Chapter II
The infinity of grace in God s electing us, discovered by a comparison of it with
the other act of reprobation. The vast disparity between election, and the
grounds and issue thereof; and the act of rejection of others, and the grounds and issue thereof.
I can put the doctrine of the foregone discourse unto no better use than an exaltation of the grace and love of God towards his in his decrees of elec tion ; both, 1, to the end, as of them considered unfallen ; and, 2, to the means, considering them as fallen, by and through a comparative made of these his decrees of election with those parallelly opposite of his denials of
those, both end and means, unto others; which so vastly differing comparison between the one and the other the called elect of God are deeply to consider, to the end the more to adore the surpassing grace of God towards them.
And that this high duty is due from us upon the account of this difference and discrimination that electing grace hath made, I shall insist but upon one grand example, that of Christ himself on our behalf. We find our Lord
blessing his Father on our behalf upon this comparative account : Mat. xi. 25, 26, Jesus said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes : even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 153
In which passage observe,
1. That God s good pleasure in putting this difference between his elect
and others is here the subject-matter of his speech.
2. That Christ, the natural Son of his Father, and so privy to his secret
counsels touching these disposements, doth rest and acquiesce in his Father s
good pleasure, which with an emphasis Brugensis* hath observed out of
these words, Na/ 6 Harye, which we translate even so ; but he renders it,
Eecte, Pater, Thou hast done rightly, Father, in so doing ; so in the
highest measure approving it.
3. That he allegeth no other reason for this difference, but only his
Father s good pleasure, and resolveth all into that : he speaks not, qua
ratione placuit, upon that reason it pleaseth his Father, but only that it
pleased him ; and therefore only allegeth it, because it is that which should
silence all. f 4. That which is special to my purpose is, that he not simply approves of this, but singularly blesseth his Father for it ; and that not only^or merely because he had revealed these things to his babes, but comparatively also,
setting before it, and together with it, his having hid these things, which
* Father, I
are the means of saving men, from the wise and prudent.
thank thee that thou hast hid them, &c. ; which he mentions as that whereby
his Father s love was magnified the more unto his elect, in whom his good
pleasure was pitched. And Christ was moved to do this, they being those
he loved so much, having been given him by the Father as his sheep to
die for.
5. The occasion he takes for this his thanks, uttered in this comparative, was the hardness of heart and impenitency of those many cities he had
preached to, ver. 20, and especially of those wise and great men that lived
therein, and had been made partakers of his ministry.
< Father, I thank thee, &c., must be understood in such a
And his saying
sense as the apostle useth : Rom. xvi. 17, God be thanked, ye were the
servants of sin. What ! doth he thank God simply that they had been
such? No; but that which follows must be taken in, viz., but ye have
obeyed from the heart, &c., which expresseth their conversion. So as that
theylhad been the servants of sin is brought within those thanks, not simply, but by way of comparison, to extol the more the mercy of their^ being now
the avowed servants of God, which this former contrary condition did set
out the grace and wonder of. And thus here in Christ s speech the like
intention holds.
Now what affected Christ s heart to provoke him to so high a thankfulness
on our behalf, ought to affect ours unto the same end, and so much the more,
as it is our personal interest which this concerns. Thus far in general, that it is our duty to compare the difference of these
two procedures of God to the sons of men, to the end to bless and magnify the Lord the more for his special love to us.
I come particularly to institute the comparative itself, that is, to enlarge
upon the particulars of it; all which particulars I shall reduce to two
heads.
First, That infinite disparity that is between those two acts themselves,
of election, and the grounds thereof in the heart of God, and the issue
thereof, and the act of rejection of others in the grounds and issue thereof;
setting both in view together, by which the transcendency of electing love
will the more appear.
* Brugensis in verba.
t Ejus beneplacitum pro mille rationibus amplectenclum. JSrugensis ibidem.
