-- CHAPTER XVI: That the decrees of God in election are of such sure efficacy that we may be ascerta
strength of corruptions still remaining, damping, opposing the power and life of grace by corruption and the law of the members, it is a wonder of wonders that grace should be continued and not driven out; as great a wonder as to see a small cock-boat kept alive, as mariners speak, in the midst of so many seas, and storms, and waves of corruption that overwhelm it; or to carry a small candle lighted, yea in itself but as yet a smoking wick, as Christ calls it, ready of itself to die and expire, when snuffed every minute, in a rainy and stormy night, through Newmarket heath. But Christ and his power is the lantern it is preserved in: 'Preserved in Christ,' as Jude 1.
CHAPTER XVI
That the decrees of God in election are of such sure efficacy that we may be ascertained of their infallible performance.—That nothing can hinder or frustrate their success in working, because God works all things according to the counsel of his own will.—What assurances we have that his good purpose concerning us shall be invincibly accomplished, both from the nature of election decrees, and the interest which the attributes of God have in the performance of them.
As the decree of election, or predestination, is the efficacious will of God, which for his own good pleasure intends our salvation, and has prepared such means by which and through which he brings his elect unto that end efficaciously and infallibly.
1. This efficacious will of God in this matter is to be distinguished from other decrees. We call this the efficacious will of God, because it does not leave a man in the hands of his own free will, as Adam was left, and because it also respects and decrees the very event; for it is such a will of God as is joined with his power to effect it. As, for instance, Eph. 1:11, 'In whom,' in Christ namely, 'we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.' And this is backed with two other scriptures out of the Old Testament; Isa.
14:27, 'For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?' Ps. 115:3, 'But our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he pleased.' And this distinction might be cleared by many instances, as by Saul's being chosen king, whom he did cast out; and that of Jeroboam, to whom God made the same promise of establishing his kingdom, as he had done to David, but left it in the hands of his own will, 1 Kings 11:37, 38, as the event shewed how it succeeded. And thus before he had done as to Adam's state, which is perfectly the state the Arminians put God's election and promises into, which the event also shewed how fatal it proved. And this was the case of the Israelites present in the wilderness, whom God promised Canaan to, but left the issue to the counsel of their own wills, and thereupon God destroyed them in the wilderness, and then twits them with it: Num. 14:31, 'After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days (each day for a year), shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise.'
But God's decrees of election and predestination, as expressed in that place of Eph. 1:11, are not such; they are absolute and infallible, and all along so described to be; they have their effect, which if it be proved to be the genuine scope of the place, there is no more to be said, there is an end of the controversy for our side.
I shall prosecute for the present, first, but this one argument, the spirit of which lies in this, out of that 11th verse, that the decree concerning God's election is the decree of God, as he is an effecting
God of what he does determine in the counsel of his own will; which words, and the sense thereof, is plain, that it is of God; not a contemplating only what he desires to be done, but of a God that actually works and effects according to what his counsel was to do, not leaving it to the counsel of our will, but working according to the counsel of his own will, and therefore considered as infallibly working what he had decreed; working and effecting his counsels of
election according to the measure of his working all things else, which he hath peremptorily resolved to do; and as such a God, a working God, and effecting what he will, he is described here to be, and therefore is to be looked upon as a God so effectually working. I shall take up a more comprehensive discourse, inferred from the general scope, and argued from divers particulars of the words, which will evince almost from every word that God's decrees of election and predestination are efficacious decrees, that do attain infallibly their event.
First, for the general scope, the fabric of the Arminian doctrine, with its enlargements since, does not so much as necessarily suppose the foundations the apostle goes upon, yea, lies cross and thwart unto the main design the apostle has in his discourse.
As, first, the doctrine of election itself, which the apostle makes to be but one grand fundamental act at once passed in the counsels of God and Christ themselves between them, upon which the particular blessings that follow spring and have their course, and that act to have been before the world was; this grand act they nullify and make nothing of, whereas the apostle says that he has 'chosen and predestinated us before the foundation of the world,' they place instead thereof their foundation to be that which is no election, no predestination; for election, as nature teaches us, is a choice of some persons segregated from others passed by. Instead of this fundamental and total act of God, completed and finished at first, and determinately pitched upon particular persons, they substitute in the room of this act another upon condition, which they make their foundation, which is so far from being an election, that it is a general choosing of all, which is a manifest contradiction. And it is but upon condition neither of what may never fall out in any one person, the whole depending upon man's will, which they say God doth not, cannot rule, and so at best is but an incomplete act, held in suspense, and left utterly uncertain, and intermitted with its contrary; that in one and the same day a man is elected, if his free-
will has consented, and then becomes non-elect if his free-will falls off; and this happens a thousand times in the course of a man's life!
