1. It is pleasing to observe how much the creed of other good men harmonizes with ours. The 17th Article of the Church of England runs thus: "Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as vessels made to honor. Wherefore they which he endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose, by his Spirit working in due season, they through grace obey the calling; they be justified freely; they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works; and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity:" And then it is afterwards observed, that, "as the godly consideration of predestination and our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God."
In The Presbyterian Confession of Faith, it is said, "Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his meer [sic] free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them or any other thing in the creature, as conditions or causes moving him thereunto, and all to the praise of his glorious Grace."
2. We can hear and read of the non-elect and rejection of angels, and of their pre-ordination to condemnation and wrath, with very little emotion of the mind: the devils may be cast down to hell, to be everlastingly damned, and be appointed thereunto, and it gives no great concern; no hard thoughts against God arise, no charge of cruelty, want of kindness to his creatures and offspring, and no injustice to them; but if any thing of this kind is hinted at with respect to any of the apostate sons of Adam, presently there is an outcry against it; and all the above things are suggested. What is the reason of this difference? It can be only this, that the latter comes nearer home, and more nearly affects us: it is partiality to ourselves, our nature and race, to which this is owing; otherwise far greater severity, if it may be so called, is exercised on fallen angels, than on fallen men; for God has not spared one of the angels that sinned, provided no saviour for them, nor so much as given them the means of grace; but consigned them all over at once to everlasting wrath and ruin: Whereas, not only a Saviour is provided for fallen men, and means of grace allowed them, but thousand and ten thousands, millions and millions of them are saved, by the abundant mercy and grace of God through Christ. - Dr. Gill.
3. There are a vast number of things in which we must needs resolve the last question, so to speak, in the sovereignty of God. Why did God see it fit to people this world so very thinly? Why does the improvement of human arts proceed so very imperfectly? Why is the chief blessing God ever bestowed upon man, unknown to a vast number of the human race? Why was so great a part of this vast continent for so many ages a howling wilderness? Why is one person born into the world a slave, and another a monarch? [one blind, or deaf, or dumb, others blest with the faculties of sight, hearing and speech, &c.] Must we not say, "Even so Father," &c. In temporal and spiritual, natural and personal circumstances, there is every where to be seen much of the sovereignty of God. It will perhaps be hard, or impossible, for you to enter in this at once, as I confess it was to me in early life; but I now see more of the necessity of subjecting ourselves to the divine sovereignty, and making use of it to restrain and repress our rash and curious enquires. Dr. Witherspoon's Lectures to his Students.
4. You suppose that, according to the Calvinistic scheme, God denies what is necessary for present comfort and final acceptance, even to some who sincerely seek it. This is contrary to scripture, and no less contrary to the doctrine of your opponents. However, to confirm yourself in this misapprehension, you ask, would you deny it to any in your power? To shew the error of such a sentiment, and the fallacy of such reasoning, I shall just mention a recent melancholy fact.
News is brought that the Prince George Man of War, Admiral Broderick's own ship, is burnt and sunk, and above 400 souls that were on board are perished. Six hours the flames prevailed, while every means were used to preserve the ship and the crew; but all to no purpose. In the mean time, shrieks and groans, bitter moanings and piercing cries, were heard from every quarter. Raving despair, and even madness, presented themselves in a variety of forms. Some ran to and fro, distracted with terror, not knowing what they did or what they should do. Others jumped overboard from all parts, and to avoid the pursuit of one death leaped into the jaws of another. Those unhappy wretches who could not swim, were obliged to remain upon the wreck, though flakes of hell fire fell on their bodies. Soon the masts went away and killed numbers. Those who were not killed, thought themselves happy to get on the floating timber. Nor yet were they safe; for the fire having communicated to the guns, which were loaded and shotted, they swept multitudes from this their last refuge. What say you, sir, to this dismal narrative? Does not your heart bleed? Would you have stood by and denied succour, if it have been in your power to help? Would not you have done your utmost to prevent the catastrophe? Yet the LORD saw this extreme distress - He heard those piteous moans - HE WAS ABLE TO SAVE THEM, AND YET WITHDREW HIS ASSISTANCE.
