Reprobation asserted, or, The doctrine of eternal election & reprobation promiscuously handled in eleven…

The Fourth REASON.

Fourthly, God commandeth that the Tender of the Gospel, and the Grace thereof, be in general offered to all, that Means thereby might be sufficiently provided for the Elect, both to beget them to faith, and to maintain it in them to the end, in what place, or state, or condition soever they are. God, through the operation of his manifold Wisdom, hath an end and an end in his Acts and Doings amongst the Children of Men: And, so in that he commandeth that his Gospel be tendered to all, an end, I say, to leave the Damned without excuse, and to provide sufficiency of means for the gathering all his Elect. O that God would speak, saith Zophar, and open his mouth against thee, and show thee the secrets of Wisdom, that they are double to that which is. For though God worketh with and upon the Elect, otherwise then with and upon the Reprobate; yet he worketh with and upon the Elect, with and by the same Word he commandeth should be held forth and offered to the Reprobate. Now the Text thus running in most free and universal terms, the Elect then hearing thereof, do through the mighty Power of God close in with the Tenders therein held forth, and are saved. Thus that word that was offered to the reprobate Jews, and by them most fiercely rejected, even that word became yet effectual to the Chosen, and they were saved thereby. They gladly received the Word, and as many as were ordained to eternal Life, believed. Not as though the Word of God had taken none effect; God hath not cast away his People whom he fore-knew. The Word shall accomplish the thing for which God hath sent it, even the salvation of the few that are chosen, when tendered to all; though rejected by most, through the rebellion of their hearts. Ephes. 1. Job 11.5, 6. Act. 13.44