-- CHAPTER I: The grace of electing us simply considered
that they may be made perfect in one,' is their happiness in solido, wherein the substance thereof consists. If of that single soul Christ had said, 'Father, I will that this soul also whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, that it may behold my glory which thou hast given me,' this soul would have been perfectly happy. Have you had experience at any time, any of you—I do not say you have not grace, if you have not had it—of that in John 14:21, 'My Father will love him, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him,' i. e. have you had the Father telling you he loves you? And then again, have you had the Son saying to your poor souls, how he loves you, and manifesting himself, and his heart unto you? And have you had the Holy Ghost communicating himself in like manner; and this vouchsafed here in this life, in some short converses of each of these persons with your souls, which are but imperfect manifestations of them to us in this life? Oh what sweetness will there one day be then in heaven, in the fulness of converse and manifestation of these three persons, when it will be, if not all, yet the great discourse that I will be had and heard in heaven with your poor souls, by all the three persons, bringing all the delights they have had in you from eternity down into your hearts, and making discoveries of them to eternity.
BOOK III The infinity of grace in God's choosing us, proved from the nature of election, both simply considered in itself, and also compared with that other act of reprobation.
CHAPTER I
The grace of electing us simply considered, and the greatness of it proved from the greatness of the benefit.
I. LET us consider, it is 'the election' only. Critics will put upon it a metonymy in rhetoric, as the creation for the creatures; but in God's book and rhetoric it speaks and denotes a grandness put upon the persons chosen. To such, ELECT is the greatest word can be asked of us. One of Christ's most eminent titles, Isa. 40:1, 'mine elect'
(speaking of Christ); and even the Pharisees, apprehending that the Messiah should be some eminently eminent person, expressed it by this, 'The Christ whom God hath chosen,' Luke 23:35.
II. Let us consider, Who hath chosen? God: 1 Thes. 1:5, 'Knowing your election of God.' In all choices the person choosing puts a value on the chosen, and upon the act. To be made choice of by a king unto such an office-employment, or by a whole state that are wise and honourable; how doth it dignify a man! It is one of Titus's commendations: 2 Cor. 8:19, 'who was also chosen of the churches,'
&c.; but that the great God, the blessed and only potentate, the only wise God, who hath glory, immortality, majesty, and dominion, and power, should choose so poor, contemptible, weak, and foolish a thing as thou art: 1 Cor. 1:26, 27, 'For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.' And as the emphasis is put upon Christ's choice, 'the Christ whom God hath chosen,' so it is put upon ours also, 'the elect whom God hath chosen,' Mark 13:20.
III. And these two put together: 1, elect, or chosen; and then, 2dly, 'whom God chose.' And it speaks, 1, all worth, honour, and excellency: the chosen of God must needs be choice, it makes them such. If elect, then precious, 1 Pet. 2. So of Christ; then again of us.
Take God's eminent saints, what is their highest title and honour?
'Moses the chosen of God,' Ps. 106:3; 'Aaron the chosen of God,' Ps.
105:16; 'Paul a chosen vessel,' Acts 9:15; 'Ye are a chosen generation,
a peculiar people,' 1 Pet. 2:9, that is, elect. He had begun his epistle with, 'To the elect,' &c., chap. 1:2; and that phrase, λάος ἐις περιποίησιν, as the rest there mentioned, is taken out of Exodus 5, where it is 'a peculiar treasure to me,' says God, 'above all people.' It imports all that is dear and precious to God: Isa. 43:4, 'Since thou wert precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable;' that is, since I have chosen thee, and loved thee, as it follows, and thereby becamest precious in my eyes, that hast been, and art, and shall be honourable in mine, so in all the whole creation's esteem; this did put the preciousness. Men's choosings are out of whom they find the choicest: 1 Chron. 19:10, 'Joab chose out of all the choice of Israel;' but God's choosing makes them choice.
2. It speaks all blessedness, and the fulness of it. 'Blessed is the man whom thou choosest,' Ps. 65:4; 'yea, he is most blessed,' Ps. 21, or, as the Hebrew hath it, 'set for blessings,' set apart, and appointed for blessings. 'He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in things heavenly, according as he hath chosen us,' &c. It is the womb, the treasury fountain of all blessedness.
3. Let us consider unto what he hath chosen us: unto the nearest approach to God, that is, to the highest communion with himself; and that is founded on his choosing us to the nearest union with himself.
4. Let us consider the time since when he chose us. Of old; of old, even from everlasting were we ordained unto this salvation. Paul dates it from the beginning, 2 Thes. 2:13. God hath loved us ever since he was God, and whilst he is God he will continue to do so. The eldest date of his being God is from everlasting, and his continuing to be God is to everlasting: Ps. 90:2, 'Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world: even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.' And his love to us is as old: Jer. 31:3, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love;' and Ps. 103:17, 'The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.'
And as it is a love as ancient as God himself,—he hath loved thee ever
since he was God,—so it is a love that hath fixedly continued ever since eternity; it hath been constant ever since the very time God chose us, even unto the moment of our being called. This I take to be the genuine aim of Jer. 31:3, 'The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.' The true aim or sense of that Scripture lies in this: it is a true dialogue between God and his church;* God had begun, ver. 2, 'Thus saith the Lord,
The people which were left of the sword, found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.' The church now in desertion interposeth her complaint and scruple, 'The Lord hath indeed appeared of old unto me;' that is, in former ages, which is a concession to God's speech in the foregoing verse, what he had been to her of old. 'The people in the wilderness found grace,' &c.
True, say [they], the Lord hath appeared in former times: Oh, but now, what answer doth God return to this? 'Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.' (The word saying is not in the original, and its being put in hath marred the scope.) As if he had said to her,
Again dost thou speak of my appearances of old to thee, and as if now I had left thee? Yea, my love is of an ancienter date by far, than my appearances unto thee, which thou sayest are of old; i. e. those appearances you speak of were but a thousand years ago in the wilderness, &c., but my love in my heart to thee hath been from everlasting, &c. Everlasting is opposed to old; hidden love, unknown love from everlasting, unto appearances. It hath suffered no ellipsis, no interruption, no pauses between; to ratify which, God sets his great yea, or his amen. 'Yea (says he), I have loved thee with an everlasting love;' which to be all one, that of the apostle shews, 2 Cor.
1:20, 'All the promises of God are yea and amen.' It is a great yea this; and set to the greatest thing that ever God did concerning us, which you may see how himself accounts of by it; and it comes in the way of a most punctual answer unto the greatest doubts and thoughts his people use to harbour. And further, besides his own yea or asseveration, he gives this evidence that he had borne such a continued love unto them: 'Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee,' ver. 2. Now consider, what should it be that moved me so to do, when you had nothing but enmity in you against me?