An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

Christ in his Love doth ⟨p. 247⟩something to the Quickening and Conversion of men, and something to the sanctifying and establishing of them: This Last I suppose the Author allows not, for he tells us, That he loves them while they continue good, and hates them when they return to their old vices; But this is much after the rate of the Remonstrants, who tell us, That as soon as men believe, there is a kind of incomplete Election, such as rises and falls with their Faith; and when they arrive at the full point of Perseverance, it becomes complete and peremptory: The Divine Will, according to them, must be successive and make its progress from an incomplete Election to a complete one, and in its passage to that Completure, it must all the way vary and turn about to every point as the fickle Will of Man doth; that standing, there is an Election, that falling, there is none; and so toties quoties, as often as it pleases man to show himself variable, Election will be something or nothing as it happens. This Opinion doth not ascribe Eyes and Hands to God, as the gross Anthropomorphites did, but it assimilates him to the filly turnings and windings of the Creature. But to speak more directly to the Author; ⟨p. 248⟩God's electing Love antecedes all Goodness in in Men; and if his elect Vessels fall into great sins, as holy David did, and this after their Conversion, however the Light of God's Countenance be for a time suspended, however their habitual Graces be weakened, and their Consciences wounded, yet the Foundation of God stands sure; electing Love remains unvariable, and will revive them again by Repentance. When God elected a People to himself, he did not, as Mr. Shaw speaks in allusion to the words of the Apostle, use lightness, or purpose according to the flesh, after the manner of men, unsteady and wavering in their determinations; no, the foundation of God standeth sure, the Lord knoweth those that are his.

Christ in his Love doth ⟨p. 247⟩something to the Quickning and Conversion of men, and something to the sanctifying and establishing of them: This Last I suppose the Author allows not, for he tells us, That he loves them while they continue good, and hates them when they return to their old vices; But this is much after the rate of the Remonstrants, who tell us, That as soon as men believe, there is a kind of incomplete Election, such as rises and falls with their Faith; and when they arrive at the full point of Perseverance, it becomes complete and peremptory: The Divine Will, according to them, must be successive and make its progress from an incomplete Election to a complete one, and in its passage to that Completure, it must all the way vary and turn about to every point as the fickle Will of Man doth; that standing, there is an Election, that falling, there is none; and so toties quoties, as often as it pleases man to shew himself variable, Election will be something or nothing as it happens. This Opinion doth not ascribe Eyes and Hands to God, as the gross Anthropomorphites did, but it assimilates him to the filly turnings and windings of the Creature. But to speak more directly to the Author;