2, 3.) This is a strong indication of a King and of a kingdom that are spiritual. (7.) The same conclusion may be drawn from the excellence, amplitude, duration, and mode of administration, of the Messiah's kingdom. But the kingdom of Jesus of Nazareth is spiritual and heavenly: For He said, “ Repent; because the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." (Matt. iv, 17.) My kingdom is not of this world." (John xviii, 36.) This may also be shewn in all those things which relate to that kingdom: For the KING is no more known after the flesh; because He is become spiritual by his resurrection, and is "the Lord from heaven." (Rom. viii; 1 Cor. xv.) His SUBJECTS are those who are already born again, [secundum animam,] in their souls, of his Spirit, and who shall likewise hereafter be spiritual in their bodies and conformed unto Him. The Law of the kingdom is spiritual: For it is the Gospel of God and the prescription of a rational and spiritual worship. (Rom. xii, 8; John iv, 23, 24.) Its BLESSINGS are likewise spiritual: Remission of sins, the Spirit of grace, and Life eternal. The MODE OF ADMINISTRATION, and all its MEANS, are spiritual: For though all temporal things are subjected to Christ, yet He administers them in such a way as He knows will be conducive to the life that is spiritual and supernatural.

XIX. The Acrs which belong to the Regal Office of Christ, are generally comprehended in Vocation and Judgment. If we be desirous to consider these two acts more distinctly, we may divide them into the four parts following: Vocation, Legislation, the Communication of blessings and the Removal of evils, and the last and universal Judgment. (1.) Vocation is the First function, by which Christ the King calls men out of a state of animal * life and of sin, to the participation of the covenant of grace which He has confirmed by his own blood. For He did not find subjects in the nature of things; (Isai. lxiii, 10;) but as it was his office by the Priesthood to acquire them for himself, so likewise as King it is his province to call them to him by his word, and to draw them by his Spirit. (Psalm cx, 1-3; Eph. iii, 17.) This Vocation has two parts, a Command to repent and believe, (Mark i, 14, 15,) and a Promise, (Matt. xxviii, 19, 20,) to which is also subjoined a Threatening. (Titus iii, 8; Mark xvi, 16.)-(2.) Legislation, which we consider in a distinct form, is the Second function of the Regal Office of Christ, by which He

See, in page 193, the definition of animal, which the translators of the English Bible have in general rendered "natural.”

fully prescribes, to those who have been previously called and drawn to a participation of the covenant of grace, a rule by which they may live godly, righteously and soberly, and to which are also annexed promises and threatenings: To this must be added the Act of the Holy Spirit by which believers are rendered fit to perform their duty. (3.) The Third Act is the Communication of Blessings, whether they be necessary or conducible to this animal life or to that which is spiritual, and the Removal of the opposite Evils, not through strict justice, but according to a certain dispensation which is suited to the period of the present life. It is according to this that God equally "sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust," (Matt. v, 45,) and his "judgment often begins at his own house." (1 Peter iv, 17.)-(4.) The Fourth and last Act is the final and universal Judgment, by which Christ, having been appointed by God to be the Judge of all men, will pronounce a sentence of Justification on his elect, and will bestow on them everlasting life; but after the sentence of condemnation has been uttered against the reprobates, they will be tormented with everlasting punishments. (Matt. xxv.)

XX. To these Functions it is easy to subjoin their RESULTS or CONSEQUENCES, which exist from the functions themselves according to their nature; and, at the same time, the EVENTS which flow from the malice of men who reject Christ as their King-Among the former are Repentance; Faith; and thus the church herself, and her Association with Christ her Head; Obedience performed to Christ's commands; the Participation of blessings which are bestowed on men in the course of the present life; Immunity from evils; and, lastly, Life eternal.-Among the latter are Blinding, Hardening, the Giving over to a reprobate mind, the Delivering unto the power of Satan, the Imputation of sin, the Gnawings of conscience in this life, and the feeling endurance of many evils, and, lastly, Eternal Death itself: All these evils Christ inflicts as an omniscient, omnipotent and inflexible Judge, who love goodness and hates sin, from whose eyes we cannot hide o selves, whose power we cannot avoid, and whose strictness and rigour we are unable to bend. -May God grant, through his Son Jesus Christ, in the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit, that these considerations may serve to beget within us a filial and serious fear of God and Christ our Judge! AMEN!

VOL. II.

DISPUTATION XV.

ON DIVINE PREDESTINATION.

Respondent, WILLIAM BASTINGIUS.

I. WE call this decree "PREDESTINATION;" in Greek, Пpoopioμov, from the verb Пpoopitev, which signifies to determine, appoint, or decree any thing before you enter on its execution. According to this general notion, Predestination, when attributed to God, will be his Decree for the governance of all things, to which Divines usually give the appellation of PROVIDENCE. (Acts ii, 28; xvii, 26.) It is customary to consider it in a less general notion, so far as it has reference to rational creatures who are to be saved or damned, for instance, angels and men. It is taken in a stricter sense about the Predestination of men, and then it is usually employed in two ways: For it is sometimes accommodated to both the Elect and the Reprobate: At other times, it is restricted to the Elect alone, and then it has Reprobation as its opposite. According to this last signification, in which it is almost constantly used in Scripture, (Rom. viii, 29,) we will treat on Predestination.

II. Predestination therefore, as it regards the thing itself, is the Decree of the good pleasure of God in Christ, by which He resolved within himself from all eternity, to justify, adopt, and endow with everlasting life, to the praise of his own glorious grace, believers on whom He had decreed to bestow faith. (Eph. i; Rom. ix.)

