extend the virtue of my blood, and the strivings of my fpirit, to thofe, who will finally reject my freegrace? When thou approveft the extenfive tenour ' of my gofpel-commiffion, doeft thou well to be an· gry, or to fret, like Jonah, at the extensiveness of my mercy? Doelt thou not fee, that, if I were abfolutely mercilefs towards Some men, my commiffion to preach the gospel to every man would be utterly inconfiftent with my veracity?

(3.) Have I not a right to create FREE-agents, and to place them in a ftate of PROBATION, that I may wifely REWARD their obedience, or justly PU6 NISH their rebellion ? Who art thou, that repliest ' against God? Shall the thing formed fay to him that formed it, "Why haft thou made me a free-agent? a probationer for heavenly rewards, or infernal "punishments?" May not I appoint, that free willing unbelievers, who do final defpite to the fpirit of my free-grace, fhall be vessels of wrath felf-fitted for destruction; and that free-willing, obedient believers fhall be vessels of mercy, afore-prepared unto glory by my free-grace, with which their free-will has happily concurred ?'

(4.) In the nature of things, muft not Free-agents, in a state of probation, be free to fall, as well as free to ftand? When thou weigheft gold, if thou hindereft one fcale from turning, doeft thou not 'effectually hinder the free motion of the other • "fcale?'

(5.) • Does it not become me to show myself good and gracious, tho' my creatures prove wicked and ungrateful? Should I extinguish or retrain my light, becaufe fome people love darkness rather than light? If they will not do their duty by me, as obedient creatures; ought I not to behave to them as a gracious Creator, and to hold out the golden fceptre of my mercy, before I ftrike them with the ' iron rod of my vengeance? And should not the honour of my divine attributes, be confidered more than the additional degrees of mifery, which un

Y

grateful

grateful free-agents will offinately bring upon

• themselves?'

(6.) When I had decreed to create a world of freeagents, and to try their loyalty, in order to reward the obedient and punish the rebellious, could I execute my wife, juft, and gracious plan without suffering fin to enter into the world, if free agents would commit it? Is permitting the poffibility of fin any more than permitting, that free-will might, or might not concur with my free-grace? And could I ever have judged the world in righteousness, if I had not permitted fuch a poffibility ?'

(7.) If I had given the cafting vote for Peter's • obedience, and for Judas's disobedience, fhould I not • have fixed an eternal blot upon my impartiality? Thinkeft thou, that I could be fo unwife and unjust, as to hold univerfal affizes, to judge angels and men according to what they have done thro' mere neceffity? • Shall irrefiftible free-grace, and omnipotent freewrath, commit fpiritual rapes upon the human will? and fhall I reward or punish overpowered • mankind according to fuch rapes? Far be the thought from thee! Far be the iniquity from me! I judge the world in righteoufnefs, and not in madnefs; according to their own works, and not according to mine.'

(8.) When I forefaw that fin would enter into the world, could I have been juft, if I had not decreed to punish finners? Could I with justice fentence • moral agents either to non-existence, or to a wretched • existence, BEFORE they had done wickedly ?—AFTER they had finned, and I had graciously promised them a Saviour, could I, without fhewing myself full of diffimulation, partiality, and falfhood, condemn those that perish, BEFORE I had afforded them the means of recovery, by which many of their fellow-finners, under the jame circumstances, ⚫ attain eternal falvation? Muft not, in the nature of things, thofe, who work out their damnation, be doubly guilty, or I be notoriously partial? Muft

they

!

they not appear without excufe before all; or I. without mercy, long-fuffering, and truth towards• them ?'

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(9.) Doeft thou not fee, that altho' the miniftration of righteoufnefs and rewards exceeds in glory, yet the ministration of condemnation and punishments is GLORIOUS? Befides, are they not closely connected together? Has not the fear of hell, as well as the hope of heaven, kep: thousands of martyrs from drawing back to perdition, when the 'fnares of death compaffed them about? Nay, is not the spirit of bondage unto fear the beginning of wisdom, and of most converfions? and shall I ačt a deceitful part for thousands of years together; working upon my people by a lie; and making ⚫ them believe that they have damnation if they disbelieve, or if they caft off their firft faith, when yet [upon thy scheme] there is nothing but finished salvation for them?

