CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Argum. 1 And the first Argument shall be from Gods Election; Those whom God hath ordained from all Eternity to Everlasting Glory they shall never perish, but such who have true grace (though in the least degree) God hath thus predestinated and appointed to happiness; So that this Argument stands firmer then Heaven and Earth, for it's built on Gods Election, and it's good to observe how the cause of all good and preservation from a perishing condition, is reduced to this as the Original of all, Mar. 13.22. The false Apostles are there said to seduce if it were possible the very Elect, If it were possible, therefore the Elect can never be seduced into a perishing estate, if it be said, that Elect is to be taken adjectively for as much as good and precious, as the Septuagint sometimes useth the word, in which all Israel is sometimes called Gods Elect, Isa. 45.4. Isa. 65.9. This cannot stand, for in the same Chapter, v. 20. These Elect are said to be those whom God hath chosen, So that the word is not to be taken adjectively as denoting some inward excellency, but as a participle relating to Gods action. The Elect whom God hath chosen; If again it be said that the phrase (if it be possible) doth not denote an absolute impossibility, but a great difficulty, as in some other places it is used; Neither will this serve the Arminians turn, for though it be used so in some places, yet unless they can prove it's always used so, and therefore in this place, they do nothing; Now we say, that we are not to depart from the literal meaning, when there is no absurdity, yea, in this Text we are to stand to it, because it is brought in by way of aggravation of the deceitful ways of False Teachers, They were so insinuating, so specious, that had not the Elect a firmer ground then their own prudence and knowledge, viz. Gods Election, they would be undone, so that Grotius his illustrations in his Exposition on Mat. 24. from Galen, who useth ⟨p. 358⟩this Proverb to express a pertinacious adherent man to his Opinion; You may sooner unteach a man, Moses, and Christ, or out of Austin, when they can write in the water, &c. then they may persuade a Christian to forsake Christ, are but fair paintings to his deformity: