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man Efau did after his game, have not attained to the law of mofaic, or chriftian righteousness: They are neither justified as Jews, nor fanctified as chriftians."True; and the reafon is, becaufe God had abfolutely paffed them by from all eternity, that he might in time make them veffels of wrath fitted for deftruction."-So infinuates Zelotes: but happily for the honour of the Gospel, St. Paul declares just the reverse. Wherefore, fays he, did not the reprobated Jews attain to righteousness? To open the eyes of Zelotes, if any thing will, he answers his own question thus: BECAUSE they fought it not BY FAITH, but as it were by the external works of the mofaic law oppofed to chriftian faith for they fumbled at that frumbling ftone, Chriit, who is a rock of offence to unbelievers, and the rock of ages to believers: As it is written, Behold I lay in Zion a rock, that fome fhall, thro' their obftinate unbelief, make a rock of offence; and others, thro' their humble faith, a rocky foundation, according to the decrees of conditional reprobation and election; He that believeth not shall be damned—and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Rom. ix. 1-33. Mark xvi. 16.

That Zelotes fhould miftake the apostle's meaning, when it is fo clearly fixed in the latter part of the chapter, is unaccountable: but that he should support by it his peculiar notion of ABSOLUTE REPRO BATION, is really aftonishing. The unbelieving Jews are undoubtedly the perfons, whom the apoftle had firft in view, when he afferted God's right of appointing, that obftinate unbelievers fhall be vessels of qurath. But hear what he faid of thofe REPROBATED Jews to the ELECTED Gentiles, in the very next chapter but one. I fpeak to you Gentiles, &c. if BY ANY MEANS I may provoke to emulation them that are my fle [the Jews] and might SAVE fome of them. If fome of the branches [the unbelieving Jews] be broken off, &c. BECAUSE OF UNBELIEF they were broken off, and thou [believing Gentile] flandeft BY FAITH. Be not highminded, but fear. For if God fpared not the natural branches,

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branches, take heed, LEST be alfo SPARE NOT THE E, &C. CONTINUE in bis goodness, OTHERWISE THOU ALSO Jhall be CUT OFF, and treated as a veffel of wrath. And they alfo, IF THEY ABIDE NOT STILL IN UNBELIEF, hall be grafted in, and treated as veffels of mercy. Rom. xi, 13. &c.

But what need is there of going to Rom. xi, to fhow the inconfiftency of the Calvinistic doctrines of freegrace in Chrift and free-wrath in Adam? of everlasting love to fome, and everlasting hate to others? Does not Rom. ix, itself, afford us another powerful antidote? If the elect were from eternity God's beloved people whilst the non-elect were the devil's people, hated of their Maker; and if God's love and hatred are equally unchangeable, whether free agents change from holiness to fin, or from fin to ho'inefs; what fhall we make of these words? I will call them MY PEOPLE which WERE NOT my people; and her BELOVED, which was NOT beloved. And where it was faid unto them. Ye ARE NOT MY people; there (upon their believ ing) Shall they be called the CHILDREN OF GOD. Rom. ix, 25, 26. What a golden key is here to open our doctrine of conditional election, and to fhut Zelotes's doctrine of abfolute reprobation!

Having thus given a general view of what appears to me from confcience, reafon, fcripture, and context, to be St. Paul's meaning in that deep chapter; I prefent the Reader with a particular and fcriptural explanation of fome paflages in it, which do not puzzle Honeftus a little, and by which Zelotes fupports the doctrines of bound-will and free-wrath with fome plaufibility.

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teous Jews did.] Rom. | and death, &c. CHUSE

ix, 16.

1. It is not [PRIMARILY] of him that RUNNETH, but † of God, thar fhewerh MERCY. Rom. ix, 16.

1. [λenow] I will have mercy on whom I will [or | rather λew] I fhould HAVE MERCY. Rom. ix, 15.

Deut.xxx, 19.-I WOULD &c. and ye wOULD NOT Luke xiii, 34

2. I WENT, &c. left by any means I fhould RUN or had RUN IN VAIN. Gal. ii, 2.—SO RUN that [THRO' MERCY] you may OBTAIN. 1 Cor. ix, 24.

2. Wholo forfaketh his fin fhall HAVE MERCY, Pro. xxviii, 13.-Let the wicked forfake his way, and &c. the Lord will HAVE MERCY upon him. If. lv, 7.-He fhall have judgment WITHOUT MERCY, that hath fhewed No MERCY. James ii, 13.-All the paths of the Lord are MERCY to fuch AS KEEP his covenant. Pf. xxv, 10.

1. [ Οικτειρησω ] I will have COMPASSION, ON WHOM I will [or rather οιιτειρω ] I fould have compaffion. Rom. ix, 15.

