Page 57 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

salvation as exhibited in the Gospel.

Our Saviour Himself expressly, and in terminis, assures us that no man can
come to Him except the Father draw him, and yet He says, "Come unto Me, all

ye that labour," etc. Peter told the Jews that they had fulfilled "the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God" in putting the Messiah to death (Acts 2.),
and yet sharply rebukes them for it. Paul declares, "It is not of him that willeth

nor of him that runneth," and yet exhorts the Corinthians so to run as to obtain
the prize. He assures us that "we know not what to pray for as we ought" (Rom.
8.), and yet directs us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5.). He avers that the
foundation or decree of the Lord standeth sure, and yet cautions him who

"thinks he stands, to take heed lest he fall" (2 Tim. 2.). James, in like manner,
says that "every good and perfect gift cometh down from above," and yet

exhorts those who want wisdom to ask it of God. So, then, all these being means
whereby the elect are frequently enlightened into the knowledge of Christ, and
by which they are, after they have believed through grace, built up in Him, and
are means of their perseverance in grace to the end; these are so far from being

vain and insignificant that they are highly useful and necessary, and answer
many valuable and important ends, without in the least shaking the doctrine of
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predestination in particular or the analogy of faith in general. Thus Augustine:
"We must preach, we must reprove, we must pray, because they to whom grace
is given will hear and act accordingly, though they to whom grace is not given

will do neither."

CHAPTER V.

SHOWING THAT THE SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION
SHOULD BE OPENLY PREACHED AND INSISTED ON,
AND FOR WHAT REASONS.

UPON the whole, it is evident that the doctrine of God's eternal and
unchangeable predestination should neither be wholly suppressed and laid aside,

nor yet be confined to the disquisition of the learned and speculative only; but
likewise should be publicly taught from the pulpit and the press, that even the
meanest of the people may not be ignorant of a truth which reflects such glory
on God, and is the very foundation of happiness to man. Let it, however, be