------=-=-=--=-=--c::---=---- --------- c 0 L 0 S S. I. :10. Ill. In this cafe of Reconciliation, there-is ( fuppoGng the Doctrine of pani: cular Election,) both a certainty that God intends it for many; an:J as equal and indifferent a likelyhood in v1ew, that it is intended for thee as /or any other. Which beGdes that great necellity to inforce thee , may add much encou,.ge– mem aHd hope to thee: For thou heardell before, that none of thy fins are any bar at all· and if any fin mu!l hmder, no fin but that agam!l the Holy Ghoft. Tbo ther~ be many Ggns of Election, yet none of abfolute Reprobation but it; No former dealings of God with thee; nor any dealing of thine with him, tho never fo bafe and injurious; no circum!lance in any Gn, either that it hatil beeri fo often, and fo long lain in, and committed after fuch Vows, Mercies, Convict– ions Deliberations, can exclude thee. Nay none ofthefe do argue thee further off from Mercy than another that is in the !late of Nature with thee; there is nothing can be faid concermng thee, but 1t might have en faid of fome whofe portion Reconciliation bath been, as the Apo!lle fatth, No Temptalzo?J h,zth be– fa/Jnz)'OU but what u commo11 to mm; So nothing can be objected again(\ thee, but bath been and is common to thofe who have obtained Mercy. No Leprofy makes thee unfitter or unlikelier to be faved,than another. ·So that lay but thc!i: two together. I. That it is certain, fame in all Ages !hall find Mercy, and that thou art as fairly capable, and as nigh as another. 2.There is no qualification in the !latute to exclude thee ;thy Country,Sex,Age, Parts,hinders nothing; for God did look to none of all thefe when he chafe Men, .Afis 10. H• HeistJorejpeE!orof Ptrjims; foasthou mayllfayasthey, Ac7s l)· 11. 1 believe, that through thegrace of Chrzj/1 may be Javed as well as they, for grace isfru, and rejpefis 11othing i11 theperfon, 011r W'!J or oth•r, to whom it intmd~th favour. And therefore I feeing nothing againll it, as well as nothing why I lhould, I am as near it as another, and therefore will lland for it, I Kmgs 20. l• When they having beard the Kings of lfradwere merciful Kings,and had fpared others in the like cafe, that they and their Maller Bmhadadwere in; and faw nothing in their condition had not been pardoned to others by them. They upon this ground fay, Let mp11t Ropes about orw N<Cks, peradventttre he may {avr thy izft; it was but a peradventure, and a greater one than can be fuppofed in thy cafe; for they had heard only in the general, the Kings of ljraet, but whether this King Ah/16 were of fuch a difpofition they k11ew not; and yet they adven– tured upon it, to feek to him. But thou hearll that this great God, u a God gratious, mercifttl, ~c. and that he hath pardoned Thoufands in the like condi– tion. In the Fourth place, Thou art not only thus equally capable of it , as well as another, but there is a probability, a likelyhood God dotb intend thee, becaufe thou hall heard, that he is a merciful God, and willing to be reconGiling by his own appointment. The news of it is efpecially direded to thee by himfelf; and h·e bath bidden thee to lland for it, and come in for it: For the word ol· Reconciliation which we preach is made known but to a few; and thofe to whom it comes, it comes out of fpecial mercy, and by God's direction rather to one place than another; rather to one man than to another; as why was Paul forbidden to go into !Jythi- ' nia, Ac7s 16.7. andcalledtogointo Macedonin, and bidden ( AfiSI8. 1o;) tollay at Corinth and preach,but becaufe as it is tbere,1have much Peoplem ibis City. When the Plague comes to a place any man lives in, when as other places are free; he fears le!l God mayintend to take him away by it, rather rnan or hers in other places; and !lilllooks on himfelf in bed, if he bath no Token on him. So when the Gofpel come• to the place thou livell in; and not the found ofit con– fufedly, but the knowledge di!linctly of it to thy ears; thou hall caufe ro think it exceeding probable that God doth intend thee for Salvation, and the Kinodam of God is come nigh thee. It is a great probability of Election that the d'ofpel comesto thee, I Thef I,~. and an «fpecial fign he means tofave; and bath cho– fen thofe to whom he makes known this Myllery of his Will, of reconciling and f;3thering men to himfelf, Ephe[. ~· 9• ~c. Thofe.Se:vanrs of Bmhadctd had no annmatton of mercy from .Aha6h1mfelf, or by Ius dtrechon; but thou hall from R God i::it
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