Who does not see the partiality of sovereign grace in the sparing of some nations, cities, and Churches? Did not God reprobate the disobedient Amalekites sooner than the disobedient Jews? Why are the former utterly destroyed, when the latter are yet so wonderfully preserved? Did not God bear less with Ai, Nineveh, and Carthage, than he does with London, Paris, and Rome? Less with the ten tribes, which formed the kingdom of Israel, than with the two tribes which formed the kingdom of Judah? Why does the Lord bear longer with the Church of Rome than he did with the Churches of Laodicea and Constantinople? Is it merely because the Church of Rome is less corrupted? Nay, why does he bear so long with this present evil world, when, comparatively speaking, he destroyed the antediluvian world so soon? And why are the Europeans, in general, elected to the blessings of Christianity, from which the rest of the world is generally reprobated; most nations in Asia, Africa, and America, being indulged with no higher religious advantages than those which belong to the religions of Confucius, Mohammed, or uncultivated nature?

If God's partiality in our favour is so glaring, why do not all our Gospel ministers try to affect us with a due sense of it? May I ven. ture to offer a reason of this neglect? As the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment by their odious nature frequently reflect a kind of unjust shame upon a pure marriage bed, which, according to God's own declaration, is truly honourable; so the wanton election and horrid reprobation, that form the modern doctrines of grace, have, I fear, poured an undeserved disgrace upon the pure election, and the wise reprobation, which the Scriptures maintain. Hence it is, that even judicious divines avoid touching upon these capital doctrines in public, lest minds defiled with Antinomianism should substitute their own unholy notions of election, for the holy notions which the Scriptures convey. This evil shame is a remain of Pelagianism, or of false wisdom. The abuse of God's favours ought not to make us renounce the right use of them. Far then from being wise above what is written, let us with the prophets of old make a peculiar use of the doctrine of partial grace, to stir up ourselves and others to suitable gratitude. How powerful is the following argument of Moses! "The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, to be a special people to himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord thy God did not set his love upon thee, nor choose thee, because ye were more in number than any people, (for ye were the fewest of all people,) but because the Lord loved you, &c. He had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day, &c. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, who hath done for thee these great and wonderful things," Deut. vii, 6, &c; x, 15, 21. "For what nation is there so great, who have God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things which we call upon him for? Ask now of the days that are past: ask from the one side of heaven to the other, whe morality? Is it the effect of our own parts and industry? Have our common mechanics more refined understandings than the ancient philosophers? It is owing to the God of truth, who came down from heaven, and condescended to be himself our teacher. It is as we are Christians, that we possess more excellent and Divine truths than the rest of mankind."

ther there hath been any such thing as this great thing is. Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard? Or hath God assayed to take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by signs and wonders, &c? Unto thee it was showed that thou mightest know [with peculiar certainty] that the Lord he is God," Deut. iv, 7, 32, &c.

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Does not the psalmist stir up the Lord's chosen nation to gratitude and praise, by the same motive of which the anti-Calvinists are ashamed? "He showeth his word to Jacob, his statutes to Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation. As for his judgments, they [the heathen] have not known them. Praise ye the Lord, O ye seed of Abraham, ye children of Jacob his chosen,' Psalm exlii, 19, 20; cv, 6. Nay, does not God himself stir up Jerusalem, (the holy city become a harlot,) to repentance and faithfulness, by dwelling upon the greatness of his distinguishing love toward her? How strong is this expostulation! How richly descriptive of God's partiality toward that faithless city! "Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. Thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born; and when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy blood, I said to thee, Live. I entered into a covenant with thee: I put a beautiful crown upon thy head: thou didst prosper into a kingdom, and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord," Ezek. xvi, 3, &c. If this could be said to Jewish Jerusalem, how much more to Protestant London!

Should rigid Arminians still assert that there is absolutely no respect of places and persons with God, I desire the opposers of God's gracious partiality to answer the following questions:-When the apostle says, "The time of heathenish ignorance God winked at, but now explicitly commandeth [by his evangelists] all men every where to repent," Acts xvii, 30, does he not represent God as being partial to all those men, to whom he sends apostles, or messengers, on purpose to bid them repent? And does not the Lord show us more distinguishing love, than he did to all the nations, which he "suffered to walk in their own ways, without the Gospel of Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, [founded upon a special Gospel message,] and being without God in the world? Acts xiv, 16; Eph. ii, 12.

