testimony of the Spirit. Rev. xiii. 8; "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast, whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life." "Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you: but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." Luke x. 20.

Phil. iv. 3; "And I intreat thee also, true yoke-fellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life."

ARG, 4. If Jeremiah and Jacob, &c. were particular persons chosen and loved of God before they were born, then God did elect and choose particular persons to life and salvation; but Jeremiah and Jacob, &c. were particular persons, chosen and loved of God before they were born.

Therefore God did elect and choose particular persons to life and salvation.

That Jeremiah and Jacob, &c. were particular persons, no man of sense will deny; that they were beloved of God before the natural birth, the word of God is full and express, Jer. i. 5; xxxi. 3; Rom. ix. 11.

ARG. 5. If God knows his elect from all others, before he calls them in conversion, then hath God elected particular persons to life and

salvation.

But God knows his elect from all others, before he calls them in conversion.

Therefore God hath elected and chosen particular persons to life and salvation.

That God's precognition or foreknowledge, joined with his purpose of grace to save his elect, goes before his actually calling them in effectual conversion, is beyond dispute. Rom. viii. 29, 30. 2 Tim. ii. 19. John xiii. 18.

ARG. 6. If they who believe in time, were,. before their believing, ordained to eternal life, then did God elect and choose particular persons unto life and salvation.

But they who believe in time, were, before their believing, ordained to eternal life.

Therefore God hath elected and chosen particular persons unto life and salvation.

That God's pre-ordination of persons to life and salvation doth precede or go before believing and repentance, is plain from Acts xiii. 48; "And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Rom. xi; "The election hath obtained it." John x. 26; "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you." From which scriptures it is most plain, that none do or can, in time, believe and repent to salvation, but such persons as are theretofore appointed by God's gracious purpose.

ARG. 7. If the term, elect, doth signify and pre-suppose a calling or choosing some particular persons or things, out from among other persons

B

or things, then hath God out of so many elected some particular persons unto eternal salvation.

But the term, elect, doth signify and presuppose a calling or choosing some particular persons or things out from among other persons or things.

Therefore God hath, out of many, called and chosen some particular persons unto eternal life.

ARG. 8. If the Lord Jesus did lay down his life but for a certain particular number of sinners, then did God elect and choose a particular number to life and salvation.

But the Lord Jesus did lay down his life for a certain particular number of sinners.

Therefore God did elect and choose a particular number to life and salvation.

That the Lord Jesus did lay down his life for a certain particular number, is obvious and plain to him that can but read, John x. 15; "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep." With this accords that of Paul to Titus, chap. ii. 14. "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." Ephes. v. 25; "Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it," &c.

The sheep of whom Christ speaks can be understood to be no other but believers, even such as died in the faith before his incarnation, with the believers of that present day, and all who in time

to come were to believe in him: and these are the souls who were by the Father committed to the pastoral care and charge of Christ the great Shepherd of the sheep, as sheep are committed to the care and charge of an under shepherd.

For these Christ lays down his life: to these he, by his Spirit, actually applies the virtue of his death: over these he watches: and to these only, excluding all others, he gives eternal life.

That these were given to Christ by the Father to be redeemed and brought to glory, appears from John vi. 39.

"And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." John xvii. 6; "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me," &c. And verse 2, "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." Mark this, Reader! "To as many as thou hast given him." This plainly proves that God did commit to the care, and faithfulness of Christ his Shepherd, a certain particular number to be justified and saved by him; and therefore not all the race of fallen mankind, as Papists, Arminians, Quakers, Free-willers, &c. vainly teach and hold.

Another consideration, which is full of clearness, to convince and satisfy any right in their minds, that not Adam's posterity in general, as the heretics above named would fain have it, but

a certain particular and definite number wer elected and chosen by God, and by him given to Christ his Son, to be redeemed and saved; Christ's refusing to concern himself for any others, in the discharge of his office of intercessor, as appears from John xvii. 9. "I pray for them," that is, for the elect, for whom he had undertaken as vendemony and surety, "I pray not for the world," that is, those of the world who were by God left in a reprobate state and condition, as is evident from John xvii. 14. "I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; even as I am not of the world." Here are two distinct parties described by Christ, the one is prayed for, the other is not; the one is hated, the other hates; the very practice of the latter denotes the persons to be children of another father, distinct from those they hate. There is nothing more discovers men to be the children of the devil, than their hating righteousness, and not loving those who appear to be godly. 1 John iii. 10; "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."

As love to God, his truth, and such as bear his image, is an infallible character of an elect child of God, John xiii. 35. 1 John iii. 14. 1 John iv. 7.

So to hate God. his truth, and such as bear