-- CHAPTER III: termination of election is God's choosing us to himself
promise intended, Christ will give up his mediatory kingdom and glory to his Father;* and then that regnum antemundanum‚ that kingdom afore, and abstracted from the consideration of this world, or what we were, or Christ as Redeemer for us therein, shall for ever predominantly take place, when God, in the Father, Son, and Spirit, shall be all in all to him as God-man as well as us; and when Christ the Son, having laid down only the economy of his mediation as a Redeemer, shall yet in his person, as he shall appear with the fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him, and the brightness of the glory of God shining in the human nature, which he can never lay down, or divest himself of, shall be as he is, and was constituted, an head, an husband unto us; and we chosen as fellows and companions with him, be the object and efficient of our happiness for ever, by our beholding that his glory, according to that of John 17:24 (I opened):
'Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.' And after the day of judgment ended, it is whereof the apostle speaks, whom he says, 'We shall be over with the Lord,' 1 Thes. 4:17.
CHAPTER III
That the supreme end utmost and or termination of election (as it respects us), is God's choosing us to himself, and to a supernatural union with himself, and communication of himself, proved from 1
Cor. 8:6.
And we in him.—1 Cor. 8:6.
WE have seen the mutability of our first estate by creation, the infinite distance of the creature from God, the high and lofty One; the necessity of super-creation grace, if any either of men or angels be fixed immutably unto him, which God was pleased should be by an election by grace of some. The nest is,
That God (who was at this distance from us as creatures, &c.) did by that election also ordain those whom he so singled forth unto a super-creation union with himself and communication of himself, as the highest and utmost end (as to what concerned us) he elected them unto; so as the height and top of our salvation is consummated, and that union with himself which is far above that oneness we had by the law or dues of our creation.
To found this assertion on the words, 1. Observe the difference he puts between this us‚ as a special parcel of his creation, from the all things. We and all other things are from him, of him, or by his power, as the efficient cause. This is common to us and all as his creatures. But we he speaks of as a company or parcel, severed and set apart to some higher excellency and dignity; and this special separation of us from all things is twice said: 'One
Lord, &c., and we by him.' We are in him‚ that is, taken into himself out of a special love and by a special union with him. The word ἐις ἀυτόν signifies both in him‚ and so denoting this union; and so interpreters (being to give but some one signification) generally choose to render it. Yet withal it signifies to him‚ as denoting our appropriation to him peculiarly: a being of us in the most eminent and singular manner, a peculiar people and treasure to him, as himself often speaks. It also imports our being singled forth for his highest glory; ἐις ἀυτόν‚ for him; that whereas all things are for his glory as well as we, yet they not so for him as we; and therefore to be for him is here in the text set over our heads, not theirs‚ as if we had that lot alone, not they; because we are ordained so to be for him, and in such a singular way and manner as all things are not. Nor doth all the glory that ariseth out of them to him rise up to any considerableness, in comparison of what shall, and doth, out of us, and specially out of this our union with him. Our being in him is the great foundation of our being for him.
2. And for the further illustration and confirmation of this interpretation, I have recourse to a parallel scripture to this: Eph.
4:5, 6, 'One Lord, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.' Observe the difference of the phrases used about all things there, and of us. 1. Of all things, it is said he is
'above all;' whereby I understand the sublimity and transcendency of his divine nature and essence, as being of an higher differing kind, infinitely above that being which all creatures have by participation from him, and is all one with that which in the prophet Isaiah God speaks of himself, when he speaks of union with his creatures, of which by and by. He is 'that high and lofty One;' so in his nature, yet so as, 2dly, he, though diverse from the creatures, yet is near to, and piercing 'through all' creatures, and filling them. He is present with them all, yet holding a distinct different being from all. He is through all, excluded by none, as the air is not out of our dwellings. So first, as his being is no part of their being, nor mingled with them, but 'above all' glorious excellency 'and perfection; and then 'through all,' in respect of immensity of being. But these two are spoken in common, as in relation to all creatures, and common also to us. But,
3dly, he turns his speech to the saints, and adds, 'in you all.' There is your difference put by grace from them all. In you that are saints: oh, an infinite difference and grace! He that is thus that high and lofty
One, far above all, and in a common way present to all his creation, and cannot be otherwise, he is, over and above all this, in you all, and in you alone; united to you, and one with you, in a special manner, and upon a special relation. He, the high and lofty One, whose being stands out from all the works of his hands, as transcending the scale of their entity; inhabiting eternity long afore there were any creatures made, and as then dwelling in, and possessing himself with an all-sufficient blessedness; and he who, now he hath made them, is still above them all, as an immense supreme Being can be supposed to be above what his hands made; as he speaks in Isaiah; and withal filling all: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool,' saith
God there; and is 'through all,' as Paul expresseth it here.
