gether with you faluteth you. If. elected means Teparated from the reft of the world, and taken into God's vifible kingdom, then elected together with you must mean, converted at the fame time that you were to the profession of christianity. And then we must suppose, what is by no means probable, that the converfion of the church at Babylon, and of the numerous ftrangers fcattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Afia and Bithynia, was of the fame precife date.

Again we are exhorted, 2 Pet. i. 10. to give all diligence to make our calling and election fure. If election and vocation mean no more, than Dr. Taylor alledges, then Chriftians are there exhorted to make it fure that they profess christianity, for which purpose, one would think, no great diligence was requifite. That paffage must therefore mean, afcertaining by holiness of heart and life, that we have been elected to eternal happiness, and made meet for it by converting grace. Thus by the effects, the cause is certainly known, and by the ftreams we are led to the fountain. It was in this way that Paul tells the Theffalonians, 1 Theff. i. 4-10. he knew their election of God, even from the powerful influence of the gospel on their temper and conduct.

Election evidently means the eternal decree of God, to give grace and glory to a certain. number of mankind: Eph. i. 4. According as he hath chofen us in Chrift before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.. 2 Theff. ii. 13. God hath from the beginning chofen you to falvation, thro' fanctification of the fpirit and

belief of the truth. From the beginning does not mean from the first preaching of the gospel, but from eternity, in which fenfe the phrase is used, 1 John ii. 13. Mic. v. 1. For God's calling them by the gofpel is clearly diftinguished from this choofing them from the beginning, ver. 14.

2. In what fenfe Chriftians are called, I have explained, Section i. $ 3. From the paffage, 2 Pet. i. 10. cited above, we may learn, with how little ground the Doctor afferts (Key, ch. 6. § 79.) that called only means brought out of heathenifm, and invited and made welcome to the honours and privileges of God's people: and (note on Rom. viii. 28.) that effectual calling is a diftinction divines have invented without any warrant from fcripture. I would feek no better warrant, than the scripture to which that note is fubjoined. Does not the apoftle fay, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpofe? and is this true of all, who are brought out of heathenifm, and invited to the privileges of God's people? Indeed the end of the 8th chapter of the Romans is fo full against the Doctor's hypothesis, that his paraphrafe and notes upon it are a mafs of confufion; and after all the freedom he takes to fupply the text, it remains a plain contradiction to his favourite fyftem, that faints may finally perifh. He fays (note on Rom. viii. 28.) Whatever befalls us, fuppofe we love God, certainly concurs and tends, to compleat our falvation; and on ver. 29, 30. suppose that we love God, it is certain from our being called, that we shall be glorified with the Son of God. It is true, he infinuates in his paraphrafe on ver. 35. not very G

con

confiftently with thefe affertions, that Chriftians may lose this love to Chrift by not endeavouring fincerely to cleave to him in purity and obe dience.

We read Heb. ix. 15. of Chrift's dying, that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And Rom. viii. 30. speaks of a calling infallibly connected with glarification. "Moreover, whom he did predefti"nate, them he alfo called; and whom he "called, them he alfo juftified; and whom he

juftified, them he also glorified." Dr. Taylor indeed, artfully enough difguises that connection, by the turn he has given in his paraphrafe to the last clause. "Whom he purposed thus to justify, upon their due improvment of this

his grace to them, he purposed to give eter"nal life and glory." But, there is nothing in the text, answering to these words, "upon their "due improvement of his grace." He makes no fuch fupplement to any of the other clauses, as indeed, confiftently with his own scheme, he could not. The connection of justifying and glorifying, is expreffed in the very fame terms, as the connection of calling and juftification. Can then, the Doctor's fupplement to the laft claufe, flow from any thing, unless defire to varnish over a difficulty too hard for him to refolve?

It is faid, 1 Cor. i. 26. "Ye fee your calling, "brethren, how that not many wife men after "the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble "are called." The wife, the mighty, the noble, had the outward call of the gospel as well as the poor. The apoftle therefore fpeaks of an effectual calling, in virtue of which men be

come

come fincere Chriftians, and of which at that time, few in high life were fharers.

§3. Adoption and regeneration are privileges abfolutely connected with eternal life, Rom. viii. 17. If children, then heirs. What they are heirs of, the fcripture abundantly declares. They are heirs according to the promise, Gal. iii. 29. Heirs of promife, Heb. vi. 17. i. e. of every bleffing contained in the promife, which God at first made to fallen man, and has fince confirmed by his oath. Heirs of falvation, Heb. i. 14. Heirs of the grace of life, 1 Pet. iii. 9. Heirs according to the hope of eternal life, Tit. iii. 7. Heirs of righteousness, Heb. xi. 7. Heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised, Ja. ii. 6. and as immediately follows, Rom. viii. 17. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

Chriftians are reprefented, I Pet. i. 3, 4. as begotten again unto a lively hope, by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

But John's first epiftle contains the fulleft and plaineft proofs, that only perfons of true piety are born of God, and that all fuch fhall finally perfevere. Thus iii. 9, 10. " Whofoever is born "of God doth not commit fin, for his feed re "maineth in him, and he cannot fin, because he " is born of God. In this the children of God "are manifeft, and the children of the devil. Who"foever doeth not righteoufnefs, is not of God, "neither he that loveth not his brother." v. 4. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the "world; and this is the victory that overcometh "the world, even our faith." Ib. v.18." We know, "that whofoever is born of God finneth not: but

"he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and "that wicked one toucheth him not." iii. 2.“ Be"loved, now are we the fons of God, and it doth ❝ not yet appear what we shall be but we know, "that when he fhall appear, we shall be like him, "for we shall fee him as he is." The truth is, the whole of that epistle seems in the directest manner calculated to thwart Dr. Taylor's scheme. And one would think a perfon of the meanest understanding, who has read it, would scarce have the confidence to affert, as that able critic does, c. 12. $236. that the apoftles with one confent, affign the bleffings of election, adoption, regeneration, &c. to all profeffed Chriftians without exception, never raifing any fcruple or difficulty about any Chriftian's intereft in or right to them, no not in the cafe of finning a fin, except that of apoftacy. However, it must be owned he has managed this difficulty with abundance of addrefs. And, if you allow him a liberty, which he has unjustly accufed the Calvinift divines for taking in the cafe of effectual calling, that, I mean, of feigning unfcriptural diftinctions, his fcheme is fafe, fpite of St. John, by a notable discovery, that men may be born of God in a lefs, and in a more eminent fenfe, ch. 11. $219. For, if you infert in John's epiftle born of God in the most eminent fenfe, then, confiftently enough with that apoftle, men of bad characters, and who fhall finally perish, may be born of God in the lefs eminent fenfe, to which the reft of the apostles, when they speak of adoption refer; certainly, it is fo. And that man muft have a wretched genius, who if allowed to add words and fentences to the bible, cannot bring it with eafe to speak what language is most agreeable to