1. If the sinner want nothing to acceptation and peace but a manifestation of God's eternal love, then evangelical justification is nothing but an apprehension of God's eternal decree and purpose.
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But this cannot be made out from the Scripture, — namely, that God's justifying of a person is his making known unto him his decree of election ; or [that] man's justification [is] an apprehension of that de- cree, purpose, or love. Where is any such thing in the book of God ? It is true, there is a discovery thereof made to justified believers, and therefore it is attainable by the saints, " God shedding abroad his love in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto them/' Rom. V. 5 ; but it is after they are "justified by faith," and have "peace with God," verse 1. Believers are to give "all diligence to make their calling and election sure;" but that justification should consist herein is a strange notion. Justification, in the Scripture, is an act of God, pronouncing an ungodly person, upon his believing, to be absolved from the guilt of sin, and interested in the all-sufficient righteousness of Christ : so God "justifieth the ungodly," Rom. iv. 5, " by the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto them," chap. iii. 22 ; making Christ to become righteousness to them who were in themselves sin. But of this manifestation of eternal love there is not the least foundation, as to be the form of justifi- cation ; which yet is not without sense and perception of the love of God, in the improvement thereof
2. The Scripture is exceeding clear in making all men, before actual reconciliation, to be in the like state and condition, without any real difference at all, the Lord reserving to himself his distin- guishing purpose of the alteration he will afterward by his free grace effect: "There is none that doeth good, no, not one," Ron*, iii. 12; for " we have proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin," verse 9. All mankind are in the same condition, in respect of themselves and their own real state : which truth is not at all preju- diced by the relation they are in to the eternal decrees; for "every mouth is stopped, and all the world is become guilty before God," Rom. iii. 19, — -jtoS/xos, obnoxious to his judgment. " Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not re- ceive?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. All distinguishment, in respect of state and con- dition, is by God's actual grace ; for even believers are "by nature chil- dren of wrath, even as others," Eph. ii. S. The condition, then, of all men, during their unregeneracy, is one and the same, the purpose of God concerning the difference that shall be being referred to himself Now, I ask whether reprobates in that condition lie under the effects of God's wrath, or no? If ye say " No," who will believe you? If so, why not the elect also? The same condition hath the same qualifica- tions , an actual distinguishment we have proved there is not. Pro- duce some difference that hath a real existence, or the cause is lost.
8. Consider what it is to lie under the effects of God's wrath, ac- cording to the declaration of the Scripture, and then see how the elect are delivered therefrom, before their actual calling. Now, this
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consists in divers things; as, — (1.) To be in such a state of ahenation from God as that none of their services are acceptable to him: " The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord," Prov. xxviii. 9. (2.) To have no outward enjoyment sanctified, but to have all things unclean unto them, Tit. i. 15. (3.) To be under the power of Satan, who rules at his pleasure in the children of disobedience, Eph. ii. 2. (4.) To be in bondage unto death, Heb. ii. 15. (5.) To bounder the curse and condemning power of the law, Gal. iii. 1 3. (6.) To be ob- noxious to the judgment of God, and to be guilty of eternal death and damnation, Rom. iii. 19. (7.) To be under the power and dominion of sin, reigning in them, Rom. vi. 19. These and such like are those which we call the effects of God's anger.
Let now any one tell me what the reprobates, in this life, lie under more ? And do not all the elect, until their actual reconciliation, in and by Christ, lie under the very same? for, — (1.) Are not their prayers an abomination to the Lord? can they without faith please God? Heb. xi. 6. And faith we suppose them not to have ; for if they have, they are actually reconciled. (2.) Are their enjoyments sanctified unto them? hath any thing a sanctified relation without faith? See 1 Cor. vii. 14. (3.) Are they not under the power of Satan? If not, how comes Christ, in and for them, to destroy the works of the devil ? Did not he come to deliver his from bim that had the power of death, that is, the devil? Heb. ii. 14; Eph. ii. 2. (4.) Are they not under bondage unto death? The apostle affirms plainly that they are so all their lives, until they are actually freed by Jesus Christ, Heb. ii. 14, 15. (5.) Are they not under the curse of the law ? How are they freed from it? By Christ being made a curse for them. Gal. iii. 13. (6.) Arc they not obnoxious unto judgment, and guilty of eternal death? How is it, then, that Paul says that there is no difference, but that all are subject to the judgment of God, and are guilty before him? Rom. iii. 9 ; and that Christ saves them from this wrath, which, in respect of merit, was to come upon them? Rom v. 9; 1 Thess. i. 10. (7.) Are they not under the dominion of sin? " God be thanked," says Paul, " that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed," etc., Rom. vi. 1 7. In brief, the Scripture is in nothing more plenti- ful than in laying and charging all the misery and wrath of and due to an unreconciled condition upon the elect of God, until they actually partake in the deliverance by Christ.