sured by it. The truth of all this might be illustrated and confirmed by the case of infants dying in infancy; who as soon as they are in the world, almost are taken out of it. Now such a number as they are, can never be thought to be brought into being in vain, God is and will be glorified in them: now though their election is a secret to us, and unrevealed; it may be reasonably supposed, yea in a judgment of charity it may rather be concluded, that they are all chosen, than that none are, but the election of them cannot be owing to their faith, holiness, obedience, good works, and perseverance, or to the foresight of these things, which do not appear in them.

VI. The means fixed in the decree of election, for the execution of it, or in order to bring about the end intended, are the mediation of Christ, and redemption by him, the sancti fication of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.

VII. The ends settled in the decree of election are both subordinate and ultimate; the subordinate ones have indeed the nature of means with respect to the ultimate one. So God is said to predestinate them to be conformed to the image of his Son, to be made like unto him, to the adoption of children, Eph. i. 5. to be holy and without blame, Eph. i. 4. to obedience and good works 1 Pet. i. 2. to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thess. v. 9. to eternal life, Acts xiii. 48.

Now all these ends, are subordinate ones to the grand and ultimate end of all, the glory of God; the praise of the glory of his grace, Eph. i. 46.

VIII. The blessings and benefits flowing from election are many, indeed all spiritual blessings. 1. Vocation, Rom. viii. 30. 2 Tim. i. 9.-2. Faith and holiness, 3. Communion with God, Psal. lxv. 4. 4. Justification, Rom. viii. 33. 5. Adaption, Heb. ii. 13. 14. John xi. 52. 6. Glorification, Rom. viii.

30.

IX. The several properties of election may be gathered from what has been said of it; as,-1. That it is eternal; 2. It is free and sovereign, Rom. ix. 18.-23. 3. It is abso

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lute and unconditional; Rom. ix. 11.-4. It is complete and perfect. 5. It is immutable and irrevocable, 6. It is special and particular, 7. Election may be known; for to whomsoever the blessings of grace are applied, they must be the elect of God, Rom. viii. 30. There are many things objected to this doctrine of election; but since it is so clear and plain from scripture, and is written as with a sun-beam in it, all objections to it must be mere cavil. It is urged, that God is said to be good to all, and his tender mercies over all his works, Psal. cxlv. 9.; but this is to be understood not of his special grace, but of his providential goodness, which extends to the elect and non-elect, the evil and the good, the just and the unjust, Matt. v. 45. It is observed, that Christ says he was sent not to condemn the world, but that the world through him may be saved, and therefore not some only but all; but to understand this of all the individuals in the world is not true, because all are not saved; and so this end of Christ's mission, so understood, is not answered. Nor is 1 Tim. ii. 4. any ob. jection to this doctrine, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth; for all men are not eventually saved: but the sense is, either, that all that are saved, God wills to be saved; or that it is his will that men of all sorts and of all nations, Jews and gentiles, should be saved; which agrees with the context 1, 2, 7.

of the Decree of rEJECTION, OF SOME ANGELS, AND OF SOME MEN.

THE doctrine of rejecting some angels and some men from the divine favour, is spoken of but sparingly in scripture, yet clearly and plainly; though chiefly left to be concluded from that of election.

I. The rejection of some of the angels, which consists of two parts-1. A non-election, or preterition of them, a passing over them or passing by them, when others were chosen. To some angels God decreed to give, and did give grace to confirm them in the state in which they were created; the

others were left to the mutability of their will, which is that weakness and folly the angels were chargeable with in their creation-state, Job iv. 18. hence of their own free-will they sinned and fell, and left their habitation, 2 Pet. ii. 4. Jude 6. 2. The appointment of them to wrath and damnation; in this they were viewed as sinful, fallen creatures; this decree is meant by their being reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day, Jude 6. 2 Pet. ii. 4.