Secondly, the apostle supposes, in asserting an election, a church unto Christ under the New Testament, at least a church designed out by election, and formed out to Christ by the following blessings with which he blesses them. He necessarily supposes such a church to be elected under the New Testament, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, as Christ has promised. But this their doctrine supposes may not be; and so not only the Scriptures, which were on purpose writ for their sake, that they might have comfort and hope, may not only be frustrated, but that Christ himself may be said to have died in vain, and so to frustrated the whole of the grace of God toward his church, and of glory to Christ, whose glory it is to have at latter day his full church about him: 'The children which thou hast given me,' says he in John 17,* who are said to be 'the glory of Christ;'
2 Cor. 8:23, 'Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow-helper concerning you; or our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ;' and Christ to be 'glorified in his saints.' And if we find Paul triumphing so much in the thoughts of them he had converted, that they should be his joy and his crown in the latter day, then how much more will
Christ's joy and crown depend upon the same event, how much will Christ's joy be augmented or lessened according to the success!
This in general as to what is their whole doctrine. But this paragraph in Eph. 1, from ver. 3 to 15, may easily be discerned to be divided into two parts: the one a discourse of election and predestination, and the effects of it, as it is common to all saints; and secondly, the execution itself, which we have asserted infallibly to follow the said act of election in the doctrine describing it. And the reader may as readily observe, with a cast of his eye, that he handles the point of election twice; first in the doctrine of it, as was said; secondly, in the execution and application of it unto the two sorts of persons that are elected. 1. The performance of it upon the Jews, ver. 11, 12, 'In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.' In whom also the Ephesians and the Gentiles, unto whom he speaks, trusted, ver. 13, 'In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.' He contents not himself to have delivered election in the doctrine only, and to apply it there in particular, but he goes over the two sorts that were elected, like two great arms of the great body of a tree; yea, and which is most to be observed home to my purpose, this second applying of it is to shew the accomplishment, the effect upon either. So as you have the performance infallibly following the general doctrine, and that both upon Jew and Gentile, which divide the whole breadth of the sorts of mankind between them. So as nothing can be plainer than that the apostle should conjoin these two together as cause and effect, and that the apostle would have the saints to take notice of this universal conjunction.
In the forepart, the doctrinal part, he puts in the word us, and he has it up again, 'we who first trusted in Christ,' we Jews; and so carries it all along, as including himself, his own person, as the eminent instance, purposely to include himself as one that in common was elected with the rest, and a chief pattern of the election of the rest, to them that should after believe. The grace of Paul's election was the same substantially with the grace vouchsafed in election to every ordinary saint; they may differ in degrees of favour, and extraordinary circumstances accompanying their election, as the election of the first fathers in Rom. 11. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though for the special honour of their persons they are called the fathers and patriarchs, yet the grace of their election for substance is the same one uniform grace. So the election of Paul and of all the saints is one common grace and uniform thing for the substance of it.
The same power works, and the same graces wrought, let the adversaries plead what circumstances they may or can out of Paul's example, it will prove but circumstantial, as that Christ himself should call him from heaven, and he should hear him by the way,
and hear himself speak. But yet Paul's election and conversion, and the effects thereof, were but one and the same with ours, for the example of his conversion is made 'a pattern to them that should after believe.' And Christ himself, giving an account of it, tells
Ananias, he was 'a chosen vessel to bear his name,' and in him the event and the doctrine of election were infallibly and inseparably conjoined.
Besides this general, there are sundry particulars almost in every word of this paragraph, in Eph. 1, from ver. 3 to 15, that are found to confirm that God's decrees of election, and of the whole fabric of our salvation, are efficacious in the sense that has been given, and shall infallibly have their event.
First, Take the word election. God is not at ifs and ands with us in it, but if it be according to election, it stands firm, fixed. This the apostle asserts, Rom. 9:11, 'That the purpose of God according to election might stand.' Whatever stands, that does, and has its effect in due time, by calling, which is the necessary consequent of it: 'That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.'
