Many are called, but few are chofen. xxii. 14. Fill you up the measure of your fathers. can you escape the damnation of hell? xxiii. 32, 33. Matt. How* I fend unto you prophets, and wife men, and fcribes and fome of them ye thall kill and crucify, and fome of them fhall ye fcourge in your fynagogues; and perfecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous bloodfhed upon the earth. Matt. xxiii. 34, 35. Say not, "Where is the juftice of this?" Juftice belongs to another argument. We are not now treating of justice, but of neceffity. Keep to the point. Two men fhall be in the field: one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one fhall be taken, and the other left. Matt. xxiv. 40, 41. Monfieur Le Clerc (who would have thought it?) has a paffage, fo full to the fense of this observable text, that one would almost imagine he defigned it for the very purpose. Pofito, hominem peccato deditum effe; nec per totam vitam id habere, quod neceffariò poftulatur ad habitum peccati exuendum; inde colligimus, neceflitate confequentiæ, hominem in peccato manfurum, nec ullâ ratione vitaturum pænas peccatori debitas impænitenti." Ontolog. cap. 13. I really wonder, at the above writer's expreffing himself thus. But I do not wonder, to hear the excellent Luther remark as follows. "Nonne clarè fequitur, dum Deus opere fuo in nobis non adeft, omnia effe mala quæ facimus, et nos neceffariò operari quæ nihil ad falutem valent? Si enim non nos, fed folus Deus operatur falutem in nobis; nihil, ante opus ejus, operamur falutare, velimus nolimus." (De Servo Arbitr. Sect. 43.) i. e. It is clearly evident, that, until God is prefent in us by his own gracious influence, whatever we do is evil and we neceffarily do thofe things only, which have no tendency to falvation. For if it is God alone who worketh falvation in us, and not we in ourselves; we can do nothing falutary, will we or nill we, until he himself actually doth fo work in us. Well faid, honeft Martin. To God's bleffing upon the bold and faithful affertion of fuch noble truths as this, we owe our reformation from Popery. And nothing will finally preferve us from being carried captive into the Popish Egypt again, but the revival and prevalency of the fame noble truths which at firft led us forth from that houfe of-bondage. This This night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Matt. xxvi. 34. Might Peter not have denied him? and might Chrift have proved mistaken ? If it be poffible, let this cup pass from me. Matt. xxvi. 39. But it was not poffible.` Thinkeft thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, &c. but how then fhall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it muft be? Ver. 53, 54: All this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Ver. 56. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, cafting lots; that it might be fulfilled which was fpoken, &c. Matt. xxvii. 35. Nothing but mere neceffity, from beginning to end! My appeals to the other three evangelifts fhall be extremely concife. He goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came unto him. Mark iij. 13. It is precifely the fame, in the fpiritual converfion of the foul to God. None can come, until effectually called: and they, who are called effectually, cannot but come. For, as the profound and judicious Mr. Charnock unanswerably argues, "If there be a counfel [i. e. a difplay of godlike wifdom and defign] in framing the loweft creature, and in the minuteft paffages of providence; there muft needs be an higher wifdom in the government of creatures to a fupe natural end, and in framing the foul to be a monument of his glory." Charnock on the Attributes. p. 373.-I have met with many treatifes on the divine perfections; but with none, which any way equals that of Mr. Charnock. Perfpicuity, and depth; metaphyfical fablimity, and evangelical fimplicity; immenfe learning, and plain, but irrefragable, reafoning; confpire to render that performance ope of the most ineftimable productions, that ever did honour to the fanctified judgement and genius of an human being. If I thought myfelf at all adequate to the task, I would endeavour to circulate the outlines of fo rich a treafure into more hands, by reducing the fubfiance of it within the compafs of an octavo volume. Was fuch a design properly executed, a inore important fervice could hardly be rendered to the caufe of religion, virtue, and knowledge. Many people are frightened at a folio of more than 800 pages, who might have both leifure and inclination to avail themfelves of a well-digetted compendium. If If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. Mark vii. 16. With men, it is impoffible: but not with God. Ib. x. 27. Except the Lord had shortened those days, no flefh fhould be faved. But, for the elects' fake, whom he hath chofen, he hath fhortened the days. -False prophets fhould feduce, if it were poffible, even the elect. Mark xiii. 20, 22. One of you, that eateth with me, fhall betray Ib. xiv. 18. me. All ye hall be offended, becaufe of me this night. Ver. 27: The hour is come: the Son of man is betrayed, &c. Ver. 41. