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Philo, who saith of men addicted to wine and sensual pleasures, ὁρῶντες ἐκ ὁρῶσι, και ακέοντες ἐκ ακέεσι, " that ' they seeing see not, and hearing do not hear,' and Demosthenes mentions this as a proverb. These words do manifestly therefore shew, that it was the wickedness and perverseness of the Jews that indisposed them to receive profit by Christ's plain discourses, which caused him thus to speak to them in parables.

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Lastly. Observe that they thus shut their eyes, and made their hearts gross, saith God and Christ, lest they should be converted, and I should heal them:' So that the design of God in sending of his Son, was their conversion and the remission of their sins; and hence St. Peter saith to them, 'Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, for God having 'raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning EVERY ONE OF YOU from your iniquities;' expressly teaching, that God sent his Son to procure mercy and salvation to every one of them; and that they, by their wickedness and perverseness, obstructed these his gracious designs upon them, lest they should be converted from their evil ways, and God should heal them. For albeit this sad effect was not intended by them, yet since it was the natural result of their shutting their eyes against the light, it fitly is ascribed to them, as when the prophet Hosea saith,' Of their silver and gold have they made them idols, that they might be cut off and the prophet Micah, 'The statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels, that I should make thee a desolation.' These words are therefore so far from establishing, that they do evidently destroy, the doctrine they were produced to confirm. In fine, let it be noted, that these were the very texts produced by the heretics of old to destroy human liberty, and to prove that there were some natures that could not be saved, and others which could not perish; as you may see in Origen's Philocal. C. 21. p. 60. aud IIɛpi Apx. L. 3. C. 1. F. 140.

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IV. A THIRD text used to this purpose are the words of St. Peter, To you that believe he is precious: but to them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders refused is made the head

# Alleg. L. 2, p. 72. L. 3, p. 850. ὁ ὁρῶντας μὴ ὁρᾶν και ακέοντας μὴ ἀκδειν. Orat. in Aristog. § 123. f Acts iii. 19, 26. d Chap. viii. 4. e Chap. vi. 16.

of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them who stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed; from which last words they argue, that some of the Jews, even all that believed not in Christ this cornerstone, were appointed by God to be disobedient.

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ANSWER. "The meaning of these words," saith Dr. Hammond, "is this,-That they who disobey the gospel, standing out obstinately against it, were appointed by God to stumble and fall at that stone; that is, to be bruised by it, and by that means to be destroyed among the crucifiers of the Messiah, 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 so receive benefit by it, should by their obstinacy be condemned, and so the worse for it, Christ being set 'for the falling,' as well as the rising of many in Israel;' and the gospel being 'a savour of death to them that perish," and they being those whom “God hath appointed for wrath. And to be sure it cannot signify, that God absolutely ordained the unbelieving Jews, εἰς ἀπείθειαν, to disobedience,' when as yet they were not, and therefore were not disobedient: For then their future disobedience was purely a compliance with the divine ordinance or will, and so 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 so, and it be a fault to be such as God by his immutable counsel 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 absolute decree, or have done what that made it necessary for them to do. Wherefore this passage cannot signify, that the unbelieving Jews were appointed to disobedience; but only, that being disobedient to the gospel so clearly revealed, and by so many miracles and distributions of the Holy Ghost confirmed to them, they were appointed, as the punishment of that disobedience, to fall and perish; for so the Hebrew word or hwn, (Chasal,) and the Greek ρónuμx and onávdañov import, viz,—the ruin and

f1 Pet. ii. 7, 8.

g Luke ii. 34.

h 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.

i1 Thess. v. 94

the fall of them who stumble at this stone. (See the note on

Rom. xiv. 13.) Or,

Secondly. The words will fairly bear this sense, 'To you that believe belongs in the honour' (of being built upon this corner-stone into a spiritual house;) but to them that are disobedient (belongs that of Psalm cxviii. 22.) the stone which the builders refused, &c. and (also to them he is) a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them that stumble at the word, being disobedient,' is d xai Tebnoav, for which also these stones were laid' or put, the corner-stone for the building up of believers, the stone of stumbling for the disobedient to stumble at. For to both these stones belongs this preface, 'Behold I lay in Sion a stone,'-to the corner-stone, elect and precious here, and to the 'stone of stumbling,' Rom. ix. SS. And so this agrees with the words of Simeon, Behold this child is placed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.' (Luke ii, 34.) In either of these senses the words afford no countenance to this doctrine of reprobation.Note,

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Thirdly. That, as Ecumenius plainly shews, this was the old ecclesiastical interpretation of these words; so doth he as apparently reject the sense this argument puts upon them, in these words, Εἰς ὃ καὶ ἐτέθησαν. ἐκ ὡς ἀπὶ τῇ Θεῖ εἰς τότο ἀφωρισμένοις εἴρεται, ἐδεμία γὰρ αἰτία ἀπωλείας παρὰ τῇ πάντας ἀνθρώπες θέλοντος σωθῆναι βραβεύεται: ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἑαυτὸς σκεύη ὀργῆς κατηρτικόσι καὶ ἡ ἀπείθεια ἐπηκολέθησε, καί εις ἤν παρασκεύασαν ἐαυτὲς τάξιν ἐτέθησαν. Vide reliqua.*

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V. "A FOURTH Scripture speaks of men before ordained to this condemnation:"-Here therefore seems to be an appointment of men to damnation, of old plainly asserted, of which God only can be deemed the author."

