Rom. v. 21; Ephes. ii. 5, 8. And these are the " sure mercies of David," recorded in Isaiah lv. It is the absoluteness of it that makes it a better covenant.

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ARGUMENT IV.-There is the same reason for the absoluteness of men's election, as of Christ's. That man, or human body, which the Second Person was to assume and unite to himself, was not ordained to that union upon condition whatever; as, namely, if he should fulfil all righteousness, destroy the devil, dissolve his works, and make atonement for sin; for these he could not have done without that union: And that his ordination thereto was absolute, appears by Heh. x. 5: "A body hast thou prepared me;" and Luke i. 35: "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God;" Matt. i. 21: "He shall save his people from their sins." In which places the absoluteness of the decree for that man's being united to the Son of God, is evidently set forth. And that our election, as to this circumstance of it, holds proportion with that of Christ, ye shall see more fully afterwards. Take only, at present, those gracious words, which, doubtless, he uttered with great satisfaction to himself, in John xvii. 23: "Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

ARGUMENT V.—It was requisite that election should be absolute, because of the absoluteness of God's decree touching the death of his Son, unto which he was foreordained unrepealably, 1 Peter i. 20; and all that he saved before he suffered were saved on the credit of that decree, Rom. iii. 25, 26. The Scripture also says plainly, that "he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8; and that it was not possible that cup should pass from him, Matt. xxvi. 39, 42. And if it be a thing below the prudence of men, to lay down the price without securing the purchase; then, surely, the wisdom of God could not determine the death of his Son for men's salvation, and yet leave the salvation of those very men at an uncertainty; which it must have been, if their election were not absolute.

ARGUMENT VI.-Lastly: It might also be argued from

the nature of Divine promises, which are patterns or declarative copies of the decree. Now, the promises touching spiritual blessings are absolute; they are of that word which is for ever settled in heaven, Psalm cxix. 89: See the promises of sending Christ to be a Redeemer, Gen. iii. 15; the Holy Ghost to sanctify, and lead into all truth, John xvi. 13; to sprinkle clean water upon them; to give them a new heart; to cause them to walk in his statutes; that he will be their God, and they shall be his people, and shall not depart from him, Jor xxiv. 7; Ezek. xxxvi. 26; that if they sin, he will chastise them with the rods of men, but his everlasting kindness he will not take from them, Psalm. lxxxix. 30-34; and that at last he will present them faultless before the presence of his glory," Jude 24. These all, with others of like tenor, are delivered in positive and absolute terms, without any show of reservation, proviso, or condition. And if these, which are transcripts of the decree, be absolute, it follows, that the decree also is the same; and on this ground it is the apostle stands, when he challengeth all the world to nullify God's election, Rom. viii. 33, 34; which he could not have done, had not election been sovereignly absolute.

III. IV. ELECTION IS PERSONAL: AND, IT IS FROM

ETERNITY.

THESE two I put together in proof, because they are frequently joined in Scripture. It was not the whole lump of mankind that was the object of election, neither was election, as some speak, a decree to elect such as should happen to be thus and so qualified; but certain determinate persons were chosen by name, or singled out from among the rest, and ordained to eternal life. Our Saviour styles them, "the men that were given him out of the world,” John xvii. 6; and they were given him by name, as well as number; and by those names he knows them, John x. 3, 14. It is not unworthy our deepest resentment, how the Lord takes notice of the names of his people, as intending it, doubtless, a signal token of the

special regard he hath to their persons. He, therefore, tells Moses, "I know thee by thy name," Exod. xxxiii. 17. It is an appropriating of them to himself: "I have called thee by thy name," thou art mine, Isaiah xliii. 1. Sometimes, also, when he calls to those he eminently owns, he doubles their name by repetition: Thus, to his friend Abraham, Gen. xxii. 11; to Moses, his servant, Exod. iii. 4; and others. But I find no instance of his speaking so to other men: And these, I suppose, are recorded, as worthy of special remark; and that it is no light matter, (much less to be scoffed at, as it is by some frothy spirits,) that the elect were chosen by name, and that their names are written in heaven. And that it was transacted from eternity, is evident from John xvii. 23, 24; Eph. i. 4; Rev. xiii. 8; xvii. 8; and other Scriptures.

