Of Eleflion. fels "C<r ordered in a due Num0er, and weight , and meafure by him ; He ~ did obkrvc in this o1Eleliing, a du'enefs or comoly proportiOn: And it became Chap.7. bun thus ro love meer Creatllres, in an other, whom he fhould have caufcto~ love f<>r lli.nftlf , and who, when chofen, was worthy of ir; yea, . and chofen for h;s own delight firlt, and by him to e!tare t11cm ioto that his rronfcendent Love , aqd to gt~c them a right UJ1to it as toglory. T his was a mof1 wife and orderly ordinwon , I m•ghr !hew our of John i7. 23. I m them, and thou ; 11 me , th,lt they may be made perfeff in ont, andthat 1he Worldm.zy know th.tt thou h.'ljf f'ht me, and h.ifllovrd themM thou haflloved me, Whereas other Creatures he Loves , but bccaufe they are his Creatures, and that he made them, and Arttjrx amat opus; this tofhew the peculiarity and tranfcendency of it, it is a love born us in Chrif1, and a loving us as he loved him, yet for his fake, And this for the firf1, that he i s a God of Grace to tts ilt Chrifl. N ow fecondly, As to the main Conclulion, that therefore we fhall be invin· cibly carried on to Glory, you find the fixednefs of God's love put upon this very dung, Rom. 8, ult. Who /ba/J (eparate tufrom the love of Gud ? He flops nor here, but adds, whtch u in Jejm Chrzfl. And it is there addrd as the gr~und of its unchangeab\enefs, over md ,,b~ve God's love in predefrmating of us;ofthe which he h' dbefor" abundantly difcourfed in tl.at ch,tpttr,wr[:29,>o• (!) 3l· For, wh, '" &e dui for.k"ow, he "i(o did prede{lmate to 6e conformed to.l!J' i>1nge of hu Son, that he mtght 6e the fi•"f/·6orn amo>~g m'' '.Y Brethrm, M vrrover, whum hedtdpredt (ilnate, them be 1i(oc.tlifd: midwhom he c,tf– led, them he alfoju{ltjied : andwhom he jttfft{ied, them hr alfo glonfied. The love he bears to C hrif1 il fuch, and fo unto us os beloved in him. tt is fo f1rong and prevalent: And iris as tf he had laid, Although God's love would have been of it felf unc:Jangeable, and moll confianr unto thofe it fhnuld fix upno, yet God thought meet to take in Chrift his Son, and to put htm as a Medium, or midft, or if you will ufe Ij:uah sword, (for we cannot have a liw r ) laid him as a jottndattott firft,a nd a fure tounda•ion between his Gra<e and Us: As for other ends, {oon purpofe for this, that !liS Grace in all thr emanation of it; might have a juf1 and conli!lent ground and foundation for the continuance thereof to us, that as there might be a furenefs of his good pleafure in his own heart,fo of ducnefs and equitablenefs in it,upon which rhar unchangeable– nefs fhould be grounded in our being loved, not in our (elves, (which was creation love by works) but in hi<Beloved, wholly our of us, as even that Jnvc rf his had no refpcCl at all to what was in u•, but it was purely in his own heart, and now founded on our relation to his Son, 1!. As he is a Godof Grace to tu in Chrifl, fo he u a God of all Grace to Uf i11 Chrifl. For, r. Take all the purpofes of God's heart towards us, which were the 6rf1 bubblings up of Grace, and of love in his Will, as from the Spring , and whtch were the Matrix, the Womb, the Mother, in wh1ch Call ing and Perfe– verance, and all lay. Now although in the firtt of the Epbrjims he is faid to have purpofed all in himfelf, Ver{. 9· f5i u. ex mero mow, yet Ch.rpt. l· II. withal telleth us, that hiseternal p~:rpofes (towards his Church and Calling the Gontiles, whereof he had fpoken, vtr{. 8, 9, to.) w n ·t purpu{d in 'Je– {iM Cbrijl; nay, the Original hath i~, ;, lmtn(Tt,, wt.1ch he mrJdt't co11trn!~d,or framed in J efw Chnfl; eveii :is \veil as we are faid to be his workmmifbrp in Cbrifl. Thev had a foundation, as in God's heart , . f~ in r;, Chritt's, and they are the whole of his everlaf1ing purpofes he fpeaks of..,,!:nm 'f.],;,.;,, the purpofes of Eternity, the purpofe or purpofes of Ages, as fr Jm everlafl– ing and to everla!ling they have their firmitude, their fubfiftence frocn him. And
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