ELECTION

THE doctrine of Election containeth the whole sum and scope of the gospel; and our minds, 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 only because of the super eminency of it, but as a foundation of his laying, which God himself is the author of, and he alone; and the basis whereof is himself: it is that foundation which standeth sure, and keeps all them sure who stand on 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 to Jesus Christ, for their use and benefit. Now, in deeds of gift (to make them authentic) there must be inserted the name of the donor, or person that gives; the name of the donor, or person to whom; the quality and extent of the thing that is given; the time when it was done; the con­sideration that moved thereto; and, in case of impotency, it is usual and necessary to ordain some friend as in trust, who is to stand seized or possessed of the gift for the donor's use: all which are evidently found in scripture election, and may be summed into this proposition.

Prop. “That there is a peculiar people, who were per­sonally chosen of God in Christ, according to his own good pleasure, and ordained to eternal life, before the world began.”

Before I come to a downright proof of the proposition, I shall first explain the terms, and then produce some in­stances of a lower kind of election, that is, to matters of a lower concern than that of eternal life; which yet may be reckoned a type and shadow of it.

1. For explanation. This word ' peculiar' denotes the exemption or privileging of a person or thing from the power of another, in whose jurisdiction it was, or seemed to be: it sometimes signifies riches, or substance, which is of a man's own proper getting, by labor and industry: it is also used to denominate such a part of a man's inheritance as he keeps in his own hands; which our law calls his demesne lands. In all which respects, the elect are aptly termed 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 usurped and temporary jurisdiction that he has over them: they do, indeed, belong to another prince, to whom their chief Lord has given them; who therefore (in the appointed time) will rescue them from that usurpation. (2.) They are the Lord's treasure, or inheritance, obtained by labor 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, “even that which he got with his sword, and with his bow,” Genesis 48:22. And, (3.) They are the Lord's demesnes: he keeps them in his own hands, tenders them as the apple of his eye, and will not entrust them in the hands of others: no, not of their own selves.

'Chosen or elected:' the proper import of the word is, to select or make choice of one or more out of a greater number. 'Personally chosen,' that is, they were singled forth, or pitched on by name; and chosen in Christ, or into Christ, as their head and mediator; that being in him, all the grace and glory they were chosen to might be rightfully theirs, and accordingly applied to them.

'To ordain' is the same here as to predestinate, appoint, prepare, decree, or foredetermine of things to come: which was in such manner done, that the event always has, does, and ever shall, justly succeed according to designment. 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 was the cause of their after-existence.

By 'eternal life' I understand, not only the saints' actual possession of blessedness and glory; which consists in their perfect conformity to God, and union with him (according to the 17th of John,) but also, whatever is requisite thereto,

by way of right, preparation, or otherwise; where are comprised, the mediation of Christ, effectual calling, and final perseverance in faith and holiness; which are indeed but so many parts or subdivisions of election: you have them all conjoined in one verse, both as appropriate to the same persons, and as being inseparable, in Isaiah 62:12. where those for whom the highway is cast up, are termed “the holy people;”  there is their election; the “redeemed of the Lord;”  that is plainly their redemption: they are also said to be “sought out;”  which imports their effectual calling: and “a city not to be forsaken,” which implies not less than perseverance. And they are here put in suc­cession, as they fall in order of time: election is therefore called “a preparing to glory,” Romans 9:23.

'Before the world began.' The same thing, for brevity sake, is commonly called eternity; and in Scripture phrase, from everlasting.

'According to his own good pleasure.' This shews the root of election; the great bottom ground on which it is founded, exclusive to all things else, as being any way ca­sual, contributory, or motive thereto.

2. For instances of a lower kind of election: consider here God's choosing or destinating certain persons by name (and some of them before they were born,) to signal and eminent service in the world; where they were patterns of the election we are treating of, and may well be ac­counted a collateral proof and evidence of it.

Abraham was pitched on to be the root and father of God's peculiar people; whom he would own and honor above the nations of the world; and that in him “all fa­milies of the earth shall be blessed,” Gen 12:1—3. which contains a promise, that the Messiah, or Saviour of the world, should come of his posterity: a wonderful high ho­nor; but what was there in Abraham, that might move God thus to prefer him above the rest of his kindred? was he any thing more to God? or had he served him better than other idolaters with whom he had lived? No, in no wise; and yet the Lord singled him forth, and called him alone, Isaiah 51:2. And, in truth, no other reason can be given for it, than what is given for his love to Abraham's posterity; .' lie loved them because he loved them,” Deuteronomy 7:7, 8. Nor was he pitched on to be the father of many nations, nor Sarah to be the mother of them, for any natural fruitfulness in them above others; for Abraham's body was now dead; and Sarah, besides her natural barrenness, was past the age of childbearing; which occasioned her to laugh at the promise: for who, indeed, would make choice of a dried stock, and barren soil, to begin his nursery withal in such materials there is nothing to induce to it.

The same courses he was pleased to take with Abraham's immediate seed: he takes not all of them; but, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called,” Genesis 21:12. Thus, Isaac wag taken, and Ishmael left. And though Abraham's prayer was heard for Ishmael, so as to have him blessed with out­ward things; yet, as to the main thing, God rejects him, and resolves to establish his covenant with Isaac, chapter 17:9. who was yet unborn.

The like he also doth by Isaac's children. “Jacob he loved, but Esau he hated,” Mai. 1:2, 3. Romans 9. which is both the prophet's and apostle's exposition of those words, “The elder shall serve the younger,” Genesis 25:23, and this difference was put before they were born; yea, and en­tailed also on their posterities: the one are “the people of his wrath, against whom he has indignation for ever,” Mai. 1:4, “their captivity shall not return.”  “When the whole earth rejoiceth, they shall be desolate,” etc. Ezekiel 35:3. 14, but for Jacob, “the Lord will bring them back to their own land, and plant them, and build them assur­edly; and do them good with his whole heart,” Jeremiah 31:37. 41. But let it be observed, it was not Jacob's more worthy demeanor, whether foreseen or acted, that procured him the blessing. Esau did more for it than he, and more sincerely: he hunted for venison, and for true venison, such as his father loved; which he also makes ready, and brings with speed, big with expectation of his blessing; which also he seeks importunately, “with tears and bitter crying,” Genesis 27:4, 5. 38. Now, what good things does Jacob do to inherit the blessing? 1. He goes about to in­vade another's right; for the blessing belonged to the first­born. 2. He seeks to pervert. the known intention of his father, which was to bless Esau. 3. He abuseth his father with counterfeit venison. 4. He takes the name of God in vain, to make his dispatch the more probable, Genesis 27:28. 5. He seeks it by fraud, and downright lying: he clothes his neck and hands with the kid's skin, and roundly affirms himself to be Esau (very improper means to obtain a bless­ing!) it need not be asked, which of the two's deportment was most deserving? One would easily conclude the bles­sing to be Esau's: but see the event! he that carries him­self so unworthily, carries away the blessing; he that behaves himself dutifully to obtain it, is dismissed without it; and though his father blessed Jacob unwillingly, and by mistake, yet when he came to know it, he was so far from reversing what he had done, that he earnestly affirms it: “I have blessed him; yea, and he shall be blessed,” Genesis 27:33. Would we know, now, the reason of this strange (and according to men) irrational event? it was, “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, (the elder must serve the younger,) not of works, but of him that calleth,” Romans 9:11. And it is wonderful to observe, how God ordered the whole course of this trans­action, as intending it a full and pregnant example of eternal election: for it holds forth plainly the sovereignty of God over his creatures, in taking whom he will; the freeness of his grace in choosing those that are less deser­ving; the sure effect of his purposes; with his wise and certain ordering of things relating to his end: as also of his using means and instruments therein, quite besides the natural scope of them, and contrary to their own detriments.