Secondly, As in this place of the Romans it is said 'that the purpose of God according to election might stand,' you have it varied elsewhere.
'Predestinated according to his purpose,' Eph. 1:11, and it is made a sufficient distinction of elect from reprobates, that they are 'called according to his purpose:' Rom. 8:29, 'All things work together for good to them that love God, the called according to his purpose.' And so Austin makes use of the word vocati secundum propositum, as a note of distinction. His purpose is said to have its effect in an efficacious calling.
Thirdly, Especially when the purpose of grace is said to have been before the world: 2 Tim. 1:9, 'Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began.' Divines have observed that the works of creation, that were made at first out of nothing, are never resolved into nothing again; as the third heavens, created the first day, from the foundation of the world, as Christ says, were not nor ever shall be annihilated.
And the same we may say of God's first thoughts and purposes, such as those of election were, for the perfection of them, and are therefore termed counsels, they shall never suffer an alteration.
And therefore, fourthly, they are called 'the immutability of his counsel,' confirmed by an oath: Heb. 6:17, 'Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.'
And fifthly, add to this, they are the counsel of his own will. It would be a dishonour to God's wisdom to alter what he professes to have done by counsel. And it is of his own will, and which he purposed in himself; he did not look out of himself for the reasons of that his counsel: Eph. 1:9, 'Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself.' God did not look out of himself upon anything in the creature, as the motives why he chose, but his own innate thoughts were his sole measure.
And then, sixthly, their election, and all the benefits that succeed and flow from it, are said to be in Christ; he has 'chosen us in Christ,' predestinated us by Christ to the adoption of sons, graciously accepted us in Christ, and all to the glory of his grace. Now I lay this for a sure foundation, as Christ himself, that there is nothing God hath promised or spoken of, that he will do in Christ, but he efficaciously performs it. If he makes promises, as all his promises concerning our salvation are, in Christ, 'they are yea and amen.' 2
Cor. 1:19, 20, 'For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of God by us.'
If they all he yea, then they must be effectual. Paul's scope there is to shew the faithfulness of God in his performances, that though Paul himself, being but a creature, he might and did fail, they were yea and they were nay, speaking of his coming to them; but God's promises in Christ are yea, and not nay, and you may set amen in every one of them infallibly to be performed.
You have the same thing asserted of the covenant of grace, which God made to Abraham, which was but a bundle of absolute promises; and yet the apostle says further of it, Gal. 3:16, 17, 'And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.' The covenant of the gospel is but a collection of a many promises simply and freely given as an inheritance, and election is the donor, and declarer, and confirmer of them: and doth God say in Christ, I do this for that end, you may set amen to it, it shall certainly be performed.
Lastly, Extract we but the many attributes which are engaged by God for the effectual performance. The three persons in the Godhead, they are the joint efficients and contrivers of God's decrees; but the attributes in God, it is they that afford the matter of the performance of God's promises, or God's declarations, when they are set together with God's decrees to back them. They are the springs in God of whatever he doth efficaciously decree to do. The synodists of Great
Britain, they therefore say, they are effectual decrees, because they are decrees conjuncta cum potentiâ, because he, though a mean man, who came with a commission efficacious enough to effect the business for which he came, being commanded to shew where his commission was, he pointed to a regiment of horse, There is my commission, says he: it was decretum cum potentiâ conjunctum. But you shall see not one attribute only, but that many of the attributes of God, which are most proper to effect the thing, are discovered, and made to appear to back and command, and not demand only; as, for
example, the divine love, and wisdom, and counsel, and will that is in God, do all stand out, and appear to accompany and maintain these decrees, and that must needs be judged effectual which is so armed, and completely furnished.
The attributes are these, to rehearse them more largely.
