no denial; yet the Lord would not hear him: "Speak no more to me of this matter," Deut. 3: 26. To make light of the least sin, because grace abounds, is to sin against your own soul, and to make the precious blood of Christ a common thing (the least is the price of blood.) Although he love thee, and that so as never to take his loving kindness from thee, yet he will not let thee go altogether unpunished; yea, the Lord may hide from thee the sense of his love, and make thee feel his displeasure, even to the breaking of thy bones, &c. For he must discountenance sin, and that for our good, as well as to vindicate the honor of his righteousness.

Infer. 4. You that acknowledge God's uprightness, and profess to be his children, convince the world of the truth of your principles by your practice. Shew yourselves to be his offspring, by your likeness to him: "do justly, love mercy, walk humbly." To" be blameless, and harmless, and without rebuke," Phil. 2: 15. is your best argument to refute the world's calumnies, and to prove yourselves to be the sons of God. Shew it also, by your justifying God, even while" he wraps himself in a cloud," Job 22: 13, 14. "and his footsteps are not known," Psal. 77: 19. He that owns not God's hand in every dispensement, disowns his sovereignty; and he that repines, denies his righteousness: acquit yourself in both.

Infer. 5. Then let none stumble at present administrations, nor admit of a sinister or suspicious thought touching this holy Lord God. The reason of his ways may be unknown, but cannot be unjust: he sees through the dark cloud, though you and I cannot. We know "the Lord doth not afflict willingly," Lam. 3: 33. and his people are in heaviness but for a season, and if need be, 1 Pet. 1: 6, then, surely, "it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement," (that is, my sin procured it for me, and I have no cause to complain;) "I will offend no more," Job 34: 31. Acknowledge his uprightness, and he will be gracious unto thee," chap. 23: 24. And do it when thou canst not see the reason of his judgments, nor their tendency; taking it still for a rule, "That all the ways of God are perfect: nothing can be put to them, nor any thing taken from them," Eccles. 3: 14. It was a good resolu tion in Job, that, "though he were righteous, yet would

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he not answer God; but make supplication to his judge," Job 9: 15. and though he should slay him, "yet will he trust in him," chap. 13: 15. and this would he do, even while he thought he might maintain his own ways before him.

Be patient, therefore: "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh," James 5: 7. "who will judge the world with righteousness," Psal. 9: 8. Let neither the wicked's prosperity, nor the daily chastenings of his own people, be an offence to thee; go up "into the sanctuary of God," Psal. 73: 17. there thou shalt know the end. It shall not always be carried thus; there will be a reckoning for the good things they had in their life-time; when those that have lived in pleasure, will wish that their souls had been in thy soul's stead, under all its pressures: and it shall be no grief of heart to thee, to remember thy mortal and momentary sufferings, Rom. 8: 18. when thou seest such peaceable fruits of righteousness brought forth thereby, Heb. 12: 18. when thou shalt be wrapt up with holy amazement, and shall say in thine heart, "I lost my children, and was desolate; a captive, and removing to and fro (had no abiding place,) who hath begotten me these?" Isa. 49: 21. chap. 60. Whence came they! what root sprang they from! my light afflictions were not worthy to be compared with this glory! 2 Cor. 4: 17. He will never repent that he sowed in tears, who brings home his sheaves with such joy. But as you go along to this your blessed home, and sweet place of eternal rest, it may be worth the while to ruminate such scriptures as these: "Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged (he goes unpunished,) yet surely it shall be well with them that fear God: but it shall not be well with the wicked," Eccles. 8: 12, 13. "Verily, there is a reward for the righteous: Verily, he is a God who judgeth in the earth," Psal. 58: 11. "And his judgment is according to truth," Rom. 2: 2. "and blessed are they that wait for him," Isa. 30: 18.

Infer. 6. Lastly, All the objections that are brought against the doctrine of election's absoluteness, personality, and eternity; the peculiarity of redemption; the efficacious predominance of grace in calling; and believers' invincible perseverance in faith and holiness, would all be disbanded, and sent to their own place, were this one truth (which

none in words will deny) but truly believed and received in love; namely, "That God hath an absolute right of dominion over his creatures, to dispose and determine of them as seemeth him good; and that in the doing thereof he cannot but do right."

And so I come to the matter first intended.

ELECTION.

THE doctrine of Election containeth the whole sum and scope of the gospel; and our minds, if honestly subdued to the doctrine of God's sovereignty, cannot be employed about a more excellent subject. It is called "The foundation of God," not only because of the supereminency of it, but as a foundation of his laying, which God himself is the author of, and he alone; and the basis whereof is himself: it is that foundation which standeth sure, and keeps all them sure who stand upon it.

Election is the pitching of everlasting love, or the good pleasure of God, choosing and decreeing to eternal life: it is the great charter of heaven, God's special and free-grace deed of gift to his chosen ones, made over in trust unto Jesus Christ, for their use and benefit. Now, in deeds of gift (to make them authentic) there must be inserted the name of the donor, or person that gives; the name of the donee, or person to whom; the quality and extent of the thing that is given; the time when it was done; the con sideration that moved thereto; and, in case of impotency, it is usual and necessary to ordain some friend as feoffee in trust, who is to stand seized or possessed of the gift for the donee's use: all which are evidently found in scripture election, and may be summed inot this proposition.

Prop. "That there is a peculiar people, who were personally chosen of God in Christ, according to his own good pleasure, and ordained to eternal life, before the world began."

Before I come to a downright proof of the proposition, I shall first explain the terms, and then produce some instances of lower kind of election, that is, to matters of a lower concern than that of eternal life; which yet may be reckoned a type and shadow of it.

1. For explanation. This word peculiar denotes the

exemption or privileging of a person or thing from the power of another, in whose jurisdiction it was, or seemed to be: it sometimes signifies riches, or substance, which is of a man's own proper getting, by labor and industry: it is also used to denominate such a part of a man's inheritance as he keeps in his own hands; which our law calls his demesne lands. In all which respects, the elect are aptly termed a peculiar people: for, (1.) Though Satan be prince of the world, and rules on every side; yet, as touching the elect, it is but an usurped and temporary jurisdiction that he hath over them: they do, indeed, belong to another prince, to whom their chief Lord hath given them; who therefore (in the appointed time) will rescue them from that usurpation. (2.) They are the Lord's treasure, or inheritance, obtained by labor indeed, with sweat and blood; than which nothing is more a man's own, nor hardlier parted with; such was the portion bestowed by Jacob on his beloved Joseph, 66 even that which he got with his sword, and with his bow," Gen. 48: 22. And, (3.) They are the Lord's demesnes: he keeps them in his own hands, tenders them as the apple of his eye, and will not entrust them in the hands of others: no, not of their own selves.

'Chosen or elected:' the proper import of the word is, to select or make choice of one or more out of a greater number. Personally chosen,' that is, they were singled forth, or pitched upon by name; and chosen in Christ, or into Christ, as their head and mediator; that being in him, all the grace and glory they were chosen unto might be rightfully theirs, and accordingly applied to them.

To ordain' is the same here as to predestinate, appoint, prepare, decree, or fore-determine of things to come: which was in such manner done, that the event always has, does, and ever shall, justly succeed according to designment. In this sense men cannot be said to predestinate, because they cannot, with any certainty, determine of things not yet in being: but all things were present with God from eternity, and his decree was the cause of their after-existence.

By eternal life' I understand, not only the saints' actual possession of blessedness and glory; which consists in their perfect conformity to God, and union with him (according to the 17th of John,) but also, whatever is requisite thereto,