Then for the Israelites: —This people the Lord chose in Abraham four hundred years before he publicly owned them: they are expressly termed, “an elect nation,” as being separated from the rest of the world; “an holy, spe­cial, peculiar people to God.”  He took them for “his own portion, the lot of his inheritance: “read his own words (for they are precious words with those to whom they appertain):” Ye shall be holy to me; for I have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine,” “Leviticus 20:26. “The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people to himself, above all the people that are on the face of the earth,” Deuteronomy 7:6. The Lord this day has avouched thee to be his peculiar people, and to make thee high above all nations,” chapter 26:18, 19. “The Lord had a delight in thy fathers, to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people,” chapter 10:15. etc. But were they as far above other nations in good­ness, in greatness, or excellent demeanor? had they bet­ter improved their part in the common stock? and was that it which entitled them to this honor? No such matter, as appears, (1.) By the reason there assigned; “Ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me, above all people, [for all the earth is mine,”] Exodus 19:5. It is as if the Lord had said, there is no difference between you and other nations: all the earth is mine, and I may take where I will: I am not tied to any: 1 might take of them, and discard you; they cannot carry it more unworthily than you have done, and will do. I looked from heaven, and considered their works and yours, I see that your hearts are fashioned alike. And, (2.) Their after-demeanor did abundantly verify it; and the Lord foresaw it; “I knew that thou wouldst deal treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb; that thou wouldst be obstinate, thy neck an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; and that thou wouldst do only evil from thy youth up,” die. Isaiah 48:4,8; Jeremiah 32:30. What then was the cause and motive of God's choosing them above others? It was his undeserved love and favor to them; “He loved them because he loved them,” Deuteronomy 7:8 and 9:4.

Come to David: God has provided himself a king among Jesse's sons, and Samuel must go to anoint him: but it must be “him whom the Lord should name to him: “not the eldest or goodliest person; and therefore, says he (when they pass before him),” The Lord has not chosen this, nor this, nor these, but David.”  It is true, the Lord did not mention David's name to Samuel; but he did what was equivalent; for when David comes in, he tells him, “This is he, anoint him.”  1 Samuel 16:1. 12. And observe, this [he] was the youngest, the meanest and most unlikely; scarce reckoned as one of the family; for he was not brought in amongst the rest. Then, note his circumstances; his employment was to keep the sheep: his exercise, what was it but such as is reckoned effeminate? he addicted himself to music. See also his complexion or constitution of body, white and ruddy; no promising character of a martial spir­it: and yet this man (or rather this lad and stripling) thus qualified, and thus educated, he must be the captain of the Lord's host; who yet had the greatest enemies to deal with, and therefore had need of a man of courage and conduct to be over them. Well, let David's birth, complexion, em­ployment, education, be what it will, ever so unlikely in all human respects, yet this David is, and must be the man whom the Lord will honor to rule his people, to fight their battles, and to do exploits. In this choice the Lord is pleased to set by whatever is taking with men: “he seeth not as man seeth,” that is he regards not men for their nat­ural accomplishments: if for any thing, it must be (proba­bly) for some excellent endowment of the mind; and that of wisdom is of as weighty consideration in the choice of a prince, as any other: but this is no inducement or motive to God; “he respects not any that are wise in heart: “Job 37:24, and if he did, it was not here to be had. David had no prince-like qualities above his brethren, until afterwards; as is plainly intimated in these words, “The Spirit of the Lord came on him from that day forward,” 1 Samuel 16:13.

Then for Jeremiah: The Lord ordains him to be a prophet, sets him over nations and kingdoms, commissionates him to root out and pull down, to build and to plant, etc. why? what had Jeremy done, that the Lord should call him to so imperial a work? Sure no great matter; for this he was ordained to before he was born; “Before 1 formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet: “it also appears by his own con­fession, how unfit he was for such a work: and how unwil­ling; “I cannot speak, for I am a child,” Jeremiah 1:5, 6.

Another instance may be Cyrus: This man was de­creed to a great and noble work. It was, in brief, to destroy the golden monarchy; to break in pieces the hammer of the whole earth, to release God's people out of captivity, and to build his temple: and this was pro­phesied of him more than an hundred years before Cyrus was born. The Lord styles him his anointed, his elect, his shepherd, and one that should “perform all his pleasure: “and he calls him by his name too; which is twice repeated, as a thing to be remarked: and to enforce it the more, he adds a note of narrower observance; “I have called thee, even thee by name,” Isaiah 44:48, and 45:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 13.

Was Cyrus thus chosen, because he would be a puissant prince? or did the Lord make him puissant and victorious, because appointed to such a work? hear what the Lord him­self (who best knows the ground of his own designation) says of him: “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden,” (that is, I gave him strength, and taught him how to use it) “I will loose the loins of kings, and open to him the two leaved gates; I will go before him: —I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron,” etc. But what shall Cyrus have done, that the great God should do him this honor? he did not so much as know the Lord; which is also twice repeated, as a matter worthy our observation, Isaiah 45:1—5.

Lastly. paul: The Lord from heaven commissions him his preacher general among the Gentiles; to bear his name before Kings; to maul and ransack the devil's kingdom; and to turn the world upside-down; witness his doings at Ephesus, Athens, and other places. And this he was call­ed to, even while in the heat of his persecuting fury against that name, which he is now sent to preach: and that there was no motive on Paul's part, himself is witness, where speaking of that his call, he ascribes it to the plea­sure and power of God, as much as he doth his natural birth, Galatians 1:15. The original of all which is couched in that word, “He is a chosen vessel to me,” Acts 9:15.

I might also bring in the stories of Samson, Josiah, John Baptist, and others to the same effect, but that time would fail. Now these instances may not be valued as historical relations only; (that would be too narrow a meaning for them), but according to the scripture way of inferring, and improving to spiritual uses; and so there will be a good preparatory proof of the business in hand: For if there be an election personal to things of less eminent concern­ment; and that so long before some of the persons were in being; if also there be an absoluteness in God's decrees concerning these; how much more in matters of eternal weight! And if the Lord did not look out of himself for the moving consideration on which he selected those persons to their several honors, and achievements, (and if he had, he should have found none,) much less an election to eter­nal salvation, and union with himself, be founded in the creature. Doth God take care for an ox? from the less to the greater is a scriptural way of arguing, and proves strongly. I come now to a more direct and positive proving the prop­osition, where my present scope is not so much to prove that there is an election, as what this election is; viz. how it is qualified and circumstanced: and this respects the objects of election, with the manner, time, and motives of it. And yet, as introductive to these, it may be expedient to touch on the other; and so, for the clearer discussion thereof, I cast the proposition into six branches.

