The immutability of the pui-poses of God proposed for a second demonstration of the truth in Land — Somewhat of the nature and properties of the purposes of God: the object of them— Purposes, how acts of God's understanding aud will— The only foundation of the futurition of all things— The purposes of God absolute— Conti- nuance of divine love towards believei's purposed— Purposes of God fai-ther con- sidered and their nature explained— Their independence and absoluteness evinced — Proved from Isa. xlvi. 9-11; Ps. xxxiii. 9-11; Heb. vi. 17, 18, etc. — These places explained- The same truth by sundry reasons and arguments farther contirmed — Purpose in (iod of the continuance of his love and fiivour to believers manifested by an induction of instances out of .Scripture; the first from Rom. viii. 28 pi-oposed, and farther cleared and improved— Mr G.'s dealing with our argument from hence and our exposition of this place considered — His exposition of that place proposed and discussed— The de.'^ign of the apostle commented on — The fovmtain of the .ac- complishment of the good things mentioned omitted by Mr (i. — In what sense God intends to make all things work together for good to tlieni that love him— Of (»od's Ibreknowledge— Of the sense and use of the word ^poyivua-xu, also of scisco, and yiviiirxai in classical authors— n^oyva/irif in Scripture everywhere taken for foreknow- ledge (ir predetermination, nowliere for pre-approbation — Of pre-approving or pre- approbation here insisted on by Mr G. — Its inconsistency with the sense of the apostle's discourse manifested — The progress of Mr G.'s exposition of this place con- sidei-ed-^Whether men love God antecedently to his predestination and their effec- tual calling — To pre-ordain and preordin.ate different— No assurance granted of the consolation professed to be intended — The great uncertainty of the dependence of the acts of God's grace mentioned on one another— The efficacy of every one of them resolved finally into the wills of men— Whether calling according to God's purpose supposeth a saving answer given to that call— The affirmative proved, and excep- tions given thereto removed — What obstructions persons called may lay in their own way to justification — The iniquity of imposing conditions and supposals on the purposes of God not in the least intimated by himsell — The whole acknowledged design of the npostle everted by the interposition of cases and conditions by Mr G. —Mr G.'s first attempt to pi-ove the decrees of God to be conditional considered — 1 Sam. ii. 30 to that end produced — 1 Sam. ii. 30 farther considered, and its unsuit- ableness to illustrate Rom. viii. 28-31 proved— Interpretation of Scripture by com- paring of places agreeing neither in design, word, nor matter, rejected— The places insisted on proved not to be parallel by sundry particular instances— Some observa- tions from the words rejected— What act of God intended in these words to Eli, " I said indeed"— No purpo.se or decree of (iod in them declared— Any such purpose as to the House of Eli by sundry arguments disproved— No purpose of (Jod in the words insisted on farther manifested— 'J'hey are expressive of the promise or law concerning the priesthood. Num. xxv. 11-13, more especially relating luito Exod. xxviii. 43, xxix. 9— The import of that promi.se, law, or statute, cleared— The example of Jonah's i)reaching, and God's conuuands to Abiaham and Pharaoh— 'J'iic universal disproportion between the texts eijnipared by Mr G., both as to matter and expres- sion, farther nianifesfed— Inst.iMces (ir cases of Saul and Paul to prove conditional purposes in (Jod (•(Hisidered— ('(inditional purposes argued from conditional threat- eniiigs—'l'he weakness of that argument— I he nature of divine threatenings — What will of (iod, or what of the will of God, is declared by them— No proportion between eternal jjiirpo.ves and temporal threatenings— The issue of the vindication of our ar- gumerd from the foregoing exceptions— Mr (i.'s endeavour to maintain his exiKisition of the place under consideration— The text perverted— Several evasions of Air G. from the force of this argument considered— llis arguments to prove no certain or infallible connection between calling, ju.stification, and glorification, weighed and juiswered— Ills tust. from the .scope of the chapter and the use of exhortations— The question begged— His second, from examples of persons called and not iustitied— Ihe question argued begged— No i)roof insistctl on but the interposition of his own liypotiiesis-How we are called irresistibly, and in what .>iense— Whether bars of wickedness and unl)elief may be laid in the way of (iod's effectual call-Mr G 's demur to another consideration of the text removed— The argument in hand freed
from other- objections and concluded — ,1 confirmation of the truth under ilemonstr
er. xxxi. 3 explainetl and improved, for the itration— 2 Tim. ii. 19 opened, and the truth
CONTENTS. V
from thence confirmed — The foregoing exposition and argument vindicated and con- lirmed— The same matter at large pursued — John vi 37-40 explained, and the argu- ment in hand from thence confirmed — Mr (i.'s exceptions to our arguing from this place removed — The same matter farther pursued — The exposition and argument insisted on fully vindicated and established — Matt xxiv. 24 opened and improved — The sevcrals of that test more particularly handled — Farther observations, for the clearing the mind of the Holy Ghost in this place— The same farther insisted on and vindicated— Mr (i.'s exceptions at large discussed and removed — Eph. i. 3-5, 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14, opened — The close of the second argument, from the immutability of the purposes of God, ......... 140