First, If final perseverance in faith and obedience be the cause of, or a condition required unto, election, then none can be said in this life to be elected ; for no man is a final perseverer until he be dead, until he hath finished his course and consummated the faith. But certain it is that it is spoken of some in the Scripture that they are even in this life elected: " Few are chosen," Matt. xx. 16; " For the elect's sake those days shall be shortened," chap. xxiv. 22 ; " And shall, if it were possible, deceive the very elect," verse 24, — where it is evident that election is required to make one persevere in the faith, but no- where is perseverance in the faith required to election ; yea, and Peter gives us all a command that we should give all diligence to get an assurance of our " election," even in this life, 2 Pet. i. 10 : and, there- fore, surely it cannot be a decree presupposing consummated faith and obedience.
G4 A DISPLAY OF AllMINIANISM.
Secondly, Consider two things of our estate, before the fii"st tem- poral act of God's free grace (for grace is no grace if it be not free), which is the first effect of our predestination, comprehendeth us: — First, " Were we better than others? No, in no wise : both Jews and Gentiles were all under sin," Rom. iii. 9. "There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," verse 23 ; — being all "dead in trespasses and sins," Eph. ii. 1; being "by nature the children of wrath, even as others," verse 3 ; " far off," until we are "made nigh by the blood of Christ," verse 13. We were " enemies" against God, Rom. v. 10; Titus iii. 3. And look what desert there is m us with these qualifications, when our vocation, the first effect of our predestination, as St Paul showeth, Rom. viii. SO, and as I shall prove hereafter, separateth us from the world of unbelievers. So much there is in respect of predestination itself; so tliat if we have any way deserved it, it is by being sinners, enemies, children of wrath, and dead in trespasses. These are our deserts ; this is the glory, whereof we ought to be ashamed. But, secondly, When they are in the same state of actual alienation from God, yet then, in respect of his purpose to save them by Christ, some are said to be his: "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me," John xvii. 6 ; — they were his before they came unto Christ by faith ; the sheep of Christ before they are called, for he " calleth his sheep by name," chap. x. 3; before they come into the flock or congregation, for " other sheep," saith he, " I have, which are not of this fold, them also must I bring," chap. X. 1 6 ; — to be beloved of God before they love him : " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us," 1 John iv. 10. Now, all this must be with reference to God's purpose of bringing them unto Christ, and by him unto glory ; which we see goeth before all their faith and obedience.
Thirdly, Election is an eternal act of God's will: "He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world," Eph. i. 4; consummated ante- cedently to all duty of ours, Rom. ix. 11. Now, every cause must, in order of nature, precede its effect; nothing hath an activity in causing before it hath a being. Operation in every kind is a second act, flowing from the essence of a thing which is the first. But all our graces and works, our faith, obedience, piety, and charity, are all temporal, of yesterday, the same standing with ourselves, and no longer; and therefore cannot be the cause of, no, nor so much as a condition necessarily required for, the accomplishment of an eternal act of God, irrevocably established before we are.
Fourthly, If predestination be for faith foreseen, these three things, with divers such absurdities, will necessarily follow : — First, That elec- tion is not of " him that calleth," as the apostle speaks, Rom. ix. 11, ' — that is, of the good pleasure of God, who calleth us with a holy call-
PREDESTINATION CORRUPTED BY ARMINIANS. 65
iug, — but of him that is called; for, depending on faith, it must be his whose faith is, that doth believe. Secondly, God cannot have mercy on whom he will have mercy, for the very purpose of it is thus tied to the qualities of faith and obedience, so that he must have mercy only on believers antecedently to his decree. Which, thirdly, hinders him from being an absolute free agent, and doing of what he will ■with his own, — of having such a power over us as the potter hath over his clay ; for he finds us of different matter, one clay, another gold, when he comes to appoint us to different uses and ends.
Fifthly, God sees no faith, no obedience, perseverance, nothing but sin and wickedness, in any man, but what himself intendeth gra- ciously and freely to bestow upon him ; for '' faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God;" it is "the work of God, that we beheve," John vi. 29 ; he "blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in Christ," Eph. i. 8. Now, all these gifts and graces God bestoweth only upon those wliom he hath antecedently ordained to everlasting life : for " the election obtained it, and the rest were blinded," Rom. xi. 7; " The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved," Acts ii. 47. Therefore, surely, God chooseth us not because he foreseeth those things in us, seeing he bestoweth those graces because he hath chosen us. " Where- fore,"^ saith Austin, "doth Christ say, ' Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' but because they did not choose him that he should choose them; but he chose them that they might choose him." We choose Christ by faith; God chooseth us by his decree of election. The question is. Whether we choose him because he hath chosen us, or he chooseth us because we have chosen him, and so indeed choose ourselves? We affirm the former, and that because our choice of him is a gift he himself bestoweth only on them whom he hath chosen.