Chief and Eminent Elect One The First-born and Prince of the Family and all the Elect besides were given to Him as younger Brethren to be maintain'd upon His Inheritance It is plain to him that reads That the whole of Salvation was laid upon Christ That He bears up the Pillars of it and that all shoulders else had been too weak He is both the means and Center by whom and in whom God will have all things gathered together in One He was made God with us That we might be made One in God as appears by the scope of His Prayer in the 17th of John In Him the Father is well pleased and out of Him there is nothing pleasing to God or good for Men We are therefore said to be Chosen in Him a Eph 1 4. To be Called in Him b Phil. 3 14. To be Created in Him c Eph. 2. 10. To be Preserved in Him d â—ude vâ—r 2. and in Him to be blessed with all spiritual Blessings Blessings in themselves d e. Eph. I. 4. would not be so to us if not in Christ And being in Him all things are turned into blessings to us For now Nothing can come at us but as coming through Him and what ever so comes is Tiâ—ctured by His Divine Excellency and made Propitious to us And hereby it is That the Thing we were Chosen unto is effectually and unfailably Provided for There may divers good Reasons and Ends be assign â—â—d for God's Choosing the Elect in Christ As I. That by bringing in Man's Restauration this way Arg. 1. He might as it were Baffle His great Adversary and Out-shoot him in his own Bow And it well became the Wisdom and Grace of God Thus to do The devil thought by Poisoning the Root to Vitiate and Ruin the whole Stock and Progeny and he fail'd not of His Design The Lord would therefore by putting His Elect into a Head uncapable of Degeneracy Retrieve that Ruin and not only recover them but bring them into a Better Estate than that they had lost He would set up a Man that should be too hard for the Devil and be able both to Destroy Him and Dissolve his Works And He hath accordingly done it In which Method of Man's Recovery is a great Answerableness to the Method of his Ruin And it is a Thing the Lord would have us to mind Rom. 3. 12 21. as appears by the Parallel beforementioned II. That by shewing us His Righteousness in the way and manner of our Recovery Arg. 2. we might the more readily subscribe to His Righteousness in the imputation of Adam's sin For without the sight and knowledge of One we cannot with any heartiness submit to the other Hence Some in their too-bold Arguings against Election have alledged That What Adam did was without their Consent III. If the Elect had not been in Christ Arg. 3. the satisfaction He undertook for Sinners could not have availed them As Adam's sin could not have been ours if not in him So neither the Righteousness of Christ if not in Him Our sins could not have met upon Him nor we have been Iustified and Reconciled by the blood of His Cross If He had not sustain'd our persons and stood in our stead Another's Act cannot be mine either as to Profit or loss if there be not some kind of Oneness between us IV. If not in Christ Arg. 4. we could not have been Sanctified The Lump was sanctified the first fruits Rom. 11. 16. The Wilde-Olive-Nature could not be supprest and changed but by grafting into the True As a Man cannot be Naturally born Without relation to Adam as his Natural head so 't is impossible to be born again or Regenerated without the like relation of Union to Christ as his Spiritual Head There is no being a New Creature without being in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17. They that are joyned unto the Lord and they only are one Spirit with Him The branch must be in the Vine before its sap can be derived into it He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified must be One There must be a Contact a touching of Him before this virtue can come from Him V. They were Chosen into Christ Arg. 5. That the Salvation they were Chosen unto might be invincibly secured of which this putting them into Christ is a pledge irrevocable Their Vnion with Him is their stability It is That makes them hold out as He Himself did till all is finished Isa 42. 4. He did not fail nor was discouraged so neither shall they and this because he is their Head This makes them victorious over all the power of the enemy Election indeed makes their Salvation sure but it is by this way of Putting them into Christ In whom the heirs of the World to come are preserv'd whiles the World of ungodly are deluged in Perdition Gen. 6. 18. Adam therefore whiles a Common Person and as such could not be said to be in Christ If he had he could not have fallen For Joh. 5. 26. the Father hath given the Son to have life in Himself i. e. to have it as a Root That all in Him might still be supplied from an increated Grace and Power which holds them fast to Himself and so from Withering and falling off It is not Grace received by us that keeps us But that Grace which received us to the Glory of God the Father Rom. 15. 7. which still Communicates a fresh supply Through Jesus Christ Having gone these few steps towards the Compass and extent of Election It concerns us also to know where this broad River hath its Head What Rock it is That this Immense Fabrick is built upon That we may not give the honour of it to another nor indanger our selves by settling on a wrong foundation To shew which is the Scope and Subject of the Sixth particular under this General Head viz. VI. That Election is founded upon Grace Or The good pleasure of God's will is the only Original Cause and Motive of Election As in Men's Genealogies there is no stop until you come up to God the Father of all Luke 3. 23. 38. So is it in the order of Causes relating to Men's Salvation The efficiency of all things that are mediate and subordinate depending on God as First and Sovereign His Willing the futurition of them is the cause of their being and We shall never judge Rightly unless we come up to the Will and Good Pleasure of God as the Sovereign Rule and Law of His Works And this I term The onely Original Cause of Election to shut out Faith foreseen with all the works and worthyness of Men from being any way Causal Influential or Motive thereto and so from sharing in the Glory of God's Grace which He is very jealous of and will not impart to any The Ground or Moving Cause of God's Election is quite different from the manner
teach Themselves Rom. 2 from 17 ver to 21. And in Rom. 3. where they are Ranked together he proves them to be All under Sin None Righteous None that understandeth None that seeketh after God None that doth good No not One Yea This depravement of Nature was so deep and indelibly fixed That the Lord Himselfe tells them The Blackmoor might as soon change his skin as they learn to do well All which with abundantly more be speaks a condition extreamly remote from yielding a Cause of this blessed Election IV. If God's love to Men had its Rise and Beginning from their love to Him it would not have that singular eminency in it Joh. 3. 16. that is justly ascribed to it So God lâ—ved the World So as not to be exprest So as not to be paralel'd So as not to be understood until we come to that State wherein we shall know as we are known By this it is 1 Cor. 13. 12. that God's love to Men is so highly celebrated in 1 Joh. 4. 10 Herein is love Not that we loved God but that God loved us And Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed up on us 1 Joh. 3. 1. Which surely then is not after the manner of Men Matth. 6. 46. For even Publicans do so Luke 6 32 35. and Sinners love those that love them But to love Enemies and whiles Enemies as to love a Woman a Wife that is an Adulteress this is according to God's love to His Chosen But Notwithstanding these Scriptures with others seem purposely written to obviate such conceptions as would feign our loving of God to be the ground and Motive of His love to us Yet great endeavours there are to Father Election upon foreseen faith and works which That They call the Covenant of Grace has they Say qualified and capacitated all Men for and which certain more pliant ingenuous and industrious persons as they speak would attain unto by the helps they have in common with other Men But this pedigree of Election is excepted against as being not rightly deduced For 1. Men having in Adam devested themselves of all that was holy and good the Lord could not foresee in them any thing of Worth or Desirableness but what Himself should work in them Anew and that of pure Grace and favour For sin and deformity could not be motives of love And that the Elect of themselves were in no wise better than other Men is evident by the Scriptures late-quoted where the Holy Ghost asserting the universal depravement of humane nature exâ—empts not one But if such excellent and distinguishing qualifications as Faith and Holiness had been foreseen and so imputable to them the Spirit of Truth would not have Rank'd them Even with the Children of wrath as He doth Eph. 2. 