OfEieflio~. CHAP. XV1. 1bat the Decreer of God in Eleelion are of fucb Jure Ef ftcacy, that we may be afcertain"d of tbeir infallible performance. 1hat nothing can hinder or fruflrate their fucceft in wor4!ng~ becaufe God war~ all thingr tlccording to the Counfel of his own Will. What Af furancer we have, that his good purpofer concerning us, jhatl be invincibly accomplijhed ; both from the nature of Eleflion Decreer, and the lnterefo which the Attri– buter ofGod have in the performance ofthem. AS the Decree of Ele~ion, or Predefiination, is the efficacious Will of God, which for his own good pleafure intends our Salvation, and has prepared fuch means, by which,and through which bt /;rings hu Etea 1111to tbat tnd, tfficacrouf!y and infa/Jr6ty. I. This efficacious Will of Gnd, in this matter,, i< to be difiinguifi1ed from other Decrees. We call this the efficacious Will of God, becaufe it does not leave a man in the h1nds of his own free will, as Ada111was left; and becaufe it alfo refpeds and decrees the very event; for it is fuch a Will of God, as is joyned with his Power to effed it. As for infiance , Fpb. I, 1 1, I11 whom, i" Cbrrf/ namely, we havt obtainedmt inhtritcmce, bting predeflinatrd accord– ' ing to lht pt~rpojt of hrm, who worktth a/J things afur the cotm{tl of !m ow11 H·i!J. And tl1is is backed with two other Scriptures out ofthe Old Tefiamenr, I{ai. '4• 2 7· For tht Lord of Hofli hatb purpoftd, mid wbo fba/J difantil rt. Pfal. 1 t 5· ~· But our God u in the Htavms ,ht !nth done wbatforver be pteaf· d. And this diflindion might be cleared by many lnflances; as by Sat~I'., be· ing chofen King, whom he did call out; and that of Jeroboam, to whom God made the fame promife of efiablifhlng his Kingdom, as he had done to 'David, but left it in the hands of his own will, 1 Kings I 1. ~7.38. as the event fhew'd how it fuccecded. Aud thus before he had done as to A dam's flate, which is perfe~ly the !late the ArminianJ put God's Eledion and Promifes into, which the event alfo lhewed how fatal it proved. And this was the cafe of the Ifrae– liltJ prefent in the Wildernefs, whom God promifed Cmraan to, but left the Iliue to the counfel of their own Wills, and thereupon God defiroyed them in the Wildernefs, and then twits them witb it, Nnm6. I4· l4· After the number of the days in wbicb yejearcbed tbe Land, evtn forty days, ( tt~ch da1 for a )'tar) /haC ye bear your i11iquities, evm forty years, and)'' /ba/J kl;ow my /;rtacb of promife. But God's Decrees of Eledion and Predefiination, as expre!fed in that place of Eph. 1, li. are not fuch, they are abfolute and in fallible, and all along fo defcribed to be, they have their effect, which if it be proved to be the genu· ine Scope of the place, there is no UJOre to be faid, there is an end of the Con– troverf•e for our fide. I fhall profecute for the prefent firfi, but this one Argument, the fpirit of which !its in this, out of that eleventh Vrrfe, That the Decree concerning God's Eledion, is the D ecree of God, as he is an effeding God, of what he does determine in the counfel of his own Will; which words, and the fenfe thereof is plain, that it is of God; not a contemplating only what he def~res to be done, but of a God that actually works and effeds, according to what his
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