Two Treatises, Treatise 1 · Section 5
SECTION. 5.
TO proceed: Theſe promiſes cōcerning the meanes depend on Gods election.theſe promiſes of the meanes, and of fulfilling the conditions in …s, depend upon Gods de…ree and Election, which is …ot conditionall, though …is word be. His order in …ecting us to life is not the …me which hee obſerveth … promiſing and giving …fe; He promiſeth it upon …ondition, and gives it not …ut upon performance of …ch Condition; But hee …uſt not therefore bee …ought to elect us conditionally, or upon the fore…ght of ſuch conditions …rought in us, or by us.Which his electiō is not conditionall.
To teach (which yet ſome teach) that God is ſo to be conceived to decree, as he doth execute his decree were to invert the order… things.
Indeed in the executi… and in the Goſpell, Armin. contra Iun. propoſit. 19he w… have no man to attaine … end without the mean… and without ſuch conditions as hee requireth, yea… he may and doth require… all; (which is one reaſ… why the promiſes are, … they ſhould bee, propo… ded in Scripture, Though his Word be.and … the Goſpell preached, generally and promiſcuou… to all in the Church;) a… God hath alſo ſo decre… to bring men to Salvatio… by ſuch meanes; But … this is not the whole a… entire decree of Go… which implies his predeſ… nation of certaine ſingular and definite perſons, who are knowne to God, and ſe…ered from others by the decree of his election, whereby he hath abſolutely and onelyonly according to …is owne counſell choſen …em to Salvation; unto which yet he (for the execution of his Decree) will …ring them by meanes, and by the obſervation of ſuch Conditions, as he will pro…ound and require in the Goſpell, on the perfor…ance of which hee promi…eth this ſalvation to all in …he Church, but worketh …hem onelyonly in his Elect. Concerning which Election we thus read: Mat 20.…6.Many are cal…ed, but few are choſen. And the foundation of God ſtandeth ſure, having this Seale, the Lord knoweth them that a… his; 2 Tim. 2.19 Rom. 11.5And ſo wee are told of Remnant according to the … lection of Grace.
Otherwiſe (if God Election were onelyonly conditionall) it might ſo fall ou… that all might bee reprob… ted, that his Church migh… faile on earth, yea an… Chriſt ſhould be no certai… Head, as having no certain… members aſſigned unt… him.
But God in the matter … our Salvation doth alſo u… his abſolute will in bringing his Elect to the end appointed, powerfully an… moſt infallibly.
Chriſt ſaith, Lu…e 12.32.it is you Fathers good pleaſure … give you a Kingdome; and you have not choſen me, b… J have choſen you.
This could not be true, Iohn 15, 16… Gods will were in this …aſe onelyonly conditionall. For …ough God in his word …romiſeth life and bleſſed…eſſe under condition of …aith and Holineſſe, yet he …ecrees nothing under any …oubtfull or uncertaine …ondition.
God in his word tells us …hat wee ſhould doe, and …ow wee may hope to at…ine to ſalvation, & to aſſu…ance of our Election; but … his decree he ſets downe …hat he himſelfe will doe, …ccording to which hee workes and effects that grace in his Elect, which he …equires of them (yea of …ll) leaving others in his …uſtice, to their owne hard…eſſe.