Page images
PDF
EPUB

all who should at any period of time believe, to the exclusion of those who should finally perish. That Christ prayed for those who then believed in him, is granted; but that his intercession was confined to them, and excluded all that did not believe in him, cannot be admitted, for the following reasons-1. Christ prays for all that were given him of the Father: but the term given is not applied to believers as such, for men are represented as given of the Father prior to their coming to Christ. John vi. 37. 2. The scripture account of Christ's intercession does not confine it to those who are actually believers, which it must have done if the sense I oppose be admitted. When he hung upon the cross, he prayed for his enemies; and herein most evidently fulfilled that prophecy, "He poured out his soul unto death, he was numbered with the transgressors, he bare the sin of many, and MADE INTERCESSION FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS."*—3. It is expressly said in verse 20, " Neither pray I for these alone, but them also who shall believe in me through their word."

VI. If the doctrine of eternal, personal, and unconditional election be a truth, that of a special design in the death of Christ, must necessarily follow. I do not suppose P. will admit the first; but I apprehend he will admit that if the first could be proved a scripture truth, the last would follow of course. I might then urge all those scriptures and arguments

* Luke xxiii. 34. Isai. liii. 12.

which appear to me to prove the doctrine of election. But this would carry me beyond my present design. I only say, the following scriptures, amongst many others, appear to me conclusive upon that subject; and what cannot be answered without a manifest force being put upon them. "God the Father hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus-according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and the belief of the truth. All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me. Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son; moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. I have much people in this city. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Elect, according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience. Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works; but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Except

the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrha. At this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God that sheweth mercy.' ""*

The above passages must be allowed to speak only of a part of mankind. This part of mankind must be stiled the chosen of God, given of the Father, &c. either because of their actually being believers, or because it was foreseen that they would believe, or as we suppose, because God eternally purposed in himself that they should believe and be saved. It cannot be on account of the first, seeing they were chosen "before the foundation of the world," and given to Christ prior to their believing in him. It cannot be on account of the second, because then, what he had done for us must have been according to something good in us, and not according to his own purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began. It would also be contrary to all those scriptures recited above, which represent our being chosen and given of the Father as the cause of faith and holiness. If our conformity to the image

Eph. i. 3, 4. 2 Thes. ii. 13. John vi. 37. Rom. viii. 29, 30. Acts xviii. 10. xiii. 48. 1 Pet. i. 2. 2 Tim. i. 9. John xv. 16. Matt: xi. 25, 26. Rom. ix. 15, 16, 29. xi. 5, 7.

of the Son of God, our faith, holiness, and obedience are the effects of election, they cannot be the ground or reason of it. If men are given to Christ prior to the consideration of their coming to him, then they I cannot be said to be given on account of their so coming. If then it cannot be on account of either the first or the second, I conclude it must be on account of the last.

The death of Christ is assigned as a reason why none at the last day shall be able to lay any thing to the charge of God's elect.* But if it extends equally to those who are condemned as to those who are justified, how does it become a security against such a charge? Whatever difference there may be in point of security between those who at that day are justified, and those who are condemned, the death of Christ is not supposed to have had any influence towards it. The security of the elect should rather have been ascribed to what they themselves have done in embracing the Saviour, than to any thing done by him, seeing what he did was no security whatever. It was no more than a cipher in itself considered. The efficacy of the whole it seems rested not upon what Christ had done, but upon what they themselves had done in believing in him.

VII. The character of the redeemed in the world above, implies the sentiment for which we plead. Not only did the four living creatures, and the four

* Rem. viii. 33, 34.

and twenty elders (which seem to represent the church militant) adore the Lamb, saying, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," but it is witnessed of those who are without fault before the throne of God, that "they were redeemed (or BOUGHT) from among men, being the first-fruits unto God, and the Lamb." But if all of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation were bought by the blood of Christ, there could be no possibility of any being bought from amongst them.

The above are some of the reasons which induce me to think there was a certain, absolute, and consequently limited design in the death of Christ, securing the salvation of all those, and only those, who are finally saved. The reader will now judge of the confident manner in which P. asks, "What end can it answer to take all these pains to vindicate a doctrine which God has never revealed?" (36.)

§ II.

WHEREIN SOME NOTICE IS TAKEN OF THE ARGUMENTS OF P. FOR THE CONTRARY HYPOTHESIS.

[ocr errors]

THE limited extent of Christ's death is said to be "inconsistent with divine goodness, and with the tender mercies of God over all his works."-(73.) To this it is replied, fallen angels are a part of God's S

« PreviousContinue »