QUESTION XIIi. 363 and accept it; yet since the great God foresees this their aversion"" to repentance and holiness, and foreknows they will never accept the salvation of Christ, and that ascertainly as if they had already renounced it ; does not this future certainty of ttr, event lay-an effectual bar against their believing and accepting it ? For if they should repent and accept, it would contradict the foreknow- ledge of God. We enquire also further, can his offers of grace be sincere to persons whom he foresees will certainly reject it: ? What are these offers, but delusions of theirr-hope, andappoiut- ed aggravations to increase their guilt ; since God certainly knows these offers of grace will be abused only to sinful purposes ? Answer I. As for the first part of this enquiry, if we will give ourselves leave to think impartially upon the case, we mast agree, that the mere knowledge of any event, without any real influence from the power that knows, does not make the event necessary, whether it be foreknown or after-known. If I fore- know the sun will rise to-morrow, that has no more influence ou the sun's rising than my after-knowledge that it rose yesterday. Now the great God; among his unsearchable powers and perfec- tions, has a knowledge of the agency of free causes, as we have of necessary causes : And as he has a full view of all concomitant circumstances, he bath a way to foresee events in their contingent Pauses; such as the free-will of man is, as well as we have a way by reason to foresee many things in their necessaryCauses. It is certain he does foreknow the future contingent actions of tuen, even their wicked actions, because he has fore-Mid a multitude of them in the bible; and it is granted, that from his foreknowledge of any future event, we may infer the consequential certainty of it, because his foreknowledge cannot be deceived; yet-this does not at all prove his antecedent determination of it by any decree, nor^his influence upon it : Neither can we infer fromGod's mere foreknowledge, that there is any natural necessity of the event, -since the causes are but contingent, such as man's free -will. The distinctiog between the certainty of a future event, with the consequent necessity of it, derived from God's foreknow- ledge, and the antecedent necessity of it, derived from the natureof things; or fromGod's actual pre- determination of it, sufficiently solves this difficulty. The first may be where the second is not. H. Wehave reason to believe, that the gospel- is never -sent, nor the proposals of salvation made to any people, city; or nation, where God foresees there are none at all that will accept of it. Now in the way of God's government of this world, he deals with mankind as a number of free and moral agents, and publishes and offers sincerely his bents to men in general, promiscuously to the elect and the non elect: And whileby 'these same "proposals, means, and motives, he effectually and
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