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own words elsewhere, of the Son of God as delineated in the following pages, that

in him all his Father shone

Substantially express'd,

yet the translator rejoices in being able to state that the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ is so scripturally and unambiguously enforced, as to leave, on that point, nothing to be desired.

Milton's sentiments respecting the divine decrees are as clear, and perhaps as satisfactory, as can be expected on a subject in which it is wisest and safest to confess with the cautious Locke our inability to reconcile the universal prescience of God with the free agency of man, though we be as fully persuaded of both doctrines, as of any truths we most firmly assent to. His views may be thus summarily stated; that every thing is foreknown by God, though not decreed absolutely. He argues that the Deity, having in his power to confer or withhold the liberty of the will, showed his sovereignty in conceding it to man, as effectually as he could have done in depriving him of it; that he therefore created him a free agent, foreseeing the use which he would make of his liberty, and shaping his decrees accordingly, inasmuch as the issue of events, though uncertain as regards man, by reason of the freedom of the human will, is perfectly known to God, by reason of the divine prescience. This is, on the one hand, in direct opposition to the doctrine of the Socinians, that there can be no certain

foreknowledge of future contingencies; and on the other, to that of the Supralapsarians, that the Deity is the causal source of human actions, and consequently that the decrees of God are antecedent to his prescience. In treating of the latter topic, Milton justly protests against the use of a phraseology when speaking of the Deity, which properly applies to finite beings alone.

There are other subjects, and particularly that of the Holy Spirit, to which the translator had wished to have adverted, had he not been warned, by the length to which the preceding observations have already extended, to abstain from further comment. He cannot however conclude these preliminary remarks, without acknowledging his obligations to W. S. Walker, Esq. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who has not only discharged the greater part of the laborious office of correcting the press, but whose valuable suggestions during the progress of the work have contributed to remove some of its imperfections.

CHAP. X.

Page

Of the Special Government of Man before the Fall; including the
Institutions of the Sabbath and of Marriage

296

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Of the Functions of the Mediator, and of his threefold Office. . . 400

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CHAP. XXIV.

Of Union and Fellowship with Christ and His Members; wherein is considered the Mystical or Invisible Church .

CHAP. XXV.

Of Imperfect Glorification; wherein are considered the Doctrines of Assurance and Final Perseverance

CHAP. XXVI.

Of the Manifestation of the Covenant of Grace, including the Law

Page

53

58

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Of the External Sealing of the Covenant of Grace.

112

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Of Perfect Glorification; including the Second Advent of Christ, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the General Conflagration

211

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