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or prevent the efficacious will of God being accomplished, be not impious and blasphemous, I leave to every impartial and sober reader to judge.

Thus the first member or branch of the objection appears to be rotten and unsound; neither is the second any better, which affirms that God makes a general offer of that salvation to every individual sinner in the world; the which, if it be true, as the Quakers affirm, they are highly obliged to shew how it comes to pass that the greatest part of the world by far should remain in darkness, I mean with respect to the very external means of salvation, the which God hath seen fit to deny to many nations in the world; to which also the very letter of the holy scripture bears witness. A few instances hereof I lay down, that the reader may plainly see how vain these foolish boasters are in their imaginations, who would fain impose on all, that God doth love all the children of Adam with an equal love, and that the offer of his grace, in general, is made to all, without any exception or limitation; wherein they prove themselves as false in their sayings as they appear vain in their deluded imaginations.

They say, and boldly affirm, that the tender of salvation is made to all alike; I say, they belie the Spirit of God, in pretence of pleading for God, by whose instinct and immediate inspiration they would make the world believe they themselves, above all men, are guided; and not only so,

but they egregiously thwart and contradict the very letter of the scripture, which they seem to own and acknowledge to be holy, true, and the rule and standard of trial of all matters in religion. wherein they and Christians differ.

For satisfaction herein, let the reader peruse, and with serious consideration weigh in the balance of God's sanctuary, what is recorded in Psalm cxlvii. 19, 20. "He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord."

Whether the place now quoted doth not evidently prove, that when God chose, called, and settled a church unto his own peculiar use and service, to whom he gave his word and ordinances for a rule of faith and holy obedience, he did not leave the other nations of the earth, out of whom he chose his people with a peculiar love and favour, in their native darkness and blindness, is a matter to be inquired into. That of our Saviour in Matt. xx. 16, " Many are called, but few chosen," doth also give countenance to the point in hand: he doth not say that all are called, but many; in which text there are three sorts of men offered to consideration. First, some who are not called at all. Secondly, some who are called with a common or external call, but not elected. And, thirdly, some who are called, not only with the common and external call, but also with the

internal and efficacious call of the Spirit, and that because elected and chosen to life and salvation. Now, that these three sorts of people were equally beloved of God, and their salvation equally intended, who but children of darkness and deceit dare to affirm or believe? That of Paul also, Acts xiv. 16. "God, who in times past suffered the Gentiles to walk in their own way," backs and confirms the present truth: and doth not the account we have by travellers, who correspond with the most parts of the world, inform us, that the greatest part of the nations have not so much as the name of Jesus Christ among them; and even in these kingdoms, where popery, arminianism, and quakerism prevail, doth not sad experience teach us how deplorable a condition the generality of the kingdom is in, as touching the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, or the proper means appointed by God for the saving discovery of his justifying righteousness to the souls of men; such as the pure and unmixed word of truth read and powerfully preached to them, for calling them out of darkness into the marvellous light of the knowledge of God in Christ: for want of an orthodox teaching ministry, these kingdoms, especially England and Ireland, are near to a harvest ripeness, ready for the sickle of God's judgments, through the affected ignorance of the Lord Jesus Christ, which reigns in the minds and hearts of the greatest part, even of England's and Ireland's professors; with the occult and spiritual

idolatry of men's souls, whereby the Son of God and his pure gospel worship are shut out of men's hearts and affections, that the statutes of Omri, and their carnal secular interests, might bear the sway. To which I will add, that deluge of open debauchery and atheistical oppression and prophaneness, which like a land flood, over-runs the nations; the which, if not very speedily prevented by those who have the reforming power put into their hands by God, will pull down from heaven such sore and desolating judgments as will make England, with her hypocritical formal professors, an abhorring to all nations. More might be offered to consideration from God's word to the same purpose; as the sad and deplorable condition the Ephesians, Philippians, and other countries were in before the apostles were sent among them.

The ancestors and forefathers of whom God suffered to live and die like brutes, and worse, serving dumb idols, those teachers of lies, serving divers lusts, atheists, without the knowledge or hope of God in the world, Ephes. ii. 1, 2, 3. To them God sent no prophet or apostle, no law or gospel, which should be a means of salvation to them, till God sent Paul to their offspring.

Now, can it in truth be said, that God did equally love and will, or design the salvation of both the fathers and their posterity, seeing the means of salvation were denied to the fathers, and freely given to their posterity?

As touching the learned. or rather silly and

impertinent question, wherein the Quakers desire to be resolved, viz. What gospel of glad tidings it is which I and others, who hold the doctrine of particular election, have to preach to those for whom Christ died not?

Answ. This silly question is grounded on a false supposition, that faith is required of all men; the which I never taught, neither do I now own to be true.

For, I do not think or believe, that such as never heard of Christ, or who never had the means of knowing him, are required to believe that Christ died to redeem them.

Secondly, They are grossly, if not wilfully, mistaken, in thinking and saying, that I press on all I preach to, that it is their duty to believe that Jesus Christ died for them all, without any limitation or restriction. I do not believe that those people to whom the glad tidings of the gospel are preached, are any of them required absolutely, and without restriction, to believe that Christ died to redeem them. All who ever attended on my ministry, and who are able to give a judgment, will witness for me, that the scope and drift of my preaching is, to convince and awaken sinners out of their natural state, by opening up to them, from God's word, the happy sinless state wherein God created them in Adam, their natural and federal representative; how they came to fall from that happy state; and what the sad and wretched effects of that fall was to Adam, the head, and now is to all

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