Of Eleflion. 4 -------------------------------~-------------------------------- ~ For the Cafe of Mankind now they are fall'n, if God bn,! not made an E– J1ooK L lection among them, What would have become of them, if it were fo with ~"I""V"'.' Angels that never finned? 0 Brethren, how much more with ftlt hly Man! As Job. t), 1), 16. Behold, he puttrth 110 tr11fl i11 hi< Saifiis ; y·ra, tlu Heavws are not clrrm i11 hi< (ight. How mucb more abomit1able aud filthy u Mew w!Jich dri>tketb iuiquity tiR,_e Water l And we may argue in this Poin t, as h~ dotb there in that other. If not the Angels, not one of them, were favcd from the ruins of their Nature, but by Election, then furel y not Man fallen. If Election were nece!Tary but for their confirmation in Holinefs , as our Di– vines f:1y, (though I think there is a farther Privi!edge joyoed with it ) then how much more for Man that was irreparably fall'n ( as by himftlf) and that needed the whole of Salvation for fubftance and continuance th<rein alfo? What a ble!Ted provifion did God make, to make an Election! There is a Scripture that hath often atfetted my heart, Rom, 9· 29, As Efaia; faid be– fore (faithP atll out of him,) Except thr Lord'Of Sabbath held left "' a Sred, we had /;em like mttoSodomandGomorrha. 'Tis fpoken of Election he had difcourfed of in that Chapter : And what is that Sad there? It is plainly a re– ferve,a Retiflor Remnmzf. And that Speech in Rom. 11. ~.of a remthmt ac– cording to the Election of Grace, is all one with that Seed there : For many pa!Tages in the 9th Chapter, and in this, hold a correfpondence. 0 my Bre– thren! If God had not taken fuch a Remnant, not ljrart only, but all Man– kind had been like unto Sodom and Gomorrba. Not a Man, Woman, or Child in Sodom or Gomorrha were faved, but whom God took out,Lot and his Fa– mily. Therefore(fay I)blefsGodfor Election, we had been undoneelfe, to a Man. And !hall not this affect? 0, dcfpife not Election/ Therein lies all your hope, that there is a Remnant !hall infallibly be (aved. After this Narratien of the Angels, fuppofe that the Cafe of us Men wero Res integra, and that we were ftill in that happy Eftate God at firft created our firft Parents , and us with him, and were you now all as holy as Adam was , (I will make that fuppofition) yet the Cafe of us was but the fame for changeablenefs, and would have been the fame in the HTue with that of the fall'n Angels, who are befides, the weaker Creatures of the rwo, and in that refpect more fubject to mutability: So as fuppofe Adamhad ftood by the af. iiftance of the Powers Youchfafed him by the Covenant of Works, fo long rill he had put us forth an holy Seed, yet we mull all have then perfon ally Hood uoonour own fingle bottoms, which himfelfat firll did jla11d( !hall I fay, or f~U)upoo; and fo been in the fame continual danger to drop away from God one after another. And as for that if he had llood , that both he and we !hould have been immutably confirmed in Grace , as the good Angels; there was no fuch promife made, either to him or us, under that his Covenant and State by Creation; for if there had, it mull have been by Election.Grace fit– peradded to the Covenant ofWorks, which in the Cafe of the Angels is fa id to be. And if fo, then Promifes proper to Elettion mull be fuppofed made to Works of Creation and the Covenant thereof, and fo Grace be brought into Works founded upon Works, which the Apoftle in Rom. 11 . 6. makes incom– patible. And if 6y Grace, then iJ it no morr of Works: Otherwtje Grace iJ 110 more Grace. But if it be of Works, thm it uno mort Grace, otbtrwife Work id no more work. But I will make this further Suppolition, That if we in that State had heard that there was an Eledion of Grace, fuch as the holy Angels ftood by, (!)c whether would you have (luck and betooh: your felf unto l Creation·Holinefs barely, with the mutability of it; or Election of Grace, for the way of your Eternal Salvation? Were I as perfect as Adam, I promife you I would for my part, betake my felf to that of Election, that Super- creation Priviledge, than adventure my Eternal Condition in any Free-will· Holinefs , were it never fo perfect. Well! ButweallwithhisHolinefsfoon mifcarried, we are irrecoverably ( a• of our felves) fall'n by it ; yet there is a phancy that hath po!Tell the minds of Men, and hath run down throughout all ages of the World, nothrng can root out or difpo!Tefs Men of it, neither confiant e~periencc, nor the vre~f
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