will do all his pleasure." See what we have already advanced on this head, in the first chapter, under the second article, Position 8. Secondly, this may be evinced also from God's foreknowledge. The Deity, from all eternity, and consequently, at the very time he gives life and being to a reprobate, certainly foreknew, and knows, in consequence of his own decree, that such an one would fall short of salvation: now, if God foreknew this, he must have predetermined it; because his own will is the foundation of his decrees, and his decrees are the foundation of his prescience; he therefore foreknowing futurities, because, by his predestination, he hath rendered their futurition certain and inevitable. Neither is it possible, in the very nature of the thing, that they should be elected to salvation, or ever obtain it, whom God foreknew should perish: for then the divine act of preterition would be changeable, wavering and precarious; the divine foreknowledge would be deceived; and the divine will impeded. All which are utterly impossible. Lastly, That all men are not chosen to life, nor created to that end, is evident, in that there are some who were hated of God before they were born, Rom. ix. 11, 12, 13. are fitted for destruction, verse 22. and made for the day of evil, Prov. xvi. 4.

to condemnation.

sen, Mat. xx. 16.

But, 2. All men universally are not ordained There are some who are choAn election, or elect number, who obtain grace and salvation, while the rest are blinded, Rom. xi. 7. a little flock, to whom it is. the Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom, Luke xii. 21. A people whom the Lord hath reserved, Jer. 1. 20. and formed for himself, Isai. xliii. 21. A peculiarly favoured race, to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom

of heaven; while, to others, it is not given, Mat. xiii. 11. A remnant according to the election of grace, Rom. xi. 15. Whom God hath not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, 1 Thess. v. 9. In a word, who are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that they should shew forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. ii. 9. And whose names, for that very end, are in the book of life, Phil. iv. 3. and written in heaven, Luke x. 20. Heb. xii. 23. Luther* observes, that in the 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters of the epistle to the Romans, the apostle particularly insists on the doctrine of predestination; "Because," says he, "all things whatever, arise from, and depend upon, the divine appointment; whereby it was preordained who should receive the word of life, and who should disbelieve it; who should be delivered from their sins, and who should be hardened in them; and who should be justified, and who condemned."

IV. We assert, that the number of the elect, and also of the reprobate, is so fixed and determined, that neither can be augmented or diminished.

It is written of God, that he telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, Psalm cxlvii. 4. Now it is as incompatible with the infinite wisdom and knowledge of the all-comprehending God, to be ignorant of the names and number of the rational creatures he has made, as that he should be ignorant of the stars and the other inanimate products of his almighty power: and, if he knows all men in gene

* In Præfat. ad epist. ad Rom.

ral taken in the lump, he may well be said, in a more near and special sense, to know them that are his by election, 2 Tim. ii. 19. And, if he knows who are his, he must, consequently, know who are not his, i. e. whom, and how many he hath left in the corrupt mass, to be justly punished for their sins. Grant this, (and who can help granting a truth so self-evident?) and it follows that the number, as well of the elect as of the reprobate, is fixed and certain: otherwise God would be said to know that which is not true, and his knowledge must be false and delusive, and so no knowledge at all: since that which is in itself, at best but precarious, can never be the foundation of sure and infallible knowledge. But that God does indeed precisely know to a man who are and who are not, the objects of his electing favour, is evident from such scriptures as these, Exod. xxxiii. 17. "Thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name." Jer. i. 5. "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee." Luke x. 20. "Your names are written in heaven." Luke xii. 7. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." John xiii. 18. "I know whom I have chosen." John x. 14. "I know my sheep, and am known of mine." 2 Tim. ii. 19. "The Lord knoweth them that are his." And, if the number of these is thus assuredly settled and exactly known, it follows that we are right in asserting,

V. That the decrees of election and reprobation are immutable and irreversible.

Were not this the case, 1. God's decrees would be precarious, frustrable, and uncertain; and, by consequence, no decree at all. 2. His foreknowledge would be wavering, indetermi nate, and liable to disappointment; whereas, it always has its accomplishment, and necessarily

infers the certain futurity of the thing or things foreknown: Isa. xlvi. 9, 10. "I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." 3. Neither would his word be true, which declares, that, with regard to the elect, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, Rom. xi. 29. that whom he predestinated, them he also glorified, chap. vii. 80. that whom he loveth, he loveth to the end, John xiii. 1. with numberless passages to the same purpose. Nor would his word be true, with regard to the non-elect, if it was possible for them to be saved; for it is there declared, that they are fitted for destruction, &c. Rom. ix. 22. Foreordained unto condemnation, Jude 4. and delivered over to a reprobate mind, in order to their damnation, Rom. i. 28. 2 Thess. ii. 12. 4. If, between the elect and reprobate, there was not a great gulf fixed, so that neither can be otherwise than they are; then, the will of God (which is the alone cause why some are chosen and others are not) would be rendered inefficacious and of no effect. 5. Nor could the justice of God stand, if he was to condemn the elect, for whose sins he hath received ample satisfaction at the hand of Christ; or if he was to save the reprobate, who are not interested in Christ, as the elect are. 6. The power of God (whereby the elect are preserved from falling into a state of condemnation, and the wicked held down and shut up in a state of death) would be eluded, not to say utterly abolished. 7. Nor would God be unchangeable, if they, who were once the people of his love, could commence the objects of his hatred; or if the vessels of his wrath could be saved with the

vessels of grace. Hence that of St. Austin ;* "Brethren," says he, "let us not imagine, that God puts down any man in his book, and then erases him: for, if Pilate could say, what I have written I have written, how can it be thought that the great God would write a person's name in the book of life, and then blot it out again?" And may we not, with equal reason, ask, on the other hand, How can it be thought, that any of the reprobate should be written in that book of life, which contains the names of the elect only? or, that any should be inserted there, who were not written among the living from eternity? I shall conclude this chapter with that observation of Luther,t "This," says he, "is the very thing that rases the doctrine of free-will from its foundations; to wit, that God's eternal love of some men, and hatred of others, is immutable and cannot be reversed." Both one and the other will have its full accomplishment.

*Tom. 8. in Psalm 68. col. 738. De Serv. Arbiter. cap. 168