2. As the heaven is high above the earth; fo great is his MERCY towards THEM THAT FEAR him. Pf. ciii, 11.-The things that belong unto thy peace are hid from thine eyes, &c. BECAUSE thou KNEWEST NOT the time of thy vifitation, Luke xix, 44.HOW is it that ye do not DISCERN this time, yea

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+ In familiar and fcripture-language, the effect is frequently afcribed to the chief caufe; whilft, for brevity's fake, inferiour caufes or agents are palled over in filence. Thus David fays, Except THE LORD BUILD the house, their labour is but yAIN that build it.--St. Paul fays, I laboured, yet NOT I, but the grace of God.---And we fay, "Admiral Hawke has beat the French feet." Would it not be abfurd in Zelotes, to strain these expreffions, fo as to make abfolutely nothing of the mason's work, in the building of an houfe; of the apoftle's preaching, in the converfion of the Gentiles; and of the bravery of the officers and failors, in the victory got over the French by the English admiral? It is nevertheless upon fuch frivolousconclufions as thefe, that Zelotes generally refts the enormous weight of bis peculiar doctrines,

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and why even of YOURSELVES JUDGE ye not what is right. Luke xii, 56, 57.-Hear O heavens, &c. I have nourished CHILDREN, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, &c. but ISRAEL doth not KNOW, MY PEOPLE doth not coN- It is a people of NO UNDERSTANDING; THEREFORE he that formed them will fhew them No FAVOUR. If. i, 3. Chap. xxvii, 11.—And God faid to Solomon, BECAUSE thou haft asked for thyself UNDERSTANDING, &c. lo, I have given thee a wife and UNDERSTANDING HEART, 1 Kings iii, 11, 12. BECAUSE he CONSIDERETH, &c. he shall not die-he fhall furely live. Ez. xviii, 28. [Who can help fecing through this cloud of fcriptures, that God has mercy, on whom he should have mercy according to his divine attributes; extending INITIAL mercy to ALL, according to his long-fuffering and impartiality; aud fhewing ETERNAL mercy, according to his holiness and truth, to them that ufe and improve their talent of UNDer. STANDING, so as to love him and keep his commandments?]

1. The children being not 2. Thus faith the Lord, vet born, neither having-Did I plainly appear to done any good or evil, that the houfe of thy Father, the purpofe of God according- &c. and did I CHOOSE ing to ELECTION might him out of all the tribes fand not of works but of of Ifrael to be my prieft, him that calleth [i. e. that &c? Why KICK YE at my God might fhow, he may facrifice, &c. WHEREand will chufe fome of FORE the Lord God faith, Abraham's pofterity to I SAID INDEED that thy fome peculiar privileges, houfe, fhould walk before which he does not confer me for ever. BUT NOW the Lord faith: Be it far upon others: And likewife to teach us, that from me; for THEM that honour me I will honour; and THEY that defpife me fhall be lightly effeemed. 1 Sam. ii. 27, &c.-Again: The Lord faid to Samuel

and the new-man, grace myftically typified by Jacob, fhall have the reward of the inheritance-a reward this, which fallen

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nature and the old man, myftically typified by Efau fhall never receive:- To teach us this] it was Jaid to Rebeccah: The elder fhall Serve the younger [in his pofterity though not in his perfon:] That is the younger fhall have the bleffing of the first born. And it was accordingly conferred upon Jacob in these words: Be Lord over thy Brethren: Gen. xxvii. 29. To conclude therefore, from Jacob's SUPE

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(1 have not chofen) I have REFUSED him [Eliab] for the Lord feeth not as man feeth :-The Lord LOOK. ETH AT THE HEART [and choojeth in confequence: Accordingly when Jeffe made feven of his fons to pafs before the Lord, Samuel said, The Lord hath NOT CHOSEN thefe, 1 Sam. xvi. 7, 10.-The Lord hath fought him a man AFTER HIS OWN HEART [David] BECAUSE thou [Saul] hait NOT KEPT that,

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+ Mr. Henry fays with great truth All this chufing' of Jacob and refufing' of Efau was typical, and intended to fhadow forth 'fome other election and rejection.' And altho' he was a Calvinist he does in many refpects juftice to St. Paul's meaning. 'This difference,' fays he, that was put between Jacob and Efau, he [the apostle further illuftrates by a quotation from Mal. i, 2. where t is faid, not of Jacob and Efau the perfons, but the Edomites and Ifraelites their pofterity, Jacob have I loved, and Efau have I hated. The people of Ifrael were taken into the covenant of PECULIAi RITY, had the land of Canaan given them, were bleffed with the MORE SIGNAL appearances of God for them in fpecial protections, fupplies, and deliverances, whilft the Edomitss were rejected'] from the covenant of PECULIARITY] had no temple, altars, priests, 'prophets; no fuch particular care of them, &c. Others understand of the election and rejection of particular perfons; fome loved, and others hated from eternity. But the apoftle fpeaks of Jacob and Efau, not in their own perfons, but as ancestors; Jacob the people, and Efau the people; nor doth God damn any, or decree fo to do, merely because he will do it, without any reason taken from THEIR OWN deferts, &c. The chufing of Jacob the younger, &c. was to intimate, that the Jews, tho' the natural feed of Abraham, and the first born of the church, fhould be laid afide; and the Gentiles, who were as the younger brother, fhould be taken in, in their stead, and have the birth-right and bleffing.' He concludes his comment upon the whole chapter by these words, which exactly anfwers to the double key, I have given to the reader. Upon the whole

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