His Original Juftice is indeed Co-eternal with Himfelf, as the Law of his Divine Nature, and the Harmonious Movements of it; and the Glafs or Pattern of Perfect Righteoufnefs and Excellence exhibited for Imitation and Reflection of God in and from his Creatures; But his Strange Work. and Movement in Juftice, i. e. in Indignation against Sin and Sinners, as it was in Accommodation to a Movement of the Creature, i. c. within the Limits of Time and Accident; fo as Time and Accident, and whatfoever implies a Defect cannot be Eternal, neither can this Strange and Accidental Movement in God be fo; but as his Juftice is Subfervient and Acts to the End of his Love which is Supreme, the kindled Fire in the Severity of the Divine Juftice upon the Hay and Stubble, of the Defect of Sin, fo Hateful in the Eye of God, muft burn it all up at laft, and render the Creature by fuch due Chaftifement and Preparation capable of the Grace and Favour of God again; and the outflowing Anger of God in ftrict Vindictive Juftice, Vindictive of the Honour of the Lefe Majefty of God, and of his Right to Rule over and in all his Creatures according to his own Eternal Will and Nature, i. e. in his Love having done its Work must be Refum'd itself at laft into its Primeval, Eternal A&t, viz. of Original Juftice, as moving in the Unity of the Eternal Nature or Love of God; and here according to its particular Nature and Office, maintaining and keeping all the Works of God, viz. of the Original and Reftor'd Creation, in that Eternal Order and Harmonious Movement, in and for which he at firft defign'd them, and in order to which his Anger or Zeal of Justice run out after them as Rebels, to Subdue and Reduce them back again to their Obedience to the Kingdom of Love.

I-fhall endeavour to make good this Hypothefis in the following Work; and that from the Ground B 2.

of

of Holy Scripture, which is pregnant of Evidence to this great Truth. And this defign I fhall purfue with all Plainnefs imaginable, because all Mankind is concerned in it, and therefore it is both reafonable and neceffary my Stile fhould defcend as low, and reach as far as my Defign, and be as Univerfal in refpect of the Capacities of Men, as

it is for their Intereft.

I

The Apostle faith, in 1 Cor. xiii. 9. We know but in part, and Prophecy but in part. They that affume more than this, exalt themselves above that great Apoftle. I will, at prefent take it for granted, that God hath given forth what Scripture he intends, that the Canon is perfect and Sealed, but as God was long and leisurely in giving it out, as the Greek fpeaks, Heb. i. 1. So the Mind of God therein is not underflood but by Portions, as He is pleafed to give it forth. St. Peter tells us, the Prophets themselves understood not the Accents and Imports of their own Prophecies: God proportioning his Discoveries with a kind of Equality among his Children and Favourites, referving some things for the Laft and Youngeft, that they who went before without us fhould not be made perfect. Heb. xi. 40.

That which occurs to me in my obfervation, as the Defiderandum, to loofen the hard Knots and Difficulties in the Cafe, is the acknowledgement of a Common, or rather Univerfal Grace and Salvation, and the Reconciling thereof, with Special and Peculiar Grace and Favour: which varieth not much from that which the Apostle fuggefts to be wanting, as that, that would (when added) fupply and perfect both our discovery, and our living in that forementioned Love, 1 Cor. xiii; Which is ever fpoken of with peculiar Honour, as of a Perfective Nature, (1 John, iv 18.) and is called the Bond of Perfectnels, Col. iii. 14. And, in John, Ay. 19. the Apoftle tells us, We Love God, because

be

he firft Loved Us. Until God's Love in the Heights and Depths, and other the Dimenfions of it be known, the Spring, the Seed, the producing Caufe of our Love to God, and our Brother is wanting.

