by Ahab and the people A prophet is one that is inspired by the Holy Ghost which those Men were not but by a lying spirit Now Simon Magus was no more a true Believer ver 22. than those true Prophets Nor his faith any more of the right kind than their predictions true prophecies We also find that the Scripture makes the Coming-to-pass of the thing foretold to be the evidence of a true prophet According to which Rule Persâ—verance to salvation is to demonstrate the truth of faith and where-ever this follows not there faith was but pretended They profess to know God Tit. 1. 16. 2 King 17. 32. ver 34. but in deeds do deny Him As of those Samaritans before mentioned It is said They feared the Lord and presently after that They feared not the Lord They feared him in shew but not in truth 4. The Foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth them that are His 2 Tim. 2. 19. He brings it in to comfort believers touching the Sureness of their standing when others of as glorious out-sides make Shipwreck of the faith It stands sure because the Lord knoweth them that are His He knows whom He hath Chosen For whom He hath received the Attonement whom He hath Called and caused to take hold of His Covenant And these shall surely be kept Notwithstanding the wofull backslidings of others If one that believes not Now may have faith hereafter Then one that is Now a Believer may lose his faith and turn Apostate It followes not That because Christ can bind Satan and cast him out therefore Satan can do so by Christ He can come into the Devil's Nursery when He will Take a Crab-stock and transplant it and Graff it with a Noble Cyons But Satan cannot come into God's Vinyard which is a Garden enclosed and take thence What him pleaseth One who is now dead in sin may be quickened but being once alive can dye no more It is Christ's own Assertion He that liveth Joh. 11. 26. and believeth in Me shall never dye Which cannot be meant of any other but a spiritual death which is all one with losing his faith A Righteous Man may turn away from his Righteousness and that so that he shall dye for it Ezek. 18. 24. There is a twofold Righteousness 1. Moral Such as Paul had before his Conversion This a Man may continuein to the last and yet not be Saved 2. There is a Gospel Righteousness 1 Imputed This is the Righteousness of Christ by which we are Justified 2 Infused This is the Divine Nature communicated by the Spirit of Chriâ—t whereby we are Sanctified These two go inseparably and can never be lost But The Righteousness spoken of in the place objected seems to be of the former Sort viz. Moral or Outward Righteousness For Outward Conformity to the Law was the Condition of their possessing the land of Canaan with long life and prosperity in it This if they retain'd it gave them a legal Right to those Promises If they turn'd from it they ran into a forfeiture And lose it they might for they had no promise That they should abide in it But the New Covenant undertakes for That as is evident by comparing Jer. 31. 31-33 with chap. 32. 40. But if any will yet suppose The Righteous Man spoken of in that 18. of Ezek. to be meant of a true Believer there is I hope in the Answers foregoing to Solve it If any should alledg But suppose a Believer be taken away in his Sin as perhaps Josiah was and hath not time to Repent of it I Answer 1. It cannot be proved that this was the case with Josiah He probably had time sufficient between his Wounding and his Death For he was carried from Megiddo to Jerusalem before he dyed But 2. There was That in him that would have Repented and God reckons of a Man according to what he would Do It being in David's heart to build him an House it was accepted as if he had done it The Root of the matter is in every Regenerate person which if it had time would put-forth it self in fruits and therfore They shall not be dealt with as barren trees which have not that substance in them The Promise of Perseverance is not made to Faith that That shall not fail but in reference to the favour of God viz. That if Men go-on to Believe they shall abide in his love Thus to give the sense of the Promise is 1. To enervate it to make it speak but according to the Covenant of works It bereaves it wholly of that Bâ—tternes the Scripture ascribes to it in Heb. 8. 6. 2 It renders the Promise as speaking fallaciously as making shew of That it intends not It would be but as if he had said You shall keep the favour of God if you do not lose it 3. Faith is the Soul 's Coming to God Unbelief its departing from Him The Promise therefore that secures against departing from God secures your Continuance in Believing He that undertakes you shall be Crown'd doth virtually undertake for your holding-out to the end of your Race Others agen dispose Otherwise of those Promises recorded in the 36 of Ezek. and 32 of Jeremy touching Men's notdeparting from God Restraining them to the Jewish Nation and to the last Dayes To this may readily be answered 1. That the Time which then was when the Apostles wrote is called The last time 1 John 2. 18. Acts 2. 17. 2. Albeit that some particular times and persons are more peculiarly concerned in the Promises of the old Testament especially such as refer to temporal things yet is there no one Promise but in the spirituality of it belongs to Every one that belongs to Christ that is Jews in spirit No Scripture is of private Interpretation and therefore Not to be Confin'd to those particular times or persons when and to whom they were delivered They were written for the use of All 1 Cor. 10. 11. And 3. We find them accordingly apply'd in the New Testament The Promise made to Joshua touching the success of his Warfare in Canaan Josh 1. 5. with is by the Apostle applyed to Believers in general Heb. 13. 5. as an Argument against overmuch carefulness in a Married'state and for Contentedness with our present condition Isa 29. 13. with So likewise the Prophesie of Isaiah touching the hypocrites of his time is by Christ applyed to the Pharisees Math. 15. 7 8 And the Promises made to the Iews in Isa 54 13. and Ier. 31. 33 are applied to the Gentiles in John 6. 45. and Rom. 4. 15. 16. This Doctrine of Absolute Perseverance lays the Reigns of Security on the Neck of the flesh and of the old man in believers 1. This Objection is in effect the same with the first Only it speaks broader which shews That the farther Men go in opposing the Truth the worse language they give it That Many