154 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
Secondly, A comparative made in respect unto the persons refused and
elected, as considered in the common condition of both, and the circum
stances which both stand in ; and that he should, viewed in the same cir
cumstances and condition, choose thee, and not others, which will also
wonderfully magnify the electing love unto us. And for the several of these
: 1 Thes. v. 9,
you may take two texts as instances of such a comparison
< For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ.
The matter of this comparative are the two acts themselves, and although
brought in there as motives to us unto obedience, yet also they serve as well
to usto be matter of thankfulness, that God hath not ordained us to wrath.
In the connection of the words immediately afore, they follow as the object
of the hope every Christian hath : God hath not ordained them to wrath,
but, &c. And in saying hath not appointed us to wrath, he stirs them_ up
to reflect upon what he hath done to others, and supposeth such an ordina
tion of God s to have been towards others.*
2c%. For the second comparison, of persons, you have, 2 Thas. ii. 13,
* But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation,
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
This, you see, comes in a more express way, provoking unto thankfulness ; and those words, but for you, &c., do as expressly refer unto what the lot of
others was, whose fate he had particularly deciphered in the verse before :
ver. 11, 12, And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
1. For the comparative between the acts themselves. It is not unknown
that in election there is discerned by divines two eminent parts, as some
call them ; or gradus, or degrees of proceeding therein, as others ; several
instants the schoolmen call them. And it is also acknowledged by them
that there are two eminent parts of what is termed reprobation, oppositely accompanying those two of election, as dark shadows do lightsome bodies ;
for election acts are the first and primary in order of nature, and reprobation acts do follow or answer thereto, as those words, speaking of election, the
rest were blinded, Eom. xi. 7, does shew. God s first act (which his heart
is upon) is his choice, and those left out therein are called the rest ; as when the choice of some are first culled out of an heap, those that remain
are the rest.
* As many as were
The first act of election is adfmem. Thus Acts xiii. 48,
ordained to eternal life believed.
2. To the means to that end as in 2 Thes. ii. 13, Through sanctifica
tion of the Spirit, and belief of the truth whereinto Christ s death and
redemption is also to be taken in.
Now, how the first of these is to be referred unto man considered before
the fall, as the object of it, and the latter unto man as fallen, as the object of it ; as likewise how there are two acts towards those, the rest, whom
vulgarly we call reprobates, that answer unto these two of election ; I have
in a former treatise handled.
The one is a bare not ordaining them unto that ultimate glory which is
the end, viz. God s being all in all to them, as 1 Cor. xv. 28 ; the other a
withholding from them these effectual means, after or upon foresight of their
fall. Such means, as through which he ordained his elect to come unto that
* Negando quod nos posnit Deus in iram, affirmationem insinuat, quod reprobos Deus posuit ad iram. Cajetan.
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 155
glory, denied to those other, which act it is the word reprobation doth pro
perly denote.
In the first they are considered as unfallen (I express it so indeterminately, unto them whether as created or creabiles, or that were to be created), and
so that ultimate glory, being supernatural to the creature by the law of
creation, that glory was God s own propriety, which he might dispose of as
his own at free pleasure. In the other act of denial of the effectual means,
they were considered as fallen into sin, and therein justly denied those effec
tual means by which the other are restored out of that estate.
Now, my business in this first branch is an exaltation of election grace, in
respect of these its two acts of grace shewn in election, through the help of
a comparative disparity of the two acts of electing grace, with those corres-
pondently opposite acts of reprobation in their aspects unto either state.
1. Compare we that act of absolute ordaining them unto that ultimate
glory, as viewed without the consideration of the fallen estate, with that other
of simply not ordaining the rest to that glory.