Again when St. Paul observes that "God spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets; but hath, in these last days, spoken to us by his Son," Heb. i, 1, 2; is it not evident that he pleads for the partiality of distinguishing grace; intimating that God has favoured us more than he did the fathers? And has not our Lord strongly asserted the same thing, where he says, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear: for verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them?" Matt. xiii, 16, 17.

Once more: what is the Gospel of Christ, from first to last, but a glorious blessing flowing from distinguishing grace; a blessing from

which all mankind were reprobated for four thousand years, and from which the generality of men are to this day cut off by awful, providen. tial decrees? When the Pelagians, and rigid Arminians, therefore, are ashamed to shout the partiality of God's free, distinguishing grace toward us, (Christians,) are they not "ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," and of the election of peculiar grace, by which we are raised so far above the dispensations of the Jews and heathens? A precious and exalted election or predestination, in which St. Paul and the primitive Christians could never sufficiently glory, (as appears by Eph. i, ii, iii,) and of which it is almost as wicked to be ashamed, as it is to be ashamed of Christ himself. Nay, to slight our election of grace, our election in Christ, is to be ashamed of our evangelical crown, which is more inexcusable, than to blush at our evangelical cross.

Hence it appears that the genuine tendency of Pelagius' error, toward which rigid Arminians lean too much, is to make us (Christians) fight against God's distinguishing love to us; or, at least, to hide from us "the riches of the peculiar grace, wherein God hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, when he predestinated us, according to the counsel of his grace, and the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his pecu. liar grace, wherein he made us accepted in the Beloved, [and his dispensation,] that we should be to the praise of his glory;" that is, that WE (Christians) should "show forth the praises" of his distinguishing mercy, and glorify him for bestowing upon us those evangelical favours, from which he still reprobates so many myriads of our fellow

creatures.

O Pelagianism, thou wretched levelling system, how can we, Christians, sufficiently detest thee, for thus robbing us of the peculiar comforts arising from the election of grace, which so eminently distinguishes us from Jews, Turks, and heathens! And how can we sufficiently decry thee, for robbing, by this means, our sovereign Benefactor of “the praise of the glory of his grace!" Were it not for Pelagian unbelief, which makes us regardless of the comforts of our gratuitous election in Christ, and for whims of Calvinian reprobation, which damp or destroy these comforts, many Christians would triumph in Christ; and, "rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory, in the vocation wherewith they are called, they would thank God for his unspeakable gift." They would shout electing love as loudly as Zelotes, but not in the unnatural, unscriptural, barbarous, damnatory sense in which he does it. They would not say, "Why me, Lord? Why me? Why am I absolutely appointed to eternal justification and finished salvation, while most of my neighbours (poor creatures!) are absolutely appointed to eternal wickedness, and finished damnation?" But with charitable and wondering gratitude, they would cry out, " Why us, Lord? Why us? Why are we (Christians) predestinated and elected to the blessings of the full Gospel of Christ, from which Enoch, the man who walked with thee, Abraham, the man whom thou calledst thy friend, Moses, the man who talked with thee face to face, David, the man after thy own heart, Daniel, the man greatly beloved, and John the Baptist, the man who excelled all the Jewish prophets, were every one reprobated?

In such evangelical strains as these should Christians express before God their peculiar gratitude for their peculiar election and calling: and then running to each other, with hearts and mouths full of evangelical congratulations, they should say as the apostle did to Timothy, "God hath saved us [Christians] and called us with a holy [Christian] calling; not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us [Christians] in Christ Jesus before the world began, [when God planned the various dispensations of his grace,] but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel of Christ-a precious, perfect Gospel, with which God hath blessed us, as well as our neighbours, who are ungrateful enough to "put it from them," 2 Tim. i, 9, 10. In a word, they should all say to their brethren in the election of [Christian] grace, "Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice; receiving the end of your [Christian] faith, even the [Christian] salvation of your souls of which salvation the prophets inquired, and searched diligently, who prophesied of the [Christian] grace that should come unto you: unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us [Christians] they did minister the things which are now reported unto you, by them that have preached the Gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into," 1 Peter i, 8, &c. "Unto him," therefore, that so peculiarly "loved us," as to elect and call us into his Christian reformed Church, "which he hath purchased with his own blood;" peculiarly redeeming it from heathenish ignorance, Jewish bondage, and popish superstition-" unto him," I say, that thus "loved us, [reformed Christians,] and washed us from our sins," not by the blood of lambs and heifers, as Aaron washed the Jews, "but by his own blood, and hath made us [who believe] kings and priests to God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever!" Rev. i, 5, 6; Acts xx, 28.

