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called. —Rom. viii. 28—30. Now predestination
and the purpose of God must be very different from
calling, vvliich proceeds from it, unless the cause
and the effect are the same thing. Election is fre
quently spoken of as an act of God in eternity, and
therefore it cannot be a mere temporary act; the
evidence of our election is in time, the decree itself
is from eternity. Some, by election, understand the
eternal purpose of God to save certain and partic
ular persons. Now, under this general notion of it we
shall find the sentiments of men to be very differ
ent. Some tell us, that it is for faith and good works
foreseen ; but if we are chosen to faith and good
works, we cannot be chosen for them. God does not
foresee that men will believe and be holy, and from
hence choose them to salvation; but he foresees
that men will believe and be boly, bacause he has
chosen them to salvalion, through faith and holi
ness. God cannot be said to foresee that any will
believe and be holy so whom he has not determin
ed to give these saving principles, and he has de
termined to give them only to those whom he
chosen to salvation. Some assert, that God, in
electing certain peisons to salvation had no regard
to the fall, that election only as crea
tures of his making, and not as creatures that had
fallen from him ; but though the sovereignty of
God may herein seem to have a wonderful display,
yet I cannot think that his other divine perfections
are glorified by this opinion ; some allow of a par
ticular election, but deny any such thing as a non
election. They grant that a certain number shall
infallibly be saved, but at the same time affirm
that all may be saved if they will. This is an opin
ion that is absurd in its very nature, as well as it is
evidently contrary to the word of God. Some tell
us that they believe both am-election and a repro
bation, but further suppose that there is a middle
sort of persons who are neither elect nor reprobate,
and who may yet be saved; but this is a notion of
which we have no footsteps in the word of God,
,‘iud which is altogether indefensible. Thus have
I given you the various sentiments of persons about
the doctrine of Election. If I may be permitted
now to give my sense of it, it is this: It is the
eternal and immutable purpose and design of God
to save a determinate number of fallen Adam’s
children by Jesus Christ; it is not a national elec
tion, or an election to church privileges only ; it is
not a determination to save those who believe, and
which leaves it uncertain whether any will believe;
it is not a temporary call of men to salvation, but
asl have observed an everlasting and invariable pur
pose and design of God to save certain particular
persons of Adam’s fallen race. God foresaw in his
eternal foreknowledge the whole posterity of Adam
lost and undone, and he determines in his sover
eign good will to raise to his mercy a trophy of
honor by erecting to himself a glorious church out
cf the lubbish of this apostacy, and that his pur
pose, according to election, might stand, without
any injury offered to his other perfections he enter
ed into a .covenant with Christ as the second Adam,
head of this chosen people, according to which
poyepsnt Jesus .Christ was to fulfill the law, suffer
80IJ T !:■ : ‘’ r • ‘ “ if - S 8R Pi H V I? .
and die, in the room and stead of this choseu peo
ple, and thereby purchase the*m, and bless them
with faith, sanctification and eternal life, so that all
the elect of God shall infallibly be savtd. When
God chose a people to salvation, be laid his scheme
in sucti infinite wisdom that not one of his chosen
people should miss of the end. lam now to prove
that there is such an election, or that God has im
mutably designed the salvation of a certain num
ber of fallen Adam’s children, this is a doctrine
that is too generally denied and rejected. In the
present day persons make a jest of particular per
sonal election, and in the room of it set up a gen
eral national one; but whatever insults and con
tempts are thrown upon this truth, I hope, by di
vine assistance, to make it appear that it is an ar
ticle founded on the sacred Scriptures,.and a doc
trine according to godliness, we may argue the
truth of the doctrine from the divine perfections.
