ture; and is not loaded with any Difficulties but what admit of an easy Solution.

That a Conformity to the Image of the Son of God should signify a Conformity to his Sufferings, will not appear strange or forced, to any who confider the constant Doctrine of the Apostles concerning the Certainty of the Perfecutions of the primitive Church. Our Apostle St. Paul was ever preaching the Neceffity of those Sufferings, and exhorting the Disciples, as is said particularly of those of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, (Acts xiv. 22.) to continue in the Faith, and that they MUST through much Tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God. To you it is given, says he, to his Philippians, (i. 29.) not only to believe in Christ, but also to SUFFER for bis Sake. It is a faithful Saying, or if you please, an infallible Decree, says he to Timothy, that if we be dead with Christ we shall also live with him, if we SUFFER we shall also reign with him, (2 Tim. ii. 11, 12.) And St. Peter more expreffly calls the Persecutions of the Christians, or, as he styles them in the Beginning of his Epistle, of the Elect, a partaking of the Sufferings of Christ. Beloved, says he, think it not strange concerning the fiery Trial, which is to try you, as though some Strange thing had happened unto you; but rejoice in as much as ye are PARTAKERS of CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS, that when his Glory

shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding

۱

ceeding Joy. Seeing then, that to be conformed to the Image of Christ is a very proper and beautiful Expreffion, to signify the Suffering with him and for him, who appeared among us as a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief: Seeing that this Phrafe, if so understood, is not only very expressive and natural in itself, but very agreeable to the Language of the sacred Writers of the New Testament, and particularly of St. Paul, in other Places, it cannot therefore be forced or unnatural to put that Construction upon it here; and feeing that this is not only a proper and easy Construction, but that to which the Context does clearly and necessarily confine it, it may surely be inferred, that this is, at least, a true, if not the only Meaning, of the Apostle in this Place.

That the Words has justified, and has glorified, are not literally to be understood in the Præter-Tense, but of the Future, needs no Proof. It is a very easy and a very common Hebraism, which occurs in every Chapter in the Bible; and this alone sufficiently shews it to be faid of the future here, that St. Paul himself must be excluded out of the Number of the Predestinated, if it be otherwise understood; fince he had not at that Time received that Justification, or that Glory.

That by God's Elect, in ver. 33. is meant the fame Perfons who are before faid to be the Called according to God's Purpose, and the Predestinated, ver. 28, 29. will be readily granted; and who these called are St. Paul himself tells us, in the next Chapter, Even us, says he, whom God hath CALLED, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles: That is, us Christians in general agreeably to his Quotation out of Hofea, where God says, I will CALL them my People who were not my People, and her beloved which was not beloved. And lastly,

The Foreknowledge of God is as strong an Argument against the Freedom of his own Actions, as of those of Men. Known unto God are all his Works from the Foundation of the World. And yet it is and must be allowed, that he is a free Agent, by all who allow of his Existence. And by a Parity of Reason then, his Fore-knowledge of the Ufe Men will make of his Dispensations does no more imply his acting necessarily upon them, than his Fore-knowledge of his own Actions does imply his Want of Liberty, or his acting necessarily himself.

So that upon the Whole, there seems to be little to object, and much to urge in Defence of this Interpretation of St. Paul; whose Reasoning in this Place, if understood in the strict Predeftinarian Sense, will run thus, Brethren, be of good Courage, and fupport your Sufferings chearfully; for God has arbitrarily fore-ordained that fome Few among you

:

you shall, whether they will or no, strictly obey bis Laws here, and be eternally happy hereafter; and therefore you ought ALL to overlook your Dangers and Difficulties, and to support yourselves under them, by fixing your Eyes always on that Happiness which it is irreversibly decreed, the greatest Part of you shall never obtain. But such Absurdities surely are too gross, such Inferences too incongruous and illogical to be charged upon the Learning, apart from the Inspiration, of St. Paul; whose Arguments are in all other Places most cogent and conclusive, as well as his Exhortations nervous, and his Perfuafions strong and pathetick. But to proceed.

After he has thus removed this Difficulty of the Sufferings of Chriftians, he proceeds in the three following Chapters to answer such other Objections as seemed to arise from the Rejection of the Jews, and the Reception of the Gentiles; and the main Points he undertakes to prove here are, that the Revelations of God to Mankind in this World, in the Jewish and Christian Religion, are Matters of mere Grace and Favour, not resolvable into any extraordinary Merit in the Persons by whom, and to whom, he has made them, but purely into his own good Will and Pleafure: That the Promises of God to the Jews were fulfilled, inasmuch as the Meffias was first preached to them: That the Reception of the Gentiles was no Diminution of the Veracity Veracity of those Promises, and that the Ifraelites had no Reason to complain, for being excluded the Benefits of the Meffiah, because it was founded in their own Unbelief. In the Pursuit of which Arguments, the Apostle drops several Expressions which seem to favour the rigid Sense, and particularly three, the Preference of Jacob to Efau, the Instance of Pharaoh, and that of the Potter. But all these, as here referred to by the Apostle, relate only to God's Dispensations in this World, and bear no Manner of Allusion to the eternal Misery or Happiness of those who profess the Name of Chrift.

When Rebecca had conceived by one, our Father Ifaac, says the Apostle, It was faid, the Elder shall ferve the Younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Efau have I hated, before the Children, who were yet unborn, could have done any Good or Evil; that the Purpose of God according to Election might stand, not of Works, but of him that calleth. That is, It is very evident from the Instance of Jacob and Efau, that the Revelations of God to the Patriarchs, and his Promises that the Meffiah should descend from them, was not founded in their eminent Virtues, but purely in the Good-Will and Pleasure of him that made them. Jacob was chosen rather than Efau, before the one could have done any Evil, or the other any Good; and this Choice therefore could not be built on the good or ill Quality