1. That there is an Election of men to Salvation.

2. That this Election is absolute.

3. That it is personal.

4. That it is from Eternity.

5. That the Elect were chosen in Christ.

6. That Election is founded on grace.

These being made good by positive scripture, or argu­ments taken thence; it will not much concern us what is alleged to the contrary: They are of the deep things of God, and discoverable only by scripture light; and therefore in vain are they brought to any other touchstone; for who has known the mind of the Lord, or can, but as himself has been pleased to reveal it?

1. There is an Election of Men to Salvation.

That is, there are some, a certain remnant, that shall be saved: and this by virtue of election.

This is clearly implied in those noted and compen­dious sentences, vessels of mercy, afore prepared to glory, Romans 9:23. The election has obtained, Romans 11:7. The Lord added to the church such as should be saved, Acts 2:47. And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed, Acts 13:48. But more expressly in Romans 11:5. There is a remnant according to the election of grace, 1 Thessalonians 5:9. God has not appointed us to wrath; but to obtain salvation: And 2 Thessalonians 2:13. God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation, etc. And these are called the election, or party of elect ones; as those circum­cised, are called the circumcision; and the angels that stood, are distinguished from those that fell, by the title of elect. They are also said to be chosen vessels, vessels of mercy; as those that are left, vessels of wrath, and sons of perdition: the scripture still sets them forth by distinguishing charac­ters.

1. As a party separate from the world; I (says Christ) have chosen you out of the world, John 15:19. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, John 17:9. And they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, John 17:16. To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to them without all things are done in parables, Mark 4:11. Of Jacob and Esau, (who were an evident type of this separa­tion) it is said of Rebecca, “two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people,” Genesis 25:23, And of Jacob's posterity, “the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations,” Numb. 23:9. And this “people (says God) have I formed for myself,” Isaiah 43:21. “These are the people of his holiness; the rest are adversaries,” chapter 63; 18. 2 Peter 2:9.

2. As men of another race or kindred and as springing from another root. We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness,” 1 John 5:19. (or in that wicked one as their root and head: ) “He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God,” John 7:47. The one party are said to be “chil­dren of light,” the other of the night, 1 Thessalonians 5:5, the one of God, the other of the world, 1 John 4:4—6. the one is from above, the other from beneath: John 7:23. God is the Father of the one, and the devil of the other, chapter 8:41, 42. 44.

3. As men subject to another head. “We are thine,” says the church to God; “thou never bearest rule over them,” Isaiah 63:19. “all that the Father giveth me (saitb Christ) shall come to me, John 6:37. my sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me, and a stranger they will not follow,” John 10:27, and this, “because one is their master, even Christ,” Matthew 23; 8. Of others, he saith, that “they will not come to him,” John 5:40. The one party are followers of the Lamb, the other of the prince of darkness, led captive by him at his will.

4. As belonging to another world. “The good seed are the children of the kingdom,” Matthew 13:38, and they are distinguished from the children of this world, as a party accounted worthy to obtain the world to come,” Luke 20:35, and accordingly we find, that none are admitted into the new Jerusalem but “whose names are found writ­ten in the book of life, Revelation 21:27, and whose name “so­ever was not written there, was cast into the lake of fire,” chapter 20:15. On the same account Judas is said to go to his own place, Acts 1:25, and the elect into “the king­dom prepared for them,” Matthew 25:35. I shall bring but one only argument for proof of this branch, and it is of such weight, that there needs not another, namely, that except the Lord had thus reserved a remnant, no flesh had been saved: the whole world would have been as Sodom, Isaiah 1:9.

2. Election is absolute.

In this are two things of great import, irrevocableness, and independency. The decree is irrevocable on God's part, and independent as to human performances. The Lord will not go back from his purpose to save his people; nor shall their unworthiness or aversion make void, or hinder his most gracious purpose. And hence those various expressions of the same thing, namely, predesti­nate, ordain, prepare, appoint, have nothing subjoined that is like a condition. There is indeed a kind of condi­tions (or rather qualifications) that must, and always do, precede the final completion of election; as “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ: which therefore, may be called conditions of salvation; but not so to election.

Election is the great fundamental institute of the gospel: it is that which in human states is called the supreme law; which is both irreversible in itself, and requires that all inferior administrations may be accommodated thereto: so the salvation of God's elect being the highest law of the heavenly state and kingdom, must on the same (and firmer) ground remain inviolable. It is that for which all things else have being; the plot whereby God designs to himself, the highest glory, and for which he has been at such cost, that should his design miscarry, the whole creation could not countervail the damage. He could not therefore, - for God cannot deny himself - I say, he could not so contrive the grandest design of his glory, as that it should ever need to be revoked or altered: nor could he leave it obnoxious to disappointment; as it must have been, if ventured on a created bottom: yea, it behooved him, as supreme lawgiver, so to determine and subjugate all, that the great end of all might not be frustrated. And thus any prudent founder of a state would do, if the utmost of his skill and power would extend to it: but from their defectiveness in these, the best founded states on earth are subject to mutation: princes die, and their thoughts perish; their minds alter and depart from their first intentions; successors drive a contrary interest; unlocked for accidents entangle them; foreign enemies encroach on them, and obstruct their work: or the people's own folly may be such, as to mar and defeat the best laid designs for their own good. Hu­man affairs are exposed to thousand incidents, which human prudence can neither prevent nor provide against. But with God it is not so: no event can be new to him: “He declares the end from the beginning,” Isaiah 46:10. his judgment and purpose cannot alter,” he is of one mind, and who can turn him?”  Job 23:13, he is also immortal, and ' the thoughts of his heart stand fast to all generations,” Psalm 33:11. no creature can seclude itself from his govern­ment; “In his hand is the soul of every living thing,” Psalm 145:16. yea, the most casual (to us) and opposite emergencies, are by his power, and wisdom reducible to his purpose, and cannot resist their being made subservient to his will. And this may be one reason why election is so often said to be “from the beginning, and from the foundation of the world,” namely, to show that whatever should be in time, should be subordinate to election, which is all one as to make it absolute. And further, this abso­luteness may be evinced by such arguments as these:

Argument 1. If election were not absolute, it would be but after the covenant of works; which being conditional, how soon was it broken, even by one who had power to keep it! and if man in that honor did not abide in it, how should he now, when so strong a bias is grown on his heart, that he runs counter ever since? Genesis 6:5. “If there had been a law given that could have given life, righteousness should have been by the law,” Galatians 3:2. which shows, that the new covenant does more for us than the old; for it giveth life; and then it must give the performance of the condition which that life depends on: it also shows, that the first covenant did not give life, and that it failed be­cause it was conditional. The law shows our duty, but giveth not wherewith to perform it: the new covenant does both, by writing the law in the heart. All under the cov­enant of works are without God, without Christ, without hope, Ephesians 2:12, and this, because strangers to the cove­nant of grace, or grace of election. If therefore the elect shall be in a better state than before, their election must be absolute: and that it might be so the new covenant was made with Christ on their behalf; and is, “that grace giv­en us in him before the world began,” 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2.

