An End of Doctrinal Controversies, Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of ELECTION.
§. 1. ELECTION in Scripture sometimes signifieth God's actual choosing or taking one Man or People from among others to himself, either for his special Complacency and Service by Sanctification or Conversion; or to some special Office, as David was chosen from among his Brethren. And sometimes it signifieth God's eternal Will or Decree so to choose, call or sanctifie and save men at a determinate time: as in Eph. 1. and elsewhere.
§. 2. God will convert, justifie, adopt and save some men, by his Grace.
§. 3. Therefore it is certain that God from Eternity did will or decree so to do: For the event in time, maketh it fit so to denominate God's etern… will: Though there was nothing before the Creation really but God; and so real existent Man was not the Object of his Will; and Man in esse cognito, was nothing but God himself, there being nothing else from Eternity (except as Eternity comprehendeth Time.)
§. 4. In the same manner as God bringeth men to Grace and Glory, he willeth or decreeth to do it: For his Decree to do it, is no real Act of God distinct from his Essence; but it is his simple essential will denominated from the effect related to it. Therefore the Controversies about Election …re resolved into those about the giving of Grace …nd Salvation; and there will be clearlier ope…ed.
§. 5. Glorification, Perseverance, Adoption, …ustification, Sanctification, Faith and Repentance … or Vocation) preparatory common Grace, and …he Gospel, and other means of Conversion, are …everal Gifts of God's Grace through Christ: Therefore God's Decrees to give them may be …liversly denominated from relation to the effect. The Decree to glorifie may be distinguished from the Decree to convert, to justifie, …c. And yet where all these are really conjoined, and are but (as the parts of one Engine) the several gifts which make up One Salvation, as the object …or effect is in that sence One, so may God's Decree be called One, as related to it. So that they that say God's Decrees about our Salvation are many, and they that say They are one, do both speak Truth, and disagree not.
§. 6. They that will denominate God's Volitions or Decrees according to the Order of Intention, must not mean that Ex parte Volentis, God hath really many thoughts, Volitions or Decrees, and that the first is de fine, and the next de mediis. But only that in the order of real Causation, one of God's Gifts or Effects is made to be a Cause or Means to the production or attainment of another; and so the latter is to be Man's End intended in the use of the former; and so Man is first to intend the End before he useth the Means: But no Gift, Work or Creature is to be called God's End, except when we speak Vulgarly after the manner of Men, that which we will not defend as proper Speech.
§. 7. Yet God may be said to will and n… One thing to produce or Cause another; whic… importeth only that it is a second Efficient Caus… of that Other, and the other an intended Effect; and also that the other is to man to have ration… finis, and so may be called finis operis, & operan… secundarii.
§. 8. God is not an Efficient Cause of Himself, or any thing in Himself, and therefore not properly an End to Himself, because there is nothing in Him Caused. But if any will speak otherwise, as if there were in God himself Eternal Causatio… Efficient and final, and Eternal Effects, and thereby explain the Doctrine of the Trinity, let them remember that they venture on singular Expressions, and such as favor of Imperfection; but we hope that they differ from the Commoner way, but in a Logical Notion, rather than in a real Conception.
§. 9. If we may not say that God is his ow… End (for every End hath a Means, and there is no Means to God's Beings or Perfections) then he is not properly said to have any End. For nothing but Himself can properly be his End.
§. 10. Yet when by an End we mean but improperly the ultimate Effect, and not any thing which to God is Causa agendi; and so declare that we take the words End and Intention equivocally as to God and Man, the phrase may be used: And in that sence we must say that God's will as Efficient being the Beginning of all things, God's will as fulfilled and pleased is the End of all; which yet signifieth not any diversity or change in God; for his Will is always fulfilled, though not always by the same means: And the fulfilling of his will must …e our ultimate proper End.
§. 11. And because that the excellency of God's works is his own Image or Glory shining in them, and the Perfection of the whole Universe most ful…y containeth that Glory, therefore we may say that God's Glory is his End, and that as it is found in the perfection of the Universe, of which the Glorified Church is an eminent part.
§. 12. Therefore they that call the Glorifying of God's Mercy in Saving, and of his Iustice in Damning men, his End, and all that tendeth hereto the Means, do name a means, (and that not the highest) as the End: For the Glory of Mercy and justice is but part of God's created or caused Glory, and especially as it is on this or that Individual: But the perfection of Christ, Angels, Saints, Heaven, Earth, and all things, is that Glory which may be called materially God's End, as being his perfectest Effect; as the Complacency or fulfilling of his will, herein is the most formal notion of it. But God's Glory appeareth in every Creature and every providential change, in its proportion; and if any will call that God's End, we must not make a strife of words if we mean the same thing.
§. 13. According to this explained sence of Intention, the distributing of God's Decrees juxta ordinem intentionis, will make no considerable Controversie; but in the distribution of them juxta ordinem Executionis, we more commonly and easily agree: And it being but the divers denominations of God's simple will from the effects▪ it is from the Effects …ure that they are fitlyest distinguished.
§▪ 14. As to the controversies about the O… jects of God's Decrees, meaning the Personal o… subjective Object as distinct from the effects of the Volition (or the presupposed State of him that God Decreeth the gift to.) If we will distribute God's Decrees or Volitions as the parts or gifts decreed are distributed, then the question is all one, as, What State a man is supposed to be in when God gives him such or such a Gift; which is a thing that we are not much disagreed about.
§. 15. e. g. The Recipient of the Gift of Glory is a persevering faithful Saint. The Receiver of the Gift of Perseverance is a true Believing Saint: The Gift of Iustification, Adoption, and the Spirit of further Sanctification, is given to a penitent Believer: Faith and Repentance are given usually to persons prepared by a more common Grace, having the means of Grace, and for ought we know sometimes suddenly without such Preparation. And so on to the beginning.