followeth not, that therefore we are justified in Christ before we believe. I acknowledge some eminent Divines have pressed this comparison; but there is a vast difference in this very act of imputation, and the ground of it: for supposing the Covenant at first made with Adam, all his posterity by a naturall way are involved in his guilt, and so whether they will or no, antece∣dently to their own acts they are obnoxious to this guilt. Hence all men (none excepted) that are propagated in a natural way are thus corrupted, but in Christ we are by a supernatural way, and none are made his, but such as beleeve in him; and he doth not represent any to God as his members, till they be incorpo∣rated into him by faith, which faith although it be a gift of God, yet by it we are enabled voluntarily to choose and embrace Christ. Many other differences there are, but I pitch on this on∣ly, as being fully to my purpose in hand. If therefore we were in Christ by a natural way, as we are in Adam, then antecedent∣ly to any thing wrought in us, we might be partakers of privi∣ledges by one, as we are of curses by another.LECTURE XXII.MAT. 6.12.And forgive us our Debts.WE proceed to the remaining arguments, which would maintain a justification before faith.Arg. 7.The next is from Gods election, thus, All the elect of God are justified before God. But some of the elect do not beleeve. And the major is proved from, Rom. 8.33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth.Ans. 1.In the first place this Argument might easily be laid aside, for the Apostle doth not speak here of election, antecedentèr, ante∣cedently 0