3. But 2. If they were otherwise what could they add unto God Job 37. 24. Ch. 35 7. Ch. 41. 11. Or whereby could they oblige Him He respecteth not any that are wise of heart If thou be Righteous what givest thou Him And who hath prevented Me says the Lord that I should repay him i. e. Who is he that is a fore hand with God Deut. 10. 17. in doing ought that might induce His favour He regardeth not Persons nor taketh Rewards He is not propitious to any for what they can do for Him or bring to Him Take Paul for an Instance He walked up to the light he had Was blameless lived in all good Conscience knew no evil by himself a rare degree of legal Righteousness But that it was not this moved God to make him a Chosen Vessel he thankfully acknowledgeth with self-abasement upon every occasion Tit. 3. 5. Tin 1. 14. 15. 2. Tim. 1. 9. 3. Faith follows Election God respects the person before his offering you 'l say perhaps Abel was respected as a Believer and his offering for his Faith True But that Faith of his was not the primary cause of God's respecting him If Abels Person had not been respected first he had never been a Believer For Faith is the work and gift of God and according to the course of all judicious Agents he that will work must first pitch on the Subject He will work upon and he that gives on the person he will give unto Heb. 11. 6. Besides Rom. 14. 23. Abel could do nothing before he Believed that might move God to give him Faith therefore it could not be Abel's foreseen Faith that was the Cause of his Election The Scripture speaks often of iron-sinew'd-Necks and Brazen Brows and of Men's being in their blood when the Lord said They should live As also that God loved Jacob before he had done any good thing and that the Saints love God because He loved them first But no-where of Foreseen Faith and Holiness as the Cause and Ground of God's love to Men. 4. Faith and Holiness are Middle things They are neither the Foundation nor Top-stone of Election They are to Sovereign Grace as Stalks and Branches are to a Root by which the Root conveyes its virtues into its principal fruit Ephes 2. 8 By Grace ye are saved through Faith 2. Thes 2. 13 Chosen to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth They are no more the Cause of Election than the Means of an End are the first Cause of Purpose Nay no more than Tatnai's propension to build the Temple and to provide Sacrifices for the God of Heaven was the Cause of Darius his Decree that those things should be done Ezra 5. and 6. Chapters 5. If men be Predestinate to Faith and Holiness as they are according to Rom. 8. 38 â—9 and 1. Pet. 1. 2. Then they were not seen to be such before their Predestination Or if they were then their Election as to that particular would seem impertinent There can no Rational account be given why Men foreseen to be such should be so solemnly predestinate thereto So likewise If Salvation be the inseparable product of Faith and Holiness according to John 5. 24 He that believeth hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation 1. Pet. 1. 9. Receiving the End of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls Then to ordain to Salvation those foreseen to be so qualified would seem a thing both needless and insignificant It would look like the sending of Men where they would have gon of Themselves Such sapless irregular and injudicious Notions are very unworthy that Celebrious and for ever Adorable Act of Predestination And if duely weighed would set us further off from the doctrine of Self-advancement which stands in so point-blank opposition to the Doctrine of God's Grace V. Arg. 5. It could not stand with the wisdom and Goodness of God to found the Salvation of His People on a failable bottom Which it must be said to be if dependent on any thing besides His own Immutable Will For whatever it was that Election had being from
that this Power belongs to God no other Reason needs be assign'd but that He is God and there is nâ—ne besides him There can be no more because 1 There can be but one Infinite for such a being fils Heaven and Earth and so no place or room for another 2 There can be but one Omnipotent For He that is such hath all others under his feet Besides where One can do all more would be impertinent 3 There can be but one Supream Supream power may reside in Many as in mixt Monarchies and Common-wealths but as Law-makers and Supream they are but One. 4 There can be but one first Cause from which all being else derive their Original and that is this blessed One we are speaking of Of whom and for whom are all things 1 Cor. 8. 6. And if he be the Author of all he needs must have a Sovereign Right and Power to determine all as to their being so also to their Order Efficacy and End It is a Truth so natural and obvious to Reason it self that other proof seems as needless as that the Sun is the fountain of light Nor shall I suppose that any who will read this discourse can so far forget themselves to be Creatures as to seek a proof of their Creators Sovereignty The things that are seen so loudly proclaiming his Eternal power and Godhead But since with our easy admitting the Notion it is none of the smallest difficulties to own it in our practise and bear our selves answerably towards him Since also so huge a weight is born on the shoulders of this Supream Attribute and our souls are so highly concern'd in the interest and influences of it it needs must be our duty and well worthy our time to look or the Instances of it and to mark and consider them well as things greatly importing our Instruction whereby we may know something of the Greatness of that God in whose hands our souls are as also of our infinite distance from him and nothingness to him and so with the more humbleness of mind and self-abasement as also with the more Faith and Creature-like affiance submit unto him and bear our selves upon him To this end the Scriptures have inrolled divers Ensignes of Sovereignty by which as by so many footsteps we are led to the Absolute Will and Power of God as the Cause and Ruler of all The Great Act of Sovereignty was Gods Decree for making the World and of doing or permitting to be done what ever should be in it to the folding of it up The Heavens and the Earth and all the hosts of them as yet had no being It was at his pleasure whether he would make them or not And if he would what being he would give them to what End and how that end should be accomplished And that these were all ascertain'd by the Decree is evident For known unto God were all his works which he would do in time from the beginning of the World Acts 15. 18. The scheme and substance whereof and I hope without intrusion may be drawn to this effect That the Great God being infinitely good and blessed in himself was also infinitely prompt and well-pleased to Communicate of that his blessedness To which end he designed to raise up Creatures Angels and Men That for the manifestation of his Sovereignty He would confirm a certain number of those Angels in their primitive state leaving the rest to themselves Who falling from that state should be cast down and reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day That in this lower World he would set up the first Man to be the head and Representative of all that should come of him That this single person should be created in the Image of God fit to enjoy Communion with him and endued with power to abide therein That to manifest the weakness of Creatures and their perpetual dependence upon God he would thus leave him to his first stock and being so left the fallen Angeâ— tempting him to disobedience and also prevailing both himself and all his posterity by this Revolt should fall under the curse That for the declaration of his Sovereign Grace He would and accordingly did choose a certain number of Adam's posterity and ordain them to eternal life And to make known the power of his wrath and his just displeasure against sin he would leave the Rest in that state of perdition they would bring themselves into That of these Vessels of wrath Satan himself whom they chose to follow should be the Head and Ruler as also over them that were Elected for a time viz. until the Messiah their true and proper Head and into whom he had chosen them should rescue them out of his power That to this end and that he might also be known to be just as well as Merciful in justifying of them the Son of God should take on him the place of a second Adam and come into the world with an humane body In which he should fullfil all Righteousness and by the infinite virtue and merit of his death should satisfy the Law in all its demands destroy the Devil dissolve his works and Reconcile the Elect unto God That he should be raised again from the dead and invested with all power befitting the Captain of their Salvation and so might effectually minister to them whatever should be requisite for bringing those his Sons to glory This I take to be the sum of God's Decree the Great Ensigne or Standard Royal of Sovereignty whereof all the other Ensigns are Effects or consequents and subordinate thereto The first visible Ensign of Sovereignty was Creation or God's giving the World an actual existence in time according to his Decree from everlasting Bringing that huge yet void and formless Mass at first out of Nothing and then this glorious fabrick out of that Confusion His hanging the Earth upon nothing His assigning to every sort of Creatures Job 26. 