Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the Thoughts of his Heart to all Generations What is Gods Election of some to Life Eternal and the means leading thereto but the Birth or Product of his own Counsel Rom. 9.11 The purpose of God according to Election must stand And Oh what an unspeakable cause of rejoycing is this very Consideration to that Man or Woman who find in themselves the Fruits or Effects of the New Birth to think and believe that they in particular are chosen to Life Eternal by him who cannot change that purpose of his wherewith he hath purposed to Save so poor and miserable a Sinner as the effectually called Sinner looks on himself to be Neither is the poor weak Believer to doubt but that those Sins and Backslideings both of his Heart and Life for which he will be but too apt to fear and conclude God will at length cast him off were all perfectly known to God even then when he Elected him to Salvation notwithstanding which God fixt his Love and embraced the poor Sinner in the Bosom of his irreversible Decree when nothing of Loveliness but rather the contrary appeared to the Eye of Gods Praecognition or fore knowledge in the Soul so pitcht on by his Decree Whom God once loves with that Electing Love he loves them to the end Jer. 31.8 Mal. 3.6 Jo. 13.1 Rom. 11.29 And as Gods Act in Electing is without change so in the third place it was from Eternity though the work of effectual Calling and Saving Conversion be in time yet Gods decree and purpose of bestowing that Grace and Mercy on the Elect Sinner was before time So witnesseth the Apostle Acts 15.18 Known unto God are all his Works from the beginning of the World Ephes 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World 2 Thes 2.13 From the beginning hath God chosen you Rev. 17.8 Whose Names were not written in the Book of Life from the Foundation of the World The Electing Love of God it is from one Eternity to another as it did commence before time so when time shall be swallowed up of endless Eternity this Love of God to his Elect and chosen in Christ will be and continue the same for ever And therefore let that Believer who feels himself inwardly and frequently annoyed with those discouraging Fits of fickleness and unconstancy in walking with God in the way of New Obedience take Sanctuary here by Faith applying to himself the sweet Benefits of these Properties of Gods Electing Love filling both his Head and Heart with the thoughts and fixed perswasion that the Blessed God who is the Infinite Soveraign of the World who Acts all things which pleaseth himself according to the Counsel of his own Will hath of his own good pleasure chosen him a poor unworthy empty nothing Creature to be a Vessel of Mercy through Jesus Christ to the Praise of the Glory of his own Grace And that Love wherewith God hath Loved him it began towards him before he had an actual Being yea before the World was And as that Love of God was set on him before time began so when time it self shall be no more that Love of God to him shall still be endless like God himself Nothing more conduceth under God to Heart Settlement in the ways of God then to be well Verst in Understanding and Believeing with application to ones fels these Fundamental Principles of Gospel Religion And this one thing I desire the Reader to remember and carefully to observe viz. That if there were no other Argument to evince and make good the Truth I have now asserted than the Arduous and Elaborate endeavours of Satan and his busy Agents both in Preaching and Printing against the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation it were sufficient The Devil and the Pope know full well how destructive and pernicious to both their Kingdoms the bringing Sinners to the Scriptural Knowledge and right Believing this Doctrine will be And therefore for preventing hereof the Doctrine it self must be expos'd in the blackest hue as a Doctrine which makes Men proud secure and careless of good Works and which leads Men to loose Living and in the end to final Desperation And as the Doctrine it self is shot at by the Romish and Arminian Archers so the most zealous and bold Assertors and Maintainers of it are set out in the most odious and black colours which Envy and Malice it self can devise but maugre all the Crast and Envy of Devil and his most subtil and industrious Tools the Doctrine of particular Election before time is plainly held forth and asserted in the Writings of Moses the Prophets and the Holy Apostles And in case Divine Providence calls to a suffering Condition for defence of it I do not doubt but God hath a Sealed number in these Kingdoms known to himself who will be enabled to Seal the Truth of it with their dearest Blood An Objection or two lyes in the way to be answered before I can proceed to what remains behind Object 1. The Doctrine of particular Election puffs Men with Pride Answ The contrary to this the Devil himself knows to be