But this will appear plainly to our Experience, in the Inftance of the Controverfy between the Orthodox, as they are vulgarly called, and the Arminians, in which fo many Learned and Pious Pens on both fides have fweat and tired themselves and their Readers, but not fatisfied them; for all that hath been hitherto fuggefted by the firft, doth by no means falve those harsh Phenomena's of an appearing Harfhnefs in God, in the Exercife of that Sovereign Prerogative of his, which they moft rightly allow to him, and which is neceffarily vested in him as Supreme; but thus exercised with the irreparable Damage of the Creature, juftly feems fo difagreeable to his Goodnefs, that from hence the latter, viz. Arminians, have with (it may be) a pure Intention of Mind, run into another moft abfurd Extreme, and have taken occafion thereby to afcribe a Power unto Man, and a Freedom of Will abfolute and independent as to thofe Acts relating to a future State, fetting him up in a Capacity of a right Conduct of himself, and by common Grace, to the making void and needlefs the Covenant of Grace, and the Blood of Chrift himself in the high and glorious Ends of it. And all this Market for Satan hath been made, by not rightly difcerning and ftating the Sovereign Prerogative of God, and the qualified and righteous Exercife thereof; wherein, altho' he fully displays the Glory of his Wifdom, Holiness, Juftice, and Severity in the fuffering of Man to make a full Difcovery of himself, his own Defectibility, Vertibility, Mutability, Vanity, and Pride, and alfo punishes him for the fame according to his Works; Yet this not finally and irremediably fo as to abandon and forget his Grace and Goodnefs forever: Nay, he gives fcope to thofe Glories, thofe

other

other Glories of his, to manifeft themselves fo fully, in order to that fweeteft, fulleft, and moft triumphant glorious Clofe he will make at laft, when all fhall meet and End in Grace and Love, as in a ftately Pyramid or Top Stone, they being all but Steps to this Throne, and Guarders of it. And thus alfo, all the Sin, Vanity, and Inftability of the Creature (which is the matter and occafion about which thofe fubordinate Glories are employed and exercised) fhall at laft iffue and break up into the Wonderful and Glorious Manifeftation of the Wisdom and Goodness of God, into an admirable Foil and Set-off to his Immutability and Eternity. And if Sin and Punishment be but Inftrumental in God's Defign, and fubordinate to an higher and more ultimate Project and End, then it must be bounded and circumfcribed within a certain Space and Limit of Time, how great foever that be, be it for the whole Courfe of Time, which may be therefore termed for Ever and Everlafting, comprehending this World, and the World next to come, which are both of them but a double Parenthefis in Eternity; yet as it had a beginning, fo it muft have an end, and muft lie down and yield up itself in that Abyss of boundless and endless Love and Grace which was before it, and let it come forth for its own Glory, and must shine forth in the perfect Conqueft and fubduing of it to the Harmony of the firft All-comprehending Defign, as the Sun without a Cloud forever.

And here I do, in the fear of God, moft humbly proftrate myself before his Divine Majefty, and in the deepest Senfe of my own Darknefs and Diftance from him, do with all my might beg of that infinite Goodness I am endeavouring to reprefent to others, that if fomething like to this Platform and Profpect of Things, be not agreeable to that revealed and natural Light He hath given to us, that my Undertaking may be interrupted, my

Ꭰ .

Defign fall, and that the Lord would pardon my attempt: and I know he will do fo, for he hath given me to have no further Concern for this Matter, than as I apprehend it to be a moft glorious Truth, witneffed to both by the Scriptures of Truth, and by the moft Effential Principles of our own Reafon, and which will be found fo at the laft opening of the Everlasting Gofpel, to recover in that opening a degenerate world. But if this be a true Draught and Reprefentation of the glorious Defignment of the ever bleffed Goodness of the great God, who is Goodness itself, and if the Holy Scriptures and right Reafon do bear Witness unto it, how clear, how fair, how open lies the way before us to juftify the Sovereign Power, and Difpofal of God, which he exercifes by Election and Reprobation too, with all the Methods he ufeth in his Holy and Glorious Wifdom and Prudence, in giving way to the Entrance of Sin, and then inflaming the Anguish of it by the Law, that he may thereby have Occafion to glorify his Juftice and Wrath against it, and so make his Way to the more glorious Illuftration of his Grace and Love in the close. And how appofite, effectual, and juftifiable a course of Proceeding will the way of God now appear in humbling poor, proud Man, in bringing him to his Foot, making him to know himself, how frail and foolish a thing he is, how unfit for the conduct of himself, will appear from the Light which the End and Defign of God therein reflects upon it, which is but to make him a meet and fubject Spouse for his own Embraces at laft, having no Will, no Wisdom, nothing of his own to rejoice or glory in, but to be wholly given up as a paffive Subject for this all-glorious and ever-pregnant Fulness to empty and pour forth himself into and upon to all Eternity.

In a word, in this Account and Profpe&t there is, as we fhall fee in the fequel of this Difcourse, nothing omitted, nothing quarrelled, nothing excluded

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