-- CHAPTER IV: Of the common condition of the elect, and rejected, in the fallen estate of mankind
make, nor will make, but could have done. The like out of the Baptist's speech: Luke 3:8, 'I say to you, God is able, out of these stones, to raise children unto Abraham.'
CHAPTER IV
Of the common condition of the elect, and rejected, in the fallen estate of mankind.—The infinity of grace toward the elect, magnified by the consideration of their being segregated out of that general corrupt mass, wherein they lay equally with others.—God's infinite grace in choosing us also discovered by the vast disproportion of number between the elect and the rest.
We have seen what that act of election without and afore the consideration of the fall doth afford.
Let us now descend unto what the prospect of man's condition, as it lay also afore God, and was disposed of by him, considered as fallen, will in the like comparative way contribute to this argument. And this the Scriptures do more enlarge upon, as that which doth far above the former magnify the glory of electing grace, and by so much more as the evil of sin man is fallen into, and the misery thereby, doth exceed a state of mere nothing, or of no being at all, or but mere possibility of being. And here also that query of the apostle hath its most eminent lustre, 'Who made thee to differ?' 1 Cor. 4:7. God. And what in God? Election: 'The election obtained it, and the rest were blinded.'
And it is this comparison between elect and the rest after the fall, it is the condition wherein the one or other are found in after the fall, which is the chief and principal to enhance this discriminating or differencing grace, although the comparison of number will follow us in this too.
Now the view of the conditions of men after the fall, are reduced to two heads.
1. The common alike universal condition, by and through the fall of Adam, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, as the apostle declares. Or, 2. The several and more particular conditions amongst mankind upon the fall, in their variety: as, for instance, several sizes and degrees of actual sin and other circumstances, which men elect, with the rest, stand in, and were thereto foreseen and disposed of by God, so to fall out, when he then chose us through the means of salvation, all and each of which do tend to magnify this election grace.
1. The common, universal, and alike condition of man fallen. And to set forth the greatness of this grace and mercy, is the full and set scope of the apostle in Eph. 2:1, 2, where, speaking of their calling
(which is the looking-glass of election), he presents them alike 'dead in sins and trespasses,' as the whole bulk and body of mankind were in, and these elect ones, chap. 1, together with them: 'We,' says he,
'even as others,' that is his comparative, as it is mine here, and those others were of such as God eternally left in that condition, passing by them, and leaving them even as he found them: and by this he heightens the grace, love, and mercy God had borne to them as the cause of all this: ver. 4, 'According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love;' and he concludes thereupon, 'by grace you are saved,' ver. 5, an infinite grace, manifested by this common condition of us with others. And although these things are spoken of them, of what they were at and afore the time of their calling, and in their unregenerate condition, yet this act of election we are now upon, that had man fallen for its object, and the common condition thereof, did take men, and viewed as at and afore calling them, they are found to be in. And of this act the rule certainly holds, that look what a calling God found us to be, in that election viewed us, which that passage,—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 which are mighty,'—evidently shews.
Those words 'but God hath chosen,' &c. come in as an explanation or confirmation of the former words, 'You see your calling;' as if he had said, Look what those were whom calling singles out, and what they are after calling in paucity; the same they were, therefore, for their conditions, whom God chose, and in his view such to be.
2. And here let us now add to the consideration of this common condition the infinite number of those others whom God hath laid aside in this fallen condition, in comparison of so very a few, who, together with thyself, were elected out of them, which the event doth manifestly declare the multitude of those left, and the paucity, or fewness, of those whom God sets his heart upon; and unto what a stupendous infinity will this enhance the grace of that election towards those few. 'Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved,' and that remnant is that of election: Rom. 11:5, 'A remnant according to the election of grace.' A remnant signifies a small number in comparison to the whole. As also his comparison, ver. 29, shews, 'Unless God had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto
Gomorrah.' That notes their fewness, being but as when the most of a man's crop is sold and eaten, there is but a very small part reserved for seed against the next harvest. The like unto this doth that comparison of the first fruits in James and in the type import.