It is true concerning either of these that there is in both a pure absolute
act of dominion exercised, even in his not ordaining those unto that glory as the end, as much as electing these other unto that glory ; for that glory
is wholly supernatural, and purely God s own. And I may here apply that
speech of Dominicus Bannies, Est manifestatio maxima; libertatis, quam, habet
divina voluntas circa dispensationem bonorum supernaturalium, qua maxima
est perfectio divina. In the bestowing therefore of this supremest glory, the
greatest liberty of the divine will is seen. And as liberty and freedom is
most conspicuous in it, so answerably a love super-eminent; insomuch as
let us suppose God should by another decree bestow never so many and so
great good things on these, and yet not this superlative good of super-creation
glory, the bare denial or omission of this were an act of hatred in respect
to a mere comparison of that love in that ordination of others to that glory.
I conceive that the instances of Jacob s election, and the denial to Esau of
this ultimate blessing, do most properly and pertinently hold forth the differ
ence of these two bare acts of election to glory, and the negation of it, as to
what God doth towards men, considered as afore the fall, even as Pharaoh s
instance in the same, Rom. ix., was alleged of men considered as fallen and
hardened; and therefore the apostle saith, upon occasion of this example,
4 Whom he will he hardens; whereas in the estate of the example of Jacob
* Being not yet born,
and Esau, he here useth this gloss of his own upon it,
nor having done good nor evil, that is, as they were purely and abstractly
considered from any sin or guilt any way contracted, as also before^they were
born, our birth being that which brings us into an actual and visible resi
dency in this world. And unto this he applies that in verse 13, Jacob
have I loved, and Esau have I hated, thus in the type alleged, signifying men unfallen. Now, God ordained Esau (in the type) to many good things and great blessings, as in Isaac s blessing of him : Gen. xxvii. 39, 40,
* Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of
heaven from above, &c. But that which was the blessing indeed, this his
brother (he says) had taken away, ver. 35, which was by that election
(which we are upon). And thus did God without the consideration of the
fall, ordain his chosen to that supercreation glory, though he denied the rest
that great good. He yet did purpose to ordain them to other good things
of an excellent nature and kind, as that creation perfect holiness which was God s image, and the dominion over all the work of his hands, which Adam, and in him we all, were appointed unto by the law of his and our creation, which condition we all predicate as a complete happiness ; but still this was
156 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
not that good we speak of, not that glory in which God becomes all and m
all And although unto so great a good all men were in this manner made
heirs of, yet that will hold true which was said of Esau in comparison of
Jacob s portion, Esau have I hated; and in that comparison, election to
that super-creation glory only hath the name of love. And I understand
the purport of those speeches thus, that there was so vast a difference put,
and so great a love cast upon the one, and so transcendent, as that com
paratively the other was as hatred ; I understand it, I say, that this love
was so infinitely high as that it made all other love, and that love to all
mankind in their creation, to be but as no love, no glory (as the apostle says
of the law in comparison of the gospel which excelleth), yea, it was as
hatred.* And thus I am taught to understand that hatred may be under
stood of a lesser love, when set in comparison with a love far exceeding ; as
when our Saviour speaks of what love ought to be bestowed upon himself,
so deservedly above what to father and mother, he says, If ye hate not
father and mother, ye are not worthy of me. Hatred there imports not
barely a less loving, but also serves to express and set out how great a love
that must needs be, and ought to be, that shall only deserve the name of love,
in comparison unto which all other love, of what is and ought to be in other
respects the highest love amongst men (for we ought to love parents and
wives above all other relations on earth), should be accounted hatred ; and
that whilst we thus love them, we must but love them with a love so far
below that love we owe to Christ, as it must be but an hatred of them in
collation with that towards him. And thus in like manner to magnify the
love he beareth his elect Jacobs, he termeth that love he beareth all others
of mankind but hatred.
And the comparing alone of this supernatural good with all other good
things God did bestow either on Adam, or on men after the fall, in gifts
supernatural, as enlightenings and tastings of the powers of the world to
come, &c., or outward blessings, the glory and happiness suppose which
millions of worlds could afford, might alone be sufficient to enlighten us in
this argument to magnify electing grace by. I may say, that if all the common mercies and favours of all or any sort that God hath scatteredly vouchsafed to and among all men, were heaped upon one man alone, and he made the possessor of them, they all would be found too light in the balance
with the endowment of this eternal weight of glory on us, and so light as
that they will be allowed no better account than of hatred ; and it is a big word to be said this.