7. such Form and Station Order Use and Efficacy and impressing on them such Laws and Instincts of nature as seemed him good which also was effected by his word what he would was done with that immediate suddenness as if the things themselves had proceeded with his breath Ps 33. 9. Gen. 1. 3. v. 9. Ps 104. 3. The instant production of light The waters seperating from the other Elements and gathering into a body and their going up and down to the place He had sounded for them with many others of which ye have an Index in the first of Genesis are witnesses of it as also His so fixing this ' stablishment that they continue this day according to his Ordinance Ps 119. 91. Consequent to this as a second Ensign of Sovereignty is that universal Providence by which the Creation is sustained and all inferiour Causes guided to their designed End and this notwithstanding all supposeable accidents which might possibly come between to obstruct or divert them And that
which when he slighted the spirit of God left him and he became as other Men and recovered not his strength until it was grown again 3. As touching the Providences of God Observe them and Submit to them look not upon them as Empty things The least may yield you Instruction as also the Most unlikely Out of the Eater comes forth Meat and out of the strong sweetness Though the thing be a â—iddle to an heart uncircumcised Plough with His Heifer and ye shâ—ll find it Neither look on them as Things Impertinent But say rather Is there not a Cause though I see it not The Lord does nothing in vain Neither yet look on them as Things Contingent Math. 10 29 30 A sparrow falls not without His will and the hairs of your head are all Numbred Ps 39 9. David was Dumb and opened not his Mouth why Because Thou Lord didst it And Shimei's Cursing he beares patiently 2 Sam. 16. 10. on the same account It may be the Lord hath bidden him There may be Such a Mixture and Confusion of things and your expectation so delayed and frustrated That your froward untamed heart may be ready to Wrangle it out Eccles. 8. 14. Why falls it alike to All Why to the Just according to the Work of the wicked and to the wicked according to the work of the Righteous Or why One event to them All This is not to Enquire wisely you should rather conclude and say as the Disciples in another Case The Lord hath need of them That is He hath occasion to use such a Providence to fullfil a Word If ye would Cast so as to lye by your Mark this Attribute of Sovereignty gives you the best Ground Search and Observe as much as ye will so you take Faith along with you Without which ye can do Nothing Warrantably Faith is a Sworn Officer to the Great king and has a key for every lock that is fit to be opened It forces Nothing but where it cannot Enter it stands without and Waits a fitter season Let Faith also be Chief Speaker in all your Debates And then the Result will be That Carnal Reason and Present Sense though very Tenacious and Stubborn shall yield the Cause and let you goe The Summ of all is this That though ye be not Conscious to your self of any particular Cause or Miscarriage besides what is Common to Men which was the Case with Job Lay your hand upon your Mouth as Job did The Most High doth according to His Will Dan. 4. 34 35. This even the proudest of Kings acknowledged when his understanding returned to him and so do you And know That if your spirit be out of frame in your present Condition it would not be better in any other Secondly Our Faith also is highly concerned in the Sovereignty of God For It both obligeth to Believe in Him and also affords Matter for Faith to work upon To these Ends the Lord holds it forth to Abraham Once and Again Gen. 17 1. I am God Almighty c. This was it enabled him to believe he should have a Son even whiles the Deadness of his own Body Rom. 4. 19. and of Sarah's Womb wrought strongly against it This also was that made him so readily assent to the offering up of this Son when he had him He had as much to say against it as could well be supposed For the Promise was That in Isaac all families of the Earth should be blessed which Promise and this Command Abraham's Reason could not Reconcile The Contradiction would surely have Run him down had not his faith in this Great Attribute held fast and guided the Reignes Suggesting to him That He who gave Isaac a being from a Withered Stock was able also to raise him from the dead Heb. 11. 19. Abraham there fore disputes it Not Stands not so much as to consider upon 't but up he gets him Early to do it And hence he obtained that honourable title James 2. 23. to be called The friend of God Ye have seen Now what Abraham did Go ye and do likewise Take hold of Gods Sovereignty as your own and to be improved for your good Faith gives a Propriety in any Attribute it looks upon and drawes out the virtues and Influence thereof for it self And therefore What ever difficulties are in your way be not disheartened by them but call in this Sovereignty of God by faith to your help Remember the ready subjection which all Creatures do pay to his Word By which alone without Creatures service He can level the Mountains and make Crooked things streight Restraâ—â— Alter Invert and Turn upside down the very Course of Nature so that That which is death in it self shall be life to you New Cords and Wyths when touch'd by his word are as flax and tow when touch'd by the fire Iron shall be as straw and brass as rotten wood Therefore lengthen the Cords and strengthen the stakes of your faith you cannot beleive for greater things or better than God can do for you Even sin it self which is the Great and in truth the onely evil It is His enemy as much as yours And you may be sure He would not have suffered its being in the World if He had not a Power to Correct and Curb it yea and to destroy it too at His pleasure Take hold of His sovereign strength and your work is done But here also a Caution or two may be seasonably added 1. That if death in the pot have once been healed and your borrowed Ax-head sunk once past hope of Recovery have been brought again to your hand look that Remissnes grow not upon it Beware ye gather not Wilde Gourds a second time Nor persume to throw the helve after the Head The Divine Power is too great a thing to be trifled with or Made to serve with the â—ollies of Men. 2. That you never look on this Great Attribute of Sovereignty without your Mediator As without whom it would be matter of Terror and Amazemeut to sinners It is He onely can render It Propitious to you As Nothing is pleasing to God but in and through Christ So Nothing in God is Comfortable to Men or for their Eternal Good but as it comes to them through Him As Waters out of the Sea immediately are not potable unless they be first exhaled by the Sun or pass through some vein of Earth which makes them Congruous to our Nature I shall mention two particulars of Nearest Coâ—cerment to us wherein we are in a special manner to have respect unto the Sovereignty of God 1. As touching your own Condition your everlasting Condition Submit to Mercy to Sovereign Mercy that is yeild your self to God without Capitulaâ—ing or Makâ—ing terms with him Those Syrians well under stood the Meaning of this They put Ropes on their heads and themselves in the Conquerors hands 1 K. 20. 31. upon an uncertain Conjecture
