substance of whose more detailed and copious statement is, "that the doctrine of "reprobation is inseparably connected with "that of election... as a twin and connate "branch shooting out of the same parent "stock of everlasting decree. If election 66 ensures the manifestation and infusion of "a grace which is necessary to salvation, "but confined to the foreknown and pre"destinated depositaries of God's special "favour, those who are not the objects of "this favour, and consequently do not re"ceive this grace which is necessary to "salvation, must be left in a state of disfa 66 vour, rejection, and reprobation"." Thus is "God's sovereignty asserted in the ac"ceptance of the saved, and in the rejec"tion of the lost; the saved being brought "to everlasting felicity in Christ, through h Vaughan's Letter, p. 179. 2d edit. "It does not "appear to me, that either the original word, or our "English word reprobates, is ever used in Scripture as "the opposite to elect: and as to reprobation, it is, I "apprehend, a scriptural idea, for they who are not "chosen must be rejected, but not a scriptural word in "any sense." Scott, vol. ii. p. 82, 83. 623. 673. 718. "the electing grace of God; the lost inheriting the portion of everlasting woe, 66 66 through his most awful, but most just "decree of reprobation." i Vaughan's Letter, p. 63. 128. The system which Mr. Vaughan defends is this: "The Gospel is that dis"pensation of the fulness of times, by which God ef"fects his everlasting purpose of delivering, restoring, "and bringing to everlasting felicity, in his incarnate "Son Christ Jesus, a portion of the human race, which " he was intending to create in his own image of good"ness,' good,' 'very good;' and of which the whole, "according to his purpose, would fall from that state "of uprightness into sin, curse, and damnation, through "the power of the devil, acting in and upon the first 66 man, Adam: this favoured portion or remnant being so delivered, restored, and brought to everlasting fe❝licity in Christ, by an exercise of wise and righteous "sovereignty on the part of God, whereby he chooses "to himself out of this universally condemned race, "to the rejection and exclusion of the rest, for reasons "secret to us, but of which the furtherance of his own 66 glory is, as in every other appointment, word, and work "of God, the ultimate and determinate object. Awful "statement! which should never be proclaimed without "surest conviction of its truth, and without deepest "humiliation towards God, and most affectionate ten"derness towards men; but which it is a false com 66 passion to withhold upon demand,-that is, in its pro"per time and place,-if we be patiently and delibe If such a decree were properly authenticated, Christian piety would patiently acquiesce in the decisions of infinite wisdom, or strenuously labour to reconcile them with the benefit of mankind, with the design of the Gospel, with the purposes of the final judgment, and with all the attributes of the "Father of mercies, and God "of all consolation." The strong ground of our objection is the want of sufficient evidence, that one million is elected and the other million not elected; that there is a sovereignty exercised in the acceptance of the saved and the rejection of the lost. The proof which we require is a regular series of scriptural texts, which, without being perverted from their meaning, or forcibly detached from their context, shall establish the belief of that gratuitous personal election, which confessedly, or by implication, is the sum and substance of the Calvinistic doctrine. The following are some of the texts "rately persuaded, that it is of the revelation of God." Letter, p. 61, 62. which lead us to reject all the peculiarities of Calvinism. It is not the will of God "that any should perish, but that all "should come to repentance;" and such was his love, that he "sent not his Son into "the world to condemn the world, but "that the world through him might be "saved"." In accomplishment of this love, "Christ came into the world to save sin"ners";"" he died for all" men," and "for every man';" he gave his life "a ransom " for alle," a "propitiation for our sins, and "not for ours only, but for those of the "whole world," that "as in Adam all 66 died, so in Christ shall all be made a"live"." Now doth God save us "by the "washing of regeneration, and renewing "of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us "abundantly," which he promiseth to give" to them that ask him," and by which we "have access" through the Son "unto the Father"." Thus have we been * 2 Pet. iii. 9. n 2 Cor. v. 14. 15. 1 John iii. 17. m 1 Tim. i. 15. • Heb. ii. 9. P 1 Tim. ii. 6. ¶ 1 John ii. 2. John vi. 51. r 1 Cor. xv. 22. s Titus iii. 5, 6. Matt. vii. 11. Luke xi. 13. u Ephes. ii. 18. t justified, saved, and delivered from our sins, that we might serve God" without "fear*:" and by his Gospel, which is “good "tidings of great joy to all people," and by which if any man be willing he is called to accept the invitation of Christ, doth God now command "all men every where "to repent, because he hath appointed a 66 day in the which he will judge the world "in righteousness"." On such scriptural arguments, and on the whole unperverted tenor of the Gospel of Christ, we renounce all personal election and reprobation; we maintain a present and a final justification; we deny that grace is irresistible, indefectible, or conferred by an arbitrary act of sovereignty; we allow no regeneration distinct from Baptism; we acknowledge not that the negative principle of defectibility operates without intermission upon the will, or that the natural sinfulness of man is in all cases, and without any exception, ex treme. x Rom. iii. 24. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Luke i. 74. y Luke ii. 10. z Acts xvii. 30. 31. |