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THE

OECONOMY

OF THE

COVENANTS

BETWEEN

GOD AND MAN.

COMPREHENDING

A Complete Body of Divinity.

By HERMAN WITSIUS, D. D.
Profeffor of Divinity in the Universities of Franeker, Utrecht,
and Leyden; and alfo Regent of the Divinity College of
the States of Holland and Weft-Friefland.

Faithfully tranflated from the LATIN, and carefully
revised,

By WILLIAM CROOKSHANK, D. D.

To which is prefixed,

The LIFE of the AUTHOR.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

Printed for EDWARD DILLY, in the Poultry.

M DCC LXIII.

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THE

OECONOMY

OF THE

Divine Covenants.

I.

W

BOOK III.

CHA P. IV.
Of Election.

E are now firft of all to confider those be- The benenefits, which belong to the covenant of fits of the grace, taken abfolutely and in itself, and covenant of grace. therefore common to all thofe in covenant, under what oeconomy foever : which we enumerate in the following order: 1. Election. 2. Effectual calling to the communion of Chrift. 3. Regeneration. 4. Faith. 5. Juftification. 6. Spiritual Peace. 7. Adoption. 8. The Spirit of Adoption. 9.. Sanctification. 10. Confervation, or prefervation. II. Glorification. The devout meditation of all these things cannot fail to be glorious to God, agreeable, delightful and falutary to ourselves. A

VOL. II.

II. The

Election

both of

Chrift and

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II. The beginning and first fource of all grace is ELECTION, both of CHRIST THE SAVIOUR and of of thofe to thofe to be faved by him. For even Chrifl was chofen be faved. of God, and, by an eternal and immutable decree, given to be our Saviour; and therefore is faid to be foreordained before the foundation of the world, Pet. I. 20. And they, whom Chrift was to fave, were given to him by the fame decree. John, 17. 6, They are therefore faid to be chofen in Cbrift, Eph. 1. 4. That is, not only by Christ as God, and confequently the elector of them; but also in Christ as Mediator, and on that account the elected who, by one and the fame act, was given to them to be their head and lord, and at the fame time they were given to him to be his members and property, to be faved by his merit and power, and to enjoy communion with him. And therefore the book of election is called The book of life of the Lamb, Rev. 13. 8. Not only because life is to be obtained in virtue of the lamb flain, but alfo, becaufe the lamb takes up the firft page of that book, is the head of the reft of the Elect, the first born among many brethren and jointbeirs with him. Rom. 8. 29, 17. But we before treated of this election of Chrift the Mediator, book II. chap. III. fect. VIII. and now we are to fpeak of the Election of those to be faved.

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Election III. We thus defcribe it: ELECTION is the eternal, defcribed, free and immutable counsel of God, about revealing the glory of his grace, in the eternal falvation of fome certain perfons. Most of the parts of this description are in thefe words of the Apostle, Eph. 1. 4, 5, 6, accord ing as he bath chofen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adop tion of children, by Jefus Christ to himself, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein be bath made us accepted in the beloved.

Election,

IV. We call Election, the counsel of God, by which why cal- term we mean that, which is commonly called decounfel. cree; Paul on this fubject calls it is the purpose

led a

of

of God. This term appears very familiar to the Apostle, which he very frequéntly makes use of, and denotes a fure, firm, and fixed decree of God, which he can never repent of, and which depends on nothing out of himself, but is founded only in his good-pleasure. All this is intimated, 2 Tim. 1. 9, who bath faved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. To this purpose alfo, Eph. 1. II, we are predestinated according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. And elsewhere the fame Apostle alfo fpeaks of goder the purpose of Election, Rom. 8. 28, who are called according to his purpose, and Rom. 9. 11, the purpose of God according to Election. And thus we diftinguish this internal election, and of counsel, from the external and of fact, which fignifies the actual feparation of believers from unbelievers, by effectual calling. In this fenfe the Lord Jefus faid to his Apoftles John, 15. 19, but I have chofen you out of the world, therefore the world bateth you. But the eternal and internal decree of God could not be the cause of this hatred, but only as it discovered itself by the event, and by the actual feparation of the Apoftles from the world. To this we may alfo, it seems, apply, what the Apostle writes, 1 Cor. 1. 26, 27, ye fee your calling, brethren, bow that not many wife men, &c. But God bath chofen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wife, &c. Where he feems to take calling and election for the fame thing. Nor does this internal Election and of counsel, differ from the external and of fact, but only in this, that the last is the demonftration and execution of the first.

V. It is likewife clear, that we are not here fpeak- Election ing of an Election to any political or ecclefiaftical dig. to grace nity, i Sam. 10. 24, and John 9. 70, nor even to the andglory. priviledge of an external covenant with God; in the

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manner that God chofe all the people of Ifrael,

VOL. II.

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