Eccles. 3. 14. taking it still for a Rule That all the wayes of God are perfect Nothing can be put to them Nor any thing taken from them 'T was a good Reâ—olution in Job Job 9. 15. Job 13 15. That though he were Righteous yet would he not answer God but make supplication to his Judge And though he should slay him yet will he trust in Him And this he would do even whiles he thought he might maintain his own wayes before Him Be Patient therefore Jam. 5. 7. Ps 9. 8. Tbe coming of the Lord draweth nigh who will judge the World with Righteousness Let neither the wickeds prosperity nor the daily Chastenings of His own People Ps 73 17. be an offence to thee Go up into the Sanctuary of God There thou shalt know the end It shall not alwaies be carried thus There will be a Reckoning for the good things they had in their life time when those that have lived in pleasure will wish that their Souls had been in thy Souls stead under all its pressures And it shall be no grief of heart to thee to remember thy Morta ' and momentany sufferings Rom 8. 18. Heb. 12. 11. when thou â—eest such peaceable â—ruits of Righteousness brought forth thereby When thou shalt be wrapt up with an holy amazement and shalt say in thy heart Isa 49. 21. Ch. 60. I lost my Children and was desolate A Captive and Removing to and fro had no abiding place who hath begotten me these Whence came they What root sprang they from 2 Cor. 4. 17 My Light afflictions were not worthy to be compared with this Glory He 'l never repent that he sowed in tears who brings home his Sheafs with such Joy But as you go along to this your blessed home and sweet Place of Eternal Rest Eccles 8. 12 13 it may be worth the while to Ruminate such Scriptures as these Though a Sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged he goes unpunished yet surely it shall be Well with them that fear God But it shall not be Well with the wicked Ps 58. 11. Verily There is a Reward for the Righteous Verily He is a God who judgeth in the Earth And His judgement is according to Truth Rom. 2. 2. And blessed are they that wait for Him Isa 30. 18. Inference 6. Lastly All the Objections that are levied and brought against the Doctrine of Election as to the Absoluteness Personality and Eternity of it The Peculiarity of Redemption The Efficaeious Predominance of Grace in Calling And Believers invincible Perseverance in Faith and Holiness Would all be disbanded and sent to their own Place Were but this One Truth which none in words will deny truly believ'd and Receiv'd in Love viz. That God hath an absolute Right of Dominion over His Creatures to dispose and Determine of them as seemeth Him good and that In the Doing thereof He cannot but do Right And so I come to the Matter firstly intended OF ELECTION THe Doctrine of Election in the latitude of it containeth the whole Summ and Scope of the Gospel And our Mindes if honestly subdued to the Doctrine of God's Sovereignty cannot be employed about a more excellent Subject It is called The Foundation of God not onely because of the Supereminency of it but as a Foundation of His Own laying which God Himself and Alone is the Author of and the Basis whereof is Himself It is that Foundation which standeth sure and keeps them All sure who stand upon it ELECTION is the pitching of Everlasting love Or the Good Pleasure of God-Choosing and Decreeing to Eternal life It is the Great Charter of Heaven God's special and Free-Grace Deed of Gift to His Chosen Ones Made over in trust unto Jesus Christ for their use and benefit Now in Deeds of Gift to make them Authentick there must be inserted 1 The name of the Donor or Person that gives 2 The Name of the Donee or person to whom 3 The quality and extent of the Thing that is Given 4 The time when it was done 5 The Consideration that moved thereto 6 In case of Impotency it is usual and necessary to ordain some Friend as Feoffee in trust who is to stand seized or Possessed of the Gift for the Donee's use All which are evidently found in Scripture Election and may be Summ'd into this Proposition That there is a Peculiar People who were personally chosen of God in Christ according to His own good pleasure and ordain'd to Eternal Life before the World began Before I come to a down-right proof of the Proposition Proposition I shall First Explain the Terms And Secondly Produce a few Instances of a lower kind of Election sâ—il To Matters of a lower Concern than That of Eternal Life which yet might be intended for a Type and Shadow of it I. For Explanation This word Peculiar denotâ—s the Exemption or Privileging of a Person or Thing from the power of another in whose jurisdiction it was or seem'd to be It sometimes signifies Riches or Substance which is of a Man 's own proper getting by Labour and Industry It is also used to denominate such part of a Man's Estate as he keeps in his own hands which our Law calls his Demesne Lands In all which respects the Elect are aptly term'd a Peculiar People For 1 Though Satan be Prince of the world and rules on every side yet as touching the Elect it is but an usurp'd and temporary jurisdiction that he hath over them They do indeed belong to another Prince to whom their Chief Lord hath given them who therefore in the appointed time will reseue them from that usurpation 2 They are the Lord's Treasure oâ— Inheritance obtained by labour indeed with Sweat and Blood Than which nothing is more a Man 's own nor hardlier parted with Such was the portion bestowed by Jacob on his beloved Joseph Gen. 48. 