Now the paucity of men enjoying any privilege magnifies it the more; as in the case of Noah's preservation and salvation fore-mentioned in the third chapter of the first of Peter. It is expressly noted, 'that few with him were saved, that is, but eight persons,' saith he, 'unto the whole world,' ver. 20. Likewise, Luke the 12th, says Christ, 'these things do the nations seek,' ver. 30; viz., the things of this world; and God gives them to them, but in opposition thereto: ver. 32, 'Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom;' q. d. he hath reserved that of the kingdom for you. And his scope is withal to shew that hereby it is rendered the greater mercy, and that so few of you should be preserved unto such favours, whilst the rest are left to seek other things as their best and only portion.
The old law in dividing the lands by inheritance to the people of Israel, had this rule given them, 'Thou shalt give the more inheritance unto many, and unto few thou shalt diminish or give the less inheritance,' Num. 26:54. But this inheritance of heaven and of himself, God took a few of mankind, and gave the whole of that inheritance to all and each of them. It is said, Deut. 32:8, that 'when
God divided the inheritance to the nations, he set their bounds according to the number of the people of Israel.' Seventy nations (as Gen. 10), according to the number but of seventy souls, which was their whole number when they came out of Egypt, Gen. 46:27. A small proportion of seventy men, to seventy whole nations of others, of one man to a whole nation. But then, what did God reserve for these seventy men, and those of their seed which he had chosen? It follows in the same place of Deut., ver. 9, 'The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance,' whom he reserved for himself to be his inheritance, and he to be their inheritance, as you often find. And this only because (as in the same Deut., chap. 10:15),
'Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.'
Although at ver. 14 (and he says it with a behold of infinite wonderment), 'Behold, the heaven and the heavens is the Lord's thy
God, the earth also, with all that therein is;' which is as if he had said, Though he had enough before him of angels once in heaven, and of men on earth, yet this is thy privilege above all, that God chose out so few at first when he chose thee, which, ver. 22, he minds them of,
'Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven.'
And again, though he had the heaven of heavens, large enough for millions of worlds of men to have filled it, 'many mansions,' as Christ says, yet he took those few of Israel, and of those but a remnant to possess it, and gave the earth only unto all the rest; with which falls in Ps. 115:15, 'You are the blessed of the Lord, which made heaven
and earth.' For so it follows, ver. 16, 'The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men;' that is, he hath culled or singled forth you from out of the rest of the children of men, as whom he would bless with all blessings 'in heavenly things,' but hath given the earth, and the blessings thereof, to the rest of the children of men.
And now, to affect your hearts, begin to cast your eyes first upon that world of mankind which is now extant and in being at this day, and you may even well nigh say of the men of this age and world in all nations at the present, as the apostle did of all nations for the time past until his times, 'God suffers them to walk in their own way.' Or you may say as the apostle John said of the same age, and the then present evil world (as Paul epithets it, Gal. 1:4), so of this present froward generation of mankind, that 'the whole world lies in wickedness.' And those few of us that are of God are thin sown, a poor small handful of gleaning unto the whole great crop of mankind; you have it 1 John 5:19, 'This we know,' saith he there. And by the same anointing we also now may see the same event, and de facto to be the same. And what falls out thus in the event is but speculum decretivum Dei, the looking-glass of, and representeth what lay in, God's decrees from everlasting.
And oh, how deeply should the comparative of this affect our hearts!
For a few to be singled forth and saved, when a multitude, yea, a generality of others are suffered to perish, how doth it heighten the mercy and grace of a salvation to us, that is but of a lower kind, as if but temporal deliverances from bodily death, or the like; and for God in his providence to order many outward means to save and deliver a few, which he denies to those others who perish, how doth this affect the persons that are preserved! How much more when it falls out thus in 'so great a salvation' as this is, as the apostle says of it!
This you may see in such examples as were but types and mere shadows in comparison of this very thing, as in the instance of Noah and his family in the flood appeared, 'God saved Noah,' says the test,