It is true indeed that commonly men do not discern or conceive of the
greatness of this election privilege, made without or afore the consideration
of the fall, but by the fall and the misery they are brought into by sin. Yet
in this other way of comparison I have now made, these other good things fore-mentioned must be acknowledged (if taken in by us) to be a most pierc
ing and accommodate way to aggrandise it by. I shall further urge this
comparative of it, with this supposition made concerning Adam s state and
condition. Suppose we that Adam and all men had stood to this day (and to illustrate things we may make suppositions of things that were never, but
might have been, as Christ does, Luke x. 13), and not only so, but should have so continued for ever, and that God, out from among them, had elected some to that ultimate glory and kingdom we have been speaking of, whom
* Thus Vasques and Estius: Habet se ad modum odientis, quod aliquid dcmum qui uni dat, alter! non concedat. Deus amat omnes homines in quantum vult aliquid bonum omnibus ; in quantum quibusdam non vult hoc bonum, nempe vitam seternam, dicitur eos odio habere. See Arrowsmitfi, p. 314 ; and Daven. de Electione, p. 177.
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 157
he had taken up immediately into it without redemption, &c., whilst those
others should have enjoyed but that holiness and happiness they were created
in, and continued in still upon earth, such as Adam and Eve themselves
did, which is the opinion of many divines, he only should have enjoyed ; what an infinite difference would this have been ! as much as of an earthly and heavenly state. And thereby even all along during that estate so con
tinuing, there had been an infinite illustration given unto that heavenly
glory, in that a complete happiness on earth, in enjoyment of God, had, as a lower way, been extant, infinitely short of that heavenly glory elec
tion had designed some of them, over the head, as we say, of that earthly state.
But, further, if we withal suppose (as de facto it was), that all this holi
ness and happiness in Adam s state did mutually depend upon the change able vertibility and slipperiness of free will, liable to fall, and so to forfeit
it all in the twinkling of an eye, by admitting one sinful thought, whereas in
that first act of election we have been speaking of, this ultimate glory was
immutably and unchangeably endowed upon those God foreknew ; and so whereas that other holy and happy state hung but as a comet or meteor, wavering in the air, this gift of glory was fixed in God s heart towards them, as the sun is in the firmament, as Ps. Ixxxix,, whereas the other were not
liable only to fall, but de facto would have fallen (even as Adam also did), at one time or another. What an infinite favour and grace then was it aforehand to ensure this victory of his elect ! Whether fall they, or not fall,
they lie under an unchangeable decree.
Again, under this head the comparison comes in between God s intention
of our salvation as his end in election, and of men s damnation in the point of rejection.
It is true, that in his decrees of either, his own glory is the supremest end
in both decrees ; but yet in the point of election, the glory and salvation of
the elect themselves is an ultimate end, which his heart is directly and
absolutely set upon an end simply and for itself desired by him, as which
his soul singly and absolutely delighted in, for and in itself ; whereas in re
probation the case is otherwise ; damnation is the end indeed of the persons,
yet no otherwise but as death is said to be the end of life, which is indeed
the issue, the terminus which life expires into ; but it is not the end for which we live.* And accordingly God professeth of the death of a sinner, that he hath no pleasure in it, that is, not simply for itself. Every end of
anything is optimum quid, and the perfection of a thing ; but damnation is
the extremity of evil, and the highest imperfection ; and therefore was not
the end God propounded to himself, which he cannot be said to make the
creature for. And, therefore, most assuredly the matter of election and re
probation is not stated well by those who say, that men s damnation and
reprobation, and man s salvation in election, do stand in a like posture or
reference in God s intention, that is, intended by God upon like terms, for
his own glory s sake. No, there is an infinite difference ; for besides the
tendency which our salvation hath unto his glory, it was also intended by God simply and directly in itself as his end, though inferior to his own glory ; but that of damnation was never intended by him for itself, as an end which he delights in.