3. Yet, thirdly, this high and lofty One affected a special union with some, and he mentions that sublimity of his own divine being, as he doth his omnipresence with and through all creatures, here, to shew
and enhance great condescension of his grace and favour, to be that he is in you, and dwells in you, that is, to be united to you above all the rest. That is but a common presence vouchsafed to all things,—he is through them all,—but an indwelling in us, with a communication and participation of himself. Oh infinite grace! This is the height of our privilege and happiness.
And the height of the grace and favour of this, in both respects, God himself doth set out and magnify unto us, in that prophet Isaiah, chap. 57:15, compared with Isaiah 66:1, 2, 'For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' 'Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.' But I defer that scripture unto an use of magnifying the grace of God, in ordaining such an union.
That such a supernatural union with God, and communication of God, is the height of, and his ultimate design towards us, in his choosing of us; that one comprehensive expression (we so often meet withal) is big with, that he 'chose us for himself,' as Ps. 135:4, 'Jah hath chosen Jacob for himself;' and Rom. 9:4, 'I have reserved seven thousand to myself;' which, ver. 5, the apostle interprets to be (in the case of others he speaks of) an election of grace; also Isaiah 43, ver.
20, 'My people, my chosen,' and, ver. 21, immediately follows, 'This people have I formed for myself.' All which to be meant of election I have at large elsewhere shewn. Now, Thus to choose us for himself is not only to set us apart to be a peculiar treasure of precious goods; as among men, especially kings, above all other things, what they love and delight in they use to hoard up, reserve, and keep in store for themselves. As, Eccles. 2:8,
Solomon, who had power and opportunity above all men else to do it, says, 'He gathered gold and silver, and the peculiar treasure of kings, consisting of all sorts of rarities and precious things, brought from all countries and provinces (as it follows there), which they accordingly value. And thus in Exod. 19:5, says God of us, 'Thou shalt be for a peculiar treasure unto me,' and, Ps. 135:4, 'He hath chosen Jacob for himself,' is explained, 'and Israel for his peculiar treasure.'
Nor is it only that God hath separated them for his peculiar worship and service, to be holy unto him, consecrated, separated for ever to glorify him, as Jer. 2:3, 'Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first fruits of his increase.'
Nor speaks he it only that he hath chosen them to shew forth his praise, as in that Isaiah 43:21, we cited, it follows, 'They shall shew forth my praise.' For in that sense, 'the Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil,' Prov. 16:4. This his end is common unto all things, yea, even to the wicked, who are yet otherwise lost unto God, and those whom he remembers no more.
But this of ours is in a contrary way peculiarly for himself, and so as his glory on us is wholly in a way of grace and kindness. You may therefore observe it in Eph. 1:5, 6; that unto his predestinating us to himself‚ ver. 5, is added, ver. 6, 'to the praise of the glory of his grace.'
Now, put them two together—1, 'He hath chosen us to himself;' 2, 'For the praise of the glory of his grace,'—and they speak a special communication of his very self unto us in a way of grace, in pure and mere love and kindness, as whence that glory of his grace should arise. Now, if it be thus, that it is a communication of himself in a way of grace, then, 1. This promiseth first, that all that which grace can do for us, in communicating God himself to us, and that all that he will do for us, for his glory and the magnification thereof, is to arise from out of what favours he shall shew us, and no otherwise. He shall have no more glory in us and on us than accrues out of what he bestows and lays forth in grace upon us; so that our happiness as the effect, will
extend as far as his own glory as the end. It speaks that his glory on us shall not be severed in anything from our good; as in that other, it being said that 'all things' and 'the wicked are for himself' it is. But here that his glory which is to be had out of us, and likewise our happiness, doth both run along complicated, twisted, interwoven together as threads in one woof, and are of like extent, whereof his glory is the gloss, and our blessedness is the groundwork or stuff.