22. even That which he gâ—t with his Sword and with his Bow And 3 They are the Lordâ—â— Demesnes He keeps them in His own hands Tenâ—â—rs them as the Apple of His eye He will not betrust them in the hands of others No not of their own selves To Ordain is used here in the sameâ—sense as to Predestinate Appoint Prepare Decree or Predetermine things to come Which is done in such sort and manner that the Event shall certainly succeed and that just as was Fore-intended and Designed In this sense Men cannot be said to Predestinate because they cannot with any certainty Determine of things not yet in being But all things were present with God from Eternity And His Decree the Cause of their Futurition or Stanâ—ing forth By Eternal life I understand Not onely the Saints Actual possession of Blessedness and Glory which consists in their perfect Conformity to God and Communion with Him but also Whatever is Requisite thereto by way of Right Preparation or Otherwise wherein are comprehended The Mediation
state can never be lost And the Reason is because Grace hath out-done Sin and gone beyond it Grace hath abounded much more Rom. 5. 20. Which super-abounding of Grace cannot referr to the Subjects of Grace as if they were more in number than the Subjects of Sin for sin came upon All and Grace cannot come upon more than all But 't is meant of the prevalent efficacy of Grace and the permanency of its effects towards all that are the Subjects of it Rom. 5. 21. And thence it is that Grace is said to Reign and that to Eternal life IV. If the End of Christ's death might possibly be frustrate Arg. 4. as possibly the very end of God's making the World might suffer disappointment All things were made for Himself and by this scale they ascend to Him The World for the Elect 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. The Elect for Christ and Christ for God All His works praise Him but above all that of Redemption as of highest note and eminency Most conspicuously doth the Glory of God shinâ—-forth in the face of Christ as Dying and as dying for such an End viz. the Salvation of His People It is the chief of the wayes of God the very Meridian and height of His Glory not essential but manifestative both in this world and that to come It therefore behoved Him so to lay it that of all his designments This might be sure to succeed For do but subtract the sureness of its Effect and leave His Redeem'd in a perishable condition and it draws a blemish instead of beauty upon all the Divine Attributes 1. The end of God's setting forth Christ a Propitiation Rom. 3. 25 26. was to declare His Righteousness in the Remission of sins which it does doubly 1. That without satisfaction sin could not justly be remitted 2. That satisfaction being given it could not justly be imputed Who shall condemn It is Christ that dyed Rom. 8. 34. But if those for whom this plenary satisfaction has been given should not be justified and effectually saved Divine Justice would be as liable to impeachment as if He had saved them without And so the thing designed for the honour of His Righteousness would turn to its disparagement 2. It would not accord with the love and goodness of God towards His Elect that That which was meant for their Recovery Joh. 3. 19. and was also a price well-worthy their Ransom should possibly turn to their deeper condemnation for so it must if they be not effectually saved This could not be that Pleasure of the Lord which should prosper in the hands of Christ 3. It would not be according to the Faithfulness and Truth of God that Christ should fail of That He was promised and earnestly looked-for as the fruit of His Sufferings which was a Seed to serve Him Isa 49 6. ch 53. 10. Prov 8. 31. The thoughts of which were matter of complacency to Him from Everlasting But if those He died for should not only abide in the same condemnation He came to deliver them from but under a much sorer vengeance than if He had not undertaken for them How grievous would it be to Him and contradictious to the Faithfulness of God! 4. Another End of Redemption was That the manifold Wisdom of God might shine-forth in the sight of Angels and Men. Christ crucified is the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. But if it were so contrived that the Thing chiefly design'd might possibly miscarry it would be no illustration of Wisdom Will one of common prudence part with His Jewels and choycest treasure and that in such manner as never to be regain'd and leave his purchase knowingly under hazzard Men â—â—deed may possibly waste their Estates in Tryals and Essayes that come to nothing but did they foresee the success they would not so expose their prudence to reproach 5. The Greatness and Power of God would suffer an eclipse if it were in the power of Creatures to defeat His most wise and holy Designments and hinder the accomplishment of His greatest work What would the Aegyptians say but that He destroyed them because not able to go through with what He undertook Numb 14. 