Of Ele8ion. CHAP. VI. 1 hat two thingr are intended in that Text of 1 Cor. 7· 14. What God'r Thoughtr are of Believers Children and the Rule by which he would have 111 to judge of them. What is the Judgment we :are to have of .the Children of Godly Parents upon this Declaration of God concerning them, that they are holy. To what Extent this Propojition is to be. ttmplyfied: That it is not meant univerjaOy of afl, but indefinitely offame on– !J, though the greater number. What Agreement and Harmony there is between our Judgment of the holinefi of Believerr Children, and what in rettlity of the E: vent prover true concerning them. TH I S being thus gained, that Evangelical Holincfs of Electiol) and Re· generation is here meant and intended. · Now it may be further coofi· dered as aground for a further Enquiry, that thtfe words [Their Cl,iJ· drm art holy] may fall under a double difiinct Notion or r.onlideration. Ei· tber, '· They may be taken as looking upwards, as wherein God exprdfeth to us his own thoughts about fuch Children, who are, or fh~ll be really made ho– ly by him, and whom the Holy Ghofr, when he fpeaks it, bath only in his e) e and intent, though he points to the whole lump. And fotaken,the words r<fpeCl: wholly, and only the reality of the tiling in the event, that is, only the true holinefs of thofe Childreo who are fo indeed; or thofe Children only of fuch Parents, who !hall furely be made holy. Or elfe, 2. The words may look downwards, as importing a Duty on our parts, and dcclaring what God's Will is that we fhould think of fuch Children; both in our Judgments to account the.m holy, as a thing meet for us fo to think of them ; and upon that efieem to carry our felves towards them as towards Saints, and to perform fuch du.ties to them, as they are capable of, and as are due to fuch Saints. In a word; In the one fenfe they may be fuppofed to de– clare God's mind and thoughts concerning the(e Children themfelves,2dd their eftates; in the other, they declare his mind about us, and what our duty is to think of them. In the one they are a meer fimple Expreffion of God's unto us; in the other, they become a Rule to guide our thoughts concerning them. Now thefe are two diftinct things, and will much vary the Cafe: For whilfr God fpeaks the one, he bath in his eye only thofe very Children whom he makes holy ; if the wards be taken a< a declaration of his thoughts: But in tb.e other, as he lays this duty on us, he hath every Child of a Believer in his eye, fo far as to enjoyn us this duty, to think any one in particular, though not all in general, to be holy; even therefore, becaufe that God exprelfeth ·his own thoughts fo indefinitely and refervedly, as that we know not whom he means, our duty is, to think fo of any of them, Now that both thefe are here inten– ed, is evident : I. That
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