nation to the service of God, or of a particular individual or family to some office (for in the Old Testament scarcely a single expression can be discovered referring to election properly so called, that is, election to eternal life), yet the principle of the divine decree is in all cases the same. Thus it is said of Solomon, as of another Christ, 1 Chron. xxviii. 6, 7, 9. “I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father." But what are the terms of the covenant ?"if he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day.... if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever." The election of his posterity also depended on the same stipulation. 2 Chron. vi. 16. "so that thy children take heed to their way, to walk in my law." See also xxxiii. 8. and xv. 2. "the Lord is with you, while ye be with him. but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you;" whence Isaiah does not scruple to say, xiv. 1. "the Lord will yet choose Israel." See also Zech i. 16. Isaiah also shows who are the elect; lxv. 9, 10. "mine elect shall inherit it.... and Sharon shall be.... for my people that have sought me." Jer. xxii. 24. "though Coniah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee hence." of The same must be remembered with respect to the covenant grace, as often as the condition itself is not expressly added. is, however, rarely omitted. Mark xvi. 16. "he that beeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." If we figure to ourselves that God originally predestinated mankind on such conditional terms as these, endless controversies might be decided by this single sentence, or by John iii. 16. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” v. 10. xv. 6. "if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch." "if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandment." xvii. 20. "neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;" that is, for those whom the Father had predestinated. So also, Luke vii. 30. “the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him;" whence it appears that even they had been predestinated, on condition of belief. No man was more evidently one of the elect than Peter, and yet a condition is expressly reserved, John xiii. 8. "if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.' What then ensued? Peter readily complied, and consequently had part with his Lord; had he not complied, he would have had no part with him. For though Judas is not only said to have been chosen, which may refer to his apostleship, but even to have been given to Christ by the Father, he yet attained not salvation. John xvii. 12. "those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled." i. 11, 12. "he came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power," &c., that is, to those who believed in his name; to whom he did not give power before they had received and believed in him, not even to those who were specially called his own. So St. Paul, Eph. i. 13. "in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise." Undoubtedly those whom in the beginning of his epistle he calls holy, were not sealed till after that they had believed, were not individually predestinated before that period. 2 Cor. vi. 1. “we beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” Rev. iii. 5. "he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.' On the other hand it is said, xxii. 19. "if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life." |