Now, because you would gladly have succoured them, if you could, and GOD ALMIGHTY could, and would not send them aid; will you therefore conclude that you are above the Lord, that your loving kindness is greater than his? I will not offer to charge any such consequence upon you. I am persuaded you abhor the thought. HERVEY'S Letters.
5. Jesus Christ died either first for "all sins of all men; or secondly, for some of the sins of all men; or thirdly, for all the sins of some men."
1st, If for all the sins of all men, "Why, then, are not all freed from their punishment of all their sins? You will say, because of their belief: -- But this unbelief is a sin, or not: -- if not, why should they be punished for it? If it be a sin, then Christ underwent the punishment due unto it, or he did not; - if he did not, then he did not die for all their sins: if he did, then why should that hinder them, any more than any other of their sins, from partaking the benefits of Christ's death." Take the secondsupposition. "If he died for some of the sins of all men, then all men have some to answer for, and so shall no man be saved; for if God should enter into judgment with all mankind for one sin, no man living should be justified in his sight," Psalm cxliii.2. Admit the third, it is all we plead for. Such for whom he died, shall be saved with an everlasting salvation; they shall not be ashamed or confounded, world without end. See Dr. Owen's Death of Death in the Death of Christ.
But it will be objected, that Christ died for the World - for ALL, &c. We beg our brethren, who think differently from us, on the word world to consult the following Scriptures. In Luke ii.1. it means only the Roman empire. It is most commonly taken for many, Matth. xviii.7. John iv. 42. xii. 19. xvi. 8. xvii. 21. I Cor. iv. 9. and Rev. xiii.3. Consult the word ALL in the following, Matth. iii. 5. Phil. ii. 21. Zeph. i. 4. Matth. xxi. 26. and x. 22. John iii. 26. Acts ii. 4.
We are ready to make allowances for prejudices of education and peculiar habits of thinking; and yet we can scarce forbear saying with Mr. Brown in his Dictionary of the Holy Bible, "How evident the folly of such as found their universal redemption on this word that must be so often restricted."
John xvii. 9. "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given to me." The enquirer after Truth, will not omit asking himself the question, "Would Christ die for the world, and yet not pray of the world? Has he performed the greater, and will refuse the less?" - Such is not Paul's mode of arguing, Romans viii.32.
6. If God's decree, that certain persons should be saved, rendered the unbelief of the Jews excusable, his pre-determination that Christ should die, must exonerate them from the charge of guilt in putting him to death. The latter was no less the subject of the decree of Jehovah than the former. When, therefore, Peter accuses the Jews of sin in "killing the Prince of life," perhaps it will be thought he spake as a fool!
7. There were those in that (the apostles') day, who objected, that if things be as God has purposed, why doth he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will? This was no other than suggesting, that the doctrine of decrees must needs operate to the setting aside of the fault of sinners; and this is the substance that has been alleged, from that day to this. Some, because they cannot conceive of the doctrine but as drawing after it the consequence assigned to it by this replier against God, reject it; others appear to have no objection to the consequence itself, stamped as it is with infamy, by the manner in which the apostle repelled it, and therefore admit the doctrine as connected with it; but so did not Paul. - He held fast the doctrine of decrees, and held it as comporting with the fault of sinners. After all he had written upon God's electing some and rejecting others, he, in the same Chapter, assigns the failure of those that failed to their not seeking justification by faith in Christ, but as it were, by the works of the law, stumbling at the stumbling-stone! Dr. Fuller.
8. A strange assertion! That the assurance of God's love should make men careless in serving him: they that so judge, can never be over diligent to make their calling and Election sure. CHRIST knew that the "angels had charge over him," and that "he should not dash his foot against a stone;" yet was nevertheless careful of his own preservation. Paul was sure of the crown of righteousness; and yet as diligent in beating down his body, and strained as hard in running his race, as any of those who lay the stress of salvation upon their works. COLES on the Sovereignty of God.