Argument 2. Election must be absolute; because whatever can be supposed the condition of it, is a part of the thing itself: much like that promise of God to Abraham, “To thy seed will I give this land,” Genesis 12:7. In which promise the Lord undertakes as well to give Abraham a seed to inherit that land, as that land to his seed: and accordingly we find that the next head of that seed was born by virtue of the promise, Galatians 4:23. 28, so the whole course and se­ries of things conducing to the final accomplishment of elec­tion, is included in it, and ascertained by it; and that with such firmness and security, as if the end itself had been at­tained when the decree was made; as, namely, redemption from sin, effectual calling, and perseverance to glory (of which more fully under those heads); which also seems to be the meaning of the apostle, where he makes eternal life itself to be the substance of the promise: “And this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life,” 1 John 2:25.

Argument 3. It must be absolute, because by such an elec­tion only can salvation be ensured. This bottom Adam had not in his primitive state; he was made upright, but his continuing in that state, depended on his well using of what he had, without any additional help. In him may be seen the utmost that created grace of itself can do, even in a state of perfection; to which being left, how soon did he degenerate, and come to ruin? and all his posterity would have run the same course, if placed in his stead; as we know they have done (one by one) notwithstanding all the helps which are given in common to men. And it is no wonder, since now they have bo strong a bent to evil, which Adam had not. And if there be any advantage cast in, (which some do affirm, and call it the new cove­nant,) the more is our doctrine confirmed: for the more; helps they have, if yet they fall short, (as they do,) the more evident it is, that nothing short of such an election will secure them. An example of this we had in the old world; who, by their natural ingenuity, and long lives to improve it, together with Noah's six score years' preaching, and the Spirit's striving, were not led to God, but still grew from bad to worse, until all “the imaginations of their hearts were only evil, and that continually,” Genesis 6:8. And this was not the case only of some, but of the whole race universally: “All flesh had corrupted his way,” chapter 6:12. It is true, that Noah was found righteous; and as true it is, that election was it that made him so. Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” verse 8 in the same sense that Paul obtained mercy, 1 Timothy 1:16. viz., by mer­cy's obtaining, or taking hold of him. It may also be seen in the people of Israel; who, over and above their common and natural grace, had many helps and additions that others had not: “the Lord dealt not so with any na­tion as with them,” Psalm 147:19, 20, and yet the general­ity of them so bad, that they justified their sister Sodom, Ezekiel 16:51.

The first covenant thus failing, such was the grace of our Lord (foreseeing it) as to determine on a second, or new covenant; by which he would fix and secure a remnant, and that infallibly: and hence it is termed, The covenant of grace, as not depending at all on works; and this is that grace that saves, and “reigns to eternal life,” Romans 5:21, Ephesians 2:5. 8. And these are the “sure mercies of David,” recorded in the 55th of Isaiah: it is the absoluteness of it that makes it a better covenant.

Arg. 4. There is the same reason for the absoluteness of men's election, as of Christ's. That man, or human body, which the second person was to assume and unite to himself was no. ordained to that union on any condition Whatever as, namely, if he should fulfill all righteousness, destroy the devil, dissolve his works, and make atonement for sin for these could not have done without it: and that his ordination thereto was absolute, as seen by Hebrews 10:5. “A body hast than prepared me;”  and Luke 1:35. “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” Matthew 1:21. “He shall save his people from their sins.”  In which places the ab­soluteness of the decree for that man's being united to the Son of God, is evidently set forth. And that our election (as to this circumstance of it) holds proportion with that of Christ, you shall see more fully afterwards. Take only (at present) those gracious words, which, doubtless, he uttered with great satisfaction to himself in the 17th of John, verse 8 21. “Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.”

Argument 5. It was requisite that election should be abso­lute, because of the absoluteness of God's decree touching the death of his Son, to which he was foreordained unrepealably, 1 Peter 1:20, and all that he saved before he suffer­ed, were saved on the credit of that decree, Romans 3:25,26. The scripture also says plainly that he was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Revelation 13:8, and that it was not possible that cup should pass from him, Matthew 26:#9. 42. And if it be a thing below the prudence of men to lay down the price without securing the purchase; then, surely, the wisdom of God could not determine the death of his Son for men's salvation, and yet leave the salvation of those very men at an uncertainty: which it must have been, if their election were not absolute.

Argument 6. Lastly, It might also be argued from the na­ture of divine promises; which are patterns, or declarative copies of the decree. Now the promises touching spiritual blessings are absolute; they are of that word which is “for ever settled in heaven,” Psalm 119:89. See the promises of sending Christ to be a redeemer, Genesis 3:15. the Hoi; Ghost to sanctify, and lead into all truth, John 16:13. to sprinkle clean water on them; to give them a new heart; to cause them to walk in his statutes; that he will be their God, and they shall, be his people, and shall not depart from him, Jeremiah 24:7. Ezekiel 36:26, that if they sin, ha will chastise them with the rods of men, but his everlasting kindness he will not take from them, Psalm 89:30-34, and that at last he will “present them faultless before the presence of his glory,” Jude 24. These all, with others of like tenor, are delivered in positive and absolute terms, without any shew of reservation, proviso, or condition. And if these, which are transcripts of the decree, be absolute, it follows that the decree also is the same: and on this ground it is the apostle stands when he challengeth all the world to nullify God's election, Romans 8:33, 34, which he could not have done, had not election been sovereignly absolute.

III. Election is personal: and,

IV. It is from eternity.

These two I put together in proof, because they are fre­quently joined in scripture. It was not the whole lump of mankind that was the object of election; neither was elec­tion, as some say, a decree to elect such as should hap­pen to be thus and so qualified: but certain determinate persons were chosen by name, or singled out from among the rest, and ordained to eternal life. Our Savior styles them the “men that were given him out of the world,” John 17:6, and they were given him by name, as well as by number; and by those names he knows them, chapter 10:3. 14. It is not unworthy our deepest attention, how the Lord takes notice of the names of his people; as intending it, doubtless, a signal token of the special regard he has to their persons. He therefore tells Moses, “I know thee by thy name,” Exodus 33:17. It is an appropriating of them to himself, Isaiah 43:1. “I have called thee by name; thou art mine.”  Sometimes also, when he calls to those he eminently owns, he doubles their name by repetition: thus to his friend Abraham, Genesis 22:11, to Moses, his ser­vant, Exodus 3:4, and others. But I find no instance of his speaking so to other men: and these, I suppose, are re­corded as worthy of special remark; and that it is no light matter (much less to be scoffed at, as it is by some frothy spirits,) that the elect were chosen by name, and that their names arc written in heaven. And that it was transacted from eternity, is evident from John 17:23, 24. Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 13:8, and 17:8; and other scriptures.

