exact and distinct knowledge of God. And because, in other respects, God knows all things by one intuitive view of his understanding, this very book is mentioned in the singular number: A book of remembrance was written before him.* 3. There is also the book of life; and it is threefold. (1.) Of this natural life, of which Moses speaks, Exod. xxxii. 32, Where en

treating the face of the Lord, who had said, he would consume Israel in the wilderness, and make Moses himself a great nation, he prays, that God would preserve his people, and bring them into the inheritance of the land of Canaan, offering himself, at the same, time, instead of the people: Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. As if he had said, “I accept not the condition offered of preserving me among the living, and increasing me greatly after the destruction of Israel; I chuse rather to die by an untimely death, than that Israel should be destroyed in the wilderness." (2.) Of a federal and ecclesiastical life, consisting in communion with the people of God. Which is the register, not only of those internally, but of those externally in covenant, mentioned Ezek. xiii. 9. They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel. And Psal. lxxxvii. 6. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. (3.) Of life eternal, mentioned Is. iv. 3. Dan. xii. 1. Phil. iv. 34 Luke x. 20. Rev. iii. 5. xiii. 8. xx. 12, & xxi. 27. ; which book signifies the register of those predestinated to life eternal.

VII. Further, as the book of God does not always denote one and the same thing; so the writing of per

* Mal. iii, 16,

sons in any of these is not always the same. Some writing is only imaginary, consisting in a fallacious judgment concerning ourselves or others, too easily presuming either our own, or the election of others; such as was that of those who cried out,* The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord' are these: and of the people of Sardis, who were said to live, though they were really dead. There is another inscription which is indeed true, but it is only human, in the book of federal life, done either by the man himself, by a profession of the faith, subscribing as with his own hand, I am the Lord's, or by the guides of the church, inserting such a person in the list of professors, and acknowledging him for a member of the church, of the visible at least. There is, in fine, a writing of God himself, made by his eternal and immutable decree; of which the apostle says, The Lord knoweth them that are his. The observation of these things, throws much light on many places of scripture, and will immediately prove also of use to us.

VIII. This election to glory, is not some general decree of God about saving the faithful and the godly who persevere in their faith and piety to the end of their life; but a particular designation of certain individual persons, whom God has inrolled as heirs of salvation. It is not consistent with the perfection of God, to ascribe to him general and indeterminate decrees, which were to receive any determination or certainty from men. We read indeed|| of the determinate counsel of God, but never of a general and indeterminate decree. And then the scripture never describes election, as_the_determination of any certain condition, by

* Jer. vii. 4. † Rev. iii. 1. Is. xlv. 3. § 2 Tim. ii. 19. || Acts ii. 23.

and without which salvation is, or is not obtained. It is no where said, that faith is chosen by God, or written down in the book of life, or any thing like that; but that men indeed are chosen by God. Let us refer to Rom. viii. 29, 30. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.-Whom he did predestinate, them he also called, &c. It is not said in the text, persons so qualified, that it might be applied to the designation of any condition; but certain persons are appointed as the objects of the acts there mentioned.

IX. The very term PROORIZEIN, to predestinate, which the apostle more frequently uses on this subject, does not obscurely discover this truth. For as HORIZEIN signifies to point out or ordain a certain person (Acts xvii. 31. by that man, whom HORISE, he hath ordained, and pointed out by names and Acts x. 42. HO HORISMENOS, which was ordained of God to be the judge; and Rom. i. 4. HORISTHENTOS HUIOU THEov, declared to be [determinately marked out as] the Son of God, who was by name and particularly declared to be so by God, by a public appellation, so PROORIZEIN, as applied to the heirs of eternal life, must signify to inrol, or write down some certain persons as heirs, in the eternal testament.

X. This is what Christ said to his disciples, Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.* Where he speaks to them by name, and assures them of their election, and bids them rejoice on that account. Which is certainly of much greater import, than if he had said in general, "Rejoice, because God has established, by an eternal decree, that he would make all believers happy in heaven, though he has thought nothing of you by name:" in which manner, according

* Luke x. 20.

to the opinion of our adversaries, these words were to be explained.

XI. What the apostle* expressly asserts concerning Clement and his other fellow-labourers, that their names were in the book of life, ought to be sufficient for determining this inquiry: which impudence itself dares not wrest to a general decree of some condition. For, 1. The name of a person is one thing, the condition of a thing, another. He who only determines in general to inlist none but valiant men for soldiers, does not write down the names of some soldiers in the roll. 2. The condition of salvation is but one; but the scripture always speaks in the plural number of the names written in the book of life. Therefore the writing down of the names is one thing, the determination of some condition another. 3. It is certain, that the apostle, and other sacred writers, when they say, that some men, or the names of some, are written in the book of life, do always, by that very thing, distinguish them from others, who are not inserted. But, according to the opinion of our adversaries, the appointment of this condition imports no actual distinction between Because, notwithstanding that decree about saving those who believe in and obey Christ, it may possible, according to their principles, that none should believe, obey, or be saved. 4. All these things will be more cogent, if we attend to the original of thist metaphorical expression. The similitude is taken from a genealogical catalogue or register, especially among the people of God; in which the names of every particular person belonging to any family, was written; and according to which catalogue, at the time of the jubi lee, or other solemnity, when the paternal inheritance was restored to any family, every one was either ad

men.

Phil. iv. 3.

be

mitted or rejected, according as his name was, or was not found there. We have an example of this, Ezra ii. 61, 62. when after the Babylonish captivity the posterity of Habaiah, Koz, and Brazillai, not being able to prove their descent by the genealogical registers, were put from the priesthood. In the same manner, the book of life contains the names of those who belong to the family of God; in which he who is not written, whatever he may presume or pretend, will be deprived of the inheritance.

XII. To conclude, I would ask our adversaries, when the apostle says, The Lord knoweth them that are his ;* and the Lord Jesus, I know whom I have chosent whether there is nothing ascribed to God or to Christ, in these words, but what the least in the school of Christ knows, that they who believe in and obey Christ, are the peculiar property of God and of Christ ? Has not that language some grander sound, and does it not intimate, that God has the exactest account of all in whom he will be glorified, as his peculiar people? We yield to what our adversaries declare in Compend. Socin. c. 4. § 1. "Admitting the infallible prescience of all future things, Calvin's doctrine of the predestination of some by name to life, of others to death, cannot be refuted." But that prescience of God has as many witnesses, as he has constituted prophets. It is a settled point therefore, that election is a designation of some certain persons.

XIII. This designation was made from eternity; as were all the counsels of God in general: for known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the worid.‡ Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.§ And all the forcknowledge of future things is founded * 2 Tim. ii. 19. † John xiii. 18. Acts xv. 18. § Eph. i. 11. VOL. II.

B