This for the act of election, considered as afore and without the fall, and
* Cum seterna damnatio non sit finis hominis, sed tantum extremum, rb
ut vocant Grseci, omnis finis est optimum quid et perfectio rei : damnatio autem est extremum malum, et summa imperfectio, et ultimum malum, ut mors est terminus vitse,
quse non tamen est finis vitee. Keeker. Syst. Theol. lib. iii. chap. iii.
OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
omparative of that glory denied in that act unto those God passed by, with
a c
all the other good things God did or might bestow upon them.
But it pleased our God permissively to decree those elect to fall together
with the rest, as for many other holy ends, so for this one especially that
respects the matter in hand, that we might discern the difference of immutable
holiness running along with glory, which election brings unto, Eph i. 4,
from that of created holiness ; which, if we suppose man had not fallen from,
but stood by, his free-will grace had not been so manifestly discerned, but
the glory of it would have been obscured and attributed unto man s free will,
and not the grace of election.
I therefore, secondly, come to a comparison of the acts of election and
reprobation, as they were framed for and respected man s fallen condition.
Now this first purpose unto this ultimate end, though it stand firm, yet it
cannot bring unto that glory but by new means, and such as must be suited
to bring sinners to God. And hereupon that first decree to glory, out of
absolute dominion, will not now serve the turn ; for without faith and holi
ness no man can please or see God. And without these God stood as per
emptorily resolved none should see his face, as he did to that other, to bring
us to that glory ; and therefore a decree of these new means are necessarily
required. ^For though God should have taken (as he might), his elect by
the first decree, immediately out of that state of creation, with that holiness
they were made in, unto that supreme glory, yet that holiness then, though
perfect in its kind, was never ordained as a means to that glory, viz., the
kingdom of the Father, as faith on Christ and holiness flowing from thence now are ; for that anything should be a means unto glory, depended upon an ordination of God, and an ordering of one for the other. And this ulti
mate glory, the kingdom of the Father, and God being all in all, should never
have gone by works only, which was Adam s covenant ; so that, if we should
suppose that act of his grace had purposed and ordained to take up these
his elect unto glory, out of that state of holiness by creation (supposing Adam
also not to have fallen, but to have propagated that holiness to his posterity),
yet the holiness of that covenant had not been an influential means to that
glory, but was thus far, and upon this account necessary, yet, indeed, it
must have been continued ; for if it had not, then guilt had arisen, and so
a bar unto that glory ; so that indeed it was a requisite, sine qua non, but
not a means of influence by that covenant, no more than creation itself was.
Well, but now upon the fall, there is an absolute bar to glory
: the elect are
fallen into the demerit of the contrary, of hell and damnation, as well as those
others which the Scripture calls the rest or the refused.
Hence, therefore, if the elect be brought to glory, considered as fallen,
there must be new decrees of means in order to that end ; Christ must be come a redeemer, a redeemer from sin, to remove that demerit ; and then
on our part, faith on him, and repentance for sin (in which two our calling
consists), are ordained to be given them to bring them to salvation. When
those means came to be decreed, it will be tried whether his first purpose of
ordaining the elect to glory be firm or no. In the apostle s words, Eom.
ix. 11, now when they are considered as fallen, whether God will now in
this necessity (as absolute as the former), further shew forth his love in
giving Christ as a redeemer, and effectual calling to you, not at all proceed
ing therein by works, which our first creation-covenant proceeds by ; and if
fallen man would have attempted to perform, he could never have obtained
at God s hands, to call or work repentance in them.
Now, as to the magnifying God s grace in his ordaining to give his elect
those new means after the fall, these things may be considered.
