shall be
said of that ineffable and immense Fountain of Grace and Goodness,
from whence it proceeds? But, on the other hand, it has been
observed, that among mere _enthusiastick and traditional Believers_,
of the Doctrine of Election, their Hypocrisy, Deceit and
Dissimulation has overtop'd that of all the World besides, even
beyond what human Nature could be thought capable of, in its most
wicked and corrupt State; in short, they seem to have made the
Deceit of _Jacob_, and all other parallel Places of Scripture, that
furnish the worst Part of the Lives of good Men, a _standing Rule_
of Behaviour--What a blessed Company has the Lord set apart for
himself!

The _Foreknowledge_ of God is supposed, by some, to belong to the
Argument of _Predestination;_ but I think it wholly beside my
present Purpose, to enter circumstantially into it, for _this
Reason_--If, Whatever God _foreknows_, he must also of Necessity
_foreordain;_ it is manifestly using _Foreknowledge_ and
_Ordination_ to signify just the _same Thing_, and, _in this Light_,
every Argument against _Fore-ordination_, must be equally strong
against _Foreknowledge_, so far as it affects the Doctrines under
Consideration; and when these Gentlemen can shew the contrary, or
are willing to enter into the Consideration of the _Divine
Foreknowledge_, either _separate from_, or _connected with_, the
Doctrine of _Fore-ordination_, I shall always be ready to receive
Information.

This Doctrine of electing Grace, they exalt as an _incomprehensible
Mystery;_ so do the Papists, with as good Reason, that of
_Transubstantiation;_ for neither of them are Mysteries, or
incomprehensible, but _palpable Errors_, whose Absurdity we do
_easily and fully comprehend;_ nor will the stale Art of playing on
the Word _Mystery_ amuse us any longer. Another strange Argument,
which these Men make use of, in order to set aside some Passages of
Scripture, which are positive and express against them, is this,
_that if God wills the Salvation of all Men, all must be saved,
otherwise we may be said to conquer the Will and Grace of God_. To
which the Answer is very easy--Man is made a _free Creature_, and
therefore God deals with him as such; because to make him free, and
then arbitrarily _overrule_ his Freedom, would be making him free to
_no Purpose_. The Will of God is sometimes _positive_, and sometimes
_conditional_. He gives Laws, commands us to keep them, and promises
eternal Life to those w