true For I doubt not but Satan hath made his Observations that none of all Gods called Children have more abounded with Humility and self Abasement than those who have had the highest assurance of Gods Electing Love None but these can rightly admire and adore the Grace and Love of God in Christ Jesus To me who am less than the least of all Saints is this Grace given c. crys that great Apostle of the Gentiles Ephes 3.8 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am the chief 1 Tim. 1.15 For I am the least of the Apostles that am not worthy to be called an Apostle because I Persecuted the Church of God 1 Cor. 15.9 But by the Grace of God I am what I am Vers 10. It is to be observed that among all the Apostles none was more highly advanced in respect of extraordinary Manifestations and Gospel Revelations than Paul was and yet among all the Apostles none more abased No greater admirer of Free Grace than he was and indeed not only Paul but others also both under the Old Testament and under the New whom Free Grace singled out to be Vessels of Mercy These were still addicted to go out of themselves in a way of self Abasement and crying up the Riches of Gods Grace and Mercy every way free and undeserved by them And herein I appeal most freely to the Personal Experience of every regenerate Believer now Living whether they do not find in themselves that the nearer they come to know and perceive the Love of God to themselves in particular the more vile they are in their own esteem and the more the Sight and Sense of their own Nothingness grows and abounds the more are they
give countenance to the point in hand He doth not say that all are called but many In which Text there are three sorts of Men offered to consideration First some who are not called at all Secondly some who are called with a common or external Call but not Elected And thirdly some who are called not only with the common and external Call but also with the internal efficacious Call of the Spirit and that because Elected and Chosen to Life and Salvation Now that these three sorts of People were equally Beloved of God and their Salvation equally intended who but Children of Darkness and Deceit dare to affirm or believe That of Paul also Acts 14.16 God who in times past suffered the Gentiles to walk in their own way Backs and confirms the present Truth And doth not the Account we have by Travellers who correspond with the most parts of the World inform us that the greatest part of the Nations have not so much as the Name of Jesus Christ among them and even in these Kingdoms where Popery Arminianism and Quakerism prevail Doth not sad experience teach us how deplorable a Condition the generality of the Kingdoms is in as touching the saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ or the proper means appointed by God for the saving Discovery of his justifying Righteousness to the Souls of Men such as the pure and unmixed Word of Truth Read and powerfully Preached to them for calling them out of Darkness into the marvellous Light of the Knowledge of God in Christ For want of an Orthodox Teaching Ministry these Kingdoms especially England and Ireland are near to a Harvest ripeness ready for the Sickle of Gods Judgments through the affected Ignorance of the Lord Jesus Christ which reigns in the Minds and Hearts of the greatest part even of Englands and Irelands Professors with the Occult and Spiritual Idolatry of Mens Souls whereby the Son of God and his pure Gospal Worship are shut out of Mens Hearts and Affections that the Statutes of Omri and their Carnal secular Interests might bear the sway To which I will add that Deluge of open Debauchery and Atheistical Oppression and Prophaness which like a Land Flood over runs the Nations the which if not very speedily prevented by those who have the Reforming Power put into their Hands by God will pull down from Heaven such sore and desolating Judgments as will make England with her Hypocritical formal Professors an abhorring to all Nations More might be offered to consideration from Gods Word to the same purpose as the sad and deplorable Condition the Ephesians Philippians and other Countries were in before the Apostles were sent among them The Ancestors and Forefathers of whom God suffered to Live and Die like Bruits and worse serving Dumb Idols those Teachers of Lyes serving divers Lusts Atheists without the knowledge or hope of God in the World Ephes 2.1 2 3. To them God sent no Prophet or Apostle no Law or Gospel which should be a means of Salvation to them till God sent Paul to their Off-spring Now can it in truth be said that God did equally love and will or design the Salvation of both the Fathers and their Postery seeing the means of Salvation were deny'd to the Fathers and freely given to their Posterity As touching the Learned or rather Silly and Impertinent Question wherein the Quakers desire to be resolv'd viz. What Gospel of glad Tidings it is