The personality of election, with its eternity, may be evinced by such arguments as these:

Argument 1. From the example of Christ's election. It was not a person uncertain that was to be Lord and Christ; but the second person in human nature: and this capacity he sustained from everlasting, Proverbs 8:23.—31. 1 Peter 1:20. Nor was it any body which he might assume, but the very numerical body that was prepared for him, Hebrews 10:5, Psalm 40:7. “And this very person he loved before the foundation of the world,” John 17:24. It is worthy of observation, how particular the decree was, even in things circumstantial, to our Lord Christ; as that he should come of Abraham's stock, of Judah's tribe, of David's lineage, be conceived of a virgin, born at Bethlehem; and this when the scepter was departing from Judah; that he should be buffeted, scourged, spit on, hanged on a tree, his hands and feet pierced; that gall and vinegar should be given him to drink; that a bone of him should not be broken (even while on both sides of him others' were;) that his garments should be parted, and lots cast on his vesture; as also that he should rise again the third day, etc. And that these were all decreed, appears by the prophecies of them, which are the decree exemplified, or drawn out of the register. As touching his resurrection, it is said ex­pressly in Psalm 2:7. “I will declare the decree: “and the same is as true of all the rest. And if the election of the head was personal, and from eternity, why not theirs that should make up his body, since they did as really exist then, as the human nature of Christ, did? Besides, it was very agreeable that he and they should both be appointed together: for he could not be a head, but with respect to a body: and that they were expressly determined of, ap­pears by Psalm 139:16. “In thy book were all my mem­bers written, when as yet there was none of them.”  If you say, that was meant of David's members; I answer, that if God thought the members of an earthly body worthy his registering, he could not be less particular and exact about the mystical body of his son: besides, David was his type.

Christ also was ordained to be a Savior, and that by his death, and both “from the foundation of the world,” 1 Peter 1:20. It was therefore expedient then also to be determined how many, and who in particular, should have salvation by him. He was not to die for himself; but for those whose security he undertook. Now it is not a thing proper to speak of security, or bail, but with respect to a debtor, or offender; and that debtor or offender must be known too, and named, or else the entering of the bail is an insignificant act; especially where the surety has debt or default of his own to be charged with. Our Lord and Savior did not make his soul an offering to some­body's sins, but uncertain whose. Aaron knew whose trespasses he offered for: their names were graven on his breastplate: not their national name or qualification (name­ly, Israelite, or believer,) but their personal names, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, etc. So had our great high priest, or he could not have made atonement for us: and that place, Revelation 13:8, points at the same time for both. Those words “from the foundation of the world,” do refer as well to the writing of their names in the book of life, as to the lamb's being slain; as is evident from the 8th verse of the 17th chapter, where, deciphering those “who shall wonder after the beast,” he says, they are such whose “names were not written in the book of life, [from the foundation of the world,”] as were theirs who followed the Lamb, and whom “God had from the beginning chosen to salvation,” 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

Argument 2. The design of God, in the death of Christ, could not otherwise be secured. Had the design been, to purchase salvation for believers, without ascertaining the persons that should believe, it had been uncertain whether any would be saved, because uncertain whether any would believe. If certain that some would believe, this certainty must be decreed: for nothing future could be certain other­wise. And if it was decreed that some should believe, the individuals of that some must be decreed also: for faith is the gift of God, and could not be foreseen in any, but whom he had decreed to give it to. Which laid together, are a good demonstration, that those Christ should die for, Were as well preordained, as that he should die for them; and that definitely, and by name.

Argument 3. It may be further argued, from the Father's “preparing a kingdom from the foundation of the world,” and mansions or places in it. To prepare the way of this argument; consider the punctuality of God's disposement in things of a lower concern: he did not create the earth in vain (that is, to stand empty and void, as at its first formation;) nor the several quarters thereof to be inhabited in­definitely, by some nation or other, who should happen to get possession of them, but “he divided to the nations their inheritance, and the bounds of their habitation,” Deuteronomy 32:8. Acts 17:26. Mount Seir was given to Esau, and Ai to the children of Lot, chapter 2:5. 9. each nation had its limits staked out, and this from the days of old. And if we may distinguish of acts in God, and of time in eternity; his purpose to form and bring forth those nations, must needs be as early as to create and furnish those parts of the world which they should inhabit. Now, earthly set­tlements being of trivial moment to the heavenly mansions; it seems a good consequent, that if yet particular nations were foreappointed for particular provinces on earth; much more should particular persons be designed for those par­ticular mansions in heaven: and if either were appointed first, it must be the person: for, “the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.”  Heaven was made at the beginning of the world; but election was before.

The domestics of God's house, or place of glory, are a sacred state or order of kings and priests; and each indi­vidual person has his place or apartment set out for him. Those glorious places were not prepared for believers inde­finitely; but for certain determinate persons particularly: the twelve apostles shall have their twelve thrones, and each one his own. This is evident by our Savior’s an­swer to the mother of Zebedee's children: “to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give) but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my father,” Matthew 20:23. If for believers indefinitely, why not for these two brethren, especially since they first made re. quest for them? The truth is, those places were not now to be disposed of; it was determined who should have them long before, even “from the foundation of the world,” chapter 25:34. The scope of this answer was not to shew that the places requested were prepared for believers indefinitely (for these were believers who made request for them;) but that they were appointed for certain parti­cular persons, and they must have them. Much might be added, in confirmation hereof; but by these (I hope) it is clear, that election is personal, and from eternity.