First, An inexhaustible fund of divine love in the bottom of God's heart laid up, and provided to maintain all the expense, and heartily, and willingly to perform it all along, in the doing of it. This he speaks first of election, 'According as he has chosen us in him, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love,' Eph. 1:4. This passage, 'before him in love,' Dickson, Glasgow, professor, interprets of the love of God borne to us, when he chose us to make us every way perfect in holiness all along, to the highest degree of perfection we are capable of: ut gradatim vere sanctificaremur, et tandem plenè, perfectéque sancti in cœlo sisteremur: as by that love which by degrees truly sanctifies us, and at last fully and perfectly presents us holy in heaven, without blame. And so interprets those words by those that follow in the fifth chapter, where, speaking of the same love in the heart of God and Christ, 'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.' Which words in the fifth chapter are apparently spoken of the love that is in the heart of Christ; for it is, 'love your wives, as Christ his church,' with a special love, whereas the Arminians would have God's love equal, and alike to all; and likewise he speaks of the love in the heart of God the Father, and so of Christ in his other text, verse 4 of the first of the Ephesians; for the apostle speaks of it, as the worker of all that holiness, which is not only in us at the first, but which is perfected to the last and utmost degree, which we are ordained to have in heaven. 'To be unblameable,' says that first chapter, 'before him,' whom God can find no fault with, 'not having spot, nor wrinkle, or any such thing,' says the fifth chapter; that is,
that we should appear before him, not only without all sin, but without any imperfection or misery, or any such thing, that has the appearance of imperfection, but be rendered blessed and glorious at last before him, and this out of pure love, which the apostle makes the cause of our election, and of all that happiness and holiness which follows upon it. And love being here presented as the cause of all, this must therefore necessarily be taken of what we shall be, when perfect in heaven; thus he. And it is not barely said, out of love, or with love, or by love, but in the following chapter to the Ephesians, it is said to be with his 'great love, wherewith he loved us;' which love is there mentioned as the foundation of all, as of God's rich mercy to us, to which is added, 'for the great love wherewith he loved us,' as the bottom of all that great mercy; the latter being spoken of as respecting man's election, in his pure condition of holiness as it was in Adam; but the 'riches of mercy,' which is the first mentioned, respects man as fallen into sin and misery, whereof he treats in that chapter. But that great love, which was in the heart of God as the foundation, that continued in man, though fallen, and wrought in mercy, was that which had begun toward his elect, I do not say to all men in Adam, nor to them in that holiness which was in Adam, but to bring them to that perfect holiness of another kind, which he meant to give us in heaven, whereunto he had elected us.
2. And seeing we are upon it, if the next be mercy, which properly respects the misery we were fallen into; and that doth not pass the apostle without an exaggeration of it in the 7th verse of the second chapter to the Ephesians, 'The exceeding richness of his grace in his kindness towards us.'
Here is love, and mercy, and all the interest that they have to move the heart of God with, that conduce to make our salvation effectual.
3. The will of God is set upon it in the fifth verse, 'Having predestinated us according to the good pleasure of his will.' There it is once mentioned, and it is not purely will, which were enough; for where love's power and will meet, as you shall see here they do, what
is there will not be done that God can do? It is his own will, it is emphatically said so, who works all these things (as was interpreted) that go to make the work perfect, 'according to the counsel of his own will,' ver. 11. Regeneration is the first product of election, and the same expression is used of it, 'Of his own will he begat us, by the word of truth,' James 1:18. Observe it, how diametrically opposite it is to the language and estate the Arminians would put it into. Is it man's will? No; it is God's own will which is the state of the question:
John 1:13, 'Who were born not of blood, nor of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' It is the good pleasure of his will, Jer. 32:41,
'Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, with my whole heart, and with my whole soul.' When God intends to do his people good, he rejoices to do it, yea, to think of doing it, with his whole heart, and with his whole soul. Now, election is omne bonum, as God said to Moses, is the intention of the highest good, and to effect it his joy must be answerable. And what a man does with his whole heart, and with his whole soul, the whole of him is in it. It is not so in his other works, of throwing men to hell, Jer. 9:24, 'Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth me and knowledgeth me, that I am the Lord which exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.' Which words the apostle applies to the benefits we have by Christ in our salvation, which are the fruits of election, 1 Cor. 1:30, 31, 'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'
But there is no act of will but an understanding goes before it, and leads on to it. And so it is with man; and thus far it is with God. The depth of his wisdom and knowledge proceeds and concurs with this act of his will: Rom. 11:33, 'Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!' spoken of election. And observe, the counsel of God expresses his deepest wisdom. And although in man it is upon deliberation for time which perfects a man's thoughts, and the after second thoughts are best, yet these first thoughts of God
(who must not be said to deliberate, that notes imperfection), his