II. The decree concerning the rejection of some of the sons of men. We can hear and read of the non-election and rejection of angels, and of their pre-ordination to condemnation and wrath, with very little emotion of the mind: but if any thing of this kind is hinted at, with respect to any of the apostate sons of Adam, presently there is an outcry against it; and all the above things are suggested. What is the reason of this difference? It can be only this, that the latter comes nearer home, it is partiality to ourselves, our nature and race, to which this is owing. But to go on-1. I shall prove that there is a non-election. Our Lord says, I speak not of you all; I know whom I have chosen, John xiii. 18. As election is signified by the writing of names in the book of life, non-election is expressed by not writing the names of some there. Preterition is God's passing by some men, when he chose others: and in this act, or part of the decree, men are considered as in the pure mass of creatureship. Pre-ordination of men to condemnation for sin; and is what is spoken of in Jude 4. There are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation; who are described by the following characters, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into laciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and, or even our Lord Jesus Christ. The casting of the fury of God's wrath, in all the dreadful instances of it, is called, the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him of God, Job xxi. 30. and xx. 23–29. and this is the sense of Prov. xvi. 4. for the meaning of the text is not, nor is it our sense of it, as some misrepresent it, as if God made man to damn him;

we say no such thing, nor does the text; our sentiment is, that God made man neither to damn nor save him; but he made hon for his own glory, and he will be glorified in him, in one way or another.

OF THE ETERNAL UNION OF THE ELECT OF GOD UNTO HIM.

THE Union of God's elect unto him, their adoption by him, justification before him, and acceptance with him, being eternal, internal and immanent acts in God; I know not where better to place them, than next to the decree of election, I shall consider the union of the elect to God, as it is in its original, and as an eternal immanent act in God. This bond of union is indissoluble by the joint power of men and devils. The love of Christ to the elect, is as early as that of his Father's love to him and them, and which, it seems, was a love of complacency and delight; for before the world was his delights were with the sons of men, John xv. 9. Now of this union there are several branches, or which are so many illustrations and confirmations of it, and all in eternity; as, I. An election. union in Christ: this flows from the love of God, see Thess. ii. 13. Election gives a being in Christ, how they can be said to have a being in Christ, and yet have no union to him, I cannot conceive. 11. There is a conjugal union between Christ and the elect, which also flows from love, and commenced in eternity. Though the open marriage-relation between Christ and particular persons, takes place at conversion, and the more public notification of it will be when the marriage of the Lamb shall come. Yet the secret act of betrothing was in eternity so Christ is said to be the husband of the Gentile church before she was in actual being, Isai. liv. 5. 111. There is a federal union between Christ and the elect, and they have a covenant-subsistance in him as their head and representative. The covenant was made with Christ not as a single person, but as a common head; hence he is said to be the figure or type of him that was to come, Rom. v. 14. so the covenant of

grace was made with Christ as the federal head of his spiritual offspring; and for this reason a parallel is run between them in Rom. v. and 1 Cor xv. as if they had been the only two men in the world, the one called the first and the other the second man. IV. There is a legal union between Christ and the elect, the bond of which is his suretyship for them, flowing from his strong love and affection to them. In this respet Christ and they are one in the eye of the law, as the bondsman and debtor are one in a legal sense; so that if one of them pays the debt bound for, it is the same as if the other did.

OF OTHER ACTS OF GOD, PARTICULARLY ADOPTION AND JUSTIFICATION.

I SHALL here treat of these doctrines as internal and immanent acts, taken up in the mind of God from eternity, and which abide in his will; in which they have their compleat esse, or being, as eternal election has. I shall begin,

I. With Adoption, which is no other than his will to adopt the chosen ones, which is his adoption of them. This agrees with the sense of the word adopto, from whence adoption comes, which is compounded of ad to, and opto to choose; so that by this option, or choice of his they become so. The Greek word for adoption throughout the New Testament, signifies putting among the children; the phrase used by God, Jer. iii. 19. 1. It did not begin in time, but commenced from eternity. 1. It is an act that does not first take place at believing; indeed the saints are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, openly and manifestatively, Gal. iii. 26. but then it is not faith. that makes them children, but what makes them appear to be so. 2. Adoption does not first commence at regeneration; adoption and regeneration are two distinct blessings. 3. The act of adoption is previous to any work of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of his people; Because ye are sons, sons already, sons by adopting grace; God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, to cry Abba Father, Gal. iv. 6. Rom. viii. 14-16.-4. Divine adoption took place before any