Page 79 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

way?" To which the prophet Jeremiah does also set his seal, saying
(chapter 10.), "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in
himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." The
historical part of Scripture teaches us the same great truth. So (Gen.

15.) we read that the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. In 1
Sam. 2. we are told that Eli's sons hearkened not to his reproof,
because the Lord would slay them. What could bear a stronger

resemblance to chance and accident than Saul's calling upon
Samuel, only with a view to seek out his father's asses? (1 Sam. 9.).
Yet the visit was fore-ordained of God, and designed to answer a

purpose little thought of by Saul (1 Sam. 9.15,16). See also a most
remarkable chain of predestinated events in reference to Saul, and
foretold by the prophet (1 Sam. 10.2,8).

"In pursuance of the Divine pre-ordination, there went with Saul a
band of men, whose hearts God had touched (1 Sam. 10.26). The
harshness of king Rehoboam's answer to the ten tribes, and the

subsequent revolt of those tribes from his dominion, are by the
sacred historian expressly ascribed to God's decree: "Wherefore the
king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the

Lord, that He might perform His saying, which the Lord spake by
Abijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (1 Kings
12.15). What is the drift of the Apostle Paul (Rom. 9. and 11.),

quam ut omnia, quæ fiunt, in destinationem divinam referat, but to
resolve all things that come to pass into God's destination? The
judgment of the flesh, or of mere unregenerate reason, usually starts

back from this truth with horror; but, on the contrary, the judgment
of a spiritual man will embrace it with affection. Neque enim vel
timorem Dei, vel fiduciam in Deum, certius aliunde disces, quam
ubi imbueris animum hac de predestinatione sententia: you will not

learn either the fear of God or affiance in Him from a surer source
than from getting your mind deeply tinctured and seasoned with

this doctrine of predestination.

"Does not Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs, inculcate it
throughout, and justly, for how else could he direct men to fear God

and trust in Him? The same he does in the Book of Ecclesiastes, nor
had anything so powerful a tendency to repress the pride of man's
encroaching reason, and to lower the swelling conceit of his