Whatever doctrine is deduced from Scripture, and
is agreable to the divine perfections, must be true,
and that this is so, I will endeavor to prove by the
following method of reasoning. It must be gtanted
there is One ever living and true God, who is poss
essed of all possible perfection; to deny that there
is a God, is to break in upon'the first principle of
reason, to suppose an imperfect God is a contra
diction to common sense, and contrary to all the
ideas we have of diety, both from natural and re
vealed religion ; if there is a God, he must be a be
ing of absolute perfection. It must be allowed that
whatever perfection or excellency is to be found in
any creature, the same must be essential to the most
high God, and that in the most eminent and trans
cendent degree. If every creature derives its being
from God as its first cause, then no creature can
possibly be possessed of any excellency, but*what
must, in the highest and most absolute sense, be
long to God. Since, therefore, God made all things,
he must be before and aboveall things ; before them
in existence, and above them in perfection. lie
that planted the ear shall he not hear? lie that
planted the eye shall he not see? He that teacheth
man knowledge shall he not know ? Psalm xciv.
9, 10. No one can deny that it is an excellency in
any creature to be wise and powerful ; wise to lay
a scheme of what he designs, for a rational being
to set about a work without first forming a model
in his mind of what he intends to pursue, is to dis
cover a defect of wisdom, and not to be able to ac
complish the plan he hath laid down, and betrays a
want of power. These premises being granted
which cannot, x apprehend, be reasonably denied,
it must follow from uence, that whatever the great
God does, as the effect of power, he designed to do.
These are propositions self-evident, which
ought not to be disputed; for-to suppose God to
perform any work which he did not first design to
perform, is to charge him with a degree of folly,
and with acting below an intelligent agent; to sup
pose him to design to do a thing which he does
not effect, is to tax him with impotence. If it is
an iustance of the wisdom and power of man, first
to design a wo*k, and then perfect it, the Great God
who is infinity in both these perfections, must de
sign tv hat he e ffects, and effects what he has HfH
signed; either God actually saves aMmen,*of h*
dues not, if he does be must have designed it, if
he does not, it is plain he never designed it. To
assert that God designed to save all tnen, and yet
only saved some, is, in effect to affirm, either that
he changes his purpose as to a great many, or that
he wants power to execute his intentions towards
them. The very supposition *>f which is faTse and
blasphemous, fur reason must tell us, that i't is im
possible for an infinitely wise God to change his
mind or alter his purpose, and that it is equally
impossible that a being of Almighty Power should
not be able to bring his purposes to effect. To this
decision of reason, the sacred Scriptures bexr their
testimony in the. plainest and strongest assertions,
when it is said, God is not a man, that he should
lie ; neither the son of man, that he should repent:
hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he
spoken, and shall he not make it good ? Num. xxiii.
19. God may seem to repent, or to do those things
in his Providence, which would argue repentance
in man ; but whatever contrariety there may be in
his Providences, there can be no alteration in his
purposes; therefore, Job, under the different dis
pensations of God towards him, readily acknowl
edged this of him, He is iu one mind, and who
can turn him ? and what his soul desireth, even
that he doeth; for he performeth the thing that is
appointed for, me. Job xxiii. 13. With how much
majesty does the Great Jehovah deliver himself in
these words, “ I am Clod, and there is none else ;
L am God, and there is none like me, declaring
the end from the beginning, and from ancient limes
the things which are not yet done, saying, my coun
sel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isa.
xlvi. 9, 10. To this the church bears wituess, when
she says, our God is iu the heavens; he hath done
whatsoever he pleased. Psa. cv. 3. So Solomon
tells us that there are many devices in a man’s
heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that
shall stand. Prov. xix. 21. God works without
control or resistance, be does according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth ; and none can stay his hand, or say
to him, what doest thou. Dan. iv. 35. In whom
also says the Apostle, speaking of himself, and the
believing Ephesians, we have obtained an inheri
tance, being predestinated according to the pui
pose of him who works all things after the counsel
of bis own will. Eph. i. 11. Thus our doctrine
stands firm upon the infinite wisdom and Almigh
ty power of God. All that God designed to save,
he saves, but he actually saves some only, therefoie
he designed ouly to save some of fallen Adam’s
children ; for if we consider God as infinite in wis
dom and of almighty power, there cannot be a
more rational way of arguing than from his acts to
his designs. I might further argue the doctrine
from the foreknowledge of God. God foreknows
from eternity whatsoever shall com® to pass in time*
and particularly foreknows all that will be saved.
Now either all will be saved, or not, if they will
not in fact all be saved, then God does not foreknow
that all will be saved, but he only foreknows the