16. 6. Lastly If the end of Christ's death might possibly be frustrate Then that blessed project for glorifying the Grace of God might possibly be disannulled and come to nothing For None but Saved Ones do or can glorifie that Grace V. Another Argument for the Sure effect of Christ's death Arg. 5. is because He hath the Management of the whole work committed to Himself as well the Application or Redemption as the procurement of it He is the Repository Root and Treasury wherein all the benefits of Redemption are laid up and the Great Almoner by whose hand they are dispensed Adam was no more a publique Person after his fall The new Stock was not intrusted with him but put into the hands of Christ who will give a better account of it For VI. There is Nothing wanting to Him who is our Redeemer which might any way conduce to the final Compleatment of His Work Arg. 6. There are Five things mainly requisite to make a great undertaking Successeful viz. Authority Strength Understanding Courage and Faithfulness All which the Captain of our Salvation is eminently invested with Joh. 3. 35. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand 1. Authority He was appointed to His Office For as Mediatour the Father is Greater than He He came not of Himself but the Father sent Him Joh. 9. 42. He was called of God Isa 42. 6 Heb. 7. 21. Heb. 5. 4 5. It was laid on Him and undertaken by Him in the way of a Covenant And Confirmed hy an Oath Never to be Reversed which also may partly be the Meaning of God the Father's Sealing Him Joh. 10. 18. Isa 61. 1. Joh. 6. 27. The Government is laid upon His Shoulder He hath the Key of David committed to Him Rev. 3. 7. Which shewes the absoluteness of His Authority Gen 41. 44. Without Him No man can lift up his hand or his foot in all the Earth 2. Strength or Power These cannot be wanting to Him if All in Heaven and Earth be sufficient for it Matth. 28. 18 And this he hath That He might give Eternal life to as many as He dyed for Joh. 17. 2. Which if they should miss oâ— it would be said That all power was not able to Save them He that made the World is surely well able to Govern it and to over-rule whatever comes into it He would never have suffered sin the onely enemy to invade it if He could not have quell'd it at pleasure Isa 63. 1. Ch. 9. 6. Their Redeemer is strong The Lord of Hosts is His name He shall thorowly plead their cause Jer. 50. 34. He must reign until He shall have put all enemies both under His own feet and ours 1 Cor.
or will plant the means of Grace Or bringing them by His Providence where some effectual Word shall be spoken to them The One is verified in those who dwelt at Corinth Where Paul must preach and not hold his peace For sayes the Lord to him I have much People in this City Acts 18. 9. The Other in those who were come to Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost from all parts of the World Which gave them the opportunity of coming together and of hearing Peter's Sermon By Means whereof Thousands of them were converted It is farther exemplified by the instance of the Eunuch Acts 8. 27 As also in the story of Zacheus whose intent reach'd no higher but to see what manner of person Christ was Luke 19. 3 9. being so much talk'd of abroad And there Salvation meets both him and his house There are Nevertheless divers things alledged by way of objection against this Doctrine which yet the Scriptures with Reasons drawn from thence and sanctified experience doe afford a plentiful Bar and Answer to And this service they have done to bring some things to mind before omitted that may prove to the further cleering and confirmation of the Truth All men universally Others as well as those you call the Elect have a sufficiency of Means for Salvation If this were true it would follow Either that faith and repentance are not of those Means for all men have them not Or els that men may Repent and Believe and yet fall short of Salvation for all men are not saved We goe not about to lessen the Means afforded to any Or their sin in Neglecting or Not living-up to the Means they have and yet we cannot assent That all men Now have such a sufficiency 1. Preaching in parables was not a Means proper for Conversion yet thus did Christ frequently speak to the multitude Nor was it intended for Conversion for He thus did Mark 4. 12. That in hearing they might not understand If it be said They had the Gospel afterwards more plainly preach'd by the Apostles I answer That then they had it not so afore and That contradicts the objection Some indeed among the Jews by the evident testimonies of Christ's Divinity were Convinc'd That He was the Messiah but it came not up to a perfect work Joh. 12. 42. Isa 53. 1. They did not Confess Him And why Because the Arm of the Lord was not Revealed to them That is as Moses speaks The Lord had not given them an heart to understand Deut. 29. 4. 2. Sufficiency is to be estimated by success That which doth not accomplish the End cannot be said to be sufficient If you say It proves successless because men will not Comply with it It is answered That a Willingness to comply is a part of the Means which if they have not they have not Means sufficient A power to Will without a Will to use that Power will signifie no more than an Arm without strength But what think ye of those who are without God and without hope Is this to be boasted of and relyed upon Eph. 2. 