III. The genus of Predestination we lay down as a Decree, which is called in Scripture ПIpodeσis, "the purpose of God," (Rom. ix, 11,) and Beλny To beλnμATOS DEB," the counsel of God's own will:" (Eph. i, 11:) And this Decree is not legal, according to what is said, "The man who doeth those things shall live by them ;" (Rom. x, 5;) but it is evangelical, and this is the language which it holds: "This is the will of God, that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life." (John vi, 40; Rom. x, 9.) This Decree therefore is peremptory and irrevocable; because the [extrema] final manifestation of "the whole counsel of God" concerning our salvation, is contained in the Gospel. (Acts xx, 27; Heb. i, 2; ii, 2, 3.)

IV. The Cause of this Decree is God, "according to the good pleasure," or the benevolent affection, " of his own will.” (Eph.

i, 5.) And God indeed is the Cause, as possessing the right of determining as He wills both about men as his creatures, and especially as sinners, and about his blessings, (Jer. xviii, 6; Matt. xx, 14, 15,) "according to the good pleasure of his own will," by which being moved with and in himself he made that decree. This "good pleasure" not only excludes every cause which it could take from man, or which it could be imagined to take from him; but it likewise removes whatever was in or from man, that could justly move God not to make that gracious Decree. (Rom. xi, 34, 35.)

V. As the Foundation of this Decree we place Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and men, (Eph. i, 4,) "in whom the Father is well pleased;” (Matt. iii, 17; Luke iii, 22;) “in whom God reconciled the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;" and "whom God made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. v, 19, 21.) Through Him "everlasting righteousness was to be brought in,” (Dan. ix, 24,) adoption to be acquired, the Spirit of grace and of faith was to be obtained, (Gal. iv, 5, 19, 6,) eternal life procured, (John vi, 51,) and all the plenitude of spiritual blessings prepared, the communication of which must be decreed by Predestination. He is also constituted by God the Head of all those persons who will by Divine Predestination accept of [communionem] the equal enjoyment of these blessings. (Eph. i, 22; v, 23; Heb. v, 9.)

VI. We attribute Eternity to this Decree; because God does nothing in time, which He has not decreed to do from all eternity. For "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world:" (Acts xv, 18:) and "He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world." (Eph. i, 4.) If it were otherwise, God might be charged with mutability.

VII. We say that the Object or Matter of Predestination is two-fold-Divine Things, and Persons to whom the communica tion of those Divine Things has been predestinated by this decree. (1.) These DIVINE THINGS receive from the Apostle the general appellation of "spiritual blessings:" ph. i, 3:) Such are, in the present life, Justification, Auption as sons, (Rom. viii, 29. 30,) and the Spirit of grace ad adoption. (Eph. i, 5; John i, 12; Gal. iv, 6, 7.) Lastly, after this life, Eternal Life. (John iii, 15, 16.) The whole of these things are usually comprised and enunciated, in the Divinity Schools, by the names of GRACE and GLORY.-(.) We circumscribe the PERSONS within the limits of the word "Believers," which presupposes sin:

For no one believes on Christ except a sinner, and the man who acknowledges himself to be that sinner. (Matt. ix, 13; xi, 28.) Therefore, the plenitude of those blessings, and the preparation of them which has been made in Christ, were necessary for none but sinners. But we give the name of "Believers," not to those who would be such by their own merits or strength, but to those who by the gratuitous and peculiar kindness of God [erant credi turi] would believe in Christ. (Rom. ix, 32; Gal. ii, 20; Matt. xi, 25; xiii, 11; John vi, 44; Phil. i, 29.)

VIII. The Form is the decreed communication itself of these blessings to believers, and in the mind of God the pre-existent and pre-ordained relation and ordination of believers to Christ their Head: The fruit of which they receive through a real and actual union with Christ their Head. In the present life, this fruit is gracious, through the commencement and increase of the union; and in the life to come, it is glorious, through the complete consummation of this union. (2 Tim. i, 9, 10; John i, 16, 17; xvii, 11, 12, 22–24; Eph. iv, 13, 15.)

IX. The End of Predestination is the praise of the glorious grace of God: For since grace, or the gratuitous love of God in Christ, is the Cause of Predestination, it is equitable that to the same grace the entire glory of this act should be ceded. (Eph. i, 6; Rom. xi, 36.)

X. But this Decree of Predestination is "according to Election," as the Apostle says: (Rom. ix, 6, 11:) This Election necessarily infers Reprobation. Reprobation therefore is opposed to Predestination, as its contrary; and is likewise called "a casting away," (Rom. xi, 1,) " an ordination to condemnation," (Jude 4,) and "an appointment unto wrath." (1 Thess. v, 9.)

66

XI. From the law of contraries, we define Reprobation to be a Decree of the Wrath, or of the Severe Will, of God; by which He resolved from all eternity to condemn to eternal death unbelievers who, by their own fault and the just judgment of God, would not believe, for the declaration of his Wrath and Power. (John iii, 18; Luke vii, 30; John xii, 37-40; 2 Thess. ii, 10, 11; Rom. ix, 22.)

XII. Though by faith in Jesus Christ the remission of all sins is obtained, and sins are not imputed to them who believe; (Rom. iv, 2-11;) yet he Reprobate will be compelled to endure the punishment, not only of their unbelief, (by the contrary of which they might avoid the chastisement due to the rest of their sins,) but likewise of the sins which they have committed against the law, being “everlasting destruction from the presence of the