(10.) Will not the damnation of obftinate finners anfwer as important ends in the worlds of rationals, as prifons and places of execution do in the kingdoms of this world? If incorrigible, free-willing rebels fin to all eternity, will it not be juft in me, to make the line of their punishment run parallel to the line of their wickedness? Does not thy rea fon dictate, that an unceasing contempt of my holy law, and a perpetual rebellion against creating, redeeming, and fanctifying grace, will call aloud for a perpetual out-pouring of my righteous indignation? And does it not follow, that the ⚫ eternal damnation of rebels eternally-obftinate-of rebels, who have WANTONLY trampled under foot the bleffings of INITIAL SALVATION, is as confiftent with my despised GOODNESS, as with my. provoked JUSTICE?'

(11.) As I could not justly condemn necessary agents to infernal mifery: fo I could not delight in, ⚫ and reward the obedience of fuch agents. “thou haft more pleasure in the free, loving motions of

And as

• ones

one of thy friends, than in the necessary motions often thoufand pieces of clock-work, let them move ever fo regularly fo do I put more value upon the free, voluntary obedience of one of my people, than upon all the necessary revolutions of all the planetary worlds. Why then wilt thou, by thy doctrine • of bound-will, rob me of what I value moft in the univerfe-the free obedience of my faithful fervants-the unforced, fpontaneous love of my myítical body, my fpoufe, my church ?'

(12.) With respect to my foreknowledge of fin, it had abfolutely no influence on the commiffion of "it. Thou thinkeft the contrary, becaufe thou canft not, in general, certainly foresee what thy neighbours will do, unless they are abfolutety directed and influenced by thee: but the confequence does not held. Short-fighted as thou art, doest thou not fometimes with a degree of certainty fore,ee things, which thou art fo far from appointing, that thou wouldest gladly prevent them, if thou didst not confider, that fuch a ftep would be inconfiftent with thy wif dom, and the liberty of others?

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(13.) Again, may not my foreknowledge of a future event imply the CERTAINTY of that event with refpect to me, without implying its NECESSITY with refpect to the free agent, who spontane cufly brings it about? Suppofe thou wert perfectly acquainted with the art of navigation, the force of every wind, the fituation of every rock and fandbank, the ftrength and burden of every fhip, the difpofition and defign of every mariner, &c.-Suppoie again, thou faweft a fhip going full fail jut against a dangerous rock, notwithstanding thy re'peated fignals and loud warnings to the pilot; mighteft thou not foresee the certain lofs of the ship, without laying the leaft necefity upon the pilot to fteer her upon the fatal fpot, where he goes to pieces? And fha 1 not I, from whom no fecrets are hid, and before whom things past and to come meet in one immoveable everlasting now ;-shall not I,

who

awho inhabit eternity, where he that WAS, and 15, and IS TO COME, fhows himself the unchangeable I AM, - fhall not I, I fay, foresee the motions and actions of all my free-agent-creatures, as certainly, as a wife artit forefees the motions of the watch which he has made? Imperfect as the illuftration is, it is adapted to thy imperfect understanding. For, tho' thou canst not comprehend how I know future conringencies, thou canst easily conceive, that as no one but a watchmaker, can perfectly foresee what may accelerate, stop, or alter the motion of a watch; fo none but the creator of a free-agent, can perfectly foresee the future motions of a free-agent. If hell is naked, and deftruction hath no covering before me; is it not abfurd to fuppofe, that the human heart can be hid from my all-piercing eye? And if thou, who liveft but in a point of time, and in a point of space;

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If thou, whofe faculties are fo fhallow, and whose powers are fo circumfcribed;-if thou, I fay, in that point of time and space which thou filleft, canft fee what is before thee; why should not I, an all-wifeand fuperlatively-perfect fpirit, who fill all times, and all places, thro' an infinite Now and a boundless 6. HERE, lee alfo what is before me? Perceiveft thou not the abfurdity of meafuring me with thy fpan? Try to weigh the mountains in a balance, and to meafure the feas in the hollow of thy hand: and, if thou findelt thyfelf confounded at the bare thought of a tak fo eafy to my omnipotence, fall in the duft, and confefs that thou halt acted an unbecoming part, in attempting to put the very fame bounds to my omniscience, which I have put tos thy foreknowledge. To conclude:'

(14.) Thou art ready to think hard of my wifdom, goodness, or forefight, for giving a talent of faving grace to a man, who, by burying it to the latt, enhances his own deftruction: To folve this imaginary difficulty, thou afcribeft to me a dreadful "Sovereignty-an horrible right of making veffels to dishonour, and filling them with wrath, merely