And therefore if he design to have a glory to the utmost, then he will shew favours to the utmost, and grace will be sure, of all others, to glorify itself to the utmost, and in the utmost way the creatures are capable of, remaining mere creatures.
2. Yea, secondly, in that for himself is put in, and annexed to the glory of his grace‚ it manifestly shews that grace is so large-hearted, as it gives all, even to himself (as we say). It is not to shew grace only in all sorts of gracious effects, and in heaping favour upon favour, as a king doth upon his favourite; but this is to communicate to us himself, to the utmost, and in the utmost way that mere creatures
(for Christ always must be excepted) are capacitated for.
3. Thirdly, It is the communication of the whole of himself, whether of his divine perfections, so far as to bless us therewith, or likewise of all the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; for these, namely, persons and attributes, are all that are in himself, and are himself, or which he hath in and for himself to enjoy and be happy in. And all in God shall as truly serve to make thee blessed, according to a creature's capacity, as it serves to make himself blessed in his own immense sphere of blessedness. If thou hast himself, and the whole of himself, thou shalt be 'heir of God,' Rom. 8:17, for thou shalt be a 'joint heir with Christ;' and it is all in God is Christ's inheritance, Ps.
16:5, 'The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.' And thou canst not have more; for, as Rev.
21:7, 'he that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.' God himself hath but all things for himself; and thou shalt have himself, and what canst thou have more?
4. Fourthly, He reserves himself for thee, and all that is him. As the text, Rom. 9:4, speaks of his elect, that he hath reserved them for himself, so he hath reserved himself for them, and all of himself wholly for them. Is God your inheritance? (as afore). Then none shall share therein but the designed heirs; the rest have portions.* Is it
God that is your inheritance? It is he, then, that is said to be reserved in heaven for you, 1 Pet. 1:4. There he waits, as it were, for you, and that until you shall come, and lets the crowd, the great ones in all ages, pass, as they pass afore him all along, reserving himself (as in election he did design) for you: as if a great prince, in a dream or vision, should see the idea of one not yet born, and should fall in love so with the image of her, that he reserves himself till she is born and grown up, and will not think nor entertain any other loves.
5. Fifthly, When he hath brought thee through all disasters to heaven, then, even then, to shew that his first, and ultimate, and eminent design in electing of thee, was for himself, in that special sense I have singled forth, lo! your first entertainment or welcome thither will be, a presenting you to himself. Oh wonderful! We have need that an angel tell us, as he did John, upon the Lamb's marriage,
Rev. 19:9, that 'these are the true sayings of God,' so slow of heart, and dull, through unbelief, are we. But you have it express and full, to the same purpose which now I have held forth, in Jude 24, 'Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy,' &c. He speaks this as of what God means to do; and those he wrote to being yet alive on earth, he therefore brings it in and presents it to their faith in a way of exhorting them to praise and give glory to him aforehand, upon the account that he is able to do it (as his doxology runs), yet so, as withal it more strongly imports, he will certainly do it. And who is it that will do this? What! is it spoken of Christ his presenting you to his Father? No, not here in this place. Or is it
Christ his presenting you to himself, as being your designed husband? No, neither; although you shall see that by and by said of him too. But it is the great God, the Father himself, for it is the presence of him, the Father's glory, which we are presented afore;
and you see withal that it is the same person that presents us to himself whose presence it is afore which we are presented, 'afore his own presence of glory,' so that it is he whose glory it is. And again, it follows, ver. 25, 'To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and over. Amen.' All which attributes are the attributes of the great God the Father, in the usual current of doxologies; and yet you may take in both Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, considered unitedly in that one act of presenting us, as they are one God, though three in person, who will thus present you to themselves, or himself, as one God, so as it shall be one joint act of them all, and yet as one God; and that of 'our Saviour' is no objection, for it is said of them all three, that they save us.