9. "God's purposing will, is the rule of his conduct; his commanding will, is the rule of ours." - BUTTERWORTH.
Many invert this order, and make God's purposing will the rule of their conduct. If we are elect, (say they) we shall be saved; if not, we shall be lost. Might not those who sailed with Paul, amid the horrors of shipwreck, have argued, "It is decreed that not a hair of our heads shall fall, let us leap into the boat and we shall the sooner be relieved." Nay, says Paul to the Centurion, "Except these abide in the ship, they cannot be saved." State, sinners, the purposes of God as you please, this is his commanding will, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.
"It was the duty of Pharaoh to have followed the counsel of Moses and to have let the people go, and his sin [was] to pursue them into the sea. Yet it was the purpose of God by this means to destroy him, Exod. Viii.1-4. Moses sent messengers to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, let me pass through thy land, and it was doubtless the duty of Sihen [sic] to have complied with the request; yet it appears by the issue, the Lord had determined to give his country to Israel for a possession, and therefore gave him up to hardness of heart by which it was accomplished, Deut. ii. 20-30.
"If the days of man are determined, and his bounds appointed that he cannot pass them, it must have been determined, that the generation of the Israelites who went out of Egypt should die in the wilderness. Yet it was their duty to have believed God and to have gone up to possess the land, and their sin to disbelieve him, and to turn back in their hearts to Egypt; and it deserves particular notice, that this their sin is held up, both by David and Paul, as an example for others to shun, and that in spiritual concerns, 1 Cor. x. 6-12. It was the determination of God that Ahab should fall in his expedition against Ramoth Gilead, as was plainly intimated to him by Micah; yet it was his duty to have hearkened to the counsel that was given him, and to have desisted from his purpose, 1 King[s] xxii. 15-22. The destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans was determined of God, and frequently foretold by the Prophets; yet the inhabitants were as frequently counseled to return from their evil ways that they might avoid it. Jeremiah particularly entreated Zedekiah to follow his counsel, that he might save the city and himself from ruin," Jeremiah xxxviii. 20. - DR. FULLER.
10. We might easily recriminate, by shewing that the charge of licentiousness may be brought with much more truth and justice against the opposite doctrines. As for instance, if Christ has redeemed all mankind, every individual of human nature, then may a profane sinner say, "I am redeemed by the blood of Christ and shall undoubtedly be saved, let me live as I will; for Christ could not die, or his blood be shed in vain." Should it be said, that though it is asserted that Christ died for all men, yet none can receive any benefit by his death but such as believe and repent of their sins, be it so, since it is affirmed, that a man has a power to believe and repent, when he pleases, the profane sinner may on to say, "Seeing this is my case, I am endued with a free will - I can believe and repent at pleasure - I will take my fill of sin, and at a convenient time I will reform, repent and believe and doubt not but all will be well with me." If so, the doctrine of the saints' apostacy [sic] may be improved by wicked men, to encourage them to continue in sinful courses and to procrastinate all concerns, as yet, about a future state, "for," may the sinner say, "if this is the case, that a man may be truly converted, be a true believer and penitent and a real child of god, and yet so fall and apostatize as to be in the same state he was before - may amend and fall away again, and this way go on to the end, so that it is very uncertain and precarious in what state he will die, then I may for the present, at least, indulge myself in sinful pleasures; for certainly, it will be acting the wiser and more rational part, for me to amend, repent and put myself into a good state, since these are in my power, toward the close of my days, when it may be more rationally concluded I shall continue therein and so die in a happy situation." Thus, I say, we might easily recriminate; but I choose not to load principles with consequences which are denied, nor should our opponents charge ours as they do, when we declare our abhorrence of every thing of this nature. GILL'S Doctrines of Grace cleared from the charge of Licentiousness.