The personality of election, with its eternity, may be evinced by such arguments as these:

ARGUMENT I.—From the example of Christ's election. It was not a person uncertain that was to be Lord and Christ, but the second person in human nature; and this capacity he sustained from everlasting, Prov. viii. 23-31; 1 Pet. i. 20. Nor was it any body which he might assume, but that very same numerical body that was prepared for him, Heb. x. 5; Psalm xl. 7. And this very person he loved before the foundation of the world, John xvii. 24. It is worthy observation, how particular the decree was, even in things circumstantial to our Lord Christ; as, that he should come of Abraham's stock, of Judah's tribe, of David's lineage, be conceived in a virgin, born at Bethlehem; (and this when the sceptre was departing from Judah ;) that he should be buffeted, scourged, spit upon, hanged on a tree, his hands and his feet pierced, that gall and vinegar should be given him to drink; that a bone of him should not be broken, even while on both sides of him others were; that his garments should be parted, and lots cast on his vesture; as, also, that he should rise again the third day, &c. And that these were all decreed, appears by the prophecies of

them, which are the decree exemplified, or drawn out of the register. As touching his resurrection, it is said expressly in Psalm ii. 7, "I will declare the decree;" and the same is as true of all the rest. And if the election of the Head was personal and from eternity, why not theirs that should make up his body, since they did as really exist then as the human nature of Christ did? Besides, it was very agreeable, that he and they should both be appointed together; for, he could not be a head, but with respect to a body; and that they were expressly determined of, appears by Psalm cxxxix. 16: "In thy book were all my members written, when as yet there was none of them." If you say, "That was meant of David's members," I answer, that, if God thought the members of an earthly body worthy his registering, he could not be less particular and exact about the mystical body of his Son. Besides, David was his type.

Christ also was ordained to be a Saviour, and that by his death, and both "from the foundation of the world," 1 Peter i. 20. It was, therefore, expedient then also to be determined, how many, and who in particular, should have salvation by him. He was not to die for himself, but for those whose security he undertook. Now, it is not a thing proper to speak of security or bail, but with respect to a debtor or offender; and that debtor or offender must be known, too, and named, or else the entering of the bail is an insignificant act; especially where the surety hath no debt or default of his own to be charged with. Our Lord and Saviour did not make his soul an offering for somebody's sins, but uncertain whose. Aaron knew whose trespasses he offered for; their names were graven on his breast-plate: Not their national name or qualification, namely, "Israelite, or believer," but their personal names, Reuben, Simeon, Levi," &c. So had our great High Priest, or he could not have made atonement for us: And that place, Rev. xiii. 8, points, at the same time, for both. Those words, "From the foundation of the world," do refer as well to the writing of their names in the book of life, as to the Lamb's being

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slain; as evident from Rev. xvii. 8, where, deciphering those who shall wander after the beast, he says, they are such whose names were not written in the book of life, from the foundation of the world," as were theirs who followed the Lamb, and whom God had from the beginning chosen to salvation, 2 Thess. ii. 13. ARGUMENT II.-The design of God in the death of Christ could not otherwise be secured. Had the design been, to purchase salvation for believers, without ascertaining the persons that should believe, it had been uncertain whether any would be saved, because uncertain whether any would believe. If certain, that some would believe, this certainty must be decreed; for, nothing future could be certain otherwise. And if it was decreed, that some should believe, the individuals of that some must be decreed also; for, faith is the gift of God, and could not be foreseen in any, but whom he had decreed to give it unto : Which, laid together, are a good demonstration, that those Christ should die for were as well pre-ordained, as that he should die for them; and that definitely, and by name.

ARGUMENT III.-It may further be argued, from the Father's preparing "a kingdom from the foundation of the world," and mansions or places in it. To prepare the way of this argument, consider the punctuality of God's disposements in things of a lower concern: He did not create the earth in vain, that is, to stand empty and void, as at its first formation, nor the several quarters thereof to be inhabited indefinitely, by some nation or other who should happen to get possession of them; but "he divided to the nations their inheritance, and the bounds of their habitation," Deut. xxxii. 8; Acts xvii. 26. Mount Seir was given to Esau, and Ar to the children of Lot, Deut. ii. 5, 9: Each nation had its limits staked out, and this from the days of old. And if we may distinguish of acts in God, and of time in eternity, his purpose to form and bring forth those nations must needs be as early, as to create and furnish those parts of the world which they should inhabit. Now, earthly settlements being of