1â— Or is it not a deplorable kind of sufficiency that leaves men in a Godless and hopeless condition If it be said agen They had a sufficiency but by their misusing thereof they lost it Let me ask Can there be a more palpable proof of a thing 's insufficiency than its unability to preserve it self and the general successlessness of it But 3. Means may be proper enough and in their kind sufficient towards the production of such an event and yet the Event never succeed for want of something els which also was requisite for it Planting and Watering are proper and sufficient as means and second Causes and yet they are nothing as to success without the special operation of God Who could Reason more strongly than Paul or speak more eloquently than Apollo and yet the success of their Ministry was as God gave to every Man 1 Cor. 3. 5. Job 36. 10. ch 33. 16. It is God that openeth the ear to discipline and sealeth instruction when His hand is sett-to then 't is Authentick and powerfull and not before This is further Confirm'd by the following Instance The Jewes had means of being purged and yet they were not purged Ezek. 24. 13. But in chap. 36. 25. The Lord takes the work into His own hand I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean From all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you A New heart also will I give you and so on to v. 28. By which it appears That the Lord will not only afford them Means as aforetime and leave the improvement thereof to themselves For that He saw would not do But Now He will take the whole upon Himself Jer. 33. 6. as ye have it in Jeremy I will bring it health and Cure and I will Cure them I will cause them to walk in my Statutes and do them That is He will give them an honest and Good heart Luke 8. 15. which shall bring-forth fruit to perfection These are the Means proper and sufficient to Salvation and less than this will not do it Men have as full a sufficiency of Means as is just and meet for God to give 1. I would ask whether it be just and meet to do good And if it be Why not the Chiefest Good that men are capable of Which is To have their hearts turned to God and United to Him for ever 2. The Objection seems to attribute more to Man in the business of his salvation than to God For If all that God can justly or Meetly do in order thereunto will not Save him without something done by himself which God is not the Doer of then will Man be reckoned for Chief Agent in the work Isa 10. 15. and so the Ax will boast it self against Him that handles it Suppose a Plaister or Medicine to be made of Twenty Ingredients and one of them to be of that Sovereign virtue as to influence all the Rest All which if that be wanting will but ulcerate the wound and heighten the distemper That One must needs be reputed the Principal 3. It is not to be supposed That the Great and onely Wise God would set-up a Creature whose will He cannot justly and meetly Over-rule especially in things requisite to the very End for which he was made Nor that he should make him for such and End as that any thing conducible thereto may not be justly and meetly done for him in order to its accomplishment 4. It cannot be Righteous or Meet for Men to Affirm nor for the honour of Sovereign Majesty to admit That the Creature 's will should limit divert or frustrate the will and Intent of their Creatour It was Religiously said of One I will not have him for my God who hath not power over my Will 5. Suppose a man craz'd in his
1 Chr. 29. 14. sayes he and what is my People that we should be able to offer thus willingly For all things are of Thee He acknowledgeth their Willingness to offer to be as much of God as the Offering it self And Paul having laboured more abundantly than all the Apostles puts from himself the honour of it 1 Cor. 15. 10. Not I but the Grace of God that was with Me. Three or four Things in seeking for spiritual blessings be sure to keep still in your mind 1. That you must be Nothing in your self New Wine is not for old bottles The Bottles must first be Vndone and made-up Anew Math. 9. 17. Or els The Wine will be spilt and the bottles perish All your imaginary Righteousness Wisdom Strength c. must be parted from you And to part with them is as necessary as to leave your Made-ground and build on the firm Rock 2. That Spiritual Blessings are a Gift and will not admit of any Plea which may seem to make them Wages What the Scriptures hold-forth as a Motive with God That you may plead and that is His Name And indeed Nothing els is pleadable at the Throne of Grace Esteem not your self the better for what you may carry with you Think not to be accepted because of your present It is not your Money nor your double money in your hand that Isa 55. 1. will fetch you Corn from Above tho it may from Egypt Silver and Gold Joh. 7. 37. Works and Worthiness are of no value at the Mint of Free-Grace There it is and Thence ye must have whatever may render you welcom at the Court of Heaven 3. Be not over-solicitous how you shall speed Nor think you shall fare the worse for coming in so tatter'd and pittiful a Condition Free Grace is Compassionate Rich Bountiful you are not the less welcom because you bring Nothing The best qualification is to finde your self ill-qualified Empty Hungry Poor Naked Blinde Miserable Electing-love hath provided Enough and More Not bread and water onely though these are very welcom to an hungring and thirsty soul but Wine and Milk Wine on the lees Isa 25. 6. Rev. 19. 8. A feast of fat things Not Aprons made of fig-leaves or Coats of Beasts-skins but Long Robes of Linnen fine and white money made of Leather or base Mettal that would burthen One to carry a Month's provision of it But Gold Rev. 3. 18. and of That the finest and tryed in the fire which hath nothing of Dross or Cankering Rust adhering to it And if thou have but little look on that little as an Earnest of More To him that hath shall be given Is 42. 