being thus quickened by the Spirit of liâ—e from God and set upon their feet they are capacitated for action viz. in Things to be done by them And now say they as Daniel Dan. 10. 9. 19. Now let my Lord speak for Thou hast strengthened me And thence-forth their work and business is to Glorifie that Grace that hath saved them To walk before God in the daily exercise of those Graces He hath given them To press after Perfection that is a Meetness for that State of Glory which these things are preparatory to which the Scripture calls A walking worthy of the Lord To shew forth his praises the virtues of Him that hath called them Making His Law their Rule and His Glory their End above all And all in way of dutiful Gratitude For though you may and ought to have respect to your own Salvation peace and comfort yet so as to substitute all to the Glory of God's Grace And take this by the way to encourage you in your duty That the Glory of God and His people's blessedness are so intertwisted as never to be divided Whiles you keep That most directly in your eye and scope your own Concerns are most currently going-on They fall-in together and keep in the same Channel II. Whence these Requisites to Salvation come That Jesus Christ that Great Fundamental Requisite or One thing necessary is the Gift of God sent into the World by Him and set forth a Propitiation through faith in His blood is above all need of proof But the present enquiry is touching the Author of Faith and holiness The Efficient Cause of Regeneration What Power it is by which the New Creature is formed and brought forth Our Assertion is That the New Creature is God's workmanship entirely and alone This the Scripture seems evident for But being a Truth unacceptable to Nature And there being some who Owning the Name deny the Thing we must the more intently look to the proof of it and our Argument for it is this That the Mew Creature must be wrought either by a Divine Power Or by a Natural power Or by the concurrence of both together But I It cannot be wrougbt by a Natural power and that for these Reasons among others 1. Because it is a Creature I. and of all Creatures the Noblest and most excellent All the Virtuoâ—i in the World are not able to make an Atom They may refine and sublimate things that are but cannot give the least being to that which is Not. How then should the Natural Man give Being to the New Creation To suppose such a thing would be a degrading to the Divine Nature A setting the Image of the Heavenly below that of the Earthly For He that builds is worthy of more honor Heb. 3 3. than the thing that is built by him 2. Nothing can afford That it hath not in it self II. Now Every Soul in nature is Darkness and possest with an habitual aversion from God And light is not brought out of darkness nor a clean thing out of an Unclean No man will expect Grapes from thorns the product will be according to That of which it is produced Every Seed will have its own body Matth. 7. 18. Joh. 3. 6. An evil Tree cannot bring forth good fruit That which is born of the Flesh is flesh and will never be better Therefore the New Creature being a Divine Thing cannot be Educed of Natural Principles 3. The Natural Man is not only void of all virtue and property that tends to Regeneration III. but is Opposite thereto To be grafted into the true Olive-tree Rom. 11. 24. is contrary to Nature He is Enmity against God and Enmity being a Principle uncapable of Reconcilement it cannot be supposed it will help to destroy it self They will not so much as seek after God Psal 10. 4. John 8. 44. nor take Him into their thoughts Satan they follow with natural Motion but as for the word of the Lord Jer 44. 16 ch 2. 25. ch 17. 9. they profess stoutly They will not hearken unto it They have loved Strangers and after them they will go So desperately wicked are the hearts of Men They are even made up of fleshly lusts which war against the Soul And whatsoever hath respect to its happy Restorement And this Enmity is maintained and animated 1 By the Darkness that is in them which all men in Nature are filled with or with false lights which are equally Pâ—rnicious and obstructive to this Work By reason hereof the most glorious objects though just afore them are hid from their eyes 1 Cor. 2. 14. They do not nor they cannot discern the Things which are of God They have false Conceptions of every thing Call Good evil and evil Good put light for darkness and darkness for light and the most excellent things are commonly furthest off from their approbation It 's a known Experiment That the more Spiritual any Truth is the more will carnal Reason object against it John 3. 9. ch 6. 52. How can these things be and How can this Man give us of His flesh to eat By all the understanding that Men have afore Conversion they are but more strongly prejudiced against the Truth Acts 17. 18. 1 Cor. 1. 19-23 2 This Enmity is further Confirm'd and Fix'd by the Naturality of it If it were an Adventitious quality it might possibly be separated But Now it cannot by any humane power And that it is Natural appears in that theVniversality of Mankind is infected with it It is not Here and There One Rom. 3 9 18. But All and Every one Jews and Gentiles are all under sin None that understandeth None that seeketh after God Gen. 6. 13. None that doth good no not One Every imagination of their heart is onely Evil and that continually Every Man is brutish Jer. 10. 14. Psal 51. 3. 58. 5. and altogether filthy and this in their Root Conceiv'd in sin Go astray from the womb c. It also grows up with them and the longer it lives the worse it is and the more Impregnable Rom. 8. 7. It is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And though at times they look another way like Bullets of Stone or Lead which acted by a foreign power are mounted into the Air their upward Motion quickly ceaseth because it was not Natural They come again to their Center of their own accord and there they will live and die As was verified in Saul Ahab Agrippa and others 4. The New Creature cannot be the Product of Natural Power IV. because every thing is Receiv'd and Improv'd according to the Nature of that which receives it Plants and other Creatures turn all their Nourishment into their own Species and Property A Vine and a Thistle both planted in one Soil have the same Sun Dew Air and other Influences common to both yet each one Converts the whole of
His Soul an Offering for sin He should see His seed Or it may be intended of both 2 The Righteousness of Christ is concerned in it two ways 1 As the Meriting or procuring Cause thereof and so this Faith belongs of Right to every one He died for according to Phil. 1. 29. Or 2 As He is that faithful Servant who gives to every One according as He hath received of the Father for them In all which respects it evidently flows from Election To confirm which he says expresly in his former Epistle That they were Elected unto Obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 2. So in the 1 to the Ephes The Mystery of His Will is said to be Made known to them Eph. 1. 9. According to His good pleasure which He had purposed in Himself The same Intendment we have in the Corinths The preaching of the Gospel is to them that perish 1 Cor. 1. 18. foolishness but to Vs who are Saved it is the Power of God And in Timothy Who hath Saved us and Called us with an Holy Calling In both places Saving is put afore Calling and then it must be afore Faith And how Men are Saved before they Believe unless by Election or Redemption which is commensurate with Election doth not appear to us To this purpose 't is further Observable that in Rom. 8. the Apostle sets Predestination afore Calling as in Timothy and the Corinths he doth Saving And in Rom. 9. He puts Calling in a tense subsequent to Election or Preparing unto Glory Ro. 9. 23 24. The Apostle Jude his sentence also accords with it He directs his Epistle To them that are Sanctified by God the Father Jude 1. And Preserved in Jesus Christ and Called Where by Sanctified he means Elected separated or set apart In this sense the word is used elsewhere where it will not admit of any other Exod. 31. 13 I am the Lord that doth Sanctifie you And more plainly in Numb 8. 17 All the First-born of the Children of Israel are Mine On the day that I smote every First-born in the Land of Egypt I Sanctified them for my self Here no other thing but Choosing Selecting or Setting apart can be intended And I see no Reason why it should not be so understood in that of Jude And it is termed an Holy Calling Not only as it Calleth us to Holiness but as it is Sacred Peculiar Set apart and appropriated to an Holy People viz. Those whom the Lord hath set apart for Himself Whose Eternal Sanctifying them in His Decree was the Original Cause of their being Sanctified Actually He loved them with an Everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness doth He draw them Jer. 31. 3. And this their Actual Sanctification is so indubitable a Consequent of the Decretive and so Appropriate to the same persons that the same word is used for both as it is also for Redemption For their sakes says Christ I Sanctify my Self Joh. 17. 19. A lightsom Instance of this we have in Numb 11. 26. Eldad and Medad though they came not up to the Tabernacle with their Brethren yet being of them that were Written the Spirit came-upon them and they Propheâ—ied in the Camp Election finds out Men when they think not of it So the Lord first Determines Jeremy to his Office Jer. 1. 9â— Then puts-forth His hand and fits him for his Work Even Christ Himself was first appointed to His Mediatory Office Isa 61. 