Chapter 8. Election

For that same Eternal God and Father, who of mere grace elected us in Christ Jesus his Son, before the foundation of the world was laid,³¹³¹Eph. 1:11; Matt. 25:34. appointed him to be our Head,³²³²Eph. 1:22-23. our Brother,³³³³Heb. 2:7-8, 11-12; Ps. 22:22. our Pastor, and great Bishop of our souls.³⁴³⁴Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:24; 5:4. But because that the enmity betwixt the justice of God and our sins was such that no flesh by itself could or might have attained unto God,³⁵³⁵Ps. 130:3; 143:2. it behoved that the Son of God should descend unto us, and take himself a body of our body, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, and so become the perfect Mediator betwixt God and man;³⁶³⁶1 Tim. 2:5. giving power to so many as believe in him to be the sons of God,³⁷³⁷John 1:12. as himself does witness: I pass up to my Father and unto your Father, to my God, and unto your God.³⁸³⁸John 20:17. By which most holy fraternity, whatsoever we have lost in Adam is restored to us again.³⁹³⁹Rom. 5:17-19. And for this cause are we not afraid to call God our Father,⁴⁰⁴⁰Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5-6. not so much that [because] he has created us (which we have common with the reprobate),⁴¹⁴¹Acts 17:26. as for that he has given to us his only Son to be our brother,⁴²⁴²Heb. 2:11-12. and given unto us grace to acknowledge and embrace him for our only Mediator, as before is said.

It behoved further the Messiah and Redeemer to be very God and very Man, because he was to underlie the punishment due for our transgressions, and to present himself in the presence of his Father's judgments, as in our person, to suffer for our transgression and disobedience,⁴³⁴³1 Pet. 3:18; Isa. 53:8. by death, to overcome him that was author of death. But because the only Godhead could not suffer death,⁴⁴⁴⁴Acts 2:24. neither yet could the only manhead overcome the same, he joined both together in one person, that the imbecility [weakness] of the one should suffer, and be subject to death (which we had deserved), and the infinite and invincible power of the other (to wit, of the Godhead) should triumph and purchase to us life, liberty, and perpetual victory.⁴⁵⁴⁵John 1:2.; Acts 20:20; 1 Tim. 3:16; John 3:16 And so we confess, and most undoubtedly believe.