3. Altho' thou be but smoaking flax He will not quench thee 4. Be sure you leave not Out your Mediatour the Lord Jesus Christ Electing love doth All in Him and so must you Ask all in His Name and then say Lord He is Worthy for whose sake Thou shouldest doe this And withall Take heed of Patching Joyn not Law and Grace together lest the Rend be made worse The Righteousness wherein you must appear before God is not made-up of divers sorts and peeces partly His and partly your own but a Seamless Vesture wrought throughout of one kinde of substance and by One hand In this you may appoach with boldness and touch the top of the Golden Scepter VI. Infer VI. Having so Firm and Impregnable a Rock to found your faith upon why should the Greatest of Difficulties even the power of Innate Corruption Discourage any Soul from Casting it self upon Electing love As that which is perfectly Able and the very design of it is To Subdue iniquity as well as to pardon it It chose us not because we were or would be Holy Eph. 1. 4. but That we might be so And to that End Undertakes the whole of our Work for us It is between us and Sin as it was between Israel and the Canaanites Untill the Lord began to Drive they did not stirr They were Gyants too big for Grass-hoppers to deal with Had iron Charets and Cities walled up to Heaven And yet that Company of Grass-hoppers turn'd them out And this because the Lord who gave them that Land was in the head of them He went before them and cut-out their way for them Whiles He drove they were driven When He ceased Psal 44. 2 3. Exod. 23. 28. the work stood-still Nay His own People were Routed and put to the worse And we shall find both Moses and Joshua still using Arguments fetch'd from the Covenant that God had made with them by which alwayes they were Supported Let us do likewise Make Election our All Our Bread Water Munition of Rocks and what ever els we can suppose to Want Here we are sure of Supply and Safety It 's a Tower that 's really walled up to Heaven A Never-to-be-emptied Cloud of Mannah and a Jacob's Well that is Never dry 'T is deep indeed and you have Nothing to draw-with yet be not disheartned Stay by it and the Well it self will Rise-up to you Numb 21. 17. rather than you shall want VII Infer VII Having done all you can and in the midst of your Doing Walk humbly as living on Another's bounty Assume not to your self but ascribe the whole of your Salvation and of all the Conducements thereto to Electing Grace and hang-on that Root alone Even Faith it self as it is the Believers act is not to be Rested in Nor to share in this Glory We may say of Faith as he to Foelix Acts 24. 2 3. By thee we enjoy much quietness but the honour thereof chiefly belong'd to Caesar who gave them that Governour Give unto Faith its due Accept alwaies and in all places the benefits you have by it with all thankfullness For it does you many good Offices and you cannot live without it Onely in the Throne let Grace be above it For That 's the Potentate which puts Faith in that Capacity and maintains it there And the truth is True Faith is best contented with its proper place To this End the Lord tells His People It was not their Sword nor their Bow that drove out their Enemies But say some It was the Sword and Bow which God put into their hands and which they Manfully employed No God will not have Men arrogate so much to themselves Psal 60. 12. Judges 7. 2. but to acknowledge It is God that subdues our enemies under us The People with Gideon He reckons too many to give the Midianites into their hands Lest they should Vaunt themselves against Him Faith and other Graces are Mighty onely through God As they are His Workmanship so 't is He onely can keep them Going as a Watch or other Engine cannot wind-up it self To frame a Perpetual Motion no Man hath ever attain'd No not in trifling Matters As thou hadst no hand in changing thy heart at first So neither
of thy self in carrying-on the work afterwards All our Sufficiency is of God Even all the Strivings of the Saints are according to the Workings of God in them Gal. 2. 8. Col. 1. 29. 'T is true indeed That a good Tree will bring-forth good fruit but not without Sun Ayr Dew and other Heavenly influences For if separate from these the Tree it self will dye So without a continual Communication of virtue from Above Cant. 4. 16. the New Creature can neither Act nor live Depend therefore on that Radical Grace i. e. On the God of all Grace for Preserving and Actuating the Grace He hath given you Gal. 4. 9. Rest not in this That you know God but rather That you are known of God I shall close this head as John the Apostle doth his first Epistle where having asserted the Divinity of Christ he presently subjoyns Little Children keep your selves from Idols So say we 1 Joh. 5. 