A scripture of the like importance unto that before named is 2Thess. ii. 13, 14, "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth : where - unto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." First, The same fountain of all spiritual and eternal mercy with that mentioned in the other place is here also expressed ; and that is, God's choosing of us by an everlasting act, or designing us to the end intended by a free, eternal, unchange- able purpose of his will. Secondly, The end aimed at by the Lord in that purpose is here more clearly set down in a twofold expres- sion:— 1. Salvation: Verse 18, " God hath chosen you to salva- tion," That is the thing which he aimed to accomplish for them, and the end he intended to bring them to in his choosing of them. And, 2. Verse 14, " The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ," or the obtaining a portion in that glory which Christ purchased and procured for them, with their being with him to behold his glory. And, thirdly. You have the means whereby God will certainly bring about and accomplish this his design and purpose, whereof there are three most eminent acts expressed: — 1, Vocation, or their calling by the gospel, verse 14; 2. Sanctification, "Through sanctifi- cation of the Spirit;" and, 3. Justification, which they receive by "belief of the truth," verse 13. This much, then, is wrapped up in
204 DOCrEIXE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
this text : God having, in his unchangeable purpose, fore-appointed his to salvation and glon', certainly to be obtained, through the effect- ual working of the Spirit and free justification in the blood of Christ, it cannot be but that they shall be preserved unto the enjoyment of what they are so designed unto.
To sura up what hath been spoken from these purposes of God to the establishment of the truth we have in hand : Those whom God hath purposed by effectual means to preserve to the enjoyment of eternal life and glory in his favour and acceptation, can never so fall from his love, or be so cast out of his grace, as to come short of the end designed, or ever be totally rejected of God. The truth of this proposition depends upon what hath been said, and may farther be insisted on, concerning the nnchangeableness and absoluteness of the eternal purposes of God, the glory whereof men shall never be able sacrilegiously to rob him of Thence the assumption is, con- cerning all true believers and truly sanctified persons, there are pur- poses of God that they shall be so preserved to such ends, etc., as hath been abundantly proved by an induction of particular in- stances ; and therefore it is impossible they should ever be so cast out of the favour of God as not to be infallibly preserved to the end. Which is our second demonstration of the truth in hand.
CHAPTER IV.
THE AEGOIENT FEOM THE COVENANT OF GRACR
An entrance into the consideration of the covenant of grace, and our argnment from thence for the nnchangeableness of the love of God UDto believers — The intendment of the ensuing discourse — Gen. xrii. 7 opened and explained, with the confirmation of the argument in hand from thence — That argument Tindicated and cleared of objections — Confirmed bv some obser\ations — Jer. xxxii. 38-40 compared with chap. xxxi. 31-34 — The truth under considera- tion from thence clearly confirmed — The certainty, immutability, and infal- lible accomplishment, of all the promises of the new covenant demonstrated : 1. From the removal of all c-auses of alteration; 2. From the Mediator and his undertaking therein ; 3. From the faithfulness of God — One instance from the former considerations — The endeavour of Mr G. to answer our ar- gument from this place — His obsenation on and from the text considered — I . This promise not made to the Jews only, 2. Nor to all the nation of the Jews, proved from Rom. xL 7; not intending principally their deliverance from Babylon — His inferences from his former obserA-ations weighed — 1. The promise made to the body of the people of the Jews typically only; 2. An exposition borrowed of Socinus rejected ; 3. The promise not appropriated to the time of the captivity, and the disadvantage ensuing to Mr G.'s cause upon such an exposition — The place insisted on compared with Ezek. xi. 17-20 — That place cleared — A fourth objection answered — This promise always ful- filled— The spiritual part of it accomplJshe«l during the captivity — God's in- tention not ftustrattd — How far the civil prosperity of the Jews was con-
TV.] THE COYEXANT OF GRACE. 205
cemed in this promise — Promises of spiritual and temporal things compared — The covenant of grace how far conditional — ilr G.'s =ense of this place expressed — Borrowed irom Faustus Socinus — The inconsistencv of it with the mind of the Holy Ghost demonstrated, also with what himself hath elsewhere delirered — Xo way suited to be the answer of our argument fi^m the place — The same interpretation farther disproved — An immediate divine efocaer held out in the words — Conversion and pardon of sins promised — DifSereneed from the grace and promises of the old c-ovenant — Contribution of means pat by ^Ir G. in the place of effectual operation of the thing itself, farther dis- proved— How. when, and to whom this promise was fulfilled, farther de- clared— An objection arising upon that consideration answered — Conjectures ascribed to God by ilr G. — The real foundation of aU divine predictions — The promise unerly enervate'l, and rendered of none effect by 2tlr G.'s expo- sition— Its consistency with the prophecies of the rejection of the Jews — The close of the argument from the covenant of grace.