75 / 808
V
E
R.5,
Predeflination.
6;
Made a
Sonne, admire it.
When David
was
told
of
matching with
Souls
daughter,
what r
faid
he,
feemeth
it
a
fmall thing
to
he
forme
in
Law
tea
King
?
And
(hall
it
feeme a fmall
matter
to
us
that
we are
now,
ac-
cording
as
we were predeflinated,
that
we are fonnes
in
Law,
adopted
heyres,joynt-
heires
with Chrift
of
the kingdome
of
glory
We
may
fee
hence
what dutywe owe
to
God
;
we,
I
fay,
whom
he
hath now adopted for
his
children,even
as
of
grace, he
did predeftinate;
if
I
be
a
Lord,
where
ismy
feare
?
if
a
Father,
where
it
my
honour ?
Earth-
ly
Parents, thegreater things they
meane
to
leave
their children, the
more they expel
all
obfequtous
and
dutiful' behaviour from
them;
fo
doth God
from us; the greater and more excellent condition he
hath
apointed
us
unto, the more he
Both
challenge from
us
all fuch care
and
duty
as
may declare
us
not unworthy
fo great
favour.
Secondly, that
we are predeffinate
to
adoption
;
Obferve
that
the
life
which God bath
ordained
by
meanes prepared
to
bring
us,
is
a life
comming immediately from
his
grace, that
life
which
is a
confequent
of
Adoption,
yea called adoption it felfe,
that which
accompanieth
fonnefhip
is
an
inheritance ;
that
life
cannot
but
come
from the
free
grace
of
God
our
Father: Adoption
and
fonnelike
inheritance are not
things purchafed
by
contra6t
of
Juflice,
but
are freely vouch fafed
:
Be-
hold,
what
love
the
Father bath
Jhewed
ea,
that
we
Jhould
be
called
his
chil-
dren,
t
Mkt
3.t
.Ergo,
life
it
called a
gift
of
Gods
grace,
Rom.
6.
ult.
And
that whichGod
will doe about
his
children
in
the
day
of
judgment,
is
called
mercy.
a
Tim.i.The
Lord
/hew
onejipheri
a
mercy
in
that day.This
is
to
be marked againft
the Papifts, the
firft
force
of
their
error
in
the
matter
of
merit beginning here.
For they grant this propofition true,
that God
Both out
ofhis
grace predeflinate
us
to
life
;
but
this
they will
not admir,that
God doth
predeiinateustolife
,whichfhall
comeimme-
diately from this grace.
Now
to
conceive
thus
of
predeftination,
is
to
take away all the grace
of
predeftination.For to choofe one
out
of
race
g
to havethis
or that
he fhall
well pay
for,
is
grace
not worth God
have
mercy,
as
they
fay ;
this
is
grace, when he might have chofen
others,
and left us,
he
did
take us,
as
who
fhould have life purchafed
from
his
Juftice.I answer,here
is
an
a&tion
of
liberty,
to
take one
before
ano-
ther;but whilethis
is
it
to which
1
am
taken,viZ;to have
a
penny
worth
for my penny, there
is
no grace at
all
(hewed
me.
For
when
aCtions
are
definedaccording
to
the object about which they
are
converfant,
if
the
object
of
life
have not grace
in
it,
there
can
be no
grace
in
electing
to
it.
Secondly,
predeftination
fhould
bean
intermedled aetion partly
a
preparation
of
things
God
would doe out
of
his
grace,
as
of
calling,
the
firft
juftification according
to
the Papifts
;
partly
a preparation
ofthings
God
would doe out
of
Juftice,as
of
our glorification.
Thirdly,
this maketh
all
that God doth out ofgrace,tend to
this
end,
that
his juftice
may be glorious
in
giving
life:We
read
the
contraty,that
juftice
fhutteth
all under finne,that
grace may be glorious
in
all;this
we
reade
not, and it were abfurd to thinke
ir,when
all
his juftice
doth
in re-
probation tend
to
this
end, that the
riches
of
lais
grace may be more
difplayed.
G
z
Fourthly,
Dail.
They mate
m"C
d
bef°8
dtg
ptynm
tütotnaw,wu
uriedtnmitxsa
Rimw.