The divine will considered in its eternal decrees, and holy execution of them. By…

nec aliter persicit in opere, quàm in sua sempiterna & incommutabili voluntate habet dispositum.

4. My last Reason shall be taken from the grand Scope and Design of the Scriptures, which is to exalt God and abase the Creature. There God's glory is revealed, ⟨p. 70⟩and all flesh is but grass; there God is all in all, and all men are nothing; the willer and runner are nothing, and Gods mercy is all; the planter and waterer are nothing, and Gods giving the increase is all. There all men lie very low in a Dungeon of Darkness, Grave of Sin, and miserable Chains of Hardness and Unbelief; and God sits very high, and out of the sovereign Self-motion of his own Will, shines into one Heart and not into another; opens one Grave and not another; frees one spiritual Prisoner and not another. There Zions dust, I mean the Creature-weakness, and defectibility of the Church and all her inherent Graces, appear on the one hand, and the sureness of God's Mercy, and the everlasting immutability of his Love and Counsel shines forth on the other: and what's the meaning of all this, but to cut off boasting and stain pride, abase the Creature and exalt God? In nullo nobis gloriandum quando nostrum nihil est. But if (as the Remonstrants assert) Election be built on Faith and Perseverance, and this Faith and Perseverance be wrought by God in a superable way only, so as men may believe or not, or believing, may persevere or not; ⟨p. 71⟩then the Crown is plucked off from Free Grace and clapped upon Free Will; God is dethroned and man is exalted, and so may fall a boasting in some such language as that of Theophylact; 'Tis God's part to call, but mine to be elect or not; 'tis God's part to reveal Gospel, but mine either to believe and persevere, and so found the Decree of Election, or else not to believe and persevere, and so to impede it. And if, to silence such swelling words of vanity, God should put forth such astonishing questions to him about the Spiritual World, as he did to Job about the Natural, yet might man return an answer to his Maker. Should God ask, Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of my Church in my divine Decrees? when I laid the measures of her Graces in my Eternal purpose? Man may say, My Faith was there stretching out the Line, and fastening the Corner-stone of Election. Should he ask, Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Predestination, that it shall not cause a Spring of Faith and Holiness in my Church?