Universal redemption of mankind, by the Lord Jesus Christ stated and cleared by the…

The Antecedent is proved thus, There is no other sign without this love and gratitude which is sufficient to discover a Man to be Elect; Therefore no Man can know himself to be elect (by ordinary means) without the knowledge of these.

The Antecedent is proved thus, There is no other sign without this love and gratitude which is sufficient to discover a Man to be Elect; Therefore no Man can know himself to be elect (by ordinary means) without the knowledg of these.

Two things will be replied, to this. 1. That Faith is before love and gratitude, and a sufficient sign. 2. That it may be known without signs by the Testimony of the Spirit.

To these in order. And 1. For Faith, as it is in the will and is the acceptance of an offered Christ, is the same thing with love, as love is in the rational appetite, as I have elsewhere fully proved; & Aquinas oft expresseth this love to be but veil bonum. 2. If love be distinct (as it is exercised on the same object, for else there's no question of it) Yet it is certain that it is concomitant, and doth not in one moment of time come after Faith: Much less so long as that a Man must first by reflection discern his Faith before he be obliged to love. 3. Faith is no true Faith that is not accompanied with love, and a false faith can be no true sign of Election, as is said before. The Acts of Justifying Faith in the Will are principally these two. 1. To accept of Christ as he is offered; Now he is offered as a Redeemer, i. e. 1. As one that for the time past hath paid the price of our Redemption. 2. And for the time to come will give us the benefits of it, on his own terms. Now Christ cannot be received as a Redeemer, without respect to both. He that receiveth him to pardon and save him any other way then by the price of his Blood already shed, doth not receive ⟨p. 160⟩