But while reformed Christians express thus their joy and gratitude for their election to this peculiar salvation, they should not forget to guard this comfortable doctrine in as anti-Solifidian a manner as St. Paul and St. Peter did, when they said to their fellows elect, "If every transgression and disobedience [against the Gospel of Jewish salvation] received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, as that which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord Jesus," and his apostles! "Wherefore the rather, brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling" in Christ, who is "the Apostle and High Priest of our profession" or dispensation," give diligence to make your [high] calling and [distinguishing] election sure; for, if ye do these things, ye shall never fall" into the aggravated ruin which awaits the "neglecters of so great salvation," Hebrews ii, 2, 3; iii, 1; 2 Peter i, 10.

Should a rigid Arminian say, "I cannot reconcile your doctrine of partial grace with Divine goodness and equity, and therefore I cannot receive it; why should not God bear with all men as long as he did with Manasses? With all nations as long as he did with the Jews? And

with all Churches as long as he does with the Church of Rome?" I

answer :

Mercy may lengthen out her cords on particular occasions to display her boundless extent. But if she did so on all occasions, she would countenance sin, and pour oil on the fire of wickedness. If God dis. played the same goodness and long suffering toward all sinners, Churches, and nations, then all sinners would be spared till they had committed as many atrocious crimes as Manasses, who filled Jerusalem with blood and witchcraft. All fallen Churches would be tolerated, till they had poisoned the Gospel truth with as many errors as the Church of Rome imposes upon her votaries. And all corrupted nations would not only be preserved till they had actually "sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils;" but also till they had an opportunity to "kill the Prince of life," coming in person to "gather them as a hen gathers her brood under her wings." So universal a mercy as this would be the greatest cruelty to myriads of men, and instead of setting off Divine justice, would for a time lay it under a total eclipse.

Beside, according to this impartial, this levelling scheme, God would have been obliged to make all men kings, as Manasses; all Churches Christian, as the Church of Rome; and all people his peculiar people, as the Jewish nation. But even then distinguishing grace would not have been abolished: unless God had made all men archangels, all Churches like the triumphant Church, and all nations like the glorified nation which inhabits the heavenly Canaan. So monstrous are the ab. surdities which result from the levelling scheme of the men who laugh at the doctrine of the Gospel dispensations; and of those who will not allow Divine sovereignty and supreme wisdom to dispense unmerited favours as they please; and to deal out their talents with a variety which, upon the whole, answers the most excellent ends; as displaying best the excellency of a government, where sovereignty, mercy, and justice wisely agree to sway their common sceptre !

Should a Pelagian leveller refuse to yield to these arguments, under pretence that "they lead to the Calvinian doctrines of lawless grace, free wrath, and absolute reprobation;" I answer this capital objection five different ways:

1. The objector is greatly mistaken: for, holding forth the gratuitous reprobation of partial grace, as the Scriptures do, is the only way to open the eyes of candid Calvinists, to keep the simple from drinking into their plausible error, and to rescue the multitude of passages, on which they found their absolute, gratuitous predestination to eternal life and eternal death. I say it again, rigid Calvinism is the child of con. fusion, and lives merely by sucking its mother's corrupted milk. Would you destroy the brat, only kill its mother: destroy confusion: "divide the word of God aright:" and thus lead the rigid Predestinarians to the truth-the delightful truth, whence their error has been derived "by the mistake or sleight of men, and by the cunning craftiness whereby the spirit of error lies in wait to deceive," and you will destroy the Antinomian election, and the cruel reprobation which pass for Gospel. In order to this, you strike at those serpents with the swords of your mouths, and cry out, "Absurd! unscriptural! horrible! diabolical!" But, by this means, you will never kill one of them: there is but one method to