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 159
1. When the decree of those means should come to be made, there was, and must have been, a new or second election, or renewal of that first act of
ordaining to the end, as often after the miscarriages of the elect the Scrip ture speaks
: Isa xiv. 1, For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob, and will
yet choose Israel. And as for the thing itself, it is no absurdity to say, that God in continuance renews his acts of election every moment ; but here
there was a necessity of it, a necessity at least of another act to be added to
the first, namely, that which divines mostly appropriate the word predestina tion unto, as they distinguish it from election simply considered, which, say
they, more ordinarily imports barely a choice unto the end ; but predestina tion to be an ordaining of means, and through these means unto the end. And therefore, now there needed a new further extent of love and mercy, not
only to continue his resolution to love, notwithstanding the fall, but to con
trive the means of carrying them through to glory notwithstanding that fall. And upon and for this act it is, and upon ocasion of it, that the Scripture so celebrates the love of God. God so loved the world, as he gave his only begotten Son, namely, as a redeemer, John iii. 16 ; and 1 John iv. 10, Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And herein the strength and firm
ness of that first act of election appeared, and shewed that God was so
resolute therein, that nothing could dissolve or alter it. And thus by this
order of decrees (which in the former treatise we shewed), and by this second
act, the grace of election comes to be the more magnified.
2dly. That together with this new act ordaining to these means, there was
a denial of giving the same unto the rest, to whom he had also denied glory afore in the first act of preterition. And this second denial of the means, to be made with so manifest a difference, doth mightily enhance electing grace
: Mat. xiii. 11,
* It is given to you to know the mystery of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it is not given. And how given to them, but by and from election ? The election obtained it, whereas the rest was blinded. As
* Ye believe not (which is the means to salvation). Why ? Because ye are not of my sheep, namely, by election ; also John
also Christ : John x. 26,
* But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto
vi. 64, 65,
me, except it were given unto him of my Father ; compared with John
xiii. 13, I speak not of you all ; I know whom I have chosen : but, that
the Scripture might be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Where the reason of giving faith is plainly resolved
into election (and it is not chosen unto apostleship, that is there meant, but unto salvation before the world), and exemplified in the instance of Judas
there brought, as also of those others spoken of in that 6th of John, which
enjoyed the best and most powerful outward means (Christ s ministry) that ever was or shall be ; but it was election that put the difference, by which
they were made Christ s sheep originally, and which ordained to give the
other apostles saving and effectual inward means, and workings of grace, over and above those outward means vouchsafed.
And this is amplified as the former was by this, that as in the first act of
election, though God gave that holiness that was by creation due, or to be due unto those of Adam s posterity, suppose he had propagated, whom yet he had denied that supreme glory unto, or did ordain that creation holiness
to be a means to that glory, so here with this second decree of his elect to
saving means. God indeed answerably ordains to give the best of good things that in this world men are capable of, unto many of those the rest,
1GO OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
which are yet short of true faith and grace. He gives them spiritual gifts, unto the rebellious also, as he says in the psalmist, enlightenings, tastings of the powers of the world to come, which are given indeed, that men might be saved, as Christ speaks of his preaching, which are an outward means of
salvation, John vi. ; that is, they have a tendency to salvation, even as
Christ s ministry (as himself witnesseth) tended to the salvation of them that heard those things. I speak, says Christ, that you might be saved, but
yet they have not salvation in them, or accompanying them, and annexed to
them, as Heb. vi. 4, 5, and 9 compared, true grace is said to have. And God doth this to illustrate by this difference his electing grace in giving saving means unto his chosen.
3dly, Let us compare the grounds of those acts themselves, viz., the decree to give effectual means to the one, and the denial thereof to the
other ; let us compare, I say, these two together, and such a difference
appears, the grounds or foundations of doing the one and the other, as will
serve greatly yet more to enhance the grace of God in this act of election to
the means, through that comparison of those several grounds.
