Election.—Cap. VIII.

For that same Eternal God, and Father, who of mere mercy elected us in Christ Jesus, His Son, before the foundation of the world was laid, appointed Him to be our Head, our Brother, our Pastor, and great Bishop of our souls. 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, 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; giving power to so many as believe in Him to be the sons of God, as He Himself does witness: "I pass up to my Father and unto your Father, to my God and unto your God." By this most holy fraternity, whatsoever we have lost in Adam346 is restored to us again. And for this cause are we not afraid to call God our Father, not so much because He hath created us, which we have in common with the reprobate, as for that He has given to us His only Son to be our Brother, and given unto us grace to [acknowledge and] embrace Him for our only Mediator, as before is said. It behoved further, the Messias 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 judgment, as in our person to suffer for our transgression and inobedience, by death to overcome him that was author of death. But because the only Godhead could not suffer death, neither could the only Manhood overcome the same; He joined both together in one person, that the imbecility 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 procure for us life, liberty, and perpetual victory. And so we confess, and most undoubtedly believe.