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Ver. 49. Many widows were in Ifrael, but to none of them was Elias fent, fave unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, to a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Ifrael, in the time of Elifeus the prophet: but none of them was cleanfed, fave Naaman the the Syrian. Luke iv. 26, 27. I muft preach the kingdom of God to other cities alfo for therefore am I fent. Ver. 43. * Not one of them [i. e. not a fingle fparrow] is forgotten before God. Ib. xii. 6. All things that are written by the prophets, concerning the Son of man, fhall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and fhall be mocked, &c. Luke xviii. 31. There shall not an hair of your head perish. Ib. xxi. 18.—i. e. before the appointed time. Truly, the Son of man goeth [to crucifixion and death] as it was determined: but woe unto that man, by whom he is betrayed. Ib. xxii. 22. + "Oh blindness to the future, wifely giv'n, POPE. What What a different view did Chrift entertain of pre. deftination and neceffity, from that which the Arminians profefs to have! The Son of God connects two ideas, which thofe gentlemen are for fetting at an infinite diftance: namely, the determining decree of his Father, by which moral evil is effectually permitted; and the penal woe, juftly due to the perfons, who, in confequence of that effectual permiffion, are, neceffarily, evil agents. I fhall just touch again upon this particular, when we come to John xix. 11. This, that is written, muft yet be accomplished in me, and he was reckoned among the tranfgreffors: for the things concerning me have an end [i. e. they fhall every one come to pafs]. Luke xxii. 37. This is your hour, and the power of darkness. Ver. 53. Ought not Chrift to have fuffered these things? lb. xxiv. 26.-i. e. Was there not a neceffity for thofe very fufferings, and were they not inevitable? Certainty itfelf is not more certain. The entire chain of his humiliation proceeded juft as it fhould, without one circumftance deficient, or one redundant. It all fell out, precifely, as it ought and ought to have fallen out, precifely, as it did. Why? Becaufe God had decreed it, and because man's falvation (which was no lefs decreed) required it. It was predeftinated, that Chrift fhould be delivered up to death, even to the death of the cross, and there make his foul an offering for fin. But he could not have been betrayed, without a betrayer: nor crucified, without crucifiers. The means, therefore, no lefs than the end, were neceffarily included (as they always are) within the circle of divine pre-appointment. But I go on. That, which is born of the flesh, is flefh: and that, which is born of the fpirit, is fpirit. John iii. 6.What is this but faying? Man, in his natural flate, is neceffarily corrupt: man, in a regenerate ftate, is neceffarily biaffed to God. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that faith to thee, give me to drink; thou wouldst have afked of him. Ib. iv. 11.-But the did not know him, and therefore could not fo pray to him. Our Lord, however, knew her to be one of his elect, and that the time of her converfion was very near. And, that he might be converted precifely at the very time appointed, he must needs go through the territory of Samaria. John iv. 4. The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead [elect fouls, but hitherto unregenerated, and of courfe dead to God] fhall hear the [converting] voice, of the Son of God; and, hearing, they fhall live. lb. v. 25.-All true converfion is wrought by invincible power. The dead neceffarily continue fo, until they are neceffarily raised to life. A dead foul, no more than a dead body, can neither quicken itself, nor hinder God from doing it. Whoever goes to Chrift and heaven, goes thither by gracious neceffity: a neceffity fo powerful, that it even makes him willing to go. All that the Father giveth me, fhall come to me. Chap. vi. 37. They come neceffarily: i. e. they cannot but believe with the faith which is of the operation of God. This is the Father's will, who fent me, that, of all which he hath given me, I fhould lofe nothing; but should raise it; up again at the last day. Ver. 39.-God's will is neceflity itself. No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath fent me, draw him.It is written in the prophets, and they [i. e. my people] fhall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned [i. e. who has been drawn] of the Father cometh unto me, John vi. 44, 45.Neceffity, on both fides! until drawn, none can come and, when drawn, none can ftay away. Therefore |