of life from the foundation of the world." But of this we shall treat professedly, and more at large, in the fifth chapter. 4. This future death they shall inevitably undergo: for, as God will certainly save all whom he wills should be saved; so he will as surely condemn all whom he wills shall be condemned; for he is the Judge of the whole earth, whose decree shall stand, and from whose sentence there is no appeal. "Hath

he said, and shall he not make it good? hath he spoken, and shall it not come to pass?" And his decree is this; that these, i. e. the non-elect, who are left under the guilt of final impenitence, unbelief, and sin, shall go away into everlasting punishment; and the righteous, i. e. those who, in consequence of their election in Christ, and union to him, are justly reputed, and really constituted such, shall enter into life eternal, Mat. xxv. 46. 5. The reprobate shall undergo this punishment justly, and on account of their sins. Sin is the meritorious and immediate cause of any man's damnation. God condemns and punishes the non-elect, not merely as men, but as sinners : and, had it pleased the great Governor of the universe, to have entirely prevented sin from having any entrance into the world, it should seem as if he could not, consistently with his known attributes, have condemned any man at all. But, as all sin is properly meritorious of eternal death; and all men are sinners; they, who are condemned, are condemned most justly, and those who are saved, are saved in a way of sovereign mercy, through the vicarious obedience and death of Christ for them.

Now, this twofold predestination, of some to life, and of others to death, (if it may be called twofold, both being constituent parts of the same decree) cannot be denied, without likewise deny.

ing, 1. most express and frequent declarations of scripture, and, 2. the very existence of God: for, since God is a being perfectly simple, free from all accident and composition; and yet, a will to save some and punish others, is very often predicated of him in scripture; and an immoveable decree to do this in consequeuce of his will, is likewise ascribed to him; and a perfect foreknowledge, of the sure and certain accomplishment of what he has thus willed and decreed, is also attributed to him; it follows, that whoever denies this will, decree, and foreknowledge of God, does implicitly and virtually, deny God himself since his will, decree, and foreknowledge are no other than God himself willing, and decreeing, and foreknowing.

II. We assert, that God did from eternity de cree to make man in his own image; and also decreed to suffer him to fall from that image in which he should be created, and, thereby to for feit the happiness with which he was invested: which decree, and the consequences of it, were not limited to Adam only; but included, and extended to all his natural posterity.

Something of this was hinted already in the preceding chapter: we shall now proceed to the proof of it. And, 1. That God did make man in his own image, is evident from scripture, Gen. i. 27. 2. That he decreed from eternity so to make man, is as evident; since, for God to do any thing without having decreed it, or fixed a previous plan in his own mind, would be a manifest imputation on his wisdom: and, if he decreed that now, or at any time, which he did not always decree, he could not be unchangeable. 3. That man actualy did fall from the divine image and his original happiness, is the undoubted voice of scripture, Gen. iii. And, 4. That he

fell in consequence of the divine decree,* we prove thus: God was either willing that Adam should fall, or unwilling, or indifferent about it. If God was unwilling that Adam should transgress, how came it pass that he did? Is man stronger, and is Satan wiser, than he that made them? Surely, no. Again; could not God, had it so pleased him, have hindered the tempter's access to paradise? or have created man, as he did the elect angels, with a will invariably determined to good only, and incapable of being biased to evil? or, at least, have made the grace and strength, with which he indued Adam, actually effectual to the resisting of all solicitations to sin? None but atheists would answer these questions in the negative. Surely, if God had not willed the fall, he could, and no doubt would, have prevented it but he did not prevent it: Ergo, he willed it. And, if he willed it, he certainly decreed it for the decree of God is nothing else but the seal and ratification of his will. He does nothing but what he decreed; and he decreed nothing which he did not will: and both will and decree are absolutely eternal, though the execution of both be in time. The only way to evade the force of this reasoning, is to say, that "God was indifferent and unconcerned, whether man stood or fell." But in what a shameful, unworthy light does this represent the Deity! Is it possible for us to imagine, that God could be an idle, careless spectator, of one of the most important events that ever came to pass? Are not the very hairs of our head all numbered?" or does a sparrow fall to the ground, without our hea

:

* See this article judiciously stated, and nervously asserted by Witsius, in his Econ. 1. 1. cap. 8. s. 10-25.

venly Father?" If then things, the most trival and worthless, are subject to the appointment of his decree, and the control of his providence ; how much more is man, the master-piece of this lower creation? and above all, that man Adam, who, when recent from his Maker's hands, was the living image of God himfelf, and very little inferior to angels! and on whose perseverance was suspended the welfare, not of himself only, but likewise that of the whole world. But, so far was God from being indifferent in this matter, that there is nothing whatever, about which he is so; for he worketh all things without exception, after the counsel of his own will, Eph. i. 11. consequently, if he positively wills whatever is done, he cannot be indifferent with regard to any thing. On the whole, if God was not unwilling that Adam should fall, he must have been willing that he should; since, between God's willing and nilling, there is no medium. And is it not highly rational, as well as scriptural; nay, is it not absolutely necessary, to suppose, that the fall was not contrary to the will and determination of God? since, if it was, his will (which the apostle represents as being irresistible, Rom. ix. 19.) was apparently frustrated, and his determination rendered of worse than none effect. And how dishonourable to, how inconsistent with, and how notoriously subversive of, the dignity of God, such a blasphemous supposition would be, and how irreconcileable with every one of his allowed attributes, is very easy to observe. 5. That man, by his fall, forfeited the happiness with which he was invested, is evident, as well from scripture as from experience; Gen. iii. 7, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24. Rom. v. 12. Gal. iii. 10. He first sinned, (and the essence of sin lies in disobedience to the command of God) and then immediately became miserable; misery be

ing, through the divine appointment, the natural and inseparable concomitant of sin. 6. That the fall, and its sad consequences, did not terminate solely in Adam, but affect his whole posterity, is the doctrine of the sacred oracles: Ps. li. 5. Rom. v. 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19. 1 Cor. xv. 22. Eph. ii. 3. Besides, not only spiritual and eternal, but likewise temporal death is the wages of sin, Rom. vi. 23. James i. 15. And yet we see that millions of infants, who never, in their own persons, either did or could commit sin, die continually. It follows, that either God must be unjust in punishing the innocent; or that these infants are, some way or other, guilty creatures : if they are not so in themselves, (I mean actually so, by their own commission of sin) they must be so in some other person; and who that person is, let scripture say, Rom. v. 12, 18. 1 Cor. xv, 22. And, I ask, how can these be, with equity, sharers in Adam's punishment, unless they are chargeable with his sin? and how can they be fairly chargeable with his sin, unless he was their federal head and representative, and acted in their name, and sustained their persons when he fell?

III. We assert, that as all men, universally, are not elected to salvation; so neither are all men, universally, ordained to condemnation. This follows from what has been proved already : however, I shall subjoin some farther demonstration of these two positions. 1. All men universally are not elected to salvation. And, first, this may be evinced a posteriori: it is undeniable, from scripture, that God will not in the last day, save every individual of mankind, Dan. xii, 2. Mat. xxv. 46. John v. 29. Therefore, say we, God never designed to save every individual; since, if he had, every individual would and must be saved, for "his counsel shall stand, and he