1. And then the Spirit came upon Him because so appointed Quer. In the 1 John 16. it is said That to them which Received Him He gave power to bâ—come the Sons of God which seems to put their believing before their Sonship Sol. Albeit that Faith goes afore the Manifestation of our Sonship yet not afore our Sonship it self The Adoption of Sons is That we were Predestinated-to before the foundation of the World Eph. 1. 4 and 5. That therefore in John must be understood with that of Moses when he pleads with God for His presence with His People So shall we be separated from all the People that are on the face of the Earth Not Exod. 33. 13. that this Separation was Now to be made It was done afore Deut. 7. 6. Levit. 20. 24. But his meaning is That by the Lord 's going with them this their Separation should be Manifested The same sense of the word ye have in Matthew 5 Matth. 5. 44. Love your Enemies Bless them that Curse you That ye may be that is that ye may appear to be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven v. 45. In like Manner We become the Sons of God by Faith Gall. 3. 26. The budding of Aaron's Rod was not the Cause of God's Choosing him to the Priesthood Numb 17. 5. Acts 1. 24 26. Nor the falling of the Lot upon Saul and afterwards upon Matthias the Reason Why God designed them the One to the Kingdom and the other to the Apostleship They were both appointed before and those Events were but the Effects of that their fore-appointment and Evidences of it So the Giving of the Spirit is that which follows Election Because Sons Gall. 4. 6. God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts Although the Manifestation of our Adoption and our actual enjoyment of its privileges Eph. 1. 4 5 9 11 are in time yet the Thing it self is from Everlasting Pursuant to this our Saviour manifests the Father's name to the Men He had given Him out of the World Joh. 17. 6 8. ch 10. 26 27. And These receive it The Sheep hear his voice and follow Him Of others he saith expresly Ye believe not because ye are not of my Sheep ch 8. 47. He that is of God heareth God's word ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God The same Reason He gives for His different Ministration towards His own Mat. 13. 11. and Others To the One it was given to know the Mysteries of the kingdome of God To the other it was not given And therefore having ended His parables He dismisses the Multitude as having noe more for them but to His Disciples He expoundeth every thing in private and ye see He puts it upon Election as that which had invested them with this prerogative above the Rest To you it is given i. e. It belong'd to them by God's Donation and appointment They are first Saints by Election Then Saints by Calling When Christ appeared to Paul going to Damascus they that were with Him were all in a Maze A voyce they heard but knew not what it spake Why so since they were as likely to yield as he Truly it was not intended for them and therefore their Ears were not boared Nor the speech directed to them but to Paul and to Paul by Name But why to Paul above the Rest since he was the Ringleader and Chief
Persecutor in the Company Paul was a Chosen Vessel And this in brief was the Reason of it as you have it recorded in Acts 22. 14 The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee That thou shouldest know His will The Jews had many Means of knowing the Messiah and Inducements to believe in him which the Gentiles had not And yet These embrace the Gospel whiles the Jews Reject it Those who sought after Righteousness fell short of it Rom. 10. 20. when Those who sought it not attain'd it For the bottom-Reason of which different Dispensation We are referr'd to Election Rom. 11. 7 The Election hath obtained and the Rest were blinded How variously are several Men affected in hearing the same word The Sheep and the Rest have both the same Outward means One Neglects it attends not at all or Regards not what he hears A second quarrels it as the Jews often did A Third is perswaded almost as Agrippa was and those that would hear Paul agen of that Matter A Fourth is Pricked in the heart and called effectually It 's a stumbling-block to some Foolishness to Others And to some 't is the Power of God Acts 2. 39. And these some are such as were Elected of Those to whom the Promise was made and are therefore termed The Called according to His Purpose Rom. 8. 28. Rom. 8. And agen in 2 Tim. 1. 9 They are said to be Called according to His own Purpose and Grace which was given them in Christ before the World began They are first Chosen Ps 65. 4. and then Caused to approach unto God There is almost no end of Scriptures to this purpose I shall instance one more so close up this Particular All the blessings which the Saints are blessed with in time are all bestowed according to God's Decree of Election before time as is manifest from Eph. 1. ver 3 4 5. Where I observe 1. That Election goes afore the Actual Donation of Spiritual blessings 2 Tim. 19. For These are given in time That was afore time And That which comes After cannot be the Cause of That which went Afore it One Effect may be the Cause of another but not the Cause of That which caused it self 2. That the Actual Donation of Spiritual blessings is according to Election i. e. Election is the Rule by which the Dispensation is guided It is Adequate with Election and Answerable thereto even as the Impression is to the Printing-Types Or as the fashion of Davids body to the platform thereof in God's book and the Tabernacle to the patern shewn in the Mount According to which all things were made as well in respect of Number Weight and Measure as Form and Figure Spiritual blessings are not given to One More or Fewer or in other manner but just as Election hath laid it forth Which also is further confirm'd by Rev. 21. 27 Where we finde That None are admitted into the Holy City but whose Names were written in the book of life And Whosoever was not found written in that book was cast into the lake of fire chap. 20. 15. Which shews That at the latter day Acts 13. 48. it will be taken for granted That as many as were ordained to Eternal life believed And that all and every One without the list of Election dyed in Unbelief That the Election obtained Rom. 11. 7. and the Rest were blinded Therefore Faith and Holiness are not the Cause but the Certain effect and inseparable Consequent of Election IV. Our last Enquiry is Of the Way and Manner of God's Dispensing spiritual Blessings And that is Effectually and Freely I. Effectually The Soul is not turned to God by a Twyne-Thread Nor doth the Lord content Himself with Wishing and Woulding that it might be so after the manner of Men who either are Indifferent in the thing Or have not Wherewith to Effect their desires Nor merely by propounding Moving and striving by Moral Suasions Instructions Threatnings and the like which are of little avail with a dark Understanding and fixed enmity which every Natural Man is acted by But by the putting-forth of a Power Invincible A Power that will not be said Nay but what it Wills That it will doe What it undertakes it goesthorow with To doe a thing Effectually is to doe it Perfectly Thorowly Successfully that is So to use and apply the Means that the End designed is surely brought-to-pass And this Notwithstanding all the Weakness Aversness and Repugnancy of the Carnal Mind against it I might produce Instances not-a-few touching God's Effectual Working to bring-about things of lesser Moment How unwilling was Moses to be His Messenger to Pharaoh Exod. 3 4. So opposite to it That when he had no farther plea nor excuse to make chap. 4. v. 13. he carries it Perversly towards the Lord send by the hand of him whom thou shouldest send But having designed him for the Work He leaves him not until He had won him to it ver 18. So Pharaoh resolv'd he would not let the people goe But I will stretch out my hand saies God and he shall let you goe ver 20. Much more will He make His Arm bare for the salvation of His Chosen And it must be so done I. Because otherwise the Elect should be in no better condition than Other men For until conversion Satan hath as fast hold of them as of the Rest Adam's fall was the Devil's Master-peece To bring men into his own condemnation is the Trophee he glories in and being a Prince both proud subtile and Imperious you may not think he will be Baffled or Complimented out of his hold Intreaties Menaces and force of Arguments are of no weight with him He laughs at your strong Reasons and Counts them but rotten wood Mark 5. 4. Jesus I know and His Spirit I know but what are these No this kind goes not forth by consent Nothing will move him but that Power which Heaven and Earth do bow under He that made him and he onely can cause his sword to approach unto him and take the Prey from this Terrible One And for this it was that our Saviour tells the Apostles when he sends them to turn Men from Satan unto God That all power in Heaven and Earth was committed to him Math. 28. 18. And that in this power He will be with them to the end of the World Which was indeed but Needfull For they had surely gon on a sleeveless errand a weak and fruitless design if Christ himself thus impower'd had not gone with them And for the Elect themselves They are of themselves no better disposed to this work than those that Never shall be wrought-upon They are Enemies in their minds Darkness Dead in sins and Children of wrath even as Others And this they are by Nature Their State therefore could never be changed if a Power Invincible and Invincibly Resolved in what It undertakes were not engaged in
