ngs, is the best Rule. We _cannot_, it is impossible we _should_,
understand the certain determinate Meaning of any Text of Scripture
_better_, if altogether _so well_, as we do _know_ certainly, that
God is _just_ and _good_, and _know_ also as clearly, what _Justice_
and _Goodness_ mean, when applied to the _Deity_, as we do, when we
apply them to _ourselves_. And this Rule, if duly observed, would be
abundantly sufficient, to set aside many Interpretations of
Scripture, too commonly admitted upon this and the like Occasions.
And, besides this never failing Argument (to all who attend duly to
its Force) it is worth while, just to remark, that though, as the
_Bible_ now stands, there are in it (as we must acknowledge) some
Passages, which (especially at first sight) seem to favour the
Doctrine of _Sovereignty_, &c. yet as it is possible, nay sometimes
easy, to give them _another interpretation_, and the general Scope
and Tenor of the Scripture being agreeable to such an Interpretation,
we have abundantly more Reason to _reject_, than to _admit_ of the
Sense, in which these Gentlemen are pleased to understand and
expound many Texts of the _Bible_, relating to this and other
affinitive Points.

I would not, as I observed before, presume to impose on the Reader's
Time and Patience, by entering unnecessarily into the scriptural
Part of the Argument; yet I must beg Leave, to make now and then an
Observation or two as I go along: And the first Thing that falls in
my way is, the Story of _Jacob_ and _Esau_, and the Account which
Mr. _Cole_ gives of it. He not only relates the Story, but assures
us, that _Jacob's_ obtaining the Blessing was of Divine Appointment,
and (what is more extraordinary) that the _Falsehood_ and _Fraud_ he
practised to accomplish it, was all of God's own immediate
Direction; and this he gives as an Instance of God's _Sovereignty_,
and proceeding contrary to the moral Fitness of Things, and the
Nature of those Laws he hath given to Man. That God intended _Jacob_
the _Blessing_, or preferred him to _Esau_, I readily grant; but
cannot admit it to be inferred from thence, that the Means, by which
it was, as we reckon, accomplished, were _Divine_ also: There is a
more natural or (at least) more justifiable way of accounting for
the whole Matter. According to the History, it seems plain, that
_Rebecca_ only, and not her Husband, was privy to this Designation
of the _Deity:_ she had upon Inquiry (when with C