It is added in that place, 'with exceeding joy.' It is at our very first coming to heaven this is spoken of, and spoken that, as we on our part shall rejoice, as you will all say we shall have reason, so God on his part too. He is pleased to present us with great joy to himself, as making our salvation his own concern more than it is ours; and that it is spoken of his joy, doth that word shew: that it is a presenting us to himself afore the presence of his own glory, and shews that he esteems it to be matter of joy to himself to have us so with himself; and though expressed of him but after the manner of men, that are overjoyed when their children come home to them, yet sufficiently signifies that his heart works with joy in the doing it, as of the father of the prodigal it is also spoken. And the word, presenting afore his glory, manifestly declares whose joy it is which is most intended, even his own, more than ours. For it speaks how it is his own interest, his self-interest, his glory, which moves him; and what he hath in his heart when he doth it, that moves him so to present us, and therefore fills him with joy in doing it. And it is as much as to say, he doth it for his own solace, with the highest delight and greatest pleasure to himself; he gratifies himself in it. It is matter of dearest enjoyment of those whom he hath so long loved, which he taketh in them, now when he sees them perfectly holy. As elsewhere
God is said to rejoice over us: Zeph. 3:17, 'The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with
joy; he will rest in his love, he will rejoice over thee with singing.' If in this life, when absent from him, much more when we come home to him, and he hath us present with him in the presence of his glory.
'And that land,' the type of it, 'shall be called Beulah;' that is, 'Thy delight is in her: for the Lord delighteth in thee,' Isa. 62:4. He loves us when sinners; but delights in us hat so far as we are holy. And now, when he sees us come first afore his presence, faultless and perfectly holy, then his delight and his joy in us is full; and then, at that time, when we come first into his presence, says God with himself, Lo, I loved this my creature from everlasting, and I designed him then by choice, not only to be mine, my peculiar, but I chose him for myself to rejoice in, and to communicate my whole self unto. And now that, after so long a time, seeing that holiness I designed, to be completed in him, to prepare him for my enjoyment of him, and for his full enjoyment of me, in the presence of my glory, I thus solemnly present him with exceeding great joy unto myself; for I shall have more joy and solace in him than he shall have in me: for it was for myself that I first did choose him, as my ultimate end, which is now accomplished and perfected.
And thus understood, respondent ultima primis; and that maxim, so used and applied, in the point of God's decrees, that what is last in execution is first in intention, and è contra, is fully cleared up.
Though I think that will not hold in all things about those decrees, yet in this it is perfectly true, this being the ultimate end of God's first choice and cast of his eye upon us. And in like manner, you see, it is last in execution, he chose us for himself; that was his primitive intention; and he presents to himself, as last in execution. He delighted with infinite delights to choose us, foreseeing all he meant to bring us to; and above all, his own enjoyment of us. Thus Deut.
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.' And at the last, he presents them, having accomplished his end once, to himself with exceeding great joy.
And now, to tell you how happy and blessed you will be for ever, after this so solemn a presentation of you made by himself to himself, none knows but himself, that knows himself and his own blessedness. Only, in brief, carry home this, that you will be as happy as God himself can make you; as for the kind of it, of which I spake before.
I might next shew you that we are also ordained for Jesus Christ; for unto him, and for him, you were likewise chosen, as well as for the Father, as I have interpreted that in Eph. 1:5, where it is said, 'God the Father having predestinated us by Jesus Christ, εἰς αὐτόν, unto him‚' that is, to the same Jesus Christ, as well as εἰς αὐτόν, or, that God the Father did it to himself: I take in both in that εἰς αὐτόν, both to him, that is, to Christ, as well as to himself; that is, to God the Father, who himself predestinated us. And Christ himself, from heaven, said of Paul, 'he is a chosen vessel to me.' Yea, and Christ also chose you from everlasting with the Father; and as God the Father predestinated you for him, that is for Christ his Son, so Christ also for himself. And that he will in like manner present you to himself also, you have it in Eph. 5:27, 'That he might present it to himself a glorious church;' and you will easily grant that this might in some respect more properly be said of him than of the Father; because, as the discourse in that chapter was, he is the husband, and the church the spouse. But, as Christ is an everlasting Father, Isa.
