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fore-knowledge has made a r ! is * crimination from eternity of cer-Ui « n individuals , and it God has glorified tho ' sc individuals ' in his eternal purpose , or absolutely predestinated ( hern to £ ) ory , then was their glorification eternaljy
fixed by an absolute decree ^ and the doctrine of eternal election is completely established . On tha other hand , those who were not the objects of the divine foreknowledge , consequent ) y were
not the objects ot predomination to glory , and thus also the doc * trine of eternal reprobation will be as fully established . Enough , I conceive , has been said on these
passages to shew that there is nothing in them to prove , what they are brought to prove , that is that when our Lord says that the glory which he prayed for , he had before the world was , he only means that he had it in the purpose of God and not actually in
posse ssion . In this prayer , our Lord not only says 44 and now , O Father , glorify thou me with thine own self , with the glory which I had with thee before the world was ;"
but he also says , * Father , I will , that they also whom thou bast given me , be with me . whore 1 am , that they may behold my glory to / rich thou hast given me : tor t / iou loved * t me before the
foundation of the world . " The glory here prayed for was a future glory , this , glory his Father had given kim ^ tor lie had it with him before the world was , his
disciples had been with him from the beginning , thoy had seen him in the exercise of publishing ihe gospel , an 4 instructing umukiud , they had heard his discourse and seen his > miracles ; and yet he now
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prays that they might be zvttk him wAere he was ^ that they might behold the glory which his Father had given him . This glory therefore could not be , as Mr . Belbham
affirms it to be , the-glory of publishing the gospel . Our Lord ndds , as the reason of this re * cfiiest , or as a proof of his Father ' s having giving him this glory that he loved him before the foundation of the uorld . Now I believe Ciod is never said to love
any being prior to that being havmg any existence . The case of Jacob and Ksau , cited by the apostle in the ninth chapter to the Romans , is no proof of it , for that passage has no reference to Jacob and Esau personally , but
to their posterity : the words , "Jacob have I loved , « ind Esau have I-hated , ' were not said of them brfore they were born ; they are cited from the last of the Jewish
prophets , and the causes of that love and hatred are distinctly mentioned . Will Mr . Bctsham say that God loved Jesus Christ in pur ~ pose or that he purposed to love him before the foundation of the
world ? I confess I am quite at a loss to understand the terms . Will he then explain what a purpose to love means 9 or with what propriety a person can be said to
love in purpose : we may then perhaps be able to understand how Christ had the glory be prayed tor , in the purpose of God , before the world was . Has our
Lord any where 9 aid that his Father loved- his disciples before the foundation , of the world , or that they had a glory with him before the world waj 9 f If all this was in purpose only , it was as tru # of thexa as it was oi him . and the
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• 58 Mr * Marsom ' s Defence of tie Pre ~ c < vi $ tence of Christ . Let . IV .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1808, page 658, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2399/page/22/
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