The foundation of his decreeing his elect to those effectual means proves
still to be as pure an act of dominion, and so out of mere love, and grace, as much as was the former act of election to the end, and with a superaddition of mercy to it, yea, and further degree of dominion exercised therein ; where as on the other hand, the ground of his denial of those means to the other considered now as fallen, becomes not an act of pure dominion, but of justice, though put forth by his will.
And how from this comparison of these two there accrues that which will
yet magnify the grace of election, I shall shew after I shall have first cleared and explained the premises.
That God s denial of effectual means to those we call reprobates, to bring them to salvation, after man is considered as fallen, is not as then an act of
pure dominion, sovereign dominion, but has a jus ordinatum in it, which
justly may move him thereunto.
It is true, indeed, those that hold all acts of election and reprobation to have been after the fall considered, they do in this respect make reprobation an act of pure dominion, namely, that if the inquiry be why he chose those and those, and not the others, and why he reprobated, when he might have chosen them whom he cast away ; and on the contrary, have cast away whom he chose, according to that, I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful, and whom he will he hardens ; and in so doing (say they) God looked not at all at sin as the motive to his passing by those individual persons he did pass by ; and though this be true, yet I withal must add that there remains
still this difference, that sin and the loss of holiness man had before the fall, did bring in a desert to be reprobated, and to have the means to bring men
effectually to salvation denied them ; and this none can deny. And there fore it is acknowledged by some,* that though sin is not causa reprolationis, take the act, est tamen causa reprobabilitatis. And further, that efficacious means should be withdrawn is from their sin, they being now fallen, according to that of Christ, lest they should see with their eyes, &c., Mat. xiii. 15. For the fall foreseen did from the first pre clude them from those means, for it brings in a want of all good, and possesses the whole of the heart with the contrary unto all those means, so as God should not have needed to exercise any act of dominion unto the person thus fallen, in this denial of means, for the guilt and power of sin in the heart do preoccupate and prevent, or rather prepossess the room of those
* Wollevius, lib. i. cap. iv. can. 5.
CHAP. II.] OF ELECTION. 161
principles which are now to be the means of bringing men to glory, so as
although as to the persons whom, after the fall viewed, he reprobated, whilst he chose others to those means, there was indeed a dominion exercised ; yet as to the thing denied, there was not a pure prerogative exercised, but a jus ordinatum concurred with it, and was mingled with it ; a just cause or reason de jure, or in right, for God so to do; and this is a certain truth, that not to grant a thing de novo, or anew, that is by a forfeiture excluded and debarred to be given, is not a mere act of denial thereof, or pure act of
prerogative, for there is desert in it, why it should be done ; but this is the
case in the point afore us. And I speak thus of it, although they forefeited
in Adam what indeed was less in some respects than is required now, as the means to bring them unto glory, yet in substance it is the same image of God
that was created then that is created now ; yet so as by the guilt of that
loss there arose a just prohibition in law against the giving of new means to
bring fallen man to salvation by, without a new interposition of sovereign grace.
So as now the working of that grace and of holiness in us, that are now ordained to be the effectual means having salvation in them, as the apostle speaks, Heb. vi. 9, flow all purely and immediately from election, and the
fruits of it ; yea, and become an act of higher dominion than was exercised
in that other, to the end, and that not only because that all is a free gift, as Rom. v. 15, 16, in this respect, that there was an utter want of power to
bring forth such efficacious acts unto salvation, yea, a principle contrary unto
all the works of grace ; but also in this, that there was a desert to the con
trary by a law, even the law of our creation, so as now there must be an
overruling dominion of grace exerted to work them. And now
* it is not in him that runs, nor in him that wills, but in God that shews mercy, which is spoken in respect to the means of salvation. And indeed all the
withdrawings of those means after the fall are to be considered as judicial acts in God, as leaving them unto sins, and damnation following thereupon. These are all along, after the fall, acts of judicature on God s part, and his
decreeing of them, or disposing of them foreseen, are to be put unto the account. And as God decrees not to damn, but only for sin, so he decrees not to withdraw the inward means of salvation, but for sin foreseen.