it And hence it is that we find those Imperial terms I will and Ye shall so much in use about this Matter Thus the Lord began with the Serpent which was a leading Case to all that follows It shall bruise thine head In which compendious word the destruction of Satan and Sin is effectually provided for And elswhere He speaks as much for quick'ning the Soul I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My Statutes Ezek. 36. 27 28. Ye shall be my People and I Will be your God They shall Return unto me with their whole heart with many Others The Lord still utters Himself in tearms of Omnipotency as putting-forth an Almightiness of Power which as it needs not so it will not yea it cannnot with a Salvo to his honour admit the least Dependence upon Created power to make it successfull Isa 55. 11. His word shall not Return unto him void It shal accomplish that which He pleaseth and prosper in the thing whereto He sends it John 11. 44. He that was dead comes forth at his word though bound hand and foot II. Conversion is a Creation-work II. which though done by degrees must be gon-thorow with and that by Him who layd the foundation Or all the foregoing parts for want of a Cap-stone will moulder and come to nothing As when Adam was to be made The Lord first prepares the Earth then moulds it in such a form and then breathes into him the breath of life Els that lump had never been a living Soul So in the New Creation The Lord works and goes-on to work and leaves it not until He hath set it going He doth not onely cause the light to shine into darkness but gives withall a suitable understanding 1 Joh. 5. 20. Joh. 1. 5. a faculty connatural with the object as without which the darkness would never comprehend it Ezekiel might have prophecied till Doom's day ere those dry bones would have liv'd if the Lord Himself had not caused breath to enter into them Jam. 1. 17. 2 Cor. 4. 6. And probably He is called The Father of lights plurally to denote that as well the light comprehending or capacitating our comprehension is from God as That to be comprehended Psal 36. 9. In His light we see light III. God's Effectual Working in this Matter III. and the Necessity of His so working may also be Argued from the common sense of those already wrought upon and brought-in by whose Prayers and Confessions it is evident That they still needed a powerfull and effectual influence to Carry-on the Work already begun Turn Thou Me and I shall be Turned Quicken us and we will call upon Thee Draw me and We will Run after thee Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing but our sufficiency is of God I live Gall. 2. 20. yet not I but Christ liveth in me c. Hence it readily follows That if those already Turned and made partakers of the Divine nature whose hearts are in the good wayes of God and who desire Nothing more than to Walk in them cannot yet keep themselves Going without a Continued Efficacious Influx and Spring from Above Much-less can the Natural Man without the like Supernatural and Divine Efficacy effectually bend himself to a Compliance with them Prov. 13. 19. It is It is an abomination to fools to depart from evil IV. IV. If the Lord did not Work Effectually He should loose the honour of His work If the Efficacy of Grace should depend on the humane Will i. e. If Grace be rendred Effectual by some Motion or Act of the Will which Grace is not the Author of Then will Nature assume the Priority Works will glory over Grace and Free-will will be said to be better then Free Grace For that the less is blessed of the Better Heb. 7. 7. is without contradiction And that that which sanctifies is Greater than that which is Sanctified by it is so obvious That Christ appeals it to the Reason of Fools and Blinde Math. 23. 19. If therefore you will grant That Grace is Better than Nature Follow it must That the Will is Blessed and Sanctified by Grace viz. by its powerful and effectual operation upon it And here indeed lyes the honour and efficacy of Grace Not in a Vincible Moving Exciting Perswading or Threatening the Will to a complyance but in making the Will actually and willingly complyant with It self And thus the Lord Doth and thus He will Do where ever He will be Gracious tho never so muchagainst the present minde and natural propension of the subject And yet there no such thing as Forceing the Will As you may see afterwards V. V. The Doctrine of Effectual Calling is further confirm'd from the office of Christ as a Redeemer which was not only to purchase Eph. 1. 7. Eph. 2. 13 16. Heb. 2. 17. Rom. 5 9 10. Coll. 1. 20. 21 22. Dan. 9 24. but to put us in actual possession of the good things He purchased for us Redemption and Reconciliation are Relates Comensurate and Inseparable It is not onely a Reconcilable state that Redemption puts us into but a state of actual Reconcilement It slayes the enmity makes an end of Sin and brings-in everlasting Righteousness On this accompt our Saviour bears that glorious title Thou shalt call His name Iesus Math. 1. 31. for he shall save His people from their sins and For this Cause was the Son of God manifested that He might destroy the works of the Devil Now 1 Joh. 3 8. of these works Blindness of mind is the first-born and foster-mother to all the Rest 2 Cor. 4 4. 't is this keeps the soul in unbelief as under locks and bars and therefore must of necessity be dispell'd which can onely be done by causing the true light to shine Effectually as He did the light of this world in the first Creation which the Apostle in 2 Cor. 4. 6 Resembles it to Isa 42. 7. Luke 1. 79. Isa 49. 9. Hence those frequent mentions of His being sent To open the blind eyes To give light to them that sit in darkness And to bring forth the Prisoners from the Prison-house which may not be valued as things in design yet lyable to obstruction but to be as certainly perform'd as that Christ should dye In the 107 Psal it is spoken of as done already He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death Ps 107. 14. and brake their bands in sunder And that he speaks it of Redeemed-Ones appears by v. 2. First take them as in Darkness and he is so to give them light as to guide their feet into the way of peace Mark 8. 13-25 That story of the blind Man in the 8 Mark is a pertinent shadow of it Christ spits on his eyes and puts His hands upon him as yet he saw but darkly Men as Trees
blessing you most desire for them But be not Over-solicitous and east down because you see not yet the Marks of Election upon them The Lord doth not indeed bind himself to take all a Believers Children Nor doth He limit Himself from taking any others There is Nothing declared â—ouching His Purpose to Take All the One â—â—est they should from thence take occasion to be Remiss in their Duty which still Conversion is very natural to us nor doth He exclude the Children of others For that â—ight discourage and weaken their hands to that as is good In this various dispensing of His everlasting love He is pleased 〈…〉 His liberty and sovereign Prerogative That 〈◊〉 greatly manifests his love to Believers in so frequent 〈◊〉 Choosing of their Seed And the Freeness of His Grace in Not-rejecting altogether the Seed of Others Inference 3. Thirdly How happy and sovereignly blessed are Those who have an Interest in this Great and Sovereign Lord Which Every One is blessed with that has in truth taken hold of His Covenant For That takes in all between the Two Eternities and Eternity it self withall And the spirits or strength of the Whole lies in those few but very Compendious Words I will be your God When the Lord would comfort His People to purpose and pâ—t on their Eagles wings What a glorious Narrative doth he make of His Power and Sovereign Greatness in Isa 40. from v. 12. to v. 26. And then tells them That all this is Theirs v. 27. And if God be yours All things are yours Who and where is he that can supplant you of His blessing yâ—u may rejoyce in His Highness the thoughts whereof are Matter of terroâ—r to other Men. After the rehearsal of all the happiness and Glory that Men or Angels are capable of it shall all be comprised in this as the Original thereof and summ of the whole Blessed are they whise God the Lord is Psa 144. 