which I and others who hold the Doctrine of Particular Election have to Preach to those for whom Christ Died not Answ This silly Question is grounded on a false Supposition that Faith is required of all Men the which I never taught neither do I now own to be true For I do not think or believe that such as never heard of Christ or who never had the means of knowing him are required to believe that Christ Died to Redeem them Secondly They are grossly if not wilfully mistaken in thinking and saying that I press on all I Preach to that it is their Duty to believe that Jesus Christ Died for them all without any Limitation or Restriction I do not believe that those People to whom the glad Tidings of the Gospel is Preached are any of them required absolutely and without Restriction to believe that Christ Died to Redeem them All who ever attended on my Ministry and who are able to give a Judgement they will witness for me that the scope and drift of my Preaching is to convince and awaken Sinners out of their natural State by opening up to them from God's Word the happy sinless State wherein God Created them in Adam their natural and faederal Representative how they came to fall from that Happy State and what the sad and wretched Effects of that Fall was to Adam the Head and now is to all his Children in their unrenewed State This I do instrumentally by opening up to Sinners the Sense and Design of the Moral Law which is to discover Sin and to Damn the Transgressors of it before God to let Sinners know how spotless that Obedience and Righteousness must be which answers its own Demand in order to its justifying them at the Bar of a Holy God As also how weak and unable it is to help a Lapsed Transgressor It points out and requires Duty but can afford no Ability or Strength to do that Duty And all this in order to bring Dead Sinners to a sight and sense of their need of a Redeemer I labour to make them sensible that out of Christ no Life or Salvation is ever to be expected and that until Christ the Son of God be received by a true Faith they themselves with all their threadbare polluted Morality and all those Advantages wherein they bless and count themselves Happy are all under the Curse of God and Living and Dying so they must as certainly as God is Just and his Law Holy look to be eternally separated from God and Christ for ever and ever No Civility goodness of natural Temper no Morality no Zeal for that which they take to be the best Religion no learning or shining Parts whether natural or acquired no Riches or Greatness in this World will ever avail to keep them back from being by the Laws powerful Sentence sent down to Hell When I find and perceive that the Spirit of God hath by the Law set home on the Conscience brought the Sinner with the Prodigal to a sense of his undone Condition when I hear him cry out not in a rotary and formal customary way which God knows is too much in use and fashion in this sleepy Hypocritical Age in the bitterness of his Soul Mon and Brethren what shall I do to be Saved I then open up as God's Messenger the Mystery of God's Covenant of Grace held forth in the Gospel wherein is discovered the Incomprehensible All-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ to save and reconcile to God the greatest and vilest of Sinners I presently fall
see that I am herein mistaken and out of the way Secondly As touching my Judgment herein I do affirm and that in truth God knows I lye not I honestly and fairly acquainted my now Reproachers what I was in my Judgment as to this very Point when they first discovered an Inclination to call me to take the Pastoral Charge of their Souls About this they and I had several occasional Discourses Pro. and Con. for and against it and in conclusion they with the rest of the Covenanters with God in a Church way did own themselves fully convinc'd that the Congregational way of Church Government was most certainly the way of the Gospel and as such they freely closed with me If what I have now asserted be deny'd I shall by Authentique Testimonies make the same good to their Faces I come to the second Branch of the Charge viz. My being a great Enemy to Mr. Baxter c. In answer whereto I possitively affirm that I never in my Life had any Prejudice against Mr. Baxter save only to dislike and caution my Flock against some Notions of his wherein I conceived him to be Heterodox in the Foundation Principle of Justification I told my Auditory as plainly as I could speak that in mentioning Mr. Baxter's Name my design was not to meddle in Judging him as touching his Eternal State only what of Corruption I found in his Books I judg'd it my Duty to take notice thereof and to caution my Hearers who had his Books to beware of such Notions And what I did herein I did it God and my Conscience knows in Faithfulness to Christ and the Souls of those committed to my Pastoral Charge by the Great Shepherd of the Sheep But to say that Mr. Baxter