11. [This is Pearce's Note according to the manuscript; it was too long to include in the body of the article as his other notes were. jrd] "Let those who would represent us as the Enemies of good Works, be reminded, that the reason why we deny the possibility of any man's being justified by his own obedience is, not because we deny our original obligations to love and serve God, nor do we suppose them relaxed, either in consequence of our being poor fallen creatures, nor yet by the coming of Christ, and by his obedience in our stead; but by considering the law as spiritual, and demanding the heart for God, we are convinced that no works are truly good which proceed from an heart at enmity with God. The works of an unrenewed sinner have no real goodness in them, for he has no love to God in his heart, nor does he really aim at his glory. And though believers are created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, they are sensible that they still fall short of the mark at which they now sincerely aim. Their best performances are defective, and defiled with remaining sin. And were they to render perfect obedience in [the] future, we have no idea that this could make up for former disobedience, or entitle those to heaven who had already deserved hell; therefore it is THROUGH THE LAW, by which is the knowledge of sin, THAT WE BECOME DEAD TO THE LAW. We dare not insult, God's holy law, by wishing it to justify us who have broken it, or by hoping that it will accept of our obedience, as that which can entitle us to eternal life. Respect to the law of God induces us to abjure our own righteousness, to justify God, and his righteous government; to condemn ourselves; to plead nothing before God as the ground of our acceptance, but the perfect righteousness of Christ; acknowledging that it is only on account of his obedience unto death that we can hope to be treated as any other than children of wrath, and heirs of eternal misery; but he is the Lord our righteousness, who has magnified the law, and made it honorable; and being accepted in the beloved, we hope for the portion of children and heirs. Meanwhile we maintain that none can claim an interest in the Saviour, but those who unite with him in the ends of his mediation; and surely no one who accounts it necessary that the law should have been honored by the obedience of the Son of God, can think himself thereby released from an obligation to personal obedience. He who sees no excellence in the law of God, can see no excellence in Christ's obedience to it; and he who really thinks it was worthy of being magnified by him, must think it worthy of being regarded by himself, and by all the professed followers of Christ. Our Lord walked in the way of holiness that he should follow his steps, not that we should walk after the flesh, as other Gentiles walk. That obedience which is the matter of our justification, is the pattern of our sanctification. The former view does not supersede, but endear[s] the latter. He that loves Christ on the contrary supposition that he pleased God, that he might please ourselves, has no love to the true Christ, and no claim to the title of a true believer."
12. Two things, with relations to the moral character of God, must be admitted; that he foreknows all things, and that he can do all things. If either be denied, it must follow that he is not infinite in knowledge or not infinite in power. But, if it be admitted that God foreknew and consequently foresaw the eternal ruin of thousands, and made no effectual provision against it, if he could save them and yet does not, the rejecters of the doctrines of grace leave the character of God, as a God of mercy, unjustified as much as they suppose it to be on the free grace scheme.
13. If it be right for the Lord to punish those who are punished by him, it could not be wrong to resolve to do so, unless it be wrong to determine to do what is right. HALL'S Help, &c.
In like manner, if it be right that God should save such as repent and believe, it could not be wrong to determine to do it from eternity - the date of a decision has nothing to do with its excellence; indeed a right one can never be framed too soon. It must of necessity in a God of infinite rectitude have been formed from eternity - "The children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of god according to election might stand," Romans ix. 11.
14. Suppose a man on his journey, knowing himself to be in his right way, and that going on therein he shall certainly come to his journey's end, especially if he quicken his pace as occasion may require: will you say that this is enough to make such a man careless and negligent, and that it would be much to his advantage to be lost and bewildered, not knowing whither he goes, nor whether he shall arrive at his journey's end? Common experience proves the contrary; as also how momentary and useless are those violent fits of endeavours which proceed from uncertainty, both in things temporal and spiritual. In general, it is that person who has a comfortable assurance of God's eternal electing love, and thence of the blessed end of his course, who goes on constantly and evenly in the ways of holiness, quickening his pace, and doubling his speed as he has occasion from trials and opportunities. - Dr. Owen.
Return to Samuel Pearce's Circular Letter [From a photocopy of the original at Princeton University Libraries, Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton, NJ. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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