TRACT II.

FREE GRACE.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?' ROM. viii. 32.

1. How freely does God love the world!— While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. While we were dead in sin, God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. And how freely with him does he give us all things! Verily free grace is all in all !

2. The grace or love of God, whence cometha our salvation, is free in all, and free for all.

3. First. It is free in all to whom it is given. It does not depend on any power or merit in man: no, not in any degree; neither in whole nor in part. It does not in any wise depend either on the good works or righteousness of the receiver not on any thing he has done, or any thing he is. It does not depend on his endeavours. It does not depend on his good tempers, or good desires, or good purposes and intentions. For all these flow from the free grace of God: they are the streams only, not the fountain.--They are the fruits of free grace, and not the root. They are not the cause, but the effects of it. Whatsoever good is in man, or

done by man, God is the author and doer of it. Thus is his grace free in all, that is, no way depending on

any power, or merit in man; but on God alone, who freely gave us his own Son, and with him freely giveth us all things.

4. But is it free for all, as well as in all? To this, some have answered, "No: it is free only for those whom God hath ordained to life; and they are but a little flock. The greater part of mankind God hath ordained to death; and it is not free for them. Them God hateth; and therefore before they were born, decreed they should die eternally. And this he absolutely decreed, because so was his good pleasure; because it was his sovereign will. Accordingly, they are born for this, to be destroyed, body and soul, in hell. And they grow up under the irrevocable curse of God, without any possibility of redemption. For what grace God gives, he gives only for this, to increase, not prevent their damnation."

5. This is that decree of predestination. But me thinks I hear one say, "This is not the predestination which I hold." I hold only, "The election of grace. What I believe is no more than this, that God, before the foundation of the world, did elect a certain number of men to be justified, sanctified, and glorified. Now all these will be saved, and none else. For the rest of mankind God leaves to themselves. So they follow the imaginations of their own hearts, which are only evil continually, and waxing worse and worse, are at length justly punished with everlasting destruction."

6. Is this all the predestination which you hold? Consider. Perhaps this is not all.

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Do

not you believe, "God ordained them to this very thing!" If so, you believe the whole decree; you hold predestination in the full sense, which has been above described. But it may be you think you do not. Do not you then believe God hardens the hearts of them that perish? Do not you believe, he (literally) hardened PhaKaoh's heart, and that for this end he raised him up (or created him?) Why this amounts to just the same thing. If you believe Pharaoh, or any one man upon the earth, was created for this end, to be damned, you hold all that has been said of predestination. And there is no need you should add, that God seconds his decree, which is supposed unchangeable and irresistible, by hardening the hearts of those vessels of wrath, whom that decree had before fitted for destruction.

7. Well, but it may be you do not believe even this. You do not hold any decree of reprobation. You do not think God decrees any man to be damned, nor hardens, or irresistibly fits him, for damnation. You only say, "God eternally decreed, that all being dead in sin, he would say to some of the dry bones, live, and to others he would not. That consequently, these should be made alive, and those abide in death: these should glorify God by their salvation, and those by their destruction."

8. Is not this what you mean by the election of grace? If it be, I would ask one or two questions. Are any who are not thus elected, saved? Or were any, from the foundation of the world? Is it possible any man should be saved, less

he be thus elected? If you say no, you are but where you was. You are not got one hair's breadth farther. You still believe, that in consequence of an unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, the greater part of mankind abide in death, without any possibility of redemption; inasmuch as none can save them but God; and he will not save thein. You believe he hath apsolutely decreed, not to save them; and what is this but decreeing to damn them? It is in effect, neither more nor less: it comes to the same thing. For if you are dead, and altogether unable to make yourself alive; then if God has apsolutely decreed, he will make only others alive and not you; he hath absolutely decreed your everlasting death; you are absolutely consigned to damnation. So then, though you use softer words than some, you mean the self-same thing. And God's decree concerning the election of grace, according to your own account of it, amounts to neither more nor less, than what others call, "God's decree of reprobation."

9. Call it therefore by whatever name you please, "Election, Preterition, Predestination, or Reprobation," it comes in the end to the same thing. The sense of all is plainly this, "By virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned: it being impossible, that any of the former should be damned, or that any of the latter should be saved."

10. But if this be so, then is all preaching vain. It is needless to them that are elected.

For they, whether with preaching or without will infallibly be saved. Therefore the end of preaching, "to save souls," is void with regard to them. And it is useless to them that are not elected, for they cannot possibly be saved.-They, whether with preaching or without, will infallibly be damned. The end of preaching is therefore void with regard to them likewise. So that in either case, our preaching is vain, as your hearing is also vain.

11. This then is a plain proof, that the doctrine of predestination is not a doctrine of God, because it makes void the ordinance of God; and God is not divided against himself. A second is, that it directly tends to destroy that holiness, which is the end of all the ordinances of God. I do not say, "None who hold it are holy." (For God is of tender mercy to those who are unavoidably entangled in errors of any kind.) But that the doctrine itself, "That every man is either elected or not elected from eternity, and that the one must inevitably be saved, and the other inevitably damned," has a manifest tendency to destroy holiness in general. *For it wholly takes away those first motives to follow after it, so frequently proposed in scripture, the hope of future reward and fear of punishment. The hope of heaven and fear of hell. That these shall go awayinto everlasting punishment, and those into life eternal,' is no motive to him to struggle for life, who believes his lot is cast already: it is not reasonable for him so to do if he thinks he is unalterably adjudged either to life or death. You will say, "But he knows not whether it is life or death." What