21. of Electing love which was indeed the Root and Cause of Christ Himself as a Mediatour What-ever you lean-upon besides and without respect to That you make an Idol of it OF Perseverance OR The certain and effectual Progress of Election FOR the firmer support and comfort of Believers notwithstanding the present weakness of their Faith As also to allure and bring-in Others who are hankering about the door or yet in the high-wayes and hedges It hath pleased the Holy and only Wise God to indulge us with plain and positive assurance of the certain continuance and going-on of All who have once believed and received the Grace of God in truth Albeit that many concern'd in this assurance attain not to it That Faith and Holiness do inseperably follow Election is shewn afore Our business now is to shew that Faith and Holiness are of an abiding nature and shall never be lost And this is that we call PERSEVERANCE Which being the Crown and Glory of all the former Points and that as secures to us the comforts arising thence being also as much impugned as any of Those the proof and confirmation thereof is apparently necessary and tending to profit And I trust it shall not onely appear that the Doctrine is True but also replete with Arguments promotive of Holiness by which the contrary opinion will best be contradicted For so it is in the Wisdom of God that every Truth has that in it as properly tends to its own defense and establishment It 's the property of Men truly wise to enterprise onely attainable things and things worthy their wisdom as also so to frame and module the means as not to miss their intent Much more must it become and be incumbent upon Him who is Wisdom it self so to do If then the Ultimate End of all things be the Glory of God and the second great End the Salvation of His Chosen It may well be concluded that the properest means for attainment are pitched upon and those such as will compass his End Hence also we may be satisfied that all intermediate Occurrences However improper in their own nature and casual to us were all fore-appointed of God and that by a Decree most wise and fixed and consequently are and shall be so dispensed as not to hinder but help-on and bring-about the thing principally design'd which therefore shall not cannot miscarry nor be finally disturbed However therefore 2 Cor. 2. 17. Men of corrupt minds may stumble at the Word Change the Truth of God into a lye and turn his Grace into lasciviousness and some others not of design but by mistake and unacquaintedness with the true state of the Question may disapprove and object against it Yet may not the Truth be discarded nor its friends be shy to Own it But strive the more industriously by their Sobriety Meekness Holiness and all good fruits to make the World know that To the Pure all things are pure whiles to other Men through the impurity of their own spirits all things are defiled and turned into sin And in particular that the Doctrine of God's unchangeable love to his Chosen and their Endless abiding therein is no way an inleâ—â— or Encouragement to sin or Remissness in Duty but is indeed the powerfullest strengthner against Apostacy and most effectual quickner to Gospel obedience As touching this Doctrine the substance of what I intend is reduced into this Proposition viz. That all and every one of God's Elect Prop. being once Regenerate and Believing are and shall invincibly be carried on to the perfect obtainment of Blessedness and Glory Towards the Evidenceing of this Truth 1. let us take-in things of a lower consideration than that of Eternal Salvation and see how those persons formerly instanced being destined of God to eminent service in the World were carried thorow and that completely to the end of their work Notwithstanding the greatest difficulties and natural impossibilities that stood in their way to impede it By which will appear the sure effect of God's Purposes even in the midst of all intervenient Obstructions and will contribute not a little to illustrate the Truth in hand 1. I begin with Abraham's seed In Gen. 12. 7. The land of Canaan is given them by Promise Isaac in whom this Seed should be called was not yet born Nor yet untill both his Parents were past age Gen. 18. 11. To help this the Lord bringsback the Sun many degrees makes it a new spring-time with them and gives them Isaac When Isaac was Married his wife proves barren chap. 25. 21. verse 23. After twenty years waiting the Lord in answer to prayer gives her Conception Now two Children they had the Elder of which the Lord rejects and the other to whom the Promise belong'd in danger every day to be killed by his Brother and so the line of the Promise in danger of failing chap. 27. 41. chap. 28. 2. chap. 31. 41. v. 23. and 24. Jacob to save his life flies to Padan-Aram there Laban deals hardly with him and when he made homewards follows him with evil intent But the Lord in a dream takes him off No sooner is he escap'd from him chap. 32. 6. but Esau comes against him with four hundred Men full bent to revenge the old grudge The Lord turns his heart in a moment chap. 33. 4. v. 12. and melts him into brotherly affection that instead of destroying Jacob he proffers himself to be his Guard and Convoy When Simeon and Levi had so highly provoked the Canaanites chap. 34. 25. chap. 35. 5. that it was a Thousand to One but they would come and cut off Jacob's family at once the Lord causes a terrour to fall upon them that they do not so much as look after them When a seven years Famine was coming on the land ch 37. 28. with chap. 41. 54. likely enough to eat up poor Jacob and his house the Lord by a strange Providence sends an Harbinger to make provision for
