In handling this point I shall not speak of the nature of these acts of grace, but only of their connection and relation to one another, which I shall represent to you in these propositions —
1. That God's eternal purpose, will, or decree, is the first rise of all things ; for the apostle beginneth with predestination, or his fore- appointing, and fore-ordaining certain persons to come to salvation. Something there is besides God, or without God, as sense teacheth us. Now how came it to be translated from the state of pure possibility into the state of futurition and being, but only by the will of God ? else something would exist whether God would or not. Surely all things are of God ; and being of God, they are first conceived in the womb of his everlasting purpose and decree, before they have any natural existence in the world. I say his everlasting purpose, for there can be no new thought, intent, and purpose in God ; and if all things, surely the most necessary things, the disposal of man to his eternal estate ; he doth nothing therein but what he purposed and decreed to do from all eternity ; therefore all things must be reduced hither as to their proper spring and fountain. That all things are of God, no christian will deny ; that they are not besides, or against his will, is as evident as the former. That this will of God is eternal, and dependeth not upon emergencies of occasion from the creature, is as evident as that. I shall prove out of the scriptures that nothing is made or done without the will of God; not the world: Rev. iv. 11, ' Thou hast created all things, for at thy pleasure they are and were created.' If the world were not created at his will, why was it not created sooner ? or why this world and no more ? — so men, that these and no others. There is not one man more that liveth upon the earth than God pleaseth, from Adam to the end of the world; he hath determined their number, fixing the times and places in great order : Acts xvii. 26, ' He hath made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before ap-
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pointed, and the bounds of their habitation.' If there were any creature in the world whom God willed not, he would be independent of God, and exempted from his providence. The dispersion of all mankind into all quarters of the earth is from his will and purpose ; he did decree and fore-appoint from all eternity that such men should live here and there, so many and so long, in such places. Again, that some should have more means of knowing their crea-tor, otliers less, it is all from the mercy and will of God : Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20, ' He showed his word unto Jacob, his statutes and judgments to Israel ; he hath not dealt so with any nation.' His church hath a privilege and an advantage above other nations in the world ; the Jews had above the heathens, and christians above the Jews ; and no other reason can be assigned but his eternal love, as many people that have the means. All the difference between them and others cometh from God's will, as the rise of it : 2 Tim. ii. 18, ' The Lord knoweth who are his.' Now the will of God reacheth to the smallest and least matters, even to the con- tingent motions of second causes. In the least things the scripture plainly witnesseth : Mat. x. 29, 30, 'Are not two sparrows sold for a tarthing ? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your heavenly Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.' The least things are not left to blind chance or the will of man, but God determineth the smallest matters. Surely God hath the knowledge and care and overruling of them, and of the brute creatures that are made to be taken and destroyed. Much more of man ; for it is said. Acts xvii. 28, ' In him we live, and move, and have our being.' Our life dependeth upon God, as the sounding of the pipe dependeth on the breath of the musician ; and we move, as the divers tunes of the pipe dependeth on the modulation of his breath or the motion of his fingers. ' Have our being ;' there the similitude faileth. A pipe, though it cannot sound without the breath of a musician, or sound to a tune unless he play upon it ; yet it may be, whether he breathe in it or play upon it, yea or no. But we have life and breath and all things from God ; for if he should suspend his providential influence, we do not only cease to live and move, but also to be. Now God doth not only rule and govern these things, but doth rule and govern them with respect to his decree, or his eternal purpose. I will prove it, because — (1.) He foreknew all things before they came to pass ; (2.) That God determineth all these things that they may come to pass. God foreknew them : Acts xv. 18, ' Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.' Things that come not to pass till long afterward were fore- seen by God ; he is not surprised by any event. If anything could fall out which God foresaw not, his wisdom were not infinite and eternal. And how could he foretell things to come, if he did not know them ? Isa. xliv. 7, ' Who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming, and shall come ? ' that is, who can tell aforehand what shall befall a people in after times, and relate the constant course and tenor of my dispensations r* But how doth God foreknow things ? from the nature of the thing, or from his own decree ? Certainly God hath not his prescience from the nature of future things, but all things have their futurity from God's decree. Because it was the purpose of God