ANSWER. The verse in the Greek runs thus, Some ungodly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, have entered into (the church) οι πάλαι προγεγραμμένοι εις τοῦτο τὸ κρῖμα, that is, of whom it was before written that this should be their sentence or

'WHEREUNTO ALSO THEY WERE APPOINTED. Not that this is said to them as though they had been selected by God for this very thing; because He whose will it is that all men should be saved, has here assigned no cause for their destruction; but obstinate unbelief hath followed those who have fitted themselves as vessels of wrath, and they have appointed even the order by which they have deliberately prepared themselves. See the rest.' ED.

a Jude 4.

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punishment; or, as it is in the parallel place of St. Peter, ois rà κρῖμα ἐκπάλαι ἐκ ἁργεῖ, ' 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, (1.) because it cannot be thought without horror that He, who is the lover of souls, should appoint any, much less the greater part of them, to inevitable perdition before they had a being. (2.) The word xpia relates not to sin but punishment, the fruit of sin; so Mark xii. 40, 'They hall receive пεproσóτερor xpiua, sorer punishment. Rom. ii. 3, Thinkest thou this, O mun, who doest the same thing, that thou shalt escape Tò npĩμa, the judgment of God? Now God ordaineth none to punishment but sinners and ungodly men; and such, by the text, these persons are here styled. And (3.) these were men, of whom it was before written or prophesied," that they should be condemned for their ungodliness; for Enoch prophesied before to (or of,) these ungodly men, saying, The Lord cometh with thousands of his saints añoαι npiow, to do judgment upon all that are ungodly doεbεis, (verse 14,) and to convince them of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him;” (which answers to the deniers of the Lord that bought them,” verse 4.) And in the parallel place of St. Peter, their punishment is styled, 'the punishment long ago denounced against them, viz. that they should be reserved to the day of judgment to be punished,” (verse 9,) that they should perish in their corruption,' (verse 12,) they being men, for whom the blackness of darkness was reserved for ever. (Jude verse 13th.) And this is the very thing that St. Peter, from verse the 4th to the 13th, and St. Jude, from this to the 16th verse, set themselves to prove; and this also is the import of the word posypán, viz. forewritten of:' So Rom. xv. 4, oơở #poεy pa¶n, Whatsoever things were before written were written for προεγράφη, our instruction.' Gal. iii. 1, Before their eyes Jesus Christ cruci fied проɛypan, was written of or set forth' in the Old Testament as crucified. See this sense given by Ecumenius on the place.

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VI." Answer to Hord," part 1. page 4, Dr. Twiss confesseth, that the scriptures speak fully of election, sparingly of reprobation in most places: "Yet some passages we have," saith he,

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"which give light and evidence to both alike; for like as it is said (Acts ii. the last) that God added to the church such as should be saved,' so (2 Cor. iv. S.) it is said, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that be lost;' and as it is signified (Matth. xxiv, 24.)that it is impossible seducers should prevail over the elect, so (2 Thess. ii) both as much is signified (verse 13,) and also expressed (verse 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 mercy,' so 'whom he will he hardeneth. And like as (Acts xiii. 48.) we read, that as many believed as were ordained to eternal life;' which phrase of being ordained to eternal life,' I conceive to be all one with writing our names in Heaven,' (Luke x. 20.) and writing us in Heaven. (Heb. xii. 23.) And this phrase I take to be all one with writing of us in the Book of Life;' so, on the other side, we read, that they whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, should wonder when they beheld the beast; and not so only, but worship him also'."

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ANSWER. Now to all these citations, most of which are palpably impertinent, I answer in the general, that they signify no more than those words of Christ, He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned;"except ye repent, ye shall rish;'f (for that exceptive contains this proposition, He that repenteth shall not pérish;) and these words of the Baptist He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.' For those that are lost, (2 Cor. iv. 3.) are (verse 4.) those that believe not: and that, not because of any antecedent decree of God that they should be lost, but because the God of this world, that is, the Devil, had blinded their eyes, &c. And those who perish, (2 Thess. ii. 10,) are those who believe not the truth, (verse 12,)who received not the truth worthy to be beloved and embraced.' (verse 10.) See the note there. They who perish,' (1 Cor. i. 18,) are the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. (verses 21, 22, 23.) They who are hardened,' (Rom. ix, 18,) are the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction'

d Rev. xiii. 8. xvii. 8. e Mark xvi. 16.

f Luke xiii. 3, 5.

g John iii. 36

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