Hence therefore, for God to choose to the means effectual to bring to salva
tion his elect considered as fallen, there is a jits absolutionis in it, heightened to the highest ; but in reprobation, not to give them to man fallen, there was what should move him to it, and a justice in it. Now, if this second act of election unto the means be thus an act juris absoluti in the highest kind, which the other is not, as by the former com
parative appears, then how may and should we afresh magnify the grace and love of God shewn therein ? If God had, in decreeing to give those effec
tual means, gone by a jus ordinatum, or a rule, or anything revived in us that should have deserved the giving those means, as our running, or our
willing, as motives to bestow them, then the dominion of giving them had
gone by a jus ordinatum ; and then it had gone by works, and had not been
of him that calleth, namely, out of his pure dominion, as that opposition declares in Rom. ix. ; and then his grace and love would have been lessened in this act. But being otherwise, now the purity of the glory of grace con tinues still as high, and shines as clear and glenous,* as in that other act of election to the end ; yea, higher, for the reasons given aforesaid, How, then, should this love and grace be magnified by us in this second act of election by these considerations ! * Qu. glorious ? ED. VOL. IX. L
162 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
1. For where more of dominion is and appears in an act, that is, an act
of grace, there is the more of grace shewn therein ; for then it is grace
absolutely, and every way grace, when there is nothing obliging or moving thereunto in the least, and grace is then grace when it is every way grace, and kept free of all obligations or encouragements that are from us. It is not only the greatness of the gift that sets out the grace, but the freeness and absoluteness of the giving and bestowing of it ; now where there is the more dominion, there is the more liberty in the giving, and the more free-
ness, and so the more grace in it. Kings are said in their gifts to be gra cious, because they have so high and sovereign dominion, and free from
obligations to their subjects. The glory of grace lies in freedom, when it is mero motu, as the style of kings in giving gifts doth run.
2. In that former act of election to the end, towards us as not fallen, but
creabiles, or as considered in creating, appears (as it was indeed) an absolute dominion, because in bestowing it God bestowed purely what was his own, and wherein there was maxima libertas, as out of Bannies was shewn. And besides the greatness of the dominion, its being a destination to so great a
glory doth enhance it. For think with yourselves, a thing out of nothing, decreed to be created, and then created, and whilst it is yet nothing, could no way be considered to have anything in it to move or oblige, but yet so as still there was nothing contrary which could be viewed therein. If you will say it was simply in the power of God and the sovereignty of God to ordain this, but yet there was no bar to hinder the procedure of it, and yet put in a caveat or plea against it in the least, but where sin is (as in man considered as fallen) there is a law. utterly to the contrary, as was said, and therefore it is a higher dominion to remove those cross bars, to answer those
pleas, and overrule and give means to fallen man to salvation anew, than to ordain to the end at first. And therefore it is the Scripture sets forth by this the love of God to us, that while we were sinners Christ died for us, and so God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, and the
like, which were but means to save man fallen.
3. There was in that fallen condition, when it was in view, causa reprobaUlitatis, a cause to have been reprobated : not so in the former act. A
reprobability there was, to the denying of all means for the future, and so of salvation itself; for without these means, none that were fallen could be saved, and there was the same provocation to deny it to those the elect, considered as now fallen, as was to the other, if the dominion of grace and
love^had not stepped in. And therefore in Isa. xli. 9, it is said that when God s law chose thee he might have cast thee away : Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not cast thee away. Of which speech there maybe a double meaning: 1, that God was immutable in his love, that whom he had so chosen he would never cast away; or, 2, that when he chose them, it was free to him, and he might as easily have laid them aside. It was to him but as a man would turn a key one way or the other, to lock or unlock. It was but saying, yea, or no ; I know you, or I know you not.
* Qu. love ? ED.
CflAP. III.] OF ELECTION. 163