The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God…

It were improper for me, considering the scope of my Book, to enter upon this discourse, though this is the main pillar of our Christian Religion; if this go, all goes: it ⟨p. 157⟩is a mercy to weak Christians, that God keeps off Satan from troubling of them here: thousands go out of this world to Heaven, and never meet with one troubled thought about it: yet I fear this Doctrine spreads much, but it must be amongst those who never had the load of guilt and sin lye upon them, it will not easily down with those persons who have felt them: I shall say no more about it, only suggest to the Reader a notion or two which I have had; when I read that Text, John 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, &c. when God will set forth any of his Excellencies, his Attributes, they appear so glorious, that they swallow up, they confound the understanding of the Creature, it cannot reach them, they set him into amazement, and there leave him. If God will show forth his Power, his Wisdom, his Goodness, that God is so powerful, so wise, so good, he makes a world, and how are our understandings confounded, amazed, when we contemplate these Attributes, appearing in the Creature, they are indeed God-like: Would any man demand a demonstration of the patience and long-suffering of God? Let him but consider the horrid wickedness, Atheism, blasphemy, uncleanness, with all the abominations in England, and then tell me, if his patience and long-suffering be not God-like. So if God will set forth the Attribute of his Love in a gift, and put his so to it, that he so loved, that gift must be such a thing, that his Love therein demonstrated may be like his other Attributes, God-like, such as confound, amaze, swallow up the understanding, as do the other Attributes; for if the understanding can grasp it, it is but a mean pitiful business, not at all becoming a God, especially when he puts his so to it, so loved. Then let us view his gift, and see whether this gift demonstrates Love, to be God like, comparable to his other Attributes. The gift is an Only begotten Son: But what is that Son, God or man, or God-man in one Person? Why? He is but a man, flesh as we are, only his miraculous Conception of a Virgin, had not our sinful nature, he lived a holy life, and died to confirm ⟨p. 158⟩his Doctrine, and to show, that all who live as he did shall be happy as he is;