dwells to the place of its birth As the Dove could not Rest till she came to the Ark whence she set-out This is lively set forth by our Saviour in John 7. 38. He that believeth in Me out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living Waters Rivers that bear down all opposition and Rivers of living Waters not Land-flouds which are but of short continuance or standing Pools subject to drying up But such Rivers as have an-Immortal Head We see how All things tend to their Center Prov. 4. 16. The wicked sleep not unless they do evil They can bear the want of things most necessary to their being rather than cease from sin John 8. 44. Acts 1. 25. They are of the Serpents brood and the lusts of their Father they will do Judas was a Devil and that carried him headlong to his own place And if being born of the Devil habituates men with so strong and restless a bent to Devilish lusts the Divine Nature must needs work as efficaciously towards God and Godlike Actions And if it were not so the Divine Nature had never born an humane stock to Heaven The first fruits of the Spirit possess them with an earnest expectation and longing for the harvest Rom. 8. 23. There are indeed Remainders of the Old Man which will still be opposing the New and many contests there are between them But Grace like him that is Advocate for the King will ever have the last word and will also go out victor ye may see it in Jeremy The word of the Lord was made a Reproach to him He therefore resolves to stifle it and will no more speak in His Name But how succeds this carnal resolution The word of the Lord was in his heart as fire shut up in his bones Jer. 20. 8 9. He was weary of forbearing He could not hold And Jonah When he thought himself cut-off Jonah 2. 2 3. and in the belly of hell yet saith he yet will I look again towards thy holy Temple As the Needle that is rightly touch'd Ps 84. 7. never Rests but in pointing towards the Pole and when obstructed in their Course Ps 42. 7. they cry the more earnestly Oh when shall I come and appear before God! II. Another Argument is taken from the Graces themselves which are the subject of Perseverance Arg. II. viz. Faith and Holiness Which let us consider first as They are a Gift Then in the Genuine use and property of them 1. As they are a Gift They are of those good and perfect Gifts which come down from above from the Father of lights with whom is no Variableness James 1. 17. nor shaddow of Turning This Attribute of God's Vnchangeableness is fitly and significantly added to shew That as good and perfect gifts only are from God and from Him onely so That He never Changeth in His Purpose concerning those to whom He once gives them They are of those Gifts that are without Repentance As also That these His Gifts do partake of His own unvariableness They cannot dye nor turn to be any other than what they are at first save only in point of Perfection There can happen no after-unworthiness in those He gives them to which He did not foresee when He gave them which seems to be implied in the following words v. 18. Of His Own Will begate He us and so no cause why He should with-draw them which should not aswell have hindred His giving them at first As the word of God is not Yea and Nay 2 Cor. 1. 19. so neither are His Gifts They are also God's Workmanship And we know saith Solomon That whatsoever God doth Eccles 3 14. it shall be for ever Nothing can be added to it Nor anything taken from it 2. Let Faith and Holiness be considered in the Genuine use and Property of them Nothing so endangers the Soul as self-fullness Faith therefore was ordained to empty out self and devolve the soul on Another viz. Christ which the more it does the safer it is And having once done it it never undoes it agen Faith also is an Active Grace and diligent Luke 19. 26. Math. 13. 10. and therefore thriving He that hath it shall have more of it Then sure he shall not lose that he hath It is alwayes Travelling and never tyred 1. Because it travels in the strength of Omnipotency and 2. Because it works by love Which is the most kindly and efficacious Principle of service and great Acts. Love is an Endless skrew It has truly attain'd the perpetual Motion It enables to endure all things and faileth not 1 Cor 13. 7 8. All that God doth for His people is from love John 3. 16. and all that they do for God growes from the same Root They love Him because He loved them first 1 John 4. 19. Love is That which renders a Work both pleasant to the Agent and acceptable to the Object of it Faith therefore working by love shall never be weary of its work nor fail of its end Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith That it might be sure And as for Holiness which is a disposition according to God and capacitates for the blessed Vision a little of it in Truth Math. 12. 20. is of infinite worth The very smoak of it shall not be quenched And it would be strange if a thing so precious should be lyable to putrifaction But it is not yea it changeth other things but is it self never changed It is of a spreading nature compared therefore to leaven which is put into the Soul and hid there till the whole lump be seasoned It is of an assimilating property there is an Heavenly Tincture in it which sanctifies all that it toucheth To the pure all things are pure It also meetens for Converse with God and it drawes and ingageth the Soul to Him There it is as in its proper Element and out of which it cannot live And by this Converse it is both increased and sublimated A Natural Body once in being can never be reduced to Nothing How then should Things of Divine substance They are Born of incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever And as the seed is such will be the fruit The Older it grows the firmer it is He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger They are the Holy Seed And therefore tho they cast their leaves at times yet their substance is in them By which they are still renewed To all which might be added that Notion also in Romans 8. 30. which inferreth That to be sanctified is all one as to be glorified Holiness is the seed of Glory and holy persons are in Glory viz. as to its kind and the certainty of their obtainment although indeed it hath no glory at present in comparison of that which shall be as the seed of a Rose or Lilly compared with the flowers they will grow into and which are