9:6, as well as an husband, so God the Father is our husband, as well as Christ: Isa. 54:5, 'For thy Maker is thy husband;' and multitude of other speeches shew: 'I am married to thee,' and the like; so that each of them may be said to present us each to himself.
But, besides this passage in the Ephesians, Christ himself doth more than insinuate the same with the greatest affections, and as with a delight to speak of it, in John 14, as being that thing which most intimately and ultimately pleased him, and was a gratifying of himself, even this, that he should one day take us to himself, to his intinite personal joy and contentment. For he having first said, 'I go and prepare a place for you,' as a kind bridegroom doth for his
spouse, and then that 'I will come again to fetch you,' he adds, 'and receive you to myself.' The words are, John 14:3: 'And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. You see to himself still comes in; and methinks in those words he doth express his heart in such a manner as implies that it was his own dearest interest that filled and acted his very soul in so speaking, as well as our interest; and that all was, for himself to enjoy us, and to that end to have us with himself for ever.
Thus much for the first part of my assertion, for the communication of himself. There remains a second branch intended in it, and that is, union with himself, which in reality is the first of the two.
All communication in a way of grace is founded upon an union with him first who communicates himself, as upon which it is he doth communicate. Thus all communion between man and wife, in such acts as are proper to that relation, is founded upon their being by a marriage union first made 'one flesh,' by an assumed relation first constituted between them; their union and relation is not founded upon such transient acts of communion, for such, without a previous marriage union of right and order, would be fornication, but upon a marriage union first made. The schoolmen do make something equivalent to this, the ground why God shews mercy to his children, that God makes and reckons them first, ut aliquid sui‚ as something of himself; the Scripture speaks the same, when it saith, they are as dear to him as what can be thought dearest to one's self: Zech. 2:8,
'He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye;' and Deut. 32:9, God made himself 'the portion of his people,' viz., by giving himself to them; and by virtue thereof it follows, 'he kept him as the apple of his eye,' ver. 10, thus in the Old Testament—'Why persecutest thou me?' Acts, 9:4—so in the New. 'When I heard a language I understood not,' says God, Ps. 81:5; and he speaks it in the person of his people when in Egypt; for otherwise there is no language which God understands not; and it is God that utters that I there, as the
next words shew, ver. 6, 'I removed his shoulder from the burden'; and ver. 7, 'Thou calledst, and I delivered thee.'
Now this union was election's design, whereby to bring about that communication of himself; thus the psalmist, Ps. 65:4, 'Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee;' or, as Ainsworth, 'makest near to thee;' as also, 'who shall separate us?'
Rom. 8:35 doth imply; and from hence flows the communication of himself, as it follows in that verse of the psalmist, 'he shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house;' which house is himself in our hearts, and so by this choice of his to that near approach unto him, we come to have all of what God in heaven doth communicate; whereof that temple and house was then the type, in the language of which the psalmist there speaks.
And that the communication of himself is founded upon union, is eminently seen in the man Jesus, whose predestination is the pattern of ours: Rom. 8:29, 'For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren;' and whose union with God is the instrumental original of ours. The whole foundation of that glory,
&c., the man Jesus hath, is his union with the Son of God, whose original right it was to say, 'I in my Father, and my Father in me.' It was that union of him with the Son, who had this union with the Father, gave him right to all those other privileges he hath. This entered him fellow with the Trinity: 'the man, God's fellow,' as in Zech. 13:7; and this union alone gave him right to 'have life in himself,' and made all the royalties of the Son of God naturally to flow in upon him as his due. Insomuch as our divines have said, that there is no other grace shewn to him, but this gratia unionis‚ the grace of union; for that union drew along all else with it, as of right and by inheritance. But yet, to us, all our privileges, and communications that follow, are as perfect grace to us as our union at first. Yet still they are all founded on the grace of an union, from whence communion flows; and look, that as union with God was the