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
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
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
does He does it Freely without respect to Mens desert Nay their Vndesert rather is an expedient Consideration in this Act of Grace By Works I understand All that Self-Righteousness Goodness Conformity to the Law Or what ever else is performable by Men. These viz Grace and Works he proves as inconsistent as Contraries can be and that the least Mixture would vary the kind If but a sâ—ruple of Works be taken in Grace is no more Grace For to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Rom. 4. 4. Grace and Faith are well agreed These both have the same scope and end But Rom. 4. 4. Grace and Works have always Clash'd The setting up of the One is the deposing of the other Either the Ark must Out or Dagon down One Temple cannot hold them both Rom. 3. 28. To the same effect is the drift of that discourse in Gal. 5. It appears from Acts 15. 1. That some there were who taught a Necessity of Circumcision as without which they could not be saved Pretty willing they were to admit of Christ so they might joyn Circumcision with Him and keeping the Law of Moses But this dangerous daubing with things unmixable our holy Apostle could not brook both as reflecting on the honour of his Master and undermining their onely Foundation And therefore to keep them from or bring them off that perillous Quick-sand he tells them expresly These two cannot stand together in that matter For if they be Circumcised they are Debtors to the whole Law and Christ is become of none effect to them because they are fallen from Grace It is as if he had said If you take in any part though never so little of Legal Observances as Necessary to your being Justified ye forfeit the whole benefit of Gospel-Grace The Grace of Christ is sufficient for you He is a Saviour Compleat in Himself and if you look though but a squint at any thing else it is a Renouncing of Him He will be Saviour altogether or not at all And therefore he tells them again and that with a kind of vehemency Gall. 5. 2. That if they be Circumcised Christ shall profit them Nothing And as a Man may not put in his Claim for Justification on accompt of his Works so neither of his Faith as if That were Mâ—terially or Influentially Causal of Justification For Faith it self as it is the Believers Act comes under the Notion of a Work Let us therefore Consider What part it is that Faith holds in this Matter least whiles we cast out Works as not standing with Grace we make a Work of Faith It is Faith's Office to make the Soul live wholly on Another and to Renounce Self ability as much as Self desert To apprehend that Righteousness by which Grace Justifies Not onely to be Justified thereby upon your Believing but to work in you even that Faith by which you apprehend it Isa 45. 24. answerable to that of the Prophet In the Lord have I Righteousness and Strength He that will be Saved must come as an ungodly Person to be justified freely by the Grace of God He must reckon himself an Vngodly Man to the very instant of his Justification True it is The Just shall live by Faith but 't is also true That it is not their own Faith or act of believing that they live by though not without it Which also seems the Apostle's meaning where he sayes The life which I now live I live by the Faith of the Son of God Where note That as Faith is the life of a Believer so Christ is the life of his Faith I live saith he yet not I but Christ liveth in Me Christ was his life and he lived on Christ by virtue of Christ's living in him Notwithstanding all which it is evidently true and must constantly be affirm'd That Grace and Works will still be together in the way of Salvation the one doth not extinguish or exclude the other Only not as Collegues or Joint-Causers thereof But rather as a Workman and his Tooles which himself first makes and then workes with them By Grace ye are saved through Faith Eph. 2. 8. and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Even this believing or Acting faculty is a Creature of Grace's raising up and therefore in the Throne 't is meet that Grace should be above it Works therefore how good soever are not the Cause of Salvation and if so then not the cause of Election for This indeed is the Cause of them both And Works if right and truly Good will alwayes be ready to own their Original and to keep in their own place Where also they will be most considerable and do the best service III. Arg. 3. That the good pleasure of God's Will gives Rise and Foundation to Election is further argued from Men's Incapacity to afford any ground or Motive to God for such a Gift Adam stood not so long as to beget a Son in his first Image It is sâ—en by his first-born Cain what all his natural Sâ—ed would naturally be And though there be some that do Magnifie Man and presume to speak of him at another rate yet evident it is by Scripture-light and experience of those Renewed That Man fallen is poâ—r blind Naked and at enmity with all that is truly good and that he is never more Remote and farr off from God than whiles in high thoughts of himselfe Glorying in his own Understanding Strength Worthyness Freedom of Will Improvement of Common Grace and the like For These make him proud and presumptuous and to have slight thoughts of that special and peculiar Grace by which he must if ever be Renewed and Saved But the Lord Himself who best knows him reports the matter quite otherwise and we know that His witness is true viz. That all the imaginations of their heart are onely evil continually Gen. 6 5. That their inward part is very wickedness Ps 53. 1. That every Man is brutish in his knowledge Jer 10 14 ver 8 21. Altogether brutish and foolish yea even their Pastours that is the very best and most intelligent amongst them Ch 4. 22. Eccles. 91 3. They are wise to do evil but to do good have no understanding And their hearts are full of madness And it was not thus only with the Gentile Nations who were left to walk in their own way but even with the Jews Isa 5. 4. who had all the means of becoming better that could be devised Excepting that of special Electing Grace which took-in but a Remnant They were called Jews Rested in the Law Made their boast of God Knew His Will Approved the things that were excellent Were confident that they were a Guide of the blind and a light to them that were in darkness Instructors of the foolish Teachers of Babes And yet all this while and in the midst of all these high attainments did not
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