A treatise of effectual calling and election. In XVI. sermons, on 2 Pet. 1.10…

To which I answer. That poor here is only spoken of, ¹as the quality of the persons that are chosen, not as the cause wherefore they are chosen. And this answer Mr. Perkins gives: that poverty is not the cause why, but the description of the persons that are chosen; that Gods decree of election doth commonly run among the poorer sort of men, the more to advance his own grace; that man shall not say, election is entailed upon works: for if poverty should be the cause of their election, then all that are poor should be elected, which is false. Again further they object,

To which I answer. That poore here is onely spoken of, ¹as the quality of the persons that are chosen, not as the cause wherefore they are chosen. And this answer Mr. Perkins gives: that poverty is not the cause why, but the description of the persons that are chosen; that Gods decree of election doth commonly runne among the poorer sort of men, the more to advance his own grace; that man shall not say, election is intailed upon works: for if poverty should be the cause of their election, then all that are poore should be elected, which is false. Again further they object,

1. 1Dins elegit sideles us si•t non quia jam •rant. Aug. l. de praedest.

2 Thes. 2.13. God from the beginning hath chosen us to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. Now say they, sanctification, and faith is made as the channel, through which election must run, and therefore that is the cause or motive why God did elect them. To this we answer.