Page 35 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

living image of God Himself, 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. 1.11),
consequently, if He positively wills whatever is done, He cannot be indifferent
with regard to anything. 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. 9.19) 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
irreconcilable 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. 3.7-24; Rom. 5.12; Gal.
3.10). He first sinned (and the essence of sin lies in disobedience to the

command of God) and then immediately became miserable, misery being
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

affected his whole posterity, is the doctrine of the sacred oracles (Psalm 51.5;
Rom. 5.12-19; 1 Cor. 15.22; Eph. 2.3). Besides, not only spiritual and eternal,

but likewise temporal death is the wages of sin (Rom. 6.23; James 1.15), 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 the 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. 5.12,18; 1 Cor. 15.22). 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