15. Inference 4. Fourthly We may see here the Reason Why God doth sometimes defer to Answer the Doubts and Querie's we stick at and most desire to be Resolv'd about It is not only to shew His Sovereignty But to bring our hearts to a submiss and practical acknowledgment of it Moses was very unwilling to go on his Message to Bharaoh Many pretences he had to put it by when as the danger he might be in for killing the Aegyptian was the bottom-Objection though he speaks it not Out Indeed the men who sought his life were now dead Which if the Lord had told him of at first all those excuses had probably been spared But He was pleased to conceal it from him until He had brought him to a full compliance with His Will Exod. 3. 11. with Ch 4. 10 13 19 and then reveals it to Him Vnask'd So likewise He would not take off His hand from Iob until He had well learn'd him this lesson Job 42. 2 6 7. Say not therefore because you hear not from God so soon as you would The Lord hath â—orsaken me My Lord hath forgotten Me But follow that good Resolution recorded in Isaiah I will wait upon the Lord who hâ—deth his face for the present from the House of Jacob Isa 49. 14. and I will look for Him v. 17. Inference 5. Fifthly Let no Man then who will Say The Lord He is God presume to intrench on His Sacred Royalty by seeking a Reason of His Decrees beyond or besides the Good pleasure of His Will Even Sovereigns of dust will not admit it in Subjects though of the same Mould with themselves It is an Imperial Secret The Chief of the wayes of God It belongs to himself alone to know it and the knowledg thereof would not profit us Now. Besides There is enough revealed of great importance to us at present On which to imploy the utmost of our time and strength By Over-grasping we may sprain our hands and unfit them for service which lies within their Compass But we gain Nothing Therefore go not about to fathom this Great Deep Who but one of shallow understanding would think to measure the Sea by handfulls or to give a Demonstrative Reason of its various and convertible Courses Remember That you Magnifie His Work Job 36. 24. but lessen it Not by pretending to Comprehend it Eccles 8. 17. Sanctifie the Lord in your heart and fear before Him Inference 6. Sixthly This gives a Reason why Men of the largest Capacity for Learning and Natural understanding are so mightily Puzzelled and Labyrinth'd in Spiritual Matters particularly The Doctrine of Election Why they do so strongly oppose it and are so hardly Reconcil'd with it They are not in truth subdued to the Doctrine of God's Sovereignty And therefore whiles in discussing those points of Faith they judge as their Natural Optick represents them they lose both themselves and the Truth Which yet in some degree is made known unto Babes Men of low stature to them whose spirits the Lord hath subdued to rest contented with what their Father is pleased to tell them And for the Rest as namely the Manner and Reason of God's Disposements and Dispensations they live by Faith in His Righteousness Waiting for the day that shall Reveal all things when the Tabernacle of God which yet is in Heaven shall be let down among Men or They taken up into it and these hidden things of Sovereignty shall be more openly known amongst them Inference 7. Lastly This Doctrine of God's Absolute Dominion Clears away all that Made-ground and Rubbish which the Principles of Free-Will-Grace do found their Election upon and shews us the only true and Proper foundation of Scripture Election with those other Important Truths which hold upon it or are Consequents of it All which have their Head in the Sovereignty of God and Derived thence as Rivers are from the Sea As through his blessing and Grace may appear afterwards And so I shall close up this first particular with that holy Rapture of the Psalmist Be thou Exalted Lord in thy own strength so will we sing and praise thy Power The Lord hath prepared His Throne in the Heavens and His Kingdom ruleth over all Bless the Lord ye His Angels that Excel in strength Bless the Lord all ye His Hosts ye Ministers of His that do His pleasure Bless the Lord all His works in all places of his Dominion Bless the Lord ô my Soul OF THE RIGHTEOVSNESS of GOD. HAving founded this Discourse on the Sovereignty of God as the best and most natural ground of Satisfaction or captivation to Reason touching Election So now as a means to qualifie our Spirits and Reconcile them with the Doctrine of Sovereignty it seemeth expedient to annex that of His Righteousness and I think there is not a more evident Proposition than That there is no Vnrighteousness with God Prop. This as we are indispensably bound to believe So to be well grounded in the faith of it
will be of exceeding great Usefulness to us in every Condition especially under those darker Administrations which we do not see the Cause and Reason of When Matters of great Import seem to be Confused or Neglected When all things in view fall out alike to All and you cannot know either Good or Evil by all that is afore you I shall therefore Collect some of those Considerations from which you may find light and influence in the dark and cloudy day and by which as a Means I my self was drawn in and guided to this Determination before I had searched the Scriptures expresly concerning this Subject And they may serve both as Arguments to Demonstrate the Proposition and as Antidotes against those poysonous Contradictions which carnal Reason and unbelief will be too often forging and flinging in upon us And The First is founded on that Infinite Blessedness which the Most High God was possessed of in Himself Arg. I. before the World or any Creature was made He did not make them for any Need He had of them Rev. 4. 11. but for His Pleasure And if He needed them not there could be no Need or Reason Why He should make them such Or to such an End as not to be Meetly Over-ruled and their End attained without doing wrong to any The Motives by which Men are induced and swayed to do Wrong are chiefly Two 1. To attain something they have not Ahab slew Naboth for his vinyeard 1 Kings 21. And Athaliah all the seed Royal to get the Throne 2 Kings 11. Or 2. To Secure What they have Pharaoh oppressed the People lest growing Mighty they should shake off his yoke and get them out of his Service Exodus 1. 10. Jeroboam set up his Calves to keep the people at home and firm to himself 1 K. 12. 27 28. And the Jews they put Christ to death lest the Romanes should come and take away their Place and Nation John 11. 48. These two have shar'd the parentage of all the Oppression and Wrong-doing that have been in the World Neither of which is Compatible with our Great and Blessed God For all things are His already He posseffeth the Heavens and the Earth and all the hosts of them with an Absolute Power and Right to dispose them And what can be added to That which is Infinite And as for Securing what He hath Of whom should he be afraid For 1. There is no God Besides him Isa 44. 6. The Lord Himself who needs must know it if there were Another professeth Solemnly That He knows not any verse 8. And 2 As for Creatures They are all more absolutely under His subjection than the smallest dust under our feet is to us Ch 40. 17. The Nations are to Him less than nothing and vanity He need not so much as Touch them to bring them down 't is but Gathering to himself Job 34. 14 15. His spirit and His breath and they perish together Let the Lord but With-hold His sustaining Influence and they fall of themselves But He remains the same to all generations Secondly Arg. II. Consider the Infinite perfection of His Nature Holy Holy Holy Isa 6. 3. i. e. Perfectly Holy He is Glorious in Holiness Exod. 15. 11. Now In Holiness is not the least tincture of its Contrary 1 John 3. 5. God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all He is Good and doth Good Ps 119. Is Righteous Joh. 3. 7. and doth Righteousness All His works praise Him The Righteous Lord will do no iniquity It is an high demonstration of His Excellency 2 Tim. 2. 13. That He cannot deny Himself that is He cannot do any thing that is in the least degree contrary to His Holy Nature Nothing that needs to be Retracted or to alter His mind about it His Will is the Rule of Righteousness and Righteousness the Rule of His Will The Saints of old were perfectly of this minde Shall not the Judg of all the Earth do Right Gen 18. 25. Rom. 3. 6. And the Apostle Puts it as a Question not to be answered That if God were Unrighteous How then shall He Judge the World Thirdly Arg. III. Consider Further The constant Rule and Measure of God's Dispensments which is not done Fortuitously nor Rashly Isa 28. 