was Damn'd in Hell I abhor the very hearing or thoughts of such a thing neither dares any one living except a cauteriz'd and brazen fac'd Sinner to charge such a Slander on me so far was I from uttering such an uncharitable I may say Infernal Expression that I plainly spoke the contrary as my Judgment of him declaring that I hoped Mr. Baxter was with Christ in Glory and that I dare to think no otherwise As for what of Corruption which is mixt with his Writings I told my Auditory I lookt on that as a part of the Wood Hay and Stubble intended by the Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.12 of which Mr. Baxter will I doubt not suffer the Loss in the Great day though he himself be saved he holding Christ the Foundation firm and stedfast to the end as in Charity I hope he did The third Branch of the charge is that I affirmed that Christ had but two or three right Gospel Ministers who Preach Christ truly in and about London To this I answer in the Negative viz. That I never thought or spoke such a thing either in or out of the Pulpit in all my Life The occasion of this Slander was this I was in a Sermon bewailing the small number of right Gospel Preachers at which time and on which occasion I said that a great many Preach'd up the Pope That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Man of Sin Others said I Preach up the National Hierarchy and its Interest instead of the Kingdom of Christ Others there be said I who Preach up Moses and obedience to his do and live in the room of Christs Mediatorial spotless Righteousness for Justification and Life so that in comparison it is undeniably true that Christ hath but few who Preach him and his immaculate Righteousness as the only Meritorious and procuring cause of Justification and Salvation This is what I said then and truly I see but small reason to think or say otherwise I question not but the Orthodox in and about London will readily Harmonize with me herein But that I did limit the true Ministers of Christ to any certain definite number or that I mentioned any Ministers Names by way of distinction I utterly deny And I have very good reason to judge it no breach of the Law of Charity to believe that the secret design of the Reporters hereof was to incense and provoke the Spirits of Godly Ministers and their respective Congregations against me And hereby to prepare them for a more facil and ready reception of the other black and scandalous Reproaches which were to be brought on the Stage on purpose to do my business as one of their Confederates was heard to say he would do I come to the fourth Branch of the Charge which is That I should bid a publick challenge to Mr. Williams and the rest of Mr. Baxters followers to Dispute certain Positions held and asserted by Mr. Baxter and those who go his way To which I reply That this is as true as the rest and did I am very sure proceed from the same lying Spirit which Coined and Forged their other lying Stories against me the design whereof was not only to corroborate that their Design in its Foundation but also to draw over Mr. Williams and others whom they knew to be impatient to hear any Opposition given to any Notions of Mr. Baxters to them to help and encourage them to break that Church whereof themselves were an Essential part and to force my flight from my Station in C. to which their own Electing Voice called me The occasion of this Slander was thus I did one day in Preaching lay down this Position viz. That an Elect Sinner is in effectual Calling freely justified from all charge of Sin both Original and Actual by the alone Mediatorial Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ freely imputed by God and that without any regard had to any Conditions performed by or Qualifications inhering in the Person of the Sinner as con Causes with Christ in Justification This said I is a truth so clearly laid down and asserted in the Gospel and so back'd with the witness of Gods Spirit in the Hearts of all assured Believers that all the Disputers in the World who oppose the same will never be able to overthrow it be their Wit and Parts never so sharp and admired And whether I be mistaken herein I freely appeal to the Judgment and Determination of all Orthodox Protestants who in the point of Justification are not more or less tainted with the Ropish Arminian Leaven of Free Will and General Redemption But to bid a challenge to Mr. Williams or any others to dispute matters of Controversie in Religion I do most solemnly profess I never spake such a thing either in or out of the Pulpit The fifth and last Branch of the black Charge brought in against me was That I am an Universal Docryer of all Religious Duties in the Life and Conversation of a Christian Crying out in the Pulpit away with your Holiness c. The design of my Accusers in this was to represent and expose me as a rank Antinamian and so I should prove were the Accusation true But to let all who read this see