V. Election is in Christ: or, the elect were chosen in Christ.

It was requisite the new covenant should have a head and mediator, as well as the old; that righteousness and life might flow from him into all the elect seed, as sin and death had done from Adam: in which respect, Christ and he are set forth as parallels, in Romans 3, from verse 12 to 21. The benefits which the elect were chosen to, they are made partakers of, by their union with Christ: he is the root, in whom all fullness dwells. Not only the found­ation on which the church is built; but the rock which af­fords all the spiritual materials of the heavenly temple; even the cement that holds one part to another, and the whole to himself: and this by virtue of the decree. For we are to consider that there is a decretive union before the actual; and the one influenceth the other into being; and that as really, as the determined death of Christ did the salvation of those who died before him. Though Christ be not the cause of election, yet he is the grand means, by whom we obtain the blessedness we were chosen to: by him it is, that “we have access to that grace where we stand,” Romans 5:2. And we shall find, that the epis­tles generally, when they speak of the great things relating to salvation, do still bring in Christ, as the person princi­pally concerned about it. Salvation, indeed, is a gift; it is perfectly free; yet not to be had, but in Christ: “It comes on us through his righteousness; as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; so by the righte­ousness of one (by means of their oneness with him) shall many be made righteous,” Romans 5:18, 19. Mankind (by their apostasy in Adam) had destroyed in themselves the whole of that principle which would have led them to God, as their life and blessedness: and had, withal, contracted such an enmity against him, and repugnancy to all over­tures for returning to him (and this gulf was so fixed,) as would forever have kept God and us asunder, had not that blessed project of choosing in Christ been set on foot to dissolve it. It could not be done by any created power; nor could creatures so much as propound a way for it: and if they could, who durst so harden himself, as to mention the thing which only could do it? But the great God, blessed forever, he finds out a way for it: and the same love that ordained to eternal life, would also put it in such a way, as should surely take effect. And to this end (namely, that those ordained to salvation might be both rightfully entitled thereto, and successively brought into it,) they were put into Christ by election: he was the chief and eminent elect one; the firstborn, and prince of the family: and all the elect besides were given to him, as younger brethren, to be maintained on his inheritance. It is plain to him that reads, that the whole of salvation was laid on 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 eternally good for men: we are there­fore said to be chosen in him, Ephesians 1:4. to be called in him, Philippians 3:14. to be created in him, Ephesians 2:10. to be preserved in him, Jude 2, and in him to be blessed with all spiritual blessings, Ephesians 1:4. Blessings in them­selves 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 whatever so comes, is tinctured by his divine excellence, and made propitious to us: and hereby it is, that the thing we were chosen to, is effectually and infallibly provided for. There are divers good reasons and ends for God's choosing the elect in Christ. As,

Argument 1. That by bringing in man's restoration this way, he might, as it were, baffle his great adversary, and outshoot 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 failed not of his design. The Lord would therefore retrieve that ruin, by putting his elect into an head incapable of degeneracy; and not only recover them, but bring them into a better estate than 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 has 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, as appears by the parallel before mentioned, Romans 3:12— 21.

Argument 2. That by shewing us his righteousness in the way and manner of our recovery, we might the more rea­dily subscribe to his righteousness in the imputation of Adam's sin: for, without a sight and knowledge of the one, we cannot, with any heartiness, submit to the other. Hence, some, in their too bold arguings against election, have al­leged, that what Adam did was without their consent: but will they abide by this allegation? In the matter of Achan, each single person stood in the place of the whole nation; and soon the trespass of one, wrath came on all; yet had not that confident people the hardiness to plead, that Achan's act concerned not them; they did not consent to it: but let them take heed, lest while they thus excuse themselves from Adam's sin, they do not, by parity of treason, seclude themselves from the righteousness of Christ: since the setting up the second Adam was as much without their consent as the first.

Argument 3. If the elect had not been in Christ, 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. Divine justice could not have punished him for us, nor ab­solved us through him; we could not have been justified and reconciled by the blood of his cross, had not he sus­tained our persons, and stood in our stead; another's act cannot be mine, either in profit or loss, if there be not a legal oneness between us.

Argument 4. If not in Christ, we could not have been sanc­tified. The lump was sanctified in the first fruits and so is the church in Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:2. The wild olive nature could not be suppressed and changed, but by grafting into the true: “For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches,” Romans 11:16. A man cannot be naturally born, but from Adam, as his natural head; and as impossible it is to be born again, without a like relative union to Christ, as our spiritual head. There is no being a new creature, but by being in Christ: “They that are joined to the Lord (and they only,) are one spirit with him,” 1 Corinthians 6:17. 2 Corinthians 5:17. 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: for the promises being all made to Christ, Galatians 3:16, can­not descend to us, but as being in him; it is that makes us heirs of promise: the Holy Ghost, in whom all promises are virtually contained, “is shed on us through Jesus Christ,” Tit. 3:10.

Argument 5. Lastly, By this choosing in Christ, salvation itself is invincibly secured; and could not otherwise be. The first Adam had but a conditional life; it depended on his own personal obedience, and therefore subject to losing: and had he kept it, he could have derived to us but the same that himself had; which still must have been a mu­table state (for this Adam, while a public person, and as such could not be said to be in Christ; if he had, he should not have fallen: ) but the second Adam has life in himself: “For as the Father has life in himself, so has he given to the Son to have life in himself,” John 5:26, and that absolutely: he is the “prince of life,” Acts 3:15, and implantation into him inspires his branches with his own life. And “the law of that spirit of life in him, makes free from the law of sin and death,” Romans 8:2. “He that thus has the Son, has life,” 1 John 5:12. “and shall have it more abundantly,” John 10:10. “Because he lives, they shill live also,” chapter 14:19. It is a bottom that cannot miscarry; as they are sanctified in Christ Jesus, so in him they are preserved, Jude 1. To this end, “it pleased the Father, that in him all fullness should dwell,” Colossians 1:19, and to put those he would save into him as their head; that being incessantly influenced from an immortal root, they might effectually be kept from withering and falling off; and grow up to that state and glory they were designed for by election. This is the grand record, and ground of our safety, “that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son,” 1 John 5:11.

Having gone these steps towards the compass and extent of election, it concerns us to know where this broad river has its head; what rock it is that this immense fabric is built on; lest we give the honor of it to another; or endanger ourselves by settling on a wrong foundation: to shew which is the scope of the last particular under this general head: namely, 1. That election is founded on grace; or, the good pleasure of God's will is the only original cause and motive of election.

Election is a “promotion that cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, or south,” but from God; who, as he puts down one, and sets up another: so some he chooseth, and others he passeth by, as seemeth him good; and none can say to him, What doest thou? or, Why hast thou made me thus? for election, as it always supposeth a greater number out of which the choice is made, so an arbitrary power in him that chooseth, to choose whom he will, without giving account to any for what he doeth. But the ground or motive of divine election is very different from the manner of men; for they commonly pitch on things for some natural aptness of them for their works: they will not take a knotty, cross-grained, or wind shaken piece of timber, to make a pillar of state: but the Lord pitches on 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 Magdalene, and others, make it evident: and of these he is pleased to make lively images of his son, and pillars for the house of God (columns of state indeed!) whereon to write his own name; to manifest thereby his sovereignty, holiness, wisdom, 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 observed in their order, they will still lead us up to the good pleasure of God, as first and supreme, and perfectly independent. And this I term the only original cause of election, to shut out all works and worthiness 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 New Testament current runs evi­dently this way, making the whole of salvation, both means and end, to depend expressly on the divine will. “It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” Luke 12:32. “Thou hast hid these things from the wise, and revealed them to babes; for so it seemed good in thy sight,” chapter 10:21. “A remnant according to the election of grace,” Romans 11:5. “Predestinate to the adoption of children, according to the good pleasure of his will,” Ephesians 1:5. “Redemption also, and forgiveness of sins, accord­ing to the riches of his grace,” Ephesians 1:7. (The same grace that elected:) the making known the mystery of his will: this also is according to that [his good pleasure] “which he has purposed in himself,” verse 8 9. Yea, all the opera­tions of God, whether for us, on 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 counsel of his own will,” verse 8 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, were the arche­type of the spiritual election;) namely, that “his own good pleasure” was the only cause of his choosing them above other nations: “He loved them, because he loved them,” Deuteronomy 7:8, and 9:4, and 10:15. And, which is yet more, the election of Christ himself was of grace: “It pleased the father, that in him (the man Jesus) should all fullness dwell,” Colossians 1:19.