17. but with Deliberation and Exactness He Layes Judgment to the Rule and Righteousness to the Plummet He will not punish without a Cause nor more than is deserved Touching the sins of Sodom Gen. 18 21. I will go down sayes God and see whether they have done altogether according to the Cry of it Renders to every one according to their Deeds Rom. 2. 6. and Gives them a just recompense of Reward Heb. 2. 2. He will not Cast away the perfect Man Job 8. 20. Nor help the wicked Eliphaz puts the question with great confidence as well he might Who ever perished being Innocent Job 47. His Righteousness is such that it even holds his hands until the Innocent be out of danger The Angels were straitly commanded Not to begin the execution of God's wrath on the wicked world until His Servants were Marked out Rev 73. And when the Lord came to destroy Sâ—dom He hastens Righteous Lot to Zoar with this onely Argument Gen 19. 22. I cannot do any thing until thou be come thi her Fourthly Arg. IV. It is further evidenced by the Lawes He hath given unto Men The sum of which is To do Righteously And the End of them the good and welfare of the Creature After a thousand years experience of These compared with the issue of Mens Inventions Nehe. 9. 13. They are acknowledged to be Right Judgments Good statues and lawes of Truth What an admirable Catalogue have we in Rom. 12. 1 Of such as concern our duty towards Himself immediately this is the Sum Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and Him onely shall thou serve There is Nothing more equal and just than to Worship and serve Him Whose we are To love and live to Him from whom we have our life and breath 2 Such as refer more immediately to Our selves As Temperance Chastity Moderation Sobriety c. These as is evident to all do greatly conduce to our outward welfare both in point of health estate Posterity c. And what evil Consequents do attend the Contraries of those Virtues might be every day's observation More especially such as relate to our spiritual state and Welfare of which more particularly under the Next Argument 3 Such Commands also as respect our duty towards Men As to do justly To shew Mercy To follow peace with all Men Every One to Mind his own business And not intermeddle with Others so To be subject to the Powers that be and To pray for those in authority The Neglect of which duty may be a Cause of our disquietment from them at least it may prove an ecclipse of our Joyfulness in
of Men who commonly pitch upon things for some Natural Aptness or Meetness of them for their Work They will not take a knotty cross-grain'd or wind-shaken piece of Timber to make a Pillar of State But the Lord pitches upon such and such to choose the poor base weak foolish things of the world the worst of Men and chief of Sinners The instances of Paul Manasseh Mary Magdalen and others make it evident and of these He is pleased to make Pillars for the House of God Pilluis of State indeed whereon to write His own Name to manifest thereby His Sovereignty Holiness Wisdome Power Righteousness and Free Grace to Eternity The Lord's way and method in bringing His Sons to Glory is the best Demonstration of the Right order of Causes For though there be a Concurrence of many things as Causes and Effects one of another yet if observ'd in their Order they will still lead us up to the Goad Pleasure of God as First and Supream and perfectly Independent The Current of the New Testament Runs wholly this way and hangs the whole of Salvation both Means and End expresly on the Divine Will Luke 1â— 32 It is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Chap 10. 21 Thou hast hid these things from the Wise and revealed them to babes For so it seemed good in thy sight Rom. 11. 5 A Remnant according to the Election of Grace Ephes 1. 5 Predestinate to the Adoption of Children according to the good pleasure of His Will Redemption also and the forgiveness of Sins according to the riches of His Grace the same Grace that Elected Ver. 7 The making known the mystery of His Will this also is according to that His Good pleasure which He had purposed in Himself Ver. 9. Yea all the operations of God whether for us upon us or by us they All have their Rise from the same Spring and are Carried by the same Rule He worketh all things after the Councel of His Own Will Ver. 11. And for the Old Testament you have it sufficiently exemplified there in the Instances before given and especially touching the ground of God's love to the People of Israel who in that respect Deut. 7. 8. Ch 9. 4. Ch. 10. 15. were the Arch-type of the Spiritual Election viâ— That His own good pleasure was the only cause of His Choosing them above other Nations He loved them because He loved them And good Reasons there are why Election should be founded upon Grace and why it could not with respect either to God's Glory or the Elect's Security be founded otherwise And the I. Is from the Sovereignty of God Whose Will being the Supream Law admits not a Co-ordinacy Much-less will it stand with Sovereign Power to be Regulated by the will of another That would be a Contradiction to Sovereignty For that which Regulates is superiour to that which is regulated by it Sovereign Princes to shew their Prerogative affirm their acts of Grace to be of their own meer Motion And their Grants are reputed the more Authentique for being so exprest The like we find in Scripture frequently ascribed to God That He will have Mercy on whom He will have mercy Rom 9. 18. That He worketh all things not by Motives from without Eph 1. 11. but after the Councel of His own Will Rom 9. 16. That it is not of Men's Willing or Running but of God who sheweth Mercy When the World had been drown'd for their obdurate impenitency the Few that remain'd were as bad as before and those that should come after the Lord foresaw would be the same One would think now The natural Result of this Experiment should be I will utterly cut them off and be troubled with them no more But the Lord's thoughts are not our thoughts He argues and concludes in another Mode I will not again any more Curse the ground for man's sake And He is pleased to give the same Reason here why He Will not as before why He would asis seen by comparing Gen. 6 5 and 7. with Chap. 8. 21. See also the Instance of God's dealing with Ephraim He was wroth with Him and smote Him and Ephraim so far from Relenting That he went on frowardly i. e. Stubbornly as Resolved in his Course I hid me sayes the Lord and was wroth Esa 57. 15. This one would think if Ephraim had in him but a spark of Ingenâ—ity should have Moved him to alter his Course But what cares Ephraim He still keeps the same way and it was the way of his heart not an inconsiderate Pet or sudden Temptation but Natural and fixed All which the Lord sees and considers and having laid all together Resolves to heal him Isa 57. 18. and Restore Comforts to him On the other hand Those good Soules who feared the Lord and Obeyed the voice of his servant Isa 50. â—1 They yet walked in darkness and had no light ye may be sure They would gladly have understood their Condition namely That they were such as feared the Lord Their Will could not be Wanting to a Thing so greatly importing their Comfort Nor they were not Idle in seeking for it They Walked though in the Dark but could not Walk themselves out of it They are still as they were They had no light By these contrary Examples ye may see That the Sovereignty of God still keeps the Throne and His dispensments of Mercy whether in purpose or in Act are not Governed by the Wills of Men They are things too low to be Councellors to God And if it be thus in things of temporary Concernment much more in that great business of Eternal Election which is the Sublimest Act of Sovereign Power And yet This hinders not but That every Man at last shall be judged according to his works II. Arg. 2. Election must be founded onely upon Grace because Grace and Works are Inconsistent in the Cause of salvation The scripture is every Cautelous of admitting any thing as a Concomitant with Grace in this Matter yea although it be a Thing that doth alway accompany Grace and That without which a Man cannot be Saved The Apostle puts them in opposition and is very intent on the Argument as a thing of great Moment in Rom. 11. Where first he shews That amidst that general Defection of the Iewish Nation there still was a Remnant whom God had Reserv'd These he terms The Foreknown ver 2. and in the 7. ver he calls them plainly The Election And then lest any should ascribe it to a false cause as in that paralel Case he resembles it to viz That they had not bowed the knee to Baal but stuck to the True Religion when others fell off he tells us No Their Election was founded upon Grace And as for Works they had no place in the Causality of it By Grace he means the Free Favour of God who is not moved by any thing without Himself But what He