Of ElefJion. 379 his counfcl was 10 do, not leaving i'. to '.ht counfel of our wdl , bttt workmg ,;c- ~· cordmg to the cormjet of bu OWTJ wt!l '·and therefore conl!dered as infallibly Chap. 1 6. workmg what he had decreed. Workmg and effechng hts counfels of Ekdion ~' according 10 the meafme of his working all things elfe , wh 1 ch he ho'.h oeremptnrily refolved to do: And as fucb a God,a working God,and cffec1iag _,;it at l;e will, he is defcribed here to be, and therefore is to be lool;'d upon as a God lo effedually worl(lng. I /hall take up a more comprehenfive Dt icourfe infer'd from the general Scope, and argued from divers par'.iculars of'.he word; whic! 1 will evince almofl from every word, That God's Decrees of Eledion add Prcdeflinarion are tfficacious Decrees that do atrain infallibly '.heir event. Firfl for '.he general Scope, the Fabrick of the .Arminirm Dodrine, with its Enlargemen:s fiuce, does not fomuch as oece/Tarily fuppofe the Foundati– ons the Apoflle goes npon ; yea, hes crofs, and thwart unto tbe main defign the Apoflle has in his DifCourfe. As firfl, The Dodrine of Eledion i'. felf, which tbe Apoflle makes to be but one grond Fundamcmal Ad at once pa/Ted in tbe l.ounfds of God and Chrifl themfelvcs, between them; upon which the pJrticular bltllings that follow, fpring, and have thetr courfe, and that Ad to have beern befor. the world was; this grand Ad they nullifie, and make nothing of: Whereas the Apofll• fays, That be has chofnz mtdpredtjlmated '" before the formd.ltto'l of the wol'ld; They place rnfl-.d thereof their Foundation to be, that which is no Elcdion, no Predeflination: For Eledion; as Nature teaches lls,is achoice of fomc perfons fegregated lrom others pa/Ted by. lnOead of this fundamen– tal and toto! Ad of God, compleated and linifl1ed at firfl, and determin.rely pitched.upon particular perfons,They fubflitutc in the room of this Ad another, upon Condition, wh ich ,'.hey make their Foundation, which is fo far from be– ing an Eled10n,. th.r It rs a general.chooftng of all, whrch ts a mamfefl Contra– dillion: And it ts but upon Condttton netthcr of what may never fall out in a– ny one perfon, the whole depending upon man's will, which they fay, Gcd doth cot, cannot rule; and fo at befi,is but an iocompleat Ad held in fu :pence, and left utterly uncertain, and intermitted with ir. contrary, that in one and the fame day a man is eleded, if his Freewill has confentcd, and then becomes Non·Eied, if his Freewill falls off; and this happens a thoufand times in the courfo of a man's life. Secondly, The Apoflle fuppofes, in afferting an Eledion, a Church unto Chrifl under the New Teflament, at leaf!, a Church defign'd our by Eltdinn, and formed out to Chrifl by the following bleffings,with which he blc/Tes them. H e ncce/Tarily fuppofes fuch a Church to be eleded under the New Tcflament; agalnft whrch the Gates of Hett fball11ot prevail, as Chrifl has promifed. But this their Dodrine fuppofes may not be, and fo not only the Scripture, which were on purpofe writ for their fake, that they might have comfort and hope, may not only be fruflrated, but thatChrifl himfelf may be fa id to have died in vain, and fo to fruflrate the whole of the Grace of God tov. arJ hts Church, and of Glory to Chri!l, whofe glory it is to have at lamr day his full Church about him; Tht Children which thou b,,{/ .~ivmme, fays he in /ub" '7· whoarefaidtobetheg!oryofChrif/, 2 Cor. 8, 23, WhetiJtr a~,• do m– quire of Titus, be is my partner and fetlow-l,elper co!lctrniug yotJ: or our 6rtthren h enquired of, they are the nuffitrgers of the Churcbts, ,,dthF gl•– ry of Chrif/ : and Chrifl to beglorified in his S"mts. And tf we find l'.ml triumphing fo much in the thoughts of them he bad convertcd,that they flwuld be his joy and his crown in the later day; then how much more wtll Cbnfl's joy and crown depend upon the fame event; how much "ill Chrift's joy be augmented or le/Tened according to the fuccefs? . . . This in general, as to what is thetr whole Dodnnc: But thts Paragraph rn Epb. r. from verfe s· to the t)th, may,eafily be dtfcerncd robe divided into two pans; the one a Difcourfe of Eled10n and Prede_flrnatton,. and the Effeds of it, as it is common to all Saints: And fecnndly , 1 hr cxecu!lon 1t felf,wh tch we have a/Terted infallibly to follow the (, id Ad: or El ·dinn in the D Brine dc– fcribing it. And the H.eader mav. as reed ,Jy obfcrve, wit)l a ~·tr of his e. ye, that he handles the Point of Eledwn twice; firfl. ,m the Dodrtnc of tr, as wos Ccc 2 fatd;
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