And good reasons there are, why election should be founded on grace; and why it could not, with respect either to God's glory, or the elect's security, be founded other­wise. And

Argument 1. Is from the sovereignty of God; whose will being the supreme law, admits not a coordinacy, 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, must be superior to that which is regulated by it. Sovereign princes, to shew their prerogative, affirm their acts of grace to be of their own mere motion: and their grants are reputed the more authentic, being so expressed. The like we find in scrip­ture frequently ascribed to God; that “he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy,” Romans 9:18. that “he work­eth all things,” (not by motives from without, but) “after the counsel of his own will,” Ephesians 1:11, that “it is not of man's willing or running; but of God, who showeth mercy,” Romans 9:16, and, indeed, his own mere motion was both a nobler and firmer consideration than any desert oh the creature's part. When the world had been drowned for their obdurate impenitency, the few that remained were as bad as before; and those that should come after, the law 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 as 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; as is seen by comparing Genesis 6:5, and 7. with chapter 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,” (that is, stubbornly, as resolved in his course;) “I hid me (says the Lord,) and was wroth,” Isaiah 57:16. this, one would think, if Ephraim had had in him but a spark of ingenuity, or love to himself, should have moved him to alter his course: but what cares Ephraim? he still kept the same way; and it was the way of his heart: not an inconsiderate pot, or sudden temptation, but natural and fixed: all which the Lord sees and considers; and having laid all together, resolves to heal him, and “restore comforts to him,” Isaiah 57:18. On the other hand, those good souls “who feared the Lord, and obeyed the voice of his servants, they yet walked in darkness, and had no light,” Isaiah 50:10. 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 were they 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 different examples it is evident that the sovereignty of God still keeps the throne, and his dispensations of mercy, whether in pur­pose or in act, are not governed by the wills of men: they are things too low to be counselors to God. And if it be thus in things of a lower concernment, much more in that great business of eternal election, which is the sublimest act of sovereign power: for nonelection is not a punishment, but the withholding of a free favor, which God, as a sovereign lord, may justly deny to one sinner, while he gives it to another. And yet this hinders not, but that every man, at last, shall be judged according to his works.

Argument 2. Election must be founded only on grace, because grace and works are inconsistent in the cause of salvation. The scripture is very cautious of admitting any thing as a concomitant with grace in this matter; yea, al­though it be a thing that doth always 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 Romans 11: where, first, he shews, that amidst the general defection of the Jewish nation, there still was a remnant whom God had reserved: these he terms “the foreknown,” verse 8 2, and in the 7th verse he calls them plainly, “the election;”  and then, lest any should ascribe it to a false cause, as in that parallel case he resembles it to, namely, 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 on grace: and as for works, they had no place in the causing of it. By grace, he means the free favor of God, who is not moved by any thing without him­self; but what he docs he does freely, without respect to men's desert: nay, their undesert rather, is an expedient consideration in this act of grace. By works, I understand all that self-righteousness, goodness, conformity to the law, or whatever else is performable by men. These (namely, grace and works) he proves as inconsistent as contraries can be; and that the least mixture would vary the kind: if but a scruple 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,” Romans 4:4. Grace and faith are well agreed; these both have the same scope and end: but grace and works have always clashed: the setting up of the one, is the deposing of the other: either the ark must be out, or Dagon down; one temple cannot hold them both. To the same effect is the drift of that discourse in Galatians 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: seemingly willing they were to admit of Christ, so they might join 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 honor of his master, and undermining their only foundation; and therefore to keep them from, or bring them off that perilous quicksand, he tells them ex­pressly, 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 Savior complete in him­self; and if you look, though but a glance, at any thing else, it is a renouncing of him: he will be a Savior alto­gether, or not at all; and therefore he tells them again, and that with a kind of vehemency, that “if they be cir­cumcised, Christ shall profit them nothing,” Galatians 5:2.

And as a man may not put in his claim for justification on account of his works, so neither of his faith, as if that were materially, or meritoriously, causal of justification: for faith itself, as it is the believer's act, comes under the notion of a work. Let us therefore consider what part it is that faith holds in this matter; lest, while we cast our works, as not standing with grace, we make a work of faith. It is faith's office to make the soul live wholly on the power and grace of another; which is to renounce self ability, as much as self desert: to apprehend that righte­ousness by which grace justifies: not only to be justified thereby on our believing, but to work in us even that faith by which we apprehend it, Romans 5:2. He that will be saved, must come, not only as an ungodly person, but as a man without strength, chapter 5:6, and as such, in him­self, he must, come to be justified freely by the grace of God, chapter 3:24. For in him, only, can he have strength to believe, even as righteousness on his believing, Isaiah 45:24. he must reckon himself an ungodly man, to the very instant of his justification. “The just indeed shall live by faith;”  but it is not his own faith, or act of believ­ing, (hat he lives by, though not without it; which also seems to be the apostle's meaning, where he says, “The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the son of God: and I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” Galatians 2:20. Where note, that as faith is the life of a believer, so Christ is the life of his faith; and he lives on Christ, by virtue of Christ's living in him.

Notwithstanding all which, it is evidently true, and must constantly be affirmed, that grace and works will still be together in the way of salvation (the one doth not Exclude the other;) only not as colleagues or joint causers thereof; but rather as a workman and his tools, which himself first makes, and then works with them. “By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”  Ephesians 2:18. Even this believing or acting faculty is a creature of grace's raising up; and therefore, in the throne it is meet that grace should be above it. Works, therefore, how good soever, are not the cause of salvation: and if so, not the cause of election; for this, indeed, is the cause of them both: and works, if right and truly good, will always 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.

Argument 3. That election has no other foundation but the good pleasure of God's will, is further argued, from man'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 own image: it is seen by his first-born Cain, what all his natural seed would naturally be. And though some do presume to magnify man, and to speak of him at another rate; yet evident it is by scripture light, and the experi­ence of those renewed, that man fallen is poor, blind, naked, and at enmity with all that is truly good; and that he is never more distant from God and his own happiness, than while in high thoughts of himself, glorying in his own understanding, strength, worthiness, 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; namely, that “all the imaginations of their hearts are only evil continually,” Genesis 6:5. that “their inward part is very wickedness,” Psalm 5:9, that “every man is brutish in his knowledge; altogether brutish and foolish; yea, even their pastors,” Jeremiah 10:8.14. 21, that is, the very best and most intelligent among them: that “their hearts are full of madness,” Ecclesiastes 9:3, “wise to do evil, but to do good have no understanding,” etc., Jeremiah 4:22. And it was not thus only with the Gentile nations, who were left to walk in their own way; but even with the Jews who had all the means of becoming better that could be devised, Isaiah 5:4. excepting that of 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,” Romans 2:7. 21. And yet all this while, and in the midst of all these high attainments, did not teach themselves: and 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 doeth good, no, not one, chapter 3:10—18. Yea, this depravity of nature was so deep and indelibly fixed, that the Lord himself tells them, “The Ethiopian might as soon change his skin, as they learn to do well,” Jeremiah 13:23. All which, with abundantly more, bespeaks a condition extremely remote from yielding a cause or motive for this blessed election.

Argument 4. If God's love to men had its rise from their love to him, it would not have that singular eminency in it, that is justly ascribed to it: “God so loved the world,” John 3. 16. So as not to be expressed; so, as not to be paralleled; so, as not to be understood, until we come to that state where we shall know as we are known; nor then neither fully, because it is infinite. By this it is that God's love to man is so highly celebrated; “Herein is love; not that we love God, but that God loved us,” 1 John 4:10. And, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us!”  chapter 3:1, which surely then is not after the manner of men; for even publicans do so, Matthew 5:46, and “sinners love those that love them,” Luke 6:32. but to love enemies, and while enemies (as to love a wife that is an adulteress; and so to love her, as to win her heart back again;) this is God's love to his chosen.

But, notwithstanding these scriptures, with many others, seem purposely written to obviate such conceptions an would feign our loving of God to be the ground and motive of his love to us; yet, great endeavors there are to father election on 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, ingenious, and industrious persons (as they speak) would attain to, by the helps they have in common with other men: but this pedigree of election is excepted against, as being not rightly induced: for, 1. Men having (in Adam) divested themselves of all that was holy and good, the Lord could not foresee in them any thing of worth or desirable­ness, but what he himself should work in them anew, and that of pure grace and favor; 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 depravity of human nature, exempts 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 ranked them even with the children of wrath, Ephesians 2:3. as he doth. But, 2. If they were otherwise, what could they add to God? or whereby could they oblige him? “He respecteth not any that are wise in heart,” Job 37:24. “If thou be righteous, what givest thou him?”  chap, 35:7, and, “who has pre­vented me, (says the Lord,) that I should repay him?”  chapter 41:11. that is, who is he that is beforehand with God, in doing aught that might induce his favor? “He regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewards,” Deuteronomy 10:17. 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, on every occasion, Tit. 3:5. 1 Timothy 1:14; 2 Timothy 1:9. 3. Faith follows election: God respects the person before his offering. But was not Abel respected as a believer, and his offering for his faith? yea, but that faith of his was not the primary cause of God's respecting him. If Abel's person had not been respected first, Abel had never been a believers 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 on; and he that gives, on the person he will give to. Besides, Abel could do nothing before he believed, that might move God to give him faith; for, till then he was in the flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God,” Romans 8:8. Hebrews 11:6, therefore it could not be Abel's foreseen faith that was the cause of God's respecting him. The scripture speaks often of iron-sinewed 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 conveys its virtues into its principal fruit. Ephesians 2:8, “By grace are ye saved, through faith.”  2 Thessalonians 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 purposing that end: nay, no more than Tatnai's propensity (or aversion rather) to build the temple, and to provide sacrifices for the God of heaven, was the cause of Darius's decree, that those things should be done, and that by him. Ezra 5 and 6, chapters, 5. If men be predestina­ted to faith and holiness, (as they are,) Romans 8:29:30. 1 Peter 1:2, then they were not seen to be so qualified be­fore that 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 predestinated thereto. Besides, if salvation be the inseparable product of faith and holiness, according to John 5:24. “He that believeth has everlasting life, and shall not come into condem­nation,” 1 Peter 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 ending of men where they would have gone of themselves.

Such sapless, irregular, and injudicious notions, are very unworthy that celebrated and ever adorable act of predes­tination: and if duly weighed, would set us farther off from the doctrine of self advancement, which stands in pointblank opposition to the doctrine of God's grace.

Argument 5. It could not stand with the wisdom and good­ness of God, to found the salvation of his people on a fallible! bottom; which it would certainly be, if dependant on any thing besides his own immutable will. For whatever it was that election had being from, by hat also it must be maintained: what, then, would become of it, if built on that goodness which is as the morning cloud and the early dew? Hosea 6:4. The creature's will, even in a state of perfection, was too slight and fickle a thing to build this eternal weight on: and if a man at his best estate was vanity, how much more afterwards, when so strong a bent of vanity came on his will?

Argument 6. To derive election from any root besides the good pleasure of God, is to frustrate the principal end of man's salvation, namely, “The glory of God's grace,” Ephesians 1:6, and 2:7. This attribute, of all the rest, he will not have eclipsed, nor entrenched on: it is so divinely sacred, as not to admit the least human touch; for which very cause, the Lord has so contrived that blessed design and plot of his glory, that all “boasting is excluded; and no flesh shall glory in his presence,” 1 Corinthians 1:29. But if any thing in the creature be entitled to the causality of election, flesh will glory; and instead of excluding man's boasting, grace itself will be excluded, Romans 11:6. which is far from a glorifying of it. I would here resolve a query or two, which some have urged from scripture: as,

1. How can this doctrine stand with the [general] love and good will of God towards men; who, it is said, will have all to be saved? 1 Timothy 2:4. 2 Peter 3:9.

Answer: 1. If the word [all] be taken universally, it takes in unbelievers as well as others; (which cannot be the meaning: ) therefore, the literal sense of words is not to be rested on, when the like phrase of speech elsewhere used, or evident scope of the same or other scripture, agrees not to it: the design and current of the whole must guide the construction of particular parts. 2. Though the doc­trine of general love will not stand with that of special election; yet the doctrine of special election will not stand without that, and against it: for, there is nothing more plain, than that there is an election of men to salvation; as also, that the genuine import of election, is, to choose one or more out of many: , which necessarily implies the leaving or not choosing of some; and consequently the not willing of salvation to all universally. 3. The will of God cannot be resisted; because with his willing the end, he wills also the means; .and those such as shall compass his end; Isaiah 46:10. “My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure;” i.e. what I please to will, that I will have done. 4. The apostle is not here discoursing the extent of God's special love; whether all men universally are in­terested in it: but exhorting believers to a general duty; namely, to give thanks for kings and all in authority; be­cause of the benefits we have by government: and to pray for them; not only for their peaceable governing of us; but if otherwise, that God would turn their hearts and make them nursing fathers to his churchapter And to enforce the duty, tells us, there is no degree nor state of men exempted from salvation; God has chosen some of every sort; and there­fore we ought not to shut any out of our prayers. 5. The word [all] is often used, when but a part and sometimes the lesser part, of the thing spoken of, is intended by it: as on the contrary, when the universality of the subject is intend­ed, it is expressed by singulars; as, he that believeth shall be saved; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. It sometimes signifies all of such a sort; so Eve was said to be the mother of all living; not of all living creatures, but all of her ow